#someone out there likes these ranking posts I reckon

[maxybabyy]

cross-posted on ao3

Lando is asleep on the couch when he comes in.

His jeans have been kicked to the floor, soaked where a bottle of apple sourz must have tipped over. He looks fine if a little sweaty, hair flat from the pillow but not worse for wear than when Daniel left. Had a night in then, he thinks and pulls the blanket over him.

He heads to the bathroom, breath still rank from the bar.

Lando had wanted to come and almost threw a fucking tantrum when Daniel had told him no. Lando may be allowed in bars now – a proper adult, their father would say –  but that doesn’t mean Daniel is any more inclined to watch him and his friends get sloshed off mixers and shots.

Daniel almost doesn’t notice him as he walks in, head in his phone when he goes to take a piss. Scotty’s trying to settle the bill, the fucking uber ride and bottle of vodka they shared, Chloé conveniently left out of the budget breakdown. He doesn’t care, sends him his share with a quick, ok.

“Hello, Daniel,” someone says just as he’s about to pull his dick out, hand already in his pants. “Lando of course did not say you would be here.”

“Lando’s passed out on the couch, reckon he isn’t up for saying much right now,” Daniel says and turns towards the voice.

It’s one of Lando friends, because of course it is. Max, he decides, watches the kid as he sits on the counter next to the sink. There are two of them he knows, Fewtrell who’s been nipping at Lando’s heels since neither of them knew what it meant. And this Max, the hot one.

“Always he is bad at drinking,” Max says, mouth stretched into a wide smile. “He is very sloppy after one beer only, and then he gets very tired also. Like a little kid, you know?”

“Yeah,” Daniel says with a smirk. He steps closer to lean against the sink, feels the warmth pouring off of Max. “Not like you, right?”

Max shakes his head, touches his tit with an open palm like he’s going to swear on it, sucks in a breath when his nail catches on his nipple. It looks swollen too, hot and pink, heavy against the swell of his pectoral. Daniel’s eyes flicker down to where he also isn’t wearing pants, the pile of clothes just inside the door.  

“Sometimes I think of course that you and Lando cannot be brothers,” Max says, kicks his feet against the cupboard underneath him. His legs look long, strong and tan from the summer sun. He must be bigger than Daniel now, taller too.

Daniel remembers the gawky nineteen-year-old Lando had brought home. Max on exchange from the Netherlands, taking the same courses that Daniel had done only three years before, with the same instructors too. “Let me know if you need anything, yeah?” He had told him just to watch Max blush, cheeks scarlet as he ducked his head, stuttered out a quiet, “Of course, Daniel.”  

“And why’s that, Maxy?” He asks now, touches the side of his knee to watch Max scramble to move, spread his thighs so Daniel can dig into the drawer underneath him.

“Always you are so handsome and funny also,” Max says, waves his hand around like that somehow adds to it. And maybe it does, because Daniel’s chest burns, overwhelmed. He feels almost sick with it, with how easy it is for Max to say, knows then he must be more drunk than he thinks. “Lando is just – Lando.”

Daniel laughs, squeezes Max’s knee. He watches the jolt of the muscle, the buck of Max’s hips up into nothing. Hears the sharp whine that escapes his lips.

He should tell him to leave, to put his shirt back on and go back to Lando’s room. Sleep it off so Max won’t hate himself for running his mouth when he wakes up. But he cannot, asks instead, “Is that a toothbrush in your hand or are you just happy to see me, Max?”

Hazy blue eyes stare back at him as Max squeeze his thighs shut. It’s rhetoric, almost. Redundant at best, and mean at its core, maybe. Because there is a toothbrush in his hand, the bright pink tool held in a slack hand against his thigh. But he’s hard too, obvious in the tight grey boxer-briefs he’s wearing.

“Always I am happy to see you, Daniel,” Max says. He spreads his thighs against and watches with dark eyes as Daniel steps between them, presses against the counter until there’s almost no space between them. “I have a toothbrush also, but I do not think –“

“Want me to brush your teeth, Maxy?” He asks, feels the shame as it flushes his chest, violent. Desperate. But he wants it, can almost imagine how it would feel if it was something else in Max’s mouth. The head of his –

“Please,” Max begs and lets his mouth fall open.

Daniel has done it maybe once before, brushing someone’s teeth. It had been a necessity then, a favour to a friend who had been too drunk to move, vomit still on his shirt. So far away from this, from Max watching him squeeze out the toothpaste and bring it to his mouth, his thighs squeezed tight around Daniel’s waist.

He starts off small, brushes over Max’s front teeth with tiny back-and-forth motions. The movement feels awkward from this end, like jerking someone off when you’ve been masturbating your entire life. Max keeps still, breathes through his nose like Daniel told him to.

Daniel reaches his molars, the toothbrush shoved deep into his mouth when suddenly Max shuts his mouth around it. Daniel is slow to realise it, keeps up the motion of the brush and watches Max move with it. Lips working over the shaft over it until he’s close enough to kiss Daniel’s fist.

“Max, mate. I cannot see what I’m doing,” he says, forces himself to laugh. He pulls back too quick, listens to the way Max chokes on nothing. “Let’s try the other side, yeah?”

It goes great until it doesn’t. Max deep-throats the toothbrush again as he watches him through hooded eyes. His hips rock aimlessly into empty air, pre-come soaking through his briefs.

“Max, no,” Daniel says. He pushes down on his bottom lip to keep his mouth open, ignores the way Max whines. “Be good for me, yeah?” He keeps a hand in Max’s hair, holds him steady as he tries to move with the brush, push it further into his mouth.

The top of the mouth is harder, the angle awkward from where he stands between Max’s thighs. “I don’t think I can do the rest, Max. My wrist,” he says, shows how limited his wrist rotation is.

But Max barely pauses, slides instead to his knees in front of Daniel, “Like this, no?”

Daniel chokes on his breath, feels the way his dick twitches in his pants. There’s barely any room between Daniel’s feet and the counter, but still Max fits perfect. His head tips back against the cupboard, thighs spread wide to make room for Daniel.

“That’s perfect, babe. Yeah,” he tells him softly, cups Max’s cheek in his hand.

Max’s eyes stay closed as he lets himself be moved, tongue wet and pink inside his mouth. Daniel doesn’t know how long it lasts, knows at least they’re above the designated two minutes. His dick strains against his pants when he strokes Max’s cheek to let him know they’re done.

Max is slow to come back, eyes blinking slowly until he refocuses on Daniel. A sweaty hand grabs the crook of his knee, pulls him in until his leg is pressed against the heat of Max’s chest, the tip of his chin resting too close to his dick.

Max tips his head back and opens his mouth, shows off the mess that sits on his tongue. It isn’t – doesn’t really look like come, too foamy with the paste Daniel uses. But it’s enough to pretend, to imagine what Max would look like if Daniel did come in his mouth.

Daniel lets himself look for another moment, soak in the sight before he nudges Max up against the sink so he can spit it out. “That’s it, good boy, Maxy,” he says, watches Max through the mirror.

If he looked drunk before, he looks downright indecent now. Cheeks flushed and chest wide as he sucks in breath after breath. Looks just about ready to pass out too.

Daniel pats his back and nudges him over to grab his own toothbrush, feels the way Max shudders underneath his hand. He’s just about to tell him to go to bed, when Max drops back to the floor, knees loud on the tile.

“Daniel, please,” Max says, begs.

Daniel leans against the sinks, angles his hips away from the space Max has created. He knows what Max wants, mouth open even now. But he can’t. Not when they’re both this drunk. So he does the only thing he can think of, shoves three fingers into his mouth and tells him to be quiet.

It works.

Daniel goes through a condensed skincare routine one-handed, feels the warm, wet suction of Max’s mouth around his fingers. The increase in pressure whenever Max swallows, how he leans into it when Daniel presses down on his tongue, sick with want.

He leads Max down the hall of rooms when he’s done, opens the door last on the left and lets him in.

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

Evolution Line Spotlight: Zorua & Zoroark (570-571)

For our first evolution line spotlight, we’ve got a pretty severe rank gap. It’s interesting, because zoruas and zoroarks have pretty similar personalities. A lot of it comes down to size: zoruas are a much more manageable size, so this evolution line’s move set is a lot less formidable coming from them. They also don’t have quite as formidable claws as their evolution.

As I talked about in each of the two’s personal posts [linked below], they both have some pretty powerful illusion abilities, but they use them in different ways. In the wild, when these two evolution stages are found living together, zoroarks act like the protectors, so their illusions are a lot more in-your-face. They like to disguise their lairs, where the more vulnerable zoruas hide, with scary illusions, while the little guys mostly just disguise themselves to avoid attention. Both of these things are gonna be kinda awkward for a pet, but I reckon that having a pet disguise your entire home is gonna really annoy your neighbors. And good luck getting mailmen to drop off packages near your home, if they can even find it. They’d be great to have around at Halloween time, though.

This is a bit of a random side-note but I wonder how badly this species sheds. I know someone with a dog with black fur that gets absolutely everywhere to a really bothersome extent. Both evolutions of the species have a lot of fur, but again I’ve got to look to zoroark as the potentially worse offender. I could imagine that mane shedding a lot. I mean, when you think about it, they have like five feet of hair. People with fur allergies might have a big issue with that. I’d also like to reference a comment left on the original zoroark post by @shrimpmandan: zoruas and zoroarks are foxes, and foxes are STINKY! I wouldn’t be surprised if their illusions can cover their smell for survival purposes, but when you’re at home they’re probably not always going to be in illusion-mode. Bathing them, especially zoroarks, if going to be a whole ordeal.

If I had to recommend one stage of this pokémon as a pet, I’d definitely go with zorua. If you live somewhere with a strict landlord, HOA, or something like that, it’s probably going to be a lot easier to convince them to let you have one for a lot of reasons. I mean, let’s be honest, there’s probably a prejudice against dark-type pokémon as pets in a lot of places since they’re often associated with “evil”: your better chance at getting permission to have one is the cuter, less dangerous kind. I definitely don’t think zoroarks would be a terrible pet or anything, but they’re a particularly tough one to get social acceptance of. If you’re already an owner of a zorua, I wouldn’t recommend evolving them unless you have the space (of course) and are confident that the people you live around won’t be too put off by it. That being said, so long as you don’t get kicked out or anything, you don’t always have to worry about what other people think.

Would I personally have a zorua or a zoroark as a pet? Probably not. I think they’re really neat, but I think I’d have a hard time dealing with their illusions. I have a lot of sensory issues that I think could be aggravated by being constantly confronted with stimuli that I know is false. Also the shedding and the smell. All respect to the prospective zorua or zoroark owners out there! ❤️

Zorua Post: https://www.tumblr.com/would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend/734002549347287040/can-zorua-and-zoroark-being-good-pet-they-maybe-a?source=share

Zoroark Post: https://www.tumblr.com/would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend/730103133132455936/i-wonder-would-a-zoroark-either-the-unovan-or?source=share

[adragonsfriend]

"If Anakin had just been able to be open about his family..."

Frankly, if Anakin and Padme had been open about their relationship during the war they would've been that couple that everyone knows is pretty but dysfunctional, and whom no one wanted to invite to parties because of the risk of Anakin publicly trying to get into fights.

Don't get me wrong at all I think Anakin and Padme have the potential to be a good couple that that good for them and the people around him, I love the ship in general (even and sometimes especially for the fact that it's a messy one), I think they're characters with great chemistry and enough overlapping values to work together. That said:

We need to stop with the idea that openly having a family (while simultaneously being a Jedi or not) would've automatically fixed a single one of Anakin's issues.

This is going to get spicy and not be as well written as my usual kind of post, cause I'm tired of this idea. Fight me if you wish (but before you do, think really hard about whether this post is actually mad at you or if it's talking about someone else).

If you're familiar, Jane Austen put it best in Sense & Sensibility in this conversation where Elinor (the main heroine) and Marianne (her sister) discuss Willoughby (the man who played Marianne, unwittingly actually fell for her, then left anyway when an opportunity to marry rich came along, and afterwards came to confess than he was miserable despite his new wealth and now believed he would've been happier if he'd married Marianne and been comparatively poor),

Marianne's lips quivered, and she repeated the word, "Selfish?" In a tone that implied, Do you really think him selfish? "The whole of [Willoughby's] behavior," replied Elenor, "From the beginning to the end of the affair has been grounded is selfishness. It was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections (he intended to play Marianne), which afterwards when his own were engaged made him delay the confession of it (he didn't tell Marianne he actually fell for her when he had the opportunity), and which finally carried him from Barton (he left her when the opportunity to marry rich appeared). His own enjoyment, or, his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle." "It is very true. My happiness never was his object." [said Marianne] "At present," continued Elinor, "He regrets what he has done, and why does he regret it? Because he finds it has not answered towards himself. It has not made him happy. His circumstances are now unembarrassed (he's rich now), he suffers from no evil of that kind, and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself (he doesn't like his new rich wife). But, does it follow, that that had he married you, he would have been happy? The inconveniences would have been different. He would then have suffered under the pecuniary distresses, which because they are removed he now reckons as nothing. He would've had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint, but he would've been always necessitous, always poor. And probably would soon have learnt to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance, even to domestic happiness, than the mere temper of a wife." --Chapter 47

(Please excuse any mistakes in the quote, I was typing it out from listening to the audiobook)

Point being, circumstances do not automatically change people. We largely create our own realities and our dissatisfactions with those realities. A greedy person who refuses to change themself will be dissatisfied no matter what they gain in life.

And Anakin is greedy when is comes to his relationships. Not for money, but the way he wants people to make him feel. It's the whole arc of his character over the prequels and the originals. He learns to love selflessly from Luke, right at the end of his life. It's so important. It's the most important moment in the whole of Starwars, and to claim that Anakin was loving well before that moment diminishes it. Anakin's love for Padme did exist, and it had its good moments, but it was not selfless or giving like his love for Luke became in that moment.

Being open about his relationship with Padme would not have changed that quality of it. Openly having kids would not have changed the qualities in him.

Could he have found the people and time and motivation to face and deal with his issues while having a family, especially if the war somehow ended? Of course.

But having bio kids wouldn't've fixed him any more than having a padawan did. Being with Padme openly wouldn't've resolved the fact that she has a job she cares about , and is a full person who can't cater to his feelings all the time. ("Nothing matters more to me than the way you make me feel.")

Side note, but the utter hypocrisy of criticizing Yoda for assigning him a padawan and then turning around and saying, "but if he'd just not had to hide that he was having kids..." is wild. A knight raising a padawan is going to get a so much communal help and oversight from the community around them (as we see in clone wars), as oppose to a parent in a nuclear family format. If Anakin was "too young and totally unprepared for a padawan," and "Yoda shouldn't've done that," then Anakin was infinitely less prepared to be responsible for actual infants.

The only way being able to be open about his marriage would've helped him is that someone outside the relationship might've tried to step in and been like "please get help." And frankly, that's not actually anyone outside the relationship's responsibility to do. Also, Anakin displays plenty of red flags that have literally nothing to do with his relationship with Padme that people advise him to deal with, which he does not deal with.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Anakin could've left the Jedi. He was free to put down his laser sword and have the househusband arc he deserved at literally any point. And frankly, if his ONLY two options (and this is absolutely a false dichotomy) were commit mass murder or "fail" his duty to the Republic by retiring, I think we can all say which of those is better--both for the Republic and, for Anakin's soul or whatever.

When Ahsoka lost faith in the Jedi she was brave enough to make the decision to leave and find her own path. She left and discovered she still wanted to help people, just in other ways. Literally no one (in world or fans) considered her a failure for opting out of being a soldier in the war. Anakin could've done the same, and it was only his own ideas about status and attachment and violence (and yeah some genuine sense of duty too) that stopped him from doing so. In fact, he is the one to yell at Ahsoka that "The Jedi are your life!" Because he wants her to stay in his life.

Romantic relationships don't fix people.

Becoming a parent doesn't fix people.

People can fix themselves. When they do, it's often partly so they can be better to the people in their lives, be those spouses, friends, children, whatever--but the relationships themselves, the presence of those people in and of itself, is not what does the fixing.

It's effort. The genuine effort to act better. To follow their best impulses over their worst. To take themselves out of risky situations. To build good habits.

The idea that Anakin had to have a spouse, or had to have children in his life either to be happy or to not murder people is Hollywood and/or Sith propaganda, and we should treat it no differently than any other, "her magical vagina will cure him of his issues," or, "let's have kids to save our shitty suburban marriage," narrative.

[princelylove]

My Prince,

If it would be to your liking, would you share your personal intelligence rankings, which you spoke of in the tags of a previous request, to the court?

Thank you, Your Highness.

Intelligence is classified by your ability to apply things you already know and the skills you already have. You can be bright but slow, or a quick thinker but lack experience. There's many things to take into account when talking about intelligence. This may not make sense, as I am a bit loopy from switching meds recently.

Loosely:

Giorno is obviously at the top. I think it's criminal that his intelligence is listed as a B on his stats. Giorno doesn't slack in any of the things I understand intelligence to be, he applies absolutely everything he has and somehow never misses. Giorno spent his entire childhood figuring social etiquette out the hard way, he's hard wired to figure out what to do and not to do as quickly as possible. To Giorno, survival means being the best of the best. Has he always been absolutely perfect? No. Has he always bounced back? Yes.

Trish is fairly young, it's a bit unfair to put her up against grown men. She takes after her father in many ways- one being how clever she is. She may not understand stands yet, or why she couldn't just stay home and never go out again, but she's very quick to adapt. Trish did well in high school, she had a high gpa and did lots of extracurricular activities, which just means that she's a hard worker. Her ability to adapt and her natural curiosity is what leads me to believe that she's on the higher end, it's just that she lacks experience pre canon. Post canon, she's a force to be reckoned with. A Trish that understands how to fully use her stand, how to do what her father did and make someone disappear entirely, and how to manipulate the public so they think her kidnapping victim lovely darling is on tour with her is a very dangerous Trish indeed. If this is strictly pre-canon, bump her down to the middle-lower end.

Some people may not like Guido being in the top three, but I'm fairly firm on it. Guido's a quick thinker and has managed to stay alive for this long. Does he understand things like infections and germs? Not really. Could he, if you explained it to him? Sure. Guido's street smart- he never went to college, but he reads a lot. He's a curious guy! If something interests him, he'll look into it. He's got great instincts and a ridiculous amount of luck, which isn't intelligence, but often will help him figure out what's going on. He checks for Sale's shadow under a truck, he yells at Narancia for not telling him the stove was on and it wasn't safe to fire his revolver. He knows what he's doing, even if it seems like he's just fucking around until something clicks. That's kinda scientific theory, isn't it? Fuck around and find out? Yeah, he gets it.

Pannacotta... the author Her Highness does not believe in IQ tests, as most people who claim to have a high IQ got it off of some online test made to stroke the quiz taker, but I believe Pannacotta is very intelligent. He's just not socially intelligent, which bumps Trish and Guido above him. He left behind his prissy, rich lifestyle in favor of being homeless for a little while before Bruno found him- he's left behind most manners and forgotten most unspoken rules. In this case, Trish and Guido outdo him. What worth does purely academic intelligence have if you cannot apply it, and it has nothing to do with the situation? Pannacotta is intelligent, but he isn't creative enough to apply what he has. Who makes a vaccine on the spot like that?????? If he wasn't so in his head all the time, he'd probably be a lot scarier. I mean, who thinks to put capsules in things you're not supposed to be touching anyway?

I think it's a bit silly to put Bruno so low when he is, in fact, an adult with a fully developed prefrontal cortex. I don't think Bruno is unintelligent at all, he's a man of average intelligence for his age. He's only so low because everyone above him is not average, even if they pretend to be. An older, more mature Pannacotta would have him in too many categories for comfort. Guido has him in reaction time and blind instinct, and while some may argue that isn't intelligence, it's applying what you've got. Bruno can be a little slow at times mentally, but never in combat. He pauses to make decisions that would take Giorno a split second. He makes mistakes that, although he makes up for later on, he still makes in the first place. He's formidable- he has experience and knows how to use it, but he's not very creative.

Narancia's not all there all of the time. It's not fair to say Narancia's stupid because he isn't good at math or academics in general, you can be smart and have weaknesses. But not Narancia. He's a little lacking. He doesn't try to make up for it at all, but he's figured some things out that he definitely shouldn't have before, saving him from dead last. Narancia has some crazy instincts, but he doesn't really know what to do with them. Instincts don't equal intelligence, but it helps. He'll take credit for anything you're willing to blame on him- FUCK yeah he figured out you're trying to escape 'cause you left some shit on the table. (He felt it in his tummy and got anxious that you're leaving him.)

Leone went through some schooling, but he barely passed. You could always argue that he was too depressed to do his work, but I personally don't believe so. Leone's slow and prone to picking the hard way- not because he's a masochist, but because he's been living off of going "Well, one of these is right." for the past three years. He's just happy he finally got a stable job. His instincts are terrible, his reaction time is shit, he has very slow realization in general- the list goes on. Does that mean you're getting off easy? Nope. He's still taller, and stronger. Doesn't take a lot of brains to pin someone, especially when it's muscle memory. Leone can bump himself up over Narancia eventually, but only because Narancia is emotionally stunted. You have him in the emotional maturity (aha. Leone and emotional maturity?) category, and what else? Get a grip. Leone knows how to do more- makeup and cosmetics is a skill, so is media literacy- but Nara's got him in reaction time, realizing that dots do in fact connect, and learning how to put you in your place at a faster rate.

[rubyreduji]

Standing Guard (of my heart) — ljh

summary: after recent attacks on the royal family, you’re assigned to be prince jihoon’s personal guard. a position not suit for the weak of heart

tags: fluff, royalty au, it’s not enemies to lovers but jihoon doesn’t like reader to begin with, gn!reader, knight!reader, prince!jihoon warnings: violence, mentions of blood, mentions of death wc: 14.0k an: the term “sir” is used for the reader (in a knight way) but other than that the pronouns are non-gendered. also some parts were written out of order so sorry if some things don’t make sense lol i tried my best to make sure it flowed

“L/N!” You perk up at the shout of your name. You’re currently in a guard meeting getting your new post assignments. After the recent ambush on the kingdom, security is being buckled down on and everyone is shifting job positions.

“Yes Sir!”

“You’re being assigned as Prince Jihoon’s personal knight. You start as soon as this meeting adjourns.”

Internally you’re a bit stunned, but outwardly you don’t react. “Yes Captain.”

It’s not your lack of skill that has you surprised, you’re actually one of the top ranking soldiers in the guard. You are surprised that you were assigned with Prince Jihoon though. Jihoon is the eldest Lee heir and first in line for the throne. Not only is he incredibly strong and intelligent, he’s also known for being cold and distant. He’s never fancied the idea of having a guard hovering around him, and even if he did want a guard around him, you would never expect it to be you. You are meant more for one of the younger brothers, Seokmin or Chan. You actually know Chan fairly well as he did his military training with you, and Seokmin is just generally nice to everyone he interacts with.

You’ve never directly interacted with Jihoon though. You see him around of course, and he’s addressed you in a group of soldiers, but you’ve never been introduced face to face before. He’s…intimidating to say the least. Whenever he makes public appearances a firm scowl sits on his facial features, unwavering. If you are being honest, you think that someone like Seokmin would be better to take over the crown, while someone like Jihoon would take over the military. Seokmin has that “People’s King” personality, while Jihoon is more of the commanding strict personality.

When the meeting ends you have to brace yourself before leaving the room. You’ve faced the enemy’s strongest soldiers before, but you still think that Prince Jihoon is not a force to be reckoned with. Luckily for you, you have a killer poker face and you're not one to take someone’s shit just because they’re royalty.

As soon as you step out of the meeting room, you’re greeted by Prince Jihoon, just like The Captain said.

You formally bow. “Prince Jihoon.”

“Sir L/N.” At your address you stand up. “My schedule today consists of paperwork. I will be in my office. Don’t bother me.” With that Jihoon walks off, with no regard to you as you follow him. He doesn’t even acknowledge you as he walks into his office and shuts the door in your face.

You huff before you turn around and stand guard outside his door. You don’t know what kind of paperwork Jihoon has to do but he ends up doing it all day. A servant comes and delivers him lunch halfway through the day and then dinner at night. He doesn’t even come out when it’s time for the night shift switch over. 

You retire to your quarters at the end of the night, frustrated with the whole situation. You really just had to get the worst prince didn’t you?

The next few days are more or less the same. You meet Prince Jihoon in the morning, he eats breakfast alone in the dining room, he exchanges one or two curt words with you, then he shuts himself off in his office for the rest of the day.

A part of you wishes you were put on another post. You know that being assigned to Prince Jihoon is from a place of utmost respect, but you’d rather be out talking to the people or helping train the new recruits or making battle plans with Prince Chan. Anything but this. You want to do something, not just stand guard outside a room for hours on end.

You don’t even have anyone to talk to, and God knows Jihoon isn’t going to talk to you either.

In your old post you were stationed in the middle of the marketplace, making sure the citizens stayed safe. You had a partner, a chill guy named Hansol, and you two would talk to the people of the Kingdom and walk around and actually do something.

Being assigned to Jihoon makes you feel like you’re babysitting him, which both of you agree he doesn’t need. Not to mention he’s three years older than you. He’s an important person, and you know that, but you wish they would have assigned this position to someone who was more…personally invested in it.

The difference between you and Jihoon though, is that you can still remain professional about it. You may not be the happiest with the arrangement, but you at least don’t show it. Jihoon on the other hand can barely spare you a glance and a scoff before banishing you to a day of standing outside his office door.

You don’t get how Jihoon can be with himself for hours on end, day after day. The only time he interacts with people is when someone calls on him, which rarely happens. Even when he is called on, there’s a 50/50 chance he responds.

One day after he ignores one of Chan’s requests, Chan shows up at Jihoon’s office door, his own guard trailing behind him.

“Good noon Y/N!” Chan smiles at you. Sometimes you forget how well you and Chan know each other, after spending all of your military training together. You were always top of your class and Chan would often ask you to spar with him when you had down time. There were even a few nights when you two would stay up and talk to one another.

“Good noon, Your Majesty,” you bow and Chan laughs.

“C’mon now Y/N, I think we’re past all that! You’ve held a sword to my throat one too many times to keep up the formal business,” Chan teases with a wink. You pretend you don’t feel your ears heat up.

“What brings you by?” You change the topic.

“I need to speak with my brother. He hasn’t been responding when I’ve called on him recently. Do you think I could get in there to see him?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I’ve been told to not allow anyone into Prince Jihoon’s office, unless it’s the King or Queen. He told me this specifically applies to his brothers,” you tell Chan.

Chan tuts. “He sure is a stickler. Making you stand out here all day long doing nothing.”

“It is an honor to be able to-”

“Ah don’t sprout all that nonsense at me,” Chan tells you. “I know how you think Y/N, and I know how my brother is. You know, Seokmin and I are going to be head of the military soon, I could probably sway you a better position if you’d like.”

Just as you’re about to respond you hear the large door behind you woosh open. “WHAT IS HAPPENING OUT HERE!”

“Jihoon!” Chan cheers. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for days.”

“I know, and I’ve been ignoring you for days. One would think you’d get the hint. Sir L/N, if you could do your job that would be greatly obliged. Stop causing a ruckus and get rid of the problem instead of becoming one.” With that Jihoon slams the door shut again. You have half the mind of storm into his room and choke him out, but you have just only a bit more resolve than that.

“Oh Y/N, I’m sorry,” Chan whispers to you. “I didn’t mean to get you chewed out.”

You brush him off. “It’s okay. You should leave though, before Prince Jihoon gets more upset.”

Chan apologizes again before giving you a quick hug and leaving.

The rest of your day is spent the same, standing out of the door. That is until it’s dinner time and Jihoon emerges from his office, looking worse for wear. He once again doesn’t acknowledge you but walks off, expecting you to follow. 

He leads you to his room before he turns to you. “Leave.” With that he closes the door in your face. He makes it hard to keep him protected when you’re the one who wants to kill him.

The next morning when you meet Jihoon you’re expecting him to walk straight to his office but he addresses you instead. “I have a meeting with Lord Kye and I do not favor unpunctuality.”

“Yes Your Highness.” With that Jihoon takes off and you follow closely behind him. As usual you two don’t exchange words, the only sound filling the corridor being your footsteps.

Lord Kye is, from your understanding, Prince Jihoon’s advisor, and one of the only people Jihoon genuinely enjoys being around. Along with his brothers, he has his noble friends from the neighboring kingdoms and what not, but really he only spends time with them out of formality. But with Beomju it’s different. You’ve observed the two talking for hours on end, even if it’s not a royal appointed meeting.

“Ah, Sir L/N. I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“They have been appointed as my personal knight,” Jihoon explains before you can. He then turns to you. “You can stand out here and wait until we are finished.” With that the too large doors to Beomju’s quarters close and you’re left to stand outside. Exactly as you expected.

You can hear the soft murmurs of the two men talking, but not enough to be able to hear what they're saying. Just enough so if they called for help you could intervene.

You’re caught up in thinking about new battle techniques when you hear your name called down the hall.

“L/N!”

“Sir!” You salute to The Captain as he walks up.

“At ease, kid.” He looks around and then at the door behind your back. “You know, you really should be inside the room.”

“I’m aware Sir, and I respect the training we were taught, but I was given strict orders by Prince Jihoon to stay outside of the door,” you explain. “I’ve been outside of his office door all week, Sir.” 

The Captain tuts. “The prince should know better than to do something so disregarding. Hmm.” The Captain motions for you to move out of the way and you step to the side. Three heavy knocks hit the door before The Captain speaks again. “Sorry for the interruption Your Highness, may I intrude?”

With the sound of shuffling, a few seconds later the doors open again, Lord Kye standing at them. “Ah, Captain, is there an issue?”

“Forgive me my lord, but given recent events, it is protocol for Sir L/N to be inside all rooms that Prince Jihoon may inhabit,” The Captain explains, giving a pointed look at Jihoon to get his message across.

“Ah, of course. Please come in.” Lord Kye opens the door wider for you to step in. With the problem seemingly solved The Captain takes his leave. “Would you like anything Sir L/N?”

“No thank you my lord.” You stand guard in front of the door, staring out the windows at the town in the distance. Prince Jihoon and Lord Kye continue their conversation, a bit more hushed than speaking tone, not that you’re listening. You frankly couldn’t care less about what royal business they have, as long as you’re doing your job.

You stand there for the better half of the day before Prince Jihoon wraps up his conversation with Lord Kye. He doesn’t say a word to you as he leaves the room, you follow behind him as he does.

The next on Jihoon’s list of activities is a dinner with his family. You and Jihoon are the last ones to enter the dining room. Four other knights stand guard at the doors, the other members of the royal family’s personal knights.

“Jihoon!” Seokmin calls happily when you two walk in. “Oh hi Y/N!” You bow at the prince with a small smile before moving to stand guard.

“Ah Jihoonie I’m still so jealous you got Y/N-ah as your guard, you’re so lucky” Chan says. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect all of our knights, but Y/N is so nice!”

“Then you can make arrangements with The Captain to change guards,” Jihoon says harshly before sitting down.

After that the dinner is thick with an awkward tension looming in the air. Jihoon doesn’t say a word as he eats his lunch, a frown plastered to his face. Chan and Seokmin make small conversation and The Queen tries to talk about her current projects, but most of the interactions fall short.

The dinner lasts two painful hours before Jihoon is standing up and excusing himself. It looks like The Queen wants to say something to him, but eventually lets him go without a word. You bow quickly to the royal family before exiting as well.

You two run into The Captain on the way out.

“Sir L/N! I require a meeting with you. Prince Jihoon, if you would join your family back in the dining room, you will be able to leave again when Sir L/N is free.”

Jihoon looks less than pleased with this arrangement. “Just assign another guard to me. I have work to do.”

“Your father has approved of this, so please cooperate with us. It will only take a few minutes.”

Jihoon glares at The Captain but turns back around into the dining hall. You follow The Captain to his office.

“Sir? Is everything okay?”

“Of course, there’s just some protocol we need to go over. Given the intensity of the war, there are a few extra things we need you to do as Prince Jihoon’s knight. First will be that you will stay inside every room he is in, no matter what the prince himself says. It is also now required that you are not excused by the prince himself, but you will have to stay with the prince from when he wakes up to when he is asleep.”

The Captain continues to list the new protocol for you. Most of it just means you will have to be around Jihoon even more, in even closer proximity. You’re about to just ask The Captain for a different position, but you can’t bring yourself to do it. He would take it that you’re ungrateful for your position and not committed to your job as a knight when you are.

The meeting gets over within ten minutes and you’re back at the dining room to pick up Prince Jihoon. He seems even grumpier when he exits the room.

“What did The Captain want?” He asks and you’re surprised he’s even talking to you.

“We had protocol to go over.” 

“Protocol? Isn’t that some of the first things the guards learn? Why did you, such an esteemed knight, have to go over something like that? Are you stupid? Is that why? If my father is going to appoint me a guard he could have at least assigned me one who can do their damn job,” Jihoon grumbles.

What you wouldn’t do to wring his neck right now. Instead you clench your jaw, waiting for him to get done with his outburst. When he’s finally done he composes himself, like he didn’t just go on a whole bitch fit, and brushes past you.

You’re following behind him, as usual, when he suddenly stops and turns towards you. You prepare yourself for another tantrum. “Just stop following me. I can get to my down damn bedroom myself, I don’t need you on my heels all the time.”

“It is my job to see you get to your destinations safely,” you tell him, as calmly as you can.

“Fine, just to my room.” Jihoon doesn’t listen to you as you’re about to protest and continues walking. 

While you trail behind him you wonder what crawled up his ass and died.

When Jihoon gets to his chambers he walks in and you follow him in. He turns to you when he makes it to the middle of his room. “Okay I’m in my room safe, you may now be dismissed. Have a good night Sir L/N.”

Something in you finally snaps. “I’m sorry to inform you, Your Highness, but I cannot simply be dismissed just by your word. I have hours I have to fill.”

“Well I’m telling you I’m fine and that last time I checked I’m the one in charge,” Prince Jihoon says threateningly. If there’s one thing you hate, it’s royalty pulling the status card.

“Do you have an issue with me, Your Highness?” You ask, spitting out the title a little too harshly. Luckily for you Jihoon seems a bit worked up about something else to scold you for your tone.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” he growls. “It’s insulting, honestly. Everyone thinks I can’t hold my own, like I’m some fragile thing that needs to be kept out of reach. I can protect myself, thank you very much.”

“You may think that but your father called for this after the most recent attacks. Don’t be so arrogant. This is my job and just because you don’t agree with this arrangement doesn’t mean you have to be disrespectful to me. How do you think the people would feel if they knew how a member of the royal family treated their servants? You’re going to be king one day, act like it,” you snap. With that you turn and leave Jihoon’s chambers, too worked up to even think about the consequences.

When you wake up you’re finally hit with the weight of your words. You kick yourself the whole time you get ready and you slowly make your way to Prince Jihoon’s room. He’s just walking out his door when you approach and you swallow thickly before you make your presence known.

“Good morning Sir L/N.”

“G-good morning, Your Majesty.”

“I have thought about your words from last night, and I’ve found you are correct. I have also deducted that you are now the only knight fit to guard me.” That’s all Jihoon says before he starts to walk away.

Your mind is still reeling from the first sentence he said, but the second one has thrown you for a whole new loop. You’re not even sure what to say but you’re at least smart enough to start walking, following behind Jihoon like usual. 

After that things…change. Jihoon talks to you more, not a lot, but just a bit. His tone is nicer now though. It seems since you were brave enough to challenge him he deems you worthy to talk to.

Jihoon also seems to be out of his office more, but that may be due to having more meetings and The King ordering him to spend more time with the royal family. Even when Jihoon is inside his office, you’re also in there, someone for him to talk to when he needs human interaction.

Today is one of those days. You’re standing by the door when Jihoon lets out a loud sigh, pushing his paperwork away from him. “All of our efforts are going into this war, and there’s still no progress.”

“What happened with the alliance between your father and the Kwon Dynasty?”

Jihoon shakes his head. “No deal. The Kwons were asking for too much and by the time Father was going to just give in and accept, they had already aligned with the enemies. Not loyal.”

“The soldiers on the field are already tight. We might not be able to make it through the next battle without having to draft even more citizens. Even with them they’d be inexperienced and would have to go through the basic training process,” you note.

“We must do what we have to,” Jihoon says and you frown a bit. You know he’s right, but something about putting the people at risk feels wrong. Before you can say something Jihoon speaks up again. “Why did you become a knight, Sir L/N?”

The question makes you stop for a moment. You ponder the question before you answer. “It felt like the right thing to do. I’m not exactly talented in any other trade, but I can fight. When I enlisted in the military it was at a time where there was a lull in people joining. I thought if no one else would do it, I would.”

“What do your parents do Sir L/N?”

“My mother is a seamstress and my father works as a carpenter,” you answer. “Humble beginnings. Joining the military wasn’t about protecting the throne, rather than protecting the people. They gave to us while I was growing up, so it was my time to give back to them.” 

You don’t really realize it but Jihoon keeps asking you questions. You keep responding, even going off on tangents or switching conversation topics. Before you know it, it’s late into the night and Jihoon has ignored all of his paperwork for the day.

It’s not until you hear a knock on the door, interrupting Jihoon’s explanation of how the royal education system works, that you two are broken out of your little bubble. You quickly stand from where you were sitting on Jihoon’s office couch to open the door.

Standing on the other side is Hansol and your face splits into a wide grin.

“Hansol! What brings you around these parts?”

“You didn’t come to tonight’s sparring session and Prince Jihoon was not in his chambers when the night guard showed up for his shift. I was sent to find you two.” You notice that the windows outside of Jihoon’s office show it’s well past night fall.

“Oh! Sorry we were just-”

“I was just finishing up some papers and kept Sir L/N here later than I should have. That one is on me. I’m sorry to inconvenience you like this Sir Chwe. You can inform The Captain and my father that all is well.”

“Yes Your Highness!” Hansol bows before heading off.

“I’m sorry to keep you so late Sir L/N,” Jihoon tells you and he straightens his papers on his desk. “I should be heading to my chambers now, I suppose.”

With that Jihoon stands and leaves his room, locking the door as he does. You and Jihoon walk together towards his room. That’s something else that has changed. Instead of just following behind Jihoon, you now walk by his side.

“Thank you, by the way,” Jihoon says as you two walk.

“Thank me for what, Your Highness?” You ask.

“For indulging me tonight. For answering my questions,” Jihoon responds. “I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you. Despite being the future king, I’ve come to realize I don’t know much about how the citizens grow up in the town.”

“Well maybe that’s something to improve on,” you say. There’s no snark in your voice though as you desire to genuinely help Jihoon become a better ruler. “I’m sure the people would love to talk to their future king. To give them some assurance that their voices are heard.” 

Jihoon hums, like he’s contemplating the idea, but doesn’t speak on it anymore. Just as you get to his room he stops again to say something. “I also wanted to thank you for keeping me company. Don’t tell them this, but I believe my brothers are right when they tell me I need to focus on relaxing instead of my work every once in a while. So thank you for allowing me to do something other than work tonight.”

“I-,” you’re about to tell Jihoon that it’s just your job, but you stop yourself. It’s not your job to talk to Jihoon, you could have just brushed him off like he used to do to you. You realize that you like talking to Jihoon though. “It’s not a problem, my prince.”

“Still, thank you. I need someone to keep me in check, in all aspects. You’re pretty good at that, Sir L/N.” Something inside you flutters but you push it down. “Have a good night Sir L/N.”

“Have a good night, Prince Jihoon.”

With that Jihoon retires to his chambers and you stand outside of his room, trying to place what you’re feeling.

After that night it’s not uncommon for Jihoon to hold a less formal attitude with you. He talks to you a lot more while doing his paperwork or walking through the corridors. He offers you to sit with him and eat with him. It’s almost like a friend, if you could ignore the way he’s the royal prince and you’re just his appointed knight.

At some point you decide that you genuinely enjoy interacting with the prince. He’s softer when he’s finally warmed up to a person. He seems to even be more friendly with his family, which makes you happy.

Currently you two are sitting in Prince Jihoon’s office, going over war efforts together, when a knock comes on the door. You stand and open the door to see Chan standing outside of the door.

“Y/N!” Chan’s eyes light up when he sees you.

“Ah, Prince Chan, hello.”

“You’re just the person I was looking for!”

“Me?”

“Of course! I have exciting news. May I come in?”

“Prince Jihoon, it’s your brother,” you say to the older man, even though he can see and hear Chan from where he’s sitting.

“Tell him to go away,” Jihoon says.

“Hey!” Chan shouts. 

“Oh did you hear that?” Jihoon muses, a small smirk on his face. “What do you need Chan?” You don’t allow Chan in, but you do step to the side so Jihoon can have a full view of his brother.

“I’m here to inform you that Y/N is now my guard and you will now be guarded by my old guard,” Chan says.

“What?” Jihoon stands up from his desk and approaches his brother.

“Remember a few months back when you said that you didn’t care who your guard was and that we could switch if I wanted. Well I finally got it approved so I’m here to switch guards,” Chan explains.

“No. Denied. I’m not switching guards. Sir L/N is sufficient and I won’t accept anyone else now. Now leave.” Jihoon tries to shut the door in Chan’s face but he shoves his way into the office instead.

“You don’t even like Y/N that much!”

“Well I do now and I don’t appreciate you trying to take them away from me. Tell The Captain and Father that there will be no switch.”

“But-”

“Do not ‘But’ me Lee Jung Chan. I have more power than you, so what I say goes.”

“Hey you can’t use the future king card on me!” Chan protests.

“I’m not, I’m using the eldest brother card. Now get out.” 

Chan’s mouth drops at Jihoon’s words. Chan’s stunned position gives Jihoon an opening to shove Chan out the door, closing the door in his face. Jihoon looks at you when he closes the door shut.

“You do uh…want to stay my guard, right?”

“Correct, Your Highness,” you tell him and you don’t miss the way Jihoon smiles a bit to himself before sitting back down at his desk.

One morning you’re about to knock on Prince Jihoon’s door when a maid walks by. “Sir L/N, Prince Jihoon is already down at breakfast with his parents.”

This stuns you a bit but you don’t question it as you thank the maid and make your way down to the dining room. Sure enough when you walk in the whole royal family is sat around the table. There’s not a conversation going on, but there also doesn’t seem to be any palpable tension.

“Good morning Y/N!” Chan calls.

“Your Majesties,” you greet the family with a bow. At your sight Jihoon excuses himself from the table and walks over to meet you.

“Sir Kim is readying a carriage for us right now. Sir Kim, Sir Chwe, you, and I will be going into town today,” Jihoon tells you. If eating breakfast with his family wasn’t enough, this revelation has you even more taken aback.

“Your Highness, may I ask why we are taking this trip? Is there a problem in the villages?”

“No, no, nothing like that. I just took into consideration what you said to me the other day. About listening to the people and learning about their lifestyles before I become king,” Jihoon explains.

When you mentioned that to him you weren’t really expecting to do anything, it was more of just wishful thinking. You’re pleasantly surprised by this though.

You and Jihoon walk out to the stables where Sir Kim is waiting outside of the carriage with Hansol. You don’t know Mingyu that well other than he’s another one of the knights high up on the totem pole. He’s usually training the new recruits but you wonder if he had a position change like you did. You and Hansol greet each other and before you all climb into the carriage.

The ride into town isn’t too long and it’s mainly spent with you and Hansol catching up. When you do get into town you all climb out of the carriage. The town is busy today, people bustling around with errands and children playing and shopkeepers working. You guys are close to the area where you and Hansol used to stand post at the marketplace so you’re not affected by the crowds.

All of the chaos quiets down though when people start to notice Prince Jihoon. One one falls to her knees in a bow, everyone else follows suit quickly.

“Our Prince has come to grace us!” Someone calls out.

“Please stand,” Jihoon commands and everyone obeys, not wanting to disrespect the prince’s word. “I’ve come to speak to the people. With the war raging on, our biggest priority is our people, and we want to hear what you have to say. Listen to your stories and your troubles. See what we can do to help.”

The people look wary of Prince Jihoon’s words, and if you’re being honest, you don’t blame them. Jihoon looks a bit nervous until a teen boy steps up.

“My family has been struggling with money since the war started. Are there any jobs that the royal family could create so I could help out?”

Relief washes over Jihoon’s face that at least one person trusts him, and he calls the boy over to discuss his question. Soon there’s a line of people in front of Jihoon, waiting to ask him questions and tell him their stories.

A sense of satisfaction fills you as you watch Jihoon interact with the people. You’re glad that Jihoon is doing this, reaching out to the people, and you may feel a bit smug that he got the idea from you, but that’s not the main point.

Jihoon takes his time answering all of the questions as best as he can, taking mental notes of everything the people say. The questions continue for a while until all of a sudden the topic changes and Jihoon is roaming the stalls of the marketplace, looking at all of the creations and goods that everyone offers.

You come across a booth that’s selling art and Jihoon stops and looks over it. He picks up a painting, a landscape of the kingdom. He turns to you. “Do you think this would look good in my office?”

The question stuns you for a moment before you respond. “I think it would look nice on the wall next to your desk.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

With that Jihoon hands the vendor a couple coins and the vendor looks like he’s about to pass out in excitement. He thanks the prince over and over again until Jihoon finally gets him to stop. Jihoon repeats this process a few times over with different shops and vendors, each one as grateful as the last, until Mingyu’s arms are full of items Jihoon has bought.

You then come across a food stand that’s selling bowls of vegetable stew, something you remember eating a lot growing up. Jihoon turns to the man to buy some.

In the back of your mind you wonder what’s changed in Jihoon. You’ve never seen him interact with the public like this. You can’t recall a moment when you’ve seen Jihoon so kind and open before, especially with the citizens. He’s royalty, there’s really no reason for him to be indulging the street vendors like this, but he is. You wonder if he’s really changed because of you and your words. If you’ve affected him that much.

A fleeting thought that Jihoon is just doing this to please the people flashes in your mind, but you shove it away. Everything Jihoon has ever done has always been 100% sincere.

You’re forced out of your thoughts when a bowl of stew is shoved under your nose. You look up to see Jihoon handing it to you. “For you, Sir L/N.”

You take the bowl from him and thank him and the vendor both before you start to dig in. Jihoon continues to walk around the shops as he eats his stew. You follow close behind him, also focused on your own stew.

Jihoon stops in front of a shop and you can’t help but flush when you see what shop it is. Even while standing outside, the familiar scent of wood fills your nose. You try to ignore Jihoon as he smirks at you and glances up at the sign.

“L/N Furniture,” Jihoon reads.

“They’re not open today,” you inform the prince. “Dad likes to have Sunday as a family day.”

“Shame,” Jihoon tuts, “I’m sure your father makes exemplary furniture.”

“The best.”

You and Jihoon stand and stare at each other for a moment. Neither of you make a move before you decide to speak again.

“Why are you doing all of this, Prince Jihoon?”

“Doing what, Sir L/N?”

“Buying things from the vendors.”

“I wasn’t lying when I told you I took what you said to me to heart. You opened my eyes to how much I don’t know about the people, my people. I also thought about what you said, how they gave to you so now it’s your turn to give back to them. I thought that maybe, that could apply to me too.”

You don’t take your eyes off of Jihoon’s, like you two are coming to a silent understanding. Pride floods through your veins, seeing this growth in Jihoon. Then like a curse being broken, the spell wears off of you and Jihoon and you two look away. Without saying a word Jihoon starts to walk back to the middle of the town and you quickly catch up with him.

When you get back to the center of the marketplace there seems to be a new crowd of people who’ve heard of Jihoon’s arrival, all lined up to talk to the prince. Jihoon happily greets the people before diving right into answering questions.

You stand a bit off from the crowd, watching as Jihoon interacts with the crowd. Everyone seems to be holding onto his every word as he talks to them about the war and the country and solutions to problems and every other thing that’s brought up. 

“Sir L/N, Sir L/N!” You turn in the direction you hear your name. Running up to you is a little girl you recognize from when you would stand post in the marketplace. You smile down at her and pick her up in your arms.

“Well hello there.”

“I have this for you.” You look down to see her holding a flower out to you.

You smile back at her. “Why thank you, that’s so sweet.” You let her tuck the flower behind your ear. When you look up again, you see Prince Jihoon staring at you. He’s surrounded by a group of people who all seem to be sharing their stories with you.

You gently smile at him and he smiles back. A real smile. The one where his cheeks puff up and his eyes squint and your heart bursts at the sight. The moment doesn’t last long though, as Jihoon goes back to speaking to the townspeople.

You bid the little girl a goodbye before you walk over to where Jihoon is standing. He’s holding onto the hands of an elderly woman who is talking to him about what you believe is the water supply in a nearby village. The look on Jihoon’s face is serious and he nods as the woman talks, like he’s soaking up every word.

“Prince Jihoon, it’s almost time to leave,” Mingyu informs Jihoon. Jihoon nods.

He addresses the people, telling them he will have to leave soon, but he appreciated all of their input. He continues to say goodbye to the people when a tingling feeling creeps up your spine. A few moments later, you understand why.

“Take down the crown!” You hear the man before you see him but that doesn’t stop your reflexes from kicking into gear. You quickly draw the dagger on your belt and grab at the moving figure you see. You pin his arm behind his back and hold your dagger against his knife with your free hand.

You don’t think you’ve ever moved so fast before, but something in you just knew; knew you had to protect Prince Jihoon. Mingyu and Hansol stare stunned as the man tries to wiggle out of your grasp, but you’re not letting up.

“What a dumbass move,” you growl in his ear. “We could have you prosecuted right now.”

“Hey c’mon now it was just a joke, I wasn’t going to really hurt him. Re-”

“Shut up.” You twist his arm harder and he yells out louder. He struggles even harder and you slam him into the ground. “Stop moving.” 

“Sir Y/N,” Prince Jihoon’s voice rings through the air. “The town guards will take care of that now.”

Reluctantly you let go, still a bit on edge that someone’s going to hurt Jihoon. The guards who were standing post in the marketplace grab the man and drag him off. 

“Are you okay, Prince Jihoon?” Mingyu asks.

“I’m fine,” Jihoon dismisses Mingyu. “Are you okay Sir L/N?”

You brush yourself off before you nod slightly. You’re not sure what just came over you, but you know that you don’t like the idea of someone hurting Prince Jihoon. Maybe you’re just doing your job, but you can’t get that unsettling feeling to go away.

“We’re leaving now,” you mutter, while ushering Jihoon back to the carriage.

The ride back to the castle is silent and as soon as you get back you and Jihoon head to his office. While Jihoon sits down at his desk he looks up at you. “The Captain and my father will not hear about what happened today.”

“What do you mean?” You demand. “You could have gotten seriously injured.”

“But I didn’t, because you know how to do your job. Thank you, by the way.” You just continue to glare at the prince. “I don’t want them to know because other than that, the day was successful. With the war going on, I don’t want them to worry about the citizens and turn on them, when everyone I met today was incredibly caring and understanding. I’d also like to do this again, but I won’t be allowed if they know about the failed attack.”

You don’t exactly have an argument for him after hearing his explanation so you resort to just shutting up.

Jihoon jots notes down on a piece of paper and you assume it’s about what he’s learned today from the people. A look of concentration is plastered on his face, serious about what he said outside of your father’s shop. Silence surrounds the room until Jihoon clears his throat and you look up to see him glance at you before looking back down at his paper.

“You and Sir Chwe are close?”

It’s not what you were expecting him to say and it takes a moment for you to process the question and form an answer. “Yes. Yes, we are. We met during military training. Once we got into the guard, we were always stationed together.” 

“Do you miss working with him?” There’s a flicker of doubt in Jihoon’s face. You wonder if he thinks you wish to go back to your post with Hansol. If this was the beginning you would beg on your hands and knees to go back to Hansol, but now you find yourself as content as ever.

“Yes, I miss him, but I think the company I’ve found is favorable.” Your eyes meet Jihoon’s and you see his eyes soften slightly. Your answer has been deemed acceptable and Jihoon goes back to his notes, not bringing the topic up again.

As the weeks pass by, Jihoon seems to be in meetings more often than not. The whole kingdom’s focus is on the war effort and you’re forced to stand guard in every meeting, staying quiet as the officials talk. The only thing that gets you through the long meetings is knowing that at the end of the day you and Jihoon will retire to his office where you two can relax and talk as Jihoon finishes up his paperwork.

“Would you accept the position of captain, after The Captain steps down?” Jihoon asks you.

“I’ve never thought of it. I’m sure there are other people who are more qualified than I am,” you say.

“You’re one of the best in the guard though. That’s why they assigned you to me, isn’t it?” You don’t have a response to that considering it is the reason why you were assigned to Prince Jihoon.

“Well, if you had the choice would you still take over the throne?”

This one seems to stump Jihoon. He frowns down at his paperwork before he goes back down to writing. “I think I would. I’ve been raised as the heir so I guess I wouldn’t know a life without it. Chan is amazing with military things, and Seokmin’s the people’s person, but I’m the only who is able to make the hard decisions. The ones that might not always be what works for everyone, but the ones that keep the kingdom running.” 

“You say Seokmin’s the people’s person, but you were quite the sight to behold when we visited the town.”

“That’s another reason why I believe I would take over the throne. Talking to the people, well it opened my eyes. I liked talking to them, but it also helped me show where improvements can be made,” Jihoon says. “But that’s just more difficult decisions to make. Seokmin is truly the pleaser of the people.” 

“I mean, I do think Seokmin’s idea of free puppies is a lot more fun than paying taxes,” you tease and Jihoon snorts.

“You wouldn’t get paid if it wasn’t for those taxes.”

You’re glad you can have conversations with Jihoon like this. Ones where you can be serious with him but also joke around light heartedly. Sometimes you wonder if your comfortable relationship with Jihoon is breaking some kind of boundary, but it never bothers you too much whenever you get to see Jihoon relax and smile.

“Well then thank god for taxes. I need some kind of incentive to keep putting up with you.”

“Oh and here I thought you stuck around for my amazing personality,” Jihoon says as he looks up, meeting your eye. He smirks a little bit and you have to look away before your ears burn off your head.

For the past couple of weeks there’s been some kind of…tension between you and Jihoon. Tension not in the bad way, more like in the “this is probably classified as flirting” way. You perhaps like when Jihoon flirts with you, but that’s something you haven’t fully admitted to yourself and it’s not something you want to spend a lot of time thinking about anyways.

It’s embarrassing to have a crush on Prince Jihoon, to think that someone like him would even look your way like that. You’re just his guard, maybe a friend at most, but nothing else. He’s the heir to the throne. He would laugh in your face if he knew you had those kinds of feelings for him.

You’re knocked out of your thoughts when you hear Jihoon stand and stretch. “This paperwork will be here in the morning. I think I’d fancy a walk in the garden. Care to join me Sir L/N?”

You’re aware you technically don’t have a choice but you still appreciate the sentiment. It’s been happening more and more, Jihoon asking you if you’d like to join him for things. It’s a stark difference from when he used to just walk and expected you to follow.

It’s dark out, the grounds only illuminated by the moon and stars. You glance over at Jihoon, his pale skin basked in the gentle glow. The blooming flowers frame his head behind him and you look away again before your heart starts to do the fluttering thing it does when you stare at the prince for too long.

“Do you ever visit your parents Sir L/N?” Jihoon asks you. It’s been months since that first night Jihoon asked you about your parents and every now and again he brings them up again in passing or in a question, especially after seeing your father’s shop in town.

“I used to, but ever since the war and being appointed as your personal knight, I haven’t had a lot of down time to go see them,” you answer honestly. You don’t mind. You love your parents, but you also enjoy accompanying Jihoon throughout the day as he does his royal tasks.

“I guess I never realized that if you’re with me every day that-”

“Don’t worry about it, Your Highness,” you cut him off. “The war has taken all of our attention recently.”

“Which is another reason to go visit your parents. You’re their child, they must be worried about you.”

“Prince Jihoon, I assure you, there is nothing to worry about. My parents will be okay.”

Jihoon tuts disappointedly, but still changes the topic. “When do you sleep?”

The question throws you off and you stop to look over at Jihoon. “Pardon?”

“When do you sleep? You’re always there in front of my bedroom when I wake up, and you’re there when I go to bed, even on nights when I stay up late. Nights like tonight. So when do you have time to sleep if you’re always guarding me?”

“I go to bed late at night after I’ve ensured your safety and I wake up early to make sure I’m able to attend to you at the start of your schedule. The night shift guard watches over you when you’re asleep but my quarters were moved closer to your room so I can serve as back up if needed,” you explain.

“You’re…only getting six or less hours of sleep a night?”

“It’s not a problem, Your Highness. I don’t need more than four hours of sleep. It was much worse during military training.”

For a second time tonight Jihoon doesn’t look content with your responses, but still changes the topic. “You did your training with Chan, correct?”

“Yes. Your brother was a great joy to train with. He really knows what he’s doing.”

“You two are close?”

“Yes and no. More back when we were training, but that was a few years ago. We were both near the top of the class and it was common for us to spar while refining our skills.”

“So…would you say that Chan is your favorite Lee brother?”

You guffaw at Jihoon’s question, not caring if you’re disturbing the sleeping members in the castle. “Why? Would you be jealous if he was?”

“I was just merely curious,” Jihoon defends himself. If it wasn’t so dark you swear you would see a flush on his cheeks.

You stop and force Jihoon to look you in the eyes as you say your next words. “You are my favorite prince, I would choose you over your brothers a million times.” You’re not even lying, that’s the scary part. There’s a change in atmosphere and Jihoon opens his mouth then closes it.

You’re afraid you’ve overstepped the line when Jihoon opens his mouth again, this time words coming out. “Well that’s good to hear, but I regret to inform you that actually Sir Chwe is my favorite guard.”

Your jaw drops and Jihoon giggles before dashing off. You’re quick to follow after him, chasing him around the garden as he giggles. “You’re going to regret saying that!”

“Make me take it back!” Jihoon calls as he weaves in and out of the hedges. You don’t realize it at the moment but later when you go to bed your face will hurt from how wide you’re grinning, soaking up the sound of the future king’s laughs. 

“Tomorrow, you’re going to have a day off.”

Your head shoots over in Jihoon’s direction. What did he just say to you?

“After our conversation the other day I realized that you never get time off and that’s not fair to you. So I talked to The Captain and you will have all of tomorrow to yourself to do whatever you want. Go visit your parents, sleep in, go shopping. All of it, none of it. Anything you want,” Jihoon says.

“Wh- I thought you didn’t trust anyone else to guard you?”

“I don’t, but it’s not fair to keep you stuck to my side when you have your own life. I can stand one day with some random guard if it means that you get to have a break.” Jihoon’s eyes hold your own and his tone is soft and almost vulnerable sounding. “Just as long as you come back to me the next day.”

You don’t really understand you and Jihoon. You keep each other’s gaze for too long and keep saying progressively tension laced lines to each other, but you still call each other by your formal titles and you don’t think you’ve ever even shook Jihoon’s hand, let alone touched him in any other way.

It’s progressively becoming more and more of a problem, but you still can’t bring yourself to admit anything. Instead you just keep your eyes on Jihoon’s own gaze and ignore the desire to reach out and cup his cheek.

When you wake up the next morning you remember that you have the day all to yourself and you contemplate going back to sleep, but you know that now that you’re awake you won’t be able to fall back asleep so you don’t even waste your time trying. You instead get up and get dressed before heading out of the castle grounds.

You recognized how much it bothered Jihoon that you hadn’t seen your parents in a while and you decided you would take the day to go and see them. Their house isn’t too far away from the castle but it’s still a bit of a walk. You make it to their house by late morning and your mother nearly cries when she opens the door and sees you standing there.

You stay with them for the morning and a bit of the afternoon, catching up on life and having lunch together. Your parents are excited to hear about your position as Prince Jihoon’s knight and you indulge them as much as you can. You note the way your parents are ignoring the topic of war though, not that you mind, as it’s been the only thing you’ve heard about in the castle for months now.

Before you leave you promise your parents you’ll try to visit them again soon and start to make your trek back to the castle. You’re supposed to meet Hansol soon to have a sparring session. You haven’t had time to spend time with him since you changed positions and you miss seeing him daily.

You make it to the castle just before it’s time to meet Hansol and you quickly make your way to the training center where he’s waiting for you. You two greet each other and catch up a bit before you two are readying to spar.

Almost about forty minutes in and you're both panting heavily as you still continue to spar. Your swords clash against each other and even though Hansol puts up a good fight, your skills are apparent over his.

With a bit of footwork Hansol ends up on the ground with the point of your sword touching his throat and he admits defeat. You help him up and you two take a break before you start up again. You haphazardly throw off your shirt before Hansol lunges at you.

You can feel the sweat trail down your face and back as you two move around the room, dodging and countering each other’s attacks.

“You’re good,” you tell Hansol as he nearly cuts your arm, “but you're not that good.” You spin around him and hold your sword up against the back of his neck. “That’s what, six-zero?”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Hansol says, but you know there’s no real hard feelings. You and Hansol sheath your swords and walk over to grab a drink of water when Hansol nudges you. You look in the direction of where he’s gesturing to see Prince Jihoon standing and watching near the door.

“Your Majesty,” Hansol greets with a bow.

“Sir Chwe,” Jihoon greets formally. Hansol nods at you before silently taking his leave. “Even on your day off you’re training?”

“It’s not like I get to do much combat following you around,” you say.

You wipe a bit of sweat off your forehead with the back of your hand. When you look back at Jihoon you notice the way his eyes are trailing up and down your torso. You clear your throat unsubtly and Jihoon’s eyes fly up to yours, his ears tinting a bit red.

“What are you doing here anyways? Don’t you have other duties?” You ask him. “And where’s your guard? Why give me a day off if the replacement can’t do his damn job?”

“He’s outside of the door,” Jihoon explains. “I figured he didn’t need to be inside if you were in here. And anyways it’s not like I was planning on running into you, I just wanted to see how training was going.”

“Sure,” you say with a smirk. “Did you like what you saw?”

Jihoon huffs at you, causing you to grin wider. “Your form’s a bit sloppy, but sure.”

“Oh? Big talk from the guy who hasn’t touched a sword since his military training.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, there’s no way you could beat me in a fight,” you taunt.

“Is that a challenge?”

“The spare swords are on the wall,” you tell Jihoon before walking to the center of the sparring area. Jihoon quickly removes his crown and heavy outer layers before walking over to grab a sword.

He walks to where you’re waiting and takes his stance. Neither of you says a word as you stare each other down. If you’re being honest, you’ve never actually seen Jihoon spar before. You know he can hold his own, but you’re not sure how he will hold his own against you. If he’s anything like Chan, you’ll still be able to beat him.

Lucky for you, Jihoon makes the first move. He swings his swords high but you’re quick to block him. He backs off a second but you follow him. Your movements are quick, calculated, and smooth. Like waves of an ocean you and Jihoon move together, lunging and parrying. Your swords tap together, the metallic beat filling the air.

Outwardly Jihoon’s moves are confident and fluid but you can sense his hesitancy. You were right when said he hasn’t touched a sword since his military training. Jihoon tries to psych you out by swinging high only to swing back down low while you’re caught off guard, but you’re still able to move out of the way. Jihoon grunts at this and lunges back at you again. Your swords press against each other until you’re able to throw his sword right out of his hand.

Right as you’re about to move to land the finishing strike, Jihoon moves away to try and get his sword. You grab at him to stop him but he throws you off of him, throwing you off your balance. Just before you’re able to go down you grab at Jihoon’s shirt, taking him down with you.

You thud onto the ground, Jihoon falling right on top of you. He hovers slightly over you, your faces inches away from each other. You can feel Jihoon’s hot breath as he pants, trying to recover his breath. You can’t tell if his red face is from the exertion or from the proximity. Maybe both.

Just before Jihoon can say something to you, you quickly flip the two of you over, so you’re now straddling Jihoon’s hips. You grab your sword and press it up against his neck.

“Got you,” you say, a bit breathlessly.

Jihoon’s pupils are blown wide and he can’t form a full word. You’re not too much better, staring down at him under you. A thought flickers in your mind that this is the first time you’ve ever had prolonged, or maybe any, physical contact with Jihoon, and it’s you sitting on top of him. That thought makes you come to your senses and you quickly clamber off of him, helping him up after. You both clear your throats before you move to pick up his discarded sword.

“Uhm, good match though. You definitely know what you’re doing,” you tell him as you move to put the sword back where it belongs.

“Yes, well, I should be going. Have a good rest of your day Sir L/N.” Without another word Jihoon quickly left the training room, not looking back. Even without seeing his face though, you could see how his ears were still bright red before the door closed behind him.

The rest of your day off was unnoteworthy and a part of you wished you were on duty, looking after Prince Jihoon, but another part of you was still not recovered from the events of earlier. After that incident you can’t hide any longer. You have a giant, massive, raging crush on the future king and you have no clue what to do about it.

Every time you think about it you want to curl up and die of embarrassment, your face flushing and your heart speeding up.

The next day when you greet Jihoon in the morning he doesn’t seem too affected by what happened, so you decide to play it normal as well. It probably didn’t actually mean anything to Jihoon and you just have a stupid crush that you need to focus on getting rid of.

Jihoon goes over his schedule with you as you two walk through the corridors. He has breakfast, then a meeting with Lord Kye, and then some paperwork he has to send off, and finally he has a brief report to receive about the war effort.

The meeting with Lord Kye is shorter than their normal meetings due to the stack of paperwork sitting on Jihoon’s desk. After Jihoon bids Lord Kye a good bye, you two head to his office to finish said paperwork. It ends up going quicker than Jihoon had initially thought and Jihoon is able to get the report soon after, freeing the rest of his afternoon.

You and Jihoon share lunch together before Jihoon suggests you two go out the courtyard to get some fresh air as you two now have free time. You agree and you two start to make your way outside. On your way there, you and Jihoon pass by one of the sitting rooms and a whistle sounds from the room. You look over to see a gaggle of men sprawled across the furniture.

“Watch out, big shot coming through!” One of the boys hoots. Jihoon huffs and squeezes his eyes shut before opening them and neutralizing his face. He straightens his posture before walking into the room.

Seven boys inhabit the room, grinning up at Jihoon. You recognize them as Prince Seungcheol, Prince Jeonghan, Prince Wonwoo, Prince Minghao, and Prince Seungkwan, along with Jihoon’s two brothers, Seokmin and Chan. They’re the princes from the neighboring kingdoms, all friends with the Lee Brothers as everyone is close in age. 

You don’t know that much about all of them, you were never close to the brothers growing up to know the other princes outside of normal royal status. Right off you can tell how close they all are though, dropping their normal day responsibilities to just be boys together. It doesn’t seem like Jihoon shares that same sentiment though.

“Ooh Prince Jihoon and his loyal knight. What a sight to see,” Prince Jeonghan teases.

“You know, you’re pretty cute,” Prince Seungcheol says, staring right at you. He winks at you when he notices you looking back at him. “Strong looking as well. You’re probably smart too, I can tell. What’s your name kid?”

“You don’t have to respond to him,” Jihoon informs you before turning back towards Seungcheol. “I’d advise you not to bother my knight.”

“No need to be so possessive there Jihoonie, just being friendly.”

“That’s Y/N,” Chan responds. “Jihoon’s personal guard. Hi Y/N!” You give a quick smile to Chan.

“Y/N, that’s cute.” Seungcheol stands up to greet you. “Nice to meet you, Y/N.”

“Prince Seungcheol.” You bow to greet him and Seungcheol laughs.

“You really are adorable!” Seungcheol takes your hand and presses a kiss to the back of your hand. You try your best not to squirm out of his grip, your ears heating up.

“Stop that,” Jihoon demands. You don’t ignore the way he subtly shoves himself between you and Seungcheol.

“C’mon Jihoon, Seungcheol’s just having fun. You could stand to do the same sometimes,” Seokmin says.

“Not at Sir L/N’s expense,” Jihoon nearly growls.

“Why don’t you ask Y/N themself,” Chan says. “What do you think?” All of a sudden eight sets of eyes are on you.

“I’m sorry, what was the question?”

“Do you mind when Seungcheol flirts with you?” Chan asks again.

“Flirts?”

“Yeah, you don’t mind do you?” Seungcheol asks. He’s grinning at you again. “I mean, it probably happens all the time. You’re obviously a catch.”

“Nobody is flirting with anybody,” Jihoon cuts in. “There is a war going on, there are other things we need to focus on. You guys think I’m stuck up, but maybe you guys should mature more.”

Jihoon turns on his heels and walks away, you close on his heels. When you’re finally out of earshot Jihoon stops and takes a deep breath.

“You know that you’re being ridiculous,” you tell him. He looks at you curiously. “You’re the only person I want to flirt with me.”

Jihoon’s face turns red. He sputters about, not able to get a full sentence out. “I- I wasn’t jealous,” he finally gets out.

“You can admit you are. But, if you’re so sure you aren’t, you wouldn’t mind if I went back in there and told Prince Seungcheol that-”

“No!” Jihoon grabs your arm as you turn to go back the way you came. “Don’t go back there, they’re all stupid.”

You chuckle a bit. “I’m just teasing you. I’ve already told you I prefer you over anyone else, my favorite prince.”

“I- don’t say embarrassing things like that,” Jihoon mutters. Ah, so predictable of Jihoon, repressing his feelings so he doesn’t have to confront them.

That doesn’t stop you from pushing, though. “You like it.” You move a bit closer to Jihoon. “And I know that’s not the only thing you like.” It’s bold. You know it’s bold. Jihoon’s eyes meet yours and you can tell he’s about to say something else but then you hear footsteps and you two quickly separate.

Just as you two are able to gain your composure, Prince Seungcheol rounds the corner. “Oh good, you two are still here. I just uhm, I wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier. It’s not fair of me to be on you Jihoon, you’re right, there is a lot going on and you have a lot on your shoulders. As for you Sir L/N, I’m truly sorry if my actions were inappropriate. I hope that you can forgive me.”

“Don’t worry about it, Prince Seungcheol. There are no hard feelings. Now if you will excuse us, I have to get Prince Jihoon to a meeting with Lord Kye.” You smile politely at Seungcheol before you turn and Jihoon follows suit, leading you away.

You two walk through the castle until you get back to Jihoon’s room. “I don’t have a meet with Lord Kye, do I?”

“No. From what I am aware of, you don’t have anything else on your schedule today, I just didn’t feel like talking to Prince Seungcheol anymore. Excuse my behaviors.”

“No, that’s no problem at all. If there is nothing left on my schedule then I think I may lay down to rest.”

“Of course my prince. I’ll be outside the door if you-”

“Would you like to join me?”

The words, so familiar to hear from Jihoon, stop you in your tracks and turn towards Jihoon. “E-excuse me.”

“Would you like to uhm,” he clears his throat, “would you like to join me for my nap?” When you don’t respond for a moment Jihoon turns away. “I’m sorry, that was inappropriate. Just ignore what I said. Will you wake me up in time for di-”

“Yes. I’ll uh, I’ll join you. Would you like me to take off my armor?” Jihoon nods wordlessly and you take your time to strip off your armor, down to just your shirt and pants.

Jihoon crawls into his bed and you slowly make your way over to the bed. You stare down at him before you yourself crawl into the bed. You and Jihoon don’t say anything as you two shift around in the bed. You can feel your face warm up and your heart speed up. You can barely even breathe as you move to rest your head on Jihoon’s chest. You think his heart is beating even faster than your own. His hand moves up to pet your hair and you close your eyes, relaxing yourself in his touch.

Your body is heavy and your mind is drowsy with sleep when you slowly open your eyes. You’re surrounded in a pocket of warmth and you yawn before you sit up. It isn’t until you try to move your legs that you remember where you are.

In Prince Jihoon’s bed. Tangled up with his limbs.

The prince himself is still asleep, murmuring every time you try to move.

You don’t know what to do. This is Prince Jihoon. The future heir to the throne. Of course the tension between you two has been suffocating and you’re worlds away from how you two used to be at the beginning, but you two haven’t officially discussed your feelings. It’s obvious you are into him but you can’t tell if he has feelings for you or is just allowing himself to finally indulge in a close friendship.

God, it would be so embarrassing if he’s not into you.

You finally are able to untangle yourself from Jihoon and you quickly get out of the bed. Maybe you can convince Jihoon this didn’t happen when you wake up. You’re about to start putting your armor back on when you hear Jihoon stir in the bed.

“Y/N? Why did you get up?” Shit. As much as you hate to admit it, hearing Jihoon call you by your name without formality makes your heart flutter.

“Uhm, it’s time for dinner, Your Highness.”

“Ah,” Jihoon mutters. You look over at him and he still has a sleepy look on his face, his hair tossed all over. Your heart swells at how adorable he looks. Slowly he starts to get up and stretch and fix his appearance. When he’s ready he turns towards you.

“Hey Y/N, about earlier I-”

CRASH

“Shit, what was that?” You quickly break away from Jihoon to rush to the door. Before you can even get to the door it’s thrown open and a sword is thrust right at your face. You fall to the ground in an attempt to dodge it.

You don’t have time to react, jumping up to your feet and grabbing your own sword. You’re hyper aware of where Jihoon is, glancing at him from your peripherals. He’s stunned for a moment before he moves to grab the sword kept on his wall.

Two more men barge into the room after the first and you’re quick to take two of them on at once. You do your best to combat the two men, while keeping an eye on Jihoon’s battle as well. You thrown to the ground and one of them slashes at your leg. It cuts right through your flesh and you hiss.

Your hand is still gripped tight around your sword and you take it and push it right into the man’s knee, twisting as you take it out. He screams and falls to the ground. You’re able to just barely get up, but before you can catch your balance the other man is tackling you back onto the ground. You two tussle around on the floor before you’re able to grab your dagger from your belt and slam the blade right into his neck as he pins you to the ground. Quickly his body loosens and you’re able to throw him off of you.

When you look over, the third man and Jihoon’s swords are locked. You grab your own sword and stumble over to where the two are, thrusting your sword right into the side of the other man. He crumples to the ground when you take it out. Your sword is now covered in red but you can’t focus on that when your pant leg is also drenched in the color.

You hop over to Jihoon’s bed and quickly rip part of your shirt off to wrap up your leg. The cut isn’t deep but it’s long and stings like hell. Jihoon is still recovering his breath when he moves over to you.

“Y/N! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” you grunt out. You tighten the final knot and stand up. “I just have to keep the adrenaline pumping. Let’s go, we have to go alert The Captain.”

Jihoon looks like there’s more he wants to say but you ignore him, quickly moving to leave the room and find The Captain. You navigate the halls until you hear screaming. You move to go meet it. When you get into the courtyard it seems a full on battle is happening.

You spot The Captain already head-to-head with two men. Other soldiers are also in combat, doing their best to ward off the enemies. 

“Prince Jihoon! Go find safety!” You glance around to make sure Jihoon has a safe exit.

“No! I’m staying here to fight. It’s only right as the future king. Not to mention I will always be safest by your side.” He draws his sword and before you can even get another word out you’re being shoved into a pillar. You grunt as you hit hard. You barely catch your breath before you’re locked in a spar with another man.

Your body kicks into autopilot as you match all of the enemy’s strikes. Each person you take down, there’s another one or even two to replace them. Your body is thrown around, pushed into the ground, hit and punched and cut. Your breath is ragged and you’re sweating all over but you can’t stop.

Just as you’re about to take a sword in the shoulder the person is thrown to the ground. There’s a blur of bodies before the enemy falls limp and you can see the other man is Hansol, here to save you.

“Y/N! You good?”

You reach down to help him to his feet. “I am now that you’re here.”

It’s easier to take on the opposing attackers with Hansol by your side. After years of working together you two know each other’s movements, being able to work around each other to take down the others. You’re thinking you two are doing good when you all of a sudden a burning pain shoots through your spine. You can hear the squelch of your blood when the sword is dragged out of your shoulder from behind. You have to take a couple deep breaths to get the fuzziness out of your vision but you’re thankful the opponent didn’t stab your dominant shoulder.

Hansol moves quick to attack the man who stabbed you, the man he was just battling on the ground, dead. You tuck your arm into your side to not jostle your shoulder more. You grip your sword tighter before you turn to take on the next enemy.

As you look around a good amount of the chaos has calmed down as more and more soldiers are taken down, from both sides. A few of the enemy fighters flee as others continue their mission. The battle is almost over.

As you stand still for a moment of peace, you can feel your head throb from the blood loss. You’re about to move to do something about your shoulder when you hear a scream from behind you and you turn to see that it was the opposition, rather than Hansol, and you let out a sigh of relief. 

“You good?” Hansol asks you.

You only nod a bit before you look around and notice the glint of two swords in the distance. It’s Jihoon. Quickly you move towards him, desperate to protect your prince. Just as you get to them Jihoon’s sword goes right into their skull, the person dropping to the ground.

Jihoon’s own sword matches yours now, bathed in a bath of thick red blood. Jihoon sees you approaching and his face softens. He’s about to say something to you just as you notice movement from the corner of your eye. 

“Jihoon!” Before his name can even leave your lips your body is moving, your reflexes quick from years of training. Your body lurches forwards, pushing Jihoon down as the sword slashes into your side. You hiss, but with your adrenaline pumping you don’t stop. You just stand up straight and slash your sword right back at the enemy.

Your swords clash together, in a twisted, unplanned choreography. Clang, clang, slash. His sword nicks your upper arm this time. You won’t let him win though. You won’t let him get to Jihoon.

You grunt as you fall to the ground, your sword knocking out of your hand. You curse. The man hovers over your body, his sword ready to plunge into your heart.

That is, until you sweep his leg. He goes tumbling to the ground as well you’re able to climb on top of him and start punching him in the face. It doesn’t last long though because he grabs you by the neck and starts to hit you back. Your two roll around the ground, slugging it out. There’s a pounding in your ears and your heart is in your throat and your whole body stings, but you can’t stop, not yet.

A glint catches your eye and you take your chance. You lunge for a dagger sitting on the ground, just barely being able to grasp it with your finger tips. Before the other guy can get another move in you slam the hilt of the dagger into his temple, taking him out. His body falls limp, but you don’t allow yourself to do the same yet.

You stagger up onto your feet, searching, until you catch a glimpse of him. You frown at the small gash on his cheek, dripping red.

“Y-you’re bleeding,” you mumble, your thumb coming up to swipe the blood away from the scratch.

“I’m bleeding? You’ve been mangled!” Jihoon grabs at you, steading your wobbly steps.

“Anything- anything for you…my prince,” you manage to get out before you start to fall, Jihoon’s strong arms locking around you as you go down.

You wake up to a pounding head and the sound of light footsteps. You don’t open your eyes but you let out a small grunt and the footsteps stop before getting closer, the bed dipping.

“A-are you awake?”

You finally flutter your eyes open, grateful the room is fairly dim. Staring at you with large puppy dog eyes and a slight frown is Prince Jihoon.

“Your Highness.” You reach to grab him. He guides your hand to his cheek. “Your face.” Your thumb brushes over his already healing cut.

“Who cares? You could have died!”

“It would be an honor to die for you, my prince.”

“Don’t say that,” Jihoon hisses. “I couldn’t- I- you can’t die. Not like that.”

“It is my job, Your Highness, to put my life on the line for yours. I am here to protect you. If I die for the cause, then I am doing my job right,” you tell him. “My death does not matter, as long as you are safe.”

“Shut up! Stop talking like that! It matters to me. It matters to me if you die.” Jihoon’s grip on you tightens. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him so distraught. “I won’t have a reason to continue if you are not by my side.”

“My prince…”

“You are my knight and I am your prince. You are mine, and I am yours, and you have to be beside me or what else is the point? I- I can’t…I love you, damnit! And you can’t keep acting like you don’t love me as well.”

You can’t help but grin, a small chuckle escaping your throat.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just…you’re quite the force to be reckoned with, my prince.” Your thumb brushes his cheek again. “My prince.”

“Say it back,” Jihoon demands and you laugh a bit before it starts to hurt your side.

“I love you too, my Jihoonie.”

“You know you really shouldn’t be back on duty yet,” Jihoon scolds as he starts to get ready for the morning. He bustles around his room, finishing up his morning preparations. “Your shoulder isn’t even healed yet.”

“I’m fine,” you assure him. “This is my job and I don’t trust the other guards to do it properly. You’re very important, you know.” Jihoon rolls his eyes but you just smirk and lean in to press a kiss to his cheek. “Let me fix your crown.” You reach up to straighten the gold piece on top of his head before pulling away.

It’s been over a month since the battle in the courtyard. You’ve been on bedrest healing but you’ve finally been discharged from the infirmary and you take that as your permission to go back to work. You’ve been itching to finally do something and even though Jihoon visited you everyday while you were healing, it’s not the same as being by his side as his knight.

While you were healing it was discovered that the ambush happened because there was a mole in the kingdom who told the outside about how all of the other princes were in the castle that day. The mole let them in and caused the battle. A few days after that was revealed, the mole was caught and prosecuted. It makes you feel better knowing that the traitor was discovered, but you are still on edge knowing that the war will only get worse.

A good amount of soldiers died while fighting off the enemy that day. A funeral service will be held soon and you think about how the kingdom will start to call for military recruitment again. Nobody you were terribly close with was majorly injured but you know that Chan’s personal knight was fatally wounded in the battle. Hansol has been put in his place for the time being, maybe permanently if his old guard doesn’t recover fully.

The castle’s security will be cracked down on even harder, and more soldiers will be sent out to the kingdom’s borders to instill stricter border control. The new changes worry you more than anything. You’ve always been aware of the war, but a part of you was hoping that it would somehow come to a stalemate or an agreement before things got worse. Wishful thinking.

“Hey, I can see you thinking, stop that. I should be the one who’s all serious and worries about the difficult topics.” Jihoon’s hand brushes over your cheek.

“Sorry, it’s just a bit hard to not think about it.”

“You should only be focused on healing. I still can’t believe The Captain allowed you to go back on duty.”

“Oh he didn’t, I just am,” you state.

“Y/N,” Jihoon scolds, his eyes wide and scandalized.

“I can’t keep laying in bed anymore. Please, I won’t strain myself. I just want to spend time with you.” You’re lucky you know Jihoon’s soft spot (that being you), because he just sighs and resigns, not putting up any more fight

The only issue is that you and Jihoon still have not talked about the nature of your relationship. Sure, you guys confessed and you two are more touchy and give the occasional kiss on the forehead or cheek but you still aren’t officially official. 

It’s something that’s been bothering you for weeks now but you haven’t found the right time to bring it to Jihoon between being in the infirmary and the war stress and everything else. You contemplate if there really is a “right time” and that maybe you should just bite the bullet and bring it up.

You two are about to leave Jihoon’s chambers when you decide that biting the bullet is the best option. Right as Jihoon is about to grab the door handle you grab his arm and stop him. Jihoon turns to look at you questioningly.

“May I court you?” The words spill out of your mouth. Jihoon’s response is instantaneous.

“No.”

That’s definitely not the answer you were expecting. You’re about to start feeling like a fool when Jihoon continues.

“You can’t do this to me Y/N. I had a whole plan. I even asked your parents! I had this whole day set up and we’d go out and then at the end I was going to ask you to court me and I can’t believe that you-”

“You asked my parents? If you could court me?”

“Yes and now you’ve gone and ruined it!”

“You’re so ridiculous,” you mutter, a smirk plastered on your lips. “But you still haven’t given me an answer.”

“I- yes. Yes, of course I want you to court me,” Jihoon says, his temperment toning down. You smile at Jihoon before grabbing him by the waist and pulling him towards you. You lean in and Jihoon meets you halfway, connecting his lips to yours.

Your body is buzzing with warmth when you pull away and you can’t wipe the dorky grin off your face. You’re grateful Jihoon also has a dorky grin on his face.

You don’t know what’s next for you and Jihoon, but you do know that whatever it will be, you’ll get through it, together.

want more of prince jihoon x knight reader? read the additional smut fic here

taglist: @pandorashbox @leejihoonownsmyheart @soonhoonietrash @enhacolor @chaimi-yuta @embrace-themagic @kayleeshinee @coupsgyus @joonsytip @heyxxitsxxtay @d0nghyck @noniestars @heavenly-mobo @baldi-2 @sunnyteume @debsworld23 @m1nghaos @just-here-to-read-01 @niyizh @blxckswxnxge @17kwans @jeanjacketjesus @x-veex @synthetickitsune @namjoonbaby @raevyng @chwecardcaptor @candidupped @1694 @ovai @niktwazny303 @brxzilianbaby @moshiyuron @y0lkz @luvthatleader-nim @vtn-dahyun @honeylovemoon @hoeforcheol @wonchansbrooklynn

join my taglist: here!

[featherdusterbelphie]

WHB Belphie discussion! (Again)

I'm gonna be going back and rewriting some of my theories.

So first off, according to this post, Belphie seems... More lenient than he seems. Which means he's definitely not that strict and/or maybe doesn't care as much about what his people do or where they go? (Or maybe that's just because those three are high-ranking devils so of course they have more freedom)

Which makes me retract on my earlier statement from my previous post:

for some reason, I have a feeling that he's very mean? Or like, he's one of those who will bully MC LOL

(though I can't tell if it's bully because he likes mc, or bully because that's just how he is)

Or at least, he isn't the type to just punish his people because he got irritated (unlike Levi) so it makes me think that he probably bullies MC because he likes them. That's just his attitude when it comes to the person he likes. He treats them... Not like shit, but not very nicely either hahaha.

OH and I just realized from the post I mentioned earlier that Dre has a halo! What?! I completely forgot about that so I'm embarrassed about what I said regarding Belphie's halo—

......I was going to say something about Belphie wearing angel limbs/pieces as accessories, but after seeing @/aki-shun's and @/sparkbeast20's observation and theories, I'm starting to think that the halo is indeed because of an experiment. From their observation, Belphie, Levi and Mammon are the only kings so far that had their mouths closed in their teasers, all the other kings do not.

Which leaves me with a foreboding feeling...Both the halo and the double pupils are definitely part of that experiment.

I'm only aware with Levi's past of escaping from an angel camp, and I've only just recently (like, a few hours ago) found out that Mammon has been as well. Which makes me think Belphie definitely also got 'napped and experimented on by the angels. Which is just so 😭 I wanna hug him (until he pushes me away lmao)

Also, thanks for @/eternal-auditor for reminding me of Beel's obscenely delicious looking dick and the tattoo on it that Belphie also has on his forehead which is.... honestly so boring. They're devils and they have tattoos of The Devil's insignias...but I guess PB has done worse...

Ah, but having another devil that has tattoos is nice, don't get me wrong. I wonder how many Belphie will have. I reckon he has a lot (and I also reckon it's to cover up some of his lingering scars).

Also I drew him some more in school. I tried to incorporate that halo he has and changed his attire to resemble Dre's since it's supposed to be a uniform.

(sorry about the quality, I'm too lazy to redraw this in ibis)

I redesigned his hair in this because I just realized that he could also have a half-up do and still look like the teaser!!! I was wearing this style earlier (but less pointy and ragged because my hair was long and wet and incredibly straight) so I thought why not give him this? He looks like he could be drinking champagne while murdering people with Sanzu lmao. Very mafia-esque which I ADORE

Also also!!! Going back to sparkbeast20's post, there's a Twitter post by @/WHB_kiri where they drew Belphie's eye where it only shows the second (upper) pupil when he's serious. So here's the last of my two cents!

Wouldn't it be fun if his pupils rotated as well? Like the swirly spin wheel thing that hypnotists use to make someone fall asleep etc. but it's Belphie trying to threaten someone. That would be fun.

Aaaanyway, I will probably be making more of these because Belphie in general is very special to me<33......LMAO so watch out and filter if you're getting tired of it! Also I apologize if this whole thing is so gibberish and difficult to understand. I haven't been sleeping right and my brain is just scrambled ahahaha

Also, fuuuuck me. There's a new Luci card and it's only in the stupid premium pass?! Goddamn it! I didn't get Luci when he launched so what the fuck?!?! 😭😭🙃🤬🤬😭😭

<< PREV || NEXT >>

[snail-studios]

OK I'm gonna send several asks about Orca OC because I've been thinking about several different ideas and I wanna separate them.

First, just some ideas to bounce names off you and see if you like any of then. Zora names are usually two syllables (sometimes three), and carry something of a heavier vowel focus. Here are a few of the ideas that I think sort of capture a "Zora" vibe and I hoped maybe one of them would get you going in the direction you want for the character.

Fura-- sounds like fury, just thought it was neat

Larunda-- straight up stole this name from a water nymph but it sounds extremely Zora-like. You could also go with its variant "Laru". Does come with the risk of sounding too much like the already existent "Laruta" though.

Sera/Sela-- tweaked version of French word for "salt" because she's from the sea

Saumi/u/a-- brackish

Nevi-- tweaked version of Italian word for "snow"

Padot-- just threw together a bunch of Zora names for this one.

Hope these help to some extent.

ahh these are great! (I'm just going to put all of your asks in one post so not to spam anyone)

long answers below ⤵

Would she mop the floor with Link in a spear on spear sparring match?

It really depends. I would say she would beat him out of brute strength but Link can parry lynels, so he’s definitely monstrously strong. But she’s been training with the spear her whole life and can probably outwit him by making him angry, as long as she doesn’t lose her temper herself. I think in a no holds-barred fight she could kill him though, and post-Calamity Link when he’s just woken up wouldn’t stand a chance even if all the odds are with him.

Do you reckon she's on par with Mipha and the other Champions in terms of martial skill, or perhaps just exemplary among the Zora (but not close to a Champion), or was her appointment more of a formality like Urbosa's guards would have been?

Give her another century or 50 years of training and she absolutely would be, but pre-Calamity she’s more of a formal knight there for when Mipha’s unarmed or in a vulnerable position (resting, in unfamiliar environments, stuff like that.) I don’t think she’s like Link with Zelda and trailing her 99% of the time because that’s not even necessary for a warrior as skilled as Mipha. (Mipha’s probably an even better fighter than her knight but it’s always good to have extra support)

What are her chances against a Lynel?

She could kill it! She’s pretty big and strong so she has a higher chance of living than Mipha and Link fighting one together.

A Guardian Scout?

She’s mortal, so a beam could probably take her out, but if she got it onto the ground she could probably dismantle it fairly efficiently.

How many Moblins could she take on at once?

Realistically, probably three or four, given she’s a big target and fairly slow compared to Mipha, who I can imagine being able to take on around five or six. Together they could probably kill at least 15 tho. Teamwork makes the dream work! <3

You've already given a snapshot of what her relationship with Dorephan, Link, Mipha, and Muzu would look like, but what about her reputation/relationship with Zora's Domain as a whole? We know Link finds her intimidating, and strangers likely do too, but would the citizens of Zora's Domain feel that same intimidation or something else? 

I think it depends on the Zora! The little kids would love her, since she’s friendly to them, but one of Mipha’s suitors? Or just a scab in general (or a rude tourist)? Yeah they would be terrified. She’s not someone to be immediately unfriendly but she doesn’t like rude people.

Do they perhaps look up to her, or think she's some really cool lone wolf type?

Some people would absolutely think of her as a lone wolf, but the people who actually know and spend time with her just think she’s a nice and respectful person. Little Zora and other knights look up to her. The little Zora think she’s cool, the other knights hope they can rise to a rank like hers one day.

 Do they gossip about her and Mipha? 

Oh absolutely xD Being a public figure like that, there’s no way they’re not getting gossiped about.

Does she have a Sidon style fan club? 

I WANT HER TO OMG

Is this emotional toughness a Link-specific problem due to jealousy? 

Yeah, I think so. She also worries that people don’t believe she’s fit for the job, so acts exceptionally tough and professional around people she’s insecure around.

I get that she has something of an aura of scariness, but I guess I'm curious about the particulars. Is she scary because she's the quiet, reserved, unreadable watchdog kind of person? 

She’s very much like a watchdog at times and can be quite unreadable, but most people fear her because of her stature and battle prowess. 

Is she easily nettled and perhaps overly forceful and aggressive like Buliara is?

No, not at all. She used to be when she was younger, but learnt that’s not helpful to anyone and just makes her charges uncomfortable.

 Is she one of those people you can clearly see planning how she would dismantle you on your very first meeting? 

If you’re a threat, yes. If you’re just a mildly annoying person or are acting normal and like you have no tricks up your sleeve, probably not.

She'd probably bite her tongue .3.

[percyaugod]

@musicalocelot470

I'm going to be completely honest, as the AU is Donnie is just some random Krang Leo caught the interest of. Mostly because I had a lot more ideas for it than the original.

Originally, I saw a post saying the pod thing they found Raph in was supposed to turn him into a krang, and how that's how they create more of their kind, but the others interrupted the process. So naturally, I had ideas.

The Krang catch Donatello and are unable to get information out of him, but they've seen firsthand what he's capable of. They don't even have to think twice about putting the turtle in one of the pods. The Krang were practically giddy to have such a force to be reckoned with as one of their own.

Someone was always on watch in case something went wrong or the turtle somehow pulled a last-minute escape, as he's done before. Except neither of those happened. If anything he seemed to take to pod like a fish to water, body quickly and smoothly transitioning like none before. Taking into account his already yellow eyes and violent, destructive nature it's almost like he was meant to be one of them.

When he finally emerges he's a Krang whose hue leans toward purple. Notable size and stature similar to the Prime himself. Though in his eyes there's still that look of wanting to tear apart everything in sight that fills the Krang with dread.

They, of course, put him in one of the labs. He immediately sets himself up in a corner, claiming it for himself and banning entry from everyone without permission. Then he sets up traps and defenses for those foolish enough to try to enter. Then made himself a pair of goggles that were frighteningly familiar to the Krang.

He's upgrades the Krangs' tech and even creating new devices. Everything he makes is branded with an odd K symbol. When asked he says "Psychological attack against enemies and keeping dum dums from claiming my work as their own." Considering how many heart attacks they've had in the past seeing the turtle's symbol they can understand the first part, but not the second reason.

Or at least they didn't until some higher rank Krang in the lab got tired of the newcomer constantly outshining him and stole one of his devices that had yet to be marked. What the fool didn't realize was it had yet to be marked because it was still a prototype, a highly unstable one at that.

Him having to throw the dum dum away and covering the device with his own body before it detonates is how the Krang and himself learn he regenerates. He also now knows being blown up hurts and burnt Krang shells similar to burnt popcorn for some reason. He turns to another Krang to ask what popcorn is only to get a shrug in response. Useless, the lot of you.

Chances are since he works in the lab he doesn't leave the base, so the others have to go to him. They refuse to believe he's gone without a body.

That's as far as I could get with that one. :T

[missdeepend]

Erza Scarlet and Elsie Crimson

A warning as always: This is going to mention scenes from chapters of the Edens Zero Manga as well as 100 Year Quest. If you are not caught up or have not read these, I highly recommend you do before continuing this post.

Erza Scarlet and Elsie Crimson have always been rather, vague in my heart. I don't mean like forgettable by any means. We all know how memorable Erza's scenes especially are. However, them as characters never quite sat right with me.

I know I'm about to piss off a lot of Erza fans... but I gotta say I don't like her. I mean I do, but she isn't even in my top five. I do have many moments that I enjoy of her and she is one of the funniest characters. I feel like her character has just been downgraded into something of comedic relief or destroy the enemy after some to little trouble. Especially in 100 Year Quest she doesn't have the feeling of the original Erza, though in many cases it is like that for all the characters.

There are moments I do enjoy of Erza. Her moments of seriousness when she takes the lead in team Natsu in plans are great, even when they go awry. Her fight against Minerva and Kagura is one of my favorites and can we just say how amazing Tower of Heaven and her backstory was when it was first presented. I feel though that many of these moments have been stripped away and given us nothing but moments of absolutely bodying an opponent for the sake of "badassery". I will die on the hill that Erza's battle with Irene was absolutely amazing until Wendy was no longer involved.

Then there is Elsie Crimson, oh boy. When she first came out I remember how crazy the fanbase went. Sure we had Plue return from Rave Master and Jellal had a similar person in Rave Master, but something felt... different. In the anime their voice actresses were the same. Their power was almost identical and... it was Erza. I passed Plue for just being a mascot and the same for Happy. But Elsie will always be.... Erza to me.

That isn't to say that there aren't good moments of Elsie. Her moments reminicing with Shiki about when she was taken in by Ziggy hurt my soul and her and Justice had great potential. But that was all it was, potential.

Erza and Jellal are still great in my opinion. Their dynamic is cute and embrace the friends to enemies to lovers that can't really be together. In a way I see it as Erza having honor to hold onto while Jellal has his own honor to find.

Elsie and Justice... I like them... but I can't help but to feel I like them because they are just... Erza and Jellal switched. They have a different backstory of course but its the same structure. To me it seemed like Mashima just used our heart strings tethered to Erza and Jellal to carry Elsie and Justice. Not to mention, while I enjoy Jellal as a character in his many moments, Justice is not a good character. But thats a discussion for another day. I will rant about him eventually. I feel like pieces of their characters work so well as they are, if only the other didn't exist. Elsie works to me because without Justice her scenes (other than that one allowing Ziggy to live) work so well for her. Her character being an unstoppable force high ranking in society that even Valkiyrie struggles against works because she isn't a main character. She doesn't swoop in to save their day unless Justice is involved or Ziggy. We couldn't pray for her return to defeat Drakken or Shura because...it was never going to happen. That is who Elsie is. So the moments where she one shots someone we know are deserved. The fights we see she struggles in we know that person is a force to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, Erza works because she is like the big sister character, especially in the eyes of Wendy, Natsu, and Gray. She is there when you need to count on her. The reason her fights tire us out or seem unreasonable are because we see her as a main character. She just has main character syndrome attached to her.

If you could take Erza's relationships with people and her good bond with Jellal. It could be the story of Elsie and Justice or her original story and mesh it together with Elsie's perk of being a side character hardly seen I feel it could work wonderfully.

But I'm curious about what you all think about Erza and Elsie. If either got into a duel who would win? My bet is on Erza because the main character syndrome.

Anyways, I'll see you all later in the Deep End!! <3

[elekinetic]

you want questions i deliver — any adult byler hcs? talking like, post college. what are the little guys doing in the future, you reckon?

oooooh love this

ok so like. my hot take is that i think will and mike are good at their art (they are!!) but they're not....exceptional? stay with me, i just mean that when someone who isn't a professional writer or doesn't read obsessively or isn't in the art scene conceptualizes success in those fields, their brains go to household names. its the same way people think of christopher nolan or tarantino when they think of successful filmmakers. but how many successful filmmakers are there that don't have oscars? can you tell me the name of the comic artist on the most recent batman comic run? off the top of your head? point being, mike isn't gonna be the next jrr tolkein or neil gaiman, but he does well! i like to think that he gets a job copywriting for a board game company out of college, and then maybe switches over to Wizards of The Coast when he's older. I like the idea of him writing dnd manuals and content, while working on his own short stories on the side. Will takes a few graphic design classes in college because he thinks it makes sense for him to get into "sellable artistry" but he just. does not like it (disclaimer i love and deeply respect graphic design). he works at a record store through college and does some posters for them, and works as a mural painter for a bit post-grad. he eventually lands an internship at a comic book company and works his way through the ranks there.

they move to new york for college and stay there for a while. when the WOTC job opens up in san francisco, will applies for a job at DC. he and mike move out there together in their late 20s/early 30s. they get a decent sized apartment they live in for basically the rest of their lives. lucas, el, and max are in california too at this point. lucas followed max home for college in socal and el moved out w them a year later. they live in socal, but el visits them a lot. she travels for work so she has frequent flyer miles. she says she visits just for their cat, which everyone loves dearly. mike's allergic. he doesn't care.

ask me anything!

[vladdocs]

Lmao let me jump onto the latest Radu train as well because my heart has just shattered I think. I have always felt quite sorry for him because you know, he goes to a completely foreign country as a smol bean with his big brother and I reckon that it does not matter in what times you live and what you are said to accept the fact that you are doing something important for your country, a kid will always be a kid and it must have been so damn scary. There is also the fact that both Mircea and Vlad were no doubt pretty badass guys while Radu was allegedly more diplomatic and tender, so it must have been even more difficult for him with such badass big bros. And then his big brother and protector (okay, we do not really have evidence of their personal bonds but let me dream of Vlad being the cool and protective older brother lol) is sent back home and leaves him in this foreign country. Your last Ask replies actually made me realise that maybe Radu did not really like the Ottoman life that much but simply had to adjust and adapt (under huge amount of pressure and manipulation I suppose) to somehow survive and try to become something on his own. Maybe even become Mehmed's lover not out of affection but just to live a decent life. Like damn, that is such a tragic life story. Radu deserves better.

The problem is that we normalize those people by our modern standards too much, It's hard to explain this but voivodes weren't like kings or sultans always worrying about their lives and with personal grudges, All that was mattering was the country to be safe and their bloodline to remain on the throne. Vlad it the best example for how a voievod was, He allied with the murder of his family, fought his wars and protected his family to get to the throne, how he said in a letter (I posted it in a previous question) "I forgive them all" which he did, Vlad punished his family murders only when they broke the law and put the country in danger. He could have been a rich high-ranking ottoman and had a life full of carnal pleasure if he stayed in their side, even after the war with him the Ottomans still acknowledge Vlad as one of the best commanders in the world, and he could have EASILY made them switch Radu with him even after 1462. And again, when Matthias "imprisoned" him and gave one of his relatives in marriage, Vlad could have just kick back his feet and relax in a life of luxury but yet he chose by his own will to leave his wife and children and go to war. Let's not even add that Vlad was also alone at the ottomans since he was 3 years old until he turn 7 We modern people simply can't comprehend how someone could so easily give up on sex, unlimited riches, fame and glory just to live a short life as a ruler of a small nation that it is a constant battlefield. So you need to think of Radu as a voievod, someone who doesn't really care about himself or how it treated, if it loved or hated by his family, what matters most for him and us it that if he was a good ruler for the country. We can find that from his documents here: German Romanian

[eurovision-del]

Having finished posting my rankings yesterday, here’s my thoughts on this year overall!

My general feeling after hearing all the songs but before starting my ranking was that this was a reasonable year, not particularly weak, but not especially strong either, so I was a little surprised to see just how many songs I actually loved when it came time to put them in order! There’s so many rock songs this year, all in completely different sub-genres from metal to punk to indie, and I love pretty much all of them – back on form for me after last year where a lot of the rock we had failed to connect with me. Outside of rock, there’s plenty of other exciting, brilliant entries. I said the same thing the last couple of years, but I am very impressed with the entire big 5 and maybe, for real this time, this might be the year where they all avoid the bottom five? I’m still not ruling out one flopping on the night (like Fulenn last year, I’m still not over it) and ending at the bottom of the scoreboard, though I’d hate to see it happen. We've got fewer ballads than normal this year, but in general I think we've got a good range of genres. The language diversity is also decent too – 14 songs are currently listed on Wikipedia as being in at least partially Not English, with several more containing small phrases of other languages – not quite as many as last year but at least we're a long way from the dearth of different languages of the mid-2010s.

I think part of the reason I didn’t think this year was too strong despite having so many songs I enjoy is because of the lack of competition this year, with only two potential winners. Personally, I’m sure Sweden are winning. I can’t see anyone else winning the jury vote, and I also reckon she’ll get plenty of televote support – Tattoo is still a great song and the vast majority of people won’t know or care that her light box is smaller than it was in MelFest. However, I do still hold hope that Finland could pull off a Måneskin/Kalush Orchestra style victory by winning the televote, although that will still require the juries putting Käärijä in their top five at minimum, and I worry that might be too much to ask. I also don’t think him winning the televote is guaranteed, I’m sure Finland will do well there, but I think the song could be very divisive among the general public. I reckon the new voting rules are actually going to bias the final results towards the jury – all the qualifiers from the semis will have proven televote appeal, with fewer jury-friendly entries getting through, which might result in the jury votes being more concentrated on certain entries, and since I'm sure they'll go for Loreen I'm confident she'll most likley win in the end. I would love it if Finland do win though, or even if someone else manages to pull off an upset victory!

Way, way back when the semi finals were announced, since semi one had only fifteen songs compared to semi two’s sixteen, I’d assumed that semi one would be the easier one. That did not turn out to be the case! Fandom consensus is that it is much harder, and that's definitely how I feel too, as my rankings show – in fact, my entire top three comes from there! It’s going to be a very tense voting sequence, that’s for sure. I think there’s five clear qualifiers (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Moldova, Israel), but the fight for those final five places will be a tough one. However, there’s still plenty of songs I love in semi 2, – I feel especially strongly for Romania and San Marino since they’re such underdogs, I’ll be cheering them on on the night! Semi 2 may be less tense, but it should be even more interesting seeing who qualifies because it feels so open right now. I only feel confident saying that Austria and Australia are through for certain – after that it’s anyone’s game.

I also want to say that I love how the BBC have handled hosting so far! I like the designs we’ve got this year, very bold and striking, and the stage seems perfect for accommodating everyone (unless you wanted to hang any heavy equipment from the ceiling). I cannot speak on behalf of Ukrainians – although I do think maybe more could have been done to make it clear that it’s their party, we’re just the hosts – but on the whole I’m proud of how the contest here is shaping up. There’s such an excitement in the UK for Eurovision unlike anything we’ve had since long before I started following the contest! Liverpool seem to have really thrown themselves into it – I’m excited to see what it’s like on the ground next week!

Overall, I think this is on course to be a great year! It may not be the most competitive one, but hey, Finland currently have all the momentum, we could be in for a tight battle between them and Sweden next Saturday! I’m so excited for everything, I cannot wait to get started!   

[otnesse]

Posting as its own separate post since I've been banned from ****IrisHatersSay and can't reblog from another user:

"

dragonbee259 asked: This may be a hot take but I think the XY and XYZ anime destroyed the fandom in the long run. It made people more hateful towards other pokegirls, and it made people want Ash to be diluted into another generic anime protagonist while his clutzyness and zaniness are what make him Ash.

Avatar shitirishaterssay answered: I mean, you're completely right. The fandom was getting like this during DP, but it took off during XY. They hate any pokégirl that's not Serena, and hate when Ash isn't """badass""". Though if you said that to the fandom at large, they'd go ballistic.

They are very much incapable taking it well when someone tells them unpleasant truths."

Eh, personally, I'd argue the ACTUAL long-term damage to the fandom started MUCH earlier than with XY/XYZ, like during AG. We had plenty of people outright stanning AG during that time and even afterward, making it out to be the strongest team Ash ever had (well, gee, if that were truly the case, why is it that Ash didn't get a rank-up during Hoenn?). In fact, that whole "Ash is a Badass" started with that saga with the overemphasis on fresh starts that made his purely rookie team way too OP, outright humiliating most of the Gym Leaders in a manner that was more reminiscent of Team Rocket battles (I think the only real exceptions to the rule were Roxanne and Brawly, the former because Pikachu was the one who took her out and he was firmly established to be a veteran, level resets aside, and the latter unambiguously beat him and forced him into a rematch), an action that if anything was definitely a major contribution, at least for me, in WHY I hated Misty being basically cast into the gym (took until Sun and Moon to fix the inherent negative implications of THAT bit, and even THERE, some hints are still present). Ironically, XY(Z) for all its faults is probably the one series that was actually SUCCESSFUL in giving the Gym Leaders their intended characterization of being, while obviously not to the Elite 4 level, nevertheless forces to be reckoned with, something that AG robbed from them. Heck, Ash actually came across as being even MORE of a stereotypical Shonen protagonist in AG than he ever did in XY (at least that version of Ash had to really work to beat the Gym Leaders, or at least have him see the Gym Leaders in action BEFORE fighting them to have some plausibility in his coming up with a strategy to beating them).

Oh, and overrating May's development to basically indicate she was the most developed when in actuality, her "development" start literally SPAT on the entire POINT behind being a trainer (almost as much as Lola spat on being a Gym Leader with her antics) by having her hate Pokemon and use it as an excuse to travel (and her reason for hating Pokemon was stupid since it entailed her mom mistaking her for a Tentacool and conking her on the head with a Pokeball), and she pretty much retained MOST of her flaws, INCLUDING being an insecure individual by having her throw a tantrum over losing to Solidad, and that was DESPITE doing better than in the Hoenn Grand Festival (oh, and also essentially blaming Ash for the loss despite his never even being involved in her Coordinator journey in the FIRST place), and then literally pursuing Drew into Johto despite settling her rivalry with him before then. Lillie from Sun and Moon did May's intended character development a LOT better. And even Movie 9, one of the few movies where someone OTHER than Ash is billed as the star, her "role" is literally holding Manaphy (aka, the same action that her stans often mocked Misty for after Togepi debuted and demeaned her for that even when she did PLENTY of stuff even in Johto, stuff that actually ADVANCED her goal and development at that), and does an even WORSE job of mothering it than Misty did with her Togepi based on her rather cowardly reaction to Phantom stealing Manaphy (doesn't make ANY attempt at retrieving him from Phantom despite having a Squirtle at the time. Heck, doesn't even so much as ATTEMPT to aid Ash even AFTER learning his survival. For goodness sakes, Misty did far more ACTUAL protagonist actions in Movie 2 despite not even being the star than May did in her own movie.). Not to mention, it if anything made the girls FAR more disposable in the long run, since May and Dawn's goals are implied to be limited to the first four regions rather than worldwide (especially when contests don't exist in Unova), Serena's goal was explicitly Kalos-exclusive and she actually had to change her goal just to have a SHOT at leaving Kalos and becoming a better trainer, and even Iris, who technically could travel the world with her Dragon Master goal and definitely was closer to Misty in that respect, nevertheless can't truly become one until her Dragon Village elders specifically recognize her as such, meaning she technically has to return to Unova to truly be recognized as such.

Heck, for all the "badass" Ash showed by tearing down the Gym Leaders, he failed to even get a rank up (a stark contrast to Johto where he DID get a rank up, had a markedly improved part from Kanto, and even managed to beat his long-term rival), and in fact only had ONE thing to the saga that was even remotely an accomplishment, beating the Battle Frontier, and even THAT got treated like a joke in DP (including having Ash's Pikachu suffer an ESPECIALLY humiliating loss to Paul against the latter's rookie Ursaring). In fact, when you think about it, from Ash failing to get a rank up or showing ANYTHING to indicate he did better (in fact, with his Battle Frontier win, he literally had to use his KANTO team to win the match against Brandon instead of his Hoenn team which got repeatedly creamed, and the closest his Hoenn team got to winning Ash wasn't even himself at the time due to being possessed), to replacing May with Dawn just to have the latter do May's goal instead, not to mention noticeably not even MENTION May at all until her obligatory cameo with the Wallace Cup despite her direct relevance to Dawn's goal, you could easily skip AG and not see much difference outside of maybe wondering why Aipom is with Ash.

And let's not forget that series was the reason why we had that girl swap thing in the first place, with Masamitsu Hidaka MORE than making clear that he was doing it to give sexual eyecandy to an audience that wasn't even old enough to hit puberty yet (and May was even WORSE of an age-down than Serena since, while we may never know May's actual age in the original RSE games, it's pretty obvious from her having a noticeable breast size that she was meant to be a LOT older than 10 in the game). Oh, and also gave her a reason to travel that was arguably even WORSE than Serena's reason for traveling in XY (a reason, BTW, that was definitely not in the games depiction of May when she's an NPC). Say what you will about Serena, and she was DEFINITELY a badly written character ultimately, but at least SHE didn't hate Pokemon when she joined.

And believe me when I say this, I've seen that stanning a LOT on Pokemon forums. CyberSai/CyberCubed in particular was probably one of the biggest and worst May stans, to the extent of outright BULLYING Misty fans for even desiring for Misty to return.

[qnewsau]

Hannah Conda spills tea on Drag Race UK vs the World

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/hannah-conda-spills-tea-on-drag-race-uk-vs-the-world/

Hannah Conda spills tea on Drag Race UK vs the World

Sydney drag queen Hannah Conda has named the one drag sister who left her feeling very intimidated on the new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World.

A week ago, Hannah Conda was confirmed as part of the cast of the UK-based all-star spinoff. She’s the first Aussie from RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under to compete internationally and has spilled some early details about the season.

As the queens made their entrances, Hannah reckons she was most “gagged” to see Tia Kofi and Mayhem Miller, but it was Drag Race Philippines glamazon Marina Summers that she says left her “petrified”.

“[Marina is] professionalism and polish. There’s no faults on that bitch,” Hannah told Gay Times.

“She can dance, sing, do everything. I was like, ‘Oh fuck. Here we go. Buckle up!’”

“I only had to lip-sync once on my season and that was just by proxy as there was a final four and someone had to be in the bottom.

“I shouldn’t have been, but it’s okay! So, I can’t classify myself as a lip-sync assassin. If I had to lip-sync against Marina… oh my god.”

‘I might be the queen of surprises’

Joining Hannah Conda are Arantxa Castilla-La Macha (Espana season 1), Choriza May (UK season 3), Gothy Kendoll (UK season 1), Jonbers Blonde (UK season 4), Keta Minaj (Holland season 2), La Grande Dame (France season 1), Marina Summers (Philippines season 1) Mayhem Miller (US season 10 and All Stars 5), Scarlet Envy (US season 11 and All Stars 6) and Tia Kofi (UK season 2).

Just a few years ago, Hannah was a runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under season two. Spankie Jackzon from New Zealand won the season.

The Sydney performer explained she has unfinished business on the new series.

On Down Under, Hannah Conda said she “felt a bit withdrawn, so I was excited to [return] guns-a-blazing and making people laugh as my gay old self.”

“I’ve been doing drag for 13 years now. I know what I like to do, I know how to perform and make magic out of nothing,” Hannah told Gay Times.

“So, you never know, I might be the queen of surprises. If you’re ready to jump on my train, c’mon kids, there’s plenty of room.”

She said she believes the Drag Race UK vs the World cast offered up an “incredible, diverse take on drag”.

“We all have different walks of life and this season is pure joy,” she said.

“We say that drag is inherently political, and I think the most political thing we can do right now is to allow each other to experience joy.

“The world’s constantly changing and going crazy outside, the brief reprieve from all of that is powerful and special and that is political because it charges people to get up everyday and to keep living their best lives. That, for me, is what this season brings.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World season 2 starts on February 9. Outside the UK, the series is streaming on WOW Presents Plus. We’ve also reached out to Australian streaming service Stan for confirmation on their plans for the new season.

Read also:

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under queen tipped for new Global All Stars

Every Drag Race spinoff from 2023 ranked

Frustrated New Zealand queens blast Drag Race Down Under

Meet the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[iravaid]

Hey - if you don't mind me asking, any head canons about Gangrel!Lacroix? And/or Gangrel!Lacroix/Nines?

HI YES CLANSWAP HEADCANONS love me some clanswap headcanons

I quite like the idea of them contrasting each other as Gangrel, so these headcanons are in the AU where Nines and LaCroix are both Gangrel - where Nines is more a city Gangrel that Wants to be a wanderer but won’t leave the Free State Anarchs alone to face all that shit just yet, vs a LaCroix that’s like old-timey hunters/mercenaries enthralled with the thrill of the hunt and intent on climbing the ranks of the Camarilla.

This turned into a long post for more below!

Gangrel LaCroix

- When he’s in LA he bought a large plot of land outside the city, where his hunting dog famuluses range without being hurt themselves and/or tearing apart someone important and causing a political crisis. 

- The haven itself is a large rambler/ranch house - he’s the kind of prick cosplaying as a rugged man of the earth unfortunately sjdfhsj. The interior is covered with trophies from past hunts and other marks of status that the man clings to as confirmation he is Valued in the Camarilla. 

- Owns a lot of rifles, yes they’re all functional but most stay hung up on his wall to show off to anyone he hosts at his haven. Has other weapons scattered about the place - the ones he’d actually use in a fight stashed away in hidden spots only LaCroix knows about, should the moment ever require it. 

- Feral Marks include slitted pupils and an extra pair of fangs that sit over top his incisors (sharp and flat, look like a pair of shark teeth). His smile is definitely Something ;)

- Can speak French (mother tongue), Spanish (osmosis from sire before learning to speak it in earnest during his travels), and English (for convenience when working with the Cam/moving to the States).

- As he is still. well. LaCroix, I reckon he’s still determined to make his place in the Camarilla, but instead of having a political role, it would be one of utility - where Gangrel LaCroix earns his worth and proves his usefulness, in the hopes he soon finds a place or domain offered to him as a reward for his services - he finds that in helping the Camarilla fight off the Sabbat in New York City in ‘99, where the Gangrel and his hounds hunted down and flushed out packs to be picked off, systematically weakening them. I wonder if he even worked parallel with the Ravnos, convincing them he was Helping them, rather than just trying to impress the Camarilla. LaCroix does get his domain: it just turns out to be LA. This benefits the Camarilla just fine - an expendable asset being sent into a contentious territory? Either he fails and they can cut all ties painlessly, or he succeeds and they can reap the rewards.

- So Gangrel LaCroix has 9 hunting dogs of different breeds as his famuluses - the Canes Venatici. They’re well trained, if oftentimes wild. A dream to pet I imagine, once he’s given them the command to be Nice to his guests. But they’re fucking terrifying as a concept, because these are dogs trained to fight and take down supernatural beings. When Gangrel LaCroix calls the Hunt, the dogs will feel it in their blood that it is Time, and their snarls and bays and howls will fill the night air until they’ve brought down their mark. 

Gangrel Nines

- In Los Angeles, Nines' havens are small and scattered about the city. They're barely more than somewhere to spend the night and/or wait out trouble: the walls boarded up and barely more than a working fridge and maybe a couch to sit on. He doesn't really see much point in investing any more into a haven: he'll either have to leave some day, or someone who has it out for him will find the place and destroy it. No single person knows all the locations of his havens, something Nines prefers.

- If he manages to find time to wander out of the city, I could see Nines toting around a towable one-person camper that'll keep out the sun and hold items he can't keep in his motorcycle's saddlebags. Like this ↓

cont.: He very very much wants to just be alone and wander the old roads of the Cali landscape (away from the Mojave), managing at the longest to be gone a month or so, but LA will always call him back, one way or another.

(going around in a motorcycle is a lot more inconspicuous than as the critically endangered Mexican Wolf, even if he does prefer stretching his legs in a long run as one)

- He keeps a sawn off shotgun close by at all times, but in a fight he'll prefer to use hand to hand combat instead - the gun more a deterrent than anything.

- Nines isn't sure if he has one or two feral marks: his clash and subsequent flee from Lampago a blur in his memories. Either way, he got out with his hands permanently changed - claws not dissimilar to Beckett's that graduate into thick fur covering his hands and forearms that Nines keeps hidden with a jacket and gloves.

- I've mentioned his famulus potentially being a dog or a crow, and I'm particularly fond of it being a crow that occasionally follows Nines around before disappearing to god knows where, only to return and pester him for vitae. Lots of personality: likes to Bother and Steal valuables in order to buy vitae, like how some people have trained crows to do something similar with coins for birdseed. Nibbles at Nines' earlobe and he likes to pretend it's talking to him in order to fuck with people

- He has bad days where the conviction that Lampago is lingering in the shadows, down dark alleyways and in empty rooms, is so bad it almost triggers the Rotschreck. He leaves the city when he can, going north and waiting for the paranoia itching against his canines finally settles. I don’t think a lot of people know why Nines seems to flee the city sometimes, I also think his departures are a point of contention amongst Anarchs, as some may see it as a sign he’s unreliable and inconsistent as a leader. 

- Him and Skelter are a lot closer; that kindred Gangrel spirits in a city full of Brujah and such. Of all people, I think Skelter is the one defending Nines’ departures, and maybe even knows Why Nines has to leave, and that Nines will always come back.

- I like the idea of Gangrel Nines whittling - just something productive to do with his hands to keep his focus during meetings or to pass the time. Carves a lot of crows

- I imagine Nines would still manage to be saddled with considerable sway in Anarch spaces, despite how he might try to distance himself from them. He's experienced, he's strong and level headed; he's the kind of Anarch you Want guiding the hotheaded fledglings of the Free State. Doesn't mean he Wants to, though.

- But Nines regardless feels that obligation to at least stick around, and make sure the faction doesn't cannibalise itself with infighting and that the Cam/Sabbat/Kuei-jin don't hamstring the Free State with any cheap shots or sabotage. So he stays, he keeps a careful eye on the political landscape and power players of the city. He isn't too happy with the emergence of a Gangrel LaCroix staking Downtown as Camarilla territory amidst the chaos against the Kuei-jin.

This is currently what i have, with the time i have! Thank you for the ask!

[stillness-in-green]

I don’t get how Endeavour can be a fault of hero society when his actions were his own. Even if he had some Tragic Backstory it wouldn’t be the same as the villains because he abused his wife and kids while claiming to be a hero.

Re: the Shouto portions of this post.

But would he have abused his wife and kids if it weren’t for the ranking system?

If I sound flippant, I don’t mean to; it’s a serious question.

(Hit the jump for some breakdown. It's not a super long one, but if you're just very tired of or sensitive to Endeavor discourse, I want to make it easy to give this one a pass.)

The Hero System is a toxic one, one that gradually, slowly corrupts everyone who lives in it, heroes, villains, and civilians alike. It’s a system that encourages its caped law enforcement to prioritize quick and decisive “incident resolutions” over the more difficult, more time-consuming, more subjective, and less certain work of de-escalation and prevention. The “public approval rating” is a glorified popularity contest and we don’t even know what exactly counts as a “contribution to society.” And from this mysterious algorithm is derived one’s Hero Ranking, by which one is paid more, given more funding, rewarded with greater prestige.

It’s a system that defines its members by their opposition to Villains, one that dehumanizes anyone on the wrong side of it, encouraging heroes to deal with them quickly and forcefully. It doesn’t reward defusing a situation; it rewards showboating for the crowd. Even heroes who have nothing but good intentions, even heroes who don’t care about their popularity, if they want to be successful, have to learn how to play that game: Endeavor may not make nice for the crowd, but his agency damn well still signs off on the merch, same as All Might’s does.

Why, exactly, is it so important for Enji that he be Number 1? Is it something traumatic from his youth? A learned value? Toxic masculinity turned up to 11? We don’t know, and honestly, I don’t think we need to know. What I care about in this context is not the root cause of his competitive personality, but rather, the ways in which that competitiveness was exacerbated by the Hero System in ways it might not have been if that system did not exist in its current form.

In a toxic environment, some people are going to feel the effects of that poison harder than others based on pre-existing traits and conditions. Obviously, it’s important to prioritize the people who take it the worst, but it’s also important to get the damn toxins out, you know?

I have to imagine Enji would always have been a competitive sod with or without the ranking system. I don’t think it’s about the money or the prestige for him; I really do think whatever his damage is, it’s personal to him. But if it weren’t for that big shiny number to chase, would he have gotten as bad as he did? If there was no rank to hold, no prize to claim, no headline to shout his worth to the world—if he just had to do his job like everyone else, and every metric he had to compare himself to others existed solely in his own mind—if all of that: Would he still have wanted it so badly as to seek out a practical-at-best marriage with a woman he didn’t love? So badly he would traumatize his children in ways they will be dealing with for the rest of their lives?

His actions are his own, and that needs to be reckoned with, sure. But just as there are mitigating factors in how the villains wound up where they did, and we can’t expect HeroAca!Japan to have materially improved if no one is addressing those factors before the series ends, there are mitigating factors in how heroes wound up where they did, too.

Endeavor’s society can hold Endeavor responsible for his actions and also ask, “Is there a way that this could have been avoided? Is there something we can do that will reduce the chance that it will happen again?”

To gloss over the systemic factors that led someone to abuse is to write off the pain of future victims that might yet be avoided. And why? Because we want so badly to pin all the wrongs of the world on Evil Abusers and not have to follow a path that might potentially lead us to a mirror? Because we can’t stand the idea that the Evil Abusers might be spared one iota of the punishment we think they deserve?

Society owes its victims—past, present, and future—better than that. It owes everyone better than that.

Okay, some people say, but why is any of this the kids’ responsibility? Why is it their job to make all this better? Why should a victim like Shouto have to clean up his abuser’s mess? And you know, that’s a totally fair question! Neither Shouto nor his classful of fellow sixteen-year-old students should have to be bearing the weight of these questions for their entire society; that’s hardly a fair thing to ask of anyone, no matter how old they are!

The thing is, they’re training to be heroes, to join this corrupt system. That means that when they’re confronted with that system’s failures, they can’t just say, “It’s not my fault; I didn’t make things this way.” They may not have made things the way things are, but if they stick their heads in the sand and pretend they’re not wearing the uniforms they chose to don, they do, in fact, become a part of the problem.

Furthermore, and zooming back out to remind everyone that Boku no Hero Academia is fiction, there’s also the matter of what is being required of the students by the narrative itself. In that regard, the series has insisted on holding up Class 1-A as the shining example of what heroes should be, what Hero Society should be; all the implications are that they’re at the forefront of changing the corrupt system they live in. Maybe a different series would have spread that responsibility out more, but the one they’re in has not. If they don’t undertake this, no one will.

It may not be fair, but it’s the story they’ve got, and as the main characters, I’m afraid it is their narrative responsibility to live up to it.

tldr; Endeavor has to fill three roles:

Todoroki Enji, a person who has hurt other people and will have to suffer the consequences of being treated accordingly by those victims.

Number 2 Hero Endeavor, a representative example of the kind of hero that is created and celebrated by the system he exists within; his flaws must be approached in light of the system that exacerbated them.

Boku no Hero Academia's Endeavor, a fictional character created to facilitate the telling of the story Horikoshi Kouhei wants to tell.

The same goes for any sufficiently realized character in a story; they must, simultaneously, be individual people with individual relationships, while also being reflective of the world they live in, while also serving whatever function it is they need to serve to get across the messages the author is trying to communicate. You can look at the characters as only one of any of those things—indeed, focusing on the first one and to a lesser degree the second one is where fanfiction sets up shop—but to get the full picture for things like predicting or analyzing the canon, you kind of need to be looking at all three.

Thanks for the ask, anon, and hope that cleared up my meaning!