#only reason i feel ok with focusing on one fic over another is because i DID WARN U at the start

[mrghostrat]

Ur probably getting a ton of these questions so I’m sorry if I’m being annoying but…

I’m really into “and they were streamers” and I’m DYING. Any idea when the next chapter will be posted, or if it even will be posted?

it will be!! don't worry, it's not abandoned!! i've just got more muse for BNF at the moment so writing that is coming easier now that the house move isn't taking over my entire brain. thank u so much for being patient, i know how eager everyone is for the streamer fic so i haven't forgotten you 😭🙏

[lightlycareless]

naoaki coming back to the estate only to find naoya and y/n having an intense make out session 🤭 also when hinata finds out y/n is inlove with naoya, she would beat up gojo because he jinxed it 😭

Hello!!!!!

Omg yesssssss however...

This would be highly embarrassing for all parties involved hahahahaha

But you know what it reminds me of? This video right here. God, there's so many things I could go from here like.

If this was the child au (when Y/N and Naoya are a bit older) this is how Naoaki finds out they're dating. He'd leave the room immediately.

Highschool AU, they'd be caught by Gojo, who would take pictures to blackmail them with :) And that's how everyone knows they're dating now.

But going back to Naoaki, ngl I'd like to see his reaction (he'd be getting a taste of his own medicine if you know what I mean)

Warnings: spoilers for my main fic, I believe. Slightest, tiniest hint of smut. Someone gets a reality check.

Happy reading!

Naoaki rushed back to the estate as soon as the mission was over. He always did, but as of lately, he’s doing it more— and it's no surprise why.

Ever since you came into his life, you're all he thinks of. From the beginning of the day to when he goes to sleep, Naoaki can't wait for the moment he’ll be able to see you and the lovely way your face brightens up when seeing him again, getting to hear your chirpy voice telling him of all the things you’ve done while he’s away, and maybe, if he’s lucky enough, how much you miss him too.

He doesn't care that you're Naoya’s wife. Wasn’t really an issue since he’s been nothing but disrespectful towards you; what claim can he make, demanding to keep away from you and respect him?

Everyone knows he doesn't deserve you, especially him. So what does it matter if his brother gets close to you?

Besides, it's not like anything is ever going to happen between Naoya and you. You hate him too much to allow it.

So in a way, he’s relaxed when arriving at the estate.

Kind of, for Naoaki is still worried that Naoya's suspension, where he's forced to stay back home until it's over, could easily provide him a moment to torment you.

And that… Well, he wouldn't be that far off.

Only it's not quite how he imagined it.

“Y/N—are you here…?” Naoaki is just a mere seconds away from knocking your bedroom door when it suddenly slides open, you scurrying out soon after, with a flustered face and disheveled appearance, which you try to fix before he notices, eventually acknowledging him.

“Naoaki!” You breathe, threading one of your unruly hairs behind your ear. “I didn't… I wasn't expecting you to come back!”

“I thought I'd… surprise you.” He admits, eyes focused on the swollen appearance of your lips, the fidgeting of your fingers against the collar of your kimono, and was that a… “... Are you ok?”

“Yeah!” You gasp, fervently nodding your head. “I'm fine! I was just, you know, laying a bit! Tired from all that work. Have you eaten? I'm sure you're starving!”

“No, I haven't” Naoaki, obviously, gets the feeling that you're trying to rush him away from your room. But why?

Is there another reason behind your flustered, suspicious behavior? Or maybe he caught you in an… inappropriate time?

“Well then, that can't be!” You say, quickly grabbing him by the arm and pulling in the direction of the kitchen. “Let's get you something to eat first!”

“Wait, Y/N— I don't—” and perhaps because he was tired, or simply caught off guard by everything, Naoaki can't do anything but allow you to guide him away.

Away from the rising suspicions he harbored towards your unusual appearance, your odd behavior, or the sounds coming from inside your chambers…

Naoaki, even then, was willing to push all aside and simply enjoy his reunion with you—had he kept his sight on the hallways, instead of turning back to your room, giving it one last glance and getting a sight that would forever mark his conscience: an equally disheveled Naoya exiting the doors.

Although subtle, the impression of what the two were doing there was clear in the way he fixed his pants, followed by the marks on his neck, or even the lack of an undershirt…

Naoaki didn't want to concede and admit what transpired, but it's not like he had much of a choice anyways when Naoya proceeded, with little to no shame.

“Y/N!” Naoya suddenly calls, a noise that immediately makes you stop, hesitantly turning around as your cheeks become redder and redder, to see him.

“...Yes?” you squeaked.

“Once you're done, head back to my room. I'd like to pick up where we left off.” Is all that he says, with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face that was undeniably directed to Naoaki, before turning around and retreating into the hallways.

You don't give any time for Naoaki to say anything before you're tugging him back away towards the kitchen, the path there completely silent as his new reality begins to settle in his mind.

It was almost cruel the way he found out, almost as if the universe decided to cruelly play a trick on him, toying with his worst fears, destroying what he thought invincible, and mock him with it.

But Naoaki would have to learn that the universe doesn't work that way. All had simply been work of his own delusions, thinking that just because there was a rift, he'd be able to step in and fill that void.

It was never meant to be that way. Not at all.

You and Naoya were fated together for a reason, Naoaki just needed a bit of time to see that.

Naoaki you fool... Did you really think you were to stay with y/n? Nope :) I mean, at least not in the main story I mean what.

Anyways, this is a direct call back to that one time Ranta saw Naoaki leave y/n's room and he was like oh no Naoya not better see BUT HE DID. Oh, those were the days.

As for Hinata, you can be 100% sure she's going to beat gojo's ass for even thinking something like that. :) I wonder what her reaction would be to seeing the two tho...

Anyways, I hoped you enjoy this silly thing I wrote hahahah I don't even know if this is what you wanted, but it did rub one of my guilty pleasures so... 😏

But thank you for sending in this ask :>

Take care, and hope to see you soon!!

[billdenbrough]

@naturecalls111 and i were joking around about kevin’s fantasies, which got us back to this post, and for reasons too long to explain here, we ended up discussing a version of kevin explaining the second one. i said they were mutually kinda tipsy when it came up in convo, but kevin was a little more affected (despite his size) because he’d been doing Active Things in the sun all day while aaron had mostly been chilling (kinda a la the summer rituals fic). mina was like ok so they should be dumb enough to try this and i was like i’m concerned about kevin drowning, thought about it for another second, and wrote her this in our chat

notsfw!! it’s pretty soft and not particularly explicit but the premise very much is attempting kevin’s pier blowjob fantasy lmao so proceed with caution

“I don’t think this is going to work,” Aaron says.

Kevin, already pulling off his shirt, looks over at him. “You told me last week I’m in peak physical health,” he says seriously.

“Kevin, you’re the one who said you’d need to be a merman,” Aaron says exasperatedly.

Kevin finishes pulling off his shirt. Aaron allows himself to run his eyes along the ridges and grooves of Kevin’s chest, slowly mapping it all. He kind of wants to do it with his fingers, even his tongue. There’s something in Kevin’s eyes—darkened, watchful—that says he’d let him.

But they came here for a reason, one they won’t get to if Aaron gives in to his little wants, so Aaron swallows, sighs, and looks away.

“Only half the time,” Kevin says. Aaron can feel his eyes on him. “Are you going to take off your clothes?”

“I thought the point was that I’d look normal,” Aaron points out, finally looking back at him.

Kevin huffs, but concedes. “Okay. Just make sure, you know, to get it out.”

Aaron is about to bully him for that phrasing—get it out; what is this, grade school?—when Kevin takes a run to the end of the pier, diving in gracefully, his body an impossibly lean arc against the night sky.

With a sigh, Aaron moves to the edge. He sits down, sliding as close to the edge as he can without falling off and, as per Kevin, ‘gets it out’. Kevin surfaces and wades over, staring at Aaron.

The tide is high, and the pier a little low, which is the only reason this is even slightly possible. Still, Kevin’s brow creases.

“This would be easier as a merman,” he says. “Tail propulsion power.”

Aaron cannot believe he still wants to fuck this man.

“You are ridiculous,” he says, huffing. “Am I meant to imagine you’re a merman?”

“No,” Kevin says seriously. “I don’t want you to reduce your estimation of my physical ability on display right now by pinning it on fantastical causes.”

“That was never a risk,” Aaron says, and intends to continue, but then Kevin’s got his arms planted on the pier, the forearms locked around Aaron’s thighs as a way to brace Kevin’s upper body, and he’s taking Aaron’s dick into his mouth.

Aaron lets out a low, startled moan. A little warning? he wants to say, but then he looks at Kevin, and all the words die in his mouth. He’s so – distinct, like this. A stark thing against the backdrop of the world. The ocean and night sky are so large, but Aaron’s world narrows down to just Kevin, with his focused eyes fixed on Aaron, his stupidly sun-red and alcohol-raw and kiss-swollen lips a sharp contrast against Aaron’s dick, and he’s so fucking beautiful. So fucking beautiful, and just looking at Aaron, all his attention on Aaron.

So Aaron can’t bring himself to tease him right now, not like this. He strokes Kevin’s hair instead, marvels at his stamina. It’s not the best blowjob he’s ever had—the angle and leverage are working against them, and so is the lack of being able to feel Kevin’s body whenever he wants, the water even covering his ability to look—but it’s one that Kevin wanted to give him so much that he jumped into the ocean for it, and that makes something in Aaron’s chest get uncomfortably tight, makes arousal curl hot and low in his belly.

Kevin pulls off with a gasp and a soft thwick. There’s a line of spit connecting those lips to Aaron’s dick.

“That’s a workout,” Kevin says, looking at his forearms. They’re trembling against Aaron’s thighs. God, he’s so—Aaron feels so—Aaron lo—

“Whoa,” Kevin says, and that’s all the warning Aaron gets before Kevin slips, his arms giving way and Kevin sinking below the water.

Aaron doesn’t even hesitate. He immediately pushes himself off the pier, barely noting the shock of cold from the water getting to the rest of his body instead of just his legs. He dives under, grabbing around him, until he can feel Kevin’s skin.

When he surfaces, Kevin’s there too.

“I’m okay,” Kevin says. “Like, I was all good. It just took me by surprise.” He glances ruefully at his arms. “I was more tired than I thought.”

Aaron’s heart is still going a hundred miles a minute. “Not as equipped as your merman counterpart, huh?” he manages to say.

Kevin looks at him. He must hear it in Aaron’s voice, because he doesn’t make the indignant noise he usually would. “Guess not,” he says instead, then smiles, slow and quiet and sweet. It’s the one he only brings out sometimes, one Aaron’s never seen aimed at anyone else. It makes Aaron’s chest hurt, even more than his heart beating itself against his ribcage.

“You’re wet,” Kevin says, frowning.

“Very observant,” Aaron says. “That happens when you get into water.”

“You got wet for me,” Kevin says. Aaron wants to ask if exhausting his arms also had a follow-on effect to his brain, but then Kevin comes even closer, the water rippling around his skin. His body heat is more noticeable now, warming Aaron’s skin until it prickles with the temperature difference.

“I’ve done a lot of things for you,” Aaron says, too honest. “You’re really annoying like that.”

Kevin grins. They’ve floated beneath the pier now, and it feels – echo-y. The ocean is huge, the night sky even more expansive, the sand of the shore going for miles and miles, but here, beneath the pier, it’s like the world is just them, treading water and their body heat bleeding together and Kevin looking at him, and Aaron looking back.

When Kevin moves forward to kiss him, Aaron doesn’t even complain about his clammy skin or wet hair or any of the thousands of reasons that kissing when wet sucks. It doesn’t matter, really. Not when it’s Kevin. It makes up for it, he guesses.

So when Kevin presses their lips together, Aaron just keeps treading water, and kisses him back.

[epickiya722]

Haha right? It's so normalized while it's actually so inappropriate to go to a stranger and talk about their sexual preferences.

I hate how "x fans" is called "x fuckers" now. Yeah I like Sukuna. No I don't want to fuck him. But all there is in his tags.

I'd go as far as to say that people don't care about characters. They just want to put them into tropes box to imagine them as their vampire/alpha male/ceo lover.

And I find it ironic how the same will trash talk about fanboys while they do the exact same thing. '"let women be horny" they will say, because reducing a story to you being horny is ok.

I still want to publish my stories because some fandom gave me hope. But I don't hold my breath anymore.

It is very inappropriate. Like, damn, I can't just like the character? I can't be entertained by their antics?

There are just so many things that shouldn't be normalized across fandoms and going into someone's inbox to be like "*insert character* fucker" is one.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind people having their fantasies about their faves, let alone am I gonna police anybody on or care to. Waste of my time, I got fics to write! Posts to post! 😭

But sometimes I do think "does this person actually care about the character's story"?

Because some of those same people will have so many takes on their faves that don't even be that character. That is a whole OC you created!!

I actually wasn't aware of this until only recently that people accepted for Sukuna to become some absolute horndog when Yorozu was up all over him. Maybe I missed something, but Sukuna only ever expressed being interested in fighting and killing people and personally, he never really came across as some sexual deviant to me.

I feel like sometimes if you have this fanon version of your fave, that is not your favorite. In no way, should you feel the need to like this whole other version of your "fave" in order to like him. Then why have them as your favorite in the first place?

I like Sukuna because he entertains me. He's this evil ass menace who wants all the smoke and the biggest beef he has is with a 15 year old (who is my all time favorite of JJK). Sukuna also this mysterious air about him because we still don't know much about his backstory, let alone everything he can do. (I had this recent thought about a technique that I should probably get to writing.) I have theories about his character, like how he may really be as a person, true. But at the same time, I'm not gonna believe my theories about him are canon because "I know him better than Gege". Anything I say isn't canon unless said so explicitly. I didn't create Sukuna. I am just another fan just vibing along with the story.

And it really is insane to me that people will do that. People were saying "female fans of JJK are ruining the fandom, they're all so horny" as if all us are horny, let alone engage in the anime for said reasons.

The same people *cough cough* misogynists *cough* who say that be the same people who will have a wallpaper of someone like Nami as their header and she'll have boobs bigger than what she has in canon.

Oooh, y'all don't like folks be objectifying the JJK men, huh? Even though for years female characters have gotten the treatment in Shonen. You cannot be dragging Gojo fans when you want to be Makima's dog. Stop that now.

Also, its not just the men! Uh, Yuki Tsukumo exists! She has a lot of fans who find her attractive. There's Shoko, Utahime, Takako, Mei Mei...

I'm waiting for the day 143 gets animated because I just know people are gonna go 👀.

Like, either way, if you're a person who gets constantly horny over your faves, why are you upset with someone doing the same?

I saw this meme post about how people tend to overlook the story and its details and only focus on the attractive cast and fights. And some people were like "but people are only focusing on the fights and attractive cast".

No, they're not. You're missing the point.

For one, you can find the characters attractive and enjoy the fights. That is fine. But at the same time, don't miss the story. Pay attention to it because it's just as important, if not more.

Second, not everyone is focused on just the fights and cast. If that was the cast, why do we have theories and meta posts? Why do we have people writing fics that study the character they're writing about? If no one is focusing on the story and only like the fights and attractiveness of the characters, then those kind of posts from fans wouldn't exist.

[btr-rewatch]

hii, you mentioned you were around during the fandom's heyday, i was wondering if you had any favorite fics from back in the day you'd like to share? <3

Hello! Yes, BTR was actually my official "introduction" to online fandom when I was younger :) I spent so much time here on tumblr and fanfiction.net, which was a lot of fun because the fandom was at its biggest and most active.

Good timing with this ask, because I was actually thinking about making a post with some of the fics that were popular (or that I personally enjoyed) back when the show was on. I still have them bookmarked on my old laptop! I'll select a handful and put them under a read more.

Quick disclaimer that I cannot attest for the quality of any of these fics now. I haven't revisited most of these since I originally read them, though the main details have cemented themselves in my brain on account of my past self having read them over and over and over. Still, I don't know if my older, adult self would find them any good in regards to writing quality or the actual content.

• Ok. So, I have to start out by mentioning Laura (known as Miss Fenway), who I wrote briefly about in my BTF Fandom Lore post. When I tell you that she was the "Queen" of the fandom for the years the show ran, I'm not kidding. Everybody knew her. She churned out fanfics like it was her job. She was responsible for a lot of the headcanons that ended up being adopted by the rest of the fandom. And she wrote "Little Hollow," the 55-chapter, 160,000-word fic that had a profound effect on the fandom. Basic premise is: Logan gets cancer, and from there, everything spirals into tragedy and heartbreak. She then wrote a fic based off an alternate ending to "Little Hollow" called "Three" that absolutely destroyed my younger self when I first read it. Like. It was just too much for me.

Back in the day, Logan was the character who was tormented the most by fic writers, and nobody tormented him quite like Miss Fenway. In some of her other fics, he loses an arm in a shark attack, becomes a drug addict, gets kidnapped, is in a car accident that leaves him brain-damaged, is in a hockey accident that leaves him with amnesia, and so on.

Personally, I was partial to "All These Lives" & its sequel "September." To THIS DAY, I cannot hear either of those Chris Daughtry songs without thinking of those fics.

• If you're into AUs, "Mania" was hands-down one of my favorite BTR fics (maybe even one of my favorite fics period). It's like...an edgier version of the boys? They're a gang of sorts, formed out of necessity in order to keep their neighborhood safe from a rival gang. They carry weapons, get into fist-fights daily, and will go to the ends of the Earth to keep Katie safe. Listen. It sounds off the rails, but read it. Trust me. Even now, years later, this fic occasionally pops into my head out of nowhere because I loved it so much.

• Fics that focused on the guys as little kids were very hit or miss (and sometimes could be weird), but I've got to include two of my favorites, "The Petting Zoo" and "Trouble." They both capture the personalities of the boys so well, and I have to imagine this is a lot what they were like as kids. Chaos all the time. Idk, I thought both of these were so funny. Worth a read, in my opinion.

• Alrighty, last fic on this list is a doozy. It's called "Another Reason." This was my absolute favorite BTR fic, and it was one that I read and literally needed several days to digest because it was such an emotional ride. This is a DARK ONE, guys. It's gritty and depressing and hard to read, to the point I only ever read it once because I was never quite ready to return to it. Kendall is kidnapped and tortured for days by someone associated with Hawk (I think??) so it def treads into AU territory because it's nowhere near the lighthearted, goofy feel of the showverse rivalry between Hawk and Rocque Records. Feeling like the police aren't doing all they can to find Kendall, the remaining three boys steal Mrs. Knight's car and take off in search of Kendall.

Like I said, I haven't reread it because it was a tough read, but I remember it being well-written and rambling at length about it to a family member.

And that's where I'll leave it for now! If anyone checks any of these out, I'd love to hear thoughts (my ask box is always open). I also welcome your own fic suggestions, since I really haven't ventured back into the BTR fanfic world yet. Also, thanks to everyone who read the fic I posted the other day!

[duskspring]

Chores and a Show - Copia/GN!Reader fic

Domestic December - Day 2

Summary: You help Copia with his paints before a ritual

Content (do let me know if I forgot anything!): Google translate Italian as per fandom tradition, some insecurity on Copia’s side but it’s all ok in the end

Word count: ~1.7k

“Stop being so squeamish." You said to Copia, trying to sound gentle and not make him feel bad. He could be extra sensitive before a ritual, but you’d already told him to settle down twice.

"It's not my fault you tickle me, amore."

You playfully scoffed, trying to resume getting him ready. You added some black onto the brush.

"Close your eyes for me.” When he did, you started dragging the colored hairs over his eyelids and the surrounding area.

You were laser focused. Copia deserved nothing but perfection.

You startled the brush back slightly when he put his hands on your hips. You'd been straddling his lap the whole time to get as close as possible, but he’d kept his hands down up to this point.

"Copia." You say in fun-loving warning as you color his other eyelid.

"I'm behaving." He claimed, though he smirked like he had more up his sleeve.

When you moved to add a second layer, his hands dipped a little lower to your rear.

"Preshow's already on, we don't have forever.” You reminded him.

“All the more reason to enjoy your company while I can.” You had to pull back again when he smiled, not being able to work if his eyes were crinkled up.

Stopping for a moment did give you the chance to take a good look at his face. His freckles and any blemishes you usually loved mapping out were already covered up with white, but his wrinkles, the proof of his fast life experience and wiseness were still visible clearly enough for you to admire. Not that you’d admit to that, knowing Copia didn’t like them being pointed out.

“Does it look ok?” He noticed your staring, taking it to mean something was wrong. His voice sounded so small, almost childlike.

Your expression softened further, but still you took the chance to tease him a bit, “It will, as soon as you let me do my job.”

He chuckled briefly, trying to get his worries out, before straightening his face. His hands dutifully moved back to your hips.

The rest of the work went well. You’d gotten plenty of time to practise back at the abbey. Doing this for him was just another way for you to prove your devotion to him and try to help him out any way you could. He, in return, appreciated your perfectionism in the act, always insisting on starting over if it wasn’t just right.

He would never understand just how hard it was for you, however. He was still shirtless, apart from his suspenders you couldn’t believe he could wear against his bare skin. He looked good enough to eat. Though the only person you had to blame for that distraction was yourself. You were the one encouraging him to not be in costume yet when you painted his face. You had faith in your skill but the last thing you wanted would be to accidentally stain that beautiful military style jacket of his.

You took a steady breath, before holding it in. You refused to allow yourself to mess up the thin lines on the sides of his face.

Copia would love nothing more than to cheer you on or tell you something to calm your nerves, but it was his job right now to remain still.

You pulled back after the second line was done, letting out a big sigh of relief after having not messed it up.

“Stay very still.” You told him next, angling his head a little further back.

He wasn’t sure what you were gonna do, but he would never question your process. Not after your flawless track record. Because it was you.

You were shaking slightly, the small adrenaline rush you always got catching up with you. Still, you smiled. You smiled at the man that made everyday just a little better. A man that you knew would go through hardship and hell to make you happy. He was everything, with or without the paint, because it was him.

You lean in closer, his hold on your hips instinctively tightening to help keep you steady. You press your lips to his. They were the only part of him still unpainted.

Still, you kiss him softly, not wanting to blemish the surrounding paint. Copia sits up the slightest bit, trying to follow you when you pull back with a self satisfied look on your face.

“Almost there, love.” It was a matter of coloring his lips and you’d be done at last.

Still you didn’t allow yourself to slack in that department. You couldn’t speak for the rest of his audience, but you certainly enjoyed looking at his lips a lot, so they too had to look pristine.

You wished you could stay and look at him for another few hours, but a quick glance at the clock revealed the disappointing need to start wrapping it up.

You patted his hands on your hips, “Up we go.” You smiled, standing up and quickly stretching you back as Copia followed you.

As soon as you straightened your posture he stepped closer to you and put his gloved hands on your cheeks, “I would kiss you again if I could. Thank you so much, amato mio.”

You lean your head sideways into his hold, “No need you thank me at all. I love getting to do this for you.” As a last sign of affection before having to move on, you turned your head a little to kiss his palm.

You stepped away to the clothing rack that stood against the walls. All of his costumes for the night were hung up in order, ready for his quick in between costume changes. You grabbed the one on the end of the rack, the previously mentioned beautiful military style suit. It gave Copia an edge, a sense of authority he deserved as Papa.

When you faced him again, he looked the part as well. It was like watching an actor morph into character; he stood up straighter, exuding an air of confidence that suited him so well.

You took the jacket off the hanger and held it up. He obediently held his arms out without having to be asked. You helped him into the garment, closing it quickly, but with care.

After that he knew to sit in front of the vanity, you coming up behind him to brush his hair back. You loved getting to make his hair look all neat to then see it get progressively more messy throughout the night. As much as you loved watching Copia all dolled up, it was even better to see him let loose and have fun. It was clear as day that the stage was where he was at his most comfortable.

You looked away from his hair for just a moment, noticing how he looked at your reflection in the mirror, the slightest of smiles on his face. You knew exactly what he was thinking.

“I love you too.” The words left you oh so delicately. He needed to know you weren’t just saying it to say it.

“Ti amo più di ogni altra cosa.” More than anything. It was far from his first love declaration but this one, right in all the chaos before the show, somehow felt like the most meaningful one you’d ever heard.

A frantic knock interrupted the sentiment, “You’re on in five!”

You sighed, excited to see Copia perform again but upset your time together was so rushed. You leaned down and very delicately placed a kiss on his neatly brushed back hair.

“Go get ‘em.” You winked at him through the mirror.

He got up, examined his full reflection before finally turning to face you again.

"How do I look?" He already looked confident as can be, but still he asked you that same question before every show, as if you wouldn’t always respond the exact same way.

You stepped closer, putting your hands on his chest, "Like the most beautiful man I've ever seen."

His confident look softened. He wished so badly to kiss you, but knew his paints would mess up from it and your hard work had to be admired on stage for all to see. Instead he brushed his hand over your hair.

“I will look for you in the crowd.” He promised.

You pulled back, already grabbing your bag and making your way there, “Remember, I’m on the left balcony.” You didn’t really jive well with big crowds. As much as you’d miss seeing Copia up close, you were happy you got a spot in the VIP camp. Less people, but still a good overview of the stage.

The next few minutes we’re a bit of a blur as you had to rush to make it up there on time. You only hoped Copia could take it a bit easier.

You knew he was nervous, he always was. But as soon as the white screen fell down to reveal the band the energy in the room was electric.

He had such a way about him, capturing all eyes in the room with his strong voice, silly dance moves and sometimes eyebrow raising words in between songs.

And he made sure to keep his promise, looking over in your direction multiple times. It was clear to you that he didn’t truly see you at first. But when he did, he made sure you knew. He waved his arm in a gesture towards you and you immediately understood he’d found you.

It was almost an art, making you feel like the only person in a fully packed arena. As if all those songs were especially for you even when he interacted with the crowd and wasn’t actively engaging you.

You’d probably never get the full scope of it, but when Copia was up on that stage, he was there for you. At least in spirit. He thought of you the whole time. Your unwavering faith in him calmed his nerves and the prospect of you telling him how great he did, like you always told him after performances, served as a driving force to do even better than last time.

He needed you, in that way. He wanted you. He could never imagine doing this without you.

He loved you, as wholly as you loved him.

[My Main Masterlist | Domestic December Masterlist]

[ruddcatha]

FanFiction ask game 4,24,40,75 please ☺️

HIII @liz8080!!! Thank you so much for the ask! 4. How do you choose which fics to write? they tend to chose themselves... no i'm serious. I start off with an idea (sometimes), and start to write and then the story goes yeahhhhhh we aren't feeling that you are going to go.... HERE. And there we go lol. Sometimes its just sitting at the computer going "ok- what are we writing today, let's find out" and them 4 hours later looking at it going "huh... ok." Not very technical I know, but that is like 90% of the stories lol. I have only really plotted one out with an outline, and by chapter 4 the story was off to the races laughing at me Guardian. 24. How do you choose whose POV to write in? Hmmm, that I think depends on the story and how I want to tell it. So I have one I am working on where Inuyasha is trying to make stovetop ramen for the first time, so it is in his POV. Other times I am in Kagome's. I tend to write in Inuyasha's POV I have noticed, but usually thats because I relate to him as a character, the outsider that is just kinda on the fringes, hides his emotions because then no one can hurt him, so I get him. I will say this... writing in Sesshomaru's POV is HARD...

40. What is your favorite world that you’ve created for a fic?

That would probably be the I Object World. I know a lot of people would think Guardian, but I Object was really personal, and yeah its based in New York which I know Very Very well, but at the same time, it was creating a new version of it that was more integrated with humans and yokai, but also not.

Though I do have to say I am also loving the Sense and Sensibility world, but that is lovingly borrowed from Jane Austen, so I don't take credit for it!

75. Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn’t expect?

So one is Just Tell Me What He Did..., it started as a reason for @neutronstarchild and I to rewatch Inuyasha... you know just to take note of all the modern era episodes... really... we swear... and it was just fun to write. When we added a surprise last chapter, it took off, when it was our way of explaining how all the cleanup in the modern era was accomplished, thinking Sesshomaru would absolutely still be alive, but its funny, and we love it!

The other is Soul in the Beast's Eyes, another collab written with Neutron. It is a birthday fic for Elkonigin, and focused on an Inuyasha whose demon took over at a young age and didn't release control until he was much older, and how that demon would react to an injured Kagome, taking care of her, and them slowly starting to love each other. It was a blast to write, and the fact that so many people have enjoyed it and love it really in some ways surprised me and also made me smile.

Thank you so much for the questions!!!!!!

Fanfiction Writing Asks

[monsterhunting]

Hello! I was re-reading -i bet you think about me- yesterday, and saw your reblog about the commentary posts 👀 would v much enjoy some info on the writing process for that fic. It's my favourite modern-era version of Jonathan, that perfect mix of grumpy and sweet 🧡 also love how that fic gently played around with the mean/petty elements of both Steve and Jonathan's personalities (v underappreciated character traits of theirs in my opinion)

[i bet you think about me; from this ask meme!]

omg well firstly this is very very nice of you to say!!!!! i am very honored that is a fic you would want to reread, i had a lot of fun writing that one!

and ok so originally i thought that fic might be a long oneshot (this happens very often I fear.) once i outlined and started writing, I realized that wouldn’t be the case, but before that?l? the idea for the fic was inspired by the fact that my Alexa is synced to my Spotify, which means sometimes i’m listening to music on my phone or laptop and it randomly cuts off bc my mom started listening to the Alexa at home. (Luckily this hasn’t screwed my algorithm up too badly. although i did get an email the other month thanking me for being one of earth wind & fire’s top fans.) ((also: i realize now this is a weird jump to “hmm stonathan exes to lovers au where….” but that was indeed the jump i made.))

so for several months the fic sat in my Google docs with just a few lines of prose/dialogue here and there and a couple of notes with ideas. I think the first little bit i wrote was the beginning when steve tells robin about realizing Jonathan still has his Spotify (and by that i mean that for a while the only words in the Google docs were “you know what’s funny about this? You and Jonathan have, like, the opposite taste in music.”) and then for a while I’d randomly come up with little ideas and quickly add them to the doc. In fact, i distinctly remember driving home from a vacation with my family in the car, coming up with a bunch of ideas, and quickly writing them down when we stopped at the Starbucks drive thru. (I think that was when I threw in the what makes you beautiful karaoke flashback and also the scene post-confrontation where Nancy tells steve Jonathan is seeing someone and then has to clarify it’s a therapist lmao)

So that was the ~early stage stuff, and then i fully outlined it and started actually writing and then posting it in chapters, which is around the time I decided it would be nonlinear with flashbacks breaking up the present day sections. Also: the flashbacks were very much my favorite part to write!!!

And then from there i was mainly focused on creating, like….the vibe. I pretty much knew i wanted the fic to start out fun with a lot of Spotify shenanigans but get a bit more angsty as it went on, and i wanted that to tie in with Steve’s general attitude at the beginning being “the breakup wasn’t a big deal and we weren’t even serious” (which you kinda know from the get-go can’t be true because steve and jonathan were neighbors and friends for over a year before they even started dating) and then as the fic goes on you realize it very much was serious and steve is very much not over it. And then alongside that i was trying to walk the line of “these are two fucked up individuals who are very fucked up over each other and the reasons why they broke up make sense for them as characters and are realistic but also you should root for them to get back together regardless.” which was….hard at times lmao. i mean i feel like stonathan kinda have a toxic yaoi vibe depending on characterization / context so it wasn’t hard hard but also i did want to show they were genuinely good together and happy before they self sabotaged their relationship so that was another line i also struggled to walk.

relatedly; i’m glad you said you liked steve and jonathan’s petty/mean elements because i worried at several moments i was making them too mean! i think i was especially worried people would think jonathan was too mean, mainly because you don’t get his pov so you don’t really know what’s going on in his head. which is partly what i added in a little wrap-up of the events of the fic from his point of view when he and Steve talk toward the end. but also, tbh — and maybe this will sound bad lmao — i was thinking about it and then i was like “hang on. you’re writing M/M fanfiction. The only way someone would get mad at you because they think either of them is too mean is if one of them was a woman. So you’re fine.” And that helped lmao

Not really sure when I decided what the ending would be but i knew i wanted their reconciliation convo to start with Jonathan playing a song that had some sort of significance to steve / their relationship. And I knew i wanted them to be like “we’re gonna try again and work things out” but i wanted there to be a sense that they’d be successful without necessarily doing an epilogue??? so I just did a lil paragraph at the end that was like steve imagining them living together and giving speeches at robin and Nancy’s wedding and stuff, and that was basically a little confirmation that they’d be fine and things would work out. And then i ended with a flashback to Steve suggesting they share the Spotify account initially bc I thought that would be nice and full circle :)

Thank you so much for asking!!!

[x-authorship-x]

Hello! I have a question or multiple if that's ok. ^^ Have you ever thought of how different people would react if hope au Shisui somehow for one reason or another found himself in the au where he's dead? Like would they become obsessed with his wellbeing because what went wrong for THEIR Shisui to commit suicide and what did THAT world do right for Shisui to still be alive? Would they agonize over who was the problem? Were they not enough/did they not have a close enough relationship? How much more devastated would they be if they found out hope au Shisui went to Inoichi for help when THEIR Shisui thought he was alone and couldn't rely on them? Would the Uchiha clan try to keep him within the compound like Mikoto going absolutely feral and refusing to let him be involved with the village anymore? Or how much more clingy Itachi would become? I feel like it has potential for a lot of hurt/angst with a pinch of comfort

Hey~

I'm always open to questions, about any of my fics or fandoms! ☺️

I think that would be an extremely upsetting fic (which obvs wouldn't put me off lol) but I'll admit I've never particularly thought about it. I think it's because I'm focused on pushing through with the series that it takes prompts/submissions for me to look back and rework "the beginning", as it were (part one/the suicide/the relationships first introduced in NoT etc). This sounds very interesting tho... I'm not sure I'd write it as anything longer than a one shot with a potential for a two-shot, just because - like you said - it would be a collection of people freaking the fuck out and raging/crying whilst Shisui is like... catatonic with guilt and shame...

I'll add it to the submission pile (not forgotten!!) tho because I am interested...

As for your questions;

They would absolutely be unhinged with Shisui's welfare

I think there'd be a lot of insecurity and self reflection. Kakashi would probably be dangerously low, as close to the edge as he's been before, whilst Genma would be extremely angry at the Uchiha - who would be enraged at the village - and likely to pick a fight with Itachi. Raidou would be hurt personally, Tenzo would be stricken and lost and possibly a little distant because he doesn't know how to cope (leading to more angst as Shisui sees this as a rejection). Inoichi would not let him out of sight. Ino would be extremely angry at everyone, her parents Shisui and herself included.

The divergence in HOPE AU versus this Darker Timeline would absolutely torture Inoichi.

Well, one of the reasons Shisui jumped (besides sheer hopelessness, the prayer that Itachi would awaken a Mangekyou that could fix the problem, and the influence of extreme panic under Aburame poison) was because he felt he couldn't return to the village/the clan after having been attacked by Danzo without pitching the Coup into all-out civil war. If Shisui returned, after having been so close to ending the fighting with Kotoamatsukami, only to not only be close to death because he was stopped by an Elder but because said Elder had committed bloodline theft...? Game over. Shisui would rather no one knew, he died, than risk being the thing that made it all worse.

In the usual Darker Timeline, the Uchiha Massacre does take place. I'm guessing that it doesn't in this one? Unless Shisui returned relatively quickly from death, in which case there's a very good chance that people just think he survived the fall and took a while to find his way home.... In the case that the massacre just doesn't happen, I think the HOPE AU divergence is even more interesting because... How was this coup stopped without Shisui/Kotoamatsukami/said Massacre?

If Shisui returned post-massacre....? 😬 He thought that returning after having an eye stolen and the fallout would've been the worst timeline... He'd be proven fucking wrong...

Hope that answered some of your questions, Riruisris! ✨

[harri-etvane]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I've read all your stories on AO3 and I absolutely ADORE your writing, you have really unique, very poetic shall I say style. It goes straight to the heart and creates vivid emotional images in mind. I simply love your stories. May fave is "And early though the laurel grows".<3<3

I especialy love Maksym's and President's bond -there is something special about it - this silent trust. I don't even know how to describe it… Also maybe I'm projecting but in real life there seems to be some kind of intense reverence in Maksym behaviour when he is around Ze.

This image of Maksym carrying fainted Vova (bridal carry<3) and not letting go in the infirmary beacause he's there to protect and he CAN'T let go… It just tore my heart out (in the best sense possible).

Also I just love h/c in all this (comfort part is the best part because let's be honest this precious man deserves all care and comfort in the world) Plus there is something about this fainting trope - blacking out is such extreme vulnerability when one is totally dependent on others :/:/

I have this fanfic idea/prompt that wont't let me alone and I just wanted to share it with you :) Your fic inspired it- it's about Vova being on the verge of blacking out and Maksym preventing it with TLC (tender loving care ;))

Maksym and Vova are somewhere (for some reason isolated for a short period of time, so there are only two of them) and suddenly Ze mumbles that he feels strange, all the alarms go off in Maksym's head as he watches blood drain away from Ze's face. and he's there to catch him just in time as he starts to slid down. So Maks slowly lays Ze down on the floor. He pats his face first gently then harder and says: "Sir?" "Volodymyr Oleksandrovych?" (and finally as panic settles in) "Vova can you hear me?!" "It's ok Mks" whispers Vova (as alawys trying to reassure others). But it's not okay at all - Ze's face is pale and covered in thin layer of cold sweat, under Maksyms fingers his pulse flutters, beats like birds heart. Emotions and professionalism clashes up in Maks. He gives Ze the first aid (I guess in real life Maksym is well trained in this, after all he's the first person next to President). So Maks loosens Ze's collar (if he's too buttoned up - unbuttons another button, so it's easier to breathe as well easier to check the pulse on cartoid artery) loosens his belt (do these military pants even have belts?) - here Vova can crack a lame joke about Maks not buying him dinner first ;);) then he lifts Ze's legs so they are higher than his heart and blood goes back to brain where it suppose to be. (lifts them and rest them upon a wall or a chair, whatever).

When he leans back over Ze's face he sees his eylids flutter as he struggles not to black out…and sudddenly Maks is hit with innapropriate thought what beautiful straight eyelashes Ze has and that he never noticed this before. Gradually with all these ministrations Ze feels better, color returning to his face, his eyes focusing and his pulse evening out. He whispers that he feels better and that he's sorry (he's clearly embarassed by all this) wants to sit down, but Maksym orders him to stay like this for longer. Maks sits beside Vova (holds his hand while also discreetly checking his pulse) and to relax him and lessen the tension and embarassment tells Ze some embarassing story about himself (or some story from his childhood maybe)??

That's it. Just a raw idea but it wouldn't let me alone :). I have another one but I don't wan't to smother you with these;)

Anyway I just wanted to tell you that your stories are very inspiring and I LOVE reading them, I treasure every and each of them. You're my fave author from this fandom!<3

Much love xxx

oh my goodness, anon - what a lovely, lovely thing to say! I'm so very, very glad you enjoy my writing! I only started posting bits and pieces on the internet earlier this year, so it really means a lot to get feedback like this :)

The bond between Vova and Maks is so very special, and it's such a joy to explore what it might be like through fics and whatnot. I sometimes think of Volodymyr as the embodiment of all Ukraine; he really is a true servant of his people & Maks is part of that too.

I'm such a terrible sucker for a bridal-carry moment, so I'm especially pleased that resonated with you so much.

Thank you for leaving this little fic idea in my inbox too - very intriguing! - you're more than welcome to leave anything else that comes to mind in my inbox and I'll keep them in mind when I'm next writing :)

You're an absolute sweetheart, anon - thank you! There are so many amazing writers in our little fandom so I'm very honoured you like my little fics, when there's so much wonderful work to pick from <3

xx

[galactic-pirates]

Yet Another Ask Meme: 4, 18, 36

Thanks for the ask!! :) :)

4) Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them? Oh sure lots. One's I'll admit to? Actually this is me and I have no shame about it so also many haha. I don't generally write OC's. They get such a bad rap that I save those particular imaginings for the stories I tell myself when I can't sleep, rather than ones I type up and post.

However, there is one exception that I just could not resist. I gave Jenkins a boyfriend in my and the Sins of Atlantis fic. Mordred. I don't know why maybe I just didn't like him having been lonely for two thousand years. I tried not to write it but I had such feelings about it. I... ok one day there will be (hopefully) a novel series written by me as a Camelot retelling. I have over 50k written towards it already (none of which was in that fanfic). I know, I know, Camelot has been done to death but hey there's a reason the Arthurian myth has been around for hundreds of years, it captures the imagination. If I want to write my take on Arthur's heroic death, and the uncrowned King Mordred and the Knight who would have ruled by his side, if Galahad's father hadn't broken the kingdom, then why not?

Admitting to sources of inspiration is probably not wise but I find OC's aren't a bad starting point for creating original works. Mind you the same can be said for fanfic "what if" as well. So long as pretty much everything about it changes in some form before the final version - well inspiration has to come from somewhere.

18) First, second, or third person? Third, always and forever. I have attempted to write first in exercises but it's not how I naturally think. From day one when I started writing it was always in third. I mostly only read third too. I will read first as I don't discriminate when I pick books up. However, I think I'm probably more likely to DNF a book written in first. I think I'm less forgiving or less used to it's foibles I don't know.

36) How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of? Answered here

(in recompense for not answering have another one. I was tempted to ask "Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't." for you but oh merlin so so many and how to choose which to ramble about? I'd be here all week...)

20) Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you? Back in the day I used to have several WIP's going at once. Even then that wasn't the wisest as I got discouraged by what felt like slow progress (as my progress was split across projects rather than concentrated).

These days I have less spoons and I'm not really even mentally capable of doing more than one thing in a day. I would love to be able to write and draw in the same day but I can't seem to make it happen.

Anyway, I find I can't swap and change at all really now. So I focus on projects one at a time. For example I'm doing the Librarians gift exchange and I've had the assignment for weeks and weeks but I only started it last Monday. I spent March focusing on my novel and I regret all my life choices for that because an exchange deserves a quality product that takes ages to make (because I've had weeks to work on it) and I'm terrified it won't be done in time for the deadline. But I had to choose and I started drafting in January so the novel kinda came first. Anyway, I haven't touched the draft since I finished it, and I won't until the art is done.

It really is sad I can't balance better :/

[sarcastic-sketches]

Intervention AU

Roll out the carpet, it's another one lads and buckle up because this ones long. I've had several mini AUs that I've kind of just compiled all into one but I just really want to explore a narrative where Anakin gets a chance to sort his shit out and work towards fixing his issues. Because man do I love untangling characters inner conflict and having them get help so that they can overcome their own hurdles. An Intervention AU, if you will, before he truly flips his lid.

First, the concept that Anakin Skywalker is not entirely human - he's half Force - is fascinating. Because yeah, with the confirmation that he is the Chosen One, plus the Mortis Arc, it seems obvious that the Force made him. It borrowed a likeness from Shmi and then filled in the gaps (so he's technically a clone of his mother with some Force poked mutations here and there - I’ve read fics along those lines and they are top tier imho). But the Force is well, a cosmic power and can't really integrate into a human body all too well. The human half just wants to belong and be loved and to love. The Force half does not know how to express such messy human emotions in a way that doesn't resemble a flood.

But a flood can be managed when it's diverted into many rivers and streams, rather than being solely focused through only a few. To be clear, this is not a ‘attachments are fine actually’ take, this is a ‘get more friends so you loosen your grip on the ones you currently have’ angle. He learns to let go of the few people he loves because he has so many other people in his life to turn to. He will never be truly alone or abandoned, which is his fear ultimately, and they in turn help him realise that the only person who can convince him that he is enough is himself. Basically, dear god get it through Anakin's thick skull that the Jedi are communally raised so they spread their affections over multiple people and yes that is allowed. He’s just more used to a nuclear family model because thats all he had growing up. Him and his mother.

Love doesn't just have to be romantic and having a wider support network would also mean that Palpatine can no longer keep Anakin isolated. His grip on the Chosen One lessens as he finds other people to trust and confide in. It would also mean more eyes and ears to notice when he suddenly has a 180 in attitude after speaking with the Chancellor.

Also him being half-force I want to play with the idea that 'let your feelings pass through you’ doesn’t really work when he feels so much. All amplified by his Force connection. He can’t just let them go, so he has to work on the source of those feeling of inadequecy and ‘never having enough’ to make sure they don’t spawn in the first place.

This all started after watching TCW Clovis Arc 2.0 where Anakin’s possessiveness goes up from like a 5 to a 10 in one episode and I couldn’t help but think that it was a bit extreme from what we knew of his character up to that point in TCW and from the films. Or it's highlighting how badly Anakin is starting to lose that battle with himself. But Padme saying “I don’t know who's in there any more” had me going ‘right, time to use this as a wake up call’.

The Clovis Incident happens earlier in this AU (just after The Wrong Jedi - let me save Fives hot damn). Padme, actually seeing Anakin's rage first hand, notices how abrupt and strong the change is and makes some observations. Since the last time he entered Beserk Mode TM was also in response to someone he loved being harmed, she reasons that's the linking factor. I imagine her logic basically going; ok, so he goes afk due to anger/stress, he got angry because Clovis was too close to me, he’s stressed that he’ll lose me as I’m all he has now… He needs more people in his life! A+ logic there Padme. Because at this point? She kind of is all he has, besides Palpatine (which is the problem in of itself) - Ahsoka left, his trust in Obi-Wan is damaged (Hardeen arc), and Rex is his Captain so theres a power issue there.

Thats a lot of emotional energy for one relationship. She can also lay down the facts that the issue wasn't necessarily punching Clovis in the face (lmao he deserved that) but that Anakin didn't listen to her. THATS my main beef here honestly, Padme was far too passive by the end of that arc and I ain't about that. So she absolutely spells that out for him because she knows damn well his idea of expressing he cares is fucked from growing up in slavery and then being handed over to a bunch of monks (-Deep inhale- boi) but he needs to understand that isn’t how it’s done.

So she pushes him to actually speak with other people and maybe connect more with his fellow Jedi. Since he sees them more often anyway. They all seem very nice to her when she has spoken with them, she’s sure it’s just a misunderstanding between them all for how he feels.

This allows Anakin to really dig into what the Order considers attachment (it’s not having relationships that’s the problem, it’s possessive love - based on the concept that such ‘attachments’ prevent people from passing on into the afterlife). This misunderstanding has 100% come from his background because slaves were not allowed to have anything, except the bonds they made between themselves. Anakin views his relationships as things he owns, things he must protect and cherish before they are taken from him, because that’s all he was ever ‘allowed’ to have. He eventually gets to realise that the Order dissuades Jedi from having spouses/romantic partners because potentially having them in a position where they must carry out their duty over the safety of their spouse/partner is just cruel. They understand that facing such a dilemma would break a person and it is simply kinder to just avoid the possibility altogether. ‘It’s a peaceful life’.

Cue Anakin arguing that he would feel just the same having to let a platonic relationship go too which sparks off another 2 hour debate...

Anakin gradually reaching out to other Jedi more and more, starting off with who he thinks would be the easier ones, like Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Aayla, even Yoda oddly enough (Troll asks him to break him out of the med bay later in TCW and Anakin was instantly on board with such a thing. That’s hysterical). I think he’d eventually try with Luminara too, given the whole debacle of the Wrong Jedi involved their padawans, but that takes a bit of time. And, wouldn’t ya know, he realises that they don’t resent him, they’re not even remotely afraid of him or trying to suppress his abilities, and they’re perfectly happy to talk to him even when off the battlefield etc (Palpatines words are already starting to hold less water now that Anakins starting to get his own proof - I could go on about my ADHD headcanons but that’s a given I feel at this point). He starts to trust them. Not just trust that’s given to Jedi as default, to an ideal, but personal trust.

They start to swap battle tactics, ask each other for advice on certain scenarios or get second opinions. Then they start swapping stories about their troops and these idiots have been waiting for the opportunity to gush about how their Legions are the best. The ship nose art is a particular point of pride (That Plo wins btw). Pride is unbecoming of a Jedi but they’re proud OF their troops so it doesn’t count.

Given how much more often they all now talk to each other, they are able to slowly open Anakin's eyes to the fact that Palpatine is suspect af. 

Aayla: he asked to meet you, alone, when you were how old? Anakin: about eleven, or twelve maybe? After I had settled into the Temple for a couple of years. Plo: and he took you where? Anakin: to the lower levels, he showed me a bar- Kit: [holding a hand up] I'm going to stop you there Aayla: [patting Anakin's shoulder] My guy, that's not normal. Plo: Nor is it appropriate Anakin: oh... I'm sure he didn't mean anything bad by it? He just wanted to show the good he can do when his hands are tied by the Senate Plo: The Senate he governs... Aayla: You were twelve.

They tell him to tell Obi-Wan.

It's a bit more of an up hill battle because Anakin's trust in Obi-Wan is still a little frazzled (never let it be said he's not a hypocrite about keeping certain truths) but he grudingly relays some of the conversations he's had with the Chancellor to him because of the comments the others have made. To his surprise, Obi-Wan looks distraught when he realises what Palpatine has been insinuating and he vows to never let him be alone with that man ever again. Obi-Wan always strived to allow Anakin to make his own choices once he became a knight, but this stems from decisions when he was a minor. Anakin thinks everyone is being very dramatic about this - pot meet kettle - and doesn't know what the harm is. This just makes people worry more - they are suddenly all keenly aware of what the Chancellor has been trying to do, even if Anakin hasn’t clocked it himself yet. But he is secretly (or not so secretly when you broadcast your emotions in the Force like a fog horn) pleased by Obi-Wans reaction. See? He does care. He’s just a little reserved about showing it because surprise, he’s also a little insecure Anakin, go fucking figure.  

He does also allow himself to bond more with his troops and they all have a meeting where he lays down some ground rules:. 

All of this just so he can relax with his men and actually be their friend when they're not suffering on the frontlines together. The clones are surprised but ecstatic about this development and waste no time at all bragging about how they have the best Jedi in the GAR. Wolffe, Monnk, and Bly have some things to say about this. Cody wisely keeps his mouth shut.

1) Off of the battlefield they are all equal, no ranks apply (besides medics, thank you Kix) and if anyone is uncomfy with that they can leave (nobody does) 2) He leads them all with the best of intentions but following Umbara he doesn't want any of them to feel like they can't call him out for being a twat (Rex does it just fine and he's still his SIC) 3) If anyone has any concerns or questions he wants them to feel safe enough to speak up about it, either tell him or Rex if it’s a vode issue specifically.

Given this turn of events when comes the time for Fives to seek out Rex and his General they hear him out and Anakin stops the blaster bolt Fox fires from hitting Fives. He’s stunned that one of his men would try to attack the Chancellor but he knows there has to be a reason, he wants to know why damnit. Also heeey has Fives been drugged?

They all get the low down on the chips and Anakin is now fuming. Bit too close to slave-chips. He's pleasantly surprised to find that Shaak Ti is also upset by what she has learned and with his prompting (and Fives looking utterly traumatised) shoves back at the Kaminoans hard. 

They find the list of Orders. It's not pretty. 

Anakin has his breakdown way earlier than Sheev intended and far out of his reach. Instead he is comforted by Shaak Ti (who quite frankly was probably counting the days until Skywalker crumpled) and a bunch of Clones who are similarly suffering from this discovery. Watching a Jedi break probably has most of them reshuffling a few pre-conceptions they had.

Anakin doesn't get sent to spy on the Chancellor and when he tries to buy Anakin's favour back by giving him a seat on the Council, Anakin refuses it and immediately dobs him in with the Jedi Masters. This time, they cotton on to Palpatine's intentions with Anakin and have him accompany Ahsoka on Mandalore. Far, far away. He doesn’t fight the decision, in fact he is rather relieved to be out of the man's reach. Plus, he now gets to fight alongside Ahsoka again so win-win.

Speaking of Ahsoka, even though she left the Order, Padme argues that this doesn't mean that she and Anakin can't still talk to each other. So he calls her and reminds her that he's there for her. Doesn't try to make her come back - though he makes it clear he would be very happy to take her back if she did choose to - and even though she said she wanted to go at it alone, she shouldn't forget that she does still have people she can turn to if things get lonely or hard. He had to be reminded of this so now he’s reminding her.

Just let this man truly understand the risks of what loving people as a Jedi means, learn how to do so in a way thats healthy for everyone involved, and allow himself to be extremely over the top about it much to everyone's surprise.

Ahsoka: I'll think about it Anakin: Sure thing. Anything. Anytime. Ahsoka: ... it is nice to hear from you though Anakin: !!

Ft. Padme being incredibly pleased with herself in the background.

[fangirlshrewt97]

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

So. I promised you a Dhruya fic. I... did not have time to write the Dhruya fic. I wrote this instead. Please accept it. 🙏🙏🙏.

///

Bheem was sharpening his hunting knives as he listened to Sita and Jenny practicing their English on the other side of the hut. Bheem had bowed out after 30 minutes but Sita was still going strong. The women would occasionally break out into laughter that made Bheem smile.

 Sita had had a difficult time the last few months, even if she did her best to hide it behind a smiling face. It was good to hear the sound of her joy. It was the best kind of background noise.

And it was all peaceful, until Ram walked hurriedly into the place. He had a concerned look in his eyes that immediately had Bheem sitting up, alert.

"Ram? What happened?"

"I'm just," Ram growled as he overturned his chest of clothes, digging through them. "I can't find my lathi. Or my police uniform shirt. Or police cap."

Bheem's brows furrowed. "For the mission tomorrow? Did you check in-"

"Yes I already asked Loki. She said she kept all our clothes in our hut after she washed them." Ram said as he stood up, crossing over to where Sita and Jenny were sitting. Both women moved far back to allow him his space.

"I don't think you'll find it among the pots and pans," Bheem commented as Ram exhaled in frustration. "Maybe they got mixed up with the other supplies set aside for tomorrow?"

Ram stared at him. "Why would my clothes be mixed with the supplies?" "Because you are so focused on making your plans the only reason you don't lose your head is because it's attached to your neck. And you have Bheem." Sita piped up, smirking.

Ram scoffed as he waved her away, making her giggle. "If you won't help, then stay out of it."

"Ah, don't be like that Mama," Sita said as she stood up, "Come, where all have you looked so far?"

Ram went to retort only to be interrupted.

"Freeze!"

Ram's jaw dropped when he turned. 

Malli stood at the threshold, marching in with her head held high. She was wearing his uniform shirt over her dress, the garment reaching past her knees. His cap was falling over her eyes, prompting her to straighten it with one hand. In her other was his lathi.

"Malli, wha-"

"MALLI! GO DO SOMETHING YOU HATE! BEING MISERABLE BUILDS CHARACTER! SMILES ARE A SIGN OF WEAKNESS!," Malli proclaimed, pointing in turn at Bheem, Jenny, and Sita who were all gaping at her before turning to Ram. "I AM ALLURI RAMARAJU, AND I WILL PERSONALLY SHOOT DOWN EVERY WHITE MAN IN INDIA."

The hut was silent for a few seconds after Malli finished. Then Jenny let out a giggle. Which caused Sita to crack and start shrieking like a banshee in laughter. Bheem had bitten his lip to control his laughter, but he made the mistake of glancing at Ram, who was still blinking dumbfound at Malli. 

Bheem lost it.

Ram scowled at his so called friends, and their cackles, turning to stare down Malli. Only to find her looking at him with that exact expression.

He scowled harder, crossing his arms. She mimicked him, deepening her frown as she crossed her arms across her chest.

He dropped his arms. She did too.

Ram heard Sita's howling grow louder. He felt his eye twitch. And his lips. A blink and you’ll miss it smile.

"Ok, that was fun and all," Ram stated, "but game over Malli. Give me back my things."

"Who-" Malli cleared her throat before dropping her voice an octave lower to match Ram's usual inflection. "I don't know any Malli. Except the one very sweet girl who helped me make a flute for her Bheem Anna that finally earned me his love."

Ram spluttered even as Bheem started to laugh loud enough for Ram to feel it in his chest. Sita had been reduced to silent wheezing, and who had at some point fallen to the floor. She was clutching her stomach, tears streaming down her face.

Ram took a deep breath, closing his eyes and pinching his nose with one hand as another went to his hip. He exhaled fully before looking at Malli, who was still imitating him, with one eye half open to keep track of what he was doing.

When he glared at her she just threw him her cheekiest smile. Behind him he heard a bump and turned to see Jenny cooing at Sita through her laughter, the latter having apparently bumped her head against the low table. He looked her dead in the eye. "I hate all of you. I hope you choke. "

This just sent Sita into another laughing fit, except this time she braced herself on Jenny to get up before she stumbled to where he was standing. Hip checking him to the side she threw her arms around Malli, cupping her cheeks to press a loud, smacking kiss to her forehead. She then hugged her to her chest as she looked straight at Ram. "I love you so much Malli."

Malli's façade finally cracked as she started giggling, throwing her arms around Sita's waist. "I love you too Akka."

Ram glowered at the pair, crossing his arms over his chest again. Only to feel a stronger pair wrap over them. And then a kiss being pressed to his cheeks.

"Come on Ram, laugh. That was funny. I saw you smile."

Ram harrumphed and turned his head away. "No I didn't."

Bheem used two fingers to guide Ram back to look at him. His eyes were bright, and he had his trademark sunshine smile on. "No?"

"No."

Bheem sighed, hooking his chin on Ram's shoulder. "Too bad. Malli, next time you want to try to make Ram Anna laugh there is a much easier way to do it than by stealing his clothes and mimicking him. Though you did an excellent job.

She did, didn't she Ram?" Bheem asked, digging into Ram's side.

Ram squirmed away from the probing fingers before nodding. Reluctantly. Malli beamed at the pair, an expression made cuter by the fact Ram's cap tilted to fall over half her face.

Ram sighed, pulling away from Bheem to approach the girl. He let a small smile take over his face as he set the cap straight and poked her cheek. "Just don't take my things without telling me, alright."

Malli blushed before nodding, still snug in Sita's arms. Sita tucked the younger girl under her chin.

Bheem pulled Ram back against his chest.

Malli looked at Bheem. "What's the easier way Anna?"

"Hmm?" Bheem asked.

"Easier way to make Ram Anna laugh." She clarified.

Bheem's smile seemed to grow wider somehow. He tightened one arm around Ram's waist and before the other man could finish yelping, was digging his face into Ram's side, tickling him relentlessly.

Ram shouted as his legs gave out beneath him, trying to get away but Bheem held on tight. It was only when Ram was breathless from laughing, with tears appearing at the sides of his face that Bheem backed away.

Malli looked at the whole scene with open delight. A look was exchanged over Ram's head with Bheem.

Ram barely had the time to catch his breath before Malli crashed into his chest and started tickling him in turn. Ram squirmed under her before he twisted to wrap his arms around hers and curl them both up so she was trapped against his chest. "Right. Enough. Had your fun?"

Malli giggled, throwing her arms around. "Yep."

Ram smiled, a full one. He hugged Malli close, and whispered so low only she could hear. "Thanks for the help. Its been a long time since I've heard Sita laugh so much."

Malli squeezed him back. "You're welcome Anna."

Jenny picked up the police cap that had fallen to the side when Malli had tackled him, and set it on Malli’s head. “You are a fantastic actress Malli.”

Malli blushed. “Thank you Ms. Jenny.”

Ram tugged at the shirt she was still wearing. “Are you going to give me back my things?”

Malli pretended to think, squinting at him as he looked back in amusement. Then she gave a dramatic sigh. “I suppose. If I have to.”

“Very generous of you.” Ram said, deadpan as he accepted his items back.

He glanced at the expressions on everyone’s face and felt his heart warm. He knew he wasn’t the best at feelings. Or at making people laugh. But he had succeeded today, indirectly though it may have been. And it had felt so good.

Maybe there was some hope for him after all.

///

This one had the dumbest source of inspiration, but somehow I saw that and just could not get the idea of Malli imitating Ram while the others laughed out of my head.

Feedback is appreciated!!

Tagging (Please please work, Tumblr I beg you):  @rambheem-is-real @budugu @bromance-minus-the-b @junebugyeahhh @hissterical-nyaan @obsessedtoafault @hufhkbgg @yehsahihai @rorapostsbl @bluesolace1 @fadedscarlets @alikokinav @chaotic-moonlight @rambheemisgoated @rambheemlove @jaganmaya @burningsheepcrown @lovingperfectionwonderland @rosayounan @iam-siriuslysher-lokid @thewinchestergirl1208 @dumdaradumdaradum @ronaldofandom @jjwolfesworld @jrntrtitties @kashpaymentsonly @jeonmahi1864 @zackcrazyvalentine @stanleykubricks @m3gs1mps4a @tulodiscord @teddybat24 @sally-for-sally @ssabriel @jadebomani @stuckyandlarrystuff

[kireimarkeu]

To You; l.dh

+another repost! did not make any changes to this work :) p.s this is one of my fav fics i have written :)

summary; bored in quarantine, your boyfriend decides to film himself telling you how much he loves you.

3k words

this was like… ½ edited LMFAO so there might,,, be mistakes…??? this was so tiring to make omfg, enjoy!! lol 

also i mixed the name donghyuck and haechan bc i couldn’t choose one lmfao ok!!! bye gn enjoy!! :)))))))

warnings: there’s a word f*t in it

+Day 1 3:34PM

Haechan adjusted the camera, making sure he could be seen. Once he was sure the camera was reflecting him properly, he leaned back against his gaming chair. 

“Um,” your boyfriend started, looking everywhere but the camera. “This is awkward,” he says, looking back at the camera.

“I started this, since we won’t be able to see each other for a month- because of quarantine,” he explains, “I honestly have no idea what I’m doing right now,” he laughs. 

After a few minutes of pure silence, your boyfriend opened his mouth to continue speaking, “I just feel like— I never really show much love to you?” 

There were times where your boyfriend would purposely avoid saying ‘I love you’ or avoid holding your hands whenever the both of you were outside. Honestly, you didn’t really mind, knowing Donghyuck was never the type to show affection. 

“It’s hard,” he says truthfully, “The boys knows how much I love you, and it sucks that I don’t know how to show you— or tell you, that I love you.”

Haechan bit his lips nervously, “and, I think this video is- or will prove that I love you?”

He wasn’t sure if he was even making sense at this point. 

Your boyfriend groaned, throwing his head back, covering his face with his hands. After a while, he looked back at the camera, “you know what, babe? Just watch the whole thing, okay?”

+Day 4 11:47PM

“Hi,” he smiles, letting out a huff, “this is kinda late, I spent the whole night playing games,” he says guiltily, playing with his fingers, looking away from the camera.

He knows that you didn’t like it when he would stay up until ungodly hours just to play games with his friends. You hated how he would put his health aside just to play games. 

He brings his hands up to brush his wet hair. 

“Uh,” he sighs out loud, pouting. “I feel bad for staying up late last night, so I’m going to spend the whole night with you today,” he laughs. 

Another moment of silence pass. 

“I don’t know what to say,” he whines. 

He sat there in silence, staring at the ground, figuring out on what to say. Should he tell you about his day?

“Well, I woke up at 5PM today,” he tells you, “I ate dinner with my family— mom cooked chicken today!” he says happily, “Then, I went to call you for a bit because I missed you a little too much,” he pouts. 

He scratched his head, “then I showered and now this-“ he says, pointing to the camera. 

“Um, it has been 4 days and I miss you too much,” he says truthfully, “facetiming isn’t working, I think I’m going crazy,” he laughs. 

+Day 5 7:38PM

He was talking halfway, talking about how much he admires you when his phone started ringing. 

“Oh?” he turns around to grab his phone from his bed. A smile formed on his face when he saw you facetiming him. 

He turned to the camera to show his screen, “Baby, you’re calling me,” he giggles before quickly answering to your facetime. 

“Channie~” you whine cutely when your boyfriend answered your facetime, “what are you doing, hyuckie?”

Usually, your boyfriend would complain whenever you would speak in a cute voice, but he secretly likes it. He secretly likes being babied. 

He looks at the camera that was recording the both of you. 

“Nothing,” he lies, “why did you call me, loser?”

You huff, raising your arms so he could see you laying on the bed. “I’m bored, hyuckie~ entertain me~”

He leans back on his chair, “wanna play games with me?”

Your face beam at his words, “Okay! I’ll get my X-Box ready now.”

Your boyfriend was the one who bought for you the X-Box. Well, it was an old version, but you loved it, nonetheless. It wasn’t like you played daily— you only played with boyfriend. 

“I’ll call you in 5, baby,” he tells you, already walking over to turn on the tv. 

“Kay, bye-bye, love you, Hyuckie,” you say in a baby voice, bringing your phone closer to press your lips on the camera. 

Donghyuck scrunched his nose in disgust, “yeah, yeah,” he says before ending the call. 

He quickly grab the camera that was still recording, he moved the camera closer to press a kiss, “I love you too, y/n.”

+Day 7 3:01PM

“Do you remember when you gave me the teddy bear— Oh my gosh, I feel like a youtuber,” he cackles. He shook his head, focusing back to what he was saying. 

“So, do you remember when you gave me the teddy bear?” he asks, “wait,” he says, standing up to grab the tiny teddy bear that was sitting on his bed. 

You had bought him the bear during your 200th day with him. Donghyuck didn’t really give the reaction you wanted. 

“Do you not like it?” you had asked him, disappointment laced in your voice. You didn’t dare look at him, upset with yourself that you had bought something that he didn’t like. 

“No, no!” he quickly replied, wrapping an arm around your shoulder to pull you into his chest, the other holding the tiny bear. “I love it,” he says. 

You knew it was a lie. He didn’t seem to like it. 

“I love it,” he says, “I know I didn’t show like I did at that time, but I need it with me every time I go to bed.” 

He scratches his head, regretting his actions that has had happened months ago. 

“No one has ever bought me a bear before,” he explains, “and when you bought it for me, it just felt— I felt, I felt happy? I felt fulfilled? Do you know what I mean?” 

“I really wanted to tell you that I loved your present, especially when you had bought me another present a few days later,”

‘it was to make up for the previous present’ was your reason. 

It broke his heart when you said that while handing him a couple bracelet. He wanted to tell you how much he loved your gift, but it was so hard for him. 

“I hated myself for not being able to tell you the truth, it’s hard—and it still is,” he sighs, “I hope by doing this, I can assure you that I love you..?” 

+Day 10 9:34PM

He was in the middle of filming himself when his mother comes in. 

“Donghyuck-ah, what are you doing? Do you want some fruits?” his mother asks, looking at his son, not noticing the camera perched on the dressing table. 

Instead of answering his mother’s question, he grabs the camera to film his mother. 

“Eomma, say hello to y/n,” Donghyuck says. 

His mother raised her eyebrows in surprised, “hello my dear y/n~ how are you?”

Your boyfriend giggle from behind the camera, “tell her how much you miss her,”

“I think I miss you more than Donghyuck does,” she jokes. “What is this for, Donghyuck-ah?”

Haechan placed the camera back on the dressing table, turning to look at his mum.

“I’m making a video for y/n until quarantine is over,” he explains as his mother walks in, wrapping her arm around her son’s shoulder. 

His mother’s heart warmed at his son’s words. 

“You’re growing up way too fast, our Donghyuck~” she cooed, pulling your boyfriend’s cheeks as he whined in pain. 

You would also pinch his cheeks almost every time the both of you are together. Whenever you had Donghyuck’s cheeks between your fingers, he would whine, pulling away from your grip.

“Eomma! I want strawberries!” he shouts after his mother left his room. 

He turns his attention back to the camera, “Anyways—”

+Day 17 2:35AM

“I really like your eyes,” Haechan confesses dreamily, “your eyes are the colour of shit,” he jokes, “but they’re so shiny, baby,”

The first time he realizes he’s in love with your glimmering eyes was when he brought you out on a date to star gaze. You were staring at the sky, a smile plastered on your face, amazed at how beautiful the sky was. 

When you noticed your boyfriend staring at you, you turned to face him. Your eyes captured his heart. How could someone have such bright eyes?

“Oh! And when you smile, you make my heart beat like crazy!” he chuckles. 

The first thing that caught Hyuck’s eyes when he had a crush on you was your bright smile. He believes that was the main reason that he fell for you. How you would always have a beaming smile plastered on your face everywhere you go. 

He thinks it’s adorable. 

The small dimples that was on the side of your lips whenever you smile. 

And your adorable little laugh he adores so much. 

Or the little birthmark you had on the corner of your mouth. 

After talking about you for a while, he let out a satisfied sigh, “I’m so whip for you, you know?”

After 17 days of making videos for you, it started becoming easier for him to show his love for you. 

“Everything you do makes me go crazy, do you realise that?” he asks you, “do you realize that everything you do makes me happy? No, you don’t have to do anything, your presence makes me melt.”

He laughs at how he was flirting, “you’re probably laughing too,”

His laughter died down, letting out a tired sigh, “well, it’s late and I’m going to go to bed before you nag at me some more,”

He let out a yawn, “goodnight y/n, I love you so much, you don’t know how happy you make me,”

+Day 20 2:56PM

This time, it was different. 

He was filming himself at McDonalds drive-thru. 

“Guess who’s this for?” he asks the camera, his gaze on the road. “Yes, you.”

He turns to look at the camera for a second before paying attention on the road, “you didn’t ask me to get you anything but I wanted to get something for you,” he explains. 

He was lying, this was just an excuse to see you, even for a second. Even if it’s 6 feet apart. Even if there was a glass between the both of you. 

“I think you know the reason why I’m buying this for you,” he says, referring to the food. “To make you fat! You’re right, y/n,” he jokes. 

That was also a lie. You tend to eat less whenever you’re stressed. 

After he found out that you had a project, he knew how stress you would be, and decided to get food, making sure you eat healthily. 

Your boyfriend would never fail to remind you how much he loves your body. No matter shape or size. He has always made sure you feel loved with who you are. 

“I think you know the real reason why I’m coming over,” he adds. When he reaches a red light, he turns to look at the camera with a pout, “I can’t help it, I miss you too much, y/n,” he says in a baby voice. 

He grimaces at his actions, shaking his head disapprovingly, “I am never doing that ever again.”

A few minutes later, he reached your house. He had texted you to that he was waiting for you outside. 

It took you a while to come out, but when you did, you had one of his hoodies over your body. 

He loves it when you wear his clothes, it makes him feel all giddy. 

‘One day, I’m going to wear all of your clothes’ he would say whenever you steal his clothes. 

You walked over to his car, “what the hell are you doing here, dummy,” you ask him, maintaining the distance. 

He grabbed the bag of food from the passenger’s seat and passed it to you from the window of his car. 

“Brought you food, you unappreciative bitch,” he tells you while you walk up to grab the food from him. 

You open the bag to see your favourite food, “my favourite food, too?!” you squeal, “Haechan best boyfie~”

He rolls his eyes, “yeah, yeah, go and finish your project,”

You nodded, the smile not leaving your face. 

“I’ll facetime you later?” he asks. 

“At 11,” you confirmed. 

He nods, signalling for you to go back in. You blow a kiss to your boyfriend before turning around to go back in. 

He quickly fishes out his camera, filming you walking back in your house. 

“Look at my baby all happy because I brought her food,” he says, “enjoy your food, pretty,”

+Day23 6:07PM

“Day 23,” he breathes out. “I didn’t expect it to go by so fast,” he blurts out. 

He puffs his cheeks out, “I don’t want to stop making videos for you, but you would just make fun of me for being soft,”

He had started growing content on making videos for you every day. 

“But at the same time, I can finally see you after a month, babe!” he says happily. “I can finally hold you in my arms, we can kiss until the world ends, we can also do it,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Well, he can’t lie he did miss doing it with you. 

He sighs, “anyway, when we can finally get together, we can watch movies, then come back to my place and we can cuddle!”

He missed that. 

Personally, Donghyuck preferred going over to your place but you preferred going to his place because he had games and a huge bed, and it was just comfortable. 

“Ahh,” he groan, “I miss you like crazy! I think I have to end this video early because I wanna facetime you right now,”

He grabs his phone on the table to call you. 

“Okay, bye babe, I love you, I’m going to talk to you now!”

+Day 25 4:03AM

“Hi,” donghyuck greet the camera. 

Anyone could realise he wasn’t in the best mood. 

It took Donghyuck a while to start talking, “we had a fight earlier today,” he says, his voice lace with disappointment and… hurt?

You had texted him just an hour ago, ranting about your homework. When Donghyuck replied to you a minute later, you got angry at him because he was staying up again at ungodly hours. 

He didn’t understand why you were so angry because you were awake at the same timing as he is. 

“I’m going to give you space, because it’s what you need right now,” he says. “I hope you know I still love you no matter what,”

He bit his lip hesitantly, “I know you don’t like it when I stay up with the boys, but I don’t like you staying up to finish your work either, baby”

He closes his eyes shut for a moment, taking a deep breath. “I hope you don’t get too stressed over school, eat healthily, and make sure you rest from time to time, babygirl,”

He lets out another sigh before reaching for the camera, “I love you,”

+Day 28 7:36PM

 Haechan purses his lips, staring at the camera, “today is a bad day,” he starts. 

Today he had woke up a little earlier than normal after talking it out with you a few days ago. He decided to get up early and help his mom with cooking, which only resulted him in getting scolded by his mother for making a mess. 

After that, he decided to play games with his friends, however despite playing for 5 hours straight, he didn’t get a single win. 

Now, he has tried to contact you, but you have not replied to him. Probably busy with school. 

He let out a huff, “take a break y/n,” he whines, “focus on me too~”

Letting out a pout he shakes his head, “kidding babe, get those A’s!”

“Well, now I don’t really have anything to do so I’m going to facetime you again, bye babe!”

+Day 30 10:18AM

“Hyuckie!” you call out, running to your boyfriend. When you reached him, you threw your arms around your boyfriend’s neck, making him stumble back a few steps as he grabs on your waist. 

You hid your face in his neck, breathing in his scent. He smells so good.

“You’re not going to let go of me until I say so,” you mumble, tightening your grip around his neck.

He chuckles at you, “I won’t let go of you until you say so,” 

Donghyuck was satisfied with having his arms wrapped around your waist, his face covered in your hair. 

After a few moments of the both of you just holding each other, you finally pull away from your boyfriend. 

“Y/n,” he says, making you hum.

“Wait,” you stop him, making him stare at you with wide eyes as he froze on the spot. 

“Can you kiss me first?” you ask. His eyes soften at your request. Your fingers trace his bottom lips, “I miss your pretty lips.”

He smiles at your words and nodded. Pulling you closer by your waist, he pressed his lips against yours. Your hands rest on his chest while you both share a needy kiss. 

After a few minutes, you pull away, breathless with crimson red cheeks.

Haechan raised his eyebrows as he resumed, “I made something for you,”

You gasped, “what is it?”

He fishes out a CD player. The CD held videos of him explaining how much he loves and appreciates you throughout the whole month. 

He passes you the gift. 

“Watch this at home?” he tells you. 

You grab the CD from his grip, “okay? What is this all about?”

“Just promise me you’ll watch it at home?” he asks again, staring down at you. 

“I will! I will!” 

After making videos of himself for 29 days straight, Donghyuck have concluded that he was so utterly in love with you. He was so in love with you that he didn’t know how to express how much he adores you.

[blueeyedheizer]

mirror - j cody (smut)

WARNINGS: smut, hair pulling, slight choking

A/N: I haven't seen animal kingdom (i've only watched the first episode of the first season and it made me uncomfortable) so J might be out of character and some things are most definitely going to be inaccurate to canon in all my next fics. i hope it's ok though :) Also it's not specified in the fic but i feel like it should be; reader is obviously not related to any of the Codys lol. (again, forgive me if there's any mistake,, i'm once again posting this at nearly 4am)

•••

“What is he doing here?” you interrupted your conversation with Smurf, the smile dropping from your face as Deran walked in, Josh following close behind.

"He lives here, baby. You should know that by now..." Smurf told you, smiling sweetly and squeezing your arm as she walked over to the fridge to take out some beers. J thanked her when she passed him one, Deran doing the same.

"You know, I could ask the same question. And I would actually have a reason to do so." J answered. He already looked fairly irritated when he walked in, and your remark only seemed to have fuelled his anger. "Because as far as I know, between you and me, you're the one who doesn't live here. And yet, here you are again."

Deran swallowed a laugh beside him and you heard Smurf mumble a "oh, great" under her breath. She rolled her eyes, preparing for yet another fight to break out between the two of you. They hadn’t even been able to greet anyone before the pair of you were bickering.

"No, you're right. I don't live here." you continued, setting your hands down on the counter and leaning forward. "Doesn't mean i'm any less tired of seeing your face every single day." you retorted, glaring at him before going back to cutting the vegetables for tonight's dinner.

Josh could only scoff and roll his eyes as he sat down on one of the couches nearby.

You didn't know what it was that irritated you the most about the younger Cody.

He was a pretentious, conceited, pretty boy who put on a nice act that everyone fell for. Everyone, except you. His uncles may have accepted him into the family, but you simply couldn't trust him. Ever since he arrived a couple of years ago, the two of you have never been able to have any sort of civil conversation, the tension between you so thick it could be cut with a knife.

"You two really can't behave like adults for more than five minute can you?" Smurf commented in a nonchalant manner.

"She started it." J replied flatly, not bothering to turn around.

"Jesus Christ, you're like fucking children." Deran sighs, sharing an exasperated look with Smurf before chugging down the rest of his beer. The younger Cody certainly brought out your childish and petty side, but you couldn't help it.

“You know what, fuck this.” You said, dropping what you were doing and pushing past Smurf.

"Oh, come on Y/N. Don't be like that." Deran called after you but you raised your middle finger in the air without looking back.

-

The music blared out of your speaker as you dried your hair in a towel. You'd been in the bathroom for approximately an hour now, needing some time for yourself.

You stood in front of the mirror and began to wipe some of the steam off it when the door to the bathroom opened, startling you. You watched as he walked in and closed the door behind himself, the gesture making you frown.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" you snapped, turning off the music and tightening your towel around your chest as you took a step back.

"Don't you know how to lock a door?"

"It... It was locked." you stuttered without thinking, suddenly feeling overly exposed in front of him, heat coming up to your cheeks as you remembered your towel was the only thing covering your naked body. Meanwhile, J stood at a safe distance behind you, arms crossed over his chest, his face unreadable. "I'll be out in a minute, now get out." you said, recomposing yourself and focusing back on the mirror.

"No, I'm good." your head turned in his direction again, a stunned scoff leaving your lips.

"Excuse me?"

"I said I'm good." you opened your mouth to speak but closed it again, too stunned to think of anything to say. But you could feel the anger building within you, his attitude getting on your nerves.

"I swear to God if you don't leave this room in the next 10 seconds I will scream."

J scoffed and took a few slow steps closer to you, his hands coming to rest on your hips to pull you against his body, watching your reaction in the mirror: you gasped softly, eyes widening.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" he whispered, raising an eyebrow. "Smurf and Deran left. It's just you and me now so you can scream all you want." he told you. You said nothing, the sexual innuendo behind his words causing your breath to hitch in your throat.

"Get. out." you try again, voice weak and unconvincing as you closed your eyes and clenched your jaw. He ignored you, one of his hands slowly snaking down your waist, finding the bottom of your towel and beginning to play with it lightly; his fingertips gently brushed over the skin of your upper thighs which had you biting down on your bottom lip and suppressing a whimper.

"What are you doing?" you breathed out as you looked down at his hand, your heart accelerating from both his actions and the thoughts that were crossing your mind.

And just like that his hand dipped underneath the towel, his fingers coming in direct contact with your clit and beginning to rub small circles, which had you gasping softly, the sound being more like a moan. Though before you could begin to properly enjoy whatever else he was about to do, your eyes widened and you came back to your senses, whipping around and slapping him hard across the face, your breathing heavy as you stared at him in shock.

Your mind was racing, trying to think of what to do, what to think, what to feel. Though deep down it was very clear what you wanted.

A few more seconds went by and one small burst of confidence was enough for you to suddenly lunge forward, your lips colliding against his in a heated kiss. Your hand moved to grab his shirt, tugging him closer as the other gripped your towel, preventing it from falling. Before you knew it J had you backed up against the sink, your lower back hitting the cool surface while his lips moved against yours aggressively.

“I can still leave if that's what you want.” he whispered against your lips once pulling away, a cocky smirk on his own. Your breathing was heavy, hand still holding his shirt, and you didn’t intend on letting go. You didn't say anything, too busy staring at his lips.

Then without warning, he flipped your body around so you were facing the mirror and your back was against his chest, the towel slipping from your body in the process which had you gasping. You heard him curse under his breath and you closed your eyes, swallowing hard as his hand moved to your breast, the other finding its way back between your legs. He kept his eyes fixed on your reflection as he set a rhythm, rubbing slow, steady circles into your clit

"Such a nice body." he continued, bringing his lips next to your ear, his breath sending a shiver down your spine. "Too bad the personality doesn't match."

You could only let out a soft whimper in response, your lips catching between your teeth as you felt his growing bulge against your lower back.

“See? I knew I'd find a way to shut you up.” he murmured against your ear. You reached back to weave your fingers between his locks, feeling that sensation you knew all to well growing between your legs as you watched yourself dissolve into a blissful state.

But despite the tension quickly building in your lower stomach you refused to give yourself to him completely, not so easily at least.

“I wouldn’t expect to be making much noise with you anyways,” you eventually replied as you let go of his hair, the smirk on your lips giving away your desire to challenge him and insult his ego.

And for the first time, he didn't have any sort of come back; all amusement draining from his face. It was your turn to glance at his reflection in the mirror only to see him staring back at you, your smirk growing wider.

J's hand moved around your neck, your eyes closing in response. He didn’t give you any chances to react as he pushed two fingers deep inside you, your hands coming to grip his arm.

"Don't you dare go quiet on me now. I'll be happy to find a better use for that mouth if you don't let me hear you." he spoke up when he noticed you biting down on your bottom lip to try to conceal your moans, his lips near your ear as his fingers worked furiously between your legs all while keeping you still and watching your reactions through the mirror. You nodded as best as you could with his hand around your throat, putting your pride to the side just for that moment. Because although a small part of yourself still wanted to break free from his grip, it felt good. Way too good for it to stop.

And God, was the sight attractive.

And so you no longer tried to hold back the screams of pleasure falling out of your mouth, much to his satisfaction.

"Josh—" you whimpered, grinding against his hand, seeking more friction from his thumb on your clit. "Oh my god."

But then almost as fast as your release approached he removed his fingers, which pulled a desperate, broken whine out of your throat. You once again tried controlling your breathing to make it seem you weren't as affected as you really were, not wanting to give him any sort of satisfaction. But your body language was quick to betray you, squirming and bucking your hips.

"If you want something, ask for it."

"Go fuck yourself." you reply after a bit of contemplating, still out of breath. As desperate as you were becoming for him to fuck you, you had too much pride to let him win.

At that he released your neck from his grip, red marks appearing already. You knew you’d have darker bruises in the morning, but right now you couldn't bring yourself to care.

Without bothering to reply Josh maneuvered you into a bending position, your hands coming to grip the counter with a thud. You propped your leg onto it, watching in the mirror as he undid the tie of his sweatpants, tugging them down along with his boxers. He jerked himself a couple of times before burying his cock deep inside you without warning, your whole body jolting forward at the roughness of it, the movement followed by a loud, punched out moan.

"Holy fuck, Josh!” you screamed out, a strangled sob leaving your lips, eyes fluttering instinctively.

He began fucking you right away, attempting to keep his eyes on your reflection in the mirror to take in your every reaction. One hand came to cup your breast, working a nipple between his fingers while the other found your hair, gathering it in a makeshift ponytail before tugging your head back slightly; forcing you to keep your eyes open and look at him through the mirror once again.

"Eyes open. If you close them, I stop." he threatened, the words followed with a low moan. "I want you to watch everything." he continued.

"Fuck, J, please." you begged, unsure what you were even asking for. Within just a few minutes your legs were shaking again, chest heaving as you clenched around his cock.

"Please what? Use your words."

Your eyes rolled back in your head, the harsh tone of his voice turning you on more than it should've. You attempted to speak again but no words came out, your mind slowly going blank. Then one particular thrust of his hips had you moaning, high pitched and desperate, causing you to grip onto the edge of the sink tighter. J leaned down to kiss the side of your face and you turned your head so your lips met in a messy kiss, muffling both your moans. You could still catch a glimpse of your reflection from that angle, see his lower body snapping against yours, see yourself kissing him while he fucks you.

"I'm gonna cum, J, i'm so fucking close," you cried out, your moans increasing in volume as you neared your release.

"Go on then, baby. Cum for me."

A mix of pants and grunts were flowing from his lips as he watched you shake beneath him and come undone; his thrusts remaining rough and not showing any signs of slowing down so you could ride out your high as much as possible.

Though he knew the feeling of your walls clenching around him would be enough to trigger his own orgasm, and as expected you soon began to feel his thrusts falter. It was only a matter of time before you felt his cock twitch inside of you, his cum filling you up and you managing to watch him come undone through heavy eyelids.

After a few seconds to compose himself, he drew back, easing himself out slowly.

"You fucking came in me." you mumbled through heavy breaths, swallowing as you turned around with difficulty, your legs still weak and trembling. Only a proud smile was his answer and truthfully, you weren't expecting more from him.

Then you pulled him by his shirt and kissed him again, sighing in content as you finally shared a proper kiss. You were still properly fucked out, barely processing what had just happened as your lips moved lazily against his own, forgetting about the fact you were still completely naked, forgetting about the fact you hated him as your fingers threaded through his hair gently. You eventually pulled away for air, your eyes closing as you leaned your head back.

"Good luck explaining the noise." J broke the short silence that had settled, tucking himself back into his underwear and fixing up his sweatpants. Your brows furrowed in confusion as you lifted your head to look back at him tiredly.

"What?"

"They never left." he told you. Panic immediately settled deep in your stomach and you straightened from your position.

He continuously ignored you as you begged him to admit he was joking, quickly kissing your cheek instead before walking out the door, leaving you dumbfounded.

This son of a bitch.

[army-of-mai-lovers]

in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough. 

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.” 

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!” 

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role. 

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all. 

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.” 

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.” 

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka  repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--   

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~” 

y’all WHAT. 

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back. 

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai. 

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too. 

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!” 

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse. 

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.) 

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal  adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out. 

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)  

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”  

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show. 

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.” 

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring. 

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what? 

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her. 

Conclusion    

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked. 

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here. 

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice. 

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us.