#not because of my hands or my reaction time though those are definitely an issue

[rubra-wav]

how do you think Hazbin Hotel characters would react to a demon with butterfly wings?

The main Hazbin cast x Butterfly demon reader

Part 2 >

A/N: This wasn't really specific with what charas specifically, so I'm just doing the main cast. I'll do a part 2 with more characters, though, if it's wanted (sorry)

Reader's wings are written as colourful and proportionate to their body, so they are pretty big.

Realised there's a 10 image limit per post, which is bs. Isn't how i normally would have liked it to be aesthetically bc of that 👎

Cw: Sfw, slightly suggestive stuff in Angel's, reference to decapitation and cannibalism 💀, kinda a bit angsty in Angel's and Vaggie's, gn! Reader

Charlie

- Charlie would be absolutely delighted by you, no doubt about it.

- She wants nothing more than to be in a place that's vividly colourful and (assuming reader is a somewhat colourful butterfly demon) you'd be that for her.

- She also probably just really really likes butterflies in general though, let's be real.

- I can imagine her just staring at your wings with absolutely starry eyes while complimenting them.

- "They're so pretty ohhh my gosh!"

- I imagine her being lightly jealous, she'd love to have wings like a butterfly.

- Would probably ask if she can touch, and look somewhat sad when told no due to how it would cause your scales to come off. (Assuming reader's wings are the same as normal butterfly wings)

- It may get somewhat uncomfortable if you don't like attention, she would definitely fixate heavily on them. Tell her to stop though and it's making you feel weird and she will tone it down though.

- If not, though, enjoy the attention you're gonna be getting from Charlie over them.

Vaggie

- Vaggie would likely be a bit uncomfortable about seeing demons with wings in general due to her history - let alone you with beautiful, delicate ones.

- I think she'd secretly be hiding some angst and jealously about your wings ngl.

- When she sees Charlie fawning over them though oh boy.

- Yeah she's not gonna be happy about them then. She doesn't blame you or anything for how she's feeling as it's her issue and she knows that, but it still hurts quite a bit - especially in the beginning.

- It gets less and less bad though the more she gets used to it, she kind of just becomes 'meh' about it - especially if you ask Charlie to stop being so gaga about them.

- When she gets her wings back, though, I think she'd come to think they are cool. A normal level appreciation though.

- I can half see you two helping each other out with your wings down the line if you two get closer though.

- There are some things that come with upkeep so wings don't become damaged and stuff, so the people who also have wings? Allies 100%.

Angel

- I'm gonna be fr, the first time your wings come out he's probably gonna be panicked due to his baggage.

- Especially if it happens when you're angry.

- He's probably gonna need reassurance you aren't gonna try hurt him tbh.

- As sad as it is, his trauma would definitely play a part in his initial perception of them.

- After he recovers a bit and stops immediately going into fight or flight and seeing you =/= Val though, the switch up is insane.

- He would be all over you about them.

- I can imagine him calling you a bunch of butterfly related petnames.

- If you remember the 'make those wings flap' comments he made about Husk, its gonna be that on a hundred.

- Even if it's just joking flirting about them, it's gonna be constant because he thinks they are beautiful and it's a lot of material considering you're a butterfly and he's a spider.

- I feel like he would touch them at some point without really thinking and pull his hand back to see your scales have rubbed off onto his hand and go ''oh shit.''

Husk

- I don't think he'd have much of a reaction to it at all - at least not initially.

- Of course he acknowledges that they are very pretty, but he won't comment upon it much at all unlike the others.

- Possibly may make reference to it when crafting bitter statements directed towards you, though.

- Down the line, if you grow closer to him, I can see him as actually being concerned about your wings.

- They are extremely eye-catching and unique for a being in hell, and due to that, it could lead demons to actively target you

- Whether with overt aggressive intentions to take your wings and sell them, or with more covert problems like you being scouted for modelling (ie. By Velvette)

- I can see Vaggie and you trying to set up a wing maintenance group and trying to include him in it. Him being vehemently against it to a level that's almost comedic.

- You eventually convince him even though he's complaining the whole way through it. (He is lying and actually enjoys it).

Pentious

- He wouldn't like them at all in the beginning.

- They're big and bulky and get in the way of everything, including him.

- The amount of times he's accidentally fallen due to 'tripping' on your giant ass wings is greatly irritating and embarrassing to him.

- Possibly thinks you keep trying to kill him by tripping him.

- Could also see his 'hair' (idk how to properly refer to it, haha), accidentally brushing up against your wings with how expressive it is and getting your scales all over him.

- Basically, he doesn't like them because he's clumsy but will take it out on you.

- I also get the vibe he'd be jealous because of how eye-catching they are.

- In his mind, if he had wings like that, then he'd surely have been acknowledged by the Vees in some way.

- If you change your habits with your wings to be conscious of him not being able to walk normally and start getting onto better terms, though, he will likely become appreciative of them and stop being so pissy about them.

- They are very cool looking to him, and once his poor attitude wears off about them, he'll come to admit that.

Alastor

- He'd actually be somewhat weary of you in the beginning.

- It's nature's law that creatures that do not bother to hide themselves are not to be messed with - especially in a place like hell of all places.

- When he sees that you just happen to be particularly colourful, he drops that, though.

- He'd honestly probably be thinking of what it would be like to eat a demon like you after confirming you are, in fact, not poisonous or dangerous at all.

- He doesn't much care all that much for the intrinsic beauty of things as long as they aren't utterly ugly, and as long as they aren't obnoxious and in your face.

- Depending on how bright and vibrant they are and how much attention you bring to them, he may actually dislike them.

- If not, though, he acknowledges they are nice to look at, but again, doesn't really care about them outside of theorising how they would be to eat.

- Would probably make comments about how he could "just eat your wings up," or ask you about how you taste just to try to freak you out.

Niffty

- When she sees them, her eyes grow wide in a mixture of surprise and awe. At the exact same time, an unhinged smirk spreads across her face.

- She then proceeds to leap at you, scissors or whatever sharp object is closest to her raised at your wings.

- She'd be absolutely trying to take a piece out of them for her 'collection' 💀

- You're gonna need medical attention after she's done with you because she's hellbent.

- Her obsessiveness over your wings would vary depending on your gender but either way, she'd be trying to get a piece of them for herself.

- Definitely abnormal level of appreciation of them in the absolute worst way.

- If you can get her to stop instantly trying to cut off parts of them, she's still constantly trying to touch them. You need to complain about your scales every damn time she tries to reach out to touch it without fail.

- it's like your wings are a beacon, and she's the insect gunning for it ironically.

[cher-rei]

afterglow- pt 10 [ T.A.A ]

pairings: trent alexander arnold x fem!reader

summary: young and aspiring marketing and business major jamie carter (you) is privileged with working alongside the liverpool marketing and public relations team while also getting entangled with their star player and right back, trent alexander arnold.

genre(s): friends to lovers, fluff, slowish?? burn

[w.c: 5.6k] [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7] [paet 8] [part 9] [part 11] [part 12]

notes: another reallllllyyy lengthy chapter

it was still 0-0 at half time despite the amount of action that has taken place. arsenal had 13 shots on target but none of them hit the back of the net which was insane. and you guys a good few opportunities as well but none of them were good enough unfortunately.

so as the half-time whistle blew, jurgen was already halfway down the tunnel and darting for the dressing room as usual. you stood with your hands on your hips as you watched the boys come off the pitch, heaving and frustrated. you pat jarrel lightly on the shoulder and shot him a small smile.

"are you okay bud?"

he let out a breath and nodded, accounting for the small fall on his ankle earlier. it had you worried but he managed to get up again and played on without any issues.

when everyone was finally in for the break, you gestured to clara that you were heading up to the booth to check on the media team who were handling the team's social platforms. just as you entered the corridor, your phone buzzed in your pocket, and funny enough, it was from laura— one of the team members in charge of monitoring the media feedback.

"yep, I'm on my way," you answered and continued up the flight of stairs, ending the call soon after as you entered the room where the team's staff was set up.

"feedback is looking great," laura said and spun around in her chair to look at you, her hand gesturing to her laptop screen that had the twitter feed open.

you leant over her and scanned through the hashtags. it was better than you expected, but unfortunately for arsenal it was the opposite. but a part of you couldn't help but be slightly rejoiced, and it definitely had to do with the fact that michael and kelly were here.

when you made eye contact with him earlier you tried your best not to show any reaction despite the bitter taste on your tongue. you wondered if he knew that you were going to be here, and if he came just to spite you. but you pushed those thoughts aside, and tried to focus on literally anything else.

your main issue at the moment— trent coming over to your apartment. that didn't seem to calm your mind either, instead, it filled you with more anxiety because you didn't know what you two were going to do.

clara suggested that you watch a movie and chill, and though it seemed like a great idea you didn't know which movie to watch. what if your taste in movies was completely different to his? heck, what if he didn't watch movies at all??

the anxiety settled in your stomach and you needed fresh air. "thanks for the updates laura. do me a favour and get an idea of who they're interviewing after the match besides trent."

laura gave you a thumbs up. "yes ma'am." and you were off again, just in time for the second half to begin. you were practically rushing through the corridors, funny enough to meet both teams lining up halfway, chatting among themselves.

you were greeted with a few polite "hello"s and waves from the home side to which you returned, as opposed to the visitors of today's match who were yelling at you for completely different reasons.

"jamie!" your attention was caught midway by curtis and as much as you wanted to leave him hanging just for the fun of it, you gave in.

"hello to you too," you greeted sarcastically and he faked a laugh.

"I need your help with the interviews. not today, I can't answer those questions today," he pleaded desperately and you nodded, telling him that you were already on it.

just as you were about to leave again, you were pulled back by someone else. only this time, you didn't mind. you happily obliged and turned to look at trent, struggling to breathe a bit. you've told clara this before, but him in the purple away kit had you on your knees.

maybe it was the lighting, but he looked breathtaking.

he smiled at you softly. "are you okay?" he asked loud enough so that only you could hear. the question was strange but you nodded regardless, and asked why he was wondering.

"you kept on looking over your shoulder," he said and your stomach dropped. "and you looked stressed."

there was a genuine look in his eyes and you wanted to tell him everything, mentally cursing yourself for feeling this vulnerable with someone who probably couldn't care less. but you swallowed your pride and gave him some explanation.

"michael's here," you whispered. trent was taken back by your answer and suddenly he stood up straight with his eyes wide in shock.

"he's here now? is he alone?"

you tried to shush trent but that got the rest of the team's attention, and if it was one thing that you knew then it was that they were one nosy group of men. trent flashed an apologetic smile as the others leant over to hear what you were talking about.

"who's here?" dom asked with a cheeky grin and trent nudged his arm, only for a few more questions to be thrown into the air in the middle of the tunnel with seconds until the second half began.

you managed to break free from the huddle, and apologised despite their pleas for an answer. "you guys should be focusing on the match you know? good luck!"

the group of men watched as you left, annoyed groans leaving their mouths as they got ready to leave, only to earn them a few very confused looks from the arsenal squad who watched the entire interaction.

joe took the liberty and chucked awkwardly. "we love her around here."

harvey was quick to interject, "who's we?"

"how has no one scored yet?" it's jota who spoke up at the 50' minute, reflecting everyone else's thoughts as they watched from the side. the ball would just not go in. no matter how well the passes were made, no matter how far into the penalty box they were— the ball was in a mood today.

it's not long after his comment that jurgen told jota to start warming up, and the squad member happily obliged with a muffled "finally" that made you and clara laugh.

not much happened after that, other than even more frustration and missed opportunities to score for both sides. everyone began to grow agitated, and you couldn't blame them. you got up from your seat for a bit, just to loosen up some tension.

jurgen stood just centimetres from the touchline as usual, his arms crossed with a snarky grin on his face. he waved you over, and you knew what was coming. if there was one thing that this man could do, then it was complain and rant. but you didn't mind, because you just so happened to be a professional in both of those departments.

he went on for a bit and you agreed with him, and suggested that maybe some changes would do good. just to flip the dynamic a bit, seeing as they were getting nowhere. jurgen nodded, looking down at his watch now that arteta was making his substitutions.

funny enough harvey had just gotten booked for dissent, and that pretty much summed up everyone's frustration. you felt a light pat on your shoulder. "get the kids ready for harvey and curtis."

you left without any hesitation while jurgen went over to talk to pep about something. there was a smile on your face as you called on conor and bobby who were watching the match eagerly, their eyes lighting up in disbelief when you told them to warm up.

the board went up and you wished them luck but there was a sly smirk on your face as harvey and curtis came to sit down. "calm down tiny." harvey stopped to look at you with a hardened expression. "I can see the fumes coming from your ears."

the rest of the bench found your comment quite funny but that prompted harvey to throw his water bottle at you, but suddenly you jolted in your seat at the roaring sound of the away fans. in frantic you turned to the pitch, only to see that arsenal scored an own goal thanks to trent's free kick.

the stadium was alive again, the supporters began to sing and chant again and you were filled with hope that arsenal wouldn't equalise. 88' minute rolled around and you were sitting back in your seat, chatting with clara while your eyes subconsciously followed trent until you caught something.

not sure if you were being paranoid or not you leant forward in your seat to get a look. he did have a fall a few minutes earlier and even got booked for the tackle but it didn't seem that serious. "he's limping."

"who? trent?" clara asked, slightly confused but you remained silent. you watched as he went behind the goal line to grab the ball for a throw in, a slight hop in his step that had him scrunching his face in pain.

nobody else noticed the way that he bit his jersey to contain the pain, the captains armband holding much weight for him at that moment but he carried on. you made an appeal to pep, bringing his attention to the right back who was clearly not okay.

it was rolling into the 4 minutes of added time but you were extremely uneasy. yeah sure you had feelings for him and you were aware of them, but this amount of worry was a little weird. there was seconds left on the clock and lucho managed to score the winner, but you weren't able to rejoice.

the full-time whistle finally blew and the players stood on the pitch for a bit as usual but the minute to saw trent alone, you waved him over and walked with him to the dressing room.

"a normal person would've asked for help if they felt that they were hurt you know?" you said and hooked your arm into his for stability, just in case.

trent let out a scoff, fighting back the pain shooting through his leg. "there was 5 minutes left so it didn't matter. and," he looked pat the captain's armband. "I had a role to play."

there wasn't any point in arguing with him, so you just rolled your eyes. "okay, captain fantastic."

when you got to the dressing room, he sat down with a heaved sigh and just in time, the medics arrived. they couldn't do much at that moment but it was bad enough that he had a physio assessment the following day. the medics left shortly after, and you stood in the middle of the dressing room with a look of pure fear.

a smile tugged at trent's lips as he watched you, not being able to help that he found your concern for him endearing. "you're more stressed out than I am. and I'm the one that's injured."

that didn't help you at all. just the mention of an injury made you upset. there was a moment of silence before he spoke up again, leaning his head back onto the locker. "so what are we doing tomorrow?"

we??

you shook your head at the question. "no there's no we. there's only you, who's going to go home and rest because you need it."

"I can just rest at your house though?" he shrugged his shoulders, clearly not understanding the depth of the situation and his potential injury.

you seriously tried to fight him off, urging him to go home and rest, and that you'd pick up your hangout another time. unfortunately for you, this man was stubborn beyond comprehension. he would not back down without a fight and insisted that he needed the distraction anyway.

when you finally gave in, he was more than happy, which left you slightly annoyed. but at least that meant that he actually enjoyed your company so it was a win win situation... kind of.

when you were done wrapping up your work and bidding everyone goodbye, you took a stroll to your car with clara, who was conveniently parked next to you. of course, the first thing she asked about was if trent was still coming over, to which you nodded with an eye roll.

it was safe to say that she was more excited about tomorrow than you were. at least you had some time to prepare because trent still had to go home and freshen up. you offered to drive him but he said that his brother would probably drop him off since he couldn't drive.

all of that was extremely convenient, but there was still a small amount of fight in you that told him to cancel and rest at home. which didn't make a difference at all, but there was no harm in trying.

"yeah and then we're going to..."

clara trailed off with her sentence, her lips parting at the sight in front of your car. your breath hitched at the sight of michael with his hands in his pockets, his attention focused on the floor.

shit.

kelly was nowhere to be seen so you assumed that he told her to wait in the car or something. there wasn't much you could do since he was in front of your car, so you took the last few steps and he lifted his head to look at you.

he straightened his posture and took a quick glance at clara who was staring daggers at him which made him visibly uncomfortable. you pursed your lips to stop a laugh from escaping and gave a light squeeze to clara's hand, indicating that you'd be okay.

she wasn't too keen on leaving at first and pulled you in for a quick hug. "call me when you get to the hotel okay? drive safe."

"you too, angel." you waved her off, watching as she safely excited the parking lot.

the second she was out of sight, michael cleared his throat and took the liberty of taking a step closer. you swallowed the lump in your throat and tilted your head at him, urging for him to speak.

he licked his lips and cleared his throat. "this brings back memories, how ironic." there was an awkward smile on his face and it took a moment for you to realise that he was talking about your outfit.

you looked down at your liverpool jersey and back to his arsenal jersey with a bitter taste in your mouth. nothing came from it though, and you stayed silent. you didn't see any reason for you to respond, having more important things to do.

"I uh..." michael rubbed the nape of his neck. "I wanted to say hi since it's been a while. how are you?"

is he being serious right now?

the chill of the evening air was starting to pick up, a few goosebumps rising on your arms. "I'm great." you crossed your arms for some warmth. "how are you--" your nose scrunched, an irritated smile tugging at your lips. "--and kelly?"

a flash of hurt struck across his face and you relished in it. what gave him the nerve to talk to you after everything? that was the question plaguing your mind at the moment, you weren't even mad— you were just really irritated.

it took him a moment to come back from that but he simply nodded. "we're okay. I don't think she knows you're here by the way an--"

you sighed and checked your watch for the time. "yeah, let's keep it that way." it was nearly 9 and you had to get home. "michael, can we please speed this up, I need to leave."

"oh?"

you narrowed your eyes at his answer and it was clear to him that he wasn't going to get the light of day, definitely not from you. "I mean, yeah, sure," he hurriedly corrected himself, putting out his hand but quickly retracing it.

he noticed that you were growing impatient, and checked over his shoulder for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry jamie."

you were barely listening, and instead began fishing for your car keys from your handbag, not wasting a second to move him out of the way and unlock the door. "aw, good for you buddy."

your answer caught him off guard. this wasn't how this interaction was supposed to go apparently but you couldn't care less. it was water under the bridge and you didn't have the energy to worry about it, but clearly he thought otherwise.

just as you were about to get into the driver's seat, michael put his hand on the door to stop you. your eyes shut in annoyance, and you had no choice but to look at him and the pitiful look on his face.

"michael, what do you want from me?" you asked, the anger slipping out in your tone. "it's been a year, we've both moved on and there's nothing we can do. so why are you talking to me right now, please enlighten me?" there was some mock in your voice because the situation was genuinely amusing.

"I'm here to apologise, and you're not listening to me," he answered in offence but you only rolled your eyes.

"I don't need an apology." you moved his hand away from the door. "I need to get to the hotel because my bus leaves in 40 minutes."

"jamie!" he raised his voice this time but you weren't fazed, only reflecting his energy.

"what michael!?"

he ran a hand through hid hair in frustration. "I'm trying to be decent and set things straight and you're acting childish."

"no, what you're being," you dropped your bag in the passenger seat and glared at him. "is an inconvenience. I don't want you to apologise because you were supposed to do that before I fucking left london."

of course, his apology wouldn't have made a difference back then and you still would've left but at least it would've been something. but you moved on, you got your life together and buried that part of you.

the emptiness of the parking lot echoed its silence as you stared at each other. your eyes filled with hatred and his with something you couldn't care less about. the moment was thankfully interrupted by the sound of a woman calling his name, and for the first time in a while you couldn't have been happier to see kelly.

"babe, hurry up we need to get home."

a smile crept to your face and you waved to kelly who was approaching, watching as she stopped dead in her tracks. "your girlfriend is calling you and I need to leave."

you shut the car door in his face and drove without looking back. this was your last goodbye to whatever part of you was left in london and you intended to keep it there.

when you got home a little after 12, you didn't say a word. even on the bus you sat in silence with clara holding your hand the entire ride. her understanding was seriously appreciated and that was all you needed, some emotional support.

sure, you didn't sleep as well as you usually would but when you woke up you were back to normal. the surprise encounter was water under the bridge once again and you had no reason to think about it. for your off day however, there wasn't much to do except having trent over.

he had his physio assessment earlier that day so he'd be over after 3 which gave you enough time to prepare. there wasn't much on his injury yet but it was practically confirmed that he'd be missing his match against fulham on tuesday, which he was immensely upset about of course.

so that was your plan today. to help him relax and distract him from the setback. since he couldn't walk, you set up a few things you could do at your apartment which was ideally your ideal idea of a date. not that this was a date! it was just a friendly hangout and nothing more.

anyway, you'd start the afternoon with an icebreaker. not just any icebreaker though, no you'd be building a puzzle. although it might've seemed strange, but just as you told clara, "trust the process." your friend wasn't too convinced by your answer but she went with it nonetheless.

after that, you'd have a few movies lined up. (5 of your best recommendations) after the movie and lunch you'd head to the kitchen for a little baking activity. and to wrap the evening up, you'd play a few games and just hang out.

it was perfect.

and by the time you were done with most of the setup, there was still enough time for you to make a quick stop. it was the christmas present that you'd gotten for yourself a while ago, but you were only allowed to pick it up today.

the drive to the shelter was a quick one, your excitement and eagerness for the long-awaited present pumping your adrenaline. you don't even remember properly stopping the car before you were at the reception and signing in.

you were led to a room on the far end of the building, where a litter of puppies were happily wandering and playing with each other. your heart nearly exploded in your chest, and you carefully stepped into the pen to tend to them.

"unfortunately their mum didn't make it, so I'm glad that we're able to find at least one of these babies a home," the employee who helped you said with a lopsided smile.

they were the most previous litter of golden retrievers you'd ever seen, and you couldn't have been more grateful that your complex allowed pets.

in no time you chose one of the pups, and were at the reception once again to finish up some paperwork. she fit perfectly in your arms and not to be emotional but you felt like crying.

everything was already back at your apartment— her toys, her food and water bowl and her bed. it was just a matter of finally welcoming her home, which wasn't much of a problem.

"come here bubba, " you called with a smile as you sat on your living room carpet. the golden retriever was a but hesitant sr first, tilting her head to the side before slowly approaching you until she took refuge in your lap.

your heart swelled in your chest and you pet her gently and took a picture for your instagram story.

spamjam._. added to their story

it wasn't long after you uploaded your story that your doorbell rang. honey, who wasn't familiar with the sound jumped up in fright which caused you to laugh. you picked her up, cradled her in your arms and opened the door.

on the other side, stood trent with his hands in his pockets. he flashed a smile, one that had your breath hitching but you managed to compose yourself and let him in.

"and who's this angel?" he asked and bent down to look at honey, who was more than eager to accept his ruffling of her fur.

you watched with a smile as he interacted with honey, taking her in his arms and baby-talking her. it was genuinely the most heartwarming experience, seeing him be so gentle and bashful with your puppy.

"this is my baby and the new addition to my family," you answered and sat beside him on your couch enough space between the two of you for the puppy. "she's a little christmas present from myself."

"well she's absolutely gorgeous," trent complimented and kissed the side of her head. he lifted honey in the air to get a better look and took a quick glance at you, the smile on his face not faltering. "you definitely take after your mother."

your heart stopped for a moment, unsure if you heard him correctly or if you misunderstood what he said. when he saw how you froze trent was quick to interject with a teasing scoff. "I'm sure you're used to compliments by now. unless mine just make you flustered?" his eyebrows raised with a cheeky grin.

all you did was roll your eyes to hide the fact that you were flustered. by now it was obvious that he knew that you had feelings for him, and some part of you felt that he felt the same way. so if this hangout went well, then you were on the right track.

after a few more minutes of chatting and getting comfortable, you started the first part of your dat-- hangout! the puzzle wasn't anything too crazy, just a picture of some aesthetic scenery. you'd been meaning to put it together for a while now, but there was never time.

you set it down on the coffee table along with some snacks. both you and trent took your seats on the carpet, side by side, but you made sure that he was comfortable. he had a knee brace on at the moment and was still limping.

the conversation between the two of you picked up quicker than before, there was no tension in the air or the need to hold back on saying something. everything just felt so free and light. there wasn't a moment where either of you wasn't laughing or bickering with each other, and that made it all the more fun.

the conversation sprung from topic to topic with ease. at some point it got to your family dynamics and the relationships between your parents and your siblings. you asked about how it felt to be the middle child, and why he was the only one of his two brothers that pursued his football career.

"I mean tyler is my manager now so he's still kind of in it, does that make sense?" he asked, more to himself than you and you nodded. "and marcel..." he paused and looked up for a moment, not knowing what to say. "he's just marcel. you know how younger siblings are."

a scoff left your lips as you scavenged across the array of puzzle pieces in front of you until you found one that might fit. "I am the younger sibling. unless alex counts then all the knowledge I have is from the word of mouth."

"yeah, you're privileged. younger siblings are such a pain."

it took him a while to realise what he said, and by the time he turned to apologise, you were already glaring at him. in an attempt to fix the situation, he held his hands up in surrender. "every younger sibling except you of course."

your eyebrows quirked. "uh huh? and why's that?"

trent's lips tugged up and he eased back down at the sound of your teasing tone. his eyes flickered between your lips and your eyes for a moment, but not long enough for you to realise. "because you're just the sweetest person ever. genuinely such a pleasure to be around, with all your screaming and laughing--" he put his hand on your shoulder. "--and not to mention your constant complaining."

your lips parted at the way he was mocking you. "oh, that's how it is?" you slapped his hand from your shoulder but he continued to ramble on jokingly, despite your protest.

"but I'd listen to you complain and scream any day, trust me."

your nose scrunched at his answer. "and the laughing?"

it felt like the space between the two of you had decreased a significant amount because your knee was touching his thigh. his doe eyes caught yours for a moment and you reminded yourself not to do anything rash.

"it's like music to my ears," trent answered in a mote gentle tone. and once again, you couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.

the moment was interrupted by honey barking, probably because she was hungry. you cleared your throat and got up to tend to your puppy and trent's eyes remained fixed on every movement. the way that you gently cradled honey and spoke to her, the way that you tucked a strand of her behind your ear— the strand that always seemed to bother you.

it was all so miniscule but he couldn't look away or ignore it. not when there was a reoccurring tightening in his chest whenever you were near him.

after more than an hour, you had finished about half of the puzzle and it was time to eat and watch one of the movies you'd picked out. now usually you'd just order a pizza or some sushi, but for some reason you felt like cooking for the occasion.

you plated the fettuccine alfredo and got your drinks out. it wasn't too dark outside yet so you left the lights on and got comfortable on the couch with the remote in your hand.

"okay, so I have no idea what you're into," you sighed truthfully and held up your finger. "but I have movies that everyone should like."

"and if I don't like them?"

you shrugged at his answer. "then consider our friendship over."

"jamie, that's just unfair," trent protested and turned to look at you but you weren't paying attention and settled on a movie.

you sat back and got comfortable, waiting for the movie to start. the familiar soundtrack sounded through the living room which caused trent to stop eating immediately.

"are we watching karate kid?"

when you looked at him you had to bite back a laugh and simply nodded. "It's one of my favourite movies. play it at funeral."

it was about 15 minutes into the movie when you both finished eating, and you were quick to take your dishes in while trent went to the bathroom. you washed the two plates and left them on the drying rack and quickly got back to the lounge.

trent was already huddled comfortably beneath the blanket with his legs spread out in front of him on his side of the L-shaped couch. the lights we all off now except for the t.v, and you couldn't explain a more relaxing feeling.

"come here, my angel," you said sweetly and placed honey on your lap.

after a bit, you felt the need to stretch your legs since they had been crossed for so long. the only issue was that trent was there, and if you put your legs on the couch, it would stretch over his lap.

for a few minutes, you mentally debated with yourself and endured the sharp pains shooting through your calves. trent must've noticed, you're not sure how, but he just did.

he caught your attention by tapping his lap lightly, giving you a look that said "I can see that you're dying". you declined of course and as usual, it was a back-and-forth about your comfortabity.

he won though. but it was by force. he literally leant over and grabbed your legs and put them across his lap, shushing you whenever you wanted to say something.

it was difficult to pay attention to the movie, seeing as all you could concentrate on was the feeling of his fingers trailing along your shins. you felt yourself drifting off to sleep at how comfortable you were, but you fought it off.

instead, you both basked in the atmosphere and the other's company. even if it was silent for most of the movie, the presence of each other made a significant difference. even if your feelings for each other were up in the air at the moment, something was bound to happen.

"we should do this more often."

you perked up at his sudden retort, and unbeknownst smile crept onto your lips. "just say the word and I'll work something out."

there was a beat of silence.

"word."

you rolled your eyes with a hearty laugh. "oh wow, you're hilarious."

the evening continued and came to an end quicker than you liked. you could hear in trent's voice that he wasn't too happy about it either, glaring at the text from his brother saying that he was outside.

you didn't know how to say goodbye. were you supposed to just wave? were you on hugging terms? like you said earlier, it was all up in the air. just floating around.

you stood awkwardly at the front door and bid him goodbye. and just when you expected him to then around and leave, he pulled you in for a hug and placed a gentle but quick kiss on your cheek.

and when you finally processed it. he was gone, leaving you alone in your doorway with a pounding heart and a feeling of slight emptiness.

trentarnold66

liked by liverpoolfc and 4 453 223 others

trentarnold66 best way to fix my leg 🥱 [tagged: spamjam._.]

view all comments below

spamjam._. your welcome 🙄

→ trentarnold66 I can hear you smiling

→ spamjam._. bro get a life [liked by trentarnold66]

user uhm what is going on in the house of commons???

user the math isn't mathing, but at the same time it is???

clarashaw someone stole my bitch 🥲 [liked by trentarnold66]

szoboszlaidominik 😟💔 [liked by trentarnold66]

judebellingham when my two worlds collide but I'm in another country 😃 [liked by trentarnold66]

→ spamjam._. tell jobe to change the netflix password back

→ jobebellingham I didn't change the password ?? 😭

→ spamjam._. @judebellingham kys.

→ judebellingham tehe 🤭

user WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THESE COMMENTS???

user this is the first time this man has posted in months and ya'll are worried about the comments 😭

user are they a thing??

→ user nah they're just friends, there's been rumours about trent and some other girl. iris I think?

[ingravinoveritas]

What do you make of David sayin he’s an ally, not an active participant (in queer subcultures)?

Did he come out as straight? I’m not sure anyone has ever asked him directly, not that he needs to give any explanations, I’m just curious because he gives off such a queer vibe even when he’s been married forever.

https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/david-tennant-on-the-spice-girls-spiceworld-movie-was-being-developed-before-they-even-released-a-single-459815/

Oh, my Asks/DMs have been blowing up over this one. I did have a chance to read this interview with David (is it me, or is he doing nonstop press lately?) and...wow. Definitely enjoyable, and noticeably more unhinged/queer than most of his other interviews (which makes sense, given that Attitude is an LGBTQ-focused publication). But let's get a screenshot up of the most talked about bit, so we can discuss:

Obviously there is a lot going on here, so I'm just going to go with what stood out to me most. I don't think there is anything in the world less surprising than David naming bears first, given certain preferences of his (which I've discussed several times previously on my blog).

What's really interesting though is that the question was asking about queer subcultures, but all of the ones David listed are used primarily (AFAIK, though someone please do correct me if I am wrong) in mlm/gay male relationships. "Queer" can be many things, after all--gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, ace--and yet when David heard "queer subcultures" he specifically went for the mlm/gay ones, and that definitely feels like an interesting choice.

The second thing that I felt was worth discussing is that a lot of the reactions I've seen to this is people saying how adorably clueless David is, or how "he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit." And I'm sort of perplexed by this because we are talking about an almost 53-year-old man here, and I believe he knows damn well what all of those terms/subcultures are.

It's been brought to my attention (from what I would consider a very trustworthy source) that David is not at all as technologically illiterate as he pretends to be. Instead, it's actually part of a persona that he puts on to avoid dealing with issues that would arise from people knowing he is online. I had an inkling of this just from Georgia saying David was the one who set up all the equipment for when they filmed Staged at home (because why would such a task be put in the hands of someone who is hopeless with technology?). But having this confirmed also aligns with David creating a fake personal assistant in the early days of his career so he wouldn't have to fulfill certain social obligations, and to put a barrier between his real self and the world.

So why, then, wouldn't the same pattern possibly apply here?

I know there also tends to be this image of David as a "bumbling, goofy dad" type, and that's definitely part of him and what makes him so charming. But I don't think he is a fool, either--especially not after listening to him talk about Shakespeare or politics or anything else at length--and I think he certainly knows how to answer these types of questions. I think David is more than clever enough to give answers that are cheeky but not revealing, because he knows the purpose of all this is to promote the BAFTAs, not to be a deep, probing exposé on the life and times of David Tennant.

Which then brings me to the big, gay elephant standing in the middle of the room--a.k.a., "I'm an ally rather than an active participant." (Again...so many interesting word choices going on here, and none of it feels like an accident.)

Going back to what I mentioned about the focus of these interviews, I'd like to point out one notable thing that David himself said in the Radio Times interview earlier this week:

This, I think, sums up what we are seeing in all of these interviews: The version of David that he feels is safe to present to the world. He makes it clear as well that he is not going to reveal areas of his personal life while up on stage, and I would say that the same thing applies to these interviews. (It also speaks volumes that in the year 2024, the version of himself he feels safe presenting in these interviews is one who fully knows what bears and twinks--sorry, twinkies--are.)

So no, I don't think David is coming out as straight. I don't think he's coming out as anything, in fact, because he knows these interviews are not the place for that to happen. And I think that saying he is an ally but not an active participant makes the most sense as an answer for a public interview, but neither that nor being in a straight-passing relationship necessarily makes him any less potentially queer.

To reiterate what I said above, there is no one way to be queer. For some people, being queer absolutely can mean going to leather bars and participating in subcultures. But for other people, "queer" can mean something very different. It can mean being a Kinsey 2 just floating along doing your thing until you meet that one person who changes everything. The person who makes you go, "I've usually been more into this and not as much into this...but I'm definitely into you." It can mean being attracted to/falling for someone--a co-star, maybe?--that you never expected to feel that way about. And if David is queer, maybe that also means not shying away from anything, but at the same time not wanting to take the spotlight off the awards and the nominees celebrating one of the most important nights of their lives.

Those are my thoughts on the Attitude interview and David's answers, at any rate. Happy as always to hear from my followers with your takes. Thank you for writing in! x

[esggs]

analysing the martials arts of Jujutsu Kaisen - Karate

Suguru Geto

watching him fight makes my mouth water. every move is so perfect, so textbook, so nerdy almost. he STUDIED pure Shotokan karate. when he punches its the right target from the right distance at the right power at the right speed i wanna melt. the ease with which he shifts from blocking to grappling to close handed strikes. the scene of his beating up the old man in hidden inventory is pure orgasmic karate perfection.

he's super confident when he fights. he puts power in his punches (just the prescribed textbook amount). princess doesn't even tie his magnificent hair up (???).

he's very consistently aggressive. unlike karate, he has the boxing spirit where there's no gap between attacks, no hit-and-run. his attacks end when the opponent does.

god his stances, im drowning its so perfect. when panda is tossing his around in jjk 0 he's alwasy landing in the correct kumite postion, feet parallel and shoulder distance apart, knees only slightly bent.

usage of weaponry is uncommon in karate, but he's adept at it. the Playful Cloud, sanjigun (three sectioned staff) is an insane weapon tbh. if u look at it as a more complex nanchaku (which was my first reaction and mostly how todo uses it) its not that useful, as explained very well here. geto uses it more like a super flexible staff, which is really innovative and gets better use out of it as both a defensive and offensive weapon. but the one person who defo uses Playful Cloud best is Toji.

if i have to summarize, i'd say he fights cleanly. he knows he has both the height and weight advantage on yuta and uses both as full body strikes from "above". plus he's surprisingly flexible even in those flowy ass robes. he knows what works for him, he's done it for a longgg time (those reflexes take years to come) and he does it well. he keeps it short-range. he's a monster in combat.

surprisingly he's not particularly using any grappling techniques, even though he that would give him an easy edge over yuta. maybe yuta's hard to grapple, maybe gege akutami didn't think of it.

if i had to point out any flaws, i'd say he doesn't bend his lower back and hips enough to break falls. its a very minor complaint tho, he's delicious as a martial artist. a big issue is that he clearly doesn't lose much and hence doesn't know when to stop and change strategies. like, his fighting is on reflex, not because he's thinking thru each of his moves. but ig that's more of a personality flaw than a combat issue.

Noritoshi Kamo

it's very funny, he uses an old-fashioned traditional style in a very spunky rebellious way. definitely karate based on the prominence of upper body strikes over kicks, the open handed strikes and punches and that definitive teisho-uchi (palm heel strike). Even though Shotokan karate is more popular, he's practising the Shitorio style. we can tell cuz his stances are more upright, the way he prefers to hit fewer strikes with more powers than bombard his opponent with many strikes of lesser power, and his constantly-changing-his-base-position footwork.

when striking, he uses exclusively 'hard' techniques, as in he's sparring earthbender style, not airbender style. he's going for full frontal attacks and he's putting a shit ton of power behind them, which means he either doesn't expect to get blocked or he's not expecting the opponent's block to be very effective. (if u hit proper fucking hard with no gloves and get blocked hard ur hands will hurt like hell and uv wasted all the power and movement).

however, in general he does use a lot of "soft techniques" otherwise, grabbing megumi's tonfas away mid fight. he also just dodges attacks, only using blocks to create an opening for him to attack. irl, most combat happens in very short range so blocking is easier to dodging. but kamo fights mostly long distance, very typical karate hit-and-run type technique, where u do a few attacks and immeditealy create distance. a good technique considering his tall height. this is also why i think its Shitorio karate instead of kyokushin (which is tougher and keep-hitting-them style and lots of shin kicks).

there's no flashy moves like toji or even geto or yuji. kamo uses the most basic and actually practical moves. even though his strength is a given with Flowing Red Scale enhancing him, by the way he shifts his weight, you can tell that he knows how to turn his speed into momentum to create a shit ton of force. I wouldn't like to get punched by him.

as i mentioned, he's using orthodox styles in his own way. his stances aren't textbook correct, like geto, he's just doing what feels stable to him at the moment. he twists his palm heel strike unlike the common finger-up version. he doesn't move his eye before his head, he turns his whole damn head fully. he's sort of going with the flow, a bit too loosely for a traditionalist.

what confuses me is that he's not using himself to the fullest. at 5'10, he's taller than most people, so why not 1. attack from "above" such as overhead and on-shoulder strikes and 2. fucking use your damn kicks man. specially 'kick down'- the kicks that start above the opponents head and end up pushing them to the ground.

in the anime fight, he's deliberately trying his best to not hurt megumi. the entire fight is really short, but he's doing his best to just disarm and not to injure even a little. he's taller and megumi's head is wide open. the heavy tonfas by his side that makes it harder for megumi to block his face than torso... kamo literally punch his face. im dying here tbh. kamo punch his head. even if he blocks his face ull get a second where his eyesight is completely blocked and that's all u need to hit him in the kidneys or spleen. bam fight over. but noooo he's hitting him in the middle of the chest (twice! vary ur target positions to keep the element of surprise!) like what r u doing my man. it's like he want his attacks to be blocked. he fights like he's only 80% committed to it. i'd call him confused but very very talented.

[petvampire]

Idk if you're still taking prompts but if you are I'd love to see some primal play with the cat king and Charles. I need to catch up on your tarot fic btw I adore it but I'm like three chapters behind lol

I’m so sorry this one took so long, it’s definitely been simmering in my head a while and just needed a spark! Also hope you’ve caught up, and hope you enjoyed. 💖

Cat King/Charles primal play. NSFW.

~

Charles is a city boy; he’s not much at home in woods and forests, but he still moves through them easily, trusting his ghostly nature and his instincts to guide him. It’s rare he even has reason to be out somewhere like this. Especially without Edwin. Especially when they’re not on a case.

Tonight, he’s here because of an invitation he couldn’t resist.

He and the Cat King have sorted out most of their issues, the serious ones at any rate, though they still tend to disagree on things and needle each other seemingly just for the fun of it. It keeps an interesting heat between them, and they’ve found a number of… entertaining ways to play with that. Thomas is always one to nudge his lovers into new experiences, and despite his initial hesitation, Charles has found that going along with it ends up really well for him most of the time.

So yeah. He’s here because of Thomas, really; because the other suggested he needed to blow off steam in a way that he isn’t quite willing to with Edwin or Monty. He’s still careful with both of them, after a fashion. Charles, though… Charles has always been a fighter. And he can take whatever the Cat King can dish out.

That’s the assumption, anyway.

All right, it’s still a bit odd, being out in the woods knowing he’s being tracked by something animal and supernatural. Usually the things hunting him aren’t so clear in their intentions. It gives him a bit of a leg up, or so he thinks.

He always tends to forget that the Cat King doesn’t play fair.

There’s not the usual burst of violet fire or the subtle chorus of cat’s meows. A sleek, dark figure rushes from the shadows, and Charles has to admit he’s caught totally off guard. If someone had been trying to hurt him, he’d have been utterly screwed.

As it is, the glancing scrape of cat’s claws against his back is so light it’s nearly ticklish rather than painful. Just enough to make him aware of the other’s presence. He braces himself, turns and settles into a fighting stance, hands up. He doesn’t have his cricket bat, of course, because this isn’t really a fight.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous, though.

Hands are on him before he can think, the weight of a body bearing him down to the ground. He strikes out without thinking, and hears a husky chuckle in return as calloused hands block his strikes, pin him to the ground. He can see the gleam of golden eyes, the faintest flash of a fanged smile. “Not good enough, ghostie.”

It makes a flash of heat roll through Charles, makes him lash out in earnest. He gets one good strike to center mass, earning a rough grunt from the Cat King, but he catches the other, harshly pinning the offending hand against the soil. The hiss that rises on his lips is more animal than human as his other hand wraps around Charles’ fist, with pressure tight enough to hurt if he wanted to. It’s a warning, a threat.

And yeah; usually, he would fight back until his last undying breath. But with these hands on him, these claws pricking at his flesh, he folds, giving in with a slow exhale, tilting his chin up to expose his throat.

A familiar face floats above his own, but there is something foreign in those golden eyes, a distant, wild note that he has never seen before. It sends an honest shiver down his spine, and he sees the Cat King grin at the reaction from his trapped prey. He’s never felt so vulnerable before, not even a few steps away from Death herself. He feels raw and exposed, every inch of his flesh suddenly so fragile.

Thomas bends his head, sharp teeth scraping over the delicate skin of his neck, and Charles whimpers.

He’s prey, he realizes. He’s a mouse in a trap, at best. Because the Cat King has him, well and truly, and he won’t let him go.

And fuck if that doesn’t send a spike of unexpected arousal through him.

A clawed hand traces down his chest, shredding fabric in its wake, and he can’t do anything but shudder at the delicate brush as those claws touch skin. His trousers are shredded in like fashion, and he’s shaking as a sharp point traces oh-so-delicately down his length. He wants to pull away, and at the same time, he wants more.

Even when he looks up, that familiar face is a mask of animal need, of lust and rage and cruelty. The Cat King is showing the basest elements of what he is, and Charles can either run from it, or embrace it.

He meets those cold, glazed golden eyes and flashes a cocky smirk. He’ll never back down, ever - and he’ll also never hold what Thomas is against him. He can take it.

The Cat King snarls, and a hot mouth presses over his own, body pinning him to the ground. A hand snakes between his legs, and Charles muffles a whine into Thomas’ mouth as two fingers push into him, no hesitation, no preparation. He can handle it, though, trying in vain to catch his breath when the other is intent on stealing it.

Magic flickers along his nerves as slick lube presses into him as an afterthought, but he can’t focus on that when Thomas is biting his way down the line of his throat, leaving harsh red marks against his skin. The Cat King’s hands are surprisingly rough as they roll Charles over, push him onto hands and knees.

There’s no teasing or drawing things out, as Thomas usually enjoys. Just a hot body plastered against his back, cock pressing against his hole, shallow thrusts driving him inside. Charles bites back another whine, and the Cat King just buries himself deeper, making the ghost see stars. His hands are grasping almost desperately at the earth and dead leaves beneath them, wanting something to hang onto. He hears a low hiss pressed against the back of his neck, but it sounds somehow pleased, and he can’t help the tiny little moan that escapes him in return.

It’s enough encouragement, apparently. Hips snap harshly against his ass, and the shock of pain-pleasure makes him moan, automatically arching for more.

He can’t help himself when it comes to making his partners feel good.

The Cat King is ruthless, pounding into him, sharp teeth leaving their marks along his neck and shoulders. Claws dig into his hips to keep him still, and Charles whimpers but endures. He’s hard as a fucking rock, too damn close coming untouched, but his whole focus is on Thomas. Whatever he needs, fuck it, he’ll give.

A snarl is buried against the nape of his neck when the feline finally comes, and Charles can smell the blood where claws prick into his skin. He doesn’t so much as ask for a breath - he’s pressing himself back for more, offering himself like a sacrifice beneath the other’s predatory need.

He’ll fight if he wants, oh fucking yes. But if the Cat King just wants willing prey, he’s here for that too. And hell if he doesn’t love either prospect.

[meanbossart]

Misc. Ask compilation

These aren't all of the asks I want to reply to, just some that I can answer relatively quickly to clean the ol' inbox out before things get out of hand. Thanks for your patience!

HAHAHA THANK YOU FOR PERUSING AROUND and for enjoying my work! I had a... Weird Gale experience my first playthrough which led to his characterization being what it is in my comics. Here's the beat-by-beat of all the shenanigans: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740827466716807168/alright-i-am-like-90-sure-there-is-one-line-in-a

And here's just some of my personal thoughts on him! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/736193145686114305/can-you-tell-me-more-about-how-you-would-make-gale

I would be lying if I said I'm not conflicted to know my style still bears some remnants of my edgy teen roots (not your fault not noticing it though, you aren't the first and won't be the last) BUT... That comic did mean a lot to me as a youth, so I guess I should be proud 🤷 and honestly it is a little cool that such a thing would survive for so long in what I do, crazy how that works.

LMAO, re: the bottom/top debacle, I was honestly so surprised to see people react to it like it's something novel. If I ever expected to get any push back on the matter, I thought it would be from people assuming DU drow was the top and taking issue with how violent and big he is (and yknow, some people are weirdly protective of Astarion as if he isn't a sneaky murder machine rippling with lean muscle)

Very disheartening to see that mindset still so alive and well among young people, but I guess it just means I gotta draw DU drow throwing more back and Astarion drooling over more ass until the stereotype is forcefully banished out of people's minds!

(more asks below the cut)

"Sleeper agent activation phrase" absolutely took me out, Thank you so much LOL

YEAH I got it pretty late though, Astarion had already told my durge that he was a vampire of his own accord (and the response was, of course, "no duh") I forgot wheter this happened before or after the first romance scene triggered, but I think after.

Since this was after DU drow decided he was gonna fuck him out of pure contrarian spite and was shamelessly laying it extremely thick, He happilly let Astarion drink his blood. Hell, he was probably a little Too Eager - the guy likes pain and he likes letting people he trusts do with his body whatever they will, and while he didn't yet trust Astarion at that point, that event might've very well reminded him of something from his past that planted a seed which would eventually grow into his genuine affection for the guy.

Ah, he definitely got a half-chub as it happened too. I'm sure Astarion noticed it and just walked off rolling his eyes and thinking "eugh of course" lmao.

Hello!!!

Oh man, I grew up fascinated with horror things. I remember from a very young age just looking at the covers and backs of horror movies at the film-rental even though I wasn't allowed to watch them. I was also easily scared but I sought those things out anyway - I think i just enjoyed the visceral reactions it drew out of me and was always curious about most things taboo.

When I got access to the internet that just opened a (very unfortunate) door to all things vile and awful like it did for so many people at that age in time. Though my tastes have changed a lot since then (Less August Underground, more The Devils kind of guy nowadays) my stories and art are just always going to fall into a horror-y category because I just... Don't think there's many better ways to showcase the human experience and emotional range without many of the elements native to the genre, and I'm all about that.

Thank you for your question and your sweet words, have a good week yourself!

I did a little write-up about that over here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/742508493562593280/i-dont-have-a-particular-question-in-mind-sorry

That's the result of a scene that happens relatively early in the story I'm writing ("A Novel Experience" on Ao3).

{SPOILERS} DU drow accidentally passes out on a blade which puts a relatively deep gash on his hip. Meanwhile, Astarion is weakened and starved after certain events that transpired the prior night. They have a private exchange both in a somewhat hazy-state of mind and Astarion ends up prodding and prying at his wound while feeding, so it's a laceration and bite mark that just scarred over badly.

Elves apparently don't grow body hair so never LOL guess they'll just have to slip&slide up on each other for heat

[aspd-culture]

dunno if this is allowed, u dont have to answer if you don't want to but as someone with bpd I'm curious, how do people with aspd often see them?

So I can only offer my anecdotal answer to this, but I've had very polarized responses to people with BPD. Anything I say about how my ASPD affects the person with BPD I'm speaking of has been directly told to me by that person, so I am not just assuming.

On the one hand, my partner has BPD and it makes our relationship much more functional on my end than it would with me being with someone without it. That's because my *very* limited empathy that comes with him being an Exception pairs very well with the more intense emotions a pwBPD feels. Since my empathy is limited, I am not overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions the way his exes often were. And, since his emotions are so intense, I can actually pick up on many of those emotions even with the blunted empathy. They're quiet pings on my radar, but they're there.

Further, my desire to only be around an extremely limited number of people saves him a lot of grief because his favorite person is *very* rarely interested in talking to anyone but him and a couple other close friends. The more limited the pool of people I have deep and meaningful relationships with, the less threatened he feels with me being his favorite person. Whilst he couldn't and wouldn't push someone to barely talk to anyone but him as that would be extremely abusive, me wanting to limit my interactions with people helps ease that anxiety a lot. It very much limits how much he worries that I will abandon him for someone else.

Meanwhile, the intensity of his attachment to me, while annoying during a flare, is actually something I enjoy. It's good for the ASPD unstable self-worth to know he values me that highly, and being his FP helps my brain accept that he genuinely does value me and is not using me, because I know the "hidden motivation" for him wanting me around that my ASPD convinces me everyone has. It's also one of the most stable attachments to me that anyone has had, mainly because I have very little time to detach since we do spend so much time together. Besides with my alters, it's the closest to normal love I've ever felt.

However, for non-Exceptions, I can get *very* annoyed by the emotional reactions of pwBPD if they affect me. I already am exhausted by the emotional labor of dealing with prosocials, what with their emotions overtaking their logic, but that is even more exacerbated by pwBPD. It's not their fault, and I know that, but I do have trouble being around pwBPD who are not an Exception because of this without setting firm boundaries on what I can and can't help them with. If they need me to just listen to their upset without trying to help them solve the problem, I cannot help with that. However, if they are too overwhelmed by their reaction to find solutions and want me to insert a logical and entirely non-emotional perspective, I am great at that and it makes me feel useful for something that mostly makes people call me shallow and cold.

Even for my Exceptions though, there are definitely issues between a pwBPD and a pwASPD. BPD splits can *really* flare my symptoms - both the "positive" and "negative" splits. When it's the type of split where he gets hyper-attached and needs a lot of attention out of nowhere, I can get tired easily with this, especially because just saying (and meaning) that I'm not going to leave is not good enough. It makes me want to interact less when he is obsessively trying to interact more. The types of splits where a pwBPD pushes someone away to avoid being left can be especially problematic for both people involved, as very often the pwASPD will essentially go "okay, bye then" and detach. That can be a lot for pwBPD to deal with, even though we're sometimes willing to go back on that. I have to stop myself when my partner gets in that kind of split to keep from "calling his bluff" so to speak, because that will worsen things for him.

In both romantic and platonic relationships, pwBPD and pwASPD can end up very toxic for each other, as some pwBPD will follow pwASPD into destructive situations and with our issues with regard for others' wellbeing, we may not always stop you. In fact, sometimes it's proof to us that you actually DO care about us, which, of course, is messed up for everyone involved.

That said, the more destructive behaviors pwBPD sometimes struggle with are VERY unlikely to surprise or scare a pwASPD. "Oh, you got freaked out and threw something, but you didn't throw it at me or break anything of mine? Ok, cool. What a mood. No, why tf would I leave you over that? I did that like 2 days ago. You're chill now right? Ok let's go get Taco Bell." From what my partner has told me, this can (and has) stop an episode in it's tracks because when the destructive behavior that is meant to push me away doesn't even make me blink twice and I'm still entirely cool with him, it sometimes completely reassures him that I'm not going anywhere and we can move on.

It can go either or both ways, depending on the day, on how a pwASPD and a pwBPD in close relationships of any type will interact, but generally I prefer pwBPD over other prosocials because most of what pwBPD do and say makes sense to me - even the irrational things are done out of a fear of or response to being abandoned, and handling that poorly is something I entirely understand and relate to. Anecdotally, my current partner and my most recent ex (both of whom have BPD) also said that they far, far preferred pwASPD to prosocials because of how we sometimes stablize their fear of being abandoned. I was one of the only people they ever believed when they asked if they were leaving and I said "why and where tf would I go anyway".

Again, this is VERY personal and anecdotal, but I've seen asks in the askbox before that said some similar stuff, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who relates to at least some of this.

Plain text below the cut:

So I can only offer my anecdotal answer to this, but I've had very polarized responses to people with BPD. Anything I say about how my ASPD affects the person with BPD I'm speaking of has been directly told to me by that person, so I am not just assuming.

On the one hand, my partner has BPD and it makes our relationship much more functional on my end than it would with me being with someone without it. That's because my *very* limited empathy that comes with him being an Exception pairs very well with the more intense emotions a pwBPD feels. Since my empathy is limited, I am not overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions the way his exes often were. And, since his emotions are so intense, I can actually pick up on many of those emotions even with the blunted empathy. They're quiet pings on my radar, but they're there.

Further, my desire to only be around an extremely limited number of people saves him a lot of grief because his favorite person is *very* rarely interested in talking to anyone but him and a couple other close friends. The more limited the pool of people I have deep and meaningful relationships with, the less threatened he feels with me being his favorite person. Whilst he couldn't and wouldn't push someone to barely talk to anyone but him as that would be extremely abusive, me wanting to limit my interactions with people helps ease that anxiety a lot. It very much limits how much he worries that I will abandon him for someone else.

Meanwhile, the intensity of his attachment to me, while annoying during a flare, is actually something I enjoy. It's good for the ASPD unstable self-worth to know he values me that highly, and being his FP helps my brain accept that he genuinely does value me and is not using me, because I know the "hidden motivation" for him wanting me around that my ASPD convinces me everyone has. It's also one of the most stable attachments to me that anyone has had, mainly because I have very little time to detach since we do spend so much time together. Besides with my alters, it's the closest to normal love I've ever felt.

Meanwhile, the intensity of his attachment to me, while annoying during a flare, is actually something I enjoy. It's good for the ASPD unstable self-worth to know he values me that highly, and being his FP helps my brain accept that he genuinely does value me and is not using me, because I know the "hidden motivation" for him wanting me around that my ASPD convinces me everyone has. It's also one of the most stable attachments to me that anyone has had, mainly because I have very little time to detach since we do spend so much time together. Besides with my alters, it's the closest to normal love I've ever felt.

Even for my Exceptions though, there are definitely issues between a pwBPD and a pwASPD. BPD splits can *really* flare my symptoms - both the "positive" and "negative" splits. When it's the type of split where he gets hyper-attached and needs a lot of attention out of nowhere, I can get tired easily with this, especially because just saying (and meaning) that I'm not going to leave is not good enough. It makes me want to interact less when he is obsessively trying to interact more. The types of splits where a pwBPD pushes someone away to avoid being left can be especially problematic for both people involved, as very often the pwASPD will essentially go "okay, bye then" and detach. That can be a lot for pwBPD to deal with, even though we're sometimes willing to go back on that. I have to stop myself when my partner gets in that kind of split to keep from "calling his bluff" so to speak, because that will worsen things for him.

In both romantic and platonic relationships, pwBPD and pwASPD can end up very toxic for each other, as some pwBPD will follow pwASPD into destructive situations and with our issues with regard for others' wellbeing, we may not always stop you. In fact, sometimes it's proof to us that you actually DO care about us, which, of course, is messed up for everyone involved.

That said, the more destructive behaviors pwBPD sometimes struggle with are VERY unlikely to surprise or scare a pwASPD. "Oh, you got freaked out and threw something, but you didn't throw it at me or break anything of mine? Ok, cool. What a mood. No, why tf would I leave you over that? I did that like 2 days ago. You're chill now right? Ok let's go get Taco Bell." From what my partner has told me, this can (and has) stop an episode in it's tracks because when the destructive behavior that is meant to push me away doesn't even make me blink twice and I'm still entirely cool with him, it sometimes completely reassures him that I'm not going anywhere and we can move on.

It can go either or both ways, depending on the day, on how a pwASPD and a pwBPD in close relationships of any type will interact, but generally I prefer pwBPD over other prosocials because most of what pwBPD do and say makes sense to me - even the irrational things are done out of a fear of or response to being abandoned, and handling that poorly is something I entirely understand and relate to. Anecdotally, my current partner and my most recent ex (both of whom have BPD) also said that they far, far preferred pwASPD to prosocials because of how we sometimes stablize their fear of being abandoned. I was one of the only people they ever believed when they asked if they were leaving and I said "why and where tf would I go anyway".

Again, this is VERY personal and anecdotal, but I've seen asks in the askbox before that said some similar stuff, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who relates to at least some of this.

[timeagainreviews]

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Scream for Your Nappy Change

Few shows have had as many pilot episodes as Doctor Who. From “An Unearthly Child,” to the 1996 TV movie, to 2005’s “Rose,” and now “Space Babies.” However, one could argue that every new Doctor is essentially a pilot episode. There are notable shifts in the show’s dynamic to such a degree that it’s practically a reset. Any major personnel shift is a renewal. The transition from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, the transfer of power from Russell T Davies to Steven Moffat, and again, from Moffat to Chris Chibnall, for example. Even series ten began with the cheeky title “The Pilot,” where we find the Doctor earthbound as a college professor with his student, Bill, and his wife, Nardole. But “Space Babies,” is an odd one, for so many reasons. Mostly because it’s introducing us to characters we’ve been getting to know for a couple of episodes now. Then, of course, there’s everything else.

For some, an episode called “Space Babies” was always going to be a hard sale. Back in March when they revealed the new episode titles as a series of vignettes, Space Babies looked and sounded a lot like what we got. Sometimes a very literal title can be a bit of fun. “Snakes on a Plane,” tells you everything you need to know going in. While it may have benefitted from a bit of virality, you could argue that it does more with its premise than something like “Cocaine Bear,” which was little more than its title. I’ve complained in the past that my issue with the concept of the Timeless Child was that you could figure out the story by hearing the words. If I can watch a story in my head from its title, then in the words of Amy Pond- what is the point of you? My reaction to the title “Space Babies,” was very similar. Except in this case, I would say it was closer to a “Snakes On a Plane,” than a “Cocaine Bear.”

We’re off to a great start. I got to mention cocaine and babies in the same sentence. Speaking of awkward starts, why did Russell T Davies decide to open the show with the twee episode for the kiddies? Those types of stories are usually relegated to the mid-season point, after a really good one. I guess they needed a palette cleanser to put some space between “The Giggle,” and “The Devil’s Chord,” as they’re essentially the same story twice. But that’s for the next review. Though “Rose,” has its own brand of wacky weirdness with man-eating rubbish bins and plastic boyfriend doppelgangers with pizza peels for hands. Even still, it’s an odd choice for the “pilot.”

A lot of the episode’s enjoyment is predicated on how cute you think babies are. In my case, it’s not very much. If they had called the episode “Space Kittens,” it would have hooked me. But babies come with baggage. People are weird about babies. Babies are often politicised, which this episode definitely does, but more on that later. Another reason why babies were a hard sell for me is they’re not actors. Child actors are rarely good, so filtering their performances through the vacant faces of babies is like making a bad thing worse. Sure, they animated their mouths with cutting-edge technology straight from 1995’s “Babe,” but their faces gave us no range of emotion unless you count Eric, whose facial expression was that of one constantly bricking it in his diaper. I was reminded of the Gelflings in “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” in that it takes some getting used to the look of their faces. Except in the case of the Gelflings, the Jim Henson Creature Workshop knew their limitations and used CGI where the puppets fell short. A furrowed brow would have gone a long way to sell the babies.

However, I’m not made of stone. I’m not so joyless that I can’t send my critical brain on a little vacay for 46 minutes. I also appreciate that Doctor Who still takes the time to do stories for children. It’s a family show, after all. I was even impressed that the episode was able to sell me on the concept of a booger man (or Bogeyman to be precise) when “Sleep No More,” had so utterly failed to sell me on the concept of eye booger men previously. Even more, I had never expected to feel an emotional connection to said Bogeyman. While a lot of it had to do with Ncuti Gatwa’s performance, I’ll admit I actually got a little choked up at the end of the episode. Even a snotty little freak of nature deserves a place in the world, and I identified with that. It’s nice when a Doctor Who episode ends and it was actually about something.

As mentioned before, Russell T Davies uses the baggage that comes along with babies to stoke the fire of his own story. Through the eyes of Jocylen, the ship’s reluctant nanny, we see the babies in another light- as a constant source of worry. Having never wanted the job in the first place, Jocylen’s part is one of necessity rather than vocation. No one working in the field of charity or crisis aid wants to be doing the work. Sure, it’s fulfilling, but the nature of its necessity is telling of the world at large, or in this case- star system. In a perfect star system, no child would go unhugged, unattended, or forgotten. Yet here she is, forced by circumstance and emboldened by compassion to rise to the occasion. She may not be nailing it, but seriously, who the hell else was taking care of the children they forced to exist? If “Kill the Moon,” was Doctor Who’s pro-life story, this episode stands in stark contrast as the pro-choice story.

An episode with a butt-shaped space station that farts its way to the shores of freedom seems like an odd choice to talk about refugees, but it’s also the episode that gave a booger a soul. While a lot of the tone aligns more with “Aliens of London/World War Three,” or “Love and Monsters,” the message aligns more with something like “Turn Left.” Russell T Davies is giving us a spoonful of sugar with our medicine, which seems the correct approach in a show where Christmas trees are capable of murder. Suffice it to say, seeing a Rwandan refugee playing a British icon on the BBC commenting on the conservative government’s Rwandan bill is better than anything the show could do on its own. You almost have to do it, and more than I’m glad RTD rose to the occasion, I’m glad it was Ncuti who got to do it.

Speaking of things only Ncuti Gatwa could do, I appreciate that his Doctor is emotionally available enough to offer a hug to a child while still being alien enough to scare the bejeezus out of them. I can’t really picture Tom Baker hugging anyone, though I can imagine him scaring the bejeezus out of someone. Maybe Matt Smith would do it. Jodie as well. But Gatwa’s Doctor is an interesting mixture of compassionate and completely aloof. It’s a mixture that is sometimes at odds with itself, but it works. You see it in brief moments like when Ruby’s caretaker instincts take over and she runs head-on into danger, while the Doctor takes a moment to pop around the corner and catch up to her. It’s the classic dynamic of the Doctor being reminded of human nature by his companion.

I really like this selfless defender of the people streak in Ruby’s personality. It reminds me a lot of an ‘80s companion. She’s like a mixture of Nyssa and Ace. She puts herself in harm's way to protect others. She writes songs to cheer up lovesick lesbians. She’s got a very full personality that is palpable very early on. We got this level of character development with RTD’s earlier companions, and it’s nice to see it continue. What’s less nice is how he seems to have also taken a page from Steven Moffat’s book where the companion must also be needlessly complicated. What’s more is it feels less enticing and more like retreading familiar territory. It’s giving “The Impossible Girl,” vibes with an Amy Pond pregnancy body scan to bring it full circle. This is one of my biggest issues with the RTD2 era so far- it feels like a remix of past Doctor Who. That isn’t to say he’s added nothing new to the show, but it does feel a bit Clara 2.0. I’m just saying, it doesn’t always have to be some star-crossed destiny. If you do it every time, it loses its power.  Sometimes people just meet each other. Say what you will about Yaz’s characterisation, but at least she was allowed to be a person.

The story at the heart of “Space Babies,” is ultimately a bit thin. You could argue that there was never any real threat, but that happens sometimes on Doctor Who (take “Listen,” for example). I’ve seen some people online complaining that the Bogeyman doesn’t die, but what does it really do other than scare people? Sure, you see Eric’s pram toppled and find him characteristically bricking it in his diaper, but he’s not got a scratch on him. What if Eric went missing because the Bogeyman “ate” him. They could reveal that he actually was protecting Eric from the dangers of the malfunctioning bowels of the ship. Imagine the bogey bits tearing away out of the airlock, slowly revealing Eric inside. Not only would Jocylen have almost taken an innocent life, but two innocent lives. Pair that with the Doctor's brave rescue and blammo! It could have upped the tension and implied more danger, is all I’m saying.

I was a bit confused by the ship’s computer creating the Bogeyman in the first place. That entire aspect of the plot was skimmed over and very flimsy. I thought they were doing something with the show’s new magical premise, a “superstition of the Bogeyman made him exist,” sort of angle. But no, it was just something the ship did, for reasons. I also expected that to be the reason for Ruby's transformation into the weird scaly lizard woman. I expected it to suddenly be possible through superstition that stepping on a butterfly could change the course of history. But instead, the Doctor forgot to push the butterfly compensator on the TARDIS console. Kinda weird that RTD had two moments to further his own mythology but sided on technobabble. Not bad, just odd.

One aspect that bothered me was how long it took them to reveal the Bogeyman was made of snot. When they took the time to do this whole to do with the babies blowing their noses, I immediately looked over at my wife and said “The Bogeyman is made of baby boogers,’ to which she responded “I hate that you’re right.” They telegraphed it so hard that it made the Doctor seem slow on the uptake. If you recall from my review of "The Husbands of River Song," I felt like they did the same thing to River with how long it took her to recognise the Doctor. However, I imagine it's a bit of a balancing act to know when to reveal something. The Doctor doesn't necessarily have all of the information we have as an audience.

As pilots go, “Space Babies,” could have done better at introducing a new audience to Doctor Who. Much of the expository dialogue about who the Doctor is or where he came from felt rushed and unnatural. My friend Taryn said she enjoyed this aspect of the Doctor being less cryptic and more forthcoming with information. While I agree, I feel like the execution was clumsy, a word we’re starting to see more often in my reviews of the RTD2 era. For comparison, take Fallout, a show that came out only a month earlier. Both are technically first seasons of tv shows based on pre-existing properties with dense lore. Both have eight episodes to tell their stories. And yet with Fallout, we get a trickle of information as things happen. With Doctor Who we have the Doctor stopping his companion mid-sentence to say “Oh yeah, by the way, I have two hearts.” Look, I get it, I’m neurodivergent. I appreciate a good infodump. But there’s a big reason people are calling Fallout a triumph- it respects its audience enough to reveal things over time.

RTD said recently that young people won’t watch black and white. I don’t know if this is true as I am a cusp gen x/millennial. I don’t know much about what kids get up to these days, but I also don’t go around saying what they will and won’t do. It sounds a lot like “Those damn kids with their hip hop video games,” or like “Kids don’t like anything that isn’t Tik Tok or Roblox.” It feels like it misunderstands the appeal of storytelling in the first place. Studio executives have never fully understood what is good about Doctor Who. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, it was “Why can’t it be like Star Wars?” In the Chibnall era, the goal was to compete with Netflix. And now it’s “We need to meet the same standards of Marvel.” But if Doctor Who is always being compared to something else, you curse it into always being behind the curve. When I fell in love with Doctor Who, it was because it wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. If I want to watch Iron Man, I’ll watch Iron Man.

Not all of the expository dialogue was without merit. I’ve been continually impressed by RTD’s handling of the Timeless Child storyline. As longtime readers know, I was not a fan of that story. Hell, first-time readers probably picked up on it in this article. But I don’t think it’s fair to discount the people who did enjoy that story. And I think it is far more interesting for the show to develop the idea as opposed to sweeping it under the rug. We learned that the Time Lord genocide was cellular, which helps the whole concept of the Master achieving what millions of Daleks couldn’t do make more sense. It’s amazing how much a single line of dialogue can overcome a lot of shoddy writing. I liked the Doctor stating that it doesn’t matter where he comes from, as I’ve been saying that the whole damn time. It’s also nice that despite everything, the Doctor is still a Time Lord in his hearts of hearts. We as fans kinda need those moments so we can collectively move on from what has been a rather ugly time in the fandom.

That’s not to say we aren’t still in an ugly culture battle within the fandom. Racism is still a very real aspect to the conversation. As are ableism, sexism, transphobia. And despite RTD meeting these things head-on with the grace of a fish out of water, we’ve still got some great points of intrigue. Who is this woman played by Susan Twist we keep seeing in the background? Who is the one who waits? Is Mrs Flood the White Guardian to Susan Twist’s Black Guardian? I would love to say it’s the Rani because it’s been 20 fucking years of it not being the Rani, which is also the exact reason I won’t say it’s the Rani. But god I wish it was the Rani. They even name-drop her! Give us this one, please. My point being, despite its daftness and its expressionless babies, “Space Babies,” still gives us a lot to go off of. If you didn’t like it, do what I did and watch it twice. The emotional resonance works better when it feels less like you’re watching a car accident.

Look, if you didn’t like “Space Babies,” I get it. Maybe it’s not for you. There are weird little problems with the episode. The expository dialogue I mentioned, for example. The babies are a bit much. The Bogeyman howling like a werewolf was batshit weird. I guess it was because they compared him to a dog. Even then, why not make it bark? You could ask things like “Why didn’t the Doctor use the TARDIS to fly them to safety instead of setting their space station on a crash course with the planet’s surface?” or "Why didn't the Doctor get sucked out of the airlock? It's air pressure, not gravity." Is the humour still falling a bit flat? Sure. It’s easy to pick stuff apart. But come on, the episode is called “Space Babies,” you knew ahead of time if that concept was going to work for you or not.

_______________________________________________

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry these articles are taking a while. Having two episodes drop simultaneously doubles my workload! I'll have the review for "The Devil's Chord," up tomorrow! Hopefully next week will be more timely.

[weak4skz]

Han Jisung x Reader

Genre: friends to lovers, angst, fluff, eventual smut

Word Count: 1.3k

Summary: Han and y/n have been friends since before they could remember. But what happens if their friendship is severed by an unfortunate situation and Han goes off to be an idol while y/n is in college. When they connect through a mutual friend, what happens then?

WARNINGS: insecurities, weight issues, body dysmorphia, bullying, toxic beauty standards, name-calling, self-harm (tell me if I should add anything else!)

A/N: first fic up. idk if I should make it into a series though. I hope you enjoy and I would love some feedback :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Come on y/n” Han whined out from on the couch beside me. “We both graduated. I am not watching your dumb romcoms all night as ‘celebration’ let’s go and actually have fun.”

“First of all, they are not dumb Jisung” I started. Second of all, where would we even go to have fun? One of those dumb house parties?” I finished my response. We both sat on my living room couch, me in one of the t-shirts I stole from him some time last week. Han had been trying to convince me to go to one of his friend’s house parties for the past hour. Parties were never really my thing. I would much prefer to stay home and watch one of my ‘dumb romcoms’ instead. Han, on the other hand, was much more of an extrovert than me. My job was to pick him up from parties on the weekend when he had a little too much fun.

“We are most definitely going to a party. And we are gonna be the hottest people in the room and we’re gonna dance until we drop.” Han replied, already pulling me off the couch. “Now go put on something nice so we can go.” He had already somehow pushed me to my room and shut the door. Something nice. I thought to myself, silently walking over to my closet. 

That leads to the second reason I don’t like going to parties. I am not exactly the right shape to wear something one defines as ‘something nice.’ Sure I wear a sundress here and there and even a fitting top every once in a while; I am not fit for the house party definition of something pretty. I am not pretty enough to wear the tight black dress that rests permanently in the back of my closet, I have too many curves for that. So, as always, I picked a pair of wide leg jeans and an oversized graphic tee. Not because they’re comfortable, not because I don’t want to wear dresses. I simply wear them to hide the things I don't want others to see, things I don’t want myself to see. I hide thick thighs behind the dark blue denim and rolls of all shapes and sizes under the black t-shirt. Not because I love the clothes, I don’t even enjoy wearing jeans. Simply, because they shield me from the truth: I am not pretty. Not pretty enough for Han, not pretty enough for my parents, not pretty enough for society, hell I’m not even pretty to myself. Well shit, now I’m crying. Great fucking job y/n. I silently wipe the tears, at this point it’s part of my everyday routine. I walk over to my vanity and reapply my mascara, wiping off the bits that are now falling down my cheeks. 

“ARE YOU ALMOST DONE” Han shouted from outside my door, bringing me out of my own little world. “Yea, almost” I replied, trying to hide the fact I was just crying. I finished touching up my makeup, and walked towards my bedroom door.

 I took an extremely long time getting to the door; dreading Han’s reaction to my outfit for the party.

“Let’s go,” I walked past him and towards the door, not looking at his reaction. I pick up the keys, silently signaling to Jisung I’m driving and walk out the door towards the car.

______________________________________________________________

After the longest fifteen minutes of my life, we arrived at the party. I immediately feel uncomfortable as I get out of the car. The flashing lights and loud music I can hear coming from inside informs me of the headache that’s about to arrive.

 Han pushes me inside and all I see is people. There are probably 100 dancing teenagers shoved inside this two story house. Han immediately leaves me to my own devices after spotting someone he knows. I think I heard him say ‘he’ll be right back’ but i couldn’t really tell over the music. So, as the introvert I am, I look around the room for a corner to hang out in until I go home. I make my way over to the first empty corner I see and pull out my phone so I don’t look like a loner.

I have been sitting in this corner for about twenty minutes until I feel someone approaching me. I internally cringe because they reek of alcohol and sweat. I look up when the said person taps my shoulder. 

“Hey baby. Are you here alone? I could keep you company” he slurs out, clearly drunk.

Ew “No thank you” I say trying my best to muster a polite smile.

“Come on baby, I know you want some company. Just come wi—”

I didn’t even let him finish before I slapped his hands off of me and pushed him away.

“I said no, so back the fuck off and go away.” I said through gritted teeth. I swear this was the last thing I needed tonight. 

“ Listen here you little bitch. I was just trying to help you out but here you are acting all high and mighty. Well guess what, you are not even half of any person in this room. You're not hiding anything by wearing baggy clothes, you fat bitch.” The guy, whose name I don’t even know, started yelling out of nowhere.

Great. And I thought my night couldn’t get worse

Before I could make my emotional response; I reminded myself that this was bound to happen at some point. I remind myself that some people hate me like I hate myself. So I numb myself, blocking out the outside world. Reminding myself that I say the same things about me everyday. 

I brushed past the drunk guy and the crowd of people that decided to watch to look for Jisung so I could ask him to leave. I scan the room and my eyes land on him. He was already looking at me with sympathy? Or worry? 

Shit he knows.

 My best friend, and crush, just saw me get utterly humiliated by having my biggest insecurity revealed to more than half of our graduating class. And even better, he didn’t do anything. Well, I couldn’t really blame him. He was standing next to some girl, a really pretty girl. She was cute: on the shorter side and she was really skinny. She had perfectly clear, pale skin and big doe eyes. She was everything I’m not; and at the same time, she was everything I wanted to be. Judging by the rumpled clothes, smeared lipstick, and puffy lips; I could only guess what they were doing.

Trying to escape the limelight suddenly sprouted on me; I give Han a quick thumbs up to signal I’m okay and wave my keys signaling I’m leaving before walking towards the door.

I turn back, hoping to see Han behind me, but instead; I see him tonguing the pretty girl’s throat.

Hope is for suckers, I remind myself. I remind myself that a guy like him could never like someone like me. That he just sees me as a friend, or even a sister. 

With that, I leave; dragging my heavy thoughts with me. 

[imaginaryberries]

Some things:

- Jacob slept all night again 🥹 so I slept amazingly, think the skating helped too!

- the books I ordered about gender arrived, started reading one and it's exactly what I hoped for but also couldn't stop imagining the bad reactions it would get from some family if Leo ever happened to ask them to read it 😬 Honestly think that the most difficult conversations about gender I have to have will not be the ones I have with my kids

- had another appt with my psychiatrist and she'd previously told me I couldn't take Elvanse whilst on sertraline because there's a risk of serotonin syndrome, even though I told her I'd been on both before. However during this appt when I said I wanted to try something other than Medikinet because of the hyperhidrosis, she seemed to have forgotten that and offered Elvanse as an alternative, and I..... chose not to remind her. She remembered anyway though after the appt but emailed to ask me if I wanted to "accept the risk" rather than just telling me I couldn't have it, so my prescription of Elvanse is being delivered to the pharmacy today!!! 🥹 Methylphenidate (Ritalin, Medikinet etc) has never worked quite as well for me as lisdexamphetamine (Elvanse/Vyvanse in the US) so I am v v v happy. Finally!!!

- last night at skating I was sweating so much that I was honestly so self conscious about it, I could feel that my hair was wet against my neck and every time I wiped my head with my hand it came away soaking (which on these meds happens even if I just walk normally around the house??), and I was so worried that people could see. So when I was sitting down having a break I ordered one of those wee neck fans 🥴 Elvanse will likely make me sweat a bit more too just because stimulants will do that, but I've been on two different kinds methylphenidate at two different strengths as well as three different strengths of dexamphetamine and never had it to that degree so hopefully it won't be as bad

- I really was a lot more rusty at skating than I was hoping I'd be. Also the lessons they do are just sort of ongoing, as opposed to a block where you start at the beginning with the basics, and there were two groups: total beginners, and people who were more advanced and who were starting with crossovers (where you lift one foot up and cross it over the other to help turn). I've never been able to do crossovers and felt pretty unsteady on my skates even with both feet on the ground, but I'm also not a beginner, so I wasn't really sure what to do. But then because I was the only person there at that sort of intermediate level I ended up basically getting a one to one lesson with one of the coaches so I can't complain. We went over lots of different things and I have seriously got to build up my strength again as I think that was a bigger issue than my actual execution of the moves if that makes sense, but it was great!! Definitely going to be practicing some of these things in my living room 🤭

[thedragonchilde]

Ship meme spam round two

How did they they meet?

Well, that's pretty well covered in the series--

Who developed romantic feelings first?

Chibodee, by a mile

Who is their biggest “shipper?”

“It's so nice to see them happy together; much nicer than dealing with Chibodee's miserable mooning~”

“Oh, shut up, Shirley, I was not ‘mooning’!”

When did they have their first kiss and under what circumstances?

The circumstances are actually answered somewhat in the next question!

Who confessed their feelings first?

Domon, after having accidentally discovered that the feeling was mutual. (Chibodee was braced for a confrontation, not a confession!)

How do they feel about double dates/group dates?

I'm sorry, I have the visual of Chibodee inviting George for a double date just to watch his reaction--

What do they do in their down time?

Separately, it's a wonder if they have down time at all, so together they try to make every moment count - and even then they're usually pretty hyped up and active, but sometimes that just means takeout and televised sports and lazy embrace

What was the first meeting of parents as an official couple like?

Considering that Dr Kasshu is the only parent in the equation-- (Which is to say, probably some measure of awkward, but at the same time Domon would be fucking beaming and I don't think the importance of that would be lost on his father at all.)

What was their first fight over and how did they get past it?

Well, I've mentioned before that they have a tendency to snipe about stupid shit that isn't really what they're mad about, and usually those are done and forgiven pretty quickly. Their first big fight as a couple is probably, ironically, over communication, and how they both fail at it in wildly different ways when they're upset - and the issue is not immediately fixed, but having everything out in the open seriously helps

Which one is more easily made jealous?

Domon jumps to it more quickly, because everything seems vaguely threatening when you're unsure. (Not for the reason one might think, however - the assumption tends to be that anyone dating Chibodee would be threatened by his being surrounded by beautiful women, but being jealous of the gals has never crossed Domon's mind, and he would actually find that suggestion kind of weird. They're like his sisters!) He may actually become possessive if Chibodee were to have a rival in the ring though, like “only I should get you hyped up like that”

What is their favourite thing to get to eat?

You mean they have to narrow it down??

Who’s the cuddly one? What is their favourite cuddling position?

Domon can be a little tsundere about cuddling sometimes, but let's be real, physical touch of any kind is very important for these two, and whatever cuddle configurations they come up with are no exception

Are they hand holders?

Oh, absolutely, not a question

How long do they wait before sleeping together for the first time? What’s the circumstances?

Bets would probably be split between "never" and "ASAP". But they finally get to it after a couple near-misses and aborted attempts, a few really awkward questions, and a lot of pent-up frustration.

Chibodee certainly takes the lead initially, but thinks he can get away with not getting fully naked or letting himself really be touched, and apparently doesn't think Domon's gonna catch on to that trepidation. Rookie mistake, my man; body language speaks loud and clear, and your boy is famously good at reading it. It takes a blunt "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want this. But if we're gonna do it, I wanna do it right. I want this. I want you" - and a well-timed jaw kiss/hip grab maneuver - to get a breathless, trusting "Yeah okay, you've got me"

Who tops?

This is definitely a competition

What’s the worst fight they’ve ever gotten into?

They probably get into it pretty good a couple times over the long-distance thing

Who does the shopping and the cooking?

Shopping they'd have to work together on and learn the art of compromise along the way, because Domon is hilariously predictable and Chibodee can be an impulse shopper just because he can. I suspect they stick to stuff that's easy to prepare.

Which one is more organized and prone to tidiness?

Tidiness would probably go to Domon, but he's also not super used to having much stuff to keep untidy. (Obviously, any tidiness does not apply to his hair.) 'Organized' is kind of broad, but Chibodee's better about times and dates, and anything he doesn't keep organized he can trust that Bunny will.

Who proposes?

Domon, because for as much as he says he's not good with words, he is both completely unable to keep his feelings to himself and downright poetic when he speaks from the heart. (Chibodee doesn't answer right away, and he laughs when he does, because he was just about to pop the question himself, only Domon beat him to the punch, and did it better, and if he wasn't so happy he'd be so pissed off--)

Do they have joined Bachelor/Bachelorette parties or separate?

See, this is the pitfall of marrying within your friend group--

Who is the best man/maid of honour? Any other groomsmen or bridesmaids?

George and Rain seem like the natural choices (or, if we go with a resurrection timeline, Kyoji and Shirley), though I think the gals would pick up a lot of the traditional maid-of-honor duties, because they know how to plan a party, and how to keep news outlets out. Honestly, I feel like the wedding party is mostly a given! I'm having trouble with what exactly would get Sai to eventually warm up to all this, but I like the idea that he would insist on making the cake. It would be the best damn cake you ever saw or tasted, and normal toppers are lame so this would call for two playing cards at the top-- (He may also have tried to insist on throwing a bachelor party, and honestly, Sai, even though you are technically an adult at this point that still sounds like a really bad idea)

Big Ceremony or Small?

Not a huge shindig, I figure, but probably big enough that they each ask at least once during the planning why they didn't just elope. (The answer is probably "because neither of you could keep it secret to save your lives, and once certain people know they wouldn't let you sneak off anyway"). Research on Japanese weddings tells me that the ceremony would be very small, anyway, and the reception would be the bigger worry.

Do they have a honeymoon? If so, where?

Tell me that it wouldn't be on Earth. Specifically where I'm not sure (any good memories Domon had of the rainforest are probably super shot), but they would absolutely take advantage of the kind of scenery you just don't get on the colonies.

Do they have children? How many?

Domon's so good with kids that it'd be almost a shame if they didn't, and you can't tell me Chibodee wouldn't have a heart for orphans. Come back to me later on specifics though. EDIT: Back with details! I definitely played with adoption, and largely got "but how am I supposed to pick favorites??" (and that's when I figured there are donations to youth shelters and maybe an established scholarship or something?) But one offhand mention of surrogacy/IVF as an option and I had a picture in my head before long, so, bam, one bio kid. His name is Apollo, which Chibodee absolutely deserves a suspicious side eye for.

[takerfoxx]

Okay, about halfway through my Evangelion rewatch, and I swear to God this show has taken over my life. Like, even though I've seen it before and recently watched the Rebuild films, it's just clicked with me in a way that hasn't happened in a very long time, and I am loving it.

Anyway.

One thing that I noticed is that while the show gets off on a very depressing note that shines a spotlight on Shinji's problems, from the agony he experiences while piloting the Eva to his crippling depression and everything, once he makes the decision to stay, the tone shifts. Like, all those issues don't really go away fully, but for a little bit, the show gets a lot more lighthearted, becoming almost a traditional giant robots fighting aliens-type show. Shinji's mental health improves exponentially, he forms several healthy relationships, he actually does rather well as a pilot, and things seem to be on the upswing for him.

And then Asuka shows up and...actually, things sort of get better?

Okay, let me explain. The first time I watched this show like fifteen years ago, I couldn't stand Asuka. I thought that she was an entitled, insecure brat, and her treatment of Shinji and Rei was totally uncalled for. However, now that I've experienced this story in both of its entireties, processed all the characters and the complexities of their portrayals, and experienced various interpretations of them through various fanfics, doujins, spin-offs, etc., revisiting the original Asuka that spawned all of these reactions is...honestly, it's not nearly as bad as I remember. Yeah, she's still an insecure brat, but I get it now. And her beef with Shinji and Rei comes from her literally being groomed to be the best Eva pilot imaginable while being traumatized by her mother's suicide, leading her to see the other two pilots as both a threat to her position as well as disappointments for not living up to her standards, hence her hostile treatment of them. Even still, we see that facade crack and she does display moments of genuine kindness and comradery with them.

Also, later events have caused people to view Shinji as something of the most extreme of doormats, but for now, he actually isn't? Like, okay, he's still kind of a pushover, but he does get frustrated, he does push back against Asuka, he does snap and start arguing. At the same time, you can also seem them trying to connect in their highly damaged, kind of awkward ways. It's not working, but you see the attempt, and overall, their dynamic does get played more for laughs and slapstick, at least in the early stages.

Of course, all of that goes out the window later on when everyone gets SOOOO much worse, but for now, it's nice to see these kids' relationship in it's healthiest stage. That scene where they all sit on the hill watching the stars together was honestly adorable, as well as Asuka deliberately eschewing a fancy steak dinner in favor of a trip to a ramen shack so Rei could participate.

As for me being ride or die for a poly ending for this trio, was it at all changed by revisiting the source material? Haha, NOPE! If anything, it was strengthened, given that all three have their unique dynamics with each other instead of the tired cliche of two people fighting over a third and it's all like, "Oh, who will they choose?" Y'ALL HAVE TWO HANDS APIECE!

Though on a more deeply personal side, I think that's why I've had Evangelion infest my mind like it has as of late. I just sort of relate to Shinji, Rei, and Asuka a whole bunch and see aspects of myself in all three, and I just kind of want them to be happy together, but, in this timeline at least, I know that that's not meant to be.

Speaking of complicated characters, Touji and Kensuke certainly are that, because on the one hand, they are kind of best boys in how ride or die they are for Shinji, basically becoming the close friends that he definitely needed and going out of their way to check in on him and support him and stick up for him.

On the other hand, they are also selling creep shots of Asuka and their other female classmates. Like, okay, 90's Japan culture and how that gets played for laughs back then, I get it. Still, not cool, guys. But I guess it just goes with the theme of how these are all messy individuals kind of stumbling their way through their messy lives, and everyone has their good and bad qualities.

Another observations. The virus takeover episode was one of the series' finest, as the whole bottle episode thing where the adults have to solve a unique problem while the pilots were otherwise out of the picture made for a great change of pace and was tense as hell. The dancing episode is a fan favorite for a reason and must've made the AsuShin ship explode early on.

Also, I know that we're supposed to hate the JSSDF because their rep was kind of a jerk to Misato and put down NERV and all (plus the later massacre in the movie), but to be honest, now knowing what we know about NERV and the Evangelions, he was kind of right in everything he was criticizing them about? And the fact that Jet Alone was deliberately sabotaged by NERV in a sort of petty dick-waving contest only puts them in a worse light. Honestly, if the two organizations had actually behaved like adults and cooperated, things might've gone so much better.

But then again, Gendo's got to Gendo, what with SEELE and their whole agenda and everything.

And on a more critical side!

Okay, I've said my piece about all of the weird creep shots in the Rebuild movies and how distracting and, well, uncomfortable they were. Like, okay, I know this whole series is low-key horny, and using Misato for some cheesecake shots, that's fine. But, like I said about Toji and Kensuke's creepy photo business...yeah. It's not as bad as it was in the Rebuild movies, which really took things way over the top, but it's still there.

And honestly, some of it you can get away with. Like, I don't have an issue with the scene between Shinji and Rei in the apartment, or Shinji ogling the girls in their swimsuits, or overhearing Asuka and Misato in the hotspring and having a reaction, because he's a repressed kid full of hormones in a very stressful situation. It makes sense that he would be like that. Same with Asuka's flirty side and how she hangs off of Kaji in a very inappropriate manner. Or Rei's lack of inhibitions. All of these make sense for their characters. I don't even have a problem with how Misato teases Shinji, because she's portrayed as somewhat of an emotionally stunted womanchild.

But when it's not from his or anyone else's point of view and you're just showing fanservice shots of your explicitly underaged characters, it gets kind of, well...

Okay, the point I'm making is...was there like a specific reason for the nude sync test? At all? Did it serve the plot in any way? Yeah, you need them in the plugs to get them out of the way so that the grown-ups could have an episode, but c'mon. Was it really necessary other than to get shots of them naked in their cockpits? Even from a character standpoint, I think Asuka at the very least would have protested more!

I dunno, I know it's a rampant problem in anime and always has been and you kind of need some level of tolerance, but that scene in particular did stand out as a great big, "Why is this happening?" Maybe if it had actually led to something it'd be better, but it didn't.

But Evangelion has always been messy and complicated, and that little bug aside, it's easy to see why it captured so many people's attention when it first came out and still does to this day. Hell, it's definitely consumed my every waking moment as of late.

However, Rei's little existential crisis is any indication, I'm approaching the part where things get really weird, so, that'll be...interesting.

[lavenderbexlatte]

day 19 - praise kink

nct 1.4k words female reader insert Reader x Xiao Dejun NSFW

🖤 warnings: oral sex (f receiving), penetrative sex, unprotected sex, one very sexy confident xiao dejun, banter bc it’s me 🖤

kinktober masterlist

connect with me! / masterlist

"Is this...okay?"

It's a normal question, but you've never heard it asked with such immense nervous energy.

Dejun is kneeling on the floor between your legs, looking up at you with wide eyes as you sit slumped back against the couch cushions. Just seconds before, his fingers were creeping under the hem of your comfy shorts, and now he's frozen there. He's pleading for something, with his expression, but you're not quite sure what.

"Of course," you say. "I would tell you if it wasn't."

"Okay."

He returns to the task at hand for a moment, and this time he gets the gusset of your bottoms pulled to the side and one finger pressing into your heat before he pauses again.

You pick yourself back up and look at him in mild concern. This is the first time you've slept together, that much is true. You've both got plenty of experience behind you, but from the way Dejun is hesitating his way through this encounter, you can't help but wonder if he's lying to you about that. Not that it would be an issue. Just a course correction.

"But is it, like...really okay? Like, good?" he asks, this time.

"We've barely done anything," you tease.

"Yeah, but..." he swallows, as if he's picking his next words very carefully. "But like, I want it to be good."

"I'm sure it will be."

He still doesn't look satisfied, but when he gets your shorts all the way off and begins to feel you out indulgently, you can ignore the worry for a while.

Those long fingers, callused from guitar and gentle, opening you up, and his face between your thighs, exploring. He's obviously not new to this, you think, as he finds your clit easily and begins to test out what rhythms coax the best reactions out of you.

It's impossible to hold them back, too, though you do try out of self-consciousness, hissing and gasping as he works you over. But when you glance downward, Dejun is just looking at you, wide-eyed. You're not unsettled, exactly, but you're desperately wondering what's going through his head.

"This is all okay with you, right?" you ask.

He pulls back when you speak, leaving you tingling in the wake of his careful touch. But this conversation has to happen. He's just looking at you with such an air of expectation, and you cannot fathom what's missing.

"Of course, yes," Dejun tells you.

"Then what's up?"

"You're just being quiet."

"I guess I am," you agree, "Is that...would you prefer if I tried not to be?"

"I like it when people talk during sex," he says, thoughtfully.

You hum. "What, like dirty talk? You wanna feel bad?"

"No," he says quickly.

Definitely not, then.

"Then tell me what," you coax.

"I like to know I'm doing a good job," he says. "And I like when I get told I'm doing a good job."

Oh. You melt, just a bit. He likes to be praised.

That's so simple. You can do that, easy. In fact, it's going to be the easiest thing in the world, since he's already doing such a good job.

"Yes, I can, no problem," you assure him.

"If it's okay."

You wonder if he's embarrassed about it.

"It's more than okay," you say. "But be careful giving me that permission. I might get into it."

"Into it?" he grins.

He is so obviously more relaxed, having said his piece, because now he's toying with the hem of your shirt.

"Yeah, get me talking and I'll never shut up," you say.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

And with that, he dives back in, so enthusiastic that you yelp, hands flying to his hair. It's like he's trying to prove he deserves the praise all at once.

"Jun, oh my God-"

Tongue teasing at your entrance, nose nudging at your clit - you don't think that's on purpose, but it's certainly working - like he wants to drown himself in you, it's impossible to keep quiet like you'd been doing. He's dragging you toward the edge much too fast, so good it's nearly painful-

"Slow down!" you're begging.

His voice is amused, breathless. "S'it good?"

"Yes!"

"How good?"

He's terrible.

"So good!"

Maybe it's the tension of the moment that has you cumming against his mouth so quickly, the delayed gratification of stopping and starting. Partially the fact that you're both mostly dressed, maybe. Either way, long fingers press down at your hip to keep you there while he works you through it.

"Too much," you whine, after a moment.

He pulls back to sit on his knees, tongue darting out of his mouth to trace his lips. "That can't be too much, we barely started."

Who is this person, and what did he do with timid Dejun?

Somewhere in the afterglow haze of your orgasm, he gets everything done. His shirt is gone, his shorts discarded, and he's gently pulling your shirt up and over your head. You raise your arms obligingly. Only a few more fidgets, and you find yourself naked on your back against the couch cushions.

"Here's the thing," Dejun says.

He's bare over you, so stunningly beautiful as he watches you, the unmistakable feeling of his cock against your thigh. You're not sure you can find two brain cells to rub together, right now, but dammit, he needs to hear how-

"I really like the talking," he says, sly. "Really. In fact, I don't know if I can keep going without it. Might have to stop if you can't keep up."

You get the distinct feeling that he's fully taken charge of this situation while also very genuinely needing something from you to keep him going. It's impressive.

"You're doing so - I can't feel my toes," you grin, as if that covers it.

Dejun smiles back. "Hope that's not permanent."

He's holding himself over you with one arm, the other disappearing to line himself up. You feel the insistent nudge, and you rock into the pressure.

"You know what to do," he murmurs.

"It's funny that you like to listen," you say. "You  have such a pretty voice...you'd think it'd be the other way around. Like people to listen to you."

It's off-topic, and it's a stilting jumble of a sentence. Your filter, it seems, has abandoned you all at once.

"Is it okay like this?" he asks.

"Yes. More than okay. Excellent."

You assume he means the position, or maybe the lack of condom, or something else that you can't think of right now, but the answer is the same regardless.

Perhaps you're a bit desperate.

"Dejun," you whine, when he hasn't moved any more, after a moment.

"Yes?"

"Please, I need you to make me feel good."

He tilts his head to the side, doglike thoughtfulness. "That's a decent start."

"You can't keep being pretty and so sexy and all the way over there!" you complain, gesturing to the inches-wide space between him and you.

He laughs. "Alright, okay."

When he finally pushes forward and makes that first press in, that first stretch, you can't help the noise of relief that you make.

"Thank you," you groan.

"Thank you?" he repeats, "I haven't done anything."

"So good already. So good for me."

"I can do better."

It's astounding, for a relatively small person, how strong he is, how stable. When he's fully buried in you, the curvature of his length presses just right into your g-spot, and the idea that he's going to be hitting it this much has your head spinning. His attention is all on you as he sets a leisurely pace, sharp eyes scanning you. The feeling of him moving so slowly is agony, hot and hard and so, so exactly what you need.

"Feeling okay?"

"Perfect," you say, articulate. "Hard. G-good."

"All for you," he answers.

He doesn't even sound a little bit flustered. On the contrary, he sounds delighted, attentive. It's all you can do to keep talking, unsure why this encounter, specifically, is scrambling your brain so much.

"Dejun, I can't - if you keep this up, I'm gonna-"

"Cum? Again?"

"I - you're - perfect, feels so-"

"I know."

It hits you then that the praise doesn't work like it does for some people, doesn't cloud his mind or lower his inhibitions in that way. Instead, it builds him up, inflates his ego.

Oh, you're in trouble.

[bravevolunteer]

woe a handful baby michael headcanons be upon ye ( aka little kid range / before he lost his whimsy )

getting it out of the way, the balloon boy one. baby photo of him in the exact balloon boy outfit, striped shirt / propeller hat and all ( it's very 70s kids clothing! ). michael hates it so much it's his least favorite photo he wants to set it on fire

not only was balloon boy's appearance inspired by that photo, but he's indicative of some baby michael behaviors ( yes, this is solely based on the afton STAFF bot table in security breach where he kind of looks like bb ).

first example of that? he was a yapper. not exactly around strangers ( he wasn't very good with unfamiliar people for awhile ), but with those he knew? YAP CITY. hi. hi. hello. hi. do you wanna hear about the intricate lore of the pirate game he's playing? no? too bad!

he would also pop up in unexpected places and surprise people a lot. despite being a yapper / pretty loud, that was when he chose to: he was a pretty sneaky kid. quiet on his feet, he'd poke his head into your business and jumpscare you ( definitely did this SO many times while william was working )

he would also... swipe little things he should not have been taking— one of those kids who had a klepto phase. nothing of TOO much importance most of the time and it wasn't malicious, he just liked to grab things and put them in his pockets for the impulse of it

william or his mom thought there was thirty minutes of peace? wrong. when he was quiet he made a mess in the bathroom and took scissors to his hair.

it's honestly a miracle he didn't get his hands in the springlocks and injure himself severely. probably ALMOST happened at least once though

this penchant for chaos and his sneaky behavior earned him the ( affectionate and exasperated ) nickname fox / little fox / etc

this contributed towards michael ALSO being a big inspiration behind foxy ( of course both this and the balloon boy one is not definitive if williams/henrys don't vibe with it )

speaking of, pirate phase real. this could have come before as another point of inspiration for the character or afterwards, since foxy WAS genuinely michael's favorite. definitely photos of him in stupid little costumes. he whacked his siblings with that toy sword though rip

leash kid.

michael did experience some jealousy issues when liz was born ( she's middle child to me, can change upon portrayal )— this turned out more similar to the normal reaction a kid has when they're first dealing with a new sibling, it got to him so badly with evan later because of multiple factors for another post because that's an essay. however, his chaos behaviors DID increase

as per my interpretation, michael and charlie were born around similar times ( maybe around 1-2 years younger? ) and were naturally each other's first friends as kids

[meili-sheep]

diluc ships reactions to him stealing/wearing their clothing?

So let me repeat my Diluc body type headcanons.

He's about 5'10 with a very Dorito shape, so broad shoulders, and a tiny waist. So he honestly does need some tailoring as a lot of general-sized clothing is pretty ill-fitting on him.

I think he's also pretty sensitive to clothing. And he has one of those closets that's 90 thousand of the same 3 items. The only way he gets variation is Adelinde. So borrowing isn't really something he does on purpose. But the kicker is. Diluc in the morning is bearly functioning so you know things happen.

I might also include the headcanon of other's body types here too

Albedo

So Albedo is a lot smaller and thinner than Diluc. Much more rectangle-shaped. So Diluc can't wear t a lot of Albedo's things. That doesn't mean Albedo doesn't often put his jacket around Diluc. Or that he even got into sewing to make Diluc things. Like, I swear, this guy sewed just to make Diluc his safety gear.

Albedo does have a habit of drawing Diluc. Especially when Diluc is not paying attention. So what ends up happening. is Albedo will lay his coat on Diluc while he naps. Then ends up drawing it.

He has a whole notebook of sleeping Diluc.

Al Haitham

So this is one of the few who is similarly built to Diluc and is either just as broad or broader than Diluc. So Diluc can actually wear Al Haitham's clothes.

And let's be honest, these are two autistic people. And I bet they have similar issues with clothing. So there is probably quite a bit of mutual clothing stealing because they both just don't care and just wear what's comfortable. Al Haitham has also made Diluc a music player and headphones.

Though I do think Al Haitham has a bit of a moment when he sees Diluc in his very, very form-fitting shirt for the first time. He um might buy a few more that are a bit looser just for Diluc to borrow. He doesn't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Ayato

So as a guy who is very proud of his culture and traditions. Seeing Diluc in anything remotely Inazuma fashion. It's a pretty critical hit. And like traditional Inazuma wear is like a major hit on his heart. So sort of by extension of the Diluc in his clothing would be great for him

Problem?

Ayato is a lot slimmer than Diluc.

So nothing is close to fitting. And I think Ayato realized that after one morning when Diluc tried to accidentally put on his shirt and realized his mistake when he couldn't button it. Ayato nearly pulled Diluc back into bed but didn't because of how sleepy Diluc was. He did end up buying a set of clothing similar to his style that fit Diluc just to see it.

Childe

So Childe's still not as broad as Diluc but not as slime as Ayato is. So Diluc actually can nearly get to the top. And Childe loves watching Diluc fumble sleepily around trying to get his shirt to fit. And he really likes how tight it is. And you know, with the strap on Childe's shirt. Certain parts of Diluc get a little accentuated. And Childe would let him walk around like that if he wasn't a pretty jealous person.

But outside of that he pretty frequently puts his jacket over Diluc's shoulder. Mostly when he sees Diluc napping or when he looks cold. He might be jealous but he's also very caring and honestly would give Diluc the shirt off his back.

Eula

So there is a decent size difference between the pair. Though I do think Eula is rather ripped. But something that Diluc noticed a while ago was how they have a similar style of gloves. So while this isn't really cloth stealing, he totally had a pair of gloves made that used Eula's color.

When Eula finally noticed it, he got really remembrance and just muttered something about wanting to match and tried to run away. But she totally wouldn't let him. And as his punishment, he hands to hold her hand.

Itto

Ok, so where this is another situation where Diluc and easily fits, and honestly, it's actually baggy on him. Itto doesn't, um, really where a lot.

He has definitely given Diluc his coat in the rain, not realizing Diluc normally carries an umbrella with him.

Though I think Kuki has tried to get, Itto to wear something more, probably for a trial or something, and Diluc's worn that. And Itto nearly lost it with how cute Diluc looked. He probably got more shirts and things so Diluc could wear them.

Kaveh

So I feel Kaveh is actually the closest to Diluc. Probably a little thinner, but yea. Diluc probably alls perfectly between Kaveh and Diluc. But Kaveh defiantly buys clothing for Diluc... All the time. And he probably steals Diluc's clothing all the time. Diluc has totally lost a jacket or two to Kaveh.

Now we are back to sleep Diluc and image sleep Diluc with Kaveh's very, very open shirt.

Kaveh definitely enjoy it for like .2 seconds until he noticed Diluc starting to leave because NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.

Thoma

Ah, so you know what. Thoma probably smells really nice, and Diluc has absolutely stolen Thoma's little jacket. Because it's just comforting. And when Thoma was looking for his jacket, he found Diluc cuddled up with it. He probably just gave up on the jacket and got a new one.

He probably does make Diluc a lot of hats and scarves too. All of which Diluc loves and wears all the time.

Xiao

So again there is a big size difference between Xiao and diluc. I imagine Xiao has a runner or sprinter's body so thin looking but absolutely ripped. And he doesn't really wear extra layers because I don't imagine he really every gets cool and stuff.

Diluc has given him his jacket before.

And Xiao had to ask around about what he should do with the jacket. He probably still has it not that Diluc minds. And he ended up giving Diluc a nice coat that General Kapisas made that he'd been holding on too.

Zhongli

So Diluc can definitely fit into Zhongli's clothing. But I feel Zhongli wears a particular type of fabric the Diluc hates. It's too smooth and silk, and he feels it catches on his skin. So he hates it. He can barely handle touching Zhongli's clothing sometimes.

But Zhongli being the money spender he is defiant and buys sent of clothing that is comfortable for him and in a style he likes but also Is something Diluc likes. It is his special cuddle outfit. (That Childe paid for)

[tblsomedoodles]

Hi! For the mikey imaginary friends au, are there any stories from the three at the library?

(My mind is saying a karen gets hired and throws a fit about those three even if they arent doing anything)

I've got a couple : )

But yeah, i could definitely see that happening, though i doubt that individual would stay hired for long. The staff (security staff particularly) absolutely love their weekly/bi-weekly visitors. I could see them insuring that new hire couldn't interfere with the kids' learning. After all, that's what a library is for. So what if they can't come during the day, it should still be accessible to them.

Maybe the new hire locked the window they were getting through one night, or tried to call the cops on them. I could see an entire thing going on behind the scenes that those three aren't aware of involving the new hire, ending with them getting fired and a new interview question being added to their hiring protocol involving their stances on innocent visitor hanging out there after dark.

One of the little library stories i have in mind is that that's how they meet a young Cass.

Like, she lives nearby and sees some lights flashing around the closed library and decides to go chase off the must-be robbers with a child-sized hockey stick.

Instead she meets three kids just reading books on the floor.

once it's clear they're not there to steel and are, in fact, using the library as it was meant to be used, she decides to hang out with them to "make sure they behave" Much to Donnie's annoyance.

b/c Donnie does not like her from day one. This is less because of her personality and more just the fact she's loud.

I'm not sure i ever mentioned this (i was going to but i never got around to it) but Donnie doesn't like shouting. especially angry adult shouting. It scares him, sometimes affecting him quite severely.

And, well, Cass is naturally loud. she's not bad enough to cause a more panicked reaction but still. it does not earn her any friendship points with Donnie.

Once that's recognized as an issue, Cass ends up handing him a nerf gun with the promise that "if i'm being too loud, just shoot the nerf gun at me. I'll quiet down." Of course this does lead to multiple nerf gun fights throughout the two years they meet there, but it worked.

i had some doodles planned for this one but my puppy decided to be rowdy during the time i was supposed to draw them. I'm still going to draw them, it will just have to be posted later. maybe tomorrow? We shall see.

Thank you!