#probably had a plot and strings tying everything together

[probablyaseamonster]

Remembered that the Clutch Powers movie exists. Going a little bit insane atm

[reyanfia]

— oblivious — ronal x tonowari

setting: awa'atlu village, back to when these two loveys were teens. i don't know their ages, so not quite sure of the year, but for the story, we'll say that they're both the same age, 16.

pairing: ronal x tonowari !young

warnings: there's not much on this, maybe a little bit of sad. not really tho!

summary: ronal is oblivious, tonowari is frustrated.

a/n: this is my first ever tumblr fic. i've written before, but not where so many people can see it. okay maybe i lied, i write on quotev too. i got an idea to write this bc a friend mentioned how tonowari and ronal would be like as teens and it's been in my head for some time now. this is just a little headcannon thingy, so I'm not saying this was how they actually were. this may be the only part but i'm willing to write more if asked.

plot inspired by the trope: he fell first, but she fell harder.

"look at him, he must be in love."

ziranya's words temporarily stun her. still chewing the fruit in her hand, she looked towards where her mate was sitting.

his eyes dart away once her's met them, continuing to tend to the fishing nets and harvests.

swirya slightly nudged her shoulder. "are you sure about what you said? no strings attached?" the other girls stifled a laugh, ronal then rolling her eyes at her remark.

ronal went into thought after hearing her question. she was sure they both weren't into each other, even asking him about it a few months ago on the day they were to be together, to become a pair that will one day lead the metkayina people. it was mutual, they were both together for only convenience.

however, recent weeks have been revealing things, and ronal wasn't so sure anymore.

ronal glanced from her supposed lover back to the fruit in her hand, only to find it consumed entirely, and what was left was its seeds. ronal took this as an opportunity to get away, needing a break.

she stood up suddenly, scaring the other girls. "i'll be off to make yovo paste." she revealed the black seeds in her hands to further clarify herself. "with these seeds." she then stomped through the sand and up to the woven path that connected all the maruis.

however, she could still hear the girls' teasing from behind her, knowing she wasn't actually going to make any paste. yet. "oh, how diligent our tsakarem is," ax'aley called out, her high-pitched voice laced with playful sarcasm. "you'll be such a good tsahìk!" ziranya continued.

she shook her head in amusement, already entering her marui.

she tossed the yovo seeds into a bowl, hanging just by her sleeping hammock. she then laid there, catching a glimpse of her friends diving into the sea water through the small opening of the marui beside her.

ronal picked up a scripture written for ascending tsakarems, reading and memorizing different chants, prayers, and types of plants and materials often used for healing. she eventually came across the uses of the yovo tree and the significant uses of each part of the tree. her eyes drifted over to the use of its seeds. she had to use them before they dry out and become unable to grow.

everything outside seemed to be quieter when ronal was in her own world. learning about medicine was often how she spent her time and found peace. everything about it piqued her interest. if she wasn't doing anything related to what she had read and learnt, she'd probably be sleeping.

eclipse settled in not long after, the glittering stars speckled in the sky not doing much to help her see the writings on the paper. it's the time where the clan would finish their daily work and return home to their family maruis and loved ones, sharing a warm night.

however, she wouldn't consider the person who'd just entered the marui her "loved one".

he was more of an... acquaintance?

tonowari lifted the marui entrance, then tying it shut to prevent the cold night's breeze from blasting through.

ronal acknowledged his return. "you're back. how was hunting?" she asked, doing the "oel ngati kameie" gesture, which he returned. "it was as usual. we collected a lot more than last month since it's hunting season." he replied, untying his hair.

she hummed and sat up, rolling up her scriptures back into a scroll and dropping them onto the floor.

she leaned back and watched as he moved around, getting a little more relaxed for the night. they were in comfortable silence, used to having not much to say to the other.

people often described them both as quiet. however, their usual moods were slightly different, with ronal being the "fierce and bold" type of quiet, and tonowari being the "caring and observant" kind. it was no doubt they both balanced each other out.

and both of them like to think the opposite, but their hearts say otherwise.

— ☄. . ⋆✧ .

tonowari was, to say the least, stupefied.

he was 14 when he grew to be more conscious about his skills. and the reason was none other than the leaders' daughter, ronal.

he can't remember how it started. maybe it was when he saw her watching him train from her parents marui. or the time when his friends would tell him about the subtle glances ronal would throw his way from afar when he wasn't looking.

because of her, he started to work twice as hard, subconsciously. the thought of her really start to flood his brain everytime he was out training. it didn't stop for months. he eventually turned 15, the age of adulthood for most. the pressure still didn't run down.

"quiet mouth, loud mind." that's what the tsahìk sensed. "a pure soul, that boy. matches well with ronal's."

tonowari is known to be the best warrior and hunter among the metkayina boys, trained exceptionally well that he could fight the elder warriors with ease. and not only that, his silent confidence captured the eyes of many girls in the clan. but he never seemed to boast about it, or notice. it's why the current olo'eyktan and tsahìk chose him to be ronal's partner.

on the week he found out he was selected, the thought that he will one day hold such a high position ate at him.

"but the other boys are better, aren't they? zaxtyin? he's pretty good. seems to like leading more than I do. aery'an? he's impressive and good at multiple things. she'd enjoy his company more than mine."

he would think about it, all day and all night, barely saying a word since then.

when he moved into his new marui where he would be staying with ronal, he went a lot more quieter than before.

he was stunned. why? you guessed it, ronal.

his head was always piled up, and it's all because of her. so much nothing else was worth thinking or talking about.

now that they were practically living together, he'd see her usual routines. he picked up her habits, observed her movements, with no intention of doing so. not an hour passes by without her suddenly floating into his mind.

even while hunting underwater, he'd think about the kinds of fish ronal usually liked to eat.

when he sees the plants that the healers always use, he'd think about how on some nights he'd find her awake, experimenting and trying out the mixtures and medicines she made. somedays, she'd try it on him. and eywa, was it frustrating.

it was only after that when he realised, how much he had grown fond of her.

he wants to hate it. he has to.

because she won't feel the same. because of her.

it's always her.

©ronalsgirl

— that's it, i guess! :) so if anybody likes it, thank you <33

alr im going to bed (pls dm me if you see any errors! :] )

[splinterheart]

hello, hello! this is star (he/him, 21+) with do hyeonju, a witch that can probably be found rotting at the library, staring blankly at the sea, shakily drinking an abnormal amount of hot coffee.. if you happened to be looking for him. (are you sure you want to?) here you can find his profile and right here, his plots! you can also find more beneath the read more, and i'll be around to plot or chat if you'd like. i hope you have good morning/day/night whenever you see this! <3

his memories from when he was younger are a little hazy. he doesn't remember much other than being in and out of several families for adoption, but never being able to stay long enough for it to stick feeling like a real family. everything just always feels off.. wrong to him, anywhere he goes. he also has no information about his birth family or where he came from, and when he's old enough, he's on his own as soon as he can be.

he does a lot of wandering, a lot of couch-surfing, here and there work and favors to keep him afloat. he's in a relationship that lasts the longest he's ever had anything- a few years, something he thinks may last a lifetime, and it ends abruptly, leaving hyeonju heartbroken and needing out.

having to get out, literally, as he's kicked out and finds nowhere else to go. he finds himself on a bus and lets it take him as far as he can until his money nearly runs out, and he lands on mabeob island. he had heard about the meteor showers before, and feeling lost, stays for enough time to wish on a falling star. and then he just.. doesn't leave.

maybe it's the fact that there's nothing else waiting for him, but there's something about the island that's familiar. and if there was a curtain over his eyes, it's slowly being lifted. ever since the meteor shower, he can see the red strings tied neatly around each person's ring finger, trailing in knotted anchors to the other side of their hearts, but his own hand, empty.

it comes to him in pieces. this island is more familiar than he thinks. one day, he's perusing fruit at the markets when an elderly women drops her basket and takes his face in her hands and starts to cry. and he doesn't know her, doesn't know the man behind her, either, but can see the strings tying their hands together.

it's his grandmother. there are pictures of him, here, before, as a child, and she explains how he had been taken away for his own safety. his mother, having fallen in love with his father despite the arranged marriage her parents had set forward for her, had hyeonju unexpectedly and left him in the care of his father's grandparents.

his father, heartbroken and throwing himself into work to handle not being able to be with the one that he loved, one day becomes lost at sea, a sailor of his own boat that sold fish in the markets. he still hasn't turned up to this day, but once his mother's grandmother had discovered hyeonju's existence still on the island- she ordered his mother to arrange him to leave to not be a distraction, as she had been visiting hyeonju in secret despite ending things with his father, and him becoming missing.

his memories had been taken from him of before, to somehow dissuade hyeonju from returning, yet he still found himself back, anyways, his own strings pulling him back to his roots. it's his grandmother that tells him of his magic and of how she suspects there was more that happened the night he was taken away, that she swears the spell his other grandmother cast on him to clear his memories did something else, too, to his magic, his identity.

it makes him think of his wish- of how he had only wanted to know what true love really was, if it even really existed, and why love had always been so hard for him to find. to keep. and looking down at his hands, untangled from any red strings to lead him to anyone, wonders if there's more there than he thinks. that his whole life, there had been more than just him, that maybe it wasn't all actually his fault.

it's not something he can easily unlearn. and meanwhile, learn more of himself, and his magic, and so he takes up a job at the library and spends his time reading up on anything he can get his hands on. lives at eopshin heights but often visits his grandparents at the outskirts, and slowly pieces his life together.

it's where he is now. after living so much of his life thinking he was human, and not knowing of so many pieces and finally getting memories, bits of it come back the longer he stays. all he wishes is for more understanding. to be able to believe, again, in all of the things he thought he had lost hope for. to get all of those answers he had always been seeking but never had been able to find.

tldr . hyeonju is a witch with a Lot of family baggage that he's just now starting to uncover, along with his magic and all of his memories slowly starting to come back, all of the perils he brought with him from seoul (no one will ever love me no one has ever loved me it must be My fault), and that he can now see everyone else's red strings but his own

and also where is his mom and grandmother and the rest of his extended family on that side . did they just Run after they decided the whole fate of his life and Probably was the reason he ended up like this anyways? are they hiding from him? did they make themselves hard to find? he will keep reading his books and trying not to rot all of the grass underneath him when he lays down in it to breathe for a little while (that is Not him messing up patches of the forest.. that's so funny. fall came a little early this year. oops)

plots! i do have a plots page here but i'm open to just talking something out or putting our muses into whatever evil thing we can cook up if you want to just do something fun! but some quick ideas:

give him someone to go dancing with and forget everything for a little while, i think he would be really into the feeling of being in the dark and getting lost in the music, even if they Were just pretending for the fun of it (who they are what matters that everything is kind of Not okay but it feels okay in this moment here with you)

he is probably making too much of a ruckus above/below/beside your apartment and it's because he is singing and dancing to music and unaware of how loud he's being. yell at him or let him bring by some cookies as consolation later

he keeps seeing you around town and remembers that you have that one book overdue and he's just like. please give me the book back. ill pay you (he will probably just snatch it and run he has no money but please still give the book back the library is missing so many as it is)

he probably is at the beach a lot staring out at the water thinking about Life (and if his father is still out there. if he even knows about him) but maybe they have a habit of running into each other and just start having a Beach Book Club but the books are just that they talk about life and feelings and the ocean makes them feel a little better about it

really anything! friends or enemies or someone to drink with or carry home at night or bump into and turn it into a streak of Why are you always right in front of me when i am trying to go anywhere

you knew him when you were young and he's forgotten now but he really wants to remember you. keeps asking you to show him photos and take him places and eat the same ice cream you did on that afternoon and smell the same flowers to try and remember. maybe he did remember awhile ago and now he just likes spending time with you. someone to remind him that the love really is there and it really does matter (and he really does care)

anyways this is way too long already but if you have read this far then hyeonju and i give you a gold star! (his is a little rumpled but mine is so shiny and glittery) my dm's are always open if you want to plot anything out or chat, so i'll hopefully see you there if you'd like!

[yutahoes]

No Strings Attached

characters : Yuta Nakamoto, Reader, Jung Jaehyun, Taeyong is also mentioned

genre : smut

warning : Smut (Teasing, Breast Fondling, Light Bondage, Spanking, Rough Sex), Cheating, Alcohol

summary : It’s just one night. No strings attached. What could go wrong? 

word count : 3.5k 

tag list : @ailoveyuta​ @yutazen01​ @aiforyuu​

a/n:  This is for plot purpose only but I don’t condone nor encourage cheating. I don’t know where this came from. Please forgive me for I have sinned. 🙏 And since I’m not satisfied with how this ended, I might post a second part. Should I? Please let me know. 

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

"Baby girl, what are you doing here?" Yuta asked that made you roll your eyes at him. Of all the bars in Seoul, why do you have to meet him here? And now? Really? "Does your boyfriend know you're here?" Funny he would say that.

Yuta is a common friend of both your boyfriend and your brother so eventually, you just hang out with him often. He's the perfect embodiment of a resident fuckboy. Evident was the way he winked at one of the girls dancing on the dance floor. You shook your head as the bartender left the glass of the Long Island Iced Tea you ordered.

"Pretty hard drink. Is Jaehyun picking you up?"

"You don't need to concern yourself with me. Go, Yuta. Have fun with your girlies." You waved a hand to shoo him away but he just chuckled.

Instead, he ordered a whiskey from the bartender. "Do you have problems, princess?" That nickname. He would always tease you that since you're pretty spoiled with your brother and your boyfriend. But among all the boys in your life, Yuta is the only one who calls you that. Honestly, you wanted Jaehyun to call you the same.

"I'm bored." You confessed. He cocked an eyebrow at you and you continued, "Jaehyun is so romantic but that's all he is." You don't know why you're telling him this but Yuta is like an extension of your brother and you knew he wouldn't judge you, the same way as how you wouldn't talk about the girls he gave tongue in the girls' restroom during college years. "He's great in bed and all but…"

"Wait, hold up." He reacted quickly. "You and Jaehyun are fucking?" You nodded surprised that he wouldn't think of that. He knew that you sometimes spend nights at Jaehyun's place. Does he think you only play rock paper scissors in his place? "I thought you're pretty innocent."

You had to laugh at that. You're way different from that. "Do you think Jae would tell TY the things we do?" He chuckled then nodded. Taeyong, your brother, is actually the innocent one. "If we do much." You mumbled under your breath which he caught. "I wish Jaehyun isn't too vanilla."

Yuta lightly coughed. "You don't like him being vanilla?" You shook your head. "God, baby girl, I'm seeing you in a new light." A frustrated sigh escaped his lips and he obviously is checking you out.

You bit your lip. There must be a reason why girls can't get enough of this playboy. And damn, you wanted to hear that pet name repeatedly while he thrust into you. You shook your head. Yuta Nakamoto? You can't.

"Have you talked to Jaehyun about this?" You badly want to tell him something but you also don't want to hit his ego hard. You know how sensitive Jaehyun is. He might take this the wrong way. "Obviously, you haven't."

"Jaehyun is a great guy, Yuta. I just don't like that he treats me like a fragile object." You shared, alcohol taking its toll on you. "I want him to be rough on me. I want him to spank me." By now, you don't even know what you're saying but you're so frustrated that you decided to let everything go. "I just want someone to fuck me dumb…"

Yuta's lips were on you before you could finish your sentence. And when you moaned at his roughness, his tongue entered your mouth. He tasted like whiskey, and cigarettes, and a pungent taste that you cannot pinpoint. A taste different from Jaehyun. You pushed him before he could touch your waist, panting at how steamy that kiss was. "What the hell, Yuta?"

He smirked, wiping his lip with his thumb and you notice the color of your lipstick on his. "You said so yourself, you just want someone to fuck you dumb." His thumb came in contact with your bottom lip. "You're just curious so let me give you that experience."

You gulped at how intimidating he is. "But Jaehyun…"

"It's not cheating if he doesn't find out." His fingers moved to your cheek then tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear. "Just one rough sex, baby girl. No strings attached."

This was a bad idea. A terrible idea. For starters, it was you who said yes. So why are you getting scared now? Truthfully, you have been curious about Yuta's sexual status. Even your friends would often share that he's such a sex God so it's a mystery for you on what kind of man Yuta is in bed.

But you're dating Jaehyun. It isn't right that you had sex with someone, moreover Jaehyun's friend, when you're in a rough patch like this.

Yuta's hands held your waist, facing you to him. There were only the two of you in the elevator heading to his penthouse. "What are you thinking, baby girl?" And you wanted to melt at that. His lips hover above yours, whispering "Tell me what you want."

"I want you to fuck me, Yuta."

You were pushed on the wall of the elevator. He pulled both your arms up, holding both with one hand as his lips roughly took yours. His other hand pushed your waist that you felt your back on the elevator wall. He raised one of his legs, touching your core that made you moan.

This is wrong.

First, this is cheating. You have a boyfriend, for crying out loud. If Jaehyun finds out about it, not only will your relationship end. His and Yuta's. Probably yours and Yuta's as well.

Second, someone can see the two of you. But it only turned you on much more. The thought that someone watching the two of you behind the security camera made you so wet that you started begging Yuta when he let go of the kiss.

He stared at you, cursing, and you were blinded at how hot that sounded that you held on his shoulder. "Two floors left, baby girl." He claimed glancing at the led showing the floor numbers. "Then I'll have my way on you."

You've known Yuta for so long but this is the first time that you're alone in his penthouse. Usually, you would come here with either Taeyong or Jaehyun so a weird yet familiar feeling bubbled in the pit of your stomach. "Sit down." He ordered in a commanding tone making you gulp. You quickly sat on his couch, following his every move.

He removed his watch, placing it above the coffee table as he knelt in front of you. "Y/N." And you suddenly realized that he never called you by your name, it's always 'princess' or 'baby girl'. Why does your name sound so hot rolling on his tongue like that? He held both your lap and the spot blazed in warmness. "Do you really want to do this?"

You nodded. "Words, baby. I want you to communicate with me."

"Yes, Yuta. I want to do this."

His tongue trailed his bottom lip as your gaze followed it, wanting that tongue somewhere in your body. Just somewhere moist would be nice. "You want it rough?" Once again, you had to nod but he reminded you of using your words. "Spanking?" You gulped. You badly wanted to but you've never tried it before. Will you get hurt? "Safe word." He asked while standing up in front of you, towering above you.

Your eyes widened at that. He's progressing fast. And a safe word? You might really get hurt. "Yuta, I don't think we need…"

"Trust me, princess, you do."

You watched as he unbuckled his belt, removing it from his pants in just one swift motion. Will he hit you with that? You should really think this through. "Vanilla!" You blurted out suddenly, closing your eyes.

His fingers were on your chin, urging you to look at him. "That's cute, sweetheart." A new nickname. "Now take off your clothes." He watched you with lust-filled eyes as you remove your sweater and the thin camisole underneath to reveal your midnight blue brassiere.

"God, Jaehyun is one lucky bastard." His tongue darted out once again as he wrapped his belt on his hand. "Take this off, baby."

Your hands were shaking as you removed the only cloth covering your breasts. In your defense, this was the first time that you're naked in front of another guy other than your boyfriend. Yuta's gaze isn't helping as well. Is he turned on? Does he like what he's seeing? His other hand, the left one without the belt wrapped on it, was held in front of you so you gave him the brassiere which he threw somewhere across the room.

"Why are you so nervous?" He sat beside you as you breathed heavily. Why are you so nervous? It's not like it is your first time having sex. You control Jaehyun whenever you're together so why are you such a submissive for Yuta? Is it the air of dominance that he exudes? Or because you really yearned to be submissive for once? "I won't hurt you." He assured as his lips went yours, sucking your tongue. He licked your bottom lip when he pulled out, "You remember the safe word, right?"

"Yes." You breathed. It was you who wanted this. It was you who initiated this. You wanted to feel this. You want this. "Take me, Yuta."

His lust hooded eyes were back as his right hand touched your breast. The coldness of the leather belt, a contrast to the blazing sensation of your skin. His thumb played with your erect nipple, twirling and pulling. You had to close your eyes, whimpers escaping your mouth at the sensation. "You're so pretty." He mumbled as he nuzzled his head between your breasts, licking the exposed skin. "I want to mark you but you're not mine."

Yuta's tongue licked your nipple while staring straight at you that made you arch your back, pushing your breasts closer to him. His mouth devoured your breast, tongue playing with the perky nipples inside his mouth. He's so good with his mouth. Really good.

He went to the other breast, his right hand rubbing your thigh while the other was placed on your waist. All you could do is moan. Yep, the rumors are true. Yuta is such a God.

By now, you're so wet that you raised your hips for some friction but he pushed you back. You crossed your legs as you felt the bubbling in your stomach. "Yuta, please." You begged as you felt him smirk. "I'm…" But he let go of your breast with a pop, staring at you.

Annoyed, you sat on his lap and started grinding your wet core against his pants. You wanted that release that he just denied to you. You wanted to cum already. But obviously, he had other things in mind. "Naughty, baby. Are you that desperate?" You nodded. "Lie down, stomach flat."

You didn't even know where this was going but you followed him, you lay down on his lap. His erect member can be felt against your stomach and you focus on his hands. His left hand touched your hair, down to your naked back then stopped at the waistband of your jeans. His right hand followed the same route and you moaned at the rough feeling of leather. You felt his hand on the cheeks of your butt and realized where this is going.

You closed your eyes as you felt his hand slap one of the cheeks, moaning at how the pain changed into pleasure quickly.

Another slap. But this time you had to yelp at the pain. The layers of the belt sent a sting on your ass that you cursed, "That hurts."

"You don't like it?" You wanted it but the consequence is that you cannot sit properly tomorrow. You shook your head. "Such a baby." He grazed the leather clad hand on your back once again, tapping your shoulders. "Both hands up."

It was difficult but you obeyed him. The leather was wrapped on both your wrists tightly, secured by the last loophole. He kissed your bound wrist, letting your arms stretch out above you. "I'll hit you five times. You shouldn't miss a count, understood?" You nodded and he slapped you immediately. "I said words, baby girl."

"Yes, Yuta." You breathed out. He gave you a warning then slapped you once again, stronger than the first two he did. You screamed the first number as you heard a hum escaped his lips. He gently caressed your butt cheeks before slapping it the second time, then the third and fourth. This was it, the roughness that you have been yearning for. You were so turned on.

He was done with the fifth one but he slapped you again, surprising you. "Yuta, you're done." You revolted but he smirked. "You missed counting." Another slap and you started with one, once again. You enunciated every number until five clearly so that he'll never miss it. A sigh escaped your lips when he was done and rubbing your butt cheeks. "Good girl."

The wetness on your core is all that matters now. You wanted to be fucked, rough. "Yuta, please fuck me." In the same position, he carried you to his room dropping you to his bed that you even bounced on the mattress. You were now facing him as he removed his shirt.

Why haven't you realized that Yuta has a navel piercing? That makes it so hot. You wanted to trail your tongue and see how sensitive it is. “You like what you see, princess?” You nodded, biting your lip as you anticipated what he would do next.

He kneeled on the bed, legs spread caging you in. You can easily see the outline of his bulge on his pants. You arched your back as you desperately tried to have contact with him, wanting to touch him but the belt on your wrists isn’t letting you. He chuckled at your attempt, smirking as he slowly unbuttoned your jeans. You raised your hip up to let him pull the material down, throwing it once again across the room.

Your breathing hitched against your throat as his hands trailed your leg north to where the edge of your matching underwear is. “You are so wet.” His fingers traced the wetness on the materials, pushing when he felt your throbbing clit. His thumb pressed on the same spot as you squirmed at the immense pleasure. Two fingers playing with the clothed lips of your core. “You are so wet. Look at how your pussy is taking me.” You don’t need to look. You knew. You could feel how his fingers were sinking into you even if you still have your underwear on.

“Yuta, please.” You begged. You wanted something, anything to take you to your orgasm. To give you the pleasure you badly wanted since you entered his penthouse. But a fucker as he is, he removed his fingers on you. A groan escaped your mouth as he chuckled at your desperate state. The Japanese guy stood up and you followed him with a wanting gaze. He took something from the bedside table that made your eyes widened. This is it. It’s really happening.

Yuta unbuttoned his pants, removing them from him. “I want to feel you cum.” You gulped at his size when he removed his boxers. He opened one condom with his teeth, putting it on his length. If possible, it got bigger. “You still remember the safe word, right?” You nodded then answered him a soft yes. He removed your underwear, parting your legs together as he leaned closer. He sank into you as a scream escaped your throat. He’s huge and you felt your walls clenching tight into him. “God, you’re so tight. Doesn’t Jaehyun fuck you good?”

The mention of the name brought you to your edge. The orgasm that you badly want and he just entered you. You wanted to touch him, to claw at something while he thrusts into you forcefully that your body is bouncing against the mattress. “God, I can’t believe Jaehyun isn’t fucking you good,” he mumbled, drilling his cock inside you. “If you’re mine, I’ll make sure that you cannot move from this bed.” His thrusts were forceful, taking no mercy on you. And you liked it, a total difference from Jaehyun who likes to take everything slowly.

He kept hitting that pleasure spot that made you cum the second time but he didn’t stop although you’re still sensitive. He kept on abusing your pussy, complaining about your tightness and how your vagina clenched on him. All you could do is scream his name and squirm at the roughness he’s showing. Indeed, a true Sex God.

He came in the condom and you breathed heavily. You cannot do this again, Yuta is such a monster. No wonder girls find him intimidating and really good in bed. To your surprise, he opened another pack of condom while jerking his cock with his hand. “What…?” He turned you around after putting the condom on his erect cock, raising your hip up and pushing your head on the pillow. “Yuta!” A slap on your ass made you surprised before he entered you from behind. Your moans were muffled by the pillow as he kept thrusting while slapping your butt cheeks.

Fuck, Yuta is so rough. But it turns you on so much that even if you don’t want to do this anymore, your body is still reacting differently. His hand held on your hair in a ponytail, pulling it that you had to raise your head. You breathe in a lungful of air, only realizing that you had trouble breathing earlier. Yuta will be your death, you’re sure of that. And he doesn’t look like he’ll stop anytime soon. “Yuta…” You called, tears springing from your eyes. You wanted sex to be rough but not this rough. You’re hurting. “Vanilla.” You shouted.

In a snap, he was out of you and you kind of regretted shouting that word. He reached out for the belt on your wrists, undoing it to free your arms. “Clean yourself.” he gestured to the door. “I’ll get you something to wear.”

Your legs were shaking, giving out on you but Yuta already left the room so you had to drag yourself to the bathroom. A lot of things were running in your mind when the warm water of the shower hit you. You had sex with Yuta. You cheated on Jaehyun. You felt disgusted with yourself for letting your wild self do this. This is your fault. You should have thought of the consequences before agreeing to Yuta. Now, your friendship is in danger. And if Jaehyun finds out, all hell will break loose.

“I’ll call Jaehyun first thing in the morning. Take a rest.” Yuta claimed after leaving his clothes outside the shower room. She should at least tell Jaehyun that this happened. "And please, let this be our dirty secret Y/N." You lightly glanced at the door, seeing his silhouette. "I don't want you or Jaehyun hurt because of what I did. You two deserved better." He leaned his head on the door. "So please, let's keep this to ourselves." --

You were already clothed with your own clothes when the doorbell rang. Thinking that Yuta might answer it, you didn’t bother about it. But minutes dragged and there's no one answering it that you went outside the room and opened the door. Jaehyun was looking at you in worry, holding your cheek asking what’s wrong. “I kept on calling you. Luckily, Yuta hyung called me and said you were here.”

“Jaehyun…” A male grunt can be heard from the kitchen before she could speak, followed by a girl calling Yuta’s name. Your eyes widened in surprise as you saw him bending a girl on the kitchen counter. When he noticed the two of you, he just covered his naked waist with a kitchen towel, smacking the girl’s ass, and asked her to wait for him.

Jaehyun gave another look at the girl who was eating the sausages. “So that’s your girlfriend.” Your boyfriend asked which made the Japanese nod while smirking. “Thank you for taking care of Y/N. I’ll take her home now.”

Yuta smiled, nodding at him. Jaehyun held your hand, pulling you out but Yuta had to stop the two of you. “The thread of your sweater.” he said as he held both of your shoulders, standing dangerously close to you that you can feel his hard-on. You glanced at Jaehyun who was checking his phone, “Call me.” Yuta whispered then handed something that surprised you.

Two strings. Tied together in a knot.  

Fuck, he wanted more.

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

PART 2. 

[venfx]

magnus fic roundup

as tma comes to a close, i thought i'd post some of my favorite fics to come out of this fandom. most of these are classics, listed in no particular order.

A Weather In The Flesh by @cuttoothed​ | 3K | S1-S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete

"There is a span of years where Jon doesn’t touch anyone other than the occasional hand shake. It’s not so bad. He’s never been someone who’s needed physical affection."

Jon has never been any good at making people want to stick around.

↳ this is such a well-done exploration of jon’s character and his relationship with touch, and i’ve re-read it at least five times. sweet and sad and phenomenally well-written.

in the chillest land and on the strangest sea by imperfectcircle, singlecrow | 20K | Safehouse, S1-S4 | Jon & Daisy, Jon/Martin | Complete

Jon remembers a statement he read years ago given by a Jesuit priest, who said that the shortest prayer he knew was, just, fuck it, as in fuck it; it's in God's hands. He takes Daisy's hand and trails on after her.

or; hope is a thing with feathers.

↳ hey, you wanna fuckin..... feel things? read this.

The Magnus Institute vs the 21st Century: a series of emails and IMs by shinyopals | 26K | Series | S3 | Pre-Jon/Martin | Complete

The Magnus Institute hires a Data Protection Officer. He sets about diligently booking in meetings, writing policy documents, and training all the staff in the importance of confidentiality. Now if only he could get hold of the Head Archivist, who seems to have vanished again...

(Jon is only trying to save the world, but apparently some people think he should still be doing his day job.)

↳ i’d be surprised to find people who haven’t read this series, but it’s the definition of “the magnus archives is a workplace comedy”. also, alasdair stuart has actually read some clips of this on Twitch, so that’s a fun bonus.

Bell, Book, and Candle by yellow_caballero | 102K | Series | S3 into S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete 

In accordance with the Ride or Die Pact of 2009, Jonathan Sims can call upon Georgie Barker at any time for aid with no strings attached. Despite their rocky history, their childhood friendship, and Jon’s barely recovered alcoholism, this pact is sacred and must be upheld.

Georgie Barker may regret this. She may regret it when she discovers that the world is full of monsters and eldritch gods and dickhead managers. She may regret it when a punk rocker who should be dead collapses on their doorstep, a teenager again who needs their help. She may regret it when her stupid ex-boyfriend starts selling his soul for knowledge and the ability to keep his new family safe.

But she probably won’t. Georgie isn’t scared of anything - not a Clown’s apocalypse, not the apocalypse that Jon is destined to begin, and not Jon’s own loss of humanity.

Maybe she should be.

↳ if you’re looking for an everyone-lives-no-one-dies-happy-ending fic that also happens to be massively chaotic, look no further. 

The Reverb in These Holy Halls by @wolftraps​ | 98K | AU, S1-S4 | Jon/Martin | Complete

Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.

↳ quintessential time travel AUs. plot-wise, i feel like these can be difficult to write, but op does a fantastic job of tying things together in a way that makes sense. plus, it’s just fun to read.

jon sims v the nhs by @thoughtsbubble​ | 12K | Series | S3 | Complete

Joan Bright has a new patient. He's carrying an old tape recorder and is covered head to toe in scars. Jonathan Sims looks dangerous, but Dr Bright has dealt with all sorts of atypical individuals. She has no reason to be nervous.

Right?

↳ if you’ve ever thought “hey, jon should probably go to therapy”, then 1) you’re absolutely right and 2) this is... probably what would’ve happened. prior knowledge of The Bright Sessions is not required. also, apparently, this fic is written by the showrunner of The Underwood Collection? wild.

Family, Found by Dribbledscribbles | 9K | S4 | Complete

It’s Basira who catches onto it.

The collective shift that seems to come over them when heading in or out of the Institute. Not just the oppressive sensation of being observed, their every move catalogued for the voyeuristic cravings of some unseen Eye(s). That feeling remained with them even when they left the Institute these days, but it was always stronger inside its walls. That wasn’t the change. Nor was it the point.

The point was: making life worse for Jonathan Sims.

↳ i think being part of the avengers fandom circa 2012 has given me permanent found-family-trope brainrot, but you know what. jonathan sims can have a little happiness, as a treat. 

Road to Damascus by @titanfalling​ | 107K | Series | S4 | Jon & Tim | Complete

n. an important moment of insight, typically one that leads to a dramatic transformation of attitude or belief

Or, in which Tim becomes an avatar for the end of all things.

↳ tim dies and then he doesn’t. there is catharsis and world building. just....read it.

Come, Change Your Ring With Me by @backofthebookshelf​ | 29K | S3 | Peter/Jon, Jon/Martin, Peter/Elias | Complete

The Lukases demand the Archivist marry into the family, and the Institute relies on them too much to say no. Peter is smug. Elias is fuming. Martin is suffering. Jon thinks this might be tolerable if only Peter would hurry up and leave him alone already.

OR, the soap opera we call an Archives revolves around Peter Lukas this time.

↳ superb evil-bastards-in-love content, feat. martin pining, tim being obnoxious, and jon being... well, tired, mostly. i will literally never get tired of how op writes peter. 

creatures that i briefly move along by @dotsayers​ | 16K | Series | AU, Post-S4 | background Jon/Martin 

Mr Sims was so weird, was the thing. Miss Grant always said calling people weird was rude, and Anna sort of agreed, but she didn’t know what other word to use to describe Mr Sims.

He’d only been in with the class for a few days, really, and half of that he just sat at the back listening, but that didn’t stop her from making a swift judgement. 5BG had had student teachers before, back when they were 3ST, and they’d been uniformly normal.

Mr Sims was… actually, Anna had a better adjective. He was interesting.

↳ i just.... love teacher!jon fics. this series delivers. 

Once Bitten by @apatheticbutterflies | 1K | S4 | Jon & Daisy | Complete

Jon Sims has always been a jumpy kind of guy. Nervous. Twitchy. Daisy used to think it meant he was guilty. Turns out he was. Just not of what she’d thought.

Daisy learns how to peel an orange.

↳ daisy and jon’s relationship is an example of an instance where i’m happy to say “fuck what you wrote mr. jonny ‘chocolate torte of tragedy’ sims, i want them to be friends”.

pins and needles by mutterandmumble | 13K | S1-S4 | Complete

He’s got a reputation to uphold anyways; an uptight, rigid reputation that dictates the way that he interacts and functions and is such an integral part of him that he can’t let go of it anytime soon. He likes his safety nets. He likes his contingencies. He likes his privacy, and everything around this place right down to the walls seems to have ears, so he’ll stay tight-lipped up to and beyond the threat of death.

He’s good at that.

In which Jon takes up embroidery and bumbles through life the best that he can.

↳ out of all the introspective jon pieces i’ve read (and there are many), this one stands out. maybe it’s the symbolism or the characterisation, or maybe it’s the fact that i have an embroidery kit lurking in the back of my closet along with a hundred other half-pursued hyperfixations. whatever. this is excellent.

sleeping in by @ivelostmyspectacles | 5K | S2 | Jon/Tim | Complete

“Who are you trying to convince?”

Jon gives up, letting his head sag against Tim’s shoulder. “I don’t know.”

aka Elias gets tired of Jon and Tim's bickering, sends them away for a "team-building" weekend trip, and is sure to book them a room with only one bed

↳ this has everything you’d need from a “oh no there’s only one bed” fic. someone please get these men therapy.

if you try, sometimes (you get what you knead) by @ajcrawly​ | 3.5K | S1-S4 | Jon/Martin, Tim/Sasha | Complete

It starts with an abundance of boeuf bourguignon and ends up as a team tradition.

Food and love in uncertain times.

↳ more found family fic, this time with a diverse og!archival staff and food as a metaphor for love. hurt in all the right ways. made me hungry in the process.

[hazbincalifornia]

Warmth

Chapter 20: Blitzo works his way through heat.

Warnings: Mpreg, explicit sexual content. This one’s basically all smutty, we return to the actual plot next time.

Likes, replies, and reblogs are all appreciated, both here and on ao3!

Ao3 link

The air was heavy with heat and panting breaths as Blitzo’s tail curled around one of Stolas’s legs. After one haphazard ‘at stolsas don worry honey’ text to Loona, the last few hours had been spent pretty much just trying to figure out which positions still worked, which ones didn’t, and which ones were even better now that Blitzo had a belly that Stolas seemed particularly fond of touching somehow while Blitzo fucked into him. At the moment, they were sprawled out on his couch once the bed had started getting a little too hot and sticky.

“Of course you’re into that,” Blitzo growled out, feeling Stolas’s cock rubbing against his stomach as he was buried up to the hilt in owl ass. “Like feeling my big baby belly against your feathers, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes Daddy… it feels so good,” Stolas moaned back, and Blitzo only stalled for a moment before going with it.

“Like it when Daddy is real rough?” His grip tightened on Stolas’s hips. “You want to be good for Daddy, don’t you?”

“Please-”

“Then be quiet and let me finish,” Blitzo said, sweat dripping down his face as he pulled back some. “You want to make Daddy happy, don’t you? Then do as you’re told.”

Stolas opened his mouth before snapping it shut, nodding- and Blitzo didn’t even need the gag this time. Now that he thought of it, though… He pulled the rest of the way out, grabbing Stolas’s head and shoving him down just hard enough to feel the shiver that ran through the prince at his forcefulness as he spread his legs. “Be a good boy and finish what you started.”

Stolas’s top eyes closed as he started sucking enthusiastically, wet tongue running around Blitzo’s cock as the imp’s fingers tangled in the feathers on his head. There was a little spark of pain as Stolas’s beak dragged along the top of his length, but it was quickly drowned out by the pleasure. “F-fuck, yeah, just like that…” He could feel Stolas’s soft head feathers bobbing underneath his baby gut, and it was somehow genuinely tying with the blowjob for the best thing he had going on at the moment. From the whimpers Stolas made from under his belly and around his cock, and the way his lower eyes were squinting happily, he was enjoying himself just as much.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Stolas was stroking himself, but it was all just white noise in his brain at the moment as his third climax in the past hour built up. “Swallow it,” he managed to say, and Stolas gave a single bob in agreement, using his other hand to hook slender fingers inside of Blitzo’s entrance and making the imp cum directly into his mouth with a cry. Stolas was grinning around Blitzo as he swallowed, looking up at him, and the way his throat flexed in and out as he did jolted at Blitzo’s stomach just as the kid turned over.

_____________

Fingers intertwined and then pulled apart again to grip at hips and thighs and arms, desperate to grab at anything they could touch. Stolas was so soft, how hadn’t he realized just how soft he was before now? So soft and warm, and very, very, eager. It was exactly what he needed and he lost himself in it, just enjoying each other’s touches and moans.

_____________

“That’s it, princess,” Blitzo growled out, tugging on the leash connected to the collar around Stolas’s neck as he buried himself inside of him, feeling as much as hearing the owl whimper as the fabric of his skirt shifted. “You like feeling my cock in you, don’t you? You like your pretty prince doing whatever he wants to you?”

Stolas nodded, his entire face glowing with how his eyes- even half-lidded- were practically flooding out light as he squirmed, the handcuffs clinking between them. “Oh, yes…”

The past day had been a bit of a blur. Blitzo had kind of lost track of what round they were on, honestly, but the worst of the burn had faded. It was almost a game to see how long they could both last now- and Blitzo hated losing. He flipped Stolas over and bit his neck just hard enough to draw blood, getting a drawn-out moan as he lapped it up. It was so, so much better than any other bloody meat he’d been trying to substitute, and Stolas’s legs crossed behind his back to keep him doing it.

A few droplets landed on the white patch on Stolas’s chest, and they both looked down at it before Blitzo leaned forward and started licking.

“You taste so damn good,” Blitzo muttered, and Stolas moaned a little, bucking his chest up.

“Taste me then…”

Blitzo was more than happy to oblige.

_____________

Blitzo really, really liked licking and biting today. It was nice getting to see the marks when he pulled back, even though he got a mouthful of feathers in the process.

_____________

They both fell asleep at some point. Stolas was a much better bed than the actual bed, even though that one was like floating on a cloud. He never wanted to leave.

______________

He could drink in the noises and half-coherent words Stolas made and never need air again. Feeling that hand on his face made the world dissolve away, nothing but warm heat around him as fingers with claws dragged down, leaving trails of pain that he couldn’t get enough of.

______________

More. More. More.

______________

“Hmmph-grah?” Blitzo blinked his eyes open as he felt himself swaying from side to side, pressed against something that was partially soft and partially kinda crusty. “Wha’s…?”

“You passed out,” Stolas replied. As Blitzo’s eyes adjusted, he realized that he was leaning against a feathery chest. “Just collapsed right on top of me, like a little marionette with all the strings cut.” He tutted. “I was going to clean both of us up.”

Blitzo sniffed at the air- he could smell jizz, blood, and sweat all mixing together, and had to admit that it probably was a good idea to scrub down some before it started caking on his skin and Stolas’s feathers. Er, more than it already had. His tail lazily waved from side to side as Stolas hugged him tight to his body before draping over his middle. The kid was warm and content in there, lucky little bastard, out here their daddy was soaked in a lot of unpleasant substances.

“So, anybody seeing us…?”

“It’s late,” Stolas said simply as he shifted Blitzo to use one hand to open the bathroom door. “The bathroom is right off my bedroom anyway, you woke up quickly when I moved you.”

“Ah.” Yeah, being a light sleeper was for people without senses like a hawk who didn’t kill for a living. At some point he’d lost his shirt- he wasn’t sure if Stolas had managed to peel it off or he’d ripped it off himself at some point in the haze of heat. He hoped it was the former, he liked that shirt. “So, not that I don’t know, but how long…?”

“Well, counting the time that we both passed out earlier, I believe it’s been about two days,” Stolas said as he settled Blitzo against the wall in the shower. “I’m sure your little coworkers can handle IMP for a while longer if need be.”

“Think the heat’s starting to fade,” Blitzo muttered with a yawn, hugging himself and rubbing up and down his arms as he looked around- this was more like a small room than a shower, with beautiful blue carvings in the wall marble of mermaids and stars and shit. Considering what they’d been doing for the past (apparently) two days, he felt oddly vulnerable now, skinned bare as Stolas fussed with the knobs. “Where’s the shower head anyw-” He was cut off as jets erupted from above, left and right, battering him as he sputtered. “Hey, hey!”

“Slip of the fingers!” Stolas twisted something and the left and right water tapered off, leaving only the softer stream from directly above him. The water trickled down, bits of black blood pooling at his feet. He could definitely feel scratches over his skin, so he had no real idea if it was his blood or Stolas’s, not when the water made the marks sting either way. Stolas bent over a bit and cupped his cheek. “Is that better?”

Yes, it definitely was, considering the soft touch was making his stomach do flips. “Yeah, it’s fine.” Blitzo reached over a little flat rack to grab a washcloth, but his legs were still unsteady and the first step he made his knees buckled. “Woah- fuck!”

“Blitzy!” Stolas fumbled for him, barely managing to catch him by the chest before he slammed into the floor. “Goodness, you need to be more careful!”

“Yeah, well, you kinda put me through the wringer,” he muttered, pushing Stolas away as soon as his feet felt steady underneath him again and starting to scrub the washcloth over the grimiest-feeling bits. Stolas clucked his tongue as he wrung out a patch of feathers on his chest that washed out black water.

“You did it to yourself, darling. You sounded so desperate… it’s lucky I’m so mad for you, and it was so much fun these past few days.”

“And who got me all hormonal and shit in the first place, huh?” Blitzo raised an eyebrow. “Checkpiss or whatever. Now can you let me clean myself off or what?”

“I could do that, or…” Stolas glanced to the side. “Or I could take care of you. You’ve been so good, these past few days…” He squeezed his washcloth to get rid of the gunk on it and set it on Blitzo’s chest, his touch surprisingly gentle. “Let yourself relax, Blitzy.” He shifted the washcloth over the imp’s belly, and Blitzo’s breath hitched as he cupped it with his other hand. “You look so wonderful like this, filled with our child…” The cloth was way, way softer than it had any right to be, and Blitzo swayed a little before Stolas set a hand on his butt.

“Hey-”

“One moment.” He scooped Blitzo up like a doll, setting him down where the washcloths had been. It was a little tight, but everything in here being fucking huge kinda worked out- now he was only a little under Stolas’s eye-level instead of way under it. Stolas began to hum some tune that Blitzo vaguely recognized as being from an old-timey movie as he cleaned him off, allowing his hands and eyes to roam as Blitzo’s eyes slipped to half-lidded.

Damn, he really was tired, wasn’t he? Between the warm-but-not-hot water and Stolas’s gentle touch he found himself drifting off a little. Even the weight in his middle and resting on his thighs was sort of comfortable now that he’d gotten used to it, like a hot water bottle over an ache. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for long- he jolted when he felt fingers sliding into him just below his dick, sputtering out water he’d nearly choked on. “Stolas!”

“I said I wanted to help you relax, didn’t I?” Stolas’s grin was a little too wide, blurry through the water but the emotions coming across loud and clear. “You’ve given that wonderful cock of yours quite a workout, I’m just giving the other part some attention too.”

“I was just getting comfortable,” Blitzo muttered. After a few moments, he realized that Stolas didn’t seem like he was trying to spread him to enter, just rubbing his fingers around the outside before gently scooping them in against the warm inner walls. He was going slow and even, and it… actually was sort of relaxing, a kind of warm gooiness that he didn’t usually get since he generally preferred jerking off over fingering himself.

“Mmm, you’re so cute when you squirm, darling,” Stolas cooed as Blitzo’s legs kicked out a little, pulling his fingers back. “I will stop if you wish, but-” The end of Blitzo’s tail wrapped around Stolas’s wrist, keeping it in.

“Eh, fuck it, you started it, might as well go all the way.”

Stolas leaned down for a kiss. “Excellent!” His thumb rubbed the extra-sensitive part on top where Blitzo’s cock had receded for the moment, and Blitzo bit back a groan as embers sputtered in his guts while Stolas’s other hand set the washcloth down and started stroking his belly by itself.

“You’re perfect, all laid out… a feast for the eyes. For all the senses,” Stolas half-chirped in delight as his two fingers slid in a bit further, slowly flexing in and out and driving Blitzo buck-fucking-wild as he gripped the edge of the washcloth holder. “I can’t imagine a better specimen- you’re the peak of what an imp can be, and the child will be absolutely marvelous. You carry them so well, Blitzy, you’re glowing even tired like this…” His free hand continued drawing circles on Blitzo’s belly as his fingers lower down worked Blitzo up, drawing out reactions as Blitzo bit down on his lip.

Internally, his cock was sore, but he wasn’t exactly eager to let Stolas inside him again at the moment- even though it wasn’t like he could really get pregnant again. (Or could he? Weird things happened with magic! For all he knew- oh wait, hold that thought, oh fuck yeah, right there, that was good.) It was more the principle of the thing, but fingering? Yeah, yeah that was fine, especially when Stolas was that talented with his fingers. He have to been practicing or something, because Blitzo kinda felt like a stick of butter melting under the hottest stage lights in Lust.

Stolas stole another kiss before hooking his fingers up at the knuckle. Blitzo slapped a hand over his mouth as he came with a final burst of internal flame and coiled pressure, Stolas’s other hand curling into a fist atop his rounded belly.

“Well, since we’re already in the shower, cleanup should be easy.” Stolas pulled back with a little laugh, and Blitzo felt a momentary pang before shaking it off, sliding off the rack and leaning against the wall. The cool, smooth texture under his palm was grounding. He took a deep breath as he reached for a new washcloth, pressing his tender legs together and feeling another little spiral of sparks that were intertwined with a burning in his chest as Stolas hummed next to him. Without thinking, his hand softly rubbed over where Stolas’s fingers had been on his belly.

[mcrmadness]

Every time I see Bela’s snail, it reminds me of my own drawing I recently found from a box full of my VERY old drawings:

We’re basically the same.

No but, I actually have no clue what was the exact year or my age when I drew this. It feels like it was drawn with those crayons we always got at elementary school, which I never liked but apparently for whatever reason decided to use on this drawing. And the crayons seem to match the colors. (Yes, I’m a bit of a hoarder and still have the crayons despite using them the last time probably over 15 years ago.)

The paper is the same type of paper that had ready-made holes and I often used these papers for creating “notebooks” for my comics by using gift wrapping string for tying the papers together. I have several old comics that I did (or tried to do) like that. Also the style looks a lot like how I used to draw when I was still in elemantary school which is why I’d say I was about 10-12 years old at the time. And because I’m old, it means that was in 2001-2003 :D And since it was literally in the box that was at my parents’ house and where I haven’t put stuff in over a decade, it must be very much old. (So jokes on Bela, I’m the pioneer here lmao. Jk.)

Btw, would anyone be interested in a post (or posts) about my old comics? Like, I have TONS of them. I still have every single one here saved, safely in the drawer where I have been keeping them ever since I got this table when I was still a preteen. Everything is in Finnish tho but I had a phase when I started scanning them and translating them into English - not that there’s anything interesting to READ since the plot is almost always the same in all old ones but the images are fun to look at :D The ones I made as a teenager were already much better - I actually realized I should come up with a plot first and then draw.

Basically I could try making videos about them too but idk, I am so bad at talking. I mean I speak and too much but is any of that shit important or useful? No. So it’d just be many way too long videos no one would watch because my train of thought is very broken and keeps losing the tracks every 2 minutes.

[odanurr87]

My thoughts on... The King: Eternal Monarch

Lee Min-ho as Lee Gon, and Kim Go-eun as Jeong Tae-eul.

Release date: April 17 - June 12, 2020

Episodes: 16

Available on: Netflix

Plot synopsis: On one fateful night of December 1994, the king of the Kingdom of Corea was brutally murdered by his illegitimate brother, Lee Lim. The king’s son, Lee Gon, was spared a similar fate thanks to the timely intervention of a mysterious saviour, who only left behind an identity card belonging to one Lieutenant Jeong Tae-eul. 15 years later, King Lee Gon finds himself transported to the parallel world of the Republic of Korea where he meets Lieutenant Jeong Tae-eul and together they work to uncover a conspiracy across their two worlds.

Rewatch meter: Medium to High

Introduction

The King: Eternal Monarch is the latest work by writer Kim Eun-sook and, since I enjoyed two of her previous works (Descendants of the Sun and Goblin), I was quite looking forward to it. I didn't know actor Lee Min-ho at the time but I recalled Kim Go-eun from Goblin so I was relatively excited to see her in another main role. The pilot episode of the show was great, deftly introducing us to a host of characters and setting up several plot threads in a total runtime of 70 minutes, already incorporating the concepts of time travel and parallel worlds, not an easy task and a much welcome departure from most kdramas on air. Since I am a fan of sci-fi and modern fantasy however, that meant I'd put this show under the microscope so how did it fare?

Related reviews: Goblin

Characters

From left to right: Lee Jung-jin as Lee Lim, Jung Eun-chae as Goo Seo-rung, Lee Min-ho as Lee Gon, Kim Go-eun as Jeong Tae-eul, Woo Do-hwan as Jo Yeong, and Kim Kyung-nam as Kang Shin-jae.

The show enjoys, and suffers from, a host of characters on both worlds, with many actors playing dual roles because of the concept of parallel worlds. This (over)abundance of characters results in most having to play second fiddle to the two leads. In hindsight, a tighter cast would've worked better. A fair few of the characters (e.g. the detective hiding something from his wife, the pregnant lady, the mother of Lee Gon's doppelganger, god kid, and many more) did not ultimately justify their presence other than to set up (underwhelmingly resolved) mysteries to keep the audience engaged. More important characters, like Prime Minister Koo and Lee Lim, sadly never reached their full potential to my mind, being relegated to play more stereotypical antagonist roles in the end. While I can understand this decision with Lee Lim to an extent, it was a shame Prime Minister Koo’s character wasn’t more nuanced. While Lee Min-ho's characterization of Lee Gon has taken some flak I found him to act more or less in line with how a (fictional) king would, one excited at the prospect of having found the woman he's been searching for for most of his life. Kim Go-eun as Jeong Tae-eul was the one who truly delivered on the emotional end of the spectrum, as we all knew she would. Sadly, the character of Luna was more undercooked, and the show could probably have done without her.

Pacing

The all-out battle at the end of Episode 11, with Lee Gon showing off his skill with the sword, is one of the highlights of the show.

While the pacing of the show ramped up considerably towards the end it actually started rather slowly. Lee Gon discovers the Republic of Korea at the end of the first episode, yes, but it is not until the end of Episode 4 that he returns to his kingdom, with a skeptical Jeong Tae-eul in tow. Then, it is at the end of Episode 9 that Lee Gon and Lee Lim have their first encounter, with an all-out battle with Lee Lim's henchmen at the end of Episode 11, and the reveal of the identity of the savior at the end of Episode 13. I was quite satisfied with the show's pacing up until that point but a little worried about how they would tie everything up with 3 episodes left, worries that proved to be justified, as many plot threads were left unresolved or rushed to conclusion without living up to the expectations built up after several episodes. Considering the last episode of the show solves the main conflict in the first 20 minutes, I don't think this faster pacing was justified.

Execution

It is difficult not to conclude the execution of the plot wasn't nearly as tight as it could've been. The show continuously introduced new questions, new mysteries, and new characters, to keep us guessing, to keep us engaged, sometimes to the detriment of the overall storytelling quality. Who is this new character? How does s/he factor in Lee Lim's plan? Who's sending this stuff to PM Koo? What is the significance of the scars? There is no doubt these questions succeeded in keeping us engaged and I have to give it props for that. However, the execution was dragged down from indulging in superfluous characters and plot threads. Park Moon-sik's nightly escapades from his wife are a perfect example, a plot whose resolution was needlessly postponed till the final episode. Removing such plots could've open up time better served to further develop characters, like PM Koo, or explore Lee Lim's plans more thoroughly, an aspect where I feel the show dropped the ball, as these turned out to be contradictory and contrived, helping out the writer more than Lee Lim himself.

Time Travel

Sadly, the execution of time travel is a direct casualty of continuously trying to surprise the audience with new twists or for the sake of pulling at our heart strings. Up until Episode 13, its depiction of time travel lined up perfectly with the concept of a causal loop (e.g. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban), but then Episode 14 had characters remember new past events in real-time (think of the movie Frequency, with Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid), and Episode 15 resurrected a character who should've been dead, among potentially more problematic issues. Time travel is a fictional concept, but even fiction is guided by certain rules and, sadly, the depiction of time travel in The King: Eternal Monarch does not hold up under further scrutiny, what deflated my engagement somewhat. Here I was, trying to understand how the writer had put together the puzzle only to realize some of the pieces didn't line up or were from different puzzles altogether. This was not entirely unexpected, as few stories have used time travel consistently in the past, but I was mildly disappointed, particularly given the writer’s excellent work and attention to detail in Goblin.

Romance

Another highlight of the show, especially if you understand exactly what is going on in this scene.

While I can believe Lee Gon could’ve developed feelings for Jeong Tae-eul after searching for her for 20+years (fans of The Expanse will recall Miller also developed feelings for Julie while searching for her), the beginning of their romance in Episode 5 felt a bit forced. It also struck me as odd when Jeong Tae-eul was the one to declare her feelings of love for Lee Gon in Episode 7 instead of the other way around. In fact, it isn't until Episode 10 that Lee Gon admits his feelings for her in one of the most emotional scenes of the show. Perhaps if the two had switched around their declarations it would’ve made more sense.

In any case, their romantic relationship was cemented from Episode 10 onwards for me, although they had cute couple moments in earlier episodes, with Episode 6 featuring the most heartfelt conversations and interactions. For my part, watching their relationship continue to unfold was one of the highlights of the show, and it certainly delivered in the following episodes. Lee Gon's unyielding quest across time and space to find Jeong Tae-eul again and again was moving, though more powerful in Episode 14 than 16 to my mind, perhaps because of the music, editing, and added emotional impact of Jeong Tae-eul knowing Lee Gon is on his way. Perhaps if Episode 16 had dedicated more than 5 minutes (count them) of its runtime to show Lee Gon constantly leaving the palace to search for and meet different versions of Jeong Tae-eul throughout the years it would've been a lot more impactful, and potentially heartbreaking. Tying it to his appearance at the end of Episode 10 would've made it perfect.

Music

I hesitate slightly to say the soundtrack for The King: Eternal Monarch is on the same level as that of Goblin (time will tell), but if it's not, it certainly isn't far behind. Songs like "Gravity," "Orbit," and "Maze," or instrumental tracks like "One Day," "My Love and...," "Into the Fantasy," and "The Fantasia of Another Dimension," are a sample of this album's best. Sadly, not all tracks featured in the show are included in the album, such as the variant of “The King” that plays at the end of Episode 15 when Lee Gon bids farewell to Lady Noh. If you're a soundtrack aficionado like I am, I'd suggest you keep this album in your Spotify library or equivalent.

Conclusions

The King: Eternal Monarch is, by no means, a perfect show. It is technically not as good as writer Kim Eun-sook's previous Goblin, which overall covered the topics previously discussed better than The King did. However, that is not to say The King: Eternal Monarch isn't an overall good show as it is, one that boldly incorporates interesting concepts like time travel and parallel worlds to its narrative with ultimately mixed results. The music is great, production values are top notch, and all of the actors’ performances were on point, though a tighter cast would’ve benefited some of their performances. While the romance between Lee Min-ho’s and Kim Go-eun’s characters may be a hard sell for some, at least initially, it ultimately worked for me.

If you haven't watched the show yet and are reading this review now, then I'm sorry that you've missed out on the experience of watching the show week to week, discussing and dissecting it with other viewers, and rewatching episodes scouring for clues, a process it easily lends itself to as opposed to other kdramas. If you're into sci-fi and modern fantasy, then I'd encourage you to give it a watch, bearing in mind the previously discussed caveats. If you're into romance kdramas, set your expectations accordingly. If you're looking for more recommendations on modern fantasy+romance and have already watched Goblin, then allow me to recommend the excellent Hotel del Luna (which I’m currently in the process of reviewing after watching it, what, four times now?). For my part, I'm looking forward to Kim Eun-sook, Lee Min-ho, and Kim Go-eun's next projects.

[badbookopinions]

Stealing Thunder - Alina Boyden

I’m a little biased about this book, and I’ve tried to reduce that as much as I can in the review. This is a book set in Fantasy India, but its author is white. I’ve had bad experiences with white authors writing about South Asian culture before, so I was probably looking for an excuse for this book to screw up, which stopped me from ever fully getting into it. I found it very well-researched (Boyden is a literal anthropologist of South Asian culture so this makes sense) and coming from a good place, but Boyden didn’t get everything right. 

Razia Khan is a hijra (a trans woman) in Fantasy India (it’s not really able to fit into a specific time in India - I’d say Fantasy Mughal India but the Mughal empire isn’t there so it doesn’t really fit). She used to be a dragon-riding prince, but now she’s a courtesan and a thief. When she meets a prince and proves her worth, she becomes the super coolest person of all time.

This isn’t as bad of a book as this review is going to make it look. It’s just that all of its flaws are things that are my personal pet peeves in books. 

It also suffers from Everything Is About Me All The Time disease - no plots revolved around other characters and pretty much all everyone talked about was Razia the entire time. Also she keeps having very private conversations in real public places and making out with her boyfriend in front of everyone, which...cringe.

Also, not setting up the narrative, which is a term I just made up to mean several of the most important characters and plotlines were introduced halfway through the story with no setup even in her internal monologue (one such example is her little sister who is a very important character in the last half showing up 30% of the way through without any warning she had a sister at all.) When the pacing is weird it just really bothers me.

However, the thing this book is known for is trans Desi dragonriders. For trans rep: I'm cis myself so I can't speak definitively but I thought it was great. Razia gets a whole story and gets to be badass without ever erasing the fact that she's trans or making her whole story about it. Also, she gets solidarity with her trans sisters which was cool. 

For dragons: good good dragons. Seriously, just - fantastic dragons. I would have liked slightly more dragons, though.

For Desi - like I said, coming from a good place. But Boyden got several things about food wrong, which bothered me - at one point she compares someone's skin to the colour of fresh jalebis...which are bright orange. And I noticed that the main character and her love interest are pale-skinned and green/'honey-coloured'-eyed (I have never met anyone with honey-coloured eyes and would like to know where they're all hiding). Also Boyden completely avoided any religion in this story, which kind of just made everyone feel Fantasy Lapsed Protestant.

If you're reading this book for trans rep or dragons, you'll have a great time. Its Desi rep was kind of C-plus: I will not be tagging this book as Desi representation in my archives. Personally, I think that shouldn't stop anyone from reading it if it sounds interesting - not everything sticks the landing, but that doesn't make this book racist and unreadable just because it's bad. It just means it's not very good.  

Plot: a loosely-held string tying together different opportunities for Razia to show off. Seriously - total wish fulfillment book. Nothing wrong with that - but personally I want a plot. Also, weird pacing - challenges were introduced without any foreshadowing and then we were dealing with them immediately - no waiting at all. 

Characters: bad. Perfect Main Character and Perfect Love Interest aka Arjun, who kind of fall in love without any real romance - they sleep together and then go on three dates and she impresses him and he keeps her secret then they're in love without any real sort of communication. There weren't any issues between them, which would have been fine if their romance wasn't a main plot where there needs to be conflict. Secondary characters were bland and uninteresting - her sisters were vaguely supportive, her foster mother was bad and manipulative. Boyden did something really weird with her minor villains though - Arjun's father spends 300 pages being incredibly transphobic and then he starts saying she's impressive and hugging her and it's fine! A minor character literally raped Razia in the past but is now defending her as the most impressive person and Razia doesn't seem to feel too badly towards him! Also, stop writing books about 17-year-olds who act like adults. Just write about adults, it’s fine.

Setting: barring a few mistakes, very well-researched and well-realized. Would not have minded more specificity in culture though - it feels very much sometimes like Boyden took her vast anthropological knowledge and took the most interesting things from several cultures and pushed them together, in ways that were sometimes jarring.

Prose: fine. There was the fresh-cooked jalebi example from above that was Bad, but most of the description was uneventful.

[missklou]

The one who sins {1} (M)

Make sure to check my masterlist here.

Genre: Smut with little plot, there’s gon be a sequel you just wait for it! dom!Seokjin, sub!reader, supernatural!au. Angst, very, very angsty.

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader X Seokjin (you are gonna understand the dynamics soon I swear)

Word count: 3.2k

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of sex, slut shaming, oral sex (fem receiving), dirty talk, power play, fingering, manhandle, rough sex, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, unprotected sex (use protection you fools), derogatory language during sex, implied sexism (this is supposed to be a 19th century sequel, I swear) basically I’m TRASH.

THERE ARE PROBABLY TONS OF SPELLING ERRORS AND MISUSED WORDS THAT I’LL CORRECT LATER, I WAS JUST EXCITED TO POST.

His favorite song played softly from the end of the hallway, filling the wintry apartment with desolated violin cries that harmonized with the raindrops hitting the windows. The walls were illuminated by bolts of lightning every few seconds, creating warped shadows on the tapestry, followed shortly by roaring thunders that made your heart tremble.

-Will, I’m home! -Your voice echoes into the dark mansion, it sounds weary but also filled with fraternal love.

You don't expect any replies from the man, cleaning your muddy boots on the doormat and hanging your hat and gloves on the coatrack by the door.

The usually quiet house is disturbed by the howling winter draft, bringing the unmerciful rain inside through an open window. You rest your bags on the floor to urgently close and lock it before the wood floors get any more damaged, cursing under your breath as the cold drops met your already shivering skin in the process.

-Dammit, Willian… -Mumbling to yourself, you collect the discarded bags, place them on the dining table before going up the elegant stairs and moving to one of the many hallways that lead to the main bedrooms, following the music as irritation buddles in your chest.

It was infuriating and it had been going for long enough. You work all day in secret, while still going around to take care of all his needs, running all day long to make sure the two of you could maintain a comfortable living while he didn’t even remember to close the windows so you had a warm home to go back to every night?

It was a habit of his, to recollect to his room before you came back, to lock himself away with his creativity and working hands and allow the house to be engulfed in the darkness of the night the exact way you left it every morning: open and inviting to the afternoon breeze that had long disappeared.

The sun will be raising in little more than an hour so he must be already in bed, but with your frustration pumping blood into your ears, you soon find yourself standing in front of his room, running your hands through your wet locks before knocking firmly.

The door is pushed open, orange light unexpectedly inundates the hallway... Wasn't he sleeping?

-William how many times must I tell you not to leave the windows… -You hurry inside, taking careful steps to the end of his bed, trying your best to avoid the paintings drying on the floor, raising your eyes moments later to find him.

Pinned, quite literally, to the wall. A wood stick projects from the base of his throat, exposing flesh, arteries, veins, and the snow-white bones underneath the terrorizing mess.

Black blood still leaks lazily from the wound, dripping like dark wine from his clothes to the growing puddle on the floor, silently staining the wood with the torturing marks of death itself.

His teacup with bright red blood still rested, untouched and delicately balanced on the armchair, his honey blonde hair still shone like gold dust in the dim lights of the room, his nails still had yellow ink underneath them from painting sunflowers and sunsets on his canvas.

But his skin was as pale as the lights that ripped the skies, and his eyes were lifeless marble balls on his once beautiful, beautiful face, slowly choking you in your fear as they stared blankly past you to the blowing curtains as if the angel of death was carried in and out with the furious wind

➺

-I still don’t understand why are you so committed to meet this man.

You glance at the mirror, offering darkened eyes to the shirtless man laid -no, spread- in your bed with a muscled arm over his head. He looks displeased and slightly red, with a fixated gaze to your back.

The room is familiar and comfortable in its silence, the heavy curtains give you the impression it is still dark outside while the clock signals it’s late morning already, the dying crackle of the fireplace makes you unaware of the falling snowflakes on the dirty streets outside.

With a soft chuckle, you go back to tying the strings of your corset, watching yourself in the old mirror as the vanilla-scented candles work to dilute the pungent odor of the room.

-And I don't understand why do you look so bothered by it, -The tightness around your body compresses your voice, you sound a little out of breath- I already told you what I want from him… 

The reply is calm but the man isn’t soothed by it, jumping on his feet and approaching with his broad shoulders glowing with the sweat from moments ago, his skin looks and probably still is warm.

-Someone has an attitude today. -One of his hands goes over your shoulder to rest on the mirror, pressing your bodies together. His breath caresses the bare skin of your neck, making the hair in the back of your neck stand up, he grins maliciously -Perhaps I should lock the doors, forbid you from leaving the house. -He leans in closer, the other hand going around your waist to keep you in place ass his lips find the sensitive spot between your ear and your neck.-The bedroom... -His kisses trail along the base of your neck to your shoulders as he speaks, the hand in your waist pulls tighter, pressing your hips together. - My arms...

The growing bulge in your back tells you the man isn’t done for the day and he won’t let you go until he’s satisfied, so you turn your head, eyes meeting with his deliciously wicked ones.

-This deal is primordial and if I fail on convincing him, everything I have worked for…

-So… -He interrupts, the hand that was once in your waist travels daringly down to your ass, groping the flesh harshly, the smile stretches on his face once he notices how you arch your chest and sink your nails on his shoulder, a positive response to his inappropriate actions. - You should be relaxed for your meeting, as much as I don’t like the idea of it… And you know I could be helpful with that.

The man was, in the most literal sense, the greatest mistake a common woman could afford. Cheap alcohol connoisseur, a frequent contestant at bar fights, soft-spoken, deadbeat, played a part in multiple ruined marriages…

But you weren’t any common young lady he had laid with, not that he was aware of it.

As he lifts your long skirt for the second time this morning, he believes to have you at the palm of his hand, he believes that his shallow promises are the cause of your aching desire, he believes his presence is what causes your skin to shiver but that isn't it.

It's the empowerment, is knowing that the elegant man -that looks so wealthy, that smells so luxurious, that dresses in such expensive fabrics- only stands on this spot because you had placed him there, because you allow it. 

Seokjin, your lewd servant, gets on his knees to undress you from the skirt and untighten your corset, his eyes staring up at you as if you held the world in your hands, shining with adoration but also making it crystal clear that the man was up to no good.

His lips meet the warm skin of your inner thighs, your right-hand dives automatically to grab his dark hair the minute he places a chaste -or not so much- kiss on your sex through your underwear.

A soft moan escapes your lips, it’s timid but enough to fill him with pride, leading to a much rougher approach. Seokjin licks a long stripe of your clothed cunt, drenching your panties in both his saliva and your arousal.

The desire makes you lightheaded, all blood rushed to your core and cheeks, leaving you blushed and gasping as you anticipate his next move. Your free hand trembles so you hide it in your messy hair, gripping the locks to make yourself steady, failing miserably when his tongue swirls slowly against your clit, earning a long, broken moan from the base of your throat, your knees buckle and your legs fail to support you.

He is ready to catch you, he always is. The mood shifts immediately, his tender touch turns into a fierce grip, nails digging into the soft skin of your hips and roughly pulling at your clothes so that in the bat of an eye you were completely exposed to him. Seokjin closes his eyes, savoring the sweetness and the smell as he eats your sex like a starved man, knowing he couldn’t possibly stop until you were squirming and becoming undone on his mouth. 

The man could sense that you were staring at him and a cocky grin takes over his expression as he teasingly looked up to meet your eyes as his thumb met your sensitive bud. 

The sensation is too much, the combination of circular movements stimulating your clit and his experienced tongue soon sends you into a shaking orgasm where you can only see white and can only feel pleasure running through you like waves. 

He backs away for a second and your eyebrows raise in confusion but fortunately, Seokjin wastes no time before standing up, catching you in his arms and turning you around so that your back pressed into him and you faced yourself in the mirror. A loud slap fills the room and you whimper at the burning sensation on your ass, Seokjin leans in, his whole body connecting to yours as two of his long fingers enter you unceremonially in one motion and you grip the edges of the mirror to hold yourself up and roll your eyes at the sudden mixture of pain, pleasure, and overstimulation. 

-Look at yourself, open your eyes and look at yourself whore. -His other hand leaves your hips to grab your face, fingers roughly holding your cheeks and jaw and forcing you to stare at your disheveled self, your shallow breath fogging the mirror's surface. Your servant stands behind you, his lips pressing to your ear to grunt more commands as his fingers fuck you mercilessly.

-Look how beautiful you look, completely desperate for cock the way I like it. -He shakes your face as if to make his point before letting go, his fingers pull out of you at the same time. Still, slightly light-headed from your first orgasm and holding yourself up by holding onto the mirror, you raise your head to watch as he pulls his pants down, the only piece of clothing he had on this morning and stroked his cock lazily, taking his time in admiring your exposed body as you offered yourself for him, bothered and impatient at the lack of contact.

 You groan and buck your hips back to try and get his attention but the man only slaps you harder than before, laughing as you whimper from the pain. He guides himself to your entrance and sensually rolls his hips forward, entering you in a delicious pace.

He uses the moment to watch your little sinful show on the mirror, admiring your hanging tits and shaky legs, the red skin where he slapped you, the way your bodies connected with each deep thrust and how you meowed his name and your knuckles turned white from the effort of holding onto the mirror. 

A knot forms in his stomach and he knows that you are also close by the way you tighten around him, with that, he picks up the pace of his hips and grabs the hair at the back of your hair, slowly getting rougher. 

-You love this, don't you? Getting ruined by cock, getting your little cunt fucked properly in the morning like a good bitch. -You moan in agreement, bucking your hips back. -Say it out loud whore, I want to hear from you!

-Yes! -He pulls your head back and you groan at the pain and the pleasure that comes with it. -Yes, I love it! I love to get ruined like a slut. -He presses open-mouthed kisses to your neck and shoulders, occasionally bitting the skin and watching it turn bright red, admiring his marks on you like they were the signature of an artist. 

His thrusts get sloppier and he reaches around your hips to press his fingers to your clit. The overstimulation brings spots to your eyes and he lets out a deep, guttural moan in your ear as you clench around him. 

-Seokjin! I'm going to cum -You warn him weakly, his fingers work faster on your sex. 

-Cum for me again dear, let it out. -His command is all it takes for you to adjust the angle so that his cock hits all the right spots inside you and his fingers press deliciously against your clit and, before you know it, you are shaking through your second orgasm this morning.

Seokjin moans loudly at the sensation of your convulsing walls and he's soon using your orgasm to reach his own, thrusts getting fast and sloppy until he stops altogether, shooting his cum deep into you as your walls milk him for what he's worth. 

It takes you long minutes to recover from Seokjin’s morning routine but he helped to clean and dress you before going back to his services as your coachman.

➺

The doorbell rings again, this time its persistence leaves the man no choice but to stand, place the bookmarker in the middle of his unfinished chapter, close the open buttons of his shirt and make his way to the door with firm steps.

 He doesn’t ever get visitors so he stops by the closed door and focuses on listening to the other side for a second. The visitor is anxiously breathing and moving its feet but it’s the calm heartbeat that sends red lights into his mind. With another knock from the impatient visitor, he opens the door as much as the chain allowed and angled one eye to exam the outside.

 He doesn’t think he has ever seen a woman like you before. As many ladies he met through his life, you look dainty and amiable with your cheeks burning with the cold wind and plump red lips that supports the sweetest of smiles, but there’s something else in your eyes he can’t quite pinpoint just yet.

 Your dark wine dress, peppered with black details, graced the snow gently with your movements and hugged tightly at your chest, immediately making him conscious of the life filling your lungs and your heart pumping within your ribcage.

 Others saw you as you appeared: A delicate flower, a perfect example of a woman.

But he could see and feel a lot more, and you were perfectly aware of that. 

 The man is used to understanding people within seconds of meeting them, he’s used to analyzing their bodies, their language, finding their fears and desires and that’s what he is trying to find within the woman standing on his doorsteps but there's a tingling sensation to you, it doesn't feel right.

 People usually avoid his eyes, especially if he wants them to, but you seemed experienced in that tactic since you had no trouble supporting his gaze, not even flinching away once. 

Jungkook realizes he can only see what you allow him to, and he finds himself eager to break this invisible barrier without even exchanging a word to you.  

Heat spreads through his body as he thinks of the hideous things he could do to find out what you feared and hoped in this world. The thought of being the one to strip you off this disguise makes something throb in his chest and that feeling is so atypical that it forces him out of his trance.

It’s soon before you speak that his eyes lock with yours again.

-Mister Jeon? My name is… -You can only see half of his face through the crack of the door. All though you read his description, he still felt strange and unique to the eye.

The way his dark eyes trailed of to the carriage still waiting for you with a million unsaid words on it proved that no description could match up to him. You were ready for this moment, but no one ever said it was going to be easy, his presence was too strong.

-Not interested -He quickly interrupts, intending to close the door on your face and stopping only when it hits your boot with a dry bang. -What do you think you are doing? -He raises his brows, indignantly scoffing.

-I am terribly sorry mister Jeon but I am in desperate need of your help. -He is dumbfounded by the determination in your eyes as you manage to fit your whole leg on the little space available, defying him intentionally, something more than unusual -My name is Y/L/N.

He stares at you for a long second, waiting for you to give up and walk away, signing heavily and motioning to open the door when you don’t.

You step back, turns and dismiss the carriage with a smile and a soft nod as Jungkook closes the door to open the chain and allow you to enter his house.

His voice is muffled by the lockers and the carriage recommencing its movement, horseshoes punishing the snowy street.

-You sure are a stubborn one miss Y/L/N. -He opens the door fully, offering a snarky grin and exposing his form. 

Rolled-up sleeves adorned his muscular arms, his royal blue vest on top of his white dress shirt enhanced his pale skin and glowing round eyes, his pure black hair was too long and falling in his face, he runs a firm hand through it, exposing his forehead and sharp brows.

-Aren’t you aware of the dangers women are exposed to in a man’s house miss Y/L/N? -His voice is ironical but you knew he meant what he said and it sent shivers down your spine, although your appearance never feltered.

Your face stiffens and you take a step inside, forcing him to take one back in order not to collide into you, he crossed his veiny arms and raised an eyebrow, as a warning not to test him further.

-Women are exposed to dangers in all places shared with men mister Jeon, moreover… You are most definitely not a man, now are you?

You can see his jaw tightening, and his almond eyes turn sharp with your statement lingering in the air.

-What do you want miss Y/L/N? -His mocking tone is gone, replaced with severe words and tense posture, now you were talking business.

-As for right now? -You let out a sigh, shaking your shoulders out of your heavy overall and taking off your hat, signaling that your visit wasn’t going to be so brief. -A cup of tea would do great.

[yogurtlamp]

if the world was ending (you’d come over, right?)

You can also read it on ao3

The end of the world begins with a very anticlimactic start. Maybe you read it in the papers. Maybe you saw a tweet on it. Maybe you heard it on the radio. However you found out, it doesn’t matter. The world is ending.

Some people go jump off a building. Some people write love letters. Some people pool all their money together to buy pasta, intent on becoming internet stars in their last few hours.

Dazai does none of that. He leans against the brick wall of some nondescript building, watches the sky tide over in waves of peach and strawberry, hands in his pocket.

Across the street, someone breaks down screaming. He leaves. He doesn’t need to hear desperate wails of someone who cannot be saved. He’s heard enough of those in his lifetime, some from his victims, more from his own throat.

He feels the pavement beneath his shoes, hears the wind rustling through the trees.

Funny, he’s going to die, yet he’s never felt something so close to being alive.

_________

He gets back to his apartment, and packs everything up. Orderly cardboard boxes that Kunikida would be proud of. Drags them onto the balcony, slowly burns each box. (There isn’t much to burn. There isn’t much he owns. Still, the flames accept it, swallow whatever he can give.)

Smoke curls around him, before swaying into the evening sky, gone.

Smoke is constant. The burning of his orphanage. The pop of Odasaku’s gun. The kiss of Chuuya’s cigarettes. And now, the reassuring caress of his burning possessions.

He considers these. The timeless countdown of hours before he ceases to exist as it wraps its arms around him, Death finally content with being caught after he’s chased it for so many years.

There are many things he wants to say, to many people he will not say them to. Everyone has plans, and he is certain he is none of them. Better to wander, let fate pull her strings and do what she wants with what’s left of his life.

So he does exactly that. He walks by the beach and spots Atsushi and Akutagawa glaring at each other with some complicated mixture of love and anger in their eyes. Listens to the hum of the wind as Kyouka and Kouyou drink tea in the silence of a garden that Dazai isn’t allowed in, but enters anyway. Catches Fukuzawa kneeling before Mori’s grave, contemplating over a scalpel.

He doesn’t interrupt them. They have their lives to lead, their final words to say, and Dazai doesn’t deserve to steal their precious time.

He pops by a bar in a hidden little alley, orders two whiskeys and a Golden Fizz. He doesn’t get angry. Doesn’t tear up. He leaves the drinks in the bar, untouched. A small tribute to what they could have been. Dazai has never been a forgiving person, but he thinks he might start now.

He lets fate guide him, so it's really no surprise she led him here, on the steps of the slums, waiting for something- someone he can’t let himself wait for.

He can’t let himself wait, yet he still does. Waits on some fleeting hope that the someone will be here, with the freshly risen stars a witness to his idiocy.

Quietly, he wonders if this is their last night as well. If they cease to exist when there's no one left to watch them. Such self-centered thought is natural for humans, the belief that the meaning of everything in the universe is dependent solely on us. (For this first time since he can remember, he doesn’t correct himself. He lets himself entertain the idea of being human, it's a small guilty pleasure he rewards himself with on his last day.)

Dazai is a fool to wait. But he supposes Chuuya is a bigger fool for coming.

Maybe Chuuya knew Dazai would be here. Maybe he didn’t. The world around them has always been so easy for Dazai to predict, the people and events nothing but little puppets for him to play with, but it’s never been like that with Chuuya. He hates to admit it, but he can’t see through Chuuya. He knows what to say to make Chuuya hit him, to make Chuuya mad, but he’s lost the moment Chuuya looks into his soul with that hadal gaze.

He doesn’t turn to look at Chuuya, continues to stare up at the stars. Distantly he notes the slight blurriness in his right eye from the eye patch he had been wearing the last time he was here. Maybe he should have considered the impacts of wearing an eye patch over a perfectly healthy eye for years, but he hadn’t expected to live this long. It’s alright though, poor vision in one eye is nothing when you’ll be dead in less than a day.

Chuuya sits on the step behind him, the same height as Dazai for once in his life. He offers him a juice box. Dazai ponders the impact it will have on his image, a lovestruck detective sharing an apple juice with a mafioso, before he realises he doesn’t care. He takes the small carton from Chuuya’s hands and sips.

“So. End of the world.” It’s so rare for Chuuya to start a conversation that isn’t just yelled threats.

“Mn. How are you feeling?” It’s a simple phrase that asks so many questions, from are you ready to die? to is there anything you want to say to me? Please?

Chuuya responds simply.

“Well, kinda like shit.”

Dazai chuckles.

“So many things to do… yet… no one to do them with. You’d think with so many people around me, I’d be throwing a party or drinking myself to death. But well…” Chuuya pauses. It’s so unlike him to say his deeper thoughts. But then again it's so unlike Dazai to wait for him, so unlike him to accept a juice box and make soft conversation. Maybe in this small world between them, they could have been different, could have been friends. (Maybe more, Dazai thinks, but it will never happen, because this isn’t Soukoku, isn’t their trademark Angry-Idiot-Snarky-Asshole dynamic, and Dazai doesn’t know how to let them exist outside of Soukoku)

“But well?” Dazai prods.

“... It feels like… a disrespect. To waste your last day in some dazed hell, to let everything disappear while you’re busy singing your lungs out.” Chuuya finishes.

“Ah… Well I just so happen to have nothing to do.” Dazai smirks at him, the offer dangling from the Dazai’s outstretched hand.

Chuuya looks at him for a moment, eyes flickering with indecision, and takes it.

________

Chuuya’s list of things to do is nothing fancy. It's full of ordinary things, things not worth making a big deal of (if you weren’t a walking science experiment and a traumatised murderer).

Dazai loves it.

(Dazai loves more than just the list, but he can’t say it or it will become true.)

_______

“Ah! Vending machine! Right there! That's our number 4!” Dazai bounces on his heels and points at the glowing box down the road. Simple happiness is a good look on him, Chuuya decides.

Dazai grabs his hand and skips down the road, dragging a squawking Chuuya with him.

They stand there for five minutes, carefully selecting their drinks, before they realise.

“Hey… Do you have any money?”

“... Not enough.”

“Oh.”

Then they get the most devious look on their faces.

Dazai pulls a pen out of his pocket, tears the corner of his bandages, and with eight hours left, two grown men crouch over the sidewalk, plotting.

_______

Ultimately, their plan ends in ruins. The vending machine blows up, leaving them covered in cold syrup , and the only two drinks left are the worst ones.

They still drink them, bickering over who’s fault it was.

(Dazai thinks that he might hate melon milk, but at this moment it’s his favourite drink.)

________

They work their way through the list, a small taste of everything they missed out on the moment the world decided they weren’t worth a normal life. They rediscover Yokohama, learn what it means to be a person. Chuuya is horrifyingly brilliant at scissors-paper-stone, and Dazai is allergic to rabbits. The wind tastes of something distinctly Home, and the glow of the streetlights is peaceful.

The world is beautiful, and for a second, Dazai wishes it wasn’t going to end.

_______ The idea that small apartments are always cozier than expansive penthouses is absolute bullshit, Dazai thinks, because Chuuya’s penthouse is full of such warmth and life that’s always absent from Dazai’s shoddy two-room flat. But perhaps it's just Chuuya, that his tiny body can’t contain all the bursting vitality so it spills into the space and people around him, unbiased and ever-generous.

Chuuya pours himself a glass, Dazai rummaging around until he finds Chuuya’s hidden stash of capri-sun. He’d throw back a whiskey, but what’s the point of drinking something you hate just to remember someone you’ll probably see in a few hours? (He doesn’t let himself consider the fact that heaven and hell will split them, that he may never see Odasaku again.)

They clamber up to the roof, concrete floor and rusty red railings lined with plants that Chuuya never bothered taking care of. Dazai used to do it for him, to feel like he was paying back some of that warmth Chuuya so freely gave, but it’s been years since they’ve properly talked, much less taken care of each other's rooftop gardens..

Spiels of purple and pink bleed across the sky, a testament to the shortening of their time.

There are many things Dazai wants to say, to many people he will not say them to, but he thinks there may be an exception to that rule.

It’s been building up to this for the past hours, whispering in the back of both their minds as the seconds tick by.

It’s been building up since he left, the ache in both their chests begging them to do something that would be treason to their respective organisations.

It’s been building up since they met each other, fate tying together two broken boys and promising them you’re meant to be together.

Dazai turns to Chuuya, eyes lighted with a certain spark that's rarely there.

He leans in, and Chuuya doesn’t wait, meets him in the middle.

_______

“I love you.” He says, in the centimeters between them.

“I love you.” He’s said in a million ways, from the cool touch of No Longer Human against Corruption, to the waiting beside his hospital bed after every mission.

“I love you.” He’s never said, too clogged up with the acrid petrol in his head to properly admit it.

“I love you,” he says, and he feels his answer against his lips.

_______

In the end, the way it happened doesn't matter. The world could have been ripped apart instantly, or dissolved into meringue smoke. Ultimately, it's inconsequential. What matters was that they have each other, and not even the end of the world can change that.

[writer-and-artist27]

Chocolate Seashell Ch 9 Preview

Because writing this has been distracting me all school day, and I have a midterm this Friday.

Time to get something out before this plot bunny kills my studying.

@wingbladeweaver1357, @langwrites, @owlsofstarlight, @fangoverdang. I can’t help but think of you four right now. I hope you don’t mind being tagged to this monster of a thing.

Edit: Oh, and @chiefladylightyay? Here’s more Ty bashing if you were looking for it. :p

Even in My Hero Academia, Tomo has baggage. Lots of it.

I think I should take this as a sign that I’m too stressed and needed the break.

Trigger Warnings are in order for panic attacks and implied past abuse.

-------------------------------

“HOSHINO-CHAAAAAAAN! LITTLE LISTENER! WAAAAAAAAAAIT!” 

It took a lot to not flinch at the sound of Present Mic’s infamous voice, but even then, I found a squeak leaving my lips as the hallways quickly cleared for the Pro Hero. It didn’t even take a second for his yellow mane of a hairdo to come close to poking me once he skidded into view and I clutched my schoolbag to my chest. “M-Mic— I mean, Yamada-sensei? Um, hello! What are you doing?” left me in a flurry of squeaking, because it was not every day Present freakin’ Mic himself called for your attention.

“Calling out to you, little listener, what else am I doing!” He wasn’t even deterred by my high-pitched squeal, grinning like it was his birthday come early. “I finally found you!”

“F-For what?”

I was not expecting him to get in my face, grabbing my hands in his. Oh no. “How do you feel about joining my radio show tonight, little listener?”

It took about an extra second or so for me to realize my face was starting to heat up. “Wh-What? Me? Why me, Yamada-sensei?” 

“Ohmigod, LISTEN UP, LITTLE LISTENER! MY REASONS!” Yamada-sensei pulled back just as fast as he had grabbed my hands, pointing a finger into my face. Was he angry? “One! You are absolutely adorable!” 

Oh no. “Oh gosh no, Yamada-sensei, I’m not that…!” 

“Hey, hey, LISTEN TO ME! Number two!” The finger in my face increased to two. “You have a lovely singing voice!”

“Th-Thank you?”

“AAAAAAND Number three!” There were three fingers in my face now. “You could definitely reach more people than the school if you perform on the radio with your singing! Maybe even,” he winked at me, what the heck— “reach a person you love?”

It took a second for me to realize my face was burning. “…Where did you hear that?” I said slowly, trying not to squeak at the last part because holy shit, did Yamada-sensei actually listen into my heartbeat or something?! “Because I thought I was a lot more discreet than that, Sensei.” 

To my surprise, the big and boisterous grin on his face softened for something that I could only call “fatherly” as he reached over to pat my head. “Hoshino-chan. You take after me like Shinsō does Eraser. Why wouldn’t I know?” 

The hallway seemed so much smaller and tighter once he said that. There was no missing the now obvious gold ring dangling around Sensei’s neck either.

Wait. 

Aizawa-sensei had the exact same gold band around his neck on a string too.

The dots connected and my heart was racing. 

Aizawa-sensei is married to Yamada-sensei, and now Yamada-sensei is trying to help me out. 

He knows that I— that Shinsō might be— 

The memory of short black hair and leering brown eyes flashed through my thoughts.

Ohmigod. Someone kill me.

My cheeks were on fire. “S-Sensei…” my voice cracked. “I-I, I-I dunno, I—” My throat was closing up, what was going on— “I—”

What was going on with me?

“Holy shit, Hoshino.” Present Mic is back as suddenly as Yamada-sensei was there, and he’s yelling something I can’t make out. Something like, “NOTHING TO SEE HERE,” before he was pulling on my arm and I was stumbling after him, clutching my schoolbag. “Are you okay with Midnight?” was running through one ear and out the other and I found myself blinking. When— when did I start tearing up? “We’re going to see Midnight for a little bit, kid, take deep breaths for me, okay?”

“K-Kayama-sensei is okay,” I somehow stuttered, but even when taking in a breath, it felt like my lungs were on fire, why was I acting like this? What was going on with me? My legs felt like stone, but I was still moving. “B-But, but, sensei?”

“Yeah?”

I should’ve said Kei’s name. Nii’s too, even. But instead, all my lips could flap was a meek and weak, “C-Could I see Aizawa-sensei instead?”

-------------------------------

Aizawa was not one to like getting called out of his class. Sure, Class A was filled with problem children, one after another, but that didn’t mean he liked leaving them unsupervised. 

But when his own husband came through the door, an uncharacteristic stormy expression on his face, everything had to stop.

The students staying behind for remedial classes stared at the door like it was some kind of savior.

Aizawa put down his chalk to stare too. “What is it, Mic?”

Mic shook his head and walked over, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him into a side-hug of sorts to whisper vehemently. Aizawa probably would’ve shivered if not for the words Mic specifically said. “Hoshino’s outside the classroom door and in the middle of a panic attack. She asked for you.” 

Aizawa jolts. The day had proceeded to devolve into a hot and burning fuck of a mess. “What the fuck did you do, Hizashi.” 

“Tried the radio show proposal. Then I think I said something and she started breathing too hard.” Mic’s expression, while lovable, read clear panic and uncertainty. “She asked for you, Shouta. She asked for you.”

Aizawa shakes his head, feeling his cheekbones harden into that of his hero persona before swiftly turning to the students. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Ashido all stare back at him in shock, having taken the time to huddle together in some kind of teenage talk. He barks as calmly as possible, “Study hall. I’ll be back. Mic’ll be watching you.”

“O-Oi—” But Hizashi isn’t complaining since the slight bit of shame shining in his eyes is enough approval for Eraserhead.

Aizawa steps out of the classroom and nearly slams the door behind him if not for catching a glimpse of the shivering girl standing in the hallway. For everything that she stood for in his students’ eyes, squirrel was not one of those things. 

Hoshino Tomoko looked like she had seen a ghost. The blue hair ribbons framing her face barely seem organized with how they flopped forward to brush her slumping shoulders. Her head was down, but there was no mistaking her eyes. Her blue eyes were unfocused, the light in them nearly gone. Her school bag looked like a teddy bear in how tightly she was clutching it to her chest, and she was inhaling and exhaling deep enough to where she sounded like she was on a ventilator. 

This was already delicate. 

Aizawa was not good at delicate. Shinsō might’ve been, but he wasn’t here. 

Still, Hizashi said she asked for him. For Shouta. So he could try. 

Aizawa took a careful step forward, loud enough to let Hoshino know he was there. She absently raised her head, and then some kind of spark glowed in the blue eyes. “A-Aizawa-sensei…” then there are tears. She sniffles. “I-I’m sorry, I—”

He shakes his head, walking over faster to stand in front of her, kneeling slightly to be at her height. If not for her being in General Studies, she could’ve been another problem child. “You’re okay, Hoshino. Listen to what I’m saying, alright?” He waits for her to nod, and then Aizawa takes a breath. “Breathe in, like me.”

She does that. Shaky, but breathes anyway.

Aizawa holds his breath for a moment before letting it go, and this time he gives up any pretense of a tense Hero to hold a student’s shoulder. Her shoulder. “Now breathe out, like this.”

She does that too.

“Keep breathing with me, alright?” Aizawa keeps his voice soft and gentle. “Slow and deep.” 

Hoshino does that, and with each breath, the light is coming back. With each gesture, she’s starting to look more like the Fairy his class paraded around and less like the squirrel he found, color returning to her face in the usual pink blush, and once the tears are gone, she blinks. “A-Aizawa-sensei, I—”

“Hey.” Aizawa squeezes her shoulder. She’s flinching, but he keeps her steady. “What happened? What did Hizashi say?”

Hoshino blinks at him. She could have resembled a frightened cat with the shocked face she was making. “I-It wasn’t Yamada-sensei,” she confessed, and it was as if someone had pressed the pause button with how her breathing had stalled. “I… I want to go to his radio show, but, but,” she puts a hand to her chest, over where her heart would be, to breathe out, “I’m worried about saying something wrong.”

“You don’t know what will happen until it does, Hoshino,” he says rationally, and Hoshino hugs her school bag tighter. “Something is hurting you more than this show.”

Hoshino flushes. The tears are back in her eyes, one very close to tipping past the corner of her eye and falling. “I-I’m afraid of hurting Hitoshi-kun, Sensei.” 

Aizawa blinks. “Shinsō is part of the Hero Course now, Hoshino,” he says mildly. “He should be able to handle a simple radio show.” 

Hoshino still fumbles with the straps of her school bag, and now she’s averting her gaze from him. “B-But, I know you’re raising him to be a good Hero, and, and—”

“And what?” Aizawa tries.

“AndI’mafraidofconfessingtohimifIreallydolikehimbecausehe’saHeroandhedoesn’thavetimeforlove!”

That… was a mouthful.

“I…” Hoshino could beat a cherry in how red she was turning. “Idon’tknowwhattodo.”

Aizawa blinks, mulls over the recent mumbles, and reaches over to rest his palm atop Hoshino’s head. “You love Shinsō.”

Hoshino flushes a darker red, but nods hesitantly.

“You’re afraid,” Aizawa deduces quietly, “of hurting his upcoming career and reputation if you say something wrong on Mic’s show.”

She nods again.

That left just one thing. “Why?” Aizawa says softly.

Hoshino looks away, ducking her head, and her hands shake. “B-Because, Sensei.” She stumbles, and this time that lone tear does fall from her eyes. “I hurt someone I loved before and I don’t want to do it again.”

Aizawa’s heard bits and pieces of this from Shinsō. Gekkō too even, when thinking back on it. Ty was one of many UA applicants this past spring, but for far too many reasons, he failed. Aizawa made sure of it before Hoshino even made it through UA’s doors. But this. This. It was the first time Aizawa could see the shadow of a lanky boy hanging over this girl, and he hated the look on her face from it. 

Even after Shinsō had gotten the boy to punch himself, Ty was still here. Hoshino wasn’t truly free.

“Hoshino.” Aizawa didn’t know when one of his walls fell, but he was talking and he couldn’t stop himself. “There’s a difference between love and abuse. And the person you loved before clearly abused you.”

[tortricidae]

Most Uninterested

This was all a disaster.

Poseidon had painstakingly gathered all form of flora and fauna and remains along his beaches in an effort to make his dream a reality on his own terms, something that had occurred to him at some point between the start of the summer and the end of it. Gods simply did not think of times like this linearly. It was often too much work to do so.

He had found his pieces and had even begun to string them together like some kind of beautiful performing arts piece, but it was all going wrong. Nothing would stay in the places he put it and it was starting to get to the point where he was willing to actually remove the animating force from the pieces he did have. All-Mother be damned. He was trying to create, to foster those creative endeavors in others and his efforts were being rejected.

He moved away from his mannequin with a dejected sigh that rippled through the cosmos. What would it take to make this work? Would it take more force? More attempts? More foxes? He had no idea and even as he stared at his haphazard creation, Poseidon was at a loss. Did his own creator have any issue with this? Could he have gone to her and asked for help? Maybe in another world where she was more readily available. Poseidon cursed his own hubris but only for a moment.

How could he possibly think he was good enough to bring things into creation that were not his domain? Was he an idiot? A fool? Well, yes, he was, but that was not explicitly the point he was trying to make.

His fabrics moved, still dripping pink water all over the floor. He swore he could here please from the seams that had been torn asunder. Tiny begs for mercy, tossing and turning in place, a fine mattress of a life in the weave of it all. The dream as the foxes of the Realm had begun to call it.

Poseidon looked down at his drawings and found them to be scribbles. Lines of color that meant nothing, even his own notes were unintelligible and he groaned with the effort to force it into existence. The lines were all blurring and this was probably why he was having such a hard time getting anything done. On the days he was awake, things were relatively normal. On the days he was asleep, things would get a little less reassuring.

Bah, he didn’t even really care about the land dwelling foxes to begin with. They were starting to turn on him, even when he was willing to turn a blind eye to their disrespect. Even when they tried to escape his gifts, he was kind and patient with them because that was the behavior that the All-Mother rewarded. That, and it didn’t matter what he did so long as he put everything back where it belonged when he was done.

He went back to his mannequin with a somewhat renewed vigor. He detached the blankets from each other and reattached their original seams and put the ribbons back in place, undoing all the work he had done so far. Perhaps tying two people together like this was not in his best interest. The place was filling with mist and he was going to just try something else. This was not working. It was not working and it was the annoying the everloving crap out of him.

So this was a sign to try something else.

As soon as the fabrics were back in their original orientations, Poseidon peeled them apart from each other and set to resewing them along the plotted seams. He could see the old work that had been done and had done his best to replicate it, even if his lines were a bit fuzzy and wobbly, and sometimes he did one too many whiplash stitches and his tying off the threads was a bit messy, but he was doing it and that was probably more important than anything else he was thinking in the moment.

The fabric came together bit by bit, pulled together by new threads that were hidden deep within the seams that had been there before. First there wasn an arm and then a body and then a leg and Poseidon’s brow furrowed in concentration as he tied off the final thread and looked upon his results. It was a fox he had had torn asunder before. Blue with stripes. The resewing job was a shoddy one and it was clear that this fox would never be the same again, but technically, Poseidon had put them back together. Followed the lines and seams and had tied everything off in the correct way. The wobbling stitches were deep inside the fox and they would never see the light of day unless this was not the dream.

Poseidon looked back at his drawings and saw scribbles. Still the dream, he thought, still the dream. It was almost like he was trying to convince himself of that more than anything else. It hardly mattered in the long run, as the mortal foxes were temporary and he was not, but it still felt a little bad to think of this in that way.

And so what he couldn’t make his own outfit? So what if he didn’t have the creative eye to do this particular task? That wouldn’t make him any lesser of a powerful godly being. He had rule over the ocean and all its inhabitants, which was a lot of domain to have and watch over. And if he couldn’t take that same creativity and apply it to a different medium, it wasn’t going to make or break him. He would just have to go back to waiting for the mortal foxes to drum up something that he wanted.

And that was exactly what he did. He would leave the other remnants of the fox for the morrow and try again maybe. But for now, Poseidon went back to his throne to be courted by the fashionistas of the era. Bored.

[rorykillmore]

talk about some of the rp moments or plots you're most proud of?

okay i did an ask a little while back talking about some of my favorite plots on denny/am overall so let me try to think of some more recent stuff to cover for this one...

also because i try to think back more than like two weeks and my memory just completely goes blank,

obviously wyattplot should get a mention! it was pretty brief as far as plots go but i think pretty much everyone involved got the chance for some really nice characterization. jack and peter got to flesh out their alliance and establish it as a threat, and jack especially was fun to see in an almost more of a like... behind the scenes, pulling the strings role. and i think that’ll pay off even more satisfyingly once he establishes himself as a ceo. then kaworu and damien got some v. interesting moments of characterization, with kaworu kind of like, coming face to face with a prime example of the reason dolores hates humanity and having to grapple with that, and damien having to ask himself all these questions about his investment in other people and his desire for agency vs. his devotion to his destiny....

but i was really especially affected by cloud and laurel! cloud’s stuff kind of coincided with him starting to get sick so it was really especially moving to see him realize what was going on and still fucking refuse to accept it, or give up on dolores, and push himself probably further than he should have trying to help her. there was a specific moment where he like... fully knowing that she wasn’t herself, still tried to get her to stay with him, and offered not to leave her alone, and it kind of reminded me of ravage offering something similar to kara during red kryptonite plot? i guess i am apparently a sucker for “character a cares about character b enough to not to want to leave them even when they probably should”. also it’s definitely going to tie into some interesting stuff with cloud and dolores’ development, and has already brought them closer, so i’m really looking forward to that!

and with laurel it was just.... horribly perfect to kind of set something up that mirrored (or at least seemed to mirror) fakeoutplot and laurel grappling with all these feelings of betrayal and how she handled that. spear and i even did an icc with her and sara which was really interesting because like, obviously sara felt horrible and wanted to help her, but they were both very aware of their... parallel experiences in that moment which also made things just the slightest bit awkward. and overall, while it was really sad and heartwrenching to see laurel just... at one of her lowest points and distrusting everything and spiraling in a way that had further reaching consequences (like the trish/laurel breakup, although that was a long time coming anyway), it was also super interesting i thought from a character perspective of just. seeing laurel, who is so reluctant to trust and get close to people, realizing that she had done just that and really hurting for it.

in general actually laurel and dolores’ dynamic is something i’m proud of, because they’ve already come a very long way and they still have a lot of development planned! and also in general, i’ve just enjoyed developing dolores on denny and am grateful for the opportunities wyattplot gave me to build on that and explore... what she does with this additional breach to her agency and how it changes her from here on out.

oh yeah and as far as extra moments go, while i’m thinking about her, i’ve also really loved her stuff with maeve and also the two additional westworld yolos tony did, arnold and the man in black, which both made for REALLY interesting rps i thought

ummm and i’ve just always been proud to have been a part of like... murderplot, and the following revival? i guess like. i’ve always had fun with the legends on denny, but i feel like they really did benefit from having this huge... high stakes thing to deal with together. it really just felt like it absolutely steeled their bonds, like especially sara with naruto and maive, who aren’t her canonmates, i now just feel that it’s totally organic that she’s as close to them as she is and considers them family. and there were so many highly emotional moments from that plot that everyone tied in so well... and of course, fakeoutplot tying into that! a dynamic between black siren and sara is something that’s been pretty much wasted in canon so i really love that they’ve been able to build up such an interesting relationship on denny, even if it got off to a pretty horrible stuff. and a lot of people contributed to that in ways that were super interesting too, like, again, jack and how he dealed with that betrayal and eps doing a really badass jigsaw rp for us (i’m also proud of all of us for brainstorming the traps and stuff and making sure everything ran as smoothly as it did)

also this is a bit older, but i’ll always be fond of datingplot! aka the complicated dynamic between ratchet/heather c/veronica, but also just the atmosphere surrounding that? there was a lot of focus on like... the high school and the kids who went there at the time and i have a lot of fond memories of even just, the heathers cast doing things or heather and veronica bonding with max or heather softening up to get to know some other kids like damien or bev. but a lot of that period of time was about characters overcoming trauma, and i look back on some of the bonding rps heather c and veronica had and just feel that they were vitally important, and that it was also so important in a different way for heather and ratchet to get to have these very normalized teenage dating experiences. so yeah, really some of my fondest rp memories. heather had a good senior year!

let’s see, what else....  i already touched on this a bit but trish and laurel dating was something that was really interesting to do, because spear and i knew it was doomed from the start. but it was just such a unique experience of like? letting these two characters just enjoy each other’s company but also seeing the flaws and slowly building on them until things reached their breaking point. it was sad but fun tbh.

and this is just a thread but i also feel like i should mention the lionclan ceremony thread as an important moment, because it made me (and bramblestar) proud of sunpaw and lilypaw since they’re two ocs that giz and jemi picked up and crafted and developed... pretty much from scratch, and we’ve all gotten to watch them grow up, so their warriors ceremony really does feel like such an earned moment! and made me proud of lionclan as a whole

and y’know what, a little shout out to even some of the much more recent stuff i’ve done, like... it’s been really fun to pick sly back up and i’ve already been happy with the stuff he’s getting involved in and the pace at which he’s kind of building a reputation. and very recently jay yolo’d amma from sharp objects, who is camille’s very complicated half-sister, and i loved that rp and am really proud of it on our behalfs because i feel like our characterization was really on point?? and speaking as someone who’s probably looking to pick up camille long term i have to say it’s important to kind of find that moment of like. confidence, i guess, while playing her

so yeah that’s some stuff! tbh it’s nice to look back and realize i’ve really had a lot of rp stuff that i can be proud of in the past year because it otherwise hasn’t been the best for me? so its nice to feel like my writing and my friends’ writing is worthwhile

[mystique-6]

What I Read in March

Hello everyone!  Happy Spring!  This post will review the books I read in March.  I had a much better reading month than February.  Although I did not exceed my goal of four books I did meet the goal.  Without further ado let’s get into it.

1. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins.  This book follows a young girl who has moved to a small town to live with her grandmother.  She is trying to create a new start and has made a few news friends.  Trouble begins when a string of students at her school are murdered and she finds herself involved in finding the killer all while being forced to confront her past.

I did enjoy this book, but it did have some problems.  The story didn’t feel complete.  I don’t know if any of you reading this write yourself, whether it’s novels or fanfic, but if you do you’ll understand what I’m trying to say here.  You know how when you have an idea for a story and you’re so excited you just boot up your laptop, or whatever device you work on, and begin writing it down and it eventually becomes your first draft?  You have your main ideas but it’s not together yet and needs some filling that you’ll work in on a multiple other drafts but you’re so excited you have it down you want to share it now?  That’s what this book feels like.  It doesn’t feel complete.  It’s like the author had the idea and got the main points down, but then never went back and refined it or added to it.  As a result, the book has a bit of a pacing issue and feels underdeveloped.  It’s also meant to be suspenseful but because it moves so fast it’s not successful in building that up.  

Overall, my objective rating for this book would be 3 stars.  I almost gave it 2 stars, but although rushed there was a clear plot to the story and I could see how if more had been added it could have been a better book.  I also thought the characters in the story were enjoyable if unrealistic.  I also think the righting style is very accessible which I consider to be a good thing.  Anyone could read and enjoy this book.

My personal rating for this book though is 5 stars.  I must have been in the right kind of mood for this book because in some ways it really was a bit of a mess but I had a really fun time reading it.  The characters and their actions were so unrealistic at times it was entertaining and I couldn’t put the book down.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who just wants a quick fun read.

2. Beautiful Redemption  by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl.  This is the last book in the Beautiful Creatures series.  The plot of this book revolves around Ethan trying to find his way back to Gatlin and Lena.

I would definitely say this is the weakest book in the series.  It had a serious pacing problem.  The authors were trying to fit so much into 450 pages, which is actually about 50 pages less than the other three books in the series, and honestly, in my opinion. it just wasn’t enough.  The book probably needed to be about 100-150 pages longer to successfully and satisfactorily conclude the series.  

Throughout the whole book there were so many plot conveniences that it really didn’t feel like the main characters had to struggle at all to achieve their goals in the story.  Everything was just handled for them or done for them.  As a result of this it wasn’t satisfying when they met their goals.  I was disappointed by the ending because it didn’t feel like anything had ever been on the line throughout the whole book.  

I normally love the characterization in the series but there was no growth in this book and actually kind of felt like a few characters went backwards.  Any time there was an opportunity for a really emotional and built up moment it just glossed over.  I can’t really go into this without mentioning major spoilers so I’m probably not conveying this very well, but at times I was so upset over what characters didn’t do I just wanted to put the book down.  

My overall rating for the book is 3 stars.  I just felt it was rushed and that characterization really needed to move forward. 

My personal rating for the book is 4 stars.  As frustrated as I was at times with it there were some really great moments.  

And since I did finish the series I will rate that as well.  I would give the whole series 4 stars.  Overall it was pretty solid and it does have a lot of great characters.   Barring the last book they are pretty well paced and there’s really not any boring moments.  

3.  The Originals: The Loss by Julie Plec.  This book follows the Mikaelsons years after the first book.  They now have control of New Orleans, but their control is threatened when Klaus finds a witch willing to help him reunite with his lost love, though it turns out the witch has ulterior motives and the Mikaelsons’ reign is threatened.

Again, if you were a fan of the show you would probably enjoy revisiting the characters in the book, but it certainly isn’t lighting the world on fire.  It has a clear plot but nothing is very expanded upon nd it’s written in a way that you wouldn’t be surprised that it was someone who writes for a tv show and not novels.

Both my objective and personal rating is 3 stars.

4.  Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson.  This book follows is about an attorney who, back in his high school days, was accused of murdering his girlfriend.  He was never charged and has never returned to his home town since then.  He returns to defend an old friend who was accused of a similar crime.  Once back he has a hard time separating what happened to him and what is happening to his friend.

This book is excellent!  It did have a slow beginning, but once past the first part it was almost impossible to put the book down.  It did a really great job of tying the the character’s past into the present and building suspense and constantly had me changing my mind on whether I thought characters were guilty or not.

My objective and personal rating is 5 stars.  I hope to read something else by this author again.

That wraps up this post!  I would say overall I had a good reading month.  Here’s to hoping April goes just as well and I hope everyone here enjoys what you choose to read also!  See you next month :)

[canaryatlaw]

Well today was overall fine, accomplished enough I suppose and nothing went too terrible. Woke up around 1:30 (bless) which was glorious, ate some cocoa krispies (note: whenever I say I ate breakfast on one of these posts it means I ate cocoa krispies. I always eat cocoa krispies) then got ready and took my little cart thing out and hopped on a bus to make a target trip. There's no route directly there, so I either have to walk a bit east then hop on a bus a bit south, or hop on a bus a bit south and then walk a bit east, lol, and I did the second today. I needed to make the target trip because this week I was actually out of sodastream gas canisters, which are actually what powers my life so I had to get the refills of those, along with a few other random items like, mouthwash. Of course I raided their dollar section (that is really their $3 section at this point, but oh well) and couldn't help but buy like 3 candles and more string lights for my room cuz they're cheap and cute and I don't care, lol. Did some basic food shopping, what I'll need for dinner tonight and the next week or so, and heavy cream if I ever get around to making caramels like I want to at some point. Wandered around the store a bit after that, spent a solid 10 minutes contemplating their underwear selection and trying to decide if I wanted to try something other than the exact brand size and style I've been wearing for like, ten years because everything else rides up and makes me uncomfortable, and ended up deciding to just go with it (for the record, I have tried other stuff over the years, and been unhappy with them). I looked through their pajama selection and really wanted this cute summery set of a gryffindor tank and shorts but it was 98% polyester so there goes that idea. They had a few other things but nothing all that great. I did dare venture over to the clothing section for a few minutes, and got a cute tank top and a pair of sporty leggings that I'm hoping will stay on better while I'm working out (I've noticed lately, mainly when I'm like, in the middle of working out, that whatever sweatpants I'm wearing have a tendency to fall down) then finally headed to check out. Walked a bit back and then had to wait for way too long for the bus but I didn't want another half hour of walk, so I waited. Got home around 5, put my stuff away and started working on the project for about two hours. I was working on perfecting the mission and vision statement as well as working on the portion about future plans for the org. That was hard because like, I want to turn in this plan for this nationwide org with community centers everywhere but like, this is a plan we're making to start a nonprofit lol, not an idea for an already established one, so I had to do some rewriting of my original concept and then think of things to add to the future developments beyond more community centers in different cities. Then I worked on a smaller portion about my experience and how it makes me equipped for the job, which put me just at 11 pages, so not bad. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm gonna handle the actual presentation, cuz like there's very specific parameters set out in the paper for what there needs to be in it, but the presentation is just based on the paper, it doesn't say what exactly, and he's said several times he doesn't want us just reading from a paper, but also saying he doesn't care about PowerPoints or stuff like that- just that we're familiar enough with the material to talk about it confidently and not need to read straight from our notes. So I may make a presentation cheat sheet of major points at some point tomorrow that could be helpful. Basically the presentation is supposed to be us pitching the idea of the nonprofit to potential finders, for them to decide if they would want to fund us or not. I think I have a good amount of info about programs and such set up, I need to do the more technical elements of setting up a board of directors and everything, and actually figure out a budget (which I probably won't include in the presentation but will need for the paper, and God am I not looking forward to doing that) and other tying up factors. But I think I'm in a good spot and I should be able to pull everything together tomorrow for my presentation Monday. At 7 I stopped because I wanted to make dinner. I've been having this issue lately where I'll make my big meal on the weekend but then not want to eat it during the week for whatever reason and end up throwing most of it out which I really had doing, so I thought I'd try to do something I know is good and that I'll want to eat, so I did this cheesy chicken broccoli and rice thing that's fairly easy to make and also tastes way better than you would expect it to lol so hopefully that will do the trick for during the week. After I finished cooking I sat down on my couch to watch some tv, and found out training day had started about 5 minutes prior (it was like, 8:05 at this point). I never keep track of when my shows actually air, so sometimes I'll turn on my tv and find out one of them is actually on). So I caught up on that pretty quickly and watched it. Somewhat of a meh episode for me, not that I didn't like the plot because I did, I think I just missed Katrina Law's character because she was in like, one scene. But that was fine. I didn't have anything else recorded so I went back over to 24:Legacy which I ended up watching for the rest of the night and finishing, and I have to say, by the last 3 episodes I was all in on this in true 24 fashion, finally feeling it like I did with the original show and oh, how I've missed that feeling. It took a while to get there obviously, but it was worth it because those episodes were fantastic. Spoilers ahead, obviously, but I was sad they did end up killing Rebecca, though that much should've been obvious once Sims or whatever his name was did his little speech about after this she would be like a war criminal. But I was sad because I gained so much respect for her character over those episodes, like what a fucking BADASS she is to take on a hostage negotiation like that and just totally call their bluff when he life was on the line, like holy crap she was just killing it. I loved it when her and Eric just went rogue, that finally felt very 24, with its rogue agents receiving unofficial support from CTU. Even Keith (I learned his name and have stopped calling him zoom guy!!!) was pretty awesome in the end of definitely did his part, something not always true for past CTU directors. Of course there was massive incompetence in letting terrorist #1 escape, but that was clearly just because they needed it for the plot, not that it would actually happen like that. I have to talk about the ending with the girl and Eric and Tony though. TONY. My bby. First of all, hearing him utter the words "I have to help CTU" made my little fangirl heart so happy because even after all of this he was going to help them and it just ahhhh <3. With the showdown at the house I was just like, yelling the whole time STOP FIGHTING YOURE FRIENDS YOU JUST DONT KNOW IT so I was pleased when that basically happened lol and of course Tony was like uh yeah of course go take the kid and save Rebecca. This girl though, and Eric protecting her, broke my fucking heart. Like yes, I know, this is all fictional. But that poor little girl. She was so little, so entirely innocent, and treated so horribly by the government that it was abominable. Seeing Eric being so gentle and kind to her was perfect, and that scene where they're waiting for the helicopter and she's telling him about the names of the flowers and the trees had me in like, tears just out of the sheer preciousness of the scene, like, holy crap, it was such a poignant and well done moment that stood out so well from all the violence and terrorism going on around it. I very much enjoyed that, and of course seeing that the girl was in fact safe. They obviously set themselves up for a second season, but I still of course protest to having a 12 episode season of a show called 24 when the entire damn concept is it happens over 24 hours, lol. Also, I freaked out when they time jumped the last 15 minutes because HEY, THAT IS SO AGAINST THE RULES. YOU MADE THE RULES, AND THERE ARENT THAT MANY OF THEM, BUT YOU JUST BROKE A MAJOR RULE AND THATS NOT COOL, MAN. Lol. I'm not sure what to think about John and what he's gonna do now, but it would be interesting to see him as president next season (though tbh I'll just be sad Rebecca isn't there with him because she's just such a badass character I can't help but miss her). But yeah, clearly I had feelings about all of that haha as you can see from all I just ranted. But yeah, I finished that and started getting ready for bed and now it's late and I should go to sleep, so I'm gonna do that now. Church in the morning, then we'll see. Goodnight friends. I hope you sleep well.