#AAaaaaand I only ever play as May

[rockman-x]

Pokémon Protag and Rival tier lists

[waterfallofspace]

And Revenge Comes In More.

(Sequel to ‘Entertainment Comes In Many Forms’) 

The one in which G/ojo learns that N/anami is a lot more revenge driven then he had planned on. And enjoys every second of it~. Feat. Allergic/Induced G/ojo and snz!fucker slightly sadistic N/anami. Also known as: G/ojo tormented N/anami with his cold, so now N/anami is gonna torment him with some allergens. Technically this is a ‘sequel’ to my previous fic, but you don’t have to read that one to understand this! Mostly just context on why N/anami wants revenge. But the sneeze fun can be appreciated with or without reading it! (at least I hope haha~~) Also, I’m not the most comfortable (skill or knowledge wise) in writing deeply smutty things yet, so this miiiight be a bit of a tease as I didn’t write any actual full on stuff happening, so consider this a warning for that I guess!! I might do a third of this little series at some point where it goes all the way, but I have no plans just yet, still not sure of that kind of writing style for myself!  Aaaaaaand yes, this is another fic, I have a problem, but I guess worst case no one sees it and I got to have fun writing something I enjoy, so hey, hope y’all don’t mind!! J/JK brainrot is just real and I can’t… I can’t get this out of my head…. hahaha~~ To anyone who bothers to read this, thank you! And I hope you enjoy~~ ((References to swearing, and snz!fucker play (slightly-over-the-borderline smut), in case anyone doesn’t like those))  Characters: G/ojo, N/anami, and N/anami’s sadistic side mixing with a snz!kink.  Word count: 3.2k

~~~~~~~ Gojo knows from the second he walks into the apartment, he’s in deeper trouble than he’d thought. See, about two weeks ago he’d tormented teased his dear boyfriend Nanami with a cold he’d caught. Nanami had told him about a certain… interest… of his. Namely, sneezing. And see, Gojo had a cold… so how could he not use this to his advantage? However, this was…. during a meeting… and Nanami, ever the stickler for things like “privacy” and “decency” was not the biggest fan of this little encounter. ‘Much as he may have enjoyed himself once we were alone’. Because of this, a week ago (after recovering from his illness) Gojo had offered a bit of retribution. His deal was an inducing session. No holds barred, anything goes, Nanami gets to induce him in any way he desires for the whole night, and… whatever that may lead to… will come with the territory. Gojo had assumed that Nanami would get a bit of sneezy fun, and then they’d move on. What Gojo hadn’t planned on was Nanami asking for a week to ‘prepare’. Hence, when he walks into the apartment and sees the tray of items sitting on their coffee table, draped in a sheet, he starts to realize that maybe he’s signed up for more than he bargained for. But upon seeing the look in Nanami’s eyes as he gestures for Gojo to sit on the couch, Gojo decides that he’s completely down for whatever may follow.  “Blindfold off.” Gojo smirks, this was one part he did see coming, especially since the only light currently on in the apartment was in the hallway. Nanami is well aware of how photic Gojo is. ‘Wasn’t even aware that sneezing from bright lights was called photic until I met him.’ he muses to himself, delicately removing the blindfold, and placing it in Nanami’s outstretched hand. Sure enough, the hall light is nowhere near bright enough to invoke a reaction. “Whenever you’re ready, Nanami dear.” Smug grin on his face, Gojo leans back, one leg crosses over the other, the picture of relaxation. All of this changes the second a smirk forms on Nanami’s face. ‘Well that look is deeply unsettling’ Gojo thinks, allowing his confidence to slip just a little. Nanami reaches under the sheet, careful to keep the rest hidden, and pulls out his first object, taking a seat on a chair next to the couch. “A flashlight? Starting pretty basic, aren’t we Nanami? If I’m honest, I expected more from you. With a week to prepare, bright light is what you came up with?” It’s a bluff and they both know it, Gojo’s well aware that bright light is only what they’re starting with, and that Nanami must be saving the best for last. “Close your eyes. You open them when I tell you to.” “Oh~ Bossy, aren’t we~? Power gone to your head, Nanami?”  Despite this, Gojo does as he’s told. While obedience isn’t something he’s known for, he did offer compliance, ‘though I never specified it would come without teasing~’ he allows, making sure to paint another shit-eating grin on his face. Gojo doesn’t need to see Nanami to know his eyes are glued to him, he can feel the lustful gaze burning into his skin. “Open your eyes now.” Gojo complies once more, surprise flooding his face as he feels something soft brush the tip of his nose. He barely has time to get his wrist in front of his nose before the sneezes burst out. “hept’ISHH’shiew-! ihh’kTSH’ue-! hAH’ASHH’iew-! hh’KTishhh’yuu-!”  Sniffling pathetically against his wrist, Gojo manages to lock his eyes onto the feather Nanami is twirling in his fingers, the flashlight sitting on the tray once more. Nanami meets his eyes, a mischief evident in them, suggesting this was always his plan. “Well well well, bit of a trickster today, I see. Proud of ourselves, aren’t we?”  “Bless you.” “Why thank you. Still polite as ever. Some things never change. Shall I expect blessings all night, then?” “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.” Gojo lets the smirk work its way over his face once more, lowering his wrist with one last snfff- not quite wet yet, but if this first fit was anything to go by, they were certainly going to get there.  “Feathers. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff. I do have quite the sensitive nose, but I’m not allergic, they’ll tickle just as much as anything soft would.” Nanami grins, a hand brushing his hair back. A gesture that to most, would seem quite common. But Gojo is not most. He recognizes the action for what it is; an act of pride in himself and his methods. A hint of worry seeps back into Gojo’s mind, ‘Just a feather alone wouldn’t bring this kind of confidence. Not to someone like Nanami. He wouldn’t feel this satisfied with just a mild sensitivity reaction.’  Sniffling again, Gojo notices, quite suddenly, that the tickle is still there. A slight buzzing at the back of his nose. ‘No, this is more than just a sensitivity, otherwise it would have stopped once I finished sneezing.’ “hhAH! Ahhh… What diihhhd… you do to it?” “You see,” Nanami starts, letting himself slip off the chair, and slide onto the couch next to Gojo. “It’s not just a feather. It’s a feather from our feather duster. And, well, it just so happens I had a bit of cleaning to do earlier.” “Hehhh…. ehh! hIH’kTSH’oo-! KISHH-ishh’oo-! hahh’DTSH’yuu-!  I should have gueehhh… g- guessssed- hehh…. hEH’DT-! guhhh… lost it.”  “Bless you.” “I cahhhn’t… Nanami… I… hehh… hIH! gotta… g-hahh gotta sneeze…!”  Gojo’s eyes are fluttering shut, a single tear running down his cheek as he hitches wildly, head tilting back. Nanami smirks, letting Gojo’s hand grab his and pull the feather up to his face. They both pause as he leaves it just out of reach of his nose, well aware of the unstated rule. ‘This is your turn, so unless you allow me, I can’t do it myself.’  Thankfully for Gojo, this is only act one of the revenge, and the torture isn’t meant to start just yet. Nanami moves the feather back to Gojo’s nose, gently tracing around one nostril, then the other, the light touch more than enough to send him over the edge. “Th- thankyou- hEH! hH’ESHH’oo-! hept’kiSHH’ieww-! mMMpfsshh’oo-!”  “Bless you.”  Just as he goes to open his eyes, Gojo finds himself squinting in the light, ducking back into his hands with another fit, this time the softer, ticklish type that he gets from photic fits. “ishh-! tishh’oo-! hh’ishh’shiew-! pshh’oo-! kshhh’iew-! hept’ktshh’ooo-! hEP’shhh-! Nngt-! hh’dNGt-! Nxxgt-!”  Fingers lightly pinch his nose as Gojo stifles the last few, a hint of mischief in his voice as he manages to stop the onslaught. Nanami leans back from where he had hit the light switch, a smirk dancing on his face, mischief matching Gojo’s in his own eyes. ‘God, he looks good like this.’ “I’ll admit, you got me with that one. Wasn’t expecting it in the slightest.” “That was the idea, yes. Bless you again, but don’t think you won’t pay for those stifles.” “Oh~?”  There’s a light sing-song tone in Gojo’s voice as he lets his eyes trace down Nanami’s body. The tremble in his knees doesn’t go unnoticed, and neither does the hunger in his eyes when Gojo’s beautiful, albeit watery, blues meet them once more. Try as he might, Nanami was never able to hide his true intentions from Gojo. He’s always been able to read him like a book. ‘He’s holding out much better than I had thought, but there’s a slight shiver in his voice whenever he speaks. Guess even the most proper of us can’t hide every physical reaction.’  Nanami reaches over and wipes away a stray tear that had broken free from the ocean in Gojo’s eyes, ‘photic tickles do always come with watery eyes’ getting a warm smile in return. As much as he hates to admit it, Nanami was always captivated by the shimmering blue orbs, and the beauty that the glistening wetness brought to them was almost inhumane. Gojo uncrosses his legs, allowing them to slip further onto the couch as he lays back, giving Nanami the perfect position to slide in on top of him, hovering just above his hips, perched on his knees. Now angled over him, Nanami also has the perfect position to further torment Gojo’s nose. Reaching back under the sheet, Nanami pulls it off entirely, the smirk reforming once more as Gojo’s eyes go wide. A single flower of lavender sits on the tray, under a glass bowl. Gojo twitches even just looking at it, a knuckle raising to rub at his already itchy nose. As if just the sight of the blossom was enough to light the fire burning in his sinuses. “I know I said anything you want, but I wasn’t expecti-” “What, you thought I wasn’t going to use one of your most desperate allergens? I’m not a novice at this, Gojo.” “My sincerest apologies, Nanami. You’re qu- heH! quite right, I shouldn’t have underestimated you. Now are wehhehh… gonna get on with it?”  Simply lifting the bowl off it had spread the scent throughout the living room, Gojo’s nose responding in kind. A light snfff- escapes, a mistake, if the way his eyes flutter is any indication. Nanami lifts the blossom gently, Gojo leaning back until his head was on the pillow at the end of the couch, hands tucked at his sides, already bracing against the tickle he knew was coming. Kneeling over him, Nanami allows his hips to gently brush Gojo’s, not missing the gasp in his breath, or the lust filling his eyes. “hihh’KTSH’oo-! hePT’shiew-! nnGXt-!”  “Bless you. Stifling without your hands, impressive, but doesn’t earn you any points today.” “Worth a shot~. Are you plahhhhning to start the inducing any time s- hehhh! soon? My nose is alreahhhhhdy starting to ti… to tiihhhhckle! hEH’ISHH’yuu-! hH’MMFSH’oo-! dnXT’shoo-!”  There’s no response from Nanami, ‘Unless you count the way his whole body is practically trembling~. Or the chewing on his lip, ya know, I’m not even sure he realizes he’s doing that!’ but one isn’t needed. Instead, Nanami starts tracing the lavender around the base of Gojo’s chin, dragging it up his jawline, right up to the bridge of his nose. Gojo, for his part, starts hitching the second it touches his skin, as if the pollen is soaking through into his nose via osmosis. His eyes snap shut, the tickle swelling-  “Hehh… ahh! Ehhh… hihh-hEH! hEPT-” Just to have it crushed by Nanami’s firm grasp on his nose, pinching it shut. Gojo lets out a whine, nose practically trembling beneath the grasp. They pause like that for a second, Gojo managing to pry his eyes open long enough to see the desperate arousal painted clearly over Nanami’s face, before they crash shut again with another wave of hitching. Finally, the tickle dies down, and Gojo’s breathing evens out. “I thought the point was to make me sneeze, not stop me from sneezing?” “That is certainly a part of it, yes. But you were cruel, doing… that… in public, in a meeting no less, so this? This is going to be just as cruel.” “I never knew you had such a sadistic side, dear. I have to admit-” Gojo pauses, letting his eyes meet Nanami’s, lust burning through his own just as fierce as his boyfriends. “-It looks stunning on you.” Their mouths meet, Nanami gently biting Gojo’s lower lip, eliciting a moan in response, before it turns into a shaky inhale. Taking this cue, Nanami continues running the lavender down Gojo’s nose, right around the edge, tracing each pink and twitchy nostril. “hAHhh- I… I have…. I’mgonna… hehh!”  This time, instead of stopping the sneezes, Nanami lets the lavender rest just under Gojo’s nose, the blossoms gently touching the tip, before letting it slide all the way in. The reaction is instant, and he’s careful to keep the blossom in during the fit, prompting Gojo’s hands to grab Nanami’s hips to brace himself. “ISHH’oo-! hehh’TISHH’ooo-! hEPT’DTSHH’yuu-! eHKSHH’shiew-! nN’GSHH’uee-! hAHH… hehh! neH’KTSHU’yuu-! haAH’GNSHH’oo-!” Gojo manages to meet Nanami’s eyes through his watery gaze, noticing the way Nanami’s legs tremble, hips pressing against his, a moan forming in his own throat as one breaks free from the other man. Deciding to try to put on a bit of a show, Gojo attempts to speak through them, a slight flush filling Nanami’s face at the attempt. In response, Nanami’s hands twitch, moving the lavender still inside Gojo’s nose around, relighting the tickle with a passion. “Oh god Nanahhhmihhh- mM’PSHH’oo-! hEH’MFFSSHH’yuu-! It ti- ticklessobad… nnH’ZSHH’oo-! ZESHH’shiew-! I can’t stop… Ijustgotta- hePT’KESHH’yuu-!  hhAH’ASHH’ieww-!” Tears are fully running down his face by the end, his eyes watering so much he can barely see. Nanami gently places his lips on Gojo’s forehead, pulling the (now soaked) lavender out as the sneezing finally starts to taper off. He softly wipes the tears away, meeting Gojo’s bleary look with a deeply lustful one of his own. “Yo- heH’ISHH’shiew-! Ishh’oo-tishh’oo-! You see- hiHH! holdonnotdone…. hAH’ESHH’yuu-! ‘Scuse me! You seem to be enjoying the show.” There’s a teasing tone in his voice, but the soft blush settling over his cheeks has nothing to do with arousal. Instead, it blooms in response to the soft touch Nanami’s hands are giving him, brushing his hair out of his eyes, wiping the tears from his cheeks. A softness that Nanami is always capable of, but only Gojo ever truly gets to see. The blush spreading across Nanami, however, has everything to do with arousal. A feeling that it seems, he’s reached his limit on containing. Letting his hips fully rest against Gojo’s, he leans in, teeth meeting Gojo’s ear. Their breath catches at the same time, Nanami’s releasing in a moan against the flushed skin of Gojo’s neck, while Gojo releases his in the form of- “hH’hEPTShhh’ooo-! nGT-! hh’DTSH-! kNXT’shoo-! Ohgod- ashh’oo-! tishh’oo-ishh’iew-hAH’ZSHH’yuu-! Hehh…!” “B-bless you.” Nanami offers in the pause, he can only keep the whimper out of his voice for so long it seems. ‘It’s honestly impressive he held out this long’. In the pause, Nanami leans back up, mischief flooding his eyes as he waits for Gojo to start hitching in earnest, then pinches his nose shut right as the fit starts again. A desperate look is all Gojo can get in before the tickle takes over completely. “Nahhhnami whatareyou- nNGT-! DNNT-! GNXXT-! P- please I haahhhh-! hH’nGXT-! Knntt’shoo-! ehh’DXGT’shoo-! Nanami it- hAH’gehDNTT’shoo-! It’s just gonna- heH’XGT-! DTNNGT-! Nxxgt’shoo-! Gonna keep going if you don’t let me…. Letme…. Ihaveto… heH! hh’NXGT’shoo-!” Despite the pleading, and the desperately itchy look Gojo’s face has twisted itself into, they both know that if he actually wanted to, he could easily pry Nanami’s fingers off. However, Gojo keeps his hands pinned under his legs, not even attempting to raise them.  “Bless you. Use your words, Gojo. You’ve certainly never had a problem using them before.” “hEH! Nanami I have- ohgodnotagain hH’NXGT-! dgxnnt’shoo-! ktnXGT’shoo-! I have to sneeze-! nN’GTkk’shoo-!” “Bless you love. You seem to be doing just that. What is it exactly you’re asking for?” Gojo lets his mouth hang slightly open, though at this point, it’s not exactly a choice, he’s still human after all, he needs air. But the way he lets his tongue brush against his lips is entirely for the show. “Please let me release the sneehhh-! Sneezes.”  “Clear and concise. See, I knew you had it in you. You have permission.” With that, Nanami removes his fingers, and waits- And waits…?  “hEH-! Ahhh… hihhIH…. hEPT-!guhhhh…. Hehhh…”  Nanami feels his mouth run dry as Gojo’s breath catches, over and over, his pink nose twitching, not unlike a bunny. “nAhnami- god it… it tickles so… I can’t…. I just… hehh-! hAH! Guhhh… hehhh…huH-! HEPT-! Fucking hell… I just…”  Normally he’d receive a punishment for the swearing, but given the current situation, Nanami is feeling forgiving. Gojo’s entire body is starting to tremble with the desperation of his nose. Nanami bites his lip harder, body trembling for a whole different reason. Both of their eyes are glossed over, yet again, for different reasons. Running a hand through Gojo’s hair again, the moan coming from the blue-eyed-beauty only half from the tickle still tormenting him, Nanami leans forward once more, bringing his warm lips to Gojo’s flushed skin. His breath is hot on Gojo’s neck, his teeth sinking into the sensitive skin. A moan falls from Gojo’s mouth as Nanami lets his lips touch his ear. “Nahhnami… I… Ihaveto- hehh! to sneehhhh- sneeze-!” The response that creeps out from Nanami’s mouth is as much a moan as a command. “Beg me for it, Satoru.”  A playful smirk briefly flashes across Gojo’s face, before he lets his eyes flutter closed once more. He allows his breath to hitch for a minute, savouring the way Nanami’s hips grind against him, before forcing his voice back out, not even needing to exaggerate the whining tone. “P- pleaahhh… please… hehhh! hAHH!… please Kento, let me sneeze~! I… I need to so-heHH! so bad….” With that, Nanami leans in, letting their lips meet, hungry and trembling. Gojo gasps against the feeling, pulling back to suck in a deep breath, before pulling Nanami back into it with just as much hunger. They stay like that for a moment, caught in a battle of wills and tongues, before finally, Nanami lets his nose brush against Gojo’s. Shivers shoot down both of their spines, moans spilling out of them in harmony as Gojo rears his head back, having only enough time to duck his head into Nanami’s chest before the long-denied sneezes take their revenge. “Th-thankyou- hAH’heTscH’oo-! hH’ZSCHH’yuu-! Hehh… hah’ketCHH’ooo-! mMpSHH’oo-! nN’KTSHH’yuu-! hePT’ISHH’iew-! mMFFSHH’iew-! hAH’RASHH’uue-! Oh that one was looudd-heH’KSHH’ooo-!” With a brief break, Gojo gasps, letting some air fill his lungs again as the tickle fills his nose. Nanami reaches over to the table, grabbing a handful of tissues, and pressing them to Gojo’s nose as the next wave of sneezes overtakes him. “iSHh’oo-! heH’tiSH’oo-! ASHH’iew-! nN’hetCH’yuu-! mmSHH’oo-! MMPSHH’oo-! heH’mPFShh’iew-!”  “Bless you, Satoru. Blow, while you can.” Gojo does he’s told, letting a harsh blow out, pausing for a few sneezes to slip through- “hEH’ktSHH’oo-! ashh’ieww-! hH’ESHH’oo-!” “Bless you. Again.” He follows the command willingly yet again, knowing he couldn’t resist if he wanted to. After another blow, Nanami switches out the tissues for clean ones, gently cleaning up Gojo’s nose. The feather-light touch of his fingers through the tissues is enough to prompt another small fit from Gojo, which he catches, planting a light kiss on his forehead. “Ishh’oo-! Tishh’oo-! heH’ketshh’iew-! hAH’ashHH’iew-! ishh-tishh’oo-heH’ISHH’yuu-!” “Bless you, love.” “Thank you.” Nanami sits back, letting Gojo sit up fully. Both men are panting, a fierce hunger still burning in their eyes. Gojo lets his hand slide around Nanami’s hips, pulling him in for another deep kiss, this time he nibbles on Nanami’s lip, a light chuckle breaking the kiss at the way Nanami whimpers. “Shall we finish this in the bedroom, Nanami~?”  There’s no answer. There doesn’t need to be. The way he grips Gojo’s arm is answer enough, pulling him up off the couch. They both take a pause to breathe, before they start laughing like teenagers again, a contest to see who can get to the bedroom faster is initiated without words. They never did need words, they have something far deeper. Something that nothing on heaven or earth could ever take away from them. Something true to their very souls. 

[fanmoose12]

Mike Zacharias was, all things considered, a good guy.

Levi wouldn’t have gone so far as to call him a friend, they only had a couple of classes together, but they both were a part of a football team.

And on the field, there was no better partner than Mike. He was honest and reliable. And when they played on the opposite sides, there was no tougher or stronger opponent for Levi than him. He always offered a good challenge. Levi liked that, respected that.

So all in all, Mike was a cool, even awesome guy, Levi didn’t have a single problem with him, except his best friend.

Hange fucking Zoe.

One of the most prominent and intelligent students at their school. The weirdest student of their school.

She was loud, messy and batshit crazy. Among other students, she wasn’t known for her exceptional intellect or her unusual friendliness. Instead, she was known for causing an explosion at the school’s lab not once, not twice, but three whole times! The only reason why she wasn’t kicked out of the school was her perfect grades. Or her parents’ huge wealth.

When she wasn’t hanging out with her ‘research team’ as she affectionately called those fools, who followed her around, she was spending her time with Mike. She was with him almost always, including the football practice.

And maybe, Levi wouldn’t have any problem with her, or Mike, if Hange wasn’t loudly cheering on Mike every goddamn time she accompanied him to the practices.

And, yeah, sure, what was wrong with cheering on a friend? But it pissed Levi off, especially because maybe, kind of, he had a tiny, little, miniscule crush on Hange.

He didn’t like her, of course. He didn’t. He just liked staring at her and listening to her. She also smelled surprisingly nice and had very soft hands. Not that Levi had ever held hands with her. He just touched them once, and now he wanted to touch them again.

They didn’t hang out together and, of course, they weren’t friends. They had only one class together, and that was biology. Biology, where Levi’s traitors of friends decided to fucking dump him.

“You need to be more friendly,” Farlan, that asshole smirked at him, after he had told him that he and Isabel were going to pair up together for the science project.

Stupid jerk, if his advice was so fucking sound, why didn’t he follow it himself? Still, there was nothing left for Levi to do than to seek out a different partner for himself. His eyes darted to Erwin, they weren’t exactly friends, not as close as he was with Farlan and Isabel, but they talked sometimes. He liked Erwin, but apparently his opinion of him was wrong, because when Levi turned around - Erwin was already paired with the biggest shitass in their school - Nile Dawk.

And, unfortunately, apart from Erwin, there was no one else Levi was on good terms with. Maybe, there was some truth to that fucker’s words. He really didn’t have a lot of friends.

Help came from an unexpected quarter.

Hange Zoe, the school’s prodigy, stood next to him, smiling sheepishly.

“Do you need a partner?” she asked.

And it wasn’t like Levi could refuse. He did need a partner. And, as he learned later, Hange Zoe turned out to be an amazing one.

She was smart, but also hardworking and very passionate. She was also unusually, but genuinely nice. She wasn’t even a bit arrogant, and whenever Levi didn’t get something, she always explained it to him patiently.

(Sometimes, even though he would rather die than admit it out loud, he played dumb on purpose, just so he could listen to her excited voice and look into her burning eyes, as she explained to him some stupid shit like meiosis).

So, yeah, she was kind and really fucking funny. And, maybe, one could call her pretty, if that one was into messy-haired four-eyed weirdos. (Unfortunately, Levi was). And, yeah, maybe, he liked it, maybe, he liked her. It meant nothing though. Hange probably didn’t even know his name and paired up with him only out of the kindness of her pure fucking heart.

Levi shouldn’t even think about her. He also shouldn’t stare at her during lunches like he’s some kind of a pervert. And, especially, he shouldn’t become angry every time he hears “Go, Mike, you’re the best!”

She was just trying to lift her best friend’s spirits, Farlan and Isabel did it all the time.

Still, it pissed him off, it hurt his pride, it made him fucking jealous.

He hated it. But, unfortunately, he couldn’t hate her.

 ***

His leg was kicked. Levi ignored it. His leg was kicked again. Again, Levi ignored.

“You’re staring at her again,” the words were followed by another kick.

Levi grunted, turning to face Farlan. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, using his most disinterested voice.

“Huh?” Isabel twisted her head around, looking at the mass of students, gathered in the cafeteria. “Who was big bro staring at?”

“No one,” Levi answered, while at the same time Farlan pointed Isabel to the right person.

“Ooh,” she cooed, grinning wickedly. “You’ve been staring at the weird Zoe girl!”

“Now, now,” Farlan chucked, patting Isabel’s head. “You shouldn’t talk about her like that. She may be a weirdo, but she’s also Levi’s sweetheart.”

“I swear to god, Farlan, if you don’t shut up, I’ll fucking punch you!”

Levi’s anger intensified, as he saw the shit-eating grin on his friend’s face. It was an empty threat and Farlan knew it perfectly.

“Oh no!” Isabel squealed, frantically pulling on Levi’s hand. “She’s coming here!”

“Oh yes, she totally does!” Farlan agreed. “Come on, Izzy, we should give them some privacy.”

And before Levi could throw another insult his way or beg them not to leave him alone, Farlan grabbed Isabel’s hand and dragged her away.

Fucking traitors.

Levi looked up - Hange was actually heading to his table. Shit. What did she want? What should he do?

She probably wanted to discuss the science project, the rational part of Levi’s mind kept insisting. But his heart didn’t listen, continuing to beat erratically inside his chest.

Shit, he needed to get a grip on himself. Hange was just a girl, a nerdy weirdo. The fuck he got so worried about?

“Hi,” Hange stood in front of him, holding a tray in her hands. “Can I sit down with you?”

“There is a lot of free space here,” Levi grumbled, taking a bite from his sandwich.

He mentally kicked himself. Why was always such an asshole? That’s why he only had two friends. Not that Levi gave two shits about being polite, but, well, he’d like to be Hange’s friend. Or maybe, something more.

“Great!” Hange smiled, as she took a seat across from him. Levi glanced at her beneath his fringe - of course, he shouldn’t have worried. Hange was a weirdo, she was never bothered by his rudeness.

“I just wanted to talk with you. I… well, you know about school dance this Friday? Oh, sorry!” Hange chuckled. “Of course, you know about it! That’s the only thing everyone talks about!”

Well… Levi certainly heard about school dance. Isabel mentioned it a few times, but neither of his friends was planning on going there. And there wasn’t any reason for Levi to attend. He would rather spend his Friday at home, playing video games with Farlan and Isabel.

“Anyways!” Hange continued. “Have you asked someone already?”

That took Levi by surprise. The question was so absurd that he looked at Hange closely - was she joking? But, strangely, she seemed to be serious. And she appeared to be somewhat nervous, which was even weirder. In all the time that he knew her, Hange was never nervous or shy. She was always unapologeticly bold. That was one of the reasons Levi liked her so.

So what was wrong now?

“Um, no?” Levi answered, feeling uneasy. For some strange reason, his pulse fastened.

“Oh, then have someone asked you?”

Levi eyed her carefully. Hange was fiddling with the straw of the juice box and she avoided looking him in the eyes. So she was nervous! But why? Levi glanced behind Hange’s shoulder. Mike was sitting on a table near them. He was grinning happily, and when Levi met his eyes - Mike winked at him.

What the fuck was going on?

He focused on Hange again. “No, no one asked me.”

Well, technically, it wasn’t true - a surprisingly large amount of girls had asked Levi to accompany them to the school dance. Levi had rejected them all. Unfortunately, the only person he wanted to go with was right now sitting in front of him.

“Great!” Hange beamed. “Oh, wait, no, that’s not what I meant!” she frantically waved her hands around. Levi hid a smile, amused by her gesticulations. “I’m sorry that no one asked you yet, but maybe…” she trailed off, turning to look behind her. Levi followed her gaze and saw that Mike gave her an encouraging smile, showing thumbs-up. She turned back and cleared his throat. She still avoided looking him in the eyes and there was a bright blush on her cheeks. “Maybe, you would like to go with me?”

Aaaaaaand he definitely misheard her last sentence. And even if he hadn’t, he probably didn’t understand it in the right way. Maybe, Hange was taking pity on him again? Just like that time, when she offered to become his partner in a science project?

“You want… to go dancing?”

“That was my initial offer, yes, but we can just hang out…” Hange twirled a stray lock of her hair, smiling shyly.

“You want to hang out…” Levi paused, not quite processing her words. Hange just couldn’t mean what he thought she meant. “With me?”

“Yeah…” Hange lowered her head, her shoulders sagging. “I thought you knew about this?”

He knew about what?

“…I mean the whole school probably knows, I’m not exactly subtle…”

The whole school knows about what?

“I was sure you knew about my crush on you…”

Wait, what? What the fuck? Hange liked him?

“You…. Have a crush on me?”

“Well, yeah?”

“Since when?”

“Um,” Hange rubbed her neck, her blush becoming even more apparent. “For about a year?”

“A year?!”

“I know it sounds pathetic, but yes? You don’t know how happy I was when you agreed to become my partner… Oh, jeez, this is so embarrassing,” Hange chuckled, and even in his daze-like state Levi felt how forced her laughter sounded. “You’re clearly not interested. I knew you weren’t, but that jerk Mike made me confess to you… I’m sorry!” she straightened out, grabbing her tray with food. She held it so tightly, her knuckles were white.

Levi stared at her hands, unblinking. He suddenly remembered that time in biology class when they were studying DNA. They needed to extract DNA from spinach, and upon seeing Levi’s clumsy movements with mortar and pestle Hange decided to help him. She laid her hands atop of his and gently guided them, showing him how to do it correctly. Her skin was soft and so warm. Levi was so flustered he felt like his heart was going to jump out of the ribcage.

And why was he remembering it now?

“Well, I should go, I don’t want to burden you…”

Hange almost got to her feet and left, but before she could do so, Levi grabbed her by the wrist.

“Wait!” He called out, surprised at how hoarse and desperate his voice was. But he couldn’t help it, he still couldn’t believe that Hange’s confession was real.

“You like me back?” he uttered quietly, looking up at Hange with hope.

“Ye— Wait!” Hange shrieked. Everyone around the cafeteria turned to look at them. If Levi could pay attention to something else except Hange’s adorably bewildered face, he’d even hear Isabel and Farlan high-fiving each other in the background.

Thankfully for his best friends though, he had a more pressing issue now.

“You like me back?” Hange didn’t lower her voice, and now every student in their school knew about Levi’s feelings for her.

His reputation of cold and aloof guy was destroyed forever.

He didn’t give a fuck.

“I do.”

His hand traveled down her arm, until it ceased her palm and held it in his.

At the sight of their joined hands, Hange’s lips curved into a bright smile.

“So you agree to go dancing with me?”

Levi shrugged, intertwining their fingers. “We can do that.”

“Great!” it seemed impossible, but the smile on Hange’s face became even happier.

Levi stared at her, feeling the same happiness inside him. Their bliss was cruelly interrupted by a loud ring that announced the start of a lesson.

“Shit, I’m late to English!” Hange shot to her feet. But before she ran away, she turned back to Levi. “Maybe, I can see you after school? We can walk home together?”

“Sounds good,” Levi nodded.

“Excellent!” Hange quickly leaned down and placed a kiss on Levi’s cheek.

Then, she was gone. Levi stared after her retreating figure, feeling a smile appear on his lips.

He probably, no, definitely looked like an idiot.

But for some reason, he didn’t give a fuck.

[ink-system]

Tickletober Day 9:Ganged Up On

ok so here is the extremely late tktober fic. Sorry it’s so late school and writer’s block happened but it’s here now and I hope you guys enjoy it a bit

TW: safe word mention, calling of safe word, intense tickles, Deceit, Remus

Word Count: 5813

Virgil was running. Where he didn’t know, all he knew was he needed to get out of there and he needed to get out of there fast. He was being chased by vicious, merciless monsters.

“Oh Viiirgey where are youuuuuu?~”

“We just wanna play with you!~”

“We aren’t gonna hurt you!”

“We would just like to show you how adorable you are.”

“It’s going to be so much fun once we catch you”

The teasing words echoed throughout the mind palace, drilling into Virgil’s head. He would never admit it, but the teases were slowing him down. The taunts were getting to him and the monsters were quickly gaining on him.

The purple side looked behind him, only for a second, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine…

All 5 sides right behind him, ready to attack. 5 sides who wanted to wreck him. 5 sides who were in ler moods. 5 sides who knew he was in a lee mood. 5 sides who were ABOUT TO TACKLE HIM HOLY SHIT HE’S GONNA DIE-

With Virgil looking behind him he got even more distracted and slowed down, which gave Roman just enough time to sprint the last few feet separating him from Virgil to tackle him. The fanciful side leaped forward with his arms reaching out for the side on the run.

“Aaaaaand GOTCHA!”

“NONONONO LEMME GO!”

Once Virgil was in the red side’s arms there was no escaping them. He was trapped. Done for. Stuck. He was gonna be tickled to tears by 5 lers and there was nothing he could do about it (not that he wanted to but that’s beside the point-).

“You put up a nice fight Virgey but it was pointless. You knew you were gonna get caught and that once you did you were making it worse for yourself by running away from your big, bad, personal tickle monsters. But you probably wanted that didn’t you, you big ass lee,” Roman teased to the squirming purple side in his arms.

As Roman was speaking he carried the struggling side to the coach and laid him down before straddling him as Janus used two of his six arms to pin the ex-dark side’s arms above his head.

“OH SHUT FUCKING FUCK YOU ASSHAT,” said purple side yelled, flustered out of his mind from the fanciful sides truths lies.

“Virgil, language!” the father figure exclaimed in both real and fake horror at the language his son used. “You should know better than to use those words, kiddo! I think you need to be punished for your potty mouth.” the dad of the group scolded. Patton’s teasing was fatherly and he almost always scolded the lee for something they did. It was… very flustering in its own way.

“Precisely what I was thinking, Patton. Such language is extremely uncalled for and calls for punishment” Logan, slightly cold yet teasingly stated. Logan’s teasing was very scientific and calculated. It was surprisingly flustering, him seeming almost indifferent to his actions and how they affected the lee.

“Yes, it does seem like he definitely knows how awful that language is. He doesn’t need to be taught a lesson,” the deceitful side said casually. Janus’ teasing was just stating the obvious but backwards, and it unfairly flustering, especially for something so simple. It killed everyone, especially poor Virgil.

“Such profanity is inexcusable! I say we show little Virgey here what happens to lees who say such horrible words!~” the sash wearing side exclaimed, far too dramatic than what was necessary. Roman’s teasing was just like him, overdramatic and far too extra. Yet there was something… flustering about it? He is creativity so it would follow that he would be able to tease quite well.

“Yeah having a ‘potty mouth’ is my thing! You’re stealing my thing Virgey! That’s even more punishable!” the duke yelled while reaching his hands out towards Virgil’s stomach, but he was stopped by Logan grabbing his collar. “Ahhhhh c’mon dork I just wanna wreck Tickle Me Emo’s little tummy for stealing my shit.” Remus’ teasing was… well. It was Remus teasing you. It was oftentimes very suggestive (even though he tried to not make suggestive with Virgil, Patton, and Roman), and its own way it was… kind of flustering.

“No, you need to be patient and wait for the rest of us” the tie-wearing side stated calmly.

“But you dorks are so slow and I wanna wreck him now. I’m sure he would prefer to get wrecked sooner than later. Isn’t that right, tickle toy”

Hearing them talk about him like he wasn’t there was driving Virgil crazy. Hearing the shit Remus was saying was even worse because it was true wrong and blatant lies and not true at all. Virgil couldn’t do a thing about it either. His face could’ve been mistaken for a fucking tomato at that point and the knowledge that the impulsive side was right made his blush spread from his face to his ears and neck. It sent tingles down his spine, and he hated how much teases got to him. Logan said it had something to do with him being the embodiment of anxiety and fight or flight and tickling being a way to train children to defend themselves and it is a panic defense. All he knew was it was making his already awful lee mood even worse.

“NONONO NOT RIGHT AT ALL” Virgil shrieked “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN! FUCKING LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLES.”

Virgil knew what he was doing, he knew he was making it worse for himself and that he was going to get wrecked even more than he was before. But he may or may not have wanted that (okay he definitely wanted that but shhhhhh), and wasn’t regretting a thing.

“Such foul language! You must really want to be wrecked! I mean I knew you were in a lee mood but not one this big! I mean c’mon- 5 lers and you’re still having an attitude and cursing at us.” the good half of creativity remarked teasingly, not missing how red the lee’s face went at his words.

“Oh yes, it would seem that poor little ticklish Virgil here has amassed quite the lee mood and he is resorting to being bratty to get more tickles,” Logan stated slightly cold as if he were reading a lab report out loud rather than teasing the living daylights out of the lee that is Virgil ‘Anxiety’ Sanders.

“Yes, he’s been having quite the attitude with us thus far. Quite the bratty lee if I say so myself,~” the serpent side teased to the blushing, red, lee mess that was the embodiment of anxiety. “And we all know that bratty lees don’t want to be wrecked with tickles until they can’t even fight it anymore and they definitely don’t want punishment tickles so they misbehave to get them.”

And then Virgil heard the worst thing he has ever heard in his life.

“I say we make him ask for the tickles like a good little lee because bratty lees don’t get what they want”

No. No no no no no no. This couldn’t be happening right now. Not to him. Not in this big of a lee mood. Not with this many lers around to hear it and see how red his face is. Not him having to actually say the dreaded t-word. Not with five fucking lers to wreck him after he asks, holy shit he fucked up-

But there’s no way it could get worse. I mean only Janus said that the other sides probably won’t even agree with him! They’ll have mercy on him and not make him ask- right?

“Oh what a wonderful idea Dr. Trickyll and Mr. Lie!”

“What a good idea! Oh, you’re so smart Janny!”

“Yes, it would be beneficial to teaching Virgil a lesson to make him ask for what he wants.”

“Oh come on! Now I have to wait even longer to wreck him, cause we all know that Virgey here can’t say tickle!”

Aaaaaaand it got worse.

Not only did (mostly) all of them agree with the scaled side, but the only one who didn’t was Remus, and that was only because he wanted to wreck him sooner. Great.

So it was settled. He was going to die today. And it was all his Janus’ fault. I mean- how could he be so mean? Making him admit to being in a lee mood? The rudest thing he’s ever heard, how dare they make him admit to wanting to be wrecked with t- you know what.

And Virgil, the side who is definitely not a lee, eloquently said, “I- I- NONONONO- THAT ISN’T FAIR YOU ASSHOLES.”

“Now you are just proving our suspicions. You are in a leviathan of a lee mood and are being a bratty lee and defying us to get the desired amount of tickles. We are not going to give in to your brattiness and do as you wish until you ask nicely.”

Virgil wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there forever. They were seriously going to make him ask? Now? In this economy? But more importantly right now-

Was he going to ask?

Was he going to embarrass himself to all of the other sides? Was he going to let them know, once and for all, that he was in a big ass lee mood? Was he going to tell them that he wanted 50 fingers wiggling and scribbling all across his body, forcing them to make him laugh? Or was he going to die from lee suffering and not ask?

Yeah, he was gonna die from lee suffering.

There was no way that he would, or could, ask for something so childish and happy when he was anxiety. He was supposed to be the protector of the group, not the guy who gets giant lee moods and shows weakness and is soft, no matter how much he may have wanted to do so.  

“Come on kiddo, you can do it! I believe in you!” the fatherly side encouraged.

Or maybe he could… maybe.

“But it’s so… ” the emo side trailed off, face somehow flushing even redder, “embarrassing,” he finished quietly.

“Oh c’mon Emo Nightmare, it’s fine to let loose every once in a while! There’s no shame in wanting tickles, in fact, it’s quite adorable!” the fanciful side dramatically exclaimed, aiming to make the anxious side feel a bit better, noticing the aura of shame surrounding him.

“Yes it is, in fact, beneficial to one’s mental health to laugh, and tickling, as I’m sure you know, is a way to produce laughter. Therefore, it would aid your, and most likely Thomas’, mental health to be tickled if you so desire. There is no shame in it Virgil.” Logan stated the oddly calming words in an almost motherly tone to the patchwork hoodie-clad side.

“Yes, it isn’t adorable how easily you’re flustered and how much you want to be wrecked by us. And even if it was adorable, which it definitely is not, we all know you love being tickled. So that makes us wrecking you until you cry is a form of self-care! And there are so many things wrong with practicing self-care, especially as the literal embodiment of anxiety.” the deceitful side said, trying his best to comfort his old friend in his own way.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah Virgey just c’mon and say it. I wanna wreck your little belly button now so if you could hurry it up with the asking thing that’d be better than a butthole!” Remus said while looking ready to pounce on Virgil as soon as he asked for it, if not sooner.  

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay he could do this. All he had to do was say three words! Three words aren’t that many!-

Please. Tickle. Me.

He couldn’t do this.

Those three words were the bane of existence. Those 3 words were going to be the death of him. Those 3 words made his face look like a fucking tomato even just thinking them, let alone saying them. Those three words… that he was going to say.

He took a breath, and ever so calmly said “PLEASE TICKLE ME!”

“Awww I knew you could do it kiddo!”

“There we go, you adorable emo!”

“I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to tell us what you wanted, and that you were polite about it.”

“See that wasn’t too hard now was it, my little spider”

“FINALLY!”

The emo side’s face somehow went even redder at his fellow side’s words of excitement at finally getting to wreck him.

Whether Virgil was going to die of embarrassment or lee first was anyone’s guess, but all he knew was he was going to die of something that day. His face was so red it could be mistaken for a tomato, and it spread to his neck and ears at this point. The emo side’s lee mood had grown so big that it was becoming more all-consuming than a lee mood already was normally. So maybe he might die of both at the same time if the other sides didn’t hurry the fuck up and wreck him.-

“So… pick a spot Emo Nightmare,” the good creativity said calmly after a few seconds of silent anticipation of what was to come (well the anticipation was mainly on Virgil’s end but shhh)

“WHAT?! NONONONO I JUST ASKED YOU FUCKING ASS!” the anxious side exclaimed in disbelief before slamming his head down on the ground in exasperation.

Did Roman just live to embarrass him? He made him ask and now he’s making him pick a spot. He’s basically making him tell where he wants to be wrecked the most and that’s completely illegal.

“Well now you’re being bratty again, should we make you ask again?” the logical side asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“…don’t make me say those fucking words again,” Virgil said, face somehow flushing even redder at the idea of being made to ask again, avoiding eye contact with the other sides. He was beyond mortified at this point, all the other sides had heard him ask to be wrecked, were going to make him pick a spot, and now they heard him admit to not wanting to say that fucking word again. He wanted to crawl inside a hole and stay there for the next 4,000 years.

“C’mon kiddo, just say any spot! You’re so ticklish that any spot will be great!” the paternal side said, accidentally teasing his son.

“Patton whyyyyyyyyy” Virgil whined while trying to hide his face in his shoulder as best he could, embarrassed at the moral side’s words.

“What?! It’s true kiddo!”

“No, it’s not”

Virgil wasn’t pouting. Nope. Nuh-uh. Not at all. He was big, bad anxiety who didn’t pout, no matter how much he may have thought it was unfair that they were being so mean to him.-

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” the emo side groaned in frustration and embarrassment, from the other sides still not wrecking him and the father figure words, before whispering, “…sides.”

As soon as the word left his mouth Remus pounced on him, literally. The impulsive side tackled his twin brother of the emo and replaced him by straddling his waist and squeezing Virgil’s sides.

The emo bit his lip to try and keep his laughter in, but it was no use; he was already too keyed up from anticipation for him to not laugh.

“Wahaihihit noho!”

“Oh, but we’re just getting started, Virgil,” the logical side said, smirking as he saw the emo’s eyes widen in panic when he saw the logical side calmly walking towards him.

“Just remember, you asked for this kiddo,” Patton said before walking towards his son with an innocent yet slightly sinister grin on his face. He was so excited to finally get to wreck his son to pieces! Virgil often came to him when he was in lee moods and it was so adorable! Now he got to share that adorableness with the rest of the sides!

Janus was already behind him and was spreading four out of his six arms to wreck the ex-dark side. He wiggled all of his available fingers where Virgil could see them. He relished in the way his face flushed an even darker red before he closed his eyes to avoid seeing the teasing, wiggling fingers.

The good half of creativity had since recovered from getting shoved off the lee and had climbed next to Virgil’s legs and had a hold of his ankle to keep him from kicking. As he did that, he stretched his leg out slightly in order to gain access to the backs of his knees.

“Wahihit Rohomahan nohoho!” the current lee cried out in panic at the knowledge that the fanciful side was going to tickle his knees.

“Why did I choose today to wear shorts?” Virgil thought to himself in regret before he remembered, “Oh yeah, I wanted to get wrecked. Well… fuck my life I guess”

Roman started scribbling his fingers on the backs of the emo’s side’s knees, listening to his,ironically, bright and cheerful laugh as he did so.

The tie wearing side finally walked all the way over to Virgil and kneeled next to him on the coach. He began scanning the darker side for a spot to tickle that wasn’t already being wrecked by the other sides. His eyes landed on his ribs, which were known to be a pretty bad spot on their own for the purple side, so tickling them combined with the other spots covered by the other sides were likely to make him go even further into hysterics.

“Virgil, how does it feel to know that you’re going to be tickled without mercy until you cry by 5 lers? Is it terrifying? Exciting? Exhilarating?” he said while summoning a notebook to write his answers down, eager to have more research.

The emo’s side flushed the reddest it’s ever been at Logan’s words and at seeing the notebook. He knew whatever he did was going to be observed and recorded for the logical side to look back on when he was collecting more data on the side’s reactions to certain aspects in tickling.

“Lohohogahan, nohoho!” he laughed harder, becoming more giddy by the second, feeling the logical side’s eyes drifting up and down his body. Virgil knew the tie wearing side was going to try and collect data from him, but he didn’t expect him to ask questions.

“Logan, yes!,” the dark blue side exclaimed, uncharacteristically excited and child-like at the opportunity to collect more data.

“You know Virgil, you still haven’t responded to my question, would you mind doing so now?”, the left brain side questioned. He finally kneeled down next to Virgil and began to squeeze his ribs while observing the emo’s reactions to him doing so.

“Yehehes Ihihi wohouhuhuld mihihind! Shuhut uhuhup!”

“Oh kiddo, well now that’s just flat out rude! You should know better than to be such a meanie!”, the paternal side scolded. “I think you need to be taught another lesson, it’s the only way you’re gonna learn after all!”

“Yes, it would be a good incentive to answer my question, seeing as how he doesn’t seem to want to be cooperative. It would also be beneficial to my research to see how he would react to your ‘punishment’.”

“Wahahaihit nohoHOHOHO!” Virgil tried to say before he was thrown into even deeper hysterics from the father figure had started scribbling his fingers on his stomach.

All of the other sides all mentally, and some verbally, awwed at the normally dark and pessimistic side’s bright and happy laughter.

With Janus scribbling Virgil’s armpits with 5 arms, Roman tracing his knees, Patton scratching at his tummy, Logan squeezing his ribs, and Remus digging into his sides, Virgil was, well… losing his fucking mind.

“GUHUHUYS! HAHAHAHA!”

“Uh, guys- I think we should give him a break. His face is as red as my sash and he’s kind of wheezing.-” the fanciful said, sounding very concerned at his friend’s current state.

“Oh kiddo, are you okay?”, Patton questioned as he pulled his hands back from their place on his stomach. He knew the darker side could take a lot but he didn’t know if he could take that many tickles, especially with so many lers.

All the other sides slowly began to move their hands away when the rest of them noticed that the fanciful was right. They each looked at him as they all backed away, concern visible in their eyes.

“Virgil, would you like a glass of water?”, the logical side asked, voice surprisingly soft and almost motherly.

The emo side nodded his head, still too lost in residue giggles to respond verbally. Virgil’s brain was practically melted from all the ghost sensations still tingling all over his body.

“We didn’t go too far did we, my little shadowling?” the deceitful side asked, being genuine for once. Him and the emo side may not have been that close anymore, but Janus still deeply cared for him and wanted to make sure he was okay.

“Yehehes, ohoho gohohod,” the purple side giggles out, still a bit loopy on endorphins from laughing so much.

If the emo side was being completely honest, his lee mood still wasn’t gone. He still wanted more tickles. He wanted to be wrecked more than he already had been, and more than he ever had been before.

As all the sides stepped back a bit to give him some room to breathe the emo side managed to say through his giggles, “Noho dohont gohoho,wahant mohohore tihicklehes!”

The other 5 sides felt their jaws drop at his words. He wanted… more tickles? Man he really was in a giant lee mood. After they all got over the shock of his words, the five sides grinned wider than the cheshire cat.

“More? You want more tickly tickly tickles, Virgey?”, the green side said, as he slowly walked towards the lee again with wiggling fingers.

“Yehehes!”, the emo side exclaimed, still clearly loopy from the endorphins.

The five lers all awwed at endorphin high Virgil and him being so open about wanting more tickles. Just when the rest of them thought that the emo side couldn’t be even cuter, he did this. Even Logan had to admit that the sight was adorable.

“Okay kiddo, how about this? We’ll give you alllllll the tickles you could ever want after you calm down a bit more. How does that sound?!”

“Gohohod!”, the emo side giggled out, as excited as they’ve ever seen him before. He started taking deeper breaths to try and calm down quicker so he could get his second round of tickles even sooner.

As soon as he came down from his endorphins rush the purple side’s face flushed red as he remembered what he said stuttering out embarrassed excuses. “I didn’t mean that!-” and “I was lying!-” were the most common excuses he made.

None of the other sides believed him.

As they shouldn’t have, as Virgil still had a wide, wobbly smile on his face from the anticipation of knowing he was going to be wrecked again.

“You see, Virgil, you still haven’t answered my previous question. Why don’t you answer it now?”the dark blue side asked teasingly. Logan smirked as he saw the way that the emo side’s face flushed an even darker red, traveling all the way to his neck and ears. He knew the emo couldn’t handle answering his questions for his research, and he used this fact quite frequently. Teasing always made it worse for the purple side, it was almost too much for him to handle. It was almost mean to tease the embodiment of anxiety, especially when he was this worked up and flustered in the first place.

“Uh, how about I don’t do that?-”, the anxious said quickly, not wanting to have to tell Logan how excited he was to have five lers to wreck and tease him until he was a red, flustered, hysterical mess.

“So Panic! at the Everywhere, you say you want more tickles, then you deny wanting said tickles. What’s wrong, a little flustered? Are we teasing you too much? Can big, bad anxiety not handle a few simple teases or questions from his own personal tickle monsters? Oh, what a pity, and were going to have so much fun with you too! We were going to scribble our fingers on your tummy, lightly scratch our fingers on your toes, squeeze your thighs, poke your sides, skitter our fingers on the backs of your knees! Now we won’t get to do any of that, and that’s such a pity for all of us!”, the fanciful side teased, glancing at Virgil every so often to see how red his face would go at his words.

Roman certainly wasn’t disappointed with the emo side’s reaction. He started kicking again, face flushing red and it spreading to his neck and ears, giggles spilled out of his mouth against his will from anticipation, shaking his head, and tugging on his arms while half heartedly begging to be let go.

“Nohoho, Prihihincehey stahap beheihing mehean!”, the patchwork clad hoodie side pleaded, giggling from anticipation and Roman’s mean teasing. It just wasn’t fair- I mean c’mon, Virgil was anxiety, you’re really going to make him wait? How mean could someone possibly be?

“Kiddo, do you want more tickles?”, the paternal side asked tenderly, not intending to tease his son, just merely wanting to make sure he actually wanted them before five lers were wrecking him again.

The emo side shyly nodded his head before turning to hide his very red face in his shoulder. He couldn’t handle the others seeing him so flustered, despite the others having seen him just as flustered before. The only difference was they were all together this time. They all were seeing him, face the most red it had probably ever been, at the same time. It was almost too much embarrassment for Virgil to handle.

“Awwww! Gerard Gay really is adorable, isn’t he?!“, the fanciful side exclaimed excitedly before looking at the other four lers, bouncing on his heels a little from the adorable sight. He was just so excited cause he got to wreck the normally stoic and edgy emo more because said emo asked him too!

“You dorks need to shut the fuck up and help me wreck Tickle-Me-Emo,” the green side said before walking over to Virgil.

As Remus walked over to him, Virgil shook his head wildly, eyes wide open, legs kicking, and tugging on his arms. The purple side knew that the intrusive side was one the most merciless lers in the mind and he didn’t stop unless you were crying from laughter or begging for mercy. And he was walking right towards him again while Virgil was pinned down and couldn’t fight back like he normally could.

“I for one am curious as to why the little spiderling wants more tickles. Would you mind telling us, my little shadowling?”, the deceitful side questioned affectionately. He always loved to make Virgil say his fantasies as he knew how much it flustered him.

“Yehes Ihi wohouhuld mihihind”

“Too bad, you’re telling us Robert Downey Jr.”

Virgil whined, knowing he wasn’t getting out of this as easily, and that the other sides wouldn’t be satisfied with his answer unless he gave specific details. All he wanted was to be wrecked again, was that too much to ask?

Apparently it was.

The emo side groaned, far too gone in his lee mood to not get more tickles. He took a deep breath, trying to gather up the courage and willpower to speak again. He was gonna die from embarrassment, he just knew it.

Virgil took a breath and replied, “Uhuhum, Ihi lihike beheihing toho weheak toho fihighihit bahack ahand beheihing fohorcehed toho lahauhugh.” His face flushed to the same shade as Roman’s sash as he said this, knowing that they were never going to let him live this down. He glanced up to see the logical side writing his words down. The emo side could feel all of their eyes on him, looking him up and down, their eyes drilling into his worst spots, just begging to be able to wreck him for a second time and make his lee fantasy come true.

Remus shockingly wasn’t the first side to move towards the blushy side, it was Logan. The logical side was normally the last one to move towards the lee he was wrecking, often too busy observing the lee to actually wreck them until they were begging for him to do anything.

Logan was excited to wreck Virgil again, and he was showing it in his own way by rushing over to him. The logical side kneeled down next to the emo side’s stomach and rolled his shirt up to his ribs. He was looking at the spot, appearing almost rabid with need. The tie-clad side’s ler mood had gotten even stronger at the lee’s words, and Logan needed to wreck him now. The more he waited the worse the more his ler mood grew.

Janus pinned the emo side’s arms above his head once again with two of his arms, the other four resting above his ribs and armpits. Patton kneeled next to his ‘son’s’ knees as he hovered his hands over the spot. Roman straddled the purple side’s thighs again, pinning his legs down with his weight as he looked down at the current lee’s stomach. Remus was moving towards Virgil’s feet, sitting on his calves so he couldn’t pull his feet back, nor kick his legs at all, he pulled his toes back with one hand and rested the other on his foot.

The anticipation was going to kill the anxious side. As each of the sides walked to get in their positions Virgil’s face steadily got redder and his smile became more difficult to fight off. He was so close to getting what wanted again, yet the other sides were stopping as soon as they got into their positions.

“Guhuys pleheahase! Juhust doho ihit ahalreheady!”, the emo side begged, giggling from anticipation.

“I mean… he did say please,” the fatherly side stated. As much as Patton loved teasing his son, he wanted to actually wreck him now. He wanted to give his son what he wanted, so he was going to.

“Padre’s right. He’s been so polite recently and he answered Calculator Watch’s question, we should reward him for being such a good lee.”

The other 3 sides nodded in agreement as they exchanged glances with each other, shit eating grins on all their faces. As they looked at each other they nodded, communicating without speaking.

“Three…”

“Two…”

“ONE!”

As soon as they yelled out the last number they all pounced on the emo side. Janus scratching at his ribs and armpits, switching between lighter and rougher tickles. Roman fluttering his fingers on his stomach, keeping all his touches feather light. Remus scritching at his toes, never giving the emo side a break from the tickly sensations and keeping him on his toes, literally. Patton alternated between squeezing each of his knees, not letting his son get used to the sensations. Logan alternated between squeezing his sides and helping the fanciful wreck the anxious side’s stomach.

Virgil arched his back as he screamed in laughter. He had never experienced such intense ticklish sensations, especially not all at once. He couldn’t even process all the sensations coursing through his body and he swore he was going to explode from them.

“N-NAHAHA! GUHUHAHAHA!”, the emo side screeched desperately, not even able to form words anymore. All he could do is throw his head back in laughter and take it. His body wouldn’t let him squirm, far too overwhelmed by all the sensations being forced upon it.

He loved it.

The emo side hadn’t felt that care free in a long time. It was… nice to be able to let go and laugh and not have to worry about anything else then the tickly sensations attacking your body and having laughter forced out. It was something that the normally grumpy and edgy side truly needed.

“IHI- IHI CAHAHA! HAHAHA!”

The five lers looked at each other, slightly concerned. They knew the patchwork hoodie-clad side had asked for this, but wasn’t he reaching his limit? This was a lot for anyone, especially for the embodiment of anxiety who wasn’t used to physical touch.

“Kiddo, are you okay? Do you need a break?”

“IHIM F-FIHAHAHA!”, his words once again got lost in the midst of his hysterical laughter. Even though he couldn’t finish his sentence he was telling the truth, he was fine. Actually he was better than fine. He was amazing. This was exactly what he wanted, to be tickled to his limits, to not be able to fight back. Some people might say it was extreme but his lee mood was too bad to really care about that. Not that he could actually think, his mind was too busy trying to process what he was feeling to think many coherent thoughts.

At his words the other sides continued to wreck him for a few more minutes until the emo side cried out “S-SAHAND- SAHANDEHER-.”

They all pulled back immediately as they heard the safeword. All five lers looked at the emo side to see if he needed anything at that moment before he could speak coherently again. The fanciful side got off of his hips and the deceitful side let go of his arms and slowly worked the lee’s arms down from their position.

As soon as Virgil was free to move again he curled into a ball to protect his spots, still feeling ghost sensations all over his body. He was still giggling from ghost sensations on his stomach, knees, feet, armpits, and ribs.

“Ohoho gohod, thahat wahas amahazihinig! Thahank yohouhu guhuys!”

The other sides awwed at him again. He was just too cute for the others to handle sometimes. The normally stoic and edgy side was giggling and thanking them for tickles, it was just adorable and the paternal side wished he could take a picture of the sight of a flustered, giggling Virgil.

“Would you like anything? Water? Snacks?”, the logical side questioned, immediately slipping back into his almost motherly role with Virgil.

The wrecked side shook his head and just giggled as he said “Cuhuhddlehes?!”

There he was again, being adorable. The other sides awwwed again as they walked back over to the emo side to give him what they wanted cause…

How could they say no to that?

[tae-cup]

Down With The Ship | FINALE

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Female!Reader

Summary: Captain Jeon Jungkook; a beautiful mess of blood and gold. His greatest treasure, may also be his greatest downfall.

Genre: Pirate!au

Warnings: Angst, some fluffy stuff, panic attacks, blood

Rating: T for Teens

A/N: Alexa, play Roslyn by Bon Iver and St. Vincent. aaaaaaand that’s a wrap! I’m honestly in love with this series and kind of want to make some spin offs, but I need to focus on like...my big series now XD 

Thanks for sticking around!

Word Count: 8k Words

Other: Masterlist

Previous 

Up with your turret Aren't we just terrified? Shale, screen your worry From what you won't ever find

           Him had a face. Him had a name. Eun-kyung haunted your dreams. The deep blue of his irises visited you at night and his soft hands touched your waist, your arms, and legs. The most innocent of touches giving you the fluttering of butterflies in your stomach. 

          You were broken out of your trance by a hand waving in front of your face. You blinked, startled. 

“Oh, sorry.” You murmured, brushing back a strand of hair as you met the gaze of the frowning captain. 

“Are you sick? Tired?” The genuine concern that tinged his voice was new to you. 

            You smiled softly and shook your head, turning back to sketching out the map before you. It was so nice above deck where you and Jungkook sat on the planks. He dictated anything interesting he saw and you sketched the coastline. 

“I’m alright, Jungk-Captain.” 

        He paused, looking at you for a moment. Then he turned back to observing the land mass ahead. “You can call me Jungkook. I don’t mind.” 

        His words made you smile a little and you didn’t know how his heart quickened when you smiled. 

“I see a large mountain in the distance. It seems to be of cold climate.” 

“That explains the wind.” You rubbed at the pinkened end of your nose. He noticed you shivering and, in an action that surprised both you and him, he shrugged off his coat and handed it to you. 

“Stay warm, Y/N. And head inside soon before you catch a cold.” He then wandered back below deck without another word. 

             You liked the way your name rolled off his tongue. His mouth moved around it harshly, like a command, while Eun-kyung always spoke it like a soft prayer on his lips. The callous nature of the man did not surprise you, he was a pirate after all and Eun-kyung had simply been your guard. But he was so much more than that. If Eun-kyung was the sturdy land, Jungkook was the crashing sea. And you had always loved the sea more than the land. 

              You stood at the side, biting your lip in concentration. The murky water below reminded you of the day you walked the plank almost a year ago. It had been terrifying and calming at the time, but now it just gave you fond memories. You still weren’t allowed off the boat since you were a wanted woman. The thought sent you back to the weight that had been hanging on your shoulders. Were they still looking for you? Was Haneul getting closer? Every day it felt like you could turn a corner and he would be right there. 

             You gripped the pen tighter as you traced the coast. The air was chill and your ears were freezing, but Jungkook’s coat was wrapped tightly around you, the sleeves rolled up to keep from dragging on the page. You hummed a little to yourself, just admiring the sights before you. 

             It was odd how the ocean, so vast and oppressive at times, could fill you with such joy. The emptiness of the sea, no soul within miles, would put a normal person on edge, but when you loved the salt in the air as much as the crew of BTS, the loneliness didn’t seem all that bad. 

               Jungkook was on his daily rounds to make sure people were on task. He checked in on Jin who was cooking lunch. The older man quickly shooed him out of the kitchen, waving a wooden spoon as the captain shouted his protests. 

           Then he visited Namjoon, his trusty second, but he was busy reading a book. When he had entered the man’s cabin, he had simply peered up at him unamused and went back to reading. Who knew the captain of his own ship could be so easily rejected by his crewmates? He didn’t even bother with Yoongi, fully knowing the man was asleep.

            Surely Jimin will need my help with something? So he went to visit the blonde haired man. But he was busy cleaning and claimed he didn’t need the help. Hoseok was quite obviously steering the ship and Jungkook didn’t really need to help there. So he ended up standing beside you, thoroughly tired of his crew. 

“It’s like every time I try to do something nice for my crewmates, the universe rejects me.” He sighed, feeling a little more melancholic than usual.

          It was nearing the anniversary of the mutiny and though the blood was long washed away, he didn’t really want to spend it on the boat. You made a noise of acknowledgement, still focused on your drawing. 

“Words would be nice, little miss.”

You rolled your eyes at the nickname, but smiled nonetheless. “Oh boo hoo. No one wants to babysit the captain.” You turned to face him, a smirk on your face. 

            His cheeks grew red and he opened and closed his mouth. He didn’t know if he wanted to kiss or slap that smirk off your mouth. Was it scary that the urge to kiss you was stronger? To him it was terrifying. He already had six weaknesses composed of his crewmates, but having a lover? That would be his downfall, he just knew it. So at what point did the pros outweigh the cons? He would see to it that they never did. For his and your own sake. 

             The captain still couldn’t help tracing his eyes over your profile. From the slope of your nose to the outline of your lips. Then he studied your hands, the way you held your pen, the way you focused on the paper. 

“How long are you going to stare at me, lover boy?” You teased, having grown comfortable with the captain.

             You spent most of your time with him to help him navigate and work on the various maps. It was sort of exhausting to have one way conversations with him, but you were okay with it; it was like home. 

“Sorry.” His response made you frown slightly, but you returned to your work. 

“Does Namjoon dislike me, or something?” You asked cautiously, not looking up from your sketch. 

“No...I think he just...has trouble trusting people.” Jungkook huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of his face. 

        The door that led below deck flung open with a crash and Taehyung stumbled out, looking out of sorts. He immediately went to the side and hurled out his lunch. 

“Taehyung, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” You dropped your pad and pencil onto the deck and ran over to look at him. He was pale and wide eyed. 

“Just a nightmare.” He choked out, squeezing his eyes shut.

            You caught the glistening in his eyes before he left to sit against the wooden siding of the ship. He leaned his head back, brown hair splaying out in all directions, and pulled his knees in close to his chest. The man took deep breaths. 

“Must have been one hell of a nightmare.” You murmured, your tone concerned, and you were. You had never seen the man so disoriented. He was often a wild card between serious and loving, but never had you seen him off guard. 

The man didn’t respond. His hands gripped his knees. The captain watched his crewmate in sympathy. With a sad expression, he tugged on your arm. 

“Y/N, we should leave him be. There are some things you don’t have to know about.” 

“His name was Sam.” Taehyung whispered. Jungkook stopped, glancing back at the gunner with curiosity. When he didn’t continue, Jungkook took that as his cue to leave. He dragged you away, disappearing below deck. 

           His mind was spinning. He went in circles, memories playing on repeat like a video. Taehyung could feel Sam’s warm breath on his neck, the way his hands held his, the way he brushed against him. The man would always claim it was an accident, but Taehyung knew it wasn’t. 

            While the lull of the sea usually brought him peace, today it reminded him of everything he’d done wrong. 

“Aish, you need to let it go already.” Sam sat next to him, his ethereal form hovering above the deck. 

“You died right in my arms, Sam. It was my fault for not shooting the man before he shot you.”

“You were processing, it’s okay.”

“Why did I hesitate the one time it mattered?” 

“Because you’re human.” 

         Taehyung bumped his head against the side several times, trying to make the ghostly spirit go away. It was taunting him with a love he could no longer have.

“How can you forgive me?”

“You did all you could.” 

“Why aren’t you mad?”

             The ghost stood and crouched in front of him, body passing through Taehyung’s knees. He could almost feel the man’s touch, his ghostly fingertips tracing his cheek. Then the wind blew and reminded him of the simple chill that caused it. 

“I could never be mad at you Taehyung.”

              The man swallowed, watching the specter lean in, his ghost lips brushing over his warm ones. 

“How can you say that, Sam?” He said weakly. “When you’re the one with a bullet in your chest.” 

 “If you weren’t a pirate, Hoseok, what would you be doing?” You sat on the railing that overlooked the main deck. Your legs swung back and forth. The pilot thought over your question, his eyes still set on the horizon. 

            Hoseok, despite his sunny personality, could look rather serious, possibly angry, when he thought hard enough. He twisted the wheel, sending the boat closer to the mainland. 

“I think I would be a dancer.” 

“You dance?”

“I wanted to.” He corrected you. Then he released a sigh and placed a pole through one the rungs to hold the steering wheel while he took a break. “It wouldn’t have worked out. It wouldn’t have been a living.” 

“Can you show me?” You asked. He raised an eyebrow. 

“You want to see?” There was hope in his eyes as he spoke, his words holding an excitement. 

“Yeah, for sure!” You smiled widely, eager to see your crewmate either wow you or make you laugh. 

“Alright! But you’re getting in on it too, okay?” 

“That wasn’t the deal.” You crossed your arms. “Besides, I only know some ballroom dancing.”

“I’ll show you!” He exclaimed excitedly, taking your hand and leading you out to the main deck. 

           He bowed lowly, pecking your hand with his lips. You instantly flushed bright red and he looked up at you with a sly smile. 

“May I have this dance?” He asked.

“Most certainly, kind sir.” You played along, curtsying. 

            He chuckled and took your arm in his so you were facing opposite directions. Then he began skipping around in a circle, humming out a beat and melody. You laughed, forced to follow along with his antics. He then switched arms and continued the dance. Then he unhooked his arm, spinning you around in a circle. 

          You fought to regain your balance, the world spinning as you let out more squeals of excitement. He then held up his arm, intertwining his arm with yours. Your hands touched, fingers pointing upwards as he took a step forward, leading you in the new dance move. You both laughed in delight, dancing to the rhythm of the sea and humming a tune only you two knew. 

           There was a loud cough. The entire crew stood there, even Yoongi, watching you with varying expressions. Jimin looked eagerly between the two of you. Yoongi just sighed, but he didn’t move back below deck as he usually would. Jin was holding back a laugh and even Namjoon let his lips twitch into a smile. Jungkook looked the least pleased. 

“Hoseok, don’t you have a job to do?” The captain barked. 

“Sorry, captain.” Hoseok bowed and started leaving. You quickly grasped his arm, pulling him back. 

“Stop it, Jungkook.” You hissed, not bothering with the title. “You’re always trying to ruin the fun, loosen up and live a little.” 

           The crew stood still, glancing between the two of you. Jungkook turned on his heel, letting out a huff of air, his nostrils flaring. The rest of the crew awkwardly shuffled from foot to foot. 

“Jimin! Get over here, I can see you want to get in on it.” You winked, moving around to push the male towards Hoseok. 

         The older man easily took the younger in and started showing him the steps. You then shoved Namjoon and Jin together. Yoongi glanced at Taehyung who smirked. 

“No way.” Yoongi scoffed, ready to go back down below. 

          The others were already getting into the swing of things, switching partners and letting playful banter slip in between the melody they all started singing. 

“As I was a-walking down Paradise Street.” Jin sang, his voice clean without a warble. 

“To me way-aye, blow the man down.” The others chorused.

“A pretty young damsel I chanced for to meet.” Jimin rang out next, his voice like a bell and just as beautiful. 

“Give me some time to blow the man down!” They all sang back, erupting into laughter. 

         Taehyung reached out and grasped the older man’s sleeve. 

“Yoongi, I think it’s about time you joined the world of the living.” He stated firmly and dragged him out to dance with the others.

           It was soon a mess of laughter and drunken singing, although no one was drunk; they acted like it pretty well. Hoseok was clapping in time to the beat. You wanted to throw yourself into the mix, but you didn’t have a partner. The most eligible man was pissed off below deck, most likely brooding. 

           You wouldn’t have it. You marched down below, despite how much you hated the claustrophobic feeling of being below deck. You pounded on the captain’s office door and he responded with a stern come in. 

           You marched inside. 

“Captain Jeon Jungkook if you don’t go out there and dance right now, I’m going to drag you out. You can spend all your life hiding from your crew and holding up in your office when everyone is bonding. And you also need to stop brooding like some edgy man baby! Seriously! Loosen up!” You paced, ranting to the captain who sat looking amused at you. His arms were crossed and his eyebrows shot up at the words ‘man baby’. 

“Excuse me, is that anyway to speak to your captain?” He frowned, effectively cutting you off. “Maybe I have been too lenient with you and the crew.” 

           Then he caught himself in the mirror and sagged, suddenly lost in thought. That was something Captain Rogers would say. Except, when he looked at you, you weren’t shaking and crying, you weren’t flinching at his gaze. Instead, you stood straighter. 

“You need to be more lenient to yourself, Jungkook.” You stepped around the desk and he swiveled his chair around to face you. 

           Jungkook had such a youthful face, it was a shame he spoiled it so often with frowns. You could almost see the stress wrinkles already forming. You reached forward, harmlessly brushing your hands with his. He pulled his hand away like you’d burned him. 

“Is everything...is everything alright Jungkook?” You asked quietly. 

          He couldn’t think. The world was spinning. Being in that office, being touched, watching himself in the mirror, it was already painful enough. When he looked at you, it wasn’t you that stared back, he only saw Captain Rogers. His breaths came out hurried and short. 

“Look, I’m sorry if I’m pushing you to do something you don’t want to do, but going outside your comfort zone is good sometimes, okay?” You reached out once again and firmly held his hand in yours. 

           The brush of skin on skin made him nauseous. Your grip was suffocating. He felt like he was drowning. The room felt stuffy, his breaths came shorter and shorter. His eyes wildly gazed around your face, begging to see you and not Captain Rogers. But he only saw the old man’s yellowed grin staring back at him, his lips spewing your words. The anger was back, a simmering pot of rage. 

“Don’t touch me.” He said softly. 

“What?” You tilted your head, trying to understand what was happening. 

“I said don’t touch me!” He ripped his hand away and stood, staggering back a couple of steps. “You don’t know anything about me!” He barked. 

          His hands trembled and he held his stomach, trying to hold onto its contents. The ghost touches were still there, making him bend over as he tried his best to keep down his lunch. 

“Get out!” He shouted. Then his voice went quiet as he trembled. “Just get out.” 

         He pointed weakly towards the door and you simply nodded and left, as much as you wanted to help him. 

         He crumpled to the floor, taking in deep breaths as he ran his hands over his arms. I am in control. I am in control now. It was a soft chant in his head as he sat in his little office; his cage. 

             You couldn’t sleep. The memory of Jungkook tainted your mind. Your heart had been racing since you left his office. He hadn’t arrived for dinner, but Jin delivered it to his office. He didn’t say his usual goodnights to the rest of the crew and so the day ended bitterly. Everyone knew something was wrong with the captain and you didn’t want to pry, but you knew it had something to do with what happened today. 

              The utter terror he had stared at you with had made your heart drop instantly. The way he flinched when you touched him sent you tumbling into a spiral of self doubt. What mattered was no longer how he made you feel, but how you had made him feel. Was he okay? Did he eat his dinner?

               You took a deep breath. With both Eun-kyung and Jungkook haunting your sleep, you could no longer rest. You stood and made your way out to the main deck. There was no wind tonight. The air was still and the ocean eerily calm. The stars twinkled brightly like a blanket of holes in the dark night. The moon was a perfect circle, providing ample light. You leaned against the side. The waves lapped playfully against the wood of the ship. There was a gentle breeze that blew through your hair every so often. 

              Your nightgown wasn’t the warmest thing to wear, but you didn’t plan on being out for long. It was so quiet your ears rang. There wasn’t a single soul for miles and miles. The peace was nice. 

“Can’t sleep?’ The familiar rumble of the captain’s voice met you in the silence. \

              His soft steps made their way to stand beside you. He leaned against the railing. Your heart thumped. You shook your head in response to his question. Jungkook let out a soft sigh. 

“Yeah, me neither.” He agreed, eyes trained on the dark sea below. 

              You shifted awkwardly, making sure to keep your distance. You turned to him, admiring the way the shadows fell on his face in the moonlight. 

“Look, I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t know what was happening and I pushed you. It was wrong. I’m really really sorry.” You said earnestly, hands clenched. He inhaled sharply, shutting his eyes and nodding. 

“I know. It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known. I’m not a very open person.” He confessed. “It was just...something that happened in the past.” 

          You didn’t want to pry so you nodded and left it at that. He scooted closer to you. You took a step back. He snorted. 

“I’m not fragile. I just had a moment there.” The captain said, but his tone was a little saddened. 

            You fell silent. He shifted toward you and you didn’t move a muscle. 

“Y/N?” 

“Hm?” Your hair was ruffled by the wind again. He was mesmerized by your beauty. Pros and cons be damned. 

“You make me feel...things I didn’t think were possible.” He admitted. “I think I like you...a lot, but I was never taught love or really kindness at all growing up. So I would probably never be able to love you the way you want because I just don’t know how but-”

“Wait, you...like me?” You froze, eyes widening at the captain. 

          He looked more like a stuttering school boy, clearly having never matured much in the love department. You let a smile break out on your face at his almost nonexistent nod. You resisted the urge to grab his hands. 

“Good, because I like you too.” You confessed, your face heating up. He grinned, then tentatively reached for your hands. 

“I want to learn. I want to try, but you’ll have to be patient with me, Y/N.” He explained cautiously.

          Then he carefully took your hands in his, ignoring the way his skin crawled at the contact. Your wrists. Wrists that had never had a bruise on them. His wrists. Wrists that were a permanent shade of purple and blue. He could try. For you he could try. 

           You returned to your room that night, your heart thumping wildly. The simplest of touches, holding hands, had sent your heart soaring. Your mind was running wild with the picture. That night, you dug the gold wedding ring out of your bag. You held it up to the moonlight, watching it shine and glint of the metal. Then you unlatched the cabin window, letting the cool air infiltrate your room. 

           You stuck your hand out and let go, watching as the golden ring that acted as your chain went tumbling all the way down into the water. It’s impact was a mere ripple in the dark waters. 

            It had been months since you set foot on land. You hadn’t missed it, not really. The swaying of the ship you had become accustomed to and as long as you had your crew, you were happy anywhere. 

          The dashing captain set foot next to you and you released a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Being off the ship gave you a sense of dread. The shackles of social norms and manners were shackles to weigh on you. 

“Hey, you’ll be okay.” Jungkook said calmly and you took that as a sign you should move. The other members accompanying you were Yoongi and Jin. 

           You were paranoid and that was only made a little better by Jungkook being there. You browsed the shops, full well knowing Jungkook could buy the whole town with his money and still have enough left over to last a lifetime. You picked up a necklace, the silver chain was made of delicate links. There was a yellow amulet attached.

         Jungkook leaned over you, his skin still never touching yours. He had revealed very little about his past and even then it was rather cryptic. All you could do was assure him that whatever happened when he was growing up was wrong. From the scars on his back and arms, you could piece together a little bit of his story at least. And it wasn’t a story you wanted to read. 

           Jungkook fingered the jewel for a moment, turning it over in his hands. He then held it up to the sunlight and sucked in a breath. It’s genuine. He thought to himself. Then he handed it back over to you. 

“You should get it.” He said quietly, his breath hot against your ear. “It suits you.” 

             Heat crawled up your neck and he smirked as you paid for the necklace without a second thought. The feeling of being watched didn’t disappear as you continued shopping. 

“Y/N?” An all too familiar voice called. It caught you off guard, your breath hitching. 

             You had always thought Haneul had a similar voice to Eun-kyung. The resemblance was uncanny as your supposed fiance appeared. Jungkook immediately stood on guard, hand moving to his waistband where his gun was holstered. Haneul was not a bad guy. He was stuck in a similar predicament as you. 

“Y/N, I can’t believe it’s you.” The man breathed. “Everyone thinks you died!”

“Good!” You spat, standing firmly next to Jungkook. The crowd had yet to notice the scuffle breaking out. “So where’s your back up, huh?” 

“I don’t have any. I seriously didn’t expect you to be here.” Haneul held up his hands as a sign of mercy. 

          Jungkook didn’t loosen. It was like something bad always happened to you when you went on land. It was a little exhausting at this point. 

“Please, you and I both didn’t want this, but if I don’t bring you back and marry you, I’m going to be disowned. My parents can’t have a bachelor son who couldn’t even keep track of his fiance in their image.” 

           You almost felt bad for him. You had both been forced into the situation and while you fled and started a new life, he was forced to bear the brunt of your actions. And for that I’m sorry. You thought, but you didn’t have the decency to voice your thoughts. 

“There’s no way she’s going to marry you.” Jungkook’s eyes were wild. 

            He began playing the part of the maddened captain everyone saw him as. And you saw it too, just for a moment. Was there any way out of this predicament without violence? Surely Haneul would not let you simply walk away. He had been waiting a little over a year to find you and keep his head from being disowned. There was no way he was about to let you go. 

“If she doesn’t, It’ll cause a massive uproar in the houses!”

“Good.” Jungkook spat. 

            You knew how chaotic that would be. While you were technically a pirate who cause chaos all the time, you were not a crew who did so ‘just because’. This just didn’t have a good reason. Besides, the noble houses were still a part of the hierarchy of society. What would happen if they were thrown into such unrest? 

“You still have a search warrant out for you, Y/N. The prices have been upping since your departure.” Haneul spoke. You frowned in response. “It’s at 500,000 gold shillings. That’s enough to last a man most of his lifetime in comfort.” 

“Yes, I know how many shillings that is.” You said bitterly. 

            You thought over your options. Running was out of the question. There were two of you and one of him. Your disadvantage would be running through the crowd and Haneul was always a fast runner. The second option was to stay and talk to him, but that gave him ample time to call for backup. The third option...was not one that would please Jungkook, but it was also the best way to get Haneul to stand down. 

What can ya say? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. 

         Jungkook was reaching his breaking point. Your lightest touches were reversing years of mental and physical torture. While he’d never be whole ever again, you filled the space well enough. You were humming softly to yourself, a tune only you knew, as you filled in the key for the newest map. 

          “Y/N?” He called, watching you look up. Your eyes were curious as you stared at him. He felt his breath hitch at the way your hair fell perfectly around your face. 

           “What is it, Jungkook?” You asked. 

           “Thank you.” He said. 

           You tilted your head, eyebrows knitting together in the cutest expression. You set your pen down and reached out, brushing a strand of hair behind his ear. You made sure not to brush your hand against his cheek. 

            “For what?” 

            “Everything.” He said vaguely, years of practiced poise coming in between him speaking earnestly with you. 

             “Are you alright?” You stared intently into his eyes. You placed your hand on his forehead without thinking to check his temperature. Yet, his skin didn’t crawl at your contact. His forehead was warm, but normal, which meant he wasn’t sick. 

              Jungkook had a dam. It was a high wall and it built itself higher every time he held back his emotions. Behind was a swirling tide of tears and pain waiting to be released. The waters swelled once more. He bit his lip and started building the wall higher. His doe eyes widened as he tried to keep the tears at bay. When he looked into your eyes, you seemed to genuinely wonder if he was okay. When was he ever okay? 

             He inhaled shakily. 

            “Do you really want to know?” 

             “Yes.” You said without hesitation, shoving the papers in front of you to the side. The ink rolled onto the floor. He laced his fingers together, knees bouncing as he pondered what to say. 

              “Okay.” He released a breath. “I need to start at the beginning.” 

-

               When his story was told through and through, no detail spared no matter how gruesome, he finally met your gaze. In your eyes were...tears. You looked devastated and as much as you wanted to reach out and hold him, you knew how much he disliked skin on skin. 

                “What they did to you was wrong, Jungkook.” You said firmly, though your voice shook at the very last word. He closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. 

               “I’ve been trying to convince myself of that since I was 18. But it’s easier said than done.” He felt the dam breaking. The wall was old, cracks letting out small streams of water. 

              “We can help you. We’ll be with you every step of the way.” You cleared your throat. “I will be with you every step of the way.” 

             The captain felt like a small child under your warm gaze. He was once again a vulnerable boy, one who couldn’t understand the evils befalling him. He threw his hands over his face, scooting his chair back and curling over in his lap. His head hit his thighs to avoid your eyes. The dam broke. 

          Haneul was tired. Tired and angry. A year of berating, pitied looks, and whispers behind his back had let the rage build up. He let it brew, blaming it all on you. You were the reason he was being disowned. You were selfish. You put him through this. Yet, he sat next to you, a bowl of soup in front of him and an anxious crew watching. 

           He carefully picked it up, examining the contents. Broth. Carrots. What else was in there? It couldn’t be too bad. You watched him with a smile, knowing he was probably going through the same thought process as you had.

“And there’s nothing else in this?” He said skeptically. 

“Just carrots and soup!” Jin defended. You snickered behind your hand. Jin turned and slapped your arm. “It is!” 

“If that’s just carrots and soup, then I’m just a brain on wheels.” You chuckled. 

“Seriously!” Jin shouted. Haneul sighed and took a sip. 

           He swallowed. The crew held their breaths. Then he went and took another bite. You gaped. 

“Oh it’s not too bad, Jin!” Haneul smiled, but his ears were growing red. “It had a little, achem, kick.” 

Jin puffed out his chest and crossed his arms. “See! You all underestimate me. Or maybe…”

“Don’t say it.” Yoongi groaned. 

“I’m just saying you might just be wusses and Haneul here can actually stomach it because he has the balls.” Jin clapped the young man on his back. 

The captain sputtered at that. “Excuse me?” 

“You heard me.” The older man pointed at the captain. “You don’t have the balls to drink the soup, all of you. You just complain.” 

“I bet I can drink more than you!” Taehyung pointed at Yoongi. The pale man’s face dropped, his expression of neutral impassivity. 

“You’re going to lose that bet.” 

         Haneul watched the crew, still trying to get out of his habits as a nobleman. He needed to blend in, get you to trust him. He cleared his throat, which was still burning. 

“I’m going to get a bit of fresh air.” He declared, his body still sore from spending a night in the jail. You nodded at him and he hated the happy look on your face. 

           Why did you get to be happy when he was miserable? Weren’t you the one who ran away from the problem? He glanced at your ring finger, but there was no glint of gold. The captain had several rings and earrings, but nothing on his ring finger. You and the captain were speaking quietly to each other. Haneul saw the captain smile when he spoke with you. 

          He dropped the message off the ship and prayed the tide would take it where it needed to go. Then he breathed in the sea air. He hated the ocean, always preferred land. He heard footsteps and knew it was you. You stood there, observing him for a moment. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Missing home.” 

            You narrowed your eyes. He had yet to walk the plank, he wasn’t a true crew member yet and you were allowed your reservations. You remembered Jungkook’s words. We all hold a deep love for the sea. Yet, here Haneul was moaning about home. It only helped to set in more of your suspicions. 

“I get that.” You said quietly. You took a place next to him. 

“I don’t understand the universe, Y/N.” He started slowly. You faced him, confusion written on your face, but he didn’t turn to face you. “You’re so happy, so free. You get to do the things you’ve always wanted to do while I’m still constrained.” 

“I followed what I wanted to do. If you don’t want to live a life at sea, then we should drop you off at the nearest village and you can be on your way.” You said softly. 

“You don’t understand! Y/N! You ran away from your problems! Why do I have to be punished for your mistakes?” He trembled with rage, the powerful emotion pulling at him from all edges and bursting at the seams. 

“I’m sorry, Haneul.” you said, seeing how he truly felt. The anger that was dripping off of him like honey had a bittersweet taste. “I’m doing what I love and you should too.”

“I can’t be a nobleman if I’m disowned. There’s not a suitable girl within the houses for another five years.” He bit his lip and looked to the night sky. “Which is why I need to bring you back.” 

          You took a step away from him, itching to go back below deck. 

“You can’t be serious, Haneul?”

“You had your little adventure, you got to be a pirate, yay. Now let’s go back and maybe we can salvage your reputation.” 

“Reputation?” You sputtered. “This has nothing to do with that. I’m never going to go back with you.” You said furiously. “We’ll be dropping you off at the nearest village first thing.”

        He turned to look at you finally. A haunting look was in his eyes. 

“And how far away is the nearest village?”

“A day and night away.” 

“And you really think our parents wouldn’t have sent a ship with both of us missing?” He chuckled darkly. You backed away. 

“What did you do? Haneul what did you do?” You screeched, racing away as he laughed. You flung open the door to the lower deck where the crew was still eating happily. 

           They all stopped talking, taking in your ragged form. Immediately, Jungkook stood and went to you. He didn’t touch you, but he had concern written on his face. His gaze was steely, but you didn’t cower. 

“What’s wrong, love?” He asked, his voice hoarse. 

“Where’s Haneul?” Jimin piped up. 

“He tricked us.” You took a deep breath and met your lover’s gaze. “Haneul tricked us.” 

         Taehyung yawned, his guns resting on his lap. The ghost of Sam hovered nearby. 

“You should get some sleep.” He chided. 

“I know, Sam.” Taehyung grumbled. “But I have night watch and I won’t let my crew down.” 

“Will a ship really attack? I think Haneul may have been bluffing.” Taehyung could almost feel his breath. The gunner shook his head. 

“No can do.” He replied, fiddling with his guns. 

“Then let me rest, Tae, so I don’t have to watch you do this to yourself.” The ghost pleaded. Taehyung smiled a little.

“Nope. You’re staying right here, Sam.” He murmured. The man watched the horizon. No one was in sight for miles. Maybe he would just shut his eyes for one minute. 

        One minute too late. 

        The sound of hushed voices woke him up. He knew those voices were not his crew’s. Then his eyes traveled to the brooding black ship sidled up next to them. Taehyung flung himself up, lurching towards his guns. Sam was gone. How many crews were going to be slaughtered on his watch? His heart quickened. Taehyung didn’t have time to feel the guilt of this information, he needed to act. 

          The gunner opened the door to the lower deck and quietly shut it behind him. Then he raced to the captain’s office. 

“Come in.”

“Captain, they’re here. They’re on the upper decks, we need to attack while we still can.” Taehyung said breathlessly. Jungkook’s eyes widened. 

“How did they board? Nevermind, what matters is that they’re on the ship already.” He stood and opened his drawer that had a gun in it. Then he flung open his office door. “Gather the men. We’re going to battle.” 

-

          BTS had never really been in a battle. They often had the upper hand in a situation and crews went down without a fight. But it was at this moment that you remembered that everyone in the crew could hold their own.

          Yoongi held a harpoon and he was tangoing with an invader. Their figures were mere shadows in the moonlight. You had taken a knife from the kitchen, but you didn’t want to attack in case they were your men. The only sounds were the rhythmic pounding of the sea and the grunts of the men wrestling on the deck. 

           There were a few cracks of light as gunpowder fizzed in the air and stung your nose. It was like an awful hellscape. You stepped in a liquid and prayed it was water and not a puddle of blood. Lifting up your foot to examine, your fears were confirmed. 

            You sidestepped a body that was flung off the side. You knew the man to be an enemy because Jin’s face lit up in the moonlight in front of you. He was breathing heavily, a dried streak of rusty blood down his face. 

“Y/N, get the rowboat ready. We need to leave, they’ve brought too many men and we’re only seven.” He shouted over the commotion. 

         The crack and pop of several guns went off at once, lighting the sky up with gray smoke. 

            Hoseok ran over, looking a little worse for wear. He had a bruise forming on his cheek and a painful gash on his arm. 

“We’ve got to go, now.” He grasped your arm, trying to pull you away.

            His face was serious, angry, pained. All emotions you never expected to attribute to the man. Jungkook. You turned to watch the figures. You recognized Jimin’s blonde hair. 

“Jimin!” You shouted as an enemy approached him with a knife.

          Jimin turned, the sweet boy looking at you with wide eyes. The cabin boy was never meant for battle. 

            A guttural scream of rage came from the side and the hiss of a gun going off lit up the deck. Taehyung’s face was illuminated, thoroughly pissed. He refused to hesitate again. He wouldn’t let another crew member die on his watch. He shot at the would be attacker, but you assumed it must have been adrenaline making his hand shaky. 

           He missed. In all your time on the ship, Kim Taehyung had never missed a shot. Everything was working against you. Taehyung jumped in front of Jimin, resulting in him getting punched in the nose, blood instantly spurting.

            You tore your grasp away from Hoseok. 

“Y/N, stop!”

“Hobi! The crew needs me!” You shouted, racing towards Jimin. 

        You pulled Taehyung up and grabbed Jimin’s arm as Jungkook shot the enemy dead. 

“Tae, get up, Jimin, help him.” You wrapped a dazed Taehyung’s arm around Jimin’s shoulder. 

          The cabin boy nodded at you and you could see the steel behind his eyes. The timid boy was anything but timid. Jungkook ran towards you. 

“Y/N, you need to get off the ship. The others are already going to the rowboat.” He said, his voice hurried and his eyes wide. 

         Your eyes trailed to six familiar shapes climbing into the rowboat. 

“But someone needs to stay behind to release it.” You said quietly. Jungkook nodded.

“I know.” 

“You can’t really be suggesting yourself, you self-sacrificing bastard?!” You shouted, feeling tears pricking at your eyes. His face was sculpted perfectly in the moonlight, a white spotlight beaming down just for him. 

“Please, Y/N, I don’t have any other choice. A captain always goes down with the ship.” 

“No.” You stood firmly, tired of being pushed around finally. You inhaled sharply. “I have nothing to return to. I won’t let you do this alone.” 

“Y/N…I love you” He sighed and then, out of character, he drew you into a hug. Your breath hitched. His skin didn’t crawl at the touch. “Please don’t do this.” He whispered.

“I love you too, Jungkook, but-” You started, rubbing his back. You looked over his shoulder. “Jungkook!” You screeched. The man tensed in your hold, turning around just in time to see the figure coming towards him. 

         Everything slowed. 

         The captain pushed you away, and faced the man. There was this terrible high pitched noise in the background. The last enemy had found you and you recognized him. Myung-suk. And there were more coming. The glint of steel meeting flesh flashed in your eyes. You reached out for him, your lover. His face went pale. 

        His inky black hair glistened in the moonlight. His blood stained the floorboards and there was still the screeching sound. You met his eyes one last time. His lips mouthed ‘it’s okay’.The man threw the captain’s lifeless body off the side of the ship. The screeching sound, you’d come to realize, were your own screams. His body was nothing more than a ripple in the sea. 

        The world went back into motion. You immediately kicked the young soldier in the chest, effectively winding him like you’d seen Namjoon do once or twice. Then you took a big fistful of his shirt and pushed him off the side of the ship, not hearing his cries over your own. You whispered a prayer for Jungkook and cursed Myung-suk.

            May Jungkook become one with the sea and may Poseidon have no mercy on the man with the bloodied knife. Your hands shook, pain overtaking your mind. You didn’t have time to sob. The ship was headed towards the rocks. The crew was still in the rowboat, waiting for someone to release them.

            Mourning would get you nowhere. Despite the aching cavity in your chest, your crew needed you. He would have wanted that. So you refused the urge to dive right into the sea after him. You just wanted to be one with the sea, to let it wash over your wounds. Instead, you ran down the decks you had spent the last year of your life on. The ghostly memories of your crewmates flooded back to you. 

            You saw Namjoon first, his memory turning to look at you. 

Ah, you’re the new crew member, I see? Welcome to the family. 

             You swiped at your eyes. Yoongi’s ghostly form stood, his harpoon in hand, the memory reminding you of sunny days.

Y/N, stop looking at me like that. If you want to know how to fish, I’ll show you. Here, c’mere. 

               You let another teardrop fall. The wheel sat empty as you passed it. Hoseok’s memory stood there, turning the ship, whispering with Jimin.

Y/N! Want to dance? 

             Jimin smiled, his eyes crinkling wonderfully. 

Y/N, I’m sorry for sleeping on the job last night. Thanks for covering for me!

              His chuckle was beautiful. Seokjin had his hands on his hips.

I didn’t put anything in that soup, you wusses. He argued. 

            Taehyung leaned his head on the side of the ship. 

It’s nothing, just a nightmare.  

             You tried to breathe, but the worst memory was next. 

             The sky seemed to clear as you went through it once more. A well built man stood on the end of the ship. The night of gunpowder fell away. His hair ruffled in the wind. He turned to you, a smile on his face, doe eyes crinkling in delight. Jungkook held out his hand, his captain attire as crisp as ever.

 Are you ready, little miss? 

               And you almost took his hand. 

              You tore your eyes away, turning to where the crew now rested. Six in the boat, one at the bottom of the sea, one staying on the ship. You started lowering the ropes, ignoring the shouts of the crew. You felt a ghostly presence and you just knew it was him. Jungkook placed a hand on your back, guiding you through the motions. 

“Sh, it’s going to be alright. Stop shaking, love. You’re doing so well.” He whispered words of praise. 

“Y/N, stop, just climb aboard.” Namjoon’s words suddenly hit you. You stared incredulously at the man. 

“So we can all die?” You shouted. Tears traced their way down your cheeks. “Namjoon, do you trust me?”

         The man looked unsure, a pain behind his eyes. He looked down at the sea, his eyes drifting to the place his oldest friend perished. He looked devastated. And he was. His heart was breaking open for the young boy who deserved better, the boy who despite all odds, worked to make a name for himself. But above all, he was glad that his body was resting in the waves of the place he loved the most; The sea. He couldn’t mourn, he had to do his job as a first mate. He had to become the leader the crew needed. He couldn’t hesitate and let them all perish. You weren’t budging either. 

          Did he trust you? 

          “Yes.” He responded softly. You nodded and let the ropes fall, placing the boat gently into the water. 

              You couldn’t stop the tremble of your hands. All you wanted to do was cry, fall to the floor and let the sobs overtake your body. The boat drifted into the ocean and the rope fell away. The other ship blasted a hole into the side of BTS. You tumbled to the ground, sobs finally wracking your body. You watched the rowboat headed toward the shore. 

“Get up.” Jungkook urged. “Y/N, get up.” His voice was firm, his ghost as clear as day. 

“Jungkook, I-”

“You shouldn’t have, love. I should’ve been there.” He whispered. “You should find another way out. Don’t sacrifice yourself for a foolish captain like me.” You could almost hear his sheepish smile.  

             You stood, placing your hands on the side of the ship and watching the water come closer. You sniffled, letting your stomach drop as the ship sunk farther. Your eyes were glossy with tears, your heart shattered, so with all the courage left in your body, you turned to face his ghost. You hair flew in the breeze and the moment was of peaceful contrast to moments before. 

“No, I’m going down with the ship.” 

               You were falling. The world seemed to slow, going still as if you had halted in mid air. The waves welcomed you home, embracing you to your bones. Taehyung’s smile, Jin’s laugh, Yoongi’s quiet nods, Hoseok’s dancing, Jimin’s eyes, Namjoon’s voice, Jungkook’s face.

           They held you close, but Jungkook’s ghost held you the tightest as the rest faded away. When you looked up, there was no shadowy figure diving in to save you. It was just dark, the light of the sinking BTS illuminating the water. 

            The ghost of his lips hovered over yours as the sky sank farther out of reach. Your lungs filled with water, body finally being overtaken with the sea. Black ink fell across your vision as Jungkook’s ghost whispered words of praise. A bittersweet ending to the ship of the Bulletproof Boy Scouts. 

             You glimpsed his face, his ethereal body hovering above you, now one with the ocean. The crew had always been a mess, a tragically beautiful mess, but him, most of all.  

Sea and the rock below Cocked to the undertow Bones, blood and teeth erode With every crashing node

Taglist: @lovelyseomin​ @yoongi-sugaglider​  @merakiiverse​ 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 28: Valon Joins the Dead People Gang

So lately it’s been really freakin hot.

Like crazy freakin hot. I haven’t done anything productive because youknow--I live in a Covid hotspot and I’ve been quarantined for what feels like is 6 years, and then to continue the 10 plagues across America, now it’s just really freakin hot.

I was trying to go the hell to sleep when I heard this WIND outside my window at 2 AM. Just...WIND. It was like 5000 degrees outside, and then it started thundering, and then the lightning started hitting and I was like...wtf 2020, please calm down!

So I decided to check Twitter at 3 AM really fast just to make sure this wasn’t a freakin dream. Aaaaaaand Northern California had a Fire tornado warning.

3 words I never thought I’d see in conjunction. Fire tornado Warning.

and it hella dropped in Tahoe, y’all, it was freakin nuts. Meanwhile, Death Valley--the place where Yugi hella biffed it and died, if you don’t remember--hit 130 F (54.4 C, for the metric lovers in the back) so...it’s been a time for every part of California, and now we have some good ol fashioned rolling blackouts accompanied by 27 wildfires (yes, 27 fires) who have turned the sky into a yellow pea soup.

So because of the rolling blackouts (one of our power transformers exploded because of either the lightning or overuse, I dunno) at any point...my power might go out. Because of this, I didn’t feel like booting up Photoshop and so instead I’ll just...work on this.

...something about the Fire Tornado, the yellow shadow realm outside my window, and crazy lightning over San Fransisco reminded me that it’s been a HOT MINUTE since I’ve posted so lets get back to Yugioh. Somehow they knew that the doorway to hell was my back yard and you know what? They’re right. Completely believable and I wish someone would close the damn door.

Tristan read my mind that it’s been such a hot minute since I’ve checked in, that he mansplained a very quick summary of what the hell is currently happening to Tea Gardner.

A brave man, Tristan Taylor. A brave man to risk getting into a fight with Tea, who is the only Goliath on this show that exists without also being a paper card.

Which is when Pharaoh had some news.

I guess without Duke around, Pharaoh had to be the new Killjoy

(read more under the cut)

I exaggerate a little for the caps, but it’s kind of interesting that when Joey is usually on his own, it’s Yugi who’s certain that Joey is about to die and Pharaoh is the one that has to calm little Yugi down. But, when Yugi’s not there, I guess Pharaoh is just already in a Mood.

Mai is really weird this episode! I wish this season had gone into more detail about the extent of the Orichalcos’s mind control. Because Mai could very well be under it’s spell...or not...maybe it has no spell and they’re just falling for it like a placebo?

It’s not like the Orichalcos was ever put on anyone who was “good.” like if it were possessing someone nice like...

....

....(let me think about this, I’ll think of someone on this show who is a true lawful good.)

....

.................Dark Magician Girl, then I’d actually know if this Orichalcos actually IS different from how these characters actually are. But Mai was introduced in this series as a villain, and she’s always been around to bust balls, so it’s like...what part is Mai and what part is not?

Apparently a part that only shows up when Valon dies.

PS Valon turns a very quick 180 right before he died. I honestly thought I had skipped an episode or something because bro mentioned something about...Valon burning down a church or something...but I think that was a spicy headcanon where he mixed up this show with another anime.

I think. If I skipped an episode, y’all would tell me, right? I didn’t skip an episode?

I did skip the card games, however, so something about getting punched like 1000 times in the dick by Joey Wheeler taught Valon how to be human again, and the death that followed the 1000 dick punches inspired Mai to remember that Valon exists and that she Loves Him.

(just flat on his face)

I just...

I am going to give Yugioh this one. They have had so little in terms of relationships--I will give this to them. Good Job Yugioh, you did it. You had a relationship on your show. Sure, it was one where she...never seemed to like the guy at all, but hey--they actually did embrace...a corpse. Good on you, Yugioh.

Again, I have a really difficult time not cracking up about this very tragic moment a little bit because (and I have said this before about relationships on Yugioh), but I have never seen a TV show treat a straight relationship this way. I have never seen Straight Baiting before in my life and it is...WILD.

Also because Valon and Mai have both murdered I want to say hundreds of people at this point, it’s hard to feel too bad about them, although they are drawn as a very cute couple in how their outfits match. They got the finger less gloves, the belts hanging off their collar, the sleeveless outfit that is both too much clothes and too little clothes at the same time.

And like...I really like the idea behind Valon/Mai. I still think that was a good idea to build off of, I just wish that there was more of a sign from Mai that she had any idea that Valon existed prior to this. Because Valon had Orichalcos too, but he was fully able to love her--so what was happening on her end that prevented this? Was it just the amount that she hated Joey was so much more than her love for Valon? Was Valon actually more jealous of her hate of Wheeler and misinterpreted it as love?

Anyway it’s a billion degrees and I don’t have air conditioning so...I think we’ll have more time to think about this next episode. Maybe it’ll occur to me two weeks after this heat wave ends exactly what I am trying to grasp at when it comes to these two, but for now all I can say is...well it was nice.

Ah RIP Valon/tine (or at least I assume that’s the ship name). You lasted almost a whole season. You almost became a thing. I guess well find out if there’s redemption after he eventually gets resurrected.

And on this show we redeem resurrected people kind of a lot, so that seems reasonable. Sure it was a couple hundred people that he murdered but like...we redeemed Marik.

And then she goes back to wigging out like immediately. The flipping and the flopping of Mai Valentine in this episode is a lot.

And immediately after he says something along the lines of this, he follows with...doing this:

Joey! Valon just died so you wouldn’t have to duel Mai Valentine! He’s dead, Joey! Maybe try talking???

The thing about this show is that cards can both heal you and also destroy you, and the line between the two is just...rolling a dice and hoping you come out healed. Yugi played cards against Yami so that Yami could free himself from his guilt and move on--Valon was healed of Orichalcos control because Joey beat him at cards--Seto was “cured” of his more evil side because Yami mind wiped him in a card game--card magic is weird.

At the same time, Cards can take your soul in just So Many Ways--kind of one of the downsides. But, in a very round about way, maybe cards are kind of like therapy in this world. Maybe they don’t have therapy, and all these kids playing card games with eachother is metaphorical to how they all need eachother in order to push eachother to actually go through the steps of-

Ah, who am I kidding? They just really needed to have Mai lose at cards so they could write her off the show.

I do appreciate that the show never tells you that someone’s actions in the past mean they must rot for eternity. This show will never cancel anyone and say “burn that bridge, let’s go” but I feel like murder is...the line where you can just walk away?

But youknow if that were true of Joey wheeler he’d have no friends left.

During this time, The Yugioh crew was inexplicably lost while, for once in his entire life, Seto was going the correct direction.

Unfortunately, the lure to throw cards at thing was too much for him to go the right direction for very long. It is kind of funny to note that he is the smartest boy in Domino--so he knows you can drive through a hologram--but he just didn’t want to know if they were real or not, so he...didn’t.

Like I think that says a lot about Seto, and I’m sure the show-runners didn’t think about this at all, but he could have tested his theory right now. He could have just seen if these were real in order to know if he was crazy or not...but he’d rather be insane, than be involved with magic.

Anyways, Mai drops that Orichalcos.

Reminder that San Francisco is only 7-12 miles from one end to the other depending on what part of the peninsula you’re on.

But then again, they’re reading a map in Roman characters and these kids are school dropouts who only speak Japanese and maybe Spanish. Maybe they’re actually doing really, really well considering the language barrier?

Anyway that’s all for now I’m gonna go pass out and hopefully when I wake up it’ll be next week when it is no longer hot. If you just got here, this is a link to read these caps from the beginning!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[rwbyremnants]

Think of this as kind of a bonus apology for taking a couple weeks off; I thought I could post two updates right in a row (even if for two different fics). Sorry this chapter was so plot-heavy but I hope ya like it!

=Chapter 30

When Kali returned with Mrs. Schnee, Blake still wasn't back yet, but they had barely started to ladle out the stew when she breezed in the door. At least she hadn't lost so much sense of decency that she would make both their mothers feel out of sorts by refusing to show up in time for dinner.

After they ate, Blake caught Weiss alone and apologised for losing her temper. She forgave her and they went their separate ways for the night… though she couldn’t help feeling the matter wasn’t entirely settled. Blake would have to work through her feelings more completely or it would just happen again, which neither of them seemed to want.

“She’ll get over it,” Yang said in a calm tone as she held her hand in the backseat. “But yeah, that was pretty scary. She really thinks you’re… doing that?”

Weiss knew Yang was being careful not to drag Kali into the conversation, since she was the one driving them. They had already dropped Willow off, but Weiss decided to remain behind a little longer to spend more time with her girlfriend; her mother had looked unenthusiastic, but tried her best to hide it behind a diplomatic smile. Scooting a little closer, she laid her head on Yang’s shoulder, both for the creature comfort and to enable them to keep their voices down.

“She does. But I’m not! I mean… I did ask about it once, but I asked. That’s it, I swear!”

“I believe you, Schnee. But why does she act like it’s a fate worse than death?”

“Are we going to openly acknowledge that you’re talking about myself and your mother, Weiss? Or not?”

Cringing, Weiss sat up straighter and looked into the front seat at their chauffeur. “Sorry! But I didn’t want to betray Blake’s trust!”

“It’s alright,” Kali chuckled as she turned the wheel, bringing them past the diner. “She’s been making a few snide comments about how much time I’m spending with Willow. Even though I assure her that it’s strictly platonic, Dragons business… well, I’ve had a few relationships go awry in the past. She’s more protective than she ought to have to be.”

Weiss frowned, staring down at her knees. “It would be nice if she didn't behave as if my mother is some kind of, of… leper! Why shouldn't she be good enough for you?”

“Sweetheart, it isn't about tha-”

“You know, it really starts to wear on a girl's confidence when nobody seems to want her or her family around. I'm a good person! I try my best to treat my friends fairly, to look out for my mother and my girlfriend, and everybody seems to hate me for it! What more do I have to do?”

When Kali had no immediate reply, Yang sighed. “Aaaaaaand now we're talking about my mom. Great.”

“I never said that,” she hedged.

“Didn't have to. But I want you around, okay?” She leaned over to press her lips into Weiss's cheek. “And I'm planning on it for a long time.”

That went a long way toward soothing her nerves. A lilting “awwwwww” came from the driver's seat, but both girls ignored it completely. They were too busy snuggling and comforting each other.

It was highly tempting for Weiss to simply drop Yang off at her home and leave it at that; they had a fairly good evening together, all things considered, surprising as it was given that they had just watched one of their own be brutally whipped. But it was that last reason that impelled her to stay. Even though Yang had never explicitly stated it, she had a gut feeling that having to watch that affected her girlfriend more than she was letting on.

This time, Raven made no comment whatsoever when she saw the other two women entering her home. She and Kali shared a brief nod before they passed by the living room and into Yang's bedroom.

“Do you think we'll always have to sit around in here instead of being able to use the actual living room?” Weiss asked as they settled on the bed.

“Who knows?” the blonde answered gruffly. “You ask that like I really understand how my mom thinks anymore.”

Kali sighed from her spot on the corner. Privately, Weiss thought it might be worth investing in one of those church folding chairs Kali kept in her house for future visits. “I do. Trust me, understanding her won't make dealing with her any easier. More importantly, are you okay?”

“What?”

“You had to bear witness when Neo got flogged today. That takes a toll on a person even if they don't want to admit it.”

The light in Yang's eyes seemed to go out at being reminded of the ordeal. “I'm fine.”

“Are you?”

“There's not really any point in being anything other than fine. Right? What's it going to change if I'm not?” Neither of them responded right away. Frustrated, the brute moved forward out of Weiss's arms and began to pace. “I know you guys are just checking up on me, and I appreciate it, but buzz off, okay? I'm gonna be fine.”

“Yang-”

“No, Weiss! I'm…” Clenching her teeth, she turned and folded her arms over her chest while staring at the curtain over her window. “It had to happen. She hurt you. Even if she didn't do it herself, she helped make the woman I love come closer to death than she ever has in her whole life, and I can't… I won't ever forgive her for that. Even if Salem will, I can't do it!”

“You forgave me.”

All eyes went to the doorway where Raven was standing, leaning against the jamb with her arms folded as tightly over her own chest as her daughter's were. Her gaze was as empty and dead as it had ever been, but at least her entire focus was upon Yang.

“Mom… that's different. We both know you were never going to hurt Weiss unless she gave you a real reason to - and a cream puff like her couldn't do that.”

“Hey!” Weiss protested - but Raven was already chuckling harshly under her breath.

“All right, all right, so you've got me pegged. Maybe you ought to fill me in on what happened to you today.”

The three current Dragons spent the next few minutes filling Yang's mother in on the events of the day and what had led up to them. She listened impassively, neither expressing outrage nor disdain for either side. Once she had the full scope of the situation, Raven spent another minute mulling it over.

“And none of you know the name this mute girl wrote down?” When Kali shook her head, her old friend sighed. “Figures. Salem always plays things close to the chest. Always found that irritating.”

“You won't hear me disagreeing," Kali said. "But I also understand her position; we already had one traitor, and she doesn't want to hand off information so easily to any other potential turncoats.”

Shaking her head, Raven stared down toward her work boots. “She's really giving the girl a second chance? I wouldn't.”

“I know you wouldn't,” Kali whispered. There was a flicker of recognition in Raven's eyes, but she didn't comment aloud. Then she raised her voice to continue, “Yang had to watch Neo be chastised. She's had to help Weiss heal from her branding, her arm got wrenched out of its socket… and got an eyeful of what happened to Cinder, which I promise is not for the faint of heart. Don't you have anything to say to your daughter?”

“Like what? That she's tough? I knew that already. Glad she's proving me right.”

Even while a small, fierce smile was coming to Yang's lips, Kali sighed in irritation. “That's all?”

“Great,” she chuckled harshly, shaking her head again. “Here it comes - a lesson from the moral high ground, delivered by Reverend Belladonna. All right, let me have it; I'd like to get this over with so I can get back to watching TV.”

Kali didn't respond. She merely stared at her former friend for a long moment, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Weiss had rarely seen her looking so out of sorts, even if she had definitely seen her that angry before.

“What?” Raven prompted.

“Doesn't matter.” Much to their surprise, Kali stood and walked to the door, waiting for Raven to move out of her way. “Weiss, I'll be in the car. I have a crossword puzzle to do.” Raven certainly didn't stop her, and the woman stormed out of her house.

“Mom…”

“Don't you start, Yang.” When neither of the girls spoke up again, she threw up both hands and snapped, “I don't like being told how to live my life, all right? Kali was always good at that. Just not something I care to listen to anymore.”

“Maybe she's wrong about… whatever point she was trying to make,” Yang told her earnestly, though her voice was trembling with mild anxiety. “But you probably oughtta stop acting like she's only saying this stuff to make you mad.”

Scoffing, her mother finally dropped her hands to rest on her hips. “What other reason is there? She made all the right choices, I made all the wrong ones. All that's left is for her to rub it in my face.”

“You really don't know her at all,” Weiss mumbled.

“No, I don't know you at all. Kali is someone I know extremely well - she hasn't changed much in the past twenty years.”

“That woman has been more of a mother to me than my own mother has these past years - and I'm nobody to her! Even if you two have some kind of past… that doesn't represent everything she's ever been or ever will be! Can't you try to get to know the woman she is now before you dismiss her completely?”

Finally, Raven strode into the room, hands flexing as if she were going to launch herself at her daughter’s girlfriend. A glance at said daughter seemed to change her mind, and she stopped a foot away. “You have no idea,” she snapped down at her, those hypnotic eyes sending doom and gloom at the young cheerleader. “I would have given her everything - and that big lummox, Ghira? He may not have been as flighty as my Taiyang, but he's still gone, isn't he? So where are we both now? Alone. Alone, thanks to her being too chicken to- forget it. Not that there's any reason for me to tell you any of this, you, you… rich little cockroach!”

Yang rose from the bed, a hand reaching out for Raven’s shoulder. “Mom-”

“Save your breath. Neither of you understand anything. Kali didn't, Tai didn't… and this little arm candy of yours understands even less. In a week, she'll let you down, too - and then you'll see. Can't trust anybody but yourself. That's all I've ever tried to teach you to get you through this miserable life.”

Though Yang looked stricken as her mother turned on her heel and stomped off toward her bedroom, slamming the door like a child throwing a tantrum, Weiss was smiling. It took Yang a few seconds to notice, and a few more to formulate a response.

“What? What's so funny?”

“Nothing's funny. Don't you see?” When Yang only looked at her dumbly, she paced over and grabbed her hand, whispering, “She's opening up! Sure, she still doesn't trust me and hates my guts, and that's irritating, but she's starting to reveal why! This is a positive thing!”

Shaking her head with a weak little chuckle, Yang glanced at her door. “You are really a 'glass half full’ kind of chickadee, ain’t you?”

“Not particularly. But in this case, I'll take what I can get; she's your mother. Whether or not either of us wants to admit it, her opinion is really important. If there's any sliver of a chance I can maybe show her I'm not so bad, or that Kali's not so bad… isn't it worth it to try?”

Instead of answering with words, she wrapped her hands around Weiss's waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss. The two of them let it go on for longer than they probably should have, given that her mother was in the next room, but they couldn't be bothered to care at that instant; they just needed the intimacy, the closeness. Physical reassurance that their love was worth fighting for.

Some five minutes later, they broke apart when they heard the bedroom door bursting open. Though she didn't look at them directly, Raven grumbled, “Shouldn't keep Kali waiting like that. Go home, little Schnee. Yang will still be here to neck with tomorrow.”

And then she left again. As Weiss got up from the bed and brushed down the front of her dress, Weiss favored Yang with a sweet little smile. “See?”

“See what?” Yang laughed, face still flushed from their indiscreet moment.

“She still cares about Kali. And she didn't try to tell me I'm not allowed to ‘neck’ with you in her house again.”

Rolling her eyes, the brute stood and gave Weiss another little peck on the cheek to send her on her way. “That's not exactly picking out China patterns for us.”

“True,” she sighed airily as she began to pace toward the door. “But progress is progress.”

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

It was the middle of the night when Weiss was jarred from a sound sleep by the blaring of a car horn. She was so startled that she fell out of the bed in her haste to try and stand up as quickly as possible. Going to the window showed Kali's car, Yang already sitting on the passenger windowsill to get her attention. The waving arms weren't all that necessary, but they did help encourage her to move a bit faster.

“What's going on?” Whitley yawned as she passed him in the hallway, still dressed in his pajamas while she had already changed into jeans and a peach-hued blouse.

“None of your concern! Just… just go back to sleep!”

“Is this somehow because of you and those hoodlums?”

Through clenched teeth, she told him, “Back… to your room… and mind your own beeswax, alright?” He did not persist.

Yang's and Kali's faces were both masks of grim seriousness as she approached the car. She tried to ask what the matter might be, but neither of them responded - they merely waited for her to get in the car, and then they were off into the night.

“So,” she began in a quiet, nervous voice. “Anyone care to tell me what this is all about?”

Yang didn't speak at all. It took Kali a moment to glance at her in the rearview mirror and say, “Our biggest lead has gone cold.”

“Oh. So Neo's information turned out to be wrong? Or was she lying?”

“Not exactly.”

Weiss continued to try to wheedle information out of both of them for the rest of the trip, but they remained tight-lipped. They both seemed as groggy and irritable as she felt, which she could understand; they were all supposed to be sleeping, obviously.

In some surprise, Weiss noticed they were heading toward the same flat where Watts had patched up Yang as best he could. What were they doing in Huntsmen territory? She half-expected one of their number to come out of the woodwork, driving them back to their own stomping grounds. But no such event ever came to pass. They found an out-of-the-way spot to park a block over and Kali claimed it as silently as the rest of their trip had been.

“Hey,” Sun greeted them with a nod as they approached the door. Blake was already standing nearby and chatting with him, likely waiting for them to arrive. “You can go right up. We’re just waiting for Salem.”

As they entered and climbed the stairs, Weiss pressed in close to Blake and whispered, “What's going on? Nobody will tell me anything!”

“Thought you already had everything figured out,” she snapped. When Weiss only scowled at her, she sighed. “All right, I'm sorry. I think it's my time of the month or something.”

“I'm not really angry. I just want to know what's going-”

By that point, they were entering the waiting room where she had spent so much time fretting over Yang's fate. There were quite a few more Huntsmen in there this time, including the huge, burly one that was to be Yang's opponent before she convinced them to race. Watts himself was dressed in scrubs, though he had apparently concluded whatever examination had prompted him to don them in the first place.

Weiss relegated herself to one of the corners, trying to seem unimportant. Lately, she'd had enough of everyone assuming she was partially to blame for everything that went wrong. They weren't going to do that to her again - or at least, she wasn't going to paint a target on her chest for them this time.

“We are just waiting on Salem and Sienna now,” said Watts when he noticed Kali there. He didn't seem to have any concern for Yang or Weiss at all, and even less for Blake.

“Very good,” Kali answered him. “Would you mind if young Wukong accompanied me in there to examine the body?”

“By all means.”

That did catch Weiss by surprise. Body? But she didn't dare speak out, simply watching as the blond boy escorted Blake's mother into the examination room. Everyone else remained somber and silent.

“Who died?” she finally asked Yang some five minutes later, trying to keep her voice down to the quietest whisper possible.

“Nobody you knew. Don't worry. But… it's still not great news.”

The next time Kali emerged, she was dragging Neo out by the waist. The girl was making the most horrible noises of distress, gripping the doorframe and fighting with all her might to stay in there.

“Come on!” she was grunting. “Don't… any of you know sign language? Tell this girl there's nothing she can do!”

“Leave her be.” That was the way Salem chose to announce her arrival. Instantly, Kali let Neo go and turned to face her leader. “I presume that the examination has finished?”

“It has,” Watts told her with a weary sigh.

“You're going to get it now,” growled a man with a missing tooth. “We knew your truce was fake, and now we have proof!”

“Shay, relax.” Straightening his tie, he continued to address Salem directly and ignore all others in the room. “You're either angling for even more power than I previously thought… or…”

“Or?” she prompted.

“Or this is not your doing. The slug is obviously from a police-issue pistol. You Dragons don't even touch guns unless it's absolutely necessary, so either this was intended as a message to us from you… or from them.”

Salem contemplated that for a long moment, tapping her chin where it lay in the shadows beneath her hood. “We wouldn't be above it if we had exhausted all other avenues. But in this case, you're right; this had nothing to do with the Dragons. Well…”

After the pause became quite pregnant, Watts prompted, “Well?”

“Well, it may have something to do with one Dragon.”

Every eye in the room turned to look at Weiss. She tried for a moment or two to pretend she didn't notice, but it was an exercise in futility. Shrugging her leather-jacketed shoulders, she said, “What?”

“This is your fault, isn't it?” Sienna said in a flat tone. “Can't resist poking the bear.”

“How dare you accuse me of such a thing! I don't even know who that is in that room - what possible reason would I have for killing them?!”

The High Dragon herself turned to face Weiss directly. “His name was Roman Torchwick. A relatively sleazy character, but also relatively harmless; selling his services to the highest bidder. Though burning down our safe haven is a new low for him.”

“Your Neo was smitten with him,” Watts explained dispassionately, finally peeling off his rubber gloves and shoving them into the pocket of his scrubs. “Whether or not it was Roman in disguise, or her, they probably conspired together to set the blaze.”

“And to drug Emerald,” Blake put in, just to connect the dots faster.

“Hey, you guys can lay off anytime,” Yang snapped angrily - and Weiss found herself falling in love with her all over again for coming to her defense. “Why would she pay somebody to stab herself? That's crazy!”

“Didn't say she did,” Blake protested with a weary sigh. “I'm only making sure we remember that they did both of those things. Doesn't that clear Weiss?”

“Yes, but not her family,” Salem answered immediately. “And I think we all know which member I'm thinking of at this moment.”

Throwing up both hands in resignation, Weiss half-squeaked, “What am I supposed to do about it? He already more or less admitted to setting the fire, and he didn't care! The man has no remorse whatsoever! I… I can't even see him as my father anymore!”

“Control yourself,” Kali said gently, but firmly. “Our next step needs to be determining how he's arranging for these ‘accidents’ from inside the jailhouse. Not throwing around blame amongst ourselves.”

“It’s obviously someone on the police force,” said Watts as if it were an understood fact. When he was greeted by blinks from the others, a single eyebrow hiked. “Really? You’re skeptical? There can be no other manner of his manipulation.”

“It is likely,” Salem admitted. “But Ironwood runs a tight ship.”

“Even a tight ship can spring a leak.”

“Alright,” Yang sighed, running her fingers through her hair. “Let’s say it’s the cops. What do we do about it? I mean… call me a looney, but I think we gotta stop this now! He’s just gonna keep doing it. Maybe he would have stopped if Weiss quit the Dragons before, but now…”

Kali finished the thought for her. “Now, he wants revenge.”

From there, the conversation devolved into a discussion of potential methods of catching the mole in the police department. Weiss got a little lost; after all, she was no expert in such espionage. Besides, even if he had completely turned against the rest of the family… he was still her father. Her love couldn’t so easily be erased, even if it was slowly boiling down into hatred.

After a while, Weiss excused herself quietly and slipped into the examination room. Neo was crouched by the table, clutching the hand dangling from under the sheet and rocking back and forth. She started to call out to her — before remembering that would do no good. Instead, she crouched down by her side and touched her shoulder.

“Hey.” Neo didn’t catch that. She blinked up at her as if confused by her presence. “Can you read my lips?” She nodded, numb and distant. “I’m sorry. He was your friend?”

That started a fresh wave of crying that made Neo push her face into the corpse’s hand. Yet another situation in which Weiss felt more conflicted than she felt possible. This girl had caused her to suffer through the most horrendous injury of her entire life… but she was a human being, and in mourning for her accomplice. If Salem had forgiven her following the severe punishment…

Her hand began to pet up and down her back as she whispered “I’m sorry,” even knowing it would not be heard. To her surprise, the words were repeated — when Neo said them, they were more difficult to understand, but Weiss didn’t need her to repeat it again at all.

Once she looked up again for a response, Weiss said, “I’m sorry, too.” Neo made a fist in the center of her chest and moved it in a circle a couple of times. “Does that mean ‘sorry’?” When she nodded, Weiss repeated the action, and Neo pushed her small face into her shoulder, sobbing freely now.

“Great,” she sighed, embracing her tightly and beginning to rock. “Always wanted to make friends with an accomplice to my attempted murder.”

[diaryofageekgirl]

Mostly for myself b/c I want to make sure I don’t lose this somehow, but here’s the literal two hour conversation that @i-miss-balthazar and I spent talking about Benny/Balthazar:

i-miss-balthazar You were the Kat from my quiz??? I had no idea you shipped those pairings! And also Madison helping Sam in purgatory would’ve been way more fitting!

diaryofageekgirl Yeah I do! I have plans to do a rewrite of seasons 8 & 9, but it'll be forever before I get to them -_- And I love Madison a whole lot and would have loved to see her in Purgatory!

^What I meant by the season rewrites is I would include those ships in them lol

i-miss-balthazar You would :0

I need to read it

Please tag me, I’m BEGGING

diaryofageekgirl When I get to writing it I will!

i-miss-balthazar Do you have any Benny/Balthazar head canons???

diaryofageekgirl I could also write you a Benny/Balthazar one shot.......on a completely unrelated note, when's your birthday? 👀

i-miss-balthazar April 28th and that would make my entire year oh my goodness there isn’t enough Benny/Balthazar content out there

diaryofageekgirl 👌

i-miss-balthazar I didn’t mean to ship them so much it kinda just happened

Maybe I just want them to feel loved 😂

diaryofageekgirl I see Benny as someone who's very openly affectionate, and Balthazar as being someone who craves affection but sort of hides behind a sarcastic front? So Benny just s l o w l y wears him down into accepting all this love and adoration and Bal pretending to hate it but is secretly melting

oh mood

i-miss-balthazar Oh my goodness my HEART 🥺 that’s the sweetest headcanon ever and I totally see it. Benny would give the best hugs, I think.Balthazar’s 100% a little spoon xD

diaryofageekgirl He's got big strong arms - great for hugging & being the big spoon 😉

i-miss-balthazar For some reason I feel like Benny is taller than he actually is? Like I looked it up and Ty Olsson is only 5’10, but I always thought he was like 6’3 😂

Have you ever written about them before that I could read???

diaryofageekgirl WAit, he's 5'10???????

i-miss-balthazar Almost 5’11 I forgot about the decimal

diaryofageekgirl No, I haven't written anything for them yet. I'm working on my finale fix-it right now, then depending on how long that takes I might be going straight into femslash february after that. But after that I will at some point

aaaaaaand I just came up with another timestamp for the mer!verse

selkie!benny & merrow!balthazar

i-miss-balthazar Y e s

I had to look up what those are but wow am I glad I did

It’s perfect

i-miss-balthazar I like the idea of Balthazar playing cool in public but when it’s just the two of them he’s an absolute suck for attention, like a cat 😂

In public: sarcasm is my main form of communication In private: please hold me 🥺

diaryofageekgirl Oh for sure, just like, flat up against Benny's back, arms over his shoulders like "pay attention to me" 😩

i-miss-balthazar What about pet names for each other???

diaryofageekgirl I mean, just imagine Benny's deep Cajun voice calling Bal "mon amour". OR "MON ANGE"

and bal would call him something totally sappy in enochian but then tell him it means "pain in the ass" or smth

i-miss-balthazar Balthazar stealing Benny’s tee shirts even though they’re way to big for him because they remind him of Benny

diaryofageekgirl yessssssss

i-miss-balthazar Benny has nightmares about pirating/purgatory so Balthazar visits his dreams to calm him down and make him happy again because he can’t stand seeing Benny upset

diaryofageekgirl They're a nightmare in the kitchen bc Benny worked as a chef for years and is very particular about how certain dishes are made but Bal just keeps Adding More Alcohol

i-miss-balthazar Benny: no, you need to boil the alcohol out to use this Balthazar: that takes away all the fun!

diaryofageekgirl Benny: If you put too much alcohol in it won't set properly! Balthazar: That sounds like a You problem

i-miss-balthazar An iss-YOU not an iss-ME!! *pours more in*

diaryofageekgirl 🤣🤣🤣

i-miss-balthazar Benny’s not a morning person, and because Balthazar doesn’t need sleep he’s a morning person by default. So Benny’s always tired and grumbly in the mornings while Balthazar’s carrying on as usual so Benny will just catch him by the waist as he’s walking by to pull him into a hug and rest his chin on his angel’s shoulder because he’s still tired and just wants snuggles

diaryofageekgirl And Bal tries to keep doing whatever he was doing before and Benny just reaches out behind him and forces him to set whatever it is down and physically puts Bal's arms around him 🥰

i-miss-balthazar Midnight sailing date 🥰

diaryofageekgirl Midnight sailing date out over bioluminescent algae bloom: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/11.jpg

i-miss-balthazar It kinda looks like angel grace if you squint

diaryofageekgirl That's exactly what I thought! (Benny def brings them there bc it makes him think of Balthazar's grace)

i-miss-balthazar Since Balthazar’s an angel and doesn’t technically need his blood do you think Benny could use him as a food source so he wouldn’t have to worry about robbing blood banks/eating people

diaryofageekgirl yessssssss that's exactly what I think!!! And Benny's unsure about it at first, kinda scared to bite him bc he's so used to his bite killing or turning people but Bal convinces him and it's so much better than blood bags

i-miss-balthazar Plot twist Balthazar’s blood alcohol content gets Benny drunk😂

diaryofageekgirl there's a blood of Christ joke in there somewhere but I can't think of it 🤔

i-miss-balthazar And the wine is my blood -last supper or something I haven’t been to church in awhile 😂

diaryofageekgirl Do you think he'd ever get a bit of grace along with the blood?

i-miss-balthazar In theory, I could see it happening. what would that taste/feel like I wonder

diaryofageekgirl I imagine it would be a moment of absolute euphoria

i-miss-balthazar Benny’s grip on Balthazar would tighten sharply, and Balthazar would let out a soft gasp of surprise and delight at the sudden possessiveness because secretly he loves it when Benny gets like that

diaryofageekgirl 😍😍😍 And Benny gets all blushy and apologetic about it later and Balthazar is just like "Don't you dare apologize for that. In fact, do it more often."

i-miss-balthazar My goodness I need more Benny/Balthazar content they’re just so perfect and I love them

diaryofageekgirl You could always write some 👀👀👀 Be the change you want to see in the world 👀👀👀

i-miss-balthazar Mmm soft movie nights where they’re bundled in a soft blanket and Balthazar’s in Benny’s lap so Benny can idly play with his hair while they watch the show. Neither of them particularly care about the movies they just like the cuddles

diaryofageekgirl (If you did I would be so down to read it)

i-miss-balthazar I might have to. However I promised myself I’d finish writing the next chapter in my main wip before I started another project so I may need some time.

diaryofageekgirl that's fair. Let me know if you do end up writing something for them

i-miss-balthazar Absolutely!!!!

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

Dating Beverly Marsh Would Include...

Requested: [I'm sorry I can't remember who requested this or if this was an anon, I'm sorry!] Hey, could I request some headcanons about dating Beverly? (Also if you could add in the reader having homophobic parents 💕)

Warnings: obviously there will be homophobia, [at the end so people can skip if they need to read safely 😊] specifically from the readers parents so please feel free to skip if need be. And remember my blog is a safe space 💕 oh yeah theres also plenty of grammar/spelling errors i'm sure

A//n: This was WAY longer than I anticipated. I just kept coming up with more stuff and holy crap I love writing Bev x readers???? Please request more Bev Edit: this was in my drafts forever and again as much as i have been trying to get requests out in order, it's been pretty tough but at least this way stuff gets out sooner so here ya go.

Okay

First of all..

Y'all make the CUTEST COUPLE, OKAY?!

Like no joke

You know that cliche about girls stealing their boyfriends hoodies/clothes??

Well that goes for both of you and you both are always swapping clothes cause you both love each other's sense of style

Plus, ya know, it's got that great boyfriend girlfriend smell

It's cheesy and played out, but it's honestly so wholesome, and again, you guys each have an interest in each others senses of styles

If you're bigger than her, and her clothes don't necessarily fit you, pfffttt no big deal, she had a million blankets that smelled like her and then you two got together and now she can only find like,, two. But that doesn't mean she doesn't love stealing your clothes!! They're baggier on her but oH MY GOODNESS DOES SHE LOVE THAT. She just loves being able to completely immerse herself in your stuff. Especially when she isn't feeling safe in her own home and you aren't around, the best thing for her is to wrap herself in her your stuff and be comforted by you. Uggh, its hella sweet

But let's start from the beginning...

Both of you knew about each other from school

You definitely heard the many rumors about "Beaver-ly Marsh"

Not that you participated, but you were always overhearing rumors from gossiping girls and bragging boys in your class

Your school wasn't huge but it wasn't small either

But it was kill or be be killed, and rumors spread like the damn plague

It was inevitable

And it was just a matter of time before you overheard the several rumors of the "slut" who did it with every guy in school.

You'd roll you're eyes at the word and the ridiculous insinuations, knowing the massively overplayed game of telephone that ruled your school was not necessary the most credible source of information

And you were positive there were rumors about you, I mean, it really wasn't possible to go to that school without a rumor going around

Everyone had one

Anyways, you never paid much attention to them, but then you met her...

And oh no.

Immediately, it was:

You already never paid much mind to the rumors, but when you got to know each other??

Nuh uh.

No way

Not Beverly

No no no no, no

She was way too sweet, and shy, and beautiful, and awesome, and funny, annnd oh no the damn butterflies were back and shit she made you feel things

And you??

Bevery had no clue she was into girls until you came along...

You were her gay awakening and her being so used to all those nasty things people said about her and all those boys??

Even though it wasn't true, any of it, she still always expected that eventually one day she'd get her first boyfriend, to love and cuddle with and everything normal

Again, then you came along and her heart was all like

BOOM BOOM BEECH

You both danced around each other a lot. Seeing as you were two precious little gay beans that lived in a conservative town in the 80s, it wasn't exactly the most accepting environment and you guys didn't know if the other was into girls at all

On both sides it was "does she like me or is she just really laid back and friendly???"

It took way too long to figure out you were both into each other

If I'm being completely honest here, y'all were like the female reddie

Two girls who became best friends and always bickered like crazy to hide your feelings

The way you two found out you had feelings for one another was bumpy and awkward but silly and cute nonetheless

It came off in a passing comment that just slipped out

The two of you were having a sleepover like you did every Friday night you were available

and you two were laying on her bedroom floor talking about anything and everything staring at the ceiling

Her radio was playing in the background and the two of you were surrounded by various snacks you had been munching on all throughout the night and the conversation drifted to gossip about your peers at school

It went a little something like this:

Y: "Did you see so and so today??"

B: "Yes!!"

Y: *laughing* "Yeah, what the hell was that?"

B: I have no idea what goes on in her head...

B: but I guess I gotta give her some credit, she's always super confident and I'm like, 90% sure that's what makes her the most desirable girl in the 8th grade"

Y: "I guess that makes sense"

B: "I do wish I had her confidence. Maybe I'd have better luck romantically"

Y: "Oh please, like you need that. You're infinitely more attractive than her"

B: "What?"

Y: *panicked* "What?"

B: *slowly sits up with smug ass smirk on her lips* are you saying you find me... attractive?"

Y: ..."what?" *sweating*

B: *still smirking* "Wait,"

Y: "WhAT?"

B: *stILL smirking* "do you-?"

Y: *full on gay panic* "No!"

B: *smirking and blushing*

B: *lays back down* "well, I think you're pretty attractive yourself, if it's any consolation"

She's still so nervous though so it comes out in a whisper

She's 99 percent certain you just accidentally revealed your crush to her but her heart was p o u n d i n g anyway

What if it just came out wrong and that's why you panicked???

Had she just revealed her crush to you by mistake???

But no

You both were a blushing mess and it did not go unnoticed by either one of you

You're hands kinda accidently brushed and you both just had a heart attack on the spot

But the connection you two had that night

You both just... knew

You guys kinda just... happened

After that you both were aware you liked each other

But it was kind of unspoken

At first

It's not like you guys never talked about it, but you two definitely became more touchy and flirty

Holding hands when no one was looking

Shortly before you guys happened and before that night, she had introduced you to losers and they just totally accepted you as one of their own

You got along especially well with Richie (wonder why)

But Bev wasn't too happy about this particular fact...

Especially after you two got together

She wasn't necessarily jealous, especially cause she already had a sneaking suspicion about his feelings for another loser, but because he took up a lot of her time with you

But then, to her chagrin, Richie found out about you two

the eight of you were hanging out in the clubhouse, and Ben had to make some adjustments so him and the others left momentarily to help him get the resources

Except you, and Bev

You two volunteered to hold down the fort [literally]

aaaaaaand you two wanted to have a few minutes alone together too,

Nothing scandalous or anything like that, but you two didn't get be close around the losers

Then Richie returned way earlier than expected [turns out he was doing more harm than good and they sent him back]

He was just outside the entrance and he overheard you two

"I wish we could tell them,"

"I know. And it's not that I don't think they'll accept us, it's-" *sigh* "I'm just not ready... I'm sorry"

"Don't be. It's okay, we can tell them when we're both good and ready."

"Thank you, Y/n."

Richie just kinda stood there thinking about what he just heard

I mean, it made sense, you guys were really close, but then again, that's just how he thought all girls were

But everything else kinda made more sense the more he thought about it

And, it honestly reminded him of him and Eddie

More specifically, how he felt about his best friend

Now naturally this was a very emotional moment, but Richie Tozier being Richie Tozier wasn't about to waltz in there and give some sappy speech about he accepts you guys and he's here for you no matter what

No, no, no

He laid down on the forest floor, sticking his head in the clubhouse scaring the shit out of you two and said

"You guys should really be more quiet, Ben may be a suspiciously good overnight kid architect sensation but he has yet to soundproof this baby"

He then stuck his arm inside the clubhouse, patting the ceiling, shaking a couple spiders loose from his his hand in disgust

"Richie...!"

You two jumped apart and you about nearly shit your pants

"Relax, I'm not gonna tell anyone,"

You both were startled as hell and absolutely disgruntled but the two of you looked at each other, simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief

He got up and joined you two in the clubhouse, and began lounging in his usual spot in the hammock, arms behind his head

"So, this means you two are both into girls, huh?"

Once again, you looked at one another and back at him, nodding shyly

He plastered on the most mischievous smirk you had ever seen and nodded his head, his huge eyes squinting slightly from behind his glasses

"niceee"

This of course was followed by simultaneous eye rolls, Bev even threw her gum wrapper at him but you laughed

It was a relieved laugh

Here you were, exposed and unintentionally outed to Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier and sure enough his reaction was "nICE"

It was honestly a relief and kinda hilarious

You guys just kinda broke out into laughter

It was nice moment

***TRIGGER WARNING FOR [PARENTAL] HOMOPHOBIA BELOW***

And for a while, everything was great. That was, until your parents began to take note just how much time you were spending with Bev

They kept an eye on it at first

Then they started asking questions

You knew this day would come one way or another

Hell, you grew up with them after all, you knew what they thought about people like you and it broke your heart

It terrified you

And it's exactly what you heard every night when you tried to fall asleep, their voices speaking to you clear as day; how disgusted they were. They weren't really there of course and it wasn't until you became a loser that you found out what that voice was...

The point is, your deepest fear was being realized so you did what you could do

Lie

And it seemed to work. Briefly

Your mother had come in to check on you two for the fifth time - usually she checked on you two four times since their suspicions - and found you two snuggled up on top of your sleeping bags

Your mother screamed, scaring the crap out of you guys and you jumped apart

Your mother was thrown into hysterics and went to fetch your father, wailing like a damn baby

Needless to say that night was a long one for everyone

And as if things couldn't get any worse, just days later you found out that Beverly had been taken by It

Immediately, every doubt, every fear, every inkling of shame your parents and your community had drilled into you was forgotten and all that mattered was getting her back

You and your friends literally went through hell to get her back

Needless to say it was a terrifying ordeal but you all had each other's backs and everyone came out okay

When you left Neibolt, you and Beverly were hand in hand

You couldn't give a flying fck about it, you just fought a shape-shifting demon clown you could face your small minded parents

And more importantly you knew even if your parents didn't support you, you had other people who did that and that was enough

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Hope you enjoyed, sorry it's so long and again this is out of order of who requested it so I'm sorry to those of you who had stuff in before this, but I've just been stuck for too long and I needed to get things moving again. Anyways, I hoped you guys like this and again, omg I love writing Beverly!!! I would not be offended if you guys asked for more Bev fics/hc when I open up requests again

[vespertine-legacy]

Also I've missed a lot lately, so I'd love to hear more about Coda/Indy x) 8, 15, 32, 33 and 39

(I still don’t actually have a good screenshot of them together, oops. we need to run some more fps or break into each others’ phases more often)

First off, I love you for asking about these two, because I’m so in love with these two idiots. Coda is mine and Indy belongs to @miss-spooky-eyes, and they are wonderful and beautiful and dumb and perfect.

8. What do they like best about their partner?

If you were to ask Coda what she likes best about Indy, you would probably just get a dial-up noise and an “error 404” screen for a little bit while she tries to decide. She likes that Indy can’t keep herself from caring (even aside from Indy saving Coda’s ass when they first met instead of just walking away like any sane person would have been justified in doing). She likes that Indy stands up for what’s right and what she believes in, but that she also seems to know when to back the fuck down and quit when you’re ahead (a skill that Coda has not perfected and may not ever). She also really likes that Indy is taller than her (minus montrals), and has just, like, really blue eyes, and her hands are just so very soft?, aaaaaaand we’ve got the dial-up noise again.

15. How adventurous are they?

Coda is too adventurous for her own good more than likely, but she is learning.

32. Do they ever get into trouble? Is it serious, or are they just mischievous?

Coda definitely gets into trouble. Mostly it’s just mischief, because she’s just Like That, but their whole relationship is built on trouble. Coda is used to waltzing into trouble and sweet-talking her way back out, so for the most part, she’s okay, because Indy is ultimately pretty enamored of her, even if there are probably some times when she wonders why she hasn’t thrown Coda out the airlock.

33. What kind of presents do they get each other? Do they only do it on special occasions?

Gun care and armor maintenance paraphernalia? Indy is very particular about cleaning her blasters and her armor (not only to keep them in good condition, but also as a self-soothing thing), and Coda has a pair of blasters worth more than some planets, so I imagine they would both always think it was sweet to be gifted something practical like that. But both of them also have a mean/protective instinct to give the gift of “the teeth of anyone who ever hurt you,” probably, which let’s be real, they would both also possibly find oddly sweet? And I don’t know that I can speak for Indy, but Coda is a random occasion gift-giver. 

39. Who initiated the relationship? Who kissed who first?  When did they realize they were in love?

Well, Coda would say that Indy initiated when she stepped in and absolutely destroyed the thugs who were wrecking Coda’s day in the Jiguuna spaceport and made Coda go all heart-eyes, but Coda is the one who flirted first (incredibly obviously) and sort of inserted herself into Indy’s life/onto her ship. Technically Indy is the one who kissed first, but it was under the effects of Coda’s venom (a mild aphrodisiac, which it turns out hits Cathar pretty hard and plays havoc with their pheromones; the long and short of it is that the venom tricked Indy’s body into believing that she had chosen Coda as her lifemate) so they’re not sure it counts. Spooks wrote an amazing account of their first real kiss, which was initiated by Coda. Without giving away too much (mostly because Spooks and I haven’t actually hammered out all of the details), they both start to realize they’re in love while trying to figure out how to reverse the lasting effects Coda’s venom had on Indy, and they start to wonder if actually being together like that would be a bad thing.

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2007

18 to 19 years old. Things were slowly starting to get better and better.

15 honorable mentions, but this is still only a top 10. What an incredible, amazing year for music. My favorite hit song for the entire decade is in there! I think everyone already knows what that is because I am, in fact, extremely predictable.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

Second to third year of my History studies. Met a great guy. So great, in fact, that I married him in 2019 because we’re still living together 13 years later. Got my first summer job but spent my first pay on driving lessons, because, again, I needed to get out of my parents’ appartment and knowing how to drive would be good to find a job. I had a much better access to internet. I still had great grades. Things were getting much better.

I stopped making my personal lists of favorite songs that year, and I had an mp3 player, which really opened a world of possibilities even if you could only put something like 40 songs on it, at best.

I was still reading Rock Mag a lot. As you can see, the biggest controversy at the time was what was emo and what wasn’t.

We were alright.

As far as non-elligible songs go, well there’s I Still Remember by Bloc Party (and the fact I can’t put it on the list is a heartbreak and a half) and basically everything from Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails. Nightwish, Epica and Within Temptation all had pretty good albums too.

Here’s a metric ton of honorable mentions first!

Snow (Red Hot Chili Peppers) - Perfectly pleasant song.

D.A.N.C.E (Justice) - Never understood why this was so popular. Still good.

Love is Gone (David Guetta) - Heyyyy another repetitive dance track, perfect.

Miracle (Cascada), Smack That (Akon), Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol), SexyBack (Justin Timberlake) and Say It Right (Nelly Furtado & Timbaland) - Still elligible songs for that year. Still great songs. Still not making the list.

Butterfly (Superbus) - I didn’t like this band, but I liked that song.

Thanks for the Memories (Fall Out Boy) - Same here basically.

Who Knew (Pink) - Not her best, but not her worst by a mile either.

Walk It Out (Unk) - Stayed in my head for days, I swear. I have no idea what the general opinion about it is nowadays. Maybe that’s a humiliating pick and I genuinely have no idea.

Crank That (Soulja Boy) - I do, however, know that the fact this very nearly made the list IS hilarious.

Alive (Mondotek) - Laugh all you want about the tektonik phenomenon, this is still a banger and a half.

Sound of Freedom (Bob Sinclar & Cutee B) - Not as good as Rock This Party. That’s the only thing I can say against it.

Umbrella (Rihanna) - This is an edit because holy shit I forgot Umbrella. It very nearly made the list too. Sorry.

And now, possibly one of the best top tens yet.

10 - This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race (Fall Out Boy)

US: #32 / FR: #71

Almost everyone got the lyrics wrong. The title is way too long. I really don’t like this band of pretentious idiots; if you’re gonna be pretentious at least write about something more grand and epic than your own navel, and go all out (more on that later). Nobody ever really cared about their supposed feud with Panic! At The Disco. And, to make matters even worse, the singer looked exactly like the terrible ex I had punched in the face the previous year.

This is still a damn good song and it’s on the list instead of any of the honorable mentions.

RIP me.

9 - How To Save A Life (The Fray)

US: #24 / FR: Not on the list

You already know I loved The Fray. This song could have apparently also made the previous list but it’s on this one instead. It was overplayed. I still loved it.

8 - U + Ur Hand (Pink)

US: #29 / FR: Not on the list

In 2002, I bought Pink’s Missundaztood album and as you might remember this was the second album I ever bought in my life, right before the gigantic trainwreck that highschool was.

The fact that about five years (that felt like twelve) later, Pink was on the other side of that trainwreck, back in my earphones, just as energetic and fun as she was before, was nothing short of heartwarming.

7 - Je Suis Un Homme (Zazie)

US: Not on the list / FR: #43

I’m not gonna beat around the bush. This song is terrifying.

Here’s a translation. Yeah, it’s about humanity destroying the Earth and itself in various ways, and it’s preachy, but holy shit, how can something be so bleak, so scary and still so catchy. It’s a mystery.

6 - Double Je (Christophe Willem)

US: Not on the list / FR: #2

When I first heard this song, I genuinely thought that was also Zazie and I was like oh wow, she’s learned to have fun again after that bleak, bleak song.

But no. She only wrote it, and it’s sung by this guy. It’s relatable as hell (”When I grow up it’s gonna be easy, I’ll finally know what I am”, “Who’s fault is it? / I’m something and its opposite / Double me”). The fact that a guy had this kind of voice and that a ton of people loved it (enough for him to win a big talent show and make this the second biggest song of the year!) also did wonders for my dysphoria, by the way.

5 - Ta Meuf (Faf Larage)

US: Not on the list / FR: #19

This is a song applying the most obnoxious rap and hip hop clichés about gangsters (and guys in general) to a woman, and she ends up terrorising all the guys and they’re realising these clichés might, in fact, be really toxic.

It’s a great song about gender roles usually seen in this kind of music and instead of being preachy, it’s hilarious, and well-written (I mean, it’s Faf Larage, it’s a given, but still). Check it out.

4 - Relax Take It Easy (Mika)

US: Not on the list / FR: #12

All hail the new king of pop. He was here to stay and what a breath of fresh air he was. This was very much his year in Europe as soon as the album Life In Cartoon Motion dropped.

My significant other absolutely loved this album and we listened to it wayyyy, way too much, and even with all the radio overplay AND the overplay when we were together, I still can’t get enough of this album.

3 - Love Today (Mika)

US: Not on the list / FR: #39

Here he is again!

If this was any other year this would top the list very easily. What were the US even thinking back then to not let this guy chart. Why isn’t Mika a huge star over there too. What is your problem guys. Do you have something against fun or what.

Anyway, here’s possibly the best comment on the music video:

I mean. You’re not wrong.

2 - What I’ve Done (Linkin Park)

US: #38 / FR: Not on the list

Aaaaaaand they’re back. And they’re once again topping my list. Lord have mercy on me. I loved them so much.

This was the first step into their modern sound, less raw, more U2. A couple of years later, when Lacuna Coil released Shallow Life, I used to joke that Lacuna Coil was trying to sound more and more like Linkin Park, that Linkin Park was trying to sound more and more like U2, and that U2 was trying to sound more and more like boring garbage and. I mean. I wasn’t wrong there.

My absolute favorite part of the song is at 2:24, when the music calms down a bit and the lyrics go “I start again / And whatever pain may come / Today this ends / I’m forgiving what I’ve done” and then the guitar explodes again. So powerful. Love it.

And now you’re probably thinking “so... Linkin Park was back, and with such a top quality song and it’s NOT your #1? After you put a Linkin Park song or a Linkin Park remix at #1 for three years in a row in 2002, 2003 AND 2004? What’s going on, Jo? Are you okay?”

Oh I’m more than okay. Friends and enemies, here comes the absolute best hit song of the entire decade and possibly of my entire life so far.

You probably already know what it is.

1 - Welcome to the Black Parade (My Chemical Romance)

US: #59 / FR: Not on the list (shame on you French charts)

I know I keep complaining about stuff I love not charting, or charting but not high enough to make any year-end list, but... How was this even allowed to chart. Why and how did it end up on the US year-end list when so many more radio-friendly hits I loved couldn’t even scratch the hot 100.

I’m not complaining at all. I’m just baffled.

Play the first note on a piano and I’m already a wreck. Heck, I’m pretty sure everyone from my generation is. It was basically our very own Bohemian Rhapsody. It still is. Where do I even start.

Oh. I know. Look at this page from a 2006 Rock Mag, it’s gold.

Yep, they highlighted The Open Door by Evanescence and praised it, and were like “this is very risky and ambitious and we’re not sure you’re gonna like this” for The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. Hilarious in hindsight.

A few months later, the same magazine was desesperately using double pages to interview them because everyone adored the album.

So in case you’ve never listened to it (I’m... not even sure why I’m doing this since I’m pretty sure even people who don’t like this type of music have tried to out of sheer curiosity), it’s a concept album about a guy (...possibly. I mean there’s a lot of trans and/or nonbinary hints in the lyrics and did you really NEED to make all of this more relatable? What the hell guys) dying of cancer, remembering all the good and the bad things that happened in his life, and since his fondest memory is seeing a marching band once as a child, death arrives in the form of a marching band. He then settles some scores with his friends and family, says his goodbyes, and... and doesn’t die in the end. He ends up surviving the whole ordeal, and the last song, Famous Last Words, is one the most incredible things I’ve ever heard. It’s so propulsive, uplifting and motivating. “I am not afraid to keep on living / I am not afraid to walk this world alone”. Holy. Shit. Sadly, it’s not elligible.

Welcome to the Black Parade is basically the centerpiece of the album, as you already know or might have guessed, but here’s the thing. It also works out of context because there’s already an entire narrative arc within this one song. It’s larger than life. It’s about death and the meaning of existence. It basically contains all the stages of grief, and the conclusion it reaches is that this guy will be remembered and therefore, he will transcend death. It’s full of rage and passion and triumph. There’s key changes. There’s tempo changes. There’s everything. It’s a rock opera in a single song. I put it on my mp3 player immediately after listening to the album, and it’s still on my mp3 player today. I never, ever removed it. I listened to it countless times and every single time, it feels like rewatching one of my favorite movies.

Best hit song of 2007 by a mile. Best hit song of the decade, hands down, and now that the 2010s are over, I’m pretty confident in saying nothing has topped it so far. I’d say “fight me” if I thought this was a controversial opinion, but it’s not even that controversial.

And that feels damn right.

Next up: Is... is this a list with actual filler? Are you telling us there was ONE mediocre year for music in the 2000s? Sounds fake but okay

[dracimexidae]

URL music game

rules: spell out your URL with song titles and tag some friends

I was tagged by @doedreamss (thank you, dearie!! <3 )

Since I already did this game once with my main blog URL, I hope you won’t mind me doing this with my Black Sails sideblog (which is rather abandoned atm but I promise I haven’t forgotten it and I’ll start posting there again eventually  I don’t know to whom I talking to maybe the 2-3 people who follow me both here and there lol)... the name is also longer, so more songs yay (as if you were asking that lmao)!! ;)

Andante, andante - Lily James (Mamma mia! 2 OST) // all right, I didn’t mean to return to my Mamma mia! obsession phase - it was bad enough when the first movie got out - but I got to listen to one song (which was not this one, but another song about a student kissing her teacher, rather creepy if you think about it but the music is so engaging it’s still stuck in my head, damn it) by chance and started roaming through the soundtrack of this sequel (which I haven’t seen yet tbh, actually by choice since I already know a thing about the story that upsets me a lot, but I guess I’ll eventually watch it because the songs aren’t bad, though I’ve had the impression that the level of silliness is not even close to the first movie and that’s what I actually enjoyed about it in the first place :p ) and I got to listen to this song and :’) - I’m not even one for love songs but this is so sweet and warm and intimate and Lily James’ voice is delightful so yeah, another one bound to be stuck in my head for days! also it doesn’t help that I’ve been thinking about Philinda slow dancing to this song I have a HUGE problem

Never give up on your dreams - Two Steps From Hell // HA, my mandatory TSFH mention when I talk about music! XD (and be grateful it’s the only one as I tried to make the list varied) One of my favourites (mh, I say that A LOT regarding TSFH but oh well :p ), so moving and epic and heart-lifting, I’m undone whenever I listen to this, like, I can’t function, it’s almost too much for me! :’)

Amazing grace - J2 (feat. Chelsea Caroline) // Oh, I love J2′s covers of songs, they’re so badass!! This is a more pop-rock/epic rendition than the usual hymn, but I find it great, and the singer’s voice is powerful and rich!

Taking the hobbits to Isengard - Erwin Beekveld // I legit have this song in my music playlist - I mean, how could I not?! XD This will NEVER be outdated and not legendary!! 

I’ve no more fucks to give - Thomas Benjamin Wild. Esp. // About this song I’m just going to say LIFE GOALS!!! This is the level I aspire to achieve hands down!

Only happy when it rains - Garbage // I blame the Captain Marvel soundtrack for bringing back this song, which rocks and sometimes is also a BIG mood!!

Northern lights - Gaelic Storm // aaaaaaand Gaelic Storm is another band that tends to pop up when I get to speak about music! I love, love, LOVE this song, it’s so touching and enchanting and soothing and, dare I say, romantic... <33

One day - Hans Zimmer // catch me crying whenever I hear this goddamn piece... especially the godforsaken end, man... you know the scene when it plays... ;_______;

Fat bottomed girls - Red Hot Chilli Pipers // whoo hoo, catch me headbanging and dancing all around at this!! I love the original song, of course, but this version with BAGPIPES!!!!!!!! INSTANT LOVE, it was!!!! (well, it does good on my self-esteem a bit as well, since I think I can consider myself a part of this “category” of ladies celebrated by the song ;) )

Today we rise - Luke Youngblood (Galavant OST) // have I begged you today to watch this show??!!  This is one of my absolute FAVOURITES in the whole soundtrack and I get to sing along proudly every chance I get (which happens basically when I’m alone, since I have to skip this soundtrack while I’m outside in public because if I listened to it I would surely start smiling and giggling like an idiot and people would certainly think me mad) ... lol, Sid always complained about never having the opportunity to do a proper performance and in the end he was given one of the most brilliant songs to sing!!! :D I’m almost, ALMOST tempted to follow him into battle - surely I’ll sing the hell out of it until the end, only to likely hide with the other peasants because well, once you think about what you’re singing you’re not exactly encouraged to pursue!! XD

Helvegen - Wardruna // wow, this song always sends me chills down my spine, so haunting and enchanting!!!

In the end - 2WEI // I blame AOS season 6′s trailer for making me listen to this, although I already heard other pieces of 2WEI... What can I say, I’m rather drawn to epic covers of songs (although I still love the original song to bits)...

El tango de Roxanne - Ewan McGregor, Jacek Koman, José Feliciano (Moulin Rouge OST) // I rewatched the movie not long time ago and this song never fails to fuck me up, I always arrive at the end choked up... I love the soundtrack of this movie!

Vespertine (My crimson bride) - Kamelot // Can’t explain why, but this song, rather than being a fucking WONDER, has also been an anchor for me when my grandmother died... I don’t know really why it kept playing in my head during that period, but it was actually a soothing balm for my wounded heart and my broken thoughts, so I’m really grateful to it for keeping me steady (well, as steady as I could have been in that circumstance)... I love this song (and its album) to bits!!!

Everybody needs somebody to love - The Blues Brothers // This song (and its soundtrack and movie) is a sure antidote to sadness for me, nothing more to say!!

Sailing for adventure (on the big blue wet thing XD) - Muppet Treasure Island OST // let’s end on a VERY serious note, shall we?! Yep, I totally have this song on my phone and every time I listen to it I feel like I could embark on a ship and sail away! (though I’m rather sure I’d end up joining the two “figureheads” singing “should have took the train!” because I may get sea sick or something XD ) Can we appreciate the human actors singing along though?! Well, apart from the marvelous Tim Curry, of course...

I’m tagging (always, if you haven’t done it before and feel like it <3) @whitestnoise, @thelifeinmyshadesofgrey, @tirairgid, @queen-of-love-and-beauty, @valentinaonthemoon, @mednay, @ennaih ... Oh, I don’t know really, whoever wants to do this!! :)

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 5.10

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, everyone finally started being sensible as they decided to rescue Kaito and in doing so began having some actual hope, I got very mad at how amatonormative Tsumugi was being about Maki and Kaito, then Shuichi visited Kaito in the hangar and they had an adorable conversation which also implied several interesting things: Kaito has come to terms with Shuichi being more of a hero than him and may well have fixed his black-and-white view of heroes and sidekicks in general, he might be trying to believe completely baselessly that what they saw outside wasn’t the whole truth just for the sake of not giving up, and he wasn’t even sure he’d survive until the next morning to see them again.

Now, it’s the morning of the rescue mission! In other words, Kaito is now a murderer and is hiding inside his Exisal waiting to deceive his friends and convince them that he’s dead. Just a point of note I thought I would mention.

Shuichi:  (Kaito… just hang on! We’ll save you!)

Shuichi, of course, is completely oblivious to everything that went down last night and is just being adorably optimistic about rescuing his friend. This is totally going to go smoothly, right? (You get this line by examining Kaito’s door on the way out.)

Maki looks… distant, as Shuichi first pays attention to her in the dining hall. Not surprising, given that she believes she killed Kaito last night, and she’s trying very hard to tell herself she’s okay with that.

Shuichi:  “Maki, where’s your Electrohammer?”

Maki:  “…I don’t need it. I’d rather not use a weapon I’m unfamiliar with…” [showing a knife] “…This is much better.”

Yes, because you definitely couldn’t use both an Electrohammer and a knife together, and a knife will totally work on an Exisal. This is definitely a logical argument and not an excuse.

She’s also totally not planning on using that knife to murder Kokichi on sight or anything. After all, she promised yesterday she wouldn’t kill him.

Shuichi:  “A knife? Well… I suppose you know best.”

Shuichi, you really should be questioning this a little more.

Shuichi:  “I scouted out the hangar yesterday…”

Maki:  “You scouted out the hangar…?”

Maki’s giving him a disgusted look upon hearing this. She’s got to be worried he saw some of what she got up to last night. Which is a fair worry, because Shuichi didn’t, but Keebo did.

Keebo:  “I thought maybe I could get through to Kokichi before we carry out our plan. So I went to the hangar last night and tried to talk to him.”

Credit where it’s due – Keebo always does seem to care about trying to find the peaceful solution to situations whenever possible (at least until chapter 6… so maybe actually this is partly down to his inner voice). He was clearly never going to get through to Kokichi and change his mind in this situation (not if even Kaito couldn’t manage it back when Kokichi was somewhat before the point of no return), but good on him for wanting to try.

Himiko:  “Wh-What? What… did you witness?”

Maki is not the only one who’s antsy about people having potentially witnessed what they did yesterday. Himiko promised Kaito she’d keep the fact that she gave him a crossbow a secret, so she’s hoping Keebo didn’t see… but he totally saw that too.

In front of the hangar shutter, everyone’s raring to go and ready to use their Electrohammers against the Exisals if they need to, but…

Maki:  “…”

Himiko:  “What’s wrong, Maki Roll? We’re… all ready to start, y’know?”

Maki:  “…Yeah, alright.”

…Maki is distracted enough that she didn’t even react to Himiko calling her Maki Roll (which she would have appreciated even less than usual right now if she’d noticed). She’s definitely not worrying about the fact that they’re about to find Kaito dead in there from a poisoned arrow, or that she’s fully intending to murder Kokichi in front of them all, or anything.

Shuichi:  “…Hm?” (The control panel was covered in marks, as if damaged by something sharp…)

Maki:  “Shuichi, what are you doing? Hurry up.”

Maki’s got a threatening face on here. She does not want Shuichi to stop and think too hard about why that control panel could be damaged. (And she probably doesn’t want to think too hard herself about the way she was feeling when she did that to it.)

Keebo:  “The Remnants of Despair end here and now!”

Since Keebo is very anti-murder, I don’t know how he thinks that rescuing Kaito is somehow going to “end” the Remnants of Despair, but sure, Keebo, you spout the line your inner voice is probably telling you to say.

First time around, I was genre savvy enough to be certain they were about to find someone dead in here. It’d been long enough without a murder, which was still definitely going to happen since this was only chapter 5, and the hangar was clearly this chapter’s murder scene. I knew it had to be either Kaito or Kokichi and desperately didn’t want it to be Kaito… but at the same time I’m pretty sure I was subconsciously expecting it to be Kaito and just dreading the confirmation, which was exactly what I thought I’d got when I saw his sleeve in there. The narrative had successfully done its job of convincing me Kaito was totally just going to get randomly killed.

But of course, the characters who aren’t Tsumugi don’t have any sort of narrative argument about when a murder should happen, so all of them (except for Maki) are completely unprepared for the horrific emotional whiplash they’re about to face here.

Monokuma:  “Ah-hahahahahahahaha! The killing game just keeps going and going! The despair’s not over yet!”

Monokuma seems happy about this. He was probably quite annoyed that the killing game had basically ground to a halt for a couple of days. Even though he has no clue who the culprit in this one is and is at risk of screwing things up and breaking the rules, he’d still genuinely rather have this than no murder at all. After all, this is entertaining, and that’s the most important thing. Kokichi’s plan is still just blatantly playing into the gamemakers’ hands.

Shuichi:  “What is this? What’s going on!?”

Clearly someone is dead, Shuichi; there was a body discovery announcement and that is a lot of blood. But it looks like he’s just kind of bluescreened here and needs to reboot.

(The creepy choral music as the BGM right now is quite effective in helping get across that horrific feeling.)

Tsumugi:  “The body discovery announcement… Does that mean… someone’s in that press?”

Shuichi:  “Wh-Who…?”

Keebo:  “The only ones in the hangar were Kokichi and Kaito. It must be one of them.”

Shuichi:  “…What?” (Either Kokichi or Kaito… is dead?)

Yes, Shuichi, keep up. Apparently he just short-circuited at the oh god that’s a lot of blood, and didn’t even properly register until now that it has to be one of those two.

Shuichi:  “Those clothes! They’re… Kaito’s…”

…Let alone the fact that the sleeve specifically suggests it’s Kaito. The body discovery cutscene makes it look like he’s being horrified at his best friend’s apparent death, but actually this is the moment when it hits him.

Himiko:  “Then… the one in that hydraulic press is…”

Maki:  “…”

Maki has a dark stare. Even she was not prepared for this. She was expecting Kaito to be dead; she wasn’t expecting him to be this dead.

Shuichi:  “N-No… it’s not possible…”

And Shuichi’s mind has already started to nope away from this possibility, because he just cannot deal with the thought of losing Kaito.

Now would be an appropriate time to remind everyone that Kaito is in fact not remotely dead and is right here in this hangar, hidden inside the red Exisal, listening to every bit of the reaction his friends are having to this and knowing that he’s the one responsible for putting them through this pain.

Monokuma:  “Puhuhu. Looks like you have a lot of twists and turns to sort out during this class trial.”

Yeah, they sure do. Lots of twists and turns that they have to sort out for your sake.

Monokuma:  “Don’t say you’re getting bored of this! Cuz things are about to get interesting!”

…Are you talking to the audience, Monokuma. They must have been complaining about being bored until now, after all.

Monokuma:  “I hope you pour your heart and soul into this investigation, too!”

Oh, I bet you’re hoping Shuichi and friends do that. If they don’t, you’d be in trouble.

Keebo:  “If the killing game is still continuing, and Monokuma is still moving, then…”

Maki:  “It means the mastermind, Kokichi, is still alive.”

Aaaaaaand this right here is basically the entire reason Kokichi pretended to be the mastermind, and murdered two people for the sake of making that lie just a little bit more believable: so that when this happened, everyone would assume that he has to still be alive.

Which is actually a really pointless part of his plan when the whole point of the plan is to fool Monokuma, who obviously knows he’s not the mastermind in the first place and wouldn’t make this assumption! It barely helps fool Monokuma at all! It only helps ever so slightly to prevent Monokuma learning the truth from Shuichi figuring it out, in that it makes Shuichi slightly less likely to figure it out.

That’s it. That’s the entire reason why Miu and Gonta died. That’s what their deaths were worth to Kokichi: a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of the actual plan. Even if he had done this plan for the sake of saving everyone by ending the killing game – which this very heavily suggests is not the case, and there’ll be yet more evidence of that later on – holy fucking shit those two deaths were not worth this.

Shuichi:  “No… that’s not possible! There has to be some mistake! There’s no way Kaito could die! It has to be a lie!”

I love the way Shuichi is talking as if he wants “there’s no way Kaito could die!” to be a logical argument on its own. Kaito is invincible, right? Of course he’d never just die on them like this!

(I wonder if Kaito, hearing this, is realising what a testament this is to how much Shuichi still looks up to him. Or he’s only seeing it as a sign of how much pain Shuichi is trying to run away from and feels awful for hurting him like this. Probably that.)

Shuichi:  (I made a run for the body when…)

Maki:  “…Calm down.”

Shuichi:  (Maki’s hand stopped me.) “Calm… down…? How can you say that, Maki!? Kaito is—”

Kaito is what, Shuichi? Didn’t you just say he definitely wasn’t dead?

Maki:  “I’ve seen so much death already. Death of both good and bad people… It doesn’t bother me anymore.”

Yes, Maki, it does. It always did, and you just suppressed that. All you’re doing is suppressing this, too.

Shuichi:  “It doesn’t *bother you*!? What are you talking about—”

But of course Shuichi is in too much of a panicked state of mind to consider that that’s what Maki is doing. He just can’t get his head around why she apparently wouldn’t care that their best friend is d – only possibly dead.

Maki:  “More importantly… where’s Kokichi?”

She’s saying this because she needs to murder him. If she can find him and murder him here, before the trial, then she can confess to her crime and not get all of her friends executed because Kokichi will already be dead anyway. So long as she kills him, Kaito’s death won’t be for nothing. That’s the thought she’s clung to all night, and she’s not letting it go.

(Please also consider what Kaito would have been expecting Maki to do here. He’d think, since she believes that she killed him, that she’s bound to confess so as to not get any of her friends executed, right? No matter how many times he ran potential outcomes of this situation through his head last night, I don’t think Kaito would ever have been able to conceive of Maki doing anything other than that. He has to be so confused and worried to hear that that’s not what she’s doing here. Surely she can’t actually be planning to…?) 

Keebo:  “He should be somewhere in this hangar—”

Tsumugi:  “He ran away! We need to catch him immediately! He’s obviously the culprit!”

Keebo:  “Let’s split up and look for him! Leave no stone unturned!”

Keebo makes the correct suggestion that Kokichi (or, at least, the survivor) is likely to be somewhere in this hangar. But then everyone moves on to assuming he ran away and imagining him being anywhere but in the hangar, which probably contributes to nobody realising throughout the investigation that there is actually one place in the hangar where he still could be.

(I don’t think it’s relevant that Tsumugi is the one to suggest this, since she knows even less about what’s going on than Monokuma does.)

Shuichi:  “…Wait. We… can’t leave yet. We don’t know for *certain* if that dead body is Kaito. We haven’t explored all of the possibilities yet.”

But Shuichi is having none of everyone just jumping to assume Kaito’s obviously dead. Mostly because he can’t bear to accept it, but it also seems from the way he’s a little calmer as he says this that his detective’s instincts are kicking in and telling him they shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions so quickly.

It was around this line that first-time-me started to realise that maybe there was a chance Kaito wasn’t actually dead after all. If Shuichi was pointing this out in a way that wasn’t just obvious denial, then maybe that could be where the story was going with this after all. Maybe the narrative actually cared about Kaito more than I’d given it credit for and was going to do a great thing here? Maybe? 

Keebo:  “And if Kaito is alive, why hasn’t he shown himself yet?”

However, this was the biggest thing that prevented first-time-me from coming up with a plausible theory of events in which Kaito was alive, as much as I desperately wanted to believe that almost as badly as Shuichi did. I couldn’t conceive of any reason that Kaito wouldn’t immediately show himself and do everything he could to help them all understand what the heck had just happened.

Himiko:  “Are you saying… he’s hiding because he’s the culprit?”

And even if Kaito was the culprit (which I thought was quite likely if he was alive) and had killed Kokichi in some desperate attempt to protect everyone somehow (obviously the only reason he’d ever do so), he would never hide that from them. He would have no hesitation in taking responsibility for his own actions and accepting the consequences.

(Or at least, he would never decide on his own to hide anything like that from them – but that’s the trick, because doing that wasn’t his idea. Nothing about Kaito’s actions here make sense until you realise he was co-operating with Kokichi, and that’s not something there’s any reason to assume until late into the trial.)

Maki:  “Don’t say such a stupid thing! Kaito being the culprit is even more impossible than him being dead!”

It’s adorable that, despite how jaded Maki is to the idea that people kill each other, it is completely inconceivable to her that Kaito would ever kill anyone, no matter the reason, even if it’s the target that she herself was so determined to kill. Kaito was the one who started to drag her out of that mindset that killing is just how life works, so surely he would never compromise that and turn out to be just another person from her world after all?

It’s also notable that she says it’s “even more impossible” than him being dead, implying that she still sees Kaito being dead as one level of impossible even though she believes it’s the truth. She did offhandedly comment when the murder was going down in chapter 4 that there’s no way Kaito would actually die despite what an idiot he is. So she also apparently has some extent of that irrational belief in Kaito’s invincibility, at least on the level of him not dying on them, that Shuichi has.

But of course, if there’s any kind of impossible thing that Maki can make possible… it’s killing someone, right?

Tsumugi:  “And his opponent – the mastermind of the killing game – could control the Exisals at will.”

Tsumugi would like to remind everyone that Kokichi is definitely the mastermind of this killing game.

Tsumugi:  “How could Kaito have killed someone like that when he was sick and wounded?”

And, just like Shuichi, she is also still fully aware that Kaito is sick. (Because of course she is.)

Shuichi:  “I don’t know, I just… I’m just saying it’s possible…”

It sure is – we’ve had examples even here where a stronger person was killed by a weaker person catching them by surprise (Rantaro) or getting them to lower their guard (Ryoma, Tenko).

Shuichi:  “Ah, and even if it is Kokichi that was killed, that doesn’t mean that Kaito is the culprit.”

…But of course, Shuichi also quite quickly nopes away from the possibility that Kaito is the culprit as well, not just because he doesn’t want to believe that his friend would do that, but also because he doesn’t want him to be executed. He just desperately does not want to lose Kaito to this trial, no matter how it happens. He has no idea that that’s a pointless thing to hope for because Kaito was already going to die today anyway, murder or no murder.

Shuichi:  (The initial evidence suggests Kaito is dead… But I just… can’t believe that. Or perhaps… I don’t want to believe it. I… can’t believe Kaito is dead.)

In the previous case, “the Ultimate Detective” and “Shuichi Saihara” ended up quite separate from each other, with Shuichi able to unflinchingly pursue the truth on the one hand even as he hated condemning Gonta to death beneath it all. But this time it seems the shock of possibly losing Kaito has prevented Shuichi from being so detached, and his two sides have merged together to the point that he isn’t sure whether his refusal to believe this is really because of his detective’s instincts telling him there’s more to this or just because he can’t bear to lose his best friend.

Shuichi:  “I don’t know if we’ll find hope or despair… but we have to find the truth.”

Technically he wouldn’t really be finding hope here – if he finds that Kaito is still alive, he’s found relief. The “hope” part here is simply the act of believing Kaito might still be alive despite the evidence suggesting otherwise, and continuing to search for proof of it.

Kaito:  “You’re an impressive detective, through and through. You might not only reach the truth, but something even beyond it.”

…

Shuichi:  (That’s right… I have to do this. To keep my promise to Kaito…)

Shuichi is still gaining encouragement to do his best in investigations from Kaito, even now! If only Kaito could realise that he doesn’t even need to necessarily be alive to be able to inspire Shuichi and give him strength. That’s something it’d really, really help for him to know.

Meanwhile everyone else is still very much assuming Kokichi is obviously the culprit.

Maki:  “Then, it’ll be easy to deal with him. We just need to vote for him in the class trial.”

…Except that Maki doesn’t really believe it, of course. It seems she’s now given up on the possibility of murdering him before the trial starts and is going to do it using the class trial instead, even if that means she has to sacrifice everyone else.

(Kaito is already dead because of her. She’s already in despair. Nothing else matters to her except for making sure his death wasn’t in vain.)

Shuichi:  (I understand the others… But why Maki? Why is she accepting Kaito’s death so easily…?)

Because she always does. Because just accepting it is the way she’s always had to deal with everything awful that’s ever happened to her.

(Obviously she’s accepting it on a logical level because she was there and believes it to be the indisputable truth, but this is why she’s then able to accept it on an emotional level despite how painful it is for her.)

The Monokuma File is delightfully empty of information. First-time-me was very happy to see this, because it proved that this really was what the narrative was doing with this case and so there was still about a 50/50 chance that Kaito was alive, which was far better than the odds had seemed when I first saw the body discovery.

This Monokuma File could just seem like it’s Monokuma doing his usual thing of not giving away any information which would reveal the culprit, since the identity of the victim is obviously a key to this case… but nope, this is actually everything that Monokuma knows.

Shuichi tries to persuade Maki that Kaito might be alive by telling her about the promise Kaito made to him yesterday that he was totally going to do something about this.

Shuichi:  “I want to believe in the promise Kaito made. I want you to believe in that with me—”

It is pretty adorable how much faith Shuichi has even in Kaito’s grand declarations for which he clearly has no idea what he’s doing and no actual plan. In fact, Shuichi usually does not have so much faith in those kind of claims of Kaito’s, so the fact that he’s suddenly doing so here is definitely more of him running away from the truth. Obviously Kaito did have a plan, right, and this could be part of that…? Kaito is totally good enough at elaborate plans that his faked death and secret survival could be the result of something he came up with… right???

(And Shuichi’s not precisely wrong, because the one part he is right to believe in is Kaito’s desire to do something about it and make a difference, no matter what it takes. Even though this plan is not Kaito’s and not remotely what he was talking about when he made the promise yesterday, this is Kaito doing everything he can to make that difference and live up to that promise. And Kaito is hearing Shuichi say this! He’s hearing Shuichi believe in his determination to do exactly what he’s doing right now!)

But despite hearing this from Shuichi, Maki doesn’t piece together the fact that this means he and Kaito must have made up at some point. She’s too busy blocking out her pain to think about that kind of thing right now – she doesn’t want to think about anything Kaito might have said to anyone.

(Also, consider that Kaito made a very similar promise to Maki yesterday as well, that he would totally do something about all this, when they both believed that he was dying from her poison arrow and had no conceivable way out at all. That… can’t be fun for her to think about either.)

Maki:  “…I refuse to investigate with you.”

See, this is what it looks like when the culprit doesn’t want to investigate with the Ultimate Detective to avoid arousing suspicion.

…Though that’s probably not the only reason Maki’s refusing; it’s also because she can’t bear to hear Shuichi constantly talking like Kaito might still be alive. Hearing other people talk with hope when you’re convinced there’s no hope anywhere just hurts.

Maki:  “Right now, you’re acting like Kaito… back in Gonta’s class trial. It was like this at that time too, wasn’t it? You can’t fight despair with just belief. It’s not that simple.”

She’s not precisely wrong; this is somewhat like Kaito was back then. Kaito refused to accept Gonta’s guilt simply because it hurt too much, even though everything kept pointing towards it, and to protect himself from that pain he just desperately clung to a hope that was completely baseless. That is essentially what Shuichi is doing right now about Kaito’s apparent death.

(Also consider that Kaito is hearing this, and given how much he thoroughly regrets everything he did in Gonta’s trial and knows that it was weakness and an inability to face the truth, he’s probably not too happy at the suggestion that Shuichi might currently be being this weak as well. But I’m sure he believes in Shuichi’s ability to overcome that and face the facts objectively even if it hurts. Shuichi’s always been better at that than Kaito, after all.)

But Maki is wrong to say that this isn’t a way to fight despair. Despair is just a feeling! Anything that prevents you from feeling that, even if it’s irrational and baseless, is fighting it! Shuichi is not in despair right now precisely because he is clinging to a currently-completely-baseless hope that Kaito might not be dead! And if he keeps clinging to that, maybe he’ll find some actual basis for believing it, which he’s never going to find if he doesn’t even try to believe it exists in the first place. The impossible is possible, you just gotta make it so – and to do that you need to believe that it’s possible in the first place!

Maki, meanwhile, is completely in despair: she is thoroughly convinced that Kaito is definitely dead and isn’t even trying to believe there could be any other possibility. When she talks about “fighting despair”, she’s talking about the meaningless buzzwordy concept that the Flashback Light brainwashed her with – the idea that despair is basically analogous to “evil”, something that can be defeated by removing the evil people, rather than something that you feel and simply defeat by not feeling it any more. That’s why she’s still trying to kill Kokichi. That’s why she thinks sacrificing everyone else to do so is worth it. She has no conception of the fact that doing that would be actually letting despair win, in that it would be letting the despair that she’s feeling take control of her and make her do something even worse because she’s already in so much despair that nothing else feels worse any more.

Keebo:  “There’s something about the air in here that’s making me feel… off… I don’t know if the Electrobomb is to blame, or if I’m malfunctioning somehow… But I’m starting to feel… somewhat sick.”

It’s almost certainly the Electrobomb – but it’s actually pretty neat and a testament to Keebo’s humanity that something like this, even though it’s an electronic thing that affects him because his body is electronic, makes him feel sick, like a human would if something had messed with their body.

Also, since the Electrobomb kills wireless signals… shouldn’t Keebo be unable to hear his inner voice right now? He never mentions that, but you’d think it’d be a thing, and therefore that the very end of this chapter is in fact not the first moment he’s been without it.

Himiko:  “It’s gotta be because of the Electrobomb. Keebo’s an electronic appliance, after all.”

Himiko, geez, could you not be so goddamn robophobic right now!? It’s never a good time for it, but especially not now when somebody is horribly dead!

I really get the unfortunate sense that Himiko’s awkward unnecessary robophobia is simply a result of bad writing. Apparently the writers decided for some stupid reason that it is vitally important that someone is always being a dick to Keebo – because Himiko only does it when Kokichi is not around to do it instead. Hence there suddenly being a bunch of it in this chapter (most of which I’ve ignored here).

Himiko awkwardly wanders further into the hangar to investigate alone as well, leaving Tsumugi to speculate that she might suspect someone other than Kokichi or Kaito.

Shuichi:  (I did suggest that possibility… The culprit might not be Kokichi or Kaito, but a third party…)

The way Shuichi brings this up like he almost forgot he suggested it really does indicate that he never did so because he actually believed the culprit could be one of the remaining four people. He just suggested it because it’s the only way for Kaito to get out of this alive.

Tsumugi:  “We were united towards hope before all this, but now we’re split up… Could it be… that’s why Kokichi killed Kaito?”

Shuichi:  “To disrupt our harmony…”

You could almost say he’s… Killing Harmony.

…Which is to say, this is the closest the game’s localised subtitle ever gets to being relevant in the entire story and they really shouldn’t have called it that because it’s basically meaningless otherwise (especially since that’s not the actual intent behind this murder at all). The original Japanese subtitle of the game has an actual point behind it which will come up in trial 6.

Tsumugi:  “In the end, we were all gathered around Kaito. He was the one keeping us together.”

He was! And… of course Tsumugi realises that, because that’s what she wrote him to be. That’s all he is to her, and that’s all that killing him is to her. It’s not like Kaito dying would ever matter to Kaito, only to everyone else, right?

Since she presumably believes Kaito is dead here, she’s probably thinking, “welp, guess I never actually needed to give him the virus after all, he went and died as scripted anyway, excellent.” Kaito may be a murderer now, but he’s not the worst murderer in this room.

---

[Next post]

[iwroteinapastlife]

Party

Woot woot I took day 10 of @mlrarepairmonth a lil differently with some Lukadrien and Marcnath (Marcaniel? What are we calling this ship?). Enjoy!

Day 10: Party

Ship: Luka x Adrien, Marc x Nathaniel

cw: No sexual content, but a lot of suggestive flirtation

“Alright, I am begging you.” Nino leaned over the table with his hands clasped, staring into Adrien’s eyes. “Please please make this roll. If we have to fight this goblin any longer, I’m gonna run out of song references.”

“Don’t worry,” Luka said, shooting him a smile that had him making one of his own. “I’ve seen the playlist he compiled. He’s just being impatient.”

“Dude,” he whined, looking back over his shoulder. “You peaked?”

Luka shrugged, looking as relaxed as ever as he leaned back and softly strummed his guitar. “You made it a public playlist on your Spotify; of course I looked at it.

Nino opened his mouth to argue, but Marc thankfully cut in first. “Go ahead and roll, Adrien.”

“Right,” he nodded, tossing his d20. Five pairs of eyes followed the die across the table, Marc leaning over his DM screen to watch as it approached him.

18.

Nino reached across the table to fist bump him as Marc announced, “That’s a hit! The goblin is dead.”

“Rio comes up to you, playing a victory tune on his mandolin,” Luka said, those blue eyes falling on him again. Adrien’s heart skipped as he plucked some notes on his guitar and sang along, “‘And the last of the goblins he did slay, keeping the peace another day. Oh a million hearts that rogue could sway, but in whose bed I wonder will he lay?’”

He could feel a blush rising to his cheeks as he smiled and replied in character, “‘Well that depends on whose bed is available to me.’”

“While that all is happening, Catherine will go to take the key from the goblin’s belt,” Nathaniel said beside him, but Adrien’s attention was trapped by the sexy smirk that took to Luka’s lips.

“‘With anyone a man like him could have his way. Who he wants tonight he need only say.’”

“‘And here I thought you couldn’t get more gay,’” Nino sang along in a higher (sassier) voice, acting out his character. Adrien broke—unable to keep a straight face any longer—and was happy to see Luka laughing too. “Lyra walks through these two to join Catherine.”

“Okay,” Marc said through his giggles. He turned to his boyfriend. “You going to try to unlock the door then?”

Nathaniel’s shoulders slumped. “You’re going to make me roll even for that, aren’t you?”

“Has that potion worn off?” he asked with a deceptively cute smile.

“No,” he sighed. Then he turned to Nino and spoke in character. “‘Here,’ she hands the key to you, ‘You’ll probably have better luck with this.’”

“Lyra takes it and goes to open the door. ‘I told you not to drink that thing, but does anyone ever listen to the bard? Nooooo.’”

“‘They listen to me sometimes,’” Luka butt in, giving him a shit-eating grin. “‘But I am the greatest mandolinist in the world, so how can they not listen to me?’” Adrien laughed and that seemed to catch his eye again. His stomach flipped as he watched Luka’s smile shift into something much warmer.

“Lyra flips you off over her shoulder,” Nino replied. “So what’s behind the door?”

“Okay!” Marc sat up in his seat, practically glowing in excitement. “You open the door to what appears to be a bedroom somewhat in shambles. There’s a wardrobe on the right wall. Both of its doors are open—one hanging from its hinges—and inside all you see is a torn cloak struggling to hold onto a mangled wire hanger. To the left, you see a desk with an open journal, an overturned bottle of ink, and a matted feather quill. The ink has spread across most of the desk and now steadily drips into a small puddle on the floor. The journal looks like it’s had several pages torn out of it, and you can see them crumpled up and strewn about the floor. Lying down on the ground next to the desk is a chair that’s had one of its legs broken off. Next to that is a bed whose sheets have been torn up quite a bit, and the wooden headboard looks to have several tally marks carved into it.”

“How many?” he asked excitedly.

That smile confirmed his suspicions. “27.” Adrien jumped up and down in his chair as Marc giggled and went on. “And lastly, sitting in the windowsill at the far wall, wearing an elegant but sullied dress and holding the chair’s missing leg in a fist, is a young woman.”

Nino drummed his hands on the table right as Adrien threw his arms in the air. “Gentlemen, I believe we have found our missing princess!”

“Is she pretty?” Nathaniel asked. He leaned forward on his elbows and looked at Marc with a flirtatious smile.

Marc glared at him but was failing to keep a smile from his face. “Yes, she’s very pretty.”

“Catherine immediately approaches and kneels before her.” He took Marc’s hand and kissed it reverently before continuing, that flirtatiousness seeping heavily into his tone. “‘Your grace, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance at long last. My name is Catherine and I am but a humble sorceress, come to rescue you from your prison. I swear on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach your kingdom alive.”

Adrien and Nino both burst out laughing, Marc used his free hand to face palm (though he couldn’t hide his smile), and Luka quoted with a grin, “Throw me the rope.”

When Marc picked his head back up he was giving Nathaniel a (blushing) you’re so dumb sort of look, which only made him grin wider. “Did you take her hand too?”

“No, that was just for you,” he replied, kissing his fingers again. Marc’s blush deepened, despite him trying to act serious.

“Nath, if you keep flirting with the DM, he’s going to throw more cursed potions at you,” Nino said, still chuckling.

“It’s worth it.”

Marc flicked Nathaniel’s nose before taking his hand back. “The woman stands, her eyes shifting between the four of you. She seems wary, but does not say anything.”

“Lyra steps forward,” Nino said. “‘I assure you, princess, you are safe with us. We may seem a rather odd rescue party, but we can hold our own against your adversaries. We are here to assure your safe return.”

“She tightens her grip on the wooden leg. She still looks awfully wary, but she lifts her chin and speaks with the kind of confidence and regality befitting of a future queen. ‘Good,’ she finally says. ‘Then let’s go.’ Aaaaaaand I think that’s where we’ll stop for today.”

“Yeeeessssssss,” Nino groaned, leaning back in his chair. “We finally found her.”

“Does anyone else want to watch The Princess Bride now?” Luka asked.

“Can’t,” Nino replied. “It’s date night with Alya.”

“And Marc and I are going to see that play with Rose and your sister, remember?”

“Oh yeah, that was tonight, huh? Well then,” those breathtaking, heart-stopping blue eyes turned to him once again, “Adrien?”

He swallowed and tried to keep the giddy smile from taking over his face as he nodded. “Yeah. I’d love to.”

[chromoluminary]

1, 6, 9, 20, 30

I may or may not have just finished my internship apps so don’t mind that I’m answering this at an ungodly hour of the morning

1. what song makes you feel better?

I have a few playlists for songs for bad days (see: Press Play In Case of Emergency as my main one) but current go-tos are I Dreamt We Spoke Again by Death Cab, Soul Meets Body by Death Cab, I Know by Bayonne, and Young Liars by TV on the Radio. 

Also! Mort Garson’s 1976 masterpiece, Plantasia. It was basically all I’d listen to when I was studying in my first year of college. It’s the grooviest moog synth music ever, and it’s just so Happy that I can’t help but smile. Like a low-stakes video game

6. say three nice things about yourself (three physical and three non-physical).

Physical: (Oh gosh, I’m uh, not the best at complimenting my corporeal form, in case you can’t tell.) Folks have fold me that I have really nice eyelashes! My nails are also fantastic so it’s easy to grow them out when I want them to look rly nice! aaaaaaand the only other thing I can think of right now is that my hand from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinky is the height of most victorian-era books, so it’s very easy to measure things at work down to the centimeter without using a ruler! The last one sounds lame but I promise it’s a highlight.

Non-physical: I’m really, really good at making playlists, I think my writing makes other people as happy as it makes me, and I’m spectacular at keeping houseplants.

9. what calms you down?

Music! Always music. Long train rides when I get a window seat. Getting to see and take care of my plants. The quiet in a museum right when it opens. 

20. what do you want most in the world right now?

I really want midterms to be over and/or to get the fellowships I applied for but am nervous about !!! I also really, really want sleep whenever that decides to happen

30. what reminds you of home (doesn’t have to mean house… just things that remind you of the feeling of home)?

Home is wherever my houseplants are, especially my 15 year-old epiphyllum anguliger that’s wider than I am tall. Home is also the ocean; I really really miss the ocean. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 199: One Whole Bird

Previously on BnHA: Aizawa’s winning class A team reflected on what they could have done better. Tsuyu and Kirishima were unexpected bummers due to their recent internships still weighing heavily on their minds. Shinsou was also frustrated with his performance, despite everyone telling him how good he did. Aizawa and Vlad told All Might and Midnight that today’s exercise is also a test for Shinsou to see if he should be admitted into the hero course. It’s not clear whether or not Shinsou is aware of this, but we’re all rooting for him! The second round of battles got underway, with Team KendouKuroMangaToadette facing off against MomoYamaTokoKure. Class B’s Kuroiro was revealed to have a quirk that allows him to move freely within anything black. This applies even to quirks like Dark Shadow, and once the match began, he basically dove into DS and rode him back to Team A’s location. Now he’s getting ready to throw down with Tokoyami, who has dramatically thrown his cape aside and is preparing to unleash the new technique he developed during his internship with Hawks.

Today on BnHA: Hawks is back! In flashback form. But he’s back, you guys! So apparently Tokoyami first interned with him after the sports festival, only to learn that Hawks mainly selected him to get the good gossip on the whole USJ attack. This frustrated Toko enough that he redoubled his training efforts, and when he went back to intern at Hawks’s agency for real after getting his provisional license, he impressed the #2 hero by being able to keep up with him. So Hawks took him on a cute lil nighttime flight above the city while A Whole New World from Aladdin played, and then they landed on a tower somewhere and Hawks was all, “hey dude you should learn to fly for reals,” and then the flashback ended. Back in the present, Kuroiro sneaks up behind Aoyama and grabs him and hauls ass. Tokoyami then reveals his new technique: Flying For Reals. He retrieves Aoyama, who fires his laser to break up the shadows around them, making it impossible for Kuro to hide. Things are looking good for Team A, but then a mushroom suddenly sprouts from Momo’s nose, reminding everyone that there are still three other Team B members to take care of, and things are only just getting started.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 222, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

ooh, and we’re opening with what I assume is an internship flashback!

well yeah, Mighty Wings is the type of quirk that allows you to do that. when you can individually control hundreds of little godmode wings that are strong enough to even carry people to safety, you don’t really need much in the way of backup

ah, so it’s confirmed this is Tokoyami’s narration

apparently the U.A. sports festival earlier in the year was the first time Hawks had ever taken place in the whole drafting process

hold up, so did Toko intern with him for both the jr. internship and the real internship? like, he did the weeklong thing following the sports festival, and then went back and interned there for real later? or was it only the first and not the latter?

lol Hawks is flying off to go save some other hapless soul. some out of control drunk dude at a bar in Cantina

I assume Cantina is a specifically a reference to the very famous Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars, even though it’s also a common enough word in its own right

lmao his sidekicks are all “yeah so Hawks is just generally better than us in every conceivable way and we just have to live with it”

these guys crack me up

so during his workplace experience Tokoyami just spent the whole time chasing after Hawks with these guys and handling the cleanup with them. so naturally it wasn’t long before he started having doubts about the whole thing

I was literally just about to say “because you’re both birds” and then Hawks was like “yeah, duh”

Tokoyami is asking if he’s joking, because Tokoyami doesn’t have a sense of humor so he probably genuinely needs to know

Hawks says he’s 20% serious. holy shit. that honest to god is what he said lmao

he says he wanted to talk to someone from class 1-A about the League of Villains, and he figured if he had to do so then he should pick someone he thought could keep up with him and who showed promise. and since Tokoyami finished in the top three he went with him

and of course we know from chapter 186 that he had selected Todoroki as well, but Endeavor got him instead

interesting that both he and Bakugou picked the highest ranking agencies on their list and ended up being disappointed. it seems like the people who had the most fulfilling internships were the ones who went with agencies that hadn’t necessarily made huge names for themselves, but were perhaps a little better at this whole teaching thing than some of the big shots

ah, and then Hawks did agree to take him on for a For Reals Internship later on, though

that means Tokoyami actually reached out to him despite his lackluster previous experience. makes me wonder if Bakugou would actually decide to go back to Jeanist’s agency once he gets his provisional and once the kids are allowed to do internships again

(ETA: so I’m honestly not sure if we’re even going to get back to internships again, at least not for a while, but one theory I’ve seen floating around is that Bakugou will intern with Miruko instead of Jeanist, and I gotta say, I really like the idea of that. for so many reasons. but basically it makes a lot of sense; Jeanist is still laid up, Miruko is a top 5 hero, and her personality aligns with Bakugou’s a whole lot more than Jeanist’s did. all this plus Fuck Yeah Girl Power, so hell yeah I’m all for it.)

-- YOOOOOOOOOOO

he can -- you can fly, dude? since when lmao what the fuck

(ETA: what is he doing here, though?? I thought he was flying but then a couple pages later Hawks is like “you should learn how to fly” and then a few pages after that everyone is shocked by his new “bitch I can fly now” special move. so it seems like that’s something he came up with after this scene. is he just jumping with style here or what)

Hawks likey! kid’s got some potential

now it’s later that night and Hawks is telling Tokoyami he did good

OH MY GOD

THIS IS THE CUTEST AND BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED. OH MY GOD. YOU GUYS. I CAN’T IT’S TOO FUCKING PRECIOUS OH SWEET JESUS

(ETA: so as you can see I was enchanted by this scene even before I learned about its significance as a beloved fandom meme. anyways so we all agree that this internship was destiny.)

TOKOYAMI IS SO OVERWHELMED. HIS POETIC SOUL IS SOARING LIKE AN EAGLE

OH MY GOD!!

HOW DOES HE REMEMBER THE CORRECT PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN FROM A JOKE CONVERSATION THEY HAD LIKE SIX MONTHS AGO

SERIOUS QUESTION WHY IS HAWKS THE BEST CHARACTER IN BNHA. ANSWER ME. SOMEONE

AND LOOK AT TOKO’S FACE OMG

AHHHH

it’s so personal, though. like I honestly feel like he’s baring a bit of his soul to this kid, and for someone with a personality like Hawks’s that is huge

he says he’s not especially interested in nurturing the next generation, “but...”

well that’s fine dude. you’re practically still a kid yourself and you’ve got more than enough on your plate

but the fact that he does have so much on his plate makes me wonder what’s going through his head right now. because the whole workplace experience was before he started his undercover mission, but this scene is taking place afterward. and he always plays it cool, but that shit is dangerous, like one-wrong-move-and-you’re-dead-or-worse types of danger. and that’s not even taking into account the bad-for-your-soul parts that come with having to turn a blind eye to certain things for the sake of maintaining your cover for the greater good

so basically, despite what he says, he may just be feeling a bit more sentimental or brooding or whatever than usual, and maybe that’s what brought this on. he never particularly wanted to be a mentor, but hey, might as well give it a shot. life is short

so Toko’s asking what he meant when he said Tokoyami was wasting his potential

and Hawks says that while Tokoyami is doing a lot to cover his weak points, he shouldn’t neglect improving his strong points

one moment please while we process these Hawks feels ladies and gents

aaaaaaand done

my boy just wants to be free. okay. that’s fine. I’m fine it’s all good

nothing to see here, just some solid mentor advice pulling some double duty as a deeper look into Hawks’s psyche at the same time. just Horikoshi things

and we’re back in the present!

that was a much lengthier flashback than I anticipated, and thoroughly enjoyable! very nice!

so Kuro is blending back into the shadows and for some reason everyone is surprised

what else would he do. I mean. if it ain’t broke

so now he’s mocking them from somewhere in the piping, bragging about how they can’t tell where he is

oh shit!

so he’s planning on targeting one of the others? tbh that probably would have worked just as well even without the red herring, since they can’t see him coming

like, this would have worked no matter what though. but I guess it did get Aoyama to lower his guard

LOL MY POOR GLITTER BOY

FIRE YOUR DAMN LASER KID

ooooh

it’s so gross that he refers to it as an umbilical cord and now I’m never not gonna be able to think of it as that

so anyway, I’m guessing that this special move works by having Dark Shadow fly somewhere and then instead of retracting the shadow back to him, he pulls himself toward Dark Shadow

LOL

what, y’all didn’t see those flashbacks with Hawks just a few pages ago. pay attention to other characters’ life stories

ah, here are the mechanics explained to us in a cute little comic

“Dark Shadow can fly so one day I was like, ‘ohh... pick me up so I can fly too. fucking duh’”

also has the bonus advantage of distracting opponents with how shockingly adorable it is

so now he’s plucking Aoyama out of Kuro’s clutches

I bet Aoyama’s pissed that his cape broke in the process though

LISTEN HERE BITCHES, Y’ALL ARE GONNA NEED PLAN B, C, D, ETC. BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN COME CLOSE TO TAKING OUT MY GIRL MOMO HERE. YOU’RE GONNA RUN OUT OF LETTERS OF THE FUCKING ALPHABET YOU AMATEURS

she said, but also I’m still pretty sure they’re gonna lose fffff

since Aoyama and Tokoyami are now perfectly positioned, Momo’s telling Aoyama to use his navel buffet

ah I see, eliminate Kuro’s potential hiding places by blinding him with Aoyama’s splendor

so Dark Shadow is covering himself in Kuro’s cape and Aoyama is letting ‘er rip

this is such an odd and perfect sound effect and I’m really impressed with Horikoshi for coming up with it in English

aha!

GOTCHA MOTHERFUCKER

now Momo’s calling Hagakure to action, and for a moment I was like ‘why’ but then I remembered her special move

but before we get to that, please enjoy this Yaoyorozu Momo “just as planned” panel

yessssss now get ready for --

...

okay what is plan B

...

and the chapter ends. of course

chapter 200 is gonna be some wild times isn’t it. lol