#Also also I hope this comic only ages better with time

[imminent-danger-came]

“I felt the red-winged man gaze, I heard him speaking. I know who you are, he said, there are two ways this can go, no, three ways. I don’t want to count the ways, I said, I just want to finish it. I need to get to the end. His wings lifted and sanked. Oh my darling, he said, you’re a long way from the end.”

— Anne Carson, H of H Playbook

[donnyclaws]

I was gonan make a post apologizing for lack of regular art but I feel like jts already clear im sporadic and in and out of it bc chronic pain and circumstances. So for now I'm gonna hibernate, get my health steady again, deal with money issues, and art will happen when it happens.

[gyu-effect]

sucker (for you) || j.ww

“IT’S LIKE I’M A SUCKER FOR YOU”

PAIRING || Wonwoo x Female Reader

GENRES || Best Friends To Lovers AU, College AU, Humour, Fluff

SUMMARY || First year in college was always known to be stressful with all the assignments to complete, parties to enjoy and lectures to attend. But for you, it was a whole different type of stress: the conflicting (and growing) feelings of affection towards your best friend. Falling for him isn’t an option, but neither is avoiding him. So what do you do when you are down bad for the one and only Jeon Wonwoo?

Or, in which, one drunk party sends you hurtling down a rollercoaster of love for your best friend.

SERIES MASTERLIST || teen, age

MUSIC || Sucker by Jonas Brothers

WARNINGS || Nothing actually, mentions of alcohol, just drunk!wonwoo being a menace and me attempting to be funny

WORD COUNT || 14.5k (probably my most massive work till now)

A/N || This is the first time I’m seriously writing for seventeen so I’m just going to consider this as my first full length svt fic. Please do tell me your thoughts!! I had a blast writing this one so I hope you all enjoy it as much as i did! Also, advanced birthday gift (or really belated?) to my bestest friend Ni @jaynaur​ . I hope we continue to be friends for million years more. Thank you for sticking with me for all these years, I honestly couldn’t ask for anyone better.

TAGLIST || @misssugarlips​ @loevngyuno​ [thank you for being interested!]

“You are going to burn holes into his face.” 

Kwon Soonyoung hissed into your ears, causing you to glare at him. He raised his eyebrows, as though challenging you and you rolled your eyes.

“I’m not staring at him, I’m just…worried.” 

“Worried he’s going to end up sleeping with her?”

“Shut up, Kwon.” You muttered, eyes back onto your best friend, whom you were sure was going to regret every single action the next day. If he remembered, that is. True, the last few weeks had been extremely stressful for him, but to see the reserved Jeon Wonwoo you knew become drunk and act this wild was something new even to you, despite being his best friend for more than ten years. 

To the eyes that barely knew him, Wonwoo would come as a tsundere male lead, quiet and perfect in every way. A man who had control of all his movement, and thus also every single girl’s heart. Undoubtedly, he was very handsome. But you knew that the man you called your best friend was far behind the romantic hot heartthrob everyone painted him to be. In fact, he probably had a certificate in the loser department hidden in his bedroom. He was nowhere close to perfection and was too laid back in life. What time should have been spent in getting a social life (you were sure he would have been an alpha male if he had just put in a little more effort) was instead used in levelling up in games. 

To say you were shocked would be an understatement. He had been on the dance floor for the past two hours, which was definitely not a Wonwoo-like characteristic. Right now he was aggressively moving his shoulders while awkwardly jerking his head. You were a hundred percent sure if this had been any other normal situation, he would have been very much flustered and embarrassed. But the high level of intoxication in his blood must have made him lose all his senses. As you watched Wonwoo pull out another fancy move (much to the delight of the crowd of girls surrounding him), a completely unrelated question popped into your head. Where had he even learnt those moves from?

“He asked Chan to teach him a few steps, but I guess Chan thought he wasn’t serious.” Soonyoung replied. You let out a small ‘I see’, embarrassed that you had accidentally said your thoughts out loud. When had he asked Chan to teach him? Was there any particular reason? And why hadn’t he told you about this before?

“It is quite shocking. I always thought Wonwoo was the guy who always kept to himself and his comic books.” Soonyoung said. To his friends and you, it was definitely a new thing, but clearly the crowd didn’t think so judging from the squeals erupting around him.

“Did he say why did he suddenly want to learn how to dance?” You asked this time. The boy next to you shrugged, nonchalantly chugging down another drink from the red plastic cups. You grimaced, wondering how people even liked drinking. You personally hated parties and loud music but you didn’t mind if it meant hanging out with your friends. But no one mentioned that today’s party would involve even other people. Still, you managed to keep your sanity throughout the party just trying to enjoy yourself with your friends.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I highly doubt that he wanted to learn to dance on the dance floor. Hey, maybe he was trying to impress you?” Soonyoung grinned at you wickedly.

“Excuse me?” You choked on the chip you had just begun eating. 

“Everyone can see the uwu heart eyes you two give each other.”

“And this wrong insight into things is exactly why everyone supports the anti horanghae agenda instead.”

Soonyoung pouted at you and you let out a laugh, your irritation melting away at his cute reaction. You patted his back before adding, “Don’t worry. I’m for the horanghae agenda. It’s absolutely priceless to see the disgust on Minghao and Jihoon’s faces. I will always support you in your endeavour just to provoke them.”

“Y/N! I thought you were my friend!” 

You laughed once more before turning your attention back to the dance floor. For a second you panicked when you couldn’t find Wonwoo. He was already an awkward man in front of girls (a point girls often misunderstood thinking he was avoiding them because he was a frat boy who didn’t flirt unless absolutely necessary), and you doubted if he would like a drunk mistake to be the reason he stopped showing his face to the college.  

Relief flooded you when you finally found him at the corner of the room with some random girl you knew by face (you weren’t that good with interacting but that was beside the point here). But that relief turned back into panic as you watched the girl unzip his leather jacket and discard it, hands moving for his shirt. 

“And that is my cue to leave.” You nodded to Soonyoung who seemed to be enjoying this moment. Now you weren’t the type to meddle into your best friend’s love life (which had been non existent till now) but if the said best friend was a shy anime-lover boy with no alcohol control and was about to drunk make out with someone he had just met, you were going to be the supportive friend you were and save the little dignity he might have left after this night. 

Picking his jacket up from the floor, you accidentally rammed into the couple, causing both of them to stumble in daze.

“Ah, Wonwoo! I was looking for you! Come one, we need to leave, you have a mini test tomorrow, remember?”

Wonwoo blinked at you in confusion, and you just smiled at the girl before pulling him out of the crowded place. You ignored her screaming about tomorrow being a Sunday and focused on getting the two of you safely out of a room filled with drunk people. It was hard pulling a drunk man who kept stumbling on his own leg but you finally made it out of the stuffy place without losing each other.

When the cool night air finally hit the two of you, you let go of his hand and let out a sigh. 

“Thanks.” He muttered beside you, though you were not exactly sure what he was thanking you for, since you were sure he was having a blast back at the party. You glanced at him and tsked, annoyed by his choice of clothing. He was just wearing a sleeveless shirt and skinny jeans, clearly shivering in the cold night air. His hair was slightly messed up and his glasses were hanging at his nose tip.

“You shouldn’t have taken this off.” You said handing him back his jacket. He just draped it around his shoulders before giving you a lopsided drunk smile.

You wondered what all the girls would say when the drunk Wonwoo they had envisioned was nothing like the real drunk Wonwoo you knew. True, he did sensibly drink all the time, but today he seemed to have let go and judging by his flushed face, you were glad you got him out of the party before he committed a stupid mistake.

You began walking towards your dorm when Wonwoo called you.

“Y/N.” 

Turning back at him, you looked at him questioningly, asking him to continue. 

“Come here for a second.” But before you could walk to him, he himself stumbled towards you, looking eager to tell whatever was in his mind. 

You frowned and gently pushed his glasses up so that he didn’t strain himself to see through them. 

All of a sudden, Wonwoo grabbed your hand to pull you in closer, filling the few centimetres you had in between each other. Your eyes widened in shock when you felt his lips brush against yours. He immediately pressed his lips on your lips, your eyes fluttering close at the sudden feeling of warmth.

A million different thoughts were running through your head but they all seemed to be drowned out by an exploding feeling in your heart. You inhaled his scent; a mixture of alcohol and the comforting smell that always lingered around him; and felt the world stop for a second.

Wonwoo’s lips moved against yours and that seemed to jolt you back to the present. 

Pushing him away as hard as you could, you gasped harshly, wondering what had you done. How could he kiss you? How could you kiss him when he was drunk?

You shook your head violently once, trying to dismiss the thought as an accidental drunk mistake, just like the one Wonwoo was going to commit a few minutes ago back at the party. 

And yet, the adrenaline rushing in your veins still hadn’t subdued. You felt like you were the one who was drunk and not him, heart beating erratically at the very thought of the kiss. Fanning your heated cheeks, you dismissed the thought once more. This was a mistake. It had to be. There was no way you could feel such emotions for your best friend with whom, you had just admitted a few minutes ago, you were completely platonic with.

“Come on, Wonwoo.” You muttered, not bothering to grab his hand this time and hoping he would just follow you. 

Neither of you spoke as you traced your paths back to your dorms, the silence breaking sometimes only by Wonwoo’s incoherent mutterings. You didn’t even bother looking back to check whether he was right behind you, trusting that the dragging footsteps were his.

“Mingyu!” You yelled as a familiar figure ran past you into the building. Kim Mingyu stopped and turned back at you, looking drunk but not as finished as the man who stumbled into a halt and used your shoulder as a support for his dropping head. You felt your cheeks heat up once more and then and there you decided you couldn’t go on like this even for a second. “Take your roommate up with you will you? I’m tired of dragging him around.”

Mingyu gave you a thumbs up and the two of you bid each other goodbye, and you nearly ran from there, not bothering to see if they had even entered the building. You prayed that the night air would cool your cheeks down because you were sure that your roommate was still awake, judging by the lights you could see from outside the building. 

You tried sneaking in quietly, not wanting to disturb the older girl who was still studying. Final year of college was hard with assignments and campus recruitments and you didn’t want to be a burden to a person whom you had labelled as your other best friend.

“What’s wrong?” Kim Taeyeon asked, turning away from her books to look at you trying to hide under your covers as quickly as you could.

“W-What do you mean?”

“You haven’t even removed your socks yet. Did something happen?”

Oh.

“I-” You began and stopped, flustered at how you should continue. Was it his mistake? Was it yours? Taeyeon got up and sat at the foot of your bed, patiently waiting for you to continue. You felt bad that you were distracting from her studies but you felt that if you didn’t get some advice on how to handle this situation, you would lose all your precious sleep (sleep was your real best friend).

“Say hypothetically, your friend gets kissed by her drunk best friend and she kisses him back. What should your friend do in that situation? Pretend like nothing happened? Confront him about it?”

“Wonwoo kissed you?” 

“Ye- No! I said a hypothetical friend. What? Wonwoo is such a reserved man. Does he look like someone who loses control while drinking? And do I look like a person who takes advantage of her drunk friend?” You said, glad of the fake character people had created of your best friend.

“So Wonwoo did kiss you. Besides, you don’t really have many friends, let alone a hypothetical one that could be in this situation.”

“Thanks for the reality check.” You muttered. Taeyeon came and sat beside you, patting you as an indicator to go on.

“He-he was drunk.” You babbled, not even sure what or whom you were trying to justify. “He just leaned in and I- I kissed him back. Oh my god. Is that assault? Did I just assault my best friend?”

“Hey calm down, Y/N. You were taken aback. I highly doubt he will even remember what happened tomorrow judging by how drunk he sounds. You don’t need to mention it to him if you feel like that’s going to ruin the atmosphere between the two of you. But if you feel like you are too uncomfortable being with him, then the two of you can talk it out. Wonwoo is a sensible man so I’m sure you both will come to an understanding.”

You nodded, still feeling jittery about the entire situation. Exchanging good nights, the two of you went back to your own routines. Taeyeon went back to her study table while you got dressed for bed. Slipping in under your sheets, you tried to clear your thoughts by taking a deep breath in.

It’s okay. You thought to yourself. He probably won’t even remember it tomorrow. Now let’s just get some good night’s sleep, shall we? 

Turns out you had terrible prediction skills. 

You had tossed and turned the entire night, worry eating you up as though the next day was your mathematics exam and you had forgotten to study the entirety of calculus. So you definitely did not get a good night’s sleep as you had wished for. To make matters worse, Wonwoo called you up at 5 in the morning for a ‘hangover’ run.

So here you were, sitting on a bench as your best friend jogged up to you, handing you over a drink.

“Thanks.” You huffed, taking a quick sip of the cold drink to cool yourself down. He sat down beside you, arms brushing and all of a sudden you were hyper aware of how close the two of you were.

It was funny how a small action at a drunk college party had changed the entire way you used to look at your best friend. You both had practically grown up together and it had never really mattered to you how close the two of you were (sure you had an aversion towards touch but Wonwoo was…well, Wonwoo). Never did you think you would get flustered when you meet him or even avoid his eye contact.

But this morning when you first came out of your dorm, he was already waiting for you outside. He seemed unbothered by your appearance, and a small part of you was glad because he didn’t seem to remember what had happened. And yet, it took you sometime to be able to meet his eyes again without your cheeks heating up and giving you away.

The two of you jogged for sometime in silence before you got tired and decided to take a break. He had even wordlessly gone and got you a drink and now you were getting a feeling that he definitely did not remember anything. So you decided to ask him about it.

“Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?”

“Huh?” He looked at you surprised. “You mean at the party?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t remember actually.” He replied, pushing his specs up his nose by its frame bridge. The action caused your stomach to flip, as though you had just been dropped from a roller coaster. “I guess I drank too much. Did I go too wild?”

Only when Wonwoo had raised his eyebrows at you did you realise that you had been staring at him. You quickly turned your head away from him, praying you weren’t looking as flustered as you felt.

Had he always been this handsome? 

“Uh, yeah kind of? I mean…you were going to make out with some random girl if I hadn't pulled you away.”

“Thanks.” He muttered, sounding embarrassed. You looked at him and he was looking down, unable to meet your eyes. A laughter escaped you when you realised how adorable he looked, looking flustered.

Wait, what?

He looked up at you and smiled sheepishly, muttering a small sorry. Wonwoo continued talking but his voice was drowned out by the wind whistling against your ears. How had you never noticed the cute way his nose scrunched up when he smiled too much or the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed out too loud? Somewhere in the back of your mind, you realised that you had always known these little details but had never put too much thought into it, as though you had taken him for granted.

Wonwoo waved a hand in front of your face, jolting you back to the present.

“You okay?” He asked, sounding a little concerned. “You’ve been slightly distracted since morning. Are you sure nothing happened at the party?”

“Yeah.” You scratched your neck awkwardly, determined to keep a straight face and not look away. There was no way he could know what you were thinking now unless you wanted to make things awkward between the two of you.

He stood up, pulling you up with him and the touch of his warm hand on your elbow seemed to send sparks through your body. The chilly wind whipped through the air, ruffling Wonwoo’s freshly dyed white blond hair. It was almost illegal how good he looked like this, with messy hair and wearing just loose comfortable clothes.

Your reactions seemed to have slowed down because all you could do was stare and gulp at your best friend when his hands slipped into yours, giving your hand a comforting squeeze. You felt your heart beat nearly stutter at this gesture, and he pulled you in closer.

For a second you got a wild sense of deja vu, a small part of you was afraid that the two of you were going to kiss again but Wonwoo just smiled softly at you.

The whistling of the wind died in your ears as you stared at him. You couldn’t feel anything, except for the tingling sensation of where your hands and shoulders met with his. The birds too seemed to have stopped chirping because the surrounding seemed too quiet, and you were sure he could hear your loudly thumping heart too.

A stream of sunlight fell on Wonwoo, giving him a soft angelic glow. Right now, everything seemed so perfect, so perfect that you wondered why you had even thought that he was a big loser in the first place. Because for you right, Jeon Wonwoo looked like a goddamned angel who had graced you with his presence.

And then it hit you.

You felt as though your breath had been stolen away when the realisation finally dawned on you. 

You were in love.

You were in love with your best friend, Jeon Wonwoo.

Suddenly everything you had been feeling made complete sense to you. How could you have not realised it until now? It was as though the answer had always been dangling in front of you but you had failed to grasp it. You thought of all the times you had spent with him and while that might seem like normal things between two best friends, you realised that no one could ever understand you so perfectly well, no one could make you smile like he did and no one ever supported you like he did when you were down. He knew you as perfectly as you knew him, like two jigsaw puzzles fitted together without which the picture would be incomplete. And right now, you couldn’t even imagine loving someone as much as you had always loved him.

It had always been Wonwoo but you had never realised it.

“You know you can tell me everything, right?” He asked, his quiet voice causing butterflies to flutter in your stomach as he gently rubbed circles on your hand with his thumb. You gulped, closing your eyes as you nodded a ‘yes’ to him. So that he didn’t suspect anything, you removed your hand from his grasp slowly, the warmth of his touch suddenly gone. You already missed his touch but you doubted whether your heart could take anymore.

Your head was still spinning from the sudden realisation that had hit you like a truck and the only way you could think of clearing your thoughts was by getting away from Wonwoo, the very person who usually stuck by your side in such stressing emotions.

But this was something you would have to deal with on your own. Because you were a thousand percent sure that he did not love you back. 

“Wonwoo,” you said, looking at him with a smile. “I'm a bit tired since you called me up so early. Do you mind if I go back? It’s a Sunday and I still have assignments so I would like to catch up with my beloved sleep a bit.” 

“Sure, I’m so sorry Y/N-”

“No need to apologise. Thank you for bringing out my lazy ass though.”

You were glad that he got the indication that you wanted some quiet time alone (of course he would, why wouldn’t he?) and the walk back to your dorms was a quiet one too. He didn’t press the matter anymore, figuring out you would tell him when the right time came and you were comfortable about sharing with him.

If only he knew.

As soon as you got back to your room, you plopped yourself onto your bed, not even bothering to take off your clothes. You were glad Taeyeon wasn’t there in the room currently, because you were sure you might crumble if you met any other human being, Taeyeon or Wonwoo included.

A sigh left your mouth as you processed everything that had just happened. A small accidental drunk kiss which could have potentially ruined your friendship was now actually going to ruin your friendship.

There was no way that he loved you back. Sure he loved you platonically but never ever in a romantic way. He had never dropped a single hint nor did he ever give you a second to doubt that he might have feelings for you. Hell, you were pretty sure you weren’t even his first crush.

And knowing Jeon Wonwoo, you were pretty sure he would still be unbothered if you showed up naked in front of him. If he didn’t remember what had happened yesterday, there was no way he would know that something between the two of you had changed, right?

Groaning internally, you cursed Wonwoo for kissing you and setting off explosions of emotions in your heart. 

Taking a deep breath in, you calmed yourself down. 

Come on, Y/N. You thought to yourself. You can solve coding problems but you can’t solve this little emotional problem? You’ve been through worse! You can do this!

Okay, step one. Avoid Jeon Wonwoo for a while. 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder but you were sure that this little crush (you decided to call this dump load of love as little crush) would disappear if you avoided him like the plague. If you were away from his warmth, handsome face, not-so-funny funny jokes and his overall caring demeanour, you were sure you could beat this fluttering emotion (life was a competition and you were not going to lose). Of course, you wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever without making him suspicious so you just had to avoid the times only when the two of you would hang out, instead of with the group.

Step two. Research on the type of girls Wonwoo might like and avoid those characteristics.

You whipped out your phone to go through your gallery, hoping to find some hint about the type of girls he hung out with, even if it was a five minute interaction. You had a whole gallery dedicated to him because the amount of blackmail material you had collected on him was completely worth it. Scrolling through some of the pictures you had secretly taken of him (all for blackmail purposes), you felt a smile tugging at the corner of your lips.

He looked so adorable, his then shaggy hair falling partly over his eyes, but nothing could stop the sparkle in them as he smiled at the new kitten he had just rescued. He looked ethereal, causing your heart to flutter at the memory of him smiling at you as you snapped a quick photo to commemorate the occasion of him getting his hundredth cat.

Wait, what?

That wasn't part of the plan. You weren’t supposed to fall for him harder, you were supposed to see the kind of girl he likes and maybe laugh at some of the troll pictures you had taken of him. You did laugh at some of them, but now, instead of them being downright funny you could feel a warm sensation of adoration as you laughed.

“Fuck you, Jeon Wonwoo.” You muttered, throwing your phone across the bed and screwing your eyes shut in defeat. That’s it. You were down bad for him.

“Yeah, I was kind of waiting for that to happen.”

You sat up straight faster than the time Taeyeon said your results were posted right in front of the campus. Immediately, you scowled at the newcomer who took this as an invitation to stride into your room, closing the door behind him as he dropped on your bed beside you.

“How did you even get inside the girl’s dormitory?” 

“I didn’t see you in the mess so I asked Taeyeon about it. She said you were probably bawling your eyes out about something in your room and she herself gave me a pass to enter the dorm.” Kwon Soonyoung explained himself and you rolled your eyes. “So spill the tea sis. Why do you want to fuck Jeon Wonwoo that badly even though we kind of knew it was going to happen eventually?”

“Why won’t you tell us?” Soonyoung wailed, shaking you aggressively. You rolled your eyes at his dramatic behaviour, partially embarrassed as some students passing by looked at your group curiously. You wondered if this was the right time to pretend that you didn’t know either of them.

“First of all, I did not agree to tell you anything. You just assumed it on your own. Second of all, there’s no way I’m telling you, Seungkwan and Chan.”

You had been suspicious when Soonyoung said he would round up his emotional support buddies but you did not expect it to be Seungkwan and Chan, definitely some of the biggest anti-secret keepers. Hell, you might have even considered telling them if at least Seokmin was there.

Seungkwan rolled his eyes, grabbing his iced americano and standing up. “It was kind of obvious she wouldn’t tell all of us, Soonyoung. At least you could have heard the secret and told us behind her back.”

“I’m still here Seungkwan.”

“Your point?”

“Come on, Y/N.” Chan urged, his expression that of a genuine friend who was ready to listen to you. “If something is weighing you down, you can always tell us. I promise you that I’ll tape up Soonyoung and Seungkwan’s mouths so that they don’t spread it.”

“Yeah, we promise too.” Seungkwan said, Soonyoung agreeing beside him. You sighed for the millionth time that day, debating whether or not you should risk telling them. You really needed some advice on this matter, especially from someone who knew both you and Wonwoo well. But before you could even open your mouth to speak, Soonyoung cut you off.

“Do you have a crush on Wonwoo?”

Your silence seemed to be enough for them. 

“Wait, that is the problem? I’m sorry, but did you just realise it now?” Seungkwan asked. “I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you look at him. I thought you had it figured out a long time ago but you were just keeping quiet about it.”

“I-I just realised it yesterday! And it's all his fault! He drunk kissed me-”

“Wait, wait, wait. He did what?” Soonyoung jumped up excitedly, as though he was the one who had been kissed by Wonwoo. “He kissed you? Wonwoo fucking kissed you? The Jeon Wonwoo I know?”

“Relax, Soonyoung. It’s not like they had sex or something.”

“Seungkwan!”

“Do you want to ignore your feelings because you are worried that this might ruin your friendship with him?” Chan asked, currently being the only logical one in the group. “Or do you want to take this a step higher but you don’t know if he likes you back?

“I don’t know. I…don’t want to ruin our friendship. I don’t want to ruin anything between us. Wonwoo doesn’t even like me that way, it’s obvious.” You said nervously, not even sure what you wanted. “But now that you say it, the first option looks more appealing.”

“Hey, don’t be like that.” Soonyoung swatted your arm. “Because I’m a thousand percent sure that even Wonwoo likes you. I’ve never seen him look so whipped for anyone who isn’t you. Not even at anime girls.”

“And we all know your inference skills are god tier judging from the last mafia game where you kicked out doctor Mingyu just because you were a thousand percent sure mafia Seokmin was a citizen.” Seungkwan reminded him.

“Yeah, you are really bad at this Soonyoung.” You muttered in agreement, but your mind was occupied by what he had said. Wonwoo looked whipped for you?

“Not to disagree with Seungkwan but I think Soonyoung might be right? I’ve honestly never seen Wonwoo be more comfortable with anyone other than you.” 

You looked around your surroundings, the bench and tree you four were sitting under resembling the one you and Wonwoo had sat on just this morning. You replayed the entire scene in your head once more. What would have happened if you hadn’t realised that you were in love with your best friend? Would everything have been normal between the two of you? Would the drunk kiss just turn into a laughable memory for the two of you to share later on?

Thinking back reminded you of how comfortable the two of you were together, the main reason you were in love with him. Then you stood up, making up your mind.

“I’m not going to chase him.” You said firmly, giving a bitter smile to the three boys around you. “I can’t afford to lose him or even make him feel uncomfortable. Thank you for listening to me and bearing my secret. I guess you guys will have to become my emotional support buddies too.”

“Y/N, we can probably think of some way-”

“Maybe stalk Wonwoo and find out if he likes you-”

“Or just take slow steps and-”

The three of them burst into suggestions, causing your heart to clench. You were glad you had such wonderful caring friends, how much ever annoying or sarcastic they were at times. You waved them a final goodbye.

“I’m fine, really. I’ll keep you guys updated. Thanks for your time but I need to sort out my feelings for now.”

You ignored their protests and walked back to your dorm, the heavy weight burdening you caused your shoulder to slump more with each and every step. If you thought yesterday night had been a whirlwind of emotions then today had been a tsunami. Not only had you realised you were in love with your best friend of many years for the longest of times but you had almost immediately doused that fire in your heart in order to not ruin your friendship with him. Taking two such big decisions in a span of a few hours was enough to melt anyone and you felt like a ticking time bomb that could explode any moment now if you didn’t get some proper rest.

Finally, you reached the corridor of your dorm and froze, a familiar figure standing on your door with a huge packet in his hand.

Jeon Wonwoo raised his hand to knock on your door when he just happened to turn his head in your direction, blocking any chance of escape now. He immediately broke into a smile, face lighting up as though he was waiting for you. It definitely did nothing to stop your heart from stuttering or to stop the smile that automatically appeared on your lips.

All of a sudden you realised what you were doing, and cleared your throat awkwardly. This definitely wasn’t a way to stop your crush on him.

“Hey Wonwoo.” You said softly, unlocking your door and beckoning him inside.

“Hey, how are you feeling? You weren’t at the breakfast table so I kind of got worried and bought you some of your favourite food.” You didn’t know how warm Wonwoo could make you feel with his small gestures until now and you were glad that you had just sat down on your bed because you were sure your jellied knees were about to give away.

Wonwoo followed suit but only after pulling the small coffee table towards your bed and placing the packet on it. You could feel his body heat despite the two layers of clothes between your skins. The familiar smell of his softener comforted you and you turned your attention onto the food, hoping it would act as a distraction from the fact that Wonwoo was just a few centimetres apart from you.

“So what did you get me?” You asked, rubbing your hands as the aroma drifted to you. 

“Your favourite of course. Sushi.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “But sushi is your favourite though?”

“What are you talking about, Y/N? I thought we both liked it?” Rolling your eyes at his grinning face, you unpacked the packet yourself. The smell of the sandwich hit you before you had even taken it out. Wonwoo had bought you egg sandwiches and your favourite yoghurt. Only after you had taken a bite did you realise how hungry you were after all that thinking and skipping breakfast.

“So,” Wonwoo said after finishing his sandwich and picking up a yoghurt. “Are Soonyoung and Seungkwan bullying you?”

You choked on your food as laughter escaped you. “W-What?” You laughed, looking at him and Wonwoo was smiling at you too. “Don’t worry, they aren’t that mean to me.”

“Good to know. In case they try to rope you into their illegal cult, let me know. I’ll get you out of there.”

“Sure, after all, you are my knight in shining armour.” The words were out of your mouth before you could even control yourself. You thought you saw Wonwoo’s smile falter for a fraction of second, but his eyes still had the same expression so you ignored it, thinking maybe it was just your imagination.

“It’s good to see you laugh. You looked so tense in the morning.”

“I did? I guess I was still reeling from the aftermath of a drunk Wonwoo.” Which…wasn’t a lie technically. He leaned back on your bed, grinning at you with all his teeth on display. Was it that amusing? “Don’t do that ever again. It could have been a disaster.” (It already had, in your opinion)

“Tell me about the random girl I was going to make out with.”

“What?” The question had taken you aback as that was the least expected one from him. The Wonwoo you knew wouldn’t have wanted to delve into the details of what he would consider an embarrassing course of action. He wasn’t even sounding concerned or worried right now. If anything, he seemed interested.

“The girl I was going to make out with. Do you know her? Was she cute?”

And you felt a bubble of annoyance burst at the pit of your stomach. Why was he asking you that? And why was he so interested in her all of a sudden?

Amidst the thousand questions popping up in your mind, you were slightly aware that right now you were probably feeling a bit jealous. Never had you thought you would get jealous if Wonwoo had a girlfriend but seeing him so interested in someone when he had never even looked at you as someone he might consider as his date, even for prom back in high school was making you feel jealous.

“Why?” You asked cautiously, careful not to show your annoyance in your tone. Apparently jealousy was another feeling you would have to check now, whenever you were with him.

“Simply. I vaguely remember her being cute so I wanted to get to know her more. To see if she's my type.”

“Well then why don’t you ask some of the guys for her number? Joshua might know.” You said, clearly annoyed now. Standing up, you began picking up your empty cups and wrappers. “Sorry I interrupted you two then. You could have found a potential girlfriend but I ruined your chance for you to sleep with someone.”

Now you were sounding just plain bitter. Walking towards the trash can, you took a deep breath in, trying to calm yourself down. You cannot get jealous now. Especially not when you had literally just found out your feelings a few hours ago. How much ever it hurt listening to your best friend ramble about some hot girl he wished to have more than a hookup with, you had to pretend to be the supporting best friend and not get in his way.

“Y/N?” Wonwoo’s voice came from behind, laced with worry. “Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?”

Yeah, you made me realise I have feelings for you which isn’t technically something wrong ‘you’ did.

“No it’s just that,” you turned towards him and forced a smile on your face. He looked so worried that you cursed yourself for getting your jealousy on the way and nearly hurting him. “I feel like you're not appreciating me enough for all the hard work I did yesterday night.”

“I bought you breakfast?”

“I knew there was something suspicious when you said you were worried I didn’t have breakfast.” 

“Don’t make me such a bad best friend.” He said with an exaggerated sadness but you were more fixated on the last few words he had said. 

There you go. Best friend. That’s what he would always see you as and that’s what the two of you would always be. Never anything more than that and never crossing the thin line between friendship and love.

But still that didn’t stop you from accepting his hug. His warmth engulfed you as his familiar scent took over your senses. It was so comforting that you almost melted in his embrace, his touch giving you comfort for the first time in the day although he was the one who had caused you the distress.

It reminded you of the million times you had hugged before this. Sometimes it was because of happiness and sometimes it was to provide comfort to each other. Jeon Wonwoo had been your saving grace, the anchor to your ship in the vast ocean of challenges and hardships just like how you had been his. You couldn’t think of any future without Wonwoo, it seemed to be impossible to have come so far without him as your best friend. 

You loved him so much that even thinking about it made your heart clench painfully. How could you not? He was everything you could have ever wanted for and with this thought you hugged him back tightly, as though never wanting to let go.

“Don’t worry.” You whispered back. “You’ll always be my best friend.” 

You walked into the lecture hall fashionably late on purpose (but still before the professor, you were not going to taint your record though you had already prepared an excuse about Monday mornings being tough), hoping that all the good seats would be taken and you wouldn't have to sit beside Wonwoo.

But as your best friend was faithful and loyal to you, he had saved you a seat right beside him.

“Here, Y/N!” He patted at the seat beside him when you pretended that you didn’t see him and was going to go past him. Giving him a smile as a thank you, you sat down beside him and unpacked your things, wondering how come you never noticed how good Wonwoo looked in casuals. 

The class went by faster than you had expected and very soon the professor was giving the project details for your first semester.

“It will be in groups of two and you are free to make your own groups. Just give me a list of your group names by the end of the day please.” 

There were collective groans from everyone and even your mind was in a whirlwind. Two people meant that by default you and Wonwoo would be a group together. But that would also mean you would have to spend extra time with him, and that would thaw your plans of avoiding him. 

So before Wonwoo could ask you whether he should write the two of your names and submit or you would, you turned back and grabbed Seungcheol’s hand.

“Seungcheol!” You beamed at him, your smile a little bit too bright (you could see even he was terrified by this sudden outburst but you ignored it.) You knew he and Jeonghan would probably pair up together but this was your safest bet of finding a person who would agree to be your partner since the four of you were already close friends. In that way, you wouldn't completely be leaving Wonwoo in the dark since he could pair up with Jeonghan. “Do you have a partner yet?”

“Er, not yet? But me and-”

“That’s great. Then you can be my partner!”

Silence followed as the three men stared at you. Somehow, you felt Wonwoo’s shocked and probably betrayed expression so you didn’t dare to turn towards him but kept your eyes on Seungcheol. He and Jeonghan looked confused at this but neither of them seemed to want to ask you about it either.

“Uh, okay? If that’s what you want. Then I guess Jeonghan and Wonwoo can be teammates.”

“Okay, students!” The professor’s voice boomed and the four of you turned your attention back to him. You could feel Wonwoo’s eyes still on you as though waiting for an explanation but you ignored him. A small part of you was a little sad as you had done pretty much every project with your best friend and the two of you always had a mutual understanding of things which made it easier to finish them but you were still glad that you wouldn’t have to see him much in this way. Once your feelings were completely gone (if they were), you would then apologise to him and hang out with him just like the good old days. “Since some of you complained that two people is too less for the project, I’ve decided to change it to four.”

Oh no. Oh no.

It was as though the universe was determined to foil each and every single of your plan to avoid Wonwoo and make you suffer. Why did he have to change it like that? Hell, when all of you had complained about the individual power point being too hard and begged him to change it to a group assignment he had just lectured you all for being terribly irresponsible students. So why now? You were even willing to listen to your professor ramble for an hour about the need and requirement of responsible citizens for the society if that meant not pairing up with the cute guy sitting beside you.

“Y/N.” You heard Jeonghan call you out and you turned slowly to the three of them. “Let’s four pair up together, okay?”

You nodded, laughing awkwardly at the turn of events. So much for avoiding Jeon Wonwoo.

Wonwoo opened his mouth to speak but right at that time you heard the professor say ‘class dismissed’. Yelling a ‘later’ at him, you picked your things up and darted out of the room, not even bothering to dump your things in your bag. 

You tried running out of the classroom but people seemed to think it was fine to chat and take their own sweet time, blocking the entrance.

“Um, excuse me. I need to get-”

“Y/N, wait up!” You heard the familiar voice yell at you. “You forgot your computer textbook!”

Now that made you stop. Why did you forget it? Slowly, you turned back towards Wonwoo, a sheepish smile plastered on your face. He smiled at you, as though unbothered by the fact he had practically run away from him.

“Thanks, sorry I left it behind.” You said, noticing that even he didn’t have the chance to put his things in his bag and was carrying them in his hands. 

“Crowd not letting you go?” He asked, eyes scanning the crowd before they landed back on you. He let out a sigh and pushed his specs back again, you now finding the action very endearing. He held out his books to you, making you look at him in confusion.

“Hold these.” He said, dumping them in your arms. 

Then before you could ask what’s wrong, Wonwoo got down on his knees and reached out for your now untied shoelaces. You felt heat creep up your neck as he continued tying your lace, unbothered by the fact that almost everyone was now staring at the two of you. But that was who Wonwoo was, wasn’t he? He never let others' comments or views affect him much and you had always admired him for that. 

Jeonghan let out a wolf whistle when he was done and stood up, taking his books from your hands. “Shall we go?” He asked, casually stirring you away from the crowd (but that didn’t stop you from giving a death glare to a smug Jeonghan and a now giggling Seungcheol).

Wonwoo helped you push through the crowd, which wasn’t much considering the fact everyone had parted to make a way for you two as though you were a couple walking on the red carpet. You could still feel your ears burning and as soon as the two of you turned towards a less filled hallway, you gave him a slight push.

“What was that?” You demanded, not sure whether or not you should be mad at him. It wasn’t that he had never tied your shoelaces for you before; he had and had even scolded you for being so careless. But him doing it now in front of everyone made it feel somehow different. It felt like something a boyfriend would do, not a best friend.

Wonwoo raised his eyebrows at you before speaking .”You are the one to talk. First you avoid me in the class when you always sit beside me. Then after that you all of a sudden want to pair up with Seungcheol? I get it I’m weak at coding but still-”

“It’s not because of that.” You blurted out, then cursed yourself mentally. How were you supposed to explain this to him? You should have known from the beginning that your plan would be foiled because Wonwoo was too observant for his own good.

“Then what is it? What is making you avoid me? Did I say something to you at the party? Did I do something wrong? Because if I did, I’m sorry. I really am. But unless you tell me, I won’t know what it is and I can’t even apologise or make amends to you properly!” He snapped, clearly done with your behaviour. You felt that there was a hint of panic laced in his voice, but maybe it was just your desperate imagination hoping he wasn’t that hurt.

But why wouldn’t he be? He had all the right to. Hell, if you had been in his place you too would have been mad at this unexplainable behaviour.

“I’m sorry Wonwoo.” You muttered, looking at your feet. “I just- I just don’t know where to start. Something happened and it’s overwhelmingly a lot to take in to be honest. Believe me, it’s killing me not being able to tell you too but I just can’t. Not until I’m sure. Not until I’m ready. Please believe me.” You were practically whispering by now, the tears threatening to spill out. Either way it was still your fault if your friendship got ruined.

You felt his strong hands grip your shoulder gently, giving you a reassuring squeeze. 

“Hey.” He said softly, causing you to look up at him. Wonwoo was looking at you concerned and yet so lovingly as though he would always be by your side no matter what. You felt your knees go weak as your heart gave another painful squeeze, reminding you why the two of you were in this sudden sticky situation. “It’s okay, alright? I just…don’t know how to fix this if I don’t even know what’s the problem. But it’s okay. You don’t need to force yourself. I’ll just…I’ll just try to remember or ask someone what I did-”

“You didn’t do anything-”

“No.” He said firmly. “I know I did something. That’s the only explanation to this, Y/N. I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.” Now he sounded miserable and helpless. You could see that he was blaming himself for whatever was happening between the two of you right now. You could see he was worried about you and what he might have done.

And it hurt you seeing him like this. 

This was all your fault. You shouldn’t have thought of avoiding him. For your selfish feelings to disappear, you had nearly ended up hurting Wonwoo more. How could you even think of such a stupid idea in the first place? There was no way the two of you could be separated. 

Then as though by impulse, you wrapped your arms around him, pulling him into a hug. His comforting body heat engulfed you once more, making you almost crave for more of his touch. The fact that you hated hugs unless they were from Jeon Wonwoo lingered in the back of your mind but all logical reasoning was lost when he hugged you back. 

You felt safe, and as pathetic it sounded, you felt content and loved. As though this simple hug was more than enough for you and you didn’t need to be labelled as a couple. It felt dumb now, thinking how you thought you could even survive by avoiding Wonwoo. 

“Oh, Woo.” You whispered, using the nickname you had picked a long time ago for him. “Please don’t beat yourself up for this. I won’t stop you from finding out on your own. But I don’t think I can tell you about it now. “

He gently patted your back and you closed your eyes, enjoying the moment as you felt yourself relax at his touch. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me now.” 

The two of you stood like that for quite some time, just enjoying each other’s presence. You were sure he could feel your heart hammering but neither of you seemed to want to let go.

“Just promise me one thing.” Wonwoo broke the silence first, and you hummed, urging him to continue. “You won’t ever choose Seungcheol over me as your partner just because I’m bad at coding.��

“Hmmm.” You pretended to think, breaking away from his grasp. “But I might consider choosing Jeonghan though.”

“Good luck with your new best friend then I guess.”

“Wonwoo come back! I’m just kidding!” 

“Hey, you okay?” 

Seulgi’s voice snapped you back to the present, making you realise that pretty much everyone (five to be specific) were staring at you.

“Uh, yeah.” You cleared your throat and sat up straighter, wondering if you had missed any question. “Sorry. Just a little…tired.”

Taeyeon’s eyes flicked to yours and an unspoken understanding took place between the two of you. You were so glad that you had such a mature roommate who always took care of you.

Usually, you loved attending your club meetings. After a long day of studying it seemed the most relaxing way to unwind without locking up yourself in your room. Your clubmates were fun and great friends (making it more like an open-discussion-for-all-your-troubles club). But today, no matter how hard you tried, you just couldn’t concentrate on today's debate session of three eyes versus three legs. 

The Science club, or as known to the world as the Science Fan Club, had been opened by Kim Kibum, when he got into an argument with the real Science Club president, Kim Jungwoo and got kicked out of the Club with a ban for life sticker on his hand. And he, being a young man full of burning passion (and petty spiteful revenge) decided to start a science club of his own. 

And like any other great (self-proclaimed) leader, Kibum too had faced many tough challenges on his way. For starters, there could not be two clubs with the same name so he had to get a little creative. And secondly, no one was willing to join this club so at the end he practically had to beg (read black mail) some of you to join. 

So now there were just the six of you in the club, but somehow that made this club of yours more endearing. Kang Seulgi, Kim Taeyeon, Lee Taemin, Kim Kibum and lastly Boo Seungkwan was definitely saved under the favourites list in your contacts (Except Taemin because he had been saved under the ‘never call unless absolute emergency’ list).

Kibum let out the most dramatic sigh ever as though he was the one facing the crisis of being in love with his best friend and not you. “Y/N, you know you can tell us everything right?”

That definitely increased your confidence because Kim Kibum and Boo Seungkwan were notoriously not called the ‘gossiping besties’. It wasn’t a secret that if either of the two (and if your luck was bad maybe even both) got hold of your secret, you could pretty much expect it to be printed in the next day’s newspaper for it to be announced to the entire world. The only way to escape this was by bribing them, which was basically just agreeing that whatever they did or said was right (as though either of them even needed anymore ego boost).

“Yeah Y/N.” Seungkwan leaned in close, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You can tell us everything, you know.” As though he didn’t know it.

Internally, you were strangling Soonyoung (and cursing yourself) for even thinking of bringing Seungkwan for your emotional support. 

“Nothing. I’m fine!” You gushed, looking at Taeyeon for support. 

“Hey Y/N. Your boyfriend’s here.” Taemin cut either of you off and you whipped towards the door, only to see your best friend standing there casually, leaning against the door frame. When your eyes met his, he smiled and waved at you, causing your cheeks to heat up.

You immediately looked away, standing up and packing your things as an excuse so that no one saw how flustered you were by a simple gesture.

“Er, I’ll get going.” You muttered, once again running out of the room, but this time instead of running away from Wonwoo you were running towards him.

“Enjoy your date!” Seungkwan yelled after you and you shut the door with a loud bang, hoping the noise would drown him out.

Note to self: search up how to hide your friend’s dead body.

“Hey Woo.” You said, slightly breathless as the two of you began walking towards the dorms. “Did you have something to tell me?” Wonwoo had never come to pick you up from your clubs so to say you were confused would be an understatement.

“Yeah, kind of? I have something to give you rather.” He said, stirring you away from the path that led to the dorms and instead walking towards where all the canteens were. “Do you want to have pizza with me?”

“Did Seokmin give you his extra ‘regular customer’ discount coupons?”

Wonwoo laughed, shaking his head in a no. “He wouldn’t give them to anyone even if the world was ending.” 

“That’s true. You are treating me right?”

“I bought you sandwiches and yoghourt yesterday.” 

“I think I’ll just have dinner in the mess.”

“Fine.” He raised his hand in defeat, still smiling. “Do you want to eat at Pizza Hut or at my dorm?”

You thought about it for sometime and realising how tired you were, you decided to have it in his dorm instead (your plan of avoiding him was practically forgotten by now).

Fifteen minutes later, the two of you were huddled on his bed slouching over the coffee table, as you dug into the pizzas you had ordered. For a few minutes neither of you talked, finishing the first pizza in a record breaking time (you were a slow eater) until you opened the second box.

“God, what is this?” You asked, picking up completely green pizza. It looked like an overgrown shrub had been smashed and dumped on your pizza. Wonwoo shrugged beside you, taking a slice out of his own chicken pizza.

“You ordered it. Not me.”

“But why is the pesto sauce so green? And why is it dripping over like that?” 

Wonwoo laughed at you before taking out a few napkins. Taking the slice from your hand, he placed it on the napkin and gently placed it back on your hand. He then placed more napkins on your lap. “Don’t spill on the floor, please. It’s a hassle to clean up.”

You looked at him curiously.

“What? Don’t tell me you want me to feed you too?” He joked but that made you even more curious.

“Will you, if I asked you to?” You teased, waiting for him to give his usual nonchalant look.

“Yes.” Wonwoo said without missing a beat, causing you to freeze halfway as the pizza was about to enter your mouth. You cleared your throat awkwardly but he remained unbothered and went back to eating his pizza. 

Of course he would say yes. You thought to yourself. Friends can feed each other. Especially since we’ve known each other since we were toddlers. Cursing yourself for finding double meanings of his words, you cleared your throat.

“Hey Woo?”

“Hmm?” 

“What would you do if I kissed you?”

This time, Wonwoo froze before turning to you, panic very much evident in his eyes.

“What?” He asked, his voice sounding higher than usual.

“Accidently of course.” You added hastily, worried that he might misunderstand the situation. “Like, like by mistake? What would you do then? Like would you kiss me back because of the heat of the moment-”

“Y/N.” Wonwoo interrupted you, setting his pizza down. He was looking at you bewildered and you could feel the familiar heat rising up your cheeks once more .”Where is this coming from?”

“Nowhere!” You squeaked, keeping your eyes on your pizza so that you didn’t give away anything. “I just recently read a best friends to lovers fanfiction and something like that happened, so I just wanted to know what would have been your reaction.” 

Wonwoo seemed to have bought your lie because his expression changed to a frown, as though thinking hard about it.

“Well…” he began cautiously, as though this was a sensitive topic he was treading on (which it was). “If the best friend liked the person who kissed them, then I guess they would kiss them back? Or maybe, maybe not because they might be thinking of how this was just taking advantage of them. Though if the first person kissed them, even if accidentally, wouldn’t that mean they too like them?”

“I guess…” You said, uncertain whether this meant he liked you or not. Damn Jeon Wonwoo for not dropping clearer hints. You thought of what Soonyoung, Seungkwan and Dino had said. Could it be true? “But Wonwoo, I asked what would you do?”

Never did you think you would see your best friend blush but here he was, ears turning slightly red at your question. Had you stepped out of the line too much?

“Me?” He mumbled, taking a big bite of the last pizza slice as though he was trying to avoid your question. Then, he looked up straight into your eyes before answering, causing your stomach to give a lurch. “I think I’ll do whatever happens at the spur of the moment. But I don’t think I will ever kiss you back for too long.” 

Even though he had already mentioned that he wouldn’t want to take advantage of you, hearing that he wouldn’t kiss you coming out his mouth still hurt you. Nonetheless you nodded and smiled at him as though agreeing with his thoughts and turned your concentration back to the pizza. It felt awfully soggy in your mouth now and even the warm food wasn’t enough to make you forget the tight, suffocating, squeezing pain in your heart. 

Silence engulfed the two of you once again until Wonwoo interrupted it.

“Hey.” He said, causing you to look at him. His hand gently cupped your chin, swiping his thumb at the corner of your lip to get the pesto sauce off. Your stomach somersaulted at the action and when his eyes met yours, the two of you froze. 

You could feel your cheeks warming up, almost the temperature of his hand as Wonwoo stared at you, mouth opening and closing at a loss for words. He too turned the slightest shade of red, both of you mirroring each other’s flusteredness. He quickly jerked his hand away from you, rapidly wiping them on the napkin as he cleared his throat awkwardly. You were sure that he could your heart beating rapidly, threatening to jump off your chest. 

What was wrong with you today? What was wrong with him today? Why did he have to do those small gestures and make you feel like a mess in front of him? He had already ruined your plan of staying away from him and now he was going to even ruin your facade. 

Quickly drinking your glass of water to calm yourself down, you stood up and dusted your hands, indicating you were done. 

“Er, let me help you clean up.” You pointed, and he nodded, distracted and unable to meet your eyes.

For some reason, seeing the usually emotionless Jeon Wonwoo look so flustered made you crack up a bit.

Ha! Serves you right for roping me into this wild goose chase for your heart!

You let out a giggle, and he looked up at you confused. “What is it?”

“Nothing. That beanie looks ugly on you.” You lied. Wonwoo faked a dumbfounded look at you and you sniggered once more, moving towards his bathroom to wash your hands. But once you entered, you felt a sigh of frustration leave you as you took in your surroundings. His laundry pile had grown so much that you were amazed he even was wearing clothes right now.

“Wonwoo.” You said, coming out of the bathroom. He was busy setting up his xbox and just nodded at you to go on. “Why is your laundry bag on the verge of exploding?”

“I’ll wash them later.” He said, his attention on the game he was playing. 

“Then I won’t hang out with you anymore. You know I hate smelly guys.” You joked and this turned his attention back to you. He threw the controller back on the bed and walked up to you.

Whenever the movies showed the scenes of the guy walking up to the girl and pinning her against the wall, you couldn’t understand what made it so romantic. For you, it was just borderline scary to see a person advance on someone else like that.

But as Wonwoo walked up to you with that stupid grin on his face, you realised what those movies might have hinted at finally. Your stomach felt like you had just been dropped from a rollercoaster and you quickly backed against the wall. But that didn’t stop him and it made you wonder when the hell had your best friend become this hot.

You backed against the wall, until your back hit the wall. Wonwoo didn't stop until his body was pressed against yours, face inches away.

His messy hair fell over his eyes, but it wasn't enough to cover the mischievous glint in them. His long sharp nose nearly brushed against yours as he stared softly at you, causing your stomach to do flip flops. It was the first time you had noticed how soft and inviting his lips were. Wonwoo still smelled the same comforting smell, and you could swear you would have melted then and there if it wasn't for the growing heat in your cheeks keeping you rooted to reality.

"What was that?" He said, his voice almost a low rough whisper which shot shivers down your spine. Any chance of escaping was lost when he placed two muscular arms on either side of you. If you weren't sure if he could hear your abnormally loud heartbeat, you were now sure that he could definitely feel it because of how close you two were. "You don't want to hang out with me?"

There was faux sadness in his voice, indicating that he was only playing around with you and you would have laughed if you weren't trapped between his arms.

"Yeah." You muttered, trying to look anywhere except his eyes. You felt like your legs might give away from the intensity of his stare. "Not only do you have poor choices of clothing like that ugly beanie but you are also smelly."

Then before you could add on, Wonwoo pulled you into a lung crush hug.

"Yeah! Let's be smelly together!" He yelled as you tried wrestling away from him.

"Jeon Wonwoo! Let me go"

You tried your hardest but finally gave up, allowing him to collapse onto the bed, pulling you with him. You let yourself melt in his embrace as you took in his scent again, the safe feeling of his strong arms around you making you feel like you were on cloud nine.

"Stay like this for a while?" He whispered and you found yourself nodding, unable to let him or the moment go either.

So this was what it felt like to be in love. 

“I was waiting for you.”

The voice stopped you on your tracks and you turned to see the one and only Lee Taemin, leaning against the huge door frames of the canteen. You were already running late due to your extra study session in the library and seeing Taemin first thing in the morning definitely wasn’t a good omen.

“What do you want?” You asked nonchalantly, eyes searching the canteen for your friends instead. 

“Nothing. So yesterday I was observing you and Wonwoo.”

“You were stalking us?”

“No! It's because of the shoelace incident, okay?” You internally groaned, making a mental note to slap Wonwoo once more. “Anyways I caught you guys hugging-”

“So you were stalking us.”

“Please dont report me to the police. My career is on the line.” Taemin begged you, about to get on his knees. You rolled your eyes at his dramatic antics. This is why they said choosing your companions was very important because you had no doubt that he had learnt all of this from Kibum.

“Anyways, have you ever got the feeling that you’ve got Wonwoo wrapped around your fingers?” 

“Excuse me, what?” To say you this hadn’t piqued your would be a lie, this was the second time you were hearing this. Could it be that he actually liked you too? But then again, Wonwoo was an extremely loyal friend so of course he did everything and anything for you.

“Yeah. He’s like…totally in love with you. He always looks like a simp whenever he’s around you.”

“Um…” maybe calling Wonwoo a simp was a bit too much because you had spent years with him and he did not react towards you the way he usually did when he simped for someone. “Yeah, thanks for the information. I’ll keep it in mind.” You gave him a smile and then muttered underneath your breath. “You are worse than Soonyoung.”

“Hey I heard that!” 

You ignored him and walked towards the table where food was being served. Filling your platter, you finally located your friends and went to sit with them. Wonwoo had already saved a seat for you beside him and you placed your plate on the table before sitting down on the cold steel bench.

“Hi, Y/N.” Joshua, who was sitting opposite to you, greeted you. You smiled at him before turning towards Wonwoo.

“They ran out of yoghurt.” You complained to him, to which he placed an unopened pot on your plate.

“You said you would take a detour to the library today so I knew you would be late and miss out on this.” He said, when you gave him a surprised look.

Before you could thank him, Mingyu cut you off. “What about me? I told you I would be late too but you didn’t save any sausages for me!” 

“You said you were going to be late because you were planning on sleeping in. How is that the same thing?”

That didn’t stop from Mingyu pouting and you let out a laugh. Somehow, Mingyu’s misery always seemed to be your joy like some sort of sadistic person but luckily the latter didn’t mind at all. He just smiled back at you, equally enjoying. 

“Hey Wonwoo, can you try not to be so obvious in front of us?” Seungkwan said, pretending to puke over his food. You turned to look at the male beside you but he was already staring at his food so you turned to Seungkwan instead.

“Obvious about what?”

“Nothing. He was just staring at…someone.” Jeonghan snickered, causing you to raise an eyebrow. You once again turned your attention back to Wonwoo and when he refused to look at you, you nudged him.

“Are you staring at the girl?”

Now he looked up at you confused, as did everyone else at the table.

“Which girl?” Joshua asked, looking a bit too excited for your comfort. 

“Er, that girl Wonwoo was about to make out with? Soonyoung saw them too. Are you talking about her?”

Silence filled your table which wasn’t something you had expected. You thought the guys would have been excited that Wonwoo was finally interested in someone but instead they were looking at him in confusion. 

“Uh, no. I, uh, decided she wasn’t my type.” Wonwoo said and you nodded, a small part of you feeling relieved. “By the way, um, is everyone coming to tonight’s fest?”

A collective ‘yeah’s and ‘of course’s went across the table and you nodded too. Your college fest was something everyone had told you to look forward to from the very beginning of the year and you were excited to see what it was about. Luckily for you, first years didn’t have to do anything and could just enjoy the festival. You were especially looking for the fireworks display at the end of the festival, which the chemical engineering and art students were in charge of (you were not sure what the chemical engineering kids even did to help in this but you were a computer engineer major who avoided chemistry whenever you could and just accepted whatever you were told).

“I heard,” Jeonghan said all of a sudden leaning towards the table, “that you need a date to be able to watch the show?”

“Don’t spew nonsense, Yoon- Ow!” Seungcheol was cut off by Jeonghan very evidently kicking him underneath the table, causing you to narrow your eyes at him. 

“Where did you hear that from?” You asked and he blinked at you innocently. The whole table looked interested in this brand new piece of information. 

“Didn’t you see the event name? It’s ‘sparks in your heart’. A senior told me that only those who actually understood would be allowed front row seats.”

Now you didn’t have an argument about that. Was it true then? 

If you had been told any other time that you needed a partner, you would have chosen Wonwoo in a blink. But now you weren’t sure if you could do that, since he was so interested in that girl. It stung your heart but you knew that if you asked first he wouldn’t refuse and you didn’t want to force him.

“Then I guess I need to leave to find a partner.” You said standing up with your now empty tray. Wonwoo didn’t even try to stop you and you pushed back the sadness lapping at the corners of your heart. No need to be upset over such a small thing.

“Y/N, do you want to go with me-” Wonwoo began but you cut him off with a smile. Knowing him, he would probably put your feelings above his and you did not want to be that friend who got jealous over best friends relationships, no matter how much you liked him.

“It’s fine Woo. You should go out with her. This looks like the perfect opportunity.” Saying that, you bid everyone goodbye and walked out of the canteen, trying to focus on how exciting today’s events were going to be. It wasn’t like he was going to hang out with her all the time right? Just the fireworks event would be enough, right? 

You giggled at the thought of Wonwoo trying to ask someone out and wondered what would be her reaction. There was no way she would refuse him, right?

After all, in your eyes Wonwoo was perfect (and judging by the number of girls in his fan club, others agreed with you too. In fact, you realised bitterly, they had seen the boyfriend-material potential in him before you did.) He was sweet, handsome, tall, smart and a bit awkward at times which made him more endearing. But maybe it was because he was your best friend, or maybe it was because you were totally whipped for him that you found him so perfect. Even his flaws were perfections for you. Whatever the reason was, you knew the painful truth that no one could possibly take the place of Wonwoo in your heart.

And maybe, maybe a small part of you wished she would turn him down.

“How does this look on us?” Seungkwan and Chan asked, as they picked up matching couple masks, causing Soonyoung, Seokmin and you to snort with laughter. You were hanging out with the four of them (Seokmin had been pulled into your group of ‘emotional support’ after Seungkwan and Soonyoung complained that their trio booseoksoon was incomplete with only boo and soon so eventually he was even let into your secret).

The whole evening had been a blast for you, hanging out with the most chaotic crew of your friends group was definitely the best idea. They had made the entire evening more lively and you could feel a smile already tugging at the corner of your lips, knowing full well that Chan and Seungkwan were definitely up to something. 

You sighed contently, as Soonyoung and Seokmin offered to help them look more couple-like. And this evening would have been just perfect, if only all of your agenda tonight wasn’t avoiding Jeon Wonwoo.

As soon as you heard what Jeonghan said, you confessed your thoughts on what Wonwoo might do to Soonyoung, who in turn called upon this mini gang who knew your secret for a solution. 

So in conclusion, you were back to plan one: avoiding Wonwoo.

You had managed to dodge him the entire evening even though you were missing him a lot. No matter how much your group of friends tried to keep you distracted, it was like every single small thing in the fest reminded you of the times you spent with him some way or another.

You dearly wished you could go back to the days when you were unbothered by his presence, when your heart didn’t race by his mere actions or when your cheeks didn’t heat up at each and every compliment. It was like a part of you was missing, a very important part which wasn’t letting you enjoy and that’s when you realised how much you truly cherished and loved him.

Come on, Y/N. You thought to yourself. It’s not like you and Wonwoo were attached at the waist even back at school. There are many events you two spent without each other. Or were there?

So far you hadn’t bumped into Wonwoo or any of your other friends luckily, and you really hoped the entire night would pass by quickly in this manner. The night was a bit chilly and you were damn sure your best friend was going to wear one of his extra soft sweaters which always made him look tiny and made you want to collapse into his arms. 

Presently, you found Seungkwan and Chan asking you the same question of how they looked, but this time Seokmin and Soonyoung had added more party stuff to their looks, like some goofy sunglasses and pompom earrings.

“You look like a desperate couple trying to fix their almost blown up marriage.” A familiar deep voice spoke from behind you as you felt an arm wrap around your shoulder. You froze for a second when the comforting scent hit you, and then finally looked up to see your grinning best friend at your side.

Except that he wasn’t grinning at you. In fact, he wasn’t even looking at you and you felt your stomach drop. Had you taken the game too far once again? At this rate you were pretty sure your friendship would be over by tonight.

Even your gang of friends seemed to be taken aback and for a second you were worried one of them; mostly Soonyoung or Chan; might blurt out asking how he had found them, making it obvious that they had been trying to avoid him but Seokmin was the first to recover and he burst out in laughter, pulling Mingyu into a (random) hug.

“Right? That’s exactly the look we were trying to go for!” Seokmin said.

“Ooh, let’s take a picture and then do Joshua and Jeonghan too.” Jun snickered, causing even you to laugh, making you almost forget that Wonwoo was right beside you. 

The rest of your friends moved towards Seungkwan and Chan (fourteen people made it hard to actually fit in one small stall together), and so did you but Wonwoo’s iron-like grip prevented you from moving. You looked up at him once again and he still hadn’t looked at you, but you could see his jaws working.

“We need to talk.” He said and you gulped at how calm he sounded. It felt like the calm before the storm and you were really worried about what he was going to say. 

“But- But the fireworks event starts in five minutes!” You protested and he looked at you now.

“Do you even have a date?” He asked. and you looked down at your feet, muttering a ‘no’.

“Well, neither do I. Come on, I found a better place to watch it.” Saying that, he stirred away from the crowd. Before you knew it, you were out of the ground where the fest was taking place, the cool night air causing you to shiver despite your jacket. You turned slightly and saw that you were right, Wonwoo was wearing a sweater.

It reminded you of the night he had kissed you.

“Are you cold?” Wonwoo asked gently, his tone completely changed now and somehow you felt relieved. Maybe he wasn’t angry after all. He probably didn’t even realise it.

You nodded. But what can he do about it? It’s not like he has a jacket or-

Wonwoo pulled you in closer to his body, your back hitting his chest and you felt your cheeks heat up. He wrapped his arms around you, engulfing you into his warmth and you couldn’t help but snuggle closer to him as though by reflex. He was still stirring you away from the fest, but now he was walking slower than before, as though making sure you didn’t accidentally trip over him.

Your heart felt like it was going to jump out of your chest, almost melting into a puddle because of how he held you, each touch causing goosebumps to rise up your arms (you were glad for your jacket now).  

“Where are we going?” You whispered, though you were not sure why you were whispering. Maybe it was because you felt that talking loudly might ruin the mood he had created between the two of you, how much ever platonically he saw it.

“You’ll see.” He whispered back, his breath hot against your ears. 

And now you saw where the two of you were heading to. It was the uphill part of your college campus where you and Wonwoo had rested the day after the party. The bench where you had realised you had feelings for him.

In a way Wonwoo was right. You definitely would get a better view here. 

Finally, the two of you reached the designated spot and he let you go finally. You took a few steps away from him and looked away, trying to cool your cheeks.

“Y/N.” He called you and you turned towards him. Wonwoo covered the distance between the two of you in just two strides, and you found yourself in his embrace again. “Y/N?” He asked again.

“Yeah?” Your voice shook but you didn’t have it in you to pull away from his grip, to fight against this wonderful fluttering feeling anymore. He looked so beautiful, so beautiful, the moonlight giving a soft glow to his face and yet bringing out his sharp features. You let out a breath, feeling the entire world disappear as though it was just the two of you right now.

Wonwoo raised his hand and pushed his specs back up his nose bridge, causing you to flinch. You immediately regretted your action because he closed his eyes shut, brows frowning as though he had finally realised everything.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was strained, and it broke your heart hearing him like this. “Why didn’t you tell me what I did? I made you uncomfortable and you- and you-”

“Stop it, Woo.” You whispered, cupping his cheeks. His eyes fluttered open and when they met yours, you felt your heart swell with love. “You didn’t- I mean-”

“I’m so sorry Y/N. I'm so, so sorry. I should have realised it earlier-” 

“No. It’s my fault too. I didn’t tell you anything.”

He pulled you into a hug, tightening his arms around you as though you might disappear if he let you go. You too clung on to him like he was your lifeline, burying your face into the crook of his neck. You shut your eyes close and somewhere far away, you vaguely heard someone shout that there was a minute left till the countdown. 

“I- I have something else to tell you too.” He mumbled and you gently rubbed his back, urging him to go on. The cold had almost disappeared and you would have given up anything to freeze this moment. “Y/N. I love you.”

You froze at his words but Wonwoo went on. “I- I- know I shouldn’t be but I just couldn’t- I just can’t help it. I love you. I love you so much till the point that I can’t imagine a world without you. Even thinking about it makes breathing hard.”

He let out a hollow laughter and you broke from the hug, your hands still on his biceps as you looked at him but he refused to meet your eyes, choosing to stare down instead at the small gap between the two of you.

“You don’t have to respond to me. I just wanted you to know…that when I kissed you it wasn’t because I was drunk or something. I truly love you and I will always treasure you. I know I’m- I’m pathetic.”

“Jeon Wonwoo.” You exhaled and he finally looked back at you. “I kissed you back. Wonwoo, I kissed you back.”

“But that was because it was in the heat of the moment-”

“And then I realised how much I love you. I love you Wonwoo and you are the reason I cannot go to bed without thinking how I will probably end up messing up our relationship. But I can’t stop loving you either.”

Wonwoo blinked at you, as though mulling your words in his head. The two of you stared at each other, until you dropped your eyes down, unable to meet his soft gaze anymore.

“You know,” he said, causing you to look up at him. Down at the ground, the countdown had already started. “I’ve always been whipped for you. It’s like I’m a sucker for you.”

The countdown hit one and you felt Wonwoo jerk you closer to him, his lips crashing with yours. Your heart exploded along with the firecrackers in the sky, but all other noises drowned out when he pulled you in impossibly closer.

It reminded you of the first time you both kissed. But somehow this was different. It felt like there was more feelings in this one, making it more sensual. Wonwoo moved his mouth slowly and softly against yours, his warm lips on yours making your mind completely fuzzy. 

He smelled so good, and you clung onto his neck as he rubbed soft circles on your back. 

Finally the two of you broke apart, breathless but smiling at each other. Crowd below was clapping, causing you to grin more.

“How are you such a good kisser?” You asked, pretending to be suspicious. Wonwoo just laughed and brushed his nose against yours.

“You missed the fireworks because of me.” He said and you shook your head, pressing a chaste kiss on his lips which caused him to chase after yours.

“It’s fine. I saw different sparks this time.” 

He rested his forehead against yours, staring at you softly, nearly causing you to scream internally not to look away. 

“I can’t believe the prettiest girl in this world is in love with me.”

“You better believe it Mr.Jeon because now I need to fight off all your fangirls.”

He laughed, and you realised you had never heard a more endearing sound before. 

“Don’t worry. I’ve been warding them for all these years just for you. Won’t be hard to do it for a few more years.”

A/N: Please do tell me what you think about this story!! I worked really hard on it and I would love to know everyone’s thoughts on it~ Comments and reblogs are appreciated!  

© 𝐆𝐘𝐔-𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

[felassan]

Thoughts on the new Dragon Age: Dreadwolf teaser THEDAS CALLS, and other new things about the game from DA Day 2023

[post under cut due to length]

(ﾉ `･∀･)ﾉﾞ New stuff! Let's goo!

Other than chatting about the new stuff with some friends, I have avoided reading other posts (and other peoples' speculations/theories from other websites/platforms) about it. I like to try and get it all out my head onto 'paper' before doing so (it's fun seeing the few things I get right and the more things I get wildly wrong in theorycrafting hhh). after this post I'm super excited to dive into other speculations, compare and contrast and also read the thoughts of others on things I will have totally missed!

this post will mention some things I already mentioned in previous posts.

First, I think it's interesting that the "Welcome to Dragon Age" text blurb on the website has been slightly updated. the old version reads:

“Enter Thedas, a vibrant world of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities. The Dragon Age is a time of warring nations, savage combat, and secret magics. Now, the fate of this world teeters on a knife’s edge. Thedas needs a new hero; one they’ll never see coming. Forge a courageous fellowship to challenge the gathering storm. Friendship, drama, and romance abound as you bring striking individuals together into an extraordinary team. Become the hero and light the beacon of hope in their darkest moments.” [can be seen here]

The new version reads:

"Enter the world of Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in savage combat and secret magics. Now, the fate of this world teeters on a knife's edge. Thedas needs a new leader; one they'll never see coming. You’ll forge a courageous fellowship to challenge the gathering storm. Friendship, drama, and romance will abound as you bring striking individuals together into an extraordinary team. Become the leader and light the beacon of hope in their darkest moments." [source]

I like "the world of Thedas" better as it makes for a nice call back to the World of Thedas lore books. The reference to "warring nations" has been removed which I find curious, and what remains is savage combat and secret magics only. I wonder if it was decided that some 'warring nations' storyline elements would take more of a back seat? e.g. the Tevinter/Qunari Antaam war or Qunari Antaam invasion of Tevinter and other northern nations. - in favor of focusing on the array of other stuff, factions, threats and plot-threads that's going on, like Solas' plans/the Veil, the threat of the Evil Gods, whatever's going down among the Wardens, all the new factions (Lords of Fortune, Shadow Dragons, Veil Jumpers), red lyrium etc? there's certainly lots the plot could involve and explore without a nations at war plotline/backdrop. The Qunari Antaam invasion has been covered a lot now anyways in short stories, Tevinter Nights, and the recent comics, and I'm reminded of how the mage-templar war in the run-up to DA:I seemed like it would be a bigger part of the game's plot than what it turned out to be.

Also interestingly, a new "hero" has been changed to new "leader". Become the "leader", not become the "hero". I feel like these words have kinda different connotations. what are the connotations of "leader" as opposed to "hero"?

I also like the Thedas Calls tagline. this teaser reminded me of parts of the DA:I "A Wonderful World" trailer, in that both are showcasing the varied regions we'll visit and locales that will feature in the game. and yk, I am super enjoying BG3, it's an amazing game that is really fun and beautiful and I've put loads of hours into it, but I miss the world&worldbuilding of DA. Thedas is calling to me indeed ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

Now, the fate of this world teeters on a knife's edge. // "a spike of lyrium sprang from the base of the idol, so that all at once, it was not merely an idol, but a ritual blade."

I also wanna take a moment to compile in one place the various lines posted by the BW and DA Twitter accounts:

"Thedas is on the cusp of revelation and on the brink of damnation."

"This is Thedas. 💜 Enjoy it while it lasts." ("What does that mean?!")

"The Dread Wolf readies to make his move."

It's well-established by now that Solas has been Planning things and that there are imminent threats (not just Solas) to Thedas. it's also pretty commonly thought that the Veil will indeed be brought down in or prior to the next game - that would change the nature of Thedas as we know it, and the nature of reality. one version of Thedas would end as a new world begins (or the old world returns?). these snippets also sound like general fantasy/marketing/high-stakes SAVE THE WORLD! / THE WORLD IS UNDER THREAT OMG taglines. lines from the DA:I marketing era ("Will you stand against [the darkness/fires above]? Or lead this world to its bitter end?", "Lead Them Or Fall") weren't super accurate to the contents of that game. so I'm not sure how much we can read into them. but they sound cool and serve a purpose. (even the Gear Store account is in part in on it btw, "unveiling" the new merch in the store hh).

I also like the suggestion that a sort of bronzey color accompanies the purple color themeing now. it's neat.

To the trailer. The teaser is "a mix of gameplay and cinematics". It "represents [a] game in development". it's in-engine. we're told that there will be a full reveal of DA:D in the summer of 2024. what might a full reveal entail? sounds like a kind of detailed showcase right? showing new companions, showing gameplay, story trailers and story information, in-depth looks at specific systems in or aspects of the game like skill trees or CC or something etc. when might that be exactly - perhaps Summer Game Fest, or during an EA Play type event? they could also just do their own showcase.

also overall I liked the teaser, I thought it was neat, it looked and sounded cool.

the new blurbs from the latest blog are relevant to the trailer, so let's put them here too.

Ever the pinnacle of mystery and intrigue, the Crows watch from the deep shadows of beautiful Antiva. Something, however, is amiss, and they are set on uncovering the source.

-

Upon eastern shores and sunkissed sands, the Lords of Fortune no longer hold dominion over the coasts of Rivain—not when dragons are growing bolder and laying waste to their ships.

-

To the far west, three Grey Wardens patrol the Anderfels. Tremors have been creating disturbances of late. Their cause is unknown. Upon the distant horizon, a storm of ominous intent brews and darkens the skies.

-

We see a shot of Antiva and the port-city of Treviso. this city is in northern Antiva, on the coast of the Rialto Bay. The Antivan Crows originate from the lands surrounding Treviso, and it’s an important city for the guild still, as well as the seat of House Valisti. Fittingly in this shot in the trailer we see a corvid in the foreground, and more flying from Treviso in other parts of the map.

Treviso has been captured, occupied, burned and liberated several times during the Qunari Wars and the New Exalted Marches, and in recent times irl and in the post-DA:I Thedas timeline, in the short story As We Fly it has been occupied and invaded by Qunari Antaam. ("The Antaam will rule Antiva. And Treviso will learn to kneel." / "Out of time, like your city. And soon, the world" / "Treviso will be free.")

He smiled and signaled for his men to halt, making a show of raising his war hammer to his shoulder, emphasizing its weight. "Out of breath?" he called.

I'd also like to note that while the blurbs reference tremors in the Anderfels, the trailer map shows fault lines/cracks in other parts of Thedas, as here in Antiva.

Next we see a shot of the Treviso skyline at night. corvids fill the night sky and it sounds like we can hear them cawing. on a tower or rooftop is a statue of a crow (in fact there's more than one of these), and the rooftops with the roof tiles and those distinctive domes look like they would be super fun to do some Assassin's Creeding on. it's cool to see this locale from previous teasers and previous concept art pieces come to life again. Does anyone see any hint of the Qunari Antaam occupation of Treviso being ongoing in this shot? I could be missing something.

"We fight for everyone, and we always will. The Crows rule Antiva." Who could the speaker be? Andarateia Cantori, Caterina Dellamorte, Noa de Acutis, a member of House Valisti, Crow Lady who is from concept art, the "another Crow" or "friend" who picked up the contract in As We Fly, someone new? What she's saying is also of note. the Crows are a guild of assassins who basically run Antiva, not freedom fighters per se. but as we can see in As We Fly, as the Crows have been combatting the Qunari Antaam occupation of the city, the Treviso populace have begun in part to see them as something akin to freedom fighters who are "fighting for us!" Noa and Neri, a pair of old Antivan Crows, discussed how the Crows are trying to free Antiva, and the Crow message being intentionally shaped in response to the message of the Qunari Antaam occupation:

"Pity,” said Noa, smiling across her drink. “I'd enjoy killing a few pretenders.” Neri smiled back. "Noted. But until then, we craft our message to answer theirs." He raised his cup. "The Crows rule Antiva." Noa answered with her own. "And Treviso will be free."

The Antivan Crow speaking in the trailer is echoing this message. it could also be a sincerely-held belief or principle for her of course. Teia for example seems to lean this way, and in Tevinter Nights it's detailed that before Houses and masks, the Crows were monks near Treviso. using some herbs they poisoned a local duke who was terrorizing a village; they did what needed to be done to protect the Antivan people. over the years, they've apparently lost sight of that. (with a Crow in TN saying that now it's all about family and blood instead of a claw working as one, and disparaging them for being all about money when, in the beginning, they were protectors who fought for Antiva and for the people. he felt that they had chosen profit over patriotism somewhere along the way). so for some Crows it's an actual sentiment and not just a crafted message. Tevinter Nights also mentions how the Crows are mostly heroes in Antiva (protecting it as it lacks an army), with Antivans tending to romanticize them as freedom fighters.

As for the blurb, I wonder what is amiss in Antiva? the Crows are apparently set on on uncovering the source of things being amiss in Antiva. Does this pertain to the Qunari Antaam invasion? Or is it to do with what Teia and Viago were investigating in one issue of Dragon Age: The Missing (which was of course a prequel comic)? they were in Vyrantium on a contract to kill Lady Crysanthus, because there were rumors of her unsavory connections and questions that needed to be answered. They believed that she was working with the Venatori, helping them to operate freely in Vyrantium while they laid their plans to plan a move against the Imperium. At the end of the comic, they say that they will report to the Crows what they learned with Varric and Harding, as "the Crows must be made aware that the Venatori are seeking to make a concerted move against the Imperium". that's Vyrantium and Tevinter ofc, but it could be part of some greater tangled thing. I'm also reminded of how in the Lucanis story, we learned that someone mysterious had contracted the Crows to kill a bunch of prominent Venatori. the Venatori were like "bro we will not cower to foreign mercs like the Crows". So perhaps they are cooking up something bad in Antiva because of this stuff between them?

in any event, per Tevinter Nights, with half her Talons dead, Antiva is more vulnerable than ever, and so something being amiss there does not sound good!!

The accompanying art piece from the blogpost (all three of these are beautiful ^^) shows three Crows on the Trevisan rooftops, looking out over the canals at night, one a bearded human man, one an elf, and one person who is facing away from the viewer's perspective.

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

Next we move to Rivain. See here for prior posts on: the Evil Gods and cephalopods

I wonder if the placement of the squid monster ON/AS Rivain is just fun art/general foreboding 'oh no, the bad gods are coming',-themeing, or does it mean that an evil god is specifically rising in or under Rivain and that Rivain is in more danger? it's super clever art having the monster god be Rivain on the map anyways hh and it looks cool. I also think that it doesn't just look like a cephalopod - minus the tentacles, it looks like the head and snout of a dragon. I know the monster is following the shape of Rivaini landmass and so that's why, but it struck me nonetheless. (also I like the parallel imagery of a draconic squidthing vs draconic wolf in Fen'Harel's dragon-wolf form..)

it's a nice and ominous/threatening touch that the creature's eye turns to the viewer and the pupil dilates on catching sight of us. the creature's tentacles writhe and pour out of Rivain into the rest of northern Thedas. and when the trailer later shows a map of Tevinter coast, much of the center is entangled in tentacle-like or snake-like tendrils.

btw are these lines implied shipping lanes, cool lines because cool art looks cool, or something else? I ask because they reminded me of the repeating circles motif and the geometric type patterns in the vinyl art.

"Glory to the risen gods. They've come to deliver this world." - Risen Gods plural, there isn't just one of these bad ominous risen gods. and the Dread Wolf (though, despite the Fen'Harel cultist/followers in TN I don't think that he's one of those being referred to in that line) clearly isn't the only thing that has been "rising" in Thedas, there are multiple other ancient godlike entities other than Solas afoot. The tentacles and squid remind me of the Cekorax (see Evil Gods and cephalopod posts linked above), which is neither demon nor spirit and came from somewhere past the Veil. this creature could be of a similar ilk, like maybe the Cekorax was a mere mook type mob (that's the vibe it gave. a herald of what is to come but not anywhere near like being a big bad itself) compared to this trailer squid which is more like a king of its kind or something. the Cekorax also said that "things are rising" in the story it appeared in. I also note that like the Cekorax, the true nature of the Old Gods is yet unknown - are they demons, spirits, Great dragons, something else?

Cephalopods also commonly in fantasy-type media have dangerous, demonic, cthonic, Lovecraftian, interdimensional type vibes and symbolism going on, e.g. the Illithids in BGworld. In a Dragon Age context, this makes me think of the Void/the abyss, eluvian travel, implied 'spaces between' and how the Crossroads is like a sort of pocket dimension. cephalopods are ofc also sea creatures, and so this also reminds me of the imagery where the Fade (another realm) is described as being watery or being like a sea in nature (the well of all souls, emerald waters of the Fade, the sea of dreams etc). You can see why these creatures are portrayed as or were designed to be tentacley and cephalopody. this is becoming a ramble I know but it's all connected somehow aaa.

On the speaker during this segment: perhaps they are a Tevinter or Venatori Old God cultist, that's the sort of vibe I get from them. worship of the Old Gods still persists in secret parts of Tevinter society to this day, with cults to them existing. in recent times in Thedas, we've seen numerous examples of these:

"the Blood Band is an Old God cult led by Fallstick. They hate templars and don’t view blood magic as being inherently evil. the Last Moon are/were a cult dedicated to Lusacan. Early in the Dragon Age, they abducted and ritualistically murdered several people. Their goal at that time was to cause the start of a terrible battle, in order to cover Thedas in “a night that will never end” (Lusacan being the Dragon of Night).  Magister Aurelian Titus also led a cult. Titus wanted to return all of the Imperium to the worship of the Old Gods. He tried to use the Dreamer abilities of himself and his cult, bolstered by the Magrallen artifact, in order to brainwash Thedosians. He had a vision of a restored Tevinter where slaves knew their place and the Chant of Light and the Qun were both purged from peoples’ minds. He said “The old gods. The dragon gods. We shall become them”. there’s also a tale of a group of Old God cultists who departed mainland Thedas on a trio of ships in the late Storm Age to try and reach the mysterious uninhabited land of Amaranth, across the eastern ocean. Their expedition was supposedly never heard from again" [source]

I note with scared hamster fear btw that the Amaranthine Ocean is in the east, the land beyond it is called Amaranth, Thedosian people go there or try to go there and never come back, and the land there is said to be devoid of any sentient species and yet when former settlements are found they were empty and the only survivor had been driven mad and killed themself. meanwhile, the Executors purport that they act on behalf of powers across the sea, they are cloaked from head to toe and smell of salt/brine like the sea, and they have a history of being active in the east of Thedas and Thedosian countries with eastern coasts. It was said that "those across the seas will come soon enough". I have also speculated before since literally the time of Tevinter Nights's release a link between Ghilan'nain and the Executors, given that they smell of salt/brine/the sea, given the salty/briny smell of her monster lab creecher pools, and given the sea monsters she created, giants of the sea, of which some she left alive "in deep waters, for they were too well-wrought [though these could be cetuses], and Pride stopped her hand":

"Ghilan'nain kept herself apart from the People. She used her power to create animals none had ever seen. The skies teemed with her monsters, the land with her beasts. Andruil hunted them all, and after a year of killing, approached Ghilan'nain with an offer: the gods would share their power with Ghilan'nain, but only if she destroyed her creations, for they were too untamed to remain among the People. Ghilan'nain agreed and asked for three days to undo what she had made. On the first day she struck down the monsters of the air, except those she presented to Andruil as a gift. On the second day she drowned the giants of the sea, except those in deep waters, for they were too well-wrought, and Pride stopped her hand. On the third day she killed the beasts of the land, except the halla, whose grace she loved above all else. This is how Ghilan'nain was made youngest of the gods. —Story of the elven god Ghilan'nain, author unknown"

Back to this line: "Glory to the risen gods. They've come to deliver this world." here, I presume, are two of these risen gods, or these two are the risen gods. the one on the left has a watery motif with those wavy lines (water pouring off them as they rise from the sea), or it looks like seaweed hanging from their crown. in the concept art piece it's also depicted bursting out of the sea.

People connect the lefthand figure to Ghilan'nain, among others. The figure on the right has pointed ears. I think they are Ghil and Elgar'nan.

This speaker also reminded me of the Jaws of Hakkon trailer. the Jaws of Hakkon past and present tried to bring their dragon-formed god to life or free him to destroy the Lowlands. the old Inquisitor and then the new Inquisitor then fought to save Thedosian lands from Hakkon. An Avvar (Gurd) with a not dissimilar English accent to this second trailer speaker (a non-RP one) says "blood will spill before the new moon". the trailers then both end with a godlike entity speaking a threat: "Lowlanders, I am the breath of winter, the cold wind of war. Join me in battle and die" and "All the world will soon share the peace and comfort of my reign". I am not saying that I think the second speaker in the Thedas Calls trailer is an Avvar, a Hakkonite or an Avvar devotee of a different god, or that I think the final speaker in the Thedas Calls trailer is Hakkon or another Avvar god btw. just that I was struck by the similarity of theme and patterns that repeat in Thedas, echoing across time and dimensions.

If not an Old God cultist, I could also see the second speaker being a Venatori or Venatori-type person. the speaker is obviously a follower or cultist of some kind of these "risen gods". the Venatori are arguably a cult, although not precisely of the Old Gods exactly but of one of the High Priests of the Old Gods, the Conductor, who we knew as Corypheus. They see/saw Corypheus as the Elder One and a deity, essentially, and want to restore the glory of Tevinter. They revered him and believed he’d turn them into god-kings when he became a proper god. Although routed by the Inquisitor in DAI, as we know they’re not gone. and Corypheus wasn't the only High Priest of the Old Gods, or the only ancient magister that breached the Fade (and there was more of them besides just the Architect). it's also possible that rather than one of Corypheus' contemporaries the modern Venatori have simply switched to straight up Old God worship, sans Cory-style middleman, and this is a modern Ventatori speaking - and in Tevinter Nights, one prominent Venatori loyalist tried to release a demon that was sealed under Minrathous in a ritual attempt to bring about “Minrathous’ return”. It was thought that the demon is so powerful that only a god (like Corypheus) could summon it. you sure could restore Tevinter to supremacy if you brought back its ancient powerful gods. but more on the god stuff later.

Back to Rivain.

The cave rocks and stalactites give the sense of a toothed maw. the sea water is so bright and blue! in the distance in the sea looks to be a statue (of Andraste?). there's ships wrecked in the waters. the vegetation looks vibrant, and on the shore looks to be the skeleton of a great creature, maybe a dragon or a giant squid type creature that beached and died or died and was washed ashore. I also wonder why there are stalagmites among the ruins? as in why would people build buildings around stalagmites or rock protrusions like that. curious. also, it's cool to see this locale from previous teasers and previous concept art pieces come to life again. Also I feel like the blue dome structure is somehow notable. it feels familiar??

We should also talk about the Rivain blurb. The Antivan Crows in Antiva are not alone in facing something amiss in their nation. The Lords of Fortunes' dominion over Rivaini coasts is slipping because dragons are growing bolder and laying waste to their ships. indeed, the trailer shows a wrecked ship, as does the accompanying art piece, which also features a red dragon curled around a chest of piratey treasure. What could be causing the dragons to grow bolder and attack ships? Is something upsetting or stressing them in the way that wild animals irl may lash out to humans when stressed or predate human livestock/attack humans the more humans encroach on their territory and deplete their natural food sources? Is something or someone controlling them in order to cause havoc (we have examples of people controlling dragons in DA)? Or as dragons, can they just innately sense that something, such as a potential return of dragon-formed dragon-gods, is coming, and are getting stirred up by that feeling? Have they been Blighted or maddened by something? there's that "eastern sea" motif cropping up again btw, and the Rivain blurb also made me wonder if this DA:D codex was written in Rivain about one of the dragons there, especially since it's about a dragon that can swim and catch prey underwater:

this particular dragon has been hunting more than she needs, which could tie to destroying ships (or just be because she has babies). she's also not been attacking [REDACTED] unless they get close to her den, where her babies are. I think it's a fair assumption that the [REDACTED] thing in this codex could be what's behind the weirdly-behaving dragons on the Rivaini coast, and that it's redacted because it's spoilery. I also think it's interesting that this codex specifically mentions the dragon preying on.. squid, a cephalopod. what if she or other dragons in the area ate Cekorax-level mook squidguys that had been like schlorpin' around or near Rivain of late and were driven mad or corrupted by it or something? :<

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Next the trailer travels to the Anderfels, with a roar of battle during the transition. someone yelling a battlecry, and the clang of sword. the third speaker sounds like a hardened fighter, a seasoned commander. he is speaking when he's about to be attacked, or in a pause in battle - like he's in a fortress that is or soon will be under seige. there are cracks, faultlines in the ground in the Anderfels, just like there were in the Antiva map. and indeed, the Anderfels blurb specifically tells us that the land there has recently been shaking with tremors that have been causing disturbances, tremors of unknown cause. around the Anderfels in this map shot are smoky billowing clouds, representing the "storm of ominous intent" that is brewing and darkening the skies, encircling the Anderfels in a way that reminds me of the way the Blight encroached on Fereldan lands on the map of Ferelden in DA:O. the cracks go towards Weisshaupt. we can probably say that we are going to Weisshaupt in DA:D just like we're going to Treviso in DA:D, and we can probably say from this trailer that Weisshaupt is in imminent danger, or maybe even already under attack or laid to waste. it's cool to see this locale from previous teasers and previous concept art pieces come to life again. "far west" also makes me think about the Volca sea and the place beyond it hinted at in World of Thedas, where ships came captained by dwarves talking of a cataclysm.

The griffon obviously represents Weisshaupt fortress. I'm so excited to finally go there for real (but worried about what is happening there). "Grey Wardens don't hide in our castle. I won't ask good soldiers to turn tail and run." - The situation sounds dire. This line also reminded me of Davrin's line in a previous trailer where he heroically said "Nobody dies on my watch! For the Wardens." (I don't think the speaker is Davrin though, the Davrin line just further adds to the stakes of the bad situation the Wardens are probably in rn). Remember, things weren't sounding good for the Wardens in the various DA:I and Trespasser epilogues:

The Grey Wardens of the south slowly rebuild in the months following the events at Adamant. They declare it time for the Order to emerge from the shadows, to join the rest of humanity in fighting their ancient foes. Rumors abound that they severed ties with their leaders at Weisshaupt, and that a bitter war now rages between them. What becomes of Hawke/Loghain/Stroud/Alistair is unknown – save that all news out of Weisshaupt soon ends. Does the sudden silence indicate a battle within... or something far worse? - Those Grey Wardens who survived the battle at Adamant ventured north into exile. They returned to the mighty fortress of Weisshaupt, and word slowly spreads that a battle for control of the Order has erupted. - It is said that Loghain/Stroud/Alistair leads these Wardens in their rebellion, a fight to change the Order from within. - If Hawke reaches Weisshaupt with them is unknown. Indeed, before long, all news out of Weisshaupt ends. - Slowly, the Wardens withdraw from across the north as well. Some believe the ancient order is on the verge of vanishing forever.

There's basically a Warden civil war and Weisshaupt has gone dark, and the Wardens are on the brink. Romanced Warden Blackwall kept getting increasingly urgent messages summoning him to return to Weisshaupt, and eventually when they became too urgent to ignore, he left for the sake of duty, and then years passed and he never returned and is implied to have fallen in the line of duty. (btw, maybe a Warden splinter faction/Warden civil war is the explanation of why we are now seeing a variant version of the traditional Grey Warden heraldry?)

I wonder if this speaker is the First Warden or a high up Warden who is opposed to the First Warden (or a male Hawke who survived DA:I and went to Weisshaupt in the epilogue?? probably not, because by the Trespasser epilogue Hawke has returned and been helping Varric in Kirkwall). I am leaning towards a different leader Warden who is opposed to the First Warden, as opposed to the First Warden themselves. Reason being, the FW commands from Weisshaupt HQ (holed up in a castle) and does not sound to be very frontline battle-like or heroic, unlike the speaker. the FW is said to be mostly caught up in Anderfels politicking, as there the Wardens are regarded as basically nobility, and the FW offers little guidance to the Order or its commanders. they are said to be mostly a figurehead, and even the Hero of Ferelden themself, right after stopping the Fifth Blight could "expect little assistance or guidance so far from the Anderfels" cleaning up the darkspawn dregs in Ferelden in Awakening, because:

Even those close to Weisshaupt learn to suffer alone. The murmurs are true—the First Warden is often embroiled in the politics of the Anderfels and has little opportunity to consider worldly matters. I would like to believe it is a matter of survival, not of political self-interest. [source]

This line, "Grey Wardens don't hide in our castle. I won't ask good soldiers to turn tail and run", it doesn't sound like something such a figurehead would say. assuming it's still the same First Warden in command, it sounds like the FW's focus in the years before and since the Fifth Blight IS political self-interest rather than survival or for the Order's survival (distracted from the Grey Warden original purpose/duty at best, potentially something much darker and far worse, in that way that Wardens are wont to do - see what they got up to in DA:I etc). it sounds like the FW's actions have caused a segment of the Wardens to resent them and maybe rebel, try to take control back of the order. this is probably part of what's caused the schism/civil war/disarray. and I think the trailer speaker sounds like someone who is opposed to the FW and their 'type of Wardening'. I would not be surprised if this is a sort of rebel faction leader that we meet, and if in the years since DA:I, it's no longer Loghain/Stroud/Alistair that is leading the Warden rebellion to change the Order from within and is instead this speaker. (you could easily write that 'in the years since, X had to go and do something elsewhere and Speaker Warden took up the reins'. Heck if it's 9:52 some of them could have been due their Calling.. this would also remove the need to spend the resources to have 3 models and 3 sets of specific lines for the 3 characters in the same role. instead of a "Wrex or Wreave or Wreave2 oR EVEN HAWKE" situation, in the time since DA:I the quantum for that whole role could have been collapsed and it's just like "hello, I am previously-unknown Krogan Leader, Warden Wron Wreasely".)

Anyways, I think the next shot is also the Anderfels (the trailer shows 2x Antiva shots, 2x Rivain shots, 1 Tevinter/general northern Thedas shot and so it would make sense for these two to be 2x Anderfels shots), specifically I think it's Weisshaupt, and I think it shows Weisshaupt after some kind of attack or cataclysm, explaining what the epilogues were alluding to and why it has gone dark. See here.

"[this image is Weisshaupt] after some kind of attack? like the ruins of Weisshaupt after something terrible went wrong. There’s a blue flag in this image like there are in this one. in this image of Weisshaupt something terrible, bright and green and magic (Fadey?) is going on outside. this last image to me has the feel of the ‘aftermath’ of that one, especially if it was a kind of magic explosion/attack. in the new trailer, the Grey Warden character is still talking when it pans to this scene, and it pans to this scene right after the view of the Anderfels on the map, where we saw cracks in the ground spreading ominously towards Weisshaupt. the trailer also shows 2 shots of Antiva and 2 of Rivain. I think there’s 2 of the Anderfels too (map + this one) before the final view of 1 pic of the northern coast. last time we heard from the Wardens as well, it sounded like some weird and strange and dangerous stuff was going down there too." [source]

So it sounds like this is what's befallen the Wardens, beyond their general disarray from their civil war. this image is so interesting to me. there's a green tinge in the sky, reminding me of the Fade/Breach and as mentioned, of that concept art. the atmosphere is so dark and ominous, lightning cracking in the sky just as the ground on the maps cracked with fault lines. it heavily reminds me of the Bad Red Lyrium Future in DA:I in atmosphere and tone, and if you look here there could be the suggestion of red lyrium on this door (alarm klaxon!!).

also, is it just me, or can we see the pattern of carved griffon wings on this door/gateway or the stone around the door/gateway in this shot? also when the lightning flashes and illuminated things for a moment, I wondered if there were a few tiny figures on the clifftop in the distance, but maybe I am just seeing things.

The red lyrium is obviously alarming. it and the whole atmosphere of this shot immediately reminds me of the old EA Play 'spooky tree' teaser, with its dark skies, ominous setting, and red lyrium coiling around the tree and on parts of a building.

I am wondering if ^ this is the same place as this. (no it doesn't look like dry badlands Anderfels climate conditions, but if a magic cataclysm of some kind has taken place or things got somehow warped, local climate conditions could also be impacted unnaturally). Another reason beyond the red lyrium that I say this is: these shots also look to be from the same location, and what have we here?

A statue of Andraste in the 'red lyrium darkspawn' location, and a statue of Andraste on the Anderfels map in the new teaser. I know the Anders are devout and there's the Our Lady of the Anderfels statue of her there. and I know that there's also a possible statue of Andraste in the Rivain coast shot, and indeed of her all over Thedas. but I'm 👁️ because the presentation of these ones juxtaposed like this struck me, as did the similar conditions from the 'spooky tree teaser'/'red lyrium darkspawn' location compared to the 'Anderfels 2' shot. if red lyrium darkspawn would surface anywhere, I could see it most likely to be in the Blight-wracked Anderfels, and I could also see some of the Wardens fucking around with red lyrium in order to try and gain power to combat the Blight, or information about the Blight in order to stop it (red lyrium being Blighted), and so inadvertently causing red lyrium to spread all over Weisshaupt. we also have this concept:

of a barren wasteland, red-eyed (red lyrium..) creatures/undead, a red lyrium afflicted ruined part of a big building like from a fortress, a red lyrium-affected tree twisting towards the sky, and the ever present 'trapped Evanuris Dragon Age 4 concentric circles' 'concentric circles with hemispheres' motif in the sky. and again the ominous atmosphere, darkness, and green tinge in the sky reminds me of the 'Anderfels 2' shot in the new trailer.

Aside from that, what are these rings? is it part of a puzzle, or part of a platforming type mechanic? the thing they remind me of rly is the rings from the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. these were part of the ruined structures of a temple Razikale (an Old God, which.. of course the Wardens fight them in Blights when they become corrupted into Archdemons) in the Frostback Basin. in the quest On Ameridan's Trail, the Inquisitor pulls leavers to activate these things, which are trail markers, and they point to the next trail marker through a ring. the first of these markers is outside of Razikale's Reach, and activating them all gains the Inky access to the next quest.

maybe the rings in the teaser are part of a similar mechanism? I feel like it would be a sort of delicious and tragic irony if one of the two last remaining Old Gods (who btw are Lusacan and.. Razikale) were slumbering in the Deep Roads right deep beneath Weisshaupt. or perhaps Weisshaupt itself was built on the site or on the bones of a temple to the Old Gods? as to why that wondering is relevant, in this scenario maybe the ring things were part of a temple to the Old God that once stood on that site?

all of this is interesting considering we know that Wardens fight corrupted Old Gods as Archdemons, the Old Gods sleep trapped underground until burrowing darkspawn find and Taint them, two remain, "glory to the risen gods" and there are tremors in the ground in the Anderfels. and especially considering the DA:D concept art that people often call the 'Double Blight' concept art, which features a Warden and companions fighting darkspawn with 2 horrid weird Blighted-looking Archdemon-looking Old-god-looking dragons in the background. especially considering the 'gold dragon' and 'dark dragon' in the vinyl art. etc

so it seems that a sleeping Old God rising/escaping from underground could be a potential reason for the tremors in the Anderfels. BUT there are other very possible reasons too. these include: the Titans, who are "the pillars of the earth" and possessed of massive, tectonic-platelike power; the cataclysm from across the Volca Sea somehow spreading to the Anderfels; and the underground Ghilan'nain (ol' Ghil crops up again) monster labs from Tevinter Nights. in Horror of Hormak, some Wardens venture into the Deep Roads, find mutated darkspawn, yellow-green lyrium, a sea salt/briny smell, and deep elven ruins with the monster lab carvings on the wall. an enormous centipede monster comes out of the pool. the story ends by telling us that Ramesh has to warn the other Wardens, as the lab he found was only one of twelve. so it's also possible that the tremors are another one of these monster labs and another monster rising from a pool.

There are also some interesting inscriptions from Razikale's reach, written by those who worshipped her.

To She Who Winds the Skein of Wisdom, we dedicate this citadel. Dragon of Mystery, bestow upon your faithful servants your ineffable truth. Grant us eyes to pierce the darkness and souls to bear the wounds of your labyrinth.

For me this harks back to "Enter the world of Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities."

Razikale, O Shadow Which Obscures the Path Ahead, deliver your faithful, save us from the silence which devours

This reminds me of "Glory to the risen gods who come to deliver this world."

Dragon of Mystery, return to us, we beg you.

"The risen gods": risen, returned

If the Imperium has fallen, we shall build it anew. This citadel shall be a new Minrathous, and we who serve the Twisted Path shall be its Magisterium. Praise be to Razikale—may our raised voices reach her and bring her back to us at last.

Bring her back, risen. Building Tevinter anew, "all the world shall soon share the peace and comfort of my reign". I'm not saying I think Speaker 4 is Razikale, just that these things remind me of one another. Lusacan perhaps however..

The other thing about the Andefels is that in the accompanying image from the blog post, there's a brewing storm on the horizon. I imagine that if an Old God or other monster roses from out of the ground in a dusty land it would cause a big old dust cloud or storm that darkens the skies. I wonder if this is what this art piece depicts? the eye is also drawn to the small red items in the bottom left hand corner - some kind of plant, or small red lyrium crystals? also as an aside I liked that one of the Wardens is an elf. Maybe that's Antoine, and the Warden sitting down is Evka? they could just look shorter because of sitting down and the angle though, and I guess the weapons of choice don't match for these two Wardens to be Antoine and Evka. also I thought the knightly Warden's spear/polearm was cool and think it would be super cool if those were options for warriors as weapons in DA:D.

Lastly the trailer pans to this shot, which shows part of northern Thedas - including Tevinter - coastline, and other parts of the Thedas map which have featured in the new trailer thus far (panned out).

It doesn't say "Tevinter" on the map in that shot, but we're looking at the Nocen Sea and the land around it, including Seheron. On the right are the white spires of Treviso city in Antiva again, Crows flying out from it. Beyond that is the hint of Rivain, with its 'squid'. We can see Minrathous clearly on the left, and a mass of tentacles or snake-like pattern twining through Tevinter (mentioned here) but which have not yet reached Minrathous. Cracks in the ground in Tevinter are also apparent, and so it's likely in Tevinter too. we can also see Arlathan Forest (breathes into paper bag) and the outline of the mountain called the White Spire.

In the Forest is the suggestion of aravels, which remind you of these 'flying aravels' (halla circled, elven scene pictured) / 'flying ships' from this concept art, which in turn resemble Dalish aravels. I feel like this in turn confirms that this concept art is of a place nearby or in Arlathan Forest:

which, given that the Veil Jumpers are an alliance of Dalish mages and hunters along (with some non-elves), it makes sense that there would be elfy/Dalish-looking aravels/ships there. Aravels were said to float by a magic method in a specific scenario in the Last Flight, but perhaps, given the space-time reality warping happening recently in Arlathan Forest (DA: The Missing, Ruins of Reality), and the Veil Jumpers' eponymous ability to navigate this, perhaps this explains why the aravels can float in this area, in a place where up is down and down is up etc. also the floating rocks stuff is classically Fadey, classically magic. In turn, the biome/vegetation etc in this art crops up a lot in the Veil Jumper images, see here (the yellowy/amber vegetation, the trees, floating stuff etc).

Now about Speaker 4, "all the world shall soon know the peace and comfort of my reign". As he speaks, the purpley foreboding clouds float over and encircle northern Thedas. Speaker 4 could be one of the 'risen gods' that Speaker 2 refers to earlier in the trailer (Speaker 4 obviously isn't Solas). This section reminds me a lot of the DA:I Enemy of Thedas trailer. I don't think it's Cory, but the vibe, voices and sentiments are similar. The Elder One comes etc. Cory was all like "Bow before your new god and be spared", "I am worthy of godhood" etcetc. I wonder if Speaker 4 is another ancient Magister like Cory, one of the others of that group? Some other fanatical Tevinter cult leader (as opposed to cultist like Speaker 2 may be), like a Venatori leader, or the Archon or the Black Divine? the voice of the squid monster? one of the Forgotten Ones? one of the Forbidden Ones - the Formless One? an entity we've not yet heard of? the voice of an Old God, two of whom have now risen/returned? ("Risen" would make sense if you had to literally.. rise out of the ground LOL). I sorta lean towards the Old God or Old God priest/ancient magister idea, because when Speaker 4 finishes speaking, his voice deepens and "reign" rolls into the SFX of like a big beast's growl or rumble, like a dragon growling. & and the Old Gods are dragons, and a divine pretender like Cory already had a dragon himself. If it is an Old God, we could probably guess at it being Lusacan, as the voice sounds like a dude and Lusacan is referred to with he pronouns. and Lusacan is one of the two remaining sleeping OGs along with Razikale (who in contrast is referred to with she pronouns). Call of the Dark also said this:

“Lusacan, the Dragon of Night, calls to you. He lives where it is darkest and waits for the day he will rise. Drink of his blood and know the power in darkness: either fear the Night or wield it."

I guess Lusacan's day could have come? "The darkspawn yearn to awaken and corrupt Lusacan to start a new age of darkness." we talked about the Last Moon cult already,

the Last Moon are/were a cult dedicated to Lusacan. Early in the Dragon Age, they abducted and ritualistically murdered several people. Their goal at that time was to cause the start of a terrible battle, in order to cover Thedas in “a night that will never end” (Lusacan being the Dragon of Night). 

it wouldn't be the first time Lusacan has cult followers of late. the eternal night idea is interesting to me too. the speaker doesn't say "MY REIGN WILL BE BLOODY, FIERY, AND AWFUL I WILL TORTURE YOU ALL FOR ETERNITY". it will still be bad and he is still gonna rule, but he frames it in terms of a creepy sense of peace, security and comfort. night-times can obviously be creepy (fear of the dark etc) but they're also a time of peace, quiet, when we sleep in our beds, comfortable, underneath blankets in the blackness, ensconced in darkness. a 'in the womb' type darkness I guess, shared eternal sleep, Sloth in DA:O type vibes. (thinking also again of Titus' cult where he was going to use Dreamer abilities to brainwash all of Thedas and become a dragon god/old god. Dreaming links to that imagery of peaceful comfortable sleep, and if you were brainwashed to think you were living a peaceful live in a comfortable place, well, you would.).

Another possibility is that Speaker 4 is an Evanuris, who are said to be 'Evil Gods' that would return if Solas brings down the Veil. - and I think this is what's most likely precisely because of the "Evil Gods" stuff in Trespasser and the BioWare 25 year book. Flemythal needs/needed Solas' plan to succeed and them to be released for her to take her vengeance and kill them, you can't kill someone locked away from your realm in magical prison. I also wonder if it's Elgar'nan because of:

and

(staff shape), as well as:

there is also the eclipse-style imagery in the in-game Dragon Age: Dreadwolf cinematic and a bunch of previous sun/moon motifs/references floating around e.g. Dalish lore holds Mythal created the moon and was born of the sea (so a moon connection there via the tides), and that Elgar'nan opposite her is the Eldest of the Sun, the guy who buried the Sun, the Pools of the Sun etc. also those art assets of overlapping spheres, repeating/concentric circles etc. [...] left [in the vinyl art], silvery dragon - Mythal? right dragon (which is gold-toned despite the blackening) - Elgar'nan, after he’s approached her [maybe as the figure on the rock promontory] and then murdered her and taken her place as the god, ruler, dragon who presides over all? moon and sun, moon dragon and sun dragon, beauty and destruction.. the shape of the 'right-hand’ dragon’s horns match the evanuris headpiece on the ring which is in the biggest hemisphere, and of the 7 gods those headpieces apply to (9 Evanuris, minus Mythal and Fen'Harel), the 'biggest’ naturally is the patriarch leader opposite Mythal, Elgar'nan. [quoting myself from here]

If it was Elgar'nan I would ascend, primarily bc I simply think he is the most metal of all the potential options ('wanna fight Elgar'nan' since 2014 squad!!). and also I am for some reason an Elgar'nan truther, like if you said, MJ, you're just suggesting literally all possibilities here in this post, who do you think it actually is and you can only choose one in your answer? (Elgar'nan, and I think this is him too). But I would like to say that the actual things the speaker says remind me somewhat of Falon'din, god of death and fortune and guide in the Beyond. There is A Certain type of vanity inherent in the idea that if you ruled all the world, everyone would be knowing the peace and comfort of your reign. sounds more vain and insidious than random basal cruelty or tyranny. and Solas says of Falon'Din in the Temple of Mythal:

"I do not believe they sing songs about Falon'Din's vanity. It is said Falon'Din's appetite for adulation was so great, he began wars to amass more worshippers. The blood of those who wouldn't bow low filled lakes as wide as oceans. Mythal rallied the gods, once the shadow of Falon'Din's hunger stretched across her own people. It was almost too late. Falon'Din only surrendered when his brethren bloodied him in his own temple." 

And like Tamlen identifies this statue as Falon'Din in DA:O (and also noting that this statue follows a design which was an old discarded design for the Old Gods' appearance before the title of the series made it so they had to change them into dragons). I could imagine the peace and comfort of my reign line coming from such an entity. So I feel like in a way Falon'Din matches the vibe of the line more than Elgar'nan, who seems to be more of the fiery anger, aggressively lashing out type.

But MJ, I hear you say, how can Speaker 4 be an Evanuris rather than an Old God when it peels off into a dragon growl? Well my friend, there is dragon stuff up in the Evanuris' grill as well, may I introduce you to the idea that: "The Evanuris Were [all] Dragons[haped sometimes]"

of course, if you subscribe to the 'Old Gods and Evanuris are the same, or linked somehow' theories, it could be both an OG and an Evanuris, or both, in a manner of speaking. and there is a link for example between Falon'Din and Lusacan suggested by Tenebrium. in which case the Razikale pairing could be Razikale-Ghilan'nain for instance, given the Ghil presence in the lore and the monster labs etc.

"Called "Shadow" in the common parlance, likely due to the ancient association of the constellation Tenebrium with Lusacan, the Old God of darkness and the night. It is odd, however, that the depiction for this constellation has always been an owl and not a dragon, even in the Tevinter texts. This lends credence to the widely-held belief that Tenebrium was a name meant to supplant an older, elven association—perhaps with the elven god Falon'Din, sometimes represented in tales as a giant owl. There is, of course, another explanation: owls are nocturnal hunters, and among earlier people, were considered terrifying omens of loss."

Speaker 4 also sounds like a or one of the big bads. ofc 'Solas is not the real big bad, something else is afoot' is a long-running theory, the idea that he's a red herring or perhaps 'The Dragon' to something else (perhaps Mythal or another non-supergood entity that he's trying to stop, say, Speaker 4), like how Loghain is an antagonist but he can even be recruited, and the real overarching enemy in that story is the Blight/Archdemon.

The trailer ends with an echoing, wolf-Fen'Harel howl. I thought it was neat how that followed right after the rumbling draconic growl, like a warning of the danger of that entity, or Solas following in its trail on its heels to oppose or try to stop it, yelling a war cry as they go to do battle or something. the dragon growl into wolf howl also reminded me of Fen'Harel's draconic wolf/lupine dragon appearance as described in TN.

Overall, I feel like the speakers in the trailer aren't companions but important NPCs we will meet (for example I think Davrin sounds like a more likely Warden companion than Warden Speaker 3 from this trailer).

In general, the trailer showcases, or rather teases, some of the locations we will go to in DA:D and confirms Antiva, Rivain, and the Anderfels along with the already-confirmed Tevinter. I wonder if we will go to Nevarra at all? the scope (at least four countries) seems like a lot but I would guess that these would be smaller zones within each of the countries, like the different zones for the main questlines in DA:O or something, rather than straight up an open-world or four massive open-world maps. With the water in Rivain coastline, I wonder if swimming makes its series debut? and with so many different countries involved, I wonder again about us travelling around via eluvians on a commandeered portion of the eluvian network, and it + the Rivain stuff also makes me think of the common fan theory that we will have a ship base. Minrathous and Treviso are also on the coast incidentally, we could like sail between them.

It also seems that the trailer lends credence to the idea that these three factions, Antivan Crows, Lords of Fortune, and the Grey Wardens are important factions in the game. Perhaps we will have a companion from each of these groups, or perhaps these are different backstories (I'm saying backstories because we don't know if it's selectable backgrounds like in DA:I or playable origins like in DA:O, and because I feel like playable origins isn't as likely) the PC can be from. this would make sense, as we need to "find people he doesn't know", while in Tevinter Nights groups which Solas seems to have more detailed knowledge of, and groups which are interested in moving against Solas, were mentioned (Carta, Mortalitasi, Tevinter Siccari, Qunari Ben-Hassrath, Inquisition remnants, Executors - note that the Lords of Fortune, Antivan Crows and Grey Wardens were not among these). Wardens can be any class and the order has humans, dwarves and elves in it. The LoFs contain humans, dwarves, and elves and there's no lore saying mages can't be LoFs (mages would make good treasure-hunters too). the Crows contain humans and elves, Calien d'Evaliste was a mage Crow. given where Crow recruits sometimes come from you could probably write a Surface Dwarf Crow. there are assasins in the Carta, so it's not like a dwarven assassin is a crazy idea or something.

Some of the text from the blog entry is also worth mentioning. at the top, character focus and a "few returning characters" (I wonder if this means characters beyond Solas and Varric..?) was exciting. other quotes of note compiled below:

we’re sharing a look at a few of the in-game locations you’ll explore on this new adventure (and perhaps a little more for those who listen closely). The stage is set. The Dread Wolf is ready to make his move.

More locations if we listen closely? is there hints hidden in the trailer audio? can anyone confirm?

This time, you’ll be venturing to places unseen and returning to places from long ago.

Does this mean we will visit ruins of / what remains of ancient places in Thedas in DA:D, that we will visit places back in time temporally in DA:D, see echoes in the Fade, or that in DA:D we will return to locations we visited in earlier games in the series?

We stand on the precipice of change.

hello Flemeth advice/prophecy reference (“We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment... and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly.”)

This time, however, much more of Thedas is yours to see. The desolate, beautiful badlands of the Anderfels with curtains of distant mountainous spires. The twisting canals and gleaming towers of Antiva, where Crows may lurk in any shadow. The turquoise seas of Rivain with its rushes of greenery and hardy sea-faring people. And of course, there’s more.

Anderfels badlands: the DA:D team's location scouting visit to Drumheller badlands in Alberta now makes sense. ^^ this description of the locales is also 👌

We felt this was best for the tale we wanted to tell this time and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have! It’s allowed us to create many more locations than past games, including both some you’ve longed to go to…and some you’ve never heard of before!

ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ places we've never even heard of before! The places Beyond Thedas like Amaranth and Par Ladi, type of places, or places we've never even heard the names of before ever?

An insult that he took as a badge of pride. An insult to inspire hope in his friends and fear in his enemies. That is what Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf, truly is. Not a man who sees himself as evil, but someone who believes he’s fighting for a good cause and is willing to get his hands dirty.

dragon age dragon age dragon age

we’ll have much more to share with you as we approach Summer 2024.

this comment makes it sound like there will be a few bits of info in the lead up to Summer 2024.

Know this, though: The Dread Wolf has not been idle these past years. His reach is far, and soon his plans will come to fruition—a cataclysmic rejoining of magic and realms hundreds of years in the making. Will you be able to stop him? We hope so.

I wonder if these past years in-world are the timeskip that takes us to 9:52? the cataclysmic rejoining of magic and realms again make it sound like the Veil is definitely coming down.

anyways those are some thoughts for now. ^^

if you have any thoughts pls let me know. ^^ also I'm sorry that this post is so rambly and it like talks about multiple theories all mashed up at once, has some repetitive elements etc. but if you read this far I hope you enjoyed dragon ageing with me. (❁´◡`❁)

[shadebloopnik]

"The only thing more painful than watching you fall, is watching you lose hope."

Lets all pretend that I drew these consistently for a second. This is the first time I actually seriously made some sort pf a comic strip and am honestly a bit happy with it lmao (even tho that last Alastor leaves much to be desired, i cannot with the angle i chose). Angelic Alastor AU details and better taken pics of each scene under the cuttt

Man im actually taking this AU sht seriously huh- here we goooo

So AU summary, Alastor's an angel, though he's always been an odd sort and looked different from the other angels. His name is still Alastor, though he is also known by his title, Altruist. As time went on, it was the name nearly everyone knew him by.

He was close with Lucifer, who both admired each other's fantastical ideas, and oddity from the others. He was closely involved with Lucifer and Lilith, helping keep their relationship a secret. He was devastated when they both fell, having managed to keep his own involvement hidden(after countless pleading from the two to keep himself safe). Im a radioapple addict by heart lmao, but this is gearing more towards a poly between the three of them. Alastor was quite slow in processing his feelings for the two, even with Lucifer having already harbored feelings for him for ages, and Lilith being pretty forward.

After a couple events and other drama and detailsss, Alastor arrives at the Hazbin Hotel after he heard about Charlie. He sees her like a daughter, and it hurt him to know that Lucifer and Lilith left her behind in such a manner. He still doesn't believe in redemption(he's an angel, he knows those fuckers), but he still supports Charlie anyway he could. He still acts super creepy and all, but has good intentions. He lives a somewhat double life, juggling his appearance between being Altruist in Heaven and Alastor in Hell.

Lucifer, Lilith and Alastor, though initially had a rather stable relationship(as stable as you can get with one of them constantly smuggling himself into hell), had a bit of a falling out. Lucifer lost hope and motivation for everything, something that broke all their hearts. Lilith was a bit more fierce, wanting to take more action. Alastor was a sort of a mix between the two. He was cautious, and preferred to lie in wait, but wasn't as far gone as Lucifer.

Its why when Lucifer found out about his involvement with the hotel, he was absolutely furious. He didn't want Alastor to give their daughter false hope, didn't want her to reach for the stars only to fall back down, burned. He's too broken, and the idea that Alastor, someone who should KNOW how dangerous hoping was, setting Charlie up for pain, it hurt.

Basically sad old men lol

[redriotinggg]

I need anyone who genuinely dislikes Usopp to take a long look in the mirror because yeah, he can be a bit annoying at times but he is honestly a good and interesting character!!

He is just as loyal as any other member of the crew and fights the strongest when he’s fighting on someone else’s behalf. (See: him fighting for Sanji in Skypeia, fighting for Robin at Eneis Lobby, fighting for Luffy in Dressrosa, fighting for Tama and Nami in Wano.) He is a major player in so many of the battles in the series that it baffles me that people can think of him as an unimportant member of the crew.

And Usopp is a fucking genius??? Hello???? He’s able to make weapons powerful enough to create storms and tornadoes. He is canonically a jack-of-all trades that supports the crew in their daily lives and in battle. The Going Merry only lasted as long as she did because Usopp was around to care for her. He was the only one to see her Klabauterman!! Usopp is not only creative and fun but is able to bring those creations to life, whether it be his drawings or his gadgets, and I think that’s so beautiful. I miss pre-TS because of all his inventions we got to see.

Let’s not forget that Usopp is so, so kind!! He made friends with the kids in his village and told stories to Kaya to help her feel better when she was ill. He fought to protect her and Syrup Village from Kuro. Personally, I will never get over filler ep on Fireworks Island (ep. 134) where he cheered up Kodoma and encouraged her to continue her pyrotechnics, assuring that her parents were proud of her. Knowing he also lost his parents at a young age makes the scene hit that much harder. (And again, he showed his genius by figuring out a way to launch the firework that killed Kodoma’s parents!!) It may not be canon to the manga but but I think that episode is super accurate to his character.

What I think makes him the most interesting is that we see his flaws and mistakes more than any of the other Straw Hats. We see his insecurities in Water 7 and his fear in Dressrosa. But we also see him growing and learning and being encouraged by his crewmates. Aside from Robin, I think Usopp has changed and grown the most out of the Straw Hats. With his goal to become a brave warrior of the sea he has so much potential for even more growth!!

Like I said earlier, some people think Usopp is annoying which he can be sometimes, but that’s also because he’s literally comic relief. And he does so well at it bc he’s actually so damn funny?? He makes me laugh out loud all the time. One Piece wouldn’t be even half as funny without Usopp.

I also appreciate that as an individual he has so many moments with the other Straw Hats. There are a lot of relationships that don’t get explored as much as we’d like, but I think we get to see Usopp’s friendships with the crew pretty often. He fights for Luffy, plays around with Chopper, teases Zoro, is teased by Robin, gossips with Nami, hangs around Sanji, and his whole relationship with Franky has so many layers to it.

Aaahh, I have so many hopes for Usopp in the series that I pray will be fulfilled!! I want him to have a badass arc in Elbaf full of character growth. I want to see him develop and continue to use his Haki (which he gained when trying to save Luffy are you KIDDING me). I want his reunion with Yasopp to be emotional and bittersweet. If he could personally beat Yasopp in a fight I would ascend to the heavens.

Usopp is such an important, complex, and interesting character and I absolutely hate to see him reduced to being a gag character or the weakest member of the Straw Hats. He may not be a monster but he is amazing and I love him.

TLDR; if you disrespect Usopp I wish you a very Die.

[celaenaeiln]

is the dickbabs romantic relationship always as bad as in Tom Taylor’s run or is it actually enjoyable in other runs? i want to read more of dick’s og nightwing run but ik dickbabs is a recurring thing and i strongly dislike what i’ve seen of it in modern comics (absolutely no offense to anyone who ships it!!)

also sort of related, but have dick and babs really been BFFs since grade school or is that new canon? i remember the initial new 52 run referencing him and babs as on and off but nothing about being childhood besties.

finally- what would you consider to be key dick grayson runs?

Surprisingly Dickbabs is pretty nice to read in other runs. I know this sounds weird coming from someone who hates Dickbabs as a ship but really it's only bad like 85% of the time and the majority of that is because of the Batgirl comics. Batgirl comics treat Dick like shit and it's a losing tossup whether he's treated well in Oracle related comics.

But to get to your point, Dickbabs in Nightwing (1996) was originally pretty good. Tom Taylor's run of Nightwing is the weird one because in every other run you have Dick + relationships whereas in Taylor's you have relationships + Dick. That being said, I highly, highly recommend reading the og one. At one point it does get toxic but Barbara leaves almost immediately after that and aside from that the ship was pretty nice for the most part.

Dick and Barbara have NOT been BFFS since childhood or whatever and this gets on my nerves that Tom Taylor and Hope Larson did that. This is one of the problems I have with the Dickbabs ship. Writers who write them love changing the story to erase Dick's friendships with the Titans. They literally love to pretend Wally, Donna, Roy, and Garth don't exist. BARBARA IS NOT HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND!! They literally keep deaging her and for what?? First she was like two decades older than him, then she's five years older than him, and now she's the same age?? Just let her be older! Barbara being the same age as Dick makes no sense because it takes away her maturity to turn her into this childish, selfish character she has no business being. She's not even enjoyable when she's deaged this far. I'm still on the she's 5 to 6 years older than Dick canon timeline and there is no way she was childhood besties with him.

The way I picture Dick and Barbara's relationship is this:

DC should've just let it at this, this was peak Dick and Barbara relationship.

Very narrow starting out list but some must read Dick Grayson runs are:

Nightwing (1996) - If you don't feel like reading anything else just read this

Nightwing (2016) - Really good up until Tom Taylor's run

Batman: Gotham Knights - pretty good and lots of cute Tim and Dick!

Titans (1999) - This is a must read if you're not interested in the original Teen Titans comics

Outsiders (2003) - Love him so much in this

JLA/Titans - Important for understanding his relationships with Titans and Batman

Nightwing (2011)

Justice League (2011) Issue #25 and Forever Evil - Same arc

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Nightwing vs. Hush

Robin era

Batman - One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze - If you want to skip the medal ages but still want to know what Dick was like as Robin, this comic is all you need to understand his character and personality and beliefs.

Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet - Dick's gauntlet test!

Robin: Year One - For fun :)

Dick!Bats era

Batman: Battle for the Cowl - To get into Dick's batman

Batman (1940) Issues #682 to #713 - Batman Dick. Incredible. Dick was such a good batman and so fun to read.

Batman and Robin (2009) - Dick and Dami!

Batman: Streets of Gotham - Also Dick and Dami <3

Justice League of America (2006) Issues #41 to #60- Dick leading his own JLA team as Batman! SO FUN!!

Detective Comics (1937) Issue #864 to #881 - Honestly Batman Dick was so good I can't tell if I like Dick more as Nightwing or Batman. Obviously it's better for his mental health if he's nightwing but he just did such a great job as Batman.

Spy era

Grayson - YESSSS. Just everything about this.

Batman and Robin Eternal - It was really good up until near the end but then it got better again

Dark Crisis - Definitely, without a doubt, no question

Additional: The ones above are focused on him but if you finish reading this then Tim's Robin (1993) Comic is a fantastic one. He doesn't appear in every single issue but he appears a lot and it's a lot of Dick and Tim characterization. Also Teen Titans (2003) for more Dick and Titans relationships.

[solar-wing]

⚣ Duke To The Rescue 💈

⚣💈A/N → Usually, I write my reader characters as general as possible in all manors of looks and traits so as many people as possible can relate (whether male or g/n). But, I wanted to give some special attention since I rarely see any content like this being an African-American writer and reader myself. Hope you all like it! Plus, this is triggering some dark memories of when I used to get my hair cut so enjoy my pain lol.

⚣💈 Summary → You're the newly adopted Wayne kid after your parents are caught in the crossfire of one of Batman's battles. Bruce, trying to prove himself a better father, attempts to do your hair but since he knows nothing about African-American haircare, you're in for a painful ride. Your poor hairline...

⚣💈 Words → 2.0k

REBLOGS and replies are greatly appreciated, please!💛

⚣ ENJOY 💈

“Okay, so how do I do this?” Your dear old dad asks.

“I don’t know! I’m just a kid! Aren’t you supposed to be the parent and know these things?” You asked with your hands waving around animatedly as you sat on a stool chair taken from the dining room into one of the many bathrooms.

Bruce gave you his signature frown while looking at the assortment of combs and hair products on the sink.

After your parents had gotten caught in the crossfire between Batman and one of his notable nemeses, the billionaire decided to take you in, making you an official Wayne kid.

For a 7-year-old, you were very knowledgeable. Something your new legal guardian immediately noticed after adopting you, and because of your age, you were now officially the youngest kid Bruce had taken in. 

You were also the only other African-American kid Bruce decided to take in outside of Duke. And that didn’t even really technically count since Duke was already a teenager by the time Bruce officially adopted him.

So, your adopted father was at a loss for words while staring in the mirror at your hair while you played games on his phone. Your hair had grown to a considerable length, and you’d been asking your adoptive father for a while now to help you get this new style that was becoming more popular called ‘twists.’ Well, new to you since you hadn’t seen it before.

‘I thought that was a dance move.’ Bruce thought to himself.

When you showed him the video you saw, the Dark Knight persona immediately decided he was taking you to a professional barber who knew more about your hair texture and maintenance to give you what you needed.

At least until Jason ran his big mouth.

“Wow, old man. Can’t even take care of your own kid’s hair. Shameful.”

He was really just patronizing the older man, always enjoying the moments when he got a reaction from him now and then. But, he’d begun to regret that decision when he along with your other siblings saw Bruce carrying an armful of hair products and tools to the upstairs bathroom while holding your hand in his other hand leading you upstairs.

It was quite comical seeing the frightened look you threw at your second oldest brother as he along with your other siblings watched Bruce’s towering frame lead your tinier one up the grand staircase with you looking like you were heading for your doom.

In hindsight, you might have been, and Jason could only smile sheepishly at you as Bruce led you toward the bathroom.

Now, they all stood outside the bathroom watching their shared father struggle as he read over the ingredients from the different hair products.

“How bad do you think this is gonna go?” Steph asked.

“Oh, I’m betting on a full shit show within the first 10 minutes,” Dick said while munching on some popcorn.

“10? You’re too graceful dickhead. I’m betting 3 and half minutes tops.” Jason threw out while reaching to grab some popcorn before having his hand slapped by the acrobat. “Hey!” He yelled in offense before getting into a sorta-ish fight with Dick, trying to tug the bag of popcorn from him.

“Cut it out, you two! You act like wild children throwing tantrums.” Damian snapped at the two vigilantes.

“Says the actual child who throws ninja stars and daggers during a tantrum when daddy grounds him from patrol,” The Red Hood persona remarked, stuffing his mouth with a handful of buttery popcorn after nabbing the bag from his older brother who was now mean-muggin' the shit of him.

Damian growled at Jason, rolling up his sleeves before Steph grabbed him by the back of his shirt, pulling him back to his place. The second Robin laughed while taunting the young assassin, throwing kernels at his face.

While that was going on, you sat and watched Bruce read label after label on the various hair-care product bottles.

“Uh, Bruce, are you sure we can’t just go to a barber?” You asked, a fearful tone evident in your voice which did not do well for Bruce’s confidence. Even as a 7-year-old, you could tell when a situation was about to go left without the side comments from your adoptive siblings.

“No, no, Y/N! I got this. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t take care of my own child’s hair.” Bruce said while reading the red bottle. He was holding his phone in the other hand, reading a review online under his breath, “...mixed with a high amount of sulfates to help cleanse build-up of oils and other products in the hair.”

“You realize Jason was joking, right? Right?! Jason, tell him you were joking!” You frantically shouted, turning in your seat towards the vigilante who held a sheepish smile while his mouth was full of popcorn.

“I was joking.” He tried to say, words muffled by his chewing.

“Y/N, calm down. If Bruce can handle taking down crazy madmen and women at night as Batman, how hard could it be to do a simple hairstyle?” Tim spoke trying to reassure you.

And it almost worked…until you felt Bruce try to brush your hair with what you were sure was Stephanie’s hair brush.

“Is that my hairbrush?” Steph asked.

“It says I’m supposed to pick his hair out before washing? Is brushing not the same as picking?” Bruce asked, looking at his kids with the most confused face.

“I’ll pray for you at your funeral, Y/N.”

The desperate and confused face on Bruce's face was actually so adorable that if you weren’t terrified for your scalp (and life) at that moment, you would’ve hugged him just to help him feel better.

Cass had walked into the bathroom before grabbing a larger comb off the counter and switching it with the hairbrush in Bruce’s hands before returning the purple hair tool to its rightful owner.

“Thanks, Cass,” Steph said.

‘You’re welcome.’ She signed back.

“Alright, here we go,” Bruce uttered before grabbing your shoulder and placing the comb at the base of your scalp, pulling back to ‘pick’ through your hair.

“Ow, OW, OOOWWWWWW!” You shouted in pain while holding on to the counter for dear life, feeling like your face would tear in half.

“Bruce, you’re going to rip his head off!” Dick yelled, coming to your rescue, “You gotta comb from the sides.”

He pulled the comb to the side of your hair causing your head to yank in that direction.

“OW!”

“Whoops, okay, maybe that was wrong,” Dick said, smiling in apology at you.

“Alright, you idiots, get out of the way. Looks like another issue I have to take care of for you.” Jason stated, placing the popcorn down before cracking his knuckles which really did not help ease the nerves and fear you were feeling in your stomach. He pulled up his sleeves and licked the butter off his fingers, which, gross by the way, “You gotta pull with some strength.”

“OOOWWW!” You yelled, glaring hard at your older brother who once again just smiled sheepishly at you.

“You guys are hopeless,” Tim sighed, grabbing the comb only to make it worse by tangling more into your hair.

“TIM!” You screamed.

“Maybe I’m hopeless too.” He said, a confused expression taking over his face as he tried to figure out how to solve this.

“Okay, simpletons. Move over.” Damian said.

Your eyes went wide at that.

“UH UH, back away gremlin!” You grabbed the nearest thing that could be considered a weapon which turned out to be another hairbrush. Not even caring, you decided you would make it work. 

Damian was not allowed anywhere near your hair.

“What the- I’m older than you!”

“So?!”

“Fair point, brother.”

Stephanie tried to help but only managed to get the comb fully lost in your hair. You could feel yourself getting dizzy and a headache coming on as your head had been yanked back and forth in different directions. 

As your family was busy yelling back and forth at each other while playing tug-of-war with your scalp, none of them even noticed when Duke came up the stairs, confused by all the chaos.

“What’s going on?” The Signal persona asked Cassandra.

‘They’re trying to do Y/N’s hair,” She signed.

Duke’s eyes went wide as he heard your cries of pain before rushing into the bathroom.

The tears forming in your eyes were clear as day as your tiny hands gripped the counter with everything you had, feeling like if you’d let go at any moment, you’d be yanked out of the chair and swung back and forth like a yo-yo. Duke also saw Damian creeping through the mess to grab at the tangled comb in your hair, giving it a yank causing another cry of pain from you making him smirk in cruel enjoyment.

“Hey!” Duke screamed at the top of his lungs, effectively shutting everyone up and turning their attention toward him. “Everyone out!” He pointed his thumb behind him. They all quickly shuffled out of the bathroom, mumbling to themselves while Bruce remained behind, looking quite beside himself.

Duke picked up the bottle the older man was holding in his hand before turning it over, seeing the ingredients and what he had pulled up on his phone.

“Really, Bruce? Sulfate?” Duke said.

The billionaire only groaned before his forehead fell into this palm, “I should’ve just taken him to a barber.” He grumbled,

Duke looked towards you, seeing how tense you were and the fresh tears in your eyes from the amount of pain your scalp was in.

“Don’t worry, little bud, I got ya.”

~~~

A few hours later, everyone was waiting in the kitchen while Alfred served refreshments before hearing your happy feet skipping down the hallway, Duke right on your trail. Your hair was done, washed and conditioned, and twisted right into the style you wanted.

“Ta-da!” You yelled upon entering the kitchen, opening your arms as if you were giving a grand finale. A mix of delightful reactions and cheers filled the room from your family members, everyone smiling at how excited you looked. Even JDamian, despite how small it was.

“Wow! Look at you, Y/N,” Dick said, biting into an apple.

“Hold still! I’ve got to get pictures for my feed.” Steph said while coming to take some pics of you.

“You look quite charming if I do say so myself, Master Y/N,” Alfred said, before handing you a cookie.

“Thanks, Alfred!” You said, happily munching on the treat, before climbing into one of the stools without any assistance. Okay, you had a little help from Jason to make sure you didn’t slip, but since he didn’t mention it, neither would you.

Bruce walked up to Duke, who was still standing by the entrance to the kitchen leaning against the wall.

“Thank you, Duke.” He said, patting his shoulder, which was weird for Bruce, but he was learning how to show more affection to his kids now that he had you so everyone was slowly getting used to it. 

They were also weirded out by it too.

“No problem. Just glad I got here when I did. By the way, why didn’t you just take him to a barber?” He asked.

Bruce looked reluctant to say, so the brown-skinned boy didn’t push it, “Don’t worry. I won’t ask. But, if you want me to teach you how to take care of it, just ask. I learned from watching my parents do my hair growing up. Then, when I kind of had to start taking care of myself in the foster system, I picked up some different tricks here and there.” He explained, answering Bruce’s questions before he could even ask.

“Thank you,” The older man said before their heads turned at the sound of you screaming.

They saw Damian next to you with another smirk as you rubbed the back of your still tender head with an irritated grimace at the youngest Robin.

“Damian!” Bruce shouted.

“What? That’s what he gets for calling me a gremlin.” Damian said before he felt a harsh tug on his own hair, looking back to see you with your own mischievous smile.

“Ow!”

“Now, we’re even, gremlin.”

☀️ | Bat Family | ☀️

☀️ | Masterlists | ☀️

[lynxgriffin]

Theories on Kris’s soul and Ralsei’s identity

Hey everyone! This is not my usual thing, but after thinking on it a whole bunch, I decided I wanted to fully write out my theory/backstory explanations based on the last two short Deltarune comics. I usually express theorizing through fanworks rather than just talking through it, but since it's still stuck in my brain even now I figured it'd be fun to also just describe it all. I hope you all find it interesting! Who knows what future chapters will bring us, and anything can (and likely will!) happen, but as of right now I'm pretty convinced this is how things are with Kris and Ralsei. It's long and there's lots of screenshots included, so check below the read more for everything. And huge thanks to DemoPhone for getting all these screenshots for me!

So, Kris is adopted by the Dreemurrs at a young age. As the only human in a town populated by monsters, they already stick out significantly. Considering Toriel checked out a book from the library on how to care for humans multiple times, the Dreemurrs were likely going through a big learning curve with Kris, too. 

Kris is not just different physiologically from everyone, but they’re quiet and weird, often mischievous, and just don’t fit in. As a kid, they wear a headband with red devil horns to try and fit in with their adoptive family, and especially to emulate their older brother Asriel, who seems to be everything that Kris isn’t.

He’s popular, kind, well-loved by the town, and is always willing to make friends and do the right thing. Despite how different they are, the two kids clearly care for each other, and Asriel in many ways is Kris’s anchor to this town and this life.

Growing up, the Dreemurrs are friends with the Holidays, and the four kids spend lots of time together. Dess appears to be the more bold and outgoing of the two Holiday girls, but is tempered by Asriel’s responsible nature. Everything between them is going well until one day, when out exploring in the woods south of town, they come across the hidden bunker, and something goes wrong. It’s not clear yet exactly what it is…but it resulted in Dess going missing. Of the four kids, Dess seems to be bold, Asriel responsible, Kris mischievous, and Noelle fearful…so it seems likely that Dess and Kris investigated something in the bunker that the other two stayed away from. Kris witnessed or may have even been involved in what happened to Dess. Dess currently appears to be lost in a dark place, perhaps a place between Dark Worlds, perhaps “stuck in the code” of the game itself. Whatever it is, Dess has gone missing and may even be presumed dead by her family, and Kris witnessed it and may feel directly responsible. This is why they’re still nervous around the bunker, and perhaps even why they’re apprehensive about the appearance of the dark world in the school supply closet.

Dess’s mother, the Mayor, is not going to blame the little kids for what happened…however, she IS going to place responsibility on Asgore, who was chief of police at the time and clearly should have been watching the kids more carefully. Asgore loses his job, and as things slowly deteriorate between the Holiday and Dreemurr families, he also loses his marriage.

The kids stop hanging out together so often, and when they do, it’s more strained. Kris will be playing with Noelle when they stop, getting hit with the memory of what happened, and wander off to the piano to try and play out their feelings.

Kris builds up years of these feelings…underlying guilt for messing up the friendships and even marriages of the monsters that adopted them. Their interests are weird, their habits are offputting, and they can often only express a desire for attention through pranks.

Despite the fact that the monsters in the town act friendly towards them, they still feel outcast and misunderstood. Their popular and beloved brother Asriel is their one solid anchor to everything, and Kris often wonders “wouldn’t things be easier and better if I was just like him?”

But eventually, Asriel gets old enough and leaves for college. Kris is left alone in the town with all their feelings, but no anchor. In some ways, it gets worse, as the other townsfolk continue to talk about how great Asriel is with him absent. And Kris agrees with them…but that doesn’t help at all how they feel.

To top it off, a new girl arrives in the town, who immediately presents herself as a troublemaker. She seems to have some deep problems of her own, perhaps stemming from her own rough upbringing, and takes out her aggression on Kris, the only human in the town. Despite the bullying, Kris takes it all in stride, even amusement. Susie isn’t saying anything about them that Kris doesn’t already believe about themself. If anything, Kris admires how unapologetic Susie is about her behavior, and sees a kindred spirit in her. They’re both outcasts, after all, with gross and offputting interests. And it is pretty funny how clearly Noelle is infatuated with Susie, too. 

And yet, Susie doesn’t seem interested in actually being friends now, and while Susie is admirable, she’s not helping Kris’s long-standing guilt, loneliness and depression. They start resenting how things have gone. They start looking for unconventional solutions. Perhaps they try the church, but the church doesn’t seem to have answers, so they look elsewhere. Maybe things would just be better if someone else was running their life. Maybe someone bigger than them can fix these seemingly insurmountable problems. They start looking up how to do magic online. How to summon demons, stuff like that. 

When that doesn’t work out, they turn to the local goth girl for help. After all, they’ve done occult spells with Catti before…protection spells for Noelle; something to ease Kris’s worries so that Noelle doesn’t suffer from the same misfortune Dess did.

One night, Kris asks Catti to perform a spell to summon a spirit. And surprisingly…something seems to happen. Kris is suddenly confronted with a strange figure who seems to be the devil. The figure says that it can bring Kris what they want: a spirit that can possess them and potentially even solve all their problems. But the figure requires something in exchange: their soul. Kris is at first reluctant, but the devil figure promises that the arrangement is only temporary: they’ll get their soul back when the spirit is no longer possessing them. So Kris agrees, and gives up their soul in exchange for another one. 

The deal supposedly goes over, but Kris finds that it doesn’t seem like anything has changed once the spell ends. They’ve gotten a new soul, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. If anything, everything becomes harder. They start operating on autopilot…saying very little, only doing what’s required of them, and sleeping for huge amounts of time. 

The joke around town now is that they seem like a walking corpse. Sure, they’re not dead, but it often kind of looks like it.

Maybe this spirit was just a total dud? Maybe that devil cheated them out of their own soul after all and they didn’t get anything in return. They try more than a few times to remove the new soul on their own, in the hopes that maybe taking it out by force will get them their own soul back. They find that they can remove the red soul with great effort! However, without it, they’re even slower and it’s even more difficult to move or act in any way. Removing it at least grants them a small degree of agency, and it seems to prove that their own soul is definitely around somewhere, because they’re still alive. But they can’t go for too long without putting the new red soul back in, because moving without it is such a strain.

Meanwhile, Kris’s request for something to possess them has worked, just not in an obvious way. The player experiences the passage of time very differently than the game characters they’re playing as, after all. To the player, they’ve suddenly gotten an invitation from an unknown character that they suspect they recognize from another game they’ve played. They don’t know what the invitation is for, but they’re more than ready to find out, even if it means downloading an unknown and potentially shady “survey program.”

Conveniently enough, this invitation and download become available on Halloween. A bit of an odd day to choose if you want a lot of people to download and play your game right away, since it’s a major holiday and most people already have plans. However…Halloween is a great time to summon a demon.

And to Kris, they wake up one morning exactly a week before their brother is scheduled to return home for a visit, and suddenly find that something else is moving their body for them. That new soul wasn’t a dud after all.

No time to even get really used to suddenly being physically possessed, as Kris and that school bully they admire just go to pick up some missing school supplies and get swept up into a strange place that Kris feels might be distinctly familiar. Once there, they meet someone else who, strangely, already knows who they are: Ralsei.

While Kris has been shambling around town with their player soul not in use, their own soul still needs to be kept in good condition. You can’t just leave a human soul out on its own for a long period of time. It at least needs some kind of container…a vessel. And the devil figure works out a perfect vessel for it…an object close to Kris, that they have a lot of sentimental value around. Something that symbolizes their desire to fit in with their family, and be just like their brother. Kris might have given it to the figure willingly, or it might have been taken without their knowledge, but the result is the same. 

But hey…why not make things even more interesting? A dark fountain can bring objects to life in their own dark world. What happens if you were to take an object currently carrying a human soul, and bring it to life with a dark fountain? What would it look like if Kris’s soul, filtered through an object that symbolizes their desire to be just like their beloved brother, was given its own form and identity?

You get Ralsei. A “lonely prince” who looks an awful lot like Asriel, but seems to more closely match Kris’s age and stature. He seems to be more like a remixed version of Asriel than identical to him. He already knows who Kris and Susie are, and he knows where things are located in the light world…because Kris knows all that. 

He’s able to travel between different dark worlds without being affected by them the way other Darkners are, because he carries a Lightner’s soul. 

While it’s unclear if he is talking directly to the player, just to Kris, or to both, he is at least aware of an entity distinct from Kris, since he names the castle town after the player. It would certainly make sense for him to be aware of the player’s presence and influence because he was a part of that whole exchange between souls in the first place. There’s even implications that Ralsei is, perhaps, communicating with Kris in ways that don’t involve speaking aloud to them. When asking Kris to pick up the items from the classroom, he uses parentheses, which typically seem to indicate a character’s thoughts rather than dialogue.

Since the player is able to read other characters’ thoughts, Kris can even respond to them if no one is speaking.

If parentheses for Ralsei indicate thinking rather than speaking, he is perhaps aware of how to communicate with Kris and/or the player in ways that other characters won’t hear…or perhaps is only even capable of it at all because he has Kris’s soul.

He is always deferring to Kris, even when Kris makes questionable choices. While he’s eager for friends, he seems desperate for Kris’s approval in particular, and takes great pains to not upset them…or allow other things to upset them. He seems to be confident in who Kris is, but struggles more with his own identity.

For Kris, seeing their own wish to be like their brother come to life, and then to have the spirit possessing them keep directing them to hug him…well, it’s kind of awkward. 

Just to speculate on the future, if it is true that Ralsei has Kris’s soul, this has the potential for some serious drama, and even setting Ralsei up as an antagonist without him being generically “evil.” Ralsei hasn’t had contact with anyone before meeting Susie and Kris. However, as they go on adventures together, he’s meeting lots of new people and gaining new perspectives. He’s steadily growing more independent from Kris, and establishing his own identity apart from them. What happens if Ralsei comes to the conclusion that Kris was right to trade him away all along…that not only does Kris not need him, but that he’s just fine without Kris? That he, perhaps, prefers being Ralsei to being Kris’s discarded soul?

Considering the player can’t keep playing the game forever, and Kris really can’t be left the rest of their life with a nonfunctional soul that leaves them on eternal autopilot, they’ll have to get their own soul back eventually. And after several chapters of the player themselves getting really attached to sweet and friendly Ralsei, that opens up the potential for some truly heartwrenching conflict. 

[hopeymchope]

Hope's Peak and... Whatever is Going on with the "Talents" They Study

Hope's Peak Academy! Where only the greatest talents are invited to focus on the areas in which they excel (and to be studied by the staff).

The people working at Hope's Peak Academy in Danganronpa (whether staff, scientists, or Steering Committee) are pretty consistently presented as being dedicated to researching and understanding the nature of talent. They talk like talent is this hazy concept that only certain people somehow possess, so they're out to crack the code of its mysterious origins.

We have top men working on the origins of talent right now. .... TOP. MEN.

Now, I know we all eventually learn just how much of a shitshow HPA was and how corrupt its primary operators were. But the evidence of their crimes is mostly focused on how they take their interest in "Talent" much too far. So long as it furthered the study of "talent," human experimentation, endangering the lives of students, and much, MUCH more were totally on the table as far as HPA's Steering Committee was concerned. Which is very bad, yes.

However! I think the issues with HPA's intentions ran even deeper. The people in charge weren't just corrupt; they were also stupid. And this is evidenced by many of the "talents" they identified and researched.

See, Hope's Peak makes no real distinction between the types of talent they identify and accept into their walls. Even though there's a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE between the talent of someone like Junko Enoshima vs. that of someone like Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu. Y'know?

(I strongly doubt I'm the first to observe how bullshit some of these "talents" are. But since I can't find any other conversations about this on Tumblr, I'm going to move forward with making my own commentary. Sorry?)

BTW, consider this: If Komaeda were somehow born earlier and was an adult by the time the 77th Class entered HPA? He could've easily been one of the staff members putting Hajime into that metal coffin.

In descending order of "I can see why they were interested" to "WTF is this," here are the four core types of Super High School-Level "Talents" that Hope's Peak Academy welcomes within its hallowed halls:

(DISCLAIMER: I include V3 students as some of the examples cited below. YES, I know they don't attend Hope's Peak in their game's main storyline. However, they attend Hope's Peak in both UTDP and DRS. That's good enough for me; you can always ignore those examples if you disagree.)

CATEGORY (A) Talents that seem to come innaately/naturally to those who have them. These are either your wunderkind types, or they otherwise gained their talent seemingly overnight. — (e.g., Yasuhiro Hagakure, Junko Enoshima, Nagito Komaeda, Miu Iruma)

My Thoughts: Okay, SURE. I get why you'd want to study how this can happen and where these kinds of skills come from. No notes.

CATEGORY (B) Talents that are developed over a lifetime of practice and/or hard work. Most Hope's Peak students we know about seem like they slot into this category. — (e.g., Nekomaru Nidai, Mikan Tsumiki, Kaede Akamatsu)

My Thoughts: My first reaction is "What is there to study/research about this?" Do the Hope's Peak staff not know that working on something for a long time can make you get way better at that thing? Y'all reminding me of Hajime in the now-classic @reddpenn comic where he is legitimately shocked to learn people can gain skills through practice. :P But HOLD UP; let's give them the benefit of the doubt here for a sec. Perhaps Hope's Peak's personnel are wondering why only some practitioners of these talents can reach such a noteworthy level of skill by the time they're teenagers? That's the most reasonable conclusion to draw about the inclusion of these students.

CATEGORY (C) Talents that are only noteworthy because these students demonstrated some above-average skill relative to their age or because they garnered attention through one specific incident. In other words: These individuals aren't nearly as exceptional as those in the previous two categories of talent, but at least they seem pretty decent at what they're being identifed for? — (e.g., Mahiru Koizumi, Shuichi Saihara, Kaito Momota)

My Thoughts: I hope I'm being clear enough about what I mean by this category. But if not, I'll try to clarify: Shuichi was supposedly recognized for his talent solely because he caught one murderer. Mahiru's photography is almost solely portrait photography and therefore not particularly noteworthy to most photographers; she's just pretty good at the one thing she happens to do. (And in truth, her mom's reputation probably played a role in her own Hope's Peak invite.) Kaito being able to pass a basic Astronaut screening exam at a younger age than is usually allowed is neat, but it's not like he's been an exceptional trainee or even gone into space; he's just the "Ultimate Astronaut" because he cheated his way into taking a test early and did surprisingly well at it. Maybe we're meant to think "Oh, Kizakura or whoever could somehow tell these students have the innate potential to be truly spectacular" or somesuch?? But that interpretation requires putting a lot of faith in this questionable-ass system (and the one HPA scout we're familiar with — a known alcoholic). Do these people REALLY demand further study? Is there ACTUALLY anything to be gained by learning about their "talents"??? I... can't see it, y'all. I don't get it.

CATEGORY (D) Talents that aren't even really a talent at all, they're just a position/title someone gained by being born. — (e.g., Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, Sonia Nevermind, Keebo)

LIVE HINATA REACTION

My Thoughts: Okay, so MAYBE Sonia was recognized by Hope's Peak as the the absolute pinnacle of refinement and royal behavior or something? But I kind of doubt it based on her actual behavior (and weird interest in serial killers) in DR2. And there's no way in hell that Fuyuhiko is the baddest-ass Yakuza, even among teenagers. You scratch that kid slightly. and you get the babychild undernearth. And Keebo? His talent is HIS OWN EXISTENCE. His "talent" is actually just his creator's talent, FFS. He's not even "High School"-AGED in reality; he's just programmed to operate at a mental capacity of approximately teenage-level. So ultimately, I'm asking: What is there to STUDY about any of these?! These aren't even TALENTS, frankly! These have got me wondering if there's some other reason to include these particular students... like perhaps Hope's Peak wants to extend their tentacles into the power/influence afforded by Novoselic royalty/the Yakuza? Or perhaps they wish the leverage Keebo's A.I. technology in their own pursuit of creating of an "Ultimate Talent"? Point is: THESE 'TALENTS' ARE SEVERELY SUS. (I have to wonder if the larger public and Reserve Coursers ever complained about how sketchy some of this shit sounds?? SURELY they did.)

ADDENDUM/NOTE: There are also those who hover between the various categories I've cited. This includes those who might be a mixture of two categories, or those whose background is hazy enough that it's not clear whether they always had their talent (A) or developed it over time (B). But I think the above list encompasses everyone we know about, either in one or multiple categories.

CONCLUSION: Hope's Peak is so vague and weird about what they define as "talents" that it's tough to say what on Earth they believe they're studying over there. Because the methodology they were employing for identifying these talents is super loose, they're inviting over SOME fascinating subjects right alongside a bunch of teenagers who... really can't reveal much of anything about anything?

How did Junko Enoshima learn to easily analyze the patterns all around her to the point that she was able to accurately predict most outcomes? GREAT question! You may genuinely be able to unravel something about inborn skillsets and unusual brain development from such a case.

How did Mahiru Koizumi become a great photographer? Uhhh, she observed some stuff from her mom and just tried a decent amount of portraits, I suppose. But she's not even that amazing frankly, she ain't taking any award-winning pictures or using any particular artistry. She's just good at smiling portraits. That's it. You ain't gonna learn shit from this.

How did Fuyuhiko become the Ultimate Yakuza? Because YOU decided he was! And that was just because of his inherited leadership role! He has NO special talent, wtf are you idiots doing?!?!

ANYWAY, that should cover all of the Hope's Peak students we've ever me—

Oh, right. There's ONE weird half-exception to this list, which I guess I'll explain for anyone who wants to be extracirricular about this topic.

BONUS! Outlier Case: Makoto Naegi (in DR1 only)

My Thoughts: In the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the player/viewer/reader is made to believe that Makoto Naegi possesses no talent at all. Instead, Naegi was merely this year's winner of the annual drawing at Hope's Peak, and THAT IS IT. He was just drawn from a proverbial hat, and his presence is just a randomized factor. And SURE, by the end of the game/manga/anime, he's declared the "Ultimate Hope," but it's not like he was brought into the school based on that talent, so that's not particularly relevant. What I'm saying is simply this: DR1-era Naegi is the only known Hope's Peak student who doesn't fit into the above four categories. ............ Though this was later retconned, of course. Stories such as Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever (which came out alongside the first release of DR2, a mere two years after DR1 first hit PSP) and Danganronpa 3 would state that Naegi always possessed some unpredictable form of Komaeda-style inborn "luck" even if he wasn't necessarily aware of it. Which slots him into category (A). AS SUCH, he was only an outlier for literally THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF THE SERIES. And since the first installment didn't really delve as much into the sketchy, obsessive ways the Hope's Peak scientists chose to study their roster of "talents," his outlier nature isn't really relevant anyway. I don't feel any need to justify "Makoto Naegi as portrayed in 2010-2011 continuity" for his inclusion in the class roster.

..........................but if I DID have to do that, I'd say including him among the students makes him the Control Group. :P

[apopcornkernel]

been thinking too hard about my batman mob au. so i would like to share it. this is so long im sorry let me put it under a cut

i want to begin by saying that i think the only way bruce could feasibly become a mob boss is if he was able to be swayed to see that "clean" methods would genuinely do no good and in fact succeed in achieving more harm due to how much corruption and crime permeates the system. i think it would take a LOT to convince bruce of this, so he's kind of the hardest character to put in a mob au. however for the sake of fun we will suspend our disbelief a little bit!

okay, moving on, alfred: he's long been proven to be bruce's biggest enabler. i think he would get over it and end up helping him as he does as batman

as for dick: ooh boy. okay. so first of all i DO think bruce would let him kill zucco. however!! i think as dick grows up within the mob his strong code of morals will also begin to conflict with the lifestyle. but he's stuck there because bruce. insert all those posts about how dick grayson loves freedom and he also loves bruce and those things are at constant war with each other and because he loves bruce he sometimes clips his own wings. etc etc. i think he is the talia al ghul of this whole sitch if you get what i mean

speaking of talia!!! i believe her father would still be at odds with bruce bc yes, bruce is in crime, but bruce refuses to join with the league. so they semi-preserve their canon dynamic, except i think there's more opportunity for cooperation between talia and bruce considering talia's lexcorp era. in fact i do believe that lexcorp and waynecorp would become business allies during talia's time as ceo

but jason isn't dead. what his kidnappers hoped to do was turn him against his benefactor, taunt him about how it's been months and bruce still hasn't been able to save him, had refused to save him. but one night the door's left ajar and the sound of the TV drifts in, talking about how bruce is waging a bloody gang war, the first he's ever instigated, and jason... well. :)

as for jason—i think he would be the most loyal of the bunch. the first thing i actually dreamed up wrt this AU was a reimagining of ditf/utrh! in here, he's kidnapped by a rival gang. they demand bruce an impossible ransom, and bruce has no choice but to refuse. so bruce is sent a video of jason being killed.

"but poppy," you ask. "where's babs? tim? steph? cass? helena? jpv?" ok let's be real people aren't usually asking about the last 2 rip my babygirls BUT ANYWAYS—

the most important figure is HELENA. in the absence of batman, guess who's becoming the foremost protector of gotham??? EXACTLY. HELENA BERTINELLI. her whole backstory is that she wants to bring organized crime down SO WHO BETTER TO BE THE MAIN ENEMY IN A BATMAN MOB AU.

also because i love her.

im not biased i swear.

ALSO HER FIRST "ROBIN" (not necessarily named robin i just mean like. sidekick) IS JAMES COOPER FROM CAVALIERI'S HUNTRESS. CHUCK DIXON I HAVE NOT FORGIVEN YOU FROM ERASING HIM FROM MAIN CONTINUITY. he doesn't go out into the field that much bc he's still baby but he's the oracle before oracle. although when he does go into the field he's like. remember in cavalieri huntress where he was scurrying arohnd in the sewers and planting fucking grenades and shit. yeah.

later on he and babs will be best buddies <3 babs is his favorite aunt

ALSO!!! the rest of james' family will still be alive. idgaf. it's MY au and i can randomly reveal that his family has been alive all along IF I WANT TO. comic writers stop killing black people off for shock value challenge 2k24

also, james is ABSOLUTELY the one who wheedled helena into making a lair

babs does join the fray still! her story arc is mostly the same except that she partners with the huntress instead of batman. their ages are closer together so it's a slightly different dynamic

tim will remain a civilian. he will, however, be a very helpful civilian, in that he's the one who's stalking dick grayson & trying to prove that dick's involved in organized crime. him and dick will have the saddest tragickest "we could've been brothers. but not in this life. not ever." type of relationship. like jaderoy but platonic.

also tim & helena will have the same littlebrothernephew relationship that they have in canon 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

i guess jpv will get roped in in a similar way to canon, but the idea of bane doing what he did to helena makes me so so sad :( however since she is taking batman's narrative space in this story then i think it should still proceed. i will then also insert a little bit of the vichelena agenda here—

in the wake of bane, JPV WILL STILL STEP IN AS HUNTRESS. "but they'll know he's not a woman" COWARDS. just give him a dye job and he'll look like helena. all white people look the same. he can pad the fucking suit or he can get the fuck out.

as for steph, she will absolutely be a vigilante alongside the huntress. her father is still cluemaster, after all, so she'll follow a similar arc to canon except it's helena and not bruce that she'll develop a complex mentor relationship with!!

i think helena can see a little of herself in steph. i think part of helena envies steph's moral compass also. iirc at steph's age, helena still thought her mafia family was okay & that it was just the people who killed them that were bad. yet steph, who's half her age, has no such illusions about her father, and is already fighting to try and bring him down

cass!!!! cass will still come to gotham!!!!! i can't see a way for cass to be on bruce's side in this au simply bc of how strong her morals are. she killed a man and never ever wanted to kill again, even with shiva where it was kill or be killed, she had already made up her mind to let herself be killed in the end. so she is going to be on the vigilante side :]

also, it would be amazing for me personally if cass came to gotham during azbats (...azhuntress?) era. ohhh lord. a situation RIPE for incredible interactions

i still haven't read damian & duke comics properly yet so that's going to have to be added in the future. but that's what's been rattling around in my brain so far!

[halfadoginatank]

Simon and his father take a trip to the Scottish highlands for the summer, he knows only one of them will leave.

Johnny is a boy obsessed with filming explosions from fireworks he's not supposed to have.

Los Vaqueros are a group of Mexican teens derailed from their field trip waiting for teachers that might not come back.

Huge lore and plot dump below.

Mild tw for Simons father

Simons father has always taken him on hunting trips, sometimes he hated them, some times he liked them. But he'd never taken him this far from manchester. There are weapons in the cabin they rent, his father is eerily sober, one of them is going to die out here. Simon can only hope that Tommy won't be next.

Johnny meets him when he strays too far from his father. Part of it on purpose, he would never be on equal footing, more so when his father had the rifle and not him. He's in the tree's, at first simon thinks its prey, but there's a camera lense staring right at his scope.

Los Vaqueros come later, the leader arguing with a girl with choppy hair, Valeria and Alejandro trade glares while Rodolfo tries to mediate. Their bus broke down, leaving them stuck in town desperately renting a cabin near but far from the one simon is in.

It's the most interesting thing thats happened to johnny, and in the makeshift bonfire Valeria corners him and Simon. Her gaze is snakelike and a ring clinks on the bottle she's holding

"You say that he's an asshole yes? Your padre. Mine was the same, en mi opinión? It is kill or be killed."

Valeria nods at Alejandro, she tells them of a faceless force where she's from. The person sponsoring the trip for them, 'good will'. The five of them band together, the rest of the Vaqueros utterly ignorant.

Simon will save his family, Alejandro will get them home, and johnny? He's going to make the best home video.

-

Yeah so thats the whole plot, originally it was just going to be ghoap but somehow the Vaqueros fell into place. It kind of made more sense to have Valeria give them the idea? She doesnt have a whole bunch of canon lore so I figured she'd have an in with the cartel via her father, who was awful. And when Valeria killed him the nameless helped her cover it up and she got her own little spot.

Alejandro broke off their relationship after that, it's why they're on bad terms. He formed the Vaqueros as a funny joke that he started to take seriously when kids around Las Almas genuinely needed help that wasnt someway connected to the cartel, adults had that with rudys mother, so Ale and his childhood friend Rudy decided to help people their age in a way that doesn't rely on adults too much.

Everyone here is about 16-18. Soap is 17, ghost is as well but a few months older. Rudy Alejandro and Valeria are 18. And the youngest cowboy is 16.

Im trying to fit Gaz and Alex in? Im thinking that they both live in Texas, Gazs parents had a falling out since mum was from Texas hes there. Their school is on the same trip in the same bus a sort of cross trip to help the shitty american public school get a better name, as well as the cartels big PR move with having a class from one of Las Almas' schools.

Johnny is a bit weird here, but his motivation is he's suffering from extreme middle kid issues. Loves his family but since he's almost invisible is able to just kinda run off as long as hes back home eventually. He has a camera he uses to film any of his mishaps with, its essentially just jackass. As well as a video diary. Dont be fooled, its also an excuse for me to write some of it in script like format.

Simon is almost exactly the same as he is in the 09 comics, obviously a bit different. But childhood is the same.

I wanted farah to be here so bad but her childhood is literally a warzone and theres no way I can get her and her brother in Scotland. Because im trying so hard to make this somewhat believable, like yes its is a summer mystery horror au. But god I just really need things to make a little sense otherwise I cant do it. Same with Price Nik and Laswell. Like I could group Laswell in with Alex and gaz, and maybe I could pair her with Valeria for funsies. However Nikolai is in russia so... oopsie, and price? Like... how do you turn price into a teenager, he'd be what 19 or 20? Theres no reason he'd be in school, I dont think he'd be held back.

Also you may wonder, why is graves not here? Uh.... because I dont care, he wouldn't have a place here. The antagonist is Simons father, and honestly man? I just dont care that much for his character.

Man theres... theres so much I have here dude, I want to throw roach in there, and I THINK I could squeeze him in as one of ghosts school mates but the point is the first act has Simon completely isolated.

Anyway thats it. Bye.

[melonteee]

When opla was announced I was guarded, but trailers and learning that Oda would have first and last word about everything made me hopeful.

But I knew that live action are never for the actual die hard fans.

Too much need to be cut because of time, as real actors cant look like they only age two years for 26 years, and some cartoon stuff doesnt translate well to live action *cough* garps fist of love *cough*

So I was able to convince my friend to watch opla with me.

She had read the manga when she was little, up to syrup village, so she was excited to see Kuro because she actually liked him back when she read it.

I was mostly there just to observe my friends reaction to it instead.

My favorite moment was watching her freak out after the "grandpa?" reveal.

I dont like that Garp was included that early on, I didnt mind him being there at rogers execution. But more than that seemed too much. I watched some Netflix guy explaining that they wanted to add a reason why the strawhat had to keep moving from island to island, but no marine would do because who would bother chasing a pirate crew with no bounty. I understand that reasoning. Still dont like it, but I understand.

But my friends reaction made it all better.

Did you know netflix wanted a romance between Nami and Zoro? Thank god Oda was there to stop it.

Also my friend and I quote "Oregano is for savages!" a lot now.

I'm truly glad you liked it anon and I do understand the excitement that came with it, but I honestly could not stand it. Nearly every scene and every line was like "Sanji wouldn't say that. Nami wouldn't do that. Why is this happening? Luffy definitely wouldn't say that."

An adaptation must adapt to its medium, true, but that is not what this did. This was an insanely loose reinterpretation that took so much charm away for me. I've talked about it on this Tumblr tons now but I've finally had the time to watch through all of it now that the hype's died down, and it just made me angrier per episode?

They had to shorten things down, but they included so many new scenes that added nothing? They had to explain the Strawhats going from island to island... WHY? They literally had a spine to go off, the original property had them going from island to island to find a crew and get to the grand line. That's literally a very solid reason. WHY did they need any marines chasing them? It just sounded like an excuse to add a fan favourite character so the Garp fans could scream about it.

And I've said this many times, but Oda being part of the process genuinely means nothing to me. Netflix infamously do not listen to their creators, and not only did they admit Oda HATED the Garp addition and they STILL added him, you can tell so much of his original vision was thrown aside for non-anime fan audience convenience. Usopp and Sanji felt like side characters for god's sake, Buggy felt comically evil for a LIVE ACTION, Mihawk's fight was literally so empty due to the fact no one was THERE? NAMI was the one who yelled she believes in Zoro and they'll always be friends??

I truly do not believe Oda would agree to most of that, and considering we know he was ignored for Garp, we know for sure he was definitely ignored for many other things.

As always, if you loved it, great! I'm glad the excitement was met. Maybe I'm cynical, maybe it's not to my tastes, but it screams Netflix cash cow to me and the whole time I watched it I thought "This is not One Piece at all."

As a reinterpretation? Great!

As an adaptation? It failed miserably. None of the characters felt like themselves and the additional scenes were so nothing. Sorry for the sour reply anon but for those on here who know, I indeed have a sore spot for that entire production.

I honestly think a lot of people got blinded by the pretty actors and the millions of dollars that went into production and promotion to really look at it for what it was trying to be.

[thyla-scene360]

I have returned with more TSSM AU art. Sorry about the hiatus, real life has been rather busy these last several months.

I’ve had this concept floating around in my head for a while; here’s my take on a much younger Vulture, aka Adrian Toomes.

I mentioned a while back that I imagined him being a Sphynx Cat in my AU. He still is, but I imagine he had a very thin coat of fur running from his nose to the base of his tail in his youth (some sphynxes still retain a small amount of velvety hair on their bodies, although it varies). Unfortunately, a combination of old age and significant stress caused him to lose all but most of it over the years - only a few sparse patches of peach fuzz remain on his back.

Overall I wanted to try and see what Ol’ Beaky may have looked like in his youth while still staying true to his character. I gave him a slicked-back, businessman sort of hairstyle; I also gave him ginger hair as a nod to the comics (yeah, Adrian was apparently red-haired in his youth, both in the comics and in the 90s animated series).

Anyways, here’s a couple of headcanons I came up with for him, taking inspiration from some of the movie and tv adaptations (including tssm of course).

Unlike many of his fellow villains, Adrian didn’t have a particularly bad or unstable upbringing. He actually had a pretty normal childhood all things considered, and was raised by strict but loving parents.

Hot-tempered, disciplined, straightforward, and determined, Adrian’s turn to villainy was in truth far more gradual than most were led to believe. Decades of stress, frustration, and failure in addition to experiencing workplace corruption first-hand slowly hardened his heart. The bright-eyed young man with big ideas who joined the engineering business in the hopes of revolutionizing the industry was now a cynical, tired, and bitter old man with a short temper and an even shorter patience. The final straw was having his life’s work (years of research, setbacks, failure, and constant work) stolen out from under him by a mega corporation with no hope of recognition or even an ounce of compensation.

Adrian and Otto have been longtime friends, having known each other and worked together since their Tricorp days. Despite his cold exterior, the former cared a great deal for his friend and worried extensively about him during their time at Oscorp. Adrian knew it was only a matter of time until Otto received the same backstabbing treatment as himself, and tried to no avail to convince him to find better employment. However, Otto was simply too afraid of Norman at the time to do so. It came as no surprise to the old bird to find out his good friend had finally snapped…and ironically enough their turn to villainy has strengthened their friendship more than ever. Even through countless failed schemes and prison stays, the pair continue to support and look out for each other.

[writer-room]

You ever think about how, if we’re looking at the timeline (which is always a horrible thing to do with Ninjago), then its pretty apparent that Garmadon only succumbed to the snake venom like...a decade or so before the main events of the story? And it was least a few months after Lloyd was born if we take a look at the comics? And this guy is, like, two thousand or so years old? Cause I sure think about it.

You ever think about how Garmadon and Wu knew all the previous Elemental Masters? Might’ve been genuine friends with them? Kai and Nya’s parents, Cole’s grandfather, Jay’s mom, the previous Ice Master? Isn’t that wild. Ray and Maya went off the map for ages and were probably assumed dead by everyone until they finally reappeared. Cole’s grandad is who-knows-where but his daughter just straight up died so lets hope nobody learned that was how he had a kid in the first place. Jay’s mom ran with a fancy actor, had a kid, and promptly fucked off into the unknown. The previous Ice Master looked old as hell by the time he came across Zane, so it’s assumed he also disappeared into the ether, gave this kid some powers, and died sometime later. There seems to be a habit of all these guys vanishing into the air, usually with no trace left to find out what happened to them. Isn’t that a little sad?

You ever think about how Garmadon probably met Morro while he was training? The other Masters might’ve met Morro, too? You ever think about that. How Garmadon could’ve been right there with Wu, sitting at the kitchen table, assuring him that Morro was just some angry teenager trying to prove himself, he’d get over it and come home soon enough, and then Wu could make up some bullshit to make him feel better. And then they kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. By the time Garmadon was worried near to death himself, it was already much, much too late. And they all had to live with that.

I think about it.

[naviaknell777]

Hello again! (Gosh am requesting a lot)

Can i please request rottmnt of leo x little sister!mutant turtle! reader?

Request type: fic, comedy, platonic, happy ending.

Plot: the story is about reader who's about 10 years old, of course she's rarely allowed to get out of lair due to her age and her begin weak but god she have such sonic energy, she can't stop running, jumping..etc.

So it's obvious on patrols the brothers have to leave someone behind to babysit her & it's leo's turn, leo was understatementing babysit job as he put reader in living room to watch mlp and went to his room to read a comic book, time pass & he went to check on reader only for her to vanish, leo panic as he go get the baby tracker Donnie made for reader & he found out she's outside the lair.

So leo's job is to find reader, get her back home before his brothers find out or he won't hear the end of it from raph especially.

“Babysitting”

ROTTMNT - Leo x little sister! Reader

Notes: not proof read, and might have made it unintentionally a bit angstier than I hoped hehe. Enjoy!

“Okay, Leo, it’s your turn to babysit,” Donnie said as he played around with the tech screen projected from his armband, using it to investigate further about the wild mutant activity going on upstate.

“Oh, sure, I’ll babysit” Leo started, inching a bit closer to Donnie “But if you three get pizza afterward without me - I mean us… We won’t be happy turtles.”

“Yeah! I’ll beat you all up!” Y/N exclaimed, jumping to the conversation and now standing next to Leo.

“Uh-huh, sure, okay” Donnie mumbles, still focusing on his tech. Y/N reached up and tugged on the long ends of Leo’s mask, pulling on it to get his attention. When he looked down at her, she smiled, latching onto him and climbing up his form, pulling herself on him and climbing up to sit on the top of his blue shell.

Leo sighed, “I feel like you’ve been getting more and more rambunctious lately, [nickname]”

“Nah, I’m just growing taller” She replied.

“My calculations say at this rate she’ll be as tall as Raph when she gets around our age… but regardless, we should get going,” Donnie said, his tech screen dissipating and looking to Raph and Mikey so they can start heading out.

“Haha, I’ll be taller than you when I’m your age, Leo, you’re such a loser!” Y/N teased, letting go of Leo and falling backward onto the floor.

“Also, don’t forget to set an alarm for 8, Leo, she’s gonna need to eat by then and -“ Raph started.

“She can’t remember for herself?” Leo asked.

“Nope!” Y/N answered “Too lazy, and I don’t have a phone yet”

“Oh, and Y/N!” Mikey rushed over to Y/N, grabbing her face “do not watch the ending of season three without me, I have a sense It’ll be really good, okay? Or else I will not be a happy turtle.” Y/N simply nodded, feeling a shiver down her spine.

“Okay, see ya!” Mikey headed towards the sewer exit first, followed by Raph.

Donnie turned to Leo, “Remember to not let her on the surface, okay? The last thing she needs is to get hurt” He headed out as well.

“Pfft, Donnie can be such a stick sometimes, I know you won’t go above to the surface, especially without me, right, [nickname]?” Leo turned to Y/N.

“Well… Why can’t I go out again?” Y/N mumbled, focusing on playing with her fingers as she now said cross on the floor.

Leo sat next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, “You’re too young to go by yourself, Y/N… you haven’t had as much training as us, if something bad happens, you won’t be able to hold your own… you know? It’d just be better if you don’t go into the city with us in the first place.”

Y/N continued to look down and just nodded, “Yeah, I get it, that makes sense.”

“Great!” Leo stood up, “Now if you excuse me, I got some reading to catch up on, [nickname]”

“Huh? You’re not gonna hang out with me?” Y/N, looked up at Leo as if the tender moment between them hadn’t happened. ‘Does he really not care…or does he not know what he just said to me?’

“Well, now that the bros aren’t here it gives me some quiet time to read the Jupiter Jim special edition issue where he fights laser unicorns on Pluto! But don't worry, I’ll be sure to hang out with you later tonight, okay? I gotta come out here to make you food anyway” He said, walking towards his room with his hands behind his head.

Y/N nodded, getting up and wiping away some loose tears she tried to hold back, “Okay, that makes sense.. I’ll just watch some My Little Pony then”

“Sounds good, [nickname]!” Leo said dismissively as he locked himself away in his room. Y/N stood up, attempting to swallow away the knot in her throat that was getting tighter. She walks over to the recliner that Splinter was sleeping on, puts the My Little Pony DVDs in, and projects it on the white screen. She sat next to her father’s chair, hugging herself as she sighed, and pressed play.

. . .

Leo grumbled when he heard his alarm for making food for Y/N go off, pulling away the Jupiter Jim comic that was on top of his phone and stopping the alarm. “Okay, time to feed the rascal…” he mumbled, taking off his blanket and leaving his room to the kitchen.

He prepared some frozen pasta in the run-down microwave, food stains, and splatters covering the appliance inside and out. “I’m making some leftover pasta for you, [nickname], Don’t complain about it, 'cause I think it’s the last edible thing in the kitchen” He yelled towards the living room, still facing the microwave as it headed up the frozen dish. He then opened the utensil drawer, “Now, do you want the big fork or the small fork? I know you love your small forks, but they’re all in the sink and I don’t feel like doing the dishes, and it's faster to eat it with a regular-sized fork, right?" He turned around and made his way to the living room,

“Heard what I said? [nickname]?” He didn’t see her anywhere. He looked around for her in the living room where My Little Pony was still playing.

“Tell me that my friends are lying to me and avoiding me because they don’t like my parties and they don’t want to be my friends anymore!” A pink character said on screen that took his attention for a second, growing a bit more tense as he continued his search for Y/N. He checked her room, and all of her brother's rooms, and reluctantly, he checked the sewer opening, seeing it left ajar a bit.

Leo smacked himself in the face, “Why’d she have to go up there of all places! Ugh if Raph finds out…” He races towards his room, getting the emergency tracker that Donnie had made previously in case of emergencies. He checked the tracker, “Where… where is that…?” He looked at the tracker, turning it upside-down and reading the text of Y/N’s location “New Jersey?! How’d she manage to get all the way to New Jersey already?”

. . .

In reality, following the train system, it was only a thirty-minute ride to a university in New Jersey, but Y/N was on the move. She jumped from building to building, albeit a bit clumsily.

“Ah, that wind feels so nice! Ah, and the stars are so pretty!” Y/N said to herself, continuing to run and smile in the process, feeling freer than ever before - the feeling on the concrete on her feet, the wind in her face, the refreshing cool spring air in her face. She stopped on the last building of the block, looking up at the stray stars that peeked through the city smog.

She took a seat at the edge of the building, tightening her loose mask and looking up to the stars. “If only Leo could enjoy this with me…”

“Why didn’t you just say that? That way I didn’t have to go on this wild goose chase to find you, Y/N!” Leo yelled from across the building, trying to catch his breath. Y/N turned around, tensing a bit seeing Leo sweaty and tired from trying to find her, seeing him hold the black device with a purple screen that was glowing light.

“What? You tracked me or something, Leo?” She said.

“You left without telling me”

“You were sleeping!”

“That doesn’t matter, Y/N!”

“You would’ve gotten mad at me for wanting to go outside the lair…”

“I wouldn’t have, I promise. But you know the rules-“

“I don’t like the rules”

“They’re there for your safety, Y/N! You’re not strong enough yet, we-“

“But I made it here all by myself and I’m fine! You guys just…” Y/N sighed and took a seat, legs dangling over the edge of the building again. Leo walked over to her, sitting down next to her. “I feel like you guys make me seem weaker than I am… I can do things too, like cook for myself, go out, at least with you guys…”

“We don’t let you cook because with your speed you spill everything, make a mess, and put a fork in the microwave”

“You guys didn’t tell me it would explode! And you leave all your dishes out for bugs to lick at, you’re messy too!”

“…okay well to be fair I didn’t make that rule, Raph did.”

“And I don’t like that Raph won’t let me do easy things, like using the vacuum and stuff!”

“I think he’s worried you’ll explode that too… we could barely afford a new microwave, [nickname]”

“Yeah… but, like, you guys don’t trust me with things. Or myself. It makes me, um…” Y/N started growing a bit more nervous, the knot in her throat coming back, preventing her from speaking.

“Sad? Is that what you mean?” Leo asked. Y/N nodded. Leo wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in a tight hug, and she soon returned it, her eyes watering a bit.

“I’m… sorry, Y/N. I suppose we’ve just seen you as our baby sister for too long.. You’re growing up… and literally, too, I sure hope you don’t end up being as tall as Raph, that’s a bit scary to imagine. Regardless, I’m sorry… Why don’t we go home and talk about this with our brothers, okay? I suppose the rest of them, including Raph, need to realize that you’re out a baby anymore. Does that sound okay?”

His sister nodded, and slowly let go of the hug. Leo gave her a soft smile, wiping away the stray tears on her cheeks.

“Let’s go home, yeah? Before our brothers find out you snuck out, especially Raph… He’ll go bananas. It’s a long way home… I’m actually proud that you managed to get here by yourself without getting hurt, and I saw you running, I’m impressed how fast you are! How did you find your way all the way to New Jersey anyway?” He asked, standing up and taking Y/N’s hand in his.

She signed to him as they journeyed home, “I just followed where my heart took me.”

——

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