#if I had a nickel for every time a character I loved more than life itself got screwed over in canon and killed off at the end of season 3-

[cuteniaarts]

Some quick sketches of my favourite fictional ladies who were done extremely dirty by canon))

[campbenji]

CHAOS THEORY TRAILER THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT

i have very mixed opinions on everything but after watching the trailer like 5 times:

-the tone of the show is going to be SO much darker than the original, maybe even darker than s3, which has me so excited but also so scared for the kids

-i might be stuck on the denial stage but i'm starting to firmly believe that Brooklynn is not dead. i'll make a separate post about it but i don't think she'd get killed that easily

-also, such a slay character design for 10 seconds of screentime? i refuse to believe it.

-talking about character designs, most of their timeskip looks are pretty cool?? Sammy's is my favorite, she and Yaz finally got done justice. Kenji is ok, i guess??? there's nothing really bad about it, but idk, it's just not as interesting as the others

-if i had a nickel for every time Darius had survivor's guilt over the "death" of a loved one, i'd have three nickels which is more than fucking enough please let him rest he's so tired

-BUMPY SHE'S THERE SHE'S THERE ASJKJAAJFJKDFD

-at first i thought most of the action was going to take place either on Darius's cabin or on the road, but some frames look like we might also see Sammy's farm?? if so, i'm going to be so happy we've been waiting so long for this

-if Daniel Kon is behind all of this chaos i'm going to bite something. STAY IN JAIL AND LEAVE THEM ALONE. IT'S BEEN 6 YEARS AND YOU'RE WASTING RESOURCES ON GETTING REVENGE ON A BUNCH OF KIDS WHO KICKED YOUR ASS ONE TIME. GET A LIFE.

-Yasammy is alive and well can i get a wahoo 🎉🏳️‍🌈

-who the fuck is that glasses guy i feel bad vibes from him

-DARIUS MIMICKING THE T-REX SCENE CAN WE GET A LITTLE COMMOTION FOR THAT 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[ghost-proofbaby]

I would love a Getting to Know Eddie with your coffee shop blues Eddie. (I’ll let Abi ask for Maroon). ��

(oh i don’t think i could tell abi much more about maroon eddie than i already have. the space under my desk when im writing maroon literally has her name on it <3)

alright. so. COFFEE SHOP BLUES EDDIE. first and foremost, that eddie is from my purely self indulgent barista!au for those of you who don’t know. for legal reasons, it’s totally not based on true experiences or a very real company. totally not. for legal reasons. but, the entire premise is this eddie entirely untouched from the upside down — non-canon compliance so we can be happy for once baby ! — and just playing around with who he is without all that. he gets the job as a barista, he’s a damn pessimist, and- well, i liked to play around with what would happen if he was the grumpiest barista to ever exist and got reality checked by a sunshine-incarnate barista. and, spoiler alert, the boy would probably melt. he does melt.

my inspiration is drawn entirely from uh… well… can i have a lawyer if i admit this? nah im just kidding he’s based on my own experiences! and contrary to what plenty of people have said to me (if i had a nickel every time said they imagine me as reader i’d be far richer than i am which makes me so 😭), eddie is the character based around me. i think he’d react very similarly to how i do most of the time at work. being grumpy, being so easily inconvenienced by every small thing, always huffing and puffing and wanting to be better. and i think reader is what i’d like to be. at the end of the day, it’s just a nice way to romanticize life, i guess. <3

my favorite headcanon that i’ve never shared in the story is that everyone actually finds that he’s very good at his job. it’s emphasized he isn’t necessarily friends with the other baristas, and there’s a whole lot of him internally comparing himself to the people he thinks do the job better (*cough* reader *cough*), but that whole “i can do better. i have to do better” mentality has led him to being quite good at the job actually. he puts himself down, says he isn’t that good, etc. but he is. customers like that feline grumpiness (the girls that come in regularly for frappucinos in the afternoon are always secretly hoping he’s there, definitely living their ‘i can fix him’ fantasy despite reader already having set sail on that boat), his coworkers admire him albeit they get a lil scared of him due to resting bitch face, and all that. he makes a mean fucking cappuccino. his drinks always just taste better. he’s just good. he’ll never admit it, but damn is he good at his job.

on a casual day, this man is living in comfy clothes. big band tees, plaid pajama pants or sweats. the only time he puts on jeans these days is when he works. which, i mean, listen — he works often. he lives his days by what shift he has, not by days of the week. weekends are nonexistent to him. he’s earned some damn comfort when he’s just at home, ya know? (also, most of his clothes that aren’t graphic tees or comfy pants just stink of coffee these days. ugh.)

his favorite food is probably the cake pops at work. he’s a sweet tooth fiend with them. someone accidentally breaks one when opening the packages? oh no !! he’ll take that off their hands. all of his free food mark outs? 50% cake pops. he’s on food? he’s definitely accidentally bagging and slipping one or two off to the side for himself. sometimes coworkers will try to convince him when he’s on the food position to slip them a free cake pop as well, and every time, he’s flipping them the bird and a quick “steal on your own time, bud”. (unless it’s reader. unless it’s sunshine. then, he’s caving, handing over the birthday cake pop he just marked out for himself without second thought. even if he rolls his eyes as he does it — he’d give her the world if she just asked).

his family situation is pretty close to canon — wayne. and obviously he has hellfire, he has corroded coffin, but all of those are just… small things. he’s finally graduated in this universe, so hellfire doesn’t meet as often. corroded coffin’s members are still in their senior year, so sometimes studying for a calculus test is overriding band practice for them. which i mean, was a bummer and led to him needing a distraction like a part time job (also — money) but it’s all good now, cause he gets to bug Sunshine on his days off when he’s bored. they’ve definitely exchanged numbers, and they’re definitely sending each other an obligatory dumb meme a day. sorry, i don’t make the rules.

he likes pop music. don’t ever ask him about it, he denies it, but Sunshine got him into all those radio hits. he’ll find himself humming along to the radio at work constantly too. and, the one time he and Sunshine worked a very rare, LITERALLY only happened once close together, they definitely were belting out britney spears’ “hit me baby one more time”, dancing around the closed stores and eddie using the mop as a mic while Sunshine tried to stock up all the cups. the shift on duty was unamused, to say the least.

he’s pretty pessimistic in all avenues, but there’s something deep inside of him that’s just a bit hopeless romantic. especially after meeting Sunshine. he listens to her prattle about her romance books all day, and he hates the fact that he finds himself smiling at some of those different scenarios she’s gushing about. but it’s cute, okay? besides, it’s only giving him more ideas about how to wow his favorite barista. sex, on the other hand, he’s still pretty bland on. he’s had one or two one night stands, names he’s forgotten at the Hideout after shows, and he’s not really got the energy to be some sex-crazed fuckboy. listening to his coworkers’ hookup stories and relationship problems work pretty well to remind him he could be doing far worse (but if anyone were to ask him what he thought of Sunshine in that context? oh. oh the poor boy. the scary dog facade fades, and his ears have never been pinker as he’s stuttering about having to grab something from the back that he just stocked. he’s just grateful she never seems to have her own escapades to talk about — he probably wouldn’t survive the world-ending jealousy that would cloud his vision.)

pessimistic. so so pessimistic.

a couple months ago, he would have said his room. alone. or practicing with cc, on his guitar. or behind his dm screens, watching as his little sheep panicked over the latest twist he’s revealed for his current campaign.

but now? maybe he’s just gone soft, but the first place he thinks of is a rainy afternoon in the back of his van, his head in Sunshine’s lap as they listen to the slight drizzle bounce off the roof. he swears if he closes his eyes, he can still feel her fingers against his scalp.

---

JO. JO. I DON'T HAVE THE ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS. I DON'T KNOW WHAT PARAGRAPH IS ANSWERING WHAT PROMPTS. but honestly, even now that i'm free of the siren, i wanna post this. i love prattling on about our little grumpy barista. i luv him.

[prospectivehero]

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT GUYS!

First and foremost, I have two confessions. One, I haven't read Red Hood: Outlaws WebToon. It's on my list, but I will admit that I'm missing context. Two, though I talk about disability, my main focus is physical walking disabilities. This commentary should apply to every physically disabled human being if I'm doing this correctly, but I chose to have a specific focus for the sake of brevity.

I'd have very few nickles if I could have one for every time I saw a wheelchair-dependent character get suddenly healed. But it's still too many nickels. I can't blame Marvel or DC for my poor relationship with my own mobility aids. It didn't help anything to see Barbara Gordon or Charles Xavier suddenly be able to walk after seeing them for so long in their wheelchairs. Recovery and recuperation should never be scoffed at. We should celebrate when we can accomplish difficult goals and be happy for others who achieve what they thought was impossible. But these characters' changes aren't about recuperation. They're about ignorance.

Recuperation doesn't always mean full recovery from the viewpoint of a disabled person. Sometimes, "walking quickly" or "standing independently" isn't the end goal. It's usually more complicated than that. Small things like strengthening the core or practicing distance walking in a walker are crucial for someone's health or mobility. If it means they can walk independently in the process, then cheers! But sometimes standing isn't a possibility anymore. Many able-bodied people, without this context, may perceive this attitude as "giving up." I've had to explain to several different people that my choosing my wheelchair over my crutches to be a more functional human is not the same thing as quitting. But society has a model for success, and that model has a healthy set of legs.

Growing up, it broke my heart when I saw a character who had to experience a permanent and life-altering disability being suddenly cured. That's not a story of recuperation. That's a writer trying to "fix" something that was "wrong". I don't think the writers mean that as an insult. It's a terrible trope that's rooted in ignorance. But that ignorance is commonplace. It makes self-acceptance all the more difficult for a person who doesn't have full use of their body. Instead of being a person in a room who happens to use a wheelchair, that person suddenly becomes a paria because they are "physically incorrect."

Barbara Gordon, still paralyzed, marrying Dick Grayson is important. In their most standard form, weddings are supposed to be beautiful and romantic. Most of us dream about being the most beautiful, best versions of ourselves that we've ever been for one of the most special days of our lives. Barbara was the best version of herself when her father wheeled her down the aisle. She was Batgirl and is now Oracle, but she never stopped being Barbara. She is loved by her father, her adopted family, and her husband. The saccharine nature of that scene had nothing to do with a disabled woman being loved by an able-bodied man. It was a sappy, beautiful wedding being celebrated by our favorite dysfunctional found family.

I'm honestly really excited to read this webtoon. It is about Jason Todd, but the care and respect Patrick R. Young shows in this scene and how well it was depicted by Nico Bascuñán says a lot about how they handle the rest of whatever story they tell in this comic.

[natequarter]

hello! do you happen to have any fic recs for ghosts (bbc)? i dont want to be mean because i think its great that people are writing for it! but a lot of the ones ive seen reduce the characters quite a bit? thanks. LOVE your ghosts and dr who fics btw theyre fantastic!! :)

oh thank you! my recommendations concerning the ghosts in general would be:

Chit-Chat by xenolinguist. a chatfic which is not my usual style but is a really fun work focusing on alison, mike, and all the ghosts

Fabrications by SwaggerStick. an incredibly funny piece which puts a new spin on series four's, er, piss lore

And So On and So Forth by V_Evergreen. this is probably the number one fic out of any ghosts fic that i would recommend. the moment between fanny and alison is one of the most perfect moments i've read in any ghosts fanfic. i cannot stress enough how much i love this work

We Are Dead And Buried (yet our ghosts might still learn) by someoneplsloverobbierotten. a long fic focusing on robin and an original character, but absolutely worth it. artemis' internal conflict is fascinating, and his personality thoroughly developed

House Share by Sheepyblue. from mike's perspective, detailing his attempts to bond with the ghosts. bar julian, none of the ghosts make an actual appearance here (for the obvious reason that mike can't see them), but it's nonetheless a very good study of mike's character, his relationship with alison, the ghosts themselves, and what it must be like to be alone even surrounded by people

Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By by Impossibly_Izzy. what if the ghosts came back to life? what if pat (and julian) were forced to reconcile his new life he's found with the ghosts with the old life he can never go back to? worst of all, what if humphrey had to shave off his beard? this fic answers all of these vital questions, and more. and it's well-written to boot!

Ghost of a Kind by LostKagamiWitchInTheIsles. another fic with an oc ghost which is pulled off very well. if i had a nickel for every time i'd read a fic with the premise, "what would happen if another ghost were added to button house (and didn't like the main gang)?" i'd only have two nickels, but both are brilliant. i love cordelia dearly, and i think you all should too

ere ever aeneas began by TheGoodDoctor. i honestly don't know where to begin with this one. it's very much one of a kind. basically, bbc ghosts, but from the perspective of... trees. [robin voice] you had to be there

Button House B&B by quiet_crisis_in_the_corner. an influencer visits button house. keith leaves a review. the ghosts help nobody at all. all in all, a pretty average and awful day at button house. the first two chapters are absolutely hilarious, and that's that

Thick Skull by thehappybones. rather than dying at button house, pat just about survives being struck by an arrow. decades later, he returns to the house after the recent death of his wife, carol, and finally confronts those damned ghosts. a quietly sweet what-if

Nothing Like a Round on 'The Krypton Factor' by neverfaraway. pat/captain, but more generally a work focusing on alison and her relationship with the ghosts. appeasement doesn't work on anyone, least of all dead people. feels as warm and friendly as an actual episode of ghosts, and as accurate to their voices too

humphrey-centric:

'Tis not hereafter by attend_the_tale. humphrey/original female character, with that relationship being the focus and his relationship with sophie the background context. i would be remiss not to mention the author's other work, Present Mirth Hath Present Laughter, along with it, since they have the same strengths: lovely characterisation of humphrey and sophie, a vibrant and realistic original character, and such a brilliant, deft depiction of elizabethan england. the prose, too, is wonderful

so uncomfortably alone (but not for long!) by hounds_of_love. captain/pat/humphrey, from humphrey's perspective. a lovely and very touching fic in which humphrey's loneliness is remedied, and also three idiots kiss, which is how i like my fanfiction

Battles of the Bones by thelastplantagenet. humphrey/sophie, set in the 1500s. concerns a timeline where humphrey and sophie actually learn to like each other, fall in love, kill the queen... you know, the usual. again works with its historical setting rather than against it, and the author has a wonderful knack for humphrey's voice in particular. i'm once again rereading this one. it's good

robin-centric:

songs for dads by whimsicaliity. better entitled, "the fic that cradled my heart, then smashed it to pieces." eerily reminiscent of gone gone, despite being written long before series four came out. i have reread this many times. i have had my heart stomped on many times. i cannot recommend this enough. robin/julian, until it isn't

Witness by TheArchaeologist. what can i say, except that this is a fantastic character study of robin? he's old, he's seen a lot and lost a lot, and he's hilarious. relatively short, but effective with its words

Made Our Cave An Everywhere by MadameReveuse. chess husbands, alternating between robin and julian's perspectives, detailing julian coming to terms with his death. i love fic which deals with julian experiencing "emotions," as those bleeding-heart libs like to think of them

It by Scriblit. emotionally devastating, but so well-done. a look at robin's relationships with all the ghosts, from humphrey to julian, but in particular his connections to mary and julian - and how robin and julian respectively deal with those relationships and the grief of losing mary. a fantastic addition to gone gone, but ouch, my heart

It's Pronounced "Rrogh" by vex_ing. this is a favourite of mine not just because it was inspired by a post i wrote, but because it's a wonderfully written character piece, and a beautiful explanation of just where robin got his name from

moon woman (his moon woman) by fivecenturiesverse. such a lovely exploration of the relationship between robin and mary, as well as robin's age and his connection to the moon. i have a soft spot for mary/robin, and the way that mary grows and changes here is also wonderful

The 62,019 Year-Old Dictionary by Robin Caveman by Turtle_ier. i am beyond obsessed with robin's perspective on life, and while i haven't read this one over in a while, it's a great portrayal of robin. the way it plays around with format also stands out to me

thomas-centric:

By the Fire by scribehotan. focuses on nigel the plague ghost, and his budding friendship with thomas thorne. a lovely, soft piece, with a very cosy setting. deals with nigel's plague-related insecurities, and gives thomas some nuance, which is more or less an instant way to my heart

What Twisted Webs We Weave by The_Purple_Opossum. a canon-divergent fic from isabelle's perspective, in which isabelle nearly dies and discovers that she is, in fact, haunted. by thomas. i think this is one of my favourite depictions of (of all characters) francis button: he puts isabelle down, but is not explicitly cruel, which lines up with what we know of him. so far, it's very well-written - and builds on the warped version of events that isabelle is familiar with, ranging from humphrey's supposed plotting to thomas's supposed duel over shelley

Feeling comes in aid of feeling by Eccentric_Hat. thomas/kitty. lots of lovely character beats, and the development of thomas and kitty's relationship is lovely. has some entertaining discussion of shakespeare - representation of disembodied heads in media is tragically lacking

Eternity With a Nuisance by charliest. focuses more on alison and thomas, but it's a wonderful exploration of both the ghosts' relationship to time and alison's relative mortality. also, anything which gives thomas depth is my shit

I Stand Unsure by midshipmanwilfrid. a brief but touching character study of thomas, focused on his troubled feelings on his own gender. the sort where you come away from it feeling as if you have woken up to a world both the same and fundamentally changed, and are not sure how to feel about it. quietly affecting

Renovations by Ailendolin. thomas-centric, focusing on his emotional repression and struggles with rejection, particularly in relation to his friendship with alison. a beautiful piece on alison and the other ghosts helping him for once. picking just one work for this author was incredibly tough, but this is one of my all-time favourites from both the author and ghosts fanfiction in general

one and the same by wizardmeats. thomas dreams of a happier life with isabelle. pat helps him come to terms with it. a beautiful analysis of thomas's personality, and his bond with pat is very (bitter)sweet

captain-centric:

Land to Light On by sistermichael. a captain/havers modern au, which in general is enough to make me walk away and/or zone out immediately. however! the captain, spain, and only one bed. perfection. the writing style is exquisite; the worldbuilding is skilled; the way it fleshes out havers' character is excellent. very much not something i would normally go for; good enough that i would recommend it anyway

The Blooms of May by kingofthefrogs. fantasy au, captain/pat, enemies to lovers. if you like gideon the ninth, this one's for you. if you like welsh mythology, this one's for you. i love anything with unique worldbuilding (and humphrey/sophie, which this also has), and this one is something unique. i'm hooked

oh, captain, let’s make a deal where we both say the things that we both really feel by seawall. captain/humphrey (or should i say de-cap-itation?), an extended exploration of the captain's developing feelings for humphrey and his dealing with grief. a beautiful work - generally i'm not that interested in the captain, but he's portrayed so well here (and, you know, i love caphrey) that i can't not love it

fieri sentio et excrucior by oui_oui_mon_ami. captain/oc, specifically the captain falling in love with a roman soldier who lives next door. not my usual thing, but a nice read nonetheless

passion and drive by cloudings. captain/thomas, which for some unknown reason i cannot get enough of. elaborates upon the ever-hilarious plot pitch of, "the captain fails to come out to thomas because the idiot thinks the captain's in love with him." one of those ones i keep coming back to

A Kiss, Then by SunriseBirds. also captain/thomas. one that i can say is wonderfully characterised. these two are hopeless idiots, and it's on full display in just how hopelessly idiotic they are here. ten out of ten, would recommend

drug club by Aziz. captain/thomas. the erotics of sharing drugs, a rooftop, and a houseful of ghosts who keep on interrupting your erotics. would you still love me if i was a worm?

(We've Only Got) So Many Tricks by radiocarbonblinddate. pat/captain, focusing on the immediate aftermath of pat's death and how the captain adjusts. beautiful depiction of the ghosts before they were the ghosts we know. cannot recommend this author enough. just read their stuff, and you'll see what i mean

Moving On by Pic_Akai. a very well-written fic in which the captain wakes up in the modern day remembering the events of ghosts, but nobody else except alison does. he helps arrange humphrey's wedding, finds love for himself, and doesn't strangle thomas. very sweet

overall, i would highly recommend anything by any of the authors on this list, but in particular Ailendolin, Sheepyblue, hounds_of_love, and kingofthefrogs. i hope this helps!

[diorkyeom]

‘✷’ : CHAPTER THREE “cotton fluffy smiles”

<< prev chapter | ao3 fic | next chapter >>

chapter word count: 5.9k+ (idk why but they keep getting longer and longer...)

chapter warnings: swearing

summary: "lately, seokmin had come to a realisation. joshua hong, seokmin thought, was a little bit of an enigma." - in which seokmin has known joshua for years, but he's always been a bit of a mystery to him. and as the days go by, he finds himself falling further and further for the enigmatic man, wanting to find out who the real Joshua Hong is behind his polite smiles and warm eyes and sweet words.

notes: if i had a nickel for every time i've had characters have deep conversations late at night on benches surrounded by nature, i'd be able to make money out of this whole fanfic writing thing

It may be a Monday, but Seokmin swore that his head was still pounding with a phantom hangover from the Friday night two weeks ago. 

Or—no. Maybe it wasn’t the hangover. Maybe it was something else.

Someone else.

Because, oh boy. Ever since that Game Night, the surge of Joshua-ness in Seokmin’s life had seemed to increase. 

It was odd how, two months ago, Joshua had simply been Jeonghan’s Bestie™ as he had been for years, nothing more than the polite and sweet man who had seamlessly entered their group and labelled himself as the lovely gentleman. Seokmin had been rather content keeping it that way. He hadn’t known any different, after all. 

But now, everything had changed.

Even this early on a Monday morning, while at work, Seokmin was thinking about him.

Not only was Seokmin still seeing Joshua at every other turn, he also couldn’t get him out of his brain. Couldn’t stop thinking about Joshua’s soft and bright eyes and the curl of his lips and the way his voice could be so gentle and so mischievous at the same time. Couldn’t stop thinking of the ways that Joshua had looked at him, eyes flashing with something before dissolving sweetly, like cotton candy, always barely decipherable but still most definitely there.

Joshua was very cotton soft, Seokmin mused thoughtfully. Everything about him was gentle. It was like a cotton wrap, fluffy and soft but protecting something underneath. Something even prettier, and sometimes, sometimes, Seokmin thought he could see it, whenever Joshua’s eyes twinkled when he looked at him. Maybe. Underneath his cotton fluffy smile.

Seokmin blinked himself out of his haze of Joshua thinking, looking at his students bent over the worksheets he’d given them, and sighed. He took the pen he’d been nervously chewing out of his mouth. 

This was unacceptable. The next time he saw Joshua, he was going to scold him for somehow managing to invade his every waking thought. Definitely.

A beat. 

Seokmin went back to chewing his pen.

───────────── ‘✷,

Seokmin groaned, walking over to Soonyoung's bed and face planting into the mattress. 

The owner of said mattress didn't even look up from his phone, absentmindedly rubbing Seokmin's back in an attempt at being consoling. "What did you do now?" 

Seokmin mumbled something intelligible, and Soonyoung hummed in sympathy. 

"I see."

"No, you don't," Seokmin whined, moving his head to the side so he was no longer suffocating himself in Soonyoung's sheets. "He's constantly in my head! I can't get him out."

"Oho, boy troubles?" Soonyoung said, lips twitching upwards even as he stayed glued to his phone. "Just confess, Seokmin. It's time you stopped being a chicken."

Seokmin just groaned again. “You don’t even know who the guy is. And it’s not like that.”

“Well, I know you,” Soonyoung returned, “and you’re a chicken. Maybe today’s the day you finally man up and ask the guy out, you know?”

“I don’t like him! He’s just in my head and I want him out.”

“Do you really, though?” Soonyoung said teasingly, and chuckled when Seokmin whined even louder. “You gonna tell me who the guy is?”

There was a rustling sound, and Seokmin peeked his head up to look at Soonyoung, ears red. “It’s no one.”

Soonyoung finally looked away from his phone, looking down at Seokmin. And then he smiled, tilting his head. “Cool name. Well, I dunno what you want me to say, Seokmin. If you don’t like him, then what? Want me to ask Jihoon to kill the guy for you?”

“No!” Seokmin scrambled into a sitting position. “Don’t do that!” And then, more curiously, “Can Jihoon hyung actually kill people if you ask him to?”

Soonyoung laughed. “Maybe. You’ll have to ask him.”

Seokmin muttered something to that, and promptly keeled over to faceplant into the mattress again. Soonyoung simply took another look at him before going back to his phone.

The sun was setting, and the sky was a comfortable warm colour, not too blinding and not too dark, casting orangeish light into the room. Somewhere outside, a child screamed. It was the perfect sort of atmosphere for the two roommates, one of them peacefully scrolling on their phone and the other having a mild crisis into the mattress.

After a moment, Seokmin lifted his head. “Hyung.” 

“Wait.” Soonyoung snapped his head upwards suddenly, eyes wide. “Shit. I have a bunch of emails I need to respond to by tonight.”

“What’s your opinion of—wait, where are you going? Hyung! Hyung, I’m tryna ask you a question!” 

Soonyoung didn’t even look back as he leapt off the bed, scrambling to find his laptop. Seokmin pouted, watching his roommate shuffle through his stuff and then kept talking anyway. 

"Hey, what's your opinion of Joshua hyung?"

"Did you just 'hey' me?" Soonyoung said, but it was said in a tone that showed he wasn't really listening to Seokmin. "Where the hell has my goddamn laptop gone?"

Seokmin watched him, shifting on the bed so that he was sitting cross-legged, tilting his head. "Didn't Mingyu break your laptop a couple of days ago?"

Soonyoung paused, eyes wide. "Oh no." He scrambled to find his phone. "Has that little fucker managed to get it repaired yet? I swear, if he hasn't—"

"What's your opinion of Joshua hyung?" Seokmin repeated, but Soonyoung already had his phone to his ear and was not paying the slightest bit of attention to him. 

"Mingyu? Mingyu! Where the shit is my laptop? Huh? What do you mean you lost it? Please tell me you at least managed to get it repaired before losing it. Wh—why did you let Junhui touch my stuff?"

Seokmin rolled his eyes before sticking out his bottom lip, pouting over the fact that Soonyoung was apparently more preoccupied with looking for his laptop than answering his question. Granted, the laptop was a little bit more important, but Mingyu lost stuff all the time. Wonwoo had probably hidden it somewhere in their shared apartment for safekeeping until Soonyoung remembered he even needed it and called for them. 

"Wonwoo! You have my laptop?"

Soonyoung sounded relieved, and Seokmin shrugged internally. See. He was right. 

But it was evident that Soonyoung wasn't going to be listening to him, so he slid off the elder's bed and went to his own room, trying to consider what his own opinion of Joshua hyung was. 

───────────── ‘✷,

None of the people in their friend group worked in the same school as Seokmin. 

None of them were teachers, anyway, so it would have been weird, but his school was near the various coffee shops that their group frequented, so whenever Seokmin finished work and decided to grab a coffee and some pastries before going home, there was almost always going to be someone who walked into the cafe a few minutes after him. 

This time, that person happened to be Minghao.

Minghao spotted Seokmin sitting in a booth near the corner, and nodded and waved at him in greeting. Seokmin waved back, grinning, and sipped his coffee as Minghao ordered his own drink before sitting down opposite him.

“How are you?” Seokmin asked brightly, hands curled around his coffee cup like he was a little child. 

Minghao simply groaned in response, propping his elbow up on the table. “Exhausted. Hoshi hyung has been texting me constantly, asking for tips on how to ‘properly word an acceptance email’. Like I’ll know how to write one.”

Seokmin laughed. “That sounds like something he’d do, though. Hyung’s weird like that.”

“You’re telling me,” Minghao remarked drily, smiling politely and thanking the server who brought him his milk tea and plate of cookies. “He was blowing up my phone the entire morning.”

"Only the morning?" Seokmin asked. "What, did you finally give in to his spamming?"

"No, I blocked him."

Seokmin blinked, and then laughed, nodding understandingly. "Best choice. He's gonna pester me to get you to unblock him when I get home, though."

Minghao smiled, that small smile where his smile lines deepened and his eyes twinkled. "I regret nothing."

There was a brief respite in conversation as Minghao stirred his drink and took a careful sip. Seokmin hummed thoughtfully, staring into the distance before snapping his gaze back to Minghao, who was still drinking his tea.

“What’s your opinion of Joshua hyung?”

Minghao choked, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Wh—so suddenly?”

“I’m full of surprises,” Seokmin chirped, and waited until Minghao finished coughing to start speaking again. “So, what is your opinion of him?”

“Why are you asking me?” Minghao asked, and then looked behind him as if this was a prank. There was only one other person having coffee at five in the evening, an old lady who was staring at the teaspoon her coffee had come with as if it had somehow offended her. “And why do I feel like you were waiting to interrogate me?”

“I wasn’t waiting for you specifically,” Seokmin said, shrugging. “Anyone would have done.”

“Gee, thanks, Seokmin.”

Seokmin waved his hands. “You’re still not answering my question though! What do you think about Joshua hyung?”

“I don’t know,” Minghao said, mildly confused and mildly exasperated, like he was dealing with a child’s random changes of conversation topics. “He’s a good person? Nice, and good at listening.”

Seokmin frowned thoughtfully. “Hm.”

He stared off into the distance, and Minghao observed him curiously before shaking his head and turning back to his coffee. 

This was the thing, though. No one had much to say about Joshua, did they? Granted, Seokmin had only been able to ask Minghao (seeing as how Soonyoung had been incredibly rudely ignoring him in favour of finding his laptop) but he was sure that every response to his question was going to be much the same as Minghao's. 

But, just to make sure, Seokmin turned to him and asked another question. 

"What's your opinion on Mingyu?"

"An idiot," Minghao replied immediately. "Full of himself. Adorably annoying." He eyed Seokmin oddly. "Why are you asking? Again?"

Seokmin made his eyes as wide and as innocent as possible. "Nothing! I just wanna know how you feel about our dear friends."

Minghao pursed his lips, disbelieving, giving Seokmin his signature dirty look. The cookie crumbs around his mouth kind of dampened the effect, but Seokmin's smile turned sheepish anyway. 

"You're plotting something," Minghao said finally. "Aren't you?"

“What? I’m not! Nothing’s wrong,” Seokmin said. He grinned as brightly as possible. Minghao looked at him suspiciously for a few more moments, and so he dropped the grin and leaned forward. “Do you have anything else to say about Joshua hyung, though?” he asked curiously. “Like, is that it?”

Instead of answering, Minghao just continued to eye him, lips pursed. “Why would I have anything to say about him?” He narrowed his eyes. “Did you say something to him? Did he say something to you?”

Seokmin shook his head rapidly. “No! I was just curious, you know? I haven’t talked to him that much, that’s all.”

Minghao folded his hands on top of the table, and suddenly Seokmin felt like he was the one being interrogated. “And what made you think that I had?”

He shrugged. “Just asking.” He quirked a grin. “I told you, anyone would have done. I’m just wondering what everyone else thinks of him, ‘cause to me he’s only Jeonghan’s housemate.”

“Really?” Minghao looked like he was going to say more, before simply giving a smile. “Okay.”

And then he promptly changed the subject, so fast that Seokmin had whiplash and was left blinking dumbly before picking up Minghao’s new conversation thread a few seconds later. Minghao's eyes were gleaming, looking like he’d gleaned interesting new information out of him and, not wanting to find out what exactly Minghao had thought he’d extracted from him, Seokmin decided to go with it.

Minghao had given him an answer enough, anyway. Seokmin had half his brain focused on Minghao’s rant on how the failures of humanity were affecting his ability to buy eggs while the other half was still thinking about what he’d said. Contrary to popular belief, Seokmin could multitask, thank you very much. To an extent.

But it was interesting, the way Minghao had described him, because the answer was so… boring. Joshua felt more than just nice, more than just a good person, but even for Seokmin, that was all he was able to say about him. 

Surely, though, surely there was more to Joshua than just being a nice guy.

───────────── ‘✷,

"Good morning, Seokmin. To what do I owe the pleasure of a phone call from you on a Tuesday morning?" 

Instead of answering, Seokmin asked his own question the minute Mingyu picked up the phone. "What's your opinion of Joshua hyung?"

Seokmin was on the bus, on his way to work. After his conversation with Minghao last evening, he was determined to carry on his ‘experiment’ to see if anyone else had anything additional to say about Joshua. Soonyoung had been out for most of the night, having complications at work, so Seokmin had been left pondering who else he could ask in order to gather evidence for his experiment.

And so, he’d landed on Mingyu. Mingyu had weird opinions on everyone. He also had weird stories to tell about stuff he’d experienced with them, making him the perfect person to ask about the weirdly elusive nature of Joshua.

"Wait. What?"

“What’s your opinion of Joshua hyung?” Seokmin repeated. “Like, what do you think about him?”

“He’s… cool?” The confusion was radiating from Mingyu’s voice in waves. “Seokmin. I have to leave for work in fifteen minutes and you’re calling to ask what my opinion of Joshua is?”

“Okay, but what else?” Seokmin pressed, decidedly ignoring Mingyu’s rhetorical question. “Is that it? Joshua hyung is ‘cool’?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a cool guy,” Mingyu said, somehow sounding even more confused than before. “Uh, he’s really bad at bowling too?”

Cool. Nice. They were essentially synonyms when it came to describing personality, weren’t they? Seokmin frowned, staring out of the window contemplatively while Mingyu continued rambling on. 

But there were nuances to the descriptions, something that made the two words ever so slightly different. Joshua was this ‘generally good’ person, enigmatic in the sense that he had this base niceness on which he altered certain parts of his personality to fit everyone else he was talking to.

“Would you say Joshua hyung is likeable?” Seokmin asked then, talking over the stream of Mingyu’s voice.

“What?”

Seokmin rolled his eyes. Mingyu was going deaf. “I said—”

“Look, I really gotta pee, but how about you talk to Wonwoo hyung for a bit? Ask him all the, uh, other stuffs about Joshua you wanna talk about.”

And then there was shuffling on the other end of the line, and another voice filled Seokmin’s ears.

“Seokmin?”

“Wonwoo hyung!” Seokmin immediately brightened. This could be another person to ask for his experiment. “Will you help me with an experiment?”

“Experiment?” Wonwoo asked. “What’s the hypothesis?”

Hypothesis? “Uh, none,” Seokmin said. “I’m just trying to gather… opinions?”

Wonwoo hummed. “Well, okay. What do you wanna ask?”

“What’s your opinion of Joshua hyung?”

There was a slight pause, and Seokmin looked up to realise that his stop was fast approaching. After a moment, Wonwoo let out a laugh, a rumbly exhale of air that showed he was mildly amused by Seokmin’s question.

“Why are you so interested in our Joshua hyung, Seokmin?” he asked. 

His voice was distinctly teasing, sounding like he was almost laughing at him, and it was the same sort of tone as the look in Minghao’s eyes last evening, where they both gave Seokmin the feeling like they had found out something about him, even though there was nothing to find out. It made Seokmin want to roll his eyes and vehemently deny whatever they were suggesting, but he didn’t even know what they were suggesting, and it would only prove to them that he actually was whatever they were saying, and he didn’t want that.

So, instead of answering, Seokmin chirped, “Oh! I gotta get off the bus now! What a shame. Good luck at work today, and send my virtual fist-shaking to Mingyu too!” before promptly hanging up.

Wonwoo’s laughter still rang in his ears as he stepped off the bus, looking confusedly down at his phone as he walked down the street. 

Everyone was acting like Seokmin was the weird one for his question. And okay, maybe it was weird to immediately start a conversation with “What’s your opinion on our friend?”, but it wasn’t overly weird. No weirder than how no one seemed to know that much about Joshua which, in Seokmin’s opinion, was the weirdest thing of all.

───────────── ‘✷,

“You’re the weirdest thing of all,” Seungkwan said, and Seokmin wondered yet again why they ever let this little gremlin into their apartment.

“Uh huh,” Seokmin glanced at Seungkwan as the younger followed him into the bathroom while he rummaged for a spare toothbrush. “Says you, Kwan.”

Seungkwan was staying over at their apartment again. Well, it was more of Seungkwan was invading their apartment because he couldn't be bothered to go back to his own after they'd gone out for brunch with Jihoon and Seokmin was too nice to say no and kick him out, but it was the same thing. 

“Seriously! I can't believe you refused his offer,” Seungkwan said, and Seokmin groaned.

“Can you please drop it?”

“Never,” Seungkwan declared, and stationed himself in front of the bathroom door, blocking his escape out of the room. “How many times have I said it? You have an ethereal voice, hyung! And how am I just finding out that Jihoon hyung himself offered to pull a few strings to get you signed to a label if you wanted to?”

Seokmin simply shrugged, and bodily shoved himself past Seungkwan. The younger wasn't nearly half as intimidating as he thought, especially when Seokmin knew he could probably throw Seungkwan over his shoulder without batting an eye. The guy was ridiculously light. 

“I don’t know why hyung brought it up at today’s brunch,” Seokmin said, walking out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. “Besides, that was ages ago. I like teaching.”

"But hyung, you could've been famous!" Seungkwan protested. "Like, really famous! I can imagine you already: heartthrob idol Seokmin whose face is plastered all over designer brand advertisements and lands male-lead acting roles in his spare time." He said the last part dramatically, hands in the air like he was creating an imaginary banner with those exact words. "What do you think?"

Seokmin laughed, opening up a cupboard and pulling out a packaged toothbrush. "I think I would have hated it," he said, turning back to Seungkwan. "Singing for my job, for all those people…" He shook his head. "I don't think I would have liked that."

Seungkwan whined. "Come on, hyung, you're as much of an attention seeker as me! You'd have loved it!"

"No," Seokmin replied simply, smiling. "It would give me anxiety more than anything, I think." He pushed the toothbrush into Seungkwan's hands, forcefully trying to change the subject. "Anyway, here! New toothbrush. Thank Soonyoung hyung for that one, because I'm pretty sure that it's from his pile of spare ones."

Instantly, Seungkwan's eyes lit up, lifting up the bright orange toothbrush. "Thanks, hyung! The other one you gave me was getting really, really damaged."

Seokmin hummed amusedly. "What were you doing with it? Scrubbing your teeth to death?"

Seungkwan continued chattering, the previous subject now forgotten, as they walked back out of the kitchen. 

It was something that the younger brought up, a lot, whenever he remembered it. The idea of Seokmin becoming a singer, or a musical theatre actor, or something along those lines was something that Seungkwan was weirdly passionate about, adamant that Seokmin had a voice that was being unjustly hidden from the world. 

But, well. Seokmin didn't want to. Singing was simply stress relief for him, saved for unhinged karaoke nights and when he walked around their empty apartment while Soonyoung was out. Professions involving music were for people like Soonyoung and Seungkwan and Jihoon, who healed people with their dance or their songs, who touched people’s hearts with the beauty of their music.

It wasn’t a Seokmin thing, he thought. No matter what Seungkwan said, Seokmin was pretty sure his voice left much to be desired.

Besides, he liked teaching. Liked helping others, giving away parts of himself, seeing his children grow and flourish into beautiful beings under his instruction. Every child was different, and Seokmin adored being able to nurture each and every one of them until they learned to grow on their own. 

He liked being a child’s inspiration, their support, being someone who could guide them in their lives. Helping others was, really, the thing he wanted to do the most.

“I’m not helping you memorise your lines,” he said, sitting down on the couch. “You have other friends, Seungkwan. And I’m busy! Do you know how many pieces of homework I still have to mark? Too many!”

Seungkwan groaned, flopping down next to Seokmin. “Come on, they’re all busy too! And no one is as fun. Can’t you help me practise? Please?”

There was the sound of the front door clicking open, and Seokmin lifted his head up. “Hey, ask Soonyoung hyung! I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to help you.”

“He won’t,” Seungkwan complained. “He never goes over my lines with me. See? Look at the way he walks into the room. He's practically radiating 'I-won't-help-Seungkwan' vibes." Seungkwan waved. "Hi, hyung."

Soonyoung, weirdly, didn't even bat an eye, and hummed in greeting at Seungkwan before dropping his duffel next to the couch. He looked bewildered. “Seokmin, why have you been going round asking our friends what their opinion of Joshua hyung is?”

Seokmin choked as Seungkwan turned to stare at him, wide-eyed. 

"You've been doing what?"

"Who—who told you?" Seokmin stammered, face heating up. 

Soonyoung just shook his head, still looking lost. "Jeonghan hyung said that Joshua hyung said that Junhui said that Minghao and Wonwoo and Mingyu said that you asked them."

Seungkwan blinked. "Wait, what?"

Seokmin just groaned, covering his reddening ears and keeling over to the side so he could bury his face into the cushions. "Why would they expose me like that?"

"I'm just so confused," Soonyoung said, scratching his head. "What were you doing? Jeonghan said that Joshua's really confused too."

Seokmin groaned louder at that, and attempted to become one with the sofa. 

Seungkwan looked between the two of them, wringing his hands in exasperation. "What has been going on?"

"Oh, Jeonghan hyung said that Joshua hyung said that—"

"No, I got that part," Seungkwan interrupted, waving his hands at Soonyoung. "Well. Kind of. But what happened?" He turned to Seokmin, slapping his back. "Why?"

Seokmin didn't answer, too busy wallowing into the upholstery. "Why does Jeonghan hyung always end up knowing?" he complained, rolling onto his back. "I asked Wonwoo hyung and Mingyu, like, last week. I stopped after that because hyung was suggesting something weird—"

"Jeonghan always ends up knowing everything—" Seungkwan pointed out. 

"—and I don't even know what he was trying to suggest!" Seokmin carried on, flailing his hands towards the ceiling. "But it was weird, and Minghao looked at me weirdly too, like it wasn't completely normal to wonder why no one actually knows anything about Joshua hyung at all. So I dropped it! But now Yoon Jeonghan is involved and Joshua knows I was talking about him and now everything is awkward!"

He flopped over onto his front again, whining, and Seungkwan and Soonyoung exchanged equally baffled looks. 

"Okay," Soonyoung said, "I don't know why you were doing that, but. Yeah. That's a bit weird."

"We know tons of stuff about Joshua hyung," Seungkwan added, waving the toothbrush around as he talked. "Like, he's bad at charades, leads the church choir, and he's someone with iron will to put up with Jeonghan hyung for so long!"

Seokmin mumbled something into the cushions again. 

"I think you're thinking about hyung way too much," Soonyoung said, ruffling Seokmin's hair. "Is he your crush? The guy you couldn't get out of your brain?"

Seungkwan's eyes widened. "You have a crush on Joshua hyung?"

"I don't!" Seokmin yelped, and sat up so fast that his head spun a little. "I was just telling you how we know nothing about him. How can you have a crush on a guy you don't know?"

"It happens all the time," Soonyoung said solemnly, and Seungkwan nodded in agreement. 

Seokmin looked at them, before pouting and crossing his arms, huffing. "Joshua hyung's just… really slippery, you know? I can't understand him, and I just kind of want to."

Soonyoung wiggled his eyebrows at that, with the exact same glint in his eyes as Minghao had had, and Seokmin groaned again, pushing him away and standing up from the sofa.

"You two are insufferable," he said, backing out of the living room. He pointed a finger accusingly at them. "Hyung, I'm kicking you out. Seungkwan, I changed my mind, you're not allowed to sleep over. Give back the toothbrush."

"What? No! You gave it to me, it's mine now!" Seungkwan protested, clutching the still-packaged orange and black toothbrush to his chest. Soonyoung narrowed his eyes. 

"Hey, wait, that looks a lot like the toothbrushes that I bought."

"Huh? Um, Seokmin brought it out for me—"

"Seokmin! Did you seriously give my spare tiger-coloured toothbrush to Seungkwan?"

───────────── ‘✷,

It had to be at least two in the morning by the time Seokmin managed to extricate himself from Seungkwan's grabby hands and tiptoe over Soonyoung's sprawled-out form to get to the front door and leave the apartment. 

Seungkwan was a clingy sleeper, latching onto whoever was next to him, and Soonyoung liked to take command of the entire space wherever he slept. That was why, whenever Seungkwan stayed the night, they didn't normally all sleep in the same space, because someone was bound to either get poked in the eye or squeezed to death. But that night, they'd done it, on the floor of the living room, Soonyoung snoring almost directly into Seokmin's feet before he'd stood up and exited the room. 

Seokmin didn't know where he was going, not really, but he'd felt an urge to leave the apartment and go somewhere on his own, and that was exactly what he was doing. 

It wasn’t exactly cold, but the wind certainly felt a little vindictive at having discovered that there was still a living, breathing, thing walking down the streets in the middle of the night, and Seokmin tucked his hands into the pockets of his flimsy black jacket and wished that he’d put on trainers or something rather than just wearing a pair of sliders.

But even with the wind whispering displeasedly down his neck, Seokmin still thought that this was nice. The world was so… quiet. Like not a single thought was being uttered into existence.

It felt like Seokmin could scream the loudest thoughts into his brain and the silence of the night would simply let them fade away. 

He hummed to himself as he walked down the street, walking across a road bridge before pausing, backtracking, and leaning against the railing to look down at the river below. 

It was dark, even with all the street lamps and flashing store signs, but Seokmin could just make out the silhouette of a person sitting on a bench by the river. They weren't moving, and the longer Seokmin stared, the more his eyes adjusted to the dark and he thought, hm. That person looked familiar. 

It was how he found himself going down a set of stairs beside the bridge, walking along the riverside until he drew closer to the person on the bench, their side profile becoming clearer, until he could make out a delicate, sloping nose and fluffy hair and he thought—well. The gods and their weird act of blessing his one specific wish had struck again. 

"Hello," Seokmin said brightly, before wincing at how loud his voice sounded in the silence of the night. "Rather late for you to be outside, don't you think?"

Joshua turned his head at Seokmin's voice, and for a brief moment there was a golden sheen to his eyes that Seokmin didn't think he'd ever seen before, all melting and open and vulnerable before he blinked and smiled that cotton-fluffy smile which he always seemed to be smiling at Seokmin with these days.

(How did Joshua used to smile at him? Seokmin wasn't sure he knew.) 

"Well," Joshua said, irises twinkling white-gold, "depends on how you think of it. Maybe it's too early."

Seokmin smiled, sitting down next to Joshua. "Fair enough."

Neither of them said anything more, the sound of the rushing water filling the air. The breeze was still ruffling Seokmin's hair, but it was less biting, as if it had softened, shy, at Joshua's presence. 

Or maybe that was just Seokmin's own thoughts. 

He glanced over at Joshua and had to blink rapidly, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him because wow, Joshua was so pretty. There were few lamp posts along the river, and Joshua's face was lit up in a faint glow, his eyelashes creating gentle smudges against his cheeks every time he blinked. He didn't look at Seokmin, continuing to stare out at the dark river, and Seokmin wondered whether it was really fair that some people were able to look so beautiful while doing absolutely nothing. 

Seokmin's friends were by no means bad looking either, and it was practically like a hazing ritual for them to all have had a crush on Mingyu for like a week before he opened his mouth and the crush instantly melted away. 

But Joshua? Joshua was just… pretty. A mesmerising sort of pretty, where it looked like the tip of his nose was dusted with gold and his hair looked like a soft mess of clouds. 

Seokmin had no idea how he hadn't noticed it before. 

"—min? Seokmin?"

He blinked rapidly, muttering an eloquent "Huh?" while Joshua tilted his head amusedly. 

Joshua laughed, a small bell-like sound, like he found Seokmin incredibly endearing. "Are you okay? You were spacing out on me there."

“Oh. Yeah,” Seokmin said after a long moment, after he’d managed to remember how words worked again. “Sorry. I’m just really tired, I think.”

“Tired?” Joshua asked. “Why aren’t you sleeping then?”

Seokmin just shrugged. “Can't. I don’t know, it just feels like I need to be out here.” He nudged Joshua with his shoulder. “What about you, hyung? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I don’t need sleep,” he said easily, leaning back against the bench. “Besides, it’s calming out here, don’t you think?”

It really was. There was an almost otherworldly beauty to things when one experienced them at night, and the tranquillity of the riverside would have probably had Minghao tearing up in awe, but Seokmin couldn't focus on all of that anymore. 

Joshua really was always in his head, and while it was still a little weird, Seokmin didn’t mind it. There were worse people to have stuck in your head, after all, and Joshua was just so interesting to Seokmin, with his kindness and the subtle changing of colours in his personality whenever he talked to someone new. He could never really anticipate what Joshua would do next, and yet at the same time, everything he did was also so in character for him.

“So, how was your day today?” Joshua asked softly, and as he turned to look at Seokmin, his eyes were so gentle that it had his brain melting for a moment.

“It was okay,” he said, having to look away briefly. “Seungkwan is staying over with us tonight.”

“You have a guest?” Joshua said. “And yet you abandoned him?”

“Hey, Seungkwan’s properly knocked out. Soonyoung hyung and I will probably have to yell into his ear with a megaphone tomorrow to get him to wake up,” Seokmin said, and Joshua laughed. 

“It sounds like you’ve done it before.”

Seokmin shrugged. “Seungkwan stays over a lot. He also oversleeps. A lot.”

“Well, he’s lucky that he has you to be more than willing to help him wake up,” Joshua said, chuckling. “It’s a wonder his eardrums are still intact.”

“From all the yelling he does, I’m surprised my eardrums are still intact,” Seokmin said, rubbing his ears. “At this rate, I’m gonna go deaf in like 5 years. But I guess I can’t really say anything,” he added thoughtfully, “because I’m too loud as well. It’s on my to-do list to try and be quieter, actually.”

Joshua hummed. “You want to be quieter?”

“Yeah.” Seokmin laughed a little. “Wow, I haven��t told anyone this before. But I guess… I’m just a really noisy person? I’m pretty sure it irritates people a lot. So I’m trying to be quieter these days. Like, not yelling all the time, you know? Unless I’m at school,” he said. “Because sometimes the children don’t quieten down unless you’re yelling your head off at them.”

He tried to play off the end as a joke, because Joshua was looking at him properly now, and the softness in his eyes hadn’t gone away but he looked more… serious.

“I don’t think you’re noisy,” Joshua said. “Maybe you talk a lot, but you’re saying things, things which are important.” He smiled a little. “Maybe what you say has varying degrees of importance, but it’s not gibberish. It’s not irrelevant.” 

Joshua lifted his hand and brushed a finger over Seokmin’s cheekbone, so lightly and so briefly that if he’d blinked he would have missed it.

“You’re not noise, Seokmin. You’re important.”

Seokmin blinked, surprised by the sincerity in Joshua’s voice, his cheek stained red from where Joshua’s fingers had brushed against it. He took a shaky breath, scrambling to gather his rapidly-melting thoughts and managed to grin. 

“Aw, hyung, I’m glad you think so," he said, brightly. "I still think I need to tone it down a little, though. Maybe it’ll encourage Soonyoung and Seungkwan to stop being so ear-splittingly loud as well.”

Joshua didn’t say anything for a short moment, before letting out a quiet sigh. “Alright. I bet those two get into screaming matches every other day, though, so it might take a while.”

Seokmin laughed at that, thinking about what had happened only a few hours ago with Soonyoung's toothbrush. “They do, they really do.”

He turned back to Joshua again, and found the elder to already be watching him, a slight smile on his face. “What’s the most ridiculous thing they fought over?” Joshua asked, and smiled wider when Seokmin immediately launched into the tale of ‘Soonyoung and Seungkwan and the Plate of Biscuits’.

The wind ruffled Joshua’s hair and nipped at Seokmin’s nose, but neither of them seemed to care as they sat by the river, a small smile permanently on Joshua’s face as he listened to Seokmin talk.

Seokmin left only when the sun had begun to rise in the sky, looking back at Joshua still on the bench, watching the way the dawn painted his face orange-gold and made him look like a bronze statue of some ancient, beautiful deity.

taglist (interact here/ send ask to be added): @fairyhaos @atinytinaa @my-moarmy-heart @weird-life-of-a-closet-fangirl @lilsafsafbooyah @stqrrgirle @bittersweet-folder @weird-bookworm @ultrara-re @tianakings @bangantokchy @tiinkerbell @ahuiahoe

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Ok, I wanna talk about those diverging Owl House au's I thought of. One of them uses something from the finale as a big plot point, but I'll put that under a read more.

But yeah! Here we go!

So you guys know how it was mentioned in S2 that Titans Blood mixing with water can create temporary portals between realms? Well let's go back to King on his little island sometime before Eda shows up. Both of these au's start with tiny little King wandering out of the...temple? that he hatched in and that Jean-Luc is confined to.

He explores the island a bit, and ends up tripping and scraping his palm or knee, just some small minor injury that would produce a little bleeding. King ends up opening a portal, either by trying to wash the blood out of his fur in a pond or stream or something, or by falling into that body of water.

King Noceda au

First off is the one where he falls in. And I wanna start off by saying that this is a crack offshoot of my first idea, so we're going to pretend that there aren't a million different plot holes that would make this au garbage nonsense.

King slips into a body of water too deep for him to swim in, and with his little scrape his blood mixes with the water, and next thing he knows he's being pulled out of the water and into the Human Realm by a young (about six years old) Luz Noceda!

The Nocedas haven't moved to Gravesfield yet, the portal opened near their old home. Luz, who was exploring a wooded area near her home at the time, rushes a soaked, freaked out, and half drowned King home, where Camila, being a vet, is more than able to treat King, even if she's wary of the fact that this adorable but weird dog thing Luz brought home has a skull for a head.

At first Manny, Camila, and Luz think King is just a weird dog, but then he starts talking.

So King grows up raised by Camila and Manny with Luz in the Human Realm! I'm gonna say that they're able to get buy using disguises like the Plantars used in Amphibia, and pretend that that would be the only thing the Nocedas have to worry about regarding raising a Demon in the Human Realm.

Things with Manny unfortunately go the same as in cannon, and even though having a little brother for most of her life means Luz is less lonely, school is still sucky and the Principal still pressures Camila into sending Luz to the summer camp.

Luz still chases Owlbert through the portal, but with King following her, both winding up in the Boiling Isles, and after that this set-up makes following cannon closely kinda impossible since even with Vee coming through the portal she could only fake being one person.

And thats pretty much it for this one, just a funny crack au about improbable adoption regarding characters I like. If I had a nickel for every time i made one of those, I'd have at least two, mb three depending on if you count VT.

But anyway, onto the more thought out au. It will be under a cut like I said earlier so anyone who hasn't seen the finale yet doesn't get spoiled by the thing I'm incorporating into this version. But I will leave the name I'm currently using for it.

Half-siblings au

So in this one everything starts the same, but instead of King falling into the water that opens the portal, he just like, tries to clean the bit of blood out of his fur and accidently opens the portal. Luz, still out playing in the woods behind her home, sees the pond and that the reflection in the water doesn't actually match the woods. She gets excited, rightly thinking it's some cool magic thing like out of the books her Dad reads to her before bed.

She falls in on accident trying to get a better look, and pops up in the Demon Realm. Luz see's King immediately and reacts the same way she does in cannon.

Since she's an excitable six year old with a love of fantasy and an overactive imagination, Luz doesn't really panic at her suddenly being transported to a different world. She sees it as a fun adventure, and those always end happily!

Right?

So Luz spends a little time with King out in the woods. King quickly warms up to her and Luz thinks he's absolutely adorable (and really hopes that she can take him home with her once she finishes her adventure)

They play in the woods a bit, but Luz notices King's getting tired (and she's kinda tired as well) so she picks him up and asks which way his home is. King points in the general direction he came from, and Luz quickly finds the temple. King dozed off in her arms, and Luz was excited to see who or what lives in there!

Mb other creatures like her new little friend? His family? Oh! mb an exiled ruler, waiting for a chance to reclaim their throne! Or a cranky old sorcerer who's looking for an apprentice!

Her mind is racing with excitement as she steps foot in the temple.

Unfortunately, the only thing waiting in the temple is Jean-Luc. And Jean-Luc was made to protect King from anyone or anything; it doesn't matter that Luz is a little kid, she's in the temple and she's not a Titan, so she's a threat to be dealt with.

Papa Titan watches the guard he made to protect his child kill a six-year-old in horror from the Inbetween. She watched as this little human fell into the Boiling Isles, and immediately befriend his only living child, just to be killed for trying to help King get back home.

She won't let that stand. So, much like in cannon, he stops Luz from sinking down into the depths, and gives her a second chance at life.

Luz doesn't really understand what just happened. Jean-Luc got her from behind, so to Luz one minute she was walking into the big tower with her new little friend, and now she's wading through water? in a weird glowy place full of floating boxes and there's a big hairy person kneeling in front of her.

Luz's resurrection is a bit different from cannon. Bc its a few years earlier (and Belos hasn't embraced being a literal tumor yet), Papa Titan has a bit more juice left, so she doesn't finally fully pass on after bringing Luz back (I like him too much to not give myself an opportunity to use him at least one more time in this au). And instead of Luz temporarily being in Titan mode with all the powers that come with it, she's just permanently part Titan now, and if she can use magic to that extent she doesn't figure out how for a while.

As much as I love her cannon Titan form, since this au has Luz as permanently half Titan (or, well, i think it'd technically be one third Titan) she's gonna look more like some of these concepts.

((Small side note, I know why cannon went with the more witchy looking form, since Luz always wanted to be a witch, but look at these!! Look at my girl!!! She looks so cool!!))

So yeah, Luz comes to in the temple with King snuggled next to her, having slept through...everything that just happened. She just kinda figures that she was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as she sat down, and then she had a dream about one of the murals in the temple.

A month or two later, Eda shows up.

Luz has realized that this isn't like one of her dad's bedtime stories by this point, and she just really wants to take her little friend and go home to her parents. Eda, at first, thinks King and Luz are half siblings through a demon parent, and doesn't fully believe Luz when she claims she's actually a Human.

But Luz's knowledge of Human items and her being fluent in Spanish (a language which doesn't exist in the Demon Realm), among a few other things, quickly leads Eda to the conclusion that yes, this kid is from the Human Realm and something really really weird happened to her.

The first thing on Luz's mind, once she and King have been brought back to the Owl House and fed and cleaned up, is getting back to Camila and Manny. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy task.

Luz, being 6ish, doesn't really know where she lives. She remembers parts of her address, and that they live in America, but other than that and her last name, she's got nothing (idk if Noceda is a common last name, so let's just pretend that it's common enough in this world that it wouldn't be helpful in tracking down Luz's parents).

And it's not like Eda can just help her come up with a good story and then drop her off at the Gravesfield police station; Luz might not stand out in the Demon Realm, but in the Human Realm her new Titan traits could get her killed.

So Eda spends the next few years raising both Luz and King, while trying to find Luz's parents in the Human Realm with no success.

Until Luz is around fourteen, and a certain heartbroken veterinarian living alone in Gravesfield chases a thieving little owl into a shack in the woods.

Ok, that's it for now. I have a lot more thought out for the Half Siblings au (not sold on that name, suggestions are welcome), like how certain events go, but I think this post has gotten long enough.

[sparkles-oflight]

Welcome Back

If I had a nickel for every time I changed the title of this story, I would have a lot of nickels.

Synopsis: After not seeing or talking to each other for over a decade, Bojan and Kris finally meet again: in Damon's apartment. Will chapters 1 and 2 tell a new story?

Disclaimer: Please think of these as characters and not the actual people. I don’t encourage anyone to send this to any of the actual JO members nor do I encourage people to force any type of relationship between anyone.

Contains Agnst

My fics can be read out of order and with no context, but IT'S HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO READ THE FOLLOWING:

Sunny Side of London (for a reference) Kamila (for a reference) Metulji* "("prequel") THE SHADE* ("prequel")

Thanks @anxious-witch for the proof-reading and being so patient with me and the amount of times I changed the story structure and everything sdhfjjwsifiw.

Kris walked into an apartment he hadn’t been in in years, yet he felt as if he had returned home. The black and white decor, the familiar smell of flowers in the air, and the meticulously placed lights around the room.

- Are we ready to do this? – someone asked.

He looked around to the owner of the voice, Damon.  He had asked him to re-create the first photoshoot they had ever done, more than a decade later. He explained to Kris he wanted to see his progress in life and his healing journey throughout the years with his art.

Kris immediately hugged him.

- Hello, love. How have you been? – Damon tried to reassure him.

- Hi, Damon. – he still wouldn’t let him go.

- Are you sure you want to do this? – he pulled Kris back and pushed his hair to the side – You don’t have to do it if you don’t want it. If you aren’t comfortable that is.

- No, I can do this.

- Great then.

Damon grabbed Kris’ hand and sat him down.

- Is this still okay? – he asked as he opened the eye-shadow pallet.

Kris hadn’t worn anything “girly” in the past decade. In fact, he had cut his hair again, he had stopped traveling, and finally settled down in the Netherlands.

- Yes, of course.

Damon re-tried the whole process, everything he and Kris had tried before, he did it again, now both having different life experiences...

- You know what’s truly sad? You are not on the stage anymore.

- Damon...

- I know. It’s just... – Damon showed some frustration in his voice tone – What happened to those brave Slovenian boys I met? Kris...to this day, I don’t know what happened to you.

- I...I don’t know.

- My dear... – he set the camera aside and crouched down to meet Kris’ eyes and held his hands firmly – Do you still believe you are beautiful?

- I don’t.

- That’s not how things should be, now, are they? – Damon inclined his head against Kris’ – I didn’t want to say this, but Kris...You lost your sparkle.

- I know...

- Stop giving me two-word answers. You know you can tell me the truth.

- I really want to. But I don’t know how to.

Kris thought about what happened... With the band, he felt great. He felt amazing in front of crowds of people and doing what he loved. Singing and playing guitar on stage made him feel great.

But then Kris remembered... how the band broke up.

And how they – he and Bojan - broke up.

After Bojan left the band, he deleted his social media and Kris also deleted his number to not be tempted into calling him. He deleted all messages as well, “just in case”.

- Damon, it was complicate-

- I’m sorry to interrupt. – A familiar voice from the outside came in. – The door was open.

Kris and Damon looked at the new visitor. It was Bojan. With more grey hair than before, but Bojan. With some wrinkles, but Bojan. With a sad face, but Bojan.

Bojan looked at the model. It was Kris. With short hair, but Kris. With a tired face, but Kris. With smooth hands now, but Kris.

- I’m sorry...I decided to come in earlier for my shoot, but I can-

- You can stay. – Damon said, but then turned to Kris – Is that okay with you?

Kris nodded. He just nodded.

The session proceeded, though no one talked, only Damon who would give some directions to Kris from time to time. He wouldn’t talk, but his eyes would often drift to Bojan and meet his. It was awkward.

- Okay, you guys need to talk. – Damon got up.

- I’m clearly a distraction. – Bojan interjected – I can come by later.

- No, I’m going to take a smoke break, you guys talk it out. I don’t want to shoot soulless images. – Damon got pushy about it and Bojan just sighed.

He left, them alone. Kris didn’t feel the need to talk to Bojan. They hadn’t seen each other in years, nor uttered each other’s name unless it was necessary. So, why would he?

Bojan took a step ahead, Kris stared at him.

- You don’t want me here, I get it.

Bojan was about to leave, but then he abruptly changed his decision and decided to sit in the same corner as Kris.

- Hey, man how have you been? – he asked with a huge smile of his. However, Kris noticed how his teeth were now more yellowish than before, not to mention his breath.

- You reek of alcohol. And tobacco.

- Like you didn’t smoke or drink.

- I quit. It’s not a good example.

- To whom? Kris’ it’s not like we are in the band together and have to keep an image. – he laughed – So, what have you been doing?

- Why do you care?

- Okay, not a man of words I see. Unlike the Krisko I knew.

- Don’t call me that. – Kris placed his chin on top of his wrapped arms, shielding himself.

- I became a sociology teacher, actually, and I do ghostwrite for some artists too. You have probably heard some of my words on the radi-

- I don’t listen to Slovenian music anymore.

- Oh... – Bojan put on a sad smile – That’s a shame. You are in the Netherlands, right? I talk to Maks sometimes. I know you told him not to, but don’t get angry with him, please.

- I won’t. It’s his life. I just get pissed when some people don’t mind their own business.

- I swear he didn’t tell me anything else. I’m completely unaware of what else happened in your life.

Kris sighed. Bojan was not going to leave him alone, and, even though both of them are now completely different people, Kris still can’t stay quiet around Bojan either.

- I traveled across Europe trying to find a purpose after the band... Ended up marrying a Dutch woman...Her name was Fleur.

- You couldn’t let the flowers go, could you? – Bojan laughed at his own awful joke – I stayed alone, meanwhile.

- I don’t think anyone would want you smelling like that. Not very flower-like.

- You said “was”, what happened? And you didn’t even invite me to the wedding?

- We divorced.

- Oh, shit, I’m sorry, man.

- We have a daughter together. – he blurted it out.

Bojan was shocked considering the reasons why they broke up. That was a bomb to just casually drop. Kris was always repulsed by being near a child, now he’s a father?

- I guess...I guess you decided to live my dream for me then, uh? – Bojan awkwardly smiled – What’s her name?

- Lily. – he said it very fast as he realized the flower theme he had going on. – She’s four.

- How do you feel about them? – Bojan looked up. – You know, I don’t know what is like to have my own family...

Kris didn’t want to say it... As much as he loved Lily, he only married Fleur because it was the “logical thing to do”. They dated for a while, and he was already in his late 20’s so people around pressured him into it. Then Fleur wanted a kid and Kris never really thought too much about it, he just wanted to see Fleur happy - which led to their marriage falling apart slowly. She complained about him being her “Yes-man” as he was too scared to have to lose someone again. She ended up filing for a divorce.

- I love Lily and I loved Fleur. Though it was never the kind of “love letter” love. I never wrote a love letter to Fleur. – Kris also looked up – But love letters are ridiculous.

- Did you ever write me one?

- Yeah. When I was...ah – he tried to recall it – 16? You were dating Ivana back then. I just never sent it.

- Oh, then yeah. 16 for sure. It’s not like I had a lot of girlfriends. Or boyfriends-

- Have you ever written love letters?

- If you listened to Slovenian Radio, you’d know. – Kris smiled at that, for the first time since he arrived in London – Ridiculous. – Bojan mocked his voice.

Bojan placed his hand on Kris’ hand. Kris sighed... All the words they told each other on the breakup day were still resonating in his head.

- If I could, then I would, staying always by your side – Kris softly sang – If I could, then I would, giving up this famous life.

Bojan turned to Kris, surprised by hearing him suddenly sing.

- Where the sun doesn’t shine – he continued – Where the ceilings are all white.

He felt as if he had heard the song before but not from Kris’ lips. Did he write it for someone else?

- What good is life if I, - now that he hears it coming from his lips, it acquired a new meaning – can’t have you by my side?

It felt personal.

“Kris, I can’t do this anymore”, he said on that day “I’m burned out. I’m tired of living under expectations. I’m tired of my life being a spectacle. I can’t even control who’s watching and what they want to do with me!”

- Hey, you can’t do this any longer. – Kris closed his eyes as he kept singing – I know...the flame no longer glows.

“Don’t leave us. Don’t leave me.” He begged.

“Please, Kris...I just want to have a normal life and be able to love you without being judged. I just want to settle down, have a family with you, and leave this all behind.”

- Living in the spotlight, where everyone can see – Bojan felt Kris’ hands shake – Just how much there is between you and me...

“You want me to quit what I love to settle for a family I don’t know if even I want?”, Kris was angry that day...

- You’re tired of all the expectations – and Bojan ponders how angry is he still – You’re dying to be free of judgments.

“Bojan, I would done anything for you. Every day I put myself out there, risking my life for just being who I am, it’s not a “you” thing. We were supposed to be on this together, but you just want to call it quits?”

- You’re tired of these damn frustrations – because Kris won’t even look at him in the eyes properly – You wanted a life voided of instruments...

“Then I can’t do this anymore! If you are leaving the band for us, then you don’t understand our connection: Music!”

- If I could, then I would, giving the life you so deserve – and it took years for Bojan to understand that connection – If I could, then I would... keeping writing songs about you...”

“If you can’t because you are too scared while not even considering the fact that I also put myself out there every day, then it’s not even worth it! Go! Live your normal life. But without me”.

- But I guess we know we must go... – suddenly he realized Kris was singing the song differently from what he remembered – ‘Cuz you called it quits...

Bojan definitely remembers hearing this song played on the radio by some random pop star who was famous at the time, but he doesn’t remember this part. Nothing rhymed here.

- I don’t do music if you are gone...

- The song feels incomplete.

Kris sighed.

- I don’t like writing in English much... I sold it to someone else before I even completed it. They altered it quite a lot though. – Kris started fidgeting with his fingers, letting go of Bojan – I wrote it for you actually. It was my last song. I haven’t written or played since.

They heard the sound of Damon coming back, and in sync, they turned their heads to the source of the noise.

- I hope you guys had some time to talk. – he entered.

- We did.

- I have a proposal... Kris, I told you this story has 5 chapters. Last time 3 and 4 were linked, interconnected if you will... – the boys both pieced together what Damon was about to propose – Will you guys let me have chapters 1 and 2 together now?

- I’m up for it. – Bojan immediately agreed – If you take me on a date after. Coffee?

Kris pondered.

- I’m sorry, I can’t do this. It’s ridiculous. – but he started leaving.

- Krisko, wait! – Bojan grabbed his arm – Damon, can we have another moment?

- Bojan, we can’t just keep telling Damon to go off, he’s doing his job!

- Kris, I’m sorry for all the pressure I made you go back then. I really tried to let you know sooner I was sorry, but you’d already left Slovenia! All those songs I wrote were for you!

- I already know how stupidly sorry you are! Do you really think Maks doesn’t send me your music? Or Jan?? Songs in Serbian!?

- I...Kris-

- Bojan! – he called for his name in a repressive tone, but then he abruptly hugged Bojan, and both felt tears running down their cheeks – I just missed you so fucking much.

- I know... me too.

- I never wanted you to leave... you said you wouldn’t if I asked you.

- I’m so sorry. – he talked between sobs and the few pieces of clothes that separated them - I loved you so fucking much, more than anyone could.

And he does...Even after years apart.

- Welcome back home. - Kris smiled at him.

♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩♫♩

Afternote: I kid you not, I started this fic two weeks ago and I kept not being happy with it. I'm still skeptical about it. I even had to write a "song" (it's not a song lmao) to be able to find the path I wanted to take. The original story was so much different haha

MASTER POST | Recommended next:

[thisisnotthenerd]

one thing you can say about aabria iyengar is that any character she makes slaps so hard. any of them. hot powerful ladies with an innate sense of self and sometimes dubious morals. not a single miss. i admire the commitment to divorcing the cr cast, and her sitting with travis and sam again is so exuc to me. silly goofy table with super interesting character dynamics. this time it’s both of them that can kill her super easily, with sam as a new friend with fundamentally different beliefs and travis as the ex.

things we know about deanna leimert:

the coziest gnome--knits, wears a big blanket/sweater and uggs, and carries around stew.

unique laughter

reluctant cleric of the dawnfather

had a fling with chetney ~200 years ago

came to uthodurn, made a family with dustel? and then died after being attacked ~10 years later

still has a thing for chetney, but ~it’s complicated~

lowkey a monsterfucker

resurrected by a high level cleric of the dawnfather ~2 years ago, met FRIDA, and started adventuring with them? we still don’t know exactly what they were up to

lowkey dweomer & laerryn energy. if i had a nickel for every time aabria iyengar played a powerful divorced spellcaster with a loyal aeormaton companion who was present around an apogee solstice i’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice

was happy in an afterlife for ~200 years and got pulled from it. the implications of the rest of her life and family moving on are so spicy. i love the character concept. direct contrast to laudna in terms of the resurrection itself.

the idea of waking up to see your partner, older, wiser, and beyond you at this point in your life is so messed up. waking up, feeling like an obligation, a completed promise (to whom? may i ask), and a relic of a time long passed got me really hard. she had a relatively happy life, died, and came back only for everything from that period to hurt. she came back exactly the same, but the world changed in her absence. it’s like that one post that was going around about bringing back your dead wife and you’re insisting that she came back wrong but she’s just normal. coming back to a light type of magic and a connection that you can choose to pull on based on who brought you back.

vs laudna waking up alone physically and coming back ‘wrong’, combining innate magic and a pull from someone else. opposite side of the coin in magic style, all shadows and eldritch energy. no obligation to a past life, but being chased out of the places that you made for yourself. a deep trauma associated with your death and the place that you lived before. your body and countenance stuck in the same state that you died in, so your magic takes on more and more reminders of your death. your family sent you to your death and you never see them again except for within the confines of your mind.

i don’t know if we’ll get a laudna & deanna interaction soon, but i so want them to meet and talk about it at least a little. I want to see how imogen continues to react to deanna for these UBH episodes

fiercely defensive of FRIDA and quicker to judge chetney based on past experiences, even though the rest of uthodurn bell’s hells (UBH) did try to warn them

definitely in a weird place in terms of the gods. the thought of faith as batteries or food for the gods is very very similar to ludinus’ comments in that long monologue:

“The greatest lie ever told is that we need them. We are their gardens, their cattle. They created us to feed them with our faith, our hope, our souls. Lapping up their fables, give them form, purpose, control.”

also the concept of the gift of rest--while coming more from FRIDA than deanna, i think applies differently from two characters who experienced that and were pulled out of an eternal rest. very much self-projection energy that i’m getting. also, powering the gods off is distinctly different from eating them, but has a little bit of a similar taste.

thoughts for the future:

i think this is going to be an opportunity to introduce another couple of factions. that fact that we’re up to three clerics in a six person party is giving me inklings of getting into vasselheim or at least some religious drama, post-chetney backstory. there’s definitely some god-indifferent sentiments in the party, and BH’s most religious people (fcg, and to a much lesser extent orym) are separate and can’t compare notes. aabria and christian are taking them on some kind of ride going forward.

also the idea that D has been awakening and shipping aeormatons all over the world. the ones we’ve seen so far have had some interesting experiences with the gods--a holdover from aeorian thought about the gods? if aeormatons and other aeorian weapons/tools of artifice were being designed to kill the gods that has room for some fun and spicy exploration going forward, if UBH goes to aeor.

i hope that these trial of the take style episodes let us have these characters for a little while. they’re meant to contrast and be foils to chetney and fcg specifically, but the interactions with fearne and imogen have so much potential, and i can’t wait to see where they go.

[malinaa]

TOP 9 BOOKS

tagged : @hmsharmony ty jennifer this was SOOO hard oh my god like. genuinely agonized me for days to think about what to choose but it was SOOO fun tho <3 tagging : @rosesau | @evcndiaz | @pendrgcn | @gayarthur | @the-tenth-arcanum | @oretsev | @wherepoetsdie | @bellamyblakru | @ryekat & anyone else who wants to do it !!! rules : list your top 9 books obviously. i cheated a little and put series as as one option because that's just who i am as a person. most of these i chose at random from my 5 star reads from the past few years btw

1. percy jackson and the olympians (series) by rick riordan

i was never a big reader in elementary school—or at least not to the extent that my classmates had been. my sixth grade english class required us to bring a personal book from home for silent reading and i stole my brother's spine-cracked copies of pjo and brought them to class. i finished the whole series in less than a school week (i had to scramble to the library to pick up another series because the single novel should have lasted me at least three weeks). pjo literally kickstarted my love for reading as a hobby and i truly don't know how to state the importance it had on my little ten-year-old brain fr

2. on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

i have never read a book more beautiful in prose and so uncommonly human than this. there's just something so incredibly heartbreaking knowing this whole book is the narrator's letter to his mother who can't read! like what the fuck

3. alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

this came as a surprise to Me when i first read it. i meandered through the first quarter, loving the writing style but feeling disconnected from the characters until the Church Hand Scene™ and it was hook, line, and sinker at that point (i have since come to love the disconnectedness in subsequent rereads, knowing that the feeling was the Point). i have read this book four (4) times since i read it first last year. LAST YEAR!!! olivie has like... fundamentally altered my brain chemistry or something because i feel like everything i have written since having read this book has been somewhat influenced by it.

4. much ado about nothing by william shakespeare

what can i say! this is theeeeeee romcom ever. i have watched so many adaptations of this play, read it countless of times and can recite some iconic lines, and still the banter between benedick and beatrice is sooo elite. cannot be topped!!

5. a place for us by fatima farheen mirza

fun fact: seed rec'd this book to me and has been reccing it to anybody who would listen. the prose is so lush and melancholic. it's one of those books where nothing Really happens, but you feel Every Emotion Under The Sun and you're just like. altered by reading it

6. the song of achilles by madeline miller

obviously.... OBVIOUSLYYYYYYY this had to go here. if i had two nickels for every greek myth retelling i read during school that fundamentally changed me etc etc u get it. i read this as a junior in high school when we, yet again, had to bring a personal book to read durin class. i think at that point of my life, i've never read something that tragic yet so beautiful at the same time and now i am always looking at the beautiful and tragic in media. so! there u go! brain cells rewired and whatnot!

7. the grisha trilogy by leigh bardugo

this is funny because i . technically did not rate any of these books 5 stars i'm sobbing. but like, considering the fact that my url is what it is and the way i always have them in the back of my mind, it's no wonder that i put them here. i have such an odd attachment to these books and these characters. i had copies of these books since their release but didn't touch them until ... before the sab tv release which is so fucking funny. like i don't know what i would be like if i read this as a t(w)een. i would've been so fucking insufferable ngl

8. when my brother was an aztec by natalie diaz

i actually read this for an assignment and had to write a report on it and i had SO much fun doing it. diaz plays a lot with hunger and her imagery is literally unmatched. i think about the way she contructs sentences and am filled with such envy. my beginning sentence for my paper was a nod to her style (though i failed miserably). it was: "in a paradoxical sleight of hand, hunger feeds in natalie diaz's debut." she is just. so fucking good at words i need to CHOMP on it

9. sharp objects by gillian flynn

you know the thing where you see a really popular author for a really long time and they have their work adapted to the screen and it's so good but you still haven't read their actual writing? yeah, that was me with gillian flynn (specifically about gone girl). i read gone girl, i read sharp objects, i read her short story the grownup, i'm currently reading the last novel of hers that i haven't read, dark places, and flynn is just so... incredibly good at constructing harrowing stories. it's no wonder why all three of her novels got adapted to the screen! her prose is so grounded. vivid. there's this ease to her writing that, whenever i concurrently read another novel, i always find the other piece to be lacking. i slink back to flynn's prose and immerse myself in her awful, human worlds.

[nikibogwater]

Niki Blethers: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio LET’S FREAKIN’ GOOOOOOOOO--

In case it was not already obvious, this was my most anticipated movie of the year. Heck, it was my only anticipated movie of the year. Having learned the hard way just how deeply disappointment stings, I don’t usually get my hopes up this high. But darn it, everything I heard about this movie prior to its release just filled me with too much excitement to ignore, and now that it is finally available to the wider public, it is my great pleasure to say--

HOLY MOTHER OF MARMALADE, DID THIS MOVIE LIVE UP TO MY HYPE AND THEN SOME

(Mild spoilers below the cut, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT IT’S A MASTERPIECE)

First up: stop motion animation. We love to see it. And this movie doesn’t cut any corners with the stop motion. Even the fire is stop motion. The backgrounds are paintings (gorgeous ones at that), not just CG landscapes. The sets are so incredibly detailed I could’ve spent several minutes just staring at any given wide shot. There were very few instances where I could clearly see any effects that were obviously done in a computer. The animators and set builders went hard on this movie, and they have 1000% of my respect for it. 

Despite being a whimsical fairy tale, there is a pretty heavy sense of realism with this movie. Like, one scene, you have an overeager Pinocchio singing a cute little song about how excited he is to be alive, and then in the next one, he and Geppetto are walking past buildings plastered with posters promoting Mussolini’s Fascist regime. The way the film balances these two tonal opposites is absolutely genius, and I can’t remember a single instance of a jarring shift in tone. The light and whimsical always eases into the dark and realistic in a way that makes me feel like the two sides couldn’t exist without each other. 

Also speaking of realism, CAN I GET A HALLELUJIA FOR SOME HONEST-TO-GOODNESS CATHOLIC REP IN A CURRENT-YEAR CHILDREN’S MOVIE?!

This is obviously a personal thing for me, but I pretty much never see any accurate, respectful portrayals of my religion outside of films that are specifically made for Catholics. And I’ma be real with you, more often than not, the films made specifically for us turn out to be unbearably preachy or saccharine (and they’re never animated--another major point against them). To see a character who simply IS a Catholic (because this is Italy during the 1910s, so it’d be a little out-of-the-ordinary for him not to be), doing his little Catholic things, without it being a huge focus of the story or directly influencing the plot--ie, Catholicism being portrayed as just another normal part of every-day life--GAH. IT WAS JUST REALLY SPECIAL TO ME, OKAY? 

Also Geppetto locking Pinocchio in a closet because he doesn’t have time to deal with this, it’s time to go to Mass is a big fat Catholic mood. 

Okay, I’ll shut up about the Catholic stuff. Back to the movie.

If I had a nickel for every time David Bradly made me cry with his performance as a struggling father-figure overcoming the estrangement between him and his adopted son, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t very many, but it’s great that it happened twice. 

Ewan McGregor practically carries this movie as Sebastian J. Cricket. I knew he was going to be good, but somehow I failed to foresee just how good he truly is in the role. This interpretation of Jiminy Cricket as a mildly self-absorbed novelist who sees Pinocchio as little more than his house for most of the film is just *chef’s kiss.*

Ron Perlman as the Podestà was incredible. I actually didn’t realize it was him until three-fourths of the way through the movie, he just vanishes into the role so smoothly. And gotdang, is that character scary. 

Christoph Waltz clearly went all out with Count Volpe and I bet recording sessions with him were very fun. 

Gregory Mann did so great for such a little guy! It’s hard to find child actors, and even harder to find child voice actors, but he was fantastic, and really sold the character. 

Speaking of characters, OH MY GOSH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WHERE DO I BEGIN

Geppetto is a very sentimental old guy whose only joy in life was his son Carlo. After Carlo is killed in a bombing raid, Geppetto completely collapses under the weight of his grief. Carving Pinocchio isn’t something he does out of creativity or joy, but rather the result of drunken and despairing rage. The scene is played out as a grotesque and heartbreaking moment, and I LOVE it. 

Pinocchio himself is a Very Real Boy from the start--by which I mean, he never shuts up, he gets into everything, he’s kind of a brat, and he brings unbridled chaos to Geppetto’s life in the way that only a young child can. I like it when movies portray children as, y’know, actual children, not just tiny adults. Yeah, kids are loud, they break stuff, they annoy the heck out of you, and they are also so, so precious, they’re worth every second of it. 

I’ve already talked about Sebastian J. Cricket so all I’m gonna say here is I felt the line “Oh, the pain! Life is such hideous pain” right down to my core.

This movie covers a lot of heavy themes, such as the difficulties of fatherhood, abuse, war, death, and grief. But it does so in a way that left me with a sense of hope. It doesn’t shy away from the reality of these things, but it assures you that you can endure them, that you can find immense joy even in the midst of great suffering. 

To get a little personal for the second time, the way this movie goes about presenting the reality of death and the grief of those left behind resonated with me very deeply. I’m the youngest child in my immediate family, and deep down, there’s a part of me that dreads the day when they will pass on and leave me behind. Barring any unforeseen accidents, I will likely outlive most of my siblings, and I’m lowkey terrified of that inevitablilty. So there was something oddly comforting about a film that speaks directly to my fear like that. A film that doesn’t sugar coat or try to persuade me that it won’t be so bad. A film that tells me my time with my family is so much more precious because it is so fleeting. 

So yeah, tears were shed, I’m not ashamed to admit it. 

I could probably say a bajillion things more about this movie, but it’s getting late now and I’ve prattled long enough. In conclusion, 10/10, easily the best movie of my year, and I truly think I can forgive Del Toro for Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans now. 

[yc-shiya]

danganronpa universe dashboard simulator

💔 monoslayy Follow

rlly it’s not “pretentious” to not find the newer seasons better?? listen i love the new ones as much as anyone else (ESP DANRON 48 UGHHHHH WTFFF) but to act like the junko twist is still subversive is just WRONG

😈 junkosgirl04 Follow

Literally who said that lol this is not an unpopular opinion at all

💔 monoslayy Follow

are you biased maybe “junkosgirl04”

☠️ the-sauna-scene Follow

they did him so dirtyyyy 😭 we do not talk about this hair ATROCITY!!! its not even funny

🌟dangan-wrongpa Follow

I find it really interesting that you so-called “sympathetic” Danganronpa fans are always harping on about the tragedies of the characters played by *REAL LIFE ACTORS* rather than the later seasons when the showrunners recruited and killed *TEENAGERS* for money and views. It’s one level of wrong to be a fan of the show and still acknowledge its problems, especially with the newer releases. It’s something else entirely to still be talking about seasons one, two, three…and completely ignore the ongoing human rights violation that is modern day Danganronpa. You people disgust me. I sincerely wish you could take a better look at the media you consume, because it’s actually, LITERALLY killing people.

☠️ the-sauna-scene Follow

not reading that

🌟 dangan-wrongpa Follow

wow! posting fetish art of REAL LIVING PEOPLE too! literally nothing shocks me anymore with you freaks!!!

🍬 kimurasgf Follow

hey wait arent you the guy who auditioned for season 53 pitching yourself as the ultimate vtuber? lmfao?

🧈 death-by-balls Follow

If i had a nickel for every danganronpa man ive loved who was executed and turned into butter, i would have three nickels, which isnt a lot, but its weird that its happened thrice

#in 1 then 13 then 39 #they were cooking tho ngl 🔥🔥

🍀 hopefulservant Follow

listen i can be fucked in the head sometimes but we srsly gotta take a step back and consider how the series is exploiting mentally ill people for content. i mean, whens the last time we had a double or triple murder where the killer wasn’t already, or eventually revealed to be, mentally ill? What is that saying, exactly??

💣 togamicorp Follow

more👏neurotypical👏serial👏killers👏

🔪 chapter3sweetheart Follow

OP i have some news about your best boy

🍀 hopefulservant Follow

….agh…….my worthless talent…….

🎹 warriorsofdope Follow

okay can someone tell me why im seeing ship discourse about danganronpa 48 again? i thought we all played the same game and came to the consensus that the optional romance event with the whole class was universally canonical

🔮 30-percent Follow

Some of us didn’t get it on our playthrough 😒 also Sorry but I don’t like some of the cast of danganronpa 48. I don’t want them all shipped together.

🎹 warriorsofdope Follow

I can’t forgive you . Im gonna have to kill you for having that opinion.

🌟 dangan-wrongpa Follow

you shouldn’t ship the cast of danganronpa 48 because half of them are confirmed clones of Junko. go through chapter 5 again if you forgot.

🚀 femmesakura Follow

SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES SHUT UP ABOUT THE JUNKO CLONES

THAT THEORY WAS DISPROVEN IN DANGANRONPA 49 STFU STFU STFU HOW ARE PEOPLE STILL THINKING THIS?!?!?

🐹 gundamwenttohell Follow

dont bother with him hes the vtuber guy

[the-monkey-ruler]

Is it rare in media for monkey king to have a love interest and he returns their feelings?

Actually, I find it much rarer when there is a love interest and he doesn't return their feelings.

There is a very big difference when it comes to Wukong returning a love interest's feelings and when he can actually be with that love interest... which is usually never.

I think that the movie to really set into motion giving Wukong a love interest was the 1995 大话西游之月光宝盒 A Chinese Odyssey: Pandora's Box where the depiction of Wukong is very different from other Wukong as this is one of the first post-modern Wukongs in media. While this isn't the first time that Wukong has been given a love interest this is one of the first media to really capture the audience's heart with the tragedy that they can never be together. The tragedy that one has to play a role in society they cannot escape from relating to audiences to this Wukong greatly in the early 20s and making these movies a cult classics!

I have found that when it comes to movies, in most cases, it is a Retelling of the novel where within a certain adventure Wukong and a SO meet, and while Wukong denies any affection for the other, this is usually revealed at the end he does have affections for the other by the end. Usually the climax of the movie....

but...the status quo always wins and the SO is... disposed of in numerous ways.

If I had a nickel every time Wukong's SO turns into his cudgel I would have like 30 cents WHICH IS A LOT PEOPLE!

But the main idea for Wukong to have an SO is not for him to find love, but rather for him to find love and lose it. To go through that heart back to make him more human and more relatable to the audience for losing someone. Sometimes the directors even leave it open if Wukong had romantic feelings or just platonic ones for the SO, whether he lost a friend or a potential partner in either case he lost someone he grew to care about, showing a vulnerable side to himself and suffering for it. Only for the suffering to give the message "I'm glad I got a chance to love them at all" kind of melancholy ending.

I find it rare when directors make it clear that Wukong doesn't have feelings for another and stick with that to the end. Which honestly what made me love the 1996 series all the more. Wukong was not going to give in to peer pressure and lie to his friend to spare her feelings, he was going to be honest with her and himself that he was not interested even if he did care for her a lot. If anything it makes it even more reliable cause the idea that life would be so much easier if you could just like a certain person... if you could just settle and be something you know you aren't but would make everyone else happy for you.

But I understand that this isn't the case for most people as they see Wukong striving for a SO the 'breaking of the norm' rather than the opposite.

The change from making Wukong a fighter for the oppressed into a complex character with multiple fighting emotions within himself was a big step in his depiction of his character in media in future adaptions. And adding romance to that interpretation does allow for more avenues of self-expression and personal reflection to be had.

And that is because Wukong previously has never had issues with being tempted by desires like Bajie has, rather acting on his own ambitions.

I would keep going on and on about how the implications of Wukong fighting within himself do create wonderful storytelling if done right, especially when it parallels the "Doing what is right vs Doing what you want" kind of storytelling within the media.

While I don't think that romance is the only way to show that Wukong can be humanized into showing how much he cares for other people and how his own wants and desires get pushed aside for the sake of doing what he is "supposed" to do can be very complying storytelling I do understanding that romance is a good gateway into that kind of storytelling and thus is why a lot of other directors use their genre to portray Wukong's internal struggles.

I'm sorry that I'm kinda going off on this, it's just that for most of Wukong's pre-modern movies there is barely any romance involved but in the post-modern there is an abundant of romance (some good, some not so good) and it just fascinating to me how that change in the public's view from Hero to Lover was a huge step in creating him in a more multi-variant way I don't think directors were really taking advantage of until he was allowed to grow as more than just a fighter but someone that feels just as emotionally deep as any person.

Rip to the fallen SOs that are sacrificed for the sake of character development... you didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell.

[floralcrematorium]

Character Bingo: Ukraine and Canada

Thanks for the ask!!! CanUkr my absolute beloveds

I think it's a common opinion that Ukraine was done a bit dirty by canon. I think when I write Kat, I do like to make her a little emotional, but I also think she's very headstrong and has a good head on her shoulders. I think she should be allowed to experience being a bit in her feelings and being a little intimidating. She got the typical one-dimensional-side-character treatment and I think exploring these opposite traits in her is worthwhile. I admire her a lot and hold her in high regards. I also project onto her hard because of all of the characters, she's the one I've seen drawn most with a body type similar to mine. I've started writing a Kat centered oneshot about how clothes shopping sucks as a fat person (CanUkr oneshot is also still... in the works. DON'T LOOK AT ME!!!). I think one of my favorite moments from the anime was the scene we got with Ukraine, Hungary, and Liechtenstein going through historical fashion. I love Kateryna and Erzsé's friendship and I'm hungry for more. All in all, I genuinely do think I rank her as my #4 favorite Hetalia character, and the only reason she's not higher is because China and Norway have pretty privilege and pretty privilege only on their side. Some of my favorite pieces of Ukraine artwork include: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

(I know the first art is more centered on Nat, but I literally think about that illustration at least once a week)

This man is my blorbo in law. The amount of friends/people I interact with who love Matthew on main is concerning. Not because of their love for him but like... If I had a nickel for every person I know who would lay down their life for Matthew Williams, I would have at least four or five nickels, which in theory it isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened several times. Admittedly I know Mattie less intricately than I do Alfred, but BOY am I a slut for FACE fam content, NA bros, and exploring the positive and negative dynamics between them all. I think Canada was done dirty by old fandom, which is something I could also say for Miss Ukraine. Speaking of, CanUkr has been an absolutely beloved ship of mine since ~2015 and I still think about the old Nanihoo art of them, most of which I don't think exists on their deviantart anymore. Anywho, Matthew is simply Just A Guy and I love him for it. Good for him.

Bingo Game

[thewingedwolf]

my opinion, like many in the fandom, is that Buck has always been a little bi coded, and I think handling it like the way abc handled Rosa Diaz being bi, by simply having Buck drop some information he’s always known about himself but never been comfortable sharing, would be a decent way of handling it. for one thing, having both buck and eddie go through a gay panic thing would be a lot for one season, and maybe a bit repetitive, and I think it would be perfectly in character, while adding a really lovely layer to Maddie & Buck’s relationship, that Maddie has always known Buck was bisexual, and has attempted (maybe awkwardly) over the years to get Buck to be more comfortable with it. I also think it would add a really wonderful layer to Buck and Chim’s relationship (again, to make the b99 comparison bc this is a textbook “if i had a nickel for every time a beloved, diverse show involving police officers got canceled by fox and picked up by ABC bc beloved diverse shows with a really active fan base are their bread and butter i’d have two nickels” situation lol), the same way it was a natural & moving way to have the first person Rosa came out to be Charles, if Chim finds out because Buck needs to talk to Maddie about how he and Eddie had a stress induced make out on Eddie’s couch and then Eddie had a panic attack over being gay, and Chim is there trying to connect the dots of this conversation & be supportive bc Buck is anxiously mumbling while bear hugging Jee in his kitchen. And “Buck has been bisexual the entire time” leaking out to the rest of the 118 has a lot of potential; we know they’re all gossipy & nosy about each other, and Chim is terrible at keeping important secrets, so Hen & Bobby piecing it together from Buck‘s sudden interest in LA Gay Culture & Chim’s nervous stuttering, while Ravi is like “happy that you’re comfortable enough to come out to me Buck but again, i do not need to know this much detail about your personal life” all of this just seems like a very natural, easy way of getting Buck to come out.

and that leaves the Gay Panic storyline to Eddie, lmao. because whether they decide to go with the common fandom idea of “eddie is gay but due to being a really macho dude from Texas, born into a family of very typically ‘we will always love you no matter if you’re straight or choose to be gay’ esque family, has been heavy repressing it all these years” or they decide to make him bisexual, it’s clear that Eddie’s continued wild misses at dating women, panic attacks over the idea of being with a woman, and naming another man as the caretaker of his child in case he dies, that Eddie is primed to have an absolute break down if he ever comes out. Is it very similar to Carlos’ story? Yeah, obviously, but they’re incredibly different people, and more than that, the type of family they come from is incredibly common in this day and age, and whereas we’ve seen the fallout of all the shame that comes with feeling like your parents love isn’t unconditional wrt Carlos, we never saw the initial, badly handled coming out that prompted this break in the Reyes family, and we would be seeing that with Eddie and the Diaz family! not only that, but we have Hen & Toni there to help Eddie (and his parents & pepa & abuelita) through it, to help them handle what are bound to be difficult conversations on Eddie’s history of dating women his family will like that he has minimal interest in, and what happens now that Eddie is once again testing the unconditional aspect of his family’s love.

And that’s not even touching The Bobby And Athena Of It All, from Bobby once again relating to Eddie’s struggles of “what do you do when you feel like the core of who you are has shifted and everyone else is standing still” to Athena having intimate knowledge of the effect of coming out late in life, after you’ve lived a whole life as an ostensibly heterosexual man. We could get a really touching scene between Bobby & Athena and Buck, discussing how this is something he’s always known but it’s just been easier to let it go unsaid even if he knew Bobby and the rest of the 118 would be loving and supportive if he ever came out. Imagine the jokes re: Buck, Eddie, AND Hen being the messiest gays in LA while Ravi is begging them to Say Less.

I think the storyline potential of “Buck and Eddie impulsively make out after a stressful call in ep 1 and then skirt around their feelings for at least half a season” can be really rich, and also kind of in line for how abc has handled a character who got popular for being bi coded, and I’m not saying i trust them to not be cowards about it, but I am saying they shouldn’t be cowards about it.

[sshbpodcast]

Bonk bonk on the head: Children in Star Trek

By Ames

There are myriad reasons why your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By don’t usually care for children characters in our Star Trek, most of which are highly subjective and involve how much we dislike kids in general for being obnoxious, snotty, blithering miscreants. But that may just be me. What’s a more reasonable and less obstinate reason for disliking them so much of the time is that writers have no idea how to write for children characters, and all too frequently (especially in older shows) these youngsters just don’t have the acting chops even if the writers could give them something to do.

So let’s let the children run rampant as we go through what makes a good child character in a show like any of the classic Trek series. Which kids get a pat on the head and which get the infamous bonk bonk? Read on below for their report cards and listen to us pass notes in class over on this week’s episode of the podcast (discussion at 59:10). Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Unruly mobs of kids

What would one call a group of children in a Star Trek show? An anomaly of children? A supermassive black hole of children? Regardless, the worst kids come in bunches. When there’s a horde of them running around, you can tell we’re going to have a bad time on this podcast because obnoxiousness is exponential and also because it means the writers are probably using the children as some kind of general plot device. We see this in “When the Bough Breaks” and “And the Children Shall Lead” when the whole point of the episodes is to save a mass of mewling children from whatever nonsense we’ve gotten messed up in. Was it worth it to save these brats? You be the judge.

We get smaller groups of children in “Disaster” and “Innocence,” but their purpose is mostly the same: to test the patience of whichever officer they’re stuck with during some kind of crisis so that they can come out the other side slightly more developed. It’s not about the kids themselves; it’s about how our hero character grows. Picard, who notoriously hates kids, is stuck in a turbolift with three pissants in scenes that might as well be torture. And Tuvok pushes his Vulcan patience to the brink, putting up with three Drayan kids who harbor the dumbest secret the show could have attempted.

But the “Miri” kids really take the cake, despite introducing us to Phil and Iona Morris, whom we still love. But dang, kids in the 60s just couldn’t act. The two lead kids were played by freakin’ adults, having to play children who were prepubescent because there was no way they could carry an episode otherwise. Aside from being utterly distracted by those two, we found the rest of the episode felt like watching the crew get put in charge of a particularly rowdy daycare. This episode gets two bonks on the head.

—

My parent is a big deal at the Starfleet factory

In your typical monster-of-the-week episodic television, these children of the week get a brief moment in the sun just because their parents are Starfleet (or uncles… or godparents… listen you try making a list like this). They don’t get to stick around long enough to really develop, and thus they get one episode to resolve whatever their conflict is, and thusly thus, they start falling into that same category in which they feel more like props than characters. Take Ian Troi from “The Child” and Clara Sutter from “Imaginary Friend” for example. Both are merely serving as the impetus to get the story to the ending. And strangely, it’s the same ending: we learn the little kid was just an alien trying to learn about our culture through the eyes of a child. Like they say: if I had a nickel for every time this happened, I’d have two nickels, but it’s still weird it happened twice in the same damn show.

Similarly, consider Belle and Jeffrey, the EMH’s holochildren from “Real Life.” They are quite literally props, first that the Doctor creates to allow him the experience of simulated parenting, and second that are used very blatantly to develop his character. I’d say they’re both acted quite well (Belle’s final scene is really quite lovely), but they are not here to be characters, but caricatures. René Picard fills a similar role in the Picard family in the episode “Family.” He doesn’t get a ton to do, but he mostly represents the conflict between brothers Jean-Luc and Robert: one part the explorer among the stars and one part loyal to the family. Which will René choose? Never mind, he burns in a fire. So much for exploring the duality of character that Jean-Luc himself struggles with. The poor thing.

Janeway’s godson Q Junior from “Q2” might be a slightly better executed example in this category, and it’s probably because Keegan de Lancie can act. And was a teen at the time. And because the episode was about him developing as a character instead of being used to propel someone else’s development or to get us to the end of a science fiction story. If it weren’t for the sorta twist ending, he’d fit well in our next mass of children…

—

Orphan boys on the airlock-step

You’d think Star Trek were a Disney movie with just how many orphaned children are running around, looking for guidance from crew members whose expertise is questionable at best. Since we get stuck with most of these kids because of some kind of accident or crisis or bad sale made by Quark, it’s a little bit understandable that they come with a big helping of emotional baggage. Which, frankly, gives them something the previous group of children didn’t have: a starting personality trait. On Deep Space Nine, for instance, we meet Rubal in “Cardassians,” the child of a gul who is raised by Bajorans to hate his biological people, and also the Jem’Hadar child from “The Abandoned” whom Odo attempts to raise to not be so bloodthirsty but fails because it’s in his DNA. These are kids we feel for because they are forced to confront the racism inherent in our societies, especially when O’Brien is around!

Next Gen is just teeming with orphans and we get a couple whose parents in Starfleet get killed in the line of duty when we meet Jeremy Aster in “The Bonding” and Timothy in “Hero Worship.” Each latches on to an Enterprise crewmember (Worf and Data, respectively) as a way to cope with their grief, and their stories are actually pretty empathetic… though they’d be more so if they weren’t child actors from the 90s.

We talked a little on the podcast this week about our keening friend Jono from “Suddenly Human” and how his story is a very thought-provoking one. Sure, the boy himself is a freaking monster I wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially Picard, but when you cut through his tough exterior and upsetting misogyny, there is a child who harbors a great deal of trauma, reforged identity, and love for his adoptive father Endar, whom you’ll remember from our Parents blogpost!

—

Girl scout troop leaders

It’s a little strange that we see so many times little kids – little girls in particular – who act as tour guides to their culture. Perhaps it’s that we can understand another complex society more easily when it’s through the innocent eyes and uncomplicated language of children, and all these young girl scouts are just so naturally sweet, caring, and empathetic that they want to help our crew members through their scrapes. Oji from “Who Watches the Watchers” and Gia from “Thine Own Self” fit this bill to a tee. Each comes from a less developed society, but their curiosity and open minds urge them to want to learn about the newcomers to their villages and also to help these newcomers learn about them in return.

We also have two young leaders in this group in Salia from “The Dauphin” and Varis Sul from “The Storyteller.” These two episodes are basically the same story: 1) young princess needs to learn how to lead her society; 2) a love interest on the ship / space station makes googoo eyes at her; 3) everyone learns a lesson in how to treat people. Are they way too young to be leading their people? Absolutely. But they’re actually the perfect age to introduce the audience to their culture and put a friendly face on a bunch of weird aliens.

One more little girl who introduces us to her culture is Hedril in “Dark Page,” who reminds Lwaxana of her late daughter Kestra so much she goes into a coma about it. Hedril herself does a good job of serving as the literal voice of her people, and her youth is actually appropriate for her role because her mind is flexible enough to adapt to new languages and new experiences that the Cairn adults struggle with. We’ll even see a couple more of these plucky gals in our next section since they’re so ubiquitous. 

—

Can we adopt these kids?

So what gets you on our list of favorite minor or one-off children from all of classic Trek? It seems to be as simple as the ability to surprise us. Good science fiction characters have layers, and the kids on our best list are all more than meets the eye. Two kids who turn out to be more than what they seem are Barash from “Future Imperfect” and Taya from “Shadowplay,” neither of whom are actually the little children they appear to be on the outside and that just makes them all the more lovable. Whether you’re a little alien boy with a holoprojector who could also fit in our orphans category and who just wants a play date, or a little hologram girl who herself is basically a walking, talking dolly, these kids can stick around.

We’re also fans of Sarjenka from “Pen Pals,” yet another from our troop of girl scouts here to put a cute face on the periled people she’s literally the voice of. Her innocence, childlike wonder, and ingenuity to basically work a HAM radio are enough to make us shatter the Prime Directive any day. We haven’t gotten to Enterprise on the podcast yet, but be prepared to really root for Sim when we hit “Similitude.” His story is so tragic and empathetic that it’ll definitely elicit some kind of emotional response, so make sure you’re following the podcast when we hit that episode for a really heart-wrenching spin on a child character.

Hands down though, our favorite kid character has got to be Mezoti, the droneling we first picked up in “Collective.” From the moment we meet her, she just screams personality. It certainly helps that she’s got the leg up on most other children because she’s also got the collected experiences of the Borg Collective to pull from, but that gives her some interesting layers of depth and adds conflict into her complex character in ways even adult characters don’t always get. Resistance to her character was indeed futile.

—

Main character kids

These kids are kinda in a class all their own because we see them enough that they’re really part of the family. Literally! They grow up in front of our eyes on their respective shows, and our connections with them vary wildly depending on their writing. Molly O’Brien and Alexander Rozhenko, for instance, are [usually] both so very young that they’re more props than characters. You can’t really expect stellar acting out of children that small and predictably we don’t get it, often to infuriating effect. Working around children’s limited abilities and scheduling regulations makes some of these episodes just a pain to watch, no matter how cute they are.

The bigger kids like Wesley Crusher and Naomi Wildman (thank goodness for Ktarian aging!) have it easier because they can actually be relied upon to do things. Some would say Wesley sucks as much as his sweaters, but I contend that it’s that the writers let the plot dictate his character instead of the other way around. They need Wesley to save the day all the time to show how he’s a child prodigy, infuriating all the adults around him who should have the run of the room. When the seasons progress and Wil Wheaton leaves the main cast, the focus on his appearances is more character based than plot based, like in some great performances in “Final Mission,” “The Game,” and “Journey’s End.” Naomi, on the other hand, just gets to be a kid! And she’s great at it! We see her in lots of settings and scenarios that are appropriate for her age, and whenever she does something clever, it’s because she’s being taught how to be clever, not showing up everyone around her. And when she’s the focus of an episode like “Once Upon a Time,” she really proves that she’s a character first and a literary device much much further down the list.

Jake Sisko is basically the poster child of how to write a child character in Star Trek, or even just in general. He’s defined by his relationships with people, not by what an episode needs from him. The father-son bond that we talked about in our Parents post is on high display, as well as his friendship with Nog, a child character who already has a leg up because he’s portrayed by a more experienced adult actor in Aaron Eisenberg, giving young Cirroc Lofton something to work with instead of against. Jake and Nog are both allowed to just be kids! To grow naturally, to get in trouble, to develop into more faceted people as children do. The science fiction nature of the show is just the setting, not the entirety of their characters and it’s a delight to watch their earnest portrayals and the people they become.

— Ollie ollie oxen free! We’re going to give everyone a time out just to get a little peace and quiet around here, so keep your eyes here for more posts, follow along as we near the end of our watchthrough of Voyager over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, hang out with us on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t trust those pesky grups!