#sure there was a good amount of non plot stuff to get to know the characters but like

[wu-wakfu-undertale]

Re-watching wakfu for the first time in years and s1 Yugo was so silly???

dude discovered he could make portals at will and his first thought after actually acknowledging it is "i can do so many cool pranks with this"

[beybaldes]

no thing defines a man like love that makes him soft

Roy Kent × Fem!Reader

word count: 9.8k

summary: jamie tartt once told you Roy needed someone to show him it was okay to be soft; Roy has found that person in you

content warning: spoilers for the plot of 'the couple next door' by Shari Lapena, tooth rotting fluff with the whole Kent bloodline and the Richmond boys, neither reader nor Roy has parents because I said so, allusions to smut but basically non written.

masterlist

a/n: this is technically a part 2 to my fic ‘it was simple, it was sweetness, it was good to know’ but can 100% be read as a standalone fic!! Thank you for all the love on the first part I acc can’t believe the amount of love and support it received 🥲🥲

"Hey, hot stuff." Your hands came to rest against Roy's shoulders, squeezing, then moving slowly across his collar bones and down his chest, coming to rest connected just above his heart. A featherlight kiss was pressed to the shell of his ear, and then another behind his ear, followed by a trail of quick kisses down his neck until your face was buried in the crook of it. "How's your book?"

"Fucking great." Roy answered back, voice low and mellow, maintaining the peaceful atmosphere in your living room.

Ever since you'd moved in together a year and a half ago, your entire house had become a sanctuary for the two of you. Roy's new position as manager made it so that even though you worked together, you saw much less of each other during the workday - mainly because it wasn't at his leisure to go in and out of your office all day any more. Even if you did spend every minute of every day around each other, you knew you could never get sick of Roy; you'd become quite the experts at communicating how you were feeling and what you were thinking, especially since every time he tried to keep you out, you would figure it out anyway.

"I mean, I've had my theories throughout about who did it, but I'd never have guessed this." Roy missed your touch as soon as you let go of him, reaching out so that he could hold your hand in his tightly while you walked around the couch to take a seat by his side. "I thought surely, what, with the husband having the affair he did it - and I was half right, the husband staged the kidnapping."

"I knew something was up with him!" You gasped, wrapping your arms around Roy's waist as you curled into his side, the hand that had just been holding yours pulling his blanket to cover your lap then moving to rest across your shoulders. "How was the husband involved? He didn't hurt the baby did he?" He used the palm of his hand to press your head against his chest, tucking your hair back behind your ear and then moving his hand to rest against your bicep, scratching his fingers gently into the exposed flesh there. "Oh my god, he didn't, like, get rid of it so he could be with the neighbour did he?"

"Slow down, slow down," Roy shushed, folding the corner of the page he was on, something so close to the end of the book you could count the pages if you tried. He pressed a chaste, warm kiss to the crown of your head, placing the book down beside him on the couch. "Let me explain, Angel." Roy's other hand, now free from holding the book, cradled your chin gently, tilting your head up so he could press a tender kiss to your lips. "So Anne's dad-"

Another gasp slipped past your lips. More then anything, you wanted to let Roy explain the plot of what he'd been reading, but his nightly updates had kept you on the edge of your seat. Despite not having read a single page, apart from the 2 chapters you read aloud to Roy earlier in the week when he was feeling a little under the weather, you were completely and utterly enthralled; desperate to know how it ended. Besides, this daily discussion was the highlight of your days. No matter how good or bad your day had been, if you'd gone out of your way to ignore each other or talked nonstop: Roy still talked and you still listened. "What did Anne's dad have to do with it?"

"You'll see." He chastised, pressing a kiss to the tip-of your nose before continuing with his explanation. "Marco assists in kidnapping the baby, why? Because his business is going out of money and he plans on faking a ransom note for asking for the exact amount of money he needs to pay up to save his business." Roy slid his hand under the blanket, pulling your legs up and into his lap as you brought your head up from against his chest. Threading your fingers through his hair, you looked at him confused. "Anne's parents are rich, remember? But they won't give him the money so he stages this kidnapping to force them to pay the ransom."

"No." You gasped, you hand clapping against your mouth. "Why wouldn't they give their son in law the money? They do know it directly affects their daughter and grand-daughter, right?"

"They won't give him the money because they don't like him, so get this, the guy who convinced Marco to stage the kidnapping was hired by Anne's dad." Roy laughed at the gasp you let out, you completely enthralled with the story and him completely enthralled with you. He always was. "Anne's dad staged the whole thing because he wanted Anne and Marco to split up. And just when you think everything's okay because they got the baby back; Anne murders the neighbour because she had been having an affair - with Anne’s dad.”

You were practically jumping in your seat.

Sometimes you wish you had the same amount of patience as Roy so you could actually sit down and read with him. Most of the time, however, you were more then happy to listen to him passionately talk you through what he was reading, were happy to watch that wonderful smile you loved so much curl onto his lips.

"But!"

"But-" you repeated after Roy, pressing a kiss to his cheek, urging him to hurry up with his ending; you were waiting to hear it.

"But, Anne doesn't remember killing the neighbour, so there is this whole unreliable light cast on the whole story; it might not have even happened!" Roy expected to find you staring at him in shock, some commentary on what you think happened on the tip of your tongue, but it never came.

Instead, he found you staring at him with complete adoration, like you'd watched him mould the galaxies in his hands, hang the stars in the sky and spin the world on his fingernails. To you, he did, he really did. You leant forward a little, using the hand that you'd tangled in Roy's hair to pull him closer to you so that you could press your lips to his. The kiss was soft and tender, something that Roy, ever intense, had really come to enjoy through out your relationship; you brought out this entirely different side to him that he wasn't even sure existed until he met you.

"I love you." You murmured against his lips, going in for another quick peck before you pulled away, gracing him with the sight of a smile. "I love how passionate you get when talking about the stuff you love, and that smile - ugh that smile, Roy - you're killing me here."

Roy was certain he was doing the right thing. So certain, in fact, that he'd bought the ring the day you got together: Phoebe's accusation in your living room that you were getting married telling him everything he needed to know. The life Roy had dreamed of was right before him, all he had to do now was take it. "Marry me."

"What?" The hand that had began to caress his cheek as you kissed and the hand in his hair stilled; your entire body stilled in fact, and as quickly as he'd become confident enough to ask the question, he'd become nervous again.

"Fuck, what I meant was; will you marry me?" Roy shuffled underneath you, pulling out a ring box from somewhere behind him, though you weren't sure where considering you knew his pyjama bottoms didn't have pockets. "I'm not the kind of guy for a big speech thing, but I wish I was because you fucking deserve that kind of thing. You deserve a lot more then I can ever give you, actually, and yet you still love me day in and day fucking out. I'll admit, sometimes I don't get why you do."

"Roy..." You whimpered, tears brimming in your eyes as you moved both of your hands to cradle his face.

"But you do. And I'd truly, really, be the luckiest man in the world, if you would marry grumpy, old me." Tears had formed in Roy's own eyes, the pair of you totally overwhelmed by the intimate and tender moment. You'd never been more in love with Roy then right now. "Please fucking say yes, I'm an absolute mess without you"

"Yes, please." You whispered, hands still cradling Roy's face even though your eyes remained on the ring in front of you. It was as if he'd peeked inside your brain and made the perfect ring; it was simple yet elegant and entirely you, it was really perfect. This time, you answered louder. "Please, yes."

You pulled Roy's face to you, pressing a firm and hot kiss to his lips. You let your hands leave his face, sliding up and over his cheekbones until you reached his hair, twisting your fingers into it and pulling him even tighter against you, deepening the kiss as you did. "A million times yes, Roy, yes, yes, yes." Tears had begun to freely flow down your cheeks, though there was not an ounce of sadness to them. You were insurmountably happy - over the fucking moon. "I'd say yes in every fucking language in the world if I could. I love you Roy." You bit your lip back between your teeth, trying to contain your smile since your cheeks burned. "Mrs Kent." A giggle slipped past your lips. "That's me."

"Fuck yeah, that's you." Roy growled, pulling you into him and pressing a kiss to your lips. His grip in your hair allowed him to tilt your head back slightly, giving him the perfect angle to push his tongue past your lips with a tug of his hand on your hair. If he had already put the ring on your finger, he'd have picked you up and taken you to bed then and there with the moan you let out. "Now, Mrs Kent, you going to let me put this ring on your fucking finger or what?"

~*~

You were thankful Roy had proposed on a Friday night; not only because that meant you didn't have to worry about how late he kept you up or how quickly you needed to regain the ability to walk straight, but because it gave you the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday to figure out how to tell your friends. Phoebe and Molly were coming over for dinner later that night, but you had a slight feeling you weren't actually going to have to say anything to them - you had no doubt Roy had consulted Molly over it, and Phoebe, well, you just knew she'd pick up on it the second she saw you.

"C'mere." Roy groaned beside you, not giving you the chance to move yourself before he was wrapping one arm around your waist and the other under your thigh. He slid you across the bed with ease, years of training still paying off despite the fact he hadn't played on a pitch in nearly 4 years now. Placing the leg he'd grabbed over his own leg, he pulled you flush against him, chest pressed to chest. "Good morning, Angel, sleep good?"

Roy's voice had a deeper edge then usual to it in the morning. "Always do when I'm with you, Handsome." You purred, gently scratching your fingers against his chest. "Although I've got this awful kink in my neck, must’ve slept funny."

"I can think of a few other kinks you've got." Roy murmured against your shoulder, pressing open mouthed kissed along it and up your neck. When he nipped at the sensitive skin just under your ear, you pushed yourself away from him, not out of want, but out of necessity.

"We've got guests in a few hours, remember?"

"I can do a lot in an hour alone." Given how late the two of you had been up doing things, you'd slept in till lunch, but that didn't make the sound of sleepy and slow morning sex with Roy any less appealing. God, the thought of it alone had you wanting to cancel everything ever and stay here forever.

"Hmm, that you can do." Pulling his head out of the crook of your neck, you pressed a kiss to his lips, tangling your hands into Roy's hair and trying impossibly hard to get even closer to him. "Show me what you got, coach."

A growl rolled out of Roy's throat and he was quick to get started on his own assault of your lips, fully using the position he'd pulled you into to his advantage.

~*~

After everything the two of you spent your early afternoon doing, you only had 2 hours to make sure everything was ready for when Molly and Phoebe showed up, and since your cooking skills ended at turkey dinosaurs and pizza, you left most of the work down to Roy. He let you help prepare ingredients, standing behind you with an arm wrapped around your waist and a hand guiding your hand to cut things a specific way. But when the time came to actually cook the meal, he guided you out of the kitchen, encouraging you to go and get ready with a soft kiss; one to your cheek and another to your temple.

When you'd showered and gotten ready, you made it your turn to kick Roy out of the kitchen, promising not to touch anything unless he asked you to. You made sure to set the table all nice and proper for Phoebe and Molly's arrival, still slightly starstruck by the actual use of the dining table and not just eating dinner on your couch like you'd become so accustomed to before you and Roy moved in together. Sometimes though, especially when Phoebe stayed over, you'd all eat dinner together on the sofa, spy kids playing in the background, for old times sake. And before you knew it, you'd heard the knock at the door.

Swinging the door open, you knelt down immediately, sweeping Phoebe into your arms and hugging her tightly. With her head tucked in between your shoulder and neck, you stuck out your left hand at Molly, wriggling your ring finger enthusiastically. Phoebe squealed your name, wrapping her little arms tightly around your neck; even though you'd seen her two days ago when you picked her up from school, she still missed you as much as if she hadn't seen you for a million years.

As you went to stand back up, phoebe kept her grip on your neck, a silent plea for you to pick her up. Even at 9 years old, she still loved being paraded around in your arms, taking full advantage of your love for her and her love of being close to you. You pulled Molly into the house by the hand, kicking the door shut with your foot and leading them to the kitchen, where Roy was finishing up dinner.

"Hi, Uncle Roy!" Phoebe opted to stay in your arms instead of wiggling out of them to give Roy a 'hello' hug, knowing he was busy cooking and shouldn't be interrupted.

"Hey Phoebe, dinner will be ready in 2 minutes, okay? Why don't you go and grab your phoebe mug from your room before we all sit down?" When you and Roy moved in together, it was a unanimous decision that Phoebe needed her own room in your house; and when you were moving her things from Roy and your separate houses into your new house you got her a 'phoebe mug' as a housewarming gift. It was a bright pink ceramic mug, her name written once by you on the front and once by Roy on the back - it was the only thing she would drink out of when she was at your house.

The second phoebe had slipped out of the room, you turned to Molly with a squeal, the two of you grabbing tightly onto each other and jumping around the kitchen. Roy watched fondly as the two of you gushed over the ring Molly had already seen a thousand times. She took your hand in hers, running her finger over the ring with a featherlight touch, tears filling her waterline. Molly grabbed your hand and pulled it over her shoulder, hugging you again, though this time more tenderly, more teary-eyed.

"I'd say welcome to the family, but I think you've been a part of it since the day you met Phoebe." Tears began to fill your own eyes at the words she whispered against the shell of your ear. "You make him so happy, so, so happy, and that's all I could ever want for Roy. It's all I ever way for you." Molly pulled away from the hug, wiping her thumb under your eye as your tears threatened to spill over. "He loves you. We all do. I love you."

"I love you too, Molly." Just as quickly as she'd pushed you away, you pulled her in for another hug, squeezing her tightly as though it would convey everything you were feeling. It did.

At the sound of feet running down your hallway, Molly jumped away from you, quickly wiping at her own eyes before turning to face her little girl. She gently took the mug from her hands and passed it to you, ushering her to the dining table while you and Roy plated up.

"What did she say to you?" Roy asked, knocking his hip against yours as he he started putting food into each plate.

You pulled Phoebe's favourite cordial off your shelf, pouring some in then moving past Roy to get to the sink to dilute it. "Nothing." He couldn't see the smile that formed on your face as you thought on what your future sister in law had said to you moments prior. "Just that she loves me, she loves you. That she's happy for us."

Roy wrapped an arm around you from behind as he came to join you at the sink, leaning past you to put his cooking tongs in. "I can't wait to see Phoebe's reaction." Roy murmured against the skin of your neck, pressing a kiss there then spinning you around to face him. "She absolutely adores you. She's gonna be over the fucking moon."

"Not more over the moon then me." You pressed another kiss to his lips, making sure to keep the cordial far away from you and Roy incase it spilled.

Roy turned his back on you, picking up two of the bigger plates. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"Oh really?" You asked, picking up the final big plate and Phoebe's smaller own. "I get to marry the love of my life and be officially related to some of the people I love the most. I think I win."

"We'll see." With one last kiss the two of you headed towards the dining table, all four of you tucking into dinner and telling each other about your weeks like clockwork; though you and Roy refrained from one pretty big event till after dinner.

When your food was all finished, you'd given Phoebe a bigger bowl of ice cream then usual, immediately prompting her to be suspicious. "Either I've been really good at school this week, or you guys have done something really bad."

"It's not like that Pheeb's, we're actually celebrating." Phoebe's head perked up at that as she mentally checked it wasn't anyone's birthday, or 'uncles day,' or Mother's Day, or 'future aunties day' (as she'd dubbed it) and she'd forgotten. When she ruled that she definitely hadn't forgotten anything, she turned to you in wait.

"What are we celebrating?"

"Me and your uncle Roy-"

"Holy shit." Smiles crept on all three of your faces as Phoebe pieced it together in her mind. "Are you getting married? Please tell me you're getting married?"

"Are getting married." As you brought your ring adorned hand up for her to see, Phoebe burst into tears, jumping off of her seat and running around to the other side of the table where you and Roy sat. She was quick to climb into Roy's lap, wrapping one arm around each of your knecks to pull you into a hug.

"This is the best day of my life." She whispered, her words coming out in a whine as she tried desperately hard to keep her tears in. "Do I get to be a flower girl?"

"Of course you get to be the flower girl, what kind of fucking question is that?" Roy scolded though a smile remained on his face, you wouldn't have anyone one else as your flower girl. Your niece was barely walking and besides, not that you'd ever admit it with them present, but you much preferred Phoebe to any blood relative you had.

Phoebe's face turned into a frown at Roy's words. "You owe me £1, uncle Roy."

"After the S-bomb you dropped before? I think we're even."

~*~

When Monday rolled around, you were extremely nervous. It wasn't that you thought any of the people at Nelson road would react badly to your engagement, you knew non of them would, you were nervous in the way you are at 8 years old on Christmas Eve - in a giddy way when you can't wait for what you feel to be shared.

You'd come up with a plan in bed the night before - announce it to Beard first, then to the boys, and then you'd make your way up to Rebecca's office to announce it to her, Higgins and Keeley (who'd you thankfully knew would be at the dog track this morning for a meeting).

To execute step 1 with no interruptions, you made sure to arrive an hour earlier to work then you usually would - knowing that Beard liked to show up early and the boys would show up as close to practice as they could get away with. Just as you expected, Beard was alone in the office, only a couple of other people in the building at all, making for an easy entrance.

"Well, to what do I owe the pleasure of you two showing up earlier then you ever have in the 5 years I've known you." Beard asked, his feet perched high up on his desk and an open book dropped against his chest.

"I needed to ask you something, actually." Roy wrapped an arm around your waist, rubbing soothing circles into your skin, silently encouraging you to ask what you wanted to ask.

"Fire away, Katniss."

"I actually wanted to ask, um, well, if you'd walk me down the aisle?"

Beard stilled, then took a shaky breath, then stilled again. He slowly picked up the book from his chest, dog-eared the page and swung his feet down from his desk, standing and crossing the room so that he could stand in front of you. "You, you-" Another shaky breath. "You want me? Me? To walk you down the aisle?"

"Yeah. You're the closest thing I've ever had to a father and-"

Beard pulled you into a hug, something he'd never done before, and tentatively wrapped his arms under yours, pinning you against him. He was warm and smelled like cinnamon, and though you'd never been a big fan of the scent, you found right now that you'd happily bask in it forever. "Yes, of course I will, it'd be an honour."

No further words were exchanged between the two of you until he pulled away, quickly wiping at his eyes before turning to Roy with a scowl. "I can fight, just so you know." He took a step closer to him, and you swore you'd never seen Roy so afraid as when Beard stuck a firm finger in his chest. "If you hurt her, I'll hurt you." Then he retreated to his chair, picking up his book and replacing it against his chest. "So when were you thinking? I always thing spring is the best time for a wedding."

The three of you discussed everything from what date you were thinking to ideal song choices while you waited for the changing room to fill up, wanting to make sure everyone had arrived before you shared the news. When Roy had done his 6th head count and found everyone had arrived, he nodded towards the door, asking if you were ready to go and tell everyone. You nodded, letting Roy lead the way and hanging in the doorway of the coaches office until Beard was at your side.

"You didn't have to threaten him, you know. He's never hurt me once, I don't think he's going to start now."

Beard folded his arms across his chest then nudged you gently in the side as the the two of you came to stand next to Roy, him shouting 'whistle,' silencing the changing room. "Hey, that's what dads are for."

"Before I start, someone grab Nate and Will from the boot room." Jamie, being closest to the boot room, dashed in and right back out, Will and Nate right behind him. "Right. Angel, the floor is yours."

You thanked Roy before turning back to the boys, all of them waiting anxiously as they waited to see what you had to say that was so important Roy had even called Will and Nate out. "I need to know if you're all available next June - we're talking the end of June, early July." Thankfully, your job at Richmond often required planning things far in advance, even if far in advance was a year away, so no one expected anything as you started to speak. "I know it's the off season but I need you all here, in Richmond. Especially Colin."

"Why especially me?" Colin asked, one hand nervously wringing the other.

"Because I absolutely refuse to get married if my man of honour won't be able to make it."

The whole changing room erupted into a chorus of gasps, quickly followed by cheers and players and kitmen alike swarming you and Roy with hugs and cries of congratulations - which, for once, he actually entertained.

Colin was the first to reach for you to pull you into a hug, his hands shaking as he did. "You really want me to be your man of honour? At your wedding?"

"Of course I do, Col." It didn't get any less tearful asking people to be apart of your wedding. "Your my best friend. I love you." No sooner then Colin had pulled you into another hug had you been torn out of it, by a very excited Jamie.

"I can't fucking believe it me. Well, I can actually, but I also can't." He pulled you in for an even tighter hug then Colin had, probably down to the fact he had more excitement then nerves coursing through his system. "Feels like yesterday me and Phoebe were sat on your couch convincing you Roy did love you, and now look at yous."

"Will Phoebe be at the wedding?" Isaac had spun you out of Jamie's hold and into his, keeping one arm around your shoulder as he spoke to you. "Cause I don't want to be the only person eating the turkey dinosaurs; there will be turkey dinosaurs right?"

"Of course there will be, Isaac." Will pulled you out from under Isaac's arm and into a sweet, although brief, hug. "Right? Otherwise I might have to RSVP no."

"Im sure it can be arranged, what, with all of Roy's footballer money." The two laughed at your words, though a certain footballer turned coach found them more amusing.

"All my footballer money, huh?"

"I hope the fact I'm only marrying you for your money doesn't make you want to call off the wedding." You teased, spinning around and wrapping your arms around Roy's neck.

He pressed a slow and sensual kiss to your lips, ignoring the teasing shouts and cheers from his team. "Hmm, you're lucky you're cute." Roy pressed another kiss to your lips, paying no mind to the curious stares of the team around him. Though when they began to linger for a minute too long, he pulled away from you with a sigh. "Right, 50 laps, all of you." When no one moved, he raised his voice. "Now!"

Roy intertwined his fingers with yours, waving a goodbye to Beard but promising to be back before the boys had finished their 50 laps.

Keeley had reacted just how you expected her to - with many screams and squeals and a tight hug that nearly knocked you off the ground. Rebecca and Higgins were much more reserved in their responses but each offered a hug and a congratulation's to the happy couple. Roy kept your fingers intertwined the whole time, squeezing your hand tight each time someone reached out for a hug but putting up with their love otherwise.

You couldn't wait to marry him.

~*~

Knowing that the off season would start around  the beginning of June, you'd decided early on the last week of June was the perfect time for the two of you to get married. And while the end of June was still a month and a half away, you were seriously considering calling the wedding off.

When you'd found out you were pregnant in February, you knew you had to keep it a close secret until you'd finished the first trimester, just incase anything happened to you or the baby, and each week since you'd found out you kept swearing to yourself you were going to tell Roy. You still hadn't. Which brought you to right now, where you were crying on the floor of your ensuite bathroom at the dead of night, at just over 12 weeks pregnant and a baby bump beginning to show.

Given the cold weather of early spring you'd kept it hidden pretty well so far, but with the progressively warmer weather, it was getting harder and harder to hide. Above that, you were now very much aware that since the baby bump had appeared, it was only going to get bigger - and you were in absolute tears over wether or not you were still going to fit into the outfit you'd picked. While your choice of outfit for your wedding wasn't anything extravagant, it made you feel extremely pretty, and hugged you in just the right way - it wouldn't if you were four months pregnant and with a baby bump that you felt was the size of Saturn.

One particularly loud sob had you clamping a hand over your mouth, hoping and praying to anything out there that Roy hadn't heard you. You didn't want him stressing, especially when you were crying over trivial things considering the life you'd always dreamed was within your grasp.

Roy's eyes blinked open though he wasn't entirely sure why, however, when he rolled over and attempted to wrap his arms around you, he was met with cold and empty sheets. The cool feel of the sheets beneath his fingers had him shooting awake; clearly you'd been out of bed a while, and considering it was pushing 2am, his first thought was that you were sick. Which wasn't too far from the truth.

Slowly, he made his way towards your en-suite bathroom, rubbing at his eyes to get him to wake up quicker. Pushing the door open, his entire being froze at the sight of you crying on the bathroom floor, him immediately falling to the ground next to you and pulling you into his lap. One hand brushed your hair out of your face while the other cupped the back of your head, pressing it into the crook of his neck. "It's okay Angel, I'm here, I'm here."

It took Roy roughly 15 minutes of rocking you gently in his arms and whispering soothing words into your hair before your sobs calmed down enough that you could talk without your words turning into a whimper. "C'mon Angel, talk to me." The way Roy oh so gently cradled your face had tears springing to your eyes again. "Or is it about me? Do you want me to call Molly? I'm sure she wouldn't mind-"

"No, it's about me." A fresh set of tears were rolling down your cheeks, but the heaving sobs that had been coming from your chest before ceased. "It's me, I've ruined everything."

"Angel..."

"I just wanted to wear a nice fucking outfit on my wedding day, and I can't, and its making me so sad it's stupid." Roy's thumb continuously wiped at the tears that were furiously running down your cheeks. "And it makes me even more sad because, because, I'm getting everything I've ever dreamed of and I'm sad over something stupid like what I can wear."

"It's not stupid, Angel face." Roy murmured against your temple, the scratch of his beard against your skin familiar and comforting. "Nothings stupid if it makes you so upset. Just talk me through it, yeah? Why can't you wear what you picked? Did it get damaged or something?"

"No, no, it's fine, it's just- it won't fit me anymore." Roy pressed a kiss to your temple, immediately spouting words of reassurance that it would still fit you and if it didn't he'd hire the best tailor in the world to make it fit and that regardless, you'd look incredibly beautiful no matter what you wore. You shook your head gently. "It's not that Roy, it's, I'm-"

You readjusted yourself in Roy's lap, turning so that your legs were either side of his, caging him in. You wrapped your arms around his neck, looking down at the bump you could just see through one of Roy's old jerseys you'd fallen asleep in, while you avoided his concerned gaze. "It's not going to fit me anymore, because I'm pregnant, Roy."

Silence filled the bathroom.

When you finally gained the courage to look up at Roy, tears were pooled in his eyes, that wonderful smile of his making the most tender appearance you'd ever seen. "You're pregnant?" He whispered, mumbling the two words over, and over, and over again. "You're pregnant."

Before you could ask Roy if he was okay, he was pressing his lips to yours, allowing the tears to fall from his eyes though without the noise of a sob. He simply kissed you over, and over, and over again, only pulling away when he could no longer contain the smile that what pulling at his lips. Your hands cradled his cheeks, wiping away each tear gently with the pad of your thumb. "I can't believe I'm crying." He scoffed, though didn't move away from to ur touch as you continued to wipe away his tears.

"If it makes you feel any better, I find the vulnerability of it incredibly hot."

One of Roy's hands moved from the side of your thighs to cup your cheek, pushing hair back behind your ear as a watery smile took over his face.

"You know," Roy paused, tenderly running his fingers up and down the side of your neck as his hand slipped down from your cheek to hold you there. "If you'd come to me 5 years ago, back when Ted and Beard first started, and told me in 5 years time I'd have everything I'd ever dreamed of? And, with the gorgeous woman from the office outside the changing rooms? I would've laughed in your face and told you to fuck off." After a moments thought, he added. "I probably wouldn't have let anyone get close enough to me to tell me that in the first place, to be honest."

"Look how far you've come." You mused, one hand slipping into the hair at the base of Roy's neck as his tears slowly stopped. "Some might say that I've made you go soft.”

Roy laughed, head tilted back against the bathroom wall as he was prevented from throwing it back further. The tilt of his head upwards granted you the perfect position to press a chaste kiss to his lips. He smiled at you softly, bringing his hand forward from the side of your neck so that he could cup your jaw. "To be loved, is to be changed." He hummed, his chest tightening as tears filled your eyes once more.

"I love you, Roy." You whispered, as though even saying it would break the sincerity of the words slipping from your lips. Although you'd said them a thousand times, it was like Roy was hearing it for the first time all over again. "Like I really, really love you Roy." Leaning forward, you rested your forehead against his. "So much... so much so that I feel like I'm never going to be able to express it enough, like if I don't get it out of me, I might die."

Roy pressed a searing kiss to your lips, sliding his hand back up your jaw and under your ear, tangling his fingers in the hair there. "I love you too, more then i ever thought I was capable of loving anyone.” Roy leaned in for another kiss then pulled away with a smirk as you ground yourself into him. "Want me to show you how much I love you, yeah?"

"Definitely."

Roy put his hands back to their original place under your thighs, slowly moving the two of you from your position on the bathroom floor to standing once more. When he was standing, you held in his arms with your legs wrapped tightly around his waist, you continued the clash of tongue and teeth you'd started moments again. However, before he could get started on showing you just how much he loved you, you leaned away from him, eyes running over his whole face. "You might have to hold off on doing that thing with your hips, y'know, because of the baby."

"I'll stop doing that when the doctor tells me to stop."

~*~

Fortunately for you, at your next check up the following Thursday, the doctor gave you the all clear - on the health of the baby and the fact Roy could continue working magic with his hips. Considering you were nearly 14 weeks along, the ultrasound technician had offered to let you know the gender of the baby, but both you and Roy had agreed that you didn't want to know. You so seriously didn't want anyone to know, in fact, that Roy made a show of ripping up the envelope that contained the baby's gender right in front of the ultrasound technician after she offered it out to you; her suggestion of a gender reveal dying on her tongue.

Roy had been nothing but attentive since he'd found out; moving at your beck and call even more then normal, so much so that people around Nelson road were beginning to notice.

"Alright, what's going on?" The second Roy left your office, Isaac, Colin and Will crowed into the room, locking the door behind them. If you weren’t such a veteran of their shenanigans, you'd be getting concerned. "Are you dying?"

"Why would I be dying?" You asked, clicking the email you'd been writing closed, giving the three lads your undivided attention.

"Roy's been following you, like, more then usual though." Isaac stated, folding his arms tightly across his chest. "Weird, innit."

Before you could question what they found weird about you talking to and hanging around your fiancé, Will stepped forward, his hands tucked sheepishly in his pockets. "You're pregnant, right? I'm like 80% sure you're pregnant."

Your hand came to rest against the small bump you'd concealed under your Richmond sweater.

"Holy fuck boyo." Colin gasped, smacking his hand into Will's chest. "She is. How did you know?"

"She's glowing." Isaac and Colin tilted their heads in sync while their gaze remained directly on you, as though they were trying to see what Will saw. When it appeared they couldn't, Will let out a sigh, scratching nervously at the back of his neck. "I don't know; maybe it's the lighting."

Silence took over your small office space, the four of you alternating between staring at each other and the hand that rested against your stomach.

"Angel, you got-" Roy paused at the sight before him, scanning the room with a pointed glare. While Isaac had had the sense to lock the main door to your office when he started his interrogation, it had seemed he had forgotten to lock the connecting door from your office into the changing rooms. You'd never been more thankful to be in an office with two doors.  After a few more seconds of assessment, he seethed out a "Fuck! Not a word of this to anyone, yeah?"

All three lads nodded in silence, scurrying from the room after a particularly harsh glare from Roy had told them they had overstayed their welcome in your office. As your head fell into your hands due to the stress of it all, Roy crossed the room, slipping his fingers into your hair and scratching gently at your scalp. "They're not going to tell anyone, Angel, don't stress."

"But, what-"

"No buts, or what if's, or anything." Roy chastised, pulling your head out of your hands and crouching down to meet you at eye level. He took your hands in his own, rubbing his thumbs over your knuckles. "We tell everyone when you're ready. And if that's after the wedding, then that's after the wedding." Roy pressed a kiss to your knuckles. "And that's that."

You let out a long sigh, weight lifted from your shoulders at Roy's gentle touch and soothing words. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"You've mentioned it once or twice."

~*~

You were too scared to put your outfit on. After almost 10 months of planning every detail and waking up to see your engagement ring on your finger, you were finally getting to be Mrs Kent. And you were too scared to go out there and get dressed.

When Will, Colin and Isaac found out you were pregnant, it was on accident, but going out there, before your man of honour, bridesmaids, Phoebe and Beard to put on your outfit would be intentionally revealing your baby bump. It was so stupid, you thought, to be this worried about something that would make people happy - that would make you and Roy happy. But a small part of you just wanted things to work out how you'd planned then in your head; like being able to wear what you'd picked to marry the love of your life.

However, you wanted to get married to Roy more then you cared about keeping the baby a secret.

Everyone gasped as you walked into the main part of the hotel room. You'd forgone a dressing gown in favour of getting ready in the comfort of pyjama shorts and one of Roy's old jerseys, wanting to have a part of him with you even though you wouldn't see him the night before the wedding.

Roy had actually wanted to forgo the traditional 'no seeing the bride bullshit,' him in favour of spending every second he could get with you, but Keeley and Jamie had convinced him it would make that moment of you walking down the aisle all the more special. Though as you walked into the room, you'd wished more then anything you'd convinced Keeley to let him stay with you. All you wanted was his hand in yours as you did this.

All eyes fell to the shadow of a baby bump that could be seen through the loose material of Roy's jersey; it was the one he wore at his very first Richmond match, Kent printed and worn proudly on the back. No one moved or even dared to breath.

"Surprise?" You didn't mean for it to come out as a question, but the tense silence and feel of everyone's eyes on you had you shying away from your friends and family in a way you'd never done before. "I'm pregnant!"

Molly was the first to move, crossing the length of the room and pulling you into an embrace. "I love you." She whispered against your ear, pressing a kiss to your cheek. "I'm going to be an auntie." Within seconds the remaining people in the room swarmed you into one big group hug. Each of Colin, Keeley, Rebecca and Beard whispered congratulations to you, telling you just how beautiful you looked and how excited they were to see you walk down the aisle. Phoebe, however, pulled the funniest face at you, her brow tense in the spitting image of Roy.

"You're not wearing that, are you?"

Phoebe had magically broke the tension of the room, smiles all around as Molly and Keeley ushered you back to the other side of the door, helping you into your outfit and making sure your hair stayed in the way you'd styled it when you got changed. Fully dressed and feeling yourself, you stepped back into the main room with newfound confidence.

You were going to marry Roy - Roy who updated you on his book every night and valued your opinion on it, who still brought you lunch everyday at work, who was willing to hold you on the bathroom floor at 3am when he should've been sleeping, who made you feel like you were the only person in a room that mattered - and you couldn't be more excited.

Colin held your hand the entire drive from the hotel and the whole way from the car to the church doors. Only two pieces of wood separated you from everything you'd ever wanted. He pressed a featherlight kiss to your cheek and wished you luck before heading inside, leaving just you and Beard outside the building.

"You nervous?" He asked, moving his hand so that it rested lovingly on the small of your back.

"It's Roy." Roy always made you nervous. From the smile that had you weak in the knees when he actually decided to show it, to the butterflies the simple movement of his fingers against your skin caused; Roy had you swooning every time he looked at you. "I can't wait to get in there."

"Can you wait a second?" Ted Lasso was stood behind you, hands bashfully tucked into suit pants pockets.

"Ted." You gasped, opening your arms but not leaving Beard's side. The American rushed towards you, scooping you into a tender hug. "What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't make it..."

"Well, you know how Roy is, stubborn, hard-headed," Ted had aged a little since you last saw him on English soil, but he still held that quintessential ted spirit to him; even though he looked a lot more tired then you ever remembered him being. "Will do anything for the people he loves. Even if that's calling someone everyday for 8 months straight and convincing them to clear their calendar."

Roy who called one of your favourite people daily until he convinced them to make time to come to your wedding despite the fact they'd have to fly halfway across the world to attend.

"Well, I'm glad you're here Ted." He pressed a kiss to your temple, unwrapping himself from you and flattening out the front of his suit.

"I'll see you in there." Ted walked to the doors Colin had entered through moments ago, stopping and turning back to you at the last second. "You look beautiful by the way, you're practically glowing." With a knowing wink, Ted slipped through the doors, finding the way to his seat to wait for the ceremony to begin.

"Well, I think we're really ready now." You mused, linking your arm though Beard's. When you turned to flash a smile at him, you saw eyes filled with fondness, tears threatening to cloud his vision if he thought about the scene before him for too long. "Aren't we Willis?"

"Lets go, sweetheart." The pet name struck you to your core, your hand squeezing his bicep in reassurance. There was no one else you'd want to walk you down the aisle. "You're getting married!"

The ceremony ran perfectly. Willis walked you down the aisle and handed you off to Roy after whispering what you were certain was a threat in his ear. Tears brimmed Roy's waterline the whole ceremony, but they didn't spill over under you were pronounced husband and wife. No one commented on the tears that ran down Roy's cheeks, and you didn't think anyone was ever going to bring it up; a mutual understanding settling over the room that the Roy Kent that stood at the alter wasn't Roy Kent football sensation, but that he was Roy Kent, loving husband.

All those years ago Jamie had been completely and utterly right, all Roy needed was someone to show him it was okay to be soft. Thankfully, he had found that in you.

~*~

"Nell, go back to sleep baby, daddy's here."

Roy had his back turned to you as he rocked Penelope in his arms, murmuring some song that you couldn't quite make out under his breath to help her get back to sleep. In the 4 weeks since Penelope - or 'Nell' as Roy had lovingly started calling her - had been born, Roy had more then proved himself to be the amazing dad you knew he would be. Though he'd voiced his worries about not being a good dad several times throughout your pregnancy, each time you'd soothed away the worry; scratching your fingers against his scalp and reminding him of everything he'd ever done for Phoebe.

Phoebe had been the most excited to meet the baby, begging her mum to let her come over every single day after school so that she could spend time with her newborn cousin (even though that time was mostly spent with Phoebe in your lap with Nell in hers).

The Boys at Nelson Road came in for a close second when it came to being excited to meet the baby. Will, Colin and Isaac had made it their duty to show up to you and Roy's house every day after training when you were 7 months along in order to paint the babies nursery and build all the furniture that you'd bought.

They were even worse when you went into labour.

Roy had called Beard to let him know the two of you wouldn't be able to make it to work that Tuesday, and Beard loaded up the coach for a group trip to Richmond's hospital. You had the whole of AFC Richmond crowded in the waiting room, arms filled with stuffed animals, balloons and flowers. Jamie had charmed up the nurse who you were charged to, convincing him to let all of the players into your room at once. While most of the team fawned over the baby, gave you their best wishes then made their way back to the coach, Colin, Isaac, and Will asked to hold her, tears filling their eyes as they took in the sight of the tiny baby.

"She's beautiful." Colin whispered, lightly running the tip of his finger up and down her button nose. "With your parents, you're going to be the coolest kid ever. And Uncle Colin is going to make sure of it."

"You know," Will whispered, stiff as a board as he held Penelope on his arms, scared to even breath less it hurt the baby. "I remember that day I saw you with Phoebe in Tesco, and I told you I didn't realise you were a mum." Roy shot you a confused glance, reminding you you'd never actually filled him in on your trip to the supermarket that day with Phoebe. "And now you are one. It almost doesn't feel real."

"I've never held a baby before." Isaac admitted, the most relaxed holding her despite his inexperience. "It's weird, innit. Like, this baby I'm holding right now started out nothing and now she's real and alive and in my arms…Spooky."

Jamie, however, you practically had to force to hold Nell; and even then he was scared shitless. When you managed to convince him to take a seat on your hospital bed, he seemed less tense about holding her, but the ever present crease in his brow told you otherwise. "She looks just like you."

"She's got Roy's nose, and I bet she'll have his eyebrows too."

Jamie's eyes never left the baby, even as the other boys slipped out of the room with one last goodbye and a promise to come and visit Nell again when you got sent home.

"Ask us what her full name is." Roy kicked Jamie's foot, finally snapping his attention away from the newborn.

"You what?”

Apparently, he hadn't been listening, the tender tone to Roy's voice leaving as soon as it had arrived. "I said ask us what her full name is, fuckhead."

Jamie didn't ask you, he wasn't sure he could get the words out without choking up, the suggestion of the question springing tears to his eyes.

"Her full name is Penelope Jamie Kent." You hadn't seen Jamie so upset since Roy dragged him into your office, sobs wracking his body, two years ago before the journey up north to play against Manchester City at the Etihad.

He pulled Nell closer to his chest, hugging her as best as you could hold a baby, then passed her to Beard, pulling Roy in for the tightest hug you'd ever seen the two share. When Jamie came to hug you, he pressed a kiss to your cheek, whispering in your ear; "You've made Grandad go all soft." And after a brief pause. "The rest of us too."

Beard didn't stay long after Jamie left, knowing the coach was only waiting on him to return to training. He muttered something under his breath, pressed a kiss to Nell's head and then handed her back to you, pressing a kiss to yours. "Jamie’s right. Spitting image of you. Though I do agree she has Roy's nose."

"I hope she gets his smile." You quietly confessed, not missing the way Roy's lips curled up into the wonderful  smile you loved so much. "We got something for you." Roy pulled out a gift bag from next to your 'we need to go to the hospital the baby is coming' bag and handed it to his fellow coach. Beard waisted no time opening the gift, a soft smile curling on his lips as he pulled out the mug, 'worlds best grandad' printed on the front and a Richmond crest printed on the back. "I love you...dad."

A tear silently ran down Beard' cheek but he didn't wipe it away, pulling you and the baby in for a group hug. After a tight squeeze, he opened up his arms, a silent invite for Roy to join. He did so without question, thanking Willis for everything.

Beard had used the mug at Nelson Road everyday since.

Nell had made a total of 3 visits so far to Nelson Road; every Thursday afternoon being the day you'd come to the dog track with her and disrupt afternoon training so that the boys could fawn over her as an end of the week treat. Tomorrow would be her 4th visit, and yet, Roy had been the one to wake up and tend to her when he'd have to be up in a few hours to coach Jamie and you could essentially sleep in until 12 and still be on time.

As he put Nell back inside her cot, you wrapped your arms around his waist and slid them up and under the front of his t-shirt. "You're such a good dad, Roy."

"Only cause you make me a good dad." He turned around in your hold, your hands now up the back of his shirt, his arms now over your shoulders/

"That doesn't even make sense." You countered, resting your chin against his chest so that you could look at him. Roy took the opportunity to press a slow and tender kiss to your lips.

"Fuck off, it totally does."

"Doesn't."

"Does."

"Doesn't."

"Does."

At a whine from Nell, the two of you fell silent, not wanting to wake her after Roy had just put her back to sleep.

"She know it makes sense." The two of your were looking down at Nell's tony from where she slept soundly in the crib.

"She's only agreeing cause it's you." You lowered your chin so that the side of your head rested against Roy's chest, giving you a better look at your beautiful baby girl. "She's a total daddy's girl already, you know."

"Gets that from her mother." Roy paused after he spoke, realising quickly that his words hadn't made much sense or come out in the way he intended. "I meant, she's a total me, girl. Like she loves me a lot because you love me a lot. Fuck."

"I knew what you meant, handsome."

Roy quirked his eyebrow at your response. "You did huh?" He swept you off your feet, literally, carrying you back to your bedroom with a slip in his step.

You hand slapped against his bicep, a gasp slipping from your lips as your pieced together Roy's words paired with his suggestive tone and that glint in his eye. "The doctor said no sex for 6 weeks, Roy."

"No penetrative sex for six weeks." Roy clarified, laying you down on the mused bedsheets and kissing his way down your form; starting with scrapes of teeth against the sensitive skin of your neck, all the way down to the thick skin of your thighs. "The guy said nothing about oral."

an : thanks for reading this far *mwah* I love you <33 I hope you enjoyed this!!! Please feel free to send in a request for Roy or Jamie I'd love to write it!!!

[changingplumbob]

Struck by Love - April 1st Posts 1-5

CW: Moderate level sim spice, language - Guide to content warnings

Please do not engage with this post if you're under 18 or such things make you uncomfortable. Sims woohoo with wicked whims and there is a dom/sub undercurrent. Actual plot important stuff will be back 2nd post tomorrow.

When we got to my room she laid on my bed and sighed.

Rachel: This is comfy. You may sit

I did and she swung her legs in to my lap.

Rachel: I’ve seen you eyeing up my legs

Byron: You have a very short skirt, I can’t help it

Rachel: Did I say you could talk to me? No. Now, use that over eager mouth of yours to properly appreciate my legs

So I did my best, kissing what I could reach, following her demands.

Rachel: Now before things get any more intimate we do have to discuss safe words. Do you know what they are? You’re allowed to answer

Byron: They’re like consent checks right? Like if I said mine we’d stop what we were doing

Rachel: Exactly. No judgement if you don't want to do something. Just making sure it’s fun for both of us

She sat up, taking her legs off me and told me what her safe word was. Then she helped me brainstorm mine before standing up.

Byron: Wait- you’re not leaving are you?

Rachel: *chuckling* You’re so needy

Byron: Do you want me not to be

Rachel: No. In fact I’m rather counting on you to be needy tonight

Byron: So are you saying we might...

Rachel: If you want me to let you be a fuckboy you have to use your manners and ask properly

Byron: Please Rachel... let me woohoo you

Rachel: Get your composition book. The small one, just for lyrics

I grabbed it and sat on the bed. Rachel came over and pressed her body against mine.

Rachel: Show me what you’ve been working on and I’ll see if you’ve done enough to have fun

I flicked it open to the stuff I’d written that week. She pushed my torso down so I was almost laying rather than sitting and moved her left arm behind my back. Her right arm moved on to my inner thigh and begun to apply pressure.

Rachel: There is a good amount here... You’re working on some more originals?

Byron: Ye- yes

It was hard to focus. Her boobs were practically right in my face and the pressure on my leg... Damn, she knew what she was doing. I hoped there was some non boob moves I could pick up.

Rachel: You want me to let you be a fuckboy then? You want me to let you woohoo with me? You can tell me

Damn, why was talking suddenly so hard?

Byron: Yes, yes please

Grinning she took her sweater and skirt off. She had some underwear but her top half... she’d not had anything under that sweater. Her voice dropped low and husky.

Rachel: You remember how you were a good boy and appreciated my legs? Well, convince my breasts that I should let you woohoo me

I did my best, getting more stuck in as she ran one hand through my hair and moved my other one where she wanted it.

Rachel: Stop. Lie back

I followed her instruction and watched as she took off my shoes, my pants, my boxers...

Rachel: Hmm... so this is what you use huh? Not too bad. But I should probably check it out before I let you use it on me

She grabbed me and ran her tongue-

Byron: Shit!

Rachel: *tuts* I didn’t say you could talk. Anything more than a whimper or a moan and I’ll stop

So she continued and I basically lost any kind of thinking ability I normally had. After she finished me off we lay there as I panted and tried to get a grip.

Rachel: Oh wow, hard again. You must be a really needy tonight

Grinning she grabbed a condom from who knows where, I couldn’t focus enough to tell.

[saphira-approves]

Alright buckle up y’all, I’ve got a book series recommendation and propaganda under the cut for any fans of the Inheritance Cycle.

If you read our beloved farmboy-turned-dragon-rider books and had a particular fondness for: the idea of an order of individuals chosen to be both partner and rider to powerful and beautiful magical creatures; Snowfire; an immortal evil that resurfaces in disguised and unexpected forms (specifically referencing the Draumar cult which we now know had influence in Galbatorix’s rise to power); and/or the juicy juicy drama of complicated parent-child relationships, then oh boy do I have a recommendation for you.

Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series, comprising of many, MANY individuals novels, trilogies, and short story anthologies. I don’t currently have a count for the exact total of published books, as I’ve been getting most of these from my local secondhand bookstore, but she’s been publishing these books since 1987 and is still writing them today in 2024.

Since this is such a huge collection, it can be hard to know where to start, so first of all I’d like to assure you that you can start pretty much anywhere, with any of the individual novels or series, so long as you make sure to find the first installment of that series. Personally I started with The Black Gryphon, which seems to be one of the chronologically earliest books; Arrows of the Queen of the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy would also be a good place to start, being the first published Valdemar book, though I haven’t actually read it yet—I only just got my copy today, actually!

At any rate, wherever you start, there’s a lot to look forward to. Lackey has a knack for writing characters with depth and complexity, giving them flaws that are so well balanced by endearments that even at their worst, you can still understand and empathize with them; she absolutely refuses to write idiot-plots, allowing her characters not only to remain consistent with their established characterizations, but also to communicate with each other and allow their relationships to evolve as the characters do. Characters are allowed to make mistakes, be vain and stubborn and prideful, get angry, get jealous, get scared, and yet afterward still be received with love and forgiveness when they apologize. The magic is beautifully described and, at least for me, easy to understand; the schemes are clever, diabolical, and exciting to watch unfold. There is true, pure evil in the villains, and satisfaction in their endings.

There’s also a decent amount of diversity, which may or may not be surprising, depending on what you’ve read of 80s/90s SFF. Of the handful of books I’ve read so far, here are my observations: Lackey writes fantastic and complex women full of depth, emotion, and ingenuity, each as different from each other as their backgrounds would demand. There are several canonically queer characters across the timeline, including a main protagonist. Lackey’s worldbuilding establishes several unique and disparate cultures, drawing clear influence from many non-European real life sources, with featured characters of those cultures given, in my opinion, respectful and appreciative spotlights. There are characters with disabilities, respected both by the narrative and the characters around them. There are also non-human cultures, characters, and protagonists!

As fantastic as I have been finding these books, it would be remiss of me not to add that these books will not be for everyone. They are firmly adult fantasy, and Lackey does not pull her punches when she wants her characters to suffer. There is torture, sexual assault, suicide. Not all of this is graphically described, but some certainly is; most of the graphic stuff I have so far read is of about the same intensity as the torture scenes of Inheritance, but some of the abstractions are much more intense, and I get the sense that some of what I haven’t yet read may be both graphic and visceral. That being said, if you could handle Game of Thrones’ graphic violence and assault but disliked the persistent pessimism of that series, this one might be right up your alley!

Anyway. That’s all from me for now. I’m off to go read about characters bonding with magical creatures somewhat beyond mortal ken and going on fantastic and harrowing magical adventures. :)

[sombraglaze]

(GUILTY GEAR STRIVE DUAL RULERS SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!)

tl;dr this post is just me criticizing the latest episode, it made me feel upset so I wrote a huge wall of text about it, feel free to mock me or tell me that I'm being a snowflake or cringe.

I've been enjoying Dual Rulers a ton so I was looking forward to watching today's episode, but I just watched it and I'm lowkey disappointed, maybe it's because I've been having a shitty week, maybe it's just me being overly dramatic and whiny, I don't know why this bothered me. I'm sure transphobes will point at me and laugh because I'm getting upset over Bridget getting hurt, that's such a non-issue, in the grand scheme of things this isn't actually something worth getting upset about at all, I know, but let a bitch complain ok? it's good to complain every now and then.

So ok, for context: in this episode Bridget gets stabbed in the belly and her last scene shows her getting rushed to an operating room as Unika screams "BRIDGET!" over and over again, and they leave it vague as to whether she will survive or not. I feel like they probably won't straight up kill Bridget because as far as I understand this is actually supposed to be canon and she's been the most popular character since forever, I'm sure ArcSys makes tons of money off of her existence, especially with how disproportionately large the amount of Bridget merch is compared to the rest of the characters, I don't imagine them just removing her from the roster entirely because that'd be a bad move financially (though I will be very upset if she actually dies, obviously, I want to play as her in whatever Guilty Gear game is released after Strive).

So you may be thinking: this is just an action series, characters are bound the get hurt and even die, it creates dramatic tension, and conflict is part of what makes stories interesting and fun to watch, in fact, if anyone is going to die it kinda makes sense that it'd be Bridget because out of all the cast of characters she seems to be the weakest one, and I've even heard that she also doesn't have a canon arc that takes place after the series, so it doesn't seem completely arbitrary that they would pick her as the character that dies or gets almost killed, so why did I get upset about this?

In simple terms I don't like the execution of it, I get that they're trying to make a dramatic and emotional moment, but the way it was done rubbed me the wrong way and made me a bit uncomfortable, I've chilled out since then but when I first watched the episode it actually made me kind of angry, let me try to explain myself.

Queer characters in media are often killed or get the short end of the stick, and it's not like I think all queer characters should be untouchable or shouldn't experience hardships, again, conflict is important to narrative, but in this case it really felt like Bridget got stabbed purely because it would progress Unika's character arc, it happened because it gives Unika something to motivate her and get her doing stuff, but Bridget herself didn't learn anything or face any interesting struggle, we don't learn anything about her as a character and there was nothing interesting narratively about the way Bridget died/was almost killed, she was just helping out by carrying a box of magic supplies and she randomly got jumped by an enemy that was too strong for her.

I don't know if I'm making sense but I really feel like she got treated as a plot device rather than as a character in her own right, and I didn't like that, there was something that rubbed me the wrong way about that scene with her on the gurney being wheeled into the operating room as sad violin music plays and Unika screams her name, I think they probably could've found a way to give both of them a more interesting emotional scene that doesn't feel like Bridget is being used as a plot device in Unika's story.

And honestly I also felt a bit upset over the actual fight, I get that Bridget is not very strong in comparison to the other characters but at least they could've given her a cool fight scene, I think they could've done it better. And if they're actually intending to kill her off then at least give her a scene where she's valiantly sacrificing herself or doing something more meaningful than getting killed while she was just carrying a box, you know? That'd still be upsetting but at least there'd be a silver lining.

I wonder how the uniburi shippers will feel about this one, I get that it might be exciting to see that Unika seems to have very strong feelings over Bridget and shit but I just couldn't get over this uncomfortable feeling that this is yet another case of queer characters getting the short end of the stick, ugh.

Anyway, I also want to balance things out by spreading some positivity, so I want to say that I've liked Dual Rulers so far, I think it's really cool, I've been getting into Guilty Gear recently and this series has helped me learn about all the different characters and how they relate to each other, I enjoy how over the top and silly it is, it's so unapologetically cheesy and I like that a lot honestly, and I even like the animation (I don't know how much of a hot take that is, considering it's animated in 3D which is very unpopular in anime, but it's genuinely one of the things I like about Dual Rulers, it has cool visuals) So I don't think this series is trash all of a sudden just because it got a bit upsetting in the latest episode, I still appreciate it.

Again, I've been having a shitty week already, so that's most likely exacerbating my negative emotions, if I seem like I'm being overly whiny that's why, this is realistically not that big a deal at all, but I do feel like I want to put my criticism of the episode out there if for no other reason than to get it off my chest.

I'm a bit scared of getting flamed over this post, I get that a tumblr trans girl with a Bridget pfp getting butthurt over Bridget getting injured in an anime looks pretty ridiculous, I know, I'm very cringe, but I'm just tying to be genuine ok? Let me be.

[gloomy-gores-world]

Thinking about the long term effects of my stigma.

and it's just pure angst....

Aka me trying my hardest to write a Blurb of my self insert. Let me know of any constructive criticism y'all have as I'm not very good at writing things. Also if anything is off, I apologize. I'm just starting the 8th episode.

(Psst. Rubia come look. @twstchatterbox )

major content warnings for: angst, Body horror

He was a regular civilian. I mean sure he was a little off-key from the rest of society. But that is never really a bad thing. Yeah, he was othered, stared at, and even occasionally overheard things said about him behind his back. Although despite how mean people were. He never gave up his faith in the kindness of others. In fact he almost seemed to double down on it. Constantly trying to do his part to make the world a better place. Even if it's small actions like complimenting people on things.

Emerald's time at Darkwick was a maelstrom of emotions. After all he was picked up from his normal life like a modern day Dorothy. However there was no magical tornado in his tale. And instead of being sent on a seemingly wonderful character-building adventure, the plot line he's been put in seemingly much more suited for a horror movie. His life was never supposed to end up like this really.

Though that fateful day changed everything. It was pretty chaotic, but it was fun. Hanging out with his friends and doing other fun things. It was just straight up having fun at the end of the day. It wasn't his plan to meet that demon at all. It was a pure accident, a spur of the moment thing that happened.

It most definitely wasn't in his plans to make that pact either. However, it seemed like such a sweet deal. After all, the negatives seemed relatively equal to what he was going to gain from it. He would finally be able to protect those he cares about, and that was a huge win in his book. After all he was never really athletic or strong or whatnot. Most times prior, if he were to get into any fights it would have been easy to kick his teeth in. Not that he liked fighting in the first place. Giving him the ability to stand up for not only himself, but others too was such an easy way to tempt him into taking the forbidden fruit.

Now looking back it's surprising he didn't realize it sooner. He didn't fully realize the gravity of the consequences. Or the way he'd be losing his humanity at the time.

He thought that he'd lose his non-physical humanity. He'd become apathetic, indifferent, and detached from his prior compassionate, bleeding heart ways. He thought he'd lose some, if not most of his empathy and sympathy. He believed he'd become what many would call a "cold hearted monster". But he would still be able to continue helping others in the end despite of it. It would be something instantaneous, yet extremely hard to live with in the long run. Causing unintentional pain to those around him.

It's what he expected the consequences to be. It's what he believed that would happen. After all it was something so good, and stuff like that deal always has to have a major downside. And boy, did it. But it wasn't what he expected at all.

He will never forget the bone chilling shock from still feeling "normally" despite the deal being set. But he could deal with being physically monstrous. But when he looked into that mirror, his blood ran cold. He looked relatively normal. Of course his teeth were a little sharper now, and his ears were a bit too pointy for a human. But the fact he was relatively "Normal" was something that made him feel a cosmic amount of deep, dreadful, primal, fear within him.

He came to the mortifying realization that his loss of humanity wouldn't be something instantaneous. He wouldn't just have the band-aid ripped off, left to immediately deal with the repercussions of his actions. He would have to slowly watch as he became something unrecognizable. The permanent effect from taking on a monstrous form to protect those he cares for like some cheap knockoff magical girl. Forced to watch as he slowly drives away those he cares about as he slowly becomes a monster. He'd lose all physical aspects of his humanity. He'd become an anomaly as Darkwick likes to call them.

Of course when Darkwick found out. They forcefully stepped in under a kind guise, something like helping him or whatever. He doesn't fully believe that, but had no other choice than to go along with what they said. He knows that his future as a non-humanoid anomaly is inevitable. He just hopes he gets treated with the same kindness and compassion he gave out when he was human enough. After all he's seen first hand how Darkwick typically treats anomalies.

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

i hope I’m not bothering you by asking but i was just wondering about if they didn’t forget that dan and jenny were siblings in s3 (but still without changing the actual plot of the season tho, so like extra scenes) how do you think they would interact and scenes w/ them would be like? because i’m literally thinking about any time they ever interacted in s3 and the only two i can think of are a) in the episode of everyone trying to stop jenny from losing her virginity (which is weird) dan talks to jenny for two seconds before going over to vanessa and b) dan punching ch*ck (which was v satisfying to watch but like, any scene of them actually talking beforehand would’ve been great, thanks)

hiii you're not bothering me at all! i'm a bit late to respond to this because of like, medical reasons (all good now!) but i did want to respond to this eventually. i feel like i have already said something about the humphrey sibs but it's genuinely been so long that i barely remember what i said.

disclaimer that it is fuck o' clock in the morning so im not sure how coherent this ask is, also disclaimer that i havent watched gg in a while so i may be a lil out of touch.

trusting my mutuals to respond if anything i said makes no sense though kldfhgfdkl y'all know who you are you are the real ones

i think it'd be complicated but interesting if the humphrey sibs were there for each other consistently, because s3 is features queen jenny, and dan & vanessa being closer-than-before in uni, so i think there is some amount of distance in both their lives in terms of like. wondering why the other is doing whatever it is that they're doing. they're not both in high school any more, hell, they don't even live together any more, and dan for the first time in his life is a popular kid! jenny seems to be on top of the social hierarchy but of course nothing comes without a price! so there's like an inherent newness to both their situations which is unrelatable to the other. like however much dan wants to help jenny, or jenny wants to understand dan, they're both living thru stuff the other hasn't been through & so on. theyre in different eras of their lives, etc etc.

which isn't to say that they can't support each other, but it is to say that what that support would look like would be messy and confusing, i feel. they would have to actively learn how to be there for each other, or whatever else. there would be a learning period and also a "oh, you're not actually happy? i thought you were finally thriving what's wrong" kind of thing from dan @ jenny, possibly. because s3 is sad like that, it's a good time for dan (mostly??) and a horrible time for jenny.

i do think dan would not be okay with the way everyone is being oddly sexual towards jenny re: her virginity but like we see in 1x05 where he tells her off in front of her friends for wearing a dress that he compares to a cocktail napkin, sometimes he just .... does not realise that he is doing more harm than good/being misogynistic, etc. but as an anon once pointed out on here to me, comparing s1 dan to s3 dan isn't fair, because by the time we reach s3 dan HAS grown a lot as a character, and i honestly headcanon him to be far more feminist & thoughtful in how he treats the women in his life at that stage, compared to s1. so while i DO think he would take serious offense at how everyone treats jenny, i don't think he would fight for her in an obvious, confrontational way?

like. vanessa would. vanessa would literally SAY "what are you doing this is weird and invasive and creepy" but dan is non-confrontational to a fault. i do think he would like... do something about it in some other way, best case scenario talk about it to serenate alone, later, and tell them off, worst case scenario, classic gossip girl revenge plot where he gets them to break up or something silly like that. idk. don't look at me.

another thing that i think would be important / interesting is like. examining how all these relationships interact keeping the sibling bond in mind. because there was sooo much serena vs jenny tension in s3 and i feel it would've been interesting to actively explore how that was impacting both eric AND dan.

from an extra scenes perspective, i think honestly there would be? should be? conflict AND support. jenny's whole thing this season is that she is lashing out at her support system, isolating, trying to prove a point to the people around her. dan, as her big brother, is going to be extra protective probably, maybe even in ways that bristle her and piss her off. but at the end of the day, dan will drop anything & everything to be there for jenny (this is literally what we see of him in the pilot, in 1x01, so i think it's a foundational aspect of his character) so i think even if she tries to get him to fuck off, he will always love her & be there for her. unlike rufus humphrey, which im stil salty about.

oh, and that too. that's something i think about a lot. dan is caught in a strange space where his dad is civil to him but shitty to jenny, and... how does he navigate that? so much of jenny's behaviour in s3 makes sense to me when we look at the things she went thru in s1 and s2. so, for an interesting humphrey sibs arc i think the cumulative effect of all that keeping in mind how dan was / where he was at different points in jenny's story? and vice versa? those are things that can be layered and emphasized on to add more depth.

so yeah, sibling fights, sibling reconciliation, "what the fuck are you doing with your life" followed by "im sorry i did/said that, it was out of line for me" and maybe some gg schemery of taking down girls who are mean to jenny or getting georgie to leave dan alone together.

hope this answers it !I i am aware it is all over the place, hehe. whoops.

[mythica0]

So I was messing around with the Headcanon generator with Fop anw Characters + OC’s and took screenshots of my favorites (either cause they make so much sense, I think are really neat, or are hilarious.) here they are and some thoughts on them below the cut(quotes are the HC’s. Non quotes are relating thoughts) different characters have different amounts of HC’s both because some of them had more that I liked pop up and also I’m obsessed with some more than others lol.

-“If Hazel likes someone, she will give them a pretty rock” considering she is obsessed with rocks, this is just facts. She would also probably yap about the rocks origins and other stuff.

-“Dev is a very good singer” I love this idea. That Dev is great at singing and loves to do so when alone but is super embarrassed about it around other people. (Maybe because his dad told him that it was annoying and to stop. So now he sees it as forbidden) so he absolutely will not preform for an audience.

-“if the source media were a musical, Dev would be the one asking why everyone’s singing” considering the above, I find this amusing. Especially due to my OC fan episode where Emma wishes that life was a musical. I can just see dev all confused like ‘why in the world is everyone singing???’

-“Dev believes in ghosts and insists on trying to summon one at every sleepover.” I thought this one funny cause this literally happened in canon.

-“Winn uses the word ‘like’ as a comma” considering their cool-guy(gender neutral) persona, it makes sense that they would use like a lot.

-“Winn tells dad jokes” Idk why but I like this idea. Winn telling dad jokes and Hazel laughing and Jazz groaning. I just thought it was neat :3

-“Jazz is a great artist” in addition to music I think that Jazz would like to draw as well. Especially abstract art and patterns.

-“Jazz is afraid to close their eyes in the shower” Considering her being a fraidy-cat was a whole plot point, I thought this was amusing.

-“Cosmo tells dad jokes” He’s a father. And A very silly guy. Obviously he tells dad jokes.

-“Wanda has a very low alcohol tolerance.” I think it would be funny if Cosmo and Wanda were at some fairy gathering and Wanda had like 1/4 of a beer and is all drunk and Cosmo has to make sure she’s okay.

-“Peri is the gay cousin” idk if he’s anyone’s cousin cause I never saw the og series but this man is not straight

-“peri was dropped out of a window as a child” again, never saw the og series but I know he was dropped multiple times so this might as well be canon

-“peri is smart but also very stupid” he gets it from his mom <3.

-“Peri can’t sit in a chair properly.” This twink does NOT sit in chairs like a normal person. He be laying across the chair in the wildest way you can think of

-“Peri is a horrible liar” my boy caNOT lie. It is immediately obvious whenever he tries. He gets all nervous and stutters abunch. And won’t make eye contact.

-“Ray has a diary that they write in with glittery gel pen” CANON CAUSE I SAID SO. It’s all good things. She writes about her day and how she or someone else she saw improved the world or someone’s day. She writes Everytime she made someone smile, every kind act she witnessed, every cute animal she fawned over. If you read her diary you’re gonna be flooded with the overwhelming positivity that is her mind.

-“Ray sings in the shower” She loves to sing cause music is a way to spread joy. She would absolutely be singing pop songs and positive vibes songs only. I’m thinking trolls songs and MLP songs about friendship, love and happiness.

-“Ray is not allowed to drink energy drinks.” Do you KNOW how energetic this woman is 24/7? If she had an energy drink she would probably explode. Sometimes she’ll see Yar drinking one and be like ‘hey can I have some,looks like it tastes good!’ And Yar holds it away from her and says ‘absolutely not’

-“Ray always has half a watermelon on them” her favorite fruit is watermelon, and she likes to share! So she just keeps half a watermelon on her at all times.

-“Ray doesn’t know how to say ‘no’” as I’ve said before, MASSIVE people pleaser. She refuses to say no to someone no matter how much work she has to do or how many favors she’s already committed herself to. And the thing is, she is genuinely happy to do it anyway. She isn’t like stressed out and feels like garbage but says yes anyway because she feels bad, she just loves helping people. Both Yar and Cosmo/Wanda have to look after her and make sure she doesn’t take on too much and destroy her body.

-“if Ray was presented with an intergalactic portal, they would enter it without question.” She’s a big fan of adventure and so much of an optimist, that the idea that something might go wrong or that there’s something bad on the other side doesn’t even cross her mind. She just sees something fun to do.

-“Ray is constantly singing for no reason” She likes to sing joyful tunes of what she’s doing. She’s the type to wake up and sing a designated good morning song to the whole neighborhood. She starts her day by opening her window and loudly singing ‘good morning~~’ to everyone around.

-“Ray tells dad jokes” She loves to make people happy and laugh, and loves humour and all things relating to joy, so of course she tells dad jokes at every opportunity. She’s always ecstatic when someone actually laughs at her dumb jokes. (Especially Yar. She secretly finds them hilarious) also, because we’ve already established that Winn and Cosmo also tell dad jokes, the three of them would have friendly dad-joke competitions where they tell eachother their best dad jokes and try to see who has the best one.

-“Ray knocks people over by hugging them” Once again, CANON. Especially when Yar comes to visit. She will absolutely tackle you into a hug anytime you show up. As long as you’re comfortable with touch, that is

-“Yar sleeps in until noon” This gal is SLEEPY. She’s the opposite of Ray, so instead of being full of energy, she lacks it almost entirely.

-“Yar forgets to eat sometimes” as a chronically depressed Anti-fairy, she will often times forgo eating and just rot in bed. If she’s having a bad episode Ray will come and check on her and make sure she eats and drinks enough water.

-“Yar bites their nails” It’s a habit that she has. Especially when she’s nervous or particularly upset.

-“Yar has chronic nightmares” Again, Ray and Yar are opposites. Ray’s head is full of nothing but sunshine and rainbows, even in sleep, whereas Yar’d head is full of sorrow, Trauma and Fear, resulting in nightmares every single night. (And yet she still prefers being asleep over being awake) most of her nightmares are more sad than scary, however.

-“Emma sings in the shower” again, based on me, so obviously she sings in the shower. She listens to a wide variety of music.

-“Emma doesn’t own a single pair of matching socks.” She finds that mismatching is more fun. Also she doesn’t care about fashion or what other people think of her, so she makes it obvious

-“Emma cries while watching Disney movies” Very emotional, this one. Cries at every Disney movie, whether it be sad or happy tears.

-“Emma tells dad jokes” We’ve been over this with the other three. She’s a fan of dad jokes, more specifically puns. Because again- based on me. She doesn’t usually partake in the dad joke battles, purely because she would rather be the judge.

-“Emma is constantly singing for no reason.” Once again, based on me, so there’s that. There’s also the fact that she literally wished for life to be a musical for a day.

-“Emma is a theatre kid” Speaking of which- big fan of musicals! Especially animated ones. She loves to act and is very dramatic. Very much a drama queen.

————————-

And that’s all I got! Hope you enjoyyeeeeeedd

[eltheabberation]

17 31 & 37 :)

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Start to finish! Sometimes the story evolves as I’m writing it, so I like to write it in chronological order so I can see what works best (also I’m not good at planning ahead ;-;)

31. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

Unless it’s an au, I tend to try and make my fics as close to canon as I can, but I do incorporate my own headcanons from time to time :>

37. Talk about your current wips.

ok uh in order from the one I’m most actively working on to least

Seiaki au fic based on a really shitty I read once. I’m still trying to work out a lot of plot stuff, and the scenes feel a bit clunky so far, but I feel like I’m making good progress and I just need to revise everything a bit more ;w; I’d summarize this fic as “Akira takes advantage of the actual plot-relevant stuff happening to break her boyfriend out of jail.” I’m still figuring stuff out, but I’m actually pretty confident in this fic :D

Takizawa family reunion fic!! I’m a tiny bit insecure about this one cause since we know so little about most of them beyond Seidou, there’s a lot of headcanons and stuff ;w; But that also means I can have fun with out so yay :D And now I can subject EVERY member of the Takizawa family to angst so Seidou doesn’t feel so alone :D I’m planning on writing 4 chapters (one from each person’s perspective) so let’s see how this goes :>

Shikorae and takizawa oneshot (oh boy can you notice a pattern here) based on one of Shikorae’s lines when he first meets Saiko. Idk I just wanted to see more fics of them being friends so I went “fine I’ll do it myself”

Yanhouji oneshot (finally one NON-SEIDOU fic) where I subject Houji to extreme amounts of angst while he tries to cope with the fact that he murdered one of the only people he cared about and who cared about him in return :> Ngl this is the one I’m most scared to post because there are like 2 other people in this fandom who ship this and usually not as their main houji ship and I feel like my interpretation of this ship is pretty different so ;-;;;

Uh ok remember when I said the last one was the one I was most insecure about? I lied it’s this one. So uh pre-canon au fic where Ryouko and Kureo meet back in the past when they were way younger. This is purely self-indulgent I just wanted to explore what I thought their personalities would be like when they were younger and also wanted to see them be friends. Not sure whether this would end up being a oneshot or a multi-chapter, also not sure if I’ll ever actually post it but just putting that out there

Non-tg one and also one I’ve already posted a chapter of, uh Fullmetal Alchemist future au where Selim and Elicia have to solve a mystery together while dealing with their respective issues. I am planning on continuing this eventually I just need to get back in the fma mood ;-;

Those are all my WIPs I’m planning to post or continue, I’ve also got another Seidou one but that’s more of a pure self-indulgent whump fic so idk if I’d ever post it unless you guys wanted to see me subject this poor bastard to various forms of torture and medical horror but idk

Tysm for the ask!! It was really fun answering everything :D

[youremyheaven]

im so glad you're not Indian bc if someone found out you're a manglik in India, brooo the drama 😤😮‍💨 would be Hindi soap opera levels (im pretty sure it's been a plot point in manyyy soaps too lol)

///

(diff anon) im indian and it’s wedding season in my family as everyone’s of age but every kid is a manglik so the drama of choosing ppl is RIDICULOUS 😭😭 PLUS THE WHOLE CASTE THING JESUSSUSU people r planning trips to india to get remedies done like it makes me wonder if white ppl r mangliks and have no clue but go on to have such good lives 😭

damnnn 😩😩hopefully it all gets sorted out!!<3

caste is another issue entirely ughhh casteism is the root of all evil in india

one of my distant aunts is a manglik, her husband died 3 or 4 years into their marriage when she was pregnant with their second child :(( she never remarried and had a super difficult life :( ,, another one of my distant aunts who is also a manglik is in her late 40s and unmarried because her fiancee and his brother died in a car accident when they were on their way to her house for some pre wedding ritual and she's been traumatised ever since and feels like any man who would marry her would suffer a terrible fate :(((

i want to just believe that some things in life are just bad timing/bad luck but knowing what happened to my aunts, i do believe there is a certain amount of truth to the whole manglik stuff 😭😭

i think about white ppl/non-indian people living their lives knowing nothing about their dosh and their birth charts a lot lol but everytime i hear about those random freaky terrible things happening to someone from some part of the world, my mind immediately goes to 😬😬omg it must be his janam kundli lol, even when i hear about those tragically short lived marriages where a spouse dies or both people die, im like IT HAS TO BE MANGAL DOSH and since theyre not indian they didnt even know about remedies UGHHH

[spoiltizzy]

I've weathered many a fandom, and something I noticed about OFMD is that--while I've seen damn near every kink under the sun take off with the fans--there isn't a lot of feedist/weight gain/belly kink arts/fic. And I wonder if it's because OFMD already features multiple sexy fat characters, all of whom are allowed to be richly complex and human?

At first I'd thought it would be the opposite, show with multiple fat characters overflowing with belly kink fan work. But then I looked back on the fandoms I've been in, and feedism content seemed to show up more if there weren't a lot or any fat characters, and what fat characters were around were just one note and not allowed to be their own person.

Reminds me of how, in stories not featuring a lot of queer people, fans chomp at the bit to headcanon canonically cishet characters as some flavor of queer.

Like if there's *lack* of representation fans will compensate, whether it's headcanoning a straight character as gay or having a canon thin character gain a bunch of weight. But in stoires like in OFMD, there's less likelihood of fans trying to make up for a lack of rep *because* there's no lack. The rep is there and it's good.

Or maybe I'm just totally off base. I've def rambled on in your ask box, that's for sure

To be honest I don't quite relate to what you mean because to me OFMD is the only fandom I've felt like I've been a part of a community of feedists in, haha. Forgive me if you weren't saying this and I've read it wrong, but I think you're saying there's not much belly kink content for OFMD?? I often think about how I'm fascinated by the fact that, in my eyes, belly kink content took off in this fandom. Although you're right that there's not that much art out there except for my own, haha. I have seen other people draw like, fat Izzy and stuff, but mostly on commission. I don't know if I can find those links rn but I'll look around later on and maybe reblog this post.

I know I don't get a lot of interaction on this blog and my fics aren't THAT popular but between the discord server and the fact I don't have much experience with getting attention in larger fandoms but there's been a fair amount of engagement with my feedism fics in this fandom AND I've read a lot of belly fic in this fandom, it seems to me like belly kink is fairly accepted here?

There's also just a general appreciation for the softness of bodies in fic in this fandom, I tend to find. It's more common than in other fandoms for non-belly kink fic to mention soft bellies. Well, it's no Good Omens fandom, where the belly stuff is sorta almost taken as a given and it's borderline kink and goes untagged sometimes too it's so inherent to the main pairing, but the OFMD fandom certainly has an appreciation for softness of the body types of the middle-aged main pairing.

I don't know exactly what other fandoms you're referencing, maybe big fandoms that just inherently have bigger sample sizes for people of all different kinks, but OFMD seems pretty full of belly stuff to me? And a lot more of it seems really loving and comes with plot and character study than I've sometimes seen in other fandoms where there's nothing but the belly stuff in the belly content, to a point it almost seems, for lack of a better word, dehumanising? Or, lacks romance, anyway. Most of the belly stuff I encounter in OFMD is very horny but also has a sweetness to it, or like, comes along with fairly common and enticing fanfic plots, maybe even some angst, just overall a lot of heart and a lot of dimension.

You'll find the majority of feedist-themed OFMD fic under this and that search, I think. I'm sure you didn't need any help with this but I really do think there's a fair amount of it out there. I'm also friends with people who are often working on more of it at any given time.

I know what you mean about the compensation thing though. Like, I reckon when it comes to the ratio of feedist fic to normal fic, there's probably not as much in the Sherlock fandom, but there's more numerically, I think. And it's not at all a fandom you'd guess from the canon would have any belly content in it. I think it makes more sense in Supernatural because there's a lot more food and eating in the canon there, but then you've also got characters who just never seem to gain any weight, and yeah, like. That can drive people a bit nuts. I can't quite think of other examples now but feel free to let me know. Still, I don't think, when you think about the fact there's a lot less fic for OFMD overall (especially because it's existed for a lot less time!!! these other fandoms have been producing content and active for years!) then there's actually quite a bit of belly fic. There really could be more art tho tbh... I am talking to a Void here lmaooo...

[feuqueerfire]

Pit Babe Live Blogging

This show is finally ending, I've been stopping myself from starting it since like December I think when I saw Tiktoks from those early episodes (honestly younger, cute boytoy top Charlie who is so beautiful to me had a hand in that lol). The chatter also seems to really like the show, maybe unexpectedly for quite a few people (also I think at least a certain amount of it is for the side ship? Alan and Jeff or something? who I know nothing about because I only really know some plot points until like ep 4 or smth because I'd look up Tiktoks)

So I really hope I like it! I've only been like "meh, sure" for the 3 shows/movies I've watched so far this month, so I'd love it if this one lives up to my expectations.

Ep 1 (Feb 7)

girl what's going on? okay we're starting with fucking but he's gotta blow off steam bc his senses are too sensitive? Or what's going on?

alpha smell, i died

ohhh dubcon sexual coercion racer/fan hookup as payment <3333

charlie doesn’t have a smell (smth about an enigma in the tiktok comments?) and babe can’t stand alpha scent

fuck off iqiyi ad, right in the middle of the scene

i wonder if Charlie does have ulterior motives other than the car bc tiktok comments hinted at it but i stopped looking at them after a couple eps so didn’t find out

ohhh the objectification and using Charlie as a bet is a doozy

Charlie talking about not exploiting Babe is the funniest shit ever

random villain

I need to sleep almost 2am agh - 28m

back the next morning hehe

Why is this guy who seems to be around the same age as everybody else being called Uncle and referring to himself as old man lmfao is it like how Gumpa was maybe supposed to be older than he was in Not Me?

oh, i like these scenes actually, I usually have a 50-50 on whether I'll skip through these makeout/NC scenes but I'm watching these lmao

Babe being so irritable/standoffish after an orgasm is so funny like why lol

kalsdfjlk;asfjlk;asdfj talking about roleplaying as a maid/wearing maid costume/Charlie calling Babe master omg

Babe doesn't know how to appreciate maid Charlie, give him to me instead

the holes in the walls of Babe's house are so funny like what

Also how old are these people? I think I remember a Tiktok of Charlie going to uni (and Babe following him because he's suspicious lol) and I'm guessing Babe is a couple years older than that?

[Linguistics] Pom and Phi for Charlie while Gu and Mueng for Babe

Babe calling Charlie docile awooga

So was the villain whose face we kinda saw earlier the UAC Corp leader? Tony Chen?

"report about Babe"

okay I'm reading the on-air thread for this on r/boyslove and some people are like hmmm about their chemistry so far and are like why is the NC stuff so tame/vague but personally... I can watch the NC scenes when it's like this, so it's going well in my books lol rip, though I kinda assume it might get more heated in the later eps? Also hm idk about Charlie and Babe's chemistry, it seems fine but not magnetic/magical yet.

Also people in that thread seem to have little to no experience with omegaverse or have mostly read alpha/omega and also seem confused about what's allowed vs not allowed when in fact, there's no rigid rules with omegaverse because it's a literal fanfic concept and you can make it whatever you want. Personally, I haven't read any original book/manhua/etc. with omegaverse but am so well-versed in fanfic a/b/o lol a/a o/o a/o are all great, sometimes with a beta though beta/x do tend to be quite rare, even more than a/a and o/o I feel like?? Also have read OT3 a/b/o or a/a/o or a/o/o etc. Love all the different types of fics omegaverse has to offer: the 4k explicit fics and 20k romances and 60k of criticizing society/trying to break out of the rigid molds/mirroring real world issues/etc. Traditional, medium trad-nontrad, and nontraditional omegaverse can all also be interesting and good.

I'm expecting this one to just be like the 20k kinda non-traditional romances w/ a/a.

Ep 2 (Feb 7)

Oh Tony Chen investor is Babe's literal father?

The fiery flashback transitions lmao

Babe's adoptive father

What's Charlie planning?

the menopause comment is so interesting cuz wtf do you even mean but I'm pretty sure I'm also heard it in reference to men in other BLs maybe Thai ones? So it's probably a different word that refers to a similar thing but not exactly menopause

working for free, not suspicious at all lol

This new repairman kid tuning the car to have more horsepower or whatever is reminding me of a high school class where we were doing AutoCAD and stuff but then also had to ?? create a digital car but neither my partner nor I knew shit about cars so we were fr just trying out whatever and seeing the specs go up and down

[Linguistics] Alan addressing Jeff as Nuu lol

lol the germophobe so I don't touch anybody thing

I did think Jeff and Charlie were working together so this makes sense but I thought the guy who was scheming with Charlie was the same age as him but he calls Charlie Phi and is 20 years old (so Charlie's older than that)

Wait Alan just said Jeff and Charlie are the same age? But Jeff called Charlie Phi, so did Jeff age himself up by a year or two?

Did nobody notice how weird Jeff and Charlie were behaving toward each other?

Why'd they zoom in on Way like that when mentioning the UAC Corp

dang, what plan Jeff and Charlie got cooking up

What is this random physical fight that's Charlie's doing lol

Didn't like the camera work during that fight scene, keep it still

And also this one Red Racing member's an annoying character as he's meant to be but the acting itself annoys me

ahh, Charlie choosing the car he knows is Babe's favourite and Way being like Babe doesn't let anybody get in it but Babe letting Charlie borrow it

"I'm Pit Babe, I don't decide on the wrong people" is crazy omg I hate such expectations

Ouchhhh terrible driving lesson flashbacks when my instructor would yell at my stupidity from the passenger seat like this lmfao

Ouch lol Way being like haha what if I fell in love w you and Babe being like lmfaoooo if we were gonna have sparks, it would've happened long ago

Is Way not an Alpha? why did Babe say I'm good with just chewing alphas? Or did he mean he'd rather do that than fall in love with them?

Alan and Jeff barely exist so far beyond Jeff ignoring Alan and everybody laughing about it but I'm into it. The age difference + Nuu thing is also uh good

The Glances that Alan and Babe share whenever Way's talking and kinda sidelining Charlie makes me think that Babe must know that Way likes him, right?

Red Racing aka the team Tony Cheng (Babe's foster father) is investing in wants to poach Babe?

Saw through some reblog's novel spoiler tags that Jeff's an omega

Ep 3 (Feb 8)

Pouty, whiny, dramatic Charlie and Babe's smile peaking through at the act so cutee

Aw, our tough guy sad backstory

damn, tf he fostered a bunch of kids and did what with them

unexpected telekenesis - if I hadn't been spoiled through a post like 2 hours ago about how it just randomly appears in ep 3, I would've been shocked lmfao

and Babe breaks his no kissing rule

Jeff’s reaction after the sniff kiss from Alan akhdjaja threw him off fr

Alan’s hiding that Pete will take % of price money? or is that just understood?

tbh i dint rlly get the investment and returns cuz the show doesn’t explain it like why couldn’t they do smaller races before but now they can? cause of cost to join the race and fuel and whatever else needed for it without the guaranteed winning money to subsidize it? would it be so expensive to do that they couldn’t go to smaller races at all without investments? how were they doing it before this though like why does it matter if red racing is getting this investment, how does that mean x hunter can’t do the same stuff they’ve done so far?

Ah, I've seen tiktoks of the suspicion and Babe following Charlie

Can Babe tell that it's Jeff

damn girl, how are these thoughts even come into your mind as you drive such at high speed with high concentration

Winner is such annoying character I really cant

Ah, so the driving accident wasn't in this ep but ep 4 I guess

Lol caught a glimpse of the next ep preview and I remember seeing people discuss whether the Way and Babe talking about being boyfriends in the preview is in the past vs present (It looks like the past to me)

This show must actually be insane to watch on air, first the surprise omegaverse and now surprise telekenesis

I understand Way's suspicion of Charlie and he's right to be lol but the way he talks about how nobody cares about him and Babe and Babe shouldn't get too close to people is... I wonder if he really has power to hypnotize through touch bc I did see murmurs about that on the tiktok comments. And I didn't think about this, but Way should've waited a couple days to mention to Babe the results of stalking Charlie since it'll affect Babe's performance

Ep 4 (Feb 9)

Annoyed that I was too busy today to actually watch more than an episode yesterday and I think it'll be the same case today, maybe I'll try to squeeze in 1.5 eps.

Is Babe specifically not mentioning seeing him and Jeff together because he wants Charlie to come clean himself?

Damn, Way really is clutching Babe's arm as he tells him to be alone and not trust in love

Babe so mean for pulling that "shall I be your bf?" thing on Way aksdfj

also young Babe is sooo pretty omg

mopey sad Babe :(

How did Charlie get there?

Oh, Jeff watching but unable to outwardly show concern for Charlie in front of everybody

would Tony do this fr though? I thought it was fuckass Winner

Damn, Winner tryna bribe someone to cut the fluid line or smth in Babe's car idk what that means but sounds bad. stopped by Kim but Winner does say he didn't send those people to beat Babe up, so did Tony really do it? Did Charlie...?

Charlie's endless cooking for Babe ahh

Jeff and Alan hehe

Oh yeah lol Babe's upset at Jeff cuz he thinks Charlie went behind his back w Jeff

woah Jeff can see the future via touch?!?! No wonder he was averse to touching so cool

So does this mean that Charlie and Jeff were also in that house raised by Tony along with Babe? The kids were all separated from each other, so it'd make sense if Babe didn't know them. Interesting

The Tony and Co. have been looking for somebody with Beyond Group Pete's power for a long time? Archery? Hand-eye coordination?

Finally, the car crash. Not much happened this ep tbh since it's continuation of last ep's tensions but hopefully we'll move forward at a faster pace now, either in terms of relationship or plot. I also stopped checking the tiktoks at this point, so I don't know as much now and haven't really seen stuff after this except stuff I've already mentioned like Enigma Charlie? Omega Jeff?

omegaverse + racecar + xmen powers & evil father foistering said powers

Agh, fuck, people are writing novel spoilers obviously and accidentally saw it I think say "Charlie and [Babe I'm guessing] have the same evil foster dad" well the on-air thread people who guessed this like 2 eps ago were correct, gj

Ep 5 (Feb 9)

hmm is it indeed somebody on X Hunter who betrayed Babe? I refuse Charlie and Jeff, would Way do it? Would Tony?

Did Jeff go to that car at night in secret because he wanted to try to prevent the fire since he saw it in that vision?

I mean Alan’s not completely wrong, though Way and Dean came off real strong

exploiting Jeff’s sadness for an ad smh

the person avoided the cameras seeing his face as if he knows where they are…

Pete being like “I thought you guys had a mole and didn’t know”

oh i went to ep 4 on air discussion and ppl were discussing whether charlie can suppress powers/steal powers apparently shown in teaser for this ep and immediately as soon i start this again we get Babe being like why can’t i sense you

choosing Charlie (guy who barely just started training and has never done an actual race before) to take Babe’s place is crazy esp amongst others who may not be good but have actual experience before being thrown into the deep end

well at least they’re gonna test Charlie

wdym? Isn’t Babe too hurt to do a fucking competition?

getting v strong insider job vibes but idk if they’ll make it be Way (suspicious), Dean (suspicious just cuz he’s eager to side w Way), or the youtuber dudes (they seem useless and it’d be boring if it was them)

Ep 6 (Feb 10)

Well, at least they still made Babe win by a fair amount while rookie Charlie who has never competed won by a hair compared to junior Dean who doesn't really win

The directing was bad in this though i literally couldn't tell who was ahead because the cars look the fucking same

Charlie looks sooo good with the kinda mushroom hair here idk omg

What even is this argument? Dean is not acting well here and somehow neither is Alan even though Alan's been fine thus far, though he hadn't had to express too many outward emotions until now

Oof, Way watching Babe walk away from him down to Charlie and going with him

so does this cafe thing happen often or no? and in which countries? First Twinkling Watermelon also had some "story" about their table that the guy had submitted for Se Kyeong and now here Alan did a apology thing for Jeff

Ahh it's so cringe but I'm kinda into it, idk esp the way Jeff keeps trying to not smile

babe and charlie looking at stars scene so romantic

omg children

sorry this mama papa thing is killing me so bad

it’s also killing babe lol he keeps laughing during the roleplay

actually okay idk role playing as each other during the first meeting is kinda fun fr and them giggling through it hehe so cute

Pete watching Way drink at the bar?

Dean so annoying

What did Pete see in Babe's future?!

Ah, publicly saying they're bfs but rip Way

Babe doing that smoke thing was crazy cuz if I was Way, I'd be like damn is he boutta step out of his relationship with me rn

ouch ouch ouch ouch

Unrequited crush on a friend is so saddd even though Way's being annoying about it

broooo that spot when Babe and Way are sitting on the car, looking at the sky - is that the same spot Babe took Charlie?

man, ouch!

I seriously wish the subs were better man

but Babe and Charlie were so cute this ep hehe >.< and Babe was just sooo smiley

I want Charlie to get some more personality soon though because we don't know shit about him and I also can't tell what's genuine vs not with him since he's so secretive

Ep 7 (Feb 10)

Ah, so Babe indeed feels suffocated by how Way tells him to be alone and feels like he can't love anybody

I don't get it, I thought Jeff touching Babe would mean he sees Babe's future, so how can that guy lying in the car not be Babe?

Oof, Way and Pete

Also, I try to track when someone's putting on shoes for a romantic partner/candidate but taking off shoes is also so good and intimate, like now Pete taking Way's shoes off

Are Kim and Kenta supposed to ba thing? Can't remember but hope Kenta stops being Tony's laptop someday

As expected, it was Tony's doing

omggg so many things happening at once, exciting

Kim doing a little investigating to find that Tony sells his kids and Babe's the highest price

and also he called Babe to the place he knew that Charlie would be meeting Tony and Kenta omg

and Tony asking about Jeff

oh yeah lol Babe last ep being like since you're Charlie's nong/brother, you're my nong too :) at Jeff like girl first of all Charlie is also your adopted brother technically so let's not get too familial here lol

Tony seeing Charlie and Babe's interaction... Also, I wonder why Tony doesn't know that Jeff is a mechanic at X-Hunter c'mon

On that note, I also wish Charlie had somehow blurted out that Babe shouldn't tell anybody about Jeff being Tony's son also or tell anybody about Jeff's location

Aw, crying and regretful Babe and heartbroken too

Charlie just SAY it while following Babe around instead of being like P'Babe x10 and asking him to listen/being like let me explain. LIKE JUST EXPLAIN BRUH

Charlie doesn't have a power for real or it's just a power like stealing/suppressing powers that Tony's teachers couldn't sense? especially because Charlie specifically mentioned that Babe was just buying time by running away since they were still after his powers - so maybe Charlie thinks the solution is to suppress those powers and that's why Babe doesn't have them anymore

sorry what are we even talking about right now, they're suggesting that Tony intends to get an Enigma (different even more powerful sort of alpha - 1%) to impregnate Babe????? Because that child will be even more powerful? Like what are we doing right now klajsdflkasdjfk

But anyway, this means no hope of Omega Jeff? Since apparently only Alphas have powers.

Kenta doing these "mistakes" with being sloppy enough so that Kim can find evidence + letting Charlie live with Babe... is he on their side?

Oh, Charlie did indeed make Babe's sense disappear by absorbing/stealing it (and being able to do it so well because he's closer to Babe)

ow ow ow ow owowoowowowowowowoow owwwww Babe thinking back to the first night and how Charlie touched him

oh my goddd all their encounters T.T

tf Charlie can't return Babe's powers unless he dies? no way...

girl why is Charlie even thinking of reconciliation right now, you just told Babe all this stuff you hid from him including the way you stole his powers and can't give it back unless you die

stop, I'm really annoyed by this tone change, this is not the time for mama/papa, I want Babe to blow up on Charlie now to dare to make light of the situation and how much Babe's hurting

ah I can't even appreciate the making up T.T

Also, is the fact that Charlie's not mentioning Jeff gonna be considered a secret later on?

Way waiting for their dinner which he took as a date to the sentimental restaurant vs Babe riding Charlie in the car on the road with the roof down

okay sorry this is a whole lot, too much in fact um

Bro Way gotta escape cuz Babe is fr stringing him along for too long let's end this, make some bad decisions but in terms of drinking too much/fucking random people (Pete) but not hypnotizing Babe or anything. and then, let's move on

broooo why are Alan and Babe just discussing Tony and everything in the garage where there are other people

I thought Babe realized that Way liked him... does he not?

woah soooo much info

Wish there was actually more angst/longer drawn out period before reconciliation because Babe would need time to come to terms with everything. but oh well

The spoilers I found right now while going through gifs is that: Apparently Way is the Enigma that Tony's planning to use to impregnate Babe... I'd seen hints that Way is evil/does something against Babe and if we're going with the fact that he has hypnosis through touch powers, then he'd been with Tony but the fact that he's the enigma was new to me

Ep 8 (Feb 10)

Aw fuck, I keep watching this instead of doing my much-needed work D:

Kenta has to somehow not let Kim get killed and his organs harvested right

Aw, Jeff telling Alan his secret special power

Way talking about revenge and being a bad person and doing what he was originally supposed to do...

ahh Charlie not telling Babe about Jeff's vision is scary, even though Charlie consoling Jeff is nice

omg blood everywhere enough investigating let's leaveee

First time seeing Charlie use his powers and he uses it to be kinda stupid lol

Did Tony pick up on the fact that Babe lost his powers?

Ken? Do Pete and Kenta know each other?

Damn, Jeff's visions, he's getting them without touching anybody?

Also, how are you sneaking around in Tony's house lol cameras gotta be everywhere

ah, I wish I wasn't spoiled about Enigma way cuz I might've been like gasp but actually probably not since I already knew about Way being from the other side

Jeff no don't get caught

the fact that Charlie is still like -khap at the end of his sentences with Babe despite having fucked like 50 times and being boyfriends and also having held secrets from him is funny

they're doing doctor/patient roleplay while jeff's in trouble D:

ah, all the plans in front of Way

This must be a trap as well right, set up by Way? I'm afraid Andy's gonna get killed or smth? Or even if it's not a proper dangerous trap, like a trap t somehow save them to gain trust?

Why did they even get out of that room though lol

Winner's soooo annoying, like not even an intriguing semi-antagonist like Way, just irritating and bad at acting

North, Sonic don't both go into the cell cuz what if it's locked from outside

They left Kim again? man...

Jeff I believe in you

Ep 9 (Feb 10)

Charlie can't you at least once wonder where Jeff is? WHAT ABOUT YOUR BROTHER? Literally everybody at the garage is staying at Alan's except Jeff?

you know Tony's looking for Jeff and you're just chill about the fact that neither you nor Alan can contact him? Man, cmon Charlie wtf

girl not Babe finding out about Pete being an Enigma at this place where they're auctioning kids D: and then Immediately going to tell Way about it bruhhh

aw fuckkk not Way hypnotizing Babe when Babe's at the auction place alone with Way and has just found out about Way beingthe Enigma through Charlie. I hope Pete comes out and sees them

ahhhhh aklsdfjalks;fj ewewew I can't watch this like I watched 0.2 seconds of it in the reflection and no aghhh and Babe's sad face in that reflection T.T

Or I hope Charlie immediately goes to Way's apartment or smth after informing Alan of what happened

okay at least Charlie did come

This is so fucking sad, poor Babe D:

And every Babe and Way montage is so sad, first when Way was going through his heartbreak and now because Babe got sexually assaulted by Way agh

abusive father Tony fr but also what power or whatever does he have? He said Way's Enigma can't compete with me

man, this is so fucking sad, the way Babe's trust in me people is shattered and doesn't wanna be betrayed again

Anyway, Charlie learned than his brother Jeff was captured by Tony and crew but has called him and hasn't heard from or seen him since, he should be a little more concerned about him I think

Well, it's good that apparently Jeff is all good and safe

Alan and Jeff are sooo cute, espp because age gap but Alan and Jeff are both so skittish lol... Jeff asking if he can be Alan's boy is crazy though

what are Charlie and Jeff planning, yikes

Also, Charlie being like okay at least father doesn't know that my powers will go back to Babe if I die... so if he fakes his death, Babe still wouldn't have the powers back but the father wouldn't find it questionable?

Is Dean trustworthy?

Ah, this time Charlie getting overwhelmed with the senses and Babe helping me out with an orgasm... romance <3

why is the sex scene surrounded by the car race lmfaooo I kinda wanted to see it and choose to skip parts if it was too much for me, not have it spliced

Ah, they spoiled that Dean's a traitor/snake in the preview, that's dumb smh

oh omg, okay I remember seeing some stuff about main character death in Pit Babe just a few weeks ago (esp when Last Twilight was ending) but as I started this, I was like hm this doesn't seem to track, maybe that was about The Sign. But now I just glimpsed the words "The cross on Charlie's grave [...]" in a text post and seems like this really is for Pit Babe. Not to mention that Jeff and Charlie's plans seem to involve Charlie's death, though I'm assuming it's a faked death.

Ep 10 (Feb 10)

I'm dreading the scene from last ep's teaser where Charlie is against Babe driving and Babe's like you don't have any faith in me? I'm so disappointed in you

ouchhh "you don't believe in my skills" because of the lack of sense? ah it's true like charlie can't control babe just because he wishes babe well but I'm nervous that Charlie planned something terrible what with their plans and Charlie dying/disappearing

ah yep, Charlie's plan is to flip the car over, so scary but Jeff knows at least.

dang, did Babe not finish his lap and just came off in the middle of his last lap? Makes sense, I didn't expect the car to be right there

Jeff's pretending that he did that to Charlie's car to kill him in order to get Tony to do something on his end? Or does Tony also know Charlie's not dead?

Bro what the fuck what do you even mean that Babe got his senses back

This is actually devastating for real

How has Kenta not turned his back to Tony yet fr

Also, so I guess Jeff was telling Tony that he'd crash Charlie's car + with Kenta's help but Jeff was really planning on it killing Charlie

Babe's "I don't want my senses back, I don't want anything back. I just want charlie back" askldfjaskdlfjsadf owwwwwww

This montage is so fucked up

Oh, can you walk over the grave just like that to give the flowers omg? I'd be like D: there's somebody's corpse right underneath my feet and I'm stepping on them...

fuckkk this grave scene is also so devastating

Jeff really and truly is the only person getting anything done, so he got Kim in exchange for the Charlie thing?

girl, not the Jeff and Alan flirting in the midst of devastation. cute thought :( jeff being so done with Alan's inability to flirt that he has to do it himself here too

aklsdfja;sdlkf ow Jeff so cute, coming back to give him a little kiss on the side of the mouth and then running away

The fuck, Dean hit Babe with a HAMMER?!?!?! to the head

So was it Jeff (or Kenta w/ Jeff) who punctured the oil rigg while Dean did something else (gas smth?). or was it that Dean and Kenta together cut the gas line to crash the car but Jeff punctured the oil rig to kill Charlie?

Oh man, the fucking devastation. How did people who watch weekly go through this fr? I wonder... if I could get away with just looking at Pit Babe archive tags or if I'm gonna be spoiled with ep 11/book spoilers... ig I'll try to be very careful? agh idk

Also, I wonder how they're pulling off this fake death if Babe got his senses back? And we saw the dead body? Though ofc Jeff "took care of everything" on his own afterwards so we didn't see him be buried or anything but yknow

Ep 11 (Feb 11)

Good morning, time to watch the show and hopefully finish it toda

Man, I would've rooted more for Way/Pete if Way wasn't gonna rape Babe when he got the chance... makes me a hypocrite since I'm a Vegas/Pete enjoyed but yknow

Oh my bad, seems like Dean did stuff to the gas lines but Jeff had done stuff to the brakes

Ooh, okay, we get to see Charlie already

ugh so did Kenta tell Dean to do stuff to the break lines? I thought Dean did gas

who is this Uncle Reval and what's his backstory? Anything to do with Babe? He's not his father or something right?

lol a secret drug that fake-kills you and gives Babe his powers back

so what's the plan after this? How we catching Tony guys?

Ah, I love Alan and Jeff :( And Jeff telling Alan to think a lot because he knows he's the one who made Charlie's car crash like that + is hiding Charlie from them all

They sometimes treat Jeff like he's a mourning brother and other times they don't lol

Oh that bracelet with the A is crazy like oh Alan you're marking him laksfj oh and he's got one with J, very presumptuous to wear it first before letting Jeff know but loll I guess he's finally stepping up in the flirting department and not leaving it all to Jeff

I can't believe we're not getting proper Omega Jeff though, so he's just Alpha :(

Why did Jeff say I like no love you and Alan's like I got it already and didn't say it back

Jeff's actor is 28 and Alan's is 30, I wish at least Jeff's one was like 20 (That's Charlie's actor's age) so that we could at least feel the difference in age when they're talking as if there's a big age gap cmon

omg sorry the "Nuu, cooperate" "How?" was so good in terms of experience gap

okay Enough, this is going on forever actually lol

ah, Kenta and Pete were playmates and brothers while growing up in that house, thus the Ken and familiarity before when Ken had his knife to Pete's throat

Does Pete not a special power other than just being an Enigma?

oh ngl I thought they were finally doing a pair of Tony's kids who actually saw each other as siblings and not as lovers lmfao but seems like Kenta liked Pete

God why did they leave this dynamic for the end, Kenta crying (or is it just intense sweat?) while trying to harm/maim/kill Pete and thinking of their times together, it's the perfect dynamic - ToddBlack & VegasPete vibes

Wild turn from last week (Babe's still devasted though, I knew I could trust him) and it's like glad AlanJeff is finally happening but it's really happening a few days after Jeff's brother died lol

Also okay idk how to feel about Alan and Jeff sex scene cuz it's like... Alan is very subtly pressuring Jeff just a little? Like when Jeff was like shouldn't we get to know each other a little? but Alan's like that's for later bc he's so intent on fucking Jeff tonight. + the "Nuu, cooperate" when I guess he thought Jeff didn't want to let him take off his pants. the thing issss I could be so into age gap slightly dubcon, slightly immoral relationships but that's not how it's presented here + Jeff's supposed to be in mourning, so idk how I'm supposed to take this

Ep 12 (Feb 11)

Please please please please please Kenta and Pete scenarios and scenes and moments please please please idec if it's a happy or sad ending

agh no i don't want peteway anymore i want petekenta

oh Pete can read minds, woah

Aw shucks, they're kidnapping Jeff

Is the sense going back to Charlie and disappearing from Babe?

girl every 3 hours? that's all it takes before Charlie's senses start coming back from Babe?

okay I'm sorry but literally why are you bringing Way to meet Babe randomly like that fucker would've raped Babe and gotten him pregnant to forcibly make him have kids like we as the audience could be like oh tortured angsty Way but why is Pete randomly bringing Way to meet Pete. Anyway, Kenta now also knows Way's on Pete's side so it's not necessarily like Way can infiltrate the other side either unless Kenta keeps his lips sealed

ah I wonder who is "working for" Tony now...

Pete, Babe, Kenta, and Way lmao for sure there are not gonna be any betrayals and this team isn't gonna go up in flames. It'd be hilarious if Kenta does manage to finally join the other side but Way or something betrays them

Sorry that I was thinking of kicking Kenta (in a fun sexual way) while he was kneeling down like that and then Tony actually did it (in a mean abusive way but I was unfortunately into it)

oh my god okay sorry this is actually so devastating that Kenta is learning how the man who he's ready to give his life for doesn't see him as a son but as a dog but I'm actually losing my mind at his kneeling and crying and begging and getting kicked and giving his hand like a dog gives its paw

Did they also leave the bag this time? Girl, they're so bad at rescuing Kim and not retrieving the bag

I like don't even want Way and Babe reconciliation for real, so I'm glad we're not getting that already at least

ah, as expected he's Babe's father

All these people know that they're buying the kids right? Is it gonna be like Gifted when they're like making a disruption to let the world know what's really going on but they all already know?

Alan trying to drag Jeff away while Jeff wants to protect the kids, this uncle man is annoying me lately

Charlie just zooming in at the end lmfao

The lack of Charlie and Babe was so interesting. Like yeah, makes sense that the two wouldn't be together in Ep 11 and 12 but we got so much airtime for side characters in these 2 eps but it didn't make me feel like no, go back to the mains, because there are so many characters and threads here. And even gave me Kenta and PeteKenta brain rot in these 2 eps.

Ep 13 (Feb 11)

Last episode, like 50 mins long and I don't know what I'm hoping for. like at first, the show was mostly about Babe and Charlie and I want a good closure for them too, esp after like 3 episodes without them together. But I'm randomly so invested in like Kenta now and I don't know what I want from that end. I don't care that much about Alan and Jeff anymore, unfortunately but I'm guessing we'll get some time with them too. Also want to see how the huge and elaborate child trafficking ring is dealt with.

Bro stop explaining everything right now and escape, even though I get Babe's conflicting emotions of "am I dreaming?" unbelievable amounts of happiness and confusion at why Charlie fakes his death

Kenta okayyy

damn, the reaction to the socmed vids seem dumb from Tony's part but who knows

loll Sonic dgaf about pushing away Winner's gun

What happened to all the other patrons and guards?

ah, you did it Kenta even though you cried, you still killed your father. stabbed him in the back, poetry

oof, rip Way

Man, these scenes of Way dying and everybody mourning him at his grave are objectively sad (esp the Way and Babe compilation again) but I don't care as much about him as I did in the earlier eps when he was going through his unrequited crush but before he attacked Babe

The part with Babe and his dad is so sad man but I hope this is heading toward a better future

Charlie and Babe will never stop having public sex and they shouldn't

negl for a second I got scared that they were implying Babe's pregnant or smth like what

Y'know I realize that Charlie and the other drivers a bit of a public figure, does nobody in their audience wonder why Charlie's not dead suddenly? Or was that not public knowledge, just that Charlie crashed real bad

public-ass kiss frr

Where is Kenta? my beloved

Overall:

This show had everything: non-traditional alpha/alpha relationship (w concepts I wasn't aware of like Enigmas but somehow no Omegas lol), racecar competitions, x-men like superpowers (heightened senses, stealing powers, hypnosis, mind reading, telling the future), child trafficking, pseudo-incest if you think about it (from Kenta's side at least) and more. And it didn't have a super strong script, there were nonsensical elements and plot holes that didn't get addressed and things that happened to just move the plot along, but it was a fun watch nonetheless, both for the novelty and the entertainment factor.

The most important aspect of the show was definitely the characters and relationships despite there being like a wrong human trafficking ring and everything involved; it well went back to how it affected the people and their relationships. Babe was a very compelling character with his past and how he behaves in the present and his relationships with Tony/Way/people in general. Also helped that Pavel did a really good job with him and acted his ass off, there were quite a few emotional moments in there.

I agree with some people's comments that I wish Charlie's actor Pooh as a better actor. And his character wasn't as developed or with depth as the other ones either, like in terms of emotions I guess. I could never quite tell how much in love with Babe he really was at a given time because he didn't quite... look it, it looked more like a little puppy fanboy who may or may not be playing it up to conceal his true intentions. Alan and Jeff were cuter in my head before they got together tbh. North and Sonic are dating to me, they're so cute.

Although I really liked Charlie/Babe, my true ship winners might be Pete/Kenta in a Not Me ToddBlack fashion, to be honest, with Kenta as maybe my favourite character (2nd is Babe). They gave us like 2 tiny hints that they might know each other and waited until literally last 10 mins of episode 11 out of 13 to lay out their history and baggage and relationship and Kenta's crush, all the while showing them in a fight where Kenta's trying to hurt Pete (but Pete knowing Kenta can't kill him). They have an interesting friends (-> brothers/crush) -> enemies -> allies again at the very end dynamic where I think that they could become lovers post-canon. And I love how pathetic and desperate for love Kenta is and how he was willing to do despicable things for Tony's approval before finally, finally knifing him. Really had me writing a fic idea in my notes app after my few months of no drive to write, I wonder if I'll actually finish it or not because it's kinda... more explicit and intense than the fics I usually write but it was really good in my brain.

Once again, I'm shallow, so here are the people I find most beautiful: Charlie specifically when he has his glasses on and is being a cute puppy, Sonic omg pretty girl for real, Babe is so attractive - esp the younger version of him without the gelled hair but even in the present day when he smiles and is happy he's so beautiful. Jeff sometimes but I think I'm more into his vibes than specifically his face. Way is gorgeous omg, also aside but that actor has mentioned dating men before including a 7 year relationship.

Rating: 6.5/10 [May 12, 2024 Update: Decreased by 0.5 stars when rerating shows I’ve watched in 2024: 6.5 -> 6] [May 3, 2025 Update: Increased by 0.5 stars after rewatching: 6 -> 6.5]

Tiktoks:

Several of the most liked Pit Babe edits from Ep 1 - 2 because that's when I first saw it and went through the tag

Charlie (song: Honey, I Hate You - XIS)

Ep 3: When Babe stops Charlie from kissing him before the race

Ep 4: Babe telling Charlie they're done

^ Those ones I added before I watched the show and these ones I added now:

Kenta with Tony (Song: Mama's Boy)

Ep 11 Kenta and Pete history (Song: Take Me Back to the Night We Met)

PeteKenta interactions

Pit Babe Movie Watch

I did not know this movie even existed until I saw this gifset about added content in an NC scene for the Pit Babe movie. Well, Pit Babe season 2 episode 1 released literally today, but I will try to not watch it until it's fully out (and in like 2-3 eps I'll have to mute the tags and such too). Insteead, I think I'll rewatch this 3 hours shortened version of the show (and I notice that I decreased it to 6 stars... I might move it back up to 6.5 after the rewatch).

Also since the teaser released on April 2, I've begun to be obsessed with Charlie/Babe again... I read fics + I read some parts of their novel (...mostly just the NC scenes lmfao). I'm so excited by the prospect of Charlie losing his memory and also Babe chasing after Charlie and also Charlie getting mad at Babe scheming to get with Willy to get info or whatever.

May 2

They're skipping over the first locker room fucking scene when Babe's "concentrating" lol

Oh, I didn't know Babe could even hear the other drivers changing gears and stuff. His powers were even more powerful than I thought

They're hot, their NC scenes are hot, it is what it is. I'm watching the scenes instead of skipping through

so funny that with the cuts and shortened scenes due to time constraints, we're at our second CharlieBabe NC scene less than 16 minutes in

oh, the unseen few cuts from the NC scene are here... I'm watching like O.O on my big monitor. and also there's moaning and groaning

Oh, this is ep 2 stuff already, we missed maid costume Charlie

Damn, lots of ep 2 got cut, specifically Charlie and Jeff I guess, from my reactions above in ep 2

I think the first time, I was like hm idk if I buy the kiss, Babe broke his rules already?! But I now know how soft-hearted Babe is and how great his desire to be loved is, so it makes sense

Pavel really is soo gorgeous. I've repetitively had this thought but at 1h mark after they've competed and he's laughing at Charlie's disappointment is soo nice to look at

[Linguistics] Babe calls Charlie nuu during the club celebration around 1h 10 mins ig and it's even more fun to realize that after the incidents of apparently Pavel calling Pooh nuu in general + the mistake of calling Milk nuu that one time lmfaoo. He also refers to Charlie as nong when speaking to Way at like 1h 14 mins

Crazy that in the movie Babe's power disappearing isn't mentioned until right now 1.5 hours in when it's been apparently mentioned throughout in the series based on my notes above

The Way and Babe scene really is sooo horrible

And now it'll be no Charlie/Babe scenes together for like 45 minutes rip

Alan and Jeff's interactions are really so odd if you don't know that Charlie's not dead lmfao like Jeff should be in mourninggg

Ah, the AlanJeff sex scene that turned me off of them even though I liked them a lot previously

Ah, the Tony beating up Kenta scene that gave me brainworms after I finished... Where would I be without the series' PeteKenta scenes...

Oh, this version straight up just did not show Charlie being alive and with Raval until he just suddenly appears in the gala fighting

Oh, Babe calling Charlie Pa and it being translated as Dad instead of Papa or whatever it usually is is really... wowie

I really do enjoy Charlie/Babe a lot, it is what it is

lmfao not them ending on the reverse roleplay of their first meeting NC scene, this happened in the middle of the series I believe

Is this final very naked-looking NC scene new? I don't recall it

Overall:

I'm not rating this because they cut out a whole lot to fit it into a 3 hour movie, I just wanted to get a short version instead of watching all 13 episodes. It was fun, I continue to like Charlie/Babe, I don't think I should've lowered my rating to 6, so it's going up again lol.

[angeart]

holy FUCK i love hmtb- i've been following it since rrally early on and its crazy how far it's grown!!! you portray the characters so realistically (i especially love scar's inability to determine which reality he is in, i think it's. a Very Cool And Good theory about how being in a death game might impact someone) and i think the way you showcase the non-linearity of healing is also very awesome and cool!!

out of curiosity, how many chapters do you think are left?

HI! HELLO! it makes me sooooo happy that you enjoy the story, and it's wild to know you've been there since early on and still love it and follow along! that means soo much to hear!! <3

scar is having a very hard time with grounding, since the world no longer feels safe, and what got him through the life games last time was having grian by his side—the two of them and the home they built—so slipping back there might seem like the only way he knows how to survive. (this thought was random and written out on the spot, something to think about maybe :3)

i very much like to dabble with the non-linearity of healing and touching on how complicated their mental health is. things are far from easy. the bad stuff doesn't just magically go away. mistakes are made. bad decisions are made. a wrong thing gets said. more messes keep tripping them up and getting in the way. sometimes it's too much. mood dips happen and sometimes their own thoughts work against them, even if they want to be better. it's hard. they're trying. (i am very happy if it's coming through right! it's very important to me)

as for the chapters left! this is tricky, because i'm not sure what people want to hear and i don't want to scare anyone off, but. but okay here's the thing.

there is still LOTS of things that are planned for hmtb and will eventually happen. Major Plot Points, too. there is still a huge amount of this fic left.

i don't have things mapped out perfectly, a lot of things happen organically and just sort of sneak up on me, so my plan mostly contains just the Main Bits, and since i never expected to get to the sleepover this late and for it to span this many chapters, i've since long given up on making any estimates.

but it's gonna be long! lots of things to come! things get worse before they get better!!

[blueberry-ash]

I’m actually on break-of-sorts! There’s extra free time in my days, and I can do what I want with it! (Even better—after a couple days spent zombie-ing in front of a video game and tv shows—my brain even kinda wants to do things. How refreshing flsdafjsa;)

So! A fic author interview, which the lovely @lynne-monstr tagged me in half an age ago. :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

327, apparently. God knows how many have been let loose to swim in the sweetly-orphaned seas.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

863,428.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

How Impolite, How Imprudent (The Walking Dead, Beth/Daryl) - 1,108 kudos.

Stripped (Death Note, Near/Mello) - 720 kudos.

let’s embrace the point of no return (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan) - 669 kudos.

Hoping's Free (The Walking Dead, Beth/Daryl/Rick) - 639 kudos.

The Married Ones (BBC Sherlock, Sherlock/Watson) - 625 kudos.

Mostly this is just… happening to write for popular ships sometimes, I think, rather than any reflection on the actual stories themselves.

Although, The Walking Dead ones were very much just posted at exactly the right point in time—AKA right when the folks who were gonna be reading Beth-centric stories were turning up to find it…and when there really weren’t many. I remember finding it really fun to write for that ship, in no small amount because it felt exactly like writing for my usual rarer pair stuff… but with bonus readers. XD

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always plan to. They make me so happy! Unfortunately, my brain makes replying to comments a whole lot more complicated than it actually is… meaning I put it aside for when I’ll have the energy/capacity… and then my executive dysfunction sneaks in and eats my good intentions for breakfast. ;;

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really write angsty endings very often. I guess… against the world? Probably? That’s pretty miserable through-and-through, and is definitely lacking my usually compulsive need to find a happy note to end on.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

…everything? XD

Honestly, my first thought was to crib off Lynne’s answer and say a story that goes real sad before it gets happy. But… that just makes me want to say my Reunion Dinner GaoQiao break-up fic (In the space of your leaving), except… I haven’t actually posted the final chapters for that yet. Meaning it’s happy ending is currently hypothetical, and it’s therefore disqualified from this category. 😂

In which case, I guess… maybe Hoping's Free, actually. I wouldn’t have thought of it, except that I was doing the sort-by-kudos thing, which made me look at it again. But it’s probably a better answer for this than my usual fluff, if only because it was written in this almost grimly hopeful tone that was very intentionally at odds with the canon I was writing from (TWD). (And was probably influenced by the fact I was sitting there writing a “pregnant at the end of the world” story whilst hugely pregnant myself, ha.)

7. Do you write crossovers?

As in, non-fusion crossovers? Where you have characters from both things interacting? Not really, to be honest. I used to, a fair bit, although I’m not sure I ever actually posted any of them. I just recently stumbled across some unfinished drafts for some Harry Potter x Bleach stuff, which was honestly fascinating to look at because I would not think of something like that now.

I do still write a bunch of fusion-style crossovers, though. Like, I’m plotting constantly plotting those bastard things. (Seriously, constantly: my poor SO cannot engage with a show or a video game with me without knowing that I’m probably sitting there thinking about where Qiao Yifan would fit into it jadlf;jasdfl.) Unfortunately, it’s just… a lot harder for me to actually finish those stories. Or sometimes, even to start them. They’re definitely one of those cases where I need to get much better at just… dropping my worldbuilding glee into a tumblr post or something, sigh.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Once. So very long ago that I don’t even remember what it was about, just that I had the sweetest group of friends who made it immediately less devastating for my rejection-sensitive ass (thereby saving me from quitting fandom not long after I had discovered it). <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

So much smut! Mostly the kind with a whole lotta feelings.

It’s not that I don’t write other things—I write so many other things—but smut comes with this bonus setting for me, where it’s just a hundred times simpler than anything else (especially when compared to anything that tries to grow Real Plot—see Question 7, so help me). And that just makes it wayyy easier to actually, y’know, write. And finish. And edit. And post.

(Not that sex can’t be complicated, or complex, because of course it can! But it’s still easier than so many other forms of human interaction, y’know? Or… maybe it’s just that sex is the perfect chill-switch for my brain, and that’s carried over into how I use it for writing, too? Who knows!)

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope. At least, not to my knowledge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yesss, and it’s always exciting! Translators are the best. ♥!!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I’ve planned to! Life got in the way, alas.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

What’s an all-time favourite anything, precious?

Whatever’s bouncing around in my head in the moment, generally. Although, that said, I do keep returning over and over and over to GaoQiao in a way that definitely should give it some kind of special status, so… there’s that. XD

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Hey, that’s quitter talk, Question 14. Anyway, everyone knows I’m trapped in a fandom until I’ve had all my WIPs wrung out of me. (That’s how it works, right? Right?)

More seriously, though, I… am not really sure. There are definitely some WIPs I am constantly thinking I should just give up on and post as partly fleshed-out outlines—because I love them, but I’m not sure I have the spoons to genuinely finish them.

Like, uh, haha, y’know—the insane FangWang fairytale-esque thing, the structure of which was very purposefully built off Propp’s functions (the, uh, narrative elements of a folk tale, per Propp’s Morphology of a Folk Tale stuff), because… I’m a raging nerd who re-falls down the folk tale rabbit hole at least once a year…? I do really love that fic, so very much, because there’s so much going on in it (actual witches! changelings and neurodiversity! Lin Jie baggage! FangWang being insufferable and wonderful and full of feelings! fae folk being terrible! fae folk being So Fucking Right! trials being passed! trials being failed! homely cooking, and magical needlework, and grumpy softhearted healers chopping firewood, oh my!) But also… there’s so fucking much going on in it, dear god.

It’s probably my best candidate for being flung up as a dot-point fic, but… I remain swimming in a sea of self-delusion, haha.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think… I really like getting in the guts of things, when it comes to writing about characters as people-in-bodies. (Which… is a sentence I keep re-writing, but it’s not getting any less unhinged any time soon, so it can just stay there as-is.)

I really like that sense of grounding, anyway: of being grounded in skin and bones and body-connected feelings, which is… mildly hilarious considering—therapist noises intensify.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Executive dysfunction.

Uh. Yeah, so, I’m super bad at internalising that grammar exists for Reasons, and that those Reasons are that other people don’t necessarily think or read with the apparently weird rhythm that I do. And that means… y’know… that my own shit needs to confirm to at least a baseline of some kind or else it’ll become kinda unreadable. (I am getting better at it, I think. I am. It’s an endless project. Commas are my own personal hell.)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I do kinda get why people might do this, because baby-me was pretty enamoured with it.

Now that I’m no longer Baby, however—at least, not when it comes to this—it’s not really something I would do. I’m also more likely to politely exit back out of stories that do choose to do it, although that’s mostly because it tends to be one of those markers that says Things about whether or not I’m going to jive with a story. (As a boring-ass adult with too little functional time on her hands.)

(On the other hand, I am deeply into terms of address/honorifics being kept and used. They can provide such a rich dose of information about intimacy, familiarity, and all the rest of it. That said, I tick-tock back and forth like a busted clock on whether I think they should be translated or not.)

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Animorphs, probably, although I didn’t know what a fandom was at that point. My first posted fic was for Stargate Atlantis.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I’m going to find a way to write that sedoretu Gao Yingjie/Fang Shiqian/Wang Jiexi/Qiao Yifan story if it fucking kills me.

(Also this random Gao Yingjie/Qiao Yifan & Su Mucheng/Wang Jiexi partner-swapping thing that’s been living rent-free in my head for literal years, but which has never actually been written down as anything more than a one line note. C’mon, story, get out of my head and onto some damn paper!)

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written

We play favourites in this house! Also… I’m just really bad at making those kinds of choices.

But—you know what? Fuck it, in the days this draft has been sitting here, I gotta say, I’ve kept thinking—probably the older the ginger (the spicier it gets). It’s peak rare pair, but I had such a blast writing it, and it’s one of those odd things I actually enjoy re-reading, too. <3

[theshadowrealmitself]

Trying to be asleep rn because I have to be up hella early in the morning, but not only is my brain not shutting off, when I was at my sleepiest it decided to hit me with a wave of sadness

So I’m gonna type out non-sad thoughts here and see if that helps:

Personally, I don’t agree with the whole “work spouse” thing when one or everyone involved has an actual spouse, like if it’s just a “oh we’re just really good friends, it’s not cheating in the slightest” then why are you using specifically romantic terminology? Why not just use the term “work bestie”? It feels emotionally unfaithful and I think Vulcans would agree with me, tbh

I’m still upset that I have to produce my own niche content 😭 please, sometimes I don’t mind but it really sucks when I’m like “I want fun alien courtship rituals” and my brain is just like “ask again later”

I have a fucking time loop story that can easily work as a small manageable writing project (as I’d only need to do a few loops), but I keep not sitting down and writing it ���

Still working on my dino plushie, my sis just visited for a week and I had to do mandatory school stuff so it’s been a bit on the back burner but I should hopefully have time tomorrow (I have to keep an ear out for a delivery so please hope for me that the delivery comes in the morning so I can spend the rest of the day knitting and listening to horror stories pls 🙏)

I wonder if I’ll be able to do any knitting when I’m taking the buses for school? On one hand there’d be time, but on the other hand, the bus is shaky so I might end up dropping stitches, and I’d be terrified of missing my stop the entire time, hmm if I do knit it’ll probably be the really simple projects

I really wanna get into the Godzilla fandom because I remember being really terrified of one of the movies when I saw it as a kid and who doesn’t love large lizards? but tbh I have no idea how to get into it 😭 gives me comic book vibes trying to find a place to start

Actually speaking of, does anyone know if there was a Godzilla movie where she was rampaging and there was like,, scientists holding her eggs hostage but they were starting to crack because the babies were emerging? That’s probably not what the actual plot was but that’s what little me thought was happening, it was definitely a Godzilla movie tho

I wish I was faster at knitting

Oh!! Btw!! Technically the university I go to now (not revealing the name for privacy reasons) gives us actual healthcare, and I think I’m finally able to set up appointments (trauma’s been preventing me, don’t ask pls), which means I can finally get my hands checked on to see if there’s anything they can do to help, and then maybe see what’s up with the heart stuff!!! (and maybe lungs, I feel like I’ve been losing breath over every little thing lately, kinda concerning)

Hair has been fading fast, thinking about doing purple this time

Normally I feel like I think up a good amount of platonic plus romantic scenarios, but lately I feel like it’s been way more romantic stuff, I wonder why? Tbh I actually feel the most consistently okay with being single than I have ever, like the thought of 0 relationships so I can focus on university and hopefully getting a job (god the job market sucks rn) doesn’t phase me in the slightest

I miss those candies that were like,, wax coke cans and you’d bite off the top and then get to drink the small amount of liquid in it? (and then I’d chew the wax bottle, not sure if that was common)

[therubyreader]

My Review of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

See a full list of my book reviews here

*Disclaimer: there will be spoilers later on in the review*

Review Word Count, non-spoiler: 752 Review Word Count Total: 1,436

I have done it again folks, I’m writing the review of this book right after I finished it. Can I get a round of applause? Now I was kind of on the fence about writing this review, I honestly wasn’t sure how many people cared (myself included) but my friend who recommended me the series, [insert name here, don’t want them to get doxxed or anything], encouraged me to write this after reading my review of the first book (click here to read it if you’re interested). They did also say, and this is an exact quote, “I forget that you’re like a good writer dude,” so there is that. 

The Dream Thieves takes us back right, kind of, to where we left off in The Raven Boys after the boys plus Blue managed to wake up the ley line and Ronan has let the gang (real quick, do they have an official name because if not I'm going to keep finding new and creative ways to say “group”) know that he’s able to take stuff out of his dreams. Now that his secret is out Ronan starts to learn more about his powers, along with the consequences of using them, while hunters are looking for the Greywaren, believing it is an artifact that makes dreams a reality as opposed to a person. The squad are also experiencing the effects of waking the ley line, Adam is learning what his sacrifice means while they try to recover Cabeswater, the magic place in the middle of the woods, that has mysteriously disappeared.

While, in comparison to the first book, we don’t spend the entire first half waiting for something to happen, there were parts where I kind of sped through them since they weren’t directly linked to the plot until much later. I honestly should’ve learned my lesson and paid attention to everything because I know from the first book every detail was going to come back later, but I am known to have a horrible track record of not learning from my past mistakes, so I didn’t. But it wasn’t that big of a deal with this book because everything had already been established so most of what was going on was able to hold my attention while actively advancing the plot. 

I think that the biggest change from this book to the first one is that we see more into the mental state of the posse than we did in the first one. There are a lot of things going on in their lives along with the search for Glendower that is impacting their mental health, and it’s expected that a couple of breakdowns are bound to happen, especially when it comes to teenagers. We see this the most with Adam and Ronan, Adam because he has gone through a lot in a short amount of time, leaving an abusive home, the discovery of Cabeswater, and his financial issues on top of what his sacrifice really means. Ronan, on the other hand, same soup from the first book just reheated (we actually get a look into his mind). I think this was a wonderful addition to the book, usually the mental health and struggles of characters in books is overlooked or just not expanded on properly. These kids have to deal with this magical mystery on top of being kids with real problems and they are obviously going to take a toll on their mental health.  

I think my biggest complaint with this series is how drawn out everything is, and I get it, Gansey has been looking for Glendower for seven years, this is going to take a bit of time, but I just think everything could move slightly faster. And this is totally my own problem, and it’s the author’s writing style to add details and draw out story lines (which is very good writing by the way) but I, as you may have noticed, have the attention span and need of instant gratification of an iPad kid. I think since the plot is advancing and getting really juicy now leading into the third book (which I already have by the way, so if people (my friend) are still interested I’ll get that review up as soon as I finish it) I’m going to complain less about the pacing. Overall, a solid continuation of the series, again not my favorite book ever of all time but I’m enjoying the series as a whole and I’m going to finish it.  

Spoilers Below!!

One quick thing I’m going to say before I start talking about the plot points is that I read the scene where Ronan admits he’s gay to Kavinsky (who I’m pretty sure is gay too and has a crush on Ronan) on the first day of pride month, so happy pride everyone!  

There’s honestly a lot of the plot I want to mention so I’m going to rapid fire some of the smaller plot points right now before I get into the meat. First, the kiss between Blue and Noah was actually very cute and sad, shout out to Noah for being a good friend about it and letting Blue have a kiss that won’t kill anyone and shout out to Blue for managing to pull every single guy in that crew except for gay icon Ronan. The almost kiss between Blue and Gansey was cute and sad also but for different reasons mainly because she’s going to kill Gansey. Calla, Persephone, and Maura beloved. Matthew beloved. Literally everything in the Barns is so strange that I won’t even attempt to get into it in this post, but just know I’m thinking about it. The whole Kavinsky thing too, how many dreamers are there? Why him? How does dream land work? Did he really commit suicide? Was he in love with Ronan? What was up with that “with me or against me” nonsense? Also, what happened to the dragon and dream horror after their epic showdown?  

Ok, cool, now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about Adam. I know this is bad, I have to give props for the way that his mental health struggle is written. I mean the internal battle between the violence he inherited from his dad and his need to be better only being exacerbated by his sacrifice to the ley line was such a beautiful arc in like a twisted way. It felt really real and raw and I enjoyed reading his chapters and seeing his growth as a character from a scared boy to the magician was probably my favorite part of the book.  

Alongside that Ronan’s arc was also very similar with him learning his father was also a dreamer and his mother was a dream he brought to life which kind of reminds me of that old Reddit post about Ogtha the roach if anyone knows what I’m talking about. I also want to know if Declan is also a dreamer, because there is only one Graywaren and its Ronan, and maybe also Matthew as since they’re the products of a dreamer and a dream. That whole thing is bonkers and I’m excited to see how this plot point evolves over the course of the next two books.  

Lastly, I didn’t get the point of the Gray Man. I know he’s supposed to be strange and mysterious but he was too strange and mysterious to the point where I didn’t understand why he was needed in the book at all besides to be in love with Maura and talk about her feet too often, which like I get is supposed to be some sort of metaphor for them being opposites or whatever, but like dude, get some hobbies. Maybe this is because I speed read through his chapters because I didn’t like him so I didn’t get it or they’re going to expand on his character in future books but he was easily the worst part of the book. I hope for less of him in the future and if they give Maura a love acute angle (because its technically not a triangle if you think about it) with the Gray Man and Blue’s dad I will riot, on God.  

Anyways, if my friend commands it, I will be back for a book three review in the coming days, I will admit I did read the first chapter already because I have no self-control. Unfortunately, the fourth book is currently unavailable so I have it on hold which is going to make me slow my roll at least a little. Until the third book!