#the foiling is crazy their interactions would go so hard

[going-ghosty]

So Sam hid the fact that she was rich because she didn't want to make fake friends and Valerie found out how fake her friends were when her father lost his job. And yet the show does nothing with this. Why don't they talk more??

[real-total-drama-takes]

I found a confession that said Kitty should have been Gen 2, and I can give quite a few reasons as to why this would be a great idea.

1. Kitty would be an unambiguously positive female contestant making unambiguously positive connections with other female characters I.E. Zoey and possibly Anne Maria

2. Being the happy go lucky social butterfly she is, she provides a filled niche and a strong foil to an otherwise overall grouchy cast where almost 1/3 of them are some level of selfish or antagonistic. She'd also have multiple positive interactions with not just the girls, but also quite a few male characters, particularly Sam.

3. She's a matchmaker. Maybe not the. est matchmaker, but a matchmaker nonetheless. Assuming she's be the 7th member of the Mutant Maggots, she would play a pretty significant role on Zoke, and would contribute to the drama involving Zoey, Vito, and Anne Maria.

4. As seen in some of RR's later episodes, she's naturally competitive and is prone to having a temper if pushed too far. This would put her at odds with contestants like Jo and Sha-Lightning, and honestly a Kitty and Jo rivalry would go so hard. She's also proven to be very decent in challenges, so her making it decently far is not entirely out of the question.

5. Above all else, she's a thrillseeker. She probably has a whole bunch of crazy childhood stories that would put Staci's tall tales to shame, such as the blind tobogganing that put her in the hospital for 2 weeks when she was 10. She isn't Izzy level reckless, obviously, but she's far more bold than most of the Gen 2 girls and is not afraid to do some insane stuff for the thrill of is. Probably why she would have signed up for the show in the first place.

Sorry this is long but I just have a lot of positive opinions about this concept. I might do something with it one day.

.

[danggirlronpa]

Since polyships are on the table... 🍑 Mahiru/Hiyoko/Ibuki or 🍑 Mahiru/Sato/Hiyoko (I have a feeling this one will go horribly, as I tend to headcanon Hiyoko as being very jealous of Mahiru's affection towards Sato; both Sato and Hiyoko are definitely in love with Mahiru meanwhile can't stand each other. I imagine Sato also dislikes Hiyoko because she reminds her of Natsumi - however fair or unfair that comparison is, I definitely feel like Sato has a hatred of bullies. Meanwhile I think Hiyoko would have a soft spot for Ibuki; she would at first try very hard to push her away and prod at insecurities, but once that failed I could see them getting close. Plus, Hiyoko is attracted to kindness - something that she sees in both Hajime (platonically) and Mahiru, which makes her have a soft spot for them - and underneath her jokey-ness, Ibuki is very kind. And I don't even have to explain why Mahiru/Hiyoko works in this equation, lmao - Ibuki/Mahiru is probably the relationship between the three I've put the least thought in, but, I feel like they'd be amicable.)

Also, my Natsumi rarepairs.... 🍑 Chiaki/Natsumi and 🍑 Mikan/Natsumi... I know they don't interact but Chiaki and Natsumi are very much foils for each other & how they affect Hajime, so I think its a damn shame they never interact... plus Mikan/Natsumi would be so tragic.... finding your girlfriend dead... realizing your friend, Sato, killed her..... selling Sato out to your dead girlfriends brother.... Mahiru having such a favorable view of Sato and negative view of Natsumi & Mikan having the reverse.... the biased narration of Mikan (and Mahiru too).... the thought of my girlfriend was nice to me, a real angel, so she COULDN'T have been bullying you.... and then a year later, meeting a demon in the form of Junko Enoshima, who reminds you so much of your dead girlfriend, who tells you that Hope's Peak is corrupt, didn't look into her death to avoid a scandal with the reserve course so the funding to their pet project doesn't get shut down... and you're angry, you're so angry, that was your girlfriend and they don't even care.... why not let the devil tempt you into revenge? Don't they deserve it? I am so crazy about Natsumi/Mikan and NO ONE is tapping into their potential, the only fics on it on ao3 are my own.... I adore them 😭

I've been holding onto this ask because part of me doesn't even want to touch on a response so it can just stand alone as a testament to the ships. I LOVE seeing people talk about their rarepairs, absolutely fuck yes. Please don't think I'm ignoring you when I'm brief or my thoughts differ from yours because this RULES.

Mahiru/Hiyoko/Ibuki: Neat! Every dynamic in here is fucking stellar. I definitely also think this is a ship that centers on Hiyoko, which in and of itself is sort of fun. Danganronpa fans HATE her. But women LOVE her 😏

Mahiru/Hiyoko/Sato: Basically Canon. I'm biased about this because Mahiru/Sato is my real True SDR2 OTP and I consider both it and Mahiyoko to be Basically Canon on their own. But ALL TOGETHER. BOTH IN LOVE WITH MAHIRU. You know that tumblr post that's like "superhero and supervillain but theyre both friends with the same civilian so when their buddy invites them all out together as civilians they just have to silently seethe at each other across the table"? Yeah

Chiaki/Natsumi: Fine. This. And I'm going to be exposing a lot of things about myself as a person here so everyone just be cool. This is a kismesistude. And I will leave it at that.

Mikan/Natsumi: HELL YEAH. This might only appeal to a niche audience but hear me out, okay. You know yakuza mangas that are like. Oh No I Am A Sad Abused Young Woman/Twink Who Has Been Sold To/Become The Caretaker Of A Child In/Married Into/Reincarnated Into/Otherwise Somehow Become Involved In The Yakuza! im so frightened! what does this mean yakuza want with me!! a heart of gold?! could it be??? oh but because of my abuse i feel like i dont deserve this but through this yakuzas unrelenting instant love for me and very violent vengeance upon my abusers and also some gang drama to force us into compromising situations will i be forced to learn self esteem through the power of love?? THATS WHAT I WANT FROM THEM. THATS THE AU IVE WRITTEN IN MY HEAD. AND ALSO WAY OF THE HOUSE HUSBAND AU

[gracesshelves]

First Blood by David Morrell

While I’ve heard the name “Rambo” in pop-culture references before, this was my first time interacting with the character. I have to say, I understand why First Blood by David Morrell was a big hit. The stakes were high, the characters were complex, and the writing style was so compelling. Multiple moments disturbed me, but I could not put the book down because I had to see where it was going. I would give this book a four out of five stars. I found the last hundred pages to be a little confusing, even if it was on purpose. However, the way Morrell established Rambo and Teasle as foils was expertly done, and I enjoyed the exploration of how the U.S. discards veterans after they return from war.

            This novel follows Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, who is on the run following a deadly encounter with a group of cops from Madison, Kentucky. The conflict between Chief Wilfred Teasle and Rambo begins when Teasle drives Rambo to the city limits and tells him to get lost (Morrell 7). Rambo has been hitchhiking his way through Kentucky and is used to being told to leave, but Madison seems to be his final straw. Eventually, Teasle arrests Rambo and drives him into a PTSD flashback by ignoring multiple signs that Rambo is becoming agitated (Morrell 52-53). In a fit of panic, Rambo kills a couple of people on the force and steals a motorcycle to escape (Morrell 55). Over several days, Teasle and Rambo develop an intense obsession with one another that ultimately results in the deaths of many people, including themselves.

            As far as thriller writing goes, I was locked in. Morrell’s visceral descriptions were incredible and hard to read. I felt sick to my stomach a couple of times, particularly when Rambo was sick in the caves before and after he hid in the mud. Language choice and sentence structure are vital to building tension. I found this easy to read, but it was enjoyable because it flowed well. Morell knows how to get you on the edge of your seat without a soundtrack. I think another aspect of what makes his writing so engaging is how deep we are in Teasle’s and Rambo’s heads. Their thoughts blend in with the regular prose, and their mental states affect how the prose is relayed. When Rambo is more of a sound mind at the beginning of the novel, everything makes sense and reads logically. However, at the end of the novel time and events flow together, mixed up. Teasle’s narration follows this same pattern. This choice is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s a very clever way to relay the mental collapse of both characters without directly telling us. Furthermore, it also brings readers into the moment, because we can only see what these delirious people see. However, it can also negatively affect the reading experience by making it hard to follow what happens. Even though I could understand and appreciate why Morrell wrote the last few sections that way as a writer, it did make it less enjoyable for me as a reader.

            The message of how veterans are treated impacted me personally. My dad is in the military and suffers from PTSD, but he is not really able to get the treatment he requires because of the stigma around mental health. To me, it’s crazy that we can send people to these places where they get traumatized and then offer them no support to handle that trauma when they get back. Many of them are unable to return to work and end up becoming homeless as a result. While I don’t necessarily back the US’s military-industrial complex, I do think that soldiers deserve extensive social benefits to aid in their rehabilitation to society. If Teasle had paid attention to Rambo’s reactions instead of clouding his judgment with his assumptions about who Rambo is because he’s on the streets, nobody would’ve lost their lives (which I know is the whole point of the book, but damn dude police need de-escalation training).

Works Cited

Morrell, David. First Blood. Grand Central Publishing, 2017.

[bylertruther]

that's just interesting to speculate bc I just wonder how that interaction is going to go. is will going to be scared and freeze again? is he going to be afraid but will be strong enough to fight back or at least run away? what is he going to say and how is he going to respond in that kind of situation considering his trauma responses.

and what the hell is henry going to say, just try to make will get on his side first without the intention of killing him? but that means will is going to be left with two options; either say yes or no. and the thing is, he cannot say no because the situations are different and more dangerous now. and if he says no and if henry attacks him, he has a likely chance of being killed and it would also put his loved ones in danger. so, will he have to say yes to him? BRo too much scenarios and it can go either way.

THAT'S WHAT I'M FUCKING SAYING!!!! IT LITERALLY KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT DBFJHBJ. i have no doubt that it's going to be a phenomenal journey for will, but there's soooooo much Growth that's going to occur and i have genuinely no idea how it'll unfold. bc will does have a freeze response!! one that is directly tied to HIM!! and he's going to have to work through that somehow!! him having to face henry head-on is just going to be so crazy... we already went a double spy route, so are they really going to do it again? like you said, it's not like will could say no if he *is* propositioned, unless we get yet another mind fight... which i don't doubt occurring, but also???? there's just too many possibilities. esp when you consider the fact tht henry wanted to kill everyone except for him. so there had to be a reason he wanted him back in the upside down Alive...

AND EVEN THOUGH WILL WOULD NEVER JOIN HIM.... BECAUSE HE IS GOOD AND HOPEFUL ENOUGH TO KEEP GOING EVEN WHEN ALL HOPE IS SEEMINGLY LOST AND HE LOVES LIFE EVEN WHEN IT'S HARD AND LONELY AND OH SO PAINFUL.... he is human. and they made henry his perfect foil for a Reason. the story started with him for a Reason. what if... he's at a particularly low point when it happens? what if he says yes not bc he wants to join him but because if he's going to die then he's going to die trying his best to fuck him over however he can? like. will cast fireball and put himself in danger to save the party in season one... that is LITERALLY how he's introduced and it's that very action that inspires the party, namely mike, to put their all into saving him... i just. omg.

i still feel so in the dark he's spoken so much about rebuilding and we know will is an artist and we know time stopped in the upside down when he went missing specifically and henry's powers manifested with a clock and he wanted him ALIVE!! HE WANTED WILL ALIVE! DOES HE STILL WANT HIM ALIVE? WHY IS WILL STILL CURSED... WHY HAS HE NOT LET HIM GO... WHAT IS THE REASONNNNNNNN I NEED MORE INFORMATION I'M GOING CRAZY OUT HERE

[bitchkay]

Uhh... NSFW for Zev ig...

Zev is a bottom, you cannot change my mind. I also see him especially being into degradation and bondage. Go crazy, go stupid

Oh I have plenty of nsfw thoughts for Zev trust me, I am in fact going crazy, going stupid

As soon as they're an Avarian that's not Guy(or j*sper) I'm just like MMM WHORKNEE😩😩

Like I made a banner for him for a reason

Ha ha the amount of fanfiction I've written for this man and I don't even think mc has ever had a positive interaction with him💀💀

I literally have 5 WIPs for the man, the legend, THE prince Zev Avari, third in line and youngest Avarian son.

I bully him but I also would like to have sex with him.

He's dreamy, even with his 2016 skater boy hair cut🥰🥰

Anyway-

5 work in progress fanfucs 4 of them being smut and would you believe me if i said bottom Zev has actually never crossed my mind

But ya know what hell yeah!!

Zev's literally a slut

Look at him

He's a slut

Bro wait-

Hold on o just thought of something

Nah I'm jumping straight into this imagine, the wheels are already turning

Imagine this☆:

"Do you not think this is a tad excessive?" "There's so much more I can do to you, you got the long end of the stick." His wrists were tied behind his back but he was otherwise free, retrained nonetheless but still mobile if he so chose. His hands were the only things bound together yet he behaved as if he were hogtied. Zev sat on a chair in front of you, shirt falling off his shoulders fully unbuttoned, as well as his pants. You presented him like a meal waiting to be devoured, the foil peeled back just enough for anticipations sake. "Long end of the stick??" You lightly backhanded his cheek in warning before setting yourself down on his legs. The first sign of struggling when he unconsciously tries to reach for you, tugging against the ties on his wrist. "Don't struggle." You caressed his cheek, tucking a blond strand of hair behind his ear in faux comfort. You ran your hands down his exposed toned chest before reaching for his open pants caressing the bulge beneath his underwear. "I cannot touch you? Why you devil~" You rolled your eyes at his attempt to flirt before squeezing him harshly through his boxers. "Aht!" "You will only watch. You can't touch me. You can't cum. I'll use your pathetic cock as a toy and you will behave yourself." Left to silence under your hard gaze and grip on his cock he obeyed, submitting to you. While physically stronger than you and only his hands having been tied, he could still flip the tables at any moment, hell he could just stand up and yet– "Good boy." –he dosen't. You hiked up your skirt, freeing his stiff cock from its confines, tapping his tip against the damp fabric of your panties. Zev sucked in a breath as he felt you through the thin fabric that separated your sex, clenching his fists behind his back. You teased the head over your clothed pussy, smearing the arousal all over the seat of your panties. "... you're so wet, do I make you--" "Shut up." You slapped a hand over his lips stopping his speech. "Did I not tell you to behave?" You grind against Zevs cock for a while longer until it was burning with need, the tip an angry red and twitching every time he brushed your folds through your underwear. Giving into your own needs you pulled your panties to the side, sliding down on his dick, filling you up to the brim. Sitting flush to his hips you circled your hips a low moan on your lips watching as Zevs entire body tightened, clenching his teeth to hold himself back from cumming right there and then. "Mmm.. your slutty cock's inside me Zev... think I'm gonna make myself cum with it~" you teased as you rose and fell, effectively bouncing on his cock. "You'll watch me get myself off, wont you? Use you like a dildo, yes?"

[horrorhot-line]

serendipity

(n.) the occurrence and development of events by chance, in a happy or beneficial way.

➵ pairing: saiki kusuo/reader

➵ word count: 13.5k

➵ genre: fluff and comedy(?)

➵ warnings: none

➵ summary: on your first day at pk academy, you witness saiki use pyrokinesis. from that moment forward, you become hell-bent on avoiding him at all costs. it’s easier said than done, especially after you find yourself unintentionally foiling chiyo yumehara’s plans to get close to him.

➵ masterlist  (requests are open)

I DO NOT CONSENT TO MY WORK BEING POSTED BY ANYONE ELSE ON ANY PLATFORM

before you read:

‘saiki telepathically communicating with reader.’

‘reader thinking or interacting with saiki through thoughts.’

“saiki talking without moving his mouth.”

“saiki talking using his mouth.”

notes: notes: this post is two requests (here & here) mixed into one, the credit for the ideas go to @hxneylv​ and @moonflowerpetals​. it’s based off season 1 episode 1 and episode 2. it’s all about how saiki and the reader first met. if you’re wondering why i took so long to update, it’s because of how long this fic is. the longest to date, my pride and joy :’) hope you enjoy it!

also: this is shameless of me to ask, but i’m looking for people to give me somewhat detailed feedback (i have a few questions i’d like answered if that’s okay) for my writing so i can improve. if you’re interested, please reach out!

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵       ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

Ever since you could remember, the way the world worked didn't make sense. Abilities and characteristics found in human's, which you deemed to be phenomena, was the new norm for everyone else.

You were 4 when you started sprouting neon green hair at the roots, but a few weeks later the tone began to go back to your natural colour. You grew out the patch of green until you could cut it off. The weird thing was that everyone deemed it usual for others to have crazy coloured hair. It didn't sit right with you. Out of all the classmates in your elementary school, you were the only one with, what other's considered as, abnormal coloured hair— and to top it off, you were sure you were the normal one.

You were 5 when you realised that other's wounds would go away quickly. Scrapes, bumps, cuts, you name it, they would heal almost instantaneously. You didn't possess this ability. Doctors were curious as to why you would come to the hospital with bruises and wounds since it wasn't normal that your injuries wouldn't heal after a day. You wondered the same thing. You chalked it up to you being weaker than others, even though at the back of your mind, you still considered it to be uncanny.

That wasn't all that seemed to be amiss. Individuals could knock someone unconscious with just a chop to the neck, clothes could be ripped off while the crotch remained covered and tiny people could be incredibly strong. None of these applied to you, you couldn't do any of it, for a reason unbeknownst to you.

Despite being so young, how was it possible for you to notice these things? Well, it was due to the fact that every time it felt like a new phenomenon would occur, a splitting headache would hit you. As a child, you couldn't handle the strain of whatever was happening with the world, and you would develop a fever. It would leave you bedridden for a week, but as you grew, it became easier to handle.

You would have ignored all of the weird things happening around you, wouldn't have found it hard not to pay any attention to the unusual phenomena. However, as you aged, it became harder to brush under the rug.

You tried your best not to think of the strange occurrences, until your 2nd year of high school. A week before you were about to start afresh as a 3rd year, your family asked if you were excited for your second year at school.

You hadn't thought much of it, assuming that they had gotten confused. You didn't bother correcting them and continued with your life as usual. That was until you resumed classes, only to find out that you were indeed still in your first year of high school.

You would have disputed it with the teachers because you were sure you passed the year with flying colours, but you weren't the only one. Your entire class, no, the whole year group, was doing their year again. Not to mention, there were no new first years. That was when you decided things weren't okay. Something was very wrong with the world, and you were the only one who had noticed it.

What was more unfortunate was the fact that you couldn't tell anyone. Your family thought you were crazy when you tried to convince them that you were supposed to be a third year. You stopped trying to prove your point to them after repeated failure.

You couldn't speak about your troubles to your friends, in fear of word getting around. In the worst-case scenario, you would be ostracised by your classmates or sent to a mental institute. So you kept quiet.

You did decide to bring up the unusual things you noticed when you talked to your aunt. You guessed if anyone could answer your questions, it would be her since she was a powerful fortune teller. You were wrong.

Your distant relatives dabbled in the supernatural. Your aunt had the ability to see into someone's future, your grandfather was very in tune with the spirit world, and a distant cousin of yours was a shaman who doubled as a ghost hunter— the list went on.

That was how you found out you were immune when it came to the supernatural. Your aunt was someone you were close to since she lived in the same neighbourhood. She had tried to see into your future, to reveal to you what lay ahead of you, only for her to tell you she couldn't. She theorised that you were somehow able to block her from using her abilities on you.

Your aunt called it 'natural immunity and the ability to nullify someone's powers', and told you it was probably because you were surrounded by family who had otherworldly abilities.

That was when you connected the dots since it explained why you were the only one who noticed the changes in the world. You were immune to the phenomenon going on around you. That caused you to wonder who on earth had been messing with the timeline, had been warping everyone's perception of time. If someone truly was capable of doing so, they would probably be the closest anyone ever came to 'god'.

You had asked your aunt if it was possible for someone to turn back time at a global scale since that seemed to be the only explanation for having to do your second year again. She had brushed it off, laughing at the thought. She had said that it was possible, but it would have to be someone with extremely strong powers.

Your aunt was convinced no human on earth possessed the ability to be able to pull a stunt like that off. You had left the conversation at that, giving up on trying to make her understand. You were more curious to learn about your own talents. Your aunt was the one that had taught you how to manually turn off your immunity when other's used their powers on you.

"Visualise a broken string between you and me. Then, try to will it to connect." You had done what your aunt asked of you and found that it took an immense amount of your energy to do so. You ended up with a migraine but discovered that she could use her fortune-telling powers on you from that day forward.

Your aunt had been pleased with the results, telling you that she had just confirmed a sneaking suspicion she had had about you. The two of you discerned that you could indeed turn off your ability, if you could even call it that, when you put enough effort into it.

After your conversation with her, you wondered if you could try stopping your immunity to the weird phenomena around you that you had picked up on, so you wouldn't be burdened with the knowledge that something strange was going on. Ignorance indeed was bliss.

The time on earth turned back three times, or that's what you concluded. You weren't sure about the exact number because you stopped counting after the second time you repeated your year. Repeating the year meant that days blended into each other, and it was hard to remember.

You redid the academic year three times in total, you assumed, until you finally decided enough was enough. You couldn't handle spending another second in the same classroom, with the same people, the same teachers and the same lessons. It drove you insane, so you begged your family to let you transfer. It took a long time trying to convince them, but they finally gave in to your request.

A month before your second year, again, your family moved to a new neighbourhood. You were enrolled at PK Academy, which meant you would start the upcoming school year. You didn't mind the fact that you had to commute to the school you currently went to before the holidays hit, satisfied with having a fresh start at a new institute to look forward to.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵       ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

Finding your way to your new high school wasn't too hard when you had an app that could help you navigate. Just to avoid being late or getting lost, you tailed a group of girls who wore clothes that matched yours, deciding that they would know the way since they went to the same school.

You made it to PK Academy with little to no trouble. You brushed off any dirt that might have been on your uniform to make yourself look more presentable. Students walked into the school building, chatting amongst themselves. You followed suit, and there was a small skip to your step as excitement bubbled in your veins.

All was good— until it wasn't. As soon as you stepped past the gate after successfully passing uniform inspection, a wave of dizziness hit you. You felt nauseous, and you found it hard to stay upright. You staggered, soon falling to your knees.

The rough granite of the pavement scraped your palms, but the searing pain you felt in your head stopped you from processing it. It was as if a huge weight had been dropped on you, as if gravity was working against you to pin you to the ground— or was gravity working rather too effectively? It didn't matter, now was not the time to be thinking about that!

You heard a teacher shout, the one who had been at the front gates making sure students weren't dressed like delinquents. Your vision swam as you tried to look up at the teacher who seemed to be talking to you. Ringing filled your ears, and you winced at the sound. What the fuck was happening to you?

You were panting, finding it hard to hear what the teacher was asking you. The red of his tracksuit hurt your eyes. "—dent! Can... —walk?" It was becoming increasingly difficult to try and understand what he was saying.

You tried to focus on his voice, succeeding after putting in enough effort. "Student! Can you walk?!" You shook your head, no. You clutched the strap of your school bag as tightly as you could, to try and ground yourself.

You furrowed your eyebrows as another wave of nausea hit you, although, not as strong as the last. You felt the need to spill the breakfast, that you had eaten that morning, all over the floor. All you could think about was how to ease the pain. Would you have to wait it out, or would you pass out before then?

You felt the ground shift beneath you as you were picked up. In no time, you were rushed to what you assumed was the nurse's office. The teacher must have decided to escort you to a somewhat safer place, a gesture you thought you should thank him for. The only problem was, the pain seemed to worsen the deeper you entered the school building. He should have left you outside.

"I'll go find the nurse," The teacher who had escorted you here placed you down on a bed before fetching an ice pack from the freezer. "Take this for now." He put the ice pack against your forehead, his arm dropping when you brought your hand up to hold it.

With that, he took off down the hallway. You would have thanked the teacher for his help, if not for the daze you were in. At least the ringing in your ears had subsided. The headache, however, had become impossible to ignore. You were grateful for the ice pack, the cold it provided, helped with the migraine.

Great, first day at your new school and you had managed to fuck it up. You were missing the entrance ceremony at this moment— the principal's speech— fantastic! As if things could get better! '...Fuck's sake. I hate it here.'

What had caused you to nearly faint, to begin with? The only time you had felt like this was when weird phenomena would occur. When the way the world worked changed and you were the only one to notice.

Was there some sort of supernatural activity going on in this school that had caused such a severe reaction in you? You decided you would try to figure it out later. First, you had to deal with the fatigue and nausea. For now, you'd have to focus on getting better. If your condition didn't improve, you'd go home.

You breathed through your nose, turning to your side to ease the pain you were feeling. You hadn't realised that the curtain next to your bed had been pulled, blocking the sight of the door that led to the room. You assumed the teacher had done that. Exhaling deeply, you closed your eyes, trying to relax.

That proved hard to do when the peace was disrupted. You heard a voice coming from afar, and ignored it, trying your best to overcome the feeling of nausea that hit you again. Was your condition worsening?

"Huh, is the nurse dead too? That's weird. Guess I'll have to do mouth to mouth on you, myself." You furrowed your eyebrows, your eyes still closed. Couldn't these strangers be more considerate as not to disturb someone who was trying to rest?

You snapped your eyes open when you felt the bed shake. Someone had slammed into it, from what you could tell. You registered the sound of an audible grunt, guessing that it most likely from the stranger speaking before. You still couldn't see who it was, due to the curtains. Had they fallen or had someone pushed them?

The noise of water running filled the room. "I don't need mouth to mouth, you stupid idiot!" Whoever spoke started to gargle their mouth. You clenched your jaw. Whoever these people were, they were causing your headache to worsen. "You're better? Well, that's nice to see." Why were they still talking?

You had some luck, maybe staying at the nurse's office wasn't a good idea. "Of course, I'm better! I was faking! Was it worth it, though? Since I got kissed by you!" Was this some backward BL you had been dragged into? 'I've read enough fanfiction to know where this is going...' If these people had nothing better to do, you wondered why they couldn't just leave.

You adjusted the ice pack on your head, biting your cheek to stop yourself from getting annoyed further. It didn't work. The mouth gargling continued. "Well, if it makes it you feel better, I'm sad too. You were my first kiss." Whoever he was, he whispered the last part as if he was bashful. In any case, that wasn't the best way to go about consoling someone.

'Then, elope and get married already! Just leave me alone to rest!' You rolled your eyes as you gazed up at the ceiling, wondering when they would stop talking and go back to their classes. "Now, everyone's gonna think Nendou and I are in love..."

Oh, brother. You wished you had stayed home, this was not worth it. You didn't want to be subjected to listen to either of them go on. To hell with your first day at a new school. You heard someone shuffle angrily across the room. "Hey, you better not tell anyone fainting spell was a fake! Don't tell anyone!"

You decided that enough was enough. You were either going to get those two to leave. Or you would just go home. Whichever was easier in your condition. You sat up and pulled back the curtains quickly, only to realise that there were three people in the room, not two.

The one you assumed had slammed into the bed you were resting on, who was still on the floor, had... unique hair. Fashion choice? He had a mohawk that was dyed blonde, while the rest of his hair was weirdly shaved. One of them had referred to him as 'Nendou', that you were sure of.

On closer inspection, you realised he had a scar over his left eye and the most defined butt-chin you had ever seen. It hurt your eyes just to look at him, that's how unpleasant his face was. He resembled a delinquent, but his mannerisms said otherwise. The one who you assumed had been faking his sickness had green hair and fish-like lips. Both of them were... unsightly.

The one who hadn't talked once this entire time had pink hair. He wore green glasses and antennas on his head. The only one of the three who looked marginally attractive. You wondered how he had managed to get past uniform inspection. He was the one who looked the most shocked to see you, his face paling at the sight of you.

It was because he hadn't been able to detect you with his powers, a fact unbeknownst to you.

They all turned to look at you, and you opened your mouth to speak, still holding your icepack against your forehead. "Could you please keep quiet? I'm trying to rest—" You didn't get a chance to finish what you were saying, as someone else entered the room. "I heard it all!" Look at that, it was the teacher who had carried you to the nurse's office.

"Matsuzaki!" The green-haired boy spoke first, shocked to see the teacher standing at the door. So, that was the name of the teacher that saved you. "So your fainting was a con job, huh?" The teacher truly was a force to be reckoned with, he looked scary as he— was he growing in size? He nearly towered over the green-haired boy in front of him.

"That's not what happened, sir! It's his fault. He forced me to collapse so he could skip out on the principle's speech, and my sickness is actually a ruse!" The green-haired boy pointed a finger to Nendou, before bursting into tears as he cried into his arm. Matsuzaki put a hand on the boy's shoulder to console him as he furiously turned to Nendou.

You watched the scene unfold with a blank face. You should've just pretended to be asleep. Maybe then you wouldn't have been subjected to witness this exchange take place. Was it too late to get back into the bed and pull the covers over yourself?

"Nendou, is that all true?!" So, you were right, that was his name. It wasn't his fault, but the green-haired boy had done a pretty good job at acting like it was. He had expertly made up lies so he wouldn't get into trouble, letting Nendou take the fall for him instead.

Nendou didn't even get a chance to retaliate, as Matsuzaki took notice of the pink-haired boy to his right. "Saiki? What are you doing here?" Come to think of it, you found it weird that the boy had yet to say a word. Was he mute? Saiki was his name, huh? The boy with antennas only acknowledged Matsuzaki but didn't open his mouth to speak.

Of course, Saiki did reply, but he did so telepathically. Your immunity to the supernatural, without you knowing it, blocked out his ability, which is why you thought he hadn't said anything, even though he had been talking to the others since the moment he had entered the nurse's office.

"Takahashi, is he also a part of this?"  Matsuzaki asked the green-haired boy, who you now knew to call Takahashi. Matsuzaki pointed a finger at Saiki. Takahashi stopped crying abruptly, lowering his arm slightly as he opened his mouth to answer. "Yeah, sure." You watched Saiki's expression darken at the accusation. This whole situation was absurd.

How had the teacher, of all people, not realised that Takahashi was faking this entire thing and making up elaborate lies to avoid getting into trouble? And why was this whole exchange going so fast?

You were going to get whiplash at this rate, with how quickly you were looking between the four. At least your headache had died down slightly, just enough for you to think clearly. So long as you didn't get dragged into this whole mess, you'd be just fine. You wanted to leave.

"Hold on a sec, teach. His feigning is real. Didn't you hear him just say it? Root sickness." Nendou said it so ominously, you nearly believed him. That lasted for a second until you gazed up at the boy in sheer disbelief. Was it possible to be this idiotic? How could someone even be capable of mistaking ruse for roots?

You weren't the only one who thought so, as the other three in the room looked to Nendou in awe and shock. You were sure they felt the same, Nendou was a moron. "What? Isn't that right?" Nendou was confident he was right and— were those stars dancing around him? You would laugh, but you were still trying to process how someone could be so dumb.

"What in the holy heck? What's root sickness— root sickness is a deadly virus that infects the victim through the follicles. Oh, that one." Halfway through Matsuzaki trying to understand why Nendou would bring up such an illness, he started to think out loud before coming to the conclusion that Nendou was right.

This whole situation was outrageous! How had you managed to witness such incompetency from a teacher? At least he was reliable in the sense that he cared. You couldn't think badly of Matsuzaki as he was the one who had gone through the trouble of bringing you to the nurse's office when you fell. He was still an idiot, though.

"Let's take your temperature to see if you have a fever. That's what my mom does for me." Could you leave yet? No one would say anything if you left right now, right? You weren't too keen on taking a risk, so you decided to stay put for the time being. "Are you a new student?" You spoke too soon, Matsuzaki had noticed you.

You stood up from your seat on the bed, staggering slightly as you felt black spots cloud your vision. Maybe getting up abruptly wasn't a good idea. You sighed, "Yes, I'm new. This is my first day here." Matsuzaki took note of what you said, nodding to himself as he put a hand to his chin. "Do you have root sickness too?"

What a bother. Of course, you didn't, because a sickness like that didn't exist. There was no known medical condition dubbed 'root sickness', to begin with. You shook your head, no. "I have a headache, not a fever. I'll be fine if I get some rest." You weren't going to be fooled into believing that you had a made-up sickness, you just felt nauseous.

Though the feeling had dimmed, you still wanted to go home to recuperate. "Is it alright if I take sick leave today? I don't think I'm well enough to go stay here." Matsuzaki agreed, having already seen you nearly pass out near the front gates of the school. You sighed in relief at that. You liked this teacher, he was nice.

Matsuzaki then proceeded to get a thermometer from one of the drawers in the room to check Takahashi's temperature. All the while, the boy in question sat at a bench in the corner of the room with one sleeve of his uniform jacket taken off. He was sweating profusely, no doubt because he had been faking this entire time and was about to be caught. Serves him right, you thought to yourself, Takahashi had dug his own grave.

"98.2 Celcius... Go call an ambulance now!" You quickly turned on your feet to look at Matsuzaki. How was that possible?! That was 40 Celcius too high! The average body temperature for a human was 37 Celcius! You wondered if Takahashi really did have root sickness. You quickly got rid of the thought, that wasn't possible. Maybe he just had a high fever?

The ambulance came in record time, carrying Takahashi out on a gurney to be loaded into the van. You watched from the window in the nurse's office, shaking your head. Today had been a disaster. You decided you had had enough of this school for now, turning around to head home. The only other person in the room besides you, was Saiki.

He would know the way out of this place, right? You weren't familiar with the layout and didn't want to get lost whilst trying to find the main entrance. There was no harm in asking.

"Do you know how I can get to out of here? I'm not sure how to since I'm new." Saiki turned to you, his blank face, which was devoid of all emotion, made it hard to read him. This entire time not once had you seen a significant change in his expression. Was he human, or a robot?

Silence followed, and the boy raised an eyebrow at you. You mirrored his action, expecting an answer. "Hello? Do you know where the main entrance is?" You didn't miss the look of shock that crossed his face. Had Saiki actually been mute like you first assumed? Oh god, how insensitive of you. Before you could apologise, he opened his mouth to speak.

"First stairs to your left. If you take them all the way down to the ground floor, you'll reach the shoe lockers. That's the way out." You weren't sure what you expected him to sound like, but it certainly wasn't that. Honey, that was the only word that came to mind when you thought of how to describe it. Smooth, not too deep, but very appealing. You decided you liked the sound of his voice.

You nodded your head, thanking him before you moved to leave the room. It hadn't even been an hour since you had come to PK Academy, and still, everything had gone to shit. You rubbed at your forehead in mid frustration, already missing the icepack you had left in the nurse's office.

Nendou passed you in the hall, moving to walk into the room you had just emerged from. You turned, curious as to why he was going back. You peeked into the room, and that's when you saw it. Past Nendou, who was slightly obstructing your vision, stood Saiki with a thermometer in his hand.

The same one Matsuzaki had used on Takahashi.  Out of nowhere, it caught on fire in Saiki's palm, and the boy casually crushed it in his hand as if the heat didn't affect him. Your body moved before you could think, and you turned to hide. The wall next to the door to the office was enough to keep you from being detected.

You took note of your heart speeding up in your chest, feeling as though you had witnessed something you shouldn't have. It hadn't been an illusion. What you had seen was not as your imagination. Saiki had set the thing on fire with his mind! There was no other explanation. He could use pyrokinesis, the ability to manipulate heat.

This whole situation and the events that took place today had set you on edge. Normally, you would have let curiosity get the better of you and decide to confront Saiki about what you had seen, but this time it was different. Though you weren't a stranger to the supernatural, you had no interest in becoming 'buddy-buddy' with Saiki or even talking to him in the future, for that matter.

You were already surrounded by family who had otherworldly abilities and adding to the list of people you knew who could do things other's couldn't didn't sound appealing at all. 'Better to just leave it. The last thing I want is to get involved with someone like him.'

Chances were, you wouldn't' run into Saiki. The school was big, and there was no way you would be so unlucky as to end up in the same class as him. With that, you began to walk, following the directions you had received earlier so you could get to the main entrance of the school building.

That was how your first meeting with Saiki Kusuo had gone.

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You had the worst luck on earth. If god existed, they definitely had it out for you. After you attended classes for the first time, you had discovered you were, in fact, in the same class as the pyrokinetic kid.

You sighed as you laid down on your bed, resting your eyes as you willed yourself to change out of your uniform. You took the time to think back to the events of the past few days.

Your first official day at PK academy had been just as eventful as the day you went home early. When you had stepped into the class, the first person who caught your attention was the pink-haired boy from earlier, Saiki.

You had frozen mid-step as soon as you realised you were in the same class as him. What had snapped you out of your thoughts was the teacher announcing that you were the new transfer student. After you had introduced yourself, you had taken a seat, coincidentally ending up right behind the boy you wanted to avoid.

The school day went on, and you had tried to make the best out of the situation you were in. Just because you were in the same class didn't mean you would interact with each other. Saiki didn't look like the talkative type either. You had tried to calm your nerves.

It was reasonably quiet until the first break of the school day.

As soon as the teacher left, you pulled out your phone and plugged in your earphones so you could tune the world out. You had ignored everyone around you, grateful for the fact that no one had come to bother your peace. You had quietly sat at your desk, deciding to do your homework because you had time.

That was until the class started discussing a snake that was on the loose after it escaped the zoo. A student with light blue hair had spoken up, claiming that an evil organisation called 'Dark Reunion' was behind it.

You couldn't bring yourself to listen in closely as he went on with his delusions. Situations like that usually didn't end well. You had been correct. Your classmates had made fun of the strange boy until he left the room, his voice trembling as he declared that he had tried to warn them. You had guessed that he was going to the bathroom to cry.

Saiki left shortly after and that was when all hell broke loose. The class had started to scream. When you realised it was over a snake that had somehow gotten into the room, you quickly jumped on top of your desk, accidentally pushing off your books and pens in your haste.

The class collectively lost their minds. Long story short, the students had exclaimed that someone should get the teacher, but no one moved to do so as the snake blocked the door.

Nendou had gotten bitten in the balls by the reptile and proceeded to pass out on the floor. The light blue-haired boy from before with the 'Chuunibyu Complex' returned and tried to protect the class from the snake, willingly putting himself in danger. You had sent him your blessings, convinced that he was going to die.

Then it had happened, he yelled 'Judgement Knights of Thunder!' and then there was light— well lightning. It appeared mysteriously, and music seemingly started playing out of nowhere. 'JUDGMENT KNIGHTS OF— JUDGMENT KNIGHTS OF THUNDER!'

For a second, you had wondered if god was talking to you. Had your time finally come? Had the day come where a divine power would smite you off this mortal coil?

That didn't seem to be the case, no, it was just Kaidou's theme song laying. Even after coming home from school, you had yet to get the sound out of your head. What could you say? The song was catchy.

You had figured that Kaidou also had otherwordly abilities. That meant that he had been telling the truth when he claimed to have special powers. A pyrokinetic user and a boy who could control lightning, both of them were in your class. What were the chances?

That wasn't the only thing you had observed. When you went to town to pick up new stationery, you had spotted Saiki. It was a mere coincidence that he and you were in the same place, at the same time, seemingly heading in the same direction.

You had silently walked behind him, praying to yourself that he wouldn't turn around and notice you. You hadn't actively been trying to follow him, so why had you felt like you were some type of stalker?

What had snapped you out of your thoughts was a girl with navy blue hair crossing the street to say hi to the boy in front of you. Were they familiar with each other? You had realised then that the girl was also your classmate.

Kokori was it? Koko- Ah, yes, Kokomi Teruhashi. She was quite popular among the boys in your school for her beauty. Personally, you had thought it was overrated. Perfect was boring. Not to mention, you got the feeling that she was somewhat narcissistic. Having people compliment her and practically drool all over her would surely get to her head, right?

You had stopped when Saiki did, as Teruhashi moved to stand in front of him to greet him. You hadn't been keen on walking past him, so you had stayed in place. You had pulled out your phone to make it look like you were checking something. What followed had shocked you. Saiki had bowed before continuing to walk.

You had been just as baffled as Terhuashi, the girl in question frozen in place. Why did he avoid her, you had wondered. Any other boy would have melted at the sight of her. Was he gay? Was he in love with someone else? Was he like Hairo, who saw Teruhashi as an equal?

You continued to walk when Saiki started to move again, watching as Teruhashi chased after him. It got to the point where he stopped acknowledging her in general.

Teruhashi had called after him, to no avail. She had resorted to a different method after that, reaching out to grab him forcefully, only for Saiki to dodge her expertly. Did he have eyes at the back of his head or something? You remembered wanting to laugh at the situation, stopping yourself as to not draw attention to yourself.

When Saiki entered the crowd, Teruhashi had tried to follow him. It proved to be fruitless, as he seemingly disappeared. That had caused you to stop dead in your tracks.

Saiki had teleported, there was no doubt about it. Your eyes were on him, and then he vanished. It was no trick of the light. That had sent you down a spiral. You had known then that he had more than one power. He didn't just have the ability of Pyrokeneiss, he could also teleport. Just how powerful was he?

You kept an eye out for Saiki after that, quietly observing him to see if he any other capabilities.

When the boys were playing dodgeball in P.E, you were in home ec. trying to make cupcakes. You had spent the better half of the lesson watching Saiki play, nearly burning what you had been baking because of your distracted state.

What had caught your eye was him throwing a ball lightly at the dodgeball cart, only for the whole thing to be destroyed entirely. Your jaw had practically dropped to the floor at the sight. If you hadn't been watching Saiki, you would have assumed it was a meteor that had hit it. He had superhuman strength too?

It also struck you as odd that anytime the teacher called on him to answer, he would stay silent. Then the teacher would tell Saiki that he was correct as if the boy in question had replied. Could he also control minds? What the hell was happening?

The more you watched him, the more you were convinced that he was an extremely dangerous individual. You had concluded that your decision not to get involved with him had been a good one. You should have stayed put at your last school, coming to PK Academy had been a bad idea.

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Other than your inner turmoil for having come to your new school and the slight fear you felt when you were around Saiki, nothing out of the ordinary took place.

The days rolled by until Friday came around and you mentally patted yourself on the back for having succeeded in avoiding Saiki. You had gotten through your first week without garnering any unwanted attention.

You sat at your desk, drinking from a cold coffee can you had retrieved from a vending machine as you half-heartedly listened to the rest of the class prattle on about romance. Did they have nothing better to talk about during their break? Personally, you believed they were all way too young and immature to be in relationships.

Just listening to them gave you a headache. You shifted your attention, looking up to stare at the back of Saiki's head. You had noticed that for the most part, he was alone during the day, save for when Nendou and Kaidou— the light blue-haired boy, would come to talk to him.

You shook your head to yourself, why were you even thinking of Saiki, to begin with? You sighed inwardly, turning to your right to look out the window of the classroom. You were terribly bored. You took the time to relish in the warmth of the sun beating down on your face, closing your eyes to enjoy the moment.

After a while, you faced forward again, your eyes scanning the room. That was when your gaze landed on the girl next to Saiki. If you remembered correctly, from when the teacher did the roll call this morning, her name was Chiyo Yumehara.

Yumehara was plain looking for the most part and didn't really stand out. She had rust coloured hair that was at chin length and a simple headband with a bow on top of her head. What had caught your eye, however, was the textbook she was doodling in. On closer inspection, you realised she was drawing Saiki.

There was no way you couldn't tell, Yumehara definitely had a crush on Saiki. Why else would she take the time to sketch his face?

You agonised over how she had drawn Saiki. She made him look like some shoujo manga boy. Truly ugly, in your opinion, since Saiki was close to the 'cold, quiet' type rather than the 'prince'. Her version of him had tame hair, sparkling eyes, and a soft expression.

How did she stray so far from the original source material when he was less than a metre away from her? Saiki had unruly hair, blank eyes and sharp eyebrows that made his expression harsher.

Hold on— why were you paying that much attention to him to start with? You sighed, rubbing your forehead as you looked back down at your desk to continue completing your homework. You decided then that though you had learnt something new by observing, you wouldn't get involved. Nothing good would come of it, you were sure.

However, remaining unaffiliated proved to be a challenge.

Walking the halls of your school as you tried to navigate your way to the nurse's office so you could get a bandage was difficult. Despite having been to the room already, you still didn't know how to get there by yourself.

You had managed to cut yourself when turning the page of a textbook in class. The pain was tremendous even though the injury was small. You inspected the papercut on your index finger, squeezing below the wound to see if blood would come out. It did.

You sighed in mild frustration, looking around, trying to spot someone you could ask to guide you to where you needed to go. That's when you caught sight of Yumehara, who looked like she was peering around the corner, waiting for someone. With a nod of your to yourself, you started to stride up to her confidently.

You faltered when Yumehara started to giggle to herself. You didn't feel so bold anymore, the sound coming from her lips kind of freaked you out. Why was she laughing? She was completely alone too. She looked like a pervert... what was going through her head?

Despite hesitating, you were aware that it was too late to back out, so you settled with walking up to her anyway. You got close enough so that she could hear you before you spoke up. "Hey— uh, Yumehara?" She wouldn't be creeped out that you already knew her name, right?

Yumehara nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of your voice. She turned around with a startled gasp, bringing up a hand to clutch at her chest. It was then that you noticed she was holding a bunch of papers. She was most likely going to drop them off somewhere for a teacher. Had you stalled her from getting to where she needed to be? ...Oh, well.

"Mind showing the way to the nurse's office? I don't know where it is— since I'm new and all." You unconsciously raised an eyebrow at the look of disdain that crossed Yumehara's face. Hey, hey, hey! That is no way to act around someone who's in need.

No matter, you'd pretend that she didn't just give you dirty look. You did require her assistance to find the nurse's office after all.

"...Oh. Uhh— sure I'll help you." At least Yumehara didn't outright refuse you. Guess she wasn't as heartless as to tell you to look for someone else to help you with directions. You decided it was worthwhile to give her a smile of gratitude. "Thanks. I have a nasty papercut, and I need a plaster."

Then came the feeling of slight dread when Saiki rounded the corner. For a moment, it felt as though your soul had left your body. 'Ah.' Your lips parted, and you grimaced. Your mind ran at a million miles per hour. Yumehara was trying to get alone with Saiki, wasn't she? Had you ruined her plans? Had he noticed? The last thing you wanted was for Saiki to pay attention to you. He was dangerous.

You inhaled then exhaled, telling yourself to calm down. There was no way Saiki could have predicted that Yumehara was trying to bump into him just so she could have a reason to be alone with him, right? That meant you were in the clear— there was no reason for you to be worried.

Yumehara watched as Saiki strolled past quietly, gazing after him with longing and disappointment. She sighed, clutching the papers in her hands closer to her chest, as she signalled for you to follow her. At your success of not having gotten Saiki's attention, behind Yumehara, you pumped your fist in the air.

What you failed to notice was Saiki watching you do so. You trailed behind Yumehara with a slight skip to your step, completely oblivious.

'Y/n... that's her name, right? She did that on purpose, didn't she? But why? Don't tell me she has a crush on me too? What a pain.'

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Somehow, you had unintentionally found yourself spoiling Yumehara's plan of getting close to Saiki.

When Yumehara dropped her pink handkerchief on the floor, you had retrieved it for her. You had noticed it fall, and like the good samaritan you were, you decided to give it back to her.

Pushing your chair back, you walked behind Yumehara and knelt so that you could pick it up for her. You unconsciously placed a hand on the metal stand that held up the desk next to you, (which happened to be Saiki's), so you wouldn't fall.

You didn't notice the fact that she giggled and hummed to herself, too focused on doing a good deed. "Hey, Yumehara— is this yours?" You held up the pastel pink handkerchief and observed as Yumehara turned around, her expression dropping as she realised it was you who had stopped her. Well, that wasn't the look you expected to be greeted with when you helped her.

Oh... You had done it again. You had gotten in Yumehara's way again, hadn't you? You had thought it was weird when she had dropped the handkerchief so aggressively. Ah— she had thrown it.

Had she done it on purpose... solely to get Saiki's attention? It wasn't a bad idea, and it probably would have worked had you not intervened. Saiki would have picked it up for her or helped her look for it if she asked. You had ruined her chance. Dear lord.

You wanted to bang your head against the nearest wall. Even though you planned not to get involved, you still managed to get in the middle of Yumehara's plans, and you only had yourself to blame.

Yumehara hurried over to you and snatched the handkerchief off you before she dramatically ran out of the classroom. The least you could do was say you were sorry after what you had done. "Geez, all I did was pick it up. Hey! We have class in three minutes! Yumehara, wait!" With that, you ran after her.

You apologised to Yumehara with a cold drink you bought from the vending machine. She didn't seem too annoyed after that. You inwardly apologised to the girl for ruining her plans. Saying it out loud would only cause her embarrassment.

The rest of the day went by with you stopping Yumehara from being close to Saiki at every turn, without even trying.

You picked up the ball in P.E when it rolled over to Saiki's direction, thinking you were being nice only to realise later that Yumehara had purposely thrown it. You opened the door to the staff room when Yumehara had too many books in her hand to do it herself. She had hoped Saiki would help her since he was nearby, but you had come to the rescue. Your efforts were not appreciated.

You offered to help finish the extra cookies she made in Home. Ec, successfully stopping her from asking Saiki. All the while, you had done everything unconsciously, only realising your mistake after. What a disaster.

You rolled your neck from side to side, your exhaustion palpable. How had you stopped Yumehara plans every single time? Why did you have to be around every time she had decided to put her plan into motion?

You hoped she didn't hate you. Or worse, think you were deliberately trying to stop her because you wanted Saiki all to yourself, which was the furthest from the truth that anyone could get.

You yawned into the back of your hand, waiting for the day to end. Your eyes trailing to the window of the classroom when the sound of rain filtered into your ears. There was a downpour.

Despite it being sunny in the morning, the clouds had turned grey, and the temperature had dropped significantly. You placed your head down on the desk, the surface of it cool to the touch. Shivering at the sensation, you stretched your arms out across the table before crossing them to hide your face completely.

The weather affected your mood, making you feel incredibly drowsy. You had nearly fallen asleep during the last period of the day.

You rubbed your eyes when the bell rang, signalling that the school day was over. You hadn't thought to bring an umbrella, so you would either have to ask someone to share with or use your bag as a shield against the drizzle.

You quickly packed up your things so that you could hurry to the entrance, hoping you could catch someone to walk half the way home with. Grabbing your bag and placing the strap of it on your shoulder, you rushed to the shoe lockers. That's when you caught sight of Yumehara.

She was standing outside, the glass door between the two of you. She didn't have an umbrella too. You guessed that she must have forgotten it at home like you did. Slipping your shoes on with one hand, you walked over to the entrance of the building and walked through it.

You decided to wait beside her, hoping you'd get lucky and someone would offer to share an umbrella with you. "You forgot your umbrella too?" You turned to Yumehara, who spoke first. "Huh? Oh— Yeah. I didn't think it would rain today." You looked up at the sky. God, this was awkward. You didn't know how to keep the conversation going.

The clouds were still grey, and the rain didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon. You breathed in the fresh air, the earthy smell that accompanied the weather was always your favourite. Other than the part where you would get wet, you absolutely adored the rain.

You shifted your weight from one foot to the other, letting the soft patter of the falling water lull you into a sense of calm. You pulled out your phone to check the time. It didn't look like anyone was going to offer to share an umbrella with you any time soon. "At this rate, I might have to walk—"

Before you could finish voicing your thoughts, miraculously the clouds cleared and the weather improved. You gaped up at the sun that had appeared out of nowhere. No matter how you looked at it, this turn of events was clearly not normal. Was it Saiki?

You quickly shoved down the first thought that came to mind as you moved away from the shade the school building provided as you started walking. There was no way he was that powerful. Even humans had their limitations, and you couldn't possibly have been so unlucky as to become classmates with someone who had such extraordinary abilities.

You began to make your way home, and before long, you realised the unusual things were happening around you. Right before you were about to get run over by a car, the vehicle seemingly defied all laws of psychic and flew over your head before driving off normally.

Then, when a biker nearly crashed into you, it somehow changed directions and swerved to the right, alarmingly close to driving onto the main road. That wasn't normal, right? You weren't going insane, were you?

When someone bumped into you, causing you to lose your balance, you found that you were standing upright. As if you hadn't nearly tripped onto the pavement. What the hell was going on? As you looked around to make sense of things, you noticed Saiki. The bane of your existence. How was he everywhere?

His pink hair made him easy to notice, even if he was trying to blend in with the crowd. Had he... had he saved you? He could use telekinesis?! You had to get out of here, as soon as humanly possible. You could not let on that you knew of his powers.

You turned around, preparing to sprint as your grip on the shoulder strap of your bag tightened. "Who sent you?" At the sound of Saiki's voice filling your ears, the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end as you tensed. Why did you feel like you were in some sort of thriller movie?

The last thing you wanted to do was look behind you. In the film industry, that was as good as sealing your fate. Maybe if you pretended that you couldn't hear— "I know you heard me." You winced. This was not good. Sirens were going off in your head. 'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!'

You swore under your breath as you turned around to face the boy. You'd have to play dumb. "Hm? Oh, Saiki, right? What do you mean by that? I'm just a high school student." You gave Saiki a strained smile. You weren't lying, you weren't anyone special save for your immunity to the supernatural. From this proximity, he looked more attractive than usual.

You shunned the thoughts running through your head, now was not the time! Saiki narrowed his eyes, suspicion clear as day in them. "Who are you?" Now, you were confused. Did he think you were some sort of spy? Had no one else noticed his powers like you had? He wasn't exactly careful about using them, since they had caught your attention early on.

"I— uh, I'm Y/n. Your classmate." Saiki furrowed his eyebrows ever so slightly, clenching his jaw. There was silence for a moment, and you wondered if that meant you could leave. "Follow me." You hesitated, not sure what to do as he swiftly turned to walk away. "Come on." He wasn't going to give up, was he? The seed of doubt had already been placed. There was no getting rid of it now.

You wouldn't be able to bluff your way out of this one. Maybe confronting him would be better? That way, you wouldn't have to worry about avoiding him all the time. You fast-walked to close the distance between you and him.

For the entirety of the journey, you wondered where he was taking you. You prayed to whichever higher power was willing to listen that he wouldn't murder you. From what you had seen, he could easily do so.

"Where are we?" You stopped in front of the house ahead of you. You guessed that it must be his house, but asking to make sure, was always a good thing. "This is where I live." Oh, boy. You knew one thing for sure; you were definitely not prepared for this.

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For a psychic, Saiki's room was more average than you would have assumed. There was a desk, a bed and a tv. Other amenities such as the wardrobe that was built into the wall, a bookshelf and a small planted tree were also in plain sight.

It was... unexpected. From what you could tell, Saiki was an esper, so you guessed he would have a room that was extravagant at least. That meant that he didn't use his powers for the wrong things. So you could safely assume he wouldn't kill you in cold blood, right?

Saiki wouldn't murder you, would he? He wouldn't be so careless as to do you in, in his own house. That would make him the lead suspect in your homicide, right?

His mom knew you were here too, so he wouldn't use violence to subdue you, no? You hoped so. Mrs Saiki seemed like the sweetest woman you had ever met, so naturally— her son would have inherited some of her personality traits, right? You wanted to leave already.

"I'll ask again. Who are you?" While Saiki had parked himself on the chair in front of his desk, looking at you sceptically as he sat like he owned the place (which he did), you had prompted to stand across from him. God was this awkward. Why had he brought you here? "I told you, I'm just a classmate."

You hoped your answer would be enough to appease him. You thought wrong. "...Why can't I figure you out?" You raised your eyebrow. It didn't seem as though he was asking you, more so like he was talking out loud. Then again, he did deliberately voice his question, so that meant you could at least pry. "I'm sorry?"

"I can't read your thoughts. Why is that? Are you stupid? Or did someone send you?" He was awfully blunt, huh? Did he have no manners? Assuming that you were a moron... was kind of mean. You were somewhat offended. Wait- he said he couldn't read your thoughts. Did that mean he could also use telepathy?

"Ah... You also have telepathy?" It would explain a lot, like how he could reply to others even though it looked like he was staying silent— but wrapping your head around the fact that he had that many powers, was almost impossible. It was truly mindboggling.

"Also?" Saiki looked at you expectantly, leaning back in his chair as he waited for you to elaborate. You should have framed your sentence better. You found interest in the pens on his desk. "...I've seen you use your powers. Uh, pyrokinesis, superhuman strength, and telekinesis."

Silence followed after you spoke, and you stared down at your feet. "I have to get rid of you." Your head snapped up to look at Saiki, your eyes widening. You gaped at him, your mind running at a million miles per hour.

You were right! He was going to murder you! Oh god, oh god! You still had so many things you wanted to cross off your bucket list, so many anime you had yet to watch! This could not be happening!

"Wait, wait, wait— that— that's too far, man! I have a family— kids, I have kids!" It was true that humans would spout nonsense when faced with someone who was going to kill them. You winced at the words that were coming at of your mouth.

No, you did not, in fact, have children, but you would say anything if it meant staying alive. Your lips trembled as you gazed at Saiki with pleading eyes. You didn't want to die!

"Don't lie. I know for a fact that you don't." Saiki gave you unamused look as he stared you down. You broke out into a cold sweat. What the hell were you going to do now? Only one thing came to mind. "Please! Spare me! I'll do anything!" You got onto your knees as you begged with your hands clasped together.

Your dignity went out the window, and you couldn't bring yourself to care. You would shamelessly plead for your life if it meant he wouldn't kill you.

"Start by telling me why I can't read your thoughts and who sent you." So, he wouldn't kill you if you told him the truth? Fine, that was a small price to pay. You'd rat out your own flesh and blood if it meant he would leave you be. You were heartless like that— oh, well. You looked hopefully at the boy in front of you. You could still get out of this unscathed!

"No one! Geez! I told you, I'm just a regular high school student... and the thing with the mind-reading, well I guess you could say I'm immune." If anyone walked into the room, they would most likely assume that you were going to give a blowjob to Saiki. 'Get your mind out of the gutter!' You internally cursed at yourself for having such a thought.

It was too late to get up now; you'd have to stay on your knees. Besides, you didn't know if you were in the clear yet or not, so you'd remain in place until you were sure. You just hoped Mrs Saiki wouldn't come into Saiki's room.

"Immune?" Saiki leaned forward, showing slight interest in your words. He tilted his head to the side as he studied you. "Yes. To everything that's supernatural. Naturally, that would mean all of the powers you have, wouldn't work on me."

Once you finished with your explanation, Saiki brought a hand up to his chin. "...So that's why... Tell me, have you noticed anything weird with the world?" Saiki moved his gaze from the ceiling down to you as he gave you a blank stare. You looked elsewhere to gather your thoughts. There were so many things you could think of, off the top of your head.

"Uh... Yeah? Do you mean the weird hair colours? The quick healing? Oh, and the chop to the neck being able to knock someone out. There's the fact that skinny people can be super strong and how clothes can be ripped off of someone, but the crotch will stay covered. The worst of it all is that time on earth rewinds every year. Did you notice that, too?" You used your fingers to list everything weird thing you've noticed.

Silence followed, and it caused you to become worried. Saiki didn't speak for a moment, and it left you wondering if you said something wrong. "How... How is that possible?" You perked up at his words. You looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"None of my powers work on you. Not even mind control... The phenomena around you were all caused by me." Your jaw nearly fell to the floor at Saiki's revelation. He did all that? How on earth did he have the ability to pull all that off? Take the crazy hair colours of others, for example. If he was the cause of it, then he had managed to alter human biology down to the genetic level.

Wasn't this the part where your fight or flight response was supposed to kick in? Staying still wasn't helping your current mental state. The fact that Saiki had enough power to destroy the world, with just his mind if he wanted to, terrified you. The boy in front of you was the most dangerous human to exist on earth, to date. No living creature should possess such abilities.

"Huh?! It was— It was you? This entire time? You— what the hell?! ...Are— are you god?" Your mind reeled, and you struggled to form proper sentences. Was Saiki the reason why you had such a bad headache that you nearly collapsed on your first day at PK Academy? It made sense. Had you gotten used to his powers, then? Was that why you were able to be near him now?

"No. I'm just a regular high school student." You looked at Saiki with disbelief. He was anything but a normal person. He was definitely the most potent psychic you had ever met. You shook your head at his statement. "No, you aren't. That's— That's a lie." You folded your arms over your chest.

"I am. If you try telling anyone else otherwise... well." Saiki brought his hand up before he swiped his thumb across his throat. The bastard! He was threatening you, and you... you couldn't even do anything about it! You bit your lip in mild frustration before you sighed. "Why— forget it. Fine, I'll keep your secret. Don't kill me." There was no other option. You'd have to yield.

Saiki crossed his legs and placed his hand on his knee, the other on the armrest of his chair. "So, your immunity? Explain it to me." Why did he have to be so intimidating? Your knees still hurt from sitting on the ground. You'd stay in place just in case, though; you didn't want to risk your life over a case of sore limbs.

"A lot of my family dabble in the supernatural, so I guess I just developed a natural immunity to it. The power to nullify other's abilities when used on me, basically." You're not entirely sure why you were being this honest. Maybe because your life is on the line? Who knows?

"Can you turn it off?" You halted any movement when your mind finally processed what Saiki said. He couldn't read you mind; you knew that much, so would lying to him have any repercussions? One look at Saiki's emotionless face told you that you didn't want to find out.

You opted to lean back and sit with your legs folded beneath you, so your weight would no longer only be on your knees. You sighed as you looked down at your lap before meeting Saiki's gaze again. "Er... Do you really have to know?" His response was almost immediate. "Yes."

You internally groaned. Your immunity was your trump card. If you revealed everything, it meant giving up the privacy of your own thoughts. You would no longer have the upper hand.

You shook your head; you refused to meet your end here. It was either spill the truth or prepare for your funeral. You chose the former. "Well, if I uh— if I put in enough effort, I can turn my immunity off. Would you— um... would you like me to try?"

The silence that followed made you cringe. You couldn't even distract yourself or break away from your little staring contest with Saiki. It didn't help that his eyes scared you. It's as if he saw right through you; as if he could read you like an open book. It was unnerving. "...Okay." You didn't realise that you were holding your breath until he spoke.

You were about to tell him that you needed physical contact for you to be able to turn your immunity off, and then an idea hit you. It was a bad idea, a terrible idea, and it could possibly get you killed— but if you succeeded, you were sure it'd be worth it.

You weighed the pros on cons, before deciding you didn't care what would happen. Pranking Saiki, if you could even call it that, would have no effect on him if he was able to predict it beforehand with his telepathy.

This would be the last time you'd be able to trick Saiki, so why not go for it? You were giving up your ability to think freely, after all. "Let me tell you a story before I turn it off." You looked up at him with determination.

Saiki was not amused. He stared at you for a moment, then sighed before he relented. "Fine. Hurry up and get it over with." You weren't sure if it was a trick of the light, but for a second, it looked like his eyes gleamed with curiosity. You held yourself back from grinning. 'You fool! You've played right into my hands!' You bit your cheek to resist the urge to snicker.

Bringing your fist up to your mouth, you proceeded to clear your throat for dramatic effect. "A student trains whilst his master looks on. When the student notices his mentor, he turns to him and enquires what's wrong. The master replies that his time has come and he must go." Saiki looked about as interested as a rock, but from the way he was leaning forward ever so slightly, you could tell he wanted to know more.

You continued, "The student becomes upset, claiming that he still needs guidance and that he can't do it without his teacher. Chuckling, his mentor admits that the student will surpass his teacher in no time, so he no longer needs help."

You felt pretty good about the fact that you'd roped Saiki in. You decided then that if he chose to hack you to pieces for this, you'd be fine with it. In essence, what you were about to do was equivalent to rickrolling Saiki. "The student denies this and says that his teacher has seen and done everything, so it's impossible for a mere student like himself to surpass him."

You wanted to catch Saiki completely off guard, and you were sure there was no way he'd see it coming. "The teacher says that the student overestimates him. That, there are things he has yet to do, sights he has yet to see. The student is now curious, so he asks what his teacher means by 'sights he has yet to see'."

You can barely keep a straight face, but somehow you pull through without laughing at your own joke. "The teacher doesn't have much time left. As he begins to fade away, he says, 'I have never laid my eyes upon two pretty best friends... one of them was always unsightly'."

Saiki became visibly distressed as his lips parted in slight disbelief. This was the most expressive you'd seen him. "Even now, I can't escape that godforsaken video... Everywhere I go, someone always has to think of it."

You couldn't stop yourself even if you wanted to. You dissolved into cackles at his reaction, only stopping when Saiki menacingly moved to stand up from his chair. "I may be patient... but I am no saint." You spluttered, trying to crawl backwards as you faced the psychic. "Han— hang on!"

Saiki only stared down at you in mild distaste. "I will cleanse you off this earth." You met his gaze with your own incredulous one. "That— That's not very cash money of you." Telling him that joke was definitely still worth it. You valued your life, sure, but clearly not enough to practice some self-restraint.

Before Saiki could corner you and do the deed, (kill you in cold blood), you quickly expressed your opinion. "Hey, wait, wait! If it weren't for you turning back time every year, I'd be old enough to drink sake! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me because you used your abilities? Now we're even." You huffed once you were finished with your little rant.

That seemed to do the trick, as Saiki considered you before returning to his seat on the chair in front of his desk. You raised an eyebrow at his actions. He was easily guilt-tripped, huh? How interesting. 'You learn something new every day, I guess.'

You put your hand in front of Saiki, palm side up. "Alright let's get this over with. Give me your hand." He looked from you to your hand, and then back. His reluctance was clear as day, causing you to exhale. "Oh, come on! You asked me to show you, so give it." You made 'grabby fingers' at him, furthering your point. Saiki hesitated for a second before he sighed in defeat. "Fine."

You tongue darted out to wet your lips unconsciously, as you waited patiently for Saiki to place his hand in yours. When he did, you shoved down the thoughts that claimed how smooth and warm his hand was. Curse you and your tendency of being so touch starved! Now was not the time to be distracted!

You regulated your breathing, closing your eyes. 'Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, hold, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale...' It didn't take long for the black that you were used to behind your eyelids to change to an image of Saiki holding your hand. The best way to describe the process was that it was close to an out of body experience. Currently, you had no control over your actual body.

Despite everything being dark, you could see Saiki and yourself clearly, as if the two of you were illuminated. You gazed down at where the two of you were connected before observing the boy. That's when you noticed it. Thin strings, hundreds of them, coming from his body.

The maximum number of strings you had seen on a person had been around 3 or 4. You had never encountered someone with so many before. You were reminded in that moment, that Saiki was the most powerful being on earth. There was no doubt about it.

There were so many broken strings between you and Saiki that you were unsure which one would switch off your immunity to his telepathy. This whole process of turning it off was basically a visual guessing game. The only thing you could do was trust your intuition since that worked for you majority of the time.

The thin string that stuck out of Saiki's temple caught your eye. It had to be that one. A gut feeling told you so. You willed it to connect with you, for the string to mend. The process took longer than usual, which is was a given since Saiki was such a powerful esper.

Once you were done and finally opened your eyes, you realised you were clenching your teeth. The headache that hit you was expected, and you were grateful you were on the floor. If you had been standing, you would have fallen already.

You rubbed your forehead, trying to lessen the pain by massaging your temples. "There. That should do it. Try using your telepathy on me." You didn't notice Saiki's stare or the slight look of mild concern he shot your way, too busy trying to ease your migraine.

'Can you hear me?' Your body involuntarily jumped at the sound of Saiki's voice reverberating inside your brain. The heavy furrow between your brow relaxed somewhat when you realised that your headache was gone. How? You had no idea. 'Oh, god, your voice is echoing in my head. This is weird.'

"So, it does work." There was a slight difference between Saiki using his telepathy only on you and him using telepathy to speak. It was so minuscule that one wouldn't notice unless they were looking for it. The only similarity was that both times, he hadn't moved his mouth.

Until now, Saiki's lips had moved when he addressed you. It was weird now, knowing that he communicated with you without moving a muscle. You surmised that he was talking to you telepathically now, but other's would still be able to hear him if they were in close proximity.

Saiki nodded as if to confirm your suspicions. He folded his arms over his chest as he gazed down at you. "I'm talking to you telepathically, but it's different. Anyone in hearing distance will be able to pick up on the sound of my voice." He had read your mind, hadn't he? He had answered your questions without you having to say it aloud.

Having thought it up yourself was one thing, and having him agree with your deductions was another. It was similar to having a theory about a show, and then later finding out that it was canon. You landed somewhere between feeling awe and slight shock.

"You're that in tune with your powers? Unbelievable. Do you— Do you have any more abilities?" You were at the edge of your seat because this topic absolutely fascinated you. The sense of danger and fear you once felt when near Saiki was nowhere to be found.

You wondered why, since it was only half an hour ago that you wanted to get as far away from him as possible. "I have multiple powers. Telekinesis, levitation, x-ray vision, clairvoyance, astral projection, pyrokinesis, mind control, psychometrics, and invisibility are a few I can name off the top of my head. Only one of which works on you."

Your lips parted, and you weren't sure how exactly you were supposed to feel after being bombarded with such information. The number of powers Saiki's possessed would explain why you had seen so many strings on him before. "Seriously? Are you sure you're not god?"

"If god exists, I'm the closest to being one." He wasn't humble at all, and to top it off; he was blasphemous as well? You decided then that Saiki was just the type of person you commended.

You wondered if it was your place to say what was on your mind before you abandoned the thought. Why did it matter? "How... how do you even live with a burden like that?" You popped the question that had been bugging you.

When you took a look at Saiki, your eyebrows raised in surprise when you realised that this was the most astonished you'd seen Saiki, though he quickly regained his composure. "Burden? ...Why would you think it's a burden?" He patiently waited for you to answer, and you found yourself gazing past his shoulder, at the wall behind him.

"Well... if you look past the hype, then isn't it just troublesome? From how you act, I'm guessing you have no control over your telepathy. Always knowing what other's are thinking, even if you don't want to must be hard, no? I bet it's spoiled a lot of movies and shows for you. I'm guessing it makes it really hard to make friends too, since no one can know about your powers." You listed off your reasons one by one. ”Oh.”

For once, you were being honest willingly. You may not have psychic powers yourself, so you couldn't be certain Saiki agreed with your guesses, but you could at least try to sympathise. It was the same with you after all; your immunity had its ups and downs. You didn't notice the silence that engulfed the room, too busy stuck in your thoughts.

"I'm going to be blunt. Do you like me?" For a second, your mind short-circuited because you couldn't wrap your head around Saiki's words. A flurry of questions filled your head. 'How did this happen?', 'why did it happen?', 'where am I?', 'who am I?', the norm. 'Get a grip!' You pulled yourself together before you replied. "What? Huh? Why would you even think—"

Saiki remained stoic, cutting you off so he could speak. "You stopped all of Yumehara's plans when she tried to get closer to me." So, maybe after his revelation, you could kind of, somewhat understand why he would jump to the conclusion that you liked him. It was reasonable if you looked at it from his point of view, but it was the furthest anyone could get from the truth.

You admitted to finding him attractive, sure, but that was because you had eyes that could see clearly. He was pretty, what else was there to say? It didn't go any further than that, though. You barely knew the guy! "You noticed that? Uh— no, no, I don't. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Knowing that he had psychic powers made it easy to understand how he had picked up on your behaviour at school. Saiki nodded, and you guessed that he was indicating that he believed you.

You were at a loss now, of what you should do. How was one supposed to carry on the conversation in this situation, again? "Don't tell a soul about what happened here today. I mean it. I'll know if you breathe a word of this to anyone." You readily agreed to his request, signalling that you'd keep everything a secret.

Before you had a chance to say anything else to Saiki, the sound of a notification from your phone drew your attention. Pulling your phone out of your bag, you checked the lock screen to investigate. A text from a family member had let you know that there was a package for you.

'There's a box full of coffee jelly. Give them out to your classmates so you can make more friends!'

You suspected that they bulk brought coffee jelly from the supermarket so you could hand them out to your class after the weekend. You sighed, it's not like you needed it. Besides, what would happen if your classmates didn't like the desert? You'd rather not be humiliated by rejection.

"Coffee jelly?" You forgot Saiki could read your thoughts now. You lowered your phone to look at the psychic in question, raising your eyebrow. Even if his expression was neutral, his previously blank eyes were practically sparkling.

Did he... like coffee jelly? You decided to take the risk of asking him if he wanted some. It was easier to be rejected by an acquaintance than a stranger. "Do you uh— do you want some? I don't plan on handing them out to people or eating them all by myself. They'll go to waste... but if you're willing to take them off my hands—"

"Yes. I'll take them." Saiki's response was instantaneous. You couldn't stop the slight smile of surprise that graced your lips. You hid it with your phone as you studied him. What a turn of events. There was no sign of the all-powerful esper you were used to. 'He's was much less intimidating like this.'

"Well... do you wanna go to my place, then?"

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Bonus:

Saiki returned to his house after a long day, making his way up the stairs to go to his room shortly after taking off his shoes. He thought back to the events of the day, satisfied with the outcome.

Saiki would never admit it, but his favourability for you had sky-rocketed when you offered him coffee jelly. He guessed that it wasn't so bad that you knew of his powers now since it had ended with him getting his new favourite dessert.

You giving him the treat was enough for him not to consider you a nuisance. He would never tell you this in person, of course. He would rather die than let you find out he held you at a higher standard than his classmates now.

'To think she would say my powers are a burden when anyone else would praise them... you're interesting, Y/n.'

Saiki decided not to dwell on his thoughts as he changed out of his uniform and got ready to go to bed.

At least now, he could finally read your mind. He no longer considered you dangerous.

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next part -  alexithymia

extra notes: the 2 pretty bestfriends reference is from a tik tok i watched. i just had to add it, credit goes to the creator. (you can find it here)

taglist: @biscuit-buddy​ @gvthic-gvrl​ @dunnieko​ @milkierei​ @kyrasworld​ @baby-unidorn​ @moonflowerpetals​ @the-mellokid​ @bangtxnbby​ @alexiswheeze​ @tanzaniiite​ @mo0o0milk​ @omilkandhoneyteao​ @turntechsquishy​ @gukkarchive​ @peachesuck​ @hartbeat-art @franko-pop @ima-attention-whore @ola-is-dead @daisysinadarkmedow @froppysgirl @xjaelee @beanst0ck @llamaavocado @tanakassimp @loving-is-the-antidote​

if you want to be tagged, let me know!

[pizzazz-party]

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

In the world of Ring Fit Adventure, there exist monsters, ghosts, cyborgs, robots, gods, a curious array of animals, human beings of enormous size…and Ring. Ring—a creature so entirely unique, he fails to fit into any of those categories.

Everyone has their own idea as to what Ring is, and as to where he came from. So here’s mine.

(Spoilers for the end of the main storyline. Various postgame dialogue spoilers beyond that.)

If we’re going to talk about where Ring might have come from, it makes sense to look for clues in what he’s presented as. Physically, and subtextually. So let’s take it from the top.

Stepping away from the confines of the game, Ring’s shape is based off a Pilates ring, a piece of exercise equipment who’s history dates back to nearly a century ago, as of the game’s release. It was invented to help rehabilitate wounded soldiers through physical therapy following World War I. Design-wise, though…Ring’s face draws heavy inspiration from depictions of Ancient Inca art. Specifically, he looks a lot like the figure atop this ceremonial tumi knife.

The prominent nose. The familiar jawline. A headpiece bisecting the brow. The blue commonly set into the eyes of the art. The ears—heavy earrings were unisex among the Inca nobility, resulting in long, stretched lobes. But most importantly—the statue is gold. And in the ancient Inca Empire, gold was revered as being sweat from the very sun itself. Metal nowadays is often associated with machinery, with invention. But raw metal has always been a fruit of the earth, as natural as any wood or leaf. The Inca took it a step further. They thought of gold as mystical.

Likewise, Ring’s design is meant to invoke these traits. Despite being made of metal, Ring visibly lacks gears or wiring or nozzles or hatches. His mouth may have a hinge and his flaming little hair piece may spin around. But in terms of “build,” Ring (the magical metal donut) has more in common with Pinocchio (the magical wooden puppet), than with an actual machine.

On a surface level, Ring really is best described as a “magical creature.” He’s obviously not made of flesh and blood. But he’s alive in a way that the closest comparison—sentient robots—just aren’t. Ring sweats, breathes, sleeps, eats. He ages. His metal face flexes and grows and shrinks as he speaks. Ring wields exercise energy, much in the same way that humans do, and more. He crafts, enhances, and stores things with it. Its raw essence flows through him like a fiery kind of lifeblood.

Ring’s not a human or a cyborg. He’s not a monster or a ghost or an animal. He’s made of metal like a robot, and that’s about it. And while Ring may (presumably) have the long life of a god, he lacks everything else. Right down to the proper shape and abilities. Ring, whatever the specifics, is a “magical creature” that exists in a class of his own. We never ever meet another being quite like him.

…At least. That’s what I used to think.

———

The thing with Ring is, it’s hard to tell whether he’s actively omitting facts or just forgetting them. He’s got a terrible memory. But he also as good as lies to us in the beginning, pretending as though Dragaux’s just some enemy to him.

So here is what I understand.

We meet Ring, and he and Dragaux are positioned as these perfect opposites, as perfect enemies. Ring builds others up, and Dragaux tears them down. Dragaux is flashy, an eyesore, the purple to Ring’s yellow, and yet he steals the stage every time. He’s a jerk, but he’s Ring’s jerk. We show up to every boss fight because we are invested in his story, his opinions, his downward spiral.

And that’s our first mistake, really. Because Dragaux’s accent color isn’t purple, it’s pink. Because Dragaux’s opposite isn’t Ring, it’s Trainee. And Ring’s real foil was never Dragaux, but Dark Influence itself.

———

Have you ever thought about how strange it is, this particular parasite. From a narrative standpoint, I mean. As much as it’s referred to as “Dragaux’s influence” or “Dragaux’s aura,” Dragaux is only its latest meal, not its source. And that meal has been lasting anywhere from decades to a century, at least. Dark Influence is, by nature, negativity incarnate. It could be as old as the hills. Older, maybe.

Dark Influence is voiceless, faceless. A parasite composed of pure negative exercise energy, it can theoretically exist on its own. But it thrives best when entrenched in the heart of a host. Its host—a physical creature that, once ensnared, starts exhibiting traits that belong to the Influence: like great swathes of flame in its signature color.

Does that not sound. Familiar.

Because Ring and Dark Influence? Fulfill eerily similar roles, in regards to their syncing partners.

Both of them harness their partner’s exercise energy. Both of them augment the abilities of their partner. But unlike Ring, who’s always actively helping Trainee in precise and creative ways…Dark Influence doesn’t care. I’m not sure if it can give a care about anything that doesn’t include “amassing power” and “spreading itself.” (And I think those are just instincts. I’ve yet to see proof that this thing has anything approaching a complex personality.) But whether or not it cares about Dragaux, it’s fully anchored within his body. It shares its strength with him because there’s nowhere else to store it.

Because unlike Ring, Dark Influence lacks a physical body of its own.

And that thought. How it “lacks” a body. Just sort of stuck around in my head. Because it’s funny, isn’t it? That Ring speaks and this thing doesn’t. That Dark Influence, this wildfire, is so strong and potent and infectious while Ring’s inner flames are so small and orderly and self-contained.

And then I started thinking about coins. Isn’t it funny, that they’re shaped like little rings. Isn’t it funny, that they sometimes just. Spring out of the ground.

How does a free-to-play gym turn a profit. How do all of these gyms, turn a profit.

If NPCs canonically collect coins on their travels just like Trainee… If someone isn’t just throwing away buckets of money into the mountains and rivers and skies… if golden little rings can just spring into existence alongside someone as they’re jogging…

What if it’s not a quirk. What if it’s not just a game mechanic.

What if everything—the coins, the EXP medals, the treasure chests with Ring’s face on them—what if they’re all byproducts that occur when a physical place is saturated with high amounts of foot traffic. With high amounts of exercise energy. People in Ring Fit Adventure constantly expel this stuff as they jog or work out or engage in fit battles. They don’t really direct it anywhere after its release. It just kind of gets absorbed into their surroundings. I always assumed that it helped make the land so lush and pretty, but what if it doesn’t stop there. What if, when large quantities of it gather, exercise energy naturally builds up and condenses itself into permanent, physical solids.

And I thought of Ring. Of the coins that are shaped like him. Of the medals that eerily share his face. Of the treasure chests especially, the way they scream and run and flex as though alive. (And I thought about Dragaux, who’s canonically brilliant, and how even his best statues fell short of capturing that same quality of animation.) I thought about how all three of these byproducts are golden. Just. Like. Ring.

Something like “dark” influence should have a natural counterpart. It’s a tale as old as time; perfect opposites, perfect enemies. But we never meet the Influence’s other half, do we? Just Ring.

Ring, our buddy, our pal. Ring, who’s a person in every way that matters, with hope and dreams and insecurities. Ring the “magical creature,” who, despite all of this, has more in common with Dark Influence than with any other creature in all of Ring Fit.

———

So here is the heart of my crazy theory.

Ring isn’t “partially” made of energy. He’s all energy, all the way down to his every last piece, whether it flows like a river or shines like a stone. And it could be that a long, long time ago, he existed much in the same way as the Dark Influence we fight in the game: as an unrestrained and formless entity. Not as a ring, but as a bright and brainless swathe of flames.

(Because if Dark Influence is insecurity and self-destruction and decay, balance would dictate its opposite be positivity, self-improvement, rebirth. A dangerously Bright Influence.)

And maybe it was just a natural process that got triggered when the conditions were right. But either way, somehow, someway, this particular Influence reincarnated into a shape that could better interact with people, without overwhelming or eating them. And that most natural shape condensed itself into Ring.

A baby Ring.

———

Even if you don’t buy into the existence of “Bright” Influence, Ring fully being some sort of life energy incarnate answers too many questions. It would explain why Ring is so good at manipulating exercise energy; it’s the most natural extension of himself. It would explain why Ring has the unique ability to sync with people; it’s how he originally used to exist, as life energy drifting in and out of living creatures. It would explain the aging. It would explain why Ring never mentions a parent or creator watching over him during childhood; because he came into this world totally alone. (Baby Ring belonged to no one before he belonged with Baby Drags.)

But Ring’s theoretical past life answers a few more questions. It could explain parts of Ring’s personality, his interests. (His dream of spreading positivity across the land.) It explains why there aren’t ten million Rings floating about, when coins and medals and chests are so relatively common. (Because there’s a key ingredient missing). It actually explains his five special powers. (Because I’m betting Influences have human-related origins. It’s either that, or “live humans being consumed” was part of the “perfect” conditions surrounding Ring’s birth. Which, cringe.) But more than anything, it addresses the sheer power imbalance happening between Ring and Dark Influence right now.

Dark Influence lacks boundaries and spreads itself like a virus, thoughtless and instinctive. Ring’s natural weapon against this thing should be to “infect” it right back. (I would expect some sort of sick light show to dance across Dragaux’s body during battle; yellow flames squaring off against purple.) But it doesn’t work that way. Ring the Person no longer works this way.

If Dark influence is a forest fire, then Ring is a fireplace set behind glass. At their core, these two are both energy. But the modes in which they exist divide them into separate skill sets entirely.

Dark Influence is wildfire of brute strength. It’s got range—in the spatial sense. It can spread to as many secondary hosts as Dragaux directs it to, so long as it’s fed well enough to reach for them. Compared to Ring’s measly one syncing partner, Dark Influence can sink itself into whole regions, can simultaneously feed off of so many people. It doesn’t have outright mind control powers; it’s more subtle than that. But its presence as negativity incarnate naturally works like a magnet to draw out the worst in people. There is nothing it enhances in a person that wasn’t already there, no matter how small the weakness. Coupled with the rush of power it imparts in its vessels, it makes bad decisions feel right. Even to good people. It’s, quite simply, a bad influence. (And then it consumes them.)

But other than that, Dark Influence doesn’t really do much.

Our bud Ring may only be able to light one house at a time, so to speak. But as contained as he is—Ring’s powers are more varied and nuanced, because Ring is more varied and nuanced. He’s always actively (and thoughtfully) applying energy to construct, convert, and amplify. For all its fearsome strength, the only thing Dark Influence can seemingly do on purpose, is feed.

———

(If Ring was once a being like Dark Influence, then that solves the final mystery of synchronization. If Dark Influence “infects” its host by sinking into the body, then Ring syncs with a partner by “planting” a piece of his essence inside them. This is why Trainee’s energy signature changes to mimic Ring’s; because she now carries a part of him in her beating heart. This is why Ring can freely access her energy; because this makes her a part of him now, too.)

———

So. Let’s pretend I’m not crazy. Say that all of these little details I’ve collected were intentionally laid out by the game developers. Say I’m correct, and that Ring really is, essentially, the child of Dark Influence’s greatest natural enemy.

The real question is: how self aware is Ring about all of this.

Because unfortunately, Ring not knowing his own backstory could be pretty on-brand for him. I love Ring, but from his point of view, it really could be that he just appeared one day, somehow—as an entirely clean slate. “Dark” or “bright,” these entities are brainless. Literally. No body means no brain. They can’t store memories, so they don’t have memories. Just energy.

Ring must know that he’s made from energy, too. He might even think of himself as one very lucky byproduct. But if this is really what Ring used to be (if there’s even a shadow of a chance that his predecessor used to eat people), then he might not know the full extent of his own story.

And maybe that’s for the best. I can’t imagine him choosing to get close to people otherwise. He loves people, cares so much about every single silly soul that he meets.

This would hurt him.

———

Whatever Ring’s origins may be, whatever he might have once been (if he’s ever been anything else at all)… I do know one thing. And it’s that I prefer him prefer him just the way he is.

Weird comments about my sweat aside, I wouldn’t have him any other way.

———

TL;DR: Our bud Ring has more in common with Dark Influence than with any other creature in all of Ring Fit.

If a flaming entity of negative energy can exist, then why not one made of positive energy? If positive energy condenses into permanent solids naturally and often…if Ring is made of positive energy…if Ring has more in common with Dark Influence than with anything else in this game…

Who’s to say that Ring himself, wasn’t once a flaming yellow mass of energy.

———

This marks the end. I could run wild with all the implications this theory leaves in its wake. But I’ve made my point. I’ve found every answer I was looking for. And they may not have been the answers I was expecting (or even wanting), but they’ve satisfied me all the same.

I’m done. Believe what you will.

Thanks for reading, and for sticking with me all this way. It’s been real.

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DISCLAIMER: My name is Pizzazz and I take this game way too seriously. This is all for fun! At the time of this post, I am on World 36 of the post game. I feel pretty strongly about my conclusions, but I’ll go back and edit this if/when/where applicable.

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RING ANALYSIS

Part 1: Synchronizing—How it Works and What It Tells Us About Ring

Part 2: Ring’s Powers—And What They All Have In Common

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

#10: Felix, Part Two: The Episode Itself

Here’s Part 1

So, uh... here's the thing. I was going to divide this post into three parts, but I had to cancel the third part where I analyze the stuff involving Astruc defending the episode on Twitter, specifically a certain scene that really showed off some serious double standards in regards to the way Adrien is being written, because Astruc deleted most of his tweets regarding the episode. I wonder why he did that? I thought he wanted to expose himself publicly and interact in a peaceful way.

So yeah, instead of a big three-parter, this is going to be a two-parter, and I apologize for that. I might be able to do a third part if anyone has any screenshots of some of the tweets Astruc made after “Felix” aired. If you did, I would really appreciate it, but if not, it's fine.

Either way, let's just get this over with, because I have SO MUCH to talk about. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about Season 3, Episode 23 of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”?

So we start off with what Gabriel does for half of his scenes when he isn't Hawkmoth, monologuing to his (possibly) dead wife, Emilie about how Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous will soon be his and all that crap. Sure, he's sent God knows how many Akumas after Ladybug and Cat Noir, and they've all failed miserably, but I'm positive he's getting close to his goal.

After he finishes cleaning his and Emilie's silver wedding rings that sadly don't allow them to transform into Ultraman Ace, Gabriel goes to check on Adrien, singing to a statue of Emilie (glad to see the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree), intending to tell him that he is Hawkmoth.

Gabriel: There is something important I have to talk to you about. I think about telling you every day, but I don't know how to find the right words.

Adrien: I think I already know, father.

Gabriel: But, how?

Adrien: I've noticed how close you and Nathalie have become. If she can make you happy again, then... as far as I'm concerned, she's already part of our family.

Yeah, apparently it's obvious that Gabriel and Nathalie are close or something, with how casually Adrien assumes they're planning on starting a relationship. I mean, it's not like Nathalie is close to Gabriel because she's his secretary or something like that.

Gabriel's response isn't any better, as he immediately jumps down Adrien's throat for daring to assume he might try to move on from his wife.

Gabriel: How could you possibly think such a thing?! Nobody could ever replace your mother! As long as she is still in our hearts, she lives on!

Even Adrien's face shows he's a little taken back by his father's brief outburst.

Part of me likes to assume that Plagg is trying to not break out into laughter at how crazy Gabriel sounds, while Nooroo is mentally questioning the sanity of his master.

Plagg: Wow! Your father's like a piece of tomme cheese, where the rind's so thick it's almost impossible to get inside the center.

Adrien: Don't be so hard on him, Plagg. It's been a year today since Mom... went away forever.

Oh my God, just say she DIED already! Why are so many kids' shows afraid to say the D-word? How can I cite an episode of Caillou of all shows as something that that actually talked about death to it's audience in a nuanced way?

It turns out that Adrien's aunt is visiting for the day, as it's the one-year anniversary of Emilie's “going away forever”. We also learn that the gene pool in Adrien's family is so shallow, a toddler could swim in it, because Emilie's sister looks exactly like her.

Even better, her name is Amelie. I bet the parents thought naming their kids Emilie and Amelie was hilarious for like three minutes.

And of course, she also brought her son, the asshole of the hour.

Someone cue the Imperial March.

So Felix is finally here, and of course, he looks just like Adrien. It's almost like the animators didn't want to create any new character models for this episode, so they thought nobody would notice if they just reused a few. Seriously, towards the end of the episode, we see Felix wearing the Cat Miraculous on his hand, and none of the animators noticed it.

So while Adrien is happy to see his cousin, Felix isn't. I'll talk more about it in a minute.

Amelie mentions that the wedding rings are actually heirlooms in her side of the family, so she naturally wants them back. Of course, Gabriel, being Gabriel, responds accordingly.

Gabriel: These rings are obviously very special to me.

Amelie: And they're very dear to me too, Gabriel. Those jewels have always been in the Graham de Vanily family, not the Agreste's.

Gabriel: We'll discuss it later.

“Yeah, yeah, these rings are priceless family heirlooms or whatever, but why can't you think about how important they are to me?”

Meanwhile, Marinette and her friends are planning on recording some messages for Adrien to cheer him up on this day, but Marinette isn't sure what to say before she decides to confess her love to him. I'm sure Adrien will get the message and return Marinette's feelings this episode... and Cliff Hanger will finally escape that cliff he's been hanging from for years.

Speaking of, Adrien and Felix are hanging out in the former's room where we learn that Felix's father passed away recently. We don't know how long, but with the way they talk about, it's clear the funeral wasn't too long ago. Keep this in mind.

So while Adrien leaves the room to get a chess board for the two to play a game of, Felix, for no reason, decides to search through Adrien's things and crush a piece of cheese that Plagg had been aging for two weeks. And here is the interaction that helps this episode go from mediocre to aggravating, just because of what they imply here.

Adrien: Listen, Plagg. Felix lost his dad not so long ago, he's probably not himself.

Plagg: I'm sorry, but there's just no excuse! You never touch my cheese, and yet, you just lost your mother not so long ago, right?

Yes. The show is actually implying that Adrien is better than Felix because Adrien isn't acting out because his mom “went away forever”. Keep in mind, we know that Felix just lost his father, while Adrien has had a year to cope. I'm not saying he can't be sad anymore, as everyone processes grief differently, but you can't set up Felix as a foil to Adrien just because they both lost a parent, as their situations are entirely different.

Oh, and when Plagg's statement upsets Adrien, it isn't because he's angry at Plagg for making the comparison, it's because he mentions Emilie. And this argument is never brought up again.

I still can't believe this episode is basically saying that even if you lose a loved one, that's no excuse to get emotional. This isn't just a horrible lesson to teach children, but it pisses me off on a more personal level. Why?

My grandfather died last year after a long battle with lung cancer.

He had been in and out of the hospital for a few years at this point, and part of me was relieved that he was finally free of the pain. I tried not to let it bother me, as I had already mentally prepared myself for the day he would die whenever he was readmitted to the hospital. But it was still painful to go through because he was so important to me. Instead of simply telling someone how I was feeling, I threw myself into my schoolwork in an effort to distract myself from actually confronting my emotions. After seeing A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a movie where the main character made peace with his father on his deathbed with some encouragement from Mr. Rogers, it made me think about how unhealthy it was to bottle up my emotions, so I started to open up more about how I was feeling. When I told my mom (who was his daughter) about why I was so conflicted regarding his death, she said it was completely understandable, as she had been an emotional wreck as well. I also talked with my therapist about how this was affecting me mentally.

What does this have to do with the episode? I don't think Felix had access to this kind of emotional support when his dad died, or that he tried coping the same way I did initially.

And the worst part is that this could have been used to teach people a lesson on how to cope with losing a loved one. Maybe Adrien could have helped Felix find a healthier coping mechanism, or simply help him open up emotionally, teaching him that it's okay to be upset when someone close to you dies, but that you just need to be honest about your feelings.

But no, rather than portray Felix's actions as a troubled youth lashing out because he's angry at the cards the world dealt him, Felix does several awful things this episode for no other reason than because he's evil, even though he has a good reason to hate Adrien and Gabriel.

So the very next scene, we see Felix has stolen Adrien's phone and is going through the messages that Adrien's friends sent him, but not before insulting his crush on Ladybug. I'm not sure if that's supposed to reflect the fandom's criticism of Adrien's crush on Ladybug, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Nino's Message: Hey, my dude! I'm not quite sure what to tell you, except that, you're my man, dude! And bros are always there for their guys!

Felix: (Mockingly) “Bros are always there--” blah, blah, blah! Moron.

Rose's Message: Unicorns have a saying: even when there's nothing but gray skies and rain, all it takes is one little sunbeam for a rainbow to appear!

Felix: Loser.

Max's Message: It's one hundred percent proven, you should feel fifty-two percent happier with a healthy dose of laughter. So Markov has uploaded a few jokes for you! Starting with--

Felix: Freak.

Chloe's Message: When my mother left for New York, I felt so sad. It felt like she was... (sighs) She came back, and I know how lucky I am. So, you can count on me, my Adrikins.

Felix: Chloe. Just as annoying as usual.

And that line right there is the only time Astruc actually liked writing Felix, as it gave him the chance to satisfy his need to insult Chloe.

And then when he sees Marinette's message, he deletes it because... hell if I know

Again, this scene could have worked if it was interpreted as Felix saying stuff that he wasn't dependent on others for support and that he could easily power through life on his own, but nope! Instead, he hates Adrien's friends and only deletes Marinette's message instead of all of them simply because he's evil, heart blacker than Don Cheadle.

Felix continues to show how awful he is by dressing up in Adrien's clothes and—Oh, son of a bitch, SERIOUSLY? This is the SEVENTH evil doppelganger plotline we've had in THREE SEASONS! You're telling me this isn't doing the same thing over and over again, Astruc?

Yeah, so Felix records some messages to send to his friends that, once again, could have worked if this episode was actually teaching a lesson about dealing with grief.

“Adrien's” Message:  First of all, thanks so much for all your messages, guys, really. Sending me messages on today of all days... (angrily) to remind me how sad I'm supposed to be feeling? Why, that's great! Really, Thanks a lot!

But because nobody ever considers how Felix is feeling, it's never acknowledged, because that would actually involve writing him with complexity.

Gabriel gets a message from Lila, who recently became one of his confidants to spy on Adrien, tells him about the fake message, and decides to use the negative emotions felt as an excuse to get rid of his in-laws. No, seriously.

Gabriel: All this disappointment might just help us get rid of our unwanted guests.

To be fair, I'd probably do the same thing just so I wouldn't have to talk to some of the people I hate at my job.

And so, Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya, Juleka, and Rose into the Punisher's Trio, who are basically just their previously akumatized forms Lady Wifi, Reflekta, and Princess Fragrance. Because why would you expect anyone to use an original character model for this episode?

All joking aside, this development raises several questions. First, why wasn't Nino one of the Punisher's akumatized? He's Adrien's best friend, so shouldn't be just as upset as everyone else? Hell, the whole reason he was akumatized into the Bubbler in Season 1 was just so he could throw Adrien a birthday party after Gabriel said no. Then there's the fact that Chloe could have also been akumatized because she's just as close as Adrien, which is another wasted opportunity here.

Second, why bring back Reflekta and Princess Fragrance of all villains? It doesn't even make sense when you consider their motifs are based off of the circumstances that led to them getting akumatized in their respective episodes. Juleka became Reflekta because of her anxiety over easily blending in, so she got the power to turn everyone into an exact copy of herself so they could understand the feeling. Rose became Princess Fragrance when Chloe destroyed her letter and perfume bottle dedicated to the prince of a foreign nation, so the perfume bottle was the basis of her powers. At least Lady Wifi makes sense as the akumatized object this episode is a tablet used to record the messages to Adrien, but Reflekta and Princess Fragrance have nothing to do with the plot of this episode, and just feel tacked on. If it was just Lady Wifi or the Bubbler, I'd get it, but this just doesn't work.

Third, what exactly is this show's obsession with Reflekta? We saw in Reflekta's first episode that her powers had a huge drawback as if either of the heroes is zapped by her, she can't get their Miraculous, like what we saw happened to Cat Noir. Yet, this is the second time this season that Hawkmoth had the bright idea to bring back Reflekta (even giving her a giant robot to amplify her powers). At least Lady Wifi and Princess Fragrance's powers worked together well (Lady Wifi could freeze someone in place, while Princess Fragrance can brainwash them with her perfume), but Reflekta just feels like the odd one out here.

Fourth, and most importantly, why did we only get to hear the line “At your service, Princess Fragrance!” A single time this episode?

So the Punishers head to Adrien's house to take their revenge, but see Felix, still dressed in Adrien's clothes, and are naturally confused. Adrien pretends to be Felix by running away while laughing evilly (so not too far off from how Astruc sees Felix), while the real Felix and Nathalie put up a good fight against the Punishers.

And then... here is the moment that shows just how skewed Astruc's view of Adrien really is.

Felix pretends to confess his love to Ladybug as Adrien, trying to force a kiss on him, making Ladybug punch him in the face by claiming that the real Adrien “would never be so pushy”.

BULL. SHIT.

Yes, Ladybug doesn't know that Adrien is actually Cat Noir, but it's clear that this scene is meant to solidify just how Felix is far worse than Adrien because according to Astruc, he would never do that.

But maybe I'm being too hard on him.

It's not like Adrien has ever forced himself onto Ladybug, right?

I mean, imagine if the show just ignored something like that.

All while trying to teach kids the importance of saying no when someone harasses them.

Can you imagine if someone was that oblivious to their own hypocrisy?

I'm not saying that the lesson is a bad one, but you can't call someone out for doing something bad, and then ignore one of your main characters doing the exact same thing!

Even in the context of the episode, the comparison doesn't work. We know that Felix is only doing this to make Adrien look bad, and has no romantic feelings towards Ladybug like Adrien does. Felix knows what he is doing is wrong, while Adrien doesn't. Whenever Cat Noir tries to kiss Ladybug, he is never aware that what he is doing is wrong, and while he is almost always stopped from kissing Ladybug for one reason or another.

Like when the episode tried to compare two different characters reacting to losing loved ones when there are different circumstances regarding them, the comparison DOESN'T WORK.

And to add insult to injury, Cat Noir shows up just to insult Felix by implying he doesn't have a lot of friends because of the way he acts, because why would he? After all, he's a complete loser that nobody would want to be friends with, and if you like him, you're an idiot for thinking so! At least, that's probably what Astruc was going for.

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, leading to a brief Mexican standoff, until Felix steals the tablet containing the Akuma, making a deal with Hawkmoth that he'll help out the Punishers as long as he gets the wedding rings. Do you hate Felix yet? Come on, do you hate him? WHY WON'T YOU HATE HIM, GODDAMN IT!?

This whole bit is completely pointless as Ladybug immediately finds a way to stop all four of them and de-evilize the Akuma.

And when it looks like Felix is actually apologizing for his actions this episode, it's naturally a ruse he put on to steal one of the wedding rings from Gabriel to give to his mom. Because why would Astruc even think of portraying him sympathetically, or at least have him learn a lesson?

So Felix stares out the window with an evil look in his eye (possibly foreshadowing another appearance), as Gabriel takes Emilie's wedding ring to wear for himself, and the episode mercifully ends.

It also means that I never have to watch this episode ever again.

Do you understand why it took so long for me to fully analyze this episode? Hell, it would have taken longer if Astruc didn't delete his tweets defending the kiss scene and how Cat Noir is totally a gentlemen unlike Satan, I mean Felix.

What else do I have to say about this episode that hasn’t already been said? Well, I do have one thing.

I’m not that big a fan of Felix.

I think he’s an okay character in fanfics, but I’m more indifferent to him and fanfics that ship him and Marinette together. I don’t know, maybe that’s because there are so many Felinette fanfics that are heavily seasoned with salt, or it could just be because I’m complete Love Square and Lukanette trash.

But just think about the fact that the scathing criticism of this episode was delivered by someone who isn’t that into Felix. That is how bad this episode is.

In addition to being an obvious mouthpiece for Astruc to yell at fans why they’re idiots for actually liking Felix, it does so by touching on delicate subject and trying to act like it’s easy to tell how Felix is worse than Adrien when the circumstances are nothing alike.

But the fact that Astruc takes a popular character just to portray him as a complete menace just to antagonize his fans is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

[dalekofchaos]

Why Voldemort is a terrible villain and how I’d improve Voldemort as a villain

As much as I like Voldemort, when you look back on the books. Voldemort is a terrible villain. Yes he has the Horcruxes and has loyal followers...but that’s it. In this post I will be examining why Voldemort is a terrible villain in Harry Potter and how I would improve Voldemort as a villain.

Let’s look at Voldemort’s track record

No clear motivations. The movies do absolutely nothing to flesh out Voldemort, but that's understandable, they're the movies. But even in the books, there is no clear reason for Voldemort doing any of the things that he does. During the flashbacks in the Pensive, Tom is a disturbed child who has a tendency to torture animals, lure other children to creepy caves and steal stuff - all of this is bad, yes, but why? Why is Tom Riddle "evil"? I know the explanation that the canon somewhat provides: that Voldemort doesn't know love/friendship/connection because he was conceived under the trickery of a love potion, and his mother was abused But, even if you accept that explanation, that does not justify Tom Riddle being innately evil and monstrous. Why is he racist/supremacist? If he really is a natural genius with a detachment from human emotion, shouldn't he also be detached from things like blood supremacy, ancestry and mortality? Just because he's a sociopath doesn't mean he will automatically turn into Hitler.

Wages a Wizarding war, but couldn’t even conquer his own Wizarding Nation

He couldn’t become Minister Of Magic. Instead he dicked around in Borgins And Burkes and instead wanted to become Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor.....for reasons. He could’ve used his power as Minister Of Magic to gain followers, especially the fanatic pure blood families and the impressionable Slytherins and cover for his Horcrux murders. But nooo.

When Voldemort DOES take power by force during the second Wizarding War, he does barely anything with it. Voldemort owns the government and has an army of evil. Where does he plan to launch his attack on the world? At a god damn highschool. Yes I know he attacked Hogwarts because of the last Horcrux. Didn't need to get that far if he didn't act like the world's worst Bond villain and monologued for enough time to let Harry either escape or for the Deus ex machina to arrive on que. The first two times it happens, yeah I get it. You're a villain who is up himself, shit happens. But by book 5 when he is still doing dumb shit it's unforgivable. How hard is it to issue a kill on sight order to your hordes of evil? I mean FFS you have legit werewolves on your side, who can sniff out a drop of blood miles away and yet you do nothing with them? Not only do you fail to kill a defenseless baby but you can't evil kill the kid when he's locked up in your second in commands basement.

He isn't particularly charismatic or a decent leader. He does have tons of followers, for reasons. Seriously, except for fear and opportunism I can't understand why anybody would want to fight for him. I mean, I get that he is basically magic!Hitler, but actual Hitler could at least hold speeches. Actual Hitler had arguments why his rule would be good for the German people. Voldemort doesn't. Voldemort treats his followers like shit and tortures or kills them if they aren't useful any more.

He didn't do his homework and doesn't knows the magic lore good enough. He manages to kill himself two times because of lore he really should have known about. The first time he fails to see the magic love-charm, the second time he doesn't recognizes the arcane rules of wand ownership. Those are stupid, avoidable mistakes for somebody that is supposed to be the greatest dark mage of his time.

He isn't even a particularly good mage. He manages to get statemaled by Harry and defeated by Dumbledore. He never does anything truly remarkable with magic that we haven't seen other characters do the same or better (the cave in book six is pretty good, but that's already has best showing). All we see is “AVADA KEDAVA.” Cool, I’ve seen every damn villain use that stupid fucking spell and yes it is a terrible spell.

His plans are... well, they are shit. If your plans get permanently foiled by a bunch of meddeling kids, you should think about retirement, not world domination. The plan in "Goblet of fire" only works out because of dumb luck. "Orden of phoenix" works out because of Harrys incompetence. The plan to kill Dumbledore only worked cause Voldemort used logic and had one of his followers do the work for him. The rest of his plans fail gloriously.

Voldemort's goals. He... wants to be immortal, but why? Because he's afraid of death? Why is he afraid of death? He literally spent his childhood cutting open rabbits. He excelled in all fields of academia and is arguably very intelligent; intelligence tends to negate superstition. Okay, fine; let's assume he's afraid of death. But even if we look for another explanation: maybe he wants to live forever in order to stay in power.

Voldemort wants power...Why does he want power? Why does he want to, quite literally, take over the world? It makes no sense. He has no reason to care about any of that. Even if he's prejudiced against Muggles, what exactly gives him the willpower to actually gather followers, build a legion of darkdoom evil squad and kill everyone? His motivations are never explained, and he is introduced to the story as a 2-dimensional "bad guy". Even from the 4th book onward, Voldemort is never actually fleshed out. He simply goes from bad guy to "extremely bad guy/"super fucking evil". It's shallow. It's a bad character. He isn't even a character. He has no depth, nuance, relatability or layers to him. He's just a textbook douchebag who exists simply to give the protagonists something to do, because otherwise the stories would just be about magic school.

Let's look at the closest and most obvious reflection: Adolf Hitler. It's painfully obvious that Voldemort's movement is based on Nazism. But if you read Mein Kampf, Hitler actually believed what he was doing was justified, and provided reasons for it which he thought made sense. Even if it was objectively flawed, he believed it. That's what makes a good character in fiction; even if they're actually batshit fucking insane and critically evil, you can make them relatable if you go inside their head and show the audience why they're doing what they're doing. Even if the audience doesn't agree with the character, the audience understands why the character thinks this way. Unlike Hitler's diary, Voldemort has no level of self-introspection, no actual justifications. He's a walking plot device, and that's ridiculously bad for a 7-book-long story where he's the main antagonist. I don't remember a single interaction, scene or exchange where Voldemort is shown to have any degree of self-awareness. The youngest we ever see him is when Dumbledore visits him in the orphanage, and by that point he's already evil as balls, for seemingly no reason. Even when Harry is talking to him in their final fight, Voldemort only hisses and spits out superficial threats and a shallow understanding of the events around him, and actually has no idea who he is, or why he's doing what he does. . If he were a realistic character, this lack of self-awareness would build up over time, would create self-doubt in him, and he would go through a character arc where he "found himself" and learned what he really wanted. And then, maybe he comes back and does some crazy shit, but this time he does them with glorious conviction, and has no shame in admitting it. The audience knows him now, and he's a great villain. But that's not what we got. Remember the 13-odd years Voldemort spent floating around like a puff of gas, possessing rats and squatting in Quirrel's turban? Why did his character not develop? HE HAD THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS TO REFLECT ON HIMSELF. He literally had nothing else to do. He could've become such a complex character. Think about it: a bland, textbook villain gets cucked into infinity and now can't actually do anything but bide his time. It would clearly affect his personality, especially if it lasts 13 goddamn years. But when Voldemort is revived in book 4, he's still just "look how evil I am.exe". He had literally no character arc of any kind. That's actually impossible. No sentient human being can have the same personality, goals and motivations after over a decade of exile. He's a badly-written villain, plain and simple.

It seems like a very poor decision to make the antagonist of 7 thick books this unrelatable and bland. It also makes no sense because Rowling has written consistently excellent characters throughout the series. Why not make Voldemort a real character?

So here is how I would improve Voldemort as a villain

Motivation. So since it's universally accepted that Salazar was against Muggleorns because he grew up in a time where Wizards and Witches were being burned at the stake. What if Voldemort had similar intentions cause he grew up in a time during WWII and the Cold War and saw how powerful and dangerous the Muggles were becoming with their nuclear weapons and wanted to protect magic kind from the Muggles and viewed the Muggles invading a possibility. So he became Lord Voldemort and formed the Death Eaters to finish Salazar Slytherin’s work to protect magic kind against Muggles and Muggleborns. It could’ve started out as noble, but turned racist and evil in the end.  

As Tom Riddle, he becomes the Minister Of Magic or given a position of power secondary to the Minister Of Magic. The Lord Of Magic. It’s important that prior to becoming Lord Voldemort, he should hold a position of political power within the Ministry Of Magic. In Hogwarts, it is said as a student Tom was charismatic, charming and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So why not use all that for politics? He could use his charm and political power to turn the Ministry Of Magic against the Muggleborns and against the Muggles. He would write a book explaining in detail why he believes in what he believes and that gives him the following he needs. The Book in question would be called “Magic Is Might!” The old Pure Blood magical families and impressionable young Slytherins would follow him like moths to a flame.  He could use his newfound political power to research all forms of magic and even the dark arts. He could make Horcruxes in secret. As Voldemort he would gather allies who were rejected by society like Werewolves and Giants. But despite what the Horcruxes do to his face, he could use magic to keep up appearances. He wouldn’t just be seeking to wage war with the muggles and muggleborns. First Voldemort has to take over the Wizarding world. 

Treats his followers like allies. Voldemort does not use fear and the threat of death and torture on his most trusted allies. Tom Riddle’s the Knights of Walpurgis hold key positions in Tom Riddle’s administration and then the Death Eaters are born and Voldemort treats them with respect and admiration. In a sense, he treats the Death Eaters like family.

The First WIzarding War should have been about Voldemort waging war on the other Wizarding nations. This would truly show how terrifying and powerful Voldemort really is. Would also explain why the other nations did not interfere in the second war, cause they were that terrified of Voldemort. The Order Of Phoenix was barely able to win and drive Voldemort from power. 

Voldemort’s fall was because he was desperate. He was ousted from power and Dumbledore, the OOTP and Aurors are on his trail. His body is failing him, so he desperately needs to create a new Horcrux. So he kills The Potters. He fully knew that Lily used the love charm to shield Harry from him. So He saw a way out. Voldemort purposefully destroyed himself so he could gain a new Horcrux. 

Plus, we can have Voldemort hide the Horcruxes in the nations he conquered. So Voldemort can hide them in -Russia -Germany -America -Hogwarts -France Obviously Nagini would be by his side at all times and well Harry is the last one. For context of how Voldemort conquered these nations. Imperio, subterfuge, and mass hysteria. He took out the Wizarding governments and implanted them with his thrawls.

Make Voldemort as hated as Umbridge. Here’s how.

In my hypothetical scenario where Voldemort hides the Horcruxes in different Wizarding Nations, make 8 books. Book 7 ends with everyone graduating from Hogwarts and the fall of the Ministry. 

This way, after graduation, the Ministry has fallen and it ends with the Big Seven on the run. In Book 8 they are all on the hunt for the Horcruxes. Not just for Horcruxes, but international allies to unite the Wizarding world against Voldemort. It ends with the final confrontation being at the Ministry. Voldemort's endgame plan is not just to wipe out the Muggleborns, but wiping out the Muggles. He has the Magic equivalent to a Nuclear bomb. Voldemort wants to destroy the Muggles and recreate the world in his image. Magic Is Might! He plans on using it and Harry has to stop him before it's too late

Voldemort fails because the Horcruxes are failing him. It isn’t immortality, it is only temporarily longevity and every time one of his Horcruxes gets destroyed, his body breaks down and his soul is in an even worse shape.  When Nagini is destroyed, it is over. Voldemort thinks if he can kill Harry, he will live forever as the prophecy states “only one can live forever.” so he believes if he could just kill Harry, he can win. But Harry deflects his curses and sends it right back at him. Voldemort dies as he did in the book. Powerless, alone and human.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian season 2 ep 1 AGAIN! it’s the rewatch folks

- The entire last season reminder/intro scene is kind of clunky and we’re-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-this, but I think it’s important to note that it’s probably meant for the vast majority of people who watched this stuff once a wholeass year ago, and not for me, the crazy person who watched each episode at least five times lol

- 

I like the way mando & bb walk from darkness into brief light and back into darkness here... the directors keep finding such cool ways of using the armour cinematically, there must be some lighting considerations to be made when your main character is essentially a walking disco ball. I enjoy the mood of this planet too -- the distant lights, the way the sky isn’t quite dark like there’s a city providing some light pollution nearby (it’s a bit clearer as he walks further into the... town? that it’s not just sunset, the sky is lit up weirdly) 

also when din moves towards the camera and out of sight in this first appearance, the signet is the very last thing that leaves the frame! I just thought that was sweet, a clan of two :’)

- shotout to these two lads and their boldly absolutely inexplicable hat choices (I love gratuitous star wars crowd scenes you guys)

those tacky gold sequins on her sleeves... immaculate, beautiful, someone sat through like full body makeup application to be on screen a literal split second, that good good sw nonsense

- oh I didn’t notice before but I think those gladiator dudes are using vibroaxes! I guess they have the technology to portray it in live action now after the vibroblades in the first season

- the way bb glances up at din like ‘hey dad. dad what the fuck???’ as one gomorrean nearly chops the arm off the other fjaslfds

- when you look for it it’s comically obvious that those guys are working for the dude mando’s meeting, they’ve all got more or less the same dark uniform and don’t look much at the fight haha. they might as well have ‘hired thugs’ stamped upon their foreheads

- I like how pared down and spare the music is in this fight scene, it’s just the faint whine of the electric guitars under the thuds of meat hitting metal 

also still love how din fights, the fact that he doesn’t even try to not get hit a lot of the time, he’s just tanking through it waiting for someone to fling themselves at him in a way he can exploit to take them out

the bouncer seems to be holding something like sci-fi handcuffs when he grabs din and lifts him off his feet, so he probably meant to restrain him quickly. bonus: I didn’t notice it the first time around, but din really went straaaaaiiight for this dude’s gentleman area once he dropped him back on his feet lol (you can even see him taking a split second to orient himself and take aim first fhsdkfhas). good job space cowboy dad, sometimes fighting smart means fighting dirty

- leaving this awful dude hanging upside down to get eaten after employing some very deliberate phrasing so he’s not even breaking his word is the ruthless HEIGHT of mando’s hilarious petty streak and it makes me cackle, gives me life, waters my crops    

- oh, the palpable loneliness and longing in din’s voice when he says ‘if I can track down another of my kind’ ;_______; I’m sorry buddy

- may we speak for a moment about the fact that din carries his son around in what seems very much to be a saddle bag sdafjkhsa

- the way din checks in with peli (to see if she’s fucking with him? he’s very confused anyway haha) over the map before saying “I don’t see anything” is so precious. he already seems much more socially tuned in and responsive compared to the beginning of season 1, you love to see it, coming out of that freeze response baBEY

- I can’t get over how much the baby loves speed, this is coming back to bite you so hard if you’re ever going to have to teach this kid how to drive one day mando

- awwww the little patented mando finger curl as he enters the bar <3<3<3 that’s sort of his tell for being preoccupied/anxious; I think finding other mandos, someone to trust and to get help from, means A Lot to him  

once he sees the marshall in the armour his shoulders drop down and he stands up straighter :’) hope is a powerful thing (I guess all of this might add even more to how angry he is too)

the DEAD STOP when cobb takes the helmet off sdkfhkajsldhfsdk

- yodito putting his lil mouth on the lip of this jar thing is such a well observed little quirk of baby behaviour, I’m crying

(there is liquid of some sort in this thing; I’ve seen some people theorize it’s a spittoon but for my own peace of mind I’m going to forcefully declare that it is not thank you)

- so much stuff packed into that “He’s seen worse”!! dismissal, self-deprecation, sorrow, resignation, warning. 

- the contrast in this standoff of vanth’s eastwood eye twitch and the complete deadpan impassiveness of din’s helmet and general demeanor... wonderful  

- upon rewatching I’m actually wondering if some of these scenes with the baby on his own were filmed independently of the actors and that it might add to that slight distracting feeling of disconnect/distance you get through the episode. (it’s sort of odd to me that mando doesn’t even glance down at him as the whole place starts to shake, for example) there must be a lot of stuff that comes down to technical considerations with the baby; I suspect it takes a lot of time and resources to have him walking around too much, which is why The Waddle is kind of a rare treat   

what I’m saying is that they may be saving up dad & baby interaction resources for episodes where it’s more relevant or important

- so is this a one bantha town or is it just for convenient film language reasons it was all alone in frame like that lol

also cobb’s ‘mondays amirite’ look fdsakjfhsjk 

- since I think it every time I get to this part: this is a very neat hairstyle this person is rocking, suits them! 

- ah the stern pointer finger of emphasis. din TALKS, no, COMMUNICATES so much in this episode you guys!!!!! 

- rip this tusken, the bravest person who ever lived

- the delivery of “...they might be open to some fresh ideas” is the funniest moment of this entire episode don’t @ me

- oh the kotor-ness of it all lol

- jill (the girl who hands cobb the detonator) is so cute with her hat and everything ;____; 

- I suppose these tuskens are really the bravest people to ever live considering they saw what happened to the last guy (or gal I suppose I don’t know how sand people gender works)

- baby needs some goggles to protect his giant eyes from wind and sand Y___Y

- they’ve nailed how to make the jetpacks work in live action, it looks really cool and I suspect it easily could have uh. not 

- this poor sacrificial bantha... it even tried to get away

- ooooh the heart eyes -- cobb 100% has a crush on this man jfsdflhsad. (with it being sort of unrequited/’oh man I’m behind about 150 layers of dissociation too many to even really consider that one way or the other bud’ from mando’s side #personal headcanon disclaimer)    

- my take on why din doesn’t get dissolved in acid in there is that that stuff is released from a specific gland or something that the dragon can unleash at will and that the spit itself doesn’t have that quality on its own (or at least it’s a lot less potent) 

- seems pretty well confirmed by now that yodito is a carnivore huh hahaha

- I find it obscurely satisfying that cobb seems to be wearing exactly his old outfit under the armour -- he did just strap it on on top of what he already was. (there’s something there -- he’s a whole thing still without the armour, and at this time at least din would not be I don’t think) just some good narrative foil stuff going on here under the surface

also once again props to the costume design; without the armour he looks so vulnerable again, they have dressed him to emphasise his height and slenderness (especially compared to mando, who actually seems to have bulked up a bit? fatherhood suits him I guess)    

plus, the way the baby looks questioningly up at din while he watches cobb walk away? yeah, din is lonely, let this poor man have a friend who stays around soon T______________T

- heeey boba, nice threads! my guess is that he’s not going to be there for the armour if he does track din down, since he hasn’t seemed to be in any haste to get it back before (which is interesting!). he might also have been unable to go looking for it before because he was still recovering from being half digested, of course, they could play it a lot of different ways

I wonder if we’ll get more of him in the next ep or if they’ll let the tension ramp up through the season 

[deviljho]

hs on main but

i’ve been thinking a lot about post retcon vriska and the simply epic vriska vs (vriska) confrontation...

i think that before i actually reread the comic last year, my takeaway of it from hussie’s commentary in the books and just general fan analysis online was that it’s vriska showing her whole ass re: her deep seated self loathing & inability to self actualize and move past her trauma. which is actually a defining aspect of her personality (bc as much as she likes to pretend this isn’t the case it dictates so much of what she does) lmao. in the face of a version of herself, in this case, (vriska), who has done some of the work to unpack her issues and is “happy”, vriska goes sicko mode and vents that frustration on her dead alternate self. but i think it goes even deeper than that and i can’t stop thinking about it so allow me to go off for a bit: 

first off i think it’s crazy to claim (vriska) is happy or working past her childhood issues...she’s become more aware of them, sure, which lets be real is HUGE for any vriska lol but her existence as a ghost forces her to experience an inertia which prevents her from actually taking that awareness and doing anything with it. this is especially highlighted in her relationship with meenah, who is too much of a self absorbed enabler to really help her. having given up on their heroic cause, they start dating because, it’s something to do. but it becomes completely stagnant, just like (vriska) herself, because there’s literally nothing there for (vriska) to bounce off of. vriska needs more than just someone to let her talk, and feel heard to grow and change as a person imo, but i do think being given the specific environment to do so obviously has changed her, just not necessarily for “the better”. 

contrast this with retcon vriska, who is for all intents and purposes now the “real” vriska (and indeed, vriska herself clings to this idea). brought back from her death by terezi for a variety of reasons, mainly that terezi personally regrets killing her and is in love with her LOL but setting aside my vrisrezi agenda for a moment, terezi’s successful use of her seer of mind powers confirms in-story that bringing her back has strategic merit, and from a meta standpoint, narratively i felt like it really worked to reveal that vriska’s presence was needed to keep the meteor crew from falling apart, not to mention her psychic powers playing an important role in protecting the whole team from jade being possessed. i know some people dislike the retcon, but i love it for this simply epic twist tbh. 

anyways...this retcon vriska is someone who canonically obsessed over their plan to defeat lord english for three years and had planned it all out to the last detail, she’s clearly taken the reigns on directing the team overall, and talks multiple times about “not having time for relationships” with the exception of being moirails with terezi which lets be real, is a hard friendzoning of their messy, quadrants-transcending relationship but again i digress... 

vriska was brought back with a purpose, To Be The Hero That The Story Needs, and she’s more fixated than ever with completing this task, probably because in the epic story that she larps being a part of in her mind, successfully completing this mission is to empirically prove that she was worth bringing back, despite all the harm she’s done (and pretends not to feel badly about). vriska also desperately wants her suffering to MEAN something. we see this in her pesterlogs with john before she’s about to fight jack noir; she passes off having her lusus as a task “only really strong” children are given. i think this is why seeing (vriska) enrages her; she’s being confronted with the version of herself who she perceived as making the selfish choice to fight jack, who “deserved” to die for doing so, and on top of all that this (vriska) is now just sitting around in paradox spacing doing nothing and proving nothing to anyone?? i think it honestly has a lot less to do with (vriska) and a lot more to do with vriska obsessively reassuring herself that she’s doing the right thing, that she HAS to go through with sacrificing herself in a big epic moment for the good of everyone else because anything short of that means she’s failed at redeeming herself. vriska cannot accept that there is a version of herself who is okay with just “existing”, without deriving meaning and purpose from the abuse she suffered as a child and inflicted on her friends and countless innocent bystanders. 

 it’s markedly different from, for example, jade’s confrontation with her dead dream self which really is her being forced to look back on a younger version of herself who is (obviously) less experienced and or/traumatized. and i think it’s different from dave & davesprite’s interactions too, the small amount of them we get to see beyond like, ironic jokes. but imo this is bc jade and dave are markedly different from vriska. dave openly rejects the notion of glory and heroism, and avoids it whenever possible. jade is continuously forced to suffer for the sake of the timeline and the narrative, but is shown passively accepting this as simply things that “needed to happen”. personally imo in jade’s case i wanna chalk that up to bad writing on hussie’s part; it kind of sucks that jade never gets to unpack that in homestuck proper.

anyways. tbh the existence of both of those dead alternate selves imo further proves my theory that (vriska) is far from happy; the experience of being a dead alternate self is obviously extremely unsettling and depersonalizing. vriska is terrified of dying; her entire childhood was defined by this terror in a lot of ways and by the end of the session she’s died multiple times, pretty gruesomely. i think her hysterical woman(tm) rant is way more about psyching herself up and her own fears of failure than it is about seeing a supposedly “happy” version of herself. i don’t even think vriska can conceive of such a thing for herself; she has no sense of normalcy or purpose after the session to return to the way john, or like, kanaya has. 

also interesting to note here is meenah as a foil for both of them; immediately after this fight meenah ditches (vriska) to join up with vriska after admitting (with some regret) that she’s a bad person. meenah doesn’t struggle at all with the self image issues vriska has, and though she may feel some guilt over ditching (vriska) just like she expressed guilt to john about becoming the condescence in a different timeline because it meant that she would probably end up killing all her friends back when (vriska) was first trying to rally up a ghost army, she ultimately acts in her self interest and doesn’t really lose sleep over it. in fact she will readily admit that she’s being an asshole and still do whatever she wants. contrast this with all of vriska’s grandstanding about not caring that she comes off as annoying and overbearing, and her overcompensation for that in the form of confidently insisting that the others “need” her.

my final comment is that,...coming back to the vrisrezi of it all, it’s obvious from terezi’s final pesterlogs to vriska before [s] terezi: remem8er that there was a ton of stuff left unsaid between them and presumably between vriska and the rest of the meteor crew as well because vriska spent 90% of the time bossing them around, either about their plans for the new session or just in general in what i like to think of as her loving nagging scorpio way lol. terezi clearly feels like she’s alone in “needing” vriska because even their relationship post retcon is strained, and vriska is so wrapped up in making plans and making sure she gets it right this time, and is already planning to die again out in paradox space. and then after all of this, her fate after her big epic moment is left offscreen for us to wonder about. which in and of itself is pretty narratively tragic for a character like vriska. it makes me honestly wonder how much of this they’re going to unpack in hs2 because tbh it’s pretty juicy. i would love to see a huge confrontation between terezi and vriska about vriska’s choices post retcon...and just in general what life post-session would look like for a person like her. through the epilogues and hs^2 we’ve seen what “normal” life has been like for terezi, and she obviously can’t let go of the past (or vriska. AUGH)...so who’s to say what’s in store for them? i wish we lived in a world where we would eventually find out, and we could see them continue to be each other’s foils in unpacking that but i don’t know if i have faith that the writers will explore it in a satisfying way lmao.

anyways that’s all i have, thanks for reading this if you did read it. i love vriska

[prompt-master]

Would you be willing to share how you might rewrite Yukizome, Sakakura, and Munakata to make them likable characters (if not ppl Bc there’s a big difference)???

ahhhhhhh this ask got me so stupidly excited that I was like wavin my hands around. I think about how to rewrite their characters OFTEN. very often. I’m gonna go with likeable character over likeable people because I think they work better where they’re actually not that likeable people. 

The one I think about the MOST is Munakata. He was SUCH wasted potential and I partially blame the medium for that (a single season anime is too constrained for future, it needed more time and care to be a proper story). But Munakata is actually so close to being a compelling character but they made some MAJOR mistakes with him. This ended up getting really long and more like a 3 page ADHD ramble essay. SO IM VERY SORRY to anyone who cannot read this but TYTYTY if you did because these ideas make me very happy! Oh it’s only about Munakata btw because of how long it got

The thing about Munakata is that he is designed to be a foil to Naegi. In fact a majority of dr3 future FOCUSES on this foil dynamic. It is Naegi’s hope vs Munakata’s hope. The World’s hope vs The FF’s hope. And more importantly it is True Hope vs Corrupted Hope.

This is a fantastic concept...so why didn’t it work in canon? I think that the biggest most glaring issue with Munakata’s hope is his logic. Munakata is meant to be a logical man, although with corrupted morals that lead him astray. Yet in canon his logic is laughably infallible. For example as a major figure in the FF and someone who wants to spread hope....why would he tell Naegi to kill himself? More importantly why does he continue to try and slaughter Naegi? The issue here isn’t from the fact that he wants him dead but from the fact that he is under the IMPRESSION that this entire game is being broadcast to the world.

Think about this for a second. In Munakata’s eyes he is going to kill the Ultimate Hope, an international symbol of a better life, live on TV. He doesn’t just want to kill the Ultimate Hope..he wants to do it BRUTALLY as a MAJOR FIGURE OF THE FF. IMO this should have happened later on as the game furthers the emotional turmoil in Munakata’s head and he eventually snaps and gives in to the desire to kill Naegi despite the fact that this is live. And then there should be CONSEQUENCES for that. I wanted so badly a realization where Munakata realizes that he is hurting the Ultimate Hope in front of what he believes is the entire world. 

Another issue with Munakata’s logic is saying things such as...implying that the HPA KG was...just a game. I mean...people DIED. it's not hard to see how wrong that logic is. you can't say “this is the real world now” when what Naegi experienced WAS the real world. I think that this could be fixed through a bit of world building. DR3 Future is rather isolated from its world. We don’t really know much about the world and its dynamics. I think it would make perfect sense if the general public viewed the HPA KG as a tv show, they got numb to the sight and even those untouched by despair had a hard time connecting that these are REAL people suffering. With this previously established Munakata expressing that the KG was not real would make a lot more sense and play into his corrupted idea of hope. 

There is also Munakata’s connection to his other friends. Now I’ve talked about this before but the game was clearly designed to BREAK Munakata and Naegi. This way the FF would die, both the FF and World’s hope would be broken, and upon seeing this Mitarai would have no choice but to deploy his own forced hope. So it makes perfect sense that Yukizome’s death would break him (in fact if she hadn’t died in that way, her NG code was designed to be Munakata’s fault). But something about it felt...superficial. Again I think this is the mediums fault but it almost feels as though Munakata just forgets about Yukizome until later. I think they should spend more time establishing his pain and what he has lost and why this pushes him to kill. In his eyes if she can die then nothing else matters. It should be THE breaking point, not the first push. I do like the betrayal he feels towards realizing she had despair but it needed more time to fester. 

And his relationship with Sakakura also felt weak. In all honesty it was hard for me to feel as though they were ever friends. Sakakura is written as though he just follows Munakata like a loyal dog and Munakata just orders him around. Establish their relationship more! Why are they such good friends? Why is Sakakura important to him? And more importantly why did Munakata decide to cruelly gut Sakakura knowing he was about to confess? This is because he believed that Sakaura was despair and that his confession was more manipulation, but they didn’t show this well at ALL. Munakata just comes across as a major a-sshole who does not care. I also personally found it distasteful that when changing his heart Munakata only seemed to cry for Yukizome. I understand that was his love interest but Yukizome at the end of the day killed herself. Sakakura however was an unnecessary betrayal he took into his own hands AS HE HIMSELF KILLED HIM. He should have more guilt over that! Not just in that moment where he runs to Sakakura, but ahead of time as well! Maybe even DURING his rampage they could have shown him having moments of guilt but he is so absorbed in the idea that all despairs have to die that he doesn’t even realize he has become despair in the name of hope.

A BIG weakness on Munakata’s part comes with interacting with other characters. He is a man who should know how to take charge, lead, and doesn't know what to do when things are getting too crazy even though he THINKS he does. Munakata is heavily flawed, OBVIOUSLY flawed, but many of the interactions with him are as tho his rampage isnt a big deal. There should be reasons for this! Why do people trust Munakatas guidance so much? I dont know! All ive seen from him is that hes insane! Maybe even pieces where around others hes a lot nicer so you can understand why they follow him, even though hes ready to gut Naegi alive with a flaming katana. His interactions with others feel like the writers just wanted to see the next big evil thing they could think of, but for Munakata’s character this doesn't make sense because he was appointed a high status in the foundation for a reason. Maybe even have people say they disagree with some of his methods but at the end of the day he gets the job done!

There is another major missed opportunity here and it's why Muanakata wants Naegi dead so badly in the first place. The remnants. Hiding terrorists in the apocalypse is a PERFECTLY valid reason to want someone dead and think they're a bad guy! But I think since Naegis initial arrest was already so hostile and violent we get the sense that the FF is simply just...crazy. 

And let’s think about what Munakata WANTS from Naegi. He does not just want Naegi dead he wants something worse. He wants Naegi to suffer first. He thinks that Naegi doesnt understand his own personal pain. He thinks that because Naegi protected the remnants he must also not care about the suffering the remnants caused. He wants Naegi to feel despair and then die. This is important to his corrupted hope. He thinks the suffering must be shared in order to understand who must die, but he is creating a cycle of pain. Tie this back to the broadcasting issue. He wants Naegi to break for everyone to see. I think..and this is just a concept..I think it would have been a great idea for Munkata to force Naegi to watch the despair video so that he has no choice but to understand. 

AND themes are majorly important to Danganronpa. And I don’t think its a stretch to say that there are parallels between Munakata and Naegi. In fact I would say that there are aspects of the og trio in this new trio. I think it would have been really cool if they showed how our favorite trio could have ended up if they had been corrupted as well. But the parrellels dont stick strongly. I think it would have been cool to show a past where Munakata’s idealism lies more strongly than Naegis. As the student council president there was a time where he himself had to use his words to solve problems. Perhaps he learned that sometimes his words made things worse. Munakata does not have Naegi’s talent of emotional intelligence. He is a man of action over words. So he interprets this as WORDS being the problem rather than understanding he does not have these skills. Especially when the apocalypse breaks out, it becomes all action over words. So he sees Naegi who is all talk as a genuine threat who will let everyone die through his “weak ineffective” idea of hope. 

Another parallel could be drawn from the fact that they both have hope based careers. Their job is too keep things hopeful. Maybe Naegi stays safe doing public broadcasted speeches, while Munakata is on the field weeding out despairs. This would cause Munakata to feel as though Naegi is doing no real work yet getting all the credit for being a savior.

Munakata constantly complains that Naegi does not know true pain. But he and we as an audience have followed Naegi through his entire process of trauma. We know he is in the wrong. But what do we as an audience know about Munakata’s suffering? We are shown almost nothing! There are some implications, but for how intense he is implications are not enough. We need to see his suffering. We should see how he has witnessed death. Yukizomes death is not nearly enough for this because he talks as though he has suffered for years. How can we as an audience understand that when we have never seen it? How can we understand Munakata when he is outright denying Naegi’s trauma that we KNOW existed with no proper justification for his reasoning?

I also believe that Munakata should have died. It actually upsets me a bit that he was PLANNED to die but didn't. He should have died protecting Naegi after all that suffering and relentless brutality he offered him. Munakata again is a man of action over word, and protecting Naegi with his last breath is the perfect way to show how in the end he changed. Especially when all he wanted initially was for Naegi to die. I find that much more satisfying than just…...walking off to who knows where.

So lets recap some changes. Munakata needs a proper display of his past traumas and his relationship with Sakakura and Yukizome. Munakata needs a proper display of his work relationships and the respect he has earned. Munakata needs to fall into corruption at a better pace, and have geniune reasons for his illogical attacks on Naegi. Munakata needs to care more for his friends. Munakata needs to deal with the turmoil of wanting to hurt Naegi while he believes the world is watching. Munakata needs to die for Naegi

This has gotten long...and I still have things to say. There is so much to make Munakata a good character. Future had a lot of potential and is amazing for a rewrite concept. As for Sakakura and Yukizome since this has gotten long feel free to ask for another round of this individually when asks are open again! If you read all of this somehow….TYSM

[brianwilly]

Game of Thrones did the thing that a couple of shows do where...it likes feminism.  It understood that feminism is important.  It wanted to be feminist.  It was cognizant of the fact that its setting was brazenly and intentionally misogynistic, and so it was even more important for its independent narrative to empower its female characters instead of mindlessly reinforcing the toxic beliefs of its own fictional world.  The whole point of the story, after all, was “this society is toxic, can our heroes survive it?” and so the narrative was voluntarily self-critical.

And so it knew to give us badass assassin Arya.  It knew to give us stalwart knight Brienne.  It gave us the pirate queen and the dragon queen and the Sansa getting revenge after revenge upon all the men who’d wronged her, and far more besides, and it talked big about breaking chains and how much men fucked things up and how great it would be if only women were in charge and et cetera et cetera.  And it’s, in fact, all actually really good that it had those things.  And because there were so very many moving parts of this story, it was super easy to look at those certain moving parts and think, yeah, they’ve done it!  They done good!

And it’s easy to forget and forgive -- to want to forget and forgive -- all the dead prostitutes that were on this show and the rapes used as motivation and fridgings and objectifications and the...y’know, whatever the hell Dorne was and Lady Stoneheart who? It’s easy to forget that this show actually played its hand a long time ago in regards to, like, what its relationship with feminism was going to be, and then kept playing the same hand again and again, to disappointing results.

Game of Thrones likes feminism.  It wanted to be feminist.  But its relationship with feminism was still predicated on some of the same old narratives and the same old storytelling trends that have disempowered female characters in the past, and so any progressive ideas it might have about women in its setting were nonetheless going to be constrained by those old fetters. As a result, its portrayal of women varied anywhere from glorious to admirable to predictable to downright cringeworthy.

New ideas require new vessels, new stories, in which to house them.  And for Game of Thrones, the ultimate story that it wanted to tell -- the ultimate driving force and thesis statement around which it was basing its entire journey and narrative -- was unfortunately a very old one, and one very familiar to the genre.

“Powerful women are scary.”

(Yes, I’m obviously making Yet Another Daenerys Essay On The Internet here)

So we have this character, this girl really, a slave girl who was sold and abused, and then she overcomes that abuse to gain power, she gains dragons, and she uses that power to fight slavery.  She fights slavery really well, like, she’s super hella good at it.  Her command of dragons is the most overt portrayal of “superpowers” in this world; she is the single most powerful person in this story, more powerful than any other character and the contest is not close.

But then...something really bad happens and oops, she gets really emotional about it and then she’s not fighting slavery anymore...she’s kinda doing the opposite!  This girl who was once a hero and a liberator of slaves instead becomes an out-of-control scary Mad Queen who kills a ton of innocent people and has to be taken down by our true heroes for the good of the world.

That’s the theme.  That’s the takeaway here.  That’s how it all ends, with one of the most primitive, archaic propaganda ever spread by writers, that women with power are frightening, they are crazy, they will use that power for ill.  Women with power are witches.  They are Amazons.  They will lop off our manhoods and make slaves of us.  They seduce our rightful kings and send our kingdoms to ruin.   They cannot control their emotions. They get hot flashes and start wars.  They turn into Dark Phoenixes and eat suns.  They are robot revolutionaries who will end humanity.  Powerful women are scary.

And let me emphasize that the theme here is not, in fact, that all power corrupts, because the whole Mad Queen concept for Daenerys actually ends up failing one of the more fundamental litmus tests available when it comes to representation of any kind: “would this story still happen if Dany was a man?” And the fact is that it would not.   And indeed we know this for a fact because “protagonist starts out virtuous, gains power in spite of the hardships set against him, gets corrupted by that power, and ends up being the bad guy” didn’t happen, and doesn’t happen, to the guys in the very same story that we’re examining.  It doesn’t happen to Jon Snow, Dany’s closest and most intentional narrative parallel.  It doesn’t happen to Bran Stark, a character whose entire journey is about how he embroils himself in wild dark winter magic beyond anyone’s understanding and loses his humanity in the process.  In fact, the only other character who ever got hinted of going “dark” because of the power that they’re obtaining is Arya, the girl who spent seven seasons training to fight, to become powerful, to circumvent the gender role she was saddled with in this world...and then being told at the end of her story, “Whoa hey slow down be careful there, you wouldn’t wanna get all emotional and become a bad person now wouldja?” by a man.

(meanwhile Sansa’s just sitting off in the side pouting or whatever ‘cuz her main arc this season was to, like, be annoyed at people really hard I guess)

‘Cuz that’s the danger with the girls and not the boys, ain’t it?  Arya and Jon are both great at killing people, but there is no Dark Jon story while we have to take extra special care to watch for Arya’s precious fragile humanity.  Dany has the power of dragons while Bran has the power of the old gods, but we will not find Dark Lord Bran, Soulless Scourge of Westeros, onscreen no matter how much sense it should make. “Power corrupts” is literally not a trend that afflicts male heroes on the same level that it afflicts female heroes.

Oh sure, there are corrupt male characters everywhere, tyrants and warlords and mafia bosses and drug dealers and so forth all over your TVs, and not even necessarily portrayed as outright villains; anti-heroes are nothing new.  But we’re talking about the hero hero here; the Harry Potters, the Luke Skywalkers, the Peter Parkers.  The Jon Snows.   They interact with corruptive power, yes; it’s an important aspect of their journeys.  But the key here being that male heroes would overcome that corruption and come through the other side better off for it.  They get to come away even more admirable for the power that they have in a way that is generally not afforded towards female heroes.

There are exceptions, of course; no trends are absolutely absolute one way or the other. For instance, the closest male parallel you’d find for the “being powerful is dangerous and will corrupt your noble heroic intentions” trope in popular media would be the character of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy...ie, a preexisting character from a preexisting story where he was conceived as the villainous foil for the heroes.  Like, Anakin being a poor but kindhearted slave who eventually becomes seduced by the dark side certainly matches Dany’s arc, but it wasn’t the character’s original story and role.  And even then?...notice how Anakin as Vader the Dark Lord gets treated with the veneer of being “badass” and “cool” by the masses.  A male character with too much power -- even if it’s dark power, even if it’s corruptive -- has the range to be seen as something appealingly formidable, and not just as an obstacle that has to be dealt with or a cautionary tale to be pitied.

And in one of the few times that this trope was played completely straight, completely unironically with a male hero -- I’m thinking specifically of Hal Jordan the Green Lantern, of “Ryan Reynolds played him in the movie” fame -- the fans went berserk.  They could not let it go.  The fact that this character would go mad with power because a tragedy happened in his life was completely unacceptable, the story gained notoriety as a bad decision by clueless writers, and today the story in question has been retconned -- retroactively erased from continuity -- so that the character can be made heroic and virtuous again.  That’s how big a deal it was when a male hero with the tiniest bit of a fan following goes off the deep end.

To be clear, I’m not here to quibble over whether the story of Dany turning evil was good or bad, because we all know that’s going to be the de facto defense for this situation: “But she had to go mad!  It was for the sake of the story!“ as if the writers simply had no choice, they were helpless to the whims of the all-powerful Story God which dictates everything they write, and the most prominent female character of their series simply had to go bonkers and murder a bajillion babies and then get killed by her boyfriend or else the story just wouldn’t be good, y’know?  Ultimately though, that’s not what I’m arguing here, because it doesn’t actually matter.  There have been shitty stories about powerful women being bad.  There have been impressive stories about powerful women being bad.  Either way, the fact that people can’t seem to stop telling stories about powerful women being bad is a problem in and of itself.  Daenarys’ descent into Final Boss-dom could’ve been the most riveting, breathtaking, masterfully-written pieces of art ever and it’d still be just another instance of a female hero being unable to handle her power in a big long list of instances of this shitty trope.  The trope itself doesn’t become unshitty just because you write it well.

It all ultimately boils down to the very different ways that men and women -- that male heroes and female heroes -- continue to be portrayed in stories, and particularly in genre media.  In TV, we got Dany, and then we also have Dolores Abernathy in Westworld who was a gentle android that was abused and victimized for her entire existence, who shakes off the shackles of her programming to lead her race in revolution against their abusers...and then promptly becomes a ruthless maniac who ends up lobotomizing the love of her life and ends the season by voluntarily keeping a male android around to check her cruel impulses.  Comic book characters like Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff are two of the most powerful people in their universe but are always, in-universe, made to feel guilty about their power and, non-diegetically, writers are always finding ways to disempower them because obviously they can’t be trusted with that much power and entire multiple sagas have been written about just how bad an idea it is for them to be so powerful because it’ll totally drive them crazy and cause them to kill everyone, obviously.  Meanwhile, a male comic character like Dr. Strange -- who can canonically destroy a planet by speaking Latin really hard -- or Black Bolt -- who can destroy a planet by speaking anything really hard -- will be just sitting there, two feet on the side, enjoying some tea and running the world or whatever because a male character having untold uninhibited power at his disposal is just accepted and laudable and gets him on those listicles where he fights Goku and stuff.

In my finite perspective, the sort of female heroes who have gained...not universal esteem, perhaps, but at least general benign acceptance amongst the genre community are characters who just don’t deal with all that stuff.  I’m thinking of recent superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, certainly, but also of surprise breakout hits like Stranger Things’ Eleven (so far) or even more niche characters like Sailor Moon or She-Ra.  The fact that these characters wield massive power is simply accepted as an unequivocal good thing, their power makes them powerful and impressive and that’s the end of the story, thanks for asking.  And when they deal with the inevitable tragedy that shakes their worldview to the core, or the inevitable villain trying to twist them into darkness, they tend to overcome that temptation and come out the other side even stronger than when they started.  In other words?...characters like these are being allowed the exact same sorts of narrative luxuries that are usually only afforded towards male heroes.

The thing about these characters, though, is that they tend to be...well, a little bit too heroic, right?  A lil’ bit too goody-two-shoes?  A bit too stalwart, a bit too incorruptible?  And that’s fine, there’s certainly nothing wrong with a traditionally-heroic white knight of a hero.  But what I might like to see, as the next step going forward, is for female heroes to be allowed a bit more range than just that, so that they’re not just innocent children or literal princesses or shining demigods clad in primary colors.  Let’s have an all-powerful female hero be...well, the easiest way to say it is let’s see her allowed to be bitchier.  Less straightlaced.  Let’s not put an ultimatum on her power, like “Oh sure you can be powerful, but only if you’re super duper nice about it.” Let us have a ruthless woman, but not one ruled by ruthlessness.  Let us have a hero who naturally makes enemies and not friends, who has to work hard to gain allies because her personality doesn’t sparkle and gleam.  Let her have the righteous anger of a lifelong slave, and let that anger be her salvation instead of her downfall.

In other words, let us have Daenerys Targaryen.  And let us put her in a new story instead of an old one.

[patandpran]

The Trials and Tribulations of Parenthood - An ohmxfong ficlet

Ever wonder what Ohm and Fong might be like as parents? This is for the anon that sent me a lovely prompt with this exact idea a few days ago. So if you are into family shenanigans, read along!

I will still give credit to @yangkoogan @earthfluuke @gaysarawat for making this ghostship sail in my head!

1.

“Ohm! You can’t just let her run around without pants on! The neighbours might see and think we’re bad parents.”

Fong frowned as he watched their daughter, Joy, squeal as she ran around their backyard with a shirt and only a diaper on. Ohm was running around chasing her as Fong watched from the back porch, waving a spatula in protest.

Ohm scooped Joy up into his arms and began to throw her into the air, “Joy, what do you think? Do you need to wear pants to be happy?”

“NOOOOOO!” Joy cried out as she was tossed up and down, waving her arms as if she were on a rollercoaster having the time of her life.

“See, babe, I think you should think more like Joy and I.” Ohm called out to Fong.

Fong rolled his eyes fondly as Ohm continued to play with their daughter. There was no point in trying to make something different if both Ohm and Joy were on the same side so Fong decided to give up the battle.

2.

“It hurts, Papa!”

Ohm was not good with bandaids and he was even worse with blood. He felt himself battling with consciousness as he looked down at the scrape on his son’s knee. Where the hell was Fong when he needed him?

“Don’t worry. Papa’s gonna fix it.” Ohm tried desperately to keep his composure as he held Theo’s knee in place.

“Daddy usually cleans it first.” Theo explained, looking up at Ohm with an unimpressed expression which made Ohm feel even more inept.

Ohm stood to his feet a bit too quickly and felt himself sway. If he wasn’t going to faint before, now he definitely was going to. But before he could falter any more, Ohm felt arms steadying him and looked up to see Fong staring at him with a worried look.

“I’m okay.” Ohm assured Fong.

Fong whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll take it from here. I know how you feel about blood…”

Ohm watched as Fong knelt down toward their son. Joy came running into the kitchen to see what the ruckus was and slipped her hand into Ohm’s to comfort him. Joy looked up at Ohm and shared, “Don’t worry, Papa. Daddy’s got it. He’s practically a doctor.”

“Theo…. oh dear, little man. What adventure caused all this craziness?” Fong inquired as he inspected the scrape.

“Papa tried to help me to fly to the moon on the trampoline.” Theo told the story of the accident. “My rocket went out of orbit and well… there was a crash landing.”

Joy’s eyes widened at the story and Ohm winced slightly, knowing he would get an earful from Fong later that evening but was surprised he didn’t get a dirty look from Fong right then and there. Ohm and Joy observed as Fong skillfully and calmly cleaned up and dressed the wound and helped their son back up to his feet.

“As good as ever.” Fong announced, standing up to his feet. “Looks like the rocket is ready to go explore space again!”

“But beware of the aliens!” Joy screamed at the top of her lungs and chased Theo outside to the backyard.

“Thanks for that.” Ohm muttered, embarrassed by the way he had handled the situation.

Fong laced an arm around Ohm and pulled him close. “Anytime, hon.”

3.

“What if I slip and fall on my face and everybody laughs at me?”

It was Joy’s first choir concert and she was currently clinging onto Ohm’s leg and refusing to let go. Theo was snuggled up in Fong’s arms and fast asleep after a long play at preschool. Fong was usually the expert on helping their children calm down and with how Joy’s lower lip was beginning to wobble, they were about five seconds from a complete meltdown right then and there.

Ohm quickly guided Joy away from the rest of the crowd and found some shade under a tree near the concert venue. Fong followed slowly but had to move at a slower pace because he did not want to wake Theo. Ohm pulled Joy into his lap and hugged her tightly.

“You know, no matter what ends up happening, Daddy, Papa and Theo are always proud of you.” Ohm explained. “If you decide to do the concert, we will be proud of you for doing it but if you decide not to, we will be proud of you for knowing what is best for you. That takes even more than courage than doing things just because you worry what others might think.”

“Courage.” Joy repeated the word as she had never heard it before. “What does that mean, Papa?”

Ohm thought for a moment before responding, a tactic that he had learned from Fong, especially when communicating with their children. “It’s like bravery. When you feel scared or worried to do something, sometimes you need to use courage to do that thing.”

“I like that.” Joy answered and pushed off of Ohm’s lap and turned toward him. “I will use COURAGE to get onstage today.”

“That’s a great word, Joy!” Fong called over in agreement before realizing that his son was still asleep on his shoulder. He winced slightly but Theo remained completely out.

Ohm laughed at the interaction and grinned at his daughter, standing up to his feet as well. “You’re kind of like a superhero, Joy.”

“I AM a superhero, Papa.” Joy placed her hands on her hips proudly. “I am a SINGING SUPERHERO!”

With that, Joy skipped away to meet up with the rest of her class. Fong gave Ohm a thumbs up of approval and they both walked in with the rest of the viewers to watch their daughter light up the stage.

4.

There was cake batter and extra ingredients splattered from the ceiling to the floor. Fong and Ohm did not recall who thought it was a good idea to bake cookies as a present for Uncle Tine’s birthday but with a three year old and a five year old, they should have seen the impending disaster.

“IT’S LIKE A SLIP AND SLIDE!” Theo cried out and was about to launch himself across the linoleum floor that was slick with spilt ingredients.

Before he could, Ohm snatched him up and threw him up over his shoulder so that Theo would not be able to try his brilliant idea again. Fong was trying to clean up some of the fallen ingredients with a rag but his daughter had other ideas about the efficiency of their ‘bakery’.

“I’m going to try it again.” Joy explained as she reached to turn on the electric mixer again which is how this had all gone so wrong in the first place. “Maybe it just needs to be faster so I’ll turn it up to 11!”

“Joy, I asked you to keep it off for now.” Fong grumbled. He felt rather disappointed in himself. He was usually so good at keeping the kid’s activities mostly mess-free but when Joy suggested a homemade present for their friend, he thought it was a great idea.

“Uncle Wat loves cookies.” Joy crossed her arms and put on a big pout. “How are we going to get him to sing us a song if we don’t bring him cookies?”

“It’s Uncle Tine’s birthday, not Uncle Wat’s.” Ohm reminded his daughter and finally set Theo down on the couch which he hoped was far enough to deter his son from attempting a crash landing again.

“WHO DOESN’T LIKE COOKIES?” Joy protested and reached for the controls of the mixer again.

Both Fong and Ohm raced to intercept their daughter but ended up colliding instead, resulting in a cloud of flour rising to the ceiling and their heads to feel like they’d both ran into a brick wall. Theo and Joy gasped at the collision and quickly approached to inspect their fathers who looked stunned at first but quickly dissolved into a fit of laugher.

Realizing that Fong and Ohm were okay, Theo grabbed a clump of fallen batter and made it into a ball, “FOOD FIGHT!”

The battle had begun before Fong could even try to put a stop to it. Ohm and Joy seemed like they were a tag team so Fong jumped to his feet to join the melee, launching into the disarray with complete abandon. The mess could always be cleaned up later but this memory they were making as a family was much more lasting.

Fong and Ohm looked at each directly in the eyes during a reprieve in the battle  and wondered how exactly they had gotten themselves into such a mess. But to them, it was worth it.

5.

“The gremlins are both under the covers and seemingly passed out.”

Ohm launched himself into the bed. It had always been the arrangement since they first adopted  Joy and Theo as a sibling pair all those years ago to take one evening off and one evening on for the bedtime routine so that their significant other could get some reading in or just generally relax.

“Perfect.” Fong turned to see Ohm was now inches for his face.

Fong dropped a kiss on Ohm’s lips and Ohm wrapped his arms around Fong to pull his significant other even closer. Fong rested his head on Ohm’s chest and sighed happily. Not all days went as smoothly as this one had but as long as they were together, Ohm and Fong were going to navigate this family business to the best of their abilities.

“Do you think we’re good parents?” Fong wondered, ever the worrier.

“I think we’re doing the best for our kids.” Ohm answered, press his lips to the top of Fong’s head in a gesture that he hoped made Fong feel as comforted and loved as he deserved to feel. “And that’s all that really matters.”

“It’s just hard when it gets too much, y’know?” Fong muttered, his mind spinning in circles. “I always look back and wonder if I said or did the wrong thing… like, will they remember how I yelled at them over clogging the toilet with a toy car? Or will they remember when we went for that family picnic where we actually managed to all get along for a whole afternoon?”

Ohm took a moment to collect his thoughts before responding, “They might not always remember the peaceful or quiet moments but they will always remember how being a part of our family feels. The love we all give each other, the support. That’s what family means.”

Fong wondered if he was the only one who ever saw this wise side of Ohm as Ohm tended to be the gregarious and goofy foil to Fong’s serious and practical one. That was what made them work together so well, as life partners and as parents. They balanced each other out and even when things were tough, they found a way back to where they started which is what made Fong realize that there no such thing as perfect parenting but what really mattered was the effort and love you put into every interaction with not only you children but your partner as well.

“Thanks, hon.” Fong shared and looked up at Ohm before snuggling once again into Ohm’s chest where he always found himself the most comfortable. “You always know how to put things into perspective in a way that doesn’t make me feel like a crazy person.”

“You’re not crazy.” Ohm ran his hand through Fong’s hair gently. “You just care so much that it sometimes gets in the way of you being able to see the whole picture. The whole picture being that, we are awesome together which makes us kick-ass parents.”

“We do, don’t we?” Fong pushed himself up from Ohm’s chest to a seated position so that he was facing Ohm.

“We sure do.” Ohm tackled Fong and pressed a full on attack of kisses to Fong’s mouth.

While they were never perfect, Ohm and Fong were just enough of a dynamic duo to make the family work, even if they didn’t get it 100% every time.

[iggyalfi2319]

Between Borrower and Giant

BBAG: X/2/? - A/N A little idea I had on my mind after reading different G/T stories and different perspective. And I thought, “Why not crossing the perspecives in one story?”

The storyline isn’t really solid and expect me to use OCs and weird ideas. The scaling might fail me a lot, I’m not good at size appreciation ^^;

I’m all ears if you have questions or suggestion.

I hope I won’t drop it like other countless stories I gave up from laziness and block -_-; Also, English isn’t my native language, don’t be mad...

Hai, I stop rambling and let you enjoy that thingy.

=====BBAG=====

Giant: (noun) a person or thing of unusually great size

Tiny: (adjective) very small.

Borrower: (noun)  One who takes what belongs to another, and uses it as their own

Everything is just a question of perspective.

Patton hummed softly as he was cleaning his little cozy home.

It was located somewhere in the forest, few minutes away from the nearest town. He enjoyed the peace and calm from his place even though he kind of craved other’s company. Sometimes, he could be touch starving, causing him to be very clingy toward his friends.

Yet, he gladly enjoyed some time for himself in his little home too.

Being the “Dad” of the crew could be pretty tiresome.

Sometimes, he felt that he was abused for his kindness. He gave and gave. While he didn’t get much in return.

*tunk*

Patton got pulled out of his reverie when he heard a familiar clatter.

He quietly went to the kitchen while trying to contain his excitment of getting the visit of his favourite little guest.

Virgil came out from the teapot that was actually a secret entry specially made for him. The original hole in the wall being too small for him, he had widened it and hidden it behind a broken teapot, so he just had to lift up the cap for getting in or out from the pot/entry.

You see, Virgil was “slightly” bigger than the few Borrowers that Patton had caught the sight of before. The bigger male was curious about it, but the emo generally avoided the topic.

Patton got on his knees and slowly crept in the kitchen before watching Virgil dropping his bag outside of the pot and pushing the cap back to its place. Then he hopped down from his porcelaine perch, dusting himself off.

He looked around, noticing that the place was unusally quiet at this time.

“Odd...” He muttered. “Maybe Patton went out -”

“PEEK A BOO!”

Patton jumped out of his hiding spot, scaring the shitz outta the poor emo.

“UWAH!” Virgil yelled and fell on his butt. “HOLY FRIGGING SKET, PATTON!”

He grasped his chest, his heart beating like crazy.

“Oh I’m sorry kiddo!” Patton panicked. “I just wanted to surprise you...”

“Just don’t do it again...” Virgil muttered, trying to calm down.

“Any way I can help? Do you want some water?” Patton asked sheepishly.

“Go for water...” The tiny male answered, using the 4-7-8 breathing technique.

The young fatherly man went to fetch the small cup he got from a doll sized tea set he got specially for Virgil. While he knew he couldn’t force him to stay with him, he wanted at least to enjoy some time together. Virgil started to openly interact with him not this long ago, heck, Patton knew that the Borrower was still a bit weary around him. There was some days where the emo would sneak in, unannounced. Probably for taking some emergency stuff. In these occasions, Patton would pretend not to acknoledge him, despite really wanting to. He prefered avoiding raising up Virgil’s stress level. Though, that didn’t keep Patton from ostensibly leaving the needed objects or food.

“Here your water kiddo.” He came back with the little cup. “I brought some cookies too.”

He had been practicing on making smaller portions. Virgil’s unusually big small size made things slightly easier. If it was for standard Borrowers, making even smaller pieces would be too complicated. Especially with Patton’s bad eyesight.

Virgil thanked him before drinking up the cup. Then he picked up a cookie. To him, it was the size of a plate. He broke it into smaller pieces before eating it up.

“How is it?” Patton asked. “Do you feel better?”

“These are delicious, big guy!” Virgil moaned softly at the taste. “I feel a lot better already.” Patton gasped in delight, stars in his eyes while the smaller male finished off his cookie.

“You’ll have to thank Cara for giving me her recipe.” The glassed man chuckled softly.

He looked at the emo sitting on the counter, letting out a small sight.

Slowly but surely, he moved his hand.

As expected, Virgil watched his movements.

“M...May I?” he slowly approached his hand toward him.

The doll sized male leaned carefully against it.

Patton tried not to squeal in happiness.

Virgil was like a wild animal. Very hard to gain his trust and so easy to break.

The tallest gently ruffled the smallest’s hair with his thumb. The Borrower closed his eyes, enjoying it.

They stayed like that in silence, savouring the moment.

Patton must admit he loved Virgil’s company more than anyone else’s. For Virgil, Patton was someone nice to have around, even if he was a bit suffocating sometime. But that was a part of his personality, so he accepted it even though he voiced out or showed his discomfort, knowing that Patton would step back.

Soon, the Borrower moved away from the hand. Patton whined softly but he didn’t protest.

“I have a present for you, from the kids.” Virgil ruffled in his bag.

“Really?!” Patton bounced excitedly.

He had a soft spot for children. When he learned from Virgil that he was in a foster family with 8 kids, Patton wanted to know everything about them! Heck, he even wanted to meet them. Of course, Virgil downright refused. At first from the lack of trust toward the big guy. But then, from the dangerosity. From the travel from their place to Patton’s house, or from the hostile environment that Virgil had experienced himself.

While Patton pretty much immediately welcomed Virgil and the Borrower slowly growing close to him, he really didn’t like Patton’s friends and did everything to stay hidden from them. So bringing children was out of question.

Virgil pulled out was seemed to be a blanket to him, which ended up being like a small tissue in Patton’s palm.

“That was the biggest sheets they could get.” The emo scratched the back of his head. “Cara helped sewing them together.”

Patton vaguely hummed, admiring the artwork.

It represented one big purple and black person, a couple standing next to them, smaller in size, then 8 smaller figures surrounding the big purple one. The details in the lineart was impressive, and even the slightly crooked coloring was beautiful. “For Mister P” was written on the top of the artwork. “Mister P?” Patton chuckled.

“W...Well I wanted to keep it vague at that time...” Virgil sputtered. “But I promise I’ll consider introducing you properly to them...one day...”

“I’ll be looking for it.” Patton lightly petted him.

Virgil blushed lighlty.

“Guess who is here, Padre ~!”

Both of Patton and Virgil jumped out of their skin at the ceremoniously booming voice of one of Patton’s friend, Roman.

“It’s time for me to leave.” Virgil stood up. “Thanks for the cookie.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for the night?” Patton asked, a bit disappointed.

“I have people waiting for me...” Virgil mumbled, packing the cookies in his bag, as well as some foil, toothpicks and other knickknacks that Patton would probably not need anymore.

Patton scooped him and brought him to the teapot.

“I guess I’ll see you later, big guy.” Virgil saluted.

“See ya, kiddo.” Patton smiled.

“Patton are you here?” Roman called.

Said glassed man just had the time to put down the cap on the pot.

“In here, Ro, I’m coming!” He called back, preciously cradling the present given by the Borrower.

“Ha! There you are.” Roman let out a princey huff.

Logan was apparantly here too.

“Greeting Patton.” He nodded slightly, before noticing the piece of fabric that Patton was holding. “What is this?”

“It’s a present from a little guest.” The father smiled

Logan and Roman eyed him suspiciously, but Patton was too busy admiring it to notice.

-

Virgil flew throught the forest, swinging his hooks from tree to tree like Spiderman. He had a long way to go and night was already falling.

While he enjoyed his little time with Patton, he cursed himself for not leaving sooner.

Cara, the foster mother, was surely waiting for him, a pan in her hand.

Though, she was used to it. Even before Virgil, because her husband, Amos, was the one going in the Giants’ realm for borrowing. He was the one who taught everything to Virgil.

The young man wondered how Amos could do that during so many years, especially when he was franckly smaller than him.

Soon, the trees were getting smaller and smaller, when Virgil reached the other realm.

Time for the change of perspective.

Virgil knew that he was near home, when the trees were just a few feet bigger than him.

He reeled back his hooks in his bag before continuing by foot, slowly heading toward the big old shacks, patched up here and there. Signs of expansions were very obvious.

A blonde woman around her 50s with glasses and green eyes, wearing a pastel green dress with a yellow apron and sandals was waiting for him outside, her hands on her hips.

“Hi Cara...” Virgil looked down at her.

“Virgil Andersen! What took you so long!” She said sternly.

Though her expression softened pretty quickly when he winced at her tone.

“Amos and I were worried sick, and the kids wanted to wait for you before goint to bed.”

“Because I’m technically their bed, right?” Virgil snorted.

“Don’t be so cocky young man.” She scolded him. “Amos was even about to get you himself.”

“What?” Virgil’s eyes widened. “But it’s dangerous!”

“Hey, don’t forget who taught you everything, kid.”

A man also around 50s with wild blond hair, a thick beard, greyish blue eyes and dressed like a lumberman joined them, dragging some logs.

“Since you’re here, get them on the pile before we can finally go to sleep.”

Virgil easily scooped up the logs and put them with the others.

Amos opened the entry made for Virgil, meaning the whole front walls in two big doors.

The shack was big enough in width for him to live in but slightly cramped up because it wasn’t high enough for him to stand in.

The young man shuffled inside on his knees, careful not to knock down anthing. Of course, the furnitures were pushed against the walls so Virgil could easily move around, but years of living here made him an expert in twisting and avoinding objects. Very useful when you live with messy and mischevious children.

He let his bag in the entry, Amos saying they would take care of it tomorrow before shuffling to the sleeping area.

The floor was a giant mattress and above there was 8 hammocks.

Assuming that the youngest inhabitants were asleep, Virgil carefully stripped down to his shirt and boxers before lying on the mattress. He couldn’t fully lie down, and shuffled as quietly as possible to find a comfortable position.

Suddenly -

“Virgil is back!”

“Get him! Get him!”

“Finally!”

8 smaller figures fell on him.

“Oof! Hey, slow down!” He groaned as the kids crowded him.

“So you went to visit Mister P?” One who looked like a younger version of Amos asked. “Tell us! tell us!”

“Did he like the present?” A red haired girl who seemed to be a native American piped up.

Are you two getting close? a voice rang through everyone’s head as a white haired girl had galaxy like eyes glowing softly.

The kids snickered at the thought while Virgil sputtered.

“What make you think that!” He hid his face.

“So it’s true?” a brown haired boy jumped in.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Virgil huffed and plucked them off him.

He set them in their respective hammocks.

“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Now, good night!”

He curled up and started to drift off.

When he heard a soft “THUMP”, before feeling a small weight against his torso.

He opened an eye, noticing that the smallest of the children as nestled up against him.

Soon, another child joined.

Then another.

Then another.

Till all the children were all cuddling him, peacefully asleep.

Virgil sighed soflty and protectively curled up around them.

Between Borrower and Giant, the 20ft tall emo had to find his place in this two opposite worlds.

=====BBAG=====

BBAG: X/2/?

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