#like you can make broad speculations like this but yeah no

[gamora-borealis]

I think dan and phil are special but not because they are special people. like don't get me wrong, they are extremely talented and creative and funny and phil does seem to have inherited some kind of special intuition from his northern grandma but! there's a million other queer / neurodivergent people out there just like them... just as talented and intuitive or whatnot. what's special is that they were in the right place / right time to broadcast this unique kind of existence on a mass scale to a broad audience but more importantly a kindred audience. and they've kept it authentic by balancing their entertainment personas and working relationship with their real selves. It's like we've been watching a reality tv series about them for 15 years except they are the producers (who maybe exaggerate some things like producers do but, it's their own choices)... and they never meant for the show to make money but it did so yeah they need it to maintain their lifestyle now but in general their intentions are less clouded by clout or success compared to some influencers/creators out there. What's special is the insane parasocial relationship we have with them and they have with us that truly is a product of a specific context that I don't think will ever quite exist again. They learned from the first YouTubers and mastered the art form to the point where they are able to go on these huge tours that to this day no one can top because YouTube and the Internet have changed far too much with algorithms and advertising and etc. They are a testament to the lost dream of what the internet could be and a showcase of what can happen if you give gay dorks the perfect ingredients to build a media empire. and as a result we know them so intimately as they truly have been open about so much over 15 years and yet they've still kept so much private, to the point where there's still so much that people speculate on. It's like the perfect case study for Web 2.0 media produsage and digital community building amidst the decline of in-person connections because of the progression of capitalism... anyways if by chance there are any phannies getting degrees in media and communications and need help with paper topics and writing please hit me up I'm yearning for grad school again 😭

[hardly-an-escape]

for @bucktommypositivityweek Sunday 8/18: meeting the friends and family | spicy cupcakes | 534 words | rated G

“How do I look?”

“What was that, babe?”

Buck stuck his head around the bathroom door. Tommy was standing in front of the mirror, plucking nervously at his shirt.

“How do I look? Do I look okay?” he repeated, turning toward Buck.

“Yes? You look fine?” Buck said, coming into the bathroom. “You know I like this shirt, it brings out your eyes. Why do you ask?”

“This is the first time I’m meeting her. I have to make a good impression.”

“Who, Maddie?” Buck asked, confused. “What are you talking about, you’ve met her. Like, twice now. She thinks you’re great, Tommy, you know that.”

“Not Maddie. Jee-Yun,” Tommy said, as if it were obvious. “Your niece.”

Buck couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him, and Tommy fixed him with a look.

“I mean it,” he said. “Do I look… approachable? I don’t have any nieces or nephews, I don’t know how to interact with little kids. Should I put on a t shirt instead?”

“Tommy. Babe,” Buck said, running his hands down his boyfriend’s chest and resting them on his hips. “You look fine. I cannot stress enough that Jee does not care. I mean, maybe if you showed up in a unicorn onesie that would score some points – she’s in a big unicorn phase right now. But outside of that? It literally doesn’t matter.”

Tommy got a speculative look on his face, like he was suddenly considering the logistics of finding a unicorn onesie at short notice that would fit a 6’2” firefighter, and Buck laughed again.

“Look,” he said. “My number one tip for hanging out with Jee-Yun? Or any kid, really. Just – treat her like a human being. You know, she’s not a doll, she’s not a prop. Ask her questions and listen to what she says. Play pretend. If she asks you to read a book, do the voices. But don’t stress.” He squeezed Tommy’s hips. “Seriously. They can sense that. Like sharks with blood in the water.”

“That is not helping.”

Several hours later, Tommy was sitting on the floor of Maddie and Chimney’s living room. A very elaborate tea party was spread out on the coffee table; he and Jee-Yun were both wearing sparkly pink plastic tiaras, and Tommy also had a purple feather boa draped across his broad shoulders.

Chim was in the kitchen, wrangling the dinner dishes, and Buck and Maddie were sitting at the dining table nursing glasses of wine.

“I think he’s a natural,” Maddie said conspiratorially, leaning toward her brother. “Look at them together.”

“Yeah,” said Buck. “I had a feeling he would be.”

“Your Majesty,” said Tommy, voice dripping with faux outrage. “Are you seriously telling me that you think the rainbow cupcakes taste better than the sprinkle ice cream?”

“Nooo!” cackled Jee-Yun. “Uncle Tommy! I maked you rainbow ice cream and spicy cupcakes!”

“Ohhh!”

Across the room, Tommy hissed and fanned his mouth as though he’d just downed a spoonful of sriracha.

Uncle Tommy, mouthed Maddie in delight, and I know, mouthed Buck back.

“Spicy cupcakes!” Tommy gasped. “My queen! How could you!”

“You’d better keep him around,” Maddie said fondly.

“I plan to,” Buck said with a smile.

[2chopsticks2eyes]

Obsession

2chopsticks2eyes - Masterlist

Pairing:

Bang Chan x Fem Reader

Hwang Hyunjin x Fem Reader

Themes: Smut, Pining

Word Count: ~6k | AO3

Warnings: Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, Cussing, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Vaginal Fingering, Blow Jobs, Vaginal Sex, Cum Eating, Pining, Protected Sex, Ambiguous/Open Ending

Summary: You find out that this new guy you are going to start dating, Chris, is your best friend's new roommate. You are excited, but your best friend, Hyunjin (who may or may not be madly in love with you) is not so thrilled. Chris notices this and the two men settle on some sort of... agreement.

Author's Note: This work was inspired by a request from @stayandot8. I think this might be the shortest fic I've written, but I promise I put my heart into it! 💖 Proofread was only skimmed over so I hope it isn't trash. 🙃

__________________________________________

Hyunjin had been your best friend for what felt like ages. However, in reality, you two only met a couple of years ago when you started teaching with him at an art studio. You bonded with him over your shared affinity with fine arts and it was the most natural friendship you had ever experienced. You were just simply comfortable with one another.

Some might say a bit too comfortable. At least for a friendship between a boy and a girl.

Since you were co-workers, you spent most of your time with the man. You would have your meals with him, spent your days off with him, and even spent some nights at each other’s places if one of you was too lazy to go home for the night.

You don’t think that there was anything you wouldn’t be comfortable with around him. That’s what lead you to ask him to come shopping with you for your new date.

“How long have you even been talking to this guy?” He said as he stole your coffee from your hands while you strolled through the outlet mall, looking for a place to shop. He emptied the contents of the drink and tossed it into a nearby garbage bin.

“Just a few weeks, but we really clicked on Tinder and he agreed that he wasn’t just looking for a quick fuck.” You glanced in one of the windows of a shop and decided against it, continuing your walk with your bestie.

“And you’re sure he’s not some creep?” He glanced at you speculatively.

“I’m sure, you worry wart. Plus, if he is you know I can handle myself.” You bumped elbows with him and he rolled his eyes.

“Okay, okay fine. Just wanna look out for my girl.” He winked down at you and you scoffed. Always the biggest flirt, this guy. “What’s this guy’s name again? I think I tuned you out when you said it before.” He said nonchalantly.

“Yah!” You weakly smacked him on the arm, making him dramatically hold onto it as if you had shot him. “It’s Bang Chan, you pabo!” He immediately halted in his tracks, making you stop as well to raise an eyebrow at him. “Jin? Did you malfunction?” You shook his arm with a chuckle.

He stared down at you in disbelief. “Did you say Bang Chan?” He sounded as if you just told him that you were the Queen of England and you giggled.

“Uhhh yeah? He also goes by Chris. Why? Wait–” Your tone quickly changed into one of exasperation. “Hyunjin, please don’t tell me you went to a fortune teller again. Did they ward you away from any ‘Bang’ family names or something? I told you to stop going after what happened last time!” You scolded, memory flashing back to when he only wore white 24/7 because it was ‘guaranteed to bring him great wealth’. You had to help him with his laundry for weeks because he couldn’t stop getting stains on everything he wore.

“No, no, no. What does this guy look like?” He looked almost panicked now and you started to become concerned.

“Ummm, well… He’s a bit shorter than you. Super muscular with broad shoulders. A super bright smile and dimples that I just want to swim in…” You started to sound wistful as you described the dreamy beefcake. “Oh and don’t even get me started on his di–”

“Oh god, Aegiya, STOP.” The man sounded disgusted and you doubled over laughing. You were only a year younger than him and he just had to milk it by always calling you a baby.

“Dude, what’s the deal?” You finally wondered.

He huffed and continued walking, annoyance written all over his features as he stared straight forward. “Well, apparently it appears that your new boy toy also happens to be the new roommate I got last week…” He grumbled and now it was time for you to stop in your tracks.

“What??” To say the least, you were pretty surprised.

He just continued to walk and you scurried over to catch up to him. “Yyyyep. Congrats. I now get to help you plan for your date with my fucking roommate.” He sounded super put out and you cackled at him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! That’s fucking hilarious!” After a moment of your chortling, your brain cut you off short when you felt a lightbulb blink to life. “Oh my god, Jinnie! You have to tell me about him! Do you think he’s into more of a wild girl, or a shy one? Does he cook? Clean? What kind of music does he–”

“Hey little lady, you probably know more about him than I do. Like I said, he just recently moved in.” You gave him puppy dog eyes and he glanced over at you momentarily, quickly looking straight forward again with a disbelieving huff. “All I can tell you is that he produces music, he constantly works on it day in and day out as if his life depends on it. I’m surprised he even found the time to date.”

You smiled to yourself. He made time for me? As if fate had heard your conversation, the two of you started getting nearer to the perfect store. “Let’s go in here, Jinnie!” You grabbed his arm to pull him in, but he was as firm as a statue.

“Nuh-uh. Nooo way am I going into a sex shop with you to help you bone my fucking roommate. You’re nuts.” He looked at you as if you had grown two heads.

“Awww c’mon, Jinnie, pleeease? I need the male objective’s eye! I don’t want to go in alone!” You grabbed onto his hand and looped your fingers to intertwine with his. “Please…” You donned your cutest pout and squeezed his hand.

His brows furrowed and he looked like he was having a genuine internal battle. “Damnit, Aegiya…” He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “You’d better make this quick. AND you owe me a shit ton of ice cream after this…”

A smile burst out across your face and you threw your arms around his shoulders, giggling like a school girl. “Ahhh! Thankyouthankyouthankyou, Jinnie! This is why I love you!” When you pulled back from the embrace, he looked annoyed, but you could definitely see a rosy color dusted across his cheeks and a deep red bloom on the tips of his ears.

You intertwined fingers again and dragged him into the store.

You felt like a kid in a candy store, finding set after set of lingerie and handing it to Hyunjin to hold onto. “Okay, I think we’ve accumulated enough, little Miss Pamela Anderson!” He shouted at you from behind the pile he had stacked in his arms.

You giggled at his drowning appearance and led him to the changing rooms where you sat him down on the bench just outside the door. “Wait here, I’m gonna try them on!” You grabbed the first set from his arms and skipped off to try it on.

You struggled a bit on the first one just because it was so intricate, but you ended up figuring it out. It had crossed your mind that it might feel a bit weird for some girls to show their male best friend themselves wearing lingerie, but, again, you were just so comfortable with Hyunjin that you didn’t think twice.

“Jin, I think this might be a bit much, what do you think?” You said as you opened the door to show him.

At first, he wasn’t really paying attention, just mindlessly scrolling away on his phone. However, when he looked up, the phone clattered to the ground, which he quickly retrieved while clearing his throat for some reason. “Uh– I– Um, it looks– uh… good? I guess?” He said, desperately avoiding eye contact with you.

“Yeah, but look–” You turned around to show him the backside that looked like a damned jungle of straps, buckles, and latches. “Doesn’t this seem too complicated?” When you looked at him again, his whole head and neck were a deep crimson as he zoned out on your ass. “Jinnie?”

He quickly snapped out of it and his eyes darted anywhere and everywhere away from you. “U-Uh yeah– y-yeah…” 

You figured you didn’t want it to be too hard to get out of because that’s just not sexy if you have to struggle in the moment. You just shrugged. “Okay, then. Next!” You grabbed the next piece off the pile and shut yourself back into the changing room.

You repeated this several times, you put on the next set after the next set, continuing to ask Hyunjin for his input until you slipped on the final piece.

It was perfect. A completely black (which you knew Chris liked) bustier with mesh, lace fabric woven over the spines of the top. Complete with a garter belt and crotchless panties. All you needed were some stockings and it would be perfect.

However, you obviously couldn’t show these to Hyunjin, they were crotchless! And contrary to popular belief, you did have some standards. Anyway, you knew it was perfect with or without his opinion.

You quickly changed back into your clothes and stepped out, items in hand and ready to be purchased. “This is the one! Ready to go?”

Instead of a grumble with a remark like ‘finally’ or something equally as chafing coming from his mouth, you were surprised to hear him say– “What? That’s it? But you didn’t…” He stopped mid-sentence and blushed.

“I couldn’t show you this one, Jin. It was a bit much, even for you. But, trust me, you would have loved it.” You said enthusiastically as you walked to the checkout counter.

He just simply replied with– “Oh… okay…” And was suspiciously silent for the rest of the day.

- - - - - - - - - - 

Jinnie 🥟🍦:

Ur date is tonight right?

Aegiya ❣🎨:

?Yeah, why

?Omg did he say something

?Did he ask u abt me

?He’s not calling it off is he

As much as Hyunjin wanted to lie and say yes, he wouldn’t do that to you.

Jinnie 🥟🍦:

No no, I was just checking

Was thinking about going out tonight too

(He wasn’t)

Jinnie 🥟🍦:

Ya know, give u guys privacy

Aegiya ❣🎨:

Ur such a sweetheart, Jinnie

But I don’t want to kick u out of ur own home

We will probably go back to my place anyway

The thought gave Hyunjin a knot in the back of his throat.

Jinnie 🥟🍦:

Oh ok cool

Have fun

(He hoped you wouldn’t)

Aegiya ❣🎨:

😉 Will do

He grumbled at his phone and flopped onto his back on the bed. Ever since he met you, he knew you were special. However, since you were coworkers, apparently that meant he had a big ole ‘FRIENDZONE’ stamped on his forehead in red and he would never make it any further than #besties.

But it was fine. He was just happy to have you in his life because you were, in fact, a really cool person.

You had dated a few people here and there in the years since you two became friends and he obviously wasn’t a fan, but he was happy any time you were happy, so he stayed silent.

However, when he found out that you were going to date his freshly new roommate, he started to get a bit more agitated. What if you two really hit it off? Yes, you would be around a lot, but would you still come around for him? Or would you only want to come to see Chris? Not to mention the fact that he would have to listen to the man fucking you just down the hall!

…

Okay, maybe the idea of being within such proximity to you while you were moaning and whining and getting fucked silly might be a turn-on… even if it wasn’t him making you feel that way…

Ever since you took him shopping, it was like his horniness was amplified by ten and his mind was on a constant loop of images of you in that lingerie. Whatever caused you to feel the need to model them to Hyunjin, he didn’t know, but now the godforsaken thoughts plagued him day and night! 

Sometimes he even got a little pissed, thinking you were just stringing him along to tease him, but he would quickly come to his senses because in his heart he knew that you loved him. Even if it was just as a friend.

A knock on Hyunjin’s door disturbed him from his thoughts. Of course, the man of the hour would show up right in the middle of his very important brooding session. “Come in!” He shouted to his roommate.

The door opened and he was greeted with the bright smile of that damned Aussie. Hyunjin couldn’t even hate him and that pissed him off even more. Chris was just such a genuinely good guy. He could literally befriend anyone he wanted and he was super talented too. Hyunjin never had any self-esteem issues, he knew he was gorgeous, but the fact that Chris was the one to snatch you kind of hurt his pride.

“Hey, roomie! Whatcha doin?” He plopped down next to the younger on his bed.

“Just thinking of where I should go tonight. I’m not really interested in hearing…” The words were left unsaid, but Chris understood right away. 

Chris was pretty surprised when you told him that Hyunjin was your best friend, but he was also kind of happy that you were already so tight with his new roommate.

Although, when Chris talked to Hyunjin about the topic, he noticed that the taller man became a bit sullen any time your name was brought up. Chris could instantly tell that Hyunjin was in love with you.

He thought he should have maybe been pissed or concerned, but he wasn’t. He moreso felt sympathy for the young man. Yes, Chris was also incredibly smitten with you, but that only made him feel more sorry for the younger. Because he knew the effect you had on both of them.

He placed a gentle hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder. “Hey, man, listen,” Chris said apologetically. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you like her. I’m not blind.”

Hyunjin shot up into a seated position. “W-what are you talking about? I’m not into her like that at all!” He himself knew he didn’t sound believable. “We’re just friends…”

Chris just sighed. “Okay, sure, but the statement still stands. You don’t have to leave our place on account of me. Me and her can go back to her place after.” Chris gnawed on his lip as if he was contemplating something and Hyunjin was intrigued. “Or…” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “We could still come over with you here…”

Hyunjin couldn’t lie to himself, he always wanted to hear what you would sound like in bed, but it just felt… wrong? “I dunno hyung… I don’t want to spoil your guys’ date.” Although it pained him to say it.

“Well that’s the thing, I don’t think you would.” Chris countered and Hyunjin just looked at him quizzically. “Okay, let me explain. So she told you we met on Tinder, right?” Hyunjin slowly nodded, not sure where he was going with this. “Well, we really started off talking about our… sexual preferences–” Hyunjin was certainly intrigued now. “And she had mentioned once that she always wanted to try a threesome…”

Hyunjin’s jaw dropped. “Oh…” He didn’t know what else to say. Where was Chris heading with this?

“Take it however you like, but just know that if you just so happened to be home and just so happened to walk in on us… I don’t think she would be opposed to some… company… if you get what I mean.” Chris hinted and Hyunjin was frozen on the spot.

“And you want that??” Hyunjin was flabbergasted.

Chris chuckled. “I mean, I know what it’s like to be friendzoned by a girl and I also know what it’s like to have bad blood between roommates. And I don’t want either of those things, so why not let her decide?” Chris was genuinely too good to be true. “And don’t think I don’t want her to myself, because, trust me, I do. But you are an important part of her life. It’s best that she knows how you feel before things get too serious.”

Hyunjin didn’t even know how to respond. Hell, he didn’t know how to think in that exact moment. All he could register was the word that came from his mouth. “Okay…”

- - - - - - - - - - 

Chris was a perfect gentleman, through and through. The dinner he took you to was delicious beyond reason and the conversations he led were the most engaging that you had ever experienced. Everything just felt so easy with him. Plus, the chemistry between the two of you was off the charts.

Small touches and lingering hands left you buzzing with need and you found yourself having a hard time keeping your hands to yourself. The only odd thing, not unwelcome, just odd, was the fact that he kept bringing up the topic of your best friend the whole night.

He wanted your opinion of him and what you thought of him. Some people might have thought it was out of jealousy, but he didn’t really give off the jealous vibe. He seemed to genuinely want to know what your relationship was like. And you loved your best friend, so you were happy enough to discuss him.

By the end of dinner, the sexual tension was suffocating and you just wanted to rip his clothes off then and there. When you hopped into the car and he started driving, you felt yourself shaking with anticipation when he rested his hand on your bare thigh where your little black dress was too short to cover.

You were super impatient to get back to your place, but as he kept driving, you realized he wasn’t heading in the direction of your apartment where he picked you up. “Hey Chris, do you know the way back to my place?” You turned to look at him to find him blushing. God, he’s cute.

He cleared his throat. “Well, I um… I was wondering if I could take you back to mine? I’m sorry it was a bit presumptuous of me, but I have a surprise for you…”

Electricity shot through you and you didn’t think twice to consider what you told Hyunjin. “Not presumptuous at all! I’m…” You blushed when he glanced at you with his stupidly sexy half-grin. “...looking forward to it.” Your eyes were glued to his face and you squeezed your thighs in arousal when he slid his hand a bit further up your thigh.

He looked over at you just as you bit your lip, your eyes hazy with lust. He bit his own lip to suppress a smile when he looked back at the road and you felt his hand slide to your inner thigh as his fingers closed in on your crotchless panties. Never touching, just teasing.

- - - - - - - - - - 

When you arrived at his and Hyunjin’s apartment, everything happened in a blur. As the front door closed behind you, you felt Chris’ hands wrap around your waist from behind and a warm press of lips close in on your neck. 

Chris was intoxicating, everything about him made you dizzy with want and you quickly spun around in his arms, throwing your arms around his neck and smashing into his lips with your own. He instantly pressed you up against the wall and you arched up into him, silently begging for more. His arms were wrapped low around your waist to pull you suffocatingly close and you kicked your black heels off when you wrapped your legs around his waist.

He responded by holding you up underneath your dress by both ass cheeks and he pressed his slowly hardening dick against you as he moved to devour your neck. He grinded into you and you threw your head back as far as the wall would allow you as you moaned his name.

“Fuck, you’re so gorgeous.” He growled into your neck as he kneaded your ass with his fingertips. 

All you could reply with was– “Ngh, fuck, Chris. More. I need more...” Your voice was whiny and already fucked out, but by the low groan he breathed into your neck, he was very much in a similar state.

He pulled you back from the wall and carried you down the hall to his bedroom where he eagerly plopped both of you down on the bed. You writhed underneath him, trying to pull him impossibly closer as he moved to grope your breasts over your dress. You whined and pleaded for more and he complied.

He released one of your breasts and slid his hand down between your legs. What he felt (or really the lack of what he felt) made him gasp and look down at you incredulously. The crotchless panties were definitely a good choice. “Fuck…” He pounced on you with one long, hungry kiss and then released you to crawl down between your legs. 

The moment you felt his mouth close around your clit, you saw stars. You cried out with labored breaths and it took him no time at all to push you over the edge. You curled your fingers in his dark brown locks and he guided you through your orgasm, head popping up with a breathtaking smile when you came down. “Holy shit, Chris… that was probably the fastest anyone has ever got me to cum.” You giggled and you internally cooed when he blushed at the statement.

However, that was short-lived as the sex-god side of Chris returned and he ripped off his shirt and slacks, leaving him in just his boxers as he nestled back down to sit against the headboard. “C’mere, baby girl.” He patted his lap and you quickly crawled over to straddle him. His hands instantly flew to your hips and ass where your dress rode up.

Now was the moment you had been waiting for. You decided to cut to the chase and you grabbed the hem of your dress and slowly pulled it up over your head. When the fabric that was blinding you was finally pulled from your face, Chris’ expression was almost humorous. You felt his fingers gradually tighten more and more on your ass as he assessed your undergarments.

His face looked like he was in some sort of trance of crazed hunger and when he looked back into your eyes, you saw pure carnal desire. “What do you think? I got it just for you, Chris.” You said with hooded eyelids that ate up every inch of skin he had on display.

“What do I think?” His voice must have dropped about ten octaves and he harshly pulled you to directly sit on his achingly hard cock through his boxers. “I think you're a motherfucking goddess.”

He then proceeded to capture your lips once more in an absolutely filthy kiss, tongues clashing and teeth gnawing. You started grinding on his dick and he growled into your mouth, pulling away moments after you started.

“Do you want your surprise, baby girl?” He said as he guided your grinding hips with his hands. You were so fucked out that all you could do was nod your head profusely. He then turned to look at the door you had left open behind you. “Hyunjin-ah, would you like to come in?”

You immediately stilled and whipped your head around. You felt the hands on your hips tighten. “Jinnie?!” You were shocked. How long had he been watching??? By the completely beet-red face and the huge bulge in his pants, you would say it had been more than just a few moments.

You heard a shushing from the man underneath you and you turned back to him. He looked deep into your eyes and you felt him slowly glide his thumb over your sopping clit, making you gasp and your eyelids flutter. “I asked Hyunjinnie to help bring your fantasy to life.” You instantly knew he was talking about the threesome you had hinted at one time. “And he was more than willing to help out.”

You slowly turned back to your best friend that had taken a few steps further into the room. “Is that true, Jinnie?” You were mostly worried about his own comfort. 

He nodded with a hazy stare. “It’s not exactly how I pictured it happening… but yeah…” What did he mean by that? 

You didn’t have much time to think on it, however, because you suddenly felt Chris easing a finger inside you. You gasped and whipped back around to face him, your hands flying to his broad shoulders to ground yourself. 

“Do you mind if he watches while I fuck your pretty little hole first?” Your mouth was perpetually hung open as you nodded in compliance. “Good girl, now get on all fours, gorgeous.” He pulled his finger out of you and, before you did as you were told, you grabbed Chris’ hand and took his spunk-covered finger into your mouth. Both men groaned at the sight and you weren't ashamed to admit that you were feeling pretty proud of yourself. 

Once you released his digit and you turned to do what you were commanded to, you looked straight into Hyunjin’s eyes and crawled to where he was standing at the foot of the bed. Without warning, you grabbed him by his belt loops and pulled him flush to you where you stood on your knees on the bed. You could feel his erection push into your stomach and you felt a new wave of arousal stir in your core.

“We can talk about this later, but right now, I want this…” You deftly undid the top button of his shirt. “...and these…” You moved a hand down and palmed at his hard-on, making him gasp, then popped open the button on his jeans as well. You stretched up and brought his head down so you could whisper in his ear. “...gone.”

When you released him with a wicked smile and resumed your position on all fours like you were asked, Hyunjin quickly got to work on your request.

You suddenly felt a hand gently wrap around your neck to pull you up and back flush against Chris, his now bare cock resting between the cleft of your ass cheeks. “You think you can take all of me, sweetie?” He said as he grabbed your wrist with his free hand and lead you to feel his sizable dick. You almost choked on your gasp. Now, you knew Chris had a huge cock, you both had sent each other plenty of nudes these past weeks, but to feel it in your hand, it just didn’t feel real.

You tried to turn to look at it, but his hand on your neck kept you still and you whimpered. “Now, you have some options, baby girl. Either you take all of me now without seeing it first–” To be honest, that sounded pretty hot, but you were also dying to take a peek. “...OR, you can look all you want, but I’ll get off in that sweet mouth of yours instead while Hyunjinnie does whatever he wants with your tasty little cunt.”

You couldn’t control the pornographic moan that escaped your lips from the pure filth coming from his lips. You could see Hyunjin start to form a slight grin from watching this unfold and that in itself had you shaking with want. “B-but what if I want both?”

You could feel the rumble against your back coming from the depths of Chris’ chest from the question. “A greedy little one, are we?” You then felt yourself abruptly being pushed face-first into the mattress with your ass in the air. “Then I guess we’ll just have to give you all we’ve got…” Chris growled as you heard the tear of a condom wrapper open.

“J-just–!” You looked up at Hyunjin, as best as you could from your squished position, from his rushed outburst. “Just… don’t hurt her…” He sounded a bit hesitant to say it, but he looked down into your eyes with pure concern. Your heart soared.

“Jinnie…” You held up your hand and he crouched down next to your face. You crooked your neck up to whisper directly into his ear, loud enough for Chris to hear. “I want you to hurt me…”

He pulled back incredulously and his shocked eyes bore into yours. “Holy fuck, can you be any more perfect?”

“I know, right?” Chris said with a chuckle.

Everything that happened next all happened simultaneously. You felt Chris shimmying behind you and felt his warm breath fan over your folds. You felt him lick a long, fat stripe up your opening then felt him shimmy again to get into position. You felt the tip of his cock wedge its way into your entrance and you saw Hyunjin step back and finally drop his boxers to the floor.

Your. Jaw. Dropped.

Not only from the breathtaking feeling of Chris’ dick splitting you in two, but also at the mesmerizing sight of Hwang Hyunjin stripped bare with his beautiful, leaking cock in his hand. “Like what you see, Aegiya?” All you could do was nod dumbly with a red face that was struggling to adjust to Chris’ size.

You needed a distraction from the pain. You pulled yourself up on your hands and reached out to Hyunjin. “Wanna taste…” You whined pitifully.

He cockily smirked with his tongue prodding at his lip. “Anytime, baby.” You felt fire in your veins from his words and you felt in desperate need for more stimulation.

Just as you grabbed ahold of Hyunjin’s gorgeous cock, you pushed your ass back into Chris, shoving him even deeper inside you and the three of you moaned simultaneously.

You quickly started lapping up all of the precum that coated Hyunjin’s tip and he slowly tangled his hands in your hair. “You taste so good, Jinnie.” You said with fluttered lashes, right before you took his head all the way in.

“Fuck, Aegiya. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this…” That one statement blew your mind and you instantly looked back on your entire relationship. Hyunjin wanted me?

Again, you couldn’t think on it long, because Chris suddenly decided to start pistoning fast and hard into you, shoving you down onto Hyunjin’s cock even further. You held back your gag reflex and allowed yourself to bask in the eroticism of being used by these fucking drop-dead gorgeous men.

“Goddamn, baby girl. You’re doing so *ngh* fucking good for us *huff* …taking all this cock so fucking well.” Chris growled as he nailed you over and over again in all the right places. 

“Shit, Aegi. You’re so fucking sexy with your mouth around me *hiss* fuuuck you’re so damn good at that!” Hyunjin threw his head back with a laugh and it was one of the most beautiful sights you had ever seen. “I can’t wait to taste you, baby.”

That’s what threw you over the edge, screaming as loud as you were able to with a throat full of cock. They both seemed to slow down as you rode your orgasm, but they were definitely not done with you yet.

Once you seemed to have come down from your high, Hyunjin spoke up. “Hyung…” There seemed to be some sort of silent communication going on because before you knew it, you were completely empty on both ends.

You slumped down on the mattress, your intense orgasm seemingly having taken the life out of you. Your eyes fluttered shut while you tried to regain control of your breathing and you felt someone sweetly petting your hair. “Did we wear you out for the night? Sorry, Aegiya…” Your eyes snapped open to see Hyunjin knelt down next to your head at the foot of the bed.

“N-no!” You grabbed onto his hand, pleadingly. “Not done! Need more… use me…” You were suddenly too cockdumb to form complete sentences, but what you did say made both men curse in tandem. Hyunjin smirked and quickly stood up.

The men grabbed each end of you and flipped you onto your back. Your vision was blurry with lust, but you could still clearly see that Chris had removed his condom and Hyunjin donned one now instead.

With one sharp tug, Hyunjin pulled you into position where his face hovered over your folds. You looked down at him right as he placed those plump lips against your throbbing clit in a torturous kiss. You whined at the damned tease and he smiled against your skin. 

He then went from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.

He began to you out as if his life depended on it and his long tongue reached even further inside you than you thought was possible. Your head craned back as you belted out a silent cry of pleasure. However, Chris used your open mouth to his advantage as he positioned himself at the foot of the bed and you finally caught a glimpse of his dick coming straight toward your mouth.

And HOLY FUCK was the man packing, or what?

There was no way in hell you were going to be able to deepthroat that monster! Yet you took him in your mouth nonetheless. You knew you still had a wicked tongue when it came to giving head. “Shit, baby girl. Your mouth really is magic.” Chris groaned.

You felt pride fill your smug little bubble, but you were soon preoccupied with your next orgasm rapidly approaching from the skilled tongue of Hyunjin. You whimpered on Chris’ massive cock and he moaned from the vibrations. Your orgasm was just as powerful as the last as you released all over your best friend’s face.

You heard a long hum come from the man between your legs. “You taste so good, Aegiya.” Hyunjin said once you were finished and he kissed his way up your body, only to stop to suck each nipple at a time into his mouth. Chris had started fucking your face shallowly and he was able to get painfully deep from this position. 

As you felt Hyunjin move up to suck on your neck, you felt his cock start to prod at your entrance. You were more eager than you thought you should be to feel him inside you, but when he absolutely slammed into you, you almost choked. Hyunjin was waaay longer than Chris and he reached spots inside you that no man had ever reached before.

You whimpered on Chris’ cock and you felt him start to stutter in his rhythm. “Fuck… M’cummin…” Sure enough, after a few more pumps, you felt hot ropes of his seed hit the back of your throat. You always had this really sick pleasure of cum eating and he thankfully spared you none.

More and more kept coming, and just when you didn’t think you could fit anymore, he finally finished and pulled out. You closed your eyes and hummed in bliss, sloshing the thick fluid around in your mouth before savoring every gulp to emptiness. You had realized that Hyunjin had stopped moving and you opened your eyes, offended that he would rob you of that delicious sensation he was giving you.

Yet when you opened your eyes, you found both men staring at you with shock on their faces. “Fuck, that’s gotta be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen…” Chris said with heavy breaths as he, too, was coming down from his high.

“Nasty, baby.” Hyunjin said with a smirk as he lowered himself down to hover just above your face. He looked apprehensive for a moment, seemingly searching your eyes as he slowly rocked into you with a steady rhythm and quick glances at your panting lips.

You decided to cut to the chase and you wrapped all your limbs around him, crashing him fully down onto your body and connecting your moistened lips. 

Well shit. Why did he have to be an amazing kisser too?

His pace picked up along with the hunger in his kiss and you were suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling of having your best friend fuck you senseless.

Although Hyunjin’s dick was beating your cervix to a pulp, the pain led you to yet another climax that you didn’t even think was possible. He pulled back and brought his hand up to thumb at your lips. “Get this wet for me, pretty?” You instantly sucked his finger in and his heavy-breathing, open mouth formed the sexiest fucking smile you had seen on him yet.

He retrieved the dripping digit and brought it down to your over-sensitive clit, almost instantly pushing you over the edge. Without further ado, Hyunjin also climaxed and he came with your name on his lips. Holy shit, you just fucked your best friend…

Things were hazy after he pulled out. 

First, you felt two pairs of hands strip you out of the uncomfortable lingerie and begin to wipe you down.

Next, you were easily repositioned under the covers to rest your head on a comfy pillow with the softest sheets you had ever felt. 

After that, things got quiet. You didn’t know why… but you suddenly felt… lonely.

You felt a kiss on your forehead and that’s when you forced your eyes open. You caught his hand as the man started to retreat. “Jinnie?” He returned to you with a sad smile.

“Yes? What is it, Aegiya?” You squeezed his hand tighter.

“Stay? Please?” He looked startled and he glanced at the man that had evidently crawled under the covers with you. You turned to Chris’ confused face and looped your other arm around his strong bicep. “Both of you?” You knew this would probably be weird in normal circumstances and you would have to address your feelings in the morning, but right now you just wanted to snuggle up to both of the men you adore inside and out. And, thankfully, they seemed to agree.

The rest is tomorrow’s problem.

__________________________________________

If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading!

This one is a spicy match!! Tbh I have no clue if I would be able to choose between the two... 😳

Please like, follow, and share! Thanks baby stays! 😘

2chopsticks2eyes - Masterlist

[someoldfires]

wwdits s6 speculation doom and gloom incoming. Can’t make a readmore on the app sorry. Don’t read if u don’t care i guess

so idk. what i’m hearing in what harvey said yesterday is that they’re going the whole ”actually this love is too unique and profound to be put into a box” route so i think their ending will be ambiguous and homophobes will be free to read it as platonic or familial or however they wanna view their relationship.

i don’t think what harvey’s getting at is that they will be explicitly romantic but non-sexual. i think he, like most people, is conflating romantic love with sex, and that part of what he means when he says ”they don’t have to have sex” is ”they don’t have to kiss/act romantic with each other”. I think he’s using a very broad definition of ”in love”. I don’t really see anything to be positive about in this atm.

So yeah. I think they’re staying safe and ambiguous. We will probably get a hug. We might get an ”i love you” or another verbal expression of love, that can still be read as platonic love.

And i’m sorry but i don’t want these two to have a Very Special Non-Sexual Relationship. I don’t want them to be Too Pure To Fuck or Kiss Actually. I want them to be totally unambiguous and explicit on screen and i want homophobes to turn the tv off in disgust. I’m really happy for you guys if you would be happy w them being ambiguous, or just hugging and expressing affection for each other (yeah i’ll be freaking out too if that happens). But ultimately i won’t be happy unless they’re explicitly romantically in love with each other

(and to be clear im not gunning for a sex scene like yeah it would be really nice lol to have that or a reference to them having sex but this isnt really about that. I just think that harvey is using sex to also mean Explicit Romance in this case, so i am very negative about him saying they don’t Need to have sex.)

[lover-of-mine]

Hiiiii Anna 💕💕💕💕

I hope you’re having a good day/night 🥰🥰

I want to hear your thoughts about the bts photos and things we have seen so far about season 8. We haven’t gotten a lot of context about the stuff we seen. Eddie’s mustache, the bees, the 119. I am so intrigued.

Do you think we might get an alternate reality episode? I am wondering if we see something where everything is good for the characters but it just isn’t quite right.

I am also curious because I saw that they are using that same camera Kenny used for Chimney’s scenes in the madney wedding episode. Could it be something similar???

I am thinking it could be a great way to start off Eddie’s queer awakening. (Clowning a bit here hahaha) Maybe we could get this in the opening emergency arc just like he had with Ana in season 5. I firmly think that was supposed to be Eddie’s original queer awakening.

What do you think? ☺️

-❤️🪐

Saturn, baby, hi 🩷🩷🩷🩷

Honestly, I'm leaning more towards call in a set than alternative reality at the moment. I think a what if/hallucinations caused by bee venom could be an interesting thing, kinda like what we were speculating when we first saw Devin was gonna come back? Because I'm fully clowning considering the way they took Chris out of the picture and the way the show is grouping Buck and Shannon in the same category, that we could get some buddie confirmation on Eddie's side, because no matter what you do, Eddie queer means buddie, even if they don't explicitly say it right away, both of them being queer makes buddie officially go from if to when, and Buck's queercoding was done with man in general, so they could easily make Buck bi and call it a day, but Eddie's is mostly with Buck, like I keep saying, we don't need Eddie to be gay, we just need Eddie to love Buck. Obviously, I am fully ready to be proven wrong and see Eddie go through the motions of coming to terms with his comphet behavior and the way religion might've affected the way he can't accept he's queer, but I keep coming back to Eddie accepting he's in love with Buck somehow as the climax of his queer arc, not him coming to terms with a specific identity. And at first, I was ready for it be a 8a long thing, something that would drag out through various episodes in the background, but considering the way they made Buck bi pretty much the first chance they got and the way we keep seeing Ryan and getting content on him, there's the podcast that was supposed to come out soon, he did a bunch of interviews right off the end of the season, we got Eddie's look for the season quite fast, and the way that Chris leaving is the more intense part of the cliffhanger because realistically they need to bring him back before school starts and they need to accomplish something with getting him out in the first place, I can see them doing something like the arc with Ana for sure, and we getting Eddie out some way, either as queer in a broad sense of the word or as straight up in love with Buck, by the end of the opening arc. The bees keep tripping me up, sure, bee venom is a thing, hallucinogenic honey is a thing, coma dream for anaphylactic shock can be a possibility too, but I think the bees are a misdirect, like the blimp in s6, so I'm still on the fence on that. But yeah, my current speculation is that Eddie is gonna have a big role in the beginning of the season. And while I am hoping the mustache is an identity crisis change in looks, also because of mustaches in queer culture, I am leaning towards the mustache being an act of defiance and Eddie trying to look more Mexican to spite Gerrard.

[the-whispers-of-death]

stone x bartender stone x bartender pls write like 8000 'chapters' about them i'll read it all

Alright, one more for you. (Not that I'm intending on stopping, I had just burned myself out answering so many asks at once so today I'll be taking breaks in between. Feel free to keep sending asks though, I'll get to it, eventually).

Stone walked to the park where you and him had scheduled your meet-up. It was one of the few days he had where there were no missions, no shift in the base hospital. It was free time and usually he'd hate it because it left him feeling lonely, but today he was going to be with you.

And that made it all better.

"Am I late?" you asked, making Stone turn around. The two of you had just entered the park at the same time. "Sorry, my cat had been crying at me not to leave my flat."

"You have a cat?" Stone asked, brushing your unnecessary apologies off. All he could focus on was that you had a cat, you were an animal lover.

You smiled at the way he was so intrigued by you having a cat. You started walking further into the park with him following you. "Yeah, I have a cat, she's five. Her name's Toffee," you answered. "Do you have a cat?"

Stone nodded his head. "Well, not officially," he said. "She's a stray cat that roams around base, but I give her food and cat toys. I named her Monster." He looked out in front of him as you two continued to walk. "I'm thinking of officially adopting her when my deployment's over, if I can."

"Why is she called Monster?" You were curious, it was a unique name for a cat. Usually it would fit more with a dog, and you wanted to know more about this cat who endeared herself to this enigma of a man.

"Ah, she bites and scratches all the other soldiers whenever they come close," he replied, grunting in disapproval at the memories of the other soldiers saying she should be run off the base. "She's just misunderstood, though. The first time I saw her, she came up to me and meowed so sweetly. She's a sweetheart."

Your lips twitched into a smirk, unable to help yourself as you looked up at him. "Guess she's like her unofficial owner, huh?" Your smirk widened when you saw confusion flash across his face. "You're a sweetheart underneath all that coldness and stoicism, aren't you?"

The result was so beautiful, the way he whimpered ever so softly at being called a sweetheart. So cute, so you just had to keep going.

"Yeah, you're so sweet. I remember the way you melted when I called you handsome." You both stopped walking now, facing each other fully. You reached out slowly, resting your hand on his broad chest and he so sweetly leaned into the touch. "Mm, you're a handsome sweetheart. Not used to being flirted with, but you enjoy the attention, hm?"

Stone couldn't help himself, he nodded. "Please keep flirting with me," he blurted out, practically begging.

Your eyes sparkled at that, you had no intention of stopping. You two resumed your walking again, enjoying the nature all around you. You learned more about him, learned that he was a Fleet Marine Corpsman, that he had been in the military for fifteen years and counting. He told you his favorite color, how he listens to Bollywood music on vinyl records.

Each new thing you learned about him made you want to take care of him even more. Which was why when you two stopped near a snow cone vendor and you saw him eyeing the snow cones, you dragged him—though you speculate that he allowed you to do so—to the stand. You both ordered what flavor you wanted and you refused to let him pay for it.

"Don't be silly," you said, your voice practically a purr. "A sweetheart like you deserves to be pampered. When was the last time someone took care of you?"

"Never," Stone admitted softly.

And it was true, no one had ever taken care of him really. The closest was medics patching him up when he himself couldn't, but that didn't really count. They were just doing their jobs.

Your eyes softened in sadness at the answer and so you gently pushed the hand with his wallet in it away. "Let me take care of you, please."

He stared into your eyes for what felt like hours but was only minutes. He was searching you for a hidden agenda, a lie. But he then relented, nodding.

You two enjoyed your snow cone together and continued walking around. You gave him soft touches on his arms every so often as you walked and spoke, relishing in the way he leaned into every touch. He seemed so touch-starved.

By the end of it all, Stone didn't want to leave. But you had work tonight, so you two had to part ways. "Until next time?" he asked, hoping this outing hadn't made you not want to see him again.

His heart melted when you said, "I'm definitely seeing you again." You lifted yourself up slightly to kiss his cheek, smiling at the way he stood there frozen at the touch.

He hadn't moved until you were long gone, his mind replaying the kiss on his cheek for several minutes afterwards.

Reblogs are welcomed & appreciated! Asks are open, feel free to pop in and talk or request something! (SFW requests only, please and thank you)

[direwombat]

woe, the first wip wednesday of the 2024 be upon us

tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton to share some wippy goodness today. here's some more katc interlude ii from gus' pov. please enjoy this VERY ROUGH draft (with brackets and everything!)

There, sitting in the chair beside Augustine’s bed, is none other than Joseph Seed. 

Augustine nearly doesn’t recognize him at first. Not without the sunglasses. They’re a common source of ridicule among his co-workers -- “What kind of asshole wears piss-colored glasses, anyway?” is a common refrain amongst the townspeople whenever the preacher is spotted outside the island where he built his Church. 

Once, back when Augustine was naive and new to town, he’d made the mistake of coming to Joseph’s defense. “Maybe they’re prescription,” he’d posited, believing it to be harmless speculation. “For migraines or something.” 

He’d never been more quickly ostracized in his life. 

It’d taken weeks to get back into his fellow rangers’ good graces, and even then it was only because Ben had convinced them to give him a second chance. “C’mon, he’s new. Kid didn’t know any better.” 

Augustine learned to keep his mouth shut when it came to Joseph Seed and his family. If it’s taboo to say anything nice about the man, then he’d rather not say anything about him at all. 

Hastily, Augustine lifts himself into a seated position and combs his fingers through his hair, trying to make himself look more presentable. “Mister Seed,” he starts, before realizing he has no idea what the appropriate honorific is. “Uh…Pastor Seed?”

“Father is fine,” he smiles. The corners of those bright blue eyes crinkle warmly. 

“Father Seed,” Augustine corrects, but the way Joseph lips thin like he’s biting back a laugh tells him he still didn’t get it quite right. Anxiety coils tightly in his gut -- Already fucked it up -- but he swallows around the lump in his throat, pushing it down. “I ain’t mean for this to sound  rude or ungrateful, but,” he hesitates a moment, warily eying the man in the doorway. Broad shouldered and donning an army field jacket, the man has a hardened and calculating look in his eyes; one that’s very similar to the look Sybille has whenever he drags her out to meet new people. He’s being sized up. This man is judging his actions, weighing his worth, and the rhythmic beeping on the heart monitor quickens at the idea that he may find Augustine wanting. His attention returns to Joseph’s curious gaze. “What are you doing here?”

“My brother, Jacob,” he motions to the man in the doorway, “told me about what happened to you last night. I wanted to make sure you were alright.” 

Although Augustine’s pulse slows to its normal rhythm, blood rushes to his cheeks. “Oh,” he says dumbly. “I -- uh…” His hands clasp together and he bashfully averts his eyes to stare at his worrying fingers instead. “I’m okay. Been better, but…I’m alright.”

“That’s excellent to hear,” Joseph says gently.  

Augustine nods and a long stretch of unbearably heavy silence settles over them. He chews on the inside of his cheek until the bitter metallic tang of blood bursts on his tongue, wracking his brain for a topic of conversation, but he comes up empty. “I’m sorry,” he says after an awkward cough. “I ain’t much of a conversationalist and I’m…Well, I wasn’t…”

“You were expecting someone else,” Joseph nods. [insert something about the compassion and understanding and warmth in his voice, rather than the anger and hostility augustine anticipates]

A lame, “Yeah,” is all Augustine can muster in response. His fingers fidget nervously in his lap. “You, uh…You ain’t happen to know if my sister’s here, do you? I gave Ben my phone so he could call her, but.. Um…” he trails off again. Whatever drug they’ve been using to sedate him and numb the pain has also stolen the second half of most of his thoughts as well. 

Joseph sighs heavily and his brows knit together. He removes his glasses, neatly folding the arms and tucking them into the breast pocket of his vest. A warm hand comes to rest on top of Augustine’s clasped ones. 

Augustine knows what that gesture means. It’s what Mama did when she sat him down to tell him that she had cancer and what the kind paramedic did when she told him she was sorry for his loss after he’d found both Mama and Daddy dead in the living room. It’s the kind of comforting gesture one gives before delivering bad news or condolences. Yet as Joseph’s long, spindly fingers wrap around his own, the warmth, accompanied by a sympathetic squeeze manages to keep the knot of anxiety in his gut from growing larger. 

“The phone lines have gone down,” Joseph murmurs. “I’m afraid we haven’t been able to get through to her yet.”

Augustine’s eyes go wide. “The phone lines are down?” he repeats. The County is no stranger to strong winds ripping through the valley, but last he checked the forecast hadn’t predicted anything strong enough to knock out the phones. “What happened?”

taglist: @marivenah, @florbelles, @statichvm, @fourlittleseedlings, @wrathfulrook, @harmonyowl, @ivymarquis, @carlosoliveiraa, @cassietrn, @poetikat, @confidentandgood, @strafethesesinners, @trench-rot, @miyabilicious, @simplegenius042, @g0dspeeed, @inafieldofdaisies, @josephslittledeputy, @aceghosts, @adelaidedrubman, @madparadoxum, @voidika, @strangefable, and anyone else wanting to share a piece of their wips!

[hauntingsofhouses]

Hi! What do you think about the usage of time in Blue Eye Samurai? And do you think Mizu is closer to 20 towards the ending of s1?

Hi there!

Hmm... This is an interesting question, and one I find a little difficult to answer if I'm being honest. "Usage of time" is kind of broad, and I'm afraid I'm not too sure of what you're asking, so I don't know if I can give a comprehensive response. But! I will try.

Time as a narrative device in the show is honestly something I haven't thought much of. Overall the story is quite linear, and the flashbacks are also rather linear.

The most notable usage of flashbacks is of course in The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride. The way it juxtaposes past and present, making us believe past Mizu is the Bride and present Mizu is the Ronin, only for both past and present Mizu to converge into the Onryo—it's masterful storytelling, and it's no wonder most viewers (including myself) consider Episode 5 to be the best in the season.

Also, now that I recall, the first episode of the show actually starts off by framing the whole story as a "legend of a swordsman, of a sword, of revenge." You could interpret this as the story being related to an audience by an unknown invisible narrator, which might come into play at the very end of series, or it could just be a stylistic choice, which is my personal take on it.

On the other hand, time as it unfolds in the present day makes more sense the less you think about it, and I say this mostly in a nitpicky CinemaSins type way (sorry) whereby the time it takes to travel from one place to another seems incredibly fast, rather than spanning days or weeks, considering Mizu mostly travels by foot. The time it takes for Mizu (and Taigen) to recover from their wounds is twice as fast. But again, these are details that are quite irrelevant to the story itself, and I just like to hand-wave them away by saying that the show follows video game logic in many regards, and the passing of time is one of them.

On a slight tangent though, while I'm on the subject of the show stretching the bounds of what's realistic or accurate, I'd also like to point out that the show seemingly takes place in an alternate timeline from our own, or at least just a completely fictionalised version of history. I say this because the Shogun im the show is from the Itoh clan, which is in fact a real clan (more commonly spelled as Itō) that ruled the Obi-han during the Edo period. However, they were not the ruling clan of the shogunate as they are in the show. Rather, the shogunate was led by the Tokugawa clan, who ruled Edo between 1603 to 1868. So! Yeah. Thought it'd be an interesting fact to mention.

Now, for the second half of your question, I actually think Mizu is a little older than 20.

I doubt that the show will give us a concrete answer to this, so this is all speculation, but hear me out. Japan closed its borders in 1633. The Great Fire of Edo takes place in the spring of 1657. In present day (assuming early 1657), Heiji Shindo and Fowler mention that they've known each other for 20 years, which could possibly allude to Fowler being in Japan for 20 years, or their partnership lasting 20 years. I took it to mean the latter, which means that Fowler must've been in Japan for at least 24 years. This gives us the maximum plausible age limit for Mizu. She cannot be any older than 24.

She also cannot be any younger than 19. This is because the character sheets tell us that she starts to look like herself as we see her today, at age 19. We can thus infer that this is the age when she first leaves Master Eiji's house (during winter), reunites with Mama (in the spring), and marries Mikio. Her marriage with Mikio, iirc, lasts less than a year, spanning from spring to autumn.

We can then roughly assume she's about 20 when she leaves the farm behind and resumes her revenge quest. Between then and the present, Mizu kills Violet. Assuming this gap of time is about a year long, that means Mizu is roughly 21 upon meeting Ringo in Ep1. So it's possible that at the end of the season she's either 21, or nearing 22, depending on if the season begins in early 1657, around January or February (the year of the Great Fire), or around December of 1656, the previous year. Personally, because I like my blorbos on the older end, I like to interpret her as the latter.

So yeah! I hope I answered your question anon, even if a little bit. These are fun little exercises for me to work my noggin, so I appreciate the ask! <3

[katyspersonal]

Bloodborne WLW ships stuff

Me and @brainhyperfixed touched the topic of how there aren't enough wlw ships around (there are like, 2-3) and then I mentioned I see many of them (because my two braincells somehow contain every single loreless gremlin at once).. They wanted to hear out my ideas but since it is A List I wanted to put them in a separate post 🤔

Just some ships besides the "obvious" ones; Mariadeline (self-explanatory), female hunter x female character (it can be very individual!), Ariadella (heavily controvercial classic, same as Aflred x Crow) and Yurimposter (that's what I call... well, Yurie x Imposter Iosefka, since we don't know imposter's real name...)

______________________

Eileen x Doll (Dolleen??): Eileen is the only character in 'outside' world that mentions the Doll, seems like she left an impact on her! Hard to tell whether Doll felt anything back since she seems to care about all dreaming hunters equally and it is implied Doll feels her first (1st) genuine emotion after holding Small Hair Ornament, but it is all speculation that is not THAT restricting... Like I love to say:

Adeline x Doll (Adolline): I guess it is more AU/speculation stuff, imagine them meeting however you like! I am particular on Adeline being able to reach Doll and dream after ascending, personally xd They could just vibe on higher plane of thinking. But it also feels like both Maria and Adeline having sort of a chance on happier fate in afterlife? It is broad in interpretation, really!

Eileen x Viola (I am NOT calling it Violeen xd ..okay maybe I do haha): That's just good old idea about Gacoigne and Viola having open relationship or a polycule! Usually little daughter referring to "grandfather" is interpreted as Henryk, but it is not binding, and in many cultures words like 'grandfather', 'auntie' or 'uncle' can be used towards like, just a close friend of family lol. So yeah, Gascoigne x Henryk whereas Viola x Eileen. Or you can make it a cheating if you want dsjfdhs

Adella x Imposter: Not sure about a creative name for this one, but IT CAME TO ME IN A VISION fsjdjdfs Not a joke, actually! I saw it in a dream! Adella is another person that can be sent into the clinic, so I guess it is an alternative turn of events lol. Adella is acknowledged as someone of 'lower' rank in Church:

Me and @val-of-the-north love joking that Adella simps for strong/smart fellow Church members regardless of gender fdjhfds In my dream, Adella basically kept distracting Fauxsefka from her work by switching between coy and clingy, until they were really affectionate. Adella also really liked her hair 🤔 The mental image seriously got stuck in my mind fdhfdhs But what I am saying is, it feels not as random as what I first thought!

Adella x Iosefka (Iosella): See previous ship, but this time there is no need to twist events to have Adella be safe xd They could just be sitting on operation table and K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Adella x Henriett (Henriella?): Henriett is implied to have been a Church hunter previously, since she has Church weapons yet a drip of a common hunter and is a summon against Church-related bosses! These two could be bitter EXes but were a thing before, or they might be in the love/hate strain after Henriett's "betrayal"!

Henriett x Iosefka (Henriosefka??): See previous ship, but I'd imagine Iosefka being far less bitter, if at all. She is a white Doctor, she sure knows that Healing Church's is very shady and full of dirty secrets! Not to mention her research to free the healing blood from... well, blood:

I like to think they're both redpilled, but Iosefka sees herself more useful staying in Healing Church and doing what she can "against" it in secrecy.

Henriett x Amelia: I am not sure what this ship is called, because actually I've seen it enough times? But I don't know the name! I assume Ameliett? Usual context is the two being close even if Henriett walks her own Hunter way from now on, and Henriett having agreement with Emilia to slay her if/when she becomes a beast! A promice, even.

Yurie x Rom (Yurom, or Vacurie xd): Since Julie is known as 'the last scholar', she could've been one of the original ones! Why she hasn't aged a single day is up to interpretation. But her purpose as a hostile NPC boils down to not letting us reach Willem... and/or Rom. Willem encourages us to hunt Rom, so seems like Julie does NOT want us to hurt her, ritual or not. She really could simply care about her and protect her even after ascension!

Rom x Ebrietas (Spiderietas): The petrified spider Ebrietas is weeping could be Rom's mortal body, especially considered it's 12 large legs and Rom having 12 large holes above her smaller legs... And Ebrietas' lyrics mention Mensis Ritual:

( x )

(If you never angered anyone to the point of them mentioning you in a song, what WERE you even doing with your life? xd)

Their bond is speculative, and considering running theme of Great One yearning for a surrogate child Rom could've been exactly that! But we also don't know! Besides, Ebby is a 'special' Great One who is a half human (is adult version of celestial larvae)... It could be love!

Maria x Rom (Romaria): I wrote Adeline and Rom being very similar, so in my headcanons Rom is Maria's type of a girl! But also, Maria and Rom have many parallels (elaborated in this ( x ) post)! They protect fucked up secrets even after death and their teacher is now some guy in a chair fsdhfhsd It can be a ship similar to Mariadeline, but without the same touch of guilt from Maria's side.

Black Church hunter x White Church hunter (nightmaresearch): Did you guys know that.... both of the ladies that kick your ass when you enter cathedral that leads you in Research Hall do not have names ;-; I feel like this seriously robbed the fandom off more ships involving them since they can't even be referred to properly! But they are a perfect dynamic of a smart, arcane-attuned woman and her bodyguard. Take Forgotten Madman and his escort but make it lesbian instead, you see?

Maria x White Church hunter (Knightmare? lol): They could've been close since Maria used to be a caretaker in the Research Hall! The white church lady is not as simple as just another 'nun', since she is praying at the secret Surgery altair and not at the facade 'normal' altair, as well as shoots Blacksky Eye projectiles! And, well:

She was one of the doctors! If not THE doctor (maybe Laurence was REALLY busy with blood instead of eyes!). Depending on how aligned you make Maria with the Healing Church, maybe she was close with this "coworker". We know that Maria dreaded the hunt, but maybe she had faith in the research, rather than feeling like a trapped person there. She did give Adeline a key to go play with other arcane-attuned patients at Lumenweed garden after all!

Maria x Annalise (Mariannalise): Another controvercial classic! It is not very popular for obvious reasons and I am not fond of the ship myself, but some people enjoy it for the potential of exploring really fucked up dynamics. (Some people also think being just collateral relatives is not a big deal in this historical context..)

Maria x Gratia (idk... Maratia? how do you mix these...?): Gratia is wearing Old Hunters set, but with a cap instead of their wide cap and without a glove on her left arm! They were old hunters together! This ship is doomed, of course, since Gratia is found dead in underground jail of the Healing Church. But maybe they were close for some time. And maybe Gratia lost her sanity rather than was caught as "heretic" of the Church. There is a room for this ship, even if not a huge one! I like how they are both very tall and strong women, but Gratia is a brute and Maria is soooo elegant x) They're similar but also not!

Eileen x Henriett (Henrileen): I largely base it on the headcanon that 1) Eileen survives after the night, just retires from the hunt and 2) Henriett was familiar with Gascoigne's family same as Eileen, since both and Gascoine detracted from the Church! They could get together afterwards. Maybe even adopt the little girls (they survive in the scenario where Hunter doesn't try to "help" them because I said so </3).

Viola x Henriett (Henriola): Similar explanation for Eileen x Viola, just different character!

Fauxsefka x Iosefka: I don't know what it is called, but I see it sometimes? It is very vague because based on their identical face data, they could be twins... so, that'd be incest :т But they can also be interpreted as just similarly looking people and "devs were lazy", and I've seen a few artists drawing them somewhat different! It is controvercial in either case since Iosefka tries to help the patients and Fauxsefka just """solves""" the beasthood problem by making them Kin (included Iosefka herself), I'd say it is AT LEAST straining.

Yurie x Amelia or Fauxsefka x Amelia: Since School of Mensis yeeted itself into Nightmare and Choir kinda fell apart, these two are the last people from high rank Church echelons left. I've never actually thought much about them, but as (presumably) next most important people in the Healing Church after the vicar themselves, they could be close!

Fauxsefka x Arianna, Maria x Arianna or Fauxsefka x Maria: Again, I didn't give much thought to these (at least not yet lol), but Fauxsefka is strongly implied to descend from Cainhurst herself! (I only mention justification for that headcanon in every second post, I think you all remember the 'moonlight scent', the Cainhurst summon and the trademark Cainhurst potions prepared by Fauxsefka! I headcanon that Arianna was already born in Yharnam, but we can't know ages of these characters or timeline for sure. These characters are not necessarily related, either! I personally think that Maria x Fauxsefka has the most fundament because they both seem to abandon blood antics of their castle and side with the Church's research instead!

Yurie x Arianna (Yurianna): I will just leave this here:

I doodled it so fast that I forgot to de-colorize Arianna's hair, but that ship happened after a doodle request ask for them both! (featuring my former variant of Julie before I finally accepted her canon hair color data :pensive: ) Julie would be actually helpful to Arianna with caring for her eldrich baby, and maybe help to be less terrified of it, haha. They could get close as a result!

Yurie x White church doctor: Haven't come up with a creative or funny name for this ship, but I enjoy it a lot! My headcanons go so far down as that one White Doctor being one of the original Byrgenwerth people!

In my headcanons, her and Julie are sole most 'responcible' and serious scholars in the whole institution! They'd spend a lot of time together as a result. In Research Hall, too.

Fauxsefka x White church doctor: See above, but with different vibe! In my headcanons, Julie is way more interested in experimenting on creatures and chemicals than actual people... But these two absolutely were super passionate doctors :')

Yurie x Adeline (Yurine?): Came to me in a random idea that Micolash kept getting a little too weird towards Adeline (who was too eager and not at all afraid of Deep Sea horrors unlike others), so Julie felt protective and elbowed him, becoming her doctor instead. I mean, not much things can stop Adeline from her eagerness, but they could've formed a similar bond to Mariadeline!

Yurie x Maria: I don't know how to name this ship in such a way that it doesn't simply form a third real name dshfdh But they both are close with very smart but slightly unhinged girls all too fixated on transcending their humanity. Who also don't understand their worth. Who are also fixated on a guy who is a bad influence (Laurence and Micolash). They have so much to talk about! Though Maria ships are all very sad, since no matter who she had proximity with, apparently it never was enough to prevent her from self-isolation and death...

Honorable mentions:

1) Izzy and Caryll have masculine names according to Japanese original script (イジー/Jiří and カレル/Karel), but some people say 'fuck it, regional variant 🙏', and also he/him or they/them lesbians, or GNC women easily could pick masculine names! So, Karel could have good ship with Rom, especially under assumption that they both were way more in touch with Willem's ideas and were nerds together. Or maybe Karel x Yurie! At the same time, consider Jiří x Maria or Jiří x Gratia!

2) I've listed pairings, but these characters can always make poly ships, remember that!

3) I haven't found a sapphic ship personally for Dores, but Dores is a feminine name, and in original script Dores is not a 'he'! There is no gender, actually:

Error appeared from translators referring to Dores and not their mask! But yes, this can be female character, who can also be shipped with any woman from Byrgenwerth, or from Old Hunters!

_____________

Okay that's all..... for now fsdhdfs I tried to focus on the context and explanation, and not dive into my vision of characters' personalities or else I'd be here all day. That was interesting to revisit! Again, obviously I do not ship all of these, and some even really contradict my headcanons; this is the post of IDEAS!

[yellowloid]

I swear this album is so Milex-coded. Gonna put my fangirl glasses on and look for shipping clues :DD

i think this ask has been in my inbox ever since they dropped the album and i'm so sorry for being so late, i'm bad at being a tumblrina 😔

but YEAH can we actually talk about that?

obviously this is just speculation and theories and bla bla bla we know that + alex's lyricism is so nuanced and full of multi-faceted meanings, and we will never have confirmation on what most of his lyrics actually mean... and i love that, i love that he's always let everyone have their own interpretation(s) of his songs without imposing a single one.

now, i do think most of this album is centered on self-reflection. it's very very very personal and introspective, and what i get from most of the lyrics is him reflecting on his present situation (private life, work life, any aspect of his life really) by using two main elements as his devices to do it:

1) obscure references (the first ones that come to mind are "the simulation cartridge for city life '09", "they shot it all in cinemascope", "lego napoleon movie", "richard of york, the executive branch")

2) even more obscure memories from his past, and especially his childhood (which is particularly clear in the title track itself)

but right along all that self-reflection and addressing himself we also find instances of him clearly addressing someone else. sometimes it's particularly tricky to understand *when* exactly he's talking to himself or that other person. as i already said in other analysis posts, i think sometimes he mixes the 1st and 2nd person pronouns voluntarily, using 'you' not only to refer to his interlocutor but also to himself. that's what makes songs such as mirrorball and body paint so complicated to analyse (ESPECIALLY mirrorball. i'm still so conflicted on my interpretation of it) (+ ever since the album dropped my interpretations of body paint and also mr schwartz changed a bit too. but that's another story)

i think overall most of the songs on this album are not that easily interpreted through a romantic lens. i'd say the one that falls the most into the (very very broad) category of """""love songs""""" is mirrorball - and even then, it'd be a breakup song AND most of it could also still be interpreted as self-reflection. again, multiple interpretations.

there are also some lyrics that could easily pass as...... him throwing shade? lmao some passages in sculptures + hello you really give off that vibe.

getting back to the point of this ask.... yes, i have spent an embarrassing amount of time reading the lyrics over and over again and i do have my crazy little milex theories about them!!!

but what i really love about this way of interpreting the album is the fact that to me, its queerness doesn't necessarily come from it being about a certain person. what makes it so relatable to some aspects of queerness is, again, how self-reflective it is. so many lyrics could be interpreted as him struggling with *his* queerness and expressing that struggle through looking at the past, addressing himself as well as an (imaginary) interlocutor and just finding himself coming back to the same recurrent themes over and over again. ESPECIALLY - and that's what really fucking gets me - the whole mask/façade/persona situation, seasoned with a whole lot of regret and self-deprecation, which is especially clear in body paint (!!!!!!), mr schwartz, big ideas (i feel like as a fandom we don't talk about "the ballad of what could've been" enough. can we actually sit down and THINK about that for a second. such a fucking important line. he was so fucking insane for that) and perfect sense (about which i have a very specific interpretation and is2g don't even touch me that song makes me too emotional it's literally one of the most perfect songs i've ever heard i'm not even joking)

so yeah, some (many) lyrics could be directed at miles (never say never, you know?) but what i really love about the possibility of this album having queer connotations is that it doesn't look for its own queerness from the outside, from a hypothetical (ex-)lover, but rather from alex's own psyche and emotions. its queerness comes from within. from self-reflection and (perhaps unwanted) realizations. from having to hide and keeping a mask on to not be found out. from the inner battle between denial and acceptance.

and then there are a million other unrelated meanings that blend together with the possible queer ones and create such an elaborate set of layers that just makes it so interesting to analyse it!!! and that's the whole point of critical analysis and what makes it so cool!!! having possible multiple interpretations that can coexist with each other!!! i just!!! love that!!! so much!!!

[natalieironside]

Introducing the Writer Tag Game

Ty @iloveyou-writers for making this and to @thewriteflame for tagging me <3

Rules: fill in the blanks with as much or little detail as you would like and tag some writer friends to play too. (blank version)

Hello, there. My name is award-winning speculative fiction author Natalie H. Ironside and I won a writing contest in high school one time that I'm gonna milk harder than Pabst milks their one blue ribbon. I'm a writer of the dark sci-fi and dark fantasy genre(s) and I love to write about sad gay ppl in horrible situations. Also, hope. The hope is very important, and my stories can get pretty dark but they always have happy endings.

I cover a broad enough range that I think I can just reject the dichotomy of SFW/NSFW (everything is adequately tagged and described so the rest is in God's hands). I write about some pretty dark themes and a lot of my work deals with the aftermath of stuff like sexual violence and child abuse, so just be aware of that, as well as the "entrails, lovingly described" throughout. Tropes you will never find in my writing include any salacious depictions of sexual violence (the word "aftermath" in the above is an important one) or...Well, I'm not sure how to put this. Most of my protags are racial, religious, sexual, or some other sort of minority, and obviously there's some darkness in the world et cetera, but there's a certain way of framing bigotry in fiction as though it's cinematic action violence which I find uniquely distasteful and I will not be doing any of that. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this in a way that makes any sense at all but I promise to never try to be the Kojima of sexism.

In my humble opinion, my best work I've posted is The Scruggsdale Organizer #4: Local Woman About Tired of All This Mess because I think it's very funny. Maybe I'm just being precious, but comedy is really really hard and I very rarely even bother trying at it but I'm pretty proud of The Scruggsdale Organizer and this installment in particular. For y'all who don't know, which I'm sure is a lot of y'all since I haven't posted about it in forever, The Scruggsdale Organizer is an epistolary horror-comedy serial about a little town in rural Mississippi where strange supernatural things happen, but instead of blog posts or letters the story is being told through articles in a weekly anarchist zine. Yeah, I guess I've written some "novels" and some "short stories" and some "poetry" or whatever, but I look at Scruggsdale Organizer #4 as a time I set out to do a specific thing and just really nailed it; it's the literary equivalent of parking the car in the spot just right.

My all-time favorite character I've made is Freydis Gothi Thorkilsdottir, daughter of Thorkil Gothi Swordbreaker, Matron of War Witches, Matron of War Matrons, High Field Marshal, Eater of Cities, Mother of Abominations, and Chief Royal Consort. She's a recurring protagonist in my Nameless Queen dark fantasy universe and I am love her very much. Freydis is an enormous ginger transsexual, a sword-and-board fighter who can cast wicked spells, and a rough-and-tumble freebooting adventurer type who suddenly found herself part of the royal court and fast-tracked into becoming a monstrous demigod. It's super weird for her and she's dealing with a whole "to become a god is to lose everything that made life worth living" situation but she's also having a rip-roaring good time while she does it.

Something I'd love for you to know about my writing that isn't listed in this game is, well, I feel like we got kinda dark in the middle there, so I wanted to end back where we began and talk about hope. What really does it for me when it comes to the dark stuff is recovery; I like telling stories about recovery. My characters sometimes have very very bad days, but tomorrow can always be better than yesterday and there's always a reason to keep trying.

Thank you for reading and now I challenge the following people to fill this out: I seem to have misplaced my list of people who said they liked participating in tag games so I'm leaving this one open. I tag each and every one of you.

[brittlebutch]

neo i clicked on ur link to With the Light and binge read like half the series for the past 4 hours. PLEASE tell me ur thoughts abt this series im in love with it !!! the framing of hikaru's issues as inherently blameless is amazing to see, and the focus on letting hikaru enjoy what he likes and letting him choose/listening to all the ways he communicates made me so happy. the way sachiko firmly refuses to let people be ableist or mistreat hikaru is so refreshing, and her patience and intentional care and observation ends up encouraging other people to stand up for themselves and build a lovely community of support and acceptance. i especially liked the incisive way they address people's condescending attempts at caring (the parents' talking down to sachiko, the teacher offering to make the races have no winners, etc). im so glad u posted abt this, i definitely never would have found it otherwise, and i would Love to hear ur thoughts ^_^

Dude!!!! I am so glad that you had read this series and enjoyed it, I'm SO thrilled that I finally was able to find a site where I could recommend it to people! I could spend hours talking about every single minute detail of this series that I love -- if I tried to talk about it here, I'd probably break the text box lmao. I keep trying to break it down to broad strokes and failing, I love the characters, I love the narrative, I love the educational aspects and the way it handles all these different topics and the fact that throughout the series, the thing that always comes through the loudest to me is a deep felt love of Autistic people and the Hope that one day the world as a whole will change to accept us as we are.

Hikaru isn't the POV character, but this series never falls into the mistake of forgetting that he is a character. There's no Symbolic Representation here (see Jessie Gender's video on this topic for more on that); Hikaru isn't just a walking DSM checklist of autistic traits -- he is a full person with likes, dislikes, interests, friendships, and even with his autistic traits, they're unique and specific to him instead of a broad attempt to make him carry the whole of the spectrum on his shoulders. (That's one of many aspects where I think the choice of narrative really works for the series -- having one family move through a variety of different schools, services, and organizations means that there's ample opportunity to introduce a wide range of characters that can highlight different traits, behaviors, and points on the spectrum without it being overly pointed or confusing).

And the series is always sympathetic to his perspective; we never really get into Hikaru's head, but the characters and the narrative still absolutely ooze an empathy for his experiences throughout the series. The characters often talk about not only the stress of having autistic children, but the stress of being an autistic child. They talk about sensory experiences as being overwhelming and painful, they identify the struggle to identify your surroundings as scary, discuss how frustrating it must feel to not be able to express yourself effectively. Sometimes it's speculative -- although they do also sometimes talk about having read things that actually autistic people have written about being autistic, but the core empathy is always present. Even when discussing something frustrating or dangerous (a mother talking about how her daughter sometimes tries to run into the street because she likes the white painted lines on the road), they still often take the time to consider and empathize with their children's point of view ("If the whole world was confusing and overwhelming, then it must be a relief to find something to look at that always stays the same").

and YEAH i love the way this series handles communication. Again, the narrative works in its favor on this topic, because Hikaru doesn't have to be someone who uses a shit tonne of different communication methods; they found what works for him and stick with it, but can also talk to other parents/educators about all the options that exist out there. The series goes into depth about a lot of different methods of communication, all of which are celebrated and accepted - deliberate use of direct speech, more abstract use of verbal speech, PECs cards, AAC technology, written directives and lists people can point to, type to talk, nonverbal gestures, body language, etc.

But to me, the most important conversation about communication is a moment when Hikaru's elementary school teacher Aoki is talking about another autistic student in his class. He is talking to the children's mothers, and pulls up his sleeve to reveal an injury on his arm from where Miyu bit him -- "Whenever I see this, I realize that I'm not communicating with Miyu-chan in a way she understands". Not only is Miyu "Allowed" to bite without being punished, but the biting itself is not dismissed as an aberrant "bad behavior" that needs correction, but is correctly identified as a method of communication that the allistic adults around her need to listen to. Miyu cannot talk and she's too little to read or write, she can only communicate her frustrations in the few, limited options available to her -- until she's able to learn how to express herself in more effective ways, it's important for the people around her to pay attention and actively listen to the ways through which she can express herself -- including in strange or "inconvenient" ways, such as biting.

And the very deliberate ways they teach Hikaru how to communicate is also Super fucking important. It's really significant to me that the first things Sachiko wants to work with Hikaru on are 1.) How to express needs/wants and 2.) How to tell her "No". For the series to correctly identify that the ability to tell someone "No" is not only a right, but an absolutely vital life skill is SO significant. Not only does Sachiko accept the idea that Hikaru will tell her no, she takes deliberate steps to teach him how to do so. The series goes into depth on how Sachiko (and Hikaru's other caregivers/educators) help teach him how to correct them when they screw up, how to ask for things he needs and reject things he doesn't, how to set his own boundaries and communicate his needs and dislikes -- no matter what that communication looks like.

I love that the series and the characters' main focus is never on getting Hikaru to "fit in" to society, but to figure out how to live a life that works for him, that allows him to be as independent as possible, no matter what other people think about how it looks for him. Another really important moment in the series for me is when Hikaru's grandmother is saying that the progress he's made since he was a small child isn't good enough, and when she asks "What happens to children like him?" Sachiko is absolutely stalwart when she says "He'll grow up, and become a young man with autism" and DUDE i love that so much. Not a single hint of the notion that he'll either be infantilized forever or somehow grow out of his autism, it fully embraces the fact that he'll be an autistic adult and remains adamant that that's a good thing!!!

Again, I could talk about this forever. I love that the series always empathizes with Hikaru's meltdowns and never just dismisses them as "tantrums", and when other characters talk about meltdown prevention, it's never in terms of "Well, we need to figure out how to force Hikaru to get used to X", it's always in terms of "I should have realized he was reaching a breaking point before things got that bad; we need to help Hikaru learn tools to calm down and make sure he knows how to establish boundaries and leave situations that aren't good for him". With the right adults, Hikaru is always able to leave an overwhelming situation and not return until he has decided he's calm enough to try again - no one pushes him to recover faster than he's ready to. I think there's one scene in the entire series when two adults who don't know what they're doing try to restrain Hikaru during a meltdown, and every other time Hikaru reaches that point, the other characters make sure to give him ample space to calm down without overwhelming him further.

I love the ways this series handles ableism in all of its forms. It addresses ableism that comes from ignorance, from malice, and from places that are "well-meant" in really educational and helpful ways. I love love love the way the series normalizes disability when explaining it to children -- there's a few moments throughout the series where other kids mock Hikaru, but the adults handle it so wonderfully. The "Hikaru struggles to talk the same way you struggle to run a marathon" explanations do so much to make disability just a normal thing, instead of some awful secret that you're never allowed to address directly. I think it's really wonderful.

I think this post is getting too long, tumblr is getting mad at me lol. There's still so much I'd love to talk about: I love how the author includes so many lovingly illustrated panels of Hikaru stimming, I love that his family is allowed to be frustrated without that frustration ever coming across in a way that demonizes Hikaru, I love the relationship that he has with his younger sister, I love all of the friendships that he's made and maintained since he was a toddler, I love the "It takes a village" approach that really highlights the significance of having a good support system, and I love all the different people that come together to help teach Hikaru and make sure that his dignity and independence are always prioritized. I love the little details of Hikaru's character like the way that he's really good at identifying/taking care of plants, and his love of dolphins, and the way he repeats the things his friends say to him to hold onto the thoughts after they go home/back to class. I even love how some of the teachers that Hikaru has in school aren't always great at their jobs (I actually think the Gunji-sensei arc is one of my favorites in the whole series), and I love all the side characters that the series introduces us to, and the care that the author has when educating readers about autism and all the different aids/accommodations that can make life easier and less frustrating/painful.

UGH I really do love this series so much, I'd happily keep talking about it and answering questions about it for forever! If my ramblings have encouraged anyone else to give the series a shot, I'll leave you with this: the first two chapters are the hardest to get through because Sachiko and Hikaru are extremely isolated and Sachiko does not understand what Autism is yet -- if you're hesitant about it, you can skip to chapter three where things start to look up a little more sharply and start there instead, and please continue to read through the rest of the series. It's truly one of my favorite autism medias of all time <3

[twinkinspector]

shinsou hitoshi ❥ astrology masterlist ❥ generational planets

❥ birth date: july 1, 2126 (he actually has the same birthday as natsuo, just a different year)

❥ birth time: evening

❥ birth place: saitama prefecture

❥ pop astrology analysis: cancer sun, scorpio moon, cap rising. YUP. my initial impression was scorpio, so the scorpio moon is right on the money for me. cancer sun threw me off at first, but i think it checks out for our emo king ONLY when it’s colored by his other placements. i probably would have pinned him as an aquarius sun instead. cap rising makes sense here bc he’s so determined to work hard to get into the hero course and seems very no-nonsense.

❥ in-depth below the cut ❥

❥ cancer sun: emotional. strong survival instinct. nurturing. sensitive. compassionate. seeks and offers security. loyal. protective. highly intuitive. associated with psychic abilities. emotional. charismatic. mommy issues.

shinsou hasn’t gotten a ton of character development yet, so i’ll address what’s canon first. you can already see his strong survival instinct with the general way he presents himself regarding his desire to be a hero. he’s protective of himself at the moment – he says he has no interest in making friends. he comes off as almost manipulative? i think that comes from his intuition and (this is speculation now) his familiarity with emotions. his brainwashing quirk seems consistent with that and ALSO the association with psychic abilities. i know horikoshi said shinsou was going to have some character development in the future, so i think we could see something addressing his parents – specifically, his mom.

❥ scorpio moon: not really interested in surface-level relationships. desires long-lasting and deep connection. potentially very secretive about their feelings even though they are intensely emotional. creative. mysterious. captivating. ambitious. empathetic – or at least aware of the vibes around them. a bit manipulative at times. the moon is in its fall here.

having a planet in its fall can indicate a struggle in that area. on the other hand, that struggle produces great wisdom. the moon represents emotions, so this could mean that shinsou really struggles with his emotions. he straight-up said he’s not interested in making friends. that could be to protect himself OR it could be because he’d rather make real friends than surface-level relationships. we don’t really know what he’s feeling (because he puts on a façade), so he could potentially be very emotional under the surface. but we just don’t know. he’s def mysterious. captivating? yeah, ask the fanbase LMAO. he’s super ambitious – going from general studies to the hero course is NOT easy. his quirk makes him manipulative. he literally has to manipulate others into responding to him, which would make him good at reading the room and observing vibes in general.

❥ capricorn rising: biiiiig bizzy-business energy. work-oriented. no-nonsense. stoic. poised. quick-witted. bright. emphasis on family. mastery of the material. organized.

this is biiiiiig in his transfer to the hero course. he’s so determined and work-oriented that he accepted extra work with aizawa. i keep coming back to the fact that he doesn’t want to get distracted by trying to make friends, which is a very no-nonsense approach. he’s super stoic and poised in public. he seems like he’s hiding something or doesn’t want to give something away. his quirk forces him to be quick-witted and bright simply based on how it activates. i just want to touch on the “emphasis on family” here – like i said above, we don’t know anything about his family. and the fandom considers aizawa to be his adoptive father. i think we’ll definitely find out more in the near future.

❥ gemini mercury: quick-witted. can come across as scattered, but this is because they have broad interests. seem to know a little about everything. knowledgable. mercury is in its domicile here.

gemini is ruled by the planet mercury. a chart with a planet in domicile means that a particular area will have very heavy influence on a person. mercury being the planet of communication makes a lot of sense with his quirk. he literally has to speak to activate it. additionally, it means that he has to be really skilled at communication (and likely manipulation). he also just seems like the type of guy who would know a little about everything but that’s just me.

❥ gemini venus: social butterflies. curious. social chameleon. charming.

shinsou seems like he would be able to talk to just about anyone – not because he wants to, but because he either has to or just simply because he’s good at it. being charming can lend itself to being manipulative. i think he could probably charm the pants off anyone if he really wanted to. he could charm my pants off but

❥ cancer mars: indirect. passive-aggressive. inclined to control their feelings but can seem moody. can later erupt. protects themselves. driven to action based upon emotion. mars is in its fall here.

having a planet in its fall can indicate a struggle in that area. again, that struggle lends itself to wisdom. mars is a planet of action and aggression, and cancer..... doesn’t vibe with that. shinsou likely struggles with confrontation. this also lines up with the fact that his quirk isn’t really all that suited to combat. he has to come up with a creative way to deal with combat – just like how his cancer placement has to find a creative way to express itself in the area of action, aggression, confrontation, etc. additionally, the indirect, passive-aggressiveness of this placement speaks more to his manipulative nature and the way he has to activate his quirk. “inclined to control their feelings but can seem moody” ........ this is exactly how i see our emo king. this bottling-up of his feelings could potentially drive him to do something rash or just burst at an inconvenient time.

❥ sagittarius jupiter: this is considered one of the luckiest placements to have. optimistic. inspirational. can indicate a spiritual person. usually a scholar. jupiter is in its domicile here.

if i’ve said it once, i’ve said it a million times – i LOVE this placement. jupiter is all about expansion and progress, which shinsou really embodies. he’s optimistic, even if it doesn’t seem that way outright. even though he’s been told all his life that he should be / seems like a villain, he still wants to be a hero. and that’s inspirational in itself. he’s got a scholarly vibe – especially with his work ethic.

❥ virgo saturn: introspection and change as a result of that introspection. adaptability.

an introspective KING 👑 he took a hard look at himself and his quirk and figured out a way to use it for good and channel his emotions into drive.

❥ taurus chiron: really own their pain. afraid of losing something. seek security and stability. core wound: neglect.

i won’t always go into chiron, but i want to acknowledge it here. chiron is an asteroid – not a planet. chiron represents our wounds in life and how we cope with / overcome them. people with chiron in taurus channel their pain. shinsou’s wound from constantly being badgered about being a villain was channeled into his determination to become a hero instead. he seems like he’s afraid to lose something. all of this is just conjecture, but that core wound may be familial neglect.

i rly think shinsou embodies a lot of the generational planets as well, so i’m going to go into those a little here.

❥ leo uranus: strong individual identity. uranus is in its detriment here. this generation is prone to ego dissolution even though they have a strong sense of self. lots of introspection and changing themselves accordingly.

having a planet in its detriment is slightly different from the planets in fall we saw above. it still indicates struggle, but it’s more challenging than a fall placement. it can actually indicate shame in that area. uranus is the planet of innovation and discovery. it can also represent rebelliousness. shinsou definitely harbors a lot of shame about how different he is than others. he has a suuuuuuper unique quirk. he really has to be his own person. even though he’s learning from aizawa, he can’t just copy his fighting style. he has to adapt it to himself. i’ve already touched on introspection and change, but i just wanted to point it out again.

❥ taurus pluto: a knack for making something out of nothing. persistent. they also enjoy comfort and beauty.

shinsou has made an otherwise “undesirable” quirk into something that works really well for him.

❥ overall

shinsou’s chart is SO crazy accurate, imo. his might be the most accurate of any character – we’ll see. the only thing i’d change would be to add some aquarius placements, but i’m so satisfied with these placements that i hesitate to even say that. we stan a king 👑 he’s honestly pretty balanced element-wise (minus the fire). he has like.... no fire. but that tracks. he’s super laid-back

❥ aaaaand here’s the chart

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

One thing that pisses me off when talking about ASOIAF is that there’s always an asshole that think they know more than you& they’ll talk down in a condescending tone like you don’t know that you’re talking about yet when you prove them wrong, it’s a problem (which is every fandom imo but I personally only experienced in the ASOIAF fandom). A prime example is when I’m making posts specifically regarding the Targaryen and I mentioned that as far we know, only the Targaryens can ride dragons given the fact that they’re the only dragonlords that we know of that survived the Doom and then someone (quite disrespectfully) calls me an idiot & attempt to inform me that there are dragon riders that are not Targaryens like Laenor, Laena, & nettles and I’m like 😂 bc Laenor & Laena are dragonriders thanks to their mother, RHAENYS TARGARYEN, & nettles is a dragonseed which is what they call a Targaryen bastard, the only thing is that we don’t know of nettles true parentage, some actually speculate that it’s daemon, which isn’t far off imo bc daemon is a whore so…makes sense, but she does have Targaryen blood in her and when I explained that to them, they keep bringing up velaryons bc they came from Old Valyria in which I rebutted that just because they’re descended from old Valyria themselves doesn’t automatically make them dragonlords because if that was the cause, don’t you think that Corlys himself would’ve claimed a dragon if he can? But when i said all that, I got insulted and blocked 😂. Because as far as I know, there were other but few families in old Valyria that were dragonlords and the reason why they were able to secure dragons for their line is bc they practiced blood magic which a lot of people wouldn’t dare entertain it bc it is dark but anyway, just because you have descendants from Old Valyria doesn’t automatically make you a dragon as I reiterated. Idk I could be tripping but what do you think?

ASOIAF is such a broad universe with like 20,000+ years of history (detailed at varying levels, cuz woah), and it’s attractive in its richness and complexity. That tends to draw some pretty arrogant intellectualists into the mix—a “my brain is bigger than your brain” sorta thing. Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to that condescension and ahem, psychosis when anyone dares challenge what they believe to be The Correct Interpretation. People who think they’re really smart and therefore always right are usually the fucking worst because they think it gives them a free pass to be a dick.

Yeah, the Velaryons are Valyrian but they were not historically a dragonriding House. This is just basic fact, really (this sounds cunty, but I promise that GRRM has in fact said this). The Targaryens are (unless GRRM decides to chuck a plot-twist somewhere in-universe in future) the only surviving dragonriders from Old Valyria, and they were even only comparatively minor nobility prior to the Doom. It seems heavily implied that blood magic and some sort of mythical subversive eugenics scheme was implemented to assure the bloodline had power to command dragons, maybe even that this magic created the dragons themselves. But yes—Laena and Laenor had dragons because their mother is a Targaryen. Baela and Rhaena have dragons because their father is a Targaryen, and their mother’s mother is. Nettles… well, there are theories about her, and I happen to think she functions similarly to Daenerys in that she is of Valyrian heritage but subverts the dynastic rhetoric fuelling Targaryen supremacy in her opposition to positioning herself as a symbol of superiority.

Yeah, you are correct. It can be very difficult to have these conversations in a fandom that is largely perceived as only being for serious intellectuals. I don’t think ASOIAF is really for casuals, but at the same time it doesn’t necessitate the absolute insanity I see in the fandom day in and day out. I’m sorry you had that experience, boo. Hope you’re okay! ❤️❤️❤️

[itshardcandy]

Strawberry Flavour - Part 3

Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Reader, Park Jimin x Reader, Min Yoongi & Reader

Genre: Fluff, F2L,

Warnings: some slightly illegal activities (Vandalism but more funny than trashy), kissing, love triangle if that's considered a warning for anyone, bad punctuation!!!!!

Chapter summary: Jimin feels bad, you feel bad. Jin is trying his best.

Author's Note: lol sorry I know this one is a long time coming. If anyone is even still interested it's here now 😭

___________

The next morning was a blur. You had no time to think about last night’s events and it appeared as though Jimin either didn’t remember or had decided to act like it didn’t happen. Which was fine for you because for now you had other problems to worry about. You needed to get more dough prepared and check all the equipment again, before you would leave for the second day of the festival. Jimin helped you carry the big ingredient sacks to the kitchen from the back and then proceeded to busy himself with the tools while you took care of the dough preparation. You worked in silence until it was time to go and set up the booth again.

Now that you already had done it one time before, it took less time to get everything set up and prepared for the day and you had a little bit more free time before the festival opened its metaphorical gates again. Jimin polished the display case, while you watched the other vendors set up. Letting your eyes wander, your gaze landed on Fluffy Clouds’ set up and you spotted Lucas and Baekhyun carrying some stuff around. Your mood immediately soured and you sighed, catching Jimin’s attention,

“Do you think people would get suspicious if Baekhyun just didn’t show up for the last day tomorrow?”

You asked, indulging in some innocent abduction fantasies, involving your nemesis,

“Yes, I definitely think so, YN”,

Jimin said,

“And I also think there could be some hypothetical traces and evidence leading up to our involvement in his hypothetical absence in future town-organized events and… life in general”

He added and carefully gauged your reaction,

“Ugh, I guess…”

you grumbled and turned back around to face Jimin,

“I’m so sick of them just existing near us”

You sighed and Jimin chuckled silently,

“I’m not sure what we can do about that”

He said and you absentmindedly poked around the dough with a wooden spoon,

“Yeah, I know…”

Another pouty glance at your adversary’s set up gave you pause for another reason than unbridled hatred; it was confusion.

Jin stood at the booth, leaning on the wooden structure, and looking relaxed as ever as he was casually striking up a conversation with Lucas and Baekhyun. Was it really him? You were squinting hard to confirm your suspicion and the results came back positive.

Why would he knowingly canoodle with the enemy? It looked like a friendly chat and a successful one, at that. You knew Jin inside out and he was definitely sporting his dad-joke pose, getting ready to wow the two men with his endless repertoire of the lamest jokes ever invented.

Next to you, Jimin followed your line of sight, eyes widening in recognition, when he spotted the line of Jin’s broad shoulders,

“What’s he doing over there?”

He asked, wiping his hands on a towel,

“I don’t know…”

You replied and stopped your dough-stirring. Sadly, they were too far away to eavesdrop on the conversation. The only thing loud enough to decipher was Jin’s laugh,

“It’s making me nervous, Jimin. Why would he go talk to them when he knows how they treat us? Is this just a friendly visit to the competition, a spy mission or did he just forget that they are number one on our most undesirable list?”

You speculated and Jimin stayed silent, simply choosing to observe. A few minutes of awkward and not very well concealed espionage went on until you saw Jin waving goodbye to the Fluffy Fools and stroll over in the direction of yours and Jimin’s booth. He didn’t stop, however, just passed by and greeted you with a simple but powerful wink and kept walking.

What was he up to?

Despite the rocky start, your rice cake sales went up a little higher than the day before. You and Jimin fell into a manageable rhythm of working the display and keeping up with the demand and by the end of the day, you were counting a nice stack of profit.

Jimin was cleaning up and putting away all the utensils and tools and you took care of the leftover food. After the busy day you had, with customers ordering rice cake after rice cake and screaming children running around the area, it was nice to work in silence for a little while. That silence wasn’t a hundred percent relaxed but both of you were too exhausted to acknowledge the awkward tension that still lingered between you two after the kiss. It would have to wait until both of you were in the right headspace to talk it out; maybe after the festival. For now, you stored the money safely and Jimin finished up packing,

“Knock knock”

You looked up, mouth hanging open in surprise,

“Jin, what are you doing here?”

You asked, getting up and taking off your apron. Jimin greeted the man with a simple nod,

“I was just passing by”

Jin said and shrugged,

“Like you were passing by Fuffy Clouds earlier?”

You asked, trying to keep the accusatory tone to a minimum. Jin just giggled like he usually did with his shoulders shaking. He knew he struck a chord when he approached them this morning but it was all for a good cause, you’d see soon enough,

“Calm down, no need to throw hands”,

He casually leaned against the support beam and folded his hands,

“I was just checking out their stuff”,

“Checking out their stuff? You had your dad joke face on, I saw it! You made friendly conversation!”,

“Woah, no need to say the f-word here, ok?”

Jimin popped up from behind and calmly put a hand on your shoulder,

“I’m sure it was nothing”

He said and Jin nodded in agreement,

“Exactly! - Well… actually, I had a very good reason to go over there, which I would have told you about in due time, if you hadn’t accused me of fraternising with the enemy”

He explained and you pursed your lips. Ok, maybe you could have let him speak first before putting him on trial but this was a sore subject for you,

“Anyway… “

Jin needlessly dragged out the -y-,

“I was actually about to ask you to follow me…”

He said, after it was clear that you would let him elaborate,

“Inconspicuously… “

He added, lifting his brow suggestively.

You regarded him curiously. He didn’t move an inch, keeping his smile and his posture until you decided to grace him with a reply,

“Follow you where?”,

“We were actually planning to-“

Jimin started to say from the back but Jin interrupted him,

“I was planning on stealing YN away for a little while. You can go home already I’ll walk her back later”

Jin answered and Jimin was visibly shook. Well, visible to you, at least,

“Oh, ok… well then I guess YN, will come home late tonight”,

“YN will do whatever YN wants because people can make their own decisions, even if they are talked about as if they aren’t present”

You said and both men coughed awkwardly,

“Of course… we didn’t mean to talk over you”

Jimin mumbled and Jin agreed with a silent nod, then went right back to being himself,

“So, pack up and let’s get going!”

He clapped his hands together and you guessed the case was closed. You sighed and grabbed your bag, ready to head out,

“Jimin, are you ok with locking up later?”

You asked before stepping outside,

“Don’t worry about it, go have some fun”

Jimin said with his back turned to you,

“Ok, see you later”

Something about that interaction made you feel a little conflicted,

“Ok, Jin, I’m ready to –“,

“Actually, we should wait 5 more minutes, just to be safe”,

“What’s that supposed to mean?”,

“Nothing, nothing”

Jin mumbled and turned his head around nervously in every direction before smiling at you reassuringly,

“Like Jimin said, don’t worry about it”

“Jin, you know I don’t really do well with this mysterious spontaneous-“

“Ok, now! Go, go, follow me!”

Jin suddenly dashed away, pulling you with him, across the dimly lit and deserted open festival area until you squeezed in between a Plushie shooting range and an apple bobbing stand,

“What the heck?”

You blurted out but Jin slapped his hand across your mouth,

“Shh!”

He held a finger to his mouth and signalled you to stay quiet, just as a security guard was passing by, whistling and lazily swinging his flashlight around. You stared at Jin, a little annoyed at the secret agent agenda he had going on but you would be lying if you sad it wasn’t also a little exciting.

The guard kept on walking and making his rounds and Jin let go of you,

“Sorry but I couldn’t risk it”

He whispered,

“It’s fine. What are you getting us into here, though? Is this going to get me in trouble? I can’t risk losing the booth, Jimin would be so disappointed because we’ve worked so hard to- hmpf”

Jin covered up your mouth again, cutting you off mid-sentence,

“Calm down Strawberry Flavour, we’re just going to have some innocent fun”

He said and you nodded,

“Maybe it will be at someone else’s expense but that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun”

He added and you slapped his shoulder,

“Ouch!”,

“Jin! What do you mean at someone else’s expense?”,

Jin sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes,

“Can’t you just trust me?”,

“Obviously not”,

“Ok, then… let’s get closer to the booth and I’ll show you”,

“Ugh, ok”

You both checked for another guard or some other possible witness and then continued your approach at a brisk pace. The place was still abandoned and only the sounds from outside the area could be heard. People were probably partying down on the promenade and the beach, like they did last night, too.

“You know, I wasn’t really just checking out their stuff,”

Jin started to say as your steps came to a halt in front of Fluffy Clouds’ booth.

He whispered ominously as he let his backpack slide down from his shoulder,

“I was actually studying the booth for structural weaknesses and asses the best point of entry so we could….”

He pulled the zipper down on the side of the backpack and pulled out five cans of string cheese and a crowbar,

“Have some innocent fun”

A maniacal laugh exploded from him and he dramatically lifted his hands in the air, as you examined one of the string cheese spray cans in your hands. A sudden fit of coughs interrupted your reverence and you looked up at Jin, who was hitting his chest while he choked on his laughter,

“You ok there, Bud?”

You asked, regarding him with raised brows until he calmed down,

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine”

He took one deep breath and flipped one of the cans in his hand, like he was some kind of cool teen with a passion for skating,

“So, we doin’ this or not?”,

“I hate, that I’m actually considering doing this”

You sighed,

“Let’s do this”

_________

 

Half an hour and some thorough vandalization later Jin and you were admiring your handiwork. The string cheese was holding up nicely and the crowbar had helped you in dismantling a few non-essential items. Nothing dangerous, of course. Well, Jin had kept you from loosening the overhead beams because he didn’t want to be responsible for two deaths but still. He thought his state-of-the-art method of helping you vent had been implemented successfully as he watched you smile to yourself,

“You feeling any better?”

He asked, filling his backpack up with the empty cans and the crowbar. You lifted your arms over your head, stretching yourself and let out a deep breath,

“I think so. I didn’t think this would end up being so much fun. I thought I’d just feel guilty the whole time”

You happily admitted as you stretched your neck a little bit.

Darkness had started to roll in as dusk approached nightfall quickly and the dim lights that were placed in between all the booths and attractions didn’t actually do much to properly light up the area.

Under cover of darkness, Jin let his eyes roam over your body as you proudly took one last look at your masterpiece.

“You know, I think they might suspect foul play when they come back tomorrow and find all of this.”

You say and Jin just shrugs behind you,

“Eh, whatever, there’s no cameras here and I doubt the police will launch an official investigation for a small festival booth that’ll be gone by the end of the week anyway.”,

“You’re probably right. God it’ll be so satisfying to see their stupid faces tomorrow,”

You turn around with a dreamy look on your face and Jin hoists the backpack over his shoulder,

“I sure hope so, that cheese cost me a fortune.”

He comments and you smile, laying your head on his shoulder.

“I’ll pay you back in chicken,”

You promise as you both get going and Jin nods,

“That’s acceptable.”

He agrees to your offer to repay him, making sure to check for the security guard before you sneak around the several booths and rides and swiftly exit the festival area.

“Seriously, thank you for roping me into this. I honestly never thought a life of crime would be for me but I think I see the appeal now”,

You said and bumped your shoulder into Jin’s affectionately.

“I knew you’d appreciate my evil genius eventually, Strawberry Flavour, even if it took you this long.”

Jin answered as he popped a cashew in his mouth and held the bag to you to take one, too. It wasn’t a long walk from the beach back into civilisation and the fresh air and calm atmosphere were a nice change after the hectic and eventful day you’ve had so far.

“I never pegged you as the rebellious type.”

You poke fun at him as your eyes roam over the open landscape that separates the beach from town. Jin smiles at your comment and throws a nut in the air only to catch it with his mouth.

“I’m full of surprises”,

He winks.

“Yeah, apparently. Why don’t you use some of the genius at work when Areum is making your life hell?”

You ask jokingly and grab another handful of cashews from the small bag.

“And use my evil powers on a little girl? Wow, I thought I was the shameless one but you have a dark side as well, huh?”

Jin replied and you smiled sheepishly,

“I guess we confirmed that today”,

“True.”

The summer night breeze flowing in from the coast slowly cooled down the heated land and had you shivering deliciously as you approached the edge of town slowly but surely.

--------

As you walked along the side of the road, under the light of the street lamps and the shadows stretching in between them, silence fell over the two of you, which was a rare occasion.

The shop and your apartment were only a few minutes away now.

 

Usually, when you were with Jin, you would just say whatever was on your mind and so would he. Both of you had no filter and very little speech impulse control around each other, for better or worse, but for sure entertaining.

Right now, however, it seemed like neither you nor him wanted to disturb the comfortable silence until you rounded a corner and your place came into view.

Comfortable was a fitting description, you thought, as you regarded Jin from the corner of your eye. You always felt comfortable around him and there was never a need to pretend and hide parts of yourself when you were together.

Like right now.

There was no need to talk and keep up pretentious small talk because just keeping each other company was enough. The friendship you had built in the time from meeting for the first time and now was precious and moments like these made you appreciate it even more.

Moments like these, when the wind carried the scent of Jin’s perfume over to you and it lulled you in; when your steps automatically gravitated towards each other and your shoulders touched occasionally.

Moments when your hands brushed against the other’s and somehow your fingers found their way into holding on and interlocking in a gentle grip.

Feeling his hand holding yours like it was the most natural thing had your cheeks heating up for reasons other than the warm weather.

You’d never held hands like this before and it felt… nice, you thought, as you leaned into Jin a little more.

It felt nice like that time in the kitchen, when he held you up to the high shelf with his arms around you, so you could grab the pan you needed.

You remember feeling warm in that scenario like you do right now and like you did last night after Jimin kissed you so unexpectedly.

The thought of it made you feel a little queasy, since that particular issue was still buried in depths of your mind and suddenly a wave of anxiety passed over you.

Oh god, why did you think of Jimin right now?

Your grip tightened on Jin’s hand out of reflex and he glanced at you, right as your expression shifted from blissfully ignorant to nervously worried.

“Strawberry Flavour, is everything ok? What are you making that face for?”

Jin asked while you approached the building. You fished your keys out of your bag when you came to a halt in front of the door and then turned around to face him.

“Ah, it’s nothing, I just- I have a lot on my mind, is all. These last few days have been great but also exhausting as hell.”

You confess, only telling him the half of the truth. He still hadn’t let go of your hand yet, not even when you had to look for your keys with one hand just seconds ago.

“Yeah, you and Jimin really worked hard. You deserve some rest for sure.”

Jin smiles encouragingly and you appreciate the thought.

“Definitely. My back is killing me but it’s not only that. I think I have some things to think about and figure out.”

You pout a little, starting to get lost in your thoughts again when Jin loudly exclaims his confusion,

“Huh? What do you mean by that? Is it about work?”

He asks and you shake your head.

“No, work is fine. I mean considering the circumstances. There’s this thing that happened the other night and I just really don’t know what to make of it but it’s important. If I just ignore it and pretend it never happened, it could end badly but if I confront it while I’m not sure about my thoughts and feelings it could also end badly, you know? It’s a mess really and I-“

Interrupted by your own thoughts you end your rant prematurely. Looking up at Jin’s still slightly confused face you realize that he might not be the ideal person to relay your conflicted feelings about the kiss to.

Lately you’ve been feeling a shift in your relationship with Jin as well and somehow it didn’t feel right to explain this thing that happened between you and Jimin to him.

Jin was a good friend to you but was that all he was…?

“And you…?”

Jin’s voice startled you back into the moment.

Looking up into his big, kind, brown eyes, you realize that maybe he should be part of it. If these butterflies you’ve been feeling and that warm fuzzy feeling inside you were any indication, then he probably deserved to know that you were extremely confused right now.

And if you interpreted it all wrong then you would just have to live with it.

“Jimin kissed me last night. At home. He was drunk and I don’t think he meant to do it but he did and I don’t know what to feel.”

You blurted out and immediately went quiet again, trying to gouge Jin’s reaction.

The man in question, however, didn’t react immediately. Instead, he slowly let your words sink in and you watched the realization slowly set in.

“Jimin kissed you?”,

“Yes”,

“Was it like- I mean did he try anything else? Did he hurt-“

“NO! No, no he didn’t hurt me”

You gestured wildly to emphasise your answer,

“He would never hurt me, he just surprised me…”

You added, in normal volume this time.

“Ah, I see”,

Jin nodded as he visibly processed all this information and you could swear you saw a flash of hurt and disappointment in his eyes but it was gone in a second.

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. His crush on you might as well be tattooed on his forehead”,

Jin’s smile looked a little strained and you couldn’t blame him.

Maybe you have been somewhat oblivious to a lot of things happening around you and maybe you even wanted to be ignorant towards it for a good while, too, but it was time to face the music.

“I’m sorry”

You bit your lip. Suddenly, as the conversation was about to turn serious, the dirt under your feet seemed very interesting.

“Why are you apologising? He kissed you, it happens. I just hope he takes good care of you, you deserve it, Strawberry Flavour. Just don’t forget about me when domestic bliss sets in, alright? I’ll still pester you about chicken every day at work”

Jin smiled so brightly, you could almost think he meant it all. He raised his hand to almost touch your face but pulled back in the last second and dropped it back at his side.

He sighed deeply and tightly shut his eyes for a second before shaking it off.

Hiking the backpack higher up his shoulder he stepped back.

“I’ll be going now, it’s getting late and I-“

No, no, this wasn’t the way you wanted it to go! You didn’t even get to say your piece yet!

“- should probably get home soon, I got an early shift in the-“,

“Ya!, Shut up for a second, will you? I wasn’t finished!”

You suddenly yelled, startling Jin into silence and surprising even yourself.

You slapped a hand over your mouth in shock.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell but you were about to leave”

You mumbled. Jin still looked a little taken aback but he didn’t move to leave.

“It’s ok”,

Jin’s voice was a little quieter than before. He placed his hands on the straps of the backpack and

“What else did you want to say?”

You took a deep breath and straightened up, filled by a sudden burst of determination and clarity.

“This whole thing with Jimin, that’s not what I’m sorry for”,

You started and weren’t surprised to find Jin still looking apprehensive and a little unsure. He looked down at his feet and started to speak before you could,

“YN, you really don’t need to explain yourself. What happened with Jimin-“,

“-Made me realize that I wanted it to be you!”,

Quickly, you finished his sentence and he looked up, surprised to be interrupted by you for the second time.

“Huh?”,

“It made me realize that I wanted it to be you, you numbnut, that’s what I wanted to apologize about!”

Slowly you regain your confidence and Jin seems to finally catch up on what you just said.

“I was going to say I’m sorry that that’s what it took for me to realize that I like you. And then tonight when you literally committed a crime for me, I think my brain short circuited and now we’re here.”

The explanation was a simple one but you hoped Jin would appreciate the contents over the brevity.

The man was still trying to comprehend what you just told him.

His face, now back to its usual expression of childlike innocence, also betrayed the rollercoaster of emotions he was experiencing right now.

A few seconds of silence passed by and you were beginning to feel restless,

“Jin, say something”,

He blinked a couple of times, then slowly let the backpack slide down his arms as he stepped towards you.

“Sorry, I just need to hear you say that again.”

He cupped your face in his hands, smooshing your cheeks together in an absurd fashion.

“Icantthpheaklikethis”,

You mumble but Jin doesn’t let up. He punches your skin with his thumbs and forefingers,

“Come on, Strawberry Flavour, I’m hard of hearing”,

“Ugh!”

You grab his hands and pull them away from your face dramatically before taking a deep breath to prepare to yell in his face yet again.

Jin shakes your hands off and grabs your face again before he closes the distance between you and presses his lips to yours. Probably a little harder than intended.

You’re not even mad you didn’t get to yell at him as your brain struggles to register the feeling of his plush lips on yours.

Your eyes fall closed after the initial shock and you fall into him, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him closer to you just as he wraps his arms around you.

Faintly you register your back bumping against the glass doors of the shop and your feet stumbling around to keep from falling over but it all fades into the background pretty quickly.

Only when Jin pulls back just a little for some air, do you regain control over your rational mind.

“JIN!”

You hiss and push at his chest in an effort to create some distance. Jin doesn’t move an inch and only chuckles.

“What?”,

“You interrupted me!”,

“True but in the best way possible, though”,

“I swear to god, you are so-“,

“Handsome? Lovable? An amazing kisser? Ah, Strawberry Flavour, I know, no need to tell me”

He was back to his usual shameless self and you regretted everything immediately.

But not really.

You pulled him into another kiss and gently cradled his face as he held you tightly.

“Yeah, all of those actually”

You admitted with heated cheeks but without a hint of sarcasm and Jin smiled against your lips.

Finally, he thought, finally he could kiss you and hold you and tell you all those disgustingly sweet things he’s been holding inside all this time.

There were probably still a lot of things left unsaid and you and him needed time to unpack it all and do it right but for now he just wanted to hold you close and kiss your breath away before he let you go.

As you enjoyed the moment and giggled quietly like lovesick teenagers, a small detail went unnoticed.

It was Jimin, walking dejectedly back up the stairs in the back of the shop in the dark. While you and Jin had your dramatic little moment, Jimin was woken up by the sound of someone yelling outside and something bumping into the shop doors. As he went downstairs to check on the commotion, he saw you both standing outside, illuminated by the soft glow of a distant street lamp. Instead of a drunk guy causing a ruckus he found you and Jin a position he never wanted to imagine you in.

He should have waited, should have controlled himself better. He should have known that a drunken kiss in the hallway in the middle of the night was definitely not the way to win your heart but he just couldn’t help himself.

Maybe, if he had done things differently, done things right, it could have been you and him.

He slowly hiked up the stairs and wen back to his room, knowing he’d probably be unable to fall back asleep for the foreseeable future.

[lactoseintolerentswag]

As someone who only draw single pieces, your ability to write is fascinating to me…I’m curious, how do you start building the storyline for longer fics?

Do you just think of a scenario (e.g., A punched B in the face) first and expand around it (What happened that leads to A punching B, what happens after, do they resolve their conflict)? Or do you start with the potential story arc of your central character (how A goes from a cocky person to a responsible one), or through some other ways entirely?

(TLDR: How do you plan out the storyline of your fics?)

Oh my gosh anon you just got awarded question of the night I love talking about writing (even if im answering these bc im currently blocked from writing ASDFGHJK).

And really my answer is both in a way!! Sometimes I'll think of a scenario first and expand around it, or the potential of character arcs. Long fics can spin from any idea big or small.

The fic I'm working on now? The Four Knights actually came from a joke with a friend. We were speculating about our own separated aus for fun and I really got stuck on Megamind-stylized villain!leo that was just a silly goofy guy because yeah. Canon!leo is dramatic af. And then I started asking myself questions.

Here's the important part in figuring out a long fic, or even just writing in general, is to keep asking yourself questions.

Okay so Leo is a villain, why is he like that what led him down that path? That's a broad question that will lead down to a lot of little questions, which is where the plot starts rolling.

Okay so he's a villain because his motivation is to take over the Hidden City, but how is going to attempt to do that? Okay now he has his own version of a Hidden City gang just like the Masters of Barbarianism or Makers of Brutality, but how will this make him interact with important figures like Draxum and Big Mama?

Knowing your characters is also important. Characters are your anchor, your guideline. All this question-asking relies on knowing your character well enough to have an answer to what they would do in that situation.

The things I focus on in character writing, especially when thinking with planning a plot in mind, is their strengths and their flaws.

Now as for the Planning planning part, different writers have different techniques. Sometimes someone just needs to sit down and write what they have in their head. As for me? I'm a very dedicated out-liner.

I'll write down all the main ideas or sick imagery I had in mind. Like why does villain!leo have a bird mask, we totally gotta flesh that out. And then I begin with a rough outline of the story breaking it into different parts or acts.

I tend to do this when I'm more focused on character arcs, with a character's traits and motivations progressing throughout a story.

For me this is super brief, just a line of bullet points to keep the ideas running. And then I'll get into chapter by chapter outline.

I make chapter by chapter outlines with a broad sense of what I want to happen in one chapter and then move onto the next. Once I'm done with that I return back to the start to refine the details into bullet points.

And this is a lot (if I'm passionate abt one thing it's writing) so,

tldr: Start with a broad idea or goal, and keep breaking it down into chunks. First by questioning why the main goal would happen, and then fleshing out the details little by little.

I wish you the best of luck with writing and art!!!! The act of creation is a time-consuming, but is ultimately wonderful and full of passion. Hope my word vomit was helpful haha.