#and yes those are my natural lashes lol

[sailor-aviator]

Was going through some of the photos I took over the summer and decided that I’m not gonna look this good again for a while

[l-in-the-light]

Luffy's and Law's similarities

Because people always talk only about their differences, time to do the uno reverse! You might be surprised how many there are, actually.

Snapping at exactly same thing.

Snapping at same stuff again, because sometimes they share exactly the same brain cell. Even their face expressions are exactly the same in both examples lol.

Whenever Law actually loosens his guard, he reacts in exact same ways as Luffy does.

They both have a very similar experience with their mentors sacrificing themselves for them and same selfblaming reaction. This serves mostly as a prologue because we will compare how child Law and child Luffy behaved.

Both were reckless brats with very wrong self-harming ideas to get what they want.

They hate "dirty tricks" and being lied to. And easily lash out.

Their initial reaction to making fun of someone tripping/being pushed on the floor or making fun of anyone. Also standing there in exact same pose with their fists clenched.

"I will go find a real role model", same vibes here honestly.

"You will pay for this" mentality. They were also both literally thrown which endagered their lives and they both can't believe it's actually happening, that anyone would do something like that. Also bonus points for swearing child Luffy haha.

Both consider some people to be just total scums that deserve punching. Bad guys should be taught a lesson. Law at least managed to land a stab, so 1:0 for him.

This is intriguing. This is the last time Law asks someone for help. And last time Luffy asks someone to help him. Both seem to be convinced "asking for help" caused their loved ones to get hurt, so you will never hear them do it again. The only difference here is Law is asking to help Corazon, while Luffy is the one who needs the help.

Later on Luffy is taught to ask for help by Vivi in Drum Kingdom, but he isn't asking for himself, but to help Nami. Meanwhile Law never again uses the polite words. The most he is capable of is to ask Cavendish "tanomu" which is more like "I'm counting on you".

Both sit in same pose whenever Law isn't trying to impersonate Corazon's style (yes, Law mimicks Cora a lot, also in the way he walks). At least once he slipped and sat in the way he found naturally comfortable instead and it was exactly same way as Luffy's preferred sitting position. What a curious coincidence.

Another funny thing about them is that they both like to wear exactly same type of shoes they used to wear as a child, Luffy the sandals, and Law his dark boots. It's not really that common thing in the manga, for example, Nami and Zoro didn't stick to same type of shoes they used to wear when they were kids.

They also sleep in exactly same position, the infamous T-pose. For comparison, the rest of the Strawhats all have their own different sleeping positions (first from the right is Usopp ofc lol).

They also match each other's pace pretty well. "Let's go, Torao!" and "Ike!" as Law's answer which literally means just "Go!", because Traffy is ready too, no need to stall back.

And finally my favourite:

If Law wasn't under Corazon's "calm" spell, would his laugh sound familiar? Perhaps would it be "shishishi" we know so well? Of course that's the last time Law laughs like that, so we can't compare him laughing when he's an adult. Families in One Piece often share similar laughs, it seems. Unless you're a devil fruit user, that also changes your laughter apparently hm.

There's probably even more similarities between their behaviour, thinking patterns and expressions than I managed to find. I find it suspicious considering those two did not grow up together, so why are they so similar when they're both children?

I dunno if whole D. clan is an actual family, but I think Law and Luffy definitely had a shared ancestor and probably not that far in the past. Very curious since they're from East Blue and North Blue, the two seas mentioned to be the hardest to travel from one another.

Many people speculated Dragon isn't related to Garp or Luffy because they don't really look that much alike, but if you compare Monkey, Trafalgar and Gol family members together you can start to see some pattern emerging: they all have naturally black ruffled hair Potter-family style (you're welcome for that comparison you never wanted to notice and now you can't unsee haha). I wonder if Joyboy will also be revealed of sporting similar style of hair.

[dilatorywriting]

Pity Party

Gender Neutral Reader x Malleus Draconia Word Count: 3.3k

Summary: 'I'm going to do it,' you thought triumphantly. 'I'm going to invite Malleus Draconia to the next Unbirthday Party as my date.' And naturally, the Universe in all its infinite omnipotence, went 'lol bet.'

A/N: A very fun commission for the lovely @toast-tales

“Heartslaybul is having another one of their Unbirthday Parties this Friday,” you said, a bit stilted but enthusiastic nevertheless. “And I was thinking—well, it was just a thought! But! Maybe it’d be nice if we, y’know, went together?” You finished, looking up from beneath your lashes at the looming figure before you.

The Gargoyle, naturally, did not respond. A sound rejection if ever there was one.

But! That attempt had sounded really good, hadn’t it? Totally natural and everything! Not a single stutter, fainting episode, or bought of nervous vomiting to be seen!

“Okay,” you muttered, pacing back and forth as you diligently fought the urge to ring your hands. “Okay, okay, okay. I can do this. It’s just, like, two sentences—Three? Was that three?—Doesn’t matter! Focus! It’s not that hard!”

You circled and circled around the alcove. It was a familiar little corner, for all that you’d only ever seen it in the dark of the evening. This was where you’d meet up with Malleus for your nighttime rendezvous. Normally you didn’t bother popping by for at least another hour, but you needed all the practice you could get. And while, yes, the stone carvings overhead were hardly the best conversational partners, it was easier to practice your totally smooth pickup skills on their emotionless faces than, like, Grim. Or God forbid, Ace and Deuce. 

It was only Malleus, you reassured yourself yet again—your kindly, awkward, fey friend with the social awareness of a two-centuries-old potato. It was one thing to know, or at least assume, that he’d be sweet enough to take your offer in stride. It was another entirely to imagine the Briar Prince’s blank ass face saying something genuinely well-intentioned but harsh like ‘that doesn’t sound like a particularly riveting way to spend my afternoon,’ and immediately crushing your soul into itty bitty bite-sized pieces. It was an all too easy scene to picture, as you’d done at least a hundred times since your heart had set itself on its intentions.

You just—maybe just a bit more time. Yes. One more round of practice (perhaps two), and then you’d be ready. Like the Overblots, or whatever. Those hardly phased you at all anymore! It only took repetitive, mind rending, exposure therapy. That would do it. You just needed the teeniest bit more time to—

“Ah—Child of Man. I wasn’t expecting to see you here so earl—”

You jolted back with a truly heinous squawk and wheeled gracelessly into the stone pillar at your rear. You weren’t exactly a force of nature or anything, but the column hadn’t looked all that stable to begin with. So your frantic flailing took its toll, and the great, rock, beam creaked and fell. The Gargoyle perched atop it (the very one you’d been propositioning for the past half hour or so) crashed to the ground with an echoing BOOM and a cloud of debris fit to choke an elephant.

The poor thing lay in the dirt in pieces, its regal countenance split right down the middle. And Malleus Draconia, noted aficionado of all things carved from stone, looked two steps away from having an actual aneurism. So you hurriedly buried your invitation back in the depths of your brain and quickly went about carrying out the inanimate-object-equivalent of CPR.

“I think I have some super glue back in Ramshackle,” you offered. Even though you knew well enough that he could probably wave his hand and undo the entire thing. But it was the thought that counted, right?

“Supered Glue?” Malleus parroted, his neon eyes darting back and forth between you and the shattered gargoyle like you’d just offered him some mystical panacea. You nodded along and scuttled off in the direction of your dilapidated dorm.

‘Tomorrow,’ you promised yourself, as you rifled through your miscellaneous utilities drawer, tossing around rolls of tape and wads of too-thin elastic bands. ‘Tomorrow I’ll ask him.’

.

.

The next morning, you sat in Potion’s Class with the tacky remnants of last night’s nonsense dried along your fingertips. You sneezed and something ground unpleasantly behind your ear. You reached up to pluck a stray bit of gravel from your hair and flicked it aside.

Normally you tried to give Crewel’s lectures the entirety of your focus, primarily because you respected the man and wanted him to like you. And also, y’know, from the very rational standpoint of not wanting to lose your eyebrows or dignity when an incorrectly brewed potion exploded in your face. But today you were stuck in the clouds, replaying scenario after scenario and wondering what your next step in the whole ‘Ask The Crowned Prince of An Entire Nation Out to Lunch’ situation should be.

Your neck was itching again, and you scrubbed around mindlessly before pulling out another bit of gargoyle debris and tossing it. It bounced harmlessly off Jack’s shoulder.

“Did you get all that?” Your beastman friend asked, beginning the tedious process of organizing your group workstation for the day.

“Oh? Yes. Of course,” you nodded, not having heard a single word of what was going on. You grabbed your little instructions pamphlet for the day and made your way towards your own stool.

Jack turned and narrowed his yellow eyes at you in a way that clearly let you know that that superhuman schnoz of his had sniffed out your bullshit a mile away, but you generally had a better track record than the rest of the first years, so thankfully he let it slide.

Without further ado, you went about heating, and mixing, and tempering. And by the end, the pair of you had a lovely, silver, concoction that popped and fizzled like cola. Professor Crewel paused in his rounds of the rows to stare into your cauldron with an impassive sort of look that could have meant anything from ‘Content’ to ‘Outright Murder.’ Your eyes hastily flickered around the room, but everyone else’s potions looked liked Mercury Sprite too, so you couldn’t have been in too much trouble. You dipped the testing spoon into one of the bubbliest bits and brought it to your mouth to take a teeny sip. It tasted alright, and you smacked your lips as you tried to identify the flavor.

“Well?” The professor droned, crossing his arms over his chest in a fashion that looked entirely unimpressed. “How is it?”

You opened your mouth to reply and nothing came out but static. Literal static. Like you were some overloaded, old, plug—spitting sparks and whiny, high-pitched, nonsense that was most definitely an indication of some sort of fire risk.

Crewel hummed in that self-satisfied sort of way of his—the sort that was only mastered by those who were in the habit of being proven right during every, single, catastrophe.

“The Tickled Tongue recipe is fairly straightforward, you see,” he explained, stepping closer with a languid swishswish of his large overcoat. “It’s difficult to alter without any remarkable change or err. However,” he droned, “it is incredibly similar to the Stone Tongued Elixir. Do you know what the one, unique, ingredient in that brew is in comparison to our assigned project today, Prefect?”

You sighed fuzz.

“Stone,” he said, reaching out to pluck another bit of gravel from your hair.

Crewel brushed his hands against his vest and you debated if it’d be worth it to try jumping out of the window and escape while you still had at least some face.

“I’ve been kind enough to look the other way when you break curfew so that you may continue your… nightly excursions with a certain upperclassman,” he droned, and that open window was looking even more tempting. “But please at least give me the courtesy of cleaning up the evidence before attending my class in the mornings, yes?”

“Yes, sir,” you tried to say, but it just sounded like a busted landline.

.

.

“Hello, Child of Man,” Malleus beamed, his lips curling pleasantly at the corners. His usual trio were flanking his hind, all watching with varying degrees of interest that ranged from sharp curiosity (Lilia) to outright hostility (Sebek).  “Would you care to accompany me for lunch?”

You opened your mouth and all that came out was the fucking AOL dial tone.

Lilia doubled over laughing and Malleus tilted his head at you like a dog listening to a whistle tone.

“Pardon?” He blinked.

“BZZZZZZ,” you said, miserable, and Lilia just laughed harder.

.

.

‘Two days left,’ you reminded yourself miserably. You had just under forty-eight wretched hours to not only complete your initial Date Objective, but also somehow do that whole thing while making up for the ego-crushing failures of your first two failures.  

There was a Spelldrive match after classes today—another attempt for Leona to try and get one up on Malleus’s ‘Hall of Fame Worthy’ record before the pair of them aged out of the competition. And maybe that would be perfect! That was always sort of a Thing in teen movies, right? The big, heart wrenching, confession delivered on the field of whatever sport was in season. The fated couple lit all prettily beneath the glaring overhead lights and artfully drenched in a very timely shower of rain. This whole situation was practically writing itself.

So you tucked yourself into a warm, cozy, sweater fit for the breezy day and inevitable aesthetic downpour, and went to sit out in the stands. Which was your first mistake, because the match was being held on Savanaclaw’s practice field. So immediately you could feel sweat pooling along your lower back and along your brow as the magical, overhead, sunshine did its best to seer the flesh right off your bones. Malleus moved to step out onto the field and you went to wave at him enthusiastically, only to catch sight of the giant pit stains steeped into your stupid sweater. The dark spots opened up like the gaping maw on a beast, determined to derive its entire sustenance from your embarrassment alone. You clamped your arms back down to your sides and immediately began questioning the universe at large. Were you a murderer in a past life? Someone who scammed old ladies out of their pensions? What other reason could there be for the entire fucking cosmos to just perpetually go ‘hey, how about we make things worse.’

The game was probably going well or something, but you were swimming in so much swampy body heat at this point that you were starting to get dizzy.

With a sigh, you pulled the cute, wool, deathtrap over your head and tossed it aside—ruffling your sweat sticky hair for good measure to try and get some airflow going. It wasn’t the most dignified look or whatever, sitting there in only the thin cotton undershirt of your uniform and half drowned in your own secretions, but at least you weren’t in imminent danger of dying of heat stroke anymore. You leaned back on your elbows with another much more contented sigh and gave yourself a moment to let the last of that hot nausea settle.

“Oi! You horned bastard! Watch where you’re—”

There was a swirl of spitting green sparks and you looked back out onto the field just in time to get absolutely decimated by a Spelldrive disc to the face.

.

.

“He really didn’t mean it,” Lilia said, but he was laughing so hard into his fist that it was hard to make out anything beyond merry gurgling. “In fact, he’s really very upset about the whole thing.”

You stared blankly at the off-white walls of the infirmary, wondering how it was possible for one person’s luck to be this bad.

“Where is he?” you asked. Your tongue felt thick and sluggish.

“I don’t think he would appreciate me saying that he was off hiding—pouting, even,” the fey tutted, floating up to sit cross-legged at your eyelevel. “But I don’t believe there’s a much more accurate way of putting it.”

“Why would he be hiding?” you trudged forward again, mouth still entirely uncooperative. “I wanted to ask him something,” you admitted, chronically dejected and acutely brain damaged.

“Did you now?” Lilia grinned, something mischievous and far too knowing lighting his wine-red eyes.

You nodded. You could feel the tug of the bandages around your forehead.

“Well, I’ll ask that you be patient with him,” he sighed fondly, reaching out to pat your cheek. “For all his years, our Prince is still a bit stunted.”

“Oh, please! He’s six and a half feet tall!” you complained.

Lilia laughed again, doubling over in the air and doing a full roll about—like a pill bug.

“Oh, dear,” he snickered, wiping a tear from his eye as he straightened back out to lounge upside down by one of the rafters. “You do deserve each other.”

.

.

This was it. The final countdown. Friday.

The Unbirthday Party was this afternoon, and with God and the Heavens as your witness, you would be dragging Malleus Draconia there with you if it was the last thing you did.

‘The hardest part is supposed to be the rejection,’ you thought bitterly. ‘Not that crap leading up to it. This is bullshit. I want a refund.’

But no, if the Universe was going to be so cruel to you, then you were just going to have to be needlessly paranoid and prepared in advance. You set aside two spare sets of clothing and an umbrella. You packed an entire feast’s worth of provisions in case a fucking hole decided to open up in the ground or something and trap you in a cave for a week. You scribbled a little ‘Would you please go with me to the Unbirthday Party today’ on not one, or two, but three separate notes. Each in a different pocket. And laminated. And, perhaps most daring of all, you walked up to Ace and Deuce that morning with a stiff upper lip and an even stiffer spine.

“I’m going to ask Tsunotarou to come to the Unbirthday Party today,” you told them, fighting the urge to twist your hands into your jacket sleeves.

“What?” Ace choked, just as Deuce stepped in to clobber him over the back of the head and tell you very sweetly that he was sure that the House Warden would appreciate that very much.

“You must like him a lot,” your blue haired friend said, polite but clearly also at least a little unnerved.

“Yeah,” you sighed miserably, thinking of each and every horrible failure as the world at large fought your stupid affections at every turn. “I guess I do.”

So you went about your day like a soldier trudging through a warzone—always at the ready for something unknowable to fuck you over yet again. You looked twice around every corner, always let someone else walk through a doorway first, immediately spritzed Azul in the face with a spray bottle when he tried to start a conversation. It wasn’t paranoia when you knew the universe was out to get you.

The school day was coming to an end and so far you’d managed to avoid any catastrophes. When you caught sight Malleus off in the distance, you had to fight down the sudden swell of dueling panic and hope that blocked off your throat. You made eye contact with the fey prince from across the near empty corridor and he seemed to straighten. You took a deep breath and took one step forward, then another.

“Tsunotarou!” you called cheerfully. “I was wondering if you—”

“FIRE!” Crowley wailed, careening around the corner with all the urgency of someone who very much genuinely cared about the safety of their school and all its inhabitants. Which was outright ridiculous. His glowing, golden, eyes locked on you like you’d been the target of this caterwauling all along, and you wanted to scream. “Ah! My most darling and favorite of Prefects! You have to help! There’s a fire in—”

“No,” you snarled, like some great monster of old. And you watched the Headmaster pale beneath his bird mask. You reached out to pat his shoulder with a pleasantly threatening thump. thump. thump. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to sort it out on your own, sir. Have a lovely afternoon!”

And before you could chicken out, or something else could happen—like a tornado ripping the entire school up at its base and flinging you into Oz—you rushed forward and latched onto Malleus’s sleeve with a wide, panicked, sort of look in your eyes. Hisown eyes went round and wide, but he didn’t pull away, so step one complete.

“Please come to Heartslaybul’s Unbirthday Party with me!” You entreated. “As my date! With me! Together!” you word vomited, clutching at his sleeve even tighter.

“Oh,” Malleus breathed—those sharp, reptilian, pupils of his jumping into something soft and huge that swallowed the green of his irises in a sea of black. A pale, rose, pink crept along the tips of his pointed ears and you could feel your own cheeks blazing like a bonfire.

“Yup,” you nodded lamely, realizing you were still clutching his hand like a starving leper.

“Lilia had mentioned that you might…” he trailed off, gaze sliding to your fingers tangled beside his. “I hadn’t thought that—well…” He cleared his throat and stood to his full height with a puff that almost looked prideful. “Nevertheless,” he grinned, almost shy, and offered you his arm. “Shall we?”

You were going to die. Keel over. That would be the cosmos’s final strike against you. But though your heart beat like a rapid drum in your chest, you didn’t actually collapse in cardiac arrest. Your blood felt warm, but not with fever. It was… You’d actually done it!

You fought the urge to squeal and instead ducked excitedly against Malleus’s side with a secret little fist bump. His arm wound snuggly through yours and you were still too high on the thrill of victory to even consider being embarrassed about it.

“It may surprise you to know,” he said as you walked together towards the Queen of Heart’s Dormitory. “That I actually was attempting to ask something similar of you for this past week as well.”

“Really?” you gaped.

He nodded. “But it seemed as though fate itself was conspiring against me. The first evening went poorly, and then the next day you’d been cursed into silence. And you even ended up injured during one of my attempts.”

“The Spelldrive disc?” you blinked.

“Unfortunately,” Malleus sighed, leading you towards the familiar rose gardens. Which were lovely as always, and perfectly well painted for the afternoon’s festivities, and—

And… also on fire.

“Well what do you know…” you mumbled as you watched a furious Riddle chase a screeching Ace through the flaming fields. Trey had his head in his hands. Cater was filming the whole thing with an artful smear of ash drawn across his cheek.

Malleus made a low rumble of discontentment and you immediately swung the pair of you around to start heading back towards the Mirror Chamber.

“Not to worry!” you beamed, pointedly jostling the full picnic lunch in your bag. Sure, it hadn’t ended up being a gaping hole that had dragged you straight into the bowels of the abyss, but hey. Hellfire was hellfire. “I came prepared.”

“So did I,” Malleus smirked, the points of his canines peaking out of his lower lip. He twisted his fingers and the pair of you were surrounded in puffs of floating, sparkling, green lights.

And despite the Universe technically, yet again, having come out on top and flipped you and your date the proverbial middle finger, you couldn’t find it in yourself to be too upset at all.

.

.

[papil0nglegs]

Sweet n’ Sour 👛 (pt.2)

Tf2 x “nice”Reader

A/n: Here’s pt.1 if you don’t know what this fic is abt, ik I said I was going to do my own fic after the last one I made but I couldn’t think of anything sooo I’m just doing this. I might do a ‘tf2 x Snooki!Reader’ cuz I just started watching jersey shore and I love it (also you could tell I put my whole heart and ass into snipers section)

warnings: Slut shaming, Reader and Sniper banging, enemies to lovers, hatefuck (sorry this one’s wild)

Pyro

Pyro quickly took a liking to you because of your girly nature, he loved your style

He’s only ever been on your good side, painting nails reading magazines gossiping etc.

He’s such a girls man. No, not a ladies man, a girls man

“Holy fuck! Snooki got arrested”

“Mm mffmm mmm?”

*from jersey shore??

“Yes from jersey shore!!”

Of course you two are duos on the battlefield, skipping happily around the blu teams base as it burns down

Def owns one of those heart friendship necklaces

About him being a girls man, he always makes sure you look good on the battlefield

Loves picking out outfits with you and always carries around something he knows you’ll forget

“Shit! I forgot to put on lipgloss..”

“Mmm mmphm mm?”

*here, cherry bomb right?

“gasp Omg I love you so much 💕”

You and Pyro would have the loving best friend relationship, kissing each others cheek and shit

Doing makeup on mask>>>>

Imagine the fake lashes along w the blush 😭 he loves it

lol put big anime girl eyes on him pls

“You’re fucking chewing right now P.”

“mmm mm!!!”

*thank you!!

Sniper

He hated you when he first saw you omg. Sniper is introverted cuz he got bullied and school, so now he automatically thinks any girl with even a slightly feminine style is bitchy

To be fair you were.. to him

Srry but he got annoyed with you so fast, it started a hefty rivalry between you and snipes

“Where’s princess prissy?”

“Uhm I know you’re not talking about me, at least I actually go down there to fight unlike you in the sidelines.”

It’s always something with you guys istg

He has to admit (but won’t) , he loves watching you destroy the enemy team the way you do from afar. Blood and guts getting in your hair and pretty face. Whenever you catch him staring at you you always give him the finger, makes him chuckle despite how much he ‘hates’ you

Sometimes he has to leave more than piss in his jars

He still kept the enemy streak but it was just to hide his feelings

The mercs get so sick of your guys’s attitude, they practically begged Miss Pauling to send you and sniper off to a mission so they can get a break. She obliged

“Yeah I’m not working with him, sorry! I’d rather go back to juvie than go sleep in his musty van.”

“Bonzy, wouldn’t want to smell your bloody strong perfume all over me van ya whore.”

“I’d rather smell like strong perfume than someone who hangs around piss jars and has coffee breath!!”

Miss Pauling immediately understood why the mercs wanted you guys to go away. And so she forced you to stay in his ‘musty van’ for a week so that you both can go assassinate god knows who. Safe to say it wasn’t an easy trip.

“Ay, I’m gonna go hunt for dinner, you comin’?

“Why the fuck would I wanna go with you?? Bye.”

damn, you didn’t have to end him like that 😭

You felt something when this bitch came back with a 14ft alligator, dragging it by the tail back to the van. You bit your lip staring at him as he wiped the sweat from his forehead

You asked him to hook up, you tried to be subtle but it just turned out uneasy to say the least

“Hey I liked the way you um.. dragged that crocodile back there”

“Chuckle it was a alligator, Sheila”

“Of course you know the difference..”

You blushed, along with him, laughing awkwardly, biting your pink painted thumbnail while he scratched the back of his neck

Cut to you guys waking up naked in his bed all sweaty

Hate fucking or not, now instead of the mercs being annoyed of you hating each other too much, they hate how much you love each other

“Cmon guys not in the goddamn break room..”

“Sorry, I just love his black coffee breath”

“And I love the smell of the perfume I got ya”

“God I fucking hate it when you use Australian slang..”

You still did your thing in the break room

Spy

He has so much hate in his heart for you, and it shows

The difference between him and sniper is that he doesn’t like ANYTHING about you, especially the way you fight

Sure it surprised him when you showed off how you fought, but he didn’t take a liking to it

While trying to sneak up on an enemy sniper, you immediately bashed their head in with your pink hammer. He glared at you so hard

“😐”

“What shitface?? Say something. I got impatient you were taking too long.”

This guy wants nothing to do with you, if you get assigned to a mission together he’ll have his way to sneak out of it.

In the expiration date short you wrote

Fuck you <3

On the paper he handed to everyone along with a drawing of a middle finger for the bucket thing he did

How did he know it was you? You made the hand look exactly like yours, acrylic nails and all.

You and scout started giggling like school girls

“..would anyone else like to insult me??”

soldier slowly raising his hand

Posting on your story in the middle of a battle is such a good way to mess with him, just doing the peace sign while he stays frustrated in the background

‘This old fuck really expects me to kill this big bitch alone 😹😹 Lol he fucking wishes, anyways I’m prob gonna get in trouble bcuz of this but IDRC 💜 #ellieandmasonhouse’

He wants to kill you so bad, sadly you’re one of the most useful mercs on the team. But if you weren’t he’d be so down to kill you

[dykesynthezoid]

Love thinking about Armand’s calculated, cold anger, he is so special to me… ppl have rightly pointed out that he doesn’t appear to “lose control” in the same way Lestat does, that there’s something very deliberate and meticulous about the way he handles those emotions.

And I think it’s hard to express, as someone who also handles emotions in a similar way (although waaaaay healthier and less destructively, lol, thank god), where that line between in control and out of control actually is. Where the anger goes from hot to cold. How deliberate the harm is.

Like, my anger is very calculating. I know what it feels like to be fighting with someone and to feel my mind sort of— pushing at weak spots. To be dialing in on exactly the most devastating thing to say, bc in the moment I am feeling so hurt that some part of my brain, even against my will, has started piecing together how to do the most harm back.

And like. Luckily I’m an emotionally mature enough person that I know if I get to that point, I should a. Not fucking say what I’m thinking and b. Just leave, literally get away, before I say something I’ll regret on impulse. But Armand is not working with the tools I have, lol.

The line of how conscious that calculation actually is can be really interesting. Armand doesn’t appear to just be lashing out for the sake of it— But in a way, he is? It’s just all filtered through this very meticulous lens, this incredibly tight grip he has on himself. It’s all so natural to him— The harm (in this episode!) is deliberate, yes, in that at least some part of him means to do harm; but the calculation is likely occurring to an extent without him even thinking about it. Bc it’s just how his brain works.

And he is also so clearly Activated throughout the entire thing; like he is very much in a state of reactivity. He isn’t thinking clearly. His nervous system is on the fritz. It’s just his version of that still appears very controlled from the outside, because he’s had to become so good at controlling himself and masking his responses.

(There also are probably some layers of dissociation happening there! Like, structurally, in his brain. It seems like he’s definitely got different Emotional Parts locked off from one another.)

[ruthlesslistener]

Could you talk about the Shade Lord? Especially the apologist part, what needs apologising (genuine question)?

Oh the apologist part is just me joking about how I'd defend LOS no matter what they do, not necessarily because they actually did anything bad lol. And if they did, I'd fight for them all the same bc they're my little meow-meow and some murders are funny (there's a reason why my Destiny 2 sideblog is ahamkara-apologist, even though the Ahamkara as a race are vastly more problematic than the LOS- they're space dragons and I love them). Ofc, there's always those people who think that the Lord of Shades is some kind of evil entity unleashed by Ghost that'll bring about the ruin of Hallownest twice over (usually people who don't realize that the Lord of Shades is CONTROLLED by Ghost- it's the shades of all the dead vessels with Ghost as its Focus), but mostly its just bc I adore them. Though it does have the added bonus of pointing out that while I like the Pale King and the Radiance as characters, I'm ultimately sympathetic to the vessels the most, which is a core point in my ramblings that I fear often gets lost, especially when I get angry about the 'PK is a colonizer and the moth tribes/Radi were the natives he genocided take'- because idgaf about people hating PK, what I hate is how incorrect that was AS WELL AS how it ignores the fact that the Void Civilization came before the Radiance did, which always seems to be conveniently forgotten or brushed over in those arguments. The fact of the matter is that Radi and PK aren't the 'secret heroes' no matter how you spin it, they're monsters that abused, tortured, and manipulated the voidborn- aka Ghost, their siblings, and (maybe) those that used to worship their element. Sympathetic monsters, yes, monsters who are caught in a tragedy, but still monsters. It's the Void that's the victim, and I stand by that in its entirety. Every act of retribution was justified. Even them killing Godseeker- which is the argument some people use for them being evil- because why shouldn't they? She was awful to them, cruel and rude and scornful just like the Pale King was cruel and the Radiance was hateful. SHE was the reason why the Radiance grew in power to become Absolute Radiance. She deserved what she got, 100%. Ghost and their siblings endured a lifetime of torment from the moment they were hatched, they deserve EVERY little scrap of retribution they get- and they aren't monsters for lashing out at the ones who caused the pain in the first place. It's all justifiable

(Also, neither PK nor Radi are my favs. Hollow is, with their relationship to their siblings [specifically Hornet] being my fav dynamic. I only like to explore PK and Radi in depth because of their impact on Hollow's life. So needless to say I'm a void stan through and through, and since the Lord of Shades is all of them, it fits)

As for the Lord of Shades themselves! I think I already sort of covered why I love them so much just in the first two paragraphs- they are all the shades of the dead vessels poured into one entity, with Ghost as the Focus, and thus the Lord of Shades is in essence Ghost (and co, minus Hollow probably) in their ascendant form, as a true Higher Being. Which is in of itself a monumental feat for something that was hatched to die, a godling denied their deific status by beings who could not understand them as anything but death. They're vengence and defiance made manifest, and they were reformed into the shape they are now because they looked into the eyes of their creators and tormenters and said no more. The first step towards their creation, the catalyst for their metamorphasis, was turning the Kingsoul into the Voidheart- very literally rejecting the Pale King's edict and reforming it into a beacon of their own power, accepting their nature and defying their maker. They looked at the very soul of someone who had cast their eggs into the dark sea below, who hatched them into a graveyard and watched them die in the millions, who made them to be slaughtered for his own cause because he thought they as the voidborn were less than alive- and they said 'I reject you. I reject what you said to me. I reject what you represent. I reject your vision, the way you made me to be. I will forge my own path. I will make my own way. I will accept what I am and I will show you right now that I am alive, I am here, I am not heartless and I am not thoughtless. I am what I am. I am the Void. And I will do what I must to save the family that you left behind.'

AND THEY DID IT FOR THE LOVE OF THEIR SIBLING, they did it for the love of the Hollow Knight, who let them fall and left them to die when they were both just hatchlings, who they had no obligation to save and yet rushed back to do so anyways. And they soldiered on through impossible odds, through endless fights in life and dream all while a spiteful, hateful creature hissed at their worthlessness and empowered their worst enemy, so that they could destroy the Radiance in her entirety, before she could be brought back at the peak of her power. The entire REASON that they could become the Lord of Shades in the first place and WHY they achieved that metamorphasis was for the love of their family- and for a vengence long-overdue, to say 'enough, enough!' and end the torment that plagued their kind for so long for no other reason than the selfishness of other gods. Dream No More was a beautiful ending that encapsulated the vessels finally getting peace, but I love the Embrace the Void ending because to me it feels like Ghost (and the other vessels) are reclaiming what was rightfully theirs, by force, from the entities who subjugated them for so long, and taking their rightful place as the major god of Hallownest- a birthright stolen from them by the Radiance, and denied to them by the Pale Gods.

(Also you can very easily imagine the LOS as Ghost being essentially a streamer with the other vessels being their chat and I love that sm. The-Many-Who-Are-One. My beloveds)

So yeah, that's why I'm the Shade Lord apologist. I fucking love them. 1000000/10 god

[thirstyformoreheizuha]

I've been thinking for a while that Kazuha might actually be a really damn good cop if she ever decides to join the police forces. But I kept it off since most of the reasoning in my head was a result of overthinking and overanalyzing her personality and such (lol), and there wasn't much in canon that might push her into it.

BUT AFTER KNOWING HER MOM USED TO BE A DAMN GOOD COP AS WELL, BABY I'M NO LONGER HOLDING BACK.

My headcannon is that initially, she would work in the same police department as Heiji, I don't know what that unit is called, but its the one that deals with murders, violence, kidnapping, bla bla bla. Basically the same department that officers Sato, Takagi, Shiratori, Chiba, Otaki, and literally all the police officers we always meet work in.

However, after a while, a new sub-unit was established under that division : the Special Victims Unit (SVU). The SVU is a unit that deals with specifically, sexual crimes.

*yes this is a result of binge-watching Law & Order: SVU

* I tried to do a brief research on the Japanese actual police force, but I couldn't find a specific department that deals exclusively with sexual crimes

*yes this is fiction. I'm not even sure if the US police force has a specific unit for it.

The SVU is usually called to handle a case when they suspect that a case might have elements of a sexual crime. It ranges from abuse, non-consensual intercourse, pedophiles, harassment, online or offline blackmail. (Literally, just any horrible crime involving sex that you can imagine, regardless of age and gender)

When the SVU was newly established, those who were interested couldn't submit an application. Instead, the 5-8 members were carefully hand-selected.

And my headcannon, is that Kazuha would be a perfect member of this unit. These are a few reasons why:

1. Kazuha is good with kids. She's soft and patient with them. Which is necessary because kids unfortunately do become victims of sexual crimes. These kids wouldn't want to be approached by a rough scary police asking them questions, rather, a soft, soothing and patient officer who makes them feel safe.

2. Similar to above, she makes even adult victims feel safe. Especially female victims who are traumatized and could barely remain coherent as they try to recount everything to help police investigation.

3. Despite being soft with the victims, she is the total opposite with the suspects. Her tomboy-ish personality really fires up when she interrogates them, being especially brutal to neglectful and irresponsible parents who let their kids be harmed until that extent. (kay tbh in the early days, she was a tomboy. But I don't see her as one in the newer episodes at all, but we'll go with it) She's headstrong and doesn't back away from being rough to those who deserve it.

4. She's damn smart. She might not be as sharp as Heiji, but in cases involving sexual crimes, it's never as simple as finding evidence from observing the crime scenes and making the murderer admits it out of some pure old revenge (DC's cases are actually so PG when you think about it). These criminals are naturally sick in the head, and it's never direct with them. It might even take days before they could form a proper case against the suspects.

5. Her quick thinking with dealing with these sorts of criminals (eg. the sock+rocks in Movie 7) is often what saves the victims (and even herself sometimes) from further harm. Especially when dealing with sex traffickers, or serial rap*st.

6. Her patience is especially important during court hearings. Especially when it's a r*pe case, it's a game of who vs who is telling the truth. Her patience stops herself from lashing out at the suspect for blatantly twisting his words in court to make the victim look at fault. Oftentimes, her presence does become a source of strength for the victims who are fighting a legal battle against their perpetrators. She holds their hands when they look like they needed it, and always gives comforting words when it seems like they were about to lose the case.

7. We know from her karuta card training that Kazuha has good mental fortitude. Which is precisely, definitely, important when dealing with SVU cases. Seeing little children subject to sexual abuse, their innocence and hope in the world gone after being tormented. Women being taken advantage off by someone they trusted. Or being targeted simply for their genders. She does feel emotionally exhausted at one point after seeing such violence back to back, but nevertheless, she is able to pick herself back up and on to the next case.

So yeah, definitely more to come with this idea. We'll see.

[paperhats-and-evil-schemes]

Lovestarved (Rewrite)

Flug couldn’t believe it. Defying all of his expectations, Black Hat actually prevented him from hurting his friends. Not only that, but kept his secret from being exposed. He had been so certain that the eldritch wanted [...], but now, with every manipulative and cruel assumption Flug had made being tossed out the window, he had no idea what to think anymore. When he next spoke, his voice was but a meek stutter. “Th-Thank you, sir...” “’Thank you’?” Black Hat repeated, a ghostly twitch of annoyance betraying his smile for just a moment. “What have I told you, Flug? Your… gratitude…” That last word was uttered with notable disgust, “… is gravely misplaced. I only—“ He was stunned into silence when Flug unexpectedly clutched his hand. “You stopped me from hurting them.” The scientist spoke more firmly in spite of how his own hands trembled. Flug dared not make eye contact, instead staring directly at the floor. “Thank you.” He had almost expected to get lashed out at or shouted at for grabbing Black Hat so suddenly, and when he realized his mistake, he immediately let go… but Black Hat did neither of those things. He just stared, expression completely blank to the point of almost being comical, at where Flug had touched him. That doesn’t happen. People don’t touch him. He touches people. On his terms. After the initial confusion wore off, his cold and calculative eyes pierced right through Flug. “… Well.” He finally spoke, flat-toned, “You can thank me by getting rid of those pests outside.”

Okay look I know the White Hat fic’s been a long time coming and I’m definitely still working on it, but oh my god the complete and utter abomination that was the original Lovestarved fic was driving me completely insane, I HAD to give it a revamp for my own peace of mind lmfao, my GOD, IT WAS SO BAD YOU GUYS IDC WHAT YOU SAY I'M SORRY SZTEFA BUT YOU'RE W R O N G LMAO

So anyway, have the not-perfect-but-still-very-much-improved fanfic of a Monster!Flug x BH slowburn in which these idiots keep idioting around each other 24/7 until things happen lol (Btw one of my mutuals recently got instabanned for merely mentioning a certain phrase, so since I’m not sure how tumblr is deciding to auto-flag posts and I don’t wanna go through the headache of having to get my account reactivated again, this post is only the first half of the fic (the safe portion lol) and then there’ll be a link to the AO3 version at the bottom of this post for when things start to get on the risqué side.)

And of course, this fic series is based on this wonderful fic right here!

Previous works in chronological order: Hired, Don’t Try to Run, Lovestarved, Trial & Trust, Deeper Than Skin, A Small Solace, In Sickness and in Health, Benefit of the Doubt, Just Another Word I Never Learned to Pronounce, Merry (Late) Christmas, Compromise

Flug had never intended for this to happen.

Never in a million years had he planned on revealing this part of him to anybody , let alone Black Hat himself. Sadly, it’s not easy to sweep the unfortunate incident of devouring a test subject right in front of him under the rug. Then again, given his boss’s nature of being able to slip into any room unnoticed, perhaps Flug should’ve prepared for such an inevitable possibility. 

Oh well. Too little, too late, as some might say. At least Black Hat hadn’t reacted as negatively as Flug thought he might. On the contrary, in fact, Black Hat seemed to find Flug’s otherworldly nature quite amusing. Yet another reaction that his scientist perhaps should’ve expected to some extent. 

What he never could’ve expected was the change in attitude, however.

Yes, ever since that day, Black Hat had been treating him differently. It was subtle enough that any bystander likely wouldn’t notice a difference in their relationship. But Flug definitely took notice, especially in how his superior spoke to him.

He was still his usual brash, hostile self, but every once in a while, sprinkled in between whatever myriad of scathing remarks and scoldings Flug would face on any given day (and even those had lessened significantly), Black Hat would sometimes praise him. The first time Flug heard the words “Good work” out of his boss’s mouth, he thought he’d been hallucinating, as that explanation seemed far more likely.

Furthermore, Black Hat continued to surprise Flug by not broadcasting his secret to the rest of the household. He’d been certain that his boss would’ve gotten a kick out of airing his dirty laundry for everyone to see, if only for the sole reason that Flug gravely didn’t want that. Yet, Black Hat held back. Didn��t speak a word about it to 5.0.5. or Demencia. Not that Flug would risk getting too comfortable in that regard, of course. Whatever Black Hat’s motivations may have been, it definitely wasn’t coming out of a place of respect for Flug’s privacy. Knowing his boss, he was probably just waiting for either of their housemates to walk in on him devouring someone so he could indulge in whatever chaos might unfold. Or perhaps there was some other reason that Flug hadn’t considered. He certainly knew better than to try and guess what Black Hat was thinking, regardless.

Not all of the changes in Black Hat’s behavior were so positive, though. For one thing, his unnerving fascination with Flug’s souleater half has led to some rather uncomfortable arrangements. On the one hand, Black Hat providing him with prey saves Flug the trouble of having to sneak around anymore to feed himself, but on the other, his boss had a peculiarly keen interest in watching him eat. That was already bad enough, having to put what Flug had tried so hard to keep hidden all his life on full display like that, but it was made even worse by how handsy Black Hat would sometimes get afterwards.

He had a particular fascination with Flug’s teeth. Whether or not that was out of some twisted sense of humor or out of a genuine curiosity of Flug’s species, the doctor couldn’t tell. All he knew is that it was uncomfortable. Every time those hands crinkled up the edges of that paper bag to expose his bloodied mouth, anxiety spiked within him at the mere thought of his mask being pulled off completely. Luckily for Flug, Black Hat never went that far, for the time being. 

“Why do you always do that…?” He had asked once, during one upon too many fang inspections to count.

There was a click of the tongue, Black Hat tilting Flug’s chin whichever way he wanted, as he gave his unconventional answer. “The soul residue intrigues me. Besides, it's the only part of your face I’ve seen thus far. I like to admire it at its bloodiest.” Then he’d flash one of his many shit-eating grins. “Given how long you’ve hidden this from me, I certainly have the right to catch up on what I’ve been missing.”

What could he possibly have been “missing”? He knew Black Hat to enjoy displays of violence the most when they had some heart in them. Flug’s only ever been timid and reluctant in the way that he feeds, unable to understand what entertainment value Black Hat could possibly be getting out of such mediocre murders.

On one particular day, however, the situation differed.

Their domain had fallen under siege by a particularly persistent team of heroes… It would’ve been an all-out attack if Dr. Flug hadn’t activated an emergency forcefield just in time. But for now, all they could do was wait these heroes out until they came up with a proper plan of retaliation. Their anti-hero merchandise was the best there was, of course, but with the sheer amount of opponents waiting outside, the villains were put in a particularly tricky situation. 

Black Hat could easily dispose of the problem, Flug knew for a fact. These heroes were mere ants to somebody with his unimaginable power. But, in typical Black Hat fashion, he chose to instead put this job on Flug and Demencia. 

While Flug could understand to some extent that such matters were too trivial and boring for his boss to face head-on, he had hoped the demon would’ve made an exception in this case. This situation had cut Flug, Demencia, and 5.0.5. off from the outside world until they could find a way around those heroes, which wouldn’t be a problem if not for the fact that it left Flug without sustenance to keep his monstrous half in check.

Unfortunately for him, Black Hat found more interest in watching how his employees would tackle the problem instead. Because, for him, the slightly-more-interesting route would always be preferred over the easy way out. It’s not like the health of his underlings has ever held priority over his own amusement, so Flug had no right to be surprised. He’d just have to persevere, and he wouldn’t dare complain about his hunger to Black Hat himself. Knowing him, he’d expect Flug to earn his food under these circumstances. The way Black Hat was constantly hanging around the laboratory as he worked further cemented that idea into his mind. 

Instead, he threw himself into his work as if that were an adequate distraction. He did everything he could to keep his mind busy, to keep himself distracted from anything that may lead to one of his episodes, but it was so damn hard when these hunger swings can be so unpredictable. One minute, he would be completely fine, but the next…

“Whatcha workin’ on, doc?”

Hunger making him more irritable than usual, the mere sound of Demencia’s voice had been enough to grate on his nerves these past weeks of siege. It was bad enough that his cravings were already slowing him down far too much, he didn’t need Dem’s constant pestering on top of his current inability to focus. 

Shaking those concerns out of his head, he was none too kind when he answered her. “Oh, I don’t know, Demencia, maybe a solution to our little problem out there?”

Unfazed by the mockery dripping from his voice, her desire for mischief was left perfectly intact. “Oooo, is it cool? Will it blow ‘em up? Liquidize their insides? Lemme see it!” 

She jumped for the flask, and Flug had barely enough reaction time within him to dodge her. “ Stop that! Do you want to get a cloud of knockout gas to the face!?” Flug barked, scrambling to keep his work from falling out of his hands. Once stabilized, he shot her a nasty glare. “Don’t you have anything better to do than bother me?”

“You’re kidding, right?” She deadpanned in response. Dramatically flopping into a nearby chair, Demencia kept up her annoying lamenting. “We’ve been stuck with those dumb heroes outside for like a week, I’m boooored.”

“Well good for you, but since I’m the only one around here that seems willing to fix this damn mess, I need to focus.” Flug snapped at her, voice raising alongside his frustration, “What I don’t need is some brain-dead halfwit breathing stupid questions down my neck the whole time!”

Demencia’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at how intensely he came off. Sure, she could get on his nerves with relative ease, but he usually took it with more grace than that, even at times when he’d sic Hatbots on her. Even Black Hat glanced up from his newspaper upon hearing such unusual hostility growing in Flug, though he reserved comment. 

“Ouch,” Demencia remarked, although not especially offended. “Well, sorry Mr. Grumpypants, didn’t realize you were in such a mood today.” She chided him. “You skip your coffee this morning or what?”

Narrowed eyes shot one last dirty look at her before Flug tried to shift his focus back to his concoction at the lab table. Key word being tried , because before he knew it, he was doubling over from pain when his cravings hit him full-force. He was barely able to catch himself against the table, almost knocking over the work he’d previously scolded Demencia for endangering. 

Serving up a confused stare, Demencia frowned at him. “Uhh, Flug?”

The ruckus also woke 5.0.5. who’d been sleeping nearby, a worried grunt coming from him as he wandered over to see what was going on.

What Flug had feared all along was now fast approaching. This sort of thing was exactly what Black Hat wanted, wasn’t it? For him to expose himself to the others in as violent a manner as possible? And if so, then where the fuck was he? Flug could’ve sworn he was in the room a second ago, and hell, maybe he was too disoriented to know for sure, but he couldn’t see the demon anywhere. 

All he could lock his starving gaze onto was Demencia and 5.0.5., the clueless pair coming foolishly closer to check on him. They’d make easy targets. They were practically offering themselves up on a silver platter. How could Flug possibly refuse the instincts that were screaming at him to eat?

“Okay, Flug, this is weird, even for you.” 

For the briefest of moments, he saw his mother, so stupidly drawing nearer in his state of delirium. She should have known better. She made herself too easy of an antidote to his suffering. The exact same mistake that Demencia was making now.

He wished he could tell her to get away. He wanted desperately to warn her of what danger she was in. But he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t stop himself from inching his starving body nearer, itching to dig his teeth into something –

“Demencia, step aside.” Black Hat’s familiar voice ordered from the doorway, yielding immediate compliance from her. With adept swiftness, he strode over to the unhinged doctor and proceeded to drag him away from his coworkers before any damage could be done, exiting the laboratory with Flug in tow, and leaving Demencia and 5.0.5. to their own confusion.

Black Hat dragged him through hallways and corridors, paying no mind to his scientist’s resistance. Flug’s thrashing wasn’t particularly troublesome for Black Hat, although he felt mild surprise to experience a jolt of pain inflicted by Flug’s fangs when they tried to find nourishment in the tendrils that restrained him. Judging from the retching and gagging that followed, Black Hat’s soulless form wasn’t exactly fine dining to him. 

They entered a darkened storage room, the only light source coming from a flickering bulb above that fought to stay lit. Within, there laid a hero, injured and bound in place by whatever impromptu restraints Black Hat could find in the moment. 

“Eat.” Black Hat ordered as he shoved Flug towards the helpless fool.

As if Flug needed any convincing. 

The second he was released from Black Hat’s grip, he lunged for the hero, tearing into him with such ruthless ferocity, ripping flesh out in bloody chunks that were strewn across the room with great fervor. The crackling and snapping of bones that’d dared get in the way of Flug’s relentless fangs was like music to Black Hat’s ears. The only way this could’ve been better was if the hero had remained alive long enough to scream.

Out of breath by the time Flug was through with him, it took almost a full minute for him to regain his composure. 

“My my, what a savage display.” Black Hat purred in amusement, drawing nearer to admire the carnage. “You’ve been holding out on me, doctor.”

“W-Wha… Wait, th-this is a hero f-from outs-side, isn’t it…?” Flug queried as he came back to his senses, casting a hesitant glance his boss’s way.

“They make for easy pickings. You looked like you needed something rather immediate.” Black Hat replied, wiping bloodied claws off on his clothes. With a disapproving quirk of the brow, he added, “You could have said something sooner , by the way. It’s not like I knew where your breaking point was.”

Flug couldn’t believe it. Defying all of his expectations, Black Hat actually prevented him from hurting his friends. Not only that, but kept his secret from being exposed. He had been so certain that the eldritch wanted the drama and chaos that would’ve come with him attacking 5.0.5. or Demencia, but now, with every manipulative and cruel assumption Flug had made being tossed out the window, he had no idea what to think anymore. When he next spoke, his voice was but a meek stutter. “Th-Thank you, sir...”

“’ Thank you ’?” Black Hat repeated, a ghostly twitch of annoyance betraying his smile for just a moment. “We have been over this, doctor. Your… gratitude …” That last word was uttered with notable disgust, “… is gravely misplaced. I only—“

He was stunned into silence when Flug unexpectedly clutched his hand. “You stopped me from hurting them.” The scientist spoke more firmly in spite of how his own hands trembled against Black’s. Flug dared not make eye contact, instead staring directly at the floor. “ Thank you. ”

He had almost expected to get lashed out at or shouted at for grabbing Black Hat so suddenly, and when he realized his mistake, he immediately let go… but Black Hat did neither of those things. He just stared, expression completely blank to the point of almost being comical, at where Flug had touched him. That doesn’t happen. People don’t touch him. He touches people. On his terms.

After the initial confusion wore off, his cold and calculative eyes pierced right through Flug. “… Well.” He finally spoke, his voice flat and rigid, “You can thank me by getting rid of those pests outside.” 

With that, the demon took his leave. Flug watched him go, blinking slowly as he tried to process what just happened…

… No. He can think about this later. For now, he had an order to carry out.

After cleaning himself up and changing out of his bloodsoaked clothes, Flug returned to the lab with newfound energy and determination. He threw himself at his experiment with ultimate focus, not allowing Demencia or even Black Hat’s presence distract him, despite how intently the latter was watching him.

Flug completed the substance within the hour, and it did not disappoint. Everything went according to plan. Firing the gas bomb at their intruders did the trick, knocking them out just long enough for Demencia to dispose of them without a single issue. 

When all was said and done, Black Hat approached the doctor from behind as he disarmed the forcefield, causing him to jump in surprise when the demon patted his shoulder. “Well done, doctor.” He said simply before walking off.

All Flug could do was stare as he left, completely befuddled. 

He had always craved Black Hat’s praise, but now that he’d been getting it, it felt beyond impossible to get used to.

The strange behavior, the way he kept lingering about the lab for no discernable reason other than to watch him, how he’d been keeping Flug’s diet in check, it was all just so… bizarre. Flug racked his brain day in and day out trying to solve this mystery, but nothing ever felt like it made sense. It couldn’t be coming from a place of respect, as he knew Black Hat was incapable of respecting him. He doubted it was coming from a place of any sort of concern, as nothing about their routine had actually changed. If anything, Flug was more healthy than usual these days due to Black Hat’s assistance in keeping him properly fed.

Perhaps it was something more akin to keeping a pet. Of course, that must be it. Black Hat likely had him lumped in the same category as Lil Jack these days, just a pet to feed and maintain.

While that dehumanizing assumption made the most sense so far, Flug still couldn’t be sure…

One day, curiosity finally got the better of him. He knew he should know better than to question Black Hat, but he just couldn’t help himself this time.

It was on another day that, as was becoming usual, Black Hat had joined him in the laboratory, overseeing his work from a distance. Flug couldn’t actually be sure how much Black Hat was actually paying attention to the invention he was building, but he worked as diligently as he could under his boss’s silent supervision all the same.

A handray of sorts laid in pieces on the table while the doctor fiddled a screwdriver inside the mechanism. Black Hat had taken to leaning against the wall by the door, not a word spoken by him this whole time.

Flug nervously glanced back at him for a moment, quickly averting his eyes back to the device when he was caught staring. Finally, he forced himself to say it. “… Y-You’ve been… a-acting strangely since you first saw me feed, sir…”

“Strangely?” Black Hat’s cold voice repeated, examining his claws without a care in the world. “What are you implying?”

That ice, that frosty and bitter manner in which his boss spoke, had always rattled Flug’s nerves. It was almost enough to discourage him entirely from completing his train of thought, but he knew that would likely annoy Black Hat even more. He put his screwdriver down, turning to face the demon. “W-w-well, it’s, u-um… er…”

“Out with it, doctor.” Black Hat snapped impatiently. He cast the other man a challenging stare, as though daring him to say something he’ll regret.

At this, Flug hesitated. A lump had started forming in his throat, preventing him from speaking. Black Hat’s glare was definitely making the doctor have second thoughts about saying anything at all. Swallowing hard, he forced himself to speak through his discomfort. “Y-You’ve been treating me differently.”

Black Hat’s visible eye slowly narrowed, but he decided to amuse his doctor. “Oh really? How so?” He said in a sort of sarcastic, dry tone, taking a step forward.

No backing down now. Straightening his back, Flug tried very hard not to flinch away at his boss’s advances. “Well…” He began, fiddling with his hands, “You’ve been, um… H-How do I put this… nicer …?”

That was a big mistake the moment he said it, Flug’s eyes going wide once he realized his mistake far too late. Rage flashed across Black Hat’s face, the demon’s familiar growl ringing through Flug’s ears as he came closer. Flinching back and shielding his face with an arm, Flug almost fell over the table behind him as he tried to back away. “W-W-Wait, I didn’t  m-mean it like tha–!” He cut himself off with a fearful yelp as Black Hat yanked him forward by the neck of his shirt, his threatening form towering over the doctor.

“How did you mean it , then?” Black Hat snarled, voice dripping with a biting venom.

“Y-You’ve been acting like you think I have more worth now!” Flug squeaked, hiding his face behind his arms with eyes squeezed shut, a clear exasperation lingering among the fear in his words. “Like because I’m half monster, that changes things!”

Expecting to get pummeled in the next few seconds, it was to Flug’s great surprise that Black Hat let him go. Risking a timid peek at his boss, his jaw almost dropped. Why was he laughing all of a sudden?

“Of course it changes things!” Blackhat grinned, as though it were ridiculous for Flug to suggest otherwise. For some reason, that prickled at Flug’s nerves. “Now that I’ve seen what you are– ”

“What I am doesn’t change anything! I’m still the same Flug I’ve always been!” 

In a moment of surprise, Black Hat’s grin faltered. He’d never heard Flug take such a tone with him before, nor had he seen that particular look of frustration, dressed with hints of defiance, within Flug’s eyes.

“Have you been basing my value on species this whole time?” The scientist went on, irritation building, “What, I’m suddenly worth more to you just because I’m less human? Is that why you haven’t been kicking me around as much? Are you seriously that shallow?” With a scoff, Flug looked away, brows furrowed in anger. “If my being a human really disgusted you that much, I don’t get why you haven’t just replaced me with someone more your style.”

There was a tense moment of silence between them, although the tension was likely only on Flug’s side. Eventually, Black Hat spoke again.

“I believe that’s the first time you’ve dared to raise your voice at me, doctor.”

… Wait… 

Shit.

“I’m sorry…!” He squeaked in fear, cringing away from Black Hat in anticipation of being struck. Realization of how badly he screwed up hit him like a semi truck, and he scrambled over his words trying to do damage control in whatever way he could. “I-I don’t know w-what c-came over me! I-I’m v- very sorry, sir…!”

No violence came his way, however. Instead, Black Hat eyed him with what Flug could only describe as intrigue. His head tilted a smidge to the side, not unlike that of a curious animal. When he next spoke, it was with a kind of guileless tone completely foreign to Flug’s ears. “I have always valued you, Flug.” 

A disbelieving snort escaped Flug before he had the chance to stop it, slapping a hand over his mouth the second such a disrespectful noise had come out. How or why Black Hat hadn’t lashed out at him yet, Flug had no idea.

“You think I would have hired some annoying, sniveling little human if you weren’t of significant value to me? I know you’re smarter than that, doctor.” He drew closer, much to Flug’s discomfort. “In spite of what a pitiful sight you made, it was your intelligence that’d far made up for that. Your intelligence, your dedication, your perseverance, I have seen it all. From the day I met you, I knew your talents were exceptional.”

Baffled by such claims, Flug could do nothing more than stare in disbelief as his boss spoke.

“You impressed me that day, Dr. Flug. I can count on one hand the number of humans that’ve accomplished such a feat.” He went on, circling Flug to admire the work he had laid out on the table. “Humans are one of the most irritating and pathetic species I’ve ever come across in all my years. To have ended up relying on one for the sake of my business has been no less than a major frustration to me. Without you, who the hell do you think would be making all of our products?”

“I-I-” Flug started to speak, but was quickly silenced by the raise of Black Hat’s hand. Clearly, he had more to say.

“In a way, you’re not wrong. It does please me knowing that you’re not entirely human. You are something better. But, you’ve always been better than other humans in my eyes.” When he next turned to face Flug, it was with a narrow-eyed stare on his face. “So, don’t you dare suggest that I haven’t valued you until now. If that were true, I’d have left you dead in that alley all those years ago.”

At that moment, Flug had been rendered speechless. This was the first time Black Hat’s ever verbalized any sort of appreciation for Flug’s work, especially in such a direct manner. He almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing, tempted to reach out and poke the eldritch to make sure it was actually him and not some sort of caffeine hallucination.

Instead, he averted his eyes. As comforting as that was to hear, it didn’t change the main problem.

“You don’t treat your valuables very well, then.” Flug’s hesitant voice spoke up.

With a boisterous laugh, Blackhat twirled his cane idly. “So what? That’s of no consequence to me.”

“You seem to forget that I’m breakable, sir. It is a consequence if I decide to leave.” If he really is as valuable as Black Hat says... Looking away, he muttered under his breath, “It’s definitely something I’ve considered.”

That came as no surprise to Black Hat. He’s seen the collection of house and apartment ads the doctor’s compiled and occasionally glanced through when his boss’s temper was especially testy. But surely he’d never actually go through with leaving. Not after all the work he put in to get here. It would be absurd.

Not paying the comment much mind, Black Hat decided he was done with this conversation and headed for the door. “Get that ray done. We start filming in two hours.”

Such dismissive behavior was what Flug was used to letting roll off his back. But, this time, it felt like it didn’t matter at all compared to the other things his boss had said.

It was beyond reassuring to know that Black Hat found him important for what really mattered. There had been many a day where Flug had wondered if all of his efforts were actually counting for anything, in that regard.

Now, he won’t have to wonder. 

Something new to wonder about, however, was why this conversation had left him feeling so flustered …

Their uncharacteristically genuine conversation didn’t mean everything was sunshine and daisies, of course. After all, This is the house of evil. Can’t expect much else. What Flug was used to was being yelled at. Though there was one recent incident in particular that had been… strange.

As usual, Black Hat was eager to advertise anti-hero merchandise to their viewers. The demon rarely ever began recording early without first informing Flug, but today was, unfortunately, one of those days. He already had Cam-bot recording before Flug was even in the room. It’s not like he needed Flug there, anyways, so he just went ahead and started without him. The product seemed simple enough, some kind of fireball launcher of sorts.

Black Hat was well into the presentation by the time Flug had gotten there. The doctor had appeared somewhat rushed, and was carrying with him a toolbox.

His eyes widened with terror when he entered the room to see his boss already wielding the product.

“… and with just the click of a button, your local hero will be enveloped in a Hellish blaze!” Black Hat took aim at a target across the room.

“Sir, no!” Flug shouted, darting towards him, “There’s a chemical imbalance that still needs to be–!”

Too late.

There was a flash, then a blast of intense heat as the weapon backfired. Cam-bot went toppling over sideways, making a series of distressed beeping noises, and Black Hat let out a startled snarl as his arm was blown clean off. That wasn’t too much of a concern, however, as a stream of inky black energy quickly formed a new one.

He wheeled around, eyes blazing with rage as he faced the now-shivering Flug. “You IDIOT!!!” He roared, storming over to the scientist and roughly gripping his arm. “Is your job to have our products ready in time or IS IT NOT!?”

“I-I-I’m sorry….!” Flug yelped, cowering. “I-I thought I h-had more time…! I just needed to make one minor adjustmen–” He cut himself off with a pained outcry as Black Hat’s grip tightened, near threatening to break his arm.

“I don’t want to hear EXCUSES, YOU BLOODY– You…” Black Hat trailed off, a whisper of that recent conversation with the doctor echoing in his head.

You don’t treat your valuables very well.

You seem to forget that I’m breakable.

Staring over the terrified doctor now, the way he immediately expected the worst, something felt… off. Black Hat was the one that decided to start early and without Flug’s knowledge… but that still shouldn’t excuse not having it ready before the deadline, so–!

“Sir…?” Flug’s voice, tiny and horrified as it may have been, managed to shake Black Hat out of his thoughts. Fearful eyes gazed up at him with a hint of confusion on top of the pain. Very slowly, Black Hat loosened his grip, then let go altogether and took a step back.

Flug stepped back as well at the first chance he got, gripping his hurt arm close to himself. He gave a puzzled frown. “S-Sir…. are you…. alright….?”

… How could he be asking that? It seemed so… backwards.

… It doesn’t matter.

“Get this mess cleaned up…” Black Hat finally said, his voice unusually low, “… and fix that infernal Cam-bot…” 

Then, he was gone before Flug could even reply.

Watching the door close behind his boss, Flug winced as he rubbed his arm. Sighing, he picked up the dropped toolbox and turned to Cam-bot. “Let’s get you cleaned up, then…”

A flood of blood trickled down the now-lifeless body and onto the floor, Flug’s shaking arm wiping away what dribbled from his chin. With a chunk of neck completely missing from the corpse on the operation table in front of him, it was leaving quite the mess. The doctor tentatively reached up to pull his paper bag back down and cover his mouth, but Black Hat’s cane pulled his arm away before he could. Flug squirmed slightly beneath his boss’s touch as he lifted his chin , discomfort setting in him, but Black Hat paid that no mind.

A gloved thumb lightly grazing across the edge of Flug’s fangs, Black Hat’s expression was oddly monotone today. “… So, tell me.” He said suddenly. “If I’m so unbearable to live with, why do you stick around?”

“S-Sir….?” Flug responded, caught off guard by the question.

“You’re not being forced to stay here.” The eldritch went on. “You said yourself that you’ve considered leaving. Many other villains would be glad to take you. So why do you stay?”

Flug was quiet for a long moment, considering what he should say. Truly, there was only one right answer. “… B-Because the other villains aren’t you.”

At that, Black Hat paused, a twitch of surprise on his features for a second. Then, his eyes narrowed slightly. “Elaborate.”

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Flug started to fiddle with the sleeves of his labcoat. “W-W-Well, um… I-I mean, you’re… successful, c-confident, accomplished…” Oh gosh, why did he have to be listing off things he admires about his boss while they were in this position? Hardly any distance between them, and Black Hat leaned in closer with every word! Swallowing again, he tried not to get too flustered as he continued, “I-It’s just… well, you’re Black Hat. You’re one of a k-kind, the best there is. I don’t– I-I refuse to settle for less than the best.” Sheepishly, he looked to the ground, voice quieting. “You’re everything I’m not.”

Silent for quite some time, Black Hat found he was only able to give Flug a dumbfounded stare. The demon’s never had a tendency for modesty, for Flug to be so upfront about both his admirations and insecurities felt strange as can be. It was a combination that Flug likely never would’ve spoken aloud if left unprompted. Then, a smile began to form on Black Hat’s face. “Well, aren’t you the little ego-booster.” He purred, chuckling. “Although…” Stepping back and rubbing his chin in thought, Black Hat tilted his head and looked Flug up and down. “For one thing, if it’s something like confidence you’re wanting improvements on, you really shouldn’t spend your time hiding underneath that paper bag.”

Flinching back, Flug subconsciously ran his fingers across the edge of the bag. “N-N-No. I-I need it.”

“… Tsk. Fine, then. But still, I am curious…” Taking a step forward again, Black Hat brushed at the paper bag with his fingers. Flug jolted back before he could get a proper grip, almost tumbling over the body table in the process. Black Hat simply reached out with his cane, hooked it around Flug’s neck, and yanked him forward. With the other hand, he reached for the bag again.

“No!” In a panic, the trembling scientist grabbed his arm with both hands in an attempt to stop him, eyes squeezed shut.

Surprisingly, Black Hat did stop.

Flug hesitantly opened one eye to evaluate the situation. Black Hat was staring at where Flug had gripped him, same dumbfounded expression on his face as from the last time Flug touched him.

Slowly letting go, hoping that he wouldn’t try to remove the bag again, Flug frowned. “… U-Um… sir… I-If you don’t mind my asking…. W-Why is it you look so… bewildered … when I do that…?”

“Hmph,” Black Hat pulled his arm back after being let go, absentmindedly rubbing the spot he had been grabbed. He tried to cover up the bewilderment with a sly smile. “Maybe because the only time people ever dare to touch me is when we’re fighting or having sex. Why else?”

…. Flug chose to ignore that second part. His frown deepened, a touch of his own bewilderment setting in. “… So you’ve… never been, like… just… casually or platonically touched…?” 

Black Hat took a moment to think about it, looking off to the side. He couldn’t recall any instances of such a thing, aside from maybe shaking hands with clients, if that were to count? But those were more like business obligations rather than anything casual or platonic. “Hmm… No, never.” He eventually concluded. His eyes narrowed just slightly when they pulled back towards Flug. “Well, unless we count you.”

Normally Flug might’ve winced away in response to the slow return of hostility in Black Hat, but he was just… too flabbergasted. The concept of going through life without that ever happening seemed so farfetched for some reason, but he supposed if you’re a guy like Black Hat, maybe it’s plausible…..?

After a long moment’s thought, he hesitantly reached out a hand, pausing near Black Hat’s right shoulder as he examined his boss’s face for permission.

Black Hat’s eyes further narrowed with skepticism at the gesture, but he made no protest. So, Flug continued. His skeptical gaze followed Flug’s hand all the way until it had made contact with his shoulder.

It was strange, how all the malice slowly drained from his boss’s face upon contact. The look in his eyes was no longer one of hostility, but rather, curiosity. Perhaps a touch of confusion, but mostly a genuine sort of curiosity that was, in a way, almost innocent-looking. It was a rather strange expression on him, Flug finding himself unable to look away until Black Hat’s questioning pupils darted to Flug’s own face, wondering why he had gone so still.

Quickly averting his eyes, Flug went back to what he was doing. Very slowly, he ran his hand down the demon’s arm, as if he were simply smoothing out the fabric of his sleeve. Gentle, yet so impactful. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could’ve sworn he felt the slightest shiver from his boss as he had done so. Another sneaking glance to Black Hat’s face confirmed that he was just as confused as Flug was about the whole thing.

Slowly still, Flug raised his other hand to meet Black Hat’s chest, just letting it rest there for a while. Then, as if snapped out of a trance, Flug realized all at once how weird this must be getting and jolted backwards, the sudden movement even startling Black Hat a tiny bit. 

“I-I… um… s-sorry, sir…”  There Flug was, getting all flustered again. Why the hell did these strange interactions with his boss keep stirring up such confusing butterflies in the pit of his stomach?

Black Hat raised an eyebrow slightly, but other than that, his expression remained vaguely passive. He ran his own fingers along where Flug had touched him, quiet for some time. Then, his familiar smile crept back along his face as he looked back towards the doctor. “Seems only fair that I’d get to look beneath that bag of yours now, doesn’t it?”

Crap. Flug was hoping he’d forgotten about that. His gaze fell to the floor, accepting defeat with a very hesitant nod. “I-I-I s-sup-ppose so, s-sir…” He stammered, anxiety quickly on the rise.

A victorious purr rumbled in Black Hat’s throat, and he closed the space between himself and his scientist. Hands once again meeting the bottom of Flug’s paper bag, he took unusual care in how he lifted both the bag and goggles off of his face. As soon as those harsh white lights from the room’s fluorescent bulbs hit Flug’s eyes, a sharp yelp left his throat, and he threw his face in his hands to hide. 

“Seriously, Flug?” Black Hat deadpanned, unimpressed.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry. It’s t-too b-bright.” He stuttered, unable to stop trembling.

There was a moment of silence before Flug heard his boss’s voice again. “Open your eyes, doctor.”

Already feeling dizzy and anxious without the comfort of his bag, the thought of being made to endure such harsh lights on top of that was too overwhelming to handle. But the thought of angering Black Hat frightened him even more. So, he fought back every instinct that screamed at him to protect his eyes, stifled whatever stressful noises tried to escape him, and lowered his hands.

To Flug’s surprise, rather than the headache-inducing brightness he was expecting, he was greeted with a well-dimmed room, black smoke swirling above them to significantly dull the lights. No doubt compliments of Black Hat.

View of his scientist no longer obstructed, the wide-grinning demon took hold of Flug’s chin, lifting his head to get a better look. He could feel the halfling swallow nervously, but was too focused on taking in his appearance to notice or comment. Honestly, Flug looked like any normal human being if you looked past the eyes and teeth. 

But Black Hat didn’t. He was especially focused on those eyes, this being the first time he’s ever actually seen them goggle-free.

Flug’s eyes were without a doubt attention-grabbing. Where a human’s eyes would normally be white, Flug’s were an abyss of pitch-black, glowing white pupils being the only contrast to exist within. 

“Captivating…” Black Hat commented under his breath. While the comment was not specifically addressed for Flug, he certainly reacted to it, feeling an intense heat rise to his cheeks. His boss definitely took notice of that, smirk widening in response.

Embarrassed and feeling like he was going to pass out, Flug quickly grasped for his bag and pulled away from Black Hat, struggling to pull it over his head again through short and shaky breaths.

Evidently, having the bag and goggles was a comfort thing as well as an eye protection thing.

Satisfied, Black Hat gave a firm nod and turned for the door, smoke dissipating with a snap of his fingers. “Clean up your mess and get back to work.” He ordered as he left.

Flug had to take a moment to regain himself, doing everything he could to calm his nerves. With the combination of deep breaths and counting numbers in his head to refocus, the doctor slowly but surely found his composure again.

That was… quite the experience… Almost surreal ….

Placing a hand on the side of his head in confusion, Flug shook it off and went to take care of the body. The entire experience didn’t stop running through his head the whole while.

There were no words Flug had that could describe how their altered relationship had continued to shift and morph since then.

Flug first noticed it with the way Black Hat’s eyes studied him, bore through him right to the bone and stripped his soul bare. There lived no mordacity or annoyance behind his constant gazes, which was unnervingly strange in and of itself. Worse was that Flug couldn’t tell what Black Hat was looking at him with. Was it condescension? It didn’t feel like something that negative... Maybe… curiosity? Interest? But interest in what? No matter what explanation his mind tried to present, Flug knew there was something he had to be missing. Something he wasn’t seeing.

The mystery was only made harder to solve by the way Black Hat would touch him. In the past, the only form of physical contact they’d ever shared was aggressive in nature, as Black Hat had a nasty habit of manhandling anybody nearby in his moments of explosive rage. As such, it was hard not to flinch when the demon would put his hands on him. But, especially after that unusual encounter they’d had, his touches have become shockingly gentle. 

What were once brief pats on the back became lingering touches, claws tracing temperate lines along his meek frame, a hand resting on his shoulder just a bit too long… He’d also just stand far closer than usual whenever they were going over work projects together. Flug thought for a moment that perhaps all this time spent around Black Hat’s eldritch presence was finally driving him insane, but there was no way that he could be imagining these things. Out of all things for his mind to try and play tricks with, why something like this?

Furthermore, as someone who’s always enjoyed his alone time, Flug simply couldn’t wrap his head around why Black Hat kept joining him in the lab for the most benign of times. Even today, all he was doing was reading a newspaper with his morning acid, something he usually did in the comfort of his own office.

Occasional glances in his boss’s direction yielded the same results, those strange stares that made Flug feel so vulnerable being aimed back at him every now and then. He tried to focus on his work, to throw himself into his invention to distract from the outside world as usual, but his rattled nerves simply refused to let him do that today.

The next time he found his boss staring, Flug put down his tools, confronting the issue with a meek question.

“A-Are you ups-set with me?”

A glimmer of curiosity passed through Black Hat’s eyes. He put his newspaper down, that unnerving gaze completely honed in on his scientist. “What makes you think I’m upset with you?”

“W-Well, it’s… uh… I-I don’t kn-know, you’ve just b-been kind of…” Flinching slightly as Black Hat rose from his seat to approach him, Flug greatly struggled to finish that thought, looking all around the lab to avoid any sort of eye contact. “Y-y-you’ve b-been s-st- staring a l-lot lately, a-a-and, um–” He backed up as his boss got closer, just barely catching himself when he knocked into the table behind him, “A-and th-the t- touching … I-I just d-don’t u-und-derstand w-what–”

Flug’s stuttering was cut short when Black Hat took the side of his face into his hand, turning the scientist’s head to make their eyes meet.

“Tell me, doctor,” Black Hat purred, “Do I look upset to you?”

“N-n-no…?” Flug squeaked in response.

“There is your answer.” His head lolled to the side, studying Flug far too closely for comfort. His hand slinked down from Flug's face, the doctor withdrawing a sharp breath as deadly claws traced along his neck before finding its new resting place on his shoulder. “Does it bother you when I touch you?”

“W-Would it m-mat-tter if it d-did…?”

The way Black Hat narrowed his eyes at him, the hints of an annoyed frown starting to tug at his lips, quickly startled Flug into correcting his behavior. He straightened his back, answering the question directly this time. “N-no sir, it’s n-no bother.”

Just like that, Black Hat seemed to relax again. “Good.” He pulled his hand away, returning to the couch to pick up his newspaper. “You look like you’re having trouble focusing, so I suppose I’ll leave you to it for now.”

And, just like that, he was gone.

That… did not answer any of Flug’s questions.

Honestly, it was likely in Flug’s better judgment to stop questioning these changes in behavior to Black Hat’s face. Confusing as their new dynamic may have been, at least it was better than getting thrown around like a ragdoll on a near-daily basis. 

That wasn’t the way Black Hat saw it, however.

The way Black Hat saw it, all of this peculiar behavior had been a simple case of testing the waters. Unfortunately, his next move would be one Flug could’ve never prepared for.

Aaaand here’s where things get a little tumblr-unsafe, so to the AO3 void you go! (Please heed the warning tags over there)

[celestie0]

first of all, i knew that kai dude was bad news!!

but let's start form the top!! gojo kicking the ball in the FACE??? ahhhh lost it!!! i thought he maybe aimed at kai but boy was (accidentally) aiming at her, nooo!!!

ahaha but the way he cared for her then 😭😭 my heart, so weak for this trope. also we got a kiss so a win is a win!!

“Go ahead,” he says, using his knee to spread your legs apart, then finds a place to stand between your thighs to get closer to you. “I’ve got a lot of ways I could shut you up.”

excuse me man. do not say this in front of me or i'll get wet. thank you. moving on!

“You were born blessed with talent, and you’re popular, and people adore you, and you don’t have to worry about internships, or jumping from job to job just to make something of yourself."

ugh, that moment when she breaks down about her depts and car repair bills and all that? it was so raw and real. it makes her even more relatable. loved that!!

“You don’t want me hanging out with them?” you repeat after him, “I’m not listening to that. Because it’s possessive. And it’s wrong.”

yes, yes yes!! tell him girl!!! put him in his place!!! love pissed fmc!! <33

“Does that make you feel better?” he asks. / “Does thinking of me that way—…does it make you feel better about all of this? Between us?”

bruh, satoru is THE sweetest in this story, and I'm LIVING for his soft boy energy! he has such a innocent and soft love for her, i could cry and vanish into thin air 😭😭

also the way he is ALL about her dreams and supporting her in her carrer. WEAK.

but then everything happening after, god i was so ANGRY with Kai and all his douchebag people!!! i was ready to throw hands through the screen!!!

but can we also talk about how our girl was holding her own even when those jerks were putting her and her dreams down? she's got a fire in her, and i love that she wasn't backing down! satoru's lucky to have someone so fierce by his side.

thank goodness satoru and his squad showed up when things got serious and protected her!! also that protective move in front of her? I DIED. It's official, i'm WEAK. just one word. WEAK.

can't wait to read the next chapter, in which satoru will surely move heaven and earth to show his love to her and i'm here for it!!! please shower me with all the fluff and smut.

i need ALL the cozy, heart-melting moments! ♡♡

honestly, this AU is EVERYTHING. you're painting such a vivid picture, i feel like i'm right there on campus, surrounded by hotties and drama!! what could someone ask more of? ♡♡

also want to add that i think you have an incredible ear for how people talk, with all their quirks and little inflections. reads so natural and authentic!! have a great day or night, whenever you read this!

OMG LOSTFRACTURES M00TIE <333 THANK U SM FOR UR ASK I COULD CRY RN

aaa yes he actually isnt the one that kicked the ball haha 🤣 that was originally going to be the plan, but rather his teammate kicked the ball and he was too distracted by reader getting super close to kai to see it, and it flew past him n then hit her 😵‍💫

LMAO pls same part of me wanted to scream just to fuck around n find out ab all those ways of shutting us up haha

thank uuu im so glad you enjoyed her lash out 🥺💕 it was simultaneously very gratifying but also heartbreaking to write

aaa thank uu sm ur words ab softie satoru LOL i think his way of showing care can be unconventional sometimes but there’s no denying he really does want her to have the things he thinks she deserves :”) im just glad he finally thinks he’s someone she deserves haha

AND YES. SHE’s ALSO FIERCE AND A SOFTIE AT THE SAME TIME ✨✨ i wa sso excited by this chapter bc i think it takes gojo being “too good for her” bc he’s popular n whatnot but now reader is just THAT GIRL n a bad bitch and she’s almost too good for him now haha

ouu ty for the compliment on the dialogues n stuff 😭🤧 that’s so relieving to hear lol

AND YESS SO EXCITED FOR HIS LOVER BOY ERA ch10 is gonna be a lot of fun and sexy (still a tad bit angsty 👉🏼👈🏼) haha thank uu sm for looking forward to it 🥺💕 ur too kind pls

[genshinconfessions]

Maybe this is just my opinion but I have to tell someone but didn’t want to get attacked for it lol so anyways:

Neuvillette annoys me for multiple reasons but mostly because of how so many people in the fandom treat him. Making fun of people who don’t have him, saying everyone should be playing him with no regard to the fact that some people just don’t like his play style because HOW COULD YOU NOT LIKE IT (🙄 some ppl just don’t really vibe with catalyst playstyle jfc), stuff like that.

And really the biggest ones for me is the wave of archon and Navia hate i saw after ppl got him. I love the archons and Navia and like… guys. The archons because Neuvillette had those voice lines about serving Justice and everyone was like “ah yes! My bby hates them so so do I!” (Like hun you don’t need to share every value and thought as your blorbos) and they hated on Navia because she “made him upset when she yelled at him for no reason”. FIRST OF ALL she did have a reason: grief. Navia is a young woman running a massive organization whose dad recently died and she is grieving. Neuvillette is a GROWN ASS MAN and I think he can tell when someone is just lashing out and can get over it, he doesn’t need the entire Genshin fandom backing him up.

sorry for long rant lol

never be sorry! confessions and rants are what this blog is for!

i actually didn't see much hate for navia and the archons but maybe i'm just not in the circles that were doing that. either way, that's super disappointing to hear :((

i will say this again, though: the genshin fandom skews very young. they don't yet have the critical thinking skills to realize that they're not the center of the universe. part of this problem, they'll naturally grow out of it. but part of it, the rest of the fandom should try to steer them in the right direction. they're not our responsibility, but we can't just complain about them without at least trying to help them hahaha.

that said, give it a couple of years. at some point, most of them will end up in the right place.

[mountainscouts]

stary ideas ….. i feel like gary brings out the best in stan and makes him want to be a better person, while stan brings out the “worst” in gary by irritating him or something, haha.

just imagine stan being his usual self, and gary suddenly bursting out something like “god, will you just can it already!?” and then going on a large rant about how he doesn’t know how someone can be so self-absorbed, etc… and stan being… possibly completely enamored with this. idk, just think about it. thoughts ? would be fun to write about or just daydream of lol.

i would love to hear about what you think of their dynamic, though ! i really enjoy longer discussions on characters and their relationships with others, just because of how subjective and interpretive it is, therefore being more interesting.

i absolutely LOVE character/relationship analysis, honestly. like, urgh, yes this is south park but god sometimes the base personalities of these characters could be so interpretive like you said.

i also love this idea tbh, it totally coincides with how i picture their dynamic to be. stan definitely is inspired by gary to be a better person with how charitable of a person he is and how much hope he has in stan that stan cant say he has for himself. i feel like stan lacks plenty ambition and is relatively go-with-the-flow later on to a detriment, and gary can act as some sort of stable anchor in his life. it's no question that stan would put gary on some sort of pedestal, but not out of acute resentment or hardcore adoration— but because of the their differences between them. in due time, i'm sure stan will realize his worth with the help of gary. but of course he will never stop being in awe of him and his actions. there will almost always be some sort of dissonance between the two, but because of how much they connect, they will work through it.

now for gary showing his "worst" around stan. i think i understand what you mean. gary, to me, is someone who was raised to stay composed and calm. those traits are very inherent to his nature, but his patience rarely ever runs thin— which may sound nice, but it's not. being taught that rash & negative emotions were bad, and to keep those emotions at bay, definitely damaged his psyche. he probably doesn't allow himself to get mad, and when he does— it's a whole thing for him.

imagine they get into an argument about stan's character, like you said, and gary bursts out at stan in similar vein to the piece of dialogue you wrote. stan is definitely caught off guard by gary's anger because it's just so rare of him to lash out like that. he's definitely mesmerized. it honestly parallels to the end of s7012, where gary tells stan how it is while he just stands there like :o

stan at that moment, would know he fucked up badly. and as much as hes shit at diffusing a situation, the need to make things right is more apparent than ever. obviously, stan can't change overnight and with the flip of a dime, but its situations like this where that aforementioned inspiration to be better comes from. while this may sound twisted, gary ends up appreciating what stan does for him— including getting him that angry.

that may sound... weird... but gary definitely has problems about showing how he truly feels, and while stan may bring out the "worst" in him, he knows that these intense emotions are from a place of deeply caring about stan and wanting to see him get better. of course, the two end up apologizing but i can imagine after their conversation gary goes, "thank you for being one of the only real things in my life." or something like that. idk.

[milflewis]

Niamh, HG AU, I so desperately want everyone's backstory here. The Michael and Lewis bit is honestly what completely did it for me, punched me in the gut. God. And then -- Mick!!! Hello! Sobbing

Let's start with Seb being a mentor tho bc...yes. He would be and the hope, the emotional investment... I can't bear it, actually. With Lewis, the clients...skin crawling, also, the trident, the secrets instead of money....you're not planning on giving him the same ending as Finnick, right, because, don't.

Sewis tho, how did they happen. What is their story. Also. How did they win their games. And! Does Lewis get reaped again during the Quarter Quell. Am I getting this right. The angst, holy fuck

PIERRE AS KATNISS AND YUKI AS PEETA why is this so PERFECT. The scene with the berries. I haven't seen this scene in years and suddenly I was right back. You're mine now!!??? Help help help. I actually felt like kicking my feet when you wrote Pierre covering a quick grin right after their victory was announced. He's clever!!! Your spin on this scene...I want more of these two right now, I'm obsessed

ok so this got reallllly long lol sorry. i'm just so!!!!!! about this au

at his heart sebastian is a teacher. a mentor. every year he tries and every year he fails. he can never be enough bc no one person is enough to change The Games. he keeps trying anyway.

lewis is. finnick adjacent ahsjdaj. i do Not plan to kill him off lmao dw!!! but i am basing a lot of his story around finnick's. and sewis. ok. think old friends. think an ally where you were once alone. think 'Hamilton has found a friend'.

lewis was fourteen when he was Reaped. fourteen and small and curls down around his ears and skinny ankles. the camera zoomed in on his brother's teary eyes. hamilton had already lost a sister to the games five years ago. he is frowning and quiet and solemn. he speaks very little and chitchat does not come naturally to him. he is a little too wild for comfort. his stylist shaves him near bald and makes his cheeks rosy and tells him to speak as soft as he can. flutter those long lashes. bono, it turns out, is lewis's saving grace bc his mentor, fernando alonso, doesn't look at him after lewis tells him he's washed and old and useless when fernando laughs at lewis saying he's going to win this year. lewis is fourteen and small and the Capitol's Darling when he spears five different tributes in the stomach with a makeshift trident. he has been swimming since he was three. hauling in fishing nets for a little under a decade. those who do not work in district four do not eat. he is the youngest victor ever and michael schumacher tilts his glass at him during the celebrations. he tells lewis to do as they ask, not matter the price. lewis does not listen. his family pays for it.

three years later, sebastian is Reaped, and he's small and fourteen and has small hands and a wide smile. they leave his curls. he laughs and he charms and he plays the demure shy shining golden boy card. sebastian has always been very good at playing this game. he can't stop smiling. he avoids killing until the very end, hiding out and stealing from other tributes. he paints his face and arms and legs and runs through the trees. he kills the last two tributes with his bare hands. michael is his mentor. sebastian does what they ask. he listens.

michael is the one to introduce them, tipsy and grinning and bright eyed. he waits two years until sebastian is sixteen and of age and then leaves. lewis never talks to seb about it. the walls have ears.

it is not until seven years after lewis's games, four years of sebastian talking at lewis, that valtteri bottas is reaped and he's just another face in a series of deaths and he's not even from lewis's district so what does lewis care but valtteri comes up to him in the capitol, a bruise on his cheek, eyes so fucking blue, and says, i want you. lewis laughs in his face, half drunk. your secrets don't interest me. and valtteri rolls his eyes. no. no, i want you to be my mentor. lewis laughs again. no, you don't. valtteri blinks at him, unmoving, hand over the lift's buttons so lewis can't get out. yes, i do. i remember you. in the games. i want you to teach me to do what you do. i need you to. and so lewis does. he helps him and valtteri survives. when sebastian congratulates him, it's the first time he ever sees lewis smile.

they talk more after that. fernando and lewis switch being mentor year to year. sebastian is district twelve's only victor so he never stops. sometimes when they're both in the Capitol, lewis finds sebastian already tucked into lewis's bed in his apartment. he always has lewis's tea, hot and waiting, in a thermos on the kitchen counter. sometimes he washes lewis's hair and body for him after nights when lewis is working.

lewis does get reaped during the quarter quell and he is soooo annoying to pierre who is Furious over this beautiful cocky smiling man. sebastian is the one to hold him when pierre finds out they left yuki behind in the arena but it is lewis who teaches him how to get up in the mornings despite it all.

(there is a coin tucked into the inside of lewis's shoe during the quarter quell. it is the same one sebastian had around his neck during his games. sebastian holds it so tightly it digs an imprint into his palm when he waits for lewis to wake up on their flight to district thirteen.)

pierre is Nothing if not possessive and he has very little people he counts as his own - charles and alex - and now yuki. maybe sebastian. there are his and he is theirs. fuck the rest of them.

[yandere-sins]

Hey so… what if Atreo already had pups before he met darling (cause in his own words he is such a catch ;) ), how would they fit in with all of this? Would they be accepting of darling or reject them for being human? Maybe attempt to kill them behind Atreo’s back because they see it as shameful? How would Atreo react to that? Would he be as violent if the offender was his own pup? Also, if his previous pups also liked his darling platonically or otherwise, would that make him happy or more possessive cause he doesn’t wanna share?

I can’t speak for the pups (but I did mention before that it was not unlikely he had other children out of his matebond before meeting the reader), but I can say something about Atreo on this. So assuming he really had kids previously, there is always a possibility that they are 1.) not in his life and left the tribe 2.) stay in his tribe but are unhappy with their father’s choice in partner or don’t care 3.) embrace their step-parent and care for them.

1. obviously has no changes for him really if they aren’t present. Though if they come to visit he will proudly introduce his mate and won’t accept any bashing or questioning of his choice, especially since they don’t belong. If the pups are hostile against their father/’s tribe, he’ll hunt them down and try to best them as with any enemy and, of course, not let them near his mate.

2. will make him unhappy since he’d want them to engage and get along. Atreo might try something like inviting them to his nest for dinner or something, like forced proximity where everyone has to be polite to each other for the sake of peace. Like with the other merfolk, he doesn’t mind it so much when they talk behind his back and critize his choice, but if the pups try to harm his partner, he’d probably try to force them out of the tribe and if that doesn’t work, he’d have to kill them even if it makes him a bit sad. But his mate is of higher priority to him.

3. is the best outcome naturally. My merfolk put more emphasize on their mated families rather than the children or partners they have outside of this (it’s a consentual mating regardless with the other partners they have, especially for heat times. And those children are often a community effort when it comes to raising, rather than just their parents), so he isn’t a super emotionally-involved parent to his other pups even though he teaches them and watches them grow up, but he still wants them to get along with his darling and keep up the face of a happy family if they want to stay on the good side of their father. Nevertheless, though he’s more lenient with how much contact and affection they can give and receive from his darling, they should always check with him if it’s okay to touch or get close to them and hog their time. He’ll overlook some misconduct, but he has his boundaries and will lash out at his pups for getting too cozy. His darling isn’t their parent so there is a potential rivalry over mating them with his children and though he’ll forgive them if they apologize and submit to him, he doesn’t let them get away with everything and will be jealous.

It was—and still is—a possible outcome, yes. As is with any monster fucking, tbh xD Proceed at your own risk and preferable with a relaxing serum injected before penetration lol.

[wifeglor]

9, 19 — and 21 for dealers choice of character!

Thank you so much for the asks, and for making this fantastic ask meme!

9. How did you learn to write smut? Were there specific fics or authors that inspired you? Or novels/movies/other texts?

Hmm gosh. I think I've been mostly influenced by fic-reading. I'll go through phases where I read a LOT of fic, including smutfic. After reading/watching some new thing I tend to go through the AO3 tag at speed like a baleen whale consuming krill. Also, reading enough smut fic really gives you a sense of like, the words and moments and acts that come up such that it makes it feel doable to replicate (not saying it's "formulaic" but I was internalizing some of the formulas). And chatting with fandom friends, sort of writing out AUs in a nearly-rp-but-less-structured style, which is something I've been doing in um graphic nsfw detail for way longer than I've written actual smutfic to post, has I think also been really formative in terms of my writing.

But also, I think I've been heavily influenced by the stuff I liked in media in general (and still absolutely am, though for purposes of this question I'm listing the formative oldies). Honestly, rarely sex scenes themselves (though them also), but more the tropes and emotional beats or separate images that really grabbed me and seemed "sexy." Thinking of villainous moments ft. shirtless Gwaine and Morgana from BBC Merlin LMAO, formative. LotR naturally. The Queen of Attolia's descriptions of Irene Attolia, Name of the Wind's descriptions of Denna that baby me had memorized whole paragraphs of by heart--stuff that was plausibly kinda unhorny in these books but in reality sooo very horny. But also various depictions of sex, like the touching & radiant-with-light sex montage of Alicia/Julio's finally getting together in the TV show Gran Hotel. Also, for unbridled PASSION at the MAX despite no actual sex, Sienkiewicz's Trilogy of historical novels, which I wrote my first smut fic for. I also read romance novels ft. erotica from time to time and enjoy them a lot (if there's sufficient DRAMA), and I guess I internalize what I feel like "hits" (or doesn't, ha) in the ways that genre does sex too. It's only been fairly recently that I started to write sex in more detail in my fics and less as like a sort of brief "tasteful" "artistic" (lol) moment--those "moments" gradually grew more description. like a mold--and I still think that kinda shows in my writing in the ways the detail is sometimes not as present or bodily as it could be, and things can get glossed instead of closely inhabited. But hey I like it and am having fun :D

19. Share a favorite passage from one of your smut fics.

Hmmmm hmm. I like this one, from yes many and beautiful things (unwieldy fic but really dear to me still):

Maedhros doesn’t resist him, not on this. When Maglor coaxes pleasure from his scarred body, Maedhros lets him.

He was unmade for pleasure in Angband. He had sought to render himself the unbreakable shackle to the mountainside, the sheer cliff—but Maglor plays upon him as well as any instrument, transforming him into something alive and enjoying. Maedhros barely hears the low, ragged noises he makes, barely sees the gleam of Maglor’s eyes beneath dark lashes, as he spills down Maglor’s sweet-voiced throat.

The silence is no silence—it is Maglor choking and swallowing and Maedhros panting, the air about them like a tide in his ears.

Maglor wipes his mouth and looks very pleased with himself, though he struggles to catch his breath. His eyes are dark and dizzy.

Maedhros seizes two scraps of his strength and tugs Maglor up to him by the shoulder, none too gently. He kisses him and devours the sweet startled sound, the taste of his pleasure in Maglor's mouth, the flush, full press of Maglor's cock against his thigh as Maglor falls in a graceless drape atop him.

"Maedhros," Maglor keens.

The Sindarin name makes Maedhros all the more desperate. Yes, they are here, not in Aman; that is his name—and Maglor wants him anyway, has— And Maedhros kisses him again, winding his arms around him, pleasure still uncoiling in his own flushed body. He can feel each tremble of Maglor's, holding him so close. At last he tips awkwardly into pressing Maglor upon his back instead and unfolding him. Maglor gasps like a rustling bough when Maedhros palms over him, and both their hands trip over each other reaching for the vial of oil in its niche. Maedhros is quicker, and he tugs the cork free with his teeth.

(the VIAL OF OIL lolol... but still...)

21. Share a smutty headcanon about [character(s)].

Finrod is an effortless and true neutral switch. He just wants to have fun and he just wants his partner to have fun. I feel like he's so comfortable bottoming that that might happen more often in his long and varied life, but where that comfort and willingness comes from is the same place as the wellspring of confidence and affection that makes him such a good dom and/or top. xoxo

[bisluthq]

I 100% agree with everything you said about the harm that comes from denying these procedures!! I was one of those teenagers who didn’t understand why my face and body didn’t look like the 30 year old playing a teenager on a tv show, and it only got worse as I got older UNTIL I knew all the work they’d had.

As a teen the best thing for me was this beauty campaign that was done by some trashy magazine where they got a bunch of famous women and did a big photo shoot together. Then they showed the difference in the women with how they came in (no makeup, no hair extensions, no blow out, etc), how they looked after x many hours in the HMU chair + the cost of the clothes and that they were altered to fit their bodies… then they showed the final version that goes to print and said how much photo shopping had been done. It was seriously enlightening and helpful. At the time I used to get a lot of compliments on my hair - I was just lucky and used cheap shampoo but had thick and glossy long hair, never had it coloured and my mum cut it for me lol, so like budget maintenance right. But it fucked with my head as a teenager that I was always being told how great my hair was but when I styled it, it NEVER looked as good as the starlets I was copying (many reasons including not knowing what I was doing and lack of products) but then I found out THEY ALL HAD EXTENSIONS for thickness! Mindy kaling mentioned in one of her books that trying to look like someone on tv is impossible because everyone has false lashes, extensions and so much more “natural looking” stuff even before they get into styling.

I do have a lot of body image issues still, but it’s so much better when I’m wondering why I don’t look as toned? Oh because they also spray tan and body contour their muscles!

Why can’t I pull off this hair style? Oh right I don’t have twice the thickness in extensions!

Etc etc etc

And then some people are like ‘what? YOU THOUGHT IT WAS NATURAL?!?’ But in a really derogatory way when people say they have body image issues. But until you know every part of their body has been touched up, WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU THINK?!!

Now I just assume most famous people have something and have gotten better at not comparing myself to them and generally recognising when people have had work done. But even my sister I’m pretty sure got some wonky fillers and says she hasn’t had anything (where I live it’s not unheard of or shocking, but definitely not common to get fillers or Botox)

I mean most women I’m friends with AND my sister get fillers and Botox. I haven’t ever and I don’t want to right now but I might when I’m older for maintenance more than anything else? I’m not crazy pretty at all but I’m happy with my face and the things I’d like to change (my nose for example I don’t like and my lips aren’t even - the bottom one is thicker than the top and obviously that’d be nice to fix) would change my face too dramatically imo and I wouldn’t be willing to do that just personally because I don’t think I’d like to wake up and see a different face lol? I’m okay with my face. I do want it to stay this way for as long as possible but besides that eh it is what it is. My friends and I discuss work a lot idk because as I say basically everyone has had some done. A lot of the guys in my social circle also do work tbf. Quite a few guys have had hair transplants for example. A few have started Botox. My bf is VERY classically handsome and actually hasn’t done any of that but more because he’s worried like once he starts he’s gonna get very obsessive about it and try look 22 again and obviously he isn’t lol. He does gym a lot and plays sportz but face wise he’s not as into doing things as a lot of our other friends.

I think talking about this stuff is really healthy?? Because yes as you say, so many teenage girls (and teenage boys) don’t know that what they’re looking at is totally unrealistic. No matter what they do, unless they start spending money, they’re not going to look like that.

I’m also huge on celebs being honest about diet and gym lmao because unless you work VERY hard, you won’t look like that. Which is fine and normal and if you want to look a certain way, that’s what most people will have to do to join u, but don’t be like “oh I eat anything I want” when you clearly fucking don’t.

And I don’t think it’s stupid teenage you believed this was just normal nice makeup and pretty hairstyles and a healthy lifestyle because no one really talked about all this stuff.

[mikuni14]

Be My Favorite Ep 6

Every episode of BMF impresses me with how realistic it is. Most of what happens in this show has either been experienced by me or I’ve seen it happen to someone else. The conversations are so real and have a natural flow. This is the kind of cinematography that I love the most, where it doesn't matter if the production is about time travel, sci-fi, ancient Rome. If the production has a logical plot and is universal on the principle that as a human being I can see myself or other different than me people in it, even if the story is crazy, I'll love it 💖

I noticed that in each episode of BMF I focus on something else, this time it was struggling with the problem of a sick family member. Everything Kawi went through in this episode is painfully real, and I think a lot of people will find themselves in those situations. Being sick with worry, the financial aspect of it all, long queues for treatments, euphoria of finding a quicker solution, how to start a converstation about it and not sound stupid, or like a beggar, to not ruin it?, humiliation when you have to ask for money, for a chance for your loved one TO LIVE, how rich people are detached from this humiliating reality (I fully understand Kawi running away from that dinner, his lashing out on Pisaeng, when Pear cutely asks her father to help Kawi's father as if she were asking him for money to buy new shoes, not to save someone's life), discouragement and wanting to give up and finally, gritting your teeth, forgetting about the dignity and literally begging for help. And Kawi's conversation with his father, who is so stubborn, and whines and doesn't want to go to the doctor because "everything is fine" and "worry about yourself".... I don't know if there is anyone in the world who hasn't had such a conversation with their father they care about 😤😅

When Max said he liked what the politician was saying, my first thought was: oh my sweet summer child. But then I remembered he's only about 20, so that's understandable. The whole conversation between Pisaeng and his mother (and the politician in question) was very interesting. And I wasn't even very angry with her, because this woman IS a politician and unfortunately that's what it looks like. Is what she's doing to her son wrong? Absolutely. But sadly, that's the reality. Somehow I immediately remembered a sentence, I think it was from the series My Gear And Your Gown, it went something like this: parents are okay with this whole LGBT thing, as long as it’s not about their children. Who Piseang is, including his sexual orientation, can affect his mother's political career, so he is placed under surveillance. She’s accepting towards other people from the community, she also accepts her son, but she looks at him not only as a mother, but also as a politician. Again, the series showed the reality without sugarcoating. From time to time, stories from the family life of the famous politicians break through the news, their hypocrisy in saying one thing and doing something else. BMF does it quite gently anyway, and the mother is shown as a liberal person, while in reality, often in conservative environments, children’s life (not only LGBT, simply DIFFERENT than the ideal with which you can pose for a photo) is a nightmare. 

What else? With sort of motherly fondness, I watched my boy Kawi "I'm totally in love with Pear and totally straight" as he accepts another guy's feelings, talks to him about those feelings, asks him about them, touches that guy, plays with his hair, kisses him, lets him do other things (although he lies like a log and looks like he “closed his eyes and thinks about England” lol, ok I know he's drunk but it’s just so funny). Yes Kawi, you are definitely in love with a woman and nothing LGBT happens to you at all. You almost convinced us all. 

I was afraid that upset Pear would agree to a go on a “date” with Not just because he talked to her. Fortunately, the girl knows her worth and I hope she will know it for the rest of her life. The converstation about Kawi's orientation was HORRIBLE. Not started it probably to stop Pear’s potentially budding feelings for Kawi, which just proves how awful he is. Anyway, it was so wrong and gross.

✨Kawi is still my beloved, ‘perfect in how imperfect he is’, struggling boy, ✨Piseang is still my beloved, ‘perfect in how he appears to be perfect, but is in fact imperfect’, lonely boy. Both are great, I haven't seen such interesting, compelling characters in a long time, I’m so happy 🥺 

I like everything about this series. 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖