#bc it would have given even more of a proper build up to that final fight

[queenerdloser]

saw dune 2 and it was fantastic. my no-spoiler review is they really went nuts making the harkonnen as creepy and gross as they possible could and i respect them for that. also. Big Worm.

[bluewhispersandabsinth]

still not a multi-fandom blog but I finished watching Good Omens 2 and I have thoughts and I want to ramble about them.

But since it's not the main theme of this blog, I don't plan to write GO fanfic again any time soon, and it's rambling about the ending, thus, spoilers, I put it under the cut.

I like that the ending of season 2 was in many ways an enhanced interaction of what happened in episode 3, season 1, including the "Come with me!" and "I forgive you." In a way, it was almost more dramatic given that Crowley didn't just want to go to one of their headquarters and stay involved with Earth and the humans together with his partner, but to elope to a different galaxy.

The speech wasn't that much different, just a bit more self-aware (important, sweet, but they still had similar conversations about "let's be on our side!" before many times, even in the BC times, and if compared, while a similar gist, it has slowly become more and more self-aware over time already, but never was full there before), it really just lacked the kiss and many of us suspected if it weren't for keeping the material a bit more mainstream appropriate when it was written, there would have been a kiss. I wonder actually if that's the reason why the scenes are so similar. To finally do what should have been done a long time before.

Anway, what I'm getting at -

"Let's do [radical thing] together!" - "No!" - "But...!" - "I forgive you." - One storms off (statistically, mostly Crowley) - one gets in trouble (statistically, mostly Aziraphale but then it's not gets but "gets") - dramatic reunion

seems to be a pattern throughout their friendship, including the emotional bond growing and escalating a bit further every time (yeah, it feels dramatic now, that we see it, but it's all happening and building up over 6000 years, sometimes with decades or centuries between "breakup" and reunion.)

I wonder if we'll get the full story of the 1793 prison scene. So far we've learned: Aziraphale knows that Crowely loves saving him and doesn't mind acting a little helpless/putting himself in danger and he did the "You're right, I am wrong dance" the same year. Combined with the smugness and "Oh, you!" from both sides, and Aziraphale's rather lame reasons why he ended up there and why he unfortunately, unfortunately can neither miracle nor charm himself out of jail? Yeah, that's a story that smells of a dramatic previous setup. Like a "breakup" over sides, for example.

I bet one wild fan theory that what looks extremely dramatic to us is the same song and dance they've been through countless times in 6k years and, if anyone remembers the manga and how it ended, we're steering toward a Ranma 1/2-esque resolution, maybe with more open and blunt handholding but all in all, nothing really changed aside from Crowley finally saying what Aziraphale already knew or at least expected (our angel guy doesn't seem very surprised by the confession and more pained by the timing and context than anything else).

All in all, ep6s2 feels more like the midpoint or late third of a whole season, especially if compared to the pacing and beats of the first season. And now, the second coming?

Sounds like the hint at a future conflict based on the same premise as the main arc of season 1, just from the other perspective (wouldn't be surprised if it included the concept of "The Rapture" in one form or the other, would be funny if Crowley turned out to be behind the belief in The Rapture but not to please Hell but to annoy Aziraphale with paperwork).

Anyway, it's good that things are how they're now. Aziraphale gets to step out of their routine and to experience one of his big "What ifs..." that he'd have wondered about until eternity if he hadn't been given the chance to be a proper angel in Heaven again.

And now, Crowley has to share Earth with Gabriel, Beelzebub, and Muriel, three immortal beings like him, with very different personalities from him and Aziraphale.

Choosing someone as your forever-person over others and lifechoices is only a true choice when you experience options.

If they end up together after another season and choose to stay together on Earth, independent from their backgrounds, it'll be because they truly choose to, and not brought together by proximity loneliness for being two of a kind.

I really hope that's an angle they'll go with in the future.

[whoknowsyourfuture]

So, Just Saw the new Indiana Jones Movie

For spoiler free-

It was a fun movie, had some good callbacks. Much more action than I remembered the other movies having, but I haven't watched them in a while, so grain of salt with that. There wasn't a lot of character building or b-plots, but again I haven't watched the previous ones in a while, so. Spoilers and discussion under the readmore!

Ok, so immediately, I'm not super psyched with the intro. As the movie is written, it's somewhat necessary to get a background, but I think there were ways to get around having to introduce entirely new friends and enemies. Literally just make Indy have had an oops baby with one of his previous love interests, or, in the case of Elsa from the Last Crusade, a kid with his dad. Does that make sense with the timeline? Who knows. Or, because I love Ke Huy Quan, bring him/his kid into it for the inciting incident. There are tons of ways to have used extant characters and avoid the uncanny valley Young!Indy. As it is, the plot we got is Fine, I Guess. Very much 'bad guys have this so we got to get to the next place before them' but surprise! They managed to catch up without knowing where Indy and Co. are going in an unlikely quick fashion. Like yeah, they're going west instead of east in the Mediterranean, but there's a whole lot of west that they might have gone to and the bad guys were in a little boat🙃.

Also, this movie felt a lot more brutal. Pretty much all of Indy's friends who helped in this movie ended up shot, and a lot of innocent bystanders, even when the Nazis are still pretending to go along with the CIA, which. Given this movie takes place in 1969...😬 Yeah, I'm not considering them the good guys either. Which brings me in to how they did Mason dirty, y'know, the only WOC in the cast. Obviously the main thing is they just offed her, which, Nazis. So, technically makes sense, but given the turmoil of the time in the setting there could have been so much more done with the character. Because as it is, she's kind of ineffective. She doesn't tip the rest of the bad guys off to where Helena went, but she's still going along with everything even after they've killed innocent bystanders! I don't expect CIA to care, but if you're going to go that route, either make her properly evil, given she would have been recruited to infiltrate black rights organizations (which her actor even brought up according to Wikipedia), or make her have a crisis of faith in the CIA and give her something to do except die! She's one of like 5 POC with substantial lines in the movie, if we exclude Helena's mob BF, and the only woman! There was so much potential! And that's not the way I would even fix her character. I'd have her be Indy's TA, be sus of Helena and her whole thing bc she's heard Indy's stories and go 'someome you have history with shows up trying to find a mystical artifact with ties to the Nazis!?!?! You're getting in trouble and I'm not grading your finals alone!' Literally nothing else in the movie really has to change, although I would just to make a proper b plot. And so she doesn't die, bc this is the happy version. Since it seems like they're trying to set Helena up as the next Indy, it would have been cool if there was a duo with the two of them, his goddaughter and his student, or, given that Helena is kind of chaotic neutral to evil, they could have played off against each other and had a cat and mouse thing. And kiss

So, yeah, mostly just griping about how the characters could be more interesting - wait I forgot, when Indy wanted to stay in Greece it would have been way more impactful to have someone he properly knew going why the fuck do you want to stay? Mason the TA going 'you're coming back for your students mfer, that's who! I still need you to sign off on my thesis!'

Anyways, it was a fun movie, just go in with lower expectations than the first three. Hope Mads is having fun with his villain era, it was cool to see some of the previous cast come back even if they murdered them 😒 I do have to admit I like the horse scene even though it's less than believable. There's some cool Easter eggs with history and the earlier movies, and I fully expect them to make the next one about the lance of Longinus.

[bibbykins]

The Household’s Bunny: New Beginings

A/N: Here is the establishing written part I promised! This is just to kinda set the scene a bit, the rest of the parts won’t be going in chronological order since this is a drabble series, but I wrote this literal years ago when I wanted to make it a full sequential series! Please enjoy!

Warnings: 18+, talk of sex work, mentions of stalking, OnlyFans and camming are discussed, soft and (kinda) yandere dummies, the members are adopted by the same person but don’t see each other as family, weird (adoptive) family dynamics bc this is a bit of a crack fic

Pairing: OT7 x Chubby! Reader

Word count: ~6k

Series Masterlist

Synopsis: Among the clouds, there is sun. It was time for a new beginning among new people in a new home. You had always enjoyed company, and you could only hope they would enjoy yours for all that it is. It wasn’t everyday you get seven new roommates and they get one that’s like you.

There was something peaceful about packing. Where people see a chore of tetris, you see excitement, it was symbolic. A new start. A new place. You were going to have roommates for once. Although Ms. Mona said to consider them like family, you didn’t want to be too presumptuous, so your goal was to make some friends among them. You had never been the most skilled in making friends. Your plump figure made you and your quirks stick out that much more, so you were mostly categorized as the acquaintance to have, but not the friend to have. Although, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Learning to be alone was a life skill that pushed you to excel in working, school work, house work, and actual work. Maybe it was that work drive that led you to do camming, creating a place where people not only liked your body but your quirks as well, including yourself.

You were practically bouncing with excitement when you zipped up the last suitcase. You cast a final look around the room you couldn't wait to be rid of. You would come home, and hopefully, not be met with utter silence. You weren't exactly expecting a grand greeting, just the sound of life would be indulgence enough.

God, you should've invested in a pet, maybe a squirrel or something would've been nice, enough to keep you sane maybe.

You didn't hate the solitude your uncle's busy work schedule put you in. It was just about all you knew. so you couldn’t say you exactly like it. You craved change of a sort. You craved some presence in a house beyond the kitchen supplies you talked to as you cooked. You barely even had friends to talk to. You had treasured acquaintances, sure, but no one really close. It was mostly just you up until now. Well, you and your subscribers. Or maybe fans? Clients? You weren’t sure how to categorize the parasocial relationships you cultivated.

Now, you were receiving seven housemates or…(hopefully) friends overnight. 

You didn't know their ages, names, backgrounds, or appearance, drawing nerves in the pit of your stomach. Would they be kind? Would they hate you? Would they even want you there? Would they judge you?

Your "dad", technically uncle, Jungyoon, had begun to work with and grown a close friendship with Mona, who was, to put plainly, filthy rich. She owned several colossal properties, one of which all of her… she called herself their guardian… so maybe adopted sons? lived in which was about 10 stories. Each story had a room, bathroom, and a lot of extra space to house any miscellaneous items like workout gear or an art studio. She was a sweet woman who traveled a lot for work along with your father and had given you a comprehensive layout of the complex you'd be living in as you started your last year in college for safety. Although, moving in with seven unknown guys sounds like a suspense movie in itself, but these were your new housemates, and it's not like you ever had a problem with guys chasing after you in the real world. Well, for the most part. You kept yourself busy with everything but a proper social life.

You looked at the blueprint of the building she emailed to you and hummed in thought. It seems the first two floors were a lobby area with mail boxes that were floor-specific, nearly making you choke on the intricacy. The second floor was large, equipped with a full kitchen, dining room, and living area. You noticed how the other floors didn't contain these functions, making you hopeful of a dinner with company for once. 

Your phone vibrated before another rush of doubt on whether or not they'll even like you could hit you for the nth time.

“Hello?” 

“Hi, Y/n, I'm Ms. Mona’s driver here to pick you up to take you to the residence.” A masculine voice quipped, making your eyes widen.

You were dumbfounded. You were expecting a taxi, not a personal driver. Your car had been taken over there prior to save you the trouble of searching for the place.

“O-Okay, I'll be right down.” You sputtered before hanging up.

The ride in the car was awkward and silent. You couldn't resist a futile attempt at a conversation, but eventually you gave up after the third try. You instead opted for looking out the window, watching your old neighborhood go by. Luckily, the new place wasn't too far from your college, so the commute for your last months in your last semester wouldn't be terrible. 

You audibly gasped when the driver pulled up to the intimidating building equipped with a garage where you spotted your car, and a few others that made yours look like a cheap hunk of metal, “Thank you!” You chirped, insisting on getting your suitcase as you stepped towards the gate that you opened with the pass code previously given to you. 

The door was glass with silver metal as you stepped inside to see the mail cubbies lining the far wall. The floor was white tile with a call system at one end for each floor and an elevator that was passkey activated in the lobby for security purposes. You thought back to your previous place with the broken lock and chuckled a bit. It all felt very Cinderella. 

You dug through your purse as you searched for the passkey with a cute baby pink design Mona designed for yours. Each pass code had its own specific design and color, and she was so excited to have a girl in the house, so she went as stereotypically girly as she could. You eventually found it, scanning it, and stepping onto the elevator after the sleek silver doors opened.

Since it was the middle of the day, you figured everyone would be out and about with school or work. You knew two of them were in school, one around your age and the other in grad school. Naturally, you took the Friday off to settle in. You were a diligent student, and you had already planned well ahead to miss a day, luckily with only one final full week left, there was not much to be missed.

You clicked on 10, figuring you should unpack before exploring, however, the elevator came to a stop at floor three. 

The doors opened to reveal a man, older than you, in a nice dress shirt and tie with neat slacks. You nearly choked when you saw his face. He was almost painfully handsome. He had chestnut hair and a kind face that wore a smile upon seeing you.

“Ah, you beat me,” He chided, stepping in with you, “I was going down to meet you, but you're like a bunny, so quick.” He scrunched his nose playfully and you nearly choked at the all too accurate simile.

You smiled, “Sorry, I guess I'm eager.” You kept your tone airy, hoping to shield your nervousness.

He chuckled warmly, “I'm glad,” He extended a hand to you, “I'm Jin, the eldest of the bunch. I do all the cooking as often as I can, but I'm a pediatrician, so it can get hectic.” 

You blinked, he looked quite young, especially for a doctor, but you took his hand after some gawking, “I'm Y/n, a fourth year in college, and I.. am not that spectacular, but I used to be a virtual assistant among other online stuff, so that’s something.” You giggled lightly, making him squeeze your hand for a moment before letting go. You internally cringed at your words. Was this a job interview? Why did you say that?

However, he seemed more impressed than weirded out, “Virtual assistant? What exactly did you do?” He inquired as the elevator crept to level 10. You sighed softly that he didn't ask about the other online stuff. It would be way too hard to explain now. You had to wait a little.

“I did spreadsheets, made phone calls, scheduled appointments, basic stuff, but I did them for clients through a certain web service. It was more of a job by job thing, but I did have a consistent client for a while.” You explained as concisely as you could. Truthfully, it was a bland job that brought you nothing but extreme stress with not nearly enough pay off, but he didn’t need to know all that.

“You did all this part time?” He asked, impressed.

“Full time, among...other work.” You sighed, “Sometimes I'd take on too much, and I’d stress myself out, so Ms. Mona let me move in here so I can work less and not have to worry about rent.” You bit your tongue. Ms. Mona said not to mention why you're here until all the brothers are together, "Although, she did say she wouldn't stop me if I wanted to continue working more, but I think I should at least take a break."

“I'm glad, you're still pretty young, you shouldn't work yourself too hard.” Jin patted your shoulder as the elevator dinged, revealing your floor, “You get settled in, I'll begin lunch, sometimes some of the guys come home for it, so hopefully you can meet them.” He smiled at you, “I'll call through the little intercom thing in your room, I usually text, but until we get the phone numbers worked out, I'll stick to that.”

Your eyes widened, “You have that?” You asked, stepping off as he nodded, laughing, “Well, thank you!” You chirped again as the doors closed.

You walked down the hall to see your room, the first thing you spotted was the small intercom monitor with a touch screen to call on specific floors, “Woah, I really have that.” You mused, heaving your suitcase on the bed as you studied the spacious room. You made quick about putting your clothes in the mahogany dresser, contemplating what the other guys would be like if the first was so remarkable. You hoped they would be as kind.

Your room was at least twice the size of your previous one, maybe even three times. The bed was also twice the size of your initial one. The room held the basic functions of your old one, just up-sized. Ms. Mona had mentioned this place used to be an old smaller motel, but it proved to be a huge living space for just eight people. You wondered what you would do with the extra space outside your room, maybe a nice studio if it didn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable. You shuddered a bit at having that conversation with people you just met.

You finished putting everything in place right on time as Jin awkwardly called through the intercom for you, scaring the hell out of you at the suddenness.

“Uh, lunch is ready if you want to come down!” His tone picked up towards the end as Taehyung laughed with Namjoon at the table.

“Smooth,” The chipper voice actor chuckled at the awkward delivery, “You must have scared our poor little housemate” 

“Shut up,” Jin clipped as he set out the lunch for the four of you, “You both be nice and don’t bicker in front of her.”

“Try not to creep her out, Tae,” Namjoon spoke, twirling a purple flower in his hand, “You tend to act out around girls.”

“I don’t act out around every girl, I have a type, you know,” He grumbled, “I'm not the one giving her a flower,” The younger huffed, “What does that mean? ‘You make my pants tight?’” 

Namjoon scrunched his nose, “Are you blind? It's a Juniper, it means ‘Welcome to a new home.’” He shot back as Taehyung rolled his eyes, "She's just a girl that is living with us because Mona is friends with her dad, nothing mor-

“O-Okay, I'll be right down!” Your small voice stuttered over the intercom and enchanted the three men who heard it, silencing them, and before they could shake it off, you spoke again, “Thank you!”

Your voice was unique. It was like a song. A song to be played while laying down to rest, a song to soothe, and a song to ebb away stress. Your voice was like a flowy dress on a bright day, a beautiful accompaniment to a most likely beautiful face.

The men were struck with the most gentle arrow cupid would shoot, a prelude to the emotional train that would hit them later.

“Damn,” Taehyung spoke up while Namjoon’s twirling flower stilled, “I want to act out.” He sighed, “Maybe she's not as cute as…” He trailed off while Jin shook his head, telling him silently you were adorable, “Well, this will be fun, won't it?”

“Poor girl,” Namjoon sighed, “Men are animals.” 

“Truly a lamb in a den of wolves.” Taehyung added as Jin finished setting out the portions.

“Behave,” Jin narrowed his eyes, mostly at Taehyung, “She's supposed to be just a housemate, a friend.”

“Are you reinforcing that to me or you?” Taehyung playfully asked as Jin’s jaw clenched.

“You're-”

Jin was promptly cut off by the ding of the elevator as Namjoon and Taehyung nearly held their breath as the slow opening of the doors.

It opened to reveal you, in all your beauty and innocence with a sundress that flowed about. Namjoon choked on the water his was drinking while Taehyung bit his tongue instead of the food in his mouth. Jin only buried any feelings other than platonic ones in the back of his mind. All the well you looked at Taehyung and Namjoon with transparent bewilderment.

You broke the stare, chuckling a bit, “It seems all my roommates are prettier than me,” You joked as the three men reveled in your laughter, “Hi, I'm Y/n,” You did a quaint wave as you sat down next to Jin, across from Namjoon.

“I’m Namjoon,” His dimples peaked through as you returned the smile, “I'm, uh, a voice actor along with Taehyung.” You smiled, paying close attention to his voice to see if you recognized it.

Namjoon pointed next to him at the brown haired man with an almost mischievous smile, “Although your voice is sweet, you could put me out of a job.” Taehyung winked at you as Namjoon smacked the back of his head.

“Don't mind Tae, he's too playful for his own good,” Jin glared at the smirking boy across from him.

You giggled at the playful banter and looked at the plate, “Jin, this food looks so good!” You squealed and the men around you gave you a quirked stare. This made you shrink down a bit, “It's just refreshing to have company for a meal.” You mumbled softly, unintentionally plucking heartstrings like a harpist.

“Right, Jungyoon is always traveling,” Namjoon remembered, “So you were alone a lot?”

You nodded, “Almost exclusively,” You swallowed your first bite, “It wasn't a big deal, I know how to cook and clean, but I never made stuff this good,” You smiled up at Jin, “A doctor and a great cook, nice combo.” Jin smiled proudly as Taehyung felt a little outshined with Namjoon.

“Well don’t I feel a little defeated.” Taehyung playfully chided.

You paused for a moment. His voice, you did know it, “Oh! You're both in the Undertaking games and the anime right?!” You flashed your pearly teeth in a bright smile, “I'm such a big fan!” You gushed, “I knew I recognized your voices!

This made both of the previously sulky men visibly brighten, “You play?” Namjoon inquired.

You vigorously nodded, “And watch, almost religiously, I admire raw emotion, no punches pulled.” The excitement in your voice was beautifully evident, “I'm such a lame housemate in comparison.” You pouted playfully, catching their attention, “You're voice actors, a doctor, and what else a one-man band?”Your lower lip jutted out further.

“What a dangerous face.” Taehyung mumbled for only Namjoon to hear, but Jin caught it.

“Nonsense, you're a bright student I hear,” Jin cheered lightly, “Not to mention you already have work experience.”

“You do? But you're still a student,” Namjoon inquired. 

“Well, I’m graduating soon so-”

“You are?!” Jin gasped, “Taehyung barely made it to college on time.” 

This made the man in question gasp dramatically before frowning, “You're mean,” He grumbled to Jin.

You smiled at the playful banter, “Well, don’t be proud of me yet, I haven’t finished my finals, things could go way wrong.” You explained, “Even when I began college, though, I  didn't want to worry Uncle Jungyoon-er, dad, so I got a job to pay for it, but I kept working to pay for as much as I could-”

“Sounds like we got ourselves a busy bee,” Taehyung smirked at you, and you wondered if that was just how he smiled without teeth, “You shouldn't worry us like that.”

You could feel a blush lightly heat up your face at the foreign words, “No need to worry, I don't work nearly that much anymore for now at least, and I have another week before finals kick start.”

“And you call yourself lame?” Namjoon chuckled, “How modest.”

You felt your cheeks heat even more as you shyly looked down at your empty plate, not sure how to respond to compliments in person so you said the first thing that came to mind, “I can do the dishes?” You offered and Jin shook his head.

“It's Taehyung’s turn, we have a chore system, so we'll add you in after this cycle.” Jin reassured you as Taehyung pouted.

“Chore system?” You smiled at the notion.

“Yeah, we rotate some stuff like dishes or dusting while some of us have permanent jobs, like Namjoon with the garden.” Taehyung explained as he began collecting the plates.

“Oh, how fun!” You gushed and Namjoon smiled softly, smitten.

“Which reminds me,” Namjoon pulled out a beautiful purple flower, handing it to you, “It's late notice, so I couldn't find a vase, but this is a Juniper flower, it means welcome to a new home.”

Your smile was at its largest as you carefully took the flower, “This is so sweet! Thank you!” You squealed as Namjoon nodded before turning his head shyly.

“Why don't you rest a bit while we wait for everyone to trickle in, you must be exhausted.” Jin offered and you hesitated before nodding, heading to the elevator, taking notice of the intimidating staircase. You were exhausted from the packing and moving.

Once the doors closed, you exhaled deeply. So far, so good. No, great. Everyone was nice and engaging, not to mention astonishingly handsome. You were relieved they were considerate. The tightness in your chest loosened slightly, keeping on guard for the remaining four to be met. Your heart thundered in your chest at the dinner to come.

“So cute it's dangerous,” Taehyung sighed, “Our poor little lamb.”

“Behave.” Namjoon ordered.

Taehyung laughed, “Sure I will.” He paused before turning on the faucet, “Sure we all will.”

After a few hours, you had woken up and began over thinking when to go back down. It was about four, so should you check if anyone is here? You sighed, slumping down.

Your phone rang, startling you since the act was so unusual.

“Y/N ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” The shrill voice of a casual acquaintance from your dance course, Yoora screeched, “This day is far from slow news-wise, and you're like the second-most crazy story.” You despised the gossipy nature of being in the art division.

“Me? Why?” You didn't have much going on, since you stayed away from people for the most part these days.

“Well, I heard that you're in the hospital again-”

“I'm not.” You clipped quickly, “I'm moving in with my new… housemates today-”

“Are you sure?! You can tell me!” She practically yelled, and you winced at the volume, but effectively seeing through the faux concern, “The people need to know, and I'm like the only person who has your number so-”

“There's no point in me lying,” You cut her off again, “I moved into my new home today. Gosh, I go to the hospital once, and it was so unnecessary.” The echoing of your uncle's words stung, but you figured it might get easier to believe if you said it too. Your eyes cast down to your wrists with an inaudible sigh.

“Well you did scare a lot of people,” She mumbled, “I heard from a few people that Jungkook heard about it, The Jungkook.”

You rolled your eyes, really not caring who reacted, even if it was some idol that caught up in school through your school's online program. He was half a college student and a full worldwide idol, which was cool, sure, but it wasn’t nearly as groundbreaking to you. You paid no mind when the school found out about it, mostly because it completely eclipsed the news of your camming career, which you were thankful for. 

“Speaking of, I heard he's thinking about performing his final for dance in person, like at the same time we are!” She squealed, though you were sure this rumor would be just as false as the others, “Can you believe- Oh, yeah, she's fine,” Yoora began talking to another classmate, “She's not weird, she just works hard. Wait.. he is? Oh my- I have to go y/n, bye!” She hung up before you could even reply. You sighed, deciding to head down. Nevermind your college social life, or lack thereof. You figured if you acted nonchalant about your own gossip, it would subside. So far, you had been proven right.

----

The front door opened to reveal Hoseok, who had entered through the second story entrance, tote of his travel supplies on his shoulder, “Hey, who's car is that, and why did I have to come home early?” The hair stylist abandoned pleasantries for curiosity, “Is Jungkook throwing a fit about his stylist again?”

“Well, hello to you too,” Taehyung waved his hand as he stood at the sink, “But I'm also curious about that car.”

“It's our new housemate’s.” Jin spoke, and the guys went silent in shock.

“She drives that thing?!” Namjoon blurted out, horrified at the death trap you called a car.

“She who?” Jimin walked in behind Hoseok, backpack slouching off the college student's shoulder.

“What do you mean ‘she who?’ Our new housemate, dummy.” Hoseok chided, “I thought she was still in high school, and she drives? Wow.” He was misguidedly impressed.

“What do you mean housemate?!” Jimin gasped, “She's here today?!”

“Tae, I told you to tell him.” Jin scolded.

“Oops, I forgot.”

“You bastard!”

“Jiminie, you wound me.”

“Oh, Jiminie!” Your voice rang out as you stepped off the elevator no one heard somehow.

“Jiminie?!” The men, even Jimin, exclaimed.

You blinked, “I recognize him from school, and I was told to call him Ji-”

“W-Who told you that?!” Jimin demanded, face beet red.

“Yoora said-”

“Your ex, Yoora?! But if she’s in high school, then that means Yoora was-” Hoseok questioned before gasping, “You dated a high schooler?!” 

“Well hey guys- wait, Jimin dated a high schooler?” Everything froze as a man with dark hair and a suit on walked in, making eye contact with you, “Is that her?!”

You shook your head vigorously, “N-No, I’m Y/n, Jungyoon’s daughter.” You managed to blurt out, “And a college senior...”

Yoongi blinked, eyes widening, obviously he was the only one who heard your actual age among the commotion,  “Ah, I see, housemate, great.” He laughed nervously, eyes lingering on your waist with a gaze you didn’t recognize.

“You're our new housemate?!” Jimin shouted, making you flinch, “Oh what the hell, are you kidding me?!”

“I-I’m sorry,” You stammered, a bit defeated, not sure why he didn’t like you, "I mean, you don't have to talk to me, if you don’t want to, Ms. Mona had just told me to consider you all close and-" 

“N-No, I don't mean- I-” He quickly began panicking.

“Why is everyone so damn noisy?” Jungkook, who you recognized, stepped off the elevator only to see you with a skeptical face, “Hey, you're-”

“Ah yes, welcome Jungkook.” Namjoon sighed.

A wave of realization flashed over your features, “You're Jungkook… aren't you like an idol or something?” You tilted your head.

“Or something?!” He mocked you, “I'm  a worldwide-”

“Wait!” Jin shouted and everyone went silent to focus on him, “Everyone take a moment to- wait, wait, JIMIN YOU DATED A HIGH SCHOOLER?!” He nearly screeched upon realization, “I gotta call the cops.” He clipped as he began walking away, causing Jimin to scramble for the older male.

“No! Yoora was-" 

“Was she even of age?!”

“Jiminie likes them in uniform, I see.”

“High school uniform, that is, creep”

“She wasn’t in high school, she was a junior in college at the time, I swear, and I’m not that much older-”

“Neither was she, was she?!”

“Jin, I can explain!”

You could only blink as you watched the seven boys shout at one another. This was your new life. This fighting, this shouting, and this utter chaos. There would most likely be no more peace and quiet. This realization made you break out into a smile which then evolved into a laugh that you couldn't contain. You laughed as loud as you were capable of unintentionally. 

The room quieted at your uncontrollable laughter that sounded a lot like a serenade to them, “I...I’m sorry,” You panted, holding your stomach, “I just… I love this!” You managed between giggles, “It's so loud!” You managed to calm down a bit, “I'm not used to this much commotion and noise, it's… nice.” 

“Lucky for you, this is a usual thing” Yoongi confirmed, holding out his hand, “I'm Yoongi game developer and novelist extraordinaire.” 

You took his hand, “I'm Y/n, again, I'm a...uh...senior in college and Yoora is my classmate, as in the same age as me.” You turned to the rest of the boys as you introduced yourself while Jimin pointed to you in exasperation as Jin relaxed his glare.

They each took a moment to really look at your face. You were painfully beautiful. They could only hope you had some undateable flaw like a terrible personality, so that they could remind themselves you are supposed to be their new housemate and not girlfriend. 

“I'm Hoseok, I'm a hairstylist, and I'd loved to do yours some time.” He smiled at you, and you nodded gleefully.

“I typically cut my own, so that would be so fun!” You exclaimed with a small smile.

“Ah, and last and certainly least, there is Jungkook, who I'm sure you know.” Taehyung glared towards the idol with a firm smirk on his face.

The pop star opened his mouth to boast about and autograph and just being starstruck earlier, but you beat him to the punch, “Right, you go to the same university as me and you're supposed to be famous right?”

“Supposed to be?” He mocked you in shock again. You genuinely didn't care who he was.

The rest of the guys stifled a laugh, “I like her.” Yoongi mused.

“Our new little roommate is quite something,” Taehyung confirmed, “She goes to school and she used to work full time, poor girl has more to worry about than an arrogant pop star.” 

You shrunk a bit, “I'm really alright, don't worry.”

“Y/n… I know that name…” Jungkook pondered as your jaw tightened, scared of what he'll blurt out, scared of what he knows.

You laughed, your visible nervousness going very noticed, “We're enrolled in a lot of the same classes, so you might have seen my name through discussion posts.” You offered, not lying.

“What's your major?” Jin asked.

“Psychology and Art,” You gushed, “I plan to go into art therapy, so I had to take a ton of psych and art classes.” You sighed, “Jimin is actually a TA for my dance class.”

Jimin perked up at the mention of his name and he nodded. He knew this. He knew you. You had been taking college courses since your last year in high school, but it wasn’t until you were officially in college full time that you always found your way into one class of his even after he entered grad school. You were quiet, studious, and beautiful. Your dancing was something beyond your demeanor, with the workout that is dancing only further toning your beautiful legs while keeping the cute curvy figure you had. You moved with fluidity during the contemporary unit and he required a cold shower after the more seductive dance group you participated in for the modern dance unit. He hadn't spoken to you extensively but he was taking his time before he asked you out. 

Never in his life did he think Mona would cock block him like this.

He had a three month plan. A very good three month plan. He was in month two of establishing conversation and the occasional inside joke. While in reality he had done nothing of the sort, he felt he had been getting there.

“Uh..yeah.” Was all he could mumble in his self pity.

“Anyway, dinner is just about ready.” Jin spoke, cutting the awkwardness of Jimin off as he took this as his queue to set the table.

“Right.” Your TA mumbled as he went to the table.

You shivered a bit, it getting colder in the house since Jungkook blasted the A/C, “Let me go grab my sweater.”

“No problem, Jungkook is an ice overlord, so I get it.” Yoongi winked and you smiled.

“Deal with it.” The aforementioned male grumbled.

“Oh little lamb, you could use my-” Taehyung was cut off by the elevator closing behind you and sunk in his seat. “So, who's gonna say it?” He looked around the table at his adopted brothers who each looked at him with an unamused look, “I'll do it, she makes my pants tight.”

“Fucking hell.” Yoongi sighed.

“Ew, Tae.” Jimin grimaced.

“You're terrible.” Hoseok seemed a little more amused.

“She's pretty, that is all.” Jin glared down at his younger sibling.

“Breathtaking.” Namjoon sighed.

“As gross as that is Tae,” Jungkook chimed in, “She's straight out of a ‘help, I’m stuck in the dryer!’ video, if you know what I mean.” And all the guys except him and Taehyung groaned in protest.

"Hey, that's easy to do in our dryer!" Jimin huffed, "What kind of dryer has a timed sliding door?!" He crossed his arms.

“Mona is probably banking on one of us to fuck her too.” Hoseok mused and Jin wanted to bang his head on the table, “She's keeps typing winky faces, hasn't done that she tried to get us all to marry Soorin's daughter in high school.”

“She's so weird.” Jimin groaned.

“She just wants us together forever.” Jin reasoned, “She's still hammering out the boundaries she should have with us, but she means well.”

“It's been 10 years, and she took most of us in at high school age, and we are all adults now, it’s weird.” Jungkook scoffed, “Mona is nuts.” 

“Maybe we should hear her out this time.” Tae smirked at the look of disgust on his best friends’ faces.

“You're terrible.” Namjoon smacked Taehyung's head just as the elevator dinged.

“Sorry, I just decided to change altogether.” You emerged in leggings that hugged your thighs just right along with a large pastel sweater that went just past the tops of your thighs, covering you behind from curious eyes. You looked like everything good and pure in the world.

“No problem.” Jin chirped. 

You smiled gratefully as you sat down in the chair on the other end of the table, across from Jin as the other men surrounded the sides of the table next to one another. You were closest to a smirking Taehyung and an uninterested Jungkook. Dinner went on with casual bickering and you watched with amusement.

When you were halfway done with dinner, you decided it was now or never. Ms. Mona said to be honest and open, “So, I wanted to tell you all why I'm living here.” You spoke up, unable to think of another way to bring it up. You caught the attention of seven puzzled boys who assumed it was only because of the marriage, “Ms. Mona wanted me to live here so you could all keep an eye on me.” You sucked in a breath, regretting your choice of words.

“An eye on you?” Jin spoke, “Like to make sure you're safe?”

“M-More or less.” You stumbled a bit, “I've had some... jobs, so it has earned me a couple fans who found my address and-”

“Fans?” Jungkook arched a brow, “How does an assistant get fans?” He sneered.

“Well I didn't just do assisting.” You murmured, Jungkook's hostility obviously affecting your confidence.

“Don't be mean!” Hoseok glared at the younger male, “Go ahead.” He nodded to you and you mirrored him.

“Right.” You took a shaky breath. You didn't have a problem telling anyone before, you weren't ashamed, but now you felt so inexplicably nervous, “I was a cam girl, well, I still technically am I guess, but I mostly just do photos and short videos now on my OnlyFans..”

Jin choked on his food. You couldn't possibly mean what you thought he meant. He was being a pervert even considering it, “You mean you…”

“Did sexual acts on camera, yes.” You chewed the inside of your burning cheek.

Namjoon accidentally ripped the cloth napkin in half. The thoughts that raced his mind were nothing short of absolutely damning. Terrible, just terrible. He had a long night ahead of him, “So you...uh…” He lost his words in his throat, strangled in his throat that felt as tight as the fabric on his crotch.

“Uh-huh.” You nodded, “It wasn't a lot of nudity, if that helps any.” You offered and immediately regretted it.

Taehyung was absolutely pleased. You seemed embarrassed to say it, but he could not imagine why. You were a sight to behold in just street clothes. Your face was nothing short of sinfully as you grew flustered. This only turned him on more, “Wow, so you really took control of your sexuality there.”

“Exactly!” You smiled a bit, relaxing ever so slightly, “That was the goal.” You seemed to perk up a bit, “I'm glad you understand the sentiment.”

Jimin was almost beet red. He had heard talks of you in his classes, but never listened to them, thinking they were all rumors, but now...The thoughts, oh the thoughts he had. You had such an innocent face, he could only imagine how it would amp up the sin you could emulate, “Were there other people involved?” He blurted before he could stop it.

“Jimin!” Jin scolded and he shrunk in his seat.

“No, no it's okay!” You reassured him before looking to everyone, “I would much rather you ask me or even watch my videos than assume I did some really weird things.” You chuckle a bit to ease the tension, “I'm not embarrassed by it, it's just awkward to tell people.” You smiled a bit, “But to answer your question, mostly it was just me, not that I mind doing that stuff with other people, just kinda hard to find those people to do it with.” They all had to suspend their disbelief at the idea that anyone would reject an offer to pleasure you or vice versa.

Hoseok doesn't know how long he stared into space. You were a cam girl. That's fine, it really is. What isn't fine, is the images he so gleefully placed in his mind of your bottom lip between your teeth as you hand is hidden under your panties while you lay beneath your oversized sweater. That was not fine, no matter how nice, “So you like solo stuff? Nice.” He laughed uneasy, what the fuck did he just say? Why did he say that? What's wrong with him?

“Yeah, well, usually… I was more of a sub kinda gal, so it's easier to do it alone for me and… yeah...” You wanted the chair to absorb your body. This isn't a normal new friends kind of conversation. 

Yoongi was fine until he heard you were a sub. He wasn't even going to deny finding your videos and having the time of his life. He had the day off tomorrow and he was going to need it to catch up on sleep. Gross, he knows, but he can't lie, even to himself, “S-Sub, huh.” He breathed out, “Nice.” Goddess gracious.

“Thanks…” You played with your food, “Since fans..." Your gaze was haunted for a split second before you shook it off, "Fans found my address, Ms. Mona didn't want me to live there or alone so…” You spoke at the speed of light, not wanting to linger on the incident and looked up and smiled weakly, “Here I am.”

Jungkook was angry. He wasn't sure why yet, but he knew he was angry. How dare you come into his life so directly and rock his whole world?

Also, how could you be a cam girl? There was no way you were a cam girl. You had no figure with that baggy sweater on, and he could not believe it did that much of a job to cover it. There were many things evidently attractive about you but if you had an attractive body, it just wouldn't be fair. Guess he just had to… see for himself, “So how are these videos found?” He asked, not wanting to pretend he didn't want to see.

There was a chorus of scoldings from his housemates, but Jungkook knew them better than that.

Your eyes widened as you took a bite of the food, “Oh sure, well my name is bunnyboop.” You said nonchalantly, not sure how else to respond to such a question, “You know, kinda like Betty Boop.”

The men nodded and internally saved that information to their minds desktop.

“Clever.” Jin smiled at you.

“You guys don't have any problem with me filming here?” You had to confirm this before anything else. You never saw anything wrong with what you did, most didn't, it was just a job, but you couldn’t bear to live with anyone who didn’t feel the same.

“Not even a little.” Namjoon smiled. If anything, they were the weird ones. Perverts who were all going to beat their meat to their new housemate. 

Just a housemate. They all stressed in their heads. They would do this one thing and then never have these feelings again, right? Although, having sexual feelings for you wasn’t wrong, but they worried you would think it was. You’re an adult, just as they are, so it’s not weird that they are going to watch your sexual content while you sleep floors above them... right? They all twisted around their conscious, now hyper-aware that they were all going to pleasuring themselves at the same time, and to the same thing. They didn’t even consider each other brothers, really. They were all roommates, close friends on good days, but the notion of beating their meat to the same thing at the same time did feel a bit odd. Not that they dwelled on that feeling as you happily ate in front of them, chattering about your day while they hung onto your every word.

If Ms. Mona wanted them all to share one girl, you were the one that had a shot of giving her what she wanted.

Tip Jar

[a-libra-writes]

Fluff Alphabet - Stannis Baratheon

1000000% self indulgent comfort to myself bc im rlly needin it. original fluff alphabet idea by snk-warriors!

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

He’s always so busy, that Stannis likes to wind down with his s/o when he finally allows himself to (or when he’s forced to). So enjoying a walk by the docks, reading side-by-side or just enjoying each other’s company at dinner are all pleasant things. He’s the sort whose always more comfortable next to his s/o, even if he’s in an unpleasant location with them.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

More than anything, he’d admire their intellect and wit. Stannis appreciates a sharp mind that leans more logical — although he admires those who are capable of getting what they want through flexibility and diplomacy. He’s not so great at that. Adding to the list of things he’d struggle to admit, he thinks his s/o is most attractive when they’re being charismatic and witty, bringing a room’s attention to a halt.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

He struggles with saying the proper words, so Stannis moves straight to providing any other comfort. He has an excellent memory so he’d know if you’d prefer a dark room, a nice candle, a bath, etc etc. He’d have a routine he’d go through when you’re upset. Stannis is good enough at listening when you’re ready to talk, but he struggles not to rush in to “fix” whatever is upsetting you.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

The future Stannis pictures is the one he was raised to envision: Married to a noble lady, producing an heir or two for his family and properly attending to both his family and his noble duties. Stannis never thought to deviate from this even in daydreams. It isn’t until he’s with you does his mind actually begin to wander, especially if you speak with him about it. The matters of marriage and an heir are inescapable — he’s too rooted in his noble birth and overwhelming sense of duty to stray from that — but when you speak of places you both could visit, the children you’ll play with and teach, the new things to experience… He starts to have a less monochrome, more rosy picture of the future.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Stannis doesn’t like to think of his relationship in these terms. In Westeros, the man is “dominant”, but he would much prefer an equal partner in matters of business, social engagements, the court. At times his stubbornness will come through and it seems like you’ll have to yield to him, but he can slowly be brought around with logical compromise.

… Except when it comes to romance and anything involving it. Stannis stumbles there and honestly does better with a more confident partner. Someone whose willing to make the first step, take the reigns and reassure him when he becomes nervous and unsure. Gentleness is key here. Stannis is very insecure and unsure about “romance” (ugh, even saying that sounds stupid), so someone with an assured yet considerate demeanor would help a lot.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Stannis holds a grudge and grievances like no one else. If it’s just a small fight, he’ll remember it, but begrudgingly apologize once he realizes he was in the wrong — given his stubbornness and sharp tongue, he often is.

A major betrayal is something he’s far less likely to forgive. It’ll tear him up inside, but Stannis will present a steely exterior. If anything, he’d be harsher in punishing his s/o to try to console the awful feelings building inside.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Stannis is always aware of the things you do for him, and he’s grateful. He’s not the best at outright saying that, so he shows it by providing you with things you enjoy and gives you chances to relax. For a man that rarely spends on himself and has no interest in the excessive clothes and decor most nobles indulge in, he makes exceptions for you. If you’re a fan of the simpler things, like fresh flowers in a vase every morning, expect that instead.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Stannis doesn’t have intentional secrets, he just struggles to open up, especially at the beginning. Once you get to know him better and earn his trust, Stannis can be surprisingly open with his past and things that upset him… Oh, can he go on about things Robert and Renly have done to piss him off. When it comes to matters of the kingdom, Stannis doesn’t like to hide things from his partner, doubly so if they’re someone he often does statecraft and planning with. He’s honest to a fault. Keeping secrets from you would be the same as lying to your face.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Stannis benefits from a significant other who excels in the people skills he notably lacks, yet whose understanding of his faults and mannerisms. Just having someone understand him would go a long way for Stannis. He might slowly become less rigid and more open to other viewpoints, but only to those who are close to him. To the rest of the world, he’d be the same stubborn, ruthlessly just brother of the King.

For yourself, Stannis might pass on his strong sense of justice and refusal to bow to corruption and “the easy way”. He’s sees the excess the nobility wallow in, and despises it — and he’ll tell you so. He might open a more sheltered person’s eyes, especially if they were both living in King’s Landing.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Stannis thinks he’s above jealousy, but oh, no. He is not. He hates admitting it, but he’s especially jealous of people who take your attention with their charisma and easy conversation, both things he struggles with. If someone is clearly upsetting you, he’ll defend you in a heartbeat… but if you’re genuinely having a good talk with them? That’s a straight road to him feeling inadequate. The jealousy is even worse if you’re enjoying dancing and drinking at an event, both things he hates to do, but he’ll put up with it just so you aren’t hanging off another men.

He handles his jealousy pretty awfully, too. Stannis’ sarcasm becomes so heavy it could be wielded like a bludgeon. He’ll want to get you away from the person or situation entirely, and sulk for the rest of the night. He’ll completely deny his feelings until you sit down and make him talk about it.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Well.. He tries. Stannis doesn’t have much practice; you’d have to give him pointers. Your first kiss was probably during the wedding ceremony, and it was quick and clearly nervous. You barely felt it. Your “real” first time is probably when he took you properly in his arms and gave you a clumsy, yet deep and earnest kiss.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

A week leading up to the confession, Stannis would be clearly agitated about something. Everyone would notice it, especially you. You both were probably married for some time before he realized his feelings, and then he had to put them into words, and then he had to work up the nerve to say those words. It would happen suddenly, not like he planned, with his hands grasping your’s tightly. The confession would stumble out, and he’d expect an answer… Even if your feelings were obvious, he’d have to hear them.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Marriage is an important pillar of Essential Things Expected of Typical Noble Lords of Westeros, so of course Stannis is getting married. He never stopped to consider if he wanted to; it had to be done. There would be the usual deciding of an advantageous bride, an adequate courtship, the negotiations with the bride’s family, then the wedding plans. To refuse such a thing would be like committing a crime against his family, or worse, being as irresponsible and unpredictable as Robert. Stannis would propose formally, with far too much stiffness in his shoulders and tone. He’d assume the bride knew what was coming, as he’d discuss it with her family before, and he’d done the expected courtship in the expected number of days.

Marriage to Stannis changes drastically depending on what sort of wife he has. If it’s utterly loveless, it’s fine. He expected this. He’ll do the bedroom duties whenever his wife allows, and stay away when that time is over. If it’s loveless yet has mutual respect and understanding, he’d see her as more of a capable business partner. Still awkward as hell to sleep with her, but he’s grateful for her assistance.

A marriage with love was never anything he expected, hence why he approaches it and his feelings with such apprehension. His parents were loving, but he understood that as a coincidence, not anything they actually worked for. The rampant cheating and unhappy noble marriages just solidified the idea that a “love match” was fairytale nonsense.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

No surprise, Stannis is fairly boring in this department. He uses your name almost all the time; if you have a childhood nickname of it, he’ll use the full version regardless. It isn’t until you both are close that he uses “wife” and “dear”. It’s very sweet how his voice gets a little soft when he talks about you to others.

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

To someone looking in from the outside, Stannis’ behavior just seems more tense, which isn’t shocking with his reputation of disliking women. He struggles with his own feelings and how to define them, which doesn’t help at all. Stannis can’t decide if he wants to run far away from you or linger closely. He wants to talk to you, but he can’t think of what to say, so he just stares with those stormy blue eyes. He does many favors and considerate things for you, but they still make you think twice. Is he just doing what he things a husband should do for his wife, or is it out of his true feelings? Stannis’ protectiveness and jealousy will also get worse, which may be a big indicator of his feelings toward you.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

His marriage is well-known to nearly every noble in Westeros, and most smallfolk, given that he’s the brother of Robert. Regardless, he likes to introduce you and your title properly when you’re both attending events — you don’t miss the way he pointedly says Lady Baratheon at any lord that was making eyes at you. When it comes to expressing your skills and virtues, Stannis is honest about it. If you’re clever and helped him with a law, he’ll say so. Unlike some men, he isn’t threatened by his wife’s intelligence.

Open physical affection is another beast, though. Stannis would just keep your arms linked in public. Maybe he’d allow a kiss on his cheek or you standing very close, but no more than that. Any more PDA sets him on edge; that’s just his personality.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

Stannis’ excellent memory comes in handy in a relationship! For obvious reasons. He remembers things you love, things you dislike, so buying presents for you is easy. He’ll never forget a birthday or anniversary, and he’ll have a good memory for your family members, even if he dislikes them. There’s probably things you don’t remember telling him yourself, but he remembers! Because he loves you. And his memory is ridiculous.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Stannis won’t even pretend to think he’s romantic. He’s convinced he’s not at all, but there’s been genuinely sweet and caring things he’s done for you — of course, you’re both in love. His love is just more practical and more subdued. His love language is acts of service, so expect a lot of that to make you happy. While he doesn’t place value in material things, he’d want nice things for you. Stannis isn’t good at creative or flashy dates or gifts — he excels in reliability, comfort and consistently. You’ll never doubt he cares for you and how you make him feel.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

This depends on your goals. If it’s something manipulative or just to gain power, uh, no. He has no interest in petty political squabbles, especially if it harms the realm and its people. If you’re striving for something that would improve the realm and the people, he’d absolutely support you. For something far less ambitious and more chill, like a passion project that’s deeply important to you — sure. He provides anything you need and he’ll listen to you discuss it. You care about it, so he wants to make sure you achieve it.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Oh, he’s awful at new things. He’s a predictable man and inflexible to a fault. You’d have to introduce anything new, especially if it’s out of his usual wheelhouse. He’ll probably be nervous and grumpy about it, but he’d at least try it for your sake. Routines are where he’s most comfortable.

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Along with his good memory, Stannis’ many observations of you lead to him learning quite a lot, even if you aren’t someone who opens up easily. If you do open up to him, of course he’ll remember that, too. He cares deeply for you, but he’s not a gentle speaker in the slightest. There were probably many times early in the relationship where he accidentally offended you when trying to understand you better.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Apart from the “till death do us part” binding contract that is Westerosi marriage, the relationship is incredibly important on an emotional level. Stannis likely won’t realize it or admit it until years down the line, but if it’s at a point where he’s this close to you, the idea of parting is physically painful and stress-inducing. This is especially true if you’re also an intellectual and political partner and confidant of his. To lose you in some way would be like losing a part of himself, which is a terrifying thing for a stubborn, atheist, unromantic man to admit. He likely wouldn’t realizes the lengths he’d go to protect his loved one.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Stannis has a deep fear of you drowning, for … fairly obvious reasons. If he found out you couldn’t swim, he’d be shockingly stubborn about you learning. Even if you insist there’s no chance you’d drown because you’d go nowhere near the water, he takes you out to the black sandy beaches of Dragonstone and teach you. Yes, Stannis Baratheon stripping down to his pants and insisting you stop smiling and giggling and take this seriously. When you’d start making progress and swim off to the deeper end, he’d get nervous and carry you back to the shore.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Stannis needs baby-steps when it comes to affection. Normally, he doesn’t like people touching him at all. When it’s someone he’s becoming fond of, it’s not unwelcome, he’s just… nervous. Very tense. As time goes on and he becomes more assured of your feelings, Stannis is more willing to accept your cuddles and kisses, even if he gets flustered. He’s more willing to initiate it, especially if you’re someone who really needs physically affection. He’ll do his best to provide the attention you appreciate and need. In public, he’s much stricter and likes to keep to chaste, quick kisses and keeping your arms linked.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

This is an easy thing for Stannis to deal with — he just throws himself into his work until you come back. It’ll pass the time and he needs to do it, anyway. He’d prefer to work himself to exhaustion so he doesn’t have to lie in bed feeling lonely. This is if you’re gone for a long time; if it’s more short-term, like a week or two, Stannis is just more sullen but otherwise goes on with his usual work.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Yes, although he doesn’t realize it at first. If you’re ever sick, he’ll send for every maester all over Westeros, and then doctors in Essos. If you were horribly wronged by family or an enemy, he’ll make sure they’re brought to justice. If you’re depressed and just want to hold him for a long time, he’ll do it, even if physical touch initially made him so uncomfortable. Stannis expresses his devotion and love through action and reliability. You can always count on him when you need him.

[retrogradedreaming]

UHHHH maybe,, you could write a little thing for reki making the sk8 fam tea? and kaoru thinking hes gonna have to pretend he likes it but then "oh wait reki can actually make tea what-"

just bc this has been living in my head for awhile sdkljfs

(capt-snoozles)

It turns out I am completely incapable of writing ANYTHING short, so have a full one shot type thing, I guess. I hope it's okay that I kinda borrowed headcanons from you and @that-was-anticlimactic for Reki with TS at a couple of small moments in the fic?

----

It used to be Kaoru alone who visited Kojiro’s restaurant when it was closed on Mondays. But since the start of winter break, Sia la Luce had become much livelier now that Reki, Langa, and Miya weren’t in school all day, and Shadow came when his days off lined up right. If Kaoru were being honest, it took some time to get used to the space no longer being only his and Kojiro’s, but he’d grown to like how their group came together like this.

The afternoons were the quietest part of these days. Kojiro took these opportunities to try out new recipes on them, leaving everyone contentedly full and pleasantly sleepy. Today, Langa had actually fallen asleep in the booth, and Reki sat beside Kaoru at the counter, playing with a tiny skateboard and making soft sounds like a small motor. Shadow and Miya sat at a table across the room, arguing over whether clown or cat makeup looked cooler while Kojiro finished cleaning. Kaoru let himself sink into the lull, Reki’s noises and that of the skateboard wheels on the counter an almost comforting presence beside him. And yet, one thing was missing, keeping him from truly relaxing.

“Seems like a good afternoon for tea,” Kojiro said, as if reading his mind as he appeared out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “You want me to make some?”

“Absolutely not,” Kaoru scoffed. “People who microwave their tea should be arrested.”

“There’s no way you can tell the difference,” Kojiro said, defensive. “Hot water is hot water.”

“Only an uncultured pig would believe that,” Kaoru snapped. He was about to stand, to tell Kojiro he’d make the tea himself like he always inevitably had to, when Reki all but leaped from his seat, skateboard abandoned for the moment.

“I’ll make it!” he offered, and the way his face lit up meant that Kaoru took too long to say not to bother. By the time he’d found his words, Reki had already bounded around the counter and into the kitchen, and Kojiro didn’t even try to stop him. Before Kaoru could tell Kojiro to stop him, Reki called out to Kojiro, asking about the industrial stove, and soon, Kojiro was not only allowing Reki to make the tea, but encouraging him.

Kaoru supposed this was a step up from Kojiro’s microwave technique, but if Kaoru were likely to trust anyone other than himself to make a decent cup of tea, it wouldn’t be Reki. The idea that he’d wanted his tea made well and was unlikely to receive it as such set him on edge. As he listened to the water boil and the conversation continued around him, he found himself wrapping a strand of his hair around his finger and tugging, letting it go, and repeating the process until his scalp hurt. He didn’t even notice that Langa had woken up until he appeared beside Kaoru and spoke.

“What’s Reki doing?” he asked.

“Making tea,” Kaoru said, doing his best not to appear so anxious about something so small.

Langa peered over the edge of the counter to where Kojiro and Reki were talking in the kitchen, and then turned back to Kaoru. “I like how he makes it. I never liked it before I met him.”

Kaoru hummed a halfhearted response. He doubted that Langa’s standards were very high, given that he’d grown up in Canada. He’d likely had tea often enough, given that his mother was Japanese, but Kaoru knew from experience that plenty of people even here in Okinawa had no idea how to brew a proper cup. It was about timing, knowing how hot to make the water, how long to steep the leaves, and so many people rushed the process—or worse, forgot about it and steeped too long—that Kaoru preferred to make his own.

He couldn’t help but envision Reki handing him a bitter cup, or one that tasted like little more than hot leaf juice. He grimaced at the idea of having to drink it and pretend he liked it, suffering all the while. He would have to wait until he was home later to make something better for himself.

He was still trying to think of a polite way to decline the tea he’d obviously wanted when Reki came out bearing a tray of steaming cups and began making the rounds through the restaurant. Reki handed the first one to Langa, who accepted it, smiling softly up at Reki. Langa sipped the tea immediately, only to flinch and draw it away after the first sip.

Not promising, Kaoru thought. If he’d boiled the water, it was ruined, even if it was something as simple as green tea. And yet, Langa only took another sip while Reki looked on approvingly.

“It’s good,” Langa finally proclaimed, and Reki glowed as if he’d received praise from the emperor himself. Reki moved on, handing Kaoru his cup.

“Thank you,” Kaoru said, accepting it with both hands. Fortunately, Reki moved on to Shadow and Miya without waiting for Kaoru to try it, which meant that he didn’t know Kaoru only held onto it without making a move to taste it. If nothing else, he could enjoy the warmth that crawled from his fingertips all the way to his elbows.

Neither Miya nor Shadow hesitated in drinking theirs, though Kaoru couldn’t imagine they cared much how it tasted, as long as it was hot. And yet, as he watched, the two of them looked just as pleased as Langa when they tried it.

“Oh wow, the slime makes good tea,” Miya pronounced, hugging the cup close to him like a space heater.

“Damn, this is pretty good,” Shadow said, drinking deeply and draining half the cup. “How’d you even learn to make it like this?”

Reki shrugged, taking up his own cup, the last on the tray. He set the tray down on the counter and took the empty seat beside Langa. “I dunno, I guess I just picked it up over the years. It’s kinda like making skateboards, y’know? You have to figure out how all the parts fit together, and if you do it wrong, the tea doesn’t taste right.”

Kaoru looked up at him from the murky depths of his tea, brows raised. When it came to making tea, the analogy was rather profound, and Kaoru couldn’t argue it. Reki was right—tea was about the sum of its parts, the pieces fitting together perfectly. And as with building skateboards, the person making it had to know exactly how to combine each piece to create the whole.

“That doesn’t make any sense, but whatever,” Shadow said, taking another sip. “All I care about is that it doesn’t suck.”

“How come you’ve never made us tea before?” Miya asked, eyes trained on the Switch he’d pulled from his pocket now that he’d abandoned his conversation with Shadow.

“I don’t really have the patience for it,” Reki said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s kinda like, if I don’t wanna put in the time to do it right, why bother?”

While everyone was wrapped up in conversation, Kaoru finally chanced a discreet sip. If it was as bad as he’d expected, he could school his expression appropriately while they were all distracted. Perhaps he could even get away without having to lie about how good it was. And yet, when the tea touched his tongue, he paused.

It wasn’t too hot.

It wasn’t too weak or too strong.

It wasn’t too bitter and the leaves didn’t taste as though they’d been burnt.

It was, as far as Kaoru was concerned, some of the best tea he’d had outside his own home. For a moment, he couldn’t find the words to say so. He sipped it again, just to make sure he hadn’t deluded himself based on everyone else’s praise. Sure enough, it was almost more delicious the second time.

“You surprised?” Kojiro murmured at his ear, his own cup dangling from his fingertips. Kaoru jumped, nearly spilling his tea. When he turned to face him, Kojiro’s lips quirked in a smug grin, and he raised one brow meaningfully. Kaoru shot him a hard glower in return, a silent command to keep his mouth shut before Kaoru turned back to Reki.

“It’s delicious,” Kaoru said, and it wasn’t forced in the least. “I’m impressed.”

Reki, who had already immersed himself in talking to Langa, gaped at Kaoru, one of his hoodie strings falling from between his teeth. Then, he flashed a wide grin. “Glad you like it!”

“Have you ever practiced tea ceremony?” Kaoru asked, reluctantly setting his tea down on the counter.

“Nah, my parents let me try it once when I was younger, but I kept messing up the steps,” Reki said. “It’s not really fun when people get mad at you for doing it wrong.”

“I studied it for some time,” Kaoru said, remembering how the order felt comforting, how the amount of concentration it required gave his anxious mind something to focus on, how the simple yet refined aesthetic felt like clearing his head. In recent years, he didn’t have time for it with his calligraphy business, but a part of him missed it. “It’s quite a bit different from drinking tea like this, but if you wanted to, perhaps we could do a...modified version of it. Something less formal with everyone here.”

Reki’s eyes brightened, and he looked to Langa, who only seemed to share his enthusiasm. “It sounds fun, yeah! A lot better than getting yelled at by a bunch of old people because ‘tradition.’”

“I’d say so,” Kaoru said, and they devolved into talking about their favorite teas and the best ways to brew them. Kaoru couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked to someone who actually understood that tea was an art even more than it was a drink. But Reki did, and when the rest of the group finally left, leaving Kaoru and Kojiro alone in the restaurant to clean up, Kojiro nudged him with an elbow.

“You didn’t think Reki could make tea like that, did you?” he said, the words teasing but too close to Kaoru’s own thoughts for comfort.

“Shut up or I’ll leave you here to wash dishes alone,” Kaoru quipped, even as he accepted the next cup to dry. “I will admit, I was pleasantly surprised.”

“I knew you would be,” Kojiro said as he dried his hands and stretched.

“Anything is better than microwaved tea,” Kaoru said. And although it was true, he couldn’t help but look forward to the next Monday, and the last before the kids started school again.

[tennessoui]

There's something about seeing a civilized, prim and proper man like Obi turning into a touch-starved feral mess that is just *chef kiss* The other Jedi are shocked and don't know what to do. Anakin has a snuggly shadow who follows him everywhere bc he KNOWS if Anakin leaves his sight, he will lose him (eg after their blow up fight). And Obi forgetting the code and himself and everything except Anakin...why must you hurt me so good?

yes!!!! i imagine that obi-wan does not let him out of his sight for any period of time

anyway this is a bit short and a little more feral and violent than the other one but here is feral!obi-wan where he was anakin's master before.

(1.6k)

This can’t be his master, is the first thought that filters through the white noise in Anakin’s mind.

His master, before he’d been taken from him, had been the primmest, cleanest, most civilized person Anakin had ever met in his entire life. He’d been meticulously groomed, always. Anakin doesn’t remember ever seeing even a speck of dirt on his master’s pristine robes.

He’d looked perfect even the night he’d disappeared. He’d looked untouchable and perfect even during their argument. Anakin’s face had been flushed, his eyes wide and wet, his hair a mess. Obi-Wan had been perfectly put-together, voice sharp and ice cold in his reprimand of his apparently atrocious behavior.

Anakin doesn’t even remember what the argument had been about. He’d been fifteen years old. He’d have argued with the Force itself given half the chance and a direction to shout at.

The important thing is he’d been stupid enough to block their bond, stupid enough to leave their rooms for a walk without telling his master where he was going. And his master must have thought he’d be stupid enough to leave the safety of the building on a war-torn planet too, because Obi-Wan had gone out looking for him. He’d passed right by his hiding place. Anakin hadn’t said a thing, just watched his master go, too angry and hurt to think of the dangers that lurked outside the door.

In his mind, there was nothing that his master couldn’t handle, couldn’t defeat.

That was the last time Anakin had ever seen Obi-Wan Kenobi; the last time, actually, that anyone had.

It’s been seven years.

And now there’s someone on the floor in front of him, crouched over a body of one of the pirates who had been drinking in the main room the other night.

When Anakin and Ahsoka shut off the power to the facility in a bid to open the door to Master Windu’s cell, they hadn’t taken into account that there may be other people in other cells.

And now they’re standing in the main hall, lightsabers drawn, pirates stunned and groaning and tied up around them, and there’s someone crouched in the middle of the room, a dead body beneath him and golden eyes roving around looking for the next target.

And there’s something in Anakin that pounds at the cage of himself, that looks at this dirty, bloody, ungroomed, feral person, and thinks, That’s my master. That’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. That’s him I have finally found him.

But this. This can’t be his master.

His master would never snap a man’s neck with his hands. He’d never make those sounds with his throat, he’d never crouch that low to the ground, and he’d never have gold eyes.

But.

But there’s something in his force signature that feels so familiar. And it makes Anakin stumble forward, closer to the man--to Obi-Wan--before he even realizes what he’s doing.

“Skywalker, don’t!” Windu snaps, with what sounds like fear in his voice. But Anakin can’t stop, won’t stop until he knows for sure that this is or isn’t his missing master.

The man on the ground growls at him as he approaches, eyes narrowed into golden slits. Anakin halts his progress a few steps away when the man shifts his weight, as if getting ready to pounce.

“Obi-Wan,” Anakin whispers, voice breaking in the middle of the second syllable. Ahsoka draws in a sharp breath from behind him. She knows what this means to him. Everyone probably does. “Obi-Wan, it’s me.”

When the man looks up at him and snarls without a glint of recognition in his golden eyes, Anakin feels his legs give out and his own force signature explode outward in pain and guilt and anguish because if this is not Obi-Wan, then his master is still out there somewhere. And if this is Obi-Wan, then...then he doesn’t remember him. Anakin.

The man goes dangerously still when Anakin’s mind brushes his own, and he tilts his head to the side as he stares at him with an unreadable expression.

“Anakin!” Ahsoka yelps, darting forward to help her master up.

But before she can get close enough to touch him, the world spins and Anakin finds himself on the ground completely, with the man’s form hunched over his and one long-nailed hand pressed into the skin of his throat.

The snarls are infinitely louder when they’re right next to his ear.

“Stay back!” Anakin shouts over the noise to Ahsoka and Windu, both who have moved forward immediately. Ahsoka takes another step forward anyway, and the snarls turn downright vicious.

Anakin could try to get out of the man’s hold, but not without hurting him. And if this is Obi-Wan Kenobi, then he’s been hurt enough already.

“Ahsoka, stay back,” he says again in his firm Master voice. “I have this handled.”

Looking rebellious, Ahsoka steps back to her original place.

The threat taken care of, the man on top of Anakin turns his full attention to him again.

Anakin feels like he’s been stabbed with a lightsaber when he sees the familiar mole on the man’s forehead. “Master,” he breathes. “Master.”

Obi-Wan growls something out, and bumps their heads together.

Anakin blinks in confusion and shakes his head. Obi-Wan growls that same roughened word again, and then again even louder, and then Anakin starts to weep.

Ani.

He’s saying Ani.

“Yeah,” Anakin whispers back. “Yeah, I’m--I’m Ani. I’m. I’m your Ani.”

Obi-Wan sniffs at his cheek and then licks the tear away, making a distressed sound in the back of his throat. “Ani,” he rumbles. “No. Won’t. Won’t Ani.”

Anakin doesn’t know what that means, so instead of answering verbally, he reaches out with the Force and touches their minds together again. It’s easy to enter Obi-Wan’s mind. His master’s impeccable shields are nowhere to be found.

Instead, there is only darkness and a landscape of pain. Anakin is vaguely aware that he’s crying harder now, that he’s sobbing, but in Obi-Wan's mind all of Anakin’s worst nightmares about what happened to his master prove true.

Obi-Wan reaches back clumsily but with great enthusiasm, and Anakin tries to stuff away his own feelings of pain and guilt and enfuse his thoughts with all the happiness and affection and love his master has ever made him feel.

On top of him, Obi-Wan whimpers high in his throat and presses forward, impossibly closer. Anakin raises his hand to stroke at the muscle of Obi-Wan’s bare bicep, sending him soothing comfort. Obi-Wan latches on and pulls Anakin back into his mind.

Their old training bond, never severed, roars into life and it feels so good, the perfect mix of pain and pleasure and aching relief that Anakin forgets where he is for several moments.

Obi-Wan is back. Obi-Wan is back.

Footsteps approach from behind them and Anakin snaps back into his own head as Obi-Wan snarls dangerously at the intruder, tensing his body as if preparing for a fight. “Won’t Ani,” his master growls, words hardly distinguishable.

“Anakin,” and it’s Windu. “Is that--are you--” “He is, it’s him,” Anakin replies, not taking his eyes off of Obi-Wan. “I felt...Master, I felt his memories in his mind. They’re...unfocused and old, but. The pirates, they--”

They had wanted Anakin, the people who took Obi-Wan. They had wanted to sell him, thinking they could fetch a high price for a Jedi padawan. When they got Obi-Wan instead, they’d hurt him in an attempt to get him to tell them where he was.

Obi-Wan hadn’t. Obi-Wan hadn’t once, not in seven years.

Anakin can feel tears dripping down his face, and Obi-Wan breaks off his staring contest with Mace to coo at him in distress.

“Master Windu won’t hurt me,” he tells Obi-Wan. “It’s alright. We’ll be alright.”

He desperately tries to believe it, even as the words leave his mouth.

When Windu steps closer, Obi-Wan snaps at him.

“Master,” Anakin says softly, touching the side of Obi-Wan’s face with his hand. “Obi-Wan.”

His master swings his attention down to him immediately, and Anakin uses their bond to slip a Force suggestion into his mind. Sleep.

Obi-Wan obviously doesn’t want to, but his golden eyes drift halfway shut anyway. Sleep, Anakin insists, rubbing his thumb over his cheek.

It only takes one more command for Obi-Wan to collapse on top of him, unconscious.

“Get him onto the ship,” Anakin says in a no-nonsense tone as he slips out from underneath the body of his master and stands, looking dispassionately at the dead pirate next to them. “And prepare for take off, Ahsoka.”

Master Windu looks at him silently.

“Please,” Anakin tries. “I don’t know how long he’ll be under, but we need to get him back to the Temple.”

“And what will you be doing?” Windu asks.

Anakin’s jaw clenches and unclenches. He wishes Windu had not been the one captured. It makes what he will do next infinitely harder. “Please, master. I just. I just need a moment to myself. I--” he doesn’t have to fake the way his voice gives out, nor the way his hand shakes when he reaches up to wipe away his tears. “Please.”

Master Windu’s stern face caves in with compassion, and he nods once. “Ahsoka,” he tells Anakin’s padawan, “help me with Knight Kenobi.”

Together, they levitate the unconscious form of Anakin’s master out of the main hall.

As soon as the doors close behind them, Anakin uses the Force to hold them tightly shut.

He turns to face the pirates, the ones who had hurt his master, held him against his will, and broken his mind.

It’s the easiest thing in the entire galaxy to flick his lightsaber on.

“Please,” he smiles. “Do not scream.”

[mooniefics]

bye bc i have not been able to get the thought of like,, you working as the candidate manager for the warrior program (aka glorified babysitter / school counselor) and reiner slowly falling for u over the years

—  you’d first met him around a month after he returned from paradis, after he was finally debriefed and given countless ideological assessments, and he was just exhausted by the time he was finally allowed to see his family again but he still woke up early the next day to go with gabi to training. he saw how happily gabi greeted you, how warmly you smiled back, and he thought that if anyone was taking care of his little cousin over the years he was gone, he was grateful that it was someone who came off as nicely as you did.

—  your first conversation initiated after gabi dragged him over by the arm and introduced the two of you herself, but you didn’t get to speak long before you all had to go your separate ways. the way you tucked a piece of gabi’s hair behind her ear and gingerly wrapped your arm around her as you led her off to her classes for the day makes his heart flutter.

—  you two made small talk when you ran into each other, sometimes talking about the kids, sometimes talking about yourselves, nothing terribly personal, but he always found himself feeling much lighter after he got to see you.

—  reiner accompanied you once when you chaperoned the kids’ recreational time in town and sat on the bench beside you while you both watched them all play around at the park you usually took them too. your voice was soft and affectionate as you told him that you sometimes forgot that they were just children, letting it slip that you couldn’t help but feel disheartened that they had been made to grow up so fast. you were worried that he, the one revered as the most loyal warrior, would report you for disrespecting the methods of marley, but he only sighed, smiling sadly as he replied, “me too.”

—  one day when the kids were training, you and the warriors were standing to the side watching them, discussing casually amongst yourselves as you watched them run laps with all their gear. on the last go around, udo fell flat on his face, and before reiner can even turn to see your reaction, you were already running over to make sure he was okay. the exercise instructor forced you to wait for udo to make it to the end on his own, but as soon as he reached finish line, you rushed him away into the main school building. when you didn’t return for a few minutes, reiner ventured in to see where you’d gone, he found you both in an empty classroom—you kneeling in front of udo, handkerchief in hand, gently wiping the tears and dirt from his cheeks and telling him that he had done a good job, that everybody makes a mistake once in a while, that he was just as capable as the other candidates. he stood beside the door, listening to you comfort udo, feeling his own eyes watering as he did. he wished he had someone like you when he was young.

—  the first time the two of you had a proper, in-depth conversation was the evening that the mid-east allied forces had declared war against marley, the only two left at the privacy of his quarters, sharing the last bottle of wine leftover between yourselves. the facade of perfect patriotism that you had both been careful to maintain had dissipated, whether because of the alcohol or because of the gravity of such impending doom weighing at your hearts. he’d learned that you’d been apart of the warrior program yourself, an unselected trainee in the class just a year below his own. you told him that was how you’d managed to secure yourself this position, but he said that it was much more than that, that you were a natural at a position that require such patience and compassion. the way your lips had turned up into the smallest of smiles made his cheeks flushed. 

“i heard the war is going to be mostly naval. i doubt we’ll have to worry about any of us being shipped out to fight any time soon.”

you took a long sip from your glass, finishing off what remained, taking in a deep, pensive breath. “god forbid they send any of those kids away to the battlefield. god forbid they send you away.”

“me?” he said after a moment of silence, an odd sort of tightness cinching around his heart and lungs, squeezing tighter with every fine detail he noticed in your sorrowful expression—warm eyes filled with sympathy, mouth drawn down into a delicate frown, brow slightly knitted.

“you’ve seen enough. you’ve gone through enough, more than anyone should have to go through by themselves.”

reiner felt a lump beginning to form in his throat, an almost tangible ache echoing through his chest. that was the first time someone had ever told him that before.

—  despite the worsening tension of war, reiner saw that you were just as cheerful as ever with the kids, bringing them sweets and desserts you made yourself when you got the chance, taking them out on their weekly outings and making sure they were doing alright just as normal. but he could see the way your face would shift when one of them piped up with something regarding the current battle being waged, spouting out the same propaganda he’d been force-fed for his entire life. you would only smile, patting them on the shoulder or rubbing their back, responding with a simple assertion that you were sure marley’s troops were doing great out there before changing the subject

“they’re so young. sometimes i forget they’re only children.”

your words from the park bench flitted across his mind, the words that you silently spoke when your eyes widened at gabi’s proclamation that marley’s glory would forever prevail, or when your lips pursed briefly at the four of them squabbling over who would inherit which titan.

“they’re too small to be holding such big weapons. those rifles they give them are taller than they are. it’s.. it’s...”

perverse? distressing? horrible? it was all of those things, and so much more. but you saw it. you didn’t egg them on like porco or zeke, you congratulated them without drenching it in more and more lies. you didn’t see them as soldiers-in-training, you didn’t see them as warriors, you saw them as they were. as children. you cared for them like he did.

—  when the time came, you were shipped off to fort slava alongside the warrior unit, your training and your extensive experience working with the candidates for the past five years serving as the justification for your necessity. though reiner had wished to be around you more often, he didn't at all enjoy it in this context. seeing you in a full soldier’s uniform, skin dusted with dirt and gunpowder, a helmet that only seemed to have more and more dents and scratches in the metal with each day that passed—it felt so incredibly wrong. you didn’t belong in the trenches of war, and yet he still saw you running about every morning, previously soft hands becoming roughened and scarred, growing thinner and thinner from the stress and minuscule rations that were barely enough to get everyone through the day. and yet you were lively, still tending to the kids and attempting to give them a space away from the warfare outside when you could all retire to the unit’s dugout at night.

—  one night, reiner had woken from his sleep and was too restless to return to it, unable to ignore the distant sounds of gunfire and shouts from outside, staring up at the ceiling from his bunk and allowing himself to drift away into his thoughts. he remembered all the nights he’d spent like this in his own home as a child, barely able to force himself to sleep for a few hours despite knowing that he had another long day of training ahead of him. but he turned over on his mattress at the sound of soft murmuring, the sound of sheets shifting and the quiet protest of the flimsy bed frames squeaking. in the dimness of the lantern that sat at the foot of gabi’s bunk, he saw you seated at her bedside, looking down at her as you spoke.

“are you okay? do you want me to wake up reiner?”

he couldn’t make out gabi’s mumbled response, but he saw the small silhouette of her head shaking from side to side on her pillow.

“i know he’s been looking tired lately, but i promise that he won’t be upset if we wake him up for a moment.”

another unintelligible reply from the young girl just barely occupied the air. a part of him wanted to step out of his bunk and see what she needed, but another, more persuasive thought kept him still, laying silently, watching on to see how you would tend to her. he knew that gabi admired you deeply, the fact that you’d managed to win her over was something that impressed him, but at the same time didn’t surprise him at all. he couldn’t imagine how anyone could dislike someone as gentle and thoughtful as you.

“you’re a big girl, gabi, so am i. but that doesn’t mean we don’t all need a little bit of help sometimes. it’s scary out here, and i’m so proud of you for holding your own out there. it’s okay to be scared.”

you were quiet for a moment, allowing for gabi to speak, a hand reaching out to gently stroke the side of her head and run through her hair. a quiet, genuine laugh slipping from you when she concluded.

“i promise i won’t tell anyone. i’ll get back to my bunk as soon as you get back to sleep. deal?”

he caught the end of an affirmative nod from his cousin, and the two of you fell silent. you stood for a moment to tuck the covers around her, sitting back down and returning to your soothing motions, looking almost like a dream in the glow of the soft illumination at your side.

he realized in that moment what that feeling in his chest was, the one that made his throat tighten just the slightest bit, that made him feel light as air for those few fleeting moments before the spell of you in his gaze was broken by some menial interruption. but the interruption didn’t come this time, nothing to remind him to bury his feelings and not ruminate on them long enough to figure out exactly what they were. he had been running from this revelation for far too long, and he knew exactly why—because it would be unfair to burden you with these feelings that he knew he shouldn’t have.

he loved how you made him feel. he loved seeing how cheerful you were even when it was too early in the morning for him to even be properly awake himself. he loved seeing how you smiled when the children hung onto you on your days out. he loved that you could see the appalling indoctrination of marley’s military might on it’s citizens for what it was. he loved how you saw him for more than his failure four years ago. he loved how tender you looked stroking his younger cousin’s hair, assuring her that you wouldn’t leave her until she was fast asleep. he loved you, honestly and wholeheartedly.

it was a selfish desire, a longing that he would have to keep to himself for your sake. but, in moments like these, where the vision of having something more seemed so close to his outstretched grasp, the thought of sharing his final years together rather than in a respectful coexistence, he found it so difficult to resist temptation. 

if only he had more time.

24 / 7 reiner brainrot. i have an unfathomable amount of love for this man ( ; ω ; )

[victorianpining]

Dear Rebekah,

I saw from your comeback video that you went on to apologize to people who you feel that you have 'disappointed' with TJLC explained but frankly, I think you did not disappoint anyone but instead, 'enriched' the experience.

If you experienced any hate and pain during s4 and the finale, I am certain the comments were fueled with emotional rage and mostly the feel of betrayal not because of you, but because of the showrunners. You did not let us down. Moffat ang Gatiss let us down.

It was not your fault that people watched your videos and it wasn't your fault that they believed in johnlock because as far as I know, even before the BBC adaptation, the ship has always existed one way or another.

I know that these words are years late and I know that you have been healing a lot since then, but I wish to tell you that you were never really at fault. Like I said above, you albeit 'enriched' the whole journey and I'm sorry for all the pain you had to go through because of this, a show that was supposed to give us happiness instead of heavy amounts of stress we already experience daily.

I just wanted to send you this, as you seem like such a kind person and the way you approached the ship is a lot more mature and fully analyzed than how other (and newer) fandoms do analysis videos these days which are often superficial and one offs without basis.

I don't expect a reply since it might open wounds that have already healed or reignite a fire that has already been put off. I just wanted to send you a message and tell you how I, as one of the many johnlock shippers truly believe that the showrunners queerbaited and overall disappointed us-- THEY DISAPPOINTED US. NOT YOU.

I look forward to your s4 fic because we truly need a proper ending for Sherlock, one that the show did not give us. It will surely be a lot better than what was given to us years ago.

P.S.

If S5 does happen, and that's a big 'IF' esp since BC and MF are both in the MCU now, I do hope you come back. They did say that S5 wasn't off the table. Until then, I shall cling onto hope that maybe, just maybe in 2022 or 2023 (or whenever they decide to come back, IF they do), they'll finally serve us the 'proper' dinner we deserve. :)

take care and have a good day!

x

Thank you, I appreciate it! 

I've gotten a similar assumption a few times, so I feel like I should clarify that I never saw any people involved blaming me for series 4. That was all me. Before s4 I gave myself some credit for helping to make the fandom experience more enjoyable and hopeful, so I just instinctively flipped that when I saw people devastated after tfp. I had helped them be sure it was going to be good, and they were suffering now because of it. I felt that was every bit as much my responsibility as any good impact I had.

I've heard someone else talk about when you're in a bad mental space, it feels like all of the kind voices around you are either lying or are just wrong and you start intentionally seeking out criticism and it feels more true because it feels like what you deserve. And that's what I did.

It's been five years now though. So when you guys have (very generously) said that you didn't blame me for what happened, I heard you, and I am making the conscious choice to take your word for it. I am aware that the people who watched that video are more likely to be people who were willing to hear me out, and so it might be a biased sample. If someone felt like they were owed an apology from me either for building up s4 so much or for disappearing completely in the aftermath, I would agree and readily apologize.

But there were some other factors here too that made me perceive what had happened unrealistically. I've mentioned before that journalists have reached out to me dozens of times over the years to try to get me to ridicule the people theorizing after s4 or wanting me to compare my work to people involved with things like qAnon. Even if on some level I knew that wasn't a fair comparison and part of the reason people looked down on it is because people were expecting queer representation, after a while it started to warp my self perception. But at the end of the day, we were analyzing about a TV show which is kind of the point of media. Was I overinvested? Definitely. Would I do things differently? Absolutely. But do I think being involved with TJLC makes me or you bad or crazy? No.

So the long and short of it is that I’m in a better place now than I was a year ago with this, and also in a better place now than I was when I released An Unfinished Melody, mostly because of how kind you all have been. So thank you. 

[loregoddess]

Roland Glenbrook for the character asks?

oh, prince of suffering...

First impression: He and Frederica were the two I was most interested in going into the game blind. Starting the game, I loved his character design and overall I thought he was interesting, especially since he was the second prince and not the crown prince, although his being second but a main character also clued me in that his family was probably going to be dead city by the story's halfway point.

Impression now: Hoo boy, this kid has a lot of baggage to unpack. Initially I was really thrown off by his Ch17 pitch, same as basically everyone who played the game I feel like, but I wanted to protect him anyhow which played in part to my choosing Frederica's endroute over Benedict's. Despite the shock of the Ch17 pitch, now that I've combed through a lot of the narrative text, I really appreciate the complexity of his character, and the fact that his being this 20 year old kid who gets saddled with *vaguely gestures* all that feels very believable bc like, being in your early 20s is like a second teen phase, it can be really hard. I still love his character a whole lot, even if I know that Ch17 pitch chilled him to a lot of others, and I think that his writing overall is really interesting. Glass canon though, dude cannot take a hit even if he can dish out damage.

Favorite moment: Actually, seeing his character growth in his personal fight against Gustadolf in the golden route was just, so, so rewarding. Like this is the turning point, I feel like, where Roland really comes into his own strength that he needs to be a good ruler. Just, Roland's entire part of the Ch18 golden route is really good. That said I also enjoy suffering in fiction, and I loved his battle with Serenoa at the start of Benedict's endroute, it gives so much insight to Roland's mind and heart (and also gave me major MGS vibes which I am certain was entirely unintentional). And the end scene of the epilogue for that route, where Roland’s in the abandoned village tending to the sick was just chilling to watch, since it really set up what the future of that timeline might look like. That said, really my favorite thing is to see characters grow positively, and like hopeful stuff, and so his entire arc in the golden route was probably my personal favorite for him, since I really liked seeing him finally grow into the role of king that he really is strong enough to fill even if he doesn’t realize it for the entire story.

Idea for a story: His character stories left a lot to be desired for me, so like, building off the “what if there were more character stories” from my Corentin post, I’d want to explore Roland’s relationships with some of the other characters. Cordelia is an obvious one since she gets so little relevance in the story past a certain point, and Hughette, but I also think it would be really interesting to have Roland interact with characters like Ezana or Medina who could paint a different picture of Hyzante (or even Geela for that matter), or to have him interact with more characters from Aesfrost like Flanagan. Having him talk with Archibald or Groma would be really interesting too, since they have many more years of life experience to offer him advice or just like, a different perspective. Of course, having him get a proper conversation with Avlora would be fascinating as well.

Unpopular opinion: Uh, I dunno. I guess retrospectively his Ch17 pitch makes sense given everything going on in his life and isn’t out of character per se, even if I still personally hate the pitch.

Favorite relationship: Obviously I find his dynamic with Serenoa to be really interesting, since it tends to be the crux of a lot of his personal story arcs, but I’m also really interested in the dynamic between him and Hughette. Not in a shippy way really just, it’s interesting to see how lord-bodyguard relationships get handled by different writers, and Roland and Hughette’s relationship is somehow a lot looser than I would expect, but that could be bc the writing focuses more on Hughette’s motives for remaining his guard than on Roland’s perspective to her being his guard. Also, I only got a handful of “blink and you miss them” lines to support this, but I am very interested in how his interactions with Svarog develop after the Ch18 golden route battle.

Favorite headcanon: Hmm, I dunno there’s a few I’m fond of. I guess one I haven’t shared is that he does eventually learn hawk-riding from Hughette, but is initially kinda terrified of heights. He keeps at it though (trying to hide his unease from Hughette who figures it our pretty quickly anyhow), and eventually comes to really love hawk-riding and mostly gets over that fear as well. Also I spent my usual amount of time wondering what his mom was like, and came to the conclusion that Roland and Cordelia both resemble the late queen more than Frani, who takes after their father in appearance.

[misterghostfrog]

So I was reading someones post about what if Jon went back in time to save everyone, and he managed it. He kept Martin away from Prentiss, he Kept Sasha alive, Tim never even know the unknowing existed and he never had Jons paranioa to ruin him. But They never knew, there was never those moments of bonding between the terror. Martin never had that moment when he realized Jon wasn’t just his shitty boss. And sure the assistants were close, but there was no room for Jon. And it gave me thoughts.

Under the cut bc I started to Ramble and it got Long, warning; its Big Sad Hours down there. No happy endings here.

Jon solves all these problems before they start, he fixes it without anyone ever knowing. The assistants are blissfully unaware, maybe he stops sending them on ‘real’ statement followup. The archives are a normal, safe job for all of them. Sometimes it gets too much, pretending he doesn’t know them. So he’ll record, mostly for himself. Sometimes for them, though he’ll never share. He sticks them all in Gertrude's old storage locker, where he knows they’ll never be found.

And then something goes wrong. He knows the unknowing can’t work, of course it can’t. But Nikola doesn’t, none of the avatars know. And Nikola still wants her skin. She still wants his skin, actually. And she’s not afraid to play dirty to get it, she’s hands-on like that. Because why stop at the archivist when he’s got so many lovely ignorant assistants?

So he fixes the problem before she can make good on her threats, she can’t be killed that easily. He knows. But she died during the unknowing, and there are some pretty simple steps to follow to replicate that result. He knows the easiest way to make sure it works is also a death sentence for him. But that’s a simple choice to make. Alright no, it’s not. He’s terrified of death, of dying. He doesn’t want to die, but he can lie to himself. He can delude and say maybe he’ll get another chance. And just in case, he makes sure the assistants know they can quit now.

Tim, Sasha, and Martin don’t know what to make of the news that their boss died mysteriously in an explosion. They know even less what to make of the notes he left them.

Clearly the ramblings of a very unstable man. They all knew Jon was a bit off but this... Well, they all know there’s something weird about the job. But the apocalypse? Really? 

Sasha believes some of it, she’s worked in artifact storage. She’s seen what this stuff can do. But, well. Jon’s never come off as the most stable person, and with no proper proof to back up any of this there’s no reason for them to follow suit. After all she’s known lots of people to quit the institute, she even knows for a fact that Eric Delano did it when she was rooting through employee records for perfectly rational legal reasons.

Then Martin gets called up to Elias’s office, and gets the news he’s the new head archivist.

He tries to turn it down, but he’s offered a pay-raise and a promise that he can step down anytime if he doesn’t feel suited to the position. Elias just sees so much potential in him.

Martin tries to feel flattered and not thoroughly terrified by the way Elias says potential. He takes the promotion, after all, he can always step down if it’s too much.

He offers as much when he finds out Sasha probably should have been given the position, but she turns him down. It’s not his fault their boss is a sexist old bastard, and at this rate he’d probably just turn around and give it to Tim.

Things are normal for a few months. Until slowly a strange noise starts to be heard around the archives, a weird sort-of squishing sound with no source. Along with a metallic scent of meat. 

An infestation, of course. They’re getting the problem worked on, or so Elias says. But aside from the occasional exterminator coming in to ‘take a look’ nothing ever seems to change. Weird statements start showing up on Martins desk, surrounding meat and twisted up things, eaten alive and wrong. Suddenly he understands how Jon went off his rocker so easily.

It’s hard to believe all this supernatural stuff as it’s suddenly getting crammed down his throat, after so long of the archives being normal in almost every sense of the word it’s like missing a step on the staircase. The more awful statements he finds- that Tim and Sasha confirm -the more he realizes how much his boss was hiding from them.

He wants to quit, he thinks about it, he tries to think about it. But he just, can’t.

It’s another or two month before it happens. Meat and bone and gristle erupt from the floor, taking on horrible mangled shapes of almost-humans reaching out with hands full of teeth and hungry.

They all survive, though Tim gets eaten up a bit more than the rest of them. And they’ll all have nightmares for the rest of their lives. They’re alive.

And they find Gertrude’s body, though none of them know how to feel about it. They’ve realized by now there’s something to Jon’s nonsensical ramblings. And they’re long past regretting not quitting before this all happened.

There’s a section of document storage that got uncovered during the cleaning,an old cot that was shoved behind some of the shelves, and a box that had a few sets of clothes, an old teacup, and a key. The cleaners say they burned the clothes, but the cup and the Key are given to Martin for him to keep to return to whoever left their things in the archive.

Neither of those items belong to Tim or Sasha, so they all assume they belonged to Jon.

They start following Jons footsteps, they find out he was a suspect in an arson case surrounding Carlos Vittery’s old apartment. Nobody was there except one unidentified body. He was arrested for trespassing on a dock, though no charges were filed. There was an incident that ended in the near arrest of one Jude Perry, though no charges were filed and she soon fell off the grid. And then he exploded using C4 he had no way of getting, Nothing concrete, no proper genuine evidence except a series of weird encounters their dead boss had.

Martin Decides to try and hunt down Jude Perry, it takes some time. He has a very nice cup of tea with one Micheal Crew. Who points him in a general direction and is just a bit weird about tall buildings.

Martin finds Jude, and asks her about Jon. She laughs at him, of course. But she tells him anyway. Jon was trying to have her arrested- no, not arrested. Killed. Officer Tonner would have seen to that, he knew one of the Hunt could do her in, well. At least of Officer Tonner’s sort anyway. Jude resisted, naturally. He escaped her clutches only barely, by running. Like a coward. And she escaped the policewoman by playing innocent. She’s still on her tail though, damn dog. It’ll be a long time before she’d rid of her, but she knows better than to run. Oh, he doesn’t know what any of that means, does he? Oh he really doesn’t, how sweet. Just a little baby archivist- she was going to kill him after this. But watching him stumble into his own ruin will be so much more fun.

She sends him on his way with a burn.

Martin is terrified, he genuinely tries to quit. Almost manages it before his computer shuts off. The others try too, and then they all have a lovely freak-out together.

They decide to try and talk to Detective Tonner, which proves easy. She’s the partner of the one who’s been interviewing them. She comes to the institute, and they ask her about Jon. She tells them they believed he was responsible for killing Gertrude, seeing as he was next in line. Martin accidentally Compels her into a statement, and then into admitting she's mostly just saying he killed her because dead men don’t put up fights.

She threatens him right then and there, though Basira comes in and intervenes before anything happens. He files a dispute with the station, and avoids the police after that.

Basira brings him some of the tapes, she says it’s an apology. He’s pretty sure she’s just trying to get him to drop the dispute in the weirdest way possible. He does learn some about Gertrude though, and through her what he’s dealing with. And something about an ‘unknowing’

A man named peter Lukas visits the institute, one of the doners. Elias says he wants to see how the archive runs, Lukas says a few choice words about it. And Martin tells him in the most polite of terms to shove off. Lukas threatens him, and very briefly makes him forget everyone he’s ever loved. And then tells him he got off lucky, and that Elias should have picked a better archivist. You can hardly trust someone so childish to run something as important as this now can you.

Daisy visits him in his home, and threatens him in much more physical terms now. She tells him if he tries to do what he did to her again he’ll get more than a scar.

After that it’s a bit unclear how he gets marked by the next two (Curruption, Stranger.) but he does.

There’s a delivery, a few weeks after the stranger mark. It’s not supernatural in any sense, just a young woman dropping off a small box in the archivists office. She says her name is Georgie, and no, she doesn’t know what’s in the box. She just had an old friend tell her to deliver it if he didn’t check in after a bit. Then she found out he died on the news, and then she hadn’t wanted to deliver them- clearly whatever was in the box was going to get someone killed. And she wasn’t scared of it, she wasn’t one for fear, but the thought of putting anyone in danger made her skin crawl. But she didn’t want it in her house, and she refused to be haunted be this box forever. And there was no reason to defy the poor guys apparent final wishes- wait, why was she saying all this again?

In the box was tapes, a dozen or so of them. All addressed to ‘the next head archivist’

It’s Jon’s voice, on the tapes. Talking to who he apparently assumes to be an entire stranger, explaining the fears. And how Smirkes 14 wasn’t wrong, but wasn’t right either. It tells the next archivist to avoid eyes, paintings, doodles, abstract representations, and to keep playing dumb. There’s a lot out there, and the more you know the worse it gets. There’s no fighting, don’t struggle the nets already around you. There’s a way out, but you’re not going to like it.

It gives an odd image of Jon, the man who awkwardly tried to make small-talk int he break room, only to shuffle away after it fell flat. Carrying this world-ending secret on his shoulders. Stiff, awkward Jon. Grim, sad Jon. not so far apart but still so far outside of what Martin had known about him.

What had Martin known about him?

Tim decides to quit, Sasha stays. Elias hires Melanie. Who turns out to be another connection to Jon.

Melanie says he was kind of a prick, he belived her about her Sarah incident, but refused to give her library access. Probably because he was sexist, or maybe just a dickhead. She’d been trying to learn more about her encounter for ages. And this was finally her chance. They try to explain the way out but she won’t listen.

Martin starts following Gertrudes tapes, things about the unknowing have been popping up on his desk lately, and it sounds like Jon was right about an apocalypse. He goes to america, gets a bit kidnapped, and meets Gerry. He offers to help, and then asks about the unknowing. Gerry points him towards the storage locker. And when he gets back He and Sasha and Melanie check it out.

It’s mostly empty, apparently somewhat recently cleared out. Though in the corner there’s a large box of Tapes. There has to be dozens of them, and when they pres play it’s Jon. Talking to them. Except it’s not them, it’s another version of them, and something this version.

And there’s another Jon to add to the mystery of a man he was. The jon on these tapes isn’t stiffly awkward or forcedly professional. He’s open, sad. He cries, he laughs at memories they don’t have. He apologizes, a lot. Too much really. He talks about time travel, about forgetting faces and losing friends.

“Sometimes I-I think- I can’t help but be a bit... upset. At how unfair it all is. You’re all happy and laughing and together and i’m- 

i’m alone. 

I suppose it must be some sort of- cosmic Karma, I doomed the world so in this new one bright an new I pay my penance in isolation.

Or maybe it’s the other way around. I doom the world- suffer its horrors, and get a little bit of time to taste what humanity would be like.

Or maybe i’m just not that likable without an apocalypse.

Probably says a lot about me either way.

Is it bad that I- I sometimes consider letting things play their course? W-without any of you dying of course I just... I suppose it is bad, to want to end the world because you’re lonely. Just because i’m a bit sad doesn’t mean the planet should suffer, no... maybe i’ll try and reconnect with Georgie, it’s been... well. No. Perhaps best not.”

Sasha says that if she knew she would have at least brought him out for drinks or something. 

But they did sort-of know didn’t they? Not about the apocalypse, but about the loneliness. After all, nobody chats so awkwardly in the break room because they have a thriving social life.

“I’m going to kill Nikola tonight- i’m not going to die. I’m not. I didn’t die last time, a-and there’s no reason for that to change. T-there isn’t. I’m going to try and be a safe distance from the blast this time, too. But... Well, it’s not like I have anyone to miss me if I do go.

I suppose... Martin, if you’re listening to this- I... I miss you. You always did say I should be more open with my feelings, and it’s weird. To miss someone who’s right there. T-to look at a face and see a friend and a stranger. To love someone you’ve known for years who doesn’t even really know who you are.

It’s all very stranger, ironic really. Considering what i’m about to do.

I love you, and I miss you. I know you’re not listening, even if I did die you’ve probably long since quit. I hope you’re happy, whatever you’re doing. Happy and safe. All of you. 

And maybe you are listening, maybe... maybe we do become friends, maybe you actually choose to talk to me someday. Maybe I tell you about all of this and... And you don’t think i’m mad. Maybe you let me take you out to dinner and we’d be together again. We’d never be like before- not that that’s a bad thing what with the eldritch horrors. There’d be bits missing, memories we don’t share- but, it would still be you... It’s always been you, I think. And maybe I've decided to give this to you as some sort of silly romantic gesture.

A-and in that case. I love you, Martin Blackwood. More than you’ll ever know.

[HE SIGHS]

When I come back, i’m recording over this.”

[CLICK]

But he didn’t come back. He died that night. He died loving Martin, who never even really knew him beyond passing awkward conversation. Martin doesn’t know how to feel about it, besides guilty that is.

The tapes point them towards Georgie Barker, the woman who delivered the other set to the archives.

Georgie doesn’t really want anything to do with them, she knows whatever they’re stewing in got Jon killed. But she tells them about her encounter with The End, though she’s tetchy afterwards. Martins finally starting to understand this whole compelling business and is feeling pretty sorry about it. He redirects, he starts to ask about Jon. Who he was, really. What she knew he was like.

They talk, Martins curiosity is part Eye and part knowing that someone loved him, really, really loved him. And feeling like he missed out, like he skipped a train he hadn’t known was there. And wanting to know what kind of person would- could love him the way Jon did. And why that kind of person could end the world.

They talk, Georgie explains why they broke up (clashing ideals, he didn’t believe in the supernatural and her trauma was so inherently tied to it. He was a sleep-clinger and she kicked when she dreamed) And why it took so long for them to break up (Jon was funny once you learned to get his jokes, the Admiral loved him, he had a weird way of caring that was really sweet) they talk about things, Georgie lets him hang out with her as long as he promises to keep the supernatural out of their conversations. And how is Melanie doing by the way?

Sasha has a hard time splitting her time in the archive and helping Tim. He can manage himself of course but it’s hard knowing he’s sitting in her flat alone, he’s getting back into publishing though. Sleeping easier now he knows that not only is he free of the eye, but Jon very much killed the thing that killed Danny. He only wishes he could have been the one to pull the trigger. Sasha is getting more involved though, the eye has it’s own grip on her.

They finally confront Elias. They know it won’t do any good, Jons tapes explained what he was, who he was. But they’re frustrated. Low on options. Jon never really explained what the apocalypse was- if Martins learned anything from the other tapes it’s probably because he forgot, thought he did somewhere and didn’t.

Elias isn’t entirely surprised that they’ve figured it out, he knew something was going on. Though he wasn’t quite sure what. He claims he knows what oncoming apocalypse Jon was talking about, and that he was likely underestimating the amount.

He sends them to Ny-Ålesund. And Martin views the black sun. Gets briefly taken hostage by Manuela. And gets “saved” by a man who pops out of a door to stab her.

He says his name is Micheal, and he’s not there to help. He does his whole distortion bit, confuses them. Stabs Martin when he tries to take his statement. Says he was going to kill him, but what happens next might be much better than death. And leaves after stating that he’s very excited to watch how the rest of this plays out.

They go back to the institute, and Elias says he must have been wrong. Oopsie. Anyway the web is planning a ritual you should go check out the spooky house from all these statements.

They meet Annabelle in person, Martin gets marked by the web.

This continues on for the end the slaughter and the buried. They finally confront Elias again about these wild goose chases, he claims innocence but he’s done it enough times they don’t believe him. They stop trusting Elias. Not that they ever really did, but they stop listening to him.

Melanie isn’t as angry as she was. Though she is still angry. She didn’t go to india so no ghost bullet, but she’s still trapped. Though she knows how to quit, it’s been a scary idea. But the longer she stays the more she realizes how low she is on options. So she quits.

Martin is angry, he’s exhausted, he’s confused. Nothing makes sense. And another one of Elias’s goddamn doners is visiting. A weird old man who, when he shakes his hand, makes him feel like he just dropped off a rollercoaster at a million miles into empty nothingness. He laughs when Martins regained himself, and says that that tricks better than a buzzer every time.

He visits Georgie again, he’s thinking about quitting. But he can’t figure out what the apocalypse he’s supposed to stop is, because according to Jon it’s pretty bad. And he’s the one who can stop, or maybe start, it. But he doesn’t know what it is.

He talks to Georgie about Jon some more, it’s funny, to grieve a man you already knew. Except four years too late. There’s a sort-of helpless frustration to it, every time he talks about Jon he wishes he could be learning this first-hand. Not from someone who hadn’t spoken to him in years before this.

He also finds himself glued to the tapes, he can relate, in a way. To Jons loneliness. To have a person so, so close but so far away. He wishes he could meet the Jon on the tapes now. Then neither of them would have to be lonely. But Jon is dead. And Martin... Martin might love Jon. Jon, who died years ago. A dead man who apparently loved him enough to consider ending the world for the chance to have a real conversation with him.

He goes back to work, frustrated and so, so lost. A million questions that genuinely can’t be answered. There’s a fresh statement on his desk. It’s a statement of Jonah Magnus, regarding stopping the apocalypse.

Certainly a goddamn roundabout way of giving Martin information, but he’ll take it.

He reads the statement.

The world ends.

Sasha, Tim, Melanie, and Georgie all get their own domains. And wander free in the hills of suffering. Martin is alone, well and truly alone. He ended the world, because he was too stupid and sad to read a few extra paragraphs before starting the tape.

But Jon went back, didn’t he? He went back in time and stopped this once. Maybe Martin can too. Maybe he can stop the flesh from attacking, maybe he can stop Melanie from joining the institute. Maybe he can meet the real Jon.

He goes back, he does it. Nobody remembers but him. 

Nobody remembers but him. 

And things keep happening he can’t have predicted.

Worms, Sasha is gone, Gertrude. It’s all wrong. And Jon isn’t the Jon he knew, he doesn’t know Martin, he doesn’t even like Martin. Nobody is the person he knew before.

He is alone. And things keep happening he can’t have predicted, worms tables and paranoia. He starts recording. Trying to follow in Jon’s footsteps and leave information behind, easier to access this time of course. In his flat, and he’ll have the key sent to the archives if something goes wrong. He’ll record until Jon trusts him enough to believe him, Maybe he’ll even stop him before it’s too late and he’ll never need to find out what happened at all. Maybe he can't get close as he was to everyone, but he can keep them safe.

He doesn’t get to finish his recordings, he wasn’t careful enough. Jonah catches wind and half the tapes are destroyed when he dies in a mysterious housefire. But what’s left does get delivered to the archives.

And the cycle continues.

[oftenderweapons]

Mold Me New (1) – Taehyung

A Small Town Swoons story

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Wordcount: 3.2k

Genre: ceramic artist!Taehyung, divorced!reader, Strangers to Lovers, Fluff, Angst, Slice of Life

Rating: 18+ (for future smut and explicit thoughts)

Hello to my readers!!!  Welcome to the Small Town Swoons Universe! 🥰✨

In this episode: Introducing the reader’s backstory, exploring her life as a wife and then as a single woman who is slowly getting to know herself as an individual person.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: There are mild curse words, a bit of a sad vibe regarding falling out of love and getting a divorce, description of several bad dates and good ones that end badly, mention of getting drunk, mention of sex toys, mention of one night stand.

In case you like my writing, here is my directory for idol!AUs, scenarios and imagines, and in case you need it, here’s the Spotify music companion.

I forgot to mention, bc I’m dumb and bc we’re becoming one body with two souls, but this chapter (as most of the decent, edited things I post) was beta read by the magical @joheunsaram​ (she’s recently lost her previous blog and she’s rebuilding it, please go say something nice and YOU SHOULD FOLLOW HER SHE’S A QUEEN ,,,,, my queen 🥺✨)

Enjoy 💜✨

Navi: Chapter 1 — Chapter 2 — Chapter 3 — Chapter 4 — Chapter 5 — Chapter 6 — Chapter 7 

When you fall in love with someone, the feeling is like entering a chocolaterie. The scent engulfs you, full and rich and sultry, igniting your senses, the heat making your skin glisten in a light sheen of perspiration, making you exceedingly vulnerable to pointless stuff, like the way your lover exhales. Or their hands skimming your arms.

At least, that was what your best friend had told you.

You had none of that. To you love was a daisy being twirled under your nose, sharing cotton candy, the smell of crisp apples, flannel sheets, the sound of dead leaves crackling under matching footsteps, a sturdy but shiny steel band around your finger suddenly substituted by a golden one.

That had been the beginning of the end. When practicality and simplicity had turned into conventionality and disinterest.

When gifts stopped being things you loved and became things he thought you loved. And then things everyone loved.

When love became a chore, that's when everything crumbled. When kisses became just a good morning and a welcome back, when there were no more laughs echoing in the kitchen, when leaves kept falling but it was your footsteps alone making them crackle, when flannel sheets kept feeling warm but still something was missing — because someone was missing — when suddenly there was no more time for fairs and cotton candy, when daisies became roses, Love stopped making sense. It stopped having a meaning for you.

You were no longer sure of the life you had built with the man of your dreams, the boy you had fallen in love with when you were eight, the guy who had walked with you across the corridors of your high school, who had made you twirl under the lame disco ball of your prom, who had gone through college finals with you, who had spent three summers making your hangout spot into a home, turning the small old shack into a proper place for you to build a new life together. He was your first kiss, your first valentine, your first time. He was the man at the end of the aisle, the man who would walk with you until the last of your days.

But one day he started running and you still walked.

Or maybe you were both running in different directions, no longer on the path to the same destination, your priorities somehow switched.

Of course, it wasn't his fault.

It wasn't yours either.

You had both participated in this small unraveling, and you had both expressed the intention of changing, of finding compromise, an in-between, without either of you actually making the effort of fixing your trajectory, small habits and old pet peeves pulling you even farther apart.

The attempts — multiple ones — were painstakingly embarrassing. There were tears on both sides as you wondered what had caused this sudden rift that separated you — except it wasn't sudden, only your realisation was; the crevasse had been there for way longer. Maybe it had started as a small chipping the very day you met him, and it wasn't until now that you realised how the small sign had turned into an ominous presence, and then into unfathomable, inevitable doom.

And then the divorce.

It had been disgustingly easy, both parties agreeing on the procedures.

You didn't want the house. And you didn't need it. He didn't either.

Selling it had been exceedingly painless, you had shared the money, since he wanted to offer you stability. He already knew you would both suffer and he didn't want you worrying about rent. He was still your friend, after all.

Going back to being alone scared you at the beginning, until you realised that few things were truly bothering you. At least there wasn't this ghost of a human making you doubt all of your plans. You could plan dinner five days ahead or improvise. You could go to the restaurant as a last minute deal. You could go on long walks without the 'I'm sorry baby, emergency' making you rush back to town.

It felt like a bit of a liberation.

And your family's bookshop was doing well enough, since it was situated near the college and it also offered printing service.

Of course there were bad days. Sometimes you woke up searching for a body beside yours, however that feeling had significantly subdued after you had gotten used to the new bed. You missed human contact, being close, intimate with someone, having someone who knows you that deeply.

And then the true nightmare.

Finding someone new.

You were genuinely uninterested in dating. You had given it a go and it had sufficed.

It wasn't your world.

How could it possibly be?

You had never dated. You had basically offered your heart to the person that has always owned it. It's not like you had any experience in that labyrinth that is dating. All those unspoken social norms and the pining and tension. You only knew the comfort of a warm hug, the beauty of a kiss sparking from innocence and affection and slowly turning into steady, warm passion. You didn't like infernos, you liked candles. You liked the domestic hearth. You liked moderation.

And dating was all about extremes, from strangers to 'I'm inspecting your throat' on date one. And then suddenly it's date three and the same guy who brought you to a pizza place and a diner is suddenly going out of his way to bring you to a pretentious, expensive restaurant as a way to propitiate the possibility of you dropping your panties.

You had allowed this foolery only three times. Apparently all the suitable suitors were either really prone to pushing the pedal or had a passion for tongue gastroscopies.

The first one, Albert, had been quite the gentleman on date one. On date two he started making inappropriate jokes with a heavy body shaming undertone — a bit cliché for the stereotypical gym rat. And on date three he had dropped all pretenses at politeness and had outright palmed your ass in public, which made you rightfully uncomfortable. As you pointed that out, he proceeded saying that after all it was your third date and it was time to loosen up a little.

You didn’t even bother staying for dinner, left a bill on the table and left.

No matter the first disappointment, you decided not to let that disrespectful fool slow you down. And since your best friend knew everything about rat headed number one, you allowed her to set you up with one of her colleagues after she reassured you he was nothing like the one before.

Except somehow he was. The first date was at the local pub, and you somehow found yourself getting along well, his jokes were funny and he had good timing, he was relaxed, confident but still a bit clumsy and shy. He could be a good candidate.

But that was before he pushed his tongue to your tonsils as he kissed goodbye.

You gagged.

On date two he admitted you weren’t exactly his type. You were glad to reciprocate the statement after he told you his dream was having four children and a farm, alluding to the fact that his bride needed to be the perfect housewife.

You were pretty adamant that was not the kind of future you wanted for yourself.

Candidate number three was a guy you had met while grocery shopping, and somehow he had impressed you in an absolutely positive way on date one and two. Everything had been perfect, he was kind, considerate and well-mannered. Date three had been innocent, simple, down-to-earth. And then date four. Perfect dinner at his place. He had made you swoon and he had a very pretty cat he was very affectionate with.

He was the first man you had felt desire for in a very long time — almost eight months after your divorce.

The sex had been decent for being a first time.

And then he had entirely disappeared and never texted or called you back, which didn’t sit entirely wrong with you. You wished him all the best but you were actually glad. You liked being you and doing your own thing: having someone too much down your neck, getting in a relationship, having to check in with another person again felt more like a burden than a win.

Maybe it was just a coping mechanism to avoid facing the fact that he had been someone you could have liked, someone you could have built something with.

You were a happy woman, and it’s not like you really felt lacking or incomplete, like some of your single friends felt. And you had no intention of starting a family anytime soon, no matter if your old high school classmates had begun popping out kids left and right. You were more than happy to live the teen and early-twenty years you had spent in a relationship.

You were getting to know yourself in a way most of your friends didn’t have time to — you could already see them going through a midlife crisis after their kids became old enough to navigate life by themselves, which meant no more need for overprotective, and sometimes borderline suffocating, mothers, who suddenly found themselves with too much free time and too little tasks to complete.

Knowing your needs made you a stronger, better woman, and solitude had gifted you a level of introspection and balance that you doubted they could ever reach; maybe that was an arrogant consideration, but you knew there was no way knowing and loving yourself would ever bring you to crying over disrespectful, ungrateful youth whose only fault was that of growing up out of their mothers’ plans.

Unfortunately, there was no way your family — especially your grandmother — could ever tolerate the idea of you not needing a man and a family to be happy.

“Oh, come on, isn’t it time for you to bring a nice fellow back home?”

You shook your head as you and your grandma took a walk along the river, the sunny March afternoon feeling way too nice to stay at home. “Granny. There’s no people like Grandad anymore.”

“Oh, darling. You’re starting with the wrong role model. Not even back in my days we had men like him. He was the exception.” She nodded to herself with a sweet smile, remembering the husband she had lost a few years back.

“It’s so frustrating. And after all that happened… You know how it was. We were together for years. He was the only one I had. I don’t even know how to do these things. And books cannot teach you stuff like that. The more you read, the more you realise that most of these men had never even seen a rom com.”

“Oh, come on, but you have the internet these days! Can’t you find him in there? You have all these phones and computers and everyone has them, there must be a good one in the internet.”

She always said that “in the internet”. Like it was a physical place.

“I don’t even want to look in there, Granny. There are so many dangers in there.” You shuddered as you thought at the funny instagram pages where the people posted screenshots of the worst descriptions. All the embarrassing playboys and the fishermen and the lame wanna-be poets.

“Right… How can you know he is really is a person?” She considered, patting your back proudly. “You’re pretty. And you’ve always had the most perfect bum of all your cousins. Just like mine!” She grinned cockily, giving a playful smack to your ass, making you laugh loudly.

“It won’t last long.” You said, looking down. Solitude scared you sometimes. Being old and alone could be hard on the spirit and you had a feeling that old hag you would curse your dumb arrogance and inconsideration. However, for now you were still somehow making it through. Your divorce was finalised almost ten months ago. You could still consider yourself just fresh out of it.

“You’re smart. And I’m sure you have a lot to offer. You’re a good woman, and you’re far from being too old. There’s never a thing such as too old. Don’t let yourself be fooled. Look at me.” She said. “I’m still living a good life. Herbert has left me but I’m still here. Walking. Cooking. Drizzle keeps me good company.” She smiled sweetly at the mention of her dog, a lovely large poodle elegantly strolling at her side, its light grey fur finely trimmed by your grandmother’s expert hands. She had been a hairdresser for decades: learning how to keep Drizzle’s coat had been a cup of tea for her and he’d kept her distracted from grief after your grandpa passed away.

Her face formed a meditative pout. “Maybe you should just get a dog. Or even better, a cat. You’ve always looked like a cat child to me. So quiet and focused, like you knew some secret that nature would speak to you alone. You were always so attentive as a child!”

You smiled and looked at the path under your feet. Drizzle stayed unbothered as a loud, angry dachshund walked towards him, barking annoyingly. You had never felt sympathy for that small evil breed.

“I think I could get a kitten one of these days. Or a cat, from the shelter.”

“I’m sure you’ll find it in the internet!”

“So we’re really doing the party thing?”

“Listen, baby. It’s gonna be your first party as a free woman. Real mind blowing birthday sex.”

“I’m not a virgin, you know?” You stared at your face in the mirror, spreading some moisturiser over your forehead, inspecting the small lines there. You shrugged and let them be.

Maybe you would spend your best years single and find a sugar baby in ten or twenty years. Wait, weren’t those called toy boys?

Who cares.

Maybe it was time to get the post-grad you had always dreamed of. You would need to check your bank account before making that decision — maybe finally telling yourself yes could be the real birthday gift. That is, beside the huge dildo waiting in your drawer. Not being attracted to men or women didn’t mean you didn’t like sex.

You just found it difficult to imagine being with someone.

“Darling I’d bet an arm and a leg he never gave it to your right. You just need a bit more experience.”

All you needed was a hot bath, some candles and a good book. No man, no one night stand, no birthday sex could possibly make you as happy as decent jazz, wine and a novel.

“Why aren’t we doing that wine tasting at the winery out of town?”

“Because I want you choking on cheap alcohol, having all the fun you didn’t have on your twenty-first birthday because you were planning your own wedding. And I bet you’re the only one who wasn’t fucked in the bathroom of the Wickhead.”

Terry could be incredibly crude, but you loved her nonetheless. You loved her even more for it. She had never hidden anything from you, she had told you even the most embarrassing details of her own life. And she had always been the kindest, most faithful friend: she had driven you way out of town when you were eighteen and your period was late and you needed to buy a pregnancy test without all everyone and their dog knowing; she had chosen your wedding dress for you, spotting it and telling you it was going to be the one before you could even see it. When your marriage had started crumbling, she had spent countless nights with you, keeping you company when your husband was busy with his business trips. Though Terry had insinuated cheating, you knew he would never break your trust like that, and she had decided to trust your better judgement.

You had simply fallen out of love with each other.

And when you had moved into your new apartment, Terry had helped you repaint the walls and build the extra bookcases and install the shelves and fill your wine stand. Before leaving she had grabbed an unfamiliar box from her car, placing it on top of your bed, opening it and spreading out a set of “single necessaire”, as she called it. A couple toys, lube, condoms. To celebrate your re-found sexual promiscuity, she had said, though you objected, it was hard rediscovering something you had never had.

She had shaken her head and left you to “familiarise” yourself with everything.

“You know I’m not exactly a party person, Terry. This will end badly.” You said, sitting on your bed with your back against the headboard, your legs stretched out before you.

“You can allow yourself some fun once in a decade, you know?” You could hear her scoff on the phone.

“But I do have fun. Book. Wine. Bingo!” You explained, rolling your eyes as the booed.

“Come on, do it for me. Do it for your single friend who wants to get drunk and possibly sixty-nine? Please?” The other thing wrong with Terry is that if you ever met her in person, you would face the sweetest five foot three and a half — she insisted on the half — human being you could ever meet, with pretty wavy blonde hair and wide, sweet green eyes, the most boopable button nose and a sprinkle of freckles on her golden skin. She literally glowed in sunlight and her flowy gowns always made her look like a goddess: you could see men fighting for her, dying for her and going to war for just one of her gentle smiles.

“Don’t you have a FWB for that sixty-nine thingie?” You asked with an exceedingly inquisitive tone. It had been a while since she last updated you.

“Dumped him.” She replied curtly.

You tutted before exhaling. Emotionally constipated people — what’s wrong with them?

“He’s dating someone since he was ready for a relationship.” Terry sounded a bit colder than usual.

“And you weren’t?” You asked. You felt your tone hesitate with slight concern. You knew she would just put up a wall and ignore your question.

Fortunately, she didn’t. “I’m not ready to talk about that. It’s complicated, Frog.”

She was hurt and wanted a distraction.

“Okay, Terry. We’re going to get rip roaring drunk this Saturday.”

The line went silent.

“You know I love you right?”

“I love you too, sweetie. Now go to sleep, you have an early shift tomorrow.”

The line went silent after you bid each other goodnight, your body settling underneath the sheets once you realised your eyes were fluttering shut  as you tried to read a few pages to put yourself to sleep.

Placing down the book, you hugged the extra pillow, settling your face in the corner between your sleeping pillow and your spare one, the heavy woolen comforter acting like a weighted blanket. You placed another pillow behind your back, making a soft cocoon all around you.

Yes, sometimes you still missed being hugged to sleep.

The taglist is open!

Navi: Chapter 1 — Chapter 2 — Chapter 3 — Chapter 4 — Chapter 5 — Chapter 6 — Chapter 7

[sporksaber]

Ok, I love the role swap concept with zuko and azula, but I feel like they switch their abilities and personalities a bit too and I think itd be more fun without that. Where Azula is an antisocial and unstable genius who wants to gain power and zuko still struggles with being the less powerful and extremely empathetic sibling. So here's how I'd do it.

(Note, this is just for fun. I'm not saying anyone else's version is bad. But I've though about this so much and need it out of my head before I go off cuz make a whole comic and I do not have the time, i need to work.)

First off, Azula wouldn't call out in concern for the men like how zuko did. In my version she's allowed into the meeting because of the aptitude for strategy shes shown. She speaks up because it's an inefficient plan that uses up too many resources when there are other options. This enrages her father and leads to the agni kai. Azula is terrified and feels betrayed but has no idea how to handle any of it. She fights back during the agni kai, but in her panic she sets off a bolt of lightning. Ozai finishes the match and severely burns on her lower back. Azula is banished for her use of lightning on the fire lord (bc ozai fears she will no longer be easy to manipulate and might plot his death) and is forced to leave the next morning.

Some things to note: azula is eleven at this point. I changed the placement of the scar bc I think zuko's is very symbolic in a way that doesnt suit azula. Zuko's scar being over his eye and close to the light chakra shows the way his view of the fire nation and honour obscures his vision and how he is unaware of the truth of the world under fire nation rule. I set azula's over her spine because that chakra is based on survival and blocked by fear. It also represents trust which will fit into her arc with the gaang. Finally, she doesnt have Iroh to guide her. One of the things that bothered me was Iroh writing her off as evil despite her being a mentally unstable child. She did have to be defeated, but the way he talked about it was too dismissive. (Personally I think he was projecting his views of his brother and his perceived failures with him onto her.) Azula isnt sent to capture the avatar so she isnt given soldiers. She's completely alone without an advisor to look to or keep her calm.

Azula is given a manned ship with a disgraced soldier and an attendant when she leaves. The way I see it the soldiers zuko had were probably more irohs than his. The soldier is relieved to not be executed but hates being demoted to playing babysitter to a child at sea. The attendant views it as a punishment and hates Azula for it. Eventually the attendant will betray her and be killed for it. Azula never trusted the soldier and he eventually leaves to start a family in an earth kingdom colony. Azula doesnt miss him, he was no longer useful. The loneliness does get to her though.

Azula is obsessed with getting the underhand, so she had been successfully building connections and planting spies where needed.

(Zuko has been acting as a respectable crowned prince. He holds a zealous loyalty to his nation and father. He still faulters as Iroh tries to steer him from tyranny, but his sights are set on his father's approval and that alone. Afterall, if his prodigy could be discarded who's to say what would happen to him if he failed?)

This brings us to the start of the series. Like Zuko Azula witnesses the trap on the old fire nation battle ship go off. She investigates and finds that an air bending avatar is living at the south pole village. She decides she wants to speak with him.

Azula didn't believe the avatar existed before this point. Hiding didnt add up to her knowledge of the morality of airbenders, so she assumed the air nation avatar from the start of the war would be dead. She would know if one had appeared in the water tribe, as the south had all its benders killed and the north was compacted so close together it would be impossible to hide. Earth would be harder, but they were most likely to fight back and out act. And if in ba sing se they'd be used as a weapon or gotten rid of to preserve the peace of the city. Once the culcle progressed to the fire nation it would either be used to take over the other nations or enf the cycle for good. After all, there hasn't been an air bender for a hundred years even if the rumors of some acolytes surviving were truthful.

Azula kidnaps aang with far more ease than she should of been able to. Once he stops struggling she calmly offers him tea and promises to release him once their discussion is finished. He takes the tea and drinks it without question and besides a wary glare shows no more hostility. She thought him a fool, the tea could have easily been poisoned and promised are nothing but words. His naivete makes her job easier though.

She finds out that he was suspended frozen in the avatar state the last 100 years. And so, Azula informs him of the war and the fire nations crimes, advising him to master the elements if he wants to prevent all his new friends and the avatar cycle from certain destruction. Aang is conflicted, he never asked for any of this. Azula just gives a bitter smile. "The hands of fate were never designed to take requests, they move without regard to any life dependent on it. Dont waste your breath when there is nothing you can do."

Azula wants to see Ozai fail. If helping the avatar is what it takes then so be it. When his friends appear to save him she let's them leave without a fight. Theyll be useful in the future.

As the gaang's travels kick off she sets out to find out if the rumours about the acolytes are true. In this she finds a traveling circus. The youngest daughter and an old friend of hers was eager to escape and found Azula's life exciting. She didn't hesitate after being invited along, insisting that traveling would be easy for her and that she'd pull her own weight.

She encounters the gaang a few times as time goes by. The relationship is reluctant on the water tribe siblings part, they dont trust her and hold a decent amount of fear towards her. Her cold and calculating demeanor was unsettling, but the unhinged way she fought was terrifying. Her form was perfect and her attacks were precise, but the bigger the fight the more lost she became as she laughed and shrieked and occasionally snapped at someone who didnt seem to be there. The only worse reaction was when she zeroed in on one opponent, picking them apart both mentally and physically as she drove them to the ground. )

Things that'll happen as I move through an episode list:

Azula doesn't have her ship attacked do she diesnt run into zhao while doing repairs, instead going straight to ty lee.

Azula learns that the gaang is on kyoshi island and heads ther after them. She has been keeping track of the avatar as they move. Ty lee gets along well with the kyoshi warriors while azula buts heads with them. They dont want her there and azula hates it when people get in the way. Zhao appears to try to capture aang and Azula dips at the same time as the gaang. She tells ty lee she can stay but she insists on sticking with azula. This puts her on edge.

Ty lee gets captured by earth benders, when she escapes on her own she cements her usefulness to Azula.

They run into zhao trying to capture the avatar and azula tells him she'll capture him first. They both attack aang during the solstice, though azula's attacks are all purposefully set to miss and trip up zhao as much as possible. Aang is the best way to prove her father wrong and she's not going to lose that.

They rob the pirates that try to capture the avatar. Azula needs the resources and it gives her leverage over the gaang.

After almost killing ty lee for scaring her by popping up behind her Azula tells her why she was banished. (In more of a "my own mother thought I was a monster" way than an opening up about trauma way.)

Azula learns that zhao has captured aang and frees him. She then sets to reworking her information network as not all of them are scared enough of her to not fail her. She remedies it quickly.

Azula learns that zhao is plotting her assassination and decides it's the perfect moment to fake her death.

Azula enters the north pole to defeat zhao and gain any information she can. Ty lee rades a library during the confrontation. Zhao is surprised and infuriated to see her alive, Azula smiles as she sends him to his death knowing that she is not only helping the avatar but also that he gave her a perfect way to hide from the fire nation. (When news of his sisters death reaches hum, Zuko doesnt know what to think. She was always cruel to him, but she was still his little sister.)

The crown prince of the fire nation is sent to capture the avatar. Azula follows him as he begins his search. (Zuko begins to think he's going insane as he keeps catching glimpses of his recently deceased sister out of the corner of his eye.)

Ty lee keeps running into a girl she slowly befriends. She's gloomy and sarcastic and ty lee thinks Azula would like her. (Zuko's fiance Mai tells him that she thinks his sister is still alive.)

As Azula notices ty lee become more and more distracted as she absorbed herself into the cultures that surround them she decides it's best for them to split up. Ty lee diesnt agree, but Azula leaves anyway. She has work to do.

While traveling alone Azula cant escape the thoughts of her mother. Of her fathers betrayal. Of the life she lost because the idiot elders had no grip on proper strategy that even a child could create. She meets a boy that reminds her far too much of zuko with a mother far to similar to theirs. When she sends the bandits controlling the town running she knows it's more than just controlling a territory that compelled her. But at the same time she doubts not following through on the whim would have bothered her.

Ty lee meets toph and chat for a bit. Ty lee tells her about azula and how she left. When toph tells her she should forget her she insists that azula didnt really ditch her and that they're still friends. They talk about their friends and childhood.

Ty lee finds Azula and immidiently jumps at her, which she does not enjoy. Ty lee insists that she still wants to travel with her and Axula sighs as she let's her tag along to the next location, ba sing se.

Azula slips through guards and protocols as she tries to gain any information she can to help her once they reach the city. Ty lee befriends a guy named jet and his group, the freedom fighters. When he tries to get more than friendship she turns him down and it becomes much more awkward.

Ty lee becomes a street performer and chames everyone she meets as Azula researches the dai lee and how they keep control. After lashing out in frustration ty lee drags her out to enjoy the city's night life.

Azula learns of the presence of the avatar and location of appa. She frees him and sets to work taking control of the dai lee. She let's herself be briefly captured but her plan shifts when katara is thrown in with her. Katara is pissed just being around her and azula plays up a cool kind of annoyance. Katara briefly catches sight of the burns on Azula's back and offers to heal her, only for Azula to freak out and yell at her to stay away, backing against a far wall in a fighting stance. They are saved by the rest if the gaang and ty lee shortly after.

Azula goes back to try and salvage her plan only to be caught off guard by the appearance of her brother and his offer to return to the fire nation. Not willing to lose all possible advantages, she agrees. They battle the gaang, and when they are almost captured azula sends a bolt of lightning at aang, causing them to retreat. Katara can heal him more easily than she can maneuver them out of an execution.

Azula returns to the fire nation with her brother, mai and ty lee, starting the beginning of a large power play between her and her father. They are sent to lo and li beach house. The relationship between the siblings is tense, zuko has always been the child born with nothing who gained everything when his blessed at birth sister lost it all. Azula has always been cruel, but he cant help but let his heart catch on the moments when she's not. ("My own mother thought I was a monster, My father thought i was too difficult to keep around" "Don't let their words blind you, you need to be more careful, zuzu." "I learned the hard way to never turn your back to anyone, and the scars will always be there as a reminder if I need it." )

Azula runs into iroh, who is very disapproving of her presence. He warns her to stay away from zuko and to watch herself while at the palace. Later, zuko comes to her asking about their great grandfather. Upon being pressed he admits that he was sent a mysterious letter. He thought she was going to burn it when he handed it to her but instead the heat from the fire revealed a hidden ink. "Honestly brother, did you ever pay attention at all during lessons?" They find a autobiographical scroll of their great grandfathers life and the secret that their other great grandfather was roku. Azula scoffed at the idea of bloodlines deciding fate and quickly left. But Zuko remained conflicted.

During the day of the black sun Azula confronts Ozai. As iroh and Zuko fight the avatar. She learns that her mother left for zuko's sake and that she was never going to be fire lord. Azula tells him she'll be somthing even better and leaves the palace.

Azula and ty lee follow the gaang to the western air temple. Katara immidprntly attacks but is quickly rendered unable to bend by ty lee. Azula tells them that the only way for them to of gotten out was for Aang to be incapacitated, and she knew katara could heal him. Aang decides they can stay but have to stay distanced from everyone else.

Azula tries to teach aang fire bending but is slowly growing sick while aang is barely able to produce a puff of smoke. Unable to sleep and constantly on edge, it soon affects her bending, sending her spiraling as she loses control on the only consistent power she's ever had. Her and aang journey to find the true source of fire bending to try to help their conditions.

Still sick, Azula is itching to do anything away from the temple. Finding sokka trying to reach the boiling rock to find his father, she decides to go with him as she knows the prison well. Sokka declines but she goes anyway. They dont find his father, but they do find suki. Azula formulates a plan but they postpone when sokka's father arrives.

Azula comes up with a new plan, now reluctant to include sokka. He tells her to trust him but she insists she has no reason to. Her sickness has been getting worse and he tells her she needs to trust him, making her angry. Only when he catches her while they're escaping dies she finally begin to accept trusting him, if only slightly.

(While they're away ty lee tries to convince

Azula goes with Katara to find the man who killed her mother. Azula has no concept of why katara is so upset, which causes her to get angry. But azula tracks the man anyway.

Ember island players- azulas character has the scar across her chest. She's absolutely insane and "not entirely inaccurate, but I'd never come up with such a dumb plan." Shes also heavily implied to be more than close to ty lee, which azula has no reaction to even as the others freak out.

I havent decided the ending, zuko will probably turn to the gaang's side. I'll add more later and maybe write or illustrate a bit.

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

Ok, so obviously spade isn’t over yet - not even close…

But whenever Asta and Yuno meet back up again… most likely to go after Yami and William finally

Angsty/Silly HCs of Asta being all hyped to officially introduce Liebe to Yuno & show Yuno their Devil’s Union… and Yuno shows up now with his 2 high power ranking grimoires and near flawless use of his brand new Star Magic that’s he’s been using for like an hour + his 4 leaf level wind magic + the fact they found out he’s a royal + etc. everything else….

How does poor baby Asta react to being all excited and Yuno AGAIN shows up with this massive boost in mana/power like it’s nbd?

(Does Liebe laugh at Asta a little bit?)

Yuno’s gonna break poor baby Asta’s brain one of these days

We were actually talking about this some days back, about Yuno, I mean. And I think that Asta, being the person that he is, will be surprised, but it's not gonna discourage him. If anything, I think that Asta will be dumbfounded, but he'll be happy for Yuno.

But to better align with the conversation that we had: Yuno really is the Mary Sue of BC. Perhaps that's an unpopular opinion, but we talked about how Yuno used to be an interesting character, but he's so op that he's not interesting anymore. With every half-of-a-step he "stumbles" back, he gets to take about 10 steps forward right after. Because he really now has 2 grimoires, one of which is 4-leaved, an elemental spirit (and he can just do Spirit Union like no big deal), and he is a prince.

Now, of course the being-a-prince -part, comes with a lot of responsibility, and it'll be a lot to process (or it at least should be), which... might mean something with Yuno's character.

I'm just... lost with where is Yuno (as a character) going. Because he's just there, he's op, and he.... exists for the idea of rivalry, that doesn't really feel like proper rivalry. And the reason (in my opinion) why it doesn't feel like proper rivalry, is that we never really see Asta inching closer to Yuno. It's like Yuno just is there and whenever Asta gets something cool, Yuno has gotten something even better with no effort. (Perhaps this is a story telling element where we don't see Yuno eg training, but I'm not convinced.)

So, where is Yuno, a character who seems to just get everything, going? Does he just continue to become insanely powerful while doing nothing, or is Tabata gonna pull something on us?

Given how much Tabata seems to be planning, and foreshadowing, and building the story, I'm still holding on to hope that there'll be something. Eg, with the very unsatisfying non-existent-William-redemption arc, there's now been talk about it all being a part of Julius' masterplan to get the Tree of Qliphoth to form. And if that is the case, then the canon events would be far more satisfying (don't get me wrong, as a Fue lover I do want to see him to get a proper slap on the wrist, at the very least). But there'd be a real reason for why he never got that redemption.

Now I feel like I'm just rambling, but as one might see, we had a discussion about this, and it could go on and on. Anyways, this is my two cents about Yuno, and how it'd be nice to seem him have some character development.

[zmwrites]

I’m considering getting beta readers soon, and I saw a post where you mentioned you’d recently gone through a beta reading round - would you mind telling me what worked for you / how you found beta readers / just anything you think might be useful for others about the experience please? thank you!!! and good luck with nano :)

hello! i am happy to share my experience with having beta readers and any tips i have for people!

HOW I FOUND BETA READERS

i made a post on tumblr and tagged my taglist! a very basic way to go about it. this was my very first time having beta readers and i think it worked well for my purposes. 

i made sure to link to the two WIP intros i’ve made, and to the excerpts i’ve posted, and to all of my other posts about world building and character introductions so people could look and see what they were getting into. i wanted to make sure the people who were volunteering to beta read were interested in and familiar with the genre.

i accepted everyone who applied to be a beta reader, which i think might’ve been a mistake, but i’ll get to that later.

WHAT WORKED FOR ME

i ran my beta reader round through google docs. i made each person their own copy of the document and linked to a google survey at the end of each chapter. 

i definitely think the surveys were the best way to get feedback. i was able to direct the feedback to the issues i knew were there, while also leaving space for additional feedback in the last question that asked for things i hadn’t mentioned yet. 

when going over the surveys, i was able to view the feedback by question rather than by respondent. this was a very good idea for me, personally, bc it meant any negative feelings i developed towards the feedback was general and not aimed at any particular beta reader. it is hard to get actual, proper feedback on a manuscript, even when you know that it’s going to be helpful in the long run.

i also took a long break from the manuscript after getting that feedback. logically i knew that the feedback was going to make the book better, but there is an emotional component that is harder to control. because of this, i took about six months off from the project so i could shed any negative thoughts about the wip and remember why i love it so much. not everyone will need to do this, bc some people are not babies like me, but i do think that this helped me a lot. now i’m writing the next draft for nanowrimo and i’m having so much fun bc i love the project and know it’s going to be so much better at the end of this draft.

WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY

i think i had too many beta readers. i ended with 13, and was VERY overwhelmed by the amount of feedback i got at once. in retrospect, i think i should have capped it at 5 or 6. a lot of the feedback was the same so, as much as each person brought their own perspective, it got repetitive and started to become demoralizing.

i encouraged people to leave comments with feedback directly on the document and found it exhausting to go through all of them. at one point i actually had my critique partner go through a few of them because i was so drained. i think the feedback i got from the comments was excellent and still very useful, but having to go through so many comments was a lot.

i don’t know if this would be a best practice, but in the future i would like to try having everyone read the same document. i think it would have been fun to allow people to react to each other’s comments. the privacy aspect would be a nightmare but having to go through 1 document of comments instead of 13 would have been far easier and faster and less mentally draining.

i also think next time i will try to get a few people who aren’t writers as beta readers. it’s hard for writers to turn off their writing brains, and i learned that during this process. i still got excellent feedback, but next time i’d like some feedback from non-writers.

CONCLUSIONS

having beta readers was great and has helped me fix a lot of plot issues i knew i had, as well as pointed ones out to me that i wasn’t even aware of.

i will leave you with two pieces of advice:

1) you don’t have to take any feedback you don’t want to. almost everything will be subjective and just because one beta reader doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean it has to be removed. i mean, i got feedback from one person saying that Poppy and Elliot were the best characters and should be given more page time, and from someone else saying that Poppy and Elliot were useless and should be cut entirely. it is your book and you have final creative say. all feedback is just suggestions.

2) have a friend who is NOT a beta reader who you can talk to about any frustrations or joys that pop up. if you get conflicting feedback, or someone says they don’t like a moment that you adore, it’s good to have a third party to turn to as a tie-breaker. as i said above, i had my critique partner Nat go through some of the comments when my brain stopped working, but she also helped me restructure the parts that people said didn’t make sense. she also told me when i was being dramatic and that the beta readers were right. having a balanced voice to turn to is wildly important, esp if you’re sensitive to feedback like i am.

finally, some links:

Questions to Ask Your Beta Readers by @ambientwriting

6 types of story feedback and what to do with each. by @michaelbjorkwrites

Working with Beta Readers, and How to Get the Most out of It by @cogesque

hopefully this helped you somewhat!!

[ziracona]

Might be that someone already asked but give us your wisdom. Headcanons for Felix and Élodie

Initially, they’re just shocked to see each other again. And in the realm. They haven’t crossed paths since they were kids. But then almost immediately things are uncomfortable.

Élodie is the one who got the kids to go into the internment camp, /and/ who personally activated the sigil that brought the Entity to them all. She is directly responsible for the loss of her own parents and Felix’s and all the others. So, seeing him again, her first thought after surprise and relief at a familiar human is “Oh no. He hates me.” And she immediately becomes reactively and agressively defensive of herself and her past actions, predicting hostility that isn’t there yet.

Since Felix’s paragraph never even mentions Élodie, I have to assume she does not play super majorly into his own trauma memories actually and he doesn’t harbor intense resentment towards her, and probably both doesn’t blame her for being the one to push them into that trek, and simply know she activated the sigil. So, he’s surprised and relieved (even though it’s kind of awkward), and then kind of just hurt because she’s immediately reactive around him and almsot seems to resent him. He probably gets kind of pissed (understandably) like “Well you were the one who sent us down there—I don’t know why you’d hate /me/ over it” and that only makes stuff worse.

Felix is very easy to push around and terrified and takes a long time before he gets used to the realm. He is a cautious and hesistant man in general, and very very very out of his depth, both from being kind of rich and cushioned against life, and just by nature. He takes a long time to adapt and is miserable and scared, but he really does try.

Claudette, who is also miserable and scared, and Dwight, who was long the same before adapting, are especially nice to him and work to help him adapt. So are Tapp, Jane, Jeff, and Ace, who also try—especially Jane, who is well versed, and Tapp, who has experience—to comfort and reassure him about his wife giving birth without him there and his family waiting back home.

Felix misses his wife deeply and would never cheat on her and abandon her and his infant child back home on favor of a steamy realm romance. (I hold Felix ships in contempt >.> my boy has no reason to be regarded a cheater fuck off leave him alone. He’s a decent enough fellow.)

Élodie is a lot braver than Felix. She adapts to the realm quickly for average, as she is used to danger, pain, and hardship. However, unlike Felix, who is afraid and weak initially due to his complete lack of hardship experience, but is team-oriented, Élodie is used to working alone, and is not a great teammate for a while. She doesn’t mean to be cruel, and she’s not like, unfeeling or unsympathetic. But her own experience is so rooted in self-preservation and operating solo, she takes time to get used to having to share that burden with others. And kind of is resistant to it at first. It’s just...not what’s in her programming. It’s been a long time since other people were aside from in a trade and at arm’s length at best.

The survivors are such a big family though eventually Élodie is overtaken by their genuiness and affection. I think Jane and/or Kate and maybe Dwight talk to her at least once, about how this is affecting teams, or about the group’s way of operating and relationships, but I think really it’s just being saturdated in Claudette asking her for help gardening and explaining new poultices, and Meg doing movie scripts theatrically and asking her questions all the time like an (endearingly) annoying little sister, and Jeff and Tapp and Adam always there to save her and take a hit in a trial, people singing together at camp, Dwight passing her supplies to help her get started. It the family. She gets so slowly warmed up to being genuinely cared for and wanted that her walls start to go down, and she starts unlearning her instinctive reactions and begins fighting to save not just her but them too, them before her sometimes, just because it truly becomes what she wants.

Élodie is fasinated by learing any kind of information that could be useful and very dedicated, so she spends a lot of time with Dwight, Claudette, Jane, Adam, Zarina, and Tapp especially, trying to track down any information that could help them escape eventually and stuff to help then survive in the meantime. Bc of her previous life and knowledge, she is extremely useful at this.

Also gets along well with David/Kate/Laurie and Yui and Zarina. After dying, she really really wants to pick up as much fighting skill as she can.

Felix gets along pretty well with everyone, but hangs out more with the chiller activites people like Adam, Ace, Tapp, Jeff, Jane, or Dwight/Quentin/Claudette.

After arriving in the realm, Felix feels bad most of his skills seem less useful. After Dwight talks to him, he decides to so the little he can, and that even if he’s not got worlds of skills for fighting or escaping the realm, it matters at least a little he /can/ make peoples’ lives better. So he adds some rudamintery shelters to the campfire area so they have a few little actual kind of partial buildings now. He’s not the most personally skilled with tools, but he has an expansive knowledge of how to make things function well and last and be given proper support, so he and Jake make a good team when it comes to home construction.

Things with Felix and Élodie are tense for a while. They don’t fight, per se, but because she anticipates that he hates her and is automatically basically hostilely defensive towards him in preperation for that, Felix feels very disliked by her as well. With some interveigning from the others—especially Jane and Dwight—things get a little more cordial. And Felix starts trying to work hard to make things work and dedicatedly saving her in trials. Élodie hates this, she thinks/tells herself because he’s trying to be superior/sanctimonious towards her, but in reality because she is crippled with guilt over what happened a long time ago. Still, after a while, she starts trying to save him hard too to be just as good, and it’s hard to hate somebody who has rescued you from death, so unintentionally this ends up tricking them both into starting to be chill with and enjoy each other again.

Eventually, there is a breaking point when they’re alone—maybe it’s late at night and Élodie or Felix asks the other to step away to talk. Maybe it’s in a trial, and Felix is offering to die so she can take the hatch, and she just can’t take it anymore. But it happens, and Élodie breaks down and asks why he’s doing this and says she knows he must hate her, and tries to apologize and defend herself viciously at the same time, and it’s a mess, and Felix never knew she actually summoned the thing at all and it’s like getting kicked in the stomach, and he doesn’t even know what to say or think. For so long he’s blamed himself; he’s never blamed her. But he didn’t know it was her fault, and it kind of is, and she’s falling apart, and he’s so overwhelmed, and what is he supposed to say? Is he supposed to forgive her? Supposed to hate her? But. He thinks for a second. He lost everything, but so did she—so did all of them. And she didn’t know. Nobody warned them, their parents could have, and didn’t. And she was a kid. Kids make mistakes—that’s living, that’s growing up. Adults do too. And he doesn’t hate her, and it doesn’t matter if he blames her, because it doesn’t matter who /is/ to blame. They were all kids, and it was a tragedy, not an act of hate or maliciousness, and that’s all that matters. They both lost everything, and all that matters is they do the best they can with what they have now.

And that’s what he tells her. And it’s hard to accept, but she’s so relieved. She breaks down and cries and apologizes for real, no equivocations, no defense, just sorry, and he tells her there’s nothing really to forgive because it was an accident, but that if there was, he would, and they’re friends after that day. Almsot inseperably. She’s there to ask about his wife and baby he hasn’t got to meet yet and to encourage him like the best friend he never had growing up, and he’s there to hear her theories and long spiels on fascinating finds, and ask about home and what she truly wants if they make it back like the best friend she never had either, and because she finally has people she loves, she has answers to that now.