#sorry for the rant it did get a bit longed than originally intended but i needed to let it out

[soldmysoultootomeboys]

Cuddling with the Brothers

why were some of these so hard to write it felt like pulling teeth omg i'm so sorry Mammon, I couldn't think of anything for you ﾟ(*´□`)ﾟ

Lucifer

A rather tricky demon to sleep on and one that requires immense planning

First of all it has to be private, otherwise expect to wake up alone with only his coat thrown over you.

His room or his study would be the best place to start. And that's what you had originally intended, that is until you hear the solemn notes of a piano echoing through the halls

Having only gotten up for a midnight snack you take a detour wandering past the kitchen until you reach the music room where Lucifer sits playing a somber tune

It's one you don't recognize, but it feels familiar nonetheless

His playing doesn't break in the slightest when he asks you to come in and you wonder how long he knew you were there

You do as he says, sitting down on the great long bench and watching his fingers dance along the keys. It's cold, having only expected to be out for a moment you're only wearing your pajamas

Lucifer says nothing when you huddle closer, resting your head on his shoulder, even though it must be constricting his playing. But he relaxes at your touch

And slowly you fall asleep, to the lullaby of piano and the gleam of stars far above you

Mammon

Like Lucifer he requires some planning, if only because he absolutely melts the moment you try to hold him

As an absolute sucker for cuddles he would be more than happy to be held at any time if not for the fact that he's also a complete tsundere

But with a little effort and a bit of bribery in the form of his recently revoked Goldie (Thanks Lucifer!) you are finally able to get him to sit still

He looks so embarrassed, fidgeting with his shirt and avoiding your eyes but when you finally go to hold him he just melts

Just be prepared for the puddle of cuddly demon that does not want to share you with any of his brothers

Levi

Levi’s labyrinth of a room was something you questioned constantly, filled with all sorts of curious things from sacred treasures (i.e, figurines) to old tombs (manga). However there was something that you knew for a fact, and that was that Levi slept in a tub.

Why? Was it comfortable? Did it hold some weird secret that would explain Levi’s behavior? You had to know.

So you do what any sane rational human would do when living in a house full of demons. You sneak into his room.

Levi was supposed to be out today for the new release of one of his video games.

You peek inside making sure the coast is clear before shutting the door. Inside the bathtub is a mess of blankets plus a full body pillow with a picture of the famed Ruri on it. At the very least it seemed somewhat comfortable.

Time to try out this new bed.

With nothing left to lose you bodily fling yourself over the side landing with a soft whump into the cocoon of pillows.

Immediately the sheets begin to move under you, limbs flailing for purchase and a familiar face pops up from beneath the covers. When Levi sees you he turns bright red, a flustered expression replacing the confusion on his face.

But if anything his thrashing becomes even more panicked. You roll to the side accidentally pinning him under you and he freezes.

“Mc what are you doing here???!”

When you finally explain he looks disappointed

Of course this was just a mistake you didn't want to see a stupid otaku like him

Before he could continue his rant you wrap your arms around his chest

“I guess this is fine.” He mutters still refusing to look at you.

With your new partner secured you’re free to nap as you please

Asmo

He has the BEST bed

Of course you want to get your nap on in his room

The problem is how to do it without implying something more

Knowing Asmo if you tell him you want to sleep on his bed he'll show up au natural which is not something you want to see when you're trying to take a nap, gorgeous skin or not

You decide to sneak in when he goes for one of his shopping trips

Once you actually lie down all your suspicions are confirmed

Asmos bed is amazing

Feather soft and absolutely covered in pillows you feel like you're in a cloud

You're almost asleep when you're awakened by an ear shattering squeal

If you wanted to sleep with him you should have just said so!

Asmo throws himself at you talking of all the "fun" things the two of you could do in his room

Like Levi the best option at this point is to just smush his body with your own, just make sure not to mess with his hair

It might seem counterproductive but pinning him down limits how much he can actually touch and after a few flirtatious comments made by yours truly he'll settle down enough for you to drift back to sleep, now with a new cuddle partner

Expect to wake up to a million new devilgram pictures of you two in bed and an angry Mammon banging on the door

Satan

The hard part is figuring how to do it without him getting mad.

You decide best time to do it is when he's reading or watching a drama as he probably won't move, as long as you don't obstruct his view. It takes a while to actually catch him like this. The man paces.

When you finally do see him in his chair you flop onto him curling on his lap.

He's more amused than angry.

“What are you doing mc?”

“Taking a nap :)”

After that he lets you be.

Satan is a surprisingly good nap partner. No one bugs you since most of the other brothers are too afraid of his wrath making it a good place to go if you want some peace and quiet.

You do notice that he starts sitting down more once you join him. It's more common for him to be already sprawled across a chair with a book in one hand.

It's fun for exactly as long as it takes Satan to get angry at one of his dramas and accidentally yeet you across the room.

He'll apologize but it might be time for you to get a different perch.

Beel

Beel uses the cat rules

If you lay on him he will not move unless absolutely necessary. It could take a direct order from Lucifer to make him budge

But if he really has to go he's taking you with him. Holding you carefully so he doesn't jostle you he'll walk around with you in his arms until you decide to wake up

He will try so hard not to get crumbs in your hair and he mostly succeeds

but at one point he does drip guacamole down the side of your comatose face

Freaks out but it's okay because he uses a chip to scoop it back up and everything

what you don't know doesn't hurt you

lets just hope you don't notice the strange sticky spot on the corner of your cheek

Belphie

The king of naps

Sleeping with him ensures good dreams and deep sleep

It's not hard to find him passed out somewhere and if you flop onto him the most he'll do is give a sleep grumble before throwing his arms over you and burying into your chest.

Just don't expect to get up any time soon

If worst comes to worst Beel is more than willing to carry both of you wherever you need to go

on the rare cases where he's awake and your not he will see how many of Beel's snacks he can stack on your head before you wake up

[zodiyack]

In Regards Of My Ex

Pairing: Niklaus Mikaelson x Female!Reader

Warnings: Swearing, angst

Words: 2,125

Summary: Niklaus believes deceitful gossip from Aurora De Martel about his wife and takes his anger out on her. As a result, Y/n leaves and finds comfort with Cami and Davina, who call in backup to confront the big bad hybrid about his big bad dumbassery.

Note: I’ve been in a fluffy mood as of recently HOWEVER this idea was sparked when I was feeling angsty™ so...sorry but also not sorry?

Taglist: @matth1w​, @redspaceace-writes​, @fandom-puff​, @simonsbluee​, @darling-i-read-it​, @jenepleurepasbaby​, @sebastianstanslefteyebrow​, @dpaccione​

Masterlist | The Originals Masterlist

Part One. Part Two. Part Three.

“That wife of yours has been sneaking around with my brother. Breaking more hearts than just yours from what I can see.”

“I suppose some people just can’t see the worthiness of the king in front of them. If I were your wife, I wouldn’t be like Y/n. I’d be committed you and never give you fib tales like her.”

“You are aware that Y/n has been plotting something nefarious against you, aren’t you?”

“I know you wanted to marry someone just as sinister as you, but perhaps you should’ve checked where her loyalty lied before tying that knot.”

Aurora fed him stories such as these, and many more, each conclusion of the lies spewing from her mouth something appalling about Y/n. At first, Klaus didn’t listen, but as her stories grew worse and worse, the faux feeling of treachery intensified. He knew it was unwise to believe anything that came from the spiteful, jealous woman...yet, his distress caused pain to strike his heart and he yearned to know the truth.

Although, in this case, the “truth” wasn’t actually very truthful.

She often told him things like that Lucien was going after his girl for the second time, first with her when she had her chance and now, his beloved wife. Klaus merely brushed it off with an honest “he tries and I’ll stake him first chance I get”. However, Aurora wasn’t finished yet. She continued to lie and deceive Niklaus about the woman who she accused of replacing her in his life. The envy and loathing Aurora felt for Y/n was her motivator, but the woman was too far up a wall to need one in the first place.

“Are you telling me the truth?” He growled, keeping his eyes trained at the wall in front of them.

“Why do you ask?”

“I need to know I can trust your bold claims. So answer me, Aurora, are you telling me the truth?”

That smug little grin, masking her deluding ways. “Of course, Nik. I would never lie to you.” Her welcome into his trust was unsurprisingly taken advantage of  when she traced her finger down his arm and then brought her hand up his abdomen slowly. Klaus shoved her invasive hand off of his chest though, giving her a warning glare.

“Thank you for informing me.” That was all he said to her before he made his way out of the room in the most hurry she’d ever seen him in.

Aurora smiled conceitedly. Her plans were on the right track. Whilst Nik didn’t have the same feelings for her now as he did way back during the beginning of their story, but Aurora was determined to stir those feelings from the dead as vampirism did him and her.

She drawled under her breath, “I will have you again, Nik.” her mischievous smile grew wider, “I will have you again, and nothing can stop me this time.”

“Blasphemy!” Niklaus shouted, veins popping out from the rage coursing in his system. He neared Y/n again, the slight fear in her eyes drawing a pause for a second, guilt stilling him, but his anger took the reigns once more.

“It’s not blasphemy! I would never lie to you!”

“The falsity of your deception proves otherwise, love.” He smirked, raising his brows as to question if she would battle his words yet again. Proof was what he needed, but his vexation had drowned out all logic, including his ability to see the proof he wanted so desperately.

“What deception? What falsehood do you believe to have come from my mouth? When I married you, I vowed to be truthful and loyal. You of all people on this fucking earth should know I always keep a vow.” She narrowed her eyes at him. The betrayal he thought he felt was temporary and fabricated, but hers was 100% genuine and seething within her.

“You say that but if you were indeed an untrue person, your answer would be no different.”

“Why do you insist on proving me a traitor!? What has pushed you so far past your breaking point that you actually accuse me, your wife, as a viper?”

“Don’t you pretend like you don’t know the malicious schemes you’ve plotted against me or the affairs you’ve had with men who obviously aren’t your husband!” He couldn’t stop himself now; “I’ve loved you for centuries and you decide to be disloyal and ill-natured?!”

“Says who?!”

“Says Aurora!” After the words flew from his mouth, a tiny part of him realized just how fucked up it sounded. Just how fucked up it was that he believed her over his wife, but the hybrid was stubborn. He was too stubborn to change his belief or admit his fallacious accusations were unjust without proper evidence.

Y/n knew Aurora and Klaus’ story. Her knowledge of the ancient and long forgotten tale made her reaction thousands of times worse. “Aurora? ...Huh. You choose to believe her- that manipulative, lying bitch, over me? I thought you knew me better than that.” She wiped away a rebellious tear, “I thought I knew you better than that.”

Disappointment hung heavy on her features, drawing a feeling of shame from Klaus. Y/n glared at him one last time, her knitted brows and vaguely teary eyes evidence of the heavy-heartedness that overwhelmed her. She bit the inside of her mouth and shook her head disapprovingly before turning and walking out the front gate-doors of the Mikaelson mansion. Klaus was alone.

The sounds of Davina’s giggles echoed, Cami sitting in front of her and chuckling heartfully as well. Their laughter died off when they noticed Y/n sulking through the front doors of Rousseau's. The place was empty aside from the two women having drinks and a friendly chat. Then Y/n entered and found a seat. The atmosphere, once cheery, suddenly felt melancholy.

“Hey, Y/n, you alright?” Camille’s smile was wiped from her lips. She felt empathy for Klaus’ wife and, as a friendly person in general, she felt overcome with the need to help solve the complication that made her feel so down in the dumps.

“I’m-” She was ready to say fine, Davina and Cami knew it, but she broke down in tears before she could even shape an “o” with her lips. Both women jumped up immediately and sat in the seats beside Y/n. Though Davina couldn’t stand Klaus, she actually liked Y/n and seeing her hurt sent searing pain into her own heart.

“It’s okay, hun,” Cami wrapped an arm over Y/n’s shoulder, her other hand rubbing her other shoulder and arm comfortingly, “take as long as you need, there’s no pressure, no rush, none of that. We’ve got you.”

And so they did. The two women took turns holding Y/n as she cried, and before long, she was ready to talk. She explained Klaus’ anger and the source of their fight, the source of the fake news he’d lashed out because of. Davina and Cami shared a glance when Aurora was mentioned, both women already hating her but equally despising her even more now. Y/n sobbed, crying into Cami’s shoulder about wanting Klaus to just believe her. She said she loved him and because of that, she felt pained by his lack of belief in her.

“He’s not worth it if he can’t see how wrong that decision was-”

“I know, but he’s my husband. I vowed to love him always and forever, to never leave his side, and I intend to keep that vow...so long as he doesn’t do anything to fuck it up any more than he already has.”

The sun began to sink into the dark, not fully quite yet, but still creating it’s beautiful array of colors as a final act before disappearing for the night. About halfway through Y/n’s rant, Cami called Hayley and gave her a summary of what she knew so far. A promise of arriving as soon as she could was returned on Hayley’s end before the line went dead and Cami returned to the table.

Still not entirely after sunset yet, Hayley swung open the door to Rousseau's, catching Davina and Y/n off guard. Despite being the one who called her, Cami stayed seated. Y/n and the witch beside her exchanged confused expressions.

“Are you just gonna sit there or are you gonna tell me what the hell I need to do to Klaus?”

Y/n chuckled softly, wiping away more of the salty tears, before standing and walking over to Hayley, greeting her with a hug. “You don’t have to get involved if you don’t want to-”

“No, trust me, I have to and I want to.” She pulled away and dropped her warm smile, giving Y/n the most serious look she could muster. And as she was Hayley Marshall, it was effortlessly pretty fucking serious. “Now, I want you tell me everything,” the mom voice came out to play, “don’t leave a single detail out. Then, we can discuss what we’re going to do about it.”

“Where is he?”

Rebekah had been informed by the pissed off werewolf and bartender everything that had happened, resulting in her becoming equally upset. She welcomed Hayley inside the gates and nodded her head up the stairs. “I haven’t said anything to him, so you’ll be lucky enough to catch him by surprise.”

The werewolf nodded in understanding before pacing toward the stairs irritability. “Thanks.”

“Make it hurt!” Rebekah’s voice faded away as she walked out the gates, leaving Hayley alone to find Niklaus.

Atop the stairs, she found no sign of anyone whatsoever, but that was only on the outside. If Klaus happened to be inside on of the many rooms, she wouldn’t waste her time searching. Instead, she waited, leaning against the railing and doing a breathing exercise Y/n taught her during one lonely full-moon. 

After minutes of waiting, Klaus finally walked out of a door and started for the stairs. It wasn’t longer than a minute before he stopped in his tracks and realized he’d missed something. He shot a double take in Hayley’s direction, a puzzled expression quickly finding way to his face. It seemed as though he was contemplating whether or not her unexpected appearance was a good thing or a bad thing.

When he seemingly couldn’t make up his mind, staring a few minutes longer, a heavy sigh left her mouth. She was ticked off with him before, but after hearing everything Y/n had to say, she was furious. No, more than furious. The blood boiling rage was incessantly pounding in her head, all she wanted was cause destruction and pain. A rare thing for her.

But now was not the time to lash out, not yet. She inhaled and exhaled, Hayley shifted on her feet and looked around before turning her head to Klaus and beckoned him over to her with a come-hither motion of her index finger.

“What is it?”

She looked at him, flabbergasted that he’d even ask a question as stupid as that, “What is it? What is it, Klaus?” Hayley slapped him, the man doubling back and blinking in astonishment. And not the good kind.

“How dare you lay your hands on me, you-”

“So you’re gonna yell at me now?” She crossed her arms, and unimpressed look resting upon her face. “You know, personally, I think Y/n is better off without you but she’s broken and has been bawling her eyes out nonstop for hours on end, drinking away all the pain that you’ve formed into a stake and shoved into her chest.”

He stopped, fury fleeing his face as he experienced what felt like her words body-slamming into him.

“And guess who’s been there to pick out the splinters?” She poked her finger against her chest over and over again. “Me!” Her eyes never left his, telling him just how sincere about this she really was. “Me! Cami- even Davina!” Hayley threw her hands in the air, emphasizing the shock that came with the information. “Rebekah’s on her way over now, and I’m sure Elijah will see to it that he comforts his sister-in-law as much as he can, but you?”

“I-”

She cut him off, temper still unquenched, thirsty for vengeance. “Let me finish.” She growled. Hayley looked around the room in attempt to calm herself, but it was to no avail.

“You got her into this mess. I just hope you get both of you guys out of it.” She flicked her eyes back to his, giving him her infamous dead eyed glare. “I really hope you do. And you better do it soon. Because I won’t be there to pick the splinters out for you when she realizes she doesn’t need your sorry ass.”

[onlythebrave-mp3]

my top 2020 fics!

okay! so i recently jumped back into this fandom after a couple of years, and started reading fic again, and i wanted to rec some of my favorites that were written this year. there’s ten on this list, and i probably could’ve done like 30 but this is already so long lol. it’s kind of in a general order, so #1 is my fav for this year, but i tried not to focus on the ranking too much because it stresses me out and i don’t need any more anxiety so it’s ended up being a pretty vague system.

1.  Our Lives, Non-Fiction (113k) by @indiaalphawhiskey 

listen. I’ve reblogged this fic like 10 times. I’ve read it twice already and it came out less than 3 weeks ago. It is an instant classic, right up there with fics like TIF or Wear it like a Crown. It has gorgeous, gorgeous writing, a thoroughly developed plot and well written character development, and such a compelling story. It is a marcel/louis fic, and I usually shy away from that kind of thing, but i’m so glad i didn’t this time because god, this one is so good. Seriously, if anyone ends up reading it, come and rant to me about it and we can cry together. Halfway through the second chapter, I created a note on my phone so I could keep track of everything I loved, and my comment on that fic is essentially a love letter to @indiaalphawhiskey. It's just so good. If you’re going to read one fic off this list, read this one. 

2. Loving You's a Bloodsport (106k) by @rosesau

okay i’m pretty sure this one made me cry like four times, which is a feat for me because i’m not usually a crier. Its soulmates with a little bit of a twist, and the plot is so well developed. Harry and louis’ feelings and their progression are written so vividly and i wish i could forget that i read it so i could go and read it again for the first time. It's also got some enemies to lovers, which is my favorite trope, and all of the side characters are beautifully developed as well. Prince!Harry, soldier!Louis, angsty soulmates. What more could you want? Oh and if you’re not convinced enough, here is a quote that fucking follows me around because its so beautiful: “Love and hate are two sharp knives balanced on a very fine line and I’ve cut myself on both because of you.” (ohmygod)

3. Mine Would Be You (114k) by @crinkle-eyed-boo

okay this one is listed at number three but it really should be 1c lol. I started this one at 11 pm like an idiot, and i don’t think i slept that night at all. It's Exes to lovers, and it's so well written. It switches between the past and the present, it's  heartbreakingly beautiful, the breakup and resolution are both so realistically written as well, and there's a great ot5 plotline too that i really loved. This one was also an instant classic- i bookmarked it before i even finished reading it. It's also got beautiful art and Louis and Harry are both artists in NYC, which I'm a slut for. Please read this one, it's so good.

okay i just realized how long this got so i’m putting the rest under the cut

4. The Murmur of Yearning (93k) by @mediawhorefics (for some reason tumblr isn’t letting me tag them??) | mediawhore on ao3 

I just finished this one, and my goddddddd it's so good. I read it in a day, and it's essentially 100k. Which isn’t that unusual for me except I did skip a class to get through it (an exam prep class. Not my finest moment but I passed. so.) There are tons of original characters that draw you in, and the whole world that is created is so fascinating and detailed. There's also no homophobia, so if you like historical fics but get triggered by that kind of thing, this is for you! Also, if you’re worried about the non-con elements, I'm sure you could message the author but also feel free to check in with me! I’ll definitely be rereading it in the near future and am totally up for discussing and crying over this fic with anyone.

5. Remember Me Fondly by @bluejeanlouis | kiddle on ao3 

ahhhhhhh this one made me sob too! It's set in both the present and the past, and I fell in love with all of the characters. This one is also heartbreaking, but I promise there’s a happy ending. Also, they way this fic deals with the fame and the homophobia and tours that harry and louis went through -even if it isn’t actually canon and is set in the 90s- is so vividly painful and realistic. It's written half through a journalist’s eyes and half through harry and louis, yet the switch in pov is so seamless and fluid and adds so much to the piece. 11/10.

6. Nothing But You On My Mind (83k) by @absoloutenonsense | nonsensedarling on ao3

okay. I started this in the middle of the night, and told myself I'd read one chapter to see if I liked it and then I would go to sleep. I'm pretty sure I read like 6. It sucks you in right from the beginning, and there's such a well developed plot. And it's so unpredictable and all of the details are so nuanced and tiny and then you look back at everything after you’ve finished it and go oh. Ohhhhhh. This one is also enemies to lovers. Are we sensing a pattern here?

7. An Invincible Summer (44k) by @twopoppies | Brooklyn_Babylon on ao3 

so as you can see this one is only 45k but i just love it so much that i’m rec’ing in anyways. It’s such a gentle, exploratory piece of literal art, and I kind of want to stay in the world that was created forever. Its set in the 1940s on a farm and i know @twopoppies has said that it started off as an excuse for barn sex, but it such a vivid story and its heartbreaking and emotional and uplifting all at once and please please please go read this. The only critique I have of it is that it's only 40k.

8. Somewhere in Between Lightning (99k) by @nauticalleeds, @shiningdistraction, and jassy117 on ao3

So this one's exes-to-lovers as well, and it's written in such a realistic way. Also i’m in love with the concept of louis on love island, despite the fact that he said he hates it. There's a sauna scene that I still think about sometimes. It's got just the right amount of angst and fluff and pining and despite the fact that it's set on a show that is usually pretty dramatic and unrealistic, this is written in a really beautiful but pragmatic way. I love it. i’ve got it  downloaded on my phone so I can read little snippets of it sometimes if I have to wait somewhere.

9. You’ve Got My Devotion (Hate You Sometimes) (95k) by @harryrainbows | lucythegoosey on ao3 

god so this one incorporates some of Fine Line into it, and wouldn’t say it's a song fic so much as it is written as a canon compliant fic that ties harry’s songs into it and its done so fucking well oh my god. Harry and Louis are exes in this one too (lol i'm sorry) and the build up of them getting together and the pining and longing is written really well.

10. At Risk, I Fold (15k) by @bearmustard | clare328 on ao3 

so i know this one is only 15k, but I put this in the list anyways. It's canon compliant, and it does mention the stunts (as stunts), but don’t let that deter you. Harry and Louis are written almost exactly as i’ve imagined them, and this one is such a heartbreaking look into the resilience and love and bravery that they have. It made me cry despite the fact that it’s not really a glum fic. The only reason it is last on the list is because it's shorter and i was mostly intending this to be a long fic rec. The love that they have for each other really shines through in this one, and it’s super gentle and soft and sad and happy all at once and just please go read it.

[cripplingaddictions]

First “I love you”s with the BNHA Boys

Bakugo, Shinso, Kirishima

Summary: How I think some of my favs would say their first ily and when it would be in the relationship. Pretty much first major confession stories...

A/N: So sorry for inactivity. I always get way too carried away with these sorts of headcanons... Let me know if you guys want a part two with maybe some pro heroes, villains, or maybe more students?? 

Bakugo:

Yeah, Bakugo sucks at words

Bakugo said his quite far into the relationship, let’s be real

To begin with, his love language was actions, not words

So when he realised that he needed to say it at some point or you may get upset with him, he panicked 

I’m sure you were incredibly accepting of his form of affection, slightly aggressive or not, that you weren't pressing for him to say it

You knew he would be uncomfortable with it, so you make it your mission to say it to him first

That way he could feel either relieved that you said first, confident enough to say it himself when he was ready, or let it out at the same time

Spoiler: it was the latter 

You both blurted it out together

The two of you were in a fight, nothing unusual 

However, it wasn’t one of the playful ones that more commonly end with you giggling and pleading for his mercy as he tickled you

You’d never yell in those sorts of fights, and neither would he

But this one was serious

The points and arguments attacking each other were incredibly personal, but both sides were very unselfish

For example, you said: “Your inferiority complex is what makes you this way and you’re gonna push yourself too hard one day!”

To which he’d reply with: “Look at you, if you want to play hero let me do what I want and focus on yourself. Don’t waste your time on me when I’m perfectly fine”

You get the idea

All you wanted was for him to look after himself

Once you believed the fight was incredibly stupid, you stormed off

Bakugo of course tried to catch up with you only for you to slam a door in his face, which you instantly regretted

It took you a good half an hour to open the door again

Bakugo stood up immediately at the sight of your puffy eyes

He felt awful 

But the three words came out as follows:

“Katsuki... I’m sorry”

“No, I am”

“Katsu, please, you know that I get worked up”

“And I do too”

There was a pause, neither of you knowing who would speak first

That’s when you spoke at the same time

“I only said what I said because I love you and care about you”

“I almost pushed you away because I love you so much, dumbass”

“What did you say?”

“Huh”

You got him to repeat himself, and he mumbled it shyly

You awed, hurrying up to him to pull him tightly into your chest and reassured him softly

He was too shocked to get emotional or cry

He was mainly relieved that you said it too, because as soon as that fight picked up, he was afraid you didn’t

Now that it was off his chest, he was relieved

And knowing everything that you did was because you loved him back made him feel so much better

But he made sure that you both said it often enough to avoid doubt

Shinso:

My soft purple boy...

He knew he loved you instantly, much like most of the boys on this list

He had finally found someone with similar interests as him, same sense of humour, same goals, and loved cats too

Best of all, you never assumed anything because of his quirk

And with Shinso’s childhood, encountering someone who thought nothing like those other kids, he wanted to hold onto you forever

You feeling safe around him wasn’t something that grew over time after meeting him

It was instantaneous 

You had introduced yourself to him and he cocked an eyebrow at you

“Aren’t you scared?”

“Scared? Why would I be scared?”

“Don’t you know I’m the kid with the brainwash quirk that everyone says to ‘beware’?”

“Oh, yeah. I knew”

“Then why did you approach me?”

“I don’t know, I thought your quirk was actually really cool and wanted to know why your in the general department and not in the hero department”

That was the first time he had ever heard someone talk about his quirk in such a way

He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t fall in love instantly as you took a seat next to him and began ranting about how rigged the entrance exam was

I didn’t mean to get into a whole backstory so lets hurry with the confession:

You two weren’t even dating yet when he said it

And it wasn’t even that far into your friendship that he let it slip

The two of you had stopped into a cat cafe on the way home from UA

You had already finished eating and were busy playing with the numerous cats surrounding your table

After all, Shinso was a cat magnet

You cooed at a kitten in your lap, talking to it in your baby voice

Shinso sat across from you, chin resting in his hand smiling fondly to himself

The fact that he loved you was so apparent to him that he almost forgot that you didn’t know

For some reason, he had forgotten that you really couldn’t read his mind, even though you were so similar to him

At this point, your teasing but genuine affection had made Shinso forget that you weren't dating

Being around each other was so comfortable 

He never had been so blessed

While you played with the cat, he sighed

“Damn... I love you...”

“:0” 

“:|”

The boy had the audacity to clear his throat and pretend he didn’t say it, like it was a ghost or something that had whispered it so softly and meaningfully in a voice that sounded just like his voice..? 

Of course you knew it was him

“Do you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“>:[”

“Yes?”

“This is so sudden... I mean we’re not even dating? Do I say it back now? How long have you felt this way? Do I have to meet your parents now? Wait, do you even want a relationship? No-”

Shinso leaned over the table and placed his hand over your mouth to hush you

“It was an accident, okay? I didn’t mean to say it so soon”

You peel his large hand off your mouth

“No, it’s fine... I’m kind of relieved...”

“Why’s that?”

“I was going to ask you out after this... and I didn’t know if you’d say yes”

You laughed nervously, turning back to the cat and avoided Shinso’s eyes

Let’s just say that he definitely said yes and that spot in the cat cafe became his favourite place ever

You said that you loved him right after he agreed to date you

Kirishima:

Kiri! Kiri! Kiri! Kiri!

Words are 100% his thing!

In fact, after you started dating, he couldn’t wait to say it!

He would have said it as soon as you agreed to date him if it wasn’t for his plan that he had come up with as soon as he realised he had a crush on you

This plan of his consisted of him confessing that he loves you after a long date that ended with you two stargazing on a hill with candles and sandwiches and blankets and-

Argh, it was going to be perfect!

Originally, he intended jump right into it and ask you to hang out then take you to the arcade, then to lunch, then the festival, then across the lake, then to the park as friends! 

Denki thought it was stupid that he’d go through all that effort without knowing if you even liked him back!

So, with Denki’s “experience”, he instructed Kirishima on a new 20 step plan in order to say it at the right moment

Kiri, being so lovestruck, he could only listen to him

The first date he asked you on was a simple study date

According to Denki’s plan, Kiri was to take baby steps in order to build up to a date of that magnitude

With Kirishima being the sunshine boy he is, every date was a blast (even the study one)

As it came to the completion of the 20 step plan, Kiri began to grow nervous

Remember how I said words are 100% his thing?

Well, at least they were

Before the big day at least

He was incredible fidgety the entire time, from when you got to the arcade to when you hopped onto the boat to cross the lake

You weren’t stupid, you noticed how his laughter faded out quickly as how he avoided your eyes more often than not

It caused you to get a bit anxious yourself, making the boat ride over to the park incredibly awkward

You usually relied on him to bounce back on, but now...

Why was he even anxious? The date had gone perfectly!

You looked like you had enjoyed yourself, so why was he questioning if you would love him back?

Nonetheless, he led you to the exactly place on the hill he had planned it to happen three months ago

You rolled out the picnic blanket, lit the candles, ate the sandwiches and waited for the sun to go down

The temperature dropped, causing you to shiver, just like Kiri planned

So he took out the blanket and wrapped it around your shoulders, much more awkwardly than he had watched on repeat in his head for months

But you took it with a smile, and he loosened up a bit

When it became dark enough for you to see the stars, you lay down on wrapped in the blanket

Your eyes were filled with wonder as you found yourself absent-mindedly telling Kiri about the different stars

That’s when Kiri found his hand itching for the speech that he stashed into his pocket after rewriting it over and over again

He was sure he had formulated his words right

But at that moment, seeing you just as he had dreamed in this perfect moment, but only more beautiful, he realised it would never go as he planned

“And I think that one is Sirius. It’s got to be the brightest star”

“Y/N”

“Yes?”

“I want to tell you something”

You’re heart dropped

“What is it?”

“I’m so in love with you, you have no idea. Ever since I met you, I thought you were incredible and beautiful... It’s not very manly for me to admit this but... I have literally dreamed of this moment. But none of my dreams could have never prepared me for this. I love you, Y/N, and it’s okay if you don’t love me back”

“Oh thank goodness, I’m so glad that was what you wanted to say”

“Huh?”

“I noticed how fidgety you were and I feared the worst if I’m honest!”

“Oh, no I didn’t want to make you feel that way! I was just nervous that you wouldn’t accept my confession...”

“Of course I do! I love you too!”

He was so relieved, and never regretted the way the confession when down

Since he recovered from his initial nerves, he’d say it constantly and you’d always laugh and reciprocate his words

[nightfayre]

hello! i loved your switched family backgrounds au a lot! i have questions 👉🏻👈🏻 i hope you don't mind.

how does your au work? Does mo guanshan belong to a rich mafia family, has a brother and he tian has a father in prison and has financial struggles but their personalities are the same as in canon? or does mo belong to a rich restaurant owning family but his father is in the lock up and he tian comes from a family that's rising in the ranks of mob underground but he detests it and wants nothing to do with it? i was squealing because i've always wanted mo to have a stable financial situation and in your fic it is the case and i'm curious how he would spend his wealth in your au?

is your he tian the popular boy in school slaying both academics and sports and has a huge circle of friends all the while hiding a dark background and mo is the delinquent-looking irate boy who's actually loaded but is a loner and skips school, works at small restaurants in secret because his family doesn't allow him to do anything part time and returning on one such moonlighting he happens across he tian in an alley kicking ass left and right gets caught himself and is threatened by the supposedly model-student to keep his mouth shut and gets low key roughed up due to his cursing and spitting on the other boy because mo guanshan does not take shit from anyone—especially the school's hot-shot-goodie-two-shoes—for doing nothing wrong and the next day of course he tian doesn’t leave mo alone, constantly intimidating him about keeping shut about that night but soon enough it just turns out to be an excuse to get close to mo because he tian is now intrigued with this angry chilly who never outed him or judged him in the first place and walks to school though he owns a car and shares his sandwiches with stray dogs and hardly smiles and curses creatively (he tian’s harmless observations) and mo had been the only person to literally walk in on he tian’s facade and not clutch his pearls so of course he tian is just a tad piqued and wants to know more about him so that’s how they started to interact.

i'm really sorry i ran away with my words(also, what are tenses?)

and when you also mentioned she li in the drabble my brain just exploded omg howwwww? did/will[?] you work him in to your awesome idea??? i'm gushing i love all your works, fics and the little drabbles but this one i read day in and day out trying to fathom what will happen? how would things go? how will the author develop their relationship??? as a baby writer i admire your idea a lot because to me that kind of switched au would be daunting and scary but with less than 1000 words you flipped the whole game gah *sob* i just love it so much.

again, i apologise for the rant and my lame one long ass sentence but!!! thank you for the endless curiosity this drabble piqued in me i'm just gonna keep reading it and daydream and doodle plots about it.

ok, i'm done!

i wish you a merriest christmas! thank you and best of luck!

hi there!! so sorry it took me a second to respond to this — the holidays are always a bit hectic for my family! of course, I hope your holiday season has been great so far as well <3 my response is below the cut! :)

oh boy, my infamously incomplete switched!backgrounds AU :') that drabble I posted some time ago haunts me in the best way possible because it forces me to remember where I planned to go with that fic, but it also forces me to remember that I have yet to pursue it, smh...

anyhow, thank you so much for this ask!! I apologize in advance if the rest of this answer is a bit hectic, as it's been some time since I thought in-depth about this AU's plot and I don't want to give away any major spoilers because I DO intend to write it one day. but from what I can remember (and what I can decipher from my messy notes/outline), I believe my original plan was this:

guan shan: yes, his family has relations with the mafia but he no longer has the best relationship with his father. he is very close with his mother, however! oh, and he has no brother (although I've been thinking... well, I might keep this idea to myself for now ☺️). the mo family still has a claim on the food/restaurant industry, and overall, yes, I'm happy to tell you that guan shan is in a stable financial situation in this AU! :)) at school, though, he still faces loneliness and poor grades — but for reasons different than what is seen in canon.

he tian: yes, he keeps his popular status at school! good grades, good at sports, etc etc. however he does tend to get in a bit more trouble than what we've seen in canon, both in and out of school, though very few peers/teachers (if any) know of his personal circumstances. his mother left rather than died when he was young, and although he does live under the same roof as his father & brother, he tian and his father do not cross paths for good reason. nonetheless, he cheng, although very busy himself, does try (keyword: try) to act as a father figure for he tian. and for what I have planned, she li has more to do with he tian rather than guan shan in this AU!

I think that's all I'm willing to share right now!! I hope that's enough :') just as a quick side note, he tian and guan shan will keep most of their main personality traits/characteristics to prevent any drastic OOC concerns, but the manner in which these characteristics present themselves will be very different based on their different circumstances. and omg, I love love LOVE your interpretation/prediction for the scene in the drabble!!!! while it isn't quite where I was planning to go, it's such a great and detailed and deliciously dramatic continuation :') have no fear, though — my plans are just as dramatic, angsty, and fluffy! <3 and although I don't think I'll stray too far from my original plotline/ideas, I always like to remind myself that sometimes the story has more control over itself than I do once I start writing it. as a writer yourself, you might understand, haha!!

anyhow, thank you so much for this ask!! I love that tumblr took away the character limit because I always get such a huge burst of happiness whenever I see asks of this length in my inbox <3 no worries at all about rambling and/or one-sentence-long paragraphs because I adore them :')) !!! and omg trust me, I am also a baby writer and hardly know what I’m doing at the best of times 🥺 but regardless, thank you so so so so SO MUCH for reading my works and supporting me!!! if you feel comfortable with it, I would LOVE to get your username/pen name to read your fics as well (if you have any)!!

otherwise PLS let me know if you have any more questions or headcanons about this AU!! I will always love to hear them and will answer any questions to the best of my ability as I gather the courage/inspiration to actually start writing this fic <3 have a beautiful holiday season, my dear, and thank you again!! :)

[feysandfeels]

TSwiftMaas pt 2, I’m back and thank you for letting me rant

Champagne Problems - Feyre/Tamlin, maybe a bit of Mor/Azriel

Gold Rush - literally the moment Feyre first sees Rhys on Calanmai and then snaps out of it. Or Emerie seeing Mor (ACOSF new a esta book). Also Rowan seeing *the nightgown*

Happiness - Elain x Graysen

Cowboy Like Me gives me Aelin attitude vibes but Feysand too? “Eyes like stars”

Evermore - Rhys and Feyre (literally dreamed of each other at their worst moments, he sent her the music and stars and he was seeing her)

I so agree on Ivy and I was so happy to see you say that!!!!!

Dude you are so welcome here, rant away!

It also gives me the chance to add some more. So ACOTAR x Taylor Swift part II (Part I)

lol at rowan literally having gold rush seeing Aelin in her nightgown.

Feysand:

Delicate - I don’t know why but this song always gives me Feysand in summer court vibes, when Feyre says “but for a moment I hoped he might be as lonely as me” and Rhys admitting that he is jealous that Feyre smiled for Tarquin (king deserves all the smiles imo). The song is the start of both of them truly realizing that they are falling way more than they intended for the other, but it’s all delicate because of the political implications, because of their own healing process. “This ain't for the best My reputation's never been worse, so You must like me for me” both of their reputations are at a low, so to speak everyone in Prythian is gossiping about how Feyre left Tamlin on their wedding day and is now being seen with the High Lord of another court and being introduced as a member of his court and well Rhys’ reputation has always sucked. However they both manage to see beyond their respective reputations and masks, and this song is perfect for that. 

Cowboy like me - Feyre quite literally “never wanted love, just a fancy car” and fancy car here is some financial stability to be able to *live a little* yet she found Rhys and in him he found an equal who now “hangs from her lips like the gardens of Babylon”. Also the way I feel when Taylor sings this is the exact same way I feel with Feysand: my body transcends into another dimension. 

Nessian:

The archer - from Nesta’s perspective is just delicious: “I’ve been the archer, I’ve been the prey, who could ever leave me darling, but who would stay” through the progression of “you could stay” is exactly what Nesta’s thought process is like. She sees herself as above everyone but has tremendous whiplash moments where she only sees the ugly in her and wants someone to see her for all of her nuances and all of her spikiness and then Cass does and she realizes that and is lie...he could stay. And I just... it’s just.. beautiful. The Archer has always been a Nessian song to me, a Nesta song to me and I cannot believe I forgot to add it in the original post. 

Elucien: they really claimed my favorite Lover songs didn’t they?

Cornelia Street - they’ve been heartbroken before and this feels so right, but what if it’s not it, what if it’s just the bond.. they never want Cornelia Street again. Also “drunk on something stronger than the drinks in the bar” as in their feelings for one another are stronger than the mating bond pushing them towards the other. Finally to be perfectly honest, they claimed this song with this lyric “Windows swung right open, autumn air Jacket 'round my shoulders is yours“. AUTUMN AIR? LUCIEN, JACKET AROUND HER SHOULDERS? THE JACKET HE GAVE HER DURING THE HYBERN SCENE IN ACOMAF. 

Feyl*n: 

You’re not sorry - Because T*mlin can’t actually be sorry for something he doesn’t understand so all his apologies are empty. He truly doesn’t comprehend the root of Feyre’s decision to leave him, so all his words and promises are meaningless and Feyre finally figured it out: “All this time I was wasting Hoping you would come around I've been giving out chances every time And all you do is let me down And it's taking me this long Baby but I figured you out And you're thinking we'll be fine again But not this time around You don't have to call anymore I won't pick up the phone This is the last straw Don't wanna hurt anymore And you can tell me that you're sorry But I don't believe you baby Like I did before You're not sorry, no no, no no”. This can also relate to Feyre sending him the letter and him not having to call her/look for her anymore.

Coney Island - the moment when you think about where did all the goodness and love there was go? When Feyre is wondering that perhaps who they both were after UtM were not meant to be together. And also feeling the, not guilt exactly, but the heaviness of wondering who did she kill those fairies for, who did she break for : “Break my soul in two Looking for you but you're right here If I can't relate to you anymore Then who am I related to? And if this is the long haul How'd we get here so soon?”And things simply don’t get better and whatever love was there can’t come to the surface anymore and the fire is getting smaller and their relation ship and the “efforts to save it” feel like they don’t work but make you realize  “Over and over Lost again with no surprises Disappointments, close your eyes And it gets colder and colder When the sun goes down”.

[lovely-necromancy]

A Cure for Insomnia CH 15

////TW Deceptions of canon typical violence and a home invasion near the end////

“Yea so the pizza is not only aesthetically pleasing but pretty fuckin' good too.”you finish your rant on why the two of you should drive out to Point Pleasant some time.

“Not gonna lie it seems more like you want to,” he pops his knuckles, “drag me miles away to sacrifice me to some old god.” the popping gets worse.

Shit, Toby's getting nervous. You probably look pretty sketchy right now considering the fact that you've been suggesting the two of you go out to Point Pleasant for the past thirty-ish minutes. Toby had pulled off to the shoulder lane once Connor's barking started up. Alerting the two of you to his incoming tics. It seemed to be a long episode so you offered to drive off the interstate and on to the side of the road instead. Hoping that maybe the absence of the additional outside stimulants coming from cars driving past you two would calm Toby's tics.

Unfortunately you'd gotten caught up talking about your late night escapades having been taken by the fact that Toby didn't seem to mind. He'd actually understood that restlessness you went on about. And when he asked what was the furthest town you've driven to in one night. You kind of let loose and spilled your guts about the Mothman capital.

For half an hour, on an offshoot of the interstate in the middle of nowhere, he was trapped with no where to run. Of course the poor guy was probably scared of you at this point. He was just indulging you out of fear not out of any genuine interest.

Why couldn't you just read signals properly?

“No!” from his jump you've probably said that way too loudly, “I mean sorry I get carried away – Mothman's cool – the town is a nice tourist trap and I thought you'd think it was cool – but then I just probably just seemed weird to you and now I just....ughr none of that made sense did it?”

“Weeell” he drags out as thought he's thinking on it “nope none.”

Looking at his face you can see his red stained scarred lips pull into a sort of smirk and there's a glint in his eyes. He's being sarcastic, he's making fun of you. He isn't weirded out by you just being yourself and ranting about nothing in particular or running around in circles with a train of thought only  to get confused or baffled by the workings of your own brain.

The smug dick. Letting you spiral while he watched on in amusement. This reeks of Brian, has his fuck boy energy written all over it. You'll just have to spend more time with Toby to make sure the sweet man next to you doesn't turn into a menace to society. Or at least not a menace to you.

“Meanie.” you blow a raspberry in his direction, he returns the gesture albeit a lot messier than he intended. Spit seeps from the gash in his cheek and dribbles down the scarred edge of his lips.

Toby lets out a grunt and looks down at his spit in disgust. Whether that's in himself or just his spit you can't tell. Leaning over the console you pop open the glove box to hand him some emergency napkins you had in there.

“Fuckin' Mary Poppins.” you hear him mutter over you.

Choosing to ignore his teasing and take the high road in this you hand him the napkins and relax back into your seat. Watching him run the napkin up and down his arms trying to get any spit that may have backfired onto him, which was definitely most of it.

“You good?” you ask.

“Uh yea 's just spit no big deal.” it's such a simple statement but you can't help the smile that it brings to your face.

You meant if he'd be good to drive yet since you two had been out here for the better part of an hour now. It was nearly two in the afternoon. Neither of you anticipated the quick slushy run turning into an all day event. And while you wouldn't mind driving around for two more hours or so – you're quickly coming to the end of your battery.

“Meant to drive, dork.”

“Hmm...Yea should be now,” Toby says wadding up the napkins before spinning in the passenger seat towards you and gently flinging the wad of napkins in your face, “and 'm not a dork. You are.”

Returning his spit used napkin to him, tossing it just a tad harsher than he originally had, “You're right you're a brat!”

You exit the car before he can throw it at you again. Though it really doesn't matter when he just pelts you with it from over the hood when you switch seats anyway. Picking the napkin up off the ground you hold on to it and place it in one of the empty slushy containers sitting in your console.

The mature course of action. However, you do poke your tongue out at Toby as you do it. He only rolls his eyes as he huffs out a laugh at you.

Toby hovers over the gear shift waiting for either an alert or one of his tics to rear its head. When neither happens he put the car in drive and you two begin your hour and half drive back to Kepler.

Or would've, had it not been for the traffic you seemed to get stuck in not even five minutes after getting back on the interstate.

“You're fucking kidding me.” Toby says incredulously.

After ten minutes of going nowhere, all the while his leg bouncing was shaking the car, Toby abruptly get out of the car and marches to the passenger door flinging it open.

“You're driving.” is all he says.

You don't think there's any talking him out of it. You're good to drive so that isn't the issue, his abruptness about the situation is what stuns you. Wordlessly you get out of the car and take the wheel. Getting buckled in you see from the corner of your eye Toby grabbing you phone and typing away.

He seems to find what he's looking for as static flows through your stereo. The sponsored ads for the white noise “podcast” start playing before fading back into the never ending static. Your phone is placed back under the radio and Toby reclines his seat all the way.

It's tense for a moment as you wait for something else to happen. Whether it's an outburst or an explanation you aren't sure, the anticipation for anything to happen hangs thick in the car. You keep your focus on the road and traffic in front of you figuring Toby will let you know what's up in his own time.

The sound of shuffling comes from behind you as Connor scoots over to his handler to be of assistance. Only for him to be gently waved off. And he goes back to his spot laying down and honing in on you. Since you are currently driving...even though scooting the car up a few inches in the past twenty minutes shouldn't really qualify as driving. Nevertheless the pup remains vigilant in his work.

It's probably an hour or so before Toby finally speaks, breaking the semi silence he put the car in.

“Traffic jams make me anxious.” he doesn't move from his reclined position, just stares up at the ceiling of your car.

A noncommittal hum comes from the back of your throat. You'd assumed it was something to that nature but didn't want to pry. It must be bad if it was something that made him willingly pass the torch of driving, something that also made him wildly uncomfortable.

“Wanna talk – or do you just need silence.”

The answer came in the form of the silence that followed. It was another long hour and a half before the traffic finally cleared. You weren't even aware so many people could be on the interstate going through West Virginia on a Monday afternoon. Since you were at the tail end of the traffic by the time you got to where you assume it started, by the left over debris in the road and fresh skid marks heading into the median, you really couldn't put together what had gone on.

Your eyes didn't focus in on the leftovers of the accident nor did you slow down like many other vehicles. It's not like you enjoy seeing the wreckage of cars or people being lifted into ambulances but you understand most people give in to that base human curiosity. You just hoped everyone involved was safe and okay.

From your peripheral you catch Toby turning his head to face you every few minutes or so. Disregarding it as a tic you continue on driving. While this accident had cleared you don't doubt the power of stupidity to not influence another reckless driver, who might now be late from traffic, to start weaving in between lanes.

“Are we past it?” comes the quietest voice you've ever heard from Toby.

So stunned by the volume it takes you a minute to register what he'd asked.

“Uh...oh yea. We passed it like fourteen minutes ago?” assuming 'it' had been the crash site, though you hadn't been keeping track of time honestly.

No point when the two of you would be getting back to Kepler after dark anyway. You'd ask Toby if he'd want to grab food before you drop him off at the lodge but his continued silence as he fixes his seat up right clues you in that he might not be up for anything other than turning in for the night. Honestly you're at the point yourself, so you don't really mind the silence driving back.

Just like you thought the two of you got into Kepler a little after eight o'clock. Having been stopped by another accident, this one not lasting nearly as long to get situated, had really taken a toll on Toby's mood though. You could practically feel something eating at him as anxiety radiated off his form.

He didn't offer any clarification for his reactions and you didn't pry. Most times when you get a similar way you find it's easier to just let it run it's course than to try and calm yourself. So you're a little surprised when you reach the lodge and  Toby practically volts out of your car, when he gently taps on your window after he's retrieved Connor from behind you.

“Get home safe.”

Those words hit your ears with a bit more weight than they normally do. Maybe because the day's been full of accidents on the road. Or maybe because of the lack of interaction the two of you have had for the past four hours. Whatever the reason it doesn't change how Toby lingers at your side even after your reply. He finally steps away, once again falling silent, and you're able to drive home after a final farewell to him.

The way Toby reacted today never leaves your mind. While theories and ideas toss around in your head you can feel the bubbling weight in your stomach build as cold sweats break out all over your body. Combating the weight in your stomach is its emptiness. Having only eaten the bowl of cereal today and nothing else has left you on empty since you'd gotten into traffic. However, being so preoccupied with Toby's change in behavior you'd forgone food in favor of getting your friend home as soon as possible.

Pausing when you come to the fork in the road making you choose between going straight home and fighting with cooking a meal or running to the mini mart and grabbing something quick and unhealthy. You normally take a bit to decide, but today it seems your gut is telling you to forgo the food and get home. You can't quite place a finger on what you're feeling – not quite fear or anxiety or even paranoia. All of which would be valid considering how weird your afternoon had been. Instead it feels like a little voice is ever so quietly telling you that you should get home immediately.

The voice pipes up again as soon as you gently shut your car door. It seems to warn you that there is danger near by.

'Fuck' is all you can think about as memories of the evidence of your stalker come into play.

It had been so busy lately that you'd honestly forgotten all about the stalker. Hell your bat was still in your room, so you were fucked if your intuition was right about this. You were at least going to be smart about this and pull up the Cowell's home phone contact on your cell before even getting near the front door. If anything happened you'd call and either leave a message or have a concerned Big Jo over instantly.

The house is silent as you open and shut the front door. Not anything new to you but with the tension in the air you're more than certain someone is here with you. Making your way through the house you peer into the kitchen and living room. The coast is clear on those fronts which leaves the hall closet, your bedroom, and the bathroom right across from your room.

Quickly ruling out the closet because of the limited space for a grown adult to hide in. The only options are your bedroom and the bathroom. The bathroom that has the door open at all times and would make a great place to hide and ambush you while you went into you room. Or a good place to lock yourself in to call Jo in case they were in your room, you'd just have to be ready to sprint out faster than they could register seeing you. Then there's your room, multiple hiding spots and the baseball bat you'd left in there. Even if they came empty handed they were the one with the weapon right now, you had to be careful.

As you make your way slowly and soundlessly down the hall way you hear a small beep come from your bedroom just as you stand in the doorway of the bathroom. You don't own anything that beeps. This thought causes you to freeze in place all but your thumb which hits the dial button.

Just in time too, because in your stupor a large figure in a black ski mask opens the door to your bedroom. You barely have time to react to the sudden appearance before they come barreling into you. A sharp pain bursts in the back of your head as it collides with the wall that you are tackled into. Phone forgotten, instinctively you bring both hands to your attacker's face.

They may be wearing a ski mask but it will do little to protect their eyes against your nails. Thankfully they have a stupid red frowny face decorating the mask, giving you the perfect target for their eyes. Not expecting your quick reflexes the attacker pulls away slightly trying to get out of your reach, and get your hands off of their mask. They must be worried you'll find out their identity, and while that would be nice you'd enjoy surviving this encounter a lot more. So you continue your assault on your would be assaulter.

A large hand comes down and swoops both of yours in a crushing grip. Harshly yanking them away from their face. Unfortunately for them they'd gotten one of your knees pressed against your chest when they tackled you. With the new distance between your bodies you're able to lift your leg up higher and kick at them.

“Get OFF of me..you piece of SHIT.” more force exerted on certain words while you kicked them solidly in the chest.

Their grip actually gets tighter on your hands as you knock the air out of their lungs. Aside from that and their pained grunts they weren't giving much of a reaction. You'd be certain you weren't kicking hard enough if it wasn't for a cough that ripped through them on a particularly powerful kick to the stomach.

There's a distant warble that you can't make out, it's high pitched and annoying. Good, that irritating sound will only succeed in pissing you off more and enabling you to unleash your rage on the fucker holding you down right now.

Before you can give another blow pain erupts through your chest as it constricts. You can't breathe and you see black dots forming in your vision as you're slammed into the tile floor of your bathroom. There's a foggy feeling in your head, and that distant warble gets more frantic and higher in pitch. But you can't focus on that you can't focus on anything that isn't the merciless thudding in your chest, the pounding of your head, and the god awful static that is starting to burn your ears like a white hot fire.

With the first heavy and heaving breath you're able to take as your assailant presses you into the ground, you feel the rush of adrenaline surge through you. Without any leverage you can do little more  than squirm and thrash under the heavier figure. A brief feeling of vindication showers you as one of your arms is tugged free in your flailing. Your attacker isn't quick enough to restrain you this time and you reach your hand up to their face, this time intent on clawing it up from under the mask. That way some one would know based on the nail marks who did this, and maybe the DNA left under your skin would be enough identify them and save a future would be victim.

God you didn't want to be a victim.

Just before you can hook your fingers into their flesh they are thrown off of you. All adrenaline you had before turns into ice as you stare at their companion. The white mask with painted black features. It hadn't been a hallucination.

They hadn't been a hallucination.

They'd been in your home before. While you were there and blissfully unaware. They'd been so still, so quiet that you'd never even thought they were anything more than a messed up part of your psyche. There isn't enough time to dwell on this feeling of pure terror that spikes through you. But you still freeze in the face of the mask, only to be rewarded with an iron grip locked into your hair pulling you up by the scalp. Then you're bashed against the floor twice.

You honestly hadn't meant to play dead. In your shock it was the only thing you could do to just go limp. That once high pitched warble is now a drawn out moan almost, the static is playing at the edges of your mind as you barely make out the sound of retreating footsteps.

You want to roll onto your back but as nausea hits you at just the thought you stay on your side. Eyes fluttering against your will, this time not a tic but in an attempt to heal your body on it's limited energy reserves. You doubt you'd be able to turn over again if you needed to vomit. Hell you'd be lucky to stay conscious till someone came looking for you.

Would that be in the morning when you don't show up for work? Would it be days from now? Wait did you manage to call the Cowells?

The pounding in your head gets worse with each passing second. You officially can't keep your eyes open anymore. There's no reaction from you when you hear your front door burst open and yelling echo through the empty house. You don't stir from your sleep as someone taps you, not shaking you but just gentle taps careful to not exacerbate your injuries.

When Big Jo got to your home he slammed open your door and had his gun at the ready for your attackers. The house didn't look messed with and nothing was out of place, at least to him he'd only ever been out this far to drop little Jo off once or twice. It was quiet in your home except for a murmuring coming down the hall. So he made his way down slowly, vigilant for any sudden movement if there was anyone other than you here. He'd called your name several times since entering and hadn't received a reply.

As he got closer to the bathroom the murmuring became louder, peering in his heart stopped for a beat. The weathered man has seen a lot of shit in his time but he always hated to see a kid in your condition. Beaten with bruises littering your face and wrists all while being unresponsive as he tried to wake you. The source of the noise became clear when he saw your phone a few feet away slid into the corner away from you.

Dia was still on the line and sobbing now. If that didn't twist the knife that was already speared into his heart. Picking up your phone he spoke with his wife trying to reassure her as he felt for a pulse. You had one, one that was faster than normal. Your body was probably still reeling from what you just went through. But he wasn't a doctor and wouldn't count you out of the woods until one assessed you themself.

Jo wasn't waiting long before he heard the sirens, he went out front to meet the sheriff. After you'd been packed into an ambulance and taken to St. Francis Hospital Jo told Dia so she could meet you there. He'd stuck around while the sheriff and his deputy surveyed the area and came back to him for his statement.

“Looks like we've got most of what we needed Jo...But the kid, they got hallucinations you said?” Sheriff Owens asked.

“Why're you asking Zeke?” now wasn't the time to anger the large man as he was barely holding his normal civility.

“Now I don' mean nothin' by it – 's jus' tha' well we didn' find any evidence of a break in.”

“You think the kid coulda done that to themself? The marks on their wrists are bigger than their hands!”

“Jo, in some cases people sufferin' from delusions can do all sorts a things ta themselves... 'm just trin' ta find out if we ought ta have 'em kept in the ward for a bit.”

“They're fine. They've told me themself that they only get visual hallucinations and they can differentiate between the two.” a small lie on his part, he knows occasionally a hallucination will grab your attention for longer than it should if that were the case but he'll keep you out of the damn ward for now because this wasn't a hallucination. He had heard the struggle going on between you and someone else.

Right now his top concern was getting to the hospital and meeting up with Dia to make sure your condition was stable. If he had to lie to the sheriff to do it, so be it. Not like he wouldn't enlist his own detail to figure out what went down here. He'd let you stay with them while he contacted Lydia about updating security on her property.

Sheriff Owens didn't put up a fight on this, and said he'd swing by the hospital Wednesday to get your statement on the encounter. With that the sheriff and deputy piled into their car and left. Jo had found your keys still in the door and locked your home, a lot of good it did you but at least this way a bear wouldn't get in before they set up the new system.

Jo got to St. Francis and was greeted by his teary eyed daughter and sobbing wife. Dia really wasn't cut out for any type of violence. He's have to make sure she called her therapist this week for an extra appointment or two just to help her through this. Looking at his daughter he sees the worry in her eyes as she runs to him.

A doctor comes up to the family to inform them of your condition.

“Ah Mr. Cowell good to see you. Mx. LN is responsive right now, and in enough of their right mind to complain that we are keeping them awake.” The doctor pauses with a slight chuckle, “We have them set up with an IV drip that's giving them fluids, their pain meds, and for tonight they'll also have a caloric infusion. They mentioned that they hadn't eaten much today. So to ensure their body has the energy to heal we thought it'd be the best course of action. We're keeping them up for another hour or so before they can sleep and then we'll be keeping them for observation for at least two days.”

“Can we see YN?” little Jo interrupts.

“Unfortunately we believe they wouldn't enjoy that right now. Their injuries aren't extensive but they are quite cranky due to residual pain and hunger.” the doctor says with a smile to little Jo. “Now speaking of their injuries the worst of which is their slight concussion again we're monitoring that and they seem to be very receptive to us right now. And then there's the dislocation of their left shoulder that we've already mended and the various bruising and mental trauma they're likely to retain from the incident your wife has briefly informed us about. We'll give a card for a good therapist to you and one to Mx. LN on their departure. When can we expect the Sheriff coming?”

“Owens said Wednesday.”

“Perfect, then that should be all. If anything changes or we want to keep them longer we'll let you know right away. And Miss Cowell if you come back in the morning we're sure Mx. LN will be much more agreeable company.”

The doctor waits for a moment letting the Cowells have time to process and ask a question or two. But when nothing comes up the doctor turns away to continue their work elsewhere.

And with that the very emotionally exhausted Cowell family go home. With plans to come visit you sometime tomorrow. Big Jo does however makes a few phone calls before going to bed that night. It isn't lost on him that he's already had one employee mysteriously vanish, he doesn't like the thought that she was targeted and your next on some hit list.

[universitypenguin]

What happened to u? U okay?

Hello!

First off, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it and I needed it after the past two days. To answer your question - I'm doing great.

I don’t have a lot of context about your question, but I’m guessing your concern is due to my recent blocking spree. A day ago, I went through my followers list and found some minors. I’ve previously seen smut fanfic writers concerned by underage people interacting with their posts. Until I had to block a few of them, I wasn’t aware how uncomfortable it would make me feel.

Since the blocking spree, I've had a lot of thoughts. I'm about to spew them everywhere. You might regret asking me if I was okay. Sorry about that. No one needs to read this whole manifesto about my rollercoaster of emotions the past few days. But in the interest of transparency, I'm posting this very long note.

What I want my readers to know is the following:

Tumblr is both a place for fanfiction and a social media site.

When I interact with followers and write explicit content, I have to be careful about what I'm saying and who I'm saying it to.

I don't intend to block or purge my followers in the future.

As long as I appropriately tag and put warnings on my work, that is adequate protection for my blog. Everything I write containing explicit content is tagged.

However, I won't interact with users who don't have an age stated in their bio.

There have to be boundaries, given the content of my writing. But I've also come around to the realization that I'm not capable of policing every interaction. Tumblr is a public forum. Minors following me makes me uncomfortable. But by the same token, my work is clearly labeled at 18+ and so is my blog.

There's a lot of explicit content out there for minors if you really think about it. In my high school freshman English class we talked about the book "The Color Purple." Believe me, that was explicit and we were only 14. Any minor with a library card and a Google browser can access a lot more intense content than what I write. I hope they're all being safe, but I can't have a melt down blocking spree again.

I'm not a cop, I'm not a parent, and what minors consume is down to them and the adult responsible for them. If I know someone is a minor I'll block them, should I notice they're trying to interact with me. Otherwise, I'm not purging my followers ever again. It's too much drama. I'd rather leave Tumblr than do that twice. I'm tired and I'm starting to work on my post graduate classes, I work full time in a demanding job, I'm in the process of editing my novel, and trying to keep up with my personal life. Quite literally, I don't have time to block. Writing fanfic is supposed to be my fun time. Let's keep it that way.

Due to the fact that some people I blocked were later unblocked after I took a closer look at their blogs, I'm posting a full explanation below. A quick summary is this:

After only writing for three months, I'd amassed 500 followers. On Monday I blocked almost 200 of them. Then I reviewed my block list and editing down some people who were prematurely blocked. [I assume the anon is one of the unblocked who had me disappear from their dash. Sorry!] This blocking thing isn't sustainable. In the future I'll run my blog differently as far as interaction goes in an effort to be responsible.

Continue reading for the saga of:

The Great Blocking Spree and Existential Crisis of an Erotic Fanfic Writer.

The Blocking Spree:

On Monday I realized a thirteen year old was following me and interacting with my work. This creeped me out.

*Commence blocking spree*

Then I realized how daunting my followers list was. I had 500 followers prior to Monday. That day I blocked about 200 people (some of them prematurely - more on that later.) So after the daunting task of trying to assume, to check bios for ages, to review blog content and determine the user's age, I was tired. Today, I even took a moment to reconsider if I wanted to use Tumblr. Because if all this is my responsibility, maybe I don't have the time or dedication to manage it. When I can be chill, I try to be. This attitude also affected by blocking. It contributed to me unblocking people. When I was doing the blocking spree, I'd give people with no age in their bio a fair shot by reviewing their posts.

I blocked some bot accounts, then a bunch of blank blogs, some ambiguous people who very well could be of age. For the first 100 followers I was pretty aggressive. Then my attention span dropped off and I was a bit more ambivalent. I realized I was doing a crappy job of moderating and wondered what the point was.

The point was that the thirteen year old interacting with my work freaked me out. When I found two sixteen year old followers, it pushed me to continue the purge.

So on I go, blocking. I'm so responsible for doing this, right? But my methodology is crap. What is context for being an adult? Someone had posted about budgeting advice. I thought the budgeting advice was too good for it not to have come from an adult. But my father's a financial advisor and to be honest, I could have given that level of advice at fifteen just from osmosis. Someone had pictures of themselves entering their marijuana plants in the Oregon State Fair. Okay, you've got to be over 18. I didn't block them. Someone else complained about their stats professor and I didn't block them. But in retrospect, one of my high school friends got permission to take college level math courses when we were seniors. She was seventeen when she had a stats professor. The thought circles back - what am I accomplishing here? Next, I went back and unblocked someone who ranted about her Tinder matches being 60 year old men. I wondered if their post was even real. I've lied on the internet before. Nonetheless, I persisted and worked through all 500 followers. When I was done I had 312 followers left.

Post Blocking Spree Existential Crisis:

I know that all the blocking in the world can't stop a teenager who wants to read smut fanfic. I'm not much for posting on social media and I'm not used to a lot of anonymous interaction online. Honestly, I got rid of my SM accounts during college when I felt it was wasting my time. This is the first time I've really use a social media site to post content since college. My twitter account is unused, my Instagram is for close personal friends only, and my TikTok is for mindless consumption of cat videos. (I've trained the algorithm to feed me only cat videos, it's great and I highly recommend it.) I don't post on TikTok, so I don't consider it full use, just lurking.

Okay, Alice, get back to the point....

Right, being anonymous on social media. My blocks are a fence and it's based on self identification from the blogs that follow me. I have little faith in underage consumers to out themselves. I have even less faith in their honesty or respect for an adult's boundaries. They're at a stage in life where they want to push the boundaries. Telling them no is all but inviting them in. I did my blocking spree because I was worried about backlash from someone's parents. But what reasonable judge would come after a fanfic writer? Come on. Logical thoughts but me emotional distress was still brewing.

Why I am the one responsible for who clicks the follow button on my blog? I've always clearly identified what I write and tagged my work as smut.

That thought snapped me out of my whirlwind of anxious thoughts. So I started looking into the laws. My regular work involves medicine, not the legal profession, so I was lost. I found some state level laws that made me glad I'd gone on a blocking spree. California and Florida have specific language in their laws about 'providing minors with explicit content.' But what exactly is that? What I researched applied to the following activities: co-writing smut fanfic with other people, sexting, roleplaying and online messaging.

I run a fanfic blog with limited interaction. I've never done an ask. I don't roleplay on here and I don't want to.

The blocks weren't personal. They were partly based on the awareness that Tumblr is an interactive site and a place that's had a problem with child pornography in the past. But I'm not the smut police. I suck at blocking, and I doubt I did a good job of purging my followers list. This is when it hit me that boundaries are only what I can enforce. They've never been about how other people relate to me, only how I relate to them. (Wow. I've never sounded more like my mother in my life...) After this thought, I started considering what actions I ought to take if I wanted to keep posting fanfic on Tumblr.

My Post Blocking Spree Clarity...

It's up to me who I interact with. I don't have to reply to every comment and re-blog, but I'd like to. I'm stuck between wanting to write for everyone and handling interactions on a social media site that's mostly anonymous.

The fact remains: I can't be the smut police because I suck at it.

What I've decided is that I'll make it very clear on my blog that this is an 18+ space where I publish erotic fanfiction. Smut will always be appropriately marked. I'm not going to interact with reviews, re-blogs, and messages from accounts who don't have their age in their profile. I won't include them in my tag list either. The internet is a public forum. Just as with publishing erotica, once it's out there online for download, it's done. As a ghost writer and an author, I don't control who buys my original fiction, which is just as spicy as my fanfiction. (Trust me, it's explicit. I once had a romance editor tell me I should dial it back on the smutty parts of a novel because "it's a lot of sex for a non-erotica market.") The key difference on Tumblr is about interaction. And that's something I can control. I can decide when I reply to other users. What brought me around to this was the realization that even after the blocking spree, I can't review every single like I get. That's an amount of time and mental energy that's beyond me. Just the past two days have been exhausting and sapped my will to write. Which sucks because I need to go write the next chapter of "Restitution" before tomorrow.

I think the reasons I went on the blocking spree are nuanced. The thirteen year old freaked me out. So did the other underaged people who had ages in their bios. But it also relates to my work. In my job I've seen some nasty child abuse cases. Early on in my career, when I was a 23 year old new hire, I was working on an autopsy for a child abuse victim who'd been murdered by their parent. It was so terrible and graphic, I had to ask one of my older colleagues to take the case. This colleague didn't like me. But she took one look at my face and took the file. She closed out the review without a question and never brought it up again to anyone. I was very grateful. Where I used to work (and where this incident took place) was a major city that holds the unfortunate title of being the human trafficking capital of the US. And something I learned working there was that most human trafficking victims go with their captors willingly. In two years at that job, I never saw one who'd been kidnapped from a dark alley like you see on TV. They were all groomed on social media and thought they were escaping their families (who were often overbearing, toxic, or dysfunctional) for a get away with friends. It was a fun adventure with their internet buddies, until it wasn't.

In retrospect, the underage interaction I found on my blog made me react because of what I've been through. The autopsy case kept coming back to me today while I was at work and I've finally untangled my emotions enough to figure out what caused my melt down. When I was blocking, I was feeling an anxious motivation that I know can only stem from the stress I deal with at my job. Don't feel sorry for me about this - I know my work in medicine helps a lot of people and it's a tremendously satisfying career.

Our Saga's Resolution & How I'm Going to Deal With This In The Future...

- - - - -

In post block clarity, I offer this conclusion:

I'm writing on a public forum. My work is appropriately tagged as smut. In the future, I will also use the tag #no minors to help with filtering. I've always asked underage people not to interact. And on a public forum, what more can I reasonably do? Going forward I will only interact with those who have their age posted in their bio. But blocking sprees and policing every interaction isn't feasible.

I'll review how I'm going to run my tag lists as well. I need to think it over and let my followers know my decision as to if I'll continue using them. Because tagging is definitely interaction and my current tag list was not screened at all. *face palm*

Finally, to my readers who have blank blogs or don't have an age listed. I respect your right to privacy and I'm careful with my personal information as well. But I've also had an uncomfortable two days. If you've lasted through this venting session until now, you must understand that I'm upset by underage interaction. I'm setting my own boundaries and going forward, I'll own my side of the internet. No interaction from me, unless I know your age. Full stop - no exceptions. I think it is reasonable for me to suggest that you leave something on your blog that signifies you are not a minor, whatever that may be. Someone who I didn't block that stands out in my memory had a bio that said "90s baby." It was simple, direct, and left no doubt they were over 18. No age reveal and not even a name. If you put something like this on your blog it'll help explicit content creators feel more comfortable about their interactions.

I went on a spree this Monday and I admit to being heavy handed and aggressive about pruning followers. I had an emotional reaction due to work stress and I didn't think things through logically. I'm relieved for the chance explain myself and set new boundaries that I'm capable of sticking to in the future. But remember - the block button is on my side of the screen. At the end of the day, you might be unhappy with me for the block, but it's my button, it's my blog, and I'll use it as I see fit.

Thank you for reading.

[wizardouxie]

Do you have any more Morgana and Douxie headcanons? All your other ones are absolutely adorable and I just can’t get enough 🥰🥰😫😫

Ahhh I can do the mini story series format again! Hope you enjoy them anonnie ~

Torn Apart

One time Douxie accidentally tears one of Morgana’s dresses and he completely freaks out

He takes it back to his room and is like ‘what do I do what do I do what do I do’

Adrenaline kicks in as he realizes that Morgana and Merlin could come in at any time

So he picks up a sewing book and quickly learn its contents

Thanks to his nimble and talented hands he’s able to sew the rip shut

Morgana originally was stopping by his room to ask where Merlin was

But instead she finds him with her dress

She stands there by the door quietly, observing the whole time

When he’s done he raises it up to see the spot where the rip used to be

“Not bad if I do say so myself, don’t you think Arch?”

The boy turns it around to show his familiar and Morgana finds herself agreeing as well

His handiwork was flawless

As was her dress

She leaves silently with a smile on her face

After all it was absolutely adorable and sweet of the boy to fix the dress himself rather than taking it to the tailor in town

Later that night she wears that specific dress and eyes Douxie, remarking that she appreciates the handiwork of whoever took the time to stitch it

Douxie eyes widen and he laughs awkwardly scratching his neck

She approaches him after dinner and admits that she did catch him redhanded

He starts stuttering and tries to explain himself

Morgana doesn’t let him, and instead shushes him

“All is well! I’m not mad. But promise me that there shan’t be any secrets between us?”

Douxie exhales in relief and nods firmly

“As you wish milady.”

Flower Crown

Another time Morgana impulsively runs away

Like she’s gone all of a sudden and Arthur, no matter how frustrated he gets with her, is still worried for her

Merlin assures him that she’ll come back in due time

Arthur still sends out a search party regardless

But while everyone is looking high and low for the princess of Camelot

Douxie is braiding her hair by the lake

He found her an hour earlier

He tells her everyone is worried and she knows

But she misses the peace and tranquility

Douxie gives into her request of keeping quiet for now and promises that he won’t take her back to the castle yet

So after a while she starts ranting about Merlin’s incompetency as a teacher

And to be honest? Douxie isn’t really processing any of it

He just knows that Morgana needs to get it out of her system and get it out she does

When she’s done, Morgana looks down into the pond and is surprised to see flowers in her hair as well

Douxie finds her expression unreadable and panics

“Sorry were the flowers too much? I can take them out if you’d like,”

“No, not at all! They’re beautiful actually,”

She looks back at Douxie and finds herself amazed at the little circlet on his head

“What is that, the headpiece which rests upon your head?”

“Oh this? It’s a flower crown! I like to make these for Archie and I when we’re bored,” he explains

She tilts her head

“May I... May I have one? They look simple yet gorgeous,”

Douxie smiles

“Of course! I shall make a flower crown fit for the princess.”

Raven

They send each other ravens to message each other

One day Merlin sees the same raven flying back and forth in front of his window

He gets irritated and intercepts the mail intended for only Douxie’s eyes

“He is a little bit sensitive about his hair, isn’t he? It’s starting to grey, poor soul,”

Merlin is, in fact, very sensitive about his hair, and bans them from using the ravens to send each other letters

Morgana and Douxie whine, because how else are they going to communicate without being heard?

As revenge, they enchant Merlin’s raven to talk back at him

Aka we have a new talking parrot

“To King Arthur you shall go,”

“NO!”

Merlin is Confused

Since when??? Could his raven SPEAK???

He goes to Morgana and Douxie who are practicing their basic spells

They stare at Merlin in confusion and he looks at his raven

The raven speaks their names and they feign a look of surprise

“It can talk? For how long could it do that?”

“Is this your familiar?”

Merlin shakes his head, unaware that they are the reason it can talk

“Yes, I don’t know, and no Hisirdoux, it is not, but it refused to send a letter to your brother,”

“Can’t you just speak with Arthur in person? You two are closer to each other than I am with him,” Morgana snorts

“Sometimes words on paper speak louder than in person,”

“HYPOCRITE!” the opinionated raven shouts

Merlin gets embarrassed because he knows his apprentices are about to bring up his prohibition of sending ravens to each other and leaves promptly

They get back their privileges a week later

The raven never stops talking however; Morgana and Douxie had way too much fun with it to turn it back to normal

[yona-chan]

Yona’s Return to the Castle – A Rant

Or… Yona’s decision to return to the castle: why it wasn’t a dumb idea, why she knew what she was getting into, why it made more sense than any other options available to the party, and why it wasn’t an out of the blue story beat to simply advance the plot that had no prior exploration.

Hey guys, it’s been a while.

(In fact, you could say it’s been so long that this rant doesn’t really have a reason to exist. Oops.) 

This post is about Yona’s decision to return to Hiryuu Castle alllll the way back in chapter 178. I’ve not talked about it on my blog too much, but I really liked this decision when it happened. This said, I feel that the chapter (heck, the entire start of the arc really) wasn’t as well received by the fandom, be it here on tumblr or elsewhere. At the time, I really wanted to jump to the series’ defence (and Yona’s too) with a longer rant explaining my stance on the beginning of the arc, but I never got around to actually sitting down and typing it all out. The longer I put it off the more my opinions snowballed, making me want to talk about more and more until I had this monster of an opinion piece in my head that was too large for even me (and my ridiculous word counts) to tackle. I did try… but, as you’ll read in a second, it didn’t go so well.

I didn’t end up with what I wanted, but neither am I disappointed with what I did end up writing. And, after reflecting on it all, I’ve decided to give in and publish what I have, delayed a reaction as it may be.

This rant is… gosh, it’s far too long, but I hope you enjoy it.  

 Okay. *throws hands up* Like I said, this rant isn’t what I originally intended to publish, but it’s all I can muster up for now. Please allow me to explain.

What I originally intended to write for this rant was a long, sweeping review of the current arc: where it began, what is currently happening, and where I think it might be heading. I wanted to cover six main topics, which were things I had seen being discussed in the fandom quite a bit, but that I usually disagreed with when it came to what I saw as the “general fandom opinion”. To give a short rundown of the “general fandom opinion” vs mine that I wanted to cover, they were:

Yona’s decision to return to the palace was rushed and not well thought out -> No, it was thought out well and the series had been building to it.

Yona’s been ignoring Hak’s opinions and feelings and Hak has been sidelined in this arc doing useless things like joining the army, all for Yona while she doesn’t care -> No, Hak’s joining of the army is good character development for him and addresses things in his characterisation and, no, Yona is not ignoring him and when she is it’s for good reasons.

Yona and co. are just sitting at the castle doing nothing and being used by Soo-Won and Keishuk while information just falls into their laps -> No, they understand the nature of what’s happening and are treading carefully and are doing things when they see fit if they think it is safe to do so.

Soo-Won isn’t the bad guy anymore because we’re meant to feel sorry for him and this illness he has that came out of nowhere -> Soo-Won was never a true villain and this was never a revenge story. Plus, I feel the illness had been hinted at.

The current flashback about the parent characters and their relationships isn’t important, it’s taking too long and the story should be focusing on our main characters -> This flashback is SUPER important to the story and everything the narrative has been building to. P.S: I think it’s actually been rushed slightly and would have preferred it take even more time, but whatever.

Part six wasn’t about opinions really, I just wanted to discuss things that might happen in the future of the arc and what fandom expectations I agree and disagree with. Namely, my disagreement with the idea I’ve seen around that Yona needs to step up in her role as Hiryuu’s reincarnation and fix the mistakes of the past and her parents.

So, yeah, the above was the general layout I was aiming for; however, things started to go awry pretty quickly. I was so motivated to write about Yona’s decision to return to the palace that I got carried away and finished that section just shy of 8,000 words. No, you did not read that incorrectly… eight thousand. The longest rant on my blog to date had been just over half that length and I had only finished what was meant to be part one of six.

I started to get a bad feeling. Just a tingle of ‘ah, shit’. 

Damn it all though I didn’t want to give up, so I pushed on into part two about Hak and Yona and everything going on with them. This section… well, it didn’t go well. I got about halfway through what I wanted to say and realised I was going about it all wrong. In trying to show how I felt about the arc and Hak and Yona’s place within it/their decisions, I had started to drag Hak down. I was kinda miffed seeing a lot of Hak fans talking about how he was being sidelined and mistreated and left alone by Yona etc., so my writing took on a “Hak isn’t that great, calm down” tone. As I reviewed it, I realised it just wasn’t what I wanted to say. I love Hak as a character, and though I do think his fans overreact slightly towards his every part in the story, dragging Hak down was not going to achieve anything. Why would I want to drag down a character I love, even if I think opinions about him are overblown? I realised I should have been approaching this part in the opposite way: not, “Hak isn’t that great”, but rather, “Hak is great, and Yona is just as great”. I guess I got a bit lost in how many negative opinions I was seeing about Yona (and often Soo-Won) and thought, “Well, two can play at that game, here’s some negativity about Hak to balance the scales”. I’m glad I never finished that part of my writing and caught on to my own negativity, because if I hadn’t it would have read quite nastily and even if I disagree with parts of fandom on things, I don’t want to be mean about how I present my own opinions.

So, I ended up deleting that entire section and vowing to start over, but by this stage months had passed (I write slow okay, I like to double-check everything) and the topics I was originally so passionate about didn’t seem to be relevant in the fandom anymore.  People seemed to be warming up to the flashback a little more, the decision to return to the castle that everyone disliked was so long ago, and I started to get lost in a “who cares?” hole. I didn’t want to write something so long, taking up so much of my time, if there wouldn’t be an audience for it. Why drag up older opinions to discuss them if everyone’s moved on?

Soooo… yeah. That leads me to the present. I have a word doc just over 11k words (most of that about Yona’s return to the castle) and I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. I doubt I will unless there’s a huge demand for it, and even then I’ll wonder if I could be using my time better.

This said, I see it as a disservice to my past self, who sat typing for hours, to abandon that first part of my rant – the part I actually finished. So, despite there likely being no audience for it, and despite it likely not being relevant anymore, here is that first part of my rant, all about chapter 178 and the story leading up to it. You’ve already been warned about its length, but if you have the want or the time, please feel free to read it. I did put a lot of effort into it, so I hope you enjoy.

yona-chan out.

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  Welcome! Please, have a seat. This roller coaster starts now and you’re strapped in for the ride, so prepare yourself.

(I’m kidding of course, click away whenever you like, but this is a long one… and this is your warning.)

But first, CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve reached the part of the rant where I have to go on for a bit explaining that this is my opinion and not yours, and that you’re under no obligation to agree with every part of this rant, let alone read it if you’re not enjoying it. Please, please, please do yourself the favour and click away if you already know this isn’t something you’re going to enjoy. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again… my opinion ≠ your opinion. I do not think mine matters more than yours, or is “more correct” than yours. I may write parts of this rant as if I’m making hard, irrefutable points, but this is all just my personal interpretation of the story. The only reason I’m writing like I am and not adding “In my opinion...” or “The way I’ve interpreted it is…” at the start/end of every sentence is because it would make for horrible reading.

While we’re here though, you may have your own opinions that I heavily dispute and discuss in this rant, but my disagreement should not be interpreted as disrespect. I in no way think you are stupid for having your opinion - I simply disagree with it and would like to discuss that. I am not here to just blast you with insults and then leave. Rather, the opposite: I would like to show you in this long rant WHY I have the opinion I do and WHY I don’t agree with a lot of the stuff I’ve been seeing. If you, in turn, would like to discuss your own opinion and/or why you disagree with mine, by all means go for it. Just… *raises monocle* Let’s keep it civil.

I also want to mention quickly that chapter 194 was the latest published. So, hi everyone reading this months/years in the future, before you come spam my inbox to go on about how wrong I am/how I didn’t discuss certain plot points/how I don’t understand the story, I’m writing about this with the story context up ‘til 194. I can’t see the future, so, like everyone else at the moment, my opinions and desires for certain future plots/characters are developed with only the current story in mind. I’m happy to acknowledge that this arc could go in any direction from here, good or bad.

And I know you’re probably wanting to say, “Great yona-chan. But why did you have to up and write this damn much? I ain’t got all the time in the world.”

The answer is that… yeah, there is a reason I wrote so much and it took me so damn long. My opinion and interpretation of the current arc are hard to discuss and require me to draw upon and contrast almost every arc following the one in Awa. To explain why I’m enjoying and appreciating what is currently happening in the story and am not as put out as many, I needed to re-examine this arc in the context of the story as a whole: where it was, what’s currently happening, and certain themes I think Kusanagi-sensei seems to be aiming for. And uh, yeah, that requires a lot of writing.

But, if you have the time or the want to read it, please enjoy.

  <insert Monty Python “Get on with it!” gif here>

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  PART 1: A LONG TIME AGO, IN SOME CHAPTERS FAR, FAR AWAY…

We’ve gotta discuss chapter 178.

Ah 178… what happened, man? Before this chapter it seemed like everyone was feeling pretty good about the whole Tully Arc and the Hakona Water Moment™ and the confession and the fact that Keishuk’s plans to try and manipulate Yona’s party hadn’t really worked out according to keikaku. And then came this chapter, which ended with Yona telling Hak that she was going to accept Keishuk’s offer and accompany him back to Hiryuu Castle, despite Hak’s emotional outburst wanting the exact opposite.

I remember there being a lot of talk about how the decision was rushed and how it sucked that Hak was so upset by it but would inevitably go along with the choice. While I do agree (to some extent) with these views, what really surprised me the most was how much flak Yona (and seemingly only Yona) got for this entire decision, how a few people seemed to like the decision to go to the castle, but kept stipulating that they didn’t want the group to return “like this”, and how much the choice itself was derided despite it making a lot of sense. I felt the reaction was really on a spectrum from the far more tame and agreeable, “Yona should have taken more time to think about it rather than coming to a quick decision on her own,” to the much harsher, “Yona is selfish and not thinking about anyone in the HHB and their needs (especially Hak!) and is rudely deciding everything on her own even though she’s stupid and can’t see that she’s walking into a trap, and none of the HHB will oppose her idea because they never do and she gets away with her shit all the time because the group never ever let her know when she’s wrong - they just praise her and go along with all of her bad ideas because she’s ‘Yona’.” I’m paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea.

And, well, there’s a lot to unpack here, so… let’s just focus on the decision and the options available to the group at the time (and within the context of the whole story) as a start. I’ll get to the whole ‘blame Yona’ thing after.

(Strap in.)

One thing I think that was not discussed enough when the fandom reacted to the decision to return to Hiryuu Castle was the way the story had been building up to it for a very long time. There have been a lot of major, plot-altering decisions made in the manga, and if we look right back to the decision made before Tae-Jun’s Redemption Arc we can see one of them. It was the choice made by Yona and her friends to stay in the Fire Tribe lands to assist the smaller villages who were suffering due to the lack of younger men (taken for the Fire Tribe army), the lack of sustainable food sources and medical clinics, and the corruption of those tasked with collecting taxes and taking care of the townspeople. This decision to stay and help was important because it not only came after the group decided they did not want to go to the castle to confront Soo-Won(!!), it also lead directly to the creation of ‘The Dark Dragon and the Happy Hungry Bunch’, a group of “bandits” who could act as they please, influencing issues and actions within the towns without showing their faces while concurrently taking full responsibility and/or punishment for going against officials. It was pointed out in-text that this was influenced by Gi-Gan and her pirate crew and how they acted in Awa, with the group obviously seeing how such a set up allowed Gi-Gan to both influence control over the town and help its people without the town itself (and Kouka, in a way) receiving backlash for her actions. The HHB was very important because it was Yona and co. choosing to replicate this and act anonymously and independently. At this time in the story they had next to no allies they could call upon if they were caught by the Fire Tribe officials. They had to tread carefully: Hak was still thought of by the majority of people to be responsible for King Il’s death and/or already dead alongside Yona, and the dragons had only just come together again for the first time since the kingdom founding and were also still in the realm of “myth”. The HHB was not only a smart cover for the group to get away with what they wanted to do as vigilantes like they had in Awa, it was necessary to protect the members of the group and stop others from recognising them for who they truly were.

I could go on for aaaages about the importance of this anonymity, but the main idea I want to talk about is that with every arc after Tae-Jun’s Redemption Arc, this anonymity was slowly stripped back as the group had to push harder to achieve the results they wanted and their endeavours became more and more complicated. In the Fire Tribe Rebellion Arc they tried to influence things from behind the scenes (secretly attacking the foreign army camped outside the city Kyo-Ga was defending, etc.) and leave the rest up to Soo-Won, but in the end they were revealed to a number of Koukans in the army when they went to stop Li Hazara’s men from safely retreating. It was a small price to pay, but that’s when the whispers of “a red-haired maiden and several monsters appearing on the battlefield” began to spread, and Soo-Won became even more aware of their actions when he personally went to investigate what had been going on in the Fire Tribe behind the scenes of Soo-Jin’s rebellion.

Then we got the Water Tribe Arc, where the HHB did not act behind the scenes much at all and worked directly with those higher up in power (and Soo-Won… because, yes, whether we like it or not they have cooperated many times in the story let me remind you) to get the results they wanted. I know it’s easy to say, “but hey, they revealed their identities to Tae-Jun way earlier, so what the big deal?” but the difference is that Tae-Jun already knew who Hak and Yona were and very quickly joined their side to support them. Lili did not know Yona’s identity for a large chunk of the arc until Yona chose to reveal it. Lili worked with both Yona and Soo-Won while they simultaneously tried to hide their identities, but in the end she knew who both were and had a much deeper insight into their relationship and how strained it was. It’s not a whole lot of people figuring out the true identity of the group, but, like I said, it’s slowly building.

Kushibi’s Fort Arc! The HHB actively (read: openly, without hiding their identity) joined forced with Soo-Won and the tribes to rescue Yona and Lili. They tried to keep apart and work independently at the start but it’s this temporary, wishy-washy alliance that sees them through. This is important beeecaaaause…

Xing Arc!! Princess Tao has Voldo track down the HHB specifically because she thinks they have ties to the palace and act of behalf of Soo-Won and can grant her a meeting with him. This isn’t some weird, out-of-left-field idea of hers either: reports from citizens who were imprisoned at Kushibi’s fort was that they were saved by King Soo-Won and the Four Dragons. Not only has the anonymity of the HHB been all but lost by this stage, but they’ve been accidentally linked to the crown. They are no longer some weird, hooded bandits doing what they want in the rural towns: they are the group with the Legendary Four Dragons who protect Kouka, and they work for the king. At least, that’s how they are seen outside of Kouka. 

But then comes another one of those plot-changing decisions I mentioned earlier.

When Yona tries to persuade Kouren to speak with Soo-Won rather than go to war, she uses her real name and status as Kouka’s princess to convince Kouren that Soo-Won will listen to her. When Kouren agrees to let her try and talk to Soo-Won, Yona tries to remain somewhat anonymous and behind the scenes by sending a message to Soo-Won with her name in the hope that this will encourage him to listen to her, but the answer is no. Then comes the decision: does Yona leave it at that, step back and not insert herself into the conflict anymore even if it means war will break out and countless will die? Does she hope that this failed action is enough to convince Kouren that she tried, and get her friends released from their position as hostages? Or is there something more she can do, even at the expense of herself?

This is my girl, Yona. Of course she chooses to do more. Of course she risks herself to try and save the people of a nation she barely knows anything about from pointless death, break the cycle of hatred, and free her friends. She confronts Keishuk and Soo-Won in front of their armies and demands they listen. She is Princess Yona, daughter of the late King Il, and damn it all, she will be heard.

I remember at the time that many thought this too was stupid on her part and that she only got away with it due to Soo-Won’s kindness and “plot armour”, but I see it differently. She was cornered by the Sky Tribe army because they thought she was some insurgent trying to spy on them, but the minute she tells the Sky Tribe army who she is they back down. Why? Because as far as they know Princess Yona is an innocent young woman who was tragically kidnapped from the castle by her unhinged bodyguard who killed the king, and that she fell to her death while trying to be recovered. Hak is the bad guy in this made-up story, not Yona, and she knows this. To the people of Kouka, her appearing before them is probably nothing short of a miracle that needs explaining. We know this because as soon as Keishuk (who also only found out about her being alive in this arc – please do not forget that Soo-Won never told him about Yona being alive… this is important!) sees her and puts two and two together he tries to quickly string a story about how it’s impossible that it’s Princess Yona, and oh she’s a spy using that name to trick and them, and just kill her now damn it! But the soldiers don’t. Their immediate reaction is to say, “But hey, isn’t that the princess we all thought was lost? Why is she here? What’s going on? We should definitely tell the King in case it is her!” Their knee-jerk response is to question the story they’ve been told and treat Yona as a victim rather than the threat that Soo-Won and his coup party know she could potentially be.

But then of course Soo-Won turns up and this is where things could have gone sour. Soo-Won is now in the difficult situation of having to listen to Yona or find some way to remove her from the situation without drawing too much attention to her. But Yona’s a step ahead. She makes sure to let everyone there know who she is, that she tried to speak with Soo-Won earlier, and that she has a potentially peaceful way to solve the issue. She does not back down, and this frightens both Soo-Won and Keishuk, if not for different reasons. For Soo-Won, it’s a sign that she is done letting him just do things his own way without being checked. She is no longer going to stand aside and pretend they can operate independently of each other. For Keishuk, it’s a scary show of how far her influence has spread in the Kouka Kingdom (and beyond)… and it’s about to get worse because then Lili steps in and defends Yona. And oh bummer, that’s got to sting. Now not only has Princess Yona magically appeared, but suddenly Lady Lili (who recently got a massive boost in popularity due to her help with Nadai in the Water Tribe) is saying that Yona is personally responsible for aiding her during the Nadai crisis, and for saving her when she was taken to Sei. Lili has placed her piece on the board right next to Yona’s. It’s a calculated move on Lili’s part that carefully tries to thread the needle between outing Soo-Won and rejecting him in front of her tribe (which she really shouldn’t do) and standing back and letting Yona potentially fail in her mission to get Soo-Won to go to council (which she also doesn’t want to happen). Lili does a great job here imo and as a result Yona can’t be removed from the situation as Soo-Won and the others would hope… not now.

So Soo-Won does the right thing in my opinion: he saves face and agrees with Yona and Lili. He backflips on his previous reply to her letter and openly welcomes discussions with Xing given certain rules are followed. It must suck for him to do this, but it keeps the calm. However, for Keishuk, this is nothing short of a disaster, and is the turning point in my opinion for him inserting himself far more into Soo-Won’s business and going rogue when he sees fit.

This all happens in the span of like one or two chapters but is a turning point for the whole series. While Yona’s actions in previous arcs could be covered up or explained away by the general populous thinking it was all overblown rumours (and Soo-Won getting credit for everything) this cannot be. The line in the sand previously drawn has been stepped over, and there’s no going back.

As the Xing Arc came to a close I read some comments from readers who thought Yona had it too easy. She inserted herself into a dangerous situation and wasn’t punished for it. At the end of the day, she got her way.

And… well… If I graciously put aside that a majority of the Xing Arc was Yona and her friends being chained up, tortured and attacked, and that Yona herself had a full on panic attack and collapsed due to the building pressure of having to simultaneously save her friends and stop a war by confronting the one person in the world she would rather not go near if she had the choice, then, yeah, sure, Yona “got her way, saved the day easily, and wasn’t punished for her risks”.

Or… … … and hear me out… … maybe it’s not that straightforward.

(A note before I get into this: I get that the complaint above was made at the conclusion of the Xing Arc and therefore what I’m about to go into could not have been known and taken into consideration by those making the complaint. I’m just using this complaint as a springboard to discuss the flow of the Xing Arc into the Tully Arc and the Tully Arc into the decision to return to the castle. I want to use the complaint to explore how AnY arcs flow into and impact future arcs, not point to people and say that they’re stupid for not predicting the future. And yes, I’m still getting to the original point about the decision Yona made to return to Hiryuu Castle… this is all leading up to me discussing that. Trust me, we’ll get there. Thank you for your patience.)

I say this because the following Tully Arc has a number of interesting conflicts in it outside of the main Kouka vs. Tully Tribe one. Let’s very quickly have a look at three of them:

Rumours spread about Yona’s sudden return with the dragons and about the allegation she made against Soo-Won. At best, the rumours just confirm that Yona and Hak are alive and that Hak saved Yona’s life the night King Il died and wasn’t the bad guy; at worst, they implicate Soo-Won as Il’s murderer and see Yona as someone blessed by the Gods, returning “home” with divine protection to oust those who wrongly removed her from the castle. It’s very dangerous, because it’s these kinds of rumours that, if pushed to the extreme, start civil wars. Soo-Won up until this point was, at least in my opinion, seen very favourably amongst the general populous. Of course questions about Il’s death would have existed, but Soo-Won doing a good job reuniting the tribes and expanding Kouka’s influence in Kai, Xing and Sei likely caused people to doubt and/or overlook rumours like this. He isn’t a bad king the people hate and are looking to discredit; neither are they looking for a hero they can rally behind to take him down. These rumours could throw all of that out the window though. What’s this? Yona’s actually responsible for the peaceful annexing of Xing? What, it was she who helped Lady Lili purge the Water Tribe of foreign interference? Oh, she helped Fire Tribe during Soo-Jin’s rebellion? She was living peacefully before Soo-Won murdered King Il!? Maybe Soo-Won isn’t as great as we thought him to be. Maybe having Yona in charge would be better, especially if those amazing dragons follow her and our tribe leaders support her! And this is without even touching upon the religious aspects of the issue! I’m sure there are many in Kouka who wouldn’t care if Yona did all that stuff or not: if she’s the new Hiryuu and has the support of the Four Dragons of Legend, then that settles it. She should be in charge, no questions asked.

Who the dragons serve and what their purpose is is debated. I spoke a little earlier about the HHB slowly losing their anonymity, but there’s something that happens in correlation with this: the more the HHB step into the limelight and begin to influence situations with their abilities, the more people begin to fear and revere them, and the more people begin to question who they serve and what their purpose is. As is pointed out by Zeno in the Xing arc, a darkness is brewing in the hearts of people. In Xing the dragons were feared and called monsters, and the people declared that Kouka was hoarding their power - that it was too dangerous for a power like the dragons to serve one nation. Within Kouka the conflict becomes who the dragons speak for and what they represent. Do they speak for Soo-Won, the king? Yona, Hiryuu’s reincarnation? The people, who revere and respect them? I know it’s easy, as the audience, to say, “Well, Yona, duh. We know that,” but the people of Kouka and abroad don’t know that. Heck, the Tully Arc ends when Jae-Ha sneaks into Li Hazara’s camp, pretends to be there on behalf of Soo-Won, and tells Hazara a whole bunch of lies to make him retreat. And this works. Because… of course it does. This whole issue is compounded by the fact that Yona is related to Soo-Won. Because unless she openly and actively opposes him and draws a heavy line between them, the simplest explanation for the average person to explain who the dragons serve is to go: dragons serve Yona -> Yona is royalty -> the dragons serve the crown. It was already a very iffy subject before the Tully Arc started (as Jae-Ha points out in Xing, it doesn’t matter if they don’t serve Soo-Won, because their actions can always still be interpreted as his just through the confusion surrounding who they actually serve) and by the end it’s just a mess.  

Finally, in the Xing Arc Yona outed Tae-Jun as a powerful ally of hers by asking him to falsely light the Fire Tribe beacon and draw Soo-Won’s attention. Before this (and again, due to the previous anonymity of the HHB) Tae-Jun kind of got away with his actions because only Soo-Won read between the lines enough to realise that Yona had been assisting him. He chose not to act against this likely because, at the end of the day, Tae-Jun’s projects with Yona directly benefitted the Fire Tribe without any threat to Soo-Won himself, so… tightrope successfully walked, in a way. This is not the case now. Tae-Jun’s actions actively hindered Soo-Won’s plans and threw his allegiance into plain sight. Soo-Won (and those close to him *coughKeishuk*) now know that, push come to shove, Tae-Jun will side with Yona. This causes conflict because of Kyo-Ga, who, in the Tully Arc, is shown to be in a situation where his two loyalties are actively beginning to oppose one another. On one side is his loyalty to Soo-Won and his desperation to show that he is not his father. On the other side is the family he cares deeply about (his mother even sided with Yona) and the troops he respects. And this is just the Fire Tribe. We know the Wind Tribe will follow Yona thanks to Hak, and that Lili could easily decide to stand by Yona’s side and support her rather than Soo-Won, as she did in Xing. Soo-Won may have united the tribes for the first time since Junam’s rule, but far out if there aren’t cracks beginning to show.

It’s these conflicts in the Tully Arc that matter. Why? Because they are a direct result of Yona’s choice to confront Soo-Won during the Xing Arc. These conflicts could be seen as the punishment that many at the time thought she never got. By forcing herself into the situation to help Xing, she in turn created conflict in Kouka. And this isn’t conflict she can ignore or get Soo-Won to settle, like she did at the end of the Fire Tribe Rebellion arc where it was left up to Soo-Won to go and discuss how Hazara would be punished. She can’t have An Joon-Gi step in to clean up the aftermath of the Nadai incident, or have Tae-Jun cover for her and claim he found the Iza seeds and set up the clinics alone. She and the HHB are now in the middle of it all, and their actions and the way they present themselves matter more than ever before. She is now, in part, responsible for having to navigate these issues and seeing what happens.

This is especially true because these conflicts effect so many different areas of politics and so many people. From above, #1 impacts the common folk, who they respect and who they might potentially follow as a leader. #3 creates cracks in the tribe leaders. Do they follow Soo-Won, to whom they’ve sworn loyalty, or do they follow their hearts and question the legitimacy of his rule? Do they denounce Yona so as not to get involved, or do they acknowledge her influence and the respect she has garnered even if they are loyal to Soo-Won? Finally, #2 impacts everyone, within Kouka and beyond. Who are “Hiryuu and the Four Dragons”? Do they only represent Kouka? Is their word the word of the king? Of the gods? Can they be trusted to be fair to other countries outside of Kouka, or are they biased? What is their role in all of this?

(*Drax voice* Why are the Dragons?)

I… don’t have answers to the above questions, but if we’re making a list of reasons why I’m excited for what’s to come in the story (and why I like the idea of Soo-Won’s group and Yona’s group interacting) this is definitely one of them.

For now though, let’s finally put this all together and see where the HHB are at the end of the Tully Arc. What choices do they have for where the go and what they do next?

I’m going to say that, at a basic level, they have 4 options:

Stay in a town/tribe of their choosing.

Go bush again and do what they were doing before in-between arcs, and camp.

Leave Kouka altogether, which they have done in the past.

Accept Keishuk’s offer to go to Hiryuu Castle.

I think it’s quite easy to see why options 1 and 3 are out of the question now. With their anonymity gone and their status now sometimes equated to those of deities, the HHB cannot just stay in some tribe town and hope to pass their days unnoticed. The issues they’ve faced abroad in the last three arcs make it so their presence abroad would only potentially stir up trouble (not to mention the whole dragons being more susceptible to injury and illness thing that happens when they move farther from Hiryuu Castle) and their new widespread acclaim within Kouka puts expectations on them wherever they go. They can’t play a group of passing performers or foreign tourists: they’re so much more than that now in the eyes of the people. And, again, with their purpose up in the air their presence in tribe towns could cause even more confusion. It’s very much like why Hak wanted the group to avoid the Wind Tribe all this time. His presence there would stir up trouble: at the very least people would be curious as to where he’s been and what’s going on regarding his and the HHB’s relationship with the crown, and at worst the Wind Tribe would want to rally behind him and reinstate him as General and that’s not a good idea, because, again, it creates conflict with the crown.

And this is without touching on the traumas the group has been facing lately. Members of their team have been kidnapped multiple times by foreign groups hoping to use or abuse them for their own needs. One of these scumbags (*coughGobi*) actually followed them across Kouka to achieve this. Then there’s the issue that occurred in the Fire Tribe when a celebration of the dragons led to people purposefully coming to Saika Castle to crowd Yona and her friends, attempting to pull Yona from her room through a window because they all wanted to touch her red hair, and grabbing and stroking Kija’s arm without his permission. Need I remind us that these actions (despite the different emotion at their core – devotion/“love”) cause Yona, Kija and Jae-Ha to remember their time captive in Xing, when the people there crowded them to “see the monsters” for themselves, and Hak, while trying to assist them, was shown dragging his friends away from detached, almost otherworldly, black arms that tried to grab and smother him. The same visual that was used for the Fire Tribe people when they tried to grab Yona: black, empty faces of desire.

AND let’s not forget that the Tully Arc began with Yona, Jae-Ha, Zeno and Yoon being kidnapped because someone they believed to be an ally (Ogi) had his band of friends/informants attacked and threatened, and that he felt compelled to purposefully lie to them to lure them out and into the hands of Gobi’s men.

I can only imagine the amount of stress these occurrences additionally pile onto Yona: even if they can find a location where the HHB themselves are safe, can they ensure that others they know and love aren’t harmed by those greedy enough to continue to pursue them? If they stay in a town, can they be sure their presence won’t wrongly sway the hearts of the people, cause more rumours to spread, or, at worst, increase the division already present between their party and Soo-Won’s?

I’m sure these things were already on Yona’s mind before any of the events with the Tully Tribe. While they are staying at Saika Castle, Keishuk appears and has the Sky Tribe troops attack Zeno and Jae-Ha. When the others go to help them, the Fire Tribe soldiers threaten the Sky Tribe ones and demand they stand down, and it leads to a scuffle. Keishuk and Yona both recognise that this infighting between the tribes and the division of loyalties is not something they should be happy about. Keishuk thinks to himself that the small scuffle is only a taste of what is to come should Yona continue to be allowed to act on her own, while Yona remarks to Jae-Ha and Hak that, though they came to assist the Fire Tribe, their presence is having the opposite effect. They’re only creating dissonance, and both sides in the argument scared her. They contemplate where to go (NOTE: Hak himself says he’s not sure where they could go that would be safe - keep this in mind) but before they can take the time to think about it any more the entire Tully Arc happens. The issue is never solved and everything that happens afterwards only puts more pressure on the decision to be made.

So, going back to our list, options #1 (stay in town) and #3 (go abroad) are seemingly a no-go, but what of option #2? I think it’s very easy to say that the HHB could just disappear into the wilderness again and do what they were doing before the Sei Arc began, but in my opinion it’s not that simple…

We have the previously mentioned issue of their friends being used to find them. I think it would heavily play on Yona’s mind that, should they go back into their more undercover way of living, those they love could be used to try and draw them back out. And that’s if the group isn’t actively pursued themselves. They were found by Voldo and his men quite easily once before, and Gobi followed them across Kouka to the Fire Tribe, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume they could be tracked again. Gobi even stirs up Yona’s fear about this. When she, Kija and Jae-Ha are discussing the fact that they shouldn’t just return to the Fire Tribe with the troops, and perhaps should escape into the woods, Gobi smirks at Yona, repeats the idea and then questions if that’s where they’re going. He’s straight up being a creep and acting like he already has plans to somehow follow them once more, and one only needs to see the expression Yona makes in response to know she is fed up with threats like this.

So, then, why don’t the HHB disappear so much that they are untraceable? If the dragon villages could erase themselves off the map then it makes sense the HHB could find somewhere so remote that they could not be tracked. And, well, apart from the fact that this idea still doesn’t eliminate the issue of a potential target being put on their allies’ heads, it goes against what Yona and the group want to achieve. Their purpose since they left Ik-Soo’s all that time ago was to assist the people of Kouka. Yona wanted to learn about the kingdom her father apparently didn’t take good care of and see if she could make a difference. How would them disappearing achieve this? Would they just stay away forever with only Yoon (and maybe Zeno) being able to travel into town to get them supplies? Would they ignore the people who would no doubt notice their absence right after they came into the spotlight? Would they just leave everything to Soo-Won? This idea would make no sense to me at all, and I could not see Yona, after everything she and her friends have achieved, being happy to settle with this option.

But where does this leave the group? They aren’t comfortable going abroad or staying in town, and going into the woods and disappearing would go against what they, as a group, are trying to achieve. This is the confusing mess Yona was in when Keishuk then suggested his alliance to her. A new option. Option #4.

I’d like to remind everyone that Yona was very quick to say that she did not trust Keishuk and that the group turned down the offer immediately. But then comes the sting: Keishuk points out that Yona (and Hak) cannot protect the dragons with the way they currently live. In one fell swoop he stabs Yona right in her heart, dragging all of her insecurities about this unavoidable decision to the forefront of her mind. I got the impression that some fans thought Yona didn’t think through the idea of going with Keishuk at all and went along with it on the flimsy reasoning that Yoon should be able to learn medicine, but, as discussed, this whole issue is likely something she’s been thinking about for a while now. Keishuk didn’t randomly offer her the alliance based on nothing, and her accept just because. He offered it to her because he too realises that the dragons are important and will be targeted, and Yona gets this. Sure, he would rather Yona be dead and the dragons out of the picture, but he acknowledges their influence and the danger that occurred when they were targeted by the Tully Tribe. Keishuk is in just as sticky a situation as Yona: he doesn’t think it wise to allow the dragons to wander and do their own thing because, like Yona, he’s seen the division it can cause and the threat she poses to Soo-Won. Additionally, he’s seen that their enemies desire (and can abuse) the power of the dragons to harm Kouka, and that this can’t be allowed either. He’s also twisting the situation to his advantage, because of course he is. He knows being seen with the dragons will be advantageous for Soo-Won, showing that the King has powerful allies and quelling the potential unrest of those people who were believing the harsh “rumours” about Soo-Won being Yona’s enemy. They can also watch the dragons a lot closer if they are at the castle, rather than sitting back and hoping Yona and co. aren’t doing anything to get in the way of their plans or stirring up dissonance. While this benefits him, having the crown on their side also, in a way, benefits Yona. People are less likely to seek them out (for good reasons or bad) if they are protected within the walls of the castle and others think they might anger the King by messing around with them.

But, no, Keishuk is not a nice person and this suggestion of an alliance doesn’t come without problems for Yona. It’s not fair, but they know this. One of the first things Yona, Yoon and Zeno discuss back in their tent is the fact that they’re likely going to be used and that Keishuk is, in a way, threatening them, as they believe he will be the one to send people after them if they refuse his offer and try to disappear again. It’s a no-win situation – no answer Yona picks will be without issue and potential serious consequence, like we’ve discussed.

When she goes to tell Hak that she’s planning to accept Keishuk’s alliance, Yona doesn’t say it’s a good option – she says she believes it’s a safer one.

Hak goes off after this and while I was reading this for the first time it felt like my chest tightened at his every word. And this… well, it wasn’t for a very obvious reason. Sure, I felt awful for Hak. I knew he would follow Yona even to a place he likely never wanted to step foot into again. But there was something else nagging at me during his rant. He tells Yona that they can just run. They can run and run and if they find danger that way he’ll fight to protect them, even if it results in his death.

Truth be told, it reminded me of another difficult decision Yona once made, seemingly so long ago. Back before they met the dragons, back before Yona had even held a bow.

A decision made beside a waterfall with a man who could hear the voice of God.

When Ik-Soo, all that time ago, directed Yona on her quest, he told her she had a choice: she could live, truly live, and by doing so “call up a storm that will shake Kouka to its very foundations” or, she could continue as she had been, but that Hak would lose his life trying to protect her. Yona knew what she had to do: she knew she had to move forward, become stronger, seize this fate no matter how difficult it might be. She knew she absolutely could not allow Hak to die.

I feel like this situation is incredibly similar: Yona can choose the harder path, the one that will continue to shake the country. She can move forward and keep working hard and challenge herself. Or, she can try go back to how it was before. She and the HHB can leave, they can retreat to the woods, they can try to run from the harsh fate set before them. But at what cost? Hak (unintentionally) spells it out: he’s willing to be that cost, if necessary.

There’s no way Yona can accept that. NO. WAY. She refused to accept it before, and she won’t accept it now. 

(Ngl I also just really like the idea that there’s this contrast between the start of the story and now, as we get ever closer to the end. In the beginning Yona needed to step up and take the harder path first by leaving the castle and her past there behind and heading into the big, wide world; now, she needs to take the harder path and return to the castle with everyone she’s met during her journey and all the lessons she’s learned and face what happened in a completely different way. Hnnghh… so good.)

This is how I view Yona’s decision to join Keishuk and return to Hiryuu Castle, and why I accepted it as much as I did. I don’t think the choice was made as quickly as many thought it was… I don’t think it was as irrational as many thought it was… I don’t think it was as void of Yona considering the feelings of her friends as many thought it was. I see it as a culmination of what occurred in previous arcs: the consequences of Yona’s (and the HHB’s) decisions coming back to haunt them as they realise that the steps they’ve previously taken have forced them into a corner – that they crossed a line that cannot be simply stepped back over. Yona’s thoughts at the end of chapter 178 sum it up: they can’t go back to the days of lazing around in a tent, of enjoying Yoon’s cooking around a fire, and of having fun as they travel around. Those days are soon to be over.

I felt sad that the choice had to be made at all - that Yona and her friends were pushed to a point that there were no good options available to them. That Yona still looked so unsure and upset when she decided that she would accept Keishuk’s offer.

...Which is also why I got kinda miffed when Yona caught a lot of flak for this decision. Yeah, that’s right, I promised to talk about this, so let’s get into it!

I’m not going to repeat that I already mostly disagree with anyone who thought the decision was made too hastily or that it was made without considering alternate options or potential consequences. I think I’ve (hopefully) made my reasons for disagreeing clear above. What I do want to address was another way I saw people reacting to the decision, which was that Yona didn’t bother to discuss the choice with anyone before making it and was being selfish because of this. I think this was especially due to Hak’s outburst and the fact that Hak’s opinions and feelings “weren’t taken into consideration”.

And… well… putting aside that Hak’s opinion literally ended with, “I’ll die protecting you all”, which I get are Hak’s fears and insecurities causing him to be irrational because he’s been through so much and he’s so scared of losing this family again after just getting them back (I get it, but honey… NO!! Don’t regress back to that state of thinking you need to be Atlas and carry everything on your shoulders. I, for once, am glad Yona ignored you here.) I think people are putting too much of the blame on Yona and not on anyone else (if blame need be assigned at all, which I also don’t quite agree with).

But, I do want to talk about one thing I do agree with: the lack of discussion. I get that this might seem contradictory, but let me explain. In chapter 178, Yona and her friends tell Keishuk they will not have anything to do with him, they head back to the tent where Hak immediately parks himself out the front to “stand guard” (which is code imo for him being upset and needing some time alone to think) and then shortly after, Jae-Ha, Kija and Shin-Ah all go out to join him, leaving Yona, Yoon and Zeno to discuss what to do.

And… mmmm, yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of this. While I’ve explained above why I think Yona deciding to join Keishuk is fine and how the other options weren’t really any better, I do think this chapter could have been handled better. I wish we could’ve had the HHB sit down and discuss everything as a group. I think they could have thrown some ideas around and eventually have come to the same conclusion, but it might have seemed a little more natural. Having 3 of the dragons just nope out of the conversation was a little odd imo, and I think we could have used another chapter to really flesh the choice out, and have many points (like the conflicts I mentioned above) reiterated. I don’t know if the chapter and its dialogue was just planned poorly, or it was decided somehow that it might be a waste of time to have the characters discussing points that wouldn’t change the overall decision, if an editor played a part, or if the chapter was just rushed for whatever reason. I dunno, but I do think perhaps people might not have been so upset with the choice if it had been made a little slower. I get it can be annoying when authors just spell everything out for an audience, but in this case, and with such a crucial decision, maybe it would have been worth sensei’s time.

But let’s just call it as it is and admit that perhaps the chapter wasn’t written as well as it could have been. I completely understand thinking things like, “Yona should have gone outside and sought Hak’s opinion on the choice” and “She shouldn’t have let the dragons leave and instead asked them to stay and talk” and being frustrated that these didn’t happen, but using them alone to try and discredit the entire decision Yona made is, in my opinion, ignoring what the story had already included and been building towards for a long time, as well as prior character interactions where the HHB did discuss what they should do and ruled out several options (*hem* One of those short discussions was Yona talking about the commotion they were making by staying in the Fire Tribe and it was Hak specifically who pointed out that there was little guarantee they’d be any better off if they just left *hem*). Yona deserves better than to be entirely belittled after one chapter that perhaps wasn’t as good as it could have been, when there was so much more to her overall judgement than just, “Oh well Yoon wants to learn medicine so I’ma ignore that Hak might be upset and just go along with Keishuk’s plan”. She’s better than that, smarter than that, and she cares more than that, especially about Hak.  

Which, uh, allows me to nicely segue into…

    ➵    ➵    ➵    ➵

  Nothing. This is where I went into part two of my rant about Hak and Yona; but, as previously mentioned, I never got it finished in a way that I actually liked and thought was respectful to the source material and the opinions of the fandom. So, no need to worry anymore - the ride ends here.

If you actually managed to get through the behemoth that was this rant, thanks a tonne. It means a lot to me that you would read so much of someone else’s opinion – you get all the cookies. Hopefully it was an okay read and you agreed with some parts of it. If not… well, sorry about that. You get even more cookies.  

I would say some more stuff here, write up some kind of proper conclusion, but I honestly don’t know what to type.

I’m so very, very tired of typing. And I’m sure that, by now, you are so very, very tired of reading. 

yona-chan out. (Again.)

[bitchin-beskar]

love story

Rating: M (this was only supposed to have a little bit of smut, but... uh... I have no self control, apparently) 

Warnings: smut. and apparently a breeding kink? i guess? who knows. certainly not me. 

Word Count: 3k

Paring: Frankie x Reader

A/N: so I was listening to the folklore album, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about Frankie, so I impulsively decided to ignore my other WIPs for the night and instead write a marriedlife!drabble that takes place after the events of my folklore story. If you wanna re-read any of those chapters, they’re listed both in original posting order and chronological order on my masterlist, here. Enjoy my shameless self-indulgent ramblings!

Also, shameless shoutout to @mxndoscyarika, who’s my partner-in-crime when it comes to PNW!Frankie, her and I spent a fair bit of time rambling about all the things Frankie would love in the PNW, and Seattle, Washington specifically. It was those ramblings that helped inspire this fic! Check out some of her work!

Also, also, another shameless shoutout to @perropascal who fangirls with me about Frankie and Taylor Swift all the time. She’s got her own folklore fic with Frankie that y’all should definitely check out, along with some amazing stuff for Pedro’s other characters!

Also, also, also, I had the privilege of seeing Hamilton at the Paramount in Seattle in 2018, and it was an amazing experience, and I think some of that excitement shows in this story... sorry not sorry. 

Tags: @theocatkov, @cosmicbug379, @marydjarin, @perropascal, @mxndoscyarika, @hayley-the-comet, @phoenixhalliwell, @ahopelessromanticwritersworld, @cryptkeepersoul

Please fill out this survey if you’d like to be tagged in any future works!

Biting your lip, you danced around your room in excitement, eagerly throwing the last of your toiletries in the duffel bag. You’d been hoping that you’d be able to surprise Frankie while the two of you were on your anniversary trip, and it looked like things were gonna go the way you were hoping. 

A chuckle came from the doorway behind you, and you spun around, a sheepish grin on your face. Frankie stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his green button-up, his tattered baseball cap dangling from one of his hands. 

His eyes were soft as he watched you, and when you turned to face him, he uncrossed his arms, holding one of his hands out to you. Taking it, he pulled you into a hug, tucking his face into the side of your neck, breathing deeply. 

You wrapped your arms around him, squeezing tightly. You tried to school your features into a more neutral mask, but you couldn’t help the secret smile that spread across your lips.

“What’s got you so excited, princesa?” 

You pulled back to look up at your husband, still in awe of the fact that you were actually married to this man, even though it had been three years already. 

“It’s our anniversary Francisco, I think I’m allowed to be a little excited.” 

Frankie looked down at you, sliding one of his hands into the back pocket of your jeans, tugging you closer against him. “Oh, you want to celebrate three years of being married to me? Is that a good thing?” 

The joking tone of his voice was clear, but you smacked him lightly upside the head anyways. “Of course it’s a good thing, Francisco,” you muttered, tugging gently on his hair to pull him down to your level so that you could kiss him. 

You’d intended for just a quick peck, but as you tried to pull away, Frankie cupped the back of your head and kept your lips pressed to his. You grinned, letting Frankie control the kiss for awhile before you finally–and reluctantly–pulled away. 

“Frankie, mmh– Francisco, we’re going to be late– for our flight–” You mumbled your protests as Frankie kept pressing kisses against your lips, trapping your words. You finally had to push on his chest with both your hands to get him to stop. “Frankie! I’m serious!” 

He grinned unashamedly. “I can always fly us there if we miss our plane, sweetheart.”

You rolled your eyes. “Not the point, Frankie.” 

***

Frankie had been the one to suggest Seattle, Washington for your anniversary this year. He’d spent some time there when he was a little boy, and he’d gone back a couple times as he’d gotten older, and he’d always had nothing but good things to tell you about the city. He loved the weather, the sights, the community, and you were excited to get to finally visit the place your husband loved so much.

The two of you had discussed the idea of moving in the not-so-distant future, and depending on how this trip went, you were thinking about suggesting Seattle as a possible location to look into. Your husband clearly loved it, and as long as you did too–which, to be honest, you were expecting to–then you’d have no problems moving to the Evergreen State.

The flight wasn’t too long, and before you knew it, you were landing at SeaTac International Airport. Frankie had graciously given you the window seat, and you were eagerly looking out the tiny airplane window, taking in the scenery. 

You were almost in a daze as Frankie led you through the airport, gathering your luggage and hailing a cab. From everything you’d heard, Washington sounded amazing, and you were so excited to get to experience all the sights. 

Frankie had planned the weekend for the two of you, eagerly describing all the different places he wanted to take you. Pike Place Market, The Space Needle, The Gum Wall, the Seattle Aquarium, and the Woodland Park Zoo were just a few of the things that Frankie wanted the two of you to do. 

He’d also told you that he had a surprise planned, and no matter how much you begged, he refused to tell you what it was. But, now you were mere hours from finding out, and it just added to your excitement. 

The ride wasn’t supposed to take very long, but with the Seattle traffic, a seventeen minute trip turned into an almost forty-five minute trip. Thankfully, the cabbie seemed used to the traffic, and he expertly drove through the confusing twists and turns of downtown Seattle. 

Arriving at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Frankie tipped the cabbie generously, helping you to gather the luggage before heading in to check-in.

Looking around the lobby, you could immediately tell that it was a nicer hotel than the two of you usually stayed in. From the furniture to the chandeliers, everything felt very elegant and upper class. 

“Frankie, how expensive was this?” You hissed under your breath, feeling more than a little out of place. 

His hand was on the small of your back as he led you towards the reception desk. “Not as bad as you’re thinking, princesa, I promise. I know a guy from the military, he was able to get us a good deal.”

You quirked an eyebrow, but Frankie just smiled innocently. 

***

You were in shock. 

You stared at the two tickets Frankie had just handed you, your brain trying to process what your eyes were seeing.

“Hamilton?” You whispered. “You got us tickets to see Hamilton?” 

Your eyes darted up to see your husband standing in front of you, a guarded look on his face. “Are you... excited?”

The tickets fluttered to the ground as you threw yourself at Frankie, your arms winding around his neck and your lips crashing against his. 

He caught you easily, one arm wrapping around your waist as you wrapped both your legs around him. He held you up with ease, and you gripped his cheeks as you kissed him breathless. 

When you pulled away, his cheeks were flushed, and the look in his eyes as he gazed up at your face made you smile. “I’m ecstatic, I can’t even describe how happy I am.”

Frankie kissed you softly once more before letting you unwind your legs from around his waist, helping you to stand on solid ground. You pecked him quickly on the cheek before turning to bend down and grab the tickets from where you dropped them.

A sharp smack on your ass made you squeak, and you jumped, turning to glare at your husband’s mock-innocent look. “You’d better get ready, baby. We have dinner reservations in an hour, and then the play.”

You tried to maintain your glare, but it was impossible with how happy you were. You placed the tickets down on the bed before heading to your suitcase to grab a change of clothes.

***

The play had been amazing. There were no other words to describe it. The Paramount Theatre was beautiful, and the show was fantastic. The cast, the songs, the set, the acting, all of it was better than you’d ever dreamed. Along with the fact that you were getting to experience it with the love of your life made it one of the best nights you’d had in a long time. 

You’d even been able to participate in a stage-door experience, where you waited outside the stage exit to the street, and some of the actors came out to sign programs. 

The entire walk back to the hotel–which, granted, was only about five minutes–you ranted to Frankie about all of the things you loved from the play. He hummed and hawed as you talked, letting you ramble. Whenever you got excited like this, it was easier to let you rant for a little bit to get the excitement out of your system before trying to actually carry on a conversation. 

You’d run out of steam by the time the two of you had gotten into an elevator, and you turned to Frankie. “What did you think?” You asked, a breathless grin overtaking your features. 

He stared at you for a moment, and you were about to repeat yourself when he cupped your cheeks and kissed you. 

This kiss was different, rougher, and more desperate than the kisses from earlier. You’d had many years to get to know all of Frankie’s kisses, and you knew exactly what this kiss meant. 

“Frankie!” You gasped, panting as his lips left yours, instead latching onto the skin over your pulse. “Frankie, we’re in a public elev–” you cut off, moaning as your husband’s wandering hands groped at your ass, kneading the flesh over the fabric of your dress. 

He pulled away abruptly, leaving you wanting. You stared up at him, the dark look in his eyes going straight to your core, leaving you rubbing your thighs together to try and get some relief. 

The doors opened with a soft ding, startling the two of you. Thankfully, you didn’t encounter anyone in the hallway, and you were able to enter your room without having to answer any awkward questions.

You barely had time to drop your clutch on a side table before Frankie was on you, his arms wrapping around your waist as he renewed his attack on your neck, grinding his erection into your ass. 

Tilting your head to allow him better access, you ran your fingers through his hair, tugging at the strands as he nipped at your skin with his teeth. His hands roamed over your dress, cupping your breasts and dipping under your skirt to cup your pussy through your rapidly-soaking panties.

The moans leaving your lips are rapidly growing in volume. Frankie knows just how to touch you to make you scream and he’s already causing the heat in your belly to pool, the tightening in your core causing you to whimper and moan.

“Sweetheart, if you don’t want this dress to get ruined, you should take it off.” 

You grin at the heat in your husband’s voice, reaching behind you to grip the zipper, lowering it slowly. You allow the dress to slowly slide off your form, your grin widening at the frustrated growl behind you.

As the dress finally pools at your feet, Frankie grips you around the waist and bodily throws you on the bed, his fingers undoing the buttons on his dress shirt as he stalks after you. He sheds his shirt, and quickly strips off his dress pants, leaving him in just his boxers.

You smirk at your husband as he climbs onto the bed and on top of you, his body pressing yours down into the mattress. He claims your lips again, and you gladly surrender to him. Everything he’s done for you, already this weekend is perfect, and it’s only the first night. 

You’re so giddy, so amazingly content, you decide that now is the perfect time to give Frankie his present. You push gently on his bare chest, getting him to back off for just a moment.

“I want to give you your anniversary present,” You murmur, smiling at the confused look that flashes across Frankie’s face.

“Really, baby? Right now?” He emphasizes his words by grinding into you, and you have to bite your lip to hold back a moan.

“Yes, Francisco, now. It’s not something you can unwrap, though.” He looks down at you, confused. “We’ve talked about it before, and we never really decided to try, but, um...” You take one of Frankie’s hands and bring it to rest over your bare stomach. “In about nine months, you’re gonna be a daddy.”

Your eyes eagerly watch Frankie’s face for his reaction, and you’re not disappointed. His eyes widen in shock, darting between your face and his hand on your stomach, and you watch as a hopeful smile grows on his face. 

“R–Really? You’re–You’re pregnant? We’re gonna have a–a baby?” 

When you nod, Frankie kisses you harshly, pressing his lips so tightly against yours, you’re almost worried the skin might bruise, before he pulls away, crawling down your body so his face is level with your stomach. 

“Hi, baby,” he whispers, and you feel tears spring to your eyes. “I’m your daddy.” His voice is breathless, and you feel wet droplets on your skin from his tears. You run your fingers through his hair, cradling his head as he speaks to your unborn child.

“You better treat your mama real good, you hear me? She loves you so, so much already, and she’s gonna bring you into this world, so you’ve gotta be real nice to her.” 

Now you’re crying, hearing Frankie speak to your baby with such love and devotion, you can’t even begin to put your joy into words. You’d had no doubts that Frankie would be anything other than absolutely thrilled, but hearing him speak brings it home that you both really are excited beyond belief. 

Frankie crawls back up the bed, kissing you again and again and again. “You’re amazing, mi amor.” His voice is reverent, adoring, and filled with desire. “God, I want you so much.” 

He pauses, his eyes dropping to your belly, and you can see the unspoken fear in his dark eyes. “Frankie, Francisco, look at me,” you grip his chin, forcing his gaze back to you. “Sex isn’t going to hurt the baby.” 

“You promise?”

You chuckle softly. “I promise. Sex can be really beneficial for pregnant women.” 

He raises an eyebrow, almost incredulously. When you nod, reassuring him once more, his grin in response is almost feral. 

“You’re having my baby.” 

The possessive tone in your husband’s voice sends shivers down your spine. He’d talked about wanting kids before, but this... this was new. And you most certainly weren’t going to complain. 

He rolled the two of you suddenly, so that you were straddling his waist as he lay on the bed. He plucked at the ties on the sides of your underwear. “I’ve gotta say, I really like these,” he muttered, quickly undoing the ties, helping you to remove the offending undergarments. 

They end up somewhere on the floor, but you’re not really focused on their final location. Instead, your attention is captured by your husband as he helps you slowly sink down on his cock. 

You both groan in unison as he’s seated fully inside you. You stay still on top of him for a moment, still not used to his size, no matter how long the two of you have been doing this. 

Frankie’s fingers are slowly stroking over the skin of your belly, and you bite your lip, looking down to see him staring at the path his fingers are taking. 

“Fuck,” he whispers. “You’re pregnant. With my baby.” 

You clench your inner muscles, smirking at the groan that leaves his lips. “Do you like that? Do you like that you got me pregnant?” Frankie’s hips give an involuntary little thrust, and it’s your turn to moan. 

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Frankie’s words are distant, almost like he’s not even talking to you, but muttering to himself. He thrusts up again, and you gasp, again. “I got you pregnant.” Another thrust. “You’re gonna have my kid.” His next thrust is harder, and you bounce slightly on his lap. 

“Oh god, Frankie,” your moan is loud, and unashamed. You don’t care who hears, you’re not focused on anything other than your husband. 

His hands grip your hips, guiding you to ride him, bouncing you on his lap. “That’s it, sweetheart. Fuck, you feel so good, look so pretty riding my cock.” You throw your head back, raking your nails down Frankie’s chest as you’re chasing your release. 

“‘M gonna watch your belly get so big,” he murmured, his gaze focused on your stomach. “You’re gonna look radiant, baby. So pretty, so fucking gorgeous.” 

Your mouth falls open as he thrusts up harder while grinding you down as he does so. You unclasp your bra, throwing it off to the side as you play with your breasts, panting as your pleasure grows. 

Frankie sits up, nudging one of your hands away with his nose, taking your nipple into his mouth. You cup the back of his head as he suckles at your breast, your other hand resting on Frankie’s thigh as he continues to fuck you. 

Releasing your breast with a wet sound, he looks up at you, desire and wonder clear in his eyes. “Can’t wait to watch these grow fat with milk for our baby, princesa.” You whimper, both at his words and at the way he takes you back in his mouth. 

Frankie brings you closer to your release, only to slow just as you’re about to fall over the edge. You whimper, trying to grind down, trying to chase your release, but Frankie’s grip on your hips stills your movements. 

“Do you want to come, baby?”

You nod frantically, words escaping you as you try to encourage Frankie to let you come. 

“Really?”

“YES! Please, Frankie! Please!”

He chuckles, rolling the two of you over once again, not even pausing to allow you to adjust to the new position before he begins to thrust again. Your mouth falls open, panting breaths escaping as Frankie pounds into you.

Before you can really register, you’re at your peak once again, and you’re begging Frankie to allow you your release.

“Oh, oh god, Frankie please, let me come,” you’re clutching at his arms as he’s pounding into you, your back arching, you’re so close. 

Frankie bows his head, his dark eyes watching your writhing form. “Come for me, princesa. Come.”

You do, crying out loudly, nails digging into Frankie’s skin. He’s not far behind, thrusting a few more times before he’s coming inside you. 

His arms are straining with the effort to hold himself off you, and you gently guide him down, bringing him to lay against you, his face buried in your neck. His arms come up to embrace you, his lips pressing gentle kisses onto your skin. 

“I love you, so much, princesa.”

“I love you too, Frankie.”

[ruined-my-dramatic-entrance]

Hey, everyone! Decided to post a Sanders Sides fanfic I’m working on. Here’s chapter one of A Self-Study on Abnormal Reactions Influenced by Patton:

Angst/Fluff (initial angst, mostly fluff), Logicality, Prinxiety, Chapter 1/?, 1,600 words

~Chapter One: The Initial Incident~

Logan liked rules as a general, well, rule. Rules, reason, and predictability were all very appealing to him. With those figurative tools at his disposal, life was stable, secure, and satisfactory. Thus, one could imagine that it was odd to Logan — bothersome, even, unsettling, perhaps — when his own life seemed to falter from its straightforward path. He did not understand something about himself, but he was Logic. Surely, he should be able to comprehend himself with ease. With a heavy sigh, Logan pondered these predicaments as well as the events that had occurred during the last three months that had led him to this moment, hesitant with a decision for the first time in years. Maybe he should have gone to sleep early that night.

The night in question, the very first night that something was amiss with the logical side, was December 12th. Roman, the resident drama king, had thrown what Logan could only describe as a childish tantrum over his own illogical ideas. As the prince in question rambled on, his tone grew angrier with frustration. Logan did not like that and narrowed his eyes.

“You guys never listen to me! Creativity is kind of my whole thing. I’m not saying that my video ideas are the most important, but, yeah, they kind of obviously are?” Roman ranted, rolling his eyes dramatically and crossing his arms.

“I-I’m really sorry if I made you feel like that, Ro, I just don’t think that Thomas can handle it emotionally right now,” Patton replied, eyebrows scrunched upwards in guilt and concern.

Virgil was far past his patience running out and stared Roman down out of protective confidence. With a few exasperated gestures, he explained, “Look, you... Simba-leton or whatever — Thomas is stressed out so bad that he can’t even sleep through the night lately—“

“And whose fault would that be, Virgil?” Roman snapped back, cutting off the man in question before he could even finish his sentence.

“I—”

“I’m not the one making him feel so worried all the time. Maybe if you calmed down, Sir, it would be easier for Thomas to sleep and to film my ideas. Maybe it would be better for Thomas’s career if you didn’t always bring him to a new All Time Low every time he gets busy,” Roman raved. Virgil went silent and averted his gaze to the floor as if it was too painful to look up.

“Enough,” Logan demanded, standing up and approaching the others. As he broke the silence, it seemed to snap Virgil out of his thoughts.

“You know I have, Roman. I don’t have to take this right now,” the anxious side muttered, much softer and sadder than the anger he had originally intended. As he finished his statement, he looked up at Roman — only Roman, no one else — for a split second, revealing deep pain in his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, were those tears or were the three others mistaken? They didn’t have long to confirm, since Virgil sunk out with another word. Roman’s face flashed with regret and desperation for a moment before he replaced that expression with false confidence.

“I just think that Thomas’s audience would really enjoy a video a day for the 12 days of Christmas. It would make their Christmases truly magical,” Roman insisted, much less angrily, with a fanciful wave of his hand.

“Yes, if Thomas were to successfully publish 12 high quality videos in the next two weeks, it would likely be a positive experience for the viewers,” Logan conceded, to which Roman smiled and Patton grew nervous. “However, Thomas would not be able to produce videos of the necessary caliber in such short notice and especially not in such poor mental health. Your plan would result in Thomas having a mental health crisis and uploading videos that would probably be subpar to say the least, assuming he would be able to upload all 12 at all,” he elaborated.

“... But isn’t it still possible?” Roman persisted, a little shaken and nervous.

“Possible, yes. Probable, no. It is a risk that is not worth taking because the likelihood of success is minimal,” Logan insisted.

“I’m sorry, Ro, it’s just kinda not a good time for such an ambitious project,” Patton agreed apologetically.

“Yeah… it never is,” Roman grumbled in a deflated voice, sinking out.

“Goodnight, Roman—” Patton called out after him, a little too late and with no reply. His smile faded and his shoulders fell.

“You know you don’t have to pretend to be happier around us, right, Patton? We’ve discussed this matter before,” Logan remarked, scanning the other Side with his eyes.

“I…” Patton sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to make anyone feel worse, ya know?” he responded with a sad smirk that quickly dissolved into tears.

“Patton—”

“I just wish I could help them better. I’m s-supposed to be able to, right?” Patton lamented, wiping his eyes with the palms of his hands even though more tears were still flowing and his cheeks were wet once more.

“Patton, you are doing your best. Everyone knows it and everyone appreciates it, even if we may not be very vocal about it sometimes. You matter and you are essential to the group. Sometimes, you can’t fix everything...” He hesitated as Patton’s lip quivered. “But, that is perfectly normal. Roman cannot fix every issue by creative means. Virgil cannot protect Thomas from everything. I cannot… solve every issue from my perspective alone. We need your input,” he reassured.

“Do you really mean all that, Lo…?” Patton asked with a look in his eyes that conveyed such vulnerability and excitement that Logan couldn’t help but find himself a little endeared. Just a little.

“Yes, of course, I do,” he confirmed, straightening his necktie.

Patton squealed softly and smiled as wide as he could. “That means so much to me! You’re the best, Logan. You always seem to fix everything. It’s so… cool!” He took a step closer in excitement.

“I am simply doing what I can to help, as always. Now, it would probably be best for both of us to get some rest. It has been a long day and getting enough sleep will help everyone feel better,” he recommended.

“Oh…” Patton murmured, seemingly disappointed.

“Is there an issue with that?” Logan inquired, frowning slightly in confusion.

“Um… not really. I kind of just wanted to ask you something first,” he mumbled, finding it difficult to meet the other’s eyes out of shyness.

“Ah. What is it?” Logan prompted.

“Well… could I, uh… would it be okay if I hugged you?” Patton asked nervously.

“I… I’m afraid I don’t understand. You’ve hugged me before with little to no warning. Why ask now?”

“I ask now because you never really seemed comfortable with it in the past. Too much… emotion for you, I guess. I-I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, of course! I only want to hug you if you would enjoy it too — or at least, not mind it. I was just wondering if you would be comfortable with a hug right now,” Patton explained, almost frantic out of awkwardness.

“If that was all, of course, Patton,” Logan agreed. Immediately, the other Side practically leapt next to him and buried his face into his chest while wrapping his arms around Logan’s waist. After a moment’s hesitation, Logan reciprocated this… display of affection and attempted to hold him in a comforting manner, since Patton had been so upset that night.

“I think this is the best hug you’ve ever given me, Logan,” the moral side remarked, though his words were a little muffled into Logan’s shirt. “You make my life so much better. I don’t know what I — or any of the others would do without you,” he admitted.

“I… appreciate that, Patton. It is nice to know that I’m appreciated in my efforts,” Logan murmured steadily, though he felt a little something was off in himself. Just a little, of course.

“Appreciated? Logan, we love you so much! I always talk to the others about how much I enjoy being around you and how helpful you are to everyone and how much you mean to me — er, to all of us, really,” Patton rambled, passionate with admiration.

“I…” Logan was at a loss for words… that boded poorly, not to mention that the “little something” he felt around his heart was turning into a much larger, much more concerning something.

“Right, sorry, I’ve probably been hugging you for way too long now. We should sleep for now, like you said, getting enough sleep is important so that we can be at our best to help Thomas!” Patton said, letting go of Logan, who may have missed that feeling just a moment later… he wasn’t sure.

“Y-Yes, that would probably be the best course of action for now. Goodnight, Patton,” Logan said, having to put in an abnormal amount of effort into keeping his voice steady.

“Goodnight, Lo,” Patton replied with a cheery smile. As the other began to sink out, he added, “and, uh… thank you.” His smile had grown a bit smaller, yet it was more tender somehow, softer.

“You’re welcome. I’ll always do my best to help when I’m able to.”

“I know.” And Patton’s smile widened again, which somehow seemed to affect Logan’s current odd feelings further.

The latter man sunk out and, once he was in his room, brought his fingertips to his mouth in contemplation and grabbed his notebook with his other hand. This situation was a new occurrence and it was fairly concerning. He would have to keep track of it and all its details in the most beneficial way he knew how. Opening the notebook, he began writing notes.

A Self-Study on Abnormal Reactions Influenced by Patton:

[gofancyninjaworld]

2020 in One-Punch Man. Part 1: Manga

How shall I describe this succinctly?

It's like ONE and Murata looked around them, saw a raging pandemic, massive disruption to all walks of life, uncertainty of when, if, or how it might affect them, took a massive drag of their cigarettes and said: “Fuck being conservative.  Let's go wild. Fuck making our current arc a webcomic retread with fancier fights.  Let's introduce more lore, let's have more characters interact in ways one would never have imagined, let's have characters do things that hadn't previously been thought of and make this really exciting.“

If you were holding onto the webcomic as your guide to what next, 2020 was not a good year for you. 

723 pages in 24 updates (including revisions) changed the status quo ante in deliciously unanticipated ways!

Where we left off in 2019, we were following the webcomic pretty faithfully, with most manga-original elements being removed at a fast clip.  Phoenixman was dead, the mercenaries had died a brutal death, the ninjas had been resurrected but had run off buck naked, Orochi was dead, G5 was very much destroyed, Drive Knight had appeared but had obligingly limped off, taking Nyan with him.  The S-Class heroes were in trouble with the cadre exactly as expected and Saitama had met up with Flashy Flash.  Tatsumaki had finally found Psykos. Yup, no real changes here.

2020, HAHA! 

Awaken!

Throwing manga-specific elements away? As if!   They took the great opportunity that preparing chapters for publication to critically review and revise the story so as to first, make it move at a faster pace and second, to be enriched.   It’s meant that chapters for volume 22, 23, and 24 (to come) have been redrawn to accommodate the changes and we got the benefit of many of them between April and August of this year.

We started with Phoenixman’s fight with Child Emperor.  It started innocuously enough with Phoenixman resurrecting, but then we got a much more interesting chunk of knowledge -- the existence of a metaphysical world modelled on one’s on psyche where the assault on Child Emperor’s sense of self took a much more existential nature. 

From a purely physical battle (and some nifty cool info about the Subterraneans) to an otherworldy battle happening in parallel with the physical battle:

It ended up a very interesting examination of Child Emperor’s character and his relationships with other heroes, as well as telling us something else freaky about Saitama’s ability to be anywhere he damn well wants to be.

Ah, and Phoenixman lives. Albeit as a little chick (for now).  He’ll probably be back, but not just yet.

The mercenaries were next.  They didn’t die.  Not because Amai Mask had a change of heart, but because Iaian listened to the niggling feeling in the pit of his stomach and turned his team mates around to intervene just in time. 

As you’d expect, trying to guide the mercenaries back to the safety of the surface has been an incredibly challenging ordeal for the disciples. It’s revealed much more about the way the disciples trust each other and lean on one another, and yet, when there was no option to do so, Iaian stepped up wonderfully to fight to save the mercenaries.

We’ve also learned something interesting about why mercenaries exist at all in a world supposedly at peace.  I look forward to seeing where this plot might go next.

Elsewhere,  we got to learn a little less about Puri Puri’s dancing and swimming lessons, but we got some really awesome nods to the mythical in Bakuma (the baku is a long-nosed creature formed out of all the bits left over after creation that eats dreams) and Electric Catfish Man’s sudden sense of doom is both reference to the way catfish are supposed to detect earthquakes and just damn cool. 

A monsterised exploitative business man taking the form of a demonic dream-eating monster that consumes weaker monsters so as to exploit their abilities is so appropriate on many levels (and unreasonably hot!).

Yes, Waganma does make it to the surface, along with Saitama and Child Emperor.  Saitama gets chased away by a Sekingar outraged that there’s a clueless hero just wandering aimlessly around.  Child Emperor goes back underground and I loved to death Waganma being pierced with remorse as he realises that the hero is going to go risk his life anyway.   He’s spoiled, but his keeping quiet came from a place of being a scared human being desperate to be saved  (a surprising number of fans did not like that -- they preferred to think of him as a psychopathic monster incapable of remorse).

Orochi still has a date with a gloved fist, but he’s getting to live a little longer than he did before.

Overall the story is tighter and there’s a lot more interest as well as future plot hooks than there were.  I’m interested in seeing how it gets tied up in the next volume sometime in 2021.

Reddit did not take it well.  Summary of discourse:

sorry not sorry, I lost patience around the 500th whiny post

Advance!

What about the new chapters we got?  Also here, ho ho ho, that status quo has gotten a good kicking!

Orochi came back.  Not the most surprising surprise in the world, given how carelessly Saitama punched him. Also not surprising that he came back stronger; Phoenixman had wonderfully demonstrated that monsters can bounce back from near-death situations much stronger.  But his form... such a disgusting, slimy, ever-shifting mass of tentacles and dragons, consuming all in its way led to the third craziest development: his fusion with Psykos to launch a new monster.

I’ll spare you the disgusting intermediate stages but the end result has been the birth of Psykos-Orochi and with that, what had been a total sweep for Tatsumaki turned into a much more dangerous enterprise where every mistake of hers got punished brutally.

Why is that only number three?  Because Tatsumaki raised up the entire base to try to encompass the whole monster (and it turns out that she was thinking far too small -- the monster had actually eaten large sections of City Z) and Psykos-Orochi uses the space to launch a beam so powerful that it literally cuts off part of the Earth itself.  It was a real I see it, but I don’t believe it moment.

if you didn’t spend a few seconds just staring in disbelief, you’re not paying attention. OMG.  Boy is the Earth in trouble.

Why is that only the second craziest thing?  Because of why this fusion monster was able to do as it did. ‘God’ doesn’t just go round looking like a semi-tangible being giving random homeless men magic powers.  Yup, the Earth really in in trouble if some supernatural being is smushing monsters together to make a stronger one and then granting it extra powers.   Just like that, the struggle has turned cosmic.

Tatsumaki trying to figure out how to fight back and save City Z from being swept away by a tsunami, save the heroes, and save the planet from further damage by the beams all at the same time was one of the most spectacular fights to date. 

As I said earlier, this monster has presented Tatsumaki with a real fight where the slightest mistake on her part leads to severe punishment.  She wound up in trouble when she underestimated how extensive the monster actually was and let up on twisting it too early, only to have it come right back and skewer her hands. 

Thankfully, Genos came in and saved her from that pinch, then held the monster at bay long enough for Tatsumaki to finish saving the strike team so she could give the monster her undivided attention.

Which is a very tame way of saying that that was an incredible development in capability.   That some of the fandom had trouble accepting (they suck). Watching their protests has been an exercise in special pleading.  They have no trouble understanding how Murata uses scale...until it came to accepting the size of the explosion resulting from Genos smacking away Psyko-Orochi’s execution beam then it had to be a fisheye lens (visibly incorrect, but who’s talking facts here?).   Have had no trouble understanding how Murata portrays escalation... until it came to accepting that Genos is strong then no, somehow the monster had to be weaker.   Have had no trouble with the freeze frame language that Murata uses to portray things happening at great speed... until it came to accepting that Genos could move really, really fast.   For some people, the new is only welcome when it confirms and validates preconceptions.  Anyway, that’s my rant done!

the most unlikely of partnerships and they’re still going despite having taken a hell of a battering since this scene

Guess who’s back?

We’ve also been seeing more heroes come back to the fray.  The emergence of the Tower of Doom acted as a clarion call to every hero around and able to move.  Metal Bat sneaked out of hospital to come running back.  Tank Top Master hitched a ride with Mumen Rider to go to City Z.  He intended to stick around and save people, but seeing how much wider scale the fight was,  he literally threw himself into battle. 

Drive Knight decided he literally had to have a piece of the action,  took up a ton of power from the nearest substation and came flying in to intercept a desperately escaping Psyko-Jet... ah, I didn’t say?  Yes, the monster turned into a machine to run away once hard-pressed.

And we finally got to see what Blast actually looks like, courtesy of a flashback of Amai Mask’s.   He definitely looks the part of a caped superhero and it’s little wonder he’s stuck in the imaginations of so many.   But now I’m even more interested in seeing what his deal is and what is he’s like now

The one thing we know for sure will be happening is that Garou will not be denied his destiny.   He’s coming.  But what else is happening?  Ah, that’s all in the air.

Bring on 2021!

[miyaniacs]

Hello stumbled upon u hehe. A small imagine with 25. Let's go to the gym with iwa-chan ((prom setting??? Or graduating hnnnng totally up to you whatever you want hehe)) you can add anyone you likeeeee Ohhh also the genre I'd like to see would be fluff???? Or just that "comforting atmosphere" idk what im talking about :((

Hey honey!!

Don’t worry, I know what you’re talking about! ( at least I hope so haha ) ✨❤️

And thank you 😂 I hoped to get this number with Iwa since I thought about him while writing it down haha

Sorry this got longer that I originally intend to 😅 I hope it’s enough fluff

Warnings: slight mentions of bullying and fem reader ( I’m sorry it kinda matches more for the idea I got )

!!! Requests are open !!! ✨🌹

25. Let’s go to the gym feat. Iwaizumi

6pm.

You stand infront of your mirrow, a towel wrapped around your body, water dripping off your hair to the ground.

You sigh. Today’s the day. Prom. The day ever girl in your year talked about the last few weeks. “Omg y/n with whom do you go? - i think I’ll ask Oikawa ... but I heard that Tiffany from 3.2 already asked him and he said no... omg y/n. What if he says now when I ask him??” Your best friend was practically asking you the same stuff all day long. Until she finally asked Oikawa and guess what- he accepted. Why shouldn’t he. She was the most popular girl in your year. The most popular with the teachers as well the boys.

You’re happy that she’s going to prom with him! You truly are. She had a crush on him for the longest time. But her going to prom with him got you in the situation you’re in right now. Since neither you or Oikawas best friend Iwaizumi got a date for the prom- Those two idiots practically forced you to go together.

What no one. Not even your best friend knew is the fact that you had a crush on Iwaizumi. Actually since the day you saw him waking into the same gym your in and smiling at you.

6:10pm.

You started to apply your hair products, making your hair smell like tropical smoothie. Taking our your favorite lotion you run your hands around your body, feeling your muscles while putting on the lotion.

Your muscles. It’s not that you look like a bodybuilder. You just like working out and being healthy. But guess what. Boys are being dicks when they realize that a girl is stronger than they are. So they started to make fun of you.

7.pm.

You had one hour left. Going into your room you put on some make up, your earrings, your grandmas necklace which she gave you on your last birthday and put some golden hair clips in your hair to help it frame your face perfectly. Walking to your closet you took out your black silky dress and put it on.

7:45 pm.

You looked at yourself in the mirrow. Your hair shines, you nailed those winged eyeliner, your red lipstick is popping, helping you look a bit arrogant yet sexy. The black dress is low cut, showing parts of your cleavage, and had a slit on the right side going up to the middle of your thigh. Your heels click on the floor as you walk to your desk putting the lipstick in your clutch.

8. pm.

The bell rings. “Y/N there’s a certain Iwaizumi on the door.” Your mum calls out. Taking a deep breath you walk downstairs. At the end of the stairs you gaze up into Iwaizumis eyes. You could swear that they widened a bit the moment he looked at you, but that’s probably just your imagination. “Uhm.. hey” you shyly smile at him. “Hey”,he says while scratching his head,”uhm should we go?” He smiles and takes a step back to make room for you to walk outside. You smile at your mum, who winks at you, and walk outside. Before the door closes she yells “ I doesn’t matter when you come back home as long as you come back - take care of her!!!” You meantally slap yourself across the face. “I’m sorry” you mumble.

8.30pm

“Omg Y/N you’re here !!” Your best friend screams as soon as she sees you. You and Iwaizumi walk over to her and Oikawa and the four of you walk into the hall. You can already here the music blasting and people talking but as soon as they see you guys they stop talking. The first thing they all say is something about your best friend and Oikawa. Then they looked at you and Iwaizumi, who was walking right beside you, and just starred.

9.pm

You and your best friend are walking to the bathrooms while talking. “I swear y/n. Whenever you’re not paying attention he’s looking at you. He’s checking you out!” - you rolled your eyes. “You’re mistaking Iwaizumi and me for Oikawa and yourself. You honey are practically drooling looking at him.” You laugh. “ am not” she laughs “ okay. Yes. I am. But he’s still checking you out” she smirks.

Meanwhile Oikawa, Iwaizumi and some other boys are talking.

“Yo Iwaizumi, what bet did you and Oikawa made?” One of them asks. “Non?” Oikawa looks confused. “Come one you’d think we believe you that you’re here with y/n when nothing’s in for you Iwaizumi?” He asked and laughs. “ I mean look at her. Is she even a girl? she’s got arms as I got legs. You’re not afraid she’d crash you?” He laughs again, the others joining in on the rant. Oikawa keeps quiet while glancing at Iwaizumi. ‘If you’re not saying anything I’ll do it’ he mothers at Iwaizumi. “Haha come on Iwa, she promised you to bend over?”

“What?! I -“ you and your best friend have arrived to the small group and clearly heard what they’re saying. But before you could finish your sentence Iwaizumi opened his mouth:” You know what she promised nothing at all. And if you idiots opened your eyes you can clearly see that she’s a girl. Just look at her body and her face she’s breathtaking. Even if her arms are the same sizes as your legs. This isn’t embarrassing for her - rather it’s embarrassing for you. you don’t got any muscles at all. So shut your mouth or else I’ll show you what muscles can do.” The others are left speechless while Oikawa just smirks. You just stand there the words ‘breathing’ repeating in your head. Iwaizumi grabbed your Hand and pulls you out of your thoughts. He storms off out of the hall and down the street. Your best friend keeps running after you until Oikawa holds her back “ Let them have some time alone” he smirks and winks at her.

“Iwaizumi- Where the hell are we going?!” You yell and he stops looking at you smirking. “Let’s go to the gym.”

10:30pm.

You’re currently standing infront of a large mirrow next to some dumbbells still in your back dress. Iwaizumi is next to you on a bench doing some triceps dips. Thank god no one is at the gym besides the two of you, so no one asked why you’re dressed like this.

“Did you mean what you said?” You whisper looking at him in the mirrow. He stoppes in the middle of his set, sits on the bench, and drops his head.

“Yes I do mean all of this. I really think that your beautiful and the fact that your working out makes you even more attractive in my eyes. I actually switched gyms to this one since I knew you come to this one. I always tried to get me self to talk to you but ... uhm you see” he starts scratching his head again “ I was too nervous”, He admits, “So I just put more effort into my workouts whenever you were here to show off” he chuckles.

After a few seconds of starring straight at the mirrow letting the words sink in, your eyes locked with his in the mirrow.

“I like you too.” You smile and he stands up and walkes behind you. He wraps his strong arms around you and rests his chin on your shoulder.

“ I also meant that I’d really want to beak the noses of those idiots” he laughs.

“I bet you want to. But keep letting your anger out in the gym or on Oikawa.” You Joked.

“Probably also on you?” He smirks.

You turn around and smack his head while the both of you laugh. Then he takes out his phone and puts on a slow song.

“ what are you doing?” You ask as he lays his hands on your hips.

“I think I still own you a dance - it’s our prom night after all.” He smirks. You laugh and put your hands around his neck and the two of you start dancing.

12.pm.

You and Iwaizumi walk down the streets to your hous. His left hand is holding your right hand, slightly stoking it with his fingers, while his right hand is holding your shoes.

He’s currently telling you some stupid story about what Oikawa did last week, laughing and having a good time. Suddenly he takes off his jacket and puts it over you, keeping his arm around your shoulders while smiling down at you with sparkling eyes.

“I think I need to thank your best friends name.” you laugh. “Actually no - I asked Oikawa to ask her and get her to ask you to come with me tonight” he nervously admittes.

“Omg Iwa that’s so cute haha” you laugh.

“I like that. “ he smiles.

“ what?” You ask

“ when you call me Iwa.” He smiles and stoppes walking. “Where here.”

You look up and see that your in front of your house.

“So... I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 3pm? For BCAA, gym and some protein shakes?” He smirks.

“You got the Salted Caramel Protein Powder?”

“Oh sure i do!” He doesn’t and you’ll bet he’ll be going in 5 different stores to find the right flavor.

“Then it’s a date.” You smirk.”Good night Iwa. And thank you for tonight.”

“Goodnight y/n” he smiled and you walk towards your house. After a few steps you turn around.

“Iwa wait!” You hurry towards him, pull him down on his shirt and kiss him. It was short and you immediately walk back to the door leaving him standing there with a big ass grin and blush in his face. On his way home he’s practically jumping up and down because he’s so happy

1:15.am.

You lay down in your bed touching your lips while looking at Iwaizumis jacket hanging over your chair. That night you fall asleep with a smile on your face and a promise to your best friend telling her everything with every detail what happens that night.

[kingreywrites]

What obstacles fate may bring

Fandom: Tangled

Words count: 3326

New Dream Appreciation Week Day Five: Proposal

Summary: "I can't believe it," Rapunzel groaned, taking his hand to press it against her face, probably to feel the coolness of his ring against her skin. "I can't believe- this must be a curse. We're cursed, Eugene, cursed to never have a normal engagement."

"We're not cursed," he chuckled, ignoring her glare. "The doctor said it might not be permanent."

Read on ao3

@our-newdream

Eugene knocked softly on the door of Rapunzel's bedroom, more to warn her that he was coming than anything else. Actually, it was their bedroom now, he remembered with a goofy smiled, that immediately abated at the sight he was met with. The bedroom was completely dark which, these last days, wasn't unusual - with her headaches, Rapunzel was uncomfortable if it was too brightly lit. Considering her previous relationship with the sun, it was quite ironic, but she was too miserable and she missed seeing the sky too much for Eugene to even joke about it. No, what was unusual today was the fact that Rapunzel was not only laying on her bed, but was actively trying to choke herself with a pillow while Pascal squeaked comfortingly next to her ear.

"You okay Sunshine?" Eugene asked softly, knowing that loud sounds could also hurt her.

She moaned something unintelligible under her pillow and he frowned, unsure if she was sad or actually hurting. He went to sit next to her quickly, his hand going to her shoulder.

"Does your head hurt?" He might have sounded a tiny bit more panicked than he originally wanted, but who could blame him? Some days ago, his fiancee had hurt her head so bad that she hadn't woken up for twenty-four horrible hours. Rapunzel must have heard the genuine worry in his voice because she moved the pillow down, just enough for her forlorn eyes to appear.

"It's not that," she finally mumbled, "my head doesn't hurt that much anymore."

Eugene smiled but kept in a corner of his head the fact that it still hurt, even if it was a little bit. He wasn't taking any risks with that - he'd have to ask the physician about it. Said physician might end up asking for a restraining order in return, since Eugene might have harassed him a little the last four days but, joke's on him, Eugene was also the guy that managed restraining orders - plus, it was about the Princess' health, so he was right to go overboard.

Rapunzel stayed silent but, even in the darkness, Eugene could still feel the sadness she exuded. He glanced at Pascal but the frog was apparently as lost as he was, so he'd have to wait for Rapunzel to actually say it.

Or he could ask. He wasn't a patient man when it came to the health of the love of his life.

"Rapunzel, what's wrong?"

She sighed, pressing harder against the pillow as she lowered her eyes. "I'm cursed."

"Cursed? Sunshine, we talked-"

"No, I know, it's not a real curse, it's just… It feels like a curse," she bit out. Blindly, her hand seeked his and he was happy to help her find it, until she yanked it in front of her face without a warning. His yelp didn't faze her at all; she was too busy staring at his engagement ring.

Ah. Eugene understood, suddenly, what was the problem.

To be precise, it all started two weeks ago, on Rapunzel's birthday. It had been one of the best day of Eugene's life because he had proposed to the love of his life, and she had said yes, and honestly his heart still hadn't recovered from the sheer emotion he had felt that day. They had spent… an interesting night, to say the least, and Eugene discovered next morning that waking up in the same bed as Rapunzel was one of the greatest gift in life.

So, all in all, it sounded perfect. And it was perfect, really - they went to announce it to her parents, who were ecstatic and, together, they agreed to wait a little before telling the whole kingdom about it. At first, it had been Rapunzel who asked, because she wanted Cassandra to hear it from her first, and, for them to be sure that it was the case, they had to wait until they received the dragon lady's answer. Eugene hadn't minded at all, really, he was even quite glad for the relative privacy - and he took the opportunity to write to his father, so he'd be the first to tell him too.

So, how did it all go wrong? Well, considering that the Coronans didn't know about the engagement, they had started getting down the decorations they had put up for Rapunzel's birthday. Feeling a little bad that it would be tidied up only for them to send everyone into a frenzy again with their engagement, Eugene and Rapunzel decided to help clean up the decorations. Between chatting with citizens and going where they were needed, they had gotten a little separated during the day, which wasn't that unusual.

What had been unusual were the screams.

Immediately alert, Eugene had run toward the noise, not letting himself panic even when cries about the Princess had reached his ears. He hadn't asked to be let through but had been anyway, and then, the only thing he had managed to see was Rapunzel's prone form, and the blood coming from her head. The rest was a blur, honestly - he remembered going to her, remembered whistling for Max, remembered giving orders to panicked citizens with a calm his heart certainly didn't feel, and remembered rushing toward the castle… But it was all disjointed and out of focus, his memories tainted by his terror. He remembered the next twenty-four hours, remembered how scared he had been, how tightly he had held her hand, how long he had trembled with nervousness and exhaustion.

Honestly, he didn't care about much else than her well-being after that. He knew that she didn't share his opinion on the matter, but he wouldn't budge on it - she was alright, and the rest could be fixed easily enough.

"I can't believe it," Rapunzel groaned, taking his hand to press it against her face, probably to feel the coolness of his ring against her skin. "I can't believe- this must be a curse. We're cursed, Eugene, cursed to never have a normal engagement."

"We're not cursed," he chuckled, ignoring her glare. "The doctor said it might not be permanent."

"Might," she grumbled, "I still can't believe it. I can't believe I forgot our engagement."

"You had a serious head injury that resulted in a case of retrograde amnesia that made you forget the last three weeks," Eugene recited dutifully, in the exact same tone as Rapunzel's physician. "It's not your fault," he added, "and I'm very happy that it was the worse thing that came out of this. You scared me, you know."

Maybe his voice was hoarser than he had intended - maybe he was more vulnerable than he wished to be, but it was true. He had been scared, terrified that this was the end of their journey together and for what? A little fall? Rapunzel couldn't have survived their crazy adventures for her to… to… die like this. He remembered how happy he had been when she finally woke up, confused and bleary-eyes but thankfully okay - and, at this moment, every carefully constructed rants about climbing building without protection dissolved on his tongue, not important anymore. Nothing was more important than her, and if the engagement had been one of the greatest day of his life, Rapunzel was his life, easy as that.

"It seemed so beautiful," Rapunzel whispered wistfully, still holding his hand absentely while his other one was busy making circles on her shoulder. "I've seen it drawn in my journal-"

"How did you-"

"-that my mom brought to me because I'm under strict orders to not get out of bed," she answered without missing a beat. "Past me wrote detailed annotations, and drew it from multiple angles, and I- I just-"

"Hey," Eugene whispered, stroking her face as he snuggled next to her. "If you want, we can take our rings off and redo the whole proposal all over again once you're on your feet. Sure, it won't be your birthday, but you know Coronans - they'll be happy to have a second lantern ceremony! The cupcake won't be a surprise anymore, but-"

"That's not the same though," Rapunzel mumbled, closing her eyes. She looked exhausted, and probably was since she was still recovering from her concussion. "If I could just remember it, then…"

"Rapunzel," he said tenderly, kissing her cheek quickly in the hope to cheer her up. "if you want, I can propose to you a million times in a million of different ways. What's the most important to me is that you're fine because that's the only thing needed for us to make new memories. I want to make new memories with you all my life," he insisted, pushing a strand of her hair from her face, meeting her shining eyes.

She exhaled shakily, both emotional and in pain. "You're right, I'm sorry..."

"I- no, Sunshine, you have every right to be upset," Eugene rectified softly, seeing that she was getting too tired for the conversation - but it was important she understood. "You lost an important memory, anyone would feel bad about it. I would whine myself into oblivion in your situation," he smiled, drawing a laugh from her, "and you'd be the one to tell me that my health was the most important thing."

Rapunzel hummed, closing her eyes again, for longer this time. She would probably fall back asleep soon - and, as much as she missed going outside, rest was an important part of her recovery.

"As long as we're both okay, we can fix this," was the last thing she mumbled, before she fell asleep. She barely felt Eugene kiss her forehead as he fixed her blanket, leaving her with Pascal as her devoted guard, while he went to harass the physician some more.

-----

"Rapunzel?" Eugene called, pushing open the door of their bedroom, who was back to being sunny and brightly lit - once the sun stopped giving her headaches, it seemed that Rapunzel decided the window needed to be wide open all the time. However, right now, it was closed, and Rapunzel wasn't here.

Sighing, he went to sit on the windowsill, knowing that she would come at some point - until he saw a little note taped to the pane. It was undoubtedly Rapunzel's writing, punctuated with little hearts and a doodle of them kissing. (Eugene never managed to get rid of the notes. He loved them too much, and he had boxes full of them because Rapunzel wrote hundred of them that she always always personalised. Yes, he also re-read the notes quite often, because he was a sap and he loved her.) He took the note down carefully and started to read it, a little worried about her whereabouts.

Eugene,

I have a surprise for you! Go see Max and he'll know where to take you!

Love,

Rapunzel.

Eugene frowned, immediately worried, because it might be sweet but Rapunzel was barely out of bedrest, a week and a half after her accident. If she was all alone, who knew what- oh, there was writing on the other side too.

PS,

I know you're probably worrying about me already, but I asked the physician and my parents about it and they said yes! I have Pascal and Fidella with me, plus you and Maximus coming, plus a lot of people knowing where to come find me if we're not back in two hours. Now go see Max! I love you!

Well, what could he answer to that? He shook his head, smiling, and put the note on his nightstand, before going to see Max immediately. He wanted to leave her alone as little as was possible, uncomfortably aware of what happened the last time he did, and, seeing that Max was ready and eager to leave, it was apparently a shared sentiment. Eugene tried hard not to stifle her too much, because he knew that wasn't what she needed, but sometimes he wanted to bundle her up in blankets to be sure that she would always be safe. He didn't know what he would do if she wasn't.

Max led him through the forest surrounding Corona, looking proud and sure of himself when Eugene wondered where exactly Rapunzel intended to meet him. Why would it need to be so far away from home? Though, now that he was paying attention, it felt like he recognized some of the landmarks - it has been a long time since he really strolled through the forest but that tree looked sort of familiar, didn't it?

Maximus neighed, startling Eugene as his friend took a sharp corner and suddenly, there Rapunzel was, sitting on a fallen over tree in front of a campfire. Eugene dismounted Max absentely, his breath caught in his throat as the flames illuminated Rapunzel's face wonderfully - it wasn't even that dark outside but she was still glowing, her brown hair taking a fiery orange aspect which made her green eyes pop even more than usual.

"I remember this place," he said, chest warm as she nodded a little too excitedly - he could see that she was trying hard to stay seated, despite the nervous energy coursing through her.

Of course he remembered. For anyone else, this place was nothing more than another uninteresting spot of the forest, but for them both, this was where they made a campfire the day they met. It was where Rapunzel trusted him with her biggest secret, and healed his hand; it was where he trusted her with his biggest secret, and told the story of Eugene Fitzherbert the orphan.

It was where they both discovered and accepted each other for who they were, no pretense needed. He could never forget it.

Eugene went to sit beside Rapunzel, like they did that first day. Maximus made himself scarce, probably meeting with Pascal and Fidella somewhere, but Eugene paid him no mind. He only had eyes for Rapunzel - for the obvious joy in her own, the blush on her cheeks, her wonderful smile, and everything that made her the love of his life.

"Hi," he breathed.

"Hi," she laughed, eyes shining. "Do you like it?"

Eugene had been too taken with her to notice the other decorations she had set up around the campfire. There were flowers all around them, and a basket full of what seemed to be delicious sweets.

"I love it," he answered, his eyes not leaving hers as he took her hands in his. "But, though I'm not complaining, I'm wondering why you decided to come here today."

"Remember the letters Cass sent?" Rapunzel asked, apparently out of the blue.

Eugene frowned, puzzled, but nodded because, seriously, how could he forget? They had to send Cassandra another letter informing her of what happened to Rapunzel - and that their engagement was put on the backburner until she was recovered enough and, hopefully, got her memories back. Rapunzel hadn't recovered her memories as of now. However, they had received a response from Cassandra some days later. Yes, they had received something because, for the first time since she left, Cassandra addressed a letter to Eugene specifically, instead of making snide remarks in the ones she regularly wrote to Rapunzel.

Of course, when Eugene opened it, it was to discover that there wasn't a message, really - she had only wrote "ahahaha" on the whole page, mocking him from across the country for yet another obstacle coming in between him and Rapunzel being engaged. Oh, Rapunzel's letter had been "very sweet" and "full of empathy", his fiancee's words not his, but Eugene didn't believe Cassandra was capable of those things. (He still kept the letter. Bitterly, but he kept it.)

"Well," Rapunzel said when he nodded, "I asked her for advice on something-"

"And she told you to break up with me."

"No! I mean, yes," Rapunzel laughed as Eugene gave her an 'I told you so' look, "she did say that but she also added good advice. She told me that I needed to be blunt, and fix what I wanted to fix instead of dwelling forever on it."

"Fix?" Eugene echoed, suddenly worried - what would Rapunzel need to fix between them? He didn't think he had done something particularly wrong lately, except maybe be a little of a mother-hen because of her injury, but he couldn't help it! He tried hard to let her breathe but he was scared and-

Before he could continue his train of thought, Rapunzel got up, making him follow her movement gently. He opened his mouth, ready to ask her for clarifications, but she didn't leave him the chance.

Rapunzel went down on one knee and all the air left Eugene's lungs, his heart beating louder in his chest.

"This is me, fixing what is bothering me," Rapunzel beamed, her eyes shining. "You were right, Eugene - what matters most to me is that we're able to make new memories together, for all our lives. But we lived through so many moments together, and I treasure every one of them, because I treasure my time with you more than anything else in the world."

"Sunshine," Eugene breathed, unable to voice exactly just how much he loved her. He didn't think words were enough to describe the warmth in his chest overwhelming his senses, making his eyes water from sheer emotion as Rapunzel kept talking.

"This place… This campfire, that was the first time you let me in. This was the moment I really met you, Eugene Fitzherbert, my new dream even if I didn't know it quite yet. You make my life better, and brighter, and I feel so lucky to have you at my side no matter what."

"I'm lucky too," he whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion, "the luckiest man on Earth."

Rapunzel grinned and, carefully, she took his ring off his finger. "I know you've already done this… and that taking the ring from you may seem counterintuitive, but-" She took a deep breath, still on her knee, now holding his ring between her fingers, her own ring shining thanks to the fire's glow. "- Eugene Fitzherbert, will you marry me?"

"Yes," he answered, too quickly perhaps as he lowered himself and put his arms under hers, lifting her up in a hug. "Of course it's yes," he laughed, and she laughed too - he could feel her smiling against his neck and he never wanted to let her go. "It's always yes."

She moved her head back a little, to be able to look into his eyes. They were both breathless and grinning, cheeks hurting and an never-ending fondness that they didn't bother containing. Their lips met, almost against their will, love pulling them together like gravity.

They breathed, and Rapunzel took the opportunity to slid Eugene's ring back on his finger - which meant he had to kiss her again, because she was his everything and she wanted him to be hers, for their whole lives.

"Let's hope," she murmured after some time, "that our curse is over."

"Not a curse."

"Uh-uh. But let's hope, anyway."

"No more moonstone related incidents," Eugene suggested.

"No more retrograde amnesia," Rapunzel added.

"Sounds good to me," Eugene grinned, before kissing her again - he was certainly lucky. Who had the chance to be engaged twice to the most perfect woman in the universe?

Only him.

(They went back home to announce the engagement a second time to Rapunzel's parents, who were, incredibly enough, as excited as the first time. Rapunzel had to send another letter to Cassandra, to Eugene's despair - she would never let him live it down.

Some days later, Rapunzel pounced on him, startling him awake at an unlawful hour. He didn't complain, though; not when he saw the absolute delight on her face as she announced excitedly that she finally remembered their first engagement. One more than necessary, sure, but when had they ever done something the usual way?

Plus, twice the engagement meant twice the celebration, and Eugene was happy to provide.)

[knifesxedge]

you really are about to unlock smth bc a) i have SO many thoughts on the sequel trilogy and b) im DESPERATE for a distraction so um. i think about the prequel trilogy and i really truly start to lose it. bc force awakens was SO GOOD. like remember the first time you watched it and you (me, but maybe you as well) were like? HOLY SHIT. it was obviously a new hope v2 but it was FRESH and NEW and there were cool characters that i CARED about. (1/3)

HELL YEAH let’s get into it ok ok ok OPINIONS INCOMING.

TOTALLY with u on this. like the prequels make me mad about the wasted potential but tbh the sequel trilogy is just like. draining emotionally because they LOOK so fucking good. the force awakens WAS so so good, like very very star wars even if it was following the plot beats of anh. and then it just. tanked itself holy shit. like at least the prequels look bad, sound bad, it’s like a comical level of tragic. the sequel trilogy feels like having chalk dust spread all over my skin and then being put in an echo chamber of nails on a chalkboard 😔 at this point even tfa comes with a TINY lil bit of like 😞 just because i know what comes after but YES tfa is one of those star wars movies that just FEELS so fucking star wars it makes me unhinged. “THATS ONE HELL OF A PILOT” YEAH BITCH!!! IT IS!!!!! GAY PEOPLE!!!

the last jedi. a mess. i like certain rian johnson films but he should not be allowed to be anywhere near Star Wars. my main problem? (beyond the racism and romanticizing stalking and emotional and physical abuse?) it doesn’t FEEL like star wars. like. ok even in the darkest moments in mainstream star wars films they are SUPPOSED to feel hopeful. tlj feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion it’s just like shitty thing after shitty thing after shitty thing happening to the main cast. i think the casino planet’s design was a little lazy and WAY too underlit and rose’s character was pointless in the way she was shown in the movie. exhausting. the jokes were all on the wrong edge of disrespectful to the characters and the original star wars like luke tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder? appalling. not funny just there for shock value. everyone is out of character. everyone is stressed and miserable all the time. aside from things i didn’t really want to see but wouldn’t have argued with in a better movie (ie luke dying) it really was just a racist misogynistic mess. oh yeah did i mention how they did rey’s character dirty because she went from being a scrappy desert mechanic who’s a little dorky and just trying to find a family and a place in the galaxy to Bland White Girl Servicing a Man’s Character. that pales in comparison to how finn poe and rose’s characters were treated but HOLY shit. i walked out of the theater crying. tfa raised my expectations only to have tlj smash them down to the floor it was. hhhhh ok ok ok im trying to think if i liked anything from the movie. um. you were right it looked good! sound and score were great as usual. i did think poe’s conversation with hux at the beginning was funny. i really liked when leia used the force to come back to the ship (ik that was a controversial scene for some people but i did really like that scene. she deserves it). laura dern is cool i hated her character but in theory laura dern being leia’s lesbian boarding school friend is neat. but yeah im sorry i really REALLY didn’t like that movie we only saw it in theaters once it was so bad. :( i do agree with u abt the force mysticism being cool tho!

rise of skywalker. now maybe it’s because the bar was on the floor after tlj. but i actually liked it quite a bit. still kind of a mess. jj trying to retcon all of the stuff from the last movie because for some reason he wasn’t just allowed to do the whole trilogy. the pacing being a nightmare for the first half. the atrocious abuser-validating kiss at the end. but im gonna be real after having to sit through tlj i was happy enough just to see the main trio back together and finn and poe being treated with more respect to care much about that stuff. disney queerbaits me once again but that’s on me for clowning. i really genuinely liked the scene where rey passes the lightsaber to kylo i thought that was cool but it was overshadowed by the knowledge that the Kiss 🤮 was coming so i didn’t get to enjoy it like i wanted. ALSO hayden christiansen and all the other actors doing the voices in the scene where rey is fighting the emperor (who im pretty sure was only in there because RIAN put the trilogy’s intended big bad into a sparkly gold bathrobe and killed him off in the second movie but im not complaining about seeing ian mcdiarmid) were apparently on set in costume and force ghosts were supposed to protect her in like a big circle and what im saying is i feel robbed and cheated and feral

the only movie of the three i REALLY liked was tfa. now we’re back to How Would I Fix It. step one fire rian johnson. step two put JJ on the whole trilogy and HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE for having a plot planned out, or else get a different director TO DO ALL THREE MOVIES. none of this middle of the road “trying to appease both sides of the fandom” bullshit. kylo dies at the end and they DO NOT kiss and that is all the redemption he gets. if disney is claiming gay rep then they SHOW us ACTUAL gay representation. poe and finn kiss on screen and we don’t get a two second blurry background kiss between random characters. completely toss out whatever the fuck that plot was supposed to be in tlj and separate ros into two movies so JJ could actually DO the entire plot he had planned (instead of disney execs chopping down what was p much a four hour movie into two hours twenty two minutes which was SHORTER than the two hour forty minute cut jj reluctantly okayed but i DIGRESS).

god. what the fuck. anyways sorry for completely going off the rails but ty for sharing ur sequel trilogy opinions and ty for letting me rant sorry this got so long but ily!!! ❣️💕💝