#bc of the problems but mostly bc i wanted to hide from the problems

[snekdood]

i can tell twitter users are slowly going to make this website so, so much worse, and eventually do the impossible and make it go up in flames

[sunsburns]

honestly i feel like joaquin gives best friends to lovers vibes. and the moment you realize he likes you (meanwhile you've liked him for years) is gonna be in the middle of one of those heated arguments you have with each other bc he's jealous of the new guy you're seeing but one of you is stubborn and doesn't wanna admit it. idk if this counts as a request but if you like the idea i'd love to see you write something abt it!!

yes yes! i feel like it would be even better if the two of you had been working together for soo long too. like you’re in the middle of a stakeout or a mission and he’s suddenly bringing it up for the first time, trying to be all suave and subtle and you’re like ????

the stakeout had been dragging for hours.

the two of you were stationed in an unmarked van on a dimly lit street, watching the back entrance of an old warehouse where your target was supposed to show. you and joaquín torres had done plenty of missions like this before—long hours, bad takeout, and enough banter to keep you both from losing it.

except this time, he wasn’t talking.

not really, anyway. he was pretending to be busy, fiddling with the comms setup even if it had already been working fine since the start of the op.

the van was cramped, parked just far enough from the target building to stay out of sight. the only light inside comes from the dim glow of yours tablet and the occasional flicker of streetlights through the tinted windows.

and then, out of nowhere—

“you never did tell me how your date went last week.”

you barely heard him over the quiet hum of the surveillance feed. your attention is fixed on the warehouse across the street, waiting for movement, but his words pull you out of it.

you glance over, catching him looking away the second you do. subtlety had never been his strong suit.

“i didn’t think you’d want to know,” you said, testing the waters.

“of course i do.”

something in his voice made you pause. it wasn’t the usual teasing or lighthearted prodding—it was earnest. which was odd, considering the first time you brought it up there had been no jokes and joaquín had not been this curious. if anything, he’d gone uncharacteristically quiet, then changed the subject entirely.

but you’d brushed it off at the time.

still, you decide to humour him. “it went well.”

silence. then the soft creak of leather as he shifts in his seat.

“so, is there a second date coming?”

the casual tone didn’t fool you.

you smiled, mostly to yourself. “maybe.”

you expect some kind of quip, a halfhearted joke to brush it off. but you didn’t miss the way his jaw tightened, how his fingers flexed against his knee.

for someone who was an expert at recon, joaquín was terrible at hiding his tells. always had been. every thought he had crossed his face before he could stop it, which is why you’ve never had to second-guess him.

but that? that was weird.

“why? do you care?” you ask, turning slightly toward him.

“i don’t,” he said too quickly. “just wondering if i gotta learn this guy’s name or not.”

your smile grew wider. “oh? so you do care.”

he finally looked at you, “that’s not what i—“ he exhaled sharply. “forget it.”

you couldn’t.

you studied him for a moment, the furrow in his brow, the slight clench of his jaw. this was the longest conversation you’ve had outside of mission chatter in a week. and now he suddenly wanted to know about your love life?

“joaquín,” you started, voice slower now. “if there’s something you wanna say—“

“i only care when it affects our work.”

that made you bristle. “oh. am i too distracted for you?”

“that’s not what i said.”

“it’s exactly what you said.” you turned toward him fully now, forgetting about the stakeout for a second. “you didn’t have a problem last week when i was watching your six, but suddenly i go on a date and now i’m not focused enough for you?”

“that’s not—“ he stopped himself, dragging a hand down his face. “tu—you’re impossible.”

“like you’re any better,” you fired back. “you’ve been acting weird ever since i mentioned this guy, and now you’re bringing it up in the middle of a mission like it’s relevant intel? what’s your deal, torres? what’s going on? what are you trying to say?”

he pressed his lips together, clearly debating something. you knew him well enough to see the war happening behind his eyes, the push and pull of something he'd been trying to keep locked down.

“i’m not—i’m not trying to say anything,” he muttered.

your eyes narrowed. “bullshit.”

his lips curled into something sour, “i don’t get you sometimes.” his voice was lower now, “you’ll pick up on the smallest details in the field, but when it comes to this?” he gestured vaguely between the two of you, frustrated, “it’s like you’re choosing not to see it.”

that stopped you cold.

because for a second—for one stupid, fleeting second—you let yourself think about it. really think about it.

like the way joaquín always made sure you had the last protein bar on long missions, even if it meant going without. or the way he always covered your blind spots in a fight, positioning himself between you and danger without hesitation. the way his voice changed when he spoke to you, softening in a way it never did for anyone else.

the way he looked at you when he thought you weren’t paying attention.

god.

your stomach twisted. you had spent so long convincing yourself that none of it meant anything. that it was just who he was—loyal, protective, a damn good partner. that was the only way you had managed to push your feelings down, to keep yourself from ruining what you had with him.

because the truth?

you had been in love with joaquín torres for years.

and it had been eating you alive.

the only reason you had gone out with someone else at all was because you had needed to move on. you couldn’t keep wanting something that wasn’t yours. couldn’t keep looking at him like he hung the damn moon when he was always just out of reach.

but now—now—he was looking at you like he was waiting for you to say something. like he wanted you to see it.

like maybe you hadn’t been crazy all along.

“joaquín.”

he just shook his head, frowning like he was mad at himself for even saying anything. “doesn’t matter.” the frustration drained from his voice, leaving behind something hollow. “forget i said anything.”

then he turned away like the conversation was over.

but it wasn’t.

because now, there was no taking it back.

and you weren’t sure if you even wanted to.

before you could respond, sam’s voice crackled over the comms.

“guys," he said, slow and unimpressed. “you do realize your mic is on, right?”

heat flooded your face.

joaquín scrambled to reach for the radio, red in the face. “sorry. must’ve turned it on by accident.”

“glad we’re getting some entertainment while we wait, sam continued, and you could almost see that grin on his face. “but unless you two wanna keep broadcasting your love confession to the team, maybe save it for after the mission?”

[kxsagi]

Rin, with a nice and cute girlfriend would be so funny tho

Rin usually wears monotonous clothes right? Like he never wears anything colorful, and they're mostly black, grey, white or a little bit of turquoise but tHAT'S BESIDES THE POINT

Then all of a sudden he comes to practice with cute keychains on his bag, a matching one with his girlfriend or even finds him with bow hair clips on his hair that pushes his bangs off his face since she said “it covers his handsome face."

And they meet her and they're so surprised that she's the total opposite of Rin, she's nice and cheerful, always smiling unlike her boyfriend who looks at everyone like they had committed a crime against him (that being them breathing in the same air as him)

Asking her why she's dating Rin then she just simply answered, "Oh, he's nice and sweet to me. He's such a good boyfriend honestly!" then they'd be like nICE, WHICH PART? WHEN AND HOW?

i should be reviewing for my upcoming exam this week and here i am thinking about blue lock boys, i have problems.

— 🪻

“𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐱 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞”

a/n: you're so real for thinking about blue lock boys instead of your studies bc that's also me i fear

but good luck on your exam! for working so hard in school, i hope i can make your day better and life a little less stressful! ❣️

rin was never one for color.

if his clothes had a soul, they'd be a monochrome masterpiece: black shirts, grey pants, white sneakers, maybe a touch of turquoise if he was feeling wild. but that was beside the point. everyone knew him for his quiet demeanor, his "resting bitch face," as his teammates liked to call it, and his constant air of "everyone is suspicious until proven otherwise." 

then one fateful day, rin showed up to practice different. his usual bag was still there, of course, but now it had little keychains hanging from it – three, to be exact. one was a tiny panda, another a glittery star, and the third was a matching keychain, his rocket keychain, paired with one you, his girlfriend, gave him. and wait, was that a hair clip in his hair? a bow clip? what the heck was going on? 

his teammates blinked at him, and some even choked on their water. "rin?" chigiri asked, eyes squinting. "what's... what's happening with your bag? and your hair?" 

rin tugged at the clip awkwardly, looking a bit out of his depth. "uh, it's nothing." but you had told him he needed to wear it. "it covers your handsome face," you'd said. so of course he did. for you. 

a couple of minutes later, everyone was gathered around in the locker room, and there you were – his girlfriend. if rin was the human embodiment of a cloud on a bad day, you were a sunshine explosion. bright, cheerful, always smiling, like you'd just woken up and realized it was your birthday every day. they stared at you, completely stunned. 

“wait, this is your girlfriend?” reo asked, unable to hide the shock. 

rin rolled his eyes. “yeah, yeah, stop staring.” 

you just giggled. “he's always so serious, huh? but i love him! he's the best, nicest boyfriend ever!" 

they all exchanged confused looks. "nice? nice?" bachira gasped. "which part? when? how??" 

"oh, you know," you waved them off like it was no big deal. "he’s sweet, he buys me flowers. and he listens when i talk about my day. he’s a total softie." 

his teammates froze, trying to process this. rin? a softie? the same rin who scowled at the vending machine for taking his last dollar? 

“he’s nice when he wants to be,” you added, smiling at him. 

rin was already blushing, awkwardly fiddling with his shirt as if it could swallow him whole. "okay, enough," he muttered, crossing his arms. 

“come on, rin! you can’t fool them,” you teased, giving him a light nudge. “you always pick the perfect movie for our movie nights. remember the time you watched that cheesy rom-com just to make me laugh?" 

rin groaned. "it was for you." 

they all stared at him like he’d just announced he was secretly a superhero. a superhero. 

“okay, okay,” isagi said slowly, “we get it. you’re, like, a secret softie. the world is full of surprises.” 

rin sighed and adjusted his bow clip, silently questioning all his life choices. he swore if anyone took a picture, he was going to have a meltdown. but deep down, he couldn’t help the tiny smile tugging at his lips. 

you had a way of making the world seem a little less grey. 

© 𝐤𝐱𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢

[imustbenuts]

Wolfwood is an underdog character screwed by social hierarchy and Japanese cultural subtext more ways than one: a messy half-assed write up.

This is me saying that Wolfwood is in no way the equivalent of 'white' or even near the top in terms of class even when viewed with a Japanese lens and there's at least a few threads you can follow that will lead up to that conclusion. So to try and (badly) cover this topic as best as I can, the sections highlighted in this post will be the following

Colorism and imperialism

Tribes and burakumin

Shintoism and the burakumin people

Wolfwood's entire fucking design

I explode

Colorism

So in short. Asia has a colorism problem on top of a racism problem, but people like me get really frustrated when a more American POV is applied to try and shoehorn the discussion into purely racism. The reason is: history.

So. Japan was super imperialist back in history. And so was China, which Japan took many inspiration from in terms of language, culture, and most importantly, governance.

In order for their particular system of governance to work, both China and Japan ended up having their own respective court systems where the aristocrats and nobility would spend their days indoors as they administer governance. (Or more accurately, to be so educated, cultured and refined as the world outside implodes.) Thanks to this system, there is essentially a walled garden system where the well-educated nobles would spend their time well away from hard labor like farming under the sun.

This meant there is a greater amount of favoritism towards fairer skinned people as opposed to tan, since it became a quick indicator of class and status. Bc only laborers tended the field under the harsh sun, and women got this especially bad, bc imagine her having to tend the field like a peasant. Gasp.

Anyway bada bing bada boom white skin eventually became so associated with beauty and status. The old poverb, "色の白いは七難隠す", or White skin covers seven flaws, refers to women with pure white (sometimes powdered) skin is attractive no matter what their physical flaw might be. Think Geishas and their job of entertaining at private events with a face full of white powder makeup.

This colorism also hits men less, but the idea of status stays.

...Wink. (To note the above gif here for a sec: IMO Vash doesn't qualify as desirable purely because he's a blonde. A foreigner. An Other. But the hiding flaws part might be worth chewing on.)

And now we suddenly are looking at some kind of a vague hierarchical system. And indeed, Japan has had a caste system of sorts in with varying degrees of social mobility depending on which era you look at. The lowest in some era were slaves. And even then, there is another class even lower than that, the Burakumin. Put a pin in this bc it'll be important in the next part.

Tribes and Burakumins

There are actually, in fact, different tribes (or rather, ethnic groups) in Japan even today. Current day, the well known ones are the Yamato people, who make up 98% of the population in Japan. Mostly fair skin, black hair. East Asian.

Then there are the Ryukyuans, who live mostly in okinawa with their own culture, and then the Ainus.

I don't want to get even MORE historical, but those two groups were conquered and forcibly had their culture identity, language, and even land stripped off them. Attempted to have loyalty towards the emperor instilled towards them at various points. One might think the presence of these two might mean that there were more tribes back in ancient Japan, and, yes, you would be right!

Many of them might have been assimilated into what we think of as Japanese people today. There are always variation in skin color, hair color and facial features alone if one pays attention even in Tokyo. Not all East Asian are fair skin and have straight black hair, but an overwhelming majority do. (plus hair dyes and perms wahoo. who's to know sometimes)

One example perhaps is this. Ever watched Princess Mononoke? Did you know that part of the story centers around Ashitaka, who is part of the Emishi tribe, who are a group who has been rebelling against the Emperor Yamato for 500 years? And so he shoots samurais on the regular?

So here's the rub: the Emishi were in fact a real indigenous group who were basically conquered and assimilated. Some did resist during the 11th century, with their villages/hamlet out deep into the north of Japan. They were of course, greatly outnumbered.

These people who resisted the rule all over Japan with different identities, names and culture and survived came to be called the Eta 穢多 (lit. abundance of filth). Later, Burakumin.

EDIT: Another class of people called the Hinin 非人 are also closely associated with the Eta. 非人 lit means non-human. Hinins were more criminals in the eyes of the law, as these are the people who did not pay taxes or commited crimes like theft etc. The status is hereditary, same with Eta.

Now I mentioned the Burakumins. Burakumin are written like this 部落民, and refer to a strongly discriminated class of people who live in discriminated villages/hamlet. The kanji though, literally translates to "People who falls outside of the order", or, "Outcasts". In other words, even though there's a caste system which basically at least recognizes people as part of a governing system, the Burakumins do not qualify to even as to be human in this system.

And indeed, some of these tribes who had their culture and identity stripped off them are not even people in the eyes of the ruling government. Today, the term refers to the descendants of these people, and they do encounter a lot of discrimination and abuse in their daily lives from social to work. It's so bad that parents do not tell their children of the ancestry to avoid discrimination. Also its possible to know if one is a burakumin just by checking family names and registers jsyk, since they were once location based.

EDIT: thus the word Burakumin will refer to both the Eta and Hinin. These two are closely associated with each other even in feudal Japan.

More info by a Japanese guy regarding current day burakumin problem here on youtube.

Oh and also, many burakumin ended up joining criminal gangs like the yakuzas. Put another pin in this.

Shinto and the Burakumin people

Preface: shinto is a very sacred religion to many Japanese people and is still actively practiced today. Be respectful and just know I'm being hyper specific about this singular aspect of shinto. It is a very old religion full of fascinating history.

But to not talk about this specific topic would be to kinda miss what Studio Orange has been doing to Stampede Wolfwood so I'm just gonna do this super quick. A more indepth messy write up can be found here if you like.

Right. So. Like with many religion, Shinto was also used as a means to convince people to fall in line. One thing that Shinto has is the concept of cleanliness, in this case spiritual cleanliess. Dirtiness/defilement/pollution is generated upon contact with death, blood and disease. Being dirty would then draw evil spirits and invite terrible misfortunes, so being clean is important in Shintoism. So important that meat was considered dirty. (With the exceptions of game meat and the whole religion thing applied to them.)

It's so important that certain professions such as Butchers, Tanners, Gravediggers etc were seen as so terrible that no one but the etas, the burakumins would do it. This whole thing then reinforces the hierarchy. And meanwhile the rulers in their court and shinto priests could conduct rituals to purify themselves.

And for me, this is the most insane thing since dirty jobs like that must be done no matter what era it is. Just by being alive, people get dirty and there's no avoiding that.

Anyway. In Trigun and even Japanese media, this gets translated into what I would call The Tormented Ones Whose Hands Are Permanently Stained With Blood.

Nicholas the Undertaker was certainly an interesting choice of writing. At least imo.

FUcK

Ok now to recap. I've established that even without colonization and talking about (american pov) racism specifically, there are still very real elements of Japanese history that is too strong, too deep, to intertwined with classism to ignore.

This is the historical baggage of Japan's colorism. Whether or not if Wolfwood is a burakumin here is not the point, but rather that it borrows from that issue all of its influence in varying shades.

It's the erasure of ethnicity and culture in its totality, or to be so consumed by the bigger ruling group that this thread straight up disappears. And to be considered so unwanted that even their descendants today are considered dirty.

They abolished the feudal caste system in the 1800s by the way. Still dealing with like over a thousand years' worth of shit though.

Now I can finally talk about Wolfwood.

Wolfwood's entire character design and writing choice.

Since trimax wolfwood is the base, I'll start with that.

Dark(er) skin, sunglasses, a business suit and a kansai dialect.

All of those are significant.

Now remember that I've mentioned Fair Skin and Black Hair to be the most defining trait of an East Asian. Even people who say East Asian even casually have that specific image in mind. But Wolfwood with the exception of BLR has always been depicted as just slightly tanned especially beside Vash.

The shade fluctuates all the time depending on the artwork, but it's clear that the production staff knows the roots his character design is touching on in order to elicit that "otherness" from the Japanese audience. Which is all that above. The entire post.

Sunglasses and business suit also has a significance. One might think it's just the outfit of an average Japanese salaryman, and yes, that would be technically correct. More so though, this combo is also the outfit style of the Yakuza. Sans ties maybe bc Ww hates his organization.

This is a picture of a Yakuza group known as the Yamaguchi-gumi. Their leader stands in the middle of this photo, the oyabun/father of the group, Kuzuo Taoka. More info and another rabbit hole here.

The Yakuza are a historically violent criminal gang whose membership often consisted of societal outcasts. Outcasts like the Burakumins, who due to their status in society could not find a proper job, and suffer abuse. Being in the Yakuza meant respect and status, and turned boys into men.

All that was needed is absolute loyalty to the leader, the oyabun or the patriarch of the group. If he says it, white is black and black is white. Disloyalty means to chop one's finger off.

If any of this sound even familiar.... Well, yeah. Unhinged criminal boss Knives and his merry Gung Ho Guns.

Next, kansai dialect. So, Japanese dialects are never properly taught when one attempts to learn Japanese. It's a thing that's not Standard and therefore unnecessary to learn. We learn the -desu's, -masu's, the keigo, but never the '-yan's', the 'eenen', the 'akan' or the 'chau''s. (Or even the many other dialects out there)

I will now ask you to hold the idea that 'dialect' and 'language' can be interchangeable. The implications of the Standard Japanese is that it is the ruling class' language and the most proper form of it above all else. Seeing as the Capital of Japan is Tokyo, and their government centers there, it would not be stretch to also call Standard Japanese Tokyo Japanese.

Which means, Tokyo is the classy city and Osaka, the largest city in Kansai, is not as classy. Not as important. Not as well educated or hold as important of a place to the entire country.

It is also very common to hear Japanese people mask their dialect with Standard Japanese when they're in Tokyo, and then go back to their hometown and code switch. Because it's considered 'hick'.

Which, if you haven't considered is also a thing many of us do, I now present you the gift of this fun knowledge.

I Explode

In closing I hope this at least is interesting to chew on for anyone interested. It's by no means perfect and I might have gaps in my knowledge but fwiw, I hope it's at least fun.

Nightow has stated Wolfwood's ethnicity is ambiguous, which I would also interpret as him saying indirectly that Wolfwood is as valid an interpretation to see him as anything but a privileged guy having a good time in the story of Trigun.

It's possible that his ambiguity of roots is meant to simply elicit the idea of a "stolen child".

One fun thing I do consistently notice is that Fanon Wolfwood almost never is in a comfortable position in life even in AUs, and always somewhat broke. In both EN and JP. Which, yeah. Yeah.

There is intersectionality going on and I hope this post helps people see some of it at least. So thanks for reading! (sorry it got so long...)

Additional cool posts other people have written from their pov:

udon-tea's write up about wolfwood's unestablished canon ethnicity

interesting thoughts about tortoise matsumoto being the base and what they think of wolfwood's possible ethnicity

[bonus-links]

MY TIME HAS COME please discuss in great detail the GrooZeLink dynamics in prologue part 5. I am so intrigued by the stark differences between this shot:

And this shot:

The scar on triforce. The hiding. Please tell me everything there is to know

this is 4 u groozelinkers

why did i do text bubbles this way. how did anyone read this comic. god bless.

this is essentially Loft Monologues His Feelings The Update. It was very important to me that the audience understands where Loft's head is at from the get-go. and like listen, sometimes u have to have a bestie debrief even if ur bestie is a dormant sword spirit who can't talk to u. if bonus links was a musical this would be Loft's I want song lol

jokes aside I think Loft comes here to talk to Fi a lot. it makes him feel both better and worse

LOFTS FI IMPRESSION i feel like he used to do this a lot and thought it was so funny and every time Fi would be like. objectively that is not what i sound like. also, peep the textbox pattern!

even though Loft has trouble acclimating to life on the surface, it was important to me to show that it's not all like. angst and doom and gloom. But that's kind of the problem right? things are good, and he feels like this anyway. also I did my best to include most of the young adult skyloft npcs, I feel like the older one have mostly stayed up on Skyloft for now. LAKE TRIP!!

this is a direct reference to this shot from the game. this line of dialogue is an important thing to keep in mind. tbh the entire reason this comic exists is bc i thought too hard about the implications of skyward sword— what if you found out your girlfriend was really your god, who had orchestrated your entire life? wouldn't that make everything feel a little strange, even if you love her more than anything? much to think about

I like the scar through the triforce mark as a kind of symbolic gesture, but there's not really any intended meaning behind the two pieces of the triforce is goes through. feel free to interpret it however u like tho lol

AND THIS SHOT my headcanon is that Loft doesn't actually help much with the early building in Faron. It's partially because he can't- he pushes his body to the limit during his quest, and then completely crashes when it's over, and it takes a loooong time to even start recovering. He spends most of the time sleeping.

But it's also partially because he doesn't actually want to move to the surface. He wants to stay on Skyloft. In my mind it's like. he fought really hard to return to a state of normalcy that doesn't exist anymore, and that's hard to come to terms with. This is Zelda and Groose's project, and while he'll go along with it, he's not that enthusiastic about it. It's a source of tension in their relationship. Combined with Zelda often acting as a mouthpiece for the gods, it starts to grate on Loft that this aspect of his future has also apparently been decided.

tldr groozelink love each other a lot but things are definitely not perfect, and especially not right now

this is actually something I intended to get a little bit more into in ch2, but the chapter kind of. wrote itself away from it. every time I tried to include a scene with it, it felt too much like I was forcing characters to have too many heart-to-hearts too early. we'll get there eventually

this is an important update in the grand scheme of things :-) mystery mouseketool etc etc

[malababatoja]

"Strangeview is a pleasant stopover town, but it also keeps its secrets. Why do people mysteriously dissapear here? Do aliens live among townspeople? Could it be just a coincidence? Stay for a bit and find out yourself."

We're FINNALY back with the final version of the Strangeview - new playable neighborhood based on @budgieflitter crazy idea to mix Pleasantview and Strangeview into one. UPDATE 9 (26.02.25 9p.m. CET): -some small fixes (moved things so You can get to the telescopes at Broke-Dreamers; Darren dont think that he cheats on Darleen when in love; lowered Darren career level and skills to be consistent with the family description) -changed Broke-Dreamers description a little, because it confused a lot of people UPDATE 8 (18.02.25 10a.m. CET): -ADDED THE SUBURB VERSIONS!! -fixed Goth attic UPDATE 7 (14.02.25 2p.m. CET): -fixed Lucy Burb lifetime want -added interesting recessive genes for Jennifer, Lucy, Angela and Lilith

UPDATE 6 (13.02.25 9p.m. CET): Im very sorry, but it turned out that bc of one mistake - Bella in missingBella version was really a townie. I know this is a huge f-up. I fixed it, and You can redownload the n-hood. If You want to hide Your Bella without redownloading nhood You can go with April Black instructions in her video at the really end section called "Summary". But REMEMBER to first delete Bella from "Bendett" (Townies) family. Without it IT WONT work out.

UPDATE 5 (13.02.25 2p.m. CET): -fixed relation between Dustin and Beau so they fully recognize each other as family -fixed relations between Dirk ---> Dustin, Beau so they fully don't recognize each other as family -restored graves on Goth flat and Cemetery --> its clearly aesthetic thing tho, You can restore them if You want using "Urnstone Spawner" from modthesims

UPDATE 4 (12.05.25 8p.m. CET): It turned out, that suspiciously Brandi was not pregnant... I updated the files. Now You can: -redownload the neighborhood -go to Insimenator --> Reproductive ---> Have baby with neighbor ---> Skip Broke. You can also skip (hehe) to the second or third trimester if You want. Hope that helps, and really sory for incovenience : (

UPDATE 3 (12.02.25 11a.m. CET): Fixed wrong townie genetics - originally made by EA - e.g Kaylynn Langerak have black hair, but in DNA she has blond hair. If IT IS a problem for You now You can: - redownload the neighborhood - change DNA Yourself (that's the 15min of work, in SimPe) here's a list of all townies with wrong DNA https://thesims2.livejournal.com/5126949.html You can also play the neighborhood as You were - just keep in mind that their children may have suprising hair color!

UPDATE 2 (11.02.25 9p.m. CET): Huge thanks to @grottydotty for checking out the neighborhood and letting us know about some oversights. We fixed a lot of "aesthetic" oversights, mostly in sims memories.

UPDATE 1 (11.02.25 3p.m. CET): -fixed family ties so PT7 is NOT a sibling of Nestor Caliente (lmao) -added family flag for Alexander and Cassandra so they're recognized FULLY a family if You don't want to redownload whole hood, just "set (them) as siblings" in InSim, and it could be fine -Fixed description of neighborhood in both versions -Added missing neighborhood storytelling in "missingBella" version

The neighborhood comes in two versions:

V1 With Bella as a townie as in Clean Pleasantview

V2 With missing Bella as in OG Pleasantview (based on April Black video, debunking how it's actually done, that Bella is missing)

The neighborhood is for UC or LC; it is a maxis match neighborhood, except few recommended mods/CC below.

The townies and sims have slightly updated looks to match the Strangetown vibe.

Almost every lot was build by @peanuttysims and I think he did an AMAZING job. He've got such a talent!!!

Every house is a combination of both family houses of OG sims.

The Neighborhood comes with a few new lots, every one of them is done in Strangetown vibe. There is crappy "Gas Station"; Trailer Park as a apartment lot; Club/Restaurant in the old factory; a Strangeview Cemetery with a few graves of the deceased; a Pleasantview park made into Strangetown climate.

RECOMMENDED MODS & CUSTOM CONTENT: # Sims 2 Store content (Many sims have the hair and/or clothing) https://archive.org/details/tumblr_fae6a4b9e8cb9aa38c5f84f4e596d474_5fa9111e_540

# A mod "Watch TV from all chairs"

https://modthesims.info/d/462269/watch-tv-from-all-chairs.html

There could be problems with sims not-sitting while watching TV. This mod fixes it.

# Mirrored spiral stairs from AL

https://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/AnoeskaB/downloads/details/category/sims2-sets-objects/title/mmf-spiral-stairs-apartment-life/id/842450/

Just a mirrored version of Apartment Life spiral stairs, they're used in some of the houses.

# Conversion of female "MessyBob" to use also for men

https://modthesims.info/d/636003/vq-yam-em-messybob-ftm-conversion.html

# CREATURE FIXES by Pescado!!! http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1482.0 For Lilith and future sims with alien eyes so the eyes work properly.

# There MAY be problem with Lilith having a normal eyes, while she should have ALIEN eyes. EVEN with Pescado mod. Sometimes game bugs out like this when an alien is a teenager. For better immersion You can download Alien Contacts and give them to the bugged teenager from the makeup/accesories category. https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims2-body-makeup/title/alien-contacts/id/128166/

# Mod for sims with mannequin skin could have BABIES. Kaylynn have mannequin skin, so her babies also could have it, but without this mod the game WILL CRASH when she gives birth to the baby. With this mod she can actually give birth to the baby with mannequin skin <3 https://modthesims.info/d/292423 # For the suburb version remember about "allowMultipleSuburbs" from Mootilda so You can choose more than one from nice list!! https://modthesims.info/d/420924/fix-subhood-selection.html

Once more I want to thank @peanuttysims for amazing collab, and also @sepomitiva , @dina-caliente and Flatera for testing the neighborhood before the release <3

Main hood versions:

DOWNLOAD V1 with Bella as a townie

DOWNLOAD V2 with OG missing Bella Suburb versions: DOWNLOAD V1 with Bella as townie DOWNLOAD V2 with OG missing Bella

Have a great time, xoxo

[yourislandgirl]

*:ꔫ:*ₓₒ IRRESISTIBLE ˚ ༘♡ੈ✩ || 심재윤 x fem!reader || drabble

— KISS ME, DON’T SAY NO series

summary: distracted by the charm of your darling boyfriend, you find yourself unable to resist his need for attention, but in all seriousness, who’d be able to resist jake?

genres: fluff, romance, non-idol!jake x non-idol!reader, est. relationship, ft. mentions of huh yunjin and layla

warnings: attempts at humour, swearing/cursing, pet names, slightly suggestive bcs jake’s a simp and doesn’t bother hiding it, mentioned the book ‘to all the boys i’ve loved before’ . ya know, in case you don’t like that book ..

w.c: 1.5k

[archive]

“Stop.”

His giggles were glittery. Just hearing them would set off a flutter in your chest. “What? I’m just appreciating nature and its beauty.” You could practically hear the smile from his voice.

It took a lot of strength to not look up, to keep your gaze firmly situation on the letters that ran along the page in front of you. Your fingers tightened around the soft copy covers of the novel in your hands, thumb rubbing against the paper as you tried to read the next sentence.

It was an impossible task, you quickly realised, your senses distracted by the ticklish sensation of grass against your ankles. The culprit, however, wasn’t the innocent grass field of the park, but actually your attention whore of a boyfriend, laying on his stomach by your feet, drawing little invisible doodles on your bare calf with the tip of the grass blade.

more under cut !!

You knew what he was doing, the unsubtly in the teasing glances that he’d sneak your way, observing your reaction, seeing how long it would take for you to break. It was one of his more annoying qualities that you couldn’t help but find endearing… eventually.

At that moment though, you resolved to simply tap your finger against the corner of the book, your eyes unfocused, not a single word on the page registering as you pursed your lips, squashing whatever tiny smile wanted to make itself known. You were gonna last this time.

See, previous times it had happened — and yes, it happened a lot — Jake would usually win. Whether it was his inconspicuous back hugs which eventually had him pulling you away from whatever you were doing previously, or the more blatantly obvious way he’d smile, quirk his head to the side, and pull you along with him.

Jake was simply irresistible. And he knew it, which is always a problem.

That afternoon, however, you‘d decided the best way to defeat him, is to divert him, distract him, and so you set your plan into motion;

“Jakey, what does this word mean?”

“Hm?”

Immediately the grass blade was abandoned, the pursuit to tease was thrown aside and your puppy dog of a boyfriend had pulled himself up and shuffled closer, leaning his back against the large tree trunk, just like you.

He pouted his lips, following your finger as you pointed out the word. “Iota? I thought you were reading a romance book…”

You scoffed, “I am.” Slipping your bookmark into the spine you closed the book to show him the cover. ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ was printed in pretty ribbon-like loops of text, glossy and black against the light baby pink background.

Jake smirked, opening the book once more to read out the sentence before he started explaining the origins of ‘iota’ (ancient greek text), and the significance of that letter (it’s the smallest in the alphabet), and how it applies in a modern context (“Basically, babe, it means you couldn’t give less of a fuck”).

You bit your lip, suppressing your laughter as you carefully pulled out your bookmark and continued reading. Your head rested against Jake‘s shoulder, his voice slowly helping you relax as he continued to explain random yet somewhat applicable definitions to the word ‘iota’.

You couldn’t really understand, mostly because you were only paying like 40% of your attention on what he was saying. Zoning in and out every now and then, catching a few anecdotes about his senior year maths class and imaginary numbers, whatever those mean.

Just as you reached the next chapter, you felt Jake tap your forehead. “Are you sleeping?”

“What? No!” You shuffled back a bit, looking at him incredulously.

Jake’s eyes darted down to the novel in your hands, noticing the next chapters number on the page. “You’re reading? I thought you were listening to me,” he whined, an embarrassed little smile on his lips.

You shut the book in an instant, completely forgetting about your bookmark. “I am!” You insisted, choosing to summaries his explanation as proof. “You said it was ancient greek alphabet, the smallest of them all, means I couldn’t give less of a flying fu—”

“Fine, what was the last thing I said?”

You stilled, “Uh…” Mind going blank, you figured a blind shot in the dark wouldn’t hurt, safest option, honestly. “…That I’m the love of your life?”

Jake‘s expression fell flat. “No, I didn’t—”

“I’m not the love of your life?!”

“That’s not what I— …Well played.” Quirking his lip a little, Jake sighed, holding out his fist as a peace offering.

“Thank you.” Smirking, you fist bumped him, before looking back down to open your book. But you paused, eyes glancing back to your unused bookmark. You flicked your head towards Jake, “I don’t—”

“Chapter twenty,” he said smoothly, before turning around and using your fumbling to rest his head on your lap.

“Enjoy the flattering angle,” you mutter, dryly.

Jake stayed silent, his gaze fixated on you, on the way your hair fell in front of your eyes and you constantly brushed it away and yet refused to pin it back. Or the way you very, very softly mouthed the words you were reading, ever so faintly, it’s barely a whisper. Or how you’d smile at the stories events before quickly controlling your expression so you don’t look like a fool, grinning at a book.

Jake sighed, brushing his hair back. “I guess the story’s interesting?”

You hummed. “Somewhat.”

“Somewhat?” He sat up. “Then pay attention to me.”

You leaned forward and kissed his cheek, before settling back against the tree. “I would, baby, but I need to beat Yunjin at this month’s goodreads challenge. And I would have beaten her last week but—”

“But I dragged you to the couch for movie night—”

“Which I loved. Among other things that night.” You suppressed your smile.

Nudging your knee with his, Jake let out a breathy chuckle. “Shh, there’s kids running around”

You shook your head, amused. “What I’m saying is, I love spending time with you. So much so that I want you around even if I’m just doing something by myself. But you make it so damn hard for me to concentrate.”

Your eyes had completely left the page yet again, finding your focus purely captured by the comfort that Jake gave you whenever he was present, the kind of relaxation where you simply get to exist, side by side, and that’s enough. It truly was his fault that you were this distracted.

Though, he obviously didn’t think so.

“That’s on you,” his eyes shone with that cheeky charm that he seemed to never run out of. His fingers rested on your knee, tapping away as he spoke. “I can’t exactly just stay put like some loser when I have the most irresistible person for a girlfriend.”

You scoffed, “I thought you were the irresistible one.”

Your mind replayed memories of past instances where Jake would send you a smug grin, throwing his arms wide open, surmising that he was simply irresistible and you should just give in (translation: he just wants hugs).

Jake shrugged. “Well, I am. But it’s not like I’ve got monopoly over it.”

“Mhm.”

He watched as you, yet again, tried to concentrate on the novel at hand, to get some progress in your reading. But your competitiveness was faltering and he could see it.

On the one hand, he wanted you to win, for your own happiness.

On the other hand… “C’mere.”

“Hm?”

Jake leaned closer, cupping your jaw as he went in to kiss you. You knew there was no hope of finishing another chapter anymore. Let alone the book. Jake had this way of capturing your entire soul, of holding it in his warm hands, keeping it safe. The same way it felt to have his hands holding your face, his thumb softly rubbing your cheek, his tiny giggles unable to be contained between your kisses.

“You’re a jerk,” you whisper, smiling so wide that the implication of such a sentence made no sense in comparison.

“Right,” Jake leaned forward and gave you a quick peck. “But you know, if you’d really wanted to read today, you wouldn’t have brought me along.”

You nudged your forehead against his. “Fair point.”

The novel slid from hands, flat on your lap as you moved your fingers along nape of his neck. You’d just started pulling him closer by his chain necklace when—

“Hey mister!”

Jake flinched and looked to the side at the tiny irritated mass in light up sketchers standing a meter away.

“Your dog has my ball!”

“Oh shit…” You shifted back as you watched your boyfriend scramble to get up, cursing his clicking joints as he ran. “Layla!!”

“Guess you win this month, Yunjinnie.” Hurriedly putting the book back in your bag, you got up and ran after Jake.

a.n: third instalment of the kiss me, don’t say no series !! even if it’s officially feb 9th i’m holding off until i get up again in the actual morning to publish jungwon’s — skipping sunsun for now! sorry :( i just really wanna get jungwon’s out on his birthday !!!! anyway, i hope you liked this one <3

taglist: @oceanstide — @sheepsgf — @itsrinsdrs — @enjakey

2025 © yourislandgirl

[dekusleftsock]

I think that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what exactly is…happening with Izuku’s character. Specifically in regards to chapter 425.

I’m glad that a lot more people generally recognize that Izuku is not a character that can be read at a surface level, given that he’s both a repressed person with built up emotion of basically everything and also a very glaringly HUGELY unreliable narrator, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with the ways I’ve seen this most recent chapter spoken about.

I see posts, comments, etc with ideas like “Izuku don’t suppress your emotions! Open up with people! It’ll be okay I promise!” When that’s fundamentally not what is happening here.

There’s always always ALWAYS been a distinct difference in character throughout horikoshi’s writing when he is showing that a character is:

A—Avoiding emotions, thoughts, ideas less than ideal for them. Not opening up when they probably should about their problems given that they’ve been handed the space to do so. Just genuinely not acknowledging, feeling, or expressing emotions that they don’t want.

B—Reflecting on the ways they feel about the world, themselves, or other people given their new perspective on a situation. Not outright reaching out to others to talk about these problems/feelings, but instead waiting until the moment they feel they have the most confidence to do so with their new outlook on their own life.

And genuinely, guys, to grab your BkDk attention rn, this is the exact reason why Ochako’s reflection on her feelings for Izuku and thereafter decision to pull away from them WAS NEVER GOING TO END IN OCHAKO EXPLODING WITH HER LOVE FOR HIM.

This was another common interpretation I saw of Ochako and Izuocha for a long time. That because she pushed these feelings away, they were somehow going to explode in this unbelievable way and she would “get the boy” because of it. That her arc would surround accepting her romantic feelings and that she can’t just push away how she feels for a career.

But yk. That didn’t happen. At all. Nowhere close even.

The same kind of goes for Katsuki, allmight, etc. They all had moments in their arc where it was spent genuinely reflecting, and the only reason we as the audience never connected it in the same ways we do ochako or Izuku was ALWAYS BECAUSE the narrative showed their inner thoughts while doing so (mostly because Allmight’s arc after losing OFA and Katsuki’s arc on what it means to be a hero were so intrinsically tied, both starting at the same time and ending at the same time during the final war. And because they were so tied this caused their own reflections, development, and thought process to be broadcasted to us frequently throughout their arcs… to each other. They also somewhat shared aspects with Izuku, but these were cherry picked more often than not, like dvk2 for example).

To us Katsuki never seemed to be.. idk, suppressing his anger in any way because we were always told what he was doing and why (side note: this is why I’ve always thought arguments against Katsuki were so weird, bc unlike characters like endeavor or Ochako he wasn’t like… hiding who he was and how he was changing. Ever. Like the audience knows at all times past basically season 3 what Katsuki is thinking and doing. Like how do you watch this happen, stare me dead in the eye, and tell me how much of a terrible and awful teenage boy he is. Like damn I didn’t think we were this dumb. This is also my theory as to why he’s most popular, his arc is very… in your face if that makes sense). Katsuki’s entire mini arc on reflecting his mistakes and his childhood and his future is spent TELLING YOU that it’s what he’s doing. (I’m referring mostly to the endeavor internship arc, the provisional license exam makeup, and basically everything in the war arc related to him leading up to bakugou Katsuki rising here)

And see, Horikoshi will stare you dead in the eye, tell you “this girl has taken into consideration that she doesn’t want to waste her time training her career focusing on a boy because he kinda caught her fancy”, and y’all will still say that this will explode in her face.

Y’all this is a series about learning how to manage emotions, maturity in relationship to one’s emotions, how to feel an emotion, but in a way that is helpful. Horikoshi isn’t telling you “go buck wild, feel everything all the time and always express it”, in fact he explores why you DONT do that! Through Toga or Shigaraki, they show how grief and anger can genuinely consume you. But he also shows why you shouldn’t just put everything in a box to never look at or acknowledge, or why you shouldn’t just let your grief destroy the world around you, or pretending that some emotions simply don’t exist.

I can’t say this enough, so let me say it now, mha is about the extremes of your psyche. That you should control something, but not too much. Everything can be harmful. Everything can be good.

Izuku is not controlling too much, he’s expressing just enough.

I LOVE shaming this dickhead at all times in all my posts. I love saying he’s an ignorant dipshit with a weird amount of distaste for a girl who just confessed to him. I’ve joked that chapter 348 is basically an entire chapter spent on Izuku calling Himiko a mean dyke. And yet I also believe he’s doing nothing WRONG here.

In fact, I’ll even say that this moment right here?

ISNT EVEN IZUKU DOING THE SOCIALLY APPROPRIATE THING ABOUT IT! But he’s still TRYING to reach out to someone he thinks MIGHT be able to understand. (And frankly, this moment is far deeper than what it’s being made out to be, to me it reads more like an unrequited friendship that Izuku both desires and has thought of them to have, while simultaneously showing the distance Ochako has successfully wedged between them for her own sake. Maybe it was always there though, maybe in weird, miscommunicated Horikoshi fashion, this is a representation of how Ochako always read all those “fun friend hangouts” as a little more than that, and without those feelings the friendship never really held any substance to her in the first place. Where Izuku saw his first real friend at UA, she saw little more than acquaintance)

Simultaneously, Izuku is genuinely reflecting on what it means for the world to change, to be a hero, to live after loss—and trying and failing to gain the connection he desires from individuals who can not and will not afford him that.

Izuku is ready for the world to change, a few select characters are also ready for the world to change (mirio, for example), but not nearly enough are. So maybe I’ll have to take this back if I’m proven wrong and I accidentally looked into this far past what everyone else did for no reason, but I genuinely believe with moments like this

And this

Aand this

That Izuku has come forward with that aspect of his character development. He’s reflecting on his new beliefs, not repressing his emotions for them.

[ganondoodle]

can you tell us more ab shargon’s kids?? :0

(sorry for the ... very rough sketch and probably unreadable text, struggeling alot with art atm ... still ..)

Thank you for asking!

Shargon has two young children, Jyothi and Tyura (forgive the weird names, made them when i was young and they are too ingrained now to change ..)

(Shargon is a single parent; demons do not have a gender/only one, all of them have the ability to bear children with an organ that sits right beneath the demonic heart, they also do not need a partner, they can just decide to have a child and trigger the process- while carrying they cannot shapeshift since an unborn demon cannot go along with that- genetics are usually not a problem since demons generally draw from a huge gene pool dating back eons; if they have a partner they will have to exchange some heartblood for the child to be a mix of both; growing a child is very energy draining and when carrying its not unusual for a demon to resort to consuming food, which they typically dont need to do; maintaining a certain energy level is very important since otherwise the risk of deformities in the child increases alot; a newborn demon (birth occurs through the mouth) has a few baby teeth with which to bite its parent/caretaker and feed on their demonic blood, it is not a requirement but many do since it accelerates their growth and can even out energy imbalances)

Jyothi, comparable to a 13 year old human, is a rather healthy young demon with alot of skill using elemental magic (wind in her case), which is why shes being taught by Lord Eadrya; Eadrya wants Shargon dead and regularly attacks him and although both of his children inherited his unnatural and hated/feared eye color, Jyothi stood up to Eadrya not knowing who they were at the time (and thus not their status and reputation) since Shargon lives extremely isolated- and even challenged them to a fight showing so much character and skill that Eadrya saw past her heritage and offered to teach her

The two get along well and she often sneaks away to find them bc she is so eager to learn and spend time with such a powerful and careless demon that everyone respects ... unlike her parent, who is weak, riddled with anxiety and hated by everyone, she still loves him of course, but the more time she spends away the more she adopts the way the other demons think and speak of Shargon

Shargon hates that she goes to them so much, mostly bc he is afraid they, and especially Eadrya, will hurt her or stop her from returning home, even with her special status bc of her talents, she still is his child after all; he does not and could not force her to not go though (a benefit is that she has been the only one besides Thor (Eadryas best friend) able to stop Eadrya from literally killing Shargon, as much as they are horrible to him, they do care alot for her)

(Jyothi has only started to grow her horns and her markings and colors will shift alot as she grows, as is typical for young demons)

Tyura, comparable to a 6 year old human, is much more like Shargon himself, very fearful and skitters away if theres anything they are unsure of, they are of the same elemental type as Shargon (lightning) but thus far has never used it beyond weak defensive shocks; they are also mute and have a deformed left hand likely bc Shargon was attacked and hunted for a long time while carrying them, thus not able to provide a stable energy level the other demons know of them but any attempt to get close to them has been prevented either by Shargon himself or .. Tyura fleeing and hiding (their body structure is also rather similar, the round shape is largely just fluffy feathers)

when Shargon is in the human world his children tend to stay with the only other demon he can trust (Ceryrion, an earth elemental and the chillest guy you can imagine), they dont like him much but love children and will happily go about their day while a little Tyura clings onto their back (though Tyura will absolutely dive back to Shargon whenever they notice his presence) both kids have been to the human world before but since it is very uncomfortable to be in as a demon he has only done so for them to meet Mori (Shargons human friend that lives .. illegally .. at the gates to the demon world) and avoided bringing them there otherwise

the time he is away has notably increased alot after accepting the deal with Zaphira (being her bodyguard .... 24 hours a day .. granted she did not know he had children, and also didnt know anything about demons but that she could use him to solve her problems)

here i go rambling again, i hope that gave you a bit of an idea of them ;O;

[dark-lord-of-awesomeness]

we want prompts where stuff happens to ford? okay. consider.

ford somehow becomes trapped in his journals. it happens sometime while he's waiting for stan to arrive, idk how exactly, but ford decides he's okay with this because now bill can't use him to get to the portal. stan arrives to an empty house that's in shambles and is now determined to figure out what happened to ford. finds journal 1 while investigating.

- ford can communicate by flipping pages, or if someone writes in the journal he can write out a response

- maybe they need to get all three journals together and destroy them to release ford from them or something? ford is trying to avoid freeing himself though bc of the bill situation

- i think it'd be fun if all three journals have a little splinter of him in them and they aren't connected mentally or anything so you have three versions of ford around. if it takes 30 years and dipper finds journal 3, the ford in there has been dormant for that time and is still mentally 28 or so (journal 1 ford is the age he should be). doesn't realize how much time has passed. doesn't realize the "grunkle stan" dipper and mabel write about is his brother. DOES have conversations with dipper and mabel though since they actually write in the journal (i don't think stan would have tried writing in journal 1 without good reason to so if ford's communicating with him it's just through page flips). i think it would be funny if the journals start trying to argue with each other

idk that's all i got. enjoy?

Oh this is fun. Lemme think.

Hmmmmmmm

So Fords hidden his other 2 journals, there's only one left, and he's waiting on Stan to come retrieve it. Pacing around his house, trips on something, slams into an artifact of some kind. Because he'd been focused on his journals, it split him into them. Each of them only having the memories of what happened to him in that journal and their childhood.

So Stan rolls up, has a mini heart attack thinking his brother is missing for at least a few days, before finally flipping through journal 1 and making contact with Ford. This one has very vivid memories of his first few years, knows about the portal in the basement, knows it's bad.

Has no clear memories of Bill, since those were mostly recorded in 2 and 3, no clear memories of the last few weeks, just blurs. He knows being like this is a good thing, but it's fairly easy on Stans end to convince him that no, being a book forever is not the answer.

Problem is he cannot remember where he hid the other journals.

Stan spends 30 years looking for them while his book bro does his best to help instruct Stan on how to get the portal to a point it cant be used. Still makes the mystery shack, but since Ford is right there he gets a say in the exhibits. Eventually agrees that yes, real anomalies are too dangerous, and that he's very mad at Stan for stealing his identity. Stan has him on his person at all times, hidden in plain sight with a little question mark cover he uses as a prop. Goes more Dr. Mystery route, playing up the scientific angle and flipping through his 'notes' so that Ford is sort of part of the act. Ford communities by flipping to specific pages and pointing at letters with the corner, since there isn't any empty space left to write.

Then the twins show up, and the Stan bros agree to maybe not tell them about their book uncle. Sort of weird, they've been hiding it for thirty years, maybe later in the summer.

Then Dipper finds the journal, and wakes up the Ford inside by opening it up. This Ford remembers Bill vividly, specifically the last year of his time researching Gravity Falls, the portal, the betrayal, and is a paraniod wreck, barely understanding what happened to him but knowing Bill can't get to him like this. Didn't really want to have Mabel know about the book, but Dipper had already shown her before Ford was really aware of what was going on. Becomes their sort of mentor, warning them of threats, helping with their mysteries, and also blurting out paraniod rants about being watched, having weapons on them, trusting no one. Doesn't know who this Grunkle Stan guy is because he's in a book, and never gets a good look at Stan to realize thats Stanley. Thinks its either his original body? Or some guy who bought his house.

Then Gideon happens, and Stan finally has all three books. He's giddy, he's happy, him and Ford 1 are super excited to get this show on the road, finally get him out of the pages.

Problem.

None of them get along, and until they can they can't remerge into the same person. Ford 3 is a 28ish paranoid hermit, Ford 1 is a more laid back 60ish old man, and Ford 2 is right down in the middle, 30somthing.

And only remembers when Bill was his friend.

This Ford is him at his most arrogant. Ford 1 was still mostly his whimsical self that grew up into an old man with his brother, Ford 3 woke up after being in a nightmare torture fest, Ford 2 woke up after a kid dug him out of a hole. Knows about the portal, knows something went wrong, but not the specifics, and not about Bill. Gideon was his sort of apprentice! That kid was always so eager to learn about all the fascinating artifacts and research!

Ford 3 refuses to talk to any of them without his apprentices, Dipper and Mabel, the only two he can really trust since Stan turned his house into a mockery of his work and the other Fords are condescending old men. Instead of Dipper getting his book back Stan gets a long suffering look and finally drags the kids into the basement, which he uses instead of the portal basement, to show off the three books who have been flipping pages angrily at each other and somehow understanding all the insults the others are writing at them. Ford 1 wants to be a whole person, and his younger selves need to get with the program, Ford 2 thinks his younger self needs help and his older self is a hack, Ford 3 wants to stay a book forever and the other two are know-it-all jerks.

Instead of a portal its them trying to get all the Fords to get along so they can finally go back to being the same human person.

[catboybiologist]

I know you don't want to be seen as an expert on hrt, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I feel like you're the best person for me to ask, I've been closeted for years bc of highschool, but will be graduating this year and a little bit after that I think I will be done with being in the social settings that have made me hold off on transition. I was wondering if you have any tips for possibly boymoding while I start hrt and if you have any range of how long I may be able to boymode with relative ease? Again you don't need to answer, you just seem like you may have some info and/or your followers could also provide their info.

I boymoded full time for 9 months on HRT, so I do have a couple little nuggets of advice. Remember that all of this varies wildly from person to person. Also remember that you're starting at (I'm assuming) 18yo, which might affect your access and such.

Boymoding while you start HRT is a common move, and I totally understand why. The biggest thing to remember about hrt is that your "real" start is when your blood levels stabilize appropriately, not when you take your first dose. There are some, small changes that happen before then, but significant development really only starts at that point.

The reason I'm saying this is because it affects your boymoding. I had no problem boymoding in those first 9 months. My first levels check that showed female hormonal ranges happened at about 8 months. After that, I was rapidly feminizing, even though I was losing weight. I would say that about the 1yr mark was the point I could no longer boymode comfortably, and only did so in extremely specific contexts with great effort past that point.

To give you an idea:

That initial burst of development, ending at about day 100, was easy to hide. The changes from ~day 300 on were not- I was rapidly losing weight, so even though my chest wasn't getting bigger, it was more contrasted with the rest of my body. I couldn't claim them as male fat anymore.

The chest is usually what gives away boymoding early.

This all said, here's the basic boymoder toolkit:

A lightly compressive sports bra or bralette. Don't use a binder in early development, and prioritize comfort. I used a Nike sports bra as well as a CK racerback bralette, which is a classic for early hrt transfemmes.

Slightly baggy clothes. Usually button downs help more than t shirts. The boymoder hoody is a meme, but it does help. That said, I'd recommend trying to get stuff that you can style in femme outfits later! I mostly used flannel and light, breathable hiking shirts to boymode. I can use these as sporty "cardigans" and jackets now. Example: here's me wearing a flannel buttoned right at the start of HRT, vs me wearing one as a cardigan a couple months ago:

And, tbh, that's kind of it. It's not much, but it has to "fool" people who will already be biased into perceiving you as a guy. Socially transitioning then helps snap them into seeing you as a girl.

Fair warning though: while it is helpful to boymode for a bit for most people, you're not gonna suddenly "flick a switch" and become ultra femme overnight once you do come out. There's no avoiding the awkward zones associated with transition. Boymoding helps minimize those, however.

I'm rambling at this point but godspeed. You have an amazing experience and an amazing life ahead of you.

[fridgrave2-0]

We share so many headcanons for Felix and Turbo that it's actually so exciting to see someone who shares a perspective very similar to mine on their characters! I feel like Turbo while dating Felix was less grumpy and sad as a lot of people interpret him :[ like he's not a perfect person ever and he has a million flaws but he also lived as king candy for a while. He's gonna be a little silly, I think. In fact, I think he'd only get that way (mostly) bc of Felix. Like Felix saw this mentally ill guy and went, "I can make him WORSE!" And then justified it to everyone as "I don't know what happened he just went insane!" for almost 30 years. I'd bet half my money that he even coined the term "going Turbo"

YES, EXACTLY, THIS!!!!

let the guy feel happy and silly in a company of someone who's "safe". turbo cannot allow to change others' perception of him by acting out of the line (aka his constant "I'm the best" bravado), but with felix he can relax a little and have a moment of peace when he doesn't have to put on a façade so much. but in the end, the only time he didn't wear a mask was when he was all alone after roadblasters, and being apart from felix was exactly what set him free

felix can't understand anyone else's problems until he goes through something similar and it gets shoved in his face, and even tho he liked turbo a lot back in the day, he was ignorant to things what were troubling turbo. his need of attention and appreciation wasn't normal, and there's only two options: felix supported it to the point when it got out of control, or he was dismissing turbo's concerns and frustrations. I don't see turbo as someone who understands his own emotions, and felix isn't a guy who would help him and guide him into healthier ways of seeking attention because felix himself is just immature and doesn't look outside of his bubble. if he feels good and happy and that his life is fulfilled, that means everyone else like turbo or ralph or else feel that way too. "you have your game, you are a main character, you earn your rewards. what else do you need?" felix would say, genuinely not understanding how neglectful he is. and turbo, disdained by everyone but felix, cannot explain why it's so important, or give a sign how damaging it is to his self-perception and self-esteem. turbo is already shaped into someone who keeps everything to himself, and seeing that felix doesn't want and won't understand him just makes every negative emotion and every concern accumulate in him, rot and poison him until it's too late

I'm sure turbo seeked for an advise when roadblasters were plugged in, but, as always, he was treated with "you're worrying too much. it's gonna be fine. just calm down. no one is trying to take your place". the same exact place by felix's side turbo doesn't feel he belongs to anymore. the same place for which he stepped over himself to open up, made a crack in a safe shell and was met with ignorance. is this what he tried to bent himself for, to be a different person for someone who just isn't willing to understand? to expose his back to others who are waiting for him to fall?

turbo felt rejected. he was rejected. by players and by the person he trusted most. and then he lost control, let the emotions boil out. and then the games were unplugged, his rivals and his home. he felt the invisible strings tearing up, ripping pieces of him out and living a hole that cannot be filled anymore. his connection to his game, his code, his life and soul

he crawled back to the one he also called home, damaged by another crash, the damage that won't heal anymore, because his game was gone. he crawled to felix, hiding from everyone's sight, scared of seeing nothing but "we knew it would happen" in their eyes. he didn't want to prove their expectations to be right. but when he noticed felix through the cracks in the tunnels under gcs, this was exactly what he saw

"he was so jealous. he was crazy... i should've seen it coming", felix said with a glimpse of regret on his face, too small to show the loss he should've feel. instead, there was it. the disappointment — and nothing else for the long ten years of hiding. his name turned into a common noun, a scary story, a legend he never wanted to be. but still, thanks to felix and his fantasies, his inability too see further than his exes' fake façade, turbo did actually become

a legend

[gremlingottoosilly]

in if you need to be mean, would the reader ever try to escape? and if she did, how would konig react? thinking about like, she planned for a few months how would she escape him, and she feels very conflicted bc she loves him, but she wants freedom and thats the only thing konig would never give her. so when hes away she takes the car and just goes. i dont know where, but shes so desperate te be free again to do whatever she likes without him hovering and always by her side trying to control what she does! would he feel sad? would he be devastated? would he go after her? i know that theres like a 1% chance of it happening but im so curious about how he would react and how it would change their relationship.

anyway, love your fanfics gremlin you're a genius!!! 🫶

Konig made everything in his power to prevent her from escaping without locking her up and breaking her legs, but it doesn't mean he won't do it.

He refuses to let her study German because he moved her to this foreign country without her knowing the language, and he specifically chose a distant tiny town in the middle of the Austrian woods, where not a lot of people know English and therefore, it would be hard for her to communicate. She doesn't have his car keys or a driver's license, he didn't leave her a lot of cash, so she forced to use his cards with updates of withdrawal and spending sent to his account, and she also just has a dependant visa that wouldn't allow her to do independent anyway. Her only way would be speaking to the police and hoping that they would start the investigation. It would be really hard because, well, Austria doesn't really care about immigrant's problems unless it's an international scandal, and Konig would know anyway - because he has cameras in the house, which he doesn't even hide, and if the investigation would die down, or his girl wouldn't go to the police, he wouldn't really break the contract and run to her immediately. He has quite a few friends around, especially if Krueger or Klaus are around and not on deployment with him, so he could ask them to go and visit his...wife. She is scared and a bit hysterical because of the foreign country, so she can tell weird things about kidnapping and escaping, they shouldn't listen to her! Konig won't be so nice when he returns. He really wanted to play this fantasy of having cute little housewife, nice house and a girl that is absolutely in love with him. He knows that you like him, at least, that you didn't want to escape, you're just silly! He infantilised you before, mostly because of the age difference, but it would be even harsher now. You are not allowed to leave the house, he often simply locks you in the bedroom so you won't have anything to do besides waiting for him to return with groceries and fuck you into the mattress. He didn't want to break you leg, but if you keep resisting, he might kinda push you a bit further. He would assign you a no-nonsense older caretaker so you would have company and help while your leg is broken! She also thinks that you have some sort of weird mental illness that made you paranoid and afraid of your husband, so you can't even get help from her. You can forget about going out while he is on deployment either. And he is very reluctant to let you out, even with him, the first few months after your attempted escape. The world is too dangerous for you anyway,

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

the abandonment issues au,,

where Sun and Moon gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss their way into ur heart

and then turn into sad wet baby kittens when u find out and call them out on it <3

(copy and pasted from the space aces discord, sorry fellas lmao)

abandonment issues au:

ok what if. fucked up au time

where. reader is the new daycare assistant or a mechanic or smthn idk theyre working withh Sun and Moon thats the important part

i think it works better if theyre like, Sun n Moon's handler? Bc they r closer that way and it makes it more fucked up lmaooooo

so basically. this takes place right after Sun n Moon had their best friend-handler person leave bc Sun n Moon had been acting increasingly volatile n buggy n rlly just having issues but the more the previous handler tried to talk to them abt it and fix it the more they got anxious abt getting decommissioned and would cover up the problems n act like nothing was wrong

and eventually one day the previous handler nearly got rlly hurt and knew they had to leave bc it wasn't safe for them and they left a detailed warning/report for the mechanics

(and they didnt say goodbye, not out of malice or anything just bc they didnt want even more reasons for Sun n Moon to act up/potentially hurt them or themselves)

so. the mechanics did a total clean up of Sun n Moon's system, basically left their memories but scrubbed their data of a lot of the 'feelings' they'd had- mostly wiping away the feelings tied to 'good' memories, and the only thing Sun n Moon could do to fill in the void of 'feelings' was assign different feelings in their place, so when they once looked back and felt happy or nostalgic, now they feel confused and angry and sad and betrayed bc why was all of that happiness taken from them?? why did their handler hurt them like this??

so the scrubbing of their systems, which was one thing they really really didn't want to have done for fear of losing their memories entirely, DID work in putting their issues on a much lower level,, but it didn't get rid of the issues entirely. Now they're just,, easier to hide or play off or ignore. They're careful around the kids, of course, but they do at times have trouble with their motor controls or their speech will glitch slightly, etc

a few handlers come and go, never staying for more than a week or so- none of them really care about the job, don't see Sun n Moon as coworkers but more like fancy 'machines' with no real thoughts or emotions, they normally leave after Sun or Moon has a glitchy moment and nearly hurts them or, in at least one case, does hurt them by squeezing their wrist too hard. more often than not, the ppl applying for the position read the list of warnings n cautions and are like 'hell nahh' and bail immediately

then. in comes,, reader. local dumbass. most endearing of idiots. a bit dense. very much clueless. dearly beloved

you're the first one to really treat them like your coworkers, making small talk and being friendly and kind and patient and laughing at their jokes. you smile when you introduce yourself, offering your hand for them to shake- not afraid of them or their little twitches at all. god, how they missed that. you remind them of their previous handler, if only in how you see them like theyre people and not machines.

and they make a mutual agreement to do whatever they can to keep you as their handler. even if it means dodging around company rules and policies by doing something like crumpling up the confidential 'warning' forms, ortelling the occasional white lie, like forging your signature onto the papers when your back is turned and making sure it makes it to your manager without either of you noticing who exactly was putting it on their desk.

you've already started calling them your friends the first time they have a glitchy moment. you're doing detailing work on their endoskeleton, really just cleaning dust away and making sure everything looks the way it does in the manual, when they break something- a tablet, a pen, your phone, whatever it is, it happens in an instant and startles you.

when Sun n Moon come to and realize whats happened theyre terrified. what if you use this as some kind of excuse to leave? What if you abandon them, just like their previous handler did? What if you start treating them differently, or you tell the staff that they need to be scrapped

so when you ask what that was about, they're frantic, quick to come up with something, anything that might make you shrug and forget all about it,

"Well, you WERE just working on their insides, right? That must have been something YOU did to suddenly make us do something like THAT! There's no way else it could have happened. Right?"

You take the lie hook, line, and sinker, apologizing profusely, promising to try harder to make sure nothing like that happens again. The relief they feel is almost euphoric. They pat you on the head kindly, reassuring you that they know you didn't do it on purpose, it was just a little mess up! You're fine, friend, we forgive you.

From then on, they dodge blame and truth alike, most often redirecting your attention to something you must have said or done to make something so strange and out of character for them happen so suddenly, and you believe them, full of apologies and careful words and actions and nervous worrying about doing things wrong and hurting them somehow. It's cute, how anxious you can get. It's cuter, how you melt for their comfort and reassurance. 

They play the song and dance with you again and again, weaving doubt and guilt into you more and more frequently. Until one day, you mumble something about how 'maybe i'm not cut out for this, maybe i should switch to be on the janitorial team instead, or some other department, i don't want to hurt you guys, or-or be the reason someone else gets hurt, i clearly dont know what im doing, and it's only gotten worse, maybe i should talk to my manager,,' and they panic

don't be silly, friend!!!! you can't just leave like that, what about the kids, what about that puppet show you had helped them plan, did you really want to just abandon all that?? so what if maybe they had the occasional hiccup, you were always there to smooth it over, who cared whether they dropped things from time to time, or- or broke a toy or two, that didn't matter, did it??? You were getting so good at being their handler, your little mistakes were normal, come on, you don't want to leave your very best friends. Do you?

and you cave, agreeing to stay, and they are so, so extremely careful to hide their little moments from you for several weeks, making sure you don't notice their tiny twitches or split seconds of glitchy voices, maybe keeping a closer eye on you than would be comfortable, watching over your shoulder each time you type up a report about the day, giving the manager a loathsome glower behind your back whenever they happen by,, and every time you leave you say 'i'll see you guys tomorrow!,' they grab onto your sleeve and respond with 'promise?' so you always know that they really, really do want you to come back

and then. one day,, you decide to go looking in their files for something small and silly, like what kinds of updates had been added to their pick-up protocols, and you find the warnings and cautions forms

and you see your signature on them, but you would definitely remember this and you are absolutely certain you have never seen these papers in your life. and you take the papers and you go to ask them about it.

"i thought you said you never had any problems before? you told me you never had any issues before but this- this is full of things that you- and you, you've been having these problems for that long??"

they stumble over their words, frantic, panicked, backpedaling on everything theyve ever said, trying meekly to grab the papers from your hands, piling excuses on excuses 

"you knew? you knew you were having these problems, and you didn't tell me? and you- you told me it was my fault!"

you're close to tears, hurt that they lied more than anything. you keep backing away from them, dodging their attempts to get the forms. they don't know which is worse- seeing that look on your face, or when they were left without so much as a goodbye.

"you could have told me. i thought i was the reason for everything, i thought i was hurting you, and you just... you lied right to my face and let me think that."

theyre putting on their best soothing voice, movements slow and gentle, wanting to comfort you and wipe those tears away and reassure you somehow that this- this isn't their fault, none of it is, it never was, they're fine and you're fine and nothing was ever wrong, and everything will be fine if only you calm down and stay

you can tell they arent really listening. you take a deep breath and turn away from them, scraping the tears from your face. you tell them you're going to go home and write up a report about all of this and when you come back you can go over it together before you send it to management, but right now you're leaving because you need space to breathe and time to think

but all they hear is that you're leaving, and they panic.

they don't hurt you, of course! but right now you're not allowed to leave.

you try to shut out the sound of them crying and apologizing and begging, even if it breaks your heart, because right now all you want to do is go home and lie in your stupid bed and have a stupid cry in your favorite pajamas. but you try every door you can think of- none of them open. you've sstayed past closing more than once, but the doors aren't normally shuttered for another two hours,, and you're pretty sure the night guard isn't even here yet

the entire time you're walking around the 'plex, Moon is trailing sadly behind you, waiting with the saddest, most pathetic wet cat look an animatronic can achieve, for you to turn and face them again

and thus begins what is probably the longest night of your life, spent trying to avoid your animatronic friends/coworkers who are acting like the worlds clingiest ex who just got broken up with and who can't stop dropping sad love songs in ur dms

by the time morning rolls around, they agree to actually go to parts n services and cooperate and try their best to get whatever is wrong with them repaired, even if it means they might get decomissioned. in the mean time, you promise to come back once they're fixed and work with them to help them get back to their old selves- or at least, back to how they were before any potentially dangerous bugs

basically this is the 'sun and moon have abandonment issues and gaslight you abt it' au

idk what else would happen tbh idk why i thought this au needed to exist either but here we are *lays facedown in a puddle*

[milkteabies]

Haikyuu characters when (y/n) passes out bc of her period pt. 2

characters: Akaashi, Kuroo

pt.1

a/n: in the last one I rlly wanted to do akaashi, but it was already pretty long so here we are. same warnings of talking abt blood and passing out and period stuff so if that makes you uncomfortable, find something more for you dear!

a/n: also heads-up Kuroo’s part kinda gets a little heavy, like light argument bc he’s v concerned but trust me it has a cute ending y’all 😤😤 also sorry abt any typos, I sometimes can’t read

—————

Akaashi:

You had been looking forward to this day all week, well before you realized your period was coming and even further before you realized it was going to be a bad one. But regardless, you refused to let your period get in the way of spending time with your crush, Akaashi, on the cutest study date in the library. Well, it wasn’t a true “date” because you doubted Akaashi felt the same, but you’d take what you could get.

It was after school that the date was planned, so you were practically shaking in your seat in a mix of excitement and agony. You had attempted to take medication during lunch, but like usual, it didn’t do anything, so you just had to grin and bear it, but it was getting to you.

The pain made you nauseous, so you couldn’t eat, and because you couldn’t eat you got more nauseous, and on top of that, you took the medicine on a mostly empty stomach which just multiplied the nausea. It all just turned into a painful positive feedback loop that made you feel queasy and lightheaded and shaky.

But you’d handle it, like you’ve done plenty of times before. Besides, you would just be sitting and doing a little studying in a nice and quiet environment. Nothing could go wrong there, for sure. You were being delusional but that’s ok, you’d just blame it on the nausea.

So finally, the bell rings and you carefully pack up your bag. Standing slowly, practically white knuckling the desk from how your stomach twisted and lurched, you anxiously make your way to the library, hopeful to find a table before Akaashi can actually get there so he doesn’t have to witness your struggle to walk.

You manage to settle down at a round table a little ways into the library, in a more secluded and quiet nook that feels perfectly cozy when you see Akaashi turn the corner, just before you were going to text him.

“Hello, (l/n).” He greets, politely, a kind smile on his lips.

“Hi, Akaashi! I was just about to text you. How’d you find me?” You smile back, face flushing conveniently to cover your pallor.

He sets his bag down and sits down, taking out his books, “I saw you walking in and saw where you turned, so I followed.” He responds, looking up from his book to smile again before looking back down with a slight flush to his cheeks as well.

“Oh, well that’s convenient.” You mumble as you nod along, spiraling slightly at the fact he probably saw your stumbling around, before reaching down to your bag to also grab your books and start doing your work.

You two are relatively quiet, the sounds of pages turning and writing interrupted by occasional quiet chatter over homework problems and general questions about each other’s days. You bite your lip every once in a while and fist the fabric of your shirt to try and distract from the pain.

You’re whisper ranting about the amount of work your literature teacher gave you as you flip another page in your workbook and skim the questions on it, only to find that you need an entirely different book to actually answer the questions.

“I’m gonna drop out of school.” You mumble, hunching over to press your cheek into your book.

Akaashi chuckles, back of his hand covering the bottom of his face to hide his blush at your cute, squished face. “If you do that, who would I go to, to keep sane?” He jokes, smiling fondly down at you.

“More like the other way around. I’ll just break into campus and follow you around in the walls.” You sigh, leaning back up before slowly and carefully standing up, holding in a grimace at the uncomfortable feeling of blood.

“Where are you going?” Akaashi almost rushes, suddenly worried about your leaving.

You release a harrowing sigh as you step around your bag, “I have to go grab a completely different book. I’ll be back in a sec, if I’m not, assume I died.” You joke dryly before giggling and waving as you attempt to find the section with your book, heart fluttering at the chuckle that sounds behind you.

You make it to the section by alphabetical order and start searching for the author’s last name. Sadly, the book you needed was on a bottom shelf, so you crouch down very deliberately and riffle around for a minute before you get the actual book, stopping and fumbling when you’re hit with cramps.

Just wanting to get back to sitting with Akaashi, you stand far too quickly and feel everything immediately shift. You drop the book and stumble into the shelf, accidentally bumping a few more book down as your legs give out beneath you. Pressing a hand to your head, your eyes start to fog over, vision blurring as you feel your heart stutter in your chest.

“(Y/n)! What’s wrong?!” Akashi’s voice suddenly appears next to you, an arm around your back and another one grabbing onto your arm.

You feel your head spin and can barely mumble a, “Sorry,” before youre slumping right into his chest, entirely unconscious.

You don’t know how long you’d been unconscious for, but it couldn’t have been too long because the sun is still a few hours from setting. You barely manage to sit up before a pair of hands are suddenly worriedly holding onto you and a familiar voice rushes, “(y/n)!”

Startled, you yelp and grab onto Akashi’s wrist, pressing a hand to your chest to steady your speeding heart, “Oh my gosh, Akaashi, you scared me.” You wheeze, blinking up at him blearily.

“I’m sorry, but I was very worried. I had went to find you because you took a while to get back, and then I heard loud bangs. And I found you practically collapsed on the floor and you just fainted in my arms before you could say anything.” Akaashi rambles, one hand migrating to the small of your back while the other cups your cheek, staring into your eyes worriedly.

Holding the wrist of the hand holding your face, you smile tiredly up at him, leaning into his palm, “I’m sorry, Akaashi, I didn’t mean to worry you.” You mumble.

“What happened?” He murmurs, thumb stroking the apple of your cheek, blush flaring across his face from your smile.

“It’s my period.” You sigh, “It can get pretty heavy and the bleeding can really take it out of me. It’ll sometimes get so bad that I’ll get so light headed that I just pass out. It’s never happened at school before, so I really am lucky you found me.” You explain, eyes closed, feeling the weight of your exhaustion.

Akaashi can hardly respond, he’s so horrified. “That’s… terrible. Why have you never told me before? I could’ve helped you, in any way you needed.” He murmurs, leaning closer in concern, practically resting your foreheads together.

You can feel the blood rush to your face at the display, quickly leaning back and pulling Akaashi’s hand away to cover your face, “Ah, it’s really not a big deal! I’ve dealt with this a long time now, and I’m capable of handling it on my own. I wouldn’t want to bother y-“ you stumble out, looking anywhere other than Akaashi’s face, unaware of his growing displeasure.

A hand pressed against your mouth stops you and you can only blink up at Akaashi questioningly. He looks away embarrassedly, to gather his thoughts, a grimace scrunching his brows.

“How could you think to say that? You could never be a bother to me… I love you, (y/n).” He sighs, head tilted adoringly.

You let out a muffled squeal at the admission, face practically on fire as you stare at him widely. “You love me?! For real?!” You yelp, mouth still behind Akaashi’s hand but it does little to hide the smile pulling at your lips.

“Ever since I met you.” He murmurs, eyes shining when you wrap your arms around his neck and press your face to his chest, giggling. He wraps his arm around your waist in turn and can’t help but press a kiss to the side of your head, heart thrumming with affection.

Kuroo:

You were just so tired. Your cramps had been ramping up all day, and between each class without fail, you had to change your pad because there was just too much blood. You wanted to go home, but you had to go to your club after school.

Even if you didn’t stay the whole meeting, because they weren’t strict about time, you just had to check in for a few minutes and they’d understand your having to leave. Nodding in assurance of your plan, you shamble slowly about the rest of your classes.

In your classroom, waiting for your math teacher to enter, you feel like you’re going to throw up from how your organs feel like sandpaper grinding against each other. Putting your head into your arms on the desk, you breathe harrowed sighs.

You hardly move when a hand suddenly rests on your shoulder, only raising your head with lumbering motions to see Kenma bent at your side. “What’s up?” You blink up at him.

“Just wanted to make sure you were still breathing. You looked like you were wasting away over here.” He jokes quietly, standing back up to lean against your desk.

“I am still alive, sadly. You aren’t rid of me yet.” You murmur, resting your forehead against Kenma’s arm tiredly.

He huffs in amusement before patting the back of your head, “You barely look it.”

“Cut me some slack, alright? I wanna go home, but I still have to go to my club after school.” You whine, pouting at him.

“Gross, don’t look at me like that.” He grumbles, crossing his arms and walking back to his seat as you snicker at him when the teacher finally walks in.

Mind hazing in and out of focus, you do you best to take notes and remain engaged, but class is over before you even realize it and you sigh in relief that you can go home so soon. Slowly packing your notes away, you again blink up at Kenma who appears at your side once more.

“I’ll walk you to your club, ok? I can’t have you dying before it’s none of my business.” He offers, hands stuffed in his pockets.

Rolling your eyes, you stand slowly and shoulder your bag, “You just don’t want to go to volleyball. And I don’t want Kuroo coming to yell at me when you show up late.” You huff.

“Ah, you caught me. Doubt he’d actually yell at you though, probably just try his dumb chemistry pickup lines.” He states dryly, walking with you regardless, “I’ll walk you to the stairs, at least.”

“Yeah yeah, like that’d happen. Thanks, Kenma.” You giggle, loosely holding onto the edge of his sleeve.

It only takes a few minutes to reach the stairs, but in that time most of the school is empty, with only the students in clubs or sports staying behind for their designated activities.

“Alright, alright, go to your club now, or else I’m gonna get yelled at.” You quickly wave Kenma off, shoving against his arms to push him into action.

He groans and grumbles before waving and walking off with moseying steps. You watch him walk, making sure he actually goes, before carefully attempting to walk up the steps.

Barely half way up, your vision abruptly spins and you stumble into the hand rail. Crouching to sit on the step, still holding onto the rail, you press a hand over your eyes at the sudden pounding in your head. Your hearing starts buzzing when casual footsteps echo down the hall. Looking up, Kuroo comes into view, an easy smile on his lips that immediately turns to worry when he sees you.

“Kuroo..?” You mumble before you slump against the wall, unaware of the concerned shout that leaves him and his rushed steps towards you.

You are no longer on the stairs when you wake up again, but in the nurse’s office, curled up on a bed in the corner. You don’t get up for a minute, continuing to face a wall before you sigh and heave yourself to sitting.

“Be careful kitten, you’ll get lightheaded again if you sit up too fast.” Kuroo’s voice rumbles from behind you, a hand grabbing onto your left shoulder as he leans over your right, hand planted next to your legs.

“Oh, hi Kuroo.” You sigh, rubbing at your eyes blearily. “… oh gosh, did I pass out right in front of you?” You turn quickly, yelping when you realize how close your faces are, but the hand on your shoulder stops you from scooting away.

His eyes search your rapidly burning face, an uncharacteristic frown on his lips before he rests his head against yours, eyes closed. “I was so worried, you know. I came to see if Kenma was skipping practice with you, but all I find is you, alone, passing out on the stairs. I kind of thought you died.” He chuckles dryly, gently squeezing your shoulder as he burrows his face into your hair, breathing deeply.

“…Sorry.” You murmur, turning slightly to rest a hand against his chest, feeling his heart practically beat into your palm. “Kenma had like, just left when you found me. I don’t know how you didn’t see him.. maybe he hid when he saw you coming so you wouldn’t yell at him.” You joke, stilling when Kuroo squeezes you tighter, face pressed into your neck.

“So if I hadn’t found you, who knows if anyone else would have?” His voice is muffled, but you shiver at the feeling of his breath on your skin.

You shuffle around awkwardly in your spot, “Well, I’m sure someone would’ve found me, coming from club or something. But I probably would’ve woken up on my own.”

“And what after that? Just leave and not tell anyone what happened?!” He demands, fisting the sheet of the bed.

“W-well, yeah. I could probably make it home fine.”

Apparently that was the wrong answer, because Kuroo shoots up from his previously hunched position, grabbing both of your shoulders tightly, brows creased and frowning.

“What if you passed out again while walking home, what then?!”

“I’d probably call my parents?!”

“And what if they’re busy?!”

“I’d just walk home?!??”

Frustrated, Kuroo lets your arms go, stepping away to turn around, hand on his hip and pinching the bridge of his nose. Sitting awkwardly, you turn so that you’re finally facing him, hesitantly resting a hand against his back.

“It really isn’t that big of a deal, Kuroo, I would’ve been fine regardless, one way or another.” You attempt to comfort, but jump when he spins to face you abruptly, catching your wrist before you can draw it back.

He’s huffing as he stares into your eyes deeply, you stare back, wide eyed.

“Passing out in the middle of the street would not be ‘fine’, it could get you hurt. You could hit your head and what then? I learn through Kenma you refused to rely on anyone and end up in the hospital?”

“I think you’re being a little dramatic, Kuroo.” You wave off.

“I don’t think you’re being dramatic enough! Do you even know why you passed out?!” He urges, shaking your arm.

Sighing, you relent, “It’s just my period Kuroo. It’s not that serious-”

“That’s not normal for a period!”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” You huff.

Kuroo sighs, placing his hands on either side of your hips and hanging his head, making you splutter around the hair suddenly in your face.

“Please, let me walk you home. I’ll throw myself into traffic if I find out you passed out on the side of the road.” Kuroo practically begs, pressing his chest to yours, leaning most of his weight on you like a sand bag.

“Agh, Kuroo, fine! Get off or you’re gonna crush me!” You whine, almost falling flat on the bed if it weren’t for his arms that slip around your waist to hold you up, chuckling against your ear.

You can feel the sound rumble against your chest.

—————

a/n: it took me a minute to actually write this bc I kept losing ideas, but I think it turned out cute regardless. again, let me know what you think and if you have any cute ideas :D

[toasttt11]

wjc

January 4, 2024

Mackenzie let out a long sigh as she kept the pillow over her head hiding her face in the hotel bed.

She was in Sweden for the 2024 World Juniors but unfortunately was disqualified two days ago.

Most of her team was already gone having flights home easily but she had enough time before school starts to go back to San Jose and spend some time with her family.

Getting a flight from Sweden to San Jose was hard to find and she had to wait a bit to eventually find one. Luckily she had one late tonight but it meant she had to stay in the hotel for two days after being disqualified.

She unfortunately did not have any of her family with her as her little siblings both had completions during her tournament and her dad had games he had to be at so she’s mostly been alone and had to spend Christmas alone.

The good thing was she is pretty good friends with a couple of her teammates so it was fun to be with them but they had their families with them.

This was her first World Juniors and she thought she played pretty well, she couldn’t have played terrible because she lead her team with goals and points.

Mackenzie was just disappointed they got out so quickly and not even make it to a medal game especially becuase Canada won gold the year before.

She wanted to win a medal playing with her country jersey’s but it did not happen this tournament but hopefully one day she would get a medal.

Mackenzie decided to turn the US game on early and they won meaning they would be advancing to the gold medal game.

Mackenzie uncovered her face with the pillow and ran a hand through her long straight hair. She looked at the time seeing she can leave soon for the airport and got up heading to the bathroom.

Mackenzie packed up her things in the bathroom before quickly braiding her hair into a simple french braid and headed back into her room tossing her things into her suitcase.

She zipped up her suitcase and grabbed her little things tossing it into her backpack, Mackenzie slipped her puffer jacket on and put her backpack on after.

Mackenzie slipped on her shoes real quick before grabbing her hockey bag and tossing it on top of her suitcase and doing a quick look around her room before heading out for the hotel room.

Mackenzie headed into the elevator and went to the lobby and checked out of her room at the front desk.

She turned around from the front desk and crashed into someones chest. Someone’s hands quickly grabbed her arms stopping her from falling over as she caught her suitcase from hitting the ground.

Mackenzie looked up and froze seeing who she ran into, Will. Of course she ran into him.

Will froze for a second as she looked up and he immediately knew who it was, he immediately noticed how she looked even more beautiful than the last time he saw her at the draft.

Mackenzie awkwardly cleared her throat her eyes flickering to his hands still on her arms and Will’s cheeks flushed pink and quickly let go of her stepping back.

“Uh thanks.” Mackenzie tightly smiled looking awkward. She knows he doesn’t like so it’s pretty awkward.

“Of course.” Will quickly stammered out with an awkward smile.

“I should get going.” Mackenzie gestured to the front door still smiling awkwardly.

“Yeah yeah.” Will quickly agreed stepping to the side to let her walk by him.

“Good luck tomorrow.” Mackenzie told him sincerely, she has a rivalry with US obviously but she doesn’t have a rivalry with Will, he just has one with her.

“Thanks.” Will’s eyes softened, even when he’s a complete jerk and ignored her she’s still being kind to him. She’s supposed to be his rival not be kind to him.

Nothing confuses Will more than Mackenzie does and everything that she makes him feel that he does not want to feel. Will would have no problem liking Mackenzie if she didn’t go to Boston University.

“I’ll see you in a few weeks Smith.” Mackenzie grinned slightly knowing she would be playing in her first BU VS BC game in a few weeks and playing against Will again.

Will frowned slightly remembering why he isn’t suppose to like her, “I’ll see you in a few weeks Celebrini.” He tried to sound rude but his tone sounded more flirty than anything. He gave her a small grin not even realizing he did.

Mackenzie gave him one last glance before she started walking away and her eyes widened realizing Will’s family was standing right behind him and she grimaced and quickly walked away and towards the entrance of the lobby to where she was taking a shuttle to the airport.

Will’s eyes naturally followed Mackenzie as she walked away and his eyes softened for a brief moment before he shook his head.

Grace shared a look with her mom seeing Will totally trying to flirt with the girl and how awkward Will just was talking to the girl.

“Who’s that?” Colleen asked curiously having a knowing smile on her face, she could tell her son felt something for the girl by the way he looked at her.

Will coughed clearing his throat remembering his sister and parents were right there and just saw his interaction with Mackenzie.

“Mackenzie Celebrini.” Will didn’t notice how his voice softened when he said her name but his family definitely did, “She plays at BU so we’re just rivals.” Will just shrugged ignoring the part where he wished they weren’t rivals and he could think about pretty she is.

“Rivals huh.” Grace repeated with a knowing smile not believing anything her little brother is saying. Grace knows why Will says she is his rival because they have grown hating anything Boston University but she had a feeling Will did not hate Mackenzie at all and they would be hearing more about Mackenzie sooner than later.

“Yeah just rivals.” Will repeated his tone sounding more like he was tying to convince himself more than anyone else.