#or in like a cultural studies kind of way. lmao

[msmargaretmurry]

[coffee cup] romance novels: when do they work for becs and when do they not!!!

oooh okay! so i often call myself a romance novel enjoyer but not a romance novel lover, because romance as a genre often involves things that are at odds with what i love most in fiction. which is fine! many people love those things, there is a reason the genre is like that! it just means that it's rarer for me personally to find a romance novel that works for me on every level. (the things i'm talking about are, i don't usually like alternating POVs between romantic leads, i usually prefer my romantic storylines to be involved with the plot but not the MAIN plot, and my favorite romantic relationships in fiction are ones where i don't know going in that they're going to get together. i LOVE catching a detail or an interaction or sensing some chemistry and going "oh?? are they--?? and then greedily gathering more details as i read to try and figure out what feelings are happening. obviously this cannot happen in a romance novel because you know the endgame from the start!)

so what DOES work for a romance novel for me? i'm sorry this got so fucking long and it's mostly complaining so we're putting it under a cut.

firstly it has to be well-written and well-edited. i'm sorry but a lot of romance is not well-edited and it's so distracting to me. i'll often let a little bit of sloppy writing slide if it's a story i feel feral about, but because romance as a genre isn't built to make me feral, i need the writing to be tight or i'll get so distracted by nit-picking. like, i really wanted to love a caribbean heiress in paris but the female lead "muttered under her breath" TWICE on the FIRST HALF-PAGE. this is a whole different conversation but i do place the blame for this on publishing houses who do not care if these books are well-edited because they think their audience has low standards.

secondly, i need things to happen for real reasons. i listen to the "fated mates" podcast a lot because i find the craft side of it all super interesting. the hosts, who really love romance novels (as opposed to me, a romance enjoyer but not lover), often talk about things in romance novels happening or existing for "romance reasons," which are reasons that aren't really justified by the story/plot but that the reader goes with anyway for the sake of the story. romance reasons are almost never enough for me. i need there to be real worldbuilding. if it's contemporary romance, i need it to jive with how things work in the real world. if it's historical romance, there are different rules, because historical romance can run the gamut from trying to actually be historically accurate to totally made-up societal rules in a historical setting. i will meet the book where it's at, but i need the internal world to make sense. no romance reasons.

thirdly, relatedly, i need the author to know their shit. if a character is an athlete, i need the details of that sport to be accurate. if your character works as a nonprofit, i need it to be clear that the author understands the basics of how a nonprofit works. if your character is involved in politics, do not make up how politics work to serve your story, because i will be too annoyed to enjoy it. i read a het hockey romance the other day where there was a rumor about a popular player retiring an the author had a reporter from the ASSOCIATED PRESS show up at the LOVE INTEREST'S HOUSE to try to get details about it and then MORE MEDIA OUTLETS SHOWED UP TO CAMP ON HER LAWN about it. none of that is how any of that works. i don't need every detail to be perfect. i just need things to feel real.

fourthly, relatedly, i need real stakes and believable conflict and deeply drawn characters. i won't love a book just because it contains a trope i like. i need the trope to work with the characters and within the emotional stakes of the story. i need my romantic leads to have something inside them then genuinely needs healing, and i need to believe that they are people who make each other better. (note that this is for romance novels. in other genres i love weird little freaks who make each other worse.) i know some people like very fluffy low-stakes romances and i support them but those are not for me. the stakes need to not just be about the romance; there needs to be other stuff doing on, both internally for the characters and externally in the world around them.

lastly, if it's het romance, it needs to not be fucking weird about gender in a getting off on traditional gender roles kind of way. i WILL be turned off if you keep telling me about your tiny dainty fragile heroine getting claimed by your big strong serious man hero. like i have enjoyed plenty of historical romances set in very gendered societies where gender roles play a huge part in characters' lives, but you can have gender in grand and delicious ways without making patriarchy the kink. if you are making patriarchy the kink then your book is not for me.

oh sorry two more things. i love it when a romance author tries something off-beat for the genre. very little romance feels truly fresh and new to me, so it's exciting when an author pulls that off. also: when a romance novel has sex scenes that are also character-driven, not always 100% perfect sex, and don't feel skippable. that's the good stuff.

sorry this mostly just turned into complaining about things that i don't like 😂 but it really is for me less about "these things work for me" and more about "these are the things that DON'T work for me and i kEEP RUNNING INTO THEM." here are some of my favorite romance novels: evvie drake starts over by linda holmes. the countess conspiracy by courtney milan. think of england by kj charles.

[meme-loving-stuck]

i remember being brought up christian like, almost concerned that i never felt a connection to any of the shit they were talkin about,

and when i was younger i was like "oh no! am i bad for not feeling connected to god?? is it bad i feel like my dead mom doesnt talk to me or watch over me?? am i horrible for pretending?????"

but turns out i just had Autism Powers that made me immune to it and i was able to completely sever myself from the idea of being Christian at the ripe old age of like 13. and it was such a HUGE comfort to see that there were all these other beliefs and spiritual sort of things that other people chose to believe in and didnt necessarily treat their beliefs as COLD HARD UNDENIABLE FACT the way christians treat the existence of god & heaven & hell

like now that i am older i know i was in fact traumatized by the culturally catholic beliefs my family held & forced on us all, but i am really immensely grateful that my child self looked at all the other aspects of christianity that would horrify most other children into behaving/conforming, and basically just went, "okay, source?"

and that was the end of that

[seventh-fantasy]

Vegas Theerapanyakul, heir of the minor family.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how the minor family is presented in the image of traditional Chinese mafia / triads - a stark contrast to how the main family appears like a corporation. I couldn’t stop thinking about how that that means they would have emphasised on values of community and loyalty. Although the show doesn’t go far and deep into it in the main narrative, there are clues that this is more than just an aesthetic choice of their living compound and dressing - particularly pertaining to Vegas’ character (and because of course that’s all i care about).

Visually, we see that in their Guan Gong worship (typical deity worship by triads), the locals hanging around at the shophouse front of the manor, and also in the group feasts (I had such a good mini exchange in the tags with @bocje-ce-ustu​ about this that made me want to write this post). This post expounds on this nature of the minor family so much better in detail. *blows kisses to op*

Since we didn't get to see enough of Vegas papa outside of being VP's plot device, we don’t know a reliable amount about him to determine how his leadership style was like to have us seeing what we saw around the minor family house. Personally I just can’t take Kan’s character in ep 11-13 too seriously. He literally appears to bitchslap Vegas based on the most simplistic *handwaves* reasons and then he was gone - as if you didn’t need to go through the hassle to cross the river to get to the safehouse. (crossing rivers everyday just to bitchslap your son? that’s some commitment) The earlier episodes and ep 14 may be more reliable but it’s still limited.

Nevertheless, how did he raise Vegas as a heir of such a community? I want to think that as much as a piece of shit we saw Kan as for most his screentime, he still had a strong sense of their triad values in his blood, and it gets into Vegas as a person (for better or for worse). At the very least, he was shown seated with the rest of the gang at the table (in the above screenshot). How did such a community raise Vegas as a potential successor in general? What was his and Macau’s childhood like? (I have not read the novel so don’t @ me.)

It’s so interesting to think about those given what a complex guy Vegas turned out to be. (Complex as a character itself but also made even more complex with how the narrative over the episodes had nebulously shaped audience perception of him - like, you can get a different side of Vegas in each episode and have no idea where the fake or real Vegas starts and ends as we saw him. That ended up being a charm of his character.)

-

(Vegas + Kan + Macau + minor family community)

I got the impression that it has been pretty much assumed that Macau could also be frequently physically abused by Kan like he does with Vegas, and so Vegas would have to actively protect Macau. But also consider this possibility: Kan just doesn’t hit Macau at all. It’s only Vegas he hits.

Macau simply doesn’t strike me as someone who has to live in constant mortal fear. He’s innocently mischievous and sociable; clearly not as emotionally burdened as Vegas. But he's not naive. He’s aware of Vegas’ plans and whatever politics is going on in his extended family. I just don’t believe that Vegas’ form of protection and care for Macau is to completely hide all the ugly stuff from him like what Porsche did with Chay.

At the same time, Vegas is too much of a pleaser to be opposing his dad all the time for Macau to be consistently safe and stable. Especially considering that we can safely guess that him talking back to his dad at the safehouse in ep 13 was one of the first times he had explicitly stood up to his dad in some way. (a side note: the way Kan responded may seem on-the-nose after a succession of Kan scenes just appearing out of thin air to hit Vegas and galvanise the VP narrative - but it hits a raw nerve like yeap I 100% believe that’s how an Asian parent would respond to such a statement from their kid.)

That’s because Kan’s expectations for Vegas, the eldest son and potential successor, just aren’t the same as for Macau, the younger son.

I can imagine Kan putting all his attention, energy, and pressure on Vegas - not only as his heir but a chess piece in his competition with his older brother and the main family. At a cultural-social level, as an eldest son of a family, like a crown prince, he was fed with expectations that he is the leader of his people - that he will have responsibilities to them and to conduct himself with grace. But at the same time, because of personal and familial reasons, he was also fed the belief that he and his family will forever be inferior to the main family - having anger and bloodlust be seeded and harnessed in him to be used on the main family.

On the other hand, I see more realistically of Kan as a neglectful father to Macau. As a second son, Macau isn’t anything to Kan in business sense and just too young to be useful to him. Thus, we have Kan insisting that Macau is useless (SLANDER) despite Macau having done nothing to offend him. It’s precisely that Kan doesn’t do anything but the bare minimum with Macau and lets him be, that he thinks that Macau had wound up as “useless”. It checks out.

Like what many have pointed out, Vegas surely would have taken up the responsibility of giving the care and love to Macau that they never get from their father. Essentially, Vegas had to fulfill Macau’s emotional needs (to his best) while being actively hurt by his father and strangled by his expectations.

So, imagine Macau as a much younger child having to watch his older brother get beaten or go through corporal punishment (kneeling before the ancestral altar, anyone? wow I’m so original). It’s then Macau who may have been protecting or provides relief to his older brother in some way or another. He knows - largely - what his older brother has to go through, and it is this Macau who probably gets confided and eventually got in the knows of his brother’s schemes.

On this note, it’s probably worth noting that there’s after all a community around them so Vegas may not have had to raise Macau - emotionally and socially - all alone. Of course, these are merely weak ties - given that those underlings are socially inferior to the brothers and they clearly still show deference to Vegas. So what their presence can do to fill the voids of the brothers’ family life is only so limited. The important thing, however, is that the brothers do have a community that surrounds them. A community that has already pledged loyalty to the family. A community that would care and show respect - any inkling of non-hostile social interaction - to their young masters which their own immediate family couldn’t offer. A community that Vegas as a heir would have been drilled into his head since day one that he is obligated to keeping together. This sense of community, as vague as it was, preserved Vegas emotionally somewhere deep down, grounding him to be a person that still has the capacity to care for others - to be human.

This isn’t anything nearly suggested in drama canon, but the many families and street vendors working for them doting on and showing tenderness to the brothers as children is an image I have in my head.

Vegas personally has no problem being respectful and affable with the people who are supposedly lower in status than him. Evident in ep 7 (ep 7 my beloved) from how he interacts with them - addressing them in familiar, polite terms: he even calls the street vendor khun lung - uncle, inclusive of honorifics(!) It’s also in how he entertained Porsche, Pete and Arm like they’re his guests and not his family’s bodyguards. He repeatedly makes sure they’re fed: first he offers moo ping to Pete and Arm then shortly after he asks again whether they’re hungry. These are the kind of manners that are inculcated in a traditional Chinese family, in which you show respect to anyone older than you and make sure your guests are never hungry. Even if he was overdoing this just for Porsche at this moment, it was an act he was willing to put up and in a manner of his choice.

(On this note of Vegas’ manners and politeness, I can never forget how much I love Vegas politely pre-empting Porsche and co. at the beginning of his torture session in ep 7 that they would be uncomfortable. like?? thank you evil man?? that’s so considerate of you)

(Just realised that there’s even a plate of buns?? On...a gambling table...?? Minor family is serving their guests well.)

It was so intentional of the drama to dedicate time to scenes of Vegas and co. entering the market and through to the minor family manor and office, even when it didn’t necessarily have to - apart from the purpose of illustrating Vegas' character. If the Vegas we saw in early episodes hanging around main family compound was indisputably a pretense as he was in foreign territory, then this Vegas being in his home ground was surrounded by an expectation to see him being supposedly who he really is. Partly due to Porsche being around, we still see the same Vegas - but now with an inkling of the idea that how he acted with Porsche before is also how he acts daily in his own space: He has to pretend. Socially, that is who he is. (See why he and Pete are mirror images of each other). Those moments of going after Porsche wasn’t an exception he was making for Porsche as the prey and his Grand Scheme. All the more, this makes the ending scene of ep 4, the first time we saw him truly all alone, fascinating to watch.

-

(Vegas + Porsche)

I guess tangentially related is...how I found the Soft™ Vegas of ep 13-14 in his interactions with Porsche so fascinating because it does instinctively feel different. Was it just the effect of Pete in the most romance drama cliche fashion or does it adhere to Vegas as a character? Sometimes you have to take the way this show portrays its characters with a pinch of salt because it does take liberties with using them as plot device when it is needed of them. But I’m going to say this side of Vegas is also him. It feels different because it’s the barest we’ve seen of him emotionally yet.

Porsche makes for an ideal litmus test of who Vegas really is because of their past mode of interaction for comparison and also Vegas’ character gets to exist outside of romantic/familial narrative filters in this case. With Porsche no longer being his prey and his newfound attachment to Pete, he had nothing to hide, and now there’s even a reason to bare himself to others.

This is me extrapolating at this point but - when he calls Porsche to warn him of the impending coup - despite not actually being friends, that just  *handwaves* spelt out like an act of 义气 to me. 义气 has apparently been translated as “righteousness” but acknowledged to contain cultural connotations too complicated for the translation to be wholly representative. If I had to describe the connotations according to my understanding of it, it’s an idea of a code of honour and brotherhood - in some ways favours and debt-based. So you commonly see that term associated with triads and secret societies.

At this point, Porsche and Vegas are expressively in a collaborative relationship, they helped each other out on what each other needed the most at that point. Vegas is indebted to Porsche. So, even during a time of crisis, he made sure to help Porsche out one last time based on their short-lived allyship and Porsche’s favour to him. But it was a situation beyond his control, so he pays back what he owed, and that was it. Given his upbringing, it is then no surprise that he has such a strong principle and value in him. Vegas is a villain - yes, even after falling in love with Pete and all - but a villain with a code of honour.

-

(Vegas + Kan + Pete)

Vegas has 义 (yi, righteousness) and he has 忠 (zhong, loyalty) too: with his father. Vegas clinging to his father despite the toxicity and destructive nature of their relationship - even if to the point of silliness and *chef’s kiss* pathetic - can perfectly be explained as something innately human. But on top of that, the way and the degree he went for his father’s approval was likely also culturally enforced given the environment he was brought up in.

Back to the Guan Gong, aka god of loyalty, worship at the minor family house. I didn’t get to talk much about this in the post I made about it but it’s definitely worth going into it here about Guan Gong:

Just as important, at the grassroots level of society Guan Yu became a kind of patron saint or protector god for everyone from blacksmiths and opera performers to triads and police officers. (...) Guan Yu’s steadfast, sometimes bullheaded adherence to the principle of zhongyi proved key to his meteoric rise. China’s emperors, who valued loyalty in their subjects, saw Guan Yu’s obedience and respect for his superiors as a value worth propagating. To ordinary people, meanwhile, it was Guan Yu’s yi that made him a legend worth believing in. (...) Guan Yu was capable of acts of cruelty and extreme violence, but his yi manifested as a strict code of behavior and sense of honor, two necessary components of any good folk hero. If anything, the flawed side of Guan Yu’s yi actually enhanced his popularity with regular people — his imperfections only made him seem more relatable. (x)

Sounds familiar.

When you swear loyalty - in the presence of the Guan Gong idol, you swear to give everything you have to the organisation. This loyalty is unquestioning and servile. And that’s the kind of loyalty Vegas has to his father. We know that he pleases his father because he craves for his father’s love and recognition - but why this way? Why is he doing it so willingly? Even by the end of the show he barely showed anger and hatred towards his father. He lashes out at the situations of being let down by his dad, but not at his dad (at least that’s what I think) - because he then goes back home and was 100% ready to go kill some people just because his dad wanted to and he never considered once he could defy that. Perhaps this is why.

So when Pete prays to Guan Gong - in Vegas’ home, it’s as if unwittingly pledging his loyalty (and obedience) to Vegas - even before he or the audience was supposed know anything that was going to happen. That’s just a coincidence, yes? While I don’t think Pete was doing that because he was thinking about swearing loyalty to the minor family but just a general sentiment of ‘I see a deity figure and I will pay respects to it for general good blessing’, it was indeed in Pete’s nature to do that. Nothing is a coincidence. Once again, they’re mirror images of each other.

-

(Vegas + the main family)

The first time we saw Vegas and Korn in the same room was when Macau came running in to the meeting room after getting bashed in his head. But the first time we really saw them interacting was in ep 14 (correct me if I’m wrong though). I love that scene for so many reasons and all of them are because of Vegas and it being the culmination of the family drama in the show (!!!! bounces in excitement)

This face when Vegas realised that his uncle had killed his father and was about to draw his gun at him:

It just struck me that it was nothing like all the faces he had made before when he was about to torture or kill Kinn/Porsche earlier in the episode too. This is just the face of a boy broken for life, yes?

He draws his gun but he doesn’t shoot right away. Why? What directly got him retreating was not at all Pete telling not to shoot - Pete said that before Vegas drew his gun and was standing away from Vegas’ sight the whole time. It was only right after Korn dismisses his guards and tells Vegas that he will take care of him and Macau, that Vegas stops and leaves.

His uncle just killed his father - maybe it was an inevitable ending he was expecting. But was he expecting his uncle to react so calmly and even extend mercy to his family? I want to know so badly what their relationship was like. How did they interact all along before this? Judging from what we’ve seen of Korn, I’m sure he would have been a respectable and presentable uncle. I’m sure they had family gatherings especially when grandfather (who kidnapped Porsche mama) was still alive.

Hesitating to shoot such an uncle, for a man with a strong sense of loyalty and family? Sounds fair. I would like to think that is the reason of his struggle there since Vegas has no qualms about killing people. Killing people is fine for him but killing his uncle is different. Additionally, I like to think that he was also thinking about Macau’s well-being. If he died here as a murderer of the main family’s leader, what would happen to Macau?

Also bringing us to this one shot in this same scene of Kinn gently shaking his head at Vegas pointing his gun at Kinn’s own dad:

I’m enthralled. It wasn’t an expression of anger or disgust, it was deep disapproval hand in hand with concern. Or something like that. I don’t know if Vegas saw that but I would like to see his face if he registered that. It just felt like a conscious choice to me that Kinn was shown doing this in the midst of an intense moment between his dad and his cousin. I want to know what was going through his brain.

What I would like to extrapolate from this is that there is ultimately not really any real hostility between them, personally. Just as Korn had (even for secretly manipulative reasons) shown gentleness and mercy as a family member to his nephew who was trying to kill him at that moment, I want to think so that Kinn was raised to react similarly except without the ulterior motives Korn harbours.

Did they get along as kids somehow? How have they always been interacting with each other before Porsche came into the picture? I can’t shut up about how Vegas has always referred to Kinn in affectionate familial terms - as p’rung (idk the correct romanisation), the second brother. (Hits close to home because I also refer to my own cousins on sibling terms). Even when he had been harbouring desires to kill Kinn, they’re still family. The only reason he wanted so badly to kill Kinn is the agony that he can never get away from the fact that his family is beneath his. It’s that they are, unfortunately, family.

I lowkey resent that I don’t really have much to say about Vegas and Kinn’s relationship in relation to the topic of this post. I just love them as each other’s foils - both forced to grow up too soon as crown princes of their families and main protectors of their brothers but each raised by two quite different fathers who are brothers in rivalry + Vegas having a one-sided obsessive rivalry with Kinn which is just too funny. The drama sadly doesn’t give me as much as I would have wished for. But we make do. <3

-

That’s all. ✌️

[oatbugs]

i am actually terrified xoxo

[astro-rainbow777]

🍒⛽️Red Astrology Observations☎️👠

Mars in Astrology

💋 Passion in Astrology can be found in the Mars sign and house placement:

- Aries Mars are more passionate In nature, whatever they want, they go after, fiercely and bravely. The type to love sports, fights and competition of any kind. They thrive in a competitive environment and relationships. It possible their passion is tied to their childhood in some way (same for Mars in 1st)- so if this involves child hood toys they used to collect, eating their favorite foods growing up or playing games that they used to when times were simpler.

- Mars in 1st house can make the native very passionate about their looks, being perceived as dominate/hot/sexy, working out and having physical strength. I’ve noticed that they may like competition but generally they don’t try that hard to compete with others if they are in good health. If these natives are confident in themselves- they try so hard to boost the confidence of everyone around them.

- Taurus Mars can be passionate about their possessions, having their material needs met, connecting to their 5 senses and financial gain. “Anyone can cook” 👨🏻‍🍳 🤌🏻mentality. Passionate about rest! This may sound silly- but it’s actually quite hard to master, especially in hustle culture. As someone with no earth placements in their chart, it’s extremely hard for me to rest, slow down and enjoy my food. Be present, Taurus mars understands and values this. Not the type to gamble their money away. Needs things to make sense materially.

- Mars in 2nd house makes the individual very passionate and their financial security and safety, having their basic needs met, having an abundance of possessions. They can thrive in jobs that are considered a “competitive pay” corporation. They may love shopping, spending and saving money. They value passion and material wealth, so depending on what sign the Mars placement is in can add more context of what it surrounds. Bulk spenders, Costco/Sams Club membership holders lmao.

- Mars in Gemini is very multi faceted in what they are passionate about. They have little niches and hobbies that they love, anything that challenges them mentally while also being hands on! My mom has this and she’s really into gardening and cooking with the food she’s grown. She can get very restless about it but I think that it’s so cute how whatever she is passionate about consumes her mentally.

- Mars in 3rd is passionate about mental pursuits, they could have been picked on as a kid, which made them highly ambitious in their studies. Extremely competitive in the realm of knowledge. Their peers and siblings may see them as a threat or just see them as generally argumentative. Although I think these people just enjoy a good debate and exercising their intellectual capabilities. They could have an abundance of hobbies they indulge in and our passionate about. They may bound with their friends through their hobbies and passions. Could really enjoy competitive video games such as Smash Bros.

- Mars in Cancer natives are passionate about their family and proving themselves to their family. They could have been compared to their family members a lot growing up, or just felt an instability at home. They are passionate about cultivating a home for themselves and starting a family of their own one day. This does not have to be pertinent to kids- chosen family- fur babies 🐾 or significant other also ring true for this sign. - Mars in 4th are passionate about their loved ones, they are highly protective of themselves and others. These people are quite competitive but in a passive aggressive way. They are usually at war with their own emotions, family and security. I’ve noticed many of these individuals have had violence in childhood home or trauma surrounding family ):

- Mars in Leo they are passionate about their creativity, children and having fun! Would love to have this Mars placement honestly, because these people march to the beat of their own drum. It’s very admirable! They are passionate about their own authenticity, you will never catch them trying to steal someone else’s Swag lmao. I think they invented swag quite honestly 😂

- Mars in 5th are total party animals! They are passionate about life and all that the world has to offer. The world is their Oyster! Every sidewalk is their runway and every song they hear is the backtrack for the movie they star in! Their life is all about being confident in their own skin and romanticizing their selves, relationships and passion projects.

- Mars in Virgo are passionate about helping others and being the best version of themselves. This Mars sign is notoriously known for being able to try something once and being exceptionally good at it the first go. I hate to say it (only because I know it comes from a place of pain) but these natives are passionate about perfection. This can cause them a lot of anxiety if they are careful. Although, they are good at many things, it is advised that they lean into whatever makes them happy, serve their part in making the world a better place!

- Mars in 6th are passionate about their purpose, their health and their pets. They can spend a lot of time researching how to become better versions of themselves. They will have a very active routine and live passionately day to day. The type to wake up at sunrise, take their vitamins tend to their pets needs, cook a whole food breakfast, workout, meditate, journal, than go to work, tend to their pets needs, do their night time self care, hygiene, journal, meditate, pre sleep stretch, sleep exactly 8 hours, repeat. Function well with planners.

- Mars in Libra are passionate about harmony and balance. When I tell you their whole plan of action is strictly devoted to how not to get into conflict… it’s to the tea. They are super passionate about the relationships in their life, and are very generous in nature. They love art, certain aesthetics, good food and beautiful things. They may be called lazy from time to time because they don’t quite function the way other people do. They may make plans for 50 different things one day because they have a difficult time saying no- then end up going to none of them because they didn’t finish getting ready until everything event was finished. These people invented fashionably late.

- Mars in 7th is passionate about their partnerships. These natives are actually quite confrontational in comparison to Libra Mars. This is because they want to squash the beef before it’s even a problem. There may be a tendency to people please- but most of the time these people are just socially extroverted, kind and considerate.

- Mars in Scorpio is another sign that is just passionate in nature. It is so intense for them that it is hard for them to do anything if they not completely engulfed in passion. They psychoanalyze everyone they meet, at natural detectives and are friends with the unknown. They aren’t scared of the dark and often find so much beauty in what others cannot comprehend

- Mars in 8th are passionate about the unknown as well, it is very enticing to them. Anything involving mystery is naturally alluring to them. They love to get lost in rabbit holes of whatever they are interested in. Whatever it is they are the master of- and you question them about it, they’ve already thought of answer. Because they know their hobbies are often taboo, scary, and misunderstood- they have studied every answer to every question that someone had for them. Their passions are all encompassing. They are so much more than deep. Everything they do is intentional.

- Mars in Sagittarius are adventurous, hilarious and curious. I feel like Sagittarius more than Gemini Mars has that “Curiosity killed that cat” vibe. For Gemini mars it’s more like googling disturbing thing’s because they are curious than regretting it. For Sag tho, it’s doing things because YOLO and why tf not? Than breaking their leg or something. Although doesn’t happen often because we know how lucky Sag placements are lmao. But it’s like they jumped off a cliff, didn’t die but they broke their leg. Haha- this was a tangent

- Mars in 9th is going places! Literally they can’t sit still. Most likely passionate about travel, philosophy, and adventure. One of the most fun placements to have. Extreme sports is common here, skydiving, bungee jumping etc. They live to experience all that there is to experience. Very ambitious and passionate about education and teaching as well. They probably have things that they LlVE by

- Mars in Capricorn are passionate about success, achieving their goals which usually require them to work really hard. Where ever the mars is located in the houses can tell you a little bit more about what their goals are. They are passionate about being in control of their own lives, not takin shid from anyone lol

- Mars in 10th are passionate about being successful, being their own boss, their reputation and getting external recognition. They will put a lot of energy into their career and be very passionate about whatever they are doing. They will be a trail blazer and their career because they do it the right way the first time. Extremely hard workers- just be weary of burn out Mars in 10th folks!

- Mars in Aquarius is passionate about humanitarian pursuits, their community and friendships. They move about the world in the most unpredictable and unexpected way. They can be seen as a black sheep of their peers and then BAM they’re the ones turning heads, setting trends and on top. You will never know their next move and honestly neither do they! They get sudden bursts or urges of motivation and ideas- so never underestimate these individuals!

- Mars in 11th are passionate about their dreams, humanity and social causes. They will spend a lot of time surrounded by their friends and in their community. Although, their best friends will be fighting alongside them. They are passionate about the injustices of the world, stick up for the underdog and let their freak flag fly!

- Mars in Pisces are passionate about compassion, sacrifice, and unconditional love. Many of the times Pisces mars has their head in the clouds and put their energy into reading or writing their own book, painting the world they envisioned in their dream the night before, or staring at a the ocean, only to find God. This is if they are in a healthy nature, but many times they could escape through dr*gs, alc*h*l, s*x, or toxic relationships. This placement can get a bad rap for their changeability and confusion energy but they love harder than no other and would do anything for you if committed.

- Mars in 12th is passionate about their dreams, spiritually, many of them are religious or spiritual in nature. I haven’t met many who aren’t. They are natural introverts who need to spend as much time alone as they can to recharge. They may feel outcasted from society. A lot of people talk behind their back because of this which makes them withdraw even deeper. These natives benefit from living a spiritual, service oriented lifestyle, developing boundaries and surround themselves by people who genuinely want the best for them. It is hard but it is doable. Stay strong Mars in 12th!

🤬💢Pet Peeves🚨🚩

🚗Aries Mars- Going too slow in front of them-especially with no way around (applies to driving as well), lazy people, people who can’t keep up 💢Taurus Mars- Smacking, chewing inappropriately, weird textures….like chalk? Unpleasant senses, smells, being rushed, itchy clothes, under/over cooked food

☎️Gemini Mars- over stimulation, close minded attitude, when their friends don’t like each other, one word responses, boring people, when the Wi-Fi connection is slow

💔Cancer Mars- Inconsiderate of other people’s feelings (doesn’t have to be their own, most time it’s not), manipulation, people with anger issues, or people who take out their problems on others

🪭Leo Mars- When people try to compete with them when they are merely existing, copy cats, buzz kills, unwanted attention, seeing people in public that they don’t want to see

🤡 Virgo Mars- Know it alls, people who act like they know everything but don’t, ignorance, STAINS, people who are really loud….people lmaooo

💋Libra Mars- hypocrisy, stubbornness, arguments (especially in public), hypercritical people, slut and bullies

🧲Scorpio Mars- Lack of depth, lying for the sake of lying, slut shaming, shallow people, assuming, saying “I love you” like it’s casual, saying their friends when they know nothing about them, rumors

🚁Sagittarius Mars- People who lack independence, being late to things (not really others…they hate being late), people who try to control them, excess responsibility, and inflexibility

🩸Capricorn Mars- Doing things half-a$$ed, moochers, lack of ambition, unreliable, carelessness, immaturity, unpredictable behavior

🍄Aquarius Mars- Conformist, cry babies, stupidity, agreeing with them when they are playing devils advocate lol, when they like an unpopular artist and than it becomes trendy, attention seekers

🌹Pisces Mars- Telling them they are being unrealistic or their dreams are too big, being called sensitive or told they care too much, lmao reality…being alive hahaha- being judged for their spirituality/religion

[merakiui]

MERA MERA MERA!!! I just had a random thought. Jade who spent 2 years toying with your feelings bc he knew you had a crush on him only for him to go off to his internship and realise that maybe he does like you back but when he comes back from 4th year he sees you happily dating one of the boys in the first year gang. I wanna see his heart drop lmao

- Lily anon

ヾ⁠(˶⁠ ⁠’⁠Ｏ⁠’˶⁠ ⁠)⁠ﾉﾞ‎!!!!!! AND I KNOW JUST THE LOVELYTHEBAND SONG THAT WOULD SUIT THIS CONCEPT: "your whatever." These lyrics: "I'll be your right now. I'll be your forever. Oh, I'll be your last call. I'll be your whatever." and "You're obsessed with the moon and in love with the stars. I'm in love with your soul and everything that you are." AND AND AND AND "You smell like a holiday. I'm still in love with you though. It was spring time, you were still mine. Back when I felt whole." AAAAAAAAAAA JADE LEECH BEING PAINFULLY, WHOLEHEARTEDLY IN LOVE IS TOO GOOD. REALIZING HE WAS IN LOVE A LITTLE TOO LATE OMG............ OTL OTL

Just,,,,,, the way he's so hot and cold while you were in school together, intentionally doing things just to see you fluster or further kindle your affections. He doesn't normally like so much attention, but he admits it feels nice when it's coming from you. He'd play with your feelings like they were a harp, stringing you along just because it was fun and exciting. And then he goes off for his internship/independent study and during that time apart realizes he misses you and your voice and your kind gestures and the little things you'd do. Oh, he's fallen in love with you, hasn't he? He's always felt this way. He just failed to realize it.

Jade hopes to confess when he returns. He hypes himself up for it, cowardly despite his nature to be unabashed in everything else he does. When he gets back to NRC in the winter for the cultural festival and sees you hand in hand with someone from your year, his heart frosts over. He was too late. You've already found someone else who'll love and appreciate you far better than Jade ever could before.

[altbite]

You’re Kinda Cool *Konig Headcanons*

Konig x Alternative!Reader Headcanons

hehe konig is husband material.

ANyway, GN!Reader is an alt person who has dyed hair - that is mohawk, piercings and tattoos. Because alt is also a very wide range of sub cultures and styles, I will do my best to make it that way/not mention a specific sub culture so it can be inclusive. Also idc if it wouldn’t be realistic, take it or leave it lmao, very much based on personal experience and inspired by the fact i dyed my hair today

+ some 141 headcanons because i can :3

__

The first time he sees you, he is taken aback by your looks: Dyed hair and pierced. He couldn’t decide whether he thought you were attractive or intimidating

To the rest of 141, this was normal. They saw you change your hair more frequently than your clothes.

Konig was fascinated nonetheless. You looked cool and he wanted to be your friend but was too awkward to approach you.

When he saw you talk to other recruits, you were this sarcastic, dark humoured person who bullied them. His first impression was you were kind of a dick.

This was your way of showing love and friendship towards people.

He got more bewildered when he saw how nice you were to strangers and not the first impression he got of you.

He realised he might’ve judged you prematurely. His impression of you was probably the same way people saw him: tall, intimidating and probably mean due to his size

Once he actually got to know you though, you two got along great.

You two kept up with each other and some of the wack shit you said and did. You two had some of the most pointless theories and questions that spiralled into debates. It often made you laugh so hard, it hurt.

He always compliments you on your hair, and gets secretly jealous because he’s always wanted to try dye his hair but didn’t want to stand out more than he did.

When you were bleaching or dyeing your hair, he would watch and keep you company.

Konig enjoyed watching you experiment with your hair.

One time you asked him to help you out, and he panicked a little. You giggled at him and told him its not that scary and you’d guide him

With your mohawk, it was somewhat of a struggle to shave it and dye the back of it so you used Konig’s presence to your advantage.

You asked him to help you shave and poor guy was stressed and took his time to perfect it and not accidentally fuck it up.

He did pretty well, even if it took twice as long.

When it came to bleaching, he thought your hair would fall out if he helped so he refused to go near you.

It took a lot to convince him thats not how it works if you do it properly.

Konig would watch and study you and how you do things, learning and mentally taking note. He really wanted to help, he was just nervous.

When you got to dyeing your hair fun colours, you asked him which one to go with and do the one he picked. It made Konig blush and giggle knowing you took his suggestions on board.

He would eventually start helping you with these things. When it came to shaving your hair, he would volunteer and eventually he did it without asking. It was his little job for you. Especially if he had feelings for you or you two were dating. He loved being in your bubble and being useful.

He would also help with bleach and hair dye. You let him experiment with colours and combinations. He was living his emo/scene life through you.

Konig had wanted to dye his hair too but he was too afraid to ask you. He was also afraid it could damage his hair or something would go wrong. He would overthink a lot about this.

He eventually asked if you could do his hair like yours. You were a fit of happiness and giggles as you agreed profusely.

You did a test strand first to see how his hair would react and give him a chance to feel it out before fully committing.

He really liked the strand that he kept it for ages. You would dye it for him different colours.

It was a bonding experience for you two. It also got messy most of the time and both of you would have dye on your hands as you refused to use gloves.

You have attempted to convince him to dye his eyebrows. He is not a fan. Stands there cross armed, shaking his head.

He loves your piercings. Has asked you a million questions about them. Big boy has a fear of needles so he would never get anything done himself. Asks you about pain and healing and all.

Has helped you picked out jewellery.

He is afraid to touch your piercings in case he hurts you.

Konig goes with you one time to get a new piercing and faints before you even get pierced. It was jaw dropping at first but funny afterwards.

Is fascinated by your tattoos. Depending where they are on your body and what your relationship is, he will traced them.

Always slaps them out of boredom.

Accidentally slaps you too hard sometimes and leaves you with bruises and feels bad.

Watches you and Ghost talk tattoos, flabbergasted because he doesn’t understand what you guys are saying. Thinks you two are sadisctic

The boys have all helped you with your hair before. Soap managed to fuck it up once and you banned him from coming near your hair

Soap is kinda salty you won’t let it go but you take too much pride in your hair.

They all saw the strand you did for Konig and Gaz and Soap begged you to do them. Ghost glared at you to not come near him and his hair. Price just sighed in disappointment that you were influencing his boys like this. He does think your hair is cool however.

You shock everyone when you have a normal hair colour because they aren’t used to you being,,,normal.

Konig mostly loves your music taste. There are some questionable songs in your playlist and he doesn’t understand why you some them.

You made him a personalised playlist and he made one for you.

You have taken him to concerts of your favourite bands and even if he isn’t a fan, he is genuinely happy to be around you and enjoys watching you have fun.

He was not prepared for how loud you get at concerts. thats not the only time you get loud tho

—

That’s it for now. I cant think of anything else to add but feel free to comment or repost with more headcanons of your own! Also requests are open if you want anything specific :]

[ash-and-starlight]

Books of 2023

the list nobody asked for <3

My reading habits had gone a bit stagnant in the past couple of years so this year i made the effort to engage in reading again and wow books really are good!! who would have thought! Sharing this year's book log with the small reviews i did while reading yeah i am That kind of list lover if u feel like being nosy, (and maybe even help mi crowdsource reading recs based on my likes 👀🤲?)

The left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula i Need to know your thoughts on omegaver- [gunshot] THAT ASIDE yeah. mrs Le Guin you've done it again. I can see why everyone got their brain chemistry altered by this book.

The Membranes - Chi Ta-Wei another brain chemistry altering book. would love to discuss it with a gender studies major lmao

Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie its a v atmospheric and poignant story, I know I would have loved it more if I was familiar with the rich religious/cultural background it draws from

The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson Crazy insane in the membrane about this series. one of the most compelling worldbuildings I've ever seen, and most importantly it features one of the most crazy wet pathetic scrunkly meow meow protagonists i've ever had the pleasure of reading about.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides i liked the writing style of this book a lot! idk how well it holds up re: intersexuality topic, but its a very engaging read.

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power - Jude Ellison, Sady Doyle The title says it all honestly, its a beautiful, thought provoking and engaging essay, spanning eras, pop culture phenomenons, and real life events on the topic of women and horror.

The cat who saved books - Sōsuke Natsukawa this was so cute and heartfelt, it will really make you go Ah Yes, this is Why we Love Books <333

The Locked Tomb Series - Tamsyn Muir now when people say there is a girl who is the cursed sacrifice of 2000 infants who falls in love with the sleeping embodiment of the soul of the Earth (barbie) and also another girl who is the only survivor of the aforementioned sacrifice and is. a Jesus metaphor? and also the two girls become one at some point. and every book is a different genre. and god is bisexual. and memes survived the nuclear apocalypse. I can just nod and say so true.

The Area X Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer Rotating this series in the microwave of my mind at the speed of light it's soSO GOOD!! the movie doesn't even come close honestly u NEED to read the books. and then go touch grass and be aware of every strand in a completely new way.

The Dawn of Yangchen - F. C. Yee nice read! I was more invested in the worldbuilding crumbs than in the actual story lmao, I will forever think about the HEATED airball rivalry between the air temples and about the swt greetings / bethrotal armbands.

Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex - Bernard Saladin d'Anglure starting w a disclaimer bc I feel like the topic of native colonization was ignored when it should have been way more prominent when talking about the context of where and when these testimonies were collected?? That aside it was very interesting and well put together, with first account testimonies of Inuit elders about their myths, lifestyles and beliefs.

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee i read the book after having seen the tv series (which i also rlly recommend). Very moving story about a family and its generations, from Korea under Japanese colonization to modern day America.

Her body and other parties - Carmen Maria Marchado sometimes I go about my day then I remember this book exists and stare at the wall for 30 minutes.

Dictionnaire de l'impossible - Didier Van Cauwelaert big miss. this collection of articles about "strange impossible phenomenons" sounded so quirky and interesting but i sure would have loved if the author hadnt so clearly picked a side. and also way too much church for my tastes.

He who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker Chan Im not even gonna speak about this one if you've followed me since july you know what pits of insanity and despair i'm in

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Sometimes!! the book with pretty covers put in the "famous on socials" bookstore section!! are good!! It's about being othered it's about connection it's about diaspora it's about love and friendship and most of all it's about viddy games.

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel reading this post-covid and learning it was written in 2017 was A TRIP. Psychic damage at every page. still feeling very normla.

The Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault Ugh i desperately wanted to like this book because the setup is so interesting and full of potential, but the end result was just. flat. flat story flat characters the plot focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times i was so DONE when i reached the end otz.

Babel - R. F. Kuang LOVED the worldbuilding in this, the "lost in translation" system of magic is one of the most interesting things ive ever read. I think theres something about the writing in general that didn't win me over completely?? but all in all a very good

Red Ocean - Han Song This sure is a Book. That i've Read. its so profundly strange and unlike anything ive come across that i dont even know what to feel about it. i think 90% of my confusion comes from Not Getting Cultural References so if someone has a "red ocean explained" essay plz send it my way bc i couldnt find one.

[sugurusdiscordmoderator]

barista suguru and reader has the biggest crush on him that they try to ask him out but got too nervous to do so!! however.. reader suddenly see him at a party they were invited in, and what does alcohol do to a person sometimes? confidence, and they hook up (eventually got together??) I'm not sure if this request makes sense, and English isn't my first language..

omg hi anon thank you for the ask - not sure if you're an AOT fan but @humanitys-strongest-bamf has an amazing fic similar to this w Levi and its god tier

anywaysss here we go <3

(The ages in this are all fucked up lol, Megumi, Nobara, and Yuji are 22 and Gojo, Geto, and Shoko are like 25)

content warning: Haibara and Nanami are lovers lmao, weed, alcohol, cigarettes, hookup culture

(this is my original drawing please do not repost)

-

Being well known on your college campus is a blessing and a curse. You loved being involved in a lot of clubs and participating in social events. Going to the library or trying to study was nearly impossible with how many people knew you. However being a senior, you needed to focus and get things done. You lived a little ways off campus to save money and started frequenting a little coffee shop a few blocks from your apartment.

The first time you stopped, you had been walking home from class when a storm with bad winds blew in, and you decided to just study in this cafe until the storm passes. There are little tables all throughout, you grab one near the back and pull out some of your course materials and get started writing notes and going over chapters for your quiz in a few days. That is when a yawn washes over you and the exhaustion from late nights sets in. You figure you might as well get a drink while you're at this coffee shop.

Walking up to the counter you squint up at the menu board trying to decide what you're in the mood for.

"What can I get for you?" a man's voice asks.

Lost in your indecisiveness you don't even look down to make eye contact reading between Americano, Latte, Cold Brew, etc.

"Mmmm, not sure yet, I may need a few minutes," biting your bottom lip thinking about how much caffeine you want to intake today.

"We also have a list of specials down in front of you," he says politely and you see him walk away out of your peripherals.

The thing is, you're not a huge coffee person. Half the time it's too sweet, half the time it's too bitter. The caffeine gives you jitters and makes you anxious. Also sometimes coffee just messes your stomach up so you just have given up on expensive coffee places and opt for making your own shitty coffee at home.

You glance down at the specials list, reading them to yourself,

"Almond Joy Latte

Sparkling Green Tea Refresher

Pink Velvet Cold Brew

Barista's Choice"

You finally look up at the employee, a tall man that is turned around cleaning the espresso machine. His hair is pulled back into a cute bun and his frame is just large. You look at his hands, so large and strong with some veins protruding. He has a black button up on with the sleeves rolled up, exposing tattoos on his forearms. Matching it with black pants and a black apron, he looks kind of dark and mysterious.

He turns around and catches your eye, forgetting all the words that were about to form in your head.

"Still need a minute?" He squints his eyes a little and smiles softly as your eyes rake over his whole face. He has a piece of black bangs sticking out from the bun, pierced ears, a lip ring, amber eyes, and an amazingly chiseled jaw. Your mouth opens but nothing comes out and you can feel the heat spread across your cheeks.

"Uh, I, sorry," you shake your head and try to laugh at your own stupor, "Can I do the barista's choice?"

He nods, "Any preferences?"

"Uhm, no, whatever you like," you completely lie through your teeth trying to seem chill. He taps in the order on the iPad at the register and flips it over for you to pay and sign. At least it isn't too expensive if you don't like it, but you eagerly press the "25%" tip button hoping Mr. tall, dark, and handsome appreciates it.

"I'll bring it over to you when it's ready," he smiles and nods his head towards where you were seated.

"Thanks," you smile awkwardly walking back to your course materials, although it's not like you'll be focusing on anything other than the barista soon. You not-so-casually watch him work, obsessed with a man you've hardly spoken to once.

A few minutes later he brings over a cute tea cup and saucer, and you immediately smile when he sets it down, seeing the little design on top.

"It's a dirty chai...like a chai tea latte with a shot of espresso in it and a little special touch. Let me know if you like it."

The man smirks and walks away before you can even properly thank him. You burn your tongue eagerly taking a sip too soon, trying to find another excuse to talk to him. You try to take your mind off of it by scrolling through instagram for a bit while drinking your latte but around this time of year its all couples and engagements and babies which only adds to how down bad you feel. You get a text from your friend Nobara letting you know that a friend of her friend, Megumi, is having a party Friday and the friend told Megumi who told Nobara that they could bring whoever. After deciphering the word vomit of a text she sent you you send back a "thumbs up emoji" letting her know you'll be there because nobody else has invited you anywhere yet.

You finish your drink and decide to pack up your stuff and head home, a few blocks in the rain won't hurt you. It might cool you off from thinking about the dreamy barista you just met. You set the cute mug on the counter, and he turns around when he hears the noise. He raised an eyebrow, as if asking 'how was it?'

"It was great," you smile, "uhm, have a good one," you slightly shrug and turn around to go before he can add anything, just like he did to you earlier.

-

The next few days are uneventful, you walk by the coffee shop every day on your way to campus, wondering if he is working or if you should go in, but not wanting to struggle to pick a drink or pay for coffee again.

On Friday Nobara walks back to your apartment with you, she commutes in to town so whenever there is a party or something going on she crashes on your couch. She eyes the little cafe, "Want coffee? I think tonight might be pretty fun from the sounds of it!" She practically squeals and you find it adorable how excited she is. "Sure" you grumble, holding the door open for her.

She waltzes right up to the counter, decisive as always, and knows exactly what she wants. You trail behind her, not seeing any employees at the counter, squinting up at the menu board yet again. That's when you hear giggling come from the back room and see the handsome barista come out with some supplies, followed by a cute girl with a short brown bob who seems to be helping him.

You can't help but think about his beautiful laugh, and how you can hear it again.

"See ya tonight Shoko" he says, putting his apron back on and refocusing his attention to Nobara.

"Bye Geto!" This so called Shoko calls back to him as she walks out the front door. You cant help but feel a twinge of jealousy at the way he was in the backroom with his apron off and laughing with a girl.

Like girl - quit being delusional, you just heard his name for the first time and he probably doesn't even know who you are.

"Y/n, what do you want?" Nobara interrupts your talk with yourself.

"I'll have what she's having," you say overly confident, smiling at Geto. They both side eye you and you just remain oblivious, opting to go on your phone as you let your friend pay for your coffee as payment for her 'hotel' for the night. The two of you move out of the way and stand off to the side waiting for your drinks while Nobara talks about how Megumi's other friend Yuji is going to be there tonight with his big brother Sukuna and how excited she is because they're both sooo attractive. You nod your head along with what she says while scrolling on your phone. It's not that you don't care what she's saying, it's just that she knows so much about everything. All the gossip on campus is at your fingertips because of her, good or bad. You zone out staring at whatever drinks the barista is making, watching his damn good looking hands do his job. He walks over to you with two cups and you can't help but just stare at him. His outfit today consists of jeans and a tight black tshirt with a flannel jacket over top.

"Two iced matcha lattes with coconut milk and a strawberry cold foam on top," He smiles as Nobara eagerly grabs both of the drinks and hands one to you.

She sips it right away, "This is the best I've ever had thank youuu," she dramatically draws out while pulling you out the door heading to your apartment again. You look back to see him watching you leave and give a small wave with the hand that is holding your drink. You can't tell if you're imagining it but you think you see a faint blush over his cheeks.

-

You and Nobara enjoy your typical pregame activities, getting ready together, listening to music, and sharing a blunt.

"The guy at the coffee shop was checking you out," she half slurs, talking while applying her lip gloss.

"What makes you say that?" You think she's messing with you but you also hadn't told her about your little crush.

"When I was ordering he was staring at you the WHOLE time. Like he didn't even make eye contact with me I don't think!" She wines, "God it's not fair he's so gorgeous."

"To be fair Nobara, you think most guys are gorgeous" You giggle and walk towards the freezer to grab some liquor. "Speaking of gorgeous men, who's party are we even going to tonight?"

"I think it's at some guy named Satoru Gojo's house? I guess he's good childhood friends with Megumi from when he didn't really have a dad." There goes your friend, sharing other people's business when she didn't really need to.

"Mmm," you nod and throw back a shot of liquor, "I think I had a class with him when I was like a freshman and he was a senior. A real interesting character."

"Maybe you can introduce me and I'll get lucky," Nobara raises her eyebrows at you.

"You will not be having sex on my couch." You say sternly before you both erupt in a fit of giggles. Gathering a few last minute things before heading out, you also grab a reusable shopping tote and fill it with a little bit of your own alcohol, you never know what they may or may not have at these kinds of parties.

-

Walking there was a little chilly but overall a nice night for the time of year. This guy must've gone to your school and hadn't left yet given the proximity of his house to your apartment and to campus.

You walk in and see Yuji Itadori right away with his friendly smile and big personality. He gives you both hugs and you know at least if Nobara doesn't get lucky with anyone else she can rely on Yuji.

Your energetic friend holds your hand as she searches the rest of the party to find her friend Megumi. He stands in the kitchen with a white haired man that you faintly think is this Gojo guy, both getting ready to shotgun a beer together. You and Nobara wait to see who wins before interrupting, grabbing drinks out of the cooler and setting down your bag with liquor and hard seltzers in it. It appears that Gojo finishes just a second before Megumi and you hear Nobara interrupting, "Gumi what was that?! You lost like a little bitch?"

He groans in response but ultimately smiles, "Why am I friends with you again?"

"Because you've been stuck with me since high school."

Watching the altercation, Gojo comes up to you and asks, "You're with them?" Nodding his head at the two immaturely arguing.

"Sadly." you respond taking a swig of your drink.

"I'm Satoru Gojo, this is my place, thanks for coming." He eyes you over top of his black round sunglasses, making you feel like you may be wearing too revealing of clothes.

"I'm y/n, thanks for the invite by proxy," You giggle as Megumi makes his way over to you.

"Y/n, good to see you," the spikey haired boy gives you an awkward side hug, and a little kiss on the top of your head. Satoru raises his eyebrows at the two of you and you roll your eyes. When Megumi and Nobara get distracted and head into another room you fill him in. "Megumi and I may have hooked up once or twice when we were drunk," You blush, revealing your secret that hardly anyone knew to this stranger.

"Mhmm, seems like more than once or twice," Gojo sips his drink and sighs dramatically, leaving the kitchen to you alone.

Just then the back door of the kitchen that leads to the back yard creaks open. You turn to see who it was out of instinct, and recognize the girl with the brown bob from the cafe earlier today. She carries on past you not even really looking at you with her cigarette still lit in her mouth.

You see Nobara in the living room from your spot on the kitchen and mouth to her that you're going outside to smoke. She nods and thumbs up, but it seems that Yuji also read your lips and is interested in joining you.

You head out to the backyard, very dimly lit despite the pretty lights Gojo tried to hang up to make it look more aesthetic. You pull out a dab pen and a cigarette and hold them up for Yuji to take his pick. His eyes light up at the weed pen and he takes a huge inhale.

"God Yuji, careful," you laugh and proceed to take a smaller hit.

Your laugh seems to attract the attention of another group standing outside, and you immediately quiet yourself.

"Do you have a light?" One of them asks although you can't make out names or voices and even if you could you don't know many people here.

"Yeah," you respond, digging out a baby pink lighter that has a "Daddy's Girl" sticker on it, a joke that one of your friends gave you. Hopefully its dark enough that they can't see it.

A blonde guy approaches you to grab it, "Thanks, we have some seats over here if you guys want." Yuji happily follows but you're a little apprehensive. However they do have a firepit going so it is a little brighter over there.

"I'm Kento, this is my boyfriend Yu," the two introduce themselves, lighting their cigs at the same time with your lighter. You take another small hit of your pen as the brunette one comments, "Nice lighter." It makes you cough on your smoke a bit but eventually turns into laughter, "Thank you," You smile grabbing it back from them.

Yuji seems to be a little high from his rather large puff earlier, and you ask, "I'm going to go check on Nobara, you need anything?" He smiles and shakes his head and starts some conversation about an underground fight club with the two guys as you walk back inside. You enter back into the kitchen, grabbing another drink and heading into the living room where you last saw Nobara. She is having a heart to heart with some girl that graduated last year that you know of named Maki. They both have been drinking and just are smiling and agreeing with everything the other says.

She suddenly turns to you when she realizes you're standing there, "Your lover, he's here." She abruptly turns back around ignoring your inquiry of who she is referring to. You see Gojo and Megumi talking in the kitchen and decide to go talk to them instead of standing there looking awkward. You couldn't see from the angle you were at, but the brunette bob cigarette girl was also standing with them chatting.

Gojo waves you over to the conversation, putting a playful arm around your shoulders. "So sweetheart," Satoru starts, slurring his words a little more than he was the last time you talked to him, "Were trying to place bets on who's going to hook up with who tonight."

"Shoko has money on Suguru and Yuki, Megumi bets on Nobara and Yuji, and me, well I have money on you and Megumi." The four of you errupt in laughter and yelling over top of each other of who is correct.

"What are we arguing about?" Another voice asks that just came into the kitchen. You turn to see who it is with Gojo's arm still loosely hanging onto you.

"Suguruuuu" Satoru coos, "Finally joined the party! Shoko here thinks you're going to hook up with Yuki tonight."

"Like hell," he mutters looking to see who his best friends choice of girl is for the evening, before his eyes land on you. You can't help but drop your jaw at the beautiful barista from the cafe standing in front of you. It looks like he just showered, wet hair which is half up half down, and you can smell the fresh body wash radiating off of him.

"Who'd you bet Satoru?" Suguru questions, still having his eyes focused on you.

"I bet little miss y/n here and her boy toy Megumi." He responds and your cheeks flush at the fact this beautiful man may think you're not interested because of Gojo's fat mouth.

"Who'd you bet on?" Shoko asks directed towards Geto.

"I'll have to get back to you on that," he turns to get a drink from the cooler before taking a step outside, you assume to smoke.

You excuse yourself from under Satoru's arm, leaving him Megumi and Shoko to talk about more random gossip. Heading to the backdoor, you try to build up some courage to introduce yourself to this Geto guy. Much to your dismay, as you are walking out of the door in your own thoughts, another person was coming through the door to go inside but was a lot more solid than you. Bouncing back onto your ass you giggle, "I'm so so sorry, I wasn't paying attention," you look up to meet the amber eyes you've been thinking about for the past week. It feels like the wind has gotten knocked out of you seeing how close your faces were with him grabbing your hand to help you up.

“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to knock you over like that,” he slightly laughs. “I’m just grabbing a lighter,” letting go of your hand holding the door open.

“Oh I have one here!” You pull it out of your pocket kicking yourself for showing it to someone else again. Well maybe it will at least start a conversation. You hand it to him and he lights his cigarette, not making a comment and hands it back to you. You also decide to light a cigarette, trying your best to look cool doing it but because of the wind you’re having a little trouble. Suguru sticks up his hand to block the wind for you. His damn hands. It’s like as big as your face up close and you say “thanks” with the cigarette hanging out of your mouth now lit.

“Y/n? Is that your name?” He breaks the silence first.

“Yes, are you Suguru?” You ask sweetly back

“Suguru Geto, the one, the only, barista extrodinaire,” he laughs and draws a puff.

“I like your laugh.” You blurt out, now realizing your judgement is a little impaired from your weed alcohol and nicotine pairing. “Sorry that just kind of came out.”

“That’s okay,” he stares at you with kind eyes ashing his cigarette against Gojos house.

“Did you like the matcha today?” He asks after you don’t respond.

“Actually no,” you bust out laughing, “I don’t like matcha I was just distracted when she was ordering.”

“Distracted by what?” He asks.

“You,” you realize how close your faces are and how intimate the moment is with your glowing cigarettes and how intoxicating the mix of his smell is.

He nods and smirks at your response, glancing down at your lips. “I think I want to get to know you more y/n.”

You gather all the courage that you haven’t had with this man for the past few days and put it all in your lips and lean in to kiss him. He kisses back, graciously, putting his hand against the back of your head as you place your hand on his hard pec. He depends the kiss, moving his lips passionately before entering his tongue into your mouth. His free hand wraps around your waist.

Just as things are getting intense you hear Nobara squeal in the kitchen, “GOJO LOOK!” You both break the kiss laughing, but still pressed up against him.

“I think I may know who my bet is on for tonight,” he winks and gives you another kiss, making your knees weak and release a tiny whimper into his mouth. You pray he didn’t hear it, but instead he asks, “needy daddy’s girl?”

You feel your cheeks grow so warm and cover your face with your hands. “Just kidding pretty girl, your lighter was cute though.”

—

reblogs and comment for a part 2 ?? 🤭🤭

[vhstown]

pavitr prabhakar ★ general headcanons

content/warnings: implied/mentions of death (his parents+uncle), mentions of bullying, gayatri x pavitr, written by a coconut who is not indian PLS CORRECT ME!!

a/n: the sunny boy himself... (ugly crying) I LOVE HIM. loosely based off of the scraps of canon that i could find. maybe a little projection... (i am desi) atsv version pavitr! written at midnight and not very edited 💀

For some background, Pavitr was born in Southern India (likely Tamil Nadu or Kerala) so one of his first languages was Tamil! A village / small town boy at heart.

After his parents passed at a young age he moved to Mumbattan with his Aunt Maya and Uncle Bihm (of course) and it is very very different!!!

Obviously Pavitr has to learn Hindi and Marathi properly in order to fit in AND English my boy has to be multi-lingual from the start...

Even from early on Pavitr was bullied because he didn't fit in with the city kids. Gets called pagal Prabhakar (crazy Prabhakar — a bit like puny Parker?) and a slew of other names because of his accent, how he mixes up the languages, and the fact that he lives with his aunt and uncle rather than his parents.

Eventually by the time he's in his early teens he "assimilates" in terms of the language and culture but he's a scrawny kid so he still gets bullied... kids are ruthless bro don't you got the JEE to study for 💀

God forbid if anyone found out about his emo phase at that time... Pavitr's just getting onto social media and when he sees the emo subculture he just takes it and runs. (He stops out of embarassment when his Aunt Maya finds out why he's stealing her kajal... There are photos out there somewhere.)

Also meets Gayatri during his lil emo phase. Definitely a chill popular girl and definitely sticks up for him (it's giving Indian Forest Gump... does anyone know about that adaptation 😭)

He's a bit hesitant about Gayatri at first since the popular kids kind of dogpile on him all the time but eventually they become a little duo and he crushes HARD

Enter hopeless romantic Pavitr he is the embodiment of the song "Love Spell" by Param Pannu (Spotify link it's a BOP)

Plus you know he's in love when he admits he had an emo phase to you... in the middle of his emo phase. (Gayatri has all those pictures saved by the way.)

Then comes Mumbattan Visions Academy!! (according to the wiki that's where he goes.)

Of course we know that Pavitr is quite naturally smart so the entrance exam is no problem (RAFFLE BOY like Miles 😊😊😊)

But he is so super concerned about getting in with Gayatri so a few weeks before the exams they're studying together (doing anything but study)

My girl Gayatri is trying to help him out and he has no idea what she's saying and she's so smart and literally knows twice the amount of info you need to know so my boy Pavitr is sweating BULLETS the day before (exam is so easy he thinks he's sitting the wrong one LMAO)

Pavitr does NOT want to stay at the dorms he'll defo miss his auntie and uncle too much (and his auntie's cooking) but he begrudgingly goes anyway...

Enter NADEESH (his universe's Ned counterpart I totally just made up...)

They're roomies and Nadeesh is from Bengal and they actually bond quite easily considering they're not from Mumbattan he's a STEM boy and has a love/hate relationship with it (super smart though maybe just not at school... gadget stuff 😱)

Pavitr doesn't know a LICK of Bangla but Nadeesh teaches him some perhaps to rizz up Gayatri... (they're all vulgar or swear words or words Pavitr picked up from hearing Nadeesh's mum speak on the phone 💀)

SPEAKING OF GAYATRI yeah she's slaying school and also has a lil modelling thing going on too. STEM girlie and fashion girlie and knows multiple languages (her father knows a couple considering he's an officer)

Pavitr is a hopeless romantic but he's just hopeless when he asks her out in Bangla trying to be cool and doesn't realise he called her a whore... (he's so going to kill Nadeesh.)

She finds it HILARIOUS though and they start dating and everyone lived happily ever after and NO ANCIENT YOGI TIME MY BOY IS SPIDER-MAN NOW 🤯🤯🤯🤯

I think Pavitr's initial approach to being Spider-Man is very... impractical. Given he's just gotten his powers and gotten his naturally buff abilities and always amazing hair (yes that is part of his powers) (yes he asked the yogi for it), he's very spontaneous and disorganised. He probably has the stupidest most impractical suit and sweats like HELL in it (kind of like the one in the comics?) My boy's grades kind of take a hit and so does his little freshman year relationship with Gayatri.

My guy Nadeesh is chill though he knows instantly like Pavitr isn't subtle about it... (they're both night owls and Nadeesh is like cramming asf and Pavitr swings in without thinking and he's just like... "okay dude I have a physics exam tomorrow idgaf 😭 wait but that so cool though can I help—")

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a— Okay his Uncle Bihm dies. You know how it goes.

Gayatri breaks up with him (it's exam season and she wants to "take a break".) His uncle is dead. He's flunking school (for real this time) Emo phase 2? Maybe not...

Pavitr ends up spending a lot more time with Maya and while he's a little irrationally spiteful he learns the importance of taking care of the little family he has left. Pavitr doesn't have the privilege of that multi-generational village household he had back when he was young, or parents like the rest of his classmates. It's just him and his aunt in that little apartment, a speck in the whole of Mumbattan, the place he has to protect and call home now.

Okay that got sad real fast but HE CHERISHES HIS AUNT hence why he always makes time to have chai with her, no matter how busy he is or how emo he's feeling.

His uncle Bihm had a couple traditional pieces of clothing and Maya makes him try them on. He feels a bit silly especially since he's gotten used to pushing away his culture and mainly speaking English at his new school but then his aunt starts tearing up and he starts tearing up and "you look just like your chacha" and UGH

After a while Pavitr gets himself together and decides to design himself a new suit. He takes inspiration from a couple of his uncle's fancier pieces and also Gayatri's first advert feature (my girl is going places!!!) so his outfit has a lot of meaning to him.

We gotta go BACK for the yo-yo though y'all. I'm so certain that Gayatri had a yo-yo when they were younger and he learnt it just to impress her... SO HE HAS A YO-YO AS PART OF HIS GEAR 😱😱😱

Of course these little signs add up and Gayatri is like half-sure he's Spider-Man (but not entirely cause when she's saved in the film she's a bit taken aback when he hugs her... my girl is smart but you always got a lil uncertainty!!! Maybe she figures it out after that though...)

Obviously he flunked those exams considering he was NOT studying while he was grieving and when Gayatri checks up on him he's of course not doing the greatest despite his little comeback. However...

"I can help you review if you want?" she asks him. Pavitr's smile comes back that day.

But my boy STILL CANNOT CATCH A BREAK because Gayatri's father gets promoted to Police Captain and is suddenly very protective of his daughter

There's a lot of awkward moments where Pavitr has to play off his association with Gayatri (puts the hopeless in hopeless romantic yet again.) No, she never told him they were dating before (and those pictures are in a SAFE trust) though they're not exactly dating now.

Gayatri is pretty indifferent about it all, to be fair. She doesn't exactly care if her father finds out (and hopefully she can tell him soon) but she also doesn't want her dad to be disappointed in her considering she looks up to him a lot.

A BIT OF GAYATRI HEADCANON but I feel like she's very academically gifted but doesn't exactly want to go into STEM? Fashion is her thing and she eventually might want to go into acting (like this girl in her classes called Meera Jain... OUUU rivalry but not really they're besties I fear)

Gayatri definitely gossips and gushes to Meera Jain about Pavitr like how he gossips and gushes to Nadeesh. They both give the other contrasting advice (they're still not together... SITUATIONSHIP 💀💀💀)

It's not as bad as when Pavitr called Gayatri a whore by accident but getting together again is definitely awkward when they go to get lassi at that very overpriced store that opened up that Pavitr most definitely cannot afford (smiles and fights to pay while a part of him dies inside)

Though their relationship is stronger this time! Pavitr does still have his secret as Spider-Man, but things are looking up! Especially when he finds out that he's not the only Spider-Man (ENTER ATSV CANON STORYLINE 😱😱😱)

Endless high school antics I love this dude and his lil friends

That's it for now I think THANK YOU FOR READING!! I so wish there was more content on him but I had to take matters into my own hands...

🕸️💫🪀

y'all better stop sleeping on pavitr now... HES SO AHHHH I LOVE HIM YOU DONF UNDERSTAND HES THE DUDE EVER

don't talk about my other wips. or why im uploading this at midnight.

ALSO if you are desi (particularly indian) please correct me OR FEEL FREE TO ADD ON i am so whitewashed and my boy needs to be done justice

reblogs so super appreciated! if you wanna read the rest of my atsv stuff click here :p

[running-with-kn1ves]

Walla....kn1ves....genius big brain yandere writer....i just (re)found your Yves work (im sure you saw me freak out in the tags lmao) if you have the time/energy/inspo pls i beg you for a speck, a crumb, a droplette, ANYTHING of my baby Yves x fem!reader. I'm not sure how specific is too specific but I have a truckload of daydreams and prompts for this man dc im down BAD BAD for the way you write him. I'm not sure if this is too specific of a request but can it be yves holding himself back constantly because he wants to *romance* the reader but its so obvious he's itching for more until one day he finally snaps and takes her (specifically him giving her his virginity and whoops maybe going crazy when he finds out she isnt one)? I'm just obsessed with his characterization and want to see him in a ton of situations and feeling/reacting to different things. The stern dom undertones his whole vibe has disguised by a friendly foreign guide 🥵 The drabble of him was sooooo good and such a tease of his personality, it's so enticing hahaha. If that prompt is no good or doesn't inspire you then anything else is fine and ofc if you have no inspiration for Yves at all then that's a-okay too!!! Thank you sooooo much for thinking up that beautiful man and sharing him with us!!! Hope you enjoy your holidays💞💞💞

A/N: Ugh I'm so sorry I took so long in answering 😭😭 I was gonna write like a whole piece but my time has been cut dramatically, so please accept this poor little piece!! I was honestly so overjoyed at seeing your tags, it makes me so happy to see people's reactions to my stuff ┗( T﹏T )┛I wish I could have more time to write for this because I love the concept, I'm a huge fan of the "mysterious foreign guide who's just a little too friendly" kind of trope. Thank you so much for your support anon and I hope you enjoy this!! OG piece here for any of you nerds!

TW: Kidnapping, implied dubcon/noncon, manipulation

It wasn’t hard to notice Yve’s shift in behavior. Well, this shift out of many. When you first met him, he gave off a kind, well-meaning but nervous vibe. He did his best to show you around, to make you comfortable and converse with you in english to the best of his knowledge. That kind persona shifted into something more… desperate; obsessive, once he brought you back to his apartment. He was still kind, still well-meaning and observant to your needs. He apologized profusely when you got upset from how he kept you from leaving, promising that you weren’t missing anything important in class and that he could show you real culture instead! What could you learn from a textbook that would be better than seeing the country itself?

But time and time again, Yves made excuses to keep you inside, to make you stay by his side whether through photoshoots or studying, with him as your “teacher”. You had to learn the basics before taking such a “big” step out into his country, right? Unfortunately for you, Yve’s only taught information on the most trivial subjects. From words like “textbook” to “glass”, you were able to make meaningless sentences that wouldn’t serve you well in conversing with native speakers outside of Yve’s little apartment. Sure, it might help you occasionally, but it got you no where closer to understanding Yve’s rushed mumbling and incoherent rambling. 

With your sudden move to his apartment and his new change in conduct, Yves had slowly become less generous. He didn’t make as much of an effort to talk in english anymore, and made far less points to explain himself. You couldn’t tell what caused this new change-- a change that you were soon starting to accept as Yves showing his true colors. The man was still attentive to your needs, still caring and kind-- but the posessiveness that had slipped out almost entirely seemed to be taking hold. And while you’d think that a growing obsession would make it more beneficial to you-- it in fact, made your difficulty increase tenfold. Yves began to direct you on what you should wear, when you should eat, what you should do for the day.

 Not only that, but his attentiveness to…more intimate needs were far more prevalent as well. Whether it was bathing, or the need that pulsed between your legs, Yve’s was there to try and take care of it. You pushed him away multiple times, awkwardly trying to tell him that you were fine-- but it never seemed to stick. He always just looked at you with a tilted, confused expression, muttering in his native tongue as if he didn’t understand. So when the foreign guide began to sleep next to you instead of the cot on the floor, and began to press his morning erection agaist your backside sleepily, you knew your protests weren’t having any effect.

You would have walked right out of that teensy apartment the moment you felt he didn’t listen-- if you weren’t so afraid. If you weren’t afraid of the loaded handgun in his locked nightstand drawer, or how easily he could destroy your life at your new university-- which he mentioned offhand multiple times in a casual manner-- you would have walked out. The power he held against you, a foreign student with failing grades and no money, was too much for you to ignore. So, you decided to bide you time. It was only a matter of weeks until he got bored with you, you decided. But his new actions didn’t seem to prove that. 

In fact, the lustful, mischievous look he gave you that evening was the complete opposite. His scrawny frame jumped atop yours, hooking his hands behind your neck and leaning in to try and kiss you. He had planned an unusually fancy dinner, lighting candles you had never seen in his apartment before and bringing a bottle of wine with some italian takeout. You tried to question him about the mound of pillows and blankets on his balcony, the sudden romantic lighting, but the male only gave you a broad statement on how it was a “celebration” of sorts.

Yves’ sudden prowling mood after dinner wasn’t a complete shock-- considering you felt his eyes on you the entire evening-- but it still caught you a tad off guard. You tried to reject him, to push him away after each kiss, but it was done with such little effort and such great fear that you stayed silent once he muttered in an annoyed tone in his own language. Yves took your silence as a surrender, friskily lowering his hand under your shirt to caress your abdomen. He rambled against your flesh in half-english as he kissed you up and down, not afraid to let out vocal little noises of pleasure, or grunts of satisfaction ones he heard your breath hitch or a hum of desire come from your lips. 

But it wasn’t until he uttered a sentence with a familiar word, did you actually reply to him. You recognized the term from messing around with your friends, when you jokingly learned dirty words from your textbooks and the internet to use when you finally entered the country. You never expected to actually utilize them unless you went to a club or bar and happened to meet someone. One of those words, was ‘virgin.’ A more tame term compared to the bunch you had memorized, but one that you and your friends had idiotically decided to research. Though, it seemed your stupid endeavors had paid off. 

As Yves repeated himself, you began to understand the sentence a bit more. The man was seeming to imply… you were a virgin? Something about you both no longer virgin-ing? Maybe he was saying that he was going to ‘virgin’ you? You couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say, only mustering up the courage to poorly explain your sexual status to him, first in english and then in a broken version of his language. You tried to repeat yourself, thinking you might have said your statement wrong-- but Yve’s shocked expression and sudden lack of kisses seemed to prove you wrong. 

“You have…. Sex?” Yve put a hand to his mouth, eyes begging you to respond.

“Uh….yes?” You said with an awkward expression; you hoped he was asking what you thought.

Yve’s let out a choked gasp, looking as if you had crushed his heart in your palm. 

He looked down, voice cracking as he mumbled something incoherent, and likely not understandable to you in the first place. 

“I….I i’m sorry?” You tried to apologize, seeing how shaken Yves had become at finding out you weren’t as inexperienced as he. Despite his eagerness, you could tell he was new to trying to initiate something you had already grown long accustomed to, new to being so intimate. It was actually in part of his eagerness that you realized he wasn’t of the same sexual history. He was full of anticipation and desire, throwing caution and logic to the wind to fulfill what he had read in books and seen in films.

 Yves seemed to treasure the act of losing ones virginity far more than you had-- but you had only noticed it now. The candlelit dinner, the mood-fitting music-- your first experience was nowhere near as romantic. 

Yves seemed shaken, his low, almost sob-filled words growing heavier. He grew more aggressive, seeming to realize something now that he had processed this unexpected news. He had assumed you were just as much of an amateur as him-- that he’d be the one to “deflower” you in an act of passionate romance-- a bubble fantasy that had just been popped. But the male realized-- if he couldn’t have his desired outcome, he’d have to make due with what he had. Which was to make sure you’d fall to your knees, experiencing the best night of ‘passion’ that would make you never want to crawl to another man again. 

He was going to claim you-- to make it so those nights you spent with others never counted. 

You could only understand a fifth of what Yves breathily moaned into your mouth, once again jumping your bones though this time much more roughly. Before you could say anything further you had felt his quick hands unbutton your pants, his own thrown to the floor. He didn’t listen as you begged him to atleast let you move to the bed, where you would no longer be visible to prying eyes on the balcony. But he didn’t care-- Yves had already taken off his shirt, intent on ripping yours away too. He didn’t care anymore if this wasn’t going to be special for the reason he expected-- he was going to make sure you would be left with a night you wouldn’t forget.

[ohmotherwhereartthou-if]

RO reaction to MC being like a really good cook and always waking up or coming home to a hot fresh meal?

Also, I wanted to ask, what sort of occupations will MC get to choose from in game?

The occupations that I have written down as of now are: Manual Labor, Thief, Hunter, Tracker/Bounty Hunter, Crafter and one secret profession. These could change later on. 🤷🏽‍♀️

-

Cassandra: She would enjoy the food and feel loved but it would irk her big time her own lack of cooking skills, not that it's really her fault, she grew up with cooks to do that for her. She would double her effort to learn to cook things for you too, if MC is male she is studying cooking non-stop to try and fit her felt 'womanly duty' to do that for him. Remember that in Castellio gender roles are still a very huge thing, it would actually be very emasculating for a male MC to be cooking regularly for her and a failure on her part not being able to cook.

Valeria: Gives her thanks with kisses and baking desert. She feels like it's the perfect trade! She even starts to day dream of you two making the bakery more into a restaurant sort of thing with both of you guys in the kitchen; MC cooking and her baking. She knows if MC is male that they might get some odd looks but she doesn't really care, she could cook if she wanted to and she doesn't see MC as any less of a man for taking care of her this way.

Tomás: If MC is female I hate to say it but he sort of expected you to do this for him? He isn't ungrateful by any means though! He thanks you every time but it's just not really a surprise that you cook things for him. It's just like he expects that any manual labour needs to be done around the house, or if there is a bug than needs to be killed, or if someone needs to be punched, it's his job. He enjoys the gendered roles and is happy to fulfill them in your relationship. If MC is male... lmao it only help cements the idea in his head that MC is the 'woman' of the relationship. It's toxic sure, but he was raised this way and has a harder time in a same sex relationship because of his tradition and culture.

-

Ludovica: Is so happy every time she wakes up and falls in love with MC more and more every passing day. She can't cook either but would be willing to learn only if MC asked or mentioned it, otherwise she is content with MC cooking for her. She has a cook on staff but would be happy just having his job being for him to fetch ingredients for MC. She would not let him go because of how long he was been under her employ and how he was always kind to her, even when her late ex-husband was alive. Romandi has no strong gendered roles anymore so she doesn't thank any different if MC is male or female.

Aurelio: Loves waking up to the smell of MC's cooking and has heart filled eyes when MC brings him lunch, he always prefers taking MC out to dinner though. Would be okay eating dinner at home with MC some nights but showing MC off and being foodies together is his heart's true desire.

Elio: This man basically ate stale military ration tasting food for years and was content, falls head over heels for MC's cooking and refuses to eat anything else after getting used to it. Will not eat out and will stay home and starve until MC makes food, only begrudgingly eat other things went MC is away but writes about them hurrying up and coming home because he wants to eat their food in his letters to MC.

[karatam]

Top 5 video essays. Go!

oh this is such an interesting questions hmmmmmmmm

(my problem is that I'm an idiot who has not maintained a playlist or anything of my faves, which I'm going to do starting now lmao)

not in any particular order, though I ended up with more than 5:

Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs by Folding Ideas. Does a great job at explaining what they are and how they work, and particularly how they don't work. Talks about the toxic culture that surrounds them and now they're often just scams. I've rewatched it twice.

ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 by hbomberguy. Starts off as a light-hearted look into who made that ubiquitous sound effect. Goes right off the deep end into the teeming insanity of the liar at the centre of it all. Incredible and utterly unhinged.

Disney Channel's Theme: A History Mystery by Defunctland. Related to #2 in general idea, but totally different in execution. Starts off by trying to find who composed a short little jingle used by the Disney Channel. Ends up a study of being an artist and what that means. I cried.

Disney's FastPass: A Complicated History by Defunctland. A truly interesting look at the history of the management of queues at amusement parts, culminating in the FastPass, for better or worse.

The Church Play Cinematic Universe by Jenny Nicholson. Not a video essay like some others on this list, but simply one of the most entertaining 80 minutes I've ever spent. A weird church puts on incredibly elaborate plays based on existing IP by twisting every story into a christmas or easter play.

The Rise, Lies, & Demise of Jan Hendrik Schön by BobbyBroccoli. Actually a three part series about a man who almost faked his way to a Nobel Prize in physics.

The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob by Jon Bois. Another two-parter. This is exactly what it says on the tin. It looks at the rise and fall of the number of athletes named Bob.

Into The Omegaverse: How a Fanfic Trope Landed in Federal Court by Lindsay Ellis. Truly batshit, truly incredible. Everyone needs to watch this at least once.

The Failure of Victorious and The End of Victorious by Quinton Reviews. These are a combined 13.5 hours about a show that I only kind of watched. And yet I was fascinated.

An appropriately unhinged recap of Pretty Little Liars by Mike's Mic. Like above, a truly batshit recap of a batshit show that I didn't really watch. Honestly it's more fun when you haven't seen it, because every new plot point is like being hit in the head by a baseball bat.

I Debunked the Entire Manosphere by munecat. A terrifying but funny examination of that part of the internet that I've been trying very hard to avoid.

The Making of Horizon Zero Dawn by noclip. One of my favourite games and a very interesting look at the process of bringing a video game from pitch to end product.

[transmutationisms]

thoughts on girl dinner and other girlified trends/terms?

i don't use tiktok or instagram or watch youtube video essays so i am absolutely talking out my ass right now. as far as i can tell "girl dinner" started as a term for when you are a woman in a monogamous heterosexual relationship and your boyfriend-or-husband isn't around for the evening so you don't cook. from a cultural studies perspective, then, i actually think the term is more interesting for what it suggests about heterosexual partnerships and household labour than for the way i've seen it talked about (as representing some kind of broader trend of women's 'self-infantilisation'). that "girl dinner" has become shorthand for "restrictive eating dinner" shouldn't surprise anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to literally any online food trend because they are basically all fated to go this way sooner or later lmao. like there are reasons people restrict their food intake and reasons they perform and gender it online but the conversations about these phenomena are pretty stale as long as they're dominated by people who are uninterested in challenging their own fatphobic and foodphobic assumptions because they're busy performing concern for whichever random obvious tiktok anorexic they're putting on blast.

anyway regarding other "girl [x]" (girl math or whatever): yeah it's obviously not, like, good gender politics. i think the level of moral outrage some people are leveraging at it is a little credulous, in the sense that there's often a weird narrative that 'feminism' (which and whose?) has 'regressed' to the point that everything has been 're-gendered' in this way...... i would like to know what circles these people have been running in where, like, people had ever stopped assuming that women and girls are less capable/etc than men and boys. like again it's not that i think slapping "girl" in front of something to signify it's easier/simplified/pink is good gender politics. but i don't think the underlying assumptions here are actually new or unprecedented, i think this is very much continuous with how people have been thinking about gender already. it's a particularly unsubtle expression of misogyny, which makes it easy to complain about, which feeds the social media algos just as much as the people using the "girl" terms in the first place. but like, that's really just the nature of any discussion taking place on a platform that is trying to monetise the fact and volume of human interaction, lmao.

[nightshade-clown]

Okay I just want to dump my Magoranza headcanons because of another post I saw, even though I should definitely sleeping right now (￣ヘ￣;)

Okay, so my headcanons are more pre-relationship based but I still want to share them so badly ( ꈍᴗꈍ)

Additional note: I repeat a lot "Magolor" and "Taranza" instead of using stuff like "the mage" and "the spider" and other stuff, so yeah, I apologize for the repetitions, I might edit it later to fix that.

☬ I kinda imagine they have a "A fell first and B fell harder" kind of situation lmao.

☬ Magolor first seeing Taranza around, and noticing he always looked miserable in a way (it would happen not long after the events of triple deluxe). So he decides to approach him and go "Hey, wanna hang out ? (^-^)" which Taranza accepts because Magolor gives him an excuse to occupy his mind.

☬ Magolor only asked Taranza to spent time together out of pity for him, but soon come to appreciate his company because not only is Taranza pretty smart and helpful, but he can be pretty mischievous despite his seemingly calm attitude. So obviously Magolor keeps him around because he could always use some help with his shoppe and with his research on the Lor.

☬ And sure, they both share similar interests, and they get along pretty well, and Magolor even allows Taranza to sit on the roof of his shoppe and only him, but that doesn't mean they're close ! And the fact that he is impressed by Taranza's knowledge doesn't mean anything either, and neither the fact that Magolor wants to spend more time with him, or that he thinks it's cute how clumsy Taranza can be, or when he re-do his hair from time to time, and sure, Taranza definitely looks so fine with that new scarf-

☬ And before he knows it, Magolor fell in love with the spider.

☬ His first reaction is to hit his head against the table upon realization. How did that happen ?! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN ?

☬ After a few minutes, he calms down, and just moves on. It's not the end of the world, right ? No need to act weirdly about it.

☬ Though, after he realizes his feelings, Magolor will act a bit differently with Taranza. No big changes, it's pretty subtle actually. Offers discount at his shoppe and on some days even offer some items "because it wouldn't sell"; taking an interest in some of Taranza's hobbies he didn't share with him previously "because seems interesting"; and even studying some of Floralia's culture "in case one day I want to visit so I can be prepared".

☬ He would sometimes flirt a bit but quickly brush it off as a joke, and with his prankster personality, Taranza just rolls with it.

☬ As for Taranza, he doesn't see Magolor as anything other than a friend for a while. Like I said earlier, he would just see Magolor as a way too think about something other than Sectonia's death. But quickly comes to appreciate Magolor as a friend, despite his tendancies to make off putting jokes and being a bit apathetic.

☬ He sees Magolor as a smart person, not only for all the researches he does, but for his projects too like the attraction park he made for Kirby, and his business with the shoppe. And he's fun too, always knows what to do when they hangs out, which Taranza appreciate a lot. It's like a breath of fresh air compared to the strict ambiance in the castle of Floralia. And he finds fascinating all of the tales Magolor has about other dimensions, or about Halcandra.

☬ For a while, he doesn't really notices Magolor's flirting, mainly because he only sees him as a friend, but also because he still feel like he can't completely moves on from Sectonia. When he thinks of love, the first thing he thinks about is her, his dear Queen.

☬ It's not until someone else points it out (either Susie or Marx) that Magolor acts differently with him compared to everyone else (Marx would probably complains about the free stuff Taranza gets, while Susie would points out how Magolor took a sudden interests on things related to him) that Taranza starts noticing this too. And he also notice how Magolor only "jokingly" flirt only with him.

☬ Boi does that spider gets flustered.

☬ Taranza spends the following few days questioning if Magolor really likes him like that, and how he feels about it.

☬ And for the first time, he start thinking of romantic love without thinking about Sectonia, but about Magolor instead. And he likes it (even if a part of him feels guilty about it).

☬ After a few more days after he realizes that he might be in love with Magolor, Taranza starts making moves on him too, a bit less subtly though.

☬ If he gets the occasion, he buys and gift him all kinds of stuff, be it something Magolor took an interest of while walking in around in the waddle Dee's town, or something related to his interests, or it could even be something related to his research (or something Taranza at least thinks is related to his interests). Most of the time, the gifts are pretty spontaneous.

☬ Magolor would joke about how Taranza is spoiling him, and Taranza would laugh it off, albeit extremely flustered.

☬ He would also do all kinds of favours to Magolor, helping more around the shoppe more than usual, and proposing more help with his researches.

☬ Magolor does notice the sudden change of behavior in Taranza, how he suddenly seems more nervous and flustered easily, and how he seems more clumsy while helping sometimes. He decides not to question it, though. It's kinda endearing to see, after all.

☬ It kinda goes on like that for a while, the two just flirting with each other without much else going on after, and it's this kind of awkward phase between friendship and romance where the both don't know where they stand at this point.

☬ Until one day, Kirby asks them if they are a couple. Magolor starts chuckling while Taranza starts choking on air.

☬ Magolor teasingly asks Taranza "Well, wouldn't we make a cute couple ?" which flusters Taranza A LOT.

☬ After a few seconds of trying to calm down enough to talk, Taranza reply "Maybe we would, don't you think so too ?" which ends up flustering Magolor back.

☬ And all the while Kirby is looking at them like "What the heck is going on ? (◍•ᴗ•◍)"

Anyway, that's also how they ended up together. BYE-

[ofstormsandfire]

yharnam archaeology??? 👀👀👀

hi I forgot that the blog I was rbing that from was a blog I followed for bloodborne stuff LMAO

okay so. this is heavily inspired by

Me being an anthropology student (who got into it because Cynthia pokemon is an archaeologist and I adore her, I took one (1) class and then got really invested, the important thing is. Archaeology go brr)

Me taking a very interesting class this semester that focuses on paleopathology, which is as my professor put it "the study of ancient suffering" but realistically is figuring out whatever you can from human remains. Whereas archaeology as a whole is about human culture from material remains, which can be actual bodies but can also be other things like pottery and building foundations.

Me teetering on the brink of being way too into Bloodborne for my own good despite not normally being much of a horror fan or a fan of particularly grimdark things. I Don't Know What's Different About Bloodborne. (it's probably that I'm a lesbian and I like lady maria, sue me)

Anyway. I got to thinking one time after class. That archaeologists would be SO FUCKING CONFUSED BY YHARNAM.

I'm tentatively placing Bloodborne as somewhere in the nineteenth century based on general vibes (according to my dad and his deep passion for weaponry of all kinds, a lot of the things in the game would have been derived later, but tbh if I lived in a place that constantly had to deal with people turning into horrifying beasts I think I'd innovate the hell out of things to get better weaponry so I didn't die too) and this theoretical au would be set in the modern day. so it's been a Hot Minute since the game ended and I think I was considering Yharnam Sunrise as the ending for. Reasons.

There's this group of researchers who end up heading to Yharnam, bankrolled by some rich heir or something who's got more money than sense (he dies or possibly turns into a beast from stupidity very early on) and possibly they're the last in a bunch of groups who went there and died because even hundreds of years after the horrors there are still So Many Ways For It To Go Badly? Undecided on that front, I'm still trying to figure out what (if anything) would actually be preserved.

Highlights of my vague plans:

The team finds Gilbert's journal. They all get really attached to Gilbert because that just kind of tends to happen. Which is unfortunate because they know damn well he probably didn't survive very long after the last page in his diary, but they didn't find a body, so...?

It takes a while for them to realize that the very canine skeletons have human DNA. At which point everyone is just. Very fucking confused. And also are realizing that maybe all those writings about the beast plague weren't actually about rabies (which does not leave a trace on the skeleton, fun fact! I wanted to do my project on rabies but I had to pick a pathology that had an effect on the skeleton. Alas)

There are so many arguments over who that grave behind the Hunter's Workshop belongs to. SO MANY. (I personally think it's very likely that is Maria's, but the team won't have any way of knowing that! If the headstone is unreadable by game times it's not gonna be any more readable centuries later!)

You determine whether something is bone by licking it. Someone finds an Amygdala skull and somehow, through the sort of stupidity that only happens in horror movies before people realize they're in horror movies, someone gets dared to lick it. This results in a very horrified Insight increase and the revelation that the weird fucking thing is made of bone. Also, that Amygdala's ghost is interested in the team now. Oops. This probably will go fine, right...?

What the FUCK are they going to think of all the statues of Great Ones. Probably (reasonably) that they are statues portraying something with great cultural significance to Yharnam, and possibly religious significance. Less reasonable is the fact that Great Ones... actually exist... and that SOMEONE is going to get enough Insight by the end to see those Amygdalas. Possibly the whole team tbh.

There is going to be so much arguing over how the fuck to cite shit. How do you cite some guy who supposedly disappeared centuries ago and is still hanging around in another dimension that you honestly aren't sure how to leave But You'll Worry About That Later, The First Hunter Is A Primary Source!!! How do you cite a ghost. How do you cite hallucinations and visions.

Possibly the Doll sneaks onto the team by pretending to be a survivor of a previous expedition, because tbh I think the Moon Presence can do what it wants and I think it would be VERY interested in these new bitches rocking up to Yharnam after a while. And, y'know, that goes fine until someone finds a picture of her. Or of Lady Maria. (Or until they reach the Abandoned Old Workshop, depending on the situation and if there's another version of said doll there to be found.)

Every. Single. Member. Of the team. Has some connection to Yharnam. Almost none of them know this originally. They will find out. Rip to Rom the Vacuous Spider's great-great-grandniece who discovers the hard way (finding Byrgenwerth's paperwork) why she was the first in her family to graduate uni, just not the first to attend it.

(Notable exception to this rule is the person who is convinced that his great-great-great-probably a few more in there-grandmother is Lady Maria. This gets very funny when the descendant of the player Hunter trips into the Hunter's Nightmare, which still exists due to said player Hunter poking their head in and wisely dipping immediately, and who manages to prevent a bossfight by blurting out "oh shit you're Jerry's great-grandma!")

(There may be lesbianisms involved. And some light necromancy. Idk I like Lady Maria a lot and I got enabled too damn much and I think it would be very funny for the group to return to civilization with an extra person. Or two.)

In summary, I have no plot (yet) apart from archaeology and being way too invested in the game, but I really want to write this someday once I actually finish said game. And also I'm having a grand old time coming up with characters to put through the Horrors. The archaeologist is named Cynthia Parker and. Well. If you remember the superhero identity of a certain character called Peter Parker, you might be able to figure out who she's distantly related to.

Other ideas include: player Hunter descendant, someone very distantly descended from a Cainhurst exile, and Jerry who is 100% certain his great-several-times-great-grandmother is Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower and is 100% wrong about that. Jerry is the single party member with no actual connection to Yharnam and we love him for it.

Thanks for the ask I'm incredibly flattered that you were intrigued enough to ask about this from my tags given that I followed you for your BB fics :>