#there aren’t a ton of people here so I’m singing a lot

[wickedhawtwexler]

having a slay time at karaoke tonight

[taylortruther]

Okay now I’m thinking about longevity in the fandom and ttpd which is SO interesting because she’s putting out so so much material and people’s shortening attention spans and all… the staying power definitely feels different, versus people who were here pre-Lover, waiting 2ish years between albums meant you listened to the albums a LOT. You’d easily remember all the words to Sparks Fly even by the time 1989 was out, because you had 2+ years of Speak Now being the recent Taylor album and only Red in between. (Of course I still remember all her lyrics but I’m insane. Ttpd is a slightly different story though, there’s So Much.)

Anyway, idk if that point before made sense, but I could see a few songs having longevity. I agree about The Manuscript because it’s so rich and ties together some very big people and motifs and experiences. I could see Guilty as Sin? because spice and it’s got an addictive quality not unlike Dress (but the opposite as I’m pretty sure you’ve said… but similar!). Possibly also So Long London (sad bop/bookend the Joever, track 5, beautiful intro), Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? (her fame songs tend to stick around, even the more “obscure” ones like The Lucky One, because there aren’t many and her views on it continue to evolve; same applies to Clara Bow, but I doubt it will be as popular just due to the sound tbh, like cardigan vs peace, traditional song structure and sounds tends to win in the fandom). The others are a toss-up and this is getting long so I’ll stop but yeah felt the need to share ajdjsjd

yeah and those albums had multiple singles, music videos, tons of radio play and promo... looots of time to let them sink in. and after 13+ years of releasing music, she knows some of it will get lost in the shuffle (like deep cuts, or simply older tracks - 'if you know this one, sing it, because it's old' re: crazier recently.)

i think ttpd has some bops - guilty as sin?, maybe down bad, icdiwabh. and i agree who's afraid will have some longevity because of its message (same with i can do it.) but there's like, this category of Meaningful Taylor Songs that say something about her life or relationship with her career, like long live, yoyok, wcs... i wonder which ones will fall in that category? maybe the prophecy (in addition to icdiwabh and waolom)?

[monstersinthecosmos]

Can you elaborate onthe "lack of childhood" though? Sure he had the trauma from when he was abducted, then abducted again by the cult, but him growing up with his mortal family + those years with Marius (and especially since he remembers his early memories), I wouldn't say that's a -complete- lack of childhood lol. I'd say more of having to care for others from an early age (I'm including Marius here too, affectionately, the man was a mess back then)?

These are great points!!!!!!!!!

I have three basic concepts I want to submit here, and your mileage may vary! Some of this goes into headcanon territory so we might land in different places. My questions are:

 If you had a good childhood that you can’t really remember, does it count?

 Can a young person sincerely be that pious without it being manipulative?

What age does Armand’s “childhood” end when he’s abducted at 14, at the oldest?

We don’t get a ton of information about his life before he was abducted and part of that is because he’s so traumatized that he doesn’t remember—a mega Capital T Trauma happening as a young teen I think informs “childhood”. I cede your point because I think a lot of people think of “childhood” as more early childhood, and especially in the historical context of kids growing up faster, we don’t know that much about his early childhood. When he goes back to visit with Marius he talks a bit about remembering his uncle’s singing and stuff, so we have that clue that his family did things together.

But we also have stuff like

I stood with my head bowed. I let my temple rest against the mud. I wished to find the boy, so pure of soul, who had opened these cells to bring the hermits just enough food and drink to keep them alive. But I couldn't find the boy. I couldn't. And I felt only a raging pity for him that he had ever suffered here, thin and miserable, and desperate, and ignorant, oh, so terribly ignorant, having but one sensuous joy in life and that was to see the colors of the ikon catch fire.

He also immediately shows up and refers to his family as “filthy peasants”.

And it seemed I understood more viscerally than ever the atmosphere of purposeful gloom which had overhung my childhood in far-off Kiev. I saw again the muddy catacombs, and the half-buried monks who had cheered me on to become one of them.

So I’m admittedly really skeptical about most religions LOL but this entire book is Armand struggling with his religious trauma and like, when you think about it, cave monks aren’t like. Very typical?

When he says stuff like “purposeful gloom” and “cheered me on to become one of them” I can’t imagine a situation where this isn’t coercive on their part, that he wasn't being manipulated and groomed into a cult. And his father didn’t want him to join them; the cult was pulling Armand away from his family and life. And he mentions that the monks are all starving and cold like, it’s not like this was some glamourous life he could’ve lived where they were saving him.

He says:

I looked back at my scholarly brethren.

All were emaciated, dressed in cheap black wool, reeking of old sweat and dirt, and their heads were all but shaved. Their long beards were thin and uncombed. I thought I knew one of them, had loved him somewhat even, but this seemed remote and not worth considering anymore.

To Marius, who stood beside me as faithfully as a shadow, I confided that I could not have endured it, but we both knew this was a lie. In all likelihood I would have endured it, and I would have died without ever knowing any other world.

And like fandom can debate all day and night about like the historical context of Armand’s age, and whether or not he was a child when he lived with Marius, but I think a lot about how his indoctrination into the Children of Darkness wasn’t simply him being brainwashed, it was his relapse. So when you look at the timeline of his life, if you think of like, say 300ish years with a cult, does he fold that tiny blip of time with Marius into his “childhood” ? idk.

But yeah I think like, to put a finer point on it aside from “lack of childhood” what we really mean when we say that is like, some kids go through traumas that force them to grow up quickly, and for a lot of kids it comes with parentification. Like, it’s enough that Armand was a hungry peasant in a cold climate, was (possibly) groomed by a cult, and then abducted and trafficked. But I wonder what Marius did to him too when it comes to like, the emotional support he needed and how he used Armand as balm to his own loneliness, all the while not allowing Armand to have his own emotional needs.

People kept stealing him and it makes sense that he might find a place in that world, and become a leader. It feels like the end result of a long series of events of having to put others’ needs ahead of his own, and also a way for him to have some semblance of control in the situation he’s been thrust into. So I think I when I say “lack of childhood” I’m really just gesturing wildly at All This Stuff and how it connects and relates to itself in the end. 

His time with the Children of Darkness is a coming home of sorts; he still winds up pious and underground, and it’s like his whole life he keeps trying to climb his way out of it and always gets dragged back down. Like I think even his suicide attempt fits this as a relapse into religious crisis. He was doing so good!!!!!!!! ☹ Sigh.

And the thing about it, and reaching out more broadly to this concept of VAMPIRE THERAPY LOL is like, a lot of times children grow up thinking their world is normal, or a default, and the work we put in as adults is unlearning that idea and coming to terms with that fact that something was wrong. Armand might not have been traumatized by being cold and hungry and ready to bury himself in a cave but when it's time to dismantle all that stuff I think it's important to make space for it. And even saying like, the concept of Armand going to therapy is silly hahaha so maybe it's not literal, but, I think it's still reaching the same idea if you ask him to grow as a person, to connect with Daniel and reevaluate his feelings about mortality and humanity, to care for Benji & Sybelle, to create Trinity Gate and get back together with Louis in a new way. All of this marks growth that he got to have.

So returning to my original point LOL, I always look at the way he’s built Trinity Gate as a safe haven, landing spot, and how trauma can be so deeply tangled in us that it’s like, how much of this is me and how much is the trauma, when does the trauma end and my personality begin, etc, and like. The truth is that sometimes you have to be patient and accept that it IS part of you, and you can try to be healthy and productive and kind to yourself without simply exorcising all the bad parts. For Armand it can be: "I created Trinity Gate as a safe haven for my friends & family out of love and it also feels like a burden sometimes."

[broadway-aradia]

Hello!

I think I have been following you since 2014 or 2015 maybe and I felt like taking a trip down the memory lane.

Could you talk about why you joined tumblr in the first place? What was your first fandom vs what is the most recent one? How your life changed since you've joined vs how is it going now?

Have a wonderful day or night!

HEY! thank you for following me for so long! that is such a big chonk of time. i love that you’re still here!

i have a really hazy memory from my ADHD sadly and rely a ton on my brother and one of my besties whose memory is damn near perfect to keep my own story straight. but i definitely joined tumblr because of nerd word of mouth—i believe it was back in 2010 when i was working under the table at a local comic book store as a young teen!

i guess you could say my first fandom experience was with DC comics, pre-new 52 reboot. i was really into it on my own before joining tumblr so it was amaaazing to explore all of the fan content and finally connect with other people about an interest that was pretty solitary for me before that. the series “young justice” airing on cartoon network around that time helped expose a lot of new fans to the DC universe too! that was such a fun show. and i’m realizing now that the anon i replied to before this one asked about PAST fictional crushes of mine, and i totally fumbled on answering—i would have taken a god damn bullet for wally west during this era. i probably still would!

DC rebooted their entire comics lineup and retconned and fucked up everything i loved in 2011 and then young justice was cancelled not long after so that was kind of that for me. i became a generic superwholock shitposter for a while, then the homestuck era began :)

these days i still get hyperfixated on media but i feel like fandom has diminished a bit in that there aren’t tons and tons of people online with the same brainrot who want to gnash teeth and howl at the moon with me. maybe i’m missing out because i didn’t join twitter? but getting into gideon the ninth/the locked tomb has been really fun for me the last few weeks because there’s so much good art, fic, and engagement on here for it :)

as far as how life has changed—basically i just, grew up! i finished school, went to college in vermont. my mom passed away. came home and have been working random jobs. i live with my partner in a very small studio and really miss having a piano. but i still practice singing and mess around on my baritone uke. i’m 26 now, very much feeling like i’m in a waiting period before my real life starts. i wonder what will happen! :)

[rivusatrap]

ONCE BROKEN

by @skloomdumpster

Riven gets cursed by a magical jewel and he must act on his deepest desire in order to break it and live (aka rivusa fuck or die with feelings)

Musa/Riven | Explicit |   21380 words | 2 chapters

Favorite Quote: The entire fucking fic.... Like I my favorite quotes are spoilers and I can’t type them here because I want you guys to react to it in the context of the fic. So yeah, read the fic.

If you like hurt/comfort fics with a lot of feelings and internal struggles and pining, and also fuck or die and amazing smut, you should should read this fic!

READ IT HERE

So I have to start with a disclaimer, Jo, the writer of this fic, is my best friend in the whole world and was the one that got me into writing fics and into making gifs and the whole fandom world. So I might be a little biased with everything she does - even if I think I’m not.

I also followed the creation of this fic, reading it multiple times before it was finished and giving her my 2 cents about it (And making a gif for it). Jo hasn’t written a Rivusa centered fic in a while and I was trying to keep a chill head while internally screaming with excitement that she was writing one - If you aren’t aware, I’m I like Rivusa a bit. Just a little bit.

This was a birthday fic for @gossipqueen2000​, another amazing writer and fellow rivusa-stan (totally recommend her fics btw), and Jo first asked Mo what she enjoyed most in fics so this gift would be perfect. I’m not 100% what was in that list because that was a private conversation but boy am I happy with whatever Mo said because the final result was EXPECTACULAR.

This fic. THIS FIC. Ugh, where to even start?

Jo has a way of writing that not only sets the scene perfectly but takes you back and then into characters heads in a way that’s not tireing or confusing or that breaks you out of the plot. Everything happens in the perfect pace, fits right where it needs to fic and flows easily, you could read 100 pages of her writing and feel like you read only 10.

What I also love a lot about her writing, and something I think I struggle a lot with, is showing characters emotions, what they really feel in a way that isn’t “he was sad”, “he was angry”.

You could feel Riven’s love for Musa, not only the romantic love, or the physical lust he has for her, but the true, real love, because of little things like how he knows to keep her ID and her card in his wallet because she has a bad habit of not carrying one, or how he knows the lyrics to her favorite songs- which he also knows not to sing along because she hates when people do that. Details like this, details she adds at just the right place at the right time, show you so much more than what is said, shows the reader characters habits, their history. It gives their feelings depth and it makes it all just feel more real.

And the whump! Jo can write whump. The same way she writes love she writes pain and its so detailed and hurts it makes your heart squeeze. I don’t read a lot of the fics she puts out and I’ve apologized to her tons about it but because she loves hurt and whump and my heart is very fragile, I cry about the most littlest things and when I read a whump fic of hers it literally ruins my day because its all so real and raw and my mind just can’t stop thinking about it.

And the smut... oh boy oh boy... Jo says she’s not really a fan of writing smut but she’s amazing at it, with just a perfect dose of kink mixed it to make it spicy(er). And the smut in this didn’t dissapoint. After reading about, what 19k words of hurt/comfort you finally arrive at the smut and you yell FINALLY! and its HOT!

The plot, which maybe should have been the first thing I talked about but oh well. The plot is... what other word can I use that isn’t “perfect” or “amazing” because I think if Jo were to beta this post she’d say I used these words too much already... The plot is genius (?)

But seriously, Jo could have taken a trope like fuck or die, which is usually straight to the point and PWP, but made it just that, quick and easy. But no, she created a whole intricate universe, a whole detailed backstory, ten years of pining, before she delivered on the prompt. And then instead of making it so they resolve the issue right away, she draggs it over a few days, makes Riven taste the power of the curse, makes him prepared for death as much as he can be because he thinks there’s no way out of it. She makes you yell a the computer/phone screen because RIVEN YOU ARE SO FUCKING STUPID.

I think if I say anything else I’ll be spoiling the fic too much for those who haven’t read. So read it.

And while you’re there check out Jo’s other fics, only a few are rivusa because her main ship is skloom but I 100% recommend them. All of them.

[deus-ex-mona]

Even Our Private Lives Are Great Too!: Chapter 7

that sure was a long day

previous part (chapter 6)

next part (epilogue)

YUI: Yujiro! Aizo! Get over here too, you guys!

When IV and YUI called out to Yujiro and Aizo from their spots on the stage, the audience turned to look at the latter pair.

Audience Member 1: Hey, YUI’s here too!

Audience Member 2: LIPxLIP’s also here?! How come?!

Audience Member 3: Aizo! Yujiro! Sing for us!

Yujiro: (Looks like… we’ve got no choice but to go for it, hm?)

Yujiro: Shall we, Aizo?

Aizo: Yeah…! Of course…!

The audience cheered loudly as Yujiro and Aizo ascended to the stage.

YUI: Awwright! You’ve prolly been bored enough, right?! Wouldn’t you rather be packed full of fun memories of today instead?!

YUI: But aren’t y’all being way too quiet, even though we’re right here in front of you?!

YUI provoked the audience with an air of familiarity, all while Yujiro and Aizo sang along to a backing track that was played by IV. Following that, YUI began to improvise a rap to go along with their performance.

Yujiro: (...YUI’s really good at rapping.)

Yujiro: (We can’t rap as well as him yet… But…)

Yujiro: (—Take this!)

Yujiro gestured to IV at the precise moment that his DJ solo began.

IV: …

IV laughed lightly when his eyes met Yujiro’s, and he raised a hand in response to him.

Audience Member 1: IV!

Audience Member 2: He’s so cool!

A staff member who was standing by the side of the stage gave the performers a signal that indicated that their equipment troubles were about to be resolved.

Yujiro: Hey everyone! It looks like the problems with the equipment are gonna be resolved soon!

Yujiro: It’ll only take a little while longer, so please listen to our performance till then!

Yujiro: (Let’s liven things up even more to warm up the stage for the next performer…!)

The audience let out an especially loud cheer, as though they were responding to the performance by the four of them—.

Staff: Hey IV! And everyone else! Over here!

By the time they got off the stage, word had gotten out that FT4 and LIPxLIP were performing at the live. Owing to that, a huge crowd of people had gathered there.

IV: I apologise for getting way too carried away back there.

Staff: No need for apologies. You guys were a huge help! We’d been at a loss for how to deal with that atmosphere before you came.

Staff: YUI, and the two of you from LIPxLIP, thank you all so much for the help too.

Staff: Once again, thank you guys so much… I’ll be sure to contact your agencies as well.

The four of them boarded a taxi that the staff member had led them to.

Audience Member 1: Hey, IV and the guys are leaving!

Audience Member 2: Aizo~! Yujiro~!

Yujiro: (...Sorry guys. See ya again.)

IV: Man—... For a moment, I was wondering how things would unfold, but…

IV: In any case, our last-minute performance was a great success, yeah?!

Yujiro found himself bursting into laughter at the sight of IV’s childlike smile.

Yujiro: Ahaha… A great success, you say… Even though we made a run for it at the end, haha.

IV: Well, that may be true…

IV: No, wait, don’t you think that making a run for it is pretty much a given with last-minute performances like ours?

Yujiro: I don’t understand what you’re trying to say at all. Ahaha.

IV: Sorry about this… YUI and Aizo. I brought you guys all this way to our studio…

Aizo: Nah, it’s fine. I had lots of fun.

YUI: Yup. I had tons of fun too, so everything’s A-OK with me!

IV: You guys had fun, hm? Me too.

Yujiro: (I had thought that IV was… a really serious person. But it turns out that he has a mischievous side too.)

Yujiro: Thank you so much for today.

IV schooled his face back into his usual expression when Yujiro gave his salutations again.

Aizo: It was really fun to hang out with you guys.

Yujiro: It was an honour… to have been able to perform with you two.

Yujiro: But… We’ll be rivals when we next meet onstage. 

IV: Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.

YUI: See ya!

And so, the curtain fell upon the day that Yujiro had spent with IV and the guys, with Yujiro having found himself with way more memories than he had expected to make.

[page-2-ids]

I know this isn’t really the thing you do, so I totally get if you just wanna delete this I just don’t really follow any other blogs I could ask this. Guns N’ Roses, like, took over my life for the past few months, and now that hyperfixations kind of… over. And I’m outta music. D’you have any idea of good music that would be a good transition from that? I don’t listen to a whole lot of rock outside of them atm so really anything is on the table

A little note before the actual post starts, half of this ended up as just me gushing about musicians I like. I think I sell them pretty well, but some of this wording stops being “this is why GnR fans would also like this artist” and turns into “here’s 30 reasons why I love x.” I would try to re-write this to make it sound more like what it was supposed to, but I know myself and that’s not gonna work out well. This is, very literally thousands of words. To anon, and anyone else interested, if this whole… fiasco is not your thing, I list some intro songs at the end of each very, very, long segment. If that’s all you’re here for, and I totally get that, then it’s there!

~~~

As someone whose life was also ruined by a GnR hyperfixation, I think I can help! I do wanna say, first, no one really sounds like Guns N’ Roses on the whole. There are similarities with groups of songs to other stuff, or somethings in general playing style, but I can’t really recommend bands saying that they completely sound like them. But! There are some bands with a really similar vibe for one reason or another (mostly their inspirations or bands that were inspired by them), and others with some very similar songs, so I’ve got those!

~~~

This one could just be me being a little off, so take it with a grain of salt. My Chemical Romance has a pretty similar vibe to a lot of GnR’s music, especially on the UYI albums. For the more… “literal” stuff,  a lot of the drumming on The Black Parade and I Brought You My Bullets reminds me of Appetite for Destruction (and also Civil War and the songs that Steven Adler did the demos for in 86), as well as Hard Skool & the Chinese Democracy tracks with Ferrer. Ray Toro’s solo style also reminds me a lot of Slash’s stuff, a good example is November Rain and I Don’t Love You feel very similar to me, and there’s just a similar energy there overall. Gerard Way & Axl Rose’s voices aren’t similar in the sense of you hear one of them and think “oh yeah, they sound like the other one” but there’s something there to me. They have a lot of the same strengths: distortion and fading from clean singing into fairly heavy distortion pretty fast, the ability to dance around their range (espeically higher up) pretty easily, incredibly emotional vocals, and some other stuff. I could talk way more about their vocals/voices, but if I do we’ll be here for thousands of words, so I’ll cut that off here. 

There’s also something that just really captivating about both bands’ lyrics that I’m not sure are exactly similar, but they’re both just incredible lyrically, storytelling, emotion, all that fun stuff. Some good intro songs, and ones that remind me of GnR in some way are: I Don’t Love You, Welcome To the Black Parade, Honey This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us Our Lady of Sorrows, House of Wolves, This Is How I Disappear, Cancer, Sleep, Foundations of Decay, Famous Last Words. Some other stuff on I Brought You My Bullets has a very My Michelle & You’re Crazy vibe to me, musically speaking. The guitars at the start of Vampires Will Vever Hurt You, Early Sunsets over Monroeville, & Skylines and Turnstiles also remind me of Paradise City in a weird way, but that’s more a vibe thing and most people probably would not agree with me here, so take all of that as you will.

Also, this is where I admit I’ve only listened to that album and The Black Parade so far, I’m working on getting to their other stuff, there’s just also a ton of other stuff on my list (help me).

~~~

Motley Crue. I’ll be honest, I’m not as big of a fan of them as I am most of the other bands I’ll mention here, but a lot of fans of GnR found them through Motley Crue and vice versa at this point, so I figured I should mention them. Also, I don’t hate them, it’s more of a personal taste thing than anything wrong with their music. Most of their songs up until Generation Swine are really good, and I do adore a lot of Shout at the Devil, Theater of Pain, and their self titled, I just don’t listen to most of them a whole lot so I can’t gush as much.

The very, very easiest point is just that they were both hair metal/adjacent, and I know that doesn’t mean a whole lot since Bon Jovi is, too, but they do have some songs that fit in a very similar niche to each other. A lot of their party songs, which is arguably most of thier music, has a very similar energy, especially to Right Next Door to Hell, My Michelle, and You’re Crazy. There are some others, too, but those are the most striking to me. They both also have very acclaimed and very unique bassists and, at least for GnR’s tracks with Steven Adler, drummers. I also think Tommy Lee and Frank Ferrer have some similarities, but a little less so.

A lot of the guitar work across Motley Crue’s first 6 albums also reminds me a lot of some of Izzy Stradlin’s work, and also feels a little Slash-y. There’s some other stuff, I think the chorus vocals on their cover of Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room is very Paradise City (also the chorus), some of the other songs on Theater of Pain remind me a little of the “western rock”/“cowboy rock” songs on UYI1 (mostly Vad Obsession, a little Dust N’ Bones) and also Back Off Bitch a little, Kickstart My Heart reminds me a lot of Right Next Door to Hell, and there’s some other minor stuff.

My best intro suggestions (more based on the ones that are my favorites & that I remember the names of off the top of my head than what’s similar) would be Merry-Go-Round, Live Wire, Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room, Shout at the Devil (most of that album, really), and Red Hot.

~~~

Quiet Riot. There aren’t a whole lot of similarities there, but they are one of the grandfathers of hair metal & 80s hard rock, along with Def Leppard & Motley Crue, so they’re here. Also I love them and need an excuse to talk about them.

Most of the similarities here are very “fundamental” if that makes any sense. A lot of times, especially looking from Mental Health to Appetite for Destruction and the UYI albums, it seems more like Quiet Riot just laid a lot of the foundation for the whole subgenre and GnR just used them as a kind of necessity. Not in a begrudging way, just that there doesn’t feel like a lot of direct inspiration in that sense. There are a lot of similar notes in the drumming across all four of the albums I just mentioned and it’s really clear that Quiet Riot’s foundation is there in a lot of GnR’s music.

The more interesting thing to me, though, is that it kind of looped around to Quiet Riot feeling kind of inspired by GnR! They’ve been making music semi-consistently since 1983, so they, in a way, outlasted GnR, until the singles in 2021. I can’t prove if they really were inspired like that, since I don’t know if there are really any recent interviews with them, but I choose to believe it. Two of their most recent albums, Hollywood Cowboys and Road Rage have a very “western/cowboy rock” feeling to them, specifically in the way that Bad Obsession and Dust N’ Bones do.

Also, just more generally, they’ve had a couple singers over time that have a very similar power to their voices that Axl Rose does. I don’t know how to make this any more coherent, but I hope it makes sense to anyone who’s listened to both of them. In specific, their original lead singer, Kevin DuBrow, and their singer for Hollywood Cowboys, James Durbin. I really can’t figure out how to put it into words, but listen to My Michelle right before Mental Health (the song) and Think About You right before Hellbender. There’s just a weird similarity there.

I’d probably recommend Arrows and Angels, Hellbender, Mental Health, and their cover of Cum On Feel the Noize as starter songs.

~~~

Avenged Sevenfold. Their the first band that I can say for sure had a lot of their sound, at least for some songs, influenced by GnR. Like, GnR is listed as one of their influences and A7x is listed as a band inspired by them. This is clear-cut. It starts really clearly in City of Evil and kicks into a whole different gear, for me, at Nightmare. 

The first thing, that I’ve never seen anyone mention also, is that M. Shadows and Axl Rose have very similar voices. There’s a very similar tone in both of them that I can’t really describe, but they also do some very similar things in their singing. The start of the outro to Danger Line reminds me a lot of Chinese Democracy, especially the start of Street of Dreams and a few parts of Prostitute, and Seize the Day reminds me of songs that are lower in Axl’s range but still a step above Mr. Brownstone or Sorry.

I am going to sound like a dork here, I tried to hold it back during the MCR section but I can’t anymore. You can also cross-apply this to the similarities with MCR, just pretend I used different names.

There’s a very specific kind of… emotionality, I guess, with a lot of the drumming and guitar work across both bands’ music. Especially for A7x with Nightmare and, in the drumming, most - if not all - of The Rev’s work, that is very similar to GnR, especially with Slash and Steven Adler. I have a very hard time explaining this - I have tried with friends and it never comes out coherent - so just… As a very general explanation, to sort of get at what I’m talking about - and why I feel like it’s important for anyone curious - imagine if November Rain had one of its first solos replaced with Eruption from Van Halen. Or, for a more real example, the end of the solo of Every Rose Has Its Thorn suddenly gets a lot faster compared to the rest of the song and it has a very different energy and it’s just very jarring. That’s kind of what I mean by emotionality, it’s capturing the energy of a song/segment, not just doing what is very technically well done. The same applies to really every aspect of music, drumming included even though a ton of people would disagree with me. That whole long thing to say, Slash, Zacky Vengeance, and Synyster Gates have a very strong grasp on that whole concept, as do Mike Portnoy (the session drummer for a lot of Nightmare), The Rev, Steven Adler, and Frank Ferrer. A lot of the guitarists that worked on Chinese Democracy do, too, I’m just way less familiar with a lot of their work. Also, I’ve learned I can’t really talk too much about Izzy Stradlin without it turning into a whole… thing, so I just can’t, right now. Anyway, in addition to a very strong grasp on the emotional side of things, they’re also all incredibly good at what they do from a technical level. I would also argue that that’s where a lot of GnR’s influence shines through most, but this always ends in me laying out very minute similarities that no one else cares about and this post is already getting way too long, so I have to move on to the beginner songs.

Nightmare (most of that album, but…), Danger Line, Seize the Day, Roman Sky, and A Little Piece of Heaven.

~~~

Now a shorter one for everyone’s sanity: Aerosmith! I will be completely honest here, I’ve only really listened to their big singles and not all of those yet. I… I know, Im getting to them, too. But, I know they did shows together a while back, GnR covered Mama Kin, and they have some other similarities (very expressive singers with killer ranges, a bit of an affinity for piano ballads, etc.). I don’t think I can really offer better suggestions other than what still gets radio play and what would show up on greatest hits playlists. I’m more mentioning them out of obligation than being able to actually give a good recommendation. I will say, thier cover of Remember (Walking in the Sand) is amazing and, imo, underrated.

~~~

The Sex Pistols. This is more in energy than anything literal, outside of a couple few things, I just figured it wouldn’t be right to completely ignore them. The big “literal” similarity is that Paul Cook and Steven Adler have very similar drumming styles, in my opinion.  I’m not very good at describing stuff like that, but it’s definitely there.

The other big, non-energy similarity I have is the style of lyrics between the Sex Pistols and Appetite for Destruction. They’re both very blunt and matter-of-fact and a very specific kind of angry, but it’s all also sort of poetic? I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but I think maybe listening to or reading the lyrics for Paradise City and then God Save the Queen or Holiday In the Sun maybe makes it make sense?

Other than that, it’s just energy. Appetite for Destruction and Never Mind the Bollocks are both very intense and angry and cutting, to me. I know Appetite for Destruction has its happy moments, but they’re all “cut” by something. Sweet Child O’ Mine has the “where do we go” breakdown, the positive parts in Rocket Queen and My Michelle are preceded by just… the rest of those songs, and Think About You is very likely about drugs. There’s this underlying kind of… not pessimism, but definitely some kind of negativity and acknowledging the seedy through that whole album that’s very Sex Pistols.

Pretty much everything else is that they just feel very similar to me. I can’t reall put words to it it’s justa  feeling. They’re both pretty hard edge, I feel like you can tell both bands have a pretty solid respect for more ‘clasic’ bands (at least what was the main era of classic rock when they were big), and all the music across both groups feels very sincere to me. It isn’t all sweet, but it’s sincere.

Intro songs I’d recommend are, personal favorites, Anarchy For the UK, God Save the Queen, Problem, Liar, Pretty Vacant, and Holiday In the Sun.

~~~

Velvet Revolver. I’ll be honest, here, I’ve listened to most of their music, but I did it as a quick once-through one night and I haven’t gone back through most of it to internalize song names and favorites, so the suggested songs and some of the similarities/selling points are gonna be brief. However!…

The major point for Velvet Revolver as a GnR follow-up is that every member, other than the singer, was in GnR! That was the big selling point when they first got going. They don’t sound a whole lot like Appetite for Destruction through The Spaghetti Insident GnR, but they all, Slash and Duff McKagan especially, have a very unique sound/style that carries over to Velvet Revolver.

Their music in some ways also reminds me of parts of Chinese Democracy. Not super ‘literally’ (are you sick of that vague bs yet?), but they both exist in a similar, sort of post-grunge segment of alt-rock of the time.

Like I said, I have very little to offer for recommended songs, at the moment, but I will say that Slither took over my life for months on end after I listened to it the first time, so do with that what you will.

~~~

Bon Jovi. Okay, hear me out. I know that, on the whole, Bon Jovi and GnR don’t have a whole lot in common, they’re not even really the same subgenre of hair metal. However, I just think I should shill for Bon Jovi- I mean… Jokes aside, I think there are a couple reasons why this is actually way more of a reasonable suggestion than it might look like. A lot of that comes down to that I’m not really recommending their whole discography as a GnR replacement. Honestly, I haven’t even listened to their whole discography yet. What I will say, though, is that there are a lot of similarities between some of their songs with some GnR songs. This whole section honestly doubles for song recommendations, but I do have some extras that don’t really sound like GnR songs that I just like.

Dry County sounds a good bit like Civil War. not cut and paste, but it’s similar. It’s one of, if not definitively, Bon Jovi’s longest song. It’s borderline southern rock, the guitars are very Civil War-ish (stripped back, melancholy, that sort of thing), and some other stuff that I can’t just put in a list. Dry County doesn’t start with movie audio, but it does have an intro with slightly different music and that is sung in a slightly different cadence that feels like it leads into the “true” first verse in a similar way. The way they lead into their guitar solo(s) also feels very similar, and the drumming style is fairly similar. They’re also both melancholy as all get out and just have a very similar energy to them. If I don’t stop myself now, this is going to turn into another few thousand words, so I’ll move on.

Homebound Train reminds me a lot of Rocket Queen, of all songs. It’s a lot more western, maybe southern rock, but the similarities are there. The guitars sound very similar (I’m bad at describing riffs and stuff like that, you just have to take my word on this), there’s a very similar effect over Jon Bon Jovi’s voice in what I think is the bridge of this song that’s a lot like the one Axl Rose used in the chorus of Rocket Queen, and the drumming is very Steven Adler in a way most of their other drumming isn’t. There’s also a really long instrumental segment with no vocals (keyboard solo, guitar solo, and what I’m pretty sure is a harmonica solo) that takes up a lot of the song, like the section in Rocket Queen.

There very well could be other songs with strong similarities between some of their other songs, but I’m days deep into writing this thing at this point, so I’m gonna stop here. In addition to the song-to-song comparisons, there are also some general similarities, especially looking from GnR’s whole discography to Bon Jovi’s first five albums. Jon Bon Jovi’s voice doesn’t really sound like Axl Rose’s, but he’s also really good at portraying emotion through his singing and he also has a pretty solid upper range (obviously not comparable/anywhere near as high, but it’s still really good).

I know this isn’t really the draw for most people, but it’s there and it actually does something for me, so I figured I’d still mention it, anyway. There’s a pretty solid thread of vaguely to strongly religious lyrics between both bands. If you’ve listened to their music and think I sound like I’ve lost it, give a couple songs a listen. Strong examples would be the first verse of Homebound Train, the chorus of Born To Be My Baby, a very specific line in the pre-chorus(?) of I’d Die For You, and a few lines in Dry County, then a quick line in Sweet Child O’ Mine, parts of the chorus for Don’t Cry, a few lines in Yesterdays and a few lines in Civil War. Lay Your Hands on me is a weird case, because I don’t think the lyrics have many religious allusions iirc, but it’s very clearly based on church music. They both have more than this, but if I don’t stop now, I won’t stop, like, ever.

Some other start songs (that aren’t the massive hits) are Social Disease, The Hardest Part Is The Night, Love Lies, and Only Lonely.

~~~

Def Leppard. Again, not their whole discography. Their second album, High ‘N’ Dry, has a very Appetite for Destruction sound. Obviously there is some difference, since it’s about six years older and technically pre-hair metal, but the similarities are there. It’s sort of like the early Quiet Riot thing, but I think they’re more similar. Joe Elliot also doesn’t really sound like Axl Rose, but he’s also a very emotional singer and spends a lot of their music in a pretty high part of his range. They’re also next level at breakup songs in a way that very few artists are (Bon Jovi, too, but I can’t talk about them for too long without it becoming a thing). Admittedly, I have a lot less to say about Def Leppard, not because I don’t like them but because they’ve never taken over my life with a hyperfixation so far so I can be normal about them.

Just to summarize the rest of their music that I’ve listened to, there are still some similarities through Pyromania, but Def Leppard were clearly shifting to a more synth-y style of hard rock so there’s less common ground there. And most of this is completely out the window by the time you get to Hysteria, even though it’s still a really good album.

Good starter songs (that aren’t Pour Some Sugar On Me, because that’s too easy) are Hysteria, Too Late For Love, Bringing On the Heartbreak, Let It Go, God of War (or Gods of War?), and Foolin’.

~~~

Nine Inch Nails. This is strictly between their music and Chinese Democracy, I don’t really think there’s literally anything similar before that. Also, I don’t listen to a whole lot of NIN, so I… cannot talk a whole lot. What I’ve heard is good and you can definitely hear that Chinese Democracy was at least somewhat inspired by their music, but that’s about all I can say atm. Starter songs (really just the ones I’ve heard) could be Closer, Head Like A Hole, Hurt, and Terrible Lie.

~~~

So… this is getting really long. Because of that, and because I don’t have a lot to say about these artists (either here or at all), I’m just gonna list out a couple bands, some starter songs and then stop because this post has done some feral things to me. Also, a lot of the artists here are less literal similarities and more similar energy, just so we’re all on the same page, here.

Green Day: Are We the Waiting; Blood, Sex, Booze; She; Viva la Gloria!; Viva la Gloria?; Peacemaker; Letterbomb (there are more, I just have to stop talking about Green Day at some point, before we’re all here for another three thousand plus words)

Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock; We’re Not Gonna Take It (look, I listened to Stay Hungry once, I didn’t internalize most of it yet, sorry)

Slipknot: Snuff; Circles; Vermillion (pt. 2, also); Til We Die; Psychosocial; The Devil In I; Duality

Adore Delano: Witch Hunt; 3 Flowers; Pretty Boys Cry; 27 Club

The Clash: London Calling; Should I Stay or Should I Go; I Fought The Law (I have not listened to a lot of their music yet)

Fastball: The Way; Out Of My Head

Pink Floyd: In the Flesh?; Waiting For The Worms; Goodbye Blue Sky; The Thin Ice; Young Lust; One of My Turns; Another Brick In the Wall pt 2; Comfortably Numb (I’ve only listened to The Wall so far)

If I haven’t mentioned someone here that anyone who’s made it through this whole post thinks that I should’ve, you’re probably right and I just haven’t listened to them yet! I think this kind of outed me on this, but most of my music knowledge stops dead before the 80s, outside of Motown, so I don’t completely know what I’m talking about yet.

All that out of the way, thank you for reading, I hope this helps, and I’m so sorry this thing is so long.

[takethistoyourstardust]

Mage Ranks the JD2023E Map… Physical

Today, we continue our journey into the story mode with the third song, where we meet our fourth character, the popular fitness influencer Brezziana!

MAP: Physical - Dua Lipa DIFFICULTY: Easy EFFORT: Intense JD+ NEEDED?: No SEASON: Base game/Enter the dancerverses playlist

Who needs to go to sleep, when it’s my review you can read (under the cut, as always)?

--

I’ve never actually heard this song before! I know Dua Lipa (who’s name I keep wanting to spell as ‘Dia Lupa’) is a very popular singer, but I think I’ve only ever heard three songs from her. Nothing against her, she’s just never really on my radar. But if all her songs are as fun as Physical, then I really should be looking more into her, because WOW this is a fun track! It makes me wanna sing along to it... if the dance didn’t make me so out of breath!

Which isn’t a mark against the dance at all! It’s supposed to be a cardio workout, done by an in-universe fitness influencer! And it’s even rated as needing an intense amount of effort, with all the jumping and the spins she does! Seriously tho, everyone makes fun of Locked out of Heaven for the spins like spins aren’t a major part of this map’s chorus... Hell, the first gold move is you dropping to your knees while flexing! And there’s not much repetition in the moves. Well, you do the same sets of moves twice during the verses, but verse 1 vs. verse 2 has completely different sets. However... I don’t think this is a very ‘easy’ routine. In the beta version, this was apparently ranked as “medium”, and I gotta say that I agree with the beta version’s ranking. With how much jumping and popping you have to do, even if it’s easy to follow, it’s gonna be tough for a lot of players at a lower skill level, especially coming off of two easy ranked songs that felt justified in their ‘easy’ rank (and, well, Being The Third Song In The Playlist, it’s gonna feel a bit tougher than just going into it solo).

They may have been just ranking it off our coach, though, who makes everything look easy.

The coach here is Brezziana, who is just... so iconic. Her outfit is so fun, I love the colors, and her body type is so unique compared to the other dancers! The energy she injects into the dance is sooooo much fun!! She’s also the first coach in the story mode to partially lip synch along to her song. She doesn’t do it much on the verses, but she does lip synch basically all the chorus and the bridge. I mean this in a complimentary way, it gives the vibes that she’s making a TikTok! And the way she makes such a physical (no pun intended) routine look so fucking easy cannot be overstated. Trust me, by the time I finished this one, I was ready to make like the first gold move and fucking collapse.

And it’s really cool that she doesn’t hesitate to join Wanderlust and Sara on their quest to get the other coaches back! Her presence seems to calm them, and she gets the vibes immediately. Oh, shit’s going down and she’s gotta dance to help everyone? Hell yeah, let’s fucking go! Open up your portals and let’s get to it!!

The background of a fun little mall is also, well, fun! I’m a sucker for malls and big loud colorful aesthetics, so seeing her dance in such a place is a delight for the eyes! I’m sorry if this review seems shorter than the others, this is just a really solid map, so I feel like it really speaks for itself! And I love that this setting comes back in the extreme alt for this map (which will be ranked separately, as all alts will be)! Another thing I liked about the background is that it seemed extremely lived in! A ton of extras walking around, some reacting to Brezziana’s dancing, some just going about their day, and of course people joining in with her during the chorus. It’s just fun! This map is just pure fun!

--

GENERAL RATING: THUMBS UP!

SPECIFIC RATING: 10/10

The first 10/10 I award a map! This routine is fun personified. A fun coach, a fun background, a fun dance, and a fun song! I really couldn’t ask for anything more if I tried! If I had to give any specific criticism to it, I would say that it really should’ve kept it’s beta rating of Medium difficulty, I feel like Easy is a bit of a deceptive ranking. Sure, the moves themselves are easy, but stringing all of them together in this cardio workout, not so much. Also, the tie in to the story line is a bit clunky, but since everyone is technically a silent protagonist, I’m not too terribly pressed about it. But yes, I love this map!! Not much more to say than that!

--

Thanks for reading! Next map, we’re encountering a massive difficulty spike and non-binary swag with the map Rather Be! You’re not obligated to follow me, but I’m posting a ranking of a JD 2023 map every day at noon EST until I finish all the maps (and obviously when they add new ones, I’ll review those too!), so if that interests you, please stick around! Have a good day!

~ Mage <3

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough: Githyanki creche

(Spoilers)

I only just realized it - this monastery is the one that you can accidentally explode and get Astarion throwing the temper tantrum about, can’t wait!

At the beginning of the game, I was totally fine with Shadowheart being a worshiper of Shar. Yeah fine, dark and forbidden gods, I’m down with that, goth girls, beauty in the darkness peace in the shadows all of that, 100% I am here for it. But as the game goes on and I read more things about what the Shar worshippers and dark justiciars actually do, hahahahahaaaa yanno I don’t think I’m so down with that anymore, actually. We will have to stage an intervention with this girl sometime soon here I think.

Everyone in the party: “oh yikes, be sure not to use magic on those gremishka!”

Me, blasting spells in anyways: “Maybe I LIKE the pretty panthers”

I’m sad you can’t talk to the kobolds though? They look hilarious. I forgot about the fire warning and had Lae’zel attack with her flaming sword and blew up the whole platform. Oops. Hilariously, even after I killed them all, I was still getting the drinking and burping ambient noises. It seems like the noises were spawning from *the wine barrels themselves* rather the kobolds that were supposed to be doing the drinking??? (or… hm. Were there kobolds INSIDE those barrels? Like the goblins at the siege? I popped all those barrels into my barrel stash, are they just going to sit there forever pickling in the firewine now?)

Eagles vs blue jay - I love little flavour things like this, the blue jay whining that the eagles took his nest… I just wish there was a way to go back and tell him that I’m not helping after all, because it’s clear that he didn’t build that giant nest on top of the roof, and he seems so blase about how he himself stole a nest from a different bird. I clearly just don’t understand bird morality at all, so I’m not going to even get involved. The eagles were quite funny.

YOUTH VARRL. Youth Varrl omg. This kid. What a sweetheart. I’m glad there were options where he doesn’t have to die: sometimes there aren’t ways to save NPCs (like that poor little gnome that got yeeted into the lava). God I wish I could bring him with me, what a funny little sweetheart that guy is. I wanted to read that Orpheus book (well, disc) he was talking about, and as a bard I got the option to say that if he gave it to me, I would write an amazing song about it. He got excited and said he would write his own song too, then started singing his own little theme song, aaah my god what a precious guy. I’ve already got Barcus hanging out at my camp, there’s room for one more! God I wish I could bring this kid with me. I can’t remember ever playing a game like this where I enjoyed the NPCs as much. I feel a bit bad taking his book because he liked it so much, but I wanted to read it and I didn’t see an option to like… “hey let me borrow that for a sec then give it back to you.” Initially I tried to buy it off him in a trade, paid him money, we’re all good, just like I do for lots of characters… and then I noticed the dialogue options were implying that I STOLE it?? Excuse me?? I gave him gold and he passed it over? Does the game consider all non-dialogue triggered trading to be stealing??? Cause I’ve been buying tons of books from people this way??? Oh well, the song option was hilarious so I went with that.

Yanno, I can’t help but feel like I’m playing this game wrong. Or at least very differently from everyone else. Yeah yeah I know, no wrong way to play, you play the way that makes you happy. But like. I dunno! I’m looking at my 8 gigs worth of save slots that I’ve organized like the gallery of an otome game, so that I can go back and rerun any important cut scene that I really liked at any time… I’m looking at my totally full map and journal and hearing everyone talk about how there’s so much replay value in the game cause they totally missed X or Y the first run and I’m like… can’t relate cause I have done all of that already. Thoroughly. I feel like maybe I should have been leaving things to do later. I feel like I was supposed to raise everyone’s approval slower, get through these areas faster. Oh well.

I think it would have been neat if the main story was actually a bit smaller, and more modular. I think it would have been interesting if certain choices actually locked you down certain paths and locked you out of some things, necessitating a replay if you want to see all of it. Like, you really do have to choose between the Underdark route and the mountain pass, and you can’t go back and do both. Or maybe, choosing to help the tieflings with their goblin issues means you run out of time to do things at the creche, something like that. I feel like maybe there was a plan at one point to do this, but in the end they chickened out and left everything open.

Up next - gotta figure out how my anti-authoritarian Tav is going to diplomatically deal with Vlaakith and not get his ass fried into drow crisps.

[tielt]

Ramble about data and personal space

data-whore and I’ve migrated OS a lot lately and my memory is bad so I’ve been working through some robots that just scan for dupes I’m trawling my bash mostly which is usually a bad idea to use git to store but every time I switched from osx (corp) to Linux machine learning to windows I’d copy my scripts and it got to be literally 100s of thousands of lines of code I refuse to look at cause it’s mostly forgotten copies of nothing useful but some stuff I’ve put a ton of work into and don’t want to toss the mess of it. You can convert a function to hex pretty easily so anything in my current configs can be scanned for and tossed. Bigger things can be shasum so it’s a lot of tokenization and I would just throw it all out if I hadn’t spent so much time on certain things. I felt like it would be faster, but it hasn’t panned out that way. Mostly it’s meditative for me right now to be cleaning things I didn’t have time for before. I loose track of days at a time zoned tf… Thinking a lot about PDA I wish they’d have named it another acronym that one is already overloaded. I fit the profile but I don’t feel I understand what being human even is like when I try to grapple pathological demand avoidance there is this obvious line of you aren’t killing people or singing the song that never ends at passing neighbors. When I do things I mean to do them, I just don’t have the pieces of what that will feel like exactly till it’s done. Hi I’m human how are I doing 24k dialup chrrrrrr chchh. I typically understand the first few branches of consequence but it never really feels that way In hindsight where I feel blind as a bat. The medical student syndrome is really potent on TikTok for me it’s always good to mind the is it disrupting your ability to operate. I’ve had a long break till recently from drinking, but it’s nice having a end of the day swill and some uninhibited fun but life is strange. please don’t try to socialize with people who are head-phoning. I rarely listen to music at home I do this certain days because I literally don’t want to hear it at that moment and that includes complements. I have a really wide range of types of days, this really should be obvious culturally at this point. Im not speaking to tumblr people there, y’all have a lot of lee way to me because I’m offline mostly and when I’m not I am choosing to be here.

Decent strat I do is 7z keeps to backup location, unzip to new workspace/archive location digest every sorted checksum (sha256 as a sqlite db key in my case). Purge every other copy. The first step (what is keeps and how to sort it) is brutal cause repeating the process is worse. Yeah my memory is a mess. 😭🖤🕷️

[adelheidvonschicksal]

I could do a scenario where reader loves to mess with megumi's hair, but suddenly she stops because she thinks she's bothering him.

The first time you notice how soft his hair is was when you were returning to school after a long mission.

You were riding in a car with the entire first-year gang. Nobara sat in the front seat next to Ijichi while you were placed in the back between Yuji and Megumi. The ride back was a long one. After an exhausting day of exorcising curses, you were all tired. Nobara and Yuji ended up falling asleep minutes into the ride, leaving Megumi to watch the sights passing through the window and you shyly trying to make conversation with him.

It's hard considering the strong crush you have on your fellow classmate. He was intelligent, kinder than he really let on, and fairly mature (at least compared to the people you’re usually around). His good looks were the cherry on top of the entire package. Everyone knew Megumi was a pretty boy and often teased him about it. He had fair skin, long, thick eyelashes, and your favorite being his dark hair. It looked so soft whenever your teacher would pat his head, flattening out the black tresses and ruffling them, much to Megumi’s chagrin. But you really wished you could feel as well.

You were the type of person to show your fondness for others through touch. Some people liked it, and some didn’t. For example, Yuji normally had no problem with you touching him, even welcomed it. You weren’t brave enough to ask someone like Megumi for the same sort of relationship, so you kept your hand to yourself when it came to him. At least until Megumi fell asleep, leaning against the car door for support. It’s then you saw your chance and carefully reached to touch one of the longer spikes.

The little black point wavered at your poking, lightly curling around your index finger as you swirled it around. You giggled to yourself about it. It’s thicker and fluffier than you imagined and also incredibly soft, proving Kugisaki’s theory about a ton of hairspray wrong.

Suddenly, a bump in the road cut your touching short, and you quickly jumped away when Megumi’s eyes began to flutter open.

Suspicious, he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” you said calmly despite your heart thumping under his gaze, but he dropped his interrogation as you all pulled into the school’s parking lot.

That was three months ago.

Now, the two of you were dating, and you saw that as permission to continue your physical intimacy with your more introverted boyfriend.

“Good morning, guys,” you greet your classmates and teacher with a wave, saving your happier actions for Megumi as your hand immediately goes towards his head to ruffle his hair. You pull your hand away but not before letting your fingers clasp your favorite cowlick. Giving a gentle tug, you let it bounce back into place with a smile.

Megumi groans softly, his mouth pursed into a slight frown as he goes to fix his hair back into its normal disarray.

Gojo claps, bringing your attention towards him. “Well now that everyone’s here, let’s go shopping.”

With that, the five of you head to the shopping district despite the heat bearing down on the city. You spend about an hour walking around before deciding to take a break so Nobara and Gojo can catch their breath in the shade while you return some clothes you bought a few weeks earlier across the street. Megumi and Yuji go to buy all five of you drinks, but it isn’t long before you hear Yuji yelling from outside the store.

“Sensei! Kugisaki! Fushiguro is getting hit on! We have to protect (L/Name)’s relationship!”

Before you could even stop them, they’re already up and running in Fushiguro’s direction. Sighing, you grab your card from the store owner and run to catch up with your group.

When you arrive, Kugisaki and Itadori are already clinging to him and ranting something about being in love with him before Gojo saunters up in his best casual wear to challenge them. You have to stifle back a laugh as he goes on about music practice and homewrecking before the event ends with Megumi smacking Yuji in the head as Nobara and Gojo stalk off, defeated.

Hearing your laughter, Yuji cowers behind you with tearful chibi eyes. “Do you see that, (Name)? Fushiguro is so mean. I was only trying to help him and that's the treatment I get .”

“You didn’t help at all. You were nothing short of embarrassing.”

You giggle at the two before reaching out to your silently fuming boyfriend. “No need to be so grumpy, Megumi-kun, or did Gojo give you too much violin homework,” you sing out teasingly, earning a growl about how it isn’t funny as you playfully scramble his hairstyle.

“And that! Will you stop with that?” Megumi demands and forcefully shoves your hand away. “It’s so annoying. You don’t see me petting you all day like some damn pet.”

“Oh,” you say, stepping back from him in your shock. This is the first time Megumi has brought up how you chose to dote on him. Yes, he’d quietly grumble about it from time to time like most things, but he never yelled at you about how you chose to display your affection. You guess you never really realized how much it truly bothered him. Biting back the hurt in your voice, you apologize. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

Megumi grunts softly in response, and Yuji decides it’s probably best to ask Gojo to take you all home for today.

It isn’t long after that Megumi begins to notice your interactions with him starting to change. He apologized for yelling at you soon after the event, but you were still much less touchy with him even after accepting his apology.

Normally, you’d grab onto his hand without so much as asking or surprise him with kisses on his cheek. Now, you only hold his pinky from time to time and only if he asks. You also stop your go-to of rubbing his head when you’d greet him or playing with the ends of his hair when you were bored.

Megumi thought maybe something was bothering you, but then he noticed how you’d still laugh and joke around with Yuji and Nobara, your hand gripping onto their shoulder when they’d tell an extra funny joke or affectionately patting them on the back. That wasn’t the worst though. The worst was when you’d absentmindedly sweep Yuji’s hair back into place when it got messy from training. The jealousy it sparked in Megumi was the last straw that makes him decide to ask you what was wrong.

You’re surprised when he tugs on your sleeve, interrupting your conversation with Itadori and Kugisaki. “Hey, can we talk?”

“Sure,” you say, nodding off to Itadori and Kugisaki before following Megumi to the waterspouts outside. You both sat together on the brick square surrounding the structure. It’s a few quiet seconds of you staring at Megumi as he folds his hands in front of him and lazily taps his foot. Dark blue eyes stare at you before dropping back to the ground.

“Are you still mad at me for yelling at you the other week?”

You shake your head. “I told you it’s fine. I’m not mad at you about that.”

“Then, it’s something else,” he decides, and he desperately tries to rack his brain for what else he could have possibly done wrong, “I’m sure I didn’t forget your birthday or anything. Do you not like me anymore or something?”

Gasping, you deny his claim, “Of course I like you, why would you think I don’t?”

“Because you’re not so friendly with me anymore like the way you are with the others, so either you’re upset with me, or you don’t have the same feelings for me as you do with them.”

“It’s neither of those things. With Yuji and Nobara, they’re both sociable people, but you aren’t like them. You don’t like all that kind of stuff, and I don’t want to annoy you by doing things you don’t like.”

Megumi scowls at your confession, sighing because he remembers exactly why you must be talking like this so suddenly. He specifically called your touches annoying, and he inwardly curses at himself for it. “You’re wrong. It’s not that I don’t like it…” he begins unsurely then pauses.

“Then, what?”

Megumi groans softly, an embarrassed heat starting to build in his cheeks as he quietly croaks out, “Feels good.”

“What’s that?” you ask, scooting closer so you can hear him better.

Megumi blushes lightly and cranks his head to look away from your cutely confused blinking. “It feels good when you do it,” he repeats robotically.

“When I do what?”

“When you play with my hair,” he hesitantly explains in more detail, “When Gojo does it, it’s aggravating, but I don't mind so much with you.”

Hesitantly, you ask, “So is it okay if I do it now?”

Megumi nods. “If you want.”

Cautiously, you lift your hand, pulling back in doubt a few times before ultimately sliding your fingers through his hair and rubbing. Megumi groans softly at your touch, and you realize that all those rushed noises of aggravation were actually him moaning from how light and comforting your touch was. You move your hand forward and backward some more, massaging his head until his head starts nodding and his eyes flutter a bit.

You giggle at him. “Are you falling asleep? You’re such a kid.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you.”

You laugh louder as he scoffs to hide his embarrassment.

“In that case, you can sleepover with me tonight, and we can do this if you want,” you offer sweetly, and Megumi glances at you, thinking it over. As your smile grows and your hand hits that sweet spot right at the nape of his neck, he couldn’t deny that he liked the idea of falling asleep with you playing with his hair.

“I’d like that.”

[queensusanthemagnificent]

It’s Gushing About Cinderella 1997 Time Again

Okay, so instead of color theory, today, I’m looking at Cinderella’s journey with trust, the Prince’s inability to recognize her at the ball, and how that aspect of the original fairytale got utilized to further along the theme of learning to trust people to love you for who you are.

Part 1: The Prince Meets Cinderella

When the prince meets Cinderella just after The Sweetest Things, there is no magic involved at all, and he’s IMMEDIATELY smitten with her. Just thinks she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen and makes no bones about trying to figure out how to ask her out even after she’s excused herself to go about her day. Cinderella is visibly uncomfortable with the attention, but doesn’t completely turn him away. We know from The Sweetest Things that she WANTS love, that she yearns for it even, but the moment someone turns around and gives it to her, she doesn’t seem to know what to do with it anymore. She’s mostly confused by the prince’s behavior, but ultimately gains enough confidence and chutzpah to call him out on continuing to pester her even when she’s made it fairly clear she’s not interested by asking him if he even knows how to treat a woman.

And of course has her iconic line:

He sticks his foot in his mouth right after by saying she’s “not like most girls” which I will somewhat excuse as we know the prince has grown up massively sheltered and has likely not spoken to many women outside of the trappings of nobility who are all attempting to gain his or his parents’ favor, particularly as a suitor (we also know from a later scene that his mother has been attempting to set him up for a while and this is likely how he has met most women he’s ever interacted with).

Cinderella chooses to be forgiving and admits that she’s led a fairly sheltered life, thus how she’s gained her opinions I suppose, and the prince admits the same and they really seem to connect TOGETHER for the first time before the stepmother interrupts. Despite her choice to try to walk away from the prince when he initially showed interest in her, Cinderella risks her stepmother’s impatience and irritation by turning back one last time to watch the prince leave. She WANTS love, she WANTS to trust that someone could be interested in her like this, but she doesn’t completely trust it to happen or to last.

Part 2: The Prince sees Cinderella at the Ball

The next time the prince sees Cinderella is at the ball. He’s just spent the last several hours making nice with a bunch of women he doesn’t know and isn’t interested in so he can appease his mother. Presumably, he could probably expect the girl he met in the marketplace a few days ago might make an appearance given that the invite went out to all the girls in the kingdom, but he never mentions it. While it was clearly a nice connection to make in the moment, he seems to mostly chalk it up to a successful trip to the village, made nicer by a pretty girl and doesn’t think much about it afterwards, esp since the problem of the ball comes up immediately and his attention gets derailed.

In other words, the prince is not thinking about Cinderella anymore. Not maliciously, but he’s got other things on his mind, so when she shows up and he doesn’t recognize her despite having flirted with her only a few days ago, it’s somewhat understandable. Plus, she’s all made up with a completely different hairstyle and a nice dress and they have only met ONCE, for a few minutes total, several days ago.

But, that being said, while he doesn’t recognize her, he IS once again immediately smitten with her, and he does have that sense of familiarity, he just can’t place where. The problem then comes when he starts to try to guess how he knows her.

His guesses are all related to Cinderella being rich and/or nobility like him rather than considering that commoner girl he flirted with in the marketplace only a few days ago. Cinderella reacts fairly kindly to those guesses, telling him that she can’t swim, so she wouldn’t have been at the lake that summer, or that she’s never been to the mountains where his lodge is. But these assumptions eventually feed into Cinderella’s feelings of inadequacy and her fears that he won’t care for her when he finds out who she really is despite his initial reaction to her in the marketplace.

She starts to get flustered again when he calls her beautiful and her attention is drawn to how everyone around her is looking at them, but is effectively distracted by the Prince beginning to sing and only becomes flustered again once the King and Queen decide to insert themselves into the situation and get to know her and the reality of what seems to be happening hits her. She just intended to go to a fun party and dance a little, but now she’s gotten the attention of the Prince and it’s coming back to her that the point of the ball was for the Prince to find a WIFE. But she can tell, both from the Prince’s earlier comments and the ones made by the King and Queen asking who she is and who her family is, that they’re assuming things about her status that aren’t true.

Cinderella wants to keep living in a fantasy, though, where a Prince could love someone like her, so every time her reality comes into the conversation, she tries to move the conversation away. She wants to live in the bubble of romance the Prince is creating for her rather than talking about her family or what he wants in a wife.

And it works, right up until the clock strikes midnight and that reality crashes down on her like an avalanche.

Despite everything they’ve talked about that night, about how he knows she’s The One despite just having met her, about what he wants in a wife and how she seems to fit that description, about their feelings, Cinderella does not trust that he’s going to like her once he finds out who she is. Because despite how much time they’ve spent with each other (which, according to clock, is about 45 minutes now), he hasn’t recognized her as the girl from the marketplace ONCE.

Cinderella herself never mentions whether she recognizes the Prince from the marketplace or not, but we can fairly safely assume that she does. That moment meant a LOT to her, it was likely the first friendliness she had been shown in a while, especially by a stranger, and it hit her like a ton of bricks. It showed her that someone COULD be interested in her for who she is, could grow to love her.

And of course, meeting the Prince’s family at the ball gives her a sense of what it would be like to be part of HIS family, a family that already does seem to like her well enough and clearly care about their son. It’s everything she’s ever dreamed of having, but they all believe her to be something she isn’t, and she can’t trust that they’d treat her the same if they knew. So instead of risking it all for love, for that dream, she runs again. She’d rather leave it one really good night and a lifelong what-if than get rejected one more time.

Cinderella runs home, back to what she knows, back to what’s comfortable. In the “Do I Want You” reprise, Cinderella appears wistful, but resigned. The Prince, on the other hand, seems almost more confident and determined. He’s smiling at the empty courtyard, even before he sees the shoe left behind. Cinderella is prepared to let everything go, but the Prince no longer is. She told him at the ball is that the problem with most people is that they only dream about things without ever doing anything about it.

So he does. He commits himself to finding her, even WITHOUT the shoe, he’s committed to finding her.

Part 3: The Prince Finds Cinderella

Obviously, the fact that the Prince has the need to go out and have everyone try on the shoe means he still has no idea who Cinderella is. He never asks her name at the ball, so he hasn’t connected her to the girl from the marketplace who DID tell him her name. He can’t just go into the village and ask for “Cinderella” yet. But the fact that he goes INTO the village at all means he has recognized that this girl could be literally anyone, commoner or nobility, and it doesn’t matter to him which it is. He’s making no assumptions about her identity anymore.

And then he sees her. In an obvious throwback to their first meeting, he finds her having just dropped all of her belongings in front of a carriage because it moved in front of her a little quickly.

Backing up, though. Cinderella’s gone through an entire journey during this time period. She left the Prince behind at the ball, ready to leave that dream behind as “impossible.” And gives it one last go with the family she was left with, trying to connect with them, be a part of it. And it fails. Again.

But it gives her the strength to realize that this was never going to work. And while she doesn’t believe she can be what a Prince wants, she DOES believe she deserves to be loved and deserves better than what her stepmother is dishing out.

So, the next day, while the Prince is out with a glass slipper, going through every eligible girl in the kingdom trying to find her, Cinderella is preparing to leave her childhood home and set out on her own. Even when she ostensibly DOES hear the Prince in the house, trying on the slipper with her family, she chooses not to make herself known to him, and walks away.

But not quite fast enough and the Prince sees her.

She is once again dressed as a commoner with no magic involved, and this time, the Prince immediately recognizes her both as the woman from the marketplace AND the woman from the ball. From behind. By referencing their first meeting where he initially made his interest known, he indicates that he still likes her despite now knowing her background, and perhaps even BECAUSE he now knows her background as the first woman he ever met who truly understood how he felt and treated him like a person, with kindness and respect, rather than like a Prince.

Cinderella has a choice here. He recognizes her, yes, but she doesn’t have to play along. She doesn’t have to turn around and admit to anything, she COULD, presumably, choose to keep running. But the fact that he RECOGNIZES her, finally, and still wants her, gives her just enough courage to turn around and trust him and confirm her identity, both as the girl in the marketplace and the girl who fits the slipper.

And it pays off. Trusting someone to love you as you are, having the courage to actually go after your dream, to let it come true, pays off.

Have I mentioned how much I love this movie recently? Because this is PEAK Cinderella, and I love this movie.

[ptergwen]

no sleep

pairing: singer!reader x tom holland || w/c: 1.6k

warnings: swearing and many many many suggestive jokes

summary: you’re on jimmy kimmel to talk about your music, but he has other plans

a/n: y’all i’ve literally always wanted to write singer!reader and this idea just came to me and i had to get it out because it’s so cute :,) i really hope ya like it

-

jimmy kimmel invited you onto his show to promote a single from your upcoming album. you stepped out of the spotlight for a while, so this is your first official appearance of the year.

“my first guest tonight...” there’s a cheer from the audience. you grin to yourself, waiting for jimmy to finish announcing you.

“you wanna say it for me?” he chuckles and stands your picture up on his desk. “my first guest tonight surprised fans this morning with her new single ‘no sleep.’ it’s currently number one in over seventy countries.” jimmy holds for applause, which you get a ton of. you cover your hot face with your hands.

“she’s here to talk to us about the song and her short hiatus. please welcome y/n y/l/n!”

the music plays while you walk onstage, followed by more cheers and clapping. you’re beaming as you wave to everyone. you give jimmy a quick hug and exchange hello’s over the noise.

you’ve been in the industry for a few years, but you’ll never get used to responses like this. all the love really warms your heart.

“thank you!” you giggle out, taking your seat on the couch. the audience yells some more when the music dies out. “thank you so much! oh my god,” you make a face at jimmy, who laughs and gestures to everyone. “they clearly hated the song,” he jokes to you. “i was gonna say,” you agree, smoothing your dress down.

you look out at the crowd with a pout. “no, seriously. you guys are so cute.” jimmy copies your pout, earning a playful eye roll from you.

you’ve been on the show a couple of times before, so you two are friendly. tom has also brought you to chill backstage with him when he was a guest. you would’ve brought him this time if he wasn’t away for filming.

“so, you took most of the year off from making music,” jimmy starts the actual conversation. “mhm, i did,” you hum and cross one of your legs over the other. “how was that? was it weird not being in the studio?” you scrunch your face up, then he adds another question. “what did you actually do with yourself?”

“i mean, music is obviously a big part of who i am. making it, loving it, all that stuff.” a small smile crosses your face. “so, yeah. it sort of felt like something was missing at first.” jimmy nods along, you shrugging one of your shoulders.

“at the same time, i really needed to take a minute and just breathe. come back with my shit more together. i think i have,” you let out a reflective sigh. “it didn’t have anything to do with your boyfriend? a mr. tom holland?” jimmy teases, you waving a hand at him. “no, don’t give him all the credit.”

your break genuinely was for yourself. no one needs to know that tom was also off, or that he spent all his free time with you. that was just a plus.

“are you sure? because, it seemed like you two were getting really cozy.” a picture from your instagram pops up on the screen. it’s of tom under a blanket. he’s reaching out for you with a lazy smile. you lean over on the couch so you’re off camera, another giggle escaping you.

jimmy flips to another picture. “that was exhibit A. here’s exhibit B.” the whole audience coos, jimmy raising his eyebrows at you. this one is a mirror selfie from tom’s instagram. your arms are slung around his neck from behind, and half your face is hidden. tom is doing his signature eye crinkling smile into the camera.

“aren’t they just adorable?” jimmy asks the audience, making them erupt in more cheers. you sit up again and clear your throat. seeing those is bittersweet for you. “he’s very cuddly. anyway, back to the music!” you do a small clap. little do you know, there’s much more to come.

“yes, yes. back to the music. talk to me about ‘no sleep.’” the song is one hundred percent about tom. you’re not sure you should say that, considering the... explicit content in it. you and tom did get very cozy over your break, as jimmy would say. it was the only time you weren’t relaxing.

“well,” you plaster on an overly happy smile. that earns more laughter from jimmy. “it’s about what you do in bed when you’re, um, not sleeping,” you explain. “and who do you do those things in bed with?” jimmy glances up at the screen again. “you’re choosing violence today, jimmy,” you say under your breath.

there’s a chuckle from backstage that sounds eerily similar to tom’s. it must have been a PA. all this talk about him is seriously fucking with your head.

“well, everyone in my life inspires my work in some way. they’re such angels,” you dodge the question, thinking you’re clever about it. jimmy won’t let you get off that easy. “friends? family?” he asks you. “yeah, everyone,” you exhale in relief. jimmy widens his eyes at you. “so, that means ‘no sleep’ is about your mom?”

your mouth falls open. he’s really going to make you spill the details of your sex life.

“what the fuck, no!” you squeal, looking out into the audience for help. they join in your laughter. “it’s about tom,” you finally confirm so jimmy doesn’t suggest anything else. “it’s about tom, my god. next topic.” you’re smiling despite yourself.

“why? don’t you wanna tell us more about your lover?” jimmy glances off to the side. what is going on back there? you sit up straighter in your spot. “no, this is my interview!” you’re half joking, half serious.

although you and tom aren’t private at all, you’ve never talked about him this much. it’s overwhelming. besides that, this is making you miss him a lot.

“that’s too bad. we thought... we thought you might like to share it,” jimmy is already grinning about whatever he has planned. this isn’t supposed to be part of your segment. “huh? i’m literally so lost.” you furrow your eyebrows at him, lowering your voice. “we didn’t talk about this.”

he pats the arm of your couch. “they say there’s no time like the present. ladies and gentlemen, tom holland!”

on cue, tom runs out from backstage. the audience practically roars with how loud they are. people even jump out of their seats. you clasp a hand over your mouth in pure shock. this feels like a prank, like jimmy is about to say sike. then, tom comes up to the couch. you almost fall over, jimmy proudly watching on.

tom grins so wide it takes up his whole face. “happy release day,” he murmurs as you get to your feet. you’re not able to speak just yet, only staring up at him with glossy eyes. he brings you into a tight hug. his hands rub up and down your back, your arms snaking around his middle.

“tommy,” you try to whisper the nickname. you forgot your microphone is on. everyone “aw’s” at you both, including jimmy. “my love,” tom’s lips brush your cheek briefly. “hi, baby,” he speaks into your ear. you hide your face in his button up while he rocks you side to side.

he’s been away for a couple of months working on the third spider-man. this is the first time you’ve seen him since he left.

“shouldn’t you be in atlanta?” you ask louder this time for the audience to hear. you’re still doing an interview. “today’s a big day. i had to see you,” tom gives you one last squeeze. “in person,” he adds, before you can say you already facetimed.

the fact that him and jimmy put this whole thing together is making you emotional. you’d be fully crying if you two were alone right now.

“she doesn’t want you here, though. remember?” jimmy chimes in, tom breathing out a laugh. he sadly lets go of you. you flop back onto the couch, tom pointing behind him with his thumb. “i’ll just be on my way. five hour flight, no big deal.” “no, no, no, no. stay,” you whine and make grabby hands at him.

that’s all it takes for tom to slip into the spot next to you. he bites back a smile, putting an arm around you and the couch. you don’t want to annoy everyone with too much pda, so you subtly curl into his side. the people actually love you and tom together. jimmy claps his hands.

“we’ll be right back with y/n y/l/n and tom holland!” he says into the camera, the band playing more filler music. he steps out from behind the desk to greet tom. tom stands up, the two of them giving each other pats on the back. the camera stops rolling.

“hey, man. thanks for doing this,” tom puts a hand on jimmy’s arm. “anything for the happy couple. i’m gonna get some water, see you in five.” jimmy shoots you another smile on his way to his dressing room. you return it. that leaves you and tom to yourselves.

“baby,” you say in a sing song voice, dropping your head onto tom’s shoulder. “i’m so happy you’re here. i real life almost peed when you came out.” tom snakes his arm around your waist. “that would be upsetting,” he mumbles, his index finger drawing circles on you. “it would’ve ruined your very pretty dress.”

“you like it?” you knowingly tug at the form fitting material. tom shifts in his spot. “i’ll tell you what,” he leans in closer to you with a smirk, his breath tickling your ear. “we’re getting no sleep tonight,” he sings from the chorus of your song. you burst into a giggle and squeeze your eyes shut.

he ends up being right.

[chocominnie]

One Last Time 06 —  Pjm. (M)

⇢ pairing: Jimin X Reader

⇢ Genre: Idol!Jimin, Exbf!Jimin, model!reader, sad au, fluff, tons of smut, angst

⇢ Synopsis: Your idol ex boyfriend Jimin cheated on you. You two have been broken up for a while now and the media has been keeping track of you and him. You’re trying to get over him, but the things that happen inbetween makes you re-think the entire breakup, and so does Jimin…

⇢ Song : xxxxx

⇢ Word Count : 3k

⇢ Warnings: dominant jimin, makeout sessions, this is honestly a sad angsty au, cheating, pregnancy, unprotected and protected sex, a bunch of sex, no really a LOT of sexual themes too, I know I’m forgetting some but sorry in advance!

⇢ Copyright: please do NOT repost, translate, or modify my works in any way, shape or form, on any platform. If found doing so , it is considered as plagiarism and appropriate LEGAL action will be taken

⇢ Authors note: This is my mini series for the summer! Get your tissues, things to take your anger out on, and sit back and watch the drama unfold. Shall we begin?

‘‘ I swear I am going to have someone beat your ass Park Jimin!’’

‘‘ It’s not my fucking fault! I broke up with her but you lead her to the apartment  knowing she’ll follow!’‘

‘‘ Damn it Jimin im going to kick your ass!’‘

Your eyes pop open just in time to see Jungkook on-top of Jimin hitting him repeatedly on the face while Jimin manages to push him off of him and begin his fist fight against him. He straddles Jungkook to the floor and punches are thrown left and right. Now the sudden headache of seeing the two brothers fight has began in your head and you cannot stand hearing the groaning and yelling between them. Bringing your hand up to signal them to stop, you realize they don’t even know you’ve awakened.

 Jungkook on the other hand is not having it so he throws Jimin off of him harshly making Jimin groan. The way he grabs Jimin’s collar with venom fast strength finally gives you the courage to yell out to them.

‘‘ Stop! Damn it, you two are like literal fucking teenagers. Act your age!”

The both of them turn their heads toward you slowly. Jungkook drops his fist, which was going to connect with Jimin’s face. You take a good look at them. Freshly bruised from each-other. Great.

‘‘ You think fighting is going to solve this problem huh? Get over here now.” You say, eyebrows furrowed in anger.

Jungkook gives Jimin a death glare before rushing to your side and feeling your forehead. You slap his hand away and pull him down by his shirt only for him to recieve a harsh slap to the forehead.

‘‘ Shit!” He stumbles back and rubs his forehead. He shoots you a glare, wanting to yell at you but doesn’t.  You motion for Jimin to come to you too. He raises his eyebrows in amusement.

‘‘ I don’t think it’s necessary for you to do that..” He says, as if your death glare towards him isn’t enough to tell him you aren’t joking whatsoever.

He gets the memo when you disregard his comments before hanging his head low and bending down a little to your height. One slap against the forehead and two across the wrists.

‘‘ That’s for you fighting He was only looking out for me. The last two were for having a psychotic girlfriend who almost killed me. Look at my wrist!’‘

You hold them out to see two I.V’s, one for blood transfusion and the other a regular for nutrients on your right wrist. Both of them bandaged up which does need to be changed because of the old blood.

‘‘ I know and I’m sorry. I didn’t know she would be this upset.’‘ Jimin says, hanging his head low. Jungkook rolls his eyes at him out of annoyance.

‘‘ Whatever. I already called my lawyer for your case. Since Isabel tried to attempt murder to you, you will win this case for sure.’‘ He proudly leans against the wall hoping to atleast crack a smile from you.

You don’t smile though. The last thing you need is another scandal. If this were to make the news and blogs right now then it could be a bad thing. You’ve just started your modeling career again and right now would be the worst time to have something like that. 

Jimin leans on the wall with his hands in his pockets, still avoiding locking eyes with you which is something he usually does. Something tells you that he’s hiding something. Something that you just can’t put your finger on.

‘‘ The police will come shortly for witness statements and your statement. Then they’ll call for a court date as soon as possible.’‘ Jimin’s voice low, illuminating with a hint of sadness.

Out of curiosity you want to say something more. To ask him whats going on and why he’s acting rather like this. It’s really not like him. He’s hiding something for sure and you just cannot put your finger on it. You just agree and pull out your phone. A missed call from Ryan. You try texting her and she almost always responds immediately. This time she doesn’t. What’s really going on?

You don’t know but Ryan took it upon herself to pay Isabel a visit. Usually visitors aren’t allowed for people in holding but with a little sweet talk of hers she got to get atleast 10 minutes to talk. That’s all she needs. When it comes to you, her bestfriend, she never messes around. Hearing the news from Jungkook yesterday she almost went luncatic. Throwing things at him, calling his brother every disrespectful name in the book. Oh she hates him now for sure.

Jungkook had to stop her from going over to the hospital to beat his ass into a bloody pulp for causing you pain and getting together with that crazy girl just to break up with her. Ryan was heated. 

But now she can take this heat and serve some to Isabel right now. She walks with confidence into the room. Nothing and nobody can stop her and if they even try, she’ll chew them up and spit them out. Catching a glimpise of Isabel sitting at the table with her hands cuffed and security next to her, Ryan shoots her a devious glare.

‘‘ What brings you here? I expected my boyfr-’‘

A harsh slam from her hands hit the table as she bends a little to her seated level, ‘‘ He’ not your fucking boyfriend. You were lucky I wasn’t there to beat your fucking ass.”

The guard tenses up at the sounds and sudden movements. Ryan notices, and decides to take her seat to calm down before she’s the one sitting behind the jail bars too. 

‘‘ Ryan.. I thought we were friends?’‘ She frowns, pouting her lips while fake wiping tears away. 

Ryan scoffs,shaking her head ever so slowly with a devilish grin on her face. “ We aren’t. Don’t let me catch you un-attended without your manager or body guard.. Isabel.’’

Isabel laughs one of her evil laughs, throwing her head back then coming back up, “ Oh how cute. Is this a threat from little ol’ you? Me and Jimin were doing just fine before your bestfriend had decided to enter his life again. I’m not the only bad guy here. She should know boundaries for taken men. Ex’s aren’t supposed to be firendly and lovey dovey. Spending nights and going everywhere with each other. Especially when one’s a famous idol with another idol girlfriend. Do I make myself clear?”

“ Maybe you should take that up with your hoe of a boyfriend. He’s the one who can’t leave her alone.” She yells, inches away from Isabel’s face. The two stare at each other long and hard. Isabel is no match for Ryan though.

The guard clears his throat to break the two’s glares. The tension is thick in the air.

“ If you ever touch yn again, I’ll make sure you’re the one in the hospital this time around.”

‘‘ You’ll all see. I’ll win this court case. Trust me… there’s things you do not know.” 

Ryan rolls her eyes, strutting her way out the room with the sound of her heels clicking right behind her. Consider the message recieved. 

It’s been one week after the situation. In which in between those days you were dismissed from the hospital and have been in at Jimin’s house ever since. You didn’t want to be here. You want to be at home with your cat, Clara. Jungkook’s been going over to feed and play with her. Jimin kept pleading for you not to return home just yet because it could be a danger to you. It makes sense. You never know what Isabel has up her sleeve. 

So you’ve been sitting here doing the same old thing everyday. Eat, watch movies and netflix tv shows,  sleep, and repeat.

Jimin would come in and out of his home studio to check in on you. He still has to work on producing and singing his songs. He’d bring the food and your medicine he prepared per usual,  kiss your forehead, and go right back out to producing his highly anticipated album.

It all seems fake to you. Something is off. Something is not being told to you. You can feel it in your gut but can’t put a finger on it.

‘‘ This is so cliche.’‘ You murmur to yourself, switching the flat-screen T.V off.

And as if on cue Jimin comes inside your- well his room with a glass of water and prescribed pain killers for you. The slight smile on his face makes you want to smile but you don’t.

‘‘ Smile for ocne yn. Do you not like staying here?’‘ He says, sitting next to you on the side of the bed and places the glass in your hands.

You furrow your eyebrows at him, taking the two pills out of his palm. “ No.. but be honest with me Jimin okay?”

His face turns a quick shade of pink then pale as if you had said the wrong choice of words at the wrong time. As if he had seen a ghost at this very moment. That’s not a good sign at all.

‘‘ Are you.. hiding something from me?’‘

The atmosphere is thick and silence fills the room. You don’t say anything and he doesn’t either. Your eyes meet his and for once they don’t pull away first. 

Jimin doesn’t know how to break it to you though. It’s now or never.

‘‘ She will never leave me.”

You bite your lip hard, “ What do you mean?”

“ That she said that she’d do everything to ruin our relationship if we continue to persue one. She’d spready rumors about you to Dispatch. Make a scene whenver you’re near me. Anything she can do, she will do it.”

You don’t know how to take this all in. You knew Isabel was possesive but not this possesive. The thought of her doing things on purpose for you to make everyone hate you makes you want to cry. To just bawl your eyes out right here right now. You can’t.. you won’t do it. 

You won’t give in because thats what she wants. To make you cry. To ruin your reputation and work. Jimin came back into your life and of course you don’t know what to do or how to deal with it. But this is what you wanted right? You’ve been longing for you and him to get a second chance. It’s you. You’re the one who’s been putting things off and not letting things go with the flow. Maybe he came back to you because he realized how wrong he was for cheating on you. For leaving you behind. For not seeing things for truly how it is. 

You knew Isabel was bad luck from the beginning. Now is the time to try and take back what was originally yours. That will hurt her more than ever. 

“ She needs to have a reality check. Not everything revolves around her.”

‘‘ I agree. Putting her behind bars might give her a reality check. It should serve her right for harming people.” Jimin sighs. 

The silence is thick. You both don’t know what to say and it’s sure as hell awkward more than ever right now. Until that silence breaks. 

‘‘ I feel like you aren’t being your true self to me. If we are getting things out now.” 

His sudden comment makes you lift your head up from playing with the comforter. “ What do you mean?’’

‘‘ You.. don’t want to take actions on what you feel, say, or want to do with or about me. It’s killing me inside.”

He’s right. You do try to push your feelings aside no matter what the cause is. It’s just you trying to not set yourself up for hearbreak again. You do want him. You do want everything to do with him. Considering the things that happened in the past, it’s no doubt theres a fence guarding your heart from intruders. 

You exhale out heavily, “ Im just.. scared.’’

‘‘ Of? “

‘‘ Being hurt again.”

Dead silence again. This time he’s the one trying to come up with words to redirect your view of him. Yes, he broke your heart in the worst way possible. He wants you to see he’s changed. 

Jimin bites his lip, voice shaky when he begins talking again. ‘‘ How can I show you that i’m not the same anymore. Im not I promise you. I want you to see I have changed. I know it’s my fault. I destroyed you but let me fix it.”

It’s all come down to this. You’ve wanted this and now is the chance to get it. Now is the chance to have what was once yours. But the feeling of doubt had taken its course on you at the worst time.

‘‘ Jimin.. how do I know that for sure?’‘ You say, unintentionally fluttering your eyes at him. To you it’s to prevent from letting tears fall. 

Jimin see’s it as that specific thing you used to do when you wanted him. When you craved him and would drop hints. To be completely honest, you do crave him. You do want him. Make-up sex was something you two used to do often. It was your toxic way of saying im sorry. 

Somehow you want to put that toxic thing into action right now. As fucked up as it is, that’s how you two know you’re sorry towards each other. Actions speak louder than words. 

He closes his eyes for a quick second before clenching his jaw to contain himself. Your weak spot.

‘‘ Stop doing that. Unless you want to start something you don’t want to finish.” 

You smile just a little, hoping he’d get the memo. “ What if I do want to start and finish it..”

As if a car alarm went off, Jimin’s eyes pop back open with a suprised look. That’s the last thing he’d thought he’d be hearing from you. “ Are you sure about that? I mean we don’t have t-”

You lean in closer to where you guys are inches apart, his lips softly rubbing against yours. “ I’m all for it.”

Within seconds, Jimin’s shirt is removed off of you only revealing your blue panties which have became a little soaked with your wetness. He takes in the scent of you before his mouth connects with your thighs, slightly sucking to leave bruises on you.

‘‘ Jimin.. don’t tease me.”  You sigh, laying fully down to spread your legs even more. He hums against your skin making you catch chills up and down your spine.

‘‘ That’s my specialty baby. You know that.” He trails a kiss with each word all the way down to your core where he dips a finger inside. You tense up attempting to close your legs. He doesn’t allow it, spreading them open harshly again. 

‘’ Jimin-’‘ You barely utter before he begins to move his fingers in and out of you slowly. You let out a whine to try and make him go faster but it doesn’t work.

He comes up to your mouth and plants a wet, sloppy kiss. “ No whining. You’re gonna get what you want. Just relax baby.”

Is all he tells you before he goes back down to your core to tend to your desires.

The first lick between your legs is ever so gentle. Too gentle for you right now considering that you want release badly and Jimin knew exactly that. He opens his mouth and swirls his tongue up and down your slit. A groan leaves his mouth once he gets a taste of you which sends a vibration to your sensitive bud.

Each time his tongue laps against you your body jerked and shook but that only makes his tongue go faster. Sending you into a moaning and groaning mess as you tug on his hair.

“Mmh you even taste the same like always.” He moans with a smirk.

“Jimin please-” you cry out, locking your fingers into his hair when a finger is inserted into your dripping wet hole.

‘‘ No whining babygirl.’‘ His voice gentle as ever when he removes the finger inside of you making you pout a little. But that pout soon turned into your eyes becoming wide when he starts to take off his shirt, then grey sweatpants, then his underwear where his thick cock springs up.

Your eyes can’t leave his body. God it’s been a while. He looks pretty damn good. You wan’t to take all of his length in your mouth right now. To hear him praise you about how good your mouth feels against him. God you want it right now. 

He gives it a few strokes before walking over to you. Just before hovering over you, he gives you a passionate kiss while lifting up your legs and positioning them to his liking. Missionary.

The tip of him pokes at the entrance of you, teasing in and out. Soon enough he enters you slowly making both of you moan together.

You still wrap and fit around his member smug as ever, and he could not believe it. The feeling of familiarity of being inside you sends him into a moaning mess with each stroke. You can’t contain your moans and screams. He feels way too good. 

Jimin begins to deep-stroke you by pulling all the way out and slamming back in. You scream his name out in pleasure as your nails scratch up his toned back. Wet sounds fill the room with him picking up his pace. You take a glimpse of him only to admire his figure right now. Forehead forming sweat beads while he groans and moans biting his plump pink lips.

Your breathing becomes faster when that familiar feeling soon starts to take over. You turn your head to the side and let out a string of moans. Jimin isn’t having that though. His hand grabs your face gently and makes you make eye contact with him. Your legs start shaking as your head tilts back moans getting more faster. You finally let out one last one in sync with him, his hot sperm shoots inside of you.

Jimin pulls out, breathing heavily and collapses ontop of you. You let out a small grunt with the sudden extra body upon you, then giggle at him when he lays his head lays against your chest. This is what you wanted. He’s true. He’s sorry. 

‘’ I love you.”

That word surprises you. You weren’t prepared for it. Somehow though, you enjoy the fact that he’s said it to you. Love. Jimin’s love. Your love. 

‘’ I love you much more Jimin.’’ 

[champion-prism]

Me, You, and Mew!

Pairings: Champion Leon x OC

Word Count: 4,617

Commission for @meloettium! This was great fun to work on, thank you for commissioning me ^_^

He’s in trouble. He’s in so much trouble. He is in. Such. Big. Trouble.

Charmander leads the way, tail aloft, singing what Leon calls his “Charmander Song''. It basically goes: “Char, char, charmander char. Mander, mand, Charmander mand~” and normally, Leon is very fond of it, but now really doesn’t seem to be the time to be singing happy songs.

Right now is the time for distress calls.

It’s not that he usually gets into big trouble for getting lost- everybody knows he’s got trouble keeping his head straight, and his mum does give him a few talking tos here and there about how his head is always in the clouds… but this situation is different.

He was specifically told to stay put, to not get distracted, to be careful because he’s not at home, he’s not in Postwick where everyone knows him. He’s not even in Galar- he’s in Kanto, a trip preceded by lots of tears and begging on his part. A lot of his favourite Pokemon are native to Kanto, he’d been dying to visit, and he told his mum he would be alright! Professor Magnolia was more than willing to drop a line to Professor Oak, let him explore the lab and things.

Leon truly has no idea how he ended up in a forest, of all places. All he was doing was chasing after a Rattata- a strange, angry looking purple Pokemon which he knows is like the Kanto version of a Skwovet- and he ended up surrounded by trees on all sides. The longer he’s been walking, the more he’s certain that this forest is never ending. He doesn’t know if he’s been going straight or in circles- if he’s going straight, then he must come out on the other end of the forest somewhere, right? And if he’s going in circles, he can’t be too far from Route 1!

But what if he went straight into the forest, far enough to be far from civilization, and then started going in circles?

He tells himself not to cry. Crying was okay when he was nine, but he’s ten now, and double digit people don’t cry. He’s not even a kid anymore. He’s a man.

He’s very embarrassed of what comes next.

“Hey, kid!”

The voice hits him like a ton of bricks in this empty forest, and Leon lets out a shrill shriek, jumping up and turning in the direction of the voice, eyes blown wide.

He blinks owlishly at the young girl who peers at him through a clump of trees, and only has it in him to blurt out-

“I’m not a kid!”

Well, way to make an embarrassing situation extra embarrassing.

She gives him a weird look for a second, then breaks out into a little laugh.

“Whatever you say, mister,” her voice is teasing, but her expression makes her look good-natured, and Leon finds himself more flustered, than anything.

“Sorry,” he mutters, a bit sheepish. “I uh, Charmander and I are a little lost, I was kinda surprised when you called out to me.”

She steps out of the cluster of trees, her white high top boots hitting the narrow, beaten path. For a moment, he’s a bit distracted. He wants white high top boots.

“Viridian can be confusing,” she says. “But lucky for you, I know my way about this place! I’m Klee,” she grins, extending a hand out to him.

He takes it.

“Leon,” he smiles back.

He’s normally very careful about stranger danger, but Klee looks like she’s his age, and rather non-threatening. Her hand is warm in his, and he drops it suddenly, remembering that bit Raihan told him about girl-germs.

Sonia had been adamant that girl-germs aren’t real (“just another myth like cooties”) and Leon’s too old to buy into that stuff, but he’s already gotten into plenty of trouble in Kanto and he doesn’t want to risk getting sick.

If Klee thinks the hand dropping is weird, she doesn’t say anything. Instead, she drops to her knees in front of Charmander and begins to talk to him.

“Hey, Charmander, have you seen a Pikachu around here?” she asks, her tone completely straight, as if she were talking to a person instead of a Pokemon.

“Uh, we’ve seen plenty,” Leon says, crouching down and then sitting cross legged in the dirt, finally realizing how tired he feels.

“I’m looking for a very particular Pikachu,” Klee tells him, her face very serious. “Listen, how about we go try to find it, and then when I’m heading out, I’ll lead you out of the forest!”

Leon doesn’t regard it for even a second.

“Sure!” he says, cowlicks bobbing as his head perks up. “I like Pikachu!”

Klee laughs again, and gets to her feet, offering him a hand up. He takes it, all thought of girl-germs completely gone from his head.

Klee leads the way as he and Charmander follow, and Leon is determined to follow her exactly, and not get separated from his new friend.

“So, you must really like Pokemon, huh?” he asks.

“Yeah!” she answers, leaves crunching under her boots as she strides up ahead, eyes peeled for Pikachu. “I’m friends with most of them here,” she adds.

“Most of the Pokemon in the forest?” Leon asks. “Are you a trainer?”

Klee shrugs. “Not yet,” she says, “but I’m gonna be one, someday. My friend Weston says that the best way to really, really become friends with Pokemon is to battle alongside them! And I think he’s right.”

Leon laughs a bit, him and Charmander now walking directly alongside her.

“Makes it sound like you want to be a trainer to be friends with Pokemon, rather than making friends with Pokemon to be a trainer, like most people,” he says.

“That’s...exactly it,” she says, stopping all of a sudden to look at him. “Battle is great and all, but I think, I think I just want to be friends with Pokemon. Do you ever think of how like humans they are? The way they feel, and things. You ever wonder what goes on inside a Pokemon’s head when they react with love to their trainers?”

“There are so many Pokemon in the world,” she sighs, “and I want to be friends with each and every one of them.”

Leon listens to this with his eyes wide, then turns suddenly when he sees a flash of yellow in the grass.

“Hey, look!” he exclaims. “There’s a Pikachu!”

Klee turns quickly, her eyes wide and searching. But when she catches sight of the Pikachu who is now crouching in the grass, eyeing Charmander, her smile turns into a little frown.

��That’s not the one I wanna see,” she pouts, but perks up again. “But that’s okay! We’ll keep looking.”

And so they do. Leon points out multiple Pikachu to her- they must be native to Viridian Forest, even though they are far rarer a sight than all the Caterpie- but Klee is unsatisfied, insisting that she’s on the lookout for a very particular kind of Pikachu. Leon asks if it’s her Pikachu, but she shakes her head no, a loop of brown hair on her head bobbing along to her movements. Leon has the strangest urge to reach out and tug on it, like he sometimes tugs on Hop’s hair to tease him.

But no, his hair pulling days are behind him now. He has to look ahead, be as serious and mature as he can to convince his mum that he’s responsible enough to participate in the Galar Gym Challenge this season.

He wonders about Klee as they wander around the forest, recalling her bright expression as she talked about Pokemon. He likes that look on her face, her warm light brown eyes shining, lips upturned in a smile. He wonders if she’ll want to be friends with him after this.

“Oi! Look over there!” Klee says, suddenly sprinting off towards a patch of particularly tall grass. Leon and Charmander sprint after her, and he sees-

“Is that Pikachu floating?” he half yells.

Klee lets out a gleeful laugh in response, flopping down in the grass and looking up at the floating Pokemon, who isn’t-

-isn’t a Pikachu anymore.

“Woah,” Leon whispers, looking in awe at the pink Pokemon now floating where Pikachu was. It has large, warm eyes, and it floats up to Leon, sniffing his nose as if Leon were a fellow Pokemon.

“Mew, mewew,” it says, floating down to Klee and nuzzling against her head. Leon cautiously sits down beside her, and Mew floats to the side of his head, suddenly giving him a small push and making Leon’s head bump against Klee’s.

“Ow, Mew! That wasn’t very nice,” Klee says, but she looks more amused than annoyed.

“You’re friends with it?” Leon asks, pushing his shoulder against her lightly and grinning at the contact.

“Yeah! Told ya, I’m friends with all the Pokemon here,” she says, smiling as she reaches out to pet Charmander, who now appears to be trying to teach Mew the melody to the Charmander Song.

“I wanna be friends with all the Pokemon in the world,” she says, her voice dreamy.

“Is that even possible?” Leon wonders out loud.

Klee looks him dead in the eyes, her expression more serious than he’d ever seen it.

“I’ll do it, though,” she says, quietly, firmly. “Or atleast, I’ll get as close to it as anyone possibly can.”

Leon is silent for a while. His mind wanders to the Gym Challenge, and he finds himself echoing Klee’s words in his head.

I’ll do it, though.

“Maybe you will,” he says softly, watching Mew and Charmander singing together, even though the words are now “Char-” “-mew-” “-mander-” “-mewew-”.

“What do you want to do, Leon? In life, I mean” Klee suddenly asks, looking away from the two Pokemon.

“I want to be a Pokemon trainer,” he answers immediately- his go-to answer when someone asks him what he wants to do in life. Train Pokemon, yes. Be strong.

“Why?” she asks, catching him a little off guard.

“Nobody’s ever asked me why, before,” he says, squinting at her. “I guess it’s cause I really like battling Pokemon, and if I don’t battle as often as I can, I get really antsy! If you were a trainer, I would have challenged you by now,” he grins.

Klee gets a glint in her eye.

“How about you challenge Mew?” she suggests. “Only if you’re up for it, of course.”

She had meant the last part kindly, but Leon takes it as a challenge.

Mew seems to have had enough of singing, because it floats up again, and tugs gently on the loop of hair on Klee’s head.

“Mewew,” it says, motioning for them to get up.

They both get to their feet, and Mew floats on ahead, looking back at them expectantly.

“Would you like to battle me, Mew?” Leon ventures cautiously. He’s confident in his skills as a Trainer, but he really has no idea what kind of Pokemon Mew is, and he doesn’t want to risk sending Charmander off in the dark like that, figuratively speaking.

Mew looks to be considering it for a while, and then it takes its place in front of Charmander.

“Mewew!” it says, and Leon takes it in affirmation.

“Get ready to be impressed,” Leon grins at Klee, feeling his personality falling away from him. His mum has always said he’s more of an entertainer than a Trainer, but Leon disagrees. He likes to be both, he likes to really win with flair, making sure his audience is as entertained as he is, although most of his audiences have just been Sonia, Raihan, and his mum.

What follows is the most whirlwind battle he’s been in, yet.

Mew’s attack pattern is erratic, and it’s stamina is unbelievable. Even after all the endurance training he does with Charmander, he can see Charmander beginning to tire. At one point, Mew even transforms into Charmander, firing off a powerful Smokescreen to hide behind. Leon can’t help but glance at Klee from time to time- she seems entirely engrossed in the battle, her eyes wide and shiny.

Somehow, this makes Leon even more determined to win. He doesn’t want to lose face in front of her!

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s not upto Leon to decide.

Mew suddenly says something to Charmander, and they both stop, Charmander panting and returning to Leon’s side. Mew floats over to Klee, as she turns to Leon, eyes full of admiration.

“You looked so cool battling!” she says. “I mean, I think Mew’s tired now, but you’re so intense!”

Leon’s a little disappointed, but Mew doesn’t look to be in a battling mood anymore.

“Mewew!” it says, and Charmander perks up, trotting off behind Mew, leaving Leon and Klee no choice but to follow.

“I think it wants to show us something,” Klee says happily, and Leon decides he rather likes the sound of her voice.

They follow Mew for what seems like a while, and even though he knows somewhere in his head that he really needs to be getting out of this forest, he ignores the feeling in favour of talking to Klee more.

He finds out that she was named after clovers, and that she’s been on the lookout for a four leaf one for a while.

“Most people think clovers are weeds,” she says, a little sadly. “But I really love them. I think they’re beautiful.”

Leon shrugs.

“There’s nothing wrong with weeds! I was named after one,too” he grins. “My mom really likes dandelions, and she named me after the “lion” part.”

“Clovers and dandelions,” Klee says, in that dreamy tone that Leon’s come to like so much. “We should plant a little garden full of them.”

Leon’s about to agree when he stops short.

“Oh my Arceus,” he says, blinking at the clearing that Mew has brought them to.

They’ve stumbled into a little meadow, with a cliff on one side and the forest on the other. A small waterfall bubbles down from the edge of the cliff, feeding into a little pool where Leon can see a few Magikarp swimming around. A sense of longing washes over him as he glances at Klee, whose eyes are trained on Mew flitting around, talking to Charmander.

“I didn’t even know there was a clearing like this in the forest,” she breathed.

Her hand brushes against his, and Leon wonders if this is a little slice of heaven.

The peace doesn’t last, because Charmander tackles him, and a squealing Klee joins in, tickling him as he rolls in the grass.

“Cut it out!” he gasps, and she relents.

“Sorry!” she laughs. “It’s just, I feel like I’ve known you for ages, really.”

Leon takes the opportunity to tickle her back and Mew flits around, making happy chirping noises.

They stay like that for a while, talking to each other and watching the Pokemon have a one sided game of tag, Charmander struggling to tag Mew when the Pokemon floats into the air.

It’s been so much fun, that when Mew finally leads them back to the main forest path at sundown, Leon doesn’t know how to say bye.

Apparently neither does Klee, but she waves at him happily as she takes off in the other direction.

“I’ll see you again sometime, Leon!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, Leon is in big trouble. Very familiar trouble, to be honest, but with a new twist- he can’t find Charizard. He is lost. In the Wild Area. And he can’t find Charizard.

He feels a familiar panic overtake him as he runs around through the Dappled Grove, calling out to Charizard. His partner could be anywhere- the Wild Area is massive, taking days on end to traverse, and without his partner Pokemon, Leon isn’t sure if he can even get to the nearest Watt trading station for help.

He debates letting out Dragapult, but eventually decides against him. For now, he’d like all his wits and all his Pokemon on him, just in case. Not only is the Wild Area huge, it is also quite dangerous.

It’s still mid afternoon, and Leon has high hopes for finding Charizard before sundown. He doesn’t let up, walking around and periodically calling out. If he’s very, very lucky, he might run into a trainer with a Flying type on them, someone who could take to the sky and scope out large areas for Charizard, whose brilliant orange would be easy to spot amongst the green foliage of the trees.

“Charizard!” he calls out.

“Blastoise!” a voice calls back, and he recoils a bit in surprise when a trainer, a girl with bouncy brown hair and an Eevee sitting on her head, emerges from the trees.

When he looks at her in confusion, she says-

“Oh, were we not calling out random Pokemon names?”

Her light, happy expression makes Leon laugh out loud a bit, momentarily forgetting his stress.

“No, I seem to have lost my partner Pokemon,” he admits.

“It’s nice to meet you both, though,” Leon says, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. This meeting is nice, but he’s still tense about Charizard.

“Listen, Eevee and I could try and help you look for your Charizard!” she says, taking in his expression. “Don’t be so sad, I’m sure we’ll find him,” she says comfortingly.

“That...I would really appreciate that…uh-”

“Klee,” she says, smiling at him. “And you are?” she asks as they begin to walk side by side.

Leon tilts his head slightly, unsure if she’s joking or not. Sure, he’s not decked out in full champion regalia, but the hair and cap on his head are signature enough for anyone to recognize him, even in the joggers and tee shirt he’s wearing.

“Uh, it’s Leon,” he says.

“It’s nice to meet you, Leon!” she chirps, looking all around her as she walks, presumably for Charizard.

“Are you a trainer?” she asks, and he nods.

“You’re not from Galar, are you?” he asks on an impulse.

“Hm? No, Arceus, is it that obvious?” she laughs. “I’m basically from Kanto, and I’m on a journey to meet and befriend Pokemon! I’d love to learn more about them, too.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Leon says. “Are you planning on taking the Galar Gym Challenge?”

“No, I’m actually here on a set task from my mentor,” she says. “And I like battling, but the Gym Challenge isn’t really what I’m interested in at the moment.”

Ah, that would make sense. Leon is pretty sure that any trainer in any region has heard of him, if they have any hopes of entering a Pokemon League. He is the reigning Monarch, after all.

Years ago, the title might have flustered him. Now, he takes it in his stride.

“Are you planning to take the Gym Challenge?” Klee asks, and Leon suppresses a laugh.

“Ah, in a manner of speaking. My goal right now is to encourage as many trainers as possible to take the challenge. I want everyone in Galar to be a Pokemon trainer,” he ends with a passionate ferocity, making Klee look at him curiously.

“That’s very admirable, Leon,” she says, finally. “Wait, hey! I think I saw a bit of orange over there!”

Said flash of orange emerges through the green, letting out an excited roar at the sight of his trainer.

“Charizard!” Leon exclaims, his stress draining out as he moves forward to give his partner a hug. “I am so sorry, buddy, I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Klee stands to a side, watching this little reunion with a small smile on her face.

“Eevoiii!” her Eevee chirps, making Charizard turn towards them with a grunt. He perks up even more at the sight of Klee, and lumbers towards her.

Leon half expects her to be afraid, but she stands her ground as Charizard gives her what can only be described as a delighted hug, snuffling her face all over and making soft sounds, as if he were excitedly talking to her.

“Wow,” Leon says, his head tilted to the side. “He doesn’t normally take to strangers like this, I can’t imagine what’s gotten into him.”

“Ah, now maybe I’m just some sort of Charizard prodigy,” Klee laughs, winking at him as she pets Charizard’s snout.

Leon rubs the back of his neck as Charizard seems to say something to him, but he can’t for the life of him understand why Charizard is greeting the girl like an old friend. Weird.

“He seems awfully strong,” Klee comments, glancing at Leon. “You must be a hell of a battler with this guy at your side!”

“Yeah, he’s pretty much my ace,” Leon says fondly. It’s almost nice, saying this aloud to someone who doesn’t both know and take for granted the fact that his Charizard is his strongest Pokemon.

“Maybe we could have a battle?” Klee suggests. “Me and Eevee against you and Charizard! I’d say we should have a full team battle, but I really only have Eevee with me right now.”

Leon regards her with amusement.

“I’d love to battle,” he says, “though you should know, people typically have to go through a lot to get into a battle with me.”

Klee frowns as she regards this.

“How come?” she asks.

Leon mentally kicks himself as he gears into position. She clearly has no idea who he is, and he’s probably coming off as a real arrogant prick right now.

“Uhhhhhh that was a joke, ha! Just, come on, battle me!” he says.

Wow. So eloquent.

Klee doesn’t seem to mind; if she thinks he’s a prick, it doesn’t show on her face.

She faces him with a smile as Eevee hops off her shoulders, ready to face Charizard. Leon almost feels bad for pitting a giant like Charizard against a lil fella like Eevee, but his years of experience has taught him never to underestimate a Pokemon based on its size. He once had a battle where a Jigglypuff gave Charizard a run for its money, so he’s always on his toes, even against small opponents.

In line with his thoughts, Eevee and Klee start out with a vicious Iron Tail attack.

“Charizard, counter with Flamethrower!” he yells, and Eevee narrowly avoids getting torched. Smaller size, greater agility, Leon reminds himself.

“Air Slash!” he commands, and this attack hits Eevee full force as the smaller Pokemon is knocked off its feet, stumbling backwards.

“It’s okay, Eevee, counter with DIG!”

To Leon’s surprise, the little Eevee dives underground. Before Charizard can take to the air, Eevee comes up from underground, knocking Charizard off balance.

Klee cheers Eevee on, and Leon’s heart warms with the affection she clearly has for her Pokemon. But he has no time to indulge in the arm fuzzy feelings, commanding Charizard to charge on.

Eevee puts up quite a fight, but Charizard eventually emerges victorious, letting out a blast of fire into the air as celebration.

“Leon… that was incredible,” Klee says, returning Eevee to its Pokeball as she moves forward to shake his hand. “You’re an amazing trainer.”

Something about her praise, simple and heartfelt, makes Leon blush. He’s used to praise being heaped on, but it’s lost some of its appeal over time. Something about how genuine Klee is makes him happy as he looks into her pretty brown eyes.

“You and Eevee make a great team,” he says, still holding onto Klee’s hand. “I’d love to have a full team battle with you someday.”

Klee gives him a bright smile, not pulling her hand away.

Leon knows that his job keeps him busy, with busy being an understatement. To that end, he’s careful about his private life, choosing not to date, choosing not to give in to his interests and having a life outside of being the Champion. It’s hard, but it is what it is. But looking at this girl, her earnest look, her real admiration for him in spite of having no idea of the power he holds, both literal and political...it makes him yearn for something he hasn’t even given thought to in a while. Something about being a normal twenty one year old, getting her number, exploring this feeling that looking at her gives him.

Klee pulls her hand away from his grasp, and the reverie is broken.

“I should set up camp,” she says, her voice soft, aware of the small moment they just had. “I’d love for you and Charizard to join me while I cook something to heal up Eevee.”

“I’d love that,” Leon says quietly. He moves to set his rucksack down and unpack, Klee doing the same. They work in silence for a while as they both set up their respective tents, and Charizard lumbers off to gather wood for a campfire. Klee remarks on how smart he is, and Leon grins as he tells her about the numerous times he’s gotten lost in the Wild Area, forcing him and Charizard to set up an impromptu camp.

“He knows the drill by now,” Leon laughs as Charizard returns, arms full of twigs and small logs.

“So, Klee,” Leon starts as he builds the campfire. “You’re obviously an experienced trainer. Have you had Eevee for long?”

“Are you gonna ask why it hasn’t evolved yet?” Klee asks, tilting her head at him.

“Ah, I was, but I won’t if the question offends you?” Leon says, confusion laced in his tone.

“No, that’s okay,” she shrugs. “Really, it’s because he doesn’t want to evolve. And I have a bone to pick with the idea that an Eevee is only as good as its future evolution,” she says, frowning. “He’s a normal type, and normal types are strong! I don’t know if you’re familiar with Whitney from Johto, but she runs a Normal Type gym and Champion Lance himself has said that he’s honestly quite afraid of her!”

Leon nods. He respects Lance, and he wonders momentarily if Klee is a fan of his. The idea makes him a little uncomfortable, though he doesn’t know why.

“You’re weird, you know,” he says. “In a good way! I mean, the way you take your Pokemon’s feelings into consideration is the mark of an excellent trainer, in my opinion. We could use more trainers like you in Galar.”

“Thanks, Leon,” she smiles. “I can tell you’re like that, too, because most people are kinda condescending about my decision not to force Eevee to evolve.”

The camp is all set up, and he helps Klee cook while Charizard curls up close to the campfire.

The sun has set by now, and it makes Leon’s heart sink to think that they’ll probably go their own separate ways in the morning.

Klee seems to be thinking the same thing, because as she spoons curry into a bowl, she asks him where he’s headed the next morning.

“Wedgehurst,” he replies, “though if I’m to be entirely honest, I have no real clue how to get there.”

Klee perks up immediately.

“Wedgehurst? Where Professor Magnolia lives? I’m headed there myself!”

“Do you wanna come with me?” they both say in unison, and then burst into laughter.

“I’d love to,” Leon says, grinning wide, watching the fire reflected in her eyes. “I do hope you know how to get there, though.”

Her face turns thoughtful and then she laughs.

“We’ll figure it out, dude. I prefer taking the long, scenic route anyway.”

“Klee?”

“Yeah?”

“Nothing,” Leon says. “It’s just, I’m glad we’re doing this.”

“-I just feel like I’ve known you for ages.”

[janetbrown711]

Can we get a one-shot between yakko and max at the party? Please

Parties.

Yakko remembered those, though they were far and few between. Angelina wasn't necessarily one to celebrate often, but his parents told them tales of celebrations in the past. Singing, dancing, laughing, falling in love, it sounded exciting.

Well- okay, Yakko had technically been to parties before. However, they always lacked the spirit and energy and- well... fun his parents described them with. His grandmother's parties were stiff and uncomfortable, and usually without his siblings.

However, his mother's coronation party was the complete opposite of that. There was music- fiddles and the like- the kind of music that made you want to dance and brought smiles to faces the second the hair touched the strings. There was dancing, real dancing, the fun kind with stomping and twirling that made people lose their breath without even minding because of how fun it was. There was food, there was art, there was singing, there were people- tons of them.

There was a prince.

Yakko hadn't seen him before.

He was a dog- likely no older than Yakko himself. He looked like he was trying to have a good time, but the outfit he was put into was clearly not meant for this level of activity. His hair was messy, with a crown crooked on his head. His eyes were dark like a smoky quartz, and they were looking around the room, attempting to calm an anxiety within (Yakko could relate to that).

The prince made eye contact with Yakko.

Yakko looked back.

"Yakko! Who're ya looking at?" Wakko appeared out of the blue, tugging on Yakko's sleeve and snapping him out of the trance.

"N-no one," He lied. It wasn't like he knew who he was, though he was a prince and most certainly not a nobody.

"But you were looking at someone, telllll meeeee," Wakko tugged on his sleeve.

"Weren't you drawing with chalk?" Yakko huffed.

"Yeah, but you were making heart eyes and I wanted to see," Wakko crossed his arms, huffing right back.

"I-i wasn't actually making heart eyes, right?" Yakko panicked. Wakko and Dot giggled.

"No, but you looked really silly," She grinned cheekily. Yakko rolled his eyes.

"You should talk to him," Dot said, pointing to the prince.

"Put your arm down, it's rude to point," He put her arm down for her, embarrassed. Dot giggled more.

"Talk to him or else we will," She smirked.

"Nope- uh- that's alright, I can talk to him," Yakko quickly said, already making his way to the mysterious prince, Wakko and Dot watching a bit from behind, before Yakko gave them a look and they (wisely) scattered.

Yakko was about halfway there when he realized he had no idea what on earth he was supposed to say to him. He hadn't interacted with someone his age since- well... ever. Much less someone who made him feel like this.

He should've prepared more. He had read many books on romance and even just social interaction. He had read numerous social interactions, both good and bad, and yet his mind was blank as to what to say.

Well, it looked like he was going to have to improvise because before he knew it, his feet had dragged him over and he was right beside the prince, with just enough distance not to be noticed by him yet.

"Okay Yakko, you get one shot," He whispered to himself in preparation. God- he hadn't felt this nervous in a while.

"So... you... come here often?" He asked. The prince turned and looked at him, slightly startled.

"A-aren't you the crown prince?" He asked, his face flushing slightly.

"Oh my god- that was a terrible introduction," Yakko facepalmed. To his surprise, this made the prince laugh.

"It's cool, I-i can get nervous too," He said.

"Sorry, yeah. Can I- uh, start over?" Yakko asked, laughing nervously.

"Okay," The other prince laughed too, which made Yakko's heart flutter a bit.

"My name is Yakko Warner of- well- Warnernstock, but I think you figured that out," Yakko held his hand out.

"I'm Prince Max Goof of Disneyland," Max said, shaking it.

"Disneyland, huh? that's not too far away," Yakko said.

"We border Warnstock, though the castle is right in the middle of the country so it did take a few hours," Max nodded to himself.

"Sooo... what's it like there?" Yakko asked, internally cringing at just how terrible this conversation was. He usually loved talking- why was he so bad at it now?

"It's- uh- well- it's interesting," Max said, scratching the back of his neck. "My dad works with my uncles Mickey and Donald in running the kingdom, and we technically have a really big family that can get pretty overwhelming at times," He explained. "Used to be more, but Mom died when I was born and Uncle Oswald died in a war when I was 5."

"I thought my mom was dead for awhile, so I kinda relate," Yakko said.

"Your grandma is dead too, right?" Max asked.

"Yeah, but that's not a bad thing," Yakko said, just now realizing that the conversation took an odd turn.

"Don't doubt that, from what I've heard," Max laughed, which made Yakko relax.

Maybe this wasn't going terribly.

"But yeah, it's interesting there. What's it like over here in Warnerstock? It's my first time," Max asked.

"It's chaotic too. My grandma-" Yakko paused, not really sure how much he wanted to share. He had just met Max, he didn't want to scare him away this early.

"My grandma was... a piece of work, but my parents are pretty cool," Yakko said, scanning around for them, and finding them on the dance floor happy as can be.

"And I have two younger siblings, so that's... fun," He added, suddenly becoming aware of just how weird and... deeply wrong his life had been up to this point.

"Oh yeah, I think I've seen them around. I think your brother tried drawing chalk around where I was standing so I tried to move but he wouldn't let me till he was finished," Max recalled.

"Sorry- they can be a real handful," Yakko blushed, embarrassed.

"Yeah, Dot and Wakko can stir up a lot of chaos," Yakko tried to say so with a happy, fond look at their mischief, but instead memories of the times it got them in serious trouble flooded his mind, and he frowned.

"Are you- uh- okay?" Max asked.

"I'm... fine. I'm fine," Yakko shook his head, forcing the memories down. "I'm sorry, I just... it's been a lot lately."

"I can believe that, from what I've heard," Max nodded, his eyes soft and sympathetic. Yakko could only nod.

"But hey, at least things are looking up now, huh?" The foreign prince did his best to lift his spirits.

"That is one way to look at it," Yakko agreed, forcing down the knotted feeling in his stomach.

There was a pause, neither prince knowing what to say, each unsure of their emotions, or where to go next in their conversation.

"So... what's your family like?" Yakko asked, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"My dad is... well, he's something alright," Max looked away, embarrassed.

"What do you mean?" Yakko raised an eyebrow.

"He's- well... Goofy. That's his name," Max shrugged. "Though my uncles are pretty cool, though they aren't my uncles in the literal sense," He quickly shifted the subject.

"That must be cool. Both of my parents were only children," Yakko didn't push.

"Yeah. But that doesn't mean it's all great, I'm still an only child. I'm sure it's great to have some siblings around," Max said.

"They do keep things interesting," Yakko snorted, looking through the crowd, finding them spying on him yet again. He shot them another look, and the two scattered.

"But I don't know anyone my own age really, and at times I've felt more like a parent than a sibling," Yakko admitted, though he didn't know why.

"I don't know anyone my own age really either," Max said.

"But... I could know you, if you want," He offered. Yakko looked at him, and found he was blushing and looking away.

"I wouldn't mind that," He said, a small smile growing on his face. Max looked at him and smiled back, the fluttering feeling returning.

"You're really-..." Cute? Pretty? Handsome? Yakko knew a thousand words but he had no idea how to describe Max's appearance, especially in a way that made sense.

"Cool?" Max seemed to know his plight.

"Yes! Cool," Yakko snapped his fingers, which made Max laugh.

"You're... cool," He said.

"Thanks," Max punched his arm lightly. "You're cool too."

Another pause. Yakko was becoming increasingly aware that he simply had no idea how on earth to talk to anyone who wasn't a family member. He had no idea what normal things for people like Max were.

Yakko realized he had no idea how to be a kid.

"Do you wanna dance?" Max asked, snapping him out of the train of thought.

"O-oh, uh- I'm a terrible dancer, I couldn't possibly-" Yakko made excuses as his eyes went to the dance floor, where he discovered his parents were watching him too. They both had goofy grins on their faces and gave him a big thumbs up and Yakko's face turned bright red.

"Oh I'm a terrible dancer too, I just figured it'd be fun. I've been observing them long enough, I think I figured it out," Max said.

"Well I guess if you really want, we can be terrible together," Yakko couldn't look him in the eyes, his face still as red as a tomato.

"I-i mean if you don't want to..." Max put his hands in his pockets.

"No, it- it'll be fun. Let's do it," Yakko shook away the flustered feeling, holding his hand out for Max. Max took it.

"I'm not joking when I say I'm a terrible dancer though. I once had to dance with a lady and I nearly tore her dress because I kept stepping on it," Max admitted sheepishly as Yakko took him towards where the people were dancing.

"Well lucky for you, I'm no lady and have no dress to tear," He said, surprised at his sudden wit. Good- maybe that meant he stop embarrassing himself and have a good conversation.

"Y-yeah," Max said. God- he was just so-... so-

Yakko was starting to get annoyed at his suddenly small vocabulary.

"I think I actually know this dance. I'll wait for an opening and then you can follow my lead," Yakko told him.

"Ok-okay, if that's what you want then-" Max couldn't finish his sentence before Yakko found an opening and before he knew it, they were pulled into a dance.

Yakko was thankful he actually paid attention to the book on dances and read the full thing, because while his grandmother had only wanted him to read the formal, ballroom dances, he read the whole thing through and found the town dance section and now knew what he was doing. A luck Max clearly didn't have, but that almost made it more fun. He had only just met Max, but it was clear Max trusted and liked him to some extent, and Yakko felt the same. There was just something about him Yakko couldn't describe.

"Relax, it's all fun," Yakko said to him, and Max loosened up a bit, making the movement a lot easier. Soon, the speed picked up, and the stomps and jumps intensified and the rest of the world just melted away, as all the boys were focused on were each other. Sure, there were a few times that they stepped on each other's feet or they were off from everyone else, but they just laughed it off and continued having fun.

Fun.

Despite how much Yakko embarrassed himself, he was having fun.

Hell- this was probably the most fun he had ever had in his whole life. All of his previous stress and anxieties melted away- this was fun.

Max was fun.

Yakko really, really liked him.

Eventually, after a long while of dancing, the song came to an end, and Yakko and Max were left panting as they stood close to each other. For a moment they looked into each other's eyes, before realizing where they were and both taking a step back.

"Well that was- well-" Max really wasn't one for words, was he?

"It was fun," Yakko said for him. The foreign prince nodded.

"It was fun," He grinned a little.

"You totally lied to me though, you're a good dancer," Max punched his arm again. Yakko laughed.

"I meant more like- ballroom stuff. I'm so terrible at ballroom dancing, my grandmother basically banned me from dancing," He snorted.

"I've basically banned myself- I dance a lot like my dad... usually," Max said. Yakko had never met Goofy, but from the name alone he could get a pretty good picture.

"Don't sell yourself short, you were pretty good," Yakko encouraged as they began to walk back to their previous place.

"Yeah... well... thanks," Max said. "I..." He stopped to think about his words.

"I don't have a lot of friends... especially those my age. People usually find me- well- awkward and weird and... like my dad, basically. But you're... you're cool," He managed to say.

God, Yakko could relate to that.

"You're cool too," Yakko said, looking him in the eyes.

They stood in an entranced silence for a little while, before they heard the music start up again, and they watched the dancers for a while.

"So... what do you like to do? Got any... hobbies?" Max asked.

"I read and study a lot," Yakko shrugged.

"You like studying?" Max genuinely questioned.

Yakko thought about that. "I mean... I think so? I don't know... I guess I just do it a lot."

"Ah," was all Max could really say to that.

Stupid trauma.

"What about you?" Yakko switched the conversation.

"I like doing sports, they're one of my bigger strengths," Max replied.

"That makes one of us- I'm pretty sure no one can be less pathetic than me," He snorted. "Even my seven-year-old sister is better at sword fighting than me."

"And it's not like I don't have the genes or anything- my dad's a knight for crying out loud, I don't know why I have a bad case of noodle arms," Yakko joked, which made Max laugh.

"You don't have to be physically strong, being smart is equally as good," he said.

"Until you have to protect people," Yakko thought to himself.

"Yeah," He said aloud.

Stupid, stupid trauma.

"Besides, I could try and give pointers if you wanted," Max said. That snapped Yakko out of those thoughts in an instant.

"P-pointers? When would we do that?" He asked. Max shrugged.

"I dunno. But what I do know is that you can visit my kingdom anytime, uncle Mickey and my dad love guests," He invited.

"Is... is that normal?" Yakko asked. Max blinked.

"Yeah? Did- have you never had any guests at your castle?" He asked, trying his best not to sound weirded out.

"Outside of the occasional ambassador and ball, no," Yakko admitted.

"Well, then I guess you'll definitely have to come over sometime," Max said.

"Yeah... I guess I will," Yakko managed to smile.

Suddenly, it dawned on Yakko how late it was becoming. The crowds grew smaller and smaller, as the sun had set hours ago. He looked around and saw someone wearing the emblem of Disneyland who looked like they were watching over Max sitting and possibly waiting for them to be done so he could take him home. Yakko frowned.

"You have to go now, don't you?" Yakko asked. Max looked at the man Yakko had noticed. He sighed.

"It is really late... don't get me wrong though- this was easily the most fun I've had in a long, long time," Max said. "I just- I have to go home eventually."

"No, trust me, i get it," Yakko smiled softly at him. Max returned the look.

"I'll... I'll see you again though, right? You'll stop by my castle?" He asked.

"Of course," Yakko nodded seriously.

The man across the way seemed to take notice of the lack of conversation, making his way towards the pair. Yakko sighed.

"I'll see you later then," He said.

"Yeah, see you," Max didn't know what to do so he punched his arm lightly before waving and going with the guard.

"See you..." Yakko said to himself, watching him go.

Max sure was something...

"Did you have fun tonight?" A voice from behind startled Yakko.

"Oh mom- it's just you," He relaxed. "Yeah- I did."

"Your siblings are both practically asleep, not that I'm surprised," Lena chuckled. Yakko scanned the area for them and found them both curled up by the bonfire. He snorted.

"That's Wakko and Dot alright: boundless energy until they crash," He said. Lena nodded.

"Who was that prince?" His mother asked with a slight smirk. Yakko blushed.

"His name is Max, he's from Disneyland," He said.

"Disneyland... I haven't heard from them in a long time," Lena thought out loud.

"Well, he seems to really like you," She looked back at him.

"He's cool," Yakko shrugged.

"Just 'cool?'" Lena teased. Yakko gave her a weird look. Lena laughed.

"Never mind, you'll figure it all out in due time," She wrapped an arm around him as they began walking back inside.

"What about Wakko and Dot?" Yakko asked, looking back at them.

"Your father will carry them to bed, they'll be fine," Lena said. Yakko nodded to himself.

"So... Max, hm? Do you want to see him again?" She asked.

"Can I?" He asked. Lena chuckled.

"Of course, it's been so long since I've spoken to them, and now that I'm queen, a visit or two isn't beyond reason," Lena said.

"Oh right, you are the queen," Yakko realized.

"Strange, right?" She joked.

It was strange, to think of his grandmother in the past tense. She was queen. His mother is queen.

"Yep," He said, before sighing.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed," he said.

"After all that, I bet. Goodnight darling," Lena gave him a hug, which he quickly returned before going back inside without her.

So this was what it was like to be a normal kid... well- attempting to be a normal kid, anyway. Parties, fun, making friends, butterflies...

Yakko was going to have to do a lot more studying this next while to see if he could get a grasp on what it was exactly he felt for Max, otherwise, he was certain he was going to go mad.

Still, despite the emotional swirl in his chest, he knew he had a good time. Max was cool and Yakko liked being around him-- that much he couldn't deny.

Yakko couldn't wait to see him again.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 The End