#and it's not a super popular pairing apparently??

[packet-of-staples]

Where are all of the Harvey x Elliott Stardew shippers at??? I only know of ya'll from Ao3 but I cant find the ship like anywhere else??

Cmon we gotta come together. Please :[.

[juniperdugong]

Relationship Quirks 97s ver.

Aka habits I can see the boys doing in a relationship || 95s || 96s || 97s || Maknae line ||

The8 Wears your favorite color

Now this one is truly an unconscious thing that Hao does. You mention your favorite color one day during a random conversation and he doesn't do much with it... until the color starts becoming more eye-catching.

Suddenly more and more of his wardrobe is taken over by your favorite color; Not in a way that cramps his personal style but in a way that adds to it, of course. And even when he isn't wearing clothing that's your favorite color then his nails will definitely have sort of accent in or completely be (insert fav color here).

It's funny because he vehemently refuses to believe that's what's happening. If anyone, especially you, brings up how often he wears that color then he will scoff; Something about "no one being able to shake his personal preferences" or something like that.

"Been liking purple a lot lately, huh?" "No, I haven't." "But your nails are purple, your beanie is purple, and your cardi-" "Maybe, It just fits with my current style???" *Rolls his eyes and then buys a belt he's been "eyeing for ages"... just so happens to be purple*

DK Brings you up in every conversation

This sweet summer child~! (He's older than me) You would never in the world have to be jealous when with this man. Because chances are if he's talking to someone and it looks like anything interesting is happening AT ALL he's probably talking about you. Honestly, his dedication to talking about you might make people think he's obsessed (...he is) Maybe people would be even more interested in him because of that though... Call me crazy but dedication is sexy!

Either way, you're the only person in his sight and he swears it up and down. Doesn't leave any room for doubt either! The boys and your mutual friends are constantly telling you how appalled they are at how sweetly Kyeom talks about you when you aren't there. You're at the forefront of most of his conversation when you're with him, you can't imagine it being worse when you aren't around, but apparently, you are DEAD WRONG.

Seeing a pair of shoes can turn into a rant about what pairs of shoes you like. Ice cream flavors remind him of the time that you got ice cream for him when he was feeling sad and he just has to tell the guys about it. A talk with his manager about his recent health suddenly takes a turn and now he's sobbing talking about how much you take care of him. It's all you you you~

Mingyu Has to hold your hand

So we all know that Gyu is the biggest cuddler of all time, there's no doubt that he isn't clinging to your side when you're around. But hand-holding is different, Gyu can stand to not be hugging you 24/7... as long as you're holding his hand.

Claims that it feels like he's missing a piece of himself when he lets go, and also claims that you practically disappear if you aren't holding his hand, endless sulking. (Dramatic ass) And why can I vividly see him holding YOUR hand while clinging to the members??? Like he'll be swaying your arms back and forth while LITERALLY HOLDING WONWOO BY THE WAIST & BACKHUGGING HIM!!! Then has the audacity to be offended when you let go.

Also, has to hold your hand to sleep. He would love to cuddle! And he often does!... For like 10mins before this human space-heater gets too sweaty and has to move to the opposite side of the bed. Holding your hand in his sleep is a good compromise though, of course until you're letting go to use the restroom. (Deffo the type to follow you to pee, sits on the sink too)

A/N: I ain't even gonna lie... all of these headcanons could have been turned into full fics. I went insane imagining these habits, the 97s have been killing it in terms of looks and popularity lately. On a real note though, FUCK PLEDIS! PROTECT THE BOYS! Still so fucking pissed about what they let happen to Mingyu and TWS. Calming down... Comments and Reblogs are like super fuel for my writing and are much-appreciated lovelies!

TAGLIST (open): @bemybabiibish @bath1lda

[spideyjimin]

PART I: SHIVERS | un cielo di perle

“un cielo di perle” means a sky of pearls in italian

⏤ pairing: taehyung x female reader 

⏤ genre: college au, rich kid!taehyung, strangers to lovers, enemies to lovers, fluff, angst, and smut 

⏤ rating: 18+

⏤ words: 5,981

⏤ summary: taehyung doesn’t know how to love, he actually has never loved anyone, not even himself. he dreams of escaping this life, a life where he can do whatever he wants and where his parents don’t exploit him. his dream becomes a reality when he meets you; however, it comes with a challenge. at first, you hate him. but as the saying goes, there’s only one step between hate and love. and when taehyung loves, he can steal a sky of pearls for his lover.   

⏤ warnings: mature language, swearing, mention of sex, sexual tension, mention of epilepsy, mention of heartbreak, mention of breakup, mention of cheating, mention of financial struggles, and mention of health issues

⏤ author’s note: the first part is finally here! 🥳 it's been a while since it's ready but i wanted to be back from holidays to properly read it and correct it before posting it 🤗 i'm actually very excited with this series, i have soo many ideas for this & i truly hope you'll enjoy it. don't hesitate to let me know what you think of it 💜

⏤ playlist: brividi - Mahmood ft. Blanco

SERIES MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Running through the campus, you mentally check that you took all your belongings. It would be a nightmare to get them back, probably someone would steal them. In the best-case scenario, you’d have to go to the lost and found office. That doesn’t enchant you really well. 

But you’re running out of time. Today’s lectures ended super late, and you must be at the store where you work. The manager is quite harsh and isn’t very kind when someone is late. That has never happened to you. You always make sure to be on time since you’re the type to be a people-pleaser. Being late isn’t even possible, so you run to catch the bus and ensure you’re on time. 

As you reach the pedestrian crossing, a stupid car passes by and almost knocks you over. Luckily, you take a quick step back to avoid being hurt. You instantly yell, insulting the driver since the person seems not to have seen you. When you yell, you see the driver, he’s also looking at you and you show him your best middle finger, making him understand that he’s an asshole. 

“Asshole,” you aggressively shout.

Nonetheless, the second you realize who it is, you instantly regret it. That man is no other than Kim Taehyung. He’s for sure the most recognizable man in the entire campus but he’s also the son of the big boss of your shop. Well, to make it short, you work at one of the many Kim Couture’s shops and it happens that the company was created by the Kim family. A family that Taehyung is part of. 

The cherry on top is that Taehyung will be coming to the store you’re working at. The other point is that he saw you yelling and showing your middle finger. A devious smirk appeared on his face. 

Shit! You’re definitely in trouble. 

Taehyung isn’t just Taehyung. He’s known to be a fucker, and a good one apparently, a rich kid, full of himself, pretentious, popular, exasperating, and crazily annoying. He thinks he’s the king of the world. That’s the way you perceive him.

At the end of the day, he’s a guy who grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth. He always had everything he wanted, and everybody always licked his boots. He does whatever he wants with people. It’s quite annoying but you won’t deny that he is charismatic. 

Again, that’s the way you perceive him but you ignore that it’s far from being the truth. 

Quickly after, the bus arrives and you jump in it. Your heart is beating like crazy, you’re so scared of what will happen and what Taehyung will do or say. After all, he’s your big boss’ son. If he desires to fire you, he has the power to do it. You absolutely don’t want to lose this job. It was already hard to find one with your limited experience, but you need to keep it. The tuition fees are costly. 

Getting into a prestigious university was your biggest dream, and through some miracle, you managed to do it. It came with a lot of work, obviously. You were determined to be there. However, you thought that it would be harder than that. You believed that you needed to be the daughter of wealthy parents. But through your own efforts, you were accepted, and you’re quite proud of yourself. 

Having a job is what allows you to pursue your dream. Your parents insisted on helping with the tuition fees, but you don’t really want their financial assistance. This is your dream, not theirs, so they shouldn’t have to pay for it. That’s how you see things. Certainly, balancing your studies with your job isn’t easy. But you manage to make it work and you’re very proud of yourself. 

Of course, you appreciate the fact that your parents want to help, but the fees are extremely expensive. You don’t want your parents to ruin themselves to support you, they already face financial difficulties. You don’t want to be a burden for them. So, you’re going to work a lot and as much as you can to pay for everything on your own. 

Working at Kim Couture is definitely helping a lot. The wage is good, it allows you to even save some money. You wished to use it to help your parents but they refused. In some way, you take a lot after them, and you can all be very stubborn when it comes to finance. 

Once you arrive at your workplace, you run to the back to change yourself. There is a strict dress code to follow as a Kim Couture employee. Today, you even have to make an extra effort to dress even better than usual. You have to be perfect because Kim Jihyun, Taehyung’s father is coming.   

It doesn’t enchant you to meet him and his son today, especially after this incident with the son. 

“Mister Kim is coming in 5,” your boss, Namjoon informs you. 

You hurry up to avoid giving another reason for Taehyung to kick you out. It’s already enough you insulated him and showed him your middle finger. The outfit is quite simple, it’s a full black one and a full one created by Kim Couture. Jacket, t-shirt, classic pants, and shoes. Luckily, you can do whatever you want with your hair, the most important is to always be presentable. You always have to be impeccable under any circumstances. 

Through this job, you already had the opportunity to meet famous people, going from a king to a singer. A lot of them are surprisingly very nice and polite. Some others are the opposite, rude as fuck. Those ones, you hate them. With the little experience you have now, when someone enters the store, you can already tell if they are going to be nice or rude. It’s all in their aura. 

Once ready, you run to the front of the store and take place next to your colleagues. You are all lined up next to each other while Namjoon gives clear instructions. Mister Kim will only come to give a little visit, he does it annually. However, this year, it’s his second time visiting this one because this store has been doing great. In any case, it will be your first time meeting Mister Kim since you joined right after his last visit. 

Your colleagues described the man in a non-flattering way. Kim Jihyun is certainly one of the most famous people, there’s no doubt about it, but he’s a horrible person. He shows no mercy to anyone. If things aren’t done the way he wants, he literally explodes. The employees of his stores are treated like shit since they are poor. He inherited the Kim Couture house from his ancestors, he’s very wealthy but he’s definitely the worst person your colleagues have ever met. 

Hearing the stories shared by your coworkers gave you chills running through your spine. That man is, without any doubt, horrible. So, you have to be perfect today so you get to stay here. But now, your biggest concern is what Taehyung will do. Is he a piece of shit as well and he will kick you out?  

An impressive car halts in front of the store. The door is opened by the doorman and two imposing men make their way inside. To be fair, Mister Kim is a frightening person, but what his soul gives off is powerful. You can only have respect for him as he walks near you. He’s wearing a grey suit with a white shirt underneath. The outfit is completed with a dark trench coat. This man breathes money from afar.  

Your eyes move now to his son, Taehyung. He’s certainly very charismatic and he also gives off a strong energy, but not as powerful as his father’s. Unlike his parent, he’s wearing a blue polo shirt with an evident white shirt underneath, and white classic pants. For a second, you take him in. You heard so many things about him at uni, and a lot from your friend Nari. 

Nari is your best friend but also a rich kid. Her grandparents made a fortune by developing an intelligent program that is sold worldwide. You met her a couple of years ago and surprisingly, a very strong friendship blossomed. Both of you see the world differently, but that vision is what has brought you together. Obviously, you sometimes have very animated conversations because you come from two different worlds.  

Nari’s family is close to Taehyung’s family, so she knows him. She doesn’t spend much time with him because they are very different. The way she describes him is quite similar to the rumors people spread on campus. He’s a fuckboy, arrogant guy, full of himself, and a cold-blooded person. The fact that he’s wealthy as fuck makes his personality even worse. 

Taehyung’s eyes land on you. It’s obvious from the way he smiles that he recognizes you. Your heart starts beating crazily. Shit! He follows his father who is walking and examining all of you while Namjoon introduces you. As they do so, you bow in respect. 

“This is yn,” Namjoon says once in front of you. 

“Nice to meet you, Sirs Kim,” you bow to the men. 

They simply nod. The youngest doesn’t say anything which reassures you. Hopefully, today, you won’t be losing your job. For a couple of minutes, you stay in the same position while the other employees are introduced. Mister Kim then gives a little speech in which he says how proud he is of this store, and a lot of other things you honestly don’t listen to. 

Since you sit down on chairs while Mister Kim is giving his speech, you choose to sit at the extremity. So, nobody is sitting to your left. Well, that is until Taehyung decides to join you. At first, you don’t notice him since you’re focused on his father’s speech. 

“So I’m an asshole?” he whispers in your ear, causing you to jump in surprise. 

“For fuck’s sake, you scared me,” you instantly reply in a whisper. 

The same devious smile that was on his face earlier reappears. For a brief moment, your eyes meet his, but you quickly turn your face to look at his father. It makes you uncomfortable to have his glance directly on yours.  

“And to answer your question,” you very quickly look at him. “Yes, you are.” 

You’re hesitant to keep going, too scared that he could do something you’ll forever regret. 

“You were about to knock me over,” you add. 

“You’re being a tiny bit dramatic,” he instantly claps back at you. 

You roll your eyes, he’s being annoying. 

“Could you please let me listen to your father’s speech?” you raise without looking at him. 

He’s distracting you which isn’t good. His father is your big boss, he’s doing a speech and you have to listen to it. It’s rather important. 

“Why would I do that?” he asks back. “I’m an asshole after all.” 

You want to laugh, he’s stupid but it’s definitely not the right moment to be laughing. Namjoon will kill you if you do so. You absolutely don’t want to lose your job because of an asshole. So now, you decide to ignore him, to act like he isn’t even here. A smirk appears on his face when he realizes you’re ignoring him. 

For the rest of Jihyun’s speech, Taehyung leaves you alone, which you’re grateful for. All you wish for now is to not lose your job. That guy seems to be an absolute jerk and the son of your big boss so he has all the powers in his hand. 

Afterward, he leaves you completely alone, giving you some needed peace. Once his father finishes his speech, the two of them leave the store, but before doing so, Taehyung winks at you. You roll your eyes, causing him to laugh a little. The stupid man who almost knocked you over seems to be trying to flirt with you. Does it surprise you? No, because you’re convinced that he does that to every girl so they forgive him for being an asshole. 

But you’re not like the other girls, you won’t forget what he did. 

“Remember me why we’re studying?” Nari asks you while you’re walking. 

“To be badasses!” you jokingly answer. 

Nari laughs at your answer, but she couldn’t agree more with you. You’re studying to have an impressive degree so you can find impressive jobs. She’s aware that all of this is a hundred times harder for you than it is for her. If she doesn’t like this or wants to try something else, she’ll have her parents' money. However, on the other hand, you don’t have that. She knows how incredibly hard you worked to be here, and she knows that you wouldn’t have chosen something just for the fun of it. 

“I don’t want to attend classes today,” she replies. 

“Same,” you answer. “But we have to if we want to be the strongest bitches the world has ever known.” 

Nari admires you beyond comprehension. You’re always so optimistic, always seeing the bright side of everything when the world has shown no mercy to you. Since you’re thirteen, you’ve been battling with epilepsy. It has been a constant struggle but you have shown how strong you are. 

Nari doesn’t know that being positive and optimistic is what helps you fight this terrible and invisible disease. Otherwise, you would have gotten into depression a long time ago. Being positive allows you to genuinely be happy. 

“You’re right,” she says with a bright smile appearing on her face. 

“I’m always right.” 

The two of you enter the lecture hall and take a seat at a random place. It’s quite an impressive room and there aren’t that many students so you can choose wherever you want to sit. There are still a solid 10 minutes before the class starts so you animately keep talking. At a certain point, she frowns, and you turn your head to see what is causing that reaction. 

As you do so, you notice Taehyung coming in your direction. Deep down, you hope that he’s coming for Nari, but inevitably, you know it’s not the truth. You know he’s coming for you. 

“Hi, yn,” Taehyung says with a stupid smile on his face. 

“What do you want?” 

Nari is shockingly surprised by the way you answer him. She totally ignores what happened yesterday with Taehyung. You haven’t talked about it yet, but thanks to this idiot (or asshole as you prefer to call him), you’ll have to do it as soon as he leaves.  

“Calm down, miss dramatic,” you roll your eyes. “I went back to the store yesterday and I noticed you forgot this,” he hands you a personalized pen. 

This pen was offered to you by your dad some months ago. It’s a black pen with your name engraved on it in white. It’s a very pretty one, and for sure, it was expensive but you didn’t say anything. Since your parents didn’t offer you anything when you graduated, they offered you the pen as a little ‘good luck’ gift for this new step in your life. You love this pen, you always take notes with it.

Honestly, you didn’t even notice you left it at the store. However, you would have noticed it during this class as you wouldn’t have found it. It would have annoyed you but it won’t now since Taehyung brought it. 

In a way, it moves you that he considered bringing it back to you. Nonetheless, you’re convinced he has a reason to do it. This is Taehyung after all, he’s known for being selfish. He wouldn’t do this just to be nice to you. 

“You didn’t need to bring it, you could have left it there,” you tell him. 

Taehyung deeply exhales, you can see in his eyes that he’s a bit exasperated. 

“A simple thank you would have been enough,” he says. 

Before you can answer, the professor enters the lecture hall and Taehyung takes a seat somewhere else. You take a quick look at Nari. She’s definitely surprised by everything that just happened. You will need to tell her. It’s nothing major but it’s for sure shocking that this man even acknowledges your existence. Outside of wealthy people, he doesn’t know anybody else here. 

For a brief moment, you turn your face to look for him. You quickly find him and to your surprise, he’s also looking at you. 

In all honesty, you barely know him but you can tell that you feel a lot of mixed feelings. You kind of hate him for what he did yesterday, although hate is a strong word. You simply don’t really like him. However, he’s captivating. 

After the class, as you’re walking on the campus, you explain everything to Nari. There’s not much to be said but she’s your best friend so it’s normal for you to explain to her how you met Kim Taehyung. 

Taehyung wakes up with a massive headache. He drank too much as always. His eyes try to adjust to the light but it takes him some time since the room is fucking bright. His face turns to his left, only to find a girl sleeping on his bed. Nothing new. 

For the past two years, his life has been made up of parties, hangovers, and lots of sex. That’s how he enjoys life. Well, that’s how he believes he enjoys it. Deep down, he knows he chose this life because two years ago, he didn’t want to stay at home. It was way too hard to be there, and partying, drinking, and having sex is a lot easier. 

Having girls in his bed is way too easy for him. All the girls are crawling at his feet, desperate for a little bit of recognition. Of course, he’s more than aware that he’s charismatic and he plays with it. Flirting is like second nature to him. It doesn’t take him much to make a girl crave him. It’s quite an easy game for him. 

However, when he realizes the girl who’s sleeping next to him, it instantly wakes him up. Shit! It’s Hyejoo. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he rapidly says while getting up.

Hyejoo isn’t any girl, she’s the daughter of one of Kim Couture’s investors, Park Daehyun. She’s super wealthy, even wealthier than him so Jihyun decided that Taehyung has to date her. And in dating her, he means to marry her. Not right now but he has to get with her and stay with her until marriage. The purpose is to make her a Kim. That way, her family will forever invest in Kim Couture. Honestly, it’s well thought out but Taehyung doesn’t want her, doesn’t want to get married, and most importantly, he doesn’t want to be used for the company’s interest. Nevertheless, that’s nothing new. 

His father has always put the company first. The rest doesn’t matter. He got married to a wealthy woman for the company, but he never loved her. Made children with her to ensure the future of the business. Luckily, a boy was born first so he didn’t need to try many times before producing an heir. He got a daughter afterwards but it was just a plus. So in the end, he has absolutely no consideration for his daughter, Yseult. Basically, he acts like she doesn’t even exist which is quite destructive for her. Taehyung tries as much as he can to protect her but it’s sometimes almost impossible to protect her from their father. 

With time, his mother started to be like his father. Her family was only good if it benefited the company. She always agrees with Jihyun, and in the end, they both use Taehyung for the business. They don’t see him as their child or even like a human at all. They only see him as the future CEO and the new face of Kim Couture. So they don’t let him do much. For sure, they let him party right now so he can enjoy life before being in charge of the company. But enjoy is a strong word. He doesn’t enjoy anything. 

When Taehyung was young, he remembers how loving and caring his mother was. He hated his father who was very severe with him but he deeply loved his mother. She was his everything. But as he grew up and she started to change, he also started hating her. He felt no more love towards her. Today, he doesn’t love anyone, not even himself. His life is quite sad in the end. 

“Good morning Taehyung,” Hyejoo says when she wakes up. 

“I have to go,” he simply tells her. 

She’s a bit confused but he doesn’t give a shit about it. He storms out of the room and basically runs outside. As he does so, he calls his chauffeur to come and get him. His parents don’t let him drive as they are scared something will happen to him. They trust Minho to always drive him anywhere. Things are a bit different now that he is in college, he can drive alone during the week but during the weekend, he can’t. Minho has to drive him anywhere he wants to. In a matter of seconds, he arrives to pick him up. Hyejoo tries to catch him but she doesn’t arrive on time. 

“Can we go to some random coffee shop?” Taehyung asks. 

“Yes,” the chauffeur answers while nodding. 

Taehyung looks from the window. Flashbacks from last night came back, he drank a lot and Hyejoo flirted with him. At first, he pushed her back since he didn’t like her but she was insistent. As he was getting drunk, he was letting his guard down so in the end, he couldn’t resist her anymore. 

He rubs his face while mentally insulting himself. He should have resisted because now, she’ll run around him even more. Hyejoo loves Taehyung, it’s no secret to anyone. She’s always around him, trying to make him fall in love with her. She’s also convinced that he’ll date and marry her as his father plans. Although she totally ignores that he doesn’t like her at all. He couldn’t actually care less about her. 

They arrive at a coffee shop, it’s a small one but it looks so cozy inside. Minho opens the car’s door to Taehyung and he walks to the entrance. His chauffeur remains in front of the car, waiting for his boss’ child. Taehyung is only going to grab a coffee and some pastries to eat while going home. 

He stands in front of the bar and checks the menu. He’s starving so he’ll take all the pastries that he craves. He orders and then moves to the right, to the little space where customers patiently wait. As he walks in that direction, a girl turns around, causing them to hit each other. Since she was holding a coffee in her hands, he got coffee all over his blue shirt. 

“Fuck,” he swears. “Could have been..” 

As he speaks and lays his eyes down on the girl, he realizes that it’s you. 

“You, again,” you mumble as you notice that he’s the guy hitting you. “You should be more careful,” you instantly tell him. 

“You’re the one who hit me this time,” he replies. “I was just walking to get my order.” 

“Well, I was going to leave after receiving my order.” 

Being around each other makes you both feel something you both never felt for anyone else. It’s weird since you’ve only known each other for like 4 days. He didn’t even know you existed until he almost knocked you over. 

Now, he’s covered in coffee which angers him and you lost half of your coffee which angers you as well. 

“Pff,” you say. “Now I have to order a new coffee because of you.” 

“If you were more careful, you wouldn’t need to do that.” 

You roll your eyes. Around him, you’ve rolled your eyes a lot. You’re even surprised by it, nobody has ever made you do that so often. On the other hand, he absolutely hates when you do that, he’d even say that it almost pisses him off. 

“Fuck you,” you simply say back. 

He takes a step closer to you, your faces are now very close. There is barely any space between you, his eyes roaming your face before halting for a couple of seconds on your lips. Your heart is hammering in your chest, ready to burst at any moment. This man is impressive. His face gets closer to you, and your heart beats even faster, something that never happened before. 

Taehyung notices that you don’t step back. Well, he doesn’t want to as well. You both glance at each other. For the first time ever, he feels his heart beating fast. No other girl, or anyone else, has ever made him feel that way. He notices how pretty you are. Well, from the first second, he laid eyes on you, he found you very beautiful. But now that you’re closer, he gets to see closely your beauty. You’re also very charismatic, you draw him in a way he can’t explain. Without realizing it, he’s attracted to you. You catch all of his attention when he’s near you. 

When he found your pen at the store, he could have left it there. But that was the perfect excuse to get to see you and talk to you. He can’t resist the urge of being around you. If he sees you, he only wants to get closer. Like right now. He could be talking to you without being this close, but he needs it. 

He takes in your sweet scent, you smell so good. 

Both of you are glancing deeply into each other. There is definitely something going on but you won’t admit it. 

After what felt like an eternity, he pulls himself together before getting closer to your ear. 

“What did you say?” he murmurs with a deep voice, causing shivers down your spine. 

“Do you want me to spell it out for you?” you dare to say. “F-U-C-K,” before you can even finish, he cuts you off. 

“Don’t you ever say that again,” he whispers. “Especially if you’re in the wrong.” 

“You’re threatening me?” your question almost sounds like an affirmation. 

“I’m just warning you, miss dramatic,” he says. 

Taehyung strongly stinks of alcohol but there’s also a bit of his cologne emanating from him. You don’t even doubt that he has a hangover and is most probably still drunk. 

“Oh,” you first say. “You think I’m afraid of you, asshole?” you then say. 

He’s caught off guard, causing him to take a step back to look at you. Usually, people get scared and leave him alone. Honestly, you’re kind of the surprising type. Now you’re the one getting closer to his ear before starting to whisper.  

“You should be the one being careful,” you murmur. 

The way you pronounced every word made him shiver. Fuck, he hates the effect you have on him. It’s been only a couple of days but you’ve been resisting him in every possible way. This almost feels like a challenge to him to make you fall onto your knees. 

“Or what?” he asks. 

“Well, you’ll have to discover,” you answer. 

Taehyung feels your breath crashing against his ear, and visible goosebumps appear on his body. You don’t notice as you’re concentrating on provoking him. As you take a step back, you’re startled by his burning eyes on you. To say that he’s devouring you is literally an understatement. Never before has a man looked at you that way. Thousands of butterflies are freed inside your belly. 

You don’t even know how to look at him or if you’re even looking at him the same way. The only thing you are sure of is that your cheeks are fully red. Even if this man impossibly angers you, he also manages to destabilize you. It’s so contradictory. But you’d be lying if you said you didn’t like the feeling of his burning eyes on you. It makes you feel desired. Desired by Kim Taehyung. 

“I need to order my coffee again,” you say as you put a clear distance between you. 

Taehyung simply nods and a few minutes later his order is ready. For a brief moment, his eyes discreetly glance at you while he grabs his order. There’s something so mesmerizing about you, and damn, he really wants to discover what you’ll do to him if he pushes you again over the hedge. 

While you’re sitting on the bus, you’re completely lost in your thoughts. You’re thinking about what happened with Taehyung minutes ago. Things with him are evolving intriguingly. You’re both always colliding with each other. It’s not smooth at all. But that man is so fucking annoying! How can even people like him at all? 

The music is blasting in your ears through your headphones. Sabrina Carpenter is singing “Feather” for your biggest pleasure. It’s one of your favorite songs at the moment. Surprisingly, it’s one of the songs that has been reminding you that you were too good for your ex. Definitely, you’re better off without him. However, you try not to think too much about him because he devastatingly broke your heart. 

Kai, your ex, is the kind of guy that easily becomes friends with everybody. He’s super chill and super nice. You two instantly hit it off, you directly felt love but it took you some time to actually fall in love with him. Being loved and loving him felt so good. You both imagined what your future life together could look like. You were convinced that he was the one. But you were wrong. He never was the one. 

At a party, he kissed a girl. It wasn’t just a random girl, it was a girl he had a crush on a couple of years ago. It devastated you, especially since you were going through a tough time health-wise. You were also working too hard to get accepted at this prestigious university. It was just the last straw. However, since you were convinced he was your forever person, you forgave him. You thought that it was just a mere kiss, and he also did everything to make you forgive him. 

The reconciliation didn’t last long because you were such a mess. Everything was just too much and you couldn’t handle anything anymore. So you put an end to your relationship. You were devastated, to say the least. You thought that he was going to make his way back to you but he kind of didn’t. You had some conversations but they all ended up in sex. It was nice but nothing was being solved. However, he was doing that to keep you wrapped around his fingers. From there, everything became a mess. 

Kai hid from you that he was seeing that girl so he could have you. He was flirtatious with you, and you were having a lot of casual sex. You believed things were going to be solved and that you were getting back together. Today, as you look backward, you realize that it was merely a physical attraction. Nothing more. You never got back together because you ignored that he was actually with the other girl. 

It shocked you once you found out. Kai talked so badly of cheaters and he was there doing the exact same thing. What you didn’t forgive him is the fact that you were the other girl. He was cheating on his girlfriend with you while you weren’t aware of the situation. It broke you beyond comprehension. 

Kai is still with his girlfriend, it’s already been more than a year. You don’t know if she ever found out that he cheated on her. Probably not. You don’t think she’d stay with a cheater but you don’t know her so you don’t know how she’d handle it. Maybe she forgave him. You don’t know. The only thing you’re sure of is that sometimes he comes back. Thank god, Nari is part of your life and forbids you to interact at all with him. 

You rest your head against the window. Recently, you surprised yourself by wanting to find a new boyfriend. For the past year, you decided to focus on your health and your studies. Having a partner would only distract you from your goals. However, today, everything seems to be on track so you don’t have any reasons to hold back. But it isn’t that easy. You’re not the type to easily make friends, but you aren’t desperate so you don’t really care right now. It’s sometimes a bit hard to be wanting someone around you and you don’t have anyone. 

You leave the bus when it halts at your stop. The massive building housing the hospital stands in front of you. Recently, you’ve been coming quite often for blood tests, doctor appointments, and hospital stays. Some nurses already recognize you. This has been your reality for a year already. Your health has been a big mess even though it’s been the case for almost 10 years. Lately, it simply hasn’t been easy in between seizures caused by your epilepsy and the hormonal dysfunction coming from Hashimoto’s disease. 

Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disease in which your thyroid doesn’t work properly. It doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormones. On top of that, your immune system attacks your thyroid. There is of course a treatment helping your thyroid to work properly. So, in summary, the treatment has to always be working otherwise everything gets out of control. 

Growing up with all that wasn’t simple, especially since you have never accepted being epileptic. Most of the time, it makes you feel like a failure so you don’t mention it to people unless it’s necessary. You don’t want anyone to look at you or treat you differently. You want to be seen as a normal person. But you’re not a normal person, and that’s what is complicated to accept. 

So you work a lot, sometimes way too much. You wonder if it’s not due to the fact that you’re a people-pleaser. But in general, you just work too much to compensate for your differences. Those health issues have a lot of impact, especially on your memory. For example, it’s hard for you to remember conversations. Most of the time, people have to repeat several times the same thing for you to remember it. 

At the hospital entrance, you notice Yseult, Taehyung’s sister. She’s coming out of the car to enter the building. You discreetly watch her. She looks a lot like her older brother, it’s evident that they are siblings. She also breathes money from afar, she also has that powerful aura. It seems like it’s a family thing. Before entering, she quickly scans her surroundings, almost as if she doesn’t want to be seen. It instantly arouses your curiosity. Why is she acting like that? 

Instantaneously, you grab your phone to text Nari. 

To Nari: Yseult is at the hospital & acting weird 

You wait until Taehyung’s sister enters the building before doing the same. Well, you can’t spy on her because you have an appointment but you’re for sure very very curious. 

From Nari: she’s probably just doing a check-up 

She’s right. It’s nothing, it’s simply your imagination. But it still leaves you wondering why she was acting like that. 

Later that night, while falling asleep, you see again Taehyung so close to your face. However, you chase away those thoughts because that man has been annoying you more than anything else.

[thankskenpenders]

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[agoodflyting]

Why Aziraphale's White Satin Pumps Are Ridiculous (And I love them)

So this is a continuation of the lengthy rant I posted here about Aziraphale's outfit in the Bastille scene of GO and all the ways it would have pissed people in Revolutionary Paris off. I got to the shoes and realized they needed their own post.

Aziraphale's Blessed Little White Satin Pumps

To recap: in 1793, Paris is in control of The People, who are making up for decades of oppression and poverty by beheading the fuck out of everyone remotely nobility-adjacent. And into this mess strolls one Angel in white satin heels.

Some facts about this style of shoe:

The buckle means they're specifically court shoes as opposed to streetwear. Buckles were out of fashion unless you were hanging out with royalty and needed to look fancy. Everyday shoes had laces by this point.

This heel style for men is specifically called Louis Heels because they were popularized by Louis XVI. Y'know... the king Paris just beheaded in 1793. Here's a pair in a similar style from the late 18th century:

One big difference you may notice in Aziraphale's shoes and the ones above is that the ones above are normal, practical leather whereas Aziraphale is wearing white satin shoes. This is because Aziraphale is ridiculous.

The Allure of White Satin Shoes

In this modern world of laundry machines and affordable shoes I feel that people do not fully understand how absolutely over-the-top ridiculous a pair of white satin shoes would be to people in 1793.

First off lets address the fact that they're white:

If you have ever known anyone who was super into sneakers, you know that keeping white shoes white is a full-time job. It was even more so in the 18th century. The fact that Aziraphale is wearing perfectly clean white shoes says one thing: "I am rich enough to be able to pay someone to clean these, and to replace them when they invariably get stained."

And they would get stained. Oh would they get stained.

Because he is not wearing them for their intended function - lazing around indoors. No, he is wearing them on the streets of 18th Century Paris. And 18th Century Paris was fucking disgusting.

Kind of like how London had its famed London Smog, Paris had its own brand of filth. A unique Parisian muck made up of mixtures of mud, offal from the slaughterhouses, animal waste, human waste, household garbage, and rotting dead animals, all mashed down into what a British visitor called, "A thick, black, unctuous oil, that where it sticks no art can wash it off."

Voltaire said: "We blush with shame to see the public markets, set up in narrow streets, displaying their filth, spreading infection, and causing continual disorders…" and called Paris a city, "Partly of gold and partly of muck."

This is a city with over a million people, with no central plumbing, and no public sanitation laws. Households threw their waste in the streets. Businesses like tanneries and slaughterhouses threw their waste right out into the streets. Horses were the main mode of transportation and nobody was cleaning up after them. It was apparently a thriving hustle that Parisian beggars would hang out in the worst areas with big pieces of wood, and charge wealthy people money to walk on the board over the worst puddles of filth.

That's where Aziraphale is wearing his pristine little white satin shoes. In a city so gross it has its own world-renowned stinking black mud.

And on the subject of those shoes, lets look at the satin part... By the 18th Century, France was no longer dependent on Asia for its silk and satin. There was domestic production, but it was still expensive. A book about the cost of living published in London in 1770 lists the price for a single yard of satin at just over 18 shillings. For comparison, here are some other things you could get for 18 shillings in London at the time:

two box seats at Covent Garden

six barrels of oysters

a really nice wig

a week's wages for a skilled tradesman

15 steak dinners

3 secondhand coats So the outer fabric alone on Aziraphale's shoes cost what it would take a skilled worker about a week to make. Again, that's just for the fabric. Since the shoes themselves were high quality, would be handmade, and required skilled labor, the shoes themselves would be expensive even without the satin. In 1788 a pair of leather gentleman's court shoes cost about 6 livres in France. By comparison, a pound of bread, which was considered a day's food for a peasant, cost roughly 10 sous. So we'll roughly estimate that Aziraphale's shoes without the satin cost the equivalent of 12 days worth of food for an average person.

And, I cannot stress this enough, he is wearing these white shoes, which could easily feed an entire family for weeks, in a city that is abso-fucking-lutely filthy with stinking, staining, sticky mud.

Aziraphale's shoes, probably:

I mean - imagine you're a normal everyday French peasant during the Revolution. You spend decades struggling to feed your family, and some dingbat walks up to you in white court shoes styled after the king you just executed. Shoes that cost more than you make in a month, which he is wearing around your notoriously filthy city with apparently 0 fucks given for the fact that they will be absolutely ruined and will have to be thrown away. (Obviously Aziraphale could just miracle them clean but you're a revolutionary peasant, you don't know that.)

And then this walking audacity asks you for cake.

Aziraphale, hon, you are so lucky they decided to try to execute you and not just like. jump your dumb ass in an alley and steal your pretty little white satin shoes.

[yoon-kooks]

paired & puppy-eyed | jjk

⛓️pairing: hotnerd!jungkook x popular!reader

⛓️genre: smut, fluff, college!au

⛓️summary: When Jeon Jungkook agrees to be your partner for a class project, he doesn’t realize what that might escalate to until you show up at his door in a teeny-tiny crop top and cling to his tattooed arm like his naughty little kitten.

⛓️word count: 4.6k

⛓️warnings: dom!jk, sub!reader, daddy/kitten undertones, dirty talk, reader calls herself a sl*t one time, dick tattoo, many rounds of sex off screen😔

⛓️p&p masterlist⛓️

a/n: if you're looking for the ✨filthy✨ smut version, read paired & pierced from the reader's pov! this one takes place in the same 2 days but from jungkook's pov without explicit smut😔 if you read both, lmk which version you preferred! i personally like this one more bc we get more catdad!jjk heh

Jungkook doesn’t always have a goal for the day, but today is different. He’s running on approximately zero hours of sleep and would love to get a nap in before class starts. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Unfortunately for him, that won’t be happening today because there are at least ten girls huddled next to his desk when he walks into the classroom. An onlooker might assume that these girls are gathered around for a chance to win his heart over, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, there’s a queen bee sitting a foot away from him, and she’s the one everyone’s always drawn to. 

That queen bee is none other than you.

As Jungkook quietly takes his seat, he overhears something about that Loudmouth Jim who sits on the other side of the classroom. Apparently, you were hanging out with that guy at some party. A girl like you can do so much better than Loudmouth Jim who always needs to make everything about him. He couldn’t accept it when his ex broke up with him, so he turned it around on her to make it seem like he was the one breaking things off with her. Now he’s made it his mission to make her jealous by flirting with popular girls like you. Jungkook swears he only knows this because his tattoo artist loves to spill the tea he hears from his other clients.

“Is he as big as they say?” All the girls look so wide-eyed and eager to hear what you have to say about Loudmouth Jim’s cock. They talk about shit like this all the time, and as much as it makes Jungkook want to bang his head against a brick wall, he’s also lowkey disappointed that they’ve never once wondered about the size of his cock. He wouldn’t mind if that seed were planted in that pretty little head of yours.

As it turns out, you haven’t seen Loudmouth Jim’s cock. Thank god. And from what it sounds like, you didn’t want to see it anyway. Good girl. In fact, when Jungkook takes a peek next door, you don’t even look super engaged in the girl talk. You nod along and smile a bit, but you’re a lot quieter than one would expect for someone so popular. It’s kind of cute.

Eventually, class begins and Jungkook lets out a sigh of relief. Now the girls have to cut the chitchat and leave. At long last, he can finally catch up on some sleep. This wouldn’t be an issue if not for the tiny demon kitten that wandered to his doorstep a week ago. Not only does she keep him awake at night by knocking shit down and chewing on his phone charger, but she also haunts him in his sleep.

He dreams of the little fucker swatting her paws against his back and wiggling her tiny body into his hood. When that isn’t enough to get his attention, she starts gnawing on his index finger.

“Hey Jungkook.”

The boy opens an eye and the first thing he sees is you bent down in front of him as if you were about to do something indecent under his desk. He immediately shakes that thought out of his head, though he still has no fucking clue why you’re down there looking up at him with such needy puppy dog eyes.

“Wanna be partners?” you ask him.

Still half-asleep, he looks around the room and sees everyone pairing up and talking about a project of some sort. Fucking hell. He absolutely despises any and all projects that aren’t individual. Even the ones where a super pretty girl is asking to pair up with him. But before he can decline, he notices you checking over your shoulder and sees Loudmouth Jim on his way over. Ah, it all makes sense now. You’re just using him to avoid being partners with that asshole. It’s a matter of picking the lesser of two evils. Understandable.

“Sure, I guess.” As much as Jungkook doesn’t want to admit it, he wouldn’t have had it in him to say no to you anyway. Not with those puppy eyes.

“Good, good.” The smile on your face is too much. Why are you smiling that big for something as small as agreeing to be your partner? It’s really not that deep. But it is really cute. Fuck. See, this is what happens when he doesn’t get enough sleep—his mind develops some sort of irrational softness that won’t go away until he either lets his body rest or rubs one out. He’ll do whatever it takes to get that nasty soft feeling out of his system.

Seeing how the classroom isn’t the best place to have his hand in his pants, he opts to fall back asleep before class ends. Hopefully he won’t be disturbed by any more kitten nightmares.

Ten seconds later, Loudmouth Jim enters the scene, and Jungkook can kiss his nap goodbye. Still slumped over, the sleep-deprived boy listens in on the awkward exchange between you and Loudmouth. Bro apparently can’t take a hint that you want nothing to do with him. Jungkook would step in and tell Jim to fuck off, but he wants to see you do it yourself. That would be kind of hot.

“I’m actually partnered up with Jungkook, sorry,” you say in an apologetic tone. You probably get taken advantage of all the time because of that compassion. There’s no need for you to be so nice to everyone you interact with, and especially not to shallow people like Jim. That must be exhausting.

“That kid asked you to be his partner?” Loudmouth spits. Kid? Jungkook does his best not to snort while pretending to be dead. When he takes a peek, he sees you nod. “And you said yes?” 

You nod again. This time, however, you don’t give him the gentleness you’re known for. With a furrowed brow, you almost look bothered—something you probably feel all the time but never show. It’s so rare to see your emotions out in the open like that. It’d be quite intriguing to see how you look when you’re genuinely happy, sad, mad, horny—

Nope. Jeon Jungkook is not going to let his sleepy mind wander there on a Friday morning. It can at least wait until he gets home.

After Loudmouth Jim is gone, Jungkook sits up and stares at you. Your face has already softened back up. Fuck it. He’s never seen anyone so cute in his entire life, through sleep-deprived glasses or not.

“Why didn’t you just partner up with that other guy? It sounded like he wanted to work with you.” Kind of a dick move of him to ruffle your feathers when he already knows about your distaste for Jim, but Jungkook is genuinely curious to hear what you have to say. And he’s not one to be curious about other people’s affairs.

“That’s not what he wanted,” you say. They don’t call him Bad Intentions Jim for nothing.

“What about everyone else? Aren’t you friends with everyone here?” Perhaps “friends” isn’t the best word to describe the rest of your classmates, but it’s clear that they enjoy being in your presence.

Apparently, you feel a bit more detached than that. According to you, no one’s going out of their way to save you from a hypothetical burning house. Jungkook probably would. But there’s no way in hell he’s admitting something like that. He’d sound like a simp!

“Who would you save?” he asks. Surely you have someone you’d put before anyone else. Anyone would be lucky to be your number one.

“No one.” 

Jungkook knows he shouldn’t feel a certain way about your answer, but he can’t control how his lips curl into the slightest smile. Your response is proof that the two of you aren’t as different as it seems. He might even like you for it.

Heck, he might even offer to do the whole damn project by himself and still give you credit for it! That’s the plan he has cooked up for his antisocial self—until you keep insisting on working together. Something about meeting up on the weekend. Maybe he should stop playing hard to get and just say okay.

“I’m busy.” He immediately hates himself for saying it. That’s his default response for any sort of social gathering, and his dumbass went on autopilot for no reason.

“Busy with what?” The way you flutter your eyelashes at him is both innocent and seductive. Are you actually flirting with him? Because it’s working.

“My newborn,” he utters out of panic. It didn’t entirely come out of his ass, though. The vet did say his kitten is around eight weeks. That’s basically a newborn, and she’s definitely been keeping him busy.

But then your eyes get all big and sparkly. “You have a child?”

How the fuck is Jungkook supposed to respond to that? You’re so excited over a human baby that doesn’t exist, and now he has to be the bringer of bad news. He normally doesn’t feel bad for others, but this makes him feel like absolute shit.

“If it’s easier for you and the little one, we can work at your place?” you offer. Why the fuck are you so gullible and trusting in him, and why is that a huge turn-on for him?

“I was just fucking with you…” he finally comes clean. You look exactly like the surprised Pikachu meme, and yes, it’s adorable. Fine, you win. He gives you his number and address and invites you over. 

All that for a fucking project.

When Jungkook returns home, a sleepy kitten waddles its way over to the door to greet him. She yawns her fish breath in his face as soon as he picks her up for a kiss. Ungrateful little demon.

She doesn’t stop there, either. With a burst of energy and a bushy tail, she flicks her eyes around, looking for a wire to chew on. The computer cords must be quite appetizing because she keeps trying to eat them.

“Hey, that's dangerous, Lucy.” Jungkook peels the kitten away from the wires and sets her down on his bed, but she just runs right back into the danger zone. “Lucinda, you little shit.”

Twenty minutes later, the boy makes a run to the pet store and returns with a few peace offerings. He’s not much of a cat person, so he has no idea what all the young kittens are into nowadays. Hopefully they like mouse toys and pink bunnies.

Like the new father he is, Jungkook spends the rest of his evening teaching the kitten how to play fetch, rocking her to sleep, and tucking her in with the mouse and bunny. Finally, the demon has been tamed.

By the time he gets into bed, it’s already past midnight. He’s exhausted and should probably get some sleep, and yet his mind is still wandering. He can’t quite shake that image of you getting down on your knees at his desk, just begging for his attention. For a second, it looked as though you, the most popular girl on campus, were lusting after his cynical smartass self. The mere possibility of that lures his hand into his pants to address that ache he’s been enduring all day. But before he can get any relief, he hears a set of paws back on the prowl.

Jungkook hobbles out of bed and turns on the light. To no one’s surprise, the naughty kitten is caught red-handed with a wire in her mouth.

With a sigh, he collects the kitty, sits her down in his lap, turns his computer on, and opens up the code for the partner project. It’s going to be a long night.

The funny thing is, the assignment itself doesn’t require much time or effort. What takes up all his time and effort is this silly kitten. She’s adorable but so damn needy. Kind of like you. If you were here to work on the project with him like you’d fought so hard to do, you’d surely be much too big of a distraction. No work would ever get done when you bat your eyes at him and giggle over the tiniest things.

It takes a good few hours between modifying and adding lines of code and keeping an eye on the troublemaker, but Jungkook eventually gets it done before the sun rises. As an added bonus, the naughty little wire fairy has finally worn herself out. She curls into a ball on top of Jungkook’s chest and falls into a deep slumber. The boy is out a minute later.

It’s around ten in the morning when Jungkook wakes up and checks his phone. You’re supposed to drop by sometime today, aren’t you? He wishes he knew when to expect you, or if you weren’t coming at all. It’s up to you to message him, though, since he gave you his number and not the other way around.

Just then, he hears a knock at the door. His first instinct says it’s you. But then he checks his phone again and sees no new message from your unknown number. Surely you’d shoot him a text before heading his way.

It’s probably just the special package of kitty toys he ordered a few days ago. He’d get up to check, but he’s not trying to disturb the little rascal from her slumber. She’s still resting peacefully on his chest, and he’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

But what if the package gets stolen? Jungkook spent a lot more money than he’d like to admit on those kitty toys, and he’d be pretty pissed if someone took that away from his child.

Groaning, Jungkook slowly lifts the sleepy kitten off his chest and places her on the warm spot where he’d been lying. She stretches out her tiny limbs but otherwise continues her snooze. Perfect.

The first thing he sees when he opens the door is your bare tummy because you’ve apparently decided to show up at his door unannounced in a micro crop top. It’s so short your pretty tits might pop out if your arms were held above your head. Jeon Jungkook wouldn’t mind seeing a little underboob if that’s the look you’re going for today.

Then he notices you staring at him like he’s a stranger. You haven’t even greeted him yet. He watches as your eyes travel up his bare arm to his face and messy man bun, and then back to his arm. That’s when it hits him. This is the first time you’re seeing any of his tattoos and piercings. 

The quiet studious Jeon Jungkook at school doesn’t look like the type to have a full sleeve or this many piercings. He doesn’t like drawing attention to himself and prefers to keep a low profile. Life is just easier that way. That’s why he always takes his piercings out and covers his tattoos with a hoodie when it’s time to go to class. 

Seeing him now in a muscle tank must be quite shocking to you.

“Why do you look like that?” You have the audacity to point the finger at him when you’re looking that good in your little crop top. “I mean, if I’d given you a heads-up, would you have thrown on a hoodie and removed all your piercings before I got here?”

Oh? You sound kind of upset at the fact that he’s been intentionally hiding his body art in class. Like you’ve been missing out.

“Maybe,” he answers as he leads you inside. Your curious eyes are still glued to his tattoos. You ask why he hides it all, and he mentions his distaste for compliments and small talk. 

He does it to avoid the exact things you’re so good at attracting.

“Fine, I won’t talk about how pretty I think your tattoos are.” You bring out a pouty lip to combo with those puppy eyes. He wonders how you make your pupils so big like that. And what the fuck are you so whiny for? You want to admire his body art that badly? Fine.

“I’ll grant you permission to give one single compliment.” Without a single thought, he lifts his tatted arm for you to grab onto. Your hands are so soft and warm as they slide across each tattoo. It’s in times like this that Jungkook wishes his entire body was covered in tattoos for you to trace with that angelic touch.

After what feels like forever, you still haven’t said your one compliment. It seems like you’re just using this as an excuse to latch onto his arm like his little kitten. 

“Well? Are you gonna fangirl over my tattoos or just keep fondling my arm?” He’d give you a nudge but his arm is too busy being fondled.

“I wish I could see all of them.” Your eyes meet his as your tits press into his arm. The compliment is innocent at face value, but the implications behind it sure as hell aren’t. Oh, you definitely want to fuck him.

If you think you can just waltz into his home with that crop top, drool all over his tattoos, and ask for sex so shamelessly, you’re not wrong. His body is aching to squeeze those tits, to feel just how tight you are, and to make you squirm until you squirt.

“Ooh kitty.” Like an easily distracted toddler, you toss his arm aside and move on to the next toy that fascinates you. The kitten drops her mouse in front of you and sniffs your hand when you scoop her up. Jungkook watches from afar as his own kitten steals you away from him. She even presses her pink nose to your cheek. That little fucker.

Jungkook has to bite his tongue at least five times to stop himself from asking if you’re done playing with his cat. He’d come off as jealous and needy for your attention. Instead, he acts like the mature father he is and puts her to bed in that pink new donut cushion he’d bought for her the other day. She kneads her paws on the bunny until she can’t keep her eyes open anymore and settles into the loaf position. He’s convinced she’s only behaving like an angel right now to impress his lady friend. 

“So what’s this project again?” The boy has no intentions of actually working on the project, but he’d prefer it if you weren’t so focused on his cat.

“You’d know if you were listening!” You turn back to the cat again. He could’ve sworn he heard you whispering something into her triangle ears like, “Your daddy is so useless.”

Hearing that name come out of your mouth is confirmation. Confirmation that you’d be so submissive if he were to spread your legs open and make you his little plaything. And he kind of likes the sound of that.

“I’m just fucking with you again. I already finished it, by the way,” he hums. Since you seem to be the stubborn type when it comes to project participation, he sits you down at his computer with the finished code to prove that daddy is not in fact useless.

He expects you to be all wide-eyed and impressed by his work, but you simply sigh as you run the program. Great. It appears he has yet another ungrateful little thing on his hands.

But then you start adding in a bunch of stuff “for the aesthetic” because although he’s “quite possibly the nerdiest boy you’ve ever met,” there’s still room for growth when it comes to “the fun shit.” And by “the fun shit,” you mean coding in a cat doing some elaborate kpop choreo. 

Half an hour later, you run the final product again and submit it in its perfect form. Aren’t you the nerd here? Quite possibly the prettiest nerd he’s ever met.

“Are you sure that Jim guy wasn’t trying to be your partner just to get a good grade? Nerd,” Jungkook says before face-palming internally. Why does he always resort to name-calling as his way of flirting with people? This is why no one likes him and why he’d rather just keep his mouth shut. He’s going to ruin a good thing with you if he keeps that up.

But to his surprise, you throw the name right back at him with a playful smile on your face. “If that were the case, he would’ve asked for a threesome with you too, Nerd.”

“Not particularly interested in a threesome with him.” But a threesome with you? Sounds interesting.

You call Jim an asshole and don’t deny that you have a bunch of shallow relationships with the people in your class. When the boy asks you about it, you admit it’s intentional. It’s this mindset of surrounding yourself with a lot of different people until you run into the few you click with. 

And while Jungkook can’t relate to having that many connections to his peers, he understands the desire for someone who cares for you unconditionally and makes you want to do the same. He’s been waiting for that person to show up for him too. Idly. At least you’re putting yourself out there.

“Found anyone yet?” he asks, lying down on his bed. He stares up at the ceiling and not at the pretty person sitting less than a foot away from him. You’d joined him on the bed at some point to play with the kitten, but the feline was very quick to abandon you. Now it’s just you and him.

“There might be a boy I’m interested in.” Your voice is flirty and soft. The boy knows he might have a big ego at times, but there’s no doubt in his mind that you’re talking about him. You wouldn’t be on his bed eyeing him like that if that weren’t the case.

With that knowledge in mind, Jungkook decides to tease you some more. “I bet it’s Jim, isn’t it? You know, like a passionate love-hate type thing?”

“Fuck no.” Your face hovers over his like the moon during an eclipse, except you’re much more enticing to look at. He catches your eyes on his lips until they find their way up to meet his gaze. “Never mind, it’s no one.”

Liar.

“Really?” His body suddenly moves on its own, overcome with the lust that had been building up since you first showed him those puppy eyes in class. He pulls you beneath him and holds both of your wrists above your head. He was right. That crop top is indeed short enough to show him some underboob with you in that helpless position. And, much like how you said you wanted to see all his tattoos, he wants nothing more in this moment than to see the rest of you until he’s seen it all. 

Purposely keeping the tiniest distance between his lips and yours, he whispers, “I was under the impression you were kind of into me.”

As the afternoon turns to evening, you’re still at Jungkook’s place, still fondling his arm on his bed, and still obsessed with all the art and piercings that grace his body. The two of you had fallen asleep after getting a few rounds of filthy sex out of your systems, much to the boy’s surprise. He’s used to people leaving right after, whether it’s because the relationship was purely sexual or because it just wasn’t worth his time. You’re different, though. There’s something about you that he wants to keep holding onto.

“Did this one hurt?” You poke the metal sticking out of his eyebrow.

“Not as much as you stabbing me with your finger just now,” he frowns, running a hand through his messy hair. The man bun must’ve come out at some point in the midst of all that hair pulling and wrestling in the sheets.

“You must have really low pain tolerance then,” you giggle with your finger ready to poke him someplace else. But before you can do so, he closes his hand around yours and tucks your pointy finger away to put an end to your antics. “You’re no fun,” you pout.

“Really? You seemed like you were enjoying it when I let you s—”

“Where’s this one from?” You somehow dodge the accusation and free your finger from his grasp to poke the shark tattoo that you now know hides beneath his shirt. You’re so sneaky.

“Someone.” Aka the same artist he gets his gossip from.

“What about the… snake one?” Of course that’s the one that pops into your dirty little head.

“Someone else.” Aka the one he might have slept with a few times before she convinced him that the snake would look good on him there. She wasn’t wrong. “You’re nosy.”

“I’m just asking! Maybe I want a tattoo too!” you squeak. Jungkook has no doubt in his mind that you’d look pretty damn hot with any tattoo anywhere on that body. “Tattoos are attractive, no?”

“Be honest, you only fucked me for my tattoos, huh.” The boy knows this to be false because you aren’t the shallow type, but he just wants to hear what other good things you have to say about him. Because maybe he doesn’t hear that a lot from others.

“Obviously. It had nothing to do with how hot you are, or how easy you are to talk to, or how soft you are for your cat, or how perfect of a pair we made for that project,” you lie with the most charming smile ever, snuggling up as close as you possibly can to his body. Twirling his long hair around your finger, you tuck it behind his ear, and whisper, “I’m such a little slut for your tattooed cock.”

The boy gets yet another urge to tear your clothes off again and feel your bare body connect with his so perfectly. He’s just about to shove his hand into your panties (you gave up on pants after the third time) when you let out a tiny snicker.

“I take back what I said about you not being fun,” you say, lips flush against his neck. “You’re fun to tease.”

Him? Fun to tease? Maybe you’re forgetting about all the teasing and torture he put you through earlier. Maybe you’re in need of a little reminder.

“Hey,” he says in his stern parent voice. You look up at him with those big innocent eyes again. Oh great. It’s clear that you know his weakness and aren’t afraid to exploit it. Just like how his naughty little kitten knows she can get away with anything because she’s too cute to get mad at. “Behave or I’ll kick you out.”

“Oh?” His so-called threat catches your attention enough to get your ass in his lap and your hands tangled in his hair. You let him taste your lips, your tongue, your everything—a sweet taste he won’t ever get sick of. “Do whatever you please to me,” you purr as the soft kisses quickly become an unbearable heat of pure desire.

Between you and his kitten, Jungkook already knows he’s gonna have his hands full. The thought of caring for others would normally irk him, but it’s not like he could ever say no to you or the kitten, even if he tried.

[munson-blurbs]

@corrodedcoffinfest Day 11: Jeff

Word Count: 620/Rating: T/Pairing: none/CW: older Corroded Coffin, takes place in 2024, all of the guys are idiots/Tags: Jeff, Eddie Munson, Gareth, Grant, TikTok, modern!Corroded Coffin

Divider credit to @silkholland

Jeff has always been the brains of Corroded Coffin. He was the one who ensured the lighting was set before their performances at The Hideout back in high school. If an amp is faulty, he can fix it without batting an eye. Even in his middle school years, he was a proud member of the AV Club. 

But this?

Jeff squints at the phone screen, trying to navigate the For You page. He’s not exactly sure who ‘you’ is, because none of these videos seem remotely interesting to him. 

“What exactly am I doing here?”

“I dunno,” Eddie shrugs, scratching at the gray stubble on his cheek as he peers over Jeff’s shoulder. “Robin just said we need to make an account and to ‘connect with our younger fans.’”

Gareth has his own phone out to read off an article. “Says here that to create videos on TikTok, you press the little plus sign. Then you can add filters—”

“Filters?” Eddie’s brows furrow in confusion. 

“Smooths out wrinkles, hides zits, brightens your eyes.” Jeff fills him in, still focused on the app. “Okay, now what?”

Gareth scrolls a little more. “Music. You click ‘add sound’ and then choose the song you want.”

“Ooh, how about the one that goes ‘I’m working late, ‘cuz I’m a singer’?” Grant offers, singing in an awful falsetto. 

Jeff rolls his eyes. “Or we could…I dunno…use a Corroded Coffin song?” He taps the search box and types in the band’s name. “Hell and Back is our most popular on here, apparently.”

“How?” Eddie plucks the phone from Jeff’s grasp. “We haven’t even used this app before.”

“But our songs are on here,” Jeff explains, conjuring up all of his remaining patience. “And people use those with their videos.”

The other three band members nod, but Jeff’s willing to bet that none of them have any clue what’s going on. He takes the phone back from Eddie, selects the song, and turns to Gareth. “What’s next?”

“Hold down the red circle to record.” Gareth looks around at his bandmates. “Any ideas about what we wanna do first?”

The room plunges into silence until Eddie speaks up. “This isn’t the nudie website, right?”

Grant snorts. “No, that’s OnlyFans.”

“That was a quick answer, Granty-Boy. A little too quick.”

“Beavis! Butthead!” Jeff snaps, effectively shutting them up. “Robin’s email said we should just introduce ourselves and say that we’re excited to be on TikTok.”

He aims the camera at Eddie first. “Go ahead and say your name.”

“Eddie.”

“Christ on a cracker.” He massages the bridge of his nose. “Try actually greeting people. Like, ‘hey, I’m Eddie.’”

“Coulda just said that,” Eddie grumbles, but he looks into the camera and repeats what Jeff said. The rest of the band follows suit as Jeff directs them.  

When it’s Jeff’s turn, he smiles and turns the camera on himself. “I’m Jeff. Welcome to Corroded Coffin’s TikTok!” He moves his finger off of the record button. “All right, let’s see what we got.”

“Go ahead and say your name.”

“Eddie.”

“Christ on a cracker. Try actually greeting people. Like, ‘hey, I’m Eddie.’”

“Coulda just said that. Okay, hey, I’m Eddie.”

“Great. Okay, now Grant.”

“I’m Grant. Super excited to finally be on OnlyFans.”

“Grant!”

“Sorry, I mean TikTok.”

“Gare?”

“Hi, I’m Gareth. I like long walks on the beach, outdoor concerts—”

“This isn’t your personal dating profile.”

“Just making conversation.”

“You’re all hopeless. Anyway. I’m Jeff. Welcome to Corroded Coffin’s TikTok!”

Jeff glances up from the video, cringing as it starts playing on a loop. Whatever Robin had in mind for this social media endeavor, it probably wasn’t this. 

“Hey, Gareth?”

“Ya?”

“Can you Google how to edit videos on TikTok?”

--

[mariejordans]

limoreau au ideas that i crave

1. ballet au—i’m thinking something like marie as the new ballerina in a ballet company and jordan as one of the veteran principal dancers who always gets cast for supporting roles, but never main bc management/casting is never quite sure how to cast them bc of their gender identity (bc management and casting are cowards basically) even though they’re one of the best dancers in the company (and everyone knows it.) so they’re always put in side roles that are comedic or gender-neutral (such as puck in a midsummer night’s dream or mercutio in romeo and juliet) and they’re like, SO frustrated, bc they want to be THE star, not just a side character. and so the end jordan’s contract is coming to an end soon and they’re very unsure if they’ll get a renewal, while marie is on a one year contract, so it’s also up in the air whether hers will be renewed too.

and then one day jordan and marie are randomly paired together for pas de deux (maybe it’s for a rehearsal or class/warm-up) and everyone is just floored by the instant chemistry and they end up getting cast in a brand new contemporary ballet set to premiere the following season bc the choreographer (i’m thinking maybe victoria?) just happens to also witness them and is inspired so much that they end up largely influencing the choreography and roles end up being specifically made for them.

and management is like, kinda nervous to allow them to be cast bc marie is like this freshly new ballerina who was just hired and is pretty much a rookie in all aspects, and they’re still worried about jordan’s marketability and such, but victoria vouches for them and fights super hard, so basically they can’t fuck it up at all bc it might be their only chance to really prove themselves and get their contract renewal.

and like the company is also putting on this super classic ballet (very much the opposite of the contemporary, which is very intense and sensual and dark) starring their two most popular principal dancers (luke and cate probs) and its very much implied that this new ballet has to perform as well as, if not better, than the classic ballet in order to secure their contract renewals. and so they really have to work together and help each other out so that they can both prove themselves.

also marie and jordan kinda hate each other at first bc like, marie was actually a big fan of jordans pre-getting into the company and were super excited to meet them until she finds out that jordan almost cost her a spot in the company, bc they just so happened to have seen her audition and mentioned to brink (who was on the auditioning panel) that she seemed too inexperienced and “not ready” etc etc (he ended up getting outvoted anyway bc the rest of the panel liked her) and so they basically can’t stand each other, which only makes the chemistry THAT more intense and palpable.

2. camp counselors au—marie and jordan are camp counselors at a vought summer camp for supe children. they both know each other vaguely from god u, specifically from an end of semester party where the two hooked up and had a one night stand. and so they are both totally shocked to see that the other is also working at the summer camp and the tension is still off the charts, but here’s the catch: there’s no fraternization policy between counselors, and if you’re caught hooking up with another counselor, you’re basically sent home.

and so, neither jordan or marie can afford to be sent home, so they really try to be “just friends” at first, but they just can’t stay away from one another, so there’s a LOT of sneaking around, stolen kisses and secret hook-ups. they eventually get caught at some point but like they just get slap on the wrist and sent back to their stations (apparently so many other people have broken the no fraternization rule it happens so often and they can’t fire everyone.)

the entire gang is also there (emma, cate, and marie share a cabin while luke, andre, sam, and jordan share another.) marie is in charge of arts and crafts, while jordan is a lifeguard (lifeguard jordan does things to me omg)

(also this plot is very much inspired by wildfire by hannah grace)

3. royalty au—just, this entire thread. it’s so perfect.

4. gossip girl/rich kids au—marie as a transfer student on scholarship to this very exclusive fancy boarding school. she’s there for one reason, and one reason only: to study, make valedictorian, and get into her dream university, [insert ivy league school here.] she quickly encounters the richest kids in school, a clique made up of luke riordan, andre anderson, cate dunlap, and, of course, jordan li. luke, andre, and cate warm up to marie pretty quickly, but jordan is very cold towards marie for no reason, and she doesn’t know why. but it doesn’t even matter, bc soon she realizes her biggest competition for valedictorian is jordan themself, and the two have their little academic rivals to lovers arc.

also, emma is marie’s boarding school roommate who mostly stays on the outskirts of the social scene (she’s happy to observe) but also always know all the gossip and the drama happening. and if it’s a true gossip girl au, someone like sam ends up being gossip girl lmao.

5. childhood friends au—basically canon but if marie and jordan had been as childhood best friends. like they used to live in the same neighborhood and would often play together as children, their parents were all friends; they were basically inseparable. and then when they started school, they would ride the bus together, they would do homework together. and marie being the first person to know about jordan’s powers and was there when they manifested, and was the first person to fully accept not only just their powers, but their identity as well.

but then marie’s dad gets a job offer in a different city, a different state, and at twelve and fourteen years old, the two are ripped apart for the first time. they promise to email each other everyday, and they do for two years straight until marie stops emailing one day. and jordan keeps trying to contact her, emails her constantly, tries for about a year until they give up. and they’re So angry at marie, bc it’s like they’ve been abandoned yet again. they’re So deeply hurt and betrayed. they tell themselves they don’t need her and they should just forget about her and they almost succeed.

they’ve almost managed to completely forget the best friend they’ve ever had until her application shows up in the crime-fighting applications database thing (or whatever its called idk.) and they’re like, just stunned, because as far as they were aware, marie was not a supe, and she had pretty much ceased to exist outside of distant memories from their childhood. and even then, it’s still as if she doesn’t exist, with her non-existent social media presence, and no experience in crime-fighting whatsoever.

and so they reject her application, bc of her lack of qualifications, because they weren’t prepared for her to exist to them again. they had just gotten used to her absence, and it still hurt them so bad that she had forgotten them so quickly. and even though they would hardly admit it, a part of them was trying to protect her, though from what exactly, they couldn’t say.

meanwhile, marie had been forced to stop emailing once she arrived at red river. and to be honest, even if she could, she doesn’t think she could’ve continued to email jordan like everything was fine. and so she cut off contact completely, even though it hurt her so much.

around the age of 16/17, marie realized she needed a plan to get out of red river. getting adopted was so unlikely, and she couldn’t stomach the thought of elmira. and then she saw jordan’s face on a brochure for a godolkin university and a plan begins to form in her mind. and when she gets the email that she’s been offered a full ride to god u, she finally lets herself hope. not only for future where she’s successful and her sister forgives her, but also that maybe jordan still remembers her and maybe they’ll be able to pick up where they left off all those years ago.

and marie is so disappointed that she let herself hope for that when she finally comes face to face with her old best friend years later and finds that they want nothing to do with her.

[frogs00]

would you ever write for gretchen x karen? they’re such a cute ship but apparently not very popular 😭

hope you’re starting to feel better 💘

Why risk it all?

Warnings: None really, lots of pining. Not really angsty I dunno.

Summary: Gretchen pining after Karen lol

Pairings: Gretchen + Karen (and background

Gretchen wasn’t one to hide things the concept made her nervous, and in turn, she didn’t like people hiding things from her. Which was why she wanted to be in the know, the center of the gossip chain, as many said. Yet…

She was hiding something. 

Butterflies erupted in her chest every time she wrapped her arms around Karen or brushed her lips against her cheek. It was almost always this way, ever since she was young and they held hands she felt those dreadful pests swarming in her rib cage. Hearing her laugh made her day, listening to her ramble about things that she loved or listing things off that were far from correct and gently correcting her, the positivity the tall girl always radiated even if Regina was in a vile mood. 

She loved Karen. Maybe in more ways than one. 

She wasn't sure she should. Not by any personal beliefs, truthfully, she knew why Regina was the way she was and knew the blonde really couldn’t care less about anyone's sexuality. She knew every foul word that left her mouth about Janis being a lesbian was internalized. She knows these things while Regina doesn’t even realize herself.

She knows how Regina feels about Janis.

 She knew better than anyone how it feels to be in love with their best friend, or former best friend…

In love? She recoiled at the thought. She wasn’t in love with Karen...

Was she? She was. She had a hard time processing that but it was true.

“Hey, have you seen my heart-shaped glasses? We’re going to the pool and…” Karen popped up out of nowhere and trailed off, squinting her eyes and looking at her, Gretchen didn’t get a chance to tell her they were on her head. “You okay?” and there it was, those brown eyes so pure and filled with warmth and concern. A deep, soulful kindness had always been carried with her, she was nothing off not tooth-rottingly sweet. 

“Yes, I’m good.” She breathed, rubbing her palms together and faking a smile. Karen studied her a moment longer with a frown before nodding and returning her smile.

“I’m always here if you need anything, okay, Gretchen?” Karen kissed her cheek and pat her head, “Got to go ask Damian something, If you need to talk, you know where to find me… or text me… or-”

“I get it.” Gretchen laughed softly, staring at the girl with a love-struck expression she could feel she wasn’t hiding well. Hopeless. Pathetic. She thanked the heavens for how naive Karen could be or seemed to be, she was always good at reading her.

She didn’t belong with plastics, never really did. 

But she remembered how they all came to be, how bodies were mocking Karen as she struggled to follow the teacher's instructions, making a mess of her project. She saw her cheeks turn red and her eyes water as she was teased relentlessly, they were only in second grade. She wanted to speak up, but her voice was caught in her throat, so she only looked away.

That’s when Regina proceeded to stand up and yell at the boys, telling them to leave her alone or she’d make them regret it. (The tiny, at the time, blonde may have also told them they weren’t raised right and would never be real men but that wasn’t as important.)

She took Karen under her wing, soon also adopting herself into the group thanks to no other than Regina George again, a boy snapped her tank-top strap and Regina nearly exploded because it left a little red mark.

Regina was always protective, especially of Janis, who was always super quiet when she didn’t know the people around her and shy. She sat with them and read, close to Regina's side when they both became their friends, but they warmed up.

She found that Janis was hilarious, silly, and energetic once you got to know her. She liked Janis a lot, but she was odd. She painted and kept her hair in braids all the time, she refused to wear dresses, and loved being outdoors more than anyone she ever met. Regina was her opposite completely, but yet the blonde adored the brunette.

Regina and she were attached at the hip practically, which she couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t jealous of because she was. 

Gretchen grew bitter towards Janis in middle school. While everyone matured and started doing their makeup, Janis didn’t, she stayed the same way, except she grew even more introverted and almost sadder…

It annoyed her, to be honest, how much attention she got from Regina by being so weird…

She almost celebrated when the whole ordeal went over between the two.

Little did she know the whole time, she had Karen. Karen was always there, with her bright smile and kind eyes, sort of in the background, but she went along with the other girls in their grade. When they both witnessed what happened that day with Regina and Janis, she had never seen Karen so upset and disappointed with Regina, though she didn’t say anything. She was a quiet type, despite being as popular and friendly as she was, but Regina knew…

It made her feel guilty for being so happy about it. It does to this day, even though they were friends again.

She shook her head and sighed. Everything pained her, everything made her giddy with anxiety. Regina was having an off day, she feared she’d snap and shatter the whole newly formed group, she worried about her friends a lot, they were strong yet so, so fragile.

--

The sunset slowly casts a warm pink glow over the group. She sat on the pool chairs, Karen sprawled out next to her, watching the group laugh and play in her heated pool. She saw Regina peering at Janis with soft features, relieving everything and nothing at all. Janis who had just wacked Damian in the face with a pool noodle and gotten dunked in return, was oblivious.

She sighed, a both tired and contented type of sigh, rolling her shoulders and shutting her eyes. It was weird how they were in a good place, but still, she felt all the anxiety welded into her bones, a dull ache of everything they left behind. She didn’t miss it the thought of stepping back into that plastic life made her feel tense and stiff, sort of like the har material they had been named after. She didn’t feel like eyes were digging into her skin anymore.

“Watchu thinking about?” Karen asked, now propped on her elbows, kicking her feet behind her.

She just smiled, “Everything, I guess.” Karen nodded, puffing out her cheeks and then letting out a breath.

“That’s a lot.” Karen’s words were simple but summed up her feelings pretty well, it made her giggle.

“Yeah, it is, how about you?”

“Nothing really, it’s nice out. Warm even though it’s getting dark, kinda weird.”

“It is… nice I mean.” She laughed and paused, she wanted to say ‘so are you’ because she was the nicest person ever, but she didn’t. She just swallowed. She wished that she had used her time wiser, she wished she spent less time following Regina around like a dog, padding after her begging for approval when Karen gave her that so naturally.

“Sometimes, I wonder what’d be like if everything was different…” Karen whispered, staring up at the sky now with an almost regretful expression, more emotions than she tended to reveal. Like she was reading her thoughts, maybe she was, or maybe Karen just understood Gretchen in a way no one else had, “but I like how it is now, and there is really any reason to regret and stuff, even if…”

“Even if…?” Gretchen repeated, breathlessly. The wisdom the brown-haired girl sometimes let out made her ache because there was always a layer of sadness, suppressed sadness, to it.

Karen shook her head and just laughed her off, but she still seemed conflicted and a bit frustrated, the type of frustrated she looked like when she didn’t understand a math problem.

“I don’t know.” Karen shrugged, and the surge of emotions she just said was replaced by her calmness, flashing her a toothy smile that made her heart melt no matter if it was forced or not. The prettiest set of teeth she’d ever seen. The prettiest smile she’d ever seen.

“Okay,” Gretchen pulled her gaze away and stared up at the sky. A gorgeous sight to behold, truly, a mix of a dusty blue and those radiant oranges, pinks, and yellows that bled into the sky.

“Hey, me and Janis are going to get going, Thanks for inviting us.” Damian startled her, Janis dried her hair in the background and flashed Gretchen a goofy grin that made her smile back, then shift her attention back to the 

“Okay, sure, thanks for coming.” She sat up straighter. They left, and one by one, everyone followed, bidding her goodbye. Leaving her with Karen.

“Hey, remember when we sat up there?” Karen pointed to the brick wall that framed her backyard, nostalgia washed over her, remembering having her dad lift her and help her scramble onto there to watch the sunset with Karen, Regina, and Janis. Gretchen’s mom would bring them snacks and they’d eat sandwiches, yet her favorite days were just Karen and her.

“Come on!” Karen lept up, effectively startling her.

“What?”

“Come on, silly, duh.” That gave her no more information, but she was dragged to the back of the yard by a very joy-filled Karen. 

“Up,” Karen let out a grunt as she heaved herself up, with unsurprising strength considering Karen’s history with dance and gymnastics. Karen stared up with wide eyes, her legs dangled, it really wasn’t that high, but she didn’t want to fall regardless.

“Absolutely not, are you- are you crazy? We aren’t eleven anymore-”

“Exactly!” Karen exclaimed.

“Wha-”

“Please?” Karen pouted and Gretchen truly felt like those butterflies she had mentioned earlier would come pouring out of her mouth if she spoke, so she just huffed and pulled herself up, Karen aiding her. She panted a bit, not butterflies flying out, and looked down with a triumphant look despite the little difficulty of the task. 

“Look, it’s so pretty.” Karen sighed and turned, swinging her legs the other way with eyes that dazzled in the light of the sunset, her deep olive skin shiny, looking soft to the touch.

She turned and looked, a smile creeping across her face, “Oh, that’s beautiful.”

“Fetch?” Karen suggested.

“No, it’s beautiful.” Gretchen laughed, when her laughter faded she turned and met her brown eyes, “What did you want to say earlier, I think you wanted to.” Karen's eyes flashed for a second with emotions she couldn’t read.

“It doesn’t matter.” Karen shrugged and blinked a few times. Gretchen wanted to believe her, but she didn’t, and Karen didn’t seem to want to talk 

“You sure?” Gretchen pried once more.

“Mhm.” Karen looked back at her again, she looked at Grethen like there was no one else in the world, something she had yearned for so deeply. She wanted to be wanted, but if she told her how she felt would she feel the same? Should she risk everything she had with her now because of it? Because was in love with her…?

They were silent for a while, her mind calmed when Karen’s fingers laced through hers because fingers locking with fingers could close almost any gap, even her own gaping spaces. Karen filled those, and Karen made her feel safe. She loved this ditzy girl, she learned she couldn’t deny that as much as she wished she could. She scooted and leaned on her. The stars are now overcast, peeking through the night canopy. 

“I love you,” Karen said casually, though her voice was hushed.

“I love you too,” Gretchen whispered, even if it wasn’t the same type of love that Karen felt for her. Because, hell, Karen was an incredible best friend. Why would she risk that?

Been sitting in my drafts forever but I'm happy with it I suppose.

[cookiesupplier]

Catch You When You Fall - Part Two

pairing: Nicholas Ruffilo & ofc (Catherine)

warnings/tropes: slow burn, angst, murder, mystery, smut, mentions of speciesism, mentions of violence, trauma... (to be added.)

summary: A new soul has arrived in the Afterlife. While she appears to adjust just like anyone else might in the new environment of the world of life after death, despite the ordeal she experienced with her death. The question is has she really, and can Nicholas help her without crossing lines that he knows he shouldn't?

Authors Note: Sooo took me an extra day.. and its extra unbeta'd.. sorry for any mistakes.. my read through of my draft was super rushedddd sorry.. hopefully its not too bad!

To find the others in the Hell AU Universe: Combined Hell-Verse Masterlist

tags: @missduffsblog @tearfallpixie @spicywhenspeaking @sorrowsofsilence @wild-child-7747

@lacktoesandtoddlerants @blackveilomens @valiantroeagleangel @bngurngheart @collapsedglasshouses

@embracethereaper42 @emmmm127 @sunsshinesunny @dominuslunae @xxkittenkissesxx

If you would like to be added to this tag list please see THIS FORM

Over the next few days, Cat got the ‘Hell’ tour from Bryce. He showed her around the community, took her to her new home. It was a little apartment on the ground floor, with a balcony that led out to a small green area out front. Bryce had even told her she could plant something there if she wanted to. It was the first time in her life that she had the option of her own garden to tend to, and she absolutely loved the idea. Before, she’d always lived in different types of rental spaces, and they always, without fail, had different levels of landlord rules. It made sense of course, she was only renting and didn’t own the space, she couldn’t do anything she wanted with it. Basically, it amounted to her not being able to plant anything, even if there was a strip of space that would be perfect for it, now she had hopes of starting a little garden of her own. She just had to decide on what flowers she was going to plant in it, what she was going to do with it, she knew she wanted to include some irises of some kind, they are her mother’s favourite. Once she had them planted, she looked forward to seeing them every morning, she hoped it would be a long time until she saw her mother here. As it was, she was almost wished the flowers were already planted as she got ready to leave, but they weren’t, not yet. 

Pulling on her coat as she passed by the balcony of the front hall of her apartment and let herself out the door. She was on her way to her first day of work, well, her first official day of work. Cat had met her boss yesterday. Ishtar had been wonderful when they spoke the day before at the vegetarian café that Cat was going to be working at. It was still quite new apparently, it had only opened up a few weeks ago, so everything was still just starting up, but it already seemed popular. While Cat wasn’t vegetarian herself, she loved to bake and try new things. The moment that Ishtar had heard this, she’d lit up like the Christmas tree in the middle of Times Square, and Cat couldn’t help but smile. She had a feeling they were going to get along just fine, despite the fact that she was almost sure that it was Bryce that had seemed wary when he told her about this job.

When they started talking about what jobs she might want to do, Bryce had brought her a list of different possible options for her. Most of them were menial jobs she would have never touched when she was alive, bartender? Not that she had anything against working at a bar, or clubbing, but she didn’t know how to make those kinds of drinks for the life of her! She’d studied as an English major and had worked at a publishing house while she was alive. Sure, she had drank a few cocktails, but she didn’t know heads or tails about how to make them. Books, now those were something that she had always been passionate about. Being here, in the Afterlife, her entire world turned upside down, it was a perfect time to make a change, to take a chance on something she loved. So that was what had drawn her to the café, despite Bryce’s attempts in talking her into working in the library instead. She knew he was just trying to guide her to what she knew, she couldn’t blame him for that. 

She had visited the library with him when he had taken her there, hoping to change her mind, she was sure, not that he said as much. Cat had gone to the library, and come back with a decent stack of books that were currently sitting on her night stand, and she was happily enjoying reading. The Afterlife had a very enjoyable assortment of literature, and unlike in the living world, she didn’t have to spend every cent of her pay check on books constantly. Who needed heaven, she was quite happy right here in so-called hell right now, thank you.  

Now, when it came to Bryce’s real problem with her working at the café, and she could tell he had a problem with it, even if he didn’t come right out and say it. The amount of times he asked if she was sure, if she was absolutely certain she wanted to work there, it was a giveaway. There was also the fact that he kept assuring her that if she changed her mind at any time, even after she started working there, she could always come to him, and he would work out another position for her. He was absolutely determined for some reason that she not work there, and it was mind-boggling as to why. 

Cat wasn’t sure which he seemed to have more trouble with, the fact that she didn’t immediately agree to his idea in the first place, or that she had chosen that specific café in question. At first, she had thought it was because she had decided on anything but his idea, he seemed like a man that was used to everyone just going along with the ideas that he had. Bryce was very easy going, the surfer vibe he had going on, he used it well, it worked for him, and seemed to make agreeing with him just seamless with most things. However, then, when she selected the café, and really insisted that was what she wanted to do, he switched gears and started assuring her that she didn’t have to decide right then and there. She could take her time. Take a few weeks, a few months if she needed to.

That was when he let her know that humans didn’t even need to work in hell, that technically, only demons did. Well, that was news to her. Up until that moment, he had seemed to be encouraging her to work, impressing upon her that she should. In fact, it had made her feel like if she didn’t, that she would be penalised in some way. Maybe she might not have ended up being punished in one of those torture realms, but something might happen to her. For all she knew, she would have gotten assigned a job if she didn’t choose one, and one that was disgusting.. Or worse, forcibly reincarnated as a bug, a cockroach, or worse, a spider. So hearing that she didn’t have to work at all, oh, Bryce was very obviously manipulating her, and she didn’t like it.

That had been when she decided that the café was definitely where she wanted to work, and there was nothing he could say that would talk her out of it now. She started this morning, and Cat was on her way to work, bright and early. While she loved to bake, she wasn’t actually going to be working there as one of the bakers, or dealing with any of the main food preparations that she knew of yet. Ishtar had told her yesterday that she was set to learn the ropes today, and that a lot of her work at the end of one day, was setting up for the next. It made everything go a lot smoother the next morning if she had everything prepared the day before. That was really smart, and she loved that idea, already the woman sounded amazing, she couldn’t wait to get to know her more. 

As she approached the outside of the café, she went along the side where the staff door was, knocking lightly, and a moment later the door opened to the smiling face of her boss, Ishtar. When she’d first met her, it had been remarkable to meet the bright bubbly face of the demoness, but a welcoming one. 

“Hey, Cat, come on in.”

Unlike Bryce, Ishtar, didn’t seem to jump right to the endearments to sweeten her up, she didn’t need to. She was perfectly nice enough on her own. Of course, meeting demons like her, made it all the clearer what Bryce had meant when he said that some demons don’t shift into a human form. While she had a humanoid form, two arms, two legs, and hypothetically ten fingers and ten toes by the looks of it, she was pure demon, with her gorgeous purple tones to her appearance. She adorned with tattoos still like other demons, hers were simple flowering vines over her skin, and stunning horns curled from her beautiful hair that was braided around them today.

Slipping into the back area of the café where they made all the food and drinks for the sitting area out front where they served the customers, at least the ones that didn’t take their food to go.

“Alright, Cat, so I’m going to get you started just taking orders behind the counter for now. Don’t worry, it's not going to be permanent, I hope to teach you how to do all the different jobs through the café. From waitressing, working register, making drinks, even baking for the display case, cooking out back.”

That really excited her to hear, that she wasn’t going to be shoehorned into one job here. If felt nice to know that she was going to have options and means to vary in time.

“Admittedly, sometimes I bake a lot a home and bring them in, it cuts down some of my extreme early morning commutes, and my boyfriend thanks me for that. His version of waking up early involves very different activities than baking.”

Cat felt her face flush warm, the kind of activities that she would attribute to early mornings and boyfriends, well, they didn’t involve baking either. Even if the thought of being in the kitchen of the morning brought about the idea of her boyfriend surprising her while she wore nothing but one of his shirts that she slept in. A boyfriend she had never got around to getting, she’d been far too much of a home body, always with her head in the books. The closest she came, and even before the end of the second day, he’d basically told her she was boring. That she needed to get her head out of the clouds, that there was more to life than fantasy. That being obsessed with dragons, magic, and elves, and all those things that go bump in the night was pathetic. Personally, she just thought he was pathetic, he would sit there playing his video games, and shoot up people, military type games. He had his obsession, so the fact he thought he could call her out for what she enjoyed, was ironic in the face of it. Unfortunately, at the time, she had spiralled and got so depressed at the rejection, but eventually she got over him and moved on focusing on school instead. 

“So if I might want to experiment in the future, baking, or other café style dish ideas, provided it's vegetarian, you might be interested?”

Cat was curious about trying different things. She wanted to try and see what happened with cooking instead of just her delving into the world of words and books like she had when she was alive. Maybe, also maybe, she was trying to give herself a little something for a distraction. A distraction from this dark feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn’t even really fathom right about now. 

“Oh, I would most definitely be interested. I can’t promise we will always serve what you come up with, but I’d love to see what you do make, I always like trying new things.”

Of course, Cat had no idea just yet what she might like to make, what would go well with what they made here. They had different treats and delights in the display case yesterday when she had come by to talk to Ishtar. Ishtar hadn’t called it an interview, nor the first time she had been by the café to meet with her and find out if she would be will to hire her in the first place. Instead, yesterday just seemed to be a check in to make sure everything was okay and that both she was still interested in working there, and Ishtar was still partial to having her at the café. With them both still on board, here she was, bright and early and ready to go.

“Can I ask, is the vegetarian element of the café, is that a preference of yours, or is that something you found lacking in the general cuisine choices?”

Cat couldn’t help but ask, it was a curious thing, she had found that a lot while she was alive. If enough people wanted something, then customs would adjust to embrace it. However, there were places that would buck so heavily against this it would tear a community apart, and it was so painful to see. She didn’t want to insult Ishtar by assuming anything about what she liked, or didn’t like.

“It’s a personal choice, I suppose it's half culture, half upbringing. When I was reborn this lifetime, I spent a lot of time with my mother, and she is vegetarian. However, as I got older and travelled more, I found I just didn’t have the same taste for meat others do. I can and have eaten it on occasion, it isn’t a health issue.. Much to my boyfriend’s thankfulness. Though.. Thinking of poor little animals, skewered for food, always does make me miserable.”

Nodding, that was fair, and it showed she had a bigger heart than some people. 

“I find it interesting there are still such diverse ways of life here.”

“Exactly, demons are just as diverse as humans, unfortunately it can also get just as ugly.. But let's not get into that. Now, let's get you set up at the register.”

Ishtar hooked her arm with hers with a bright smile and guided her up front to the counter so she could help her get set up before they opened.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

[ecargmura]

Cherry Magic Episode 11 Review - Good Progression For Both Couples

Good progression for both couples! I love how each of them revolve around the mind-reading magic, but use it differently. Adachi is reliant on it and eventually makes a positive change in his life because of it, but still has some ups and downs when it comes to himself and his relationship with Kurosawa. Tsuge, on the other hand, doesn’t really use the magic all that much—only in a few occasions—but it did help him develop feelings for Minato and eventually experiencing a world he never dreamed of until now.

With Kurodachi (or KuroAda in the Eastern fandom), they are dating, but are experiencing some issues. Fortunately, Kurosawa is reflecting on his behavior from the previous episode. I like how Adachi takes Tsuge’s advice and writes his heartfelt feelings in a letter. I think that letters are super underrated and I’m glad that he did so. Sometimes, words and text messages can’t convey feelings as well as a letter. The letter left such a huge impact on Kurosawa that he legit went to Nagasaki to meet up with Adachi. Talk about down bad. I do like that they did apologize. Adachi realizes that he really likes Kurosawa as he states some of the things he likes about him in order for his partner to not feel too regretful. The way they kissed afterwards was super sensual. I legit had to cover my face while still peeking because it was hot. If you’re wondering, yes, they did bang. That means Adachi’s magic is no more. Please don’t be upset over the censored sex scene, it’s mainly due to television regulations in Japan, I believe. The moaning, though… there is a reason why the BL genre is so popular because some voice actors know how to moan…Kobayashi is one of them…

Speaking of which, I learned from someone in the Cherry Magic discord that Adachi has a palmaris longus muscle on his wrist. It’s the little nerve/muscle thing that pops out on the front of the wrist. Only 14% of the population have it, apparently; I have it too! Apparently, the muscle can be a bit sensitive, when touched, so…think of that what you will.

On the Tsugemina side, Tsuge wanted to get over Minato, but couldn’t. He tried writing, but nothing came out. His feelings for Minato are just too strong. He eventually attended Minato’s concert where he gifted him a new pair of shoes, which caused Minato to rush out and find him. They eventually confess their mutual feelings for each other and it seems that they finally are getting together! Congrats! I really like how Tsuge’s so poetic, befitting an author. I loved his quote, “No story compares to the real you.” Man, that was SMOOTH. While Tsuge did have ulterior motives and it did bother Minato, Minato didn’t mind it too much as he likes Tsuge a lot more than he realized and even told the older man to not give up—words that Tsuge told him before. What I like about the Tsugemina pair is that Tsuge isn’t too reliant on the magic. While he did fall for Minato’s inner voice, he made his own effort to get closer to him as best as he can and it worked. The only time he used the magic significantly was to help Minato patch things up with Rokkaku. That’s about it.

This was the most romantic of the episodes by far, but the wonky animation does take some romantic value away from it, but it’s only noticeable in the non-romantic scenes. I wonder if next week is the finale. I do wonder how everything is going to end. There’s a lot of content for Cherry Magic, so I do wonder if there will be a second season planned. The day the episode aired was the day before  Adachi’s birthday, which is March 21, today’s date. Happy birthday Adachi! What are your thoughts on this rather romantic episode?

[chutkiandchotte]

"All shows are women-based, but somehow the men always get more money"

Watch from 4:00 onwards to see Sanaya Irani talking about pay parity in ITV. I think she's talking about Gul Khan and 4 Lions for sure.

I've been out of IPK loop for a bit but this part in the Sanaya Irani interview I stumbled on, made me so angry (not at her, at the world). She heavily implies that Barun and her were never paid equally while doing the show. And later, when asked to reprise their roles/do a new show together (she's not clear about exactly which), she asked for equal pay as the success of their pairing was due to both of them, and she was DENIED.

This is outrageous to me, considering Sanaya was definitely the bigger and more popular star prior to IPK. And as IPK 3 undoubtedly proved, the big draw of IPK, the thing that made it super successful was the PAIRING of Arnav and Khushi, not just the music or the love-hate story or Barun all by himself. No shade to Barun, he's a fine actor of course. But this is about what made IPKKND work - and the credit for that is EQUALLY shared between the two leads, and of course the writing and the supporting cast are also critical in that success.

Anyway, I'm sorry but I am not mature enough to not be kind of happy that IPK 3 didn't work out, not because of any other reason but just because it made the producers and their misogyny look really really stupid. They really thought they were having a "we can re-do IPKKND, we don't need HER (the HER is always replaceable), as long as we have HIM" moment, and I'm glad they were proven wrong.

It's what fans have pointed out forever, which apparently the producers were too damn stupid to know - of course as fans of Barun himself, we are glad to see a NEW tv show with a totally different story and new co-stars. But if you're going to shove the IPKKND branding in there, you're going to make us listen to the background music in every scene, you're going to name the lead character similar to the iconic ASR, then SORRY - you're the one who is inviting us with garlands into comparison territory, and you WILL be found wanting. IPKKND without Sanaya as Khushi, is really not something anyone who loves this show wishes to see or imagine.

Barun Sobti has his own brand and fan following, which they could have easily cashed in on by making a totally new show with him. But what they wanted to do was cash in on the IPKKND brand, imagining in their arrogance that Sanaya Irani (not to mention good writing 👀) is only incidental and expendable to that brand.

Like there is a reason there are so many fucking ITV shows these days with 17-20 year old girls paired with 32 year old men. Because audiences will easily swallow these odd pairings, and you can get away with paying a 17 year old peanuts. Because the successful 32 year old woman is going to ask for what she's worth. And while producers can make peace with paying men what they're worth per their experience and popularity, doing the same for women, is considered too extreme to even be an option.

[laceratedlamiaceae]

OFMD characters if they were worms

(and whether or not I would still love them)

Izzy: Pseudobiceros hancockanus

Also known as "Hancock's Flatworm," it has a distinct black coloring and is part of a genus known for engaging in "penis fencing" for reproduction, which I like to imagine is something Izzy does too. Obviously I would still love him; I don't think there's anything that could make me stop loving him.

Stede: Sabellastarte spectabilis

Also known as the "feather duster worm." It's popular in squariums because of its flamboyant plume of tentacles, which are almost as ridiculous as Stede's hair. If anything I think I'd love him more as a worm.

Ed: Eunice aphroditois

Also known as the "sand striker" or "bobbit worm." This thing is a horrifying monster that feeds on fish unfortunate enough to come near it with its sharp mandibles. The rainbow iridescence is pretty though. Sorry Ed but I've read too many horror stories about these; I would not love you if you were a worm.

Calico Jack: Trichuris trichiura

Also known as the "whipworm," which is the only reason I chose it. Unlike Calico Jack, I wouldn't want one of these in my large intestine because they're the cause of trichuriasis, a parasitic infection. I'm not that into parasites so I'm unfortunately going to have to pass on loving Jack as a worm.

Roach: Hirudo medicinalis

One of a few species of "medicinal leeches." Leeches are still used for medical purposes to this day because of the beneficial secretions in their saliva, and they're also cool as fuck. They're like vampires except they're worms, so obviously I'd still love Roach as a worm.

Frenchie: Lagis koreni

Frenchie is a "trumpet worm" because that was the only worm I could find with a name related to music. Also the tubes they build for themselves to live in are super cool and I wanted to include them somewhere. I would for sure love him if we was a worm.

Wee John: Megascolides australis

Also known as the "giant Gippsland earthworm." Because he's big, get it? 10/10, would still love him as a worm.

Lucius: Spirobranchus giganteus

Commonly known as the "christmas tree worm." The two spiral things on either side of its body function both as gills and to capture food, and they're also gay as fuck. Love that for him, and I'd absolutely love him as a worm.

Jim: Bipalium kewense

Jim is a "hammerhead flatworm," mostly because it kind of looks like it's wearing a hat but also because it produces a deadly paralyzing neurotoxin. Obviously I love that, and I'd love them if they were a worm.

Oluwande: Maritigrella crozierae

Commonly known as the "tiger flatworm." I chose this for Oluwande because they apparently often live together in pairs and Jim/Oluwande is the best couple in the show. You already know I'd still love him if he was a worm.

Buttons: Plagiostomum vittatum

Not much is known about this mysterious species of marine flatworm aside from the fact that it's native to the Atlantic ocean (by which I mean there isn't a Wikipedia article for it and I can't be bothered to do more research). I do like a mystery so yeah, I'd love him if he were a worm.

Fang: Hermodice carunculata

The "bearded fireworm," like Fang, looks soft but is also deadly. It's namesake white bristles are capable of penetrating skin and injecting a powerful neurotoxin. I would love him if he was a worm but I'd keep my distance.

Ivan: Arthurdendyus triangulatus

Known as the "New Zealand flatworm," it fades into the background a bit but it's still cool. Apparently they roll up when they rest which would be really cool if I could find a picture of it. Anyways yeah I'd love him as a worm.

The Swede: Caenorhabditis elegans

C. elegans is a species of nematode notable for being the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome sequenced, because it's so simple. I'd definitely love him as a worm.

Black Pete: Lumbricus terrestris

The common earthworm. It's a bit plain, but it plays a vitally important role in its ecosystem. Of course I'd love him as a worm.

Mary: Riftia pachyptila

Also known as the "giant tubeworm," it's capable of surviving in the extremely hot, toxic environments of deep-sea vents, which is almost as impressive as Mary being able to survive living in a house with Stede. Obviously I'd still love her as a worm, she's an icon.

[gaiaxygang]

A Small Perth & Chimon Timeline

Since I like procrastinating post about Perth and Chimon excessively, I decided to put together a small timeline of them and some of their works! I'm definitely missing a few things because I've been a fan for under 6 months but I wanted to share (under the cut ↓)

Excuse my poor formatting again, I'm more used to word vomiting www

Before I talk about PerthChimon(TM),

I would like to bring up some of Chimon's previous projects. Chimon has been acting as a full time career since 2016, due to financial problems his family faced. His first named role was Nack from Sweet Boy (I won't be posting it because I don't. like the movie lmfao). Later that year he joined GMMTV as a supporting character in Senior Secret Love: My Lil Boy 2.

(this is also where he met Nanon! They've know eachother for almost 8 years now)

In 2017, he was cast in My Dear Loser: Edge of 17 as Sun, in a side pairing alongside Pluem Purim. The two of them would star as In-Sun again in My Dear Loser: Happy Ever After (2017) and Our Skyy (2018)'s My Dear Loser episode. This is when (I suspect) Chimon became more well known in English fandom spaces, playing one half of a BL side pairing.

(the in-sun cut doesn't do them justice i should make my own someday)

So... what about Perth?

Sometime after My Dear Loser, in 2017, Chimon was cast as the lead in Please... Siang RIak Winyan, or Please... Soul Call (I will be calling it 'Please' from here on).

(i like the opening theme song its very good)

Perth was cast as a supporting character by its director New Siwaj, who had met Perth when he was auditioning for various advertisements. Perth and Chimon met for the first time during Please's workshops, but didn't talk much, if at all as their characters didn't share any scenes and Perth was (and still is) naturally very quiet, keeping to himself.

Please is 6 episodes long, and the first 4 episodes were subtitled by lovelyperthmarks on Youtube. I personally don't think the show is anything extraodinary, but definitely fun to watch if you want to see how much Perth and Chimon have grown!

And after that,

After Please, Perth and Chimon proceeded with their own projects. Perth was later cast in Love By Chance (2018) by, again, New Siwaj where his popularity kind of.... exploded...... you could say (lol). Around the same time, Chimon starred in several GMMTV series, including The Gifted (2018), one of the more well known non-BL GMMTV series.

Perth worked on a few shows, including The Stranded (2019), one of the earliest Netflix shows produced by Thai companies starring Thai actors. He was also in TEMPT, a boy band featuring multiple Love By Chance cast members that disbanded later in 2020. Perth eventually went freelance some time in 2020, starring in a few projects like his first movie Tell The World I Love You (2022), and My Coach (2022).

Similarly, Chimon worked on several GMMTV series such as He's Coming To Me (2019), The Gifted Graduation (2020), and The Player (2021). He also worked on a few non-GMMTV shows, such as Put Your Head On My Shoulder (2019) and was a main host of TV show School Rangers from 2018 to 2023 (HE'S GRADUATING!!!!!). He also vlogs on his Youtube channel occasionally, something that he says he wants to go back to if he has the time.

In 2020, they did a photoshoot together at Fantopia for... no apparent reason? I really can't think of a reason Perth would be put with them lolol. I don't have the high quality version of this but I'm sure its out there somewhere!!!

(Chimon, his old BL partner, his close friend that he's been in several shows with, and his future BL partner)

At some point, Perth and Chimon became casual friends through their mutual friends Ohm and Nanon. I'm not super sure when this happened but they talk about this a bit in this interview! This clip also has a few other interesting things like how Chimon declined taking BL roles after Pluem went to do other projects, but P'Aof managed to convince him because he would be paired with Perth. Which leads me into...

Perth in GMMTV

In April 2022, Perth was announced as a new GMMTV artist. He made a guest appearance in Vice Versa (2022), but had no announced projects until GMMTV2023.

In July 2022, Perth and Chimon attended the KAZZ Awards 2022 as a duo. Perth and Chimon were also both part of Safe House Season 4: Vote (2022) where they grew to be close friends. I assume this is also when Perth was added to NLMG's cast and ChopperBen was written in. It's also possible Dangerous Romance was in early planning stages but I cannot confirm this.

At this point, Never Let Me Go had already been announced as part of the GMMTV2022 lineup. It featured Chimon as Ben, Nuengdiao's (eventual) ex boyfriend and someone else (SORRY I CAN NOT REMEMBER WHO.......) as Chopper, Nuengdiao's cousin. There was no ChopperBen romantic storyline even hinted at in the pilot trailer.

Phuwin Makes An Oopsie

On 17th September 2022, Phuwin posted this image on Twitter.

See anyone familiar in the corner? That is indeed Perth Tanapon himself! At this point there was no information about NLMG and any cast change, and Pond, Phuwin and Perth decided to post this (well. Phuwin posted it but the other 2 didn't stop him) because surely no one would know. They were told to take it down but the same day, people started speculating about Perth's role in NLMG.

People had started wondering if they would be paired together in a series from KAZZ Awards and Safe House S4, and Phuwin posting Perth on the workshop of a series Chimon was already in (we will get to this later) confirmed it for everyone. Before we got NLMG's official trailer in November, however, we got...

Dangerous Romance

At GMMTV2023, which was held in November 2022 (days before NLMG's official trailer was released), the pilot trailer for Dangerous Romance was revealed and PerthChimon were confirmed as an official pairing. Perth was immediately cast as Kanghan and Chimon as Sailom soon after, since they could match eachother's acting ability well and were a good fit for the roles (I can't find the source for this it got lost in my 82374983 PC bookmarks. Here's who I think is P'Aof talking about why PC were paired though!)

Throughout this time, Perth and Chimon were in several events together, including GMMTV FanDay in Osaka and too many promotional events for me to keep track of. I might make a separate post for them someday. My personal favourite is Bookfluencer x PerthChimon, where they promoted the release of Dangerous Romance's novel.

(catboys)

In April 2023, Dangerous Romance's workshops started. It lasted for 4 days

Later in May 2023, KanghanSailom fitting pics were also released!

(other cast member fitting pics weren't released until the official trailer aired. the fitting seems to have been in mid May!)

And soon, at the start of June 2023, Dangerous Romance officially began filming. The filming lasted until August 2023, including the music video filming (and recording!), though there was a day they had to go back to reshoot a few scenes (you can see this in the series, they have noticably different hair).

(beautiful location for the end of a beautiful series!!! the whole process was tracked meticulously by thisblackyellow on twitter, you can read their thread here but please be aware of spoilers!!!!!!)

Ever since then, PerthChimon have been doing promotional events and fanmeetings. They filmed 3 episodes of vlogs, were in GMMTV Fanday 6 in Seoul as well as GMMTV Fanday 7 in Cambodia, GMMTV Fanfest 2023 in Japan, and have already been confirmed as part of LOL Fanfest 2024! And of course, the Dangerous Romance Final Ep Fanmeet taking place (checks notes) TOMORROW?!?!?!?!

So this ended up longer than I thought. Happy almost Dangerous Romance EP 12 day!!! Let's keep supporting Perth and Chimon next year too.

(and thank you to @kessthenorthface for asking me to do this <3_<3 it was really fun to put together!!!)

[beelmons]

No one is as hot, happy, or cool as Instagram shows, some people are bald

Genre: Fluff Pairing: Spencer Reid x BAU!Fem!Reader CW: None Series: Part of Technophobe in Recovery Summary: Your friend Spencer didn't really understand social media, until he found out that it could be used to hit on people, more specifically to hit on you. Perhaps if he had a profile you would look his way?

Social media is a narcissist’s crack, at least that’s what Spencer always thought. There are so many ways of keeping communication, what’s the point of plastering every detail of your life for the world to see? As FBI agents, the entire team knew to thread carefully when it came to public profiles. Of course, all of you kept it light, without giving locations away, and taking every precaution Penelope had told you to take.

—He liked your picture?! —Penelope screamed from your behind. She had sneaked up on you and caught a sight of your phone to see the username of a very popular S.W.A.T. member on the “liked by…” section of your Instagram.

—First of all, ouch. —you joked, pretending like her scream hurt your ear—and second, he didn’t only like the picture, he is in my DMs right now asking about my day.

—You go, girlfriend—Emily joined as her and JJ got closer.

The not-so-subtle scream from Garcia had gathered everyone’s attention, and shortly there after the familiar faces that walked the ballpen had gathered around you.

—Whoa, baby girl, what’s all the commotion about? —Morgan asked once him and Reid had joined the rest of your coworkers by your side, his hand instinctively reaching for Penelope’s shoulders.

—Miss hot and smokey right here. —she pointed in your direction— The super-hot SWAT captain from last raid just liked her picture on Instagram and slid into her DMs.  

—I think this is the first time I’ve been in a conversation where I don’t understand a single word. —Spencer had furrowed his eyebrows in plain confusion— Is that a good thing?

—It’s like a modern version of a mating call, Spence, you like someone’s picture to capture their attention, let them know you are interested, and then message them privately to see where things go. —JJ explained in the young doctor’s direction.

As everyone’s attention went back to your phone, Spencer found the perfect opportunity to swallow down the knot that had formed on his throat. Never could he have guessed that from all the people you were surrounded by, decorated officers, top-of-the-field lawyers, fellow elite FBI agents, the one person he had to worry about was trapped in the rectangular gadget he hated the most.

Not that the team knew, they suspected yet he had never admitted to it, but Spencer liked you. He wasn’t the one to act on his crushes almost ever, he liked when things developed naturally, which apparently was not going to be the case with you now that “super-hot-swat-captain” was “sliding into your DMs”, whatever that meant.

—You guys are making it a bigger deal than it is. —you tried to shut down the chatter in the office— He hasn’t even asked me out, just asking random questions.

—Come on, you don’t talk to someone on Instagram to make friends. —Morgan affirmed.

—And you look good good ok that picture. —JJ added.

The statement made Reid stick out his neck, he wanted to catch a glimpse of what everyone else what admiring; in his eyes, you always looked good, what could be so special about that one pic— Oh. He could feel the heat on his face spreading through every corner of his head, and some other places to the south he was doing his best to avoid; the way the lighting was ideal to your face, the pose that highlighted the best features of your body, and an outfit he could tell made you the most confident. A whole other person that he seemed not to know, and yet prayed in his very soul he could, at least, get the chance to one day.

Reid cleared his throat as he noticed everyone, specially Morgan, staring a bit too long, and with embarrassment he headed back to his office. The traces of the smile he had earlier in the morning were long gone, his serious expression taking over instead, with a slight furrow on his brows. He grabbed a random file as he walked to his desk and pretended to work intently in wrapping up some paperwork.

—Okay, that’s enough. —not being used to such praise and attention to your private life, you snatched the device away from Penelope whom, at some point, had gotten her hands on it— We’re not snooping on my love life right now, there’s tons of paperwork to do and the next case could come at any time.

The team reluctantly left your work area, not before threateningly asking for updates whenever you got one, and you were free from their questions once again. On the corner of your eye you were able to notice a rather sulky Spencer sitting on his desk, his troubled expression not going unnoticed by the rest of the team as well, to any stranger it would look like your average agent on the job, but to those who knew him was obvious, and boy, did you not know him.

You decided to disobey your own advice and visit his station instead, you leaned over the furniture with a concerned expression and he looked up questioningly, as if your presence was not required.

—Spence, you good? —you asked amicably.

—Sure, I’m fine. —his answer was quick and apparently emotionless—Got a lot to do, though.

Without giving you a chance to speak any further his sight went back to the file in his hands. You muttered a tired “okay” and headed back to your desk to finally get to work. The feeling of having done something wrong didn’t go away for a while, even if strictly you had made no mistake. You liked Spencer, and you figured you had left enough clues for him to pick up on them, but so far he hadn’t made the first move, and you were beginning to think perhaps he just wasn’t interested, after all, you were the first one to volunteer whenever he offered an extra ticket to his obscure events, and there’s no way he didn’t notice the creeping blush on your ears that one time he would mutter live translations during the Korean film festival.

On his side, he was only pretending to read and type on the computer, he wasn’t able to concentrate at all. Would you maybe take interest in him if he liked your every picture? If he wrote you a DM even if he still didn’t quite know what that meant? If he posted shirtless pictures occasionally? Or showed off his tactical gun? Hold on, those thoughts were getting too specific. Without even noticing, he had landed on the SWAT captain’s profile. He knew how to vaguely navigate profiles thanks to Garcia, but any further than that was a mystery for him. He couldn’t help to feel like this guy was a little pretentious, absolutely not the kind of man you deserved, or even would like; Penelope was right, you can know a lot about someone thanks to their social media.

—Stalking the competition? —Derek’s voice scared Spencer out of his wits.

His fingers quickly hit the close button on the browser, and he jolted upwards. When he realized the weight of the words said to him he nervously looked around, thankfully you were nowhere close to a hearing range, to his relief.

—Just curious, that’s all. —he said in a lower voice as he rubbed one of his eyes.

—I get it, kid, —Morgan offered a handsome smile and a supportive pat on the shoulder— social media can sometimes be the source of lots of negative feelings, it’s not a perfect tool, but it’s fun. You don’t have to worry, chicks love your old-school techniques too, you just have to, you know, actually use them on a girl for them to work. —he signaled with his head as you walked from Hotch’s office, where you had been discussing details of a report with the Unit Chief, to the office’s kitchen—And, sometimes, an “I’m sorry I was a jackass to you” goes a longer way than any like on a picture.

Spencer watched carefully as you made your way through the ballpen, he was the body language and microexpressions expert, he knew you were feeling down and, guiltily, he was the reason behind that. Without answering his friend he skipped from his seat towards the entrance you had just walked by. As magic, and as usual, the second he was in front of you any other logical thought seemed to disappear from his brain, you had that effect on him.

—Hey. —he said, you answered with a slight smile and turned in his direction— I just wanted to apologize for being so dismissive earlier.

—That’s fine, Reid. —you answered with a swatting of your hand— Sorry I upset you.

—No, you… —he sighed and looked down at his feet— you didn’t upset me, sometimes I just have a hard time understanding modernity, and it can get very overwhelming.

—We know, we know. —you reached over to squeeze his arm reassuringly, and he could have sworn his heart was going to jump out of his chest.

—I just don’t get the point of it all.

—Well, there isn’t really much a point. For a lot of people it’s a source of pride and vanity, sure, but some of us just want to share pieces of our lives to those we love the most.

—And that includes sexy SWAT captains? —he asked in a tone that seemed to be smaller than the rest of his sentence.

—The people you love the most, and some other randos, too. —you corrected with a small laugh, not wanting to even pay attention to the SWAT captain, since truth was you weren't interested— It can also be a great way to make sure you don’t lose important memories.

—Important memories don’t just get lost. —he joked.

—Not everyone has eidetic memory, Spencer. —you shook your head and reached into your back pocket to take a hold of your phone, your profile still open on the picture that had gotten him so excited before which you quickly tapped away to scroll through your posts—Like, look at this one, this is a picture of Rossi’s carbonara.

—You could get that any time.

—Yes, but what if I transfer or quit? I want to be able to remember that I used to have this amazing food with you guys. —you scrolled a bit further— Oh, this one is from Hotch’s birthday, when we surprised him by bringing Jack to the office, that was fun. This is a trip I took with my family. That’s a cute cat I saw on the street, nothing worth noting but surely worth keeping.

As you kept going down your posts your lips curled into a bigger smile. Memories were nice, they were fun, especially the ones you liked to share, they brought you joy and warmth, and he noticed, in fact, that’s all he could look at, the bright smile on your face as you reminisced. He wondered if, maybe, you would smile the same when remembering him, perhaps years from now, or during lazy weekends, on a random Thursday, when the fragrance of his cologne seemed to linger in the air, in a similar way he was used to thinking of you.

—Hey, that’s me! —he said excitedly when he noticed a picture you had posted months ago of the two of you together.

—Oh, yes! This is when we went to that event, what was its name? Like lollapalooza but for books.

—Litepalooza. —he added

—Right, it was so lame we decided to leave and go have something to drink, we ended up in that Mexican coffee shop where we tried the... Spicy Hot Chocolate!

—Spicy hot chocolate!

The screaming of the name came out of your mouths at the same time and it was followed by a loud laugh. On the caption it read “Awesome days, awesome friends.” and a heart emoji following. Most of your pictures were of other people, or other objects, or by yourself, as far as he could tell he was the only person, outside your family, to appear on a picture alone with you. The mere fact that he felt special for it made him feel ridiculous.

—Your lips were red the rest of the day. —you let out a final chuckle— It’s not so bad. Think of it as a digital scrapbook. I know, I know, you are not big on digitalizing things, but not everyone is crafty enough to make one!

—When you put it like that, yeah, it doesn’t sound so bad.

You took a second to look into his eyes, and you could have sworn that your suspicions of him not being interested were wrong. Before making it awkward he hit you with a soft “let’s head back”, to which you complied.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast, before you knew it was time to head back home, thank god, serial killers had taken a weekend off and you didn’t have to travel for a case on Friday. You didn’t have any plans, so a night in it was. Before you headed out you made sure to stop by Spencer’s desk and he let you know that he had something to do before heading home and you should go back first.

The appointment in question was with no other than Penelope Garcia herself. Spencer shyly slipped past the door of her office after knocking on it almost ashamedly.

—What can I do for you, boy wonder? —she asked, spinning her particular pink furry pen in her hand.

—I was wondering…—he began to explain—could you maybe help me create an Instagram profile?

—Do my ears deceive me? —she asked with an astonished expression—Spencer Reid, are you sick?

—No, I feel fine. —he answered earnestly and a little puzzled, unaware of the undertone.

—Then this must be a miracle! You have come to the right place my child, we are going to make the most irresistible profile ever!

—Wait, before we start… —he interrupted the girl’s clicking and she looked at him expectantly—Can you tell me what does a DM stand for? Has been bugging me all day to not know.

—Oh, boy genius, your analog brain is thirty, but your digital brain is five.

With her snarky remark, the both of them got to work.

You kept turning on your bed as you watched a random, very uninteresting, show on Netflix. Your night in, regardless of it being what you needed, was boring to the core. You didn’t think your night was going to pick up until you saw the screen of your phone light up with a notification. A very odd username caught your attention enough to skim through them.

[Instagram] dr.sreid started following you

[Instagram] dr.sreid liked your photo

[Instagram] dr.sreid liked your photo

[Instagram] dr.sreid: Hey, guess what?

You bit your lip in attempt to not look like an absolute clown with the wideness of your smile. Hurriedly, you unlocked the device and headed to the pretentious social media app.

You : No fucking way.

You : How did you even manage to make one?

dr.sreid : Garcia helped me.

dr.sreid : Is it too weird?

You : A little. But it’s nice seeing you adapt to modernity.

dr.sreid : I still have no idea how to use this properly, I also don’t understand what’s the difference between this and texting.

You : Jesus, this must be killing you.

You : Hold on, I’ll follow you back and call you instead, enough dm-ing for today, I gotta give you a break.

dr.sreid : I have no idea what you just said, but sure.

You laughed at his confusion, regardless of his genius brain he hated familiarizing himself with technology, and he could learn about it pretty easily, but he just didn’t enjoy it in the minimum. You headed to his profile as you promised, he had followed 6 people, Morgan, Rossi’s official writer account, JJ, Garcia, of course it was the first account he followed, Emily Prentiss, and you. The profile picture was an impromptu photo of them in Garcia’s office, since he barely kept pics around in his phone, and his only post was an old picture taken on your birthday by Penelope herself, both of you unaware that it even existed. In it, he was struggling against you trying to smear his face with buttercream, his hands on your wrists, and both of your smiles the biggest you had ever since, the caption read “Favorite picture, favorite person.” with a heart emoji following. You couldn’t put a name on the way it made you feel, but the butterflies in your stomach were giving you a hint, you followed him back, liked the picture, and dialed his number. You couldn’t go a second without hearing his voice.

The next day at work you would get an earful about having ghosted the SWAT captain, and the only thing that replaced the outrageous news about your love life was the realization that Spencer had, in fact, made an Instagram account. After some teasing and internal jokes, the office went back to normal.

Spencer would only post a picture every couple of months when a special occasion arose, by the request of his friends, and when Penelope managed to get his hands on his phone. However, from that day on, he was the very first person to like whatever photo you were to post.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

The Spyke post

Since actually watching all of X-Men Evolution, I've been meaning to write a post about Evan Daniels, aka Spyke, aka Sir Not Existing in the Comics.

Spyke is a character created for the Evolution cartoon, with no apparent model in the comics, although his powers of manifesting bone "spikes" out of his body are very similar to Marrow's. He's also Storm's nephew.

Look at this adorable little guy:

I commend the writers for adding a new character and actually making him part of the main cast, something that I don't think has really happened since Firestar in Spiderman and His Amazing Friends. (Although maybe people know of other examples that I missed). Morph in TAS was originally there to die, and they were basically a replacement for Thunderbird when the writers realized that killing off the only Native American on a mostly white team wasn't a great look. (And Morph actually was based on a comics character, the obscure and mostly forgotten shape-shifter Changeling.) Harley Quinn was created to be a Joker sidekick in Batman TAS. The Batman cartoon gave her some good character development, and she later blew up and because wildly popular, but that wasn't the original intent.

So, who is Spyke? He's a nice, easy-going and fun-loving teenager, who can get a bit competitive and isn't always super responsible, but he's basically a good kid. He loves to skateboard, and was first set up as a kind of rival to Quicksilver, although that didn't really last. He is also Storm's nephew, which means that he has to deal with a parent-like figure looking over his shoulder on the team. He is also the character who seems the most uncertain about joining a mutant team. In his first appearance, Evan is not an unknown mutant, Storm knows about his powers, and is visiting him to talk to him about joining Xavier's school, while Evan seems to prefer normal teenage high school life. His powers exist, but he doesn't necessarily want them to define his life (although he can't always perfectly control them.)

This uncertainty about being an X-Man seems to be a consistent trait whenever there's an episode focused on Evan - he will be lax about his training or responsibilities, and have to reaffirm his commitment to the team. The problem I have with this is that it's a personality trait that mostly only comes up during a Spyke episode. In other character-focused episodes, Spyke is right there showing up for training or to help in fights. He hangs out with the other characters, jokes with them, shows support. But in "African Storm," the episode where Spyke is nearly kicked off the team for a lack of dedication, he seems to think he has no friends at the school.

I think the writers dropped the ball somewhat with Spyke, and he didn't really get the same kind of development and attention that the other characters got - except in the Spyke episodes, when we are reminded again that he exists. Other characters started getting paired up in cute (often shippable) ways, like Rogue and Cyclops, Kitty and Kurt, Kitty and Lance, etc. But who was Evan's best friend on the team? Who did he hang out with? Did he have a crush on anyone? We don't know, because we mostly didn't see it. If Evan was paired up with anyone, it was either Pietro (in their quickly dropped "rivalry,") or his Auntie O. He'll be there hanging out with the other characters and showing up as part of the team, but we don't get a lot of one-on-one bonding with team-mates. Maybe this was also part of Evan's personality. He seems like a very independent kid who doesn't want to ask for help - and when his powers start mutating beyond his control, so that he can not longer pull his bone spikes back into his body, he tries to handle it himself and doesn't confide in anyone. But it also feels like Spyke frequently being an afterthought in any episode that isn't specifically about him.

I especially had a problem with "African Storm," where Spyke is going to be kicked off the team and sent home because he isn't showing up for danger room practice and his grades aren't great. Beast even suggests to Storm that Evan might be "unreachable," even though Evan was the one who reached out to Beast when Beast was on a rampage, by reciting Shakespeare to him (and I wish writers had done more with that relationship). And throwing Evan out over poor performance (even though he's always showed up for fights and done well when it counts) seems rather unfair when other characters have done much worse. Some of the New Mutant kids were joyriding in the Blackbird and could have killed both themselves and other people on the ground, but they didn't get kicked out. Boom Boom nearly killed Kurt by being careless in a training exercise, ignored her punishment and didn't learn any kind of lesson, and was still told she'd be welcome back any time when she ran off to join the Brotherhood. But Evan's gonna get kicked out for bad grades?

I did like the Spyke storyline when he goes to join the Morlocks, even though it was kind of "putting him on a bus," and took him out of the main cast. The kid who didn't want to be defined by his mutant powers wound up having to leave mainstream society and live underground because his bone spikes mutated out of control, covering his entire body (and making his mutation obvious). Spyke joined the Morlocks in part because he saw a society of mutants that no one was really sticking up for, and wound up becoming their protector. Thankfully, Spyke also gets included in the final season Apocalypse storyline when the X-Men are rounding up everyone for help, and is shown having rejoined the X-Men in the future, so he wasn't completely written off.

I wish we'd gotten Spyke imported into the comics. There was an X-Statix character called Spike with similar powers, who was also a young Black man, but he had a completely different name and background. Also, he was kind of a jerk and was killed off (to be fair, most of X-Statix were kind of jerks, and a lot of them got killed off). I'd rather have actual Evan Daniels, teenage skateboarder, whether he's officially Storm's nephew or not.

Anyway, Spyke is great, and I wish we'd gotten one more "Spyke-cam" episode where we see everything filmed from his perspective. Spyke nowadays would absolutely have a GoPro and be filming skate-boarding videos.