#just slapping every spoiler tag i can think of on this thing

[rukafais]

i still think the funniest possible answer to “where did all the divine beasts go in tears of the kingdom” would have been “purah and robbie were in the middle of dismantling guardians and ancient sheikah tech for parts and they were like “oh, the champions’ ghosts are still here? well divine beasts are really big, we can repurpose some bits and pieces to give you new bodies if you want” and then we get unstoppable sheikah-tech cyborg ghost champions just, hanging out with their descendants and shit

[acid-ixx]

I have a question, well 2 questions to be exact that’s been rattling around in my head since I started reading platonic yandere batfam fics, why would reader stay in Gotham? I’d be sneakily stealing as much money as I could without getting caught as soon as I reach a “fuck these guys” mentality. Like, asking to have some money for groceries or something and just pocketing it so that I could get a bus ticket and leave the city. Would you do it if you were reader? It just makes sense to me “this place sucks, these people suck, I’ve gotten enough to leave”, this is with me assuming that reader has the means of course, if the reader doesn’t then okay, yeah that makes sense

And my second question, do you ever feel resentful towards Alfred when you read batfam photonic yandere content? I do sometimes, especially when the reader is neglected. I know this might sound odd but when I read these fics I recognize that Alfred could do more, out of everyone in the manner, I think Alfred’s word carries the most weight, especially with Bruce due to him raising Bruce. I also notice in some batfam fics that the reader doesn’t get mad at him due to him giving them attention, but idk it feels kinda like a slap to the face, knowing that I don’t have the power but he does and yet not exercising it until I’ve burned every last tie to that family.

I know my thoughts are a more “well you’re on the outside looking in” type takes, but idk, it hurts my heart knowing that if reader stays in that city, it will be far more easier for the batfam to find them, where if they were outside the city, they’d have a fighting chance to make a new life for themselves

On a side note, I think we are underutilizing the angst potential of reader legally changing their name and the batfam not knowing until months or even years later when reader leaves. Like Bruce and the fam would just have to sit and realize that reader hates/dislikes/doesn’t care about them enough to legally change their name from Wayne to whatever reader chooses. Jason was Batman’s greatest failure, but Reader would be Bruce’s greatest failure, and what a delightful public failure it would be if the tabloids were to somehow find out that one of Bruce Wayne’s biological children changed their legal name

I’m loving your batfam content btw, like it makes me want to create one of those “screw therapy, I need to fist fight my dad” tiktoks and tag Bruce Wayne, that’s what I can phenomenal writing!! And sorry for making this so long! Hope you have a great existence!

slight spoilers for future chapters.

this is one of my favorite asks... anon, you are so brilliant because your two questions tie into the reader's character so well and the flaws that they (you) conjured from years of neglect, so i hope my answers would suffice (i am answering based on the perspective of the reader from my series: again & again with a bit of my own perspective). tysm for sending this in, i actually really enjoy long asks and appreciate it when people take the time to send me these things!

why would the reader stay in gotham?

chapter one wasn't all the detailed about why they stayed in gotham. firstly, their self-worth had them reason that in no way, shape, or form would their family that basically estranged them would come running to them, especially not when the only time the reader could even stumble across them is by some miracle of coincidence. this also ties into their lack of knowledge about their family. sure, they know that babs is the oracle but do they know just how much access she has across gotham? not really. they know tim, like bruce, has a tendency to collect information about other people, but they don't know that they have contingency plans to be creeped out enough to get away from gotham and from their reach.

"it's not like tim or bruce or barbara considered you important enough to be stalked. hah, as if!"

and the third point is, despite bruce being a billionaire of some sort, it was stated that the reader was too well-behaved and quiet. how does this make sense? as you've stated, they wouldn't simply have the means to get out. seeing as they were sheltered by alfred and never really explored the concept of traveling far away, they never asked for money; the only advantage of being a wayne is having quite a lot of things served on a silver platter.

they have this sort of toxic bond for staying with the people who have hurt them and it materialized to them physically staying despite knowing it would only cause more pain than anything else, and they don't know that. plus, they'd rather not have the wayne name associated with them and getting money from cheques or credit cards would be too risky for the reader's safety.

they've only realized just how shitty their family is after more than 10-13 years of staying in the manor, and saving up to move to an entirely different place would be difficult, alongside college and the jobs they have to take. so the next best thing they could do is rely on any means of advantage they could get whilst also moving on to the path of self-discovery and recovery.

but that doesn't mean they're staying in gotham forever, definitely not. the moment the reader realizes that dick gained some sort of interest towards them, they're booking it out of gotham. preferably to metropolis or central city or even somewhere far, far away— they're naive, but not stupid. sudden interest towards them means danger rather than anything else. and they're aware that alfred is capable enough to pull strings, so that's why spoiler alert: they have a secret stash of money hidden somewhere and like any children of bruce, they inherited the capability to be smart enough to already back up their contacts and everything on their phone, buy a burner phone and even change their entire identity in one quick go right after they move into an entirely different city or country.

gotham is merely their practice course.

do you ever feel resentment towards alfred?

quite frankly, yes. the reader in the fic feels resentment towards everyone for a reason actually, but alfred's part was stated vaguely as to not spoil a future chapter that focuses on his perspective. they know that he has the more power inside the manor more than bruce has. everyone, and i mean everyone respects alfred, and it doesn't take a genius to know that if you mess with him, you're messing with an entire family of crime fighters.

it's not obvious, but the reader's narrative in chapter one is them trying so hard to delude themself into thinking things can be better until it's too late. so in a sense, there's false narrative coming into play.

"alfred would be too busy sometimes to attend your school ceremonies because he had to assist bruce with missions. of course, you understood his priorities. after all, he tried his hardest to make you feel less lonely inside the mansion, it wasn't enough but he was there at least."

at some point in time, alfred had also neglected the reader emotionally with the same reasoning as the others; he was busy with their father. and this all could've been avoided if alfred had tried to confront the entire family about it. i'm not delving deeper into this to really avoid spoilers other than pointing out some details in the first chapter.

just know that alfred relishes in your newfound favoritism towards him, and that he may or may not have pulled some strings himself from helping you become closer to the family.

the part about reading changing their name from (name) wayne to (name) (last name) is what made me so drawn to this ask. you have pretty much predicted one of the chapters that explored (name) wayne to the public eye. they're not so much of an internet celebrity because of their rare appearances in public, but that's what causes immense curiosity about their identity to uprise in gotham, and their fame was one of the means to get to you.

there was one news article published that was the reason that made bruce distant towards you.

but let's focus on what yan! bruce would've felt once he turns a full 360.

because the first thing he would do once he has you in his grasp is to change your last name back to his. you are not the child of a (last name), you are a wayne first and foremost, bruce's third child and his greatest mistake, quite literally. you were a product of a one-night-stand, and because he was drowning in despair from jason's death, he had failed to notice you. all his years of neglect, and he doesn't even know a single thing about you, simply because he refused to acknowledge your presence.

and you rightfully hated him, he should've accepted that. but your diary entries and the way you innocently thought of him destroyed any sliver of hope for a peaceful reconciliation. he hates how you were experiencing the same type of despair as him when it comes to battling your own monsters— you truly are a wayne at heart. he couldn't afford to let you get away any further. just like dick, he needs to fix it now or further sever the already broken ties you have with him.

it's not batman now, but rather bruce. bruce wayne had failed to save another one of his children, not as a vigilante, but as a father.

knowing bruce, he's quick to take into action and search for you.

holy shit, this is a really long post but i hope it does answer the questions ! im so grateful that you like my writing enough to write a really long ask, and i hope to see your messages more once the new chapters are published <3

[damn-stark]

Chapter 22 What never was

Chapter 22 of Sugar

A/N- Jealous Choso?

Warning- Swearing, angst, FLUFF, mentions of death, spoilers, violence, SLOW BURN, Naoya, heavy pining, long chapter

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- Chapters 140-144 of the Manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

“Who was that guy with the buns? Is that the guy you keep talking to Tsukumo about?”

Why is Miguel trying to gossip to you like you’re best friends trying to catch up after weeks of being apart? Like if there isn’t an obvious thick tension trapped between you.

Then again it is one-sided considering he and Larue think they did right by hiding Noritoshi Kamo’s existence. They think having the entire family betray you is a problem you can all sweep under the rug. But it isn’t.

“What do you want Miguel?” You break the lighthearted atmosphere he tries to build once you’re away from the tunnel. “And don’t be a smart ass, you know what I’m referring to. So what do you want with me?”

“Larue says you’re screening his calls and leaving his messages on read,” Miguel gets straight to the point.

“I have every reason to,” you mumble coldly. “The only reason I’m talking to you is because you’re involved in this plan.”

Miguel’s eyes bore into you but you don’t bother to look in his general direction.

“Nanako and Mimiko’s—”

“Don’t bring them into this,” you cut him off sharply. “Don’t talk about my daughters to excuse you’re lying and betrayal.”

“We’re family,” he argues and those simple words are like being slapped in the face.

“Yes!” You exclaim. “We were and you all still chose to lie to me!” You stop walking in the middle of the street and turn to face him with your gaze narrowed to a piercing glare. “You kept the existence of Noritoshi a secret for months because of what?” You spat and throw your hands in the air. “You didn't want to cause me more grief?!”

“Because we were looking out for you,” he argues calmly because that’s the legitimate truth for him and Larue. “Because too much happened after Geto’s death. It was the right thing to keep you from spiraling.”

You feign a laugh and shake your head in disbelief. “The right thing?” You repeat quietly. “Everyone thinks they’re doing the right thing for me,” you cry out louder and stare into his eyes with angry tears in your eyes.

You didn’t want to look like you wanted to cry, but your face was already twisted into a scowl, you couldn’t show how fast the blood was pumping in your veins, so this is the only other way you express how frustrated you are.

“My parents, my brother, you and Larue. And you never truly take me into account. The person you’re trying to help,” you continue and step closer to him to make yourself clear. “You were supposed to tell me! If not right away then when the twins got involved. We’re family.”

“And you were supposed to cremate Geto’s body,” he counters right back with just as much fire that makes you gasp and step back in disbelief.

“That’s what we're supposed to do,” Miguel supports his argument. “It’s what he would've done for you. That was your responsibility.”

You continue to watch him with disbelief, but this time you feel your heartbreak at the sound of his cruel words. You want to answer with a cold shoulder and storm off without saying a word, but how dare he bring up Suguru in this argument that was initially about their inability to tell you about the ancient sorcerer in Suguru’s body?

“I knew him for 12 years,” you manage to argue against him even if it drains so much strength to do it. “And I loved him for 11 of those years. He meant so much to me, he was the father of my girls and my greatest friend, I couldn’t even go home that day, so you don’t get to throw that at my face. It was your responsibility to tell me though, but you didn’t, you lied for months.”

Miguel parts his lips but he’s at a loss for words, which is an odd thing coming from him because he always has something to say.

It’s not until a few minutes pass that he breaks the deafening silence that had casted over you. “It’s not going to change anything. What happened, happened, we can’t take it back even if we wanted to.”

You nod and whisper shakily. “I know and I don’t care. You lied, now all these problems exist.”

You didn’t want to be mad about that, you weren’t, but you’ve had time to think, you thought especially hard after Yuki shared this plan with you, and no matter how much you want to go around it, you can’t escape the fact that everything could’ve been different if they simply told you from the beginning. Now your brother is gone, Nanami is dead along with the twins, and the sorcerer society as you know it is in shambles.

“So what?” Miguel retorts. “We’re going to stop being a family because of it?”

You shake your head without thinking because you know this answer. “No. Larue, and you, even Manami and Toshihisa will always be family,” you say from the bottom of your heart. “I will never tell Satori otherwise either. I just can’t look at either one of you and move on just like that. I can’t pretend that I’m not mad because I am. It meant something to me. I am sorry I couldn't do my part…perhaps it’s all my fault, but don’t expect me to forgive you right now. Don’t ask me to. Please.”

You wipe off the stray tears that managed to break out and drop all the anger from your face to show your sincerity and your love for him and the family you share.

“I love every single one of you. You can tell Larue that. You can come visit Satori, just give me some time.”

Miguel scoffs and doesn’t hold back. “And you can forgive Satoru Gojo for killing Geto just like that?”

You freeze as if you were splashed with ice-cold water. You knew the answer to this question, you’ve discussed it with Choso recently, yet hearing Miguel say those words completely spins you out of the axis you stood so proud on. It leaves you speechless even if you already had known your answer. Yet after a few minutes, all you can do is turn away and bring up your excuse to leave. “Okkotsu should have already driven Itadori away, I’m going to check on them.”

Before you can make it far Miguel yells out, “don’t kill the boy. He’s one of the good ones!”

Why does everyone think you’re going to kill Yuta Okkotsu? Why don’t they believe you’re okay relishing in your hate?

Most importantly, why did Miguel's bold remark make you doubt yourself? You’ve always known that Satoru leaving you behind and betraying you 11 years ago hurt more than him killing Suguru, so why are you picking on it now?

Has that blame always been inside you? Like a wound just bandaged over to be pushed aside. Or has Miguel picked at the scab?

No, it can’t be that way. You know your feelings, you don’t blame Satoru for the way things ended. It had to be done…he had to take Suguru away from you…

No! You can’t think that way now! No.

Just breathe. Breathe, and focus on the matters at hand; Itadori and Choso.

Yes, just focus on them and getting this plan to move forward.

Deep breath and shake it off.

Neverthefuckingless, once you return to the entrance of the tunnel, you come across an unexpected problem fighting Choso. Fucking Naoya Zen’in!

What a damn headache! This is not what you needed!

But you’ll handle it even though by the looks of all the blood on the ground, and the blood-shaped wings behind Choso as he faces Naoya, it seems he’s pretty much handled Naoya. Which isn’t surprising. Naoya is strong but not stronger than Choso.

Still, you’ll cut in for the fun of it.

“As I live and breathe. Well if isn't you,” your voice travels throughout the tunnel, making both men look away from each other to find you at the end of the tunnel. “Naoya Zen’in,” you reveal to Choso.

Said man’s shoulders untense and his hardened face falls to a cocky look. “Well, well aren't you a sight for sore eyes,” Naoya greets you with a smug smirk as if it isn’t obvious that Choso has cornered.

“I am,” you quip. “Are you playing nice with my friend, Naoya?”

“Oh, this nobody is your friend,” he points his thumb at Choso, and your gaze flickers on a quick glare before you hide it and use charm against Naoya, considering he thinks you’re secretly infatuated with him.

“Choso is my friend.”

Naoya scoffs in disgust and looks back at Choso so you quickly pull his attention back to you. “How long has it been?” You muster a feigned sweet smile.

“Too long,” he retorts and tilts his head. “And you look like you haven’t aged. It’s a defining quality.”

You keep your smile attached even if inside you’re revolting.

“Hm, thank you,” you know how to play along with him to make him think he has the upper hand. It’s easy to gain the upper hand with men as egotistical as him.

“Now,” you continue in a sweet voice. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, Naoya? You’re far from home.”

Naoya shrugs. “Business.”

You playfully narrow your eyes and reach in your pocket to pull the Worm out. “Oh? Let me guess, are you here after Yuji Itadori?” You ask as you drape the Worm around your shoulders, letting him see that you’re preparing for a fight if need be.

“No. Why? Should I be scared of you?”

You feign a laugh. “Would you?”

Naoya flashes you a flirty smirk. “Never.”

You tug wider on that smile and notice Choso’s discontent with the way this conversation is developing as you slowly begin to strut toward him and Naoya.

“I’m here on family business and personal agenda,” Naoya shares, completely underestimating you. “Why are you with scum, y/n?”

You try hard not to drop your smile or clench your fists even if his comments about your company are really bothering you.

“Is it because of your dead husband?” He dares to say, causing you to fail in your attempts to keep on a smile. “You must be lonely and in need to be reminded what it feels like to be a woman.”

“Tsk,” Choso remarks in annoyance and steps forward to retaliate in your defense, which is sweet, but you can’t jump Naoya just yet, so you quickly snap your gaze to Choso and shoot him a warning looking so he can stay where he is.

Luckily, he understands you and just burns holes through Naoya’s head.

“We could finally commit to what our family wanted us to do,” Naoya blabbers on, making you gag internally.

“Oh, but there’s my daughter now,” you bring up to hopefully make him shut up.

Yet you expected too much because keeps on talking. “A daughter? Well, that can be taken care of.”

And what does he mean by that?

“She’s no use really, she’s a girl. I’ll give you boys,” he says bluntly, making Choso fists his hands even harder, and for your patience to come to an end.

Naoya crossed a line talking about Satori like that, so when you walk past him and Choso you turn on your heels and grin at him while you walk back to be across from Choso.

“Naoya I owe you my sympathy, I heard your father died,” you feign sympathy as you change the subject. “Tough. But that does mean I also owe you a congratulations, you’re clan leader now—wait,” you come to a halt and begin to tug on a genuine smirk. “Never mind, you were replaced by a 16-year-old boy who didn’t even grow up at your family house.” You chuckle, and his once cocky smirk falls to a scowl. “How pathetic.”

“You know,” he scoffs. “You really haven’t lost that sharp tongue have you, bitch? How about I take care of that for you?”

“Watch your mouth,” Choso snarls.

You lift a hand and assure Choso. “It’s okay, Choso, a real man doesn't fear strong women.”

Naoya scoffs. “I'm not scared of you,” he spats and watches you come to a stop.

“It’s okay,” you speak in a smooth and silky voice. “I can tuck you in after I'm done, I bet you’ll like that.” You giggle, and Naoya clenches his fist and breaks into a menacing stride towards you.

You don’t move though, you pass Choso a quick determined look that means it's okay to act now. And he mirrors it right away to tell you he understands.

So when Naoya is a few steps closer you drift your gaze back to him and ball your hand to a fist to raise it in front of you to show off the fire licking your veins and flesh.

“This is why Geto died,” he remarks. “And why your parents beat you 11 years ago. You don’t know how to behave like a real woman.”

You drop your arm and the smugness you held on your face to pretend to be wounded by his words. Which in turn makes him falter and slow down, but begin to grow smug.

When he gets close enough you slide your eyes up and speak in a fake quivering voice. “Thank you.”

You begin to smirk maliciously and Naoya’s eyebrows twitch in confusion. He parts his lips to probe, but before he can poison this tunnel with more of his whiny voice, you spring your arm up and swing the back of your hand across his face with enough strength that sends him flying back towards Choso.

“So annoying,” you groan as if you were held to secrecy.

And just before Naoya can crash into Choso, or he can find his balance, Choso claps his hands together and shoots piercing blood.

Naoya tries to dodge, but the blood-made arrow is faster and it scrapes his side, making him stumble. Before he can counter, you fist your hand once again, but this time you snap your arm down to slam your fist through the ground, causing cracks to grow from the spot you hit and rapidly spread toward Naoya looking almost like vines.

Once they reach him the cracks then surround him and the ground begins to rumble. Choso steps back, and Naoya snaps his head back at you, but in that moment water begins to shoot out through the cracks before it explodes out and sends Naoya up to hit the cement ceiling.

Before he can react and run forward, Choso and you act; he runs forward and jumps up, making you give him a boost by manipulating the air. Once he’s under Naoya, Choso reaches over and slaps his big hand around Naoya’s throat to slam him to the ground when gravity pulls them down.

However, Naoya isn’t put out. Even if was just rammed with multiple attacks he throws Choso a harsh swing. But Choso averts it and steps back, causing Naoya to get on his knees and push himself back to his feet with his fists clenched ready to fight.

Thus you gather the water you used to attack him and have it shaped into a giant orb behind you.

“If you’re really so tough, Gojo, then actually fight me and don’t cower!”

All right you’ll bite.

“Fine,” you give in and drop the water.

At the sound of the water splashing on the ground, Choso looks back at you in confusion, while you answer Naoya by striding over with your fists clenched.

Before you can get close enough to him though, he lunges over and swings his fist. You manage to quickly swerve and instead counter by manipulating the water and having it fly over to give him an uppercut.

Naoya quickly recovers and groans at you before swinging his leg, making you smug as you gracefully swing your fist to shoot a blast of wind right on his torso.

“Fight me,” he grimaces.

What does he think you’re doing?

Just for that you drag your foot back and summon air to surround your foot before you swing your leg and kick Naoya in the throat with the gust of air, managing to knock all the air out of his lungs and throw him several feet across the tunnel.

All without letting him land a punch. But that’s also because Choso already weakened him.

“Stop playing around!” He yells at you. “Stop using your tricks.”

You slowly turn to face him and see him slowly pushing himself to his feet. You don’t proceed to say anything, you simply smirk at him and then throw your fist out and hastily shoot Fire-Snake out from your fist to ram it into him.

When Naoya falls back to the ground, the fire snake slithers around him to capture his body in place, making the part of clothes it’s touching to begin burning away and peppering Naoya’s flesh with burning kisses that make him squirm and groan and make your smirk deepen.

Alas, before it can deal any great damage to the outside of Naoya’s body, the fire snake opens its fire-made jaw and sinks its teeth into his neck to spread its furious venom through his icy veins before it turns to ash.

“You might want to get healed,” you advise Naoya as you slowly stride towards him. “Once bitten by fire-snake the fire travels through your veins and hits your core to begin burning away all your cursed energy.”

You fall beside Choso, and rest your hands on your hips to look down at Naoya with a shit-eating smirk.

“How dare you—”

“I'm not done yet,” you cut him off. “And since you’re human too it begins to slowly boil your blood.” You laugh and tilt your head to add one more thing. “Oh, and that’s not even counting the poison from Choso’s blood, so you better find someone fast.”

“You little whore,” he grimaces.

“I told you to watch your mouth,” Choso snaps back in a low threatening voice that makes goosebumps grow on your arms and causes your heart to swoon. Him kicking Naoya’s jaw and stepping on his hand doesn’t help whatsoever, it only works to excite you and steal your breath away.

“Sorry,” Choso adds to Naoya, making you blink in confusion—“But you didn’t love your brothers,” he continues. “And I can’t understand that.”

This is probably about something they talked about before you got here. Which! You wish you could’ve been here before to fight Naoya from the beginning. He was already like, half beaten by the time you got here!

He would’ve been more of a pain in the ass, but it would’ve been fun fighting longer with Choso against Naoya.

Regardless though, suddenly, in the silence of the tunnel, the hairs on the back of your neck rise as a menacing presence approaches Choso and you. One far more intimidating than Satoru’s, one that you quickly identify to be Yuta Okkotsu.

He’s finally done with the plan, but you can’t drop the act yet. You can’t tell Choso a thing even if he puts his arm out to shield you from the presence, clueless to the fact that Okkotsu is working with you. You have to look just as shocked as him so as to not give your plan away to Naoya who is still conscious.

“Choso,” you try to assure him that everything will all be okay regardless of the overwhelming presence that’s fallen over you, and regardless of what he’s about to see.

Albeit Choso doesn’t focus on you, he looks back, and when you follow his line of gaze Okkotsu is already over you with an unconscious Itadori.

“What—“ Choso gasps, but, he doesn’t finish what he’s going to say because with one swing Okkotsu knocks him out, making you quickly catch him in your arms before he can hit the floor.

It’s not the way you would’ve wanted it to play out, but Choso would’ve freaked out seeing Okkotsu dragging his unconscious brother, so to avoid any unnecessary fights perhaps it is better to knock Choso unconscious too. When he wakes up you’ll tell him what’s going on if Itadori hasn’t woken up by then.

“Looks like you’re hurt Naoya,” Okkotsu interjects as he walks past you.

You peer back after you throw Choso over your shoulder and pull your phone out to capture a picture of Naoya as he writhes in pain.

And to your surprise, he actually manages to see you and hisses as he reaches over, but he’s too weak by all the poisons so he looks more like a trembling kitten swinging its paw.

“I’ll send this to your brothers and say the beauty of the Gojo clan took down the great Naoya,” you tease and snicker.

And since he can’t answer, you shoot him a wink and walk off without waiting for Okkotsu, to avoid an awkward walk side by side.

“Shall I heal you?” Okkotsu’s offer travels down. “My reverse cursed technique can heal people. In return please inform your superiors of Itadori’s death.”

You bet Shoko that Itadori’s “death” will only be believable for about three weeks, she says shorter than that. With everything Noritoshi has planned though maybe even sooner than either of you predict.

With Okkotsu here, the higher-ups will probably leave Itadori alone though. Hopefully.

——

*LATER*

It hasn’t been long since you left the tunnel, but it feels eternal considering it’s just Okkotsu and you waiting for Itadori and Choso to wake up.

“Oh,” Okkotsu startles you. “I forgot to mention Fushiguro should be here soon,” he lets you know.

Now it feels even more awkward than when you were silent! You could choose not to answer, but the atmosphere is already tense, and that would just worsen the situation, so to avoid any more strain you give him a small acknowledgment.

“Okay.”

You don’t even look over at him though, you slide your eyes to unconscious Choso right by your feet, and continue trying to avoid giving Okkotsu too much thought because once you start you spiral and grow angry. So to avoid any problems or more tension, you just focus on Choso and hope he somehow hears your desperate plea and wakes up to keep you company while Itadori is still passed out.

Albeit he does look very calm this way too. You’ve never seen him sleep, every time he watches a movie with you when neither of you can sleep, he always stays up for the entire movie, you’re the culprit who passes out sometimes. So seeing his pale face be basked by the campfire you turned on, and his delicate features resting ever so calmly you can’t help but feel kind of captivated and tempted; you want to trace the black mark over his nose with your finger with the softest touch.

Is it creepy to think about?

Yes, plus you really need to stop thinking about him in any kind of romantic way. You already agreed that nothing shall be touched about your feelings for him, and his for you. You’ll just have to suffer and stay friends.

So you look away and instead, just go on your phone and mindlessly scroll through your social media.

A few minutes then pass and from the corner of your eyes, you see Choso suddenly rise as if he was part of the undead.

“Yuji,” he quickly calls out with panic.

You put your phone away and get off the piece of rubble you were sitting on to reach him. “Choso,” you call out so he can drift his attention over to you, but his eyes fall on Itadori still passed out, and then quickly find Okkotsu, letting you see the gears in his mind churning to think the worst.

“Yuji,” he exclaims with a mix of anger and fear.

“Choso!” You exclaim and lunge forward to grab his arm and pull him back to the ground as he is getting up to attack Okkotsu. “Choso! Choso, calm down It’s okay.”

His eyes just briefly look at you, but they quickly return to his brother's body on the ground stained with blood. “How do you want me to calm down when—”

“Choso!” You cut him off and throw your hands on his jaw to try and distract him. “Choso look at me. Look at me.”

Choso’s eyes slowly drift over and you gently tighten your hold on his jaw.

“He’s okay,” you assure him and hold his gaze with a soft look that makes him blink repeatedly and leave his lips parted instead of continuing to argue, almost as if he was captivated in the moment—“He’s alive and Okkotsu is on his side,” you assure him.

Choso’s pants slowly calm down to soft breathing and his furrowed eyebrows ease as his face relaxes.

“Feel it,” you tell him and slide one hand off his jaw to press your palm over his heart. “You’d feel it if he was dead. He’s okay. Feel it.”

Choso continues to hold your gaze as if he were finding his confirmation for Itadori’s status in your eyes.

“He’s okay,” you tell him one more time before you pull your hands away and slowly sit back in your previous spot.

Choso snaps his head back to his brother and pushes himself up.

“It was a plan,” you finally let him know. “Okkotsu needed to kill him so the other high-ups could believe it and leave him alone for a while, there was no other way. I am sorry I couldn’t tell you, I was ordered not to. I’m sorry.”

Choso swallows thickly and watches Itadori for a moment, assuring himself that his brother is breathing.

“His wounds are healed,” Okkotsu cuts in to try and ease Choso’s concern. “I made sure of it. Sorry for hitting you too by the way.”

Choso’s head snaps up to drop his eyes on Okkotsu and stare into him for a tense second before he offers him a stiff nod and walks back to sit next to you on the piece of rubble.

“I’m sorry,” you tell him again so he can hear it.

Choso looks at you and doesn’t look upset, he looks as usual, nonchalant. “It was your mission?” He asks.

You sigh and nod. “Yeah. I wanted to tell you, but I was ordered to keep it a secret. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, it was your job,” he assures you, making your lips pull to a sweet and grateful smile. “Was that Zen’in guy a part of it too?”

You snort and shake your head. “No, he was a surprise. I didn’t expect to see him here, but it worked out you got to see how he is.”

Choso scoffs in amusement.

“That’s the guy you went, “tsk,” too, when I told you what my life would be like if I married him. You see now why I would’ve ended my life?” You tease him lightheartedly as you lean close to him even if he was already so close to you. “Unless you wanted me to be a miserable wife,” you exaggerate. “Which would hurt because I thought we were friends.”

Choso rolls his eyes and a small amused smile crawls on his face. “He’s…an annoying asshole.”

You snort. “You said it.”

“Still I don't know why you let him talk to you the way he did, and why you didn’t let me put him in his place. He had no right saying those things to you, y/n.” Choso speaks almost in a scolding voice that you can’t tell if it’s because he was getting you in trouble, or getting mad all over again over the situation.

Either way, he catches you off guard and you can’t stop your face from burning up, or from displaying your utter disbelief.

“I,” you stammer and clear your throat. “I'm used to it,” you say and hide your smile by looking down. “People, men mostly talk to me like that from time to time. The best way to deal with it is by not dealing with it, or by, you know, being snarky and showing off how much stronger you are than them.”

“Well, either way,” Choso mutters. “It wasn’t right. It isn’t right.”

You acknowledge him with a soft hum before you lift your head and lock eyes since he’s already looking at you. “You stood up for me though,” you tell him sweetly. “So thank you. I appreciate it. It was sweet.”

Choso’s chest rises and his eyes soften. “Of course,” he mumbles as his chest falls.

You share a soft smile and fight the urge to look at his lips as desire slowly develops in the pit of your stomach.

Yet no matter how hard you fight, he’s too eye-catching, and his close proximity is too inviting; you make the mistake of glancing at his thin and pink lips, and part your own, causing his chest to rise again.

However, you win your battle at the last second and turn away to face the fire.

“I did get a photo of him,” you say to distract you and him from what you almost did. “I’ll laugh at it with Satoru when he’s out.” You tug on a feigned smile.

Choso hums, and you hum back playfully but don’t look over at him, instead you keep yourself busy and reach in one of your pockets to pull out the glass swan figurine and fiddle with it.

Truth is you didn’t know if you were going back to the apartment after this particular mission, so all you brought with you is the swan figurine since you don’t trust someone not to leave it behind when you ask someone to pick up your belongings.

“So much for our meatballs,” you comment and once again reach in your pocket, but pull out a small bag of chips this time. “Shrimp chip?” You offer him as you push the bag towards him.

Choso reaches over and takes a single chip from the bag.

“Don't worry I found it in an abandoned store on our way here,” you share so he doesn’t think you took it out of the Worm's mouth. People tend to think that you keep snacks inside of it, which is ridiculous.

“It’s no soba,” he says before he takes a bite, making you look over at him and laugh softly.

“No.” You shake your head. “But right now,” you sigh dramatically. “It’s as good as we got.”

You turn to face him and reach over to touch his wrist and bring something up. “After this whole ordeal is done we have to go get some delicious ramen, it's the best there is. I mean It’s made by non-sorcerers, but the lady is nice and the greatest cook. I would marry the ramen if I could, that’s how good it is.”

Choso swallows his chip and quieres with a tiny amused half smile. “Marry food?”

You nod eagerly. “Yeah! It’s delicious!”

“Well,” Choso says softly. “I’ll take your word for it, but if it isn’t good you’re the one stuck with it.”

You chuckle, making his smile spread wider.

“Happily,” you assure him and sit back, catching in that moment Itadori opens his eyes.“See,” you point out and look to Choso. “He’s okay.”

Choso’s eyes look past you to watch his little brother sit up in confusion at his change of surroundings.

“Hm?” Itadori probes quietly the moment he finds his attacker sitting nearby. “I’m…W—”

“What a relief,” Okkotsu laughs nervously and only confuses the poor boy even more—“I think it was around September, Gojo came to see me. He asked me to watch over you so I had to put this act on.”

“Act?” Itadori presses.

You shift your feet forward to prop your elbow on your leg and rest your chin on your hand. “You really think my brother would leave you by yourself without backup?” You cut in, making Itadori slowly look back at Choso and you. “I can’t say he knew he’d be gone, but Satoru is smart even if he might not look it.”

Itadori’s eyes narrow on you. “I thought you were backup?” He asks.

You share a dry laugh. “I was help, but not back up,” you tell him the truth. “At least not the kind he needed, considering I too have a death sentence on my head. That’s why Okkotsu is here.” You feign a smile.

“Instead of allowing a different executioner or having all information about you being hidden I decided this workaround was best,” Okkotsu adds to the conversation so Itadori could further understand. “But they aren’t dumb, so in order to get Jujutsu headquarters to approve me as executioner I entered a binding vow to kill you. So I killed you. Sorry about that.”

Choso leans close to you. “I don’t understand,” he whispers.

You lean over to him and whisper back. “Just listen, he'll explain.”

Choso stays close to you and listens to Okkotsu carefully as if he didn't see his own brother alive.

“Then why am I still alive,” Itadori asks what Choso was questioning too.

“Because of reverse cursed technique,” Okkotsu shares. “At the same time, your heart stopped, I instantaneously healed you with reverse cursed technique. I thought it might work based on what I’ve heard about you.”

“Can you do that? You use RCT too.” Choso asks you as he keeps watching Itadori and Okkotsu talk as if Okkotsu is going to just attack his brother.

“No,” you sigh in disappointment. “I wish. Only a few can. The boy is one of them and my friend Shoko can too. It’s very impressive.”

“You mentioned,” he says.

You shift around and face him with a smirk. “Which reminds me, we’re going to be leaving our hideout now, so we’ll see more people and you won’t have to be stuck with me anymore.”

“I don’t mind,” he quickly rebuttals, making your breath falter and your eyes widen slightly—”Besides,” he adds. “I don't think other people will be as kind as you are to me. I still am a curse.”

“Half,” you correct him. “I see human. So half. You have nothing to worry about. Besides, I’m sure people should be more focused on other things instead of your appearance. If they are bothered then they got a problem or…you know,” you purposely leave hanging and wiggle your eyebrows even if your insides are slowly twisting at your own joke.

“I don’t,” he mutters, making you laugh softly.

“They like what they're looking at,” you clarify, making him blink in surprise and drop his head to scoff.

“There’s plenty of pretty women,” you continue and avert your gaze to fiddle with the swan in your hand.

Choso slowly drags his eyes up and watches you wiping the pad of your thumb over the glass. “I don’t need pretty women looking at me,” he mumbles, causing you to scoff breathlessly and lift your gaze to pass him a quizzical look.

“No?” You ask slowly. “You’re living now, it's normal.”

Choso's brown eyes lift off the swan and find your fire-kissed eyes shine even brighter. “Well,” he mumbles almost timidly but doesn’t finish because you cut in.

“As your friend I encourage it,” you try to comfort his worry. “It’s nice. Being loved by someone is a gift, like, you’re seeing radiant colors, the sun rising beyond the horizon, and the stars painting the dark sky for the first time. And loving someone is,” you sigh and smile. “It’s like breathing. You can’t live without it, it’s such a sweet relief…so I encourage it,” you laugh nervously.

“You might even find your own swan,” you mention and show him the swan he gave you.

Nevertheless, that makes him confused.

You smile at the swan. “Swans find one partner in their lifetime,” you share softly. “They fly around from pond to pond, lake to lake, and find one swan out of every place they visit and can visit and mate for life.” You peek over at him but quickly look away. “That’s what I mean,” you finish explaining.

Choso swallows thickly and shifts his feet, making the little pebbles scrape against the ground. And you now feel…stupid for saying all that, so you keep your eyes averted, and thank the fact that he can’t hear how fast your heart is beginning to race.

“Well,” Choso breaks his silence. “I didn't mean…you,” he says, making you snap your eyes over to him to watch him with hope you shouldn't have risen in the first place.

Yet the moment your softened red-orange eyes find Choso’s gaze every word he had just struggled to come up with, ‘poof’, vanishes and he’s just left with lips parted.

You keep looking into his eyes as you wait for what he’s going to say, but he can’t say a thing because the sound of Itadori muttering someone’s name steals your attention.

“Fushiguro.”

Out of the shadows comes Megumi Fushiguro, just like Okkotsu mentioned earlier. He looks just as broody as usual.

“Who’s that?” Choso asks you.

“Itadori’s friend and classmate,” you remind him. “Megumi Fushiguro. Urchin head,” you smile at your own joke.

“What’re you doing?” Fushiguro asks Itadori. “Let’s head back to Jujutsu High. The barrier around the school is loosening. As long as no one directly sees your face, it should be no problem for you to go back,” he assures Itadori. “We’ll rejoin the older students—”

“Stop,” Itadori cuts emotionally. “Don’t act like everything is normal. Don’t act like nothing happened! I killed people!” He cries out full of anger. “Because of me, lots of people died!”

“Yuji,” Choso tries to intervene, but you grab his wrist to stop him and let his friend handle it because no matter how close all three of you got during your time in hiding, he needs to hear from and talk to people he trusts more. You know you’d want that.

“It’s our fault,” Fushiguro argues. “Don’t be selfish and give up all alone. We aren’t heroes fighting for justice, we’re Jujutsu Sorcerers.”

Hmm…he kind of sounds like Suguru when he was in high school…

“No one can ever truly judge us so we must continually prove the worth of our existence,” Fushiguro continues to explain as Itadori gets on his feet. “And we don’t have the luxury of thinking about ourselves. We’ve just got to save people. I believe that was the original principle behind your actions. So start by saving me Itadori.”

You smile in admiration at his words and see Itadori’s eyes widen in reaction to what he hears too.

Hopefully, now he understands what you couldn't make him understand. He’s been beating himself up for too long because of it.

“Noritoshi Kamo has made plans for those involved with Jujutsu to face off in a Culling Game,” Fushiguro continues to share, making Choso’s hand fists out of annoyance over the simple mention of his father's antics.

“And Tsumiki is ensnared in that. So I’m begging you, Itadori. I need your strength.”

You look at Itadori as if this is some soap opera to you, and watch him as he looks at his friend with disbelief.

“Okkotsu,” Itadori mutters with his eyes on Fushiguro for a few seconds longer. “Sukuna is plotting something involving Fushiguro. He probably took over my body in Shibuya because I ate ten fingers all at once. I have ingested 15 fingers so. Even if I ate all remaining 5 in one go, I doubt he’d be able to take control, but,” he says coldly and looks at Okkotsu with a determined glare. “If I ever switch with Sukuna again, don't hesitate to kill me. I think you could do that.”

Okkotsu nods and assures Itadori. “Understood I’ll do what I can.”

You look at Choso and see him look concerned over what Itadori just ordered someone to do with what seems to be so much ease. But there’s nothing you can say to comfort him if you have no solution for that yourself. So you let it be.

“Fushiguro,” Itadori drifts his attention back to his friend. “What should I do?”

“First,” Fushiguro responds and lifts a finger. “We’ll go back to Jujutsu High and contact Master Tengen. We need to find out how to remove the seal on the prison realm. Also,” he lifts a second finger. “What are Noritoshi Kamo’s concrete objectives and future moves. The culling game is Jujutsu terrisom like never before. To fix this mess, we need to find the answers to these questions and I think only Master Tengen knows.”

“Maybe Tsukumo knows,” Itadori suggests.

You lean forward and cut in to answer. “This was her idea. We’re meeting up with her next, she’s hiding at the school.”

Itadori looks over at you and his eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Hiding?”

“She’s avoiding the higher-ups, she tends to do that,” you let him know.

“Hm.”

“The problem is Master Tengen’s concealing barrier, over 1,000 doors are continually shuffling,” Okkotsu interjects to add the major concern. “But only one leads to the tomb of the star corridor where master Tengen resides.”

“And we can’t contact Master Tengen if we don’t pick the right one?” Itadori asks, causing you to nod and hum.

“Mh-hmm, but—”

“Sorry Fushiguro, I have to ask.” Itadori cuts you off which if he just wanted answers from him he should’ve said.

“What happened to Kugisaki?” His sudden change in tone and questions surprise you and now you feel bad. Especially when all he gets is silence from Fushiguro.

“Oh…” Itadori whispers shakily as you see him fist his hand tightly. “I get it. I get it!!” He exclaims and drops his head as he handles his emotions.

“About that barrier,” Choso breaks his silence and catches Fushiguro by surprise, while you smile softly. “There may be a way past it.”

“Oh,” Okkotsu says softly. “You were listening?”

“What do you mean, Choso?” Itadori chimes in.

Choso gets up and steps forward. “Y/N once went in last year to steal the Death Painting Wombs,” he points back at you. “We can do the same.”

You nod and slap your thighs before you get up. “More or less of the same thing,” you add. “But yes we can go in. Choso and I planned it already. All we need is to meet up with Yuki and we can go. But first…”

Dinner!

After you pick up some fast food then you finally head to the school and Yuki. Which, since she is holed up she’s easy to find.

“Honey I’m home!” You announce happily and run past the students walking down the stairs to arrive in the hidden room.

“About time,” Yuki greets back with a small smile.

You offer her a small smile and don’t say a word to Maki Zen’in, you look at her and see the burn marks, but that’s all you do because Satoru told you that she and her classmates don’t like you after last year's events. Which is understandable. Plus you’re also kind of scared of Maki Zen’in. If she turns out anything like her relative she’ll be a terrifying person.

“I’ve brought you your dinner,” you let Yuki know and show off the bag before you run over and wrap an arm around her as a form of a quick greeting. When she takes the bag with her food you then jump over the couch and sit by her. “It’s a bit cold now, sorry it’s a long ways here.”

“It’s fine,” she assures you. “I don’t mind it cold actually.”

You glance at Maki talking to Okkotsu and whisper. “We brought her some too, it’s in the bag, give it to her.”

Yuki looks back at you. “Why don’t you?” She retorts.

You shoot her a pointed look and scoff. “Yeah right. She’s scary, you do it. Besides,” you yawn and lift your legs to rest them on Yuki’s lap as you sit back. “I brought it here.”

“Like if that has anything to do with anything,” she quips and peers back at Maki and Okkotsu.

“Is it okay for you to move around?” You catch Okkotsu ask.

“Yeah no problem,” Maki assures him nonchalantly.

“Here Maki,” Yuki says and hands Maki the food you had brought her before she interjects on the matter they were just speaking of. “It can’t be helped with burn scars. Even reverse cursed technique leaves a mark. I’d expect nothing less from someone physically gifted through heavenly restriction. It was her inborn physical toughness, not curse tolerance, that saved her life. It’s bad about the business with the head of the family.”

You scoff in amusement at that last bit.

“Well,” Maki says. “I wasn’t going for it. Megumi,” she changes the subject and looks over at Fushiguro. “What about Master Tengen’s barrier?”

“About that,” he mutters.

Alas, he doesn’t get to finish because Choso then steps forward and pats his shoulder to cut in. “I’ll explain.”

Since you already listened to his plan, and you went over it with him not so long ago you close your eyes to try and get a quick power nap, maybe?

“Between the doors and the tomb lies the cursed warehouse where Jujutsu High stores cursed tools and objects,” you hear his explanation in the background. “It holds the remains of my younger brothers Noranso, Sho-oso, Tanso, Sanso, Kotsuso, and Shoso. Even if they are remains, with the six together, a side effect of my cursed technique should provide some guidance.”

“Good!” Yuki exclaims and then moments after that you feel an elbow hit the side of your boob.

“Ow,” you whine and open your eyes, catching Yuki getting up as she takes a bite of her food—“you just hit my boob,” you snap.

“You were asleep.”

You pout in annoyance. “I didn’t even get to,” you grumble and lazily push yourself off the couch.

“That’s fine but,” Maki adds to the previous topic. “Who’s this guy?”

You glance over at Choso and before you can properly introduce him, Itadori responds, making you look over at him with curiosity.

“For now, think of him as my big brother,” he shares, making you smile proudly for Choso.

And when you look at him again you see him look completely baffled before he throws his head up and exclaims out of excitement. “Yuji!!!”

This is the first time you’ve heard him yell like that, he’s usually so soft-spoken, both because he's reserved and nonchalant. So hearing him shout with so much emotion actually makes you happy and even prouder that it was Itadori who got that out of Choso.

“See,” you tell him right away as you meet halfway to follow the others out of the hideout. “What did I tell you? He just needed time.”

Choso's lips pull to a wobbly smile and you can’t help but smile wider and with more admiration.

“You were right,” he says in a happy quivering voice.

You wrap your arm around his shoulders and give him a friendly partial hug. “I’m happy for you,” you let him know, making him look over at you with his eyes glossy and his smile unbreakable.

“Thank you, y/n,” he says in a soft voice.

You respond with a grin and steal a glance at his lips, which he answers by looking at your own lips.

But, neither of you do a thing about it, you pull your arm off his shoulders and look away, catching Yuki watching you.

Thus to get away from your temptation you skip over and catch up to Yuki as you walk out the door and step outside.

“Now that everything is tense here will you be staying longer?” You ask her since she still likes to bounce from place to place.

“Hm, no,” she answers without thinking about it. “I’ll take a vacation after this.”

You scoff.

“Why don’t you and your girl come with me?” She nudges your arm. “You deserve it.”

You draw out a deep breath. “I don’t think I can,” you break it to her right away. “So much to do here. I mean, I would like to take a vacation, but I don’t think I can anytime soon.”

“You have a mountain of people who can take care of your community while you’re gone, I mean Larue still lives there,” she brings up.

You avert your gaze and mumble, “yeah I know, but I need to take care of stuff here. It’s not…it was easier when Suguru was with me.”

“Oh.” Yuki proceeds to go quiet for a moment before she comes up with a way around your predicament. “Well, we don’t have to just leave. We can plan it.”

You hum and look over at her. As she feels your stare she looks at you and stares into your eyes before she quips. “Your eyes still creep me out. They’re like little torches.”

You laugh and smirk as something pops into your mind. “You know who likes my eyes?” You ask playfully.

Yuki's eyebrows furrow and she presses. “Who?”

You grin. “My sexy pirate husband.” You snicker.

Yuki rolls her eyes and groans.

“Wait who?” Itadori asks from the front of the damn group.

“Don’t—”

“Will Turner,” you share happily even if he was eavesdropping.

“Who?”

You happily pull your phone out and quickly find a photo of the man you’re talking about in your gallery. “Him, a character from a pirate movie,” you show off proudly. “Sexy pirate husband!”

Choso had walked to Itadori’s side amidst your conversation with Yuki and slowly looks over his shoulder to see who it is you’re speaking about.

“Isn’t he dreamy?” You coo and lean your head against your phone.

“Tsk.” Someone lets out with clear annoyance, but you don’t see who.

“He’s a fictional character,” Yuki likes to point out.

“So? He’s still hot.” You snap and keep admiring the picture. “Especially in that one scene where he grazes his lips over his lover's leg.” You giggle. “I never wanted to be someone so bad until the day I saw that scene. I combusted that day.”

“You need to obsess over a real man,” she teases.

“Like Legolas,” you add quickly and snap your fingers.

“Fictional elf,” she remarks.

“You sound like Suguru,” you mutter and put your phone away. “It’s okay, I've got plenty of love to go around.” You touch your chest and she rolls her eyes, making you snicker and see in that moment Maki Zen’in looking back at you. Not Yuki, you.

Since it is quite a long walk towards Tengen, there’s a lot of time, and she keeps glancing back at you as if looking for something in you. And you have an idea of what it is.

“If you’re looking for an apology,” you cut in bluntly. “You won’t get one.”

Maki looks back again and keeps her eye on you.

“You wouldn't get one even if you had died. I did what I thought was right that day.”

“You almost killed us, was that right?” She argues, and you chuckle.

“If we wanted you dead,” you mention with a smirk. “We would’ve killed you. I could’ve killed you before you lifted your weapon that day. But you’re here. You all are.”

Maki doesn’t counter with anything anymore, there was just no reasoning that would change your mind and nothing to throw at you that would affect you in any way she wanted, so she leaves it be and you continue.

“I’ll tell you this. To all you kids…” you pause and let out a deep breath, and all the kids you’re referring to look back at you one way or another.

“Don’t feel sorry or drown in guilt,” you continue with confidence so they believe what you’re saying. “Because there will come a time in your sorcerer career in which you will face a difficult situation. It’s a part of being a sorcerer. If you go on to think about it you will destroy yourself, so the best thing to do is let it go and live your life.”

Suguru faced a difficult situation and he drowned in the aftermath. He was never the same after that. You’ve faced difficult situations and you chose to get better because of it. That’s what you want for them as students, so you hope they listen, and you hope Itadori especially takes that advice.

“We’re here,” Yuki announces. “Just past those doors will be the main doors that lead to the barrier.”

You look around and it’s quiet, so you point it out. “Hey, there’s no guards.”

“There’s a lot to do,” Yuki says as she walks ahead when Fushiguro opens the doors. “Besides the last time you came here, you came to steal.”

True.

“Meh,” you let out and walk in after her.

Once everyone is inside, Choso opens the door and right away you’re bombarded by a thousand doors and memories.

The last time you were here you burnt all the doors down except for one, this time there’s no such disaster, Choso follows his brotherly instincts and leads everyone to red double doors at the top row of doors.

Perhaps if you had him last year you could have come and left before Satoru found you, maybe you could have found Suguru and saved him that day…

“Without a doubt, my brothers sleep beyond those doors,” Choso shares as he gently touches the door. “Let’s open them.”

You stay where you are and watch Choso and Itadori pull open the doors and welcome a dark eerie sight you recognize, meaning you’re on top of the dead forest.

“Let’s go,” Yuki urges the group and walks to the doors. “Deep in, there’s an elevator to the tomb.”

She jumps down first and Choso and Itadori follow. You let Okkotsu and Maki follow behind them before you land in the eerie dead forest.

“It’s even more eerie than I remember,” you murmur with distaste and break into a quick pace to catch up to Yuki as she leads the group forward now, past the warehouse, the place where Choso’s brothers are being kept, but can’t get into just yet.

They’re all just past his grasp, all he’s wanted in this world, but he has to leave them behind for now to help Itadori. Which shouldn’t take so long, but you can imagine his impatience and frustration by being so close, but not being able to reach them. It’s also why you can’t help but admire him though, he’s willing to walk away without them and wait longer for the little brother he just met.

Yet where there’s admiration you also mostly feel bad for him when you look back and see him with his hand pressed against that metal door, and a look of longing on his pale face.

You can relate to that longing, you've missed your brother too. He’s trapped now too waiting to be let out. You’d tell Choso that, comfort him over the fact that he’ll get them out soon enough because this is something you’ve talked with him about, but as you keep peering back you see that Itadori is with him, so you let them have this moment and continue at Yuki’s side. Pius you shouldn’t say a thing, he’ll just give you his rare and charming smiles, and your heart will swoon and sigh, while your mind clears and thinks about nothing else but him and how much you like to see him smile. And you can’t be swooning over him, you’ve told yourself that already.

However, when you’re on that elevator ride down, you end up beside him and you can’t help yourself. Besides it’d be rude not to, right?

“There’s only one way out,” you whisper so your conversation is not the center of attention in the silence. “You’ll take them with you on your way out.”

Choso sighs deeply and nods. “Yes, I know.”

You look over at him and he looks at you.

“You did what you promised,” he whispers with his eyes softening. “Thank you.”

Why can’t he just stay nonchalant? Why does he have to look at you in such a gentle way?

“In the end, I didn’t do a thing, you did, so don’t thank me,” you argue since it’s true.

“You still came,” he rebuttals.

“Well—”

“I thought you said to listen when someone is giving you gratitude,” he argues, making you grow flustered and grin at the floor over the fact that he’s using your own lesson back at you.

“Take it,” he insists.

You let out a deep breath and then look up at him with a softer smile. “You welcome Choso.” You give in.

Choso holds your gaze and hums.

The elevator doors proceed to open and you force yourself to quickly look away before your desire burns hotter and you’re tempted to close the gap and feel the warmth of his lips on yours. Nonetheless, when you step out behind the others, you wish you could be enveloped in that sweet moment again because now you see blood stained on the ground and their faces become clearer than the sky.

You didn’t know them long whatsoever, but the deaths of Kurio and Amanai still had an impact. Amanai’s death is why you hate non-sorcerers the way you do now.

“Blood stains?” Itadori is the only one that probes. “What happened here?”

You fall behind this time and stare at the large blood stain that they couldn’t remove, a bad memory of a sad day.

“It was 11 years ago,” you mutter and continue to lag behind.

“Y/N,” Choso calls out when he sees you fall behind.

You hesitate before you look over at him and break away to fall beside him and continue to follow the group.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

You meet his worried gaze and assure him with a gentle nod.

“Now that I think about it,” Yuki adds thoughtfully. “That’s when everything began to get distorted.”

You enter the tunnels that lead to the last barrier and approach the spot where Amanai died.

“All right, everyone the main shine is through here,” Yuki shares as she approaches the end of the tunnel.

Nevertheless, when you all walk out instead of seeing the row of buildings and the spot where Amanai died, you actually walk into a purely white room with nothing but what seems to be an endless room.

“Uh, this not the way to the shrine,” you point out.

“Damnit,” Yuki hisses.

“There’s nothing here,” Itadori points out the obvious, and Fushiguro follows to add a comment.

“This is the main shrine?”

Then again you never seeked the main shrine so what if this is it?

“No,” Yuki clarifies. “It’s rejecting us. Tengen doesn’t interfere with this world, but I thought contact was possible now that Six Eyes are sealed. I was too optimistic.” She mumbles.

You groan. “Well Tengen probably has the answer on how to get Satoru out,” you spat in frustration. “We have to keep trying.”

Yuki peers at you over her shoulder with a glare directed at the being not welcoming you in. “There’s probably archives with answers on the Prison Realm in your family home.”

You scoff. “My family home?” You remark as if it’s a joke.

Yuki nods. “The big families keep secrets no one else does, our answers will be there.”

You step towards her and argue “Yuki without Satoru gone I am not welcome home. I'm disowned in the eyes of my parents and the rest of my family.”

“I know,” she rebuttals. “But I am sure they’ll let us in when you tell them what you’re after.”

You part your lips to argue, but she’s right, so you just huff and already begin to dread what you have to do.

“Let’s head back then,” Okkotsu interjects. “We can break apart, some of us can get answers on how to get Gojo out, while some others go and help Tsumiki, she doesn’t have time.”

You groan and ball your hands into fists as you grow nervous about going home. You’re not even out of this space and you’re already starting to feel nauseous.

“Leaving so soon?” A voice booms out, causing your shoulders to jump, and your hand to fly over to grab Choso’s arm as if it were instinct.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” they add behind you, so you look back and see a tall…creature with a weirdly shaped head and four eyes.

“Child of Zen’in, Child of Gojo…”

Tsk.

“…Michizane’s descendent, Death Painting Womb, and Sukuna’s vessel.”

Tengen?

.

.

.

.

A/N- Just make out already!

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

[sinistergooseberries]

SALAAR (SPOILER ALERT)

continuing my tags from a previous post (sorry 😭 @deadloverscity) : like i said, i do think salaar is a good story so far. I like the world-building, I like the tribe coalition system that becomes a background for our story, and i like the fact that varadha and deva are in a toxic yaoi relationship.

im not gonna lie tho, i just haaaate the cinematography and lighting in prashant neel's movies. it's always a bad time there. It's like slapping a vignette over every frame of the movie, and it takes away any colour whatsoever. I understand that he wants to go for a dark vibe, but trust me, dark vibes can be achieved even without making the entire movie dark and invisible. I literally cannot see the actors doing any action! It's bad! It's not enjoyable. As a typical Telugu moviegoer (and assuming the movie was made for a predominantly telugu audience), I enjoy a somewhat vibrant colour scheme. So far, in all of our movies and even the mega movies (if you have watched RRR and Baahubali) there is a lot colour and imagery going on in the movies. I think in Prashant neel's cinemas, all of this is taken away. He has a set of colours that appear in his films consistently - which are black, grey and red. This colour scheme i feel, if repeatedly used, can be a bit boring and may take away the vibrance of the story. the stark contrasts (imo) do not emphasise the story, they overshadow it. still, take this w a grain of salt.

However, considering the fact that this is just his fourth film, ill cut him some slack. But man, if he is going to make movies for a telugu audience, i hope he lets go of the vignette filter.

next, the worldbuilding. i like it - here is a country that is completely separated from india, yet dictates certain aspects of it. i like that they chose an isolated place that evolves in parallel with the mainland, but retains the values of the tribes, making this place mythical and real at the same time. i was really intrigued by the tribe lore - about how the mannars ousted the shouryangas, and how rajamannar basically went against his own father's rule-book and is now facing dire consequences from bharava, whose tribe has the right to the throne right now. i also love love love loveeeeeee the fact that deva is the rightful heir to the throne - and also also the fact that whether he knows about this or not is left ambiguous. i love how this adds another layer to amma's hatred of khansaar and OH. MY. GOD. chef's kiss i love it.

as a personal taste, i don't like violence and epic fights tm overshadowing the narrative, which i feel the movie does. however, kannada film-making might be different. idk, i havent seen many kannada films other than kantara and kgf. the former is good i absolutely love it - the story is fantastic, the fight scenes are chumma, ufff i can praise it for days. the latter is pretty meh for me.

another thing i love about the movie is.. well, varadha and deva. dude, what is up with telugu guys unintentionally making queer movies these days? what is up with that yallll??? ohmygod. when i tell you that i smelled the romance im not lying. dude. dudeee. the whole friends to enemies to (maybe) friends/lovers arc theyve got going on? oooh baby i can feel the fanfics writing themselves. the whole soaked in blood-fighting-together scene? it was a miracle i wasnt jumping up and down on my seat. the dialogue in that scene 'i have friends more handsome than you' and then varadha getting kinda jealous and shit. lovely. the whole don't touch him thing that deva has got going on - baby boy just kiss him. and man. it's beautiful tragic and im writing a fanfic.

soo yeah this is my rant about salaar. im expecting something from it lol.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

prince's gambit highlights & annotations

chapter 1

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Across the courtyard, a couple of alaunt hounds came bounding down the stone stairs to throw themselves ecstatically at Laurent, who indulged one of them with a rub behind the ears, causing a spasm of jealousy in the other.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

the first thing laurent does in this book is pet a dog. i love him so much.

craft-wise, this foreshadows the shift in damen’s perception of laurent that occurs throughout book 2. his/our first impression of laurent in book 1 is him cruelly demeaning damen, almost like a dog, which is something we’re meant to hate. our first impression here is him affectionately indulging actual dogs who clearly know and love him. this might make the reader ask: why do these animals love laurent, when we understand him to be cruel? is our understanding incorrect, and/or incomplete?

context: in arles, the regent closely observes laurent’s attachments. he can and will destroy anything or anyone laurent cares about. but here, outside of arles, it makes sense that laurent would immediately feel more comfortable being affectionate.

laurent’s hot girl summer has officially begun ✨

Damen craned for a glimpse but, not being an owl, saw almost nothing.

The physician rummaged in the satchel and produced one of his endless ointments.

doesn’t this become a running gag? ointment reference #1

That was really too much. ‘It’s cosmetic?’

does damen take pride in his scars, and other physical indications of his experiences? that could be an interesting parallel to the cuffs throughout the series. or maybe he just knows he’s hot either way. or doesn’t want to be fussed over.

he is technically still laurent’s property—has laurent given any kind of indication that he finds the scars unattractive? or did paschal simply make that assumption, which laurent then went along with, knowing it would annoy damen?

The physician said, ‘I was told you would be difficult. Very well. The better it heals, the less your back will trouble you with stiffness, both now and later in life, so that you will be better able to swing a sword around, killing a great many people. I was told you would be responsive to that argument.’ ‘The Prince,’ said Damen.

paschal, sighing deeply as he commits laurent’s exact words to memory: i’m about to become the first homophobe in vere because these petty gay bitches can’t keep their nonsense to themselves

actually, new thing to count—every time a minor or secondary character has a valid reason to complain about damen and laurent’s lack of professionalism in the workplace. this is lamen hr complaint #1 (paschal).

But of course. All this tender care of his back, like soothing with a kiss the reddened cheek you have slapped.

great line.

connects to an ongoing theme: niceness vs. goodness. damen “sees through” laurent’s niceness, as it conflicts with laurent’s meanness that he personally has experienced. in the same way damen has a favorable bias towards kastor and the regent, he has an automatically unfavorable bias against laurent. which is totally fair, given the events of book 1! but this is a new book, and a new stage in damen’s overall series arc.

additional theme for books 2&3: tenderness. a wound is tender; it aches in need of soothing. but what soothes an ache? tender care. if nice is good and mean is bad, where does a concept like tenderness fit in? how exactly will we go from “all this tender care of his back, like soothing with a kiss the reddened cheek you have slapped” to “i think if i gave you my heart, you would treat it tenderly”?

Damen snorted. ‘It wasn’t that bad.’

a consistent damen behavior: the refusal to admit that he is helplessness, and/or experiencing circumstances beyond his control. i would call it toxic masculinity, but i don’t think it’s meant as gender commentary—it has more to do with being a prince and a king, worthy of the throne. toxic royalty, if you will.

‘If you served the King,’ said Damen, ‘how is it you now find yourself in the Prince’s household, and not his uncle’s?’ ‘Men find themselves in the places they put themselves,’ Paschal said, closing his satchel with a snap.

laurent of vere: the people’s prince ✨

also, interesting juxtaposition with previous dialogue about damen and paschal both being at marlas, on different sides of the battle. can we truly say that damen, at age 19, had put himself there? what does that suggest about his character and his kingdom?

‘Yes, of course,’ said Damen. Then stopped. Jord didn’t notice.

he needs acting classes from laurent

Damen said, ‘If you’re not going to tip your head back, why don’t we go find Paschal? He can give you a scented ointment.’

HA. ointment reference #2.

Damen thought of the ivory and gold casing that held a creature duplicitous, self-serving and untrustworthy. ‘You’re so loyal to him. Why is that?’

really nailing in the damen perspective subversion setup. also, the irony re: aimeric's loyalty!

Damen joined the work, where he was the only man to smell, expensively, of ointments and cinnamon.

ointment reference #3. he’s expensive.

‘Aimeric’s young. He says it won’t happen again,’ said Jord. It will happen again, and once the two factions in this camp start retaliating against one another your campaign is over, he didn’t say.

i love how we finally get to see damen in his element here, after experiencing The Horrors for 13 + prologue entire chapters in book 1

‘The Captain is in one of the horse stalls, up to his waist in the stableboy,’ said Jord. ‘The Prince has been waiting for him at the barracks. Actually . . . I was told to have you fetch him.’ ‘From the stables,’ said Damen. He stared at Jord in disbelief.

laurent wastes no time before assigning damen unpleasant tasks. does this count as an hr complaint? i mean it would be damen doing the complaining, am i counting charges they have against each other? no. they’d wreck the curve.

Inside, Govart was unambiguously fucking the stableboy against the far wall.

“unambiguously”

‘The Prince stays here often?’ The castellan mistook him to mean the keep, not the rooms. ‘Not often. He and his uncle came here a great deal together, in the year or two after Marlas. As he grew older, the Prince lost his taste for the runs here. He now comes only rarely to Chastillon.’

context: >:(

Laurent said, ‘I have saved you till last.’ Damen said, ‘You owe the stableboy a copper sol.’ ‘The stableboy should learn to demand payment before he bends over.’

“honey, i’m home!” sitcom entrance

‘Your virtue’s safe. It’s just water. Probably.’

somebody’s feeling playfulllll

Laurent placed the goblet carefully back on the table, and picked up the knife. It was a sharp knife, made for cutting meat. Damen felt his pulse quicken as Laurent came forward. Only a handful of nights ago, he had watched Laurent slit a man’s throat, spilling blood as red as the silk that covered this room’s bed. He felt shock as Laurent’s fingers touched his, pressing the hilt of the knife into his hand. Laurent took hold of Damen’s wrist below the gold cuff, firmed his grip, and drew the knife forward so that it was angled towards his own stomach. The tip of the blade pressed slightly into the dark blue of his prince’s garment. ‘You heard me tell Orlant to leave,’ said Laurent. Damen felt Laurent’s grip slide down his wrist to his fingers, and tighten. Laurent said, ‘I am not going to waste time on posturing and threats. Why don’t we clear up any uncertainty about your intentions?’

laurent explaining to damen that his behavior in arles was a bit in the most insane way possible

He was so infuriatingly sure of himself, proving a point. Damen felt desire come hard upon him: not wholly a desire for violence, but a desire to drive the knife into Laurent’s composure, to force him to show something other than cool indifference.

they’re so normal and well-adjusted

He said: ‘I’m sure there are house servants still awake. How do I know you won’t scream?’ ‘Do I seem like the type to scream?’ ‘I’m not going to use the knife,’ said Damen, ‘but if you’re willing to put it in my hand, you underestimate how much I want to.’ ‘No,’ said Laurent. ‘I know exactly what it is to want to kill a man, and to wait.’

“yes, and” “yes, and” “yes, and”

Laurent said, ‘When this campaign is over, I think—if you are a man and not a worm—you will attempt to gain retribution for what has happened to you. I expect it. On that day, we roll the dice and see how they fall. Until then, you serve me. Let me therefore make one thing above all clear to you: I expect your obedience. You are under my command. If you object to what you are told to do I will hear reasoned arguments in private, but if you disobey an order once it is made, I will send you back to the flogging post.’

this is their starting place for the book! “we hate each other, we owe each other nothing, we know that we are going to eventually attempt to kill each other—but for now, we are calling a truce and working together”

also. would laurent still love damen if he was a worm 🥺

Another pause, and then Laurent indicated once again to the chair. This time Damen followed his prompt and sat. Laurent took the chair opposite. Between them, unfurled on the table, was all the intricate detail of the map. ‘You said you knew the territory,’ Laurent said.

this is part of why i love damen and laurent so much as a pairing. they have interests and skills in common, and they make a genuinely good team. they’re intellectually compatible, in addition to sexually and romantically compatible.

[headcanontheshitoutofsoulsborne]

Guys, I have a confession to make. I have zero interest in playing the Elden Ring DLC atm. I still will open up headcanons for it starting August 1st. I spoiled myself on the lore and I made screenshots and got screenshots from friends for the most important characters. I think a couple are still missing like Ymir or Bayle, but I find a way around. But now under the cut I want to say the why I can't bring myself to play the Elden Ring DLC right now:

So... I was genuinely excited for this DLC. It would give us Miquella lore. It would finally tell us what his deal is. We can finally see his plan to save his sister etc etc. And then I saw people being REALLY disgruntled about the DLC. Mostly Mohg fans. So I got curious... far too curious. "What are they so upset about?" And so I looked up spoilers. I looked up who the final boss of the DLC is. Only to be slapped in the face with Radahn. Freaking Radahn! Apparently he and Miquella are doing a twin princes situation?! After that relevation I ran to AO3 to look at the ship tags...

Not. a. single. Miquella/Radahn. fic. had. been. written. pre. DLC. That DLC... just gave us a crackship that had nobody on the agenda and made it CANON! I couldn't believe it. But I first wanted to play through the DLC and see if I can take something from it that I like. And yeah, there are things I like from the lore, but I cannot help but think that final boss is bullshit that someone pulled out of their ass. Malenia whispering to Radahn in the story trailer is not enough for me. Okay, so I played the game, but... ...while the exploring is as fun as in the main game... It suffers from the same problems I have with the Elden Ring main game end game. Enemies with bloated HPs, FAR too long combos and I just don't have fun learning a boss when I heal after a combo and the animation is too slow so they hit me again with the start of their next combo. I don't want to summon my mimic tear for every single boss. Really not. But sometimes the DLC feels like it forces me to because I am not fast enough anymore. Why are all these bosses on speed? Sigh... it just isn't much fun to me anymore. What I liked so much in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, the hard and fair gameplay, seemed to have reduced to "hard for the sake of being hard". And yes, I collected Scadu Tree fragments. Doesn't change the fact that the bosses still have insanely long combos that my brain cannot comprehend. One day I will play through the DLC. I paid money for it after all... but after that sorely disappointing final boss reveal and the game being more of the weakest part of Elden Ring (at least for me), I don't feel like playing atm. I kinda hope that FromSoft takes a long break from Soulsborne now and thinks about where they want to go with it.

[six-white-venus]

hey stranger, would you listen to my sorrows for a little while? would you indulge this poor son of a gun sobbing on the side of the road about the same ol’ things, the same ol’ sitch would you listen to me, just this once?

can i tell you how it feels to sell a home? for money, of all things? well, firstly you close your eyes, count to 10, hoping  to wake up to your god-awful britney spears’ alarm but spoiler alert: you don’t. you  never do. you open your eyes to see the very same tragedy unfold only now in monochrome

it feels like this: you see the garden you waddled in through  when you were 8 and there’s a pause, an ache in your chest. the voice in your head says rewind and who are you to deny its wish?

grandpa is walking around watering the plants, admiring the palm-sized sunsets and lovely nights that bloom under his watch. i’ve known god for quite a while, my friend and let me tell you how he looks- he is 70, 76, 80 and 82 i’ve held god in my own arms and he has held me  in his he smells like baby powder and brushes his lips against my hair oh so gently. i’ve seen god, looking over with such fondness at a line of ants I am safe. I am safe. I am safe

it feels like walking inside the living room and being robbed of all your breath by some lousy scoundrel because this can’t be happening, right? (but it is. it is happening) this is not fair (is it ever?)

this is where my uncle ran  and ran to reach me,  eyes wild and petrified, when  i once forgot how to breathe underwater  (i was taking a head bath then. i’m not taking one now but mama,  i think i need you here. i think  i forgot how not to drown again)

oh, you’re still here? listening to silly old me and my silly old wounds wrapped in pretty words and poetry to hide the scabs and rot from your prying eyes? funny, because everyone and everything always seems to have  somewhere to run off to. i remember it all, as i stand there

i am twelve and nothing feels real when i see my grandpa’s sharp eyes submerged in fog god used to sit next to me and  read out english channel names  and laugh quietly. he used to  correct me on the pronunciation of the word  ‘thalai-anai’ and make sure grandma  never skipped a meal.  i’m twelve and he looks at me and doesn’t see me he looks at me and tries to remember my name

reality fades into white noise.

pockets empty and wallets filled with holes larger than the ones in my heart, i watch them pack up all our things i see cardboard boxes standing tall  in the kitchen and  the dining table is masked with a dusty white cloth and it is wrong, so wrong and I try not to look like my world is spinning a little too fast for my liking.

will there ever be someone else who will utter the words ‘goodbye’  and ‘i love you’ to these walls  like i have?

(i wonder: what is the price tag this world will slap on love?)

this house,  it has seen me stitch my wounds with  trembling hands and wipe my tears of happiness with my shirt sleeve. these gardens still wait for my grandpa  and say hello to him through  the whispering wind this house is not just a house it is home, it is love.

but my dear stranger, there’s also else something  i forgot to tell you: just like how we claimed  every inch of this place to be ours,  this place has left its traces all over me i may have to say goodbye to this house now,  but it will always live within me so with all my awkward grief and salt-stained smiles and open arms i say,

goodbye and welcome home, old friend

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

SCREAMS

WELCOME BACK

I’VE HAD A WEEEK OF THINKING ABOTU EP 4 NONSTOP AND THE ONLY REASON I’M NOT POSTING ART IS BECAUSE I’M PARANOID ABOUT PEOPLE UNTHINKINGLY SLAPPING SPOILERS IN THE TAGS (its happened before) BUT DADSY HAS MY ENTIRE SOUL ANYWAY

ITS EP 5 TIME AND HECK HECK

MONKIE KID SEASON 4 EPISODE FIVE WE HALFWAY THROUGH BOOOOIIIIIIS

BUCKLE UP I AM NORMAL ALREADY FOLKS

actually to be honest I’ve been pretty chillin until I doodled Pigsy and Mk and now I’m feeling feral THIS SHOW REALLY IS SO GOOD FOR MY BRAIN YELLSSS

OKAY OKAY HERE WE GO COURT OF THE YELLOW ROBED DEMON HECK SOUNDS FUN LETS BOOGIE

continues to be a banger theme song that i will listen to all the way through every time it plays thank you very much

. . .

i need a moment

lays down

Pigsy absolute beloved ;-;

ALSO I’M KINDA WHEEZING AT THE BLUE ISN’T REALLY MY COLOUR

HECK I DIDNT’ APPRECCIATE EP 4 ENOUGH SO YOU BEST BELIEVE I’MA BE CHERISHIGN THE CRAP OUTTA EPISODE FIVE

I’M JUST SO HAPPY PLS BGSL;DKFMSDF

Pigsy washing his clothes in the river, Mk doodling i adore I’m so much and MEI BELOVED BALANCING SWORD ON HER NOSE I’M

THE VIBES ARE SO GOOD I WILL CRY

i had to rewind because i just sat here watching and just ;-; SUCH GOOD VIBES MAN |;A;/

ALSO HECK DIOLOGUE

HECKINGDSFLKMSD

PIGSY CALLING OTHER PIGSY A MONSTER

HMHMHM JOTTING THAT DOWN UR HONOUR

NGL BUT THAT VALIDATES MY OWN LITTLE SELF-INDULGENT FIC I WROTE A WHILE BACK OF TIME TRAVEL AND HIM DISLIKING PAST HIM SORRY I’M JUST GRRGRRRAWRRR BITES /POS

IS PIGSY HAVING TROUBLE ACCEPTING THAT WAS A PAST LIFE?

HECK I’M BITESBITESBITES

THE LAST EP KINDA FELT CONFUSING WHERE TANGS FELT VERY THUROUGH IN WHAT THE BIGGEST REGRET THING WAS BUT

AFTER LITERALLY JUST THAT LINE I’M LIKE OH SO HIS GREATEST REGRET WAS JUST BEING WHO HE WAS HUH FR

I’M LIKE THIRTY SECONDS IN AND ALREADY NORMALGBS;LDFKMA

Tang with the name correction ;-;

PIGSYGBSDFLMWE

DON’T GO COMPARING ME TO THAT DEMON

I’M JUST PLAIN OL PIGSY

|;A;/

I’M FINE IGNORE ME

Pigsy ur so valid for wanting layers on hHNV;LKSMFSD But my good sir no need to apologize for being a hunk smhBG;LSKDFM;WOEF

Mei

Mei absolute beloved

a

s SCREAMS

DRAGON TIME

WE GONNA SEE HIIIMMMMMMM

considering i had so much brainrot about Wukong and Ao Lie brother moments after season 3 if we see him and we get any of his care for his bro i will be emotionally destroyed /pos LIKE I BEEN THINKING ABOUT THEM SM I TELL YOU AAAAAAAA

Mei: oh he must’ve been awesome

you’re right mei he was

just didn’t get much… screen time. book time? time BG;KSADFKMSDF

I WONDER HOW THEY’LL CHRACTERIZE HIM

HECK

AAAAAAA

SO MANY OPTIONS

i am very normal if we see him i’ll cry

Mei’s got some seriously good balance now

MY ANCENSTORGSLDFKMAGNMAWE

.

Okay i wanna laugh over Mei’s I THOUGHT MONKEY KIGN WIAS YOUR DAD! HE’S NOT MY DAD!!!!

I WAS GONNA LAUGH BUT U H

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME THIS HAS BEEN MENTIONED

MK IS LITERALLY DRAWING A STONE EGG

THE PEBBLE CRACKING IN HIS FLASHBACK

BUDDIES OF MINE SUDDENLY ON THE MK AND WUKONG SIBLING TRAIN

head in hands

so this confirms the theory that smacked me in the face last week this is fine

Mk fr probably a pebble from swk’s rock or something i don’t know TOO MANY FINGERS POINTING IN TAT DIRECTION I DONT’ KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT FEEL FREE TO PROVE ME WRONG UNIVERSE I WOULD GLADLY ACCEPT IT

AM I AFRAID TO LEARN ABOUT MK’S BACKSTORY NOW?

YEAH A LITTLE BIT

EVERYHTING IS FINE

TIS IS FINE

A

AH

PLS

SCREAMS

HE SAID IT

SHAKES YOU

GUYS HE SAID IT I’MGNSDFLK;MASDF

THE POINT

AND

PIGSY’S MY DAD

PIGSY SWEATINGBDL;KMASD

PLEASENG;LKSAMF

UR HONOUR

UR HONOUR PLEASE

THIS IS MY SEASON

THIS IS MY SEASON

HECKING

GETTING EVERYTHING I COULD EVER WANT SHUT UUUUPPPPBGS;DFKLMAW;EOIMFE

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

HIS BLEP AND CONTINUES COLOURING

Y’ALL MK MY BELOVED I ADORE THIS DUDE SM

PIGSY BLINDSIDED BY BEING CALLED DAD SO BLATANTLY I’M ON THE FLOOR

MK REALLY JUST

LETS CUT THE CRAP THAT’S MY DAD EVERUYBODY ELSE CAN GO I’MGBSD;FKMASDF

Guys I think i found my favourite episode

no lie this is

everything to me rn

PLEASE

A CONSPIRICY BOARDBG;SLKDMFWE

TANG’S DOODLES

SANDY STILL OFF SCREENGBSD;FKM;WOEF

CAN MEI BECOME A HORSENGKLMFD

GOOD QUESTION ACTUALLY

HECK HECK I FEEL LIKE THIS IS MOVING TO FAST I WANT TO GO BACK AND REWATCH THE WHOLE MONKEY KINGS NOT MY DAD PIGSYS MY DAD UH KID I’M NOT TECNICALLY-

HEKCKMGNDSFMSD

YEAH

I CAN’T BELIEVE

THEY’RE THEORIZING ON SCREEN

ABOTU WHETHER OR NOT MK’S RELATED TO MONKEY KING

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS REAL I FEEL LIKE I’M SCROLLING THORUGH THE FANDOM TAGBGBSDL;KFMSDF

I WILL CRY

HECK THIS IS SO FUNNY SEEING IT ALL SLAPPED OUT LIKE THAT I’VE LITERALLY THOUGHT THAT ALL IN THAT ORDER WE’VE MADE SO MANY THEORIES LIKE THIS I’M WHEEZINGNSDFL;KMSDF

BELOVED MONKEY KING

REAL SWK CONFIRMED

I’M GONNA SCREAM

THEY LEGIT DOING THIS??

FR???

I CAN’T BELEIVE THISGBSD;FKLMOEWF

SO

MK

RELATED TO MONKEY KING SOMEHOW CONFIRMED IG

ALL THAT

PLS

HE’S AT LEAST A STONE MONKEY

I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT WOULD WORK I LIKE MONKEY KING BEING ONE OF A KIND AND ALL THAT NOT SURE ABOUT THAT APPROACH BUT HECK IT WE BALL IG

ALSO PLEASELMGSAOFE

MK JUST LIKE NOOOO NONONONONOOO NO THANK YOU THAT’S CRAAAAZY

ah yess because he’s normally sooooo forthcoming with information

HELPGSDLKF

YEAH

SHE GOT A POINT LAD

SHE DO BE GOT A POINT

poor mk not looking very stoked at this possibility

CURIOUS YOU’D THINK HE’D BE ECSTATIC BUT IG TRUAMA DOES A LOT BGSDL;FKMS

MK COMUNICATING LEGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WELL WHEN WE FIND HIM WE CAN ASK HIM! :D

PLS I JUST LOV EHIM A LOT GUYS

PIGSYGBSD;LKFMWE

PIGSY YOU’VE BEEN HERE FIVE SECONDS WHY ARE YOU ANNOYEDNLGKMMFEEF

I’m telling you now! :D

PLS IT TAKES A SECOND TO FIGURE THESE THINGS OUT

H

HECK

SCREAMS

HECK WAIT

I’M NOT READY

THIS IS SO EARLY IN THE EPISODE WDYM

USUALLY THEY WAIT TILL CLSOER TO THE END TO LULL YOU INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY

WE’RE ONLY TWO MINUTES IN

HELP WAITBG;LSDKMF

also welp ig mk really is stone monkey HOW DOES THAT WORK I DON’T KNOW I’M IN PIECES GO BACKGNS;LKFMWE

i DON’T KNOW IF THAT’S MONKEY KINGS ROCK MK I THINK IT’S YOURS

ALSO UM WHAT THE HECKNVG;LKSDMFBGN;AKFMA;WOEF

MK VERY EAGER TO HAVE MONKEY KING EXPLAIN TO EVERYONE HE’S DEFINITELY NOT HIS DADGBSDF;LKM;SDF

th

heck

okay

so

so

soooo

that sounded

less like monkey kings voice there

and more like

ahem Mk’s

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

SCREAMS AND SHAKES YOU ALL

I SWEAR IF HE’S A CLONE

OR HECKING

SOMETHING ID ONT’ KNOW

HE HECKING BETTER NOT BE DEAD

IT BETTER NOT BE MONKEY KING ISNT’ ACTUALLY MONKEY KING AND MK’S HIS REINCARNATION AND MONKEY KING IS ACTUALLY JUST A CLONE LEFT BEHIND TO COACH HIS NEXT LIFE THAT STUPID THING I MADE UP I SWEAR I WILL BE CRUSHED PLEASE DONT’ BE THATBG;SDLKFMAWOE I MADE THAT UP FOR ANGST PURPOSES NOT FOR IT TO BE A HTEORY FOR CANON

i am full of fear

HECK THOSE ARE GIANT EYES

SCROLL CURSE

UP

OH NO THEY LOST THE CHEAT SHEET

CHEAT SHEET WAIT THAT’S SO FUNNYGHSBDFLK;MWEF

OH HECK

HECKK

ECK HECK JGSDJLFSJD

MEI

WATCH IT

OH SHE’S FAST NOW

OH RIP

WELP

I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING

SO WE’RE GONNA GET A MEI ARC IN THIS ONE AGAIN HUH

BREAK THE SWORD DISSAPOINTED FAMILY OR SOMETHIGN GOTTA RE-PROVE HERSELF OR SOMETHIGN HECKINGNFDL;KMWE

THAT’S SUCH PRETTY ANIMATION THO HECK EHCK

WE’RE ONLY 2:50 IN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS SCREAMS

.

THEY BETTER NOT HAVE BEEN ALL BUBBLED TO DIFFERENT PLACES I SWEAR

oh no yup separated

I’M SO SORRY MEI ILY

OH RIP

WELP

YUP EVERYBODY SEPERATED

AWESOME

.

HELPGML;SDFM

CONGRATS TANG LOOOKS ILKE YOU’RE IN THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN

GL WITH THAT

WIAT HELPGNSAOWE

HE FR JUST SCREAMS AND BUBBLES AWAY

HELPGMSLDF

I WAS EXPECTING HIM TO BE THERE LONGER HELPGNSDLFKMSDF

peak comedy there well done lets scream and run away from that chapter so true bG;LKAWEMFAEWFNAWFE

.

Mei.

Mei you

Mei you literally have the fire of Samadhi

you have the Samadhi fire

you don’t need a swordnGL;KMAWFE

OKAY THO MEI EP OR SOEMTHING IG

SHE’S GONNA GO ON A JOURNY OF SELF-DISCOVERY IG

ALSO WHERE THE HECK DID MK GO

WE SAW EVERYBODY ELSE

WER’ES MY BOOOIIIII

OH I HATE HIM

IMMEMDEATLEY

WHO’S THIS CLOWN

FIESTY

EAT MY FIST

WHY IS HE

TALKINGNSDFL;KMWE

KILL  HIM

SUS OLD MAN

OH RIGHT YEAH YOU’RE THIS GUY

OH HE’S A VIBE ACTUALLY

LONG HAIR VIBIN

.

YOU BETTER NOT HTINK MEI IS YOU’RE HEKCING WHATEVER

OR MAYBE YOU WANNA CONSUME HER

OKAY YEAH

FUN

I’LL BE SPICY ALRIGHT

OHH

OKAY CONCERN

BURN HIM ALIVE

COME ON W

oh

not gonna

eat her right away oka

ITS HIM

ITS HIM

ITS HIM HITSBSFBGANFABF;IOAWMEFAWMGFA;LFMAWOIEMFAF

SCREAMS

SCREAMS

ITS HIM

TIS HIM

SHAKES YOU SHAKES YOU ITS HIM

I KNOW IT IS

ITS HIM I TS HIM TBNSLKMGNEEM

ITS HIM

GREEN

GREEN

ITS HIM

SCREAMS IT HE

ITS HIM ITS MY MAAAN

ITS HE

SCREAMS

ITS AO LIE

SHUT I’M UP GONNA CRY ITS HIM RIGHT NOW HE

I’M HAVING A MOMENT HERE GUYS GIVE ME A SECOND I’M GONNA CRY

OH HE’S SO SCRUNGLY

OH HE’S SO

YES

OH THE LONG SLEEVES EXCUSE ME HE’S SO DELIGHTFUL

I IMMEDEATELY ADORE HIM

I am not normal

HE’S BEAUTIFUL

HIS LITTLE HEADTILT

I WILL SOB

HELPGMSDLFKMSDF

TANG JUST ZOOMIN

NOP NOPE NOPE NOPE

THE NEZHA MOMENT

THIS IS ACTUALLY SO MUCH FUN

HECK AO LIE IS SO SCRUNGGLY I WOULD DIE FOR HIM YA’LL

HE’S DRAWN SO NICE

HES’ BEAUTIFUL

MEI GETS TO HANG OUT WITH HER ANCESTOR

SHE’S EITHER GONNA BE ANNOYED BY HIM OR VIBE AND I’M GONNA CRY EITHER WAY

OH NOPPES OUT TANG ET MOVING

YUP NOPE

THAT’S THE WORNG DOOR VERY MUCH

OH HE’S LAUGHIGN AT HER

WHATS SO FUNNY GUY

I LOVE

I LOVE HIM

SISTER

PLS

I ADORE HIM

YOU DONT’ UNDERSTAND I’M IN LOVE WITH HIS DESIGN THE VOICE ACTOR IS SO GOOD

THE :3 FACE THEY’RE GIIVNG HIM

i am actually going to cry YOU GUSY HE’S SO SCRUNGLY

PLEASE

PLEASE HE’S EVERYHTING TO ME

I WANT TO GIVE HIM SNACKS

THE TRIP

PLEASE

HE’S JUST A GOOFY LITTLE GUY

truly this is the youngest sib during the journey truly tis him

i love how i’m just assuming this is Ao Lie when i actually have no proof its just the vibes via the story and the fact he’s beautiful and green and absolutely delightful I WOULD DIE FOR HIM YOU DON’T UNDERSTANDNGLSDMAGNWO;EFM

oh man we’re only halfway through this is gonna be a long post hG;KLSDFJSD

THIS GUY

YUP MILDLY ANNOYED

I LOVE HIM

OH

OH BUDDY NO

BUD

BELOVED

I’M ABOUT TO CRY

BRUH REALLY

JUST VIBIN

WAITING FOR HIS PWOERS TO BE SNATCHED

AND MEI JUST OUTRAGED BY THAT

YEAH

I’M

HECK

HECK GUYS THAT’S HER ANCESTOR I’M GOING TO BURST INTO TEARS THIS IS A THREAT

INACTION IS CARELESS

IN

INTERSTING

MADAM

MEI NOT ALL OF THAT IS CORRECT

OH LETS GO I HOPE THIS IS A BOTH LEARN SOMETHING FROM EACH OTHER ARC I WILL CRY

MEI HECKA PASSIONATE ABOUT HER FRIENDS

HELPGMSDFLMADF

DO NOT SENSE

PLEASE

PLEASE HANG ON THIS IS MOVING SO FAST

THEY WENT FROM LIKE

HI HI

*INTENSE PHYSCOLOGICAL DISCUSSION*

THEY JUST MET PLEASENG;LKMSDFE

IS IT GONNA BE LIKE

GET OUT AND THEN SURPRISE! I’M AO LIE!

ANYWAY IT WAS NICE MEETING YOU BYEEEE

PLS

A SWORD IS POWERLESS WITHOUT THE HAND THAT WEILDS IT

I ADORED IT

MY DUDE WHO IS PROBABLY AO LIE no its’ definitely Ao Lie AO LIE BELOVED I LOVED IT ITS A GREAT BIT OF WISDOM

THEIR LITTLE BANTER IS SO FUNNY PLEASE

MEI’S READY TO BITE HIM HE’S JUST SILLY GOOFY MAN

THEY BOTH GOT GOOD POINTS

man family dinner must be fun if his sister’s anything like Mei bGALK;SMDFAOWEF MAN I LOVE THEM

TANG REALLY GOING THROUGH IT

M

MO??????

MO??????

MO IS THAT YOU???

HECK???

WHERE’D YOU COME FROM???

WHY AREN’T YOU WITH SANDY??

i mean sandy’s probably not sandy rn but MO????

OH HECK

HELLO

AH

LOUDLY

DECLARING THAT HUH

WHATS GOING ON OVER THERE

Y’know hang on before we listen to Wukong’s bros trash talk him i wanna think about the fact that Wukong and Ao Lie probably get along great because they’re so alike

they’re just silly goofy Ao Lie probably reminds Wukong of himself back when he was just goofing off pls

OH??

OH MACAQUE’S THERE LISTENIGN TO THEM TRASH TALK HIS BELOVED FRIEND?? YEAH?? OH I’M INVESTED LETS FREAKING GO

unpredictable sure is a word for WukongnGL;KMEAFWE

CHARERISTICALLY QUIET PLSNG;LSDKMF

oh wow hey

New VA nailing it actually

deeper sounding

more gruff hang on i need a sec

lays down

heck

okay

okay we’re good

lets see if Azure’s vibes continue to be rancid or he says something to bring it back

also my goodness what a good thing to slap in there, Monkey king gone for years at a time sure does make it sketchy i’m biting this

OH HE’S IN THE BIG OL KING SEAT UH

TANG RECIGNIZING HIM FROM THE DOODLE

PLS THAT’S SO SILLY /POS

NO YEAH ME TOO DUDE

HE’S HECKA SUS

HIS VIBES CONTINUE TO BE RANCID

also heck i’m curious as to what they’re gonna do with this

like if Mac goes along with those three and then it’s actually the other way around not Wukong betraying them but them betraying him that’d be WILD considering we’re all so sure its something Wukong did but heck maybe Azure really does do something heck heck

OKAY BACK TO THE FAMBLY

and the excellently designed dude i immediately hated

he and Ao Lie are on opposite sides of the scale for me pleasemKLGASDF Cool design I IMMEDEATELY HATE HIM and COOL DESIGN I ADORE HIM

Whats up greasy ole face weirdo

oh

OH BELOVED

BEAUTY FIRST

DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT

DID HE JUST SAY BEAUTY FIRST OR AM I JUST IN LOVE WITH THE DESIGNGNSDLFKMABGOWEMF

I’M GONNA ASSUEM THAT’S WHAT HE SAID AND CRY OVER THE FACT AO LIE IS PRETTY WE BEEN KNEW

OH MAN MEI’S GREAT

YEAAAHHHHH

SCREAMS

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

is the the DANG DRAGON MOMENT U SEEM MORE FAMILAR ARE WE RELATED MOMENT OR GNSLDK;MFAOWEIM

AAAA

SEH’S SO GOOD I LOVE HER A LOT

GET EM MEI

OH

AYO

MADE HERSELF A SWORD

LETS FREAKING GOOOOOOOOOOO

SHE’S SO GOOD

I LOVE HER

WHITE HORSE DRAGON

HEAR THAT AO LIE??

HEAR THAT???

Its okay i’m fine i’m just losing it

GET EM GURRRLL

SHE’S SO

FREAKING POWERFUL

OH WOW THE DRAMATIC

HAIR SWOOSHY

I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS THE RIGHT DAY TO BE CARELESS

OH

OH FREAKING

HECK

WOW

HE’S

OH WOW

AW

I LOVE

HIM

I LOVE IM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM

ITS YOU

AO LIE LIKE EH??

VA GO BRRR

I KNEW YOU WERE COOL

OH REALLY YOU THINK SO? :D

HE’S SO SCRUNGGLY

OH THE COOLEST

PLEASE

I WANT MORE OF HIM

I WANT MORE OF HIM SO BADLY

I BEG OF YOU

HE IS EVEYRTING TO ME I GOT CHILLS

HECK

HECK

OH

OH

OH MAN

MAN

AMV TIME HERE I COME THIS SEASON IS SO FREAKING GOOD I’M LOSING IT

I’M GONNA MAKE SO MANY AMVS I SSWEAR

I’M GONNA WATCH THIS EP ON LOOP

AO LIE IS EVERYTHING

I WANT HIM BACK

PLEASE

AAAAAAAAAA

|;A;/

SCREEAAAMMSSS

OKAY

OKAY

MK

OH MY BOY  ARE YOU ALRIGHT?

HECK HE WAS STRAIGHT UP KNOCKED OUT UNLIKE EVERYONE ELSE

GO BACK WHERE’S PIGSY HECK HECK HECK

I WANT MORE DADSY CONTENT WAAAAIT

OHBOY

WHERE ARE THEY

W

OH PUTI

OH

OH

OH

OH ARE WE

WHERE

HECK

HANG ON

SHOOT

HE IS NOT REPLACING SWK IN THIS

I SWEAR

I WILL LOSE MY GOSH DANG MIND IF THEY DO THAT

SWK IS TOO IMPORTANT TO ME DON’T DO THIS TO ME

HECK HECK HECK HECK HECK

SCREAMS

OKAY

OKAY SO MK IS IN

MONKEY KINGS PLACE

HECK

SO CONFIMRED MK STONE MONKEY AT LEAST, LITERLALY SWK’S SON OR SIBLING AT MOST OR LITERALLY SWK, AO LIE IS MY MOST FAVOURITE EVER I WANT HIM AND SWK BEING GOOFY TOGETHER RIGHT FREAKING NOW, ZHU BAJIE’S GREATEST REGRET MIGHT JSUT BE HIM BEING HISMELF, LBD LOOKED RIGHT AT TANG, MEI CAN MAKE HER OWN NEW SWORD NOW, MK MIGHT BE REPLACING MONKEY KING, AZURE’S VIBES CONTINUE TO BE RANCID, THE NEW VA FOR MAC IS DOING A REALLY GOOD JOB OF SOUNDING CLOSE THE TO THE OG (nothing but appreciation for this guy thank you big shoes to fill) AND THEY’RE ALL SEPERATED, TANG FOUND MEI THO, AO LIE WAS READY TO GIVE UP HIS OWN POWERS, THEY CLASHED BOTH HAD GOOD POINTS, TANG BOOKED IT OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN, MK DIDN’T KEEP HIS FRIENDS IN THE DARK ABOTU HIS VISIONS FOR LONGER THAN LIKE TWO EPISODES AND IS COMMUNCIATING, SEEMS TO HAVE A PROBLEM THINKING ABOUT SWK AS HIS DAD, PIGSY GOT CALLED DAD PIGSY’S MY DAD, AH HECK HECK THIS EPISODE HAD SO FREAKING MUCH THEY FOUND MO, HOLDS HIM GETNLY, MACAQUEEEEEE AAAAAAAAA I LOVE ALL THESE GUYS SO MUCH

SHUT UP I THINK THIS IS MY FAVOURITE EPISODE NOBODY TOUCH ME I GOT EVERYTHING BUT WUKONG AND I’M ON A HIGH

KNOX OUT I GOTTA GO RUN INTO SOME SNOW

[epithet-beloved]

Hi I'm shimmying in here awkwardly but can we have some ideas for Jericho x Dixon for the 3 starving jerixon fans please

MEETING HALFWAY

synopsis… Dixon and Jericho both need romance advice, and the only people they can ask are their cellmates, who are coincidentally both terrible at it.

ft. Jericho Felocity, Dixon Roughhouse, Ramsey Murdoch, California Slim, Alcatraz

tags… anime campaign, epithet erased spoilers, Slim and Ramsey give awful romantic advice, pre-relationship, mutual pining, straight up painful pining they are both so oblivious, Dixon sorta has a nervous breakdown

word count… 1284

a/n… this is my first time writing Dixon I hope the fandom approves of me ✧ 🦄

“Well, at least it’s not Ramsey.”

Was the first thing California Slim said when Jericho told him he had feelings for Dixon.

“Yeah, but what do I say to him?” Jericho was frantically running on his treadmill to blow off some steam, a clear nervous energy about him. In clear contrast to his normal, everyday frantic running on his treadmill. “I’m not really that great at talking. You think he even notices me at all?”

“Oh, don’t listen to Slim, Jeri!” Alcatraz was much more enthusiastic about this matter than the murderer he was attached to, and saw fit to float next to Jericho trying to calm his nerves. “Dixon seems like he’s got a lot to say himself, I’m sure he just appreciates you being a good listener!”

“Yeah,” Slim scoffed, “a lotta crazy bullshit to say.”

The ghost turned to glare at his companion, but with no face, the look of disappointment on his face was left entirely to the imagination.

Jericho, lost in thought about his current dilemma, seemed utterly oblivious to the argument going on behind him. “Yeah, maybe it’s better if I just let him talk. I don’t want him to think I’m weird or anything.” Almost as if to demonstrate his point, the man’s body phased partially through the front of his treadmill whilst he continued to ‘run’ in place as if nothing were wrong.

“Jericho, everyone in this place is goddamn weird. And Dixon’s a nut — guys like him can’t afford to be picky about their company.” Slim just watched his cellmate for a few seconds, then sighed and massaged his temples. Usually, Jericho was an alright guy to bunk with, but sometimes he could be a real headache……. “You sure a relationship in prison could even work? You guys only see each other during lunch time.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Alcatraz quickly said, as he did after pretty much everything Slim told people. “I’m sure you two will find a way! You’re such creative souls!”

“That’s sure a way to put it…..” The actual murderer eventually stood up, finally deciding to do something about his poor friend’s predicament. “C’mon, man, you got yourself all outta sorts.” Thinking it would help somehow, he gave Jericho a hearty slap on the back to try and force him out of the treadmill, but this only created a bigger problem.

“Oh, that’s not good!”

“No fucking shit, Sherlockatraz!” The two unfortunate souls were currently faced with their friend lodged halfway through the cell wall, legs dangling in a janky position. Slim first pressed his ear to the wall, trying to make out if the speed runner was suffocating to death like he did last time. “You breathing in there, dumbass?!”

“Oh,” came Jericho’s voice from the other cell. “Hi Dixon!”

California Slim turned to the ghost with a tired expression. “Never mind. It’s worse than we thought.”

Not like things were going much better in the cell next door before that, anyway.

✧ ✧

“I dunno, I just, I just—“ Dixon was pacing back and forth like the madman Ramsey knew that he was. “I feel like he’s the only one who gets me, but like, what— what if he doesn’t get me? What if he’s an alien? Or a spy? Or— or an alien spy?!”

“Dixon,” started Ramsey, who was laying on his bed like a teenage girl while drawing another commission of a certain inmate’s fursona. “He avoids clipping to the front of the lunch line every day just so he can stand next to you. I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

“But what if he’s just like that with— with everyone?!” From the corner of his eye, Ramsey saw Dixon hunched over with his hands in his hair. If he got any more nervous, he was pretty sure the guy would start pulling his hair out.

“You’re overthinking it.”

“And why shouldn’t I overthink it, man?!” In the split second that Ramsey looked away, Dixon had rushed over to his bunk and was now aggressively shaking the poor rat man by his shoulders. “I finally have the first good chance with a guy in years, he doesn’t treat me li-like I’m crazy, and I could— I could just fuck it all up! ‘Cause crazy fuckin’ Dixon fucks everything up!”

“Hey, hey, relax…..” Worried for his cellmate, Ramsey would slowly raise his hands and place them on the bespectacled man’s shoulders. “None of us ever said that about ya.”

“Slim tells me I’m a nut.”

“Slim’s a dick and he does not speak for us.” Ramsey took a pause to sit up properly, not slouching as he gave his friend a serious look. “Listen, Dixon. My man. If you’re crazy, then so is everyone else in this damn place. And Jericho is the sweetest guy I know, there’s no way in hell he isn’t happy to listen to you. I’m happy to listen to you. So even if stuff doesn’t work out, look at me.”

Dixon, who had stopped shaking, flickered his eyes up from the floor to Ramsey’s face.

“You’ll always have me. We’re buds! I mean it.”

There was a long pause where neither man said anything, and the conspiracy theorist’s eyes resumed darting around the room at high speed. Always thinking, considering, analyzing. Perhaps a bit too much sometimes.

“Y-yeah,” he’d eventually stutter out from between clenched teeth. Finally noticing how tightly he’d been holding Ramsey, he pulled back like he’d just touched a hot stove. “Sorry….” He held one of his wrists and watched his own hand as he flexed it lightly. “Guess I’m just used to all the sorts of stuff….stuff my family—“

A loud crash and the room shaking made both men yelp, interrupting whatever was about to be said in favor of whipping their heads around to the first and last person Dixon was hoping to see.

“Oh, hi Dixon!” An awkward, smiling Jericho was what awaited them, waving with one hand while the other dangled uselessly. Only his upper half graced the room with its presence, the other presumably stuck in his own cell.

“Oh,” Dixon mirrored, suddenly laughing to fill the silence. “Hey! Need, uh…..need some help there?” Shit, he was repeating his words again. Was he weirding him out?

“Nah, I’m alright for now.” Wait, was he worrying him? Now Jericho almost felt bad for showing up. “Just, uh….haven’t talked to you in a while. How’s it been?”

“FINE! I mean uh. Fine!” Dixon lied. “Was just talking…..talking about……”. The man made the mistake of glancing at Ramsey for guidance, who was of no help and instead chose to gawk at Dixon helplessly. “…..alien spies!”

With a conversation hook, Jericho now felt less nervous. He liked it when Dixon talked — it was like the only side quest dialogue in the world he wouldn’t skip. “Wow, I love aliens! Like in Metroid!”

Dixon pointed at Jericho and nodded rapidly, too nervous to do anything but blindly agree and go off of what the other man was saying. “YES, it is exactly like Metroid! You are SO right! Y-you know, it’s kinda like how— how jellyfish are ancient alien parasites that’ll create the zombie uprising!”

“Really? I’d love to be a zombie, because then I’d be the fastest one!”

✧ ✧

“You know, they really are just painful to listen to.”

“Slim, be nice!” Alcatraz chastised. “I for one am glad that they’re bonding! You should stand to be more like them!”

“Mmm, no thanks.” The murderer peeled himself off of the wall and skulked back to his bed. “I’m just glad I’ll get to say I called it when they start dating in a few weeks.”

[marisramblings]

I find Sansa Stark Interesting

(Spoilers for game of thrones book 1)

I just find Sansa interesting. I do dislike her, mostly because if I had Sansa as a sister, I would definitely have slapped her by now. I don't know why people think I should be stanning when she calls her own younger sister "ugly", treats her like she is a burden, calls Jon "bastard", and lies for her crush against her sister. Joffrey attempted to murder a stable boy and Arya defended him. She was clearly in the right.

Sansa thinks it's a great idea to lie about that. I don't care that she is a kid. She is the elder of the sisters and it's inappropriate, even as a teenager, to lie about something like that. Even worse, months later she continues to propagate the lie.

None of these things make her bad character. They make her a very real character. I don't understand tagging something as "anti" character just because you dislike them, because disliking a character can be a sign that they are wonderfully crafted. I kinda wanna slap her, but she's 13. It's not that deep. I do think lady dying was unfair to lady, but a just punishment for Sansa. She has consistently gone against her own family over a crush. I was 13 once, get the urge but not to this degree.

I don't know where she got this from, no one else would do the stuff she does. Maybe she bought into the Kool-Aid so to speak of being noble? Catelyn and Ned are older and have the wisdom of age. They have seen war and felt grief. They understand some of the realities of what is happening.

Right now, I feel so horrible for her. The tragedy of Ned's execution is not so much the execution, because that man was a walking death flag. He has more death flags than Aki from Chainsaw Man. No, the pain comes from Sansa because she was the only one, besides Cersei but who cares about her, who thought Ned wouldn't die.

Sansa is bratty and she is somewhat cruel to her sister. I am an only child, but l feel like calling your own sister, ugly, and then saying that you wish it had been hurt that was killed instead of your dog is bad and is cruel. I think that's fair.

Now, Sansa is in a precarious situation that I truly would not wish on anyone and l am praying that she gets to kill Joffrey. She deserves it. I wish her the best of luck because she is in the most dangerous situation currently.

Just because I dislike her, and I do have every right to it does not mean I am anti-her existence, she is a great character and I'm curious to see how she progresses as the story continues. I will fight a child. I mean Joffrey is right there. I'd fight him. Yeah, I don't like Sansa but the worst thing that should've happened to her is getting slapped by her sister or maybe Ned, though he wouldn't do that, and he sure can't now.

I don't want to fight about Sansa. I want to discuss her.

[ipsen]

kanae brainrot apparently

“oh that kanae gender poll is neat haha anyways” the next day comes “oh okay.”

my opinion on kanae is “interesting without the burden of hindsight.” if tg had positive trans rep in mutsuki or big madam kanae would be a very good character with a very compelling arc. unfortunately, tg slaps every trans or ngc character with the “GASP. lying about their gender?!” tag at least once. at least mutsuki kinda gets away with it.

anyways. let’s do some vacuum analysis. under the cut.

kanae’s purpose in the story is heavily related to her perception of his personal gender versus what gender she thinks will better serve her family legacy. As the very last remaining rosewald, she wants to be a man because for one reason or another, she perceives women to be weak. her mother succumbed to illness early on when they fled germany, for example, while her brothers fought unflinchingly to help her escape. She was very young, so these facts made an impression upon her.

of course, no one calls her out on this because no one around her understands. They don’t know what it’s like being alone. They don’t know what it’s like losing everything and wanting nothing more than to get revenge against the ones who think they’re better and stronger. They don’t know. They don’t know her. She wishes they knew her. She wishes they loved her.

Until one day:

(can i PLEASE take my eyes off this woman for FIVE MINUTES jesus christ)

eto hates two particular things: herself, and people who lie. this is a core character trait of hers and explains the targets of her torture. people who remind her of herself and think of themselves as superior to someone/something else. why?

because she’s been in those very situations, and it worked out for the worst.

eto targets kanae because kanae hates humans on a broad scale (see: how she treats chie), but this is born of fear as only the ccg are the cause of her suffering and the only ones who really care about her dying, and despite having been thrown about by “humans” (again, ccg) and seeing the value non-ccg humans bring to the table (again, chie (bless chie’s heart btw), who is also hunted by the ccg), kanae still despises them and sees them as beneath her.

eto was the same way at one point. she was targeted by V, who took Noroi, her only family at that time, away from her. In her quest for vengeance, she mutilated Kasuka Mado, who, for all intents and purposes, is not a part of V, but an unwitting weapon swung around by them. she presumably does similar things to other investigators out of rage and pain because there’s nothing left for her and she has no support system to reign her in. this is until she meets arima who decides to help her (and even then…).

and eto, more or less, broke free of the mindset kanae is currently in. only thing is: eto also hates herself. she hates how many people have died on her quest for change, how many people will continue to die even when she “wins”. she hates herself as the instigator, but it’s all she knows and all she will continue to do, and she wishes she could just mutilate herself and die and answer for everything she’s done. but that would be a purposeless death. so she turns to a different pastime and breaks out the sewing kit. surely she can “fix” this pitiful caricature of herself while getting the twisted satisfaction of “hurting” herself.

(spoilers: it doesn’t work.)

and you know what they say: as eto, so kaneki.

neither wants to hurt kanae, not really, but rather they want to hurt the image of themselves that kanae exudes. is it better? no, but it’s an important distinction when factoring in characters.

… this was supposed to be about kanae. please accept my apologies. let’s get back on track.

it’s tragic, isn’t it? the people who have real, genuine, human experiences (eto can eat human food, kaneki was human) are the ones who inflict arguably the most pain on kanae. she continues to be at the mercy of the humans she hates so much. their twisted perceptions of love have infected her and she dies.

and yet she thinks she dies happy.

—

well those are the morning thoughts while i’m supposed to be on vacation. thanks for reading!

[youraveragedeltafan]

First book spoilers ahead! (please tell me there's prequel book fans, I can't stop thinking about it)

The first Road 96 prequel book is the most interesting thing in the tri-state area to me because of Robert, John, and the fact that it's kinda left up to interpretation whether or not Jarod was a good dad. There is a scenario in which he slaps Lola. Was it just that one instance or a pattern? (and a reason why Robert, a former teacher, could manipulate her into running away)

It's clear that Robert looks for vulnerable people to take advantage of, like Kaito's family and the Kims later on after they join. Notably, we know for almost a fact that both Naomi and Stephen were having second thoughts about the "plan" (I feel like ppl forget that the Brigades didn't cause the attack in '86 but they did try). It's clear that all the adults with Lola were self aware too, as they bring up their concerns about her being in danger at least once.

But here's the interesting part-it's not all Robert (In fact, he's said to have gone missing in dialogue, right before the attack too. How convenient). I know that it's said in the game that John used to be like him, but I think it's in a whole other lens reading it in the prequel. To me, it almost adds more to his guilt in the game when seeing him be kinda mean to Lola or manipulate Naomi and Stephen (who legit have a 5 year old with them) into going through with their mission despite everything.

Anyway, that's why the book is very funni and good and adds to the game. Read it if you haven't. Yes I'm talking to you random person who doesn't care about spoilers and read this because new post in the road 96 tag (Me. I am calling myself out)

Oh, also Stan and Mitch can potentially do the stupidest thing in the world, and they BOTH do it no matter who you side with so it PROVES that they share one braincell depending on who you're nice to. I know I like to write Stan as if he never has done a violence in his life, but he shoots his gun at the most random crap in the book and at the worst times. He is responsible for at least 2 game overs that I know of and it's funny every time

Side note: I really want to add the wacky misadventures Florres had in the book into the wiki but I am too distracted by other stuff atm and also are the books even canon??

[shrapnelstars]

I was debating talking about it despite my annoyance with spoiler culture, but eff it, I'll tag properly and talk about it, because I've seen this in a lot of guys I grew up with, and it just kind of hurts your heart.

(Spoilers below in case the tags fail.)

That one line Ken had towards the end had a major impact on me. "I was pretty done with patriarchy anyway when I found out it wasn't about horses."

Just like that other post said, it's a system that sells people a bill of goods and just deals damage to absolutely everyone because it's perpetuated by a highly specific type of shitty person that just wants control, and is extremely malicious and petty about it. There are some guys who are really nice, but are taught that "this is the way you act out if you want respect or want to heal", and they just go with the flow because they don't know anything else, and if they were taught anything better, they'd most likely choose something more constructive and less harmful 9 times out of 10.

It's even in the small line at the end of the conflict with "Wait, weren't we supposed to change the vote thing this afternoon?" "...Oh, right. Whatever."

They weren't fussed about it at the end because hurting women wasn't their goal. They just all learned a really shitty way to express that they wanted to be respected. They were more than happy to go back to being nice and learning about their inherent self worth when they were taught that there are other, better ways to go about it. Ken even slaps himself when he realizes he's hurting Barbie again, because that's not what he wants. He wants to learn to do things the right way.

I get called a naive idiot for this all the time, but goddammit, I still maintain that there's good in everyone, and that people have the ability to change for the better, and can correct from mistakes they've made, and re-track their lives from bad pasts. And I'm glad that movie felt that way, too. There are going to be people who are too far gone sometimes, definitely, but that's not as common as people like to say it is.

I really loved that, even though she had every right to be mad and to kick his ass, Barbie still wanted to reach out to her friend to pull him back from a bad way of thinking. And it worked. I saw a few posts saying that she shouldn't have done that, but I think they missed the point that Ken was still her friend. I'm glad they bucked amatonormativity and refused to have them romantically involved at the end, but she still reached out to her friend who needed help, because she still cared about him as a person. That meant everything to me.

[danothan]

dw you didnt sound dismissive at all!! sorry for the autism moment frankly i do not know how to be concise

to be totally clear im not a "holds comics/specific runs sacred" kind of person either 😭 i have fun with the young justice show (honestly . was the first thing i saw kon in, and how i immediately fell in love with his character) even if i question the way it handled him and megs characters + relationship (i will not spoiler<3)

i absolutely also gravitate towards characters with anger so when i first saw kon in yja i was enamoured with him and i 100% get loving him as a standalone because i did and still do 😭 yja kon is Why i like kon so much now

i was rly approaching ur tags like u weren't familiar with him so im sorry for that assumption off the bat </3 and i was more focusing on how the design was reflective of writing choices that Influenced the show. i will say that comics kon is also a hot head whos dealing with shit esp in his 90s run (sb94 + yj98) and he is just. in general a fun character to read when hes being a little cocky abt it. so i do recommend reading his early stuff if he interests u :] bc hes a fun little guy whos lives in the head no matter what his iteration is

i want to say sorry if it sounded dismissive of Your little guy also 😭 i slapped the bit abt the show kon on the end bc it felt related to the general writing direction hed been going thru in the 00s (which is to say, being spearheaded by a misogynistic homophobe) LOL but to be so honest i do Like him i just have. thoughts and feelings abt the show that i got before i even read anything kon was in. im honestly on season 4 of it rn <3 i wish u luck on your rewatch

<- im a "has fun with the dcamu and video games and other adaptions of the comics and finds worth in them" kind of person anyhow ^_^ i think the fun of dcs bazillion earths and stuff is that many things abt a character can be true at once and people can find what they like in certain iterations and play frankenstein. i like. genuinely wholeheartedly agree that the comic cynicism is soul crushing lmfao 😭

ps. the cadmus tag -> earring thing haunts me every day......... i simply get so attached to his writing and how you can read transness in it<3

erm. have a good daynight<3333 sorry for a second essay

nah i appreciate the info, i don’t think i’m ever gonna shed that newcomer feel i have as a dc fan no matter how deep i dive, so better safe than sorry! this is rly teaching me a lot abt the character anyhow, so net win regardless 👍

glad to hear his hot-headedness is a constant too, it’s odd bc i don’t rly resonate with angry characters personally, but i get SO defensive abt them when ppl act like anger isn’t a legitimate and sympathetic trauma response. i have a feeling that that’s gonna apply here too

another thing i’m getting a lot here is that Smth Fucked Up is gonna happen to conner and m’gann’s relationship, and i do Not remember that when i first watched it, so that’s uh. smth to look forward to haha

i hope to get a fuller picture of the guy some day, here’s to frankensteining comic characters 🥂

[shojo]

Shojo watches Steven Universe: The End

YES.

JUST, YES. ALL THE DIAMONDS. ALL THE HAPPINESS. EVERYONE IS TOGETHER. STEVEN. THAT ANIMATION OF HIM HUGGING. SO BEAUTIFUL. AND WHITE. WHITE IS HAPPY. AND SO PRETTY. HER EYELASHES. EVERYONE IS PRETTY. EVERYONE IS HAPPY. 

But no seriously I need a gif/many gif sets of that bit of animation smoother than butter of his hug with White’s eyes opening behind him I’m trying not to be specific in case of spoilers but if you know you know and UGH IT WAS SO GORGEOUS. 

This finale was worth every dumb fluff filler episode that I (maybe wrongfully) complained about because it all came together so wonderfully and, hey, maybe they weren’t filler after all WHAT A CONCEPT. I just loved it. I loved this journey, I especially loved the ending, I kinda just wanna watch the last episode over and over again and also OBSIDIAN. HOLY CRAP WHAT A GEM. WHAT A DESIGN. AND RAINBOW QUARTZ???????? HELLO??????????????? I cannot gush enough about this. 

I’m really tempted to jump right into the movie because I want so much more right now. (I also just wanna get through everything so I can FINALLY dive into the Tumblr tags and reblog shit left and right.) 

Things I know (maybe) about the movie thru the osmosis of the internet: - Spinnel? Spinel? Pink rubber hose lady is a bad lady - it’s a musical - rubber hose lady’s song allegedly slaps  - bad things happen  - someone dies (?) - this movie better not ruin this perfect ending - I think the fandom liked it

I just wish my eyelashes looked like White’s. So fluffy. So full. She looks like a silent movie star from a Georges Méliès film and I’m smitten. 

OKAY IT’S MOVIE TIME LET’S GOOOO. 

[danwhobrowses]

Wrestle Kingdom 17 Quick Thoughts

So it's January which means Wrestle Kingdom day, singular this time though having strangely swapped mentality with WWE on forgoing a 2-Day main PPV

Nevertheless, we'll see what the show has to offer, I'm not gonna go in full depth like previous ones, just general thoughts I had during the show

Spoilers for those who didn't wanna know

I must admit I hate the KOPW Ranbo, it often just feels like the 'this is all the talent we don't have anything for right now' rumble and then you have to watch the likes of KENTA, Cobb, Great O Khan, Shingo Takagi, Ishii fight for it. There's some bright spots for comedy like ELP eliminating someone via a nipple cripple but overall it is something I could do without

Junior Tag Title was fun, but I probably would not have had the opener with cheering officially back end in a heel win via roll-up

I am also fuming that NJPW only gave KAIRI and Tam 6 minutes, sure there'd be aftermath but given how past Exhibition and Dark matches for Stardom went longer it's a huge disservice that the first Title Match (for the IWGP Women's Championship made to establish a stronger relation between Stardom and NJPW) is also Stardom's shortest entry in Wrestle Kingdom

Mercedes had a great look side for the fire hair which looked weird at angles, honestly I think her debut could've been done better; she was geared up but didn't wrestle, she botched that Gory Special/DDT move (which through experience watching the Tay-KO from Tay Melo is not easy to synchronize anyway) and her promo was a tad on the basic side, not bad but below expectation

FTR losing already felt like writing on the wall given how they dropped the ROH and AAA tag titles already, it was a decent match and Bishamon are a great tag team but we could've gone with a more refreshing choice, shame to hear that FTR had travel issues too

I will say though that dropping their titles is not 'clear indication' that they're going to WWE, they've had a busy as hell year so now they can rest up, Dax has noted that he's closer to the end of his career than the middle so they may prefer a lighter schedule, I've said it before but just because Triple H is doing okay in WWE does not mean every ex-WWE member is frothing to come back

ZSJ won the gingerbread biscuit title to nobody's surprise, but him replacing JONAH in TMDK is a strong choice

Makes me wonder who else will join now that Suzuki-Gun is no more, Archer and Despy are TMDK material but I could also see them in Bullet Club, a huge curveball would be Despy to LIJ

I actually really liked the Muta six-man, it had a good pace and showcase which still allowed Mutoh to shine, but in the end they used it to put over the younger talent by having Shooter get the pin

LIJ vs Kongoh has the potential to slap hard again, I did panic when they were saying 'backstage altercation' that there would be some shoot activity going on, flashbacks of All Out had me worried

I like Hiromu, but this win really started to grind on the 'nothing changes' critique I get every time I watch WK; the title always makes its way back to him, we did well to get people behind Master Wato and his Crucifix Hip Toss thing is actually pretty cool, but again we do need fresher faces in the title picture

Kenny out with the Sephiroth gear was cool but then Ospreay whipped out Elevated just when I was thinking 'I miss Will's old theme'

To nobody's surprise, the match was among the best, probably the best, it did start out like an Omega showcase but after the table spot it came to life, the ending was great as well; Ospreay bloody and defiant and Kenny using an absolutely brutal Kamigoye and OWA to win

You're best to bet on Death Triangle winning the best of 7 in AEW now that Kenny's US champion

*sigh* Okada's great we get it but god damn why does it always end with Okada winning? Jay's great too you know? Honestly I think Gedo needs help. Shingo challenges next but we all know this won't really end well for him.

It just never changes, I can go back to WK11 - when the era of the Rainmaker had its last WK defense before losing to Kenny at Dominion - and since then Okada had only lost twice at Wrestle Kingdom, and that was WK13 to Jay, right on the end of his red dye balloon phase, and WK14's Double Gold Dash - where he had beaten Ibushi for the world title on Day 1 just to lose correctly to Naito on Day 2.

It goes deeper too; since WK11 Hiromu has been in 6 out of 7 Junior Heavyweight title matches, he's only lost twice (to Despy at 16 and Ospreay at 12). Bishamon are 2 for 2 in winning the tag titles at WK having beaten Dangerous Tekkers last year, you have to go back to WK13 for Ospreay's last singles win (at least this time the United Empire wasn't swept this time), WK14 since Jay's last win (and it was a consolation win since he lost the IC title in the Double Gold Dash). Even just comparing to WK16 there are similarities in booking.

A lot of the time I watch Wrestle Kingdom and compare where wrestlers are now compared to last year, and each time I find that the ones I liked last year fall down while the ones who can take losses to put people over remain on top, of course there are exceptions - Master Wato and Shota Umino for instance - but most of the time it ends this way

The show was okay, I feel like a lot of things could've been better, if they did 2 days they'd have had more time for other things as well