#and teach their young followers some absolute shit behavior

[alphacrone]

7 + Holly and her mysterious girlfriend!

7. visiting them at their place of work

“This is it?”

Michelle frowned up at the house. Holly held back her laughter. 

“What were you expecting?” She asked as they ascended the steps. Michelle shrugged. 

“I dunno,” she said. “I think I just assumed it would be on fire.” 

“Well, not today,” Holly said, opening the front door. “Not yet, anyway.” 

When Holly had first moved in with Michelle, before they’d even fallen in love and were simply, truly roommates, Michelle had been suspicious of her employers. Working at DEPRAC meant she’d heard all about the infamous Lockwood & Co. and their flagrant disregard for the rules or safety in general. But Holly had spoken of them with detached politeness and professionalism, only occasionally slipping to complain about Lockwood’s reckless behavior or Lucy’s snide attitude, so Michelle had assumed the child-run agency had calmed down in its antics.

Then Holly had come home black-and-blue and thoroughly shaken from a poltergeist gone wrong, and Michelle had nearly stormed across town to fight- well, she wasn’t sure whom she planned on fighting, but it might have been every member of that blasted agency. 

The following year had been a whirlwind of dangerous jobs and emotions running wild. In that time, between revealing conspiracies and battling the forces of evil, Holly had found the time to kiss Michelle, and also drive her insane with worry. 

Things were settled down now and Lockwood & Co. were the most famous agency in the world. Which was why finally—finally—-Holly had invited her to visit and meet her coworkers. 

As soon as they entered the house that served as the living space and headquarters of the agency, Michelle was met with screaming. “Cubbins, I’m going to skin you alive!” A thin, freckled man was shouting up the stairs, brandishing a crutch like a club. 

“You’ll have to catch me first!” A boy’s voice came down from the upper level. Michelle turned to her girlfriend in concern, but Holly seemed nonplussed. 

“What happened this time, Quill?” She asked the young man. He turned to her and rolled his eyes. 

“He used my jacket to mop up one of his experiments. It’s designer,” he huffed. “Who’s this?” 

“This is Michelle,” Holly said, placing a hand delicately on Michelle’s arm. “My girlfriend.” 

“Ah, of course.” The man gave her an approximation of a charming smile and stretched out his hand. “Quill Kipps.” 

“Nice to…meet you,” Michelle said slowly, glancing up the stairs, then back at Quill. 

“Kipps!” Another boy barged in from a room down the hall, waving a newspaper in his hand. “Have you read this Rotwell piece? It’s an absolute load of rubbish, trying to paint Steve Rotwell as some sort of saint when we all know-”

“Lockwood,” Holly said, gentle but firm in her tone. “This is Michelle.” 

The boy immediately smiled, wide and blinding. “Pleasure to meet you, Miss Lang,” he said, sounding older than his appearance suggested. “I’m Anthony Lockwood, owner of this agency.”

“Hi…” Michelle couldn’t help but notice how young he was, especially next to Quill and herself. 

“Shit!” The boy from upstairs came running down, a silverglass box in his hands. “Lockwood, this one’s cracked!” 

“I told you not to put it in the bath, George!” Lockwood shouted back at him. “Have you met Holly’s girlfriend, Michelle?” 

“Hello!” George shouted at her as he ran past. “No time to talk! This source is strong, even in daylight!” He stumbled past Lockwood and Quill down the hall. Quill followed, grabbing a rapier from the umbrella stand. 

“Aren’t you going to help him?” Holly asked, hands on her hips. Lockwood shrugged and smiled. 

“Nah, it’ll teach him to be more careful with expensive items,” he said casually, as if there wasn’t an unsecured source being carried through his house. Michelle’s blood pressure rose. “Can I offer you any tea?” 

“Sure, but I’ll make it,” Holly said, taking Michelle’s hand and following Lockwood down the hall. They entered a cramped, messy kitchen that smelled of burnt toast. Holly and Lockwood worked in seamless tandem to put on the kettle and pull out mugs and tea bags. Michelle watched the way Holly danced around her employer, skirt twirling, every movement practiced and perfected. In the yellow morning light that filtered through the east-facing windows, Holly glowed, warm and soft and content in her odd life at this agency. 

“What was all that screaming about?” A girl appeared in the doorway, toweling off her short hair. Holly turned to beam at her, bright and wide and lovely, and Michelle’s stomach made a funny little twist. 

“Oh, George broke another silverglass box,” she told the girl, motioning to Lockwood to pull down one more mug. “Tea, Lucy?” 

“Thanks.” The girl—Lucy—stepped further into the room and immediately noticed Michelle, who’d been standing off to the side a bit awkwardly. “Oh, uh. Hi?” 

Michelle stuck out her hand, eyeing Lucy up and down. She was short and stocky, with bright eyes and a heart-shaped face. Pretty when you looked at her long enough, but with something mysterious hidden beneath the surface. Somehow, she felt threatened. “I’m Michelle, Holly’s girlfriend.” 

Lucy shook her hand, her grip strong and calloused. “Lucy. Didn’t realize you were coming by today.” 

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Holly said as she took the kettle off the stove. “If I told you, you’d all be on your best behavior, and I wanted-”

“-her to see what you put up with?” Lucy guessed with a wry grin. “Good call. This place is a nightmare.” 

“Hey!” Lockwood protested, though the smile hadn’t left his face. “It’s the most respected nightmare in London, I’ll have you know.” 

Lucy looked over at Michelle and subtly shook her head. Despite herself, Michelle laughed. 

They were quickly joined by George and Quill, who had successfully recontained the source after a disastrous couple minutes in which Quill had knocked over a different source and let it loose. Holly and Lockwood served the tea and a plate of biscuits, and Lucy and Quill got into some fight over a mug with a Satchell’s logo on it, and George started telling no one—or everyone—about a lecture he was attending, and Michelle was content to just sit back and soak it all in. 

Holly sat down next to her, tea in hand, and Michelle leaned over to murmur in her ear. “I get it now,” she said. “Why you love this place. Why you love them.” 

Holly smiled at her and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Everything this woman did took Michelle’s breath away, and that single kiss had her gasping for air. “They’re my family. Just like you.” 

Despite the onlookers, Michelle leaned back in for a proper kiss, cupping Holly’s face in her hands. Someone wolf-whistled. Someone gagged. Someone else laughed. George didn’t pause his monologue. 

“Just because of that,” she told Holly softly. “I won’t report those idiots over there to Barnes for improper containment procedures.” 

Holly laughed and rested her head on Michelle’s shoulder.

[syntiment]

Oh yeah I never posted this here on Tumblr, I forgot-

But hey, I don’t draw MCYT or more specifically DSMP art anymore and I very likely never will again. I strongly disagree and dislike Dream and a good handful of his immediate friends and his repeated shitty behavior on top of the community’s behavior in general, has turned me away from any remaining desire I had to participate in it’s content. I still like and support many of the CC’s involved, but I won’t draw anything from it anymore.

[betelguwuse]

I’m starting to think maybe I don’t want to get married. Hypothetically I’d love to be in a godly marriage with a man who respects me and sees me as the person that God does (and not only me but women as a whole), but realistically do christian men like that even exist? Mainstream christianity, especially gender discourse, is so watered down and twisted into something that’s more political than biblical. I feel like this is gonna piss off both the christians and feminists, even though I’m both (though some might say I’m not a real feminist, whatever idc lol). Might also tag as Side B because I feel like this is also maybe a Side B mood? But here goes.

Color coded by vague topic, bolded so it’s easier to read.

Like I recently heard of a pastor being criticized for saying it’s a woman’s duty to look good for her husband, and the boomer conservatives were acting like criticisms of this pastor was the end of christianity. There’s no way “looking good” in a biblical sense was anything more than basic hygiene, nowhere near the beauty standards of today; and that is if the idea of looking good for your husband is even in the bible. These people siding with the pastor were saying that any woman who doesn’t shave or hide her “flaws” with makeup or basically completely embody the tradwife meme are bad wives. Like what the literal hell.

Honestly the entire tradwife aesthetic seems to be the goal for a lot of young christian couples, when it’s not inherently biblical. I used to be into it myself because heck yeah staying home, housekeeping, taking care of children, and wearing cute flowery dresses sounds like a dream. But my goals aren’t universal! Some women don’t want kids. Some women want to work. Good and God-honoring women of the bible didn’t all have kids and stay home. I mean the timeline of the bible spans so long, so yeah maybe there were times when most women did. But that doesn’t mean women who didn’t were bad wives or lesser women. Not to mention there’s such a blurred line currently between cute tradwife lifestyle and creeps who fetishize the idea of a traditional (and by traditional they mean submissive) wife. Gross.

Another thing too many christian men do is say women can’t be in any position of power in the church. There is the whole specific issue of whether or not women should be the highest up actual pastor of the church, and I don’t know enough about that whole debate to validate or debunk it, but I’m not talking about that specifically here. Aside from that one position, a lot of christians think women can only teach other women and girls but not guys, even like literal child boys. That’s so weird, like imagine thinking a little boy has more authority than, or even equal to, a grown woman? Couldn’t be me. And this whole idea comes from an out of context “I do not permit women to speak in the church” from a regular human guy. And the reason he said this was that the women around him were spreading heresy. I still think it’s flawed logic to exclude all women from speaking in that situation just because most of them were wrong, but again, this wasn’t a command from God. This was just a guy recording his church experience and doing his flawed human best to manage it. Various women throughout the actual bible outside of this one leader’s timeline held positions of power in various churches. And modern day american christian men think biblical womanhood is all about subservience? Bro what bible are you reading?

I just want to make it clear that these are all just generalizations, but having been in various actual biblical communities and conservative christian communities, I can kinda pick up on the general sexist behaviors of the latter. But unfortunately in today’s political climate more and more young christians are only being exposed to political opinions that are surface level americanized good christian morals, but not actually biblical.

Even on top of that, even if a man knows of these biblical misconceptions, we live in a society. Like we’re constantly exposed to women’s sexualization, and it’s pretty impossible to escape that. I don’t want to spend my life with someone who’s grown up in a world where women are seen as weak, objects, pleasure machines, etc. And yeah we can unlearn these biases (honestly I hate the word unlearn but I can’t think of a substitute rn), but it feels like a hassle to casually figure out whether a guy can make an effort to understand what women go through, and if I were to just bring it up I’d scare them away. And that’s not to say I’m some perfect person who’s never sexualized men, we are all sinners after all and we live in a fallen world etc etc. But a whole society where women are so objectified that it’s normal for little boys to be watching porn, that just doesn’t really happen with little girls. I can’t speak for all women, but when I started seeing men sexually it was in my late teens when I realized like ‘oh I can sexualize men too? wild. ok I’m an adult lemme check it out’. Still sinful, but not ingrained in me from porn ads as a kid the way most young boys have been since like the creation of the internet.

Even the men currently in my life who genuinely want what’s best for me are so incredibly misogynistic it’s baffling. My male family members see any woman who breaks an imaginary dress code or ideology is some kind of deviant. I just want to make it clear that this is MY family and I’M the only one who gets to complain about them. We all love each other here even if the males are horribly wrong.

So I shaved my head for halloween and my dad could barely look at me, not because he was exactly mad or anything but just because I looked ugly to him. He always says ‘close the windows in your apartment because men will spy on you changing’ but after my hair was gone he was all ‘actually don’t bother because nobody will look at you looking like that’ like wow I wasn’t aware men only sexualized women for their hair. Like you really think a gross creeper is gonna be turned off by a fully naked oblivious vulnerable woman just because she’s bald? That’s not how any of this works. And just today my sister was watching a goth youtuber egirl or something, I didn’t see her makeup but my dad said stuff like ‘ew why does she look like that, maybe it’d be cool as a costume but how is she going to get a job’. Like, I’m not one to go ‘women don’t wear makeup for men’ (because most women who only use makeup to hide their insecurities and follow beauty standards very much just do it so they don’t get backlash from others, if not directly to please men), but when it’s a fun crazy look that’s not meant to be pretty, I’m all for that shit and generally I hate when men lose respect for a woman just for wearing something they don’t like. Like fashion isn’t real and your appearance should be as costumey or weird as you want without people losing respect for you. Also like...do men know that makeup isn’t permanent?? Like if she wanted a job that required no makeup she could easily wipe her face off and get one?? Not only that, but people can work from home and/or be self employed. Maybe youtube itself was this girl’s job. Who the hell cares man. And the worst thing here is my brother outright said one time “the root cause of feminism is pride”. B r u h. And this was back when I considered myself an anti-feminist, even then I knew that feminism started for good reason and I was absolutely furious. I think I kept it to myself like a coward lol, but if anyone said that to me now I’d tear them apart. In a debate I mean, not like literal violence.

Tldr: I’m not trying to say men are inherently more evil because there’s evil in everyone, but the way it takes shape in men in most societies is so insidious and inescapable. I love my family and guy friends, but I don’t want to deal with one in a romantic/sexual relationship because I don’t know if even the most educated and goodest christian boi in this world can see me as a true equal. It sucks because I want sex and children, but when the mainstream idea of hetero sex is female submission, it just makes me shrivel up and contemplate becoming a nun. I’m not even catholic. But even nuns are sexualized and degraded in coomer’s disgusting brains. In conclusion I’m going feral and starting my own woman-only church in the woods let’s go ladies.

[tanakavox]

Rowan and Summer meet Rosemary

A crossover done by me and @bssaz97, edited by @thatorigamiguy Thanks guys!

Zwei: ”Ah, I almost forgot to introduce you all to my partner. Come follow me and I’ll introduce you to her.”

He gestures for the twins to follow him as he begins walking in the opposite direction. The twins quickly matched his pace, a look of matching curiosity and excitement on their face at the thought of meeting Zwei’s partner.

Rowan: “Your partner? Cool! What kind of person are they? Are they nice? What kind of weapon do they use? Are they strong? Are they nice?”

Summer: “Are they a boy or girl? Have you two known each other for long? Do you two fight in a similar manner? Or do they have their own fighting style?”

Zwei couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the twins' inquisitive rambling, though it was more in fondness than exasperation. Their constant questioning reminded him of Ruby whenever she started drooling over a gun or was just excited in general about anything.

Zwei: *Internally* “Yep, they’re definitely Ruby’s children.”

Zwei’s lips twitched into a smirk at the thought, before he made to answer the twins before they could ask anymore questions.

Zwei: ”Her name is Rosemary. She’s been my best friend since we were practically toddlers. She uses an Axe that’s been modified into being a gun to compliment her semblance. No, we both have different fighting styles though they both compliment one another. She’s very strong, one of the strongest people I’ve ever known. And yes, she’s very nice. Though, she also tends to be rather mischievous when she wants to be and can be a bit of a hothead as well.

Rowan: “Really? That’s so cool! And she uses an axe too as well? That’s an excellent choice of weapon, good for powerful swings and penetrating heavy hides on Grimm. As a matter of fact, Summer is learning how to use an Axe as well, right sis?”

Rowan’s question went unheard, as Summer seemed to have been fixated on something that Zwei had mentioned when talking about his partner.

Summer: “You said she’s your best friend huh? And that you’ve known each since you were old enough to crawl?”

Rowan eyed his sister from the side, rolling his eyes as he began muttering about being so blatantly ignored.

Rowan: “Oh yeah sure, just ignore my question Sis. It’s not like I was talking to you or anything like that.”

Rowans' muttering went ignored as Summer patiently waited for an answer from Zwei. Zwei shot a curious glance over his shoulder at the question, before giving a quick shrug.

Zwei: “Maybe not that young, but we’ve known each other since we were about two or three years old.”

Summer: “Oh wow, you two have practically known each other your whole life! Sounds like they're about as close as Blaze, Joanna and Liena doesn’t it Bro?”

Rowan was still muttering to himself about being ignored, causing Summer to roll her eyes at her brothers sulking. Zwei in turn, merely ignored the two of them as he led them down the halls of Beacon to where the inner gardens were. They eventually found themselves outside and surrounded by lush greenery and plentiful flora. The cascade of vivid colors from all of the varying flowers and plantage was quite the sight to behold. Summer let out a small gasp of delight as she looked upon colorful and well maintained gardens. Even Rowan couldn’t help but gape at the mesmerizing gardens, his sulking having already been forgotten about. Zwei ignored the surrounding gardens, and instead made his way towards a lone person who was currently in the middle of watering some plants.

Upon getting closer, the person had turned out to be a woman with vibrant red hair that covered one of her violent eyes. She was dressed in gardening gear that had obviously seen a fair amount of use judging from the varying dirt and grass stains that were layered upon it, and the leather gloves and apron she wore having been warped and crimped from frequent usage. She was humming a cheerful tune to herself, when she noticed that she had company. A big smile plastered itself across her face as she quickly placed her watering can down before rushing over and immediately embracing Zwei, which he quickly returned. They held one another for a few seconds before they both separated from one another.

Rosemary: “Well, well, what brings you around my neck of the woods Z?”

Zwei’s smile quickly turned into a grimace, before letting out a groan of annoyance at Rosemary’s choice of words.

Zwei: “Ugh, really Rosie? Plant metaphors?”

Rosemary huffed in response, quickly crossing her arms as she gave Zwei a challenging look.

Rosemary: “Oh hush, you! It’s funny and you know it!”

Zwei merely gave her a deadpan look in response, clearly unimpressed with her lackluster attempt at humor.

Zwei: “Oh sure Rosie, it’s funny alright, if you have absolutely no taste in humor. But I suppose that’s what I should expect from someone that hangs around Yang all the time.”

Zwei didn’t even bother to stop the smirk that formed on his face as watched Rosemary immediately get flustered. Her face was as red as her hair, and her teeth were gritted together in anger. 

Rosemary: “Now listen here ya little mangy mutt!”

Zwei and Rosemary’s friendly greeting soon devolved into bickering between the two of them. Rowan and Summer both stood awkwardly to the side, unsure of what to do as they didn’t wish to impede upon their conversation. At least, Rowan stood there awkwardly while his sister looked upon the bickering friends with stars in her eyes.

Summer: *Internally* ‘Oh brother’s, they have it so bad for one another that it’s unreal! And she’s perfect auntie material on top of that!’

Rosemary’s tirade was cut off when she finally noticed the twins standing behind Zwei. She quickly calmed herself down, before giving the two a curious look.

Rosemary: “Never figured you to be one to willingly put up with tagalongs Zwei. Did the headmaster finally manage to get you to take on some firsties for that leadership program?”

Zwei only scoffed at her words as he rolled his eyes in annoyance of ever having to teach his younger peers anything. 

Zwei: “I’d run face first into a brick wall with my semblance active before I’d ever willingly take on a group of first years. And to make a long and complicated story short, these are Jaune and Ruby’s kids.”

Rosemary: “...Wait, wha-”

Zwei: “From another dimension.”

Rosemary was doing her best impression of a gaping fish at the total bombshell Zwei casually dropped on her, before shutting her mouth with an audible click. Her eyes were pinched shut as she found herself taking in a long, deep, breath before exhaling with obvious exasperation. Her eyes snapped open to give Zwei a tired, withering stare.

Rosemary: “Not even time and space itself prevents your family from doing anything by halves, huh Z?”

Zwei simply shrugged, before shooting Rosemary a cocky grin.

Zwei: “You’ve known me and my family long enough Rosie. Since when have we ever been one’s to let the impossible stop us from doing anything?”

Rosemary went to give Zwei a response, before once again clicking her mouth shut in frustration.

Rosemary: “I hate the fact that I can’t actually prove you wrong on that. But at this point, I shouldn’t even be surprised at something like happening, it’s not like reality hasn’t practically been shattered around us before or anything like that.”

Zwei: “Now you’re just being emotional, and besides: what’s wrong with casually breaking all known laws of science and physics every now again?”

Rosemary: “...No comment.”

Rosemary gave Zwei a blank stare as she ignored his shit eating grin, before turning to regard the twins with a warm and welcoming smile.

Rosemary: “Well with that little bit of insanity out of the way, it’s nice to meet you two! I’m Rosemary Thornbush, and you two are?”

The twins eyed each other momentarily, before they both went to introduce themselves to the older women. 

Rowan: “I’m Rowan Rose-Arc, and it’s very nice to meet you Miss Rosemary.”

Rowan gave Rosemary a small, but polite smile as he gave her a quick wave in greeting. Summer on the other hand....

Summer: “Hi, I’m Summer Rose-Arc, and I’m really happy to meet you Miss Rosemary!”

Summer had practically launched herself at Rosemary as she took one of her gloved hands in hers, practically shaking her hand at the same pace of a jackhammer on steroids. Rosemary didn’t even so much as flinch at the act, having long since been used to such hyperactive behavior from dealing with Ruby on a near daily basis. A small squeal escaped past Rosemary’s lips as she took in the sight of the precious little girl in front of her before quickly pulling her into a hug.

Rosemary: “Oh Brother’s above, you’re just an absolute doll! Oh what precious little thing you are Summer.”

Summer’s face practically beamed with joy as she preened at Rosemary’s words of praise, returning her hug was just as much enthusiasm. Rowan couldn’t help but snort at the sight of the two girls quickly getting along with one another, while Zwei quietly snickered at the sight of Rosemary acting just as her mother would in such a situation. Though she denied it, Rosemary had a tendency to smother people in a bombastic manner like her mother often tended to do, though she was a lot less open about that particular habit.

Rowan let out a curious hum as he truly took in the garden that was surrounding them. He saw various pathways all neatly trimmed and cared for, all of which were lined with various species of flora. From his observations, he honestly wouldn’t be too surprised if Beacon had a greenhouse or two as well. 

Rowan: “By the way Miss Rosemary, do you mind if I ask why there’s so much focus on tending to all of the plant life here in Beacon? Is there some kind of curriculum based around it?”

Rosemary: “First of all: Just call me Rosemary or Rosie, Rowan. I’ve never been one for formalities and I’m certainly not my mother, that’s for sure.”

Rowan's face flushed red in embarrassment before muttering out an apology, only to give his sister a dirty look when she snickered at his reaction. His face soon matched his skin when Zwei also snickered at his reaction, though he was quickly silenced by a pointed look that Rosemary shot at him.

Rosemary: “Secondly: There is a curriculum of sorts. The gardens and greenhouses of Beacon have been a staple since its founding. Apparently the original headmaster was big on preserving endangered flora and plant life that was at risk of being wiped out due to human expansion and Grimm hordes destroying the terrain during their rampages.”

Rosemary released Summer from her grip, before she walked back over to the flowers she was tending to before they had arrived. There were several flowers that were in the middle of their blooming period, still several days away from fully blooming.

Rosemary: “While it had originally started as a preservation effort, it had eventually become part of the curriculum as a set of optional classes. Specifically for training huntsmen in medicines and survival courses. Being out in the fields for extended periods of time isn’t anything unusual to a career huntsmen, but that often means being out in the wild on your own with very little in conventional medicines and foods. Which often leaves you at the mercy of mother nature, and whatever mood she’s currently feeling at the moment.

Rowan and Summer were completely enraptured by Rosemary’s impromptu lecture, practically hanging onto every world. Zwei himself was paying rapt attention to Rosemary, though it certainly wasn’t because he was interested in hearing the same lecture he’s heard a million times from both Rosemary and his step-mother. 

Rosemary: “Aura can protect and heal your wounds, but it’s still a finite resource and it can’t keep you from going hungry or prevent your wounds from becoming infected or bones from setting right. There are loads of cases of huntsmen dying due to being unfamiliar with even the most basic of medical knowledge or because they ended up poisoning themselves from eating wild plant life they didn’t know was meant for consumption. Not to say that huntsmen are dying left and right due to being ignorant of basic survival tactics, but it does make up for quite a few deaths and casualties every year. And as such, that’s why it’s been a part of the Beacon curriculum for quite sometime and even though it’s technically still considered an ‘optional,’ class.”

Rosemary emphasized the word “optional,” with a sneer and air quotes, causing the twins to giggle at and Zwei smile at her obvious feelings on the subject.

Rosemary: “It’s still heavily encouraged by most of the faculty and the current headmaster himself to take the course and to be familiar with at least the basics. The Class is currently taught under the instruction of Thumbelina Xiao-Long who, by the by, is also Beacons official doctor for the student body and my mentor. She’s a bit soft spoken, but she’s also an absolutely brilliant woman and takes her role of an instructor and healer very seriously.”

Rowan and Summer both nodded along, before Rowan piped up with another question.

Rowan: “Professor Xiao-Long is the current instructor of the class? Then I must imagine she has quite the green thumb if she’s the school's expert in medication and survival.”

Rosemary: “You would be one hundred percent correct Rowan! An astute observation on your part.”

Rosemary shot Rowan a sincere smile, causing him to blush at the sudden praise he received. He tried to ignore the snickering of Summer and Zwei, though both were quickly silenced when Rosemary gave them both another pointed look.

Rosemary: “Yes, Thumbelina does in fact have quite the green thumb and it’s practically a requirement for being able to instruct the survival class. You have to have a thorough knowledge of flora and their medicinal properties, while also being familiar with what’s edible and safe to eat versus what’s dangerous for consumption. It’s also important because you have to be familiar with various poisons and toxins that Grimm produce and that both assassins and rouge huntsmen use and how to either treat or stall their spread.”

Summer: “Wow, sounds like professor Xiao-Long is one smart cookie then!”

Rosemary: “Like I said, she’s a brilliant woman to work with, and I’ve learned a whole lot from tutoring under her.”

Rosemary went to say more, only to be abruptly interrupted by an annoyed looking Zwei.

Zwei: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, she’s such a ‘smart’ and ‘well read’ woman. Alright Rosie, this has been riveting, but are you done kissing my step-moms ass already or are you going to keep on rambling?”

Rosemary’s mouth dropped for only a second, before her cheeks flushed red with anger and she had gotten a fierce look in her eyes.

Rosemary: “Ah shut ya trap you mangy fur ball! Ya just angry that your Ma refuses to give you an easy pass in the class just because you’re family!”

Rowans and Summers' eyes widened as Rosemary went from being happy and cheerful, to having a full on Northern Vale accent. Zwei winced as her accent flared up, only to glare back at her in defiance.

Zwei: “I’m not angry at all! Ever since she took you on as an apprentice, all you ever do is go on and on about how ‘brilliant,’ and ‘passionate,’ she is!”

Rosemary: “It’s called having a healthy appreciation for someone Zwei! Sorry if that seems to upset ya for some reason, but I fail to see why ya care so much about it!”

Zwei: “Healthy appreciation, my ass! You're practically obsessed with her and all of her studies and theories, you may as well have a huge crush from how much you gush about her!”

Rosemary: “N-no I don’t! Ya just saying that because-”

Zwei and Rosemary once again broke down into bickering with one another, completely ignoring the twins once again. Rowans looked on with concern written on his face, wondering if he should say something or intervene with the fight. Summer, on the other hand, watched them with a cheshire grin planted firmly on her face. 

It was easy to see that there was little to no heat behind any of their words, even with the two of them practically shouting at one another. Secondly, Zwei had purposely goaded Rosemary into the argument, not even bothering to be subtle about it. And it was clearly obvious to Summer that Rosemary had the ability to keep a cool head and could have avoided getting into an argument with Zwei, but that she all but yanked on the obvious bait that had been laid out in front of them. All in all, they came off as an old arguing couple that were arguing for the sake of arguing rather than two people that were truly mad at one another.

Summer: *Internally* ‘Oh yeah, they definitely have it bad for one another!’

Summer snickered at the thought, before she gave a polite cough to grab the arguing pairs attention. Zwei and Rosemary were practically in each other's faces when they both froze, and looked over to see that they still had people present. Rowan had suddenly found the ground to be the most fascinating thing in the world, while Summer was trying(and failing) to hide a smug smile at their behavior.

Summer: “Do you two need a moment? I’ve been told that a lover's spat is usually dealt with in private, rather than the whole world to see.”

Summer thought she would get a further reaction out of them, only to become confused when neither Zwei or Rosemary gave each other a look, before they started laughing as if they had just heard a funny joke.

Rosemary: “Ha! Me and this guy dating? Not in a million years!”

Zwei: “Sorry to disappoint you Ruby Junior, but while we’re close we’re not that close with one another.”

The two continued to share a good laugh with one another, which only served to confuse Summer more than she already was! It was obvious they had feelings for one another! They had all of the textbook signs of being attracted to one another, how could they not see this! Summer went to call them out on this, before she was interrupted by her twin.

Rowan: “You know it’s not polite to assume they’re dating based solely off of looks alone Summer.”

Summer: “What?! But, but-!”

Rowan: “And even if they were, it’s not nice to call them out like that either. It’s rude, and you know you were taught better than that.”

Summer couldn’t do anything but openly gawk at her brother’s scolding, her mouth open and closing as she tried to(and completely failed to) formulate a response to how the situation had completely been turned against her. Not helping matters was the fact that Zwei and Rosemary were both openly snickering as Summer was being reprimanded by her brother in an eerily similar fashion to how their mother would have been scolding them.

Zwei: “Snk! Yeah Summer, it’s pretty arrogant of you to just up and assume that Rosemary and I are dating just because it looks like we’re having a lovers spat.”

Rosemary: “Pfff! Yeah hon, you shouldn’t just assume something based off of first impressions alone. That kind of attitude will just come back to bite you in the ass sooner or later.”

The pair continued to laugh as Summer’s cheeks had flushed red enough to match her namesake, before she quietly muttered out an apology while she desperately wished she could sink into the ground. Rowan kept a neutral facade, though inwardly he couldn’t help but smile as his sister was now the target of some embarrassment. After a few more teasing comments from his tour guides, Rowan had decided to end his sister's torment.

Rowan: “Okay, I think you two have gotten your kicks in and my sister has been thoroughly embarrassed enough.”

Zwei and Rosemary both quickly picked up on what Rowan was saying, and after another brief round of chuckles and one last teasing remark or two, they had both finally let up on Summer.

Rosemary: “Ah man, the look on your face was priceless! Ah, but enough of that, I think she’s not going to make any more assumptions soon, don’t you think Zwei?”

Zwei: “Mmmmh, yeah I think our would-be romantist has learned her lesson.”

Summer let out a sigh of relief, only to wince when Zwei’s eyes narrowed and he got a devious smirk on his face.

Zwei: “For now.”

Summer could only groan at the thought of future teasing, while her brother could only roll his eyes at her reaction. Doing his best to ignore his sister's despair, he addressed Rosemary yet again as a sudden thought occurred to him about something she had mentioned earlier.”

Rowan: “You mentioned that you were Professor Xiao-Long's apprentice earlier? I’d imagine that the requirements would be having an extensive knowledge of flora and medicines, as well as having a way with plants yourself?”

Rosemary: “Pretty much, though It also helps that my semblance is practically tailor made for the position.”

At the mentions of her Semblance, both siblings perked up with excitement with Summer’s previous air of misery quickly evaporating.

Rowan/Summer: “Really?!”

Rosemary: “Yes, really! Course, I had to work my butt off to still qualify for the position against several other people, but my semblance pretty much gave me an edge over all of the others.”

Zwei had let out a rather loud cough that sounded like he was saying “nepotism,” though he began coughing for real when Rosemary elbowed him in the gut. Neither of the twins chose to comment on the aforementioned moment.

Summer: “In that case, could we see your semblance Rosie?”

Rowan: “That is, if you don’t mind taking the time to show us that is.”

Summer was practically beaming in excitement at seeing a new semblance that she had never seen before. Rowan tried to keep his excitement in check by being polite, though even he couldn’t mask the enthusiasm that leaked into his tone at the thought of Rosemary giving a showing of her semblance.

Rosemary went quite as she put her hand to her chin as if to suggest that she was contemplating the twins request. Zwei scoffed at the display, though he couldn’t help but internally smile at the twins' curiosity and excitement. The yearning of wanting to learn and see new things made him think of both Ruby and Jaune, and he was slowly starting to see bits of both parents in their kids as he observed and interacted with them.

Rosemary: “Mmmmh, well… I guess I can take the time to show off a little bit. I’d be more than happy to show you two my semblance...”

The twins both beamed with excitement, before it quickly dimmed as Rosemary quickly tacked on:

Rosemary: “...After I finish the rest of my tasks around the garden. It won’t take me long, all I have to do is finish laying down some mulch and stow away my tools and gear and I’d be more than happy to show off to your heart's content.”

Rosemary couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of the twins both pouting in disappointment at having to wait to see her semblance. Zwei simply rolled his eyes at their obvious disappointment, before he decided to speak up once again.

Zwei: “Ah quit your bellyaching you two. It won’t take her long to finish up, and there’s plenty we can do to kill some time. How about I show you two around the gardens some more, then we come back here to bug Rosie some more, alright?”

The twins both muttered out words of agreement, before they both started to make their way deeper into the gardens. Zwei let them get ahead of them for a moment, before he turned to regard Rosemary with a smirk.

Zwei: “So, when did you have the girl made?”

Rosemary in turn, gave Zwei a shit eating grin back as she made to respond.

Rosemary: “As I was holding her, and she kept looking back and forth between the two of us as if she had just had an epiphany. You?”

Zwei: “She kept looking back at me with a ‘knowing,’ look when you were giving your impromptu lecture. I think she thought I was looking at you as if I was enraptured or some other sappy shit like that. Sorry about suggesting you were a kiss ass by the way, I didn’t mean any of it.”

Rosemary barked out a laugh as she waved off Zwei’s apology, showing that she wasn’t offended in the slightest.

Rosemary: “Nah, I knew you were only saying that to set the girl up. Besides, I’d know you’d never willingly talk smack to me like, especially about your Step-Mom. I couldn’t even imagine what your dad would have done to you if that were the case, and Brother’s above what your sisters would have done to you if they heard you talking about Thumb and I that way.”

Zwei physically flinched at the thought, before mentally locking that nightmare scenario away with all of his other repressed memories. 

Zwei: “Yeah, best not to think about the results from that hypothetical situation. Still, it was fun to mess around with her like that. Those two may be from another dimension, but they’re definitely Jaune’s and Ruby’s kids, and just as fun to mess around with.”

Rosemary: “Mmm, be that as it may, do remember that your sister and brother in law got you just as often as you did them, and I doubt their children are no different. So try not to mess around with them too much Zwei, lest you find yourself being played at your own game.”

Zwei went to argue against her warning, only to pause as he truly thought it over. After a moment of contemplation, swore under his breath as he realized that Rosemary was right.

Zwei: “...They’re probably going to get me back at some point for all of this, aren’t they?”

Rosemary only smiled at Zwei’s Rhetorical question, before giving him a quick pat on the cheek as she walked the other way, grabbing her water can along the way.

Rosemary: “Give me about thirty minutes or so, and I’ll be available for the rest of the day. In the meantime, you should probably catch up with your strays before they end up causing chaos like they’re probably prone to do.”

Zwei stared at the retreating form of Rosemary’s back, before letting out a sigh as he began  walking in the direction that the twins wandered off to, grumbling to himself the whole time.

[prinxlyart]

I will say, I am hungry again and I have a few ask for your Willumity/Vinira headcannons. HOWEVER to be fair to you. This time I will restrain myself and simply ask for you to share any headcanons you want to share as of now!

You can ALWAYS ask for more Willumity.

A L W A Y S

But!! Since you’ve given me free reign to just play in this sandbox, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do

We all agree that Luz is hella ADHD. This girl will talk for HOURS about the shit she likes. If something grabs her attention, she wants to know everything about it. She doesn’t like being told to do things, but she loves being asked to do things. For example: if someone tells her she needs to do a thing her brain will immediately click into the “No” position and will refuse to budge. If someone asks her to do something, her brain clicks to “help? I can help? I can help with a thing for this person? Yes! I’ll help this person with this task because it will make them happy! Yes! I can help!” This is why acts of service resonate so strongly with her.

I don’t know what mental diversity looks like on the Boiling Isles considering how just. Horror-based everything is? But I’m 100% on that autistic Amity train. She has to do things a Certain Way or she’ll teeter on the edge of a meltdown. She refuses to touch/eat certain textures. She usually doesn’t know what the appropriate response/reaction is to a given conversation, especially with her socialite friends, which is why she just remains a cool mask of indifference. She’ll inspect every detail of anything that’s handed to her. She’s incredibly smart, but doesn’t always know how to convey what she knows and understands into words other people can understand. The only people allowed in her personal space are her siblings. Eventually that also stems to Luz and Willow, maybe more as she grows more comfortable with herself? But usually anyone getting in her space is overwhelming and alarming. Defo has a hard time regulating/processing her emotions.

I need to make an entire post dedicated to Augustus Porter because my boy deserves it, but I’ll toss some random things here. He has a signed poster from the head of the Illusionist Coven framed on his bedroom wall. He and his dad have bi-weekly after-dinner standup comedy sessions with each other (Perry has kept a secret journal of all of Gus’s best jokes he’s done over the years that he reads whenever he needs a pick-me-up).

Perry and Eda knew each other in school in passing. Their social circles overlapped but they were never hanging out in the same groups. When Gus is very little (like, maybe 3 or 4?), Perry takes him to the market to just wander around and they find Eda’s Human Collectibles Stand. She and Perry catch up, he introduces her to his son, and Eda (ever the saleswoman) pulls out some shiny human thing that Gus is immediately taken with. In between her and Perry catching up, Gus asks her a million questions about the thing he’s been given and then even more questions about other stuff at her stand. She actually finds it really fun to show off her human shit to someone so enthralled by it. She makes some stuff up here and there just to mess with him, but he’s too young to realize it’s a joke or not true, and takes everything at face value. We all know Eda likes to get a little theatrical with her sales pitches; she does the Salesperson act with everything Gus asks her about. She lets Gus take a couple items home just because he was such a riot and Perry insists he pay for something, but Eda just waves them off and tells him that this is just an investment in a lifelong customer. She had no idea how right she was because Gus defo became obsessed with human culture from that point on. He also picked up on Eda’s super theatrical sales pitches (because he thought it was funny and because he thought that’s just how you’re supposed to show human stuff to people) and began showing off his own “human collectibles museum” to his dad with the same theatrical voice. Perry plays along with this too (as a news anchor he’s got a great announcer voice) and ta-da! That’s how we get the boy we all know and love today. It’s 100% Eda’s fault, but Perry definitely encouraged it because it made his son so happy. That’s also why Gus doesn’t seem especially perturbed at meeting Eda for the first time in ep 3. Or for interjecting his new Human Knowledge in the moment she was patting Luz’s head. He’s used to having conversations with her about human junk whenever she has her stand up. Eda’s secretly relieved that one of Luz’s new friends is actually someone she kinda knows. It’s Perry’s kid, and Perry’s a good guy. His little squirt seems to be growing up to be pretty good too.

Eda scoffs at “nerdy” shit as if she hasn’t owned the Clawthorne Braincell her entire life. “She worked twice as hard” “-that just made me work harder than you!”. Eda’s extremely smart and extremely talented. She likely created the secret room of shortcuts entirely on her own. She probably studied in the school library constantly, but under the guise of causing mischief. And like. She probably did both. She was a potions track kid so she probably knew all the best ways to make stink bombs that she could leave hidden in the shelves. She hated school because she was so limited and stifled; she only wanted to learn magic and was told no at every turn. So when she learned magic on her own, yknow, without the guidance of a teacher, there’s bound to be some major fuck ups. Once she’s fine-tuned her mistakes though, she absolutely turns them into pranks. You say I’m not allowed to study multiple tracks, bumpikins?? Well how’s THIS!!! How’s THAT for focus??? (Half of her pranks were also just her showing off and desperately hoping to prove that she could learn any type of magic and couldn’t be constrained to just the one. Bump recognized this of course, but he had strict guidelines to follow and no Luz Noceda to call him out for it.)

Camila treasures her daughter more than life itself. I personally refuse to headcanon anything to do with her extended family or why she’s a single parent (too many variables and options that could be addressed in the show), but I do know that she loves Luz more than anything. It’s exhausting being a single mom, working as a nurse, and trying to be there for her ADHD daughter when the rest of the world doesn’t seem to want her. It hurts her so much to see her baby, the light of her life, her Luz, be brushed aside and written off as “the weirdo”, or bullied, or even outright hated by some people just because she’s a little different. She’s had to have some words with the school staff for how they treat her on occasion. Did you see that Principal’s death glare in the first ep?? He hates her. Camila’s there not just because she’s Luz’s parent, but also to act as a barrier between the principal and Luz. She would move Heaven and Earth for Luz, but it can be a lot when you’re the only adult around. I truly believe she wanted Luz to go to that camp to learn how to be friends with kids that didn’t already know her or her quirks. Even she sounded unsure of what they would do at that camp, but she had full faith that this would be Luz’s opportunity to make friends with other kids that could teach her to like....more mainstream stuff. So she could learn how to mimic their (hopefully, toned down) behaviors. She just wants her baby to be accepted by others.

This next one’s a doozy so hold on to your butts

Lilith is technically smart. And I mean that in a literal sense - she can read and understand the fundamentals of magic, the concepts and execution of complex spells, recite entire chapters of Boiling Isles history, you name it. Many adults in her youth called her gifted because of it. All she actually did was absorb the information and regurgitate it when asked. She thrived on the praise she received. What made her different from her sister is that she never wanted anything more than to do as she was told. Her biggest goal? Her dream job? Was to just be given orders by the Emperor. I’m sure there’s all sorts of flowery propaganda surrounding that, advertising how incredible it is to be in the Emperor’s Coven, what an honor it is to work alongside the witch that can speak to the Titan. But it’s literally just. Taking orders. And knowing you’re somehow better than everyone else because you’ve been selected to be among the elite. She never strived for anything more; she never wanted to do anything else but enforce the Emperor’s will because that was “the highest honor” a witch could have. As a result (or in conjunction rather) she lacks literally any amount of foresight. There’s only one braincell in the Clawthorne Family and her sister has it because this dumbass doesn’t think about anyone but herself. Instead of talking with Eda about what they should do when they were told there was only one spot left in the Emperor’s Coven, she walked away. Only thinking of how she could secure her victory. She didn’t ask Eda how she felt about the situation, she didn’t let Eda speak her mind about what her own desires were; Eda made it clear enough that she just wanted to be by Lilith’s side, she didn’t care what that meant. She just wanted to be with her big sister. Eda tried to reach out to her to discuss their cirumstances, but Lilith just walked away like the broody, self-centered teenager that she was and resolved to cheat her way to victory. When Eda knew this was her dream. Why would she think Eda would take away her dream???? She could’ve asked Eda to throw the duel? She could’ve asked her to fake the match? Or even fake sick? Or just not even shown up! If she didn’t show up it could’ve counted as a forfeit and Lilith would’ve earned the spot by default! But no, she had to ruin her sister’s entire life in an act of cowardice and dishonor because she’s so full of herself and didn’t read the fine print. She loves her sister, of course she does, but she’s so self-absorbed that she’s never seen Eda for who she actually is and wasted both of their lives as a result. And this is all just analysis of her character and that flashback, this isn’t even headcanons. I think if she has any amount of respect for her sister (she doesn’t), her redemption will have to go far far beyond an apology and taking on half the curse. When I say Lilith is a dumbass, this is specifically what I mean. She doesn’t think about how her actions will affect those around her. She was the Head of the Emperor’s Coven, literally one of the most powerful positions she could possibly be in on the Boiling Isles and still sacrificed Amity’s dignity and years of hard work just so she could be ensured that she could one-up her sister. She did this in front of everyone in attendance of that Witches Duel. She risked Amity’s credibility as a witch, as a Blight, and as a person just to fuel her own ego. It’s no wonder Amity was so upset; the witch she’s been idolizing her whole life didn’t think she had what it took to best a human that couldn’t do magic in a witches duel. That can fuck up your self esteem something fierce. And Lilith hardly seemed to give a shit!!!! She didn’t care that she just trashed Amity’s reputation in front of dozens of spectators!!!! I’m v bitter about Lilith as a character in case you couldn’t tell.

If I had to throw a headcanon in, I’ll toss one in that sterling and I have discussed: Lilith literally doesn’t know how to live her life as an independent adult. Sure, she knows how to like. Make herself some easy dinners? But that’s literally only because she used to make herself and Eda dinners when they were kids. Beyond that, she has no fucking idea. She can do the basic household chores any teenager knows how to do, but she’s lived in the Emperor’s Castle with the rest of the Coven since she joined. It’s kind of like living in a college dorm; food and a room is provided, there’s maybe a laundry service, she’s never had to pay taxes in her life (not that Eda does, but yknow). The only things she buys for herself (if she doesn’t make it herself) is her hair dye and books. When she first moves in to the Owl House, she has no idea how the household chores are done. She’s on House Cleaning Duty Eternally and the first......I’ll say year. Eda will wake her up by banging pots and pans over her head once every month and scream-singing about how it’s House Cleaning Day, pull out her lawn chairs and some lemonade, and she and Luz (and sometimes King) will just sit back and relax and watch the show that is Lilith trying to clean Hooty. Hooty does not like to cooperate with her (partially because Lilith is a special friend and partially because he knows how much joy it brings Eda and Luz to watch her struggle).

Oof I could go on but this is already one hell of a post huh? Sorry (not really) for dragging Lilith so hard; not a joke, tumblr made me split hers up into two bullet points because it couldn’t comprehend my ranting for so long in one bullet point. I do love sharing these with y’all though, they’re so much fun and I’m so glad you guys like my rambling. <3333

[uwua3]

Hello, can I please suggest a childhood friends to lovers troupe with Banri? Thank you so much!

of course! i put this off at first because i wanted to understand banri’s character a bit more and what direction i wanted to go with this! it might be a little bit opposite of what you wanted but i hope you like it~ ♡ i hope you don’t mind childhood enemies to friends to lovers ;)

summary: all your life, you wanted to beat settsu banri, just once

warnings: arguing, breaking the law, bullying(?), injuries, physical fights,

author’s note: this is definitely much more different from anything i’ve written! please enjoy it~

being naturally good at everything = wanting to compete at everything once’s there’s someone worthy and i think it’s a complex we need to address. honors students who get burnt out often give up because it’s not easy at first. setting children up to be the best and putting them against one another instead of encouraging teamwork is evil and a flaw in the education system. so take risks, and take down any institution that disrespects you :)

word count: 4,298

music: hot girl bummer – blackbear, preacher man – the driver era

childhood champion.

🍁🥇 settsu banri

banri was the most insufferable, annoying kid to ever walk the face of this earth

everyone picked him first for their sports team in gym, he always knew the answer even when the teacher caught him sleeping in class, and he knew what a multitalented threat he was

it was so unfair! even as a child, you had to spend countless hours studying the next topic to stay ahead but banri did it without even trying

you were second in class, he never even wavered or was worried about his valedictorian position

banri was so, so annoying

you two were the first picked to advance to honors–level classes the next school year in middle school

you actively rose your hand in class to get the answer correct. you sat in the front and kissed up to your teachers so they would submit more than just “a pleasure to have in class” on your report card

banri would doze off in the back if he was forced to attend school. it would take multiple tries to get him to wake up and even then, he could’ve summarized the entire class lesson with no effort. he didn’t care about other people’s opinions

which must have been nice, considering how everyone either loved him or fully hated him

you two were never aware of each other’s existence throughout elementary; it wasn’t until your teachers constantly compared you to banri’s perfect grades and banri to your model student behavior that you began to despise each other

to you, banri was your #1 rival and competitor. everything you did, you wanted to beat him at. but to banri, you were just another tryhard that wouldn’t survive in the real world

it was when you were the only student getting every question right that you talked to him for the first time. you rose your hand again, a pleasant expression on your face as your teacher looked around, sighing as everyone averted their gaze

before the teacher could call your name, you felt a wadded–up paper ball hit the back of your head and a snicker. the class went dealthy quiet for once

you whipped your head to the back to see banri’s egotistical maniac of a smirk staring right back at you

“nerd.” banri dropped, his arms behind his head and feet propped up on his desk. his bag wasn’t even open and his pencil was stuck behind his ear. what a troublemaker

“mr. settsu! apologize this instant, we do not tolerate name–calling in this classroom.” your teacher reprimanded maturely, watching as banri shrugged and put his feet on the ground with a loud thud. leaning forward, banri put his hands together with an exaggerated sad face as he batted his eyelashes

“i’m so sorry~” banri laughed, his mocking tone making you narrow your eyes, plastering on a fake smile as you simply nodded and turned around. it wasn’t worth it to fight with someone who didn’t even care

anger boiled in your blood, all you wanted to do was turn around and give him a solid punch

yet, you straightened your posture, answering each question precisely with a tight grip on your pencil as you felt more spitballs land near you

no boy was going to get you to stop focusing, and especially take class time away

banri didn’t know why he bothered trying to piss you off anymore when you didn’t react. it was boring him, to say the least

when he “accidentally” stole your lunch, you just used your allowance to buy something from the lunch ladies (who absolutely hated that they had no evidence he stole from the fruit bar). when he knocked your books over off the desk with a bang, you just picked them back up and moved to a different table. hell, he even started a grade–wide game that pretended you weren’t there. you didn’t care, you kept doing your schoolwork

you were so, so boring

banri was on cleaning–duty for vandalism or whatever, something that didn’t follow the school guidelines. he was assigned to his homeroom classroom and had to wipe down the desks, sweep the room, and scrape off gum under any surface

“what the hell...” 13–year–old banri cursed, kicking at the dust pan as he didn’t want to start. he didn’t clean, he was good at it, he just didn’t like doing it

turning on his heel to ditch the classroom and deal with the consequences later, he was face to face with the fakest smile ever as you leaned against the doorframe (seemingly satisfied with his predicament)

“sorry, settsu. i’m here to supervise you to make sure you’re cleaning, today.” you dropped your sweet, quiet tone and revealed the truth: a tough, tired attitude that was ready to snap at any point. banri raised his eyebrow, crossing his arms as he scoffed, looking to the side

this should be fun

“oh yeah? what will you do to stop me? can you even handle me, i’ve seen how you don’t score shit in gym.” banri spat, your lip twitched at the swear as you had an incredulous look

two could play at this game, you weren’t backing down

“i’m not here to fight, settsu. i want you to hurry up so i can go home and do my homework.” you heard his sickening laugh throughout the empty hallway. it echoed, reminding you how he had no filter or manners whatsoever

“homework?! imagine needing that to pass. even i don’t do my work... and i’m at the top. how sad.” banri fueled the flame on purpose, eyes glinting with something of boredom and a wicked evil found in prepubescent boys

“you wouldn’t know what that’s like, though, right?”

you clenched your fist, all the pent–up rage you withheld in to have the higher ground was beginning to turn your vision red

“come on,” banri grinned, finding fun in driving you insane as he lazily moved into a fighting position, not expecting anything. “hit me—”

you didn’t remember what happened next, but you had to sit next to banri who had a black eye with an ice pack up to it in the principal’s office

both you and banri received a weeks worth of suspension for having a fight on school grounds

you hated settsu banri. and he found you interesting, so he didn’t say anything when he came back, letting the rumors die down

banri wanted to be your friend. your punch wasn’t even all that bad, maybe he could teach you how to hold your fist

but you avoided him at all costs now. he started going to school more frequently, and played impractical jokes on you in between classes just to get a reaction

you didn’t do anything. you just requested a schedule change and had classes on the opposite side of the building

classes became boring again, no one wanted to fight with him because they knew they’d lose, and he stopped attending classes out of spite

banri couldn’t believe he may have finally met someone who had some balls to do something to his shitty attitude and you just left

but throughout the years leading up to his first year in hanasaki, banri had immense respect for your 12–year–old self who landed a nasty hit (it totally would’ve k.o.–ed him if this was a video game)

banri had his eye out to see if you were in the front row with your hand up, or if you were hiding in the library behind towering shelves, or if you were even just moving past him in the crowds of people in the hallways

but it’s like you disappeared out of no where, how boring

you kept a secluded, mysterious reputation. no one had anything to say about you because you did nothing to get attention. so banri couldn’t even track you down through the grapevine of gossip

you disappeared and remained second (behind banri, of course)

as school went on and the summers cleared his mind, banri slowly forgot all about the young kid who gave him a black eye

as he passed the exams to qualify for entry in hanasaki, he didn’t even think twice if you were gonna be there

second year at hanasaki academy. 16–year–old banri nearly dropped out because of his own insatiable boredom. he got into more fights (he always won), ignored his classmates, and just kept being a huge jackass even unprovoked

school was so, so boring

class rankings were released after finals, banri remembered strolling up to expect his name at the top spot but watched as the crowd of students nervously parted to let him through

his eyes automatically landed at the #1 spot (he never checked anyone below him, they were dumb) but it wasn’t his name. instead, he saw yours. you were beating him

letting out a sarcastic laugh, banri backed up and left without another word, leaving the students to breathe a sigh of relief they weren’t the next victim of an infamous settsu roundhouse

how long had you been at this? how long did you study just to see your name printed over his? he must’ve been a big deal to you

banri ditched school early, about to hop the back fence before he noticed a flash of the academy’s school uniform above. halfway up the fence, banri looked behind him. no one. looked up, and you were sitting at the edge of the rooftop, swinging your legs casually

after all these years, and banri found you on accident

“hey.” banri drawled, waving up to you who seemed lost in your own world. you had a loose grip on some textbook, staring off into the slow clouds. you must’ve missed the lunch bell signaling the end of eating. you? skipping class? it was almost too funny to be true

banri bristled under the lack of attention. it’s been years and this was the response he got? he was ready to start shaking the fence to alert everyone within a one mile radius he was here. yet, banri noticed the hardcover textbook that must’ve cost hundreds begin slipping from your fingers. you didn’t care to notice

“hey! hey! what the fuck!” banri tried to make you snap out of it, but he swore as he leaped from the fence as soon as the book started falling. you shook your head rapidly like you just woke up, nearly falling over as you watched banri catch the heavy textbook with one hand as he rolled onto the rough pavement. it was a move out of a superhero film, like he was a professional stunt double

you gasped, scrambling to get off the edge and jumped. banri was about to yell a very inappropiate curse, but you grabbed onto the tree branch nearby and climbed down easily. it was like you did this countless times... what the hell happened to you and who was this that replaced you?

“oh my god! i am so sorry, i wasn’t paying attention at all.” you apologized sincerly, offering your hand to help pull him to his feet. banri ignored the pain in his shoulder and hip as he pushed himself up, the scrapes on his palms and rips in his uniforms making him wince for a moment. you noticed

“you idiot! what were you thinking? you could’ve died!” banri snapped, pushing the textbook to your chest as you stumbled back, eyes wide. you huffed, feeling aggressive as every instinct to fight with him came back as strong as ever despite banri’s heroic act

“don’t act like you know everything about me! i said i was sorry, what else do you want?” you fought back, pushing him back even harder with your book. banri felt something burn inside him for the time ever since you punched him: excitement

“let’s settle this. you. me. right here. right now.” banri got into a battle stance, pretending to be very serious when he didn’t even hit girls. but, he wanted to piss you off so bad. he was so bored of his life being on super ultra easy mode (it was like you were the final boss)

he didn’t even get another word out before you sighed, put your backpack and books down gently, rolled your eyes, spun around, and kicked him straight in the jaw

you had used the infamous settsu roundhouse kick against him

this time, he was much stronger than he was before at thirteen. he straightened himself up, stared at your clenched fists, and laughed

“after all this time, you never learned how to throw a real punch?” banri taunted, but the playful tone of his voice gave himself away. you slowly backed down, going back to your normal position as you revealed a tired smile. you ran your hand through your hair, seeming to contemplate on whether or not you should respond before shrugging

“never really had to fight losers like you before.” you retorted and banri gave an impressed look that you even made a comeback. rubbing his jaw and feeling the bruise about to form, banri watched as you stuffed your books into your bag

“by the way, that was for everything you put me through in middle school.” you stood up, flipped him both with hands confidently, and left. turning the corner, you winked and shot him a finger gun, showing you didn’t hold any grudges anymore for his stupid behavior

“wait—dammit.” banri rushed to catch up with you, but you were already gone the moment he went over. there was no trace of you and banri kicked the wall out of frustration, regretting it immediately when he forgot about his injured leg

“mr. settsu!” he heard from one of the classroom windows and looked up, seeing his maths teacher glare at him. uh oh

banri put his hands up, knowing security would have to come drag his ass to class

he could’ve swore he heard your laugh as he got yelled at for getting caught, making him subconsciously smile

(banri got into more trouble when the teacher thought he saw it as a joke)

gossip was exchanged as banri came into class sporting a bruised jaw and ripped clothes. they said the gangster was finally taken down by someone who he was no match for, it was almost laughable

i let them win, banri thought, barely paying attention to whatever his teacher was writing on the blackboard

but banri wanted more competition. he couldn’t just let you hit him even if he fully, 100% deserved it

banri closed his eyes, falling asleep with his hand in his cheek. you better not have any plans this afternoon

it was 5pm. you were heading out of school after finishing all your extracurricular duties. it was exhausting pretending to care, faking a smile just so your superiors thought you were the perfect leader. whatever gets you into university, right?

you needed a break. you stepped up to the rooftop after sneaking into the locked stairway. oddly enough, it was already open. you tip–toed in on guard, preparing to hit someone with your bag before you noticed a shadow against the pavement

but as soon as you stepped out, banri was waiting

it was nearly sunset, and banri was playing some game on his phone against one of the benches against the border

you paused, not sure what to say before he casually looked up and did a double take, rushing to pocket his phone and standing up

silence. like you two had nothing to say after all these years. you didn’t expect to see him again, you stopped caring about his laziness and focused on yourself even if you didn’t have the motivation anymore

banri awkwardly put his hands in his pockets, the blazer elbows almost torn to shreds. a strand of his hair fell in front of his face, you wanted to reach out and push it back

here you were, with a perfect appearance with nothing out of place, as expected of a model student. your uniform was ironed to perfection and had no creases despite your tree jump. you learned how to get rid of the evidence

when nothing seemed to be happening, you almost turned around before banri spoke way too loudly

“i’m sorry.” banri choked out, like he was saying it against his will. you froze, not wanting to turn around as you gripped the strap of your backpack. was he being serious?

“i’m... sorry for basically picking on you in middle school. it was dumb of me, i was stupid.” banri explained, appearing cool but his fingers were clearly fidgeting in his pockets. oh, he was serious

a part of your child self felt like it was healed, knowing you had one over settsu banri. you nodded, turning slowly to face your childhood rival. your childhood competitor. the childhood champion of everything

this time, you were the winner, but it didn’t feel like it

“yeah? i’m sorry for beating your ass twice then.” you joked, seeing the tension leave his shoulders as he naturally laughed. it was almost therapeutic to finally not fight for something for once

“truce?” banri put his fist out, and you didn’t even have to think about it before moving forward and fist–bumping him

“truce.”

you and banri became close after your so–called peace treaty. you put all the rivalry behind you, you forgave him

banri surprisingly understood you had a “perfect reputation” to uphold despite all the secret trouble you got in. in public, he stayed away and pretended like you didn’t exist. in private, you two snuck onto the rooftop to have lunch and stay until night, talking about nothing and everything at once

you even tried getting him back on track, using the temptation of competition to trick him in doing his work (it at least worked half the time)

(“i definitely could finish this faster than you!” banri protested, scribbling his answers and he always finished first. he never realized what you were doing when he was in the heat of the moment)

banri had never stayed at school this long, his attendance was making a come back and he was even looking forward to times he could see you in between classes

(he never put this much effort in, he didn’t want to find out he wasn’t naturally good at being your friend)

everything was good. you two were compatiable friends who cursed every middle school teacher who set them up to be enemies. you swore at teachers who now abused their position of power and laughed about leading a revolution. you two were young, dumb teens who wanted change. you wanted anarchy, he knew enough about it to get behind it

banri texted you screenshots of his elite gaming status in the game he recommended to you, getting a response the next day proving you were almost at his level. damn. he could respect that

banri took you to his favorite local arcade, (believe it or not) after you claimed you could at least tie him at something. when he saw you get frustrated, he pretended to stumble on the arrow pad for DDR and feigned annoyance as you beat him for once. he even gave you his spare coins once he got bored and watched you, adding unnecessary commentary you’d kick him for

(“not again!” banri pretended to cower, protecting his jaw that was already healed)

you guys would even raid 24/7 stores after leaving school, stocking up on snacks and energy drinks so you could stay awake throughout the day after game night

but his favorite thing to do with you was sneaking out and returning you back before curfew. banri was naturally a homebody that didn’t find the outside fun, but when you confessed you never had a late night drive before, he arrived a block away and nearly gave you a heart attack when he knocked on your window

(you two agreed to have a special code and banri would knock to the beat of your favorite game’s theme song)

that night, you sat on the hood of his car and watched the stars, unaware of how banri couldn’t tear his eyes away from you

when banri dropped you off and helped you back in with his hand at your back, he nearly fell off the tree as you made your way onto your second–floor bedroom

you smiled, a strangeness to your windswept hair and messy clothes. you didn’t care what you looked like around him

banri gulped, forcing himself down the tree as he ran to his car, heart racing a mile a minute

what the hell was that? banri took a deep breath in the driver’s seat, rubbing his forehead as he groaned. why did he feel like this? did you do something to his soda or something?

as banri drove home, he flipped on the radio. teenage dirtbag by wheatus blasted on the inner roads

“how does she know who i am? why does she give a damn about me?”

banri braked, the car halting in the middle of the road. it was 3am, the street lights gave way to the empty, deserted road

oh my god. he liked you

he liked the person who gave him a black eye, got him a week suspension, kicked him in the jaw, and got him caught by his teacher

teenage dirtbag faded out on the street as banri sat there, listening to the lyrics

“fuck.” banri deadpanned, knowing things wouldn’t be good if he kept acting up like this

well, everything was good, until that night

banri arrived at midnight sharp like always. you rolled out of bed with full clothing ready for any night activity he planned

he took your hand to go down even though he knew damn well you didn’t need the help. sneaking out was like second nature at this point, it was a miracle you two hadn’t been busted yet

you two were stealthy, avoided all the cameras your parents put in place after noticing there were footsteps imprinted on the grass (it didn’t bother banri, he liked the challenge)

speeding off, banri slowed down to the speed limit once he saw you push the roof down and stick your upper body out into the wind. he shook his head, lowering the windows as well. he heard you scream along to whatever pop song was on at the top of your lungs

in that moment, you forget you were hanasaki academy’s perfect model student. you were just a person having the time of their life with their best friend

pulling into an abandoned parking lot, banri stopped in the middle as he tugged your shirt down. his wolfish grin seemed electric, like he was high on a predictable adrenaline rush already

“hey, do you trust me?” banri revved the engine, one hand on the wheel and the other out as a fist

it felt like that day back on the school rooftop where you made a truce with your middle school rival. like everything was about to change

without a second thought, you bumped your fist to his. “i do.”

banri shifted to level one as he turned the wheels to a full direction. you held onto the edge of the door as you realized what he was about to do

“you’re joking!” you yelled over the sound of the engine, banri flashing you a quick wink before the car started spinning. he was doing donuts because you said you wanted donuts the other day, this was not what you meant!

“you knew i didn’t mean it like this, you jerk!” you protested, but couldn’t help but laugh along with banri as smoke rose from the tire tracks on the concrete. you felt dizzy, but you never felt more alive laughing with your best friend in the middle of the night

banri suddenly stopped, his foot on the brake as a distant shout made you freeze

“hey, who’s trespassing?!”

“go, go, go!” you yelled, pushing banri’s arm as his foot triggered the gas and changed the speed. you guys zoomed out of the supposedly “abandoned” parking lot, hearing the random owner attempt to chase after you before tripping on his own feet

“holy shit!” you exclaimed, not feeling sorry you were laughing at the man who was now shaking his fist at you. you knew it was too dark to even see banri’s license plate, you were fine. you felt your energy peak as you couldn’t help but turn around with a wide smile

“did you see that guy’s face, he looked like he was ready to kill—” you started but banri braked again, both hands tightly gripping the wheel. you almost lurched forward but banri stuck his arm out against your chest, holding you to your seat as he glared at you

“how is this funny to you? we... you! you almost got caught! your future would’ve been ruined, do you understand how severe that situation was?!” banri ranted, sweating as he had to practice controlled breathing to prevent himself from saying something he’d regret. he was so worried, he never cared this much

“so what at this point? what’s there to even live for after college?” you scoffed, crossing your arms as you looked away. banri’s arm started retracting, but he randomly grabbed your face and pulled you over the divider, looking you deeply in the eyes like he never wanted to let you go. like he wanted to remember this forever

“me. live for me.” banri muttered, before he closed the distance between you two. your childhood rival, competitor, and enemy liked you

high on adrenaline, you kissed back. you were on top of the world

and suddenly, everything was good again

you both won

[thequiver]

i need that bruce and arkham essay plz

I’ll answer this tomorrow I told you almost two and a half hours ago and yet here I am. At almost 4 am so bear with me folks.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF TROUBLING ACTIONS, SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, AND VIOLENCE

So, what really starts me in on discussions around Bruce and Arkham, and something I feel like a lot of people either don’t know, conveniently ignore, or forget is that Bruce was in his youth, an Arkham patient. Specifically Alfred sent Bruce to an Arkham boy’s’ rehabilitation facility upstate. Against his will. Because he was obsessed with the idea of shooting and killing his parent’s murderer and had almost attempted suicide. This rehabilitation facility is where Bruce meets and befriends Harvey Dent. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Following his stint at the rehabilitation facility- Bruce exhibits even more troubling behavior, which suggests that his time at an Arkham facility did not teach him healthy coping mechanisms or do much to help him learn to process his emotions. While still a young man (18 or under) Bruce:

Responded to a question a teacher asked in class by burning it into their front yard

Hired a homeless man to pretend to be Alfred to sign paperwork that would authorize the erasure of his memories via electroshock therapy (he ultimately did not go through with the procedure)

Used the Irish mob to track the location of Joe Chill and then interrogated him

Now I understand that despite having a certification in mental health first aid, and having PTSD, that I am by no means an expert in human psychology. But I feel comfortable saying that the Arkham system failed Bruce Wayne and that Bruce Wayne does not have healthy coping mechanisms.

Bruce ultimately did not commit suicide because he believed it would not be what his parents wanted for him, and vowed instead to dedicate his life to stopping crime - from that moment until he finds Joe Chill and learns that the motivation behind his parents death was simply that Chill needed a quick buck and that his parents death, to quote the fandom wiki had “no deeper meaning,” Bruce’s quest for vengeance and stopping crime is based around a conspiracy surrounding his parent’s murder that he has concocted in his own mind. One might think that after learning that the motivation behind the murder of his parents was money, and Bruce Wayne being a billionaire that he might have stopped to consider that perhaps crime is motivated by poverty, but alas, world’s greatest detective my ass.

Bruce, now fueled by the loss of his parents and the anger that his parents death has been reduced to the need for a quick buck begins his multi- year training montage. During this montage, while he’s ignoring Alfred’s attempts to contact him, Bruce let’s an assassin into the home of one of the men training him, and the man’s dying breath warns him that death would come of fostering close personal relationships, and Bruce sure didn’t listen to therapy, but he does take that message to heart. As a way to formally end his training, Bruce then climbed to the top of Wayne Tower and jumped off.

These are not the decisions of a man who is mentally healthy.

From pretty much the get go we see Bruce go from a child who was powerless in a situation where his parents were taken from him, into a damaged young man who was failed by a mental health facility and then spent seven years training to beat the absolute shit out of criminals after finding out that his parents were killed for a quick buck. The Joker at one point has to stop Bruce from stabbing the Riddler in the face. And of course we’ve all seen Bruce almost beating criminals to death and beating the shit out of his kids, and forming plans on how to take down other superheroes. These are not healthy behaviors.

But how does Arkham tie into this beyond Bruce being a former patient? What I’ve tried to do is establish a few things.

Bruce Wayne was failed by the Arkham system (a system that, at the time of her death, his mother was desperately trying to reform)

Bruce Wayne has control issues (both in that he has issues regulating his emotional responses and those responses lean towards extreme and violent behavior, and that he wants to be in control and he wants to be right all the time)

Bruce has not made an attempt to seek professional help since Alfred sent him to the rehabilitation facility (or as I said in another post of mine “Bruce refuses to get therapy and make that everyone else’s problem.”)

Bruce has self destructive tendencies

Arkham is a system that Bruce cannot control. He couldn’t control it when he was a patient, and he wouldn’t be able to control it as a major donor seeking to fix the broken system that failed him and carry on his mother’s legacy. What medical professionals in a mental health facility do are outside of his control.

Furthermore while punching a criminal to the point of near death or disfigurement, or dropping an unconscious goon at the police station will typically stop a run of the mill mugger, thief, etc, from committing more crimes at least for a while (assuming of course that they can even make an arrest when the chain of custody on any evidence has been broken), more high profile criminals the ones we see as recurring members of the Rogues Gallery who seem to be motivated by something other than poverty are typically found unsuited for trial and would thus be sent to a rehabilitation facility, like Arkham.

These high profile villains offer more of a fight than a mugger who hasn’t had a proper meal in the last two days, and as such they can usually injure Bruce while he’s in the Batsuit. This feeds into two of Bruce’s things- his self destructive behavior, and his history of violent behavior. But- is Arkham worked, if the rogues really were to be rehabilitated the opportunity for the catharsis brought on by the violence both towards and from them would be gone, Bruce would not be in control of their recovery, and as we’ve seen, Arkham has failed Bruce, and imo it’s unclear if he thinks Arkham can actually help people.

Bruce doesnt fix Arkham because that would mean admitting that it failed him, that it needs fixing because he is not mentally well, he does not want to admit that he is not in control of himself or that he is in some way “damaged.” Fixing Arkham would also stop the revolving door of break ins/outs that provide him with the catharsis brought on by violence- if it ceases to be real life monopoly jail the frequency of these encounters would dwindle and as many of us know, bad coping mechanisms often become a habit and Bruce would become twitchier.

Furthermore, handling all of the Arkham break outs gives Bruce a sense of accomplishment on his self assigned mission to squash crime- he’s handling all of these big name villains, on a rotating basis means that he is busy with at least one of the rogues pretty much all the time. This sense of accomplishment is important, after all, it’s not like he’s doing anything to stop crime at the source, and without a sense of accomplishment how could he ever hope to moralize at other heroes and hold them to an impossible standard that he himself is not even meeting?

Bruce’s time in the Arkham system is something that is often overlooked but does quite a bit in shaping Bruce’s perspective and decision making. And they’re not good decisions or good perspectives.

[angelrider13]

Alright, so I mentioned in discord yesterday that Thalassa’s been dimension hopping. (We all have that one OC.) She’s currently hanging out in MDZS/Untamed world and causing chaos - as she does. @starofthemourning asked what specifically she was getting up to. So have a ramble!

- Thalassa was just minding her business, cruising through Death’s realm as she does from time to time, visiting past children and friends, helping newly deceased souls cross over, etc., etc., when she gets yoinked into a completely different land of the living.

- Thalassa: Toto, we are not in Eos anymore.

- She’s been summoned into the body of a young woman by a group of demonic cultivators that pushed some buttons they should not have. They are a cult, because of course they are, and Thalassa has no idea what’s happening, but they are cuckoo bananapuffs and leaning WAY too hard on the cult thing - virgin sacrifices, child sacrifices, torture, lotsa bad things. Thalassa in her new, 100% human body, says no.

- Enter JC! Who, as we know, hunts down demonic cultivators with a single mindedness that is probably more than a little unhealthy. And this is...I’m saying like 3 years after WWX died, so some things as still fresh (and also, other people are still alive to react to Thalassa and her...Thalassa-ness).

- JC arrives to find that Thalassa has already solved the problem. Very thoroughly. This strange woman covered in blood, with lines of fire burning across her skin and a smile that’s all teeth and gold, gold eyes that burn with power, escorting children and missing travelers out of the smoking ruins of their former prison, carrying the dead and dying with her. Because she cannot save them, but they will die free.

- JC is immediately Suspicious. This woman is not a cultivator. She is also not human. He is sure of it. He absolutely cannot prove it. (The body she’s currently inhabiting is human, she used to be human in body and soul and still is to an extent - she’s not lying.)

- Thalassa ends up being dragged to Lotus Pier along with some of the kids she saved, because orphans and we all know that Thalassa can and will adopt everything that breathes if it stands still long enough. She has technically done nothing wrong and has earned the gratitude and good will of quite a few people, so it would look bad if JC just disappeared her. But Something Is Afoot, so JC isn’t about to let her go gallivanting across the countryside either.

- Thalassa notices pretty quick that these people bow a lot. In greeting, in farewell, to show respect. Thalassa is Not About That. She is the Sea and the Sea Does Not Bow. It’s not such a big deal at first because the circumstances of meeting are...messy. But once they’re in Lotus Pier, people start noticing that she never bows, even after they’ve bowed to her, and they are Offended. The only ones that are not are the kids that she adopted. No one says anything at first, but they all make spectacular pissy faces that Thalassa delights in. JC eventually snaps at her, snarling about respect, and Thalassa calmly replies that if she ever bows to him or anyone else, they will have earned it. (”I have only ever bowed to my Mothers, to Death and to the Light of Dawn, and no other.”) JC, knowing that she’s not human, but not knowing exactly how, doesn’t bring it up again.

- Thalassa likes Lotus Pier. It’s bright and colorful and loud and surrounded by water. It’s not as good as her waters, of course, but it’s nice to be able to swim when the mood strikes. It’s nice to be able to swim with the children, nice to know that everyone learns to swim at Lotus Pier and that they take it seriously. The first time she catches JC teaching the kids she brought with her to swim she stares because he’s not gentle exactly, but...softer. These people operate on different rules than her, but it’s nice to know that somethings always stay the same.

- It takes Lotus Pier a little while to figure out that they’ve been adopted, but they get there. Thalassa is the weird big sister/aunt/mother figure that will be getting you into trouble one moment and then helping out get out of it the next. She doesn’t bow and they don’t make her. She’s chaos in human skin, but some of them (far, far too few) remember that Lotus Pier has always had a soft spot for chaos gremlins and their antics. It brings smiles to their faces when they see this strange whirlwind of a woman trail after their Sect Leader, tugging at his sleeves and leaning into his space and laughing with a smile brighter than the sun when he swats at her, a secret grin tugging at the corners of his scowl.

- At some point, Thalassa meets other sects. It goes...well it goes. For maximum chaos, let’s say its a discussion conference. At Jinlintai. Which brings us right back to the Thalassa and bowing thing.

- JC and YunmengJiang have been dealing with Thalassa’s bullshit for - months? a year? who knows, it’s been awhile - at this point and know that it’s better to just Roll With It.

- The rest of the cultivation world has very much not learned this lesson.

- The Lan are Offended. So Offended. Depending on the Lan, at least. LXC is pretty chill and would probably also be offended, but not let it bother him much. LQR leans so much on propriety that he might just qi deviate. LWJ also leans pretty heavily on propriety but he is also that person who is So Done With Everyone’s Bullshit that he’ll just walk right out of the room so who knows.

- The rules of propriety! Broken!! Without cause or care!!! The Lans are flipping their shit. Quietly. And with great dignity.

- The Nie also kinda offended, but not nearly as much as the Lan. It’s not often that a woman will look Sect Leader Nie in the eye and refuse to bow to him, but NMJ can admire the guts it takes. He’s also the most likely to bring it up and Thalassa will calmly tell him what she tells everyone who asks - that she does not bow. Most especially not for social niceties that mean next to nothing at the end of the day.

- She absolutely bonds with NHS over the arts. He shows off his fans, she does a dance or two with them, they ramble at each other, they are now best friends. (JC is in the background being a Dispair because he knows, he knows, the NHS is an Enabler. He should never have allowed them to meet.)

- The Jin...well. Thalassa is a woman. Thalassa is very pretty. Thalassa knows she is very pretty and flirts as she pleases and moves with a grace that draws many a eye. And JGS...is JGS.

- You know that post that’s buried in my STotS story tag where Mera, literal Queen of Atlantis, breaks a man’s arm because he put his hands on her without her permission? I’m not saying that happens...but that 100% happens.

- JGS tries to be all smooth and Thalassa is Not Having It. She is well aware that 1) this jackass is married AND absolutely does not have the permission of his wife to fuck around and 2) JGS has a reputation among women. And it is not one that endears JGS to her.

- So he puts his hands on her. Pulls her close and tries to flirt. She tells him to let go. He smiles in that ‘aw you’re playing hard to get, how cute’ way that he probably thinks is charming but really wants to make women punch his face in, and gropes her. So Thalassa breaks his arm, snaps it in her hand and doesn’t let go. She uses the pain and the leverage of her grip to force him to his knees before her.

- It draws attention. JGS doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who gets in physical fights much - he probably doesn’t have much pain tolerance. He’s likely screaming. And you know cultivators are trigger happy little shits so swords are drawn. Thalassa smiles, all teeth.

- JGS is probably demanding that JC ‘put his woman in her place’. JC, having witnessed what happened and far less inclined to put up with this man than he was in the immediate aftermath of the Sunshot Campaign when all he had was the ashes of his sect, is having None Of It. He’s like well if she’s my woman why are you touching her and if she said no, why are you still touching her?

- NMJ approves. JGS deserves this. He’s had it coming for years. He is so happy he gets to witness this. As far as he’s concerned JGS brought this on himself and if he can’t handle it, maybe he should try keeping his dick in his pants.

- Thalassa is not impressed. She’s heard the titles thrown around. Sect Leader, Chief Cultivator, Your Excellency. She is well aware that leaders do not represent the entirety of the people, yet these people overthrew a tyrant and let this take his place? (”So you allow an oathbreaking rapist to lead you. This explains so much.”)

- JGY steps up and tries to smooth over the situation. Thalassa does not allow it. (”The next time he touches me, I will cut off his cock. If any woman he’s touched comes to me for help, I will rip out his intestines and strangle him with them.”)

- The Jiang are the only ones who know that she means this 100% literally. More than a few of them are okay with her following through. JC is standing at her shoulder, glowering at the whole room because Thalassa is one of His People at this point and you better believe he’s not going to let someone, not even another Sect Leader, not even the Chief Cultivator, disrespect her this way.

- JGY continues to deescalate with varying levels of success. (Thalassa is old. She is old and has lived through much. She knows what a viper looks like no matter how honeyed the words or how silver the tongue or how sweet the smile. This child thinks he can manipulate her. How cute.)

- In the end, no action is taken against Thalassa. JC is loud in his defense of her actions and NMJ and LXC side with him. JGS was in the wrong and his behavior was disgraceful. The Jin have no choice but to concede fault.

- Thalassa may or may not spend the rest of her time in Jinlintai teaching as many women as she can how to cripple a man twice their size.

[theeeveetamer]

Ooh... How about we take a page out of one of your Leokumi oneshots? You know, the one where colleges are super hard to get into for omegas? Felix wanted to get into the same college as Sylvain, and that college was actually relatively inclusive for omegas, not requiring an alpha's permission for them, but still had some discrimination and harassment happening. Sylvain, having seen some of that stuff happen around him, was initially pretty uneasy about Felix going there, which lead to an argument between them. He relented eventually and the application was sent. Unfortunately Daddy Gautier somehow got wind of this and threw his influence around to get it rejected, while making sure only the name "Gautier" is leaked. Felix finds out and is furious, because he assumes it was Sylvain, leading to the breakup. This would both explain Felix's anger and him still wanting to prove something to him, by showing both how competent and hot he is now.

Oooooh now there’s an idea!

I think this works best if there was like, some controlling behavior from Sylvain when they were initially together. I mean nothing too crazy, but he was pretty overprotective of Felix when they dated and they were both young and dumb so he could be kind of an ass about it, and Felix kind of started resenting him for it. So the application thing is totally believable and ended up as the final straw for him.

Their breakup kind of like. Imploded their friend group, too. I think Ingrid would have been pretty firmly on Felix’s side (though it wouldn’t completely end her friendship with Sylvain, it would come damn close), and Dimitri was kind of caught between them (because on one hand he doesn’t believe Sylvain would go that far, and he believes him when he says he didn’t do this, but at the same time Felix’s future still did get fucked up and he thinks it’s valid for him to be mad).

Suddenly they can’t do anything all as a group anymore because Felix can’t stand to be in the same room as Sylvain (which, tbf, totally valid given he thought Sylvain blew up his entire future). Maybe it even prevented him from going to college straight away and he had to take a gap year, just to add into the resentment. Luckily at this point Sylvain is in college and only comes home every so often, so Dimitri and Ingrid don’t have to keep constantly separating them so Felix doesn’t kill Sylvain.

Meanwhile Sylvain... I think he probably took it pretty hard, and his desperation to explain himself and get Felix back just upset Felix even more and drove the wedge further between them. I mean there was probably a week or two where he was calling Felix fifteen times a day and filling up his voice mail with desperate messages (which of course he deleted without even listening to them) before Dimitri had to pull Sylvain aside and tell him to just let it go, whatever happened there’s just no way Felix is going to let him try to fix it.

As soon as Felix is able he changes his number and moves away from home, and tells no one but his family and Dimitri and Ingrid where he’s gone.

I think sometime between their falling out and their reunion Sylvain finds evidence of what his dad did. But by that point it’s been several years and Felix has moved away to god knows where and changed his number (and I don’t think he was ever one for social media so Sylvain couldn’t really track him down). Sylvain might try to talk to Rodrigue about what he found, but Rodrigue is not exactly thrilled with Sylvain and brushes him off.

So faced with the fact that he really can’t fix this, Sylvain drops contact with his parents as soon as they’re done funding his education and eventually picks up a job teaching. Oh Daddy Gautier still tries, of course, and Sylvain might humor his attempts at contact a little, but their relationship is Done.

And oh my god this is getting long but he 100% absolutely never got over Felix. Ever. Those students he fucked? Squint and he can pretend. Never dated, never even attempted to, really. All his “relationships” (if you could call them that) were just hookups. Maybe he had a FWB or two, but absolutely never anything romantic.

When Felix shows up to his class the students that know Professor Sylvain immediately joke that he’s “just his type” (and boy they do not know how right they are about that) and they joke that if he plays his cards right he might end up in Professor Gautier’s bed.

Sylvain, of course, still has the evidence he found off his dad somewhere on a flash drive, so immediately after the first day of class he ignores all of the students coming up to talk to him and runs back to his office to print it all off. Which looks a hell of a lot like he’s running away from him.

Felix is fucking livid, of course. He probably wound up following Sylvain back to his office after class to chew him out, then once that was done he was going to head straight to the registrar to demand a different professor for the course. So he storms in, looking all angry and beautiful (because let’s be real he dressed nice for the first day, too, because he saw Gautier on his schedule and just the shape of the name made him want to look good to stick it to the professor that dared share a last name with that asshole), and Sylvain has to slam the door shut behind him and beg him to just listen for two seconds before tearing him a new asshole.

To be clear though, Felix initially thinks he’s full of shit. Maybe that he even doctored the evidence. It takes awhile for him to come around. He probably talks to Dimitri about it, who rightly points out... why would Sylvain make fake evidence? Up until Felix showed up in his class he never expected to see him again, and he had absolutely no time to make it between class and when Felix confronted him in his office, so why would he have prepared that beforehand?

Also let’s just say Felix joined this class last minute, so while Sylvain had access to a class roster, Felix wasn’t on it until the day of so there’s no way he would have seen his name ahead of time.

[twokinkybeans]

The Arachnoids: ROCK BAND AU [Starker] - Chapter 5: DENMARK DAYDREAM

READ “CHAPTER 5: DENMARK DAYDREAM” ON AO3

Find the masterpost with all the chapters linked here!

Taglist: @crystallinecrimsonmoth​​​ & @staticwhispersinthedark​​​ (Let me know if you want to be added!)

-

Chapter 5: Denmark Daydream

Peter nearly presses his nose against the small plane window as he tries to take in every single detail of the beautiful horizon. It all looks so small from up here still, but he knows they’ll land soon. He can’t believe they’re in Europe now. Europe. He never thought he’d ever make it here. 

Of course, he wouldn’t have been able to if it weren’t for the fact that The Avengers’ management is paying for their travel expenses and accommodation. He’ll be forever grateful for that. If it weren’t for that, they wouldn’t have been able to join this tour. The costs would’ve been too high. Most of the venues do have a small fee for the opening band, but not all of them and it’s not much.

“Peter, I can’t see shit. Move a bit, will ya?” MJ teases and Peter chuckles, leaning back slightly so both she and Ned can look outside as well. “Oh! That’s The Blue Planet Aquarium,” Ned informs them proudly. “It’s supposed to be a fun one and it’s super close to the airport.” “Do you think we have time for that?” Peter asks, frowning slightly. He’s never been on a tour before, but he’s pretty sure they’re not going to have much time off. “No clue, but if we do, I’m definitely goin’.”

“Dear passengers, we’re nearing Copenhagen airport. It’s…” Peter doesn’t listen to the rest of the announcement. He’s too excited and distracted to focus.  “Do you think one of those buildings out there might be the Royal Arena?” Peter asks dreamily. He knows it probably isn’t, but the venue is supposedly close, so who knows? 

Not soon after the announcement, they set foot on the ground after a long flight. Peter looks up at the sky. It’s a bit cloudy, but nothing too bad. The cold midwinter air wraps around him and he zips up his coat as he descends the airstairs. It’s been a good six weeks since they sealed the deal with the management of The Avengers and now, here they are. “Ugh, it’s so cold,” Ned mumbles as he too hides in his winter jacket. MJ pats his back.  “It’s only gonna get colder from here on.” “What? Why?” “We’re headed even further north the next couple of shows. Brace yourself!” She laughs cheerfully and jumps off the last step. 

They make their way towards the baggage reclaim area, laughing and joking as they pick up their bags, filled to the brim with clothes and stage gear. They decided to rent out drum kits on the go for Ned since dragging it along would be too much of a hassle, so thank God they don’t have to carry that with them now. All he brought is his control pad and a handful of drum sticks.  After they’ve gathered all their belongings, they make their way towards the attached hotel. Tomorrow, they’ll pick up the van to tour all the way through the continent for the other shows. For now, walking will do.

The walk is silent, each of them taking in the strange, new surroundings. “What time’s soundcheck again?” MJ asks. “I wanna take a nap, if possible. I’m thoroughly exhausted from that flight.” “What? How? Didn’t you sleep on the plane?” MJ shakes her head and Peter sends her an apologetic smile. “Soundcheck’s at three so you can definitely take that nap.” “Thank God.”

-

MJ crashed the instant she dropped onto the bed. Peter and Ned went to see the aquarium Ned had talked about on the plane. It wasn’t too big of a building, but especially the tropical species had been lovely to see. At each tank, there’d been lots of information about every single one of them. The presentation about overfishing, the effects of climate change and plastic waste on sea life and the coral reefs had been very eye-opening as well.

Now, they’re leaning against the fences at the control booth, watching The Avengers’ soundcheck. Tony isn’t as much of an asshole today, but he still takes his sweet time. The young, red-haired boy in the control booth gives him an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry,” he says, his thick Danish accent shining through, “-there’s not gonna be much time left for you.” “It’s alright,” Peter says and then sighs. He already saw it coming. It won’t be the last time it’ll happen. Ned looks a little more worried. He’d been hoping to try out his new drum kit to get used to it.

“MJ, do you think there’s time to practice by ourselves after soundcheck?” Peter asks for Ned, but the girl doesn’t respond. Instead, she’s smiling at the stage. Peter grins as he follows her gaze. While Tony is holding a monologue on how his voice overrules the sounds of his guitar, Harley is crawling around the stage to tape some of the cords to the floor. He tears some of the gaffa tape with his teeth and carefully sticks it to the ground. Tugging on the cables to make sure there’s no more tripping hazard.  “Em?” “-W-what?” MJ stutters, ripping her gaze away from the roadie. Peter nudges her playfully. “Earth to Venus, Earth to Venus-” “Oh, you!” She laughs awkwardly. Peter snorts, and right when he wants to make another comment, Tony’s voice cuts through.

“Having fun down there?” His voice is cold and irritated. Whatever the slightly good mood was that Tony was in, it’s gone now. “Uhm,” Peter stumbles. “Tony, it’s alright, don’t-” Steve tries from behind his drums, but Tony doesn’t listen. “Listen, funny guy,” he threatens. “You might be talented, and unique, but this isn’t your tour. Remember that, or we will send you home.”

Peter presses his lips together and nods curtly. The worst thing is that Tony is completely right. It’s rude and disrespectful to laugh through their soundcheck. Peter feels absolutely mortified and he wishes he could vanish. “Good. That’s settled then. Now that the spiderlings are quiet, let’s continue. Nat, play the intro of Endgame again?”

-

After The Avengers were done with their soundcheck, the guy in the control booth apologized once more for the lack of time. He did tell them there should be around thirty minutes left before the doors open, which was just about enough for Ned to become accustomed to his new drum kit.

Once they’re asked to leave the stage, Peter’s nerves come crashing down on him. “God, it’s really happening isn’t it?” He mumbles quietly as they leave the stage.  “Sure is,” a familiar, rumbling voice answers him. Peter freezes and looks up, only to find Tony laying on top of a set of large transport cases for all the equipment. His left leg’s dangling from it and he cranes his neck to watch the three musicians. “Europeans,” Tony says and he scoffs. “They always show up for the support act too. Seems you got yourselves a big crowd tonight, kiddos.”

“Are you purposefully trying to make us more anxious?” MJ asks and squints her eyes at him. “No, not really.” Tony sits upright and grins at them smugly. “Just stating truths here. It’s fairly different from US shows. Figured I’d give you a heads up.” “Well, it’s great Tony, thanks,” Ned says sarcastically and Peter looks at his friend in surprise. Ned doesn’t easily speak up like that, and Peter can’t help the proud feeling spreading in his chest. “You’re welcome,” Tony hums with a smile, very much not oblivious to the sarcasm but purposefully ignoring it.

“What are you even doing up there?” Peter asks to change the topic of this already weird conversation. Peter swears he sees a hint of insecurity cross the man’s face. But then, he can’t see it very well from down here. “Oh,” Tony shrugs. “Not much, actually. Relaxing before the show starts. I can actually see the entire space from up here. Nice job on the drums man, though, Peter your guitar playing was a little off.” “What?” Peter huffs out a breath. He knows damn well how he plays and he doesn’t recall messing up. He shakes his head. “I don’t have time for this, let’s go-” “No! Wait.”

Peter sucks at his teeth and raises his eyebrows at Tony. Why does he seem so desperate for the conversation to keep going? “The solo. In that song you played, what’s it called… Homecoming?” “Yeah?” “If you play the F on the D-string rather than the A one, it’ll be much easier and flow better. Especially ‘cause you play it so often.” Peter swallows and narrows his eyes. “Right,” he takes a deep breath. “Good one.”  “I can teach you some more if you wanna.” “Not a chance.”

“Guys! Guys, have you seen Tony, I-” Harley comes running in and stops dead in his tracks when he spots Tony on top of the cases. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Of course.” “Oh! Hi there, Harls!” Tony says cheerfully. It almost makes Peter smile. Almost. Is this Tony Stark opening up and showing a deeper layer of himself? “You know you have an interview right now, man! Why aren’t you there?” Tony’s face darkens at that right away. “You know why,” Tony pushes out grimly. Harley’s expression softens at that. “I do, but we talked about this. Please?” Tony’s face completely changes after that. The slight openness that had been there seems to have never existed at all. Tony’s face is harsh and unreadable. Peter wonders if maybe, all of Tony’s rude behavior is simply a mask he wears to protect himself from something. Anything. What could it be? Tony jumps off the cases and walks away without saying another word. “I’m sorry,” Harley apologizes to them before quickly rushing after the man.

Peter slowly turns towards his bandmates. “What just happened?”

-

Read the next chapter >> 6: Headstart Hero

[whitherliliesbloom]

the instagram boyfriends club

[ ffxivwrite2020 ] ★ [ masterlist ] ★ [ prompt #16 - lucubration ]

[ various wol/npc ships ] ★ [ 2,576 words ] [ highschool / modern au ]

haurchefant greystone, estinien wyrmblood and alphinaud leveilleur. mentions laurelis by @ancientechos​, peppermint by @mintdrop​. illya is also mentioned and appears briefly at the end. may be a little ooc but do i care?? a lot of the jokes were stolen from this youtube video, which was also the main inspiration for this fic. 

instagram pics are #seriousbusiness

Saturday mornings were typically an uneventful affair, and thankfully so. His duties as the student council president often meant hectic school days filled with a mountain high of paperwork on top of his already impressive laundry list of assignments. Alphinaud was thankful for any little moment of peace he can get - weekends in particular were sacred, reserved only for either relaxation or outings with his family, friends or girlfriend.

And yet...

[[One unread message from Estinien]]

Estinien: meet me at haurchefant’s house in 1 hour. You: Wait. In an hour??? What for?? Estinien: just be there You: ???? You: This is so sudden. Is something wrong?? You: Estinien???

Of course he’d be left on read, as was common when texting Estinien.. sometimes at the most egregious of times. This in particular would be one of the absolute worst examples of Estinien’s utter lack of prudence. No matter how many times Alphinaud would dial his friend’s number, the unanswered ringing would only cause his nerves to spike.

Within the campus grounds he was a well respected figure who possessed more authority than any of the other students of his cohort.. and yet outside of it, he’d always be reduced to being something of a pushover, one who couldn’t help but to allow himself to be pulled by the whims of his friends. 

He could only pray that whatever it was Estinien’s decided to drag him into this time, it wouldn’t take too much of his precious saturday rest.

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

“You want Haurchefant to teach us how to take instagram photos??” Alphinaud’s voice raises in pitch, nothing short of bewildered by Estinien’s request to their mutual friend as he stepped inside of the house. “I never took you to be the type who cared about that-”

“It’s not for me.” With a low grunt, Estinien mutters between grit teeth before settling himself onto the couch with a burdened thud. “It’s for Totomi.”

In an instant, it all made sense, and Alphinaud has to withhold himself from letting out an audible chuckle. It’s no surprise that an outgoing girl from the drama club who has a penchant for the extravagant and flare would like to post photos online for her following to see. Though Alphinaud himself wasn’t exactly an expert on the matter - his own instagram profile was only ever updated semi-regularly with ordinary photos of classmates and student council activities, he was at least aware that there were others who practically lived their entire lives on that app.

“Ah! You wish to learn how to take better pictures for your beloved! How wonderful!”

Haurchefant’s jovial tone elicits a grimace from Estinien, whose grip on his phone only tightens.

“I’m just sick of her asking me to constantly retake shots. I’d rather not have to stand in the middle of the street for ten minutes just to take a single picture of her in front of a brick wall.”

“And you thought to ask Haurchefant...why?” Alphinaud asks with an inquisitive tilt of his head.

“You seriously don’t know??”

“Know what?”

“Haurchefant is called the god of instagram boyfriends.. or some dumb shit like that.” 

“Uh... what?” He’s heard of instagram. He’s heard of instagram models... but what in twelves name was an instagram boyfriend?

Haurchefant’s shoulders pull back in pride upon hearing that indirect praise, however, evidently more than a little pleased that his reputation and ‘fame’.. if it could be considered that, was beginning to spread by word of mouth.

“I’m so truly flattered that you would think so highly of me!” With a raise of both his arms, Haurchefant grins. Estinien rolls his eyes and mutters ‘i wasn’t praising you’ beneath his breath. “Indeed! I will admit to be at least well experienced in the art of taking instagram pictures for my beloved!”

“Laurelis? Pardon me for asking.. I’m not surprised that she has an instagram account.. but what makes you so special?”

Right on cue, Haurchefant raises up the screen of his phone, proudly displaying the profile of the ever familiar pink-haired miqo’te. Admittedly, Alphinaud didn’t know very much about Laurelis. What little he did know was only informed to him by her best friend, who just so happened to be the very same young lady he was dating. And from the few times they’ve spoken, he could see the miqo’te as being quite an instagram addict too - as most extroverted types typically are.

Upon seeing the numbers listed on the profile, however, Alphinaud’s eyes very nearly pop out of his sockets.

“Over five thousand followers?!” That’s more than the entire student body and staff members of Eorzea academy combined. The twelve knows it will take an eternity for Alphinaud himself to see that amount of followers on his account. 

“My dear is something of a minor celebrity! And I take great pride in knowing that I was able to play a small part in helping her take the pristine, ‘aesthetically pleasing’ shots as they say that she is known for today!”

“Good for you.” If estinien’s eyes could roll any harder they’d roll to the back of his skull. 

“Ah, but what of you, Alphinaud? Are you here to learn how to take better photos for Illya?”

The shorter elezen widens his eyes in surprise, not having expected to have a question directed straight at him, but he is quick to shake his head in response. As far as he was aware, Illya wasn’t exactly more instagram savvy than he himself was. She did have an account, one he naturally followed, but it would only ever be updated once every several days - and rarely with actual photographs of herself. Food, plant life and animals made up the majority of her profile’s portfolio, not that Alphinaud ever failed to double tap on any of her pictures, no matter how menial they seemed. 

Though, he supposes she could be considered slightly internet famous as well - just not at all in the same way her best friend was. He hears that her gardening blog has just reached a 2 thousand subscriber milestone, recently.. which he imagines to be quite a feat especially considering it was by all accounts quite literally a website filled with nothing but gardening tips, tutorials and floral arrangement pictures.

“Not exactly. Estinien forced-” he nearly continues to speak, but the low grunt emitted from the couch causes Alphinaud to swallow his words “-encouraged me to come along for the lesson. He said it’d be....livelier with the three of us.”

“Well, there certainly is no harm in more company! Regardless of your reasons for being here, I’m sure the things you’ll learn today will help you and Illya in the future!” 

Haurchefant moves over to the couch, tapping on Estinien’s shoulder who could only let out a groan in annoyance.

“Now then.. shall we get on with the lesson?”

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

“Now, let’s do some practice shots! Say that I have asked you to take an OOTD picture!” 

“The hell’s OOTD.”

“Ah, outfit of the day, my friend! Now let’s have you take a picture of me and I shall give you my candid feedback! Starting with you, Alphinaud!”

The shortest of the trio thinks to protest for a moment, but quickly presses his lips together and reluctantly holds his phone up to snap a photo of his taller peer, who has already taken station by the window and posed for the camera.

“Ah a perfectly serviceable photo, my friend! But it has one critical, devastating flaw.”

“I-It’s that serious?? What is it?”

Haurchefant points to the bottom of the picture where his legs were cut off and shakes his head.

“You must never, ever cut off the feet in a full body shot, especially for an outfit of the day picture! This is one of the most common pitfalls of instagram boyfriends!” With an exaggerated wave, he gestures to his boots. “Remember! The shoes are part of the outfit!”

The sheer enthusiasm of Haurchefant’s loud proclamation only gives Alphinaud further whiplash when he turns to look at Estinien, whose face has darkened with the deepest frown he’s seen his friend wear in a long while. 

“It’s just shoes... why the hell does it matter?”

He’s more than a little disgruntled as he recalled the way Totomi had asked him to take a photo of her new wool sweater and jeans, and her numerous loud demands for him to retake the shot with her bright red sneakers in frame. It wasn’t even a new pair - but one she’s worn for years...unable to appreciate the effort she’d went into making sure her entire wardrobe was perfectly color coordinated.

“Grumble all you wish, friend, but these are things of great importance in the eyes of our ladies! Now, repeat after me! The shoes are part of the outfit!”

“T-the shoes are part of the outfit...” Alphinaud mutters, as Estinien grumbles even further. His uncooperative behavior only causes Haurchefant to grow more pushy.

“Louder! With more gusto! THE SHOES ARE PART OF THE OUTFIT!”

“Nobody gives a damn about your shoes!”

No wonder Totomi has to nag him to retake her photos...

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

“The angle you take the photo can either turn the picture into a stunning piece of work, or an unaesthetic disaster! Please Alphinaud my friend, demonstrate by taking a photo of Estinien sitting on this chair.”

Alphinaud has never held his phone in his hands for as long as he has on this day, so much that he can practically feel the heat from its overuse start to scald his palms and fingers. And yet he dares not to argue, and instead quickly snaps a photo of Estinien as instructed, who looks just as unamused and tired as he was, if not even more so. 

“Splendid, Alphinaud! The focus is just right! However, you would have done better were you to have taken the photo at a higher angle.”

“What difference would that have made?”

“A high-angled photo slims down the face, while a low-angled picture elongates the legs! Indeed, it may seem surprising, but such small, subtle differences in even the height at which you hold your camera could make all the difference in the world!” One would assume they were listening to a professional photographer speak from the way Haurchefant lectured them about the intricacies and importance of camera placement in taking instagram photographs.. and Alphinaud wasn’t sure if he was more exasperated or amazed. “Now, take a photo of Alphinaud and show me your fine work, Estinien!”

With yet another roll of his eyes, and a barely audible grumble, Estinien steps forward and holds up his phone, towering over his seated friend and quickly snaps a photo.

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

“Now, we shall practice taking pictures of one another within an imaginary scenario.” The cups of coffee and plates of biscuit Haurchefant had fetched from the kitchen were gently placed upon the dining table, before he steps back and gestures towards Alphinaud. “Say your lady and you are on a date, and she asks you to take a photo of her at the table.”

 “Um.. well, something like this?”

Alphinaud holds his phone up to Haurchefant, whose smile falters for but a brief moment.

“Oh dear, my friend.. Did you not notice the misplaced broom in the background?” He leans down and taps on the side of the photograph, where sure enough a blurry and seemingly innocuous broom stood just on the edge of the frame. It seemed harmless enough to him, and yet that mistake seemed enough to cause even Haurchefant, whose joyous demeanor never seemed to be breakable, to slump his shoulders. “The secret to success is a keen eye and attention to detail, my friend.”

For the first time in three hours, Estinien lets out a smirk and a chuckle. It seems the only way he’d get any enjoyment out of this little photo taking lesson is to see Alphinaud be told off and dejected.

“You suck at this, don’t you?”

Alphinaud’s shoulders rise and fall with a nonchalant shrug.

“Pardon, but at least my photographs are in focus.” 

“You wanna say that a little louder again, punk?”

“Now, now! Let us not fight! We are brothers in arms, and there is still much and more to learn! For our next lesson, I shall teach you how to take pictures of food and drinks!”

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

Alphinaud’s phone battery has never once died on him in his life. Even with his normally liberal use of his applications such as the notepad, calculators and on the rare occasions, prolonged social media use, he’s never used his phone enough in a single day for the battery to ever run out.

That day had certainly been the first.. and it was also at the end of that saturday, upon watching the light and life from his smart phone die out on him, that Haurchefant urged him to get a portable charger... among other things such as a selfie stick. He’d even downloaded one of those photo editing applications, one that he has still yet to fully figure his way around. 

If there was anything he’d learn on that fateful day, and thought to himself as he walked home under the hues of the setting sun that evening, it was that taking instagram pictures was seriously not a joke.

And here he was on a date with the gardening club president a mere week later.. and a far changed... and scarred man.

“Is something wrong, Alphinaud?”

Illya had caught him staring at a brick wall with a piece of particularly ‘aesthetic’ looking graffiti, and for a moment his head had been filled with naught by red blaring sirens and a words that repeatedly chanted ‘photo op’ in his head. It was only by the grace of her voice, and a slight tug of her hand in his that his attention would be pulled away, a forced smile upon his expression.

“Oh, forgive me. I was just.. distracted.”

Illya has never asked him to take a photo of her, much less stopped their date dead in its tracks in order to take a picture for her social media. She never was the type who cared much for arbitrary internet fame and followers.. and he thought he had been as well. 

T’would seem however, that he’s taken Haurchefant’s advice to heart, a little too much for his own good.. and he’s certainly far more attentive of his surroundings and much to his own horror, of the outfits that the people around him wore. One thing he hadn’t exactly counted on however... was an interest being ignited within him, an urge to take photos at golden opportunities in life when he would have otherwise thought it too mundane to capture before his lesson with Haurchefant and Estinien.

And as he stands stock still with a phone in his hands, his adorable and well dressed girlfriend by his side.. and an incredibly aesthetically pleasing looking brick wall.. And the motto of the instagram boyfriends club Haurchefant had asked him to repeat like a mantra that day echoed incessantly in his ears.

‘Her likes are your likes’

The eyes of the camera were to be treated like a gods’.. and if they thought their girlfriends beautiful, what better way to express that love than to capture that beauty on camera and share it for the world to see?

“Would you like to take a picture, Illya?”

[xhaotixaesthetica]

Yandere Ateez Headcanons

Starlink Intergalactic Navigator 

You are in: The Asteroid Belt 

READ THE TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains mentions and discussion of abusive relationships, threats, violence, death, supernatural creatures, depression, self-harm, disturbing sexual themes and mental illness. The behaviors and relationships depicted below are abusive and unhealthy. These are not examples of healthy relationships, it’s actually the opposite. This is meant to imagine the members of Ateez in a popular anime trope and it in no way represents their real-life personalities and characters. It’s fiction, it’s for fun, PLEASE DON’T READ IT IF YOU KNOW YOU WON’T LIKE IT OR THIS KIND OF STUFF DISTURBS YOU!

Word Count: 6.3K+

Hongjoong

The Perfect Boyfriend

Kim Hongjoong seems like the perfect man and in the beginning, he would be. But it’s an act. Seonghwa and Hongjoong are actually very similar. They both feel little to no emotion and that’s part of why they’re such good friends. But Hongjoong is different from Seonghwa in that he feels desire, but only for one thing. Control. Hongjoong hates feeling small or weak and he gets off on having complete mastery of a situation. Hongjoong is very much aware that his size is the first thing people see and he overcompensates for that in every single way. Think of Christian Bale’s role in American Psycho, except Hongjoong is actually attractive and very manipulative.

Hongjoong would sweep you off your feet, bringing you flowers and food, giving you compliments, being your shoulder to lean on, reading your mood perfectly and always knowing what you want and being available to give it to you. Hongjoong’s control over your life would happen so gradually that you probably wouldn’t even realize until it’s too late. You’ve quit your job, you depend on him financially, your friends are friends with him, your parents love him, whenever something’s wrong they tell him. Hongjoong is everywhere in your life without ever having to be anywhere.

Hongjoong’s best feature is that he’s not delusional. He knows what society expects of you as a couple and he makes sure you two follow that image exactly. He wants everyone to see how good he is for you, how much of an amazing boyfriend he is, his ego won’t tolerate anything else. You have friends because it would be an insult for him if he wasn’t able to control you without eliminating all outside forces. You can still see your parents because it’s expected of you, because he can’t stand if they thought anything bad of him.

He feels literally nothing for you, for a long time. He might think you’re cute and you might amuse him sometimes but that’s about it. But he damn sure won’t let you go and he won’t let anyone else touch him, only because it’s the principle of the thing for him.

Hongjoong does not see you as a person, he sees you as an object, a trained pet. The only reason he doesn’t cheat is because what kind of man would he be if he didn’t have mastery over his sexual urges? He can’t cheat on you and have people think he’s less than perfect.

Hongjoong has an obnoxiously long list of rules that he expects you to follow to the letter and if you don’t you will be punished. Hongjoong doesn’t necessarily enjoy physical punishments, but he doesn’t have a problem with them. He does what he feels is necessary to teach you to obey, nothing more, nothing less. Hongjoong’s lack of feelings toward you will really become evident in times like these, because he has no issue with beating you within an inch of your life and will feel no sympathy afterward. Depending on his mood, he’ll either be amused or disgusted at how weak he finds you and will say things like, “You’re going to leave me when you’re this pathetic? You need me, love. This is your fault, if you weren’t such a moron and knew how to follow simple instructions, I wouldn’t have had to do this.”

A sure-fire way to make your punishment worse is to make a scene or disobey him in public where there’s a risk of tarnishing his reputation. Hongjoong is very good at putting on the big teary eyes, and the hurt puppy dog look so he actually gets all the sympathy, but trust me, he’s not hurt, he’s pissed and the minute you get behind closed doors, he’s going to unleash hell on you.

Hongjoong is unique in that he wouldn’t develop any actual emotional attachment for a long time, possibly years. For all the other members, it’s pretty much an instantaneous thing, but for Hongjoong, it takes time, and there’s no particular reason, it just does. There’s nothing you can do to speed up this process, but following all his dumbass rules will make the process way less unpleasant.

However, it is just a matter of time. He’s guaranteed to feel something for you at some point, there’s just no guessing when that will be.

THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING.

I don’t think he’ll be any more lenient on you after he falls for you, but at the very least he might give you some sort of aftercare, after a punishment.

He will add more rules though and he’s more possessive and jealous now. By this time, you’ve probably learned his rules so well that punishments will be little to none once you get used to the new ones. You’ll start seeing your friends and family less as he desires to keep your presence around more, but you’ll still see them enough that it can just be chalked up to the busy lives that come with age.

He won’t be sorry for anything he ever put you through either. In his eyes, it was all his discipline and punishments that let you evolve from a lowly pet to someone worthy of him spending the rest of his life with.

“See, love? I told you I would make you happy one day.”

Seonghwa

The Ice King

Park Seonghwa has never been able to remember feeling any emotion. Not love, not happiness, not anger, not hate, not curiosity, not anything. He went through life, following instructions, and becoming the pinnacle of success all at his parent’s and relative's own bidding. He had never had any desire before, so never felt the need to rebel against their wishes, completely fine with letting his family push him so hard so he could graduate early and be leading a successful company by the young age of twenty-one.

I see you being his personal assistant or something.

Unlike his friend Hongjoong, the minute Seonghwa saw you, something broke inside him. He didn’t just feel something, he felt everything, and only for you. Seonghwa has no damn idea of how people work, so he just assumes that you feel the same. He expects that you belong to each other the minute you met and the only reason he doesn’t say anything is because it doesn't even cross his mind that he has to. He expects you to know who you belong to and, in his mind, everything about you is his. He thinks the feelings that he felt for you were so strong and instantaneous, that there’s absolutely no way you didn’t feel them too.

In Seonghwa’s mind, the minute you walked through the damn door, you both were in a committed relationship.

However, despite all the feelings that well up inside him when he looks at you, he’ll treat you like everyone else without even knowing it. He’s just as frigid and monotoned, eyes just as dead. He doesn’t look at you or talk to you more than normal or more than necessary.

Seonghwa thinks that tiny ass things like letting his gaze linger on you for two seconds more than usual or using your name when he refers to you or letting you walk in front of him or giving two compliments on your work in a day as opposed to none are obvious signs of PDA, but they’re things that everyone else, even you, don’t think twice about.

The only thing out of the ordinary besides his intense internal obsession is that Seonghwa hires someone to watch you.

He thinks it’s normal, practical even. You’re the “girlfirend” of a powerful man, he has plenty of enemies in rival companies who would love to hurt him and people who would take those he holds dear for ransom so he thinks you should have protection. He doesn’t realize that, even though those things are true, you would literally never be targeted because his displays of affection are so undetectable that no one knows he cares about you.

But this bodyguard doesn’t just protect you. He reports everything, even your smallest actions to Seonghwa. Not just where you’re going or what you’re doing, it’s creepy shit like what color underwear you put on, what position you were sitting in when you watched tv, what body part you washed first in the shower, weird shit like that. He wants to know everything about you, wants to be able to fantasize about you down to the most minute, accurate detail.

You’ll only realize something’s wrong when you’re supposed to go on a date one weekend.

Being Seonghwa’s assistant keeps you pretty busy. A CEO is pretty much a never-ending job and even when he travels, you’re normally with him to assist him. Despite having nothing but a work relationship, you’re actually rarely without him without even realizing it. You don’t mind at all Seonghwa has never been less than courteous to you, if a little cold, but he’d like that with everyone. Besides you get benefits like insurance, a 401K, a “company” car, and tons of other stuff (that none of his other assistants have ever had) along with an outstanding by the hour salary with glorious pay for overtime and traveling with him. Still, the one thing you don’t normally get is free time which is why you were pretty happy to have some time off.

Your date is supposed to pick you up at six but the clock hits seven and they’re a no-show. You’re starting to think you’ve been stood up and you don’t know the person so you’re not particularly upset, just annoyed that you wasted all that time and energy getting ready to go out. You’re about to change into your nightclothes and call it a night when your door suddenly opens and Seonghwa stalks in, key in hand like he lives there.

There’s a flurry of questions in your head. How did he get that key, why is he here, what the hell is happening?

But all of them die down when you notice the spatters of blood on his clothes and your blood turns cold.

Seonghwa doesn’t understand what you were doing by setting up the date. Why were you going to cheat on him? Were you trying to make him jealous? Did you want him to prove his love for you?

He’ll only learn that this isn’t the way relationships work when you tell him and even then, he won’t care.

He feels that he’s in too deep, he needs you, he can’t let you go.

Seonghwa won’t particularly blame you for hating him at first, but he won’t let you go and he’ll use the threat of ruining you and all your loved one’s reputations if you try and make a scene in public or tell someone what he’s doing.

For the most part, he lets you be, as long as you’re in the house. Even though he wants you to touch and love him, he doesn’t feel the need to force you and wants you to do it in your own time.

For the most part, Seonghwa doesn’t really punish you. He’ll kind of just stand there, dead-eyed and let the insults roll off him, might even walk away to do something else, or do some work while you scream at him.

Even when you flirt with someone else or someone hits on you, he’ll kill the person in cold-blood or have them assassinated, but he won’t do anything to you. The only thing you can do to piss him off is tell him that you hate him or, ironically, tell him how cold he is.

Seonghwa absolutely cannot take the thought of you hating him. Disliking him, he can understand. He’s done things that he would never forgive anyone for if they did to him and he has hope that your dislike will go away with time. But hate is eternal for him. When he hates people, he kills them. Do you want to hurt him?

He can’t stand it when you call him cold because to him, it means he’s not enough. He doesn’t express his affection in a normal way and he only cares about you, but he thinks that he’d proven himself to you by doing things for you that no one else would. Things that he’d never do for anyone else. He feels like he can’t even breathe when he sees you, and you have the nerve to call him cold?

I don’t see Seonghwa ever physically hurting you like Hongjoong, I see him isolating you. A dark room with no windows, no smells, no sounds, no sights, nothing. It feels like hell.

To Seonghwa, this is what it feels like without you and he wants to condition you to associate a lack of his presence with this feeling of dark, suffocating nothingness. Even if it takes a long time, it probably ends up working. There’s only so much the human mind can take.

“I killed them for you. You’re all that I care about and I won’t let anyone get in the way of that.”

Yunho

The Damsel in Distress Next Door

Yeosang and Yunho’s headcanons might be shorter and more normal than the other ones cause it’s even harder for me to see them as yanderes than it is for Mingi.

Jung Yunho seems like a normal college student. He plays video games and procrastinates his homework, has trouble remembering to pay his rent on time and probably wouldn’t be able to pay it if it wasn’t for Hongjoong and Seonghwa, once set the stove on fire trying to make ramen, and has an emotional breakdown whenever he sees a puppy or a baby.

Anyone you asked would say that Yunho is the most lovable, gentle, caring boy they had ever met. He just needs to be a little more confident in himself.

They don’t know the half of it.

If there’s one person in the world that Yunho hates, it’s himself. He is incredibly suicidal and self-harming, it’s a testament to his good acting that people don’t know how much he needs a therapist or something.

You meet puppy-boy when you move into the apartment next to his, the last one on the hall.

He’s coming home from getting a few groceries when he sees you moving your stuff in. He’s in his senior year of college, one semester away from a degree, though you’re just a junior, a transfer student who is more than nervous about switching unis so late into your college career.

Yunho is your first friend. From the minute he saw you, he was hooked, it was like he met an angel. You were so nice to him and you genuinely cared about him. Not only that, but you seemed to actually need him around.

Yunho was used to being a burden, someone others coddled and took care of, so it was refreshing when you asked him to help you study or show you around or carry heavy things up the stairs or reach things on the top shelf. He was quickly becoming wrapped around your thumb, he lived for taking care of you. It gave him purpose.

In real life, Ateez has stated before how Yunho likes to care of those around them and brighten their day, make them laugh, make them happy and all that. This would be Yandere!Yunho’s defining characteristic along with his suicidal tendencies.

It’s hard not to develop a crush on Yunho and eventually, you ask him out. And even though he loves you more than life itself, he hesitates.

He feels like he has to tell you about the way he feels about life and the things he does to himself before he can feel secure in a romantic relationship with you.

When you still want to date him, he’s genuinely stunned. That’s when his obsession really begins. He’s found someone that he can take care of but that also wants to take care of and help him and won’t leave him? He thinks he would be stupid to ever let go of that.

Most of the Ateez yanderes have a unique quality about them I’m making them sound like limited edition Pokemon. Hongjoong’s is his delayed affection, Seonghwa’s is his coldness, Mingi’s is his fiery persona, San’s is his duality, and Yunho’s is the fact that he would never ever be a danger to you or others.

He punishes you by punishing himself.

While I do think that Yunho would be the most objectively easy Ateez yandere to escape from, I do think that it would be the hardest to leave him mentally.

You have an attachment to him, you love him, and you can tell he loves you too. But he’s still unbelievably toxic and exhausting.

Yunho will start shirking off responsibilities for you very quickly, flaking out on friends and school and work, just to be at your beck and call and bend over backward for you.

To a certain extent, he expects you to do the same. When you're spending more time with friends or family or work or homework, Yunho’s going to get upset and he’s going to think that he’s doing something wrong and you’re starting to lose feelings. He’s going to punish himself for that and it’s not going to be pretty.

You might not catch on to his habit at first and he doesn’t want you to feel guilty so he’s going to make an effort to hide it from you, but you’ll find out eventually.

It starts taking over your life. You see friends less, forget about responsibilities, and even have trouble sleeping because you’re so worried about him. And because you’re spending even more time with him, the time-frame that you have to spend by yourself becomes smaller and smaller cause he’s so used to having you around.

Even if you bring him with you, he’ll overthink everything. He’ll remember how good-looking your friends are, how much he doesn’t fit your parent's standards, how he couldn’t help you with a certain problem on your homework and he’ll punish himself for it all the minute he’s alone. No matter how much time passes, he’ll always keep these things in his mind and waste no time hurting himself for them.

It makes you not only terrified to leave, but also hyperaware of everything that’s happening when you two are out in public, always ready to give him reassurance. It’s terrifying and exhausting and one day, you bring up the idea of breaking up.

Yunho takes it well, much better than you think he would. He says that he understands and that, even though he loves you, he hopes you find someone to make you happy and give you what you deserve.

But you have a bad feeling in your stomach and it’s only a few hours later, that you’re bursting into his apartment, screaming his name.

There’s no answer and the lights are all off and the adrenaline is pumping through your body so fast, you feel like you might start imploding.

Yunho’s in the bathroom and...it’s not a pretty sight.

His stint in the hospital would have been short if it weren’t for the fact that he needed so many stitches and blood transfusions.

He’s there long enough to get better physically, but his eyes are glassy and he doesn’t talk or move, not even with you. The doctors say it's not anything physical, nothing they can find, and they let you take him home when he’s strong enough because maybe the hospital is making it worse.

He still doesn’t do anything. He’ll use the bathroom if you sit him on the toilet, he’ll chew and swallow if you put food in his mouth, he’ll drink if you put a straw to his lips, but that’s about all you’re going to get out of him.

A week after he gets out of the hospital, you come home and Yunho’s...gone. You left him on the couch, but he’s not there anymore.

You drop everything in your hands and you’re about to fear the worse until he runs out of the kitchen, asking what the noise was and if you were ok. He’s in different clothes than you left him in and the smell of take-out fills the air. How long has he been like this?

You and Yunho eat pizza and he’s so busy chattering that he doesn’t notice that you’re too stunned and scared to touch most of your food, watching him carefully.

He’s acting completely normal, like he was when you first became friends.

You wonder if he even remembers the past couple weeks or if he’s putting on a ruse so he can try and kill himself again when you leave him alone. You’re almost too scared to bring it up in case it sets him off.

Eventually, you settle on, “Yunho, I want to get back together, I’m sorry for what I said.”

Yunho gives you a strange look.

“When did we break up?”

Yeosang

The Secret Serial Killer

Kang Yeosang is very misleading. He tends to wear a lot of dark clothes and has a resting bitch face and he’s very shy though it comes off as being aloof and arrogant. That’s not what he earned his bad-boy reputation for though, even if those things do help to reinforce it.

Yeosang earned that reputation through the only fight he’s even been in on campus. It’s unsure how the fight started or what happened, but by the time it finished, everyone was crowded around to see Yeosang pulverize the other guy.

He broke five ribs which punctured a lung, took a chunk of the guy’s left ear, knocked out several teeth, and completely shattered both kneecaps and his left ankle, effectively ending the guy’s promising athletic career and making him need walking assistance for the rest of his life.

Mingi and Jongho were the only witnesses to the start of the fight and they claim the other guy started it. Most people believe them, just because Mingi isn’t known for lying since he knows people are so scared of him that he doesn't really have to. Also, Yeosang had a decent amount of injuries too. A broken arm, swollen lip, black eye, and fractured rip substantiated what Mingi and Jonho claimed. But, if anything, that made Yeosang even scarier. The arm that was broken was the one he’d used to beat the guy up, how could he be capable of such things when he was so hurt?

No one ever tried to bother Yeosang after that and he never got in another fight which made people think that the guy really did start it, even if Yeosang was still scary.

Yeosang enjoys skateboarding, video games, and flying his drones and it’s while he’s in the park doing the latter that he first spots you walking your pet.

Yeosang stalks you from that moment onward.

He won’t be like Yunho and blow off all his responsibilities to be near you, but he will use all of his free time and carve out a little extra where he can to follow you. Since I’m not a stalker and I have a short ass attention span, so I can’t for the life of me begin to explain why it brings him so much genuine enjoyment to just do nothing but watch you for hours at a time but it does.

He’ll spend about a year watching you and learning every single thing he can about you before he comes into your life like your very own Prince Charming on a white skateboard. You’ll fall for him hard and fast. He’s kind, caring, understanding, and seems to just instantly know you better than you know yourself.

He’s just as clingy as Mingi, and he’s more lenient with you, but it’s more because he puts you on this high pedestal that the rest of humanity is nowhere near. He and Jongho are similar in that they think their S/O is a god/dess that can do no wrong.

It’s always someone else’s fault, never yours.

Yeosang will take you on cute dates and teach you to skateboard and play video games and let you win cause he’s whipped. You’re in love and you think everything’s going perfect.

Because Yeosang’s yandere trademark is that he will be the only one who will make an effort to hide what he is from you.

He is sneaky and you’ll probably never know how sick and fucked up he is.

Yandere!Yeosang likes killing. He likes making someone pay when he thinks they’ve wronged you or your relationship. It gives him a rush of adrenaline and power that nothing can compare to. He’ll purposefully go out and show you off on dates, just to have an excuse to murder everyone he thinks is looking at you longer than necessary.

He’ll get away with it too. He’s friends with Seonghwa, who makes all his seven friend’s problems magically disappear.

Yandere!Yeosang may seem better than the others, because he never displays his toxicity toward you but he might actually be one of the worse ones because he’s a complete serial killer.

“Thank you for being by my side, baby. You’re the only one that’s ever made me feel this way.”

San

The Jekyll and Hyde

Alright, I’m soft as fuck for this adorable sweetheart, it’s gonna take all I got to write him like this.

OK, so firstly.

Choi San is the most two-faced ass bitch you’ve ever met in your life. I mean, seriously. San’s duality is already scary but Yandere San would be on another level, his yandere side came completely out of left field.

San’s first side, the side that you will see for the first few months of your relationship, is his sweet, bubbly, cute side. Both sides of San are hyper and energetic, but this side is also caring and sweet and kind. He’s funny and loves playing games and making people laugh. He’s a social butterfly and has tons of friends and he’s really sensitive and easy to start crying. He’s almost like a child.

Ironically, he also likes reading and watching mukbang videos in silence.

Then there’s his other side. In your head, you refer to him as Other San, because he’s just so different from the regular one. San doesn’t have dissociative identity disorder. Other San isn’t a different personality, and no matter whether he’s being San or Other San, he knows everything he’s done and there are no gaps in his memory.

At one point, you even asked him if he’d ever played around with Ouija Boards or anything demonic and took him to a priest to make sure.

Demonic possession made even more sense than his extreme ass mood swings.

Other San is seductive, hot-headed, sultry, and aggressive. His movements are jerkier and his voice is raspier and the cadence and flow of his speech even changes. But he’s not a different personality and that’s what’s so scary.

San as a whole is very temperamental and emotionally unstable. You’ll be constantly walking on eggshells around him. He can change from San to Other San in the blink of an eye, with literally no warning. Sometimes, he’ll change to Other San for only a few seconds before going back to normal.

Though he almost always turns into Other San when he’s mad, he’ll turn into Other San at completely random times as well.

You CANNOT treat Other San like you do Regular San. He doesn’t want to be babied when he’s in that mode and he will make that very clear.

Regular San is unbearably clingy. He’ll follow you wherever you go and he’ll cry if you don’t give him enough attention.

Other San is down for physically punishing you when you displease him and there are no set rules as to what you should do to keep him happy. With Other San, you can do something that he’s totally fine with and then ten minutes later, you’ll do the exact same thing in the exact same way and he’ll get pissed at you for it.

Like Yandere!Yeosang, both Regular and Other San enjoy killing people. But unlike Yeosang, Yandere!San was a serial killer long before you came into the picture.

“Y/N, why were you talking to him? I told you I don’t like him! Why do you like hurting me?” San sobbed before his body froze. You gulped, your hands, which were previously trying to comfort him, were now pulled away. San wiped the tears from his face before he looked at you, eyes dark and voice rough as he said, “That’s ok, baby. I like hurting you too.”

Mingi

The Clingy Bad Boy

Song Mingi is one of the toughest cases for me. It’s very very hard for me to see him as a yandere at all. Like period. He’s so chill all the time, and I think this would translate to Yandere!Mingi.

He would largely let you do what you want. Go to school, go to work, have friends, etc. The catch? He has to be by your side at all times. Mingi is the resident bad boy at your university. He goes to class because he pays for it, but he smokes, drinks, wears leather jackets, gets into fights, and is generally an asshole. Unlike Yeosang, he’s not quiet at all. He’s loud, fiery, opinionated, aggressive, and hostile. Mingi just seems to have always been filled with this destructive inferno of unquenchable fury at the world for even daring to bring him into existence. His friends made him calm down a little, enjoy life a little more but it’s not the same.

It’s not the same as when he met you.

Yandere!Mingi seems like the type to go for a soft, sweet S/O and when he saw you, he was hooked. Your softness makes him have a little compassion for the world, a little hope that it’s not so bad after all. He knew he was bad, a dark influence on you, but he didn’t care in the slightest. He didn’t want you to be tainted by anyone but him.

Mingi feeds off of your innocence and happiness, which is why he lets you do what you want for the most part. He just doesn’t tolerate anyone looking at you in a less than friendly way. He doesn’t kill, he’s not like Yeosang. He doesn’t have to. He’s not opposed to it, but he would much rather beat your suitors within an inch of their lives and be able to forever take pride in the terror that appears on their faces whenever they see you two again.

Even though he’s lenient about friends, it doesn’t really matter. Mingi creeps your friends the fuck out.

He’s always glued to your side and even though he doesn’t stop you from interacting with them or call for your attention, he just sits there and glares. They’ve never even heard him talk unless it’s to you or his friends.

Because Mingi considers himself to give you so much freedom, he will get all the more upset if you do something that he thinks is out of bounds in your relationship. He thinks it’s disrespectful that he “gives” you so much and you repay him by doing things you know he hates. Mingi’s punishments are going to revolve around sex and humiliation. He’s a hormonal ass teenager and something about seeing his sweet innocent S/O being humiliated by him makes him go feral. I can almost guarantee that you won’t be enjoying these punishments, cause not only would they be physically painful, his degradation would be things that he knows are going to hit you hard emotionally. The number one thing you can do to piss him off and get punished is leaving him by himself. He pretty much doesn’t give a damn what you do as long as you’re together and he doesn’t give a fuck how suffocating his presence is, that’s not more important to him than his need for you.

Mingi needs to be in your presence at all times, it keeps him sane. He thinks you’re like the fire extinguisher to that blazing sun that burns inside his sick mind. You once went away on a school trip for two days and you came back to the entire apartment trashed, stuff was thrown all over the floors, holes in the walls, scratches on the hardwood floors. Mingi didn’t say anything, just stalked over to you silently, knuckles dripping with blood and eyes feral, body trembling with rage. It was the first time that the realization of how big he was, how strong he was, absolutely terrified you. Even his voice, usually loud and boisterous was monotoned and dead, a stark contrast to his murderous eyes.

“Don’t leave me again.”

It’s not a request.

Wooyoung

The Incubus

Jung Wooyoung is a demon.

I’m not kidding, Yandere!Wooyoung is a literal demon. An incubus, to be exact.

Even though Yandere!San and Yeosang are literal serial killers and Yandere!Hongjoong’s a spouse-beating jackass, I just KNOW Wooyoung’s gonna be the one that pisses y’all off the most.

Because Wooyoung cheats. He will literally fuck like three people a day, and no matter how he feels about you or how close you two get, that will never change. He won’t feel bad or guilty for it either. He’ll enjoy each and every fuck and you’re nowhere on his mind when he screams out the other person’s name and finds his release in them.

Wooyoung doesn’t see what his feelings have to do with his sex life and he thinks that you, a lowly human, should be grateful he has any interest in you in the first place.

Since Wooyoung is a supernatural being, he could theoretically just kidnap you and be done with it, but that’s not fun for him.

He plagues your dreams for weeks before he starts showing up in real life. Sometimes, he’ll make sure that only you see him, so people will think you’ve lost it and it can ruin your credibility when you start screaming at him. Sometimes he’ll appear to you in the disguise of other horrific-looking demons so that you think he’s not so bad after all.

He wants to be the only one you can turn to. Him being a demon and all, I don’t see you standing a chance really.

It’ll be easy for him to get inside your head and make you trust and love him, completely willing to ignore how cruel he is to you.

Wooyoung likes for you to be the one chasing him. That’ll be his favorite part of this whole thing. Once he’s broken you, his favorite punishments will be to either ignore you or to make you watch while he fucks someone else and then prove you can please him better afterward.

Yandere!Wooyoung will probably kill people too, now that I think about it. He’d use it as a tool to make you submit to him more and it’s foolproof because he’s a demon. You can’t tell the police and he could easily fabricate evidence that points to you being the killer.

Like I said, since he’s a demon, you don’t have a chance in hell, excuse the pun.

“Always remember, love, you’re only alive because I want you to be. So you better be good for me, hmm?”

Jongho

The Overprotective Guard Dog

Jongho is gonna be absolutely devoted to you. Seriously, if people didn’t know any better, they’d think he was your bodyguard or your servant or something.

Whether you’re older or younger doesn’t matter, he sees you as a divine being and his purpose is to protect and worship you. He thinks other people are disgusting for not seeing how perfect and ethereal you are.

And that means they don’t deserve to live.

I picture Jongho as being exactly like Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki. Anyone who’s watched that anime or knows yandere knows that she is the Yandere Queen and the epitome of the whole trope.

For a large part, you and Jongho would be a normal couple. You might go to different classes and work but you always meet up for meals and come home to your shared apartment at the end of the day. He makes you laugh and he’s doting and sweet.

It’s not yourself or him that he has to worry about. It’s other people.

Jongho takes it upon himself to kill, hurt, maim, or terrorize anyone who hurts you. This could be in the form of people who actually physically hurt you, people who bully or disrespect you, or just people who look at you wrong.

If the person is of better use to you alive, then he’ll just hurt or scare them. If not then they’re dead meat.

Jongho doesn’t really enjoy killing, he actually finds it gross, but he won’t think twice about doing it when it comes to you.

Jongho is the only yandere that wouldn’t mind not being your lover. He would prefer to be, but he just wants the honor of being near you, making you happy, and protecting you, in whatever role he can.

Your happiness is the most important to him and if someone else makes you happy then you will have them. Even if they don’t like you back, Jongho will force them to be with you so that you can be happy and they better not ever say anything about his involvement.

He’d be your best friend and really good at acting normal so you probably wouldn’t believe them anyway.

“Your smile is gorgeous, Y/N. I’ll do anything to see it.” 

The Asteroid Belt 

[kayr0ss]

Appointments Chapter 5: Headaches and Some Music

[LWA, Diakko, Small Town AU, Fluff and Slow Romance, Pining™ lol]  

Chapter 1 & Table of Contents AO3 Link

Diana pursed her lips, locked in a heated stare-down against the newest occupant of her apartment.

“Please behave yourself until I return.”

The cat ‘mew’ed’ in reply as though he understood and resumed licking the back of his paw. All things considered, he seemed to be a surprisingly well-behaved cat. Who looked polite. This small comfort was enough to make up for the ridiculousness of having to talk to a cat, and Diana realized that she had never been more excited to return to her clinic as she was now.

The normalcy of work, she thought to herself, is beginning to feel like a comfort versus the absurdity of my home’s current state of affairs.

She stepped through her doorway into a lovely Blytonbury morning. The habitual glance towards her watch read 09:51, urging her to walk at a quicker pace than usual. She regrettably strode right by Jasminka’s café—there was no time to pass by tea, and she hadn’t woken up early enough to make some for herself that morning.

Of course, because of the cat.

The day prior, she’d had to return home later than usual to fetch her feline tenant the basic supplies: a small can of cat-food, a litterbox, and two bowls for food and milk. The real challenge was in the ‘teaching him not to leave any form of excrement where he shouldn’t.’ Pleasant behavior aside, it seemed Toby was actually quite intelligent—although by the time it was two o’clock in the morning, her NewTube suggestions were a peculiar mix of medical lectures and ‘How to Potty Train Your Cat’ videos.

She made her way through the crosswalk—ensuring that no brunettes were running about—and mentally prepared herself for the day she was about to have. There were no scheduled patients before lunch, giving her enough time to review case files for a busy afternoon.

When she stepped through the glass door to her clinic, Barbara was already lounging behind her desk and flipping—as usual—through a novel.

“Good morning,” she peaked out from behind ‘NightFall 12: The Oblivion of Love’. “You’re on the dot today.”

“I always am,” Diana replied lightly. “Good morning to you as well.”

“You’re always at least fifteen minutes early,” Barbara corrected, smiling kindly. Then the nurse leaned forward, scrutinizing Diana with an observant gaze. “You’re…”

The blonde lifted her eyebrow in silent response.

“Something.” Barbara said slowly, as if trying to figure a puzzle out. She waved a hand to dismiss the thought. “Must have been my imagination, just thought there was something off. Anyway, I’ve laid down the patient files for the afternoon. We’ve got ourselves a slow morning.”

“Thank you,” Diana nodded politely, slipping into her whitecoat and thankful that she didn’t have to explain the kind of morning (and evening) she’d had. She settled into her chair, entertaining the thought of going through the documents Barbara had prepared before deciding she wasn’t in the right headspace for that. A headache. Massing her temples, she ascribed her irritability at a lack of sleep and constant worrying over her furniture’s wellbeing. She inwardly cursed her lack of morning tea—and really hoped her furniture were okay.

Learning back with a sigh, her eyes drifted towards a pamphlet at the edge of her table. It was the St. Beatrix MMC residency brochure on Cardiology. She’d probably read its contents nearly ten times over by now. In truth, the hospital had already reached out to her: she was “everything they were looking for”, or so the chief resident had said—a young doctor with an impeccable educational background. Diana had been truly grateful, but she was committed to taking the time she’d need to be absolutely sure. Which she wasn’t. At least, not yet.

There was a knock on her door, and Barbara was peeking through the doorframe. “Water. And an aspirin. Because for some reason you look—uh.”

“Off?” Diana tilted her head.

“Like shit.” Barbara nodded, and Diana would have had something to say about her choice of language if it weren’t for the fact that she was probably right. “Did anything happen?”

“Just a few issues to iron over at home,” she replied cryptically.

Barbara looked like she wanted to ask more, but decided not to prod. “That won’t do. We’re having lunch over at the Russian lady’s and getting those croissants you love so much, but in the meantime drink that Advil because someone’s gotta look after the doctor looking after everyone else.”

Diana smiled and felt a wave of gratitude pour through her over Barbara’s thoughtfulness.

“Which reminds me,” the other woman set the items down to Diana’s desk, “the cat’s gone.”

The blonde immediately looked down at the suddenly-very-interesting-patient-files. “I—Indeed.”

“You know, I think I’ll actually miss him. He was kind of cute.”

Diana was ready to remind her of the importance of workplace cleanliness when the front bell chimed louder than usual. The glass pane of the door practically swung open with force.

“Heya, doc! And miss nurse!”

Oh.

Barbara was the first to recover. “Where did you fall in this time? Was it a ditch? Or did you fly off your bike again?”

Atsuko Kagari-with-blood-ty—Oh, enough of that! She’s just Akko!—had come barging in with a large paper bag, effectively elevating Diana’s headache through several numbers up the VNRS pain scale.

“I—” Akko shot the nurse a smug look “—have yet to experience an accident this week!”

“That’s a first,” Barbara crossed her arms.

“But I’m here for you!”

Those stunning red eyes locked themselves onto Diana, and suddenly she couldn’t speak. Me? The brunette strode into her office. She dropped the paper bag onto her desk.

“I’m not quite sure I follow. What is this?”

“Child support!”

Diana flinched. Barbara blinked. Akko simply nodded to herself in smug satisfaction.

“For Toby. Since we’re co-parents now.” Akko clarified, looking completely serious. “There’s a bunch of cat food that should last a while, a cute mouse squeaky toy, and animal milk.”

The blonde felt her ears redden at the incredulous look Barbara was giving her, and seriously—was this seriously happening right now? “C—Co-parents?”

“Yes.” Akko nodded with a determined glint in her eyes. “And I’m no deadbeat mom!”

“I—I see.”

“Anyway,” Akko took one of the pens from Diana’s stand without asking (“Don’t do that.”), and leaned over to write on the blank prescription pad on the blonde’s desk. “Here’s my number so you can text me about anything he needs and so we can arrange my visitation rights!”

Visitation rights?

“Oh.” Akko paused, lifting her thumb to her chin. “We probably need to schedule a trip to the vet and get him a collar, too.”

We?

Not knowing what else to say and still completely blindsided by Akko’s—well, everything—Diana simply complied. “I… know a veterinarian. He’s a childhood friend.”

“Perfect!” Akko beamed.

Once again, it was disarming. She really had to stop doing that to Diana.

“I’ve got to study for a test so I gotta bounce but I’m so excited to see him again!” Akko leaned across the table, moving around at a pace faster than Diana’s sleep-deprived-due-to-Toby’s mind could follow. The brunette wrapped her hand around her forearm and gave her another smile. It was warm. “But really—thank you Diana! I’ll see you around!”

She turned on her heel like the bundle of energy she was and bolted right out the door with a wave to Barbara.

Barbara—who looked right about ready to explode into laughter in the wake of Akko’s departure.

“You kept him.”

“Please don’t.” Diana pleaded.

The nurse finally caved, leaning against the doorframe to her office for support while she snickered. “That’s why you look completely out of it! You’ve got to tell me everything.”

But then the thudding sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation yet again and the door swung open. Poor thing. Might need to have its hinges checked at this point.

“I almost forgot!” Akko came bursting into the room like a cannon ball. “I got this on my way here for you!”

She slammed a paper take-out cup from Jasminka’s café onto Diana’s desk.

“I have no idea what it is to be honest.” Akko yelled, already rushing back out in a hurry. “I just asked Jas for a cup of whatever your usual is! Okay-bye-for-real!”

She was gone in a flash. Diana could smell tea.

English Breakfast, prepared exactly the way she liked it. The aroma was enough to chase away the tension along her brow, and when she glanced towards Barbara, who looked just as lost as she felt—

—they shared soft laughter.

The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. Including the fact that her cup was labeled: ‘Dr. Grumpy >:(’

 ---

 It was 5:30PM and Akko was in despair.

“Chikusho! That was a disaster.” Akko banged her head against the lecture room desk. She was reeling from the mental assault that was ‘Applied Physics Examination 1.’ Judging by the scowl on Sucy’s usually nonchalant face, it hit her pretty hard too. “How’d you do?”

“Tanginang test ‘yan.” She glowered in her native language.

“I’m going to assume that was a string of curse words.”

“For once in your idiot life, you are correct.”

“Mou!” Akko huffed.

“I’m out.” Sucy declared, and likewise, every fiber in Akko’s being wanted to get the hell out of this classroom as soon as possible. The purple-haired girl lazily slung her bag over shoulder and looked down at Akko (who was still very much slumped over the desk) through one eye. “So are you coming or should I leave you behind?”

Akko groaned. And then sighed. And then groaned another time while pointing towards the podium because—“First I have to walk over there and ask if she wants to join the running club.”

“The professor?” Sucy blinked.

“Ya, dude.”

Then Sucy was grinning daggers. “I think I’m gonna stick by and see if she’ll actually murder you this time.”

“Not funny!” Akko pouted while finally standing up and cursing the fact that she can no longer exist as a worry-free blob on a desk.

“It is. A little. Now go.” Sucy prodded on, repeatedly poking at her arm.

“Going, going!”

While the students slowly filed out of the room—in despair, mind you—Akko approached Dr. Meridies with Sucy lingering a safe distance behind her.

The lilac-haired professor looked up from a test sheet she was inspecting, looking, as one would say, way too tired for this shit. “No amount of begging is going to convince me to pass you.”

“I wasn’t going to!” Akko crossed her arms defiantly.

“Then why are we having this conversation?”

Well. There wasn’t any other way for this to go down than directly, so it was best to just blurt it out. “Do you want to join the running club?”

Dr. Meridies reeled, squinting. “The running club?”

“Yes.” Akko nodded. “The running club.”

“So many people are asking me to join this running club that I think I’m gonna start declining just out of spite.”

“Ugh!” Akko groaned. “I tried—can’t force you! Maybe Professor du Nord can, Kami-sama, why did I even both—”

“Wait wait wait—” Dr. Meridies raised a hand to shut Akko while scowling. “du Nord?”

“Yeah,” Akko said looked to the side with slumped shoulders, “the club moderator. And I’m here cause Diana asked so now that I’ve done that I’m just gonna boun—”

Oddly enough, the exasperated professor seemed to have tuned out. “Chariot du Nord, from Humanities?”

“Uh, yeah.” The brunette blinked. “Do you know her?”

“O—Of course.” The older woman began stare so hard at the table she could have burned a hole through. “Faculty and all.”

Akko caught on like a wolf, grinning mischievously. “You know her!”

“Like I said we both teach—”

“You know know her.”

“Out!” Dr. Meridies barked, “of my classroom!”

With a devious glint, which Akko swore she could see in Sucy’s eyes too, she waved in exaggerated politeness and made her way to the door.

“Okay, professor!” Oh, she loved this sort of drama! “Just saying—it’s on Monday evenings!”

--

“You should have seen her face!” Akko squealed with almost manic glee. “Oh, Lotte you’re gonna love it—I know you’re a sucker for this kind of stuff.”

“But I can’t imagine it! How does Professor du Nord—” Lotte gestured towards her life with both hands for emphasis “—who seems super sweet and kind of introverted but is generally made of sunshine, find herself with a history of romantic involvement with someone like Dr. Meridies—” she made a quick jerking motion towards the right. “Who I haven’t actually seen in person, and if I were to base my judgments off your descriptions she sounds like some mad-scientist antagonist in an anime who’d wear a cape.”

Akko blinked. “That’s a good one.”

Sucy actually nodded.

“It makes no sense!” Lotte shook her head. And then… she swooned. “But love never does, does it?”

“Makes about as much as sense as this idiot getting that doctor to adopt the cat.”

“’The cat’ is named Toby!” Akko chided, “and you’d be hard-pressed to deny him if you’ve seen that cute little face of his.”

The three women were lazing about Lotte and Sucy’s living-and-dining area, with Akko sprawled across the couch that she’d be sleeping on since the pair—or just Lotte—invited her to stay over. There was take-out and beer (which Sucy and Akko had picked up on their way home), and the mini-get-together served two purposes: to recover from that horrid examination, and to keep Akko company because “tomorrow’s my first day of work and I am way too nervous to fall asleep without beer or Lotte nagging me to!”

There was something deeply comfortable about the small apartment. The furnishing didn’t match up and yet every piece felt like they belonged. Pots and pans hung above the stove, used yet well-maintained. They always had an extra set of everything—as though guests were welcome and often come and go. She loved it. And loved how welcome she felt in it. And though she’d never impose unless invited, Akko felt… cozy. Books, and mushrooms, and odd test-tubes, and literary manuscripts and all.

Lotte was in the middle of sharing the gist of her latest writing exercise when Akko felt her phone buzz.

“Hold on,” she excused herself, “I swear if this is a Canvas notification I’m gonna cut a bi—oh!”

“What is it?” Lotte asked.

-

18:53 Good evening. This Dr. Cavendish’s number – I’ve been able to secure an appointment with Dr. Hanbridge, the veterinarian I had mentioned. I apologize for the short notice but his soonest availability is tomorrow at around 1:30PM. Check-up aside, an agent in his clinic should likewise be able to assist with any documentation that needs sorting out given our arrangement. Your prompt response will be appreciated.

18:54 Heeeya Doc! 😊 u sound like an e-mail. :P

18:54 But sure lol I get off work @ Arcturus school around lunch time

18:55 Is it gonna be far?

18:55 But srsly lighten up abit it’s just me we can me at the bus stop or whrvr

18:56 I’ll be hailing a taxi service from my home and will collect you from your workplace at 12:30PM. Please be on time.

18:56 PLS add me on WhatsUpp through this number PLS omg I want pics of my little bby!!!! DO U FEED HIM and I can send you memes to show him so he’ll laugh LOL

18:56 LOL wtf ‘collect’

-

“It was Diana.”

Sucy cocked an eyebrow, “’Diana’?”

“I have a vet trip with Toby tomorrow!” Akko buzzed. “Oh bother, now I’m never going to get any sleep.”

“Is she for real?” Sucy indifferently pointed towards Akko while speaking to Lotte. “She’s like some ‘instant-friendship’ anomaly. Even I feel personally victimized.”

Lotte only smiled. “You have to sleep lest you subject poor children to a zombie for a teacher tomorrow.”

“That’s mean!”

Akko shared a laugh with Lotte, urging her to carry on with her story. They were getting to the good part—Edmund was about to confess!

One successful synopsis reading and a few topic changes later, Akko’s phone had buzzed once more.

It was a picture.

She squealed so hard her cheeks hurt.

“Akko, down! Yes—I see him—stop screaming or else I’m going to poison your drink.”

 -

 The driver pulled up at Arcturus School’s main driveway at exactly half-past noon.

“Please wait a moment.” Diana politely requested, mildly aware of the fact that she was beginning to miss the luxury of having her own car and service.

“Sure, just don’t leave me alone with that little fella, don’t matter how cute he might be.”

With a sigh—which was one of many at this point—she gently peered over to Toby whose head was poking out of the most comfortable canvas tote bag she could scavenge. It was that or nothing at all, and no, she wasn’t going to carry him in her arms.

‘Mew.’ He stared back up towards her. At least he seemed comfortable—and she tried to fight it but then she gave in and chuckled.

“Oh, come on then.”

Diana stepped out of the vehicle with Toby in tow. She pulled out her phone, putting a call through for the latest addition in her phonebook.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Typical. She wasn’t picking up.

Fortunately she had anticipated this, there was a half-hour allowance in her schedule. Instead of bombarding the brunette with several missed calls, she opted to walk towards what looked like the waiting area where children were fetched. She took a moment to look around, noticing that the school grounds had an abundance of trees—much like the rest of Blytonbury and the campus of LNU. The morning classes were dismissed and children ran about. A few of them began to notice her special baggage, and one little girl ran up to her and nearly hugged her legs.

She had hazel eyes, and big, goofy grin. “You’re so pretty!”

Diana blinked. “Thank you.”

“Is that a cat?”

“Yes.” She lowered the bag a little, appreciating the wonder in the little girl’s voice. “But I can’t let you pet him yet, I’m afraid. He still bites.”

“But I—”

The little girl was cut-off by the sounded children cheering. Diana followed her line of sight and saw…

Akko.

She was playing music. And laughing. But more than that—everyone around her was smiling just as bright. Children sang while they danced in a circle around her, clapping their hands to the beat of what sounded like a ridiculously complicated rendition of the ABCs on the violin. The pace was quick while she played a progression of eight and sixteenth notes. The feel of the song was less classical and more like an upbeat Celtic dance.

And dance they did. Laughing, and clapping, and bouncing around in mirth without a care in the world.

Akko played with such joy and passion that Diana could feel the warmth from several meters away. She kept still—already forgetting her earlier dismay on being behind schedule—and simply watched.

“Do you know her?” The little girl with hazel eyes asked in a small voice.

Diana nodded, smiling to herself while trying to wrap her head around the conundrum that was Atsuko Kagari—who had red eyes, who tripped over nothing and scraped her knee, who could barely make it to her classes on time and yet could bewitch a crowd with a smile and a bit of music.

“She’s…”  

Even Toby looked he was watching.

“…my friend.”

 -

end chapter

-

A/N: Hello everyone! Hope you're doing well, stayin' safe and staying home. So anyway here's another chapter and admittedly I only have a very rough outline of where I want this story to be and well... I like writing one shots because I'm REALLY bad at plotting out longer stuff like seriously, when I started this, I thought it would be 5 chapters long at most and yet here's chapter 5.

So I've decided to just go with it and take the time to explore and narrate the relationships/interactions I've got in my head AND I don't know anything about taking care of cats I AM SORRY IT PROBABLY SHOWS

Hope you're enjoying it so far! (AND I still owe Diana a happy birthday fic that may or may not involve feet due to some shenaginas I've seen on tumblr which I don't know if are jokes or not)

[nol-overwatch]

What Are You Doing In My Room? An Overwatch x Reader series.

No, you were already awake, nor did you hit your head or drank too much. Honestly, it could just be all of the above and it still wouldn’t explain why the characters from a video game are in your room right now.

Sombra chapter is up!

x

“Watch out for the Soldier, he’s gonna ult on the next team fight.”

You were met with total silence, except for the incessant tapping of keys on your keyboard, as well as the non-stop clicking of your gaming mouse. You would’ve been a little put off with how this Mexican hacker’s ignoring you, but the both of you were too invested in the game to fully engage in socially acceptable behaviors by now. “The Soldier’s at your backline; he’s definitely gonna ult--”

“Shush,” The young woman frowned at the screen, probably a face for you since she can’t even turn to look. “I have this under control.”

In a little bit of an hour after you woke up (had some breakfast, and a very serious conversation over it) Sombra insisted that you teach her how to play the game. However, what she meant by ‘teach’ is that you just show her the objective of this game, and she immediately shut you up afterwards. You would then sit beside her, quietly watching her destroy the enemy team with ease as, of course, Sombra. For a moment or two, her gameplay would briefly remind you of a very famous Twitch streamer who mains the same character, but you digress.

Although, the interactions are uncanny at times. “I should’ve hacked the monk first,” She whispered to herself at one point when she was respawning from a lost team fight. “His ultimate saved their butts.”

And so, for the better part of your morning, Sombra played while never uttering a single word to you. You’ve taken this time to just finish up your morning duties, including the dishes and answering emails from your boss. Thank god for the weekend, you don’t exactly know what to do should a video game character come to life on a Monday. You’d have to file some ridiculous, over the top request just to get out of your boss’s hair.

But then again, a video game character seemingly coming to life in your world is already a ridiculous, over the top reason for such a request.

You were in the middle of folding up some laundry on your bed, when the young woman suddenly let out a crazed shout, “What?! That’s so unfair!” Followed by an endless stream of Spanish sentences that you absolutely have no idea what they meant. From the looks of it, she went through a hell of a lotta CC or crowd control and died from it, all from the Ana nade, to the Brig stun and of course, the cherry on the top: getting frozen by Mei. You watched her aggressively type on the match chat (probably to shit on someone, you mused) as she continued to mutter obscenities under her breath.

“Can’t believe our healers aren’t doing shit, puta madre--”

“You should switch heroes,” You calmly piped up, still folding laundry. “They’re on high-alert of this Sombra player, is why they’re using all of their resources on you.”

Sombra clucked her tongue but didn’t say anything to you. “Wow,” You wondered. “She really wants to win huh?” A small smile reached your face before turning away to finish up folding your clothes and do some more chores.

It was already nearing lunch when you finally stretched your back, cracking your sore muscles in place. For a crazy day off, you did a pretty good job cleaning your place up. You even took the time to rearrange some of your furniture while you’re at it. “That reminds me.” You turned to your room, a frown on your face. “I haven’t heard anything from her since.”

You opened the door to your room, half-expecting Sombra to have disappeared and deduce that you definitely hallucinated, but lo and behold, she’s still there, playing your game. Instead of curses and angry keyboard mashing, there was a calm, collective hum of concentration and the occasional silent cheers. You were surprised that she’s already so used to the game. For you, it was damn near impossible to not get tilted at all these days, so seeing her being so quiet and focused shocked you for a moment.

“Er, Sombra?” You hesitantly stepped up beside her, looking over to the monitor.

“What do you want?” She’s currently playing as Widowmaker, and goddamn she’s hitting her shots! One headshot after another, you were almost afraid you’d distract her.

“Doing okay back here?”

“Si. Your account’s now at Masters.”

“WHAT?” You ducked your head to look closer to your player border and sure enough, that shining gold icon you’d often see on the streamers you watch is there. Holy shit--

Your jaw dropped as you saw that she’s playing with a well known streamer you watch. “H-how…?”

Sombra looked at you with a smirk and twirled her fingers into her signature greeting. “Quite easy. This game’s security is just horrible. All it took was a little messing around with your computer and a bit of coding and here we go! ” In your disbelief, she lazily moved the mouse towards the doorway of the enemy spawn room, clicked, and instantly headshotted the enemy Mercy.

A 360 degree, no scope. In Masters. From an area nobody expected a widow to shoot at.

You clasped your mouth in horror at the realization as Sombra put up a smug smile, “Now you can be T500 for the first time since Season 4!”

x

Author’s Note: You can read the first few chapters of WAYDIMR here on AO3! Features all of the heroes (besides Sigma and Echo) and some expanded chapters as well!

[thehonestbanana]

It will forever disturb me how Kai has said that he had plans to take jobs in child counselling and teaching gymnastics for school children, knowing now that he's a p*do. He may have disappeared off of the internet, but I hope to god all this catches up to him in his life and he's let nowhere near any children whatsoever. Kai should be in jail at the very least for some of the things he's done, and I hope schools are made aware of his actions in the mean time to protect minors.

Oh I think it’s absolutely disgusting Kai wanted to be a therapist/counselor/ for young troubled teens. Because that’s giving a kid free range of the candy store, giving access to an abuser. Because you know for sure what Kai would do. I didn’t know about the gymnastics one that’s still fucking bad too holy shit. And I was just reminded how Kai was very good at gymnastics and actually had talent and now he’s a stay at home predator probably trying to spend as much as he can with his kids. And oh don’t worry anon, the entire town knows about him and Greg. There was leaks a while back during the time the girls were being interviewed by Chris, Facebook posts/comments talked about them. They said they thought Kai was the “sister picking up the kids” and was shocked that he was the husband and that’s the kids. Police know, neighbors know, even the school knows! The school, Troy’s school for sure probably has been keeping and eye on him for his behavior, then some people emailed the school and I think the principal was made aware of Greg but didn’t click the links to the videos he was sent and I think sent it to the cops. Either way was made aware of it all.

Kai deserves as much punishment as grge should get. Kai it seems is always brushed aside and grge is the main focus. Kai is just as guilty if not more than Greg. He was the one mainly grooming Sarah, he was the bait for her and billie and all these other girls to go into before Greg got to them. Kai had a chance to leave and take care of his children but chose to go back. He continued to try to give Greg a new girl to play with and play with her as well. He put his children in danger. He cared more about his husband than his kids. He ran. He didn’t even try to defend himself he just ran and hid away from the world. Kai is piece of shit and should be talked about more, he wanted to be in a profession where he can continue this abuse with troubled teens and feed them to his sick monsters of a husband.

Kai is human garbage and I hope this follows him for the rest of his life.

[asocier]

( private verse: your name is ) -- three.

          i hear she personally knows the duke.

          her? how did that happen? she’s not even from this district.

          i dont know, but someone saw them talking. said it looked like they were old friends having a chat.

          what did they talk about? 

         who knows? they got the hell out of there before they were caught eavesdropping. 

         haha -- probably for the best. hm, do you think..? 

         think what?

          that they’re gonna go easy on her? 

          gossip. teenagers loved their gossip, didn’t they? the ones she’s met so far during her training were certainly no different. reminiscent of how peers her age acted in school, they traveled in packs, forming tight knit cliques that were impenetrable from the outside unless you somehow proved yourself worthy of an invitation into the group. everyone seemed to be familiar with each other already, a fact alison learned was due to how long they had known each other before her abrupt arrival to the district. from what she understood, some had been training since they were young; others had only been training only for a handful of years. regardless, at this point in their careers, they had all proven themselves to be capable, and it was time for new recruits to do the same.

           new additions weren’t unusual when it came time for recruitment, though it was expected for many to be weeded out in a few months time. judging by the snickers from the others when she first stood alongside them and introduced herself, perhaps they thought she’d be packing her bags very soon. at sixteen, she was amongst the youngest in this round of new recruits, and her small statue coupled with her inexperience seemed to have branded her as an easy target for returning guards-in-training who had a better understanding of what was expected from the veteran rose guards they trained under. 

          but oh, how she was going to prove them all wrong. 

          “wow! imagine being handed something instead of working for it. hm, can’t say that i can relate, actually.” finally turning the corner of the hallway she had been waiting behind, alison makes her presence known to two peers. thinking back on the many introductions she had heard earlier in the week, she could recall that these two came from a long line of rose guards, a notable number of their family members having served various nobles over the course of their lifetimes. it was unclear to her as to whether their training had started early on in their lives, only to culminate in their eventual recruitment into the rose guard after finishing school, or if this was just the beginning of their training. regardless, she wouldn’t be surprised if their connection to their families had aided them in completing their first year of training. 

          startled and indignant by alison’s unexpected appearance, the taller of the two retorted, “didn’t anyone teach you it was rude to eavesdrop?” 

         “didn’t anyone teach you it was rude to talk shit?” an easy comeback as she joined them.

          sucking on his teeth, he turns to his companion, a girl whom alison recalled was quite open about her admiration of the duke and his charms. unsurprising, yet still disappointing, alison thought as she fought back the urge to roll her eyes at the idea of someone joining ayden’s rose guard just to get close to him and vie for his attention. it was a waste of everyone’s time, and it made alison wonder just how much the other relied on her family to get her this far. surely, she wasn’t as hopeless as alison feared if she was able to last this long, but only time would tell, she supposed.

          “how long were you standing there?” with a frown, the other woman expressed her own disapproval of alison’s decision to eavesdrop, though alison was quite certain she was just upset that she had been caught. 

           “long enough to know you’re jealous about my relationship with the duke.” a jab at what everyone was aware of already, a rather smug smile evident on alison’s countenance as she reveled in how the other woman’s brows furrowed deeper. “if it’s any consolation, we’re merely acquaintances.” a partial truth -- time had caused them to drift apart, and it was clear to alison that ayden was no longer the person he was in their childhood. it’d be foolish of her to considering them close friends at this point when so much had changed in the roughly ten years that had passed since their last meeting, though it was comforting to know that he still remembered her. despite that, alison had no intentions of relying on him when it came to securing her place on his rose guard; that was a decision she had made long before she arrived in his district.

          “but how is that possible? you said yourself you graduated from commoner school.”

          “because i did. but how i know the duke is quite frankly none of your business. i suggest you two pay attention to more pressing matters,” and she turns to the taller one, her expression neutral despite the fact she was annoyed by how he had to look down at her to make eye contact, “like how your form is sloppy and quite frankly, makes me question whether you deserve to be called my superior. falling on your ass today really must have been a hit to your ego, huh?” 

         “why i -- ! who are you to judge? like you know what it’s like to be in the rose guard.”

          “i didn’t fall on my ass today, did i?”

          “you don’t have any training under your belt. they were going easy on you because they know you’re a rookie.”

          “says who? who said i don’t have training? not me. i said i didn’t have much formal training.” 

          “what the hell does that mean?”

          with a smile, she merely states: 

          “it means i’m a rogue.” 

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

           that was an illegal move, who the fuck does she think she is? 

           are there really any rules when it comes to this kind of stuff, though?

           who the fuck pulls out a real knife out during sword training? for god’s sake, she shouldn’t even have had that on her person!

          well, at least they stepped in before she could cut you. 

           if anyone asked, she’d give them an answer: no. no, she absolutely did not regret any moment of it. it was their own fault for thinking she was bluffing when her conversation with those two in the hallway was shared around to the various cliques. 

           a rogue? how funny! talking right out of her ass, isn’t she? 

           if they didn’t pay attention to her before, they surely were going to now. previously passed off as an easy target, “nathalie” was starting to earn quite the reputation for herself. it was already surprising to many that she had lasted as long as she did; while many were sent back home for failing to keep up with the rigorous training dictated by the veterans, alison continued to steadily hold onto her position. this alone seemed to have started the shift in attitude amongst her peers, and their opinions only continued to change the more they watched her fight. this latest match seemed to have pushed everyone over the edge. 

            “imagine being so reckless! imagine being so dishonorable! i can’t imagine a noble wanting someone like that on their guard. not only are they a danger, but it ruins the reputation of the guard as a whole.” murmurs of agreement could be heard in response to the one who sounded so exasperated, and there was no effort to hide his anger towards alison. a sore loser, she thought as she stood off to the distance, a bottle of water in hand as she attempted to catch her breath. she had received a rather nasty admonishing post-match, though, she couldn’t help but notice a bit of praise for her quick thinking that underlaid all of the scolding. perhaps that was just her ego interpreting it as such, but she certainly wasn’t going to pass up on any praise. that was something she’d keep to herself, however, for the sake of not adding fuel to the fire ( for now, at least ). 

          “if she keeps at it like this, i wouldn’t be surprised if she got sent home for her behavior in these next upcoming weeks. absolutely unacceptable -- a rogue in the rose guard? whoever heard of such a thing? brutish, impulsive, crude -- a disgrace to the image of the rose guard.”

           “are you done shouting from your soapbox? i’m sure your followers understand how much you hate me already.” her voice had interrupted his endless ranting, and her tone was indicative of how unfazed she was by the complaints directed towards her. she cared very little for the opinions of others; only a handful of opinions mattered, and those of this man were not on her list. “if you’re that upset, you could try taking it up through the ranks until you speak with the duke himself. though, i’m sure he has better things to do than to listen to a resentful trainee.”

          “tch -- don’t sound so brash. you know damn well you’re getting some kind of special treatment. you would have been out of here long ago for your blatant disrespect otherwise.”

          “having a pleasant attitude the duke can appreciate is not special treatment. i just don’t have a stick up my ass like you do. funny --  i’d think that stick would help you hold your own weight, but i guess it just makes you insufferable.” 

          “you little bitch --!” 

          “oho, and now you’ve stooped down to name-calling. very mature of you, very respectful.” with arms crossed over her chest, she looks amused rather than intimidated as her peer crosses towards her, his form stopping in front of her own. 

          “i give respect to those who deserve it. and quite frankly, nathalie, you don’t. you don’t deserve my respect, nor do you deserve your current standing in this guard. you’ve weaseled your way this far, but it’s only a matter of time before someone cuts you down to size.”

          looking up, her features remain at ease as she listened to the vitriol being spat at her. “in due time, perhaps. but that person won’t be you.” 

          “and what makes you so sure of it?”

          “because your form is still, to this day, atrocious.” 

          “as if yours is really any better.” 

          and in a beat, she found herself with her back to the earth, the wind knocked out of her upon sudden impact. with a sheathed sword in his hand, the other had managed to swipe her off her feet, knocking her backwards onto the ground. wide-eyed, alison looks up at the sky above her, and the faces of her peers slowly come into view as their laughter ring in the air. his face came into view right above her field of vision, is gaze directed downwards at her. “you’re always so full of talk, nathalie. speaking as if you know better than the rest of us. you fight like a school child, like the class bully. that won’t get you far in the rose guard.”

         somehow, him getting in the last word before they were called back to attention for the rest of their training was more irritating to her than what was actually said to her. being able to see that smug grin on his face from above struck a nerve in her, and the tittering laughter of the others only added salt to the wound.

         if i count to ten, i could calm down, and then make my way back. if i count to ten, i could turn the other cheek and be the mature one in this situation. if i count to ten ... i’ll let him win.

          fuck that. 

          with the group’s backs turned to her, they don’t realize she’s back on her feet until it’s too late, until the one who criticized her is suddenly yanked backwards and separated from the group. a yelp of pain accompanies his departure, and it’s only then do the others realize that it’s nathalie who has dragged him away by the hair, it’s nathalie who has thrown him down onto the earth, and it’s nathalie who is currently standing over him, her hand on the hilt of the sword at her hip. 

          “y-you can’t draw that! you know we’re not allowed to draw swords outside of matches. you do that, and that’s another strike against you.” his words are rushed in a panic, though it’s clear from the expression on his face that he knows he has a point. she had to acquiesce -- he did have a point. it was a rule that was drilled into each and every one one of them since the first day, and its purpose was to maintain order and safety, especially amongst new recruits. despite knowing this, she finds herself unsheathing the thin blade of her sword anyway, the tip directed at the other’s neck. 

          “i’ll take my strikes. nothing i can’t talk my way out of. after all, you brought this onto yourself.” the blade moves closer to the other’s neck then, the tip resting just above skin. her touch is light, and she truly has no intention to pierce, but considering her unpredictable nature, she knew there would be doubts to her mercy. the fear was evident in his eyes, and the way the air stood still as everyone held their breath was indulgent.

         “you say i fight like a school child, but if you haven’t noticed, that actually has gotten me quite far. your honorable fighting? limited.” a foot raises and rests on the other’s chest then, her grip on her sword never faltering, her gaze never wavering. “honor in topaxi is dying. there is no more honor; anything honorable now is a facade to uphold an image. topaxi fights to gain, to take, to thrive -- there is no fairness. there is no courtesy. so why should i be courteous to those who look down on me?” and she allows just a bit of her weight to be pushed down onto the other’s chest. at this point, she notices that they are alone, the rest of the group having left to resume training. out of the corner of her eye, she can see someone watching them, one of the veterans, no doubt. perhaps they had already yelled at her to drop her weapon. she couldn’t recall; she had turned out the rest of the world for some time. 

          “i fight to survive. i fight to win. i intend to give my all, even if it means stooping low and playing dirty. if that’s how our city fights, then that’s how i’ll fight. why should i play nice?” finally, after what seemed like ages, she withdraws her sword and returns it to its sheath. the figure she had noticed watching made their move then and motioned for her to come with them. with a mischievous smile, she called out to her peer as she walked away from him accompanied by the guard. 

          “take notes for me, yeah? it seems like i’m in for another time out for a while.”