#and i was about to overcome all my hang ups and participate anyway and let other people see something i makr!

[yumkatcakes]

i wanted to sign up for a zine but i hesitated too long and it's filled now noooo :(((((

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Siege I, Pt. 5

So, finally at the LaGrange point satellite, we get a view of the puddle jumper docking with the Ancient weapons platform in a pretty phallic visual. Docking is a rather well-known sexual practice among men who have sex with men, and may even be especially pleasurable when one partner is circumcised and the other is not. Like, say, when one participant might be from the US and the other Canadian. There was really no need for them to make the shot this phallic by framing it vertically and yet here we are.

In the very next scene, inside the satellite, we are immediately asked to pay attention to McKay's heavy breathing:

Grodin: Are you OK? McKay: Yes. Why? Grodin: Well, you're breathing pretty heavily. McKay: Yeah, well, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic.

We are meant to think that McKay is breathing heavily and grunting a lot because he's out of shape while he explains it basically as being caused by anxiety. But the fact that Grodin just had to point it out tells us that it had made him think of other strenuous activities.

Miller seems to like McKay which invites us to compare him with Sheppard. If Sheppard had come in his stead, he would be the one in the space suit executing McKay's instructions, or at the very least he would be out there with McKay. There is no way that he would have let him do this alone. Further, we frequently see Sheppard take McKay's concerns seriously and try to help him overcome them--unlike Grodin, who rolls his eyes at McKay's complaining. McKay is absolutely right that he is out there doing something he hasn't been trained for that is potentially very dangerous, and they shouldn't be making light of it.

We also get another reference to something being thought dead which is relevant for the resolution of the episode:

McKay: How much air do these things hold anyways? Miller: Eight hours. McKay: Well, that's enough, right? I mean, even with the heavy breathing? I mean, they would calculate that in, right? Grodin: You're going to be fine. McKay: Yeah, that's easy for you to say--you're not the one with the eight hours ceiling on the breathing! ....It's completely dead. Grodin: Well, we thought as much.

We thought as much he says, and Sheppard reminded us of having thought McKay said it was dead at the beginning of the episode.

We are given a lot of numbers in this episode. The wraith are coming in 49 hours, it takes 15 hours to get to the satellite, he has 8 hours of air, they have 29 hours until "show-time." The significance of the numbers is unclear but they do tell us that by the end of the episode, Sheppard has not slept for a while.

On Atlantis, Weir has a meeting with the Athosian Halling, and their discussion likewise has some bearing on how the episode ends:

Weir: There are concerns the Wraith will be able to make it to Earth if the city is left intact--but I assure you that plan will only be executed in a worse-case scenario. Halling: Such as three hive ships flying towards Atlantis? Weir: We do believe we'll be able to destroy them before they arrive.

Weir: I have to do everything I can to make sure the power and technology of Atlantis does not fall into the hands of the Wraith -- and, yes, to ensure they never make it to my galaxy. Halling: Even if it means sacrificing the future of this one?

Sheppard is operating under the same belief as Weir. They have a self-destruct plan in place because they believe that protecting Earth is worth each and every life on Atlantis. Furthermore, Sheppard believes that he is personally responsible for unleashing the wraith on this galaxy and even likely thinks that if he had only gotten to Col. Sumner faster, the wraith would never have found out about the 'rich new feeding grounds' on Earth. All of this hangs in the balance.

Back on the weapons platform, Grodin and Miller have joined McKay after he hooked up the generator and got life-support going. Grodin switches on the artificial gravity without giving proper warning to McKay, causing him to injure himself--and this is played as a comedic interlude:

Grodin: I think I found the switch to initialize the gravity. McKay: Great, just give me a second to-- Oh yeah. Yeah. That's permanent back damage. Grodin: Sorry. I assumed it would come on more slowly. McKay: Well, you assumed with my life. Grodin: You'll be fine. It was just a little bump. McKay: What have you got? Grodin: Looks like every system is back online--except for the weapon. McKay: Ah, details. Let's get to work. Oh, thank you. Thank you! Yeah, that's vertebra damage, that's pain...

Miller helps McKay up, seeming much more sympathetic to his plight than Grodin. Their relationship has been somewhat antagonistic throughout. In fact, one of the first things we ever saw Grodin do was to take a swing at McKay:

McKay had a point, there. That seems like some pent-up rage. It could just be that they rub each other the wrong way as people sometimes do but as I've speculated before, Grodin does not seem to be entirely straight himself.

There could be a hook-up in their past, somewhere within the weeks or months spent in the cold recesses of Antarctica. Since they are both civilian contractors, it would at least have been relatively safe to fool around. "Where did all those Saturday nights go?" McKay asked him in Sanctuary (S01E14). I wonder.

What ever their history, the horrified look on Miller's face as he watches McKay on the ground suggests that Sheppard did have some kind of a talk with him before they took off on the mission, meaning that he knows Sheppard holds him personally responsible if anything happens to McKay.

Miller helps McKay up from the floor, looks to see that he's alright and even pats him on the shoulder as a sign of compassion. He further gives Grodin a look that seems to contain a warning that McKay doesn't get to see. Miller is acting protective of McKay and there is really only one reason that would explain this behaviour.

McKay is clearly surprised by Miller's gesture, not used to receiving such acts of kindness (from anyone other than Sheppard, anyway). His first thank you is just reflexive while his second thank you actually expresses his gratitude for the gesture. This, from the man that never says 'please' or 'thank you'.

Meanwhile on Atlantis, Sheppard and Ford are continuing the search for a new Alpha Site, going through a list on a computer in the meeting room. This time neither Weir nor Bates are present, and neither is Teyla. Presumably both Teyla and Bates are cooling off somewhere else, and from how Sheppard sounded when they were trying to get the belligerents separated, he probably doesn't want to see either one of them for a while.

The way Sheppard is sitting is both similar and dissimilar to how he was sitting in the first meeting. He has his hand up on the table between himself and Ford, and he seems to be resting his jaw against his fist with one finger pressing against the corner of his jaw with the effect of turning his face slightly away from Ford. Again, nothing he has against Ford or even his physical presence, they are just two guys sitting in proximity and he needs to establish a perimetre between them, to have some personal space.

Earlier, when McKay was talking in front of him, he was not pressing his jaw against his fist but was pressing two of his fingers against the side of his neck to better allow him to angle his face toward McKay. And here, his fist is between the two of them while previously he stretched his chin up so as not to have anything between himself and McKay. Here, he is hunched over while previously his posture was much more open.

These are minute details of a man basically doing the same thing and yet, so different. Even without any dialogue, just looking at the body language, he is open to McKay, all the time, while not so much toward other people.

Sheppard does not seem to be in a very good mood. Ford excitedly tries to name a planet with a name that Sheppard would probably ordinarily disapprove of because he thinks that he's the only one that gets to name things, and there are several times in the past that he has told Ford that he doesn't get to name things. This time, however, Sheppard doesn't even respond. In the past, his intention has been to poke good-natured fun at the young soldier, ribbing at him to create a sense of familiarity. Ford's intention here was probably an attempt at connecting with Sheppard, too.

But he just doesn't have it in him, right now. To pretend that things are normal. He has that clock ticking down internally, the external sensors tracking the approaching hives on the screens all around them, and he is doing all that he can to keep at bay the dread building inside him. He probably hasn't slept, either. He is doing this, looking for an Alpha Site, because this is what he stayed back for. And because he stayed back for this, he's going to find them a new Alpha Site even if it kills him.

But before they have made any decisions, there is a voice on the intercom telling them that there is a "situation" at Generator Station One. What fresh hell is this?

They take off immediately and find two marines there that have discovered Bates, unconscious and clearly beaten up on the floor. They call for a medical team to take him to the infirmary and Sheppard kneels by Bates' body, just watching him helplessly. He doesn't know what has happened but he does know that he is blaming himself for allowing it to happen. Yes, he was at his wits' end as to what to do with the man but he never wanted something like this to happen.

It is unclear where Sheppard spent his night but next we are clearly shown that time has passed with shots of Atlantis first at night and then in the morning. It is doubtful he was sleeping, in any case (he hasn't changed his clothes, for one). I will point out that they are within comm distance from the satellite and in the next scene we see that McKay has withdrawn from the other two, crouching on the platform above them and is fiddling with some kind of a device we have never seen before. This device does not seem to have anything to do with what they are doing; he just punches a few buttons in frustration,* looks at the screen and then just ignores the device like he's not using it anymore. He also seems distracted like he had been only half-listening to Grodin. After he puts the device away, he's focusing on what they are doing again.

So, in the morning we find Sheppard coming to visit Bates by his hospital bed, and there is also a difference between his two mental states: he was clearly freaking out internally when he was crouching by Bates' body last night and now, in the morning, he seems much more calm and is concerned for Bates' well-being, being compassionate. I'm not saying Sheppard and McKay necessarily had a chat but they make it clear that they had time for one. For some reason, they show them crouching in mirror image of each other as though facing one another. Also, Sheppard asks Beckett "When can we talk to him?" drawing attention to the timing of talking with someone.

When Sheppard walks in from where ever he spent his night Ford is already there, watching Bates. In the previous episode, they were standing similarly by Teyla's bed and while I don't think it has anything to with Ford per se, Sheppard managed to keep more space between himself and both Weir and Teyla than he does with Ford. There is a visual parallel here, at the very least.

None of them want to believe it but obviously Teyla is the main suspect. Sheppard himself has likely felt what it is like not to be given the benefit of the doubt so many times in his past that he is willing to hear Teyla out before condemning her:

Ford: Teyla and Bates got into it pretty badly yesterday, sir. Sheppard: A fistfight and a beating like this are a long drive apart, Ford. Ford: I understand that, sir, but they were in a fight; they were both looking to continue it. Sheppard: Anything pointing to who did this? Beckett: I'm having a forensic exam of both his body and clothing performed right now. Sheppard: Let us know what you find out. Let's go get her side of the story.

He doesn't need this right now. They don't need this right now. It seems like he is losing control of the situation and the wraith aren't even here yet... or so he thinks.

Continued in Pt. 6

-* Much later (The Return, S03E10) we are shown that Sheppard does not say goodbye even on the phone because he doesn't want to hear McKay say goodbye to him under any circumstances and if he ends the call abruptly, he doesn't have to know what the other person was going to say. Now, one might find that frustrating is all I'm saying. The way McKay is punching the buttons certainly seems like the behaviour of someone that had just been hung up on.

[gaydennisreynolds]

hey there!! since you've been talking about macdennis after ND i figured you'd be the one to talk to about this bc i can't stop thinking about it!!

so in times up dennis is a rude bitch to mac, but he says "you have to stop kissing me, man" and i honestly never really thought about it too much, but i am reading a fic that incorporates that into it! in it mac kisses him for the "first time" while they're drinking and watching a movie the week after he comes back from ND. and now i just can't stop thinking about it bc WE don't see it, but it obviously happens multiple times bc dennis says it does.... so when do you think mac kissed dennis? and how often? i don't think i've seen anyone really discuss it before! i'd love to hear what you think!

I have a LOT of thoughts about this, actually.

Mac is an impulsive person who is also very free with his emotions. Aside from his struggle with internalized homophobia, Mac says what he thinks and does what he wants, with little consideration for potential consequences. If Dennis is closed off and secretive, Mac is an open book. When Mac almost kisses Dennis in Recycles Their Trash, Mac is just excited and happy, and he wants to share that with Dennis--and the way he knows how to express that happiness is via kissing. I read Mac as being the kind of guy to kiss openly--I can even see him kissing Charlie or Dee or Frank, if he felt overcome with love for them or extraordinarily happy.

So I think Mac kisses Dennis all the time, once he no longer has hang ups about being considered gay. Dennis is the person he loves most in the world, and he wants to show him that--and Mac struggles with verbal communication, or being "good at words", but physical affection comes naturally to him. In my opinion, Mac kisses Dennis to calm Dennis down when he's upset, when Mac's happy to see him after some time apart, when Mac was worried about Dennis and Dennis comes home safe, when his favorite sports team scores a goal and Dennis is next to him. Mac is so full of love that it spills out of him, he can't keep it all inside even when he tries, and I think one of those ways it comes out is via spontaneous kisses.

I think Mac kissed Dennis the first time Dennis stepped back into their apartment after North Dakota, just in sheer relief of seeing him alive. I think Mac kissed Dennis to stop him from freaking out when Dennis realized Mac had blown up the Range Rover. I think Mac kissed Dennis when Dennis ate all his food at dinner, and when Dennis called Mandy/Brian without a meltdown first. And I think Dennis liked the constant physical affection, and participated willingly; after all, part of what we learn from Times Up is that although Mac will cross boundaries because he lacks an understanding of the impact of his behaviors, he isn't intentionally trying to harass anyone or make them uncomfortable.

AndTimes Up is more about Dennis trying to reassert himself as the "leader" of the group again, since the dynamics changed so much when he was away, than anything else; he calls Mac out for kissing him because he knows it will hurt Mac to think Dennis didn't like it all this time and let him carry on doing it anyway. Dennis knows it hurts Mac when he rejects his genuinely-offered affections, and it gives him a power differential again in their friendship when he weaponizes it. And yet, I would bet you my last $5 after Times Up that the next time Mac was happy about/with Dennis, he still leaned over and kissed him, and Dennis kissed right back. It's their constant push and pull dynamic, with Dennis always taking or rejecting and Mac just giving over and over, regardless of Dennis's reception to what he is giving. Displays of physical affection would be no different between them.

[arhvste]

TSUKISHIMA KEI - IMPOSSIBLE AND INSUFFERABLE PART 3

this is it y’all the chapter you’ve been dying for

hara bullying hour is officially in session bitches 😈

i will fix any grammar errors tomorrow my fellow simps now have fun reading about little bitch hara’s downfall

part 1 part 2

Tsukishima had exited his classroom after the last bell had rung still in the same foul mood he found himself to be trapped in as of late.

“Tsukishima!”

Hinata bounded towards the tall boy with a big smile on his face.

His foul mood had worsened in nanoseconds.

“What.” he coldly spat at the energetic ginger.

“You’re coming with me. Captain's orders.”

Tsukishima frowned and reluctantly obliged as he followed Hinata into the clubroom where Daichi was sitting on the table alone with what looked like an ipad.

Opening the door, Daichi welcomed him with a warm smile to which Tsukishima tried to reciprocate even though it was clear the clubroom was not where he wanted to be.

“Hey Tsukishima, I have a few people to talk to you right now. I need to run some errands before practice. I’ll meet you in the gym once you’re done, take as much time as you need though, I’ll see you shortly.”

“Thanks for the concern but I’m really okay.”

Daichi had already left Tsukishima and the ipad in the clubroom alone. Irritated, Tsukishima sat down on the table and picked up the ipad only to instantly pull a face of disgust.

“Why? Why you of all people.”

“And what an absolute pleasure it is to see you too Tsuki.”

There on the screen showed the captains and setters of Fukurodani and Nekoma. Bokuto sat there with a wide grin on his face, excited to be talking to one of his ‘students’ as he liked to call and next to him, Kuroo who was smiling smugly at the agitated middle blocker. Akaashi and Kenma in the background were seen keeping an eye on their captains to make sure they weren’t crossing the line of invasion for poor Tsukishima.

“Whatever you’re about to say to me I’m not interested, thanks.”

“But Tsukiiiiiiii!” Bokuto whined pouting through the camera.

“Let your wonderful and wise Senpais give you advice and take advantage of it.” Kuroo smoothly spoke, propping his hand under his chin.

“No.” Tsukishima wanted to end the call right there and then but, a small part of him felt bad for both Kenma and Akaashi having to waste their time being there too so he opted to not hit the tempting ‘end’ button just yet.

“Listen, we heard you had a rough break up and we want to give you some advice.”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes before he spoke. “So enlighten me, my two most wonderful and clever senpais.” sarcasm dripping from every single word.

“See Kuroo! He does love and respect us!” Bokuto was beaming as he shook his fellow captain and friends' shoulders slightly.

“He might respect you but I can assure you Tsukishima-san is far from loving you.”

“Akaashi don’t say that!” Bokuto cried out pouting once again.

“Honestly Tsuki, you didn’t seem like the type that would suffer from heartbreak to me. Guess I was wrong.”

Tsukishima was ready to cut the rooster headed captain off right then and there but Kuroo began to speak again.

“You also didn’t seem like someone who disliked volleyball either at first but I was wrong about that too. Look, your ex-girlfriend obviously meant more to you than what you’re choosing to insist but if it’s affecting your plays I’m going to need you to do something about it. I quite enjoy playing against you simple country folk. You are good opponents I’ll give you that, but you won’t be if your playing ability starts to deteriorate.”

“Yeah what he said! Tsuki, how did you even get a girlfriend anyway? If I was a girl I’d run 7 miles from you with that mean glare. But anyway, snap out of your bad mood and go get her back if you’re still hung up on her. If she has this affect on you she must mean something to you right? Do it go get her back kid.”

“You two sure do have a lot to say for a pair of relationship virgins.” Kenma quietly spoke up.

“Kenma! If I wanted to be so brutally attacked I would’ve asked Yaku.” Kuroo feigned an offended look.

“He’s right though.”

“Akaashi stop or I will cry.” Bokuto turned and threatened his close friend only to have him roll his eyes back at him.

“Look, Y/N I mean L/N, had a long relationship with me I think it’s normal for me to be slightly off my game for a short while. Why is it such a big deal and why can’t you all just mind your own business. Focus on getting yourselves girlfriends, if that's even possible, before trying to get me back together with my ex one.”

“Listen here young one -”

“Oh here we go.” Kenma mumbled.

Kuroo paid no mind to him as he continued. “- Myself and Bo are ever so busy. We’re third years and captains. We have no time for girls but I can assure you we both have the option to have one if we want whenever we want.”

“No you can't. Girls find your hair stupid and probably don’t find chemistry puns funny or attractive.”

“Kenma! Are you here to help or to bully me?”

“Both.”

Bokuto snickered but was silenced by Akaashi’s sharp voice.

“Stop laughing Bokuto-san you’re no better. The closest you’ve gotten to a girl is our managers who babysit you if anything and you still owe one of them money.”

Bokuto’s face dropped as Kuroo’s smirk widened.

“Kuroo stop laughing.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

The bickering between the Tokyo prefecture students went back and forth until Bokuto stood up to chase Kuroo around who had grabbed Kenma to help him.

Tsukishima had just about had it and had his finger hovering above the ‘end’ button.

Akaashi took it upon himself to pick up the device they were communicating through and leave the room Kenma was currently trapped in with the two child-like captains.

“My apologies for the two of them, they're a handful. But what they’re saying does hold some value. Tsukishima-san, you’re a talented player and sure this must be something you’re trying hard to overcome but, I do think Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san are somewhat right. This girl clearly means something to you and keeping yourself in denial won’t help you. It’s important to keep control of personal issues as it will affect your performance in a match otherwise emotions build up and you’ll lose focus.”

Tsukishima was taken aback slightly. Akaashi was never one to speak up often, only giving his input when needed unlike his friend who would talk for the sake of it. Tsukishima had genuine respect for Akaashi and had decided that from their meeting at the training camp. He was someone Tsukishima found level headed and honest. Someone worthy of giving their opinion in Tsukishima’s head anyway.

“Yeah. I’ll give it some thought. Thank you for your time Akaashi-san I look forward to our next meeting.”

“My pleasure Tsukishima-san and if Bokuto-san bothers you, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll sort it out for you.”

“You’re like his babysitter.”

“He needs one. He has the mental age of a 5 year old. He is still a good captain with good intentions though. Same goes for Kuroo-san. They are concerned for you and want you to know that they are here if you need them. They’ve really taken a shine to you.”

Tsukishima almost smiled. Sure the two loud third years were irritating and provoking at times, they had changed his perspective on volleyball and it was thanks to them he found himself fall in love with the sport he played. He only wished he had the girl he loved too. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud though.

“I do somewhat appreciate them, I suppose. Anyway I had better go. Sorry for all the trouble Akaashi-san, please apologise to Kozume-san too.”

“No worries, take care and I hope to see the usual or improved standard of yourself when we next play.”

“I’ll try.”

And with that the call had ended. Tsukishima didn’t want to admit it but the points Kuroo and Bokuto had made to him did make some sort of sense and he was silently grateful to them.

Entering the gym felt good for the first time in a while.

Nodding at Daichi, Tsukishima participated in the usual drills coach Ukai was running. Keeping to himself, Tsukishima thought over the current situation and evaluated his options. He wanted to talk to you again but his pride wouldn’t allow it. Not while you apparently have a new boyfriend. That stupid Hara Itsuki none the less too.

-

2 weeks had passed since then and to Tsukishima’s annoyance, both Bokuto and Kuroo made it their responsibility to contact him every few days to check on his progress and wellbeing. Sure he was technically their rivals, but neither Kuroo or Bokuto cared. They saw Tsukishima as a worthy and respectable opponent and someone they wanted to be good role models to.

The rumours had begun to die down much to your relief and you had decided to distance yourself from Hara ever so slightly to discourage people from getting the wrong idea. Hara noticed this and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.

-

5pm at Karasuno highschool was usually a peaceful time. Volleyball practice had ended and very few students were left on campus.

Tsukishima had been making his way out of practice when his phone rang. Another facetime call came up on his screen and immediately his face scrunched up.

“Don’t you have anyone else to bother?”

“Nope ~”

Tsukishima snarled as he made his way to his locker to grab his biology textbook before heading home.

“Hang on I’m gonna add Bo to the call.”

“Must you? I can just about handle you both one on one and I don’t even like doing that.”

“Such a sharp tongue Tsuki. I only hope you're working on your blocks and observations to be just as sharp again.”

“Hey, hey hey Tsuki!”

“Ugh.”

The two captains spoke to each other briefly as Tsukishima kept them on the call while unlocking his locker until a familiar voice piqued his interest.

“Shush for a sec would you.”

Tsukishima demanded the two third years as they stopped and stopped talking.

The blonde first year could hear your voice nearby and from what it sounded like you were in slight distress.

“Stop it you piece of shit!”

“Thats Y/N’s voice.” Tsukishima quietly muttered as the two captains listened carefully.

Quietly walking closer to where you were heard, Tsukishima noticed Hara had you cornered against the wall and it didn’t look like he was letting you go anytime soon.

“Listen to me Y/N. I’m fucking sick of waiting. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to do anything with you? You’re so fucking naive it’s pathetic.”

Tsukishima was taken aback slightly. Hara had just insulted you? But weren’t you dating him? Deciding not to step in just yet, he decided to continue observing from a distance and then make a decision on what he should do.

“Hara, listen to me. You broke me and Tsukishima up whether that was your intention or not. I rejected you because I don’t want to date anyone. Especially not you and you know why. Let me go now.” Your tone was icy and your glare was hard.

Lowkey Tsukishima was proud of the tone you were using. Before the two of you had started dating, you were never nasty to anyone. You did start to pick up the habits of Tsukishima’s spiteful tone however a few months into your relationship and he was proud of that.

“Listen here you fucking slut. Your lanky boyfriend only got in the way. Poor naive little Y/N did you really think I was interested? Your personality is something I’ve been forcing myself to put up with for months and I still haven’t dicked you down yet. You’re a selfish brat.”

Your face twisted with disgust. You were furious, enraged even. Since your fight with Tsukishima you had built up your tolerance to harsh words so Hara’s insensitive language didn’t affect as much as it probably would’ve a few months ago.

“Who the hell gave you the confidence? As if I’d ever let a creature like you touch me. Did you really think I’d let you sleep with me after you drove a wedge between me and Tsukishima? You’re a sick little bitch an ugly one too!”

Now Tsukishima was proud of you. Harsh insults, cutting edge tone, dark scowl and a whole load of attitude. Whether you liked it or not, your time spent over the long months with your ex boyfriend had transformed you into his own Frankenstein's monster and he took a small hint of pride in that.

Hara grew angry and slammed his hand harder against the wall making you flinch.

“What makes you think I’m waiting for your permission. You’re helpless Y/N. A helpless little slut who’s about to get what she deserves.”

Your eyes clenched shut. There was no chance in you winning a physical fight with this boy. You had just about lost hope.

“AHAHAHAHAHA BO DOESN’T HE SOUND LIKE A GREMLIN!”

“BRO YOU’RE RIGHT HE DOES!! I JUST KNOW FROM HIS MID PUBESCENT VOICE HE SMELLS LIKE MAYO OR SOME SHIT!”

“STOP IT YOU CHEEKY BASTARD I’M GONNA PISS MYSELF!”

“DON’T BLAME ME, BLAME LITTLE PITCHY VOICE BITCH AT KARASUNO!”

Hara’s head snapped to face Tsukishima who was sighing in embarrassment at his two upperclassmen’s comments. Kuroo and Bokuto were currently having a field day mocking the ‘little bitch boy’ Hara.

You looked up as your eyes widened at the sight of your ex boyfriend stood there, phone in one hand, bag and textbook in the other. He was slightly sweaty from training and he held a dark expression to his face.

“What the actual fuck?” Hara spat out.

“I’m afraid you’ve been caught out Hara-san.” Tsukishima cooly said as the screeches of the two captains on the phone lowered down.

“Tsuki PLEASE show us what little bitch boy looks like I’m begging you!”

“Yeah show us Tsuki!”

“Ready to have your eyes burned?” Tsukishima snickered as he flipped the camera and pointed it towards the now raging Hara.

“WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT NO I AM GONNA PISS MYSELF!”

“IT’S THE EXPRESSION FOR ME!”

“Guys stop being so mean I think he’s going to cry.”

Hara snarled and glared straight at Tsukishima who had decided to give into Bokuto and Kuroo and encourage their provocative behaviour for once.

“You’re the one who’s going to be crying you lanky bit-AH SHIT FUCK!”

Hara was cut off by your knee making quick contact with his crotch with heavy force.

“Felt kinda small down there buddy.”

With Hara on the ground clutching his assaulted private area, you ran away from him and next to Tsukishima’s side.

“NO WAY DID SHE JUST SAY YOU FELT SMALL DOWN THERE THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD I’M SO GLAD WE CALLED TODAY AHAHAHA!”

“LITTLE DICK PITCHY VOICE BITCH BOY!”

Tsukishima made a mental note to not ever encourage the two captains to be as irritating as they were being to Hara now but since he wasn’t on the receiving end it couldn’t hurt to push them a little bit.

Hara began to move and both you and Tsukishima stood towering above him.

“Oi Tsuki I don't condone violence but… kick him if you’re bad.”

“Do it Tskui, do it for the boys.”

“Nobody is kicking anyone.”

A new voice was heard in the halls.

“Sawamura-san.” You bowed your head slightly as he smiled at you and Tsukishima briefly before turning his attention to the two fellow captains on the call with Tsukishima.

“I’d appreciate it if you two didn’t try to corrupt my players thank you.”

“Do you country kids not ever have a bit of rough house from time to time?”

“Not when I’m around no.” Daichi replied back to the bedhead captain who only smirked in return.

Now turning his gaze to the whimpering boy on the floor Daichi raised an eyebrow.

“What happened here.”

“Attempted assault.” Tsukishima swift replied.

“Attempted? That bitch did assault me!” Hara cried from the floor.

“Kuroo listen! The gremlin’s voice is even more pitchy!”

Daichi sighed and grabbed the boy up from the floor.

“I’m not stupid. Tsukishima isn’t the type to lie and L/N doesn’t exactly look thrilled to be in your presence either. I think me and you should take a little trip down to the principal's office and have a look through the cctv footage.”

“Get rekted.” Bokuto snickered as Daichi dragged the disgraced boy off towards the reception.

“Listen I think you two have some things to talk about so we’re gonna go now. Remember what we said to you Tsuki. Call you soon!”

“Get that cooch my son!”

Tsukishima immediately hung up after Bokuto’s last comment which earned a snicker from you.

“Look, Tsukishima, I’m really really sorry about what went down a while ago. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it and it was wrong of me not to just approach you and express my issues I had with you. In all honesty I didn’t have a huge problem with your attitude, Hara got into my head a bit and would tell me my reputation was being dragged down by you.”

Tsukishima stared down at you as he examined your face. He could tell you were being genuine but he knew you both needed time to talk things through and be more transparent with each other before picking things back up from where they left off.

“I know Y/N. I’m sorry for what I said too. I know I said some hurtful things but I didn’t mean them. You’re worth more than what I claimed you were and for that I apologize. I just wish you had been more open with me.”

Your eyes widened slightly. Tsukishima never apologised so this was a big deal to you. You gave the boy a soft smile.

“It’s going to take some time for us both to heal. A lot went down today but if you’ll let me, I want to give us a chance to rebuild things between us. I still love you no matter how much I try to deny it. We need to work on communication obviously but I do want to give us another shot, Tsukishima.”

“Kei. It’s Kei to you. And yeah you’re right. We do need to be more open with each other. I’m not saying we should get back together right now, but I do care about you and I suppose I do need you in a weird way. I’m happy to work on us if that’s what you want.”

Tsukishima smiled down at you. The first genuine smile in a while which you immediately returned back to him.

-

Hara had caused a lot of damage. But you had the time to rebuild it all and that’s just what the two of you did.

This was obvious to all 3 captains involved in watching over Tsukishima when they saw the improvement in his playing.

Sure Tsukishima found people irritating often, but thanks to their concern a weight was lifted off his shoulder. Hara was expelled for attempted sexual assault, and you were being more clear with him.

It would take a while for things to go back to what they used to be, but getting rid of Hara and having you back by his side was a good start.

[yandere-sins]

Darkness

Yantober List! Feel free to participate at any point :3

Do I sometimes notice that I don’t plot my stories? Yes. Do I not plot them anyway and just go with the idea that comes to mind? Absolutely. Is it a good idea? You have to decide!

Hotel? Trivago.

»»————————————  ♡ ————————————««  

When you awoke the next morning, everything was dark. Strangely enough, you knew the curtains weren’t strong enough to not let a bit of sunlight through them, and even with the lights off, there was no way of it being so extremely dark. Shifting in your place, your voice broke from the strain before you could complain, but a new sensation reached you, the one of not being tied entirely to the bed. 

In fact, you felt like you could stand up. 

Testing the waters, you slowly nudged one foot off the bed, instant gratification overcoming you as you were able to touch the ground with your bare foot again. Immediately, you began moving your whole hips into this direction until you felt your upper body restrained by your arms, unable to go further than you were. Wiggling your fingers, you were glad to still have feeling in them, but starting from your wrists, you could feel the strong wrap of rope around them, and it didn’t take long until you realized something worse than that. 

Rhys was lying right next to you, holding the rope down. Meaning, if you were to get up now, he’d wake up from feeling the rope slip either from his grip or body. This was not good. You did not want that at all. Yet, after figuring out where the rope led, you placed your hands near there and rolled your body off the mattress. This could have been a dumb move, but you thought it worth it. Somewhere around here, Rhys’s knife should still be laying, and if you learned something from the movies, you could either cut yourself free or defend yourself with it.

If only you could have seen something.

It was getting irritating that you weren’t able to, and you tried to nudge your face into your arm, indeed finding a soft resistance when you got to your eyes. A… blindfold? That was new. It was annoying that Rhys would think of something like this, but a flimsy piece of fabric wouldn’t stop you for sure. 

Rubbing your head over and over on your arm, always in similar strokes, you managed to move the fabric inch by inch, always a bit further until one eye was free. Blinking rapidly, you felt your eyes hurt, dry and puffy from all the crying so far until you finally managed to open up and see again.

Staring right back into Rhys’s piercing gaze. 

“Morning, Sunshine,” he greeted you, but his blank expression didn’t change into anything remotely happy to see you. “Did you fall off the bed? Hurt yourself?”

Dread overcame you as you realized he was aware. He had laid in silence, like a stone, preying on you to make the wrong move. Slowly, you denied his question, feeling a tug on your hands, your muscles being pulled up into your shoulders. “What’s the matter then? You can get up on your own, right?”

Biting your lip, you neither wanted to play this game nor submit to him and do as he said. Over and over, Rhys loosened and tensed the rope, at first in a slow rhythm, then more frantically. “Come on,” he ordered. “You got down there, you can get up. Don’t be difficult now, okay?”

The coldness in his voice was what made you shiver, and for a moment, you considered doing as he said just so you could stop yourself from fearing the man in front of you. Do what he said, and you’d be fine, that’s what you wanted to believe. But you had never been fine by his side, and it wouldn’t save you to comply either. 

So instead, you moved away.

“Dove, where are you going?” he asked, finally, slowly getting up from lying on his arm, watching you. “Come back.” 

That was an order, not a question.

Every time you managed to slide back on your ass, he curled the rope around his hand once more, following you. Rhys didn’t even try to make himself look less scary, didn’t use sweet words to lull you in. He was done with being sweet, and you knew it. Admittedly, he had tried sweet, and yet, it never worked on you, so if you wanted to play a pointless game, he’d simply play along until you realized it was going nowhere.

Nowhere, for you, was when you felt his dresser in your back, big and sturdy. There wasn’t anywhere left to go, and Rhys slowly stalked towards you, tightening the rope around his hand with one wrap after another. “You done yet?” he asked as he stood before you, little left on the string, forcing you to lift your hands over your head. “Do you like the floor so much that you want to stay on it?” Rhys asked, and you opted to not humor him and say nothing. Instead, you tilted your head down, being quiet.

“Hey… Babe, talk to me.” 

With his free hand, he gripped around your chin, pulling your head up to force you to look at him. You could see it in his eyes how much he despised you ignoring him, and you thought about your chances now, deciding none of them were worth not spiting him. As it was now, you’d probably relive his fury anyway, no matter if you did well or not. 

“Do you know why I put that blindfold on you?”

No, and you didn’t want to know.

“It was a surprise, but you somewhat ruined it now, you know?”

Still couldn’t care less.

“Had you stayed in bed, you would have gotten it immediately.”

Crouching down, you could only slam your hands forward, still hanging from Rhys’s hand held high. But he caught your weapon of choice with his free hand, leaning forward to kiss the side of your neck. Goosebumps appeared all over you as he landed one, then two, bringing them all the way down to your collarbones. 

“I heard it feels better when you are blindfolded. I was going to show you a really good time.”

“Good thing I got off the damn bed then,” you replied without a moment of hesitation. The last thing you wanted now was to get in any way intimated with this freak.

“Oh…” he mumbled, leaning back to face you again. His free hand reached for the blindfold quickly, making you flinch as you almost thought he was going to slap you again, tearing the fabric off. “So you did get off the bed, hm?”

Immediately, you noticed your mistake, having admitted your ‘mistake’ to him without a second thought. “You are so naughty, Babe. And you know what that means…”

Standing up, he gave you another rough pull, and this time, it worked, making you fall over and getting pulled over the floor by him. You didn’t remember Rhys being this strong, but he had no problem, even if you thrashed from side to side. “Naughty sweethearts get punishment, you know? And you’ve been especially nasty the last few days. You don’t even deserve the blindfold.”

A chuckle fell off his lips as he grabbed you under your arms, pulling your upper body on top of the mattress again. “You just ruined your chance on it feeling good, so sorry if you don’t enjoy it as much.” Rhys grinned, one big, ugly one at that, the very same the cashier at the erotic store had given him. However, all you knew was that it made you want to get away again, immediately. But now that he had a good reason to discipline you, he’d have his fun with this knowledge. 

And you’d wish to go back to the time where the blindfold was still on, and darkness was all that you could see.

Continue

[psianabel-writes]

Luxu & Brain - Dandelion

Day 4 of khuxweek! Heavy headcanon theory, in which I bring up several of my Scala Brain and Luxu thoughts :D

____________________________________

Watchful eyes wandered over the busy plain down the hill, taking note of everyone roaming around and trying to help where they could. Some offered their strength to carry heavy materials, others found their place in coordinating the next steps, or helped setting up camp for whatever was needed.

It's been like this these past two weeks, day in and out, and all these past years he had been watching them, Luxu had never seen the Dandelions work so thoroughly together.

Thrown into such a different situation than before, … Luxu was more than glad to see that Ava's handpicked wielders were trying hard to overcome this tragedy together. 

Diving into hard work was one way to block out the fact that their hometown was no more.

And Luxu himself had to find ways to cope with what he saw. Witnessing a Keyblade War Clash was one thing, seeing the town you grew up in destroyed by the hands of darkness was another.

The worst of all, he was alone with his thoughts, having a lonely mission with "no meddling".

Yeah, right. 

He repeated those words over and over in his head each night. Yet he's come to a conclusion on his own already - without the Master, without able to ask questions, this was his own show from now on.

He wanted to do what he was told. After all, all of it was needed for something so much bigger, right? 

But that wasn't what the Master actually meant.

Right?

Luxu sighed.

It wasn't easy. It wasn't fair. 

I have a role to carry out. I'm the only one who can do it.

He stared at his gloved hands. 

For a while he knew he couldn't continue his task like this for all eternity. He couldn't hide forever. 

No one knew him, no one knew how he looked like, no one knew how he sounded like. 

And that might have been just the right idea.

________________________________

"Who are you?" Brain tilted his head with squinting eyes. 

It was a busy day, more than usual these past days, but an important one regardless. The waves clashed against the shoreline, simple boats anchored nearby. The quest to explore the other islands nearby was in full force and everyone was excited to prepare and participate.

"Never seen you around."

"Oh! Me?" The questioned young man striked a pose and bowed in front of Brain. "Sorry, I'm usually more on the sidelines. Decided not to for once."

Brain wasn't quite convinced, but he took it anyways. 

"I'm Castity, by the way! Cas for short." Cas waved to Brain and grinned. "Nice to finally meet you!"

"Oh, huh. Nice to meet you too, then."

Between all the busy former-Dandelions, this was an odd conversation to have on this day. Brain's thoughts were occupied with way different things than to question this further -

"Well okay, continue your work then."

"Will do, Mr. Leader!" 

Brain was already in the motion to leave before he could react to that title. And instead he shook his head with a chuckle, coordinating the next task right away.

_____________________________________

It worked surprisingly well. 

He fitted in, helped them build their new city, lived among them without anyone knowing who he actually was.

Perfect. 

… That didn’t count as meddling, right? 

Hah, as if.

"Hey, Cas?" Brain waved in front of the young man who promptly blinked and took a step away. "You there?"

"Huh? Oh … Oh yeah! Uh, here!" He handed Brain the papers he carried in his hands. "The reports, just like you asked for."

"Excellent." 

Brain walked over to his chair and took a spin in it as he briefly looked over them. The city was progressing smoothly. The Dandelions … the people were happy. The chaos and uncertainty of a good future …

It was slowly but surely starting to dwindle away.

 "You know," Brain started again after a while, after Cas just stood in the middle of the room, staring silently out of the window to view the sea in front of them. "I'm glad to have you here."

"Huh?"

With a sigh and a smile Brain stood up and walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Things … haven't been easy for all of us. But you've been a great help and supporter. I appreciate it a lot."

He meant it. 

He told himself it would be easier if he searched for trustworthy people around the Dandelions to help him. If the years as a Union Leader taught him one thing, then it was definitely this lesson. 

They couldn't replace them, but … 

He didn't need to feel alone without them.

Cas watched Brain walk past him, seeing him stop at the other side of the room to look up at the wall. He crossed his arms as his eyes landed on the familiar keyblade hanging there. 

Cas never crossed eyes with it.

"The Gazing Eye sees the fate of the world." Brain said with a heavy sigh. "I thought I could change it. The fate … not letting Daybreak Town fall into the hands of darkness. But … I know better now. I think." 

An uneasiness crept up at Cas as Brain started talking about the keyblade. He didn't dare to follow Brain's gaze, and instead watched him with careful eyes. 

He was watching.

"So instead, let's work with what we have. And make the best out of it. As long as we can."

Silence.

Cas broke it with a small chuckle.

"Nice speech, Mr. Leader."

Brain only sunk his head with a smile on his own. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me this-"

"Will need a few times more." He grinned.

Luxu didn't expect that things would turn out like this, ever since he said he wanted to look over them.

But now he was here. Among them, one of their own.

For now, he couldn't be happier.

[tuff-and-fluff-archives]

Baby, You’re my Number One

Word Count: 1,486

Content Warnings: None

Pairing: Ruby + Arthur (Mystery Skulls Animated)

I know this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this, but since I first got a crush on Arthur over four years ago, I figured I would celebrate finally shipping with him by writing a lil drabble of him finally confessing to me. This fic is really messy and borderline incomplete, but I just wanted to get it out so I can start enjoying my ship with him. I hope you enjoy reading anyway! ♥

Tag List: @cringyalienships @gorillazgirlfriend @nanonami-loves @selfshippinglover @weirdoslovingweirdos(Thank you all for participating in the f/o takeover and giving Arthur some words of encouragement! :3c)

Ruby let out a yawn as she propped her head up on her elbow at the front counter of the Pepper Paradiso, the family restaurant owned by her foster parents. Even with the eatery's popularity in the small town of Tempo, hardly anybody had walked through the front doors in the past hour. Ruby had expected this to happen, though; it was a slow Monday night in the middle of autumn, when the tourist season was already long over, and most of the warm-blooded Texas citizens weren't willing to brave the cold night air, even for a good meal. 

Ruby glanced over to the clock. 6:18. God, she still had to endure nearly four more hours of just standing around and doing nothing. All she could hope for at that point was for someone, anyone to come through the doors and give her something to-

Dingy, ding!

Ruby stood up straight and snapped her attention towards the front door as she heard the bell above the entryway chiming, but she quickly relaxed again as she instantly recognized just who had entered the restaurant. It was Arthur, a close friend of Ruby's older brother Lewis. She had hung out with Lewis's group of friends plenty of times in the past; in fact, he had nearly insisted on it, as the young introverted girl struggled to make friends on her own. Even if she preferred being on her own, however, there was one reason why she was always more than willing to comply with her brother's mandatory invites.

And that reason was walking towards her right now.

"Hi, Arthur," she greeted him shyly as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear in a last-ditch attempt to improve her appearance for him. "What brings you by tonight?"

"Uh, h-hey, Ruby," he weakly returned the greeting. "I just wanted to drop by for a visit, heh…” He looked the other way and cleared his throat before turning back to Ruby with a sudden intensity in his amber eyes. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

Ruby raised her eyebrows and stood up straight, her attention now fully captured. She’d never seen him look so determined. “Oh, is something up?”

Arthur’s slouch returned as he suddenly stared at the floor and rubbed the back of his neck. “W-well, it’s not that important. If you’re busy right now then I can just, like, come back later...”

“Dude, c’mon,” Ruby chuckled as she gestured to the empty restaurant behind her, “does it look like we’re busy right now?” She stepped out from behind the counter and walked around to stand in front of Arthur. “I’ve got time.”

A sparkle came back to Arthur’s eyes as he confidently stood up straight again, inadvertently looming over Ruby and unknowingly making her heart skip a beat as she looked up at him and admired his gentle smile.

“Uh, do you mind if we head outside for a bit?” Arthur asked bashfully. “I would just r-rather do this without any interruptions.”

Do what?, Ruby couldn’t but wonder. “Oh, sure,” she answered, and she quietly walked behind Arthur toward the front door, where he held it open for her and allowed her to exit before he followed. He’s always such a gentleman…

The two stood in the cold night air under the warm glow of the restaurant’s neon sign, a soft breeze tickling Ruby’s cheeks as she stared up at Arthur expectantly. “So,” she broke the awkward silence, “what did you wanna ask me?”

“Well, uh, it’s not so much a question, but just like, something I’ve been thinking about.” Arthur took a deep breath, as if he was centering himself, before he continued, “Ya know, w-we’ve known each other for a few years now, and even if we’ve never hung out, like, alone or anything, I still have a really good time when I’m with you. You’re always totally nice to me too, and I think you’re super funny and smart too! A-and I share more interests with you than anyone else I know, so maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always felt like we go really well together...”

Ruby felt her knees going weak and eyes growing cloudy as she listened with a widening grin to Arthur’s sudden bombarding of compliments. She brought a hand up to shyly cover her dopey grin as she continued to listen and try to calm her racing heartbeat. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, and yet she couldn’t help but think that this almost sounded like some kind of confession.

Arthur nervously rubbed his arm and looked to the side, but found the courage to go on, “Maybe I’ve just been takin’ it the wrong way and you’re nice to everybody the same way that you’re always so nice to me. B-but I really love hanging out with you, and listening to you talk, and making you smile… and it’s okay if you wanna say no! But I r-really want to be someone who can keep making you smile as much as possible, and I would be honored if you felt the same about me…”

There was a stillness to the air as Ruby fully absorbed everything she had just heard. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose, trying desperately to stop herself from shedding any tears in front of the guy that she’d had a crush on for years. The guy who had actually felt the same about her, after all this time, he really loved her too!

Arthur looked at her patiently, a drop of sweat running down the side of his face as his eager grin began to falter. “R-Ruby?.. C’mon, don’t leave me hanging. What… what do you think?”

Ruby let out a deep sigh, and at last she opened her eyes and tilted her head up to look at Arthur, with the tears in her eyes being instantly recognizable in the light. “Arthur,” she said with a shy smile, “are you… are you saying that you love me?”

His eyes went wide as he bit his lip in near reluctance, but at last he was able to overcome his fears of rejection and finally tell her, “Y-yeah. Yeah, I am.” With such a heavy weight off of his mind, he at last had the courage to smile at her as he affirmed, “I love you, Ruby.”

Even though she had figured out what he was trying to tell her by then, hearing him finally say those three words to her made her heart swell with joy, and before she could stop herself, she sprang forward and tightly wrapped her arms around Arthur’s waist as she buried her face in his shirt. Arthur just knew his face was burning red as she felt Ruby push her smaller body against him, but he still returned the the gesture as he gently put his arms around her as well, even daring to run a hand through her soft, curly hair. “Heh, I suppose this means you feel the same?”

“Yes. God yes,” Ruby answered, her voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt. “I’ve loved you for so long, Arthur.” She just barely pulled her face away to look up at him, a few stray tears escaping from her eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am right now.”

Arthur let out a chuckle and leaned down to press his forehead to hers lovingly. “I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of how you’re feeling.” He wiped a few tears from her cheek with his thumb, and his heart skipped a beat when she nuzzled against his hand with her eyes contently closed. Her eyes fluttered open again, and as she looked back up at him, she found her gaze abruptly stopping just below his nose. She began leaning in closer, and before either of them truly realized what was about to happen, she softly pressed a kiss to his lips for a brief moment before pulling away just as quickly. As she looked back up into his eyes, it almost seemed like they were sparkling as he stared down at her with a starstruck open-mouth grin and bright blush in his cheeks.

“Sorry,” Ruby said, “is it too early for kissing?”

All Arthur could do was shake his head as he attempted to regain his senses. Finally, he was able to stutter, “No, that w-was okay.” He pulled her in closer as he began to lean in himself. “In fact,” he mumbled against her lips, “that was amazing.”

And before a single word more could be uttered, the two new lovers closed the gap between each other and let their lips gently mingle as they held each other tight. The only thing that existed to them now, even if it was just for the moment, was each other, and frankly, they couldn’t have been happier.

[skzsauce01]

42nd Moon Pt 3

Description: By some stroke of luck, you get off the waitlist of your biology class. You’d never have guessed you’d find your soulmate there, let alone that he already has a girlfriend... Or that he comes from a fraternity of werewolves.

Warning: none

Word count: 3k

Pairing: werewolf!Jisung x fem!reader,  werewolf!Hyunjin x fem!reader

A/N: Extra long chapter with lots of fluff! Stay inside while reading please!

Chapter List

Despite your every effort to give up on Hyunjin, it still hurts to see him and Jiyoung on the couch, noses touching and legs entangled.

You clutch the strap of your bag even tighter and will your feet to walk past the fraternity’s common room. You are here with a mission, and Hyunjin is not part of any of it.

At last, you make your way around the maze that is the Mu Alpha Theta house and find the door leading to your destination. You raise your fist and knock twice.

A whimper comes from the other side, so you ease the door open. Inside, you find a silver wolf lying limply on the rug.

“Goodness, Jisung!” you exclaim, running to his side. “Have you even eaten?”

He lets out another sad noise and moves only to rest his overheating muzzle on your lap.

You give him a few pats before pulling out a thermos from your bag. You open it and scoop out some of its contents with a spoon. 

“Open,” you tell him.

He does so wearily and you turn the spoon over on his tongue. Jisung mulls over the food for a few seconds before his eyes light up at the taste. He sits up, wraps his teeth over the container, and tilts it back in successions to consume its contents. When he finishes, he hands you back your container and boops your arm with his nose as thanks before collapsing back onto the ground.

You laugh at his pup-ish antics and lean over to scratch his ears. That is when you hear it.

“Hyunjin-ah,” a feminine voice from outside giggles.

“Shh,” comes an equally cheery male voice. “You’re gonna wake up Jisung.”

“Whatever,” she titters. “I love you~” 

“I love you too, Sweetcakes.”

Jisung feels your hand grow tense, and he lets out a whimper of concern.

His noise pulls your thoughts back to the current situation. “Ah sorry. It seems like getting over your soulmate’s a little harder than anticipated, but I’ll be fine,” you reassure him.

Jisung grunts, unconvinced.

“Hyunjin, stop it~”

You freeze up again. You can hear your increasing heart rate pounding in your head

“You really want me to?”

Giggles.

Jisung growls and gets on all fours, prepared to head towards the door to confront his fraternity brother.

“No wait, Jisung stop,” you beg, standing between him and the door. “It’s not our business to interfere. I’ve already made my decision, so there isn’t any reason why you need to go out there.”

He narrows his eyes at you and circles you a few times, ultimately forcing you back to the center of his room. 

“Ji-”

You yelp in surprise as he gives your ankle a small nip, causing you to trip backwards. Instead of meeting the hard ground, you land in a pile of silver fur as Jisung nuzzles up next to you, trying to comfort your aching heart.

When you finally realize what he is attempting, you smile to yourself and bring a hand up to continue petting him. Jisung lets out a low noise of content. You let his deep breathing drown out the commotion outside, and before long, it has lulled you to sleep. 

“Hi Y/N, Hyunjin,” Jisung greets as he forcibly wedges himself between the two of you and the conversation you were having. “Did you wait long?”

“No,” you answer, letting him take your bag from you. “We’re also waiting for Jiyoung anyway.”

“Her club meeting ended at 10:30. She’ll be here soon,” Hyunjin informs you two. 

“Just don’t forget the rule,” Jisung says mockingly to his friend.

Hyunjin grunts and gives the shorter male a shove.

You turn to look at the entrance of Jolly Land expectantly. The two boys each won a pair of tickets to the amusement park in a school event and decided to invite you and Jiyoung. Just then, the other girl comes running and waving at the three of you.

“Hi!” she greets cheerily. “Sorry for the wait!”

Jisung steps in front of your view as she kisses Hyunjin on the cheek. "So to the park then?"

"Yeah!" Jiyoung chirps, taking Hyunjin by the arm and leading him to the front gates. 

"Ew," Jisung comments jokingly. 

You shrug. "It's kind of cute though."

Jisung turns his head to the side to look at you.  You yourself have your eyes trained on the couple. 

"Do you, um." Jisung cuts himself off. "N-nevermind."

You blink at him, curious. "What?"

“Nevermind!” he insists with scarlett cheeks.

You don’t think much of his words and go after your other friends. Once inside, a mascot greets the two of you.

“Hello there! I’m Jolly Quokka. Welcome to Jolly Land!”

“Aha thanks,” Jisung says awkwardly. 

You, on the other hand, is staring starry-eyed at the giant quokka in front of you.

“Let’s take a picture together to commemorate your date!” it suggests.

“Oh, we’re not--”

“You two are so cute! You know, couples get free matching Quokka headbands! So, how long have you two been together?”

“It’s our first date!” you announce, grabbing Jisung’s hand.

The male looks at you with incredulous eyes. He can feel heat spreading across his face and to his ears.

“Adorable!” coos Jolly Quokka. “Then we most definitely have to take a picture!”

After taking the photo and Jisung being scammed into buying one, the two of you are freed to enjoy your day.

“Sorry for doing that,” you apologize once you are away from Jolly. You let go of Jisung’s hand, leaving him feeling dreadfully cold.

“I-it’s fine.” He clears his throat. “You really like Jolly Quokka don’t you?”

You bring a hand up to touch your new head band. “Yeah… it’s really cute, don’t you think?”

You’re cuter. He clears his throat again. “Well um… I guess these mark us as a couple for the rest of the day, then.”

You frown. “Does it bother you? I just wanted the headband. We can take them off for the day if you want.”

“I-it’s fine. We can keep them on. W-why don’t we, um…” He huffs a sigh, still unable to finish what he was suggesting earlier

“Pretend to be a couple for the day?” you finish for him.

“Y-yeah! I mean, there’s so many couples everywhere; I feel left out!” he blabbers before letting out a sigh and hanging his head. “Nevermind,” he says again. “It’s a stupid idea.”

"No, it's not it's not stupid. Jolly Quokka said there’s a lot of couple events today, so this could be a good opportunity to check them out. That is, only if you don’t mind either." 

Oh, Jisung would be delighted. "I d-don't mind." He clears his throat and looks down at your hand. He swallows a lump in and reclaims it.

You intertwine your digit with his, and Jisung almost pees his pants.

Three rides and a bag of cotton candy later, Jisung is still swinging your hands between you two. His steps are light, clearly enjoying himself.

“What next?” he asks. 

A voice over the speakers booms before you can answer. “Step on up, couples of Jolly Land!” 

You turn towards the noise and see an event happening on a nearby stage. “Best Couple of Jolly Land Competition” the banner reads. 

“How about that?” you point. “They say first prize gets an XL Jolly Quokka stuffed animal!”

Jisung’s stomach does a gymnastics routine upon reading some of the events on the banner, but seeing the excitement in your eyes, he is not about to say no to you. “S-sure.”

You frown at his hesitance. “Do you not want to? I understand since I’m not your real--”

“It’s fine!” Jisung cuts you off loudly. “I want to do it. I really, really want to!” He drags you onto stage, snarling every time you suggest that your participations are not in his best interest.

The two of you compete against other couples in various games like trust fall and three-legged race. You are doing pretty well and only one more game awaits.

“And the last game is a game I’m sure you all are familiar with,” announces the MC before whipping out a snack from his coat. “The pepero game!”

The rules are simple: the pair with the shortest cookie left wins but they are not allowed to touch lips. To ensure the last part, one partner is given blue lipstick and the other is given red. Any of your color on your partner’s face results in disqualification. 

Jisung feels his hands growing clammy as he watches you rip open the package. Your faces are going to be just millimeters apart! Jisung wants to faint, but at the same time, he would give up his tail just to have this opportunity. Goodness, he really wants to kiss you. How can he not when you’re so innocently lifting up the chocolate stick to his mouth with your own? 

“Ready?” calls the MC. “Go, Peppero!”

The fifteen seconds allotted for this game is not enough for Jisung to overcome his internal conflict. All he can think about is making purple with you, but he knows how much you want to win this game, and he isn’t sure you would appreciate the action. Somehow, for reasons beknownst to Jisung, a sly hand manages to slide on its own onto the small of your back, flushing you against him as he tilts his head 30° to the right, leaning closer, and closer, and--

“--and time!” calls the MC.

You bite off your end of the stick and step back from Jisung, smiling in content at your progress.

The MC reads off the lengths of some other couples’ peperos until he gets to yours. “1.8 cm!” he exclaims. “That puts you two in first place for this round, and with your scores from the other games, you two are the best couple of Jolly Land!”

“We did it!” you burst with glee. 

The MC guides you two to the center of the stage to celebrate your win. Jisung spots some guys with their girlfriends’ color on their faces and pouts. Who’s the real winner here? Not him, apparently.

“So congratulations!” the MC says again. “How are you feeling?”

“Great,” you respond, hugging your new plushy against your chest. “I really like Jolly Quokka; it’s so cute.”

“You know, Jolly Quokka’s cheeks make it look kind of like your boyfriend, don’t they?” he jokes.

“Yeah,” you agree, pinching Jolly’s cotton face. “He’s cute too.”

Jisung immediately snaps out of his sulking and looks at you with round eyes in disbelief of what he had just heard. How many times are you going to make his heart jolt like this today?

The MC laughs and comments about how adorable the two of you are. “And what do you think about your girlfriend?” he asks Jisung.

“She’s cute of course,” he answers easily. “And pretty and funny and smart.” He bore his eyes into yours as he speaks, hoping you’d feel his sincerity.

After another handful of rides, night falls and the two of you are standing behind some metal railings, waiting for the parade. 

“Look! There it is!” you exclaim, squishing Jolly as you lean against the railing for a better look.

Jisung follows your finger to see a couple of people in quokka costumes twirling batons.

“The MC earlier was right,” you chuckle. “Maybe you should join the parade; you look just like a quokka.”

He swings one of his arms behind you, grabbing the railing from the other side and leans towards your ear. “But that makes me ‘cute,’ right?” he teases.

You blush, realizing how your words sound. “Please forget I said that.”

“Why? I like it; it’s flattering.”

“It’s embarrassing!”

“It’s cute. Like me.”

“Oh, shut up.”

He laughs and you turn your attention back to the parade. Despite the amount of people, the night time wind is slowly slipping under your skin. You clutch Jolly a little closer to yourself to block some of it, but still, you can’t help but shiver. 

Almost as soon as you start shaking, you feel a weight on your shoulder as Jisung places his jacket around you.

“You’ll get cold!” you protest, trying to give his sweater back.

He blatantly refuses it. “All the boyfriends give their girlfriends their jackets; it’s in the movies.”

“But they don’t show the boyfriend catching a cold afterwards, which is what you’re going to get.”

“It’s okay cause you’d take care of me, right?” he rebuttals cheekily. “And you’ll make that stew like you did last time?”

“I can make you stew without you getting sick.”

“Really?” he laughs, rearranging the garment on your shoulders, “I’m holding you to it then.”

“You better not get sick,” you pout.

Ah, your pout is so adorable, Jisung can’t help but stare at it. He keeps staring even as another part of the parade passes by, making your lips part in animation at the colorful lights. Jisung is not interested in the decorated carts or drum-playing children. To be honest, he has only been able to concentrate on one thing ever since that pepero game. 

The urge is so strong, and your lips are so plump, so red, so inviting.

“Y/N…” he begins, his voice barely a raspy whisper. “C-can I… can I--”

He realizes then that you aren’t hearing his words. He looks to your eyes and finds that they aren’t even on the parade anymore. He looks up and immediately finds what has stolen your attention.

On the other side of the parade is Hyunjin and Jiyoung, doing the very thing Jisung has spent all afternoon trying to accomplish. 

Jisung frowns upon seeing you frowning. A little lower, and he sees your soul mark tattoo every time you lift your hand to pet Jolly anxiously. Why do you have to be Hyunjin’s soulmate? Why can’t you just be any other girl in his bio class? Why can’t you-- he looks at his own barren wrist-- be his soulmate?

“Come on,” he snaps, pulling at your hand.

You jolt out of your staring. “Where are we going?”

“Home,” he announces. “I’m tired. Let’s go.”

You follow him through the crowd wordlessly until you’re both out of the mob. “I’m sorry,” you say in a small whisper.

Jisung turns to you. “Why are you sorry?”

“I was staring at Hyunjin on what is supposed to be our date. Isn’t that why you’re mad?”

“No, I’m not mad, I’m just--” he runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “Okay, I am mad, but not at you. I’m just irritated at the whole stupid soulmate thing! Like if it’s going to make you love someone, then shouldn’t it also let you be with them? Then if you were happily together, maybe I wouldn’t have-- Uhg, no, I’m just being selfish right now. This is all just, just so messed up. Emotionally binding you to someone you can’t be with, it’s just so messed up.”

“Jisung…” you begin, although you are unsure where to do so. “It’s okay; I’m okay, unless… there’s something more?” You look at his wrists. You have noticed that everyone in the frat but him has a soulmark. You aren’t sure it’s something he’s comfortable talking about, but you’ve also noticed him staring at yours a lot, and that it’s bothering him.

He freezes at your suggestion. You take in a long breath to gather your courage before grabbing his wrists and stroking them gently. You cock your head to the side, questioningly. Jisung bites his lips and looks to the ground.

“You’re right. There’s something more,” he confesses.

You lower his hands. “You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine,” he says, still not looking at you. “She, um, she’s dead. It happened when I was fifteen. It was the worst day of my life; it felt like the sun stopped shining and I was nothing but a hollow husk. My wrist burned for days and days as the mark peeled off until it was all gone.”

“I’m sorry,” you say pathetically.

“It’s okay. I got used to the feeling. And recently--” he manages a small smile-- “I’ve found something that’s been filling that void.”

“Really? What?”

“That I want to keep secret, my dear Y/N.” With a sigh, he turns around and continues walking. “Sorry to dump that sob story on you.”

“It’s alright. I’m glad you were able to talk about it.”

He smiles weakly again. Only with you, he thinks to himself. “It does feel nice to get it off my chest sometimes. Come on, let’s go” 

He makes a right, the opposite direction to the subway. “Ready to go home?”

“The train is that way,” you tell him.

He smirks and lets out a howl into the night air. Before you know it, you’re dashing through town on top of your personal wolf. Jisung lets the cold air on his face clear his head and the sound of your adrenaline-filled squeals bring music to his ears. 

“Did you have fun today?” he asks once you’ve arrived at your apartment.

“Yes, thank you. And thanks for being my boyfriend for the day; it made me feel less bad to see all those other couples at the park,” you joke.

He laughs lightly with you.

“And Jisung?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t worry about soulmates. There’s another soul out there waiting for you.”

Jisung smiles bittersweetly at you. He takes a couple steps closer and kisses your forehead. “Good night, Y/N.”

You watch his retreating form disappear into the night with your hand clasped over the spot he kissed. If today was any indication, whoever that soul is that’s waiting for him, you think to yourself, is very lucky.

~ ad.gold

[sunflowersupremes]

Sleeping With the Enemy

Kinktober 2020: Omorashi, Watersports, Collaring, Humiliation, Hate Sex, Orgasm Denial,

It’s borderline consensual non-consent. Dandelion knows fully well that it’s an abusive relationship but he participates anyone because he likes it, so take that as you will.

Read on AO3

Series: A/B/O Happy

Sleeping with Valdo scratched a very particular itch that Dandelion rarely wished to have scratched. When he wanted it he craved it with all his being, but those times were few and far between.

So, even if Geralt disapproved of his hot and cold relationship with the other Troubadour, Dandelion refused to be kept from him.

If Dandelion wanted something, he was going to get it, one way or another.

That was how he came to be sprawled on his back on a narrow bed, his feet hanging over the sides. Valdo was kneeling between his legs, staring at him with cold, hungry eyes.

Gods he’s beautiful.

The blonde haired bard curled his toes and whined, his cock throbbing helplessly.

Dandelion had shown up at Valdo’s apartment in the evening, uninvited. But he knew he’d be let in, and sure enough, Valdo had given him a thin-lipped smile and opened the door. No sooner had Dandelion entered then he’d been forced to strip, and had a large, knotted toy crammed in his ass. Valdo hadn’t even stretched him properly (he’d been wet and loose already, but not enough) and the burn from the pain had gone straight to his cock, filling him with hot, burning desire.

Then he’d been thrown on the bed and a given silent look had informed him that if he touched himself he’d be tied up. He had, of course, tried to touch himself, so Valdo had grinned and gone for his toys.

Valdo was, if nothing else, a bit old fashioned. He had strange ideas about Omegas and their place in society, the sort of idea that usually made Dandelion roll his eyes and walk away (unfortunately, Valdo was truly beautiful and Dandelion was nothing if not a lover of fine things). He kept all sorts of old equipment, from the days when Omegas had been nothing more than broodmares, and gods if it didn’t turn Dandelion on sometimes.

The Alpha fitted him first with a gag that held his mouth open, then snapped a collar around his neck. Cuffs attached to the collar and held his wrists against his neck.

But Dandelion knew the worst was yet to come, and that knowledge went straight to his cock, making him grow ever harder.

He whined and writhed, waiting for Valdo to get out the rest of his toys. Please, he thought desperately. Geralt is going to give me a sound scolding for this and perhaps even a whipping, so I had better enjoy it. It wasn’t that Geralt controlled his sex life, but his one firm rule was that if Dandelion went to see Valdo he was supposed to tell him first. Unfortunately, the Witcher was currently hunting a gryphon to the north of town and Dandelion hadn’t wanted to wait.

Finally, finally, Valdo went for the rest of his toys. Dandelion wiggled with excitement as the cuffs were snapped around his ankles which were then tied to the headboard on long chains. His legs were forced into a perfect split, putting his aching hole fully on display, ready to be mounted.

He whined through the gag.

Valdo’s hand rubbed over Dandelion’s stomach slowly, then finally spoke. “One day,” he said quietly, “I’m going to fill you with child, Julian. I’ll keep you tied just like this, as your stomach swells with my baby.”

Geralt claimed that Valdo had once tried to pay him to steal Dandelion’s birth control. It was admittedly, probably true, but Dandelion didn’t care, not when Valdo was touching him with his skilled fingers, tickling up the underside of his leaking cock and pinching his nipples.

Dandelion curled his toes and whimpered.

Valdo’s fingers moved down further, sliding past his cock without touching it. Grasping the base of the toy, he removed it with a harsh tug. Dandelion let out a muffled cry, but the pain lasted only a second before Valdo’s warm cock slid inside him.

The Alpha pressed all the way in, then pulled out slightly, then pressed back in. He fell into a steady rhythm, somehow managing to miss Dandelion’s prostate each time. It didn’t matter, the Omega was fully hard anyway, writhing beneath him and whining.

“Do you want my knot, Julian?” Valdo growled.

Dandelion nodded greedily, drool dripping from his open mouth. Valdo believed that his knot was a treat, that Dandelion would only get it if he earned it (otherwise, if Valdo was in the mood to knot and Dandelion hadn't earned it, he would knot his throat and leave his hole empty).

“No,” said Valdo simply. He finished quickly, pumping Dandelion full of seed, but, true to his word, he pulled out, leaving Dandelion still hard, slick and semen dripping from his ass.

Valdo stepped away and Dandelion’s heart quickened, knowing what was coming. The next toy felt deceptively small as it went in, but Dandelion wasn’t fooled. Geralt would no doubt call it a torture device, and he honestly wasn’t far off. It hurt like hell and Dandelion loved it more than Valdo's knot (not that he would tell the other).

Like the rest of Valdo’s collection, it was older than either of the troubadours, but unlike most of his toys, it was enchanted. Toys like it had once been used to punish young omegas or to ease them through heats before they were mated. Once inside they would swell up and mimic an alpha's knot, but Valdo's had been altered, and it swelled even larger than Geralt's knot, feeling as though it would shred his insides. Dandelion moaned as he felt it start to grow, but the pleasure was quickly overcome by pain.

As he writhed and whimpered Valdo unchained his feet, picking him up and sitting down with Dandelion in his lap. He pulled him close and began to rock him. Unlike most people who had accepted that Omegas were capable of being every bit as clever and mature as Alphas and Betas, Valdo remained convinced they should be treated like children.

Dandelion curled into him willingly, leaning into the touch, however mocking the affection might be. Valdo popped a cork off a bottle of wine and took a sip, then dripped a bit into Dandelion’s mouth. He swallowed happily.

They drank their way through two bottles, curled together on Valdo’s bed, the Alpha pressing on Dandelion’s stomach as he whined from the pain of the toy. Soon though, the discomfort from the toy was joined by another discomfort, as he wiggled uncomfortably and pointed toward the water closet, hoping Valdo would get the hint and realize that he needed to pee.

Valdo seemed to understand, but he only gave Dandelion a mocking smile, pressing his fingers down firmly over the bard’s bladder. “Don’t you know to piss before you leave home? Didn’t your mommy teach you that?”

It was particularly cruel coming from Valdo, who knew full well that Dandelion had never known his mother.

He moaned and whimpered as Valdo continued to apply pressure. The Alpha’s other hand snaked down to rest over his cock, his thumb barely covering the slit.

Dandelion tried - he really, absolutely tried - but the pressure from the toy and Valdo’s hand was too much on his bladder. Tears of humiliation leaked out of his eyes as he finally let go, a weak stream of piss escaping his cock. Valdo’s hand kept it from getting on the alpha, instead it soaked Dandelion’s stomach and dripped between his legs.

His face was bright red.

Valdo sighed and shook his head. “What a naughty boy,” he said. “Gods, Julian, how do you still wet the bed, you’re nearly thirty. Do I need to purchase diapers for you?”

Dandelion shook his head quickly. That was further than even he wanted to take it, but he knew Valdo wouldn’t care what he said.

He was still wet and sticky as Valdo put his clothes back on him, ignoring the bards whines and attempts to fight against him. Once he was dressed Valdo slapped his ass, pulled the collar off, and - without waiting for a single word - shoved him out the door.

Dandelion could barely stand as he stumbled outside. His ass stung, his cock was still half hard, his intestines felt all wrong, and he desperately needed a bath. There was still enough alcohol coursing through his veins to make everything a bit fuzzy, and he had to think for a moment to remember the way back to his house. But before he could decide how best to limp back home, a strong arm wrapped around him.

“I knew I’d find you here, you fool bard,” Geralt murmured, ruffling his sweaty hair.

“Geralt!” Dandelion squealed. “Take me home!” His mind was already whirring, already coming up with a plan to keep Geralt from being angry with him. He’d play up the door, pitiful Omega, let Geralt realize how poorly Valdo had treated him - the Witcher could surely smell the piss on him - and convince Geralt to draw a warm bath for him. He’d get Geralt to join him in the tub, cuddle, rub up against him (and maybe get an orgasm, since he still hadn’t gotten one from Valdo), and just generally let Geralt spoil him. The Alpha would love it and forget that he’d told Dandelion to stay away from Valdo. To his addled mind, it seemed like the perfect way to get out of a spanking. “Pleaseee Geralt,” he whined.

The Witcher sighed, muttering about what a stupid slut Dandelion was, but he scooped him up willingly, holding him to his chest.

It was late, the streets dark and deserted, and no one saw them as they made they way home. Geralt didn’t even need to be prompted to put Dandelion in a bath, as soon as they got home he turned up his nose and informed him that he smelled horrid.

Dandelion was deposited straight in the tub, clothes and all, and Geralt poured a bucket of water over his head.

Cold water.

He immediately sobered up, shrieking, “Geralt!”

“Dandelion, I’ve begged you to tell me before you go looking for Valdo. That man is nothing but trouble. He does not care for you at all, only for the hypothetical children he believes you will give him.”

“I won’t have children, Geralt, I don’t even like them.”

“He’s not going to take no for an answer, Dandelion, don’t you see that?” Geralt began to unbutton Dandelion’s wet clothes, pulling them off the omega and tossing them aside. The Omega whined and shivered, pouting as Geralt poured more water over him. “He believes that you, as an Omega, are only a benefit to society so long as you bear children. Specifically, his children.”

“Geralt, he’s stupid and old-fashioned, but I can’t fault the quality of his cock. It's got a slight curve, you see-”

“He pissed on you, Dandelion.” Geralt grabbed a bar of soap and a rag, rubbing them together until it lathered. “You have half a dozen lovers in Oxenfurt alone, couldn’t you have gone to one of them if you were so horny?”

The bard decided it was best not to correct Geralt as to who’s piss it was (or the fact that he had more than half a dozen lovers in the city). “I wouldn’t go to him if I didn’t enjoy what he does. You of all people ought to understand that, after all Yennefer-”

Geralt shoved the bar of soap in his mouth. “Not another word,” he said sharply. “I won’t have you speaking ill of Yennefer.” He began cleaning Dandelion with the soapy cloth, his touch gentle as he rubbed it between his legs and over his stomach. But, despite Dandelion's hopeful look, he paid no more attention to the bard's cock than the rest of him (of course, the cold water had killed his erection, but he was more than willing to try again).

Dandelion knew better than to spit out the soap, no matter how foul it tasted, so he pouted instead, giving Geralt the most pitiful look he could muster as he continued to shiver in the cool night air. It seemed to have worked because after a moment Geralt held out his hand, and Dandelion was more than happy to spit the soap out for him.

Once he was sufficiently clean Geralt rinsed him once more, then helped him from the tub and wrapped him in a towel. He rubbed Dandelion’s head briskly to dry his hair as best he could (it hadn’t gotten too wet, most of the water had been dumped on his chest and groin).

“Dandelion, the world is a much safer place for Omegas than it has ever been, but men like Valdo would see it return to the primitive ages past.” Geralt dressed him in a robe as he spoke, then ushered him out of the bathroom and toward his bedroom.

“I know, Geralt, I know. But I’m a liberated man, I-”

“Liberated men don’t have to be stupid.” Geralt lit a fire in the hearth with a snap of his fingers, then pushed Dandelion toward the bed. “I am begging you, don’t go to Valdo without telling me at the very least.”

“Geralt-”

“Or is that part of the thrill for you Omega? Knowing that he’ll degrade and humiliate you and then, when you return to me, I’ll thrash your hide?”

Dandelion didn’t say anything, but that seemed to be enough of an answer for Geralt. The Witcher shook his head as he pushed Dandelion into the bed. “Do you have lectures to give tomorrow, bard?”

“At noon, yes,” the bard said, leaning into the pillows happily. “On the history of-”

“You’ll be teaching with a well spanked ass,” said the Witcher, draping a blanket over him. “Goodnight Dandelion, we’ll continue this in the morning.” He leaned over him, pressing a kiss to his temple, but then shifted as though he planned to step away.

“Don’t go,” Dandelion whined.

Geralt sighed and slid into bed beside him, wrapping his arms around Dandelion and pulling him close. “I wasn’t planning to, clearly I have to keep a close watch on you at all times.”

“I love you,” the Omega yawned, burying himself against Geralt happily.

“I love you too, you damnable whore.”

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Genetics

If any of my Deconstruction posts were going to turn heads, I had a hunch it would be this one. You’ll probably find this topic incongruous with the others simply because—unlike Aura, Semblances, Dust, and Grimm—genetics isn’t one of RWBY’s unique gimmicks. If I’m being entirely honest, part of why this post exists is because I still had some miscellaneous talking points to address, but lacked a proper heading to file them under. Call it what it is: a dumping ground for wayward thoughts.

But there’s a bit more to it than just that. The reason why I want to talk about this is because, much like the other mechanical aspects, genetics does have a bearing on RWBY’s worldbuilding, and the stories that were subsequently built around it. It has an undeniable impact on the sociopolitical human-Faunus schism that set the stage for Remnant’s immediate past, and the present-day terrorist acts committed by the White Fang. Genetics is also an extension of RWBY’s adherence to color theory, reflected in the hair and eye color choices of the ensemble cast.

Before we can finally conclude Part 1 of the Worldbuilding posts, we need to discuss this topic from both a narrative and a production standpoint. Genetics is firmly rooted in the development and design choices of the writers—choices which, as you’ll quickly see, had long-lasting consequences for the show.

Today we’re going to be dividing this topic into two sections. Since I’m sure it’s already on your mind, let’s get the obvious one out of the way first:

The Genetics of the Faunus

The Faunus are going to have an entire post dedicated just to them, but it’s impossible to talk about genetics without at least a passing mention of one of Remnant’s two main species.

Subspecies.

Races?

Yeah. You can quickly see where this is going.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me provide some context. Just like the conception of the Maidens, the Faunus can trace their developmental history to a rather impulsive design choice:

“Monty really wanted a character with cat ears,” admits Miles Luna. Shawcross expands on how Blake Belladonna’s look resulted in a cornerstone of the show’s lore. “So if Blake has cat ears, does that mean anyone can have cat ears? Could they have other animal traits? It’d be cool to see someone with scales or a fox tail…” [1]

Let me clarify by saying that there’s nothing wrong with basing a decision on aesthetics (in principle, anyway). And RWBY isn’t the only franchise guilty of doing this. It only takes a few seconds of consulting TV Tropes to see that zoomorphism is extremely pervasive. And while I have a tendency to complain a lot on this blog, I’m not such a kvetch that I’ll deny that animal-people with lion tails and ram horns look fucking sweet.

The problem I have with Faunus (from a genetic standpoint) is the way they’re inconsistently described in relation to humans. While Qrow unambiguously refers to them as a separate species, [2] we have Faunus characters that contradict him by describing themselves as a race. [3] This leads to the inevitable issue of whose account do we trust? On one hand, the information provided to us by Qrow is through World of Remnant, a spin-off series whose entire purpose is to clarify information and teach the audience about core worldbuilding concepts. On the other hand, what we’re told about the Faunus being a race comes directly from Ghira Belladonna. In this context, who would you expect to be the better authority on Faunus—a human, or a Faunus?

Even if we set aside the complicated implications of an outgroup member talking over a minority, we’re still left with the issue of well, which is it? Are they a race or a species? And why does it even matter?

Before we can answer any of those questions, let’s quickly define both terms:

A species is a taxonomic rank used for classifying groups of organisms together on the basis of being able to participate in genetic interchange via sexual reproduction, to produce fertile offspring.

A race (in biology) is an informal/unrecognized taxonomic rank below subspecies, defined as unique subgroups with either geographic, physiological, or genetic distinctions from other subgroups within their species. In anthropology, however, a race is typically regarded as a social construct. In this case, it refers to an identity held by members of a population that share physical or social qualities that are seen as categorically distinct.

The answer, if we’re being objective, is probably something along the lines of “RWBY’s writers thought that the two terms were interchangeable, or they didn’t think the distinction mattered enough to do the research and settle on a definition.” Unless someone specifically reached out to a Rooster Teeth employee and asked, we’ll never truly know. Speculation will only get us so far, and where this blog is concerned, we need a definitive answer—or at the very least, we need to talk about why the distinction matters to us.

So, are Faunus their own race? Meaning, are they a self-identifying ethnic group with a common language, ancestry, history, culture, nation, or social treatment within their residing area?

Common language: That’s a definite no. RWBY still hasn’t managed to explain how everyone across the four kingdoms speaks the same language, let alone develop any conlangs.

Ancestry: We actually don’t have a canon answer for this. The show has yet to tell us where the Faunus came from, so we can’t make any assumptions about how related they are to one another.

History: Technically, yes. But the series has a gross tendency to homogenize the experience of Faunus across Remnant, so the history of Faunus in Vale is virtually identical to that of Mistral. This trend results in storytelling discrepancies, like the Faunus in culturally-unprejudiced Vacuo [4] being equally threatened by and involved with the Faunus Rights Revolution, when there shouldn’t have been an in-world basis for this scenario.

Culture: Don’t make me laugh. RWBY couldn’t even be bothered to give any of its four kingdoms distinct cultures. Apart from a few scenes in Menagerie where you see a bunch of background characters hanging out in the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, there really isn’t anything culturally unique to the Faunus.

Nation: I guess? I personally wouldn’t consider Menagerie a nation, simply because it’s not one the Faunus originated from, but were rather given in the aftermath of the Great War. As far as we know, Faunus have always been just as widespread across Remnant as humans.

Social treatment: We’re told that social treatment for the Faunus as a whole is shitty, but that the degree of shittiness varies from place to place. Forgive me if I don’t buy that. Not after we’ve seen students in Vale physically harass a Faunus, [5] shops in Mistral refuse service to Faunus, [6] and companies in Atlas extract labor from Faunus. [7] If social treatment is contingent on shared experiences, then why are we told that these experiences change depending on the kingdom? And if the kingdoms vary in levels of racial acceptance, then why are we repeatedly shown the exact opposite?

Based on the aforementioned criteria, I’m inclined to say that Faunus don’t fit the definition of race.

So, are the Faunus a separate species from humans?

“History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a—a biological standpoint.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

That’s a resounding no.

As much as the taxonomist in me wants to talk about things like the multiple competing species concepts, or the fact that plants frequently violate the definition of species by producing fertile hybrids through polyploidy (chromosomal doubling), I have to restrain myself. For simplicity’s sake, we’re accepting that Faunus and humans are members of the same species on the basis that they’re not reproductively isolated.

The reason why genetics matters in regards to the race-species discourse is because we have yet to learn what the Faunus truly are. If we ignore the fact that they exist because Monty Oum wanted to stick cat ears on a girl, then we have to figure out what their existence means to Remnant’s past: Did the Brother Gods intervene in the early evolution of Humanity v2.0, by creating a subset of people with animal traits that would sow discord, for the sole purpose of giving Ozma another obstacle to overcome? Did Salem (who watched Humanity v2.0 evolve) try to influence their evolution, and somehow managed to bestow animalistic traits upon select groups of early hominids? Is Dust like a magically-radioactive fossil fuel that by pure chance mutated early people through exposure, resulting in their animalistic traits? Are the Faunus’ animal traits completely irrelevant to the plot, and are only there for the sake of style?

That’s why the Faunus’ genetic background matters—because as the story progresses, it’s going to inform what questions the audience asks.

There’s a good chance that all of this will end up being nitpicky conjecture, and there won’t be any storytelling payoff. But I think it’s still important to address, if for no other reason than to illustrate why pre-production worldbuilding is essential for telling a coherent story. But I digress.

Genetics, and Its Relationship with Color Theory

It goes without saying that RWBY is defined by color. It’s reflected in nearly every facet of the franchise—team names, wardrobe, Dust color, Aura color, emblems, characters’ names, even the show’s title—and it’s just as important from a worldbuilding standpoint as it is from a narrative one. [8]

Where color theory and genetics cross paths is in the field of character appearance—specifically, hair and eye color. For the moment, let’s set aside eye color as a visual device for foiling and paralleling characters (like Yang Xiao Long’s purple eyes compared to Blake Belladonna’s yellow eyes). Instead, we’re going to talk about these phenotypes from a hereditary perspective.

We’re going to streamline this discussion a bit by focusing on hair for the moment, and picking three colors that would be considered unnatural by our world’s standards. Let’s go with blue, green, and pink. Here’s a handful of characters who have these traits:

Blue hair: Neptune Vasilias, Ciel Soleil, Henry Marigold, May Marigold, Nebula Violette, Sky Lark, Trifa

Green hair: Emerald Sustrai, Marrow Amin, Bartholomew Oobleck, Reese Chloris, Russel Thrush, Sage Ayana

Pink hair: An Ren, May Zedong, Nadir Shiko

Now we’re going to take those lists and swap out the characters’ names for their inferred country of origin:

Blue hair: Mistral, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie

Green hair: Vale, Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vale, Mistral

Pink hair: Mistral, Vacuo, Mistral

We can conclude that these hair colors are natural on the basis that we never see characters dying their hair, and that similarly unusual eye colors (red, pink, purple, yellow) would also be natural in Remnant. Unless we’re assuming that everyone is wearing custom contact lenses, then it’s safe to say they’re legit. With the example of hair color, you’ll notice that they’re distributed across a wide number of nationalities, with little hint of consistency among them.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to write this off as “the writers wanted to have cool character designs and not have to think too hard about the worldbuilding implications behind them.” But there is a worldbuilding implication behind them, and it’s one that I’ll be focusing on in later Deconstruction and Amendment posts, so I want to make sure we talk about it now:

RWBY has repeatedly shown us that people are fairly geographically isolated from each other, and travel between kingdoms has always been difficult due to the Grimm. It wasn’t until eighty years ago, when the Great War ended, that a combo of international political cooperation and technological advancements made travel safer and more commonplace. Keep in mind that when populations of humans are geographically isolated from each other over prolonged periods of time, it results in those populations evolving specific anatomical traits.

Let me give you a few real world examples. Epicanthic folds are predominantly found in East Asian, Polynesian, and North Asian ethnic groups. Red hair, while not exclusive to any one nationality, is statistically highest in people of Northwestern European ancestry. Darker complexion is most common in equatorial populations, where high melanin production (especially eumelanin) protects against UVR exposure.

RWBY has every reason under the sun to ascribe certain phenotypes to the ethnicities of each kingdom, and for some reason it just doesn’t. Like, why not make green hair a trait common to people with Sanus ancestry? How about red eyes originating from Anima?

Avatar: The Last Airbender pulled this off by making dark skin, brown hair, and blue/gray eyes features of the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation, to reflect its broader geographic distribution, has a much wider range of phenotypes, with both light and dark skin tones and black or brown hair. However, it still retained golden, amber, and bronze eyes as a distinguishing characteristic of people descended from this ancestry. Frankly, I love that the show took the time to establish those traits among its ethnic groups. Not only was it a great way to visually communicate to the audience the ethnicity of the characters, but those traits took on entirely new meanings in the sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. When we meet the brothers Mako and Bolin for the first time and see their respective eye colors—amber and green—we’re immediately able to deduce that they’re the products of successful multiculturalism, something that would’ve seemed impossible seventy years ago when the world was gripped by war. It’s a powerful statement that was conveyed through careful attention to detail and excellent worldbuilding. Given that RWBY also takes place several decades after a global war, the writers had the opportunity to pull off a similar feat. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them once.

At the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing RWBY could’ve done. I think I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities. The show already has so little going for it when it comes to shaping the identities of its four main kingdoms, so with color being such a vital motif for the show, this feels like it should have been a natural progression of those ideas.

On a more positive note, we’ve finally reached the end of Worldbuilding (Part I) - Mechanical Aspects! Next time, we’ll get to introduce the second section of worldbuilding topics: history.

-

[1] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 42.

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 3: “Unforeseen Complications.” Ghira Belladonna: “[Adam’s] actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race.”

[4] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 4: “Vacuo.”

[5] Volume 1, Episode 11: “Jaunedice - Part 1.”

[6] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[7] Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

[8] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 44.

[that-damn-girl]

New Nicknames

(Oneshot)

Pairing: Stucky (Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers) (MCU)

Second part of my collection of oneshots/drabbles for Stucky in the same universe in chronological order - His. Could be read as a STAND ALONE drabble since ‘His’ is NOT a series.

Type: Fluff, cuddling.

Words: 1250+

Summary: Steve comforts Bucky as they give nicknames to each other.

Warning: Ignore any sad endings in 'Avengers: Endgame'.

A/N: This is my submission for @writingsoftheloser 's 1.5K Writing Challenge. Congratulations honey, and thank you for letting me participate! My prompt was 'Lady's mantle - Comfort'. I am so sorry I asked for an extension of 2 days and posted this nearly 2 weeks later. Hope you like it.

A/N[2]: I heartily thank @mysiepereira for letting me use their fanart (below, NOT MINE) for this fic. Please go checkout their account which has multiple such cute artworks. Tell me if they don't melt your heart.

Life had become beautiful for Bucky with Steve by his side as not only his best friend but also a loving boyfriend. It was a promotion he knew he'd remain grateful for the rest of his life.

Steve was sketching in his notebook on his bed, his legs crossed in front of him, under the slanting rays of the sun through his window when Bucky knocked and entered his room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Smiling gleefully at his secret lovely boyfriend - he loved calling him that, Steve put his notebook down and sat up straighter as Bucky neared his side of the bed. Clutching Steve's face, Bucky leaned down to kiss Steve's pink lips softly at first, but when Steve grabbed his butt and pulled him nearer, the kiss was anything but that.

Bucky parted with a peck to Steve's nose and forehead before making Steve lay on the bed, "Hey Buck, what are you doing?"

Bucky didn't answer until he climbed Steve halfway through, "Hey Stevie, your pecs are my new pillow." He placed his head down on Steve's voluminous left pec and hugged him close.

Like a golden retriever, Steve barked out a laugh, "Guess I'd have to sign up as your human pillow now, huh?"

Bucky smiled, "The best." He pecked his pecs before resuming his position. He listened to Steve's heartbeat, calming himself down.

It had been difficult hiding their relationship from the team. Though they had admitted it to themselves, it had been difficult just thinking about being open to others about something which despite being legal was considered scandalous in the eyes of many still.

They weren't ashamed of themselves. Why should they be anyway? But it wasn't easy to overcome the fear of society instilled in their brains from back in the day about same sex relationships.

The team hadn't suspected anything as of yet. Ever since the "bliped" had returned, Bucky and Steve were practically joined at the hip. Sometimes Sam and Nat would be an addition too. They had anyways spent most of their time together before the start of their relationship. Once they were together, the team didn't even bat an eye at them always hanging out together, which made it much more easier for the pair of super soldiers helplessly in love. It was ordinary for the team and the staff. For them, pure bliss.

Behind closed doors, they'd find their solace in either Bucky's or Steve's room. For them, any place would work, really. They just needed to be in the company of each other to make a mundane moment magical. Somedays tough, it was a necessity.

Even with the help of the generous Wakandans and all the others who helped him recover after being free from HYDRA, Bucky couldn't revert back to his old self in the blink of an eye. Getting all those things he wasn't subjected to for decades - the freedom, the love, it overwhelmed him.

He still had trouble speaking and voicing his opinions, no matter how small or big they were. Everytime he thought of saying something, he unconsciously expected to be punished for speaking out of turn. Somedays, he had trouble forming words to express himself. Not that he didn't know vocabulary, but he couldn't translate his feelings into words.

Never having been taken away the basic right of speech before, Steve couldn't fully understand the reality of the torture Bucky had gone through if he were to be honest. But he tried. He had promised himself that he'd try to be there for Bucky, to support him, comfort him, be there for him anyway he could, anyway Bucky wanted or needed him. He would be the sun or the moon if the need be.

Because it was Bucky.

His Bucky.

He'd be damned if he let his lovely boyfriend let down ever again.

"How are you feeling, Buck?" Steve asked like a mother would to their child. He rubbed soft circles on Bucky's back.

Bucky wanted to say he was fine, but he wasn't. That day he woke up feeling not as good as usual. Steve had made Bucky promise to voice out whatever whenever he wanted without any hesitation, so he said, "Down."

"Thank you," Steve kissed the top of his head and pulled the both of them under his blanket. Steve understood it was hard for Bucky to say how he felt. To encourage it, he always thanked Bucky for not shutting him out and communicating with him even when he might not want to talk to anyone.

"You?" Bucky asked him. Grinning, he said, "As good as a human pillow could feel." Bucky chuckled.

"You remember that day we were training those agents?" Steve asked, combing Bucky's hair through his fingers. He hummed in response.

"I saw a few of those dames fawn endlessly over you, specially when they got a look of your backside. Some lads too. Made me so jealous."

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows, afraid Steve would become insecure, "Of me?"

"No," Steve replied, "of those who got to admire your beauty while I couldn't."

Bucky sheepishly grinned at Steve, "Oh, is that so?"

Steve hummed, "Everybody wants to have a look at my beautiful boyfriend."

Bucky laughed, "I like that."

Steve thought for a second, "What, 'beautiful boyfriend'?"

"Yeah. I - uh, I love it when you call me your boyfriend in general, and that has a nice ring to it. I like it." Bucky said, hiding his face in Steve's chest.

Steve grinned impossibly wide, "My beautiful boyfriend, Bucky." He wrapped his arms around the metal armed marshmallow who melted atop him.

"What would you like me to call you, handsome hunk?" Bucky asked in a teasing tone.

Steve chuckled, pausing for a second, "I don't know if you'll be okay with it..."

"You don't gotta worry about that, Stevie. It could be anything as long as you are mine." Bucky reassured him, absent mindedly drawing patterns on Steve's chest.

"Uh..." Steve began, unsure how to bring it up.

Bucky whispered, "Anything, Stevie."

Taking a deep breath, Steve continued without much confidence, "You - uh, remember what you called the girls you used to date back in the day?"

Taking a moment, he said, "I think I remember," Bucky lifted his head to look up at the love of his life, "doll."

Bucky would never forget how fast Steve changed colour, "Yeah, that..." He tried looking elsewhere, embarrassment clouding his demeanor.

Bucky was having none of that. He reached out to bring Steve's face towards himself and kissed him slowly, biting his lip gently at the end, "I'd loved to call you that." He hugged Steve tighter this time as he lay on top of him, "My doll."

Steve was thankful Bucky didn't face him this time, since he swore his face must have become as red as the henly Bucky wore.

Laying on top of him, Bucky felt Steve's heartbeat quicken when he called him that. He snuggled further into his chest, relishing the love and warmth he received.

Yeah, life had become very, very beautiful for the beautiful boyfriend and his doll.

~~~

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[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Aaaaaaaaand we’re back! It’s a new story arc on the Ranma Rewatch, and we’re more than halfway through Season 1 of Ranma 1/2. I honestly did not remember that the focal character for this arc was introduced now, I thought she wouldn’t be a thing until at least Season 2. To be honest, I’m also not super excited, just because this new character is probably my least favorite main member of the love dodecahedron. But hey, maybe I’ll like her more this time around! Next paragraph, I’ll have watched the episode, and we’ll see what I think.

So, uh, before I start the recap for this episode, one thing I feel like I have to say first.

CW: Attempted Sexual Assault played for humor

For now, make of that what you will. Anyway, the episode starts off with Ranma having just used his cursed form to score some extra sweets for what money he had, and is heading home. But he runs into three girls from his school facing down another girl from somewhere else. The Furinkan High girls are all injured, but still try to fight, only to be thrashed by the other girl’s ribbon and then sadistically assaulted by her.

Not liking that, Ranma intercedes, easily able to dodge the girl’s attacks, showing this newcomer that he can hold his own. She gives her name and title, Kodachi the Black Rose, throwing Ranma a literal black rose before leaping away and laughing. Ranma takes the hurt girls to Akane, who hears what’s going on.

The girls are all from Furinkan’s gymnastics club, and they were scheduled to enter a Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics tournament. Only problem: Kodachi and her team ambushed and injured them badly enough that they can’t compete. With no other hope, they ask Akane to fight in their place, to which she accepts.

There’s only one major problem there: Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics requires the participants to use Rhythmic Gymnastic items as weapons, and while Akane tries to train with them, it becomes clear that she doesn’t have the skill necessary to use them. Think of Akane as a Fighter with high STR but low DEX. She gets angrier and angrier as she continues to try to find something she can do, only to be met with failure after failure.

Ryoga, as P-Chan, was hanging around watching, but can’t take it anymore. He runs into the bathtub, currently occupied by Mr. Tendo, and jumps into the hot water, changing back in front of him and heading back to the training hall to help Akane. He does everything he can to improve Akane’s skills, for which she’s grateful, but at the end of the session it’s clear Akane’s about as rubbish as she had been at the start.

As Akane goes to bed, Ranma tries talking to Ryoga, annoyed that he’s still trying to worm his way into Akane’s life. Ryoga’s reply is to insinuate that Ranma is getting jealous, something his immediate reaction makes look pretty accurate. But then before they can talk more, Ryoga jumps into the pond to return to being P-Chan, eager to snuggle up with Akane in bed again, something Ranma doesn’t want to let happen.

While Ranma chases the piglet around the house, Akane returns to her room and tries to sleep, only to realize that Kodachi was waiting for her, holding herself up in the ceiling, ready to attack. They start to fight, but just as Kodachi gets the upper hand Ranma enters in his chase of P-Chan, giving Akane the ability to break free of the ribbon. After they dart away again, Kodachi decides it’s enough for the night, and tells Akane they’ll finish the fight in the tournament.

As Kodachi runs along the Tendo families roof, she runs right into Ranma’s kettle of hot water, knocking her off the building. Seeing that, Ranma catches her, and she falls for him instantly. She uses a paralyzing powder to completely freeze Ranma in place, and then tries to kiss him while he can’t resist. The only thing that stops her is Akane investigating the noise on her roof, finding the two, and assuming Kodachi and Ranma were about to do the do over her bedroom. She sends Kodachi packing, but leaves Ranma up on the roof, unaware he had no say in the matter.

That’s the basic idea of the episode. Like I said at the start, this is the first episode to the next arc, so it’s mostly set-up. For the most part, it works to set up the character of Kodachi, and it does that well. She’s clearly eager to win at any cost, and a lot of attention is spent contrasting her aristocratic way of speaking with her underhanded and deadly actions. She is something unique, though there are hints of what will later connect her better to what we’ve had before.

She’s also the first rival Akane gets, and we see already that she’s into Ranma. It’s also shown that, specialties aside, she’s probably around Akane’s skill level in combat. Of course, it’s also shown that she’s way below Ranma’s strength, which is a bit disappointing. I don’t like that they chose to make Akane’s rival weak enough for Ranma to handle easily, instead of giving her a stronger opponent that she would have had to work harder to overcome. But of course, that would have meant giving Akane’s martial arts skills more of a focus.

Speaking of focus, can we talk about why I had a content warning in this? I can see why some people might feel it may be a bit over-the-top to use such a warning, since Kodachi seemed to just be after some lip-to-lip action, but I felt it was a good idea regardless. Kiss or no, Kodachi wanted Ranma utterly helpless so she could do whatever she wanted to him, and it’s hard not to look at it as sexual assault, or at least attempted sexual assault. I’m a little iffy on that as a thing to use to set up the bad guy, and we’ll see if that’s a trend that continues with her.

I’m not doing a Character Spotlight this week because I feel it’s too early to talk about Kodachi just yet, and I don’t think there are any other characters I’d like to cover more in-depth. Genma Saotome is the only regular so far I haven’t covered with a Spotlight, and that’s because I’ve wanted him to actually be a bit more involved in an episode’s plot, which we haven’t had in a while.

As for my thoughts on this episode as a whole, I’m not totally against it. It does a good job setting up what’s to come next, Kodachi gets a decent introduction as a villain, and there were a few moments I liked. But aside from the uncomfortable rooftop scene, on the whole the episode was mostly just sort of “there”. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I’m actually putting it exactly in the middle of what I’ve covered so far. Room for improvement, which I hope to see next week.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Next time I’ll be covering Episode 12, the midpoint of this arc, titled “A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!” Once again, I love this kinds of titles. Hope to see you all then!

[merakiaes]

Halloween - Xavier Plympton

Pairing: Xavier Plympton x reader

Requested: Yes. 

Prompts: None. 

Warnings/notes: Part two? Comment if that’s something you would want. If the interest is there, I’ll make a part two where they get to know each other a bit better. This isn’t proofread so sorry in advance for any mistakes and sorry if it’s bad. I didn’t really know what to write for this one, hopefully my future Xavier pieces will be better😅 Send in more requests!

Wordcount: 2485

Summary: Halloween, the only time of the year when the spirits can leave Camp Redwood. Bobby takes the squad with him to a college party, where you’re one of the hostesses. 

Halloween. The only time of the year when the trapped spirits of Camp Redwood could step over the border and wander off into the world.

Granted, they couldn’t really get much further than Los Angeles, the very place they had been trying to escape by signing up as camp counselors in the first place, as they had to be back by midnight. But after being stuck in that wretched place, constantly surrounded by death for over thirty long years, anything was better than there.

The first times they discovered this loophole, they had, of course, tried to stay outside camp after midnight, but every time, they would pass out and wake up inside the border again. They were really stuck, and Halloween was the only time the curse was lifted.

Most years, Benjamin, his mother and brother would go off with Bobby as the camp wasn’t safe for him and he couldn’t visit them there, while the other spirits went off on their own.

But this year was different. This year, the Richters were on Ramirez guard duty, and Bobby’s college just so happened to be throwing a Halloween party with an 80s theme. It was an opportunity too good to pass up.

Bobby brought his car up to the camp early that morning, waited right by the border and called out for the spirits, letting them know of the festivities they were going to be participating in that evening and no one made any protests to it.

On the contrary, Montana and Xavier practically fought their way to the front seat, Xavier coming out on top at the end of it and forcing Montana to take her place in Trevor’s lap in the backseat. Not that she was complaining.

You went to the same college as Bobby and had made yourself acquainted with him as you shared more than a few classes. You would say you were good friends, but you didn’t really hang out other than in an academic purpose.

You were a sorority girl and a popular one at that, and he had always been kind of an outcast. Probably not very surprising, as his dad was the infamous Mr. Jingles.

He had told you the entire truth about what really happened at Camp Redwood, about Margaret Booth being the real villain and how she had framed his father to get away with fulfilling her twisted needs.

But he hadn’t told you about the way they were ghosts at camp and that he regularly went up to see them.

Even though you were pretty much the only one who believed the story about his dad and Margaret Booth, it seemed a bit too farfetched that you would also believe in ghost stories, and even though you didn’t hang out on a regular basis, he wasn’t ready to lose the only living friend he had.

It was your sorority that was hosting the costume party, and you were… not too thrilled about it. You may have been a sorority girl, but you were in it all for the friendships and sisterhood, and less so for the parties and boys.

Majority of the men of the 21st century were pigs, especially the frat-boys. To them, everything was theirs, objects and women alike. Although really, to them, there was no distinction between the two.

And their rich dads feeding their massive egos and toxic masculinity with ideas and promises that they were going to be at the top of the world one day didn’t make things better, either.

The sexual revolution had been even more intense during the 20th century, but at least then they’d had some manners about it. When finding out the theme of the annual party, you had found yourself wishing you were actually in the 80s.

But unfortunately, time travel had yet to be discovered, so all you could do was put on a smile, get dressed in some skimpy outfit consisting of a bright purple bralette, a black mesh top and a skintight leather skirt, and go around the party greeting everyone like the good host that you were.

Only half an hour into the party, you had been hit on by more guys than you could count, of which none had made a courteous approach.

It was always the same. They would slide up next to you with a smug, self-righteous smirk, touch your hair or your face while ogling your chest or legs, and ask in a voice they probably intended to be seductive but came out as anything but, “Wanna get out of here?”.  

Every time, you would smile and politely turn them down with the excuse that your sisters were counting on you to looking over the order at the party, and every time you got the same response.

“Whatever, you’re not that hot, anyway.”

At this point, you were so used to it you didn’t even bat an eye, which was actually really sad, because it shouldn’t have to be that way.

Eventually, you just retreated to the back of the living-room, leaning against a wall with an untouched drink in your hand as your friends and enemies danced along to ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Dead Or Alive in all their drunken glory, all dressed in neon, mesh and headbands and behaving as if they wouldn’t have to go back to studying early the next morning.

By the time Bobby walked into the house with everyone else in tow, the party was raging on, the entire house feeling as if it was shaking with life.

After having had to adjust themselves to the new century the previous years they had gone out during Halloween, they were all astonished at the familiarity of it all.

The costumes looked just like their actual clothes, and the music blasting from the speakers was the very same music that had been the latest hits during the time they were still alive.

“Oh, Bobby, this is tubular!” Montana gasped excitedly as she looked around the room, holding on to Trevor’s arm tightly.

Chet nodded, looking around with equally as much fascination. “Toooh-tally tubular!” He agreed.

Bobby chuckled, but before anyone could say anything else, Xavier had grabbed a hold of the human boy’s sleeve and tugged on it, looking rather distraught as he stared at something at the other side of the room.

“Bobby. Who’s that?” He asked, eyes not once blinking.

Bobby and the other’s followed his line of sight and instantly caught sight of you where you stood, looking over the room in a bored manner with your arms crossed over your chest.

Your hair was styled in wild curls, your hips hugged beautifully by a black leather skirt and your stomach and arms on display underneath the black mesh, your chest barely covered by the lilac bralette.

You were unlike anything Xavier had ever seen, and he had seen a lot of lightly-dressed girls during his time as an aerobics instructor. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you, his head spinning at sight of your smile.

“She’s hot.” Montana was quick to comment, to which Bobby chuckled once again.

“Yeah, she is.” He agreed. “And she’s totally out of our league. Out of anyone’s league, really.”

Xavier finally tore his eyes away from you, turning to look at the human beside him. “You know her?”

He shrugged. “We’re in the same classes.” He informed. “She’s the only one I’ve told about my dad.”

“She knows about us?” Ray spoke up for the first time.

“No…” Bobby hesitated, watching as yet another guy approached you, having to hold in the snort when seeing the annoyed and disgusted look overcoming your face. “I kind of left out the whole… ghost part.”

“Introduce me.”

Bobby averted his gaze to the blonde boy beside him, eyebrows raising in surprise at the demanding tone in his voice. “What?” He inquired, to which Xavier yet again let his eyes leave your form to look at him.

“Introduce me. To her.” He demanded, eyes flickering over to you for a brief moment before looking back to Bobby, adding in a more hesitant voice. “Please.”

Bobby hesitated, looking between the two of you. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Xavier.” He admitted but having felt their stares burning into the side of your face, you had already spotted them, and wasted no time in heading over in their direction, eager to get away from the conversation you were currently forced into.

“Oh, thank God, you’re here.” Was the first thing you said to Bobby as you got close enough for him to hear you over the music, dumping the drink in your hand at a table on your way. “I’m at the brink of going crazy.”

You came to a stop before him, your arms crossing over your chest, which only made it even harder for Xavier to tear his eyes away from your… assets.

“I take it you’re not having a very good time, then.” Bobby smirked, amused.

You met his eyes with a playful glare, before looking around sourly. “I would’ve rather stayed at my dorm, watching a movie or something, but oh well.” You snorted, turning back to look at him. “What to do, right?” You asked, attempting a small smile.

He returned it with one of his own, and you suddenly became very aware of the stares from the people he was with, direction your eyes to them. Your eyebrow raised slightly at the sight of them. All of them looked like they were pulled straight out of the 80s.

You hummed, giving them all a once-over before turning back to Bobby. “So, are you going to introduce me to your friends?” You asked, and Bobby quickly snapped into it.

“Oh, right.” He realized. “Guys, this is (Y/N). (Y/N), this is-“

“I’m Montana.” The only girl in the company stepped forward, holding her hand out to shake with a big smile on her lips. “I just have to say, your bod is like, rad. Do you take aerobics?”

“I-“ You were at loss for words at the sudden compliment, your eyes widening slightly. But nonetheless, you took her hand in yours, shaking it.

“I do actually.” You answered, chuckling. “I haven’t met anyone who’s into aerobics around here before. It’s not really a thing anymore. Where did you say you were from?”

She smiled proudly. “Los Angeles, born and raised.”

You hummed, narrowing your eyes slightly at her, trying to process her face in your head, but came out with a blank. “Weird.” You said. “I haven’t seen you around before, and there’s only one aerobics studio left here.”

She only shrugged and smiled, and Bobby took the wheel from then on, beginning to introduce everyone else.

“This is Ray, Chet, Trevor, aaand… Xavier.” He introduced them. All of them gave you a smile and a small ‘hello’ accompanied by a wave each, and you kindly returned it all, until your eyes finally met with the last person to be introduced.

You had never been one to believe in the clichés always used in chick flicks about love at first sight, but as you met his eyes, you could’ve sworn you felt the rest of the room just… melt away.

He was absolutely gorgeous, looking as if he was pulled straight out of a magazine.

A feeling resembling a high came over you and your body moved on its own as you held his gaze, your hand coming out in front of you. “I’m (Y/N). It’s nice to meet you.” You said, smiling, and he wasted no time in taking your hand in his, giving it a squeeze.

“I’m Xavier.” He introduced himself, even though Bobby had just introduced him a second ago.

You smiled and nodded, holding his gaze for a moment longer before turning to look at Bobby again. “Well, you know the drill by now.” You told him. “Drinks are in the kitchen where they always are, and if there’s anything else you need, I won’t be far away.”

Bobby smiled, leaning in to hug you quickly, an act of friendly affection that you accepted with open arms.

“Thanks, (Y/N).” He told you, letting you go and turning to his friends. “Let’s go get some drinks.”

They didn’t need to be told twice, all of them heading in the direction of the kitchen without a second thought, weaving their way through the people crowding the room. But Xavier didn’t move from his spot, his eyes staring down at you.

For some reason, however, you didn’t mind, simply looking up to meet his eyes with a small smile.

Your head tilted to the side slightly as you inspected his face, eyes narrowing as your smile widened. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” You asked carefully, finding him awfully familiar.

A nervous smile overcame his features, but you thought nothing of it as he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He answered.

You hummed, analyzing his face for another moment before shaking yourself free of your thoughts, chuckling. “Sorry, you just look so familiar.” You confessed.

The sound of your laugh instantly caused his smile to widen, and his confidence quickly rose when you let the subject go. “I guess I just have one of those faces.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess.” You chuckled again, smiling. You were quiet for a few seconds, your eyes leaving his to gaze around the room.

In one of the corners, you could spot your sorority sisters playing beer pong with some guys from one of the fraternities, and by the looks of it as Savannah had her tits out, they were playing the hit-or-strip version.

The sight brought a slight sigh from your lips, and you shook your head. You could only comfort yourself with the knowledge that your other sisters would look after her and keep her out of harm’s way. God knows she wouldn’t be able to do so herself in the state she was in; she had never been able to hold her alcohol very well.

“Look…” You began, finally tearing your eyes away from the scene and turning back to the blonde boy in front of you. “I know this is kind of sudden and that we don’t know each other very well but… would you want to get out of here?”

You smiled sheepishly, fiddling with the large bracelets on your wrists. “I’m not much of a party person and I’ve been desperate for an excuse to bounce since this thing started.” You confessed.

But rather than finding your sudden and bold request strange, he only smirked, holding his hand out for you to take. “I go where you go.” He told you without as much as a second thought.

You raised an eyebrow at that, but smirked at him and put your hand in his, and wasted no time in leading him towards your dorms.

[evergreen-femme]

This is my first real blog post, and I want to talk about toxic masculinity, how it has shaped my life, and how it destroyed my sense of self which I have only recently begun to rebuild.

To me, toxic masculinity was an invisible, unspoken network of rules that manifested in the way people and social structures in my life treated me, and what they expected of me.  More than anything else, it was the rule of self-reliance: never rely on anyone, never need other people to expend resources, monetary or emotional, on you.  There were others, of course, like to always know the right answer and have a solution to the problem.  If you are hurt, never express it and certainly never cry or your life will basically be over.  On the other hand, if you sincerely love something, you also can’t express that, unless it’s somehow ironic, tongue-in-cheek, or passed through a filter of crass language.  Repress your emotions to the point where you can’t even feel them.  The list goes on and I imagine you get the point.  The invisible rules boiled down to a complete denial of the self; an impetus to become an empty shell capable of filling any demands society could put on me without complaint, with no genuine emotion of my own.  As far back as I can remember, society has seemed infinitely duplicitous, hostile, and cruel, because I grew up in the throes of a culture that paid constant lip-service to the ideas of inclusiveness, support, and tenderness, but silently threatened complete ostracization should I actually expect that from anyone for myself by behaving in a way that wasn’t in accordance with the rules. 

Not that anyone perpetuated this to intentionally hurt me.  It’s our culture.  They were ‘preparing me to be a man.’  The people who contributed the most, were the people who loved me the most.  The first example I can remember is from my mother.  When I was in elementary school, probably 2nd or 3rd grade, I had some problem or another in school and went directly to the principal to discuss it and resolve it.  My mother would endlessly praise me after that for being able to ‘take care of myself’ and ‘knowing what to do.’  And even though I never fucking knew what to do, or what I was doing, or how to live my life, or what any of my options even were, from that point on it was assumed that I did.  And because I was a fucking child, and my own mother had that expectation of me, I filled it the best I could.  When my parents fought to the point of separating and eventually divorcing, my mom looked to me for answers and I made my speech therapy sessions in school – which were supposed to be about me overcoming my stutter – about how to best help my mom and figure out what she should do.  In my high school years, I learned how to provide emotional support for my mother while also working hard to maintain straight A’s, and went above and beyond to guarantee I could get a full scholarship to a private university, so that I could still succeed in the way society expected me to, while not costing my family any resources.  I recently spoke to my mother about this, and her response was that she thought I knew what I was doing.  She never asked me how I was feeling, what I wanted, or even validated me as an individual human being because she thought I knew what I was doing, even though I saw how differently she treated my sisters. 

I was so fucking deep in it that I never even realized that having friends, hanging out, being goofy, figuring out what I REALLY LIKED, was even possible, or an option for me.  Things like my interests, my sexuality, my desires for the future, felt like dirty secrets, because I was supposed to be doing things a certain way and any deviation from that would be… the end.  I didn’t even understand what it would be the end of, but it would be the end.  I became interested in video games because I had a computer and I could get them for free.  I got addicted to porn because, likewise, it was free and I could do it on my computer.  I fell into 4chan, because it was free and I could do it on my computer and it didn’t carry the risks of social interaction, and that, of course, reinforced the toxic masculinity many times over.  

I don’t want to tell my life story, but by the time I became an adult I was completely driven by the fear of being ostracized from a society I had never once felt like a genuine part of.  To prevent that I played a role I despised, that of the traditionally masculine man who was self-reliant, emotionless, and only cared about himself so far as he wasn’t costing anyone else anything.  I faked my sexuality, my career aspirations, even some of my interests, for fuck’s sake I even pretended to like sports at one point.  Until I just couldn’t anymore.  But by the time I’d realized that I had a choice, and always had had a choice, I had spent so much of my life force acting that my sense of self was basically gone.  I had never nourished it, so it had withered away into a flickering, fading light.  I was almost 27 when I realized that I had no idea who I was.

The past year and a half has been the best time of my life, because I’ve been nurturing myself and letting go of all of the baggage.  That’s the thing about an invisible, unspoken network of rules – ultimately, it’s not real, and if I fail to uphold them, then yeah, sure, it might be the end.  The end of my participation in a culture I never fit into anyways.  In my opinion, that’s a good end.  A great end.  It wasn’t, as I had spent my entire fucking life fearing, the end of my life.  Breaking free of the hold that toxic masculinity had over me feels like the beginning of my life and is the accomplishment that I am most proud of by far, despite the fact that it was something I never could have done alone.  Maybe because I couldn’t have done it on my own. 

Anyway, for the first time in my life I like myself, I’m excited about the future, and I’m scared of actual death, which has to be progress.  If reading this can help anyone do the same thing, even a tiny bit, it's worth posting.

[akkivee]

don’t expect any cohesion out of this outta this by here’s my thoughts and speculations on the hypmic guidebook image. i’m sorry. it’s stupidly long. 

alright so at first glance, you kinda gotta panic a little because holy cow, very few of the teams are actually together?? bb and mtr are the only two (2) groups actually in close proximity with each other while mtc and fp are all over the place. which is weird since we just got through fp at least reconfirming that they are each other’s true posse and definitely should not be separated right???

big brained twitter users tho came through and it clicked that everyone is separated because their agendas/goals are vastly different from each other, not because of their weak bonds with each other. so lets take a look at where everyone stands with each other

let’s start with the buster bros!!! it comes as a surprise to no one, but the bros are still together since jiro and saburo are largely following after their big bro. i do have a point to mention about saburo, but that’ll come later.

so on to mtc!! save for probably fp, their group has the widest separation. but given each of their goals, it makes plenty of sense. samatoki wants to bring his sister home. juto wants to bring about the end of drugs. rio hasn’t made any grand movements, but he is keeping an eye out on chuohku. different goals, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t one as a team.

fp!! you could feasibly make the bermuda triangle with how far apart they are! fp’s goals, as of now, do align since they are truly together to prevent ramuda from, y’know, dying, but their individual agendas are separate. in a sense. i’ll try to expand on this in a bit.

next is mtr!! much like bb, they are together as jakurai leads them towards his goal and hifumi and doppo follow out of their desire to support him.

and next we have dh!! their placement pretty much follows what went down in their debut drama track, sasara and rosho have been brought together (by rei) and are determined to make it work as they partner up with rei, whose goals are widely unknown, pretty sus and definitely not aligned with sasara and rosho. and to speculate a little about sasara and his placement somewhat behind the rest of the leaders, i think that it’s because sasara has no clear goal as to why he’s participating in the rap battles outside of wanting to be with rosho. he is right where he wants to be, with rosho and doesn’t have any current goals aside from staying with him. at least, none that we know of.

which brings me to bat. and kuukou specifically. but notice, none of the bat members are together as well, and like so, their individual goals are pretty different from each other. hitoya is here to beat jakurai for once in his life, jyushi has a strong desire to overcome himself and to be a stronger person, and kuukou has barely left any room for jesus between him and ichiro because kuukou, similar to sasara, is here for ichiro. this is my personal headcanon, but i do believe that kuukou actually remembers that ramuda was the one who hypnotised him into breaking things off with ichiro. neither one have forgotten the other (e.g. ichiro naming his new team after his duo with kuukou, kuukou at the end of the bat debt drama track saying “wait for me, ichiro...!”) so i do think how close kuukou and ichiro are reflects their mutual desire to be together as a team again. 

another nifty thing i noticed was that there’s a divide amongst the cast, split straight down the middle. you can see it with how gentaro/jyushi, doppo/saburo, samatoki/ichiro, are back to back. and on each side, you have one person posed unlike the rest of them; on the right you rei in the back facing away from everyone. on the left, ramuda sitting on the ground. so, i propose that this divide shows who has goals against chuohku, and those who, while not on their side, are entrenched in chuohku’s plans.

ramuda, as we know, has the biggest chip on his shoulder when it comes to chuohku. they kinda found a replacement for him in his enemy jakurai, discarded him, left him die, that sort of thing. if anyone wants to see chuohku burn, it’s him. anybody on his side of the picture has goals against chuohku. 

ichiro intends to ‘break the wall,’ to topple the chuohku regime and his brothers are right by his side with kuukou there with him as his partner, as previously mentioned. again, we don’t know yet of sasara’s goals outside of being with rosho, but in ‘ahh, osaka dreamin’ night,’ rei’s verse states, “teacher, comedian, doctor, lawyer- Those who are being looked up to as pros are all swindlers,” so there is something going on, not only with sasara, but also with rosho. jyushi is kinda unknown, though ramuda expressed quite a bit of annoyance dealing with him at the end of the bat debut drama track. rio is out here with prior knowledge about plot points such as the hypnosis canceller, in cahoots with former military and hacking into chuohku databases all with an illegal gun strapped to his back. like some of these homies wish they had the balls and the initiative. 

as for the right side, rei is the definition of an anti hero. he’s not on anybody’s side, he working with whoever has the power to get his goal done. and that’s on par with anybody on his side of this picture; everybody here is balls deep in chuohku shenanigans, whether they want to be or not.

samatoki’s whole schtick is to free his sister from chuohku. as we’ve seen in the finale of the tdd manga, samatoki will willing go along with whatever and burn any and all bridges if that means his sister is safe. jakurai is likely on this side due to chuohku doing their damnest to get jakurai within their grasp so they can harness the true hyponsis mic’s full potential using jakurai’s healing ability. and where jakurai goes, doppo and hifumi would be loathe to leave him alone. juto maybe be a cop, but it’s implied he is a high ranking one given his change in outfits from tdd canon to present time (from a cop uniform to a crisp suit.) he’s high enough on the ladder for ichijiku, japan’s #2 big boss lady, to know of his work and to be summoned to aid nemu, another high ranking chuohku officer, in an arrest. hitoya, dice, and gentaro are all vague in connection. hitoya, however, is again part of rei’s callout verse as mentioned earlier, so he may be a swindler in the sense of not unwilling to work with chuohku to further his goals (defeating jakurai) and maybe making some hard cash. gentaro is shady as hell; he seems to be connected to a group called plunderer, which chuohku has control over. as for dice, hypmic likes dropping hints that he’s related to otome.

i mentioned i had an observation about saburo, and without getting too into character analysis (ichiro/rei/saburo similarities as people), it’s interesting to note saburo is on the border of this divide and the closest to rei, which could be a play into where we left saburo, questioning ichiro, after the events of helter skelter.

last general observation! with all the speculation i just dropped, the majority of characters that tie directly to chuohku are hanging in the back. we have rei, gentaro, juto, dice, and rio. i thought it was a neat detail, but it struck me as weird that ramuda was way in the front when he’s probably the most direct result of chuohku existing. but... it’s not like the leaders aren’t tied directly into chuohku. they were chosen by chuohku to be center stage in battles meant to appease the general populace into focusing their aggression on each other.

so looking at the pic again, i noticed a kind of... border??

the ones with obvious connections made a circle. i say obvious and included hitoya and rosho into this because of rei’s verse that i mentioned before. so i’m wondering... does jyushi have some stakes involved in chuohku?? he is a little further into the middle than gentaro, but he’s in line with juto?? this may be a case of over analyzing, but i did point out ramuda’s strange comment about jyushi being annoying to deal with which could randomly come back at any point in the story. or not lol. anyway i’m done, thanks for coming to my ted talk it was as long as an actual ted talk

[shemakesmusic-uk]

INTERVIEW: Girl Friday.

LA band Girl Friday's debut full-length Androgynous Mary will be out August 21 via Hardly Art.

Burning deep in Girl Friday's music is an unquenchable will to survive. The LA-based band don't blunt the impact of the themes they work through in their ferocious, knotty rock songs, but they don't let the more harrowing aspects of being alive and young in the 21st century daunt them, either. Taking full advantage of the dystopian shades of post-punk and noise rock palettes on their arresting debut LP, Androgynous Mary, Girl Friday nevertheless suffuse their music with abundant optimism. The world is a hellscape, but the four of them are in it together.

With bold, dramatic guitar lines and tightly wound vocal harmonies, Girl Friday negotiate the stress and alienation that comes with being sidelined from normative society on Androgynous Mary. 

We had a chat with the band all about Androgynous Mary, the music industry and much more. Read the interview below.

Hi! How are you? How have you been spending your time during this pandemic? How has it affected you as a band?

Libby: "Hello! How are YOU? These days, generally diving into some long forgotten projects. I have been chipping away some music that may or may not ever emerge into the world."

Virginia: "I’ve been able to give some more time to working with other bands and collaborators which has been really nice.  Outside of that, just using this time to reflect and learn."

Sierra: "Welcome to this interview. I am stocking up on metaphysical paraphernalia in the hopes that the spirits in my house will finally relent and participate in my long-awaited masquerade ball."

Vera: "Initially I was making tunes and learning Spanish and hanging with my family - now I’m always working but for the teachers union here in NZ so some important work and there is lots to learn."

You are gearing up to release your debut album Androgynous Mary in August. What can you tell us about the record?

Virginia: "In the words of the late Steve Irwin, “She’s a beauty!”  I think we’re all very proud of dear Mary."

Sierra: "Mary likes to explore the entire emotional world at her disposal and say whatever she wants about it."

What were your musical influences for the LP? Who were you listening to around the time of writing it?

Libby: "The movie Hole."

Virginia: "Definitely second Hole.  Pretty sure I had also started descending into my first Cheap Queen deep dive at the time." 

Sierra: "I was photosynthesizing in a Placebo hole that I have yet to claw myself out of. And also a lot of Blaenavon. Every answer must include the word “hole.”"

Vera: "Holy moly mother Mary, literally holes what we dug and sat in."

Please talk us through your songwriting/creative process for Androgynous Mary.

Sierra: "On the third try, we successfully meet in the center of a dark room, under the disco ball. We scream in anguish into assorted jars and shake them violently until we can’t deny the brilliance of the sound contained therein."

What do you hope fans/listeners will take from the album?

Vera: "I just want people to be weird and feel ok about that."

Virginia: "I hope it’s as satisfying as eating a home cooked meal with your chosen family."

Sierra: "I hope they can listen to it on repeat for an extended period of time and feel like they are being held by a loving entity who is just as confused as they are."

Libby: "I hope they like me."

Were there any other songs written during this period that didn’t make it onto the album, and if so, will you revisit them again in the future?

Virginia: "Wouldn’t you like to know..."

Sierra: "We have a staggering and comical number of voice memos that, and I promise you will thank us for this, will likely never emerge from their technological encasings."

Libby: "Nah."

Which new artists/bands are you listening to right now? Anyone you think we should be checking out?

Libby: "Kills Birds, Ulrika Spacek."

Virginia: "Mod Pods, Suzie True, Cry Babe, Hot Moms, Genevieve Artadi."

Sierra: "Hayley Williams’s Petals for Armor. And my brother is about to release an album with our friend Brian that he’s put so much love and work into, and the entire universe needs to hear it! It’s called Silo by The Altogether. (Disclaimer: I am on it, but I can assure you I’ve contributed very little to its perfection)."

Vera: "At the moment I can only listen to this one album by Brian Eno and John Cale, Jesus is King by Kanye, Gracie Fields and Nina Simone."

If there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?

Libby: "More Trans A&Rs. More Black A&Rs, More POC A&Rs. More accountability in safe spaces."

Virginia: "More safe music venues open to minors!"

Sierra: "Fair pay for artists too."

Vera: "Agreed with all. And yes we really need the unionization of musicians and artists and understanding our value in society. Because it is labor and the fact we ‘love to do it’ is really exploited. Going off Libby's point, I think we need to acknowledge the major influence that music created and invented by BIPOC has had and continues to have in genres (including rock) where the main profiteers today are white men. We got to dismantle that."

What challenges, if any, have you faced in the music industry? And how did you overcome them?

Sierra: "We’ve been really lucky overall in terms of the people we’ve worked with, but we have gotten some not-so-sexy commentary from people assuming our genders and what that means about the music we’re able to make. We rename them all “Chris,” quietly hex them, and move on with our lives."

Finally, what do you have planned for when we're back to some sort of normality? I expect you're excited to get out on the road to tour the album following its release and when it is safe to do so?

Sierra: "You are absolutely right about that. Other than fantasizing about future tours, I’m taking it one day at a time."

Vera: "I don’t think there is a return to ‘normalcy’, but honestly if normalcy is Trumps America with a complacent public where cops intimidate and murder and money takes precedent over life, I don’t want to go back to that anyway. Let’s keep pushing forward."

Androgynous Mary is out August 21.

Photo credit: Al Kalyk