#I would love to discuss arguments and counter arguments :D

[yuzu-balignon]

As a developer I have mixed feelings about this, and I'm not sure why. So I thought I would try to unpack it, and why not write it down for everyone to see. This is the peer review website after all

I'm not sure where to start. Well I think the arguments of "everything should be open-source" are pretty obvious, so I don't think I'll list them. I will do the opposite instead : listing arguments against "everything open-source" and trying to counter them.

Just to clarify for later: when I say "the thesis" it means "all software should be open-source"

Somebody could just steal it all, and the companies would not make money anymore.

Probably the most evident one ? If a company release all of its code for free, then what is stopping anyone from just cloning their code ? Unlike food for example, which requires factories and equipment and all that kind of upfront costs, anyone can host websites and distribute software. You just have to copy-paste !! This would either mean a endless stream of scams and fakes -this is why artists try to protect their art-, or decreased revenues for the company

But why does the company need money ? Well of course there is profit reasons. Capitalism bad you know it all. But also they need to pay the devs so they can maintain the app/enhance it/make it secure/etc. So all open-source -> no company can viably create new things -> no software

Devs could work on anything instead, since everything is open-source. Yes but if they don't have money they die. They can't work for free. So the solution would be to secure an income for everyone so they can work on anything without worries. Probably backed up by public founds since companies wouldn't pay. Congrats we invented universal income ! I like that actually. I would contribute to so many things if I had the choice. This is why we need socialism everyone

But then who would do tedious work/uninteresting things ? Good point. Actually, no. I agree that nobody working on, idk medical or voting software, would put the life of people on the line. But then you can just : pay people more so they are incentivised to work on it. I am not an expert, but I think this is a very common argument against universal income. Also there's a major difference between "I do it for money because else I will die" and "I do this for money so I can improve my life in various ways". Working should be a way to elevate yourself, not a fucking condition for life. Anyway -> Sum up: Yes I agree with the thesis, but I think this is not possible without radical changes at the society level in general. Which I wish for anyway.

What if the software is not actively developed ? Then yes I agree with the thesis. Abandonware should ALWAYS be open-sourced. I couldn't find cases where it does not apply. Quite the opposite, it would save life that depends on outdated software, help for research, etc.

Back to the previous point: what if nobody will pay for these uninteresting things ? I am not sure I can answer this question. Maybe I don't have enough faith in the benevolence of people. But I know for sure that community projects are bound to face difficulties. Even wikipedia could die if we're not careful. So for small and unattractive projects ? E.g. I'm thinking about accessibility software. well this should be free anyway. But this would burden disabled people and their closed one to Do The Thing, once against putting all the burden on them. Well we can argue that this is already the case. Furthermore, I'm very, very afraid of this turning into an attention contest. This is kinda how things works already, exacerbated by social medias, and it could be perhaps make this worse. idk. -> Sum up: Should we believe in people coming together ? Isn't there a risk for people to be left out ? This is more a philosophical question. I can barely answer it for me, so I can't do it for you.

A word about license keys & all that: I don't know. How would that affect things. Would people still pay for software. wouldn't it be easier to just copy-paste the code to get the free version. I don't have the necessary knowledge to answer this question.

This would expose vulnerabilities

True. Software can do an lots of things. And also a lot of awful things. Either using existing projects and weaponize them, or attack "good" software for profit, this can't be avoided. You may argue that secrecy reduce the risk of vulnerabilities being found. Plus usually there are people paid to fix them. I think I am in favour of this argument against the thesis to a certain degree.

Would people even read it

Well the thesis point is more about ethics than anything I think. Like sources, I will not necessarily access them, but I SHOULD have access to it. If you want to know more look up hbomberguy

But would that achieve anything if they don't understand it ? It's common knowledge that people suck at reading comprehension. And reading code is fucking hard let me tell you. I have been in it for 5 years and it's still a headache. And I don't think teaching people about code is really priority. What about basic sexual & gender education and fucking any other life-stake topic. But this isn't an argument against availability in itself. "People would not understand it so there's no point". Fuck you ! This is elitism. I believe science should be open ! I believe people should be able to learn ! How do you dare say we piss on the poor !

Open-source does not mean accessible btw. True, there may be reluctant people that would obfuscate their code so it's open-source but unreadable. Fun fact this is what most of modern websites do ! Most of the code is actually downloaded to your computer, and your browser is in charge of executing it (most of the time, javascript). If you push it, you technically have all the code of any standalone software, it's all there on your computer ! Just so obfuscated that only a computer can read it. You could try to reverse-engineer it but good luck. This is the part where regulation come into action, dictating rules and standards. Looking at you EU and GDPR <3

Conclusion

From an ethical standpoint, I agree : code should be open-source. But I am not sure it is feasible, and it could even be dangerous. I think major changes in how society work is essential for this to be viable. I deeply hope that such changes come. In the meantime, preservation should be put above all. Software shouldn't be deadware only because it is closed-source. Free them. Piracy is an ethical thing to do.

Thanks for taking part in this thought exercise ! On a lighter note, I have good news for you : you can actually chose a life where your software is open !!!

My phone doesn't have a single drop of Google services in it. I barely use Meta products, and my browser is open-source (get Firefox !!!!). My favourite game is open-source. In fact, I have access to the source code of many things I used ! Because there are people who develop open alternatives to the services you use. YOU are in control !

Your best ally in this journey to quit closed-source software is AlternativeTo, a crowd-sourced website that references tons of alternatives for softwares and apps you might be using. I always check it before installing anything ! And of course there are filters for free and open-source ;)

all software should be open source wtf. u expect me to run this on my own computer without knowing what its doing???

car manufacturers dont weld the hoods shut to keep ppl from copying their engines. books arent written with a military-grade cipher to avoid plagiarism. and we dont let food have "secret formulas" anymore bc too often one of the "secret ingredients" was fucking lead

when ur distributing a product to the public u forfeit the right to hide whats inside it, u dont get to hand out a black box and expect ppl to just trust u when u totally swear it doesnt have a microphone inside

[1moreff-creator]

DROS CH3 Part 2 First Impressions

I have officially ran out of openings. This is bad chat. We're only like a little over a third done assuming six chapters of about equal length. I'm cooked. That said, yay DROS!!! :D

CWs

"I hope there aren’t any murders. That would make Operation: Good Vibes much harder." I cannot imagine it would help yeah :p

"Muffins, motives, and Monoquin." The triple M threat :O

"Monoquin: There’s no need for such formality. I’m here to deliver some information. You may find it useful." Watch him just say a motive secret, out of nowhere. Would be pretty funny.

"Monoquin: I am here to confirm the presence of a traitor working alongside the mastermind." HAHAHAHA Oh my fucking god. I don't know why I find this reveal so funny, but I do. Insanely common Kennedy W lmao, this is peak. In any case, this is pretty bad for the cast, but it also sounds like something that will be fun to explore, so I'm winning. No guesses yet, we might get a bit more info (doubtful but y'know).

"A mastermind and a traitor, huh…? That’ll make it even harder to be the last man standing. I can totally still pull it off, though. I’m the only Lucky Student here (other than maybe Mark). So, there’s no way I’m going to die…" Still on this it seems! Fun!

"Running the numbers… maybe they’re intending for us to get down to four– the mastermind, the traitor, and two spotless– and then call the game off? Or, are they planning for the traitor to die at some point? That’s kinda fucked." Interesting thoughts, fun to see Ellis' awesome theory-crafting coming through. I'm banking on the mastermind just planning for the traitor to die, but maybe I'll be surprised!

"Monoquin: I will not elaborate. Discuss amongst yourselves." Yeah, figured. Immediate guess is Taylor as the traitor, and I'm surprisingly not just saying this because it could work with Paris!MM, but because I feel like Taylor could have motive (wanting to be appreciated by the mm) to do it, and their general demeanor during the killing game give me traitor-y vibes. That's just a gut feeling guess, though, I'll make a more thought out one later (assuming the traitor isn't revealed this part lol).

"Kennedy: It made the most sense. If the mastermind put themself in the killing game, would they truly want to be isolated amongst a crowd that would want to kill them?" I mean I wouldn't call this ironclad reasoning but hey it worked so what do I know :v

"Kennedy: I have a theory." A GAM- No. I concur with Ellis' next line, "I'd be more surprised if you didn't."

"Kennedy: Aidan is the mastermind!

Aidan: …Really?" I concur with Aidan now! What? I guess Kennedy wouldn't be privy to just how little fucks Aidan gives about everything, and she might just think that the CH2 "kill me to end the motive" thing was a bluff of some kind. It's incredibly obvious the theory is most likely just out of personal resentment, though, which is very fun to see!

"Kennedy: You’re the one who’s taken the strongest stance about murders being committed. You ask why we care about our lives as though you’re not risking yours. Your talent contributes to a counter-norm worldview that could find entertainment in senseless slaughter or even tie into desires to bring about the end of the world as we know it through mechanisms like the Tragedy. It makes sense." It's... an interesting argument. Let's see if Aidan even bothers trying to debunk it.

"Aidan: …Suit yourself. It’s not like I care what you all think about me." No he doesn't! Classic Aidan xD

[Davis rebuts] Hell yeah! Get their ass Davis! Just try not to get called the traitor-

"Kennedy: Thank you for bringing me to my last point. The mastermind would have a traitor looking out for them, to protect them from the risks of the killing game, as we’ve just confirmed. Everybody, please give a round of applause for Davis Love, the traitor of this killing game!" Ah shit.

"Kennedy: It’s not so hard to believe. He agrees with pretty much everything Aidan says, right? A traitor doesn’t have to come up with the idea of a killing game. They just have to be loyal to the mastermind.

Davis: It’s not like I knew Aidan before coming here…" I find it funny that Davis doesn't rebuke the point about him agreeing with everything Aidan says. He knows exactly how true that is and ain't gonna waste breath denying it xD

"Kennedy: I’ve considered every option. This is the one I considered the most likely.

Ellis: Isn’t the seemingly most likely option usually the wrong one?

Kennedy: Cass and Antonia already took each other out. Cass suspected you and Mark. I don’t think either of you are the mastermind. Aidan’s not anyone’s first thought, but he’s the most likely option." My guy actually made a mastermind ranking I can't believe it. And half of his top choices died. Who is Kennedy, me?

Note Obtained: Kennedy’s Mastermind Theory

I don't like that this is a note that we're getting. Kennedy don't die on me please.

"Motives, Monoquin, and more petty arguments." Yo another triple M just dropped??? Crazy :O

"At least I’m a Kennedy-certified innocent. Of course, that could backfire if the person out for blood didn’t believe in Kennedy’s theories. Would Aidan try to kill me now?" Why would he kill you? I know you're paranoid to high hell but geez xD

"Doesn’t matter; I’m not going to die; etc, etc." Someone got tired of always writing the same line of logic lmao

"What am I supposed to open with here? “Hey, haven’t seen you since breakfast when Mark and I were inadvertently advertised as a mastermind/traitor combo!” “Whatcha workin’ on, Vivi? Is it those experiments I strongly advised you against?”

Ellis: …" Eloquent! But yeah, this is a hell of a duo to be running into with Ellis' current positions lmao.

"Mark: …I was asking Vivi what she thought about my amnesia. You can stick around, if you’re curious.

Ellis: You don’t have to be shy about inviting me to stay." You know, I get that Vivi's specialty probably isn't anything relating to amnesia, but I'm surprised this never occurred to anyone earlier lol. Both me and the characters xp Also Ellis never missing one as usual, lovely!

"Vivi: So, from what I’ve picked up on, you’re totally physically healthy. I guess I don’t have the equipment here to completely rule out a brain injury, but based on what I know, I’d guess that the most likely thing is trauma-based amnesia. 

Ellis: So, mental trauma as opposed to physical…?

Vivi: Yeah. It’s really unusual for someone to undergo such a trauma response that they forget even early stuff, like their name and their childhood, but in extreme cases it can happen." Remember that theory that Mark may have already have gone through a killing game because of the wording of that one rule? Seems a little more likely now. I actually wonder if they might be the survivor of a failed execution, and that's the trauma which caused the amnesia? I mean, that's a complete shot in the dark, especially when they don't have any injuries... yeah probably wrong xD Either Tragedy related or previous killing game related I'd guess.

"Vivi: It’s tricky with these kinds of things. Two people can react to the same event in entirely different ways. That’s why a lot of soldiers get PTSD, but not 100% of them do. You can be put in the same situation, and your brain can react totally differently than someone else who goes through the literal exact same thing. For Mark to have this strong of a reaction, they must’ve had a lot of risk factors or something, plus a pretty bad inciting event." Why are you a psychologist suddenly. How good can one Mad Doctor be? :O I mean this isn't extremely obscure information or anything but y'know.

"Vivi: We theorized that, separately, everyone here might’ve lost some memories– which is a whole other thing I haven’t quite figured out yet– so that could mess with the timeline of when Mark actually went through everything." Did they ever get confirmation of missing memories? I guess not, I just kinda assumed it from the fact no one remembered getting kidnapped but I don't actually ever recall Monoquin directly telling them. Which, I guess makes sense given what Vivi's saying, but still :p

"Mark: You’re saying that, because I got so much more clarity after the first murder, that might have prompted some of my memory to return.

Vivi: …I can’t say for sure. Psychological issues aren’t really my area of expertise. But, based on the severity of the amnesia and the circumstances… I’d be really surprised if Cass was the first time you saw a dead body." So that's interesting! I guess any theories about Mark more regularly seeing dead bodies (eg Ultimate Detective and adjacent) might not be true, as it seems that Mark just saw a bunch of corpses in a short time frame, if Vivi's right and I'm not misunderstanding. Or maybe they specifically saw a dismembered corpse, since the only death which triggered the big shift was Cass'? Something to think about.

"Ellis: But not, like, in the same way that Cass’ body was, right? ‘Cause, that… that’d be…" Oh pfft- Well, you've never seen Ellis and me in the same room together, so I guess you have every reason to think we're the same person xD

"Ellis: Sorry you had to hear… all that. I’ll try my best to retain patient confidentiality, alright?

Mark: Thanks. In a lot of ways, it made it less stressful to have someone else here with me…

Ellis: Think about me as a sexy nurse sitting in the corner of the room." The Ellis and Mark dynamic is quickly becoming one of my favorites, they're just always so fun together! :D

Note Obtained: Mark’s Amnesia

??? Okay... I wasn't expecting that to get put down as a note but we roll with it.

"Could it have been a prior killing game…?" God fucking dammit we really are the same xD

"But then, is it possible that Mark was forced to participate again, against their own will…?

No. Not if they won. Because then, if I won, I’d have to…

Why won’t these negative thoughts go away?!" Oh oh , more and more reasons to stop with that attitude are piling up! Ellis mental breakdown incoming, crowd goes wild!

[Vanessa FTE] Hell yeah! This is the last one in the "one FTE per character" round, right? Everyone else has either had an FTE or is dead. Excited to see who got picked as the first one to go all the way! And excited for the Vanessa one as well :D

"Same as the day I walked in on you sobbing with a gun at your feet. Truly, why did I think this would be a good idea?" Come on Ellis, you know that was just the motive, Ness is nice >:v

"Vanessa: Well, I’m glad you’re here! What’s been on your mind lately?

Buddy, you do not want to know." Yeah... Yeah...

"Vanessa: Haha! Well, the people are a big draw of places like this, right? Different Resorts and Casinos try to advertise different attractions, but it’s the individuals running the place that bring people back to the same ones as regulars.

Ellis: I dunno. I don’t really go to a Casino to see, like, one person in particular." I guess I can't comment, seeing as I've never gone to a Casino, but that does feel like a strange reason to return to one. Well, maybe not to someone with a fascination with Dealers as strong as Vanessa's maybe lol. Anyways where is this conversation going? Not in a direction I expected that's for sure xD

"Ellis: Vanessa, honey, don’t take this the wrong way, but… you’re talking really weird compared to normal. Don’t get me wrong, it’s engaging, but it feels like I’m talking to an entirely different person. I dunno who this is, but they would not be singing Bad Romance.

Vanessa: Oh, I guess I was going all commentator mode, huh? My bad. It’s been a while since I've actually announced everything, so I guess I kinda started interviewing you on accident." Okay yeah, Vanessa isn't doing particularly well either lol. We been knew, but geez.

"Ellis: It’s too bad we aren’t trapped in a sporting arena. Then maybe you could strut your stuff.

And get accused of being the mastermind for it." Still salty over being a prime suspect because we're in a Casino, huh? Dude this chapter is sometimes feeling like the "Ellis becomes a hater" arc it's really fun xD

"Vanessa: Thanks for talking about all this with me, Ellis. It’s easier for me to figure out what’s going on by trying to analyze it like a match, but it’s hard to do it on my own.

Ellis: Well, if you’re offering a penny for my thoughts, you’ll be in luck.

Vanessa: And if you ever want to talk about anything, I’m all ears! So, don’t feel like you have to keep anything in either, okay?

Ellis: Right." Well that was fun! Vanessa craving companionship isn't exactly new, but cool to see it explicitly, and Ellis saying "right" full well knowing he ain't about to reveal half of what he's thinking most of the time is just funny :p

"Finally, a conversation that didn’t go terribly! It started relatively positive, remained relatively positive, and ended on a relatively positive note! And we only brought up the concept of death once." And the crowd goes wild!!!

"I really don’t want to run into the Aidan-Kennedy feud again at dinner tonight." Yeah I can imagine that'd get tiring after a while :v

"Jeff: Sure, if it’s you. I want no part in whatever stupid feud they’re probably having over there. I doubt you’d be in on it, though." Ha! Get narrative foiled, Ellis!

"Jeff: I figure they’ll burn themselves out, but maybe not. I’ll probably stick around for breakfasts, at least, ‘cause I don’t want to miss everything that happens. But dinner tonight? No chance.

Ellis: How shocking. The Ultimate Absentee being absent." I'm more surprised they're going to breakfast at all, if anything xD

"Ellis: No theories of your own, then?

Jeff: Just that this one’s wrong. I mean, Davis, on his moral high horse, being the traitor? No way.

So the animosity does go both ways." Oh hell yeah, new conflict just dropped. Peak.

"Ellis: Huh? Oh, no, I hadn’t really bothered to actually think anything through. I meant more, like, everyone’s so even that I could just pick some names out of a hat and figure out some way where it could be them. Actually, being the Lucky Student, that might not be such a bad idea." That's really funny, imagine this is how the mm and traitor are actually revealed xD

"Jeff: Hey, you could give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?

Ellis: Word gets to Kennedy?" True! That would be terrible!

"Jeff: Then we just keep it secret. What, you see Paris anywhere around here? 

Ellis: I don’t, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t hear us… somehow. Ah, screw it." Oh my god they're actually doing it. Also Ellis is just as paranoid as me about Paris apparently- shit we might actually be the same person :v

"I unfold the papers, and I can’t help but bark out a laugh.

Jeff: What is it?

I show them the papers, reading “Ellis” and “Jeff.”" That is really funny. The only way it could possibly be funnier is if this is actually the right answer somehow xD Highly doubt it but y'know.

"Ellis: So, should I be the mastermind, and you be the traitor? Or do you want to reverse it?

Jeff: Eh, I’ll be the traitor. Probably easier to skip out when things get bad, right? 

Ellis: I guess it would make sense for me to be the one to set things up in the Casino of all places. Then again, it’s not like you’re a stranger to Resorts yourself.

I sigh.

Ellis: Yeah, we can’t let word of this get to Kennedy.

Jeff: Definitely not." They're making their own DROS AU as we speak, it's very fun lol. And yeah, Kennedy would not let this one go xD

"It’s just a piece of paper. It’s just a silly game.

A killing game.

I refuse to be part of the problem." Ellis sweetie we're well past the point where you can deny being extremely paranoid lol.

[Mark FTE start] And our lucky winner is Mark! Makes sense, they were one of the first FTEs (maybe the first one? Right now I can't recall), which implies accirax was probably interested in them particularly, and well. It hasn't seemed to go away :p I really like this choice too, more Mark-Ellis content is great in my book! :D

"Ellis: So, are you more of a landscape guy or a portrait guy? If you need a tiebreaker, I make an excellent model. Especially for certain classes.

Mark: I hadn’t really figured out what I was going to draw yet. I just figured, if prompting memories can help them come back, I should try different things that could relate to my talent. I figure “artistic” is a pretty wide category that’s pretty easy to test for, so I’ll start there." Get absolutely ignored Ellis xD And that's a pretty smart idea from Mark, though I doubt it's gonna work. Still a good idea to figure out what kind of things they enjoy for when (and if) they get out, though!

"Mark: That’s okay. I literally don’t remember ever drawing, so there’s no pressure." Sometimes I wonder how Mark, like, functions. There's so much shit you learn in life that you don't even realize you've learnt, that they've forgotten, and yet they seem to be handling everything pretty fine for the most part. Like, they're surprisingly well adjusted for someone who realistically have the social tact and knowledge of a child. I imagine they probably kept a lot of subconscious memories or something, but it's still a pretty interesting part of their character to me.

"Ellis: Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t know what I’m going to be drawing either. I just know that it’s going to be pink." Based.

"Ellis: I’m used to being up at most hours of the day. ‘Cause like, some parties don’t end until 5 AM or later, but the stock market opens at 6:30. Honestly, a lot of days, I just sleep in the late afternoon. But I can still operate during normal person hours, too. Especially when a certain robot is forcing my hand…

Mark: Huh. I guess that makes sense." I concur with Mark! It's a hell of a schedule, that's for sure. Though, if Ellis drinks at parties, does that mean they do trading mostly drunk? And still get a fuckton of money from it? That's funny lmao.

"Mark: Is it weird, only having one outfit? It feels a little weird for me, but I also don’t really remember what I like wearing in the first place." My guy's worn exactly one outfit in their conscious life, I hadn't even thought about that but it's true lol.

"Ellis: Yeah, I definitely wish we had more style variation. I guess if I really cared, I could probably ask the staff for a new fit." Though I guess that is an option :p

"Mark: Yeah, I have no idea. I don’t know why I’d be wearing something like this in my normal life, though, whatever that normal life is." I think I've brought this up before, that the fact a question mark is part of their outfit could suggest their real talent is related to mysteries of some kind. This is definitely feeling like the "things FF has said get brought up in the dialogue" part, it's funny xD

"Ellis: I was drawing one of the plants by the door." Not what I would have guessed, but I guess actually coming up with something interesting to draw would require more thought than just picking a random nearby object and copying it :v

"Mark: Well, even if I didn’t get much done, I can pretty much rule out any artistic talent. I didn’t have any brilliant ideas or know any techniques, and if my talent were really something artistic, I think I’d have remembered something.

Ellis: I’d say “back to the drawing board,” but you’re trying to not start drawing again." Ellis is so goddamn funny I love her. And yeah, I figured this wasn't the talent. Maybe try video games next time!

"Mark: I’ll probably try something else out again tomorrow night. If you want to join, I’d love the company. No pressure, though. 

Ellis: Mark Lastname, are you asking me out on a date~?

They finish gathering up the art supplies and smile at me.

Mark: Good night, Ellis.

Damn, where did Mark pick up these skills?! They’re actually keeping up with my flirting. Not just that, but they’re playing hard to get!" Apart from Ellis never missing one, that's what I'm talking about! Mark's so good and smooth and how??? I mean, it makes for great interactions, so I'm loving it, but still xD

(Also we finally have evidence Ellis and I are different! They use Lastname to refer to Mark's unknown last name, while I use Nolastnamegiven. The plot thickens! (?))

Lovely FTE! I can't wait to see the rest of them! :D

"Concluding today, I feel like I’m getting a better sense of who’s on the shitlist and who’s on the hitlist. (As in, I’m going to hit them up. Not that I’m going to slap them.)" Lol.

[Ellis describes who is in each list] It's neat to get a recap like this, helps establish Ellis' mindset in more detail.

"The people who are paying attention are miserable. The people who are blocking it out are doing fine.

I gotta hand it to whoever coined the phrase “ignorance is bliss.” Maybe they competed on a prior season." Alright numeral XV, relax. (/ref)

-

Awesome part as always! I really enjoyed this one a lot! Various fun shenanigans with a good amount of more serious character moments as well! Truly peak.

I said I would make a more well thought out guess of who the traitor was at the end, but I think the best guess is still Taylor, or maybe Paris (because someone's doing something wrong, so I have to suspect Paris, it's just tradition at this point). Ellis is out through protag privilege, Vanessa got way too attached to Antonia for someone who helped create a situation where people die, Jeff wouldn't want to stay so long inside the killing game (though maybe he could turn traitor mid-game for a promise of escape? Could maybe work, but their attitude during the "pulling names out of a hat" scene doesn't really fit I think), Vivi's too focused on resurrecting the dead, it'd be strange for Kennedy to make the traitor theory in CH1 if he himself is the traitor, Aidan wouldn't care enough, the death of Noah's mom hit him too hard (unless he's the traitor and got betrayed by the mm in CH2?), Harper was too restless for someone who was actively helping in the killing game and ve's too nice anyways, Mark would have to be lying about their amnesia which I kinda doubt, and the other four are dead already which doesn't fit Monoquin vaguely speaking in present tense about the traitor.

Paris clearly has the moral compass to be a traitor (aka she doesn't care about anyone), so I could buy her being the traitor for info on the others. She might also be too suspicious for an mm, so a lower importance role like traitor could fit her. However, I don't see how her befriending Taylor could play into it, provided Taylor isn't the mm. Meanwhile, Taylor got approached by Paris, meaning they could have started as a traitor for the approval of the mm but will become remorseful because of their bestie being in danger; or, if Paris is the mm, Taylor might have only become the traitor mid-killing game, when Paris befriended them. I'm probably going to to end up being completely wrong when it gets revealed neither are the traitor, but oh well, that's part of the fun of theorizing :D

See ya' next week, when more peak drops! Hopefully by that time I'll be done with the playlist post, but I make no promises lol.

[d-esmond]

2, 5, 12, 17, 20 for mido and jules please :D

TYSM BELOVED

2. What would they do if the other woke in a manic state after a nightmare?

i hate this is frequent enough from both sides that i don't have to think about it much. said it before but mido has always been a fussy sleeper but after the death of his parents, nightmares and night terrors were very intense for a few yrs. it got a little better, he still has nightmares like. once a week maybe. (depends on what he was up to during the day etc) he has that moment of panic after waking up but he shuts down very quickly after that as like. a defense mechanism. and he would go have a smoke on the balcony or roof and not go back to sleep again <3 idk with jules he gradually realizes that staying with her helps just as well if not better. (and by gradual i mean Literal Years.) jules doesnt say anything, she just hugs him and plays with his hair and they stay cozy. if nothing else she knows that she needs to let him come to her. (and he eventually always does. yay)

jules suffers from fucked up dreams post-abstergo and they come with pretty intense hallucinations when she wakes up. the bleeding effect is fun and cool and not ruining her. she gets out of bed and paces around the house and rambles, like she doesn't know where and/or who she is. mido feels uncomfortable restraining her or anything bc theres been small violent outbursts. but he just. softly talks to her to give her some sort of anchor. like hey. here i am and he tells her abt who she is and describes the surroundings etc. sometimes he hums a slow little tune. he has a good low voice for that. and it helps and Then they will cuddle all night.

5. Describe their cozy night in.

i like that for two other ships i got very into detail abt what they get up to but uh. its just food and sex honestly. a movie won't happen, games won't happen. all is well. but yes, mido will insist on cooking for jules and since she looks cute on counters she will sit there and yap. she might burn some candles or turn on music. (followed by a discussion with mido bc his middle name is actually Insufferable Music Snob) the sex and everything before and after it takes hours bc they just. love being 100% having that time alone together. (though i have mentioned to macy once that jules would interrupt sex to text back lily. but thats all.)

12. Do they have many heated arguments? How do they smooth things over?

no <3 generally mido doesn't argue with anyone (unless its Very Serious) he just walks away. which is equally annoying but. thats beside the point. they have little moments of bickering about like. jules leaving her clothes on the floor or mido being unnecessarily rude to someone but jules never really takes anything too seriously so she ends up laughing abt it for no reason. and mido thinks thats very endearing so then they forget about it. they did have a One Time argument about him being unfaithful and the sleeping around, but it was mostly jules telling him like it is and he truly had no way of defending himself bc he brought that upon himself so. he would never ever admit it, but he knows when he fucked up.

17. Who’s more likely to pull the other in by the waist and kiss them passionately?

mido likes to think he takes the lead and mostly he does, but big gestures like that are jules' thing. he could be working on something and be Very focused and jules is like. yeah i'm gonna grab ur face and smooch u real hard. he doesn't mind. but he's more the type to be all slow and sneak an arm around her.

20. Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

this is really the midojules song ever 2 me. since the very beginning. thanks king

special mention to this one.

[rocket-sith]

Also going back to the Usenet/AOL era of X-Files shipping, generally Shipper, in the context of fandom discussions, meant MSR (Mulder/Scully romance) by default. If you were into a different ship, you had to specify, and if it was F/F or M/M (Mulder/Skinner for example), it was slash. Mulder/Skinner slash, or Scully/Any Other Woman slash (OC or not), whatever - it was slash, and you were into whatever/whatever slash.

Antis were called NoRoMos, short for No Romance, and this phrase too pertained specifically to anti-MSR. That being said, the level of hate over ship rivalry (or much of any rivalry) wasn't seen in fandom to near the degree it is in current fandom. (Save for the Joel vs Mike fights in the MST3K fandom, but that wasn't any sort of ship wank at the time, and it's also another matter ENTIRELY.)

There was definitely an X-Files shipper vs NoRoMo rivalry, and definitely some heated arguments, and Shippers would go NUTS when we knew an upcoming episode was written by Vince Gilligan (yes THAT Vince Gilligan) because he was infamous for dishing both hilarity (X-Cops, Unusual Suspects) and the shippiest shippy episodes that ever shipped with ALL the UST (Pusher, Small Potatoes), and some beautiful unholy hybrids thereof (Bad Blood), and the NoRoMos never knew if they were gonna get either extreme or just something really cool in the middle.

I don't recall seeing suicide bait and threats against fic authors from NoRoMos being the norm or even common though, and here's why:

The threats (not suicide bait, but definitely nasty-grams from corporate lawyers and "delete your page or else" type threats) were all coming from Fox, and they were leveled equally at all corners of fandom, trying to shut ALL of us up and all of us down.

We didn't have AO3, we had the Gossamer Archive, dedicated exclusively to all types of XF fanfic. It got takedown notices and DDOS attacks on the regular. So did X-Files fan pages on GeoCities and AOL Member sites and whatnot - fanfic, fan art, digital art, fan-run forum sites - forget the opposing shipper, Fox was the ultimate Anti. Anti their own fans celebrating what we loved, no matter what form we did it in.

So yeah, you had situations were a fan would panic over Fox's latest escapade in sending out copyright bullshit C&D letters to fan sites and fic archives, a person would frantically try and mirror a site before Fox could take it down, so a well meaning fan would accidentally DDOS the site they were trying to save and it created artifical strife within the fandom.

This shit runs deep. We used to hide huddled by faction in small scattered corners of the internet (AOL message boards, email listserves, IRC channels) or bonded together in large numbers, proudly and shamelessly as one fandom (Gossamer, a.t.x-f/a.t.x-f.c) that occasionally gave each other noogies, but dammit we're all in this together, waiting for the hand of the overlords to bring down its next bullshit copyright C&D flyswatter against a fic writer or an artist or a digital collage photoshopper or whatever, so we put blue EFF ribbons on our pages, and we used HTML to black out our fansites in protest long before Dark Mode was ever a twinkle in Agent Mulder's TrustNo1 eye, and we organized counter campaigns to advocate for the right of fandom itself to exist.

Shipper wars? Oh no. We've got bigger fish to fry. Fandom will live on, dammit. You can come for us, you can TRY, but not today CSM Satan, not today.

Edit to add: Ya know, this is weirdly/hilariously similar to both the Mirror Universe as it's presented in Discovery, and the quasi-mirror Q-niverse in Picard, where all these different, normally-warring species and factions had banded together to form a rebellion against the Terrans. Fox was the Terrans. That's kinda how things tend to work socially and historically - the enemy of my enemy, etc - but seeing it play out in fandom space is the ultimate trope of life and art imitating one another.

every few months some annoying motherfucker makes a post asking why it's called 'spirk' instead of 'spork' or 'kock' and the short, easy answer is: spirk is already the silly ship name, the og ship name is 'k/s' and the og og ship name is 'the premise', because spirk is a ship so old that it was around before ship names were invented. now never come into my house again.

[geocait0815]

That prompt thing, please. Characters: Jake and Dan "How could MC possibly love someone like you?" Dan sneered.

Oof, my first prompt was already a tricky one. It took me a while to figure out how to put those two into a room :D

Thank you so much for challenging me. This was a lot of fun to write!

Common Ground

It has been several months since Richy was unmasked as the MWAF. Jessy is sitting on the steps leading to her front door with a small duffle bag to her feet. Every corner of this damn town reminds her of him. So she can't wait to get out, even if it is just for a few days.

Dan has been really showing up for her, comforting her and trying to cheer her up even though he had to go through this painful physio at the same time. Now that he is finally out of the wheelchair, he suggested a road trip to visit MC.

A Mazda comes to a screeching halt in fron of her: Dans not-so-new ride. He gets out, walks around the car and picks up her bag. “Hey, babe. You ready to hit the road?” “Don't call me that,” she responds. “I still haven't decided if you deserve another chance at a date.” Dan places the duffle bag in the trunk and raises his hands in a defensive gesture. “Okay, okay. Just two old friends sharing a ride.” He winks, but as soon as Jessy turns away from him to climb into the passengers seat, his face falls. “I choose the music!”, Jessy calls out even before he reaches his door. “Oh no. You don't. I won't suffer through eight hours of Taylor Swift and cohorts!”

Spoiler alert: He did.

--------

“What the hell, MC? Who chooses to live on the 31st freaking floor?” Dan grumbles in place of a proper greeting. “Haven't they taught you about elevators in those forests of yours?”, she replies while embracing Jessy in a long hug. “Don't mind him, it was a long drive”, Jessy says.

MC leads them into the apartment. “I have a guest room here,” she motions towards a door. “And a couch. I'll leave the sleeping arrangements up to you two.” An awkward silence falls over the group. Was that just hope that MC saw in Dans eyes? “I can take the couch,” Jessy says calmly. “Only over my dead body...” “Let's worry about that later. Drop your bags in there for now. I was about to start making dinner.” MC interrupted Dans outburst before any serious arguments spoil the week-end before it even started.

When Dan and Jessy finally follow MC into the living room, they notice someone leaning against the counter of the open kitchen, coffee mug in hand. “Oh, uhm... Hi!”, Jessy blurbs out. “We didn't know that... wait! Is that...?” she stops and looks between MC and the stranger in full confusion. Dan takes position behind her, arms crossed.

“Yes, Jessy. This is Jake.” She walks over to the kitchen and proceeds to take more mugs from a cabinet. “We try to see each other as often as possible ever since...” her voice trails off. She sets down the mugs. “Coffee? Tea?” “Tea please!”, Jessy chirps. “Hi Jake, nice to finally meet you in person.” Her first shock seems to have faded quickly. “Hello, Jessica.” “Oh, for the love of god. Call me Jessy!”

Dan still frowns. “If I'd known we'd be running into hackberboy here, I would have never suggested this visit.” Jake does not reply but narrows his eyes at Dan over the rim of his coffee mug. And before MC finds the right words to tell him off, Jessy boxes Dans shoulder, jokingly but hard enough to send a signal. “Oh cut it out, you old knucklehead. We are guests here!”

With the tension broken up a bit, MC and Jessy are starting to discuss dinner plans and Dan wanders into the living room, seemingly inspecting the contents of the bookshelves.

Jake makes his way towards the fridge but is stopped right away. “On, no! Don't even think about helping!” MC laughs. “What? Why?”, he asks. “The last time you cooked I basically had to renovate the kitchen afterwards. I am not in the mood for that today.” She gives him a kiss and ushers him towards the couch where he reluctantly sits down and starts doing something on his phone.

While the girls are chatting along in the kitchen there is an uncomfortable silence between the two men and none of them is willing to break it. After a while, Dan suddenly turns around and stares at Jake, until he finally looks up from the screen. “Yes?” “You know,” Dan starts. “There is one thing in this whole mess that I never understood.” “How can I enlighten you?” Jake asks.

He can't help it but sound a little arrogant. Dan always rubbed him the wrong way in a sense. Jake generally ignored him. But then he had the audacity to ask MC out... well that did not improve Jakes opinion of Dan. Jake did not even have to read this private conversation. MC told him about it.

“I have been wondering,” Dan sneers, “How could MC possibly love someone like you?” Jake stares at Dan for a long minute before he finally puts his phone onto the coffee table in front of him and leans forward while resting his arms on his knees.

“To tell you the truth,” he sighs. “I have no fucking clue what he sees in me. She is everything I could ever imagine and many things I could not, even in my wildest dreams. I cannot offer her the life she deserves. There is so much uncertainty in our future.” He leans back now, looking directly at Dan. None of them noticed that it is suddenly very calm in the kitchen. “But there is one thing I know for sure. And this is probably the only thing I know with absolute certainty. As long as she wakes up in the morning, choosing to be with me, I will do everything in my power to protect her, and cherish her, and treat her like the goddess she is.”

Dan takes a deep breath. But instead of replying with one of his usual snappy comebacks, he slowly turns and looks directly at Jessy. And with a calm voice he says: “I guess we have more in common than I thought, Jake.”

[shittyblogname]

William Afton Fluff Alphabet

This is the same alphabet as on the Michael post, so credit goes out again to MagicalWarlock :)

let me know if I should do a NSFW version with Michael lol I feel like I’m not very good with these, feels ooc but the fluff alphabet went insane with likes, so thanks to everyone who read it :), I’m glad that you like my posts!

I also did this in a different format/font since I re-read the fluff alphabet last night to check for mistakes & found it very hard to read without my eyes hurting, so hopefully this one is more pleasant to read for those who had the same struggle.

last note: my requests are always open, and I don’t have ideas for the “shady enough” fic right now, so feel free to request whatever :D

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

William would definitely just hang out with you in the restaurants after hours. Not even as a weird, uncanny or perverted thing, he just likes showing off the technology to you. One time he booped Freddy’s nose just to prove that it does indeed make a noise. Other than that “netflix & chill” & reading, drawing or sketching. Probably sketching you :)

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He likes your curves, obviously. They’re fun to draw and he loves just admiring your general beauty. If he would have to say something other than your body, he’d go for how caring you are despite all the shit that he does :)

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

William can’t deal with others emotions, I’m pretty sure that that’s very obvious by the way he treats his kids or wife. He tries to listen to your issue & figure out with you what seems to be the problem, but on the inside it just makes him angry how stupid you sound talking bad about yourself or a situation like that. He isn’t good with showing a comforting manner, but the next-best thing he can think of is putting you into his lap & distracting you by drawing with you.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

He doesn’t picture the future too much when it comes to a relationship since they’ll most likely leave anyways after he opens up, but if you happen to stay long enough he might just think about re-marrying, but would probably quickly dismiss the thought as “ridiculous” 

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

definitely dominant, will not let you top him

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

William gives me a “anger issues/anger disorder” kinda vibe, so he’s easy to rile up in a fight, and will dismiss the topic by walking away with a ‘whatever’ & drink about it later on, probably when you are asleep.

discussion kinda fights: 

He’s similar to Michael, being a smartass & pissing you off further. Unlike Michael though he’s more likely to “explode” & full-on yell at you that what you are saying is nonsense

heated arguments:

He’s definitely loud, very loud. If you really piss him off he’s not afraid to yell at you, smash stuff to prove his point & possibly hurt you or himself on accident, but he catches himself before it goes further than a bruise.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He catches little things you do for him, like leaving a extra cup of coffee on the counter, etc. he’s a bit oblivious to bigger things though, he pays too much attention to detail to notice.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

He’s very secretive of the stuff he does at work or outside work, if you ask about it he’ll probably bring up a cheap lie. Honestly I wouldn’t expect him to be loyal, but if you stay long enough for him to have a safety-like feeling in the relationship with you he’ll tell you some stuff that he did.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

William feels like you changed his views a little, he’s usually very pessimistic, but he can see good in certain Situations more now.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

He’ll stare at you from a distance, leaning onto something & just watch you while thinking about all the things he’s gonna do to you later to remind you of who you belong to :)

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

he isn’t really one for long/passionate kisses? Idk why I get this vibe from him, but he’d probably just give you little pecks here & there throughout the day. The first kiss was after hours while you two were cleaning up some food & confetti from a birthday party, he said you have a piece above your lip & took his chance :)

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

he probably just said it bluntly to your face, he wanted to get it over with the rejection so he could focus on his robotics. When you accepted he was genuinely dumbfounded. 

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

He’s on the fence about re-marrying. He brings up the thought once while you two are in bed, probably about to fall asleep, but if you wanna put a ring on his finger you gotta ask yourself.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

love & your name, he isn’t very creative with Nicknames

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

William’s confused about his feelings. I imagine that he did not feel loved by his wife or felt love for her or his kids, so he thinks that it’s just him feeling ill & that it will go away. He’ll be upset about it and have a tantrum when he’s alone in the office, unsure about what to do. It’s a Situation where he doesn’t have control & that panics him. He’ll be his usual self around others though, not letting anyone catch wind of what he’s struggling with on the inside.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

He’s upfront about it if anyone asks, but he wouldn’t go around and brag with you, during work hours he doesn’t like to show any affection towards you, but afterwards & at home he’ll give you pecks & hold your hand, etc.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

ig he has a lot of money & smarts? Lol

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Cliché Romantic, he gets you flowers & something you’ve always wanted for special occasions, or something self-made that he tinkered on :)

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

You’ll have to reason with him as to why exactly you think that whatever you want to do will be beneficial, basically makes a whole business meeting out of it until he can’t hold his laughter in anymore & gets you what you wanted 

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

He needs new things every couple of weeks, a certain routine will stress him out with time & with that comes rage and other outlashes 

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

He ain’t empathic at all, I think we all know that. He is very smart though, so he’ll still be able to put himself into your situation. He knows you pretty well overall & just asks you straight up when he wants to know more about you. 

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

He puts you on the same level as his Animatronics, especially the one’s that are special to him like Circus Baby. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He LOVES when you lay on his chest, it just makes him happy :), especially when you draw circles or different shapes on it to coax him into sleeping. 

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

In private, he’ll complain about how needy you are, but then completely cling to you. He likes to peck your neck while spooning you

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He’ll tinker with his electronics to distract his mind, but he can’t help but feel empty without you around.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

He’ll invest into things that you want, but won’t run after you if you are being a brat or want to break up.

[yourmcu]

Birthday

Pairings: The Avengers x  reader

Summary:

It’s your birthday and the team gets creative on how to surprise you, putting their acting skills to the test.

Word count: 2,350

A/n: just a little something because,, well,, it’s my birthday *runs away* also it’s cheesy, hopefully it makes sense lmao

Warnings: uhhh brief mention of explosion? mostly fluff

The Avengers wanted to get creative for your birthday this year. For the few years they've known you they picked up on things about you. One, you paid no mind to your birthday at all and just considered it a normal day like the rest of the 365, Tony took note that you hated parties, at least the really big ones, something that involved only the team would be good.

Okay, you sound like a party pooper, but that isn't the case; it's not a crime to just... not want to have a grand celebration, right? And people singing the 'happy birthday' song to you too while you just sit there in silence. It's awkward, you once told Natasha. It’s also awkward and hard for you to receive presents even though that’s what birthdays are all about, you’re still getting used to it since you knew someone like Tony Stark.

Well, the team think you're an amazing friend and they all treat you like family. They're so glad they met someone like you.

You're immediately called to the conference room on that day. Only to find the team arguing and pointing fingers at one another.

You kinda just slot in, sitting on the chair you usually sit on whenever there's a meeting or mission briefing. Glancing around, you try and find out what they're fighting about.

Security. Suits. Brief mention of Ultron. Rhodey busying himself with phones, probably making a lot of calls. Natasha and Clint talking among themselves, only raising their voice whenever they're included in the conversation which mainly consisted of Tony and Steve arguing.

"Suit up, get the jet ready." Steve dismisses but before he could walk out himself you raise your hand.

"Hey, sorry, I just woke up," you say sheepishly but coolly at the same time. "What happened, is everyone supposed to go? Can I read the file?" Because if this is an Avengers-level threat that required everyone, you'd want to know all about it.

His sharp and expression softens slightly when he looks at you. "No file, I'm afraid. Some of the compound's security protocols have been compromised, someone hacked in." He proceeds to tell you how they particularly had interest in Bruce and Tony's lab so the other rooms were untouched.

Apparently, they took blueprints and materials, maybe a handful of Tony's suits.

But if you think about it, those two carelessly letting the security to their lab loose? Highly unlikely...

You push the thought to the back of your mind and nod when Steve tells you to get ready. Stark tech can be dangerous in the wrong hands, after all. Let alone the Iron Man suits.

Fortunately, those things have trackers. Leaving you to wonder again why those idiots don't even try and take them off so they won't tracked?

Sat on the floor of the jet while everyone was strangely quiet but once again you didn't pay any mind, you sharpen a few of your knives. Natasha sat on a stool near you, idly picking her nails. An hour into the flight you furrow your brows and look around.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yes," Tony states quickly and a matter-of-factly. They all share glances before he continued. "It's the tension. Sorry. My fault."

"It's not your fault, Tony," Bruce starts.

"I'm sorry, to whom were those stolen suits again?" Steve speaks up as well and you could tell it's gonna be a full blown argument again.

"Now hold on just a second-" Tony faces the super soldier to counter.

You merely blink, not expecting a simple question to turn out like this. Clint just glances from the pilot's seat and Natasha almost cracks a smile by the look of your face. If only you knew it was all fake, all planned. But what does she know? You're a spy too, maybe you've figured out what they're up to and decided to play along.

Sad to say you're still oblivious. Maybe the fact that you only slept three hours last night is one case. You wanted nothing more than your bed right now.

Heck, not one of them wished you a happy birthday but you didn't notice at all.

Tuning out their bickering you sit down next to Natasha who's the only one not in the argument.

"I haven't seen Wanda all day," you say and she turns her head to face you. "Or Sam, or Bucky."

"Probably not back from their mission." Natasha answers promptly.

You frown at that. "Steve made this sound like an Avengers-level threat, and it is, shouldn't they be here?"

You don't wait for a response, opening up a globe-shaped hologram that shows where the jet, represented by a blinking dot. Your eyes slightly widen when you see the target location which is one of the places you've been dying to visit your whole life.

Maybe it's just a coincidence. You definitely didn't expect to visit it for the first time on a mission though.

Natasha clears her throat. "Hey, have you read the book I gave you?" She subtly closes the globe up when she catches your attention.

You shake your head bashfully. "You know I'm a slow reader. Give me two months then I'll come back to you." You laugh. Natasha smiles and tells you to take your time. "Have you read the book I gave you?"

"I loved it."

"I knew you would!" You say excitedly and the next few moments you discuss about the specific book. She's just glad you didn't ask any further questions about the location.

--

All of you split up once you reach the base but Rhodey and Bruce stay in the jet as backup. The place reminded you so much of the old Avengers tower, only with darker themes. You're paired with Clint who you follow to the side of the building, with surprisingly no cautiousness. He just... ran in, entrance deserted of guards.

You all had a digital, tech checklist to see what was stolen including all the suit names. So far you've searched two drawers now and still no sign of any agent or guard. But it's weird since the others are clearly doing their part on their floors. Thuds, footsteps and sometimes banging sounds could be heard all around.

“Finally," you mutter when you hear footsteps behind you, spinning around so suddenly to surprise your enemy and take him down with ease. You raise an eyebrow when they don't put up a fight at all.

Clint was in front of a computer when you peek in to one of the rooms but he waves you off. "I'll meet you on the next floor. This'll take a second."

"One suit on the roof!" you hear Steve grunt through your earpiece.

"Remember to remove the arc reactor, that'll shut them down for sure." Bruce reminds through everyone's comms.

You hear Tony let out a noise. "Might have a problem with that, Banner, they're all reprogrammed."

Expecting the man with seven Ph. D's to worry, it only took him a minute to respond back. "It's your tech. I don't believe they could do that completely especially having them for only twelve hours."

"In that case," Tony sighs. "There should be a kill switch under one of their reactors."

"Which one?" Natasha grunts.

The deafening silence from Tony's line explains it.

You fight your way though the thugs which again, don't put up a fight. Sometimes you throw one punch and they're out cold, leading you to believe the intense training Bucky insisted you do worked. The only tough ones were the Iron Man suits themselves.

Ripping out the arc reactors wasn't easy. You had to use all you force. On the second one you encounter it got the upper hand and blasts you through a wall, the impact sending sharp pain to your head and back.

You hear metal thumping of a suit so you get back up and attempt to get your hands on the Iron Man in front of you.

"Hey, hey. Same team. Look," Tony grips on your wrists and lifts his mask up. "You alright?"

“Yeah," you pant, relaxing a bit. "Yeah. One of them got m-"

"We just discovered a bomb, northwest," Clint says. By ‘we’ he means him and Natasha. The redhead speaks right after. “Two and a half minutes. How many suits left, Friday?”

"Only one more suit is fully functional."

You get out of Tony's hold and sprint up the stairs. "I got it."

He smiles to himself. The plan is all coming  to place.

As soon as you enter the room you dodge a blast from the much bulkier Mark XVI. Of course they'd want to make the stealth suit more powerful. You launch yourself towards it, stomping on an arm while trying to dodge blasts from the the other one.

"Y/N! Fifty seconds!" Steve shouts in your earpiece.

You could've just jumped out, leaving the compromised suits here to be blown up but being under pressure made you panic and set your only goal to find the switch.

The suit could still set off a blast from the arc reactor so you couldn't really get your hands on it without losing a freaking arm.

"Get out of there!”

But you didn’t have enough time. So you just curl into a ball against the wall, accepting your fate.

A pop did go off. Loud, but you didn't feel yourself torn into pieces right after. You also heard a bunch of aye’s and oh’s. Redwing whirs by to your head to drop off a birthday hat.

"Happy Birthday!”

Your eyes fly open. Turns out the only thing inside Mark XVI was confetti. Natasha walks over to you to inspect and make sure you're alright.

"What the hell?" Your eyes widen at her, then at everyone. Sam and Bucky were now standing with them, smiling at you amused.

"I think she's in shock.”

“You think?”

Steve glares at Tony with a hint of amusement. "I told you it would be too much."

"Trust me she prefers something like this instead of a big party. Don't you, Y/N?"

"What do you mean?" You take off the hat and clutch it between your hands, appreciating Natasha rubbing your back as you try to collect yourself. "How is none of this real?"

"We basically faked a mission for you." Rhodey says.

You look around all the rubble. "This building, the people, suits-"

"Bought the place," Tony states. "Hired stuntmen, did a few tweaks on the suits...”

"God, why would you do that?" You bury your face in your hands, not knowing if you should be laughing or crying. "I punched those guys!"

"They'll be fine, they signed up for it."

You gently get up and brush off some confetti off your knees.

"But back at the compound... you guys were yelling at each other and during the whole thing you all sounded serious," you point out. "Was that all part of the act?"

Especially when that 'bomb' was about to go off. Steve's panicked voice made you scared for your life, only to know that it was all fake.

They all show signs of agreement, laughing.

"We'd make such great actors." Natasha smirks.

"Alright, the cake isn't going to blow itself." Clint walks up to you with said cake and you meet him halfway.

Everyone gathers around and before they could inhale to sing the stupid song, you cut them off. "You all know I hate to be sung at. Can we just get this over with?"

They all burst out laughing, you giggle in the process, blowing out your candle. You all group hug right after. The laughter makes you miss the sound of faint thunder outside.

"Look who's late." Bruce points out.

"Yes, I got here as soon as I can, my apologies." Thor smiles sheepishly.

Your ears perk up at the all too familiar voice of the god of thunder. Moving everyone of the way, you leap to hug him. "Thor!"

"Happy birthday, dearest Y/N." He grins and pats you on the head. "I'm afraid my - I mean - our gift, is with Loki at the moment."

"Enough with the formality, I’m just glad you’re here.”

Peter rings up Tony to tell him everything's set up at the huge building they rented for your low-key party. Just the Avengers. Peter, Vision and Wanda were in charge of setting things up over there, from decorations and food. Sam and Bucky also helped a bit before they arrived at the fake base.

So you all get into the jet again, this time you look at the windows in awe to see what the city's like. You also asked a bunch of questions on how they pulled something stupid but unique fake mission like that.

Once you've reached your destination, the place was simple yet big enough to fit everyone. Tony really took notes for this year. You didn't like anything too fancy or elegant, and you didn't like huge-ass parties with hundreds of people you've never met before.

Here you're with your family eating, drinking booze and playing games, generally having a good time.

You give the other five Avengers big hugs. Vision's never usually a hugger but for you he made an exception just for today. Everyone was surprised when he lifted you off your feet and spun you around.

"Hugging has a lot of good benefits," Vision says when he lets you go. "Astounding, I know. It is recommended eight times a day, hopefully you've already gotten that much."

You giggle at his remark and Wanda rolls her eyes playfully. “Thank you, Vision.”

“Splendid, that means I don’t have to give you one.”

You turn around to see the god of mischief himself carefully hand you a wrapped box. Loki chuckles when you smile at him. “Happiest Birthday.”

“Loki.... you know you and Thor didn’t have to-”

“Thor? That one’s from me. I assure you.”

“Y/N!” You hear Tony call from the other side of the room. “It’s time for presents, little miss. Good lord this looks like Christmas morning.”

-

unfortunatley i am that extra to post a birthday fic woo hoo

[razorblade180]

My main issue with BB is that as it is, it’s a very frail relationship that won’t last long because neither girl seems to be mentally prepared to be in one, specially with each other. As it is presented in the show, seems like Yang is gonna need constant reassurance and Blake is gonna have to be there all the time, which is already bad enough, but then you remember… it’s Blake. She has a bad story of people like that. They are each other’s triggers, and the show nor fans talk about it!

I see your points, and I’ve actually mentioned similar subjects in the past. I feel the need to put this on the record on what I’m about to say is no way a rant. I’m simply speaking my thoughts calmly. So please, do the same if you’re gonna type a reply

I like BB. They are cute, and can work, but I do agree their current state isn’t that great. It’s why one of my random predictions I made for V9 a long time ago was some kind of moment where things are bad for everyone and Weiss calls out Blake and Yang for not properly contributing because they’re too focused on one another.

It’s why I really wanted in V8 for Ruby to be a bit upset that the two, specifically Yang, for deciding to tell Robyn about the plan without discussing it first; then shut down the counter argument of Blake being on board with it because Blake is the most likely person to try and agree with Yang instead of pushing back. I think it would’ve been a good character moment for Ruby to acknowledge and be happy that the two clearly love one another, but puts her foot as a leader who should definitely be aware of big choices. After all, one of them literally said they’d “follow her lead” but didn’t.

I would like to see an arc for Blake that is the realization that in her quest to feel like a good partner this time around, she’s actually letting the team down as a whole. It would also bring into light that while Yang isn’t trying to gaslight Blake or anything of the sort, she’s unknowingly using the rockier parts of their relationship to get Blake on the same page as her.

I really do think it’s unfortunate that RT gave Renora the “figuring who we are alone” message and not BB. While anyone can see Ren and Nora were pretty joined at the hip sense the beginning, I personally never got the idea that Nora didn’t know who she was as individual until they made that focus for the volume. Meanwhile, the person who encourages her to find individuality has had all their actions driven by others since the start of the show.

Be it Adam, Sun, or Yang, Blake doesn’t make a big move or really any move that wasn’t based on or pushed by those three. Left alone, Blake has little to no initiative. She has the most to benefit from being single right now and trying to rediscover who she is in my opinion. Much like a real relationship, if you don’t self reflect in between getting out of one and getting into another, then you’re likely to make the same mistakes. The thing is both in the show and especially in the comic they made set around the V4 time period, they talk about how Blake used to be this outgoing individual and cheery. We even see it a little. I would love if her arc was her taking time for herself and trying to gain some up that back; especially with her seeing some of her former self in Ruby. She knows she won’t be able to be exactly the same because that’s what trauma does to people, robs innocence, but that doesn’t stop her from regaining a sunnier disposition and learning to be the active go getter again. I think that would be really nice. Especially if we got scenes of a younger her being happy then Kali and Ghira in the present start seeing that little girl come back in little ways.

Yang is a different can of worms. You can say deep down Yang has never been truly happy and the façade fully broke when Blake left, making it impossible for Yang to act like like she did in V1-V2. Or you can say now that Yang is constantly forced into situations where she can’t be care free and has to deal with more personal feelings that she has to learn life really does just happen and you can’t hold on to every negative or serious thing tightly. Certain conflicts that have been resolved just have to be let go despite the outcome. It’s easier said than done but if she’s really comfortable with things like her arm and is happy to have Blake in her life, then she shouldn’t dwell much on all the things it took it get to that point. Oz lied, but so did she; people are scared and confused. Not everything is meant to be internalized forever. Some things are simple truths you acknowledge and then move forward with.

This was way longer then I intended but yeah. They need work. I hope they get sufficient work because honestly I don’t know about you all but simply being a same sex couple doesn’t really cut it for me or feel as grand as it used to be. Disney somehow beat Rooster Teeth in showing two girls getting into a developing relationship and kissing on screen. How did they let that happen?

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Bc someone made a good point about putting other book kids against the Animorphs: animorphs & atla or animorphs & harry potter friendship headcanons!

Awwwww, yes!  A few off the top of my head:

Luna would give Ax so many wrong-headed ideas about what Earth animals do and do not exist.  Ax would give Luna so many wrong-headed ideas about what forms of jewelry are and are not acceptable foods, and vice versa.

Much like with the Howlers in #26, Jake would get extremely indignant about “you are using LITERAL CHILDREN to fight your LITERAL WAR” and have absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever about why it’s odd he’s only indignant on Harry et al.’s behalf.  Hermione would be very bothered by this internal inconsistency, but good luck breaking Jake from his delusions of unworthiness.

Ginny would give Marco a pet pygmy puff.  Marco would love this idea, name the puff Leonardo, immediately buy it friends (Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello), and not listen to Cassie as she tried to pump the breaks on the whole operation.  Cassie would be right, of course, because it would end in a Tribble Situation and Marco would be forced to keep all 40,000 of his pygmy puffs in separate enclosures until he found a buyer for the 39,996 whom he didn’t pay to have neutered.

Based on the earlier discussion about Jake hating the limitations of (real) chess: he would probably LOVE wizard chess.  His game with Ron (there is only one game; it lasts over six months before their friends forbid them from ever playing again) would be sort of like Counter-Feet from Septimus Heap, where 95% of the strategy is about building up the morale of your own pieces while attempting to recruit your opponent’s pieces through inspirational speeches and/or sabotage tactics.  Most of the game-play would take place off the board, and most of the “captures” would be engineered through persuading opposing pieces to go turncoat.

Since 100% of the characters in Harry Potter are trans (I don’t make the rules; that’s just how it is), the implications for morphing as a form of gender confirmation are fucking awesome.  Bonus for Harry going waaaay overboard in building himself a body that’s super tall and strong and buff before Hermione reins him in by pointing out that he’s going to want to get used to his new shape well before the next Quidditch game.

Speaking of Quidditch, Tobias would totally cheat.  By which I mean he’d swing by random Quidditch matches long enough to snatch the Snitch out of midair and fly off with it.  Ginny would use the excuse that there’s nothing in the rules against random birds on the field of play (in fact, they’re the origin of Snitches in the first place) and therefore she has no idea why one keeps on grabbing Snitches away from opposing Seekers just as she’s about to lose a match.  The officiants would eventually put a new rule on the books forbidding birds, but not before a whole new sport (one that involved far more animagi and familiars) had splintered off and become a niche interest.

No one knows how Marco got banned from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, just that it’s a lifetime ban and enforced by morph-detecting spells.

Cassie and Neville together develop several new lines of humane Niffler repellent.  After a long day of R&D, they enjoy sitting in his greenhouse watching the mandrakes sway gently even though there’s no breeze.

Everyone knows how Rachel got banned from Hogwarts school grounds for life.  After all, there were several dozen witnesses to The Incident that ended in the Whomping Willow’s permanent demise, and Headmistress McGonagall was particularly unimpressed by Rachel’s argument that the tree “started it.”

[taexual]

i’d love you to stay but that’s simply insane // JJK (16)

     jungkook is an uncontrollable lead vocalist of the campus band, and you’re a goal-oriented top student that’s known his rich and complicated family since childhood. you don’t want anything to do with each other, until each other is exactly what you want to do.

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college au

warnings: angst

words: 6.6k

     chapter sixteen

Despite deciding not to make your already uncomfortable situation even more awkward by discussing your kiss, Jungkook could not stop thinking about it the entire drive back to your dormitory. Actually, he’d been thinking about the kiss nearly every moment since it happened, but with you in the car next to him, his thoughts became clearer. More defined. More vibrant.

If he’d have closed his eyes – not a good idea for someone who was behind the wheel of a car; but it wasn’t like Jungkook was above entertaining bad ideas – he swore he could return to that moment when he had you underneath him on his bed, your mouth against his, right before his mother knocked on the door and interrupted you.

What would have happened if she hadn’t knocked?

“You okay?” you asked suddenly, the question startling him.

“Hmm?” he nearly swerved off the road, answering you in a high-pitched voice, “yeah. Why?”

“You just inhaled really—nevermind,” you changed your mind – it was better to stay quiet all the way home. But, aware how weird your question seemed without any explanations, you mumbled under your breath, “thought you were suffocating or something.”

Jungkook hadn’t realized his breath got caught in his throat every time he remembered kissing you, but it made sense; his body needed to give up every other activity—no matter how crucial for his survival it was—in order to make enough space in his mind to fully immerse itself into the memory.

The memory was so important to him because, based on the way you shifted closer to the door and further away from him in his car, he could tell that even the lingering possibility of bringing the kiss up made you close off. So the chance of it happening again – him, getting you to lower your guards down enough to allow another kiss – was so slim, it was incredible he hadn’t given up yet.

“So, I take it you won’t make it to my gig this Friday, then,” Jungkook said when he entered the campus, nodding at the barrier guard through his window before turning to look at you to show you that, no, he wasn’t going to try to get you to talk about last weekend, but also, no, he wasn’t going to completely let this go, either.

“No,” you said with a quick glance his way, the barbecue at his father’s company written in red letters in your mental itinerary. “Not this Friday. Sorry.”

He thought this over – “this” Friday meant that next Friday still had an opening. He liked these odds.

“Text me if my dad gets too crazy, yeah?” Jungkook asked as he pulled into the parking lot of your dormitory. “I’ll make sure to reply with tips on how to get him to leave you alone.”

“No, you’ll be in the middle of your performance,” you said – expressing your appreciation for his concern by giving him a warm smile – and then dismissed him with a wave of your hand, “I’ll find a way to handle it.”

Stopping the car right in front of the entrance – but not shutting the engine off which was, both, terrible for the environment and also not a very smart idea socially, considering that people were already watching your every step, and they were absolutely going to hear Jungkook’s car – he turned to look at you with a very determined expression on his face.

“If you don’t think I can find a way to include answering texts in my set list, I have news for you,” he said and you thought he was joking – just being reassuring – but the look in his eyes told a different story.

Your smile widened despite your protests. “Alright, noted. But don’t worry about me. Just let me know when you’re done with your gig.”

Jungkook – who’d never had to report his whereabouts to anyone before – found himself nodding eagerly.

“You too,” he said. “I mean, text me when that whole social gathering is over. I can drive over there to take you home.”

“No,” you protested again, “you have an after-party to get to. I’ll make my own way home. Don’t worry—”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he countered, using your own argument against you, “I will come get you out of there early if you’ll need me to. No matter what I’m doing.”

The look on his face was resolute and, for a moment, you considered that perhaps this was his way of showing you that he didn’t want you to go to the company barbecue at all – especially not when he couldn’t be there to supervise and make sure the real story of your relationship remained well hidden behind the tale you’d created for his parents – but then, Jungkook looked down and refuted these thoughts.

“Thank you for doing this,” he said. “My dad already had that look on his face – the scowl he saved for me only – because he’d been expecting me to refuse to come all along, but then you… well, you softened the blow.”

“I didn’t soften it much if he still looked at you like that,” you said, lowering your eyes just as Jungkook raised his.

“No, you did. I’d have gone home, thinking—no, knowing—that I’d let him down yet again,” he said, “and that often has interesting consequences—”

You raised your eyebrows. “That’s one way to put it.”

“Right. But now I get to go home and worry about you being there alone with my family and their colleagues, so that gives me something else to occupy myself with.”

You could have insisted that you weren’t a damsel in distress and could figure out your own way out of a tricky situation if you had to, but you chose to let him have this one. If thinking about this kept him out of trouble while you were out of campus and, possibly, unable to reach him in time, then so be it.

“That’s hardly a better way to spend your time, but if that’s what you’re into these days…” you replied with humor and Jungkook – who could tell that you were only saying this so you’d stop going back and forth with him – forced himself to smile.

“You’re rubbing off on me,” he said. “I’m starting to develop this need to constantly be in control of everything.”

Your mouth opened in genuine surprise and then – almost comically – opened wider still, when you decided to add a more dramatic effect to your reaction, so you could conceal the fact that the portrayal of you, as a control freak, had honestly upset you. 

But you couldn’t express your feelings out loud because, admittedly, he was right, you did like to be in control of your surroundings. Shamelessly so, too, because you didn’t think it was wrong to know about everything that involved you.

“That’s not good,” you said. “We can’t both be in control. We’ll clash.”

“If we do, I hope it will be as epic as Harry versus Voldemort.”

You snickered at this, the tension in your shoulders lightening. “I take it you’re Voldemort?”

Jungkook looked positively outraged by this assumption. “Of course not! I’m The Chosen One.”

Now you were full-on laughing. And The Chosen One – who, technically, could have actually been called The Boy Who Lived after all the life-threatening stunts he’d pulled since starting puberty – smiled, beyond proud of himself.

Smiling at each other for several seconds – that could have been minutes or even hours for all you cared; it only felt like one blink of an eye to you anyway – you felt your chest fill with affection. That tended to happen sometimes, especially when you’d been dreading a situation – The Talk About the Sunday Night Kiss – and then managed to successfully make it out alive – by using a method, commonly referred to as, Staying Quiet and Changing the Topic.

“I meant what I said, though,” you spoke and the relief that you didn’t have to endure the awkward ‘so… what do we do now?’ question washed over you with a warm wave. “I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

You had leaned closer him as you said this – it was a natural instinct: reaching out to touch someone’s hand (or, uh-oh, cheek!) for more effect – but you froze mid-way, hanging awkwardly over the console of his car and regretting your very existence because you’d noticed how Jungkook stopped breathing when you moved closer, and how quickly his breathing returned to him – in the form of a disappointed huff – when you suddenly stopped.

“Thank you for taking me to the meeting today,” you ended up blurting as you pulled back, your eyes now firmly locked on the handle of the door.

“Yeah. It’s nothing,” he replied and, somehow, that was it.

The eternity you always spent in his car when he dropped you off in front of your dormitory had suddenly come to an end and, because of how weird it was to leave without saying goodbye – but, then again, were you supposed to hug? Kiss? – your hand lingered on the handle numbly, only pushing the door open a minute later.

Paradoxically, relief and concern both flooded your brain as soon as you stepped one foot outside but then, before you could exit his car, you felt him take hold of your wrist – not pulling you back per se, but holding onto you firmly enough to stop you from moving.

“Hey,” Jungkook said. You were mid-step, so you had to fully exit the car and lean down to look at him.

“Hmm?” you asked, your wrist still in his grip even though he had successfully captured your attention.

“D-don’t…” he tried to say, mumbling the rest of the words under his breath. You frowned, not hearing him, and were about to lean forward to ask what he’d said, when he cleared his throat and tried again, “let’s not be weird around each other, okay? We know each other far too long for that.”

Your plan to keep your mouth shut and divert his attention to different topics had, clearly, only succeeded in part, because Jungkook was addressing last Sunday night, after all, but he didn’t dare to bring the kiss up directly. And his acknowledgement of the fact that you were too stuck in your own head to let him talk to you about the kiss specifically, made it all worse.

“Yeah,” you said then. “I wouldn’t want things to suddenly be weird between us.”

“So, let’s not make it weird,” he said, nodding and reluctantly letting go of your hand. “Don’t forget to text me tomorrow.”

“I won’t,” you pulled your hand back and, with one last smile – that looked forced, uncomfortable and weird; all the things you didn’t want it to look like – you walked away from his car and back to your dorm, ready for Inna’s tirade of questions. Questions that you had no answers to.

What surprised you about the company barbecue on Friday afternoon wasn’t the fact that Inna hadn’t demanded to know all the details of the event when you told her where you’d be going, or the fact that all of the people you’d seen at the bi-yearly meeting on Thursday, were now dressed in red aprons like your friendly neighborhood dads.

It was the fact that Namjoon, of all people, was dressed like one of those dads, too.

“Hey!” you exclaimed, evidently shocked to run into him here. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Oh, hi!” Namjoon seemed just as surprised but he shook your hand – which was his go-to way of saying hello to people, as you’ve learned – and smiled, explaining, “I’m interning here, actually. What about you?”

You were thrown off balance by your surprise – the two of you had talked about your plans for the future before, sharing your ambitions with each other, and yet you didn’t know that he was an intern here – but recovered a moment later to explain yourself.

“Oh, I’m—the CEO is an old family friend, so I’m here as a courtesy of sorts,” you said, feeling self-conscious when you saw Namjoon raise his eyebrows after he learned about this connection. “I was supposed to come earlier to help you set up but my roommate was leaving for the weekend, and she—well, anyway. I’m only here to get acquainted with the company, really.”

Contrary to what you’d expected him to ask you next, Namjoon wondered, “do you see yourself here in the future?”

Even though he didn’t inquire about your biography outright – “were your parents powerful and influential businessmen as well?” – his question did seem to insinuate that you may start working here purely because of your relationship to the head of the company.

“Maybe,” you replied, realizing how privileged you were to be here when you weren’t even a part of the company yet. “What has it been like, interning here?”

“Oh, it’s been okay. It’s the only company that took me in,” he spoke and you felt yourself exhale in relief after you lost the spotlight. “The others weren’t looking for interns. Or they needed interns with a job experience that spanned more than my college career.”

You scoffed, understanding what he meant very well because you’d been there, too. “How does that make sense?”

“It doesn’t,” Namjoon said with a sigh. “And that’s why I’m here.”

“So, this wasn’t your first choice?” you asked.

“No, but I don’t regret coming here,” he replied. “It’s a nice work environment. The people are very welcoming and helpful, which isn’t something you see a lot of in corporate businesses.”

Sadly, some of the people here weren’t very welcoming in their personal lives, you thought bitterly, remembering Jungkook and his father’s tense relationship. You chose not to mention that, however, because it didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

“I hope you’re not here for work, though,” you said instead, smiling as you watched Namjoon laugh awkwardly and nod at the beef patties on a plate next to the grill.

“No,” he said. “But they did put me on grilling duty – which wasn’t very smart of them, considering how terrible I am around things that can burst into flames – so I do have some hefty responsibilities today.”

You chuckled. “I could help you. I’ve done my fair share of barbecuing when I was growing up. Let me just leave my handbag somewhere—”

“The gazebo over there,” Namjoon pointed at the far end of the camping grounds, “they’ve turned it into a coat room. You could leave it there,” he looked at you and, catching his own eagerness, explained, “I would really appreciate your help. I don’t want my internship to end prematurely because I’d poisoned everyone with my poor cooking.”

Giving him a sympathetic grin, you assured him, “that won’t happen. At least, not on my watch. I’ll be right back!”

As you’d learned once you got back to the grill and started to assist Namjoon – or, allowed him to assist you – Jungkook’s father hadn’t even arrived yet. Him and his wife – according to a very chatty woman who was Namjoon’s supervisor – were supposed to come a little while later and then, following tradition, they would take a picture with the rest of the employees, sit down for a meal, and leave within an hour.

This barbecue may have been a nice social gathering for the employees of his company, but it was strictly a formality for Jungkook’s father.

“Still, it’s nice,” Namjoon said once the woman left you two to finish grilling the sausages and the patties alone, “not many CEOs bother to interact with the lower-rank employees at company events. At least, not in my experience. My dad didn’t even know what his boss looked like and he’d worked for the same company for twenty years.”

“It sounds impossible in today’s day and age, though, with everyone being on social media,” you pointed out.

“Of course. But you don’t always recognize people from social media in real life. So, it’s nice that even I, an intern, have a chance to see the CEO of the company with my own eyes. And maybe even meet him.”

“Hmm, sure,” you nodded with an unconcerned shrug. “It is nice of him, I suppose.”

Namjoon noticed your nonchalance and he knew that the reason why you couldn’t relate to him in this particular situation was because you had nothing to get excited about – you had already met the CEO.

“You said he was a family friend?” Namjoon asked you. “So, you know him quite well, then?”

You paused grilling for a second to look at him but he was watching the food to make sure it didn’t burn. And that was even better, since it gave you more time to come up with an abridged version of your relationship with Jungkook’s father.

“Yeah, uh… my mom and his wife had been best friends growing up,” you said, “and they’re still very close to this day. Now that they’re both married, their families got involved in the friendship, too. He’s always been kind to me but my knowledge of him comes from Jungkook’s point of view, so I’m probably—”

Namjoon finally looked away from the sizzling grill to get you to back up. “Wait, Jungkook?”

“Yeah, we—” you paused, realizing that he wasn’t confused about your friendship with Jungkook but, rather, about Jungkook, being the son – and the heir apparent – of the CEO. “The company—i-it belongs to Jungkook’s father.”

“Oh,” Namjoon mumbled, looking away as this revelation rendered him speechless for a quick minute. “Oh.”

You didn’t know what to make of this “oh”, so you tried to clear the air with a chuckle.

“I, uh—I had thought that was common knowledge on campus,” you said.

“I—maybe it is, I don’t really keep up w-with that,” he admitted. “I just assumed he was popular because of Parental Advisory.”

“He is,” you nodded, “but coming from a rich family probably didn’t hinder his way to the top very much.”

“No,” he snickered, “it probably didn’t. So, uh, is he coming here, too?”

You had picked up a pair of tongs from the folding table nearby and used them to flip the patties before you answered. That was why you didn’t notice how much Namjoon struggled to process this new information. You couldn’t ask him what was it about Jungkook that caused Namjoon to have such a hard time dealing with this news.

“No,” you said, still not looking at him as you focused on the grill. “He’s got a show tonight.”

“Ah, so his band comes first,” Namjoon said in a voice that would have been humorous—in a sarcastic way—if it wasn’t so acidic.

You stopped what you were doing to give the boy next to you a surprised look.

“Well—not necessarily,” you said and then tried to find a way to explain why Jungkook was the way he was without getting into too many unnecessary and overly-complicated details, “he cares about both, but he’s not—he’s got, uh, some issues with—”

“With being civil in front of his father’s employees?” Namjoon interjected sharply.

You blinked. “He—”

“God, sorry,” he blurted suddenly, putting the metal spatula down on the grill before realizing that this wasn’t a good idea and picking it back up again. He sounded exasperated as he tried to take his previous question back, “I don’t know why I’m coming off so angry about this. I was just surprised. I did hear that the CEO had a son who was presumably going to take over the company one day, but I didn’t think it was… you know.”

You didn’t know, but you could guess that Jungkook’s bad reputation preceded him and even people, who claimed not to judge others without getting to know them first, couldn’t help but judge first.

Namjoon sounded disappointed when he talked about him. Worse, he sounded displeased and even choked as he spoke, trying to cover up his own frustration so he could remain impeccably respectful like he always was – or tried to be.

He tried to avoid stereotypes but you’d gotten glimpses of his real attitude at the library when he’d revealed his assumptions about the members of Parental Advisory, guessing – and getting it right – that the members were a “troubled bunch”.

You’d admired his restraint from any further assumptions that could have shown his prejudice. But now his respectfulness irked you because it hid his real feelings and made it almost impossible for you to defend Jungkook without sounding like you were overreacting.

“There’s still a long way before Jungkook can take over,” you said, focusing on the tongs in your hands and the way they clapped with a metallic yelp each time you clicked them together. “He’s working on it and his father definitely isn’t cutting him any slack just because he’s his son.”

“Right, I wasn’t—”

“But you probably know that if you work here,” you continued, yours words coming out in a batch of agitation that Namjoon could not interrupt, “there aren’t any exclusive employees here. Everyone is being treated the same, regardless of their connection to the staff higher up.”

“No, of course!” he exclaimed before you could continue. “I didn’t mean to imply—although, I guess I did imply that he had certain guarantees that other people didn’t, which is true, of course, with him being the son of the CEO. But I didn’t mean to make it sound like he wouldn’t deserve the chief executive position. I’m sure his father wouldn’t give it to him if he didn’t think Jungkook was worth it.”

“Yeah,” you said, swallowing hard. “He wouldn’t.”

Namjoon wasn’t going to say anything else about this – he’d already said too much – but the way you went straight for his throat when he misspoke about Jungkook, shed a new light on your relationship with him. It intrigued Namjoon even if he wasn’t fascinated by you in a romantic sense.

His interest in your relationship with Jungkook was mostly understandable, though – the two of you were so different on the surface, one could only wonder what was it that attracted you to each other.

Well, apparently, there were depths to the reckless lead vocalist of the campus band that Namjoon didn’t know about.

“I’ve heard he treats everyone here like family,” Namjoon said, trying to make his voice sound light as he shifted the topic from the son to the father.

“I’ve heard that, too,” you agreed, your voice still on edge. “The man has a great reputation around here.”

“He’s sort of living up to it, too,” Namjoon said and you saw him nod in the direction of the road that ran along the north side of the camping grounds.

You turned your head to see Jungkook’s father step out of his car, with his wife following after, from the other side. He shook hands with the few people who came to greet him. 

He had a wide smile on his face – a smile that you couldn’t remember seeing in a very long time, but now that you did, you realized how similar him and Jungkook were: both of them seemed to lose ten years of their age when they smiled.

“He kind of looks like he’s running a presidential campaign,” you said, observing the scene as Jungkook’s father greeted his employees – some with a good-natured hug, others with a wave.

Namjoon glanced at you and, relieved to see that your mind was no longer lingering on your previous conversation, laughed. “Maybe a bit, yeah.”

Within moments of Jungkook’s father’s arrival, the campgrounds were in an uproar: everyone was busy grilling their last bits of food and arranging it in a way that would look the most appetizing.

The plate of food you and Namjoon had grilled definitely wasn’t the easiest on the eyes, but none of the food seemed under-cooked or burned, so both of you were content with that. 

Then, just as you were about to pick the food up and carry it over to the structure tent in the center of the grounds, you were reminded that time for dinner hadn’t arrived yet.

The traditional picture had to come first.

You felt a lot like you did on picture day back at school – with one of the employees ordering everyone around, demanding they squat, scooch closer, smile wider, turn their heads, and move to the back because their clothing is too flashy – and that was what you told Namjoon when the two of you found yourselves standing side-by-side in front of the camera, very close to Jungkook’s father himself.

“I think it’s worse than it was at school,” Namjoon whispered back, glancing at the other employees and their wide smiles, “but, at least, we don’t have to wear uniforms.”

You scoffed. “Yes. Wearing dark red aprons is better.”

“This awful color makes us all more united,” he said, looking over your shoulder and accidentally meeting the eye of his CEO, who was making sure you weren’t standing too far from him, because he considered you to be his guest and, therefore, he had to make sure you received the best treatment. Namjoon figured as much, as he cleared his throat and straightened his posture.

Finally, the photographer – or, actually, the Head of Human Resources with his new Samsung – took the picture, making sure the flash blinded each and every single person posing for him. And then he took another picture. And then another one. And then a few more for good measure.

You thought you’d blinked in all of them but you hoped to never see those pictures anyway. They probably hung them up in the lobby to remind everyone who went into the building that this was a very friendly environment to work in, but the actual employees never really looked at the pictures.

It was almost funny how wrong you were about that.

“Such a pleasure to see you here,” Jungkook’s father said, approaching you as soon as the people broke apart from their designated positions and pretended to mingle while, really, they waited for the director to finish talking and lead them to the main tent for dinner.

“Thank you very much for inviting me,” you said, aware of everyone’s eyes on you as you exchanged a polite and obligatory hug. “It’s a very nice place here.”

“It really is, isn’t it?” he nodded and then, much to your relief, pointed at the tent. “Let’s go have some food, shall we? I’d been saving up my stomach the whole day for this.”

You chuckled and walked next to him towards the plastic table, filled to the brim with various plates of food. There was far too much grilled meat here – it was impossible for everyone to eat it all, no matter how many people were here – but that only seemed to please the CEO.

“Would you like to take a look at the pictures, sir?” the Head of HR approached Jungkook’s father after he noticed that your conversation had ceased.

Based on how carefully he held the treasured Samsung in his hands, you figured that, either the phone had cost several million dollars, or the man was genuinely terrified of Jungkook’s father – which wasn’t unlikely, as you very well knew.

“Oh, of course, of course,” Jungkook’s father said, always so pleasant, and then stopped to take a look at the phone. You weren’t sure if you should have kept walking or stopped as well. And then he solved the dilemma for you by addressing you, “I’m going to forward the picture to Jungkook so he knows what he’s missing.”

“Oh, yes, that’s a great idea,” you said, smiling, even though you knew Jungkook probably wasn’t even going to open the picture.

Funnily enough, you were wrong about that, too.

While you and Jungkook’s father joined the rest of his employees for the barbecue, Jungkook was finishing soundcheck with his bandmates. He checked his phone – like he did after each song – and rolled his eyes when he saw a text from his father instead of from you.

He opened it, though.

He didn’t care much for what his father said – but he had to admit, he’d never seen his father use the winky face emoji before, so that threw him off – but his eyes caught the picture he’d attached and Jungkook pressed on it without a moment’s hesitation.

Skimming over the bright smiles of his father’s employees, he scanned the picture, looking for you.

And he found you.

But not before he found Namjoon standing right next to you.

Much to your surprise, talking to the other employees – even despite the age gap – proved to be a lot of fun. Some of the older ones actually remembered you from when you were little; they recalled you and Jungkook holding onto Jungkook’s mother’s dress as she brought you two along when she came to visit her husband at the company. And the younger employees curiously absorbed everything you told them about your experience at university, sharing their own life stories with you in return.

Because you found yourself having a good time here, you only remembered that you’d left your phone in your handbag – which was across the camping grounds, tucked away in the lonely wooden gazebo – when Jungkook’s father – who was still here, much to everyone’s surprise – decided it was time to pop the champagne.

You excused yourself from the table, promising to return soon because you only meant to retrieve your phone so you could check the time and maybe check in with Jungkook in case his show was over by now.

That was not what ended up happening when you located your handbag under the various expensive jackets that were haphazardly thrown on the bench in the gazebo.

You pulled your phone out to see several missed calls.

None of those missed calls were from Jungkook. In fact, the majority of them came from Inna, which was already weird enough since she’d left campus again this weekend and she never called you. You always texted.

But what truly confused you were the last two missed calls because they were from Yoongi, Jungkook’s bandmate. You’d only talked to Yoongi on the phone once, when you were attempting to get in touch with Jungkook after he missed dinner at his parents’ place, but Yoongi was high back then so you didn’t think he even remembered.

But he did remember, apparently, because, while you stood there, puzzled and a little alarmed, his number lit up on your screen again.

Clearing your throat, you picked up the call. “Hello?”

“Oh, fuck, thank God, you’re here,” Yoongi spoke and, judging from the relief in his voice, he knew very well whom he was talking to. “Is Jungkook with you?”

“Jungkook?” you repeated stupidly. “W-why would he be with me? Don’t you have a show?”

Yoongi laughed, loudly and completely humorlessly. “We do have a show. He was wasted for the most of it.”

A painful bolt of electricity shot through you. “He performed drunk?”

“Doesn’t matter. At least, he performed,” Yoongi said, “that’s before the encore, though. We couldn’t find him. The fucking asshole completely missed the three final songs. We thought he went to see you.”

You felt a pang of guilt even though you had nothing to feel guilty about because Jungkook was most definitely not with you, and he didn’t have a single reason to come see you before he finished the show anyway.

“I-I’m not on campus right now,” you said, running your hand through your hair as you considered what could have happened in the span of the few hours since you left your dorm this morning, after having talked to Jungkook on the phone. “Did you try calling him?”

“Obviously. He’s not picking up. I’m pretty sure he tossed his phone into a fucking lake,” Yoongi said and then, even though he didn’t mean it, he added angrily, “he better be in the lake, too, or else I’ll kill him myself.”

Knowing that the scenario of Jungkook accidentally driving into a lake wasn’t one to be dismissed, you felt your skin shiver.

“I’ll look for him,” you promised, looking back at the celebration in the tent across the field.

“You said you weren’t on campus,” Yoongi said. “Your roommate said she was out, too.”

You weren’t aware that Yoongi had talked to Inna tonight, but that explained the avalanche of missed calls from her. You made a mental note to send her a quick explanatory text message on your way to your dorm.

“I’m coming back,” you told Yoongi, grabbing your bag and making your way back to the rest of the company. “Let me know if he gets in touch with you, though, okay?”

The boy on the other end scoffed. “He won’t. Chances are, he won’t talk to the rest of us for a week after he eventually shows up back home. As if it’s us who fucked up, and not him.”

“Did anything happen?” you asked, still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. That wasn’t easy when each piece looked drastically different from the next and you had no idea what the full picture was supposed to look like. “Did someone say something to him? Did he get into a fight? Did he—”

“No. Nothing happened. We were—ah, shit, wait, his dad texted him, didn’t he?” Yoongi said but it didn’t sound like he was addressing you. He wasn’t; a moment later, a muffled, “yeah” sounded in the background of the call. Then, Yoongi continued, “yeah, we were finishing up with the soundcheck when he got a text from his dad. He read it and just fucking dipped. When he came back to do the show, he was already struggling on his feet.”

You cursed under your breath before thinking aloud, “his dad is here. I did see him text Jungkook but he was just sending him a picture—could it have been the picture that triggered him?”

“A picture of what?”

“There’s this barbecue that the company organized. His dad invited us both but he stayed back to do the show, so I came alone. We took a picture, everyone who’s here. And his dad sent it to him. Could that be the reason why he—”

“No,” Yoongi said right away, “company dinners—or barbecues, or whatever—doesn’t sound like Jungkook’s thing. He wouldn’t give a fuck about the picture. Unless you took someone there as your plus one?”

“Of course I didn’t. I was supposed to come with him but—oh, fuck.”

You stopped walking, the realization hitting you first, and the absurdity of it following right after.

Namjoon was in the picture next to you. He was just standing there, not even touching you, but was it possible that his appearance in the picture was enough for Jungkook to lose touch with reality?

“Fuck, of course, that’s possible,” you said out loud, almost stomping your feet in frustration like a kid, throwing a tantrum. “Listen, I have to go. I’ll text you if I find him.”

You didn’t hear Yoongi’s response because you were already pulling the phone away from your ear as you returned to the tent. You needed to find a way to leave without raising any suspicions with Jungkook’s father – whom you ran past in a wide semicircle like he was the plague itself – and you figured that the best way to do that would be faking a health emergency.

But for that, you needed to spend another few inconspicuous minutes by the table, looking colorless and uncomfortable. That wasn’t going to be difficult since you did feel light-headed already.

As you waited for the right amount of time to pass before you could leave, you tried texting Jungkook. You even tried calling – thinking you’d have enough time to walk far enough from the table so that’d no one would hear you – but the beeping signal never ceased and you didn’t get to hear Jungkook’s voice.

Right when you bit your lip, trying his number for the fifth time in a row as if the previous four times were just glitches in the system, someone noticed your distress.

“Hey,” Namjoon’s voice sounded by your ear, startling you because he was across the table from you just a second ago. “You okay? You came back to the table, looking very out of it.”

“Namjoon,” you said, your voice so grave, he thought you were about to tell him that the entire campus had burned down while the two of you weren’t there and you were the only suspects. “I need to leave.”

“Did something happen?” he asked, the concern in his voice genuine.

You nodded. “Jungkook got in trouble. I have to go back, b-but I can’t tell his father about any of this.”

You spoke without thinking about your last conversation with Namjoon or how this news could have confirmed Jungkook as a useless waste of space in his eyes. Frankly, in that moment, you couldn’t have cared less about Namjoon’s opinion of Jungkook. 

You could have used his help, even if he was going to judge you for it.

“I’m going to call myself a cab,” you said, “but could you please do me a favor, and tell his dad that I’d left because I wasn’t feeling well?”

Namjoon pulled back from your chair and looked across the table to his own seat – his leather jacket resting on the back of the chair – before giving you a nod.

“Let’s go,” he said. You were already standing up but then paused and sat back down, confused.

“What?”

“I’ll drive you back to campus,” he said, “we can leave without saying anything – no one will even notice. And then, when I’m back, I can tell everyone that you weren’t feeling well and that’s why I took you home early.”

“T-that’s very kind, but I can really just—”

“No, let me take you home,” Namjoon insisted as gently as he could, afraid that his forceful tone might remind you of his previous slip-up when you were talking about Jungkook. “It’ll be my way of apologizing for stepping over the line earlier today.”

You considered telling him that he had nothing to apologize for – he didn’t know Jungkook personally and everyone was entitled to their own opinion; you’d just gotten annoyed that he was so quick to hide this opinion under the curtain of fake politeness – but, eventually, the realization that you really didn’t have the time to debate if he should have felt apologetic or not won over, and you nodded.

You needed to get back to campus quickly, even if there was a risk of Jungkook seeing you and Namjoon together again – if that really was the reason why he got drunk and missed the encore of his own show.

“Okay. Let’s go,” you said, finally standing up. “Thank you.”

keep reading | masterlist

[clavis-baby]

The (possible) Downfall of Obey Me

5-16-21 (when writing this the event toys out)

(Tbh this post is just be trying to be naïve towards Solomare and at ever aspectthat I mention you have every single right to be upset and mad)

Okay so it’s no secret that Obey me is making bank and is very very obviously trying to make us money on the game with even trying to make us spend money with original stuff that was free to now secretly changing some mechanics behind our back

Here’s a post by @thalfox https://thalfox.tumblr.com/post/653994972840919040/i-just-noticed-a-little-bit-ago-that-the-barbatos that dose a really good job at explaining everything that has changed

(also this isn’t a hate thing fox has actually done a great work explaining everything to good detail of what has changed)

With all the changes I don’t think that it’s shocking to say that players are leavening the fandom because of many reasons to the games getting stupidly harder to even the game development

This is just a heads up this in no way is a post saying “hey this is why you shouldn’t feel this way” I kinda just wanted to see from a business standpoint and be naïve of what’s happening you have every reason to be mad at Solomare because even me I’ve been playing sense week 2 of game released and I’m only on lesson 42 every counter argument that I’m going to make I have complained about at some point

Arguments

(P.s grammar is really bad it’s sort of turned into more of a rant I wrote this at 5 am without any sleep so sorry)

1. Obey me is marketed as a free to play game

First there are many reasons people are mad this main thing that I hear about is from a lot of people is that is a “free game” which lets be honest is ridiculously hard

But still it is still essentially a “free to play game” I personally feel like the main prolog is lessons 1-20 to introduce all the characters to understand and getting the just on how to play the game

Okay and now here’s where I sort of stand with obey me, the gatcha rates are kinda ridiculously lucky when you play for the first week you luck is so amazing and is in my experience with gatchas the best luck I have ever seen for games so it’s not really hard collecting the cards

Now are they the best absolutely no, this I feel like is where you might have to spend money unless they up the skills on the Nightmare A

But what Obey me is technically trying to do is obviously making you pay by releasing your favorite demon card every 2 week which…aren’t essential they are really just hoping that you love your main demon enough to pay

With the high increase on the gatcha rate there really isn’t a pity unless you count the card pieces (but I’m not going to count that because you are more likely to roll your UR before completing the pieces)

Now after lesson 20 once the huge break I feel like Obey me almost expecting the players to keep logging in any doing jobs and some players did do that and boy did it pay off

But those players have not needed to spend a single dollar and are all caught up

Now for everyone else who didn’t the game was so difficult it’s unimaginable and because for that a whole lot of players left the game and personally I don’t blame them because of how much impact the next lessons were

Now sort of like Mystic Messenger you really just have to grind you ass off log in everyday and do JOBS :D and grind but as hard and long as it is you are still able to be a f2p but where obey me fails is that when grinding Mystic Messenger grinding was a lot more fun for me it took about a whole year to just get 550 hourglasses even when I purchased and same with Genshin Inpact it takes a while but with obey me there isn’t really anything else to do once you get to a certain point which I think obey me really lacks and could be part of a reason why people left. Grinding just is not fun (now I do think that on a phone there is so much you can do with a app game but I feel like there could be a bit more they could do)

Personally I’m just going to come out and say it don’t spend your money for one UR card for your favorite demon it’s really not worth it now im one of those Mammon stans but if I ever wanted a specific card for instance the Mammon bunny card when it first came out I wanted it so badly and didn’t get it but I also knew there would eventually be a revival so I saved and did not spend any DV(demon vouchers) until the revival

The events

Some people complain about getting the cards in the events onestly for me this one kinda makes a bit of sense I noticed the first change when the Vampire even came out and how it wasn’t as easy to get the second card but if you think of it it makes sence why

When the first event came out (Santa event) you only had to collect about 30,000 gingerbread compared to the 100,000 in event today but when the first event came out no one was at high enough levels for the AP required and you would every day when times rest to gain gingerbread as well as there was only one part to the story so when people kept leveling up their AP Obey Me had to higher the bar so it wouldn’t be so easy to get all these cards and have a actual reward system but eventually they also added another story lesson starting at the Ruri Chan event

Second thing about the events is that one there started just getting plain out boring.

When lesson 20 finished and we were all waiting for season 2 I was still loving in everyday and logging in at 12 and 8 for the free 30 AP because I didn’t know what else to and would participate in the event but eventually what I think that all otome games that have constant events like Ikemen Vampire and Ikemen Revolution they just start getting repetitive and getting real boring so I stoped playing until there was something more interesting

The last thing that some people complain about the events is that you can’t keep up with the story and the events now I can’t find it but I believe that @0beyme said something about the events a long time ago about how you have to pick between the event and moving through the main story which I kinda think isn’t really the games fault and more just a discussion on maybe missing a event

Add ons

Okay so they did this from day 1 you spend a certain amount of Devil point that you guaranteed don’t have and get out a card

Now this is just spelling out a disaster

Yeah so for the first Charge Mission is when you log in which everyone had but essentially what they want you to do is spend $100 on a game that you just logged into and never experienced or played I don’t really understand what they were even thinking with that but it must’ve worked for them to keep doing them

The second time they did it was when the break was over and season 2 came out and they celebrated by doing another charge mission which was the Lucifer and Simon card which would cost again $100 again I really don’t understand what they were thinking

And now this is I believe the fourth time they have done this for the 1.5 anniversary where they know that Mammon is obviously a favorite for many Obey Me players and where smart to put it on the really stupid charge mission but the difference is, is that instead of it costing $100 it would cost almost $200(same with Levi’s) for one thing I don’t understand

But one thing that you do have to remember is is that this isn’t apart of the main gameplay it really just is a mini game if you would even call it that of dress up and optimization so still I guess would be just a add on that has no effect on the actual story and game so you could I guess still call it a f2p game with really really stupidly high priced add ons

VIP

Umm so I am the first one to call myself out I have bought the VIP package first when season 2 happened and I knew how much I loved the game so personally it was worth it to me to support the developers and gain something out of it

Now I haven’t really seen much complaints on the VIP because people more use it as a “hey the game is impossible with out VIP” but the people who say this ive noticed never bought it

For $9.99 each month it is 100%

IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!! Out of everything you get which honestly isn’t much you get some extra free space in jobs and really that’s it and if you choose to use all your job slots for the highest paying you get around 30,500 about a 10,000 difference not really worth it in my opinion

With VIP you also get other things like higher chance of gifts from Jobs which you will not notice one bit, and +20 AP (which if you play the events is sort of useful) as well as extra packages exclusive to VIPs so after paying $9.99 per month you also get more things to buy and that’s about it for VIP now if you really want to get more grim just use your AP and spend it of normal lessons you will get more AP that way

The Story and Kids

This could be all me just complaining and a theory by I wanted to include it anyway

Obviously many people are not even caught up or even playing but as more lessons went on the less interesting the story became to me I don’t know if it’s a me thing but season one was absolutely amazing the once season two came out it was good but not anywhere as good and one

One reason why I think that it to me became almost bland is the amount of kids that is on the app and how sensitive people were if anything bad happens

It’s no secret that the Japanese versions a lot more non-kid friendly for hell’s sake the characters don’t even swear as well as all the colors I feel like to a American audience bright colors is usually marketed towards kids but in other countriesI think many understand that that is not always the case for instance a lot of people will thing in America that anime is all for kids but I mean look at Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul you would not let kids watch that of literal people getting brutally murdered you just don’t see things like that in the West where something looking kid friendly could also be very adult like

Also wtf dose this in the App Store say +12 with Ikemen Vampire and a lot of other games if you have a game rated +17 then there will be a actual pop up that says something along the lines of how “thier could be violence acts and sexual act are you sure you want to instal”

Now the story I’ve seen people point this out but there isn’t really much character development for instance Beel he dose not have a actual personality his personality (fight me on this one) all you really know about him is that he likes food and his family now I could be wrong cuz I’m on lesson 42 but still not much and this is kinda with all the characters except the special ones where the devs really favor and love for story

Some one mentioned how the developers hold back a lot which I agree with 100% they said how when there is character development they all the sudden pull back and never will almost talk about it again like ???? So there’s this constant bland story

——————-

Honestly if you liked this I might do more cuz as much as this post made me especially at the end I kinda liked ranting so...yeah there is also many other things that I want to rant about but I’m tired soooo

feel free to comment your opinions btw

Bye ima go sleep now

[amayawolfe]

It's Good to be Home (Hisoka x Fem.Reader)

(Warning: some harsh language, mild fluff, mild angst, and just a touch of NSFW mostly towards the end)

Word Count: 5616 (wwaaayyyy longer than I intended for a first short story...)

(Summary: You're a Hunter who's been Hisoka Amorou's beloved and trusted life partner for the better part of six years. After being together just past two years, the two of you found yourselves expecting a child. Maybe it was a slip up, or maybe one/both of you planned it; either way, nine months later you two have a baby girl.

This short story is a "slice of life" type of story. You finally had enough of being the "stay at home mom" and get away to go on a mission leaving Hisoka at home to watch your daughter. What you find when you return is not what you expected...)

~               ~               ~

   You pulled up next to your life partner's car in your own driveway. A small, tired smile touched your lips. You loosed a sigh and rubbed your face and eyes with your gloved hands. It had been a long drive home from the airport, but it was the last leg of your return trip. Moving your hands to your neck you rub it a bit and tilt your head from side to side. Feeling, as well as hearing it, crack and pop as you did so.

   Your phone suddenly vibrated and pinged at you from the passenger seat where you had tossed it at the beginning of the drive. Reaching over you picked it up and turned the screen towards you; it's a text from your long time friend/associate and business partner for the mission you had just finished, Illumi Zoldyck.

Illu: Did you make it home?

   You partially removed your gloves so that only your thumbs were exposed and texted a reply.

You: Yeah, I literally just pulled into the driveway. Haven't even gotten out of the car yet.

Illu: Okay, good.

Illu: Next mission I should contact Hisoka, correct?

You: Unless my skills are more suited for the mission, other than that, I would say "yes".

Illu: Very well, good night, (y/n).

You: Take care, Illu, and thanks again.

   Up until just now, you had not gone on a single mission since your pregnancy and the following birth of your daughter just over three years ago. It was your life partner, Hisoka, that took off for weeks at a time either for missions on his own or with Illumi.

   This hadn't bother you one bit when it was just the two of you. While he was away, you would take a mission as well or travel until about the time he would usually return. Not to mention you really did treasure your alone time playing video games, watching movies or shows, working on your hobbies, or simply relaxing in the silence of an empty apartment.

   Then there was the fact that after a while you would need a recharge from Hisoka himself. You truly loved and adored your life partner and wouldn't trade him for anyone or anything in the world, and you were relatively sure it was the same for him with you. However, Hisoka was, well, Hisoka; he had a tendency to become mentally, not to mention physically, exhausting from time to time.

   Ironically, it was the love and need of your own independence and alone time that made you and a person like Hisoka work so well. That and a truck load of patience.

   He had stayed home during most of your pregnancy, only leaving when you were on the verge of literally killing him. But he would be sure to stay close to home, traveling no more than a few hours away in case something came up and you needed him. Hisoka was actually there for the birth of his daughter and stayed home for the first few months. But once you and (d/n) were settled into a good routine on your own, he started taking missions once more.

   Hisoka was a surprisingly good father when he was home and constantly spoiled her with gifts he collected while he was out. He made sure to give (d/n) lots of love and attention, watching and playing with her whenever you needed a nap, shower, some alone time or went out for training. And, of course, he would make sure to give you attention and affection as well. Attention and affection you more than enjoyed returning just as much as receiving.

   Well, most of the time.

   For the last few months you had started to become extremely restless and moody. You were a Hunter, damnit. Not to mention a powerful and skilled nen user. You missed going out on missions. You were also concerned with how little training you were able to get now a days. Both you and Hisoka had your fair share of enemies, and you wanted to keep your skills and senses keen for as long as your possibly could.

   You had tried more than once in having a serious, yet calm, sit down with Hisoka over the matter while your daughter was down for her nap. But, as usual, when your life partner didn't like what was being talked about he would poke and tease you or change the subject entirely. This usually lead into a heated argument that was comically kept to shouted whispers so as to not wake (d/n). The argument would usually end with the both of you laying in bed hot, sweaty, and spent. This always seemed to be your daughters cue to wake up, ending any further discussion of the matter for the time being.

   So, having gotten no where on the subject, you had decided to take matters into your own hands. You contacted Illumi, asking him to not contact Hisoka for the next mission and that you would like to go instead. Illumi seemed more than willing to work with you. You guessed that he needed a little change up as well when it came to his business partner.

   Your travel bag was packed and hidden in the bedroom closet before Hisoka had even returned home. All you needed was Illumi to tell you where to meet him and you could bolt out the door. Of course, you felt a little guilty. And you knew Hisoka was going to be very annoyed, if not angry, but this was for your own mental well being.

   You had tried to imitate the same mood you had been showing the last few months. But Hisoka's keen intuition was telling him something was up, and he watched you with curious interest over the course of a few days.

   "You've been checking your phone more than usual, love~ ♣" he had finally commented from the kitchen where he was leaning against the counter drinking his morning coffee, "Is there something I should know about?~ ♠"

   You had shook your head and had set your phone back down on the table.

   "Not really, just expecting a text from a friend," you had answered honestly. Hisoka only hummed into his coffee cup in response, eyes still upon you as you where now horribly failing in defending your waffles from your ravenous toddler.

   When you had finally gotten the text from Illumi, your mind switched to "Hunter Mode". Quickly and quietly, you grabbed your travel back and set it by the door. You then entered the living room and scooped up your daughter, giving her kisses all over her little face as you headed in your life partner's direction.

   He had been sitting on the couch reading something on his phone when you caught him by surprise in leaning down and giving him a deep, loving kiss while passing (d/n) into his protective arms.

   "I'm heading out," you had told him, "I'll be back in a while." The look on Hisoka's face was surprised and curious. You usually told him ahead of time when you where planning on going out for errands or training.

   You gave him another quick kiss on the forehead and turned for the door.

   "(y/n), wait, where are you going? ♠" Hisoka tried to grab your wrist but you dodged him easily. (d/n) was now clinging to him and becoming fussy, thinking it was Hisoka who was about to leave. She would get that way sometimes. Something you had hoped she would do to take Hisoka's main focus away from you just long enough for you to slip away.

   You heard Hisoka call your name again as you grabbed your bag and practically ran out the door. Not wasting a single precious second, you were in your car on your way to the airport. You breathed a sigh of relief then giggled with excitement. That had gone smoother than you could possibly hope it would.

    But then your phone began to ring, playing the ringtone Hisoka had picked out himself. Your heart picked up it's pace a little as you answered it and put it on speaker.

   "Yes, love?"

   "(y/n), darling, what's going on... ♠" A chill ran down your spine. It wasn't a question, it was a demand. And even though it was worded nicely, the tone spoke volumes. Hisoka was not happy.

   "Easy love~," you stated calmly, "I'm just going on a mission with Illumi. I'll be back in a few days. A week at most. I promise."

   There was silence on the phone for a moment. You could almost feel Hisoka's blood lust starting to come through the phone.

   "What... ♠" Yeah, he was pissed. But you were never one to back down to Hisoka's rage. Your own anger flared up in response and you put your game face on. You had mentally prepared yourself for this.

   "Amorou," you said sternly, only ever using his last name when you were serious and/or angry, "Before (d/n) was born we agreed we would take parenting duties on equally. That we would still be equal partners in this relationship. It hasn't been that way for quite some time and I feel like I am trapped and stagnating. I need to take this mission or else I feel like I am going to go fucking crazy!"

   You could now hear the tv in the background signaling he had moved back into or near the living room. Hisoka remained was quiet. You knew he was listening, thinking. So you took a calming breath and continued.

   "I'm a Hunter, just like you. And just like you I have... needs. And as amazing a sex god you are, those needs can't always be satisfied in the bedroom, love." You heard Hisoka smirk. Picking up on his thoughts you spoke again before he could.

   "Or the shower, or the kitchen counter, or the back seat of the car, or the couch... Am I missing any where?"

   "~Yes. ♥ In fact, you're missing several places.~ ♥" Now you could hear the smirk in his voice causing you to smirk as well. Hisoka was still annoyed, at the very least, but you knew he was calming down.

   "I guess you'll have to refresh my memory when I get back."

   "Mmm, I think I can handle that.~ ♦"

   You chuckled. Oh, I know you can.

   "Since this is your first time watching (d/n) on your own for more than a few hours, I left you some notes underneath the cereal on top of the fridge to help you out. Call me if you need anything and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

   "Very well,~ ♠" Hisoka said with a pouty sigh, "You said you may be gone for a week at most, right?~ ♣"

   "Yes, and I promise to be sure and update you as I go along." It was only fair seeing as it was the only thing you really asked of him while he was out on missions. To simply let you know he was alive.

   "Alright, but don't think we're done talking about the way you went about this,~ ♠" he almost cooed, "We're going to have a long, serious discussion when you get back.~ ♦"

   Tingles went up your spine and you felt a slight knot form in your stomach, causing you to squeeze your thighs together a little. You knew exactly what he was saying, and it had little to do with actual talking.

   "Sounds fair to me," you smirked.

   "Take care, kitten. Be safe.~ ♥"

   "I will, love." And with that you hung up the phone.

   And it seemed that was that. It had gone easier than you thought it would over all; and oddly enough, that gave you a feeling of unease. Hisoka was not one to give up easily. But in truth, there wasn't much he could have done. There was no one he trusted enough to watch (d/n) on such short notice, and it's not like leaving her home alone was an option. Quickly packing her up into the car to chase after you wasn't exactly the wisest of ideas either.

   You held your word about keeping in touch. Letting him know when you reached the airport, landed at your destination, met up with Illumi, and so on and so forth. You had put your phone on silent during the mission, as was protocol, but checked it and checked in when the two of you had completed the mission and were safe.

   Hisoka would sometimes reply, but kept it short. Nothing abnormal for him. He also sent pictures like how you did for him while he was away. Some were cute, like the one where he made spaghetti for dinner and sent a picture of (d/n) happily enjoying her food with sauce all over her face. And some were more private, like the one he sent of himself standing in front of the full body mirror completely naked and at "full mast" with the message, "wut ur missin 2night 💕😜💞😘 💓"

   The last message you had sent him was after you had landed at the airport, telling him you would be driving home shortly. He had simply replied with "i'll be waiting 😍💕🥰💓😘 " The man really did love his emojis...

   You really didn't know what to think of this with it coming from Hisoka. As it sounded both sweet and foreboding...

   Sitting in your car that was rapidly cooling down from the cold wintery night air outside, you mentally prepared yourself for what ever your life partner may have awaiting you.

   The chill of the night immediately nipped at your nose as you got out of your car. You collected your travel bag from the back and turned to walk up the pathway to your front door, hitting the lock button on your car remote as you did so.

   Your house windows were dark, making you wonder if Hisoka hadn't managed to stay up in waiting for you after all. Upon reaching your front door you quickly looked about out of sheer habit, making sure that no one was waiting to rush in on you as you opened the door.

   Feeling that it was safe, you unlocked your door and walked across the threshold. Not even two steps in you nearly tripped and fell over something, barely catching yourself on your front door handle in time. Righting yourself, you took a step back and looked to see what you had tripped on.

   It was one of your daughter's large stuffed animals. A stuffed dog, to be precise. (d/n) would put it there saying that it was guarding the house, despite you telling her not to leave her toys on the floor like that.

   With a sigh you shoved the toy aside with your foot, making a mental note to pick it up later. You finished entering the house with closing and locking the door behind you. But when you turned and took no more than five steps into your dark home you trip over another toy and nearly fell again. It was your daughters toy car for her dollies this time.

   "What the hell?" you whispered to yourself. Reaching over you flipped on the light to the foyer and your heart clenched. From what you could see, the house was a complete mess.

   Toys and clothes were littered all over the floor. There were even some dirty dishes here and there. There were sloppy, childish drawings all over the walls. You took immediate notice of the drawings that were most definitely to high for your child to reach on her own. Your jaw and fists clenched in rage.

   "You've got to be fucking kidding me..." you spat through clenched teeth.

   Setting your bag down you started to slowly make your way through the house, taking care in where you stepped so as to not trip and break your neck. As you started to pass the kitchen you dared to look in. Your blood started to boil.

   It looked like every dish you owned was dirty, piled high in and around a filthy sink. There was food and sticky dried drink all over the counters, splattered over the floor, what looked like burnt marshmallow on the stove top and you didn't even want to know what was on the ceiling!

   It wouldn't surprise you if there was a blood vessel now protruding from your forehead at this point. You had to look away from your once beautiful kitchen to take a deep breath and focus on In so as to not leak to much blood lust and risk harming your daughter.

   "(y/n)? ♠" a familiar voice called out quietly from the living room down the hall.

   "Amorou," you snarled and turned in the direction you heard the voice come from. Your strides were swift and determined as you stepped around the mine field of toys in the hall.

   The glowing, shifting light that was spilling from the living room into the hall told you the tv was on. You turned and upon entering the living room you quickly noticed that it was in just as bad of condition. You turned again to face your so called life partner, fully prepared to chew him out for what he allowed to happen to the family home. Hell, you were actually mad enough to fight him and do some serious damage at this point.

   But the moment you looked down at him and saw the sight that was laying on the couch, nearly all your rage evaporated.

   Hisoka was laying on his back, head slightly turned upward as he looked over at you with tired eyes. His hair was an absolute mess. And not the sexy, messy way he would have it when he wore it down. No, it was an actual mess mess. There were a few stains on his shirt and his sweat pants like he had worn them for more than a day or two. You nearly laughed when you noticed his mismatched socks. It was then you suddenly remembered that in your haste and excitement over finally going out on a mission you had forgotten to do the laundry before you left. He had probably run low or out of clothes.

   His ultimate saving grace from the tongue lashing you had been so ready to give him was the form of your daughter sleeping tummy side down on top of Hisoka's chest. She had her favorite blanket draped over her and one of Hisoka's hands was resting lightly on the middle of her back to make sure she didn't roll off him onto the floor.

   As cute as the scene was, you couldn't help but think Hisoka looked a little... pathetic. A little defeated even.

   You stifled a laugh and tried to keep a stern face, but the corners of your mouth kept twitching as your lips betrayed you, wanting to smile. Sure that he had sensed your blood lust a moment ago, you were ever so slightly hoping that he thought you were still furious. You moved closer to the couch and squat down so that the two of you were eye level.

   "Amorou," you feigned a quiet, angry voice. A voice you usually had just before you lost it and tore someone to pieces. "What did you allow to happen to our home?"

   Hisoka tried to shift into a better position but cringed when it caused (d/n) to stir. It was obvious he did not want her to wake up. You glanced at her then looked back to him.

   "Did she just get to sleep?" Hisoka nodded.

   "She wanted to wait up for you with me. ♠" You raised an eyebrow at this and he continued, "I was going to straighten up a bit before you got home." You rolled your eyes, not really believing him on that one. "But (d/n) started to throw a tantrum and would not stop until I laid down with her... ♠"

   You felt your face soften a bit, Hisoka's voice sounded so tired. But despite his defeated condition, you couldn't help but poke fun. After all, he had done so many a time to you.

   "Hisoka Amorou," you jeered softly, "Hisoka the Magician, The Grim Reaper of Heaven's Arena, defeated by a three year old." You looked at your sleeping daughter again. "I'd say it was a flawless victory."

   Hisoka glared at you, lips pressed tightly together into scowl. A sly grin raced across your own lips when you saw the look on his face.

   "Keep looking at me like that and I'll just leave you here for the night and have the bed all to myself."

   He pressed his lips together even more tightly and looked away.

   "You can be so cruel... ♠" he mumbled. You chuckled softly, leaned forward, and kissed his cheek.

   "I've learned from the best, love."

   Turned your full attention to your daughter, you signaled for Hisoka to slowly move his hand as you laid your own in it's place. You started to hum a soft lullaby as you began to gently rub (d/n)'s back; doing this for a couple minutes until your daughter took a deep breath and let out a sigh of pure relaxed contentment. Her breathing slowed even more, signaling she had slipped into a deeper state of sleep.

   Now it was safe to move her. Slowly. Carefully. Gently. You slid your daughter's head to your shoulder and moved the rest of her body to your chest. Still humming the lullaby, you freed your life partner and started to move towards (d/n)'s room. Having to carefully step over toys and other random objects, the time getting her into her bed was taking longer than you would have liked.

   Making it to your daughter's room you nearly stopped humming upon seeing the state of it. It was in a much worse condition than what it normally was and her bed was covered in toys.

   This child has way to many toys...

   Thankfully Hisoka had been following you and noticed why you had stopped. Slipping past you with the stealth and grace of a cat, he quietly cleared (d/n)'s bed of all but her blankets, pillows, and favorite stuffed animals.

   Giving him an approving nod, you laid (d/n) down in the same manner you had picked her up and continued rubbing her back while humming for a few minutes. Once you were sure she was settled in you slowly stood up and, while still humming, made your way out of the room with Hisoka close behind you.

��  The two of you tiptoed down the hall and into your shared bedroom.  Before you even had a chance to speak a single word your life partner turned you around, slipped his arms around your waist, pulled you tightly into himself, and buried his face into the crook of your neck. You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face into his neck in return.

   "Did somebody miss me?" you teased. He only hummed a response and continued to hold you close.

   After a couple minutes, Hisoka broke the hug and pulled back a little. You looked up into his eyes as he took you chin into his hand. Some of his energy seemed to have returned. It gleamed in those beautiful amber eyes you loved so much. He leaned in and kissed you softly on the lips.

   It started off sweet, with multiple little kisses on your lips. Then his hands moved down to your bottom and he gave a firm squeeze, pulling your hips tighter against him. He started to kiss you more deeply and you felt his tongue start to push against your lips, begging to be let into your mouth.

   "Mmnn!!" you noised suddenly and pushed away from him. Hisoka gave you a look of surprise at your sudden action. You pointed at him sternly.

   "Despite how calm you may think I am, Amorou, I am still mad at you and you are not getting any sex from me until you help me clean this house to my satisfaction tomorrow."

   You turned away from him towards the bed and froze in mid-step.

   "Are you fucking serious?!?!?!" you hissed.

   Sure, the bed wasn't made, but that wasn't what angered you. What angered you was the half eaten plate of spaghetti on the bed, what looked to be cookie crumbs all over the sheets, more of (d/n)'s toys, and a spilled juice cup.  

   You snapped your head in Hisoka's direction and glared daggers at him. You swore you could feel your eye twitching.

   "I'll help strip and make the bed.~ ♣" he stated with a smirk while he held up his hands defensively.

   "Damn right you will, " you growled through gritted teeth.

   His smirk widened. He went to the closet to get the fresh sheets and blankets as you removed the dishes and toys, setting them aside to be cleaned up tomorrow. As the two of you stripped the bed Hisoka decided to say his piece.

   "You know,~" he started, "the list you left me never did say anything about cleaning up.~ ♦"

   You stopped in middle of tossing one of the dirty blankets aside and blinked.

   Is.. Is he seriously messing with me right now?!

   Feeling your blood lust starting to rise to the surface once again, you slowly turned your head in his direction. But as you opened your mouth to say something he held up a single finger.

   "However, I must say I do commend you.~♣ I never really realized how much you did until I had to take care of (d/n) on my own for the week.~ ♠"

   You turned your body towards him fully and crossed your arms under your chest. "Go on."

   Your life partner smirked then shrugged. "You're an amazing mother to our little girl, (y/n); and this house would not be a home with out your touch. But most importantly of all, you love and put up with me.~ ♥"

   You smirked and narrowed your eyes at Hisoka. "Who told you I loved you? I'm sorry to say this, Amorou, but someone has been lying to you."

   Hisoka placed the back of one of his hands to his forehead and the other hand went over his heart in a dramatic like fashion. He emitted a small noise like he had been wounded

   "Ugh, Queen of my heart, how could you be so cold? ~ ♠"

   You snickered and whipped a pillow at him that he easily batted away back to your side.

   "I would have shown you some of my routines in how I do things had you listened to me in the first place," you stated as you finished brushing crumbs off the now bare mattress.

   "I suppose you have a point. ~ ♣" Hisoka spread the fitted sheet across the mattress as you started to but fresh pillow cases on the pillows. "Do you plan on taking more missions from now on? ~ ♣"

   "I told Illumi to contact you for the next one unless my skills are better suited for it." You picked up the flat sheet and spread it across the bed with Hisoka catching his side and shaking it out to lay it down evenly. "I would like to take every other mission or so. I never intended to pick it back up full time like you and I used to before we had (d/n). I just need to get out into the field and keep my senses and skills sharp. I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was, but I definitely could use some more training."

   Hisoka tossed the comforter over onto the bed and the two of your started spreading it out together. He was silent in thought for a moment, then sighed

   "That's fair. ~ ♣" he admitted. "Are you still willing to show me how you do things here? ~ ♦"

   "Of course," you smiled, "as long as you're willing to learn that is. Did that list I left you help at all?"

   "Ah, it probably would have had (d/n) not scribbled all over it after I left it on the table. ~ ♠"

   You dropped the last pillow into place and quickly covered your mouth to keep from laughing to loud.

   "If that was the case," you said behind your hand between laughter, "Why didn't you just text me asking for new notes? I could have done so while I was waiting for my airship to depart." He looked away from you to hide the sheepish expression that was now on his face.

   Ah, I see, he was to prideful to admit he had let something go wrong already and have to ask for help. Typical...

   Knowing not to push the matter you simply stripped out of all but your underwear and put on a clean sleeping shirt. As you slid into bed Hisoka stripped down to his boxers and turned off the lights, leaving a small night light on near the bedroom door. When he was climbing into bed you thought you heard a noise come from the hall.

   You looked in the direction of the bedroom door and started to sit up when Hisoka suddenly climbed on top of and pushed you back down into the freshly made bed.

   "Hiso-" your voice was interrupted when his lips came down onto yours roughly and his tongue took full advantage of your mouth that had been opened with words.

   For a few seconds, you gave into his physical demands and kissed him back with just as much vigor. Your tongues wrestled each other for dominance and your fingers went up into his tangled hair. Lifting your hips you pressed your pelvis against his and could feel his rapidly hardening member through the thin layers of cloth that separated the two of you. Your action caused a moan to slip from his throat.

   Another noise from the hall caught your sharp ear. It was closer to the door this time. You pushed Hisoka away from you just enough to break the kiss. He smirked down at you with lust dancing in his eyes.

   "I thought I told you no sex until after you help me clean the house tomorrow," you panted. Your own rising desires made you a little short of breath. Hisoka's smirk grew wider as he lightly grinded his pelvis against yours causing your breath to hitch.

   "Hmmmm.~ ♥ And what makes you think I won't be able to convince you otherwise?~ ♦" he purred. It was your turn to smirk.

   "Because, three..." Hisoka blinked in confusion.

   "Two..." Hisoka now raised an eyebrow, wondering why on earth you were counting down.

   "One." You pointed over to the bedroom door just as (d/n) stuck her little head into the room.

   "Daddy? Mommy home?" she called out sleepily. Hisoka let out a defeated groan and dropped down on top of you, knocking the wind out of you a bit and he buried his face into the pillow beside your head. You couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.

   "Yes, (d/n), I'm here," you gently called out to your daughter. She started to make her way over to you and her father. It was obvious she was intending to climb into bed with you just as she had so many a time before.

   You gently but firmly pushed your life partner off of you and to the side. As you did so you whispered to him, "Help me clean the house tomorrow and you can have your fill of me in what ever way you desire tomorrow night."

   Hisoka let out a frustrated growl in response causing you to laugh out loud again. You turned to your side so that he was now behind you. You held your arms open as (d/n) climbed into the bed and snuggled up against your chest. Wrapping your arms around her you hugged her closely to you and nuzzled your face into her hair. Her silky red locks were so much like her fathers. In fact, she was nearly a perfect replica of Hisoka, minus the eyes that is. She had your fierce yet beautiful eyes.

   "Did you miss me, munchkin?" you asked into (d/n)'s hair. She nodded a little.

   "Mmhmm, and daddy missed you." You felt Hisoka tense behind you and you chuckled.

   "Did he now?"

   "Yeah, he said he missed you lots." Busted, Hisoka sighed and rolled over so that his chest was against your back and his face was in your hair. He then reached his arm over you and (d/n), hugging you both closer to him.

   "I missed you and daddy, too," you said as you placed a kiss atop her head.

   "Mommy?"

   "Mmm?"

   "Happy your home."

   You hugged (d/n) again as you gently leaned into Hisoka's warm embrace.

   "It's good to be home, munchkin."

[kaypeace21]

People seem to misinterpret what I’ve said in the past about mike “projecting his feelings for Will” on to El. So I’ll clarify.

When I say mike is “projecting his romantic feelings” for Will on to el. That doesn’t mean mike doesn’t care about El (at all) as a friend. Or sees El as Will (that’s not even how projection works -or what I’ve said). Although Mike isn’t perfect, he’s naturally empathetic and grateful for all El has done to help him and his friends. And he does see Will & El as 2 different people- despite the romantic projection. And unlike Will, he sees El in a more familial way- rather than romantic (despite him trying to force it to be romantic) .More on that later.Heck, Mike has already incorrectly  projected his NON-ROMANTIC emotions on to 3 other characters other than El (it’s a pattern of his to project his feelings about one person on to another)- which yes I’ll also discuss.

I guess I have to specify what projection is -like i’ve already inferred in prior posts .There’s a difference between projecting  “feelings” you have for one person on to another VS thinking those 2 people are literally the same person with no differences between those 2 people/or not acknowledging the unique personal relationships you have with both.  This misconception is used as a popular counter-argument/strawman argument -rather than just debating the points i’ve made) .  Ex) It’s like if you’re anger at your boss- but you can’t yell at them so you (subconscious or otherwise) are (unfairly) angry/irritable to your romantic partner later. It doesn’t mean you literally think your romantic partner and boss are 1 in the same - or there is no distinction between those 2 relationships. The same goes for how Mike views El and Will, despite “projecting”  his “romantic feelings for Will” on to El (although Mike does so poorly).

 Mike most likely projects his romantic feelings for Will on to El

In s3) he kisses El with a drawing of Will behind her head -that he can look at as he kisses her ... that should be an obvious hint he’s projecting (subconscious or otherwise) . 

That’s Will -light brown hair/bowl cut, has fire powers like ‘Will the wise’.There’s also the fact that multiple characters in s1 mistook El for a boy (specifically Will) . Benny saying to El, “trying to steal from me boy?” Another man at Benny’s place mistook her for Will and said she could be “the byers boy... same height”. Hopper tracked El for most of s1 thinking it was Will. Homophobic Troy who harassed mike / talked about Will being gay said about El “ her head’s shaved she doesn’t even look like a girl”, officer callahan said “what’s Will doing with a shaved head?” The writers of ST are trying to tell you to pay attention to the fact el had a “ boyish /Will-like” appearance (and despite this- Mike was supposedly into her in s1). Then we had s2 byler parallel s3 mileven to show him fail to project his romantic feelings of Will on to el: Crazy together vs blank makes you crazy, , shed scenes: most important thing vs it was the best thing, Will & El calling for mike in the upsidedown (and mike coming for Will only), “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet” vs “welcome to my world”,  Will having pics of Mike smiling on Halloween looking at him vs El having a pic of Mike glaring on Halloween,  mileven paralleled to luke/leia & byler to king tristan/Han, byler paralleled to Venkman/Dana a ghost busters couple vs El just being a ghost and mike a ghost hunter, the s3 fight vs breakup  and the various contrasts between all 3 (showing Will upset and El happy - and mike caring more about resolving his fight with Will than El- and never apologizing to El for lying ). I went into more detail here about the parallels between mileven/byer, mileven,stancy,Karen/ted , etc here.

And when he tells El “I can’t lose you again” It’s supposed to be ambiguous-cause Mileven like stobin is a straight bait. The fact is 2 prior times in season 2 (when mike was in the center of the group) he sadly watches Will as Will gets in a car and drives away. 

Hinting to the viewer he’s actually thinking and worrying about losing Will (that 3rd time in s2 when he’s talking to El and seeing the cars with El/ Will drive away) . He once again is in the center of the group like the prior  2 scenes. And he already lost Will before and Will  (like el) also had a fake d*ath. So yeah...we hear mike tell el that line and mike watches both El and Will leave in cars (and starts to cry) since mike knows that Will (unlike superpowered El) may d*e from his possession and he may never see him again.��And it’s not like he can tell Will that line when he’s unconscious/possessed (especially in front of his friends) .

Just like in s2, when mike watches El and Will drive away .... he does so again in s3. And it’s similarly ‘ambiguous’, on who he’s upset seeing drive away.  But, Mike turns to looks at the byers house, and  tries to catchup with his friends (which has identically framing to an earlier scene in s3 of Will sadly turning to look at mike leave with El and then turning back to rush and  catchup with the gang). Will turned around cause of Mike (not El) just like Mike turned around thinking of Will (not El). Just like s2,s3 uses earlier scenes in that particular season to give us hints about who he’s actually sad about driving away .

And in that moving away montage -  it only pans to mike and Will .

And has Mike hug his mom in the same way he did in s1.  Both represent moments representing him ‘losing Will’ (through his fake d*ath/moving away).  Mike both times storms into the house and Karen rushes to him nervous and unsure why he’s upset , but goes into hug him when mike reaches for her (needing comfort). Unlike the mileven hug that’s outside and he doesn’t reach for her at all- she hugged him because she was worried  (was he upset -sure but it’s not a parallel to the s3 hug). And they played “we can be heroes” for both hugs - cause both times mike lost Will.

And that s2 car scene where he talked to El (just like the prior s2 car scenes) was indicative of his fear of losing Will (not El).  Which happened at the end of s3. It all ties together. Cause again , he was thinking of Will!

They even had several movies on the st list (altered states / children of paradise) have this concept of projecting romantic feelings of someone they’re in love with on to someone else. Altered states -has a guy just like Will hallucinate flashing to another dimension . People say about him and his wife “he’s crazy and she’s crazy about him”. And when they weren’t together she says she had to pretend everyone she dated was him (but that it only made her feel worse cause it wasn’t him) .And she says about doing so “’it’s crazy”. And her friend says “i think that’s how it’s supposed to be.” CAN THEY GET MORE CLEAR with the projection?

Heck, even El projects on to Mike. While mileven is separated between s1-2 she watches the soap opera (’all my children’) and pretends to be Erica kane (who in the episode El was watching) got into a rushed elopement to MIKE ROY (who was a writer).Aka she projected romance from soap operas/her possible crush of MIKE roy onto MIKE wheeler.And Erica/Mike weren’t endgame- even had a lot of st*liking after the break up (similar to El’s spying)

Mileven and Byler are very different- much to Mike’s annoyance. And Mike projects this anger of not being able to love El romantically on to Max,Will, & Hopper.

Mileven and byler are very different even if mike wishes he had romantic feelings for El (like he does for Will). Mileven is paralleled to hopper/el cause mike truly sees her in a familial way- both teach her the definitions of compromise vs promise (and make promises to her), say to eat “real food” and not eggos, keep her hidden away and safe. Both say her new look is “cool” and El in response to both says it’s “bitchin” and both say back “yeah bitchin”. Both claim someone is “corrupting” El (when trying to dictate her romantic decisions ) and Joyce/Max tell both guys they don’t respect El’s ability to make her own “decisions”. And El says to both of them “you lie” while Max says El should figure out what she likes and not simply listen to Hopper and Mike.  Also similar to what she does with kali /Max (a sister/friend) El copies expressions from all 4 of them ( bitchin,  i make my own rules , not stupid, mouth breather/friends don’t lie).  Mileven is also paralleled to Luke/leia, and multiple people say El is like a “sister “ (lucas) and “cousin” (dustin) in s1. Even El asks before he first kisses her if Mike will he be “like (her) bother.”

In s2, Max (with the gang at Will’s house) asks how mike can still trust Will despite being possessed and in s3 max (with the gang at El’s house) calls out mike for not trusting El.  “El has saved the world twice. And Mike still doesn’t trust her!”And instead of Mike admitting that truth -that he doesn’t trust El who he doesn’t know well (who spied on him) he projects all the blame/distrust wrongly on to max saying “you want to talk about trust ?REALLY?! After YOU made eleven spy on us!” And when max says it was el’s idea he yells exasperated into Max’s face “guess girlfriends don’t lie they spy!” He shows he’s aggravated with the fact El is so against lying but had no qualms with spying. But only yells at Max (not El) and he even tries (incorrectly) claiming Max is “corrupting” El and making her do things she didn’t want to do . Cause he’s still in denial and wants to fall in love with El- and doesn’t want to see any of El’s flaws that would make it harder to do so ( so he just  projects that anger on to max instead).

And we know during the byler fight: Will calls El “stupid” but he was just projecting his own feelings about himself on to EL-since right after this he calls himself “stupid” 4x. So it’s likely when Mike yells back “El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”   Like Will, It’s AGAIN Mike PROJECTING his insecurities about himself (aka not liking girls) and his relationship issues with El - on to Will. Rather than an actual statement on Will’s se*uality. Sort of like Mike lashing out and projecting his anger about his failing romantic relationship with El on to Max .

The simple fact is el is mike’s safe option (she physically resembles Will but is a girl and thus he’s allowed to be attracted to her- in conservative 80s America). However, we see the more El develops into her own person and differs from Will in personality (plus , the fact puberty is making the distinction between genders more apparent) the harder it is for Mike to fool himself and project.The writers in s3 make a telemarketing joke just to have mike say “el, no, not interested” (aka his true feelings).Mileven in s3 was called “b*llshit” like stancy (which have multiple parallels and weren’t in love ). And nancy admitted to Jonathan (a byers ) she wanted to be with him the whole time. But ,despite that, got back with Steve (and continued to kiss Steve all the time, and even lied saying she loved Steve for an entire year) essentially mileven. Karen /ted also is paralleled to Stancy & mileven- who were “never in love” . Then , Max says friends don’t lie but “boyfriends (mike) LIE all the time” (aka he’s lying about his romantic feelings), and when lucas asks WHY he lied to el -it pans to Will (the real reason he lies to El about his feelings for her). When El asks “why do you lie” (he just is silent and stares up guilty).  Lucas says about mileven (right before Dustin says they’re “bullsh*t” that “they’re lying”.And when he tries confessing to El, he never apologizes for lying and just used the similar ‘crazy’ line he used on Will (in s2). Cause if he actually stopped lying - he couldn’t continue to use her as a beard and date her/try and get back together.  Plus he also fought with Hopper in s2 (’about El’) in WILL’S ROOM . He wasn’t actually calling Hopper the liar he  was PROJECTING and calling himself “a stupid disgusting liar”out of self hate .  That scene was foreshadowing his lying to El in s3 (about his feelings for her). He blamed Hopper for his feelings for Will cause he told himself it wouldn’t have escalated if El had been around to ‘fix him’ . “I BLAME YOU! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK. YOU STUPID DISGUSTING liar, liar, liar, liar”.starts crying. And then it zooms to Mike’s crying face and pans to El (who he would lie to constantly the next season).

I  also discussed in detail here how the bathroom stobin confession paralleled the mileven grocery confession- and again 1 in each of the couplets is gay. Heck, the “first i love you” plays only 2x in s3: when steve confesses to gay-robin and  when el confessed to mike and kisses him and Mike doesn’t kiss back or say he loves her back. When she kisses Mike- it’s in WILL’S ROOM room AGAIN,  Will’s old teddybear between them, as they kiss in front of Will open closet door) .  in s2ep1 the lyrics are “just a little more time can open closing doors” (as Mike kisses El and it pans over the ‘Will the wise’  drawing & a rainbow-heart-Mike drawing, that blend together). But , In the same ep- when Will says he won’t fall in love the lyrics are “love that is new to you, you open up the door.” Later in the song it even mentions the “wheeler house”. So yes- after “a little more time” (3 months) mike and El kiss once again like ep 1- but it’s  in front of Will’s open door and Mike is not feeling it- and it shows what is going to begin in s4 (byler). That after some time- despite the byler-doors appearing to ‘close’ they open up again after the mileven breakup/mike realizing the depth of his feelings and the fact he can’t ‘fix himself’ and be straight.El saying she loved him- and him not feeling any different after... was probably the catalyst for that realization.

Before this, we saw him project “his feelings” for Will on to El in romantic situations. But, he refused to integrate her into his friend group like his straight friends did with their gfs-unlike lucas with max, or how dustin tried to do so with Susie) . Cause he’s unfairly used El as a beard and wanted to compartmentalizes his friends and romance as much as possible (since faking it all the time not only with El-but with his friends would be exhausting).

Does he care about El- sure in his own flawed way. But, sorry (in my opinion) to act like mike” loves Will and El equally “ is kind of ludicrous . His actions show the opposite. And he’s only known El for 9 months as opposed to knowing Will for 9 years. And he’s known all of his other guy friends and the Byers much longer. What do they have in common?Are they friends ? Sure...  technically but “friends don’t lie”. And mike has done plenty of that to her - so until they sort that out- and are honest to eachother- they can’t really have a strong foundation of friendship in my opinion. It’ll only improve once they start being honest and respect each other’s autonomy (aka stop dating and actually establish a friendship... and  stop lying /spying on eachother). At the moment- Mike stunts El’s character growth and tries isolating her from the outside world, doesn’t respect her autonomy/ability to make decisions, doesn’t trust her in general, lies to her, and treats her like he’s her overly controlling dad. The relationship isn’t balanced or healthy (like byler or Mike and his other peers). In s1 he called her “a weapon”  they could use to save Will (a lesson he appears to have learned from).But Max has to yell at Mike in s3 “she’s not yours! she’s her own person-fully capable of making her own decisions!” And EL says Mike treats her like “a pet” and “garbage”. So yeah...  I don’t get people being ‘offended’ by me pointing out the romantic projection he does- and saying it supposedly ‘destroys’ the ‘beautiful relationship/friendship’ they have. Before I can consider mileven a “beautiful/loving friendship’: Mike needs to stop projecting and seeing El as a perfect beard to ‘fix him’- AND see El as her own person and NOT someone he needs to ‘take care of’ (cause he wrongly infantilizes her) . I think the 2 will eventually become good friends- and Mike will see he was wrong. But they’re not there yet- in my opinion.

[hitory--chan]

SasuHina Month 2021

Day 1: The beginning of us

Of playdates and dinosaur cookies

 Sasuke bit his lower lip, feeling shy for the first time in his short life.

 His eyes roamed the entire landscape in front of him, but they fervently avoided looking to his right side, fearful that if he did, then he might never look away again.

 That´s was what his older brother told him would happen if he did, and Sasuke, barely a seven years old boy, was terrified just thinking he would spend the rest of his life feeling the whirlwind in his tummy, the warmth of his face and the tickling sensation in his throat that told him he would throw up at any moment just by looking at his new neighbor.

 Instead he looked at Itachi, his seventeen-year-old older brother, who was sitting across from him as he talked animatedly to the girl's caretaker beside him about things he couldn't understand and didn't seem to match the rhythm of his lips.

 The four of them were at the park, sitting at a picnic table taking a break from the playdate that the older ones arranged for the two youngers who were now having a snack before going back to play each for their part, like they had been doing it for an hour.

 That day when both couples met, Sasuke had refused to let go Itachi´s leg, hiding his face in the fabric of his brother´s pants to avoid looking at them and let out a furious blow on the older's thigh when he heard him laugh with Kö - as he learned the man's name was - after Hinata - that's what she was called - asked them if his tummy hurt.

When Itachi and Kö left them in the middle of the playground to sit and watch them from a distance, Sasuke had done his best to avoid looking at Hinata, feeling inexplicably annoyed when she stopped trying to talk to him about what they should play.

 But now it was difficult because they were sitting together and there were a lot of interesting noises that caught his attention but he couldn't look for where they were coming from, because if he did, he would have to turn to Hinata’s direction and he would undoubtedly look at her.

 He couldn't allow that.

 So he keep eating the dinosaur cookies he´d brought especially for this occasion, feeling his tongue dry after putting a Pterodactyl, a Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex in his mouth at the same time, so he reached for the apple juice box he'd left on the table with one hand, but he squealed in surprise when his fingers collided with others as small as his, and before even think about it, he turned his head and froze when his gaze locked onto the pale eyes of the girl.

 A few seconds went through in complete silence, until he began to cry.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

 He didn't speak to her until they were both twelve years old.

 Honestly, it hadn't been his intention, the words that were hovering in his head had simply left his mouth without any warning.

 "Digimon is better than Pokémon"

 She looked at him in horror, as if he had just said the worst insult that could be said to a person, clutching the strap of the Jigglypuff crossbody bag in her hands.

 He bit his tongue and instantly turned away from the metal fence that separated his house from the rest of the world, determined to walk back inside his house and put his face in the first bucket of water he could find, but before he took a third step he heard her speak.

 "D-Digimon is a copy of Pokémon"

 He slowly turned around, feeling personally insulted.

 They both began to have a heated discussion about why one show was better than the other, launching arguments and counter arguments that were moved to the living room of his house after he invited her in to continue arguing while they ate cookies and drank lemonade as an Itachi´s courtesy, who simply walked into the room and put the refreshments in front of them when they were organizing a schedule in which they would watch both series together to showoff which one was the best.

  .*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Only a year later he realized, with the help of his brother, that he might be in love with her.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

At fifteen he took her hand for the first time.

 It happened while leaving school.

 He was walking a few steps behind Hinata when some older boys, seniors, approached and started harassing her.

 Like everyone in his class, puberty had caught up with Hinata.

 But while the other girls in his grade had barely defined their waists or their breasts just started to grow, Hinata had had to adjust her clothes and change bra sizes at least half a dozen times.

 And those changes certainly caught the attention of the boys at school and men on the street, who didn't care if she was still wearing her Togepi-themed stockings or the sheer number of pokemon-faced pins in her backpack, instead of stopping them, they actually seemed it cute and reason enough to try more insistently.

 Sasuke was bothered by that, but he didn't interfere because he believed she should be brave enough to stop them herself.

 Well, that changed when he saw how they tried to pull up her skirt.

 With a sudden wave of fury and taking advantage of his recently developed high -average stature for boys his age- in addition to his robust body, he walked faster, pushing the boy who was most actively teasing her aside and grabbing her hand to move her away with fast steps from that place.

 He only stopped when they arrived to the park and nearly collided with the ice cream man, just realizing her fingers had slipped between his and closed around. He squeezed her hand and stroked with his thumb as best he could in an attempt to comfort her when she rested her forehead against his shoulder, preventing him from seeing her face.

 She mumbled something and he laughed, motioning for the ice cream man to come over them, letting her choose the most ridiculously large and expensive ice cream that this ice cream man could offer.

 Later when they returned home, they watched a Pokemon marathon even though it was supposed to be Digimon's turn, as they had christened Fridays years ago.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Several weeks later, when she was no longer emotionally sensitive about what happened on that occasion, he confessed to her.

 To his surprise, she did not reject him.

 They started dating.

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

The first time they had sex, it was the night of the prom, which neither of them wanted to attend.

 They were seventeen years old, but they both felt ready to take that step in their relationship.

 And, well, they hadn't planned on doing it on that particular night.

 Instead of going to the prom, they preferred to celebrate on their own by going on a date to the ice-skating rink in the center of town. He fell a lot, he wasn't afraid to admit it, he had humbly accepted his legendary inability to handle any kind of rollerblades that might exist, but ice-skating was one of Hinata's favorite activities, and he would sacrifice his butt any day as long as he could watch her laugh happily while trying to teach him to skate.

 When they were finally exhausted they went out to eat and then decided to walk home in the cloudy night, ignoring the thunder that warned of the impending storm.

 They were close when it started raining loudly, drenching them from head to toe hopelessly before reaching Sasuke's door and entered the house, where they were all alone.

 They went straight to Sasuke's room. He pulled her towel over her head and began to dry her hair while Hinata took off her coat and helped him get rid of his. They hugged for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes, the space between them disappearing as their lips met.

 But the defining step was taken by Hinata, who pushed him onto the bed to sit and then climbed on top of him, kissing him again as she worked to remove her blouse and unbutton his pants.

 That night the cold parts of his body began to heat up with the touches they gave each other as they fused into one.

  .*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

 Having a long distance relationship was difficult, people always said it but they did not believe their relationship was so fragile that they could not bear a few kilometers between them.

 But being in universities so far apart from each other proved to be a more difficult challenge than they could bear. They were barely twenty and twenty-one years old, adulthood was still very young for both of them, and the process of adjusting to this new life was proving more complicated than they had ever thought.

 He didn't notice the decline in his relationship with Hinata until it was too late, but looking back, there was no other possible outcome.

 The first few months there were many love calls, talking almost every night until one of the two could not carry on anymore. But the further the semester progressed, the more difficult it was to talk, the calls went from being daily to inter-daily, then only on weekends.

 One call a week, one every fortnight or once a month.

 When they talked… well, they didn't talk, they argued.

 They argued over trifles or jealousy until one of them couldn't take it anymore and hanged up the phone without any warning.

 Then it happened.

 "I think we should break up"

 Sasuke was livid upon hearing that.

 His brain stopped registering the other words she said through the loudspeaker, and instead it repeated them cruelly over and over again, mocking him.

 I think we should break up.

 We should break up.

 Break up.

 He did not say anything and pressed the red button on his cell phone, wasted no time and blocked her contact from both his phone and any social network they might have in common and then threw the device against the wall, destroying it in one fell swoop.

 He didn't sleep an eye that night, not the night after or the night after that.

 And when he finally got to sleep, he dreamed of her.

  .*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

 Now Sasuke is twenty-six years old, he had finished his studies two years ago and returned to his hometown, got a good job and paid for his own apartment where he lived comfortably.

 Hinata hadn't come back, not even for the holidays.

 Kö had told him that she had stayed to do a specialty, that she was fine and happy. He wanted to see it for himself.

 So he looked for her on networks just to remember that he had blocked her, so he unlocked her phone number- which he had never deleted, and even if he had, it would not be a problem, since he remembered every digit of her number - and he unblocked her from Instagram, her Facebook was gone, it seems she had deleted her account.

 On Instagram there was nothing new, the last photo published had been three years ago, and reviewing the previous publications he noticed she hadn’t deleted the pictures both of them were together.

 He tried calling her only to find out she had changed her number, and that the one he was calling now belonged to an older man with a severe cough problem.

 He didn't try anymore, there was nothing more to try.

 He had to focus on the present.

 He is now a lawyer, the uncle of three little terrors whom he loved with all his soul even though he constantly complained about how loud they were.

 Soon they would be staying at his house to take care of them while Itachi and his wife went to another city to finish the transmissions for the adoption of a fourth child, the second that was not biologically theirs.

 That's why he was at his childhood convenience store, the only one that still sold the dinosaur cookies that had him so obsessed as a child, which his nephews absolutely loved and demanded every time they visited.

 He paid for a large quantity of them and thanked the clerk, opening one of the cookie packages for him as he turned to leave.

 The automatic door opened and someone rushed in, bumping into him and knocking the cookies onto the floor. He was about to insult them, but that person beat him to it.

 "I am so sorry! I'll pay for the cookies”

 He froze, recognizing that voice instantly.

 "Hinata?"

 "Sasuke?"

 His black eyes met her clear ones and the little breath that had remained inside was expelled from him. After years without seeing her, she still seemed like the girl - woman, he corrected himself - more beautiful his eyes had had the privilege of resting on.

 "It's been a while"

 He wanted to kick himself for commenting on the obvious; instead he bit down hard on the inside his cheek in the sneakiest way possible.

 "Yes ... quite ..." she looked at the floor and so did he, where the cookies had already beaten the five second rule more than a minute ago "I'm sorry again for your cookies" she said, this time with a little humor in her voice.

 "No problem, I have more" he replied, raising the bag in his hand, emphasizing his words with that action.

 Silence fell between them, uncomfortable as it had been in his youth when he had refused to speak to her during all those play dates Itachi had made for him without asking, but the lack of words or active movement allowed him to observe her more closely, listing all of the characteristics that had changed during those years without seeing her.

 Her plump cheeks were no longer as prominent, giving her face a more pronounced shape. Her eyes were still large and expressive, but even in the poor light of that establishment he could make out the darkened skin under her eyes. Hadn't she been sleeping properly? Was she working too hard? It had also seemed she had grown a little more, or perhaps he had shrunk, he was only sure that she did not reach the tip of his nose before. He couldn't tell from her baggy clothes - old habits hardly die - but she was probably thinner than before if her face was any indication of it.

 Before he could continue searching for the differences between the her of the past and the present, the door opened again and they were both forced to move to make way for whoever came in.

 "It was good to see you, Sasuke" she said and he could see the sincerity that was expressed on her face at her words. It was a goodbye, he knew it, and the storm raged inside of him as she walked around and past him, beginning to move away from him.

 It was a full-blown impulse when he leaned back and grabbed her arm, sliding his hand quickly towards hers noting the lack of any jewels that could make him reconsider his actions, secretly grateful for the lack of any kind of rings.

 "I know a place," he started, his brain working a mile for minute searching for the right words to say "It's near here and they serve decent food, maybe we should go there to catch up?" he said, increasingly unsure of his own voice and ending in a question, something uncharacteristic of his usually blunt attitude.

 Instead of answering immediately, Hinata looked at him searching for something that he couldn't even guess what it was. Maybe he was wrong and she was with someone? Maybe she was looking for better words to reject him, she was that considerate.

 He tried to lower his hopes, but it was difficult when her own hand closed momentarily around his before releasing it again, perhaps it had just been a small spasm, nothing intentional.

 But when she smiled and her hand closed again, the weight of his shoulders and the nervousness of his body disappeared, being replaced with relief when she said...

 "Lead the way"

[fels-fantasy-hoard]

Okay (long post incoming) so we discussed whether or not spell casting classes should be locked with one core ability score here and the broad conclusion was no, they should be fluid with what ever score works best for that character and how they interact with the class but several people brought up really interesting counter arguments I’d like to explore and hear other’s thoughts on.

Most of the counter arguments I’d seen revolved around what exactly the core ability score means and how it is intrinsically tied through the class. In our previous discussion we focused on warlocks and charisma so I will do so again for ease as it, along side druids and clerics, is a class this applies to the most.

@super-d made the excellent point that warlocks display their charisma not necessarily as being charming at face value or just silver tongued but in their mere presence and that if the character themself is not very charismatic, it is  the entity they bargained with that gives them that charismatic presence to hold a room or enforce their will on the world around them.

@notnobody also made a great point that a warlock’s charisma “relates to self confidence, strength of character, and warlocks need that to differentiate between themselves and the patron’s magic”

These are both excellent counter arguments to what I proposed which brings me back to my original question: would altering these core ability scores alter the essence of the class itself? 

Lets take an intelligence based warlock as an example to explore this.

My definition for the intelligence ability score in this example is going to be the ability to deductively reason events and correlations in the world around you and to find patterns, loop holes, and connections. Now, every person has a different definition of intelligence in regards to dnd but this is the definition I most commonly use and thus will be using in this example.

(under a cut we go)

Example:

Betty Smith is a brilliant scholar who has spent most if not all of her life stuck teaching spoiled rich kids mathematics, sciences, and languages for their eventual transition into politics as they reach adulthood. As one of the few teachers who is not magically inclined, she has always been an outsider amongst her colleagues and seen as the mundane professor by the students. However, she is loved by the non magically inclined students and those who genuinely enjoy learning.

One day, a group of her favorite non magically inclined students goes missing and the school refuses to do anything about it, even the students’ parents don’t seem to notice. She refuses to let this go and is fired for causing trouble.

Enraged and worried for her students, she uses what access to the school’s resources she has and steals the information on how to summon a devil. She writes up a contract and performs the summoning at her home. The devil appears and they discuss the nature of her desires. They spend several hours amending and re amending the contract until both parties are satisfied and it is only after the pact is made that Betty realizes she’d been outsmarted by a loophole that her soul will belong to the devil the moment her students are out of danger.

Now, the rest of Betty’s story is trying to out lawyer the devil with amends to the contract, exploiting loopholes to gain more power, and using her intelligence to never fulfill the full ends of the bargain or break out of it all together.

She would have slightly above average charisma but her power would come from how well she is able extort loopholes in the contract and out smart her patron (enemies to lovers anyone?? lmao jk)

Now, is this character still a warlock? Is a warlock defined by their charisma or the pact they made?

The same can be asked of clerics. Is it their wisdom or their devotion to their deity of choice what defines them? What if that devotion is explored through researching scriptures, finding and examining lost relics, or teaching others the principles they believe their deity represents? What if that devotion is shown through rallying others in their god’s name, or using honeyed words to share their deity’s faith? Are these still clerics? What does it mean to be a cleric?

What does it mean to be a druid? Is it just a spiritual connection to nature? What about a more scientific approach where their power comes from understanding the life cycles of nature and the innate magic of life itself? What about a druid who has such a force of presence that they can speak and the animals will listen, they can whisper and it will rain, they know who they are and are thus able to shift into the animals they feel in their soul.

What about a wizard who fakes it till the make it, who manipulates and steals from other wizards and doesn’t see the point of figuring it out themselves when they can get other people to do it for them (credit @vulpes-nothus for this idea). (cant think of one for wisdom someone in the notes come up with something lmao)

What about a bard who uses their ability to read others to tell them what they want to hear or manipulate them just right, a bard who uses music/story telling to reach others emotionally and connect with them on a deeper level. Or a bard who studies magic similar to a wizard who knows a story or song for every occasion.

What about a sorcerer who is only able to control their power through sheer force of will but this in turn makes it difficult for them to be charmed because they are so used to keeping magic on a leash. Or a sorcerer who has all this power but had to figure out and teach themself how to control it and are thus able to unleash bouts of magic others can’t as they manipulate the world around them with mathematical precision.

Are these all still their core class or do they become something else? How much of the class is impacted by the core ability score? What exactly do these core ability scores mean and how are they reflected in the classes?

[gumnut-logic]

The world was blurry as he let his head slide on one hand and stared out through the kitchen window. Gordon was in the pool, swimming his morning laps. The sun had yet to rise and Virgil had broken several laws of physics rising himself. This time of day should not exist. But then it didn’t, because it wasn’t day yet because there was no sun!

But no, supersonic big brother wanted to do some special training today. Training that for some reason had been scheduled at sunrise.

It was possibly important, likely scheduled just to get his ass out of bed at this godawful hour. Occasionally there were some issues with having your brother in command. Brotherly love only went so far, brotherly snark had more mileage, and Scott did have that twist of his lips when he announced the schedule.

Four pairs of eyes had immediately turned to him and his return glare had been insufficient to deflect the amusement that followed.

But it was okay. It was fine. He had his own skill drills up his sleeve. Two am would be convenient for him next time, definitely. After all, they all had to keep their skill sets up, didn’t they?

In the meantime, it was black coffee and repeated attempts to focus on Mateo. Mateo was distinctly blurry, and dark and...

“Hey, Virg!” Alan whacked him on the back.

His face nearly ended up in his coffee. “Alan? What the hell?”

“And good morning to you, too, big bro. Ready for this morning’s run?”

He stared at his bright and peppy, yes, peppy, youngest brother. Augh. “Go away.”

“Aww, did the big bear have to get out of bed a little early?”

“Alan...”

“C’mon, Virg, it’s gonna be fun. A race around the island, wind in your hair, blood pumping...it’s gonna be awesome.”

Virgil stared at him, his brain slowly picking up that something wasn’t quite right. “Alan, why aren’t you comatose?”

“What do you mean, big bro?”

A slow blink. “You hate mornings almost as much as I do. Who are you and what have you done with my little brother?” His eyelids drooped all of their own volition.

“It’s called prepared, bro. I’m in it to win it.”

Virgil’s eyes narrowed. “Are you on something? Because if you are, Scott’s going to kill you, and once I’m awake, I’ll resuscitate you so I can kill you again.”

“That’s violence, bro. It’s cool, I promise.”

An arched eyebrow that almost hurt. “What did you do, Alan?”

“Nothing. Well, nothing you aren’t already doing.”

“You drank coffee.”

“Noooooooo.”

“What did you do?”

“A little caffeine is all.”

The arched eyebrow flipped into a frown. “How much?”

“Enough.”

Virgil’s back straightened. “Alan.”

“I’m fine, bro, I promise. I know what I’m doing. I’m not stupid.” A blond frown. “Besides, it’s not like you don’t do the same with your coffee after coffee after coffee technique.”

Virgil’s lips thinned, but to be honest, the kid was right, he didn’t have a leg to stand on. But... “You’re not yet an adult, Alan.”

“Yet, I take the responsibilities of an adult, Virgil.”

“Your body isn’t fully mature!”

“Well, thanks for that, Doctor Virgil!”

“You have to look after yourself!”

“Hard to do anything else when I have four brothers mother-henning me all the time!”

“We worry about you!”

“Well, don’t! I can look after myself.”

“Alan!”

“Virgil!”

“Hey! What the hell is going on here?!”

Virgil found himself looming over his little brother, one brain cell after another slowly catching up with what the hell was going on. Bright blue eyes were staring up at him defiantly, his little brother’s shoulders tight and fists clenched at his sides.

Virgil forced his own fists to uncurl. There was a reason why he preferred not to see this time of day. Disturbed sleep disturbed his calm, his control, and things like this happened.

Scott loomed over the both of them and Virgil took a step back, slumping back onto his seat and hulking over his coffee almost in a pout. “Better ask Alan, he’s the one being stupid.”

“Speak for yourself, Virgil.”

“Both of you, shut it.” Scott could glare with the best of them, but Virgil had exhausted what little energy he had and ignored him. “Alan, dosed himself with caffeine.”

“Virgil!”

He could feel the laserbeams shooting out of Scott’s eyes switching targets and landing on Alan. There was no satisfaction, just blergh. Here we go.

And sure enough, Scott started in on his little brother. There was, of course, shouting. Virgil idly wondered how come Scott got to yell and he didn’t. But then Virgil didn’t really like yelling anyway.

Coffee. Its warmth drifted down his throat and spread into his bones. Oh god, he needed it. Maybe a second one after this? But then the word ‘caffeine’ came up amongst the explosions beside him and he reconsidered. No need to become a target himself.

He let his foggy mind drift a little. It was all his fault really. He could have gone to bed early, but he had made the mistake of getting into a discussion online with an engineering idiot. The topic had become heated, chemical formulas launched like bombs and laced with reactive equations enough to take out half the engineering community. In the end, he’d thrown a hissy fit and sat up to three am writing up his argument. He’d chucked it onto his blog with a great deal of satisfaction and was looking forward to rubbing it in the man’s face.

Just as soon as he could boot his brain.

Coffee, give me strength.

Gordon wandered in at some point, a damp towel around his neck. Being Gordon, he prodded the conflagration in progress and got burnt. The argument became three sided.

Virgil considered snoozing on the counter.

Then he hit on the idea that he could possibly sneak back to bed. He stood up slowly.

Brains bounded into the room, tablet in hand. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Brilliant, so b-brilliant!”

The argument came to a sudden halt, four pairs of eyes turning towards the engineer.

The engineer didn’t notice, eyes glued to his tablet. Max bounded in behind him, whirring excitedly. It was the robot who prevented the distracted Brains from walking into the kitchen counter.

“Oh, thank you, M-Max.” His eyes didn’t leave the tablet. “Did you see the p-polymer ratio? Amazing! Such elegance. You know, I am quite d-disap-pointed that I didn’t think of this myself. The applications are going to b-be in-numerable.”

The distraction was enough to break the fuel lines of the argument and Scott settled for a final threat, Alan a final glare and Gordon, a snort of derision. The moment to escape was lost and Virgil slumped where he sat.

Damn.

“Virgil, you going to eat before we run?”

Alan was right, Scott mother-henned.

“Maybe.” Ugh, c’mon coffee kick in. He needed operational braincells.

Scott was peering closely at him. “Earth to Virgil.”

“Shut up, Scott. You got me up at the ass end of the day, I’m here. Don’t expect much more.”

His brother grinned, and Virgil had the odd urge to thump him. Just because this was his element, didn’t mean he had to be a smart ass about it. “Your next physical is going to be hell.”

The grin faltered. Aah, that’s better. Hmm, perhaps his brain was slowly booting. Go, coffee.

“Virgil! You h-have to see these equations. They are brilliant!”

What? Brains’ tablet shifted the remains of his coffee to one side and Virgil found himself staring at a series of numbers that made little sense at this time of the morning. “Brains, looks great. Can I review them later? I’m not all here yet.”

The engineer didn’t appear to hear him. “Look at the polymer decay to reaction ratio! This is a self-healing polymer!”

Huh? He frowned and forced himself to focus. The appropriate neurons clicked into place in his brain and suddenly what he was seeing made sense.

Shit.

He grabbed the tablet, eyeing the equations and spinning calculations in his head. Brains was right. This was perfect. The polymer would be able to self-heal with the application of a mild electrical current. Give it a pattern to follow and it would populate and keep it populated, even after disturbance.

“Did you discover this, Brains?” He frowned. There was something familiar about this. Maybe they had discussed it recently.

“Oh, no, this is V. T. Green. The man is brilliant.” There was that word again. Brilliant.

But it still took a second for it all to click into place.

V. T. Green was his blog. V. T. Green was his pseudonym online, used for obvious reasons to keep his identity hidden. The blog had been for amusement originally. A place to stash his favourite music and art, but at some point, he had found himself venturing into engineering circles and getting into discussion with the online community. It made for interesting discourse and he was able to keep up to date with some of the latest innovations. Not that he could share his own much and IR was well ahead of the majority of the world thanks to one Hiram Hackenbacker, but on occasion he would fiddle with ideas and make suggestions. It was also a great place to postulate out-there concepts.

The equations on Brains’ tablet were Virgil’s.

“Where did you get these?”

Brains was full of far too much energy for this time of the morning. “Green p-posted them during the night and they have h-hit the world by s-storm.”

“What?”

Brains frowned at him. “Haven’t you heard of V. T. Green, Virgil? He is o-one of the leading engineers on this p-planet. I have been f-following his b-blog for over a year n-now. You r-really m-must check it out.”

“Um, must have missed that one.”

“H-how could you m-miss such an important s-site? I know you k-keep up to date. The man is at the centre of a massive discussion about polymer cohesion and decay. Last night, Coloncous in Spain had the nerve to challenge him in the most ridiculous manner. I was so close to cutting him off myself, he was embarrassing us all, but Green replied with this. As expected, it is a brilliant explanation and Coloncous had no choice but to concede and crawl back into the hole he should never have come out of in the first place. He was a fool to think he could go up against Green. But this solution has so many possibilities. Do you realise this could be integrated into Two’s cahelium hull and she would be able to heal damage midflight? Four would be able seal herself in an underwater emergency. So brilliant.”

Virgil stared at the engineer. He didn’t think he had ever heard Brains say so many words in a row. And his stutter had disappeared two sentences in.

“What did you say about sealing Four, Brains?” Gordon’s ears had obviously pricked up at the mention of his ‘bird.

Brains’ attention was immediately drawn to the aquanaut, his verbal diarrhoea spilling all over Gordon and freeing Virgil.

Taking the opportunity, he pulled out his phone and brought up the website.

Shit!

He had notifications enough to clog his inbox. Due to the early hour, his phone was still on silent and he hadn’t heard any of them. A quick glance identified several prominent names and universities.

Shit. His eyes widened.

He glanced up at his family who were now eagerly discussing safety seals for Thunderbird Four. Even Scott’s eyes were wide and enthusiastic.

Shit.

Um.

Yeah.

He needed more coffee.

-o-o-o-

V.T. Green (one of my absolute favourites :D)