#idk if it was from being played with or it was just badly rooted

[dollwarren]

Anyone know what hair fiber pinkie cooper dolls’ ears are? I’ve curled mine using the straw method to make it look closer to the original style and I think overall they look pretty good still but the material definitely frizzes out and feels a bit dry. Might just be age. 

[apostaterevolutionary]

Collecting some thoughts on veilguard cause tbh I really don’t know how to feel lmao so. Unstructured ramble time

I’ve watched the trailer and the demo and I feel very. Idk? Still ‘wait and see’ mode for me. It’s been 10 years. Inquisition imo was the weakest of the 3. And while I have kind of moved on from DA there is a part of me that wants this to just blow everything out of the water and be amazing. I’m just not sure if that’s what I think will happen. Right now, I just think it doesn’t feel dragon age-y enough (in terms of what I, personally, consider the defining traits of the series) but I don’t want to jump to conclusions with so little information

The trailer was. Fine. Vibes were a little off but given its Varric narrating, it makes sense (also. Unpopular opinion lmao. I love Varric but I don’t think he should be a companion again. If there’s a carry over companion, it should have been Dorian. And tbh he could still be there, considering they said 7 companions but Varric is not included in that. So did they mean 7 *new* companions and maybe a few others? Advisors again maybe? Idk. Maybe Varric is a temporary companion, but I don’t think he should be there except maybe as a cameo. Scout Harding is an unexpected but fine carry over though). I don’t really have an opinion yet on the companions themselves cause there’s just. Nothing to base an opinion on other than the character designs

Gameplay demo shows that they’re definitely going very Inquisition-y. As in, continuing further down the path it started. Which isn’t unexpected, but is a bit disappointing, though not necessarily a dealbreaker as of yet. It’s probably smart tbh to go more in an action rpg direction than back to the crpg roots given it’s going to be compared to bg3 no matter what they do - better to differentiate as much as possible. Though I don’t think that’s why they did it, probably more a happy accident. I just. Idk, I found inquisitions combat a bit boring and I haven’t been impressed by what I’ve seen yet. But a 20 minute demo is probably not enough to really form an opinion

I feel like you can still see the echoes of this being a live service game at one point too. Healing potions coming from pots found in the environment (I never got over healing spells being cut btw lmao, bring back spirit healers already), the “ability wheel” (unsure about that too, given it sounds like we can’t control companion characters anymore? Kinda really don’t like that :/), stuff like that. I still feel like DA2 combat was the perfect balance between fluidity and strategy but it is what it is. It performed badly, so they’ve disregarded it wholesale rather than consider that some aspects of it may still be worth exploring. It sucks, but that’s capitalism I guess

As for all the other little things, idk, I really am not sure what to think yet lmao. Some sound good. Some less good (why only 2 companions, I don’t like that at all - also weird that the demo shows you won’t have a tank for the initial bit of the game. That’s a weird choice). Nothing to make me go aaaaaa either positively or negatively yet. I don’t even know what to say. My feelings are just so complicated about it, but also kinda empty at the same time. Like. It’s a bit of kombucha girl meme but also muted? I would like to feel just. More about it. But I don’t yet. I’m too unsure. Not quite numb, but almost tbh

At this stage, I feel like I’m gonna wait till it comes out and see what happens. No pre-ordering until I get a better idea. It’s like. With origins, I’ve played it a lot. DA2, even more - countless times lmao. Inquisition though, I played 2.5 times immediately after release and have tried to play it multiple times since but. I only ever get 10-20 hours in before I get bored and can’t make myself continue. I’ve tried many, many times and idk why but I just can’t do it. I never even played any of the DLC, so like. I kinda need to do that first if I’m gonna play veilguard but I have never succeeded before so idk how I will now lmao. But I feel like at least trespasser is necessary and I have genuinely never played it. And I gotta play the rest of the game first to get there and I genuinely don’t know if I can sksksjs

And with that in mind like. If inquisition is that unappealing to me, a game that feels very inquisition-y, potentially leaning even more into the stuff I didn’t like about it, is. Definitely not what I was hoping for. It’s still possible it’s leagues better than inquisition and actually playing it will be a great experience. But right now I just don’t know. I probably won’t be able form any kind of opinion until it comes out and I start getting info from trusted folks that I know have good DA opinions lmao

Idk. I’m not trying to be a wet blanket or a hater, and I genuinely don’t think I am being a hater at all, but I am just. Very tired and nervous. But also cautiously hopeful. I’ve said ‘idk’ a lot lmao but I truly don’t know at this stage. I guess we’ll see. Let’s hope it’s actually amazing and the very thing we need to make the series as a whole feel like it used to for us lapsed DA fans

[thelesbododo]

So I made a post asking about other people's headcanons for Nikolai's past and I'm gonna share mine now :)

Warning: It is going to mention death and abuse so if those are sensitive topics for you go ahead and ignore this post if you don't think you can handle it

(FYI some of this is gonna be based of the irl Nikolai, such as his and his parents' nationality)

Now here's so of the less sad bits,

Nikolai was born in a small village in Ukraine

His parents were Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish and spoke both Ukrainian and Russian, eventually teaching it to Nikolai

Now for the sad stuff,

Nikolai obviously has a more unnatural color scheme when it comes to his eyes and hair (whether or not his parents shared those traits idk)

Because of his unusual physical appearance and overly-happy personality, the people that lived within the village didn't take well to him, leaving him alone relationship wise for most his childhood

Nikolai didn't care much though, he could do almost whatever he wanted if no one else was around and that's what he did. He played in the woods, swam in rivers, etc

Because of the things the villagers said about him and his family, his parents began feeling ashamed of having him as a son and started treating him as if he was someone else's child (they didn't treat him badly but still not the way you should treat your child)

He didn't recognize this though as he wouldn't have any proper knowledge of what a family should be like and as a result he continued to love them

As Nikolai got older the abuse from the village became worse as they began spreading rumors about him and his family (and they might have bullied him)

After a while his parents shame became too much and they either abandoned him or killed themselves

Either way they left him alone

He tried to go for help but no one was willing to help him except for one man

Nikolai had never seen this man before but when he offered to take him in, Nikolai agreed

The man took him to his group of traveling performers/circus (ik it sounds like a weird root to take but just let me finish)

When Nikolai sees the group they seem upset that there was someone new joining. Nikolai doesn't think much of this because he's used to not being wanted

Now the man he met was the ring leader of group and as time goes on Nikolai realizes that this man is manipulative and abusive, keeping him and the other as prisoners

(Now because he is abusive idk whether to make Nikolai's scar be a type of branding or have be the result of abuse)

At a trauma response to the abuse Nikolai's ability activated making it worse for him as he had to incorporate it into his act (he didn't know he could transfer people through it yet)

As time went on his preforms personality mixed with his original, more or less creating what we have now

One day be snapped and killed the ring leader and stole either his hat or coat

He then decided to test using his ability on a person and when it worked he used it to escape

His time in the group is what began his obsession with freedom

Sometime after he met Fyodor and join the DOA

I don't think any of this is backed up by canon but it's what I ended up deciding on

(the preformer/circus part was completely based on how he acts and how he dresses)

[dmercer91]

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND IDEAS FOR THE HOOKED AU (to the poitn that this is getting typed in my notes app🫣)

- her hitting jack in games is so funny to me. i jsut imagine her managing to slam him into the boards and he looks at nico after like “she could’ve done it harder, maybe she likes me🥰”

- her draft?? if she’s the same age as jack, maybe he was a little shit when she got drafted- but not too mean because i feel like he’d also respect her because of queen ellen so idk

- “i adopted the sad one” please it takes on introduction and quinn is like “she’s perfect for you jack- she bullies you too🫂”

- ….i’m very interested in her “collection” those interactions seem so funny to me

- the nyrangers admin😭

- PEOPLES REACTION TO THE ALL STAR WEEKEND- i just imagine a commentator losing his absolute shit

- “i also called you a felon” made me giggle

- her meeting luke. it’s not a want, it’s a need (he comes on for a game and she’s like “bestfriend🥰” and jacks all pouty?)

- HER DEBUTTT (it’s not a want, but it’s another need)

- them playing on the same team

…i apologize if this is a lot…oopsie🧍🏼‍♀️

I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU

this… also got very long, 😃 but i hope it inspires more asks

- she’s a very physical player considering the main (the only reason i’ve seen that’s not entirely misogyny) reason women don’t become nhlers is the lack of hitting in women’s leagues and she wants to prove that she can be useful in that aspect of the game

the first time she hits jack he is not expecting it and the hits are consistent until they get to know each other and then she pulls a tiny bit

he’s blushing and kicking his feet and whatever and nico is like you’re fucking delusional kid

- she’s either drafted in 2019, 2020, or 2021

if she’s drafted in 2019, she initially sticks to cole like literal glue and that’s how she meets jack, who of course embarrasses the shit out of himself drunk and says something that happened to be a deep rooted insecurity of hers. she gets over it and during the summer she makes plans with cole again and jacks there, and this time he can handle his alcohol a little better and makes a better impression - when they start hooking up he remembers the night and feels like an ASS cause he now realizes why she avoided him like the plague

for 2020, it’s dawson she meets first, which makes a lot of sense with his role in the au. she becomes really attached to him in a permanent way and the first time they play each other he invites her out. a lot of the devils are confused and he’s like she’s cool i promise!! her on ice persona proves to be strictly for on ice shenanigans and a lot of them kind of feel bad as she’s definitely gotten some backlash for being a girl in the nhl. she’s getting advice from nico and she’s kinda tucked into dawson cause he’s her comfort person when jack comes up and also embarrasses himself cause he falls face first tripping over himself when he sees her out of her gear for the first time

if she’s drafted in 2021, jacks watching the live draft with luke and just as everything’s calming down with the excitement of luke going to the devils, the rangers announce that they’ve chosen you. they play a clip from your women’s league and from what he can see your game and energy is very similar to trevor’s (he hates it) and then later that night he sees the clip of you going around celebrating being the first woman drafted to the nhl and he goes back on that thought and cyber stalks you until your first time playing nj in which he meets you at the blue line for warmups and flirts so badly

- when quinn meets her in the media edit her and jack are already hooking up, and quinn doesn’t really piece that together cause she does a really good job at making fun of jack and avoiding his flirting

but jack?? is so obvious abt it

quinn’s convinced his little brother is getting off to her highlight reels

he only brings it up once she’s gone and he’s basically like ‘ur as red as your jersey and it’s pathetic but that whole ordeal was cute i guess. she’d fix you up,’

- her main adoptees (for some she is their adoptee, but i digress) are quinn, luke, dawson cole, nico, seamus and trevor

quinn is like that one friend who will egg on any and all bad decisions because he feels like she’s the only person who will know when to stop herself and that his stupidity will both be understood but not taken too far

‘should i tell igor i’m pregnant’ ‘fuck yes’

luke is like her little brother, they make fun of each other but they also want what’s best for each other and they will both fight for one another,

he is both pro y/n and anti y/n and loud about both simultaneously

dawson is one of her best friends in the world, the first time they connect for a goal once she’s a devil he jumps on her and they fall to the ice and squeeze each other for like a century

he’s like her comfort person and he’s one of the only people that she feels ok just going up to and like.. attack hugging when she’s upset

she is most often found standing under his arm and she’s always stealing ryleigh

cole is her #1 facetime buddy. he’s always on the phone while she’s like doing her hair or something. she has an automatic curling iron and he thinks it’s magic

he’s always her partner for chicken fight at the lake house cause ‘it’s harder to make short legs fall over’

very movie esque ‘duo that’s friends and nobody knows why cause they are so mean to each other’ vibes

nico is another one of her safe people cause after they were introduced in her first season she started going to him when she needed advice

he probably wasn’t the person to ask cause he wasn’t even all that experienced either at that time but regardless of if she took his advice she always felt like he understood

he likes to say that she trained him for his captaincy

he is protective as hell when it comes to her, too and he’s loud about it

seamus is her son. even while she’s a ranger. that is her son. she reaches out to him over instagram and is like how does moyle feel abt sharing?? cause i’m adopting you right now

she doesn’t know why

he doesn’t know why

he’s not complaining

that’s his mom now

she will absolutely never admit it but a lot of her game is based off trevor (as well as mm16) he’s very high energy and every time she saw him do something that had literally no place in an nhl game she was like heart eyed

if we think she was drafted with luke then she definitely had a FAT crush on him when he was on the u17 team

she can’t stand him (affectionate) now that she knows him better but he still inspires her a lot and all of the attention he gets for his style drives her even more

- rangers admin LOVES her cause she’s always on tiktok and she’s like ‘if u do this it’ll get views’

- twitter was in a FRENZY during the asg and the whole all star weekend

since it’s in toronto in 23-24 i can so see her trying to make an impression on mitch cause she wants to talk hockey with him so bad and i’m gonna assume austons there too so jack is butthurt that she’s hanging out with him and at some point he plops next to her on the bench and is like ‘we’re gonna get a goal together and we should plan a celly’

she’s opposed until he’s like ‘fine i’ll just pick you up and make you celly with me then’ and she gives in

(give me ideas for the celly)

but whatever it is they choose to do has people going fucking INSANE on twitter and tiktok and then the next four points they get together they just start making it more and more elaborate and at the last one (y/n goal, jack primary a) he just slides onto his knees and grabs her legs while she’s essentially t posing and yelling

they absolutely have the most energy out of anyone there (i don’t really remember the asg so i don’t even remember if the players even celly?? but i mean 5 pts warrants a scream celly even if it’s a scrimmage)

jack wouldn’t normally be like that for an asg but he’s LOVING the fact that almost all cellys include a hug

she views the all star weekend as one of her favourite nights and weekends off all time cause it’s one of the only times that all of the love she was getting and the love for her and jack overpowered all of the misogynistic keyboard warriors that hate women whining on socials and she had a completely positive weekend where all of her teammates were actually supportive and she felt wanted

commentators DO lose their shit over the two of them having such good chemistry and because commentating in the nhl is so bad i can assume that the words ‘a devil and a ranger’ were said about 28392748374 times that night alone

i want to say she gets mvp for the weekend but knowing the nhl it would be jack

he does not shut up about her during his interviews he’s like ‘she deserves this just as much or more than i do’ and then MORE people go insane cause jack ‘i didn’t know there was a town in new jersey’ hughes is eloquently complementing a teammate during a SCRUM

- she was genuinely so confused writing that comment cause at this point she’d called him j many times 😭 i think he was shocked she said it publicly but that’s all she could bring herself to reply

- assuming her first game in the nhl was before his they would probably meet in the 22-23 playoffs while luke was still in the press box

jack already had a HUGE crush on her and when she meets luke in the parking lot, walking with dawson she’s like !!!!!!! luke !!!!!!!

he’s with jack and jacks kinda thinking to himself like ‘she’s never like !!!!!! jack !!!!!!!!’ and dawson, being dawson invites them for beers at her place and she gets really close with luke that night

they’re giggling like they’re telling each other secrets and dawson is like ‘dude grow a pair and go fucking talk to her’

the next day luke’s texting her on the couch and she’s calling him moosey and her contact name is very incriminating and jacks a GROCUH for the rest of the day

- rangers debut? or devs debut? both??? i’ll do both

her debut with the rangers is so awkward because obviously she was chosen and signed because she’s skilled and deserves her spot

but a lot of them just do not like her

it’s the biggest reason she requested her trade

the only friend she felt that didn’t secretly just hate her guts for existing was igor, who obviously couldn’t help her case much seeing as he’s stuck in the net

during her very first game she was on the third line and her line mates were trying their very best to keep the puck from her cause they didn’t trust her with it

during the third period they’re down by two and she just takes the puck and leaves with it while her centre is obviously trying to set up a play that she was not meant to be a part of

she goes for the five hole and pots it and they don’t even really celly with her other than going behind her to shake hands with the bench

this fixes nothing and they still don’t want her with the puck so the coach moves her up a line and there’s much better chemistry and cooperation despite them still not being her biggest fan

igor gets it to her for a breakaway and she goes bar down with him as the only assist

this is mostly because the other team is also really underestimating her and they feel like they don’t really need to be on her

they’re covering her line mates cause they’re assuming she’ll pass and set up the play especially since her pass was from the goalie

the game goes to a shootout and after the other team misses their third shot the coach just kinda looks at the bench and calls her name

she’s shocked and the arena is dead quiet when she goes out on the ice

like pin drop quiet

she wins them the game and pretty much tells them that if they underestimate her again she’ll just let them lose and that she was signed for a reason and they need to grow tf up

her devs debut goes much more smoothly. it’s definitely a little harder for her to score at this point cause the other teams aren’t underestimating her as much

however the tension with her and jack is at an all time high after that text conversation

the first point she scores is a goal and jack isn’t an assist, it’s bratter and johnny

during the celly she smiles at him cause she feels different than her rangers debut - she feels different with the team and she feels like they actually love her and want her around

he wants so badly to make it up to her for everything he said in his messages and all he can think to do right in that moment is to hold the back of her helmet and knock his visor against hers a little

halfway through the period things between them are going so much better and the chemistry is very much there

she assists on his goal and they recreate the celly from the all star game and then she screams in his face out of pure excitement

he’s smiling at her like she created the world and people go nuts for that whole thing

a little bit into the second period is her wonderwall concert

her and dawson are belting with each other and there’s a gifset that goes around of the two of them singing that pans to jack being all heart eyed for her

the next shift she gets another goal, this one assisted by him and luke and the vibes are absolutely immaculate

during the very same shift luke scores, assisted by her and jack and she jumps onto luke like a proud older sister and shakes jacks shoulders all excitedly

in the final period she scores her last goal to complete the hattrick, assisted solely by jack

that’s when she jumps into his arms and he kinda spins around with her and squeezes her tight so her skates come off the ice a little

dawsons on the ice for this one cause it was mid shift change and he fake gags at them

she sticks her tongue out at him and when he joins the hug jack slides down to his knees and hugs her legs like he did at the asg

dawson screams ‘you two are fucking disgusting’ at the top of his lungs and she throws her head back and laughs

the post game celly includes a lot of beer and a shot for every one of her points (it was a long night) (there was a lot of making out) (and a lot of dawson, luke and johnny being grossed out) (and a lot of nico being a proud dad)

- them being on the same team is so good for everyone involved

chemistry?? off the charts

when they lose?? hugs on the bench

when they win??? jittery hugs on the bench

during the playoffs?? anxious hugs on the bench

being eliminated? you guessed it,

she’s a safe space for a lot of the team cause she gets it but it’s different? if that makes sense

they don’t usually rely on each other for emotional support hugs but with her they feel like that’s normal

in conclusion i love her

[420technoblazeit]

the thing about dean and crowley's sexuality within the show is that it's mostly played for laughs. and like. watching dean insist that he's straight while getting nervous around guys or seeing crowley flirt with dean while he gets brushed off is funny sometimes. the problem is that it stops being funny when you look at it in the context of both of them being abuse victims

dean's repressed sexuality is funny until you consider that he has a history of toxic masculinity and emotional repression rooted in his abuse from john. because then the narrative shifts from oh haha isn't it so funny that dean likes to wear panties to this is a man who, even years after his father's death, is never able to come to terms with the possibility that he is queer. the panties thing was mentioned in season 5 by dean's future self as something he would never tell anyone else about. and not once in 15 seasons does dean actually confront his repression. so while the sexuality thing might have been introduced by the writers as a joke, they unironically added a layer of tragedy to dean's character because it's another thing he's never able to accept about himself and an added effect of his trauma

and in a really similar way, crowley falling for dean in seasons 9-10 is funny when the writers use it to stage a 'breakup' as comedic relief. but when you consider what he says to sam in the season 8 finale about wanting to be loved? when he's literally at his weakest and being turned human? it stops being funny because crowley has literally never been loved. he suffered abuse from rowena and it impacted his sense of emotional vulnerability so badly that he continued that intergenerational trauma with gavin. and even after 300 years he never brought himself to care about anyone else. but oh you know he's queer and he flirts with dean who just kinda rolls his eyes at him and never talks about the orgy they had when he was a demon isn't that funny? and like idk. after a certain point it's kinda not

[infriga]

What's interesting about House of Usher is that Flannigan usually has likeable protagonists, at least in my experience. Granted I haven't seen all of his works, but I've seen several (Bly Manor, Hill House, Midnight Mass, and I've heard summaries of others) and most of them are generally pretty sympathetic from my understanding, even the ones with more blood on their hands, so to speak.

In House of Usher however, almost none of the main characters are good or likeable people to much, if any, degree. Their spouses/partners are decent people, for the most part (dunno how the siblings landed such nice SOs despite being so nasty), and the granddaughter seems alright (I'm only on episode 5 btw so idk if anything happens regarding her or the other non-siblings, no spoilers pls), and Auguste seems like a decent person (maybe not the best family man, but he at has his heart in the right place especially compared to the Ushers), but all the siblings, and Roderick and Madeline themselves, are pretty horrible people.

But like, they're not one dimensional bad people, they're complex, they feel emotions, they care about people in their lives even if they don't tend to treat those people well, they have fears and insecurities and passions and hangups just like regular people do. So while usually I dislike when the protagonists of a show like this are unlikable, in this show it's actually quite fascinating because like I can't say I hate them either, they feel like they could be good people if they really wanted to be. Especially if they had better influences and were taught better lessons by their father and aunt. They feel human, not evil, but I'm also not rooting for them either. I don't know who to root for tbh, except maybe people like Julius, Tammy's husband, and the granddaughter, who are all side characters lol. Idk who the weird supernatural lady is (death? The devil? God? A witch? No idea) so I don't know her motivations or what kinda person she is, she seems to be collecting on some sort of debt but that's the best I've got on her. I do think it's interesting how she tried to spare Morrie from the acid by telling her to go like she did with the wait staff, but she didn't do anything to help Ali later when she was killed, so was it strategic or does this lady have some sort of code of morals? Does she care about whether people are innocent or not? Why spare the wait staff from death by acid shower but not the other party goers? Is sparing Morrie more about the potential role she'll play in Freddy's death? I guess I'll find out.

But I do think it's interesting that we start off the show knowing who's going to die already, since usually stakes in this genre come from wanting characters to survive (hence why I usually prefer likable protags in horror/suspense media), but it makes sense that since none of these people are very likable, the suspense needs to mostly come from something else on that front, such as wondering how they're going to die or which innocent people they might take with them in the process, as well as wanting to know what caused all this.

Roderick, ironically, is probably the most sympathetic member of the family aside from his granddaughter, which doesn't mean much but I mean, I wouldn't begrudge anyone going through what he witnessed in episode 5. Like gaddamn that's fucked up. He seems like someone who deep down has the potential and even the buried desire or instinct to be a good person, but was too much of a coward to put in the work it would take to be good and stay good in a harsh world when he wants so badly to be someone big and successful and important just like, well, his father. But ultimately he does obviously love his children so I do sympathize with him in that regard.

But the show is making the unlikable protagonists thing work for it, somehow. I don't like most of these people, but I am fascinated by them and what's going down and how they got here. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

[alicentsgf]

What do you think of Alys? You know among all those people saying she will be evil I just feel like whatever she is gonna be, I'd love her as much as I love Alicent. It's all about the vibe, Alicent comes from Greek tragedy and Alys from gothic romance and I can't wait to see 2 season

I love Alys. i think I just hope they do her justice and make her more than just The Witch or The Victim you know. I don't really know what that should look like and I don't know exactly what the story is going to need her to be because I'm not sure what direction they're going to go with everyone else, especially Aemond, as in, what way he's going to react to Luke's death/how everyone else is going to react to him being the cause of Lukes death? idk. idk what person he's going to be when he gets to harrenhal basically.

one thing i do know though is its just a pure fact imo that Alys in f&b was one of the most interesting characters in the dance era, hands down. like when I say the f&b characters were one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs I'm almost exclusively talking about the dance era tbh. The story of the dance was exciting, the people not so much so imo. and I feel like grrm fumbled the bag with Alys because when she's introduced she's this mysterious woman who manages to convince this boy prince to spare her and forms a questionable romantic/sexual bond with him that may or may not be rooted in magic. and that's so interesting! but what is actually done with it?? not much really. we don't even know where their kid ended up? and yeah people can say that their relationship was just included to make aemond a hypocrite or something and that regardless its all just so gross anyway (because yeah whatever its obviously fucked up. all these relationships are.) but one thing that is overlooked I feel is that this could very possibly have been about survival for Alys. at least to begin with. The impression we get is that this is how she's lived her life, like she has constantly used her body to make herself useful and needed - if the choice was between horrible violent death and seducing a 19-year-old... i kind of understand seducing the 19-year-old, you know?

i would love to see her be manipulative with aemond, at least to begin with, and then see him slowly wise up to what she's doing and for them to find some kind of accord? this love affair is not going to be 'cute', it's not going to be aspirational, it's literally a love story between an older woman who may or may not be a witch and her boy toy war-criminal, like... common sense says it's not going to be a healthy relationship. However, i do think there's the potential there for a really deep, slightly unexpected understanding of each other. Aemond may be a lot younger, but he holds power over Alys because of his position in society/the way the world of asoiaf operates. he was literally holding her life in his hands when they met. I don't think the power imbalance is as pronounced as it would be in a modern setting, so they do have the potential to sort of level the playing field for each other and become partners in their own special fucked up way. after all, there's some definite moments in f&b where we hear that they have a very real and obvious bond with one another.

i think saying alys is gothic romance vibes is so accurate like overall the story isn't very gothic romance, but in herself with the elements of the grotesque, mystery, and the supernatural surrounding her I feel that's incredibly true. and its perfect because aemond has that element too; he is the marred, brooding, outcast gothic romantic hero. so yeah they should totally capitalise on these archetypes and make their side of the story lean into that.

one thing i do have slight reservations about is the supernatural aspect aka alys' magic. like I love a witch, don't get me wrong, and the aesthetics of alys using magic I just want so so badly. however... i hate when men are right. and i hate when men point at a woman who's managed to manoeuvre her way against all odds into a position of influence and say 'you cheated'/'thats a witch'. like. idk i do think maybe it would be interesting to see alys just be insanely smart and manipulative, using magic to cover up the moves she's making that are very much not magic just to keep people afraid of her so they'll let her be? but also i DO want her to be a witch? its a hard one.

im just so excited to meet her tbh. there's some really great options for what to do with her character so I just have my fingers crossed they do her justice.

[sophiasharp]

I apparently won’t be able to sleep till I put this idea out there so here’s a new fic idea idk if I’ll ever get around to. A warning, this whole thing is dealing with sex, dom/sub dynamics, and is supposed to be a look into how Dew tends to be portrayed in popular fanon. This is also not proofread in the slightest cause it’s 4 am as of writing and I need to be up in roughly 4 hours:

After a scene with Swiss involving forced fem and some quintosis, something goes wrong and Dew becomes seemingly stuck in Princess mode. At first the change isn’t noticed, even praised by those who do, but it soon becomes clear that this sudden shift in demeanor isn’t all fun and games and that something is truly, deeply wrong with Dew. And it’s all hands on deck to fix it.

They sit “Princess” down and each take turns trying to talk to her about why she’s still here and where Dewdrop is, THEIR Dewdrop. Princess doesn’t seem to like her more lucid counterpart all that much for some reason, calls him a “grumpy meanie who only cares about himself and is good for nothing.” The rest of the group is horrified by this outlook but have no idea where it’s come from. Sure, Dew hasn’t always had the best self image, but would he really go that far? Does his subconscious really hate himself that badly?

With every person that comes up to talk to her, Princess mentions a past scene they and Dew were in together, and how he “wasn’t very good then, but I can be very good now, I promise!” They think they’ve found a pattern at first: it’s all scenes where Dew was a brat and was punished for it. However, as more people talk to Princess, more discrepancies show up, with the only thing tying the events together being her insistence that she’ll be good for them, that’s she’ll be better for them than Dew was.

She explains that all she wants, more than anything else in the world, is to be good for them- to please her packmates the way she thinks Dew can’t- but the more the band ask for Dew, the more despondent Princess becomes. Eventually, she breaks down crying, sobbing even over her inability to make her pack happy, much to the horror and confusion of the rest of the group; Dew has never shown his emotions so openly to his pack before. At least, not since his elemental change.

It’s at this point that the group put together a few things: 1.) the reason Mountain and Aether weren’t immediately clued in that something was wrong was because Princess acts a lot like how Dew used to before the elemental transition; 2.) nowadays, the only times Dew ever gets this vulnerable is if he’s scared or if he’s in subspace; 3.) the reason Swiss and Aether can’t undo the quintosis is because some part of Dew is holding onto it, refusing to let it go.

The band is able to put together that this Princess they’re talking to isn’t some other entity made up by the quintosis- it’s still Dew, just deep in character and deep in subspace. The fem bend to it is just a side effect of the initial scene that got Dew stuck.

So, after everyone else has had a go, initially too scared to make it worse but needing to try since no one is left, Swiss comforts Princess and gets them to open up about their worries, revealing what caused the problem and what the root of it is.

The scenes Princess mentioned were each scenes from the past week or two where Dew was left feeling like he hadn’t satisfied his partner. It didn’t matter whether that was true or not, it was a growing concern due to the way the scenes played out: the degradation landing a bit too close to home, the feigned boredom to his efforts to please, his small size compared to the rest of the ghouls, the physical denial of a satisfying end because he hadn’t been “a good boy.” The shame that normally turned him on even more instead sat heavy in his head and built up more and more. He didn’t tell anyone about his mounting insecurities, however, because it’s what he’s used to, what was supposed to be comfortable. He asked for it, so why can’t he deal with it? He’s never had to make a fuss about it before, so he wouldn’t then, even as the gnawing anxieties began to spread outside the bedroom and into every-day tasks, like messing up a run during practice or getting overwhelmed enough to snap at his bandmates.

The scene with Swiss finally made him feel like he was worth something again, only with the added quintosis, the satisfaction didn’t sink all the way through to Dew. Instead, it gave him to idea that he was ONLY worth anything to his pack when he was being the good girl he thought they wanted.

But if now Princess’s pack is saying that they don’t want her anymore, then she’s failed; she wasn’t good enough for them. She tried so hard to be what they wanted but still she fell short. It must be something wrong with both her AND Dew, then, something utterly unfixable that made them undeserving of their pack’s affection. After all, bad girls don’t deserve love. They don’t deserve anything. They’re just a waste of space.

Naturally, this train of thought WILL not stand with the rest of the pack any longer, the bulk of which are mortified that they let this go on for so long and that they had any hand in the downward spiral their favorite fire ghoul took. They all assure Dew/Princess that he doesn’t need to do anything to earn their love; he always had it to start with, and that that love extended to all parts of him, even the parts that he’s self conscious of. Sex isn’t a trial to prove worthiness, not to the partner or even to yourself. Sex us just one of many ways people can connect with one another, and it has no baring on their every-day life any more than they granted it.

Crying again, this time from love more than fear, Dew finally finds it in him to let go of the quintessence and come back to those he love.

[larsnicklas]

is it bad to say im truly not that devastated bc i didn’t want them to advance without boes :/ altho it sucks that demmer never got his chance to come back. also i’m on holiday starting yesterday and now i can actually enjoy it without my every waking moment being consumed by fear. like i’m upset but we move. cats 4 cup

no i felt the same way! lol. i think disappointment is also tempered by the fact that they overachieved on reasonable expectations from the start of the year so it feels like (and genuinely was) such an enormous step forward that nobody can possibly say they didn’t have a great season. i also think for me personally, with the exception of the caps, any loyalty to teams i have is rooted in the players i love and so the absence of any of my favorites really affects how badly i want them to win lol. the loss of demmer already stung a lot bc he’s like the only other goalie i’ve genuinely loved since h.oltby 😭 and then with brock done for the year i was kind of like. okay actually i don’t want to do this without them!!!! with brock particularly it’s like. that’s the guy that was the FIRST bit of light… the first spark of hope…. and after him came pete and quinn and so on and so forth but he was that first shift into a new core. he deserves to be a key part of any deep run and i know that’s not how sports work and you can’t guarantee anything but he’d already made such a huge mark in the first 12 games of the postseason i just know he would have had more signature moments!!!

i also think for me it was like. you run an assessing eye over the most important player on your team, the guy who tilts the ice for you on any given night, and he is so very clearly fighting through being quite banged up. and so realistically speaking how much more did quinn have left in the tank, you know? he did a good job even with any limitations from injuries but i just am not sure there was another quality round, much less a strong final in him lol. like i do believe he would have continued playing until physically unable/shut down by docs but the quality of play would have not been to his (very high) standards.

and then uh while i’m airing this out!!! when the c.anucks go deep i want ep in a good place physically and mentally and idk that he was either this postseason!! he’s such a game changer like when he’s at his best he is an incandescent player and one of the most exciting guys in the game. and obviously one of my particular favorites! any actual success the nucks see i would like him to be an enormous part of it, which i know he can and will be!

at the end of the day it always sucks to lose but there are so many good things to have come out of this season, including getting into the second round on the first try for this particular group. this experience is going to serve them so so well in the future and i bet they will all be itching to get back on the ice for the 2024-25 season ♡

[eviltiddyprodnz]

xo kitty: episode 2

aww kitty

the teacher should've just gone to the loo 💀 'why are you not dae'

lmfaooo wait i think she just made him her boyfriend for her mom. ( I thought this was going to happen but then just assumed the worst of dae 💀)

she is dating Julianna after all. saving your girlfriend's name as baby when your parents might not approve is pretty balsy tbh. my girl back at 99%

my mind going ↗️↖️⬆️⬇️ trying to comprehend what the fuck this teacher kitty conversation is supposed to be here for

who wrote the dialogues. what are these conversations. 💀 * Kitty walks in * the guy who had seventeen hot playing in the background 'this girl treats Korean guys like Pokemons' huh !???

Where did that even come from. random and unprovoked lmaooo like they've not had a single conversation.

lmaoo poor kitty. but all of this feels so anti climatic.

dae has sad puppy eyes but like at least text kitty 😭😭😭 like tell her what's up.

even kitty is being so chill about this lmao. he's getting clicked with another girl and she's having a monologue best saved for episode 3 🤣 okay i guess

I KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN as soon as I saw food on the table I knew she was going to crash into it but why now 😭

I was about to say slayyy but she just slipped and fell. let me settle open my embarrassment bag.

the way her entire class is about to know about all this. my girl <///3

I'm just going to accept their 0 emotion answers at this point 💀 like how is everything already settled and okay. not even a voice crack in sight

he looks more broken than her 💀

dae's eating it up!!!

aww Kitty 🥺 she's kinda handling it like a champ. let me give her a hug.

lmfaooo why did Q's entire dialogue sound like voice over. what is happening in the production of this show

Dae is the only one acting here 😭

let the wattapad games begin 🤩

at least she scared them away

now Minho sounds like he did a voice over 😭😭😭 why is the dialogue delivery and editing so weird here.

everyone sounds normal now

Minho 💀🤣 i want to say get over yourself but the 'she did this to be closer to Dae AND ME' kinda got me laughing

Minho's accent changed 80 times. Is he British???

she says she doesn't want to talk but you clearly have to?? 💀 I feel like in these moments one should simply just scream the answer ' not cheating cheating on you babe****'

not her being in Dae's room too this could've actually been fun 😭

this is just badly written and boring like at least them in the same room would've been fun!!!

Is Minho Australian or British. Let me Google. A little bit of British in there! also Yuri is his sister irl 💀

Q being real rn. American people will tell you to follow your heart!

Dae is wearing that necklace!!!

I'm sorry but a little scroll through my blogs and you'll know someone wearing a necklace or a ring in a necklace their partner gave them is my kryptonite.

he's acting so well that i am currently rooting for him

lmfao Minho trying to cuddle Dae. #real

not a single emotion in this show is translating through the screen 😔

awww he's sleeping by her door. it's giving puppy, it's giving love, it's giving give me a chance to explain and I'm eating it up 😭

Kitty don't leave your suitcase just on the damn road like that 😭😭😭 the cherry blossom is beautiful but please keep an eye out for your bag!

her mom wants her to stay here maybe idk 🤩

this show is so quiet I'm so serious. not a worry, not an emotion. it's just there. minho's a little funny though.

and she's gone and dae left in the quietest way possible 💀

Dae about to have the worst semester of his life because Yuri's mom will keep them together hence keeping him from Kitty check ✔️

Yuri staring her dad with an open mouth after making that lettuce meme (slay!) if these weren't just consequences of her own actions 😭

Dae running to find his girl in pyjamas. Adorable and real

the kiss that didn't happen was the closest we got to emotions and his dad is here to get him now 😔

they're about to make him sign an NDA my man is GONE

I feel like she could've probably seen the resignation and desperation on his face but she's right to be angry for as long as she likes so I move.

if she choose Minho over Dae, how am I not supposed to feel bad for Dae 💀 once again money ruining things !!!

She clocked in that he's miserable!

this is so unserious why are teenagers having to talk about their relationship

Dae having the worst week of his life, my poor bb. I have decided to adopt him

[blockgamepirate]

Limited Life spoilers (I just didn't really wanna tag this but I also don't wanna spoil people so cut it is)

Unfortunately my hunch about the Clockers being the first full team out of the series seems increasingly likely.

Sure the Bad Boys are technically gone but Grian is still alive and that was my whole argument: I said I thought Grian would probably outlast all the Clockers and so far that's exactly how it seems to be going.

In all likelihood (even though we don't know Bdubs' time for sure) they're the team with the least time left AND their spawn point is trapped as well, so the first one of them to die next time will probably die twice. If it's Scar or Bdubs that'll probably be the end of their series. If it's Cleo, that only means the team member with the most time will be as low as the other two and makes the full team even more likely to go down early.

(That's unless Martyn changes his mind and disables the trap but idk, he might be too much of an opportunist to do that. It's 30 minutes, whether it comes from an ally or an enemy, and he can probably also tell that the Clockers are on their way out so it's not like the alliance is gonna last long anyway.)

Also lbr it's Scar, Bdubs and Cleo. Sure they can sometimes survive surprisingly well when they try but are any of them actually even trying? They've all just been having fun roleplaying, goofing off and playing recklessly and based on previous seasons that's unlikely to change towards the end of the series.

It also doesn't help that Bdubs has mixed loyalties as well.

Now admittedly Cleo has about four hours and Impulse who has the highest time among TIES only has about three and a half, so there's a chance that Cleo will outlast him. But out of the two of them, who's more likely to lose a life first? The one who was the second to last yellow or the one who's only above the former now because they had a different player take over for them and get two kills last session? (No offence to Cleo but it's true, and Cleo would probably agree.) And if Cleo dies before Impulse, she's gonna have half an hour less than him. If she also dies first out of the Clockers, she's gonna have one and a half hours less than him.

That said anything could happen of course, all it takes is Impulse having some bad luck. Or maybe Cleo (or Scar or Bdubs) will actually manage to get a bunch of kills somehow, idk. Admittedly Scar has been very aggro and has been getting kills and might have gotten more if Scott hadn't stolen so many.

Alternatively Grian could mess up really badly and die multiple times very early on, finishing off the Bad Boys, but he has an hour and a half more time than Cleo and is much better at getting kills. He has also outlasted every member of the Clockers in every season except the one where his life was literally tied to Scar's. And he has a new team now as well so he isn't even alone despite being the last member of his team.

My point is, the Clockers are pretty much doomed in every way, and unless TIES has very bad luck, or unless one of the other teams has EXTREMELY bad luck, the family is probably gonna be the first full team out.

(The thing is, I really hope I'm wrong because I'm rooting for Cleo, but it doesn't look good, not good at all. Well, then again it was always a long shot.)

[athetos]

it’s interesting how the earth and wind temples in wind waker both have intentionally similar designs, but earth is one of the best dungeons in a game that already has great dungeons, while wind ranks among the worst in the series for me.  Both dungeons have you escorting a sage who can fly and assist you via a unique ability, but earth just does it way better.  Medli has much greater control over both her direction and distance than Makar, who can fly much higher, but is harder to get anywhere you want him to be even with a longer magic meter.  Medli’s harp reflecting rays of light lends itself well to solving satisfying puzzles, and plays perfectly with Link’s mirror shield, but Medli growing trees is pretty boring, as they only serve as hookshot targets or do nothing beyond open a door. 

But even outside of Makar being the worse companion, the actual design of the wind temple doesn’t compare to Earth’s.  Earth temple was awesome in that it really played into the (typically) penultimate dungeon vibes you find elsewhere in the series (see: OOT’s spirit temple and MM’s Stone Tower Temple), feeling ancient and spooky, filled with redeads and ghosts, and features lots of fun puzzles.  Figuring out the angles of the light you’re trying to reflect could take some trial and error, but it was never frustrating, and felt like it paid off.  And using the light to turn the dark chuchus to stone, or injure the ghosts, was fun to play with.  Idk man, it was just a well done and creative dungeon, even if it was rooted in themes from past games!  And the boss was a lot of fun, a bit on the easy side, but as we all know from super mario 64, throwing a boss into bombs/spikes is always satisfying. 

But the Wind temple was just... disappointing.  I had high hopes it would hold up as well as the Earth’s, but it didn’t.  The wallmasters in Earth were a hindrance, but never delayed you too badly, or made the game feel unfair.  But here, they really irritated me.  There’s one room where you have to drop through a hole in the floor to hit a switch, and it’s so hard to judge where the wallmasters are from above.  I’d find myself dropping right on top of them and getting yoinked back a couple rooms over and over again.  (And it was even worse if they yonked Makar).  Using the hookshot and iron boots to topple statues was a really cool idea, but that was about the only thing that stood out for me.  Wind gimmicks in video games have a tendency to be off-putting and frustrating, and that was just how this dungeon felt.  The big cylinder with the fan was a nuisance to navigate, often overshooting the platform you wanted, the hookshot climbing otherwise taking forever... The puzzles weren’t nearly as satisfying... even the one in the last room didn’t feel great because the iron boots are just sooooo painfully slow.  And the boss was just fine, it would have helped if you could lock-on with the hookshot, since it was so easy to miss it’s tongue, but I guess that would be kind of broken. 

[delphiniumarchangelmoon]

Had a weird ass dream last night, guest starring Schlatt

So it was one of those all-nighter type dreams, the ones that really feel like it took 8 hours to get through it, so bear with me.

For context, if you look out my kitchen window you can see an empty lot diagonal to my back yard, and beyond it the street is split around a retention pond so the street behind mine kind of has a knockoff roundabout in the middle of it.

Anyway the dream starts with a bunch of dogs out on the sidewalk between the circle and the empty lot and I want to go give them treats, so I root around in the cupboard for for treats.

But when I stand back up all but one dog has been replaced with a cross???

And the last dog stands up and oh shit, it’s not a dog, it’s a person wearing a dogs head as a mask! What the fuck?

And somewhere in the middle of this sequence of looking away from the window and back (it’s like, five seperate instances of looking out the window) I see an orange jeep driving down the street behind my house and somehow I just know this car belongs to Schlatt, who is apparently my neighbor and I’m far too shy to talk to

I go out to the front of the house to tell my neighbors to get the fuck inside there’s a maniac on the loose, and I’m also dead set on fighting the guy for some reason idk I always turn into a goddamn action movie protag in my dreams I’m always ready to throw down.

But, I can’t because between me and the fence lead g to the empty lot there is, I shit you not, an angry water buffalo.

So I scream for everyone to get inside because now there’s a maniac and a water buffalo on the loose. And they do. And we have a moment if “well wtf do we do now?”

I don’t remember how we all got to this decision but everyone went to the other end of the street and all gathered in a specific house. And some of my cousins were there, and the kids all left to go practice shooting (we all apparently just. Accepted that there was an apocalypse I guess? So the kids were shooting guns idk)

But after a minute I’ve of the kids comes back and screams that my younger cousin (wheelchair bound, this is notable) has also lost his mind and gone rogue.

So I take the girl and run back to my house and ask her to explain what was going on. But her story doesn’t line up, she says he attacked her and his sister but it shouldn’t be possible given how easy he is to outrun or subdue with his specific medical conditions.

I realize this about the time she does, and she attacks. I parkour around my garage like gravity doesn’t exist because it’s a dream and I can, and escape out the back door and hop the fence.

I then see the orange jeep driving fine the road again, so I wave it fine and ask the driver (literally just done dude) if he’s with Schlatt. He says he is and tells me to get in when I say I’m being chased.

While he’s driving us back to their house (which takes way longer than it should and we are definitely not going the correct direction but my dreams are rarely Euclidean so I’m not surprised) I explain what I’ve discovered about this seemingly contagious madness

We get back to the house and I am face to face with Schlatt and desperately trying to play it cool, but I hardly get a chance to say hello before the guy who drove me in says something about “releasing a prototype”

Schlatt freaks out—apparently this was not a good idea—and tells me to hide.

I run through the house and start locking doors behind me, I find a (badly) hidden door that leads to a bedroom with a back door, I lock it behind me and run, internally monologuing about how I can’t trust anyone, I have no idea who’s been infected.

I get ahold of a phone and somehow log in to a chat room with Schlatt and his friends, they tell me to come back to the house, it’s safe now, but I don’t listen. Instead I break into a random house and hidden under a mattress on the floor

and then, just as it was getting good…

…my alarm goes off and I wake up.

Tl;dr imagine a zombie plague but they retain all their intelligence and have no visible sign of infection until they’re trying to kill you and also Schlatt is there for some reason

[hexonthepeach]

ok but imagine y/n & johnny being assigned to some suburb as husband and wife to gather? idk something about surveilling a suspects home life etc. and just the mr & mrs smith vibes of it all. trying to fit in with the neighbors. setting down some sort of roots. trying to cozy up to the suspects family. maybe even jaehyun coming to visit every so often as johnny's "step brother" and just the potential chaos of a neighbor maybe seeing y/n and jaehyun through a window and being scandalized.

i'm genuinely dying rn because while this scenario did not come up in what i currently am writing for the d&s crew it is absolutely perfectly aligned with it. like this is scarily perfect to the point that i need to know if we've synced brain waves?

thank you for planting this seed i hope you don't mind me using it in the future [lemme know if i can give you credit even if you just want to pick an anon emoji]

i'm on my first ever watch through of The Americans and spy power couple in suburbia is such a fantastic trope, i love the tension of persona vs identity. Don't Worry Darling was a disappointment but it got me thinking about how the dark suburbia cliches used could be done more meaningfully. also dating myself here but my life was inexorably changed by The X-Files s6 ep 15 Arcadia (the real monster of the week are HOAs) and Scully's constant exasperation at Mulder's in-jokes--which is something Johnny would be relentless at, so he's the perfect suggestion for this

as always with this trio it would have to be sex comedy with dark elements and maybe a little more weird? it would be incredibly funny to have the whole thing go sideways on multiple levels including an increasing escalation of violence

here's how i imagine this playing out (under the cut for spoilers):

this is a long-term assignment/infiltration and one of director lee's "special projects" i.e. team-building exercise for the throuple. unbeknownst to them the agency has a secret betting pool on how badly this can go (the winner is someone who put a worst case scenario so outlandish it was supposed to be a joke)

johnny and y/n are currently in the middle of a minor disagreement on their approach for this op--maybe someone wanted to "borrow" a kid to make it legitimate and the other put a kibosh on that based on the stakes being higher. or we're just dealing with a petty argument about the level of lethality involved. (i have another idea but don't want to spoil current wip). they're bickering behind closed doors and duking it out in subtext every time they're forced to play their roles

jaehyun is running surveillance and infiltrating houses. for validity of him being in the neighborhood from time-to-time, he's brought in at the "Johnson's" housewarming party/backyard BBQ as the blue collar handyman brother-in-law. they can get into more homes now, but he's also finding that every sink repair or ceiling fan light bulb replacement has him dealing with escalating attempts at being seduced. our best boy is now the unwilling target for every future divorcee on the block

johnny ends up forced to participate in a variety of Stepford Husband-like activities to get access to more information/be inducted into some kind of club, leaving y/n frequently at home pretending to be a housewife and growing increasingly more sick of the assignment. and also maybe just a little (a lot) jealous when she hears the gossip about/is questioned about her "brother-in-law" by the other wives at the hair salon, grocery store, etc

cue y/n inviting jaehyun to do some household repairs and initiating a little role-playing scenario straight out of a bad porno. unbeknownst to them of course (or maybe knownst!) they are caught in a very lurid scene by one of jaehyun's new fans peeking through the window. (i'd absolutely have to write this from the POV of the nosy neighbor--it would be too funny to pass up)

gossip spreads, suddenly its common knowledge. but--here's the kicker--johnny gets into the good old boy's club where it's revealed that they're one of *those* communities where cuckolding and exhibitionism are a bit of a collective turn-on. a little bit eyes wide shut/bohemian grove/society type escalation of weird beyond sex stuff

now it's the three of them versus a neighborhood--a little public shunning of course, but mostly under siege from those who want to get them to participate in some kind of bacchanalian ritual. a perfect opportunity to get into the head honchos' house but also a perfect set-up for things to go absolutely and horribly wrong . . .

we're talking actual violence and maybe a little murder and mayhem under the cover of whatever anonymity those ritual masks provide. all of it conveniently walked away from by the fact that this can't become public information although it will certainly add to conspiracy theory fodder

the morning after has them pretending to be moving out/getting a divorce. definitely will need to end on the agreement that they're never setting foot in a planned community ever again

[benafee]

Hi benafee! Here’s a few qs for ✨variety✨

If you had to pick a side character in one of your fics to write an entire long fic about, who would you pick? What would that fic look like?

What is your writing process like? How much do you prep/outline beforehand? Who are your style inspirations?

In Remaking the World, how is Sarah doing? Is she spiraling as badly as David, and does she know how badly or why he’s having a bad time? Does she know that he’s in love with Jack? Also I JUST noticed that this last chapter doesn’t have a word in the title- am I reading too much into it, or is that because David has lost so much control and can’t pin anything down right now?

Oh these are good.

First though, I'm just going to quickly respond to your answer about the most memorable scenes thing here

the scene describing Jack’s mom from his picture. Idk why it stuck so much with me, but I think about it all the time. It’s an imagined person from an imagined picture and neither of them knew her, but not even close to imaginary at all at the same time. I feel like I haven’t read an “I love you” like that before

I mean thank you so much. This was one of the first scenes I'd planned out for this story and I'm very happy the emotional weight I attached to this moment came through to you.

However my gratitude is somewhat tempered by indignity at the fact that I now must admit that I have spent an inordinate amount of time planning out a Kloppman-centric pre-canon (and pre-remaking the world) fic. I am writing it almost entirely for the sake of one (1) scene but isn't that always the case? Anyways, here's the rough summary:

All things considered, Bram knows he ought to be content with his lot in life. 

But Sister Martha keeps “checking in” and Mrs. Oliver’s on the warpath and Otto wants to introduce Bram to his sister and Danny won’t tell him what’s wrong and Nick and Louis aren’t being careful and Charlie keeps asking hard questions and and Patrick has it out for the new kid and Race keeps scamming Albert in the dice games they shouldn’t be playing in the first place and Jack’s up to something.

Or: the longest six months of Bram Kloppman’s life. 

Should be fun!

My writing process is, in a word, involved. I do indeed work off a plan. Many plans. For long fics (all my fics) I like to develop a few outlines - one full outline of the work, separate outlines for each chapter which I will work into, a document for developing/tracking themes, recurring motifs, and other important elements in the story, a few documents about important background information and research, and then another document where I'll jot down lines, elements, and scenes that I'd like to include and have yet to find a place for. From there I'll either proceed to slowly write into the chapter outlines based on my whims or I'll let it percolate in the back of my head for months or even years, often feeling incredibly guilty about my lack of progress, only to have it come together when I least expect it. I'm learning to accept the latter as part of my process and trying to release the guilt aspect. Most of my fics are still largely a result of process rather than planning, and sometimes a not small amount of dumb luck - I'm still tickled that the Latin root words of one of my recurring motifs built into a full transitional section which included a reasonably good metaphor about David's complicated feelings towards his schooling. You can't plan that shit. Well you probably could but I sure didn't.

As far as inspiration... I'm not sure. I'd say my writing is pretty typical for fiction writing. It's likely that there are people that unconsciously influence my writing. I reread The History of Love by Nicole Krauss a while ago and noticed that she also has a habit of slipping deeply sad lines into the middle of her narration like they're innocuous sentences. I've also taken a lot of inspiration from poetry, but that's more contributed to an awareness of form and approach than any directly trackable path of influence.

As for Sarah... I mean she's already had two pretty major breakdowns during this fic so she's not doing great. As far as how much she knows... there's definitely more revealed over the course of the fic so I don't want to get too specific here. She definitely knows something is wrong and she definitely does not know the full story, and, combined, this will lead to problems.

And finally, you really should have more faith in your interpretive abilities ;)

[aminiatureworld]

Debris

Characters: Jaehee, Yoosung, gn!reader

Word Count: 2,755

Warnings: Swearing

Premise: In which Rika’s apartment blows up and the reader’s s/o evaluates their emotions.

Author’s Note: I haven’t played Yoosung’s and Jaehee’s routes in about a year so this probably won’t be too canon compliant. That being said it felt great to get back to my fic roots. I Hope y’all enjoyed this nostalgic journey! I especially tried to distinguish their personalities in writing style.

Also, if a whole apartment blew up the building would collapse and most likely everyone inside it and immediately around it would die but we’re going to pretend certain laws of physics and stuff don’t work. Idk maybe Mint Eye used a low explosive like gunpowder.

Jaehee

She hadn’t meant to forget about it, she really hadn’t. It was only, well, life was so complicated at the moment. Work, contemplating what she wanted to do with her life, surely it was enough for one person; even more so for an overworked secretary. Besides, she didn’t want to think about the terrors of the world when she thought of you. Indeed, what did she want to think of when she thought of you?

All these questions swirled around her head. Earlier Jaehee might’ve dismissed such foolish questions. After all, thinking about such things didn’t get meetings done or stop Mr. Han from doing something idiotic again. Jaehee didn’t have the time or the privilege to think about what she wanted in life. It was enough to be here, to have a good paying job and a roof over her head and some semblance of freedom from what she’d left behind.

Maybe it was for that reason that she had forgotten about the apartment situation. Her horizons had already been broadened so much, perhaps there simply wasn’t room for anything else. Even if that anything else included your own safety.

Getting calls from Seven wasn’t necessarily unfamiliar, but nevertheless Jaehee still felt a sense of unease at the number that suddenly appeared right as a company meeting was about to begin. Luciel knew the RFA members’ schedules like the back of his computer, more than the members themselves in the case of Yoosung most likely. Besides, Jaehee had told him this coffee situation was proving to be incredibly important. Why then was he calling her now?

“Luciel, I don’t know what you want, but I have urgent matters to attend to. Could you please call back in about an hour and fifteen minutes?”

“Jaehee, I think you’ll want to hear about this.”

“What, what is it?” Sometimes Seven’s tendency towards cryptic messages was truly too irritating. Still his voice was certainly more agitated than the normal, joking tone that he took. Already Jaehee could feel the familiar tendrils of anxiety.

“You know how I told you guys about the hacker, right?”

“Yes, the one that was trying to get into Rika’s apartment. Didn’t you say that you had taken care of it?”

“That one. Well, I thought I had, or at least, it certainly looked that way. I didn’t, damn, I didn’t think that the bastard would be able to hide what he was doing from me. Who on Earth is that man I don-”

“Luciel, please keep this short.”

“O-oh. I’m sorry. Well, apparently, he wasn’t done. I got a notification, or, well, more like I saw it on the news. The apartment complex, uhm, well, haha…”

“Seven!” Jaehee had the sneaking suspicion she knew what was about to be said. Still a distant part of her brain retained the calm of denial.

“Sorry! I, what I mean to say is, the apartment. The apartment got, set off.”

“Set off?”

“Blew up. Boom. The bomb, I don’t know how, but it was triggered. And now, yeah. The whole block is half covered under rubble, and we don’t, I don’t, have a lot of information about the people inside the apartment. I’m doing the best I can, trying to get into the CCTV footage outside. But, uh, yeah. I thought you should know. Since, y’know, I know that you seemed really close wi-”

Maybe it was unpardonably rude for Jaehee to hang up on Luciel, but in that moment she could think of nothing else to do. It was as if, in letting the line die, she was rewriting time, so that nothing had happened.

Jaehee made it as far as the doors of the conference room before turning around and dashing towards the staircase. Taking the stairs two at a time she didn’t bother to clock out or tell Jumin about what was going on. It wasn’t important after all. How could it be? The explosion, that was what took precedence in her mind. More than work, more than these strange questions, all she could think about was you. She had to find out if you were okay, had to contact you in some ways. If not, if not. If not then what?

“Seven, I need the address to Rika’s apartment.”

“What? No are you crazy? You can’t just go to the place the hacker blew up. Besides, the location is confidential.”

“Not when it’ll be on every television station in Korea. I need to find out if they’re okay.”

“You can’t just go rummaging through wreckage on your own, you won’t even get past the yellow tape. It’s better to wait.”

“I’m going.”

“Wait! At least let me try to call them first, okay?”

“It would be faster if I went.”

“No. No it wouldn’t. Just give me a second. I’m already trying to figure out where their phone is. I’m almost done.”

For once Jaehee didn’t even question the legality, or morality, of Seven’s actions.

As it turns out you had been going grocery shopping – against Seven’s recommendations – and as such were at the tail end of the blast radius. Staring intently at the hospital address Seven had texted her, Jaehee quickly made her way over to the front desk. Having finally messaged Jumin, she made it through the entrance quite easily – sometimes being the secretary to a well-known CEO-to-be paid off.

Your room was in a quieter corner of the hospital, away from the groaning and shrieking of those who hadn’t been as lucky. The bomb had been a small sort of one, made up of a low explosive. Apparently V and Seven’s reservations truly hadn’t been feigned. Perhaps Jaehee should’ve felt grateful that they had made a bomb that was relatively ineffective. In that moment however she couldn’t bring herself to feel relief.

The soft smile that illuminated your face as Jaehee walked into your room was enough to make her heart ache.

“Hey Jaehee. Hope I didn’t cause too much work for you.”

“Work for me? How could you think of something at this time? What about you? Are you too badly hurt? What happened? Is there something I can do for you?”

“Jaehee please! Calm down. I was basically fine. A few cuts and bruises are nothing to worry about.”

“Did they check and see if you inhaled anything? What about your head, did anything hit it?”

“Hey,” you replied softly. Taking Jaehee’s wildly fluttering hands in yours you smiled softly. “Thank you for worrying about me, but I’m fine. Really. Don’t make yourself sick over me. You already work too much.”

“I’ve informed Mr. Han I’m going to take a few days off. I want to make sure that there are no side effects to what just happened.”

“Well, I’m very flattered, happy even. But you have to take care of yourself too Jaehee. It’ll just make me unhappy if you get sick over me. Besides, there are other things to worry about. Like what you’re going to do about your work and what you love and stuff. Don’t bury that stuff, alright?”

“Think of me still, how odd you are,” Jaehee let out a sigh. Nevertheless, she said nothing more. It wouldn’t do to make you worry about her after all.

Though you couldn’t exactly call it nursing you back to health Jaehee was certainly attentive in the week and a half to come. All throughout the time she kept thinking, about you, about her, about what all this meant. In truth it was only after you were safe that Jaehee could acknowledge how terrified she had been, enough to consider diving through the wreckage of an apartment. You had opened up a whole new world to her, without you Jaehee would’ve never begun thinking about herself, about her own happiness. She had so much to thank you for. Even more, Jaehee had the sneaking suspicion that she would want to thank you even if you had done nothing.

“I’ve made my decision.”

“Oh?” You smiled, puzzled by the sudden conversation.

“I’m going to attempt to start again, to start doing something I want to do. I hope that you’ll join me in this endeavor.”

Your smiled was blinding.

“Of course, I will!”

Perhaps now Jaehee could acknowledge the love that bloomed within her at your assent.

 Yoosung

He knew it was going to happen. He knew that there was no way of escaping it. Maybe that’s why he almost felt like a burden had been lifted when he finally heard that the inevitable had happened.

Ever since Seven had first revealed the bomb in Rika’s apartment Yoosung knew it was going to go off. It wasn’t some weird dream thing like Zen, or some calculation the way Jumin or Seven might do. Yoosung just knew, somehow, he really did just know it. He tried to put it off, tried to stop it even. If he could go with Seven to find out about the hacker, if he could stop this weird organization, if he could get V to finally tell the damn truth, then maybe, maybe he’d be able to prevent it.

Luck was never on his side though, this Yoosung had learned long ago. He wasn’t strong enough to stop the bomb from going off, he wasn’t strong enough to keep you safe. All these things that he wanted, needed to be, and he couldn’t do any of those things. You were the first person he had formed any sort of deep connection with since Rika. Maybe that’s why he kept mixing you up in the beginning; after all, it was the first time he even began to feel a similar amount of happiness since her death. And now you were in danger of going away as well. It haunted Yoosung. He never thought that he’d ever use that word to describe, he found it sort of pretentious, but really it was the only word he could think to describe the situation. Every text, every voice call, every reminder that you were alive, that you were somewhere on this Earth, it was like a lifeline, one he was desperately grabbing onto.

“Hey, Seven?”

“What?” Seven’s reply was muffled by the cheap sandwich shoved into his mouth. Secretly Yoosung found the convenience store sandwich bread disgusting, but right he wasn’t thinking about that.

“Something’s blinking.”

“Gonna have to be more specific.”

“Something on the monitor, it just started blinking red in the corner, one of the tabs in the bottom, it might’ve just opened too I don’t know.”

“Let me check,” Seven replied, ambling his way over to the monitor. Once he saw the icon though he let out a loud series of curses. “Shit, shit, shit, shit. Yoosung?”

“What?” Yoosung already knew that something had gone wrong. Adrenaline began to race through him, and the world suddenly seemed both all too fast and all too slow.

“Grab my phone and go to the RFA app. My version has a tracker on all the RFA member’s phones. I want you to make sure that there’s one around Rika’s apartment.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Yup and sleazy. Now look.”

Yoosung tapped on the app with trembling fingers. Seeing the icon, he paused. He needed to know. Before he looked, he needed to know.

“Hey, Seven.”

“What.”

“Did, did something happen to the apartment.”

“Yoosung, I need you to understand that it’s probably fine.”

“Probably, Seven what are you talking about?”

“It’s, it’s, something went wrong.”

“Went wrong? What went wrong? Seven, stop being so damn cryptic!” Yoosung’s voice was shaking by now, but he pressed forward.

“Fine.” Seven let out a long sigh, before breathing in deeply once more. “The apartment, it blew. I don’t know how or why or what but the bomb went off. And now we need to make sure that all the members of the RFA are safe.”

That they’re safe. Yoosung knew what Seven was trying to say, what he refused to say. Still the words seemed so odd. Of course Yoosung knew it was going to happen, knew that he wasn’t going to be that lucky, knew that V and Seven’s secrets would eventually fuck something up. But still, it was too soon, it was not right. Just because he had seen it coming didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt any less. Letting the phone drop from his hands Yoosung drifted down the hall towards the bathroom; where he promptly crumbled into a ball and let the tears flow.

Yoosung didn’t know how long it took to figure out you were alright, didn’t know how far away the hospital was or how much Seven stepped on the gas. His mind was surprisingly blank, wiped free of any sense of time or space. Even learning you had survived – by climbing on the neighboring fire escape and running like hell when the warnings started going off – didn’t clear the fog around his brain. Wandering down the hospital, half pushed by Seven, he wondered when this odd nightmare was ever going to end.

The moment he saw your face the world sped up again. Not realizing that Seven had decided to stand outside instead of watch the scene in front of him, and frankly not caring, Yoosung catapulted himself towards you. Crushing you in a hug he buried his face in your neck, trying to convince himself that you were real, that you were alive, that you weren’t going to be put in the ground and have dirt shoved upon you. That you were really, truly, still here.

“I should’ve been there to protect you.”

Night had fallen, and visiting hours were almost over at the hospital. At first Yoosung had been all smiles, all very teary smiles. Fussing about you, fluffing your pillow, yelling at Seven about what food would be appropriate to give you, Yoosung had ridden the wave of manic relief that kept him from thinking about everything that he’d been beating himself up about for the past, who knew how long. Now that things had slowed down however, he found himself thinking about them again.

Talking to you was the only way Yoosung knew how to make all the doubts and worries go away. He wasn’t cool like Zen or in control like Jumin. He desperately wanted to talk to you, wanted to know what you thought about everything and anything. And this was part of that. Now that he was here, in the quiet of the evening, Yoosung realized that he couldn’t bring himself not to talk to you about it.

“Don’t beat yourself up about that Yoosung,” you replied softly. “It wasn’t something you could predict. Besides, you could’ve gotten hurt, and then where would we be?”

“I know, but still! I, I really like you, I want to be your boyfriend when this is all over. But I can’t even protect you. I couldn’t save Rika, and now you almost died!”

“I didn’t almost die, Yoosung you’re exaggerating.”

“No, I’m not!” Frustration and fear combined in Yoosung’s voice, and he found his words cracking pathetically. “I’m not even mature enough to protect you, I’m not strong enough to be someone, someone worth something.”

“Yoosung, please listen to me,” your voice was soft but firm. Yoosung quieted, staring at your linked hands. “There are different kinds of maturity in the world,” you continued. “Sometimes being mature means not giving into emotions, or being really strong, or really good at doing all the things you’re supposed to do when you grow up. But you can be mature in other ways. Yoosung, I think you’re really matured when it comes to being kind. Not a lot of people are kind like you, or care about people a lot. And I really love that about you. So, I hate when you act like it’s a bad thing, or like you’re weak or something. You aren’t weak because you can’t control the world or because you aren’t ‘cool’ or something. In fact, you’re one of the strongest people I know!”

Yoosung was silent, trying to let your words sink in. He wasn’t good at accepting compliments, he never had been. Still, in that moment, he felt unbelievably light.

Smiling softly, finally letting himself look you in the face Yoosung felt his heart flutter as you smiled back. He didn’t quite believe in you, or himself, yet. But in that moment, he couldn’t deny how much he loved you.

And how much it meant to him that you loved him back.