#THIS SONG IS LITERALLY A STORY THAT IS IMPLIED WHEN YOU LISTEN MORE CLOSELY TO THE WORDS AND SUDDENLY

[toastsrambles]

One of the Best Sherlock Holmes Adaptations No One Seems to Know

I know that I’ve been mostly (read: only) doing Moriarty the Patriot metas, but I wanted to talk about something different.

I’ve been obsessed with Sherlock Holmes for… a while. Seriously, everyone I talk to is sick of this Victorian detective by now. I’ve also encountered my fair share of adaptations (shoutout to A Study in Emerald, a short story by Neil Gaiman and 221B, a poem by Vincent Starrett, for being some more of my favorite adaptations). But I’ve seen no one - no one - actually talk about my favorite - and in my opinion, one of the best - Sherlock Holmes adaptations.

Sherlock: the Musical (2022)

With a book by Stefan van de Graaff and Denning Burton, and Music and Lyrics by Denning Burton. It’s currently touring, with the full musical available, professionally filmed, on YouTube. The official cast recording is available on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and more.

I could geek out about this musical for literal hours, so some of my favorite highlights will be under the cut. Spoilers ahead, so if you really want to go in blind, listen/watch first.

Now, important to note that this is not an adaptation of BBC Sherlock, like the name might imply. This is an adaptation of the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Firstly, the opening song, Streets of London.

This song gives you the perfect insight into all the major characters (sans Moriarty).

Sherlock Holmes, the famous consulting detective, is completely confident in his abilities. No criminals can escape: “not when you're messing with Sherlock and John/you just lose your freedom”.

John Watson is Holmes’ loyal companion, his Boswell. Whereas Holmes sets them up as partners, John sees things a bit differently: “right by his side is my spot/and I’m just fine writing lines of what he did”.

Lestrade is impressed by “this Baker Street detective”, while fellow Scotland Yard officer Alice is a bit more judgemental and skeptical: “he doesn’t have any friends”.

We also get this lovely chorus (00:54):

”Streets of London hide

Nothing from Sherlock’s eyes

This darkening plot

Is not what you thought, so

Are you watching close enough?

Blink you’ll miss this mystery unwind

He won’t be undone

Sherlock Holmes, always one step ahead of them

There’s only one you can’t outrun in London”

This song establishes the two main conflicts of the musical: the public perception of Sherlock Holmes and Watson’s relationship to Holmes.

Now, Holmes and Watson have a duet, Elementary, where their chorus reads:

“It’s elementary

Without a doubt, we’re the greatest duo sround

Elementary

The higher we go, the further they fall down

It’s just like gravity

How do we do the things we do?

It’s a natural phenomenon

That the best things come in two

It’s elementary”

And yet, Watson still says in the bridge: “behind every legend stand dynamic friends”. He’s behind the legend, in that he’s responsible for Holmes’ fame, but he’s also behind the legend; he’s just… not as important as Sherlock Holmes.

And, in case you didn’t notice: in Streets of London, the ensembles sings Holmes’ praises. Not Watson’s. The only person who notices Watson’s contributions is Holmes. Not even Moriarty does, not all the way.

Moriarty first becomes known when he plants a bomb that even Sherlock wasn’t able find- it was Watson who found it. However, the bomb never went off. Still, the story somehow makes it to the paper that Sherlock stopped the bomb.

The song Read All About It is something of a reprise of Streets of London, both in music and theme. It drills in the fact that Sherlock works alone, that it’s him and him alone who can save London. The way the public is whipped into a fervor of idealism is almost similar to Moriarty the Patriot, actually.

However, while the public places their faith in Holmes, he worries:

“Terror in London Nowhere to hide, fear in the streets, people are running Running to me How could I not see it coming? How do I not know what’s coming?”

See, the climax of this musical is the song One Step Ahead. Moriarty has lured both Holmes and Watson to Reichenbach Falls under the assumption that the other is in danger. Moriarty then holds Watson at gun point and tells Holmes that if he doesn’t jump, he’ll shoot Watson. In the end, Holmes agrees, and the song ends with this exchange:

“Holmes: I have to save John

So this is how it ends

Not enough time

Maybe death will be a friend

Moriarty: You? You don’t have any friends-

Watson: This time I’m one step ahead of you!”

Watson then tackles Moriarty off the cliff before Holmes can jump, leaving Holmes alone on the cliff.

The next song, Love Someone, is just- it’s so good. It can be read as both platonic or romantic, but the underlying fact is that Watson has shown Sherlock how important loving someone is, and how important it is to hold the ones you love close because “time is yours before it slips away”.

And, some more of my favorite lyrics from this song:

“It was love that took all my fear away If that love could be here and here to stay How would things change?”

“Love someone Love can hold the world until healing comes The greatest conclusion yet, when all is said and done”

“If you’ve prayed for a moment, pled to take their place And yet how quiet it felt, when you imagined their face Pure love, unchanged, a peace that carries your pain Time is yours, before it slips away”

And of course, the last line: “things have changed now”. The acknowledgement that Holmes is fundamentally different without Watson, and maybe can’t even be Holmes without Watson. It’s so incredibly touching.

Of course, though, Watson isn’t truly gone. We learn shortly after his funeral that he managed to survive by holding onto a ledge he spotted when making his way up the cliff in the first place.

This is where we truly learn how much everyone underestimated Watson. See, while Moriarty was the only one to see Watson’s importance to Sherlock, Holmes was the only one to see Watson’s true value. Watson is smart and competent; when Moriarty planted a bomb, he was the one who jumped on top of it with no hesitation (a la Captain America).

We wrap up with Streets of London (Reprise), where Holmes and Watson accept a new case and return to 221B.

Honorable mentions of stuff I ADORE about this musical:

Watson’s song Into the Shadow. Not only are the vocals superb, this song perfectly encapsulates how Watson has faded into Holmes’ shadow in the public eye. But his solemn acceptance of this - “if it saves your life/and they forget mine/then I don’t mind/stepping back into the shadows” - just makes it heartbreaking.

The fact that every single musical number is just awesome. A Different Story, where Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, and Alice interrogate a suspect? A Most Unusual Case, where we see the people who come to Holmes for help? The Greatest Mind, where Holmes and Moriarty first face off? ALL OF THEM are great, including the ones I didn’t just list. The lyrics, instrumentation, and vocals just blow me away.

The references to other cases! For just two examples: in A Most Unusual Case, the blue diamond in a coat sleeve is a reference to The Blue Carbuncle; and in Streets of London (Reprise), the recently engaged typist with a mysteriously vanished fiancée is A Case of Identity.

Also, Watson making deductions in Streets of London (Reprise) is just great :D

The way Watson supposedly dies at Reichenbach, and the subconscious message that it doesn’t matter that it was Watson who died instead of Holmes; either way, Holmes and Watson are dead. The death of one is the death of the other.

The way minor characters like Mrs. Hudson and Mycroft are portrayed is amazing. Seriously, I love the characterization here.

Just… I love this musical so much. It just feels like a love letter to Sherlock Holmes, and the passion behind it is astounding.

So, yeah. If you like Sherlock Holmes, give this a watch/listen. (Please, I really need to know that more people are aware of this masterpiece).

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/747133633169637376/how-do-u-guys-not-see-that-taehyung-is-using-jk?source=share

"record some guides at his apartment studio and jk only gave him some advice here and there abt how he should sing some lines" oh how you try your best to minimise jk's contribution here. Are you a jk anti anon?

"taehyung always find some way to mention jungkook and single out their relationship" I'll tell you why he does this...coz he's in love with him boo 🥰. That's what we do when are in love, we try every possible way to talk about our partner coz they are literally on our minds almost 24/7. As for jk not doing the same, I won't even ask you go through each of his lives coz that'll take time, just watch his second last live. He sang half of layover unprompted, and wooshik's mistaken part of blood sweat and tears. Jk mentioned their snowboarding trip when asked about his current fav song, jk said that tae was the first person, not just member, person, who listened to seven...

"whole “to find you” thing…there’s no way that that’s the legitimate and whole truth" so since you have no other argument against this, just say that tae lied. Simple right? How tf do you know that jk doesn't sing that song to him? Did jk personally dm you about tae's lie? I know why you don't want to accept that tae wasn't lying, bcs that would imply that they are definitely more than just friends, and will derail your Taehyung hate train.

"bc if they were actually together and jk sang that song FOR him, taehyung would not be out here divulging all that information" why won't he? What changed after he divulged that information? Did people suddenly start believing in their relationship? He knows that people like you exist, and are actually in majority so even if he declares his love for jk publically, no one's gonna bat an eye coz acc to most people, they are just bros/ or acc to rotten minds, he's just seeking attention.

"the story he posted of him and jk on instagram before enlisting. that was completely on purpose for attention bc why would u not post something for jimin" it was definitely on purpose. He wanted to publically say goodbye to his bf before he went away. Don't we do the same? Don't we differentiate b/w our partners and friends? That's all that he did. He was literally enlisting that day. He was getting enough attention already. Also, what would he have done of that attention when he was going to the military that very day? As for not posting about jimin, maybe he didn't have a shirtless FaceTime with jimin 🤷‍♀️

"just at least admit that taehyung mentions a lot of stuff abt jungkook on purpose bc he knows ppl like to hear it " I'll readily admit the first part of this statement but not the second. Yes he does mention jungkook a lot, but not because people like to hear it. No one except for taekookers want to hear him talk about his jungkookie. Army, jikookers, solos, i.e. the majority, either don't care about it or call him vile names(like you are) as soon as he so much as takes jk's name.

He's been doing all that and no one except for taekookers finds anything sus about it, ever. So your "if they were actually together i dont think he would want to be drawing attention to their relationship the way he does" makes no sense. Jungkook literally sat smack dab on tae's lap infront of thousands and no one thought anything about it, but tae saying that he recorded some guides at jk' house would draw attention to their relationship.

Do you think jk would allow tae to lie and use his name for attention? Do you he's a pushover? Why does jk hang out with tae and even tae's friends so much if tae is such a lying manipulative attention seeker? Watch yoongi's concert footage, would jk be sticking close to tae all evening if tae was really the evil tae of your imagination?

Stop trying to make up vile narratives about their relationship. Jungkook would judge you. Hard. So would jimin.

Ps, there are many compilations of jungkook going taehyungie hyung all year round, was he trying to make shippers happy and seek attention as well?

Hi anon!

Jup 😊!

[seungkw1]

untitled (hoshi oneshot)

pairing: kwon soonyoung x reader (gender not explicity mentioned)

word count: 1.3k

genre: exes to lovers, non-idol au

warnings: drinking, cursing, implied sex

author's note: hi this is literally the very first fic i've ever written in my life!! it's just a short one but any constructive feedback is appreciated :)

What an annoying fucking day. 

Missing the bus and being late for work, coworkers getting on your nerves, and to top it all off you completely forgot to do that important task that was due today, so you ended up staying late. It was only Tuesday, but you needed a goddamn drink.

It was already dark by the time you stepped out into the freezing cold air, and you huddled up in your coat as you made your way to the mediocre dive bar down the block. Not your top choice, but it was close. You ordered a vodka soda and zoned out as you listened to whatever depressing ass Smiths song was playing - shitty vibe, but you were too tired to care. 

So when the man you had vaguely noticed was staring at you from your peripheral vision got up and headed towards you, you sighed as you turned to immediately shut that shit down. 

“Sorry but I am really not in the mood for a conversation right n-“ your stomach dropped as you made eye contact with the all-too-familiar face. 

“I thought that was you,” your ex-fiancé said sheepishly. 

Frozen in shock, it took you a good five seconds for you to utter a response. 

“Soonyoung?”

What the FUCK was he doing here?

As if he read your mind, he explained, “I’m in town this week for a work conference, but I didn’t expect to run into… anybody I knew.” He paused, waiting for your reaction. More silence. After what felt like an eternity you finally snapped out of it.  

“Um… me neither.” 

Jesus Christ, pull yourself together. 

It had been nearly two years since you last saw him. The breakup had felt like a relief then - he was moving across the country and you never planned to see or hear from him again. Especially not in some random fucking bar on a Tuesday. 

Your heart raced as you noted that he looked good. Like, really good. 

“Mind if I join?” he gestures to the vacant seat next to you. 

“Yeah, definitely. I mean- no I don’t mind. Sorry yeah go ahead, sure” you tripped over your words. Why the hell are you so nervous? It’s just your ex. 

Yeah, just the person I very nearly married. Just the person I had once considered my soulmate…

You shove that thought to the back of your mind. 

Soonyoung sits down and awkwardly begins to make small talk - something neither of you are that great at. You chat politely for a few minutes, asking each other the usual generic questions.  There’s clearly so much you want to say to each other, but you both hold back. 

“Soooo… how’s the…” he pauses. Shaking his head, he abandons whatever he was going to say. He turns and makes eye contact with you, giving you a questioning look. You feel your heart rate spiking. You try not to think about how handsome he looks right now. 

“Do you still like playing pool?” He nods his head over to the open pool table in the corner. A smile involuntarily creeps onto your face and you see his eyes light up in response. The tension suddenly melts away. 

“Only if I can still kick your ass.”

—

A few drinks and several rounds of pool later, you and Soonyoung are laughing it up as if you hadn’t spent a single day apart. 

“Tired of losing yet?” you taunt sarcastically. You are both terrible at pool and neither of you even know how to play properly. But neither of you care about the game at this point anyway - you’re lost in old stories and inside jokes. 

And god, he looks REALLY good. 

Soonyoung pulls out his phone and laughs as he checks the time. 

“Uh-ohhh, it’s gotten prettttty late. We better get you home before you turn into a pumpkin!” You roll your eyes but feel a sudden tinge of sadness. You were truly enjoying yourself - more than you had in a long time - and you weren’t ready for the night to end. But it was getting a bit late. 

“Ugh let me check the train, who knows how long until the next one.” You go to put your coat on but he’s already holding it up for you, not realizing his old habit. 

“Fuck the train, I’m driving you home! It’s toooo cold,” he insists. You let out a short laugh - he only had one more drink but he was clearly drunk. 

“No, dummy, you are in no condition to operate a vehicle. I’ll drive for you.” 

—

You park Soonyoung’s car near your apartment building. He’s mostly sobered up by this point, but he’s clearly a little embarrassed about the fact that he had spent a good chunk of the ride crying as he apologized and confessed that he really missed you. But honestly, you realize that you had really missed him too. 

“Welp, here we are… guess I’d better get going,” he says, trying to hide his mopiness at the thought of leaving you. He slowly starts to open the passenger door but you catch his sleeve to hold him back. As you pull him back into his seat you find your hand subtly sliding up around his bicep. Fuck, he was even more muscular than you remembered. 

“Excuse me but I am not letting you behind this wheel until you are fully sobered up, which you clearly are not,” you tell him firmly. “Come on babe, we’re going inside and getting you something to eat.” The affectionate name rolled off your tongue so naturally that you didn’t even notice you’d said it. 

His eyes light up again. He had always been stunning, but in this moment he was insanely hot. Still holding onto his bicep, memories of his toned body flash through your mind as you feel the heat rising inside you. 

Is this really happening? Fuck, I want him so bad. 

And the way he looks back at you, you know he wants you too.

—

“What do you want, leftover pizza? A sandwich? Ramen?” 

“Ooooh RAMEN!” Soonyoung exclaims eagerly as he comes running into the kitchen. “Pretty please,” he adds with a goofy grin. It all felt so natural. You didn’t realize how much you had missed this, missed him. 

“Drink this,” you force a cup of water into his hands. Your hands brush and you instantly get butterflies. 

Jesus what is this, a middle school crush?? 

He locks eyes with you. Huge pang in your stomach. 

Okay, yeah. You need him. Badly. Right now. 

Overwhelmed, you panic and turn back to busy yourself with the ramen, but you find yourself too distracted to even continue that. 

Soonyoung can’t wait any longer. He grabs you by the hips and turns you around, pulling your body into his. He’s already excited, and you feel his excitement grow even more as he wraps his arms around you and kisses you with more intensity than you’ve ever felt before. 

Fireworks. Electricity. All the things. In that moment, nothing in the world mattered but you and Soonyoung.

God damn. 

He breaks the kiss so he can take a look at you. “You’re so fucking beautiful, you know that right?” He gently grabs your chin and tilts your face up toward him, going in for another kiss. 

You suddenly become aware of the ramen packet that’s still in your hand. You giggle and he ends up kissing you on the teeth. You both burst out laughing and Soonyoung pulls you even tighter into his arms. You feel both of your hearts pounding in your chests. 

He places his forehead against yours. “Soooo…”

“Soooo what?” You give him a tiny peck on the lips. He gives you a tiny peck back. 

“Soooo aren’t you gonna invite me into your room?”

“What for?” you ask coyly. 

“Mmmm I think I have a few things in mind,” he says in a low voice. 

“Like whaaaat,” you tease. 

You feel the both of you becoming even more excited as he mutters into your ear. 

“Mmm I like the sound of that,” you say softly. Then jokingly, “but what about your ramen?”

“I think I have an appetite for something else now…” 

[end]

—

find me on ao3 as well ♡

[oceanviewsong]

All of Me, I'm Offering

Pretty JK

Soft Jimin

Fluff

Pining

Strangers to Lovers

A tiny Whisper of Angst

Jimin taught himself a long time ago to not want, to not anticipate, to not need.

It was easier that way, to lower his expectations down to nearly nothing, to not expect new friends to stay, for lovers to stick around, or even his family to be consistent with keeping in touch. With his expectations low, he was less likely to be disappointed, less likely to be hurt when eventually the phone calls stopped happening, the texts stopped coming, the dates were ignored or missed or forgotten.

He was used to it now, asking for less, but that didn’t always stop him from wanting more.

He knew he wasn’t the most interesting person to be around. He preferred quiet things, nights in to nights out, books and parks over drinks and bars, the soft sound of music playing from his stereo over the bass of a club dance floor. He didn’t think liking those things was wrong, but he got it, he knew he wasn’t the best company because of his preferences.

He’d been told often enough anyway.

“You’re too quiet.”

“You never want to do anything fun.”

“You should try being spontaneous more often.”

But Jimin liked his routine, liked his silent mornings and his soft afternoons and his still nights.

Until one day his routine was gently interrupted by someone.

It’s a rare night out for Jimin, coerced and coaxed by his best friend, Namjoon, into coming out for a night of coffee and thoughtful conversation. The cafe they're sitting in is open until three am, and it’s almost two when Jeongguk walks in, hand raising in a sheepish greeting when the others in their friend group wave him over. Jimin is not expecting a seventh tonight, no one told him to prepare for this, and he definitely could have used some time to prepare, because…

Jeongguk is beautiful.

That is the first thing he thinks when he sees him, he’s never met him, only heard about him, but none of the stories have done him justice. He is beautiful in a way poets write about, beautiful in a way that songs should be written of. With his wide dark eyes framed by long dark lashes, with his hair curled and framing his face like a portrait, with his pretty smile and his sweet voice.

Because Jeongguk is lovely, his midriff exposed and a long, black ribbon tied around his neck and his silver jewelry winking like little stars that fell just to adorn him.

“I forgot to mention Jeongguk was coming,” Namjoon says softly, “I should have, sorry.”

Jimin can’t find it in himself to respond, staring (and he knows he’s staring) as Jeongguk walks across the room and every single pair of eyes in the little space falls on him. He moves like music, and maybe Jimin should stop with the metaphors, but nothing literal could ever come close to explaining what Jeongguk must be made off. Moonglow and mithril, sunsets and starlight.

“Is this seat taken?” He asks, and it takes Jimin a few seconds to realize that he’s being spoken to, he’s being asked, Jeongguk could have said the same thing to anyone else at their table, but he asked him, Jimin, no one else.

“No.” Jimin whispers, hating how faint his voice sounds, like he’s going to be blown away on gusts of wind and he’ll never be seen again.

Jeongguk smiles, he smiles and the world fades away to nothing but shadows, because Jimin didn’t know true light until that very moment.

Jeongguk sinks down next to him and offers a hand to shake, a large hand, all veined and just as beautiful as the rest of him, “I’m Jeongguk.”

“Jimin,” he replies, because other words beyond that are beyond him.

The night unfolds like this-

Jeongguk listens, he is quiet and he is sweet and he speaks when spoken to yes, but he listens, he really listens, eyes wide and attentive, and Jimin notices right away that he doesn’t ask for more than what is offered, he never demands answers, never implies he needs more. He takes what is given and looks happy just to have that.

Are you like me? Jimin wants to ask it, Have you stopped asking for more because you’re scared too?

The night ends like this-

Everyone outside, breath escaping like ghosts in the cold night air, and Jimin stands by, waiting for Namjoon to say his goodbyes to everyone and suddenly Jeongguk is there, close close close, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, pretty pretty pretty.

The night air is frigid around them, their breath escapes their lungs and forms into little phantoms that fade into the darkness. Jeongguk looks cold, huddled in on himself and shivering.

Jimin wants to give him his jacket.

Jeongguk doesn’t ask but Jimin thinks that maybe he can give it anyway.

Jimin shrugs out of his coat and holds it out, Jeongguk looks at him with questions and wonder in his eyes.

“It’s cold,” Jimin says by way of explanation.

Overhead the sky is dark and empty, all the stars have fallen and landed in Jeongguk’s eyes.

He holds his jacket out and feels like a fool until those long fingers reach out and take it, shy and slow, eyes blinking big and smile so soft, “Thanks,” Jeongguk whispers.

“Yeah,” Jimin says.

“It was nice getting to meet you.” Jeongguk says, staring down at the cracks in the pavement.

“Yeah,” Jimin says, and then shakes his head because he should say something other than that, “It was nice meeting you too.”

“Will you be here… next week?” Jeongguk asks.

The Jimin at the start of the night would have said no, but the Jimin right here, right now, bathed in starlight that shines from a pretty boy's eyes says, “Yeah, I will be.”

He catches his other friends staring, they know him, know he wouldn't typically agree to going out again so soon, but Jeongguk is smiling and beautiful and his long fingers curl around the edges of Jimin’s jacket and hold it a little closer and though they don’t really know each other, Jimin thinks it might be nice to try, just this once.

Next week it's raining. He wears a different jacket because he let Jeongguk take his the last time and he takes the subway because Namjoon is out of town. The rain doesn’t fall hard, just enough to make the sidewalks shine and the street lights look fuzzy. The neon lights reflect in the water, bright like spilled paint, he wants to dip his fingers in the puddles and bathe the shadows with colors. He wants to reach out and craft stars from the streetlights. Instead he bows his head against the rain and walks, hopes for his night to be colored by Jeongguk instead. He gets to the cafe and sees a figure standing outside, alone, and Jimin hesitates when he realizes who it is.

“Been waiting for you,” Jeongguk says, holding out a jacket, Jimin’s jacket, and he didn’t have to wait outside, it’s cold, even with him wearing his own coat, but he did and it’s weird, Jimin isn’t used to someone giving… someone giving back. He takes the jacket, their fingers brush, and the neon is lighting Jeongguk’s face in soft pink and dark blue and he is pretty pretty pretty.

Jeongguk sits next to him again, whines and complains and urges YG to shift aside until there is space next to Jimin and he doesn’t get it, doesn’t understand why Jeongguk wants to be beside him. He’s quiet and shy and Jeongguk shines bright, Jeongguk is the city at night, he is sweet and lovely and charming, and Jimin is just Jimin.

He says something like that to Namjoon, when the two of them are alone for a brief moment, and Namjoon looks at him and shakes his head and smiles, “Maybe he feels safe next to you, maybe he feels at ease.”

Jimin doesn’t know what to say to that, but he likes the idea, that Jeongguk feels secure at his side, like he’s a lighthouse, a harbor, a landing pad that can offer rest. He hopes Namjoon is right, he hopes he offers Jeongguk comfort.

Jimin doesn’t know how it happens, how they exchange numbers, how Jeongguk texts first and Jimin texts back, how he responds to every message, asks questions, gives and takes and takes and gives and Jimin is dizzy with it, so unused to having things returned, having effort match effort. He’s scared, feels like he’s teetering on the edge of an abyss and eventually he’ll fall and no one will be there to catch him in the end. The fear grows and grows, a monster under the bed reaching up in the small hours of the night, telling him he’s already let too much go, that he’s going to regret giving away so much of himself to this star-filled stranger who someone else might call a friend.

But Jimin is too scared to make that jump, even though everything about Jeongguk says he will reach out to catch him, that he won’t let him fall.

The fear spirals, a galaxy of doubt that spins at dizzy speeds in his head, and the monster now at his throat, clawed hands on his skin, making it hard to breathe, telling him he’s not worth the effort Jeongguk is showing, telling him he’ll get bored, he’ll disappear, that all of this is too good to be true.

So Jimin disappears first.

It’s the coward's way out, he knows that, but it’ll hurt a lot less if he gives up first, years of experience have taught him that. He finds little distractions, creates problems that need fixing, finds ways to not show up to the cafe or respond to texts or answer calls. Jeongguk is patient though, always forgiving, always willing to take what is given, even if it’s not much, but Jimin knows it’s only a matter of time before Jeongguk gives up on him just like everyone else has.

Except… he doesn’t.

After missing three weeks in a row of meet ups, Jimin is sitting at home in his pajamas, working on a project that doesn’t really need his attention, coffee table littered with papers and his laptop and his lower lip chewed raw because he’s so anxious about his own self sabotage he can barely think. He hears his phone ding a couple times, but ignores it in favor of staring at the mess in front of him and thinking about the mess inside of him.

The gentle sound of someone knocking on his front door half an hour later is harder to ignore.

He frowns as he pushes himself up off the couch, can’t begin to guess who it could be out there because what friends he does have are all at their usual hang out and it’s inching towards 8 pm, a little late for people to be going from door to door.

He cracks the door open just enough to see who is outside and is met with wide, luminous eyes, eyes he’s come to be very familiar with despite his better judgment. He immediately panics and almost closes the door, but catches it half a moment later, stammering out a greeting, well aware that he looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Jeongguk?" His voice sounds distressingly high in his ears, and he's certain he is blushing, "What are you doing here?"

"Hi," Jeongguk says, as if that’s any sort of response to someone whose sanity is crumbling before their eyes, “I brought dinner.”

Jimin lets his gaze fall to the white plastic bag clutched in one of Jeongguk’s hands, “Umm.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want it,” Jeongguk says in a rush, “I can just eat it or… I mean…” he trails off, gaze stuck in a spot on the still barely open door and cheeks tinted pink, “I can just- I can go, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shown up unannounced, that was dumb of me, I just, I heard from Joon that you’d been working a lot lately and I thought maybe it would be nice if you didn’t have to worry about food because I remember you said you’re bad about feeding yourself when you’re really busy and I didn’t like thinking that you maybe hadn’t eaten and I’m rambling I’m so sorry-“ Jeongguk cuts himself off and turns, and Jimin feels a fresh surge of panic because now that he’s here, he can’t just leave.

“Wait!” Jimin as he throws the door open, wincing as it slams into the wall but leaning forward to grab Jeongguk’s arm before the man can truly disappear, “I’m sorry, you just caught me off guard… you can… you can come in,” the last words are said in a whisper, “You’re right, I haven’t had dinner yet and uh…” he throws a glance back at the cluttered table and the empty apartment, “it would be really nice to take a break… with you.”

He risks a glance up in time to watch Jeongguk’s expression turn from embarrassment to happiness, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Jimin nods firmly, “really.”

So that’s how he finds himself sitting next to Jeongguk, eating chicken and experiencing various levels of confusion because no one has ever done anything like this for him before. Whenever he makes excuses to not show up people take it at face value and… that’s it. He doesn’t show, they don’t offer to do anything, and that’s how things are, how they’ve always been.

Except now.

He thinks Jeongguk might be an exception to every rule Jimin has made for himself over the years.

The night unfolds like this-

Jimin reaches for the same piece of chicken as Jeongguk at the exact same time and it shouldn't be awkward. It shouldn't make him blush and pull his hand back as if burned. It shouldn't make the eye contact afterward so intense.

But it does.

Jimin forces his shoulders to drop, forces himself to smile, forces himself to say, "Sorry," in the most neutral way he can manage considering his heart is a thunderstorm in his chest.

Maybe this is why people don't spend time with him too often. Because aside from being boring, he's awkward too. But Jeongguk just flashes him a bright and blinding smile and chases his hand with his own, tangling their fingers together and giving it a little shake, "Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it."

The words echo around in Jimin's head for far too long, because how is he NOT supposed to worry about it, about how his heart felt battered and how his cheeks are warm and how Jeongguk is the prettiest person he's ever seen. There's a moment that lasts forever but really only lasts as long as it takes Jimin to draw half a breath before Jeongguk is disentangling their hands and waving away his discomfort away like it's a bothersome fly and not a weight that's been dragging Jimin down into a mire of his own creation.

They spend the rest of the evening talking, the show on the television forgotten in favor of little questions, little jokes. Jimin revels in the way Jeongguk watches and listens and takes but also gives pieces of himself away, beautiful pieces, all precious as jewels, little things for Jimin to covet and hold close.

Now Jimin knows his favorite color, his favorite band, his parents names, his birthday. Now Jimin knows that Jeongguk doesn’t like coffee but he does like mint chocolate ice cream. He knows that Jeongguk can sing but is shy, can paint but doesn’t do it often, knows and knows and everything he learns becomes treasure that Jimin wants to hoard because everything about Jeongguk feels precious and worthy.

It's late when Jeongguk leaves, nearly one in the morning, and Jimin might not have gotten any work done after Jeongguk appeared, like an angel from heaven bearing chicken wings instead of feathered ones, but he's so happy he can’t stop smiling, and that work didn't really matter, anyway. Not in the same way that Jeongguk's laughter matters, or his thoughts, his opinions, his delight in all the things that Jimin said or did as the night unraveled around them far more rapidly than Jimin is used to.

He leaves, lingering by the door, and Jimin doesn't want him to go, but he's not sure he has the language to ask for him to stay.

"This was nice," he offers instead of asking, asking feels a lot when Jeongguk has already given so much, "thank you."

"It was nice," Jeongguk nods, and there's something sparkling a little extra bright in his eyes when he asks, "do you know what else is nice?"

Jimin shakes his head, not certain how to reply, not certain that the night could get any nicer, but then Jeongguk swoops down and plants a satin-soft kiss on Jimin's cheeks, his own red red red, and while he's still there, still close, he whispers, "You are… Good night, Jimin hyung. I can't wait to see you again."

Then he's gone, leaving nothing behind but the lingering scent of his detergent and the feeling of his soft lips pressed to Jimin's skin, and Jimin, who reaches up to touch his cheek, eyes wide and lips parted, astounded by the turn of events.

He sinks into bed that night and he swears he can still feel Jeongguks kiss, like little petals pressed to his skin, and that night when he dreams he dreams that he looked into the mirror and saw his cheek shining bright like the touch of Jeongguks lips had left starlight in their wake.

Maybe, he thinks when he rises the next morning, it was all a dream- not just the starlight on his skin, but the whole night, from Jeongguk showing up at his door to their conversation to the goodbye at his door. Except that he walks into the kitchen and sees two glasses in the sink, waiting to be washed, and empty take out containers in the trash, he knows it was real.

It was real.

Jimin spends the rest of the day feeling a little lost and a lot overwhelmed. His phone takes his attention away from his job more often than not because Jeongguk is still there, still giving. He didn’t run away. He sends pictures of little things, the flower stall he walks passed on the way to his own job, a dog he met, his lunch- small, inconsequential things that feel so big because it’s Jeongguk who is sharing them.

Jimin starts to wonder if he isn’t boring after all, that maybe he just stopped thinking the little things mattered, so he stopped paying attention, stopped sharing them, shut himself away and ended up hurting himself more than he should have. But today he decides to try, today he sends Jeongguk a picture of the sunset from the street outside his work, he shares a selfie of himself eating his lunch, a picture of some street art he passes on the way to the metro. Jeongguk has things to say about all of them, their chat full of emojis and exclamation marks and laughter and Jimin falls asleep that night with a smile on his face.

It is still real.

It’s a gradual shift after that, a little tilt to his world that feels more like slipping down a children's slide then it does the axis of his existence flipping like it would have in the past. Jeongguk seeks him out, Jeongguk fills the hollow spaces in between- his lungs and his heart and his scurrying thoughts, and Jimin does his best to meet him there, to give back instead of pull away.

His fear is still there, he’s been left behind so many times that it is hard to disregard all those old wounds, but it is muted, dimmed by starshine and moonglow and Jeongguk’s big, bright, forever smile.

It’s Friday, and Jimin is at the cafe again and Jeongguk is curled up against him, pretty pretty in his oversized shirt that shows off his delicate collarbones and his soft skin. He’s showing Jimin his fingernails, which his niece painted with shimmering pale pink polish and he smells like strawberry lemonade. He wiggles a little in his seat, puppy-like squirming and a little pout on his lips until Jimin is forced to raise his arm and then Jeongguk is falling against his side with a happy sigh, bringing his legs up and tucking himself all small into Jimin.

He looks down and Jeongguk is looking right at him, face so close, eyes so big and shining with delight, “You’re warm,” Jeongguk says, snuggling a little closer, and Jimin smiles easy and pulls him a little nearer and gives and takes and takes and gives and the scales tilt and shift until a perfect balance is found, hung from chains of gold and heat.

He looks up and the others are sneaking surreptitious glances at them and Jimin sees no hint of judgment, no looks of disbelief. It’s like they seem them together it is right, it’s good, even though Jimin still has trouble letting go of his insecurities and he doesn’t understand what Jeongguk sees in him. Even though he is certain that Jeongguk could find someone more interesting, more brilliant and star born than Jimin is.

Jeongguk has kissed him a few more times since that night he’d come over. Little kisses, swift and certain, cupid darts to his jaw, his temple, his shoulder and neck. He’s always giggling and sweet when he does it, leans in, presses close, big hands wrapped around Jimin’s wrist, his waist, pink lips and watermelon gloss and shimmering delight, laughter and curls brushing soft against Jimin’s skin.

The night wanes like the moon, the others drift away to their own homes, Jeongguk and Jimin walk to the metro together, not wanting the night to end. Jeongguk’s hand is near his, Jimin can feel it, the way their knuckles brush against each other. He takes a silent breath, holds it for a heartbeat, and hooks their pinkies together, careful, gentle, loose in case Jeongguk doesn’t want it. He can feel Jeongguk look at him, he glances over, sees the smile, and gives in to the urge to tangle their fingers together completely, just like he wants their lives to be.

Their first real kiss goes like this-

They're standing at an empty station, waiting, still pressed together, no one else there to break the spell, and Jeongguk is standing with his back to a concrete pillar, coat hanging off his shoulder. His chin is tilted down as he smiles and he’s looking up through his lashes and playing with his lip ring and Jimin wants.

He wants to be brave, to continue this game of give and take, to move forward and to be met in the middle. So he leans in, close, close, and Jeongguk leans forward, close, close, and then they are kissing.

They are kissing and it’s just as sweet as Jeongguk, star light and star bright and the first stars they’ll see tonight. It’s roses in May and late August berries and the first snowfall of winter and warm sunlight in fall.

“More,” Jimin whispers when the first kiss stops.

And Jeongguk gives it to him

“More,” Jimin says again after the second.

And Jeongguk does, laughter and joy, giving and taking.

“More,” he pleads.

And Jeongguk listens.

Jimin taught himself a long time ago to not want, to not expect, to not need.

But Jeongguk has taught him that it is okay to do those things, it is okay to lean into the fear and the worry because he was there to catch him every time. Jimin doesn’t think he is broken or boring anymore.

He thinks he is loved.

And he is.

Fin.

Hello! I haven't been too active on here, but I'd like to better, because twitter keeps getting worse and worse every day. I hope you enjoyed this little story, and if you've never read anything by me, then hi! I'm Spirit🌙 and I write things and make boards. I have a AO3 account you can find below, as well- so if you like jikook fics, please feel free to check it out! 💜

[doyouknowthemossinman]

okay someone asked me frfr for the RGB/Bad Suns song picks so HERE I GO ( @goosemagician i am forever in your debt !!!!!!)

i talk way too much so erm. BE WARNED, HERE BE WORDS

We Move Like the Ocean from Language and Perspective

The entire first verse of this song is literally RGB's headspace during Cut to, Greenlight, Dissolve, and Iris imo. like "I've been painting pictures in my head and falling short / Losing my direction, turn me around" THAT'S HIM AND MADRAS OK!!! HE'S SO SAD

The second verse is very much his weird not-his-death dreams. I just felt like is was kinda fitting? Maybe he's talking to Hate here? (The "didn't you used to dance" face and Hate's face in his flashback are the SAME has anyone talked about this yet)

To me the chorus is his relationship with Hero as it develops. They've got kind of a rhythm going now, they kinda know how the other works, they are getting closer emotionally hahaha, but RGB literally and figuratively can't swim. He's not as emotionally available as Hero needs him to be. Even the "anymore" on the end of that line implies that he has bonded with people like that in the past (at least romantically if i'm interpreting light entertainment as canon? it's canon right??) but he can't for Hero. Yet.

Even in my Dreams, I Can't Win from Disappear Here

Honestly this entire song is just him and I can SEE a little animatic in my head but I'll try to explain

The first verse feels like what his nights are like without a hero to guide, those inbetweens when he has to find the gall to get back up to the Inbetween (ha) and find another keyframe.

The pre-chorus and chorus is just his cycle of finding heroes and failing time and time again. rip.

The bridge feels like him getting frustrated and overwhelmed at his not-death nightmares and trying to explain them to Hero and this is all he comes up with lol. It's not even entirely accurate but I think he would at least try and explain them to her eventually.

Away We Go from Mystic Truth

honestly this one's kind of just an adventuring song!! Maybe cutting between his time with Magnus and some of the heroes? or just Hero? It feels simple to me and I kinda just picked it to have one song from each album lmao. BUT IT ALSO APPLIES I would never disrespect Mystic Truth like that

Life Was Easier When I Only Cared About Me from Apocalypse Whenever

This is basically "determined little ball of sunshine worms her way into a monster's non-existent heart" the song. Like the Iris through Flood era. Like "how does this little girl keep violently pulling her forcefully-adopted dad out of his depression"

First verse is sad dad!!!! I know "My thoughts came flooding in / I started to drown" relates to the title of Flood and he has come close to being drowned like twice, but it's more like that vaguely suicidal moment he has after Madras pushes him backward??? BABE ARE U OKAY

"Lit my own fuse, I could not blow it out / I was strapped to a rocket aimed right at the ground" is definitely one of their arguments/genuine heartbreaking fights but it'S OK THEY STILL LOVE EACH OTHER

AND THE CHORUS OH MY GOD. He realizes how much Hero really means to him and is just SO mad about it. Okay not mad but like!! He wasn't supposed to get attached and now here he is!!!! Also IF at the end of the story RGB turns back into a human (that's a theory people have right) "I had no reason to breathe / Until you knocked the wind out of me" IS GOING TO BE SO LITERAL OH MY GODDDD (I don't personally think that's where we're going but it would be sooooo niceeee andmy songs would work so well for thaaat)

Anyway!!! Thank you for making it to the end!! As a prize you get more song recs because GOD he literally is just Bad Suns to me

Okay wait actually, bonus Thoughts because i'm listening to L&P again, Salt is like if he ever got a weird dysphoria after becoming a monster??? IF THAT EVEN HAPPENED??? Mirror mention and my brain went insane sorry. "These memories are nothing to me, just salt" mans literally SOLD his so like. IT'S RELEVANT. idk please go listen to Salt it's so trans

Most of Language and Perspective (the album not just the song) is pretty relevant to him but that may just be my bias getting in the way lol. Cardiac Arrest, Dancing on Quicksand, and Salt would be my number ones but I'm so for real please go listen to the whole album

Disappear Here also has bangers but so far the only other song I can relate to this mess of a man is Defeated.

One Magic Moment is him and Hero for sureee but it's just a vibe, other than the first lines i don't have any deeper thoughts lol. Love By Mistake is also him idk.

Unstable is his denial song i think <3 babes is not okay

Most of Apocalypse Whenever is so happy in a genuine way, while TV boy here is happy in a fake way. Maybe it'll apply more by the end of the story but for now nothing really fits. EXCEPT FOR ELECTRIC CIRCUS AAAAHHH??? hOW COULD I FORGET. "Crushed by a tidal wave of lies an shame" OKAY GIRL. anyway never thought i'd tell you that the album with a PVRIS feature is too happy but here we are

The Infinite Joy EP is SO GOOD guys. Living or Dying is vaguely RGB-vibey? Maybe Astral Plans as well but it's very loose.

OK FOR REAL GO FORTH AND BECOME BAD SUNS FANS

[thorne1435]

Hey the songs I mentioned to you earlier are both by Lilli Furfaro, they're called Checks and Balances and Pain and Pleasure (bolded each one because there's lots of "and"s in there), and as it turns out they are apparently about characters from hit D&D podcast Critical Role which I found out as I was looking them up to make sure they were on YouTube while writing this ask. They slap though

Checks and Balances: Folksy! This vibes heavily. I don't give a fuck that it's a D&D character song, fuck'em. It sounds artsy enough to have a uniquely high level of deniability. Like, I guess I wouldn't know, but this feels like it has a very low number of diegetic lyrics, and I sort of wish that typical showtune and "fandom-folk" (as im going to call it) would do that more often. It always feels like they want to tell the story in solid, surface-level ideas and not gripping-but-vague, symbolically-significant details. This song does a pretty good job, though. Nothing strikes me as being cringe or on-the-nose. It's good. Well written.

Remember this thing I found a while ago? I hope you didn't listen to it when I did. You should listen to it now, because it's sort of the same vibe as this.

Pain and Pleasure: Also folksy! I think this one is a bit more on-the-nose than the other, which is still a hunch, of course, but IDK, I'm pretty confident. The ending being so abrupt is interesting to me, because it makes this track loopable. The final line being "With eyes that never close" ties really well with that design choice. The beginning doesn't really work with it though, which might imply something else, but still, edit in the first "He eats life!" chorus and the instrumental bridge, then start it back up from the first verse and you got yourself an unending song. Hell, don't even edit in the chorus, just edit in the start of the song at about 0:03 (more like 0:02.9) and that would be enough.

This would be easier to analyze if I knew literally anything about Critical Role beyond the fact that God-VA, PCMaleNorn, Matthew Mercer is the DM.

recommendation...uhhhhhh...idunno fuggin...take this i guess??

I got both of those recommendations from the Aradon Playlist, for the record. That's where all of the rogue-folk goes.

[georgiapeach30513]

A Sin For A Sin

Summary: you told Lloyd what would happen if he cheated on you.

Pairings: Jake Jensen X Reader, Jake Jensen X Reader X Lloyd Hansen

Rating: explicit

Warnings:  cheating, alcohol consumption, explicit language, explicit sexual content, smut, unprotected sex, PIV sex, voyeurism, double penetration, degradation, praise kink, size kink, spitting, implied basement wife, creampie, somnophilia, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 2.4K

Lloyd Hansen Masterlist

A/N: For @iamesca who had the brilliant idea to pair Lloyd and Jake together 🫠😮‍💨😮‍💨

Your finger runs around the rim of your shot glass. The haggard sound of a lonely man terribly singing an annoying country song. Hiccuping and crying through the lyrics. The smokey atmosphere, and the whiskey running through your veins, making your heart feel a dull pain instead.

All you want it to forget. You don’t want that vision of him with her, and in your bed. With a tap on the bar, the cheerful bartender walks over to fill your cup again. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing out here listening to this shit?”

You barely give him a smile, throwing back the dark liquor, before slamming it back on the bar, “Another.”

His eyes on you as he pours the stout drink. Somehow stopping perfectly. Your eyes finally roam over his body. Making a trail up and down him. His arms corded with sinewed muscles. His shirt hanging a bit loose. One look at the boyish cargo shorts, and you ask him for another.

“You gonna tell me, why you’re here without your husband?” he gives a quick nod to your ring finger, and you shrug, taking the useless metal off to drop on the bar. “Another shot?”

“Yeah,” he reaches behind the bar to grab his own glass, pouring himself one as well.

“You wanna talk about it?” he asks, taking of sip of the liquor and grimacing. Hissing through his teeth, while he shakes his head in disgust. You can’t help but to laugh at him, drinking your own slowly. Savoring the smooth smokey flavor, and relishing in the slight burn.

“You’ve had like five shots now. Your mouth is numb to this.”

“Did you see me act like that with my first one?” his face falls flat, placing his head on his hips. Sullen that you could take it and he couldn’t. “What would you prefer to drink?”

“Beer,” he scrunches his face up when a new man starts singing a heartbreak song. “Let me shut this down. It’s past closing time. Stay here,” he announces how it’s last call, and then the bar is closing. This baby blues still drifting over to you, making sure you’re not going anywhere.

Upon returning, he grabs up a beer, to drink. Those eyes on your wedding band on the dark wood. “I went home to find him in bed with another woman,” you inform him. Your phone vibrating in your pocket, and you don’t have to look to know it’s Lloyd.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t even know how he found another woman. He’s an asshole to everyone,” you watch as the bartender’s fists clench tight, and feel a rush of slick pool in your cunt. You had been getting worked up already, but the fierce need to protect you, really did you in.

“Except to me,” you slowly add in, and his stance relaxes. “At least that’s what I thought.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Three years. Together five. You know the bad thing? I didn’t say anything. Neither of them saw me, I just left,” your pocket vibrates again, and still you choose to ignore it.

“What’s you’re story, Mister…?”

“Ew, Jake will be fine. Mister, blech,” he mocks retching. Waiting on the patrons to leave, and he locks up the bar. “Retired from the army. I’m a dead man, literally, I’m not supposed to be alive. It was all fake. So I’m here. People are interesting.”

Biting his lip, his eyes roam over your figure. Watching every soft dip and curve of your body. Even your smell is more intoxicating to him than the booze. Love drunk, and he knows he shouldn’t feel this way.

“You know, I always told Lloyd if I ever caught him with another woman, I’d find myself another man to lay under,” Jake gulps, pushing his glasses up further on his nose, but still leans forward on the bar. “You know anyone?”

“I-I-I could possibly know someone,” with each word, your fingers undo a button on your dress, until he’s nearly drooling on the bar.

“Who did you have in mind, soldier?”

“Oh fuck,” his voice nervously responds when you let your dress drop to the ground. Undoing your bra, he bites his fist when your tits bounce free. “I can’t take you somewhere looking like that.”

Shimmying out of your panties, you hold them out for him to take, before climbing onto the bar. Leaning back so he can fully view your weeping cunt. “Who said anything about going somewhere? You want me to lean over the bar, or are you joining me up here?” you ask starting to finger yourself.

Jake speedily undresses himself, and you let out a whimper when that veiny cock bounces up. His spongy tip red with a pretty bead of precum at his slit. A thick vein running down the side. Pulsing and aching. Not as long as Lloyd’s cock, but with extra girth at his base, and you know you’re going to enjoy the painful stretch at your entrance.

Jumping up on the bar, and clambering over to you, he runs his hand through your glistening folds, “You’re soaked,” he laments. Humming at just how wet you are.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

He gives a boyish grin and shrug, “Just wanted to make sure you could take me. It might be a tight fit if you weren’t prepped.”

“It’s going to be a tight fit anyways. Fuck me,” using your fingers, you spread your pussy lips, and show him your tight channel. Letting him see how your walls are needy and clench around nothing. Whining at him to just fuck you.

Gently Jake settles in between your thighs to line up to your quivering pussy. His breathing heavy and laborious. Wrapping your hands around his ass, you pull him down to you. A shaky moan escapes your lips, when his blunt tip pushes through.

Jake is too methodical, too slow for fucking. But your thankful for how slowly he sinks into you. Panting as his cock pushes through your quivering cunt, and just the way he watches you stretch around him. Studying the way your spongy pussy takes every bit of him. Sinking down to the root, and you whine with how perfectly full he makes you feel.

He drags his length out slowly, almost completely pulling out, before he shoves into you harshly. Loving how your body responds to him. Your greedy pussy needing him to destroy her. Throbbing and hungry for a beating.

Jake gives you a tender kiss, his eyes looking at you questioningly, “I can handle it. Please, fuck me dumb,” with your confirmation he ruts into you with a demanding force, but you and your cunt want more. Sucking him back in deeper each time, and becoming addicted to his pretty sounds.

Jake’s moans eager and determined for more each time. Your bodies scooting across the bar. And when he sees your tits jerk around with his force, he gets even harder. Feeling like his dick grows an inch, when his tip kisses your cervix.

A pleasured pain that you welcome even more. Forgetting about your husband, and just living in the moment with his boyish charm, but hard purposeful thrusts have you seeing stars. He looks towards the door and windows, and gives you a devilish smirk. “If anyone walks by, they’ll see you becoming a dumb fuckdoll every time I punch into you. Where do you feel me?”

A rub on your lower belly, he looks at the bulge, that bubbles up with every stab into you. “Fucking hell, you feel me in your belly, huh? You just needed to be fucked hard and deep. You want for someone to see us?”

“Uh huh,” you pant, tweaking your nipples. Your tits have a steady rhythm of ripples causing Jake to slam into you harder.

“What about if he sees you?” Jake smirks, beginning to jackhammer into you. “Want him to see you become a desperate little slut? Ready to fuck the first man who listened to her.”

“Fuck him,” Jake smiles so big, you see his dimples, making him look even younger than he already did.

“How about you fuck me?” the two of you giggle as he struggles to get the two of you twisted and turned around. Settling back down, you ride on top of him. His fingers dig into your hips, as he shoves you down to take every last inch of him.

Eyes closed, you scream pleasured prayers up to the gods, only barely slowing down. Playing with your nipples, gets your hands pushed off of you, while he lifts up to suck on the pebbled peak. Feeling amazing and light as air when you feel the second mouth, suck on your other tit.

Opening up your eyes, you see both Lloyd and Jake gazing up at you. “What the fuck?” you ask, stopping your movements.

Lloyd pulls his mouth off you with a pop, giving your nipple a few kitten licks before looking at you.

“How does she feel?”

“She may try to deny this, but her pussy has got me in a vice grip.”

“What the hell?” you try to move, but Jake holds you down on him.

“I wanna see what she looks like hugged up against you,” he lifts you up a bit for Lloyd to stare at where the two of you connect. “You’re such a fucking slut, you know that?”

“Y-you were in the bed with another woman,” you look at him confused, and he shrugs.

“Was I? Did you see her face? Jakey here has needed to get laid for quite some time. I owed him a favor. You’re the favor. Does it feel good, Sunshine?”

“Better than you,” reaching both his hands forward, he grips your nipples tightly. You whimper, trying to protest but Jake just laughs.

“There she goes again. You really are a slut.”

Lloyd starts ripping his clothes off before, climbing up behind you. Spitting a line of saliva down to your ass, and he gives your puckered hole a few rubs. Sinking two fingers past your rim, and you beg him to stop. “Oh you’re gonna take it. What feels good, usually hurts in the end, but with time, you’ll enjoy taking both our cocks, and our loads. You wanna be a slut, we’ll treat you like one. Have you leaking of both of us, and walking funny.”

“Our pretty little cumslut. Just gonna fuck you to sleep. And when you wake up,” Jake purrs up at you, letting Lloyd readjust himself when he pulls his fingers out of your virgin hole.

Your head turns back to look at him, saline trails drifting down your cheeks. But with a swipe of his tongue, Lloyd licks them up, before spitting back on your muscled tunnel.

Jake snaps his fingers trying to quit your whining, getting you to look back at him. When it doesn’t work, he slaps on your tit, causing you to yelp, turning to look at him. “When you wake up from being absolutely destroyed, we’ll fuck you back to sleep.”

“Hell,” Lloyd grunts, guiding his dick to your ass, pushing through harshly, and laughing when you sob, needing to rest your head on Jake’s chest. “We’re not going to wait until you wake up. When we want to fuck you, we will. And you,” his voice turns into a strained moan, when he shoves his cock all the way through your throbbing hole.

The three of you a sea of weak sighs, guttural moans, and desperate whimpers. Your body overcome with a pleasured pain of being stuffed so full. “Jake, calm your shit, I feel your cock twitching, you fucking dweeb.”

“I can’t help it. Her cunt is squeezing the life out of me. Relax,” he coos, smoothly running up your thighs. “Breath, and relax. You’re taking us so well. Got you stretched over two fat cocks, and you can’t think, can you?” you don’t answer, your lip just trembles, he gives your tit a sweet kiss, before a gentle nibble.

“Poor baby. Our little slutty baby is at a loss for words. You’re doing so good princess. Each time will get easier. Maybe next time we just spit roast you, huh?”

Lloyd finally pulls out, and begins fucking you. Letting Jake just fill your hole, while he destroys you in a way he’s always wanted. “Need something in her mouth,” Jake places his fingers into your mouth, and your eyes roll to the back of your head. Overwhelmed with pleasure and fullness. “We’ll have to plan better next time,” he grunts out.

“Remember you told me your fantasy. Wanted me and a few others to use you, own your body, and do whatever we wanted? Surprise, Princess. I plan on it. Every fucking day, I plan on using you. Maybe even watch you get used. Fuuuck this feels so fucking good,” he leans his head back, shaking it from side to side. Barreling into you with such purpose.

“Opp!” Jake shouts, when your head droops forward. Literally fucked out when you loose consciousness. “There she goes,” removing his hand, your salvia drips down into his chest.

Lloyd holds your body up a bit more, so Jake can fuck up in you. The two of them pushing and pulling into your heat like their lives depended on it. Fucking into you with a mixture of malice and love. Taking what they came here for. Jake is the first to bust a nut. Spurting deep inside your belly, and even passed out you moan at the added warmth.

Lloyd jackhammers into you, racing for that shocking high. Gritting his teeth, until it becomes too much. Blowing his load, and he pulls out, just to watch the sloppy mess drip out of you, flowing all the way down to Jake. “Oh, I’m gonna love this.”

Jake twists your passed out body to lay on the bar, gathering up everyone’s cum, he shoves it into your mouth.

“Look at how needy she is,” his voice filling back up with a lustful desire to fuck you again, when your lips wrap around his fingers. Sucking off their spend.

“I told you she was a slut for my cock.”

“Looks like she likes mine, too. Here baby,” straddling your head, his softening cock rubs over your lips, and you still want more. With a gasp for air, he pushes past your lips, “Cockslut. You sure two is enough?”

“Let’s get her comfortably stretched out first.”

“She really thought you cheated on her.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t be able to get her to agree to this without it,” Lloyd shrugs. “She’s still thinks she chose to be my wife,” he lets out a wicked laugh at Jake. “Pick her up. Let’s put her back in her gilded cage, that she calls a bedroom.”

Masterlist

Taglist:  @tis-thedamn-season @marveloustaylortot @peaches1958 @pono-pura-vida​  @thedarkplume​ @duuhrayliegh​ @rebekahdawkins​ @johndeaconshands​ @harrysthiccthighss​  @donutloverxo @whiskeytangofoxtrot555​ @sstan-hoe @iamesca @bambamwolf87 @whimsyplaty92

[wrenqueenisboss]

Your New Family (SBI!Family x gn!reader) Part 2

Hello again, You guys really liked the first part so... here we are.  part 1

Warning: angst!! implied cursing

Time skip to when the twins are 21, y/n is 20, and Tommy is 18. So, a fifteen-year time skip.

- you have learned that the earlier you wake up the better - if you wake up earlier, you can get your breakfast in peace, and call dibs on the bathroom - so most mornings, you get up a couple minutes before your brothers to grab breakfast - Dadza is usually awake and is the one who made breakfast. He loves making pancakes with chocolates or blueberries - istg, even TECHNO asks for fun designs with the stuff       - Tommy = chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries, and maple syrup. He wants everything       - Wilbur = he either gets plain pancakes or pancakes with a decent amount of strawberries too       - Technoblade = chocolate chip pancakes with a couple strawberries on top. but he likes to create fun designs (secretly)       - Philza = blueberry pancakes with syrup       - you get whatever you want (ofc)

- ever since Philza first found you, Techno has been super protective of you - for that reason, he has mandatory training lessons with you - you’re actually really good, which surprises everyone (even yourself) - it’s hilarious, tho - you and Techno have actual conversations as you swing weapons made to kill at each other basically what happens: Techno: You’re sword skills are literal shit, I can’t believe we kept you Y/n: *laughing* *knows he’s joking* I mean, we kept Tommy so... Tommy, from somewhere else: I HEARD THAT! - you and techno have surprisingly deep conversations at random times too - I do think that c!Techno is socially awkward and has trouble holding a conversation, but I do really think that once Tech is comfortable with you, he’d have little to no issues - Also, the Voices love you, so he isn’t as scared of hurting you - in fact, he’d rather hurt himself a million times over that cause you a single scratch (the Voices are very protective of you) - You also help Techno with the voices - when they get really intense, you guys will sneak out to the forest right by the house and just sit and talk - sometimes, Techno talks more and you listen - sometimes, you talk more and Technoblade listens - but Techno’s favorite thing, is when you recite the Greek Mythology stories he would tell you (before bed when you both were younger) all the while, braiding his hair - if you were ever stressed, he’d return the favor; telling you and epic Greek tale as he braids your hair (assuming it’s long enough. if it isn’t, imagine he’s just running his finger through it repeatedly) - there was one time when Dream managed to kidnap you to use you as leverage against Wilbur. - everyone was shocked when you got kidnapped because you were such a capable fighter that something truly horrible had to happen for you to be taken - Techno was absolutely FERAL  - her nearly killed Wilbur in his rage       - “Your idiotic ideals and egotistical goals are what got our sibling kidnapped. If they die because you failed, I’m going to kill you, Wilbur. Remember, Blood for the Blood God.” - he fights tooth and nail to get you back - when he sees you again, he actually cries (much to his embarrassment and everyone else’s utter shock) - keep in mind, you’ve been tortured for information for two weeks straight so... you aren’t exactly in your best shape - when he pulls back from his bear hug to look you over he growls, eyes darkening - “I am going to kill Dream.” - You hug him with as much strength as you can muster and say “thank you for rescuing me. I’m okay now” - He is so protective, but also knows to give you your space after that incident - when everyone else betrays him or leaves him, you stay. He also stays with you. (It’s a mutual stay-ing) - you guys are always there for each other

- You and Wilbur have always been less close, but you still have an amazing relationship - You’re the first person he talks to about his new songs, and he gets so excited about them it’s so cute - He will not hesitate to play his guitar and sing to help you fall asleep - it’s like his unofficial job in the family. He helps Tommy, for sure, you when you need it, techno’s just shy and can’t ask (he enjoys it tho) and Philza can sleep just fine. - I also think that you and Wilbur would be such a chaotic duo - not as much as you and Tommy, but more scary chaotic (you and Techno together are just scary. No one wants to mess with you or him) - you and Wilbur would slowly accumulate varying degrees of blackmail for each member of your family - after you collect the blackmail, you go do crazy stuff and use the blackmail to not get in trouble, or not get as serious of a punishment - Wilbur is SO protective, it’s almost suffocating ngl - if you even mentioned dating someone, he’d want to know literally everything about them.  - I know it kinda contradicts the whole blackmail thing, but you and Wilbur actually are kinda chill. You know that you can always talk to each other and will always be there - which is why he feels so destroyed when he finds out that Dream kidnapped you to use as leverage against him - he was a MESS - wasn’t eating, sleeping, or taking care of himself. Philza had to force him to do so - He did everything he could to get you back without antagonizing Dream into doing something worse, which was a difficult and painful balance to maintain - when you finally were rescued, he couldn’t look at you (at your tapestry of wounds and scars) without nearly vomiting from the overwhelming guilt - because of this, your sibling relationship sadly collapsed - you were no longer anywhere as close as you once were

- you and Tommy are a nightmarish duo - you know how Techno is infamous for arson and murder? and Sapnap is infamous for murdering pets? Well, you guys do that for fun - and despite how annoying you are to other people, they would never dream of trying to stop you - Tommy looks up to you so much - I swear, you are his hero - you were the one that helped train him after his lessons with Techno weren’t going so well - despite being two years younger than you, this man would murder anyone who ever talked shit about you - he did get in trouble for that once - someone called you a name and he just snapped - your heart breaks when Tommy is forced into situations no one his age should be forced into, so you help him as much as you possibly can - because of the stressful time period in which you guys live, he has bad nightmares - he made you swear not to tell anyone when you walked in on him suffering from the after-effects of a nightmare. (you only agreed because you knew that was the only way he would actually tell you what was going on) - so now, you help him go to sleep by playing one of his music disks and sitting next to him in bed, just... talking - speaking of music disks, whenever you get sick, he’ll just sit by your bed for a while while the music disks play in the background - I 100% think that he’d play all the songs that the two of you loved from when you were younger, in the hopes it’d make you feel better (mentally, at least) - when Wilbur and Techno return from a patrol without you, faces clouded with heavy emotion, he deep down suspects what happened but still asks - “where’s n/n?” His voice gets a little more desperate when he asks again. “Where the f- is my sibling?!” - Wilbur flinches before answering and when he does... Tommy just stops functioning - his brain stops, blanks. He can’t believe it. His favorite sibling. His favorite person. His protector. His friend. The person he trusted. The person he thought would always be there wasn’t. And it wasn’t even my choice. That was the worst part. - When he hears that it was Dream the captured you, when he hears what dream is doing to you....? My mans is almost as scary as Technoblade - like everyone is low-key scared of how angry he is - Philza makes him stay home during the big rescue mission, so he spends the entire time anxiously pacing. - He has a panic attack and listens to his disks to calm himself down. This makes him feel even worse as you were the one who would calm him down from the attacks - anyways, once you got home he was so relieved he nearly collapsed - his heart broke when he saw all of your injuries - he let techno take care of you, tho, since he knew that his brother would be able to take care of you much better than he could

All in all, you have a wonderful family in the Sleepy Bois. As unfortunate as your past may be, you are so grateful that you were so abandoned in the snow; so grateful that Philza found you and took you home. So grateful for your wonderful brothers who would do anything for you.

tag:

@beeissdead

[frodo-with-glasses]

I've got a reverse friendship ask for you! What LotR friendship do you think fits the song Same Blood by Aloe Blacc? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcX_n1RSr4k

YOOOOOO NEW FAVORITE SONG CHECK HELLO??? Thank you Anna I am gonna be listening to this for the next WEEK—

Okay okay, to answer your question: I wish I could narrow it down to just one friendship, but when listening to this song and thinking of LotR makes one of those quick-cut movie clip AMVs play in my head (you know the ones), it’s a little difficult to choose.

Let’s look at the lyrics. The recurring line of “we’ve got the same blood” makes me think of all the relationships between characters who are related to each other: Frodo, Merry, and Pippin; Eowyn, Eomer, and Theoden; Boromir and Faramir; and so on. But there’s also the line “don’t matter where you came from”, which implies that the definition of “brother” here is looser than the literal one, so we can also look at the characters who aren’t closely related.

Of course Frodo and Sam are my favorite bromance, so most of these lines are gonna make me think of them; particularly “tell the story when you're gone” for that conversation about stories on the Path of Cirith Ungol, “walk through the same mud” for the Dead Marshes, and “I'll carry you home on my shoulders” for that iconic scene where Sam carries Frodo up Mount Doom.

“We're the 'never tell a secret/Ain't no way we're gonna leak it/To the grave we gonna keep it' kind” made me think of the Conspiracy first, but it also applies to Merry and Eowyn in the movies, or—even more broadly—to everyone who knows about the Ring. That’s the biggest secret in the story, and it’s the one that saves their world.

But I also look at the general “vibe” of the song in addition to the lyrics, and I’ve gotta say, this one is a bit too hardcore for any of the hobbits, LOL! I saw a lot more clips of Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli and the Rohirrim and the soldiers of Gondor in that AMV in my head than I did many clips of the hobbits.

I need to settle on an answer. I think…in the end, this song makes me think of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields more than anything else. Maybe—and here’s a brand new concept—it’s a song about the friendship between Rohan and Gondor, and the individual soldiers who make them up; each with the blood of Men in their veins, fighting the same fight for the fate of the world.

Again, thanks so much for the song rec, Anna! Now pardon me while I get this firmly and securely stuck in my head—

[meanscarletdeceiver]

See, whenever anyone teases the interpretation of Ex-Condor as even remotely shippy, I secretly get a bit peeved coz the story is supposed to be about culture clash. If the story was supposed to be shippy, I would have done it an entirely different way! There are so many romance tropes that could work with BoCo and Edward!

To wit...

These 2xD2 ideas are not all meant to be compatible with each other, but they are

Free to a Good Home

BoCo's class was based at Barrow MPD after their refurbishment in '62, right? And the N.W.R. main line definitely had "foreign trains" running about in this era and even sometimes needing to be banked up Gordon's Hill, yeah? Give me pre-Sodor BoCo getting teased affectionately by his friends (and not-so-affectionately by his enemies) coz he always volunteers to take trains "over the bridge." ("Someone's getting steamy for a steamie—" "Here's an idea, mind your own business.")

So if BoCo were the first of the two to internally go all "hello hello hello, what have we here?" well, then he could start doing all those Sodor runs...

Or Edward is the first to internally go all "oh. ohmyGod. HELLO THERE." And then wants to die coz he's had hopeless crushes on bigger engines before and they have never ended with anything but his heart getting shredded and when will he learn and why is he like this and—*BoCo turns out to be friendly and kind*—aaaaahhhhhh oh no this might be worse. WORSE! *thinks Edward, while floating about approximately three inches above the rails for the rest of the day*

It's mutual love at first sight but it takes them three years to do more than exchange glances in passing and pretend they're not.

OR they don't figure it out for AGES and after a couple decades Bill and freakin Ben wind up setting them up.

Alternately: Bill and Ben are oblivious and think everyone is having them on over the years when they imply that Edward and BoCo are making eyes—dating—Literally Married. How silly do the North Western engines think they are??!?!?!?!!! Hrmph.

All right, please, let's forget Bill and Ben a while. I'm begging. Put them aside completely.

Another take: in the early pre-relationship stage, due to some snafus on the line Edward and his train have to hitch a ride on BoCo's just to get a path home. Edward is really resistant to this idea, which his crew writes off as his usual pride—but it's soooo much more about "ahhh nooooooooo don't make me couple up behind my secret crush." Doesn't help that BoCo is strong enough to handle the whole thing quite on his own, and Edward just gets pulled along. At the end of the route the crew thinks Edward is just sulking but actually his "eyes closed, don't talk to me" routine has more to do with drowning in emotions and sensations and needing some space to slowly flutter on back down to earth.

Or, of course, go with Edward bailing out BoCo, who has needed this sort of help so often before, but, ahhhhh, yes, hrmmm, this is—better. Edward doesn't take the opportunity to make BoCo feel like a piece of crap. In fact he's wholeheartedly gentle...

BoCo manages to be so upbeat despite his, well, entire life, in part because he listens to all this new wave of rock 'n' roll every chance he gets. Yeah, that's right. I dragged the Beatles into this. Diesel engines do a lot of humming. BoCo's sounds suspiciously like "Can't Buy Me Love." (Really bad rhythm for a train, honestly.)

Bonus to the above: BoCo: "He'll probably think this is stupid... " Edward: *thinks BoCo is so beautiful and cute when he relaxes into the music that it is all instantly A-OK in his book and now he goes around whistling bars of BoCo's songs as well*

Seriously, one way or another, if you are doing something shippy and you don't make use of what Kips so perfectly called "Edward's iconic blushy face," you are doing it wrong.

In Main Line Engines everyone on the N.W.R. was pretty down on the idea of a diesel, right? Make it so that the crowd BoCo runs with back home all collectively disapprove of him hanging out so much on Sodor, too. Make this some Romeo and Juliet bullshit.

Except, it's only the Montague-and-Capulet tropes. Edward and BoCo are, I readily concede, pretty much the anti-Romeo and Juliet. That's the joke of it. Every time one of their rare allies suggests they do something melodramatic, they just blink. "Oh, that is a pickle. You could... um... you could fake your own death!" "I... I see a few problems with that plan." "You gotta come to the rumble!" "Ah, but, the thing is, I don't think I do..." "Lie to everyone, including the Fat Controller!" "No, in fact I think I might just go and tell the Fat Controller everything. Probably be simpler."

A bunch of diesels from Barrow and the surrounding terrain, who are connected to those who visit the island often, plan some sort of sabotage. It could even center on taking "Old Iron" out of commission. BoCo tries to stop it and winds up basically installing himself as a double-crossing secret agent to make sure things don't get out of hand. (Along The Way, He Finds Love.)

Bonus to the above: *some evil-ish diesel talking about Edward* "Yeah, was built last century, he was, Riddles alone knows why they haven't broken him up yet." "Obviously because he's too beautiful to be broken up..." "What?" "What?" BoCo: Best. Spy. Ever.

Edward requests BoCo's trial. Has to be pretty insistent before FC2 agrees, too. (The "Buzz, Buzz" express takeover was really helpful in FC2 deciding that maybe this wasn't the stupidest thing he ever let himself get talked into.)

Bonus to the above: Edward requests BoCo is the engine trialled on his line the summer of '65 and then feels ashamed at the idea that he pulled strings to get his crush there and cue massive internal conflict that hardly gives him a moment's peace the whole time.

Bonus bonus to the above: BoCo is just enjoying himself enormously.

Still pre-relationship, Edward becomes convinced that BoCo and Gordon are not merely becoming friends but a romantic item and tries to nobly bury his broken (and acidly jealous) heart. After as many stupid wrenching misses as you like, BoCo figures out the misconception and is all like "OMG. KISS ME YOU FOOL—"

Or they don't spit anything out until after Edward returns from his post-Exploit repairs and at that point they just instantly and mutually know.

Give me BoCo five years after he arrives on Sodor suffering crushing grief and survivor's guilt because he wasn't good enough for his trial to convince B.R. to rebuild the rest of his class the new engine and—and—ohhh, screw it, make your own angst! 😢

Give me Edward who has spent so long as the sympathetic listener—with the convenient side effect of keeping a sharp watch on what he himself says and not showing too much to other engines, because even in the "family" of Sodor, whenever you let yourself be vulnerable you got to be prepared for it to be used against you down the line. And then embarrassed that he finds himself "rambling on" to BoCo. But a) usually he's not so much rambling as just sort of... not censoring himself as much and b) even when he does go on BoCo indeed sometimes loses the thread but he doesn't mind because he loves just watching when Edward gets excited or indignant about something.

Right. Bill and Ben. Fine, get back in here, ya little bastards. If you want to lean into the "family" dynamic, then please, read "The Diseasel" with the context of "Edward has had a massive crush on BoCo and has been making sure they take this Indefinable Thing they have thus far slowwwwwly and he just knew BoCo would bounce when he met 'the twins,' he just knew it, but—ah! wait! can it be???? they've done their worse, and BoCo is fine with it! He knows how to just laugh at them! He doesn't appear to be scared off! ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD."

Sorry, you mean the above wasn't this picture?

[shihalyfie]

Some things to know about the upcoming 02-related movie

As someone who seems to be known for being a 02 metablogger now (and 02 lover in general), and who’s been closely following Kizuna’s development and is generally fond of the movie itself, I figured I’d probably need to address the elephant in the room that is the announcement of the upcoming (unnamed, as of this writing) 02-related movie. This is also especially because I’ve personally been on the record saying that I absolutely did not want a Kizuna sequel. And, well, on top of that, to be a bit blunt about it, a lot of us, especially 02 fans, have a lot of reason to be skeptical of Toei right now given some of the things they’ve done with this series in the past, and 02-related things in particular (trust me, the wound is still extremely fresh), so it says a lot about what it took for me to get even remotely positive about this prospect.

Well, here’s the good news: while I of course still think there’s good reason to be apprehensive, and while I wouldn’t say everyone should be getting their expectations up for it to be guaranteed fantastic (which is something I would say about anything, regardless of whether it even has to do with Digimon or not), I don’t think there’s too much to be panicked about with this movie. Again, it took a lot for the staff to gain my trust in this respect, so it’s not something I say lightly. But if you’re a 02 fan and you’re extremely apprehensive, here are my reasons for feeling this way, and, hopefully, they might make you feel a little better too.

The reason this movie exists to begin with

One of the most striking things about this movie’s reveal was that they’ve literally only just started production on this movie. This was to the point that, at DigiFes, where this was revealed, even the voice actors stated outright that they knew absolutely nothing more than what the audience knew from the trailer. Katayama (Daisuke) only knew anything in the sense that they had him record those few lines for it. So even though it’s been a whole year and a half since Kizuna released to the public, it had only just been decided to make a new movie like this. All of the statements between Kizuna and now stating that there was nothing particularly in the works at the time were completely accurate. Of course, there are obvious hints that they were setting up for this possibility (many, many people noticed the suspiciously favorable position the 02 group was in during Kizuna, and the press releases were carefully worded so that having a movie about “Daisuke and his friends” would allow any statement about Kizuna being “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends” to still be technically truthful), but for all intents and purposes it seems like there had been no actual commitment to making this 02 movie until now, and that they’d at least wanted to gauge the surrounding climate and fanbase reactions for what people were looking for before they decided to go ahead with this.

The obvious reasons as to why this movie exist involve the fact that Daisuke and co. are pretty much the only “out” you can have to continue the Adventure universe without constantly defaulting to Taichi’s group yet again, because at the very least it’d be something that you can’t deny hasn’t exactly had the best representation in recent years. Of course they’re trying to capitalize on this! I’m not going to pretend they aren’t! But producer Kinoshita left a very interesting comment about a particular goal they have with this movie:

This time, the core behind the movie is everyone from 02! Daisuke’s group has their own different kind of charm from Taichi’s, and we want to express that precisely because we’re in the times we’re in right now.

That comment alone has a lot to unpack. (For a frame of reference, Kizuna released in Japan in February 2020; development had already long finished by the time the pandemic first hit, and it was unfortunately one of the first victims of the initial lockdowns because of how bad the timing was.) Acknowledging directly that there’s something different about Daisuke’s group and their dynamic, which makes them especially suited for what we need in “the current times”...hmm, what could that be?

The implied answer is one that many 02 lovers will know very intimately: the 02 group’s particular specialty is in uplifting others and giving each other emotional support. While Adventure had traces of these themes, 02 was the one that went really hard on the themes of dealing with grief and loss, the existential crisis of what to do with oneself in a world placing heavy pressures on you, and how to move on from hardships with the help of others. The fact that the 02 group specializes in this more than anything else is probably one of the most distinguishing factors between them and their seniors, so there’s a very heavy implication here that they understand what distinguishes 02 from Adventure, and what it uniquely would bring to the table in this kind of movie. So this isn’t just “we’re relying on the 02 kids because they’re part of the same universe”; there’s some degree of substantial understanding of what makes 02 as a series unique, and a desire to use this to its fullest extent.

Still don’t believe me? Well, how about this...

This staff really likes 02 a lot

Seki Hiromi, the original producer of Adventure and 02, was involved as a supervisor on Kizuna’s development. Seki was personally involved in the creation of these kids and 02 itself -- she’s the one who noticed the story of the nine-year-old boy skipping grades into Columbia University, the one that formed the basis of 02 itself and eventually came back for Kizuna -- and even personally vetted Kizuna’s script to make sure everyone was in character, gave her thoughts on what the kids would be like in 2010, and was (repeatedly) commented as seeming to love the kids like her own children. As of this writing, it hasn’t been confirmed whether she’s involved on the new movie, but even if she’s not, this means that the staff on Kizuna that is returning all listened closely to those discussions about what the characters are like, straight from the mouth of one of their own creators. The new character song releases had a brief mention in Lounsbery Arthur’s interview that there were apparently extensive discussions with the staff on what the characters should be like at this time, so while Seki’s involvement with that is unknown, at the very least, a lot of conscientious thought seems to be put in at all times into maintaining these characters’ integrity.

Of course, just having an original creator alone on it doesn’t necessarily do it by itself, so here’s another interesting thing: Taguchi Tomohisa, director of both Kizuna and this movie, is also very fond of 02.

I suspect we’ll be hearing more from him as this new movie goes further into development, but Taguchi himself implied that 02 was actually the one he happened to connect with in particular, and when you really think about it, given the circumstances surrounding Kizuna, it’s not actually surprising that a movie trying to be conscientiously aware of 02′s position in the narrative would have someone with a particular fondness for it on its staff. (Reason being: a lot of Adventure fans don’t care much for 02, but you’ll almost never meet a 02 fan who doesn’t also adore Adventure.) The really fun part about this, however, is that Taguchi has repeatedly stated that 02′s first movie, Hurricane Touchdown, is his favorite Digimon movie -- in a climate where everyone else was talking about Adventure. The expected answer for the majority of Adventure fans in terms of “favorite Digimon movie” is almost always Our War Game! by knockout, but no, for Taguchi, it’s Hurricane Touchdown, and not only has he said this, he won’t shut up about it. He’s been saying this since 2019. Even Seki noticed. A whole article got made about this. He brings it up whenever he has a chance to. To top it all off, when a Kizuna event asked everyone present about their favorite characters, and everyone gave Adventure-related answers, Taguchi’s response was instead Terriermon and Daisuke. And I mean, look at Kizuna itself -- its entire plot revolves around having to move on from unhealthy nostalgia, represented by kidnapping people and turning them younger and an antagonist swallowed by their own negative emotions, which, well, is literally the plot of Hurricane Touchdown. (Yeah, that Wallace cameo is very, very likely to be sheer self-indulgence.) And considering that Taguchi said his favorite human character was Daisuke, not Wallace, it means that he understands what Hurricane Touchdown brought out of Daisuke, what his interactions with Wallace meant for both characters, and how Daisuke’s best strengths lie in his ability to support and uplift others.

And, finally, we have Yamatoya, who was responsible for penning both Kizuna’s script (and, thus, being privy to Seki’s corrections) and the bonus drama CD that came with it, on the script, and he personally said that he enjoyed writing for the 02 group because he felt they were important to lightening up the mood of the heavy story Kizuna was becoming. In fact, every comment from this staff about what the 02 group brings to the table in particular has showed a good understanding of what their appeal is -- that they have to be “fun”, that they were “healing in a heavy story”, and Taguchi himself said that he got the impression that the 02 group had more straightforward paths to their epilogue careers (which is interesting, considering that I’ve also personally pointed out that the 02 group seemed to have careers with significantly lower bars than their seniors’ due to their difference in priorities). All of these things are observations you make when you know this group and the importance of the story they came from.

Extend it even further to the rest of the staff members and you’ll find there are a lot of 02 fans on there, including the animation staff, who made some very neat observations about 02 and its finale. Miyahara Takuya is a particularly amusing case, because he seems to love Imperialdramon so much that in the thanks booklet for the deluxe edition for the Blu-ray, he drew a picture of Daisuke and Ken with Imperialdramon Dragon Mode because he didn’t get to be in the movie. (As in, he actually said, point-blank in the caption, that he loves Imperialdramon and wanted to draw him because he wasn’t in the movie.)

Of course, even if you’re trying your best, things may not always work out, so I’m not saying having love for the characters will necessarily guarantee that the product turns out for the best. However, considering that historically a lot of our fears come from the idea of them milking the name value of the characters without really caring about their integrity or understanding what the series was about (especially since a lot of people in the fanbase itself don’t tend to read 02′s nuances very well), I think, at the very least, we don’t need to worry about the staff for this movie not being conscientious, nor the idea that they’re making this movie without understanding or caring about 02.

Furthermore, one thing I appreciate is that they’re actually leading the advertisement with a premise that is distinct from Kizuna’s. Of course, it covers a similar topic of “partnerships”, and it’s very possible it’ll cover the issue of the solution to Kizuna’s problem (especially since the answer was already hinted to have a heavy relationship with 02), but nevertheless, it’s an actual premise that’s not just “Kizuna’s story, but more of it”. It’s an understanding that something 02-related should be allowed to stand on its own rather than just tacking it onto an Adventure-related thing. Beyond that, while I think it’s generally expected that a side story like this should have an original character, I think it’s actually very good this time in particular that there’s a new element/character for the 02 group to interact with; again, as with Hurricane Touchdown and Daisuke, these kids often have the best brought out of them when they’re supporting others, and honestly, because the kids suffered so much in their own narrative, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of seeing them having to go through too much more trauma themselves (it’s a big reason I don’t like the idea of a 02 reboot). So while I’m sure a lot of 02 fans feel a bit antsy that the actual group itself wasn’t advertised first, I actually consider it a positive sign that they have an understanding of what context this group performs best in, and, moreover, well...the last time they unveiled something that was so focused on advertising the return of old characters that it forgot to actually be straightforward about the premise, I don’t think that ended well. So to speak.

In general, the track record is good

It’s easy to just smile and nod at the portrayal of the 02 quartet in Kizuna, because in general everything from them is in-character, but I just want to point out how significant it is that they were portrayed so conscientiously when it is really easy to mess them up. (As I like pointing out very often: even official has not historically been very careful with Daisuke’s character.) There are so many easy pitfalls you could have fallen into and pigeonholed the kids into, but Kizuna absolutely demonstrated the quartet at their best, showing off all the nuances of their character and bringing up all the parts that were most important, especially Daisuke’s best quality being “positivity and cheerfulness” and not all of the other things about him running in circles or having a crush on Hikari-chan. This even goes down to the casting; Katayama Fukujuurou sounds terrifyingly like Kiuchi Reiko in terms of all the little nuances and pitch shifts she had in her performance, and the cast themselves spoke of all the nuances present in their characters as they were studying for their roles. These are things that even fans of the series tend to miss, but the voice actors for the quartet nailed their roles so well that it’s very easy to tell that the direction understood exactly what they were looking for and needed, and casted accordingly. Even those who didn’t care for the movie much had a very hard time disputing the voice casting for the quartet (and this is saying a lot given how much voice actor changes are often a really sore point among Japanese fans).

But while the 02 group had a limited amount of screentime in Kizuna, the staff also had a lot of opportunities to prove themselves with the drama CD and the new character song CDs, and every single aspect of these reflects something that was represented in 02 itself -- again, things that often go over the heads of people who aren’t paying as close attention. The drama CD captures a lot of the essence of the dynamics between the group in only short lines, and all of the statements about the characters in the character song interviews are accurate (and remember: Arthur said directly that there were discussions with the staff about keeping them true to character). On top of that, not only do the lyrics in said songs directly mirror each character’s development from the time of the original Best Partner series, there are also a lot of things in said songs that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of each person’s character and what they got out of the events of 02. Someone with only a surface-level understanding of Ken or Iori’s character might think that Ken should only have a soft song, or that Iori shouldn’t want to do anything ridiculous, but the series goes ahead and gives Ken one of the most passionately emotional rock songs in the batch and Iori outright rap with Armadimon, which are both fitting decisions in light of Ken actually being one of the more emotionally assertive people in this group, and Iori only being stoic because he’s strict with himself and being willing to let loose in certain circumstances (especially after the events of 02).

As of this writing, I don’t know if the new movie is going to be featuring the entire group in a major role, and I’m not sure if I even want it to; as much as I do strongly feel like the group should always work together at all times, one minor personal complaint I had about Kizuna was that it tries to do too much in too little time, and I’m personally fine with this new movie being more Daisuke-centric or something if it means it can just get a nice story on the table (after all, if I wanted something that more evenly represents the entire 02 group, I’d just go back and rewatch a very nice anime series called Digimon Adventure 02). There’s also the very thorny question of what to do about Tokumitsu Yuka, since I don’t personally really like the idea of still dragging her out of retirement like this (but I also wouldn’t want them to awkwardly write around her just for this, and I’m wondering if Sonozaki voicing Tailmon in the reboot would let people accept her as a replacement without much fighting).

Nevertheless, I think Kizuna’s staff has proven more than well enough that they understand the essence of 02 and its characters, so, again, regardless of how it turns out, I at least expect that this can be made with some degree of conscientiousness, and at this point, that’s all I can ask for. I don’t think it’s fair to expect or want this movie to be the second coming of 02, because, again, if we wanted that, I think it’d be better for us to all go back and watch that lovely little 50-episode anime called Digimon Adventure 02. But in terms of being something that can add a little nice thing to the mix, I think, so far, this movie at least has positive signs of turning out that way -- and, remember, think about what I just said about initially being very against this idea; as a diehard 02 fan who has a lot of very picky feelings about how to best represent it, it took a lot for the staff to earn my trust in this sense.

[theonewiththefanfics]

Because Hearts Get Broken (Part 1/3)

Synopsis: When your whole life you’ve been taught to push your feelings away, it’s hard to open up, even to the people you trust most. And sometimes what you give isn’t enough.

Pairing: Harry Styles x fem!Reader

Genre: angst

Warnings: sad. just angsty and sad. swearing; emotionally closed reader

Word count: 2904

Y/N had never been the kind of person who talks about her feelings. It didn’t matter if it was friends or family; her mindset was – they’re my problems, so you don’t have to worry your head about it.

        In relationships, it wasn’t any better, in fact, it was kinda worse. It was extremely difficult for the girl to open up to her partner, which in turn she’d let so many possible relationships pass her by. Not to mention, when she was in one, they slowly deteriorated because of her inability to share with them. Which is why it didn’t come as much of a surprise when it happened between her and Harry. 

        Somehow unconsciously Y/N had been almost preparing herself, preparing her heart for it to break. When he walked inside his place, she’d been there to prepare them a meal in. They’d both had a stressful couple of weeks with Harry starting off on a new album endeavour, while Y/N’s boss was practically threatening to rip her head off, as she scrambled to finish everything, even though the deadlines were months away.

        It just all kind of came crashing down on her when her boss suddenly called her up, telling her to rush back to the office, and when Y/N asked if it could wait until the morning, the ultimatum came that if she wanted her job, she’d do it then and there. 

        “Hey.” She hadn’t heard Harry come in, only noticed it when his arm wrapped around her shaking shoulders. “Hey, shh, come ‘ere.”

        Slowly, he laid the two of them down, letting her head be tucked beneath his chin, as his palm rubbed soothing circles on her back. “ ‘S gonna be okay, dove. ‘S gonna be alright. Come on, now.”

        They laid like that for about five minutes, until Y/N pushed her face away from Harry’s chest and laid her cheek there, taking in a few short, shaky breaths, and steadying herself by placing her palm on his chest and feeling the steady thuds of his heart. 

        “Wanna talk about it?” he muttered in her Y/H/C locks, placing a soft kiss to the crown of her head, but she sighed, shaking her head no.

        “ ‘S fine. Overreacted.”

        “You were sitting on the couch, crying and hyperventilating, dove. Obviously, something’s wrong.”

        “Harry,” Y/N let out a long breath. “Can you please just let it go? It’s nothing major. If it was, I’d tell you.”

        “Would you though?” The whisper went almost unnoticed, but Y/N did hear it, and it made her eyebrows furrow and push herself up from where they’d been nestled together.

        “What’s that supposed to mean?”

        “I mean.” Harry bit the inside of the cheek. “When is the last time you ever told me what’s bothering you? Like really, truly made you upset?”

        “What are you implying?” Y/N’s voice had gone steely, almost emotionless, as her brain pretty much screamed ‘it’s happening’.

        “How can I help you when you don’t let me in?” His gaze was pleading, as his hands grasped onto her cheeks.

        “You’re not supposed to.”

        “Pardon?”

        Y/N sighed and stood up from the couch, letting his touch fall away. “You’re not supposed to. They’re my problems to deal with, not yours, so you’re not supposed to help me. And there’s nothing to help me with.”

        “Do you not trust me?”

        “Of course, I trust you,” she scoffed as if it was the most ridiculous question in the world. “What does that have to do with anything?”

        “How are we supposed to be in a relationship, if you don’t trust me?”

        “I dunno,” Y/N whispered hugging herself. Sometimes she hated how her brain worked, but it was inevitable, right? It always came to this, so why not be the bad guy in the situation. “Maybe we’re not supposed to then.”

Harry was more than stunned at her reply. Not once during their relationship, he'd thought that her immediate reaction to a problem would be to immediately dismiss their love. "You - you don't mean that."

"Well," Y/N sniffled wiping at her cheeks where new tears were trailing down, "maybe I do. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. I mean they do say the first year is spent with rose-coloured glasses on, right? 'S time to take 'em off."

        “So that’s it? You’re giving up just like that?”

        “What do you want me to do?” Y/N exasperated throwing her hands up. “It’s the way I am, and I can’t change that. And if you can’t accept it, then yeah, maybe I am giving up just like that.”

        Harry shook his head in disbelief. “I –,” he stammered, “I can’t believe this.”

        “What do you want from me, Harry?”

        “To fight!” He was practically yelling at this point, hoping to see some kind of emotion on Y/N’s face. “To let me in! To – to – fuck! To start trusting me!”

        “I do trust you!”

        “But not enough to trust me with your heart.”

        A deafening silence fell over both of them because without needing a confirmation, Harry knew he’d struck gold. God, how he wished he hadn’t, but the numb expression Y/N's face morphed into told him enough.

        “I’m giving you what I can.” Y/N’s voice was quiet, resolute. “And if that’s not something you can accept, then this is it.”

        Now Harry was the silent one. But sometimes you don’t need words to say everything you mean. 

        “Okay then.” She nodded, went to the mantlepiece and took her clutch. “I’ll see ya around, I guess.”

        And with that Y/N walked out of Harry’s apartment without a glance back. 

***

        Two and a half months later and he still couldn’t understand how everything had gone so wrong. He was at the New Year party, and Y/N was there too, courtesy of Sarah, who was their mutual friend and hosted it each year. This one was a lot more intimate, seeing as the pandemic, though contained, was still raging on, so only the closest and most important people in her life had been invited. Sarah'd been actually the one who introduced the two. Well, more so given them a shove in the right direction. A literal one at that.

        The night had been absolute chaos and became an even bigger one when Y/N entered his life, Harry recalled. Drinks were flowing, bodies were moving in an erratic rhythm, most of them completely unaware of how the music boomed while voices shouted the incorrect lyrics and glasses clinked as everyone celebrated the upcoming year, buzzing with excitement as they waited for the countdown. That’s when Sarah, pulling a woman by her arm stormed towards Harry and pushed her into his chest.

        “Do not let her leave your sight!” she’d hollered over the music, as Harry blinked at his drummer. “And you!” Sarah pointed at the woman, who giggled, hiding behind her champagne glass and slinking further down Harry’s frame, so much so, he had to grab onto her armpits otherwise she would fall. “Behave for at least five minutes! I need to check up on Mitch before he decides vodka would be a good addition and completely destroys the room.”

        With that Sarah was gone, brown hair swishing in a high ponytail, leaving Harry confused and concerned as this stranger snickered behind Sarah’s back, showing her tongue like a child would.

        “Umm,” he started not really knowing what to do. “You alright there?”

        “ ‘M Y/N.” She leaned up with as much grace as a drugged-up cat, spun around to face him and extended her hand to him, and he took it, giving it a firm shake. “And I might be a lil’ bit drunk.”

        A chuckle escaped his lips. “You don’t say?”

        “I do.” Y/N nodded confidently about her statement as she swayed on her feet. Harry had to grab her by the shoulder for the woman to remain somewhat upright. “And when I’m drunk, I thrive on chaos.”

        “Is that why Sarah shoved you to me so I can babysit you?”

        “See, she just doesn’t appreciate me and my talents. She thinks that I’m ‘unreliable’.” Y/N put the word in quotation marks, and in doing so, half her champagne spilt out of the flute. “And she thinks I need ‘supervision’.” There went the other half. “Honestly, it’s Sarah that needs to be looked after. It’s not me that set the curtains on fire.”

        But the look on her face told Harry something different, and a smile bloomed on his face. “You set the curtains on fire?”

        “I just told you, I didn’t.”

        “Yes, well, your face is telling me a different story.”

        Instantly Y/N facepalmed. “Stupid face. Can’t keep in check. Listen, the curtains were just…” She waved her hand around. “In the way of the flame. ‘S not my fault they’re made from such flammable material. Should’ve gotten more fire-resistant curtains, if you ask me.”

        “Note taken – don’t let you near anything that can be set on fire or is fire.”

        Y/N scoffed and gave Harry a side-eye. “As if you can tell me what to do. I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

        “And why's that?”

        “Stranger danger.” Y/N wagged her free index finger in Harry’s face accentuating each syllable.

        “Well then, let’s not be strangers.” He extended his hand just as Y/N had and waited until she took it. “ ‘M name’s Harry.”

        “Good to meet you, Harry. Now, Sarah said nothing about not letting me dance, so come on! I love this song!” she exclaimed, making Harry throw his head back in laughter as she dragged him to the middle of the room, bodies grinding against them, but it didn’t really matter. Not when Y/N made Harry feel as if it was just the two of them in the world.

        “Do you now?”

        “Yes! Especially when he does the ‘da – dananana da – dananana’ part.” Her eyes went wide with excitement and pride. “Sarah’s in this song as well! She's the drummer!”

His eyebrow quirked up in amusement. Y/N clearly had no idea who she was talking to, and he was kind of loving her for it. Most of the time, as flattering as it was, it could become quite taxing when people recognised you with every step of the way. He wasn’t really allowed to have his smile leave his face, nor was he allowed to stay too lost in his thoughts, needing to be on constant alert if someone asked something.

But Y/N seemed to not care, and something in Harry told him – she wouldn’t care about it if she knew the truth.

        “Wanna hear a secret?”

        Y/N gasped, eyes twinkling in the disco ball light. “Of course! I love secrets.”

        “I’m Harry!”

        “I know you’re Harry. You said it already.”

        Her confused face made his smile widen even more. “No, I mean I’m Harry. Harry Styles. This is my song.”

        And then it dawned on her inebriated brain. “Ooh. You’re Harry Styles!”

        “Yeah.” 

        “Good for you then!” And she put up her hand in a high-five, and he couldn’t leave her just hanging like that, belly-shaking laughter erupting from him before he weaved their fingers together and spun her around.

        That night had been one of the best New Year’s he’d ever had. Throughout the hour before the clock struck 12, she’d sobered up enough that when Harry asked if he could kiss her, she was coherent and could say yes. It’d been the best kiss of their lives by that point.

        But now, seeing Y/N walk around Sarah’s apartment a smile on her face that he recognised to be fake, and laughter ringing in his ears that he knew wasn’t true, made him look back at that night and wonder if she’d been truly happy then.

        She definitely seemed to have been, fuck, Harry hoped she was happy for at least some of it; that when Y/N said she was alright, she’d truly meant it, otherwise, he had no idea what he’d do with himself, but in all honesty, despite the fallout between the two, what he wished was for her to come back. To give him the slightest glimpse into what worried her. That would be enough. 

        In the beginning, Harry supposed, it was his own fault. He’d thought Y/N was just strong, she was so level-headed that whenever something was wrong, it was tackled immediately and righted that exact second, but in truth, it was just hiding, putting on a performance and living through a smile that was a complete lie. 

        He saw Sarah lean into Y/N and whisper something in her ear before her head snapped in Harry’s direction, Y/E/C eyes meeting his. He then watched her let out a breath, give Sarah a small smile and look at him once more before approaching, Harry’s own back straightening out as she opened the balcony door and entered his space. 

        She was a vision, a black and gold glitter romper covering her body, cinched at the waist with a solid gold-colour metal band, while the sleeves fluttered off in a ‘Morticia Addams’ style, as Y/N liked to call it, with her hair out of the way of her face in a simple knot at the base of her neck. Easy to make and easy to take out.

        “Bobby pins are the creations of the Devil,” she’d muttered one night after they’d gone to some Hollywood event. Harry couldn't even remember what it'd been for, most of his focus on making sure his date was alright.

One by one she'd untwisted and twirled the metal pins out of her head. “Fucking, scraping my brain from the outside of my skull.”

        Harry had chuckled, untying the lace front of his blouse style shirt. “Wanna massage?”

        The affirmative groan made him grin like a child on Christmas.

        Y/N was the one to break the silence, after having her eyes rake over his own form. A fitted chequered suit paired with a simple dress shirt and chequered moccasins. One of the tamer looks for him, but he wasn’t feeling very festive this year. 

        “Hey.” 

        Harry sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. “Hi.”

        God, how had everything become so fucking awkward between them?

        “How,” she cleared her throat, “how are you?”

        “Honestly?” Harry wanted to spit out the ‘I’m fine’, the line that was so overused by her it’d lost its meaning, but he couldn’t. He’d always been an open book, especially with Y/N, so he told her the truth. “I’m hurting.”

        “Harry…” Her eyes met the floor unable to hold his green gaze.

        “Every day I wake up, and I’m in pain. And it’s not getting easier. And it won’t. Not for a long while.”

        “I’m sorry.”

        “I don’t want you to be sorry.” He laughed even though he didn’t mean it. “I just wanted you to talk to me. You know I’d never judge you.”

        “It’s not about that…”

        “Then what is it?” Harry snapped. “Because I’m at a fucking loss here. Have been for the past two and a half months.”

        “It’s not easy when…” Y/N actually bit down on her tongue to not let the words out. She took in a calm, collected breath; then she continued. “It’s not easy to open up like you want me to when my whole life I’ve been taught to just push it down. Push it away, forget about it. I don’t know a different life. That’s my normal, that’s what I know. I know you wouldn’t have judged me, you’re not that kind of a person. But it’s not even about that. It’s… it’s… why couldn’t you have just left everything at ‘I’m fine’?”

        “Because I don’t want to be fine,” he said, sad eyes looking right through her, right through to Y/N’s being. “I – I wanna be great, and ecstatic and fucking exhilarated or hurting or sad, even devastated. I want to feel things. And I want to share them with the person I trust most. I wanna share them with you. And I want you to share your emotions with me too. It’s not your job to carry the weight of the world on your own. That’s what a partner is there for.”

        Y/N broke away from Harry’s eyes given how her own were now lined with tears that threatened to slip down her cheeks. She sniffled, using the sleeve of her romper to press against her nose. 

        New Years. When the previous one had started off with so much love and hope and laughter and the new one seemed to only show it had tears and heartache ahead. God, this was the worst holiday in existence.

        “Ten, nine, eight,” the people inside counted down.

        “Y/N, please.” One last try. He had to.

        “Seven, six, five.”

        She just shrugged. “I don’t know how to be different."

        “Three, two, one! Hap–“

        “Happy New Year, Harry.” Y/N leaned up and pressed a lingering kiss against his cheek. “I hope you find someone who can love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

        With hands in her pockets, she retreated leaving him standing alone on the balcony, but right as she was about to close the sliding door, he spoke up.

        “I had.”

        That made Y/N spin around, cold air hitting her face just as harshly as the truth that spilt past his lips.

        “Only she didn’t trust that I loved her the same.”

Tags (crossed out wouldn’t take):

Forever tags: @lumelgy @palaiasaurus64 @supernaturalbaesduh @breezy1415 @crazy--me @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @sea040561 @staryeyedgirl @deathbyarabbit @s-c-a-r-e-d-po-t-t-e-r @reblogger-not-a-blogger @m-a-t-91 @dalilx @i-need-a-hero-i-need-a-loki @maladaptive-ninja-returns @averyrogers83 @in-the-end-im-still-trash @gallifreyansass @dewy-biitch @avxgers @unlikelygalaxygiver @magicwithaknife @ollyoxenfrees @bnhvrdy @tvwhoresblog @celebsimagines @thatkindofgurl​ @sj-thefan​ @teenwolflover28 @lestersglitterglue​ @im-squished​

A/N: Part 2? maybe??

P.S. my tags are always open :)

[aerltarg]

Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

[evertriedsoywithyourpopcorn]

5 Reasons Roman Is Infuriating (And Why I DO NOT have a crush on him)

(Logince with a bit of denying and pining) Read on AO3

My first fic, based on my Logince drawing (If someone ever wants to make anything based on my art, feel free to ask. Making content is hard and people fleshing out concepts is always fun.) Word count: 3641

Tw: Cursing, Food mention, Balloon popping, Remus being his authentic self

Character’s: Remus, Virgil, Janus, Logan, Roman (At the end), Patton (Mainly implied)

~~~

He had everything ready.

"Ahem."

Three heads turn to look at him.

"Logan, I really don't understand why you're doing this. You know I'm literally the Lord of the Lies, right? I can tell when you're lying."

"Falsehood. I am here specifically to prove to you three, the ones that have doubted me the most, what I think of Roman, so that you'll stop teasing me about emotions that aren't even there." Logan says, standing in front of a long classroom table. Virgil, Janus and Remus sit there, each maintaining their own postures and looking at him with disbelieving expressions.

"Logan, we can see your heart boner from here. You really think you can convince us with a slideshow presentation?" Remus picks his teeth, seemingly bored of the idea.

"That's exactly what I'm doing- What? Why would my heart have a boner? It doesn't have the proper parts to do that-" Logan looks lost, clutching the presentation button in his hand.

"It's an expression, Pocket Protector. It means you've got feelings for him." Virgil sighs.

Logan squints at him. "Of course I have feelings for him." Logan looks behind him, to the SmartBoard behind him. The board turns on, displaying the presentation title. "And those feelings are feelings of irritation. My name is Logan Sanders, and welcome to my Ted Talk."

There is a collective sigh from the others.

Logan takes a pointer stick (the one with the little hand on one side) from a holder on the wall, and points at the words on the screen. "This is 5 reasons why Roman is infuriating. And unlike your cognitive distortions may suggest, I DO NOT have a crush on him." He gestures with the stick where the same thing is written. "So, let's begin."

~~~

1. He likes to insist that he's the most handsome side, despite us all looking like Thomas.

It's ridiculous. All of their traits are reminiscent of Thomas's.

There are some mild changes they go through when they aren't summoned, but they are just slight shifts. For example, Janus and Remus both have different long hairstyles, and they all have a bit of a hair color change. Their features do shift too, emulating ones Thomas has seen over his lifetime that he'd associate with their personalities.

However, in person and in the mindscape, Roman really thinks 'he's the sh*t' (Virgil taught him that expression). He flaunts his beauty over everyone else's, strutting like the prettiest peacock in the flock. Sure, he's good looking, but the same level of good looking as all the other sides.

"You're all so handsome. But not as handsome as me." Logan recalls him saying in an episode.

He tries to use it to one-up the other's, even though they all know they look the same. He also enjoys flaunting his ego, attempting to emulate a lifestyle of the rich and famous when he feels like it.

It's rather ridiculous.

"You think he's good-looking?" Remus coos.

Logan glares, and changes the slide of the presentation.

2. He fights everyone all the time. (Except for Patton)

It seems that Roman has made the most rivals out of everyone.

He's rivals with his brother, he's got a rivalry with Janus but with more betrayal behind it, he's got his past rivalry with Virgil, even though now they're the closest friends, and despite making up several times, Logan is also his rival. Patton seems to be fine, despite their post-wedding event. Logan believes Roman is too worried of defending what he believes in against the literal embodiment of Thomas's morality.

"So, you two have tried making up, but have you considered... Making out???" Remus pitches, his smile all teeth.

Logan sputters a bit. "Puh- Wha- I don't think that would work."

Logan has in fact not thought of making out with Roman, thank you very much. Not even when they're so close, passionately arguing about who-knows-what in the spur of the moment, where it would be so easy to move just a little bit closer and connect his lips to the soft pink ones of the prince.

He has not thought about making out with Roman, because he does not have a crush on him. Period. End of story.

The two of them argue a lot. Whether it's how Thomas should spend his day, to the Chicken or the Egg dilemma (Logan knows he's right, by the way, Roman just won't see that the egg came first), to the ideal temperature for a heating pillow, to the best Crofter's flavor. They can range from productive, to stupid, and by the end of it they may just be fighting about nothing at all.

They jab at each other, come up with clever arguments, and although they're technically fighting, it sometimes feels more like a duel.

"Or a mating ritual." Virgil says under his breath.

"These points don't sound very negative." Janus adds, twirling some of his hair with his finger.

"It is negative. We fight a lot. He fights people a lot. Every issue seems to be a battle to him that he can outmatch, despite being better suited as a civil discussion." Logan stands taller, trying to defend his point.

"Well, that makes sense. I understand this point now. Go on." Janus waves his gloved hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Alright." Logan clicks his presenter button, and the slide changes.

3. He's loud. Super loud. All the time.

From singing to dancing to bantering, there never does seem to be a dull moment when Roman is around. Some may call it nice, but Logan would say that's a very polite description. It certainly isn't nice when Logan's trying to get work done, or watch a movie, or enjoy a peaceful breakfast, or most of the time really.

Logan has stopped working outside when he's trying to be productive because Roman will, without fail, come in singing, and then start a little fight with Logan that distracts him from his work and renders him unproductive for a long time because all he can think about is Roman.

"Hm... Wonder why that is." Janus interrupts, rolling his eyes.

"Well, you don't need to wonder. I said it was because of our fighting." Logan nervously adjusts his already immaculately placed glasses, resuming his point to his slide presentation.

It's odd, because sometimes even without leaving his room, he can still hear the sounds of Roman's voice in his head. He theorizes the absence of all that noise is making him subconsciously fill it in ( even though his mind also provides him with clear images of Roman's smile).

He can't escape the noise on movie nights. Roman will sing along to any song, scream at the most poorly-timed jumpscares, and no matter what, criticize the movie. Logan does participate in that last step from time to time.

During dinners, it depends. Sometimes, Roman will come in and do his thing, sometimes he'll make a dramatic entrance, grab a plate and then go off to work on something, and sometimes he won't show up at all, off on a quest in the imagination. Those particular meals are peaceful. Sometimes they feel empty, but so far, no one else has complained. Especially considering with Remus' and Janus' seats added to the table, dinner can be a wild event.

Sometimes, when Logan gets lonely, he'll bring his work outside. Every time, he can guarantee that Roman will be there eventually. He provides a healthy distraction, and he always feels much lighter after a bantering session.

But most of the time, he just can't stand it. How can one be so flamboyant for so many hours of the day? Logan had theorized it had something to do with overcompensation, his need for validation and attention, but then thought it was strange theorizing about his friends and went back to work.

Overall, not the worst trait, but it being applied to every scenario adds to the fact that he is infuriating.

"Hold on, can we circle back to the part where you said you thought of him smiling-" Virgil begins, only to be interrupted by Logan pointing his pointer at him.

"No, we will not. Next point."

4. He makes up stupid nicknames.

And he makes a lot of them. Even during serious talks, you'd think he had forgotten your name and was too scared to ask, so he supplies an abundance of back-ups to make you feel special. And they are quite varied, though all slightly jabbing. There are play-on-words, references thrown about... It would have impressed Logan, had all of his designated nicknames not revolved around him being a nerd.

"Hey Microsoft Turd."

"I need your help, Egghead."

"Listen here, Erlenmeyer Trash-"

"Calculator Watch."

"Oh Book Geeeerm~"

"Sure thing Specs."

Logan actually didn't mind specs, but his point still stands. All insulting, clever, but still stupid nicknames. Sometimes, he wonders if Roman keeps a book of them around. Somewhere in his room, filled with all the names he'll unleash onto his unsuspecting companions. Logan may have tried to come up with a list of his own in retaliation, but he couldn't think of anything Roman would think was clever. He spent almost a full night on it, hair a mess, glasses askew, head resting on his desk as he tried to come up with something at least remotely good enough. It interrupted his perfect circadian rhythm. Never again.

Except for the next night, where he tried the exact same stunt again, but that doesn't matter.

What does, is that all of those factors cause aggravation. He always feels weird when Roman gives him a nickname, varying from annoyance to a strange tingling.

"Are you saying he should stop?" Virgil interrupts, frustrated. "This point is going nowhere."

"I-" He's not sure. Although some of the insults are quite jabbing, Logan does want to support Roman's creative process. Not to mention, the nickname ‘specs’ oddly does hold a place in his heart.

"OoOoOoohhh, I have an idea!" Remus cackles. Although Logan is hesitant, he gestures to continue. "Okay, so pinky swear I won't try anything on you, but just close your eyes, and imagine how this nickname would make you feel if Roman said it."

Logan apprehensively closes his eyes, and Remus does nothing but lean slightly forward in his seat, and puts on his best Roman impression. Which is pretty good, considering they're twin brothers.

"How are you today, my love?"

Immediately, Logan flushes bright red from head to toe, covering his face in his hands and squirms. Remus's cackling intensifies by a tenfold, and the other two are poorly failing to contain their laughter.

"That's- That's- That's... N-not a nickname. Th-That's a p-pet name."

"Awww, but you're blushiiiing!" Remus squeals in amusement.

"Falsehood. N-no." Logan says, not enough bite in it to hold value. "We are going to move on now. That just... caught me off guard." He says, adjusting his tie several times, trying to compose himself. "The point is, his nicknames are stupid, and I don't like them- No, don't look at me like that Remus even that one- so it adds to his infuriating nature." Logan grabs the presentation button and clicks it aggressively to the next slide.

"And now, for my concluding point."

5. He is incredibly and willingly dumb.

Sometimes Logan thinks he wouldn't be surprised by the illogical things Roman would say. And then he gets proven incredibly wrong.

"Much like your... 'illogical feelings', mayhaps?" Janus drawls.

Shush, Logan is talking.

Granted, both Creativity twins have proven to be rather illogical, as they are embodiments of creativity, a force that knows only slight bounds to logic. Only with a defying mind can people push boundaries in the advancement of society. That doesn't mean however that those defying minds need to be intelligent.

"I believe Virgil specifically had called Roman a.." He takes out his special cards, flipping through them. " 'A Himbo'. Judging from his past and present behaviors and from the definition itself, it is safe to assume that yes, he is in fact a Himbo."

One instance he can remember is during a picnic in the imagination. It was Patton's birthday, and Roman wanted to do something special, so he set up a picnic for them all to attend. Logan doesn't enjoy visiting the imagination as much, as when he's there, things become more realistic and that makes him feel like a burden. Regardless, it was for Patton's birthday, and so he decided it would be polite to come along.

Everyone was guided by a trail of flowers to an opening in the forest, where a giant picnic blanket was laid out, pillows thrown around, and a large picnic basket stood in the center. There were many balloons of pastel pink and blue tied around, and the birds were chirping in a joint melody. It sounds almost like Happy Birthday.

Logan, as he approaches, hopes that his influence won't cause ants to emerge, because although that would be realistic, it would also be quite the nuisance.

He and the other's are just dressed in their usual attire, but as Roman emerges from the trees, he is wearing a shiny red party hat to go along with his prince outfit.

Roman immediately goes to serenading Patton and placing a party hat on top of his head, light blue with a little pompom on the top. He ushers him to sit on one of the largest pillows, and then goes around giving everyone else party hats. Logan stills when Roman gets to him last, a dark blue party hat with little stars in his hand.

"Do I have to wear that?" He asks. Although, sure, it does look nice, he doesn't want to seem ridiculous.

"Come on, you're in good company. Please? For Patton?" Roman bats his eyelashes at Logan, who sighs and lets him put the party hat onto his head.

Roman runs off to the birthday boy, and they all sit down. The time passes peacefully, songs being sung and Roman releasing a horde of puppies to the joy of the guests. By the time the food is out, everything seems to be going well, until they're all eating, and Roman pulls out an orange. As he's about to peel it, Logan speaks up.

"Roman, I would advise against that." Which may sound ridiculous to most people, but Logan is an expert on many logical things. ( Orange peels have a flammable liquid in them called limonene, and as both it and a balloon, made of latex, are non-polar, the liquid can dissolve the balloon, thus causing it to explode.)

"Against what?" Roman asks, but he does stop his attempt.

Logan adjusts his glasses, ready to explain. "Eating an orange near a balloon. As I cause the imagination to become more logical, doing so will most likely cause-"

"Oh puh-lease! I'm sure whatever wacky science things you're going to say don't actually work here! I mean, there is plenty of influence to go arou-" Roman, the spiteful side he is, gets even closer to the balloon, starting to peel it. Lo-and-behold, he can't finish his denying before the balloon right beside him explodes with a loud POP. The sound sends him jumping back in fear, screeching to the nine hells, and then falling backwards onto another balloon, scaring him again. Several sides laughed out loud at his pain, while Patton watched him, worried. Logan smiled internally at the karma, before getting up and making sure he was okay.

Roman did spend the rest of the party in a sulky mood, but the party was still a huge success. They had some good food, and while Logan made Patton a flower crown, he fed him forfulls of cake. It was a nice bonding moment. When everyone separated to return to the mindscape, Roman waved them all off from the imagination door. Logan turns back to look at him, but Roman makes no move to follow them all out.

"You're not coming back yet?" Logan asks, adjusting his glasses.

Roman sighs. "No, not yet. I'm afraid this dashing prince has a little bit of cleaning to do. And perhaps an adventure. You never know." He leans on the doorframe, smiling.

"Well, that is correct. I in fact do not know what you'll be doing." Logan nods to himself. "Do you need any help cleaning? I doubt I'll be much help with the adventure, but I do have hands." He gestures to his hands.

Roman looks quite surprised. "Oh, thanks for the offer, specs. I think I've got it all covered though."

Logan offers a hesitant smile. "Alright then. Let me know if that changes."

Roman quickly smiles back, a faint pink dusting his cheeks, and turns back into the imagination and shutting the door. Logan stands there for a moment, but not sure why. It's clear that Roman was not feeling all that great from the balloon moment. Even Logan, terrible at deciphering emotions, can tell that much. Perhaps he needs to let off some steam.

He just can't understand Roman most of the time. They do have so many similarities, being too proud for their own good, but it's almost like they're in two separate worlds. Logan, the learner he is, wishes he could explore Roman's own. Understand it. Understand him, and his way of thinking. Even though Roman is mostly dumb, he does make good points, and Logan tries to prioritize his input, as it's usually what Thomas is hoping and dreaming for as well.

~~~

The last slide shines back at them all. A concluding statement that makes the three watching sides snicker a little bit.

"And I believe he just doesn't understand how much we all think he's great. I swear, he's just so dense! It's so aggravating! How can he not tell that he's worth everything? Why doesn't he understand that we all care for him? That I care for him? He's wonderful, for god's sake! And that I don't mean to hurt him with my critiques. I want him to thrive! I-"

Everything stops. Logan takes a moment of silence. The three sides look at him, each with different degrees of anticipation. One looks pretty much ready to pounce out of his seat.

"...Oh."

And all at once, everything gets strung back into motion. Confetti literally falls from the ceiling as Remus jumps for joy, circling a very mortified looking Logan. Janus, the tired soul, rolls his eyes and lets out a slow, long clap. Virgil just rests his head in his arms.

"I can't believe this. You sit us all down for a presentation you probably double-checked and proofread, like a nerd, and only NOW you realize you were wrong all along? Why didn't you say anything, snake-face?" Virgil complains, sitting up just to glare at him.

"Wo-ow, it isn't as if I was saying that this whole time? No, it couldn't be." Janus deadpans, sarcasm spilling from his mouth like an old, worn, broken dam.

Logan doesn't move from his stand-still spot beside the projector, but Remus manages to bounce in circles around him, cooing. "Lo-lo's got a cruuuush! A crushy crush! A crushed crust of a crush! A crevice cracking ‘cause of the crushed crust-" He was going to continue, throwing expired banana peels around to substitute rose petals, until the sound of the door opening catches everyone's attention.

"Hey losers, Patton wanted to know if you-" Lo and behold, Roman walks in, regal as ever, smiling until he takes in the sight before him. The boring classroom look, contrasted by the amount of confetti that stopped falling as soon as he walked in. Janus and Virgil, wide-eyed and looking at him, completely still. Remus, caught mid dance, frozen in place with a smile. Logan, looking at him in the way one may look milliseconds after being caught stealing government secrets. Roman's eyes flicker to each of them, before settling on the projector.

"Roman. I-I can explain-" Logan starts, but Roman is already reading the words on the screen.

"... 'In short, he saddles me with unnecessary... feelings'? 'Unease, and uncertainty'? Who... Oh my god! Logan!" Roman looks at him, smiling in disbelief and amazement. "I know what this meanssss!" Filled with giddy delight, he sidesteps the table.

Logan gulps as Roman approaches, turning beet red as Roman takes his hands in his two own. "Y-Yes?" He practically squeaks as Roman looks him right in the eyes.

"Yes! Ohhh, this is so exciting!" The three bystanders watch, once again in anticipation, as Roman swings their interlocked hands.

"Yes?" Logan offers a small, tentative smile.

"You have a crush on someoooone! Oh Logan, you should've told me!" Roman smiles, completely oblivious to the internal facepalm of several present members.

"I-I'm sorry..." Logan looks down, slightly disappointed but still too flustered to say anything.

"God save the dense." Janus mutters, inspecting his gloves fingers.

"Don't be sorry! Come, we must make plans! I shall be your matchmaker! This is going to be perfeeeect!" Roman, sings, dancing out of the room and dragging Logan along by their still intertwined hands. The other sides watch them go.

After a moment of processing, Virgil sighs. "Well, I thought that was going to be resolved. Turns out they're both as dense as... dense people." He can't seem to think of any other similes.

"Welp, I'm just happy that they're one step closer to getting. it. on. romantically." Remus punctuates every word with some rather immature hand gestures. “And that they stop dancing around each other.”

"Who do you think Roman thinks Logan has a crush on?" Virgil asks, cogs turning in his brain.

Janus lounges backwards. "Well, let's see... Soooo many options. Either he thinks it's someone outside of Thomas's head, or the simple answer..."

Remus and Virgil both look at him, both with looks of realization.

"Patton."

~~~

[bubmyg]

there was no particular reason i wrote all this down other than reading the translations to my universe made me cry last week because i’m just Like this. this is a mini compilation of yoongi lyrics that i hold gently in my palm and close to my heart in a he’s my artist for life kind of way. these aren’t all my favorite yoongi lyrics, i certainly have more but not ones that fit this general vibe. 

this is like extremely disorganized, i kind of just wrote it like a journal (and i’ll probably copy it to my bullet journal at some point actually). interpretations are my own, music is cool in that we can all read and hear the same thing and get different things out of it (which is why yoongi has often said he doesn’t attach specific meaning to things, giving it up to the listener instead)

so yeah. here’s me being fond of yoongi in 4k for no reason other than. idk. i wanted to. all translations are from doyoubangtan and doolsetbangtan. 

song request - lee sora ft suga

“I’ll be with you, for your birth and your end; That you’d remember that I’m with you, wherever you are; I’ll be a comfort for your life at any time, and so; please, that you’d lean on me and take a rest, every once in awhile.”

to me, this perfectly encapsulates what creating music is for yoongi in a two-fold kind of way. not only does he want his music to be a source of comfort for those who listen to it (just as the art of music is for himself), he’s also consistent in his assurance that taking a rest is okay. not being okay is okay. simply existing for the time being is okay. it’s a gentle empathy that comes from the experienced heart of someone who’s not going to tell you that it is okay, but will tell you that it won’t always be like this. friendly little moon trying to get you to smile with him on sleepless nights.

so far away - agust d ft suran

dream, will eventually be in full bloom at the end of hardships

this was on my undergrad graduation cap. it’s one of my favorite lyrics of all time. if so far away is my heart song, this is my heart lyric. this is a common motif in yoongi’s lyrics; dormancy is only temporary, you will bloom at the end of the cold winter.

dream, hope it to be there with you at your creation and at the end of your life

creation to end is another common motif n his lyrics. in this specific context, i imagine it to most closely be analogous to holding dreams close to you your entire life. dreams are dreams no matter how they manifest, even if they’re simply something you long for until your “end”.

Hope it to be there with you at your creation and at the end of your life; It will be generous to you wherever you stand; It will eventually be in full bloom at the end of hardships; The beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will the future be

the entirety of this song reads like a story and this last refrain reads like the conclusion (kind of). the slight wording change from the previous choruses means a lot in that regard, more definite and firm. you will be okay. maybe not now, maybe not next week. but you will be.

suga’s interlude - halsey ft suga

Though the dawn before sunrise is darkest; don’t forget the stars you longed for only rise in the darkness

just a really pretty but heart wrenching lyric in the context of the entire song. he’s also used this metaphor several times. i love me a good string of consistency with minor adaptations to fit the vibe. this song also made me cry the first time i read the translations lmao.

my universe - coldplay ft bts

Because the trial we face now is just for a moment anyway; All you have to do is to just keep shining bright like now; And we will follow you, embroidering this long night

this could mean so many things depending on how you wanted to contextualize it. of course the song is about love, so you could view it in that way. we’re in the midst of a global pandemic where we can’t see each other. or maybe it’s simply existence. continue to exist and one day your bright light will be followed even in the darkest of nights.

also the og title of telepathy being 잠시 (for a moment) is so...min yoongi you are so cool

people - agust d

Did someone say humans are the animals of wisdom?; The way I see it, humans are the animals of regret

Your ordinaries are my extraordinaries; Your extraordinaries are my ordinaries; Your ordinaries are my extraordinaries; Your extraordinaries are my ordinaries

super simple to understand which i think makes it more poignant. especially if you contextualize it with everything he’s said or written regarding the plight of fame and how he himself grapples with it as min yoongi.

28 - agust d ft niihwa

just this whole song. if song request encapsulates yoongi’s musical ethos, this captures a lot of his general musings.

paradise - bts

Just living like this, surviving like this, that’s my small dream; Dreaming dreams, grasping dreams, breathing breaths, it’s often too much

a more blunt take on the simply existing is a good enough dream. yoongi’s 2018 new years message was one of the things that made me go “yes. Him™” so paradise is very <3 for me

interlude: shadow - bts

Flying high scares me; I mean, nobody had told me; how lonely it is here –;how my leap could be my fall

another thing he uses frequently, even as recently as an interview regarding permission to dance. the contemplation of how a fall is far scarier than landing because getting back up is uncertain.

Yeah, I’m you and you’re me, do you finally get that now?; Yeah, you’re me and I’m you, do you finally get that now?

the entirety of this song is haunting particularly paired with the sampling and the music video as a visual but this part is just...the whole idea of competing internal voices throughout the narrative of the song or if you’d rather truly treat the lyrics like a piece of literature, you have quite the unreliable narrator, one that’s trying to grapple with his own sense of self.

140503 at dawn - agust d

Pretending that I’m not lonely, pretending that I’m not suffering; needlessly pretending that I’m okay, and pretending hard that I’m strong; I built a wall in front of me, “Don’t come inside”; I’m an island in this wide ocean, “Don’t abandon me”

the entirety of agust d just makes me ache but i mainly pulled this part because he uses the island metaphor consistently. here, it’s used like i said before; achingly.

this song also gets overlooked a lot in the larger context of agust d but anyway

eight - IU ft suga

Island, yeah this is an island; a small island that we made for each other; Yeah, mm, forever young, the word ‘forever’ is a sandcastle; A farewell is just like an emergency text warning of a disaster; A morning met together with yearning; As each of us pass this eternity, we’re sure to meet again on this island

can i be honest and say i forgot this song came out at the beginning of the pandemic. anyway, if you haven’t heard the various times that jieun has spoke about this song and it’s conveyance, i encourage you to. the music video also gives a beautiful visual.

i wrote a small analysis of this when it came out so i’ll just put it here 

burn it - agust d ft max

I hope you don’t forget that giving up decisively also counts as courage

of course this can absolutely be taken at a literal meaning especially considering he said a similar iteration of this to someone on kkul fm BUT i also like looking at it in context of the entire song because maybe this is him trying to convince himself too, especially considering the wording of the last chorus doesn’t change it so it implies in order to get past the fire u need to let it burn first? burn it = giving up on some aspect of pain?

i see why max didn’t shut up for eight months about making this song i wouldn’t either hello

outro: tear - bts

im including this one firstly because i love the song but secondly to say i knew the second u all were surprised by yoongi saying he wrote this as essentially a break up song for bts and they all cried while listening to it that y’all don’t actually read or interact w their lyrics fjdklafjsd

just bc it’s a rap song doesn’t mean it’s a diss or a flex. weirdos.

intro: never mind - bts

I hope you forget about all your mistakes and such; Never mind; It’s not easy, but engrave this in your heart; If you think you’re going to crash, accelerate more, you idiot; Never mind, never mind; Whatever thorny path it may be, go run; Never mind, never mind; There are a lot of things that you can’t control

the entire composition of nevermind is similar to first love and shadow to me where you can just hear the emotion in his voice while performing it

this is also another general idea that he mentions a few different times through different songs which as we’ve seen i am <3 for

intro: the most beautiful moment in life - bts

once again i don’t have a specific lyric to pull i just love this song so much and i feel like it isn’t talked about enough because first of all the use of the basketball throughout the instrumental, the incorporation of the origin of his stage name into an entire song regarding his general existence as a performer and coming into the beginnings of sizeable fame, and just his general way of essentially writing one giant ode to something he loves and analogizing it to something else he loves to talk through internal struggles.

aka im once again saying min yoongi you’re so cool

first love - bts

same line of awe from above this whole song is just a story, a poem, a journal entry, a beautiful confession, i don’t know. this is yoongi’s best bts solo u can argue with a wall about it also if you were able to see this live i hope u have a terrible week (im joking)

every fancam i’ve ever seen of this makes me cry. so. do with that what you will in regards to how i feel about this song.

[queen0fm0nsterz]

It seems the "legacy" that Six and Mono has do needs each other so they can bonded together just so they'll get the right mindset for them to grow into monstrous adults given Mono becomes the Thin Man after he's betrayed by Six and Six gradually becomes worst with her hunger to where she eats up the Lady after she gets hurt by Mono destroying her trust

Yes, and it saddens me to literally no end.

We get to witness how their friendship grows only to see it ripped apart. Both parties suffering the consequences of their actions.

For some reason this ask got me to think, so... Here's a bunch of mini theories I have about The Square (Thin Man, Lady, Mono and Six) that I wanted to share with you guys but never had the chance to. Be sad with me or else.

1) Pacific Thin Man.

The Thin Man wasn't actively trying to kill either Mono nor Six. He only wanted to separate them, which is why he chased Mono away. I think this is almost universally agreed on.

2) The Thin Man wasn't trying to get to Mono at all and only used him to leave. He wanted Six from the beginning.

I actually think the Thin Man was doing what he's always done, even back when he was still Mono: taking his friend back at all costs and keeping her by his side so that he could protect her. Would explain why he only starts running after Mono when he tries to free her from the TV.

I mean, he had plenty of other occasions to get a hold of Mono. My boy literally travels through the TVs a bunch of times before getting here, but the Thin Man only shows up when Mono is actively trying to take Six away.

All three times we see him in person are related to Six.

First time: he takes her.

Second time: Mono tries to take her back so he steps in to stop him.

Third and last time: The Thin Man is the only thing standing between Mono and the Signal Tower, in which Six is trapped.

This would also explain the Thin Man's official description. Let's give it a read:

"As the ever-present hum of The Transmission chokes the airwaves, The Thin Man continues his endless journey through this desolate place, haunting the shadows, searching for something. "

The something would of course be his old friend. Although, he may be mistaken without even realizing it, which brings me to my next theories ...

3) Mono is the only one stuck in a loop.

This is mostly based to the meaning behind his name, especially compared to Six's.

We all know that his name means single, one, only, alone. Many people made the connection with the word "monophobia", a.k.a the fear of being alone, and that's an incredibly valid and fitting connection, but I think it may have an addictional hidden meaning just below the surface.

Because, let's be honest. If they wanted to keep the number theme, why not name him "One" instead?

Mono is a... very unique child. He's the only one capable of controlling the transmission, which is why the Eye keeps him around: to use that power as it pleases. I wouldn't be surprised if it messed with the timeline so that Mono was reborn again and again and again.

The number 6 written on the door could symbolize the fact that this Mono we're seeing is the sixth one.

I tried to check for a 7 on Mono's door at the end of the game, but couldn't see anything.

OOOOR, it could be referring to the Ladies of the Maw, which leads me to...

4) Six and the current Lady are NOT the same person...

The main reasons why I believe this is something that everyone seems to forget.

Guys. THEIR COMFORT SONGS ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

"And what does that mean?" EVERYTHING MY GUY. LITERALLY EVERYTHING. In a series where characters don't speak, it's up to the visuals and music to tell us the story - which means their role is extremely important.

It seems strange to me that they would use two songs that are so drastically different in melody and pacing if the characters are supposed to be one and the same - especially considering just how personal the songs are to both. For example, when Mono becomes the Thin Man, the latter's theme is prominent in End of The Hall, but when Six eats the Lady it's her own theme song that prevails.

Fortunately, we get a clear listen to both music boxes in the games, so we can hopefully make a comparison.

Here's Six's music box and The Lady's.

5) ... But Six does grow up to become the next Lady.

This. Just, this entire thing.

You see, for the Maw to keep running, it needs a Lady to lure people in and turn children into Nomes. We can assume that it works in a similar fashion to the Signal Tower.

Which basically means that the two structures only function if there's an Host they can feed off from, otherwise they fall apart, just like the Tower did at the end of LN 2.

Let's put it this way: Six absorbing the Lady's powers is the same as Mono sitting on the chair. They sealed an invisible contract with the Eye from which they can't break free, destined to be it's slave until the next Mono and... a possible Seven take their place.

6) The Lady can't leave the Maw...

I already mentioned this in the previous one, but basically what I mean is: The Lady is the only Host of the Maw. If she leaves, the entire thing crashes down.

7) ... But she's been in the Pale City.

We've got proof of this because a lot of paintings and pictures on the Maw depict various sections of the Pale City and some of their citizens. Both the Hospital and the School get their time to shine in these, especially ones the Bullies (I think it's finally time for me to push my "Teacher & her students on the Maw" agenda) who can be seen around the Residence.

Admittedly, most of these paintings aren't placed in the Lady's quarters, so maybe they just belong to her employees who hang them around to decorate the place a bit like Roger did, BUUUT! There's a very particular set of paintings that can be found in her quarters.

Well well well, if it isn't our blob bestie 🙃

Based on what we know, the only location we find the Eye blob is the Signal Tower, so... I think it's pretty safe to assume that's where she saw it. Then again, when did she see it? Probably when she was a child, before the got on the Maw for the first time. Talking about the Maw...

8) How much time has Six been on the Maw?

This may be kind of an odd question, but I wanted to answer it because it has always bugged me. Me, the fool, trying to form a cohesive timeline in this extremely vague franchise... Sigh.

Anyway. First of all, let's give the Maw's official description a read:

" The Maw arrives every year. Always at the same time, but never in the same place, it creeps and crawls and buries its claws deep beneath the glistening water. And there it sits in vast silence. Waiting.

Soon after, they start to arrive. The guests. The monstrous, sweating, hungry guests. All seams bursting, bodies bulging, eyes dead with boredom. They shuffle up the gangway and into the mouth of The Maw. And then they are no more.

For none of those that enter have ever returned to tell the tale. At least, not yet... "

So the Maw comes up once a year, stays there for a while and then goes underwater once again. When the Ferryman takes an unwilling Six to the Maw by boat, implying that Maw has risen.

And the next time we see the outside world in in LN, when Six climbs her way up in that wonderful scene. We can see the guests coming in again, so we can assume it's been at least a year.

The thing about the comics that is really funny to me is that it implies that Six has been wandering around since when she first got on, meaning both Roger and the Chefs are already aware of her presence and are familiar with her. The thought of them being like "Oh no this kid again" when they meet her in the game is so funny I can't.

Also, Mono has been trapped in the tower for at least a year by now :)

9) Mono glitching?

I got to think about this while playing LN 2. You know when Mono starts absorbing the glitching remains? If you don't get too close that he "eats" them but manage to stay close enough, you'll see that Mono himself starts to glitch a bit.

Huh. Leaves room for thought.

Anyway, this is all I have for now.

MASTERPOST