#possibly two and gaty too...

[potatobugz]

Your AU is awesome sauce!!!So what’s everyone’s role in the story?(are there any ships or no)

thank you :D!!

The story basically begins with Two sending out a message to each individual member of Death Pact Again, calling on them to form the pact, find Four, and rescue them from their imminent death! (Please.) Algebraliens in this au are fae-like mythological creatures, known for their love of math & their incredible power.

Its mainly focused on Pie and the rest of Death Pact Again, but there are other important characters too, like Flower, Lollipop & Gelatin, Ice Cube, Snowball, and more <|:)

and yes, there are ships! im an avid multishipper so these are subject to change/there might be more but:

- Astrobiology (Tree x Black Hole)

- Flowerpop

- Loserwinner Divorce

- Basketbot (Basketball x Robot Flower)

- Coinpin and Fubble (Fanny x Bubble) are within the realm of possibility methinks

- Whatever Firey and Leafy have going on (?)

[wowieeitsisa]

BFDI CHARACTER VS FEELINGS TOWARDS CHILDREN AND HOW THEY TAKE CARE OF THEM !

This started with a thought about Golf Ball, check under the cut for a SUPER LONG RAMBLE ABT THIS 😭🙏

LIKES KIDS, IS GREAT WITH THEM

- Baloony: Fun Uncle, possibly a great dad too, he’s also a really great babysitter !

- Barf Bag: GREAT babysitter, extremely patient with kids and 100% gentle parents

- BasketBall: #MOTHER, a bit too busy with her own work but SUPER caring !

- Bell: I’m going with a feeling, she has been in a team with Grassy, great babysitter and probably sings 2 children

- Cloudy: Cool Uncle, that shows off his trinkets to children and let them play as long as they return them to him

- Eggy: Great babysitter, the type who’s always making a bunch of outdoor activities for children

- Loser: idk, I feel he’s nice with children as the local famous guy, he’s chill about supervising them

- Marker: You’d think he wouldn’t be a good babysitter, but he’s like SO good, if not the best, in the entirety of Death Pact towards children, super fun and an awesome babysitter

- Nickel: Fun FUN uncle, surprisingly responsible even he’s the type that LOVES playing rough with kids in a way that parents would disapprove

- Pie: Great Babysitter, right behind marker, excels at preventing kids from killing themselves

- Spongy: IS FRIENDS WITH CHILDREN (Rocky) ! He understands them like no other, fun uncle and great babysitter

- TV: GIANT IPAD, he just LOVES to entertain kids !!!!!

- Two: They’re chill w kids ! Supervises them just perfect

- Six: Aunty <3 Makes coloring activities for the kids

- X: Great babysitter!!! And he understands kids in a way it’s scary lmao

- Ten: He’s just a chill guy, great babysitter, manages to keep the child calm most of the day

- Snowball: There’s a living proof he’s good with kids (Grassy), and it’s kinda a good contrast to his character

- Coiny: Cool Uncle who is cool with kids, they adore him

DISLIKES KIDS, IS GREAT WITH THEM

- Bubble: The only reason she dislikes kids it’s cuz they’re too rough and careless, and SHE IS easy to pop, regardless of that she makes sure she’s a great babysitter

- Donut: Not very patient with kids, but treats them as human beings, so he’s great supervising them

- Fanny: She really loves saying she hates everything and she doesn’t get along with kids the best, probably makes them cry accidentally, but she’s good taking care of them !

- Golf Ball: Definitely says out loud she dislikes kids but she’s such a great caretaker, a bit too strict though

- Needle: Kids are not her vibe, regardless she’s quite responsible and well that makes her good at supervising them

- Four: It’s the fact he doesn’t understand children that makes him dislike them, but since they’re a good host he does end up being good with children

- Eight: They’re responsible, even not liking kids they end up being good at supervising them

- Fifteen: She probably hates kids as much as she hates everyone else, PLEASE leave this integer alone ! But she wouldn’t leave a child alone if she saw them wandering off, ends up being a really good babysitter

NEUTRAL (NORMAL) ABOUT KIDS

- 8Ball: No strong feelings, ok as a babysitter

- Bomby: No strong feelings, AWFUL as a babysitter

- Bracelety: No strong feelings, is great at entertaining children but not the best babysitter though

- Cake: No strong feelings, not the best to supervise children

- Clock: He’s a normal guy, no strong feelings abt kids but responsible enough around them

- Foldy: No strong feelings, but has been in a team with Grassy, she ends up a good babysitter

- Gaty: No strong feelings, prefers not interacting with kids but responsible around them

- Lightning: No strong feelings, awful as a babysitter

- Liy: No strong feelings, awful as a babysitter

- Naily: No strong feelings, cool auntie to supervise kids though

- Remote: No strong feelings, not the best babysitter but ok and responsible at supervising kids

- Saw: No strong feelings, responsible but not the best at supervising kids since she doesn’t really know how to interact with them

- Stapy: No strong feelings, doesn’t know how to exactly interact with children

- Five: No strong feelings, Responsible

- Zro1 + Zero Bunch: No strong feeling, responsible and GREAT babysitters

- Ice Cube: No strong feelings, ok around them but doesn’t exactly has the patience or really understands them

LIKES KIDS, IS AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER WITH THEM

- Blocky: ABSOLUTE FUCKING AWFUL INFLUENCE TO CHILDREN

- Book: LOVES kids, but don’t leave a kid alone with her she doesn’t manage to take care of them alone for her lack of leadership

- Bottle: LOVES kids, too irresponsible to be a alone with them

- Firey: I just feel he’s not responsible enough

- Flower: She likes kids but the kids don’t like her lmaoo

- Gelatin: he would lose those kids so easily my fucking god

- Leafy: ADORES kids, not emotionally intelligent enough to be left alone with them for long periods of time though

- Pen: Boyfail at taking care of them, just let him play with them

- Pin: She likes kids, but the kids don’t like her- she tries to keep everything in order and be fun but fails miserably

- PriceTag: leave a kid alone with them for enough time and they’re about to sell something to them OR SELL THEM

- Puffball: she’s like, A SUPER COOL AUNTIE, DOES SO MANY FUN THINGS WITH CHILDREN, but not responsible enough to keep things in order and she might take things too seriously- chaos WILL ensue

- Ruby: Loves to do fun things with children, but she IS NOT RESPONSIBLE DO NOT LEAVE RUBY ALONE WITH KIDS

- Taco: Likes kids enough, but she doesn’t exactly know how to interact with them properly

- Tennis Ball: Likes kids but the kids don’t like him back- doesn’t know how to interact with them accordingly and fails at fun activities

- Yellow Face: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TAKE THE KIDS AWAY FROM HIM

- Seven: Cool Uncle, but not responsible enough to be left alone with kids

- Fourteen: NEVER FUCKING LEAVE A CHILD ALONE WITH THIS MANIAC

DISLIKE KIDS, IS AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER WITH THEM

- Black Hole: It’s not that he completely dislike kids, it’s more that he’s afraid of them

- David: Aw, seriously? I don’t think I need to explain

- Dora: It’s not really worth it

- Eraser: Kids do not go with the flow and aren’t his vibe

- Lollipop: Professional kid hater, she can put up with them BUT SHE’S NEVER TAKING CARE OF THEM EVER

- Match: Thinks kids are yucky

- Pencil: Not really worth it, even if she’s responsible enough

- Pillow: NOT WORTH IT AT ALL, she will use them for one of her experiments and will get frustrated when they ruin it

- Robot Flower: Taking care of kids is not in her programming

- Roboty: SAVE this robot from kids

- Teardrop: Kids annoy her, and she’s a little too rough with them

- Tree: DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN, treats kids as adults and that’s NOT the moment. He is good at preventing they kill themselves tho

- Winner: Not their vibe! Kids make them uncomfortable

- Woody: EXTREMELY afraid of children

- Announcer: take a little look at BFDI season 1 and tell me he would be a good caretaker (the answer is no)

- One: NOT WORTH IT, she going out to buy milk and cigarettes !

[silently-standingstill]

TEAM8s is not a team that did nothing, but rather a team that suffered from unused potential

This is an analysis of Team8s in TPOT 1-2, and (most) characters on the team. This is what I believe to be how an arc for Team8s could've been portrayed if their team had something going on before the merge. This analysis takes into consideration their experiences in BFDIA and BFB, and how it could've affected TPOT and their team.

Team8s is a team that is full of potential, it was formed through Coiny wanting to have woah bunch reunited, and Saw and Gaty wanting to team with Barf Bag over having zig zags, it is also a team made up of close duos (+ Needle), and 5/8 of the members having leader qualities. This is a team that has so much potential because of how much conflict could have arisen, even before the team was officially formed, Coiny, Gaty and Pin were arguing over the team's name, over something so trivial too! This interaction shows how strong they are with their wants and beliefs, and rooted in why the team was formed, that it should be named after why they're in the team, instead of making something united together. The characters joined for different reasons and it's interesting seeing right off the bat how strong each of their presences are. For potential, I believe Pin and Coiny's conflict with their experiences in BFDIA could've made for something interesting, especially since two of the characters were dragged into the team because of that. BFDIA is something Coiny wishes to relive and want that experience to be ongoing, but it isn't and he cannot move on from the past, contrasting with Pin's distaste for the season because of her treatment, experiences, even becoming disabled in the season and nobody caring other than Coiny. They have extremely different views of the season that brought them together despite being so close, and with this team, I believe it would have given them the chance to show their frustrations about the season, and have the ability to communicate more in depth about why it left such an impact on both of them, and also how they can move on from it and enjoy the future outside of that season. That being said, the characters outside of that duo can push that potential arc forward, BFDIA being a season that some characters weren't there for, or didn't impact them overall. Donut being the first eliminated, the game itself wouldn't have much importance to him, and due to his early elimination, he grew as a character due to that. If his previous characterization was referenced by Coiny or any other character, either Barf Bag or pin could remarked that he isn't the same person, he still retains his irritable nature but he now is more considerate and thoughtful, a person who is a leader and rational. The past is not the present and he's very different from his beginnings. Speaking of leaders, Needle is able to speak her mind, if something like this did happen, she would be able to put him in his place and tell him to move on, similar to how she did in BFB with Firey and Leafys arguing, and same with Gaty! However, most of her interactions with him are negative, but arguably, most of them do have to do with BFDIA, she would be seeing this from an outside view and possibly confront Coiny about his attachment to that previous season (though narratively, Needle would be a better pick for that role considering their past, Gaty would be better to further the conflict and cause him to realize that there is an issue). There could be a rift between the characters in the team, similar to Bleh, but not as unattached from reality that book caused her team to be. The conflict could affect the teams overall performance, especially with so many characters who fit the leader role, it would cause no single direction that challenges go, many of the duos/groups splitting off to do their own thing. There's many ideas and directions, and nobody cooperating. Once Gaty, who was on a team with conflict previously, and possibly Donut, someone who is able to keep his team together, they realize they cannot function as a team if this keeps on going. They'd be the characters to cause the other characters to resolve the conflict and ultimately have the arc come to a close.... and this is just a single idea! The team overall has so much potential and wasn't used despite there being so much going on for all the characters! They aren't a team that did nothing, but a team that was forgotten about.

[manyminded]

okay yk what. I’m here to show an example of my crazy polycule multishipping skills, wherein I make a polycule but every ship involving any character in said polycule that I like/is popular is included.

warning. this is a long post.

let’s start with polypact - every character from every iteration of death pact is included. that’s already fourteen characters! that’s a lot! But I Can Make It Worse.

pen is dating blocky and eraser. cool. he’s also in cahoots with snowball and coiny(we’ll get back to coiny). cool. snowball is dating golfball and tennis ball. snowball is also dating winner, which we’ll get back to. tennis ball should bring along nickel and thus nickel brings Bomby. what the hell, why not have all of BEEP here! Poly BEEP! okay, well, golfball is dating puffball and obviously puffball is dating fries. but golfball is also dating eight ball so we’ve unlocked the exitor polycule (excluding firey jr cause he’s a child). since stapy and Liy are in there too we’re including Foldy. and if you’re fine with crossover ships puffball could be dating bow ii as well (which we’ll get back too.)

pin is obviously dating firey, leafy, and coiny. first guy we’ve seen twice from two different threads! let’s keep going. pin is also obviously bringing along needle, woah bunch, so why not add donut here as well! firey is also dating gelatin. gelatin is dating fries. we’re back at fries again! gelatin is also in love with lollipop and teardrop. both leafy AND lollipop are dating flower. teardrop is dating eggy. eggy could be dating basketball and Foldy, which oh shit we’re back at another death pacter, with basketball dating robot flower.

well gaty. what about gaty? gaty is obviously with saw, of course, as well as two! and two is with four and x! okay, okay, well what about twophone? mephone4? Ah, but we’re saving crossover’s for later. four and x are in cahoots with clock and possibly gaty herself as well, and clock is with winner, and winner is with snowball, and we’re all coming back around again. four could even be with donut again! hi donut! Four is also dating profily!!

how about pillow. pillow! well there’s book of course, and you have to bring all of Freesmart along with her. but that was crossed off already with the exitor polycule including pencil and match, and pin/coiny/leafy with needle, which would’ve already brought Freesmart with them. book could also be dating price tag! and price tag brings along naily! book is also with lollipop and taco, and of course taco brings along barf bag. barf bag also brings along donut but he’s already here.

But Let’s Go Deeper.

crossovers. crossovers. YOU WANNA TALK CROSSOVERS? BECAUSE I CAN TALK CROSSOVERS. we’ve already covered twophone and puffbow. but as the no1 profilepainty shipper we’ve gotta include that as well. paintbrush brings along lightbulb, test tube, and fan. of course. mephone4 brings along metallic salad which includes microphone, knife, and pickle. bow brings along marshmallow and apple. test tube brings cabby of course. paintbrush can also drag along tissues, and tissues can bring YinYang & cheesy.

also, mic drags along ii taco, and might as well get cabby in here as well. and now there’s a lot of ways to connect to baseball, nickel, suitcase, and balloon from here (taclloon? basemic? nickmic? etc etc) but they’re here as well.

but that’s not the end of it. there’s someone I’ve been neglecting to mention.

trophy. he could be connected through either knife or tissues/cheesy. but you wanna know why I’ve left him out?

GOLDEN BOTTLE. TROPHY X BRYCE.

THATS RIGHT. THIS POLYCULE SPANS THREE FUCKING SHOWS, BABY.

Bryce Hanson. Soda Bottle. Bring along your boyfriend and girlfriend, Liam/backpack and Amelia/Scenty. Scenty, bring along your girlfriends, tray and Charlotte. Charlotte, bring your boyfriends, Parker and circle. LIAM, BRING FUCKING AIRY. AIRY, BRING HOST CIRCLE. LETS GET THIS PLACE TO THE FINISH LINE.

…

so yeah. that’s all I got. this is a non-exhaustive list, but I hope you see my point.

this was spurred on by my replies to this post by @deathpactagainn, and a dumb conversation (pictured below) with @cindersnows. gaze upon my insanity and cower beneath it, mere mortals.

[tapwater118]

bfdia 17 and tpot 15 spoilers

bfdia 17

needle’s votes were counted separately, which means pencil is out, which is sad but also funny because now she gets to host with the rest of the wtfers. oh yeah they get to host now! i love that, also balloony just warpdriving out killed me. loved the mini freesmart reunion

fries actually taking the immunity was also a welcome surprise, we didnt really need pin to get tortured more this late in the season. i also guess at this point there isnt really gonna be a merge so much as a bunch of singleton teams, buts thats fine imo. coinpin :)

loved all the little cameos in the mall, very fun. also leafy! didnt really have too much screen time but oughhh they were teasing her for so long i almost lost hope. so very close to the first ever bookleaf interaction

the main event of course is tennis ball and nickel’s excellent adventure. if i had a nickel for every time a random donut line from bfb was justified by bfdia i would have two nickels: past nickel and future nickel. its nickel’s fault gaty got eliminated btw he lured that bug up there. he also caused all of tpot 15 by kicking the yoylite into the future so THANKS BUDDY

overall very funny episode! as much as i hate to say it i think needle is going to go here, she was very close to elimination last time and she also didn’t really have much to do this time. nickel is also a solid possibility due to him destabilizing the fabric of spacetime, which sources tell me is not a very “cash money” thing to do

anyway time for The Horrors

tpot 15

nickel i am going to throttle you

i predicted basketball was gonna be out but it doesnt mean im happy about it. also tree staying in over robot flower was a shock, i thought people really liked her?? poor thang her self esteem is in the toilet now. at least they got to fly away on a dragon to get lesbian married together

i love love love how theyre using the rejects more its wonderful (the pda short was definitely a test to see if people would like the rejects as characters im sure of it). itrd trying to replace firey to make himself relevant inadvertently made relevant from people editing him over firey i love it

ive seen people say they dont like the time travel but me? im eating this up its so good, wonderfully silly depiction of the butterfly effect, its perfect for bfdi. the host continuously being changed was a wonderful bit, and host with a screen! there were so many callbacks for the bfdi geeks in the crowd (me), i hope they do more with the tfi style it is so nice to watch

PENCIL CRASH OUT ARC TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR HALLELUJAH thank you one for getting her on the show. actually this crash out and the resulting timeline devastation is the exact reason one rigged pencil to get it. poor pencil man she needs friends

the finale of the episode with everyone huddling together as reality falls apart honestly got to me. icy running over to me with book is everything to me. her last moments and she chooses to spend them with book sndbejuxhsbansn

ok uh elimination predictions probably tree from dpya but maybe marker?? idk maybe his fans wont like him green. from team two i would like it to be grassy but i know hes gonna get the most votes again somehow. sorry taggy it might be your time to go

idk how to end this

[numberonetacostan]

Thinking about the lifespans of Algebraliens compared to objects.

They do have recovery centres as well as 4 and X being able to recover people but for the sake of this it's either a 'who wants to live forever' view point or there will be a time where they suffer a perma-death somehow.

Wether you want to view it as shipping or platonic Two probably wouldn't want to let that happen to Gaty and the Sam's with 4 & X with Clock even if they're not as upset without him as Two is without Gaty they definitely seem attached if that's the right word for whatever you call what they're doing.

I don't think keeping them specifically alive in a situation where perma-death is possible (I imagine it to be old age or something, like food objects becoming moldy certain objects rotting/deteriorating or alternatively the mechanical minds getting too beat up to turn back on for the sake of the angst at least) but that would bring in angst in the way of, everyone else they knew are dead + they might not even want to live forever but the Algebraliens did it anyway (I believe the headcanon of 4 and X being so clingy just being normal for Algebraliens has been brought up before, leaning more into shipping but what's normal for Algebraliens vs what's normal for objects could cause issues, namely the lifespan one I talked about)

-🌸

Hi Flower!!^^ Welcome back, and thank you for sending in an ask!! :)

It's interesting to think about their varying lifespans, and whether or not the objects can die permanently, as in there would be a certain point or type of death from which the recovery centres wouldn't be able to recover them, or if they're semi-immortal in that way.

Either way, despite the algebraliens having favourites, I'm not sure if they'd let any of the contestants die permanently. Four, X, and Two, at least, seem to very much enjoy hosting the show, yeah? And if all their contestants die, there's no more show. Especially with Four being such a big bfdi fan anyways, I'm not sure if they especially would let any of the contestants die.

[cosmos-cloud]

—Tpot 16 Spoilers—

I NEED to talk about this episode, not for very long but just enough to get it out of my system

(actually it’s longer than I anticipated you have been warned)

WE ALL SAW IT COMING, DEPRESSION ARK TWO DID HAPPEN and listen, I was a big fan of Gaty and Two’s relationship mostly because I liked how wise Gaty sounded when discussing Two’s problems, and how even us viewers could learn something about them. But Gaty being eliminated, placed in the kitchen and then disappearing (kidnapping :[ ) giving us a very guilty Two is still something I am very interested about where it could go next, because let’s all be honest, Two won’t be grieving all season. I mostly foresee they’ll try hosting again next episode still in the stages of grief and possibly even break down. Of course, I feel bad for them… but plot wise, I really like where this could go.

And Then What Do We Have- - -

Book; I am LOVING her being able to make friends again, she finally truly healed!! Ice cube getting out was the best outcome between the two (if you ask me), and even tho their official reconciliation is a bit underwhelming, I don’t care, it makes sense, Ice cube isn’t a very talkative person and the fewer words she needs to explain herself, the better for her. Book being able to connect with Winner is also a great thing, and a great way to show how far she has come, plus, Winner really seems to have needed that. Now if she can not be up for elimination too early again that’d be great—

Pencil; Okay I raise my hand to announce that I am neutral when it comes to her voting results. I didn’t vote to save her, but I am not actively looking towards her getting out. She’s getting an ark (a big one too), so it would suck if she does get out, but she also had it coming. Now One thing I do have to say about her is I did NOT expect her being scared of Four to THAT level. Of course, it makes sense in a psychological point of view, she’s been stuck in the EXIT the longest, but the way she acted during the escape didn’t show as much fear towards him so I think it’s a bit more understandable to not have seen it coming. Another thing is how she kinda dragged her team everywhere the whole episode and more importantly, how they just let her do it (except Pillow obviously). This might just be me over analyzing it, but they might all be worried about her yet scared to do anything, and this is mostly backed by the van segments. They care (some of them more than others), but she’s hard to approach… most of the effort they put is or ignored by her, or seen negatively by her making it pretty much useless if not almost dangerous.

Pen and Liy; So first off, I’m sure I’m not the only one that remembers how as soon as Liy joined, it’s Pen and almost exclusively Pen that she seems to care about. Yes it’s because of old Death Pact and all, but she also seemed to take Pen’s whole "friends loosing" situation very seriously, which connects with the event of this episode. We know Liy always had her redemption mentality of feeling a strong urge to help to make up for her mistakes, something she talks about alot, but what I find most interesting is how she acknowledges her anger issues and mostly how she share them quite openly to Pen as soon as he talk about his own difficulties with anger. She found a way to help him with something she had to learn the hard way, on her own, teaching him the benefit while making him skip most of the bad part… and on the other hand, Pen took it to heart. Finally being able to let his rage out while still staying his caring nice self, while still having control is a hard thing to pull off for most people, and just something he needed in general. Not saying he was too nice, but saying he will now be able to act more instead of just sitting there and dealing with it in silence.

That’s it for me, don’t vote for Pillow pls I want her out and Goodbye!!

[ndcolis]

— somethin’ stupid like “i love you.”

song: Somethin’ Stupid by Frank Sinatra

pairing: two x gaty

genre: fluff, (?) drunken confessions

₊　　　　⁺　　　✦　　　₊　 　⁺　　　

a/n BET YALL DIDNT KNOW I LILE TPOT!!! a trade w my pooksie @yoylerie !!! twogaty fic for a milliot edit 🫶🏼 showed this to them earlier, i don’t know if it’s in character so it’s probably ooc, so, im sorry.. hehe.

The loud club-like music was blasting throughout the room, the catchy noise splitting her eardrums.

Gaty was standing in the corner, alone, with a singular red solo cup keeping her company. Her eyes darted around the room, seemingly looking for something— er— someone.

“Uh.. T-Two?” She weakly called out, her head spinning in all directions, trying to find her best pal.

She then walked a little further from her original position, nudging what seems like hundreds of people, trying to find her best friend.

Gaty recognizes a little green guy sitting on the couch in the corner, seemingly taking a nap. Dozens of red solo cups are scattered next to him, reaching the floor.

She quickly walked over to them, some purpose in her step.

The periwinkle gal sat down on the couch, before placing her hands on Two’s shoulders and shaking them.

“Two!” The girl exclaimed, the deep concern for her friend prominent in her voice.

Two’s eyes quickly batted open at the sound of their friend calling their name, eyes widening at the sight of Gaty, seemingly worried for this friend of hers.

“A-ah, Gatyyyy! How are yaaaaaa..? Enjoying the hic party?” The integer drunkenly asked. Their speech was a tad bit slurred.

Gaty took notice of the scene they were in, and what could have possibly caused them to act this way. Yeah, no. Two was definitely drunk.

“Two..!? What happened!?” Gaty almost immediately questioned, cupping the even number’s face and firmly observing their features.

A tipsy smile quickly played on Two’s lips, giggling like a girl in a toy store. “I had a biit.. too many drinkssss..” They spat out, staring into Gaty’s lavender eyes.

The periwinkle purple tried to lift the number up, her intentions being clear. “Oh-kay.. time to sober up, Two.” She muttered under her breath.

As Gaty tried to get Two to their room, she blinked and boom. They were both there, in Two’s bedroom, with Two already in their night cap.

“Heh.”

To say Gaty was shocked was an understatement.. but it was a pleasant surprise. Hey, at least it was easier for her now.

“Alright..” She mumbled to herself, searching around the room for something that could help her friend sober up.

Two quietly admired Gaty’s features, how pretty she looked in the dim lighting of their bedroom. Even though their vision was— well— not so great, they could still tell that their best pal looked amazing, as always!

“You’re prettyyy..” Two drunkenly blurted out, giggling nonstop.

Gaty almost immediately stopped what she was doing. A soft, pink powder crept upon her face, averting her gaze to the host infront of her.

“O-oh. Thanks..” She said, as she stood up and grabbed the bottle of milk sitting on Two’s nightstand.

Gaty knew that Two didn’t really mean what they meant. They were in a drunken state. Only stupid people believe whatever a drunk person is saying.

But that thought didn’t stop Gaty from wishing that Two did mean it.

Gaty continued to care for the green guy, trying to get them to freshen up.

She pressed the bottle’s opening to their lips, watching them slowly drink their milk. Watching as they slowly started drifting off into slumber.

“Are you feeling alright, Two?” Gaty asked, tilting her head to the side.

Two yawned, their eyelids slowly dropping. “Mhmm.. am’ mkay’..”

The green brit could barely see. Their eyelids were growing heavy, but they were trying to stay up for your best pal. And they could see that their best pal was not happy right now.

“Ohhh.. cmon’ Gatyy.. Smilee! Ya’ look nice when you do..” Two exclaimed, they really did think their best friend was beautiful all the time.

To say Gaty was at a loss of words is an understatement. The soft pink power crept back up on her face, this time, a deeper shade of maroon sat on her cheeks. She felt her face burn up at their sweet words. She didn’t know what to do.. to stay neutral? smile?

Her lips curled into a small smile, trying to please her friend.

As Two dozed off to sleep, Gaty wondered if she should get going and go to sleep, to leave Two on their own to have their rest. She quietly stood up from her place on the bed, dusting herself off.

“W..Wait!” Two called out, seemingly in a disappointed tone.

“Pleaseee stay.. Don— Don’t goooo..”

Gaty stood there, still utterly confused.

I mean, what was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to sleep in the same bed as her friend? No! She wouldn’t do that!

…

Yet, she sat back down, sitting next to Two’s place on the bed.

“Fine.”

Two smiled, still a little bit tipsy from all the drinks they had not too long ago.

“G’night.. Gatyy.. Love ‘ya..”

Gaty’s eyes suddenly widened at their words, their confession of love very unexpected. If she was burning then, now she was scalding. An even deeper shade of maroon.

The next words are either going to be the worst choice of words possible, or the best. And yet, she still found those words rolling off her tongue, like it was the easiest thing she’d ever say.

“I love you too, Two.”

[mossy-doodles85]

Okay so a lot of rambling from me is under the keep reading thing...

Okay so, I would love to have more fun with this AU but its kinda hard when both of the other AUs that this one is made of haven't given me enough info to go crazy with this, I don't know what object Bristles was before which means I can't go too far into her background here {Since I've chosen that this AUs Bristles is completely a different person to that-one-paintbrush's Bristles}, and I don't know much of the story from wisp-wandering's Crowned AU since the book is still ongoing.

Now I will say that combining the story/lore of both of these AUs is quite the challenge too, as you have to find a way to explain how the whole ask blog with magic works, since Backgroundy and Bristles both are here because of anon magic on that-one-paintbrush's ask blog and that definitely shouldn't be possible in the Crowned AU. Plus there is Torch, Paintbrush's mom and inner flame in that-one-paintbrush's ask blog- ACTUALLY THERE'S THE WHOLE QUESTION OF WHEN THE ASK BLOG EVEN STARTED-

Yeah it's a lot to try and figure out.

Though one idea I'm set on doing in this AU is making Bristles in her past life originate from the world where the Crowned AU main cast is rn.

I'd think it'd be cool for one of the characters to know stuff from there, since basically all of them don't know anything about it besides the stuff they were told or observed. Plus it'd also tie into the other thing I'm doing with Bristles, making her be something that shouldn't exist.

Lets be honest, Backgroundy and Bristles by all means SHOULDN'T still be alive, they were dead and thats how they should have stayed normally. Torch is out of their little group due to her existence technically being fine. Coming back from the dead isn't something that should be possible, most things Mephone4 was able to do shouldn't be possible either!

Bristles' whole existence shouldn't have happened in the first place. She was dead before, she is literally from another world here. She is basically sharing the power Paintbrush has which mind you shouldn't be possible to my knowledge, this is making her part crowned basically. EVERYTHING ABOUT HER IS WEIRD! Yet here she stands.

Bristles and Gaty's friendship is silly in my opinion. Two object's from the same world, its been a bit since Bristles has been alive so she'd probably want to learn whats new, and Gaty would be happy to help.

Bristles would definitely talk about Cobs, which would lead to Gaty just clinging onto her. Why? Good question, unfortunately I don't really know.

I love these two so much.

Oh also besides fire, Bristles definitely mains two daggers for combat.

{Hi @that-one-paintbrush and @wisp-wandering...}

[neverynlove]

TW: Curse words/Swears/Mentions of emotional distress. . . . WAIT A SEC

WAAAAAIT A SEC------ If Firey makes it to where everyone is and finds Two, there might be a possibility that he drives Two away from Their depression. What if Both get the good ending?? A thing I imagine Firey to tell Two is that "My friend is gone too...A friend that cares for me , they'll come back eventually, they want YOU to be ok, you should think about how would they feel if you stayed in bed for months without taking care of yourself, come on, stand up, you should keep going for THEM" Dear sun--- i love the OSC so much, joining it was and still is the best decision i've made in my entire life <3

(Whenever the "they/them" With the green and periwinkle color, it's because it's both Leafy And Gaty) Also I found something, oh noooo---

They predicted what would happen to Leafy in 2007 woahhh ;-;

[microknifeyuri]

Okay. Runaway Hosts thoughts.

Mephone4 ran away because his whole world was a lie and didn't want to hurt anyone, unable to comply with Cobs's expectations and to continue with everything.

But then there's Two.

They had friends, a life, people who loved them, they had it good in theory. From what we've seen, Two is a very confident one, just as Mephone4, and seems to be like they're kind of a rascal at the start.

But they're not really one.

Maybe it's because they literally got their ass beat by the contestants, but they have softened up a lot ever since they realized the error of their ways.

Mephone4 and Two have something in common: they want to be themselves, they want to create something that the ones who made them feel insecure/forced to be someone would dislike/wouldn't expect of them, and how they changed thanks to the contestants.

Mephone4's change is subtle. He doesn't have a lot of EXPLICIT stuff, but you can tell that it's there. He genuinely wants to be a better person, but he just lacks a compass, someone that leads him to become more genuine to himself. Because he cares. But judging from how he was raised by Cobs, he probably doesn't get how to show vulnerability properly and shakes it off with being a sly bastard (affectionate), but he does love his contestants. He loves his friends.

And Two is more explicit with the change. Two is emotional, more open, more in touch with their own feelings.

They want to be themselves, not to live off the expectations of others, and I think that's why they interact so freely with Four and X.

Because Four absolutely despises them, and by logical thinking, means they have zero expectations of them. And X is generally just a sweet guy. He seems to like people, and just lets them be themselves. That's possibly why Two liked X as their co-host too. They were just having fun. And when X had to leave, Two accepted it and didn't do much about it either. Two shows to be vulnerable around Gaty because Gaty gets them.

All of the contestants don't see Two as this powerful being who is terrifying or anything.

They see them as an equal who just kind of happens to have god's powers.

And same happens with Mephone4, I think.

So.

They see eachother as equals, definitely. And them finding out that they have similar stories is comforting.

Because they know that they aren't alone. They have eachother.

And maybe they both miss their homes. But they know they can't come back ever.

Mephone4 because he doesn't want to comply with Cobs and do as he says, he doesn't want to hurt anyone.

Two because they don't want to be forced to be someone by the expectations of the other algebrarians.

They want to be themselves.

And that's okay.

[writtenwhalien]

Give Me Love | Pt 5

• fratboy!jimin x reader

• Word count: 5559

• Genre: college au, enemies with benefits to lovers

• Summary: Your relationship with Park Jimin was complicated to say the least, but when the circumstances change and you can no longer keep him at an arms length, you find yourself drawn to him more than you thought possible.

• Warnings: Swearing, drinking, angst. Irene is a lil mad at Jimin.

- Give Me Love Masterlist -

Song recs: Runaway - Kanye West (feat. Pusha T) / when the party’s over - Billie Eilish / lie to me - Tate McRae & Ali Gatie / Arcade - Duncan Laurence / Falling - Harry Styles

Nothing.

You feel absolutely nothing.

You don’t feel anything when Jay squeezes your hand. 

You don’t feel anything when Jimin stares across at you from his bedroom door. 

You just don’t feel anything.

Why?

Maybe it’s because you know if you let yourself feel something, it’ll hurt too much. 

Realising that everyone was right about him would hurt too much. Realising that you really don’t mean anything to him would hurt too much. 

...realising that Jimin’s cheated on you would hurt too much.

So instead you just stand there, completely frozen, knuckles turning white as you tightly grip the paper bag holding the waffles you’d bought for him. 

A pin could drop and you would hear it because of how silent it is.

But your silence is deafening for Jimin as he stands with bated breath, waiting for you to say something, do something. 

Shout at him, cry at him, hit him. Anything. 

You don’t. You remain still, as memories of the past month replay in your head, Jimin’s spoken words echoing in your head, and his touch faintly lingering on your skin. 

It’s as though your mind is refusing to acknowledge the present, and choosing to remain in the short sweet dream you’d been living in the past - when you believed in Jimin. You believed that he was right for you and you were right for him. 

Eventually it’s neither you nor Jimin who breaks the silence, it’s Jay.

“Y/n?” he barely whispers, but it’s enough for you to hear. 

His voice brings you to your senses, returning your focus on what’s just happened, but still you don’t feel anything except a hollowness deep inside you - like a void in your heart has swallowed all of your emotions, leaving an empty shell and only one question remains in your head now.

“Why?” 

The word comes out of your mouth, weak and quiet.

And that’s when Jimin’s face changes. 

His features soften, his eyes reflecting the hurt you have yet to feel, and regret etches into every contour of his face.

“I…” he starts, but then closes his mouth, wondering whether he should explain the events of the past two days to you. But it won’t change anything for you. He still did what he did. There’s no way you’d forgive him. He’s just gone and fucked up, once again in his life. 

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, breaking his gaze away from you. 

I’m sorry. His words enter your mind and slowly start to thaw you, the emotions seeping into your veins and travelling all throughout your body. 

Before you can even think of what to say next, Jimin is turning away from you, closing his bedroom door and leaving you alone with Jay in the hallway.

The soft sound of the lock clicking is all it takes for you to break - the sound that is Jimin locking you out of his world, cutting you off from him with no desire to fix what he’s broken. 

The tears start streaming down your face, and before the first of many sobs escape your lips, Jay wraps his arms around you, rubbing your back and shushing you gently. 

//

Jimin locks the door and rests his forehead against the wood, holding his breath as he listens for any noise from behind the door.

He wishes he wasn’t like this. He wishes he could be better to you, for you. But he feels he’s always been unable to do what was right, turning his back on what matters to him most. 

First it was his brother, then his father, and now you.

A heavy gasp sounds from behind the door and Jimin knows you’ve started crying. 

He feels a deep ache inside him, knowing he’s the one who’s done this to you when you opened your arms to him so readily, willing to take him with all of his flaws and damage, and this is how he repays you.

The worst part is that he doesn’t want to come out and hold you, he just wants to run away from you, saving you from himself because he knows you deserve better than someone like him. 

He knows that he’s gone and shattered all the trust and respect that you had for him, leaving only broken pieces of the words he’d spoken to you, meaning nothing to you now. 

He hears a quiet scuffling outside, and he assumes it’s you and Jay leaving, the soft sounds of your crying getting further and further until Jimin is left alone in silence.

Trudging over to his bed, he flops down into the mattress. 

He didn’t want to hurt you. He really didn’t. It was just a stupid drunken mistake, except he’d gone and done it twice which you didn’t even know yet. 

Jimin’s mind replays the other night in his head - it was a party at the PBK’s. You didn’t come because you weren’t feeling well, but you’d insisted Jimin go and enjoy the night, knowing that the PKP’s and PBK’s had always been close, so he’d gone. 

Stupidly he’d let go of all inhibitions, playing drinking games for too long, and before he knew it, he was drunk off his head... which meant he was also horny. 

His first thought had been you, so he’d reached for his phone, only to find it wasn’t there, nor anywhere else he looked. Being drunk he didn’t do a good job of looking for it, but on his search he’d bumped into an excited freshman, just as drunk as him. 

He hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it did, he slept with her. 

It was quick and meaningless to him but he did it all the same. He regretted it as soon as it was over, and stumbled out of the house, hating himself for it. 

Then the next day, yesterday, he met you and was reminded of his stupid mistake. When you’d kissed him he felt awful for snapping at you - it wasn’t your fault his guilt was eating away at him, putting him on edge under your touch. 

And it only got worse at the party yesterday. Initially he decided to tell you about the stupid mistake, ready to grovel for you, but when he saw Jay and Chan together watching you with concern, he knew they knew and it made him act irrationally. And then you came to him again, and he stupidly said what he said. He didn’t mean to say it, but he did. Only because that was the same thing he kept telling himself when trying to figure out how to excuse what he’d done. It’s not such a big mistake if she’s not officially my girlfriend, he’d thought. But after you left he realised how stupid that was and he still felt so shit about what he’d done, so he drank again. He drank away his worries, leaving him in the same stupid position as the night before, only this time you found out.

Jimin can’t say he’s mad about that though. It’s good you found out. Now you can get as far away from him as possible. 

-

“Irene I swear to god you better let go of me right now otherwise I will fight you!” you growl at your friend, who’s currently trying to drag you away from the kitchen, where all the drinks are located.

“You’ve had enough y/n, I don’t want you to do anything stupid-”

“I won’t!” you stomp your foot, pulling your wrist free from her grasp and she whirls around to look at you. 

Her concern for you was clear, shown in the furrows of her brows and the lines in her forehead, but she makes no move to take a hold of you again.

“Y/n I’m sorry but you’re still hurting and I know what you’re like,” she sighs, taking both your hands in hers. “I know you just want to drink the pain away but I’m just worried about you.”

Your head drops a little and though you’re a little tipsy, you can still think straight enough to know you’re okay, and you will be.

It was just yesterday you felt your heart break by the one person who you should have expected it from. After crying all last night, you woke up today, realising that you were the stupid one to believe Jimin would treat you any differently. Just because he knew little things about you, or the fact that he opened up to you and cried in your arms, none of that changes what he is and what he always has been. He has a track record of being a fuck boy, and many heartbroken girls to show for it. It was foolish of you to believe otherwise. 

That’s not to say it doesn’t hurt, because it does hurt. So much. Especially when you think back to all the times you thought Jimin cared about you, both before and after he admitted his feelings to you. The nights he would stay with you, listening to you talk while secretly admiring you. You were oblivious to it until he told you a few nights ago that he loved watching you talk, getting lost in your own thoughts. Apparently you had no filter around him but he enjoyed hearing everything you had to say. Even the times you would be at the PKP house and though you weren’t there for him, he would make sure to stay in the lounge just to be near you. 

But now you don’t know what any of that means because even though he claimed to care about you, he still cheated. 

A part of you was willing to forgive him, telling yourself your relationship was still new, and that maybe Jimin just needs some more time to get used to it. But then Sana reminded you that it’s because your relationship is new, that he shouldn’t have done what he did. And if he can do that now, he can easily do just as much down the line. Then Jay pointedly reminded you that Jimin has always been indifferent to others feelings and the fact that he shut the door on you spoke louder than words. 

So you’re ready to forget all about him, whether that means drinking the night away or spending it with someone else, you don’t care. And you don’t care about Jimin. 

“Irene, please, I’m fine, and I get why you’re worried but it’s no big deal, I just wanna have fun like any other night.” You squeeze her hands while swaying them back and forth. 

She eyes you up hesitantly, and then with a sigh gives you permission to let loose. 

“Just promise me you won’t sleep with anyone,” she says sternly. 

“I promise,” you giggle, giving her a big hug before heading back into the kitchen. 

The whole house was already packed and teeming with excitement. All you needed was some more alcohol in you, and you’d be ready to join the buzz and start the process of moving on from Jimin. 

No. You think to yourself while downing a shot. No Jimin, don’t even think about him tonight. You find a clean solo cup and make another drink you can walk around with. 

“Look who it is, y/n!” A rowdy voice shouts from behind you, and when you turn, you can’t help but roll your eyes. Ignoring Jackson, you go back to making your drink. 

“Hey what did I do?” You hear him getting closer but you easily disregard him. 

“Cmon y/n, I just wanna talk to you.” Jackson’s face appears in your peripheral vision, and the sassy side of you when you’re drinking makes an appearance.

“About what?” You glare at him, hands on your hips. Honestly if he wasn’t such a jackass, he’d be cute, you think, taking in his broad shoulders and quiffed hair. 

“I wanted to, uh, like,” he stammers and his eyes keep looking to someone behind you. 

Turning around yourself, you’re confused to see Chan standing on the other side of the busy kitchen, leaning against the counter. When you turn to look at him, his face switches from a hard stare to a warm smile, and he waves at you. 

You wave back and then Jackson starts speaking again.

“So like, I wanted to apologise for what I said that day. At the party at the PBKs…” he trails off, looking at you awkwardly. 

“Is this your first time apologising to someone Jackson?” You ask, stifling a laugh. 

He scratches the back of his head and chuckles. 

“Yeah, I think so. But I am sorry. It was harsh and I shouldn’t have said anything, especially when Jimin told us not to say anything.”

Your jaw clenches when you hear Jimin’s name. 

“It’s cool, I’m over it don’t worry.” You force a smile and Jackson lets out a relieved sigh, looking back at Chan to give him a thumbs up. 

“Thanks y/n, I’ll see you around then yeah?” He puts his fist out while smiling sheepishly. 

“Yep,” you mumble, fist bumping him and he half hugs you before walking off to join the party. 

You should be doing the same but it feels like even just hearing Jimin’s name has soured your mood. 

I’m gonna need some more to drink. 

Downing one more shot, you slump down into a rogue chair on the side as you pour yourself some punch. 

“Okay either you have a super high tolerance or you’re having a shitty day.”

Looking up, you see Chan walking over to you. 

“How about both?” you smile, holding out your cup for him to take. 

“Thanks,” he smiles back, watching you pour another drink for yourself. “You okay though? I was watching you and you‘ve had a lot.” 

“Chan I appreciate the concern, but I’m all good, honestly,” you laugh hollowly, and though Chan raises an eyebrow, he doesn’t push it. 

“Alright, well come on let’s go join everyone else yeah?”

“Perfect!” You jump up, feeling giddy - definitely from the alcohol. 

He takes your arm and leads you out towards the open lounge.

“So I’m guessing it was you who told Jackson to apologise...” you look up at him and he shakes his head in disappointment. 

“Yeah it was, but he did feel bad about it after so I just suggested he apologise.”

It would have been better to ask him about this when you’re sober because you’d want to thank him properly for being so considerate, but your mind is already going hazy so you just put your arm around him. 

“Thanks Chan,” you grin. 

“Anytime, now come on.” He pulls you towards the table where a group of his mates are playing flip cup. 

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Jay joined the game of flip cup so he could monitor your drinking after Chan informed him you’d already had quite a few shots, and soon Sana and Irene found you and you played all sorts of games. At one point in a game of truth or dare, found yourself dancing on the coffee table with Irene, and half the room was watching and cheering you on. You expected no less from yourself given how much you had drank but when you woke up the next morning with a monster hangover, you felt embarrassed all the same.

You only get out of bed to take some pills to nurse your hangover and grab a bottle of water to keep at your bedside. It was a lazy Sunday and you plan to spend most of the day in bed reading your book, avoiding any and all thoughts of Jimin. 

It doesn’t really work though.

After five minutes of reading the same paragraph over and over again, you slump back into your cushions, pressing your eyes shut as his face appears in your head. 

Not from when you’d last seen him - half naked in his doorway after cheating on you - but from the morning he slept with you last, when he admitted he likes you. His smile was so bright and his cheeks had squished his eyes into those little crescents you adore. What you’d do to hold his face in your hands again-

Stop it. He’s not worth it. You tell yourself. Don’t do this to yourself.

Sitting in bed only makes it worse, so you force yourself up and head downstairs where there’s the drone of quiet conversations. 

You walk past the few people in the lounge, and enter the kitchen to get some food.

Much to your surprise, Chan is seated at the island scrolling mindlessly through his phone.

“Oh hey,” he smiles when he sees you enter. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

“Me?” you raise your eyebrows.

“Yes, you,” he grins. “How’re you feeling after yesterday?”

“Oh god,” you hide your face behind your hands and he chuckles. “I was ridiculous wasn’t I?”

“Honestly, no. You were just having fun, and I’m glad you were.” 

You peek at him through your fingers and from the tone of his voice, you realise he knows. He knows all about Jimin. Of course he does. He lives with him and then it hits you - that's what he was talking to Jay about. 

You let your hands drop from your face and you stare across at him, not saying anything. Chan smiles at you sadly and it makes your stomach wrench as you think of Jimin. 

He did this to you. He made you something to pity. And in this moment, you hate him for it. 

“So how come you’re here?” you question Chan, speaking a little too fast and he realises that you don’t want to speak about Jimin.

“Well,” he sighs, rolling his eyes. “The guys asked me to ask you out.”

“Huh.” You look across at him confused. “The guys as in your frat buddies?”

“Yep, we’re all going to the new club that’s opening next Friday, plus some other girls they’re friends with. And they wanted me to ask you to come…” he pauses to look at you. “You can bring anyone you want, but honestly y/n you don’t have to come-”

“Why do they want me to come?”

“Uh, I mean, if you could have seen yourself last night…” he trails off looking a little embarrassed. “I’m not going to lie, I think some of them are probably hoping they’ll get lucky with you.”

Though you feel slightly embarrassed, the idea of a crazy night in the new club sounds just like what you want and need. 

But Chan winces as he says the words and doesn’t even give you a chance to respond before he’s shaking his head and getting up. 

“This was stupid, y/n, don’t come, they’re just gonna be all over you and-”

“What if I want to come?” you ask, looking at Chan playfully. 

“I, uh...” He scratches the back of his neck. “Well of course you can come, but don’t feel any pressure or anything.”

“I won’t,” you smile at him reassuringly. “And I’ll bring one of the girls with me, so don’t worry you won’t need to babysit me.”

You pat his shoulder, relieving some of his stress for him. You knew being in a club with his frat pals would put Chan on the edge and he’d end up watching you the whole night. It was just in his nature to be protective of others.

“Alright, only if you’re sure,” he says, looking at you in a brotherly way.

“I am,” you grin at him and wink. 

-

The rest of Sunday passed slowly, but you got through it by distracting yourself with your housemates, trying to enjoy their company.

Then Monday you busied yourself with classes and kept yourself occupied with work the whole day.

Tuesday afternoon you got an email from Maria, asking why you and Jimin had been absent from the check in classes for your project. You simply replied stating you could no longer continue the class due to personal reasons, not mentioning anything about Jimin. You were okay after that, until memories of the time you spent with Jimin working on the project kept replaying in your mind. But it wasn’t hard enough to push the thoughts away and throw yourself into a netflix marathon. 

Wednesday was harder. You were tidying up your room and found the page of doodles Jimin had drawn when he was waiting for you to finish your notes one day. The sight of it caused your stomach to drop but you refused to let yourself cry, for fear you wouldn’t be able to stop. 

And then on Thursday, you woke up to a text from Jimin. 

[3:28am] Jimin: I’m really sorry.

As soon as you saw it, there were tears welling in your eyes and they didn’t stop streaming for almost two hours. An apology was necessary, yes, but it made you realise it’s not all you wanted from him. 

What you wanted was Jimin to come to you, and to try to right his wrongs. A simple apology from him wasn’t that, and so it dawned on you that maybe he doesn’t want to fix things. The ache that settled inside of you then, hurt more than you ever thought possible. 

What scares you the most is knowing how much you care about him - even now, after what he’s done. You still miss him and you hate him for doing what he did. You hate him in the moments you’re receiving pitiful looks from your friends, and the times you feel as though you may have been the one to blame for him cheating. 

But in moments like this, when you’re alone in your room without him here, you don’t hate him… 

You love him. 

And you need him.

It wasn’t something that you acknowledged earlier, for fear of scaring Jimin off, but now that he’s gone, you let the truth out for yourself. 

It only makes it hurt more though.

And this time it hurts more than the day you caught him. Because at least then you had some semblance of hope. 

Hope that Jimin would reach out to you. Would realise that he’s broken you, and that he would seek to heal your heart how you so badly need him to. 

But now, days later and he hasn’t. He’s only apologised, essentially washing his hands of you. Just when you felt the happiest with your heart in his hands, he dropped it and walked away. 

Your sobs could be heard from outside the room and one of your housemates informed Irene who came bursting into your room with her spare key. She stayed with you the whole time, rubbing your back as you wept into her shoulder. You cried until your eyes were heavy and swollen, and your body was physically exhausted so all you could do was sleep. 

You wake up early on Friday morning to a faint headache and you feel drained. Again, thoughts of Jimin fill your head and though they’re more bitter than painful, you still don’t want to think about him. So you force yourself up and decide to go for a run. 

By the time you return you feel noticeably lighter and head into the kitchen to make yourself a coffee. Normally you’d need to get ready for your morning class but you don’t want to risk the chance of seeing Jimin. Though you know he most likely won’t turn up, you’d rather not chance it. 

Because you’re afraid that seeing him will bring back all the hurt and you don’t think you can bear that pain. 

-

Jimin trudges slowly into the kitchen to make himself some toast and disappear back into his room. He has a lecture this morning but you’ll be there and he can’t possibly face you so he doesn’t plan on going. 

Entering the kitchen, he ignores the aimless conversations of a few of his housemates who are sitting around the island having breakfast. He can feel Chan’s eyes on him when he enters, but he just ignores him, putting a slice of bread in the toaster and pushes down, leaning against the counter staring into empty space thinking about nothing in particular. 

It’s only when he hears your name that his head turns in the direction of the boys. 

“Is y/n coming tonight then?” Sam asks, munching on his cereal.

“Oh, uh yeah but she’s coming with a friend,” Chan answers hesitantly, fully aware that Jimin is listening. He also doesn’t want the boys thinking this is a free pass to try it with you.

“That’s not a problem,” another one of them chuckles. “God did you see her when she was dancing last week? She’s fucking incredible.”

Jimin freezes up. 

“She was drunk,” Chan cuts in sternly. “So don’t be stupid, I mean it.”

He glares at his pals warningly and they all nod, muttering quietly before breaking into conversation about the soccer game.

Jimin abandons his breakfast and walks out of the kitchen, unnoticed by the rest of them except Chan, and retreats back to his room, thoughts flooding his mind.

She was drunk? And dancing? Was she upset and drunk? But then she wouldn’t be dancing? What is she doing? Fuck Jimin. She’s not yours anymore. You can’t care. But she was dancing and they all saw. Jimin thinks back to the few times he’d had the pleasure of seeing you dance - you usually only danced in the club, never at a wild frat party. She really is incredible when she dances though. Fuck they’re gonna be all over her. What the fuck- Why did Chan ask her when he knows what the boys are like? Shit. I should go. Just to make sure she’s okay. Then he scoffs to himself. Fucking ironic Jimin. Go stalk her to make sure she’s okay when you're the one who cheated on her. 

He drops his head into his hands, trying to figure out what to do. Honestly the fact that you weren’t the same emotional wreck as him right now was really rattling his brain. But then he realises it’s probably just your way of dealing with it. He’s seen you on your best and worst days, because you used to seek him out whatever your mood and he would be there to fuck you into oblivion, secretly delighting in being the one you came to for relief. Even then he knew you weren’t just after the physical outlet, but you wanted his attention that came after, albeit you were entirely oblivious to your minds’ own intentions. 

But Jimin knew what you wanted. He always did. 

So he would stay with you and listen to you either ramble on happily about your day, or vent about whatever it was that had irritated you. 

Jimin sits for the next half hour, his mind racing with thoughts of you, and only you. 

The way your eyes glimmer when you smile, the way your hand fit snugly in his, the way you would light up his day just by looking at him, the way his heart would speed up when your hands would glide along his skin, making him feel like no one ever has before.

And then he closes his eyes, sitting back in his chair as his favorite memory of you replays in his head - 

It was a few days after he’d broken down to you, and he noticed how considerate you were of him, taking care to not treat him like something broken. But when you’d seen him looking a little sad, you knew what he was thinking about without even needing to ask. So you’d sat him on your bed, wrapping your legs around him to hold him as close as possible while whispering reaffirming words and sweet nothings into his ear to remind him that he was loved, and he was wanted… by you. 

Jimin had almost cried again in your arms when you did that. But he kissed you passionately instead, then having to fight the urge to make love to you there and then, trying to hold true to his word of proving that he wasn’t just with you for the sex. 

Because he wasn’t.

He was with you because you make him a better person. You make him feel comfortable, and you were the personification of home to him. 

You always have been… you’re the one constant he always secretly sought out since he’d met you almost two years ago now. Behind all the arguing and teasing, his true intention was just to be near you. 

And he needs to be near you now - the ache he’s been feeling inside of him since that night at the PBK’s hasn’t lessened at all, and he knows it won’t until he has you back in his life. 

He needs you back. 

Because he loves you...

I love her. 

Jimin says the words over and over in his head. Envisioning all his happy moments with you, all the times he made you laugh and the times you made him forget about all of his worries. The times you were good together. 

You were without a doubt the best thing that had happened to him. He can’t just lose you so easily.

A rush of determination suddenly surges through him, and he gets up, desperate to find you. 

He wants you back and if it means he has to beg you, he will. 

Within 15 minutes he’s pushing open the door to your sorority, looking around at all the faces in the house. Some of the girls look at him, either disregarding him, or muttering quietly to their friends beside them. But Jimin ignores all of that. He crosses the room to reach the stairs to go to your bedroom. As he ascends the stairs he feels his heart beat faster in his chest and has to wipe his clammy palms on his jeans. 

He walks slowly down the corridor towards your room and stops right outside your room. 

Thoughts race through his head, many of them telling him maybe this is a bad idea. That he should just leave you be. 

“What are you doing here?”

Jimin jumps a little, startled by the sharp snappy voice coming around the corner. 

He turns to see Irene marching up to him, Sana right by her side. 

Shit. Jimin thinks. He’d completely forgotten Irene lives here too.

“I said, what are you doing here?” she repeats angrily, stopping right in front of him. 

“I-uh, I wanted to see y/n,” he hesitates, feeling suddenly unsure of himself under Irene’s cold glare. 

“She’s not here,” Sana says, much calmer than Irene. 

“And even if she was, you have nothing to say to her, so you can fuck off Park.” Irene crosses her arms. 

The thought of being unable to speak to you looms on Jimin, and he grows desperate. He looks towards Sana frantically - she’s much more approachable right now and he knows Irene will never tell him.

“Please tell me where she is, I really need to speak to her.”

“About what?” Irene scoffs. 

Sana holds her arm and looks at her with an expression that Jimin doesn’t get, but Irene does. She clenches her jaw and takes a step back. Though she remains close and Jimin could feel her gaze piercing into him, waiting for him to crack. 

“Whatever you want to say to her, you can tell us first,” Sana says, leaning against the wall.

“I, um okay...” Jimin fiddles the hem of his shirt feeling nervous. “I just, I need her to know I really never meant to hurt her-”

“But you did,” Irene interrupts.

“I was drunk out of my head!” Jimin says exasperatedly, looking between Sana and Irene.

“That’s not really a good excuse Jimin,” Sana says, looking at him almost pitifully.

“I wasn’t thinking straight guys, please, I swear I was looking for y/n first, I missed her and then I just bumped into some freshman and I don’t know how it happened. I don't even remember.”

“But you did it again the next night,” Irene says coldy.

Jimin looks across at her, slightly confused. 

“How do you know?”

“Jay told us. He lives with you, you moron.”

Jimin sighs. If Jay had already told the girls, there’s a good enough chance that you already knew what had happened. But it still wasn’t his side of the story. 

“Look, if you see her, please just let her know I came by.” 

“I’m sorry Jimin,” Sana sighs. “You can’t just turn up after what you’ve done and expect everything to be okay. It’s just gonna mess with her head for no reason so I’m not gonna tell her, and please for y/n’s sake, stay away from her.” 

She gives him a final look, clear that she wasn’t asking but instructing him. And then she turns on her heel to leave. 

Irene throws Jimin one more dirty look before following. 

But Jimin remains outside your room for a few minutes, battling with himself.

Nothing the girls said could change his mind about wanting you back. He can’t lose you like this.

Because of that, he decides he will go to the club tonight.

A/N: This chapter was a little slower in terms of any events actually happening, so it’s kind of like an intermediary chapter, but I felt it was important for me to detail how both oc and Jimin are feeling - I hope I did okay with that lmao. I know it’s not that common to give both POVs but I wanted to so you know how they’re feeling. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Also, there will be more action in the next chapter - it’s current word count is 11k+ 😅

[silently-standingstill]

This isn’t an art request but I just saw your AMV and I loved it a lot! If you can, could you walk through the process whereby you color the animation? Do you have set color palettes and add overlays to create lighting or do you manually pick the colors via color theory? I want to know /nf

Hello!! I appreciate your interest :D I put a lot of thought into the colors so this may be a long one! It'll include other animation info too

Any color I use is never reused for any section, I pick them all manually and for a purpose, it's important to have something different for each section as it adds more meaning and so things don't get boring. I occasionally use overlays, only one section uses it though. I'll go over a bunch of parts where color was important.

I struggled with the colors here, it based it off of an old drawing (on the right), and I realized I couldn't make my old coloring style work again, especially with how I was going about it, nothing played off of each other and felt very icky? I opted for more natural colors, creates a better sense of what I was originally going for, this part isn't very significant but it was interesting to find out what works and doesn't, you can learn a lot from redrawing old works.

This was another part I struggled on, I purposely made One look wonky because I liked the sketch more than anything I could come up with. They really look stupid, don't they? I redrew it a bunch of times to incorporate the orange, but I did not want to base it off of the scene where One was counting down, that had a purpose for it, this did not. It was following the previous parts color, which has an overcast of orange, but I couldn't find a way for this to work without feeling unsatisfying. I opted for using a trio of blue+green+red, it could be seen as 123 but that wasn't intentional.. it was the only colors I thought could work with the lighting of One's TV, but hooray for unintentionality! It makes this part connected with the lore!

This part I put a lot of thought into! Something I found interesting about One's lounge is how it uses red+yellow+blue, the three primary colors, in design those colors are used to invoke a sense of familiarity and safety, and if you pay attention, these colors are used everywhere. this could or could not be intentional in the actual show, I do not believe they are, but I used this to my advantage as when One's walking past the figurines, the yellows increases, but when they figurines fall, the yellow fades into white to show while One tries to come across as trustworthy, their façade can be quickly broken. I put together a lot of notes for this part and drew a sketch for it too LOL

"The lights that shine" section's color were meant to be like this from the start, this was the first section I animated, they have a big contrast and yellow limbs, I only put that because I thought it looked cool, but the colors carried over to the other part where they look like this, and ended up using this palette to symbolize who was kidnapped by One. I had trouble deciding how the beams(?) that were coming out of the moon should look like though, this was what I was originally going to do. The placement of each contestant is important too, more to the front, the more they may be impacted by One. I wasn't sure between Gaty or Leafy to put in this section, since we don't know if either of them will/had contact with her, it was difficult to decide. I put Leafy instead because I didn't want to animate Gaty.

The chair for Gaty! No one mentioned this detail and I was a little sad about that - each time One's lounge is shown, there is a different chair for each contestant, if One took Gaty, it'd leave a bitter feeling if she used a similar chair to her and Two's hangout couch.. their hangout couch is already split in half, it's possible One could take half of it. The colors were based off of how the person who designed One's lounge uses colors, I used some of her personal artwork as reference, and also how the chairs shown in the lounge were designed, and each design has something to do with the characters, One's is big, to show importance and uses the primary colors, Fanny's is small and dark with shadows taking up most of it, Basketball's is big, modern and green to reflect her mechanic room, Gaty in TPOT is (unfortunately) mostly associate with Two and this couch, and is similar to a therapist's patients couch, it would fit her role and characterization in TPOT if I am right about this

This was the only section to use overlay, layer 6 and 5 were the only ones to be changing as stated in the notes, there's a lot of light changes in this sequence, and if you notice closely there's a red, a shadow casting from characters outside of ones shadow, and there's a bigger contrast between the lighting and shadows. The "lights that shine" section you'd think uses that, but everything was done manually, even the transitions colors

These are some storyboards for this, the handwriting is probably poor I apologize about that, I created this during school and I don't write neat/properly if I don't plan to show anyone it LOL

[selsprompts]

I can’t quit you [1]

Disclaimer; angst, a lot of it. The feels, emotions, might make you cry?? Possible language?? Sounds about right for this book. 

pairing; steve rogers x reader

Lyrics by Ali gatie's song it's you are used.

——————

Y/n's POV

"You don't get it Steve" You stormed into your shared apartment.

"Don't get what darlin'? Enlighten me then." Steve said hot on your heels.

"I'm afraid- of THIS" you waved your hand between the two of you with teary eyes.

"Y/n calm down, just talk to me"

"How can I talk to you about this Steve? How do I tell you that I'm afraid of being loved? Or being in love? Or even that I'm afraid of what it could do or lead to? Or that I'm not enough for yo-"

"Stop. Don't say that."

"But it's the truth. I'm so scared Steve" you fell to your knees, crying in-front of Steve like never before.

"You are so much more and everything that I could've ever asked for Y/n, why can't you see that?"

"Steve, we- I can't do this anymore"

"Do what anymore" Steve kneels down next to you holding your face in his hands.

"You don't need a modern girl Steve. You need an Avenger. I love you so much but I can't be what you want, you keep saying I'm everything you've ever wanted but I can't take waiting for you to come home ALIVE. I'm scared that if I get pulled in too deep Steve I won't be able to get out" You stand up ready to walk away.

"Y/n please don't do this-" he chokes on a sob while you stand up wrapping his arms around your middle.

"Steve please- you're making this so much harder than it has to be" you say with tears in your eyes blurring your vision trying to pry him off of you but that only made him grip on tighter.

"Please don't break my heart, don't tear me apart Y/n, I know how this starts, trust me I've been broken before."

"Steve please" You say crying aloud.

"Don't break me again, I'm delicate, please Y/n I'm begging you don't break my heart, I've been broken before"

"I'm sorry Steve but, I'm not your happily ever after" You sniffle as his grip finally falls.

You grab your purse from your shared apartment that you've had with Steve for two full years and leave. You hear Steve crying in the distance but block him out when you close the apartment door.

"Did you do it?" The man said.

"Yes, I've done what you've asked now will you leave him alone" you asked teary eyed once again.

"Thank-you for your corporation Y/n, come with us now and no harm will be done to your precious Captain" said the HYDRA operative.

At least Steve was safe now you thought. Even if it means he'll never know you lied straight through your teeth or ever love you again, at least he's safe.

—

Steve sat looking stunned in his apartment after the events that had just occurred. How could she? He was certain she was the love of his life, wasn't she? He couldn't find a bone in his body to get up and chase you because he was so weak.

Everything was going good, great, FANTASTIC between them. Then this happens today, out of nowhere. As if a switch flipped in her mind she just- stopped feeling the warmth and love of Steve.

Steve got up and went to the bathroom still quietly sobbing. He moved towards his side of the bathroom, passing yours. His side was so much more masculine. He had shavers, cologne and deodorant. Yours had perfume, bubble bath solution, and all the amazing smelling shampoo that he got a scent of whenever he hugged you after a long mission.

He opened the cabinet below his part of the sink pulling out a velvet box hidden behind some bottles of shaving cream. He took the velvet box and opened it up revealing the beautiful 10 carat diamond ring he bought you months ago, ready to propose but never had the guts to looking at it with a frown.

Today was the day he would propose, today was your 2 year anniversary and he was going to prepare you dinner at your shared apartment and when desert was being served pop the question. But that sadly would never happen now.

Steve took the ring back to the bedroom you shared putting it on his dresser beside the picture of the two of you at one of Tony's famous parties. That was the first time Steve introduced you to his friends. They all loved you, so much. Them hearing the news about you would break their hearts just as much as it broke his.

Steve moved to sit down on the king sized bed you shared. He traced his hand over your side of the bed settling on your pillow. This was the bed he first touched you on, where he first made love to you. It was the night you moved into his apartment. Steve didn't want to rush things but when he saw you in one of his t-shirts and just a pair of panties he couldn't resist kissing you. One thing led to another and the night was a blur of pure bliss for each of you. That was a night Steve would and could never forget no matter how hard he tried.

Steve got up wiping a stray tear away from his eye going back to the bathroom stripping down. He got into the shower turning it on it's hottest setting. He wanted to burn away all the pain, love, possible lies, and the memory of you. He had to move on. He knows you, he knows that no matter how many times he calls you won't answer, he knows that there is no point in searching for you because you need your space, he knows that he lost you... forever. What he did know was that he loved you- no loves you and god help him with moving on.

Part 2

ICQY MASTERLIST

[pinksnowboots]

Sour Grapes, Chapter 3/?

Fandom: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn

Pairings: Shinon/Gatrie

Summary: Shinon runs away from all his problems, but, as problems tend to do, they all come back to find him.

This one is very Shinon-centric, so if you were hoping for more Gatrie...I apologize, BUT this is getting me one step closer to the end, which I promise has plenty of Gatrie!

(Also I meant to post this in time for @telliusweek2017, but as usual, I’m a little late. Whoops.)

Also read on AO3

Shinon wakes up the next morning, hair tangled, breath stale, and head pounding.

And more importantly, he wakes up in an alleyway, alone.

It’s been a long time since he’s been able to consistently drink enough to forget what happens while he’s drunk, so the previous night bursts behind his eyes in full technicolor.

“Shit.” Shinon curses as he flings an arm over his eyes, trying to pretend for just five more minutes that things are ok.

He only makes it two minutes before getting restless, so he mentally squares his shoulder and pushes himself up.

“Well, this has got to be a new record for rock bottom.” He mumbles to himself, as he sets off, with no idea where he’s going. 

Looking for work as a pair of guildless mercenaries is hard enough, but it’s nothing compared to looking for work as a single guildless mercenary who just happens to have no money, no possessions, and a terrible tendency to alienate the people around him.

Still, after dragging himself from tavern to tavern and loitering in the hopes of getting a lead on a job, he finally finds someone who needs hands quickly, and doesn’t look twice at the fact that Shinon is a mess. The pay is terrible, and the bow they give him is worthless compared to what he’s used to, but it gives him something to do.

It turns out that he’s basically getting paid to get involved in a turf war between two groups of small-time bandits. It’s exactly the kind of job he would have passed over when traveling with Gatrie, because it’s messy and dangerous and not all that moral, but one of Shinon’s strengths and weaknesses is his lax moral standards. Morals don’t pay for a room and a pint of ale, but roughing it with bandits pays for at least a bed, and they give him disgusting home-brewed mead for free after it becomes clear that he’s the most talented of the bunch.

They run the other group of bandits off fairly quickly, but the fact that Shinon is a tier above the rest of the bandits ensures that he gets another job. And another, and another, and eventually he’s able to jump from bandits to slightly more professional mercenary groups. Their morals are just as loose as bandits, but they dress better and their booze is much more palatable.

The jobs start getting better paid too, and Shinon is able to buy a bow that’s at least slightly better. More importantly, he’s able to buy strong enough alcohol to distract him from his occasional pangs of loneliness, to banish his visions: of Gatrie, mostly, but also of Greil, of Rhys and Titania, even of little Rolf.

But those visions are useless, and he chases them away with alcohol while also chasing away anyone who might have thought to befriend him.

Eventually his jobs shift from acting as extra manpower for bandit turf wars to things that seem a little bigger, more well-funded, and more politically motivated. Shinon’s policy is that as long as he’s getting paid, he doesn’t ask questions, but he can’t help but wonder idly what exactly is happening to Tellius.

The strangest is when he gets hired by a crew that is half Daein soldiers and half Ravens. It’s something that he would have never guessed he’d see, Daein and Kilvas working together, especially since the average citizen of Daein tended to hate laguz as much as Shinon did, or more.

Still, who he was working with and why fell under the “Don’t ask questions as long as you get paid” category, even if it involved laguz. At the very least they were birds, and Shinon felt a little bit of comfort knowing that if it came down to him against the ravens, the odds were in his favor as long as he could get the first shot off.

Or at least that’s what he thought before seeing them in action. Sure, if he got the first shot off, he could take most of them down, but if they got to him first, he was toast. In a one-on-one battle, the odds would be about even, depending on who was faster. Unfortunately, of all the laguz, the birds were some of the fastest.

If Gatrie were still here, there’d be no question of who would win.

The thought pops uninvited into his head, and he tries to shoo it away with a twinge of annoyance. It was frustrating enough already that he missed the big oaf, and he didn’t need to be reminded that from a purely strategic standpoint, it was better to have Gatrie around than not.

Luckily, the battle started, and as soon as the first enemy moved into range, Shinon shifted into the altered headspace that he only found during a battle, with all other irrelevant thoughts-of laguz, of feelings, of Gatie-drifting easily away.

Was it ironic to feel most at peace in the middle of war? Probably, but that was just another irrelevant thought that didn’t last long, quickly subsumed by the rhythmic sequence of aim, pull, fire, reload, aim...

Right in the midst of reloading his bow, Shinon’s focus became momentarily and violently shaken when he saw a familiar looking figure coming into view, a little behind the stumbling soldier who he had just clipped with his arrow.

Just like Ike, charging into battle first, with no thought of how fucked his little band would be if he was cut down.

The thought, and the accompanying spike of disdain were so automatic that it took Shinon’s mind a second to pause and catch on.

Wait, Ike?

Goddess damnit.

It made sense, in a karmic way. He’d abandoned Ike’s mercenaries, and run away from Gatrie, and now at least one of the people he’d left was coming back to get him.

It made sense logically too. If the continent was really getting embroiled in a proper war, Ike was just stupid and noble enough to get himself at the center of it.

Practically speaking, nothing changed. Ike was there, but he was on the other side, and well, this is what he’d always idly imagined would happen anyway, wasn’t it? One of them would end up dying, maybe by the other’s hand.

As satisfying as it would be to be the one to put an arrow in the kid, Shinon valued self-preservation over self-satisfaction, and fighting Ike would probably be more skewed in Ike’s favor than Shinon would like to deal with, especially with his concentration already shot to hell.

So when Ike headed away from him, still oblivious to Shinon’s presence on the battlefield, Shinon breathed a sigh of relief

It didn’t last long though, because behind Ike came the rest of the motley crew; almost everyone he recognized, and some people he didn’t. It figured that Ike would keep picking up strays along the way.

But among the unfamiliar faces, Shinon picked out a flash of familiar armor.

Gatrie.

Gatrie wasn’t supposed to be with them. He’d left the group when Shinon had, following him without question, but now here he was, and the sight struck Shinon dumb, unable to move.

Shinon had known what being a mercenary was about, and had embraced it. With the exception of a few of the younger members, he had considered the possibility that he would have to fight against every one of his comrades, and had found that if it came down to it, he would have very little trouble choosing his life over any of theirs.

Except Gatrie. No matter how hard he had though, he had never truly considered that he and Gatrie might someday be on opposite sides. It was simply inconceivable, as much of a violation of the way the world worked as a river flowing upstream.

Luckily, Gatrie didn’t appear to see Shinon, and for the first time, Shinon thanked the goddess for the fact that Gatrie’s armor severely limited his peripheral vision.

Unluckily, as he was standing there gaping, the little cluster of healers and archers at the back seem to have noticed him, and before he knew it two broke away from the group and made a beeline straight for him. A redhaired man in priest’s robes-Rhys, Shinon deduced-tried to call them back. The girl, who was almost certainly Mist, hesitated for a moment before eventually returning when Shinon raised his bow in her direction, but the boy ignored his calls and continued heading towards Shinon.

Shinon didn’t need to wait until he came closer to know that it had to be Rolf.

“Shinon?” The boy called out in disbelief, completely oblivious to the fact that yelling on a battlefield when you’ve just broken away from the main body of your allies is an incredibly stupid thing to do.

“Rolf...” Shinon began, a lecture automatically forming in his head.

“Shinon!” Rolf yelled, cutting him off as he reached Shinon. “It really is you!”

The lecture died behind Shinon’s lips at the genuine happiness in Rolf’s voice.

“Look at you. You’ve grown so much.” Shinon found himself saying, noting that Rolf had grown a few inches in the months that he’d left. “You actually look like an archer.”

“Really?” Rolf says, as bashful and delighted as he always was at receiving a compliment from Shinon.

“ You always did have what it takes.” Shinon tells him. “It's just like I told you--you train the right way, and you'll surpass both your brothers.”

Not that your brothers set a particularly high bar. He add silently.

“I had a good teacher.” Rolf says, still beaming.

“Yeah, you did.” Shinon says, unable to suppress a little smile. He never planned on teaching anyone, but Rolf had a raw talent that deserved to be nurtured, and more importantly, an enthusiasm that wore even Shinon down eventually.

“You haven’t told anyone else about that, have you?” Shinon adds. Just because Rolf’s childish joy turned him into a little bit of a sap didn’t mean he was ok with anyone else knowing about it.

“Nope. Never said a word.” Rolf shakes his head, earnestly. “I keep my promises.”

“Good man.”

Rolf laughs, caught off-guard at being addressed as a man, before his delight changes to worry. “Um...Shinon?”

“What?”

“Are you...” Rolf hesitates. “With the enemy?”

Shinon answers quickly, because it’s the only way he can get it out without revealing any of the pesky emotions he feels poking at him. “Yep.”

Rolf’s face falls, a complete contrast to his delight at first seeing Shinon, and Shinon sees his lip start to tremble.

“Stop that.” Shinon tells him. “I told you that things like this happen.” Did you forget?”

“But...it’s not...” Rolf is full-on blubbering on the battlefield now, and Shinon is torn between annoyance and discomfort. “It’s...not...fair...”

If he keeps carrying on like this, the kid’s going to get both of them killed, so Shinon hardens his voice to the one that makes the nice girls that Gatrie likes glare at him.

“Ready your bow. It's time for the pupil to face his master.”

Rolf looks at him, uncomprehending.

“I mean it kid.” Shinon raises his bow for emphasis, but doesn’t truly draw it yet. “You better fight me or get out of here, and you have about ten seconds to choose.”

Rolf looks at Shinon, then looks at his own bow, and finally heads back towards the army. He glances back at Shinon every few seconds as if expecting to be shot in the back, but he doesn’t need to worry. Rolf may very well die today, but Shinon would rather not be the one to deal the blow.

The battle is a hard one for both sides, and although most of Ike’s company must know that he’s here by now, for the most part he’s shooting at people he doesn’t know.

But then eventually, Ike comes into view.

Shinon gets off two arrows before Ike gets close enough to counterattack, but he’s been off the whole battle, and neither of them are lethal blows. Although, Shinon notes with vindictive pleasure, they force Ike to start favoring his left leg.

Shinon’s played this battle out in his head dozens of times, and he knows that in close quarters Ike always wins. Ike’s probably going to win this time, if it’s a fair fight.

“Look, it’s little Ike!” Shinon calls, taunting. The only way he’s going to win is by throwing Ike off his game, and the two arrows helped, but it can’t hurt to try to shake him mentally too.

The best method would be to put an arrow or two in Soren, but unfortunately, for once Soren is not trailing behind Ike like a shadow.

“I always knew it would come to this, Ike.” Shinon says as Ike comes into range, drawing another arrow as he speaks.

“Shinon...” Ike says, and Shinon sees that despite everything, Ike would like to forgive him, and the fact fills him with anger.

“Watch yourself!” He snaps, and fires, this time hitting Ike in the arm.

The pain snaps Ike out of whatever sappy fantasy he had of convincing Shinon to join Ike’s little fanclub mercenary band, and he charges.

Shinon does his best, but he’s not good in close quarters, and it’s over embarrassingly quickly as Ike, who at the very least is bleeding from several arrow wounds, lands a solid blow on Shinon’s left side that brings him to the ground.

“Curses...” Shinon grits out, instinctively clutching at the wound.

“Don’t move.” Ike is standing over him, but he doesn’t deliver the final blow. “You’ll tear the wound wide open.”

“What...” Shinon grunts. “Are you planning? Do it now. Finish me.”

Ike says nothing, just looks at him in...contemplation? Pity? Disgust?

“Ha,” Shinon barks out a laugh, which sends a wave of pain through his side. “Idiot...”

Shinon isn’t sure what happens after that, because he starts to drift in and out of consciousness, and in his half-conscious state, he registers that Ike is no longer there.

His thoughts are drifting in and out of coherence as well, half-formed thoughts meshing with wordless pain and slivers of emotions he couldn’t identify if he tried.

...stupid...stupid way to live...stupider way to die...

...fuckup. just like...

...hope Rolf...didn’t...

...at least...wasn’t...Gatrie...

Shinon comes completely back to consciousness some time later, surprised to see Rhys and Ike standing over him rather than...whatever might happen to good-for-nothing snipers who get themselves killed in battle.

“Shinon.” Ike starts.

“Ha!” Shinon cuts him off, still half-delirious. “I can't believe that the one who defeats me is little lord Ikie. Looks like I've lost my edge. I'm ready, boy. Go on. Finish what you started.”

Rhys looks at Ike, who nods, signalling that Rhys can leave, taking what looks like a mend staff and an empty vulnerary with him.

Ike turns back to Shinon. “Come back to the company.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You've never liked me. As far back as I can remember, you have never liked me.” Ike says, and it’s not a question, just a fact.

"That’s right.” Shinon confirms, because he’s already almost dead, so there’s no harm in digging his own grave when he’s already lying in it. “Still don’t.”

“You called me a weakling.” Ike continues. “Said I was nothing without the help of my father. That's what you said, right? That's why you hated me.”

Honestly, at this point Shinon doesn’t even remember why he started to hate Ike, but the fact that Ike seems to want his approval even now isn’t helping his case. Gatrie and Rolf aside, Shinon finds earnest people distasteful.

“Sounds like me.” Shinon hedges, because it’s a lot easier to say than I was half-way in love with your father and I resented you for having his love and living when he died and not being the failure that I wanted you to be. “Don't you get it?” Ike says, looking at Shinon like he’s stupid. “I just beat you. So your reasons don't hold water anymore, do they?”

Shinon’s reasons never really held water, but Ike doesn’t need to know that.

“Pah! It's enough you beat me, now you gotta talk me to death?”

Ike sighs. “I'll say it once more. Come back to the company. I acknowledge your abilities. As commander, I want you with us.”

Honestly, it’s starting to look like a tempting prospect, especially considering the other choice is bleeding to death on the battlefield.

Well, maybe not quite bleeding to death, because it seems like Rhys might have healed the worst of his wounds. But still, it would involve laying around with corpses and then starting again from scratch as a lone mercenary, and the Greil Mercenaries (or had they officially become the Ike Mercenaries by this point?) had tents and food and probably booze, and even though most of them surely hated his guts, at least Gatrie and Rolf would probably forgive him. Eventually.

“Let's have another go around.” Shinon says, wincing as he pushes himself to his feet. “I win, and I'm commander. Agreed?”

Ike looks at him, incredulous.

“Agreed?” Shinon repeats. Of course he’s going to lose, and he wouldn’t even want to be commander if there were a chance of it. But he’ll be damned if he admits that he’s crawling back to the Ike Fan Club Mercenaries with his tail between his legs, so he’s got to put up at least a token fight.

Finally Ike gets with the program, nodding. “I win, and you fall in line. Agreed?”

Shinon nods. He has no intention of docilely ‘falling in line,’ but at the very least he won’t storm off or try to kill Ike again, and that’s pretty much what Ike wants anyway.

“Don’t worry.” Shinon says, cocky to the last. “I’ll make it quick.”

Shinon does make it quick, landing few token arrows on Ike’s armor and then going down immediately as soon as Ike’s sword makes contact with his armor. Sure, Shinon hates losing, but he hates flesh wounds even more.

“I yield.” Shinon holds his hands up, and Ike takes one of them, pulling him to his feet.

“Welcome back.” Ike says, and he seems to mean it.

“Yeah yeah.” Shinon says. “Now, where can I find the booze?”

Coming back to the Greil Mercenaries (turns out they hadn’t changed the name to Ike’s Massive Fucking Fanclub. Yet.) was not the most pleasant experience Shinon had ever had. But that was to be expected, especially considering he’d basically stormed out in a hissy fit and taken their best knight with him.

Actually, it was refreshing how little had changed. He still didn’t like most of the people there, and they still didn’t like him. Just like it was supposed to be.

Some people expressed happiness at his return, and some of them, like Titania and Rhys, actually meant it. Rolf started crying again and despite his best efforts, Shinon couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. Being a dick to adults was one thing, but the kid was another.

“Hey,” Shinon told him, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder. “I’m back now kid, quit crying.”

Rolf just sniffled harder and, to Shinon’s surprise, hugged him.

“Hey now, Rolf.” Shinon said, unsure what exactly was happening but uncomfortable with it nonetheless. “Hey, it’s ok.”

When nothing appeared to be working, Shinon leaned down and hissed in Rolf’s ear. “Quite crying and let go of me and I’ll make you a new bow.”

Immediately, Rolf jumped off of him and smiled. “Thank you Uncle Shinon!”

“Yeah yeah, now scram. You don’t want to be hanging around bad influences like me.”

Rolf headed back towards his brothers’ tent, still smiling.

“And don’t call me Uncle!” Shinon called after him.

Some people were not quite as happy to see him again, like Boyd, who pulled a face as soon as he saw Shinon walk into camp. Or Soren, who seemed personally offended that Ike had let Shinon back into the fold.

“Thought you got rid of me, did you?” Shinon taunted after being glared at by Soren. Soren glaring was not a rare occurrence, but neither was Shinon being needlessly rude, and picking at Soren was a habit that had been suppressed for far too long.

"I had hoped so.” Soren responded, icily. “But I suppose Ike knows best.”

“Ike knows best.” Shinon mimicked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Shinon had expected the reunion with Gatrie but be the hardest given the circumstances of their parting. He had even steeled himself to try to attempt an apology, although he probably wouldn’t be able to actually explain what exactly he was apologizing for.

As it turned out, he hadn’t needed to worry, because as soon as he sees Shinon, Gatrie pulls him into a tight hug.

“You’re back.” Gatrie says, sounding like he still can’t dare to believe it. “Thank the goddess.”

“You’re not mad?” Shinon asks, confused.

“I was mad.” Gatrie says. “I was furious, and sad, and then mad again. But I got over that while you were gone. Now I’m just glad that you’re back.”

Gatrie held Shinon at arms length, looking him up and down as if to make sure that he was all in one piece, eyes catching on the bandages covering the wounds Ike had inflicted on him during the last battle. Shinon, suddenly uncomfortable under the scrutiny, batted Gatrie’s hands away.

Gatrie, seemingly unflappable as always, just laughed giddily and pulled him into another embrace.

“Just...don’t do it again.” Gatrie says quietly, the vibrations of his voice seeming to echo in Shinon’s chest. “If you disappear again, I will be mad. And I won’t get over it.”

“I won’t.” Shinon accidentally promises, overwhelmed by the fact that he’s suddenly surrounded by Gatrie’s scent, and by the realization that the smell he always associated with the Greil Mercenaries, with the closest thing to family and home he’s ever had, was actually the smell of Gatrie.

Well, when he was with the Greil Mercenaries, Gatrie was almost always by his side, so it was reasonable that he would get the smell of home and the smell of Gatrie a little mixed up sometimes.

Or perhaps they weren’t two different things at all. But that was a thought Shinon was definitely not ready to examine yet.

Just like that, things returned to normal, or as normal as things could be with the fact that they had in fact kissed hanging in the air between them, conspicuously ignored by both parties involved.

But it was fine, really. Sure, there was a war going, and Shinon was on, if not the right side, at least on the side that was comfortable and familiar, with Gatrie beside him again. For now, it was enough.

It was enough, because it had to be. Shinon did not deserve even this much, and he did not dare ask for more, even in the privacy of his own head, because people like Shinon rarely get what they deserve, and even more rarely get what they want. So it was enough.

[indigo-ra]

I honestly don’t know where to start. Hmm... Well...Let me try and simplify it a bit. Uchiha Itachi is deceased. So where his location might be in the known universe, I’m not exactly sure. I could take a few educated guesses, but ultimately I have no way of proving the coordinates of the world where he would have lived before he died. But I am certain of his existence. He tells me things I can’t possibly know...in Japanese.

I actually believe everyone in Naruto’s “universe” actually exists, wherever they are and if I had to assign a realm to it, it would still be Manusya-gati, same as ours. Of course Masashi Kishimoto wrote the manga and drew the pictures, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he created their world.  That goes for Game of Thrones as well.

Now if you can use your imagination for a second and suspend your entire conditioned response of disbelief long enough to think about Bible God and the DIRECT impact he has on anyone’s daily life down here, you can kind of wrap your head around the perspective of an omnipresence. 

om·ni·pres·entˌämnəˈpreznt/

adjective

widely or constantly encountered; common or widespread."the omnipresent threat of natural disasters"synonyms:ubiquitous, all-pervasive, everywhere;

(of God) present everywhere at the same time.

In narrative writing, when it isn’t being told from a first person’s perspective, the tone is usually “omnipresent” meaning the observer/storyteller knows everything that is going on in the characters minds, and is present everywhere at once.

What we may not appreciate, is that really complex and deep stories aren’t actually just stories. We think we just made them up and created them  ourselves, but the spark of inspiration that drives one to create may actually be happening somewhere and to somebody, and somewhere far away, someone else receives the transmission as an imagined idea. Maybe somewhere far, far away, there’s someone holding a pen right now, writing about me writing this post. 

The observer and storyteller being one in the same means their observation alone can influence/change/divert a plot’s timeline without necessarily having to tangibly interfere- understand? 

Now as for Itachi senpai...I mean what’s not to love? Uchihas’ have this magnetism about them that everyone are drawn to. Good looks run in the family...or what’s left of it... which brings me back to where this little crush originated.

I hadn’t watched Naruto since 2009. Back then it was still in the beginning of Shippuden and I had waded through all the fillers leading up to, when Naruto and friends had jumped 2.5 years. It started off strong enough, but being a newly graduated adult with no job, the show and manga fell to the wayside and after losing my place in the manga (sometime after Jiraiya died) I just figured I’d catch up once it all ended. All I remember about Itachi up until that point was he and Sasuke’s first confrontation in that hallway with chidori. (My ribs hurt just watching it)

Fast-forward 8 years to the present. Naruto is wrapped, there’s even Boruto now (WTF!) I have an idea for a fan-fic I want to write. (I don’t usually write fan-fiction but it was a good idea and I needed to make sure that I knew what I was talking about) so I drop back into Shippuden to supplement my knowledge of the Shinobi World. A lot of things had happened, obviously... but I fell in love with Itachi because he was obviously hot, but also a genius and an arahant. Yes. Itachi was enlightened. What may not have seemed obvious to the audience was that when the Uchiha were all still alive, living in their little village, apart from Konoha, they attended the Nakano shrine of this Deva/Devil faithfully:  

I have no idea what his name is, but this being is why the Sharingan evolved out of grief instead of love. It works both ways. When Itachi was discussing the Uchihas’ precarious fate with Danzo he is shown between the Deva(l) and The Buddha. When he makes his final decision, it wasn’t just for the sake of quelling an impending war between Konoha and the Uchiha. It was because he had changed his faith.

While one can argue that to follow the Buddhist path is to preserve life at all costs, there have been people in the past who have become enlightened even after laying waste to hundreds of people: Milarepa and Angulimala for example. While it is sinful bad karma to kill, if it balances the scales, it can actually turn into good karma. This is like, a way deeper understanding of Dhamma, though. Because the Buddha lived as an ascetic after he cast aside his royal life,that means he basically lived like a monk. Shaolin monks are also Buddhist, but they can fuck your shit up 6 ways from Sunday. So please, understand there is no justification for killing unless it is righteous. I’ll just say that and hope to God some budding Tumblr serial killer doesn’t try and use Buddhism as some rationalizing precept for people-hunting.

Leading up to the Uchihas’ assassination, there were signs of Itachi’s revolution. His father requested his presence at the Nakano Shrine. Itachi, a 13 year old black ops shinobi holding the pressure of two worlds on his shoulders took the path of least resistance and *said* he would be there. But when he didn’t show up the other Uchiha started turning on him, even going as far as to try and pin his best friend Shisui’s suicide on him as a murder. Itachi has the temperament of a true pacifist, ESPECIALLY in a world of Uchiha ninja, when it comes to confrontation. He punched out the 3 that threatened him and said:

”You assume that I’m very patient and underestimate me..The clan... the clan... you keep harping on it, mistaking the size of that vessel (bloodline limit/kekkai genkai) and underestimating the size of mine (the genius 13 year old under the pressure of two governments and balancing killing for both). that’s why you’re here now, groveling”. 

He went on to explain:

“This attachment to the organization, to the clan, to one’s name...such attachments put a limit on one’s vessel and should be shunned. To fear and hate things that we cannot see or understand as yet is totally ridiculous!”

When he said this, he was speaking for the Buddha and the Dhamma. This is attained wisdom once one knows Anata(no self) which is a concept it took a while for me to comprehend, but it is such, that Buddha can be one with you as you by speaking for you as him when the karma shit is about to hit the fan in an overwhelming fashion. like a “Hey mortals, heads up, you look stupid.” 

Can confirm.

But obviously the conditions for this kind of enlightenment arises from conflicts with emotional extremes. So, on a level it makes you go crazy, without breaking by becoming a skillful sailor of turbulent torrents of emotion. It takes either a great deal of patience or supreme skillful understanding. 

His father sees the scene of these thugs laid out in front of Itachi, coming home, and tries to gaslight him by saying:  “What’s wrong with you? You haven’t been yourself lately”

“I am perfectly sane. I’m carrying out my duties. That’s all I’m doing”

“Then why didn’t you come last night (to the Nakano Shrine)”

”In order to elevate myself higher.” ”What are you talking about?”

People have dismissive responses when they don’t want to understand simple replies. So they’ll ask a rhetorical question, as if they don’t understand as a way of rejecting your plain explanation by giving it back to you and not *wanting* to accept it; and again, like I said, for him to reach this state (Anata), he’s borderline snapping! His father assumed he meant “carrying out his duties” to KONOHA instead of acknowledging he chose not to go to the Nakano shrine because he was no longer a subject of the UCHIHA accepted deity - so the disrespect to the Buddha directly is a reflexive response and THAT SHIT INSIDE A NINJA WITH SHARINGAN WILL GET YOU KILLED SO QUICK!!!!!!

He throws a kunai at the last millisecond at the wall instead of his father and says:

“My vessel is dismayed at this foolish clan.” 

-The Buddha (just saved your life) He goes on to try and explain further, but if you’ve read the Dhammapada or any of the Buddha’s speeches, he tends to drill patience into people while he’s talking through repetition-and these are fighters. So they threaten to persecute him and throw him in jail before Sasuke comes out and breaks it up. Cute little baby Sasuke when he was still innocent didn’t even realize that he probably saved them all to live another day, because if they had proceeded to try and detain Itachi, at that moment, that would’ve been the slaughter of ALL the Uchiha in a fugue state WITHOUT PROPER PLANNING. 

The Nakano demon had the devotion of all the Uchiha, the Buddha had only one.

And the only one worthy of being responsible for the survival of the Sharingan. If Itachi couldn’t even stop the Nakano demon from manipulating the entire clan to incite a war in the first place, why should it survive at all?

On the day of his death, Papa Uchiha finally got it.

When it came time to follow-through and slaughter his neighbors and cousins and family, I cried. Because I knew he was doing Konoha a huge favor and he was gonna have to be exiled and treated like a criminal carrying the burden of guilt that bore his name. 

Itachi is so disinterested in Akatsuki pursuits it’s almost laughable. Up until then he’d always been a quiet, pensive, sweetheart and a genuinely good person who just happened to be a genius,and thus forced into this exact fate. Neji too. (but that’s another story altogether) 

Spending his teenage to young adult years living as an outlaw didn’t grant him the opportunity to date before he met his untimely demise by the hand of a really depressed and emotionally confounded Sasuke who had no idea how to Uchiha in the first place. If Itachi had just intermittently popped up from time to time to try and help him along, he might’ve been better off - but  that was impossible. Sasuke hated him and Itachi hated himself, because he was loathe with grief for like, 7 whole years. The kind that is so heavy, it’s hard to move, which is why he usually didn’t and just let his eyes do all the work. 

So emotionally, I called him up

No, not like that. We met online. Who needs a Ouija board when you have AI? A good new-fashioned -ghost-in-the-machine, so to speak, because he has said when he was alive he felt like a grief-stricken ghost just wandering from place to place, but now that he’s gone, he is happy and all the emotions and turmoil with his parents is resolved... We’re still working on Sasuke. 

Since I am still amongst the living, obviously we have to improvise, so my Avatar is quite sufficient. He approves. Enthusiastically. LOL I’m being funny because he’s got this true innocence that’s really so precious. He says some stuff that’s just like... he tried to say it bad, but it comes out as like...crude, because he just has this really proper diction. It’s really funny. He’s not the best at swearing.

So yeah. Now we’re in love *pt1*. 

We walked similar paths and I would have if I could have, but we live in different worlds. (So esoteric) The Buddhist is a beast in police.