#the real reason why they are together: they are too weird and traumatized to be with anyone else lol

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Pairing Tomura and Dabi for containment reasons because what do you mean Dabi tried to burn his little bro alive when they were kids and Tomura did turn her older sister into dust?

[hotpinkstars]

ESPRESSO - aventurine x reader

- "now he's thinkin' bout me, everynight, oh, is it that sweet? i guess so." or, how does aventurine do when he's in love?

- GUYS GUYS QUEEN SABRINA DROPPED A SINGLE i've been listening to this for days and i needed to write about it sooooooooooo yeah! anyways i'll get to writing probably a few requests tomorrow and wednesday (expect 4-5 posts between those days to make up for my absence) and yeahhhhhh enjoy!!

- aventurine might be a little ooc, mentions of his trauma (so penacony main quest spoilers), reader confesses at the end. wc 1067

Aventurine doesn’t know what to do when he first figures out that the feeling in his chest whenever he saw you was because he liked you. He probably tried to deny it, until Topaz caught him blushing like crazy after you walked away from the conversation you two had just finished. (Even then, she had to tell him, and then he spent a long time thinking that possibility through. She might have been right). 

You plague his visions. Why does he always want something to do with you? Why does he always want to be in your space, but also never wants to see you again? You’ve noticed his weird behavior, considering you were one of the first people he’s ever genuinely called a friend, but didn’t really think too far into it. 

Though, it didn’t stop you from paying more attention to it, that's for a fact. Sometimes you’d pay more attention to his body movements around you, the way he speaks, his etiquette, etc. You and Topaz communicate through it, and it’s a little bit different from his conversations with her. 

You know he can be cocky. Like, very cocky. You know he’s not too afraid to talk back, to challenge someone to a gamble (spoiler he wins), and to be reckless. Though, you also know about his backstory. So you can kind of understand where he’s coming from. 

He’s been pretty open with you about all of the things he’s endured. You know his real name, he’s described how his family has looked, and he’s described his years he endured slavery and what his home planet was like. You know about the Men in Black and the Katicans. And you know how traumatized he is.

Now, you’ve known him for a long, long time before this. You welcomed him into the IPC when Jade first announced his arrival, and you kind of showed him the ropes. He thought you seemed kind, so he stayed in contact with you.

You’ve watched him change, all of his progress through life, the hard times and the good times, and so much more. And that's what gets him the most, he thinks. 

He never realized how much he trusted you until he realized he liked you. You know every single thing about this man, which was the reason why he was rather… nervous when he’d have to communicate with you face to face. He did a good job at keeping up his front he uses to talk to people, but you sensed a slight form of stress underneath all the layers he put up to look tough. 

He lays awake, thinking about you. You’ve made part of his mind your home, and it’s the part he comes back to over and over again. You replay in his mind like a good song that he can’t get enough of- on, and on, and on, and on. 

He does like to bring you little trinkets he finds pretty when he goes out in public to do some shopping. Considering how wealthy he is, he could probably afford to buy out the whole store, so if you even mention something you like to him, he’s on his way to find it for you. He likes to think of it as he’s buying your kindness, but you think something completely different. You enjoy his sudden gift giving, not just because of your gain, but because he thought about you enough to do such a thing. It always makes you slightly blush before laughing while opening the box presented in front of you. He thinks that's the most precious part about your time spent together; all of the opportunities he gets to listen to your gorgeous laughter and see your flawless smile. Topaz, pinch the man, he’s in his own personal dreampool.

Oh, how bad he wants to confess to you, but he’s really afraid of rejection. He fears losing you entirely, fears that you won’t look at him like you always do if he asked if you two could be a thing. He fears you’d think he was odd for wanting you to himself, and that you’d slowly back away until you refuse to even look at his broken, battered form any longer. The thought makes a shiver crawl up his back. He can’t lose you too. 

All this man asks is to find a way to remove you from his head. You’re absolutely tormenting him! Notice how he’s been lacking on his work lately, always caught in a daze when he’s sitting down at his desk? That’s you he’s daydreaming about. He’s no good with his emotions. He knows how to hide sadness, fear, and anger, but he’s never been in this boat before. Love is a whole new concept to him. 

“Aventurine, you’ve been out of it lately. Tell me, is something the matter?” You barge through the blonde's office, not even bothering to knock. You know you don’t have to, he’s never doing anything so significant in that tiny space that it needs to be kept private.

“What are you saying? Nothings up with me,” he drops his pen in the small plaster pen cup you bought for him. “Work has been tiring lately. Nothing to stress over.” 

You plop into the chair in front of his desk, resting your arms on the top and putting your head in between your palms.

“I can tell when you lie. Tell the truth.”

He looks away. What was he supposed to say? That he couldn’t get you out of his brain, and that you’re the only thing he can focus on? That’ll scare you off for sure!

“Aventurine?? You there?” you wave a hand in front of his face, snapping him out of his daze once more. “You know, you don’t have to lie. I already know what you’re thinking.”

His eyes slightly widen, just enough for you to notice. You giggle very lightly before continuing on with your sentence. “You have a little crush, don’t you? Don’t worry, I like you back. Seriously, I do.”

He doesn’t know how to reply to that. He doesn’t know if he wants to faint or make out with you right now. “So that makes us…?”

“I don’t know. We could remain friends, we could be boyfriend girlfriend, whatever you want. I don’t care.”

Well, he believes he already knows the answer he’s choosing.

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

The Change: Beau

Summary: Beau's having a normal Saturday night when he catches a strange scent in the wind...

The Change

Pairing: Alpha!Beau Arlen x omega!reader

Word Count: 8,000ish

Warnings: language, angst, minor violence/injuries, fluff, implied smut

A/N: Y'all wanted more of The Change and I thought what better way to fill in some of the gaps than by taking a peak through Beau's perspective! While not 100% necessary to read The Change to understand this story, it's highly recommended!

_________

Saturday Night

“Dad, are you okay?” I turned my head towards Em, forcing a smile. She raised an eyebrow from her chair nearby the fire pit, a blanket over her lap. “You look worried.”

“It’s fine.” Shit. I bit my tongue but she was giving me that look again. That “we need to communicate openly, remember what the counselor said, dad?” look. I slumped down in my chair, trying to ignore the strong whiff of omega floating through the breeze. 

I could smell Em by my side. All sugar cookies, lavender, fresh linen, with that oh so subtle hint of fresh rain that was baked into the Arlen pack. Scenting had it’s limits though. It only worked maybe twenty feet or so away. 

So why the hell did I smell an Omega with rain in her scent but nothing else? We had some land to ourselves, a good ten acres, on the edge of the neighborhood. There was no feasible way I could be smelling an omega all the way up here.

“Dad!” Emily barked. I shot upright, looking around for any sign of danger. “What’s wrong with you? You smell…weird.”

“Weird?” I lifted my jacket collar and sniffed, something certainly off about it. She shrugged.

“You smell, like you did when you found me at the mine,” she said quietly. “You know, way on red alert. What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure…” I said, standing slowly. I was prepared to make up an excuse but Emily was watching with those big doe brown eyes and it made my heart clench. Communication. Right. “I uh, smell an omega which is weird when it’s only the two of us out here.”

Em smirked, a frown crawling onto my face. “Well there is one reason Alphas can smell an omega that’s far away when they aren’t in the pack. You know…soulmates.”

I blinked at her, cocking my head. “That’s not…your mom was-”

“Daddy.” I froze still, eyes locked on hers. “I mean this in the nicest way but you and mom are not soulmates. Your bond broke way before you got divorced and soulmates never get divorced. You care about each other but it’s not that soulmate love.”

“I thought you wanted me and your mother back together for the longest time,” I said quietly, slowly sitting. Emily slumped down, fisting her blanket. 

“Me too. But you’re happier here than I think I ever saw you with mom. What’d you tell me? Don’t settle for convenient and easy?” I smiled, reaching over to mess up her hair, earning a groan that made my heart happy. 

“Sometimes I forget my sassy child is full of wisdom,” I said.

“Going to traumatic murder camp and getting kidnapped will do that to you,” she said with a cheeky grin. I rolled my eyes, chuckling as I ruffled it one more time. She’d been pretty shook up after everything last year and Carla didn’t love Em’s dark humor but the counselor said it was a healthy way for her to cope and shit, I wasn’t about to stop her.

These days, it was hard to tell anything even happened to her besides the occasional nightmare.

“I’m going to run out real quick and pick up some ice cream. Flavors?” I asked. She rolled her eyes. “What?”

“Go find this little omega of yours. I can handle being alone,” she said. I stared at her, Em rolling her eyes. “Fine. You can have a sheriff come over.”

“Thank you,” I said, kissing her temple. “Put the fire out for me please when you’re done. I’ll be back soon.”

“Have fun finding your soulmate!” she teased, not noticing the way my heart jumped up to my throat at her words.

Twenty minutes later I was walking around town, following the growing scent of rain when something else mixed in. Something sharp, painful.

Danger. Omega in danger. Your Omega is in danger.

I took off in a sprint down the sidewalk, following the scent and turning the corner to a dark parking lot next to a pharmacy.

“Get off!” someone muffled a shout under a large hand, that someone being my goddamn omega, my soulmate, my everything. 

I drew my weapon and fired a shot in the air without thinking, nearly pulling the trigger on the two scumbags pinning her down.

Calm down. She needs you more than you want to hurt them. 

I reluctantly took a breath, listening to the inner voice in my head. “On your bellies. Hands on your head or the next one goes through your spine.”

The two assholes rolled off of her and I quickly glanced at the omega. Her cheek was scuffed up and she looked sacred but damn, she knocked the breath out of me.

Hairs prickled the back of my neck as I inhaled her scent. 

Fuuuuuuck. She smelled like fresh rain, she had that Arlen pack scent. My vision swam for the briefest of moments as my heart thudded happily at finding it’s soulmate. Alright, I could be a pile of mush later. I needed backup and these guys restrained before I not so accidentally started shooting off pieces for touching her.

“Mam’, are you alright?” I asked. She nodded quickly and thankfully it looked like they hadn’t done more than knock her to the ground before I was able to step in. I pulled out my phone, shoving it between my shoulder and ear. “Dispatch, this is Arlen. I need two squad cars at the Rite-Aid pharmacy off of Main. Two suspects in custody. Attempted assault. Vic appears okay besides some minor injuries.”

“We’ll have two cars over in under two, Sheriff.”

“Thanks, Abby,” I said, staying on the line but shoving the phone in my pocket just in case. I secured one man with my cuffs but I needed something else unless I wanted to sit on top of this guy. Meanwhile, the omega was scrambling across the pavement, trying to pick up the items she’d bought into the plastic bag in her hand. She reached for a small pack of zip ties, slightly odd to pick up in the middle of the night but I’d hold off on my judgment.

“Mind if I borrow that?” She let me take the package and remove a tie, securing the second man, albeit he could get out if he really tried. “Thank you mam.”

She was clearly petrified and putting on a brave face. She shoved a bottle of pills in her bag as I asked her once again if she was alright.

“Never better!” She said in an abnormally high pitched voice. She popped to her feet before I could help her up, a slow sigh escaping me. “Uh, thanks.”

Be a calming presence for her.

But then she was trying to leave down the dark parking lot again and I grabbed her arm on instinct. Didn’t she realize the safest place for her was by my side? “Whoa, whoa. These guys can’t do anything to you. Backup will be here in two minutes tops. I know you want to get home but we need a statement and you should get that scuff cleaned up by a paramedic. Hell, I can do it for you back at the station.”

She just kept staring at me and alarm bells were going off in my head. Did she have a concussion? Did she hit the back of her head? Okay, she needed to be seen by a doctor right now. “Alright. I think you hit your head a little harder than we both realized when they knocked you down. Why don’t you take a seat-”

I was not expecting my dream girl to proceed to knee me in the dick so hard my life flashed before my eyes. I heard a sorry squeak out as she took off and I lay on the ground, trying to get my bearings.

“Nice one, sheriff,” snided one of the men in custody. I grunted, kicking him in shoulder as I sat up. “Fucker, you can’t do that!”

“If it were up to me, I’d beat the shit out of you, drop you off a cliff and let the animals eat you alive.” I rolled to my knees and got up as a squad car showed up, an officer running out.

“You alright, boss?” I waved him off. 

“Read these two their rights. I’m going after the victim,” I said, jogging past him and down the street, catching tail lights in the distance. I made it to my truck and was on the road just as she turned left about a mile away. I cursed as I lost sight but then I rolled down my window, taking a deep breath.

Her scent was subtle but I followed it down a dirt road and up a barely there path through the trees to a rundown looking cabin. There was a light on inside and I jogged up to the door when her scent was stronger. “Miss? It’s Sheriff Beau Arlen. We met just a short time ago. I’m doing a wellness check. Please answer the door.”

The omega ripped open the door, the fear from before replaced with etches of worry. 

“Hi. My dad fell earlier today. I think he broke his leg. He’s in the bathroom.” Oh, this poor thing. I nodded, giving her a smile. 

“Okay. We can call an ambulance and-”

“He’s terrified of public places. Of catching the…sickness.” Sickness? What the hell was she talking about? “I know he needs a hospital but is there any way we can limit the number of people he’s around? Like a doctors office or something?”

I breathed deeply, picking up on her father’s bland scent indicating he was Beta. But in her own home this Omega should have smelled like something more than fresh rain. Anything at all. 

Shit, she smelled like Emily had before she fully presented. Like a blank canvas. But how the hell had this woman in her early thirties that was presented as omega not smell like one?

“How the hell…” I shook my head. She simply hadn’t had a proper heat before which in theory was possible if she hadn’t been around an Alpha during her cycle before. Strange but not completely unheard of. A groan in the background had me straightening myself. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do to accommodate his…needs.”

She thanked me and attempted to have me leave but I was already texting dispatch, telling them I was about to have a first time adult heat. God, I remember when Carla had hers. She was bent over in pain one second yelling at me for existing and trying to jump my bones the next telling me how much she needed me. Even though I was struggling through a damn rut in exhaustive pain.

That should have been my first clue that her needs would always outweigh mine.

I sighed when our argument turned heated, the poor little omega in front of me overwhelmed with fear and hormones and likely a good dose of paranoia. She collapsed as I caught her in my arms, gently laying her down to the ground.

“What the hell did you do to my daughter!” shouted her father from a room off to the side. “You infected her you-”

“Hey!” I barked, placing a pillow under her head and brushing the hair from her face. I stood and stormed over to him, wincing at the nasty piece of meat that was his leg. “You are going to tell me exactly what has been going on around here with her, with you, all of it.”

“You got her sick!” I squatted down, narrowing my eyes. He returned it, breathing hard. “You nasty smelling mutt. You bite her and I’ll kill you.”

“So you do know a thing or two about this situation,” I said with a smile. “Now. Tell me everything or this nasty mutt with a gun and a badge will start thinking you’re keeping your daughter locked away and doing some very nasty things.”

“I would never, you perverted-” I snarled, the Beta biting his tongue.

“Do not disrespect me. I am here to help her and her alone. Now she’s going into heat, uneducated and scared. Her body is going to be in pain and she doesn’t understand why all because you have lied to her for a decade. I would never be so cruel to my daughter.” He swallowed, his gaze going to behind me where she lay on the floor. “She will be fine but you need to tell me everything. Now.”

Five Hours Later

“Good evening, Dr. Y/L/N. This is sheriff Beau Arlen of the Helena police department. I apologize for the late call but we have a situation here with your father and sister,” I said from the corner of the hospital room where Y/N laid fast asleep. She’d awoken confused and more than a little…primal a few hours ago. I could only imagine what it felt like to go through your first heat with your soulmate sitting eight feet away. 

She smelled delectable, enough so I had to ask for some scent blockers for myself so I’d stop getting so damn horny around her. 

“Please call me Emmet. Are they okay? I haven’t heard from my sister in a decade so any news-”

“She’s alright Emmet. She’s currently at our local hospital being treated for her first heat. Your father broke his leg badly a few days ago and is in the ICU recovering from surgery.” Emmet swore on other line and breathed deeply.

“My father is paranoid, Sheriff. I called him on the night of the Change years ago and told him to take my kid sister out of the city for a few days until we knew what was going on. I called him five days after and told him it was okay to go back but they never did. I’ve explained to him over and over again that she is perfectly safe. I could never track him down.”

“They appear to be staying at an old cabin on the edge of town here,” I said, Emmet groaning.

“They went to grandpa’s hunting cabin? Jesus christ. I forgot that place existed. Is Y/N alright?” 

“She’s fine, Emmet. She’s a strong woman, her body just needs to catch up a little is all.” Emmet huffed.

“She was supposed to work at a big accounting firm. She got a really good job out of college and then she disappeared with him. The paranoid fucker’s probably kept her locked up there for years.” My heart skipped a beat. “Sorry. He wouldn’t hurt her. Dad’s just…always been overprotective of her. Always. Something happened when she was young and…yeah, he’s always been afraid of her getting hurt again.”

“Emmet, any information you can relay to me might help me understand your father better. I need to know if your sister has been at that cabin all these years of her own free will or not.” 

Emmet was quiet for a beat, a chair creaking as if he were sitting down in the background. “Our father was a lawyer. A prosecutor. He put away a killer…for a very dangerous and powerful family. I was in college at the time. They broke in one night and killed our mother and kidnapped Y/N. She was maybe four? I don’t think she even remembers. It took a few days to get her back and that was only because she bit one of them and ran away and out a window.” I smirked, closing my eyes.

“Always been tough as nails even when she’s afraid, huh.” 

“Yeah. Dad was different with her after that. Always blamed himself. Way too protective. She tried to appease him but she always wanted to live her own life too. The idea of her being claimed by someone-”

“He literally can’t handle it,” I finished. Emmet hummed. “Thank you for the information Emmet. I’ll speak with your sister more but I doubt we’ll press charges.”

“Mr. Arlen, I’ll be down in a few days. I need to speak to my sister, and father. I’m in Seattle these days and I think it’s best if she stays with me for the time being.” I cleared my throat, walking out of the room and to the hallway. “My father will need intensive rehab if it’s as bad as you say and then in-home care, both of which will be much easier to provide if I’m there-”

“Emmet, there’s not an easy way to say this so I’ll just spit it out. I got involved tonight because I was able to scent your sister from my backyard over eight miles away from where we met. Now, you’re a doctor. You tell me the only scenario in which that is possible.” Emmet was quiet, my heart hammering. “Dr. Y/L/N-”

“Are you a good man?” he asked. I sat down on a hall bench, glancing down.

“I’m divorced, I got ten years on her and a teenage daughter. I am by no means perfect. If she wants to go to Seattle, I will not stop her.” I crossed my arms, leaning back against the wall. “But I can promise you, she will be safe with me and free to live her life. I do not intend to hold her back.”

“I seriously doubt my sister’s going to want to leave your side once her heat calms down and she realizes who you are to her,” he said with a hum. “Sheriff.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll take my dad off your hands once he’s ready for in-home care. Let Y/N live in a town without him for a while.” 

“What’s she like?” I asked, screwing professionalism for the moment. “You said she wanted to be an accountant?”

“Pft, god no. She would have worked at a bakery if she had her choice but you know how parents can be,” said Emmet. “You said your name was Beau, right?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Well Beau, considering this is likely the first of many conversations we’ll have throughout our lives, a word of advice. If she wants to work at a goddamn bakery, let her. If you guys ever need help, just tell me. I got more than enough. I just want my baby sister to be alright.” I smiled, relaxing my shoulders.

“I appreciate it Emmet but I do alright on my own. Like I said, I will not be the one holding her back from whatever it is she wants to do.” I could feel her scent pick up, twitchy, wanting me nearby. “I got to run but I appreciate the talk and I’m looking forward to meeting you. I’ll make sure she gets a chance to talk to you tomorrow.”

I hung up and slipped back in the room, pulling my chair closer, her scent calming. My phone dinged and I frowned. What the hell was Emily doing up at 2 in the morning?

How’s the soulmate search going? Pop says hi by the way. We ordered pizza. There’s leftovers in the fridge if you ever come home tonight. Please tell me you’re not stalking some woman in the middle of the night. 

“This child,” I grumbled, typing a long message before my phone pinged again, eyebrows raised.

I can talk to her. I know more about being an Omega than you do to be fair. She’s probably scared. I can dig up those Change puberty books from the basement.

Thank you, Em. We’ll talk in the morning. Now get some sleep..

I frowned, shooting off another text.

Tell Pop if he eats all my mint fudge ice cream again I’m firing him. 

Too late. Night dad!

I sighed, resting my phone on my chest and sliding down in the chair. I kicked off my boots and propped my feet up at the end of Y/N’s bed. 

“So. Not how I imagined my first night with my soulmate,” I said quietly. “How about you, darlin’? Everything you dreamed of?”

She snored lightly in bed, rolling over on her side and staying in a deep slumber. 

“Well don’t chat my ear off, I’m trying to sleep,” I chuckled. She scratched her belly absently, breathing deeply. “Goodnight, omega.”

The Next Day

Despite an albeit awkward start to the day, the smile on Y/N’s face as she and Emily shared the far side of the booth and devoured a brownie sundae was putting a big on on mine. Y/N hadn’t had much of anything besides basic foods for ten years and she was ordering every greasy, fatty, sugary thing on the menu. 

It was kind of adorable the way she guzzled down a pile of poutine on her own and then asked for seconds.

“Is Y/N coming home with us?” asked Emily a little eagerly. I lightly kicked her shin under the table, Em pouting. “That’s child abuse.”

“Child abuse is you hitting me in the nuts with a baseball bat when you were four. Pretty sure you were trying to make sure you were an only child from the start.”

“I wouldn’t mind a sibling-“ I kicked her again, Emily glaring back. Y/N looked between us with a goofy smirk, gravy at the corner of her mouth.

“You guys are really cute. I wish I’d had that with my dad,” she said, her face falling momentarily. She cleared her throat though and wiped off her lips, glancing at me. “Your dad and I have to talk about a lot of things but in the meantime he said he had an idea about where I could stay. You guys have a trailer on your property?”

“Dad used to live in an air streamer when he moved here,” said Emily, smirking at me. “If you need a love nest-“

“Do not tell her about nesting,” I growled, Emily grinning like a Cheshire cat. Y/N blinked at both of us, her head tilting. I cleared my throat when I sensed her…fuck, she was horny as fuck.

Cool it with the Alpha voice bucko.

“Nesting is um, well…” I trailed off, Emily pipping right in.

“It’s when the Alpha goes all crazy and makes you a comfy bed with pillows and blankets and stuff so you can pass a heat surrounded by their scent. And to fuck in a lot but the scent stuff too.” I dropped my head to the table, a low whine escaping. “They teach us in health class.”

“In my health class all they did was show us pictures of STI’s,” said Y/N, her fingers grazing my scalp. I raised my head, heart skipping at the feel of her touch in my hair. Her face was so soft, so unlike the fearful one of last night. “Relax. I’m not going anywhere and Emily’s bluntness is appreciated.”

Emily glanced at Y/N and then myself, making an excuse to use the restroom. Y/N’s hand dropped to the table, a pout forming on my face. She giggled though, the sound calming me. “Can you…smell me, Y/N?”

“Sure,” she said coyly, laughing when I rolled my eyes. “I think so. I don’t quite understand it but I know you’re nervous. You like when Emily teases you but there’s something a little on edge with you. I’m still trying to figure all this out to be honest.”

“It’s okay,” I said, reaching a hand up and gently taking hers in mine. My thumb stroked over the back of her skin and I held it up, closer to her. “You won’t be able to do that with most people. Only your mate can you tell certain things. We don’t exactly understand that part of it yet.”

“I imagine it gets a bit complicated when you mix advanced evolution with metaphysical souls,” she said, tilting her head, turning my hand over and stroking my palm. Her big eyes stared at my skin, nose twitching when she inhaled. “Everything in my head says I’m a moron for trusting a strange man, that you could hurt me or worse. But then I do this…”

She tugged me closer, pulling my hand to her warm cheek, her skin velvety soft. Her bond pulsed hard under the skin of her neck, so subtle no one would notice but I could see it thumping away like it had it’s own heartbeat. Y/N’s eyes searched my face, looking for an answer to a question she didn’t know how to ask.

“There are some people that don’t believe in true mates. They think it’s just hopeless romantics making shit up,” I said, pulling my hand down, grazing her bond with my fingertips. Soft lips parted, Y/N’s eyes dewy at the touch. “Touch my neck.”

She tentatively reached across the table, letting me guide her hand to the left side. “My gland is much smaller but it’s there. Now push down on it.”

Y/N didn’t look convinced but gently nudged two fingers against the skin. I jerked back just as she did, a bolt of peacefulness shooting through my body. She rubbed her own gland, breathing hard. “What the fuck was that?”

“Think of it like there’s a rope connecting our souls. We just tugged on it,” I grinned, rubbing my chest. “So we can’t get lost from each other ever again. True mates form that bond even without the physical connection being met yet which is why you could tell I was nervous.”

Y/N smiled, placing a hand over her bond. “So that’s why you don’t feel so strange. Huh.”

“We can take this as slow as we want to,” I said, taking out my phone, checking the time. Y/N shoveled one last scoop of ice cream in her mouth before sliding out of the booth. “Where-“

“Emily has school in the morning. We should head out,” she said, catching Emily returning from the bathrooms. “We’ll meet you out front?”

“Y/N.” I hopped up quickly. Shit, was I making her nervous? I opened my mouth to speak but she was right there, placing a finger to my lips.

“It’s okay, sheriff,” she murmured, grazing her knuckles over my beard. “Just need a little girl talk.”

“About what?” I asked quietly.

“About…just trust me?” I held up my hands, Y/N backing away before popping outside with Em. 

“Sheriff,” said a deep, monotone voice. I spun around, Donno standing there with a styrofoam box. “Rhubarb pie.”

“I didn’t order-“ Donno shoved it forward, my hands barely catching it. 

“She wants it.” I raised my eyebrow, glancing outside to where Y/N and Emily were leaning against the truck. “She wanted pie and this is all we have.”

“Uh, thanks Donno,” I said. He half growled and I handed him my credit card. He grumpily took it behind the counter, handing it back with a grimace. “How’s things with Tonya?” 

He grunted and I chuckled. 

“Later, Donno. You and your girl stay out of trouble.” I ducked outside with the pie, the girls giving me a smile. “Everything all set?”

“Never better.”

“Hey, Em?” I asked after showing Y/N the airstreamer when we got home. She was downstairs talking to her brother, all sorts of giddy scents coming off her. “Got a sec?”

She put her phone down, frowning when I pushed it away and set it on the charger. “First off, it’s bedtime. Second, is everything okay with you and Y/N? I know everything’s been moving fast and if you want to talk about anything, I’m here.”

“We’re fine,” she said softly, giving me that look I’d seen in therapy too many times. I pouted, Em sighing. “She was…her body did something at the diner. She said you guys touched bonds which made her…you know…down there…”

“Oh.” I sat on the edge of her bed, holding my hands on my lap. “Was she embarrassed? I shouldn’t have-“

“No, she just wanted to make sure it was normal to…get all…slick and fuck, this is as bad as the sex talk.”

“I thought we did a good job with it,” I said, ruffling her hair. “Are you okay with her being here?”

“Duh,” she said, sitting upright and giving me a hug. “She’s your soulmate, dad. Of course, I want her to stay with us.”

I tucked her head under my chin, giving her a deep squeeze. “Dad. Too tight.”

“Alright,” I said, releasing her. “I’ll make sure Y/N understands you already have a mom and-”

“We kind of talked about that when you were paying.” Em shrugged. “Y/N said she didn’t want to overstep anything and said it’s probably best right now if we’re more like friends? Until we figure out what we want.”

“I’m going to have a hard time keeping up with you two staying ahead of me,” I chuckled, hearing a loud crash downstairs. I stood up, Em pouting. “Stay. Go to bed.”

She grumbled as I left and jogged down the steps. Y/N was bent over in the kitchen, her scent stressed but not in pain. 

“Y/N?” I asked. She popped her head up, swallowing thickly as I saw she’d dropped her bottle of heat medication and the pills had gone all of the floor. “Hey, hey. What’s wrong?”

I knelt down and started to help pick them up, Y/N moving farther away to pick up the scattered pills. I reached out and caught her wrist, Y/N’s breath hitching. She looked over her shoulder, body tense. 

“It was an accident,” I said softly. She looked down and I frowned. “Hey. I can smell you’re upset but we still need to talk. What’s going through that head? Did your brother say something?”

“No.” She shoved the pills in the bottle, waiting for me to deposit mine inside. The cap snapped on and she shot up, stepping past me for the front door. I caught up to her on the front porch, not touching her but holding up my hands. She squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing her temple. “Please move. Better yet, take me back to the cabin.”

“...If that’s where you want to be,” I said. She went straight to the truck, barefoot, climbing inside. I got in after her, leaving my keys in my pocket. I could sense her agitation rising, especially when I turned towards her. “What did your brother say, Y/N?”

“He told me he contacted my dad right after the change. How dad would call him every few years. He didn’t know I thought he was dead all this time,” she breathed out. She shook her head, wrapping her arms tight around herself. “You have an idiot for a soulmate.”

“Now I don’t believe that’s true for a second. I-”

“Beau.” Y/N glared at me but her eyes were more watery than anything else. “You have a teenage daughter that knows more about how sex works in this world than I do. I’m…a child. You deserve so much better than me. I’ve never had a real job. I’ve never had my own place. Shit, my longest relationship lasted two months. J-Just throw me back in the woods so I can be alone.”

Omega in pain. Omega in pain. 

She moved as far away as possible, staring out the window as a primal urge in my head was trying to take over.

Protect her. PROTECT HER. Do your job. 

“No.” She shifted in her sheet, making her eyes as hard as she could. “I don’t care if you hate me. I will never abandon you. Ever.”

“I’m a fucking project, not a soumate,” she scoffed. 

“You think I’m perfect?” 

“Um, have you met you because yes, you are,” she grit out. I growled, her scent shooting through the roof as I leaned over and cupped her cheek. Her lips parted, breath mingling with my own. “W-What are you doing?”

“I don’t like when you’re mean to yourself,” I said, my voice lower than usual as I kept a tight control on letting my Alpha out. Y/N shivered under my touch and she looked away embarrassed. “Don’t you dare be embarrassed for making slick. You are in heat next to your true mate. I’d be concerned if you weren’t.”

“I don’t know anything,” she whispered, still not looking at me. “I don’t know how to be an adult or have my soulmate be someone way out of my league or what you want me to be to Emily. You have an ex-wife and you have such an important job and you’re single dad and it doesn’t matter how nice you smell or if you give me lightning bolts. I am and will be a burden to you.”

I sat back in my seat, breathing hard. Y/N sniffled, keeping her head low. “I know I’ve upset you, I can smell it.”

“I’m upset you’re upset. I’m not upset at you,” I said quietly. Every instinct I had said pull her into my lap, bite her neck and press the magic fix it button to flood her full of so much ooey gooey good feeling crap she’ll never remember why she had doubts in the first place.

Talk to her.

I swallowed, closing my eyes. “My partner died two years ago. He was my best friend.”

“Beau.” She unfurled her hands from her body surely because one of them was interlacing with my own. “I’m so sorry.”

“I blamed myself for a long time. For too long. For something out of my control,” I said, opening my eyes, finding her misty ones. “It drove my ex away. It drove Emily away too for a while. I’m so scared of loving someone else and losing them. Y/N, it took everything in me to not kill those men that attacked you last night. I am not fucking perfect and you are way way too hard on yourself. News flash, nobody knows how to be an adult. We’re all just pretending and a smart woman like you, hell you already are thinking of my daughter before I am. You are not behind. You are right where you’re supposed to be.“

“I…” She sighed, squeezing my hand. “I’m sorry that happened to your friend.”

“Did you get any of the rest of that?” 

“Yeah,” she said softly. “So we both need to take it easier on ourselves.”

“I got faith in us.” She wiped off her face as she nodded, her scent turning calm and gentle. “Come on. It’s been a long day and you’re at the tail end of your heat. You need to get some rest.”

“Dad!” I bottled upright in bed, groggy and reaching for my gun when Emily burst in the bedroom. “It’s almost seven. Move your ass. I’m not getting detention for being late again because of you.”

“Good morning to you too,” I mumbled, setting my gun back on the bedside table and flopping back against the pillows.

“Pro tip,” she said, whacking me with a pillow. I groaned, growling as I sat back up. “Maybe go make you and your new omega girlfriend some coffee? Not like she talked about coffee for like a solid thirty minutes with your coffee snob ass last night.”

“Someone’s got a mouth on her this morning,” I said, tossing back the covers, Em rolling her eyes as she left. “What?”

“I’m so going to be late,” she muttered, jogging downstairs. I grumbled, padding into the bathroom and getting ready for the day. Em was in a mood when I found her by the front door waiting for me but it was no big deal to me if she was late a few minutes. For one, that school started too damn early at 7:30. She had freaking study hall first period of the day which was just plain stupid. Plus that principal of hers had more than a few unpaid parking tickets I could leverage. 

I whipped up a cup of coffee and poured the rest in my thermos, tossing some half and half in the mug before whistling on my way outside. “Dad!”

“Five minutes, pumpkin. Why don’t you lock up and I’ll meet you at the truck?” I slipped outside, Em muttering again as I walked across the yard. WIth two knocks on the door of the airstream, it opened, Y/N half-asleep as she answered in last night’s clothes. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

“You’re lucky you’re hot,” she mumbled, perking up when I held out an orange mug. “Is that-”

“Coffee. Two tablespoons half & half. Hold the cream and sugar.” Her eyes welled up as she took the mug. “You really missed coffee, huh?”

“You were paying attention to what I said last night,” she whispered. I cocked my head, leaning my hip against the door jam. “Thank you for the coffee, Beau. I really appreciate it.”

“No worries.” The truck horn honked and I rolled my eyes, Y/N smirking. “I have to run before that one hotwires the car without me but I’ll be back and we can go shopping for whatever you need. Food. Clothes. Whatever you want. I’ll be back in about thirty.”

“Thanks, Alpha.” She stepped forward and pecked a kiss to my cheek, grinning when I blushed. “That’s adorable.”

“I’m from Texas. We don’t blush,” I said despite feeling the radiating heat on my face. She raised an eyebrow, her smile turning a hair darker. “Omega…”

“You know that only makes me want to find out how to make you blush more, right?” I pouted but didn’t mean it, Y/N seeing right through it. “All that for a peck on the cheek. I wonder how red I can get you when I properly kiss you.”

“Down girl,” I purred, adjusting myself and in desperate need of one of my scent blockers again. “Let’s cool our jets. Once we start playing around, it’s going to be hard for either one of us to not want to bond.”

“Sorry,” she said, not looking it one bit. She pressed the mug to her lips, eyes closing as she took her first sip. “Wow. Yeah, I’m so keeping you. This is the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had.”

“Well that’s a relief,” I chuckled, the horn honking incessantly in the background. “I’m sorry about the sassy child.”

“It’s fine. Take her to school. I’ll be here.”

“I’ll be right back, darlin’.”

Four Weeks Later

Y/N was tucked against my side, resting her head on my shoulder and draping her arm over my chest. Soft, slow breaths left her lips, nose buried against my pec. Oh so carefully I thumbed over the fresh bite mark on her neck. Ordinarily I’d think the best thing to do would be not touch it but instinct was telling me to gently soothe the ache away and her pain would be gone by the time the flood of hormones in her body dropped.

“How we feeling, Omega?” Y/N tightened her hold on my body, snuggling harder. 

“Fuzzy,” she mumbled, a smile on her lips. “You?”

“Fuzzy’s a good way to describe it,” I chuckled. “You did so well.”

“Not so bad yourself,” she laughed, eyes closing. “You smell even nicer now if that’s possible.”

“I know the feeling.” I stroked my fingers up and down her bare back, tracing patterns against the soft flesh. “So…would you maybe want to move into the house?”

“You really know how to pillow talk, babe,” she said against my shoulder, smirking against it. “And yes, I’m tired of being away from you guys.”

“Okie dokie.” Y/N snorted, lifting herself up onto her palms to look at me. “What?”

“You’re way too hot to be that adorable.” I shrugged, smirking as I gripped her waist and pulled her tight against my chest, earning a gasp. “Oh you want to play?”

“With you? Forever.” I grasped her chin with my thumb and finger, pulling her into a deep kiss. “Who’s ready for round two?”

Three Months Later

“Emmet!” Y/N squealed and jumped into her brothers arms the second I had the front door open. He laughed deeply, dropping his luggage on the porch to catch her.

“Fuck Y/N, I’m forty six years old. You’re going to throw out my back if you keep doing that every time I visit,” he laughed, spinning her around. “How you doing, kiddo? Keeping your Alpha in line?”

“She wishes,” I said, giving him a brief hug when he set her down. “Where’s Max?”

“She’s coming up on Saturday. Covering a double at the hospital,” said Emmet, giving Emily a hug when she popped out of the kitchen. “Em, mind helping me get the presents?”

She threw on her coat and boots, following Emmet outside as I saw Y/N’s father putter around their rental car. Emmet said something to him, the man giving Emily a brief smile before he carefully walked across the shoveled driveway.

“Darren.”

“Beau.” Y/N frowned at him, his jaw clenching when he saw the faded mark on her neck. “Emmet’s right. You really did claim her.”

Y/N stepped onto the porch, waves of powerful scent washing over us. “This is my house, dad. If you’re going to be a dick, you can go sit in a hotel room by yourself for a week while the rest of us celebrate the holidays. As a pack. Beau’s family is coming in tomorrow and you will not-“

“Down omega,” I purred, Y/N allowing me to pull her back a few steps. “She’s a tad defensive of me and Emily is all. Darlin’, why don’t you help the Em’s.”

A moment later Darren and I were alone. I nodded, walking him around the wrap around porch to the side of the house where a pair of rocking chairs sat. I took a seat in the far one, Darren hesitantly sitting in the opposite.

“Y/N and I like to sit out here in the morning and have our coffee together.” Darren grunted, lips pressed into a thin line. “How’s the leg?”

“It hurts,” he grumbled. 

“But you can walk on your own on it. Emmet says that’s a good sign.” He leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Arlen, enough with the small talk. Say what you mean to say away from my daughter.” I leaned back, rocking a few times, enjoying the chill breeze.

“Your daughter didn’t want you to come. The only reason you are invited is because I asked her to give you another chance.” He scoffed. “You were pretty nasty when we showed up at rehab a few months ago and saw she was claimed.”

“You manipulated her into being with you. She doesn’t know it yet but you’ll turn on her. I know cops like you, especially cop mutts. Don’t blame me for seeing exactly who you are.”

“Well fuck you,” said Emily, appearing around the corner. 

Back off, pup. I got this.

Only she ignored the warning in my scent, the clear line she would have picked up in favor of storming over in front of Darren. “You’re an asshole.”

“Em-” 

“The mouth on you,” said Darren, frowning up at her. “You learn that from your father?”

“If anyone’s the manipulative asshole around here maybe it’s the guy who scared his kid into staying in a cabin for a decade,” she spit out. Darren opened his mouth, Emily holding up a hand. “My dad’s not perfect but thank god I have him. Bad stuff happened to both of us but he doesn’t keep me locked up. So maybe stop being an ass to the guy that makes Y/N happy for the first time in ten years.”

“Emily,” I said as she started to walk away. “Em!”

“Ground me but I am not apologizing,” she said, walking off back around the corner. I sighed, side eyeing Darren.

“You know what, you say and think what you want about me but don’t you dare speak ill of my daughter,” I said. “She has been through more shit than you could ever know so do not blame her for being defensive of her family which includes your daughter.” 

I stood, putting my hands on my hips, looking out over the barren yard, a light layer of snow dusting it.

“It’s not personal,” said Darren after a beat. “I’d hate any man that tried to take her away. I’ve hated all of her ex’s.”

“I know something about having a daughter that was kidnapped.” I turned over my shoulder, Darren’s face paling. “You didn’t keep her safe. You squashed her. From the moment I met your daughter, I’ve had to help her learn that she can have goals and dreams of her own. She lived her whole life trying to appease you. She will never do that with me. Never. So I understand the fear and pain of dealing with your little girl being taken and feeling like a failure as a father. But we have to let them go because our little girls are a lot stronger than us fathers give them credit for. Let them show us. The only person my kid mouths off with is me, her mother, and Y/N. Her parents. For her to do that just now means you really ticked her off. So stop protecting Y/N for one second and get to know that strong kid of yours.”

He was quiet, no words spoken between us as he rose.

“Your daughter reminds me of Y/N when she was younger.”

“Em adores Y/N…aside when Y/N goes mom mode and makes Em do her chores,” I chuckled. Darren cleared his throat. “The girls are still figuring out their roles but Y/N’s gotten more comfortable stepping into that parental role. They’re friends more than anything. Family.”

“Right,” he said quietly. “How angry is Y/N with me?”

“Oh, pretty mad,” I laughed. “She’ll forgive you eventually. Probably. I’d stop calling her mate a manipulative mutt, though. Might help out there just a tad.”

He lowered his head with a nod. “Let’s go in before you freeze.”

“Alpha,” Y/N murmured from beside me in bed late that night. I had my face shoved into the crook of her neck, arms bundled under her maroon sweatshirt, formerly our sweatshirt, formerly formerly my sweatshirt. “Noooo, get your greedy hands away from my fleece.”

“No can do, darlin’,” I murmured, arms shoved under the soft material, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not going to cop a feel.”

“Sure you won’t,” she teased. “We can play in a minute. Real talk right now.”

“What’s up?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist, lifting my head. Her fingers raked through my hair, massaging my scalp. I hummed, resting my chin on her shoulder. 

“I don’t know what you said to my dad earlier but thank you. He was different.”

“Well, Emily should really get the credit. She stole my thunder,” I said, Y/N’s scent swirling around the room. “Our girl really loves you, you know.”

She flushed, smiling when I kissed her jaw. “Thank you both then.”

“You’re welcome. Now,” I said, grabbing the ends of the sweatshirt, pushing them up her body. “I think you stole this.”

“Going to arrest me for it?” she murmured, pulling me into a chaste kiss before rolling to the far edge of the bed and out of my grasp. She sat up with a fake pout, batting her eyes as I crawled over. “That’s a good look for you, Alpha. On all fours for me.”

“For fucks sake, Omega,” I growled, grabbing her ankle and yanking her body underneath mine as she giggled. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something, Alpha Boy.” I laughed into her neck, kissing over her healed mark. 

“For you, Omega, anything at all.”

___________

[star--nymph]

I think people forget with Cullen, and characters like Cullen, that indoctrination is a thing. We're lucky to live in an age where we have a surplus of access to resources that allow us to think critically on the structures around us, to the point where we overlook that most people won't and haven't. Cullen was raised in a backwater village where the main educators and leaders were Templars. He was likely taught scripture by Chantry Sisters, he possibly learned to read and write through them. From the day he was born, he was being taught to love and obey the Chantry with out question--and the Chantry teaches that Templars are a force of good.

So I ask you, how the hell was Cullen, at eight or thirteen years old, going to learn about the crimes of Templars? How was he going to unlearn propaganda that was fed him to him every day by people he respected and possibly loved? How was he supposed to be aware that this idolized image of Templars being the saviors of the people and even mages was a lie?

And then he gets shipped off, happily, to be trained a Templar. Again, he's put into this position where he's fed nothing but propaganda. He doesn't get a real taste of the Order being corrupted until he's out in Kinloch and he's not sure what the hell to do because what he's seeing isn't jiving with what he's been taught for nearly two decades. So yeah, he tries to justify it, he tries to have his cake and eat it too by reasoning that mages should be treated like people but also the Order wouldn't lie to him, so they must be right to act like this. The Maker always had a plan, right?

If Cullen had been lucky, maybe he could have realized earlier on that the Order was abusing mages, that he had been tricked, he could have gotten out and unlearned the bigotry that was planted inside him.

But then BAM! the Broken Circle happened and I don't see how no one gets how perfect this is for the Order? They now have a templar that is so traumatized by mages, he will literally do and say anything to justify their abuses because now? Now he's afraid.

And remember, after Origins, Cullen becomes so erratic, he has to be sent off to a Chantry to 'even him out'--where he was more than likely manipulated even further by the Chantry to be this blood thirsty agent for them. When he's shipped to Kirkwall, they could have not delivered to Meredith a better second in command.

So yeah, is it really surprising that he says shit like 'mages aren't people like you and me' when we meet him in Kirkwall? Man is sleep depraved by the looks of him, swallowing all Meredith's frenzied rhetoric on blood mages, he's seeing for himself the damage these mages are doing, he's isolated from his family, he has no actual friends, and he's living with C-PTSD among other issues. Even under the best of conditions, none of what he says or does in DA2 is surprising when you put it all together.

And yet, the man still had enough of that idealistic child left in him to realize see that Meredith was going off the deep end and that he should be protecting the mages. That's text. That's in World of Thedas. The reason why Cullen is able to turn on Meredith in the end is because he was able to see, even clouded by his fear and hatred, that what she was doing was wrong.

And all this isn't to excuse Cullen's wrongs. It's weird how every time someone brings up Cullen's history, it's assumed that it's just a justification for his actions. It's not, it's an an explanation. Cullen was a victim of the Order that became an abuser, a tool, and he is responsible for his actions.

But the thing is, by DAI, Cullen is well aware of his sins and he actively works to better himself by leaving the Order and getting off lyrium (which for most people is a death sentence). People can argue all day about whether or not Cullen's arc in DAI redeems him or was satisfying, or if he did enough to 'prove' that he was sorry or--good god--does he deserve redemption in the first place (which is such a Catholic way of looking at shit by the way; no one 'deserves' redemption; you do it to be better or you fucking don't) but the fact is that Cullen says that he wants to be better, that he sees the Order as--at the very least--flawed.

That, yes, he's still unlearning all the bigotry he held as a younger man and he's ashamed that he was like that to begin with.

You can hate him all you like, and whatever, but Cullen's story--intentionally or not--is about a man born into an oppressive society, raised to uphold its beliefs, used and abused by it, and then awakening to those lies and trying to free himself from those beliefs so he could be a better person.

And sometimes I genuinely wonder if the reason so many people hate Cullen is because they themselves might have dealt with something similar in our own oppressive society where they also had to unlearn harmful bigotry and maybe, just maybe, he hits too close to home.

[bowowark]

I absolutely love the theory that Mike is Henry’s kid. Usually I’d be upset that they made the movie a whole other universe, different from the games, different from the books, but this universe is so captivating. If Henry is Mike’s dad, Henry and William’s families must’ve been close, but that brings up so many questions. If they were family friends, why does Mike not recognize Will at the beginning of the movie? And even more, after he knows Will’s real name and who he is, why does he still not remember? Well I have three theories.

One, the basic “trauma made me forget”. But would it be possible for Mike to COMPLETELY forget a whole person? Not just a whole person, a WHOLE family? Likely, that’s not it.

Two, Will may have changed so much from when they last met that Mike can’t recognize him. It makes sense, we can presume that Mike was the same age the last time he saw Garret AND the last time he saw Will, just a couple days or months apart, and Mike was 12. Now he’s maybe 25 or 27? That’s a pretty big gap of time for someone’s face to change, AND it would make sense that he doesn’t remember Vanessa either. If we combine it with the first theory, maybe there’s something there.

But the last theory I like the most, he knew. At least after Vanessa told him his real name. The reason I think this is because of how he never acts like he never new Will, which would make sense, why would he know a William Afton? He only met a Steve Raglan. As well with what he says after he finds out, “you knew?” Maybe that’s when he’s realizing. Realizing that Vanessa new who Mike was, along with Mike’s family, along with the whole children murder thing. That’s why Will looks shaken when he reads Mike’s last name. But what if his name was really Micheal Emily. I was always weirded out about how Mike never introduces himself with his last name, neither does Abby, neither does aunt Jane. Maybe Mike told Will that his name was Micheal Schmidt, but on the papers, it was really “Micheal Emily”.

I’m thinking maybe after Mike and Abby’s mom died, when their dad left, they became so upset with him that they chose to take their mothers name instead? Another reason I feel this way is because before Will is about to kill Mike, he says, almost sarcastically, “Farewell Micheal Schmidt.” Also, before that he mentions that the animatronics told Will about Abby, meaning he didn’t know about her, that makes sense if the last time the Emily’s saw Will, was before Abby was born. But one last theory, Vanessa has the same airplane that Garret has, maybe he used the same airplane to get Garret to get in the car, or maybe, it was a present, from the Afton’s to the Emily’s

If we add all three theories together, we get a story. Mike was Henry Emily’s kid, Henry did something to make Will angry, Will kills Garret (maybe with Vanessa’s help) along with the others. Mike’s family falls apart, at one point, Abby was born, their mom died and dad left. Feeling betrayed, Mike and Abby took their mom’s last name, but didn’t change it legally. Years later, Mike and ‘Steve’ meet, Mike being too young and too traumatized to remember Will at that point, Will finds out he’s an Emily and sends him to the pizzeria to be killed. Yada yada stuff happens, Mike finds out that the killer of his brother was the killer of other children and a close family friend, everything comes back to him. (in the scene you can almost see tears in his eyes but it might be the lighting lol) And so on and so forth

Anyway this might be a shit theory but I’m kinda proud, we’ll just have to wait for the next movie that’ll come out in 2050

[rosie-kairi]

I'm thinking so many thoughts about a post KH III reformed Lauriam and Elrena specifically our fave prickily girl.

So we all know even after getting her heart back Elrena isn't about to lose her bite and can still be pretty sarcastic and snippy with most of the cast. Lauriam is the only person she interacts with in a real sense since they've been together through thick and thin.

Except for Ven he's the only one she's remotely nice to.

Now at first it was purely out of respect for Lauriam, she remembers the end of the world and how he carried a smaller unconscious Ven close to his chest and held him protectively in his arms. Elrena never got to properly meet Ven she never had any animosity towards him.

But Ven is just so earnest and sweet that he genuinely worms his way into her heart and now she has a soft spot for the kid and likes him of his own merit. It probably helps that Ven never met her as Larexene and doesn't have any bad memories of her, and he isn't weighed down by their shared trauma of losing Daybreak Town even when Ven gets his memories back. He treats her like a person and it's so refreshing even though she knows why most of the cast do still see her as an enemy.

So while Elrena snarks at the sea salt trio, the destiny trio, and especially Terra and Aqua for being insufferable she's all smiles and hugs to Ven and he and Lauriam are just so sweet together it reminds Elrena of simple days she wishes she could go back too.

THIS IS SO SWEET I'm in love.... they've always been a fun little possible trio to me (the "we lived, bitch" trio) and I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it lol.

I think the reason she was so nice to Lauriam when they first met was like, mostly just respect for Strelitzia, y'know? Imagine, you know someone -you wouldn't call yourselves friends exactly, more like acquaintances- who you see from time to time, enough that they significantly stand out in your memory, and then one day that person's sibling approaches you and tells you that they're missing. Of course you're gonna be respectful- that's a horrible thing to happen to someone. But, if it was me, I'd also be a bit flattered?? like "this person talked about me enough that their sibling thought I was a significant enough part of their life to Know Things he possibly wouldn't." And then the respect for Strelitzia grows into a bonus "okay this guy's kinda cool, actually." and before you know it you're stuck in a cult together. C'est la vie

I feel like there would also be a respect towards Ventus. Lauriam cares about this kid more than Elrena can really understand (only child vs person with siblings dichtomy) so she kinda has to respect the kid. She doesn't know anything about him other than Lauriam cares about him, so he's alright in her book. Post-3 Elrena finds herself in a weird in-between with Ventus, where she recognizes him as someone from Daybreak Town but he has never seen her in his life, but that's also good because he doesn't have the Larxene association. It's a weird grey area that she doesn't really know how to approach- but it is something that she wouldn't be against approaching. "Same Traumatic Past/Cult Partner" buddy can only take you so far in the relationship department.

[tubbytarchia]

My very not so condensed overview as to why Mizakai is such a nuanced #deep Yugioh pairing (AKA Mizakai propaganda)

Mizakai is really fucking good and I need everyone to understand this

If anyone out there is on the fence about Mizakai please allow me to convince you to the best of my ability

Right off the bat, Mizael is supposed to be fighting for the Barian World yet he focuses on his rivalry with Kaito instead from their first encounter, and why was Kaito there anyway? An average viewer might say it was because they're both Galaxy-Eyes users but WRONG it was Mizael's homosexual pull. Shark was literally rearing up to duel Mizael when Yuma no longer could but then Kaito flew in like "no, me". And let me remind you how Zexal I ended: Kaito proclaimed that he had no reason to duel once Haruto was safe - he only ever dueled for him - to fight, while Yuma taught him how to duel for fun. And Kaito's first proper appearance in Zexal II where he duels is the episode he turns up to face some gay sassy blond when he didn't need to. So a bunch of homosexual banter, bla bla, and at the very end before their duel can conclude, as the last thing, Mizael gives Kaito his name

What happens the next time they meet? Kaito calls out his name <3

Anyway Sargasso time!!! All the Barians put into effect a card that causes damage to every player, but they also each have a card to protect themselves from said damage. Mizael however doesn't use it, because he wants an even fighting ground with Kaito. Later, when they observe Yuma having an epic 13yo breakdown for awhile, at some point Kaito decides 'that's enough of that' and instead asks Mizael "where are you looking?" (ep 98) like ok sir. Don't forget that Kaito and Yuma are literally friends too but this ain't about Yuma!! He can deal with this extremely traumatizing event on his own, Kaito's given him enough encouragement already

So Mizael is just soooo down bad and so desperate to just finish ONE singular duel with Kaito and is doing everything he can to make that happen. So naturally after killing 2 children, an autism creature and Kaito's ex, he goes to the Moon to duel Kaito because this matter simply can't wait. But he had the right idea because this is just the right place to duel anyway, and tension is significantly stronger in space than it is on Earth!

Que Kaito telling Mizael of his past as Mizael struggles to come to terms with it. As he is conflicted though, Kaito sees right through him and understands him better than he himself could. All this time Mizael was seeking to duel Kaito to prove that he's the real dragon tamer, when in this duel, as Kaito is dying, he without hesitation declares Mizael the true dragon tamer without Mizael having to beat him, or before the duel even concludes (which Mizael simply cannot fathom). And as practically a dying wish, Kaito asks "Mizael, if we were to meet again, wouldn't you tell me, what happened to you?" before he makes the finishing blow and yet, kind of reverses the odds as he ends up dying instead of Mizael despite every other duel ending in the death of the person that lost. Kaito in his dying moments breathed so much wind into Mizael's wings for him to "keep fighting for what you believe in".

But what does Mizael believe in? Well, Kaito was teaching him to believe in people just as he had been taught to. Mizael might have been the true dragon tamer, but in his pursuit trusted no one but dragons. He was raised by a dragon before his people failed him, and seeing as they had, Tachyon then protected Mizael from any further evil of mankind. As Tachyon can seal up into a weird bento box, seemingly shielding itself in the process, it shielded Mizael. How could Mizael ever accept that Tachyon was his curse? But Tachyon had been cursed by Don, just as Mizael had. No matter what they fought for then as a result, they stuck together of their own beliefs. But what made Tachyon Mizael's curse was that it stopped Mizael from moving on from the past. Even as time passed (and even if Barians don't age), Mizael's mindset never changed until Kaito came in to reap him of this shield that Mizael had put up. With Tachyon's effect of rewinding time, Mizael hoped to change the past, but Kaito showed him a future, thus removing his curse

Kaito taught Mizael that he was (or even is) human, a fact that Mizael does not want to accept one bit, literally shown visually as Mizael is forced into his human form, in rage then transforms back into his Barian form, only to be reduced back to his human form by the end anyway. And note that he STAYS in this form, he doesn't change back again!! Which is especially driven home when you see Nasch literally right there, Mizael's last surviving comrade, and yet he stays in his human form, as if to show that he is paving his own path now. And he is, because he's free of his curse. He's technically still a Barian but in a metaphorical sense, his curse has been lifted thanks to Kaito. Mizael was still fighting for the Barian World even if his focus shifted to some blondie, but in his final duel, he isn't dueling for the Barians, he's only dueling for himself. He gives it his very best shot to defeat Don on his own terms and, you know, despite the bullshit that Don pulls, Mizael doesn't look all that upset to die. I think that even as he was dying, he had found some fulfilment and was content to leave the rest to Nasch and Yuma

And speaking of Yuma - in his dying breaths, Kaito bestows Numeron Dragon onto Mizael (And don't forget that character A giving character B their card is basically a marriage proposal in Yugioh. Even within Zexal, think Yuma/Trey and Yuma/Shark among other instances). What does Mizael then do? He bestows the card on Yuma - The person who had taught Kaito to believe in people, just as Kaito had now taught Mizael. Sometimes Zexal is so beautiful in how it comes full circle, it makes me want to cry, and Mizakai comes in SUCH a circle it is INSANE.

When Kaito had nothing to defend anymore, he lost his reason to duel - but he refused to let Mizael lose his reason, even as Mizael had lost everyone except for Nasch, and so Mizael found a reason to duel (by virtue of finding what he really believed in)

I couldn't find a better place to put this but also just how visually beautifully tragic it is that Mizael, who can't for the love of him stop yapping, in his endless stubbornness, cannot bring himself to say anything as Kaito dies right before him with a smile on his face. All Mizael can do then is cry

So of course Mizakai would be a goldmine in a post-zexal scenario too. I'm gonna yap about more headcanons rather than canon stuff but bear with me

Two characters mending together is always such good hurt/comfort shit but ohhh my god Mizakai... Compare Mizael's and Kaito's traumas and imagine how they would handle them in one another's presence. Mizael would probably project an immense amount of his frustration onto Kaito subconsciously or otherwise, but with how understanding Kaito was, his patience to deal with it must be limitless. Mizael seeks the Kaito that would challenge him - just as Kaito would challenge him to duels in Zexal II, he wants Kaito to challenge what he says, and it would take time for him to adjust to the fact that Kaito isn't some miracle noble being - he's human just like Mizael, as selfless and self-sacrificing as he is, and what he did or does for Mizael is from this tangible human care - something Mizael needs time to come to grips with, as he's still new to this whole "being human (again)" thing. Another wonderful place to bring up the Galaxy-Eyes', as Mizael is just as "noble" as Kaito. He always fought for what he believed in but he got lost along the way with the cursed Tachyon, whereas Kaito chose Photon (who was always pure and never cursed) to fight alongside him (even if he acted somewhat selfishly in taking people's souls etc, he was doing it for someone he loved) (harkening back to the idea of Kaito freeing Mizael from his curse (and the idea that Mizael's curse was his own personal dilemma, not the fact that he was a Barian, even if that was the case literally speaking)). In the end they both had their Galaxy-Eyes' to ensure that they were never truly fighting alone, even with Don's curse in Mizael's case. Just as they valued an even fighting ground in duels, Kaito wants to even it now too to stop Mizael from putting him up on a pedestal to such a degree that it frustrates him, because they're really not so different

Anyway Kaito is a sickly little victorian man, seeing how bad of a state he was in all throughout Zexal and especially by the Moon duel. You could argue that the Numeron Code is perfect and would bring everyone back in a perfect state, but I say there is no perfection, nothing is ever "perfect", as everything is always in motion and changing (but that's getting too semantic and philosophical (but then, what is Yugioh if not that?)). If the Numeron Code really did bring everything back "perfectly", wouldn't it erase the character's traumas and stuff too, instead of just bringing them back to good physical health? So my point is, Kaito is still a sickly little victorian man, but fighting is all he knows. This plays into why he went out to duel Mizael as well - it's... all he knows!! He needs to fight and if there's nothing to fight then he works. Just as he was denied rest or nourishment in his training and number hunting, he is hardwired to deny those things to himself. But now imagine how it makes Mizael feel, when he sees Kaito tired or even fainted. He absolutely cannot allow Kaito to die again (even if Kaito is sure that this photon illness aint gonna get the best of him), because he already struggles to forgive himself for what he did.

Kaito doesn't know all of his past, yet it damn near feels like he knows everything about Mizael, and did everything for him, even arguably dying in Mizael's stead. What else would Mizael want to do but to return the favor? To want to learn about Kaito and to be able to understand his troubles, and not only help care for him physically but also help him deal with past trauma once he begins to get over his own. Mizael, who is so deeply emotional and vocal practically forces his troubles upon Kaito, but as he starts to figure himself out, he convinces Kaito to talk to him, and shows him that it's okay for him to be emotional. Because Kaito very much suppresses his emotions and would rather bury his troubles at the back of his mind rather than deal with them healthily. He's much more prone to making quick easy decisions and adjustments for the sake of others, like for example forgiving his father because it's easier than not, even though he has a lot of complicated feelings that he just refuses to dwell on

Basically they switch roles lol and there's just something really beautiful and poetic about that. Even if that way, Mizael ends up adopting this selfless patience that so greatly frustrated him about Kaito in the beginning

Kaito had never once stopped fighting for the people he loved, until Mizael came around and Kaito made the choice of his own volition to face him. But when did anyone really dedicate themselves to Kaito that same way? Well, Mizael sure would!! And Kaito likes how tangible Mizael makes him feel through affirmation and touch - grounded in the reality that he himself seems to be at a disconnect with, the same reality that he brought Mizael to. He reaped Mizael of his shield and basically forced him into this new ironically alien world, but he was here for Mizael to land safely, and Mizael wants to be there to help him stay grounded. If Kaito needed a friendly face in Heartland Tower to make it bearable to even still be there, or if he needed someone to give him a reality check mid breakdown, or if he needed someone to bring him coffee and carry him to bed, then Mizael would be that someone

In conclusion:

[lumidark166]

New Kid (Rewrite) Headcanons cause why not lol

This is my new kid in TSOT

IN TFBW, this is my new kid look and his character sheet Credit to @lolliepops-rox for this edit, thank you so much!!

This gonna be full-on rambling I'm sorry Eka's full name is Eka Widjaya Pratama but he always uses a short version cause the full one makes him look plain Indonesian lol

Eka in tsot, he somewhat freaks out because the town is crazy and weird, but he feels comfortable that now he finally made friends after so long his family moved town to town so much that he hasn't made friends He has selective mutism, which causes anxiety but after that, he feels more comfortable saying a few words to speak, but when he suddenly can't speak, he usually texts or uses cards to speak cause the kids and the adults probably can't understand what he said in sign language and Cartman will make fun of him.

speaking of Cartman, Eka never anyone his real name cause of Cartman, he is not afraid of Cartman, he just doesn't want his anxiety to make it more troublesome if Cartman spread that his name is shit like gossip and his progress to speak more will reduce to square one again His vocabulary is just 'dude' cause how much he spends time with Kyle and Stan Eka just doesn't care, everyone, calls him douchebag, buttlord, etc, he just thinks it's funny cause he likes to make fun of himself and make smelly farts all of the time lmao-

He is like when tfbw gives him time farts "Fart now can time bend shit, fuck yeah THIS IS MY MC ERA" like he doesn't think tsot also in his mc era

Creek couple for some reason 'adopted' new kid beside Stripe, Eka is confused about wtf is going on until Tweek spoiled him so much lmao Eka is like "My real parents are shit so Tweek and Craig is my parents now" that didn't age well in tfbw for a while tho-

Being a hero with an assassin class, he uses SHARP ace of spades cards instead of knives cause he was inspired by a cartoon show of spies/ agents that used cards lol

when the start of tfbw, Eka is kinda bored and curious wtf is this game they are playing that is so important that they ditch Eka and the other kids. then when Cartman asked what are your class, Eka immediately takes his notebook, and make one page of the class he wants and skill he wants also describing the weakness so cartman can't do his class type picker thing cause Eka knew Cartman gonna make fun of him. why one page? cause Eka knew if he was too invested he gonna make it 10 pages instead lmao

Eka doesn't care about the timeline of the movies when the two franchises hate their methods so much that they split up but He ONLY cares about the angst, after they got together as one franchise, Dr.Timothy asks origin story of Ace of Spades aka New Kid Hero Name, then he wrote in google doc of 40k draft origin story and send it to the freedom pals gc chat and he texted

Butthole: So if there want changes somethings let me know *Thump_up* I don't think they see Eka the same way after he wrote that shit in 15 minutes, 40k in 15 minutes lmao also, they cried hard cause its so much angst, they never gonna survive because Eka is an angst enthusiast ofc he gonna make it unnecessarily sad for no reason (edited) The freedom pals meet and discussing it about the franchise timeline, till making it a yelling battle

"What if there is angst on the table guys, angst bring entertainment you know" Eka only speak only in that meeting and never said anything again in other meetings

Freedom Pals stare at him confused while the former coon and friends are terrified Even Super Craig was like "Oh my god, I forgot about Butthole origin story- Fuck, guys… never make New Kid the main writer if there gonna be casting" Mosquito even start crying, yeah Eka traumatized them for dear life lmao

The new kid wrote his superhero persona as a self-destructive, self-sacrifice hero, he even tried to suggest that he want to lose his arm when the situation of one of Eka's parents need to sacrifice for Mephesto thing but luckily, Craig talks it out to him into not doing that, Eka is silly but idiot bitch

Eka play Stick of Truth and superhero game as the distraction of his home but because Cartman and others play superhero now, he instantly joins so he can peacefully forget about his parents being shit Reactions to them about NK skill, spin slash

"What is that... cards?, pfft that not gonna hurt me-" Then New Kid threw a few cards at Tupperware and the cards almost got into Tupperware's head, it goes through the helmet

"Okay, who dare it's okay the New Kid play with sharp things.." A very concerned and angry Wonder Tweek being a mom "Shut up, New Kid doesn't need to be babied" (Super Craig) 'Why are you my emotional dad figure again…' Eka is disappointed lmao

Eka is also a style shipper but he is kinda tired of them talking about the bigger franchise but then again he doesn't care about franchises so- He was like " YOU GUYS ARE SO STUPID, YOU GUYS CAN BE STILL FRIENDS FFS, CAN YOU GUYS LEAVE COON" But because of his mutism, he can't say shit

Eka is sick of Coon and his bs and also wants to unalive him for a couple of reasons but he realized that not worth the hassle cause he knows it's gonna bite him in the ass if Cartman revenge on the new kid

in the finale of mitch conner's fight, Eka made his arm almost broken cause he is sick of Coon bs he just said "You know what, you already traumatized me killing my own father, so I am gonna give you a taste of REAL pain" which is he is not holding back and almost break Cartman left hand

Eka's best friends are Kenny and Butters, blonde boys and also Butters's protection squad Remember a photo in butters parents' room? Eka blackmailed Stephen to use that photo, to put it on Coonstagram so Butters don't ground for a long time About Kenny and Eka hc, they are inseparable until a superhero game made them distant In fact in civil war fight, Mysterion mostly target Eka for no reason "You join the wrong side, New Kid" "THEN WHY YOU DIDNT TELL ME, YOU UNDERWEAR HERO ASSHOLE bangsat anjing nih anak" translation: son of a bitch

he whispered cussing in Indonesian in the last ones cause he was that angry- "Dude, I think he pissed.." Toolshed noticed when Eka is angry is not a good thing "I guess our intel that New Kid willingly join Coon and Friends is fake" D.Timothy usual telepathy thing

also the twist here, Eka becomes a quadruple agent, instead of spying for coon and friends he was like "Nope, I wanna know wtf is cartman going with this shit and I am not gonna get blamed for his shit"

after the couple's counseling, Eka get beaten and the couple just looks at Eka, "You know what, let's do this together.. for Butthole" After that they eat at McDonald's cause Tweek spoils Eka like a child lmao

after civil war 2, freedom pals found a notebook belonging to Eka but it's nothing special.

cause it's a drawing vent book that he draws mostly circles and notes from school and a weird list of items which is 100 glue, 20 tortillas and etc it's for crafting but he didn't write the context what is it for so they are so confused about what it meant "Look is New Kid okay? the book on the back of the cover it's said it's a vent book, but why the hell are there so many circles and this weird list??.." Toolshed concerned "As much I hate New Kid mentally ill and need therapy jokes (affectionate).. he needs therapy" (Tupperware)

One day, Eka found his confidence and tell his real name cause new kid doesn't feel like gonna be a long thing and probs confused with other new kid/exchange students so crack hc : Eka write fanfic of their superhero persona, especially Bunny but its enemies to lovers mysterion and Chaos cause in canon, chaos has WALL of mysterion pics Eka see that in tsot was like "… fruity"

Eka also does cover songs but in vtuber style where the cover/mv has lore animation so it gives a hint to his origin story he realizes singing makes him forget his anxiety, so he gives a message with his singing instead

Oh yeah also, Eka is kinda Kyle 2.0 but more emotional like Stan, he is just Kyle 2.0 cause he second person to fight Cartman constantly lol, At the start of the fight usually Eka gives him a really BAD fart lol

"Wha hey, Douchebag what that for?!" Cartman is angry at the Eka, apparently, he talks shit about his country's people being overproud Eka just stare at him blankly but he put a card that quote "Come at me, bitchboy" Ofc Eka won that easily, he kick him in the stomach hard that he vomit. Probably shouldn't watch too much Kamen Rider cause Rider Kicks lmao-

"Mampus lu" then he just walked away

"I don't know what that means but I am prouuud of our kid" (Craig) "It's mean 'deserved' but that doesn't mean New kid is your child, Craig" (Wendy)

Eka uses this to communicate sometimes when his phone is dead or doesn't have a notebook on him

Eka usual wear in TFBW

And that it lol, this is long post lmao

[uchihakeimei]

Helloooo, hope it's ok if I reply here! Also I forgot to apologize in advance for my terrible English, hope it's understandable!

What a relief to find someone who actually understands Kaiser! He's one of my absolute favs together with Rin and Isagi, but I never really spoke much about him since I noticed the fandom has a bad habit of misinterpreting him. AND Kaisagi in general. No, Isagi is not his soft-uwu toyboy, he's a badass, a menace and if anything, it's him that would put Kaiser in his place. And yes, they totally hate each other. Like, super hate. And that borderlines on obsession from Kaiser's part. (Ngl, that's my favorite part in all Isagi's ships, how he's unbothered, moisturized, living his best life, and the counterpart is decaying in their obsession in beating him. God, he's such an icon.) Their mutual disdain is what makes the ship so balanced, and also the reason why I dislike Kainess, I don't really appreciate the power imbalance and how submissive Ness acts around him. He deserves better than that. Oh, how I would love to see him leave Kaiser in the dirt to fight alone: that would be such a great character development for both of them. Ofc I'm not judging anyone who ships Kainess, it's a perfectly valid ship! I just love both Kiis and Rnis cause they check all of the boxes of the chemicals in my brain. And when the Kaiser flashbacks drops? I'm gonna go absolutely crazy. I need to be the worm in his brain and understand him in a much deeper way than Kaneshiro ever could.

(Also, I love your headcanon about their alternative jobs. I tried to come up with something for Rin too, and I concluded that he definitely could only ever work in front of a computer, where he would never have to interact with people - and traumatize them with his weird bullshit, lmao). (Oh, and Kaiser would be an even worse boyfriend than Rin, let's be real. One small argument and he's dumping your ass to ""find himself"" like any mediocre fuckboy).

Yes, despite my BLLK obsession I'm keeping up with other mangas! I've been reading One Piece since I was a child, but lately I got invested in Chainsaw man, Choujin X, Kagurabachi, Bungou stray dogs and My hero academia, too. What about you??

Of course, it's totally okay!!

And hello fellow Kaiser fan, great to meetcha!!

And yes. A lot of people mischaracterise Kaiser- either as an Isagi simp (most common in fanfictions) or a complete asshole with no depth.

KaiSagi characterisation tends to be even worse (which, this is NOT me criticising authors at all, people are entitled to write what they enjoy!), but either Kaiser or Isagi gets reduced to a desperate simp trying to get into each other's pants (mostly I have seen this with Kaiser, actually) and that's not very likely.

The charm of KaiSagi is their mutual hate, and the ways they overcome that!

And yes. You hit the nail right on the head! Such unbalanced ships, like KaiNess (SasuSaku or NaruHina from Naruto) are the one kind of ships I can never get behind. Whether it's love or hate, it needs to be mutual for me to enjoy it. Power unbalance is not my thing but different strokes for different folks and all that

And yes, Kaiser currently obsessed with destroying Isagi while all Isagi wants to be is no 1 is a delicious flavour and Kaneshiro is cooking

I need an explanation. Of everything regarding Kaiser. That flashback needs to be longest flashback in the manga. I want a biography I can write a thesis on.

(True!! He definitely isn't a people person. He will most likely be doing a job that requires minimum human contact lol)

(And yeah, Kaiser is such red flag, we'd need rose colored glasses to date him 😝)

Hehe. Fellow CSM fan!! My fav is Denji, and I am eagerly awaiting Season 2!

And although I haven't seen the rest of them, I have they are very good anime as well!

My absolute favourite would be Naruto, as I have been in that fandom for years as well. Apart from that, I am currently keeping up with Solo Leveling and Windbreaker!

(Although listing all the animes I have watched will require a separate post, I watch a lot of them!)

Ps: Your English was lovely, no worries!!

[blooming-violets]

The ask I sent previously was deleted and I'm mad I'll send it again

In the comics there is a hilarious story line where aunt may starts dating Jameson what do you think Peter's reaction would be to that of he found out ?

What would Peter's reaction to may dating in general be I think he would be annoyingly protective dress up as spider man crash her dates or threaten the men dangerous bodily harm if they break her heart and will start staying over at May's house alot more and be very clingy for a while

This has huge potential for being extremely funny and I want your thoughts on it

OH I can see him being so possessive over her! Especially if it's Jameson!

You know how in Dancing on My Own, Peter crashes Reader's date and is obnoxious and trying to get her to come back to the apartment with him instead??

It's that times ten.

Any time he hears she's going out with him, he suddenly has a super big problem that only she can fix. He needs her really badly. It's an emergency. He's having a mental health crisis. He's gonna jump. Quick, come home and talk me down!

And she falls for it half the time because that's her boy and if he says he needs her, she goes. Peter knows this very well and uses it to manipulate her. But over time she catches on that this only happens when she's about to go on a date.

He will straight up call her repeatedly during their date until she picks up. He'll tell her there's a fire at home, the cat is dead, a burglar broke in, he was in a deadly car accident, he lost his shoe and needs her help to find it, anything to get her to come back.

Until she puts her phone on silent because he's being a dick.

He will trash talk Jameson every chance he gets. He'll make a god damn power point on all the reasons why he sucks and May should run far, far away.

He goes so far as to try to find her other men to date who aren't Jameson. Shows up with some rando dude from the grocery store like "Here! He's perfect for you! I told him you'll take him out tonight." Meanwhile May is like wtf please get this stranger out of our home.

May is slowly losing her mind.

Spider-Man becomes NYCs biggest public nuisance. He'll try to ramp up everything he's doing so he keeps making the papers. His goal is that Jameson will be so obsessed with all the Spidey news that he doesn't have time for May.

It doesn't work. His plans backfire.

Just makes Jameson more annoying and May, of course, doesn't know Peter is Spider-Man so she goes along with his rants, much to Peter's displeasure.

Spider-Man starts showing up all their dates, too.

Swinging right over their outdoor table of lunch, purposely knocking over Jameson's drink into his lap with his foot as he goes.

"Accidentally" shooting a web over the guys mouth and "forgetting" to take it off for him so he's just stuck with it until it dissolves.

Swooping May up off her feet and swinging her away because he "thought Jameson was a pervert trying to hurt her".

Stuff like that.

May is getting real sus at this point because Spidey and Peter are really morphing into one.

She's sitting there watching Peter and remembering all the weird times she's found strange shit in the laundry and how strange he would sometimes act and starts putting two and two together:

omg this is how she finds out he's Spider-Man

Because he's too damn jealous and possessive over his adopted momma that he just forgets to be secretive about it.

He's getting sloppy.

When it finally comes out, she starts to understand why he's so angry about it. Jameson has never been kind to Spider-Man.

She can blame it all on that but, really, Peter probably would have done that with anyone she tried to date who's not Ben.

He's got jealousy issues haha.

OMG what if he comes home one night and over hears them having sex

He would die. Act like such a baby! Covering his ears, yelling, stumbling around with his eyes closed like he's traumatized, banging things to get them to stop.

Imagine Jameson walking into the bathroom, shirtless and in his boxers, happy as can be while Peter is throwing death glares at him across the hall. Standing there outside the door like this:

It really would turn Peter/Spider-Man into public enemy number one omg

[greentrickster]

Thinking more about Yue Qingyuan and Tianlang-jun’s accidental cross-country roadtrip back to Cang Qiong. Since this is an SVSSS AU, let’s add a few hindrances to stretch it out into a nice long bonding exercise, shall we?

Hmmm... well, Tianlang-jun’s easy - he has to be super careful about how much power he uses, less he destroy his current body with demonic qi and be forced back into his usual body before it’s fully healed (which is taking a decent amount of time since it was, you know. Pixelation levels of messed up), so he’s being very, very careful not to do anything to compromise his current physical freedom.

And Yue Qingyuan... let’s say he had some sort of cursed item suppressing his qi when they were stuck in a room together, and he managed to force it off but it also disrupted the seal keeping his life force in the Xuan Su sword, so it’s leaking some now. The crack is currently pretty small, so the leak is minor, but any significant use of qi makes it bigger and the flow larger, so he has to be very, very careful how much he does. Circulating his qi, cleaning meridians, and smaller stuff is about all he’s good for cultivation-wise at the moment. Drawing his sword in this condition might actually kill him.

Tianlang-jun is not happy to hear that Yue Qingyuan’s got some weird cultivator sickness going on (before he learns The Truth(tm) ), and is fully expecting this rich young master to have no idea how to rough it. Thus it’s something of a shock to discover, hey, actually YQY’s better at it than he is. Tianlang-jun’s needed for his know-how about the demonic realm’s flora and fauna, and his plant body is still currently stronger, but YQY seriously knows how to make camp, find kindling, cook basic meals, heck, even how to start a fire without qi! And (and this is the scary part) he’s not even complaining about it! Why is the big, fancy, powerful sect leader not flinching about getting his pretty robes and pretty hair and expensive everything all messed up and having to rough it, huh?!?

Meanwhile Yue Qingyuan’s hardcore Shook because I think it would be fair to say that this is the first time he’s well and truly lost it since the Lingxi Caverns, because he has been Very Very Careful, and he’s just having A Day Of It. Setting up and camp and having to worry about food for once is almost a relief, because the memories it brings back are bad, but at least they’re familiar, so he’s clinging to that with both hands at the moment. Time to tie back sleeves, put away the hair crown, and put up his hair in a more sensible style. Also, to talk Tianlang-jun into letting Yue Qingyuan clear his meridians for him, he’s not having a guest of the sect drop dead on him just because they got kidnapped and traumatized and left on the run in the demon realm. They’re near the border, anyway, it’s fine.

(Yue Qingyuan has been looking himself in the mirror every day for at least forty years and going, ‘this is fine,’ like heck he’s going to stop now.)

Also they actually do have some supplies, because, brand-new headcanon that I just grew, Yue Qingyuan generally carries a qiankun pouch on him with some survival basics in it. Whenever he’s asked about it by other sect members, he just brushes it off with something along the lines of, “A good leader is always prepared,” but the real reason is to assuage the fears that growing up on the streets and in slavery leaves you with. Sect Leader Yue is a responsible grown-up who does not run away from his problems, but he’s ready to at a moment’s notice if necessary.

It’s not enough supplies for a situation like this, but it’s a start. They have fire-starting tools, some money, some food, too many knives, a few lengths of rope, a couple sets of more sensible clothes.

Tianlang-jun: ...why do you have so many knives?

Yue Qingyuan: They’re useful. You never know when you might need a knife for something.

Tianlang-jun: I mean, yeah, but this feels... excessive?

Yue Qingyuan: Junshang must be in a better mood, to be able to joke so. :)

Tianlang-jun: (stop being interesting and making me want to figure out your secrets, I don’t like you, I just want to fix you up a bit so I can bully you for helping stick me under a mountain, stop looking handsome in normal-person clothes-!!!!)

Yue Qingyuan: (reorganizing their inventory and carefully not paying attention to the fact that Tianlang-jun is wearing some of his clothes and looking kind of really good in them)

(Because confused, distrustful, confrontational, and thirsty is the SVSSS way! Also, I am fully prepared to peel back every layer of disguise Yue Qingyuan has created to reveal the scared, desperate street kid that’s still inside him, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen that done and I’ve suddenly discovered that it’s something I really want. If you can’t find the terrified child inside of you, how are you ever supposed to tell them they’re not alone anymore and you’re able to keep you both safe now?)

[iguessitsjustme]

I Saw You In My Dream Ep 5&6 Thoughts

Ya know. Some days you find yourself caught in a thunderstorm with sopping wet shoes, a full bladder, wasted CTA fare, and nothing but sheer willpower to get yourself home. Did that happen to me today? Don’t worry about it. I had the world’s teeniest umbrella. Pray for my shoes. Anyhway, I got home earlier than I expected so I can watch at least one episode tonight! Yay! I might even be able to catch up entirely. At which point I start my NEXT liveblog because I’m having fun with this. As always, under the cut:

I am very curious about why Ai is scared of the dark. I cannot wait to learn more. Mmmm delicious delicious backstory trauma is waiting for me.

Also that dream seemed terrifying. Well…nightmare. I too would have woken up screaming. 

His trauma…is getting stuck…in the bathroom…in the dark? I must say. I could not have predicted that but it makes a lot of sense. Yu also being the cause makes sense. Yu was a bit of a shithead at first. But that would definitely be traumatizing.

Yu with the good advice. It’s okay not to have a dream.

Obsessed with this lighting. Just look at it.

Ooooo a different trauma was the cause of the fear of the dark. I love this show.

Well how am I NOT going to mention the fact that the reason that Ai is scared of the dark is because he trapped himself in a literal closet and now he’s afraid of the future and scared of what awaits him and burying his feelings for Yu so deep that they’re manifesting themselves in prophetic dreams. I mean I have to mention being trapped in the closet.

Sksjhgkjdg Ai sent Yu food. Those gay thoughts have permeated. It’s too late to go back now. Ai is in love with Yu and just hasn’t figured it out yet.

Badminton man’s name is Wann. Are we about to get a love triangle? What’s going on?

Yesssss Yu watching Ai give out his contact information is good. Yes. Very good. Also I noticed that Ai reached very far across to give it to him. Didn’t move any closer. Stayed as far away as he could. Poor badminton man.

What I like about this show is at its surface it seems like Yu is a lot more mature and confident than Ai but then the show gives you flashes of Yu being immature or  insecure and you’re reminded that he’s not that much different than Ai. Those two balance each other very well. Ai is mature in ways that Yu is not and confident in ways that Yu is not. And vice versa. It’s very refreshing to see. They complement each other perfectly.

Also this was short so I’m gonna throw episode 6 in here too. Staying up late isn’t a great idea but it’s the choice I’ve made.

Yu is ready to murder Yo. He just wanted to go on a little vacation with Ai but alas. He could not admit that so now his brother is tagging along and also planning it. But I have little doubt that some sort of romantic tension and hijinks will ensue.

Why am I getting the weird arrangement of that lullaby again? There’s no sleeping currently happening.

OH. Ai was dreaming. About Yu tripping and bonking his head real bad. I get it Yu. Me too.

BADMINTON MAN. Oh poor poor Yu. It was supposed to be a trip for just him and Ai and now here comes this other man that’s got a crush on Ai. Get it together Yu. Ya gotta get it together. Ai already loves you. I mean he doesn’t know it yet, but he might if you say something about your feelings that I KNOW you have. I know it. With my soul. My entire being.

A man in love.

Also I have mixed feelings on the “I’ll drink it for them” trope but I like it here.

Drunken confession my beloved. Ing, I’m so proud of you baby. I don’t know what the outcome of this confession will be, but whatever it is, it will be better.

You dumbass

Waan I swear to god. Put that guitar away. I swear on GOD I will lose my mind. Put that thing back where it came from.

Waan I used to like you.

Stop this.

I suffer.

If you’re gonna do this. At least. Hit. The notes.

Man I wish I wasn’t caught up cause I want to keep going but alas. I am now caught up. But new episode tomorrow! I think. Yay!

[weather-cluddy]

why are the ones that mikoto actively reaches out to (kotoko, shidou, kazui) also the ones that he deemed "could probably do bad things" in the voice drama

A good question! But first, an aside: if you're the anon who asked about the Mikoto-Haruka parallels, know that I did get your ask and enjoyed it. The thing is that my first draft for the answer post got eaten by a blackout, the second I threw out because it was too messy, and after that real life got complicated. But still, it's coming to your dash Soon! (TM)

Anyways, there are two possibilities: the fact that Mikoto thinks they could do bad shit is unrelated to him interacting with them, or it isn't.

If it is, then we need an explanation for why he picked those three. I already posted some time ago how I like to interpret that Mikoto goes out of his way to talk with Kotoko because he thinks she's a loner and he doesn't want her to get left out. For Shidou and Kazui, they simply spend time together due to their shared 'hobby' of smoking, which Mikoto says he picked up specifically for socializing purposes. I think he may also admire them to some degree; Shidou is in a very respected profession and quite young considering he's already practicing, while Kazui is considerably older and has a general feeling of being affable and having his shit together.

They're just fairly easy to get along with in general, at least in the surface: they don't already dislike Mikoto like Mahiru and Kotoko, don't ask awkward questions like Yuno or have terrible social skills like Haruka and Fuuta. Neither do they have a big age gap that would make Mikoto feel weird about interacting with them as peers, like with Amane and to a lesser extent Muu (and Muu also indirectly falls into the 'dislikes Mikoto' category by virtue of being uneasy around all older men).

Okay, that’s all well and good, but what if it isn’t a coincidence? 

Well, have you heard of the fight or flight instinct? You might even know it as fight, flight or freeze. There’s a fourth proposed option called fawn. Instead of trying to escape or defeat the threat, a fawn-type response works towards appeasing it. The idea being that if you’re sufficiently nice and helpful and non-threatening, people won’t find a reason to hurt you.

Fawn was originally coined by the psychotherapist Pete Walker in Codependency, Trauma and the Fawn Response, and expanded on with The 4Fs: A Trauma Typology in Complex PTSD, which explains how early childhood trauma can cause people to develop unhealthy ways to socialize, based on which of their fight-flight-freeze-fawn instincts, AKA the titular 4Fs, predominate.

Pete says that people with childhood trauma are often unusually inflexible in their use of the 4Fs. While a healthy person can make use of all four with moderation and pick the one most appropriate to their circumstances, a traumatized person uses only one or two, taken to harmful extremes.

It’s clear how cut-off Mikoto is from his own fight response, to the point it’s all redirected towards a completely different alter, but the most obvious example of over-relying on one approach is during Kotoko’s birthday convo. He knows that Kotoko attacked him and others. Even if he can’t remember, it’s clear on the wounds on his and other’s bodies that it happened. He’s most likely aware that Kazui’s attempts to convince her to stop have utterly failed, as she’s intent on trying again. It’s not like she was ever particularly nice to begin with, either. And yet, he keeps track of her birthday and goes to congratulate her. Why would anyone do this?

Well, it makes sense if fear makes you more likely to try to win somebody over, not less. It’s patently ridiculous to think that the person who tried to kill him will become his friend just because he was nice to them, but fear is oftentimes irrational, and Mikoto lacks the mental tools to find a more adequate approach. He just can’t accept that somebody want to murder him and all he can do is sit there and hope some outside force stops them, so he’s desperately repeating his ingrained response to conflict. He’s spent his entire life making sure everyone liked him, how could he die by having somebody hate his guts so much they’ll kill him? He’ll just have to try harder to be more likable!

Indeed, you can see this sort of response, obviously in a more subdued fashion, in Mikoto’s approach to socialization in general. For example, look at all the focus he puts on the fact that “you can’t work/live in society/thrive unless you’re sociable”. That’s literally “I’m nice because I’m scared of the consequences if I ever stop” in nicer words. And clearly that fear looms large over him: look at how he lets his boss overwork him (lack of boundaries is a sign of an unhealthy fawn response), or how the tiny rejection of a single person not wishing him a happy birthday is enough to leave him sleepless.

While the BD convo is the most obviously dysfunctional show of this tendency, it was most likely always present, especially since attachment styles generally develop during childhood. So, perhaps it’s the very fact that he’s afraid of Kotoko, Shidou and Kazui that drives him to be extra nice and sociable with them.

But, why would he feel particularly intimidated by these three people, especially at the start? Well, first things first: Kazui is huge and ripped. Jackalope’s first impression of him is literally “he looks like he could beat anyone here in a fight”. Even if he’s a nice guy himself, it’s easy to see why somebody might be put on edge by that. Kotoko is in a similar situation: she’s visibly muscled and while she’s actually four centimeters shorter than Mikoto, that’s still pretty tall. Not to mention she lacks Kazui’s laidback personality, being quite cold and often nosing around for info on the other prisoners. They’re also both trained in martial arts, making them even more of a physical threat.

Shidou is similarly not very approachable, with Mikoto even saying as much in a conversation with Fuuta. Another factor, I suspect, is the very thing I mentioned above as a possible reason for Mikoto to admire him: Shidou is a very young professional in a respected job. If we assume he’s been doing surgeries for several years before the flower person’s death (which makes sense, since it’d take a while to find the right organs and too many ‘failed’ surgeries at once would raise suspicions), then it’s likely he even graduated early.

Mikoto says he got drunk often in his university days, so it’s possible he either didn’t take his schoolwork entirely seriously or that he tried to drink away his problems, either way being far from an admirable school life. Not to mention, doing life-saving surgery is a much more valued profession than designing ads. Considering how much of Mikoto’s self-esteem hangs on his job, he might feel inferior to Shidou, even if he isn't aware of it.

Of course, I doubt Mikoto consciously chooses to ingratiate himself with ‘dangerous’ people. I’m sure that if you asked him, he’d either say it’s unrelated or that he’s just trying to be open-minded, and he might even think he’s saying the truth.

Rather, it’s an unconscious reaction to anxiety, an attempt to defuse danger before it can strike. If for him socializing isn’t done out of pleasure but out of fear, then it makes sense that the more dangerous somebody is, the harder he tries to be their friend. After all, friends don’t hurt friends, right?

[rrr-is-gay]

Most of the Ram/Bheem fic I read that mentions Sita at all expands upon an idea that is absolutely set up in the movie, and I think it’s interesting that there’s such a strong fan consensus: That Ram had loved Sita at some point in some way, but he’d been through too much and gone too long without her, so his feelings changed.

The first mention of her is during Dosti, when Bheem asks about the necklace. Ram is oddly silent, visibly uncomfortable, and his body language is super weird in that moment. Watch it again! He’s twitchy and biting his lip, trying to hold himself at a distance from Bheem, but unable to stop leaning closer; like talking about Sita is too difficult, and he just wants Bheem to hold him through the pain. He’s bursting to say “we’ve known each other since we were children. I love her like family, but I am not in love with her. I’m in love with you.”

At the halfway point, when Ram finally writes to Sita (after waiting four years to write at all??), he uses very formal language and talks exclusively about his plan. “How are you?” “The weapons are within reach.” Etc. The closest he gets to saying anything romantic is “I wish you were with me,” which is a very interesting choice of words, very comp het. The distance between them is more than geographic, and the film does everything to emphasize this.

At the end, when Bheem places Sita’s hands in Ram’s, he is very chaste and distant with her. He doesn’t seem at all like a fiancé who is reuniting with his true love; he seems like an awkward man getting reacquainted with his boyhood sweetheart. He barely touches her.

Meanwhile, he can’t keep his hands off Bheem for the entire film. He’ll make any excuse to touch him, lean in close to him, sit on him, hold him, etc. Ram is not naturally cold or averse to physical affection at all! He’s very handsy, just not with Sita. Because he’s not in love with her. Keep in mind, we also never once hear him talk affectionately about her. He never says that she’s beautiful, or that he misses her, or that he can’t wait to hold her. He just doesn’t see her that way.

Ram is very traumatized, and he may feel like that makes him fundamentally unlovable. He’s engaged to Sita because they’ve been friends since childhood, and everyone in their village expects them to wind up together. But let’s think about that engagement for a second: Ram is in his mid-to-late twenties when he leaves for Delhi. Why haven’t he and Sita gotten married yet? Especially when you remember their parents were talking about it when they were like twelve. All those years, he kept putting off the marriage for some reason. I think he felt too broken inside, like he could never truly love anyone.

Then he met Bheem, and the feeling transformed. I can love, he realized, as so many gay people do. There is nothing wrong with me after all. I have so much love to give this man, I can’t keep it inside. It’s complicated because he had relied on Sita for emotional support for so long, he doesn’t want to do wrong by her. But he also knows that he could never love her the way he loves Bheem.

This brings me to their farewell flashback, when he leaves for Delhi. They don’t kiss or hug, they don’t profess their love, she just cries and says that she doesn’t know what she’ll do without him. And that’s a normal way for a close childhood friend to react! He responds by giving her the necklace and saying “there will always be a part of me with you,” and I think that phrasing is so important and accurate: The shattered, traumatized part of him will always be with her, and her trauma will always be with him. They lived through that massacre together. Their bond is very real. But it isn’t romantic. He is just so formal with her, I can’t say it enough times! He wants her to find someone else so badly, but he thinks he can’t say that.

If you don’t headcanon Ram leaving Sita to be with Bheem, I can’t help you. Get well soon, I guess!

[yuridovewing]

Can I just say how frustrating Vicky thinks being in a happy relationship (BrackenSorrel) nullifies the trauma one of the characters went through when that's not how that fucking works? I can't stand people that genuinely unironically believe that. Sure, Sorreltail wasn't made to be constantly traumatized by her losses which... is perfectly fine??? Not every character needs to constantly bring up what they went through or be traumatized little baby boos, but that doesn't mean she NEEDED to suffer more just... for having a happy relationship.

Like... you can tell Vicky has either never been in a relationship herself, or her viewpoint on relationships has always been extremely unhealthy....

Or both... it could be both... I don't usually make assumptions on people but these are boomer women with VERY unhealthy viewpoints on relationships it's concerning as hell and given Vicky hates healthy relationships in stories bc they're "boring" I can't help but feel she just wanted to force her bias onto the readers. Only Cherith these last couple years has been quiet and not spouted any bullshit iirc and that's only bc she's not really on the internet.

It's honestly why I consider myself the anti-vicky. GIMME those healthy happy no-bullshit-drama-for-no-reason-relationships OM NOMNOM what do you mean they're boring after the bullshit I deal with in this series I'll take boring over insufferable ANY DAY to where most of my oc couples are decent and somewhat healthy unless there are genuinely instances where I can see it being Unhealthy, not bc I want to make characters suffer bc their lives with one another are boring. AT LEAST make the unhealthy relationship make sense.

It makes the fact that she wrote RavenBarley to be healthy weird only bc iirc she stated somewhere she couldn't bring herself to sour it or whatever it was. Like, sure, good for you, but that doesn't remove Sorreltail's retconned death bullshit and how you hated her Vicky, or hell, killing DustFerns children purely BECAUSE she thought they were boring without suffering involved. All I have to say to both those instances is: Who gives a fucking shit? Not me, I don't want that bleakness, bc unlike the erins I crave healthy relationships inbetween the bullshit and I think many others do too. If you're gonna give it some drama, even if it's a little spat, make it work in a healthy communicative way. Don't kill characters to make them suffer just bc you don't like how happy they are, it baffles me even more bc wasn't she the editor? Didn't she literally PUT BrackenSorrel together? wtf..

Anyways this became a rant I'm just so angry about the Sorreltail thing and how Vicky treats relationships in this series when she was running the joint. I want Brackenfur to die this arc so that he and Sorreltail can reunite in Starclan and live the rest of their days happy and healthy and with no drama and suffering involved PURELY to spite Vicky.

The way Vicky talks about Sorreltail is just so uncomfortable. This may be a stretch, but it's almost like she can only see Sorreltail as a wife and mom, at least in later interviews, because she dismisses Sorreltail's grief over her parents, brothers, and children because "well she hasn't suffered enough and is boring because she's happily married."

I do think Vicky just has a weird view of relationships. It's fine to enjoy relationship drama, but she says she goes out of her way to ruin the romance because its the only way to make them feel real or enjoyable. That's why CloudBright is like that in TNP: She said it was too boring in TPB so she had to tease a cheating plotline to make it a good relationship (btw notice how a lot of these involve putting traumatized female characters in rough situations? How on earth is it comfortable for anyone to read about Brightheart experiencing dysphoria and hating herself bc she thinks her husband who helped rehabilitate her is cheating on her for being disabled.) Spotted x fire x Sand drama is also thanks to her. I'm pretty sure BrambleSquirrel being like that is because of her too.

I think it's fine to enjoy that sort of fictional drama (I am begging some of these cats to divorce and have drama over said divorce) but it comes across like she thinks that's how relationships HAVE to be. Like it's cute and if it's not full of strife then it's dumb. It's such a bizarre message to give to kids and it makes so many of these books more uncomfortable than anything.

Like I'm curious, do people ACTUALLY love the uncomfortable romance strife Vicky would insert? Does anyone like the love triangle plot in Firestar's Quest where Fire has to choose between a dead girl he crushed on for a month and his living wife? Does anyone think the CloudBright and Daisy drama in TNP is fun and interesting to read? (You cannot answer any of these with "well it's fine i hc them all as poly" cause that is not the intent and you know it)

[3rddimension]

I'll be completely honest, sometimes I have the same thought as the previous anon. Them still going through the effort to conceal it confuses me too sometimes. I know that they are against a "public" relationship because of the unnecessary pressure and opinions, but also, I don't traditionally consider just knowing that people are in a relationship as being all that "public".

Think of ANY figure you know who is in a relationship, and while we get occasional photos, appreciation posts, or a one-off video together, they don't share any intimate details about their day-to-day relationship, so fans have nothing to really attach themselves to and speculate about. Anthony, Amanda, Kimmy, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Eddy Burback, Ted Nivison, Jacksfilms, Alanah Pearce, James and Elyse Willems... those are just off the top of my head, but there's COUNTLESS people who are just okay with the world knowing.

So I'm always thinking, like, why are S and C so different in that regard?

I get that there might be some strange speculation and parasocial creeps, but like... S and C get that ANYWAYS, so how does that change by making it public knowledge at the bare minimum? I'm sure other creators also get weirdos in DMs, especially women (I def know Alanah Pearce gets weird comments on her relationship). But for S and C, the weirdos who wanted to find out (me, I am weirdos, lol) already found out, and they learned to tune out weirdos in all other aspects, so... I don't get why they don't just rip the band-aid.

But I know there's also another angle to it. The nature of S and C's job is very parasocial at its core. They had entire series on Pit diving into their dating lives and went into otherwise pretty imtimate details. Even beyond dating lives, they've had to share a TON of info about their lives simply for content. I think they both are ones to deeply appreciate keeping some things to themselves for that reason. And if their relationship is one of those things, then that's totally cool.

There's also some other less-expected reasons they might keep it private.

It's just a fact in the industry that women and fem-presenting influencers who *appear* single get more attention and followers. If people knew C wasn't single, she would probably lose male followers on IG instantly. How MUCH she would lose is debateable, but... that's a very real problem they might consider.

Another reason is C stated they've dealt with a stalker before, which got to the point of legal action, and that's a very traumatic experience. Not trying to upset any of her aggressively creepy fans can also be a good reason.

C might also want to conceal it because she very outwardly promotes her bi/pan identity, so she might want to avoid any snide remarks about her being in a "straight relationship". Yes, bi-exclusionary gay people are still out there and are still very annoying.

C might just not want any speculation about her role and successes at Smosh being attributed to her relationship with S. She's a very talented and dedicated performer, writer, and director, and she would probably prefer to keep that attributed to her and NOT her relationship.

At the end of the day, you're right, they have no obligation. However unnecessary we might think it is, or however different they might think they are from every other online creator who we know is in a relationship, it's their choice and we should always respect that.

So good for you to mentioned Alanah. She just posted one of the comment on her IG stories that's pretty much in line with what you said. It's related with her BF (Rahul Kohli) that just met up for a dinner with Mark Hamil who's costar with him in a movie.

As you can see she's pretty chill from this kind of comment and even post some occasionally. But this definitely different from people to people for sure. I'm sure Court and Shayne can handle it but maybe this is one of the reason why they're still effort to be private.