#however him calling for help? S TIER

[gralixe]

One Piece has so much gall giving so much screen time to characters I truly do not give a fuck about

[leaf-line]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐀 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

Yandere! Dr Ratio x Gn! Reader

❏ You and Dr Ratio bakes cake after your milestone! All harmless, absolutely nothing bad will happen!

cw: invasion of privacy, implied isolation, people pleaser reader, mentions of insecurities and mental illnesses, suicide.

w/c: 2,856

"I'm starting to see your improvements." Ratio hums, sounding pleased, which is rare for him to do, but it's not impossible.

Contrary to his calm demeanor, you were emotional.

"That's all you could say!? This is big! This is a big deal!!" You cried out, snatching the papers—the fruits of your labor, the results of your hard, hard work—from Veritas.

Your heart was thumping so loudly. It was as if all your red blood cells received glucose simultaneously.

"I can't believe... I got high scores on all tests... All in a row..." You weep out of joy seeing all of them be above the number of 95. You could let your knees fall to the ground and start having a breakdown to release all the stress kept up in your years of living. "My life... Is fulfilled... Suffering... Is no more... Augh—" You state dramatically, Ratio could only scoff at your s-tier performance.

"It is a feat for a person like you. However, this is not the ending point for you to cry out of joy; there's always more to strive for and be better at. The room isn't that small. There's still more for improvement. However... You did great, I'm proud of you for that." He lectures as if to say 95 isn't enough and you need full scores, but honestly, you can't even be mad at him.

After all, he was the one who pushed you to achieve something such as this. If it weren't for him, you'd be nothing but a plain potato who didn't achieve anything meaningful.

A genius prodigy such as him could easily turn a useless stone like you into a shining diamond. You felt grateful.

"Ahaha..." You laugh ironically. "But thanks, it's all thanks to you, you should be proud." You wipe your tears eyes with a finger, then smile brightly at him.

He said nothing, and you grinned. Maybe it was because your smile was so contagious he was stunned, but then again, you don't know what's going on behind that mask of his. You could only see him turn his head away from you.

You wanted to know truly if he's fond of you or not.

Your tutor... No, rather, your friend Ratio was someone you never expected to get along with. Rather, you were extremely opposed to the idea, and perhaps, even was he.

Recalling back to that time, both of you first met... Wasn't exactly the best first impression...

"Welcome, Sir Veritas Ratio. Meet my child... [Name], please take care of them from now on. They might be a little... Uneducated, but I hope that you can help them with that." Your mother pushes your back towards him, in which you internally scowl in return.

You eyed him. He looked rather young to be your tutor.

"Ah, and I couldn't help but notice that both of you are the same age. If that is the case, then I hope that the both of you will get along well!" Your mother cheerfully says so.

You doubted that heavily.

That's because you did your research before meeting him in person.

A lot of people said that the prodigy was cruel, relentless, and maybe even sadistic. And the list goes on. The most positive and recurring mentioned trait of his was being academically talented.

As soon as your mother left you with him, you felt vulnerable, as if you were out in the open and someone was ready to stab you with words like knife, take for example; the person in front of you.

You try to pace down your heartbeat to not overthink it... It works.

It's fine, it's fine, he's a prodigy, surely he knows about the fact of how the human heart is delicate and needs to be handled carefully. What's the worst he could say to you out loud?

No matter what it is, you won't let it reach you!

"Hey... You." He calls out, you prepare yourself.

There's no way he's gonna be 'that' cruel to you... Right? You both just met.

"Have you taken a shower? You stink."

...

A part of you cracked.

"Let's move on quickly, I don't have time to deal with idiots such as you."

And it cracks again.

Yeah... It wasn't the best, but at least he doesn't say that anymore. In fact, it helped you that he said that, since you don't neglect hygienic activities as much anymore. But as Professor Veritas Ratio once said, 'Don't dwell in the past for long,' let's focus on the future and present!

Since this is a milestone for you, you should gift Dr Ratio with a thank you.

"I'm in no need of your services. This feat was only achieved through your hard work. You should treat only yourself." He said out of nowhere.

"Wait— H-How did you even—"

"Your face said it all."

"Huh???"

Dr Ratio seems to have a knack for using his hidden mind-reading powers on you. You don't like that. You'll always feel vulnerable to him every time at this point.

"Ah... Too bad... I was gonna make myself some homemade cake and share it with you... Too bad you don't want it. I guess I'll just stick to being lonely and take it all for myself." You puff out, obviously picking on him.

"Then let me help you, for all I could know, the house might be burned down before you can even bake one successfully." He replies back with no remorse.

"How rude!"

You end up baking at his home.

You simply didn't want the place to be yours since your mom is gonna be there saying you're wasting your time doing all this, so it's gonna be annoying.

And so you're there, stirring a bowl with a whisk, while there's Ratio holding out the instructions. You can't lie; he looks kinda cuter with that apron he's wearing if only his strange plaster sculpture weren't covering his appearance.

"You know... Veritas... You can remove that mask off. Since... Ya know? We're baking."

"Focus on the task at hand."

"Damn..."

You were silenced immediately, so you carefully put down the bowl, ——albeit with a trembling hand that made you feel pathetic——, to move over to the chopping board with the bowl of strawberries that you're gonna cut. You reach out for the knife

...If not for Dr Ratio intervening.

"Let me handle that." He says, practically shoving you away from the chopping board. He takes the knife and chops it with ease despite wearing that weird sculpture on his head. You wonder if he can see with that.

"Woah... Are you worried about me accidentally cutting myself?" Your eyes widen in surprise.

"I didn't know you actually cared for me, Professor Veritas... Hmmm, but I suppose you can't help it; after all, I'm the cutest and the best student ever had, aren't I?" You bat your eyelashes for the sake of sarcasm.

"Perhaps."

"...Eh?"

Too blunt, you feel your cheeks burning up.

You wonder if he's just playing along with your sarcasm because there is absolutely no way that's the case.

"I'm not playing around with your jokes. I'm simply laying out the possibility."

"There you go... Using your mind reading powers again..."

"It's not that hard to do if you have two eyes and a brain."

"I have a brain too... Not everyone can exactly know what a person is thinking just by looking at their face and expression."

"I doubt both of those statements."

"...Okay, rude."

"It's not about skills, actually; you're just an open book."

"Am I really??"

You hum, seeing him chop the strawberries more efficiently than you ever could. You know all well you'd cut it clumsily, then they'd end up looking like you've beaten them to mashes. You walk to the over to preheat it while he does his own thing. You gaze at the warm light.

"This cake is just for the two of us. I can't really share it with anyone else. If only I could, I would." You murmur your thoughts out loud, feeling close enough to him to tell him your issues occurring these days. You stand up to walk over next to him.

"...Why is that?"

"Everyone at the campus... Ignores me. I don't know why." You say, your expression showing one of disheartened, but you bothered to put up a smile. "I know, I know, I shouldn't be bothered with this minimalistic stuff." You chuckle.

"... Human life inevitably takes the form of a struggle against loneliness. We reach out to others in order to avoid sinking into complete isolation. However, although they might provide us with some degree of consolation and felt connection, our loneliness is something that can never be overcome. Therefore, you have the right to be bothered by it. Even if everyone on your campus notices you, you'll still end up feeling lonely."

"So... You're telling me my feelings don't matter even if I single myself out?"

"You have me, don't you?"

"Woah??"

"Don't go around putting random ideas in your head. It's just, if you ever feel like you're the only person existing in the universe, remember me." He placed down the knife to lightly pat your head.

"..." It was as if you remember something foul, you feel your smile fading for a bit. "You know, I wondered if people avoid because they think I'm annoying. Do you find me annoying too Dr Ratio?" You humor a question.

"I'd be lying if I said not entirely."

"And here I thought you were trying to comfort me." You laugh, taking the strawberries he chopped and mixed it with the other ingredients. You think carefully on what you're about to say next.

"There was this one guy named [____], he thinks I'm annoying but... We... 'Talked' everyday, but one day he just suddenly killed himself." You wonder if you were the reason, though it's too far fetched, you still felt guilty.

"...i see, but you shouldn't blame yourself. It's not your fault, he must've had his own problems." He says... For some reason, you felt like he sounded awfully guilty too.

"...You're right."

You glance back at your baking progress only to see that it's already prepared for the oven. "Oh... It seems like we were taking too much I didn't even realize."

"Focus. Place that in the oven for 40 minutes." He orders, you nod and follow obediently.

As that was done, you breathe out a sigh. "Where's your bathroom?" You ask.

"Go to that hallway, you'll find it eventually."

You didn't bother to ask more and marched straight into it.

Whilst walking, you find... His room, no, it might be an office knowing who he is.

Your curiosity lead to dumb decisions such as this one, so you open the door which was surprisingly open. The room felt fancy and professional, you felt like you were a dirt intruding inside a perfectly clean place.

The walls were decorated with a bunch of awards, eight doctoral degrees, outstanding achievements in the fields of biology, medicine, natural theology, philosophy, mathematics, physics, and engineering— ah, you felt dizzy.

"Uwah..." You felt jealous, though it must've been stressful and uneasy to achieve all this. You send a regard in your mind for him, hoping that he didn't stress all this too much.

You wonder why you were even next to him, how could you even stand next to someone such as him, it felt like something out of fantasy, only someone with the same level as him should he be talking to. You were a simpleton compared to him.

Being in character of a simpleton, a stupid, brainless simpleton, you dig more on his room, to that resulted of you seeing a notebook placed on a desk. "Looks important... Is this his diary or something?"

Despite saying that, you still flipped the notebook into a page, reading it...

[Name] [Last Name]

Home Planet: Cosmos

Gender: [______]

Species: Human

Height: [______]

Weight: [______]

Address: [______]

Social Security Number: [______]

Birthdate: [______]

Collage Campus: [______]

Degree: [______]

Average Grade: 57% —> 96%

Biological Parents:

Mother: [______] - Occupation: The IPC Strategic Investment Department

Father: [______] - Deceased

Huh? Isn't this your... Private information... Why... Is it in his handwriting...? Your hand reluctantly flips to the next page.

[Name] [Last Name]'s history with their mother isn't difficult to understand, they're not fond of their mother for the sole reason of abandonment and high expectations, their mother does not have the time to raise a child for she is busy working for the IPC. However, she holds high expectations for [Name] despite not teaching them and leaving them to fend for their own without help, naturally, [Name], without tools, [Name] learned nothing and struggled to understand the materials exposed to them. With no choice left, their mother found a teacher that will help them raise up to her expectations.

I do not understand why she chose me out of everyone, perhaps because of the same age we have, but unlike them, my standards were advanced, choosing me will only cause [Name] to struggle more, I feel bad, so I set my teachings to them to be more tame and easy to understand, but difficult enough for them to improve even slightly, but to my utter surprise, they followed along with it. Not to say that they didn't struggle, in fact, they struggled greatly, but despite that, they pursued the materials. Despite their many flaws, they strive for the betterment of themselves.

Struggles and insecurities, they suffer from anxiety and depression, for one, they struggle to be hygienic and procrastinate, they prefer to relax and wallow on their own self pity rather than choose to study, they have a rather low view of themselves and low confidence, dead honest about thinking that they're a hopeless idiot, however they cover the fact that they think of that by joking around and putting up a false confidence to everyone. They care about the well-being of other people more than themselves. On the other hand, they feel the fear from failure, evident by how their hand trembles whenever they feel like—

Enough. You felt cold sweat dripping on you face. That's... Too much, he isn't supposed to know all this. It's you personal thing. How did he even...

You don't why, you really don't know why you still haven't left the notebook alone and left the room, you don't know why you still flipped to the next page.

Spreading rumors about them weren't difficult, as it seems like all those people are easily swayed by simple words, however, through that action, [Name] regretfully became a target of bad intent. Through pros and cons, I conclude that it was worth it, the sight of [Name] relying on me is ever so priceless.

[____], a wretch, a classmate of [Name], bullying [Name] over his own insecurities, rather than taking it out on something else, he takes out his pent up stress on other people, [Name] being the victim. [Name] seems to have noticed this, so rather than telling people of fighting back, they endured it, telling nobody about it (even me). I have a speculation that they simply endured it with a naive thought of helping that ignorant wretch.

He appears to have a delicate ego and heart, as it turns out he was taking it out on [Name] simply because he admired me and thinking that it should be him that I should be teaching rather than [Name]. As said, he had a delicate ego and a delicate heart, so it wasn't difficult to shatter it into pieces. I admit, though immoral, I found his dismay satisfying, ignorant people like him deserved to jump off that building—

You head snapped to the door and you felt a chilling sensation on your spine.

No longer wearing his mask, his head leaned onto the doorframe.

You drop the note book on the floor, seeing as pictures of you that were stuck on that note book to fly and scatter on the ground.

"Had fun reading? Were even in terms of privacy, did I ever tell you that you can meddle with my notes?" He questioned, his face showed no emotion.

"...Why— Why would y-you—?" You felt tears invade your vision, you heart being constricted.

"I take it were gonna have a long conversation later? No, actually..." He says, getting closer to you, you instinctively take the same steps back.

He gets closer and closer until your back is facing the wall, he placed a hand to obscure your vision. Perhaps the reason he covers his face around you, is because he's just as an open book as you when he's around you, he can't have you seeing his overly infatuated expression, even after he was trying so hard to hide it.

"Let's settle this short, right here, right now, I'll tell you everything. We have 25 minutes left, can't have the cake burning in the oven for too long can we?"

a/n: fun fact! just in case you missed it, at the first part of this short story, dr ratio subconsciously turned his head away from you because he was flustered by your gratefulness for him, sorry if it sounded like a vent at some parts, idk what occurred to me 💀, maybe it's because dr ratio is ironically my comfort character, i hate people like him irl but...

[amourcheol]

filmbro-zoned (teaser)

❝Who knew all it takes is a hot girl with top-tier taste for a man to admit he's wrong?❞

g e n r e : college! au, fluff, crack, suggestive

w o r d c o u n t : 1k for teaser (approx 20k words for full fic)

s u m m a r y : self-proclaimed movie mastermind chwe vernon minds his business—whether that be avoiding the popular, problematic kids in his college to reducing customer interest in his parents' film store. his plan of isolation, however, is completely destroyed when you, a seemingly insane disney fan, slams his perfect movie taste and ask for his help to take down an evil ex.

w a r n i n g s : loosely inspired by watching the detectives, film major! vernon who owns an outdated film store, mc is the baddest (but also the craziest) bitch in this fic, vernon is a loser, film major! mingyu who will be violated many times in this fic sorry king, mentions of many filmbro films which will also be violated, self-indulgent mentions of some of my favourite films, kissing, mentions of sex but no actual sex because im fearing god today, barbenheimer reference <3

p l a y l i s t : if you're too shy (then let me know) by the 1975 || q&a by seventeen || wonderful women by the smiths || confidence by ocean alley

t a g l i s t : @hyuckworld @hiraethmae @lllucere @intoanothermind @kokoiinuts

a u t h o r ' s n o t e : who would have thought i'd be writing a college au huh...alice will never let me live this down...also guys once again so sorry for constantly posting this hopefully i have found a way for the loophole...let us see if this teaser gets shown in the tags...

“WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WOLF OF WALL STREET, AMERICAN PSYCHO, PULP FICTION…FIGHT CLUB, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SCARFACE…”

You squinted at the list, finding the names neverending. “Jeez, this list keeps going, huh?” 

He could not help the scoff. “And you called me a Filmbro.” He set his forearms on the counter, locking his hands together. “What do you need these movies for?”

“They’re for my ex-boyfriend.” 

The term had him pausing. Of course—the ex-boyfriend. How has he heard of this man, but not know a thing about him? Shit, he did not even know your name.

“This ex of yours has an…interesting taste,” he said slowly. “What’s he like?”

“I can tell you he attends the same college as you. Well, us,” you clarified, jerking your head towards the college colours of your server’s hoodie. “Film major. Just like you, actually.” 

“Oh?” Small world. “What’s the name?”

“Kim Mingyu. Do you know him?” 

Vernon Chwe nearly shit his oversized jeans.

A hesitant nod of his head. “I have a few classes with him.”

“Oh?” Your stare was a little more intense now. “What do you think of him?”

Right. 

Another fated question—the people around him had to stop asking him such controversial questions, or else he was bound to piss someone off. You were already letting him off the hook too many times; one more judgemental comment, and he was having that Princess movie set smashed on his head.

Kim Mingyu. Fuckass Kim Mingyu. Film major—just like him. One of the most popular boys in the year—very unlike him. All the teachers love his essays, all the girls love his freakishly-perfect six-pack, which Vernon is extremely irritated (and devastatingly intimidated) by. 

What all these people failed to realise, though, was that Mingyu was the biggest piece of shit to grace the halls of his university—and the planet, if dramatics were in order. If you thought that Vernon was a filmbro, then Mingyu was Filmbrother. Filmcomrade. Filmnemesis. 

It was as if you could hear the thoughts churning in his head. “You can be honest, you know. He did dump me at the end of the day.” A smirk began to appear. “Say your worst.”

The reassurance did not help. “I mean,” he started, swiping your card, “He’s okay? I haven’t talked to him enough to have an opinion on him.” 

A half-truth—that should suffice. 

But because the fates like to shit on his head every now and then for kicks, they decided to leave you unsatisfied with his answer. “Or, you can keep lying!” 

Excellent intuition, really. “I’m not!” he exclaimed, slapping the card back on the counter. “I really don’t know much about him.”

The big man upstairs was testing him even further, when, with a determined gaze, you set your elbows atop the surface. You leaned closer, tilting your head to the side as you inspected him, and Vernon blinked back at the sheer lack of space you had created. His mouth twisted, eyes frantically darting at the features of your face, not quite taking in the entirety of your being. Your vision seemed to work perfectly, because it caught the slight flush at the tops of his cheeks, where it was just pale skin seconds before.

Your smirk deepened. “Judging by your blush, you’re either terrible at lying…or,” you offered, voice lowering a little as you drummed your fingers against the counter, “You’ve never had a hot girl this close to you.” 

Fuck everything and everyone, because that only made him blush more furiously. You could not help the chuckle that escaped, deciding to cease torturing him and take your card. “I’ll not say the answer, Mr. Filmbro, but I think you already know.”

Since he had no plans of turning into a human form of a ketchup bottle, he evaded the topic entirely, instead focusing on interrogating you. “You still haven’t told me how Mingyu is related to the movie list you made.”

That seemed to hold your interest. “Oh, of course!” Putting the list back into your bag, you began, “Well, the list holds my ex-boyfriend’s favourite films. I wanted to know your opinion on a few.”

He could not contain his sigh. Oh, he had an opinion on these films that you mentioned. Again, he would rather be buried with his thoughts on the specific genre than ever tell you. The curiosity, though, was eventually going to eat him alive.

So much for minding his business.

“I mean…” he began to think, trying to find the right words. “I don’t mind them? Godfather is a good film, but I’ve seen better from Brando. I like American Psycho, but again, people tend to miss the point of the movie.”

As you nodded, listening to his two-cents on the movies you mentioned, he paused, furrowing his brows. “Why do you care about my opinion?”

You smacked your lips together, folding the list back. “I don’t know much about you, Mr. Filmbro,” you began, “But you don’t run a filmstore without knowing a thing or two about the films you sell.”

“So?” He crossed his arms atop the counter. “Shouldn’t you have asked the guy who you made the list about?”

“Trust me,” you said, your smirk turning more into a rageful flash of teeth, “I know exactly what he thinks of these films.”

Don’t particularly know what to make of that comment. “Well, I don’t know what my opinion for these films is going to help you in any way.”

“It has helped.” You paused then, waiting to see if he would egg you on, asking how his seemingly tame opinions would play into the grand scheme of things. “All part of my master plan.”

Master plan? Vernon may have been interested before, but he was certain that, before, he could have hid it without letting you catch onto it. In a sudden flash, though, as if his mouth was beyond his control, he regrettably slipped out the words which had you smiling more than he would have liked.

“What master plan?”

He almost closed his eyes. Shit. Now I’m fucking invested.

The corners of your mouth, lifting upwards, had him almost nervous. “I was hoping you would say that.” 

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

routine vibe check: what’s the best starter pokemon and why are you right (pictures and long paragraphs of evidence welcomed and appreciated)

Gonna get a good grade in vibe check, normal to want and inevitable to achieve because I have objectively correct Pokemon opinions and will block naysayers

OKAY LET'S GO

I decided to do, like, a top 5 list or something, because I'm bad at picking a single favourite of stuff. And then even that overwhelmed me, so I found one of those tier ranking list sites and produced this:

It was done in less than a minute, so if I wanted to get really picky, I don't know if I would be fully wedded to it (not sure if maybe Sceptile should be one higher) BUT it did help to highlight the important ones.

So!

5. Bulbasaur

It's. Just. So. Nice.

Like you can find cooler, more beautiful, cuter, fancier... there's a whole bunch of ways for a Pokemon to be great. But you will never ever find a nicer Pokemon than Bulbasaur. It's so lovely. Look at it. Look at its face.

I can't put it higher, because the rest of the line is fairly bland in terms of development. It's good and logical and fun, don't get me wrong, but Ivysaur and Venusaur just look like bigger versions with More Flower and Less Cute rather than creatures in their own right. To be honest, if it weren't a starter requiring a three-stage evolution, you could do away with Ivysaur. Something I don't like about a lot of lazy three-step lines is that the middle step just looks like a transitional mid phase rather than a Proper Creacher, like they were artificially inflating the Pokemon number count. Meanwhile it took us until Paldea to get a Girafarig evo that would actually make the giraffe tall. Madness.

However my first ever Pokemon was a Bulbasaur I called Daffodil, and I have traded him forward onto every single successive generation since. He is, quite literally, my First Ever Pokemon. I love him desperately. I still have him. Not many people still have their First Ever Pokemon. But I do and I love him. So, Bulbasaur gets the fifth spot.

4. Snivy

Again, a victim of the Banal Transitional Middle Evo, but both Snivy and Serperior are incredible, and as Meatloaf took such pains to tell us, two out of three ain't bad.

But Snivy! It's so snooty! I was super lucky with mine, too, because I beat the 12.8% odds and got a female, and I loved her. Normally the initial baby starters are designed to be cute but Snivy has SO MUCH PERSONALITY, she's great. And the design of Serperior is utterly gorgeous. She keeps the expression, but rather than the Animal Crossing-style snooty-cute vibe of Snivy you get this thousand yard withering stare of an empress whose servant (you) has just turned up dripping mud in her throne room and asked her for money. Her green and gold colour scheme is exquisite. Her filigree design, including her high collar, give off the air of wealth and sophistication befitting her immaculate pedigree. And all this! In a simple snake. Incredible design work, 10 out of 10, no notes.

Begone, you miserable peasant. Have him boiled.

3. Torchic

Now I'll be real with you, lads, but Pokemon design hit its stride with Hoenn and then got better.

It's partly a fashion thing, of course - you look at some of the Kanto designs and they are remarkably 90s, because that's when the franchise launched. Others are clearly a product of what the 1990's were capable of producing in pixels on an already over-stretched cartridge medium. Like we like to clown on Red and Green/Blue now, but my god, those game designers performed a miracle with Pokemon. Every single square inch of space was used to make that game, and complex designs weren't going to cut it.

(With that said, there is still no excuse for Dragonite.)

And then Johto came about and its Pokedex sucks ass. It's mostly new evolutions for existing Kanto stars, useless babies to inflate the dex number, or poorly thought out single-evos like the inexplicably short Girafarig and the unacceptably dreary Dunsparce (our greatest thanks to Paldea for fixing both of those).

BUT THEN CAME HOENN (trumpets intensify)

And we get habitats! Biomes! A different regional climate, gifting us a brand new area of Pokecology! And therefore a brand new flush of creativity in Pokemon design across the board; less dated, and more inclined to be unique rather than a rehash of Kantonian stuff.

Which brings me nicely to this lad:

Now, I mean. Just look at him. Fucking hell. Cute starter stage, check. LOOK AT HIM FACE

AND THEN he became, at the time, a brand-new unique typing: Fire/Fighting. I realise that is now the norm for like, half of the Fire starters, but that's because of Torchic, actually. He was super popular. In fact if you ever play Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and you do what my husband and I like to call a Mynci Dave run (use one Pokemon almost exclusively, meaning it gets all the experience points and therefore over-levels to a terrifying degree, allowing you to sweep the game; so named after the noble Primeape we first did this with, Mynci Dave), Torchic is the PERFECT Pokemon to choose, because almost everything is weak to either Fire or Fighting in that region.

Anyway, Combusken is, again, kind of mid (although props for the inverted colour scheme and the fact that it actually does look like a teenager.) But Blaziken, on the other hand... Blaziken is a six foot ninja chicken with wings for hair whose Pokedex entry describes it as able to leap tall peaks in a single bound, a feat it achieves after strengthening its legs by hoofing Geodudes down mountains like they're fucking footballs

Also an impressive bulge.

My first was called Gilgamesh, and he was fucking great. For a long time, this mad lad was my actual favourite Pokemon, not just starter. Brilliant. Love him. Five stars out of three. King.

2. Fuecoco

It would probably surprise you to know I've not actually used one. I chose Sprigatito, and I do really like Meowscarada, actually. But pretty anthro cat boys have been done in Pokemon quite a bit at this point; cats, dogs and rabbits are over-represented in terms of Poke-taxa. Possibly this is another reason for a toad, a snake and a chicken being 5, 4 and 3 so far (ooh, basilisk ingredients, I've just realised.) They're new and unusual! I like an Eeveelution as much as the next person, but they're a whole family of cat-dog-rabbits, like.

However.

Nintendo has tried its hand at Pokecrocodilians three times (Feraligatr, Krookodile, Skeledirge), and they have gotten so much better at design each time that the three of them are basically a scale proxy for ongoing design improvement. Look, I've made a diagram:

EXCEPT

(Strap in)

This one is that rare thing: a three step line that deserves to be a three step line. Let's talk Fuecoco first:

SO CUTE. It's charming, it's charismatic, it's adorable.

It also has hints of its evolutionary end goal, but not like an undeveloped middle evo. It likes singing. The white face hints at the eventual calavera, and it looks a bit like a lil chilli pepper - a ghost pepper, probably in reference to the eventual Fire/Ghost typing. But the colours and shape right now also look a bit reminiscent of a babygro, because this thing is a cute starter. Lookit them teefs. That tuft. Its lovely smile. Beautiful.

And then, at the point you expect it to turn into just the awkward teenage version of the adult, instead we get Crocator:

Oh boy. Oh there's so much to say. Okay okay:

The region it's from is based on Spain, but this thing is incorporating Hispanic elements from across the board. It's a mariachi in a sombrero, except the sombrero also looks kind of like a ring of Mexican marigolds and kind of like a Catalonian Easter cake called Mona de Pascua that has an egg (or egg-shaped confectionary) in the middle. Body shape and markings look kind of like a piñata. The white face is now on its way to a calavera, with the cheek and nostril markings more defined. And it sings, with its open mouth (also how crocodiles release heat, appropriate for a Fire type) and signified by the mariachi theme.

THAT IS A LOT.

And then it becomes Skeledirge. A Fire/Ghost crocodile.

Now the obvious design here is the calavera and the  Día de Muertos theming, which is part of it. But there are also many examples of crocodile figures in Spanish folkloric ghost stories: the Catalonian Cocollona, the Lizard of Magdalena from Jaén, or the Drac de Na Coca, or even the Cuca - that one is Portuguese, but turns up in both Brasil and the Iberian Peninsula including in parts of Spain. It's got a Gaudi vibe (like Barcelona). It's got an alebrije vibe (like Mexico).

And the bird! Nile crocs have a cleaning symbiosis with Egyptian plovers; it also sits at the tip of the snout where male gharials have a sort of bulbous bit to help them make sounds (the singing thing).

But this is what the bird does when Skeledirge uses Torch Song:

It becomes a microphone, then grows in size and attacks the opponent in Phoenix form. Phoenix: Fire/Ghost. Resurrected from the ashes.

Quite simply, your fave could never.

5. Rowlet

My god. (My god)

gasp

Look at this lovely creacher. He is so round and so soft and so lovely. He looks like that baby Yoda meme. He looks like that cat that someone's landlord said they would make an exception for because he looks very polite. Look!!! At his lil bow tie!!! He is a smartly dressed young man and he is kind and he is... well, a bit vacant behind the eyes. A himbo, if you will. But he is all the better for that. What a lovely owl.

He looks a little like a barn owl, perhaps, and those were imported to Hawai'i, where Rowlet is from. But I think he looks a little like a Pueo owl, and given that he will eventually be a Ghost type, that seems right - pueos are one of the physical forms assumed by ʻaumākua in Hawai'ian culture, as I understand it.

And then, hang onto your tits, lads, because this is another banger - THE MIDDLE EVOLUTION IS ITS OWN DESIGN!!! (confetti cannons)

I said earlier that boring middle evos are like just awkward teenagers of the adults. Here, I present to you, a very deliberate Awkward Teenager, in Dartrix:

IT'S A DANDY

I love him I love him I love him

He plays with his fringe and if you touch it without permission he has a tantrum. God, he's so charismatic. Also, that fringe further suggests the pueo - they have pronounced outer rims around their facial disks like that. Look at his bow tie and tail coat. So smart and handsome

This one is so good that it could be the final evo. This is actually my issue with the Delphox line - Braixen is amazing, and then it becomes the bland boredom of Delphox. Braixen should have been the final stop. Here, Dartrix is much the same - good enough to be a high-quality end goal.

Where they differ is that Decidueye is better again.

IT SHOOTS ARROWS MADE OF ITS OWN QUILLS

Also, fun fact - This line is the only starter to change secondary typing. Dartrix is part Flying; but on evolving a second time into Decidueye, it switches to Grass/Ghost. In this evolution, it's definitely mostly a pueo, so the ʻaumākua reference is IN, but actually barn owls also have their associations with the dead in various cultures.

The crown of feathers around its head are also reminiscent of an ayaigasa - a hat worn by Japanese samurai archers. And yet! AND YET!

It still has its lil bow tie look. Bigger now, more of a cravat; but there it is.

A perfect Pokemon, and a perfect evolutionary line. No notes.

Anyway, thank you for this chance to waste three and a half hours writing this essay

[queenpiranhadon]

ᴅᴀʏ ꜱɪx: April 19th

Syn: You make the cake and decorate for the party.

Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

A/N: I'm actually really happy about how this event turned out- all the fics written in this collaboration can be read separately, but it's recommended you read them all in order :) The master list is here, go check out the other writers because they're so amazing and talented AUGH.

Warning(s): Cursing (it's Katsuki what are you gonna do), bad baking terminology, maybe ooc idk, reader is referred to as female like once- Kiri calls her ma'am, reader compliments Katsuki's ass lmao, just fluffy in general though, class 3-A, reader is in the hero course.

This was it. Tomorrow, your plan would finally be put in motion.  

It was the 19th of April, and to say the very least, you were stressed.  

Stressed might not be the word for it. More like anxiety, excitement and fear into one overwhelming emotion that you couldn't convey into words. Tomorrow was Katsuki’s 18th birthday. And everything had to be perfect.  

You sat in your dorm room, thumbing the pages of the cookbook you so loving made him, picturing his own rough hands touching the book the same way when you gave it to him. Your heart warmed at the thought- your boyfriend never ceased to give you butterflies, even without intending to.  

Doubt plagued your mind however- what if he didn’t like it? What if he thought it was too dumb, or too simple- should you have done more?!  

No, you scold yourself. You needed to trust yourself. You knew Katsuki well- he excelled in the extravagant, but he still found joy in the smaller things.  

Still... you couldn’t help but worry. This would be a big day for him-a huge milestone. You didn’t want to mess it up.  

Setting the cookbook down, you finally place it into the bag you had for him, jet black with orange stuffing. The small action put the whole situation into perspective for you.  

This was finally happening. 

But you still had work to do today. Pulling out your phone, you open the messaging app, and click on the contact you needed.  

You: Mission Keep Katsuki Away is a go >:) 

Kiri🥊: Yes ma’am >:)) 

Turning off your phone, you pocket it, and leave your dorm room. All that was left to do was the cake.  

After slaving through the school day, you all return to your dorms, with the exception of Kirishima and Katsuki, the former dragging the latter away for something he called “a bro date”. You chuckled at his excuse, and left them to their own devices as you returned to Heights Alliance, sending a text to Kirishima as you walked.  

You: Hey! What’s your status? 

Kiri 🥊: Just got to the bus! I’ll keep him busy as long as I can 

You: Perfect!! 

You: Thank you so much again 

Kiri 🥊: No problem! He’s going to love it, you put so much work into making this special for him :D 

You: Aww...thanks Kiri! Fingers crossed 😭 

You weren’t terrible at baking per se, but you weren’t no Sato. And you would ask him to make the cake himself, but you didn’t want to ask too much of anyone.  

So it was up to you. You wanted to make a small two-tiered cake, it would be enough to feed all of 3-A and hopefully there would be leftovers.  

Sifting through the pantry you found what you needed one by one. Cocoa powder, dark cocoa powder, eggs, milk, butter, flour, baking soda, the list went on. You were making a chocolate cake, covered in dark chocolate ganache, drizzled with caramel. Katsuki wasn’t a big fan of sweets, and you knew that, but cake was cake. You also knew that he secretly did have a sweet tooth so he wouldn’t be too upset. Hopefully the bitterness of the dark chocolate would make the rest of the cake a little less sweet to align with the explosive blond’s tastes.  

Grabbing three large bowls and the mixer Sato let you borrow, you get to work, mixing wet and dry ingredients separately, cracking eggs, melting chocolate, and whisking like your life depended on it.  

While you baked, you popped in an earbud, sweet music, lifting your mood and dancing around the kitchen, in your own world.  

And hour later, the two tiers of the cake were in the oven, (not before tasting the batter yourself of course) and you look around at the kitchen, the adrenaline rushing out of you. It was a mess. The was flour in your hair, on your face, and you’re pretty sure the cocoa powder on your shirt is going to stain.  

You sigh, taking off your earbuds and pausing the music from your phone. At least the cake was done.  

Grabbing the cleaning supplies from the closet, you get to work, making sure the kitchen was spotless so no one (namely Katsuki, for obviously reasons, and Ochaco and the self-proclaimed Bakusquad because they would beg you to have a taste of their own) would know what you were up to.  

The cakes were done by the time you finished, taking them out of the oven and sealing the two layers together with some ganache.  

You had asked Mr. Aizawa to reserve Gym Gamma for you previously, getting his permission to decorate the space for the party, and so you made your way there now, deciding to decorate the cake in the Gym itself so you wouldn’t have to move it afterwards.  

You got Ochako to float the cake and the toppings for it to the gym itself, so in the meantime, you busied yourself with setting up all the food- something you didn’t want to do yesterday as it would’ve gone stale.

You recruited the help of Kaminari, Sero, Mina and Kyoka to help you carry everything- including the mini fridge you saved up to buy to store the food and drinks overnight. You’d take them out the next morning.

When you got there, you were surprised to see Midoriya, Todoroki, Tsu, Iida, and Momo there alongside Ochako who explained they all wanted to help. 

You feel your smile stretch across your face, happy to see so many people who wanted to give Katsuki the best birthday ever.  

Splitting up the work, Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida went to go find the plates, cups, bowls, and cutlery you bought with Mitsuki - something you thought may have been overkill, but she had planned everything down to a T.

The others flitted around, either helping to put food or drink items into the fridge, or checking to make sure nothing happened to the decorations overnight.

You took to decorating the cake. Pouring the ganache over the first tier, you used it as an adhesive of sorts and you lifted the second layer on top of it. Once you did that, you poured the remaining ganache over the entire cake, evenly, so it created a pretty coat on top that you were sure it would add a nice crunch to the cake itself.

You groaned, stabbing your spatula into the quickly hardening ganache, having to ask Todoroki to heat it up every few minutes so that it wouldn’t harden completely- an annoyingly tedious task, but you knew Katsuki hated the taste of frosting- so hopefully he would appreciate the favor.

You waited for it to harden, then adding drizzles of caramel everywhere, and strategically placing strawberries where you could for a refreshing change in flavor.

And then lastly, adding thin golden candles to the cake, ten on the bottom row, and seven on the top. Momo created a special candle shaped like one of his gauntlets that you put in the center of the circle of seven candles on the top. And finally, you were done.

Momo made another contraption for you, a tall glass dome with temperature settings that you would put on the cake to prevent the strawberry from going bad overnight. After setting the cake on its stand, you put the dome over it, thanking Momo for her help.

It was then when you received two texts.

You open the first one, snorting when you read what it has to say.  

Katsu 💥🧡: Oi, I know you’re up to something- Shitty Hair just dragged me to the damn movie theater to watch some stupid Crimson Riot movie. 

You: Aww it couldn’t have been that bad!! 

You: Can’t the all mighty Lord Explosion Murder God Dynamight survive a short movie date? 

You: Plus I told you- I'm not up to anything lmao 

Katsu 💥🧡: I call bullshit 

Katsu 💥🧡: Plus that movie was three damn hours- short my ass 

You: To be fair, you do have a nice ass 

You: I KID I KID  

You: But I promise you’ll get extra cuddles when you get back my big baby 

Katsu 💥🧡: Fuck off 

Katsu 💥🧡: Meet me at my dorm after dinner

Katsu 💥🧡: And don’t think I’m letting at comment about my ass go 

You can’t stop the amused smile from spreading across your face as you check the other text message, one from Kirishima this time.  

Kiri 🥊: Hey! We’re about 15 minutes away- we'll be back around 18:32 PM 

You: Kiri jesus christ- you tell me this now?! 

Kiri: Sorry!! 

You put your phone down, yelling at everyone to finish up and get back to the dorms as soon as possible, people scrambling around to put the finishing touches together before bolting out of the gym, you along with them.  

Thankfully, you all made it back in time, flopping down on the couches just at the door opens to reveal a beaming Kirishima and a grumpy Katsuki.  

The latter raises an eyebrow at all of you, sending a narrow-eyed glare at you. 

“Why’re ya so outta breath?” He grunts suspiciously and you chuckle sheepishly in return.  

“Mina challenged Kaminari and Sero to go a piggyback race against Todoroki and Iida.” You laugh, the lie rolling off your tongue as the others nod in agreement. 

“We totally won.” Sero says smugly, and Todoroki sends him a confused look.  

“But-”  

Kaminari cuts him off, slinging his arm around the heterochromatic eyed boy nonchalantly. “It’s not winning if you use your quirk Todo-bro.” 

Katsuki rolls his eyes, all interest in the conversation out the window, as he starts making dinner for everyone, something he started doing a while ago when he lost faith in 3-A's ability to not burn the kitchen down.  

After you all settled down and ate, you and Katsuki returned to his room, making yourself comfortable in his bed as he joins you, pulling you close and letting his sore muscles melt into your embrace.  

You, however, couldn’t force yourself to relax, your body buzzing with excitement as tomorrow would arrive.  

Taglist ~

@gina239 @azzo0 @slayfics @peachsukii @cashmoneyyysstuff

@xbabyd0lli3x @lowkeyremi @starieq @angels-fantasy

@ah-mya @food8me @katsuisbaby @meowze4r @bigsimpo343

@seonne @wheezdostuff @berryvioo @icedemon1314 @mystic60

@kit-katsukii @stoned-anime-babe @kukikoooo

@le000xxgrd @tr-mha-fan

[riacte]

Team B.A.T.S. of Ninth Life — (MCC9 Blue Bats in Life Series terms):

It’s the ninth season of the Life series with a rotating cast of 40 players per season. False and Ren loyally ally every single season they’re in and their factions end up being the second faction to be eliminated three seasons in a row so they’re like “okay we’re going to do better for Ninth Life”.

Enter HBomb, winner of two Life series so far (Second and Seventh Life) and beloved leader. He has a meta of blessing his allies and propelling them to great heights. He is also a renowned prophet. H is present in a lot of final showdowns, losing Sixth Life to Fruit’s faction and is crushed by the “rivals to teammates” meta in Eighth Life. H has never really talked to False before, but the power of ✨prophecy✨ befalls upon him and he predicts False will do really well in a final showdown given that she’s on a faction that gives her what she needs.

Fruitberries is a winner of Sixth Life but his performance was not as expected in Seventh Life, leading people to think he’s not that skilled. However, this is the kind of thing that allows the Faction Mechanic at the beginning of the session (controlled by a mysterious being called Scott) to team up two skilled players while keeping it balanced.

Team B.A.T.S form and they get matching jerseys with letters on the back. They undergo a training arc. H famously claims, “It's kinda crazy how 86% of people sleep on their belly, I sleep on my side and the entire Life Series community sleep on Team BATS.” People predict they’ll be the fifth faction eliminated out of ten factions. They invoke the power of the Underdog meta to keep them safe and hidden. They have a brilliant session one and got their comms sorted by then, and while they did well, they weren’t the biggest threats. False and Ren comment this is the longest they’ve lasted before going down to yellow.

In session seven, a freak TNT explosion gets all of them down to red and they claim it’s the worst thing ever and start dooming themselves. But they raise morale and push forward and start killing everyone else instead. They are aided by Grian, who has turned red and his faction is mostly dead. Grian eliminates 3/4 of a major powerful faction. Team BATS continue slaying everyone in sight and in the end they reduce everyone to their red lives and even claim a few permakills. They break a kill record. Fruit rises up to the peak.

Naturally this makes them a big target and everyone comes in for them. Things initially don’t look good at the final showdown— BATS keeps on being knocked down, the public doesn’t want them to win, like 75% of people believe they’ll lose, it’s the year 2020, Hermitcraft fandom is in the trenches, but they miraculously reverse sweep and in the end Fruit gets the final kill. Ren gets a crown and his role playing is irreversibly changed. Fruit is pushed to S Tier status (an even higher rank than your average Life series winner).

This is the first time hermits win so it’s very exciting. The major consequences of this is that 1) H gets invited to Vault Hunters 2) Hermitttwt rallys around this victory (and that of Tenth Life) and becomes “officially recognised” 3) Ren takes this crown and does a royalty roleplay which irreversibly changed a bunch of people and helped to normalise non canon shipping.

Tldr: the BATS significantly impacted fandom landscape as we know now.

H’s prophecy gets fulfilled in Tenth Life when False permakills four people in a row (an ace) at the final showdown :)

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

ep 4. hey, you alright? | myj, jjk

sugar, spice, and everything nice ep 4. hey, you alright?

pairing(s): yoonji x reader x jungkook

summary: After encountering Jeon Jungkook's fuckbuddy on the train, Min Yoonji is in shambles. In shambles, but determined to do something about it. Doing nothing will only further the distance between her and one of her best friends. Yoonji figures she can throw a party, get him alone, and talk it out. And it works... sort of.

warnings: rated M (18+) for language; pan!f!reader; pan!Yoonji; internalized homophobia; gay panic; ft OT6 (Kim Namjoon, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook come to Yoonji's place for games and grub); minor alcohol consumption; f/f/m love triangle confessions (!!!); non-idol!AU - Yoonji's POV

--

This was the worst.

Not that Min Yoonji was the doomsday type – well, maybe – but, fuck, this was the worst. She knew she couldn’t let it go on like this. Just get over it. It was impossible. No, she had lived long enough to know it would be a terrible idea to avoid it any longer. Against better judgement, she needed to know. Just pretend. Absolutely not. Lying was out of the question. Not after that prolonged eye contact in the semi-darkness in front of the bath house. That warm hand holding her hand. I can’t lie to those eyes. But then there was also…

Anyway, she had to do something.

And so, she hosted a party.

That was making it sound more than it was. It was more of a mild get-together. Yoonji brought another pack of cold beers to her coffee table, calmly placing them against the snacks as her living room erupted with cheers from three guys. She collected the empty cans and spared a look at the chaos. Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook were bouncing around in a circle, excited at the goal scored. Funnily enough, they were all dressed true to their personalities – Jimin in a neatly fitted sky blue sweater and dark jeans, Taehyung in a white t-shirt and loose brown pants, Jungkook in all black fit. A hoodie and cargo pants.

She had invited them all over to watch Team Korea’s match this evening.

Kim Seokjin hadn’t been able to make it due to work commitments. That handsome guy had an early call time for his latest movie shoot, which was understandable. He had been disappointed, because it was quite rare for Yoonji to host, and he had childishly complained about not getting the good treatment. That was Seokjin’s own way of expressing that he missed them. Yoonji missed him too, as he was the only one older than her, and, although she could never trust Seokjin during the apocalypse, she did appreciate that he always helped out with cooking and cleaning.

Seokjin also understood her, innately, and naturally overtook duties when she was wearing out.

She headed back to the kitchen. Yoonji didn’t host often because it was a social commitment that would last several hours, and her introverted self had limits. She did, however, enjoy watching sports, especially basketball. Football was also up there, bumped onto a slightly lower tier because, well, the black-and-white ball smacking into the net wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the swish of orange. Anyway, she was glad they could all come, even if it was noisy.

“Ah, glad I didn’t come back to a burnt stove or a chopped-off finger.”

“Oi!”

Kim Namjoon made a face at her from above the onion. The way the tall, built man was clutching the knife was slightly concerning. Yoonji prodded over and fixed his hand positioning on the handle, shaking her head. Namjoon frowned. Comical for such a stern-looking face. Yoonji pointed to his light-colored sweatshirt.

“How did you get onion juice on you already?”

Namjoon looked down, his eyes widening, his deep voice annoyed. “What? Aw, shit!”

She didn’t know why such a clumsy guy had chosen a matching cream sweat set to wear. The world was full of mysteries. “I’ll ask Jimin to help,” she sighed exaggeratedly.

“Hah, noona, come on. I can at least cut an onion.” Namjon pouted. Now that was hilarious for a man almost two meters all. “Let the young ones have fun. Have some faith in me.”

With a wave of her hand, Yoonji made a disgruntled noise and turned away, already feeling the prickling of irritation at the corners of her eyes from the half-chopped onion. She would have overtaken onion duty if she didn’t go blind while doing it. Damn onions for being natural bioweapons. She began to prep the carrots instead.

“Don’t let year fourteen of knowing you be the last year.”

“Noona…”

Still, she laughed under her breath. “Thanks for helping me with dinner.”

“I don’t know if I’ve actually helped yet,” Namjoon muttered, chopping very slowly.

She wanted to say something, but she found herself silent and going through the motions, swiftly slicing up the carrots and cabbage. Occasionally Jimin with his neatly parted hair and concerned face would pop into the kitchen, asking if he could help, and Yoonji would wave him away. Then, moments later, Taehyung would inevitably stick his nose into the kitchen after his bathroom break, his permed dark brown curls sticking up in every direction, peeking into the oven to see the crisping meat, and Yoonji would shoo him away too.

Jungkook only stopped by once.

“You two okay? I can help make ramyeon.”

Maybe it was just her imagination, but his voice sounded more timid than usual. She would usually raise her head and scold him. This time, Yoonji kept her eyes on the simmering pot and kept stirring.

“We’re fine. Go sit down,” she said to the noodles.

“Ah… Okay.”

Once she heard him moving away from the kitchen, she let out a contained breath. Namjoon came up beside her, holding the bowls of sliced carrot, onion, and cabbage. The poor onion looked as if it had been through a woodchipper. Meh, no one will even notice once it is all mixed in. Minced was an understatement.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Hm?” Yoonji answered absentmindedly, taking the bowls and gesturing to the carton of eggs on the kitchen counter.

The tall male went over to fetch them, sending her a searching look. “You were a pretty blunt just now.”

She paused slightly. “Ah… I was distracted.” She waited a moment and turned off the heat, ready to drain the noodles.

“I can’t help but feel that you’ve been a bit cold to Jungkook today.”

The hot steam shot up as Yoonji poured the water into the sink, carefully using chopsticks to hold back the bulk of the noodles. She sensed Namjoon backing up, probably due to the clouding of his glasses. She took the moment to reflect. Yes, that was one of the reasons for today, to figure out if she was okay in Jungkook’s presence. To test if she was, well, normal. To stop running away.

It was… going well.

“Did something happen?” he gently asked. “We can always talk later.”

“I…”

She turned around to see a frowning Kim Namjoon. He looked like a worried Great Dane with his great height and presence.

“Ahah, no, it’s nothing like that,” Yoonji sighed, giving up. “It’s a small misunderstanding. I was going to ask him to stay back a little tonight and talk about it. You know how it is for me. When people ask me to talk one-on-one, I’m a lot more comfortable. When I have to initiate, I have to make a lot of effort.”

He nodded, understanding. “Oh, I see. That’s good. It’s been a while since just you and Jungkook hung out. He mentioned recently that he missed drinking at your place.”

She felt her cheeks warm. It was probably the steam of the noodles as she was transferring them to a metal bowl. She began to pour in packets of sauce and adding additional seasonings. “Oh.” Her hands moved quickly as her mind slowed down, noisily clacking the chopsticks to evenly coat the noodles. “I didn’t realize it’s been a while.” Or that he noticed.

Namjoon’s hooded gaze lowered, bending down slightly to keep eye contact. “You seem a bit withdrawn lately. Work going well? Or is it something else?”

She tried to laugh it off, but only just. “Work’s fine. Busy, but fine.”

“Creative block?”

Yoonji thought back to her lyric notebook, the pages crumpled, covered in scribbled confessions and confused fantasies that she desperately wanted to scream to the world, yet couldn’t. “Hm, you’re probably right about that.”

Her longtime friend nodded, his glasses and buzzcut making him look like a sage-like chestnut. “Yeah, that makes sense. My door is always open.”

She chuckled. “My experiments are a bit too childish for a professional.”

Namjoon made a face. “Don’t be like that. Even if you only want it to be a hobby like you said, you’re talented at making music, Yoonji-noona. I’ve always said that.”

“Haha, thank you.” She finished the ramyeon and added some cheese on top. She began to sauté the vegetables to add as a side dish, along with kimchi. “How about you? Working on anything new?”

“Hmm, finishing up some master mixes.” Namjoon was a music producer at an entertainment company. Probably what Yoonji would have done in another life, if she was braver. “Doing some experiments of my own now that I have time. I’ve recently begun to focus more on delivering those pure, closed-off feelings in my latest project, even if it pains me to do so.”

She flicked the pan, distributing the mix evenly. “Oh? How cool of you.”

“Ah, I don’t know of it’s cool or pathetic.” He sounded sheepish.

“It’s not pathetic to talk about painful things, Namjoon-ah. We all go through such things.”

A deep, embarrassed laugh. “Yeah… Haha, you’re right. I’m only having a little trouble because I want it to be simpler, but my own poeticism is getting in the way. If I’m allowed to talk about myself like that.”

With a hum, Yoonji wholeheartedly agreed. “You’ve always had a way with words.”

He sounded distant, as if he was talking to himself.

“Not a way with love, though.”

-

If there was a way to figure this out alone, Yoonji would have gone that route. If there was a way to stay silent and watch it work itself out, she would have let it happen. The answer wasn’t that simple, and so she found herself surrounded by Park Jimin and Jeon Jungkook, the two who hung back to clean up after the chaos. Kim Taehyung had wanted to stay behind, but he offered to take Kim Namjoon home instead, who had passed out at some point. A testament to his long nights lately, she was sure, and Taehyung lived the closest to him. Jimin had dragged Jungkook to help him, not that the youngest needed to be ordered about. They had a textbook older-brother-younger-brother relationship complete with meaningless bickering.

“Take out the trash.”

“No, you.”

“You’re stronger!”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with anything!”

Yoonji simply shook her head and let them fight, watching Jimin carry the recycling out while Jungkook grabbed the trash bag. It wasn’t necessary, but it did save her the trip of carrying it all herself. She wiped down the kitchen counters as the last step. Waited a moment. Soon enough Jimin came back, ready to wash his hands before heading out. Yoonji frowned.

“Where’s the kid?”

Jimin stuck his tongue out. “I made him sort the recycling.”

“Hah… I should have gone with you two.”

He huffed. “He can handle it.” Those swift dark eyes shifted from the soap to her face. He rinsed them off as he added, “I wanted a word with you, anyway.”

She felt her frown deepen. “Hm?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Jimin said softly, drying his hands on the spare towel. “It seems like… You’re having a hard time, maybe?”

A muscle in her eye twitched. Fuck, am I that obvious? “What?”

He straightened he sleeves of his sky-blue sweater. “Ah, come on, noona. We’ve known each other for a long time,” he chided, punching her shoulder lightly. She shot him a look and Jimin held up his hands in mock defeat. “Okay, I get it. Just…” His arms lowered slowly. He smiled, as he did when nervous. “I’m totally useless when it comes to problem solving, but I can listen. I have ears.”

Yoonji narrowed her eyes. “Hm, they’re kinda small. Like the rest of you.”

The little angel flared. “Hey! I’m not–”

She waved away his words with an impatient hand. “It’s not like I don’t get down sometimes. I’m human. Anyway, why do you think I asked you guys if you wanted to come over? I simply needed some human interaction. That’s all.”

Jimin softened. “Ah. Yeah, makes sense.”

They shared a beat of silence.

He was still giving her a strange look of knitted brows and upturned lips. She raised an eyebrow. He shook his head. And then Yoonji got it. Oh. Jimin seemed to catch on, too, that she finally understood what he had been hinting at. They had, after all, known each other for a long time. He had only learned of the very low lows after the fact, but the concern was valid. She shook her head.

“No, it’s nothing like that,” she assured him.

He seemed relieved.

“That’s good then.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Jungkook burst into the apartment, looking pissed off.

“Park Jimin, you linthead, why would you–”

Insulting Jimin’s hair was a surefire way to get a fiery response. However, the youngest cut off mid-sentence, wide-eyed once he noticed the closeness between Jimin and Yoonji. She locked eyes with big, brown ones. An irrational guilt squeezed inside her ribcage to the point of crushing. There was a moment too long of frozen silence, and then she smacked her palms into Jimin’s chest, sending him stumbling back with a surprised yelp.

“Aah!”

Both Yoonji and Jungkook watched as Jimin nearly crashed into the kitchen island, catching himself with one hand. He reoriented himself and sent Yoonji a startled look. A split second to decide to look away or glare back. She frowned and crossed her arms. Jimin seemed taken aback.

Jungkook said nothing.

The front door closed behind him with a squeak and a click.

“The fuck…?”

Jimin looked hurt.

She felt the tops of her cheeks warm. “Sorry, I…” She found that she couldn’t look at Jungkook so instead she reached out and held out her hand to Jimin. And lied. “The moment reminded me of a bad situation I was in the past. Really shitty déjà vu. Not your fault. I reacted badly. I’m sorry.”

He accepted her apology right away, taking her hand to lift himself up. “Oh.” He looked empathetic. It made her feel even guiltier. “That’s okay.” He was about to say something else but Yoonji patted his hand.

“You should have helped him.”

“Jungkookie’s a big boy,” Jimin teased, letting go of her hand. “Right, kid?”

She couldn’t help but feel a loss of safety at the action.

The youngest puffed a cheek. At least, that was what she heard. “Stop acting like you’re so much older.”

“Oh, as if you aren’t hitching a ride with me,” Jimin tutted, walking up to that big chest and pulling out his keys. “I gotta babysit the baby, noona.”

“Actually, uh…”

She finally raised her head to see Jimin and Jungkook staring back at her like two meerkats on the lookout. One in blue and one in black. An uncomfortable thump-thump tittered in her chest when she made eye contact with the one in black. Deep breath. “Actually, can you stay back for a bit, Jungkook? I want to ask you something. I’ll pay for a ride home for you.”

Something flickered in those dark brown eyes.

Yoonji tried not to bite her lip in nervousness.

Then, Jungkook huffed and poked Jimin in the chest. “Go babysit yourself, shorty. I have to go wash my hands because of you.” He stepped around Jimin, kicking off his shoes and heading towards the guest bathroom. “I was gonna call my friend to pick me up, anyway.”

“Your girlfriend?” Jimin snickered.

“Shut up.”

And, perhaps for the most fleeting of seconds, Jungkook caught Yoonji’s gaze.

They shared a stilled breath of silence.

Then he moved out of sight and yelled, from the bathroom. “Get out, Jimin-ssi!”

Jimin rolled his eyes. “Can you believe this guy? Acting like he owns the place.”

Yoonji smiled, feeling somewhere between relief and panic. “Thanks for helping me clean up.”

“Anytime, anytime.” Jimin slipped into his loafers and saluted her. “I leave the baby in your capable hands. Call me if he whines.”

She was about to say something related to that, but then Yoonji stopped, holding the door for Jimin.

“I’m sorry, again, for pushing you like that.”

He shook his head. “Hey, I get it. It was instinctive.” Jimin smiled, then reached out to give her a small hug. She returned it, feeling remorseful. He let go and beamed at her. “I know you’ll hate hearing this, but even if you’re older than me, noona, I still feel the need to protect you. Even if you don’t want me to. Me and the guys are your safety net, okay?”

She made a face and tried not to cringe. “Ew.”

Jimin grinned, making his eyes disappear.

“Love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, love ya. Go away before I vomit. Bye.”

She shut the door and held her breath.

I can’t do this.

She couldn’t blow all this up.

Implode everything for… for what? She almost wished she hadn’t talked to Jimin like that. It only reminded her of what she could lose if she opened her mouth. She leaned against the door. Exhaled heavily. She didn’t have to say anything. Fuck, was she not the older one? The more mature one? The one to take some damn responsibility? She was making a mistake. It was time to tell Jungkook to go home. She turned around, intending to go into the living room.

The door to the guest bathroom opened.

Jeon Jungkook stepped out, looking worn out as if he too he just lost his own internal battle.

His black hair was a bit damp, like he had splashed his face and pushed his bangs back. Wet strands drifted against his forehead. His hoodie sleeves were pushed up to his elbows, revealing one tattooed, muscular forearm and one equally defined, un-inked one. He ran his hand through his hair again, his head turning, searching in the stillness.

Yoonji paused.

The youngest of her friends stopped too, realizing they were alone.

He had such a handsome face, truly.

She cleared her throat a bit and started shuffling to the living room.

“You, uh, should call your friend.”

The words felt as if they were burning her throat as she said them.

Jungkook hesitated, then followed. “Didn’t you want to ask me something?”

She pointed to the couch. He obediently plopped down. She stared at him for a second, faltered, and backed away.

“Ah, on second thought, it’s nothing,” she forced herself to say.

Those large eyes followed her movement. Yoonji told herself to run. Then his gaze went downcast. She felt a tug of regret. His hands weren’t moving to his pockets yet. They hung between his legs. He slotted one onto the other.

Holding his own hand.

Silence.

Then, he nodded.

“Okay, noona.”

His name flew out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“Jungkook.”

He looked up, confused.

Her heart was beating so fast that it was choking her. Her hands felt hot. The ghost of recollection, another wrapped around the back of her hand, standing at the entrance of a bathhouse under the moonlight. A mischievous smile flashed in her mind’s eye. Shit, it felt so fucking weird with Jungkook, him staring at her as if they didn’t know each other. When had this distance appeared, and why? Yoonji found she hated it. She hated this distance more than all these other confusing emotions.

She went over and sat down next to him.

He seemed startled, his broad shoulders jumping, and Yoonji was pissed at how this closeness was no longer the comforting feeling it used to be. They used to be fine with this. They used to tease each other and laugh together. They used to be friends.

And she was going to lose him if she didn’t say something.

“Jungkook, I…”

Get it over with, Min Yoonji!

“I like your girlfriend.”

Those big brown eyes widened, his pink lips parting, the overhead light catching the tops of his cheekbones.

“Me too,” he breathed.

They stared at each other.

Then, his words actually clicked in Yoonji’s mind. Wait, what? But before she could say anything more, Jungkook grimaced and buried his head in his hands, mussing up his hair in a mild panic.

“Fuck, I should have asked her to be my girlfriend from the start!”

She jolted, not expecting this result. “You still haven’t?”

“Ah, I…” He shook his head like a dog, nervous energy pitching his normally deep voice. “She… fuck, Yoonji-noona, I know, I know, I screwed up saying nothing, just like last time…”

“Whoa, slow down.”

She reached out a hand, paused, then placed it on his upper arm. Jungkook was hunched over, elbows on thighs, not looking at her, stricken.

“Hey. Hey,” she said, shaking his shoulder. “Get a grip. What do you mean?”

She saw his brows furrow. He continued staring at the ground. “I… I don’t know. I can tell she’s pulling away, because of me… I can’t bring myself to say anything, because…”

“Hah?” Yoonji scowled and squeezed him under her hand. “What more assurance do you need?”

Jungkook lifted his head.

He looked beaten. He looked guilty. His gaze wavered. She held onto him. He felt solid and strong in her hold, but his eyes were lost, imprisoned in unspoken hopes and fears. Her problems seemed stupid compared to this heartbreaking confusion before her.

She sighed, putting on a resigned expression. “What is it? Do you need someone else to tell her for you?”

His eyes went from the floor to her face. Yoonji felt her teasing tone falter.

“I couldn’t say anything to you.”

Her heart stopped.

Jungkook lowered his head again, tilting his gaze. His voice sounded far away and sad. “If I couldn’t say anything to you, someone I am comfortable with, someone I have a friendship with, then how can I say anything to someone I absolutely can’t lose?”

Her hand left his arm.

“W… What?” she breathed, staring at him.

He took in a deep breath and turned his body a bit to better face her.

“Yoonji-noona…”

She couldn’t move, slack-jawed.

Apology in those deep brown eyes. He opened his mouth but Yoonji shot her hand out, gripping his forearm, his skin hot under her cold fingers. We’ve been friends for a really long time. If we were gonna date, it would have happened already. Oh, shit. She swallowed hard, realizing how her off-hand comment must have affected him back then. She tried to breathe. It was impossible, so she picked trying to speak instead.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she croaked, wanting to run and stay at the same time.

He winced. “Uh… Yeah,” Jungkook mumbled, his eyes shifting away.

She shook his arm impatiently. “Since when?”

The sound of him clearing his throat seemed to radiate throughout the room. “Um. Well.” He stumbled through words, stringing them together oddly. “While ago. You were dating that… uh, you called him a bastard too. Even when you broke up, you seemed off. Really depressed. Drinking every night at Namjoon-hyung’s place. I was so worried, but he told me to give you time. I… Anyway. I mean, I’ve always only been a kid in your eyes. And you’re my friend. So. Wouldn’t work. And I… I would rather be your friend than be rejected. I guess I got over it. And I met her, eventually. Uh, so... you know... I’m over it.” He waved his free right hand awkwardly.

His fingers stilled.

He dropped his hand.

“But I don’t think I’m really over it.”

His lips twisted upward, revealing the small mole underneath them. Perfectly in the center. Perfect, like the rest of him.

“If I was, then she’d be mine right now,” Jungkook sighed, the air rushing out of his whole chest at his words.

She didn’t know what to say.

Her other hand grasped her jeans, trying to steady herself with the tactile world. Her mind went back to that Instagram post. It was then. Of course, she hadn’t been in the right headspace back then. She had been playing mental Russian roulette between all that gaslighting and toxicity. After the breakup, she actively numbed her emotions every day, every night. Tried so hard to dissociate. Wore out the words, I’m fine, like it was in fashion. The worst part was how she felt like such an idiot, knowing she had willingly let herself be that pathetic for someone that ultimately didn’t matter. That internal shame had projected into her avoiding any meaningful connection with her friends except for Hoseok. Probably wouldn’t have reconnected with them at all if it wasn’t for that ball of sunshine pushing her to rejoin society. Contrary to her intrusive thoughts, they had all welcomed her back as if she hadn’t lost contact for months.

Jungkook sighed.

It took Yoonji a moment to realize he had sighed her name.

No, not her name but her name.

“She’s so cool. That was the first thing I thought when I saw her.” He raised his head, gazing into a direction not in this room. “She hadn’t spoken a word and I already liked her. Fuck, when she looked at me… I swear my heart stopped. I couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes for weeks. So fucking hot. She’s smart, too. Knows so much stuff about everything. About life. I thought it must be a dream when she kept talking to me. Me? No way, right? She even likes my dumb humor. Her laugh is so great, especially when she can’t breathe… It’s so funny.” He smiled briefly. Then it vanished. “She’s tough too. She told me a little about how she grew up, and I… huh, is this selfish? I just keep thinking, I want to be the one who makes her happy. I want her to always be happy. But…”

He sighed heavily.

“Maybe I don’t have the guts, after all.”

There was no good word to describe how she felt. Stunned. Ashamed. A hinderance. Should she have known? Could she have known? If that now meaningless bastard hadn’t fucked her up so bad, would this conversation be different? But she couldn’t change anything now. The world was moving fast and slow at the same time. It must have been seconds, but it felt like hours. He wasn’t blaming her. And yet, Yoonji couldn’t help but think that her choices, her actions, her very existence had made everything worse, somehow. She pulled her touch away.

Jungkook’s head turned slowly, making eye contact.

“It makes sense,” he chuckled dryly. Half-smiled. “Why you would like her.”

Then those dark brows knitted together.

“Wait. What do you mean, Yoonji-noona, you like her?” he started, jerking back in alarm.

Her heart leapt to her throat.

“Uh–”

Then, the devil herself interrupted.

An explosion of sound blasted from his right pocket. They both jumped, startled at the intrusion of a rising ringtone, growling singing mixed with heavy guitars. His hands fumbled with his pants and Jungkook yanked his phone out of his pocket, his eyes widening at the name, answering it after shooting her a frightened look.

“H-Hello? Noona?”

“Hey, you didn’t text me.” She could barely hear that husky voice but she could hear it all right. She sounded annoyed. “You answered so you’re not dead. I thought you said you needed me to pick you up?”

“Um.” He glanced at Yoonji.

She threw up her hands in a wordless the-fuck-you-looking-at-me-for stance.

“Oi. Earth to Jeon Jungkook.”

The tip of his pink tongue flickered over his lips. “Ah… yeah. Yeah, sorry. I’ll text you the address.”

“Hey, if you wanna stay longer, that’s fine. I just need to know a time so I don’t pass out too early.”

“No, noona, um, please.” Jungkook glanced at her again. Yoonji looked away, feeling her cheeks warm. Why was he looking at her repeatedly like that? “If you could come now. Please.”

“Hmm, a please, huh? Well… since you’re insisting so sweetly.”

And then the call ended.

She snapped her head back and clenched her jaw. “What are you doing–”

“Shouldn’t we talk to her?”

Yoonji froze. He was certainly right. She must be losing it if Jungkook was being the sensible one here. Argh, fuck it. She pursed her lips, not willing to meet his gaze.

“You’re right. Go on. Text her the address.”

“Are you su–”

She snapped towards him and nodded fiercely. “Come on. We’ve run around in circles long enough. I’m tired of things being weird between us. Before anything, we’re friends, Jungkook. Let’s not act like strangers.”

He was gripping his phone very tightly, his cheeks flushed pink, his big peepers extra big.

“Y… Yeah. You’re right.”

-

Half-smirk.

“Yo.”

Black bomber jacket with an oversized ruffle on the shoulders, dark scarlet silk slip dress with an exaggerated black lace trim, and black heeled boots. The bright silver buckles were in the shape of moons. Her hair was wild. There was not a lick of makeup on her face except for lip balm that gave her full, mauve-pink lips a glossy sheen. She moved and Yoonji looked away, startled at the leg slits of the slinky dress that exposed even more of her upper thighs.

“Crazy I ran into you here,” Jungkook maybe-maybe-not girlfriend mused out loud. “Nice sweater. Excellent taste, might I add.”

Yoonji suddenly felt very shapeless in her dark-grey and black striped sweater and baggy light wash jeans. Shapeless, but not clueless.

“Hah…”

The past twenty minutes had been pretty damn awkward. Neither she nor Jungkook could get the balls to speak to the other, even though one of them had grown up with them. Yup. What a sign of long-term friendship. Right. Maybe they both thought everything would be solved with the appearance of those scorched eyes. Or maybe they hoped they could pretend all this never happened if she didn’t show up. Perhaps she would get annoyed at the run around and tell Jungkook off.

Or something.

Yoonji backed up and ticked her head inside her apartment.

“Come in.”

A shift in gaze. “Simply to pick him up? What did you do to him?”

She tried not to notice or care about the mischievous glint under lashes. Like cinders still burning. There was nowhere else to look, though. The woman on the other side of her door had her hands in the pockets of her jacket. It was unzipped, giving peeks of those exposed collarbones and the lace-trimmed décolletage. Looking at those bare legs was an absolute no-go.

“Just get in here,” Yoonji muttered, backing away from the door and heading out of frame.

She didn’t bother to look. She did hear the faint hum and two steps into her home. A pause. Yoonji turned back around to see her front door being closed. They locked eyes. She looked away first. A soft, bemused sigh.

“N… Noona.”

Yoonji jumped at the appearance of a black lump with too-big eyes standing in the hallway. His hands were shoved into the front pocket of his hoodie. He had even pulled up the hood, like some kind of utterly useless fabric safety net to the fire before them. He awkwardly shuffled a bit closer, avoiding Yoonji’s stare.

“Hey, Jungkook.” Her tone was still light. “Sup?”

He coughed. “Uh…”

“You wanna tell me why I’m standing here with the two of you acting like you just buried a body?”

Yoonji winced. She turned back to a raised eyebrow. The woman hadn’t gotten out of her boots yet. Still standing there next to the door with Jungkook’s discarded sneakers and Yoonji’s everyday ones. When she shrugged, the oversized ruffle of her bomber jacket flounced to accentuate it. She flickered her gaze from one to the other. Still silence. Finally, Jungkook’s more-then-friend-with-benefits crossed her arms and shot them both a discerning eye.

“Look, I’m not the police. I don’t feel like interrogating.” She sucked the inside of her cheek and made a dimple appear. “Kinda seems like you both wanna tell me something, though. So, out with it.” Tilt of the head, her hair curling in waves around her face.

No one spoke.

Those dark eyes hardened to flint. She sighed, now impatient.

“Hm? You both confessing you fucked or what?”

Yoonji could feel her cheeks burn to red in an instant.

“What? No!”

and

“No? What!”

At the same time.

Jungkook had exclaimed in unison with Yoonji, flinging his hands out and crossing the distance. Immediately Yoonji backed up – into where else but towards the fire herself. She almost tripped when she felt a hand on her back push her forward. She spun, freezing as she ended up beside Jungkook, gawking at the woman standing by the door with an ominous but otherwise unreadable expression.

Said expression shifted from one guilty expression to the other.

“Yeah. Okay.”

She rolled her eyes and lowered her arms.

She made to leave. Jungkook called her name, pain in his tone. She stopped mid-turn, stilling. Yoonji could hear it too. She looked from him to her. That scalding stare informed them that she would not let herself be burned again. It wasn’t quite directed at either of them though. Just guarded in general.

“It’s not like that,” he pleaded. “Please believe me.”

A beat of bated breath. Then she straightened and regarded him like bird of prey. “It wouldn’t matter if it was,” she concluded. She shrugged again with an inappropriate, small floof. “I only need to know for my own sexual health. You said you don’t want to be my boyfriend. You don’t need to worry about my feelings being hurt, because they aren’t.”

The look on Jungkook’s face indicated that she might as well have slapped him.

Finally, Yoonji nudged herself forward. “We didn’t. I wouldn’t.”

The second that sharp gaze swiveled and pierced right through her, she winced. It was not the same as the teasing playfulness or even the ambiguous friendliness. It was disappointment. Not focused at her. Overall, at the entire situation. As if this happened enough times for her to know all the script, marks, camera angles. As if she knew this would happen despite not wanting the current cast to be part of the scene.

“But you would.”

There were a right answer and a wrong answer here.

Yoonji couldn’t answer at all.

A curt nod to the silence. Those predator eyes went to Jungkook.

“And you?”

He chewed on his lower lip, the windows to his soul glassy.

“You know I want to be with you. More than anyone.”

For fuck’s sake, there was more silence than there was talking. After a prolonged pause, the woman left out a low sigh, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets, running her tongue over her back teeth. Yoonji finally found her voice. Small and unsteady, sure, but she spoke up anyway.

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”

A shadow crossed over dark orbs. The fire within died down a bit.

Or, at least, was obscured.

“You know.” That soft, husky voice calmed, retracting the previous sharpness. “I believe sex is an action that reflects undeniable truths. But, I know unspoken intentions reveal more than the actions themselves. So, while you two may not have had physical sex,” she said, slowly tilting her head from one way to the other. “That part matters less than the omission of truth. And I think I’m missing a big part of the picture right now.”

Yoonji exchanged glances with Jungkook, who moved at the same time, almost if on cue. They looked away from each other, then back up. Raised eyebrows. Shit. He was right. She was smart. And tough. She wasn’t running.

She did not run, for their sake.

Another sigh and the other woman reached down to unzip her boots. Stepped out of them, easily, and then she was standing right on front of them. In black socks with surprised-looking white ghosts all over, funnily enough. Lengthy eye contact with Jungkook. An entire conversation in silence. Then Yoonji. She had the strangest feeling, staring deep into those eyes. Bird of prey was the wrong judgement. There was no intent to conquer. She had already conquered. Yoonji could see it, from the way she held herself to the measure of forgiveness she had already given them. This was someone that spared no more naiveté when it came to others, a trait that could only be earned by having their innocence scorched to ash. She had overcome it, faced it, become reborn from it.

Like a phoenix.

A phoenix.

Her own eyes widened in the dark mirrors of the other woman.

She smiled faintly at Yoonji.

“Are you ready to fill me in?”

Then she knocked shoulders with them and headed to the living room.

Jungkook seemed anxious. He turned toward Yoonji. Probably for reassurance. She had none to give. Yeah, you and me both. Her heart was ricocheting in her ribcage. Too late to turn back now. She made an irritated face, muttering under her breath.

“Hmph. Fuck you for having good taste in women.”

-

ep 5. trust that i trust you. sugar, spice, and everything nice

--

min yoonji masterpost | masterpost

[stormdragon23]

5 times Choi Jong-In looked out for Baek Yoon-Ho + 1 time he didn't

Finally finished the first chapter

Full chapter also posted below:

Baek Yoon-Ho hated dealing with the media.

Yoon-Ho always tried to avoid answering their meaningless questions, especially since the reporters were irritating with their methods. The questions they were currently asking him were about someone he didn’t even know. 

However, he couldn’t help the frown deepening on his face as the reporters continued prodding him for answers, despite him telling them that he had nothing to say.

As he grew increasingly frustrated at the insistent questions, Yoon-Ho heard the familiar baritone voice speaking to the reporters.

“Mr. Lee Min-Sung has already signed a contract with the Fiend Guild,” Choi Jong-In responded politely. “Guild Master Baek and I are here for something else today.”

Disappointed, the journalists stopped questioning them, though that didn’t deter the photographers from snapping pictures of them.

While Yoon-Ho was relieved with the reporters no longer hounding them, he despised how Choi Jong-In was here for Sung Jin-Woo as well. He had already seen the redhead when the new S-Rank was getting re-evaluated the first time.

Yoon-Ho knew the other guild master wasn’t completely unaffected by the presence of a press conference like he was pretending he was though. He could see the way Choi Jong-In squinted slightly at the flashes of the cameras since the mage was sensitive to such lights, despite his efforts to hide his discomfort behind a polite smile. The media may not have noticed it, but Yoon-Ho could with his enhanced senses and far too much experience dealing with the other man.

Shifting so that he was close enough to the shorter man to speak to him without being overheard, Yoon-Ho casually mentioned the most recent news he heard about the Hunters Guild.

“I heard,” the taller man began with a grin. “The Hunters Guild also had a close call.”

The Hunters Association tried to keep the matter quiet due to Sung Jin-Woo’s involvement as someone who has not yet been announced as an S-Rank. However, it wasn’t hard to find out what had happened after actively looking into it. After all, it was difficult to keep people quiet, especially with that many people there.

Yoon-Ho had a satisfied smile after watching the mage’s smile slightly fade after hearing what Yoon-Ho had said. However, his moment of triumph was short-lived.

“Well, at least we didn’t lose any A-Rank recruits like the White Tiger Guild did,” Choi Jong-In said casually.

Yoon-Ho scowled at the other guild master’s response as the deceptively kind smile Choi Jong-In typically had came back.

Yoon-Ho took a moment to calm himself, especially since people were still photographing them. 

“It seems we both received help from that hunter,” Yoon-Ho stated instead as he glanced at the crowd.

The other man hummed in agreement. “If he hadn’t been there, the entire second-tier team would not have survived. Which is why...”

Choi Jong-In said as he turned to take a step toward Yoon-Ho and looked up at him in a confident manner. “We want to recruit him to our guild. It would only be right for us to do so.”

Yoon-Ho grinned mockingly at the shorter man as he also stepped closer until his forehead nearly touched the other guild master’s. 

“Our guild has lost members, so it would make more sense for us to recruit him to enhance our forces.”

Choi Jong-In grinned back at him as he narrowed his eyes, visibly alight with mana that caused them to shine a bright magenta even behind his glasses. 

“Why would you need an S-Rank to enhance your forces? Are you trying to start something?”

“I could say the same to you. Since when did you do what’s morally right?”

As Choi Jong-In was going to respond, another voice interrupted their dispute.

“What’s up, you two? Are you arguing over Minsung?” Lim Tae-Gyu laughed as he approached them, grinning.

What the hell is he talking about?

Yoon-Ho was already dealing with one annoying guild master sticking his nose into something he didn’t need to. He didn’t need another one to prevent him from recruiting Sung Jin-Woo to his guild.

“I don't give a damn about Lee Min-Sung, or whatever his name is!”

The response took Lim Tae-Gyu aback as he looked at them.

“Gee, what’s up with you two?”

Yoon-Ho paused briefly as he realized Choi Jong-In had said the same thing he had as he turned to look at the other man. The redhead smirked at him, causing Yoon-Ho to scowl at him.

“Oh, it’s not something you need to be concerned with right now,” Choi Jong-In replied to Lim Tae-Gyu. “Maybe you will a little later.” 

He then walked past the Fiend Guild’s guild master with Yoon-Ho following him, leaving behind Lim Tae-Gyu who was more confused than before.

The two S-Ranks walked past the reporters into the building. Yoon-Ho sighed in relief as the noise of the group and flashes of lights were dulled by the doors, and he could see Choi Jong-In relax slightly as well with the way tension visibly left his shoulders.

“How did you know Sung Jin-Woo was an S-Rank?” Yoon-Ho questioned the mage as they walked further inside the building, away from the chaos outside. As far as Yoon-Ho knew, Sung Jin-Woo tried to keep his information as hidden as possible. The only reason he knew was because Ahn Sang-Min got involved with him, which led to him meeting the other hunter at the Red Gate. 

“Hm?” Choi Jong-In looked at him with an innocent smile while tilting his head to the side to look up at Yoon-Ho. “Oh, I have my ways of finding out.”

Yoon-Ho narrowed his eyes at Choi Jong-In’s response. The most likely answer was that he was near the building where Sung Jin-Woo had retested out of pure coincidence. He didn’t know why it was so difficult for the mage to answer such a simple question. Giving vague answers was just one of the reasons he found Choi Jong-In so annoying to converse with.

“The Hunters Guild must be doing very well if you can afford to have the time to do such research.”

Yoon-Ho knows Choi Jong-In would work 24/7 if he didn’t need to eat or sleep just to survive and if it was socially acceptable. Even Woo Jin-Chul didn’t work to that extent, and the chief inspector was, unfortunately, given a lot of work against his will.

The S-Rank mage hardly engaged in matters that didn’t concern his guild, so it was strange how quickly he found Sung Jin-Woo, who was just an E-Rank before his re-evaluation.

“Well, I need to be aware of everything that involves hunters to look after my guild matters properly. But I’m sure you’re already aware of that as a guild master yourself,” Choi Jong-In said with a sly smile.

As Yoon-ho narrowed his eyes at the mage, he heard footsteps steadily getting louder in their direction. Even before he looked to see who it was, he could already feel the great yet familiar mana presence of the person.

Turning his attention to the figure approaching them, he saw Chairman Go Gunhee approaching them with a smile.

“Good morning, Chairman Go Gun-Hee,” Choi Jong-In greeted with a bow, a gentle smile quickly replacing his earlier sly smile. 

Yoon-Ho also bowed as the chairman greeted them.

“Good morning. Are you two here for the new S-Rank hunter?” Go Gun-Hee questioned.

“We are,” Yoon-Ho stated. He didn’t see a reason to lie as there wasn’t any other reason for either of them to be here. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Choi Jong-In was glancing at him for answering the question for both of them.

“I’m afraid you’ve come rather early. He won’t be arriving for another hour,” Go Gun-Hee informed them.

“I’m fine with waiting,” Yoon-Ho replied. He decided not to answer for the other guild master as he didn’t seem to appreciate the thought.

“As am I,” Choi Jong-In answered with a smile that seemed slightly more genuine than before.

Go Gun-Hee smiled warmly at the two of them. “Is there any reason why the two of you came together?”

Yoon-Ho was so taken aback by the question that he didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t until he heard Choi Jong-In clearing his throat after a few moments that he realized the chairman was still waiting for an answer.

“We just happened to arrive at the same time,” Choi Jong-In stated with a nearly imperceptible strain in his voice. “It was not our intention to enter together.”

“Ah, of course. You two always seem to be with each other so often that I assumed you came together. My apologies.”

If Yoon-Ho wasn’t embarrassed before the chairman’s most recent comment, he certainly was now. He didn’t even want to see how Choi Jong-In reacted to hearing that.

He couldn’t help the fact that they always seemed to run into each other, no matter how much Yoon-Ho tried to avoid it. Every time there was an issue with ownership of gates or recruiting highly ranked hunters, the sly fox would be there, smiling like he had not done anything wrong. 

The three of them exchanged more words regarding their guilds until Go Gun-Hee excused himself first.

As the chairman walked away, Yoon-Ho took the opportunity to glance at the other guild master, who was now looking at his phone, from the corner of his eye.

He didn’t know how much Choi Jong-In knew of the Red Gate incident that Sung Jin-Woo helped with or if the mage knew he had been trying to recruit him for a while, but Yoon-Ho was certain Choi Jong-In already knew far more than he needed to know.

The White Tiger Guild had claimed the number one spot among the major guilds soon after Yoon-Ho had left the Fiend Guild. Yoon-Ho needed help in creating the guild, but it was still an accomplishment he was proud of. 

Then the fire mage came out of nowhere and rose in the ranks before quickly claiming the spot of the top guild in Korea. And if that wasn’t infuriating enough, Choi Jong-In acted as if he didn’t know what Yoon-Ho was referring to when Yoon-Ho finally accepted the Hunters Guild overtaking the White Tiger Guild enough to congratulate the other guild master. He knew the mage was more than aware of what he was congratulating him for.

“Is something the matter, Mr. Baek?”

Yoon-Ho blinked until he realized that Choi Jong-In had stopped looking at his phone and was now looking at him with a raised eyebrow, his ruby eyes appearing to almost glimmer in amusement, possibly as a result of his glasses.

“It’s nothing,” Yoon-Ho stated as he looked forward again to compose himself.

The Hunters Guild’s guild master stared at him but didn’t get the chance to say anything as he head Go Gun-Hee approaching them with the newest S-Rank hunter.

______________________________________________________________________

Yoon-Ho couldn’t believe his eyes as he saw Sung Jin-Woo leap over the reporters and disappear from their sight. He knew for certain that the hunter was not that powerful when he saw him before-

“Baek, your eyes??”

Yoon-Ho was startled upon hearing Choi Jong-In’s voice and realized he had accidentally used his Eyes of the Beast.

“Ah! M-my apologies,” Yoon-Ho muttered as he quickly covered his eyes and turned away until his eyes returned to normal.

He didn’t understand how Sung Jin-Woo had become stronger than when he had last seen the hunter. Sung Jin-Woo had awakened a long time ago, so it didn’t make sense for him to become even stronger than before. 

Could he be a hunter who can constantly level up?

Just as he had reached that conclusion, the same voice broke through his train of thought.

“Excuse me, Mr. Baek? Are you alright?” Choi Jong-In asked as he moved closer to Yoon-Ho, concern evident in his voice which sounded somewhat softer than his usual tone.

Yoon-Ho turned and stared at the other guild master for a brief moment before looking elsewhere. He must have shocked him with his Eyes of the Beast if Choi Jong-In, the man he has always known to be impeccable in controlling his demeanor, made the mistake of dropping the honorific he used to address him. 

Yoon-Ho shook his head as he rubbed his temples. 

“I just got light-headed for a moment. I’m fine.”

He could feel Choi Jong-In’s acute gaze on him, scrutinizing his appearance which Yoon-Ho knew was less than ideal, especially for someone as observant as the mage. He knows the mage didn’t believe him, but Choi Jong-In didn’t question him further. 

“You’re still young,” Choi Jong-In finally stated lightly. “You should take care of yourself more.”

Yoon-Ho didn’t reply and could barely pay attention to what the redhead was saying as he looked in the direction Sung Jin-Woo had taken off in. As he thought of the possibility of Sung Jin-Woo getting even stronger than he was now, he closed his eyes to regain his composure but couldn’t suppress the shiver he felt overcome his body. 

Yoon-Ho was so lost in his thoughts and taken aback by the discovery of the extent of Sung Jin-Woo’s strength that he was startled by a sudden warmth against his forehead.

Looking down, he became aware of Choi Jong-In holding a hand against his forehead, likely to check his temperature. He wasn’t sure if he could even tell if Yoon-Ho’s temperature was normal based on how warm his hand felt, but the redhead’s furrowed eyebrows and worried ruby eyes snapped Yoon-Ho out of his thoughts again.

Yoon-Ho quickly pulled away from the shorter man and realized that the Hunters Guild’s guild master had somehow gotten him back inside the building, including closing the door to give them privacy. He had not felt Choi Jong-In taking him inside and realized that he was more affected by Sung Jin-Woo’s mana than he had expected.

The redhead blinked at him before lowering his hand and taking a step back as if to give Yoon-Ho space as he adjusted his glasses, hiding his face from view briefly with his hand. Raising his head back up, he looked at Yoon-Ho once again before seemingly judging him to be well enough.

“You should head home,” Choi Jong-In told him in a steady voice, any trace of concern he had gone from his face. “It’s not good for you to overwork yourself.”

Yoon-Ho didn’t get a chance to respond as the redhead turned to take an exit that wasn’t swarmed with reporters. He could only watch him silently before walking toward a different exit to his car.

Any thoughts he had about Sung Jin-Woo were replaced with ones about Choi Jong-In. Despite knowing what the mage’s intentions were a large majority of the time, it was moments like this that Yoon-Ho didn’t understand him.

Choi Jong-In didn’t attempt to figure out what was going on like he normally did, always having to know everything despite it being none of his business. 

There was also obvious concern he had in his strikingly ruby eyes that couldn’t be hidden behind his vibrant red bangs and glasses. And the way the mage continued to check to see if Yoon-Ho was okay and went so far as to shield him from public view, despite gaining nothing from doing so.

He had never seen Choi Jong-In express that much emotion in front of anyone, especially him, other than the time Yoon-Ho had gone to his office to speak with him about the Jeju raid. Even then, the other guild master had turned to look out the window when he was struggling to keep his composure before turning back to him once he was calm again.

For the mage’s sake, Yoon-Ho never mentioned how even though Choi Jong-In wasn’t looking at him, he could see the pain on his face from his reflection in the glass window. 

Yoon-Ho wondered if Choi Jong-In had some hidden agenda like he typically did when discussing guild matters. It wouldn’t be the first time the other guild master did such a thing to get what he wanted. He didn’t get the Hunters Guild to become the top guild in Korea by being kind to people after all.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he got inside his car, thinking he was overanalyzing the other’s actions. The redhead was likely just worried about him losing control of his powers after seeing his Eyes of the Beast suddenly appear for no apparent reason. 

As S-Ranks, they were already seen as monsters in a sense with how their power was immeasurable. They didn’t need civilians seeing his beast-like eyes to add to the rumors people liked to spread about them. It made sense for someone like Choi Jong-In, who took great care in his appearance to the public, to not want Yoon-Ho to tarnish that reputation.

He couldn’t remember when Choi Jong-In had last seen his eyes like that unless they happened to be raiding together, which was rare. There was nothing else the mage could want from him other than for him to be more cautious around other people since they were both S-Ranks, so when one of them acted out of line, it would reflect poorly on all of them. 

When Hwang Dong-Soo left for America, their reputation as S-Ranks took a hit, and false rumors about them started circulating. It was only thanks to Cha Hae-In’s awakening as an S-Rank soon after that people stopped spreading so many rumors. However, it didn’t prevent them from trying to find reasons to get more information on them.

There was no other reason for Choi Jong-In to be interested in him if they didn’t affect the man himself. After all, they could barely be around one another without having some sort of disagreement.

Yoon-Ho sighed as he got into his car and loosened the tie around his neck to allow himself to finally breathe properly. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to deal with all this drama anymore, whether it was the reporters, more S-Rank matters, or Choi Jong-In.

[sweetlikehoneystingslikeabee]

Question, could I request the riddlers with s/o who has sensory issues? If you feel comfortable writing for it

Riddler Party x Reader With Sensory Issues

OH BOY, DO I... You came to the right place I have PLENTY of personal experience with sensory issues. Nightmare. Lots of Riddler parties lately! Seems like you guys LIKE them or something.

For those unaware, I'll be referencing sensory overload which is a common experience with neurodivergent people where certain sensations become Too Much and sets off an intensive reaction emotionally and/or physically. For example, me being autistic, when I personally experience overload I first get really irritable and uncomfortable which can quickly turn to hyperventilation/feeling like I cannot breath if i can't resolve/get away from the source of the overload. I tend to have issues with a bit of everything sensory wise, but it can be a little different for everyone with certain sensations being much more likely to trigger or be upsetting than it is for others.

TW: Ableism mention, self-harm relating to bad sensory issues

Gotham

Oh does he know all about it. He's the one who is definitely on spectrum and experiences the most outward symptoms. The worst for him is the sensations of bad touch and textures. Fortunately smell doesn't bother him much considering his old line of work. Yet if it's something that bothers you, he'll be happy to keep some coffee nearby! Coffee contains nitrogen, which helps neutralize odors. So it's a natural deodorizer! If.... If that's what bothers you.

The most sympathetic to sensory issues because he knows what it's like. He's also very aware of the consequences of too much turning into sensory overload. You'll notice a lot of his clothing is rather sleek, more of a silken or cotton texture. As a child he had this wool sweater his father would make him wear until Edward scratched himself to bleeding. Anything slightly itchy on his skin will send him over the fucking edge. Maybe you relate.

He will get overprotective about you getting set off. A little baggie of coffee beans, ready to cut the wiring on lights that are too bright, maybe even shoot someone not willing to turn the goddamn music down! Excuse me, this dish has x and that has a bad mouth feel so they NEED to take this back and remake it. If it's you, you deserve the fuss.

BTAS

Not related to sensory issues per say, but this is the man that would make the highest tier fidget gear for you. You can bet he would be equally attentive to satisfying sensory issue situations. Get ready for weighted blankets and a room that is basically a sensory cocoon for you to escape to when things get to be too much. It's not a devoid space, it's just a room set up for you that he'll never put air fresheners or candles in, it has some light sound proofing and it's own thermostat. He'll call it your "office."

He already modified most of his place to be adjustable at the drop of a hat, but now he polishes it off and gives you the remote. Dimmer type switches for all the lights in the house and you can shutter up the windows, too. He's ready to cater to whatever it is that irritates you in particular.

If you ever get a sensory overload in public, he's the one who will notice and quickly whisk you away to a quiet and safe spot to help you come down. Breathing exercises that he made sure to look up for you, hugging pressure if that's what you need and a soft voice to ground you.

60s

You are going to need to remind him a lot. It's not because he doesn't care or won't do anything for you, it's because a lot of his life is kind of nightmarish sensory-wise and he's just used to that level of chaos by now. He does everything big! Big lights, big sounds, you get it. Plus he doesn't really know a lot of neurodivergent people so it's not something he's actively aware or thinking of.

That being said, however, he's doing the equivalent of taking his jacket off so you can cross a puddle- but with sensory issues! "Oh! Pretty thing, do cover your ears, this might be loud." Mentally keeps a list of foods or ingredients that you don't like the texture of. Just in case he notices before you! Then he gets the bonus of being your knight in armor looking out for you.

If anyone were to be rude about it or uncompromising, he'd take it as a personal offense. Likely give them a witty riddle, a slight scare and then plots to ruin their day/life in the near future. No one is going to mess with you and get away with it.

Zero Year

Undiagnosed, but lowkey has the Tism. He's INCREDIBLY picky about the food he eats because of related sensory issues. It can't be too mushy, it can't be too grainy, it can't be too hard to chew- the list goes on. He's an expert at sending things back in restaurants if it bothers him, so he'll definitely do it for you.

Just know that at times he will be too self-involved and might unintentionally set you off before remembering last second. He'll be apologetic when he does it! Try to suck up and get back on your good side. Remember all the times he went out of his way to do NICE things for your sensory issues!

He will be downright obnoxious if someone else is setting off your sensory issues, however. Do you know the statistics of the population having sensory issues and YOU'RE playing loud music in your tiny shitty establishment? Do you know what that's like for someone who is sensitive to auditory issues? Maybe a little experiment is in order...

Do not ask what the experiment entails unless you want graphic details.

Arkham

Has sensory issues himself but would never admit there could be something "wrong" with him, so he downplays it a LOT as if it's just a regular experience. It's one of several reasons why his hideouts tend to lack the noise of other people. He also immensely dislikes physical touch unless he initiates it himself or it's you. So when you explain it, he's both understanding a little surprised.

Of course there's a name for it. There's a name for everything and he knew that- but also... knowing there's a phrasing to explain what he's been experiencing is enlightening to say the least. Considering this is the man that would make fidget rings and the like to keep you occupied if you also stim, he's going to try and be attentive to sensory stuff.

If it's something like aversion to his machinery noises, for example, while he's not going to stop making things... You find a set of noise-cancelling headphones waiting at the door when you enter the hideout. He won't stop specific behaviors of his for you, but he'll try to find ways of making it okay for you. Compromising! It's definitely showing his way of loving you since anyone else he'd tell them to fuck off if they didn't like how he lives his life.

Telltale

Don't take this the wrong way but at first, he's going to think you're just being overly sensitive/picky. Because you're his partner, he's not going to be intentionally rude about it. If something is bothering you, he'll try to take care of it. Whether it's a sound or smell or feel on your skin- He doesn't mind taking whatever steps to try and resolve it.

Likely he won't take it seriously until there's A) A sensory overload or B) You really have a conversation with him about why it's a big deal. Mentioning how it's not that different from his OCD triggers would be helpful here. Then he gets it.

His grand narcissism still effects his perception of other people's issues, even when it's the one he loves. Once he has the realization, however, he'll be getting on the ball and will torment anyone who doesn't take you seriously. What are your needs? He wants to have the full discussion. Because, whatever it is, he plans on you having it from now on.

2022

While it might not be sensory issues exactly, he knows the sensation of being mentally and physically overloaded in a way that could incapacitate you entirely. The moment you tell him, he's almost apologetic. Are you telling him because he did something that triggered your issues? No? Oh, thank god.

If it's related to touching, it'll be a little hard for him at first. He really wants to cuddle and be physically affectionate but he will respect your boundaries if it really bothers you. Otherwise, this guy is going to have the softest blankets and pillows for you to burrow in after a hard day. He can even lay on you or the blankets for a weighted component! Matching cozy sweaters and socks that are soft on your skin.

Sensory overload will scare the shit out of him the first time it happens. Such an intense reaction and you seem so distressed! Afterwards he'll be learning the signs that it could be starting with you and your triggers so that he can shut it down before it gets bad. He is not above murder to stop the trigger if need be. It's for his angel, after all!

[dailycass-cain]

How I Came to Appreciate Batgirl: Redemption Road More...

Once upon a time, I wasn't really fond of this story. I hated and loathed it. Since 2020 however, I gained a greater appreciation for the mini-series. Now it isn't on the top tier of Cassandra Cain stories, but I don't see it lower tier list anymore.

Why?

Well, I'm going to tell you, and maybe you'll appreciate this story too.

I fully confess this story more as a "Schrödinger's Cassandra Cain" story. There is a lot of bad in it, and yet there is a lot of good in it. First off, the one element I do enjoy is the art by Jim Calafiore.

There's a grit Calafiore brings to this story. It helps balance the good and the bad. The good is that he draws a very scary Cass. That and I do enjoy the opening homage to a certain two-clawed Wolverine in the opening spread:

Now for the very title of the series, you can interpret "redemption road" as two-fold: in writer Adam Beechen redeeming not only Cassandra in the eyes of the Bat-Family but redeeming himself with readers for well turning her heel back in Robin #150 and "Titans East" (Teen Titans #42-47). Cause let's face it-- it was not a good story by any means and did neither Cass or Beechen any further favors (but I digress, Geoff Johns, plotted that all out and there are "reasons" for Slade getting away free).

You have those factors and this little tale. So at Wizardworld Chicago 2008 I attended a panel where the infamous Dan DiDio revealed that Beechen bugged him for pitches and the one of approved was this mini.

He also revealed Beechen was the only one pitching stories on Cass (which was a half-lie, if you've seen my "Lost Tales of Cass" post, you know Chuck Dixon had a fill-in issue of Detective Comics ready to go telling how Cass/Bruce mended).

Course, by this time period Dixon was exiting Robin and Batman & the Outsiders so, yeah it was a "half-truth".

That made me angry back then, but now I see the why, and I'm okay with it. In his original ways of writing Cass, Beechen's attempts were-- not good. This was his chance to show readers he had really looked into the character's history and fix these issues that he himself put in.

Think about it we came from this in Robin #152:

To this. Beechen calling out the grand problem within the Bat-books (even now it seems). Cass is important in the Bat-Family, SO TREAT HER AS SUCH. Which he does by having Alfred (of course) pointing these things out.

But Alfred isn't the only one being meta in this story. I didn't even realize it, until 2020, but there is one other character playing a meta part in this comic, Nightwing.

If there's one HUGE gripe with this particular volume it is the relationship of Cass/Dick in it. We went to them being brother/sister.. to well. We have Dick literally acting like a dick to her.

Then it hit me.

Who was writing Nightwing at the time period? Peter Tomasi. Who treated the character of Cassandra like what Alfred says? Then suddenly Dick's characterization here began making sense much more sense (when you have this going right after this series as if that writer was flipping off Beechen) in Tomasi's final page of Nightwing:

Cass was supposedly living in the Manor at this time (per this story). Funny how she was "forgotten" in Nightwing. I guess Tomasi was REALLY spiteful because he revisited this subplot during the New 52 Batman & Robin too with Bruce even twisting the knife further:

Though for Beechen's purposes he revisits on WHY Cassandra should be a key member of the Bat-Family. Not only that, but Cass goes thru a journey that explores the limits of the Bat-Family's underlying culture of vengeance. And she reaches a natural conclusion to this (more on that later).

So let's get to the real bad. No not the 90s designed goons of David Cain or Deathstroke. No not the David Cain characterization. I'm talking about #1's wall of text that would make even Brian Michael Bendis blush.

This is only one page of it in the issue. We got TWO.

Until this issue, we never really got a "defined" timeline of Cass's EVIL period. We just figured OYL, Supergirl #14, Robin #161-162, and Titans East was how it happened. Turns out we were WRONG. Did we really need to see these pages of text? Not really.

In all honesty, I think a simpler solution would have been just tiny panels of Cass seeing the various people she killed when drugged up. At the very least, it would put faces on those Cass was forced to do. You could feel her rage on why she's hunting Slade/David Cain then.

Plus it feels like we're missing something as Tim was basically like Dick in Titans East. But now he's changed. Why? There could have been panels of Tim showing care for Cass in this. Instead, he just feels muted throughout this mini.

The first issue ends with Cass confronting another mystery lady murdering some of Slade/David Cain's assassins. And again, a problem I have with this mini.

These "children of Cain" feel so nameless save for Marque, who is the opposite of Cass. She embraces the violence that she was taught and is David Cain's own Frankenstein Monster. Throughout the mini she just comes off as superfluous and edgy. Really edgy...

I really think Beechen missed a prime chance here in having Cass trying to save someone like herself. Someone unlike Cass, didn't realize life as much as she did. That finally, Cain cracked the code (with help from the Slade juice). And Cass could try to redeem her.

So this whole theme of redemption could be all over the place then. Marque throughout this just feels, meh. Speaking of meh say hello to meaningless male love interest #3 for Cass.

This subplot just feels pretty meh. I get the why Beechen tried it. The writer from Batman: City of Light attempted this. Dylan Horrocks with Black Wind during his run on Vol. 1, and Andersen Gabrych attempted this in his run with Zero (and let's face it we only remember his name because he died).

The whole love subplot just feels so unnecessary here. Again we could have more stuff with Tim helping her. Something. Instead, we get someone we care little about. Because A.) we've seen it before and are so over it.

B.) Compare it with Shadow of the Batgirl which did this right. It balanced everything by showing Cass being the focus here (you know the actual main character), and less on the intended male love interest (until later when she gets to know him, Erik, more as the reader does too)

Which leads to this positive in #2. In one page we are given Babs realizing what Cass has been up too and is all for her going on this quest (probably knowing where this will end). Which is again, a good contrast to where Babs and Cass are here. Babs knows Cass needs this.

Bruce doesn't. Dick SOOOOO doesn't. But Babs fully understands. And I do love me some Babs being a good mentor.

Another positive in this issue does is laying the groundwork on how David Cain/Deathstroke forged this partnership when Cass/Marque visit a former colleague of both men.

That these two knowing one another was hinted at in Batgirl Vol. 1 by Kelley Puckett himself when Cain told Bruce in #5 of a job that was beneath him, Slade, and Lawton's talents. So in that regard, that's a nice callback.

Speaking of callbacks, you can't have Cass hunting Slade and not have run into Ravager (who was also actively hunting her father too during this time period of DC). And here the two's interaction is hit or miss.

Rose equally has a grudge against Slade for pulling the same stuff that he did to Cass. So they can easily relate to the other. Also, you have a built-in Rose going to more extremes than Cass (thanks to Sean McKeever's underrated Teen Titans run character arc involving her).

This is why Marque again comes off as the third wheel in all of this. If you're reading DC Comics at the time (or even now). You want the Cass/Rose interactions here. You don't care about the gritty edgy third person who's ruining the antics between the other two.

Like literally, the tension between Cass/Rose should be all that you need. There's history between them both. There are similar goals each wants. But it comes off as meh throughout this due to Marque. I mean look at this panel below and tell me who sticks out as the sore thumb?

Cause then you have panel later on in the book that makes you want to fist pump with these two now that are Marqueless. Who doesn't want to read THAT?!

Look, the idea of Marque is intriguing but there should have been a clear subject spawned from Deathstroke/David Cain's alliance. An assassin. A roadblock. A hurdle. Not nameless ninja assassins with badly designed outfits.

If this was just Marque fighting Rose/Cass then at least the fight could have meant more meaning. A face to go along with someone who's being down there as Rose/Cass got away from their murderdads.

Because there's no weight to any of these fights which should have more impact. Instead, they come off as weightless. And more blood spilled by Marque because the EDGE MUST FLOW!

But if #3 has another problem is Dick really being a bastard. Seriously, WHAT THE HELL DICK?! But then again, I get it now on why Dick is acting as such. Just that this bad characterization does come at the expense of Nightwing. Like WOW.

So here I am bashing the heck out of this third issue, with very little good finding in it. Well, there is one other additional good. That's the opening page/panel when Cass is out (due to Rose from last issue).

Where does this love of Cass/Shiva together come from? This comic! Beechen of all writers laid the seed that Bryan Edward Hill in Batman & the Outsiders and Michael Conrad & Becky Cloonan on Batgirls would use. The hidden desire Cass has: she wants Shiva to be a mother to her. Yes, Barbara is a good mother too (and dammit where is she in this panel above?!)

Regardless, Beechen does understand a want Cass has that James Tynion opened (and failed at) while Hill fleshed out WAAAAAAY more. So much more that now this has to be the standard of their relationship now. Literally, this is just gold between the two of them now.

But if you want to know where this hunger for Cass/Shiva to have an actual daughter/mother relationship came? You can thank Adam Beechen for that!

#4 finally has the long-awaited fight between Cass and Slade with it well being quite lackluster thanks in due part to Marque and the nameless daughters of Cain.

But I do confess there are a few dialogue pieces in #4 I do enjoy. Like Slade twisting the mental knife to get the better of Cass here.

We get no cathartic scenes for either Rose or Cass here (everyone seems to get robbed of having them with Slade at this time period in DC). Just a rushed end to a rushed subplot.

Again, this could have been the point where Cass was reaching to Marque and that could have been the point for Slade to decide, "WHELP TIME TO EXPLODE AND RUN!" Setting up the next issue. Instead, these nameless kids all die and we the reader feel nothing for them.

When in fact we should feel more. But so it is comics and we get the abrupt ending of the Cass/Rose union. Because this is all we get of Slade and her after this issue. Which is a pity.

Again given how both have similarities with horrible fathers. There should be much pathos here between Cass/Rose. How Cass sees going down this path of vengeance can poison you still (as it is doing to Rose). With Marque being.. ugh.

If that wasn't enough we get again nameless male love interest and ugh. Yeah, I'm just not gonna post more of that. Other than Cass realizes just who Slade and her pop would target to announce their alliance but also hurt the heroes: Oracle.

Which makes complete sense. I just wish the comic did a better job with it like Bruce Wayne: Murderer did only now David Cain this time going after Barbara (as he went after Bruce in that event story). There's a lot of things this comic could have done better at.

#5 opens with Dick, Bruce, and Tim fighting Cass due to the former ratting out her plans to kill David Cain to the latter two. Still, it is kind of cathartic Dick getting punted.

...

I hate myself for enjoying that.

If you're expecting any sort of closure between Dick/Cass here you aren't going to get any in this series. Dick continues to be a dick to Cassandra in Frank Tieri's fill-in arc of Batman & the Outsiders #13-14. After that, Dick FINALLY stops acting so OOC.

Here we go back into the positives of this series. I do enjoy Cass scoping the eventual scene of the crime out. She looks at the evidence she's got and with her skills predicts how and where her father will try to take the shot at Babs.

These pages come to show that Cass indeed can be a fine detective on her own right (thanks to Babs, Bruce, and Tim teaching her). Knowing how and when the crime could occur before it even does with what she knows.

And so we get probably the second-best part of this series. These next two pages.

I mean it's not Damion Scott, but Calafiore does have the nice little details here and there. Also nice of Beechen to use TWO homages of Cass here. From this set-up shot from Vol. 1 from above too…

To Cain about to strike a Gordon down and once again, his daughter stops him from taking the killshot. There's a bit of poetry there.

So in some callbacks, the creative team does nail them. I have to confess other than Marque, #5 is probably the portion of the story where it actually gets good. Even if it does come at the small price of David Cain's characterization.

Look, yes David Cain is a monster, but there's a difference between monsters who aren't portrayed as human and the ones who are. Cain had a perfect balance of this in Vol. 1 The stuff in this volume (and until again Shadow of the Batgirl) David just is a complete monster.

In that regard, the pathos of the villain just feels more hollow. If save Slade talked to him while in prison. Told him he could perfect and deliver that perfect child soldier. Bring a reason for his life again. I'd buy that more than what we got here in Vol. 2.

Why going into the final issue why I go into that mindset. It helps the reasons flow better for the character then what we actually got. And the ultimate fight between the two is handled well.

I also love that both Babs/Bruce are doing crowd control here (both at this point knowing this is something Cass NEEDS). I love that Charlie sees what is going on and her first instinct is to help Cass.

It's a pity we never got more interactions between Charlie/Cass. If only there were some subplots that could have been dropped so we could have got that.

While we don't get the cathartic stuff with Slade we do get it with Cass going up against her father. Just unloading the life he never gave her with a fury.

It's an almost Return of the Jedi moment of Vader/Luke's final duel with Cass just unleashing it all on her own father who cannot defend himself against the rage of his child. And much like Vader/Luke there's that moment when the later realized what will happen if he continues.

Like Luke, Cass has that realization too. That if she has her vengeance what will it solve? All this pain. All this suffering that's she has dealt with these last few months. Will killing him solve it? Of course, we know the answer cause it's Cass.

No. Being a killer is not who she is. She is a hero. So she attempts to save her father, but well as we find out this is where Bruce and Tim were hiding. Waiting and watching to see if Cass would come to this realization.

And we come to the best moment of this comic where Bruce puts his batdad side full-on. I love that the focus is on Cass here. Hearing what Bruce is saying and you just see the raw emotion of her just cracking up wanting this so bad until...

The hug from her true dad with a proud brother looking on. If only you know a stupid tie-in didn't have to ruin the good moment making any readers go, "What the hell is R.I.P.?!"

Like seriously, I'm surprised no one has photoshopped that R.I.P. out of the panel. If you take it out. Damn does this work more. But by putting it in there. "Oh yeah, Bruce is about to die. ...." And that emotion just leaves you to do this.

So if any of you great Photoshoppers out there can take that R.I.P. out? That'd be just great.

So Batgirl vol. 2 looking under this lens isn't the worst Cass story, nor does have enough good to be amazing to recommend. It's just there with both good and bad. It's average.

Hence it is Schrödinger's Cass. It is exactly this. But it was worth talking about. Because it is a period of Cass that should be talked of more. Because it does redeem Adam Beechen with the character.

Along with redeeming Cass with the Bat-Family. It's just a pity only Frank Tieri decided to follow on this and NO OTHER WRITER. Sadly not soon after we'd be getting the teases that Babs would be back as Batgirl from the Blackest Night mini caps at the end of BoP and Nightwing.

For certain folk at DC already made up their mind with the character, and she wouldn't be Batgirl or apart of the Bat-Family that much longer. I guess they assumed this Volume would be considered a "gift". That Cass got closure... Ugh.

If you want to know more about DC meddling. Then see here when I go more into detail on that.

That said, Batgirl Vol. 2 gets a lot of bad rap, but it isn't all bad. It's highly flawed, but there is some good in it. … And here's me going all RoTJ fully with it. 😋

With that, I'm gonna call it a night. Because tomorrow there are things I hope for tomorrow. REALLY AMAZING THINGS for us Cass fans tomorrow at long last.

But not freaking Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War. That can go to hell...

[idv-ask-the-showman]

{The circus Of Mirrors} 7\12 Skins

[S-Tier] The Guest - Althea

{@oletus-dryad}

“The place is undeniably beautiful, but I couldn not shake off the feeling that it conceals deep sorrow and pain…”

BIO:-

Althea cannot recall her true origins or how she ended up in a realm of reflections and mirrors. However, she distinctly remembers hearing the voice of a boy calling out to her in her dreams and unconscious state, asking for her help to stop his brother and save everyone so they can be set free… But why was she chosen for this task?

There are many questions she has, and she can only find their answers by delving deep into this realm. She can tell from the beginning that her presence within this realm seems to affect everything around her. For example, every step she takes, flowers and plants bloom under her feet. Any plants she touches regain their natural colors, instead of being gray and white.

After arriving in a village, she quickly learned about the rules and the story of the world. There she met a new companion and guide, Lawrence. He appeared to know more about her than she knew about him… almost as if they had met countless times before.

Nevertheless, she decided to place her trust in him and went ahead to start her journey to meet the emperor. Would she succeed or would she fail once again~?

[cemetery-irises]

okay okay okay so in order to explain weepy i need to explain a bit of coa3. i'm not super versed on coa3 bc again it's super confusing and hard to parse and shit so i may get some stuff wrong, but this is what i've gathered.

coa3 is the only coa where the hunter who receives the s-tier is referred to by a name other than their skin name. the featured hunter was smiley face, who received the netherwalker skin. in both his and numerous other characters' descriptions, however, he's referred to as "pickman"; no first name is given. he's an artist — supposedly a mediocre one, according to one skin description, at least until he begins looking to the abyss for inspiration.

smiley, who i will be referring to as pickman for simplicity's sake, takes on margaretha as his model. margaretha, also known as the vile blossom, is overtaken by the abyss' corruption and is gradually decaying. she too sought answers in the abyss, which (i believe) is depicted in this song, and they met sometime during their respective searches into the abyss.

so this is where i go kinda off of the known story here. these two end up having a child together. it's early on into their time with the abyss, likely before coa3 even happens, meaning they're nowhere near as corrupted as we see them in coa3. both of them, knowing a child will only interfere with their work, leave him in the care of joseph, an auctioneer who knows them but isn't super close with them. joseph too is affiliated with the abyss, but only dabbles in it, using it to keep himself young / alive (a headcanon based on his actual canon story) but not delving fully into it or its corruption. he collects both art and items connected to the abyss, and the child is raised by him surrounded by all sorts of artifacts, the abyss' presence clear in his life for as long as he can remember.

now joseph... isn't really the best dad. sure, he takes care of the boy, but he's rather disinterested in him, seeing him more as a sorta apprentice than a son. he sees pickman and margaretha less and less as time goes on, and eventually, when they disappear entirely into the abyss, their son becomes the only reminder of their existences that joseph has. the kid grows up helping organise displays and take care of artifacts, and in his early to mid teen years, joseph begins sending him out to retrieve artifacts himself — nothing too dangerous, but it does get him acquainted with the abyss pretty quickly.

as you've probably guessed, this child is weepy — a teasing nickname initially given due to his timid and easily-frightened nature, now just what everyone calls him (which is an excuse for me to avoid going looking for names for him as long as possible but i digress). weepy knows joseph isn't his real dad, knows of the abyss and its powers, but he doesn't know exactly what happened to his parents, as joseph himself claims not to know either. eventually, weepy decides he wants to go looking for his real parents; joseph advises against it, saying they're likely too far gone to even remember him, but it doesn't take long for him to let weepy go out into the world to track down his parents.

so that's when we get to coa6!! weepy is older now, more experienced (still the youngest person on set and still pretty fucking young, abt 19 - 22, but still), and has tracked traces of the abyss to the film set coa6 takes place on. in hopes of finding his parents, he joins the production for an excuse to stick around while searching, only to be swept up in the absolute madness that unfolds when bi'an does his whole betraying-the-crew-and-shooting-them-off-into-space thing. suddenly, finding his parents is the last thing on weepy's mind; he's more focused on just surviving.

there are a lot of places we can go from here. i mean, i've basically created a fucking oc because i wanted to explain why both a hunter and a survivor version of a character can exist completely separately from each other in coa. and there are a few things we've done with him!! his idolisation of ganji, his experience hiding under an easily-frightened and anxious surface, his search for his parents continuing when the crew returns to earth, him living in the shadow of the netherwalker and the vile blossom and having to come to terms with the idea of his parents kinda sucking for more reasons than just the abandonment, all sorts of shit. but i've taken up enough of your time and i said i was only going to bother you with the justification for his existence, not any of the other shit. for a while he was kinda just... there, i didn't have many ideas for what to do with him unlike w/ the rest of the coa6 cast. but i'm rlly happy with what he's become <3

and that's why, no matter what, i will always get this little spike of joy upon seeing weepy in anything whatsoever, even though this story can't apply to any other version of him and only really makes sense in the context of coa

oh this was a joy to read :] and also. have you seen the 6 paragraph essay i put in luca's askbox today. i am the LAST person to complain about someone taking my time /silly

[alfredo-swauce]

Wax Artist and the Fandom

Alright so I have a LOT to unpack right now with Wax Artist as well as the fandom and how they go about treating wax artist mains and the character as a whole. I would like to say before I start that I am black. However I main Wax Artist. I ended up spending like $300 to get his S tier skin, and then everyone found about about the whole Physiognomy bullshit. As someone who doesn't typically have that kind of money anymore, Its tragic HAHAHA like genuinely it sucks. Had I known perhaps I wouldn't have tried to get it. But I digress.

So what's the whole issue here other than Philippe being a racist? Well. I want to bring up a few points in this post about why I think half the shit the fandom says about him is stupid AND why I think attacking his players (who have no control over his story) is ridiculous and childish.

No one is taking an effort to reach out to devs about the psysiognomy. Like how are you gonna tell myself and other wax artist mains to kill ourselves or call us racist for playing a character that we LITERALLY cannot control. I've had like 3 people (including an old friend who said it as a "joke") call me a disgrace to black people for maining him. Yknow how bad that hurts? As someone who's of mixed race and doesn't feel like they fit in anywhere, that shit absolutely sucks.

People are asking for NE to remove Wax Artist from the game as a whole. Now this one, I can understand to an extent. However, many people do not want this. His backstory (MINUS PHYSIOGNOMY) is interesting, certain headcanons make his character so much more fun; like him just being a silly man who makes wax sculptures, etc. His character design is interesting and very pleasing, It really shows his mental and physical decline as well. All characters have some importance in the story, Wax Artists importance is unknown but I bet he plays a bigger part and will somewhere down the line.

Most white characters are likely racist depending on the time period. It's obvious that not everyone who's white in the game is racist, like historically not everyone was. However given the time period of some of these characters, there's a good chance they could potentially be racist. Now of course this doesn't excuse the fact that Wax Artist is problematic, but I feel like in a realistic sense people tend not to think about where these characters are from AND when they were/are alive. Do I want ANY of the characters to be racist? Absolutely not, but I do strongly believe that given the time periods, it wouldn't surprise me if more white characters had some sort of racist ideology that just wasn't brought up yet.

A lot of people aren't even aware of the racist undertone in Wax Artist's story. I have been playing Wax artist for over a year now and the amount of people I've met who don't even know Wax Artist's story is problematic is insane. Like I'll say he's racist and people are like "wait deadass??" It's nuts. I get these sort of encounters nearly everytime I talk to a player. It's important people know about this issue so we can push for change. I haven't seen a single person try to change his backstory and that fucking sucks. I've seen what we can do when we all come together, and this change could be made so quickly if we work together.

Perhaps there are other things that could've been said but these are the main ones that I think about. I GENUINELY believe we could make the change to Wax Artist's story if the fanbase just listens. I've tried countless time to spread the word on Twitter, but that proved to be a fruitless task. I'm hoping that here I could spread the word a bit more in asking that you email NE and ask them to remove physiognomy from his story as a whole, because believe me I 100% believe his story doesn't need this element at all. He could just be a criminologist who makes wax figures. Easy. So please PLEASE help me out here, I've been practically begging for months now and it's getting exhausting.

NE emails:

gameidentityv@global.netease.com

id5.bd@global.netease.com

or preferably you can comment on identity V's posts asking for the removal of physiognomy from his story. From here on out I'm just gonna keep asking for it every chance I get because otherwise they won't listen. My voice alone will not be enough, so please help out!

thank you so much for reading and I hope you consider helping out. This is very important to me and other wax artist enthusiasts.

[gaymars97]

Well after long enough here’s part two of Eridian Overrun (borderlands 3 spoilers ahead)

EO part one

This episode’s topic is

*drumrolls*

The fight for sanctuary plant gas (ft. Salvador and Krieg) + some developpement on Sally boy and Mr. Meatman

The plant gas

So I’ll try to summarize as much as I can, but basically, EO adds interesting features to the gas. Ya see, the antidote doesn’t rid you of the gas. It simply slows it down ALOT. Also, every time you go in the gas, a small quantity of it stays in your organism.

Now if you take those things and merge ‘em together, you get what I call « overexposure » Basically, if you accumulate too much gas, yet are still immune, you will enter a state of slow mutation. It is caused by the contact of this absorbed gas with pandoran spores. Overexposure can only stop by leaving the pandoran atmosphere, and therefore cutting contact with those spores.

There can be some other conditions that make you develop overexposure:

Big, but non lethal contact with the gas without having the antidote in a short span of time (ex.: Vaungh)

Going trough the early phases of infection before getting the antidote (ex.: Mordecai)

Being exposed to a big quantity of the gas with a underdose of antidote (ex.: Hector boss fight)

At first, the only symptoms are a greener taint to the blood, amplified gas boost and increased muscular strength. At this stade, the mutations can be completely reversed by cutting off contact with the spores quickly enough. Staying long enough out of pandora will rid you completely of the gas, and therefore, of overexposure. An example of this state are the vh2 by the end of FFS.

However, if some time has passed since the beginning of the mutations and you’re still on Pandora, then that’s where the real stuff begins. First of all, later stages mutations cannot be reversed, as they are too significant. However, it is still possible to stop the progress by leaving Pandora. Those mutations are: Apparition of plant spikes on the body (mostly the arms), green hands with claws, pointy teeth and first stage symptoms being further increased. Examples of this are Salvador, Krieg and Vaungh

Eventually, on extreme cases, you might grow plant limbs, but so far the only known example is the Hector boss fight

Salvador

After FFS, Salvador stayed for a bit on pandora (around a year or two) to just, yaknow, keep killing bad guys. After that, he took a little break from pandora, on Tannis’s doctor order. Later, he went back to Pandora. At some point, like a few months before the EO present (3y after bl3), Vaungh found him and invited him to the sun smashers. I know it’s not much clear, but the little drawing on the left top corner is his SS logo. Yeah they have logos like B team now. Also, SS is in an alliance with the raiders.

Krieg

So for context, PKATFF still happens (because Maya isn’t dead, it’s a bit different but it still happens.) and yk there’s still the god tier ending. Krieg stays a few months in the cave starting to fix himself. After that, with pretty good progress done, he starts thinking of other ways to help himself. Thinking about the raiders makes him realize that he can’t be alone anymore. He goes back on SANC.-3 to see his friends (and pretty lady 🫶) again. Sane Krieg’s goal isn’t rlly to get rid of psycho Krieg anymore, but to get a more shared control over the system. P Krieg still has the most control, but S Krieg can front sometimes now. He even got to see his face really recently. It’s was a pretty moving moment. Also, he kinda becomes a dad to Ava because Maya is like a mom to Ava (hehe fambly)

Oh and I know the arm in the drawing doesn’t look like Sally’s or Krieg’s and that’s because it isn’t.

« Then whose arm is it? » Good question.

[mushiewrites]

*beats back the sad with a stick* BACK YOU VILE EMOTION, YOU NO TOUCHIE MY MUSHIE >:(

Anyway, hc timeeee :D

Any characters with masks fully or partly covering their face have ticklish faces.

Sapnap wears a headband because the back of his head is a melt spot and if dream or george find out, that puts an end to all his chaos.

C!George's blush - you know when you blush, your face goes really hot n you can feel all of it? Well, I like to think that if George has woken from a long sleep, his blush is bright as can be, plus the overwhelming sensitivity coming in from his red lil face will tip him into a lee mood.

Also Gogy dreams a lot about being tickled if he lonely boi.

C!Dream secretly adores tickle fights, and whenever he was arguing with Punz, he just used that as an excuse to wreck Punz lmao

Blob Dream can and will blush, but he blushes light green on his cheeks n stomach cuz he a cute lil blob boi

I hope this helped. Also do you want a joke? Here's a joke for added smiles:

What do you call a reindeer without any legs?

A taxi, cause they can't walk.

(dad joke arc teehee)

rosa u beat the sad with a stick for me? 🥺 that’s so sweet ):

1. YES YES YES. I 1000% agree. Sensitive cheeks and tips of noses and chins are just S tier, especially when it’s due to them not being used to having anything touch their face except their mask!!!! and the first time they’d feel it they would yelp back in surprise, eyes wide and face pink as they realized how badly it tkled, and how much the ler looks like they’re gonna do it again at any second 😵‍💫

2. hear me out. george and dream already know about this melt spot because of one very sleepless night where sap was overly giggly and tired, and dream was playing with his hair when he discovered it. sapnap immediately melted in dreams arms when he grazed it, and after a few minutes of sleepy giggles he was out like a light. complete putty against dreams chest. sap was so out of it that he doesn’t remember that even happening. so imagine his surprise when george randomly pulls out a head scratcher and starts trying to use it on sap, causing him to flail and scream until it hits his melty spot, and suddenly he’s just a puddle of lee on the couch as george continues to make him giggle and blush 🥺

3. my little tiny honey baby ): his poor lil sensitive cheeks ): he would wake up, all groggy and sleepy-eyes and shuffle his way into the bathroom, noticing in the mirror how red his cheeks are. he embarrasses himself bc he thinks of what happened the last time he was this red (blame a certain God), and he can’t help but hide his face in his hands at the thought. this however proved to be a bad idea, as the sleeves of his shirt swept across his cheeks with a tkly feeling, making him squeak and blush even more ):

4. my little darling. I have an AU in the works about a certain God being able to visit dreams (it’s not XD!), and man oh man would he have a field day with gogs ): that lil squirmy thing would think up so many mean ideas in his head that even the lers would be shocked that he wanted to be tkled that bad

5. MY DRUNZ HEART 💕 Punz is so underrated as a lee! that boy is one of the cutest things I’ve seen, and the idea of dream just wrecking him to pieces during an argument is the cutest fuckin thing ): “you know what punz? fine. be that way.” “w-what are you talking about? wait dr-dream! dreheheam what a-are yohohou- NAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHO PLEHEASE, IM SOHORRY!”

6. I sent you the lil painting I did inspired by the green blush on blob!dream! his lil chirps from the tkly likes to his tummy make him glow bright green with embarrassment ): i also hc that dream just blushes on his tummy in any form ): he’s such a lil puppy.

the joke was incredible as well, 10/10

[zorua-adorable]

If you had to rank a Hortensia support chain, how would it go

Okay so funnily enough, I’ve actually been working on making one since I recently completed getting all her supports.

To start off, I like all of her supports and they are all good in my opinion, so the only variation here is how much I like the support chain in question. This is gonna get a bit long so my reasoning for placements will be going under the cut.

S Tier - ADORE

Veyle: Okay, I’ve posted once before some thoughts on their A support, so I’ll try to keep this one brief. I just really love how Hortensia is given a moment to be angry about her father’s death. And yes, it is to an irrational degree as Veyle was brainwashed which she acknowledges in her anger, but I feel that it was important that she actually got to feel that anger. Y’know, get it out of her system and such? And the fact that she had the emotional intelligence/maturity to be like “there is no guarantee that we’ll end up friends but I am willing to give you a chance” and everything... JUST, CKSDNVKSVNSK

Ivy: What can I say about this one other than the fact that it is SO GOOD? I love that we get some info about Hortensia’s mom and about the Elusian court and that we get to see how strong her bond with Ivy is. I love getting a look into why Hortensia is so obsessed with being perceived as cute and charming. It’s just so sweet, especially the part at the end where Hortensia talks more about how she was feeling when she was on her own after Hyacinth died and she still thought Ivy was dead too. The only thing I wonder about is that there is a part in their A support where Ivy says “You thrived in the academy as well─you even skipped enough grades to catch up to me.” And that line has me wondering if Ivy attended the academy at the same time as Hortensia, or if she was in the past called away from the academy and Hortensia skipped up to the year that Ivy was in when she left, or if Hortensia just skipped so many grades that she was put straight into the final year or something; but that’s nothing against the support, that’s just me having thoughts.

Céline: This one was SO cute, and is one of the few Hortensia supports that have a lighter tone. I LOVE that she gets to have a support that’s just silly and lighthearted and feels like a moment of childhood whimsy; girl definitely needs more of that in her life.

Alcryst: If I could, I would put his portrait directly under Céline’s but still in the S tier since I like these two chains equally. I love how she tries to help Alcryst build confidence by denying his request to teach him, as a way of trying to het him to stand up for himself, y’know? I love how she told him that he doesn’t NEED to change for her or other people to like/accept him. And that bit at the end where the tables were turned and she ran away was SO funny and SO cute.

Alear: I used female Alear’s portrait for the tier list since I played as female Alear on my first playthrough. This one is very similar to her Ivy support, but it’s also less personal, which makes sense since the two don’t have that close relationship that the Elusisters do. I can’t think of much else to say on this one, but I like how Alear helped Hortensia come to another realization about the reason why her mother did what she did; Ivy helps her realize that her mother did what she did to carve out a niche for Hortensia in the court, Alear helps her realize her mother did what she did as a way of teaching Hortensia how to survive the court.

A Tier - LOVE

Chloé: Local Chloé and Hortensia fan enjoying their support together? Who could have foreseen this? Jokes aside, this one is cute. It’s one of the lighter ones, with Hortensia trying to emulate Chloé’s “aura of sophistication” (as she puts it) to add to her charm repertoire. However, for me, I feel there’s an added layer of depth to this one in Hortensia trying to be like someone she describes as having “motherly charm” with the context of Hortensia trying to be like her own mother.

Goldmary: LOVE IT when Hortensia supports bring up how smart she is, BECAUSE SHE IS! Anyway, I find it interesting that Goldmary agrees to teach Hortensia how to cook right away, because IIRC she’s not so quick to agree to teaching others to cook in some of her other support chains. I like that we get some Elusia lore in how retainers are chosen and that Goldmary and Rosado aren’t officially retainers. We also get some backstory between the two and how they first met, but... I just have one question: HOW LONG AGO DID THAT HAPPEN?? I need to make sense of this timeline, cause like it was obviously before she attended the academy, but how long before? Cause she didn’t realize the girl she saved was Goldmary, but was that because it had been some years and Goldmary looked a lot different, or was it just because it was the heat of the moment? I need to know how old this girl was when she was just deciding she could head out to check on battlefields when she’s 14 in the present of the game!

Clanne: Okay, so there was a large period of time between when I got their C support and when I got their B and A supports. And in that time, I unlocked a new page for Framme in the Ally Notebook; and when I went to check the new page, I noticed on one of the old pages that “cheering for people” was listed as one of her likes. So in my head I was like “Wouldn’t a support chain centered around making a fan club be more suited to Framme than Clanne?” But having since gotten the rest of the support chain, I now realize that it fits Clanne better. There’s not much else I can think to say on this one - it’s cute, it’s lighthearted, and I’m DEFINITELY stealing Clanne’s role as president of Hortensia’s fan club.

Lindon: I like that Hortensia gets a support chain with a focus on her father. We get some more Elusia/Hyacinth lore & backstory, we get some moments of Hortensia expressing insecurity over feeling like she’s not doing enough for Elusia, and she gets some comfort. The only part I wasn’t a fan of in this one was when Lindon said “a parent always loves their child” when that’s not true - heck, we see in-story that that’s not true - but I will give him that it’s what she needed to hear in the moment.

B Tier - LIKE

Fogado: I really do not have much to say on this one, but I loved all the sass and sarcasm she had in their C support. I also enjoyed that we got another moment looking at her insecurities on if she’s doing enough/if she’s actually helping.

Anna: This one was a lighter one, which admittedly I wasn’t expecting. I assumed that it would do something with them both being younger sisters from Elusia and how Hortensia was on her own for a time thinking her whole family was dead and how Anna is currently separated from her family. That aside, I enjoyed the chain as it was, and there was even a bit of depth at the end, with Hortensia being like “I want people people to notice me for my own charm” (paraphrased). I just think it’s cute that they can have a sweet friendship, cause they’re close in age, have a bit in common, and given how shopping is listed as one of Hortensia’s hobbies and Anna... y’know.

Rosado: I like how this one gave a look into the persona of cuteness Hortensia puts on, and how it ties into her role as a princess. I don’t have too much to say on this one, but the action at the beginning of their A support seemed kind of out of nowhere; but that’s nothing against the support.