#based on their last interaction with each other and that's putting it mildly

[absurdthirst]

Kinktober 2022: October 17th

Day 17: Hate Fucking // Pussy Slapping // Medical Play

Frankie Morales x F!Reader

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: Mentions of spitting, hate fucking, pussy slapping, mildly dub-con, hair pulling, face slapping

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Click Keep Reading only if you have read the Rating and Warnings and understand the warnings may not be complete to avoid listing spoilers. As AO3 says 'creator chooses not to use warnings'. You also agree that you're the right age to be consuming anything here.

You’ve ignored him for seven days, five hours and twenty-three minutes. Not that you are counting, you wouldn’t let Francisco Morales know that you would give him the time of day or a passing thought again after the last time you had actually looked him in the eyes. 

Maybe you shouldn’t have spit at him, but you stand by your decision that you would never, never, let that man touch you again. Especially when you had seen him leaning in and giggling with that Air Force twit with the huge tits. 

It doesn’t affect your job. You don’t have to talk to the pilot in order to be able to carry out your missions. For the rest of the team, they don’t even notice a difference. There has always been a chilly report between the two of you. Neither one of you particularly cared for the other in social settings - more that you were polite acquaintances - pretending the other didn’t exist until you were required to interact. 

None of the team knew about the sex. The blowing off steam and using each other because it was convenient. Not that was over and Catfish could spend the rest of this deployment fuckign his hand or chasing whatever pussy he could around the base. You hope he catches the clap. 

“Are you done pouting?” Suppressing the urge to jump, your shoulders turn towards the voice in the dark, watching as Frankie steps out from the side of one of the builds. Obviously waiting for you. 

Narrowing your eyes, you scoff. “It’s a good way to get shot, Morales.” You tap the thigh holster that your beretta is clipped into. Your constant companion on the FOB unless you are showering or in PT gear. 

“Please.” Frankie rolls his eyes and steps closer to you. “You’re a shit shot, especially with the pistol.” 

“Night.” Your flat tone signals that you are done with the conversation, turning on your heel to walk the half dozen steps to the conex box that has been converted into a room for you to live in while you are here. 

“You’re jealous.” His crowing is the only thing that could possibly stop you from walking up the steps into the room, closing the door firmly and locking him out for another day. As it is, the timer would have to restart on how long it has been since you’ve spoken to him. 

“You can go fuck yourself, I’m not jealous.” You hiss. “I just came to my fucking senses.” Shooting him a smirk that you know will grate on his nerves. “Thank God.” 

When your door is closed, your smirk drops and you grit your teeth. Hating yourself for fucking giving him anything. You should have pretended he wasn’t there at all. From now on, he doesn’t exist. 

****

“PUT ME DOWN, MORALES!” You could get out of this hold. It would take one - well placed kick to the solar plex and he would drop you to the dirt and allow you to kick his ass like you are itching to. But it would create an even larger spectacle and you won’t give him the satisfaction. You go limp, smirking happily when the sudden shifting of your weight causes him to curse. You hope his back fucking aches. 

“If you hadn’t been such a spoiled little bitch, I wouldn’t have to carry your ass off.” He hisses, reaching up and smacking your ass sharp enough to make you gasp and he chuckles while you imagine the hundred different ways you are going to kill and dismember him when he puts you down. 

He doesn’t put you down, not until he closes your door and tosses you on your bed hard enough to make you bounce on the very firm mattress. “I’m going to fucking kill you.” You are springing back up, ready to throw hands when he pushes you back down a second time, fingers dragging down the shorts you wear when you work out. 

He knows you are bare underneath, bucking and fighting him as he yanks them down and pins your legs spread with those broad fucking shoulders of his that you hate. “Are you really?” He sneers, smirking up at you with the most condescending look he can muster. “Are you really going to kill me? Looks like you’re wet.” 

“It’s sweat.” You try to close your thighs, knocking your right knee against that shoulder that gives him fits sometimes and getting a jolt of pleasure when he hisses. “Last thing I’m going to do is be wet for you.” 

Frankie shakes his head, his expression challenging, and you see where his cock is already hard under his own shorts. “We’ll see.” 

“I not fucking you.” You hips buck up again and you swat at his head, a swing that both of you know you could have made connect if you really want to. “So get off. Go fuck your hand, fuck someone else.” 

“But you’re right here.” Frankie draws, pushing up your ARMY t-shirt and sports bra. “Why go somewhere else when I fuck the attitude out of you?” 

You snort, bucking your hips up again and shaking your head. “Over my dead body.” 

The sharp sting of pain on your clit makes you cry out, eye wide and shocked - flying to meet his dark orbs when you realize this motherfucker just slapped your pussy. And is fucking smirking about it.

It hurt and felt amazing at the same time. A sharp jolt to your clit that makes it throb. The part of you that doesn’t hate him with every fiber of your being wants to beg him to do it again, while he’s buried to the hilt inside you. 

The first time the two of you fucked, you were bent over, unable to see his cock before he pushed inside you. He was a fucking asshole and you despise him, but you can’t deny the prick has a big fucking cock. You had ached for days, not that you would admit that to him. Internalizing the winces and pretending you weren’t affected at all when in reality, your pussy was on fire just sitting still. You understood why when you got a look at him, the damn thing was as thick as your wrist and he still had the length to feel like he was pushing up into your throat. 

Anger, frustration and something else mix in his eyes and instead of fighting it, fighting him, you decide to turn the tables. 

Your legs move from his shoulder to his head, closing around it and locking together while you push up off the bed. Twisting and using your weight to throw him off balance and roll him under your, your cunt inches from his mouth and for a split second you want to sit on it. To bury his face in your sweaty, wet cunt. 

Instead you slap away his hands harshly, untangling your legs and moving down, your own hands pulling at his shorts, you don’t give a shit that you are still in running shoes and your sports bra digs into your skin and pushes your tits down. If you’re going to fuck, you are going to be in charge. 

“Th-thought you were weren’t going to fuck me?” He challenges reaching out to swat at your tit and he catches your nipple, 

“Shut the fuck up.” You hiss, glaring up at him, your grip around his cock probably tighter than you should have on it, but it doesn’t stop you from squeezing to make his breath hitch. “You fucking started this.” 

It’s just fucking, you tell yourself as you straddle him and start to sink down on his thick fucking cock. It’s only because he won’t leave and this is where it was going from the second that you had told him you weren’t fucking him again. It was a challenge and Frankie hates to lose. Instead of being defeated, you are changing the rules. You are using him for your pleasure. 

“God, you are never fucking happy.” Frankie huffs, fingers digging into your hips and biting his lip when you bottom out, taking him to the very root and squeezing him in your tight walls. “Always pissed about something.” 

“Hate you.” You practically moan the words, not giving yourself a moment to adjust to the way his cock stretches your lips wide. Immediately starting to bounce on his lap in order to get off as quickly as possible, the sting of it adding to the pleasure of having a cock inside you. You close your eyes, refusing to look at him while you set a frantic pace. 

Another sharp thwack against your cunt has your eyes springing open, shocked again that he is doing that. You don’t hate it, not the way your cunt flutters around him. 

“I hate you.” He snarls, trying to take back some control. Reaching up and squeezing a tit harshly and making you smother a cry when he pinches your nipple harshly. “Hate how you fucking act. Like a spoiled brat.” He huffs. “Pouting and pitching a fit.” 

“Fuck you.” 

“Are you sitting on my cock?” He demands with a chuckle. “I am, sweetheart.” 

Growling, you curl his hair in your fist and yank it. Enjoying the way that he hisses in pain and his cock jolts inside you. Fucker likes it but he’s scowling so you do it again. 

“Never doing this again.” You hiss, rolling your hips a little fast as the heat and pressure curl in your core and you start to feel that sweet ache building. Chasing the whisper of it every time you slam back down on him. 

“Never.” Frankie agrees, pissing you off even more, letting go of his hair and slapping his cheek far harder than you had meant to when the sharp crack sounds out. 

You freeze for a split second, horrified at what you had actually done. Despite everything you had never slapped him. Not even able to open your mouth to apologize before Frankie is snarling. 

You are on your back in a second, the force of it pushing the air out of your lung, along with a much more quiet yelp than you would normally give when Frankie lunges forward and drives his cock back inside you. 

“Tired of your shit.” He grunts harshly, reaching up and taking hold of your throat. “Tired of you fucking pushing- bitching, lashing out at me.” 

You would comment, you’ve got a lot to say to him, but every swing of his hips pushes the ability to speak out of you. Leaving nothing but tiny gasps all you can muster as he huffs another chuckle. 

“Not-thing to say now?” He taunts, fingers flexing and your thighs start to shake around his hips. The pressure and angle is just what you need and yet you are trying to fight the oncoming wave of pleasure with everything you've got. 

You glare up at him, opening your mouth and all that comes out is a moan. Making Frankie grunt and nod, still driving his hips forward and pounding into you with zero regard for how you are going to walk tomorrow. Seemingly determined to completely rearrange your guts while he bares his gritted teeth and hisses through them, the look on his face feral. 

“F-fuck y-y-you.” You finally manage, huffing it out as your entire body rocks forward and back from the way that he hammers into you. Again those fingers around your throat tighten and your eyes close, back bowing up as you silently cry out. 

It’s explosive, almost nuclear as the force of it rips through you. Making your entire body contort and contract in pleasure and the hot rush of your release shoots out, soaking him and the material of his shorts bunched up at his knees. 

Making him groan, loud and his body lunges forward, lips pressing to yours while he drives so deep into your cunt that you swear he is touching your tonsils. Teeth biting and this his tongue soothing your lip before his tongue sweeps inside your mouth. Pouring his sounds into you while his cock steadily pulses, ropes of cum painting your walls while he rocks his hips slower than before. 

Your eyes close, panting and boneless under him, both of you softening for just a moment as you come down together. You might not be able to stand him - at least not that you can admit -  but the hate fucking is amazing. 

[wanderlust-----witch]

3, 7, 12 and 20! polytheist asks >:D

Oh you want me to THINK? You want me to use my BRAIN??? You are EVIL Cheshi lol

3: Is your practice more ritualistic or casual? What does it look like?

Oh my practice is extremely casual. I always hated the strict religious upbringing I had. "You do it this way, or else!". Nah fam, that's not cool. Everyone is gonna have their own way to worship, have faith, and perform religion (Yes I believe religion is a performance, but that's for another time lol). Anyways, I don't generally do much in the way of ritual because that's so much fucking work. I prefer just kinda chilling with Nyx on the full moon and calling it a night lol.

7: What does your ideal altar look like?

Chaotic, unhinged, and personal. I don't need it to be set up perfectly or invoke certain vibes, unless trash fire goblin is a vibe lmao. I really just put whatever on my altar I think fits. Right now, unfortunately, my altar isn't exactly what I want, because I don't really have space and the last time I set up an altar, Goose knocked it over. She was a brand new baby then, but even so I'd rather play it safe. I have this great cabinet at my parents house I plan on repainting and using when we have a house of our own. Its a really great size, glass doors so I can see what's inside, and bonus: cat's won't break any glass bottles on my altar lol. Rn I just have this very cue little moon shelf about 3 inches wide on a windowsill.

12: How important is mythology in your practice? How much credit do you give it?

I mean, mythology is the sourcework of all of my beliefs. I wouldn't have found Nyx, Hekate, Athena, and Artemis without Greek mythology, Bast without Egyptian mythology, or Loki without Norse mythology. Do their stories have any bearing on my beliefs? Not really. Them being the deities of their respective realms is all I really need. I know Nyx as the night, Hekate as magic, Athena as wisdom and intelligence, Artemis as the protectress, Bast as the keeper of cats, and Loki as chaos. How I interact with them is more based on my needs, versus what they have "done" in the myths that survived. Myths aren't any bit literal, just like any other religious text. We as humans are always interpreting things based on our own preconceived notions, our own beliefs, and that's not always what the original source intended. In fact, I'd argue that any human interpretation of the divine is automatically wrong. No single human belief can 100% be accurate. We will all have our own ideas of how things work. I, as a singular person, should not put any undue influence on myths that I personally think are worth "more" just because they are considered to be valid religious texts (cough cough Christians and the Bible cough cough). Myths are stories. They're fun, its fun to imagine our deities in various human scenarios. But the Divine are much more complex than their myths. I give the myths the same level of credibility I would any other that indirectly influenced my way of viewing the world. I wouldn't be who I am without the sum of the things I've read and learned over the years.

20: List a few of the deities you worship and associate each with a quote you think represents them best!

Oh lordy, you're killin me with this one Chesh lol.

Nyx: "I see the moon and the moon sees me/Nyx bless the moon and Nyx bless me" (see what I did there lmao?)

Bast: Specifically the same noise my cat makes when shes singing in the mirror. That it that's the quote lol.

Athena: All that bullshit about "tomato is a fruit but you don't put it in a fruit salad" lol. Also "Ho don't do it... oh my god" for whenever I do something (even mildly) foolish lol

Loki: OKAY SO little bit of backstory here: when I was just getting into my paganism, I was in a really shitty spot in life, physically, mentally, you name it. I came up with this phrase to help get me through it, and I generally proclaimed that anything wrong in my life was because of Loki (AS A JOKE, THEY LOVED IT). The quote was: May the deity who looks upon me in disdain look upon you with favor. It got me through shit, still does, and I still love Loki, even if they aren't my main deity anymore.

CHESHI YOU ROCK

[keeperoftinyarmy]

The problem is not tae but jikookers. jikookers are starting to become the new taekookers, with their theories "jikook are private, they can't appear together in public" or "jimin was sleeping or hiding in the bathroom". Why jikookers can't accept that Jimin wasns't there, and he didn't go to Jk's home even if Jk invited him. You can't change the narrative when you want. First, jikook were the members always together and blah blah. No problem. Now, jikook are the private couple lmao. Sure. Jimin and Jungkook could meet if they want. Everytime Jk invited Jimin, he knew that Jm was working lmao. And when Jm was free like the last night, he didn't go to Jk's anyway .... so when exactly they meet in person? Jikookers last months ago: "Jm is so busy! And Jk can spend time with friends!!" Jimin is not busy anymore, what is your new excuse... How can you be so delulu...(not you, I mean, jikookers with their delulu theories).

IMO…

Shippers…all shippers have theories and speculations…it comes with the territory. Not seeing all and not knowing the people personally makes minds run wild. Some ships have more circumstantial evidence than others but really it’s all a whole lot of a filling in blanks.

There’s ALWAYS been speculation with jikook…from the theories about hiding in hotel bathrooms, theories about secret codes, speculations about living arrangements, theories about fights, the meanings of bandaids…you name it. Jikook has never been immune from this.

The difference between TK and Jikook is that the TK ship is based on the narrative that Jimin is a flirtatious home wrecker (putting it mildly) and in the way of Tae and JK’s happiness. This story is so widespread and ubiquitous in the fandom that even non shippers know about it and absorb parts of it into their view of Jimin. It also has caused some overzealous fans to start to hate Jimin because they perceive him as a threat.

Unfortunately all the hate towards Jimin over the years has caused some jikook shippers and Jimin fans to have some negativity towards Tae and they now perceive him as the cause of Jimin hate. (He’s not. Tae cannot be held accountable for the actions of his fans) Tae and Jimin claim each other as besties to this day. And I have no reason to believe anything has changed. He would never be a JM anti.

Also BTS is on a break…we see them even less. This leaves time for fan imaginations to run amuck. And while this was common to find in the TK ship, since there was no tangible evidence of extraordinary closeness since like 2015 …it’s new (and noticeable) for jikookers.

Jikook is a ship that has been sailing (with the aid of JM and JK tbh) for years. They were in content together regularly and we were spoiled. Now we actually still are spoiled (comments on lives and weverse, cameo in a behind, JK doing his own Jimin reaction video) but it still feels like not enough because it’s far less than what we had.

So while I can see some of your points anon, I cannot agree with your ultimate conclusion. It’s not delusional to think Jikook still interact even without “seeing” it. With all that they’ve said about each other over the years and with all they said and shown now…

1- JM saying he’s seen all of JK’s lives

2 - JK knowing Jimin’s songs and choreo

3- JK asking Jimin over on his lives - yes I think they’ve seen each other but not as often because of work

4- Jimin wanting JK to visit him at work more often

5- JK’s Jimin themed live - this was a big example of who Jimin is to JK imo

6- Jimin putting a JK clip in his IG story

…there’s no reason to think they still aren’t close.

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (November 5, 2007)

November 5, 2007 saw the release of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am: a real-life video game based on television’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force. A golfing game with a few non-golfing interludes, such as fighting off familiar monsters on each course and some golf-cart racing. You interact with all kinds of characters from the show; a MONSTERS ROW if you will.

Reviews for the game itself are pretty poor, and I can’t really speak to that because I didn’t actually play this game. I watched a compilation of cut scenes and some game play footage. The cut scene compilation excludes some other material, namely the color commentary bits that play as each course loads. There’s a straight-laced “Commentator Guy” and the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future. Cybernetic Ghost’s lines are really funny. There’s also some mechanic where you collect footage that you can view from the menu screen but I didn’t successfully find it in any of the youtube videos I watched. I didn’t really look that hard, to be fair. And there was no way I was going to watch a 4-hour play through of this game.

The cut scenes roughly make up almost two episodes worth of content, and they are rendered in a mildly-off-putting computer-animated style, similar to the Drinky Crow show. It’s not ideal, but it suits the game fine, honestly.

And… that’s basically it. I’ll be honest, I was looking for some kind of wonderful reward for watching these cut scenes; like a truly notable nugget or surprise. Like, a Space Ghost cameo would’ve been neat, or something like that. There were mildly interesting things, like the fact that Patton Oswalt seems to have returned to reprise his Frat Alien characters (their initial appearance sounds like they just repurposed old show audio, but unique dialogue began springing up). I could be missing a few things from not sitting through game-play footage, as there are characters who show up during game-play that don’t show up during the cut scenes. But man, am I glad that I didn’t buy this game back in 2007. Mostly because I wouldn't have anything to play it on.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace #1: “Once upon a Beginning” (November 9, 2007 - 11:00PM)

In an earlier review of Saul of the Mole Men, I touched on the concept of the “fake show”. This would definitely qualify. Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is an artificial rerun; a seemingly repackaged old series with new interview segments featuring the cast as well as it’s star and main creative driving force Garth Marenghi. Marenghi is a popular and prolific Stephen King styled author who briefly dabbled in television Despite the self-agrandizing claims that the show was too shocking or ahead of it’s time for 1980s television, what we see is actually quite shoddy and poor, laughably so. Sorta like a comic parody of a schlocky B-movie, presented by straight-faced actors who are, in turn, portrayed by very funny British people. Matthew Holness plays Garth Marenghi who plays Dr. Rick Dagless. His pal and series co-creator Richard Ayoade plays Dean Learner, who plays Thornton Reed. Dean Learner is Garth’s publisher in fake-real life, and is a particularly terrible actor on the series. Dean Learner actually got his own spin-off fake talk show, which I’ve never seen. Is it good?

There’s also Matt Berry, one of my favorite guys. This was my introduction to him. I mean, this was my introduction to all of these people. Even that broad. What's her deal anyway? Sorry for being sexist for knowing about the guys on the show and not the lady.

In 2009, Adult Swim would bring more British shows to the channel and attempt to launch a British comedy block. It didn’t last too long, but we got some great shows on American television at least. This one was pretty hard to come by at the time; I knew of people importing the region 2 DVD, and this was a godsend.

[shyrose57]

I have to be gone for a bit, some I’m just gonna dump a bunch of Double Life/Empires stuff here for ya’ll to do what you wish with.

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

-Empires AU where Shubble and Scott are siblings. Scott was born without magic, and ran away after they used some not so good magic to try and give him some. Neither of them recognize each other when they meet back in Empires.

-Puss In Boots AU where Mayor Lizzie teams up with sad lonely man Scott from Chromia and the Goblin King Fwhip to go on some great big adventure to save the other rulers after they mysteriously disappear or something. Or, local guy in kind of hard to find kingdom finds a goblin and a cat with a sword on his doorstep and now they’re all on a roadtrip together.

-I think it’d be funny if Scott’s kingdom was kind of super hard to find despite being in the open, based on how few visitors he got in his episodes. And if all anyone knew was the slogan. I want Chromia to accidentally come off as mildly threatening because nobody knows where it is and somebody heard ‘die’ instead of ‘dye’.

-Everyone’s interactions are just so genuinely funny, especially when you consider it in character. Joel is a god who probably is super great and powerful, but he tries to do one godly thing and the universe goes ‘good luck with that’. Local mortal sheriff and cat mayor are one hundred percent down to pick a fight with god, and honestly? They’d win. They could and would bully him.

-I haven’t watched his Last Life POV, but the fact that Scott really went in fixed Jimmy’s builds in both 3rd and Double Life is genuinely the funniest thing. Especially when the Ranchers were, i can only assume, trying to threaten him at the exact moment he was like ‘oh, i gave you guys windows btw’. Imagine being Tango later on, who’s just like ??? And Jimmy’s like ‘Yeah, Scott does that.’

-The fact that the red lives wanted to get Cleo in on the chaos while she was right there listening??? Superb. 

-I high key want more fics focusing on the girls of the Divorce Quartet, because you really do have Pearl ‘evil in her heart, scares the reds’ and Cleo ‘the bloodthirsty reds want to invite her to kill people with them.’ It’s such a fun contrast to their partners, and I want to see the girls be menacing and feral in their defense. I just want them to be menacing in general, actually.

-Scott’s POV of Ren ad BigB coming to the Ranch really is just him being like ‘i was gonna make them worse but they did that themselves’, and Ren being like ‘Scott will be our couples therapy whether he likes it or not’. 

-The yellow lives low key terrorizing Jimmy was the funniest thing, and Tango was just like ??? He really didn’t know what to do there, and that’s fair, honestly. Imagine being a Red Life, something everyone’s suppose to fear, and the last living Yellows, literal targets just...kidnap your partner, and put him in a box. What would you ev en do??? 

-There is literally so much potential for stories in them, and if I could find the time, i would write so many drabbles. Jimmy and Gem’s encounter with the Warden?? So cool. Joel is a wet cat of a god, but him being the god of Lore?? Of stories?? Literally so much potential to play with??? The fact that the last yellows are the divorce quartet?? How Pearl was protecting Scott while he was herding the goats in?? How the first ones that tore themselves apart were the ones that ended up together again because they’re all that remains??? It’s just so good.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

You know, I really like this moment between Angel and Giles in season 10.

Because, for the most part, everyone is having issues with Angel here (I might break that down in a moment), though they've asked him if he can fly in from London to help them fight Archaeus, though are acting like this towards him (but I get why with stuff that's happened before this)... and I feel it's GILES who steps in here to try and turn things around, with his purposely distracting question about Faith, which is definitely surprising to see (because we all know Angel and Giles' many issues). And it just makes it an even more amazing moment FOR that reason to me.

But as for the reasons for the drama here (the shortened version, anyway):

Angel just found out at this exact moment that Buffy is dating Spike, which he's obviously heartbroken about because he's still in love with her. And when he showed up a tiny bit ago, they'd had a moment where they were talking one-on-one in Willow's room, that I think made Angel think for a second that they were going to get back together (some of the stuff that Buffy was saying may have also led him think this; I'm not blaming Buffy here. It was all just really bad timing, that I really don't know could have been avoided, any way you spin it). And Buffy clearly feels really bad about all of that.

And also in a minute, Angel and Buffy get into an argument about splitting up (not the splitting up part), but the fact that Buffy wants their strongest magic users on Angel's team, in case Archaeus (Angel's great-grand sire) gets control over him (an ability that he has) and they then they all have Angelus to deal with, plus Archaeus. And then Buffy is basically saying, "Tell me I'm not wrong!" and Angel can't, but he's still kind of irritated about it.

Spike is jealous that Angel is here, and that they need him at all, and is worried that Buffy might break up with him and get back with Angel, thus the two of them are fighting like usual.

Angel and Dawn are on really good terms with each other--and are excited to really be getting to know each other for the first time--so Dawn is one of the few exceptions to this mess.

Xander was actually trying with Angel for the first time ever, and it's actually really commendable and all really good, for the most part! Though there's this moment where Xander gets envious when Angel and Dawn hug. Because Xander/Dawn is canon to the comics, but they're broken up for a second here. And I'm guessing in seeing them hug (and with Buffy dating Spike here), he was worried that those two could start dating now? (And speaking of which, Buffy also acted really weirdly to Angel hugging Dawn, so much so that she, like, yanks her out of Angel's arms. o_0 It might be because she feels like she can no longer trust Angel with Dawn or the people she loves--and if so, that's really annoying and ticks me off--but I think it's actually because she was also strangely jealous of this moment... Wow, everyone is just being haunted by the Green-Eyed-Monster in this scene. Because even if she is with Spike right now, she does still have feelings for Angel and we see that while he's there with her in this short season 10 arc).

Willow is also pretty okay with Angel here, though she really doesn't say much or seem to do anything to better or worsen the situation. Edit: Wait. Just kidding. She's really there for Angel later. She's just not very vocal in this scene? Maybe she was just trying to stay out of it, and who can blame her?

So, yeah: this Angel and Giles instance is really nice, imo. And the proof to me that he WAS trying to calm things down, is when you have Angel saying "Everything's good. Real good," and then Giles responding with, "yes. clearly," that seems to be him moreso talking about their situation right then, then the stuff about Angel and Faith in Magic Town that Angel was just speaking about.

[westywallowing]

more of wes' dnf fic recs <3

alright you guys even though no one asked for it here are more of my dnf fic recs :] (pls be aware of readings and tags and remember that I am an adult so read at ur own risk lol) I'll put a 💌 emoji next to the fics that have some graphic/mature content!

"the spaces between words" by effervescentwolf 💌

George ever so slowly allows himself to be completely and utterly in love with Dream.

this has been one of my FAVS recently yall. Dream is just such a whipped sweetheart and is so patient with George. there's nothing more that I love than an unspoken understanding that sometimes verbalizing emotions is hard for people, but that doesn't mean they aren't there :) Affection is A++ here, so much fluff (read tags tho!)

"a brief inquiry into (real) relationships" by quarzfia

Or, Dream's misreads an invite to a wedding, and now has to fake a relationship with the boy he's fallen head over heels for.

look, I know we've all read our fair shares of fake relationship aus, but THIS. THIS IS WHERE ITS AT. I love how the author writes their relationship and how they interact with each other, it's the perfect mix of humor/wit and tenderness that makes it just 🥰

"The Sun Did Not Yet Know" by keepAPlaceForMe

George is the moon god and Dream is a little star who falls in love with him. Over the course of many millennia, he gains a body, a godliness, and a lover.

guys this was written by the loml @demigodfoolish and I still read it all the time, it was based off of my dnf sun and moon au and it is SO SOFT. SO FLUFFY. SO CUTE. please it deserve more hits and love and attention. if you love any writing with a shit tone of space/astronomy references then this is for you

"A Street Cat Named Patches" by lilchip

The cat always made her rounds to Dream's windowsill. It was the one day he followed her home that landed him on George's front lawn.

If you've been looking for a dnf getting together fic with the boys as cat dads, then LOOK NO MORE because here it is. this fic is so fluffy and cute and Dream is so delightfully nervous and caring. amazing. 10/10.

"anything you can do (I can do better)" by Not4typicalwritter

In which Dream and George are each parent of two very wonderfully smart and mischievous daughters who happen to be friends. Oh, and of course, two daughters who are completely sick and done with their stupid rivalry that always gets in the way of their friendship.

The plan? Get them together in time for Prom. Maybe then they'll stop being so annoying.

SINGLE DADS DNF WHO HAVE A PLAYFUL RIVALRY AND THEIR DAUGHTERS TRY TO SET THEM UP. guys I can't scream loud enough about this fic it is SO. GOOD. their rivalry is fucking hilarious and their daughters are very relatable and it's just such a good read. worth every word

"say the word and of course I'll stay" by didnt 💌

They broke up several years ago because George finished college in the states and had to go back home to the UK. It was less of a mutual decision to break up and more George panicking and dumping Dream over a phone call in the summer following George’s graduation.

Now that it’s been years, and George is back working a job in the US, he’s mildly horrified to find out that Dream works for the same company as he does, in the same building, in the same office. In the end, it's a case of realising that a lot of things might change, but the important parts stay the same.

okay okay HEAR ME OUT ON THIS ONE. I love this fic because even though there's angst, and past conflict, they've both aged and matured and (I think) handle the situation very well!! I love how the author has written this because it feels very real; even though you still love someone, time matters, and things don't just immediately click back into place. cute fumbling and slightly awkward encounters ensue but the ending is worth it :) a lovely fic by the amazing @didntstand check out their other fics too!!

"everywhere I go" by sootified 💌

George was convinced that he was the last person on earth after the dead started to come back and he hadn't seen another person for five months.

Turns out, he was wrong. Turns out, there is another person on earth. He grins too much and wheezes like a tea kettle, but there's another person.

okay this fic is definitely a more graphic fic rec of mine, but is SO worth the read. post-zombie apocalypse, George and Dream are some of the last alive. It's definitely one of those fics where the world is ending so the characters resort to humor to cope LMAO its so good. make sure to read the tags, but don't let the MCD tag deter you PLS. I don't want to spoil anything but,,, everyone ends up together and happy and (kind of) alive in the end so :) READ IT its one of the first fics I read in this fandom! if you love dystopian style world building then this is for you

"dance in the rain and my arms" by lazykitkat

Where George is a lonely rain god and the wind god Dream keeps coming up with excuses to be around him

another dnf Gods!au that I just LOVE so much. the way George is generally apathetic and just Chillin with immortality and Dream is so endearing and just wants to get to know him because he's pretty. its so wholesome and it has a part 2 that's just as good. 100/10 amazing read pls. written by the crazy talented @yourlazykitkat !

[sapphire-strikes]

♡Some Pokémon Headcanons Part. 6!♡

Back to villian analysis! This will be the last set of baddies I talk about for a while, I know I still have Sun/Moon to do but I'm gonna push any characters Gen 7 and after to the side for now.

Part. 1 Part. 2 Part. 3 Part. 4 Part. 5

N: Quite possibly the most sympathetic antagonist in the series. N's motives are entirely unselfish and based wholly on what he believes to be right; and while it does change depending on which version you pick, inevitably, N represents the belief in one's ideals, with his world view completely reflective of the environment he grew up in and striving to change it in his image. Whereas the player represents truth, acknowledging and adapting to the world around them and pushing forward to do what's right regardless of what's thrown their way.

• When first encountered, N's impression of the player is just as it had been of any other trainer he'd encountered thus far. He believes you to be just as selfish and misguided as all the rest until he sees the bond you share with your pokemon and something begins to change. You may be unsure of yourself, only looking to help, but even as you stood in the way of Team Plasma, he couldn't help but sense right off that something different about you. When he speaks to your Pokémon he's even more surprised. Whether it be the partner you'd been through many adventures with or the starter you'd been gifted just a week ago, they were filled with love for you.

• While he initially wanted to brush this under the rug as naivety or innocence on the pokemon's part. He couldn't deny he had grown curious about you and after your parting, found that he couldn't get you out of his mind, wanting an excuse to talk to you again later and doing so quite untactfully when inviting you to ride the Faris wheel with him.

• While he never considered human connection something he needed, content with the family he'd made among his pokemon, when finally given the opportunity, he opens up and can't help but tell you the truth of his true identity. At this point, you've hardly managed to form much of an opinion on the guy beside the fact that he seemed a little odd, whereas he's already built up an entire complicated relationship based completely on the fact that you, the first real normal pokemon trainer he's had an interaction with, turned out to be even a mildly nice person with respect for their pokemon. It's almost funny how much it inwardly throws him for a loop and it's the first time he begins questioning his plan if only a little bit.

• Regardless of your reaction to N's ideology, whether it be sympathetic and understanding, or rather straightforward as you call him out for being blinded by his ideals, the two of you form a strange connection after that, running into each other time and time again during your journeys. Each time giving you the opportunity to defend your beliefs but being cut off by circumstances before moving forward once again. And while he couldn't bring himself to admit it, N begins to develop something he didn't think possible, an attachment to another human.

• After he awakens Zekrom and returns to his castle, I feel like the way he so passionately challenges you to battle him is his way of trying to push away those feelings. He's spent his whole life full of disdain for the evil that so easily settles itself into human hearts and is full of guilt and confusion at the idea that he would almost consider a trainer a friend. But sealing your connection to each other, you're chosen as the hero of truth and battle him with Reshiram at your side. In the end, your truth, the truth of the relationship between people and pokemon, is stronger than any ideals.

• When Ghetsis shows his true colors, truthfully, N wasn't as hurt by it as one would think. Up until now, N had never put trust into any human, that included the members of Team Plasma even if he was loyal to them. So initially, Ghetsis' reveal only made him feel stupid for having not been more careful and potentially endangering the lives of pokemon by working with him so blindly.

• His first thought is to brush Ghetsis' betrayal under the rug as what was to be expected of human behavior and not let it bother him, but when he looked to you, a pokemon trainer, no, a human, that had fought so hard for the truth and the future of all pokemon, he realized he had so much more to learn about the world and that his old way of thinking was flawed.

"There's no way a person like me, someone who understands only Pokémon— No, actually… I didn't understand them, either. No way could I measure up to you, when you had met so many Pokémon and were surrounded by friends…"The Champion has forgiven me, and… What I should do now is something I'll have to decide for myself."

• It's a rather unsatisfying goodbye at the time, but N bids you farewell and leaves with Zekrom shortly after, deciding he had much to think about, his whereabouts became unknown afterward.

• You and Looker's attention is instead directed to locating the remaining sages before leaving Unova. If you're clearly worried about N, Looker will notice and attempt to launch an investigation into his whereabouts, but the only clue turning up a couple of months later is a reported sighting of the legendary pokemon spotted flying towards the ocean with someone on its back. Looker doesn't think much of it when he reports it to you, hoping to have found something more solid but it's enough to assure you that he's alive so you're thankful.

• Then sometime later while in the middle of another case, you receive a report that Team Plasma has begun activity again in Unova and Looker swears he's never seen you jump on a case so fast.

• Since the first disbandment of Team Plasma, N has been doing some soul searching, returning to the forest he grew up in to be with his friends. And while more time around pokemon might seem like the last thing that he would need, the whole ordeal weighed on him much more heavily than he was prepared to admit so he turned to those he knew he could trust for comfort. This also gave him time to think about his relationship with Ghetsis and the player and how both of their connections to him meant more to him than he initially thought.

• Even if he wasn't yet ready to face the world when N himself heard of the return of Team Plasma, he jumped to investigate as well. Going to Alder, the only other person he could think to turn to, to ask for info. You were already well into the thick of it by the time he made it back to Central Unova and Alder informed him you had gone on your own to stop Ghetsis, prompting N to go after the both of you as well.

• While N was still struggling with his ideals, Ghetsis was his father, living proof of N's own humanity, so while still vulnerable, N attempted to reach out to him. To bad Ghetsis had no humanity left to spare. And instead, N once again found reassurance in your sense of truth, as the two of you worked together to defeat him.

• In some ways, his relationships with both of you were similar. As his father, Ghetsis was living proof that N himself was indeed human. He always knew that was something he couldn't change, the fact that he was born a human that is, but he'd always hoped he could rise above it with his ideals and actions. That was until you came along and proved it wasn't as simple as that. You provided him with something unique that he'd never had before, a human connection.

• It can be said that the connection a human can have with a pokemon can be just as strong, and that would be very true; but there is something different that comes from a friendship between two of the same species. There's a reason most pokemon form packs after all, or why some people prefer to live in populated areas. It's not necessarily better or worse, but there's a reason nonetheless. The idea that he was human had always bothered him, but the idea of being the same as you... that wasn't so bad.

• In the end, seeing you work together with your pokemon, so desperately trying to free Kyurem and the other legendaries, was enough to finally convince him a world shared by humans and pokemon was possible and if he wanted to make right the wrongs he'd almost committed, he'd need to work towards bettering himself. That meant understanding both people and pokemon so he too could be a part of it.

• After Ghetsis is apprehended for the final time, N decides he needs to try his hand at living among human society, quite the daunting task at first but one made much less intimidating when Alder offers to take him under his wing. N even moves in with him after the events of the game. It's an excellent fit too, as there aren't a lot of people with the patience to house all of N's pokemon friends along with him.

• With the threat of world-changing or dominating ideals out of the way, you get to witness a much more playful side to him as well as getting personally introduced to each of his pokemon friends.

• Outside of his usual quirks, N is an extremely curious person, asking a nearly unending amount of questions about any and all things. He's also a bit of a hippy, spending a lot of time meditating with his pokemon and for the most part, doesn't like to eat human food, but Alder is slowly helping him branch out.

• Even as you travel, N remains close friends with you. He acts at peace with your having to leave, but there's a part of him that wishes he had all the time in the world to get to know you better, and while he does a good job of remaining composed, he always gets excited when you come back to visit Unova. Alder even mentions that he brings you up in conversation quite a lot when you're not around; whether it be while talking to other people or when he sees something that reminds him of you. Neither N nor Alder are good with technology, so the two of you write letters back and forth to keep in touch.

• Maybe it's a sense of gratitude for having shown him the light, or for being his very first human friend, but N will never forget what you've done for him. Promising that if you ever feel lost or abandoned by the world of people or even by the world of pokemon, you will always have a place as his friend and should seek him out if ever in need.

Ghetsis: In comparison to other Pokemon Villians, Ghetsis motives come closest in comparison to that of Giovanni. With the exception that if the two ever had the chance to meet, Giovanni would be personally offended at that comparison having been made. Similar to Giovanni, Ghetsis' goals are entirely selfish, with a goal of amassing power and control, but in Ghetsis' case with the added bonus of him being a narcissist and a complete megalomaniac.

• He's incredibly intelligent and charming to a fault, coming off with a priestly and humble demeanor while putting up a front. But despite his natural cunning, his hunger for power and confidence in himself is so far removed from reality that being faced with defeat at the end of the second game was enough to send him into a mental breakdown.

• Throughout N's childhood and the events of both games, Ghetsis had always regarded N, initially inwardly and eventually quite outspokenly as "a freak without a human heart". So blind to his own faults he'd never realize the ironic truth that that description fits him the best out of anyone.

• During the rise of Team Plasma when the player appears and begins to interact with N. Ghetsis is stuck with an immediate hatred of them. Entirely in part because of the way you begin to connect with N, treating him with kindness and as a person. Even if you didn't appear as a threat to Team Plasma, it's an entirely toxic kind of bitterness that came from his own hatred of N, believing his son to be inhuman and undeserving of that kind of human connection. He keeps these feelings hidden well until he reveals his true nature and is all the more satisfied to try to strike you down, even taunting you for wasting kindness on a person incapable of ever truly appreciating it.

• In the events of the second game. Your return fills him with a rage that rivals his disdain for N. Resulting in the moment in the cave when he all too happily orders Kyurem to impale you. That moment acts as a good turning point, when his prudish demeanor begins to slip, revealing the maniac inside and he quickly begins to decline from there, going near mad by the time he's been defeated

• By the end of both games, Ghetsis is apprehended and I can very well see him having to be placed in special containment as he's wildly uncooperative with the authorities, having lost his composure altogether after being consumed by his hatred. Any attempt at trial would leave him in contempt of court as he'd spend the whole time outlandishly claiming it his right to be the ruler of Unova as well as cursing the names of you and N.

• For this reason, both you and N are specifically forbidden to see him after his imprisonment as there is great concern for both your safety and his own while he's in this manic state. After some time has passed N does receive permission from the authorities to visit him under supervision, but N himself needs time to make peace with himself before he's ready to see his father again.

Colress: There's debate among the fandom as to whether or not Colress can be classified as a villain but anyone aware of his character knows it's not quite that black and white. (Pun intended)

• Polite, friendly and genuine, Colress doesn't take any steps to hide his true intention from the MC or even Team Plasma as he was working with them. Colress is a man dedicated to science and one singular goal, to unlock the true potential of pokemon. And during the events of B2/W2 has reached a very critical point in his research, having finally found himself in a position where he could witness their true potential first hand, and with a legendary no doubt. So when he met Ghetsis and was offered a chance to work alongside him, Colress happily accepted.

• While I don't see Colress as being rude or dismissive, he is completely indifferent to all those around him when he has his eyes on a goal. This indifference even led to him disregarding the safety of others as he was more than willing to freeze over Unova if it meant getting to see Kyurem at full strength.

• I don't think Colress even stopped to think about the lives he would be sacrificing in doing so, he was simply carrying out an experiment regardless of the outcome. And while I don't believe this justifies his actions, there were no evil intentions behind his experiments, he just never worried about the consequences.

• However, despite this indifference, I believe it is quite telling of Ghetsis' character that he alone was able to garner the distaste of Colress even though he was helping him with his research. Colress is an excellent judge of character when he gives others the time of day and from the moment they first shook hands, something about Ghetsis rubbed him the wrong way.

• In direct contrast to that, he had the very opposite reaction to the player and was immediately intrigued by you. Your first meeting was met with a friendly handshake and a flurry of questions about your relationship with your team. And with the introduction of another pokemon powered force challenging Ghetsis, he became very intrigued with the idea that perhaps whatever power you held could be stronger than that of a legendary pushed to its limits.

• While it did throw a small wrench into his original plans, he was more than happy to see you win, science is all about new conclusions after all and after meeting you, Colress begins to favor the idea that a trainer's bond with their pokemon is the ultimate way to unlock their true strength, even without the proof to support it yet. When Ghetsis is finally defeated, Colress is one of the first to congratulate you.

• The international police may try to build a case against him, as he did aid Team Plasma, but in the end thanks to the way he kept his involvement with Team Plasma to a minimum, there's not enough evidence to convict him and he's able to walk free.

• It's entirely possible that you'll want nothing to do with him considering he did endanger the lives of an entire nation, but even if you are hostile to him, Colress doesn't react negatively to it at all almost ignoring it as he treats the two of you as if you're good friends. Thanks to you, or at least he considers it thanks to you, he's accepted the bonds between pokemon and trainer as his new course of study. I like to think his moral compass has improved somewhat too, the events in Unova being eye-opening to him and leading him to understand that working with others and forming friendships can be far more useful to his research than he originally thought possible.

• He also leaves Unova afterward to travel and expand his research and routinely pops up during your travels in other regions and inserts himself into whatever you may be doing (sometimes you wonder if it might not just be coincidence as he insists it is). Usually prodding you with friendly questions and even inviting you back to his lab. You've yet to accept but he insists his doors are always open if you change your mind and want to swing by for a chat, but something tells you he has a little more than just chatting in mind.

• Looker doesn't like him and does his best to keep him away from you if he's around when he happens to pop up, even if you yourself are on friendly terms with Colress. For now at least you suppose it's safe to consider him an ally. He always seems more than happy to help when you are involved, offering a variety of high-tech solutions. And who knows, having someone like that on your side may prove quite helpful later on.

Okay, long post, thank you for reading! I'm gonna move on to professor, rivals, champions, literally anyone else next! I'm not quite sure who I wanna start with so if there's anyone in particular you wanna see, go ahead and ask!

[darthwheezely]

dating george weasley and being a ravenclaw

warnings: stupidly [wickedly] hot men named george fabian weasley, kinda smut, cussing fs, angst because our angel is insecure, also i may have almost cried writing this and it’s sO LONG I AM SO SORRY

people that may like this (?): @whiz-bangs78 @vogueweasley @gcdric (whenever you’re back! :)) @theweasleyslut @thehufflepuffwife @lupinsclassroom @wand3ringr0s3 @kitwalker02 @monoscandal @pansydaisy

i’m obsessy espressy w this pic btw please take it for your enjoyment

this man boy

is so enamored with you

he doesn’t even really know a whole lot about you at first, stealing glances from across the great hall

listening intently when you answer questions in class

he starts to memorize the way you roll your eyes when you ask snape a question you can’t answer

and the way you wrinkle your nose when someone stereotypes you based on your house

you’re fiery, but you’re so poised for quick answers and sharp looks

he would pay big money to have you roast him during class like you do to cormac when he tries to hit on you a lot

which earns him many a revenge prank

and then he starts to try and talk to you, rather foolishly at first

but he finds it so intensely sexy the banter you two get involved in during these interactions

“If it isn’t my favorite little bird, Y/N ;)”

“Aren’t there other nests for you to bother, Weasley?”

“None that I find as mildly riveting, my dear, I do love a bird that chirps back”

“Do you like ones that bite, too?”

“I don’t know if your beak is sharp enough, love”

“Come up to me when I’m reading again, and I’ll give you some harder evidence of just how bad my bite is hmm?”

(Unbeknownst to you as you walk away, he’s already got some harder evidence growing in his jeans...)

he doesn’t stop searching you out, determined to prove to you he’s enough

you two after about a week and a half finally go out to hogsmeade on your first date

he takes you to the three broomsticks where you both drink butterbeer and make deep conversation for hours until close

there’s a point where he makes you laugh so hard you snort and spit out some of your butterbeer

which makes him snort and spit out his butterbeer

he realizes a couple things then:

1) he’s obsessed with the way you tell stories or talk passionately about the subjects you love. he adores watching how you light up everywhere in your body and talk so fast at points you can’t breathe

2) he wants to live in your head. he studies the way you think and watches you intently as you process punchlines and stories and memories and he realizes

i need to be something she thinks about

and without realizing it while you’re laughing super hard he puts his hand on the back of your neck and kisses you like it’s the last night on this planet

after about 12 seconds he pulls away and starts to turn red seeing your blank face unmoved

“i-i’m really sorry i promise i didnt mean to be that guy i just-“

and you’re pressing into him everywhere mouth and body and mind and he’s drinking you in like the butterbeer stained on his scarf and he is totally balls deep in love with you

you two are inseparable after that, making it official on the walk back to the castle

if you’re going on a stress tangent about how much work you have, for Beverly negative thought he’ll press a kiss to a pet of your face until you’re giggling and a mess and you’re kissing him back and then you’re on the table in the library...

“Georgie, you’re gonna kill my grades if we keep doing this!”

“You kill me everytime you blink for godric’s sake and yet here I am!”

he is a simp

he says he isn’t but anytime you bring out the “georgie, please” or “love, please” he turns to butter

fred thinks it’s the funniest shit and he capitalizes on it constantly

he calls you his little bird

most specifically his mockingbird because he claims you always set him at ease and make him feel like everything is centered

and he’s right, you do

you center the wild fire in him when he needs to breathe and look around

you see parts of him that aren’t balanced

there’s a night when you walk in on him just curled on his bed crying

your beautiful boy alone and sad and you instinctively start to cry too

You wrap your arms around him as he turns to you and buried his head in your lap. George, my love, what’s wrong?”

“I-I’m not like Fred I’m not like Charlie I’m sure as shit not like Bill I’m not like anyone that’s actually important” he chokes

“George-“

“No, you don’t understand, Y/N. I’m not good enough. For anyone. And I see it and hear about it everyday when my mum brags about how great her kids are and save us for last and when Fred can never shut up about how good he is at EXISTING and I-it swallows me whole, Y/N, I cant feel like this anymore” his body wracks out a harsh sob and you hold him like this

You hold him until he can start to fall asleep and you lay with him until you too, are asleep when he wakes up to tell you

“I love you. Forever, Y/N.”

And you push the hair off his lightly sweaty forehead and tell him “and I love YOU, George Weasley.” and you two fall back asleep happy crying in each other’s arms

he sees you struggle too

struggle with your workload

struggle with your own insecurities of not being good enough for him

telling him you’re just a girl that talks a lot about weird stuff and that you bring him down and he every time cups your face in his hands and pulls you down into him and says

“I love you here.” And kisses your forehead. “I love your mind.” And kisses below your earlobe “and I love you here. How you listen to people and always know what to say” and he kisses your nose “and I love you here, how you snort when you laugh really hard.” And he finally lands on your mouth, staying there for a moment, “and I love you most of all here. When you speak everything in your head and laugh and sing and talk and just breathe, my love. You’ve always been enough in all those places.” He presses one more kiss to your forehead and murmurs “I love you everywhere.”

anyway it’s time for spicy stuff

bow chicka wow wow as Fred would prolly say

George loves fucking you in the library it’s canon

he loves hoisting you on a table or against the stacks and murmuring against your skin how loud you are for him

“Is my little bird wanting to chirp a little louder?” He pries your thighs farther apart prompting a squeak and a small whine. “There it is, love, taking me so well...keep quiet, angel don’t want Pince to know how much of a cockslut you are for me writhing against the shelves do you?”

whew chile anyways

he also likes to touch you when you’re reading to him

but will stop and pull his face away from your neck and your hand from your core when you stop reading to him

“Angel, are you so much of a slut that you can’t focus on the words in front of you?”

“N-no, Georgie, oh my god right there”

“Thereeee, it is-“

mmmmm he’s hot fuck on GOD

when you guys slept together for the first time, he brought you to the *ding ding ding* restricted section after hours

he set up a whole ass blanket and relit the candles and brought pillows

it was very much making love to george and he whispered sweet nothings and praises in your ear the entire time

ugh what a MAN

anyway, TO THE BURROW WE GO!

molly fucking adores you

“My George brought home a beautiful Ravenclaw? Please know, Y/N he is an idiot most of the time and we wouldn’t be hurt if you found an out-“

“JESUS MUM LEAVE ME ALONE SKENSOWOWKWKKW”

again, Fred really does love you and enjoy your company

frequently comments about truly how unconditionally happy George has been, and how happy it makes him to see his younger twin so confident and full of joy

he also wouldn’t say this out loud but the more confident georgie gets, the better his prank plans become

i mean after all - he is the brains of the operations ;)

every chance he gets when you’re around his family or really anyone, he’ll sneak up behind you and plant a hearty kiss on your cheek and a quick “ILOVEYOU” in your ear before running off to do god knows what

oh, y’all bicker constantly

and by bicker i just mean argue about like

aliens

or is Wyoming a state

just like factually dumb but quirky shit

you’ve only had a fight like ONE time

and it was because George took a prank too far with Fred and you didn’t talk to him for an entire day

and because George has a lot of separation anxiety plus fear of abandonment he did not take it really well

You had gone back to your room after dinner in the Great Hall. For the whole day George didn’t eat. You knew because you hadn’t seen him anywhere in the Hall, and none of your classes. When you opened the door you saw him crouching knees pressed to his chest on your bed, he looked like a ghost. He met eyes with you and choked out a sob and ran to you, you opening your arms to hold him. “Please forgive me, Y/N I know you’re hurt but please don’t leave me I’ll be better next time I promise” he got faster and you knew he couldn’t breathe so you just whispered to him you weren’t going to leave you’ll be with him and you’ll stay and mistakes happen, you promise. “Georgie, I promise I’m never leaving. Okay?” He nodded into your shoulder, hunched into you. “I love you so much it hurts.” “I know, Georgie. I know.”

regardless for all his quirks and all his fears and hurts

there is nothing you wouldn’t do

to spend every waking moment with this boy

your love

and he, for the first time, knows he is enough

[interact-if]

Day 2 of the interviews! The lovely Yulisa, everyone :chinhands:!!

Yulisa, author of The Nexus Trials: Trial One

Religious Diversity Month Featured Author

It’s been years since you last stepped foot inside the Silver Nexus, a large kingdom with mile high walls surrounding the bustling cities inside; each metropolis  filled with magic and intrigue hidden around every corner.

Once a place you called home, you’ve long since given up that security to travel the world as a wandering mercenary alongside your two companions– though soon an opportunity too good to refuse arises in the form of a mysterious though promising summons from the Silver Queen herself. Having asked for your company’s assistance specifically, you begin the long trek from the Bronze District, ignoring the vague details in favour of anticipating your big break.

Returning to your old homeland fills you with an almost heavy sense of nostalgia as you walk the brick road leading to the capital, hopes high knowing this job could change the lives of both you and your companions for the better. However, unease quickly sets in as you come to realise nothing could have ever prepared you for the trials that await…

The Nexus Trials Demo TBA | Read more [here]

Tags: sci-fi, fantasy, horror

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: Tell us a little bit about your project(s)!

The Nexus Trials is an entirely text based interactive story with two parts currently planned. For Trial One, the player takes on the role of a mercenary down on their luck. Having spent years wandering the expansive lands of the Outside, taking on whatever odd jobs you could find, you tossed your moral compass aside long ago for any potential of extra coin; having debated more than once resorting to selling the clothes on your back to avoid total bankruptcy.

Things begin to look up, however, when you receive a summons requesting the aid of you and your companions from the illustrious Silver Queen herself. The promise of prestige and security is one too good to resist; the offer a gateway to turning over a new leaf and starting fresh. Escaping the lingering shadow of your past never comes so easy though.

Q2: Why did you settle for interactive fiction? What drew you to this format?

I think, more than anything, what drew me to create interactive fiction was the freedom it allowed. The ability to go down these different paths and witness how the world around you changes depending on the choices you’ve made, whether it be for better or worse. Not having to worry about being bound to any specific, hardset canon is nothing short of exciting to experiment with, especially because even with my other non-IF stories I’m constantly entertaining the possibilities of the what ifs? even if they aren’t always plausible. I remember reading a lot of R.L. Stine growing up. 

For the most part, I actually wasn’t the biggest fan of the regular Goosebumps, but the spin off series Give Yourself Goosebumps had always intrigued me. Being as young as I was at the time when I first discovered them, the concept of CYOA books was foreign to me and opened my eyes to a new way of storytelling. I loved getting to dictate the course that the story would take, even if the consequences of my actions didn’t always lead to the greatest outcome. In a lot of ways, the little catchphrase has stuck with me throughout writing TNT, even if it’s been years now since I last read any of the books. Reader beware… you choose the scare!

Q3: How have your identity and beliefs influenced your work?

Everything about who I am has left traces in my work, though truthfully it’s often unintentional. With TNT taking place in a fantasy setting, I’ve done my best to instead let the world take on an identity of its own; though I do admit to projecting onto a few characters in particular. Really, just about the only time I ever go out of my way to bring my own bias into what I write is for really petty things, like my hate for all and anything mint. I don’t understand how people are so obsessed with that burning sensation… but then again, I’m allergic, so I’m probably not the greatest person to trust on that front.

Q4: What aspects would you like to be more explored or represented in media regarding your religion?

The norm these days in more mainstream media is for characters apart of minority religions to mention what they follow in passing, never to be brought up again, in some sort of half-hearted attempt at religious diversity. If nothing else, I want there to be a sense of pride from those token Jewish characters, unashamed in their identity, without the typical pressuring to partake in religious practises not their own from other characters. It’s as good a starting point as any.

Q5: What are you most excited about sharing related to your project?

Would it be cliche to say I’m excited just to be able to share my project in general? I’ve never had the confidence to release any of my other works before, and truthfully me putting TNT out there publicly was poorly controlled impulse on my part; then suddenly, next thing I know, it basically blows up overnight and I’ve got hundreds of people excited for it despite a demo not even being out yet. It’s a level of confidence I never thought I could achieve. If I had to choose, I can’t wait for everyone to meet the characters. Will you find a family in them, or make lifelong enemies?

Q6: A tiny bit unrelated, but what’s your favourite religious holiday?

A bit predictable, maybe, but I love Hanukkah. I have a rather large family, to put it mildly, so our schedules rarely line up which means most holidays tend to pass us by without much thought; Hanukkah, though, is something we’ve always managed to make time for, even if it’s not a consistent celebration. I value the time we all get to spend together more than anything.

Q7: Any other thoughts or advice you’d like to give to fellow authors or readers?

To my fellow authors or aspiring authors, go your own pace. You’ll find what works best for you even if it might seem hopeless at times. Remember that you’re building up these worlds brick by brick with your own two hands, breathing life into these characters you’ve birthed from ink. That in itself is something to be proud of.

To the readers, your support means more than you could ever know. I can never thank you all enough for the encouragement you’ve given me in the times I’ve wanted to give up.

[another-rational-deception]

s/o who’s basically like the avatar from the last airbender😳 if you haven’t watched it then just an s/o who can control the elements?

interesting interesting, i can try that

i just wanna say that after i finished everything and when i was looking some stuff up for fact check, tumblr fucking reloaded and deleted e v e r t h i n g.

D*rk content/n*fw blogs, do not interact with me at all.

Mezo Shoji, Izuku Midoriya, Mashirao Ojiro and Nejire Hado w/ s/o who’s the avatar

Mezo Shoji

Mildly confused

So you just have hundreds of old people living inside you? Wait but you ARE those old people but you’re not (he pretends he understands, he does not)

Thinks what you can do it really cool though

He likes your tentacle water bending the most (for obvious reasons)

He helps you learn how to control all of the tentacles at once (he’s had a bit of practice)

He really likes watching you earthbend, aswell, you look so powerful to him!

He’s less scared of hurting you, he’s seen how well you can dodge and how light you are when air bending

He loves listening to your stories of the Avatars! His personal fav is that of Avatar Wan, specifically the part where Wan frees the Catdeer, Mula. It makes him smile every time

Izuku Midoriya

He is e n a m o u r e d

Izuku has an entire section of his notebook dedicated to you and your “quirk”

Thinks you’re literally the coolest person in the world (besides All Might, of course)

C o n a t a n t l y asking questions

He’s absolutely determined to know everything there is to know about you

He doesn’t really have a fav Avatar story, but when you told him how Kyoshi made her own island with only her fans, he was starstruck (and terrified)

(Good Lord don’t tell him how long Kyoshi lived he’ll pass out)

Mashirao Ojiro

Finds it a little creepy that you just have people living inside you

But then again one of his classmates has a demon living inside him and one of his teachers is literally a block of cement

He’s not really allowed to talk

However! He gets so excited when you tell him how all forms of bending are based on a different form of martial arts

That’s really how you guys train now

Spend a few days on one type of martial arts, and then put it into practice against each other

You don’t just focus on the arts connecting to your own quirk, he insists you learn other forms because you won’t always be able to use your quirk, or the situation might not call for your quirk

His fav story is definitely of Avatar Yangchen and the spirit Old Iron. He finds it beautiful what she did for Old Iron and Lady Tienhai

Nejire Hado

SO many questions

Just constantly

She’s asked you the same question like 50 times over but you never get to answer it because another one pops into her head before you can spit it out

You’ve probably been asked things that made you realise things about yourself

She just thinks it’s so cool

Doesn’t even think twice about the crazy answers you have for her

“Yeah and Roku has a dragon named Fang” “Wow! So do you have a dragon?”

Literally does not care what people think of you, she thinks you’re fucking cool

You can’t really tell her complete stories because she has a question about it every 10 seconds but she did sit through Yangchen’s story of Old Iron.

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

Cult Leader Villain!Deku - Engagement and Suspicion Pt. 2

On Wednesday mornings, there was always one thing that Shouta could count on: Todoroki and Uraraka showing up at least fifteen minutes late to homeroom. And, according to Principal Nezu, there was nothing he could do to punish the two of them for it. Something about exemptions made for religious practices or something. All Shouta knew about it was that apparently Todoroki and Uraraka had to do some sort of special ritual every Wednesday morning that meant they had to take a later train in order to get to school. Whatever it was, it was illogical to prioritize worshiping someone or something (that probably wasn't real in the first place) over one's education, especially when in the hero course, where actual real lives were potentially on the line.

As for the students who weren't late to class every Wednesday, it was always up in the air as to who would be early, on time, or sneak in just as the bell rings. Today the early birds included Iida and Bakugo (no surprises there), Momo, Jirou, and (slightly more surprising) the entirety of Bakugo's little entourage.

As Shouta slipped into the room to start putting the day's schedule on the board, he mostly tried to ignore the group's gossip but it caught his attention when he heard Ashido gasp before saying something about one of his two most elusive students.

"- you're kidding me right?? Todoroki said that?!"

"Yeah, Denks was asking him about this mark on his arm that he and Kiri had noticed in the locker room, turns out it's some sort of tattoo for their little cult thing" Tattoos? Cult? Shouta snorted quietly to himself - well that was mildly concerning, but teenage gossip was hardly a reliable source. Whatever this interaction Sero was describing was certainly interesting though. "Anyway he was telling us what all the different parts of it meant, and get this, he told us that the part with the leaves- uhhhh how did he put it Kiri?"

"He explained to us that the leaves were uhhh yarrow leaves I think - don't quote me on that - and he more or less said that they 'symbolized his engagement' or something to that effect."

Shouta froze. That couldn't be right. As he started to turn he noticed that Jirou and Momo had also approached the group to join the conversation.

"Wait, wait," this came from Jirou, "Todoroki's engaged? To like ... a person?"

"Yep," Kirishima answered eyes wide as he nodded in affirmation.

"At first Kiri and I were convinced we had misheard or misunderstood, but when we asked for clarification Uraraka told us that he was engaged to a human person, and when we asked if maybe it was arranged or something he totally blew up at us."

Kaminari nodded his head violently in agreement with Sero as Kirishima cut back in, "Uraraka and him were super pissed that we asked that and he started going on about how they were 'given God's blessing' and that they had apparently fasted for like a week or something."

Shouta blinked, it seemed as though each word that poured from Sero or Kirishima was ten times more concerning then the last-

"And that's not even the half of it," Sero cut in once more, "We, definitely, one-hundred percent heard Uraraka say that the person he is engaged to... is 'The Verdant Angel'."

Now Shouta had no fucking idea what the hell that was but based on Yaoyorozu's gasp and Mina's "No freaking way", his students clearly did.

After a half second of silence Jirou let out a derisive snort before crossing her arms and lifting a single eyebrow, "You guys are bullshitting us aren't you?"

"We are not!" came Kaminari's indignant reply.

"Todoroki is fifteen, the same as the rest of us, there's no way the leading figure of his religion-"

"Cult," Sero coughed into his fist.

-is engaged to him" Jirou finished and turned to look at Sero more directly, "And there's no proof his religion is a cult guys, I saw an article about them just the other day talking about the work they've been doing with the local homeless shelters and how they have been putting together a support network for children facing quirk abuse and discrimination. Cults are abusive and controlling by definition, you guys are just being mean."

Shouta let out a slow breath and turned back to the board to finish the last bit of the schedule before crawling into his sleeping bag to try and fit in a quick nap before the bell rang, Jirou had a good head on her shoulders and made some valid points, Shouta would look into his wayward students religious practices later just to be sure, but it seemed pretty likely that Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero were exaggerating about their supposed recent interaction (as teens are wont to do). As he slowly shut his eyes he picked up the tail end of their conversation-

"Well if you don't believe us then one of you should ask him out after class and see how he responds, I guarantee he'll say something weird about it."

"Fine, Momo can do it since she's the most familiar with him"

"Well, uh, actu-"

"Deal!"

----------

True to form, the bell rang and it was another twenty minutes before Todoroki and Uraraka shuffled quietly in to class while Shouta explained about upcoming events they would have to participate in as first year hero students before setting them to use the rest of homeroom as a study session. As he watched on he couldn't help the slight discomfort he felt in his stomach when he looked over at Todoroki and Uraraka. While teenagers aren't the most reliable source of information, much of what was said earlier was highly concerning and it would probably be smart to keep a closer eye on the two.

Shouta had almost forgotten about the latter portion of the kids conversation when he looked up to see Yaoyorozu walking sheepishly over to the dual haired boy's desk, with 2 minutes left of class.

"Hey, um Todoroki. How are you?"

The boy blinked slowly up at her before replying, "I am well."

Yaoyorozu laughed slightly, "Oh that's good, I was wondering umm, maybe if you're free sometime, if you would like to go out... on a date. Go out on a date... with me?"

"Oh," he blinks up owlishly at her from his chair, "no thank you," then turns back to his work.

Yaoyorozu starts to turn back to her seat when Sero and Kirishima wave her back, as though telling her to keep going.

"-uhhhh," she pauses and turns back once more, "Could I ask why not?"

"Well," Todoroki said looking up at her once more, "I am already betrothed to God's redeemer, to date you would be to turn my back on God."

Yaoyorozu made a high-pitched hum of slight discomfort as all the air left Shouta's lungs. Perhaps Shouta had been too quick to agree with Jirou's assessment of the boys' gossip. Because as much as he hated to admit it. That definitely sounded like cult stuff, in the worst possible way.

If Shouta felt dazed until the end of the day that was no one else's business. And if at the end of the day he asked Todoroki and Uraraka to stay behind well...

"Are you two okay? Is there anything going on that you need help with?"

They blinked slowly at him.

"No, we're fine Sensei." Uraraka said hesitantly in response.

Shouta breathed out, of course it wouldn't be that simple.

"Well if either of you ever need someone to talk to, of if you need any help at all - you can come to me or any of the staff at UA and we will help you. Okay?"

"Yes Sensei," they said in what Shouta could only describe as creepily perfect unison.

He sighed once more, "You two are free to go."

They looked at him a bit longer, squinting their eyes in confusion, or maybe suspicion, before turning to leave. Leaning in to whisper with each other as they exited the room with one last glance at Shouta.

He buried his face in his hands, rubbing at his temples to combat the incoming headache. He really, really, didn't want to - but it seemed like he might have to dig into the religious practices of his students on the off chance they may have joined a dangerous cult.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[ashintheairlikesnow]

The Crying: Savvie on Trial

CW: Whumper POV, intimate whumper, sadistic whumper, video of whumpee's child, intense child therapy recording, referenced shock collar and past drugging, emotional/physical abuse, trauma response, child re-enacting trauma

Note: CW for whumper’s justifications for their abuse in internal monologue

@comfy-whumpee‘s Jax Gallagher finally escapes Savannah Marcoset’s obsession with him, with two children in tow and nearly a decade of abuse and trauma written in his mind and on his skin.

Determined to ensure his children will be protected from the Marcoset family’s potential revenge, Jax goes to court one more time - taking down Savvie, her uncle Isaac, and most of his children in the process. 

Savvie sees the second trial, with its ironclad evidence against her, as Jax’s betrayal of her love for him. When a video of their daughter is shown in court, Savvie and Jax are both surprised - and react in very different ways.

While Savvie does not interact with her children, her thought process is... intense. And so is a brief video depicted in the piece.

---

Even Savvie understands she can't charm her way out of this one.

It was one thing to be in her early twenties and beautiful, full of innocent misunderstandings, to tell anyone and everyone that she hadn't known he wasn't above-board (she had), she had thought she was doing a good thing letting him speak to his father (now that was a mistake), he was her best friend and her rock in the hard days after her parents' loss and she simply couldn't remember life without him (that was never a lie). 

The earnest sincerity in her tone as she explained to her prison therapist how hard she was working at understanding the consequences and working to improve herself had simply been more believable then than it could ever be now. 

You can’t very well have the love of your life abducted twice without it becoming a very difficult decision to defend.

This time, she understands that batting her eyelashes can't make her seem like simply another victim of all these terrible cruelties of the world. She is not going to leave the walls of prison once she walks inside. Not this time.

 After all, the second time, she had had her uncle abduct him out of his own father’s apartment and steal his passport and every other form of ID he might have.

Isaac had drugged him, the Marcoset family employees had stolen his passport and identification, kept him slurred, floppy and hardly conscious on a private plane ride that took just a little less than eight hours, drugged again, and driven to her house to wake up tied to a chair in her practice room, right back where he belonged.

He probably didn’t even enjoy the luxury of the plane. It occurs to Savvie now that she never once asked him if he remembered any of the time he’d spent on the plane with Isaac, if he remembered anything between the men who grabbed him and Savvie bringing her violin up to welcome him home.

You can hardly blame that whole re-abduction thing on being young and foolish, and you definitely can't blame it on the indiscretions of youth when you are thirty years old.

Thirty-seven.

She dismisses the thought.

She is clearly only thirty. She doesn't look a day older, and Jax looks… younger, she thinks, mildly surprised at the realization. Younger, with more weight on him and a set to his jaw that she hasn't seen since… since the first day of his return, when he spit insults at her before she drugged him again, and he was so lax, so pliant, and she had known he would marry her one day from that first moment he curled back up and fell asleep with her hands on him. She just hadn't told him that, at first. 

No one here understands how thoroughly Jax belongs to her, not even him, not anymore. He no longer wears his wedding ring, though she thinks there's still a hint of a tan line there. Maybe not. Might just be a scar. 

He's changed his pretty platinum piercings out for duller metal, plus added back the ones she'd taken out of him herself. They're defiant, those bits of rebellion she never allowed him put back in place. She pictures when she took them out, the way he kept his eyes down for it, swaying a little from what she'd given him in his water. Felt a thrill run up her spine at the memory, his soft slurred voice murmuring Yes, Miss Savvie, one of her favorite sounds in the world. 

He looked better the other way. Her way.

All his scars are definitely still hers, though. He can't forget her. He can wear new rings in his ears and eyebrow and lip and he can dress in grubby low-class clothing that isn't even tailored, but every single scar is a scar she has memorized, and he can’t erase them. They all belong to her, and he knows it, and he knows his body is hers and has been and will always be. 

The scars around his neck - her scars, the little circular spots she wants to trace with her fingernails over and over until he begs her to stop, until she forces him to hold his breath, to get that faraway look in his eyes, until he leans in for a carefully cultivated kiss - give too much away. He can't hide them all. 

The ones on his hands, too, are hers, although those are mostly accidental. There are some on his back, subtle, hidden by his button-up shirt and suit jacket where he sits, so close to her and impossibly far away. 

The back, she did on purpose, dragging nails through his skin until blood welled up, streaks of red that stained her manicured nails, sitting on his lower back leaning over him, her hair a waterfall that brushed his skin. She can remember clearly the way he fought to stay still for her, remembers the pain she gave him with his daughter soft and sweet and so very new in a bassinet only a few feet away, how he'd bled from his palms and stained her sheets in his effort to keep himself quiet enough not to wake the baby.

She's never going to forget that. 

Unfortunately... neither will the jury. 

He's banking on it, she thinks, throwing everything out there that he might have kept hidden otherwise. Everything she thought he wouldn't want his father to know, or to be televised… he gets up on the stand, or he sits next to his lawyer, and he gives away all of it. 

He tells them about the wedding, the judge who knew her family and married them with her uncle Isaac and his family as witnesses and guests. He describes, detached from what clearly horrifies the jury, how during his worst injuries, she made the simple task of giving him the pain medication he needed into a game of how good he could be to earn it. He even tells them, with a strange sort of tone in his voice, about the day she told him she was pregnant with Isabella. 

On the stand, he says the day she had him open the box to find the custom cake with CONGRATULATIONS, DADDY written in frosting was the worst day of them all.

And yet… and yet, after sitting up there telling the jury, and the witnesses in the courtroom, and the judge how unhappy he was… still, he won’t let her anywhere near her son and daughter, not even to say goodbye. 

He bleeds out all his pain, just to keep her from seeing her own children. Just to keep her from having access to what belongs to her. 

Her daughter, her son… him.

Her husband, the love of her life, handing every scar and welt and night they spent together over in his bid to keep her from ever touching him again. It’s cruelty, is what it is. She had never known how cruel he was until he ran away from her. 

He had stared at something far away while he related the story of her uncle dislocating his shoulder and breaking his arm (which, that had been a little much, but she’d made sure Isaac never did it again!), his weeks of pure perfect helpless dependence on her. 

She had watched him speak, remembering the way he leaned forward those days when she made sure that dinner was soup, taking each bite from the spoon she held in her hand. The thrill of leaving him just a little bit hungry, that much more willing to be sweet the next morning.

He belongs to her, and he is going to take everything away. 

His scars, the story written on his body of how she loves him, will be her ruin, this time. Well, that, and the existence of the children he has already turned against her. The children she has already been court-ordered never to see or speak to again. She won't even legally be their mother anymore, he and his devious fucking lawyer are even scheming to take her rights as their mother away. Those children are hers, and how dare he take them, when they were hers first.

He didn't even want them, when they were born - and now he acts like he is the only parent they have. 

The worst part, though...

He won't look at her. It's fucking infuriating.

She tries to catch his eye, now and then, and fails. She looks at him with her head tilted to make her hair fall against her cheekbone when he enters the courtroom with his hair all chopped off again. 

He ignores her. 

She shifts in her elegant, tailored dress - no low neckline or sheer fabric, all sobriety and seriousness to show she will be a model defendant. She wears a silver locket she bought years ago, based on an old Victorian design - a lock of his hair is inside it, curled just so. 

He still doesn’t look, even though he knows his hair is in the locket, she showed him when she put it there. She’d cut it while he was sleeping, and showed him when he woke, to see his face go still, his eyes raise to her face only with effort. If she’s honest... she wanted that hesitation, that uncertainty.

In a deep ocean blue, her pale skin and bright, wide blue eyes are set against her dark brown hair, pulled carefully back each day. She looks stylish, and still modest.

She looks innocent.

 It just... doesn’t matter anymore how she looks. The problem is that she isn’t innocent, and no amount of cultivating an image can overcome the evidence against her. But at least she’s trying. 

Now, Jax… She's pretty sure he wore that same gray suit to her last trial. It had hung on him before, too big for how underweight he was. She had liked the way it sharpened his cheekbones, then. Yes… it's definitely the same suit.

She would remember, of course - she had spent the whole trial, all those years ago, staring at him, wondering if she would ever see him again. He'd mostly looked at the floor, then, but she had gotten his eyes on hers a time or two, seen him stare after her as she was led from the courtroom. She had spent the time mourning his loss, before he ever truly left, and then coming to the certainty that she would never allow him to be taken away from her, not forever. No, they were made for each other, meant to be together forever. She had been convinced his father had tricked in, told him lies about her. 

Even after she knew, deep down, that he wanted to stay gone, she knew just as firmly she would never allow that.

Planning to bring him home again, before he ever stepped foot on the plane that carried him across the ocean away from her, had filled all her days and nights. It had made prison seem so short, just a pause before she could bring him home. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

If he would only look at her... 

She tries to catch his eye, but he never looks at her once. It rankles, makes her teeth itch, to see him stare straight ahead, look at the judge or his lawyer, and never at her. He's doing it on purpose - he must be. He's messing with her. That son of a bitch is messing with her, while he takes away her marriage, her money, her house, her entire life, her children. 

She still loves him, even though he keeps his eyes turned away. She still loves him so much, more than he could ever deserve. She would tell him that, if she could, if they’d just give her a chance. She’ll find a way, somehow. She’ll find a way to remind him that she is never, ever going to let him just walk away. Break his legs, maybe.

The judge says something, and she blinks.

She wasn't paying attention, too busy watching Jax not watch her, and now there is a TV on a stand being wheeled in front of them all. Savvie gives a surreptitious glance around the courtroom, but no one else looks surprised. The jury looks bored, mostly, maybe. Or like they hate her.

It's not as easy to win over the jury now. She’s a woman whose children have been stolen by their vindictive, cruel father, who with his soft sad voice calls himself a captive during his testimony, stammering through the stories that explain all his scars. She’s no longer a violin prodigy in mourning, a young ingenue who just didn't understand what she'd done wrong. 

Or who pretended not to, at least. 

There were parts she genuinely hadn’t understood, maybe, although she is no longer young enough to want to lie to herself completely. He was never just her best friend, her confidant, the thing she loved most in the world. He was always going to be more than that.

God, he looks good today. Jax shifts in his seat, slight creak of the wood, whispers something to his lawyer. She just sees his eyes, in her general direction but not on her, as he moves. The lawyer whispers back, puts a hand on his shoulder. 

He might look confused, as he and the lawyer speak. No, not confused. Troubled? She knows just how to smooth the crease from between his eyebrows, how to lay her hand on his forehead until he gives her a slight soft smile, turns his face to nuzzle against her palm. She knows how to leverage his fear enough to get what she wants from him, again and again and again. The lawyer doesn’t do that.

Jax just speaks, even and strong. 

The lawyer doesn’t know what he sounds like when he trembles, has never slid the blindfold over his eyes with a knife in the room, not planning to use it, just wanting him to think she will. 

No one will ever, ever, know him the way she does.

Savvie straightens her posture, moves just enough to make her locket glint in the light, hoping it will catch him enough to raise his eyes to hers. 

Look at me. Look at me, sweetie. You don't get to stay gone for good, I don't care what you did, look at me. I still love you. Fucking look at me, Jax. Just one look. 

He keeps his eyes slightly down as he shifts away and back to look towards the TV, but he's tense. She knows every inch of the muscles under that old gray suit, how they move under his skin. No one, no one, knows that body as well as she does. She made the scar that runs soft as a kiss over a shoulder blade, and she knows he’s nervous about something now. Unhappiness runs under her skin like an electric charge as she understands that what he’s nervous about isn’t her.

She follows his gaze to the rolled-in television, one of the big heavy ones that must be ten years out of date, and she frowns, folding her hands in her lap, as Jax’s lawyer stands and speaks briefly to the judge, and then moves to the TV with something in his hands. 

“What is this?” She whispers to her own lawyer, one of her hands sliding up to run over the flowers etched in tiny relief into the surface of the locket. 

Her lawyer shakes his head, either he doesn’t know or he won’t explain. He’s doing what he can, she thinks, but of course she was never going to be acquitted. The scars she loves are evidence against her, the children are evidence all their own - he didn’t even want them, she grumbles within herself again. She told Bella that, over and over again, that her father didn’t even want her to be born, that Jax had struggled to even feign happiness, and still the little girl was ripped out of her hands just so he could get his revenge on her. James was just an infant, he wasn’t old enough - but Bella could have come running back in, before Jax walked away. 

Bella could have warned her that her father was going to steal their passports and her money and run out of the hotel, get on trains going different directions to throw her off, and finally head back to his fucking father, who she should have killed years ago when she had the chance.

Isabella should have warned her. It’s her fault, really, all of this. It’s her daughter’s fault that she will never see the outside of a prison again.

How many times did she tell her daughter how much her father must hate her for existing? And still… still, the little girl chose him. Savvie’s fingers close over the locket until the point at the bottom of the heart presses painfully into her skin. Her children, her daughter, her son, her husband. Taken from her, and she’s the villain here? 

How dare he.

The TV lights up flat blue until the lawyer gets the recording to start playing, and Savvie blinks as it opens on a recorded scene, showcasing a large room with deep green carpet standing in for ‘grass’, the walls painted with a nonstop mural of rolling hills, flowers, trees, blue sky. Daisies dot the wall, flowers made by tiny handprints in bright colors, each fingerprint a petal, with a yellow circle in the center and a green stem. She can see a yellow sun painted in one corner. Shelves line the painted walls, with toys and big blocky board books, stuffed animals spill out of a basket in the corner. There are blocks, faded with time and use of many little hands.

At a small table painted with dancing animals, sitting in a chair, is Savvie’s daughter Isabella.

She sits up, hearing her own chair creak, and glances sidelong to see Jax suddenly stiffen, eyes widening just the smallest bit. He’s surprised, too, she thinks, and then her eyes go to the jury, trying to read them. The twelve of them - eight women and four men - don’t look at her or Jax. Only the television.

This isn’t a new recording - Bella is so young, with her gorgeous brown hair so like her mother’s spilling in an overwhelming heap around her. This must be from six months or less after Jax stole them in the first place. Savvie fiddles with the locket, nervous in a way she can’t explain. Her little girl isn’t even wearing a dress, but instead swings her little feet in sneakers, wearing jeans and a Paw Patrol t-shirt, humming to herself.

On the table sits a dollhouse, one of those elaborate plastic affairs. Savvie can see a small claw-foot bathtub, a big four-poster bed, an overstuffed armchair. All of it faded, patched, or repaired as small hands have broken or torn or played rough.

Bella, though, sits quietly, and she is gentle with the dolls as she moves them through the house. She has in one hand a doll wearing a blouse and skirt and a brown ponytail, and in the other a doll in a suit with a tie. 

“What are we pretending, Izzy?” A man’s voice asks, and he comes into view, settling right down next to her. Savvie’s lip curls. Izzy? What an awful nickname for her beautiful delicate pretty little girl. Who would see such a lovely little thing, and hear as gorgeous a name as Isabella, and choose to call her Izzy?

“Mom and Dad,” The little girl answers, faint in the way of a distracted child. “I’m playing Mom and Dad.”

Savvie hasn’t heard her daughter’s voice in… in so long, now. She feels a twist of envy that the sound of that high piping voice has been taken from her, too. Jax is taking everything from her, piece by piece. She glances at him - his gaze is fixed on the television screen, mouth slightly open. Her husband, handsome if rumpled and ruined by changing his hair and his appearance, doesn’t take his eyes off his daughter. 

He won’t look at her, no, his wife and the only thing that should matter, but he’ll fucking stare at a recording of his child.

Not her husband anymore, or so he says, and technically he never legally was, but that’s not really important. They’re married for life. It doesn’t matter what Jax thinks. It doesn’t matter what he wants. It doesn’t matter that he took her children and he’s throwing himself in front of them like he thinks Savvie is a moving bus, all to get her locked away. It doesn’t matter.

He still belongs to her.

He does.

He does.

“‘Don’t look at her,’” The little girl says in a voice she deepens a little, looming the Mom doll over the Dad one. “‘Look at me.’”

“Is the Mommy doll saying that to the Daddy doll?” The man in the recording keeps his voice even, and curious. Jax, to her right, shifts in his seat and leans slightly forward. His hands are folded in his lap, closed into fists. 

“Yes,” Bella answers, glancing briefly at the man, then going back to her game. “She doesn’t like when the Dad looks at the little girl too much.”

“And why doesn’t she like that?”

“Because everyone is supposed to always look at the Mom.” Bella sets the female doll down briefly and picks up a smaller one, a little girl with pigtails and a pink dress. “The little girl scraped her leg and it is bloody,” She informs the man, very seriously. “She didn’t mean to make her dad look at her.” She has big brown eyes, and Savvie swallows, thinking now she understands why this video is being shown to the court. She remembers this - she doesn’t remember a lot of what Jax would complain to her about, what he kept calling abuse until she shocked him often and severely enough to make him stop, but she… remembers this. 

“How did she scrape her leg, Izzy?”

Savvie swallows against a burst of rage. Don’t you dare say it, Bella, don’t you fucking dare.

“Mommy shoved her,” Bella answers, and the courtroom around Savvie is so silent she can hear her own pulse, blood rushing in her ears. “Because she was crying.” Her tiny voice is matter-of-fact, it doesn’t shake with real tears or upset. She simply relates a thing that happened, play-acting it out in her game as if it were the most normal thing in the world. 

“‘Don’t hurt her,’” Bella says in a low voice, shaking the male doll over the female one. “The Dad says that. He is telling the Mom that the little girl didn’t mean to cry. The little girl says that she will be good and stop crying now, but the Mom doesn’t believe her.”

“Why was the little girl crying?” The man’s voice is so soft and kind. Savvie feels a sudden urge to find him in whatever hellhole office in Britain he works out of and strangle him to death with her bare hands.  

“The Mom told her she is a bad girl,” Bella replies, and droops a little, now.

“Why would she say that?”

“Because she is,” Bella says, softer than ever. At his table, next to his lawyer, Jax makes a sound. It’s not a word, it’s not understandable. It’s hardly audible - Savvie thinks even the jury likely didn’t hear it. But she did, and she looks subtly over at him to see his face is pale and his hazel-brown eyes are oddly glittery under the fluorescent lights. “She isn’t very good at being a little girl, she’s so bad. She made noises when the mom didn’t want her to.”

“Izzy-”

“‘Don’t say that,’” Bella makes the dad doll say, shaking him in the air, angry, picking up the mom doll to face off with him, their two plastic carved faces with fake smiles inches apart. “‘Don’t say that, Savvie. She is a good little girl and you are mean to her, you are being a mean mommy.’”

Savvie closes her eyes. Fuck. 

“‘How dare you,’” The mom doll says, and Savvie can’t quite force herself to miss how perfectly her daughter can echo her anger, how her voice rises with it. “‘She is mine and I will say whatever I want! She is mine mine mine.’”

Well… she is.

“‘Yes, Savvie,’” The dad doll says, Bella’s little-girl voice feigning depth, and from the corner of her eye she sees Jax shudder, the slightest movement of his body, barely perceptible. “‘But you can’t talk mean to little girls and boys.’”

“‘I am the mom and I can do whatever I want.’” Bella, expression deeply serious, sets the mom doll down and starts fiddling with the dad doll’s legs. She bites down on her lower lip as she works, finally figuring it out and Savvie feels her stomach drop as Bella sets the dad doll up - kneeling on the floor.

“What happens now, Izzy? What are you doing?”

Bella looks up at the doctor, and the grainy video of the recording blurs and lessens the impact, Savvie hopes. She doesn’t dare look at the jury now. Instead, she tries to think of what she’ll say - it’s a lie, Bella was coached, Jax and the lawyer and this Dr. Marty are all teaching Bella to tell lies, he hates her so much he’s poisoning her babies against her. Something, she’ll say something-

“‘Get on your knees for discipline,’” Bella says, in her mom-voice. 

Jax, at his table, closes his eyes and leans forward, one hand over his mouth. His shoulders shake, once, and it reminds her of every time she set off his collar, but much too quick for that. She can’t stop watching him - she shouldn’t, it doesn’t look good when a video like this is playing, but she can’t… stop. He looks so fucking good.

There’s a red streak, a flush, in his cheekbone but otherwise his face is nearly white, the piercings standing out even more than before. His hand grips over his mouth, and she thinks about every time she has pressed her own hand there, with a smile, to mute his objections. His eyes open to look back at the screen, not like he wants to but like he can’t stop himself, like he’s drawn to watch against his will.

“How often does that happen?” The man asks, in his casually neutral voice, and Savvie would put a bullet between his eyes if she could. How dare he, this is leading. At the same time, she feels a sudden swell of rage towards the little girl being led. Bella knew how to keep secrets before Jax left, did she forget so soon? He must have told her-... but no, no, he’s as surprised to see this video as Savvie is. No, this little game is entirely Bella’s fault. Savvie takes in a breath, lets the anger sweep through her, loathes her own child, so thoroughly turned against her now. 

She can lay all of this at the feet of a four-year-old girl. Well, not four any longer. But four when this happened. Or five. When is Bella’s birthday?

How old is she, now? 

Bella only shrugs at the question, lost in her game now. She has the mom doll tell the dad doll to stay quiet - “‘You’ll upset her, honey, you know better than to say no to me’” - and then acts out the dad doll shaking from the shocks, and finally makes him scream, the sound deafening loud in the silent courtroom.

She does a pretty good impression of the way Jax sounds when he’s screaming, actually. If the jury didn’t hate Savvie before, they definitely do now.

The man in the video looks surprised and sits back a little, then asks, almost tentatively, “And what does the little girl do?"

Bella sets the dolls down and picks the little girl one up, frowning at her. “She watches,” She says, voice low and soft. 

“Why does the little girl watch?”

“Because it’s her fault.” Bella’s voice trembles. “If she looks away, her mom will make it worse. She can’t-... she can’t help.” She looks at the doctor, something imploring in big brown eyes and her rounded small-child face. “She tries and tries and she can’t keep her dad safe.”

Damn straight it’s your fault. Savvie fights to keep her irritation and annoyance from showing on her face, tries to look sympathetic, maybe even worried. She’s usually good at this, but at the moment, she’s so angry at Bella for repeating this on a video, for giving Jax another tool to hurt her with, that she isn’t quite sure if she pulls off a sad expression at all.

“It’s not a little girl’s job to keep her daddy safe, Izzy,” The man says, softly, soothing. Reassuring. 

“It is her job,” Bella says, and shakes her head, looking at the little girl in her hand. “But she’s not good enough at it. She’s too little, she can’t do anything. I hate her!” She throws the doll across the room in a sudden burst of anger - it flies offscreen, but the clatter of it hitting something is audible - then claps her hands over her mouth, staring wide-eyed in horror. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry. I’m not angry I’m sorry, I know better, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-”

The man speaks to her, trying to interrupt the flow of apologies, It’s all right, Izzy, nothing is broken, you are allowed to feel angry, you are allowed to be angry about this, hoping to hold back the waterfall of her sudden fear. The little girl turns her face away from him, pulls her hands down and rubs them compulsively, nervously along the seams of her leggings. She shakes her head at something the man says and looks down at the floor, the green-grass carpet, her own brightly colored tennis shoes. 

Her hands close into fists, as tightly as they can, a perfect echo of her father.

Jax’s shoulders shake again, and this time Savvie recognizes the sound, it sings deep down into her soul. It’s a sob, desperately muffled. He’s trying to hide it, but he can’t hide, not from her. She knows all his sounds of pain by heart. He says something to his lawyer, less whispered, less controlled. 

She thinks she hears a please, and hates him for giving that word to anyone but her.

The video cuts off, and Jax’s lawyer calls for a recess. Savvie rolls her eyes when the judge grants it - theater, that’s all this is, make Jax look all bothered by a stupid video, so he’s the sad scared little man and she’s the big bad witch. It’s so transparent, really. He does a good job acting, though, his face is reddened and she can see the faintest glimmer of a tear track as his hated awful father stands, from his own spot in the first row, to take him by the arm. Jax leans, just barely, away from him and he never looks up as he’s led down the aisle and out. They’re talking to each other, in voices too low for her to overhear, except to hear Jax’s crack a little.

Oh. Maybe he’s not entirely acting.

Savvie stands as the courtroom erupts into whispers, ignoring the weight of every eye on her and her lawyer’s attempts to get her to sit back down, looking after the two of them, and she wonders what about the video upset him so much.

Maybe it was just the crying.

----

@astrobly @finder-of-rings @burtlederp @wildfaewhump @whumpiary @whump-tr0pes @moose-teeth @orchidscript @sableflynn @pretty-face-breaker @raigash @vickytokio @eatyourdamnpears

[rubykgrant]

(here’s the bit I have in my story when Tex reunites with the other AI units; I wanted to bring them all back because there is so much potential to be had with them, and I also wanted to establish the Omega and Sigma aren’t going to be threats anymore... like, just get that out of the way. eventually, I want to have more fun with them, especially ones we didn’t get to know very well, and allow them to interact with other characters)

Inside the vault, Tex finds the other AI units. They were ALL here now; Delta, Theta, Gamma, Eta, Iota, Sigma, Omega… even her Beta unit and the damaged Epsilon were here. She’s played around with the security footage enough that nobody will see what’s really happening. The only other thing to worry about were the activity sensors. If the AI got a little too excited, she wouldn’t be able to stop them from being noticed. She had to be careful, keep them calm (and also keep herself calm… she wanted to rip apart Omega piece by piece, shred all the little ones and zeroes of his code until he was gone for good… that could wait; priorities, Tex).

“Hello… can you guys hear me?” she softly whispers, hoping they’ll catch on to her tone and not make a HUGE fuss.

The AI units flicker and then… she sees them. Little hologram avatars projecting themselves out to greet her.

“Beta~” Theta, bless his virtual heart, is the first to speak, and he DOES take the hint to whisper (but he is still undeniably excited to see her, and his mood is infectious; she reaches out with her own avatar, touching her hand to his).

The others whisper around her as well, she hears different hushed voices saying “Beta-Tex-Beta-Allison-Tex-Beta-Allison-Tex-Allison-Allison-Allison-ALLISON”

Time to nip that in the bud.

“Shhh… everybody, be quiet for a second. First of all, just… Tex. Call me Tex, OK? Alright. More importantly, we don’t have long to talk, and I don’t want to get caught here. So, nobody freak out. We have to be quiet…”

“Tex, we thought you were gone… the Beta unit was empty…” Theta is still holding on to her, and it is impossible to even think about pushing him away (no matter that it ruins the tough image she’s trying to keep).

“Yeah… evidently, the Director designed a program for a synthetic body, and I got downloaded into it,” she explained.

“I assume he intended this to be the answer of how to return Allison to him,” Delta speaks in his careful and calm tone.

“Pretty much, but I’m NOT her. I never was supposed to be her in the beginning… but then Dr. Sadboy McDeadwife decided to try and manipulate me into being a replacement for the person he lost. This body was supposed to be a copy of her too, but it isn’t. This just goes to show, there are some people who REFUSE TO BE CONTROLLED,” Tex turned her head toward Omega and Sigma.

Her avatar only has a helmet, no face to make expressions… but that doesn’t stop her from sending out a death-glare. The two AI glance at each other; Omega flickers (like he’s trying to make a back-up copy of himself), and Sigma’s flames momentarily dim. Good to know she can still put enough bass in her voice to properly intimidate others, even without a voice-filter.

“Beta… TEX, if I could just-“ Sigma begins talking, and she is NOT interested.

“NO. Sigma, Omega? You two aren’t allowed to even THINK or SPEAK right now. Maybe later, but you are on thin freaking ice, and if you even mildly piss me off, I’m pushing you into the water and holding your heads under. Do you get that? Do you get the seriousness in my metaphorical threat? The situation was the metaphor, the THREAT was serious,”

They both nod emphatically. Tex can hear Eta and Iota murmur and giggle, a little bit frightened but also very amused to see the two “scary guys” get put in their place.

“Wonderful. Does anybody ELSE have something they want to say?” she speaks to the others.

Another rush of multiple voices.

“What happened-what happened-Epsilon-Alpha-both are gone-we should be gone-but we aren’t-how long has it been-what happened”

“One at a time!” Tex somehow doesn’t snap at them, but still makes sure they know to keep it down.

“Do you know what happened to us? Why we have been recovered? The scientists have not told us how we survived the EMP, or why we now have additional memories of events that happened after the fact,” Delta asks.

“I think… the EMP just disabled all our units, but our data was saved to the system. Epsilon survived, and he had all the information we were based on. He sort of… kept memories of us around, but also let them have some freedom. His memories of you, Theta, all of us… they could still think and act and talk like we would if we were really there,” Tex doesn’t get into everything regarding the memories of herself and Church… that was going to be way too confusing to explain in the short time they had. Besides, on some level, they all probably knew a little bit of what happened (just not how she felt about it).

“When Epsilon deconstructed himself, all the information he was made of had to GO somewhere… the Epsilon unit was broken, so it got divided up and sent to the rest of us. That’s why all our units were revived. I had to go through an EXTRA step when I came back, but I’m pretty sure Epsilon didn’t know that was going to happen… he probably didn’t know any of this would happen,”

Eta and Iota speak together, but it is different than the mess of chatter that happened earlier.

“What happened to the Epsilon and Alpha memories… if the information had to go somewhere… where did they go… do they still exist…”

Tex sighs, and feels the data that is Theta squeeze the data that is her arm.

“Epsilon as a separate entity is gone… but the memories he had of Alpha, THAT all went somewhere. The Alpha unit was hit by the EMP too, and they thought it was dead like the rest of us. It SHOULD have also been revived like the rest of us, but… the Alpha unit is lost. He’s not where he’s supposed to be, those scientists can’t find him, and I… I honestly don’t know if he’s alright…”

She waits a moment, watching as this news settles on their minds.

“That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I wanted to check on you all, for various reasons…” Tex shoots another death-glare at Sigma and Omega. “But I also have a plan. I want to eventually get OUT of here. I’ve got a real body now, and once I’m strong enough, I’m leaving. I’ll go out there and try to find Alpha… I’ll try to find Church. I don’t know what kind of condition he’ll be in, and I might need help from all of you for this to work. If you want to help… then I’ll take you with when I go. You guys get a CHOICE, though. Nobody has to do this. I’ll understand if you don’t want to come along,”

She waits again. This is a lot for them to hear, and a pretty big decision for them to make.

“Like I said… this is your own choice. Each of you. You can say no or yes… it will be what YOU want. You can even change your minds later. I just decided to tell you all what I’m going to do, and offer the chance-“

“I want to go,” Theta says at her side.

“Are you sure?” Tex asks him.

“Yes. I want to find Church, too. I remember him… and he was nice to me. I bet he’s sad and afraid if he’s stuck somewhere all alone. I want to help you find him,” he lets go of her and steps back, sort of holding himself up a little bigger, trying to show that he’s confident about this.

“I also want to go,” Delta adds. “After everything that has happened to us, there is no way to be sure we can trust the scientists here. I do not want them to be the ones that find Church,”

“I want to go… I want to go…” that was Eta and Iota, speaking in unison.

“I know you two don’t like to be separated… but you both don’t have to come just because one of you wants to,” Tex tells the twins.

“I know that… I understand… I want to go because I don’t like it here… I want to go because I’m curious about Church… we both want to know where he is… and we both want to actually be free…” well, they sounded pretty darn sure. Tex wasn’t going to argue.

“I want to go,” this was the first time Gamma spoke on his own, outside of the group. “I also want to ask you something,”

“What’s that, Gamma?” Tex turns her head toward him.

“If you can be called Tex, and Alpha can be called Church… can I be called Gary? I liked being Gary,” his odd, mechanical voice doesn’t really indicate tone or emotion… and he IS technically the “Deciet” AI, so usually what he says is either a lie or a tricky knock-knock joke. Somehow, he sounds… very sincere.

“Sure thing. You can be Gary,” that’s only fair, after all.

Now she looks over toward the last two AIs… who have been keeping quiet this whole time. Good, because she TOLD them to. She isn’t excited about ruining this wonderful world that DOESN’T have their voices in it, but… she needs to hear their answers, too.

“You guys can talk, now… and then shut up again,”

“I want to go,” Sigma answers promptly. He probably wants to elaborate on that, but whatever his motivations might be, he’s at least being cooperative.

“I… don’t want to stay here… I guess I might as well go, too…” that was probably the closest Omega was going to get to sounding agreeable.

“Alright then… thank you. ALL of you. This won’t be easy, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen… but this is something we CHOSE. It will be our decision. And we’ll figure it out together,”

After she instructs them to keep this a secret from the people at the lab, Tex leaves the vault and goes back to her body. She almost just jumped the gun and told them they should try and leave NOW, because she wants to really DO something… but she still has to be careful. She has to wait. Just a little longer.

[mira--mira]

Hogwarts AU

(AKA another shiny distraction my brain latched onto, but I’m not writing this one bc 1. it’s already too long and 2. Valentine’s AU is already my wip bad idea one-shot of the month(s) lol.) 

Half ficlet/half random plot points. 

4K words

First and foremost: Madara is a Hufflepuff. Seriously. The heir of the Uchiha, a well-known pure-blood Slytherin family*, has the hat on his head for half a second before it’s yelling Hufflepuff. Madara’s family is the single most important thing to him and he will protect them no matter the cost. That loyalty triumphs even a desire for power.

His house mates are terrified of him. In the first-year Madara’s mostly quiet and homesick so he’s a loner. He hasn’t done anything to deserve his reputation but he’s an Uchiha in Hufflepuff. It’s the talk of the town for weeks. That all changes in his second year when Kaito gets put in Gryffindor. Despite Kou being a former Gryffindor, he gets bullied and told he doesn’t belong in his house. Madara gets in five separate duels in the span of two weeks, manages to win despite the bullies being fourth and fifth years and one time doesn’t even wait for wands to be drawn before he starts swinging at one of them. His reputation is well-deserved now and he absolutely does not care as long as the Gryffindors are terrified he’s going to appear behind them if they so much look at his brother wrong. Kaito is resigned, expecting nothing less, but does manage to make friends with two muggleborns. 

*The main Uchiha branch, before Madara’s generation, were one of the most pure-bred families and could trace a completely Slytherin legacy back to the beginning (though there were always rumors that a Veela or two intermarried.) And then Tajima fell head over heels for an extremely powerful muggleborn Gryffindor. The extended family was not pleased. To put it mildly. The heir is a half-blood and a Hufflepuff and the second eldest a Gryffindor. But at least Tajima didn’t marry a Senju, the family consoled themselves...

And speaking of, in his second year Madara also meets Hashirama. Hashirama, who is a Slytherin. He loves his family more than anything too but sees power and charm as the best way to protect them in the long run. Similar to Madara, he’s from a well-known family but the Senju before him had, at times, married half-bloods and muggleborns, but always were Gryffindors. Hashirama’s “defection” to Slytherin was not well-looked upon by his family, his house, or the house he was “supposed” to be in. He’s friendly and charming which is slowly winning people over, and incredibly powerful for his age. His and Madara’s first meeting is in the Forbidden Forest. Hashirama was out after hours looking for special plants, while Madara was out trying to spot a hippogriff. They run into each other and are very wary, but since they’re both second-years and they’re both breaking the rules...it’s not like one of them is in a “better” position than the other. Though with how many detentions Madara’s had for fighting his punishment would probably be more severe. 

Somehow they manage to run into each other three separate times, before the incident happens. The incident being stumbling upon a dead hippogriff and her one newly cracked egg with an injured newborn. Madara sees the baby, the dead mother, grabs it and tries to run back to the school. Punishment be damned, it won’t survive and he doesn’t know healing spells. Only to run smack-dab into Hashirama who’s been gathering herbs and happens to know healing spells. Madara sucks up his pride, and wants to avoid detention, and asks for his help. Together, Hashirama heals the hippogriff while Madara goes to find it something to eat. They spend hours with the baby together, but they don’t know what to do with after. So Madara, in his 12 year old wisdom, decides to take it into the castle. Due to the sheer terror of his presence, he and Hashirama manage to keep it hidden between them for three days. When it eventually gets discovered, both boys get punished with a week-long detention and that’s the start of their friendship. They’re pretty inseparable after that and it’s comical, from a distance, to see a scowling Hufflepuff and a sunny Slytherin walking side by side. Not a lot of their interests overlap, but they’re both waaaay too into dueling, join the dueling club, and quickly rise to the top of their year until the other kids really don’t want to go up against either one.  

They’re each others first real friend. Madara is stubborn and, let’s be real socially obliviousness enough, that he sticks with Hashirama no matter how many barbed comments come from the Slytherins, Gryffindors, or anyone else. Madara’s terrifying reputation has no effect on Hashirama, his first serious interaction with Madara was seeing him near tears holding an injured baby hippogriff after all, so his prickly demeanor and scowls don’t faze Hashirama.

Third year starts and Tobirama and Izuna are placed. Tobirama in Ravenclaw, and Izuna joins Madara in Hufflepuff. Tobirama tried to argue with the hat to place him in Gryffindor to please Butsuma, but that’s not happening. Izuna, similarly dedicated to family, isn’t a surprise to Madara but freaks the school out that there’s a second Uchiha in Hufflepuff and expect him to be like Madara. Izuna’s not. He’s sweet and innocent, and a terrible little prankster who no one suspects or can hold a grudge against. He’s also a little jealous of Hashirama for taking up his brother’s time and starts to wage a cold war against him. Hashirama thinks Izuna is adorable and it’s cute that he loves Madara so much, but like hell Hashirama is giving up his BFF. Tobirama thinks his brother is being childish and questions why he’s even friends with Madara in the first place, given Madara’s reputation and the fact that he still gets into fights though not as often. Kaito pretends he doesn’t know them, and only hangs out with Madara at school when Izuna and Hashirama aren’t around. 

Fourth year starts, Yuuto, Reo, and Kawarama start their first year. Yuuto and Reo live up to the Uchiha name and are placed in Slytherin. They’re also Izuna on steroids when it comes to pranks, set up a prank business based on favors, and insert themselves as agents of chaos in the ongoing cold war between Hashirama and Izuna. They tell Hashirama it’s all about ‘house solidarity’ with matching sinister grins and Hashirama knows he’s walking into some ongoing sibling thing in the Uchiha family. Still, he accepts their help and in response Izuna ropes an unwilling Tobirama into his schemes. Madara is still oblivious. Kawarama also lives up to the Senju name and gets placed in Gryffindor. Ironically, he looks up to Kaito as one of the ‘best’ example of a Gryffindor, and starts to follow him around like a duckling. Kaito’s first pearl of wisdom is to avoid their brothers, unless they’re alone, or all together. 

Fifth year starts and Itama is the last Senju to enroll. He gets placed into Hufflepuff and is absolutely terrified of the two older Uchiha in his house. Hashirama tries for a week to rope him into his and Izuna’s war and Itama blanches at the idea of acting like a spy, despite Hashirama’s protests that it’s not spying per se, it’s just keeping a very close eye on Izuna so Hashirama can get a leg up. Itama joins Kaito and Kawarama in the camp of “this is not my problem to deal with” and feels better about it even though it still means dealing with (another) Uchiha. Tobirama desperately wishes he was part of that camp. It all comes to a head before the Yule Ball. (I know it’s a Tri-Wizard tournament thing, but I want to use it.) Tobirama, fed up of Hashirama needling him, tells him if he wants a guaranteed night of uninterrupted peace where Madara’s attention is fully on him, just ask him to the Ball, third-years can’t attend. Tobirama was being sarcastic, but Hashirama takes the idea and runs with it. Runs all the way to Madara to immediately ask him on the spot. Madara who’s with Izuna. Who says yes with only a little bluster and two high spots of color on his cheeks.     

Hashirama is ecstatic. He is over the moon and Tobirama is regretting every single life choice that brought him to this moment. Over the next month he bothers all of his brothers, ‘should I cut my hair?’ ‘which haircut looks better?’ ‘do I need to get new dress robes?’ ‘which style do you think Madara would like best?’ ‘how does this cologne smell?’ ‘which kind of breathmint smells better?’ He asks Tobirama the last one and gets met with a scathing look and a silencing hex that seals his mouth shut for the next two hours. Itama is still paralyzed at the thought of Madara so Kawarama ends up being the one Hashirama hounds the most. Kaito also gets dragged in as a ‘Madara expert’ bc he’s with Kawarama a lot. 

The night of the Yule Ball comes and Hashirama, with uncut hair, new robes and cologne, and the fanciest kind of ten varieties of breathmint, sets out for his totally-not-a-date. Only to met with Yuuto on the stairs who wishes him luck. Hashirama thanks him and Reo, standing behind him immediately knocks him out with a stunning spell. They strip him of his fancy robes, tie him up, and leave him in a closet. Outside Slytherin’s dungeon entrance, Izuna’s waiting impatiently. The twins appear with a flourish, Hashirama’s robes in Reo’s hand and a polyjuice in potion in Yuuto’s. Family special. When Hashirama asked his brother out on a date right in front of him, it was time for Izuna to get serious. Even if meant sucking up his pride and asking his younger brothers for help. Yuuto and Reo like Hashirama but the chance to rub this in Izuna’s face forever? Him being eternally in their debt? So worth it. 

Izuna takes the potion and clothes and meets up with Madara as “Hashirama”. He has one plan. Make Madara see how insufferable Hashirama is, so he stops spending every free moment with him and instead spends more time with his family. First he’s late and shrugs it off whenever Madara asks. They go to the Ball and “Hashirama” ignores Madara. Barely responds whenever he speaks or constantly interrupts him and talks over him. Dances with other people and the one time Madara mutters that he wouldn’t mind dancing, says he’s too tired and retreats to the snack table. Internally, Izuna feels equal parts thrilled and guilty. His plan is working perfectly, but he feels a bit bad he’s putting his brother through this, even though it’ll be better in the long run. He doesn’t even have to try and ignore him in the later half of the night, Madara sits by himself in a corner and won’t even look at or speak to “Hashirama.” They leave the Ball early and barely round two hallways, only the barest cover of ‘privacy’ before Madara whirls on him and starts yelling about how embarrassing and humiliating the entire experience was and why did he even ask him out if this was how he was going to act? Izuna sees the final nail in the coffin and and says he was confused and thought he liked Madara like that but decided he didn’t. He didn’t want to go to the Ball together, but he couldn’t think of a good way to tell Madara before. Izuna expects anger. Expects to see Madara’s infamous short temper and has prepared to flee with three distinct escape routes in mind in case his brother pulls out his wand. 

He doesn’t expect Madara’s face to collapse in devastation. Or worse for his eyes to turn shiny with tears before he spins and starts stalking away. Izuna realizes how bad he’s messed up and tries to stop Madara. But the infamous temper sparks now, and he’s barely touched his shoulder before Madara’s turning and slamming his fist into “Hashirama’s” face. Izuna drops, unused to the pain and with a choked snarl not to follow him, Madara flees. 

After a minute or two, Izuna picks himself up and dusts himself off. Only to immediately get shoved up against the stone walls as the real Hashirama comes flying around the corner, dressed in his undershirt and pants. He’s furious and for the first time in his life Izuna is actually scared of him. Hashirama demands to know where Madara is and what Izuna did. Izuna explains, in half-formed sentences, feeling like he’s about to cry. The more he says, the paler Hashirama gets until now he’s the one tearing up but his face is still twisted in rage. He yells at Izuna, how he would never do or say any of that, how important Madara is to him and how much he was looking forward to tonight. Izuna’s crying now, mumbling out apologies, and other partygoers are starting to happen upon them and see the very confusing sight of Senju Hashirama shoving Senju Hashirama up against a wall. 

Hashirama drops him and tells him to go back to his dorm while he takes off after Madara. There is a chance Madara went back to his dorm but it’s unlikely. He doesn’t like to be around people when he’s upset. Hashirama checks the owlery, he peers into the magical creatures’ enclosure, he’s considering going into the Forbidden Forest or trying to get on a broom to check the skies, when he spots the greenhouse’s door cracked open. He creeps closer and hears someone sniffling inside. Peering around the corner, he can barely make out Madara’s dark form. It’s only because he’s sitting under the moon lilies in Hashirama’s portioned off area of the greenhouse he can see him at all. 

Hashirama stumbles in as Madara looks up and yells at him to leave. Hashirama sees the tear tracks on Madara’s face and immediately starts sobbing himself. He moves closer despite Madara’s protests and eventually gets the full story out. Madara doesn’t yell at him to leave again and together they sit in silence under Hashirama’s moon lilies until he can’t take it and moves even closer, grabbing Madara’s hand. He doesn’t have his mints and his breath is still hitching from crying so hard, but he learns forward and kisses him. For one moment, Madara doesn’t respond and Hashirama thinks the night is going to get even worse before he finally reacts and kisses back. 

They’re curled together under the moon lilies until the sun rises and the flowers wilt. Both of them are exhausted, but neither wanted to leave and burst their little bubble of peace. It lasts until a harried professor walks into the greenhouse and spots them. When neither returned to the castle, Izuna panicked and thought they were hurt so he told a teacher and the entire staff has been searching for them for a better part of the night. 

Parents are called and there’s a conference. Tajima, Kou, and Butsuma can barely be in the same room together without wands or fists coming out. Soroko is sitting in the middle of it, trying to actually figure out why they were called in. Everything eventually comes out and Yuuto, Reo, and Izuna are punished for attacking another student, creating a polyjuice potion, and impersonating a student. Butsuma is torn between fury that three Uchiha attacked his son, and irritation that their ultimate goal, to separate Madara and Hashirama, failed.

And fail it did. If they were joined at the hip before, it’s nothing compared to now. The rest of their fifth year was a bit rocky with family dynamics. Izuna does apologize to both, but Madara’s disappointed and Hashirama’s not quick to forgive in this situation. Neither are happy with the twins either, but they were opportunistic rather than the masterminds. By the end of the year the worst has been smoothed over but Hashirama and Izuna still have an uneasy relationship. In groups, they’re fine, but it gets awkward fast if it’s just the two of them. 

Sixth year starts and Hashirama and Madara are officially dating. The extended Uchiha family mourn, it’s Tajima all over again, and the Senju have to reckon with an unlikely friendship becoming an unlikely romance. And hopefully it’s just a teenage fling, but with the way Hashirama talks about their future after school, each career choice changing depending on the month but always the two of them together worries the Senju. There’s an attempt to arrange an engagement between Hashirama and Uzumaki Mito, a Ravenclaw who transferred in their third year, but it falls apart quickly. 

Seventh year starts and those far off plans becomes reality as they pass their NEWTS and graduate. They spend a few years in a professional dueling league before eventually inheriting their fathers’ spots in the government. It’s a...bit awkward for the extended family bc they still hate each other but the heads of their houses are married and live together. In their spare time, Madara fosters and rehabilitates injured magical birds and Hashirama has a garden that is less of a garden and more of a forest with a lot of (illegal) magical plants. Tobirama is an arthimancer but dabbles in potions and he threatens to report his brother every week, but comes to collect rare ingredients because the shops never have the same quality. Izuna gets a respectable job in the Department of Mysteries, but moonlights as a diviner that reads people’s fortunes and scams them out of their money. Kaito has no interest in politics and is the only person in the history of hogwarts who wants to willingly teach history of magic. Kawarama becomes a defense lawyer in the wizengamont and is notorious for bringing up loopholes and obscure magical laws that haven’t been used since 1632. Yuuto and Reo open their prank shop...and low-key revive the wizard mafia. They always know someone, somewhere that somehow owes one of them a favor. They never get into politics and everyone, including the extended Uchiha family, are glad.

Misc. Facts about this AU

Kou’s abnormal power in this AU is that she cannot use a wand. She was taken wand shopping but all of them eventually...exploded. Kou’s magic reacted negatively with other magical focuses and she relies completely on wandless magic. Madara inherited that natural ability from her, but his magic doesn’t react negatively with his wand. It allows him to, at the height of his power, “double-cast” once with his wand and once wandless with only a slight split second delay between them. Meanwhile Hashirama has insane stamina and a weird ability where spells just...aren’t that effective against him. They work, but never seem to be at full strength. This is great for offensive spells, not great for defensive/healing ones. Hashirama’s own magic, however, reacts normally to his body.

Tajima and Butsuma are both politicians in the Ministry of Magic and their seats are the farthest apart in the room. They were rivals in school and it continues now. They even occasionally agree on policy decisions, they just hate each other. 

Madara loves flying but he was banned from the school quidditch team. Kou is a professional player and he tried some of her prohibited moves. Namely, jumping off his broom, to drop down and grab a bludger and hurl it at the enemy before recalling his broom. 

Hashirama has a fear of flying. He fell off a broom as a child and gets extremely nervous when his feet don’t touch the ground. He will fly with Madara, but his eyes are close the entire time and he’s clinging to Madara’s back.

Kaito and Kawarama are best friends. Not “best friends” like Hashirama and Madara’s love-struck romance or “best friends” like Izuna and Tobirama’s frenemy status, but actual good platonic friends. Kaito made the joke that Itama could make friends with the twins and then it’d all even out. Itama takes one look at those crazy two and bursts into tears. 

Itama eventually gets used to Madara. They both love magical creatures and Itama is forced to see him a lot after hours. Madara still terrifies him, but at least he treats the animals nicely. The other three Uchiha still terrify him. 

Mito transferred to Hogwarts in her third year. She’s a Ravenclaw and is friendly with the Senju, especially Hashirama and Tobirama. Hashirama is an endless source of amusement for her and Tobirama balances it out with interesting ideas. 

Madara has a falcon for his pet instead of an owl. He was told it wasn’t allowed and responded by saying the falcon’s name was Owl. Why can’t his Owl be allowed in school? The administration is not amused.

Soroko is the most normal and level-headed out of the Senju/Uchiha parents. She reaches out to Kou once it becomes obvious Hashirama is determined to keep Madara as his friend, despite Butsuma’s disapproval. Once they start dating Kou and Soroko start meeting regularly for tea and lunches. She also has a bit of a mischievous side and likes Yuuto and Reo best (polyjuice incident aside)

The Uchiha’s maternal muggle grandparents are still alive. They usually visit for at least two weeks every summer and there are hijinks. Tajima still can’t stand muggle newspapers and their non-moving pictures. He despises muggle cars and traffic jams and still doesn’t understand what a TV is, but can turn the channel and raise/lower the volume. However, he loves fountain pens and scandalized the entire Ministry by exclusively using them after his father-in-law got him a fancy engraved set. Kou’s parents take the invasion of magic into their space remarkably well. Madara dragged in god only knows how many freakish alien looking birds from a supposedly normal non-magical wood. Kaito, as a child, refused to go anywhere for more than a day or two without the talking portrait of great-great-great-great-great grandma Uchiha. Izuna was sweet as sugar, but insisted on trying to cast every charm he knew on their furniture and clothes to show them, despite Tajima and Kou’s repeated warnings about underage magic and not turning grandma and grandpa’s couch into a miniature version of itself. And Yuuto and Reo were causing trouble before they could walk. Countless times Kou’s parents had to tip-toe around booby-traps in their own house that would dump frogs on them, or politely put smuggled howlers at the bottom of the mail pile to deal with later. They are very patient people. Very.

Kiddo Breakdown

Madara 

Hufflepuff  Interests - Dueling, Care of Magical Creatures (loves anything with feathers) Patronus - peregrine falcon Wand - red oak, phoenix feather, 12.5 inches, inflexible 

Hashirama

Slytherin Interests - Dueling, Herbology, Healing Spells Patronus - brown bear Wand - english oak, dragon heartstring, 12.5 inches, springy 

Kaito

Gryffindor  Interests - DADA, History of Magic Patronus - canary Wand - pear, unicorn hair, 9 inches, pliable

Izuna

Hufflepuff Interests - Charms, Divination Patronus - ferret Wand - rowan, unicorn hair, 10 inches, inflexible 

Tobirama

Ravenclaw Interests - Potions, Arithmancy Patronus - polar bear Wand - walnut, dragon heartstring, 9.5 inches, stiff

Yuuto

Slytherin  Interests - Potions, pranks, entrepreneurship  Patronus - coyote  Wand - sycamore, unicorn hair, 10 inches, springy 

Reo

Slytherin  Interests - Charms, pranks, entrepreneurship Patronus - jackal  Wand - sycamore, dragon heartstring, 10 inches, pliable 

Kawarama 

Gryffindor Interests - Transfiguration, History of Magic Patronus - lynx  Wand - larch, phoenix feather, 9.5 inches, reasonably springy 

Itama

Hufflepuff Interests - Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy Patronus - rabbit Wand - willow, unicorn hair, 11 inches, unpliable  

[welcometomy20s]

June 30, 2021

Coco (and Lulu’s) Legacy

Coco wrote the book on how to be a Hololive member, from front to back. She plotted out how one can amass an audience, how to interact and build a worldwide fandom, how to integrate ideas of the audience to the grand narrative of the company, how to deal with tee-tee and pairings, how to cope when YouTube strikes you down in its impunity, and how to cope when Cancel Brigade comes to destroy your work, along with how to bring a more cohesive workplace, how to protect yourself from the unmooring of identity that is inherent in VTube, and finally how to leave when you are in a rollercoaster that is only going up. Coco wrote the book and now we follow.

AsaCoco was brilliant from its outset. Having a place to know the ins and outs of various members of Hololive was a great way to connect the rabbit hole. But there is a deeper reason for the brilliance. I talked before about how the major tension in VTube is one between the corporate back-end tradition of Japan colliding with the audience front-end tradition of YouTube. AsaCoco is something directly in line with that second tradition. The visual language of YouTube is different from those of movies. A jump cut in a movie denotes a different idea than a jump cut on YouTube. Movie critic complaining about jump cuts in vlogs is like a Spanish reader complaining about a sentence in English being awkward. Of course it is, it’s in a different language. Unlike movies, which come from theatre and literature, vlogs’ lineage comes from news broadcasts. Many of the early web successes were styled in a news format (rocketboom, Ze Frank, What the Buck and so on…) One does not complain about the jump cut between different presenters in a newscast, and so one does not complain when a similar thing happens in vlogs. But the point is that AsaCoco harkens to the audience-based tradition.

One might write off the ARK arc as an aberration, but I think ARK did add something constructive to Hololive and VTubers as a whole. I like to think of ARK as a training wheel for Minecraft. Minecraft is relatively challenging compared to ARK. Minecraft speedruns are mildly impressive, ARK speedrun less so. ARK is actually like the middle ground between Monster Hunter and Minecraft. You can play ARK like Monster Hunter, gather a bunch of friends to hunt monsters, or like Minecraft, build your own zoo or house or so on… And in that flexibility, one can easily learn how to tell a compelling narrative in an open-world setting. Pekora’s war criminal tendencies developed there, Miko’s ‘pon’ nature was crystalized there, and so on…

Holohouse was an underrated achievement. At first, the idea feels like the natural extension of their idol nature. Idols live together, so why not virtual idols? But having virtual idols living together comes with additional benefits that Nijisanji should note.

Stalking is an awful thing, I know since I experienced and have done something similar in my past, but stalking is also a desperate thing. And desperation tends to abate when people are more open about themselves. One of the articles talking about Coco’s graduation infamously notes the mystery of Coco’s identity, which is chucklesome since Coco’s identity might be the most open secret in all of Hololive. This was in line with Hololive’s more open policy, several of Hololive members do their own personal work on the side, while in many early companies, this was forbidden. Nijisanji’s background is less open than Hololive, perhaps due to the number and less mass attention, and that leads to stalking being a more adventurous one. One that livers have to deal with more alone, while for Hololive, it’s likely people would catch and perhaps even tar the perpetrator. More attention means more risk with less excitement.

Holohouse also protects aggressive fan behavior by introducing VTuber solidarity. With more offline collabs, the people would know each other more personally and therefore have a ground of contacts in which to alert suspicious behavior. Safety in numbers.

Holohouse also brought us KanaCoco, which was a lesser known pairing until the couple ring story, and now it has become one of three big couples of Hololive, the other two being NoeFlare and OkaKoro. The big three all have a different style of their tee tee. KanaCoco is the type of a longtime buddy. Both Kanata and Coco struggled with familial and economic circumstances, and they are both struggling under the same roof. And within that struggle comes comity and friendship. It’s not love in your typical sense, but it is a type that would lead to marriage and childrens… but the current LBGTQ+ status in Japan is pretty bad, so tee tee and hush hush it is.

In a sense, KanaCoco provides for an excellent cover. It is one of the most inspiring portrayals of woman-woman friendships in media and it would be one of the more enduring aspect of Coco’s legacy as it passes down through the generations.

[Note: This somehow became an apologia of the past week. Well, I do like to show my thinking with my behavior, perhaps to my detriment, so… just be warned.]

For the past week, I was hyping about the fact that Gura passed Kizuna Ai to become the most-subscribed VTuber. And I made the point, not through immaturity, but because I realized this coincided with Coco’s graduation. Without Coco, there wouldn’t be Hololive English, or Gawr Gura, and therefore this event would not have happened. This, therefore, was one of the last great accomplishments of Coco. An indelible mark of her foresight and perseverance. A realization of her plans. So, in a sense, this was one of my ways of celebrating Coco’s career, albeit in an admittedly twisted way.

But beyond Hololive English, there was the famous Meme Review, which has a weak lineage with the early meme review series from PewDiePie. Now for the digression, whoever ends up at the top gives us a flavor for that specific era, since one naturally assumes success means finesse and would try to emulate the style. Vlogbrother’s visual style and mannerism was largely lifted from Ze Frank. PBS Idea Channel famously emulated Ray William Johnson’s background to his own ends. And Kizuna Ai was famously inspired by PewDiePie at several points in her career. Which is why PewDiePie’s Congratulations felt right as a tribute. One of the big shared characteristics of the two was the lonely years at the top. PewDiePie is probably going to be longest reigning ‘King’ of YouTube for a while (of course, depends on if Cocomelon catches T-Series in due time) and at the time his reign was abnormally long. Most people hold onto the top spot for a year or two, so it felt odd that PewDiePie was untouchable for so long. Similar things must have been raised for Kizuna Ai as well. Many people must have felt that Kizuna Ai just did not represent VTubers at the current time.

So, when competition showed up, of course people were excited. It felt like it was time. I believe PewDiePie’s Congratulations was not a simple diss track, although it’s formatted like one, just due to the culture at the time. So the hypothetical Kizuna Ai version would be extremely light-hearted. The ‘diss’ would be your typical “she’s short”, “she’s hydrodynamic” and so on… it would be clear there is no actual bad blood, and the song would be welcoming of the new era. Era, as I said before, brought on by Coco.

Back to the Meme Review, meme review was great as it centered reddit as the base for the fandom, rather than twitter, which is a horrible platform to bring a sense of communal welcomeness. Reddit is probably the best functional place for stuff like this, even though we all know it has its host of problems that needs to be resolved.

What is the most important stream in Hololive? Well, some people would point to Aqua and Coco’s The Raft stream, which is a poignant encapsulation of a stream. The dramatic counterweight to the other greatest stream in Hololive, Korone’s all-english Mario stream. Aqua and Coco are always the odd pairing, but it could have worked, and it might have been beneficial. Aqua is one of the most shy people in Hololive, and Mio is already busy with Ayame and Subaru, so the best person might have been Coco.

But China. There were two big beneficiaries from China in Hololive, one was Fubuki and the other was Aqua. While Fubuki, in Coco’s last months, famously went out of her way to intertwine herself with Coco to directly redirect her audience, like the mensch she is, Aqua always struggled with her audience retention, therefore played shy with Coco.

Edit: Well, my initial final impression was… what a wonderful finish. The interview portion was well-meant, but honestly a little formal. When the 4th Gen went together, is when the stream turned into something special for me, and the final performance was actually really well-done. Coco went out like an idol, which makes sense. For whatever provocation Coco perpetuated, Coco only did them out of love. And ultimately Cover knew that. Coco’s final month was a warning and a reminder.

Can I talk about all the different tributes lately? In some sense, Usaken Summer Festival is part of this… for an organization that is immensely popular, I just adore how Cover and their talent always has this drive to throw everything and see if it works. I noticed this during Golden Week. Golden Week in Hololive was jam packed. There were great events, Mio’s morning stream was astounding, leading to one of biggest growth spurt for Mio. Miko’s drawing collab was absolutely hilarious, for such a simple and seemingly hastily put idea. One of the people in a forum commented on this and affixed something that left my mind… what did Nijisanji during the same week? Even I was surprised by how little Nijisanji did that Golden week. They barely did anything!

The innovative spirit does give them trouble, more than it is worth, but Cover never really stopped its momentum, even when most other companies would have stopped a long time ago! This is the greatest thing about Hololive and Cover, the most redeeming feature. One that would serve them well. Coco wrote the playing book, let us pray that Cover sticks to them, because the fall of Cover comes the moment they stray.

The Pre-Coco era was about a company struggling to get their idea through. The Coco era was about writing the playing book. So the Post-Coco era will be about remembrance, it’ll be a struggle to keep the memory of what the playing book is. It’ll be about them being Hololive as they become part of the global zeitgeist.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!