#like. not just good as in quality good as in ‘about to tie the themes of nine seasons of a show together’

[hadestigers]

now hang on now.

[valsverse]

"lay all your love on me."

synopsis: general dating headcanons for our favorite water boy. pairing: percy jackson x gn!reader headcanons. word count: 1.2k

• oh, the antics.

• he's constantly trying to impress you even if you claim it gives you secondhand embarrassment. he'll be practicing tricks on his skateboard and be like, "this one's for you, babe!" and goes to do a kickflip or something and COMPLETELY falls off. LMFAOO.

and he'll be all whiny when you patch up his hand because he wanted to make you proud!! but all is good after you reassure him and kiss his scratches better. (as per his request.)

• percy loves partaking in your hobbies, regardless of his skill level.

if your hobby is knitting, soon enough you’ll be gifted a sweater with a pink heart and your name stitched unevenly on the seams. yeah, it might be a little itchy and it's practically falling off your shoulders, but he tried his best!!

if you like reading, he'll snuggle up with you as you two share a book. (although he prefers if you read to him, dyslexia is a pain.)

you get the point. quality time is something he values greatly. as long as he gets to spend time with you, he doesn't mind what activities you choose to engage in, whether it's watching, listening, or doing something else altogether.

• you usually accompany percy on quests, but on the rare occasion when you don't, he's quite literally counting the days until he can see you like a child counting down until christmas.

before leaving, the hugs he gives you are so tight it's unreal. like, his friends have to intervene to separate him from you. as he gradually steps back, he tells you he loves you and misses you despite him not even leaving for the quest yet, LMFAO. he only releases his grip on you when your index fingers are the last thing touching.

but when he comes back, his affection for you is on full blast. like i'm talking shrieks of excitement when he finally sees you, which attracts the attention of some nearby campers but he couldn’t care less as he runs over, nearly colliding into you with his hug.

• percy has a unique way of hugging that leaves you feeling entirely enveloped in his warm embrace. when he hugs you, your entire torso is engulfed, and your face is pressed against his chest. his arm wraps around your waist, almost entirely covering it. his other hand, calloused yet gentle, cradles the base of your head, holding you close to his chest or neck, and the scent of seawater and his cologne fills your senses.

• matching bracelets type of love!! one day, you two were strolling around manhattan and came across one of those cheap, diy jewelry kits for 10% off. you know, the kind that's meant for little kids and not demigod teenagers? yeah, that kind.

but percy bought it for you anyway, and you guys spent the remainder of the day crafting matching jewelry for each other! yeah, it did get frustrating sometimes, (you always have to tie the end of percy's bracelet/necklace for him because for some reason he's completely incapable of doing it himself.) but you two laugh and tease each other the whole time and it's just really sweet.

percy made you a blue bracelet with a little trident charm in the middle, and you made him one with your signature color theme and your initials on the beads!! both of you wear them around camp proudly, and the beads make a jingling sound whenever you hold hands with him.

(+ he runs his fingers over the bracelet you made for him whenever he starts to miss you.)

• hands intertwined all the time!! he's developed such a habit for it that whenever you're together, he automatically reaches for your hand. whether you're walking around camp, sitting on the couch, or even sleeping, holding your hand is so ingrained in his mind that he doesn't even think about it.

percy loves feeling the difference between your palm and his, whether yours is softer, calloused, coarser, etc. he also loves playing with any rings you wear, twisting them around your finger or rearranging them.

• cabin sleepovers are an absolute must. you have them once every few weeks — and would have them more often if it weren't for the harpies.

not only does he love spending time with you in his cabin, but also he just sleeps more peacefully around you.

percy likes to rest with his chin nestled in the curve of your shoulder. you've grown accustomed to the feeling of his warm breath against your skin and the weight of his head against your collarbone — which he leaves lazy kisses on before he falls asleep. only when his eyelashes brush against your neck, fingers curled into the fabric of your sweater, can he relax and feel safe, warm, and loved enough to fall asleep.

• percy jackson is the type of boyfriend who leaves his clothes out on purpose for you to wear. he pretends not to notice that the hoodies he lends you never return to his closet. but he doesn't really mind because he loves seeing you in them.

• staring is a percy thing. even if he tries to hide his gaze every once in a while, you still manage to catch him sitting across from you with a lovesick smile, his eyes trailing over your face taking in every feature as if it was his first time seeing you.

when his eyes finally catch yours, he quickly looks away, but he can't resist glancing back at you a moment later because like, how could he not?? and with his confidence building up, soon enough he whispers, “c'mere and give me a kiss, yeah?”

• percy always tries to be creative when it comes to dates because they're kinda limited at camp. while you've experimented with various activities such as training, picnics, and swimming, your favorite pastime is strawberry picking. you two spend the day in the fields, picking the sweetest strawberries you ever had which later turned into refreshing strawberry smoothies.

but he's so particular about what strawberries he picks. you'll go to pick one with a little bruise and he'll whip his head around so fast like??? it's not that serious percy.

• percy does his best to learn everything about you, from the things you love to the things that you hate. if you hate bugs, he'll get rid of them all for you, (but he puts them somewhere safe because he's a sweetheart.) he'll speak for you in public if you're not comfortable in social situations, and he'll lead you through large crowds if you hate them. he's always learning and paying attention to the things you like, dislike, love, and hate so that he always brings a smile to your face.

he'll go out of his way to learn your favorite songs so he always knows which ones to play during long car rides, he knows how you like your coffee, and he has your entire takeout order memorized!!

• percy's love for you is so evident, there may as well be hearts in his eyes. he thinks you're the absolute prettiest, and nothing can change his mind. you two are perfect together, and the whole camp knows it.

a/n

this was supposed to come out earlier but my peanut allergy got provoked, but fuck it, we ball. 💪💪 (malnourished, heavy eye bags, weeping, hysterically shrieking, dehydrated, and on the verge of insanity.)

xx val

[ginkgo-phyta]

Tantalizing / Spencer Reid

PART TWO: Link

Pairing: Spencer Reid x BAU!Reader

Words: ~8k

Tags/Warnings: SMUT!!! like pure smut, AFAB fem reader, no usage of "y/n", light footplay, light nipple play, humping, unprotected penetration, slight dom/sub themes (nothing intense, maybe more like switch?), secret relationship, extensive foreplay teehee ;]

Summary: You haven't had good, quality, playful time with Spencer in quite a while- the team's schedule having been jam packed with cases. Its been making you antsy, expounded by how good your boyfriend has been dressing lately. You decide late one night that enough is enough, and you had to dig your claws into him. Even if people end up finding out about you two.

Author's Note: inspired by spencer's s7 outfits...they're so good. they make me wanna bark. this is my very first time writing smut! ahhh!! also i didn't know wtf to title this.

“Hi Spencer…” Your alluring voice purred into Spencer’s ears as he held the hotel door open for you, the seductive timbre curling up the back of his neck, brushing against his warming cheeks and flicking the ends of the hair that tickled the shell of his ear.

“C-come in, quickly”. He ushered you in, closing the door swiftly behind you. The stammer caused you to grin mischievously and you watched Spencer pause in the middle of the room- just staring at you hesitantly, taking in your appearance as he played with the hem of his sweater vest. You donned a half-sleeved retro style black dress with a white collar and small buttons going down the front- his favorite on you. The belt hugged your waist beautifully and the skirt that shaped out your hips flared out a bit at the end, falling right at the knee. With it you wore an assortment of dainty jewelry, very sheer black tights and short forest green heels. He had seen you just a handful of times throughout the day, and each time he had to find some excuse to leave your vicinity in order to hold onto even a sliver of concentration on the case.

“I’ve missed you all day, baby.” you start to step closer to him, twirling the ends of your perfectly curled ponytailed hair between your fingers. The soft thuds of your kitten heels sent tingles down Spencer’s spine. “Did ya miss me?” you questioned him with a little pout. Now mere inches away from him you traced your manicured fingers down the lapels of his blazer. Reflexively, his hands shot up to rest ever-so-lightly on the curve of your hips.

He gulped, watching you playfully bat your mascaraed eyelashes up at him, “Of course, I did.” Spencer cleared his throat, trying to gain some sort of composure, “I wished you could have come out into the field with me, but you need to get better first.” His right hand shyly moved up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear, fingers lingering to fiddle with the small golden hoop on your lobe. 

A dramatic sigh huffed out of your plump, glossy lips while fixing the knot of his tie, “I knoooow,” tone almost childish in reluctance, “I just love seeing you work.” You threw your arms over his shoulders, flashing him the beautiful smile he loved oh-so-much to see, “Which is why I’m here. Wanna see what you’re up to.” The bite of your lip, the glint in your eye, and the glimpse to his own lips made it clear to Spencer that you held a different motive. “Show me what you're working on?” you turn to make your way to the desk where dozens of papers and multiple files were scattered around. The purposefully enticing sway of your hips left Spencer captivated.

You had suffered a pretty bad concussion a couple weeks ago at the hands of an unsub weidling a copper pipe. The proceeding vertigo refused to relent its choking grip on your inner ear resulting in being “banned” from the field until a doctor’s clearance- or two, if Spencer could have his way. Usually this wouldn’t be all that big of a deal for you, but the case the BAU team was currently working on had Spencer away from you for most of the day, profiling the suspected murderer’s house in an attempt to find details that could lead to the missing victim. You were left twiddling your thumbs at the precinct. Well, not really, but it sure did feel like it at times.

“Ooo, the coded messages. Have my analyses helped you at all?” your voice pulled Spencer out of his debauched thoughts. His gaze landed on your face, all traces of seductive tactics were gone, replaced by eager and adorable curiosity. The unsub had several coded messages in journals scattered around his apartments that were proving to be incredibly difficult to crack. Spencer let out a breathy chuckle as he excitedly made his way over to sit at the desk. 

“Yes, they actually did. I was able to-” and off he went down the rabbit hole of a tangent. Although normally you would have intently listened to what he had to say, this time watching him passionately ramble reignited the little flame in your bosom. You leaned against the desk, letting your eyes wander over Spencer’s expressive hands and fingers as he gestured to different pieces of paper. You interrupted his spiel by sliding into the space between his body and the desk, using the toe of your shoe on the seat to roll the creaky swivel chair back.

“The working day is over, Spencie, don’t you think it's time to focus on better things?” Spencer's head snapped down to where your foot rested on the cushion of the flimsy motel office chair, right between his legs and dangerously close to his clothed cock. He followed the line of your nylon clad leg, over the skirt of your work dress, across the prominence of your chest, up the slope of your neck, and finally to your twinkling eyes. “I don’t deserve any attention, baby?” you tilted your head ever so slightly, your hand coming up to delicately play with the single-pearl necklace resting in the Plender’s gap of your collar bones. A delicious, forlorn sigh passed your lips as your fingers glided over your shoulder, head moving with it to look down and pick at the papers laying under your tush, “You didn’t really miss me, did you? All you ever think about is the bad guys.” And there was that pout again. God, you really knew how to make Spencer a mess.

“That’s not true!” he exclaimed immediately, voice cracking slightly at the end. Your eyes snapped to his offended face. You giggled as his Adam’s apple bobbed- you loved teasing him, it boosted your confidence and only egged you further every time. His reactions would always be your drug of choice. “I’m-I’m sorry.” was all else he could spit out.

“What for, honey?” you leaned back on your hands, head tilting to the other side this time.

“For not giving you my attention. I didn’t mean to…neglect you. I really did miss you. I always do.” Spencer’s hands came up to lightly cup your calf, still very aware of its proximity to certain progressively-aching parts of his body.

“Good.” your voice was matter of fact as you straightened up a bit. Spencer watched you pull at your hair-tie and release your ponytail with a few firm shakes, his lips parted with a sharp draw of breath. The foot between his legs briefly moved as you kicked off your heels before it settled back into its original position, this time inching further under his crotch.

He let out a quiet surprised “Ah-” at the contact, his grip on your leg lowered as he squirmed in his seat.

“You like my outfit today? I picked it out specifically for you.” your words turned breathy as you leaned closer to the quiet genius, “You’ve been dressing sooo nice lately, honey, I wanted to look just as pretty as you.” You picked up one of his hands that had slid down to grasp your ankle, pushing his palm flat onto your led as you dragged it up the limb. Under your dress it went, enticing Spencer closer to you in response until his chest hit your shin. His fingers curled onto your thigh, analyzing the smoothness of your tights before you stopped. Instead, you took his fingers and pressed them into the lacey top of your sheer black thigh-high stockings. Another little move, press, and pause, allowing Spencer’s fingers to analyze. They were latched to a garter belt. The realization drew a soft groan from the back of his throat as his forehead dropped onto your knee. He loved when you would wear these. Spencer placed a few barely-there kisses where he could, using his hand to explore your thigh, taking in the difference between your warm skin and the cool nylon. You relished in the way he dug his fingernails into your supple flesh.

“So beautiful…” his whispers into your silked skin tugged a devilish grin up your cheeks. You felt his eyebrows furrow and you could tell his lips were pursed. You craved for his big hands and chapped yet moistened lips to press all over your body, but the teasing was just too fun to quit so soon. Instead, you wove your fingers through his hair, pushing back and coaxing him to look up at you. His cheeks were flushed clove-pink, eyelids drooping slightly as he gazed longingly at your mouth. Spencer’s body tried to jump closer to you, his hands respectively gripped your upper thigh and ankle in a failed attempt to hoist himself up to your hypnotizing smile. You swore you heard him let out a faint moan as his crotch grazed against your lower extremity. This sparked a match in your head.

Much to Spencer’s displeasure you moved away from him, leaning back on hands placed firmly on the desk. He tried to move forward to follow you, but your clothed foot left his crotch to land on his chest, effectively stopping his movements. Spencer let out a huff as it began dragging down his torso, pushing him back into his chair, before its path ended. Your foot hovered over the obvious bulge in his black trousers. “I love wearing these tights,” you started nonchalantly, “They make me feel so pretty and put-together; so hot,” you added a tantalizing emphasis, as if the word was naughty. Your lightly padded toes circled around where Spencer wanted them the most. Instead they avoided it a little longer, going to trace the design of his belt buckle. He screwed his eyes closed- whether to contain himself or simply feel your movements was uncertain. He let out an impatient whine. “Don’t you think so, sweetheart?” The sole of your foot finally flattened on Spencer’s covered cock.

“Yes, yes, yes” he earnestly groaned out, the hand on your ankle desperately pushing your foot further onto his bulge. That’s what you loved most about fooling around with your beloved- always so eager. You bit back the moan of your own that threatened to spill as Spencer threw his head back. You watched the pads of his fingers dig into your ankle, the other hand slid down the back of your calf to meet its twin as his hips lifted slightly off the chair to grind into your foot. His length hardening and extending could be felt against your sole, slightly ticklish. The scene before you was addictive, the sounds escaping his lips so dirty and provocative. He tugged your leg to press you harder to him, causing you to almost slip off the desk. 

“Tuttutut,” you chided, “slow down, big boy. I never said you could do all that, did I?” As soon as your light scolding processed in his mind, all of his actions stopped. Spencer quickly shook his head while trying to catch his breath. “Answer me.” you tried again. His eyelids blinked open, gaze meek.

“No, no you didn’t.” He removed his hands from your leg, running them through his hair before plopping them onto the arms of the chair as he panted, “I’m sorry, baby, you just feel so good,” he paused to look at you, swallowing hard. “God, I’ve missed you.” His words were smile-inducing. You dragged your foot off of him, deliberately using extra pressure to earn a deep and husky groan. Spencer’s eyes briefly rolled back into his head before they closed again. You could see tiny glistening beads of sweat forming at the edges on his hairline. His eyebrows furrowed and his Adam’s apple shifted a couple times, miniscule twitches plucked the corners of his mouth.

“What are you thinking about now?” you were clearly amused, feet slightly kicking out like a giddy schoolgirl. Spencer didn’t miss a beat in responding.

“You. I’m thinking about you. I’m thinking about h-how good you make me feel and how much I want you to touch me more,” another gulp. “How much I want to touch you.” His hands gripped the plastic chair arms, causing them to squeak. You giggled at this. To Spencer, you sounded wicked. 

“You want to fuck me, don’t you baby.” Your words immediately caused him to squirm, whines leaving his throat. He didn’t dare open his eyes yet. It wasn’t a question, you knew for a fact that’s exactly what he’s thinking, even if he won’t say it like that. Not yet, at least. The team had back-to-back cases for the last month and a half, and the two of you haven’t had a chance to actually have sex in the same length of time. You snuck cuddle sessions in each other’s hotel rooms a couple times, but kept them to a minimum as to not arouse suspicion from your teammates. You couldn’t take it anymore, especially with how good he looked today- how good he has looked the last few weeks, really. 

It wasn’t always that you showed your dominant side in bed, but it was all you could think about doing lately.

“Say it. Tell me you want to fuck me, Spencie.” 

Another squirm. Eyes squeezed shut. 

“Be a good boy, baby. Look at me.” your voice was sterner this time, though the playful edge hadn’t fully dissipated. It took a couple seconds but Spencer’s eyelashes finally fluttered open, “There we go,” you cooed. Spencer swallowed in anticipation, still worming a bit in his seat with arms glued to their spots. “Now, tell me what I want to hear.” you leaned your body forward, hoping to come off a bit more domineering. 

Spencer took in a deep breath, eyes flitting around the room in an attempt to avoid your gaze. You didn’t want to ask again, residing to clearing your throat to get your message across. He understood what that meant- you were getting impatient and if you didn’t get what you wanted you would simply stop. He didn’t want that. It’s not like the statement was incorrect, it just wasn’t something that was ever in Dr. Spencer Reid’s ordinary vernacular and he wasn’t yet in the headspace for it to come out without a second thought. He didn’t want to sound stupid. But, oh, he wanted you. Thus, he swallowed his doubts and began,

“Yes,” he nodded his head vigorously, eyes closing just for a millisecond, “I…” His gaze finally locked with yours, “I want to fuck you.”

Damn, the words sounded so incredibly, completely filthy dripping from Spencer’s innocent lips and you wanted to lick up every drop. Your pussy reactively clenched around nothing, and you wanted to surge forwards and push your mouth onto his in a hot kiss- half what Spencer himself expected (and wanted) you to do- but you controlled yourself. Instead, you remained calm, sliding off your desk and toeing your kitten heels back on your feet all while maintaining eye-contact with Spencer. You prowled towards him. His saliva hitched in his throat, heart skipped a beat, breathing quickened. He remained still while you leaned down towards him. Your minty breath fanned over his face, and Spencer wished you would just kiss him already. Of course, you knew that was what he wanted and so you wouldn’t let him have it just now. He watched your face as you brought your hand to his jaw. Your thumb dragged across his bottom lip and down, moving to pull the tie out of his sweater vest. You used it to pull Spencer closer to you, his chin tilted up, reaching out to connect your lips. Just as they were about to touch…you stopped. “Come here,” was all you whispered. And in a flash, you were standing straight up, using the tie to move him up with you. Backwards you walked, returning to your original position on the small desk. As you scooted up a bit, disregarding the important papers you were most definitely damaging, you hiked up your dress to allow your legs to fall open. Spencer moved to stand in between them, but much to his dismay you were too far on the desk for him to be able to feel the warmth radiate from your core. Obviously, that was done on purpose. 

Spencer knew he shouldn’t touch you yet, so he rested his hands on the desk close to your hips, only using the tips of his thumbs to brush back and forth between the lace of your stockings and the skin of your thighs. Good boy, you thought, but kept it to yourself. You slowly, yet deftly unbuttoned the cuffs and folded up the sleeves of his shirt, licking your lips at the sight of his hairy and veiny bare arms. You brought them each up to place a light kiss on the inside of his wrists, shifting up the watch on his left, before returning them to their original position. Spencer watched with bated breath and a parted mouth as you then began to seductively undo the top few buttons of your dress, pushing the fabric to the sides to allow Spencer to gaze down at the cleavage hardly contained by your lacy, deep green bra. (It didn’t escape him that they matched your heels). This enticed a moan from the disheveled man. He threw his head back, looking up at the bright ceiling lights in an attempt to grab his bearings, “You’re going to kill me.” he whispered. 

You held his face in both your hands, pulling it down to look at you again, “Good.” you whispered back in delight. Fingers traveled to the back of his neck, playing with and tugging at the ends of his hair for a minute before moving to push the dark gray woolen blazer off his shoulders where they then replaced the material with massages. Spencer's eyes shut at the pressures of your ministrations, forehead dropping to rest against your own as a feeling of peace and warmth flooded his veins. He almost forgot how horny he was- almost. He whined at the lost palpations as your hands changed course to loosen his tie. You left it on, opting to unbutton the top of his button-up. Your fingernails scratched at the exposed skin at the base of his neck and top of his hair-sprinkled chest before they danced up to trace his Adam’s apple. 

“I want you.” Spencer moaned.

“I know, baby.” you held his face between your hands again, firmly so he couldn’t move, “I want you, too,” Your face inched closer to his at a worm’s pace, and all Spencer could do was watch in impatient anticipation. “You’re just so fun to play with.” You nudged your nose against his, leaving a ghost of a kiss on his lips. 

“More, please.” He groaned, head straining against your grasp, his eyelids falling shut. 

You giggled sweetly, “Just a bit more, since you asked so nicely,” and you began to press more light kisses where you wanted to- on his top lip, the corners of his mouth, the little dip of his chin, his cupid’s bow, and finally the tip of his nose- your own lightly knocking against his with each proximal peck. Spencer sighed as you leaned away from him. 

“Please,” he breathed out. Spencer leaned into your right palm, eyelids opening to reveal a contented, dazed look.

“You said you wanted me to touch you, didn’t you, baby?” your hands started to move, down the front of his chest to creep under the hem of his dark blue sweater vest.

“Mhm…” he nodded excitedly, a content sigh leaving his nose. You pulled the light-blue button-up out of his trouser, the feeling of your cool hands splaying against the warm, bare skin of his lower abdomen had Spencer reeling. You dug the tips of your fingers down a path along his hidden abs and happy trail before curling them around to his lower back where you scratched long horizontal lines. You loved touching him, just feeling his skin. But, Spencer wasn’t the only one losing a little bit of patience. 

The sound of his belt buckle clinking undone caused his stomach to somersault. You roughly undid the button and zipper of his trousers before pushing them down just enough to grant you access to what you wanted. Spencer’s forehead thumped lightly against yours, finding its favorite spot again- well, second-favorite if we’re being honest. His breath quickened. You weren’t done teasing yet, though. Peering down, the outline of his hard cock straining against his boxer-briefs, a wet spot accumulating in the gray cotton, sent a jolt to your gut.

“Look at you,” your head tilted up, “so hard for me,” you whispered against his lips. Fingers snapped the waistband of his underwear against his stomach. “What a good boy.” Spencer’s brows furrowed against yours, prompting you to plant a kiss between them, leaving your lips there for a second while you dragged a single deep-brown-polished nail up the length of his covered hard-on.

He whined out your name, his voice hiccupping, “Please, please. Touch me.” The sound of paper crushing told you his hands still sitting by your sides were crumpling the files on the table. Spencer tried so hard not to move his hips, fearing you would stop everything. He resided to fist his hands and nudge his head against yours instead.

“Where?” Could you be any more cruel? Spencer groaned in frustration. Yes, you definitely could. He shouldn’t fight it.

“Please! My-my c-cock.” He swallowed hard to stop his stuttering. “Please touch my cock!” More sounds of paper rustling.

You giggled at his desperation, “Oh, honey, you’re so filthy.” Though, if you were being honest, you were just about getting there, too. Your swollen clit was pulsing in excitement, thin underwear increasingly dampening in your slick. If Spencer wasn’t standing between your legs, you’d be pressing your thighs together in an attempt to get yourself off. “If that’s what my baby wants...”

Finally, your right hand descended into his boxer-briefs, quickly using his ample precum to coat your palm before wrapping your fingers around his length. You gave him a good squeeze, prompted by the deep moan he let out, and started to jack him off. 

“Oh, my god.” Spencer groaned, head dropping down to your shoulders. His hands flew up to tightly grip the fat of your hips. His hair tickled your ears, hot breath summoned goosebumps across your chest. 

You hummed in response, hooking your heels around the back of his calves as you continued pumping. Your other hand moved to cup and press into his balls through his underwear. 

“A-ah!” he tensed up a bit. Spencer’s balls were always a very sensitive spot, almost as if he was biologically wired to be afraid of any touch there. It was your favorite thing to do though- especially wrapping your lips around them.

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby,” you whispered in his ear, nipping lightly at the lobe, “I’ve gotchu. It feels good, doesn’t it?” Your coos against his cheek immediately soothed the tension in his back and you could feel it radiate off of him in waves. 

“Yesss,” He mumbled through a groan, pushing his face into the side of your neck and moving his grip up to your waist, “So good.” He let his hips move now, and so did you. He lightly thrusted up into your fist as much as he could with what little leverage his narrow stance afforded him. 

You swiped a thumb over the head of his cock and lightly squeezed his engorged balls, causing him to gasp as his hips involuntarily bucked up. You felt his blazen, wet mouth drop open against your skin. Your hand turned and pushed, twisted and pulled, squeezed and tugged, Spencer’s moans growing louder and louder in your ear. Your eyes remained shut, relishing in the sounds he was making and the feeling of his burning skin against yours. Now, it was your turn to want more.

Suddenly, your hands left his dick. Before he could complain, you pushed his briefs down to fully expose him to the crisp air and pulled yourself closer to him in one motion, ignoring the crinkling of paper beneath you. He could feel the heat of your clothed core press up against his impossibly hard dick, causing the both of you to moan in unison. You rested your hands back on the desk and leaned away. 

“Touch me, baby.” you breathed out. 

Fuck, yes. Spencer thought as his hands surged forward, quickly undoing the last few buttons of your dress before roughly pushing the barrier open, fully exposing your cleavage. With a groan, his fingers pulled down the cups of your intricately designed bra to expose your perky nipples and his mouth immediately descended on them. Your head rolled back. The gasps and moans he was finally able to pluck from your throat were like music to Spencer’s ears. He sucked, nibbled, licked one areola while he pinched, twirled, and rubbed the other. His thumb rolled over the peak of your left nipple, pressing and dragging into the miniscule dip just how you liked it, causing the pit of your stomach to drop and your body to squirm. “Shit!” you hissed out, head snapping up to get a look at him. Spencer looked up at you in response, his eyes glinting with ferocity. His free arm wrapped tightly around your waist, fingers dug into your side, holding your body up to him. One of your hands tangled in his hair, tugging at the strands to make him moan around your nipple, the other gripped at the knitted fabric on his back. He continued moving from breast to breast, catching his breath only for half-a-second while he pawed at them before latching onto the next. Your squirming movements increased, moans becoming more high-pitched as your hands pulled at his hair in an effort to get his head off of you. It signaled to Spencer: you were becoming overstimulated. His mouth pulled off of you with a pop! and you gasped in response. 

He let you catch your breath for a moment, watching the rapid rise and fall of your tits while you watched his face through smiling eyes. The corners of his mouth were slightly wet, lips swollen from all the sucking, hair incredibly disheveled from your man-handling. You couldn't help but bite your lip and hum. So pretty. Just as you were about to speak, Spencer leaned down again and began kissing all over your chest and neck. His big, warm hands moved from your ribs to splay over your back, still holding you up to hover over the desk- one in the middle, the other between your scapulae. Your own moved to wrap around his shoulders. He pressed sloppy, damp kisses along the tops of your breast and over your collar bones before moving to the column of your throat. His lips dragged to each side, stopping to nip and suck here and there. Even in his fevered motions, he remained careful not to leave visible hickies, no matter how badly he wanted to fixate on a single place. Once he was thoroughly satisfied in covering your entire neck with kisses, he focused on the sweet spot on the right side, exactly where your pulsepoint was. “Oh Spencer,” the honeyed words caused him to groan, egging him on even more. Your fingers dug into the back of Spencer's own neck, legs wrapped around his ass, bringing him further into you. One particular suck and bite had you twitch your hips up, successfully rubbing your pussy against Spencer’s poor, neglected cock. This spurred him on. He was doing so well, using all his willpower to focus on pleasing you. To be a good boy for you and not rut his throbbing, leaking dick against your hot, wet cunt, but you finally did it yourself- you started it- which meant Spencer could now lose himself in his desires. The pressure had him nuzzling his face into your neck once again, lips open to breathe heavily against your warm skin.

One of his hands left the middle of your back to travel down your body, moving to grip your thigh and pull you to wrap your legs tightly around his waist while his legs spread further apart. The heightened angle and gained leverage allowed Spencer's cock to drag up and down the entirety of your cunt with greater pressure, drawing out even more noises from the both of you. 

“Oh my fucking God, Spence. Feels so good..” your choked out words caused him to dig his nails into your skin. You’d definitely be greeted with little crescent shapes tomorrow morning. You leaned your head against his, hands flying to grab onto wherever you could- tangling in his hair, bunching up in the shirt of his broad shoulders, scratching against his neck. 

The pleasure seeped into every crevice of Spencer’s brain, consuming any thoughts that didn’t revolve around you. He held onto you as if letting you go meant sending the world into ragnarok. “God, I..” he mumbled, shifting his grasp on your thigh to firmly cup your head in his palm. He couldn’t stop rutting into you, hunched over your body like a crazed animal, even though it was impeding his ability to speak. He licked his lips, readying to speak.

“I wanna fuck you so badly, baby.” 

The intensity of his words, his piercing gaze, and the particularly long and deep drag of his bare cock against your dressed clit practically had you cumming. Your head rolled to hang back in the air, almost hitting the desk if it weren’t for Spencer's other hand on your neck holding it up, thumb draped lightly over your jugular. Your eyes tightly screwed, bottom lip pulled in by your teeth in a sorry attempt to heed the salacious noises leaving your mouth. The light feeling of your pussy fluttering almost had Spencer pulling your barely-there panties to the side and shoving his cock into you. 

The man should be lauded and awarded for his self-control, but the need to please you triumphed over every biological impulse or desire Spencer would ever feel. He knew what you wanted. He knew your favorite part about teasing him- playing with him, stringing him up- was the burning, fervent, feral kiss it resulted in. Even though it used all his willpower he stopped his thrusting, pulling a drawn-out whine from the back of your throat. “Nooo,” you huffed and pouted. 

With force, Spencer yanked your head up to bring your eyes back to his level. He stared into your wide, surprised eyes for a moment, breathing fast and hard before he pulled you forward. Your lips met in an impassioned embrace, hot and heavy. Greedy mouths wide as if to gorge on each other’s impurities. Both of Spencer’s hands grasped your head, fingers digging into the back of your scalp, almost pulling at strands of your hair. Yours rounded his torso, pulling him as close to you as possible. The feverish kiss was messy, loud, and erotic. Tongues wrestled, teeth clashed, noses collided. The taste of Spencer’s saliva was addictive, your mouth pushed into his to gain as much of it as it could. You swallowed his moans, he happily lapped up yours. The motions of your hips started up again, adding to the delectability. 

Spencer tried to pull away from you, but you wouldn’t have any of it. You locked your ankles around his waist and bit his bottom lip in an effort to keep his swollen mouth of yours. He rested his forehead against yours again, thrusts becoming sloppy and uncoordinated. The feeling of your panties rubbing against your clit was almost becoming too much. 

“Please,” he breathed, “I want to fuck you. I need to fuck you.” 

“We c-can’t,” it was your turn to stutter, too overcome with desire to be cocky anymore, “they’ll hear us, we’ll…we’ll get in trouble.” Moans cut into your words. What utter bullshit. The sounds of your debauchery filled every corner of Spencer’s modest hotel room and both of you knew in the back of your fucked-out brains that it was all already dancing down the hallway for everyone to hear. The continuous crumpling of papers; occasional thwap of files hitting the carpeted floor; the consistent thunk, thunk, thunk of the wooden desk beating against the wall; the sharp sound of your kitten heels wrestling with one another around Spencer’s waist; and, of course, the melodiously lewd octaves crawling up from each of your vocal chords.

He hated that answer. You swear you heard Spencer growl as he adjusted to roughly throw each of your legs over his shoulders, always keeping one hand behind your head, before bending over you once again. Your hands flew down to hopelessly grasp at the papers under you. He loved bringing out that surprised look on your face.

“A-ah, Spencer!” The new angle was intoxicating. Every single sensation was overwhelming your senses. The pinches of your dress still bunched up around your upper thighs and creasing in your elbows. The fabric of his vest was rubbing against your hardened and sensitive nipples. Spencer's right hand rested on the base of your throat while the other twisted in your hair. The back of your thighs and calves stretched at the unwarranted position. The smell of musk and sweat proliferated the air around you two. The friction of his stubbled balls chafed your reddening ass. Your bra cups and wire dug into your ribs, the thick belt of your dress pressing your stomach. And of course, the heavenly feeling of his burning, heavy cock rutting against your core. “I think I’m gonna-” you couldn’t finish your exclamation, voice cut off by a sharp gasp of pleasure. No, you weren’t, not yet. You wanted more, too.

Spencer was emboldened by the mixture of oxytocin and endorphins rushing through his veins and the entirety of you engulfing his senses. He gripped your hair tighter as his confidence grew and pushed his forehead harder against yours to look deep into your watering eyes, “I need to feel your tight pussy, baby.” His voice was quiet, yet stern and full- no hint of hesitation or embarrassment. No stuttering or stammering. Your head reeled. 

“Fuck me, please!” was all you could say before reaching down and hurriedly grabbing your panties, clumsily pulling them to the side- no toying, no dirty talk, no teasing. Spencer took the cue, using the hand on your throat to instead guide his dick into your entrance. 

Finally, he thought while he pushed into you as he straightened up a bit, letting out a guttural groan. The beautiful tone of your sigh tickled his ears. Your pussy was so wet, and in turn so was his cock. You sucked in the entirety of his length with little problem. The thick, pudgy walls of your cunt enveloped Spencer’s dick deliciously, warmth causing his eyes to roll back into his head. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, you’re so tight.” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the inside of your knee. He still held up your head, but his right hand moved down the outside of your thigh, fisting the lacy tops of your tights with a moan of your name

“Ah! You’re so big, honey.” You groaned in response, hands grabbing onto each of his wrists. It’s true, he was. Not the biggest cock in the world, but he stretched you out so incredibly every time. The perfect size.

You were so close to orgasming- you knew with just a few little movements you’d be pushed over the finish line. Nothing had to be said, though, Spencer was fully aware, but he wanted to savor this a bit more; give you a taste of your own medicine, if you will. He leaned in, pulling your head closer to his to envelope your lips with his again. Your legs sandwiched in between your torsos burned at the stretch, but you paid it no mind. 

“Please,” you begged shamelessly against his bottom lip. Spencer let out a small, breathy laugh, pushing your messed up hair out of your face. He pulled away from you to stand up straight, not without gaining a whine in response. You tried to keep your head up to watch him better, but you were losing your strength. With a light thud, you let your head fall against the wooden surface, the wall pressing against the top of your hair. He still wasn’t moving yet, and your orgasm ebbed slightly away. Spencer rubbed his big hands up and down the legs resting on his shoulders, massaging and kissing them wherever he felt like it. He took in the sight of you squirming and whining below him, fingers grasping at any of the random papers left on the desk they could reach, chest heaving. Your pearled nipples stood at attention, compelling him to ghost his fingers over them. He was barely touching you, but the moans and sighs would not stop leaving your throat. With a last kiss to your right calf, Spencer spread your legs open, toes of your kitten heels pointed out towards either side of the room. You watched him through hooded eyelids, hands going to support your legs for him. He tickled his nails deeply up the insides of your thighs, the light pain had you squirming and gasping even more which doubled as your movements had you shifting on Spencer’s cock. It felt so good, but the doctor held his own noises in, trapping his bottom lip between his teeth. 

“You said,” you pouted breathlessly, “you wanted to fuck me. Hurry, hurry!” You need to cum so badly.

“Isn’t so fun on the other side, is it?” his mischievous smirk mocked you. It was a lie, it was most definitely fun on the receiving end, but it was even more so on this one. His right hand slid up to cup your chin, thumb pressing onto your lips mirroring your earlier actions, “So desperate,” he murmured, hands moving to grab onto your waist. You huffed and shut your eyes, head rolling to the side. You tried to just focus on Spencer’s touch and feel, but he stopped further motions.

You were so beautiful; in every moment of your lives, but especially like this. Spencer paused for a minute, eyes boring into every centimeter of your figure to burn the image of you into his brain. Your hair splayed over the desk, reminiscent of an angel’s halo; eyes screwed shut with smeared mascara at the corners; glossed lips parted in desire. Oh, how delicious they’d look wrapped around his dick. Your inviting, stocking-clad legs held open just for him, manicured fingers digging into the back of your knees. Spencer’s cock excitedly twitched inside of you once his gaze reached your glistening, swollen pussy, the puffy lips gripping the base of him. His hands wrapped around your own, gripping tight, using them and your legs for balance as he slowly pulled his cock out of your entrance, leaving just the tip inside. He was mesmerized, it was a sight he’d seen many times before and was sure to see much more of in the future, but it hypnotized him anyway. He watched as your pussy clenched around him in a failed attempt to keep him in or pull him back, but Spencer wasn’t going to let that happen just yet. His tip pulled out just a bit further before pushing back in a centimeter, repeating the sequence a few more times, playing with your gaping slit. You tried to suck his cock back into you, but Spencer resisted. One more motion and the head of his dick popped out of your clutches with an audible squelch. He reached down this time, grabbing and rubbing his length against your cunt- side to side, up and down. Moans and expletives repeatedly left your mouth, but Spencer continued with a drunken smile on his lips. He slapped the head of his cock against your clit, causing you to twitch and yelp. He loved the reaction, prompting a couple more hits with the same response.

“Spencie…” you whined, ungraciously curling your hips up to gain more friction.

He was about to give in, but there was one other part of you he needed to see. With a single motion, he gripped the outside of your thighs and pulled your body further down the desk, dick sliding against your clit. 

“Oh, shit!” you let out, your head craning to look up at him. 

Spencer roughly pawed at your dress. He first pulled at the top, but it wouldn’t open up more to give him what he wanted, the belt positioned in the way. He moved on, pushing the skirt even high up, bunching it around your waist. He sighed in delight. The delicate filigree of your black garter belt laying right below your belly button stared up at him seductively, begging him to touch her. Spencer’s hands had a mind of their own as they palmed over the fabric, fingers moving over and under the top band to snap it against your skin- just like you did to him. The sound wasn’t as sharp, nevertheless it brought him pleasure. You mewed, lips curled up in a satisfied smile. Internally, you chuckled. You knew he loved the silly little piece of lingerie. 

It was the last piece of the puzzle, the final key to the terminal level. Spencer grabbed two fistfuls of the garter belt and the bunched fabric of your neglected, cooling underwear and, without warning, swiftly pulled you completely onto his cock. You both yelled as he bottomed out, your eyes blowing wide open and jaw dropping slack open. 

“Jesus-fucking-Christ,” Spencer breathed out. The look on your face egged him on. He pulled his cock fully out of you before using your clothing to slam you down onto him again. He stilled for just a second, catching his breath and steadying himself. Before you could utter a single syllable, he began fucking you like there was no tomorrow. 

The initial burn faded into sweet bliss. Your pussy fluttered and clenched around Spencer’s dick and he thrusted into you fast and deep. The bruising feeling of his tip pounding into your cervix gave way to a more intense sensation, your orgasm bubbling back up inside. His powerful motions caused your arms to fly up and Spencer deliriously watched your mouth-watering tits bounce up, down, up, down. Your hands pushed against the wall, trying to prevent your head from hitting it. Although at first you both tried to halter your noises, it proved fruitless. Inattentively, you let your moans and gasps and grunts stretch out to be as loud as they so pleased. The pleasure was so overwhelming, but the desire to watch Spencer fuck you was stronger. His hair flopped around at the sides, the strands at his hairline pasted to his forehead with sweat. He looked utterly pornographic, clothes still on but extremely tousled and uncentered. Sleeves pushed up, collar spread open, tie unevenly loose. His belt buckle clanged against itself, hanging from the trousers still draped around his mid-thighs. You removed one of your hands from the wall, pushing up the front of his body as much as you could, instead. You moved the bottom of his shirt and sweater vest to claw at his abdomen, focusing on the happy trail you loved to lick up. 

Spencer felt the same way as you. He fought to keep his eyes open, gaze flitting all over your body and face instead. You were intoxicating. When your own wandering eyes met his as your hand came down to his lower stomach, he let out a particularly loud moan, pounding into your even harder. The intensity had you latching onto his wrist. Just when you thought it couldn’t feel better, Spencer moved his thumbs down to your cunt, pushing your swollen pussy lips together around his moving cock before shifting them to press against your clit. 

“Holy fuck!” You let out, eyes screwing shut as your other hand left the wall to desperately match your existing hold on Spencer’s wrist. He rubbed in circles with one thumb as best he could, the other pressing into your fatty labia where he knew you had a sensitive spot. You began squirming, nails digging into Spencer’s skin, and you couldn’t even begin to care about your head lightly hitting the wall. “Spencer! I’m gonna come!” 

Spencer rubbed just a bit harder into your clit, earning an enthusiastic, “Just like that!” as your eyes rolled back into your head. He groaned at this, feeling your walls close around his dick. 

“That’s it, that’s my girl,” he huffed, maintaining his pace and pressure, “come for me, angel.”  

Your core tightened up, and with just a few more thrusts your orgasm came crashing down on you. Waves of blinding white light washed over your body as you gushed around Spencer’s cock with a call of his name. The gripping and flitting of your pussy had Spencer groaning and he quickly shifted his arms, letting go of his hold on your garter belt and underwear to hold on to your waist, your limping legs hooking over his elbows. He didn’t let up his thrusts, chasing the orgasm of his own he was so close to reaching. He pushed the impending feeling down, not wanting to give up the sanctity of your hot cunt just yet, but he couldn’t stop his hips. 

As your orgasm began to subside and overstimulation prickled along your nerves, you tried to clench your legs closed, but Spencer wasn’t having any of it. He bent over you to push your legs open and press his forehead back onto yours. “Spencer!” you gasped, staring up at him wide-eyed and frantic. Your hands gripped his flexing forearms, “It’s too much!”

“You’re gonna take it,” he grunted out, fingers digging into the fat of your sides. He shut his eyes and swallowed hard for a second, his thrusts beginning to show signs of faltering. You felt so fucking good he almost wished he didn’t ever have to come, that he could fuck you through orgasm after orgasm without stopping. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”

You nodded vigorously, babbling incoherently in agreement through frenzied moans.

“So you’re gonna take it just like this,” he gulped, pushing down a groan at your clenching pussy, “and I’m gonna fucking come inside of you.” His last words came out in a growl, drawing out longer moans from you as his thrusts started to include sloppier grinds. 

Spencer's pelvis grounded into your clit, his balls continued to slap against your ass, his erotic words mushed your brain, and soon the overstimulation pulling tears from your eyes turned into ecstasy and you neared a second orgasm. A strewn out, deep “Fuckk,” crawled from Spencer’s throat as your cunt squeezed him in quick succession, followed by your name being whispered and moaned repeatedly like a mantra.

You wanted to come again at the same time as him, and you were right at the edge, just as you knew he was, so you pushed him further to the precipice, “Spencer,” you pleaded breathlessly, “come on, baby.” You rested your hand on his cheek, urging him to open his eyes and look at you. “Fill me up.”

He groaned in response, head dropping down to press against the top of your breasts. A couple more sloppy, hard thrusts and he started “I’m gonna-”

But just before he could finish, you were jolted into stillness by a deafened boom, boom, boom. What the hell?

Someone was at the door.

You let out a yelp, Spencer’s hand immediately flew up to slap against your mouth. 

“Reid? What’s going on in there?” You heard from the other side of the door. It was fucking Rossi. 

Author's Note: muahaha >:D idk why but this is just how i imagined this piece ending. hope you guys liked ittttt, if you're reading this thanks for sticking to it. should i write a pt.2? i def already know how i'd continue (tho not smutty). did not think smut would be the first spencer fanfic i'd post. thinking of writing a follow up where spencer finally gets his release teehee. i'd love feedback and comments, pls! ty lovelies <3

[zykamiliah]

hey! i haven't seen mha in a looong time and i've never payed attention to bakudeku (mostly because i'm not the biggest fan of bully romance), but i'd love to see your take/interpretation/analysis on it? i've been a really big fan of your svsss metas and so i just thought, "hey, you know what, i'm curious to see zykamiliah's take on a ship i've never been interested in from an anime that i haven't seen in years! maybe i'll see something?"

not too sure if you already made a post explaining it (so sorry if you did!), but i've seen enough of the sudden rise of bakudeku reblogs on my feed from your account to ignite my curiosity lol

i just really enjoy hearing about ships because they're an amazing opportunity to explore dynamics and perspectives i've never given much thought/thought about before (coming from a rare pair lover... oh gyx/lbg, my sweet...) so i'd love to see bakudeku, a ship i don't quite understand (yet!) in a more understanding, different, and interesting light! and in complete honesty i trust your judgement with insightful character and ship analysis stuff, so... yeah!

heeey jade! sorry for the wait, i've been busy with work and irl stuff :DDD but i'm here now!

where to even begin lol... well, it's important to note that the relationship between midoriya izuku, the protagonist, and bakugo katsuki, the deuteragonist, is one of the main narrative lines of the manga, at the very core of the story. katsuki is izuku's narrative foil, their character developments are intrinsically connected (specially katsuki's!), and the same can be said about the themes of heroism, of what makes a hero, who can be a hero, what type of hero society needs, or if it needs them at all, etc., questions that also tie to the evolution of their relationship.

so from the start i was sold on this dynamic because i really like relationships that are at the center of a story!! i also like relationships with a complicated history with lots of drama and ups and downs, and i like that each character has their own things going on in their lives even if they are connected and one of the most important persons in each other's lives. big big bonus guaranteed to get my full attention if they are obsessed with each other lol

the thing is, deku and bakugo are in a bad place when the story kicks in. bakugo isn't an active bully, in the sense that he doesn't constantly seek deku out to hurt him, but he IS horribly mean and hostile, and that's because for years he's felt threatened by deku (and deku's heroic qualities), and wants to push him away, because he also feels that deku is looking down on him. the story doesn't shy away from showing and acknowledging that bakugo's behavior is atrocious and needs to change, and it works towards it consistently: he eventually atones, apologizes, and changes. on the other side of the coin, deku has always been paying attention to bakugo and, despite how the latter treated him, would chase him, observe him to the point he has bakugo's moves memorized, takes inspiration from his fighting style and even imitates him to give himself courage to do something specially daring and when he wants to "win" more than "save"; bakugo is his image of victory, ever since they were kids.

i scrolled through my bkdk meta tag, since it's been yeeeeears since i was involved in the fandom, lol, and found this post that tackles the bullying issue specifically and makes some very good points, if you wanted to read it! :D

the manga eventually addresses the problems in their relationship in "Deku vs Kacchan 2" (chapters 117-119), at the time bakugo is feeling turmoils for the part he played in All Might's end. to the question of "why does deku chase and care about bakugo if bakugo is so mean to him?" ch 119 has deku answer that himself:

this fight is the turning point for their relationship, and for the rest of the manga their individual and dual development is mostly upwards. reading bnha is worth it, if anything, just for the beauty of bakugo katsuki's development.

another big aspect that got me hooked in their relationship from the very first anime episode (and first opening) is that they are

✨Childhood Friends✨

(strap in this is gonna get loooooooooong)

Childhood friends (Osananajimi) is kind of a huge trope in manga/anime, often as a romantic interest. According to some sources i quickly consulted in the internet, and some of the manga/anime I've watched, in Japanese culture osananajimi is considered one of the purest bond formed between people, with a level of closeness equal to that between blood relatives; formed at such an early age, at a time when societal restrictions didn't apply yet, the relationship is genuine because they still didn’t need or know how to hide their true feelings from each other. As the childhood friends grew up together, this is considered a special connection, somewhat different to those formed after societal norms and perceptions take precedence. Or, as makeste put it:

here we have two very young children who are introduced to each other at an age when they’re still young enough to have absolutely no secrets. they’re young enough to have not yet learned to be shy or self-conscious, or to downplay their enthusiasm so as not to let others know they care. kids that young don’t hide anything. they don’t lie or deceive. they don’t have agendas, and they assume that others don’t either. it is, in short, a very pure type of relationship in the sense that it’s honest and uncomplicated, that it is exactly what it appears to be at face value. their personalities are fully out there with no attempt at reining anything in. Katsuki witnesses the full force of Izuku’s boundless hero-worshipping energy and enthusiasm. Izuku witnesses the full extent of Katsuki’s relentless confidence and Peter Pan cockiness. both boys see each other for who they are in their entirety, and accept each other. this is a fundamental bond. there is trust built between the two of them at a critical, formative age. it’s a relationship formed so early on that it’s likely that neither of them can actually recall a time before they met the other. they are and have always been a constant in each other’s lives. they’re a lot like siblings in terms of that kind of closeness and complete understanding of the other, both the good and the bad. in fact I’d say that Izuku’s use of “Kacchan” (and Katsuki’s automatic acceptance of it) isn’t that different from a younger brother’s use of “Niisan” for his older brother. it’s very revealing of the type of relationship they have. and that includes the typical sibling squabbles as well. it’s very much a relationship that’s taken for granted; there’s no filter, no effort to hold back, no attempt at trying to tone down their behavior around one another. there is whining and bragging and squabbling and name-calling and tears, just as much as there is cooperation and respect and trust. because at the end of the day, the assumption is that the relationship will endure no matter what, so they can go at each other as hard as they can and it doesn’t matter. the other one’s presence is just a given. that’s the kind of relationship that this term “childhood friends” really encapsulates, I think.

The sudden change of their statuses when the quirks start to manifest is a major factor that placed them on opposite sides of the social hierarchy, and conditioned the way society and their peers would treat them. But despite this and the misunderstandings that happen between them and the falling apart of their relationship, the subconscious understanding between them remains intact through the years. They always flashback to their earlier memories. They probably didn't interact much in elementary or middle school, and even if they did, they interactions were already tainted by their social status and Bakugo’s hostility. They don't share their innermost feelings with anyone but each other. Like when Deku gets angry or determined to win and to surpass him, or when Bakugo screams and cries out his emotional turmoil at Deku. According to Japanese social rules those are selfish things to do. This relates to the concepts of honne and tatemae.

Japanese society is more regimented than one might believe just from watching anime. By middle school age, and even to some degree in primary school, children are expected to interact with their peers in a relatively professional way. This is especially true of relationships between students of opposite sexes. Such requirements aren't held for family or close friends, but for everyone else one is expected to be polite and not share their true feelings or say things too directly. This concept of dividing people into an in-group and an out-group (内外, uchi-soto) is somewhat hard for non-Japanese people to understand, but is central to interactions between people in Japanese culture. In fact, you can find plenty of examples of this and of the related concepts of honne and tatemae in anime if you look, but if you aren't looking for them specifically it's easy to miss. (source)

So, for example, you shouldn't show your true feelings/thoughts to other people, even more if they aren’t socially acceptable, because that may disturb the peace in the community. But because Deku and Kacchan are osananajimi that have known each other their whole life, that doesn't apply to them. By stating from the very beginning that Kacchan was Deku's childhood friend, Hori put them in a close relationship with each other with a level of intimacy, trust and a subconscious understanding not like any other. Kacchan is, in fact, closer to him than All Might himself.

Like, Deku has been calling Bakugo by his childhood nickname, Kacchan ("Ka[tsu]" from Katsuki + "-chan", which is usually used to address children or females in an affectionate way), even past the age he was excepted it to drop it. When they were 4 years old, the other kids called him "Kacchan" too, but growing up it would be seen as childish or disrespectful so they start to call him "Katsuki" or "Bakugo". This puts a level of distance between him and his peers that, regardless of what happened between them, didn't extend to Deku and Katsuki. And it had to cross Deku's mind at some point ( "Should I start calling him Katsuki/Bakugo too?") but he didn't or simply couldn't. Despite everything, he wasn't willing to put even more distance between himself and Bakugo. He deliberately refused to put formal distance between them, and more importantly, Bakugo just LET THAT BE.

___

Like, this was a great set up from the beginning for me. I knew there was a story there from the first episodes, and then "Deku vs Kacchan 1" happened, showing their childhood flashbacks and the misunderstandings that would persist until DvK2, and i was really into that lol They relationship was one of the main reasons I followed the manga.

i mean LOOK at THIS!

how i could NOT ship it i mean come on

Even their color schemes complement each other, and their costumes have the same/similar colors. they are are complementary opposites that share the same core: to become a hero, their admiration of All Might. Each of them has a quality the other lacks and needs to work on to become the heroes: heroes that win and save, as All Might put it. Selflessness and Selfishness: to help and save others, in one side, and to care for one's personal victory, in the other. Bakugo was obsessed with victory and glory, and Deku was willing to do anything to save others, to the point of self-destruction. These isolated qualities didn't made them good heroes, but combined, as the two learn them from each other, by the end of the story they really become two of the greatest heroes.

This connects with their rivalry, which is richer than any other in the manga because of the many layers to their relationship: they are obsessed with each other, want to compete with each other (for the rest of their lives!!!) and don't want the other to fall behind, specially after their misunderstandings are resolved. They also don't want to be left behind by the other. Because they love each other too much! Whether people interpret it as platonic or romantic or whatever in between (secret third they are like like four different types of greek love categories combined), they are each other's More Important Person outside of family members. Hell, Kacchan getting hurt is basically Deku's berserk button: he punches All Might in the face to save Katsuki during the end of term exam; he goes crazy protective and possessive when Katsuki gets kidnapped by the League of villains(Mr. Compress even calls him out lmao)

he goes crazy when Katsuki is hurt in front of him

and when he thought katsuki had died...

i mean. look at this romantic shit.

_

lol and i feel like i'm leaving many other stuff behind, like Bakugo's apology, and all the little moments after DvK, and all the times in the last arc where Bakugo was thinking about Izuku constantly, and the finale where Katsuki cried because Deku had given up OFA and was going to be quirkless again, and the fact that he was at the heart of the mecha suit years-long project because he wanted Izuku's dream, their dreams, to come true. but tbh I only read them the one time and need to reread the whole manga again to refresh my knowledge. and i already shipped them before all this haha.

they are amazing characters in a really well done shonen manga they have a beautiful story 🧡💚

[under-lore]

How much merit did "Star is Chara's theme" have really ?

The music of Undertale is quite renown for a number of things, from its quality to its abundant usage of leitmotifs.

However, there are a few tracks which went under the radar, such as the ones that went unused in the final release of the game.

One of such tracks was "Star".

This particular unused track found itself in an intriguing situation when it became the center of one of Undertale's biggest fully soundtrack-based theories of the early fandom.

The theory suggested that "Star" may have been an unfinished version of what could have been a Chara theme before the idea was eventually scrapped before mounting up to anything concrete.

That theory was based around the way Toby Fox makes his music and the way it correlates to his characters.

For instance, from its rhythm to its instruments and its intensity or even its fairly epic/heroic yet pretty chaotic & impulsive nature, Spear of justice has "Undyne" written all over it it countless ways. It isn't just an Undyne-associated song, the song literally feels like Undyne. It is a musical representation of Undyne and the situation she finds herself in at the moment. And that is how a lot of Toby's music is written.

Even someone who has never heard the song and knows nothing about Undertale, if given a description of each of the main characters and asked of which one was this a theme of, would easily find the right answer.

This particularity comes from a few things, such as the fact that Toby confessed that he actually often makes the music first and then creates the scene around it by taking inspiration from the music.

And so, in the case of character themes, it means that Toby Fox songs end up being filled with hidden details and tones that are relevant to a character's personality, backstory, psyche, etc... And thus makes the songs a lot closer to the characters.

Due to this, a number of fans tried to reverse engineer some of the unused songs using this technique in order to try and figure out what they might have been for, and "Star" was the one that stood out.

The reason why it stood out was because the fans did believe they were able to find such connections between "Star" and the first fallen human.

Some of the ties they proposed between the song and the character were :

The song starts out with a sad/depressing tone similar to grief or regret, seen as possibly alluding to how Chara's plan was a failure (that Flowey came to cruelly regret), and how it caused the kingdom to fall into despair after their death.

In addition, the song has a very strong "echo" effect, which is also often associated with the idea of death as well as that of the consequences of the past coming back to you. Two things that Chara as a character is also associated with.

But it soon begins to obtain an uplifting and hopeful undertone as the song goes on. This can be attributed both to Chara being seen as the future of humans and monsters, but also to their newfound "reincarnation" allowing them a new second chance at existence.

The combinaison of the previous two things makes the song feels somewhat confused before it finds itself a stable path. Which could also be tied to Chara's words at the of genocide. (but that one is a bit more of a stretch)

The song overall just has a very similar vibe to "his theme", Chara's best friend. As Toby likes to have musical similarities between themes of characters that are closely tied together.

The song is just long enough so that it could have fit to play during the chara flashbacks scenes at the end of pacifist if we were to add back the unused few more images that were going to be in there originally. (Side note : this being the case would give point n°3 a very toby-esque double meaning too. With Chara being there both in Asriel's memory and reincarnated)

Some claim that the instruments used in the song can tie it to the Dreemurr family, however my ear is not good enough to tell wether this point is actually valid or just a rumor.

The song starts off weak in intensity, but begins to grow stronger after a click that radically changes the song's overall feeling. (the same one that was proposed to be about their reincarnation.) This was suggested to be a reference to Chara's words about power at the end of the genocide route.

That the name of the song is "Star" in the first place, as there also happens to be a star named "Chara" not all that far from our solar System. On top of that, this particular constellation is known for having a top/northern dog star, and a south/lower dog star. Our Chara star is the lower dog Star, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for being a human yet living in the underground.

...Which isn't that for bad for a track that only lasts like 30 seconds.

So due to these reasons and to the fact that the song clearly seemed unfinished, it quickly became a popular theory that the song was supposed to be related to Chara in some way, with the flashbacks at the end of pacifist being a prime suspect for its intended scrapped use.

However, some time later, this screenshot came along :

The reliability of this screenshot is to be taken with a grain of salt, as there are many rumors that this screenshot may have been fake, and i have not been able to properly identify the source of these rumors. And besides, a private e-mail isn't something that can be easily verfied the existence of.

But all that aside, the e-mail seems to say that before it was scrapped, the usage of 'Star' was actually attempted for the fight against Madjick, a regular enemy from near the end of the game.

Although technically not fully disproving it (as the fact that Toby makes the music first & it not fitting Madjick much or just overall that regular enemies don't usually have such unique themes might let one argue that it was first made for something other than Madjick, then was used for Madjick before being removed.), the way that Toby appears to talk about it seems to imply that there isn't really more to the song than that, and thus that the theory would just be wrong after all.

Since then, the theory was pretty much left as is, slowly fading away in popularity over time.

Was this theory correct ? Whilst we will probably never be sure, the answer is most likely no. I wouldn't bet on it, at least.

However, no matter wether this was all ultimately just a coincidence or not, one thing which remains true is that the music certainly does sound quite close to how one would have expected a Chara version of "his theme" from Toby to sound like.

The same cannot be said for other fanon Chara associated themes, such as "Megalo strike back". While Toby did make this song, this was not the song's intended name and it didn't have anything to do with Undertale.

I find it unfortunate that people went fishing this far on Toby's archives for a song to make fanon Chara content around when Star was right here in the Undertale game files for the taking and would have been a more fitting choice overall.

By default of being an actual Chara song, Star still had everything one would need to build good Toby-like fanon Chara songs around at the very least. But this opportunity went surprisingly under-exploited under Megalo strikes back's shadow.

It doesn't mean there aren't any Chara fanthemes using Star, though.

For instance, Undertale bits & pieces made this Genocide Chara theme using the Star leitmotif among a couple others. I believe it is an example of using Star as an inspiration done well !

[falling-star-cygnus]

are you still interested in doing character design analysis?? like what you did for dan heng and boothill

if u are could you perhaps do blade or robin ? or just anyone tbh, i adore seeing ppl analyze photos designs bc they’re so detailed

me when I get asks: 😍🥳♥️💟💞 i love when people request things

things i’ve noticed about HSR characters bc it literally brings me unprecedented amounts of joy

part three: Mr. Immortal Edgelord himself ✨Blade✨

Robin coming soon :D also i don't have Blade as a character and i have not met him in game so most of these came from youtube and his index [very sorry for the low quality of some images!]

i love his one random cowlick strand of hair- + his confused expression being closer to disgust and gentle expression being genuinely gentle. i love it, i love the range they gave him considering his archetype

during his first idle animation, Blade has a bandage wrapped around his sword. And you can see he has bandages wrapped around his chest from the gap in his neckline

and from his sixth eidolon, well, we can see why. His eidolon titles are so hauntingly tragic too, oh my gosh -> the more i look at his character design and his behaviors, the more i really love the simplicity of it all i've talked about this more in a previous post- but all of the Stellaron Hunters have symbolic names. Blade's own alias is a symbol of justice! [post in question]

Blade is not one of the more decorated characters in HSR, but honestly i think that's a good thing considering how complex his lore is. The gold decal on his coat is half a spider lily, the clasps are eyes [they could also resemble spider lily buds, but it's stretch] -> He has matching jade clasps with Dan Heng :D and when you combine them they make up the emblem on his back!

honestly, the emblem being surrounded by a knotted and crisscrossing red ribbon is a fantastic symbol of how these two are tied together in their fates

Spider lilies really are the crux of Blade's design, especially in his attacks, which makes a lot of sense considering their symbolism in a non-final death. Rebirth, transformation, reincarnation, etc

Hoyoverse really put a lot of thought into the floriography of this game. Bc- where genshin has a very heavy focus on star symbolism, each character in hsr has a specific flower- or plant- attached to their theme

ok- this one doesn't have to do with Blade's design at all, but it does tie in with your HC for the Road -> this is a mara struck foe, we all know this, but specifically i mean the design- the ginkgo leaves growing out of them [gingko leaves are a symbol of peace and longevity- and hope in the face of despair]

Blade is also mara struck [again- we all know this] so.... without further ado~

HC for the Road: Blade sprouts spider lilies in the spots where his bandages cover and that adds to the reason he wears them -> ok, imagine Silver Wolf and Firefly [bc let's be real, he's a girl dad] sitting against his sides as he's changing his bandages- and imagine those lilies sprouting up and he kinda stiffens bc he doesn't know how his daughters coworkers are going to react

but these two are star struck [pun intended] they've got a million and two questions, they're holding onto Blade's wrist and arm- Silver Wolf even puts down her console. And Blade relaxes

[decepti-thots]

I would like to hear about which characters would use which kind of fountain pen 👀

okay, so with the caveat that all of this is coming from me researching pens in my quest to become slightly a 'pen person' and not like. being one. (but also from the perspective of watching my friend talk extremely in-depth about this for many years, and cribbing from her, in my defense.)

here are some random character-pen matchups and headcanons bc why not!!

first off. minimus, obviously.

there's a few things i think about this: he's fundamentally conservative in his tastes i think (no wild experimental designs), someone who would not want to spend an Excessive amount of money but also someone who would definitely have a higher-end one quality wise, and he'd have really nitpicky taste about shit like quality control. with this in mind, the guides i read that were offering opinions on higher-end 'beginner pens' consistently brought up the Pilot Custom 74, which is like, the platonic ideal of just a functional good quality Fountain Pen TM:

look at it. that sure is a ~£190 fountain pen! it's classic, functional, a solid 'name', expensive enough i feel like a person who grew up well off would be like 'oh this is my everyday pen' and i would be sort of like 'the fuck that costs half my rent'. lmao. but not like, someone splashing out a thousand quid or more expensive, yknow. he's probably had this same pen for like. the equivalent of twenty years or more. i'm sure he has more than one but this is his 'workhorse'.

here's another one i immediately am like 'oh i know what to pick' about. this one less in terms of specifically 'this character would use it' and more like 'this character reminds me of this pen'. it's rewind! and the pen is a Tombow Zoom 828fp because. well. look at this.

MINI PEN. CHIBI LITTLE FOUNTAIN PEN. there's apparently a chinese pen that is a lot cheaper you can get of this little chonker's basic design, and i'm very, very seriously tempted to get one and call it 'rewind'. lmao. short and charmingly proportioned! i don't think rewind probably actually uses a pen but maybe this was one of those spousal in-joke gifts pre-war or something like 'haha this reminded me of you'/'are you calling me short' or whatever idfk. the point is. TINY PEN.

nautica got riptide a Jinhao 993 to cheer him up when they started doing lessons in that one issue towards the end of MTMTE/pre-DotL and he's finding it difficult maybe. "why would a fountain pen cheer him up-" THIS IS WHY LOOK AT THESE

my pen friend got the pink one of these for a fiver or something, bc i pointed out it was a pink shark and therefore a Nimona pen. haha. anyway. that's why riptide has a fountain pen.

rodimus is having a mid life crisis, and also magnus will probably think he is Mature and Good At Work if he shows up with a fountain pen, he figures one time, so he wheedles money off drift and buys this monstrosity, which to be clear costs EIGHT THOUSAND EUROS and is supposed to look like a cool racecar themed... thing. montegrappa is so fucking overpriced and tacky and they're invariably hilarious to me whenever they release some godawful tie-in thing.

now prowl. prowl doesn't have a fountain pen because prowl is the sort of person who insists on constantly having fucking. Gadgets TM. you know. the man thinks a smart fridge is a necessity, for some fucking reason. if it's electronic it's Better. however, LAMY, i found out, in addition to its wide range of pens, also makes like... high-end digital pens? you know, in the style of their most well known fountain pen design (LAMY safari) but like. a stylus. buying a brand-name pen manufacturer's stylus bc you want to have a fountain pen but also refuse to do anything not on a tablet or something is. 100% prowl to me.

and i think that drift would have a LAMY 2000. look at this thing. it's somehow so slick and modern looking in a way most fountain pens aren't without feeling weird or like it isn't one. it's also a really well regarded pen across the board and so many people swear by this thing. (my friend does indeed have this one!) he's got it because he (canonically) journals, obviously, he is whipping this bad boy out after meditation to Chronicle His Emotional State (usually um. bad. moving along.) it's one of the nice things he bought himself after he somehow acquired all that money (stole it on his way out from the decepticons).

sidenote: megatron doesn't use a fountain pen, despite being a canonical writer. his handwriting is fucking atrocious and he would break one pressing too hard if he tried. he privately thinks they're sort of pointless, but lets minimus endlessly explain nib types for the sake of indulging someone he likes and who clearly is used to being told to shut up.

[inventors-fair]

Idiom Flavor Commentary: The Final Countdown

And what do we have in the end? With these sorts of contests, there are two parts, I feel: first you have to adapt the flavor text correctly, and then you have to make a decent card to go along with it. What I'm wondering from the entrants—and please do comment about this below—is whether or not you came up with the flavor text first, or if you came up with a card idea related to an idiom and then shaped that idiom around the balanced card. Because of how this particular contest works, I imagine that most people chose the first option, but you never know!

Looking over these entries, I think that there are some punny options and a few wry options, and some that didn't exactly fit the contest in ways that I'm not sure how to express. Others surprised me in ways that I was thoroughly keen on, and you can see in the variety who went with what. I'm not going to say that I wish there were fewer puns, because who in their right mind would wish for such a thing, but I will say that the folks who shot for wryer flavor text did stand out in a sea of punning. That's not to say that this wasn't a clever contest, because as usual, all of you contributed to a chuckle-worthy bevy of good cards. Let's cut to the chase and talk about the workings and improvements.

If you see cards labeled JUDGE PICK, those have particular qualities that I want to use as good examples for cards that didn't quite meet the threshold for winners/runners, either because of podium space or because of specific pieces that needed improvement. Let's go ahead without getting ahead of ourselves. Tally ho!

@bergdg — Unleash the Familiars

This is definitely the kind of punny card that I was expecting, although the twist is oddly sinister in a way that your (adorable) art is at odds with? That's not a serious ding, though, I'm mostly pointing that out because it's a bolder choice to have the humor and the mechanical mood go against each other like this. There's a point at which I get it and another point at which I feel that we're going a little too far over in the juxtaposition; while I can envision the intended mood, there's a story there that's missing here, or at least some context. I can feel the working-backwards-from-flavor progress, and it's not as natural as it could be.

But as far as the mechanics go, it's definitely a powerhouse. I wonder if the first two triggers these days could be "Create your choice of..." with the two token options. It wouldn't be as precise, but Jinnie did something similar, right? Getting pumpable tokens every turn is a clock, and I think that it's a pretty standard white limited finisher. No complaints there. It's just one of those cases where, in order to get the flavor text you wanted, the card kinda had to be obvious, and this is probably as close as this idiom would get you without a novella of background information about the Interplanar Domestication Wars or something.

~

@curiooftheheart — Goblin Seamstress

This was quite a popular idiom, wasn't it? Or at least, it showed up on three separate cards, which is something. And we've had a few goblin craftsfolk before and I'll be honest, I'm kinda a sucker for the archetype. They're just little tinkerers! I like the image of a goblin wielding a massive pair of scissors or needles and then chipping away. The mechanics of this card are tried and true, and as for the flavor... I think I can get on board? She's a menacing persona and the attacks are the "cuts" that she's inflicting while doing her work, i.e. attacking. If that's what you were going for, I'm on board.

I also think that you could've done well with just a little different twist and/or some kind of direction to more firmly tie mechanics and flavor together. It just wasn't clicking as directly for me when going over these submissions. One that came to mind was: "She measures once, then cuts, and cuts, and cuts—" to go with the theme of recklessness under the guise of craftsmanship. But that's just speculation, and it's a fine uncommon. Maybe it's the vagueness of the "satisfied" that could've used a little more structure with direction? We're just missing one touch of cohesion to make this card great. It's a hell of a good damage rate if you can get it out early, that's for certain.

~

@dimestoretajic — Coin Conversion

So for those of you who are reading this and aren't getting the idiom, the phrase is "I'm not made of money," and this flavor text is in response to it. I don't know if we needed judge examples for this week, but that wasn't actually what the prompt was asking for; the text had to be a riff of the idiom, not a response. Mood-wise, though, you've got the makings of a stellar card, and I think that myself and the judges love this as a removal spell; personally I think it should be tapped tokens, but I digress.

I want to save this card in the oh-god-is-it-ever-happening Inventor's Fair cube, but with two caveats. One: to fit this contest, you could've had the quote be "I'm not made of money!" with it being attributed to some debtor's last words. Two: to ignore the contest, this card could actually be called "Made of Money" and I would've loved to see it in GRN—not MKM, because this card actually feels like it belongs on Ravnica, but I digress again. The point is, although it's a good card, double-check the prompts, and also don't forget the shift+enter when you're adding quote attribution on MSE. Last point of praise: this really is a grotesque image that you've conjured up even without AD! It's cruel, visceral, and very specific to this guild. Your finger's on that precise pulse of Orzhov debt collection and I commend you for that.

~

@edenzom — Harried Houseguest

[Submitter's note: "Idiom comes from "Lepaskan batuk di tangga" directly translate to "let out a cough at the stairwell (entrance)"  meaning to do something at bare minimum. Idiom comes from people who visit without really "visiting""]

I'm really glad that we got a few international idioms this week, because there are definitely some phrases that I've never heard before! This does lead me to a few questions, because all I could find (and please correct/forgive me if I'm wrong) was that this was a Malaysian saying that has basically no English equivalent! Context for readers is above, but I'm both fascinated by this specificity and a little embarrassed that I don't have the multilingual understanding to dig into the real meaning. What I love about the flavor, though, is that you get this feeling of cycling visitors in a way that leads one into the idiomatic meaning through gameplay.

It might be a good idea to pluralize the title to "Harried Houseguests" because the card is making multiple tokens. I think that the templating here needs to be quite odd because of the effect, and you've done the best you can for the time being. I think the rules text needs to read: "Create four 1/1 white Rabbit creature tokens. At the beginning of the next end step, return four creatures and/or tokens you control to their owner's hands." It would up the power level, but I believe that that's the intent—that you can return random tokens and not just creature tokens, hence "and/or." Is that correct? As a minor flavor templating note, don't forget to have the quote on one line and the definition on another—like on Lion's Eye Diamond. All in all, I respect both the mechanical and linguistic ambitions. There are aspects that probably need editing, but I don't want to split hares.

~

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Host of Impatience (JUDGE PICK)

I have no idea how giving costs to cards in hidden zones works. ... That's a lie and I'm a dummy, Dream Devourer helps with that. Still, that would probably need to say: "The top card of your library has miracle. Its miracle cost is equal to its mana cost." if we're using that other demon as a template. And jimminy effing christmas if that's not a bit of a rules nightmare, but no more than miracle always has been and will be. The only question I have is the flavor mixing of demons and miracles. The Cursemute was one big red thingamabob, sure, and miracles don't have to happen just on Innistrad, but all the same—it's a bit of a head-scratcher. I mean, there's the Occam's razor of this-is-a-design-proof-more-than-a-worldbuilding-piece, and I probably just need to grin and bear that. If there's something I'm missing, let me know.

As far as the flavor text goes, I actually think that this is remarkably clever once I broke down the original. "Waste not, want not" is a weird way of saying that you have everything you need if you use your resources wisely; conversely, this is basically "you have everything you need if you go without hesitation." It's as red as red can get, innit. There are drawbacks if you're playing the wrong deck, but... God, I can honest-to-goodness see this in a Commander Legends kind of set. I can't hate it, and I hate how much I'd love to play it. You'd never see it in a premier, that's for sure, but that doesn't matter when the focus is this honed—and, demonically, horned.

~

@hanavesinauttija — Broggo the Barkeep (JUDGE PICK)

Not gonna lie, captain—the flavor text is using about twice as many words as it needs to and the idiom's a bit buried. I will say that "A spiritmancer is only as strong as their weakest drink" hidden in there is really clever, or perhaps it could've been "A tavern is only as strong as its weakest drink" as a quote inherently attributed to Broggo. Or other things, but the point still stands, let's dial it back to the initial good idea, keeping in mind how these things scan. It took me a second to get 'spiritmancer' when I was already trying to connect the idiom. As for the rest of the card's flavor, though, your art direction is absolutely fantastic and paints high-fantasy whimsy that's quite enjoyable

Before we get into the mechanics, I wanna preface that I'm no lawyer (and certainly no saint) but Wizards probably isn't gonna make alcohol-themed auras anytime soon. Let's shelve that "proof" of concept (eyyyy) for now. I suppose that I didn't say it in the contest, but I was expecting standard-level power for these cards—so because I didn't say it, let's talk Commander! It's honestly a great casual Food/Modified-oriented legend, even if there's practically no red Food cards. Still, random attacks are great, and the sorcery speed is definitely needed. Berserk is yet another proof-of-concept-y idea, but I'm behind it, weirdly enough. The only thing I'd say is that I think there might be a little too much Food generation if you enchant Broggo himself, so attaching the auras to "another" target creature and/or a creature that's not Inebriated might be best. I'm actually a little surprised by how much I like this card, not gonna lie. You've just put me in a good mood with the simple but unexpected and well-executed concept.

~

@hiygamer — Sandwasp Swarm

You can imagine that seeing a five-mana 1/2 is going to raise some eyebrows, and the more that I look at this card, the more raised my eyebrows become. It's effectively "triple strike" by any other name—quadruple strike, really—and the damage gets gummed up for sure. I think that there's an inherent frustration for me with how balanced this card is and why it needs to be this way with a clunky cost-to-effect ratio that unfortunately has to be this way. I think if it was on the battlefield, yeah, this card would play fine. It stings a lot and can deal massive air damage. The number of triggers that it creates during combat is a pain, but again, if the center of its design is that trigger, one has to interpret that as part of the intent.

Reading the flavor text, I'm still not sure about one question: what came first when you designed this card? What's the core of it? Without Vivien being quoted, this could fit just as well on a Shade or Nightmare or something. And even with that...I just don't get this card. "Big scary bug" is the mood of the flavoring, but the mechanics are about...stinging? There's a swarm, but where are the bodies, the feeling of actual swarming that this card's trying to evoke? I feel that this card is missing a unity of elements. The numbers line up but the cohesion feels like it's yet to settle.

~

@horsecrash — Portal Vandalmage (JUDGE PICK)

I can see this Prismari-like influences here for sure, with a little academic cheek thrown in. The visual of using paintings as portals in some abstract sense draws me in, no pun intended. There was a Prismari Treasure subtheme that I recall from original Strixhaven, and there's also the Clue-themed sacrifice of MKM to look at, too—and I'm wondering what your exact intention was for an archetype if there was one, y'know? I feel the artisanal power that this mage displays, but investigating feels a little odd to me. What's being investigated? Actually, she could be under scrutiny herself, and I'd go so far as to claim an art-heisty vibe.

I kinda wish there was some kind of background that you had for her, because I'm intrigued! Is the heist feeling intentional? Clues in paintings, DaVinci Code vibes even. I'm pretty down for that—the breaking of frames (artifacts) is her leaping through to another painting, hence being unblockable. I'm probably reading into this more than I should, but putting the clues together feels like part of the the card in a way. That's to say, while this card isn't breaking new ground with the mechanics, especially considering we had Furtive Courier in MKM (that also has proper wording for that second ability, ahem), I love this character that you've presented because I so clearly envision what she's like from your combination of name, ability, and flavor. That's commendable for sure.

~

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Rottenness Chef

I've been looking at this card for a couple minutes, and there's still the question of what it's telling me it wants to do. What place is it supposed to have in a set? On the surface, it's some kind of food-and-sacrifice themed card, but practically it just taps to gain 3 life every turn. That's a rate that's better than so many commons, and if you can land one of these on board without it getting Shocked, you're building up such a ridiculous stockpile of life in just a couple turns that the rest of the game is negligible. I'm not sure what the rate or cost would be for anything close to this effect.

I'm going to guess that you were working around the flavor and the rest of the card followed suit. There's nothing inherently wrong with that process; the product feels like it could've used some more time in the oven. What exactly is "Or something" supposed to be adding to the card? I don't think at this point in time there's much that I can add that isn't already apparent in the presentation. If there was more of an archetype in mind or some kind of draft strategy not quite hinted at, I'd be happy to hear you out.

~

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Lucky Looter (JUDGE PICK)

[AD: an Obscura magpie aven rises out of a pile of rubble and junk in a partially ruined building vaguely recognizable as having been a casino, with a joyful/triumphant expression on their face and an extremely ornate mace as big as they are in their hands. the mace is black iron, with a shape that strongly evokes the "club" card suit.]

This brings up a really weird question: where do the suits in our standard playing cards come from, and what would that mean for a different fantasy society? I'm not going to go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole because I'm already literally three hours into writing this commentary and I need to not lose my focus any more than I already am. ANYWAY. Blue and white equipment is a funky little draft archetype that I can get behind. Card's costed properly, the effect is fun and powerful, and you've got the cute image to go along with it. Ledger Shredder wishes that they could be as happy... Actually, what I really like about the emotion you're going for is the fact that birds in New Capenna have that city vibe of corvids, street smarts and whatnot. It feels happy and cheeky, just like a magpie would express if it could! It's a good sensation.

Wording is a little weird here because you're doing a few things. So...here's what I would do, right? "When ~ enters, draw a card, then discard a card. When you do, choose target artifact card in your graveyard. If it's an Equipment, put the battlefield attached to ~. Otherwise, put it into your hand." ... That's a combination of The Restoration of Eiganjo, Cosmic Rebirth, and a whole lot of Scryfalling, but I want to hear what your background was first. I think the triggers can give room for responses in a way that makes gameplay more balanced, and/or stacks it right so that you can more easily grok getting the thing you discarded. I don't know, I might be insane in the bird-brain here. Still, it's a pretty well-designed card. The flavor text isn't doing as much heavy lifting as it could be, honestly, but that doesn't detract from the overall joy, right?

~

@little-red-rabbit — Summaries

I think that I appreciate this pun a lot, and that it's an inarguably perfect lineup between gameplay and intended flavor. You are, indeed, making stories shorter. The way that that would stack up in-game is pretty clever if a little confusing when you're looking to resolve chapter abilities. Honestly, I am not entirely sure how that would work with the stack! If multiple counters are placed at the same time on different sagas, after APNAP... Eh, that doesn't matter. Perhaps this could be just as fine if it put a single lore counter on each Saga on the battlefield.

The only thing this card's missing is a strong sense of flavor. Who or what is doing the summarizing, or why is the spell of summary important here? Right now it feels that the flavor and mechanics came together, but the actual world of the card isn't quite hitting the mark of in-world fruition; it still feels like it was made for the express purpose of fulfilling the contest without the characterization that we see on cards like Storyweave. I feel that independent art direction that places this card into a scene or setting could give it that push. On a final note, I wonder if it would be a good idea to add some reminder text about what the lore counters will actually do, because I feel that not every player is as aware of that.

~

@maypletreeway — Cursed Breakfast

[Submitter's note: "Original idiom: "Laranja de manhã é ouro, à tarde prata e à noite mata." Translation: "Oranges are gold in the morning, silver in the afternoon and kill you at night." Meaning: "Don't do the same thing over and over again.""]

This idiom is originally Portuguese, right? It's interesting, because pretty much everything I can find has less to do with a proverb and more to do with an apocryphal story about literally eating oranges at night. Silly as that may be, I can get where the proverb is coming from and how that might translate here. What's interesting is your choice to have it be approachable both to those who are familiar with the phrase in Portuguese and to those who are taking it at face value. It's an odd name, that's for certain, and only fits into a couple deck archetypes, but at the very least you can use it like a normal food. Honestly, I'd say that this could be an uncommon, were it not for how easy it is to abuse with mass Treasure creation.

Mechanically, I'm not sure what to do with this card, because it feels like one of those old archetypal cards that demands a very specific style of deck creation, and outside of that is either useless or just not as good as literally any other card. They do still make cards like that, sure, but the question is whether or not this card would be worth a) a rare slot in a pack, and b) a slot in a deck where any other card could go? It's a shame, because it's still such a cool card and I can envision where I'd personally be playing it, but there are just too many factors that would be surrounding it in a hypothetical set for me to meet it halfway.

~

@nine-effing-hells — Rix Maadi Macaques

Yeah, it's pretty clear that once you latched onto the idiom, you built up the rest of that card around it, and frankly...I'm on board. I dunno if it's a regional thing but I actually use this idiom myself a fair amount, mostly to stay out of drama. I was going to ask if there are monkeys or apes on Ravnica, but there was the orangutan from MKM, for one, and... You know what, Ravnica is full of surprises. I think—look me in the eyes, alright? I think you and I both know that there's not gonna be much actual justification for this species being in the city and that it's funnier to imagine clownsuit murder monkeys. I'm still gonna judge you because that's my job but I want to let you know that it is, indeed, very funny.

Not to everyone in the crowd, though. Heh. Maybe it's Juri's voice and all, but there's also a "monkey on my back" sorta suggestion that I would use if I played this card. Would I? It's at least one damage, and then there's the back-and-forth with the swings and being unable to block, so it's really down to the question of whether or not you can outpace your opponent. I feel that if you want to play this card, you're gonna need a lot of aggro AND a lot of removal just to ensure that your own-curve cards are going to connect. Who knows, maybe your Azorius opponent has some big toughness stuff that'll be a pain to get through. But all the same, I think that this card is indeed funny enough to get a thumbs-up and clever enough to get a maybe-include in my pool.

~

@partytimesdeluxe — Raging Leosaur

Reading your note about typal disruption, I do see a place where this card would be an interesting on-curve corner case. There were a few typal cards on Ikoria and a return to the set could see more of that in the drafting archetypes for sure! It's asking a lot of the set that this would be part of the uncommon suite, because it may suggest both typal and anti-typal components, unless this is one of the few cards in the set that would play into hating on that sort of gameplay style; it's actually really hard to find examples of cards like that! Hate cards are strange breeds. I think that "ambitious /pos" is the best way to describe this card and your intended structure. I also want to say that reading your notes was pretty helpful and thought-provoking, so props for that.

What's a little more my avenue is talking about flavor and cohesion, and there's this minor disconnect that's probably a little too literal, but like... I imagine that the birds fly away, and don't just, uh, stop becoming birds. Right? I do like the explanation of danger being the driving force that can disrupt unified groups if they're only together for superficial reasons. (Considering mutations, I suppose that being a bird on Ikoria changes by the minute...) Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or maybe it's just not reaching me because of my own superficial interpretations. That said, I was thinking of little twists, and the Dr. Suess in me said: "Birds of a feather flock together—and hunters of birds will cull the herds." And after that things got a little lost in the shuffle, so I don't know where that leaves us aside from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and writing about your card.

~

@real-aspen-hours — Precise Bolt

I'd like to hear what your thoughts are on lightning being "measured," because right now I'm picking up the literal in-world meaning but I'm not sure about meeting the verbage halfway. I know if I was casting a lightning spell I sure wouldn't measure it—with a big enough target, who'd have to aim? But that's just little petty things about the flavor because, I mean, if it's a certain kind of divine and precise spell, I can see how precision matters. I still feel that there could've been a more imaginative name for this kind of effect, considering the coolness that the image is conjuring up.

Addendum-lite is a fair enough play too, for what it's worth. You know, maybe addendum could've been the way to go here. Or... No, probably not. I would've worded the second half: "...If it's your main phase, ~ deals 4 damage instead and can't be countered by spells or abilities." Which is a little different, but it's a mashup of a few cards as it and it's a kinda complicated effect. I think that this is a perfectly fine limited burn spell and could even see some midrange play depending on the format. As much as I grok the flavor text, though, it's not pulling a whole lot of weight here for this contest.

~

@sparkyyoungupstart — Adaptive Calcification

Gross! I love it. Like having teeth covering your body, there's a lot on the surface that's hard to hide—namely, that the pseudo-spoonerism (maybe adjacent chiasmus?) came first and Phyrexia hopped right into your head thereafter. Who exactly has "made it out," by the way? The defense is kind of...well, more of an aggressive response, and less of a rescue; in order for "the skin of the teeth" to be effective, it's a close call, and this doesn't feel that close. There's the inherent problem of Phyrexian villainization, where we don't care if/how they survive narratively. It's not about the perspective of their escape because they're pursuant foes. I hope what I'm saying makes sense? If the idiom had wiggle room for irony, then the imagery would suffice for subverting expectations, but there's little allowance in context.

On the card level, though, I really like the idea of Phyrexian kicker. The numbers are a little...weird, and why is it a replacement ability? I think kicker to give it an additional +3/+0 and first strike would be fine. It's a little aggressive for white, but it's in-pie and totally reasonable. Kicker's deciduous nature fits in here as well, although if you're adding reminder text then it would be reasonable to add in reminders for Phyrexian mana too; that's a small note, though, just a little polish. Overall there are a few good ideas here that don't quite feel like they've been adjusted to their potential, despite the solid MTG-horror basis.

~

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Harvest Haunt (JUDGE PICK)

There she is, the second plant-themed horror card with a pun in its flavor text. Again, I'm sure that the two of you didn't collaborate, but these nickels are clinking together quite happily, aren't they? At least, they will be until I'm snatched up by this plant monster. Look, it's a great card overall—it's an on-curve aggressive creature that Nature's Spiral-ifies when it dies. Excellent for limited and relevant to limited by being a good attacker and blocker no matter if it trades or chumps or eats a big creature on the opposite side.

And I think there's something to be said for the "harvest" part of it too, e.g. getting cards from the graveyard as a farm-themed card invokes that green feeling of natural development and rebirth. I don't want to read into this too much, but I'll be honest, what other choice do I have? This card isn't asking anything more of us than to be awesome. It's doing a bunch of things green's set precedent for, its theming is on point, it's got a turn-of-the-century VHS-horror Innistradian backdrop, and I do love it despite the fact that its simplicity makes it quite difficult to discuss in-depth. Take the placement however you want it because I'm as satisfied as a corn in the husk. ... Good lord, wherever that simile came from, it needs to get composted.

~

@tanknspank — Aven Sparkcasters

I'm going to take a little spark of lightning and get rid of that comma in the flavor text. Actually, I just noticed that this is the second "birds of a feather" reference that we've had. Huh! I think that it's cute that we've had similar ideas across the board, although approached from quite separate directions. There's a great simplicity to these bird wizards and their mechanical position, yeah? They do indeed shock. Whatever world you've placed them on, the gist sticks. Plus, it's an on-curve flier that's not the easiest to get rid of (unless you Plummet it or something lol).

I wonder if there's a little too much on this card, honestly? There are, unfortunately, ways to surveil/scry each upkeep, and then following that there are plenty of lands that search for other lands that make this an instant-speed shock, and you can halve someone's life total quite easily. Cantrips, enchantments, and fetch variants all ensure that you're getting more than a little value's worth from this thing. I'm not going to cry "broken" or "OP," but having so many options ensures that constructed formats can abuse this card more than it seems at first glance. In draft you're just winning in the air, but like, that's also pretty crazy if you can get the pumping there. I dunno, having seen some of the other crazy spellbirds, I'm wary...

~

@xenobladexfan — Emergency Flotation Device

I too quite enjoy the boating and floating of that idiom, heh. The art as well seems to capture just what the card is looking for. I'm not sure why your MSE isn't doing an artifact frame, but that's besides the point—I think that I'd like to know a little more about this wanderer-king character before I'm sold on this flavor text, because he's got the intonation through text of a salesperson. Or I guess kinda Legolas selling lembas bread too, but who needs four flotation devices. What a name as well, right? Not that this contest wasn't calling for some cute or funny cards overall—it's just slightly sillier and/or more on-the-nose and/or playtesty for me as a title. If the float fits, I suppose...

There's also a lot of text here: flash, trigger, equipping, cost, quote, and attribution. Phew! I think that if it were printed, there might not be flavor text to keep the room for the mechanics here, and the mechanics all make sense in a way that I wouldn't know what to cut in order to make room for the flavor text. That's the issue at the crux of this, isn't it? Looking at a flavor-text specific contest, my job ordinarily would be to tell you what to trim in order to make it work, but that doesn't really fit the bill for all you've got going on here. Maybe it should just be a slogan, not a quote? Or maybe this is just totally okay as a pet card that has a space in the casual artifact-vehicle shell where it belongs and that's the end of it. I think that that's just fine. In the future, perhaps other contests will make it clearer on a card's space where there's room for cuts.

~

And so we've drawn the curtain! The world will be bright and beautiful tomorrow. Rest up and rest well. @abelzumi

[invidiia]

Lippmann with assistant darling, a concept:

You’ve always been good at your job, did all that he asked for with no complaints and go along with what he had in mind, that’s why he likes you so much. You don’t really know or expect just how deep that “like” runs, it’s not even just fondness anymore it’s obsession, he doesn’t know when it took for a turn but it did at some point. Does he want to go back? Never, not really.

He realizes he likes you and he’s deep into the pit of desiring you to be with him. He’s nice, and he keeps an eye out for his reputation but there isn’t anything bad if he gave you a bit of a raise, yes? You deserve it after all, along with a lot of other nice things in life he could get ahold of—

being his assistant - yandere!lippmann (bsd)

includes ; lippmann (bungo stray dogs stormbringer)

warning ; yandere themes, mentions of murder, mostly soft!! <3 still yandere. i talk about the reader's hair here so if you're bald then i apologize 👍 also a gaslighting joke but i think he'd do it

note ; I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS. GIGGLIGN AND VIOLENTLY SHAKING AND CAUSING AN EARTHQUAKE. I COULDNT REALLY TELL IF THIS WAS A REQUEST (PROBABLY WASNT) BUT I WANTED TO WRITE MORE FOR IT ANYWAY SOO

being lippmann's assistant was an easy job, really. no issues, aside from maybe a jealous fan who thought you were kept too close to the famous actor you worked under.

you caught him staring on numerous occasions. he was just so kind, wasn't he? you know how some famous people aren't as nice as they are when they're interviewed? this just wasn't the case for lippmann - he was perfect, exactly how he presented himself to the public.

sometimes, no — more often than just sometimes, lippmann gave you gifts and compliments. little hair clips, rings or any other accessories from recent movies that he got to keep? why, of course, it goes straight to you! just take the gift, it reminded him of you the entire time he filmed! he made sure to say that the thought of you helped him focus on set. he was just so kind, wasn't he?

lippmann always found himself touching you. was it an arm on your shoulder while he thanked you kindly for bringing him the drink — your choice, of course. go ahead and get yourself a cup of the same thing. he wanted to know your favorite. chances were, he'd ask for the same drink again — or was it the way he gently placed his thumb on your cheek, taking your focus away from the papers of this week's schedule and to him. he would tell you it was dirt on your face, but he kept his thumb there for another moment before straightening his tie and walking away, back to whatever he was doing while your face had flushed from his sudden affection. was there anything on your face? nope!

obviously, your paycheck was smaller than his. you could afford nice things, but of course, lippmann could always buy clothing with the nicer fabrics, and just about everything else with better quality. he knows that you don't have the money for things as nice as he does, but you get around just find with about half of what he makes, aside from any other forms of income he has. the man enjoys buying you things. no matter how much you protest against him spending that, you come to an agreement that you'll pay it back to him. does he let you pay it back in the future? nope, he probably gaslights you 🫶

this is.. obsession. what started as a fond liking to you had escalated and grown to a deep infatuation. lippmann has a good name out there, and getting blood on his hands for you? he'd do it, absolutely. as much as he would love to kill someone who wronged you, you can't get revenge and keep a spotless reputation.

but being a part of the port mafia, he has his ways, doesn't he? lippmann has good connections, and while you don't exactly know other than his relations with the legal side, he still has the ability to get a target on that person's head. who from the organization would pass up an opportunity to kill someone for money?

[ a/n ;; honestly i got more but im so fuckign tired its like 4:33 am and i'm running out of brain energy ]

[dear-kumari]

Getting my meanest criticism out of the way rn

Arthur I'm sorry that your parents died but did your childhood poem about mourning them have to be so long. Like it looks shorter in the transcript than it felt while listening to it, but 14 verses is still an awful lot. I like the adolescent amateur quality of it, that's fine and expected, but you can't be carrying around all 56 lines of that in your head along with the best of Robert Frost. Give John the abridged version, please, this is probably really awkward for him

Ep 20 is just so, so heavy on the cloying sentimentality between that and the cute animal death that I do think I nearly dropped the show because of it. I went from binge-listening to taking several weeks to get through it (though I resumed my binge immediately after). It's supposed to be the emotional culmination of their journey but came off as manipulative and contrived to the point of cringe. I hate to sound unfeeling, but the whole time I was like can you guys try to strategize about confronting the King instead of reciting eulogies and crying. Or strategize while crying, that's fine, just — something. Anything. The show is about their emotions, yes, but it's also ostensibly about surviving horrors and outwitting powerful forces. Kayne cuts the latter out of the equation almost entirely by handing Arthur the special object he needs for the climax and essentially telling him what to do with it. And then Arthur does it! He spends more brainpower puzzling out what he's supposed to do with the dagger than considering that maybe he shouldn't go along with the desires of the mass murderer he just met. He says the predetermined nature of their journey makes him feel powerless, but the only thing they try to do differently is head deeper into the city. Arthur is a defiant atheist whose big "fuck you" to an actual god is … to attempt to follow the advice of another, more powerful god, by slitting his own throat. Awesome.

This isn't even about the poem anymore but while I'm here, I don't like Kayne. He's not fun, he's not funny, he's not a particularly threatening villain and he fucking killed my little meow meow. The fandom take on him is basically Bill Cipher for adults, which is cool, but canon Kayne doesn't live up to the hype. His "carrot and stick" for Jorthur are too good and too bad, respectively, to be true, making it yet another case of raising the stakes way too high for the audience to truly care. He's also a trickster who straight-up lies rather than one who cleverly exploits loopholes, so it's not like it'll be that surprising when he doesn't honor his deal with them.

I mean, there is an actual kernel of genius in how Kayne is this kinda Christian-themed evil God (omniscient, daughter is "Lilith," jokingly answers to "Jesus Christ," encourages Arthur to listen to his Christian FIL and sacrifice himself) who is essentially offering the protagonists Heaven if they obey him or Hell if they fail. If Jorthur actually learn to see him as an abusive bullshitter with empty promises/threats of eternity ("this too shall pass" taken so far as to break the established eternal cosmic mythos RGU style), I will happily admit that that's a cool deconstruction of the existential dread at the heart of Lovecraft. I think they're just gonna luck into beating him with the Blackstone tho, or maybe he'll win bc he's the author self-insert and Jorthur will get their "happy" ending too, idk. Whatever happens, I don't think I'll stop finding him annoying. Just like that dumb orphan's shitty poetryyyy okay sorry I didn't know how to tie the post together after all that

[arcadianmoonshadowjedi]

Hi Dreamy! Soo I watched TDP Season 6 last night! That was a GOOD season. Many of the open processes were led to satisfying conclusions, so that was nice. However, can I just ask... how do you bear with the pacing. I grapple with the sudden aging of the characters, Rayla's unannounced return from her unannounced disappearance, with the bad jokes, with the weird side quests. Zym isn't even one of the main characters anymore. "Rise of the Archmage" or whatever would describe the plot so much better?

What I'm trying to say is, I think I generally like the story and the arcs that people are taken through, but the differences between seasons just botch it up for me so much that cannot get more invested. It's a shame for such a well thought-out universe. It somehow seems like the writers were making it up as they went along without a real vision, and now after that last, rather poorly-received "setup" season, they finally got their act together. But what is up with that. How can I enjoy episodes of such a wide range in quality.

It bothers me very much. This could have been done better, more consistently. There is a cut to me before the aging and after the aging. They patched it up with the reenactment of that scene. It kinda works. But why was it made to have been needed. Lol.

Hey there! I personally enjoyed season 4 and 5 but I understand it wasn’t the same for everyone. Actually when I watched the Dragon Prince for the the first time, after I binged all of arc 1 shortly after the release of S3, I got really invested and followed a lot of news and even watched the zoom panel with the cast and crew, all of which lead me to finding the graphic novel Through the Moon and being able to get that and read it then. Definitely reading that helped me prepare for arc 2, at least knowing what to expect of Rayla and Rayllum. I know not everyone knew about the graphic novel so I do wonder if perhaps maybe it could’ve been animated as a short movie and released in between S3 and 4, since the events of it wouldn’t have fit at the end of S3 and neither at the beginning of S4. But at the same time, I’m not sure if they would’ve been given the greenlight for that by Netflix 🤷🏽‍♀️

As for the time skip, I’m actually fine with it since I feel like it gives more opportunity for a lot of different changes to have occurred, like Callum having learned more magic, Ezran to have grown more into his role as king, showing that Claudia getting the ingredients and everything needed to bring back Viren was a lot harder and needed a lot of time to complete, showing the gravity and difficulty of that spell, and lastly showing that despite Rayla’s intense long search of Viren, she couldn’t find him at all. And with the tone and theme of the show having matured in the Mystery of Aaravos by a whole lot, I do think it makes much more sense for the characters to be older and more mature to deal with it all.

Ngl I do miss seeing Zym more a great deal too but his role also depends on where we’re at in the story, like in arc 1, it was focused on him hatching and being a newborn dragon being brought home, along with him being a major target for Viren. S4 definitely was his biggest role in arc 2 since we now see him being a toddler and having become more stubborn and going against his mother a lot lol. But I guess his role has more to do with where we’re at in the plot? I do hope we get to see more of him in S7 though 😭

I guess the title “Mystery of Aaravos” has to do a lot with how as the audience, there’s so much we don’t know about him when we start the arc and then we learn more as we go, esp in S6.

As for all of the side plots, I do feel like S6 does tie them well together, kinda like how in arc 1, we did start getting the sunfire elves plot with Amaya, which at first may have felt unrelated to the main plot but it ultimately tied into it. In arc 2, we do see it tie in sooner in S5 when Callum and Rayla wanted to go to the Great Bookery of Lux Aurea, along with Janai having the nightmares about Aaravos and all of that.

To answer your question on how to better enjoy arc 2 esp between the gaps, I’ll suggest some of the graphic novels and also add a link to the short stories released before S4 and 5 which could hopefully bridge more gaps and help you enjoy more:

Through the Moon: Graphic novel set right after S3, deals with Rayla’s fears of Viren still being alive as well as her not having closure on what happened to her parents and Runaan, leading up to events of her leaving, definitely recommend reading, esp if you decide to do a whole series rewatch right after you finish season 3.

The Dragon Prince: Reflections: All short stories available on the Dragon Prince official website to read for free. Volume 1 stories were released Pre-S4 and are mostly set within the 2 year time gap. Volume 2 stories were released before season 5 most set between S4 & 5, with the exception of ‘Strangers’, which is set during S4 when Soren was tied up by Terry and Claudia and deals with him reacting to Viren being alive, and the three-part story ‘Chasing Shadows’ which is focused on Rayla’s time in Scumport pre-S4, and ‘Queen’s Mercy’ which is a Kim’dael backstory.

Bloodmoon Huntress: Graphic novel with a Rayla backstory, starts with her parents leaving for the dragon guard & her being adopted by Runaan and Ethari. It shows a lot of how it impacted Rayla, gives ALOT of insight into Rayla’s upbringing and how she forms her understanding of how to love someone, esp in terms of her eventually leaving Callum when she’s older. This book also introduced Kim’dael who we also see in S5.

There’s also the graphic novel ‘Puzzle House’ which is a Soren and Claudia backstory set after their mother left, which I also loved and found giving more insight into Claudia’s character, but I would definitely say that ‘Through the Moon’ and ‘Bloodmoon Huntress’ would help bridge gaps more. I guess a good way to keep up with all of these releases would be to follow TDP official social media like their Instagram and Twitter since that’s where they post the updates and new releases. You can also follow Aaron and Justin on Twitter too since they post a lot of news first hand.

Let me know if you want to discuss more and if you want me to provide anymore resources 😊 I really hope these can improve your experience with the saga and help you enjoy it more ❤️❤️

[firespirited]

Quick primer on the business side of the Barbie movie as part of Mattel films. Specifically that it's not so much a toy commercial but a brand opportunity.

Not that the film itself is wrong or bad - no doubt real creative love was poured into all the aspects of creating it - however once it got Mattel approved and blitz marketed, it's different. Even a wonderful piece of art can have its meaning changed. What you experience in the cinema and your personal relationship to your childhood toys is a separate phenomenon from Barbie and Toy Story being turned into merch and theme parks, and more importantly, trust in the Mattel or Pixar brands.

What he doesn't mention is the Mattel films have been in production (and getting investor hype) since 2013. The reason there are bits of the He Man ad is because Master of the Universe was due to be the next Mattel film to be released.

So it's important to remember that reviews of the Barbie movie and articles about it will not specify which aspect they're commenting on. We will have to sift through what has been deliberately blurred marketing and art: for many of us, watching the film will have been a 'multiple lens' viewing: it's aware it's both personal, a message about a type of womanhood, a story and a product. Many picked up on queer/ND subtext which is another lens. The racial lens was there and also not there which was another thing people picked up on.

And then there's the capitalist lenses: some people are just seeing the doll characters and tie-in doll toys/merch and saying that's a commercial; that's legit but also applies to Star Wars and Top Gun while also just scratching the surface of something much bigger.

Videos like the one above are not about whether you enjoyed the Barbie movie or whether it was good, it's about larger patterns of brand monopolies: No-one is here to tell you that the birthday cake you made is bad, just that it's disturbing that all the ingredients available to you were owned by Nestlé and Kraft-Heinz.

So the folks saying I hate the birthday cake and I loved the birthday cake can be both right so long as we figure out the lens they're using (or utterly wrong in the case of the 'ew girly' idiots and hardcore Barbie stans LOL). I will be reblogging* both love and vitriol because there are layers to the film, to the hobby and to people.

*I'm waiting for it to hit pirate streaming in decent quality for all the folks who can't do 2 hours of bright lights, loud noises, crowded room.

[gunkreads]

Probably a nit i'm picking here but I've noticed that when people's praise of a story annoys me, it's almost always because they're praising an individual element of that story that, in my eyes, doesn't fit into a cohesive whole or add anything to a larger narrative structure or set of themes.

I feel like it's very easy to find individual elements of storytelling--in my experience, usually worldbuilding details or elements of character arcs--that absolutely floor you. Pretty often, a story will have several of those elements, sometimes in a row! They don't make a story good.

What's the in between? Where do we go on the way from point to point? Are these compelling revelations or arcs presented with adequate lead-in and follow-through, or do they appear from nowhere? Do facts about the setting get insinuated before and after they're explicitly revealed, or are they presented to you and subsequently ignored?

The latter cases of these usually end up coming together to make stories that are fucking GREAT to talk about and reflect on, but a little painful to actually read, watch, listen to, or play critically. One of my all-time favorite TV shows is a prime culprit of this: Into the Badlands. It's a show full of the baddest ass ideas on paper that just don't get executed all that well. Shit comes outta nowhere, but when it's on screen, it's awesome! Then it's gone and forgotten. I love the show a lot, but it's just not stitched together well.

Another great example: Destiny. This game/series is infamous for having a story told almost entirely offscreen. There's a reason the Grimoire (effectively all the written background lore) is published as its own collection of books. The problem is, none of these amazing stories are delivered well-- and by "well", I mean "at all". It's a video game whose primary story is incredibly basic, but has a shitballs bonkers universe of history behind it that makes that main story goddamn insanely compelling! That history, though, is told almost exclusively through in-game, completely skippable text files. It's provided many a deep and mellifluous British youtube narrator with an entire decade long career of turning the written lore into narrated slideshows. But if you only play Destiny (yknow, the thing you're supposed to do with a game), that shit's straight up not there! It's certainly gotten better at times (Witch Queen), but it's a bad average. Hell, it's a bad median.

This isn't about ideas that conflict or are dissonant; I've found plenty of stories that pull dissonant ideas together into a compelling whole (cough cough Wheel of Time). This is about stories that can't deliver all those ideas in a cohesive way, and it's about how eager fans tend to be to praise a story that's a pile of shiny parts on the floor. You don't walk into the junkyard to see a pile of disassembled parts and say "What a nice car", you say "This engine could run, these tires have plenty of tread, this strut's bearings are still good". A story made of quality components is not automatically a good story. One of the best functions of fandom is to collaboratively assemble that car, though! We just need to acknowledge that the pile on the ground is not a car.

Here's my call to action: check the fucking glue. What's holding the good elements of a story together? How do these things tie in thematically to each other, and how are they juxtaposed within the linear narrative that makes those ties effective? Does the message of one good element overlap significantly with another, and does that overlap weaken or strengthen each element? Is the story using its medium well, or at all?

Enjoyment of a story has little relationship with how cohesive the narrative is; I think we all know that by now. I still think it's worthwhile to ask yourself whether your story is a good STORY or a collection of good IDEAS.

[is-this-tf]

tumblr messed up and maybe sent this ask early, so sorry if so.

i was wondering if you could explain the appeal of tf into inanimate objects? one body becoming another is something i find sexy, but less so the inhabiting the body after the change is done, so the thought of sexual gratification from becoming just. A Thing isn’t something i can really get my head around. i’m not judging, i’m just. hoping to understand why people find it sexy

Hmmm, good question....

Well, the answer is probably different depending on who you ask (similarly to how the level of sexual appeal to it in particular varies depending on the TF fan). Inanimate TF fans interested in the Changing Into part for a given object and doesn't really seem to be able to move around, might tie into themes of bondage or helplessness common in other kink spaces like BDSM, or rather the willing or unwilling reliance on another to move, function, escape, or otherwise experience their life- just a bit fantastical and TF flavored in this case, being transformed into an object. Although, in my case and as I imagine in many others', some of the prime appeal of inanimate TFs boils down to inhabiting the body After it's done changing, like you mentioned- and in these cases, how it may be used or treated after that change has finished. (edit: I tend to focus a lot on Clothing inanimate TF in particular in this post, but know that it can be pretty widely generalized to other inanimate objects as well! Pooltoys, food, sex toys, etc.)

Personally, inhabiting a 'body' of an inanimate object (or to my personal tastes, an animate inanimate object, as in one that comedically can still move around) has Incredible appeal when it comes to themes of Use and Purpose. The human being is a messy, wonderful, purposeless thing whose only job when you get to the bottom of it is to find their own meaning in their life, or to make one up that makes them feel satisfied and content and fulfilled. But taking that marvelous, multifaceted human body and changing it, refining it into something with a much simpler, much clearer purpose to it, like a comfy hoodie- well, that just makes things feel a lot Easier all of a sudden, wouldn't it? You'd have an inherent purpose to you, an Intended Way of Use to feel satisfied and fulfilled and perhaps pleasured (in any way that appeals to you the most) every time you're used in such a way. (And now that I think on it, given the often clear and well-indicated guidelines implied for how an inanimate object like you would be used, the effort to fulfill your purpose would fall to whoever would be using you rather than up to you yourself, wouldn't it?) (The same themes as well of needing to take care of yourself and are responsible for your own 'good condition' fall to the user, in a similar way- whether someone washes or cleans you regularly and keeps you in good condition, or if the user very worryingly doesn't care for you well at all and you end up degrading in quality in the process, is also entirely out of the hands of the object in question. Er, so to speak.)

These themes of having an inherent nature or simplicity to your very being- form following function, and all- can be a source of great comfort or sexual gratification (or both!) to whomever might consider themself an inanimate TF fan, as well as to whom they might let use them (or who uses them Regardless of their wishes, if that appeals to them). Think about it: a big winter coat's purpose is to keep whoever is wearing it warm and comfy in cold weather. A suit vest's purpose is to provide another layer over a dress shirt and to make the wearer look more fancy. A pair of socks' purpose is to cover the feet and keep them safe inside the shoes. A pair of underwear briefs' purpose is to hold in the dong so it doesn't go as hogwild as it could in a pair of pants otherwise.

There's a lot of range for this, as there is for most other themes and genres in TF, meaning there's a lot of ways someone can experience or enjoy it. Having it be a close and intimate personal things between friends or loved ones through keeping them warm as a hoodie or shielding them from the sun as a hat, or being punished and forced to be the watering can of some witch or wizard you befouled for a while, or getting snapped up unintentionally by your suspicious roommate who can't help themself and getting royally fucked from his irresponsible lack of cleaning habits, and so on.

One way or another, it just comes down to the given TF fan's preferences and what they're looking to experience, what themes and flavors to it that make the TF just that much more tasty. Just as it is about with any other part of TF!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Okay so... One fic I've wanted to write for a while now is a crossover between RWBY and early access tycoon game "Prehistoric Kingdom".

What's Prehistoric Kingdom?

It's a "dinosaur zoo" game based on being as accurate as possible (with only a few cases of creative license taken), and is focused on running a good zoo as opposed to "watching dinosaurs break out every other day" the way Jurassic World: Evolution is.

(That's not to dunk on Jurassic World: Evolution, it's just a tie in for a monster movie while Prehistoric Kingdom is trying to be quality edutainment.)

The main reason I want to do this is because I imagined Ruby and Penny interacting with the Dryosauruses and that mental image was so freaking cute that I just HAVE to write something about those two characters working at a dinosaur zoo.

aw!!

Okay but like. Not to go on a tangent but yeah I now want a dino zoo movie/series/etc. that's not a monster movie? Just pure teaching about dinos and all.

Ya know if Jurassic Park was a genuine zoo built by palentologists/biologists/zoologists/etc and not a theme attraction built by capitalist fuckers who want to play god and skimp on safety regulations.

[eobarried]

let’s talk about the parallels in spiderverse between visions academy and spider society because this is driving me insane as an educator. 

in order to do that, we need some context about what visions is, because not everybody lives in a place where there’s a lot of charter school. basically, a charter school is an independent school that still receives government funding. it’s not required to adhere to the same curriculum or standards as the public school systems - instead it runs off of a “charter” or a document that chronicles the school’s mission and academic standards. the school is publicly funded only if that charter is upheld. because charter schools are not limited in the ways that public schools are, they often have a better student to teacher ratio, higher student achievement and graduation rates, and better facilities. 

because of this, in cities like new york, desire for charter schools boomed. this was because at the time charter schools were instituted in nyc, the public schools were struggling to just keep up with the number of students enrolled. not only were schools overcrowded, but they were underfunded, and especially those in low-income neighborhoods were struggling with academic success and graduation rates. nyc thought that charter could help with these issues. but charter schools were so popular because of these issues, that not every student was able to attend.

and that leads us to spiderverse. at the start of the movie, miles is driving to school with his father. his jefferson (his father), is excited for miles to start at visions academy, the charter that miles has been accepted to. miles, however, isn’t so sure. miles replies that the only reason why he’s there is because he won the lottery.

lotteries were implemented in places like nyc where the demand for charter schools was incredibly high. parents could place their child’s name in (a la hunger games) for a chance to attend a school similar to visions academy. a clean, high-achieving school that would ensure a bright future for their student. miles points out that he’s just one of the lucky students who has his name pulled.

meanwhile, jefferson disagrees. he tells miles that he still passed the entry exam required to attend visions, and that miles earned his spot at the institution based on his own merit. 

this conversation helps to distinguish a main theme that carries throughout the spiderverse saga. miles believes that everyone is capable of great things. he resents the fact that he was chosen by pure luck to attend visions, because it took the opportunity away from someone else. he doesn’t view himself as someone special, unique, or more worthy of a quality education than others. his view is that everyone should be given the same opportunity that he was afforded. he’s upset that luck was the deciding factor here. miles doesn’t feel that he’s welcome at visions - he feels isolated and would rather be with his community at his local public school.

meanwhile his dad insists that luck was not the deciding factor - that hard work and merit were. jefferson calls the people at visions “your people” - signifying how he thinks that smart individuals like his son deserve this specialized education. jefferson clearly believes in the american dream - that if you have the talent and put in the work, you can achieve greatness. he’s upset that miles doesn’t see the value in this opportunity, since not every kid would get the chance to go to such a good school. 

all of this being based around charter schools is a fantastic way to tie miles and jefferson’s viewpoints back to the real world. miles values community and uplifting everyone as a whole. his desire to attend a local public school connects to the arguments of those who don’t support charter schools. like miles, they believe that charter schools disrupt communities and take away valuable resources from them. charter schools don’t source their student population by districts - instead, they allow any student to attend (or, they allow those who win a lottery and pass an entrance exam to attend). in addition to that, the less students that attend public schools, the less funding they will receive, and the more funding the charter schools will receive, further depleting public school resources. 

jefferson, however, supports charter schools and sees them as a sort of meritocracy. he believes that individual achievement is more important than uplifting whole communities - perhaps he believes that uplifting one person will uplift the whole community. it’s especially interesting how jefferson points out and makes fun of gentrification (with his comments about the new coffee shop and how he doesn’t understand why so many people are lining up outside of it), which is ironic considering the school he’s sending his child to. 

this becomes especially interesting when we apply this conversation to miles’s transformation and initiation as spiderman. we usually see spiderman’s story as a coming of age, but when you read into the parallels of miles’s journey at visions academy, it becomes a bit more sinister.

going back to miles and jefferson’s conversation - it directly mirrors miles’s spiderman storyline. miles’s bite was “luck” - or, in this film, he believes it to be. in miles’s perspective, anyone could have been bitten by that spider, and imbued with that great power (and responsibility). 

but when he starts meeting other spider-people, they greet him in a way that i think is very telling. my their spider sense, they all know that they have the same powers. when miles meets peter parker, the first thing he says is “you’re like me.” the same thing happens when all of the spider-people meet in aunt may’s basement. “you’re like me.”

but miles isn’t like them - not yet. he experienced the luck. the chance spider-lottery. he was selected to attend visions academy.

but now he has to take the entrance exam. he has to prove his merit, earn his way in. the spider-people want him to succeed, but they don’t accept him when he fails. when miles is unable to perform the way they want him to, they leave him tied to a chair in his dorm bedroom. 

once miles proves himself to the rest of the spider people at the reactor, he feels a newfound sense of community. he’s passed the entrance exam. he feels like he’s worthy and special.

but what about visions? we see miles’s first few weeks at visions - after he’s passed his actual entrance exam, and they don’t welcome him in at all. even when he tries to talk to them after his dad drops him off, many of them brush miles off. a few even make fun of him. we can’t compare visions to spider-society if visions actively rejects miles like that, even after he’s proven his merit!

but actually, it does make sense. because in across the spiderverse, miles isn’t invited into the spider-society, despite the fact that he’s proven his merit. the way the students at visions treated miles was foreshadowing for how miles would be treated in the spider-society. that even though he had proven himself on merit, he still wasn’t welcome. he still doesn’t belong.

this is why the parallels are sinister. this is why miguel’s insistence that miles is an anomaly is so thematically important. 

miguel and spider-society believe in pre-destination. fate. maybe they call it canon, and it has to do with science instead of divinity, but it’s the same thing. they believe that everyone’s life is set out for them, and that there is no chance. that every spider-person was already destined for greatness before the spider even existed.

this belief in pre-destination is especially heinous when compared to both miles and his father’s philosophies - miles’s being that every person is capable of greatness, and that communities are paramount, and his father’s being that individuals are rewarded based on their merit and earn their greatness. miguel’s reliance on predestination reflects that of an elitist society, that believes everyone was born into the social sanction they deserved. when taken to extremes, belief exclusively in fate enforces rigid, oppressive social structures, such as caste systems and slavery. 

in modern times, such extremes don’t exist, but exclusionary social practices still do. visions academy’s students aren’t evil people that bully miles for being a lottery student, in fact, most of them ignore him. ganke lee, miles’s roommate, is a good example of this. after fighting the spot, miles asks him to call the cops. ganke refuses, stating that he’ll end up as miles’s “guy in the chair” and that he doesn’t want that. ganke sees relationships as transactions - that friendship with miles will lead to responsibilities that he’s not interested in taking on. after all, spot isn’t interested in harming him - visions academy is an insulated institution separate from the rest of nyc. the students aren’t even allowed to leave due to curfew. ganke sees no reason to interact with his community at large, because it’ll only lead to obligations to it. instead, he pursues selfish indulgences, like video games, and takes what he wants from others (wearing miles’s jordans). although ganke isn’t the one that created the system, he’s still actively participating in it by refusing to help miles, or the greater community.

this is further emphasized by miles’s guidance counselor when discussing college applications. she suggests that miles lie about his lifestyle in order to seem more appealing to college recruiters - to say that his family struggled financially and that his life was difficult growing up. the story that this woman suggests that miles portray helps reinforce what miguel believes in - that everything is predestined. a college recruiter looking at a student like miles morales would expect nothing less than a stereotype, so the counselor insists that miles should play into that stereotype if he wants to get into a good college. because any other story? well, that would be an anomaly. it wouldn’t make sense to a college recruiter, and it certainly wouldn’t illicit any sympathy. 

the counselor and miguel both are expressing something overtly racist to miles: you shouldn’t be here. miguel blames miles for getting bitten (something miles has no control over), and for disrupting a canon event (using the merit-based skills he has in order to help others). miguel not only calls miles an anomaly, but blames him for issues across spider-society. miles is the original anomaly, he’s the core issue.

if we compare this to the guidance counselor, what she’s saying becomes even more apparent. - the only reason you succeed in this society - this education system - this country -  is because we allow you to. your worth is based on your sob story, how you overcome tragedy. yes, you may have has luck. yes, maybe you even have merit, with how intelligent you are, how strong you are. but it doesn’t matter how smart or strong or lucky you are. because you aren’t one of us. 

spider-society, and by extension visions academy, are meant to represent institutions that disrupt community in our society. they may seem harmless, or even make sense in a way - you may find yourself saying “well, charter schools make sense. shouldn’t smart students receive a superior education?” but eventually, you realize the damage they really do. because if charter schools are funded like they are public schools, how are they so much better, really? why do they have newer books, and better desks, and a lower student to teacher ratio? how have they been able to maintain that over the years?

and then you realize that charter schools accept massive donations by billionaires. you realize that in order to adhere to their charters, some schools are able to expel students for poor academic performance. you realize that by requiring an entrance exam, students with academic or intellectual disabilities might be barred unjustly from these institutions, despite the fact that charter schools are required to provide special education services. but, they don’t answer to the school board, and they have to abide by their charter, so who would really be able to tell if they’re being ableist? who would be able to tell if they’re being bigoted?

there’s so much more i could talk about here, but i just want to end with this. in college, for one of my education classes, i had to watch a movie called waiting for superman. the film focused on students striving to attend charter schools in new york, highlighting failing educational infrastructure, and touting those same charter schools as a godsend. as the filmmaker states, when he was a child, he learned that superman didn’t exist. as he put it, “there is no one coming with enough power to save us.”

afterwards, we watched another film. this one was called “the inconvenient truth about waiting for superman.” it described how the first film had used bad statistics and cherrypicked ideas in order to garner support for charter schools. how those schools disrupted communities and took funds away from children who needed them. how there was no need to wait for superman. how our community public schools were right in front of us the whole time, and all we needed to do was support them instead of trying to save ourselves.

just thought the superhero motif was interesting. anyway.