#otp: it wouldn't be my world without you in it

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Favorite Otps/Pairings: Chuck Bass & Blair Waldorf (Gossip Girl) "But it wouldn't be my world without you in it."

[gavillain]

I was talking with @marciabrady the other night about ships and the aesthetics of our favorite couples, and it made me really want to do a break down of one of my obscure crossover OTPs:

Grimhilde/Cruella, a.k.a. EvilPuppies!

Because I feel like Grimhilde/Cruella, out of all my ships, looks the most like crack at first glance, but there is so much more to it than just sticking two random Disney Villains together.

So, first and foremost, I started shipping them because of Kingdom Keepers Book IV, Power Play:

Despite the fact that Frollo is on the cover of the book and was the heavily promoted new Overtaker before the release of the novel, the main villains of the novel are actually Grimhilde and Cruella. The premise is that after Maleficent and Chernabog were captured at the end of the previous book, the Disney Villains who are trying to take over the parks have had to take on new leadership to get Maleficent and Chernabog out of Imagineer-prison. Grimhilde is the next in the chain of command, so she's in charge and has Cruella De Vil as her companion who follows her everywhere. They are ALWAYS together in the book, and Cruella, naturally, has a very flirty and complimentary demeanor towards Grimhilde that the Queen naturally just adores. Their chemistry is great, and there is even one part where the main hero finds the two of them asleep together on an air mattress and a bundle of furs (it makes sense in context) and, well... yeah XD The novel really glued the two of them together in my head.

And that togetherness, as you can see above, blends over into the parks. Grimhilde and Cruella are the only two main Disney Villainesses who are out with some regularity as face characters in Disneyland. All of the villains in the Disney Parks have a familiarity with each other, and you can get similar gal pal dynamics with them and Maleficent (and Lady Tremaine) around Halloween time. However, because Grimhilde and Cruella are out together for so much of the year, they tend to carry the brunt of that sort of "evil besties" friendship, leading to cute photo op moments like this...

So Disney is already doing a lot of the leg work to make them come across as girlfriends and to give them chemistry and a ship dynamic. However, if that was all there was to it, I probably wouldn't love this ship as much as I do. I need that interesting and thought through layer of shipping, and thankfully, these two have it in spades.

So, despite being from different time periods and wildly different worlds, Grimhilde and Cruella are aristocrats through and through. Grimhilde is literally royalty, and Cruella an over-financed heiress to the remnants of England's aristocracy (and she's the head of a corporate fashion empire in the Glenn Close movies). The House of De Vil dates back to medieval times, and evidence of that extensive and wealthy history is littered all around Cruella's mansion.

Cruella is in essence, the remnants of an old world that no longer exists, one of royalty and station that Grimhilde herself was a part of, and though the times have changed, Cruella keeps that class and regality alive. In that way, I think it blends perfectly with her taking on a lover who is quite literally OF that time period, and it also helps tie Grimhilde in with the modern world, giving Grimhilde a sort of immortality and transcendence that I think she'd very much value with her desire to be eternally young and beautiful. And, along those same lines, they are both very strong examples of matriarchal authority and power with Cruella bemoaning the uselessness of men and the pitfalls of women losing themselves to marriage, whilst Grimhilde murdered her own husband in order to reign alone without a man over her. They fundamentally get the sort of twisted villainous feminism that they are peddling.

Next is the themes of beauty and glamor. These are two women who are fundamentally motivated by vanity - Cruella wants to design her original Dalmatian puppy coat and stun the art world with her ruthless originality whilst Grimhilde wants to kill her stepdaughter so that she can reign as the Fairest One of All. For them, beauty and aesthetics are absolute, and they share a willingness to buy their glamorous ambitions with the blood of the innocent. They would fundamentally GET each other in that regard. However, and this is important, they GET that same motivation for vanity, but they don't COMPETE with each other. Cruella is a pretty woman, but she's older and she's a chain smoker whose habits have caused her to become a bit emaciated. She's beautiful in her own way, but she's never going to rival Grimhilde as the Fairest One of All. Likewise, though Grimhilde has extravagant fashions and jewelry, she's not setting out to be at the forefront of clothing design and art. She would certainly WEAR outfits Cruella designed for her, but she wouldn't want to supplant Cruella either. They're going to make the world kneel before their beauty, but they're going to compliment each other rather than rival each other or have to set aside their vanities for each other.

Then one of the big important elements that makes this ship appeal to me so much is the motif of DUALITY. Cruella is noteworthy for her hair that is half-black and half-white. It's her signature style, she's well known for it, it ties in with the black and white dogs, and it ties in with how she has her likable and admirable public face but also her sinister and dark side that the rest of the world doesn't see. Grimhilde also has the duality motif. Hell, she has BLACK HAIR as the Queen and WHITE hair as the hag, and the whole black and white motif shows up in her potions ("Black of Night" and "To Whiten My Hair, a Scream of Fright"). Grimhilde literally has two faces and two forms. She is two villainesses in one, which is such a tasty match for the woman with infamously two-toned hair. And what I like about that too is that Cruella BLENDS with both the Queen and the Hag. With the queen, she has the aristocratic and blue blood regality and beauty that I mentioned before, but with the hag, she has the cackling maniacal bloodthirsty side that would have an absolute riot bringing death to innocents. It's so symbolic, and they're the only Disney villains who have that duality motif in that fashion.

And the fact that they have all of these interesting parallels and motifs while also being from two different worlds and two different time periods (medieval and modern) is a lot of fun purely from a crossover perspective but also as ANOTHER manifestation of their duality motif! And THAT is the type of tasty shipping fuel that I LIVE for!

So with Grimhilde and Cruella being of two different time periods, they also simultaneously coexist in one time period. Cruella in the original animated film may have been released in the 1960s, but her animator, Marc Davis, designed her to be a throwback to the old Hollywood glamor of the 1930s. Most specifically Tallulah Bankhead...

And Marlene Dietrich...

Cruella is pure Old Hollywood 1930s glamor trapped in a late 50s/early 60s modern domestic setting. And you know whose movie was made in the 1930s and has a very 1930s cultural aesthetic to it?

And Grimhilde herself is designed based on ANOTHER 1930s film villainess, She (Who Must Be Obeyed):

A movie that was famous for its Art Deco sets, and Art Deco is one of the main aesthetic motifs attributed to Cruella in the Glenn Close movies. So stylistically speaking, the two of them despite coming from different time periods and different worlds coexist in a way that is very old Hollywood. And with that combined link to the 30s, it helps the two of them to coexist peacefully and harmoniously in the same time period. They meet in this glamorous and mythologized liminal space. Heck, with Cruella's aesthetic links to the 1930s, I personally headcanon that she grew up absolutely obsessed with old Hollywood and making a concentrated effort to emulate that energy in her own style. Since Grimhilde is kind of an Old Hollywood character come to life, it's almost like Cruella can be a fangirl of something that she's admired for her whole life when she gets with Grimhilde, and you know Grimhilde is gonna LOVE that attention.

In addition, I personally like to be very cognizant about my ships with regards to what the individual character is going to look for in terms of a romantic partner and why the character that I've chosen for them suits that specific need. With Grimhilde, we know that she was married to Snow White's father and that she killed him, so we know that she didn't have any real love for that man, possibly any man. She rules over her kingdom alone and doesn't want anyone to rule beside her. In the Snow White comics and deleted scenes from the film, she showcases a sort of romantic rivalry for Prince Florian, but her affections for him are never about wanting an equal. She wants him because he is young and handsome and compliments her beauty and elevates her image in a way that helps give her more power through her beauty. So for Grimhilde, she needs a lover who can fill that niche - not someone to rival her or rule beside her, but someone who can be a perfect accessory to her beauty. Cruella being all about fashion and style is absolutely that person. She's very cognizant of appearances and what can accentuate or take away from beauty and aesthetics. That inherent utility to their relationship means that it would be something that Grimhilde would be open to indulging, and from there deeper feelings can develop under the right circumstances in a way that they wouldn't without having that utility first.

So that's Grimhilde's side of things. But what about Cruella? Well, we see Cruella's relation with love mostly revolving around this sort of one sided attraction that she has to Anita. And at first glance that seems contradictory to her getting with the queen, because Cruella is obviously going after a dainty and demure woman who she can kind of steamroll and collect as another fashion accessory. However, I think what makes this work so well is that it really showcases that Cruella has an attraction to traditional feminine beauty and women in general, and Grimhilde is of course is the fairest woman of all. The Glen Close movie adds an interesting dynamic to Cruella's attraction to Anita in that she enjoys the creative interaction that she has with Anita. Never really noticed Anita until the two of them started to collaborate creatively, and I feel like that's a big thing that Cruella needs and wants in a partner, someone who engages that creative side of her brain and understands her drive for aesthetics and beauty. And, as previously stated, who better to do that than the Queen of beauty herself? Grimhilde is a perfect model of unlimited dramatic creativity wrapped in a feminine and beautiful package that would set Cruella's heart ablaze.

Together the two of them fulfill that perfect niche for each other and foster a creative, beautiful, and bloodthirsty ruthless energy that would make them feel seen and supported. They effectively create their own little world of 1930s fantasy glamor when they come together, and that's just beautiful to me.

Those are the biggies, but some other really fun pieces of shipping fuel: *I love the aesthetic they have with them both being tall women with dramatic almost drag queen makeup and outfits that have tones of black, white, and red in their own signature styles. And Cruella has the flowing fur coat with the red liner and Grimhilde has the flowing cape with the red liner and so they can be very flouncy and twirly with their styles. *Grimhilde keeps a royal huntsman who can kill all of the animals for Cruella whenever she wants. *They both have similar structures to their stories - they start out on friendly or familial terms with the protagonists before they show their true colors, then they entrust men to kill the innocent creatures needed to enact their plan but those men fail them, forcing Grimhilde and Cruella to take matters into their own hands, and then the finales showcase them both transforming into frightening demented versions of themselves (old hag and crazy demon eyes Cruella during the car chase) madly pursuing their goals until they ultimate bring about their own defeats by the environment turning against them *Cruella has the green smoke of her cigarette which echoes the green and smoke of the Magic Mirror, and also Cruella's chain smoking being a sort of poison in and of itself links back nicely to Grimhilde's literal poisons. *OUAT gives Cruella magic powers and ties to the Author, and Grimhilde also has magic powers and is a literal storybook villain.

So, yes, at first glance, EvilPuppies may seem like just a crackship, but it's really not. There is SO much here in both their canon interactions and in their numerous parallels, and there are honestly probably even more that I'm forgetting. They are the crowning queens of femslash for me for good reason, and I adore them, darlings!

[babsvibes]

Boblin Fic Recs

Fics centered around Bob and Linda from Bob’s Burgers. This is by no means a comprehensive list, so please feel free to add your faves in the replies!

Canon Compliant

I'm in love with every song you've ever heard by @jimmypesto When Linda has one too many Pesto Coladas, Jimmy calls Bob to come collect her

I like the way you sound in the morning by @jimmypesto Six "morning afters" over the course of Bob and Linda's relationship

What's That Song? It Goes Pike... by @babsvibes Linda has a song stuck in her head, and now it's everyone's problem

gonna make love last forever by @neopetting soft otp prompts with boblin

After Date Night With the Belchers by @thestarstho A look into Bob and Linda's alone time after a date

Mixed Collections

you're in the kitchen humming, all that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing by @jimmyjrsmusoems A few important moments in Bob and Linda's relationship, as seen through the eyes of others

Boblin Week 2023, Day Extras: Unused Prompts by @sailoreuterpe Collection of ficlets using the prompts not selected for Boblin Week 2023

Bob's Burgers Drabbles by @aimmyarrowshigh Collection of Bob's Burgers drabbles

Sips From Your Lips by Gaynin Linda and Bob have always enjoyed wine and spirits, almost as much as they've enjoyed each other (mature)

Things You Said... by @daddygrandpaandthebeaver A collection of Bob's Burgers ficlets based on "things you said..." prompts

Pre-Canon

I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace by @jimmypesto Bob and Linda break up for approximately twelve hours; wallowing ensues

not while I'm around by @jimmypesto Bob picks Linda up after a girls’ night just in time to find her being bothered by a creep

i think we do this love thing right by @br1ghtestlight Bob and Linda try to cuddle without waking up Louise

Through a Child’s Eyes by YAJJ There was romance and love in the world, and Teeny Tina knew it for a fact. All she had to do was look at her parents, after all.

just lay entwined here, undiscovered by @tully-blue Tonight, it goes: shelf, doorknob, nightstand, undressing with three stumbles and several muffled curses, vanity, and finally, Linda climbs over him and into bed. Well, if he wasn’t awake already, that would’ve done it

Canon Divergent

still my patron saint by @jimmypesto A Boblin Ghost AU (explicit)

I belong with you, you belong with me (you're my sweetheart) by @daddygrandpaandthebeaver Five universes where Bob and Linda Belcher are soulmates, plus one where they chose to be together anyway

clair de lune by @weatheredlaw Five things that didn't happen, couldn't happen, wouldn't happen

Of Pregnancies and Bumped Heads by @burgerspeople Linda's second pregnancy puts her on her ass.

Had Me at Hello by @golden--doodler Bob and Linda's big day has finally arrived after what feels like forever.

Explicit

brought purpose to your hips by @jimmypesto Linda wakes up in the middle of the night

falling for you is easy (like sunday morning) by @thisaliennerd Maybe there’s no such thing as fate, but one chance meeting is about to change the course of two people’s lives forever. Bob and Linda are falling in love fast, but can they balance their feelings with the practical realities of dating? (explicit)

Cheesus the Meatsiah by @babsvibes The night Bob almost gets the Meatsiah right

know that body like it's mine by @jimmypesto Bob and Linda always use hotel rooms as opportunities to experiment

our love's the only thing that could matter (must be signed in to view) 31 days of my favorite married couple doing sexy things. Sometimes kinky and sometimes vanilla, but they’re always very in love

[tired-reader-writer]

Why Greylise Is My OTP: An Essay

To preface this, I would like to state that this in no way implies any other ship is wrong or invalid, we all ship what we ship! I merely hope to convey why I prefer Graham* as a love interest for Elise over Linden.

Some of my quips will get on the more negative side, since I do mislike Linden and take issue with the story's writing at several points. However, this is only my opinion and absolutely not intended to put down those who enjoy this manhwa. Hey, I keep rereading it too! Even if it makes me want blood pressure medication sometimes.

Some rare few of you might have vague memory of a post similar to this having made before, by another blog, but surprise surprise t'was I all along! It was my side-blog @a-perfect-summer-storm which I had deleted due to personal reasons. I thought I ought to remake the post since I'm still surprisingly fond of this ship even after all this time, but this time better! I'm even making this on the website instead of the app so that I can fit like, 20+ screencaps in it. The app only allows 10 images per post.

*You may have realized that I kinda spelled Graham's name two ways, that's because I thought Greyham made for a prettier ship name while as a standalone name it looked a little funny. I'll probably only use Graham to refer to him as an individual while still having the ship name be Greylise.

So then! Without further ado, here thus begins my meta!

Part I: Reflections of Each Other

Their storylines and backgrounds are placed in a parallel position from the get-go— Elise as Song Jihyun/Jihyeon's debut introduces herself as a genius young lecturer, and Graham's introduction does the same. This would make for a good way to make the readers start connecting the dots between them.

And the similarities don't end here.

They're both orphans. While we're not told how Song Jihyun turned out an orphan (given up as an infant? lost parents in a traumatic manner?)— actually we hardly know anything about her aside from the fact that she's super smart and is a workaholic which is a writing flaw imo her past life only functions as an excuse to have her be super mega capable but I digress— it is clear that she's consumed by grief and guilt.

The panels I've featured here of little Jihyun were attached to a scene where Elise was musing about how she didn't even have parents to treasure even if she'd wanted to, so that's why she's being good to her family now because she's learnt the true value of familial bonds. Imagine you'd just been burnt to death only to wake up as an orphan in a strange, unfamiliar world where you have no one in your corner and must restart from the ground-up, wouldn't at least part of you think this life full of hardships must be some sort of punishment for your sins?

We know that she specifically became a doctor to atone for her sins— and we can infer that she's buried herself into it out of guilt and didn't allow herself to be happy as her internal monologue during the plane crash says:

“No! I can't die like this! My life is still miserable! Just when I'd decided to live happily!”

This was mere moments before her death. Let that sink in.

Imagine being a young child who'd just lost his entire family to a plague. Remember how the housekeeper told Elise that Graham was the eldest son. Eldest. Meaning he had younger siblings. Imagine the feeling of powerlessness. Imagine the feeling of being useless, imagine the guilt.

While I am a youngest child, I can say with full confidence from watching my eldest sister that... eldest siblings do have a sense of responsibility and protectiveness towards their younger siblings, even if, yes, due to bad parenting friction and animosity can fester between siblings. We're not given any indication of that, though, so I'll assume that Graham's relationship with his younger siblings must've been largely positive.

With Graham specifically, I would theorize that he suffers from survivor's guilt.

What's survivor's guilt, you may ask. Well, worry not! I've got the info for ya:

“Survivor's guilt is the response to an event that some people experience when they survive a traumatic event or situation that others did not.”

×

“Survivor guilt or survivor's guilt (but also survivor syndrome, survivor's syndrome, survivor disorder and survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumatic or tragic event when others did not.”

It's not stated or shown directly that he suffers from this, but judging from how he, a young boy of less than ten, made it his entire life mission to become a doctor who can cure everything, yeahhh I wouldn't say it's that big of a stretch.

I wish the story would've expanded upon that, given him a proper arc/spotlight instead of having Linden hog all the screentime but I guess that can't be helped when the author favors the male lead so much...

Notice how they both suffered immense loss: for Elise it was her family, her world, her comfort, her everything— and for Graham it was his family and yeah, losing his entire family in a traumatic manner would be the equivalent of his world coming crashing down. Notice how they both (at least by my extrapolation because canon doesn't care enough about Graham to dig into it—) strove to become doctors out of guilt.

Yet another tidbit of similarity between the two. Not much to comment here, only that they both went through immense hardship.

Part II: The Answer To Each Other's Prayer

Remember the deadly plague that killed the entire Fallon family? It rears its ugly head in the narrative once more, and Graham must face the thing that traumatized him to such a degree.

Or, he would, if the story actually gave a shit about him. As it is, he barely even exists in the periphery of this plotline, even as it's something that's so twined to his backstory and character. I will never not be mad about it.

So here on out it'll be extrapolation with what little knowledge of psychology and writing ability I have, some theories, aka My City Now.

Imagine you're facing your demons. The catalyst that sent you down this path, the path you've dedicated your entire being to. More and more patients show up with similar symptoms to the ones your family suffered all those years ago. It's getting harder to deny.

What do you feel in response to that?

You couldn't save your family twenty years ago. Can you save your patients' lives this time?

Or will you fail again?

Remember my theory that he has survivor's guilt. Remember my theory that he became a doctor because of said survivor's guilt.

What is the cost of failure for him here, psychologically?

In an ideal world, his perspective would've been given proper focus, have him play a more active role by Elise's side, but as we've established canon doesn't give a flying fuck about him soooo. Ugh.

In canon Elise essentially one-man armied her way through this plot point and solved everything by herself, but imagine if Graham had been allowed to be by her side. Had been allowed to be something almost like an equal. Imagine if they were shown collaborating. Yes, they did work together, but it wasn't shown and he was shunted into the background.

Imagine them working together, and the plague is stopped.

The plague that had killed his entire family, stopped in only a mere few days.

Imagine if they were allowed to have a character arc. Imagine if their relationship were allowed to actually develop. Imagine if it'd been given the narrative significance it could've, should've had.

Actually, the cholera arc would've been a perfect opportunity for this thread to be resolved. To backtrack a bit to back before Elise took the medical licensing exam, she saved a Duchess's life with a difficult operation, and her identity as not Rose but Elise de Clorance was subsequently revealed to Graham, who is shocked by this development, and ends up emotionally distancing himself from Elise. The cholera arc, where theoretically Elise would've been able to help him confront the source of his trauma and help him defeat it, could've been the perfect point for reconciliation. Elise could've even confided in him about her situation— her giving up her ticket to freedom for her brother's sake, her not being in love with Linden and how the Emperor has been trying to corner her into being betrothed to the prince, stuff like that. C'mon, let her be frustrated! Let her be angry! Also I really despise the king. As someone who was manipulated and coerced into attending medical school, I take severe issue with characters who do what my mother did to me. I guess I would've taken it better if the narrative called it out for what it was: manipulation, but it only ever frames the king as a jolly old good man who just really likes Elise. Ugh.

In an ideal version she wouldn't be in love with Linden but y'know, she isn't exactly in love w Linden at this point in the story (Ron doesn't count) so I'll take what I can get.

I won't get into it in this post but I have Thoughts about how there's two Fake Identity threads that ran... pretty much simultaneously, and how one could've had potential while the other (in my opinion) was completely and utterly pointless... I'll probably make another post just for it.

Despite everything, Elise heads off to war, and what awaits her afterwards is a caged life where she would surely wither. But that's in the future, and right now she's dealing with corruption, low budget, low supplies, not enough staff, and who shows up for her?

Man, imagine how resonant this moment could've been if they'd been allowed to reconcile and grow closer in the arc immediately preceding it. Imagine.

I am so mad about the wasted potential.

Just as she had saved him (in the theoretical version of the story where he's actually relevant) psychologically in the cholera arc, he will be the one to save her physically (and maybe also psychologically as well, by telling Linden who in an ideal version wouldn't be in love with her, about her struggles and pleads with the prince to help her— y'know, break out of the situation she'd been cornered into by his father).

Imagine the narrative symmetry we could've had.

Part III: The Path Forward

I actually had to skip forward to get the screencaps I wanted, my reread had only gotten to the point where he shows up for her, but I digress. I always thought it made no sense that he would've followed her back away from the frontlines where they would've needed a capable doctor to lead the hospital in her stead but oh well.

In the theoretical version where the story gave a shit about him... Elise would've been able to break off her engagement w Linden because he petitioned with his father to do so at Graham's behest, both doctors get rewarded (Elise was given a peerage separate from her family's iirc, and this would be a good chance for Graham to be able to bring honor to his family name like he wanted as well), they both become lecturers at the Royal Cross Hospital, they both get to move forwards, having broken free of the chains that bound them down, hand-in-hand.

I hope I managed to convey why I like this ship more than Linden/Elise— it's the potential they hold, and I'm very irritated that the story never gave enough of a shit about Graham to follow up on that potential. Graham was nerfed to make way for Linden and I stand on this hill.

Anyways, I now have an AU for this story (I actually have had it for a while but just never posted about it) and I have a name for it now! Kinda! Current placeholder title is From the Valley of Red Flowers. The hypotheticals and theories and stuff I mentioned in this post will be canon to the AU!

Was this too much effort for a ship nobody really cares about? Maybe! I know not many have read Doctor Elise, and fewer still use tumblr. This isn't one of the more popular ones like Who Made Me A Princess, even though Doctor Elise somehow got an anime adaptation.

[faytelumos]

Jason Todd

Give Me a Character

How I feel about Jason? I love him. He's my boy. He's a martyr. He's a cautionary tale. He's always been doomed since the day he was born. The very universe itself conspires against him because readers wanted him to die. So he dies. Again and again, in every universe, he dies, and he fights, and he tries to make the world a better place, and he wants to be kind, but he is doomed, always, every time, even when he comes back. It's tragic, and I hate what they've done to him, but without it, he wouldn't be the same person. He wouldn't be my blorbo.

JoyFire (Jason Todd x Roy Harper x Koriand'r) is my OTP for this guy. And I will say it out loud, I also enjoy JayTim and JayDick. I like JoyFire because it's like… the family you choose. Each of them has trauma about getting left behind in some sense. So they'll never leave each other. Even if Jason's a jerk sometimes, he will never, ever leave either of them hanging when it matters even a little. And they're the same for him. I like JayTim because Tim thinks Jason is so annoying, and Jason thinks Tim is so smart and capable, and so there's a little bit of pining in there? Especially in the opposite way one would expect by looking at them. But Tim knows that Jason's smart, and I kind of ignore a bunch of the ugliness that happened right around Under the Red Hood with them, to be honest. Not completely, but some of it. I think that Tim can admire Jason's ingenuity and persistence even when he's rolling his eyes at him, and I think that Jason thinks so highly of Tim, even when he refuses to ever say it out loud. And as for JayDick, maybe some of it is just me smashing my favorite dolls together. I freaking love Dick Grayson. Who doesn't? And I freaking love Jason, and they have a complicated relationship, but they love each other, whether you want it to be brotherly, friendly, or romantic. They love each other, and I'll take that in any flavor I can get it.

Non-romantic OTP is also Jason and Dick. You cannot tell me these two don't share the braincell when they're in a room together. But also, they can be hyper competent together. If they're both motivated and working together, they can do anything. Including building a heated roof pool out of cardboard, a carbon metallic alloy, and a "borrowed" shop vacuum.

(Also gotta mention that I adore father-son pair Bruce and Jason. The two of them are just so wonderful together, how Jason brings such joy into Bruce's life and Bruce just wants Jason to heal and realize his dreams, ah!)

Unpopular opinion about him? Willis was a good dad. [lifts a megaphone] Willis Todd was a good dad! He was a victim of a broken system and turned to crime because it was the only means he had to provide for his family! Any time he laid a hand on Jason or Catherine was still unjustified, but it was because Willis was a deeply frustrated and scared man who had no system or room to handle his negative emotions or feel accomplishment in his life! [puts down the megaphone] Domestic abuse is never okay, and that goes the same if a woman is the abuser. But Willis was not an asshole, he was a poverty-stricken petty criminal with the most minimal support system. He loved Jason, and he loved Catherine, and he tore himself up to do his best to provide for them all the way to the end. His story is a sad one, he was not the villain, and I hate it when people say Jason is better off without him and didn't mourn him or feel bad about his death.

There's a lot of things I wished hadn't happened to him in canon, but most of all, I hate what Zur En Arrh did to him.* It was absolutely terrible, and then the fact that nobody was left to give Jason any support at all after the fact because they were all chasing Zur really gets to me. The way that one panel just showed him trembling, so small, alone, asking anybody at all for help…. It breaks my heart. Because it's always like that for him. He ends up alone, on his own, because he's the black sheep and he's mad about it, and he defends people who others leave behind. And it breaks my heart in a way that actually very truly makes me sad. Because there are people who think he deserves it. Including the writers.

[13a07s]

My Everything #2

(Shoyo Hinata)

[Artwork is not mine! Credit to seranlynx]

Requested by: @l1l14i

Word Count: 3,275

Warnings and/or Pre-Notes:

Cyber bullying (?)

Slight fighting

Weed (Fun fact, as of 2023 weed is still illegal in Japan but we're going to ignore that)

Alcohol

———————————————————————

I looked at the comments. I know Akaashi told me not to, but I did anyway, and it was the dumbest thing I could have done. Since looking, my eyes have been constantly scrolling over the thousands of comments.

     They look so cute!

     She's so lucky! I would kill to have @Hinata._.Shoyo on me like that!

     Do you think this is the mystery girlfriend?

     No wonder #21 never shuts up about her. I wouldn't either!

      Omg, there's a new hottest OTP in the volleyball world. @Bokuto.Koutaro and @Akaashi_Keiji better watch out

     Despite all the good comments praising the glimpse of our relationship, all the compliments thirsting over Shoyo and me, even the upright vail sexual things people wish to do to one or both of us, all I can focus on is the bad comments.

     Ew, that's the mystery girlfriend? I excepted... better

     She's chubby, for an athlete's girlfriend

     No wonder @Hinata._.Shoyo is so dedicated to his sport. If I had to go home to that I'd drown myself in volleyball too

     Gold digger if I've ever seen one

     @MSBY_Black_Jackal maybe get #21's eyes checked??? That is nowhere near the hottest woman alive. Even from the glanced photo, I can see a million needed improvements.

     What the hell is up with her hair???

     My hand jumps up to my head, tugging on my towel hat so it comes unraveling. Right after, my fingers run through my hair, working out some of the wet knots I haven't paid attention to since getting out of the shower. Shoyo likes my hair... I think. He likes it, right?

I haven't talked to Shoyo about the post yet. We were alone long enough for him to drop his bags before he and a few other Jackals went down to the hotel gym for their workout sessions. With me being alone in the room it's given me plenty of time to check the comments, unpack, check the comments, shave, check the comments, shower, and check the comments.

Since he was in such a rush to meet up with the team, he left his phone behind. That has given me time to ponder going on his phone and scrolling through what he's been tagged in that I haven't seen yet. I know the password, it's my birthday, and it's not like Shoyo would care. It still feels wrong doing it without asking, even if I know he doesn't mind.

     The girls' - and Akaashi's - group chat has been dinging every ten minutes or so. They've all been telling me to not look or reply to any of the comments, asking what room we're in so someone can sit with me until the boys get back, telling me I'm beautiful, that Shoyo loves me more than anything in this world.

     I've been ignoring their texts - and the occasional call - as much as I can, barely sparing them a glance. I know Shoyo loves me, that he thinks I'm beautiful. I also know he's a man and that he finds other girls beautiful too.

     I've looked at the profiles of some of the commenters, mostly the ones commenting on my weight or openly slutting themselves out to my boyfriend. A lot of them have been supermodel pretty. Supermodel skinny too. I keep trying to remind myself that those photos aren't natural. That they are photoshopped or filtered. That my photo with Shoyo hasn't been touched up. It was snapped and posted.

The hotel door beeps the click of the door opening following the approved key swipe. "Ya, ya, I'll ask the Mrs. I'll let you know. Ya, see you soon," Shoyo rambles to one of his teammates, slowly sliding his way into the room. "Hey baby," he greets, tone instantly softening and his face relaxing at the sight of me.

     "Hi," I snip back, casting my eyes to my phone again, rolling over a comment made of a line of throw-up emojis and the words 'His humbleness isn't the only thing he took from the Karasuno dirt fields'. Maybe I'm reading into it but I'm pretty sure they're trying to call me hick without actually saying it.

Shoyo shifts his body weight, eyes glancing around the room before they're set on me again. "So, Atsumu and some of the other guys and gals are going down to the bar around seven. He invited us to join... you want to go?"

"No."

Concern flickers across his face, quickly drowned out by a smile. "Alright," Shoyo answers, shrugging his shoulders before making his way toward me. "A night in with you and a movie sounds good too," he tries, kicking his shoes off before crawling onto the bed.

I spare him a glance before fixating on the post again. 'How the hell did THAT bag @Hinata._.Shoyo???' rolls across the screen, adding another drop of emotion to the puddle collecting in my chest.

"You're my everything," Shoyo coos, nuzzling his nose against my neck, the tips of his hair tickling my skin. "You know that, right?" He asks, pressing a gentle kiss to my jaw.

"Ya."

"Do you?" He asks again, arching up so he can lock his sight with my eyes, his nose brushing against mine. "You've been... I don't know. Not you since we've gotten here. Bokuto said Akaashi is worried about you," he slowly pushes out, his fingertips on my thigh, toying with the end of the towel I'm still wrapped in.

"I'm fine, Shoyo," I mutter, moving my legs away from him. When his hand grips me tighter instead of falling off, I push it off myself.

Sadness flickers in his soft eyes for a moment, quickly replaced with concern. "Is this about the picture of us?" Shoyo asks, using his grip on my leg to pull me back to him. He snatches my phone from me, glancing at it for a moment before throwing it on the bed.

     "You know about it?" I ask, a bit dumbfounded. There's no way he knows about it. There's no way he knows about it and hasn't told me about it let alone talked to me about it. I haven't talked to him about it because I haven't had the chance to yet. Not because I just haven't.

     "Of course I do. I've known about it since, I don't know, less than five minutes after it was posted. I was tagged in it and I've gotten a new mention in the comments every ten seconds."

     I sit frozen, staring at my confused boyfriend. He's an idiot, right? Like, legally an idiot. He has to be. "What the fuck, Shoyo?" I mutter, my words coming out slow but heavily.

     "I didn't want you to worry about it. I figured - "

     "You figured what? If you didn't say anything about it I wouldn't find out about it?"

     Sho stays quiet for a few moments, a loose smile on his lips as his eyes wander across my face. "I figured sooner or later the public was going to get a picture of us. You look sexy as hell in the one they got, so why freak out about it?"

     "Have you not read the comments?"

     "I have," he hums, head tumbling downward so his lips can crash against my bare shoulders. "'Damn number twenty-one is lucky'. 'If that's the type of girlfriend volleyball players have, sign me up'. 'No wonder Hinata never shuts up about her'. 'Shit man, if my girlfriend looked like that I'd praise her with every breath I had to offer'. 'If I had a girl like that, I'd make her my everything too'," he quotes, little kisses being littered across any bare inch of skin he can get to.

     "Those aren't the comments I'm talking about," I whisper, quickly losing hold of my anger, on my sadness.

     "Baby," he whispers in my ear, nuzzling the side of my face as his hands rub my thighs, his tight grip closing on my flesh every few seconds. "You are my everything, do you know what that means? It means to me you're perfect. I love your hair, I love how it catches the sun, I love how it feels, how it smells, how it looks."

     "I love your curves, I love the dips and twists and every inch of your body. You could be a hundred pounds heavier or a hundred pounds lighter and I'd still love the shape of you."

     Shoyo's kisses fall toward my neck. He nudges at my chin until I tip my head backward, giving him more space to run his lips over. "I love every birthmark, every scar, every inch of your skin. I love your smile, your eyes, your soul, your laugh. Every second possible I spend thinking of you. Thinking of this gorgeous body, of your loving personality."

     His praises are dripping with his admiration of me, drips that fall into the puddle in my chest, slowly but surely eating away at all the negativity that's been building up. "If you ever left me, if you ever decided we were done, that would be it for me. I would never be with another person again. I'd simply play volleyball until I couldn't anymore and then spend the rest of my days wallowing in Rio, waiting for you to want me again."

     "You're my everything, baby. You've been my everything since the first day I saw you since my eyes fell on the pissy girl with braids in her hair that tried fighting the frappuccino machine because it wouldn't work. You are my everything. You know that. I make sure you know that, and if you don't, I need you to tell me you don't. Tell me you don't feel like my everything if that's what's happening. Tell me so I can remind you, so I can fix it, do you understand?"

     "Ya, I understand," I murmur, my mind foggy from the mix of Shoyo's praises and the feeling of his lips leaving my skin on fire.

     "Good," he whispers against my jaw, a line of kisses leading up to the delicate kiss laid on my lips. "You are my everything, baby. Without you, I'm not even sure I can breathe. I am lucky to have you in my life, and I am thankful for every day I wake up next to you."

     My eyes sting with the threat of tears, a threat that's fulfilled quickly. "Oh, baby," Shoyo coos, kisses instant back in action to brush away the water leaking from my eyes. "Don't cry. I hate seeing you cry."

     Giggles slowly spill out, mixing with my tears as I replay the last line of his love speech. "Sho? What the hell are you going to put in your vows that could top that?"

     "I'll just reuse it," he teases, his laughter easily mixing with mine. "Now, drinks with the gals and the guys?"

     "Drinks with the gals and the guys," I agree, stealing another kiss from him.

                      ————————————

Shoyo's arm is around my shoulders, keeping me pressed close to him as he coats my hair in kisses. With every ding of a passing floor, my heart seems to beat faster. I'm always nervous going out in public with my boyfriend, but with the recent shining light of the public on me, I'm more nervous than usual. Pair that with the fact I'm sure every hotel in Shizuoka is swimming with fans and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

     I don't like the attention or the million cameras or the public in general, which is why Sho usually goes to these things alone and I show up the day of the game. At least for away games. Home games are easier to deal with. But, he begged me to come with him this time so I gave in. That was a dumb decision.

"You're fine, baby. Paparazzi and such aren't allowed on private property. Fans are all we'll have to deal with and most of the time they're too star-struck to notice much. You'll slip into the bar as easy as usual." Blind optimism at its finest, but I can't help but hope that he's right.

     When the final ding comes, Shoyo tugs my hood up for me, helping to hide some of myself. His arm falls too, his fingers instantly finding mine and sliding themselves in place. My heart races with the sound of the elevator doors opening, my stomach turning in tone with the two noises.

     Instantly, a million clicks and cellphone flashes go off, the crowd of fans yelling his last name, asking a million questions. Some are simple questions asking for photos or about the game tomorrow, others are centered toward the recent photo of us. Shoyo simply smiles, stepping forward to block me from the crowd as he answers some of the simpler questions.

     Slowly, he leads me out of the elevator, trying his best to inch around the crowd toward the bar. Within seconds, Bokuto appears situating himself next to Shoyo and in front of me too. "Hey, hey, hey. Don't forget Hinata isn't the only spiker on the team," the bigger man booms, glancing behind himself to send me a smile.

     The two beefy men in front of me continue the slow and stretched-out walk to the bar, the three of us shuffling like penguins to get to the entrance. Sadly, the bar has an open construct; no door, just an open wall with a velvet 'fence' to close it off for the Jackals to use tonight.

     "Hey," Akaashi greets, nodding at the worker to unclip the makeshift gate.

     "Hey," I greet back, stepping through before glancing at Shoyo. Bokuto and him are still taking pictures and answering questions, only two or three steps away from me. "I don't like coming to these things."

     Akaashi shrugs, watching our goofballs with me. "It's a lot at first but over time you get used to it. Just don't do anything stupid, like have dry sex in a car," he teases, a soft grin on his face as he spares me a glance. "And you'll be fine."

     "Ya, that was pretty dumb of us."

     That gets a laugh out of him, and a bigger smile. "If it makes you feel any better, Kotaro's and my first 'scandal' happened because someone got a photo of me helping him button his shirt as we left a restaurant bathroom. He spilled red wine on his shirt so I helped him clean it but of course, the media turned it into us having a quickie." That does help, a lot more than I thought it would.

     "Shit happens. Scandals happen or get fabricated. There's no point hiding in the dark forever because that just leaves more for the imagination. The hard part is done. The world has proof of you. Hot ass proof." That makes me giggle, a few soft chuckles leaving Akaashi as well. "Hey, even the coach's wife said she'd leave him for you."

     "She did not," I manage to get out, more laughter mixing with my words.

     "She did too, which you would know if you answered any of our texts."

     "I was busy wallowing in sadness and self-pity."

     Akaashi shrugs again, his grin falling from his face, his usual resting bitch face back on. "That happens too. Half the world will love you and the other half will hate you regardless of what you say or what photos they get of you. Just got to roll with it."

     "Did you smoke a blunt before coming down here?" All the partners of the players have different ways of dealing with the stress of publicity they and their player have. Some smoke, some use weed like Akaashi, and some just enjoy their partner's hefty wallets and use retail as a means to cope. I'm not sure what I'm going to use to cope yet, but at the moment a few hits of what Akaashi is on sounds like a nice and quick way to chill out.

     "I had an edible. I don't have anymore so you're going to have to be sober or drink."

     "Drinking it is then," I mutter, letting my eyes scan over the growing group of Jackals paying attention to their fans right outside the bar.

     Akaashi and I stand inside the entrance, still blocked from the fans' view by the team members. If this is how people act at the hotel, the gym is going to be insane tomorrow.

"Alright, alright, I promised my everything a drink so I got to go guys. I hope to see you all tomorrow," Shoyo's voice rises above the chaos, the ginger starting to back up from the crowd. Being cut off only makes the crowd louder, the rest of the members quickly follow to avoid the uproar.

As soon as he's through the cloth fence, Shoyo's arms are around me, burying me into himself as he drags me further into the bar. My head pops out from his arms when I'm no longer forced into movement. "There's my everything," he coos, pecking my lips as he loosens his hold.

We - and the rest of the team - are tucked away in the furthest and darkest corner of the bar, safe away from the crowd still at the entrance. Greetings are thrown around, a few "you two looked sexy in your picture" mixed in. Everyone answered with a "damn right" by Sho.

Shoyo's hands are on me at all times, even as we sit with everyone else. Hand on my thigh, in my hair, toying with my fingers, anyway he can touch me he does. "You're beautiful," he whispers, his hand jumping up to push my hood off.

     "Thank you," I answer, taking his hand in mine before resting it in my lap. He's antsy, like always, but more so than usual since he's still worked up from my meltdown. Having his hands wandering over my body isn't going to help much with our scandal.

His movements stall for a moment, his brain ticking at what to do before his soft touches are replaced with butterfly kisses. My cheeks heat up more with every kiss he litters my skin with. "Honey, we're with people," I murmur, trying to shrug him off.

"So?" He whines, shaking his hand out of mine so he can wrap his arms around my waist, pulling both me and the chair closer to him. "You're my everything. With so many people around, so many people having proof you exist, I want to remind everyone that you are my everything. Always have been, always will be."

     "Gross," one of the older members tease, fake gagging until his wife smacks him upside the head, paired with a whispered lecture and an ear pull.

     Shoyo giggles, nuzzling my head until I turn it enough for him to kiss me. Slowly I let myself give into the gentle kiss, letting my adoring boyfriend melt away all the stress of the day. "My beautiful, perfect everything," he sighs, pecking my lips once more before pulling away from me. "Anyway, we should get a round of shots to drink to our future victory over EJP."

     The team cheers at the offer, one of the members flagging down a server to take the order. A smile plays on Shoyo's face, his hand enveloping mine again to raise it, kisses being peppered across my knuckles. It's hard to believe just an hour ago I was convinced I was nothing to him. Even in moments where his focus is on the team, on volleyball, I'm still at the forefront of his mind. I'm still his everything.

———————————————————————

[velvet-vox]

My Top 10 Favourite Male Villains of all time.

"How arrogant of you to think that any of us are anything but irrelevant". -John Greer, Person of Interest (2011-2016).

There comes a moment in a blog's life where some things are just long overdue, and while the argument could be made that this happened way too early, I'd say that as long as this helps me to find my groove, I am free to experiment as much as I want.

So..... Villains.

Gotta love them. As long as I do not meet them in real life. This post is in particular about male villains since I have one dedicated to their female counterparts in the pipeline so expect that to come soon enough and for this part to be rewritten. By the way, "villain" is a generalisation, I can totally put antivillains, antagonists or more general antiheroes in this list; your definition of "Bad Guy" can vary greatly and so can mine, someone like Walter White from Breaking Bad could have made it in here. My taste is very unusual, so prepare yourself for some unexpected picks.

Also, since these are meant to be some big celebratory posts, for the occasion I'll reveal my Italian heritage and translate every line of dialogue in Italian and publish it separately with a link, so that English readers who are learning Italian can exercise.

But first, some honourable mentions:

Oropo (Wakfu): Once you see the number 2 spot for both this list and the female villains list you might notice that I tend to gravitate towards characters with wasted potential more often than not, but while we're just talking about this guy, I cannot stress enough the amount of unceremonious mishandling that lies within his concepts and execution. Really needed two seasons of 25 episodes each to explore it to their maximum.

Tai Lung (Kung Fu Panda): I love him, but not as much as others, it's a matter of personal preference. He's an amazing antagonist, so even if he is just an honourable mention, I wouldn't call him a lesser villain by any stretch of the imagination; I once felt like he was too sympathetic for his movie's sake, but looking back at it again, he's actually moderately evil for a lot of reasons, even if Shifu is the main one.

Bill Chyper (Gravity Falls): It's been way too long since I watched Gravity Falls, I really can't give you an accurate opinion on this guy anymore.

Flintheart Glomgold (DuckTales 2017): That season 2 episode. If you know what I'm talking about, you KNOW. Also the music for that whole sequence was a banger, really driving home the deranged nature of that twist reveal.

Big Jack Horner (Puss in Boots The Last Wish): I feel like when people praise Jack for being a breath of fresh air in a stale environment, they often forget just how good of a villain he was in his own right without the larger industry wide void of truly devious antagonists that act out of pure malice.

The Wolf (Puss in Boots The Last Wish): Two villain entries from one movie? Of course it was gonna be The Last Wish, what else could it be? Honestly I don't even wanna talk about this guy, you need to experience the movie for yourself.

Rob (The Amazing World of Gumball): Everything I have to say about this guy gets talked about much better by the number 6 Spot on this list, but as it stands Rob was my first villain OTP and the guy who opened the box of Pandora for me on what an antagonist could and should be, since then my perception of villainy only widened and now I enjoy their role in a story in much different way.

And now, with that out of the way, let's finally start with the ranking of my personal favourite male villains of all time.

Major spoilers down below:

Number 10: Silco (Arcane)

This guy is the reason that brought me to specify who or what counted for this list as trying to simplify Silco into one specific group of characters is a challenge that can only end in a misunderstanding of what makes Silco such a complex and fascinating character with an amazing character arc, that ends with him not being redeemed, mind you, but allows the audience to grieve in such a way that would make a side character death jealous.

When writing an antagonistic character, Silco is my goal and high standard, and just for that he deserves all of my respect and endless praise.

Now, admittedly, Silco's arc takes a while to kick in, but it works out to his advantage by the end of it since you don't realise just how much you've grown to care for him until he's dead and you're left with the surprise.

10 out 10, the nation of Zaun would have been much better (worse) with him than with Vander.

Number 9: The Riddler (DC)

The Riddler is literally my ride or die villain, when I'm in the mood for him, he's literally my favourite antagonist ever; when I am not in the mood for him, I completely forget about his existence.

When compared to many other entries on this list, Riddler is definitely more on the pop culture side of antagonism, and when you've been around for almost a century, you tend to have many different versions of the same character written by different writers, so I wanted to highlight here my favourite versions of him:

Arkham Games: He's hilarious. He's not my ideal Riddler, but whenever he comes on screen, his whiny rat's ass voice stimulates my pheromones.

Batman The Animated Series: I've heard somewhere that this version of him is disappointing, and to that I'll say... yeah, but only when he wasn't on screen, because otherwise, he kind of slayed.

Matt Reeves The Batman: This is the version that rekindled my love for him after so long. Out of every interpretation of The Riddler throughout the years, this is the one version that treated Edward more as a character rather than an obstacle for Batman to overcome, and for that I'll be eternally grateful.

LEGO Batman The Videogame: My very first introduction to The Riddler and the Batman universe as a whole, this version has a permanent place in my heart , I love how much information and emotion you can get out of him by just looking at his mannerisms and quirks alone; unironically, being silent helps him reach that quote on quote idealised version of Riddler that I was talking about earlier.

Number 8: The Snatcher (A Hat In Time)

There are many things that can carry on a villain in a story, their evolution, stage presence, complexity, thematic contrast to their counterpart, and so on and so forth. While an antagonist can check off many of these boxes simultaneously (like the one pictured), there's one box that is almost impossible to truly nail perfectly: comedy.

You see, comedy is subjective, and when your main antagonist is also the funniest part of a given story, it becomes hard to also match a sense of gravity and menace that allows them to also be an imposing threat, even harder is to give said antagonist depth and a tragic backstory.

But somehow, out of nowhere, The Snatcher from A Hat In Time manages to simultaneously be the funniest character in his section of the game, carrie said energy throughout the whole experience even down to the DLC, simultaneously strikes the balance between being scary, wholesome, sympathetic and tragic, exude an insane amount of charisma, all while having a deeply disturbing backstory that touches on some heavy themes and re contextualises his actions into something more complicated and out of a broken man, everything I just said + he's the biggest bastard in his videogame and never repents nor does he have his actions called out.

Snatcher really has all the right cards that make a stationary character work and uses them to his maximum potential, and it works because his character arc throughout the game is more about becoming affectionate to Hat Kid than it is about redeeming himself.

Lastly, his voice actor, Luke Sizemore, aka Yungtown, really sells the performance of this devious soul eating worm and burns his catchphrases into your brain for the rest of eternity, much like his boss theme,

Your Contract Has Expired

A song that switches around being scary, epic, energetic and desperate in a short, yet perfectly paced amount of time. You need to listen to it regardless of if you've played the game or not.

Fool.

Number 7: Judge Claude Frollo (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

You can never say no to a classic.

There's nothing that I could say that hasn't already been said by thousands of videos on YouTube, but I'll try anyway: you see, Frollo is the reason why we need a new term to identify certain villains that aren't "sympathetic" but still make you feel some sort of human emotion and a form of "I wish someone could give you the care you need to fix your life", I guess the term empathetic exists, but when do you really see it used?

Now, don't get me wrong, Frollo is absolutely not sympathetic in the slightest, he wants to r##e a Romani woman that's way younger than him, but you can still feel that he's very troubled about it in the Hellfire scene and has definitely a lot of unidentified issues and internalised bigotry that could be worked through, even if it's too late to work through them right now.

In general, I feel like people forget that the main reason why past Disney villains worked had to do more with their human traits juxtaposed to their malice rather than just their plain wickedness, otherwise the Horned King from the Black Cauldron would be top of the Disney villains league and that couldn't be further from the truth.

We should really strive towards writing more villains like Frollo, less omnipotent beings that end up falling flat because they don't have much thematic relevance aside from being a threat (Bill Chyper works because he represents Ego and he's used sparingly) and more average vicious individuals who use their power and influence to get what they want.

All in all, if you've seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame, then you know why this guy is here, but just to cite a couple of repeated points, the Hellfire scene is perfect. It's immaculate. It's unreproducible; there will never be another scene like this coming out of the House of Mouse or animation ever again, the excessive amount of stars and elements that came together to create this gothic classic is so vast that it's literally a miracle.

Frollo is truly the personification of the dark, twisted side of humanity peaking through the door and into your mind, from which he shall never escape as his performance still remains perfect to this very day.

Number 6: The Spot (Spider-man across the Spiderverse)

"You've hit me with a bagel!" It's still the greatest villain origin story of all time. There's truly something maniacal about this reveal, like the entire universe was shattered and reality was shocked at the mere realization that while Miles was having his coming of age moment back in the first film, this guy was having his normal life completely and utterly shattered by a combination of both our heroes stepping up to do the right thing and our doofus lack of foresight and self reflection; all of this stuff is hilarious and completely made up for the film but good god they did such an amazing job tying all the elements together in an unexpected way that makes sense and parallels the journey that our protagonist faced in the first movie.

Like with Rob from The Amazing World of Gumball, and a little bit like number 2 on this list, I just really enjoy the concept of turning background characters who had no relevance whatsoever into the big bad of the story who's been there all along and the heroes (and the audience) just couldn't notice.

With The Spot in particular, there's that sense of satisfaction of turning the wasted potential of a villain who has been underestimated for literal decades and treated as a "villain of the week" (God do I love the meta narrative of this movie) into an actual competent, well written antagonist that is aware of his reputation and strives towards bettering himself and his powers.

He's also the funniest character of his movie too and the voice acting of Jason Schwartzman only accentuates his mannerisms and pettyness.

He also has the coolest usage of portals I have ever seen and his whole "There's a hole inside all of us" metaphor is simultaneously hilarious and very deep personal information that can only be understood if you put yourself into his shoes.

I can't wait for Beyond the Spiderverse to come out and see how his arc resolves, more importantly, I wonder if he's going to rank higher in the future.

Number 5: Lord Shen (Kung Fu Panda)

"Happiness must be taken. And I'll take mine"

.....

What a character.

What a movie.

You cause so much pain and suffering, because you don't understand the people around you, and then those people banish you, and you can't understand why, so you start to believe that they hated you.

They never loved you, so you keep causing pain and suffering but it's not that easy anymore; the guilt starts to resurface, all those bodies keep piling up, but you can't stop because then it would have all been for nothing; so you keep chasing those dreams of grandeur because that's all you have left; the emptiness in your heart can no longer be filled by love, so you try to fill it with something else.

You try to fill it with power. You try to fill it with glory. You try to take everything else for yourself so that you can fill that cup, but it doesn't work, because that cup has no bottom.

And so you're left... with yourself.

And the damage you've done. But now it's different; you've failed. You are left with nothing. Nothing.

And so you outrage, for the last time... And then it all ends. Forever. And you've finally come to accept this, after all....... Who could ever love you?

Number 4: Spamton G Spamton (Deltarune)

You know, in retrospect, it's kind of insane what Toby Fox managed to achieve when creating Spamton.

Not only because Spamton feels like the most insane combination of ideas ever conceived, but also because Toby Fox created such a complex character with such a complicated language and personality and then not only shafted it all aside for the players to go out of their way to interact, but also made all of this in what are officially 2 or 3 cutscenes at most (4 if you consider his shop encounter as one) and only one of them being truly mandatory.

You spend so little time with Spamton, and most of that time is spent fighting him, and yet by the end of it you've become enlightened by the knowledge of him, that after a while... you forget how scary it all was.

All the memes comparing Spamton with Turbo are 100% correct and justified, Spamton truly is Turbo but better; you go through an insane rollercoaster of emotions with this character that you are left absolutely dumbfounded when it all comes to a stop and you go back to play the rest of chapter 2 normally.

His insane mannerisms and mood swings are pretty funny at first, but once you peel back the layers a bit they reveal a pretty realistic and sad portrayal of mental illness, mania and hysteria coupled with an unhealthy amount of social distancing, loneliness, and abandonment issues, that reinforce into your brain the idea of someone lacking proper healthcare and needing to be locked away from society for their (society) own good, simulating the vicious cycle that Spamton lives by: nobody wants to help him but he's still expected to act like a regular individual despite the amount of hardships he's facing and the lack of a support system keeping him from falling back into his bad habits.

I'll admit, I've considered putting Spamton in place of the Number 3 spot on this list; but then I've realised that on an objective level, the next entry totally deserves to be ranked above Spamton; plus, with at least 5 more chapters of Deltarune on our way, whose to say that one of the next gremlins won't be able to dethrone even the number 1 spot?

Drumroll for our top 3:

Nox, the Watchmaker (Wakfu)

There will never be another experience in my life as cathartic as watching the first season of Wakfu for the first time ever again.

On a later rewatch, the initial problems that you've noticed throughout the first half of the season and a little bit in the second half become too apparent to ignore, but the first time everything that goes from the ball tournament to the finale is one of the best paced arcs of television, and everything that happens when the team reaches the Sadida kingdom is just peak Wakfu.

And the king, the culprit, the crown jewel of properly paced stories and arcs is no other than the sad clockwork dilf himself: Noximilliem Coxen the Watchmaker.

Arguably, the greatest sympathetic villain of all time. There has never been another case of a character who has committed such vile, unspeakable crimes, and yet still managed to make me root for them while simultaneously not putting down the heroes.

And let's not be mistaken here, Nox is pretty evil:

Aside from the generic murder, Nox also defiled and stitched together the corpses of multiple victims and turned them into his obedient puppets in order to commit even more murder and genocide in order to achieve his goals.

Also, this is one of the funniest crimes Nox has committed: he abused his dog. It's really not that hilarious nor is it that important in the context of the show, but if you look back at it from an outside perspective then it's really like: Oh yeah. That happened too. Lol.

One of the best parts of his entire arc is his defeat. The "20 minutes" scene deserves a "One Villainous Scene" coverage video to forever immortalise it amongst the greatest. Everything from the music, the subversiveness, the cinematography, the voice acting and just the general art direction of it is worthy of an Eminem award at the Oscars, there's genuinely nothing wrong with this scene, it's truly immaculate.

Words alone cannot do justice to the treacherous, gut wrenching emotional rollercoaster that is experiencing his story for the first time. An hour long video essay would only serve to cover the basics and fundamentals, while for the real deal you need to watch the first season of Wakfu for yourself.

Number 2:

Bradford Buzzard (DuckTales 2017)

And now it's the perfect time to pull out my final wild card, the hole of the sink of my autism, the masterpiece of wasted potential that is Bradford Buzzard from the DuckTales remake of 2017.

When you'll also see the number 2 spot on my villainesses list, you'll come to realise that this spot is more of the "I really wish I could put this at number one but I can't because objectively he doesn't deserve it and the majority of things I love about him in canon were probably an afterthought and in fanon were never plausible to begin with."

And that's how I feel about Bradford Buzzard, an antagonist I spent more time thinking about than probably anybody else on the Earth.

The show runners were so genius for this: we are going to create an original character that will probably struggle to maintain a foot print on the franchise due to the way the Duck verse works, we'll give him an insanely cool backstory and motivation, all coupled with interesting character traits and ideology, we'll make him the ultimate foil to Scrooge McDuck that has been working with him for literal decades, we'll make him the one who has got the closest to isolating Scrooge and destroying his family, and THEN we'll turn him into a generic anime villain that shoots lasers and fumbles his own plan and loses because of insane plot armour and contrivance. Good job writers.

Anyway, I should probably make the case for why this guy ranks so highly in my mind to the point of almost taking the podium for my most liked villain of all time, especially when compared to the stiff competition that we just went through.

Now, part of it is just because this is a personal top 10 and so I can put whoever I want in whatever order I want. But also, with Bradford in particular, there's a personal aspect of relatability, various interests, and passions all coming together to make him stand out in my brain.

The thing is, I've had a pretty strong connection to Disney's Duck's comic books my entire life, even if my love for them came dwindling over time, so when I finally started watching the Reboot and it was amazing, all of that buried passion and love finally re emerged back to the surface, turning me into an annoying super fan. But while season 1 and 2 were great, season 3 actually gave me something to latch on for the rest of time even after the show had ended: the character of Bradford Buzzard.

You see, DuckTales, both in the shows and comics, always had a plethora of villains; from the crazy, megalomaniacal millionaires, to witches, demons, and other mythological creatures, to power hungry aliens, to straight up super-villains. But while all of that is true, there has never been another villain, aside from Magica, Glomgold and Rockerduck at traits, that was built specifically as the anti Scrooge McDuck, and even further, there has never been another antagonist who challenged the very core ideas and concepts of the entire franchise.

Bradford is like the Frank Grimes of DuckTales: just a regular, average, real world guy who's fed up with the nonsensical constant state at which their fictional universe operates and seeks to correct it in the most logical way possible. And while Frank was ultimately a victim of a world in which he couldn't conform, Bradford's outrageous and extreme plans and methods put him on everybody's hit list until he was left all alone, but not before indirectly causing every major disaster throughout the reboot's runtime.

A cold, calculating, machiavellian mastermind whose impact and presence secretly permeates the show, right till the very end.

Shame he wasn't written better.

And now, for the one and only,

Number 1:

Qilby (Wakfu)

Qilby is the biggest example of an anomaly that you could ever observe in a work of fiction. The first time experiencing a story is the most important and impactful moment of that story, as every future rewatch won't be as good as the first. In particular, this is an important aspect of twist villains, as they can only surprise you the first time, since at future rewatches the twist becomes predictable.

Furthermore, if the twist ends up ruining the character that was established up to this point, or it doesn't make any sense, then the story is kind of ruined and it only gets worse on future rewatches, since now you know that everything that you are seeing right now is ultimately worthless and doesn't provide any value.

So why do we love twist villains and keep churning them out? Well, you see, it's a matter of execution. A bad guy introduced in an unconventional manner is much more memorable than one introduced in a straightforward way; the twist can also serve to showcase different aspects of the character before becoming an obvious obstacle, be it quirks, interests, personality in casual settings, or cunning.

Let's not beat around the bush.

If Nox is the single greatest sympathetic villain of all time, then Qilby is by far the greatest twist villain of all time, and the crazy thing is, that he surprises you two times in a row, at first by revealing himself as more evil than you could ever imagine, and then, by outing himself as more complex than you could have ever anticipated.

Let me paint you the picture: you just finished the first season of Wakfu, and you are still pretty fresh of the hype surrounding Nox, so you think to yourself "Oh, now every future antagonist is ruined because nothing could ever top the emotional gut punch that I just went through. Whatever, I'm going to stick around just to see if the story gets worse" and you start the second season.

So far, everything is normal, even better of the first season in terms of engagement value, but you can't help but feel the lack of a Nox like figure inside of the story, but at this point, you just accept it.

Then the final six episodes roll around and OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING, HAS THE WHOLE SHOW JUST GONE INSANE?

Somehow, in some mystical, french, magical way, the season 2 finale is arguably even better than the ending of season 1 despite the fight having less buildup and introducing a lot of brand new characters and an entirely irrelevant faction into his conflict.

The entirety of the scene in Emrumb is some of the best writing I have ever experienced in any work of fiction, and the music accompanying it only accentuates the repressed dopamine being released after various episodes of filler, all of them important for this moment to be as impactful as it is.

Qilby is also just a great, tragic character, that is simultaneously an unforgivable bastard that tried to kill his family and doomed his entire race for a family trip, and a sad, nihilistic man still trying to reconcile his love for his family and his need for knowledge and discovery; his curse never truly allows him to move on or relate to others but his ego and need for his forgetful brothers attention just pushes him even further into resentment, ending up damaging himself and those around him, until he's finally isolated again by the vary people he harmed and showed his love towards.

He's as good as the evil secret sibling trope can get and I never get tired of watching him on screen. His reveal scene to Adamai still gives me the chills to this very day and demonstrated me just how good the surprise villain concept can get when it's executed correctly.

Just an all around great show.

[goshdangronpa]

Genocide Jack for the character ask breakdown. (If you are still doing it of course)

Hey, Kirby! Thanks for reaching out. I'm doing this ask game as long as people send asks. Gee, how did I know you would ask about Genocide Jack? I'll give the full breakdown.

How I feel about this character: Positive! She's a ton of fun. Even when I didn't like Toko much in THH, Jack was usually a pleasure. I'd be sitting there like "when's that brat gonna sneeze or faint already." (I'm one of those people who only appreciates Toko after UDG, truly a game that works wonders)

All the people I ship romantically with this character: I love syomaru as much as anyone else. I'll always adore Komaru Naegi, normiest girl in the world, holding an abundant and generous love in her heart for both a misanthropic geek AND her literal serial killer alter. Syonia is an underrated ship in the fandom, though maybe not so much among the Genocide Jack fandom? It just seems like a no-brainer to me with boundless comedic potential.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: We're sleeping on the Genocide Jack + Sakura Ogami friendship. Ultimate Straight Woman/Funny Woman duo. The most virtuous and stoic DR character meets the biggest loose cannon in the franchise. I imagine even Jack would chill out a little with Sakura around (especially because she'd know Sakura could kill the shit out of her if threatened). And I like the notion that Jack could crack Sakura's stoic exterior. Let the girl have some fun, dammit.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don't know what the popular/unpopular opinions are. Is it common for people to find her annoying? I enjoy every second she's onscreen. Erin Fitzgerald deserves the credit for that. Her delightful performance is just the right amount of intentionally irritating without veering into actually irritating. (NOTE: Ironically, I originally credited Amanda Celine Miller, who plays Toko. Always fact-check, kids. Thanks, @snitchesnsneeds!)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wouldn't be the first person to wish that her portrayal in the game had done more to actually explore DID, rather than stay rooted in a rather problematic cliche. Thankfully, many fans have done a whooole lot of work to elevate Genocide Jack in this regard. So I'll instead say: show her having friends! It can't just be Komaru, right? Now that she's calmed down with the whole "killing cute boys" thing and works with Future Foundation to help restore the world, I'd love to see her getting along with other people rather than being constantly on the defensive.

[delusionaid]

SHIPPING INFO. Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

What’s your OTP for your Muse(s)?

I have a few "OTPs" for a few of my muses, but not for all of them. However, I choose not to state them for various reasons, one being that I feel like it might discourage someone from suggesting a different ship to me. Which it absolutely shouldn't. What does OTP for me even mean? Yes, in a way it is my favorite ship for a certain muse, for example for fanart, fanfics, or general discussions. However, general OTPs aren't always my favorites in RP. I have some ships in RP that I never even thought of before and wouldn't under normal circumstances call "my OTP", but writing them with a good writing partner makes them very dear to me and I wouldn't exchange or drop them for the world.

It's rare for me to really have a ship that I call an OTP, actually. I have some favorites and some I'll always like, but for a ship to qualify as OTP I really need to obsess over it thoroughly for a long period of time. I'd also almost go so far as to say I usually have one OTP per fandom, and not one per muse.

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?

I am open to most things if they make sense to me for our muses; unless it is an AU I don't want to bend my muses out of character just to make a ship happen. I like many classic romance or fanfic tropes (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, star-crossed, arranged royal marriage, fake dating, etc.) or naturally developing things, depending on the muses. There are a few things I won't write (for example non-con or underage), but like I said I almost never get requests for these things anyway, luckily. This is something I'd explain if it came up; I don't tend to post a list of No Gos just because it's rarely needed anyway.

Ideally I like to discuss ships beforehand - even if we're just planning the idea, and are waiting for the chemistry test - just to know if we're having similar tastes and thoughts, but if things progress naturally, then we can cross that bridge when we get to shippy land. The one thing I do insist on is that you tell me if there's something you absolutely don't want incorporated in our ships (e.g. you hate enemies to lovers, or anything relating to NSFW).

As stated in my rules, I don't auto-ship. That means even if you see me reblog fanart of a ship that doesn't mean I'll instantly ship that ship without any discussion beforehand. It means I like the ship tho, so if you are interested and we're mutuals, we can talk about it!

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?

As long as everyone's a consenting adult, I don't get uncomfortable by age gaps. Particularly not if one of or both of them are immortal. I am not necessarily a fan of (mortal x mortal) ships with a massive age gap but it can work for some characters in some contexts. As for 2300 y.o. vampire x 25 y.o. human? Absolutely no problem.

Are you selective when shipping?

Man, I'd love to just copy Lauri's text here but.. yes, I am. As stated before, I don't insta-ship - if we're seriously going to ship, I want to know that I am clicking with you as a writer and if we do, I want either extensive discussions of headcanons and backstories, or I want to start at the beginning / at a time where our muses aren't together yet. (This can also be the test for us to see if we click.) I don't want to write an established ship without any discussion beforehand, also in part because my favorite part about writing ships is the "getting together" phase.

I need chemistry between our muses. I might ship a ship in general but the way you write your muse just doesn't click with mine, so it really depends on the writer.

I am not usually ship exclusive, however I tend to not write the same ship more than once in most cases, particularly not if I have a bigger verse established that gets developed over time. Sometimes I end up writing with multiple people in a shippy way, but I've noticed after a while I kind of gravitate towards one writing partner, for example if that ship enters a more deeply developed stage. I don't expect that from my writing partner in return, but I do like it. It's kind of a case by case thing, with some ships I am more intense and others I am more casual. It's also a matter of how fast are we, how much do we plot and meta ooc, how invested are we both in general. I don't want to tie anyone to me who is a very fast writer, for example, simply because I cannot keep up with that speed and it would feel unfair to you.

Finally, please don't drag fandom tropes and ideas into writing 1:1. I like fanfics and fanart as much as the next girl, but in RP I am much more canon based and I want ships to fit within the narrative more than I want to entertain juicy tropes. Oftentimes I see people write ships inspired by popular fanart or comics or fanfics that are great as fan content, but quite removed from a canon setting, which makes the muses varying degrees of ooc. This is something I might do as an AU, but most of the time I will only do it if we've been shipping for a while already (in canon verse). For example: I love the enemies to lovers trope - but we need to figure out how they actually move from enemies to lovers. I won't just slap them together and say here we are.

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?

Eh.. any unmistakeable description or insinuation is something I would tag as NSFW. Even if it's written in a poetic way without graphic details, if a sexual act is described, it's NSFW. Smooching and cuddling is fine, anything that involes the downstairs or other touchy touchy with intent goes into the tag ;) Just to be safe (at work).

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?

I have multiple ships.. usually not too many per muse, but some have more than one ship. I am open to suggestions, I've sometimes ended up shipping things I never saw coming. I really enjoy writing rare pairs, tbh, if they make sense together and the chemistry fits. Those tend to be the most fun, almost!

Does one have to ask to ship with you?

Yes. If you send me shippy asks and we've never spoken about it before, I will ignore it or respond in a non-shippy way. Even if there were actual canon ships (which in this case, there aren't) I don't auto-ship them, it still depends on chemistry. So even if you know I like a ship and you consider it a "canon / implied ship", please talk to me first.

How often do you like to ship?

I enjoy all kinds of writing and scenarios; friendships, conflicts, mystery.. but at my heart of hearts, I am a romance writer. My ideal story is a fantasy story that involves romance (or some other meaningful and deep relationship that is explored). That doesn't mean I always want to ship with everybody 24/7 but it means that I enjoy the relationship (any nature) part of a verse the most, and I have a particular love for romantic relationships and all they entail (crushing, getting together, the angst of forbidden or unrequited love, the insecurity, the excitement, etc). I like reading it and I like writing it. I don't need it for every muse and I certainly don't ship everything just for the sake of shipping, but I very much enjoy writing romance when I get a chance to develop it well. (However, I also genuinely love the opportunity to write OTHER dynamics within a ship verse, to enrich the whole story.)

Are you multiship?

Yes. I have multiple ships on this blog due to various muses, and I also am open to multiple ships on one muse - however I don't tend to have too many per muse.

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?

I love my ships. I don't know if I am obsessed - but I have been, with my OTPs for example ;)

What is your favorite ship in your current fandom?

That's for me to know and for you to . . .

Finally, how does one ship with you?

Write with me and convince me with in character chemistry.. and/or hit my DMs :) Don't be afraid to ask, honestly the worst thing you'll get from me is a no (or a yes, depending on how you wanna look at it). Even if it's a weird ship, crack ship, insane ship, disliked ship. I don't judge. Just ask, I don't bite.

Tagged by: @daybreakrising & @resolutepath 💙💙 Tagging: @wishkept @gunnhildred @azizam @auratvm @immobiliter @luzofstars @captivemuses @reflective-muses @aeviare

[smolwritingchick]

The Bangtan Gal Chapter 87- Wild N Out

Chapter Summary: Jennie guest stars on the show Wild N' Out with Angelina. Matt Rife tries to shoot his shot with Jennie while he has been in her DMs for weeks.

Words: 8,000+

Author's Note: Wild N Out is one of my favorite shows! If you aren't familiar with it, I highly recommend watching YouTube videos about the show. They have their own channel and have tons of videos for you to get an idea of the different games and banter they have.

This is one of my favorite chapters! It was so fun to write and edit!

If you are easily offended or aren't that into jokes, perhaps this show and chapter are not for you and you are welcome to skip it.

I used some of the lines from the Wild N Out YouTube videos I've been watching to add to the chapter. So I hope you like it! I liked the build up for this. It started tame and then got crazier.

-------- "Your hair~! Finally, she has dyed her hair! You give Justina Valentine a run for her money," Angelina giggled and pulled Jennie in for a tight embrace.

Jennie flew to LA to join Angelina and stay with her for a little while before they flew to Georgia for their Wild N Out recording.

"Haha, thanks sis! I still need to hide my hair from the public. So human hair wigs it is,"

"I'll help you put it on,"

"Jennie! You're here! I've missed you!" Angelina's little brother, Tyrone, pushed Angelina away and went to hug her.

"Rude!" Angelina complained.

Jen laughed. "I'm happy to see you. You're getting taller,"

"I know! I'll be taller than you one day," he grinned.

"I see it,"

"And for the record, she has a boyfriend. So stop drooling," Angelina called him out.

"Still? Aw, when are you gonna break up with him?" he whined, causing Jennie to giggle.

"Dummy, she is not breaking up with him! Nobody is ruining our OTP! Now if you don't mind, we need to catch up, so leave us be,"

"Can you play video games with me later, Jennie?" he ignored his sister who looked offended by that.

"Sure," she beamed. "I'll play some games with you, later on,"

"It's a date!"

"Oh Lord..." Angelina rolled her eyes and grabbed Jennie to drag her to her room.

She shut the door and locked it so her brother wouldn't barge in. Laying on the bed, Jennie joined her and they began to catch up.

"Soooooo, how are the boys? They surviving well without you?" Angelina asked.

"From what I heard, not really. They're struggling a bit," Jen laughed. "But they're doing all right. Just working on the comeback. With Yoongi, Agust D is a huge success. I'm so proud of him,"

"I heard! He has BARS! A to the G to the U to the STD! That song is hot! I heard you played the guitar for a couple of his songs,"

Jen stared at her in surprise. "You noticed?"

"You have a unique sound. It's easy to tell it's you because of how you play. I think it's amazing you're doing that. The boy always has such a soft spot for you. It's so cute,"

"That is true. Namjoon is working pretty hard on the album. A lot is on his plate,"

"Yeah, he told me and kept apologizing for not having much time to talk with me. But it's cool. I get that way when I'm working on new music,"

"To tell you the truth, he's pretty stressed. And so am I. I keep thinking about my song. I just don't think it's going to be well received. Part of me wants to change it but they're not going to do that, everything is set in stone,"

Angelina playfully nudged her shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be fine. You'll be singing your truth and how you feel. Don't even worry about it or pay attention to any negativity. Focus on performing it when you guys go on tour,"

"Speaking of our tour when it's announced, I hope we get to go to more American dates. Big Hit is underestimating how many people around the world want to see us. K-Pop is getting more attention as the years go by. We need a real-world tour this time. Not just Asia, a few places in Europe, and so on. I want to go everywhere and perform with BTS. So, how is life with you?"

"I've been just doing more shows on TV as a guest star and doing collaborations. Also working on the new music. Things are getting there."

"You excited for Wild N' Out, soon?"

"Oh, you know it! I am always~ on that show! Are you excited? You get to have a chance of getting a belt! I'll have you know I won the belt quite a few times,"

"I expect nothing less from you. And yeah, I am excited, too. I'm not much of a rapper although I'm still learning from Yoongi but I hope I can spit a few bars to win some points,"

"You'll do fine. It'll come naturally. I hope they don't roast you too much. Expect them to come after the boys, though,"

"Mentally preparing. I will defend Bangtan's honor. It'll be a fun experience,"

"I really wish I was a part of the cast," Angelina sighed at the idea.

She had been a fan for years and always felt like she could be a great cast member of the show. She nailed it when it came to the games with her quick wit.

"To be a part of the show, ugh that would be awesome. I love the show so much. I feel so...at home there," she went on.

"Have you thought about asking Nick?" Jennie asked as she pondered about Nick Cannon.

"What? No way. I feel like that'll be too...forward. I mean I like being a guest on the show, so it's all right. And like Justina, she is so damn good at what she does on the show. I feel like I can't compare."

"Angelina, you'd be a great addition. Talk to him,"

"Ah...you flatter me. It's all right, just forget about it, okay? Anyway, let's watch a movie. I'm feeling Waiting To Exhale. What do you think?"

"Yeah, let's watch it. I'll make the popcorn,"

Jennie made a mental note to talk with Nick. Maybe she can help her. Angelina was stubborn and too modest about these things. But Jen could give her that extra push.

As Jennie and Angelina watched the movie, they laughed at the awkward sex scene.

"Grr?" Jen laughed. "Oh my gosh..."

"I hate men who do that. It's so weird. Why you so extra with it?" Angelina cringed. "And what's even more embarrassing is that she ain't even enjoying it,"

"Have you had a bad lay?"

"Oh hell yeah! Oh my God, there's this one guy I met at an after-party of an award show, right? Way before Namjoon. He was flirting it up, saying all the right things. He was talking all this mad shit about him having girls not walk the next day, right? This man lasted like 30 seconds and fell asleep. I was so mad. I pushed him off the bed and cussed his ass out for tryna play me,"

"Yikes~! That's uh..."

"I know! I feel like the guys who don't talk much about their skills are the best ones because they know how to put it down. And a lot of these guys I've encountered like to brag about their size but don't know what the heck to do with it. All talk, no action. It's annoying,"

"Damn..."

"But don't you worry. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to that,"

"You have a favorite part when it comes to that?"

"If anything, I would say that pillow talk is the best part for me after everything is done. You'll love it." Angelina said enthusiastically. "I feel like you and Jungkook will just be vibing and enjoying each other's company after that special moment. Watch you two be talking about video games and then end up playing some video games afterward,"

"I mean, it could happen. I see it," she giggled.

"Is Jungkook a cuddler with you?"

"Yeah, all the time,"

"That'll be the best, having you in his arms. You'll see. I usually leave after doing it but with Namjoon, it's so different. I like listening to him. I can listen to him talk for hours. We go into some deep conversations, too. He's so smart,"

"That he is, sis,"

As they continued to watch the film, they watched as Angela Bassett's character put all of her husband's items on fire. Jen was shocked at how real the scene looked as her character yelled and cussed about him.

She shook her head. "He took all the money and left her with the kids. Ridiculous. Divorcing her for that white woman,"

"I know, ain't it screwed up? Men really ain't shit. Wasted all those years of marriage to end up like this? I'd be so mad." Angelina added.

"You and I both,"

And once the office scene between Angela's character and her husband came about, Jen continued to be speechless at how they shouted at each other.

"Man, I'm amazed at how much rage you can have when someone cheats on you,"

"Can you imagine?"

"I can't even imagine it. And I never want to."

As the movie went on, Angelina chuckled after thinking about Matt Rife, "So...Matt really all in your DMs?"

"Yes! Oh my gosh. And he comments on a lot of my stuff, too. I replied to tell him I wasn't interested but he's still trying to spit game and I've been ignoring the messages. Did you see he's following some of my fan accounts?"

"Wow~! How do you think it'll be on the show?"

"I'm hoping it won't be too bad and that he learned his mistakes from Zendaya,"

"We'll see, sis. He wants you bad,"

"I'll let him down gently,"

"Well, if he gets too much, then make sure you embarrass his ass on TV,"

When the movie was over, Jennie spoke, "Hey, you know how I have occasionally talked about wanting a tattoo? I want to get one before I go back to Korea. Big Hit gave me the okay. I want to get the friendship tattoos with you,"

"Oooh! Let's do it. You still have the idea you showed me on your phone, right?"

"Uh huh. We just need to figure out where we want to get the tats,"

Angelina took out her laptop. "Let's research!"

---------

For the Wild N' Out taping, Nick Cannon had excitedly opened up the show and shouted out DJ D-Wrek and the Wild N' Out girls.

"There are two teams battling head to head to see whose the funniest. And usually, it's my team cause I be cheating. I'm just gonna put it out there like that," Nick joked. "And I changed it up this season. We doing it bigger and better. I want y'all to make some noise for my new squad! It's the Gold squad!"

For this episode, the Gold Squad consisted of DC Young Fly, Becky Robinson, Darren Brand, Emmanuel, Karlous Miller, and Matt Rife.

"And we have a very special guest. She is the reoccurring champion here on Wild N' Out, one of the youngest and most successful up and coming rappers today, and can kick your ass if you cross her, give it up for my girl, Angelina~!"

Angelina walked out excitedly, wearing a Gold Squad hoodie, and gave Nick a big hug.

"How you feel!?" he asked.

"Elated man, elated! This my happy place, I love it here!" she beamed, earning loud cheers.

"It's good to have you back. You ready to get down, today?"

"Hell yeah, always,"

"All right, that's what I like to hear!" he replied as she went over to her team. "I can't even front, we got a little bit of competition this episode. It goes down. Y'all make some noise for the team with the dream, it's Platinum!"

The Platinum Squad walked out consisting of Timothy DeLaGhetto, Justina Valentine, Chico Bean, Hitman Holla, Conceited, and Charlie Chips. Nick then proceeded to announce Desiigner as one of the co-captains of the team. 

After shouting him out, he went to announce Jennie. "Now we have another special guest here to represent the Platinum Squad as the co-captain. Someone here to try to take my belt. Not only is she singing in Korean but she is also sticking to her roots and bringing it down in the K-Pop scene! Y'all make some noise for my girl Jennie~!"

Jennie walked out with a big smile, waving at the crowd as everyone cheered. She had on a curly human haired wig that resembled her natural hair to hide the comeback color. Along with ripped jeans, she wore a cropped Wild N' Out platinum hoodie.

"Jennie, today you get a chance to take my belt, how you feeling? You ready?" Nick asked after embracing her.

"Born ready. Let's do this!" she said happily.

"Confident! I like that! Let's get to it then! Platinum squad y'all make some noise for your team captains over here!"

As things settled down, Nick went on to announce the first game. "This is a classic game we like to call Let Me Holla. It's real simple. We bring a Wild N Out girl to the stage, and each cast member gets the opportunity to holla at her. Now if it's funny, it gets a bell. If it's not funny, it gets a buzzer. The team with the most bells wins. Y'all know how we do. Y'all ready? Let's wil' out,"

Once the Wild N Out girl arrived on the stage, Darren Brand suddenly made a dive over to her, sliding on the floor. He then got back to his feet.

"I just slid in yo' DMs," he said, making everyone laugh.

DING

Gold Team- 1 Point

Platinum Team- 0 Points

Next up was Conceited and Hitman Holla to represent the Platinum team as they approached the Wild N Out girl.

"'ight watch this. What's up, baby?" Hitman Holla greeted her with a charming smile, making her giggle. "You remind me of the 20 letters of the alphabet,"

"There's fuckin' 26 letters of the alphabet," Conceited called him out, making everyone laugh.

"Silly me. How could I forget that U, R, A, C, T," he flirted as everyone cheered.

"Okay, that was smooth," Jennie said, impressed with his game.

"No, no, hell no, that's only 25!" Conceited brought up to DJ D-Wrek. "He still missing one! He can't count!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Silly me," Hitman Holla apologized before moving in close to the girl. "You can get that D later,"

That statement caused the crowd to go wild along with the cast members who were shooked.

DING

Gold Team- 1 Point

Platinum Team- 1 Point

DC YoungFly strolled over to the girl next.

"Come here shawty," he called out but she didn't budge. "Oh, she tryna play hard to get. Come here shawty. Bring that ass here, girl!"

DING

Gold Team- 2 Points

Platinum Team- 1 Point

Chico Bean pretended that he was ordering something. "Let me get a number two...one three and the rest of them digits,"

The girl didn't seem too impressed and neither did the crowd and he was met with a buzzer.

Angelina casually wandered over to the girl with a smile. "What's up, baby?"

"What's up?" she smiled.

"Now, if I wasn't buying this drink, would you still check me out?" she revealed a can of lime-a-rita which made the girl laugh.

DING

Gold Team- 3 Points

Platinum Team- 1 Point

'Okay, I think I got one,' Jennie thought and stood up, walking over to the girl.

For this, she pretended to look disappointed. She let out a sigh and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Man...I'm so bummed," she said.

"Why is that?" the Wild N Out girl asked.

"I wish we could go to the movies together. But they don't allow snacks in," she replied as she was met with giggles and cheers from the crowd.

DING

Gold Team- 3 Points

Platinum Team- 2 Points

Matt Rife chuckled softly at her pickup line as he gazed at her.

'Man, you are cute...' he thought to himself.

Ever since she walked on the stage, his eyes were on her. He was definitely getting distracted.

With Jennie, she felt that someone was watching her and glanced over to catch Matt staring. He quickly looked away, trying not to make it obvious but she knew what he was doing.

And so it begins.

The question on her mind was, what was he going to do?

As the game progressed, the teams went on to give out the smoothest pickup lines, with Platinum and Gold being tied at five points. Matt Rife approached the stage and the crowd cheered for him, anticipating what he was going to say.

"Wow. You are beautiful," he complimented the girl. "Now, as much as I would like to shoot my shot at you, there is someone else in this room that I've had my eye on for a while now and I want to holla at her instead,"

The crowd and cast got hyped up, anticipating his plan once Matt turned around and put his attention on Jennie.

"Ohhh shit!" Desiigner yelled as Jen's stomach dropped.

"Oh, word!?" Nick shouted.

"Wait! Wait! This is against the rules!" Conceited complained. "It's supposed to be the Wild N' Out girl! Not our co-captain! Leave her alone!"

"Give him a chance!" DC Young Fly defended him.

"He gon' embarrass himself! Zendaya 2.0" Hitman Holla claimed as that made the crowd laugh more.

"No, he not!" Darren Brand spoke.

"Yeah, so chill! I want to see this!" Emmanuel replied, hushing everybody.

Matt had made it very clear ever since Jen was announced to be on the show, that he was quite fond of her and wanted to shoot his shot. He had to at least try to flirt with her. He also wanted to redeem himself from the whole Zendaya fiasco.

"Um, are you serious?" Angelina complained. "She is wayyy out of your league,"

"Aye! You're supposed to be on his side, we're a team," Nick pointed out.

"Here he go," Justina Valentine chuckled while Matt's team cheered him on.

Jen felt her face flush at the commotion. She wasn't expecting to be put on the spot this soon. It was only the first game!

After the commotion died down, Matt went up to Jennie and gently grabbed her hand. He watched as she stood up to face him. His gaze on her grew more intense as he gave her a charming smile.

Yeah, Matt is a handsome guy. But in Jennie's eyes, no one could compare to her man, Jungkook.

"Jennifer Walker...wow..." he checked her out. "Damn, you look so beautiful today,"

She smiled politely as he released her hand. "Thank you,"

"I watched American Hustle Life. I heard you're into older guys,"

Ah, he must have watched the clips of her gushing over Tony.

"I have said that, yes,"

"Now, I'm single and I'm a few years older than you so that's a check off your list. And I hear you have this thing called an ideal type...you talked about what you want in a man,"

"I have," she agreed, surprised at how much research he put into this.

"All your reasons are valid. And I fit the description. But I couldn't help but wonder about your ideal type in a more physical way. I bet you want a man that has experience. Somebody that knows exactly..." he leaned in close. "...what he's doing and how to take care of a queen like you. Somebody that can handle all that. I'm that man,"

His statement caused the crowd and both teams to go wild. So much commotion surrounded Jennie as she processed what he had said. She became amused at his bold statement and maintained eye contact. He was not going to fluster her. No way. 

Oh, how she wanted so badly to say she had a boyfriend on National Television. But she refrained and decided for this game to let Matt have his fun. She'll think of something to embarrass and shut him down in one of the next games. This won't be the last of the flirting.

'Ooooooo he about to die~,' Angelina thought with amusement, thinking about what Jungkook and the rest of Bangtan were going to think of this when this aired.

This was getting juicy. She thought about Jungkook's reaction, how Jennie was going to handle Matt during the show, and if Matt was going to flirt more later on. She decided to let nature take its course and not get involved. Since the Amity days, Angelina would always come to her aid in situations. But over the years, she has seen Jennie hold her own and was interested to see how she was going to handle this Matt situation during the recording. If she could have some popcorn to go with this entertainment, she would as she watched Jennie laugh softly and gently push Matt away since he got a little too close.

He took a few steps back from her light push and asked, "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"

"And if I do?" Jennie replied smoothly.

"If you do?" he ran a hand through his hair, "Well, I can confidently say that he won't be your boyfriend for long,"

'HA! He is so thirsty! How delusional can you be!?' Angelina thought as she snorted at his response.

Jen couldn't help but chuckle at that. He really thought he had a chance? If he thought she was going to leave Jungkook for him, he was sadly mistaken.

"And what makes you so confident?" she asked.

"You may not hear a lot about the girls I've had and I may not have as many as some of these guys on stage but just know my satisfaction rate is higher. And you can find all that out later if you let me have your number," he offered with a soft smirk.

The crowd hollered at his words and a series of dings were heard.

"Yes! That is what I'm talking about!" Darren Brand praised with Nick.

Once Matt heard the bell for his team, he smiled victoriously and grabbed her hand to give it a soft kiss. Releasing her hand, he sent her a wink and went back to his team, high fiving Nick and some of the other cast members.

'Celebrate while you can Matt. This is far from over,' Angelina thought to herself as she anticipated what Jennie was going to do.

"DJ D-Wrek! Who won that?" Nick asked.

"Gold team got the most bells," he announced as the Gold team celebrated.

-------

"For this next one is a classic game I like to call talking spit. You know how it go. We gon' have some Wild N' Out girls bring out chairs, some water, and some buckets out here. Myself and Miss Jennie are gonna sit down in chairs, fill our mouths with water and each team member is going to get the opportunity to make us laugh so hard that we spit our water out. The team that makes you spit the most, wins the game! Real easy! Y'all ready? Jennie, come on up here, please,"

Jennie smiled and got up from sitting with her team. Taking a seat across Nick, she sipped some water, holding it in her mouth. All she had to do was try not to laugh that much. Hopefully, she can win for her team this time. She wanted that belt.

"Gold squad wil' out!" DJ D-Wrek announced.

Angelina decided to go first, smiling mischievously at her best friend. Jen knew what was up and narrowed her eyes.

"Yo, Jen, I ain't even gonna hold you...I may need to steal a few of them smart-"

Quickly spitting out her water, she shouted, "Hell no!" which made everyone laugh.

DING

"Ha-ha~! Works every time!" Angelina said victoriously.

"It's on sight after the show," Jen added and was answered by Angelina sticking her tongue out at her.

Gold team 1 Point

Platinum team 0 Points

Chico Bean stood behind Jennie and began to make an improv song, dancing while she joined in, dancing in her seat, "A wha-a wha-a wha-a wha. I said I'm chico bean, yeah you heard what I said. Me and Jennie both got some big ass heads!"

She chuckled as she threw her head back, keeping the water in.

"...yeah you know what it is. No, I ain't gonna stunt, mine big in the back, hers big in the front," he went on as Nick was struggling to keep the water in. "Hey, uh, water wet wet and when we put our shirt on we make the neck stretch. I say uh, hey, the water wet wet and when we put the shirt on we make the neck stretch!"

Once DC Young Fly jumped in to do the shoot dance, Nick couldn't help but spit out his water and laugh. Jennie high fived Chico Bean for getting the team the point.

DING

Gold team 1 Point

Platinum team 1 Point

Emmanuel stood behind Nick and waved at Jennie. She politely waved back and listened eagerly to what he had to say.

"I've been thinking about this. This is all curiosity. I've seen some photos and I want to know what you think," he went on as she watched him curiously at what he was getting at.

He took out a printed photo of the BTS members and their "coconut" haircuts. "I don't know how you do it, Jennie. Do you ever just stare at BTS and be like, damn! What is with them and that yee yee coconut ass haircuts they got on?" he said, causing her to immediately spit out her water, turning to the side.

Nick spat out his too while she covered her mouth, laughing wholeheartedly.

DING

"Why he do them like that?" Angelina asked, cracking up with the rest of the cast members.

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 2 Points

After wiping her mouth with a Wild N' Out towel, Jen put more water in her mouth as Tim DeLaGhetto went up to get Nick to laugh.

"Nick, when I listen to a Nick Cannon album it gives me a special feeling y'know," Tim began. "Like when you wake up feeling good, right? You get in the shower you all fresh, you feelin' nice. And then you gotta take a shit right after?"

The audience laughed while Nick spat out the water.

DING

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 3 Points

DC YoungFly walked up behind Nick and pointed at her.

"I will make you laugh, little girl!" he said, making her smile in amusement.

The two battled in a stare down for a moment as everyone watched in anticipation.

"FIRE~!" he suddenly shouted, making her widen her eyes. "FIRE~! FI-RRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE~!"

As she heard him sing Bangtan's song, she struggled to keep the water in her mouth.

"You didn't spit, yet? Man! That's the only lyric I know. It seemed to be working so FI-RRRRRRREEEEEEEEE~!"

Thinking on his feet, he thought of the other English that he heard from the song. "Everybody say LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! Say LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! I do-ont know the rest of thee-ee woor-oor-oor-ords!" he said on beat for Jimin's part.

Nick pointed at Jennie and it looked like she was about to spit as she covered her mouth, leaning forward. He stomped his feet at a rapid rate while pointing as he stood up. But in the end, they both kept the water in their mouths.

Charlie Chips stood behind her next.

"Keep the water in your mouth if you think Angelina is real..." he said to Nick as Nick nodded and kept the water in his mouth. "Keep the water in your mouth if you think Justina is real...Okay, come over here," he asked for the Wild N' Out girl, Teresa Top Notch, to join him on stage.

"Keep the water in your mouth if you think everything about this is real." he went on, gesturing to Teresa, as Nick continued to do so.

Jennie watched as Teresa spun around and posed, looking as beautiful as ever.

"You see Nick? This is my whole thing," Charlie ended up snatching the wig off Teresa once she began walking away.

She was left in her wig cap which caused Nick to spit out his water and run out of his seat while loud laughter and screams surrounded Jennie.

DING

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 4 Points

Jennie covered her mouth, laughing while Teresa started to playfully hit Charlie. Miss Bangtan was glad she didn't get her wig snatched off. That would have been disastrous since she was trying to hide her new hair color for the comeback.

"You shut up! Sit down! It ain't funny!" Teresa laughed and pointed at Nick to get back in his seat.

"Wow...I was not expecting that," Nick said on the mic once he got back in his seat.

As the game continued, both teams were tied up yet again, and this time with Gold catching up to the Platinum team, 4 to 4. 

Matt Rife took the stage and stood behind Nick. Everybody was wondering what he was going to do after the stunt he pulled on Let Me Holla. Anything could happen.

"Now this is a win/win situation for me. So, it's all up to you on how you want to do this, baby girl," he announced, making her confused.

PAUSE!

One, did he call her the nickname Jungkook likes to call her?

And two, what the hell did he mean by win/win situation?

Jennie raised an eyebrow while Angelina began freaking out in her head that Matt called her baby girl.

"If you want me to kiss you, keep that water in your mouth," Matt requested.

Jennie snorted in amusement while making an effort to keep the water in her mouth. Meanwhile, the audience and cast were shooked at his boldness and started freaking out.

"Kiss who?!" Conceited shouted.

"Kiss where!?" Chico Bean added.

"Not this again!" Karlous Miller laughed.

"Matt really got some balls today, huh?" Desiigner laughed.

"She has a choice! If she keeps the water in her mouth, that'll let me know she wants me to kiss her and I'll kiss her," Matt explained. "Spit it out, well then that's one extra point for my team. Like I said. Win. Win,"

Angelina covered her mouth. She mentally saw Matt's grave get dug deeper. She already thought about Jungkook wanting to beat his ass when he watches this episode. Oh gosh, Jungkook. When this episode dropped, she wanted to get all the tea on Bangtan's reactions.

Jennie continued to process what was happening. She felt like Matt was bluffing. There was no way in the world. Not after Zendaya. Another thing was she wanted to win. She did not want to lose this game. Her eyes were on that belt. To take it back to Big Hit and place it in her studio. 

She watched him as he began to walk over to her while the crowd was cheering in anticipation.

"Jennie, spit out that water!" DC Young Fly shouted. "Spit it out, now!"

"Spit it out!" Becky Robinson joined in.

"No~! Hold that water in! We need the point!" Charlie Chips said.

"Hold that water in! Hold it! We need the point! We need the point! Take one for the team!" Tim yelled.

"You sure you want to kiss him, baby?" Justina asked her.

The constant yelling of the teams made the pressure in the situation rise as she continued to keep her water in.

"Don't do it! Resist!" Hitman Holla shouted. "This white boy is not going to win this game! Keep it in the mouth!"

Matt kneeled in front of Jennie. "Make a move, quickly. You gonna accept my kiss or spit that water out?" he teased, raising an eyebrow.

'So, this the game you playing? Bring it. Come closer...I dare you,' Jen thought, narrowing her eyes.

Angelina bit her lip in anxiousness as she watched the scene unfold.

'Girl, what are you about to do?' she thought.

As Matt inched closer to her face, puckering his lips, Jennie ended up slapping him in the face to block his advances. That caused Nick to spit out his water and laugh with the rest of the studio. 

When he got slapped, Matt stumbled to the floor and held his cheek in surprise.

"GIRL!" Angelina laughed out loud, holding her stomach. 

Miss Bangtan never ceased to surprise her. This was hilarious and a perfect reaction.

DING DING DING DING

"REJECTED~!" Platinum squad hollered and jumped up and down in excitement and laughter.

"Damn, can you slap me again? That was hot. Playing hard to get, I see," Matt laughed and got back up on his feet, rubbing the side of his face. 

Jennie looked taken aback by his reaction.

He...liked the slap?

She swallowed the water and spoke in Korean with a smile, saying that he was an idiot for trying that cheap stunt and she was going to punch him if he ever did that again.

"I dunno what she just said but it was hot," he replied with a chuckle.

"Y'all make some noise for our girl, Jennie! Thanks for being such a good sport!" Nick praised and went to high five her once the Platinum team won the game.

------

"Y'all ready for the next game? It's a fun one, it's called Now You Wild Out. We gon' drop the beat, we gon' bring both teams up and DJ D-Wrek is gon' give us some topics and we wild out and improv about it right on the spot. The team with the most bells wins the game. Y'all ready? Gold team step up. Platinum step up. DJ D-Wrek drop the beat!" Nick announced as an instrumental of 50 Cent's In Da Club came on. "Uh! Come on y'all, uh! Now you wild out!"

"Your topic is going to court," DJ D-Wrek announced.

"Now you wild out!" everyone chanted.

In a whiny voice, Nick started, "I don't wanna go to jail, I don't wanna go to jail, I don't wanna go to jail, now you wild out!"

Pretending to get handcuffed, Chico Bean shouted, "You goin' to jail! You goin to jail! You goin' to jail! Now you wild out!"

"My lawyer's white! My lawyer's white! My lawyer's white! Now you wild out!"

"You bout to be in the cell! You bout to be in the cell! You bout to be in the cell! Now you wild out!"

Scared by his statement, Nick covered his butt and shouted, "Not with you! Not with you! Not with you! Now you wild out!"

"Pause! I'm going out!" Chico Bean quickly walked away, making everyone laugh. 

DING!

Gold Team 1 Point

Platinum Team 0 Points

"Your topic is the zoo!" DJ D-Wrek announced as Emmanuel and Hitman Holla went at it.

Playing the part, Emmanuel began to act like the animal as he announced, "I'm a monkey with it, I'm a monkey with it, I'm a monkey with it, now you wild out!"

"Well I'm a bird with it," Hitman Holla flapped his arms like they were wings. "I'm a bird with it, I'm a bird with it, now you wild out!"

"I'm a lion! I'm a lion! I'm a lion! Now you wild out!"

Hitman hesitated and that allowed the Gold team to get another point.

DING!

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 0 Points

"Your topic is the club," DJ D-Wrek announced as Angelina and Justina Valentine went up.

"I'm in VIP, I'm in VIP, I'm in VIP, now you wild out!" Justina said.

"I'm gettin' free drinks, gettin' free drinks, gettin' free drinks, now you wild out!" Angelina replied, pretending to be given drinks.

"I'm dancing on yo' man!" Justina got close to her, twerking. "...dancin' on your man, dancin' on your man, now you wild out!"

Thinking about Namjoon, Angelina replied, "And I'm beatin' your ass, beatin' your ass, beatin' your ass, now you wild out!"

Her statement made everyone laugh and she got the point for her team.

DING!

Gold Team 3 Points

Platinum Team 0 Points

"Your topic is being rich!" DJ D-Wrek announced as Tim and Darren went at it.

Kicking his feet up, Tim shouted, "Shine my shoes, bitch! Shine my shoes, bitch! Shine my shoes, bitch! Now you wild out!"

"You want a latte? You want a latte?" Darren pretended like he giving out drinks, "You want a latte? Now you wild out!"

"I'm Nick Cannon! I'm Nick Cannon! I'm Nick Cannon! Now you wild out!"

"I own this! I own this! I own this! Now you wild out!"

Tim fumbled his words and Gold received another point.

DING!

Gold Team 4 points

Platinum Team 0 Points

The Gold team was truly kicking some tail with their quick wit. Wanting to try to get a point, Jennie stepped up.

"Oh, Jennie? You want a shot at this?" Nick looked surprised as the crowd cheered.

"Yeah! I'll go!" she answered with a smile and danced to the beat.

"Oh, then it's my turn, now!" Matt stepped up.

"Oh, here he goes, about to get embarrassed again," Hitman Holla said, making everyone laugh. 

"I got this. I got this," Matt reassured everyone.

"Would you leave my girl, alone? She's not interested!" Angelina called out.

"Chill~. Don't be a cockblock,"

"She don't want you, dumbass,"

"Your topic is relationships," DJ D-Wrek announced.

"Now you wild out," the audience said while both teams danced to the beat again. "Now you wild out!"

Matt looked directly at Jennie with a flirty smile. "You into white boys? You into white boys? You into white boys? Now you wild out!"

Shrugging, Jen waved him away. "I am but not you, I am but not you, I am but not you, now you wild out!"

Her comment made everyone laugh wholeheartedly while Matt continued to remain persistent.

"Give me a chance!" he replied while his team backed him up by looking like they were begging her to say yes. "...give me a chance, give me a chance, now you wild out!"

Dancing to the beat, she remained unbothered. "No way, no way, no way, now you wild out!"

"You know you want this," he flexed his arms. "...you know you want this, you know you want this, now you wild out!"

Looking around confused with her team, she stated, "Who lied!? Who lied!? Who lied!? Now you wild out!" she pointed at him.

"I still smashed," he shrugged and jumped to the beat, causing the Gold team to look at him in surprise and get hyped. "...I still smashed, I still smashed, now you wild out!"

Thinking quickly on her feet, determined to not stutter, Jennie dropped it down low, balancing nicely as she moved her hips, knees, and ass up and down to the beat of the song, distracting him as both teams yelled. Laughter around the studio rose in volume when she spoke. "Was it in though? Was it in though? Was it in though? Now you wild out!"

"HEYYYYY, MISS WALKER!" Angelina shouted, loving her performance as she watched Jennie get back up, awaiting Matt's response.

Almost fumbling with his words, Matt managed to say, "M-my dick can definitely hit it right! And my tongue is better, my tongue is better, my tongue is better, now you wild out!"

Putting him out of his misery, Jennie grabbed onto Desiigner, letting him wrap an arm around her while she rocked to the beat with him. With Jungkook on her mind, she replied, "I've had better head, I've had better head, I've had better head, now you wild out!" 

As soon as she pulled that stunt, everyone freaked out, while Matt couldn't think of a comeback for it.

Angelina smiled proudly at her. 'That's my girl!'

DING!

Gold Team 4 Points

Platinum Team 1 Point

"Man! We had that!" Nick complained.

"So, I really can't get your number or something?" Matt whined to her.

"No, dumbass!" Angelina smacked him upside his head as the crowd laughed.

Desiigner high fived Jennie. "That was good! Good shit, good shit!"

Desiigner went on ahead to represent the team while DC Young Fly went up.

"Your topic is graduation," DJ D-Wrek announced as the energy in the room heightened with them both dancing.

"I fucked my teacher today!" Desiigner jumped on beat with his team following his movements. "I fucked my teacher today! I fucked my teacher today! Now you wild out!"

"You didn't make it!" DC pointed at him with his team. "You didn't make it! You didn't make it! Now you wild out!"

"I put my grrrrr on the desk! I slap my grrrrr on the desk! I slap my grrrrr on the desk, I slap my grrrr on the desk!"

Yelling and moving his body wildly, DC answered, "A KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA! A KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA! A KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KA! Now you wild out!"

Jennie laughed along with the entire studio. What the hell was going on?

Getting hyped like he was in the studio when making music, Desiigner began to do his one of signature adlibs with his team backing him up.

"EEEEEEYAAAA! KI KI AH! EEEEEEYAAAA! Now you wild out!"

Jennie loved that no one questioned it and went along with what those two were doing.

Moving his body vigorously with his team following him, DC shouted, "BOOP-BOP-BOP-BOP! BOOP-BOP-BOP-BOP! BOOP-BOP-BOP-BOP! Now you wild out!"

Determined, Desiigner crossed his arms. DC was speaking his language and he was not having it. He was going to win this battle.

Moving in rhythm, he responded, "Whoop-de-scoop, whoop-de-scoop, whoop-de-boop! Now you wild out!"

"You stupid! You stupid!" DC walked away, allowing the Platinum team to get the point although Gold had won the game.

-----

Their time on Wild N Out began to come to an end as they went on to the final round. Wildstyle. Jen had a blast and hoped that one day she could come back with better rhymes and play different games.

"We got Jennie and Desiigner holding it down for the Platinum squad while we got Angelina on the Gold squad, give it up! It's time for the bonus round and it's called the?" Nick announced.

"Wild-Style!" the audience shouted.

"Yep. Freestyle rapping here at Wild N' Out. We focus on them jokes so each punchline is one point added to your total score. So, the game can go either way. It's anybody's game, right now. Gold squad step up. Platinum squad step up. DJ D-Wrek, drop the beat!"

Once the beat started with both teams on stage, everyone moved to the beat while Nick encouraged the crowd to clap their hands.

"Uh. Clap your hands, y'all. Clap your hands, y'all. Yo, Miss Jennifer Walker, you a real big talker. After you left Amity, we forgot who you are. But don't worry, I'm sure Angelina can still make you a star,"

DING

Gold Team 1 Point

Platinum Team 0 Points

The crowd ooohed at his statement while Jennie kept her composure and let out a chuckle. When Angelina heard what he said, she widened her eyes.

He was not holding back today.

Nick continued. "You left one group so when you leavin' the other one? You tend to do that when you not having any fun."

DING!

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 0 Points

Speaking her mind, Jennie went off. "Coming for me you must have a death wish. Bangtan is charting, where you at on the charts, bitch?"

Loud hollers were heard around the studio while Nick was taken aback that she had that energy in her. The way she put emphasis on 'bitch' threw him off.

'Suga is creating a monster,' Angelina thought as she dropped her jaw, impressed by how she fought back.

DING!

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 1 Point

"I left for better opportunities, ones that SongStress couldn't give me," she went on. "I auditioned for something I love and Big Hit chose me,"

DING!

Gold Team 2 Points

Platinum Team 2 Points

"That's my girl! Tell em!" Justina praised with the rest of the Platinum squad.

"'ight. 'ight, excuse me, Miss Walker," Nick backed off and turned his attention to Desiigner, who stood next to her. "Yo Desiigner, you my man you know that what. But why every time you rap you sound like you bustin' a nut?"

DING!

Gold Team 3 Points

Platinum Team 2 Points

"I got the 44 hangin' from the baseline. Beat you like the iPhone 4 with no facetime," Desiigner dissed.

DING!

Gold Team 3 Points

Platinum Team 3 Points

Angelina stepped up. "Ayo Desiigner let me talk to you real quick. Look, your energy is great, it's really unrivaled but every song you sing need to come with subtitles. I mean I'm glad that you came to play but no one understands what the fuck you say,"

DING!

Gold Team 4 Points

Platinum Team 3 Points

Next up was Chico Bean and he called out Nick. "Ayo, this what y'all do not know. Nick makes three hundred thousand an episode. When he get the bread, he go and buy some clothes and spend the rest of the money on Amber Rose!"

DING!

Gold Team 4 Points

Platinum Team 4 Points

"Hey!" DC called Chico out after the laughter died down. "What you talkin' 'bout Nick! I don't like hearing that shit!"

"Yo head look like a microphone! I can't believe you got a scar on your face. You still live at yo' momma's place. And you ain't got no house of your own. Nick keep spendin' yo money on phones,"

"You talkin' bout owning a house. Listen that's funky! I know somethin' bout you! You stay with yo' aunties!"

DING!

Gold Team 5 Points

Platinum Team 4 Points

"Yeah, I stay with my auntie, fool! What you think I'm supposed to do!? Nick ain't paying us no damn cash! I'm out here on my ass!"

DING!

Gold Team 5 Points

Platinum Team 5 Points

"Karlous, how you doin?" Justina called him out. "You look like old dirty bastard. A little bit dirtier, less of a good rapper. They said you fly? Well, I don't wanna lie. You look like chlamydia personified,"

DING!

Gold Team 5 Points

Platinum Team 6 Points

"Hol' up. You betta get the white girl cause she already dead," Karlous responded. "She got the red hair but what about the head? Is it fly? Do you know?" he turned to one of his teammates.

"I don't know," Emmanuel answered.

"Is she freaky?" Karlous went on.

"I don't know,"

"Is she a hoe?"

"Maybe so!"

"Well, then you will never fuckin' know," Justina answered as the audience went wild.

Jennie laughed out loud and high fived Justina. She aspired to be so quick to turn the tables like that. She had some thick skin.

DING!

Gold Team 5 Points

Platinum Team 7 Points

Becky Robinson stepped up to represent the Gold team. "Jennie, sweetheart, get over here. Let me talk to you," she gestured to her as Jennie went back in front of her team. "Little miss high and mighty, the one that likes Nike. You say you can rap but I doubt that's likely."

DING!

Gold Team 6 Points

Platinum Team 7 Points

Jennie grabbed the mic and spoke, "Correction, it's Miss Bangtan and yeah I'm the girl that loves Nike. I'm rapping right now and the chance of you winning ain't likely,"

DING!

Gold Team 6 Points

Platinum Team 8 Points

"BTS, BTS, go back to them weird Asian boys. How the heck you go from Amity to trashier noise?" she questioned.

DING!

Gold Team 7 Points

Platinum Team 8 Points

"Whew~!" Nick spoke up, thinking that was the end of the face off while the crowd responded in surprise that she went there to talk about her group.

"Weird?! Weird Asian boys!? BITCH!" Tim called out, ready to get involved in the freestyle. "Jennie, you got this or do you want me to go?"

Jennie turned to Tim and smiled in reassurance, telling him she got this, and turned back to Becky. "Bitch, I'll go back to my amazing Asian boys after I win this belt. You got three seconds to get the hell out of my face before you get a welt. Trashier noise? Girl, be for real. Compared to you, our music brings more appeal. You wouldn't last a day in Bangtan's shoes, let's make that clear. Bangtan is selling out venues faster than your career."

Everyone cheered loudly at her response while Becky broke out in laughter and nodded. Jennie high fived Tim as he cheered her on.

DING!

Gold Team 7 Points

Platinum Team 9 Points

Now Jen had some unfinished business and turned her attention to Matt who was standing behind the Gold team, quiet as ever.

"Matt. Get over here," she called him out.

"Uh oh! Uh oh!" Nick hyped up the confrontation. "This gon' be good!"

Matt laughed and stood in front of her.

"Matt, your game is tired like Advil PM. I know I am desired but do me a favor and stop sliding in my DMs," she announced.

DING!

Matt nodded and spoke up, "Okay, I slid in your DMs but stop with the front. Stop being in denial with this reject Matt publicity stunt. I guarantee that after the show you'll be calling my phone. I meant what I said on Let Me Holla, so let me make your mind blown,"

DING!

Jen rolled her eyes. "Face it, just face it. You brainless, you brainless. You said your tongue is better but I think that's outrageous,"

"Outrageous? You know you want a demonstration! After that, you'll be asking for a bae-cation," he smiled confidently.

DING

"Cute. DJ D-Wrek, can you cut the beat, real quick?" she requested as a series of oohs were heard. 

Angelina placed a hand over her heart, in surprise. "Nani!?" she exclaimed.

Oh, he was done for. Jennie was getting mad. She could tell by the annoyance on her face.

"Hm. Okay..." Jen prepared her thoughts and looked directly at him. "Matt, get it through your thick skull that I don't want you. I am not Zendaya from Disney, I can punch the shit out of you," 

Angelina continued to have her hand placed over her heart as she stared at her best friend in astonishment. She had leaned back as her reaction was priceless and was about to become a new meme.

Out of nowhere, Jennie began to speak in Korean, which made Matt look at her in confusion. She had talked about what a joke he was and turned to the camera to give Bangtan a shoutout and that she would be back in Korea soon.

Switching back to her native tongue, she put him out of his misery once and for all. "You ain't the first, you ain't the last but just know you will not be the one to smash. You might as well give up just like the others. All hot and bothered cause you can't get me under the covers. You only think with your second head so think of a new plan. But let's face it, Jennie don't want you, one minute man,"

After she finished, she dropped the mic. The studio was filled with loud hollers and laughter while Matt's face became flushed as he chuckled.

DJ D-Wrek repeatedly pressed the bell, indicating that it was all over.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING

Angelina had cheered with the cast and she ended up falling dramatically on the floor during the commotion. Meanwhile, Desiigner got excited and patted Jennie on the back, praising her.

"Yo! DJ D-Wrek! Who won that!?" Nick shouted after everyone calmed down a bit and Angelina got back on her feet.

"I got to give it to the platinum squad! Make some noise for the platinum squad, yo!" he announced over everyone's cheers.

"Woo!" Jennie jumped up and down, excitedly as she celebrated with her team.

A Wild N Out girl came on stage with the belt and presented it to Jennie after she went to hug Nick.

"She came through and took my comedy championship!" Nick announced as she happily accepted the belt and raised it up in the air in victory. He then shouted out Desiigner and Angelina.

Jen let out a content sigh. This was awesome. She was glad she was able to do this, today. And now she got to take this title home. Another award for BTS.

"What do you want to say?" Nick asked her as he gave her the mic.

"This has been such a fun experience, thank you so much for having me! And shout out to BTS and BTS ARMY, I love y'all! Thank you!" she said.

She then switched to saying thank you in Korean for the boys and reiterated that she missed them and would be back very soon. After bowing, she was then hugged by Angelina and had her hand raised in victory.

"That's what we talkin' about! Everybody on they feet! And make some noise for Desiigner~!" Nick announced as he closed the show with a performance.

-----------

After recording, Jennie hung out with the cast to take pictures and discuss the show. The vibe was full of high energy as they laughed about their favorite moments and roasted Matt for being rejected. What Jen loved about it was that there were no hard feelings and people didn't take any of the disses seriously. If only more people could vibe like this.

"You did well! Great job, today!" Nick Cannon praised her.

"Aw, thank you! It's harder than it looks to think quickly on your feet. You guys got that," Jen grinned.

"It is but you held your own. Especially on wild style," he laughed at the memory of her calling Matt a one minute man. 

That was the utmost disrespect and a huge blow to his ego.

"Ha! Had to hit him where it hurts. Can we take a selfie?"

"Yeah, let's do it,"

Taking out her phone, she gave it to him so he could raise it in the air for a quick photo of them smiling happily. She'll make sure to post it after her little social media break is over.

"Thanks so much for having me. This was a fun time," she beamed.

"Anytime! We hope to see you and Angelina back on the show sometime,"

"Most definitely. And speaking of Angelina, she really is in her element on your show, huh?"

"Got that right. In the last episode, she was in she went off on everybody. It was one of the highest-rated episodes to date. She a real gem,"

"That's Ang for you. One of the best. Have you thought about adding her as a cast member? She'd be a great addition!" she suggested excitedly.

She watched as Nick smiled at the idea and he discussed how well she would hold her own in the games with clever clapbacks and rhymes.

"She really would be a great addition, wouldn't she? I'ma talk to her. You think she'll want to?" 

"Absolutely! She will accept with no hesitation,"

Jen felt pleased that it seemed like he was highly considering having Angelina join the cast. She hoped it went well when he talked with her. She knew how much it would mean to her if she got to be a permanent cast member.

Following some photos and mingling with other cast members, Jen went to hang out with Desiigner who still had a large grin on his face. What she loved the most about him was how positive he was and how happy he looked. His energy was infectious.

"Mama, you funny as shit. You a savage,"

She laughed. "Thanks. It was so fun teaming with you,"

"Likewise, mama,"

"I also think it is so dope and inspiring with what you accomplished. We're nearly the same age and you out here making moves ever since Panda dropped. I hope I can make an impact like that with my music,"

"I 'preciate that. It's all about the music and what we love to do. We both young and hungry in this industry. We gon' make it big,"

"Got that right. Heck, we could even make a few songs together,"

"Oh, hell yeah. For sure,"

The two took photos together and then with Angelina. Desiigner then took out his phone to take an Instagram video.

"Yoooo! With my girls! Beautiful black queens! Jennie and Angelina! You know what time it is! Wild N Out! Stay tuned, it's comin' out real soon! Ya-a-a!" he laughed.

"Platinum squad~! All day!" Jennie stuck her tongue out.

"Err-day!"

"Gold squad!" Angelina repped her team.

"Boooooo!" Jennie and Desiigner playfully said before they all laughed.

"Y'all some haters," Angelina playfully rolled her eyes and walked away from them as the video ended.

Once Desiigner went off to goof around with DC Young Fly, Matt approached her with a nervous smile.

"All right, I got the hint. I apologize for coming all over you like that," he chuckled nervously.

He did look pretty apologetic with his face looking a little pink.

"It's okay," she responded.

"B-but just know I'll still wait for you if you ever change your mind,"

She laughed. "Well, you'll have to wait forever,"

"Damn..." he sighed in defeat and nodded.

"I have a boyfriend, that's why," she proudly told him. "After rejecting you quite a few times as well as in the DMs, I thought you'd got the hint,"

"Wishful thinking,"

"Regarding my man and I, we're keeping things private until we are ready to announce it,"

"Okay, I respect it. Damn, whoever he is he's lucky,"

"Nah, I'm the lucky one," she smiled as she thought of how much she missed Jungkook.

"Man...your boys, especially your boyfriend and fanbase gon' kill me, huh?" he chuckled nervously at the thought, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeaaaaah, they are."

[moku-youbi]

think about this (I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS SO HARD)

in klive context (especially with your find your way home series in mind)

ahahaha. Gonna admit this is tough on me, because I DO ship Five/Lila, and I have basically from the moment she showed up...but any time I try to think of scenarios for potential fic, my brain just NOPES out because Klive is OTP, and I can't stand the thought of Five without his Klaus. (which is why I eventually was like okay, Klaus/Five/Lila...and then because I felt sad leaving Diego out, and because I ship Klaus/Diego and Five/Diego, my brain went WHY NOT ALL FOUR?!)

Let's be clear about a few things though! If this were an established Klive scenario, Five wouldn't have stopped for a second. He probably would've died pretty fast if not for Lila forcing a slowdown, because he would not pause to eat or sleep or drink and he'd get sloppy and delirious fast. This is supposing he'd end up on that subway without Klaus in the first place, though, which would have *never* happened. He wouldn't have allowed Klaus to get shot, or to run off to who knows where in the middle of an emergency situation, and he wouldn't feel the need to distract Klaus or pass him off to Ribbons the Babysitter. They'd be glued at the hip, so you'd either get all three of them on the subway, or just Klive. (to be clear, if it was all 3 of them, I'm totally down with ot3. Klaus would be such a great buffer in there, being so gentle with them both, comforting them, caring for them *le sigh* If Blackman was going to piss everyone off anyway, why not go for broke with incest 3way lmao! Then you could also do away with the AWFUL pointless Klaus storyline full of unnecessary trauma). All that being said, if he'd been in an established relationship with Klaus and somehow they HADN'T been together in the subway? Yeah, never in a million years would he have cheated on Klaus.

I think for me, the disconnect is that he wants to stay there with her, not that he falls in love with her. I don't have trouble believing that. They're already so alike and there's clear affection and a spark of chemistry there. And I think a lot of people miss that 1.) he'd already 'broken up with' Delores in s1 when he returns her to the store and 2.) he's stuck in another apocalypse scenario, and we know his coping mechanisms. + 3.) she was in an unhappy and unfulfilling marriage and 4.) her aggressive positivity and not speaking about her children is *her* coping mechanism. My poly-minded brain is okay with this. He can love her and Klaus and Delores and whoever. She can love him and Diego and whoever.

And I can even see him needing a break. That's what he told Klaus he wanted in s3 after all. He had a few year's downtime, and then suddenly gets put back in this nightmare situation with no end in sight. He's 70. He's tired of just running and fighting *constantly* It makes sense to want to go someplace safe and comfortable and take a breath.

For me the part that doesn't work is as soon as he finds the book. Like it just doesn't work for his character no matter what. I can see him taking a couple of days to come to terms with the fact he's going to lose Lila, but I don't see it lasting *months* That's where the Klive shipper (and Hargreeves OTSiblings) in me is all hell naw! Not only is it unbelievable that he'd abandon his siblings to the apocalypse (like, sure, wanting to get away from the endless chain of end of the world scenarios, fine, but he'd go bring his family BACK with them, then), but we saw with Delores that he let her go because he knew it was what was right and what she needed. He would *never* keep Lila from her children 5 months longer out of selfishness, knowing her anguish over being apart from them for so long, no matter how much he loves her. In fact, it's because he loves her so much that he wouldn't.

And that's what it comes down to, a fundamental misunderstanding of how Five loves, from the writers. It's an interesting blend of selfishness and selflessness, but no matter the cost to him personally, he'll do what is best for his loved ones.

[invisibleraven]

Imagine your OTP saying I love youto each other five times without the actual (romantic) meaning of it. + if one time they say it right

Peterpatterlina

Julie wasn't sure she was breathing as she waited for Mr. Brunner to return her math test. Calculus had never been her strongest subject, and this test was a big one-so she had reason to be nervous.

"Hey," Reggie whispered. "You'll do great, I just know it."

"If I do it's only because you tutored me," Julie replied.

Unlike Julie, Reggie excelled at math, so when he heard she needed help, he was happy to offer his services. It got him out of his house in the afternoons and neither of them mentioned how Ray slipped him a few bucks after each session.

The tests were handed back and Julie turned hers over with trembling fingers. Preparing to see a sea of red when she looked. But... as she looked it over, there was almost no red there. And a big fat 82% on the top.

"Oh my god!" she shrieked, turning and shoving it in Reggie's face. "Look!"

"Told you that you had this," he said with a smirk.

"Because of you," she replied. "Reggie I love you."

He grinned. "Love you too Jules. Now let's get to lunch. Your treat."

2. Luke stuck his tongue out of his mouth as he worked on his latest song. It was almost perfect, but the bridge was giving him trouble.

"Need a hand?" Julie asked from her spot besides him on the couch. They had both been absorbed in their own song, hanging out in her garage as they often did, not needing to talk, just swap songs when they needed to.

"Yeah, this bridge is killing me," Luke replied, handing over his notebook. "You?"

"Nah, I'm good," Julie replied, humming the tune to his song, making little notations along the margins regarding tempo, then came to the bridge part. She then started writing, scribbling madly and Luke had to sit back in awe as she made something work that had flummoxed him so badly. "How's that?"

Luke looked it over, and then a wide smile split his face. "Molina I love you and your beautiful brain."

She smiled back. "The feeling's mutual. Now let's see if we can fix the chorus."

"Wait, what's wrong with the chorus?"

3. Reggie slipped through his window, creeping around the house and then jumped on his bike, taking off towards Luke's house.

Sure it was late at night, but Luke barely ever slept, and honestly Reggie knew he wouldn't either if he stayed at his house. Not with his parents going at it like they were. Plus Luke had offered Reggie a place to go any time he needed.

Thankfully it was a short bike ride, and he quickly stashed his ride in the back yard, so as to not piss Mrs. P off. He knocked against Luke's window where there was still a light on, and Luke opened it up, giving him his infamous boyish grin.

"Hey Reg. Hop on in."

Reggie grinned, hoisting himself over the ledge, and threw off his leather jacket. "Thanks. The folks were re-enacting World War Two in the living room, I needed an out."

"I told you, any time," Luke replied, sitting himself back on his bed. "You wanna cuddle or the sleeping bag?"

"Cuddles please," he said, shucking off his jeans as Luke killed the light. Climbing in beside Luke, letting himself be pulled into those arms of his. "Thanks Lu. Love you."

"Sweet dreams Reg."

4. The applause was still ringing out as Julie and the Phantoms left the stage, the four of them beaming as they entered their green room.

"That was legendary!" Luke whooped as he launched himself back onto the couch.

"I can't believe we actually did that!" Reggie exclaimed, rubbing his face with a towel.

Alex was buried in Willie's arms but shot them all a pleased smile, even as it looked like he was ready to doze off then and there.

"Guys... we just played The Orpheum," Julie exhaled. "We could go real places from here."

"To the top boss!" Luke grinned, but then noticed Julie's watery eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"It's just... I wish my mom was here for this."

The boys immediately got up and gathered her in a hug. Giving her all the support they could, even if they could never replace her mom. Julie sniffled and hugged them back. "Love you guys so much."

"Love you too boss," Luke replied.

"Forever and always," Reggie echoed.

5. Julie fluffed her hair in the mirror, and applied another layer of lip gloss before exiting her room. "How do I look?"

Reggie gave an exaggerated whistle while Luke pretended to use an imaginary camera, causing Julie to blush as she waved them off. "Thanks guys."

"Where you going Jules?" Reggie asked.

"Hot date," she replied, packing up her purse. "Dinner and a movie, but felt like making an effort. I really like this guy."

Luke felt a churning in his gut at that, sharing a look with Reggie. They had both discovered they had feelings for Julie long ago, and each other. But they had decided to not butcher their friendship and the band, the would keep their feelings to themselves.

Now it was coming back to bite them.

"Alright, I'm gone. Don't wait up!" Julie called at the door. "Love ya!"

"Be safe!" Reggie called.

"Have fun!" Luke added.

The door closed behind her and the boys shared another look-the sentiment clear. Fuck.

+1. Luke and Reggie decided to wait up-they both knew neither of them would be able to sleep until Julie got home.

But of course, neither of them could stay focused on any one thing either. Songs were all full of longing and scratched out phrases about unrequited love. Books got rifled through and tossed aside. Games were distracted button mashes.

"How long has she been gone?" Luke asked.

Reggie glanced at the clock. "Hour tops."

"Fuck," Luke said, tossing his head back onto the couch. "We gotta tell her Reg."

"I know," he replied, thought it was a mere whisper. "I think we might be too late though."

"Too late for what?"

They turned and saw Julie standing in the doorway, make up streaked down her face, looking much less jubilant than she had when she left.

"Julie!" Luke exclaimed coming over to hug her. "What happened?"

Reggie rushed to give her a wipes so she could clean her face, embracing her as she trembled in their hold. "Do we need to kill this guy?"

"You'd have to get in line," Julie snorted. "He seemed so nice online and then he was an arrogant, racist jerk in real life so I kicked him in the balls before I left."

"Good on ya boss," Luke chuckled.

"You deserve so much better than that waste of space," Reggie added, directing them all to the couch.

Julie sighed, relaxing back into the cushions. "I know, but every guy I like is either a jerk, or into someone else or..."

"Or?" Luke asked.

"Or it's more than one person. Both of whom I love like crazy, neither of whom I can be with because it will ruin everything," Julie finished, though her words were muffled from where her face was buried in her hands.

"Julie..." Reggie started, looking at Luke who nodded at him. "Julie, you know that they love you back right?"

"And not as friends, not as a sister or bandmate," Luke added. "Head over heels, hearts on our sleeves, completely gaga in love with you."

"Really?" Julie asked, lifting her head, looking hopeful. "You never said-neither of you!"

"Well neither did you!" Reggie replied, then laughed. "We're all idiots."

"We wasted too much time hung up on what ifs and maybes and worries," Luke said.

"We have lots of time left," Julie replied. "I love you both, you both love me..."

"And each other," Reggie piped up. "So what do you want to do about it?"

"Turn on a movie and see where the night takes us?" Julie suggested.

"We can get a pizza, since I doubt you ate," Luke added.

"Sounds like a perfect first date," Julie replied.

From then on out, they knew that every time they said I love you, it meant in the way they had always hoped, even if Alex claimed they said it to excess some times. But they never got tired of saying it, hearing it, and most of all, feeling it.

And they had a lifetime to do just that.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Actually lemme revert back to my Voltron days for a sec because i got rage.I got into the show the same time season 3 came out and the Lance x Allura development immediately stole my heart because why wouldn't it?It was the first time i saw people like me as a couple onscreen,by which i mean i'm a mixed latino like Lance-and we're even both carribean since he's cuban and i'm dominican!!!-and a black woman like Allura,and it was such a well-written ship to boot that gave me a good example of what i deserved to be treated like by my s/o and raised my standards for romance both fictional and for my own future(and current)dating life and it meant the world to me and i think it always will.And y'know what?Yes,Allura's death hurt a LOT and it still does sometimes but by now i've learned the sad truth that this is the norm for canon bw

The thing that REALLY sets me off?The fandom's response to them.Nonstop,i'd see 'Allura and Lance are such siblings!!!' 'Omg i'm so glad Lance is finally over Allura XD' 'I really hope Allurance isn't endgame afterall' and it was infuriating back then for the obvious people hating on my otp reason but i've realized that it was literally misogynoir.White and loads of nonblack Vee El Dee fans just couldn't stand that their precious Lancey boy genuinely loved the darkskin black girl mc with no ill-intentions and grew out of any bad habits towards her in season 3 of an 8 SEASON SHOW so that meant we were getting black4brown rep instead of sanitized twink tsunderes and they're STILL AT IT with the Le///akira desperation

But nah nah,y'all 'Space Mom and Dad' allegation makers ain't getting out of this!Allura was a GIRL,Shiro was a MAN-a GAY MAN FFS!!!Their season 1 dynamic was very clearly that of a tired dad and his rebellious teen daughter and all the 'baiting' you saw was you inserting your straight woman feminism fantasies onto them-Again,WOMAN,when Allura was an entire 17 year old and Shiro was in his mid-20s!You're literally the same as people who ship him with Pidge or even worse because there's an added layer of perpetuating the long history of adultification and by extension dehumanization of black children.Sit your tenheadasses down,it's not racist or misogynistic that people think you're gross and weird for infantalizing and straightwashing a canon gay japanese man

Keith and Lance weren't baited.Shiro and Allura were never even a fucking option.ALLURANCE was bait,for latinos and black people and those of us inbetween alike,they dangled it in front of us in promos and the vlogs and the official books and most importantly in THE ACTUAL FUCKING SERIES.Only to go 'Sike!!!The only deserving happy ending for traumatized black girls is to die for others and their soulmate to be forced to live on without them!!!' and the fact that y'all have the AUDACITY to make it about yourselves by twisting one of the best love stories in modern american animation into 'Nice Guy Gets The GirlTM' is bodyslam worthy.Be.Fucking Quiet.

[bardcore-jaskier]

♡ My thoughts on Yennskier + headcanons ♡

(Edited post)

- What makes this whole thing so funny and exciting to me is that Yennefer used to think that Jaskier was just some annoying sing songy twit before. While Jaskier's dramatic arse used to consider Yennefer an enemy until she saved him from Rience XD XD XD

- I adored the everliving FUCK out of their scenes together in season 2! Their dynamic is so fucking good! AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!

- Yennskier, the ship we didn't know we needed, but definitely deserved! Their chemistry is so fucking perfect and their dynamic works so well!

- Personally I think that this ship is actually, currently, THE healthiest and most wholesome one of all my Jaskier ships! At least as of season 2! (Even if Geraskier remains as my OTP)

- In Oxenfurt, when Jaskier and Yennefer got to know eachother better without Geralt's presence to distract them both, ever since they saw the real, raw and vulnerable sides of eachother and became friends, I couldn't help but notice how absolutely toothrottingly perfect they are together!

- Legit, and I kid you not! I can't picture Yennefer and Jaskier having anything other than that deep kind of connection where you know that you are loved, appreciated and adored, despite all your flaws. The kind of love where you know you're not alone, that this person is your family and will always have your back no matter what.

- Yennefer, despite being one of the most powerful sorceresses on the entire continent, treats Jaskier as an equal by the time Ciri gets possessed. (Bro, like even Geralt doesn't do that! Jaskier is his friend, sure, but I've never seen Geralt treating him as an equal.)

- Yennefer and Jaskier have a mutual respect for eachother, they trust eachother, they enjoy eachother's company. All of those things are A CRUCIAL part of having a solid foundation to build a honest, sturdy, long-lasting and happy relationship upon.

- From compatibility POV, they work together a lot better than Geralt and Yennefer did. With Jaskier, there are no djinn related consent issues, there wouldn't be any communication issues and he would probably be a positive influence on Yennefer's mental health.

- Whereas her relationship with Geralt was quite frankly chaotic, explosive, sometimes even toxic. It was built upon a shaky foundation of lust, djinn magic and exchanged favors. Like c'mon, their time together as an on-and-off couple mostly consisted of having kinky unicorn sex, trauma dumping, dealing with magical, gorey and insanely dangerous situations, then talking about said situations until they have a fight! Leaving eachother every time in the end because they can't seem to make it work long-term. They're incompatible because in canon, the only thing that finally made them stick together for good, was an orphaned girl in need of protection. It's not right, kind of like parents who are postponing their divorce until their daughter grows up :/

- Jaskier on the other hand, despite his magic-less ordinary humanity has a hilariously witty, optimistic, stupidly brave, highly empathetic, loyal and supportive personality. Yennefer would have an understanding partner who loves her, cherishes her, acceptc her for who she is without judgement nor pity. A partner who would make it his life's mission to help her see the good things this world has to offer, to make her happy because she deserves it!

- Damn it all, they both have been through enough, they both deserve a break. They actually GET eachother. I can already feel a drabble forming in my brain, set a week or so after the whole Voleth Mier shebang, Jaskier is struggling with PTSD and nightmares about Rience, Yennefer is struggling with guilt and shame because she put Ciri in danger. So while Geralt is too busy with Ciri's training to be there for Jaskier and he feels too betrayed to be in Yennefer's company, neither Yen nor Jask have anyone to turn to in Kaer Morhen, except eachother. Three months confined to a witcher keep together? Now that is a LOT of time to spend with someone you can be openly vulnerable around, bond with, heal and share joy with, unexpectedly falling in love....

- Yennefer too is an extremely good match for Jaskier, it's almost uncanny how much she completes him! Jaskier would finally have an understanding and loving partner who truly saw him when others didn't bother. And Yennefer liked what she saw, the familiar face of a simple human bard who offered kindness and compassion to strangers even if it could kill him. She saw courage, honesty, forgiveness and so much good, a collection of rare qualities she had never thought could exist within one single person all at once. After Voleth Mier, all that goodness was given to her so freely, it is still being given to her everyday, so she knows a treasure when it looks her right in the eyes with such easy warmth. She would make it her life's mission to cling onto him with everything she's got, to love and cherish him the way he deserves, to protect the only person she deems worthy of holding her heart!

- They have a lot in common too. From both having a knack for fashion, both being mischievous little shits at heart and both having high standards when it comes to personal hygiene. To also having similar tastes in both alcohol, humor, luxury and entertainment.....if Yennefer's kinky orgy party and Jaskier's reputation as the biggest slut on the continent is anything to go by.

- Speaking of sex, both of them having a high libido and exceptional skills in bed aside, they're fucking GORGEOUS people! Why wouldn't they find eachother attractive?

- Yennefer is basically a Goddess, beauty personified! She is elegant and breathtaking, everyone knows it.

- However, since a majority of the Witcher fandom usually dismisses Jaskier in favor of simping for Geralt, I can, I must and I WILL gush about how pretty Jaskier is! Cuz clearly some of them bitches be blind, Yennefer is one lucky witch!

- Jaskier is like only 1,5 inches shorter than his grouchy snowman friend. Meaning he is tall as all hell and he definitely isn't lacking in the muscle department either, that bard is jacked yo. His voice is soothing and his vocabulary is extensive enough to make the most experienced of whores blush from pillow talk. He has VERY soft looking hair and he has one of the most angelic fucking faces I've ever seen. His eyes are the clearest shade of blue and his expressions + mannerisms are absolutely adorable! Ok, I'm done gushing, onto the next point....

- Unlike Jaskier, I don't think I have a dummy thick enough of a vocabulary to express how much dopamine Yennskier fanfics give me, more specifically when their husband and wife act from Oxenfurt becomes an inside joke for them, leaving the rest of Kaer Morhen's inhabitants confused as fuck.

- Geralt getting a bit jealous? His brothers wondering when that could have happened? Ciri feeling bamboozled as well?

- It's all shits and giggles until somebody giggles and shits. It won't take long until their inside joke is no longer a joke. They already bicker like a married couple anyway XD

- I can not help but also headcanon Jaskier as not fully human. It would be sad if he up and died on his dear immortal wife. I don't necessarily picture him having chaos or other powers in this scenario, but when I do, I think that they would discover them together on accident.

[ooksaidthelibrarian]

Babylon 5 Rewatch S2E1 Points of Departure

German title: Die Feuerprobe, The Crucible - ok fair enough

hhhh earth heavy cruisers are sexy

SHERIDAAAAANNN

I love him so much

Goodbye, Sinclair - I really enjoy him in his season and I am glad they managed to give him the arc that he gets

boys, you should know better than to yell at Ivanova and then get into an elevator with her

the comedic timing of this is so fucking good and so is the absolutely terrified expression of the Drazi

I am always so worried for Delenn's cocoon catching fire

I love the moment in the new into when the exterior lights of B5 light up

lordt the 90s are so strong in this intro

Trigati is such a good name, I love saying it

ah, my B5 OTP: Sheridan/Oranges

he does have instant great chemistry with Ivanova and it works really well with them having served together already

I love her briefing

'about yay high' LOL

I don't think 12 years are long enough to forget why you called someone Starkiller

things are off to a smashing start with the Minbari

Lennier, too busy to get threatened with a gun

the reveal of the Minbari soul situation is WILD

the situation with the Trigati is so tense, I love it

I wouldn't want to be one of those fighter pilots

Sheridan is so pleased with himself

look at how fucking BIG the Minbari cruisers are!

'there is enough guilt to go around in the world without grabbing for more'

enjoy your orange, Sheridan :D

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I like your blog but I was disappointed to see you say it would ever be okay for Zutarians to have Katara and Zuko cheat on Aang and Mai in their fics if they acknowledged it is bad. Somethings can't be done right and need to just be kept out of any story. It's completely disrespectful to the Kataang and Maiko fans.

Also if I were you, I'd block the anon who said they could understand the appeal of Zucest even if they claim not to ship it, and in case you don't know, a blog you reblog from a lot hello-nichya-here likes that cursed shit so there's another one for your block list. Incest is gross and immoral even if it's fiction, and you'd be better off not interacting with that kind of people.

Buddy, I'm brazilian. I was raised on soap-operas. If I gave people shit for enjoying any media that involves the main characters selfishly cheating on their partners to be with each other, I'd be the world's biggest hypocrite. That kind of stuff is an easy source for drama, and it will always be part of romance stories - regardless of the quality of said romances.

As for it being disrespectful to Kataang and Maiko, yeah, I could see it, but only if it's combined with a bunch of slander towards these characters, and pulling stuff like "How I Became Yours" did by saying Mai was a terrible, abusive person for being angry that her husband cheated on her, or if it's shit like Zutarians constantly harrassing shippers about how Aang/Mai is totally being cucked. But if they're just writing as a source for drama in a story, without demonizing the characters that are clearly being screwed over by Zuko and Katara, I don't mind it.

Also I fully disagree with you on the "Somethings can't be done right and no one should write them." No topic should be forbidden in fiction, and what people should discuss is "Does this make narrative sense?" not "Is this a morally correct thing for people to do?"

How would that even work for the Avatar fandom anyways? "Sure, the original show is literally about war and genocide, and it is constantly praised for having an imperialist prince redeem himself and befriend the people he sent a hitman after, but if we write characters doing immoral things like cheating or sleeping with a relative THAT is going too far"

Sounds like one hell of a double-standard to me. And I've literally said it in my pinned post: This blog exists solely to point out the kind of behavior that made Zutara become such a hated ship, not to bully people that are just minding their business, or to tell them what tropes they are allowed to like. I don't like the idea of Zuko and Katara together at all, especially not with it involving them hurting Mai and Aang. But if the people writting these stories weren't constantly forcing it down everyone's throats, I wouldn't mind them adding that trope to every single fic they wrote.

As for the second part of your ask, I guess there's only one way for me to make my stance on Zucest VERY clear, so you and anyone else who could be bothered by it can decide if you want to keep following this blog:

Hello, Nichya here. I'm not going to use this side-blog to block my main, as I feel it would be kind of pointless to block myself considering the content in both accounts is coming from the same brain.

And see Zutara fans? It's super easy to only bring up your OTP when it is relevant to the conversation and without trying to force other's to like it, and it tends to get you far less hate too, no matter how "problematic" your ship is.