#the best male protagonists i fear

[adventuringblind]

Teach Me Part One

Max Verstappen x Reader Part Two

Genre: hurt/comfort (2.7k words)

Summary: Max helps our protagonist through a journey of sexual discovery. You know - after she's been assaulted... Don't worry though, he's got her (and her virginity).

Warnings: Attempted r@pe, BDSM in the wrong way, then it gets better, lots of discussions, Virgin reader, softdom Max, toxic ex, dom/sub, alluded to smut

Notes: I hope this is what le requester was looking for! I tried my best to get everything and I think I did! Really hope you like it and that it brings you comfort!

Side Note: My inbox is open if you wanna come chat with me because I'm going insane over here...

Masterlist // Request Form // My Website // buy me a Ko-Fi

Trust is something most people underestimate the power of. Trust is sitting on a chair and thinking it will hold you. Trust getting in your car and knowing it will get you to work and back. 

Trusting people is harder than trusting inanimate objects. It’s easy to come back from a chair breaking or a car randomly stopping. Humans take the trust of others and stomp on it. They treat it like a toy; something to be thrown away when they are done with it. 

She did trust once. She tried to give someone her love. It didn’t work out for her, and made her struggle to trust anyone after that. 

Max swings her legs back and forth on the counter. GP had come in not five minutes ago and told him to get down. But Max is like a cat, and refused to get off. 

She sits in a chair in the office area, preparing for debrief. Her fingers crossed it goes longer because that means right to sleep with her. Her boyfriend won’t have any reason to keep her up. Not when she has a race tomorrow. 

“Any plans for after the race?” 

Logically, there is no way Max doesn’t know her plans. They’ve grown up together; her and Max against the world. 

She shrugs. “I’m not sure. Probably just hanging out with my boyfriend.” 

“Boring, you should come out with the team!” The warmth on his features makes her want to melt. She’d much rather be with Max. Her relationship hasn’t been going well for some time now and she’s been trying to find something to repair it. Because she can’t bring herself to leave. He’s guilted her into staying; the fear of being alone outweighs wanting to leave him.  

“If I could find something to do with him, then maybe it would be less boring.”

Max Waves her off after the race with a grimace. She knows he hates the guy, but he also doesn’t even know the full extent as to why she hates him. Why she can’t stand being around him for longer then she has to. 

She’s alone in the room for a minute. Her boyfriend is still in the shower for the time being, meaning - she has time to indulge herself. 

It’s a stupid interest, really. Max had brought it up in passing; something he’d tried with partners. The one problem with being Max’s friend? His astute lack of knowing when enough information has been given. Still, the details of his experimentation through the years left her wanting to know more. 

Her recent search history has been her own exploration into the world of BDSM. It’s a stupid thing to look into considering the male she’s with isn’t the nicest about sex. No, he’s tried to coerce her a few times now. He comes to races with the intention of trying to get in her pants. It’s just not something she wants yet and she’ll continue to let him fuck her throat if it means holding him off from taking that piece of her until she’s ready. 

She’s caught up in her own thoughts, mindlessly scrolling something mildly more explicit. “Watcha looking at?” The obnoxiously placed male on the bed tries to crane her head to look at her phone. 

In her panic to hide the screen, she fumbles. His hands snatch it away from her and begin scrolling where she had left off. “It’s nothing-” 

“Actually, this is something. Is this all it takes to get you to let me in finally? Would you like to be owned?” 

She would like to tell him no. She wants to explain what she wants is to feel safe with someone; enough to let go for once. “Just something I was curious about, is all.”

“Whatever - don’t expect me to stick around much longer then. Maybe this will help us get back to where we were.”

She ends up with a bruised throat the next morning. Her peace offering to him since he was adamant about getting something from her. 

What she was not expecting the next morning to be woken up stuck to the headboard. Her wrists hurt more than her throat and the fear clouding her brain makes it hard to tell what’s really happening. She tugs at it, only to be stopped by a familiar set of hands. “Isn’t this what you wanted? I figured I’d indulge you.” He sounds nonchalant about all this. She’s not sure if that makes it better or worse. “Just relax, yeah? I’ll take care of you.”

It’s the way he’s eating her with his eyes. The sinister tone in his voice. She doesn’t want to be here. The more she tries to relax, the more she ends up panicking. His touch on her skin hurts more than she wants to admit. 

“Would you stop squirming?” 

“No!” She pulls harder at the stupid restraints around her wrists. She pulls until her hands start to slide out, bloody and burned, but it’s enough. 

The second she’s free, she’s flipping them. They wrestle as she attempts to flee, eventually able to slip her way around him and out the door. 

She’s barefoot, disheveled, her long shirt barely covering her ass. Not bare, thankfully, but pretty close to it. The adrenaline kicks in and she sprints to Max’s room three floors up and prays there is nobody around. Grateful for the early hour in the morning that this has occurred. 

Her knuckles hit the door with a bruising force. “Max! Max please open up! Max-” The door opens and she tumbles inside. Nearly hitting the floor, but Max’s quick reflexes are there to steady her. 

She clings to him, sobbing, the fear of what might have happened to her hitting like a punch to the gut. 

Max ends up getting her stuff for her. She can’t stomach the thought of ever seeing that man again. Let alone attempting anything intimate. 

Max lets her stay in his guest room for the time being. He doesn’t push for her to talk about it. Not yet at least, but she knows he’ll get impatient just like the rest of them. He’ll kick her out when she doesn’t give him what he wants. 

Max finds her out on his balcony four months into their new living situation. It didn’t help that winter break happened three weeks after the whole ordeal. It’s nice solely for the reason they drive for the same team. Otherwise, she’d hate being left here to wallow in her own self pity. 

Max sits himself on the side across from her. “Wanna talk about what’s going on in your head? I miss seeing you smile.” She can tell he’s nervous, his lip biting from childhood never went away. 

“Just thinking.”

“About?” 

He’s worried; can clearly hear it in his voice. He wants to know that she isn’t going to do anything crazy. “What happened, I guess.” 

“I’m here. If you ever want to talk about it - I’m here.” 

Maybe it’s the thought of Max having defended her for years now, or the safety she has always found with him. “It’s really stupid.” She drops her head into her knees. 

“Can’t be if it’s making you upset.” 

“He saw something I wa looking at on my phone the night before I forced myself into your room-” 

Max’s eyes go wide. “Alright, the only stupid thing about that is you thinking you forced yourself on me. You can come to me whenever and I’ll open the door.” He gestures for her to continue after his interruption. “What was on your phone?” 

This is the part where she runs if things go south. “Itwaslikesexstuff…” 

“Sex stuff?” Well, her original plan has failed. How he could have ever understood that is beyond her. 

“The - the kind that - you talked about?” 

His cheeks turn a bright shade of crimson red. “Curiosity, I presume?” 

“If you count the last two years as a curiosity phase, then sure.” 

“I’m - I’m so sorry.” 

She blinks at him. The words are barely sinking in as she watches him rub his palm against his neck and jaw. “Why are you apologizing?”

“Because I sent you - unknowingly, sure - down a rabbit hole that can be dangerous if you don’t know where to look.” His sad demeanor makes her want to hug him. “Was it something related to BDSM stuff? I swear if he hurt you I know where he lives still-”

“Max please-” The laugh raging through her is pathetic. “-As much as I’d love to see him get his ass handed to him, I think I’ll be okay in time. He didn’t rape me. Close to it, but I managed to get away.” 

“Oh fuck! Your wrists were busted! I should’ve known.” 

“Yeah well, I guess it gives someone else the opportunity to take my virginity-” Well, cats out of the bag now. She had meant it as a joke, something to lighten the mood. Now Max is gaping at her and she’s not sure how to feel about it. 

He slides over to her; their knees now knocking together. “Someone else, huh? Have anyone in mind?” 

“Had someone in mind for ages, but he wouldn’t feel the same.” Because he’s seen the worst of her. There is no way Max could ever love someone like her. Someone who struggles with intimacy-

“Try me. Because I think anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“What about you?”

“Especially me.” 

It’s a month after that where Max brings up the subject again. They’ve kissed and cuddled, but nothing aside from that. She has tried to suck him off. Her mindset being it would appease him for the time being but Max had refused. ‘Not until you are doing it because you want to, not because you think it’s your job.’

She wanted to lay there and cry. Which she might have, but fell asleep at some point. The subject hadn’t been brought up again until now. At the breakfast table of all places. 

“So, out of curiosity, are you still curious?” 

She drops her fork out of surprise. “I - I mean… yes? But I’m not sure I want to go through that again-” 

“Nope, never. What he did was wrong, plain and simple.” 

“But isn’t that what it is?” 

“It is about trust and safety. I’m going to assume you didn’t have a safeword?” 

No, because they didn’t even talk about it. She just woke up tied to the bed and was told to stay still. She settles for shaking her head no. Overwhelmed by the severe lack of anything that Max is talking about.

“If you want, we can take things at your pace, yes? I’ll show you what the bastard should have done.” 

And if that didn’t pique her interest, she doesn’t know what would. “Yeah I - I think I’d like that.” 

Max takes her out to dinner a week later. Her favorite, as usual, since it’s also his favorite (another perk of growing up together). He’s terribly sweet to her the entire night. Which isn’t that big of a change from normal - but Max is sassy and won’t hesitate to throw a sarcastic insult her way. 

“Are you alright if we talk about some things tonight?” He asks on the car ride home. “I would like to get a feel for what you might want to try in the future so I can research a bit.” 

“Yeah - yeah sure.”

Max collects her into his arms on the sofa. The stubble on his chin prickles her skin while he leaves playful kisses. The notebook he has resting on his (and hers by proxy) knee is flipped open to a blank page. 

“Okay, first up is safe words.” 

“To be fair, I know what they are and why they are important. He just didn’t talk to me about anything first…” 

Max hums. “And we’re still gonna talk about them!” He giggles when she groans. “Hey! This is the safety stuff I was talking about. Do you know the traffic light system?”

“Green is for good and red is for stop…”

“And yellow is for?”

“Pointless, is what I’ve read.” She shrugs.

Again, Max gapes at her. “On the contrary, yellow could just mean something doesn’t feel right or you need a minute to breathe. Not a full stop, but a slow down.” 

That makes more sense now. Curse the internet! She probably should’ve made sure her information sources were credible to begin with. “Yellow means wait a second.” 

“Secondly, it’s usually good to have multiple safewords. Red is one and the other I use is Mercedes.” 

She can’t contain her laughs. Nearly falling out of Max’s lap as she clutches her chest. “Mercedes?!” 

“Think about it! If Mercedes becomes a normal bedroom topic then we may need to rethink some things.”

“Fair point, but it’s still a bit funny!”

“Next thing on the list is how I personally like to conduct a scene.” The smirk plastered on his face makes her want to curl up in a ball and hide away. 

“Is it not the normal way?”

“To be fair - there is not a normal way. It’s just how I’ve come to enjoy setting things up prior. Like discussion beforehand is always a must.” 

“Like what we’re doing now?”

“Exactly!” 

They end up talking for hours on end. Into the morning until they are both passed out on the couch. Needless to say they don’t get any further than that. 

More daycare spent simply talking about it. Max takes care to make sure every detail is talked about. It’s the small things that she hadn’t even thought to consider earlier on. 

It becomes safer just by talking about it. Like Max has somehow made it less scary. Which could also just be because he keeps talking about safety. 

She explores in the way she is comfortable with. Small touches here and there, a bit of oral when she can manage. Max checks in with her almost too often. Specifically when she’d like him to keep his tongue where it’s at. He laughs at her frustrated huffs. They do the non-sexual side of things more often. Sometimes he takes things into his own hands, getting her on her knees. Nothing more than what she’s willing to do. 

It’s when she wins a race, high on adrenaline and soaked to the bones in champagne, that she feels the desire to go further. 

She attempts to jump Max’s bones when they are finally back in their hotel. “You don’t want to go celebrate?”

“Can’t I celebrate with just you?” 

“You certainly can, but I plan on taking my time if we’re doing this tonight.” The post race gravel in his voice has her swooning. 

“Please Max? I want you.” 

“I’m going to ask you if you’re sure a million times regardless.”

He pulls her in for a gentle kiss. It turns heated and eager quicker than anytime before. Her need to get her desperation across has Max pinning her to the wall. She squeaks in surprise, having not seen it coming. 

“Someone is eager tonight.”

“Are you going to make me beg for it?” 

“Not tonight, another time though.” 

He taps the bottom of her thighs. He lifts her like she’s nothing and sets her on the bed gently. “Shall we review?”

“Green for go, Yellow for slow, Red or Mercedes for stop.” 

God is he beaming at her. His knuckles caress her jaw. “Good girl.” 

Gone, she’s so gone for this man it’s not funny anymore. Not when he talks to her like that. 

Max takes care of her, runs his hands across her body and makes her shiver. He strips each article of clothing like she’s the most delicate thing he’s ever touched. 

“Color?” He says while leaning over her with no clothes between them. 

“Green.” 

The next morning is fuzzy. She’s not sure if it’s because she and Max were up until the early hours of the morning, or because she’s sore in places she didn’t know could be. It’s unreal how good she feels; how loved and wanted. 

She wants to stay here, frozen in this moment, watching the sun soak into Max’s skin. He’s breathtaking; always has been. 

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Max cracks a smile and stretches his arms out around her. 

“You’re a dork.”

“Ah, but you trust me enough to be your dork. Specifically yours; all this dorkiness is for you.”

She rolls on top of him. “Hey Max?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks - you know - for teaching me and making it special.” 

“You deserve is schat. I’m glad you trust me. That's a big honor and I’m grateful for it.”

[theemissuniverse]

WHO IS YOUR MORTAL KOMBAT 1 BAE BASED ON YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE [MALE MK CHARACTERS]

INTP VERSION

LOGICIAN

A/N : Before y’all try to correct me - got this information from the personality database app so if you wanna tell me I’m wrong then blame the app. Also don’t take it THAT seriously. It’s just for fun. I will do a female version after this. Also please LIKE THIS TF UP. THIS TOOK ME WAY TOO LONG AND I DID CHARACTERS I HATE/DONT CARE ABOUT SO IT COULD BE FAIR PLEASE DONT DO THIS TO ME. Also, also do not say I picked favorites because unfortunately this is my personality and the characters that I wanted when I ran it through the system DID NOT match close to 100% so yeah

WARNINGS : none I think

First, what is an INTP individual?

INTP’s are logical and analytical "Logician" who prioritize knowledge and understanding. They are known for their interest in stripping away superficial details to get to the underlying principles of a system or idea. They may be seen as absent-minded professors who are highly intelligent and enjoy developing and organizing their subjective understandings into consistent systems. They are flexible and tolerant, but may become rigid when their beliefs are challenged.

Your compalability/relationship with all the MK 1 Characters

Baraka [ ENFJ - protagonist ]

Chemistry : 92%

Relationship Type : Playmate

Shared Value : Abstract

Communication Style : Educational

In a relationship, Baraka will give you anything you desire. He is always willing to do anything you ask for to please you. He wants you to be well taken care of. He wants to see you at your best even though most days he feels at his lowest. Baraka does fear that one day you might leave him for someone he feels as though is more worthy. So, he’ll always try to give you everything you have ever wanted. Your communication is always an understanding between the two of you. The two of you get each other.

Baraka is actually playful with you despite how serious he can be. He feels comfortable with you. Like he can be himself. He doesn’t have to hide who he is when he is with you. Everything just feels right. Sometimes the two of you don’t share the same goals but that’s okay. You two are different and Baraka understands that.

Bi-Han [ ENTJ - commander ]

Chemistry : 99%

Relationship Type : Soulmate

Shared Value : Intellectual

Communication Style : Rational

In a relationship, Bi-Han will try his best to be gentle with you despite his nature. You are his peace. The coldness to his ice. There is no better person to calm him down other than you. He is grumpy with everyone. It’s always him versus the world. That’s not the case with you. It’s always you and him. Together. Bi-Han feels like he can trust you and trust is an absolute big thing with him. If he cannot trust you then he mind as well treat you like everyone else. His communication is always calm considering how cold he can be. He is willing to talk through whatever problem the two of you face. Even though some days he doesn’t feel like it.

Bi-Han has a sense of obsessiveness over you. He feels like he needs you twenty four seven but he will never show it. He’s still a little hasty on showing affection but trust that he feels it. He wants to show you but sometimes it’s hard given how he is as a person. It has nothing to do with you, it’s him. Bi-Han will always try with you. Sometimes he can get a little pissy with you but you know how to handle him so it never gets blown out of proportion. The two of you are the best when you are together.

General Shao [ ESTP - entrepreneur ]

Chemistry : 83%

Relationship Type : Supervisor

Shared Value : Pragmatic

Communication Style : Inductive

In a relationship, Shao will lead, guide, and protect. He will make sure you are alright. Make sure that no obstacles stand in your way. He will always make sure you are making the right decisions. He wants what’s best for you. He will protect you with his life. Nobody will dare threaten his queen. Nobody. Shao feels that you are his very weakness. (And to him this man has no weaknesses.) Sometimes he hates it. He hates the way you make him feel.

Shao will make people bow to you. Will make people worship the ground you walk on. He will not stand for anyone to treat you horribly. Unfortunately, the communication in your relationship is undoubtedly horrid. Shao does not know how to speak to you or confess his feelings which leads into fights. At the end of the day, Shao will always make sure you are safe.

Geras [ ISTJ - logistician ]

Chemistry : 82%

Relationship Type : Eye opening

Shared Value : Systematic

Communication Style : Reductive

In a relationship, Geras will show you nothing but kindness and compassion. You are not kind to yourself. He knows this. He will show you how to treat yourself. He will show you what you truly deserve. He will not back down even when it gets hard. He will stand by your side and help you experience the feeling.

It is not just yourself but to other people you have a hard time expressing your compassion to. Not to worry, Geras will help you. He will show you how to be kind, gentle, and caring to others. When you do, it makes you feel better about yourself. Geras will always be there for everything. Even if your communication can be a little off, he will still show you the way.

Johnny Cage [ ESTP - entrepreneur ]

Chemistry : 83%

Relationship Type : Supervisor

Shared Value : Pragmatic

Communication Style : Inductive

In a relationship, Johnny’s ultimate goal is to make you laugh. He doesn’t care what the situation is. If you’re upset or if you’re happy as can be. He will always try to make you feel better. He can’t stand when you’re sad. He can’t stand when something bothers you so he likes to take away everything that makes you feel bad about yourself with laughter.

Unfortunately, sometimes Johnny claims you are too serious for him and you claim he is too childish for you. Sometimes the communication isn’t really there but Johnny is willing to put aside all that because he loves you. Johnny loves showering you with gifts and telling you how “hot” you are. You’re perfect to him. His little movie star.

Havik [ ISFP - adventurer ]

Chemistry : 92%

Relationship Type : Consigliere

Shared Value : Pragmatic

Communication Style : Analytical

In a relationship, Havik’s more chaotic nature ceases when he is with you. It is always an interesting experience being with him but you don’t mind it. He gets to show you his way and you will show him yours. Two different worlds colliding may be overwhelming but Havik will be grateful for the experience.

Havik wants to show you what life is all about. He wants to show you adventure. He wants you to experience his world and his thinking. He wants you to understand him because he feels like nobody really does. As long as you let him, he will love you like he’s never loved anybody before.

Kenshi Takahashi [ INTJ - architect ]

Chemistry : 98%

Relationship Type : Twinflame

Shared Value : Intellectual

Communication Style : Speculative

In a relationship, Kenshi will always be there for you no matter what. Kenshi will be the one that will never go away. Even if you are at your lowest. Even when everything feels pointless. Even if you two fight. There is no driving Kenshi away. The two of you will figure it out. He’s determined on that. He will die on the hill every time. The two of you are so similar that you click every time you are around.

Every time he kisses you, it’s like fireworks. You are more to him than a girlfriend. You are his best friend. Someone that is deeply sewed into his soul. He will never run away from the feeling he has when he’s with you. Never will back down. He accepts who you are completely. With all your faults and all your hardships. You are a hard person to love but not to Kenshi. To Kenshi, you are the only one he can love.

Kuai Liang [ ISTJ - logistician ]

Chemistry : 82%

Relationship Type : Eye opening

Shared Value : Systematic

Communication Style : Reductive

In a relationship, Kuai Liang always wants the best for you. He will do anything if it means it is for your best interest. Protecting you is something he does not take lightly. With everything in his being, Kuai Liang will protect you. He will make sure you are fine emotionally and physically.

It will always be you. Nobody else. Some people may find this rather annoying by Kuai Liang but he doesn’t care. Protecting you is all that matters to him. He can’t stand when he sees you upset. He’ll break down with you when he sees this. He’ll always try to comfort you as best as he can.

Kung Lao [ ENFP - campaigner ]

Chemistry : 82%

Relationship Type : Coach

Shared Value : Abstract

Communication Style : Impassionate

In a relationship, Kung Lao wants nothing more than to make you feel good about yourself. He knows it’s hard for you. You are not in tune with yourself but he will help with that. Kung Lao makes you feel beautiful every time he’s with you. He makes you feel special. He will make you feel like you are the only one that matters to him. Like you are the only one that is important.

The communication you two have is always filled with passion and great emotion. Kung Lao will never talk bad about you. Even if he is mad at you. He knows you. He knows you cannot handle the harsh words because he knows you believe all the negative things you think of yourself or other people have said about you. He will not stand for it.

Liu Kang [ ISFJ - defender ]

Chemistry : 81%

Relationship Type : Analyst

Shared Value : Systematic

Communication Style : Reductive

In a relationship, Liu Kang will try to protect your peace. You are an over thinker and tend to always believe that everything will turn to worse. He’ll always try to take away any stress that is on your shoulders. One thing he does hate is your guy’s communication. Sometimes you are not comfortable with talking about your feelings and Liu Kang absolutely cannot stand it. He understands giving you your space but not speaking to him when you feel down or something is wrong drives him crazy. Liu Kang’s wit always charms you and makes you laugh because he’s not over the top with it.

Liu Kang is always patient with you. Especially with your strong emotions. You are emotionally reactive with everything but it is something he can handle. Sometimes when it become far too much, he’ll hold you in his arms and whisper how much he loves you. He’ll make you feel like you’re the only woman in the world. He truly wants you to feel loved with every fiber in his being. Because you don’t like to talk about your feelings, he is always analyzing your body language and your speech to see if you are alright. If he deems you are not, expect a long talk of how much he loves you.

Raiden [ INFJ - advocate ]

Chemistry : 91%

Relationship Type : Advisor

Shared Value : Abstract

Communication Style : Speculative

In a relationship, Raiden will try and be the man you want him to be. He’ll be the man you always thought of in your head. He’ll make your dream man a reality. Raiden will always try to guide you to the right choices in life. He wants you to succeed. Your communication is always interesting. It is neither bad or good. Your goals are a little ways from each other but Raiden will always support you. No matter what.

When you feel like a mess, Raiden is there whispering in your ear how much he loves you. How important you are. He will make you feel like you are the most important person in the world. He wants you to see yourself how he sees you. He looks to you like you are his prize possession. Like you are his world. There’s no amount of anything that can change the way Raiden feels about you. Nothing in the world.

Rain [ INFP - mediator ]

Chemistry : 82%

Relationship Type : Supporter

Shared Value : Abstract

Communication Style : Analytical

In a relationship, Rain shows you nothing but respect and support. He is your number one support system. In everything, he will help you succeed. Respect is another thing he does not take lightly. You are his goddess, his queen. He will treat you like he needs to worship the ground you walk on.

He’ll always support your ideas and beliefs. Even though most of the time he does not agree with them. In the slightest. He knows that supporting you is more important than him trying to push his ideas and or beliefs onto you. Your needs matter and he understands this. Rain will also allow you to call him by his first name. You are one of the only people to have this privilege so know that Rain means well.

Reiko [ ISTJ - logistician ]

Chemistry : 82%

Relationship Type : Eye opening

Shared Value : Systematic

Communication Style : Reductive

In a relationship, Reiko sees that there is more to life than himself when he is with you. He is a very selfish individual. Not when it comes to you though. He’s learning to put his significant other before him. He has to in order for the relationship to work. Otherwise the relationship is doomed as you can also be quite a selfish individual.

Reiko will try to give you gifts because he is not familiar with any other way of showing his affection. The two of you will have to teach each other how to love one another. It’s a rocky start but Reiko will get the hang of it. The relationship means so much more to him than you could ever realize.

Shang Tsung [ ENTP - debater ]

Chemistry : 81%

Relationship Type : Preceptor

Shared Value : Intellectual

Communication Style : Impassionate

In a relationship, Shang Tsung will put your needs above all. This is strange for the sorcerer as he is used to being selfish. It is not something he is familiar with but he can’t help himself. The more you’re around him the more he has this sense of urgency to try and give you the world.

Shang Tsung will always make sure you are well taken care of before going off doing his business. One thing about him is you will need to support his plans. Whatever they be, he needs someone by his side. Your goals usually align with each other and are smart. Your conversations are usually filled with great emotion and it’s something he can’t pull away from.

Syzoth [ ISFP - adventurer ]

Chemistry : 92%

Relationship Type : Consigliere

Shared Value : Pragmatic

Communication Style : Analytical

In a relationship, Syzoth wants you to feel like he is your home. He knows how it feels to be unwanted. He wants to shield you from that feeling. Nothing in the world matters more to him than you feeling safe. He cannot have you feeling down or feeling unsure. You need to be indefinitely secured.

He does not play any games. Syzoth will always try to advise you on what to do but will make it very clear that he is not trying to control the shape of your destiny. Whatever you desire, he is pleased with. He just doesn’t want you to regret anything or live in the past. Syzoth will make sure you feel safe in the beauty that is you.

Tomas [ ISFJ - defender ]

Chemistry : 81%

Relationship Type : Analyst

Shared Value : Systematic

Communication Style : Reductive

In a relationship, Tomas will always be there when you break. He will always be there when you cry. He will always be there when you can’t find it in yourself to stand on your two feet. He is the glue to your soul. Tomas believes you are capable of doing anything but he knows that’s just something that’s hard for you to believe.

He’ll try to comfort you. To hold you. To kiss you. Sometimes it may not be something that’s physical that you need. Maybe it’s something that’s mental and Tomas will try his best to help you in that department. Seeing you break makes him break and he cannot live with himself knowing that if he didn’t try to help you, you would get worse.

if you’re an INTP then your soulmate is ENTJ

That means your perfect match for a soulmate is

BI-HAN / SUB-ZERO

Your perfect match for a best friend is

KENSHI TAKAHASHI

Here are runner ups that you could end up with (romantically)

(in order of best all the way down)

SYZOTH, BARAKA, HAVIK, RAIDEN, JOHNNY CAGE

FUN THINGS ABOUT INTP TO HELP YOU CONNECT MORE

INTPs are typically non smokers.

INTPs typically use dark humor.

INTPs usually are atheists.

INTPs are usually emotionally reactive people.

INTPs typically don’t consider themselves smart.

INTPs typically wear glasses.

INTPs usually don’t fear death.

INTPs usually watch horror movies.

INTPs typically have low self-worth.

INTPs are usually short tempered.

[synergysilhouette]

Disney hero/villain tropes and personalities I'd like them to revisit or try for the first time.

An optimistic male lead. Pessimistic leads are a dime a dozen, so having someone who's more innocent and sees the world in a positive light would be awesome.

2. A male hero/female villain dynamic. Male villains are more common than female in Disney canon (though the female villains have better odds of being iconic), and usually when we have a female villain, we have a female hero. It'd be neat having a male protagonist and a female antagonist.

3. A villain who's kinda right, or has selfless or selfless-adjacent (ie not "I'm doing this just for me," but "I'm doing this for someone I care about--and maybe me too") intentions and bad methods. I feel like Disney has done this trope before (or at least tried), but I'd love them to do this more; a complex villain who CHALLENGES the protagonist to grow as a person, whether they're doing "I'm selfish but now I understand how it hurts others" or "I thought I was doing everything right but now I see the situation isn't so black and white."

4. A forgotten/fallen hero as the villain. I like the idea of someone who was originally a typical Disney protagonist, only to get to a situation where they gave in to their fear, hope, despair, grief, etc. I remember the 2015 remake of Cinderella doing a really good parallel to how both Cinderella and the Tremaines had suffered grief, but while it embittered the Tremaines, Cinderella held strong, making them resent her further (particularly Lady Tremaine).

5. A shy Disney protagonist. Most Disney protagonists are pretty outgoing and/or social, so having someone who isn't the best at socializing would be a cool Disney lead--plus if it was a musical, the singing could either all be done from the protagonist and co's minds rather than out loud, or the protagonist only sings when they think they're alone. Perhaps they eventually gain the confidence to sing publicly.

6. A hero and villain romance. This may not be something that you wanna have with a film that caters to a younger audience (glamorizing abusive relationships and such), but if done correctly, I like the idea of a villain redemption and subsequent falling in love with the protagonist. As such, they'd probably have to be a secondary villain in order to keep their crime/kill count low. It's a controversial idea, but I do like the enemies to lovers trope (note: ENEMIES to lovers, not two people who pester, annoy or argue with each other then fall in lover over time; not a fan of that).

[glassica]

Second Male Lead

Notes: M!yan 2nd male lead, Gn!reader*, jealousy, reincarnation, obsessiveness, possessiveness, implied potential kidnapping and murder *reader is more like an observer, not shipped with anyone

-> part 2 with different yan

You got second male lead syndrome.

No matter how much author emphasizing the undeniable chemistry and love between the main couple your eyes only had him. With brownish eyes reminded of untouched sacred woods and dark silky hair slicked back, he was a perfect balance of not too interesting to overshadow the male lead while unique enough to stand out from the extras. Friend of female lead from childhood, he'd always been by her side protecting and looking out to her well-being, hardly be wavered unless it was a matter regarding the heroine. His silent thoughtfulness reserved only for the main character had charmed thousand fans of the series, which included you.

In the previous world you kept daydreaming about travelling inside the novel just to whisk him away. After all, you read countless isekai stories where protagonists from your world winning the heart of abandoned side characters. You were sure you could do the same to him, by showering him with endless attention and love he didn't get from the female lead. In no time he'd be head over heels for you!

"Apologize, but I fear I'm unable to return your sentiments."

Giving you a polite bow, he gently turned down the bouquet of roses which you'd painstakingly catered to match his taste. Today was the equivalent of Valentine in your old world, you were determinded to catch the love of your life at all cost. His rejection throbbed your heart a little, but you weren't the one to back out easily. That's right, you'd been waiting your whole life (actually two) for this moment, you just needed to keep up a little more.

"No sir, please don't be sorry. I'm the one who out of the moon confessed to you. Of course you would be startled!" - you replied cheerfully, trying the best to hide your disappointment. "My feelings came out too strong, but if you don't mind, would you mind joining me for a dance later?"

"I'll have to decline that. I've never been a fan of dancing. I'm really selective in choosing partner and to be honest, there's only one I ever want to take to the dance floor."

You knew right away who he was talking to. The nobleman didn't even bother to be subtle, as the whole time talking to you his eyes unchangingly laid on her. Shining with glitter and lace, basking in attention of the whole ballroom, the heroine was there, hand in hand with her royal lover, rejoicing herself to the dreamy sound of orchestra. The scene was wholly magical, breathtaking,… and perhaps jealousy-inducing.

For obvious reason this lit a fire in your stomach. You cursed the author for making it almost impossible for you to leave any impression on his mind, when your competition was the center of this universe and everyone’s darling. In the midst of envy, you blurted out words that forever detrimented his opinion about you

"She’s engaged to the Crown Prince."

"I know."

"Sir, she would never look at you with those eyes. Perhaps you should look for someone who will appreciate and reciprocrate your passion."

Now you had his full attention, not a positive one mind you. Shooting an icy glance visibly filled belittlement and fury, as though he was sneering at you extra character for having audacity to dictate how he should live his life.

"Oh well, she will soon. You don’t just assume I’ll sit there and let any vermin taking what’s rightfully mine, no? You believe I would be that selfless of a man?"

For the first time ever in your interaction had you sensed enthusiasm in his often monotomous voice. That’s right, the second male lead never got emotional by any happenings until it was about his target of affection. In other words, he would get ruthless, pretty, pretty ruthless, when anyone ever presented as a threat to his relationship with main character. He clashed plenty of times with the Crown Prince at the beginning of the book, then slowly retreated to the background after realizing his childhood friend was serious about His Highness. Lots of readers pointed out how odd he waved the white flag so effortlessly considering he had vehemently expressed dislike towards the male lead. Everyone collectively chalked it out as plot hole, but what if…

No, you shouldn’t dwell further than that. Epecially right at this moment you witnessed with your own eyes two extremes of emotions on the man’s face. The intensely lustful heat and adoration following every movements of the heroine, the bloodlust and pure venom on his pupils when looking at the Prince. You vaguely had a gist of what was going on in his mind, and it wouldn’t bode well for you to stick your nose into that.

Funnily, all that jealousy for the main couple you felt earlier was fully replaced by pity and well wishes now. Perhaps staying as an extra wasn’t a bad thing after all.

[mtchee]

Boy's Like You - [Iwaizumi Hajime] GN

blurb:

a socially anxious new transfer fitting in with the rest. Trending accessories, makeup looks, the latest lingo, and everything else it takes to blend in with the masses. And everyone is just head over heels for the Seijoh boy's volleyball pretty boy setter! So, why wouldn't you be? Oh, right. Because his best friend's actually way hotter. And playing pretend with everyone else has been getting a little difficult recently...

cw: not edited, sfw, fluff, mild social anxiety, fear of social isolation, fear of not fitting in, classic kabedon, kissing, second-person-pov, pretty sure i wrote this two years ago, my writing has changed drastically from this but the idea was too cute so here :)

| masterlist | haikyuu collection |

[4.7k words]

Try, try, try, To follow the rules~ I break everyone of them with boys like you.

Summer rolls in sooner than anyone remembered—the sun beams brighter than before, flowers holding out under the heat, the brush taking advantage of the weather to grow in every odd nook and cranny it can reach.

"[name]!" Yumi, your strawberry haired friend, squeals as you meet outside the gymnasium alongside the ever growing crowd of giddy female students, "quick—QUICK! We gotta snag the seats at the front before anyone else takes them!"

Not giving her soft-spoken friend anytime to reply, she links your arms together and uses her free elbow to make a pathway through the crowd.

You yelp and use your bookbag to shield yourself from any stray flying limbs.

Somehow managing to get through, you find yourselves smack dab in the front bleachers of the gymnasium, meeting with another friend of yours.

"Took you long enough," Tika, the bronze toned girl greets briefly, pulling your bookbag towards her and sandwiching the you between the two of them.

"Sorry, but the crowd was wild," Yumi laughs before squealing, fixing her bouncy curls at the sight of the Aoba Johsai boys volleyball team leaving the locker rooms, "omigod OIKAWAAAA~!"

Her voice crescendos into a higher pitch, though it was almost drowned out by the squeals of the other girls surrounding them.

You wince before reluctantly dropping your bag and feigning enthusiasm, cheering for the infamous captain as well.

You jump as Tika embraces you from the side excitedly, "Isn't he just the coolest!?" You nod rapidly, fighting for breath at the girl's tight grip.

Your eardrums almost burst as the screams grow louder, the pretty boy setter having blown a kiss towards the bleachers.

You fight the urge to shrink back at the others' aggressiveness, eyes searching for the famed male before slowly drawing to a stop at the sight of another.

Iwaizumi Hajime. Aoba Johsai's male volleyball ace.

The pretty boy setter's best friend.

Unbeknownst to you, your face warms at the sight of him, tuning out the squeals of those surrounding you. Your heart jumps, muting a squeak as he uses his shirt to wipe away a bead of sweat on his forehead.

You swear you'd be the only one in the crowd pinning after him instead of the captain.

"..ame].. name]!.. [name]!" You're quite violently shaken out of your thoughts, "DID YOU SEE HIS SERVE!?" Yumi jumps up and down giddily, "he winked at us, he totally winked at us!"

You blink, "W-wait, what?"

"Hell yeah he did!" Tika fist pumps, "hello, are you blind? Oikawa totally just looked at us right now! Weren't you watching?" She gives you an incredulous look.

"Oh, yeah!" A wavy smile plasters itself on your lips, "he's... totally into us, right?"

"God I hope so." Yumi laughs at Tika's brashness, you following along half-heartedly as your eyes drift to the dark haired ace practicing on court.

"Get out of my head, get out of my head, get out of my head—" Our dearest protagonist paces back and forth in front of the mirror in the room, nipping annoyingly at the nail on your thumb before dropping onto your bed, cradling your head dramatically, "why can't I get him out of my head?!"

This man was going to ruin it for you! You'v had a hard enough time at school as it is! How the hell were you suppose to deal with this?

You aren't suppose to like him--you weren't planning on liking anyone really. Being a transfer halfway through the year was hard as it was; everyone already had their set friend groups and most clubs were already full. So, what better way to fit in than to follow everyone else?

So that's exactly what you've done. 

You styled your hair when it was in fashion, you wore glittery (albeit sometimes off putting) jewelry when it became a trend, and you wore your cardigan a certain way when you saw others were doing it.

In this, you made quick friends with Yumi and Tika, who were honestly already the friendliest people you've ever met. 

Although Yumi adored pretty things, she never let anything touch her hair--and even though Tika had fun messing around with fashion, she never let a certain style define her.

Over a short amount of time, you learnt that you could be a bit more yourself with these two, and they loved you nonetheless.

But fearing they would have nothing in common (which would lead to them abandoning you, and laughing at you, and humiliating you--and totally not just you overthinking things), you forced herself to like the same guy everyone liked.

At first, there wasn't a hitch. But as time went on, it got more difficult. Because not only did you never like him in the first place, but you began to find yourself falling for his broad shouldered best friend—who, coincidentally, was also one of the first people you met when you had transferred.

Being in the same class, he had been tasked with giving you a tour and showing you the ropes. At first glance, you were terrified. Big school, big change, (big hot guy curtly leading you around everywhere...) it was a nightmare.

But then as you got to know him, you realized that it wasn't all too big and scary. Sure, he was--but he was also patient (at least with you) and reliable. He had an intimidating presence, which overtime, developed into a feeling of security for you. He was strong, but gentle, and practical too. In other words...

Boyfriend material.

And totally your type.

and it absolutely doesn't hurt that he's a total hottie too yes that's a bonus

"Oohh," You huff out, dragging your hands down your face, "what am I going to do...?"

Ring! Ring!

Your flurry of thoughts are broken by the sound of your phone, the screen lit up with the name of a certain pitchy-voiced friend, followed by a plethora of flower emojis along with a panda bear.

"MILK BREAD!" Picking up the phone, you reel back at the sound of Yumi's shrill shriek.

"What?"

"Milk. Bread. [name], his favourite food is MILK BREAD--"

"Milk bread? I thought it was that tofu dish-" You glance at the latest volleyball magazine sitting idly on your blankets, pages open and facing down.

You pick it up, cutting yourself off mid-sentence as you realize you found yourself looking at one of the pages containing information on Aoba Johsai's male team members, more specifically, Iwaizumi.

"A-Ah!" Your eyes widen, face hot despite being the only one to witness your embarassment as you quickly flick to the pages dedicated to Oikawa Tooru instead.

His section took up two full pages, the media obviously biased.

"Tofu..? Isn't that that other guy's—"

"AHAHAHA," You cut Yumi off with nervous laughter, "MILK BREAD! I-I see!"

"YES!" You let out a silent sigh of relief at your friend's easy distraction, "isn't he just the cutest? Oh! I know! (Y/N), we should totally make him some! I could give him some sugar treats too to boost his energy!"

You give a confused hum, "Make it?"

"Yeah!" Yumi giggles on the other end of the phone, "it can be a joint effort! You can bake, right? You could make the milk bread, and Tika and I could try work something out with the sweets." She lets out a gasp, "We could give it to him at his next game!"

You pause before breaking into a sweat. At his next game? You want to fit in, but you don't actually want to be noticed by him. And then there was a chance Iwaizumi would see and oh dear god—

"U-Uh, how about we give it to him sometime during training instead? That way we have more of a chance to... catch him alone! Yeah, there will probably a heap of others wanting to give stuff to him before his big game, so..."

Yumi seems to fumble with her phone momentarily, "Oh, you're SO right! Why didn't I think of that? Thank god we have you here. We should give it to him on Tuesday! He doesn't have practice then, but we could catch up with him after school instead!"

"Sure," You nod to yourself, "we can do that."

"YOSH!" Yumi celebrates, "let's all talk about this together tomorrow. I still need to call Tika about it."

"Isn't she at basketball practice?"

"Ah, right. Oh well, we'll just tell her tomorrow then. See you at school, cutie!"

You huff out a laugh, "See you at school..!"

Just as planned, you and the other two hurried out of class on Tuesday to wait near the school gates for the infamous volleyball captain, having worked hard over the weekend to make his special treats.

Not actually wanting to try get on the setter's radar of fangirls, you handed off the little bag of milk bread to Tika to hang onto with the excuse you weren't feeling too good.

Your plan was foiled when Yumi dragged you back, grumbling about your flighty nerves. "Damnit, Yumi..." You mutter under your breath, struggling to unhook your arm from her sudden goddamn gorilla strength.

"This is our only chance to really get noticed by him!" Yumi yanks you closer with a pretty pout, "plus, you worked hard on these..."

"Look! Here he comes now!" Tika points towards Oikawa's figure, accompanied by another, "eh? who's he with?"

"Oh, that's just Iwaizumi," Yumi brushes off, tightening her grip on you and her little gift bag in excitement, "Oikawa-kun~!"

"Wait, Iwaizumi?" You perk up at the name before breaking out into a sweat, straightening up in alarm as the duo approach.

'I can't let him see me giving this to Oikawa! He'll get the wrong idea! But, then again, if I want people to think I like Oikawa... would I even have a chance with him anyway? Does he even remember me?'

"Yaho~" Oikawa greets with a wink, "is there something you need?" He steps closer whereas Iwaizumi stops a few feet away, arms crossed boredly. You shy behind your two bolder friends who happily bask in his attention.

Your eyes glance towards the male's darker haired companion who waits impatiently, looking off in the distance in disinterest. Your mind drifts as you tunes out her friends' conversation, eyeing the volleyball ace fondly.

'It's been a while since I talked to him... ...maybe I should say hi?'

Your eyes slowly drawl down his figure, swallowing in growing fluster at the outward curve of his muscular thighs and the bend in his toned waist. You panic.

'Oh... oh my god I'm a creep--'

"Oh? And who's this behind you two?" Oikawa's curious peek towards you causes you to freeze. You take in a sharp breath as your friends move out of the way and pull you forwards.

"This is [name], they're a bit nervous talking to you." Yumi introduces, not noticing her friend's face warming in embarrassment, "[name]'s the one who made the milk bread!"

Your eyes widen as you sees Iwaizumi look over at the sound of your name. He tilts his head before stepping forwards.

'Oh no. Oh no oh no—'

"Did you now?" Oikawa gives a closed eyed grin, "well, I just have to try it since you've worked so hard on it!" He hums at your still silence, "my, you are a shy one, aren't you? That's alright. Rather adorable if I say so myself~"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Yumi squeals, grip tightening on your arm, "did you hear that, [name]?" Her voice is way too loud for someone virtually phased into her side.

Tika laughs her signature closed eyed laugh, crows feet crinkling at her eyes when she gazes fondly at her shier companion, "I couldn't agree more on that one. [name] really does their best, but they're too scared to get any attention for it."

"Tika...!" You warn quietly, heart racing as Iwaizumi nears. You could hear all the bloos rushing to your head.

"Oh?" The chestnut haired setter leans forwards teasingly, "so you do speak." He smiles at you charmingly, face leering close to yours. You lean back with a sharp breath, startled at the sudden proximity.

"I-I just... uh.."

"Oi, shittykawa." Your stomach drops at the sound of the familiar voice, "stop bothering them. You've wasted enough of their time already."

"Psh," The setter huffs playfully, "you're no fun, Iwa-chan." He yelps, barely dodging a hit from his friend.

"Ah, hello, Iwaizumi-san!"

"Hi, Iwaizumi-san."

"I-Iwaizumi-san!" You greet quickly, eyes averted from his figure.

You don't deserve to look at him after oogling him not so respectfully earlier.

"[name]-san," He nods towards you with a light smile, "how have you been recently? Is the classwork alright?"

"Yes! Everything is.. fine. T-Thank you for asking."

He hums, satisfied with your response before turning to Oikawa with a sudden scowl, "Come on, trashykawa. Otherwise I'm leaving you behind." The spiky haired student glances towards you one last time, a peculiar look flashing in his eyes before he turns and walks away.

"Don't leave me!" The setter pouts, "sorry, we'll catch up more next time, hm? See you later~" He sends the trio a wink and a smile before chasing after his friend who's already abandoned him past the gates, "and thanks for the milk bread, [name]-chan!"

Your nose twitches slightly.

You don't quite like how familiar he addresses you already.

From that day forward, You were deemed as their lucky charm to being noticed by Oikawa, much to your dismay. Every now and then, whenever they had the chance, Yumi and Tika would more often than not drag you out of class as soon as they could in hopes of catching Oikawa before he left for afterschool practice, and more often than not--succeeding.

This only caused more of a blunder for you though. Since you were in the same class as Iwaizumi, not only did simply being in the same room as him distract you, but whenever you were pulled out of class for the volleyball captain, he was often witness to it. Usually sporting a rather prominent frown.

It seemed like every time you were forced to meet with Oikawa, Iwaizumi was also there. You don't know whether to feel humiliated or relieved.

On one hand, this solidified your alibi in liking the pretty boy setter, but on the other, you were coming into contact with your real crush way too often. 

Recently, you'd managed to find a good few excuses to get out of looking for Oikawa, and no longer attended many of their practices to avoid the crowd of fans. But this lead to you sticking behind after class rather than leaving immediately—meaning you were left behind with Iwaizumi.

And a few other stray students, but they didn't matter.

Being left alone, he always approached you before he left for practice, usually just a quick check in on how you've settled.

But in recent times, your conversations lasted a little longer than the usual "how are things going?" and stretched over to your interests, likes and dislikes, and eventually, anything that came to mind.

"Hey, [name]," Iwaizumi stops by your desk with a soft smile.

"Iwaizumi, hello!" You look up at him with a sheepish grin, picking up your bookbag, "um, practice today?"

The male grunts in affirmation, "Yeah, we've got a game on Saturday," he swipes your bag from you (dodging your poor attempts to snag it back) and waits for you by the door before you could head down the hallway together, "will, uh... will I see you there?"

"Mm, yeah, probably," You shrug, "Yumi and Tika'll make sure I go. I've got to make some milk bread for Oikawa again." Iwaizumi's eyes drop to his feet with a frown, his tone flat.

"Oikawa, huh?"

You glance at him nervously from the corner of your eye, noticing his sudden change in demeanor, "M-Mmm. Uh, Yumi asked me to." You spy his frown softening in time with a tired sigh.

"She asked you to?"

"Yeah. Tika's making him some sort of iced tea too, I think."

"Hm." Iwaizumi thinks to himself for a bit, leaving an odd silence between you momentarily. He slows his pace, eventually coming to a stop in the empty school corridor. You stop a little ways ahead of him, noting the thoughtful look on his face.

"Iwaizumi?"

"Hajime."

"Bless you."

He rolls his eyes before repeating himself.

"Hajime," The thought filled glaze in his eyes disappears when he looks at you, a faint smirk on his lips at the sight of your expectant expression, "call me Hajime."

You blink, '...oh. That's what he said.'

'OH MY GOD--DID I JUST SAY BLESS YOU???'

"Go, go, go! Go, Seijoh!"

"Go, go, go! Go, Seijoh!"

The court reverberates the cheers from the bleachers, encouraging the team warming up below.

"OIKAWA-SENPAIIIIIIIIIII!" Yet somehow the fangirl screams are louder.

"Over here, Oikawa-san!"

"Oikawa~! I believe in you!"

"Oikawa-san, fighting!"

They only grow louder as the Captain blows them a kiss. He chuckles to himself as he sets off to the side of the court for a drink before continuing his stretch.

"Oi, trashykawa," Iwaizumi stands up from fixing his knee brace, "tell them to shut it, would you? It's giving the rest of us a headache-"

"Oikawa-san!" He's cut off by two voices calling for said male by the court entrance. Turning around, they see a familiar trio waving him over. Iwaizumi purses his lips at the sight of you there with a little gift bag in hand. No doubt it's for the setter.

"Ah, give me a minute, Iwa-chan," Oikawa grins at him, "I've got a few other fans to talk to first~." Iwaizumi watches him walk off with a frown, features darkening at how you shy away from his friend with in a fluster.

He takes in a deep breath before sighing, a solemn look of acceptance on his face as he glances at them one more time, seeing Yumi and Tika giggling happily before rushing away to the stands, waving goodbye. He furrows his brow as their quieter friend stays behind, Oikawa leaning in close with a teasing smile.

Unable to keep watching, he huffs in frustration and stands up from the bench, resuming his stretching on court.

"Iwa-chan~ Oh, Iwa-chaaaan!"

"What?" Oikawa pouts at his friend's dismissal.

"Don't be mean, Iwa-chan, come here!"

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes at his insistence, "What do you wa—hey!" He reels back as Oikawa thrusts a small gift bag in his face.

"Lookie here! Don't you want it~?"

He scrunches his nose in distaste, "I don't want your stuff, shittykawa."

"It's a good thing it isn't mine then~," Oikawa drawls out, "I was given specific instructions to hand it to you." He grins as his words peak Iwaizumi's curiosity, "seems to me you've got yourself a shy little fan, Iwa-chan."

The ace stares at him for a bit, silently debating whether or not to believe him before grabbing the bag dangling in front of him. His face remains expressionless as he opens it until he reads the little note resting inside of it, along with a few of his favourite sweets—all homemade.

'Something to give you a little more energy, just in case! Good luck, you've got this!'

His heart thuds in his chest and he looks up, eyes catching onto the remaining figure half hidden behind the doorway. You give him a sheepish wave, having not reacted in time to hide, before quickly making your way to the stands. A small smile rests upon his lips at the sight of you, and Oikawa's grin widens.

After finding out about his dear friend Iwa-chan's crush on his supposed 'fangirl,' Oikawa took it upon himself to try getting you together.

At first, he tried befriending you, only to find you pushing him away. Then, he tried finding excuses to have the two of you see each other, but became rather confused as he found you more often than not trying to avoid Iwaizumi.

It was apparent to him that you weren't ignoring him by any means, but you would, however, scurry away from him on every other occasion. And to make it even more confusing, he spotted you amongst the crowd with his fangirls, along with your friends.

So what else could he do other than snoop around a bit?

After bugging his friend, he found out that you met since you were a transfer in his class, and that you had a bit of a fear of sticking out. So he dug a little deeper.

With ease he managed to approach Yumi and Tika, and oh so inconspicuously managed to bring up the topic of their friend. You.

"[name]'s nice," Tika had told him, "they're pretty on top of their studies; at least I think so. [name] helps me out a lot and works around my schedule to help me since I've got basketball practice."

"Oh, and [name]'s so cool!" Yumi added, "they're always on top of the latest trends! Like what they did with their hair that one time? [name] fits in so well. They say they like to try a heap of things, so they relate to a lot of stuff. [name] doesn't really like standing out too much though, you know? Gives them the jitters."

And so comes his next target, you.

Various times, he tried to corner you, and failed. By himself he kind of figured out that you wanted to follow your friends, and so by them liking him, you liked him too.

His final plan—resorting to emotional manipulation at its finest to get the results he wanted.

Jealousy.

Now, in no way would you outright tell anyone that you liked Iwaizumi, and he knew that. So the only other way was to somehow get you to admit it to Iwaizumi himself.

Oikawa knew his best friend didn't beat around the bush. He was reliable and direct, and head strong to a near fault if not for his emotional awareness. Knowing that he was a confrontational person, if he could just make him jealous enough to talk to you about it...

He carried out this little plan for the following two weeks. Through the help of your friends not that they knew he got a little closer to you each and every day, with Iwaizumi as his witness. Though, just to help his friend out a bit, Oikawa would say a few good things about him to you, just to keep you on your toes.

And soon enough...

His plan worked!

"Cutie-chan!"

"Oi, [name]!" Yumi and Tika barrel into your classroom a few moments after the bell, "hurry up! We gotta move if we wanna catch Oikawa before the rest get there!"

"Ah, sorry guys," You wave them over, "I'm on cleanup duty with Hajime today, so I'll be late anyway. Don't wait up for me, okay?"

"Aww man." Yumi pouts, though her excitement renders her unable to stay any longer "if you say so. We'll call you later!"

"Next time then, alright?!" Tika pumps her fist determinedly before waving goodbye, "don't strain yourself!"

"See you tomorrow!" You call out after them, shaking your head lightly at the sound them calling back over their shoulders. "Hajime-san, you can head to practice of you want. I can handle it... and I don't want you to keep your team waiting."

"No, it's fine," The male shakes his head, "I wanted to—I don't want you to be stuck afterschool for so long." He cuts himself off, grabbing the mop from the supply closet.

"Ah, alright... Thanks."

The two of you indulge in idle chatter for the next fifteen minutes or so, too caught up in your small conversations to notice that you've almost finished cleaning within a matter of time. In a spare moment of silence, Iwaizumi furrows his brows as he thinks to himself.

You begin packing up the remaining supplies, "Whew, hey, we did well."

"Mm? Oh, yeah," Iwaizumi nods, partially lost in his thoughts.

"I wonder if I can still catch up to Yumi and Tika..." You wonder aloud, picking up your bookbag hanging over the back of your chair, "Oikawa-san would be in the gym by now, right?"

"[name]," You jump as Iwaizumi closes the supply closet door a little too roughly. He lets out a sharp exhale through his nose, "do...do you like Oikawa?"

You froze, stuck between lying to save your anxious ass and being a people pleaser and saying the truth.

His back is turned towards you, head leant down with one of his arms propped up against the door. His broad shoulders rose and fell with his deep breaths, his body tense. He looks... kinda hot scary.

"Oh, what? Why?" Your hand falls to your side, bag remaining slung over the back of the chair. You tilt your head at him, "are... you okay, Hajime?" You flinch as his head snaps up towards you. His eyes peering at you as he drops his arm, brows furrowed with his eyes expressing... not anger but--something else entirely.

"No," He heaves out a breath, unable to just shake it off this time around, "because I'm getting so many mixed signals, and I've tried to be patient, really, but damnit [name], it hurts you know?" He shakes his head and straightens himself up as he steps towards her, "just... I need you to just tell me, alright?"

Your mouth opens and closes, head dizzy but still no sound comes out. He likes you? Like, actually? 'Wait, no he didn't actually say that though. He's just being protective, right? what is happening right now--oH HE'S GETTING CLOSER WHATDOISAY-'

"W-Why this all of a sudden? What's Oikaw--" Backed against the desk, you stiffen with a squeak as he turns around steps forwards purposefully, panicking when he uses his arms to barricade you in.

'OH I SAID THE WRONG THING WHY WOULD I SAY THAT-'

"Out with it." At your fluster, his frown disappears and his eyes soften, something more gentle lacing his tone.

"[name]," You almost shiver at the sound of your name falling from his lips, "yes, or no? Don't—Don't say his name. Just tell me," his gaze trails up to meet yours again, his eyes strong enough to make your heart stop.

He falters slightly, "...do you—" 

'holy shit-'

Before you could even register it, your lips are on his--still leant back against the desk, much too flustered to touch him. And yet, your mouth is pressed against his deliciously, stomach fluttering and your heart doing back flips.

You only come to your senses when one of his hands moves to gently hold the side of your waist, the other reaching up with a featherlight touch to cup your warm cheek. You muffle a squeak against him, and he presses against you a little more in response. You can feel him fight back a smile at the noise and you can't help but fester in your own embarassment.

All too soon you pull away, whether it be from the lack of air or the overwhelming humiliation--you don't know, nor do you quite care.

You just kissed Iwaizumi Hajime.

And his dark brown eyes swirl with evident fondess as he watches you gently, expectantly.

You gasp quietly once everything registers in your mind, tongue twisting for a response once you remember what he had been asking moments before you gave into your close proximity.

"N-No..! No, I'd never..." You swallow your fluster, "I like... you."

Hajime's cheeks redden at the confession, and you envy his ability to keep his composure as he remains still, eyes waiting for you to keep going.

You have the sneaking suspicion he's trying to drag this out, but your too nervous to refute and instead keep rambling.

"I... Hajime, ah... transfering here was so hard, and Seijoh is so scary. E-Everyone already had their groups, and clubs were basically full--" His eyes dart to your lips again and you panic, "--A-AND YOU WERE ONE OF THE REASONS I FELT SAFE!"

The weight of your words brings him back to the present, and his brows furrow slightly as he takes in their meaning.

You keep going, "I've... I've been scared. Being the new kid is hard, so I didn't want to stand out more than I already did... And then when I started to like you I got scared, but I didn't want you to freak out and so I pretended to... be like everyone else..."

At his silence, you shrink into yourself. Hajime notices your discomfort and pulls you a little closer in reassurance. He thinks for a moment.

"It's not so bad," He quirks up a brow at your worried look, "standing out, every now and then. It's okay not to go with everyone else."

You avert your eyes sheepishly, "I see that it's stupid now but..." You cringe, closing off as you straighten up, "god, it's embarassing..."

"No, no," Iwaizumi lets out a small, breathless laugh, heart thumping in his chest, "I'm listening." He leans down slightly, following to meet your eyes again.

You feel a warm, tickling sensation across your collarbone at his attention. You say his name, wincing when your voice cracks and flushing when he just smiles at you patiently.

"Hajime," You start again, slowly, "you... make me feel like I'm dreaming. I... felt like I would trip, and freak, and fall--I was scared. So I just... followed everyone else, I guess."

He observes you intently, noting the way your eyes struggle to meet his, but how your hands clench and unclench in restraint, longing to touch--to hold.

He takes in a breath, "Are you still scared?"

"I don't know... maybe?" You shrugs honestly, "but, I do like you... a-a lot.."

He grins at you, "Thank god. I don't know if I would've been able to handle you pretending to be one of shittykawa's crazy fans any longer." The atmosphere lightens at his statement, and you can't help but snort at the fact.

"Sorry," You smile at him sheepishly, "well, at least now you know."

Iwaizumi hums, "Don't go looking at him anymore, yeah? Watch me instead." His patient smile curls into a smirk as you reel back with a squeak.

"I never did anyway—my eyes were always on you." You giggle as his cool composure cracks, the male looking away bashfully, "but, I am glad it's you."

He smiles, leaning his forehead against yours lovingly.

"Me too."

[punkeropercyjackson]

Our Hero Academia:My Bnha rewrite/fixit

'Our' instead of 'My' because the protagonist role is shared by our Big Three:Izuku,Shouto and Momo.They're official title is 'The Tea Trio' because Izuku's name means 'green' and 'spring' and i associate tea with springtime and Shouto and Momo's canonical love for tea

Inko is half sudanese so Izuku is blasian and so is Momo as the daughter of a japanese-dominican woman and an afro-mexican man while Shouto is fully asian but biracial as well,Rei being half bangladeshi.Izuku ends up developing chronic pain due to the mix of One For All usage and Bakugou's lifelong violet physical assaults towards him and needs crutches,Momo has a hodgepodge of neurodivergent disorders with adhd,autism,anxiety AND ocd and Shouto is blind in his scar eye and Izuku and him are autistic like her too and Momo is fat because of her quirk

Momo's adultification trauma is explicit and intentional instead of heavy accidental subtext,Bakugou is an antagonist all the way through and a metaphor for ableism and male privilege and Endeavour is given zero grace while Rei is a fleshed out character as they all deserve

Izuku is agender without a specified agab,Momo is a trans girl and Shouto is transmasc genderfluid with neutral,feminine and androgynous gender presentation respectively.As stated they're our core mcs but not the only ones!!

The whole main cast is them,Toshinori,Rumi,the rest of 'The Tea Blend Crew' made up of Hitoshi,Kirishima,Jirou,Mina,Eri and Himiko and Dabi and him,Momo,Shouto and Izuku the 'Jumbo Tea Quartet'.Toshinori is a he/him butch lesbian and has a sidestory romance with Inko and all the other Tea Kids are blasian latinos like Momo except Himiko,who is half african-american!

Todomomo,Shinmido and Minajirou are canon and the rest of The Tea Blend Crew see eachother as found siblings.Togachako,Miruyumi and Dabitwice are also canon!

The series is kicked off with 'Midoriya Izuku:Origin' but shortly followed up by 'Yaoyorozu Momo:Origin' as Momo and Izuku become eachother's first ever friends and Shouto's debut into the main cast is the same because it's too iconic and dear to me for me to change it.Momo's already befriended Jirou and Mina by then and same for Izuku befriending Kirishima but Hitoshi is transfered to the hero course post-Sports Festival.Momo also had a private talk with Bakugou over his bullying of Izuku telling him to leave him alone only to end up crying in fear at his outburst,calling and accusing her hurtful things over her being a girl nerd and 'well-developed'.She created a staff and hit him in the crotch with it on live tv for it when he was tied up in his 'feral' state for it

The Tea Trio is finally complete as of Yaoyorozu Rising and they have a lot of solo bonding just the three of them to set them up as the core of Oha.Not to say the Tea Blend Crew dosen't get their own pagetime!!It's revealed Jirou got bullied growing up because of being a black goth transfem butch and has bpd as a result,Mina is the biokid of a cis gay x seahorse dad couple and grew up taking dance classes,Kirishima has lesbian biomoms too and used to self-harm out of insecurity over his natural fatness and Hitoshi was raised by his abuela who was the only person who ever cared about him and got his love of cats from her and they get a good deal of bonding with eachother and them too!!Kicking ass together too ofc!They all hate Bakugou and make a thing of roasting him for how awful he's been to all of them multiple times yet all at different points.Izuku starts to loose his illusion of Bakugou being a good person when he tries to protest against their words but can't find an actual defense

The Tea Blend Crew training partners,teenage dirtbag best friends,study buddies and a hero team!They have their own group chat named 'The Tapioca Vine'(dosen't make sense on purpose LMFAO),schedueled hangouts,a secret abandoned technologically advanced gym they found on accident they use as their training base and dubbed it 'Our Hero Spotter',no personal space when it comes to eachother and matching rings!I'll get to those later :] Oh but also their theme song is 'Adventricular' by Sesamoid♡First Time Friends Turn Into Forever!!

The Bakugou rescue arc still happens but Jirou,Mina and Hitoshi take Iida's place and it's a decoy plot for the beginning of Momo's Destruct arc.Dabi and Momo kept running eachother by genuine accident which led to him discovering her importance to Shouto so he used those accidental encouters to radicalize her to get at Shouto and all the sympathy thrown at Bakugou and the stark contrast to how awfully Hero Society including U.A treats her despite having worked her entire life to earn her place in the hero world just to not get it made it hit the mark.Kirishima getting the Fatgum intership over her rubbed very lemony salt in her wounds so as soon as they rescued Eri just as she'd promised herself,she joined the League of Villains as Destruct in secret from her friends.Himiko and her are pretty much sisters

And S'mores Siblings accidentally became real by the time she joined.Momo and Dabi had come to truly love eachother as family because he'd treated her better than any other adult in her life before and even without the comparison he was a good older brother figure and even pseudo-dad to her and he was actually enjoying spending time with her as an intergenerational friendship and mentorship and her and Jin were the first people he'd truly loved after his 'death',greatly helped by them understanding his misfit status(abusive perfectionist parents who treated them awfully as a neurodivergent child/stigmatized mental illness and physical disability that's not 'sexy' to normies).Momo is pastel punk and kidcore in aesthetic AND personality and lifestyle at that point,including Dabi giving her a side shave and pink dye.Momo hacked her parents banks to donate all their money to charity and use some of it for herself and for gifts for her loved ones too

Himiko connects with the TBC through Momo without letting them know she's a villain and infiltrates U.A to hang with her and makes a huge spectacle of herself on purpose,to Momo's embarrasment.She ends up legit joining the friend group and falling for Ochako for real instead of mutual obssesion.Izuku and Shouto's own arcs chronicle Izuku's attempts to live with disability,be a true hero AND experience teenagehood to the fullest and Shouto's relathionships with his family,learning how to be a real kid-including going goth punk for that weirdkid swag,his quirk on multiple levels and his true love by choice with Momo and vice versa on that last one as Todomomo is an unremovable aspect of eachother.They complete eachother,not just half and half and feel like their own people yet two yet the same

Jirou's gotten way more hardcore on every level,in attitude and in aesthetic and in tactics but as positive character development and Mina is a little bit of everything as she's too chaotic to be held down.That makes them the perfect love interest's for the other and are as snuggly and mushy as Todomomo but with Tsundere Jirou and Tease Mina.Kirishima can't help but let himself be louder and larger and heroicer as he looses ALL sense of shame in the best way possible and him accidentally embarrasing others with it becomes a running gag.Hitoshi's quite taken with trying all life will give him he didn't get to experience,including dating Izuku,and realizing the true meaning of his quirk:Putting his foot down on mistreatment,towards him AND fellow victims as he uses it to get Bakugou to fess up in front of almost the whole school staff so he gets expelled.Izuku is so overjoyed and relieved he hops onto him to kiss him right then and there and loud cheering from Class 1-A ensues,including several 'IT'S ABOUT TIME's and wolfwhistles equivalents

TBC rings were diy'd by them!They're those big see through-ish rings you see indie girl characters wearing so often and they each have cordinated colors for eachother and a charm inside:Green and a bunny for Izuku,white and red and a cat for Shouto,pink and yellow and a rose for Momo,deep red and a wolf for Kirishima,lavender and a guitar pick for Jirou,hot pink and a ballerina for Mina,purple and a hypnosis eye for Hitoshi,gold and a blood drop for Himiko,pastel blue and a unicorn for Eri and a bonus for the honorary member in Dabi with a deep blue and an azure flame.The Jumbo Tea Quartet get their own subcategory because of Todosiblings + S'mores Siblings follow up to Izuku and Dabi familial dynamic too.Dadbi is real y'all

Eri is adopted as their baby sister because of how she's always at the dorms and dosen't get on the field but is a major character as a symbol to fight for the next generation but also humanized and written like a realistic 6 year old.Rumi's debut gives her the connection to the Todofam Hox didn't deserve as Fuyumi's celebrity crush turned best friend turned girlfriend and Hox gets his ass beat by Momo who saves Jin just in time and Dabi kills Hox away from her eyes to not traumatize her.The Final War arc leads to the disenmantling of the pro-hero system to replace it with a good system instead by our local teenage anarchists with help from All-Might and the Lov in a new era of unity.Rei kills Enji,Dabi and Jin get married,Himiko and Ochako get their happy ending,Momo's new codename is Creadora,Shouto is Freezerburn and Izuku is Mighty Girl.Todomomo Endgame happens too and all's right in Our Hero Academia/Oha.We deserved better just like they did

[rose-tea-and-strawberries]

Building off of someone else's ask, consider in the HoM au: Yuu asks the hyenas for advice on wooing Ruggie.

Alright alright so I think Miss Yuu would get on really well with the hyenas (honestly, all you need to do is respect them, be nice to them and give them food). Personally, she is the closest to Ed since he seems to be such a sweetheart (also he's voiced by Winnie the Pooh) and he just lives for her affection and headpats but Shenzi likes her because girlboss recognises girlboss. Honestly Yuu and the hyenas share the top spot for my favourite Yuu and henchmen friendship along with Diablo.

When it becomes apparent that there are little seeds of romance blossoming between Ruggie (their honorary cackle member) and the prefect (the only person they actually like), the trio make it their life mission to get the two together.

I don't know much about hyenas but I do know that whilst females are the dominant gender, that are more aggressive and make all the rules, the males are the ones that do the pursuing until the female accepts them. Banzai and Ed would just encourage Ruggie to do typical male courtship behaviour (I've heard that during courting, a male would do the approach-avoid method of just follow the female around like a lost duckling and that is absolutely adorable and if the hyenas catch Ruggie doing that he'll never hear the end of it) whilst Shenzi's advice to Miss Yuu would be 'the kid likes you, tell him you like him back otherwise we'll be here for years'. Since Ruggie has a lot of respect (and fear) for Shenzi, her telling him to do something would only come as a last case scenario where Yuu's obliviousness was getting them nowhere.

Also this has nothing to do with the ask I just want to rant about hyenas and one of my Yuus (that I ship with Ruggie) below the cut:

So a while back I had a cute animal video phase where I binged a bunch of videos of people who either had pet hyenas or looked after hyenas and that birthed the idea of a Yuu who's a huge hyena lover and has a pet hyena back in her world. Like, after watching videos of adorable hyena cubs I understand why Harley Quinn has two of them because those babies are adorable 🥰

I recently watched Thalapathy Vijay's movie 'Leo' where he saves/fights a grown hyena that he later looks after and trains as a guard (who then goes full on beast mode - whilst hyena cackling - on a bad guy that comes into the protagonist's house and holds a gun on his wife and daughter) and I was like yeah, why can't I have a Yuu that has a hyena that's basically the Rajah to her Jasmine? She deserves scary hyena privileges (I do have a backstory about those two this is just how it came to be)

And once the portal between the two worlds has been made, Ruggie and Yuu's baby/best friend from her world are constantly at odds with each other because they're both super protective male hyenas that love Yuu (one platonically and one romantically) and are jealous of the attention that the other gets.

And then I thought: what if we house of mouse!au it and have the hyena trio meet Yuu's furry friend and now Yuu is just surrounded by a cackle bunch of hyenas and 😍

[shera-dnd]

Alright I have eaten my mato peach and have gained the amazing power to do literary and thematic analysis of any piece of media, no matter how fucking stupid

and as the first activation of my ability, I'm turning it towards the stupid ecchi reverse slave harem manga, Mato Seihei no Slave (or Chained Soldier if you're not as much of a fucking weeb as I am) in order to prove that this is actually thematically consistent and surprisingly well written

(long pause as I let all my followers block me and leave)

but first to address the two shuuki in the room

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU'VE BEEN READING AN ECCHI SLAVE HAREM MANGA YOU FUCKING WEIRDO?

Look... LOOK! It's not what you think!

Okay so like a lot of anime and manga recently (primarily isekai) have been including slavery as a thing in their world building, and tho I'm not gonna claim that's the only thing it ever gets used for, it's quite clear that a lot of people are only using that as an excuse for kinky slave play BDSM

and then forget that that stuff comes with like... you know, the horrific implications of slavery as an institution

WELL GOOD NEWS! The author of this manga does not give a shit about disguising his femdom slave play kink as commentary on slavery, this is literally just a BDSM thing and it never pretends to be anything else

...besides, a woman has needs, okay?

WAIT SHOULDN'T THIS MANGA TRIGGER YOU? ISN'T YOUR TRIGGER THE LITERAL CENTRAL GIMMICK OF THIS?

YOU WOULD BE CORRECT! By all logical means I should not be able to read this manga without having the most viscerally negative response possible... except that I don't

I'm not gonna pretend that I know why or how this is working

But I read Monster Musume back in 2015 and it somehow helped me get over my fear of spiders, SO WHO KNOWS maybe niche ecchi manga are how I get over my mental blocks

I would rather it wasn't, but I'm having a hard time proving otherwise!

oh god we're already 400 words in and I have only just finished the preamble. Why am I like this?

Okay okay let us get started as I'll give a detailed explanation as to why Mato Seihei no Slave is about the bonds between people, the ways we bring out the best in each other, and what makes a good dom- ahem I mean leader... what makes a good leader

So for those who don't know the central conceit of this story is that this is a world where women get super powers and men get... to be stay at home husbands

Our protagonist is male wife supreme, Yuuki Wakura, whose main hobbies include cooking, cleaning, and day dreaming about one day becoming a hero

unfortunately for our adorable little boy toy he immediately finds himself falling through a portal into actual literal hell (technically it's called Mato, but like it's just hell) where he's promptly attacked by several giant monsters

BUT GOOD NEWS FOR HIM! He's being saved by a hyper competent hot woman in a uniform (lesbians going "it should have been me!" count should be at 1 by now)

BAD NEWS FOR HIM! She's alone and soon they both get overwhelmed because she can't go full apeshit murder mode while protecting his soft boy ass

Thankfully there is a way for her to save him still, it just requires some collaboration from him

("it should have been me!" count: 2)

And here we are at the main fucking gimmick. The reason why all the ecchi shit happens, the silly excuse for why this bad bitch decides to keep this guy at her side

Chains of Eternity: Slave

Kyouka Uzen (the ultimate girl boss) can forge a contract with someone to bind them to her will as her slave. This will bring out their hidden potential and allow them to fight by her side, turning them into a super powerful killing machine at her command.

In exchange once the task is done she must give a reward to her slave based on the difficulty of the task and the slave's "latent desires"

So yeah, Kyouka doesn't get to decide what the reward is, Yuuki doesn't get to decide what the reward is, only Kyouka's magic can decide what the reward is. Which basically just means the author gets to insert whatever horny fuckery they want into this

Rewards vary from giving him head pats, offering him treats, giving him a back massage, kissing him, to...

well this is a femdom series for a reason

(I think the "it should have been me!" count is at like a 4 or a 5 now)

and now I'm gonna analyze the ever loving shit out of that ability and how it is the crux to all the themes of the show and actually informs us on the nature of Kyouka's character

no, I'm not kidding

Okay so let me just break down what Slave does here from a kink point of view. It basically allows Kyouka and Yuuki to enter into a BDSM relationship where the dom always knows what the sub wants, while still being able to surprise the sub with her actions. She gets to constantly keep her sub beneath her, while also being magically required to reward him and give him aftercare once she's done

Those two have entered a ridiculously healthy BDSM relationship by forging a magical contract that lets them skip all the negotiation bits and go right to what the audience wants to see

(yeah it's gonna be impossible to track the "it should have been me!"s from this point on, so just try to keep your own count at home)

This is also the author's way of like having his cake and fucking it too

Because that way we can have Kyouka as the baddest bitch to ever live AND have her do embarrassing stuff with Yuuki without ever breaking character. In fact the loftier her goals and the more tragic her backstory the more reason she has to accept the reward mechanism as the price to pay for this power

It's also why Kyouka is easily the most developed and interesting character of the manga, to the point that Yuuki is more a supporting character to her arc

This brings us back to those three themes I mentioned waaaaay at the start

Starting with: "how we bring out the best in each other"

For starters it's quite obvious how that works with Yuuki. He wants to be a hero in a world where he should not be able to have super powers, and in comes Kyouka who gives him both the power and the purpose to achieve that goal

But this also extends to literally everyone in Unit Seven and beyond

We have seen the ways in which Kyouka has helped all of her team mates grow stronger and overcome their past traumas, some times by the sheer confidence and kindness of her presence

Hell we see one of her team mates unlock a rage mode power up because someone said Kyouka was a bad leader

and there's even another team leader who straight up evolved her powers into a new stronger form just out of sheer love and respect for Kyouka

This culminates in the development of Lending. The ability to let others take Yuuki's chain and use him in combat

and like I'm not stupid, I'm not gonna pretend this isn't primarily an excuse to have different hot women give Yuuki rewards in ever hornier scenarios, with the added benefit of being able to design cooler monster forms for him

and I mean... those are some really cool monster forms

But that's besides the point

The point is that this also pulls double duty by allowing Kyouka and Yuuki to constantly empower all of the people around them and help them through their character arcs

From helping people stand up to abusive family members, to allowing others to gain the confidence they need to grow, to just decking an asshole real hard in the face

And not once does Yuuki steal other's glory. The final confrontation and the catharsis is always delivered by the person who is being helped. Because lover boy here is the supporting character in his own story

This all leads neatly into another point: the bonds we have with others

DAMN RIGHT MOTHERFUCKERS WE'RE GETTING CHAIN SYMBOLISM IN THIS BITCH!

Oh are we getting a message about how we're all links in the chain and the stronger each of us gets the stronger we all get? FUCK YEAH

Are we getting chains as a representation of a mutual bond of trust and respect, and get to see those bonds be used as a literal weapon to defeat a foe who is antithetical to that idea? ABSOLUTELY

TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK, BABY!

But wait there's more! We got a character who can copy other people's skills and she also grows like crazy with each person she bonds with

We got teams of heroes besting villains who refuse to work with anyone

THAT'S THE SHONEN ANIME GOODNESS WE'RE HERE FOR!

(I mean this is technically seinen but who gives a shit, right?)

And that brings us finally to the third point, the series antagonists, and Kyouka's main goal

What makes a good leader?

So far we've focused on Kyouka and her ability, Slave, and how that allows her to help the people around her grow and encourages her to fight on the front line where she can be a shining example for all around her to follow

She treats everyone around her with trust and respect, even the boy who is literally her slave, and is by all metrics BEST GIRL!

Now all of that good shit doesn't mean much if we don't have anything to contrast and compare to

Enter Ren Yamashiro

gonna give y'all a second to simp for a bit before I continue

done staring at her legs? good. Anyways here's why she's awful!

Ren is the commander of the Anti-Demon Corps and easily the strongest character in the setting by a wide margin

She's also self centered, corrupt, physically AND emotionally abusive, horrifically petty, and likes dogs in the exact same way Makima from Chainsaw Man likes dogs

This is, of course, perfectly translated into her special ability, because this author loves having abilities inform characters

So not only does she have some absurd broken power that she has the power of anime and buddha on her side, BUT the way it manifests is as kanji covering her eyes whenever she activates her skills

Quite literally making so all she can see is her own power and greatness

AND her main use of her powers is to fly around, so she can be ABOVE everyone else

This isn't fucking subtle, but it sure as fuck gets the point across

This is a trait that Ren shares with ALL the main villains of the series. Each and everyone of them is blinded by their own greatness and is constantly looking down on others

Ren is just the least subtle. I guess they had to compensate for the fact that she isn't an actual literal evil god

And so all of those are put in opposition to Kyouka, whose goal is to overthrow Ren, become the new commander, and destroy Mato for good

The woman whose power makes her dependent on others, but that allows her to bring out the best in everyone she meets

A power that grows stronger the more people she helps and the more people help her in return

Standing up against all these people who refuse to rely on anything besides their own strength

That is why Kyouka is the shining example of a good leader!

Now here we are 2k words into this (OH DEAR GOD WHY AM I LIKE THIS), so what was the point of this journey?

Is it me recommending this manga to people and claiming it's genuinely "peak fiction"? OH GOD NO

This thing has so many issues and literally all of them stem from the fact that this is an ecchi harem manga story first and foremost.

Titillation always comes first over anything else, several of the smaller side characters eventually devolve into just different flavors of wanting to dom Yuuki, and that's not even going into all the pet play stuff featuring Ren

This is an unashamedly horny manga with a very specific brand of kink in mind and when I started reading it that was legit all I wanted out of it

But then it refused to be JUST that. It had an interesting story, fun action scenes, compelling characters, and a surprising amount of thought put into its themes

It's not a manga I'd recommend to most people at all, and it requires a considerable amount of tolerance for some capital H Horny anime bullshit

But honestly? If you're cool with that and want a fun and a little unhinged story you can do way worse than this

So what else is left to say except

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!!!!

[caffedrine]

Matias and Chev write a romance novel together -

Chev: I want the female protagonist to accept the male lead despite his flaws

Matias: of which there are many

Chev: and even though he has an icy-cold heart

Matias: and has killed a lot of people

Chev: if she can acknowledge that he was doing his best

Matias: and it was an unavoidable consequence to protecting the many

Chev: and helps him mellow out

Matias: and gives him a sense of acceptance

Chev: age, gender, race, and appearance mean nothing

Matias: its her heart that is attractive

Chev: She doesn’t look at him with fear

Matias: Or as an adversary

Chev: the perfect romance

Matias: Big bazongas would be nice too.

Jin does say he and Matias are quite similar 🤭

[championofravens]

Skip to Loafer and Transgender Role Models: A Brief Analysis

To any who watch or read Skip to Loafer, Nao-chan is a presence you immediately can not ignore. The protagonist’s aunt, she is the primary adult we interact with in the series and one of the main characters of the supporting cast. Our first introduction to Nao-chan does not immediately reveal her transgender status- we are instead introduced to her as a kind, nurturing, caring and protective adult in Mitsumi’s life. We learn later about her being trans through negative whispers from strangers and immediately the tone is set: instead of having Nao-chan hear the gossip on the train, she is instead immediately given a small gesture of love and support from our protagonist Mitsumi. It is a simple but deliberate scene and seems to offer a quiet promise that Nao-chan is as deserving as happiness as anyone else in the cast, an overarching theme that becomes more and more powerful for many characters over the course of the story.

I specifically want to talk about Episode X from the anime and a few scenes from it. For anyone who hasn’t watched it, I will summarize as best I can:  Mitsumi asks permission from Nao-chan to invite her school friends over for a slumber party and she happily agrees. However, she also says that she wishes to tell her friends she is biologically male “just in case”. No reason is directly stated why but many can easily spring to mind. We cut then to Nao-chan dressed in a more masculine style than normal, serving Mitsumi’s friends and being referred to with male honorifics. As Nao-chan leaves, however, our beloved supporting cast all pipe up to compliment Mitsumi’s stylish and kind aunt. We see Nao-chan listening from outside the door, joyfully tearing up.

Later, Nao-chan reappears in her typical feminine attire and makeup to the girls, informing them she’s stepping out. Mika ends up following Nao-chan out, the two having somewhat of a repertoire from earlier in the episode, and Mika confides in her reasons for leaving the slumber party early. Nao-chan immediately is able to relate to Mika’s anxieties and fears based on her own experience growing up, the viewer given a quick shot of her younger masculine self. Before letting her leave, Nao-chan offers advice and urges Mika to return to the slumber party, imparting an important lesson about embracing being genuine to yourself her (with some briefly hilarious word choices).

At this moment on our first watch, my husband turned to me and said “God, if only I heard that growing up.”

It can’t be overstated how shocking the amount of respect and affection Nao-chan gets in the story is. First, the story’s way of choosing to address her being transgender while keeping consistent with it’s happy and airy tone is done masterfully. Nao-chan makes a very realistic choice for her situation in wanting to present as male to Mitsumi’s friends and the narrative respects that. But it also doesn’t linger on the issue either by having Mitsumi’s friends immediately address it positively to the viewer. I think my favorite thing however is that the story lets Nao-chan hear the praise and kind words. We get to see a transgender woman in a moment of maximum gender euphoria. She is respected as a character and as her gender at all times, whether she is there in the moment or not.

Things are taken a step further in the next scene, going beyond simply supporting Nao-chan as a transgender character in the story but also as an adult role model too. In a time where radical rhetoric says transgender women can never understand the struggles of cis women, the story shows the exact opposite. Not only do a group of cis young women all think Nao-chan is beautiful and kind, they also see her as a safe person to confide in and a person who can relate to their feelings. Mika’s short time with Nao-chan earlier in the episode was of a more slapstick variety yet her honesty with Nao-chan feels organic when it happens. We can understand how the two would find common ground on their feelings, even if they lived completely different lives. In fact, it is implied that Nao-chan’s feelings are uniquely pulled from her experience growing up assigned male.

Part of this is contributed to the fact Nao-chan breaks the curse of transgender characters in much of anime by being surprisingly “sexless”. Not once is a perverted joke made at her expense or does she slip in a strangely blunt reference to her body. Part of this is thanks to the genre and overall tone of Skip to Loafer which is incredibly comfortable and chaste.

I was inspired to write this after realizing that there would be a chance that this character and this story’s handling of her might slip under the radar. Though she is not the focus of the story, she is present constantly within the narrative just as anyone else and her presence only enhances the experience. When I see the same examples being passed around of what qualifies for good trans rep in anime, it makes me burn to think she may not be included in these lists.

[yanderelovebites]

It’s been some time since I’ve been on here… but I’ve been having this idea on my mind for awhile. Yandere dollmaker with a darling who reads Yandere stories—she knows the signs but isn’t the best at avoiding getting kidnapped because she thinks “I’m not the person people obsess over”. Have Yandere be an actual label in this world. Have it be an arranged marriage. Have her freak out because by law she has to know her fiancé is a Yandere and she knows he’s also a dollmaker. Have her remember every creepy Yandere dollmaker story ending up with their partner being turned into a doll…

And after meeting him get embarrassed because he finds the stereotype ridiculous and depending on which novel it is, hilarious. Have it obvious he is disgusted at the idea someone would literally make their target of affection into a doll. He says “It’s cliché at this point, like authors can’t make up their own ideas. I get maybe comparing them to a doll or doing things to make them doll like—but full blown make them a doll… UCK!”

Have dollmaker Yandere not help the case when he takes notes of the kind of clothes you wear and start sketching outfits. If darling has any deformities he’s already making the limbs to be exactly that. It absolutely doesn’t help that one time he makes you sit still so he can model a doll face after your face.

It gets worse when your parents decide you have to move in.

You see it all in real time. The outfits and at some point you see it. The doll he made to look like you. It was freaking you out and all he did was say “I made her just like you~”

You have further reason not to believe he wouldn’t commit to your fears because the staff on hand mentioned how all his exes mysteriously disappeared. You’ve read too many novels to not assume the worst.

He gets tired of this chase for your affection so he makes you sit with him while he works. It’s creepy being around so many limbs and eyes that you feel follow you.

After weeks of that he’d finally address the comments. He doesn’t say what happened to them, just that “I didn’t turn them into dolls” to make you feel better. He’s aware of the fact you’re always going to hop back to that.

You don’t know why but his parents seemed relieved when you actually make it to the marriage date. It told you enough though-clearly his exes never did. Against your better judgement you had to ask in the honeymoon.

He tells you youll never find them. They’re gone, vile, and didn’t deserve anything. It doesn’t make sense…

It starts to, however when he lets you talk with the maid again who tell you more about the girls. From the sounds of each, they were of higher standing than you and more outgoing. They went to parties! Closest thing to going to parties you did was book signings… it was clear after hearing everything that maybe he hated their outgoing personality…

Until he finds out they’ve been talking about them. It’s clear they’re side subjects and the next time you see the maid, her eye is badly injured. You ask and she just tells you a punishment was given and she can no longer speak about the former ladies.

You kept digging and digging despite what you’ve read, honestly you were turning into the protagonist that dies if you look back on your actions.

Then you find not female skeletons, but male skeletons in the basement. They forgot to lock it. He found out.

He questioned why you went down there. He loses control, which resulted in your face getting hit and your ankle broke. He’s upset when he comes down from his manic moment. Holds you… then tells you who they are. The only one without a head was his first fiancée’s affair partner. The others were men who wanted his others and he had no idea if they actually had affairs or not.

That’s why he loves you so much. You don’t have those types of connections. He doesn’t have to doubt you. He takes you upstairs and has the maids get your ankle set. It still didn’t tell you what happened to the girls… but if he kept the skeletons of the affairs… what about the girls? He said he didn’t turn them into dolls, so what did he do?

You couldn’t leave bed for weeks. He himself came to take care of you. You were his everything,the one person who didn’t betray his love once… and creepily you begin to notice something… your ankle did not get better once you healed. You needed a cane to walk. Then one day someone poisoned your food.

He went on a rampage of the servants. Blaming each one as the doctors took care of you and you learn you’ll never walk again, but at least you’re alive. You’re still able to “provide” as the man put. Your husband didn’t see it the same way you did… you saw freedom lost, but he saw an opportunity gained. He loved taking care of you, choosing your clothes and brushing your hair…

So he started doing that again. You protested at first but it seemed futile. You didn’t understand how this all could happen. You did find out it was the brother of one of the maids that poisoned you.

You felt anxious all the time… as he does your hair, as he chooses your outfits, as he takes you with him throughout the home in your wheelchair.

But he doesn’t see why? He told you how this would end. Didnt he? Didn’t he laugh at the idea of literally turning you into a doll? Didnt he say he understood doing this that made them doll like… he may have not been the reason for your legs to be paralyzed, but now you are doll like. You need him to move around the house. He picks your outfits. He brushes your hair and teeth. He personally bathes you! The only thing you ever do by yourself is eat, but if it was his way he’d do it too.

And that’s without the NSFW

Might make a part two of what would happen if you passed away. I just find the ‘makes you an actual doll’ thing too overdone at this point for this type of Yandere.

[adrianlikesdinos]

while it is funny to think and joke about, i think the genuine belief that Erik's wife and daughter were used for the main purpose of trying to erase Cherik is just such a truly awful take. there is no contextual evidence to even back up the claim, by the end of the movie Erik still choses Charles yet again.

so I'm here to present my succinct, evidence-based claim: Erik's wife and daughter only worked to further cement his and Charles shared narrative.

in the film, these two girls act as flat characters; very little information is given about them, no character development takes place, and they take up very little screentime. what they add to the films story however is a point emotional attachment outside the world of mutant vs. humans for Erik to settle into, heal, and escape from his previous life as a literal terrorist. unfortunately for die hard Cherik truthers, this means an emotional attachment out side the world Erik shares with Charles. this is a genuine attempt by Erik to remove himself from the cycle of fear and rage he has been a slave to since his childhood, and it really did all work out for him. he had a job, a community, and he was able to create a life perfectly for himself. despite needing to hide his powers, this was probably the best outcome he was ever going to achieve.

but, now that the franchises main antagonist has settled into a life of warmth and comfort, its time for the narrative to get moving again. you cant tell a story without its antagonist. yes, Apocalypse is the main antagonist for this specific movie as he is the source for the majority of the films tension and conflict, but this movie is a part of the over arching narrative primarily concerning Professor X, his X Men, and their arch-nemesis, Magneto. being each others narrative foils and their decades old disputes they are quite literally a package deal, there will never be a Professor X without his Magneto. So, what better way to pull our protagonist his literal other half into the mix than a good old fashioned fridging?

"women in refrigerator's" is a literary trope originally coined in 1999 by comic book fan Gail Simone. this term is used to refer to the trope in which a female loved one is killed, injured, or otherwise hurt in order to further the plot. the trope is one in which women are used as disposable. (there is so much more i could say about the sexism rooted in this fairly common trope but its fairly self explanatory and doesn't pertain to directly to the topic at hand.) once you actually learn about this you cant stop noticing it (ever seen a Disney movie?). it is particularly common in comic books as a heavily male dominated field of media. it is an easy, fast way to get emotion and anger out of a character and gives them the motive to fulfill whatever is needed for the story to continue. in this case, the rage born from Erik's grief lead him to join Apocalypse as one of his horse men. ultimately pushing him towards yet another fated conflict with Charles, the climax of almost any X Men film.

if the writers were truly conscious and concerned with fans perception of Erik and Charles questionably platonic relationship, they wouldn't have used a trope to sling shot the man directly back into his fandom assigned love interest. its incredibly unreasonable to claim a device clearly intended to send him closer to his other half was in an attempt to separate them.

and, claiming that his family was just an attempt to erase Cherik feels like completely ignoring Erik's past experiences with fridging that truly work to build the complexities and tragedy of their strictly canon relationship. this is the second time he has had his whole world ripped away from him. the second time he has turned to rage and violence to protect what little of himself he has left. this is the first time however that he realizes he has more than just a little broken piece of himself left. this is the first time he is able to realize there is another soul out there who can see past the rage he is blinded by. the first time he has had someone who continues to see the good in him.

and this is me looking at this from as unbiased a perspective as i can. this is hardly even subtext. Erik's flashback wasn't stuck in there just because they needed more screen time, everything holds significance. it was blatantly telling us that in that very moment Erik realized he still had Charles, the one person who can actually claim to know someone, the one person who genuinely knows HIM.

[em-dash-press]

How to Write a Character’s Death Effectively

It’s a strange thing to think about—writing a death effectively. You could come up with endless ways for a character to die and they’d all accomplish the same goal of removing them from the story.

However, deaths always have meaning in fiction. The ones that make it to print are the deaths that are written well.

Here are a few things to avoid and a few others to strive for when writing a death scene.

Things You Consider When a Character Dies

1. Who Is Essential to Your Story?

Think about which characters are essential to completing your plot/theme. If someone isn’t essential, their death won’t be as meaningful to the reader or as purposeful to your plot.

This isn’t to say you can only kill protagonists and your most important secondary characters. But if you only have one death in your book or short story and it has little to no effect on the plot, that character might better serve the purpose of your story by living.

You should also consider who is integral to a character’s future development if you’re writing an ongoing series. The protagonist may have a best friend in Book 1, but by the end of the book, they go their own ways. Books 2 and 3 don’t feature the best friend, so if they die in Book 1 and your projected plot developments don’t change, their death isn’t essential

2. What Is the Reason for the Death?

Real life deaths don’t always have a reason, but the vast majority of fictional deaths do. Unless you’re writing about a theme specifically involving a purposeless death (maybe to write about grief or another way a character handles what happens afterward), each death should have a meaning.

Reasons for Deaths in Fiction

Bitter irony (example: a character who fears driving dying in a car crash)

Bringing the character’s story back to close foreshadowing threads (example: a character gets introduced into the plot by defending someone getting robbed, then they die in a robbery gone wrong)

Betrayal (example: a character’s best friend betraying them in a way that leads to their direct/indirect death)

Growth (example: a selfish or evil character learning to be selfless/good, then giving up their life to save someone else)

Other character’s growth (example: a book about forging your identity while grieving would likely start off with a death that’s meaningful to the protagonist in the beginning of the story) (Warning—be careful about this one turning into bad death tropes! Read the next section for examples.)

Good and Bad Deaths: Examples

Good: Beth March in Little Women

Beth’s character is supposed to exemplify a person who is 100% good and pure of heart. She dies remaining steadfast in her positive demeanor and giving nature. Her death causes the other members of her family to spin into different directions for their character developments. Most notably, Jo March decides to be kinder and more giving to those around her, which leads to the events in the rest of the book.

Reasons this trope works: Beth is the trope of an angelic, faultless young person dying without ever having done anything wrong. However, it’s not necessarily bad because it doesn’t erase an otherwise unrepresented group of people and doesn’t serve the purpose of a male character’s growth.

Bad: Fred Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In the book, Fred dies after the floor explodes while he, Harry, and others regroup during the battle of Hogwarts. Harry (and the reader) are shocked when the dust settles and Percy can’t get Fred to respond to anything.

This death has been described as “realistic” by the author who has lost all of my respect for being a transphobic bigot, so she won’t be named, because she said that it was unrealistic that every Weasley family member survived the battle.

Reasons this death doesn’t work: This death is supposed to be a shock. That’s it. It adds to the surviving characters’ collective grief, but does it change any of their personal developments? Does it alter the world around them? Does it affect their futures? I would argue no. If a Weasley death was supposed to be significant to the plot/purposeful, it would have been a more well-known and loved Weasley like Ron, Ginny, or Molly.

3. Are You Unknowingly Writing Death Tropes?

Here are the most common death tropes to avoid in your writing. They ultimately are hurtful cliches that serve no purpose. Your writing will be much stronger and more meaningful to readers if it doesn’t include these types of deaths:

“Stuffing Women in Refrigerators”: a female character dies so a male character can grow (Think: every superhero who has a dead mom) (Read more about the trope here.)

“Black Dude Dies First”: a person of color dies for seemingly no reason (especially when there are little to no POC left in the story). This trope comes from a history of racism and devaluing characters of color, so be aware that none of your characters’ deaths reflect this trope by filling your stories with representation/deaths of more than just POC. Also, any deaths of POC should not serve solely as the vehicle for a white protagonist’s development. (Read more about the trope here.)

“Bury Your Gays”: an LGBTQ+ character dies for seemingly no reason. They might also die to advance the straight protagonist’s narrative/when there are no other LGBTQ+ characters. It comes from a history of bigotry and prejudice

The Resurrection Trope: a character’s death doesn’t mean anything because it’s reversed/repeated in cycles. They never stay dead and neither do any other characters. If death has no consequences, it’s meaningless. (With the exception of very specific story lines, like Groundhog Day or Russian Doll.)

If you want to really do a deep dive into death tropes, this website has an excellent list of tropes that work for both fiction and movies/TV shows.

-----

Writing and workshopping a death to make it as meaningful and plot-essential as possible might take some time. You might even discover that the death shouldn’t happen at all.

Either way, learning about death tropes and effective techniques is a great way to improve your writing skills and your future stories.

[tragedycoded]

character profile tag!

@the-golden-comet how did you know I needed to repopulate my characters tags <3 Thank you for the tag!

I know everyone here knows him, but let's do this for the protagonist of Doom Metal Love Story anyway.

Name: Cole Francis Sullivan

Nickname: First Sergeant (his rank), variations on his rank ("Top" is pretty funny); Kentucky (Hofer); angel/dear-heart/whatever the current hyperfixation is (Royston)

Kind of Being: Human

Age: variable (born 1835; story takes place 1872-74)

Sex: Male

Appearance: Average height and sturdily built, wearing the field uniform and calf-length boots he only took off to change into his parade dress every evening, Hofer knew who he was looking at before he saw the man's face. (Prologue, Hofer POV)

Until Sullivan sat up, unfurling as he prepared to ride into battle again. Glowing with life, invigorated, half-mad with knowing what he wanted, finally. Ambitious in the way of warrior-kings of old, invulnerable and ageless, lamplight catching the gold and the silver in his brown hair, his red beard aflame. That bayonet scar on his shoulder marking him as human. That bullet scar on the back of his calf. Royston could adore the man and not put him up among idols. Why make him an angel, or a god, or a star. There were so many already, hundreds and thousands and countless of all. There was only one him. (February 1873, Royston POV)

Occupation: First Sergeant in the United States Army Cavalry Division; fort sheriff of Fort Sarras, Kansas

Family members: William (father, deceased); Aileen O'Hare (mother.) Only child.

Pets: Molly, a 12-year-old Morgan horse

Best friend: Major Erik Hofer, Surgeon of Fort Sarras, Kansas; Royston will annoy the shit out of me if I don't acknowledge that he is Sullivan's lover.

Describe his/her room: In the Golden Ending, he sleeps in a barrack with the rest of the NCOs. Based on photographs I've found, it would appear he does not have a roommate. He has a bed, a bureau, a nightstand to put a lamp on, and a peg over his bed for his weapons (rifle, revolver, saber.) This is a fucking hotel compared to the Bad Ending, where he's in a barrack with three other people (Quartermaster Sergeant Harrelson, Hofer, and possibly Sergeant Miller? or else it was the sergeant who dies in the bombardment the weekend before Royston Kool-Aid Mans into Fort Cano.)

Way of speaking: No indoor voice. Direct -> firm -> blunt if you're really not listening to him. Polite, until you give him a reason not to be. Hiding an accent.

Physical characteristics (posture, gestures, attitude): Always at attention. Observant. Ready to react. Always carrying at least two weapons; is a weapon.

Royston wants everyone to know he "fills out that damned uniform."

Items in his/her back pocket/ purse:

HERE I'LL SHOW YOU

(This guy's a private, don't even worry about it. He'd be carrying the same equipment and hey he has the same facial hair right on.)

Hobbies: Reading, playing chess, throwing darts.

Favorite sports: Bat-and-ball.

Abilities/Talents/Powers: Marksmanship mastery, horseback riding expertise, melee combat (saber specialization), leadership. Is the 10th Cavalry Regiment's filthy joke repository (he has a strong memory when it comes to dick jokes.)

He acquires additional, uh, "abilities" in Book 2 but that's a massive spoiler.

Relationships (how he/she is with other people): Preoccupied. Easy to lose touch with. Will go HAM on anything/anyone threatening someone he loves.

Fears: He just told me he doesn't much care for broccoli. When I asked him why he said the fact that it's shaped like a tree is disconcerting.

I understand.

Faults: He's stubborn. His refusal to follow orders that are counter to his own code of honor has cost him promotions. "HE ONLY EATS LIKE FIVE FOODS," Royston says.

Good points:

He may flinch, but he is brave.

He's a leader.

He's loyal (possibly to fault.)

He's physically and mentally strong.

"HIS ASS," Royston says. (Translation: He has a healthy sense of humor.)

What he/she wants more than anything else: To go to sleep at night knowing he did the best he could to protect his country and the people he loves; and, if is his time to die, for his death to not be in furtherance of an unjust cause.

Wait--

"Since he's wandered off and appears to no longer be listening... I want Arthur safe, and alive, and with me. Which I recognize is both a far more difficult condition to satisfy and antithetical to the previous answer."

HAPPY FRIDAY TAG LIST LET'S GO BAP BAP BAP

@lychhiker-writes @cowboybrunch @saturnine-saturneight @ashfordlabs @autism-purgatory

@noblebs @aintgonnatakethis @the-golden-comet @asablehart @mauvecatfic

@leahnardo-da-veggie @sableglass @gioiaalbanoart @words-after-midnight

@lavender-bloom @jev-urisk @wyked-ao3

[didalexiabreakupwitholgayet]

This maybe a stretch but I have a bias towards young male coaches that they make a popular, older player sit at the bench just to show off they have the power to do so and establish some authority.

I just dont like male coaches younger than the players. They havent established anything but are allowed to be there because they are male. I have never seen a female coach of the same case.

I dont know anything about the new coach other than he was among Jona's staff. I just hope he is different than Jona but I fear he will just follow whatever Jona was using, and nothing changing. Im already too stressed out.

Alexia is in form now. They just refuse to let her play.

i'm sorry but what? you can criticise jona for a lot of things but to accuse him of benching alexia because of his ego or to establish his authority due to his age is, frankly, not true. and then to prematurely accuse pere romeu of doing the same? seriously, that is a garbage take, to which i strongly disagree. and if you want examples of terrible or incompetent female coaches, just look to montse, the nwsl (where female coaches have been investigated and fired!), or other leagues around the world. 🙄

jona has been open about having a conversation with alexia about her role this season. he even talked about it in a recent article with maria tikas.

at the beginning of the season i invested some time of competition with alexia in the position of nine, because i knew what she could give us by bringing her closer to the area. but during the injury, mariona gave us a very good performance as a false nine and i think it has been her best season. and when alexia returned, it was difficult for her to have a place in the most starting eleven, because patri, keira [walsh] and aitana reached the end of the season with a spectacular level. then i did what i said, talk to her about the situation. and i am very happy, because it has been a very complicated year for her, with the injury, because she has not been able to start in the important matches. and being twice ballon d'or is not easy to manage. but in the final she entered very well and scored the goal of the victory. and that she was the protagonist, along with aitana, is something that made me particularly excited.

don't forget that alexia was injured and only regained her form towards the last few matches of the season! jona's preferred midfield (that, mind you, won 4 historic titles) was aitana, patri, and keira. keira is a damn good footballer and it's not like she didn't deserve her starting position either.

i am a barça fan first, and alexia is my favourite barça player, but no player is above the team. i'll be happy to see the apa midfield return this year, but i also think the aitana/patri/keira midfield has been great and won two back to back champions. the wonderful thing about barça is that we have all the best midfielders in the world and can win with multiple combinations.

no one is refusing to let alexia play. there were legitimate sporting reasons to have the starting line-up barça went with last season. and alexia is certainly going to be a starter moving into the next season.

[punkeropercyjackson]

I hardly think Luke being the main og villain and Percy the protagonist and the best hero in-universe is 'liberal' writing

1.Luke was literally the HERO OF THE GREAT PROPHECY and is spoken of positively post-death

2.Luke was a white cishet blue eyed blonde male who grew up in a summer camp and was it's leader that the kids viewed as a parental figure of sorts and the reason he's bad is he took advantage of them by grooming them to join his child army and treated boys of color(Chris and Ethan)badly but was attracted exclusively to the underaged girls he abused(Annabeth,Thalia,Silena and Kelli dosen't have a canon age but passed for a high school freshman with no apperance change except hiding her Empousa features)and never actually did anything to fix the system except hating the gods and Percy is a dark featured(black hair + mediterranean complexion described,which means brown skin)New Yorker raised in El Barrio and grew up getting bullied nonstop for being disabled and poor with an abusive stepdad but never stopped being a bully beater no matter how many schools it got him kicked out of,had a whole subplot of proving himself unlike traditional men to a girl who's implied to be persian because she was so traumatized by an awful man she became a misandrist but also just in general throught both Pjo and Hoo without even trying the rest of the time and fights to protect and for the rights of both lower classed greco-roman beings and irl minorities as well as insulting his and their oppressors in his narration and often verbally,including hating the gods before Luke did at his age and told them when he was younger than Luke in TLT too to get they asses in gear with no fear or hesitation and rejected their offer for power in the same breath

Like of course Percy is the good guy.Luke's just good at propaganda and you guys always fall for it because he's the palpable vision of 'revolutionary' unlike Percy,he's safe,he's conventional,he knows how to talk smart.But at the end of the day,which one of them stood up for what was right as only a child instead of perfectly fitting multiple kinds of fascism as a grown man?

Anyway 'Luke Castellan apologists' in bio niggas breath some fresh air,invest in a dating app and help the countries suffering thanks to the kinds of people your racist cradle robber was written to represent instead whining about the show but not going after Rick for his fence sitter shit

@thisismisogynoir