#ok the certain other show did like once or twice but that's it

[killerpancakeburger]

One man's penalty is another man's prize

SUMMARY: When agreeing to lend a hand with the organisation of some military tests, you thought it would be limited to marking times and keeping scores. Statistically, there was no way that the... "creative" penalty you came up with would be selected, right?

And the chances for your boyfriend to be the one subjected to it had to be close to zero, right?

PAIRING: Soap x f!Reader (Soaps calls Reader Ma'am twice, that's it)

TAGS: Civilian!Reader, Fat!Reader, Smug!Soap x1000, a bit Possessive!Soap, Established Relationship, flirting, banter, teasing, partial nudity. Making Shit Up for the Plot/military inaccuracies. Suggestive content but nothing graphic.

WORDS COUNT: 2k

A/N: crackfic...? Soap does push-ups fic. Soap wears booty shorts fic. That actually no one One (1) person asked for.

If you need "visual on the target", this piece by @rusticfurnace and this one by @wombywoo have been on my mind. (Hoping its ok to tag, if not, tell me)

For @glitterypirateduck Cod Vacation Mode Challenge, prompt 27.

A drop of sweat falls from your temple and lands onto the stack of papers you were scribbling on. You wipe off your dripping wet forehead with the back of your arm.

The torrid sun is beating down hard on the ground and bodies alike.

This unforgiving heat left you no respite all day long, despite the fact that all you did was sit and take notes. Drenched in sweat, you fan yourself with your notepad. Perspiration keeps accumulating between the rolls of your stomach no matter how many times you dry it off. Today's the base annual testing day, an unofficial gathering meant to measure soldiers’ performance and entertain some friendly competition.

You would almost regret committing to helping today by playing scribes, but the sadistic satisfaction of seeing others toiling away while you twiddle your thumbs is enough to thwart that feeling. That, and Soap's little… display.

Your eyes almost bulged out of your head when you arrived this morning and stumbled upon him stretching his legs, bent over, fingers aiming for his feet, wearing the shortest, thighest shorts you've ever seen. Then he greeted you as if nothing was out of the ordinary. You glanced in interrogation at Gaz and Ghost, who were respectively wearing Bermudas and tracksuits, and were met with a shrug and an eye roll.

To make matters worse, he traded his blue shirt for a sleeveless top that did wonders for his arms and shoulders - as if his tanned biceps weren't already a work of art and a weapon of mass destruction all at once.

You don’t know which incubus possessed him to wear booty shorts, but you definitely aren't complaining.

You spend the day ogling him shamelessly, knowing he was putting on a show for you. He'd sponge down his glistening face with the bottom of his shirt, offering you a tantalizing view of his toned stomach. He'd throw dazzling smiles, teasing winks and blow kisses your way. At some point, he even emptied his water bottle on his head, resulting in his shirt turning transparent and sticking to his skin in an almost obscene way.

His myriad of attentions made you dizzy, in the best of ways. You may have made yourself look like a lovesick fool, with your blissfully happy smiles and your stupid giggles, but except for the people you were close with, no one would dare to nag you about it - lest a certain Scottish sergeant with a big mouth and no fear of confrontation gets all up in their face.

Strong, bronzed hands heavily lean on your desk. Palms are turned towards you, fingers gripping the table's edge.

“M ‘ere fer my penalty.”

The voice is raspy, accent thick, tone charming and teasing at the same time.

You slowly look up from your paper to meet Soap's cerulean eyes; along the way you can’t help but peek at his tanned arms, his bulging biceps, the beads of sweat rolling down his neck, the familiar chin scar in the middle of his dark stubble. His shirt is soaked with sweat.

He's wearing the grin he has every time he lays eyes on you; a blinding, earnest thing. However, even that beguiling smile cannot hide the spark of triumph and playfulness in his gaze.

Johnny's terribly competitive, that's an open secret. It's no surprise that today's tests would fire him up. The perpetual FNG has a title to defend, after all, and with you watching, the stakes are high despite the tests’ results bearing no influence on their file.

But that excitement wasn’t supposed to target you.

“A penalty?” you repeat, unconvinced, twirling your pen between your fingers. “You?”

Doubt infused with sarcasm seeps in your tone, very much on purpose. You raise a skeptical eyebrow, on your guard. 

Your first instinct was to withdraw, prop yourself against the backrest, the distance between the two of you reduced to something too trivial to be proper, but you can’t back off from his implicit challenge. It's a well-crafted game with the two of you as its exclusive players. A dance of provocation and endearment, a mischievous yet comfortable back and forth.

The lack of privacy of it would usually discourage your bashful nature, who avoids confrontation at all costs. But the sergeant has figured out how to appeal to the competitive, driven part of you. So you stand your ground, brazenly, like you're the only two people in the world.

There is no way that Soap earned a penalty, no way that he lost. He's one of the best there is, if not the best - not that his ego needs the boost.

The SAS's youngest prodigue who beat all previous records, his name forever carved into the archives and his legend whispered among impressionable new recruits.

Not to mention that the way he said “my penalty” sounded more like “my prize” than anything else.

“‘ere. Proof.”

He hands out a piece of paper to you, a smug smirk not leaving his lips, one that is not without evoking the satisfied expression of the cat who got the cream. Your fingers brush his as you retrieve the “penalty receipt”, the contact feeling like flames licking your skin.

You take a break from defiantly holding his gaze to glance at the note. Its contents sends an ominous shiver down your spine, your eyes slightly widening in understanding.. and horror.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The odds were, what, one in hundreds? Amplified by the fact that Soap was the one to get ahold of it, out of all competitors.

You vainly stare at your own scrawl, as if that could make the ink vanish, but reality simply gazes back. 

When asked to participate in making up a penalty, you wrote the silliest thing that came to mind, as a sort of inside joke only yourself would be privy to. Eight innocuous little words that would sign your downfall.

“Do fifty push-ups with me on their back”.

The fifty was an arbitrary pick between twenty that you judged too lenient, and a hundred that would take too long; however, you've thought a bit more about the “me on their back” part. You were heavier than the average soldier's rucksack - significantly so. It had to be a challenge, so you've made it this way.

Yet you never expected to actually end up on someone's back.

How Johnny managed to get his hands on your penalty out of all of them, you'd probably never find out, but you couldn’t deny that the “me” mentioned was you. Indeed, on top of your… recognizable handwriting, the note was adorned with little scribbles you had mindlessly doodled while bored. They were simple but easily identifiable: a foamy bar of soap, a deadpan skull, a jerrycan wearing a cap, and a stack of cash with a hat, or, put differently, the Task Force 141 stylized.

A version of the team that Soap was well-versed with, having witnessed you drawing it countless times.

There was no way out of the corner you were backed into - Soap put you on the spot, the brightest one possible, and that little shit knew it perfectly - did it on purpose.

You sigh exaggeratedly as you get up. You bypass your desk to stand in front of Johnny, not missing the way he looks you up and down. This is the first time he's seeing you in shorts, and despite how self-conscious you are about the girth of your chafing thighs, he makes it obvious how much he's enjoying the view. You cross your arms with an amused smile on your lips.

“You know you’re not supposed to enjoy your penalty, right? Kinda defeats the purpose.”

His smile mirrors yours as he bends over to whisper in your ear, close enough for you to feel his body heat, but not making a move to touch you.

“And ye do know I’d never let any of those eejits sweat and grunt under ye? That's my prerogative.”

Despite the shiver his gravelly voice sent down your spine,you throw your head back in laughter.

“Ooh so that's what this is! You're jealous.”

He remains unfazed by the accusation.

“Call it what ye want.”

“You do know I'm heavier than your rucksack, right? Much heavier? You’re going to hurt yourself.”

His eyes glint with hunger for challenge.

“Don't knock it til you've tried it.”

“Fine. Drop and give me twenty, pretty boy.”

His grin becomes blinding. He reaches behind to grab the back of his shirt and rips it off like it burned him. 

You gape despite yourself in front of his glistening chest, all tanned skin, white scars, hard stomach and soft pecs, and he gently lifts your chin up with his index finger to close your mouth, an extremely smug smirk adorning his lips.

“Yes, Ma'am. Right away, Ma'am.”

From a stranger's perspective, his reply drips with an insolence that matches the cockiness he exhibited all day. But you know better; you can hear the underlying docility in his tone, the one he expresses when you two are intimate.

He keeps his eyes on yours as he kneels, the display way too lascivious for how public it is. You bite your lips, frowning your eyebrows in warning, but say nothing as he obeys and performs the twenty push-ups asked - on one arm. It is good that the position prevents him from staring at you, because you reckon otherwise he'd be giving you the slyest grin.

More than the impressive show of strength; more than the way his skin glows with sweat; more than the flaunting of his imposing muscles; the knowledge that he's undertaking it all for you is what tightens the band of arousal in your stomach, along with multiplying the bubbles of happiness and affection in your chest.

“Gonna take a seat, bonnie?”

He's forced to heckle you since you were so caught up in your staring that you forgot that the next part of the penalty required your participation.

And of course, he chose the cheekiest way to do so. The question, innocent at first glance, sent you back into the bedroom. The last time he asked you that was right before you sat on his face. And the time before that was when you rid him.

You oblige yourself to focus on the here and now, and carefully straddle Soap's back.

“Are you sure you can- Woh.”

He interrupts you by suddenly lowering and rising his body, obliging you to grab his shoulders to keep your balance, but easily demonstrating that the added weight has very little impact on his performance. 

“Alright, alright, you convinced me,” you yield. “That's only one out of fifty, though.”

“And yet ye dare doubt me again,” he grumbles under his breath, initiating a steadfast pace.

It is a shame that your current position prevents you from watching his face, but you concentrate on other things instead. Never before did you have the opportunity to revel in the glorious vision that was his powerful back.

You tease him by periodically clenching your thighs without warning, squeezing the meat of his shoulders or ruffling the back of his drenched mohawk.

You let out an impressed whistle when he reaches fifty, before scrambling to liberate him. He pretends needing your help to stand up, and you give him your hands without hesitation. Once he's up, you affectionately shove his shirt into his naked torso, an implicit command to make himself proper.

Following his dressing, you two stare into each others' eyes, hands in hands, like lovebirds until his stomach roars like thunder. 

You giggle; he sighs exaggeratedly, suddenly bowed down by an invisible weight, like he wasn’t overflowing with energy a minute ago.

“M starvin’. Tae death.”

“Wouldn’t have guessed.”

He starts walking towards the canteen's building, after a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and his eyes motionning between you and the coveted reserve of food in a silent but strong proposition. You purposely let him take the lead so you can sneak behind him and grab a generous handful of his ass.

He turns his head towards you with mock outrage on his face, a hand pressed on chest, quickly replaced by appreciation.

“Been itching to do that all day,” you confess with an impish smile.

Walking side by side, you start happily humming, and just as you let your hand drop, he seizes it and puts it back on his buttock.

[jerktournament]

ROUND ONE - Herbert P. Bear (Club Penguin) VS Snowball (Battle for Dream Island)

!!! PROPAGANDA BELOW !!!

HERBERT: "Herbert may be a fandom darling in our fandom of like, 20 people. BUT DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU! He is a conniving, EVIL bear, and a professional jerk and some highlights of his jerkishness include... - Spending ten years of his life (by the time the game closed) trying to destroy the Penguin Secret Agency and Elite Penguin Force (both were agencies that protected the island from disasters and villains like Herbert) with varying success... - SUCCESSFULLY destroyed the Penguin Secret Agency with a popcorn bomb, which destroyed their HQ. It should also be noted that while doing so, he locked in the player, Rookie, and Gary the Gadget Guy, presumably so the bombs explosion would have killed them all. -Teamed up with the EPF to stop the Ultimate Protobot 10,000 and the Test Bots, a small group of four dangerous robots after he personally brought them back. When Protobot went "too far" for Herbert's standards by threatening the environment and trying to completely destroy the EPF (despite the aforementioned Popcorn Bomb incident literally destroying the PSA, and also a certain Operation: Blackout), causing him to temporarily switch sides. This might sound like a character growth moment...except for the fact that he immediately betrays them once Protobot is dealt with and attacks and damages the EPF's HQ using a robot hydra made for the Medieval Party that he stole. - A canonical ex-dictator. Don't believe me? Look up Operation: Blackout on the Club Penguin Wiki! He froze several agents during his reign of terror, was open to freezing innocent civilians, and also wanted to do away with puffles- the pets of penguins. He also banned several hobbies and professions during his reign (being a Ninja, a DJ, a Pirate, etc) for no reason other than disliking them. He also destroyed the EPF'S HQ and exposed two agents' private information to the public. This means Herbert is the first and only character to canonically dox people he doesn't like on Club Penguin. -Was planning to bomb the EPF literally two months later with a hot sauce bomb (makes sense in context of the game and yes, it is more destructive than it sounds). -Brainwashed puffles into digging coins for him purely because his henchman, Klutzy the crab brought a coin slot to use for his DIY heater, instead of just removing the coin slot and retooling it to work without one like a normal person."

SNOWBALL: "OMG. SNOWBALL. SB. BABYGIRL. MI PRINCESA. HE IS SUCH A JERK. ok so for starters he is very arrogant and cocky (like a jock) and he thinks of himself as better than other contestants. snowball is also very stubborn and doesn't like people telling him what to do, and he often ditch or hurt his teammates for the sake of the challenge, thinking he was in the right to do so. he often intimidates and threatens the hosts of the show he competes on (x in bfb and two in TPOT) and he is also bery unlikeable both to fans and in universe. he was so unlikeable that in the firsr season of the bfdi franchise in a vote to regoin, he got the least votes out of 21 contestants with 8, less than 1/100 of the total votes. because of his behavior he made a reputation for himself among the other contestants, and was picked last for team making in the 5th season/TPOT. even on his new team in TPOT he is give the cold sholder by his teammates. OK NOW TO THE JERKY STUFF HE DID. so first of all he has killed at least 10 people, and he has hurt multiple contestants out of rage or for the challenge multiple times (some examples being when he broke fanny, a member of his older team from season 4 for telling him what to do, or him setting grassy, another member on his team in the 5th season on fire for the challenge. or the time that he punched grassy off inti the distance twice because "he felt like punching something "in episode 3 of TPOT). snowball also sabotaged his team in a challenge on purpose purely because of his ego (episode 4 of TPOT). he is also pretty rude to pretty much anyone and everyone, including hosts. only begrudgingly listening to them if it benefits himself. that is it (sorry for the really long propaganda he is my comfort and my favorite character from his series, i have been nominated as his no. 1 fan)"

[billerak]

Bumble that Bee or something idk

I recently finished RWBY (catching up after years leaving it aside) and I have thoughts and feelings and, as I am me, a lot of those are about the canonical WLW couple (sans the secondary wives in V6). So I put my thoughts into a rant. It's not as negative as the word 'rant' would have you believe but I don't wanna call it an essay or whatever. It's still pretty negative tho, so be warned. Anyways on with it:

RWBY is a mess.

Sometimes, it's a wonderful mess. Others, it's a terrible one.

I could spend a few paragraphs explaining what I mean, but I think anyone who watches RWBY with a critical eye knows what I'm getting at. Love RWBY, hate RWBY, just don't try to tell me it's good.

So, once that's established, let's get to the meat of this rant: Bumblebee.

Or should I say Fumblebee? Eh? EH?

Alright you can stop reading, have a good day.

Let me start by making a sharing something about myself: I'm Agender and Bi/Pan. I make a living out of writing yuri/gl/wlw or however you wanna call it. I watch entire seasonal fucking anime on the off chance it may be yuri and most of the time I hate myself for it by the end because they never fucking deliver.

All of this is to say, I like the concept of Bumblebee, the problem is it was treated like shit.

In this rant or whatever the fuck I should call it, I'm just going to talk about the things this ship makes me feel. As established I make a living out of writing romances like the one this show tried to depict—and in case you're wondering, I have written slowburns so slow the first romantic interactions between characters didn't happen until 300k words into a fic. I did it twice, fyi—so I believe I have fair grounds to judge this.

So let's tackle this from the beginning. Was it planned from the start?

No, I don't take the writers word for it. It's painfully apparent it's not the case. I'm fairly certain BlackSun was gonna be a thing until they decided to write him out of the story in V6. Or perhaps they decided on Bumblebee and so they wrote him out of the story. Either way, everything prior to V6 I call into question.

Sure, Blake and Yang have their moments. But it's important to point out they're not romantically coded. RWBY isn't subtle about romance, and it starts pulling the same sort of obvious romantic tropes as all the het stuff going on in the show for Bumblebee going into V7. Prior to that? Nothing. Not a single blush or any explicit show of romantic attraction.

And before any disingenuous bastard tries to say something like "oh but blushes aren't always romantic" or "no you don't need blushes to show romantic attraction" allow me to say you are fucking wrong. Blushing is the universal language for embarrassment or love related things. And RWBY uses this shit all the time. INCLUDING Bumblebee past V7.

So yeah, while the writers probably did draw from previous material—and I think the VA's shipped them since the start?—I do not believe this ship was planned from the beginning.

But that's ok! I don't think it's a huge issue, really. Sure I'd have liked to see actual development but I don't need it to work retroactively if it makes sense from the moment they decide to go for it. So, 3 volumes and a half of development. Lots of time to put in the work, add the details, and-

Oh, no. Wait. They spend most of V8 separated. Hmm. K' so, 2 volumes and a half-

Wait. Oh. Oh they… they really have that little screentime together in V6, huh. Wow. Just. Huh.

Ok, the Adam fight is good. It's a strong setup! After fighting and making up for what Blake did after the Fall of Beacon, they finally come together to beat the demon that drew them apart in the first place. They hold each other close after beating him and it's good and I'm gonna say this is when they both actually fall for each other. We can argue about budding feelings or whatever, but I mean this is the moment they become aware of it one way or another.

So Volume 7 has them kinda being together? Honestly, they act like a new couple. Which is weird in retrospect. I think revealing they'd started dating after V6 would have made more sense than, uh... pretending this was a slowburn? Through V7 they stick to each other and fight in perfect synch and blush and all of that romantic stuff. It feels like… well, like they're kind of already an item but the show has other shit to worry about atm.

Then v8 is amazing really. Split the characters over an honestly kind of nonsensical ideological split, keep them apart most of the season, make Yang to be kiiind of an asshole in that one conversation with Kyle (<- my name for the post-v7 Generic McGenericus haircut Jaune. Yes this unironical, the friend I ranted to about this while watching the show can confirm).

To add insult to injury, the split doesn't even accomplish anything for the ship. The only two characters that get development out of being apart are Ren and Nora. These characters were CLEARLY in love last season why are they not having appropriate amounts of angst over this? Like, at this point we're not arguing whether they were planning on making Bumblebee canon or not, the point is asking why it feels like they weren't trying.

And then, Volume 9. For some context, I like V9. I think I'm in a minority, at least in the places I frequent about this stuff. Always comes with the caveat of 'it's still RWBY', of course, but I appreciate it. After the initial whiplash, I think making a fairy-tale season for a show that was born out of the concept of "what if Red Riding Hood had a sick scythe and used it to mow down hundreds of bad wolves" is actually a really fucking good idea.

That being said, the way they do Bumblebee is really strange.

They're basically back to their V7 selves. It feels like they're either already dating or on the verge of dating. I need to stress just how comfortable they seem to be around each other with the sole exception of that one time Blake didn't grab Yang's hand, but it didn't feel particularly awkward.

Then BOOM mind storm thing and while Ruby, Weiss and Jaune talk about like, actual issues, Jaune implies Blake and Yang had 'something more important to deal with'. And that something is RWBY's version of the room you can't leave unless you have sex.

Sans the sex I guess.

In the void, I think the scene(s?) is good. It's nice, the music is evocative, it's well framed and paced. In another story, it would really have been a perfect climax for a budding relationship.

The problem is this is not another story. These two have NOT seemed like two people awkwardly in love too scared to tell it to each other. In fact, it kinda felt like the exact opposite. If they kissed at the end of any episode for any reason, at this point, it would've felt correct. A simple quiet stare while sitting close and them just finally leaning in to take that final step would've been just as good if not better.

The bridge thing? It's the climax to an arc that didn't happen. Relationships don't need to be slowburns for me to like them, but if you're gonna pretend you were making a slowburn, at least do it right. Why did they need the bridge thing to finally get together? Come on! There was plenty of opportunity during V9 prior to this episode to at least make a show of them being awkward. Make it clear they were finally on the verge but were holding back on the final step. Make it actually cause some conflict, preferably between them as their fear grows into uncertainty and doubts.

Then the bridge would've felt cathartic. Force them to resolve said conflict, and the only way to do it is through admitting their feelings. Sure, it would've still been few episodes, but fuck man I'm sure they could've scraped a few minutes here and there to make it somewhat competent.

I like Bumblebee as a concept. I think the avid fans of this ship look at the concept, not at what the show did, and say "this is canon" and run with it. I don't blame anyone who is a big fan of this ship but… I just can't like it in its current state. I'm sure there's fanfics that fix it, I may give some a read.

Hell, just compare Bumblebee's development to Renora. Those guys have been kind of obviously in love from second one and Nora's entire character being focused on Ren was made into an actual plot point by the end.

Anyways that's about it for bumblebee. Here's some extra thoughts on shipping in RWBY in general.

If we look at the earlier seasons, I honestly think you'd have a stronger argument to make for White Rose being a couple. If we look at the later seasons, Nuts n' Dolts has a stronger impact. I already mentioned it but Blake/Sun had obviously a thing going on that didn't pan out. I hope chameleon girl whose name I don't remember gets a gf at some point tho.

I pray to fucking god they're not building up fucking Oscar and Ruby cuz they had a few awkward scenes here and there and they make me feel wrong in all sorts of ways.

Given how little interaction Ruby and Weiss have had despite how much time they've supposedly spent together, I think the writers are making an active effort to discourage White Rose. I'm not gonna get into the author's self insert being a love interest for Weiss at one point but let's just say the writers seem invested in making extra-sure Weiss stays het. I've made my peace with that. And Penny is fucking dead again so Nuts n' Dolts is a no go (canonically I mean I may read a fanfic or two about them they're very cute).

If they're gonna give Ruby a relationship by the end (which I kinda hope they don't at this point), I think it should be Kyle. They've had nice moments together and seriously shipping Oscar with Ruby just feels fucking weird. Like I assume Ozma's gonna be fucking gone from Oscar's body by the end of this story but even then idk that guy had a centuries old man is his head, it's fucked up.

Anyways that's enough. Why did you read to the end? Thanks for reading anyways.

[bnuuys-writing]

Meet my Yuusona!

This is Jenny, but she goes by Jen. More information down below! <3

No one knows where Jenny has come from, but they all know she is able to wield magic without a pen. She also has all these strange markings on her body that she keeps hidden that occasionally glow when she is feeling certain strong emotions such as the ones of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Jenny is a caregiver, a empath who knows who is crying the next room over without even looking up from the book she is reading. She is able to diffuse fights before they even start either by fighting and winning herself or talking everyone out of it. She is someone you can rely on and trust if you're having a hard time with something either in school or emotionally. She will mom you, in short.

Fun Facts about Jenny! She actually had come from Devildom to here, and to avoid making connections with everyone, she gave out a fake name in hopes of being able to go home with no strings involved. Her name is actually Ophelia. Lia for short. She was learning how to wield magic by Solomon at first and the pacts she made with the brothers, angels, and the Butler and Prince of Devildom themselves only spur her magic on. She is more able to cast healing spells that fighting spells, so she summoned a familiar which was a brown rabbit! Yet, in the transport to Twisted Wonderland, their same magic merged them together to where Jenny now has a fluffy rabbit tail and large floppy ears!

Relationship Dynamics!

Leona: Absolutely a hater of this man. ONLY because she knows his worth could be so much more and he just doesn't put any effort into showing that he could be a good mage. It absolutely infuriates her. They constantly get into fights that either end up with both of them in the infirmary or both of them getting heated in a vocal argument.

Sebek: Love Interest #1. When Jen first came to NRC and met Sebek, she immediately did NOT like him. Both of them getting into silly little arguments that would go "So, Beastman-" "I'm actually a human. I just merged forms with my rabbit familiar." "DO NOT INTERUPT ME WHILE I AM TELLING YOU ABOUT LORD MALLEUS!!" "ok, bye." Yet after getting to know him better and better and actually taking time to see past everything, she saw him for who he truly is and just fell heads over heels with him. Yet, he doesn't need to know that.

Silver: Good friend, was a possible love interest and she had a small crush on him but after she fell in love with Sebek, they both just stayed close friends. Silver was one of the first few people to actually greet her into NRC. Sometimes Silver will find himself waking up with his head in Jen's lap as she reads away. They could make a cute couple but they respect each other a lot to not meddle with each other's love life.

Vil: Imagine; Malleus with Sebek. But now its Jenny and Vil. If anyone disrespects her housewarden, they will get thrown. Epel is impressed by this but Vil just taught her how to hurt people with words and how to make it sting. Jenny doesn't really hurt people without a good cause. But she heavily admires Vil due to the fact that he seriously reminds her of Asmodeus.

Azul: This is her boss. Was love interest #3 but after working for him constantly as either a waitress with the Tweels on the weekday and Singing for Monstro Lounge on the Weekend, that dwindled down fast. They both seriously respect each other and Azul has made the comment of making a deal about her voice once or twice in which she has denied more than plenty.

Ace and Deuce: These two are her best friends and Ride or Die's. Especially Deuce. She makes sure that they are all caught up and studied on homework before they can go ask Azul for tutoring papers all over again. Rewards them with baked goods that were helped made by Trey just to make sure that they keep their grades above a C-. C's get degrees!

Grim: She doesn't really interact with Grim all that much even though she is Housewarden of Ramshackle, but is an honorary member of Pomefiore. Its all because she is severely allergic to cats. But if you mess with her baby? You are so fried. Prepare to meet the actual full power of Wrath.

Crowley: Does not like him. She has thrown a chair at him. They do not interact unless absolutely necessary and she is finding her own way back home.

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam! I have the first three Shivadhverse novels in their separate paperbacks, but I want to also get the omnibus editions and I'm trying to decide between hardcover and paperback. Are there pros and cons to either of those? Thanks!

Hey! I also had an anon question about this so I thought I'd post publicly, hope that's ok -- and thank you for your support!

As far as these things go, I think it mostly just depends on what you prefer. The hardcover mainly exists because people suggested it might be a nice variant, but the internal text is identical -- it's literally the same file used for both with only the ISBN code changed, so even the page numbering is the same. The hardback comes with a dust jacket, but there's no content on the dust jacket that isn't on the paperback cover. I get slightly more revenue from the paperback edition, but not enough to matter in the long run.

I am not certain how they stand up to each other in terms of durability. On the one hand, usually hardbacks are more durable, and my proof copy of the omnibus got really dinged up really fast being carried around in my bag. On the other hand, this is a print-on-demand operation and it may be that a hardback book's cover separates from the text block more easily, especially if they use the same glue.

While the paperback will definitely show more wear, I think it may be helpful to know that I've had some issues with the hardback covers being printed incorrectly. Basically, the hardback cover has the title and author stamped on it underneath the dust jacket...but it's not always the correct title and author. Like I did a special one-off hardcover variant of an earlier book for someone as a favor, and the dust jacket was right, the internal text was the correct book, but the cover had a random title and author on it. This has happened once or twice with the hardback Omnibus as well.

And that one copy where the person got my cover but a popular Harry Potter fanfic instead of Omnibus V.1 on the inside was also a hardback... (I still laugh about that.)

Now, on the flip side, if a printing error happens to your copy, regardless of edition, you can reach out to Lulu and they will absolutely make it right, or at least always have in the past, and then potentially you have two copies of it, and can loan the wonky one out. But if you want higher odds of them getting it right first time out, I'd go with paperback.

[throwing-in-the-towel]

I just discovered this blog through another social media page, and I’m so glad I did. Not only do I absolutely love your content, but I love your positive attitude towards the cast and the show in general. Most other fan stuff I have come across seems to be either a crazy obsessed fan page that’s a little over the top for me, or a page where there is so much controversy over cast members, etc. You clearly have a love and passion for the show, but in a healthy, respectful way. I like that a lot. I cannot stand the fans who are so obsessed that they rush the show several times a week, and because the cast now recognizes them because they are there all the time, they think they’re friends. Unless cast members are giving them their private phone numbers and they’re hanging out with them outside of anything show related, then they’re not friends! It’s a celebrity-fan acquaintance. Those parasocial relationships really creep me out. I admire that while you have had several amazing interactions with the cast at SD that you treasure, you aren’t under some illusion that they are your friends. I’ve seen the show twice and did SD both times. I also had some really memorable interactions/conversations with certain cast members, one in particular, but I’m under no impression that we’re buddies now. So thank you for not being one of those fans, lol. I also really appreciate how you show love and respect for the entire cast, both OG members and the swings/understudies. I hate how people seem to constantly fight over who is better, an OG cast member or an understudy. Why do people do that?!! Do they not realize that you can enjoy and appreciate both? You don’t have to pick one! It’s fine even if you do have a personal preference, but it is not ok to demean the other actor. So thank you for being so nice and respectful about each member of the cast. Anyway, this ended up being a much longer response than I intended, sorry! Just wanted to say how much I like your page and your content. Thanks for being awesome!!

thank you so much,,i really appreciate this message more than you know! :D

a lot of the rush repeaters are utilizing concert culture for this show, which i really dissaprove of. broadway theaters are not the same as a concert venue, and camping out at 2am for rush tickets like you would for a GA pit at a concert is really wild imo. i sat near a group of these peope once (a morning i also rushed back in early june) and the entire show they were quoting the lines/dancing in their seats/etc. and it was so incredibly annoying and just rude. really left a bad taste in my mouth...they then went on to be incredibly obnoxious at the SD.

and i will say,,the parasocial relationships people have with the cast (the ones that usually lead to awkward stage door encounters) make me sooo uncomfortable. i don't want people taking advantage of how friendly the cast is!!! i know the main victim of a lot of social media stuff is jason,,part of the reason why he doesn't really interact with fans on social media that much anymore is b/c of the weird things people say about him/post about him/send him, etc. i have a recent story about something that happened next to me at SD involving him that was so awkward that i'll share:

there were a group of girls next to me that were talking about their friend (let's call her sarah) who i guess has seen the show a bunch and they kept saying how the cast "knows her" and they think she's funny. which i don't doubt btw!! the cast remembers ppl that are repeat SD offenders and i don't doubt she was funny/making jokes with them! i've done that before too! these girls were being very obnoxious about it and it was just weird imo. so jason walked out and they were planning to be like "oh we have to tell him sarah says hi, he loves her, this will be so funny" stuff like that. jason comes around to them and the girl says "sarah says hi by the way" and jason was like ??oh, hi?? and the girls were all giggling and he was like "sarah ...who?" like he was very confused by the whole thing. and the girl was like "oh you know her, she's seen the show a bunch of times" and he very clearly did not know who this girl was. she then went on to tell him sarah's last name (as if he'd know that) and it was just so awkward. the girl then went on to show jason pictures sarah had taken with him to try and get him to be like "oh yeah i know her!" and he was just like "tell her i said hi," and moved on to the next fan. the girls seemed very disappointed by the entire interaction, they were videotaping it and i think they wanted him to be like "lol yes i know her, she's great" or whatever.

i have this whole conversation recorded on audio b/c i screenrecord with my mic on when i take pics of people/with people at the SD and i can't even listen back to it, it makes me cringe that bad. there's really not anything wrong with that interaction, it was just very uncomfortable in the moment and the reaction afterwards of the girls made it seem like they were annoyed. meanwhile they didn't even say anything to jason except "sarah says hi." this is your moment with the actor, i get wanting to do a nice thing for your friend, but the actor appreciates it more when you yourself try and have a nice conversation with them! there's also a lot of content farming that goes on specifically with jason that i really don't like and it makes me feel bad for him and the other cast members.

sorry for this rant LOL but it's something that's always on my mind and really bugs me! thank you again for the kind words, it really put a smile on my face! i try to cover the show in the best format that gets information out, while also being passionate!

[loner4-life]

His Guardian Angel

Word count: 3.5k

Reader's quirk: memory manipulation, similar to Shinso Reader, can control someone's mind. But whereas Shinso commands his victims. Reader can go inside her victim's mind and control specific things, such as motor skills, memories, and emotions (to a certain point.) Effects last for 10 minutes.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Eijirou was your best friend, you've known each other since middle school.

You did everything together, told each other everything. Which is why it was so agonizing

when he started dating someone.

Now to be clear, you weren't mad he was dating someone.

You were mad at how downright annoying she was. The way she talked was nails on a chalkboard. You weren't the only one who felt this way.

Nobody in the group could stand her but Eijirou seemed so happy so no one wanted to ruin that.

However she hated you especially. At first you thought it was just her being protective and jealous which you could understand to a certain point.

But she would go out of her way to make sure kiri wouldn't even hang out with you. He would always cancel plans or reschedule. Only to cancel again.

◇

You heard your alarm go off as it shook you from your sleep. You sat up with a groan as you grabbed your phone.

You can't say you were surprised that you didn't receive your what used to be usual morning text from Kirishima

You drug yourself out of bed and get yourself ready for your patrol that morning.

Since your quirk was similar to Hitoshi Shinso's you both ended up working at the same agency Aizawa worked at before he retired, The Purple Revolutionary Agency.

Once you got there you walked into the building and to your desk. You did paperwork while you waited for your team to be called for patrol.

Once you finished your paperwork you looked around quickly to see If your boss was around.

You swiftly pulled out your phone to cure your border for a moment. You decided to take a look at the official hero rankings just for fun to see if they had been updated.

Your eyes widened as you saw Kirishima's name at the number four spot. "Oh my god!" You whispered.

You hurried into a hallway as you dialed Ejirou's number. It rang twice before it clicked, "hey Y/N! What's going on?" He asked.

"Have you checked the hero ranks?!" You asked excitedly. "I haven't, why?" He asked curiously. "You're at number four!" You cheered.

You heard him gasp, "w-wow! Really? I- ha!" He rambled in disbelief.

"We should celebrate tonight l! You, me and the gang. You can bring Maziki if you want, I'm sure everyone won't mind." You lied through your teeth.

You knew he would want his s/o there of course, but you couldn't help but think she was gonna make it about herself.

"Well, should we go to our bar tonight?" He asked. "That sounds great." You paused. "It's been forever since we've hung out." You said quietly.

You heard him sigh in. A guilty tone. "I know… I'm really sorry y/n, I don't want you to feel like I don't miss you and the gang." I started, you cut him off.

"We get it kiri it's ok I swear" you said in a cheerful tone. You heard him laugh, "you're a good friend."

You wrapped up the conversation before hanging up just in time to go on patrol.

~

Your patrol was relatively calm, just petty theft and such.

If anyone you chased after gave you trouble you simply used your quirk and made them return what they stole and wait for officers to show up.

You looked forward to hanging out with your friends tonight. You were so proud of Eijirou.

Your shift soon ended and you went back to your agency, did some last minute paperwork before heading home to get ready.

◇

The door chimded as you walked in the bar, you walked up to the hostess table. " hi, I'm y/n, I'm with the pro-hero party." You said.

The hostess nodded as she flipped through the reservation book. "Ah of course here you are, right this way Ms. L/N." The hostess responded as she led you to your table.

A cheer went up as you walked in the room, "there she is!" Mina said as she ran up and hugged you.

"I save you a spot next to me" she smiled before leading you to the table. You took your spot before ordering a drink. "Ohh it's been too long guys!" You smiled at everyone.

"I even missed hanging out with you" you teased, pointing to bakugou. "Pfft- tease all you want, someone's gotta keep you dumbasses in line." He quipped before flagging down the waitress.

You laughed as you looked over to kirishima, before you could congratulate him you noticed something. He wasn't smiling, he of all people should be smiling. He was frowning at his phone, like he was lost in thought.

“Kiri?” you asked as you waved your hand in front of his face, attempting to grab his attention. He was snapped out of his trance before smiling at you, “hey! Isn't this great? Everybodies together!” He smiled wide.

You nodded, “ yeah it is great, but i was just wondering. Are you ok? You seem upset.” you asked with concern. He shouldn't be upset, you thought to yourself, it's his party.

“Oh yeah i'm fine!Maziki just texted me saying she was gonna be late so i'm a little bummed, but as long as she makes it right?” he said brushing it aside.

Your smile dropped a little, “yeah, as long as she makes it” you said quietly as the waitress showed up with your drink. You took it from him and thanked her before taking a generous glug from it.

An hour passed, laughs were made and drinks were had, you and Eijirou weren't much drinkers, you had a light buzz at best. Kaminari had just said something stupid making Mina laugh so hard she started shaking you making you laugh, however the jostling made you a little nauseous.

“Ugh, i feel a little queasy, i'm gonna step out front for a sec, get some fresh air.” you told everyone with a smile.

You stood up before grabbing your jacket and stepping out front. You took a deep breath of cool air before taking a moment to appreciate the ambiance of the street light.

You were shaken from your thoughts by chatter nearby. You looked over and saw a woman getting out of a car and turning to the driver.

"Yes I'll be over tonight baby" she cooed to whom you assumed was her boyfriend. Any normal person would turn away at this point but something seemed familiar about her.

You observed the conversation a little more, "when are you gonna leave him? I want you 24/7 sexy" the man purred.

You analyzed the women further before nearly gasping, it was Maziki. "I know, he's like a puppy, I can never go anywhere without him going, where are you going? When will you be back?it's annoying" she sighed.

"But don't worry, I'll drop him soon, the dudes a bimbo anyway." She leaned in to kiss the driver. " I'll see you Sunday ok?" She smirked before shutting the door.

The car sped off leaving her as she walked into the bar. She didn't notice you. There was a slight ringing in the air. You tried to comprehend what you witnessed.

Maziki was cheating? Why did you of all people have to find out first.Do you tell eijirou? you thought. Was it your place? Of course it was. Wasn't it?

Eijirou was your best friend. But what if he wouldn't believe you if you told him, what if he thought you were lying. You couldn't risk it… could you?

You quietly walked back into the bar, scurrying past everyone and taking you sink once more.

"You feel better y/n?" Eijirou asked. You looked up at him, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, that fake smile plastered on her face.

"Y-yeah, fine" you forced a smile. Safe to say your night was pretty much over after that. You had tuned out most of the night until everyone started going their separate ways.

Thus was your chance to tell him. It was the right thing to do, even if it hurts him. You saw Eijirou talking to Kaminari with maziki.

You hurried over, "hey eiji! Can I talk to you for a sec?" You asked, making it seem like you weren't about to crush his world.

"Oh, sure!" He responded as he excused himself from his previous conversation. Maziki shot you a hateful glare, "babe, I wanna go home." She pouted. "We will honey just one second ok?" He smiled.

She scoffed before flicking her hand in a "shoo shoo" motion. You led him outside and away from the entrance by a few feet.

"Hey uhm, I have something to tell you" you said, twiddling your fingers. "Ok, go ahead," he said with a confused smile. You took a breath, this was it. Youhave to tell him, you repeat yourself.

"It's… you're…" You couldn't find the words. You cleared your throat, " Eijirou it's maziki… she's" you were cut off by a slam of a door.

"She's what?" Maziki spat, "better than you? Yeah that's about right." She hissed. "Ziki?! That was uncalled for, apologize to her" eijirou scolded pointing to you.

"Why should I?! She's been trying to be a homewrecker even since we met.!" She screeched. "Because she's my friend!" Eijirou yelled. There was some back and forth between the two of them before you blurted. "Eijirou she's cheating on you!" You said quickly before covering your mouth.

Both of their eyes went wide, and Eijirou turned to you, "what?.." He asked silently

"I saw her kiss another man-" you were abruptly cut off by searing hot skin against your cheek.

"How… dare you!" She yelled. "That's such bullshit you little bitch!" She screamed before letting out a yelp when Kirishima grabbed her raised hand. " put your hands on her again and I'll have you arrested for assault on a pro-hero." He said slowly.

She looked almost hurt, 'don't tell me you believe her?She is just trying to split us apart." Maziki said.

Kiri let go of her wrist, "Yeah I do, because y/n doesn't lie, unlike other people I know" he spat. "What are you saying eijirou?" Maziki stuttered.

"It means we're done, I had suspicions for a while but didn't want to acknowledge it, this just confirms it. So I hope he was worth it." Eijirou spoke.

" Get your stuff from my place, all of it better be gone by Sunday" he choked before walking away quickly.

You paused for a moment before chasing after him, "Eiji?" You called,... silence.

You hurried in front of him, "eijirou" you said once more. He stopped in his tracks right in front of you. His chest rising and falling quickly. "Come to my place until Sunday, you'll need somewhere to stay right?" you offered.

He didn't look at you, just started past you. You couldn't tell what he was feeling. "Eijirou…" you said once more. "Please?"

He finally looked down at you, there was no smile on his face like there always was, it broke your heart. He finally nodded in response to your offer. "Ok, here my car is over here” you said softly as you grabbed his arm and let him towards your vehicle.

The drive back to your home was quiet, the only noise breaking the silence coming from the softly playing music on the radio. “Kiri I-” you started, but he interrupted. “y/n please..” he muttered as he stared out the window. “Ok” you said.

You soon pulled into your building’s parking lot and parked your car, the two of you headed up the stairs to your place before you unlocked the door and led him inside. It was awkward, things were never awkward between you two.

"Do you need anything l?" You asked as he sat on your couch. "A drink" he mumbled. You gave a silent "ok" as you walked to the kitchen. You poured him a drink and walked to the living room to hand it to him.

You took a seat next to him, "so… are you ready to talk, I don't mean to pressure you. I'm just worried about you kiri" you said. " I just don't understand." He started. "How did we get here?" He asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Was it my fault? Did I do something wrong?" You rubbed his shoulder, "Eijirou no, no no it was not your fault" you told him comfortingly.

"Then why did she do it?I thought we had something, I know you guys didn't like her but… god" he sighed. "She's just one of those girls who run a good thing… they're not all like that."

You said trying to help. "How did I fall for that… two years gone, just like that" he said, snapping his fingers. " I'm sorry" you were lost for words, you were never good at this.

"It's not your fault," he responded. It was silent for a moment before you began to hear sniffling. You looked over and saw his face in his hands as his shoulders shook.

You wrapped your arms around him and pulled him to you. "y/n, please d-don't use your quirk on me" he whimpered.

"I'm not eijirou, I would never make you cry with my quirk, but it's ok to cry you know" you said softly.

"I never cry, I'm the sturdy hero after all" he laughed in between his shaky breaths. You held him for what seemed like hours as he cried, you stroked his hair to calm him. It was what he'd do and has done for you after all.

Soon he stopped and sat up, "Thank you… I needed that y/n" he said smiling slightly. His smile made you smile, "there is the smile I know and love." you said.

He nodded before staring into space for a moment, "so what should i do now?" He asked looking back at you. You thought for a moment.

"You heal, you move on and you find someone who truly cares about you and treats you how you deserve" you said, grabbing his hand and intertwining your finger with his.

The silence was peaceful this time, eijirou turned to you curiously. " Why did you hate her so much?" He asked you, you looked away, "I don't know… we've just been such good friends for years and… I couldn't stand the way she treated you. It always seemed like she never put you first." You explained

"But I felt like I couldn't tell you… I didn't want to ruin something just because I was a little jealous." You sighed.

He smirked, "jealous? Of her, why?" He asked. Your cheeks felt warm, " I mean…yeah, I don't know I just… you're awesome Kiri and I-" you stopped. "Nothing, nevermind" you waved your hand.

" No, what? Come on, I have to know now." He teased you. You scoffed as you smiled, "Ok fine, I had like… a huge crush on you" you blurted as you covered your face shamefully.

"Woah, for serious?" He asked. "Yeah, and I felt terrible, having feelings for someone who's dating someone else? That's terrible." You mused.

Eijirou pulled your hands away from your face, his hands felt rough from the scars of being a hero, but they were so gentle at the same time. " It's not terrible, and I wished I had known, back then because well… I felt the same way." He said.

You looked to him, "what?, you did?" You couldn't believe this, the two of you could've been something? Could you have been happy?

He nodded, "I feel ashamed, I never found it in me to tell you, I know that's unmanly… I just didn't want to lose you as a friend if you didn't feel the same… I didn't want you to be uncomfortable around me." He said, you could tell the tears were threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Oh kiri…" you placed your hand on the side of his face. "If only we had been braver then" you smiled, "Can I be brave now?" He asked.

You raised an eyebrow with a smile, "be brave?" You asked him, he smiled before leaning in closely. Your breaths were felt on his lips as his breaths were felt on his.

His lips were centimeters from your, "be brave Ei" you whispered. With that he closed the gap between the both of you. Your eyes flutter shut as you let yourself drown in the feeling of Kirishima's body against yours.

He pulled away after a while, the both of you panting. He went to kiss you again, desperate for that feeling with you, but you stopped him.

"Wait wait, should we be doing this? I mean you did just get out of a two year relationship…" you asked him. I mean of course you wanted this, you've wanted this for years. You weren't going to ruin it now. "I just don't want this to be a rebound," you explained.

"No no, it's not, I want this y/n, I want you, we'll work out the details later." he smiled. "Then fuck it" and with that you kissed him again, pulling him down as you fell on your back on the couch.

Your fingers ran through his hair, you're glad he never chopped it off since graduation. His kisses gradually moved to your neck, biting down softly when your neck meets your shoulders.

You let quiet whines fall from your mouth as his hand slid up your leg, not used to feeling this kind of touch from someone you truly cared about.

"Is this ok?" He asked as fumbled with the hem of your top. "Y-yeah yeah, I want all of you eijirou~" you purred in his ear.

His hand continued its journey up your shirt before it found the foam cup that cradled your bust so nicely. You thanked whatever God there was that you decided to wear a bra that clicked in the front.

It made it a little easier for the man you had so desperately wanted all these years to finally give you what you wanted.

He quickly unclipped your bra, the relief of tightness on your ribs put a small smile on your face. A smile soon replaced with a face of pleasure.

You gasped as his thumb swirled on your nipple, " you nipples are hard baby~" He whispered as he kissed you once more.

"What can I say, you're just so sexy" you teased, "well that makes both of us" he responded as he pulled his hand away before taking off his shirt, tossing it in some miniscule corner of your living room.

"Wait wait, can we take this to my room?" You asked. "Of course sweetheart," he smiled. You yelped as he scooped you off the couch and against his chest, you instinctively wrapped your legs around his waist and your arms around his shoulders l.

You giggled as he took you to your bedroom, he paraded inside before he turned and sat on your bed, you in his lap. You took off your shirt as well, along with your bra.

His eyes fell on your breasts, but it wasn't the usual stare you'd get from one night stands. He was innocent and genuine, merley mesmerized by your natural beauty.

"Like what you see red?" You smirked as you pushed him down, his back against the bed, his hands fell on your hips naturally.

"Very much~" He responded. You smiled, "I like being above you like this~" you said as you leaned down to kiss him, "I want you Ei, right here, right now" you said, locking eyes with him. He nodded as he quickly undid his pants followed by your hurting to take off yours.

You practically drooled at the sight of his cock popping out from his boxers, a light slap being heard as it hit his lower stomach. "Jesus-" you gasped as you got in his lap, grabbing his member, pumping it a few times.

"Fuck y-y/n" he whined as he balled up the sheets in his hands. "Are you sure you are good with this?" You asked. He nodded his head quickly, "yes I'm sure, I'm fine y/n, I just want you and only you."

You smiled, "ok" and with that you took his hot throbbing girth and guided it inside you. You cried out as it filled you. Low whines from him being heard.

"O-oh my god" he gasped as his hands gripped your hips. You began to roll your hips as he thrusted up into you.

You could barely focus on anything as the amount of pleasure you were feeling almost became too much… almost.

"Eijirou, I- fuck, so good" you whined like a dog. Your hips began to stutter as you could focus on keeping them moving.

You were caught off guard when he quickly flipped your positions with one another. You were under him and you almost came from the sight of him, all sweaty and panting for you, his face saying nothing but pure love and pleasure. The room smelled of sex and sweat as the both of you went at it like animals.

His head dropped into your neck, "I'm so close y/n, I wanna cum with you" he whimpered. You cradled his face with your hands as he looked into your eyes.

"I'm gonna cum Eiji, cum with me, p-please" you whined, his eyes glowed a little, an indicator that someone was under the control of your quirk. You weren't using it on him for malicious intent of course. You just wanted his mind on you and what he was feeling.

His hips faltered before both of you let out a cry of bliss, you both breathed heavily as he collapsed on top of you.

You stayed like that for a moment, enjoying each other in your most vulnerable. "You ok Ei?" You asked, hoping this whole night wasn't a line you crossed. "I'm perfect hun, just perfect" he said with a cheesy smile.

"Are you?" He asked back, you nodded with a smile l, "Yeah, I'm perfect too"

[lynlyndoll]

In my eyes, you the one and only

genre: fluff, angst, idol au

wc: 1.0k

pairing: idol! han x idol! reader

appearances and specifications: ok, so it's basically you and Han, but you are in a group named BeBoom (credit to whoever did the logo of this non-existent group) and one of your members make an appearance. Her name is Hwa, but you can name her however you want though.

an: Okay, had this idea for like, 3 days, but only last night got the inspiration to write it. I listened to NO NAME by Yezi and yes, I thought it fitted I GOT IT, so I do think you should think about NO NAME as the rap you perform. The lyrics are made by me, so if they suck, yall will know that I'm not made to be a lyricist.😔

You and your boyfriend knew each other for as long as you could remember. Your families were neighbors and so, you and him met a lot while being kids. Went to the same school and high school, so meeting up during classes wasn't hard at all. However, you kind of lost connection when he had to leave Malaysia to pursue his dream of being a singer, leaving you behind. You didn't mind it, nor hated him for leaving you, his best friend, alone. You also didn't mind that he was the one who got to train and not you, the one who spent her whole childhood dreaming about becoming an idol. But what you hated was the distance, you hated the fact that you weren't allowed to talk or see each other.

Years went by and somehow, you found yourself in front of a jury from YG entertainment. Your palms were sweaty and you felt as if you were going to pass out. But you wanted this. You wanted to succeed as well and somehow, without thinking too much, you got in. You were accepted in the company and that's how your journey to becoming an idol began. You worked day and night, barely taking a few breaks.

You debuted in 2019, with 6 other girls in a group named BeBoom. You were the main rapper of the group and you couldn't be more proud. Your members were all your friends whom you grew up with. But you did forget one thing. You forgot about Han, about him debuting, about him being your rival, in this hard industry.

Your group's debut made a lot of noise and it was impossible to not know at least about the song VENOM by BeBoom. And for Han, it was no exception. He heard it when he was scrolling down at the new playlist Spotify made for him. He listened to it once or twice before figuring something out. Figuring that a certain voice made him feel nostalgic. He searched for the members and there you were in all your glory. Google showed a picture of you smiling, with your blonde hair with black highlights and red lipstick. It fitted you, he thought, smiling at the picture. He wanted to say it to you, to congratulate you.

And so he did. When both and your group performed at the award show, he contemplated what he should do. Knock on your door or leave you a message, or ask his contacts to find yours. However, he agreed to do it normally. He found your group's cabin. It wasn't too hard since laughter and chaotic sounds were heard even from outside. He knocked once, but no one heard it. He knocked twice and he could hear footsteps. Right when he wanted to knock again, your member, Hwa, opened the door, standing curiously outside.

"May I help you...?" She says.

"Yeah, I was actually... I wanted to ask if..." He tried saying, not finding the words. However, you heard his voice.

"Ji?" Your voice was heard. Hwa connected the dots and left you both to have a talk. That day you reconnected with him and started meeting up to him more often. And that's how your friendship turned into a relationship.

Your life was absolutely perfect. You made your dream come true, you had amazing friends and your best friend was now your lover. After 3 years of dating, however, you and Han realized that you wanted to make your relationship public, to stop hiding and go on normal dates, without being followed everywhere for a dating scandal. So both of you started hinting. Lives full of recommendations of songs from each other’s groups, little appearances in each other’s vlogs, but nothing made your fans to believe something more than friendship was happening, since you both said that you were childhood friends. So, you came with an idea. An idea that made both you and Han smile, knowing it would shock everyone. And that is what both of you were. You were made to shock people.

You were in your changing room, dressed as all of the other back up dancers. You had a black short dress and a black mask on your face. Time was ticking and it was time for you to get on the stage. You and Han both prepared this moment, so you only hoped it worked. The backtrack of I GOT IT started. Han entered on the stage, smirked at you and started his performance. His song usually had around 3 minutes of rapping, but no one knew the surprise you planned. You moved on the beats, the same as the other back up dancers. But right after one minute and a half, the beat somehow changed and the lights went out, making everyone in the crowd gasp. Right then, the spotlight came back on you, right when you threw your mask on the ground. The backup dancers covered you, so you could undress half of your dress, making you easily spotted out. And right there, your own song started, the same vibe as I GOT IT. While you were rapping, this time Han was the one who couldn't be easily spotted on the stage, dressed as the other male backup dancers. The crowd cheered for you as well, amazed by the shocking collab. Right when your own would come to the fire part, you changed your song’s lyrics, rapped by both you and Han, now seen next to you.

“Shining better than a diamond, in my eyes you're the one and only,

Dreamin’ bout this day, together as we sweared, not lonely,

Swallow ‘em all, fearless cause you by my side,

Let’s stop this madness and stop tryin’ to hide,

Makin’ them finally understand,

But let’s try to not make it out of hand,

Y’all heard about my own best friend,

Loving her him until the end.”

The tune went by for a few more seconds, you and Han finishing your performance with a kiss. The crowd applaused and screamed your names, making both of you smile.

taglist!!

@agi-ppangx @lisaaassophhhieee @hyunjin-lover20

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi, I hope you are well and that your day is going well. I was hoping for a bit of nuance to this scene and would like your thoughts. Ep. 6 of IWTV shows Lestat make fun of Claudia for her rape, threaten to send her rapist after Claudia again, and threaten to end her. I know that this scene is from Claudia's pov and so this interaction may not have went this way. However if this really happened what would be Lestat's thought process behind this? Why behave this cruelly (assuming this depiction is true, I'm aware it may not be and would be quite relieved if Lestat wasn't this unkind). Did he really do this to his "daughter"? Could he do this? What are your thoughts?

Ok so... I know this scene is harsh.

I have my own theories about it which I will work into my fic, but... real quick:

Lestat did not threaten to send her rapist after her. And he didn't make fun of her. Imho. He warned her. And then he threatened her, yes. IF it happened like that.

Lestat is also a victim of rape, and he loved Claudia. This scene is... from her POV in Louis' memory. There is no diary relating that scene, and I very much doubt that Claudia would have related it neutrally, too. It is what Louis has made of what Claudia chose to share, and what he then uses to make the point of it being inevitable that they kill Lestat.

So. I do think Lestat brought her back, and that he made some comments, which she took like that. I do think he searched for Bruce, and that he has kept track of him. I do think that he threatened her in a last ditch effort to dissuade her from leaving, running away. He knew what the rules were. He knew what would likely happen.

He knew the coven in Paris.

And he knew what her leaving would do to Louis.

Unfortunately, he and Claudia are very much alike, and so they butted heads very often. They also were very harsh with each other, because they saw each other quite clearly. While also knowing how to hurt the other - Lestat calls her "Evil of my evil" in the books, and I think that is very fitting... - and I think this plays into it also, that Claudia took the comments a certain way, and Lestat probably used sharp words, too.

The show uses that scene to make some very pointed commentary in setup and visuals. And wording. The dog once more, the cage. The luggage compartment.

But ... in-universe that scene is highly unlikely to have happened that way. Because there are logistics contradicting the train scene itself (Claudia's luggage. The tuba. How would that work on a moving train? The trains didn't go that often, and I doubt Claudia would have just acquiesced to hold onto Lestat herself while he carried the luggage if he would choose to fly with her... it just... doesn't make sense logistically. It's why I think the train was never moving, I think he picked her up at the station, OR even stopped her from leaving from home.)

There is also the tale-layer that needs to be considered here.

Louis says (in Dubai):

This is the part of my story, back in San Francisco, where you said, and I paraphrase, "Give it to me. Make me a vampire now."

So this is where he and Daniel ended up in the interview last time, this is where the previous interview stops.

This is where any previous knowledge Daniel has (or, better, remembers at this point) ends.

Louis repeats, that they came to the conclusion that they "had to kill Lestat". Twice. He wants it to land (but Daniel is asleep, drugged). He wants it to be understood, and that it does come across as inevitable. He wants the story shaped in a certain way, and he narrates what supposedly happened in that train car after the above comment.

I don't think that can be completely dismissed here, as with everything on this show.

Again, intentionally lying or not, or embellishing or not... it is what Louis has made of what Claudia chose to share.

And that is obviously colored by perception, and intent.

And the pain of memory.

So no, I do not think Lestat did it - like that.

I think he went after her, he might have threatened her and I'm sure there were some very harsh words, too.

But as shown? I doubt it.

[thewatercolours]

Scrapped KQ Scene: "Roadtrip"

Ok, so I've been working on Goblin Graham again, and I was more or less following my outline from 2021, which is not the most coherent thing in the world. (That happens when the story is actually the decision, partway through a challenge, to see if you can force all the prompts to relate to each other.) And honestly, sticking with that original outline is no longer serving the story. Because I realized I had made Graham run away from Daventry while the castle was being besieged. mainly because I want his family to show him lots of love after the whole goblin transformation thing. Also back then I had never shown the Crackers, and I wanted to explore them. But - none of this works character-wise. Graham would die before running away from Daventry in its time of need. He is brave, and ready to fight for his people. He might falter, but not to the point of running off to Llewdor! And by this point, I've shown the Crackers many times. I don't need to shoehorn them in. I do need to do some rethinking to figure out how to keep certain things from the original storyline, because as clunky as Rippling Consequences is, I want it to work, at least technically. The setups are paid off, etc.

I was really grateful to @captmickey for talking this through with me and offering some helpful insights. She suggested that I take the scene where Graham flees and just make it its own thing. I don't think I'm going to reshape it, but I do like some of the things I did with this scene, so I am going to post it as is just for fun. It'll help me move on from the sunk cost and get the story back on track. So here we have it - the non-official, out of character scene where Graham behaves like a coward and runs, but also has bonding time with a bridge troll.

---

Those who have never journeyed overland in the palm of a bridge troll might assume that such a mode of travel saves time. Ordinarily, they would be right. Though trolls are a clumsy, lumbering lot as rule, the gigantic length of their stride makes up for it. Further, trolls never worry about following the twists of the road, or detouring at mountains and rivers. As long as you have no plans to cross the sea, you can more or less travel as the crow flies when you ride with a troll.

But if secrecy is an issue, well, you’re better off overloading a lame donkey with luggage and not watering it the whole way. You will get there faster.

Every day Graham and Olfie got just a bit further north, by way of an awful lot of east and west, and a significant amount of south. They chose secluded routes through the wilderness, giving towns and farms a wide berth. Bridge trolls weren’t unheard of outside of Daventry, but most surrounding nations distrusted them. Graham suggested that the best way to avoid attracting monster-slayers was to keep their heads down, sometimes literally. Olfie crept through the Miser’s Hills on his hands and knees. Graham rode on the bridge, trying to keep his balance. There wasn’t much to hold on to unless he sat by the very edge. That seemed unwise, but he tied himself in place with his cloak. His body lost height each day. The cloak was now about twice as long as he was, giving him lots of material to work with.

“Isn’t that the cape with big ol’ pockets?” his enormous friend asked after the first few hours. “Olfie could tie it to something. You could just ride in one of the pockets.”

But the experiment did not go far. The splint and poultice helped, but getting in and out of pockets proved difficult with Graham’s ankle. Besides, he found it easier to keep it from bending at odd angles if he rested on a flat surface. Once past the Hills, he spent most of his daylight hours in Olfie’s hand. 

He leaned back against the tremendous cupped fingers. and watching Serenia’s hinterlands thicken as they passed. By daylight, his vision blurred and most colours washed out, but the contrast between light and shadow was sharp. The sunshine itself felt glorious on his clammy skin. When night fell, the world came back into focus, alive in luminescent purples and greens. Even under the new moon, he could pick out insects crawling a quarter mile off. 

Scrub gave way to forest. Graham enjoyed trailing his hand on the overstory, much like he used to dip his hand into the water when he tagged along in the rowboat with his sister. Forest gave way to… well, a forest that clearly went to the gym and ate five dozen eggs every day. Massive paleghost trees dwarfed even Olfie, great-trunked and covered with what had to be the world’s thickest moss. Sometimes Graham snatched a leaf or a tree flower as they passed, just to give his overlong fingers something to fiddle with. He’d always been a fidgeter, but his goblin fingers were impossible to satisfy, just for sheer restlessness. 

It did help that he and the troll talked so much.

Roadtripping with Olfie was a revelation. They had always gotten on well, and Graham had never felt he needed to put on a kingly act for him the way so many had needed him to since his crowning. But Graham had never taken him exactly… seriously. He was grateful to him for all the times he has been kind and useful. But, well, he was Olfie.

But with nothing else to do day in and day out, they talked more than they had in the four years since the tournament. Olfie had infinite patience for his too-short tongue and stiff lips. He never once interrupted Graham as he tried to sort out his pronunciation. After the king had offered his fifth or sixth awkward apology for speaking unclearly, the troll had said, “Frankly, Goosie, Olfie doesn’t really notice. All us trolls got some got teeth that go outside our mouth, not in, so learning you tiny people’s words takes a while for us too.” He considered. “Kinda nice you slowed down, actually. Olfie can’t keep up when people talk too fast.”

And oddly, it was kind of nice.  If the path was slow and circuitous, the stories were allowed to be too. At first, they talked little besides choosing which way to go, when to stop and forage, when to bed down for the night. Then Olfie pointed out a ravine with flowers growing up its steep sides, which apparently looked something like the chasm where he had grown up.

“Funny,” said Graham.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen flowers like those in Daventry.”

“Olfie’s not from Daventry. Started out in the lowlands here in Serenia. Kind of far from here, though.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.”

“Yup,” Olfie said, a tad wistfully. “You’re not the only outsider.”

The silence lingered. “When did you come to the kingdom, then?” Graham asked at last.

“I’m not great at keeping track. Maybe fifteen years? Ish?”

“And…” Graham’s ears sank a little despite himself, “you still think of yourself that way after fifteen years? As an outsider?”

“Nah! Livin’ the dream,” said Olfie heartily, stopping to ginger his way over a boggy patch which probably qualified as a whole bog. Then he swallowed. “But kinda.”

“I’m sorry.” Maybe he should have said more, find out if Olfie wanted to talk about it. But Graham wasn’t sure he had the stability himself, even to listen.

“Hey, it’s not the worst thing to be,” said Olfie, with a consoling, toothy grin. “Least you got an outside to go back to sometimes, ‘stead of being stuck inside.” He raised his hand up to his face so he could look Graham in the face. As usual, it was a little overwhelming to be so close to Olfie’s eyes, one of which had passed as his “eye of a hideous beast” entry. But right now ‘hideous’ was very much a relative sliding scale. “‘This is just a guess, but with all this heading north - you’re going back, right? Home?”

Graham nodded, staring down at his lap.. “Yeah. Home.” He hoped so.

“Good idea.”

Graham shrugged. “Maybe.” He could think of a few cynical responses to go on with, but cynicism hadn’t got him and the villagers through the caverns. He took the second option - curiosity. “So, what’s it like to grow up in a troll chasm?”

And so the stories began properly. They compared earliest memories, roared over most embarrassing moments, and traded lighthearted gossip about Daventryfolk. Nothing too recent at first, but one thing bridged another.  By the fourth day, Graham started to haltingly share the story of what had happened after Olfie had left him in the town square that night. Of the aching choices he’d had to make, and of the enchanted cell he’d been thrown into when his first escape attempt failed.

Olfie didn’t have much to offer by way of insights or comfort. But by gum, he listened, listened in a way that was almost better than talking. “And then what happened?” he would say every now and again. 

It was… a lot easier than he’d anticipated telling his story would be. Maybe it was because Olfie wasn’t human either. Or maybe it was just the nature of this strange journey that didn’t quite feel real, this step-by-step rise and fall with no crisis, no escape to plan, no friends to guess how to keep alive, no split second decrees to make, no previous king to live up to. Would the words come so freely when they arrived in Dapplethorpe and everything became real again?  

Even wondering began to make it grow real again too soon.

One night, as the campfire in the clearing burned low and they finished off the last of their hunter-gatherer supper, Olfie cleared his throat. “So, King Goosie,” he said hesitantly. “You were pretty quiet today.”

“I guess so,” said Graham, gathering up the greasy pheasant bones. He could feel that with a little pushing, the day’s new thoughts would come out, and he wasn’t sure it was wise to share them.

Olfie pressed on. “Yeah. It must get a little boring for you. Anything Olfie can do to liven things up?”

Graham dropped the bones into the ashes and began raking them over with the roasting stick. “You’ve been great. Honestly the problem’s all on my end.” He should have stopped there, but something unruly in him went on. “ It can’t exactly be your fault when you’re just following the King’s orders.”

“Gosh.” Olfie raised an eyebrow. “Orders. Makes it sound all official.” He sounded slightly hurt.

The king sighed, trying to backpedal. “Sorry. I’m just a little out of sorts tonight. And I’m also sorry for… for dragging you into this. I can’t imagine this is how you were planning to spend your week.” But here it was again, the urge to pedal forward. “And, and if anyone gives you trouble when you get back for abandoning the siege, I want you to tell them it was on my order. Then they won’t blame you.” (Blast it, he knew where this would lead. Why push it?)

Olfie’s great eyelids narrowed. “You walked all the way to Daventry on that leg. You tried to get in but couldn’t ‘cause of the magic.You found out the goblins and little Manny Man had the place surrounded, and they’d grab you if they saw you, probably. You didn’t exactly just abandon the siege.”

Graham didn’t look up from the ashes. A note of anger he himself didn’t quite understand crept into his voice. “OK, to make it plainer -  I’m pretty much running away. When i said we should try not to be see, I admit I wasn’t thinking as much about monster-slayers as that… my own guards might be following us. To take me back. Because I ran away, like an idiot.”

“You got Baker Man and the rest of the little town people home safe. And you tried -”

He raised his voice further. “I’d been steeling myself to be okay with my friends seeing me as I am. But when my doctor screamed and crawled backward to get away from me, I chickened out. And ran away.”

“But home.”

The roasting stick snapped. “Even worse. Home with my tail between my legs and everything I tried for trailing behind me. Again. Don’t you get it?” The goblin snarl rose to the surface.

Olfie frowned and reached round the firepit with his thumb and forefinger. For a moment Graham thought the troll was going to grab him. But he stopped, and instead laid his hand down on the grass, right next to Graham. “So why are you going home anyway?” he said, lowering his great voice.

Graham didn’t answer. There were several things he could have said, but they all sounded childish. Funny how you could try to verbally whack someone over the head, trying to prove to them how stupid and cowardly and maybe even treacherous you’d been, and yet still have an inner eight-year-old who thought sounding babyish was worse.”I don’t know,” he said at last, the snarl gone. “I had all kinds of half-plans when I first told you we had to go. I thought I might make things worse. Or that there was nothing I could do. I mean, Daventry’s being attacked by goblins. And Manny. And Manny came to my cell while I was transforming, and he stopped me at the door to the surface. And, and I didn’t know what to do either of those times.”

“You kicked him,” Olfie reminded him encouragingly, clenching a fist and smiling.

“Yeah, I kicked him. Big deal. My point is - Daventry’s trying to defend itself right now. Even if they recognized me, they couldn’t trust me. Aren’t you constantly asking yourself what I might do, what I might try, now that I’m a goblin?”

“No?” said Olfie, puzzled.

Graham laughed grimly. “Thanks. But you’re you. Not everyone sees things like you. And even if they did… Look, I still plan to go back and handle this responsibly. Really. But I need to figure out what that would involve.” Olfie began to speak, but Graham cut him off. “I’m sorry I blew up just now. That wasn’t fair to you.”

The troll nodded soberly, and rose to his feet. The ground shook under him and Graham had to dodge a few unsettled sparks from the fire. “Ya know, this clearing’s a little cramped, and Olfie spotted a nice queen-size ditch just the other side of that treeline. Maybe we both could use the space tonight.”

(You know, I'm glad they had that conversation, because it was what alerted me to the fact that this scene felt all wrong. So - now we've had the scrapped scene, I can get on with writing stuff that works better.)

[ezamevolni]

Jungkook's poems

"And I'm well aware I write too many songs about you" - Falling (Harry Styles/cover by Jk)

Run BTS ep. 40 (filmed late 2017)

It's the lunar new year episode and there's a tradition for people to write well wishes in calligraphy, so the members did this for Army.

When it came to Jk's turn, he held the paper in a way that he could inconspicuously turn to someone on his right while reading.

Not once but twice.

Jk's wishes:

In 2018, let's not get sick and always be healthy And always be together.

Most importantly, it's deliberate on his part to hide himself turning to look at Jin. This is how the other members all read their lines:

Run BTS ep. 56 (filmed early 2018)

Gold

In my mother's birth dream There was a golden rain Wherever the rain goes, things turn to gold. I who didn't know anything, Met you in this golden time. I find myself starting to shine At first I was gold I looked around after a while Everything around me turned to gold. I don't want to lose this priceless light.

So back in 2018 when the episode first aired, as a fan I knew about his mum's birth dream from a visual radio they did. And so I assumed Jk was simply talking about himself and all of the members when he said "Met you". I thought, he's so precious for writing to his members and wanting to be a team for a long time.

Later after coming around to shipping, I saw clips showing the members' reactions in the darkness of the campsite. I had completely missed the Jinkookness of Jk's poem.

Because why was Suga and RM pointing to Jin and laughing, Suga just constantly turning to look at Jin, Jhope and Jimin also glancing over at Jin?

And Jin's expressions during Jk's recital:

Looking down, looking down with a smile, 'AWOOOHHHHHHH'.

Summer Package 2019

Still

You are the hottest among the four seasons. I see you once a year. But you are so strong that you stay in my memory the longest All the moments I spent with you still come to be vividly And even if you and I break up, you are still left inside me. And it is still hot.

I just wrote about this poem in another Trace post. What I want to point out about the poem is how explicitly Jk is expressing his love, and how it only sounds metaphorical to people who don't know what he's referring to. For me, it's TMI.

"Even if you and I break up, you are still left inside of me"

The line itself might seem sombre like he had pictured them breaking up before, however it's a sign of a healthy relationship. They're able to speak about the topic of breaking up and in such a sappy way, turning even the worst of possibilities into some heart-wrenching love story. And the "even if" clearly indicates an ongoing one.

To armys who still think Jk is talking about summer personified: that's ok too. Although fans might know that Jk always preferred winter to summer, and I don't know how you'd rationalize summer 'being inside of him' as a metaphor.

Isn't the mark of a special relationship the exclusivity of certain words and gestures?

[movementsofmylife]

bad buddy ep 6 (rewatch)

how many times does pran pull out his entire (extremely intense) set of markers and not use them:

total so far: //// (what this counter is actually making me realize is that i am overly obsessed with stationery and pran pulls out his markers a reasonable amount)

this episode is soooo much. it feels like it ramps up and up and then the ending with the competition doesn't resolve anything but keeps the emotions and potential open for next ep.

ok so i have an entire partially written story about how the entire trajectory of their relationship would have gone differently if pran had answered this knock. but i also think that's the premise of the whole episode. pran had so many chances to talk to pran, to talk to wai, to do basically anything other than keep everything to himself, but his anxiety and fear simply would not let him.

and i also think part of it is that pran is used to holding these feelings to himself. sharing it, even with pat, can feel worse than wallowing alone. and like, obvs there's fear (considering the consequences of last time he thought about sharing any of these feelings with pat) but i think by the end of the eps it's clear that part of pran's witholding is that there's a certain kind of pleasure you lose when an emotion becomes public. (i am so certain i read a post about this before, but i cannot find it)

case in point the wallowing. there's a comfort in familiar pain.

and in this situation extremely understandable anxiety about pursuing anything.

but the fact that he's doing all this in blue, surrounded by more blue says something here i feel about his state of mind. it's not doom green, it's more like a need to pause and be in these emotions by himself.

the difference between the first time pat tries to grab pran, and the last! i love prallels, circles, snake eating its own tail etc. and this show delivers so many.

okok so. i don't think this is a hot take, but i have a lukewarm take, that pran should have told wai about the situation here.

like, there's no homophobia in bb universe, so that isn't what's holding him back. this is his best friend (annoying as he sometimes is) and i think part of pran's growth is learning to trust someone outside of himself with his emotions.

and obviously that becomes pat, but i think it could have been great if it was wai too. (like he's literally holdinng/wearing his love on his sleeves here, and i think wai can tell somethings up and that's part of the tension of the ep. and i think pat's insistence of "talk to me" is something that everyone in pran's life probably understands to some extent.)

to be clear, this is not a wai apologist post, there's not really any reason to out someone ever, esp not the way wai did it. but i also do enjoy him as a character, he's such a goblin.

this room is just so patpran core, how have i never noticed. this show had zero chill.

i also love this. the nong nao in the corner and the fucking red boat. once more this show has no chill.

i love pa's continued everyone must like ink agenda. obviously who wouldn't like ink? (not her though, that makes no sense)

god the fucking yearning.

jr and uncle tong!!! fully in patpran colors, like the supportive family that they are.

so, these are my favourite outfits from the entire show. i love the seersucker and this large print.

and this fucking resource game. the line "just give in if you can't do it anymore" while slowly losing what ground they have, and inevitably falling. just truly fuck me up.

like truly. ohmnanon deserve everything for what they delivered here.

also pran is fully the scarier one of patpran. which both in terms of sheer willingness and ability to manipulate lol but also we see pran get mad so many more times than pat. pat is mad a total of twice, ep 5 and ep 10. pran tells his friends to fuck off like so many more times. truly living up to pran the warrior.

idk if they meant to shoot this to look like a dreamscape of an idyllic patpran future life, but it certainly looks like one. also the fact that there's doom green shirt over the blue on pran and it comes off later after the market scene when they finally got time to themselves for the first time after everything. (those two min on the beach of pran yelling at pat does not count)

they're so happy to be called a couple! my babies!

pat getting to have the clearing the air conversation pa suggested in ep 2 (?) which i think was necessary for them to later on have a conversation about the future. or at least make up a ridiculous game to find a way to that future.

and then finally! finally!!! we get pran in his own colors, for the first time in the whole ep. he finally got to be himself after spending a day reconciling with pat. :')

also the fact that they clearly expected to be placed into a room together, and when the universe finally stopped throwing them together (the universe being pat's decisions for at least half of them) pran finally takes a step forward.

this still remains one of the funniest scenes of the show

pran is clearly a scorpio in some planet and i'm calling venus. bc i'm a scorpio venus and i have friends who are and this is the kind of shit that comes out of our mouths. sometimes you just have to be the most esoteric bitch on the beach.

this show is so good at making what we all know is an inevitability at this point (patpran getting together) feel like a suspenseful journey. it's simply marvelously executed.

and then it ended on this and i felt no peace for an entire week.

i fully wrote a fucking essay and honestly i could just keep going about this episode, its such a good episode!!! like the fact that pran uses the headphones pat gave him to listen to his heartbreak music, if that's not the most emo shit. but i will stop.

[acefms]

MEET WESLEY!

if you’re hearing STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM by DRAKE playing, you have to know WESLEY ‘WES’ CARTER ( HE/HIM; CIS MALE) is near by! the 40 year old RETIRED NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER has been in denver for, like, 3 YEARS. they’re known to be quite UNYIELDING, but being DAUNTLESS seems to balance that out. or maybe it’s the fact that they resemble JESSE WILLIAMS. personally, i’d love to know more about them seeing as how they’ve got those A LUCKY WRISTBAND, DRINKING BURBON IN A DULLY LIT BAR, RUNNING RAIN OR SHINE, LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE, NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM vibes. and maybe i’ll get my chance if i hang out around the WASHINGTON PARK long enough!

NAME: wesley ‘wes’ carter

AGE: forty

HOMETOWN: Detroit, Michigan

BIRTHDAY: april 11th

ZODIAC: aries

GENDER: male he/him

SEXUALITY: bisexual

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: single

OCCUPATION: former star basketball player in the nba / bar owner

[ tw: poverty, car accident, severe injury/paralysis & death.]

• Wesley grew up in a loving household with two parents still together and four other siblings. Wesley is the second eldest, with one older sister, one younger sister and two younger brothers all aging from 25-45. His mother was a stay at home mom and his father worked as a basketball coach for the local team. However, a car accident would leave Wesley’s father with serious injury causing him to be paralyzed from the waist down. It didn’t take long for the family to feel the strain of their fathers new reality. Wesley was in the car with his father but very luckily escaped with only a broken collarbone and several bumps and bruises.

• With seven mouths to feed, Wesley’s mother had to take on any jobs that she could, and each of the children did whatever they could to help, but nothing ever really seemed to help. Most days they’d all share a small amount of food, but despite their conditions, and many disagreements, there was only love at the core.

• Of all the siblings, Wesley showed the most promise from a very young age, taking after his father with his own love of basketball. During his younger years it was the only thing he truly could focus on to escape his reality. Star of his high school team, he was accepted into college on a full sports scholarship and did everything that he could to succeed.

• Despite a setback with his own injury during his senior year, after finishing college he was one of the top draft picks for the Detroit p.istons and soon found his career taking off. Since then, he’s played for a number of different teams and brought each one a certain level of success. At the age of thirty-seven several injuries forced him to retire, and he’s still trying to figure out who he is when he’s not playing the game he spent his entire life loving. The game that saved him, in many ways.

• His career has allowed him to give his family a better life, and no matter how much success he has, he has never and will never forget where he came from and the fight he had to put in to get to where he is today. He took every no and turned it into a yes, never once accepting defeat.

• His mother would end up passing away in her sleep 5 years ago of a suspected brain aneurysm. This was very hard for him to take, but being the sibling who always ‘fixed’ things, Wes bottled up his grief and made sure everyone else was ok. His father moved in with him, and Wes made sure he had the best medical care possible. It is also not unusual for his siblings to stay with him for long periods of time, either. But he doesn’t mind. His success is theirs as he wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.

HEADCANNONS

• He hates not being able to fix things for the people he cares about. He’s such a fixer?? Your problems come first, his can wait. Which of course makes them 100x worse but it’s cool.

• Romantic with someone? You are getting beyond spoiled.

• So competitive it’s unreal. Like no, he’s not even gonna let you win to be cute. It’s just the way he is wired to fight to be the best ? He’s sorry he doesn’t mean to be an ass about it, it was just programmed into him to show no mercy in that sense.

• Needs quiet moments to simply get through the day? His home and job are always so loud, he needs the quiet for at least five minutes or he will explode honestly.

more tba.

[galactic-pirates]

And liveblog of episode 6 of Ahsoka. Late this week due to lack of spoons. This show gives me so many feelings I have to have the energy to deal with it haha.

Huyang told stories to the younglings at the Jedi temple!!! My heart always twists when I hear a bittersweet remembrance of the ‘before’ times. Ahsoka was a little soft there and the “they are still in my archive memory would you like to hear one” made me feel like Huyang wanted to tell the story, as much as maybe Ahsoka wished she could go back in time and hear it again. Hearing it now wouldn’t be the same, and that’s a pain that cuts deep. She will never be that youngling again, innocent of war, and surrounded by family. Huyang might one day help another batch of younglings with their first lightsabers, or tell them historical stories, as droids can live for hundreds of years. But with what we know of the future - of Luke’s failed academy - I am unsure as to what place Huyang has in this century of the Republic. Maybe Rey will find him and give him a place?

Huyang’s instant “impossible” hearing Sabine had gone willingly with the bad guys warmed my heart. He is hard on Sabine, he knows she isn’t a real Jedi (because she’s NOT!!!) but he still believes in her and knows her heart is true. They settled on ‘troubling’ but it’s not because Sabine is in any way a traitor, more I headcanon what that choice would do TO Sabine, and I guess with the threat of Thrawn/war to the rest of the galaxy (and what the guilt would then do to Sabine). Ahsoka still thinks Sabine should have just ended it and not taken the risk and… I don’t know. That’s not the Ahsoka I remember. I still feel like Rebels Ahsoka was willing to risk for friends. The bad outcome is not certain, nor is it certain that Morgan, Baylan etc. and this group of bad guys, is Thrawn’s only way back. The Ghost crew risk for each other if they can still fight back and win, yes it’s having it both ways, but why fight if they are just going to take the ‘easy’ path and sacrifice what they are fighting for if they don’t necessarily have to?

I wonder how much of all of this ^^ is on Ahsoka’s mind. It could be a “once bitten, twice shy” type deal. With everything she has suffered becoming very risk-averse would make sense. I feel in asking for one of Huyang’s stories after all, it’s like the pain it causes from the memory, is less than the pain of contemplating her current life. A familiar pain to runaway from contemplating the present mess. I laughed at Huyang starting the story with “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” because very on the nose, but it was deftly slipped in so I don’t mind it.

Sabine’s banter with Baylan felt very in character. The “I try to avoid that” in regards to reflection. I could see it in the animated style.

Peridea being a graveyard makes sense as the Nightsister magic is very linked to death. I am unsure if this is new canon that Dathomir was essentially a colony rather than the original homeworld, but I don’t mind it because after a thousand years what difference does it make? Dathomir is infused with Nightsister magic, and it’s the only home countless generations have known. Even if there are other nightsisters down on Peridea (as opposed to maybe a handful of survivors across the galaxy like Morgan and Merrin), that won’t change that Merrin felt she was alone as she was - she had no way to traverse the void to Peridea even if she had known about it.

One thing I don’t quite understand. I mean it was suitably creepy all those bones surrounding the planet but that’s in space right? How did they decay to bones in a vacuum? Shouldn’t they look the same as the day they died? That golden dropship looks really dorky. It’s basically a box with retractable wings, it’s so funny.

Oh ok. “Your visions guided me across the stars” - they can send telepathic messages between galaxies??? I mean I know Merrin is pretty powerful, she cloaked the Mantis but there’s a big difference between hiding a single ship, and THAT. Honestly that feels a bit insane-levels of power. Like if they are that powerful then why are they not ruling the universe type power? And they have been waiting for her? Why didn’t they just hop a space whale like the ancestors?

Fall of the Jedi, Rise of the Empire, it repeats over and over - well yeah that is true. I mean we know that from the Old Republic game. So Shin is eager for power, and thinks that’s why they sought Thrawn, but Baylan says “that kind of power is fleeting” and he wants an end to the cycle. This is another trauma response. He said he was a bit older than Shin so I’m thinking he was a Knight rather than a Padawan. I don’t know if we know how he survived the Empire years? I’m getting shades of Dooku here. I don’t think Dooku started off intending to go full Sith, he did take a Sith name and in the Clone Wars TV show he does some pretty evil stuff, but he was years into the choice by then. I think part of the power of the dark side is how ‘slippery slope’ it is and that’s why it’s a battle Jedi never win, but constantly have to be on guard against. Baylan has lost his way, and he is trying to control what can’t be controlled - everyone else - because he doesn’t want to feel the pain of losing everything again. He wants to Fix It! To make it never happen again. But death is part of life, that’s a Jedi teaching, to let go, and he’s letting his fear and pain cloud his judgement. He thinks he’s making a logical choice to end the cycle, he doesn’t see that the darkness has it’s claws in him.

Shin is… a bit like Ventress maybe? In that she’s misguided, had some contradictory training from Baylan, and I think still has a choice to make. Baylan doesn’t care about Thrawn, his alliance with Morgan was purely to get him the Peridea it sounds like, to something he remembered from one of Huyang’s tales perhaps? Something that he thinks will give him the control he desires. I don’t think Morgan cares that it was an alliance of convenience as she just needed him to get her this far, as muscle essentially, but Thrawn will bring that. The one thing I don’t quite get is why Morgan cares about Thrawn?

Ok so the Chimera has seen better days but man the scale of the Star Destroyer never gets old to witness. Very impressive how they sort of ‘docked’ the tower, that’s a skilled pilot. Those Stormtroopers are definitely not regulation but that makes sense. They have been without Imperial resources for years and Thrawn wouldn’t care about such things.

I’m getting chills as the voice is the same - it’s the same guy!! But the face isn’t right as obviously it’s not the sharp cheekbones animation. Some of that can be explained by the fact that this is several years later - Thrawn has got older - but otherwise it’s a bit like…. do they even try? I’m still salty about how ridiculous the Inquisitor looked in Kenobi.

Ahhhhhh I’m screaming at the Thrawn and Sabine reunion!!! The artist and the art appreciation dude. “You’ve gambled the fate of your galaxy” “You wouldn’t understand” - I am getting echoes of “rebellions are built on faith” because it’s faith in each other that is how the Rebellion survived, how they won. Sabine has faith in Ezra, because he is a Jedi, because he is Spectre Six, because he never failed her before.

It’s typical of Thrawn to play with words and think he’s got all the angles covered. Sabine has the opportunity to find him, and if she does they will both die. Ahhhhh I loved the Mando fighting! I LOVED how her armour saved her, and she used that guy as a human shield, and popped the grappler thing, and then there was nothing wrong with pulling the lightsaber after that. Din Djarin did the same thing with the darksaber when he had it, a tool is a tool.

Awwww I loved Sabine yelling at her wolf mount thing and then refusing to get on it and it just following her. So stubborn. I love how she talks to things like they understand “you better not bail on me this time” - I could see it in animated again, really captures Sabine’s voice here. And then Sabine pays attention and listens because Kanan taught her that, just as he taught Ezra, or maybe it was Hera who finally got through to Sabine about it, about connecting. I definitely feel like it came from one or both of them somehow. Although Sabine always did have a huge heart. I love her so much.

For all Baylan says that he trained Shin to be “something more” he still gave her a padawan braid. How much of his rejection of the Order is because if he pretends it was always weak, he doesn’t have to face the reality that it fell anyway? If he makes himself believe that the Order was weak, and broken, then the fact that it’s gone becomes ‘better’. Sort of hating the thing that he lost, so it doesn’t hurt so much that it is lost.

I am trying to work out how they can be turtles and have shells and yet still wear clothes. How is the shell connected? Not quite sure how Sabine thinks speaking ‘standard’ at them will be understood (or how the wolf mount understands either). Maybe body language/tone is getting the message across?

Ahhhhhhh Ezra!!! And his first line is “I knew I could count on you” oh my heart, the callback I am dying. “Typical, always a plan, never a good one” “hey it worked didn’t it” - so accurate on the voices!! I can see that in the animation. Spot on characterisation. I like that they took a minute before the hug. It was a huge moment and ahhhhhh “I can’t wait to go home” another callback oh my heart.

So somebody posted a screencap of Sabine in relation to her cooperation with the bad guys, for when Ezra says “how did you find me” and it had the quote “it was a series of bad decisions ok” and I am laughing because Sabine brushing off the “let’s not talk about it now” still leaves that open to be canon because clearly she knows Ezra won’t be thrilled. I think he’ll accept it fairly quickly though because if their roles had been reversed he’d have done the same thing.

I read a tumblr post saying that they had tossed all of Thrawn’s book development out the window but I’m not sure I see that. In the Thrawn Book Two novel where there were flashbacks to when Thrawn met Anakin during the Clone Wars that was after Ahsoka had left the Jedi order. I remember because Anakin thought to himself that he wished Ahsoka was still around to accompany Padme but she wasn’t. Thrawn didn’t really encounter Ahsoka either because she ‘died’ on Malachor in the season 2 finale and six months later at the start of season 3 Thrawn arrives to deal with the Rebels. So there was no reason for him to research Ahsoka then either. If we get to next week and Thrawn is told that Anakin was Ahsoka’s master and he doesn’t go “interesting, Vader” then we can side-eye the canon, but until then open mind.

I’m not going to lie I had fancast live action Ezra as John Harlan Kim (Ezekiel in the Librarians among other roles) and I’m not feeling this guy yet. But the ten seconds of screentime he got in this episode, isn’t enough to really judge. Ezra’s dad had a beard like that so it’s not inconsistent and his dialogue is on point so time will tell.

Very interesting episode! I remain sceptical how they can tie all this up in two episodes without it being rushed (they always rush it /sigh) but so far so good. Shame about no Hera this episode but I guess that balances the shame that there was no Sabine last episode. Hopefully we’ll get Hera next episode. As much as I want the New Republic leadership to already be going “sorry, you were right”, it would be a little amusing if they got smacked in the face with it if Thrawn jumps out of hyperspace at them. I just really want them to get the message that they should always listen to Hera, she knows whats best.

[stinkylittleanon]

Hello fren could you maybe do hcs for the 12' maincast reacting to a friend coming out as genderfluid?

-🐚anon (I'm probably gonna be back lol, ur very big brained)

I THINK YOU MEAN THE TMNT 2012 MAIN CAST, RIGHT?? IF I GET THIS WRONG THEN PLEASE TELL ME! I'll do the turtles! ALSO I'VE NEVER BEEN CALLED BIG BRAINED, IT FEELS ODD SINCE I ALWAYS CALL MYSELF PEA BRAINED LMAO -------- I'm gonna start with Raph, he's the first turtle I decided to try and research </3 I might take 2012 off my list, I didn't realize how much I forgot about it! --------- Raph!! - He'd be confused at first. What did that mean? - You'd have to explain it to him! ... Repeatedly. Again, again, again. He can't just seem to get a hang of it at first! - Raph ends up getting frustrated with himself (and you a bit) because he can't understanding it - Until you explain it in the DUMBEST way possible! - Then he semi understands! - You seem scared, though, so he'd gently place a hand on your shoulder and smile at you. "While I don't ENTIRELY understand... I'm no jerk- kinda. I accept you for who you are. Heh, I mean- Look at me! I'm a turtle! Who am I to judge?" - AND IT'S??? ODDLY COMFORTING?? - He'll get the hang of it eventually! Just tell him what you're feelin' that day or if you prefer anything and he'll do his best! Just remind him if he messes up! - He'll... Kinda understand better after a month or two! Leo!! - He's also confused at first, but he's way more calm about it and understands it faster. - Leo... Compares it to something he's seen in his show- I'd imagine there's some character in there that's doesn't really follow gender! - Yeah it's not the most flattering thing to say, but he's supportive! - "Thank you for trusting me with this... I promise, I'll do my best to remember. I accept you." - He gets stuff after a week or two, he's a fast learner! - Leo isn't afraid to correct others, he definitely helps Raph remember to use your pronouns and stuff! - If you change anything about your appearance? He notices first! "Oh, hey! Your hair!" - The second worst at understanding, Raph's the last Donnie!! - Donnie understands immediately... Immediately after asking a ton of questions. - He knows what being transgender is! He knows the genderfluid label, he just wants to understand how YOU experience it! - After you open up and explain how you experience your gender and stuff, he'd open up and explain how he feels about his... He might be trans! Donnie just needs to learn more! - You can go to him about gender dysphoria if you experience it (not all trans people have dysphoria!), he's always open to help! - "Thank you for trusting me with this, (Y/n)... I'm always here for you, ok?" - If he ever builds you something? He'd paint a lil' pride flag on it for ya (if you're comfortable with that! He'd ask first!) - Donnie would slip up once or twice but he'd get the hang of things quickly! He's also not afraid to correct people, even if it's some villain they're about to fight! - "You're weak, (dead_name)-" "Uh! Actually, it's (Y/n)!" "O-Oh-... *coughcough*... You're weak, (Y/n)..." Mikey!! - You'd have to explain what it is to Mikey at first, but he'd immediately get it! - There's quite a lot of lgbt things in comics, even old ones, so he'd seen the concept before! - He'd simply ask about the stuff you prefer before looking at you like you're the most important person! - "You're so cool! I wanna be like you one day!" - He really looks up to you and he's so happy that you told him! - You're so strong! In so many ways! He knows how humans can be awful, he's experienced it before... So you've gotta be so strong to be so open about your identity! - If you're still closeted socially then don't worry! He's got your back! - Aggressively compliments you when you need it, using certain terms and all that to make you feel more valid! Which you already are! I tried my best to not force anything onto the label! People experience these things differently so I left it more vague so you guys can comfortably read! >:]

[danthropologie]

I watched the podcast and daniel def tries to deflect from those questions and is (imo) very uncomfortable and laughing in awkwardness - def not excusing it tho!

immediately putting it under a cut so people that don't want the discourse can ignore 😭

a couple things i want to say before i say anything else:

these are just my opinions about it. i don't expect anyone else to agree with me, and honestly, i would encourage other people to form their own thoughts and opinions, cause everyone is going to respond differently.

i'm just gonna say it once for the record and then i'm moving on. we're not dwelling on it, i'm not open to further discourse about it, please don't send me anything else about the situation or about anything i've said here because i will be ignoring and deleting it.

now on to the asks themselves:

ok so here's the thing: yes he did deflect to a certain extent, but to me it read more like someone that's been pr trained out the ass and knew that certain jokes or topics were toeing a line they shouldn't touch than actual genuine discomfort, especially as the podcast went on and the jokes kept being circled back to. there were multiple instances where, in the midst of these long misogynist bits from the hosts, he'd sit back and joke about how he's getting a free comedy show. there was the way that after they'd finally moved on from that first, long ass bit and started asking him genuine questions, before answering, he brought it back up to jokingly ask if they're done with that topic now, which of course brought on another round of the joke. and then add to that the comments about bringing them out to a race and wanting to hire them as his personal shit talkers on the grid and things like that...it just felt like there was a constant stream of, like, endorsement of what was happening from him (which of course there was cause he's literally the one that chose to go on there in the first place!!)

i do still like him, but it's also a lot more complicated for me than it was before. like on one hand, it’s been acknowledged over and over that this sport is literally garbage from top to bottom, these men are not the place to look for moral guidance, etc., and so i’m not necessarily surprised by any means when something like this happens, especially considering the fact that this is not the first time he’s said or done something stupid and it probably won’t be the last either. but on the other hand, when it comes to this situation specifically, for me there’s just something so visceral about watching a man in his position—someone with a largely female fanbase that he’s actively and directly profiting off of through his merch—finding that sort of shit funny. it’s gross, it’s shitty, it doesn’t feel good to me, and it’s one of those things where if i knew someone personally that had done the exact same thing, i’d be reevaluating where i stand with them yk? so right now, i’m kind of at the point where i’m still working through those feelings and trying to figure out if this whole situation is something i can personally move past. but either way, i think i’m definitely gonna start thinking twice before giving him quite so much of my money 🤷‍♀️

nothing to add! the whole thing is genuinely just so stupid to me on every level and i can’t imagine what he or anyone on his team was thinking booking it. like you said, even if they agree with it or find it funny or whatever the fuck, you’d think there’d be at least one person with enough of a brain cell to say ‘hey maybe it’s actually NOT a good idea to endorse this publicly.’ but as i said in that post, not surprising that this happened (and that it’s not the first time he’s been on a questionable podcast in the first place) when he’s surrounded by such a homogenous group of yes men 24/7 lmao

i’m saying this with all the love in the world: i really REALLY think that’s a decision you need to be able to make for yourself, rather than be told by someone else. everyone’s going to have their own perspective and their own feelings about it—some people are going to say he deserves to be cancelled, some are going to find ways to excuse it or justify it or explain it away, and others will fall somewhere in between—so the most important thing is figuring out what you feel based on your perspective, rather than just following some herd opinion about who qualifies as a Good Person on tumblr dot edu yk?