#i’m sure there are others who have gone into details about this because obviously but screamss

[catastrxblues]

something something about michael stopping tori from jumping because she can’t leave him there alone and something something about peeta stopping katniss from taking the nightlock pill because he can’t let her go

[azriels-shadowsinger]

you should totally do number 12 with az or rhys 🥺

“When have you ever cared?” “I’ve always cared.”

Azriel x Reader

wc: 2k

a/n: i always love a good rivals to lovers story. warning: descriptions of blood and injuries.

prompt list

You hate Azriel. Absolutely hated him. You hate his cocky attitude, you hate the way he never wants you on missions, you hate the way girls seem to fawn over him at Rita’s, and most of all, you hate the way that you can’t stop being attracted to him. Which made the current situation worse, because you were having trouble focusing on training when Azriel was shirtless and sweaty sparring with Cassian across the ring.

After the fifth time of you getting knocked onto the floor by your sparring partner after getting distracted, Emerie eventually gave up on you.

“How are you supposed to be ready for your mission tomorrow if you are so unfocused?” she laughed.

“I’ll be fine. I do-“ You stop speaking when you feel a shadowy presence lurk over you.

“Can I help you Azriel?” You ask sarcastically, turning to face him.

“You’re not going.” Azriel replied gruffly.

“Excuse me?” You scoff.

“I said you’re not going on the mission.” You roll your eyes. Of course he would try to keep you off of yet another mission. You had prepared for that and got Rhysand to personally ensure that you could go this time.

“Take that up with Rhys. He said I’m going.” You say with a victorious smirk.

“We’ll see about that.” He grumbles, storming off towards Rhysand’s office. You wait patiently with a smug smile on your face, pretending to be preoccupied with sharpening your daggers, as he returns.

“You will not do anything without my say so. You will not stray from the mission at all, under any circumstances. If I give an order, you follow it. Do you understand?” He spits angrily, obviously upset over Rhysand’s decision.

“Whatever you say, spymaster. I’ll see you at 6 AM to head out.” You say smugly and turn to leave.

———

You meet Azriel the next morning, and he is already visibly agitated. After an overly detailed discussion of the mission plan, he winnows the two of you to the mission spot.

Azriel made sure to reiterate the plan again once you arrived, earning an annoyed eyeroll at the implied lack of faith in your skills. The plan was that he would infiltrate the safe house, capture the enemy, and extract him from the building to bring him back for interrogation. You were only there to help carry the unconscious body, apparently. You reluctantly agree to the plan, realizing that arguing would get you nowhere. At least you were allowed to join this time.

“I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Be ready to winnow.” He whispers before disappearing into the shadows.

Fifteen minutes passed. Then twenty. Then thirty. After forty minutes, you were fully convinced something had gone horribly wrong.

Fuck it. You didn’t care if he got pissed, you’re going in to check that everything is okay.

You move closer to the building and peek into the window. No movement. You sneak closer to the door, slipping inside inconspicuously. Upon entering, you begin to scan the area for any signs of Azriel. You walk further inside turning the corner, and that’s when you see it: blood on the floor, and Truthteller lying discarded next to it. That cannot be a good sign, you think while trying to shove your panic down deep. You quickly pick up the abandoned blade and examine the area closer, following the trail of blood and the sound of voices through the halls. When you finally reach a large room, you see exactly what you were afraid of. Azriel is bound against the wall unconscious and bloody. The target is watching him while conversing with someone, twirling a knife in his hand.

“Just kill him already.” The other fae complains.

“No. Do you not realize who this is, you imbecile? This is the spymaster of the High Lord. Once Rhysand realizes he is missing, he will come try to rescue him, and then we can finally take that undeserving half-breed out. Hopefully, he brings the general, and we can kill the bastard too. Only then will I kill the shadowsinger, but not until we get to have our fun with him. I’m sure there are some juicy secrets of the court we can carve out of him.” You feel nauseated at the sickening grin on the male’s face.

Your duty is to this court, and cannot allow Rhysand and Cassian to be put in danger over this. Nor can you sit by and watch Azriel be tortured by this cruel, idiotic male. Idiotic because he didn’t use magical bindings to lock Azriel up, allowing his shadows to roam free. They circle their master, obviously frantic that he cannot hear them.

A small shadow darts towards you, and soon the rest follow. The shadows swirl around you, expectantly, going completely unnoticed by the two males.

“Um, I’m not entirely sure if you can understand me, but I have a plan. If you all could make it very dark in here, that would be great.” You ask awkwardly, hoping the shadows understand. They apparently do, because soon the entire room goes dark, except for the path between you and Azriel.

“What the- hey!” You hear the other male yell and footsteps run towards you. Unable to see through the shadows, you throw a dagger towards the noise. Without checking to see if you hit your target, you hurry to free Azriel from his chains. Once his hands are free, you grab onto him and attempt to winnow.

Winnowing long distances was always a challenge for you, you’re not sure why. What takes others a single jump takes you five. You hold tightly to Azriel and try to winnow. The world around you begins to fade, turning into blackness. Before the sight can completely fade, however, you see a knife come hurdling towards you, landing directly in your thigh.

The sudden burning pain causes you to lose focus, and the world abruptly reappears around you, causing both you and Azriel to land face first in the dirt of a random forest.

“Fuck!” You yell in pain. Either the fall or the sound of your yelling seems to have roused Azriel because you hear faint grumbling beside you before he falls unconscious again. As you attempt to stand, searing pain shoots down your leg from the wound in your thigh. You bite your lip, trying to ignore the stabbing ache. Now is not the time to focus on your pain. You need to get the two of you to safety, you remind yourself. You pull the blade out from your leg with a cry. Once you compose yourself again, you wrap a piece of cloth torn from your shirt around your leg to stop the bleeding. You grab ahold of Azriel again and attempt to winnow, but for some reason, you can’t. That’s when you notice the faint green tinge on the discarded blade.

“Gods damned faebane.” You curse lowly. You won’t be winnowing anywhere for a while. It’s likely in Azriel too, meaning you two are stuck. Great.

———

It took over an hour to drag the giant Illyrian through the forest, finally finding an abandoned cabin. By the time you reach it, you feel lightheaded from the blood loss and from hauling Azriel. There is absolutely no way you could lift him, so once he is safely inside on the floor, you search the cabin for first aid materials. You find a roll of gauze and a bottle of liquor. That will have to do, you think.

You manage to bite your tongue through the pain of cleaning and dressing your wound and begin to work on Azriel’s. As soon as the alcohol-soaked cloth touches his cut, the male jolts up in a panic. One quick look around at the unfamiliar cabin and you tending to his injuries, and Azriel freaks.

“What the hell happened? Where are we? Are you bleeding?” He fires on a string of questions, one after another.

“Breathe. We’re okay. You got captured, not entirely sure how honestly, and I had to save your ass. We are waiting here until the faebane leaves our systems.” You try to sound calm, but that doesn’t stop your racing heart. Azriel thinks for a moment, looking around the cabin. His eyes land on the bloody bandaged wound on your thigh again, and he immediately becomes angry.

“You came in after me?” He barks.

“Uh, yeah?” You ask, confused at his anger.

“You disobeyed a direct order!” Azriel growls.

“You were in trouble!” Why the hell are you having to defend yourself for saving him?

“I don’t care. You should’ve followed orders. I would’ve gotten myself free eventually.” He snaps. You huff in annoyance.

“You stupid arrogant male, they were going to torture you! And then use you to lure Rhys and Cass and kill them too! How the hell was I supposed to sit by and let that happen?” You scream angrily. He attempts to stand, wincing at the pain. You want to tell him that he should stay sitting, but it’s unlikely that he will listen.

“You should’ve stayed outside.” He growls, stalking closer.

“You would be dead if I did that!” You stare him down in defiance.

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have gotten hurt!” That makes you pause. Is that why he’s angry, you wonder.

“Despite what you may think about my skills, I’m perfectly capable of withstanding a minor injury from a mission!” You argue.

“You shouldn’t have to.” He spits coldly.

“Since when do you care what happens to me?” You scoff.

“I’ve always cared.” His voice drops to being barely audible and he turns away. You freeze.

“What?”

“Nevermind. I’m gonna start a fire while we wait.” He grumbles. You walk around him to face him, blocking the fireplace.

“No, what did you mean you’ve always cared? You hate me. Everyone knows it.” You ask hesitantly. This must be some new attempt to embarrass you or something, you rationalize.

“I’ve never hated you.” He whispers, avoiding eye contact by staring at the floor.

“I don't understand. Then why do you always keep me out of missions? Why do you ignore me any time I try to be nice?” You ask angrily.

“I… fuck.” He runs his hand through his hair before looking you in the eyes. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt. Either from missions or by me.” The last words come out quieter than the rest. “I thought that ignoring you and keeping you off missions would keep you kept you at a safe distance. I didn’t want to risk you being targeted just because of how I feel about you.” Your eyes soften at the admission.

“That wasn’t your decision to make. I get to decide what is worth the risk for me.” You say in a gentler tone. Azriel looks at the floor again, shaking his head.

“You don’t get it. Today is a perfect example. The people in my life that I care about are constantly at risk.”

“Did I not handle myself?” You ask, causing him to sigh.

“That isn’t the point. You don’t-“ You cut him off, pressing a kiss to his lips. Azriel stands frozen for a second, before quickly wrapping his hands into your hair and holding you closer. “Fuck it.” He mumbles while kissing you, backing you into the wall.

It’s safe to say that you and Azriel found very good use of your time while you waited for the faebane to wear off.

———

Rhysand was less than thrilled to hear about the unsuccessful mission when you returned. After you two showed him what happened, obviously leaving out what happened at the cabin, the three of you made a plan to go back and capture the two males. Azriel tried to argue about you going, but one stern look from you and he quickly shut up.

“Well, it seems like you two sorted out your issues.” Rhys laughs, not noticing Azriel’s smirk.

prompt list

tag list: @fxckmiup

[lucyandthepen]

last young renegade | jjh

summary: your valentine’s day plans with jaehyun may have gone down the drain just a little. (okay — a lot.)

pairing: jaehyun x reader verse: canon, idol!verse rating: t warnings&tags: reader & jaehyun are in an established relationship, quite frankly there is nothing too out of the ordinary in this fic which is a shocker, it’s a rewritten fic so pls excuse any errors I may not have caught! word count: 5.02k

a/n: happy 2024 friends and family !!!!!! and advanced happy birthday to the man who created valentine’s day, he who is perhaps my first love in nct, jaehyun! this is actually just a fic I’ve been hoping to re-write a bit from before, and since it’s valentine’s themed, what better time to post it!! Enjoy enjoy, and may this year bring more fun, laughs, love (and debauchery) to this blog!

Yᴏᴜ sᴀɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ sɪᴄᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛɪʀᴇᴅ ᴏғ ɪᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ, ɴɪɢʜᴛ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴀʏ.

♡ jaehyunnie ♡ I know I said birthday dinner but practice is running so late ㅠㅠ ♡ jaehyunnie ♡ Can we meet after? I’m sorry ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ How about I call you when we’re done? Maybe 11:30?

At times like this, you often wonder if it’s all worth it.  

You know thinking that way is counterproductive, not to mention a little unfair. You knew exactly what to expect, getting into an under-wraps relationship with an idol, and so far, it’s lived up to most of your assumptions, and then some. It doesn’t help that Jaehyun, even just by name, tends to attract an unbelievable amount of attention. You know you can’t blame him; it’s not like he wants to be high on the radar every time, either. For some reason, though, you seem to be looking for something or someone to blame, which you also know is a dead end. You have no one to pin the blame onto apart from yourself by frequently generating doubts that keep your mind running around in circles.  

It’s not even the sneaking around that gets tiring; it’s the waiting — waiting on calls, waiting on free time, waiting on a good opportunity to do something that doesn’t involve him suddenly getting pulled out to attend to one of many of his celebrity responsibilities. Over the last few years that you’ve dated, NCT has only ever gotten more popular; with that popularity came the fact that the public eye was trained on them, focusing on every microscopic detail of their lives. Jaehyun hates that more than anything, which is why he’s given up on trying to avoid it by practically escaping it altogether, locking himself up in the dorm with you when he has his precious few days off. 

While it’s true that you definitely don’t miss having to play espionage when going out for a cup of coffee with him, you’ve also managed to memorize every single inch of Jaehyun’s room, which isn’t good for your mentality, you’re pretty sure. You have to keep reminding him to open the window whenever the both of you are in there, because all you do is stay in and watch English movies without subtitles to see who can understand the most without asking questions (obviously, he always wins) while eating food he runs up and down the stairs to get every other hour. And while him trying to imitate the British accents on these shows is genuinely funny, you’re starting to suspect even he’s starting to get tired of watching Harry Potter over and over again. Twenty hours sounds like a long time unless you spend every twenty-hour period you have together marathoning the exact same films. Much to both of your disappointment, your suggestion to watch it totally out of order did not make it cooler.

Still, you suppose it’s not all bad. Jaehyun also taught you how to play Fortnite on a couple of his days off back to back, and while you hadn’t been as good a player as you both had hoped, he’d still patiently waited for you every time you got lost on the map. He’d even given you his account’s password with the sentiment that this was him ‘taking things to the next level with you,’ and you get to log into his account and play whenever you want; he doesn’t even get mad when you’ve wasted all the stuff he’s farmed on your subpar gaming skills. And, well, the bigger picture was that you loved him. Based on how much effort he put into the relationship, plus the bonus of his trust in you when it came to his Fortnite account, you could at least be confident in that he returned the sentiment.  

Except, sometimes, you still wonder if it would be easier for the both of you if he flew solo and didn’t have a girlfriend that tanked all of his player’s ammo and health kits and generally made a fool out of his cute little avatar while he was out breaking his back onstage.  

You aren’t sure if Jaehyun’s been noticing the turmoil in you; you’re not that good at hiding how you feel, anyway, but if he has, he hasn’t said anything thus far. You do observe how much more he texts you when he has free time, which makes you feel doubly bad, because you know that he’s spending precious minutes he could be resting with on talking to you instead, which isn’t the best trade-off for someone who’s constantly busy — and thereby constantly tired — like him.  

♡ jaehyunnie♡ ___________ I’m going to practice again, okay? Wait for my call ㅠㅠ You I’ll wait for your call ♡ ♡ jaehyunnie♡ I love you ㅠㅠㅠㅠ ♡ jaehyunnie♡ You love me too — a lot, right? I’ll keep my phone now, but I’ll make sure to check that you said so. ㅋㅋㅋ You Right! ㅎ I love you a lot! ♡

When the clock hits 12:01, and your phone is silent, your mind starts working on overtime again. It’s only when the special ringtone you’ve set for him comes to life at half-past midnight that you break your train of thought and put on your socks so you can meet Jaehyun at your front door.  

You’ve made a rule — sort of like a deal — between the two of you that apologies aren’t necessary when work holds you up. You’ve cashed in on that deal a couple of times, but you’re both aware that it’s more for Jaehyun’s sake than anything else, and he keeps to his word on that much when you open the door and duck into his car. All he does is smile at you, and you smile back, and for the rest of the car ride, everything seems okay.  

He always asks you about your day — unfailingly, at any chance he can. It’s never an off-handed question, either; Jaehyun takes great pride in his memory, and the sweetest thing about him is that he’s dedicated a good deal of it to knowing almost everything about you. Right now is no different. He asks you about your team manager, what you had for lunch; he grills you on if you took your vitamins today and if you got to break in the new shoes you bought online — the ones you’d been pining over for the last three months. He even asks you about the guy from the neighboring department who keeps asking you out for after-work drinks.  

“He wanted to go to Hongdae tonight,” you tell him as he slows for a red light. “There’s some new pub of his friend’s doing a soft opening there tonight.”  

“You could have gone.” He keeps his eyes on the road. “I wouldn’t have minded.”  

“I didn’t want to.”

“Good.” He glances at you, a grin slowly spreading on his lips. “Because I lied. I might have minded a little. Or, you know, a lot.”  

“Don’t tell me after all these years, you’ve turned into the kind of boyfriend that doesn’t let his girlfriend go out without him.”

“That’s impossible for me, and you know that,” he chuckles. “You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Just not with that guy from the other department.”

“Don’t worry.” You tinker with the little charm dangling on your phone — half of a flat, metal heart dangling from a gold chain that Jaehyun had given you two years back on your birthday. He keeps the other half, but since he can’t freely attach it to any of his belongings, he keeps it wedged between the back of his phone and its case. You like watching him change the backing because he does it so carefully, like he’s worried the other half of the heart is going to break if he rips off the case willy nilly. “I told him my boyfriend and I were going out on a date tonight, so he backed off. Although he did wonder why I keep talking about a boyfriend he’s never seen.”

“And? What did you say?”

“I said it was none of his damn business.”  

Jaehyun laughs loudly, and you go along with him, but you don’t miss how tired he looks when he sobers down, the green light illuminating all the shadows on his face as he steps on the gas again.

Nothing good is open this late at night — that is, nothing you haven’t seen before. You hadn’t even expected to go out at all, but since it was the day before Valentine’s Day as well as his birthday (or it would have been, if you hadn’t waited until midnight), Jaehyun had wanted to do something special without having to run into a huge crowd of couples on the day itself. Your only option is this from-out-of-town carnival that’s set up in tents and even has a medium-sized ferris wheel by the edge of the metal barricade. The parking lot is practically empty when Jaehyun pulls into a slot; you joke that he should break one rule and park in two slots, which he smugly replies to by saying he couldn’t park badly even if he tried.  

He tucks your hair back behind your ears as he loops the strings of a face mask around them, using another one for himself. Between that and the brim of his cap, you can barely see his eyes. The only knowledge that you have that you’re walking next to the man you love is that he takes your hand in his, slender fingers finding their way between yours.  

The carnival is half-closed when you get to the middle of it; there are still a few stragglers, but half the kiosks have their lights off already. There’s a woman dressed in flashy clothes standing on a patch of dead grass a few feet away, and she’s holding a hoop that a ginger cat is jumping through. Jaehyun steers you to them, and you stand there for a good five minute watching the cat roll on the ground and stand on its hind legs, but you can tell it’s been going it at for most of the day because at one point, it just ignores the lady, opting to weave its way between Jaehyun’s and your legs instead. You do have a pretty good time when he picks it up and cradles it in his arms so you can pet it for a second, but it just hisses when its owner approaches and jumps out of his hold, disappearing behind a row of trash bins.  

Jaehyun doesn’t have anything in his wallet apart from his credit cards and 50,000 won, and the coin machine operator says he only has enough coins left to break down 5,000 won for the games, so you end up having to jog back to his car so you can fish out some coins from inside his glove compartment. You come up with a grand total of 1,500 won, and you have to sheepishly go back to the coin machine operator to change four 100 coins and a couple of 50s just to get the last 500. Jaehyun tells you to hold onto the three coins so he doesn’t run off with them entirely and leave you destitute.  

You learn you can only do three things at most — you dedicate 500 won for the Ferris wheel entry tickets, which leaves you with 500 won each. The both of you agree on choosing one kiosk to play in, and with only about five left that are open, you don’t really have that many options. You end up dragging Jaehyun over to a stall with a pond filled with those magnetic toy fish, but 500 won only gets you one fishing rod. Since it’s your choice, Jaehyun lets you play, but you feel kind of stupid doing it on your own with him just watching you. In the end, he decides to stand behind you, his arms around your waist like he thinks closer contact isn’t even more distracting. You do manage to fish out 10 fish and win a small bear on a keychain. It doesn’t even pass through your hands as Jaehyun takes it from the stall operator immediately. 

“That’s mine!” You whine, reaching out in vain to take it from him; he just holds it high over his head. His eyes are twinkling under the shadow his cap casts over his face. “I worked hard for that.”  

“Let me keep this one,” he mimics the pleading lilt in your voice. “I’ll put it on my bag.”

“You know you can’t! Give it back.”

“I’ll win you a bigger one,” he promises. “Let me keep this one. It’s cute. It reminds me of you. I’ll kiss it goodnight before I sleep.” He starts to laugh softly. “And then you’ll feel this weird spirit kissing you at like two in the morning, and you’ll know it’s me.”  

Your arms aren’t long enough to retrieve it, and you don’t really want to, so you settle with twisting his ear. He takes it in stride even if he over-acts, making pained noises while leading you to the kiosk he wants to go to. It’s a shooting range stall, and he pays his own precious 500 won for a dart gun. He’s barely paying attention when the guy starts explaining how many points are assigned to each balloon color, more concerned with talking to the bear keychain in his hand and pretending like he’s cooing at you. You have to hit him across the shoulder to get him to focus.  

“You need to start picking out what prize you want,” he tells you — the actual you, not the animal keychain version — as he lifts the dart gun.  

“I’ll wait for you to finish first.”  

“No way.” He tilts his head, closing one eye to steady his line of sight. “Pick already. Or just go for the biggest one.”

“You know that Fortnite and dart guns aren’t the same thing, right?”  

“Yeah, but I’m well-motivated.” He grins at you, one eye still shut. He looks like a baby pirate. “Go ahead. Pick the biggest one.”

“Why don’t you just shoot, and we’ll see.”  

“Pick it,” he insists. “Tell me you have faith in me. Tell me you love me.”

“Okay, I love you,” you agree. “But I have no faith in you when it comes to this.”  

“One out of two is fine,” he concedes, taking aim.  

All three of you, including the stall operator, let out a disappointed groan when he misses his first shot. His comes with a sheepish laugh as he reloads, suddenly telling you to pick the second biggest prize instead. You can’t even watch him miss over and over, so you pretend to be interested in a bunch of teenage boys playing a game of cups one stall over, trying not to giggle when you hear him get increasingly more frustrated at himself. When you turn back around, you notice he’s holding two small pieces of gummy candy, offering one to you like a kindergartener. He helps you tug your face mask down so you can eat it.  

There’s a food stall nearby that, thankfully, accepts credit and debit; Jaehyun fishes out his card to get you a corndog — only one because he’s watching his weight for the upcoming concert, apparently. This is information you hate hearing but have no say in, and he knows this; you know he does because he says ‘don’t worry about me’ totally out of the blue, like five minutes after the conversation ceases to be relevant.  

His phone starts ringing when the food comes out, and he takes a tiny bite of it — more bread than hotdog — before he answers. You know it’s Taeyong by the way he answers.  

“Hyung, sorry — can we talk later? I’m out with ____________.”  

Taeyong says something loud but indiscernible on the other end. You piece together that it’s about tomorrow’s schedule when Jaehyun speaks again.

“I know. I’ll be home in a bit; don’t worry about it. I haven’t forgotten.”  

There’s more garbled speech on the other line; Jaehyun gestures for you to keep eating, and you do, but you more concerned with the morphing expressions on his face than you are with the act of chewing. He’s making noncommittal noises in response to what seem to be commands and reminders. You’re pretty much done with the corndog by the time he says ‘Okay, hyung. Hyung — I’ll see you later, okay?’

“Taeyong hyung says hi,” he tells you once he’s hung up the phone. “He says you still need to give back that book you borrowed from him last year.”  

“Oh yeah,” you finish off the last of the food. “I’ll drop it off within the week.”  

“Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t actually mean it.”  

Jaehyun watches you snap the stick in half and toss it in the trash bag.  

“We can go home,” you say finally. His eyebrows shoot up. “You’re busy tomorrow. I forgot.”

“I didn’t forget, and it’s fine.”  

“It’s almost two in the morning.” You check your phone to verify. “You probably have to be up in a few hours. You need to sleep, or you’ll die, Jaehyun. I’m too young to be a grieving widow.”

“Let’s at least ride the Ferris wheel,” he suggests. Before you can protest, he tugs you towards the rickety contraption, digging the 500 won out of your pocket and handing it to the bemused operator. He lets you choose what carriage you want because literally no one is on it anymore, and Jaehyun asks for the best carriage. You’re not sure how it differs from the rest, but he makes a show out of guiding you into it, and you don’t miss the corny ‘my lady,’ he mutters under his breath.   

It’s small, clearly meant for either a tiny group of children or couples who want to be as close together as possible. It’s also not air-conditioned, and only one of the windows is open, so you end up sticking to Jaehyun’s arm on the way up. The view is still great, though, and you feel his hand settle on your knee as the carriage makes it slow ascent.  

The ride up is quiet, and you press your face as close to the glass of the carriage as you dare, but Jaehyun doesn’t move an inch. His hand is still heavy on your thigh, but it doesn’t do anything but lay there. When you’re close to the top, you’re hit with the urge to do something romantic — kiss, maybe, tell him happy birthday, or say ‘I love you’ to him in the most sickening way possible — but when you turn to look at him, you have to hold your tongue.

Jaehyun is asleep, leaning against the corner of the carriage, head tilted down a little. His shoulders are rising and falling slowly, and he’s pulled down his face mask a little so he can breathe better; his lips are slightly parted by the slackening of his jaw. His left hand is shoved in his pocket, like he’d passed out halfway through reaching for something in there.  

He doesn’t wake even when you move slightly so you can lean back next to him, rocking the carriage a little — not even when you reach up and adjust his head so he can rest on your shoulder. He breathes deeply, evenly, and you wonder if his ear against your shoulder allows him to hear your heart plummet unfairly to the bottom of your stomach.  

You have to shake him to rouse him when the ride comes to an end; when he opens his eyes and realizes what happened, he looks mortified. Instinctively, he opens his mouth, but you fling the carriage door open and step out before he can apologize.

You have a deal, and he knows what he shouldn’t be doing.

His grip on your hand is much tighter as you walk back to the parking lot, and he doesn’t let go, even on the road. The trip back is quieter, maybe because it’s late, or maybe because there are a ton of things the both of you want to say but can’t.  

He slows down when he gets to your street, but when he stops in front of your building, he doesn’t immediately unlock the doors to let you out. Instead, he turns to you, licking his lips a little nervously.

“Can you…” he clears his throat because his voice cracks a little on the first attempt. “Can you come back with me? To the dorm?”  

“I have work tomorrow, Jaehyun.”  

“It’s still at eleven, isn’t it? I can bring you home before that. You still have some stuff in my room. You can get ready there.”

“Won’t you be too busy?”  

“Just—” he sighs softly. “Can you? Please?”  

You don’t know how to say no to Jaehyun, and tonight isn’t a night you’re willing to try. It’s why fifteen minutes later, you’re walking through the front door of his dorm. Donghyuck, sitting at his computer in his room with the door ajar, greets you sleepily as you pass by.  

Jaehyun steps in the shower with you; you don’t talk, maybe because you’re worried you might wake the others up if you start a full-blown conversation in a bathroom surrounded by other bedrooms. He just passes you what you need, and you do the same for him, and somewhere in between, he kisses you under the spray of the water.  

Later, he falls asleep with a face mask on, and you have to peel it off for him and toss it into the trash. The tip of his nose is shiny, and you want to kiss it, but you know it’ll wake him, and you noticed he’d set his alarm to go off two hours from now. He’s set out a couple of earplugs for you so that you don’t hear it, but you don’t put them in. You want to see him before he leaves, even if it’s in the deadest hours of morning, so you just crawl into bed with him. A minute before you doze off, you feel his damp skin press against your neck, his form curled up against your back.  

The alarm never wakes you; the sun is out when you open your eyes, and when you check your phone, you see that it’s already half-past nine. You also notice that there’s nothing from Jaehyun on your screen, but you try not to dwell on that, considering that you’d been expecting to wake up to an empty bed. His side of the mattress is cold, which means that he’s been gone for some time.  

You don’t know if it’s just because you’re groggy, but your insides still feel like lead when you sit up. The part of you that nags about this relationship is back at full force when you start thinking about Jaehyun going to a pre-recording two hours after spending the last of his energy on you. You start wondering if you’re doing the right thing if it feels like you’re just dragging him down. Your heart clenches tightly when the worst thought hits — maybe, just maybe, he’s tired of you, too.

But you won’t let him go. More to the point — you can’t. He’s the best part of your life; it’d be a cold day in hell if you decided to leave him.

Even the thought of it makes you feel like dying.  

Then again, this isn’t all up to you.  

You’re rubbing the sleep out of your eyes — and maybe a couple of frustrated tears — when the door creaks open. You see two mugs and his hands before you see the rest of him come through the doorway. Jaehyun whispers a careful good morning as he sets the coffee down on his table, making sure to push his keyboard away to avoid accidents, before sitting down next to you. You notice that there’s an envelope next to one of the mugs; the flap is slightly open, and from under it, a flash of red peeks out.  

His hand finds its way back to your knee — it’s his favorite resting place, he’s told you once. Your lap feels like home, he’d joked. Maybe he touches it every so often because it’s like a reset button for him.  

He doesn’t ask if you slept well, or if you want to get ready before having your coffee, or if you’re okay. He just squeezes your knee a little tighter. It’s you that has to start the conversation this time.

“How did it go?”

“It went great. You’ll see it on TV later tonight,” he starts rubbing your thigh idly. “You’ll watch it later, right?”  

“Of course. I’ll call you and tell you how cool you look.”  

He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. When you lapse into silence again, it’s because you’re expecting him to say something, but he doesn’t come out with it directly. You try not to let it show that you’re worried, that you’re skeptical, that you’re wondering if he thinks he’s too tired, too busy for this, too.  

You’re expecting him to start how most break-ups start. You know I love you, right? And then the telltale but… would come, and you would have to hold back your tears and smile for him, and tell him you know, and that you understand it isn’t the right time, but maybe one day, someday, when he isn’t everyone’s Jung Jaehyun anymore — only yours.  

“You love me, right?”  

It’s not what you’d been expecting. Nor is it the playful little text he’d sent — no laughs, no jokes. His expression is somber, mouth pressed into a thin line.  

“You know I do.”

“A lot, right?”

“A lot,” you confirm softly.  

“Then whatever it is that you’re thinking about us,” he says quietly. “Don’t. Don’t think it. Don’t do it.”  

“Jaehyun—”

“I know it’s hard,” his fingers dig into your skin a little. “I know I put you through a lot. I know you think that I’m suffering because of this relationship too. I know everything. But whatever you think I’m going to do, I won’t do it — not ever. So if you’re thinking of it too, I’m begging you. Don’t. Please.”  

Maybe he had noticed all this time. A wave of guilt washes over you when you see the pained look on his face; perhaps you were even more transparent than you’d originally thought. You nod slowly to show your understanding, and he continues.  

“I know yesterday wasn’t the best you could have hoped for,” he carefully avoids apologizing, although it’s written all over his features. “For me, too. I… I wanted something different. It’ll be better next time. Do you believe me?”  

You hear him swallow — his nails are biting into your thigh a little, so you have to gently peel his hand off. Your fingers replace it, tightening around his palm as you nod.

“I believe you.”  

“And you trust me, right?”

“With my life.”  

“Then can you put your faith in me right now?” He asks. “Don’t panic. Just — just say yes.”

He pats around his pants, finally deciding to slip his hand into his left-hand pocket. Unlike on the Ferris wheel, he manages to extract something, but he keeps it closed in his fist. It’s shaking a little as he takes your hand in his other one, pressing something small and hard into your palm before he curls your fingers over it. His hold keeps your fist closed as he starts talking.

“It’s not immediate. We’ll figure it out. We’ll tell the right people, and they’ll help us tell everyone else — the public, the press. It doesn’t have to happen right now, or any time soon either— not if you don’t want it to. We can take it slow, or whatever. Anything you want — just as long as it’s with me.”  

“Jaehyun,” you shake your head, a little dizzy. “What are you talking about?”  

He slowly loosens his hold on your fingers, his hand dropping to the same spot on your knee. You’re free to open your fist, and when you do, you can’t help but feel a little stumped.

“I don’t mean now,” he repeats, now sounding doubly worried. “It’s not — It’s just…”  

“You’ll get in trouble. We can’t.”

“I won’t. Not if we do this right. Like I said, we can do it slowly. Months — years, however long it takes to do it well. What it is — it’s just… a promise.”  

“A promise,” you echo. It does have a nice ring to it.  

“That I’m not leaving you. Not ever. And… if you say yes, that you won’t either.”  

Your coffee has probably turned cold. Jaehyun is watching you carefully, looking like he’s trying hard not to bite his lip. You look back down at your hand, and he speaks up again.  

“You know I love you, right?”  

You smile slightly. “No but?”  

“No but,” he agrees.  

The ring fits nicely on your finger; maybe it’s well-measured from the amount of times he’s held your hand tightly in his.  

“Okay, Jaehyun,” you whisper. “I promise.”  

When you place your hand on his, he twists his palm, slender fingers gently twirling the ring around the base of your finger.  

Minutes later, he hands you your coffee. It’s sweet and milky, the way he knows you like it best. When he settles back down on the bed, you notice his eyes travel to your finger again, a small smile playing on his lips.  

Perhaps, in this moment, you finally learn to ask the right questions — not about if it’s worth it, but if he is.  

And in this moment, where he sits in silence with you, the sunlight pouring in from his window hitting the tips of his hair and the end of his nose, with the knowledge that his heart is as full as yours, you come to realize that there can — and never will be — any doubt of that.  

[lumilasi]

Since I've been updating one of my bleach fics more recently, I felt the once-in-a-blue-moon urge to draw something from it.....decision I VERY MUCH regretted lmao, because what I picked was SUPER difficult to draw, and I had to take some creative liberty with these designs, lessening the detail in them (Didn't even have a proper ref for Oni-Ichigo to begin with...).

Still, I managed to finish this at least. Fanart isn't really my thing anymore that much so these will be rare, even if I am writing semi-regularly.

The scene this bases on from Jack of All Hollows:

(Context, this is a memory viewed by "main" Ichigo of the story, Oni-Ichigo is a separate person)

Grimmjow eventually shifts, now just sitting on the bridge ledge properly, dangling his bare feet over the water. His companion follows his example, though chooses to keep his legs towards the bridge instead, sitting the other way around. He was still glancing at Grimmjow, and Ichigo could tell that color on his demon doppleganger’s face wasn’t just alcohol. He looked like there was something he was trying to say, but was hesitating.

Ichigo knew what it was.

Clearly, Grimmjow was aware of his companion mulling over something, as the blunet eventually snorts and turns to look at Oni Ichigo annoyed.

"What? Spill it, I can literally hear yer overthinkin’ shit again.”

"You can share memories, not read minds.”

"The gears in your brain are so rusty they make shit ton of noise, Kurosaki. Hard not to hear all that.”

The ginger demon laughs at that, his reaction seemingly confusing his companion a little, the point he now grabs Oni Ichigo’s arm and threatens to throw him into the river if he didn’t explain what was so damn funny now. His companion eventually manages to stop laughing with a wheeze, now looking back at the pouty looking blunet, who was clearly still confused about his behavior.

"Yer way too drunk huh; never knew your stubborn ass was this lightweight.”

"Yeah, guess I am.”

Watching the pair, Ichigo felt uneasy now, suddenly having a feeling this wouldn’t end well for his twin. Obviously, this Ichigo had died, but beyond that…

Suddenly, his twin leans closer, clearly catching Grimmjow off-guard. The kiss doesn’t last long, and once his twin pulls back he had gone completely red, now averting his gaze and rubbing his neck sheepishly. Grimmjow had gone completely stiff, just like he’d done that night at that other bridge.

"S-sorry. I….uh.”

He seems to struggle for a moment to decide what to say, still avoiding the blue eyes staring at him. Grimmjow still hadn’t moved an inch, as if his brain had short circuited and he was struggling to process what just happened.

"….You know. You’re not as bad as I thought when we first met. And lately, I don’t know. I just….I like hanging out with you, when you’re not trying to kill me.”

Oni Ichigo chuckles sheepishly, still avoiding his gaze. Grimmjow now turns his head away, his face still unreadable, though the shock seemed to have faded. The atmosphere around the pair had shifted from the easygoing drunkedness to something much more tense and awkward, though Ichigo wasn’t sure if he was reading it that way, or if the emotion was attached to the memory itself.

"I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And….I-I don’t think its…”

Oni Ichigo swallows down hard now, finally daring to look up at Grimmjow. Seeing that uneasy look in his eyes, oh fuck he was scared too. It had clearly taken his twin a lot to bring this up, and so far, neither could tell what Grimmjow was thinking.

"I don’t think it’s friendly affection I’m feeling.”

Silence.

[wukong-s-only-wife5000]

Aaaaa I love your writing so much omg!!<3

Can I perhaps get a Monkey King: Reborn. Where him and the reader get into a argument, and he says something he doesn’t mean to out of complete anger. Making the reader really upset and running off. Than maybe something happens to the reader and Wukong feels hella bad But they eventually make up?🥺💖

So I guess this one would kinda be like where he gets mad? Sorry  I know this is more angst and comfort. I just thought more details would be helpful. Anyways sorry again if this doesn’t really fit anything. ;<;

He's Mad: Reborn!Wukong.

Pair: Reborn Wukong x chubby!Reader.

Word Count: 1505.

Content/Trigger Warnings: insecurities are triggered.

Authors Notes: No need to apologize! This is an amazing one. I really enjoyed writing this one even though it hurt my heart a bit, thanks so much for the submission. <3 Hope you enjoy!

<---Previous | Start | Next--->

It doesn't take much to get Sun Wukong angry; especially when you're the target of discussion. He's overprotective and very possessive over you, it's to be expected, you are his baby after all. He wants to make sure you're looked after, protected and cared for; most importantly know that you're cared for. However, today’s anger wasn't just like every other day mad… no, no, today you were the target of his anger, and obviously you knew better than to take his shit sitting down. 

Now, granted, you'd agree that the situation you had gotten into was your fault, and you already felt bad that you put everyone else in danger… It wasn't really your fault that the jaguar demon thought it was a good idea to mess with you because he thought you were a ‘weak and defenseless little pork thing’. 

You had to admit that it triggered you a lot, it really hit home and maybe something might have been said about him being a leopard wanna be that he… didn't take kindly to and tried to attack you before Wukong set him right. Yes, your boyfriend beat the shit outta him and sent him running. It's just that Wukong snapping at you like he did afterwards was the last thing you needed.

“Look, I get that-” you started, but he cut you off.

“I knew this would happen,” he chuckled and shook his head. You could clearly tell that that chuckle wasn't a humorous one, but one that warned he was losing it. However, his statement confused you, and you narrowed your eyes on him.

What did he mean he ‘knew this would happen’?

“What? What do you mean you knew it would happen?” you questioned him, though in your gut, you could tell that was where you really messed up. 

“I knew this would happen,” he repeated, this time looking at you with that glare that he had never shot you before. “You never do anything right! You always have to find some way, shape, or form to say or do something that pisses off something bigger and stronger than you. Then I’m always the one who has to come save you because you keep screwing things up and getting yourself into unnecessary trouble! For once in your life can you just do as you're told and stay where I can see you?!”

“Not once have I ever asked you to do anything of the sort for me… but since I'm such a burden to you,” you clenched your fists and lowered your head a bit. “I’ll just leave, then!” you yelled before you stormed off away from him.

“Shit…” he grumbled as he watched you walk away from him. The sight immediately sobering him up from his previous rage. “(Y/n), wait!” but… you were gone. You may be thick and short, but you were fast.

Wukong continued to growl and grumble curses as he paced up and down. Him and his big mouth! How could he say that to you? He's such a knucklehead. He tried his best to get his emotions in check, but the thought of you being mad at him was just pissing him off more. He sat against a boulder, staring out at the cliff view with an intense glare, as if the view was to blame for him getting mad in the first place. He'd put himself in a temporary timeout so he could cool down before finding you. 

You yourself, well… you hated that the tears kept on falling no matter how many times you'd wiped them away. You knew Wukong didn't mean what he said to you, but that didn't mean that his words hurt any less. What made it hurt the worst was that he wasn't exactly wrong. You did have a tendency to get yourself and everyone else in danger, but it wasn't like you did it on purpose!

Hearing Wujing unlikely or Pigsy more likely say that wouldn't have hurt as much, but hearing your boyfriend say something like that? It shattered you like the most fragile glass in the world. You had to admit, you didn't exactly handle his outburst any better. 

“Real mature, (Y/n)… storming off with your tail between your legs,” you grumbled to yourself as you finally found a spot and plopped down. “I'm such an idiot…”

The tears that filled your eyes and blurred your vision finally continued to fall like a waterfall. Salty tears that fell down your face and felt never-ending. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You don't know how much time really passed, but by the time you had decided to 

“There you are, where have you been?!” Pigsy was the first to chastise you with his fists on his hips, but he immediately shut up hearing Wukong growl at him. 

“Sorry I was gone so long,” you cursed internally when your voice broke.

“Are you alright?” Tang was the first to ask, never really showing it, but you could tell he was a bit worried about you.

“I'm fine, just a bit tired. I guess I fell asleep after my walk,” you lied through your teeth, though it was a lie that all but Wukong believed without question.

The Monkey King watched you walk over to sit by the fireplace at the centre of the camp. Meat dinner appeared to be a fish monster that you figured Wukong caught whilst he was out blowing off the rest of his steam, which was true. You knew him well. No matter how good the cooked fish smelled, you just didn't have an appetite and the thought of eating food made you feel sick.

You heard Wujing telling a story or talking about some legend as he always did, but you didn't pay attention and neither did Wukong. Your mind was somewhere not even you knew the location of, and Wukong’s attention was rotated from you to his meal then straight back to you. It hurt his heart knowing that he had hurt you in his rage, but it worried him even more seeing you hadn't touched any of the food. 

Once everyone finally decided to get some sleep, you and Wukong were left outside. 

“You're not eating,” he spoke. 

“Not hungry,” you said softly, but of course your stomach chose then to make the loudest protest that made Wukong huff through his nose in amusement.

“Yeah, I can tell,”

You wanted to smile or chuckle, but you surprisingly managed to keep to yourself. Without a word, Wukong sat beside you, an action that made your heart race every single time… this time was no exception. He gave you a bowl with the fish meat and bread, small but filling. The rumble in your stomach made him win, so you took the bowl with a soft ‘thank you’. His elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, his eyes were focused on the firewood as you ate quietly. 

“What’d that bastard say to you?” he glanced at you mid-bite of your toasted bread. When you told him, he was seething, but didn't bother to say anything else as you continued to eat.

He felt like a bigger fool than he did before. He knew he should have asked your side of the story, but he was just so pissed off that you almost got attacked that he wasn't thinking straight. 

“(Y/n)-” he started once you were finished and set the bowl aside. Just saying your name, you could tell he was desperate, something else that made your heart race.

“Don't bother,” you said softly, shaking your head a bit. “I know…”

“No,” he looked at you with anguish on his face as he sat on the floor, his hands held yours on your lap. He looked so pathetic and vulnerable, it broke your heart to see him like this. “I shouldn't have said that to you, I was out of line. What's worse, I hurt your feelings and made you cry,”

“Wukong-” your voice was soft, but he cut you off.

“I'm so sorry, Peach.” he pulled you onto his lap and nuzzled your shoulder and neck with his face, his fur tickling your skin. “I'm so so so sorry,”

“It's okay,” you couldn't help but smile at his behaviour. He continued to nuzzle you before he pulled you to straddle him, and he continued nuzzling and kissing your neck. You sighed heavily as sweat dropped from your forehead… You were stuck…

“Wukong-”

“No,” he immediately declined, holding you close to his chest, not willing to let you go. 

His right arm held you firmly against his chest while his left hand intertwined with yours, his thumb caressed your hand tenderly. You sighed once more. You fell into a trap… Now he won't be letting you go till he thinks you've forgiven him, even though you already have.

“I love you, you dummy,” you smiled and hugged his torso. 

“I love you so much more, peach,” he said softly and placed a kiss on your forehead. 

[flippinpancakes64]

The Cullen with a human partner who has very noticeable freckles all over his body and who is discouraged that after the transformation they will disappear.

The Cullens with a reader with Freckles

I made this a little more general to include headcanons of the Cullens with a reader who has freckles. I also made it gender neutral/not specified.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

Edward:

He loves your freckles

When you’re asleep, he has nothing better to do than count them

He loves when summer rolls around and he can watch as the sun pulls more out of your skin

If you’re ever insecure about them, he shuts that down instantly

He loves them so shut up

Now according to Stephenie Meyer, vampires lose all of the melanin in their skin when they transform

But that’s stupid so I’m gonna ignore that

When he turns you, you notice that your skin is stuck in the permanent state of winter, where your freckles are at their most faint

He tries to reassure you that they’re still visible

It takes him one entire night of kissing all of them for you to believe him :)

Alice:

She thinks they’re adorable

She wishes she had some

Makes a point to tell you that

Again, she loves the summertime because they become more obvious

One time, she drew a picture of you in art class and you were stunned at the amount of detail in which she captured your freckles

Like she got them in all the right spots, right amounts, everything

Before she turns you, you tell her that you're concerned about your freckles disappearing

She tries to convince you that they won't, but to be honest she doesn't know for sure

After she turns you, she notices that you’re pretty upset

She helps you recreate your freckles with makeup if she notices that it really bothers you

But other than that she tries her best to help you forget

She reassures you that she still thinks you are very adorable/attractive

Jasper:

He thinks they are so enchanting

He gets lost just staring at you very often

Whether that's because he's staring at your freckles or just you is up for debate-

Either way he loves them

He gets shocked around the summertime

"Did you do your makeup today?"

"No, why?"

"'Cause you've got more of those spots than normal"

When he (or Carlisle, let's be honest) turns you, he instantly notices the difference

They're not all gone, but a good chunk of them are

He's a little sad too

But he still loves you so

He does his best to cheer you up

He uses his gift to make you feel better

Rosalie:

When she was alive, freckles were considered ugly blemishes

But she never understood that

She always thought they were cute

So when she sees you and all of the freckles that you have, she is instantly in love

Another one who counts them while you're sleeping sorry

She's the only one who actually has an answer about whether or not your freckles will stay when you get turned

She still has her beauty mark, after all

So at the very least, your biggest, most noticeable ones will stay

And when she turns you, she is proven right

Obviously you're both bummed that not all of them stick around, but she reassures you that it's okay

Emmett:

It isn't the first thing that he notices about you

He sees your personality first

Jk jk jk

I mean it's just not the first thing he sees

However, when summer rolls around and suddenly all of your freckles have multiplied and they're all darker, he notices

"So... what are all of those?"

"All of what?"

"The spots on your face... and arms... and chest"

He thinks they suit you though

One day, Alice used some foundation to cover them all up to play a prank on him and he was so shocked

Almost didn't recognize you

After he turns you, he doesn't really notice the difference

You're gonna have to point it out to him

But he just tells you that he still thought you looked the same

Reassures you that you're probably the only one who's noticed that you're missing a few

Esme:

She thinks they are adorable

I can see her having had a cousin or a niece/nephew who had a whole bunch of freckles when she was alive

She always wanted some

So she adores yours

Loves to stare into your face while you sleep or whenever you aren't doing anything

When you approach her with your concern, she honestly doesn't know the answer

She never had any significant marks on her body, so she never noticed anything missing when she was turned

After she turns you, if you are upset because you're missing a good chunk of your freckles, she tries her best to reassure you that it's okay

"You had more than enough to spare anyway :)"

Carlisle:

It's not really something he noticed first either

He sees so many people everyday that at some point you stop looking really hard

But as he gets closer with you, he notices all of your spots

He thinks they are so unique

It also makes him reflect on past beauty standards

He does go on a whole rant though about the science of freckles

Melanin pockets in the skin and whatever

Unlike literally everyone else that you ask, he does actually have an answer

The most prominent of your freckles will stick around, similar to Rosalie's beauty mark, and the lighter ones that really only show up in the summer will disappear

Mostly because you're not gonna be tanning anymore lol

He comforts you with science

And of course he tells you over and over again that you are still jst as attractive as you've always been

Vampire! Bella:

She's not too shocked

From the very few very grainy pictures I could find of Renee on Google, she has some light freckles all over her face too

So it's not like they're some new exotic thing to her

But again, she feels like they suit you

Like she can't imagine you without them

When you ask her, she has no clue

Like genuinely none sorry

But she reassures you that it can't be that bad

When you do get turned and you lose some of your freckles, she tries her best to console you

"I'm sorry, really I didn't know if they would disappear or not"

She tells you that you are beautiful/handsome/attractive either way

[angelplummie]

OKAY FIRST OF ALL HEY BABY IVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH

And yesssss I see the update where you’re writing for killing stalking!!! 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 literally going to die I’m so happy

BUT OKAY, a chubby reader (yk your girl thicc 🤪) yandere/toxic relationship/SMUTTT with Sangwoo where he cheats on Y/n all the time but she’s cocky because he always comes back to them. Then one day Sangwoo gets upset by Y/n’s cockiness and he teaches her a lesson…..

I LOVE YOU BABE AND MUAHHH I MISSED YOU

LOSING YOU

OH SANGWOON X FEM!CHUBBY!READER

cw: degrading, dubcon, implied kidnapping, references to murder, infidelity, he’s just super mean and weird, jealousy, threats of murder

a/n: this one is so fucking late and i’m sorry but i did it! this is going to flop because i never post and it’s a weird one so reblog please i love you

“Y/N? You awake?”

Of course you are, you always wait for him.

“Yes. You’re back late.”

Your voice was quiet with fatigue, but he could hear you alright as he removed his clothes and dropped them beside the bed. You had your back to him, but you could hear the soft thud of his jeans coming down to the hardwood floor, you could hear his shirt land on the edge of the bed. The house was eerily quiet when he wasn’t there, you didn’t like when he was gone. He always came back though. Always.

“Yeah, I was talking to this girl, Jieun. She goes to the same university as me.”

He lifted the covers and slotted himself behind you, your ass tucked right into his crotch, and he slung his big arm across your chest. You could smell him, he reeked of alcohol and girl. You’re sure if you turned around you would see his neck littered in hickeys, the top of his shoulders covered in nail marks. It was the same every time he went out, but what did that matter?

Those girls may think they’ve done it, gotten sangwoo to ’open up’, show them the ‘real him’, but they’re wrong. They’re all wrong. Only you know sangwoo, the real him. He probably tells all those girls about some version of his tragic past, his abusive father, his suicidal mother, and they think they know all there is to know about him. Until the next day and there’s parts of them rotting in sangwoo’s trunk.

You know everything. And you love him anyway. You are the only one for him, and you know it. He always comes back. You know he belongs to you. With you. He needs you like air, every day he comes home and fucks you like an animal, holds you tight, kisses you, he’s even soft with you, real sappy and disgusting. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he likes you a lot, he just... has a short attention span. You’re all he thinks of when he gets home, and it’s not like he really thinks about the other girls. You know it means less than nothing to him with them, and that’s all that matters. And when they’re dead afterwards, there no competition of who he likes more. You were never a jealous type anyway.

“I had sex with her in the men’s bathroom. From behind, against the wall. Then up against the mirror.”

Well, that was new.

“Oh?” you said, ”Did you have fun?”

He never told you the details of his flings, he just didn’t try to hide them, so this was strange. Maybe it was a close call with the authorities and he’s anxious about it.

You feel an curt exhale on your back.

“Of course I had fun. She’s not dead if that’s what you’re thinking. We just fucked.”

Why was sangwoo being so strange?

“Ok,” you turned around to face him, still in his hold. You noticed it’s getting tighter. Just as you thought, you could see blotchy pink hickeys on his neck in the dimming light. His face was neutral, unreadable looking down at you. You can’t lie, he was intimidating like this. To survive sangwoo, to live with him, you have to read him, and read him you cannot.

“Are you alright sangwoo?”

“Obviously,” he snapped, before sighing,

”Don’t you even want to have sex?”

You nearly laughed, but it’s in your best interest not to.

“You mean right now? Aren’t you tired?”

“No I’m not tired!” his voice booms, and you flinch against the covers.

He rolled you over to your back and now he loomed above you, something burning in his eyes. His hands were either side of your face, and his knees caged in your body, tapering in at the thighs, pushing the fat around to a near painful squeeze.

“Whats wrong with you? Aren’t you angry? I fucked someone else, stupid bitch.”

Mouth slightly agape, you tried to process. You didn’t even react to the name calling anymore, although the throb of hurt would never go away.

“You want me to be angry with you?”

“No, of course I don’t. I just want to know why you’re so ok that I cheated on you.”

You had absolutely no idea what was going on, and you were afraid to ask.

Isn’t this every mans dream? A girl that doesn’t care when he sleeps around? What’s his problem?

“Sangwoo...” you breathed, struggling to find the words. You were so confused.

“You always come back,” you wait a second, and when he doesn’t seem to be appeased, you continue, “I don’t care because you always come back to me. I know you like me best, that’s all I care about.”

His frown falters, momentarily, before a meaner, colder look takes his face. In the darkness he’s still beautiful and terrifying.

He hated that you make him burn. Sangwoo doesn’t burn for anyone, he burns people. And yet, everything about you is so... he can’t put it into words how he needs you. The thought of you with another man makes him close to violence, very close. So why can’t you do the same? Why don’t you care? He knows you love him, he isn’t an idiot. But... you aren’t showing it how he wants. Maybe you’ve gotten a little too comfortable. Maybe he needs to rectify that.

“You think I need you that much?” his voice had dropped an octave, gotten quieter. You knew to be careful now.

“No, but-“

“You do, don’t you? You think I’m your lovesick puppy? You think you’re in control?”

“Sangwoo, you’re not-“

“Don’t try and deny it.” his face was blank, totally blank, eyes boring into yours. He stares at you a while longer, and when he got no reply, he continued.

“Well, you’re wrong Y/N. I don’t need you. You need me.”

“I know Sangwoo, I do need you,” your voice shook, heat of the bed doing nothing to quell the cold creeping up your spine.

“Do you think you’re the only one that makes me cum?”

“No, but-“

“But I’m the only one that makes you cum?”

“Well, yes-“

“So what are you so smug about? Get up.”

He leant back, away from you to let you obey him, and got up slowly, towering above you. He stood expectantly, and you stared up at him from the mattress, not quite sure what to think.

“I said, get up,” his tone was sharp, it was hard to disobey.

You pushed yourself up as fast as you could manage, rocking gently to your feet. Your arms hung awkwardly at your sides, you weren’t sure what to do with yourself. His glare was unforgiving, but you couldn’t deny the throb in your clit at the anticipation.

“Turn around.”

And you did, a thrill running through your body. You were still stood stock still when he pried your arms from your sides and he pushed you against the wall, body pressing up against you. It hurt a little, but he was quick to make you forget.

Hands gripping your waist, he ground himself against your plump ass. Your hands were in front of you, bracing yourself against the wall. You made chopped breaths and little whimpers as he groaned into your skin, getting more and more annoyed at you; you drive him insane, why are you so calm? Why can’t you be like he is? You should be stupider, need him more. What the fuck is wrong with you?

He stopped grinding his erection on you all of a sudden, grip not relaxing for a second. Your eyes darted around the icy dark, heart thundering in your chest, face still against the wall.

“Sangwoo...” you whimpered, and he could feel the heart beat of your fat little pussy, “please, keep going.”

He huffed from his nose and his breathe ran down you neck once again.

“Then beg.”

Tears pricked your eyes as you stopped to process what he had said.

“Are you deaf? I told you to beg. Beg for me if you really want me that bad. Prove it.”

“Oh!”, you started as it clicked in your head, and the throbbing of your pussy became insatiable,”Please Sangwoo! Please, give it to me, please! I need you, please!”

He smiled at the whininess in your voice, the desperation. The need.

“I still don’t know if you deserve it,” he had taken on a playful tone now, temper seemingly subdued by your little display.

“Sangwoo!” you whined in protest, desperately pushing back into him. He groaned breathily at the feeling of your ass pressed right into him, the fat cushioning his cock teasingly.

His dick throbbed and he gave in,

“Fine, I’ll give it to you. You really are pathetic you know that?”

And he yanked down your tiny little pyjama shorts, to find your bare pussy underneath.

“Anything I tell you to do you do it.”

Your eyes squeezed shut and you yelped when he delivers a sharp slap between your legs, spread awkwardly open for him against the wall.

“But you still act like your better than me.”

He pressed against the small of your back with one hand, keeping you squashed tightly against the wall, chubby cheeks squishing at the pressure. With the other hand, he hastily undid the zip of his jeans, pulling them down around his thighs. Erection bobbing against your bare ass, he pulled his boxers down to his jeans and you stifled a whimper at the anticipation.

He always got weird like this when he was angry, and mostly you just had to stick it through. He would calm down after he had had his way with you.

Slowly, he lined up, relishing in the little whimpers coming from you. And he pushed in, groaning at how fucking wet you were. It was nearly impossible to go slow, you were so soft and he was angry at you, and yet he did, for fear he would cum too quick if he didn’t.

“You’re not better than me, alright?”

You huff, the stretch of his thick cock making you tense.

“Alright?”

“Yes,” you whined through pouty, drooly lips,”I’m not better than you. I’m sorry Sangwoo, I’m really sorry.”

“tsk,” he gives you one grind of his hips, nestling his enormous cock into you,”You’re just saying that ‘cause you want me to fuck you.”

“No! That’s not it.”

Tears were blurring your vision and you fought with your entire being not to moan, feeling his fat dick rub warm against your insides. He was moving ever so slightly to torment you, make you feel guilty for wanting to moan like a bitch when your poor boyfriend was so upset at you. You knew you had to keep talking, because he still wasn’t moving, and the feeling was enough to drive you mad.

“I love you, Sangwoo, I promise, it’s not-“

But suddenly, he started drawing in and out of you, not slow but not fast either. You let out a gasp of relief, and he smirks behind you.

“Alright, that’s enough outta you. Just take my dick like a good slut. Ohh fuck-“

You squeezed hard and his hips stuttered, pace increasing involuntarily.

He fucked hard into your gummy cunt, and you dripped down onto his balls. Eyes rolling back, he let out a string of grunts right next to your ear, making you shudder.

“See how I got you?” he said breathlessly, gripping the fat of your waist so hard it will probably bruise. The feeling of his breath against your neck made your stomach flip.

“This is just how I was fucking her,” and he drove into you again, grunting.

“I’m fucking you just like I was fucking her.”

You can only whine in response, something he takes as dismay. It pleased him.

“She was tighter,” his balls slap on your clit,”Not such a whore.”

Drool is inched past you lips, but you’ve gone limp in his grasp, only able to brace yourself against the wall. You heard him, but you’re unable to think about what he’s saying. You mumbled,”yeah, yeah, yeah”, he likes to be listened to.

“Maybe I should just get rid of you and keep her instead, maybe she’d be more fucking grateful”

Your breath hitched and there’s a sinking feeling in your stomach. You froze, and he laughed.

“That got your attention, didn’t it?”

You whined as his cock ploughed against your insides, cheek mushing against the wall. But that sinking feeling got deeper.

“Shit,” he hissed, his pace slowing,”I’m gonna cum. I’m gonna cum inside you.”

You hummed, still panting.

That feeling of dread didn’t fade. It didn’t fade when he came inside you, gruff grunting and a punishing grip on your waist. It didn’t fade as he pulled out, let go of you and let you fall to the ground. It didn’t fade as you felt his presence behind you, staring down at the top of your head.

And it didn’t fade as he walked away, back into bed, called you to him like he loved you. Told you that he loved you, kisses your temple.

And as you crawled into his arms, shaken, sweating, Sangwoo smiles. You need him to keep you alive.

You need him.

His hand rested over your chest, he could feel your heart rate. He could feel your fear. And it made him happy.

You were as afraid of losing him as he was of losing you.

[incorrect-riordanverse]

finally reading tsats here are my live thoughts (spoilers, obviously):

i’m so excited because some pages are darkly decorated and its so cool. still don’t vibe with the title though (the sun IS a star and its peeving me)

why are we talking about dating darth vader 😟 where are we rn (anakin is a yes, but DARTH VADER???)

maybe i’m too old but the jokes are not funny 😭

“this whole place feels like my soul. empty and dark. dark as the pit of the underworld.” <- i don’t care if he’s joking nico would never say thissss 🙏😭 we’re only 10 pages in but please stop butchering my fav character he’s not himselffff i am cringing so bad

i know i’m being dramatic but if they do nico dirty in this book i’m going to end it all

oh my god i don’t think i’ve thought about the words “significant annoyance” in so long. bringing back good memories for sure.

i can tell which parts were written by riordan and which parts were written by oshiro. i don’t think their voices are blending very well together…

also, maybe it’s because it’s the start of the book and they’re trying to familiarise new readers quickly with the characters but it feels like they’re making nico the caricature of ‘emo and shadow and ebony darkness dementia raven way 🥀⛓️🖤’ and will the caricature of ‘happy and sunshine and blonde and flower gleam and glow ☀️🌈🫧’ and i usually like this dynamic when it’s not blatantly pointed out every other page. i have faith they’ll show more complexity than this later on though. future yan will let me know by the end. (future yan here, im not at the end but the characterisation def does get more complex thank gods)

oh ok so it is bob the titan

since when was nico’s actual name niccolo??? how did i forget this detail??

“you have to listen if not you’ll share my fate.” “ominous much?” <- ok he’s finally himself again guys it’s all good

the one-sided beef nico has with percy will never not be funny

“cookie monster appeared over the mouth of the jar, reached inside and gobbled up nico like the chocolate-chip cookie he was.” <- nevermind i’ve gone back to hating this book again

“what was one straight boy when you spent your whole life longing for the impossible?” <- i’m reminded of that time a few years back where everyone made ‘having an unrequited crush on percy’ nico’s whole fanon personality, so i’m glad they addressed this somewhat. this boy has been through so much and people really thought crushing on percy was the biggest thing to focus on about ‘nico angst.’

“we made a mistake. you have to fix it.” <- call me a red flag but if i was nico i would do anything and everything to not go. i would medicate myself so highly on sleeping pills that i can’t dream (doctor bf can go kick rocks). i would track percy and annabeth down and haul their asses into tartarus instead to do it. and if i had to go i would only go in to kill bob myself for sending me those traumatic ass nightmares. no thx. bro willingly jumped in himself and now wants me to save him. nuh uh.

not cupid being will 😭 its like his aphrodite 😭 i am not well.

they always have a really good and emotionally moving scene and they ruin it with a dumb joke. let it be heavy 👏👏

something’s really fishy and i have a feeling that it might not be bob calling for him

if this whole “grumpy ball of darkness” thing continues i will actually lose it

you can’t tell me the percabeth pep talk was actually needed. i will forgive it because i miss them though

im sensing tension in the gap between nico’s connection to the underworld and his relationship with will and i’m here for ittttt. give me the dramaaa

who is the gorgyra girl and why is she in their business sm?

oh shit a will solace pov??? christmas came early 🙏

nevermind that whole nightmare sequence was so fucked up 😭😭

somebody HELP HIM i never thought we would get will angst (nico angst fs, but will???)

DONT JUMP IN THE STYX PLEASE

SOMEBODY TELL HIM HE’S HELPFUL OMG

nico strangling epiales in his sleep is so fucking cool he’s literally HIM he’s literally THAT GUY

[ayyko-rona-yoo]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐱 𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐑!𝐟!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: none. 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: Remember that the Soviet Union is not only Russia. 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞. 𝐒𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰.

First, let’s figure out how someone from the USSR could have ended up in the States. There were only two options: either you were stripped of your citizenship or you fled the country. Let’s take the first one - suppose your father was a writer and he was stripped of his citizenship because he was writing literature that was against the country’s ideology (I won’t go into details because in reality things were more complicated and scary). You don’t know how your father had connections there, but pretty soon your family got invited to the United States. The person who invited you was Mr. Noel. He also allowed you to stay at his house until you find a place to live.

He’ll probably see you for the first time when he goes to Chris with Knox to give him moral support, and if he’s hesitant, kick his ass.

You didn’t go to any school because you didn’t have the proper documents for enrollment yet, but every morning you walked Chris to her school.

"Where is she?" Charlie asked.

Knox looks at the crowd for a few seconds and points to Chris walking next to you. You stop at the entrance and she goes inside. You wave your hand at her and turn around to walk away. And Charlie stunned.

"Well, this is… Chris? You certainly have less chance than Denburry."

"I know… wait, who are you looking at?"

The next day he’ll try to get to know you. Like… It’s Charlie. I don’t think he’d wait long if he was up to something. The only reason he didn’t do it yesterday was because he didn’t want to hurt Knox’s feelings. He was quite sure that charm you would be as easily as possible. However, he did not expect that you would not be very talkative. And one more thing. Obviously, your English isn’t the best at the moment, and that complicates things, too. But the other problem is that his manner of speech and his behavior… scared you off a bit.

'I’m not serious at all, and I pass no skirt by' - that’s what you’d expect from a guy like that. In the society you grew up in that kind of behavior was discouraged and considered suspicious.

So the only thing you could say when a guy you didn’t know stopped you on the street with a playful grin was quick 'Sorry, I have to go'.

And now Charlie stunned again. How is that even possible? Back at Wellton, he didn't say a word when the poets asked him how it had gone. He told them so confidently that you won't be able to resist him. So how can he now admit that you ignored him?

Of course he’ll be teased about it, especially by Cameron. "Our Nuwanda can’t pick up a girl, huh?"

"Just shut up."

Again, this is Charlie. I believe he wouldn’t give up so easily. So now you meet him almost every time you walk Chris to school. And honestly, it was pretty creepy.

But then again, he didn’t do anything… outrageous, right? He wasn’t stalking you, you two were always out in public, so if you needed help… I think it’s clear what I mean.

At first, he just said hello and asked how you were doing. Then, when you didn’t answer, he said something about himself, about how his day was, complaining about Mr. Nolan. And even though you didn’t understand half of what he was saying, over time, you got used to his company. It took a long time, but Charlie was on cloud nine when you first answered him, "Not too bad… You?"

He was so proud of himself, so that night he wouldn’t shut up. Even after Cameron threw something at him for the third time in a row, so that he would stop talking and let him sleep.

Charlie finally got your name. You’ve had no contact with any of the locals other than the Noel family, so you’re not sure how anyone would react if they knew who you are and where are you from. What’s your name got to do with it? Well, it sounds unusual at least, so… easy to guess. Anyway, Charlie only knows your first name. So far.

Before you knew it, you were waiting for him to show up. Soon you even began to answer him with short simple phrases and laugh with his jokes, if you understood them.

Poems. Well. It’d be weird if he didn’t come up with a few poems about you, right? But you’re not used to the sound of English poetry. Although it’s better to say poetry in English.

I’m not sure how to describe it, but poems in Russian are very rhythmic, they hold a permanent rhyme. They sound different. So when Charlie first read you a poem, you didn’t even get what it was. Congratulations, this is the second time you’ve broken his heart.

One day you offered to walk you home. You’ve known each other for almost two months, and you’re in a good mood today. Why not spend more time with him? And, of course, Charlie could not refuse such an offer. While you were walking, you were talking about yourself more than usual, and even though you were still afraid to tell Charlie the details, you were very eager to give him a hint.

"Was it a poem again?" you said, standing at the front door.

"God, don’t say that, you’re making my heart bleed!"

"The only thing that bleeds is my passport," you opened the door and entered the house. "See you tomorrow, Nuwanda."

The next day he’d walk you home again. You said you had to hurry somewhere, but he insisted. Actually, Mr. Noel was supposed to be taking your family to the embassy today, so when you came, everyone was getting in the car.

You wanted to say goodbye to him, but he asked, "What you meant by 'the only thing that bleeds is your passport'?"

Should you tell him now? You looked him in the eyes for a few seconds, then sighed and took your passport out of your purse and handed it to him.

"I guess now you see what I meant," you muttered with a shy smile.

Its cover is red. Yellow letters, two words – 'СССР ПАСПОРТ' (In fact, red passports were introduced only in the 1970s, but it's not an archive document and I’m not here to teach a full history lesson. So let’s pretend that in 1959 it was already red, not gray).

"Are you coming with us, miss?"

"Yeah, I’m coming." You grabbed your passport out of his hand and went to Mr. Noel’s car, waving goodbye to Charlie.

Well. When you’re a guy from a wealthy American family who goes to a prestigious private school and lives a quiet life, the chance that you meet someone from the USSR… Is there even a chance?

Anyone would be shocked, maybe scared even. But Charlie… Of course he didn’t expect it and he’s surprised. But given his personality and character, I think he would rather be pleasantly surprised. Perhaps even excited.

Now it all makes sense. That's why you avoided him at first, why you spoke rarely and why you seemed to have a slight accent. Turns out he was right about the last one.

He’s definitely gonna be proud that he’s the one who got such an unusual girl like you. He’ll tell the dead poets about it as soon as he gets back to Welton. Cameron will be the only one who won’t believe him.

After that, you became more open with him. You’re still embarrassed by your poor English, which Charlie secretly likes. You told him why you live in the Noel house and about your friendship with Chris. You didn’t tell him the details of how you got here. He asked you a lot of questions, so you had to say it is very painful memories and you’re not ready to talk about it.

Charlie wouldn’t be Charlie if he didn’t ask you to teach him Slavic swearing. He literally begged you to, so you had to give up. Now it's the best way to shut Richard up when he does something annoying. He also mutters the curses under his breath when Mr. Nolan gives a speech.

You grew up in the Soviet Union, where a working woman was a normal thing (it's a myth that there was full equality of men and women in the USSR; but again – it's not a history class). So when the question arose of how to renew your visa, you immediately began to think about how to get a job. And Charlie sincerely does not understand this. You can just get married, can’t you? It’s the simplest and seemingly obvious option.

He’ll ask you to marry him. Many times. Every time you start talking about how hard to find a way to stay in the States is. Maybe it’ll sound like a joke at first. But the embassy continues to reject your application, so he starts talking about it more seriously.

© 𝐚𝐲𝐲𝐤𝐨-𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚-𝐲𝐨𝐨 — 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠/𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝. 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝.

[askdacast]

Life Series SMP/Eyes and Ears AU Thematic Discussion + Theorycrafting (pt. 1)

WARNING: Extremely long post

Kachow what’s poppin fellas, I’m back at it again talking about boomer block Youtubers and their surprisingly in-depth improv series. Now that the Life Series’ 5th season has finally concluded, I’m back on the lore train and poor Scar is left to suffer the consequences, and Martyn’s concluded yet another lore stream, I decided to compile a long master post of lore notes and theories about what we have so far.

Obviously all the ‘lore’ of the Life Series is purely unofficial; Grian has not approved any of it as being actually official/set in stone for what he intended the series to be. Most of it has been us in the crazy fandom extrapolating their really good storytelling, and also “semi-canonized” by Martyn in what he calls the Eyes and Ears AU (and this post assumes you are familiar with it). As someone who’s been a fan since the beginning way back in 3rd Life, I’ve pretty much hopped on the lore train since the beginning as well (if casually) and enjoying all the different extrapolations/analysis/angst written around the players. Rather than just theorizing lore details in a vacuum, however, I’ve always liked imagining the lore based around the reoccurring themes, symbolism and arcs we’ve seen across the series. I’d been bouncing my various thoughts and theories around these themes for a while, and finally I decided to compile my notes together.

This post is basically my imagining what the Life Series/Eyes and Ears AU story is “about,” as if it were a fleshed-out, long-running and story-driven tv show. Initially this post started as simply a gigantic “Eyes and Ears Theory,” me trying to sus out my own theories/ideas of what the Life Series’ mysteries were based on Martyn’s lore. However, considering that Martyn is ALSO writing the lore on the fly, and I have some details I would interpret differently or change, this ended up less a ‘theory’ and more ‘me writing an entire AU/interpretation of the Life Series as a whole.’ My intention is NOT to ‘correct’ Martyn’s lore, nor to claim my theory as the ‘right’ interpretation; rather, this is my personal interpretation of what the Life Series story is about, based on information shown in the original SMP and in Martyn’s AU.

One last disclaimer: I am ONLY drawing on lore details from the Life Series, Martyn’s lore streams, and Minecraft EVO, and also references to the iRL creators. I am not drawing on any story from other SMPs such as Pirates or Empires; there may be some Hermitcraft references here and there.

This is going to be very long, and a multi-parter, because I can’t summarize to save my life. And I promise I’ll come up with a proper name for my series of posts another time. If you’ve stuck around to read, I thank you.

Part 1: The Overall Plot + Understanding the Watchers

Recap of official lore details

Although Martyn hasn’t given specific details on the Watcher + Listener species (he hasn’t come up with a name yet), we know the following details for sure (from EVO, lore streams etc.)

Watchers + Listeners + The Council are all deity-like beings of the same species, and they all consume human emotions

The Council are the upper ranks/possibly leaders, whereas the Watchers + Listeners are separate factions

The Watchers are at LEAST two high-ranking members of the species (the two dots being outcast from the wider circle, as is their logo)

The Watchers were behind Minecraft EVO, where they gave all the players tasks (much like Secret Life) and eventually ending in them fighting the Ender Dragon separately

While the Watchers may not have been evil in EVO, they certainly became so AFTER, when they began to crave more negative human emotions, viewing them as “tasty” (Martyn’s words), s p i c y

They first kidnapped Grian at the end of EVO season 1, turning him into a Watcher to possibly have him join their ranks, but he’s gone rogue after realizing what their plans for the Life Series were, and plans to rescue his friends from them

The Life Series was the Watchers’ ploy to trap the players in an infinite death game where they betray and cause each other pain, all to harvest their negative emotions. Grian, in defiance to this, takes control as the ‘game master’ to make the whole thing…well, a game, so that his friends can enjoy, have fun and ease their anguish. In Martyn’s words, this is like “pouring ketchup all over the Watchers’ sundae.”

The Listeners (EVO season 2) are an opposing faction to the Watchers who disagree with their methods, although why is unknown. They’ve attempted to contact some players (e.g. Jimmy) before back in EVO in order to oppose the Watchers, but it’s not known how successful they were. They’ve also tried to swap in players in the Life Series before (e.g. subbing Lizzie and Gem for Pearl and Cleo in Lim. Life) in order to sneak them in and try to subvert the game. The Watchers kidnapping Gem for Secret Life is partially in retaliation to the Listeners. The Listeners may not be good and may have nefarious intentions also, it is as yet still unknown.

There’s potentially a third faction, the Speakers, but very little is known about them and Martyn doesn’t want to elaborate on them yet.

Okay, but what are the Watchers even after?

"Accept your fate."

From here on out is my real conjecturing/theorizing. The main question on my mind has been why are the Watchers doing what they’re doing? Obviously Martyn has confirmed that they are malicious deities who find negative human emotions tasty, but this raises further questions. Why exactly do they desire such emotions, or need them to survive (if they do, anyway)? Why do they favour negativity, when the other members of their species consume a wide range of emotions? They were confirmed to be outcast in some way from the other factions for this ploy, so what does that say about them then?

The whole species fundamentally do not understand human emotions (or perhaps do not even possess them)

This seems to me the most logical conclusion. These are powerful deities who can create miniature worlds/dimensions, life, and time to an extent (death loop). They should theoretically be self-sufficient, so I doubt that their consumption of human emotion is for survivability reasons (i.e. I don’t think Watchers will literally die if they don’t consume emotions, the same way humans die without food). What seems more likely is that human emotions bring them some benefit to their intelligence or power that they’d otherwise be quite non-functional without. (Think like the demons in The Promised Neverland, who regress to feral natures/lack of sapience if they don’t eat humans)

The Watchers’ powers and their lab-rat experimentation on the players gives a huge vibe of not being able to understand human emotions in an involved way, but only from a distance. They know methodically things like murder and betrayal cause panic and anguish, so they enforce these experiences through the game, mechanics like the Boogeyman, the Secret Tasks etc. But they don’t really know internally why these emotions come about the way humans do. Being above time, they probably don’t understand why the funny small animals have so much attachment to their transitory experiences and memories (more on this later).

world's angriest pumpkin

The Watchers are Losers, Actually

Going further, don’t you think the Watchers have a very misanthropic mindset all around? “Anguish and panic are s p i c y.” They conversely have a complete disgust for positive emotions, and can’t stand Grian making things fun for everybody. It almost feels like they have the mindset that only things like hatred and fear are exciting, bringing motivation and life to the humans, whereas things like happiness and fun are ‘useless’ because they don’t bring about the same results. Let’s also not forget their name – Watchers – and that Martyn’s confirmed them to be symbolically based off us, the audience. It’s almost like a commentary of the worst of the entertainment industry, of an audience who crave watching anything and everything to satisfy their own desires, even at the expense of the privacy and safety of the entertainer. Given the current state of the internet and social media, I don’t think I need to elaborate how awful things can get.

In other words, I believe the main motivation the Watchers are eating humans emotions is because they WANT to understand and ‘take into themselves’ such emotions. I don’t think they’re totally emotionless – Martyn does portray them with moments of glee and anger. But their understanding of emotions is superficial (self-centered, if you will) at best. As deities with no needs, being above time, they have nothing to be afraid of and nothing to feel sad or anguished over. It’s a boring, dull and empty existence. And that’s precisely why they’ve set up the Life Series game: by kidnapping a few humans and putting them through the artificially constructed wringer of panic and betrayal, they think they can create a human farm of such rich, complex and exciting emotions, all for themselves to enjoy at their own pleasure and fill the void they have.

(Listeners’ side note: If all that is the philosophy of the Watchers, it’s probably not difficult to see how/why the Listeners oppose them. The Listeners likely disagree that negative emotions are the most optimal state of humans, and unlike the Watchers do not think human suffering is just tasty popcorn one can eat at one’s pleasure. Their name – Listeners – implies they’re a more sympathetic faction, as in they listen to one’s troubles and heart rather than take delight in suffering at a superficial level. But if they are the same species, it’s very likely they have the same lack of instinctive understanding of human emotions that the Watchers do, and this could cause…problems.)

Why turn Grian?

All this is also why I believe the Watchers kidnapped Grian + turned him into a Watcher in the first place. Firstly, if they were going to concoct their plan to trap humans, they needed a collaborator from the humans in the first place. Secondly, and most importantly, this collaborator was going to be their only direct source of how human emotions work/feel like, and therefore what were the most optimal conditions needed to ensure their death game would generate the most pain and anguish. They picked Grian because he’s always the ‘leader’ of the SMP players, the person gathering and organizing everyone, so logically, he is the most ‘representative’ of the humans, and the one with the greatest ability to control them.

Of course, it’s also true that Grian was a little $#@% throughout EVO and actively rebelled against the Watchers’ tasks, so making him their collaborator might seem strange. Ignoring the meta reason that the ending was written to explain Grian’s exit from the series. But I figured in this case, they considered the benefits more than the costs. Grian’s chaotic nature is not unlike the Watchers’, considering how much he loves causing pranks and trouble to others. So, as a huge oversight, they think Grian is just like them: he loves to see people suffer, so they think. Additionally, the Watchers are desperate to understand how Grian gets his fellow humans to follow him and do what he asks with little effort. You’ll notice the Watchers have very direct, authoritative ways of trying to wrest control (e.g. the tasks, “do this or you fail”), and they get very petty and upset when people rebel against them (re: Scott’s refusal to be the Boogeyman, their motto is a very demanding “OUR WILL BE DONE.”) They see Grian’s charisma as yet another aspect of human emotions they fail to understand and thus WANT to possess for themselves.

Pictured above: The Watchers, coping and seething

Of course as we know, the Watchers believing Grian would help them is a major oversight. Becoming a god doesn’t just fundamentally change who Grian is, and he definitely doesn’t want to consign his friends to an infinite death loop of suffering. That being said, I don’t think Grianhas truly gone ‘rogue’ so much as taken as much advantage as possible of his ‘deal’ with the Watchers. We can guess the Watchers promised to him some kind of control/leadership over his friends’ circumstances as long as he worked for them, which led to them giving him the keys to the Life Series. In other words, so long as he fulfils their requirements of things being a death game that will generate ‘food’ for them, and lets them revive everyone each loop, he gets to decide how the games go.

And we know exactly what Grian’s done with this: he created the green-yellow-red lives system, he creates a fun gimmick each season, he inserts himself into the game as a player, all to bring out the best and most creative side of his friends rather than the worst. The Boogeyman probably is the only gimmick the Watchers added on their own initiative (re: Martyn’s POV in Last Life) in order to make things more spicy. Probably Grian’s conversation with the Watchers each time goes, “hey, I got an idea on how to bring out the most creative ways for everyone to cause pain in each other, [comes up with some bullcrap justification for the game’s fun mechanics].” I like to think the Watchers were going to make the death games even more vicious, cruel and competitive, but because of Grian’s wrangling he’s convinced them that a slow burn from joy to horror creates better results, and they tolerate it as long as they see him useful.

Memories and Emotions

There is also one BIG detail of the Watchers’ plan I’d like to mention: Martyn claims that the Watchers do NOT erase the players’ memories. At the end of each season, they consume everyone’s emotions so that there’s no more angst/ill will towards each other, and they start each season afresh. The players remember what’s happened in past seasons, but they don’t continue to hold the pain and negative feelings they had towards each other.

I don’t buy this, for numerous reasons.

For one, Martyn has confirmed the Watchers ARE capable of removing people’s memories. The one memory they have outright altered was the ex-EVO players’ (Martyn, Jimmy, BigB etc.) memory of what happened to Grian: they don’t remember that Grian was taken to be turned into a Watcher, and instead remember it as him either going missing or dying after the Ender Dragon fight. All this presumably to not give away the Watchers’ schemes and to ensure they still listen to Grian as if nothing ever happened.

More importantly, however, memories are vital to humanity’s emotional experience and mental health. I am not an expert by any means, but there are studies showing how people with amnesia, PTSD or other conditions affecting memories have flashbacks/emotional reactions to trauma they don’t remember consciously. The Watchers have (supposedly) done something far more simplistic yet fantastic by just eating up everybody’s emotions. All this, even though they see humans as emotion factories, constantly able to generate emotions just by existing, by their ability to draw and create meaning through emotional experiences, and by creating memories – the clearest embodiment of a mortal’s attachment to time (which if you remember, I believe the Watchers have no concept of).

You cannot just tell a human to stop feelingcompletely (under normal circumstances anyway), but especially not if they remember something very very traumatic.

Besides, there ARE clear instances when some of the players remember the events of past seasons and are STILL not over them! Impulse and Tango still being bitter/distrustful after Bdubs betrayed each of them separately, Cleo distrusting BigB for the same reason, Scott referencing Flower Husbands a lot, Pearl feeling betrayed by Cleo/Scott when they supposedly broke up the Gaslight/Gatekeep/Girlboss trio at the start of DL, Bdubs’ “I wanna be your favorite son” in Secret Life, the list goes on. Note that I’ve only listed negative/bittersweet instances; there are plenty more cases of the players remembering past seasons and alliances positively which the Watchers may have ignored. The point is, if the Watchers truly consumed everyone’s emotions to the point of a clean slate, they haven’t exactly been thorough. Nor do I think it’s very conducive for them either – don’t they want players to have enduring, unending, unresolved pain, the sweetest of all (to them)?

No, I think the Watchers HAVE been erasing/suppressing the players’ memories – they’ve just been very selective which ones. Martyn’s said that the Watchers do not care what families or connections they separate so long as they get the people they want and the plans they want. I’m going to assume the players in my theory/the Eyes and Ears AU are exactly the same as their CC counterparts. In other words: they’ve stolen Grian away from his wife. They stole Martyn away from his and his daughter. Ditto with Skizz, Impulse, Tango etc. They stole Scar away from his family. Joel and Lizzie are the only couple they didn’t separate, perhaps because they needed both for their plans, and also so they can inflict the most torture on them by ripping them away from each other, over and over again. And in order to ensure the complete submissiveness of the players to the game, the Watchers have taken away their memories of their past lives, their families, basically anyone who isn’t a fellow player in the game. The Watchers don’t erase the memories of bonds between seasons, because it’s a pain to have to teach the humans how to play all over again, but they erase any memories they find disadvantageous to keeping the game running.

They might even go one step further: while they haven’t erased the players’ memories of who each other are (so as to not cause confusion), they do try to suppress important memories. Things like how they met, the times they confided in each other after a bad day, cried on each other’s shoulder, laughed in each other’s successes, the times they hung out with each other’s families. Imagine the different alliances constantly gravitating to each other, but never being able to remember why they care about each other so much. Imagine Bdubs’ “Come on, you know you and I go way back!” when trying to justify taking Cleo’s stuff, and Cleo laughs back, even though she can’t quite remember what exactly Bdubs has done to warrant that. Imagine Joel or Lizzie trying to remember why they loved each other so much.

They fight and kill some of their friends, and protect others, because…because why again? It’s for survival value, surely, so the Watchers whisper. It’s because the strong must congregate with the strong and leave the weak to die, surely. It’s because Martyn’s always been a loner, and always will be, and should remain so. So they tell him. So they whisper, this is a deathmatch for a reason.

Grian’s Fundamental Rebellion

I think all this is the real reason Grian is rebelling against the Watchers. The most immediate reason is obvious: he wants to free his friends from this death loop. But the deeper reason as to why he’s rebelled is that the Watchers are torturing and robbing his friends of their humanity. They’re taking a tight-knit group of friends who love and would do anything for each other, and turning them against each other in a cruel and unescapable death game. On TOP of this, the Watchers have constantly messed with their heads in order to make them obedient and submissive to their schemes and the worst of their human nature, trapping them in fear, pettiness and paranoia. Of course Grian is upset. Of course he wants to save them from this fate. It’s an insult to who he knows these people to be.

This all leaves Grian in a pretty precarious position. While outwardly the Watchers want to make him a lackey as the “game master”, both he and they know he really wants to save his friends (they probably see it as their ‘cattle’ showing a bit of resistance, which once again they need to suppress). And while on one hand he’s making the games fun to ease his friends’ pain and bring the best out of them, this is just a hotfix rather than a real solution. In order to really rescue the players, Grian’s got to get them to rebel against the Watchers as well. Refuse to play by the rules, by the expectation that they must murder and kill without mercy, without any attachment to their alliances or past friendships. Make everyone like Scott refusing to be the Boogeyman, or Skizz constantly trying to be wholesome (until the bloodlust gets the better of him anyway).

Ironically in order to achieve this, Grian’s best bet is to try to jog everyone’s lost memories of each other and the things they lost, both good and bad. But ultimately, this is going to make them (in the short term) suffer more. This is where you can insert all your Desert Duo/Flower Husband/whatever alliance you like most angst. But more practically, I like to imagine when “the cameras” are not watching, when Grian knows no one will notice or catch him, he sneaks around to the different alliances, even the ones he’s not part of, to ask them how they’re doing, if they remember anything from the past etc. (in a meta sense, the players edit and cut stuff from their videos all the time; who’s to say he isn’t trying to catch a quick chat while everyone’s mining?!) It also reflects in why Grian is constantly trying to make alliances with different people instead of just gravitate to one person, he needs to check on everyone and capitalize on every single opportunity. (besides the meta reason, being that cc!Grian wants to be creative, and sticking to the same person all the time isn’t very entertaining from a content creator perspective)

One last detail about the winners: I don’t have much to say about the fragments yet, because Martyn (sneaky boi) hasn’t yet revealed the significance of the fragments nor of their healing, although he has hinted Bad Things™ will happen if a player gets too fragmented. But I do think the winners are important: with the game finished, they give Grian a very short window of time to talk to one person directly, without Watcher interference. They’re always the last to be killed/swept away/revived by the Watchers, and I can imagine there’s a brief period of time when their souls are being transferred to The Void w/e where Grian can step in and interfere. In my theory, Grian passes on some sort of clue/push to the winners, as like a subtle message about what they can do to stand up to the Watchers. I’ll detail on what I think these individual messages were in part 2. Needless to say, 3rd Life was a traumatic experience for Grian for many reasons, but the nail in the coffin was the fact that he won, and therefore there was no way for him to pass a message onto anyone.

Conclusion

Hooooooo jeepers that was long @A@; Thank you so much for your patience reading this if you made it to the end, I really appreciate it. As I said, I’ve had these lore ideas bouncing in my head for a LONG time, and with the end of Secret Life I couldn’t get out of my head the different trends/symbolism that was popping out of an improv series. It honestly speaks a lot to how genius our favorite block dudes are at improv, that they can turn their improv nonsense into a coherent narrative. I really wanted to try my hand at fleshing out such a narrative, and with Martyn constantly drip-feeding lore to the fans, I had more than enough material to not just put out guesses but construct something a full XYZ. As I mentioned, I enjoy workshopping themes and characters a LOT more than just worldbuilding or “what if this or that” details in a vacuum, hence why I’ve written all that I have, so this was a fun exercise for me all around!

Next time in part 2 I talk about Character Development™, or character specific notes and details I’ve noticed and extrapolated from what we’ve seen of each individual player, as well as what their different arcs across the seasons mean for them within the lore. Stay tuned for another wordbarf!

Bonus list of works I was inspired by for this loredump:

Log Horizon

The Promised Neverland

Danganronpa (ironic as I’m not really a fan of this franchise, but the first game has an otherwise solid premise which I found really similar to the Life Series)

The Fate franchise (when Martyn asked “what’s Fate?” on the latest lore stream, let me tell you I couldn’t stop laughing; NO MARTYN DON’T GO INTO THE WEEB RABBIT HOLE)

Various amazing animatics from the Traffic fandom: Earth, Bang!, most of Melloz Heist’s works, and of course all the amazing fanart

Way too many conversations with my friends about fantasy species

[leynaeithnea]

Just finished your beautiful beautiful very yummy and very angsty analysis of love in paradise ( maybe I shed a little tear here and there, maybe I didn't, you can't know that ) so I thought this would be right moment to leave you an ask for a gods game analysis maybe?? *stares at you with big brown eyes*

Last one of this saga!!!! Yayyy

Praying ill remember all the musical parts ive heard about but im sure theres so much hidden i forgot/didnt hear about yet

30. God Games

We open with a choir of course, because...gods! Athena decides to do something (finially)

“Father, God King” (athena asks daddy for help SIJGSEIG)

“Rarely do I ask for favors” being the good favorite daughter

“Now, I’m knocking on your door, with hopes to save a friendship with one who’s a prisoner far from home....Odysseus” I LOVE the melody of this part somehow??? especially how the drop before “odysseus”, ALSO SHE CALLS IT A FRIENDSHIP INFRONT OF ZEUS TOO

“Divine intervention, is that what you seek?” ........yes, bruh. Zeus dont fuck this up, u are decent enough in Homers Odyssey

“To untie apprehensions that were placed on that Greek?” okay i had to google “apprehentions, and apperently it both means “arrest” and “concern/fear”...........to untie the arrest on Ody, and at the same time the concerns of Odysseus THATS GENIUS, Ive heard Homer does a lot of these double meanings of words in his Epics and IM SO HERE FOR IT, also “that Greek”, come on, dont use it as a slur >:)

“You are playing with thunder for a man full of shame”..................NOW WHO PUT THIS SHAME ON HIM YOU MF, YOU WHAT KIND OF SICK GAME IS THIS-

“But if he’s worth the risk of going under, why not make it a game?” Lukes vocal performance in this part is something else, like dude??? hello? youre a tenor SIEJGSEIGJ, its good, also WDYM GOING UNDER??? HUH??? ....yeah of course you make it a game, because everything is a game to you, because really, theres nothing and noone who poses a thread to you

“Convince each of them that he ought to be released, and I’ll release him” the slight echo effect in that voice.......fascinatinggg, wish i knew if the melody in this part had any meaning, gotta look it up

“Who’s them?” Athena god of wisdom asking about details before agreeing to deals *cough* Odysseus, learn from your friend

“Apollo” APPOLO MY GUY ehehehehee

“Hephaestus” okay, fair

“Aphrodite” the wWAY HE PROUNCES HER NAME?? OMG

“Ares”, yea yea imposing yada yada

“Hera” cant exclude his wife

“Or me” OR me, so its ALL of them, or him? bruh

“What do you say?” WHAT IS SHE SUPPOSED TO SAY

“Great” ehehehehe apollo <3

“Very well” just doing it because

“Eh” shes so excited

“Alright” he IS excited

“Groovy”....ok? um...imma move on

“Bring it” of course she would choose all of them over Zeus, its Zeus, he just WANTS you to loose, bc hes the god king

“Apollo!” parrot

“You all know I’m a fan of catchy songs” god of music yada yada HIS VOICE

“so with so many sirens gone, I think Ody’s in the wrong”.........there are so many reasons to dislike Odysseus and you pick the SIRENS? .......did you just join for the fun and had no real reasons or did u get dragged there or-....but its ok, your voice is amazing, also IIRC it should be the melody of suffering??? of different beast??? i forgorrrr norrrr also Lyreeee in the background! ehehehe

“They were trying to do him worse, All he did was reimburse them Now they’ll tread with caution first To live another day and sing another verse” maybe the melody was in this part. also, yeah tell him athena, what kind of argument is that, they tried to kill him he just did what he had to--------admittely he was VERY cruel about it, but athena doesnt have to mention that, and well Ody probably protected even more sailors in the future through his actions

ALSO DONT COME AT ME WITH “but all the sirens are dead” THERE ARE MORE, theyre obviously not talking about the sirens Ody killed, its about all other Sirens out at see that woudlve seen the others dying after being brutally cut down by a human, they WILL be more cautious in the future

“If that’s true, release him”, yeah u really had nothing to argue against, he just shrugs it off LMAO

“Hephaestus!” Hefefuf ehehehe ALSO JORGES DAD YAY adorable, tho when first listened i rly thought it was Jorge with voice changer again THEY SOUND SO SIMILIAR

“Trust is not given, it’s forged”...true, valid argument, Also Scylla melody??? I THink?

“Why should I give him my support? He sacrificed his own cohort”......well....um.....he didnt rly have much of a CHOICE ....but its a more valid concern, the sounds that sound like a hammers in a forge sound cool btw

“Did you forget they failed to listen?”.........yeah literally

“He was betrayed and then imprisoned” IMPRISONED AH ODY, but yeah EXACTLY, the WIND BAG, THE MUTINY AH

“But if you make the right decision He can still build a future with those who miss him” AND BUILD TRUST WITH THEM AGAIN AHHHHHHH yes. Hefefuf choose right.

“Fine, release him” good.

the music making it sound like steps in a game as you level up....fine, it sounds nice

“Aphrodite” seductive, i like it

“Your little high and mighty Odysseus” SHeS pissed, and does not like Ody you can hear the “high and mighty” in her voice :”) ouch

“Claims to love his mother But let her die of a broken heart” LIKE HE HAD A CHOICE IN THE MATTER HE TRIED TO GET HOME SHE DIDNT HAVE TO JUMP

“He was busy fighting”, yeaaah

“More like busy spiting the cyclops”.........yeah okay we can get behin that this was stupid decision but it wasnt a rational decision either he just lost his best friend, THATS LOVE TOO; GIVE HIM SOME SLACK

“Let him feel the pain that his mother felt and rot” WHY U BE SO COLD HEARTED , i love the melody/music in this tho

“Wait, please reconsider this”, athena using quick thought on a goddess, intriguing! also shes begging her :tear: aw man

“Really Athena? These old tricks?” annoyed older brother breaking into quick thought to the rescuse of his lover, makes him likeable somehow, i love the delivery of this line

“Ares!” yeah shes pissed

“What kind of sick coward Holds back his power While his friends get devoured? He didn’t even fight Scylla Didn’t even try to kill her Hides inside a wooden horse to get the job done Never handles things upfront” sorry that he didnt want to DIE dude??? i get your concern with straight forward, open combat but???? is dying on the battle field rly that much worse than wanting to come home COME ON, he wins, he is EFFECTIVE, are you jealous of his stragedies? HE GOT MENTORED BY ATHENA; OFC HE WILL CHOOSE THE SMART WAY OUT NOT THE QUICKEST-WAY-TO-DIE WAY OUT smh

“Pathetic and weak like his son” thats a low blow what is your issue with telemachus bro, the drums for ares makes sense

“Hold your tongue now His son’s my friend” awwww shes calling him a frienddddddd

“And tell your lover that a broken heart can mend” AHAHAH “tell your lover”, true true

“You want more bloodshed? Then set him free To get back to his homestead, he’ll make everybody bleed” SEUHGSOUEGESH “if you let him back he’ll kill everyone” Ares: :D thats what i like to hear, Athenas piano playing again, as she fights Ares is fun too

“Ugh, release him”, what made them change their mind? Esp Aphrodite? was it Athenas concern for Telemachus? and for Ares athenas promise of bloodshed? maybe who knows

“Hey baby”.....okay, flirty? from Hera? alright, lets interpret it as motherly flirting

“Hera” how to hit those high notes

“So many heroes So many tales Give me one good reason why yours should prevail” NOW THAT is intersting, everyone else so far gave a reason NOT to release him, but now Hera asks her to give her one reason WHY he deserves to be released “dont tell me of all the sins he didnt commit, tell me of the virtue he holds” typa thing

“He’s got the mind of a genius”, fair, but there would be others

“Try harder”, encouraging, she doesnt rly want her to loose does she? she support it, she just wants to see if Athena is worth it, i do like this characterization (as long as i ignore the disco animatic, i know its Jorges creative freedom but my brain tries to refuse ANYTHING that would be a reference to modernity, let me live in the bliss of ignorance to pretend its a movie set in ancient greece x)

“He’s pretty skilled with words”, hes a lair, i love him for it

“You can do better than that”, ...yeah

“He’s kind of funny?” running out of reasons athena, also YOU THINK HES FUNNY? LMAO ur right, the odyssey is quite the commedy for anyone but odysseus (and a few others but yk)

“Eh” doesnt sound convinced heh

“Never once has he cheated on his wife” HA HA HAHAHAHAHA HA right thing to say to Hera

[also the whole debate about “did odysseus cheat or not” no. idc what anyone says. if anyone argues he INITALLY consented to Calypso: fine, its blurry in the narrative, anyone can choose how to interpret that as they wish, but Circe was bestowed upon him by Hermes (in the myth at least, in Epic there ofc very clearly refuses her, and she accepts him (hear that calypso? HEAR THAT CALYPSO)) and Calypso, at the very least later on turned VERY unconsensual. FOR SEVEN YEARS., but the “he liked her no more” could also mean she didnt like her as a person anymore after she saved him. its not 100% clear how the relationship started out, we just know how it ends rly, but given the historic context too, it might very well be that it wouldntve been considered as cheating, even if it was consensual, would hera consider it cheating bc she does so with Zeus? maybe, idk, i think the idea of Ody being (one of) the only greek hero(es) that doesnt cheat is one i like, he gets praised enough by homer for all his skills he might as well have the skill of being true to his wife, in EPIC we know that Ody refuses her from the beginning so whatever did or did not remain unnamed in Epic, would NOT be cheating,.........and anyone who mentions Odys proof for cheating being the telegony or any other later versions where suddenly children show up, and he offs penelope for cheating and telemachus marries circe, can kindly, do some more reading into the history of the text and how later authors added their own twists, we dont know if the odyssey from homer was the most well known version, i think, but its the one we consider canon now, and i rly refuse to believe that Ody coming home only to get a new wife]

“Release him” the side glace Zeus mustve gotten LMAO

...ok angry zeus choir again, rly?

“I’ve played your game and won”, she did, fair and square

“Release him” you better

“You dare to defy me?”, what happend to your voice zeus? also....are you pissed that she called you out on cheating? bro, ur just pissed that she choose everyone else over you, grow up zeus

“To make me feel shame?” shame about loosing the game or shame for the humiliation about cheating, mhh

“No one beats me, no one wins my game!”, sounds like my 3rd brother, but hes at least cute when hes throwing a fit about a game having rules

“Thunder, bring her through the wringer Show her I’m the judgement call The one who makes her kingdom fall! ”.your voice is getting worse btw, but...are we talking about pride still? Athenas pride? or is “her” just Athena now? mhhhh, Odysseus DID call her “selfish, prideful and vain”, so maybe it does refer to her pride, she DID Have a character arc tho >:) unlike zeus, hes just an ass, also he gets a choir background for this? intersting,

NOW HE THROWS LIGHTING AT HER??? thats intense, i was gasping when i saw, night sound design

“Is she dead?”, he does sound concerned, is it bc big brother energy or bc athena was zeus favorite child? or do they know how Zeus fucked up just now? hah..ha

the flashes you can hear in the music....aaaah

NOW THIS INSTRUMETAL PART

IS SO BEAUTIFUL ITS SO GOOD THE WAY “WARRIOR OF THE MIND” AND TELEMACHUS LULLABY AND LEGENDARY BLEND TOGETHER AND BECOME “ATHENAS FINIAL STAND” (as its supposedly called) ITS SO GOOD i ah i like this part the most of the song, together with apollos voice aseghsegij Aphrodite is fine too :) and "rly athena; these old tricks"

AlSO her having a flashback to Ody giving her Telemachus to hold after his birth, PLS??? Thats so vulnerableeeeee aaaaaaaaah yeah, yea that was good

“Let him go, please, Let him go”, she reaches out to Zeus, as her light dims and she begs him to let Ody go, nothing left of the selfish and prideful goddess, she was selfless- sacrifcing herself and ler go of her pride to beg to Zeus to let him go, who stops as he grabs to throw another lighting, in shocked realization of what he has done.

The song fades out. And we are left to wonder if Athena is ded or not

now initially i rly thought Jorge killed a goddess

by now im more hopeful that she isnt dead (im hoping for that, mostly for the fun of sticking to the source material of Athenas help in the last chapter(s) of the story)

but

im still doubting a bit. the chance is there that she is, infact, dead, but i dont know how that would impact the narrative-,...i suppose we’ll see, either in the vengence saga, or at the lastest in the ithica saga x)

[unomi-well]

To people who are complaining about the recent movie adaptation of Dune I would like to point out a few things and share some opinions:

Any novel no matter how descriptively it is written cannot be hundred percent adapted exactly as is because when you read a book every single person has a unique understanding and imagination and interpretation. So it’s impossible for any filmmaker to capture everything on the page to the screen as is and satisfy everyone.

The things that were changed make so much sense and yes as fans of the books we might have wanted to see some of our favourite scenes or arcs but the movie has stayed so truthful to the soul of source and the amount of detail and hardwork that has gone into the making justified all of those changes.

If you think that the actors did a bad job you might as well start calling the 80s adaptation as the best film adaptation ever made. You don’t have to like their performance entirely but to totally disregard it is just ignorance.

Think about how much believable the movies looked like, I’m talking specifically about the setting, the world where it’s all taking place. For comparison take any other contemporary scifi movie made and think how much you feel is believable (I don’t want to slander Star Wars here because I love them too but then Dune has completely changed my view on how a sci-fi film should be made). Like yes a desert planet where people recycle their own bodily fluids seems like something actually a human would do for survival

If you didn’t like the changes made to Chani’s character you are a straight up misogynist. I won’t explain this point because this whole post is targeted at the books fans and if you have read the book you should understand why I said it.

Denis’s dedication to this movie is literally oozing out of the screen, each frame, the dialogues. The whole cast and crew has given their all and you can obviously tell. If you can’t well you didn’t pay attention.

The biggest reason I keep talking about the dedication that went into making the film is because it is a big budget movie with larger than life characters and settings and this easily could have gone wrong in every way possible but the massive scale was used as a tool like a cog in a machine that it just made sure that it was just enough to keep the machine working smoothly and not overwhelming anyone. Like for example the exotic locations and CGI were just enough to make the audience understand the setting of the story rather than show off how advanced the technology used was.

So these are just a few thoughts I have wanted to share for sometime especially after reading the book and getting a more deeper understanding of the story. Feel free to add more. Whenever I come across a blatantly biased criticism of the movie vs book thing I get irritated especially with a movie made with such heart and soul. And I absolutely admire the effort that went into this particular adaptation. I highly recommend watching the interviews of Rebecca, Timothee and Denis because the way they are passionate about the project is unlike anything I have seen from movie stars in the last few years.

[enhashoutout]

Cobra and Fujio are basically the same person

A rant post on why I personally think these two characters are basically the same person in different bodies

Random background on me as a person: I’ve always been a strong believer that the media we consume can affect/leave an impact on us and how we act, go about life, perceive the world, etc. I’ve done this my whole life, on top of being a fangirl I OVERTHINK about the plot, the characters, the ships, everything. Adding to that, when I hyper fixate on a piece of media I get so invested I pay attention to all the tiny details and micro-analyze characters and their backstories and tie it back to how they act in the story.

Last semester I got to do this in class because I enrolled in a storytelling course and basically the whole time my professor gave us stories to read or movies to watch and then we had to relate it back to real life and analyze the characters behaviors, how they interacted with others, the story themes, etc. Hopefully my professor is proud I continue to use what I learned in their class to apply to my hyper fixation on other fictional characters outside of the course😂

If you look at Cobra and Fujio’s characters on the surface, they might not seem similar. Fujio has a very golden retriever like energy to himself. He’s very extroverted, loud, friendly, bright, and overall very playful and doesn’t take anything too seriously unless the situation calls for it. In contrast, Cobra is more somber and serious. Cobra is more quiet, reserved, very serious, and had a relatively calm demeanor. Well, S.W.O.R.D. Era Cobra is super serious, whereas Mugen Era Cobra isn’t.

Personality wise, Mugen Era Cobra and Fujio are the same. They’re a little bit closer in age, and Cobra is definitely more upbeat during this time period. Maybe even a little less mature in a sense.

Obviously when we meet Cobra we see that he’s gone through a lot to become the person we know him as. Noboru got arrested and couldn’t continue school, Tatsuya was killed, Kohaku disappeared. Eventually Cobra has to take charge and be Sannoh’s leader, deal with Kuryu’s stinky asses, hits a rough patch with some Sannoh members leaving, losing Smoky, you get the point. All this loss and grief causes him to lose his playful demeanor and it’s understandable. Honestly if H&L The Worst X was as serious as any of the first three movies where characters died and Tsukasa died instead of only ending up in the hospital after Amagai dropped his ass from the gym balcony, that shit would’ve sent Fujio into his depresso espresso era also 100%

But yeah, it might not seem like Fujio and Cobra are alike at first until you dive in a little deeper. Let’s start with something small first.

1) Cobra and Fujio’s styling

Something small I noticed was that both characters are styled with a black bandanna in their right pocket. We see this when Cobra interrupts Ranmaru and Rocky’s fight in the second movie and hands Rocky the bandanna after telling him he looked a mess😂 This might also just be Cobra’s way of remembering or holding onto his memories of Mugen because I’m pretty sure all the Mugen members had bandannas on their person but once we enter S.W.O.R.D. Era no one else not even Yamato have a bandanna on them anymore so I think my point stands.

Fujio is the only character I see during The Worst era who has a bandanna tucked into the right pocket of his pants.

2) Both are leaders/have leader mentality

This one is kind of obvious also but let me explain.

Cobra goes on to establish Sannoh and is the leader as well. I admire the way Cobra leads his members. He’s very understanding even if the opinions are different. We see this showcased with Noboru during Road to High&Low when Cobra acknowledges that he knows Noboru is trying to act in the best interest of his friends he’s just going about it in the wrong way. We also see this when Dan, Tettsu, Chiharu, and a few other members walk out of the fight with Doubt. Cobra acknowledges that friends sometimes are not on the same side and that it’s okay when that happens.

Fujio right off the bat has a goal in mind to unite all of Oya, this plays into his leadership style we see throughout both Worst movies. Fujio is a very charismatic person. Right as he enters Oya, he’s able to get many followers without asserting strength or dominance over all of Oya (something Todoroki has been trying to do but can’t achieve. Fight me if you want on this but I don’t think Todoroki would be a good leader lol. That’s a post for another time). We see this when Nakagoshi and Nakaoka agree to follow Fujio in the gym. Yes, Fujio fought with YasuKiyo faction but other than that he doesn’t get into another fight with the other factions. When Yasushi is hospitalized, Fujio at this point isn’t officially Oya’s leader yet but everyone looks to him to see what happens from here. With the mentality of bringing everyone together, Fujio makes it clear that what happened to Yasushi isn’t just a YasuKiyo problem but an Oya problem which prompts the Oya boys to work together to fight with Housen.

So how does this tie the two together?

Both characters have strong leadership skills. Granted they differ slightly but the overall style and tone they take on is that no one gets left behind and that even when the crisis doesn’t directly impact them in anyway, both characters are still willing to jump in to help others.

3) Both see the importance of friendship and the strength of a true alliance

I really do think that friendship kept Cobra going in life. Sometimes it felt like that man was one more crisis away from completely swirling into self destructive behavior but his friendships pulled him out of that. An example of this is how he holds onto Kohaku’s words and teachings to help in certain situations such as the one involving Noboru and Kohaku himself when they are begging him to leave Kuryu and come back to himself.

Fujio being a school aged character we’re obviously gonna see more of his friendships because at that age that’s one of the bigger focuses in life. We see how friendship kept him from being sad and lonely as a kid because his mother was working a lot that’s why he spent time with Seiji, Madoka, and all of them. As a teenager now, his friendship with them is still strong considering this boy literally jumps into a crack farm to pull Arata out of the shit he got himself into. During The Worst X this boy literally becomes friends with the strongest person canonically in the series and then spends the second half of the movie fighting to get his best friend back from being captured.

Both characters directly state the alliance part in their movies.

While Cobra fights Jesse, he tells him something along the lines of “you guys are just a bunch of strays, are you prepared as he is?” Referring to how he knows Rocky has been prepared for this fight from the get go. On top of that, Cobra was the S.W.O.R.D. Leader who suggested the alliance in the first place knowing that they would be stronger together against Kuryu. End of Sky doesn’t focus as much on Kuryu as it does Doubt but it leads into Kuryu so I think this is fitting. Cobra knows that the Prison Gang, Mighty, and Doubt working together would never actually work because they don’t have a bond to fight together they’re just getting a job done. Hyuga even points out that he can’t trust Ranmaru because he throws his men away like they’re trash.

I think this applies to the first movie as well. Cobra knows that Kuryu, Jansung, Mighty Warriors, and Kohaku would not work because it wasn’t a true alliance it was simply made to get a job done. This leads him to suggesting the alliance in the second film.

When H&L The Worst X comes around, we know that Fujio is seen as the leader of Oya and he values his friends a lot. He doesn’t usually refer to the Oya students as troops or comrades unless the situation warrants it, he refers to everyone as friends and also mentions how everyone became friends through fighting. On the rooftop when Todoroki asks if Fujio going against what he thinks is best means that Fujio no longer needs him, but Fujio is quick to tell him that’s not what is going on at all; rather that he has a solution and is willing to set his pride aside for his friends. He then proceeds to tell the remaining Oya guys that the other schools created an alliance but “let’s show them what a real alliance looks like”. This is because Fujio’s thoughts are the same as Cobra’s. Senomon, Kamasaka, and Ebara may have created an alliance but there is no friendship or bond in it, therefore this alliance wouldn’t work or last long. We even see this when Ebara drop out of the alliance. Had Shoji, Fujin, or Raijin been friends with any of the guys from the other schools they probably wouldn’t agree to the rules Todoroki set for their fight. But it’s the fact that they are friends and care for each other that Shoji agrees to Todoroki’s terms. Shoji knows that the other schools are shady so he’s gonna take the opportunity to get the people he actually cares about out of that alliance.

Fujio’s monologue at the end of his fight with Suzaki even highlights the importance of friendship. We see in the first Worst movie that Fujio wants to become the best and be at the top. In The Worst X cross after he reads Sachio’s letter, Jamuo catches him staring at the clouds and tells him he won’t be able to do much with his head in the clouds. To which Fujio proceeds to tell him “being born a man I always felt I needed to be the greatest, but maybe being at the top doesn’t make me a great man.” When Suzaki loses the fight and says that from now on Senomon would be tools for Oya to use, Fujio is quick to shut that mentality down; telling Suzaki that it’s just one fight he lost, and that it doesn’t mean anything. His monologue goes into how it doesn’t matter who’s at the top and who isn’t because look at all the friends around you who are willing to fight for and with you (granted Suzaki and Amagai have no real friends besides each other but I digress pop off inspirational Fujio).

You’ve made it to the end! I know this is just a long rant post and the thoughts aren’t super organized and might not be well explained but it made sense to me so here we are😂

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or on a reblog as well! If you want to disagree with me that’s cool but please do it nicely I’m scared of people on the internet 😂

I have a 3 part H&L series based off the song Hate You by Jungkook in the works, it’s just taking a while to write because there are so many characters to write for.

I also have a story for Hiroto and one for Ice in the works. I genuinely didn’t think I would be writing anything for Mighty because I have a love hate relationship with those characters but I have a plot I consistently think about and think that Ice works best with it so that story will be out eventually also.

[puppyluvfics]

October | Lee Jooyeon

Lee Jooyeon | part of Not In The Same Way: MTL Series WC: 1.3k Genre: Angst Summary: You loved Jooyeon. You did. But, God, you hated how little freedom you had with him... you just wanted to exist without having to deal with his spirals into jealousy. Maybe you should have, though. Warnings: none but also tread lightly because this might be... my saddest piece yet A/N: i saw this post on twt the other day and i think it sums this up pretty well...

“I… Listen. I loved you. And maybe, deep down, there’s a part of me that still does. But that part of me is so lost… it isn’t fair to me and it isn’t fair to you. I’ll see you around, okay? Take care of yourself.”

Jooyeon’s eyes widened at your words. You had argued the whole night, sure, but hearing you say this felt almost too finite, too final. Too real.

“You don’t mean that.” He said, finally finding his words, his voice coming out hoarse and broken.

“I do.” You replied, softly. Truthfully, you didn’t really know what you meant, you just knew that you needed a change. If you were being honest with yourself, you didn’t really feel like you fell out of love with Jooyeon. He was just so clingy and while it could be cute at times, those times were so few and far between that it wasn’t worth it anymore. 

His eyes brimmed with tears as he looked you up and down, trying to read you.

“(Y/N), wh- how do I fix this? What did I do wrong?” He all but whispered. You took a deep, shaky breath, shaking your head at the same time. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Joo.” You said, but you both knew that was a lie. Well, maybe not a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either. It wasn’t necessarily wrong of him to be clingy, but the way he had been acting lately had been so restricting. You felt like you couldn’t do anything or go anywhere without him without it being an issue. Just yesterday, you had gone out for lunch with a friend, and despite coming home on a high, your mood had instantly dropped, with Jooyeon arguing with you, begging for every single detail. You couldn’t blame him for being insecure, you had your moments as well, but this was something that was now stopping you from being yourself. And the way you saw it, it didn’t make sense for him to be in a relationship with someone who was being insincere. 

“Obviously I did, or you wouldn’t be breaking up with me.” His words stung. He had a point.

“Jooyeon, I just…” You started, walking over to the stairs and sitting down on the steps. “I don’t want to hurt you. You deserve so much better.” You fought back your own tears.

“Please hurt me. Because as it stands right now, I’m hurting you without even knowing, which is hurting me a lot more than you ever could. I don’t care if you hate me, but I can’t lose you. Not without trying to fix it, at least. Please, (Y/N).” He sat cross legged in front of you. God, he looked so beautiful despite his sad, broken expression. The way he looked up at you made your heart ache, even if you were only a few inches taller than him the way you were sitting. There was a part of you that wanted to just take it all back, to just endure the clinginess and jealousy and to learn to be okay with it all if it meant that you didn’t have to hurt him like this. But as much as you could sit here and say that now, you knew that in two weeks time, when it would happen again, you wound find yourself back in this position, and that cycle of hurting the both of you was almost worst than ripping the bandaid off and hurting him now.

“I don’t hate you. I never could. I just need to be alone for a while, Jooyeon.” You said after a few moments of silence. 

“So be alone with me.” He pleaded, his hands reaching out but falling short, unsure of if he could or should touch you right now.

“No, Joo. That’s…” You sigh, “That’s the point. I need to be alone by myself. I need to do things by myself for a bit. I need to feel like I can go places and see people and just be myself without worrying about you waiting here to interrogate me or breathing down my neck if you come with me. I’m sorry.” You couldn’t even bring yourself to look in his eyes. You could see the tears fall from his cheeks, dripping onto the carpet beneath you two, and you could only imagine what his face looked like. The way his brown eyes were darker, rimmed with the redness of his sadness, the way his lip quivered. You heard him sniffle as he processed your words, and that alone caused your own dam of tears to break.

“Jooyeon, I’m sorry-” You started again. But you were quickly cut off by him putting his hand up to stop you.

“I get it. Believe it or not, I hate myself for how I act. I saw what I was doing, I just couldn’t stop.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” You whisper softly.

“Why didn’t you?!” He asked back, his tone almost biting.

“Because I didn’t want to hurt you!” You said through a small sob.

“So breaking up with me after not talking about it is supposed to hurt less?” His tone was more angry and hurt than sad, and fuck, did it hurt you too, to know you did this. He was right, you should have just talked to him about it, instead of letting it get this far. But if he had realized how he was acting, why didn’t he stop?

“You continuing to do it despite realizing it was hurting me is supposed to be okay?” You bit back. 

“I didn’t realize it was hurting you so bad that you wanted to break up with me, (Y/N)"!”

“Bullshit!” You said, your own tears turning from sadness to anger. You had never raised your voice at him before now, let alone swearing at him like this. An air of awkward silence fell over the both of you. He bit the inside of his cheek, not wanting to lash out and keep the cycle going, hurting the both of you more than you already had.

You both looked at each other, tears falling from your eyes, the silence only being broken by the occasional hiccup or shaky deep breath. Finally, you spoke.

“Jooyeon, God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.” You whispered. If you could take every single thing back, you would in a heartbeat. Faster than a heartbeat. He said nothing in return, just looking over your features, trying to find any sort of emotion and sincerity behind them. And sure, he found sincerity in your apology, but he also found sincerity in the fact he had hurt you enough to get to this point. 

“No, (Y/N), I’m sorry.” He said, his voice quiet, low and gravelly. It was such a stark contrast to his usual voice. Frankly, you’d give anything in the world to hear him laugh right now. But you knew that you couldn’t. And what was scarier is that you probably just lost the chance to ever get the privilege to make him laugh again, let alone see him laugh at all. 

“I should go…” You said, after a long, uncomfortable while. He simply nodded, standing up and moving out of your way, walking up the stairs into what was once your shared bedroom. The same bedroom where you had made such incredible memories with him. You sighed, blinking away tears, going the opposite way, shutting the door behind you for the last time. As you stepped into the cold air of the night, your chest burned. You regretted everything. The fight, the fact you didn’t bring it up when it first started bothering you, the fact you hurt him more than anything or anyone had ever hurt you before. Now you could go wherever you wanted, do whatever you wanted, and see whoever you wanted. But at what cost?

CHOOSE ANOTHER MEMBER HERE

OR

LISTEN TO THE SONG THAT INSPIRED THIS, BELOW

[rayshippouuchiha]

I’m the housewife kink anon, but I can’t find the fic!!! No one seems to have a downloaded copy on any of the usually haunts either. Pretty sure the author deleted their account which is a damn shame since they were one of my favs. Not rly surprised tho since they were getting some hate for the pairing when I read it a few yrs ago and I imagine it only got worse. So I’ve decided to outline everything that happened in detail!

So the plot was basically aged up Izuku and yandere Aizawa meet at a pre-raid meeting where some big time hero tries to discount Aizawa’s info and talk over him. But Izuku- Eraserhead has been my obsession since I watched his first sport festival-Midoriya shut that down quick with what was essentially an in depth analysis of how Erasehead is a perfect hero, especially compared to the hero that talked shit.

So yandere Aizawa was obviously like mine and started stalking Izuku who could immediately tell (I think he went abroad to train with All Might after Inko died and then helped dismantle AFO’s base of power internationally thus discovering he was still alive and Izuku ended up killing him w/ All Might) but was honestly just rly turned on by it so allowed it.

At the raid, they ended up in the same section and had impeccable team work the whole time which made both of their internal monologues sound like smug cats. They worked so well together that they kept getting paired up on other raids (all human trafficking rings connected with AFO I think) and eventually Izuku got hurt but wouldn’t tell the medics cuz discrimination trauma and paranoia so Aizawa drags him home to give him stitches.

This is where the domestic fluff and house wife kink kicks in bc Izuku cleans+ bakes+ cooks when he’s bored (which he was since he had to wait for the stitches to heal before he went off to do hero work). So Aizawa, coming back from UA to all this plus Izuku splayed out on the couch like a whole snack smiling up at him saying welcome home, goes fucking feral in his head. And it kinda becomes routine for them and there’s was this one scene where Aizawa wraps his arms around Izuku’s waist as he does dishes and puts his chin on Izuku’s shoulder and strokes over the stitches. I think he was humming a love song Izuku was listening to which was jdjejebdbhsjs.

At this point they both want to jump each other but Izuku is like he’s just being nice to me while Aizawa is like if I allow myself to show how much I want to put a collar on him he’d run so I must be careful. But after the stitches heal Izuku just doesn’t leave bc whenever he half heartedly tries to go back to his apartment something happens where he had to stay (all orchestrated by Aizawa of course). Then Izuku’s like fuck it and just brings all his stuff to Aizawa’s apartment while he’s gone and starts paying half the rent without saying anything. Which Aizawa adores since it obviously means Izuku finally realized that he belongs with him and nowhere else. Let’s just say they didn’t manage to stay off each other for long when Aizawa absently used his scarf to pull Izuku out of his way and called him a good boy.

There was also a concerned all might crew going on at first with a lot of wild misconceptions but it all settled over when All Might met Aizawa in person and was like ah young midoriya, I see you have found one that might be able to handle you. Cuz all might is Izuku’s mentor/hero/father figure, and knew exactly what his successor was about. And this feral looking man he managed to find checks all the boxes Izuku- I destroyed AFO more completely in few years than anyone else managed to do in centuries- Midoriya has.

oh oh god this sounds perfect in every way

Author is you somehow see this then by all the gods please repost because this is magnificent

[fruitcoops]

Intrusion

Andromeda's return! I loved writing her for the other fics she's appeared in, and figured an introduction was in order since she'll be back again very soon. Andy being fabulous and Remus being wildly out of his depth is a favorite trope of mine. Coops credit goes to @lumosinlove!

“Sirius,” Remus called without moving an inch from the doorway. “There’s a person in our house.”

Because, well, there was. A person, that is. Sitting in their living room. Remus was 99.9% sure she had not been there when he left, forty-five minutes prior.

The woman watched him as if daring him to speak. Her eyes were almost as dark as her hair, warm chestnut against her pale skin. Her lower lip was fuller than the upper one, though her lipstick accentuated the Cupid’s bow and slight uptick at one side. It was an oddly familiar shape. A perfect brow quirked once, and her smile grew. “Bonjour.”

“Hello,” Remus said, rather stupidly. He stared at her for another long moment before turning toward the kitchen; a pan of something popped and hissed. “Babe—”

“Ouais, sorry, yes!” The noise grew exponentially for a few seconds. Remus bit his tongue and turned back to the woman, who had draped herself with a kind of casual confidence in Sirius’ favorite couch spot. Somehow, that detail unsettled him more than the rest of her presence.

He tilted his head slightly. “This is going to sound so rude, but are you supposed to be here?”

Even her snort was dignified. “Sirius!” she shouted. Her accent poked at the back of Remus’ mind, somewhere he couldn’t quite place… “Introduce me, you—”

Remus blinked. It wasn’t every day someone called his fiancé a rat in pristine French. And when Sirius (finally) rounded the corner of the kitchen with two plates in hand, he only looked fondly annoyed. The kind reserved for Regulus and, on occasion, Logan. “You come to my house,” he began, gesturing at her with the plate. “Unannounced, demand food, and then call me names? I never should have let you across the yard.”

“Rat.”

“If I turned the sprinklers on, would you melt?”

“Wrong sister.” The woman accepted her plate with a grin. Remus began to wonder if he had stepped through a portal to an alternate universe. “I thought you said you texted your fiancé, eh?”

Sirius looked up at him then, frowning slightly. “I did.”

“I left my phone here.” Like an idiot.

Sirius’ eyes flickered over him; Remus didn’t really want to know what he looked like to warrant that slow nod. “I see.”

Remus waited a few seconds for him to continue and saw the woman roll her eyes. “There’s a person. In our house,” he repeated with a significant look.

There it is. Sirius straightened like he had been shocked, waving his sandwich toward the woman. “Yes! Remus, this is Andromeda. Andy, this is Remus.”

Ah. So it could get worse. “Your cousin?”

“The only tolerable one,” she confirmed with a smile. She stood with easy grace, holding a hand out to shake (or possibly kiss—Remus wasn’t sure). “Andromeda Tonks. It’s wonderful to meet you at last.”

“Remus Lupin, and you as well.” Something inside him died at the feeling of her hand against his sweaty palm. The only cousin Sirius wanted within a fifty-mile radius, and he had gone and made an idiot of himself right away. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were coming.”

“Neither did I,” Sirius huffed. “But you all seem to have a habit of turning up.”

“Is this about Uncle Alphard?”

“Of course it’s about Uncle Alphard!”

Remus raised a faint hand. “You lost me.”

Sirius just kissed his cheek, which was not nearly as comforting as he obviously intended it to be. “My family likes to show up to places without invitation. Don’t worry about it.”

Privately, Remus was extremely worried about it. He turned a smile on Andromeda and hoped the blistering summer heat hadn’t rendered him too disgusting. “I’m so glad you could come visit. Are you in town for long?”

“Non, my husband is visiting for work and I figured we should make a formal introduction.” Her smile was kind, if sharp at the corners. The narrowing of her eyes when she turned to Sirius made the hair at the back of Remus’ neck rise, yet he seemed unperturbed. “I hope you didn’t think I’d pass through without saying ‘hello’, little cousin.”

“You’re just upset I was home first and not my fiancé.”

Her gaze flicked back and pinned Remus like a moth on a hobbyist’s board. “Perhaps. He’s cute. I like him.”

“Thanks?” Remus managed. This conversation didn’t feel like one he should be privy to.

“You said Ted was in town?” Sirius continued, herding him gently to the couch with a hand on his bicep. Two small pulses followed. Sorry.

Remus draped an arm across the back of the couch when they sat and rubbed the side of his thumb over the bend of Sirius’ shoulder. Forgiven. A brief smile rippled over Sirius’ lips; the knot in his stomach eased by a degree. He would have preferred to vacuum the living room so his first impression wasn’t abysmal, but Andromeda seemed content to perch on a cushion like a mildly frightening bird and munch on her sandwich.

She swallowed daintily, raising her paper napkin (Jesus, Sirius couldn’t even have gone and grabbed the nice cloth ones? Honestly.) to her lips as if it was made of fine silk. “He is. There’s a work conference happening, so obviously they wanted him to speak at it.”

Remus sent a prayer of thanks to his mother for drilling the importance of small talk throughout his childhood. “Oh, what does he do?”

“He’s a landscaping specialist,” she said proudly.

Bingo. “My father is in landscaping, actually.”

“Really?” Andromeda’s eyes lit up and she leaned slightly forward. “Fascinating. What region?”

“He stays close to Madison, since my brother is still in school. Sirius mentioned your daughter is starting kindergarten soon?”

“She has one year left of preschool,” Andromeda corrected, though it was kind. Remus filed that away—maybe they would appreciate a congratulatory card in the spring. “And your mother?”

“She works in administration, and sometimes fills in as an emergency substitute teacher.”

“Yes, I remember she posted about a recent craft project on her Instagram. She makes lovely desserts, by the way.”

Remus restrained himself from gaping at her. Was it normal to admit to stalking your cousin’s fiancé’s mother’s baking-themed Instagram page? If that was something to expect from Sirius’ less-unhinged family members, he had wildly underestimated the extent of the ones they didn’t speak to. “That’s…very kind of you. I’ll let her know.”

“Please do,” Andromeda agreed, managing to lick some stray honey from her knuckle without smudging her lipstick. “We’d love to meet your family someday. Ted would be thrilled to speak with your father, I’m sure. And Regulus has been pestering me about visiting Nymphadora for ages, so we’ll be around.”

He felt Sirius balk under his arm. “Regulus has been texting you?”

“Of course.”

“He doesn’t text me.”

“Because you’re boring. Clearly, he likes me more.” Her words were biting, but her expression was pure mischief. “Remus, you play for the Lions as well, yes?”

“I do.”

“My husband is an avid Badgers fan. He was heartbroken when you clobbered them. I still don’t think he’s forgiven you for that play, actually.”

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the— “I’m…sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be. He’s quite cute when he’s frustrated,” she said cheerfully, waving off the apology with a manicured hand. Her thin silver bracelets clinked like bells; Remus’ head began to spin. This woman was playing 5D chess in their living room, and he had been left with a single pawn at best. It was rather devastating to realize Sirius’ entire family was made of highly attractive, highly intelligent people. He had never stood a chance.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” felt like the best answer he could give. Sirius gave his thigh a subtle pat, which he took as a good sign.

“You should bring Dora and Ted around sometime,” Sirius offered. “We have all summer off. Maybe dinner?”

“Is there a park nearby?”

“Down the street.”

“A picnic, then,” Andromeda said with a decisive nod. “The weather has been too nice lately, and we couldn’t possibly intrude on your home.”

Remus blinked. For real? After all this?

“It’s not an intrusion,” Sirius scoffed. “We’d be happy to have you both.”

“Oh, non—”

“It’s an invitation—”

“I simply couldn’t—"

“Andy—”

“Ugh, fine.” She threw her hands up in surrender, and Remus had the sneaking suspicion some duel of Victorian-style politeness had just been completed. The winner remained unclear to his plebian sensibilities. “In that case, I’ll send you my calendar and we’ll work something out. Remus, do you have allergies?”

“Uh, pollen?”

“To food.”

“Then no.”

She beamed at him. “Excellent. We’ll bring watermelon and appetizers.” Her plate hit the coffee table without so much as a whisper of a sound; she stood in the same motion, smoothing her dress of invisible wrinkles. “I should go now. Thank you for hosting, and for the sandwiches. This was a delight.”

“It was great to have you.” Remus stood with far less poise, still feeling as if he had missed several important conversation steps along the way. “Please come back any t—ope.”

Her hug was brief, yet surprisingly loving, and the kiss to each of his cheeks quick enough that he didn’t fully register them until she had moved on to squeeze Sirius tight. “Text me more,” she said when they parted, patting the side of his face. “I missed you. It’s been too long since we spoke.”

Sirius shuffled, a little awkward, a lot earnest, every inch the wayward baby cousin next to her effortless confidence in spite of the way he enveloped her in their second embrace. “It was good to see you, Andy,” he said quietly.

Remus saw her sigh; the rigidness of her spine relaxed, tipping her just an inch into Sirius’ chest. One hand rubbed between his shoulder blades with the smoothness of an old habit. For a moment, he saw them as they were in one of Sirius’ oldest nightstand photos: the runaway and the rebel, arms slung over each other as they slogged through a wreck of a family toward freedom. Andromeda had looked fierce even at 17; next to her, Sirius’ stubborn scowl made them quite the pair.

There was no fight in them, now. Not against the soft blues and greens of the living room. Their cheekbones and bright eyes and perfect posture had given way to gentler things. Andromeda pulled back first, reaching up to tug at Sirius’ hair until he batted her hands away and shooed her toward the front door with a whine of quick French that made her laugh.

“Take care of him for me, Remus!” Andromeda called over her shoulder, then closed the door before he could answer.

Silence followed in her wake. Sirius exhaled slowly, sticking his hands in his pockets as he watched her leave through the main window. The sudden appearance of any of the Blacks was generally an omen of the end of the world in their house.

“She’s nice,” Remus remarked at last.

Sirius’ faint smile broadened with affection. “Yeah.”

“Very…put together.”

“Her mother was big on decorum.” His nose wrinkled at that, but smoothed soon enough. “It makes her a star at parties, though. Her husband, Ted, adores her.”

“For the parties?”

“Non, definitely not,” Sirius laughed as he bent to collect the plates from the coffee table. “For everything about her. He’s great. You two would get along well.”

“I’m sure we’d have plenty to talk about,” Remus agreed, watching him fold the paper napkins in perfect creases with absentminded motions. Her mother was big on decorum. That would be Sirius’ aunt, then, the one with the truly unfortunate name. His mother’s sister. Sirius hummed under his breath while he put away the dishes and Remus decided not to press for information; if Andromeda’s mother was strict enough to make Sirius comment on it, he wasn’t sure that can of worms needed to open. “Is Ted the one she ran off with?”

“Who else?” Sirius called from the kitchen, still audibly amused. “I’ve met him once or twice—he’s very calm, very caring. They balance each other. He reminds me a lot of you.”

“Calm and caring?”

“No.” Sirius reappeared with a sideways grin and crossed the room to cup Remus’ face in both hands, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. “Well, yes, but also you would climb a wrought iron fence for me and threaten to fistfight my father.”

“…I have threatened to fistfight your father.”

“Precisely.” Sirius kissed him again, slow enough that Remus’ stomach tumbled as he pressed up on his toes for more. Sirius’ heart beat steady and calm against his own; Remus could feel his smile. “You’d rescue me from a garden in the dead of night if I asked you to.”

“Just say the word,” he murmured.

“Mmm. No rescues necessary.” Sirius nudged their noses together and bit lightly at Remus’ lower lip. “I’m happy right where I am.”