#this is a very complicated topic and I could talk about it for hours

[hindahoney]

For all my Jewish followers, I have a pressing question.

Do you identify your race as Jewish?

I ask this because this is a comment that has come up over time in the communities I've been in, where people say they identify as Jewish above everything else, and do not identify with goys of their same race. I work at a university as a researcher of antisemitism, and this conversation has been coming up in academia as well.

We all know that race is a social construct, and various groups have had the perception of their racial status change over time (Ex. Irish people not being considered white, and more recently Hispanics/Latinos being considered white). It wouldn't be a new concept for the Jewish identity to be racialized, as we were classified as "yellow Eur-Asians" during the Jim Crow era, and non-Aryan during the Shoah (though there were thousands of years leading up to this of us not being considered whatever the dominant racial group was). Many groups still don't consider Ashkenazi Jews white (though these are most often far-right neo-Nazis that barely consider us humans).

North American Ashkenazi Jews who don't identify as white have said their reasoning is that the cultural and ethnic differences of Jews lead to a great divide between white-passing Jews and goys, and the inter-generational trauma of thousands of years of brutal oppression and slavery is something that white goys don't experience. They say that Jews originate from the middle east, so they can't be white even if their skin was paled during exile. They argue that as long as many people don't consider them white, they don't even really have a choice of what they identify as.

To Ashkenazi Jews who do identify as white, they've argued that by racializing your Jewish identity you're, in a way, giving in to what the oppressors want and accepting that you're different.

I just want to know what you think either way.

[finnlongman]

When I was an undergrad, I made a point of trying to sidetrack my supervisors as much as possible during supervisions, so that we could go off on a tangent and use up half the time discussing something barely related to my essay, and therefore have less time to dwell on its flaws.

(For those unfamiliar with the Cambridge supervision system, each week you're required to write an essay about a topic you probably knew nothing about before being handed the reading list, and then you spend an hour discussing it one-on-one, or in small groups depending on the subject, with your supervisor, who may be a random PhD student or may be the person who wrote half the reading list, depending on your luck.)

Once, I'd had a particularly bad week and had not written my essay about Scandinavian settlement in England, so I was having a more discussion-based supervision drawing on some bullet points I'd written. This would have been in my first term of first year, if I remember correctly. And we were talking about reasons why Vikings might settle rather than simply raiding, and my supervisor made some comment about them wanting "somewhere to wash their socks".

Sensing a potential avenue for distraction and also genuinely curious, I immediately asked, "Did Vikings wear socks?". My supervisor took the bait, and we passed the next ten minutes discussing a sock found preserved in York, of seemingly Scandinavian make, that would appear to answer that question in the affirmative. I remember very little else from that module, but nine years down the line, I remembered that there was a Scandinavian-style sock found in York.

Anyway, today I showed up to the department's graduate presentations (compulsory) and discovered that the first of the two talks was entirely about this sock. I was honestly so pleased. I now know several more things about this sock! I have some details to pad out my vague understanding that there was something distinctive about how it was made! I have been introduced to the complex question of "did the English wear socks or were they a Scandinavian fashion?"! (Answer: there is no definitive evidence for widespread early English sock-wearing, but textile evidence is complicated, so this may not be conclusive.)

This is probably not what most people took from the "England Before The Normans" paper, but frankly, I never was any good at keeping track of kings. I would rather learn about the socks. And today -- just as in that supervision nine years ago -- I did.

[phas3d]

Can you do slytherin boys head canons with ravenclaw reader who info dumps randomly

You're Smart || Slytherin Boys

type :: fluff

tw/cw :: none

contains :: draco, tom, mattheo, theodore, lorenzo

summary :: you have a habit of saying fun facts and explaining everything in great detail while they listen - it's not super ravenclaw based but u can imagine it :) THANK U FOR REQUESTINGG RAAAHHHH <333

DRACO MALFOY

Hated it at first since it felt like you were trying to on up him

Would start to research more topics on his own to make sure you can't one up him on it

Turns this into a competition that's completely one sided for no reason LMAO

Stays up all night up just to learn the most niche and useless information of all time

But somehow, you always know more than him and beat him

Gets so frustrated by this because he can't stand not being the smartest know-it-all in the room

So he decides to try and make YOU seem stupid

Asks you super hard questions that no one could possibly know

But for some reason, you know it

This drives him even crazier cause he can't win LOL

But overtime, he grows to find it really useful and cute at times

He likes to see how passionate you are on different things

And he does like smart girls, so he starts to see it as a pro

TOM RIDDLE

Super annoyed by the fun facts and random info at the start

Mainly because he probably already knows it or he doesn't care for it

Because if he was interested, he would have searched it up already

So in his eyes, it seems like you're call him too lazy and dumb to want to search something up

So he tells you to shut up right away when he knows you're going to info dump

But sometimes, he genuinely doesn't know and he hates admitting that

He's super bad at social interactions, online culture, etc, so he does need help with those

But he's too egotistical to admit that

So he starts to just "ignore you" when you info dump

You'll explain the deep and complicated lore of Trisha Paytas and once you're done he'll say, "Huh? Oh I was spacing out."

But in reality, he was listening in depth and taking mental notes

So he starts to use this to his advantage since you do describe every very well

He starts to silently train you in a way

For example, he'll place a group of items in front of you, like a blue shirt next to a Slytherin hoodie

This will then remind you of Alvin and the Chipmunks so you dive into the deep lore of each actor

MATTHEO RIDDLE

Doesn't really care much at first since he's always been a bit dumber than other kids

He assumed everything you were saying was common knowledge and that he was just dumb

But when others start to mention how smart you are, he's surprised

He has a smart s/o :O

Well, he always knew that but to find out that you were smarter than a majority of people gave him a confidence boost

Starts to rely on you for every single question he has possible

Even if he knows the answer, he just wants to see if he's right

He likes it when you info dump to him

Surprisingly, he's a really good listener when it comes to you

Loves listening to you talk for hours on end

THEODORE NOTT

He's not much of a talker, so having you there to info dump on him is really amusing

You're like a walking podcast for him to listen to

Likes to ask you questions too so you can switch topics

He's super proud of seeing how smart you are

Theo is pretty smart, the smartest out of the Slytherin boy group at least (Which isn't that hard) (Tom doesn't count LOL)

So it's nice for him to finally talk to someone that doesn't ask dumb ass questions every 5 minutes

It's like switching his brain off so he can just listen to you talk and explain

It makes him feel safer with you to know that you're so smart and into so many things

He also loves it because it makes it so easy to buy you a gift since he knows exactly what you like :)

LORENZO BERKSHIRE

You're both kinda in the same boat which is amazing and bad

He's also into info dumping and telling you about the niche history he found out

But so are you, so you two end up clashing and having different ideas

Like for example, you were both info dumping about the brand new live actions Avatar the Last Air Bender and you both had drastically different thoughts

Lorenzo thought a lot of it was inaccurate but you were defending it with your life

But in the end, you both just shut up because you accidentally switch topics mid way

He loves asking you questions about niche topics so he doesn't have to research them himself

Likes listening to you talk while he eats

Sometimes he'll facetime you while he has dinner so he can listen to you talk

And sometimes he even calls you before bed so you can talk him to sleep :)

[primofate]

Off Topic from Genshin for a moment,

Can I just rant about an Otome game I recently rediscovered.

If any of you know Prince of Tennis, this is a Prince of Tennis otome game for the DS called: Prince of Tennis Motto Gakuensai no Oujisama

You have a potential of 37. YES 37 guys to date, all characters from Prince of Tennis.

It's a very simple game, but whoever the writers were, they knew what we ladies wanted lol.

Spoilers about the game and gameplay below the cut

First off, you can choose which school you go to. Prince of Tennis is kind of like Haikyuu, but with tennis. So if you're interested in a certain character, you would have to choose to go to their school.

Second, the story is totally something a fan author would write lol. It's totally a Y/N moment. You're part of the school festival committee and you're helping the tennis team build and manage their booth for the school festival. The story only spans I think, 2 weeks in game and if you really speed run it, in real time it would take around 30 minutes to an hour to finish one guy.

The way to romance a guy is pretty simple, and also very slice of life type. There's no complicated backstory, since you're just an average high school girl. Basically you just try to keep talking to the guy you're interested in and you get to know each other in the span of those 2 weeks. Sounds boring right?

But the dialogue in some of the routes is extremely fluffy.

Example: There's at least ONE scene where the guy worries about you.

One of them is when it's a particularly hot day during the school festival and you pass out. Cue the guy panicking and taking you to the infirmary, worried sick.

One of the other scenes involved the guy getting into a fist fight with another student and your character sort of tries to stop them and gets in between but instead you get hit (yes, really) So your guy is obviously panicking and angry. (The dialogue for the guy went something a bit like "...I can't believe you got in between us and got hit! I don't know what I would do if you--" and then he cuts off there cause guy hasn't confessed to you yet)

AND THEN there's another one where you go into the storage room with the guy and you're trying to find something in one of the boxes, but the box is too high and it ends up almost falling on you but you somehow evade it, except that you now have a sprained ankle. And then, of course, the guy is again extremely worried.

I'm not even kidding about how angsty/fluffy some of these scenes are. Like, I'm rambling! and remember there are 37 DIFFERENT GUYS WITH DIFFERENT SCENARIOS! (Actually I could probably get some writing ideas off of these lollll)

I am SO glad I found this game again (Playing it on a DS Emulator and I patched the game so that it was translated to English)

[leclerckarma]

Mine — Charles Leclerc

Charles doesn't seem happy when he sees you smile at Max like that. It's time for you to recognize who you belong to.

Word count — 1k

warnings: +18. dom charles. dumbification. translated french. please don't read if you feel uncomfortable. Minors don't interact!

You and Charles had been secretly dating for the last two months. It was a private relationship and not even the inner circle of yours and your own brother knew. Your brother was a formula one driver, who also had a very good friendship with Charles and that made everything complicated. The relationship developed in secret, with smiles and gazes when no one was watching. Admitting it to everyone was among your plans, but it was still too early to do so.

So since nobody knew, that meant other men still thought you were available. Like Max Verstappen.

It all started when Max approached you, both were at a party surrounded by other drivers and formula one employees. Your brother had left your side long ago, in search of alcohol and more fun. You and Max started talking about different topics and you didn���t notice your boyfriend watching you from a distance. Max was a little past drinks and was behaving a little friendlier than he usually was in your presence.

His hand touched your shoulder at a sudden moment and when you saw him almost stumble on his own feet, you offered to fetch a glass of water for him. That’s when Charles intercepted you.

Charles had been tired of the way Max constantly approached you, the way you were such a good girl to laugh at his stupid jokes and flirting. Somebody had to put a stop to all that, and that was gonna be Charles. You were his.

"C'mere."

"Charles."

You stood there, looking around. Your brother was distracted, so there was no danger. Not yet.

"I’m not asking you, do it."

You listened to him, and his hand went straight to your waist, where he pressed a little hard. You could see how his brow was furrowed and he looked angry. He began to guide you through the tumult of people, until you ended up in a much more empty place, where there was no one to bother you and him.

"Is something wrong, baby?"

"You know what’s going on, ma chérie."

"Is this about Max? I think he drank a lot more than he can handle and he's acting silly..." "We’re getting out of here. It's late."

You didn’t really feel like staying either. You had arrived at the party a few hours ago and after talking to the people closest to you, you wanted to go home with Charles. However, you didn’t know your man was that angry. When he drove through the streets, the car remained silent. The tension was palpable, and you didn’t dare talk.

Once in Charles' place, you couldn’t pull off your heels because your boyfriend picked you up in his arms, heading for his bedroom. He abruptly laid you on the bed and you choked a gasp.

"Take off your clothes, don’t waste my time."

"Charles..."

You’ve never seen your boyfriend so desperate to have you, and somehow, you felt powerful to know that as much as it seemed otherwise, you also had the power. You made him insane.

"Can’t your stupid mind understand what I’m telling you? Take off your clothes, don’t make me repeat it."

You listened to your boyfriend, took off your dress, and then also your underwear. Charles' tongue went through his lower lip and you felt your body begging for him. He was the only one who knew how to please you. He was the only one who knew how to touch you properly, just the way you needed him.

"Spread your legs, now."

You spread your legs and look at Charles approaching down to your lower area, without any shame. That man was obsessed with your pussy and he was proud of it. You felt the heat from his mouth, until his tongue touched your clit and you moaned. Hell, one lick and he already made you feel desperate for your release.

"Louder. Let me hear you."

Your moans grew louder, as Charles pressed his tongue against your clitoris. He knew how to make you feel good. Each lick felt deeper.

"Tu as si bon goût (you taste so good), I missed the way you taste."

Oh, god. Charles was so good at licking you.

"Too bad you’re dumb, ma chérie."

"Charles..."

"That’s what you are, if you were smart enough you would know what other men want from you. What Max wants from you. You smile while they only think about one thing, about fucking you. It's almost like you enjoyed that. Sorry to interrupt your entertainment, but I'm your man. I don't allow any of that."

"I'm not—"

Charles removed his tongue from your clit, to look at you severely. The loss made you complain, you wanted him to lick your pussy again.

"I don’t care what you think. Look at you, you’re a fucking mess. All wet and all I did was licking you."

“Now keep your eyes on me."

You kept your eyes on him, while his mouth found the exact friction to make you feel you were too close to release. His hands were probably gonna leave bruises from the way he squeezed your thighs hard, the way he punished you for making him angry. None of that mattered to you.

Charles walked away from you again and began to take off his shirt, then his pants, undressing completely.

"Charles." you whimpered his name.

"Ask me to make you come and I will. I'm being nice today."

"Make me come, please my love." you barely got the words out of your mouth and Charles was on top of you.

His mouth covered yours in a deep kiss. Charles' tongue pushed into your mouth, demanding entrance and you opened for him as he took you. It’s like his mouth punished you for making him lose control and acting like that. Your fingers dig into his hair, feeling that your body needed him more than ever. Charles parted your legs wide while positioning his body above you. He groaned when he felt the slickness between your thighs.

"You’re mine, ma chérie. Always remember that."

His cock inside you made you let out a new moan and his movements became accelerated. You were both so desperate, so close to coming, you were losing your minds.

"Tu es à moi, tu m’appartiens (you're mine, you belong to me). You know, your pussy knows."

"I'm yours, Charles."

One loud moan announced your orgasm. Your legs shaking didn't stop him from chasing his climax. Another thrust, and Charles buried his head in the crook of your neck.

[tinkerbelle05]

Hello! I’ve read some of your works and I absolutely adored them! Can I request for an Usopp x f!reader angst? Maybe something like (reader’s) one sided love? Or reader being Usopp’s childhood friend that’s secretly in love with him even though she knew he likes Kaya?Thank you!🫶🏻

I Know It’s Not Me. It Was Never Me

Characters: Usopp x Fem!reader

Genre: Angst

Summary: (Requested) Thanks sweets 🍭

Warnings: unrequited love, one sided love, pinning, bitterness, no happy ending (sorry) (no I’m not lol)

-

You knew that you weren’t the one that had Ussop’s heart. That his heart belonged to Kaya. It was obvious from the way his eyes gleamed whenever he talked about her.

How he always talked about her. No matter the topic, he always, always found a way to relate it back to Kaya.

He could look at the sky and said it reminded him of Kaya, he could look at delicious sweets and say that he wished he could give some to Kaya, hell he could be talking about his “adventures” and said he wished he could bring Kaya with him.

His eyes would bright up at the mere sight of her, he would spend every waking hour with her if he could.

It was just Kaya, Kaya, and even more Kaya. It was annoying to hear about it.

And it hurt so, so much. You were right there, you were attainable to Usopp but still he dreamt of having Kaya. Even though he knew that it would never work. That they could never work.

Guess people would always want something they couldn’t have. Guess that saying rang true for you too.

At a certain part, your sadness melted into bitterness which turned into hatred. You weren’t proud of it and you knew that it was no one’s fault. You couldn’t help who you loved and neither could Usopp.

That didn’t stop your blood from boiling when you saw Kaya though.

It didn’t stop your eyes from rolling whenever Usopp went on and on about Kaya either. And it didn’t stop you from crying your eyes out every night under your covers where wished and prayed that one day your feelings would just disappear.

Every night you wished your heart wouldn’t skip a beat when Usopp’s brown eyes landed on you and you wished your mind would stop wondering what Usopp was doing absentmindedly.

You hugged your pillow tighter and pressed your face deeper into it, hoping it’d muffle your cries so you wouldn’t wake your family up.

The day was mundane as every, you helped your family with the shop throughout the day and cleaned it up at closing. It was almost evening, the sky became a multitude of oranges and purples. There was no sight of Usopp though.

You didn't know if you were happy or not because of it. To distract yourself from your complicated feelings, you busied yourself with work.

Besides, like your Dad loved to say there's always work to be done. You're just not looking hard enough.

“Hey, where's that boy you hang around at?” Your mom asked as she restocked the bread for tomorrow.

You wiped the tables, “I don’t know.”

With how quiet and dejected you sound, your mother gave you a worried look. You didn’t respond to it and she didn’t push it.

You went outside to take a break and felt the cool breeze on your face when you saw it. Ussop embraced and kissed Kaya.

You stopped dead in your tracks.

You didn’t think… Well you…

But it was right there, in front of your very eyes. You looked away from the scene, feeling embarrassed, creepy, angry, sad. Too many conflicting emotions, your chest started to hurt and your tears started to flow.

You slid down on the wall of your family’s shop. It was an alleyway so no one would bother you but an stray animal or something.

You knew you weren’t the one Ussop would choose. But you didn’t think that they could happen. That rather scary butler of Kaya’s clearly hated Ussop, and so you thought…

No, it didn’t matter now. He chosen. And it wasn’t you, it’d never, in an million years, be you.

You heard the bell ringing from your shop’s door, someone had walked in but it was closing time. Your mother probably would’ve turned them away.

“Oh, hello Ussop,” she said and your hears perked up.

“Hello, ma’am, um do you know where (Y/N) is? I have something to tell her,” you heard him ask.

What could he possibly want with you? Oh, god. Did he knew that you liked him? This whole time? Is he going to try to tell you?

You prided on being stealthy with your feelings but you get caught up in your head at times so maybe you weren’t as secretive as you thought.

God, how humiliating is that?

“I'm sorry, dear. But I don't. Would you like me to relay a message back to her?” your mother asked.

You could hear the reluctance in his voice, “I…I don't know. Because, well I'm leaving the island, And I don't know when or if I'll come back. So I want to say goodbye in person.”

That shocked you. He was leaving? To go where? With who? With Kaya maybe? Were they gonna runaway with each other?

You stood up on your tippy toes, looking at them both through a small window. You could see your mother but Usopp’s back was to you.

“Oh, that's wow. Hm, I guessed you've outgrown this place. It was bound to happen soon or later, huh?” your mother responded, and she caught your eye.

You quickly shook your head, please don't tell him. You knew that maybe one day you'd regret this but you weren't strong enough for this. To see him, leaving.

Usopp chuckled, “Yea, guess so. But you really don't know where she is?”

Your mother shook her head and he sighed deeply. They said their goodbyes, and your mother offered Usopp some food for his travels.

Then he was gone. You heard his voice, talking to his new friends. It was growing quiet and soon you couldn’t hear him anymore.

Maybe this distance between the two of you would make your heart grow numb to him. In any case, you just hoped it wouldn’t grow fonder.

-

Tags: @puff-hugs, @dragonqueenfk, @foxflamewarrior, @childofhecate108, @alienstardust, @louissolovely, @randomhoex, @abree234, @localcowboyd, @msmisasoup, @thatgothic-nerd, @charliepoopyfart, @0picels0, @rotin0, @nikolaevna-art, @cielitoot7, @tayharrper, @simpingmyassoff, @borkbarnes, @villainouspotential, @ramielll, @dimplewonie, @olliewhinchester, @dearest-lady, @heydemonsitsyaboilucien, @poketrainer2270, @ghostysfanfics, @penny44224, @707xn, @yoongi-holland, @don-tuna, @louissolovely, @n1ght5h4d3-24, @fuck-you-im-gae, @smolracoon25, @synchronised-beat, @flowerslds-blog, @secretlittlestudyblog

Taglist & Masterlist & Reqs Info

[zebulontheplanet]

My verbal speech had been a complicated thing lately. I’ve been using AAC more and more. Especially on my phone. I talk maybe 10% of the time? It’s just getting less and less, and I speak in shorter and shorter sentences. It isn’t a bad thing, I’ve come to accept it.

My catatonia makes it so I have frequent and constant verbal shutdowns. Some that last for minutes, and some that last for hours at a time. Sometimes, It’ll be so long that I’ll start to fear that my speech is gone all together, but it eventually comes back and I have to remind myself to stop freaking myself out.

I think of semiverbalism as a large spectrum of people, but still people who are more on the higher verbal scale, and then people on the lower verbal scale. I’m somewhere in the middle of that. I don’t speak nearly enough as I could, but I’m still not not speaking if that makes sense.

It’s scary in a way. Your speech slowly getting worse is scary in a way. It isn’t something that I feel like people talk about, because they don’t want to say the wrong thing and immediately have people assume that they mean being lower verbal or even nonverbal is bad. I don’t think they’re bad, but I think the process of going through it is personally scary.

It isn’t bad to say something is scary. And it isn’t bad to wish that something like losing or declining in your speech wouldn’t happen to you because of the struggles you’d face.

Being semiverbal like I am is a whole journey in of itself. I think personally, as someone who is on the lower verbal side of being semiverbal, that semiverbalism although should be a huge spectrum of people, people automatically assume I can speak more than I can. I’ve been looking for better terms for myself. I’m not minimally verbal because I can speak more than 20,30,50 words.(very debated topic) but I can’t find a better term than semiverbal.

This is just all a complicated thing, and for awhile I thought that maybe my speech was getting better, before I had a rapid decline in speech recently. It’s a process, and something I never thought I’d experience.

That’s all.

[tofulikesmala]

hii!! how are you? i hope good, could you write a draken x fem reader, maybe smut if you feel comfortable with it, where reader is a shy nerd and since she met draken she changed completely and you do the rest!! sorry for bad english but its not much first language!!😭

At the flip of a coin

Draken x fem reader

author notes: hello, thank you for requesting! Unfortunately, I am a MINOR, so I don’t write smut. I apologize for the inconvenience. ANDAHHHB I TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE THIS IM SOS SORRY

It was time for midterms. Again. This time, Draken finally mustered enough motivation to study for it the first time in his life. The cold breeze of the aircon caused his long hair to sway a little. The quietness of the library was in contrast to the noisy environment of the Tokyo manji gang. Observing the tables—which were mostly packed with people, he sat himself down at a table which only had one person.

You watched as this tall and muscular guy sat down on your table. Looking back at the three assignments that was due the next day, you sighed. Well, you can’t do anything about it, might as well not complain, it’ll be beneficial for you anyways! Hey, it might even teach you to write faster! Looking at the guy who was flipping through his notebook, creases forming on his eyebrow, glaring at his notebook as he scowled. PleasedonttalktomePleasedonttalktomePleasedonttalktome

Placing his very clean textbook on the table, he begun flipping through the pages, not understanding a single thing at all. Staring at the girl in front of him, he sighed, before nudging her and placed his textbook in front of her. “Hey, if you can, can you explain what it’s trying to say?” The girl took some time to process his words, but after that she read the pages of the textbook, flipping here and there quickly. “This is my curriculum for next year…but be glad I still studied one year ahead.” She mumbled quietly. Draken jaw internally dropped. Which motherfucker would want to study a year ahead? The girl sitting in front of him, apparently. The girl started mumbling words Draken couldn’t even make up. “Can you speak up. You’re too soft.” A tinge of red appeared on her cheeks as she cleared her throat. “Alright….sorry…” Speaking a little louder, she explained the formulas, how to solve it, scribbling all over his textbook. Draken had to stretch his ears to be as long as a Buddha’s in order to hear her clearly. But Draken didn’t ask her to speak louder, since she seemed to have social anxiety. Shaking her leg, hand shaky, eh Draken decided not to push any further. After like half an hour of explaining the chapters tested for the exam, she put down her pen and sighed. “W-well, I hope you understood everything…..sorry if my explanation isn’t the best, I’m not very good at teaching, I mean I can understand the topic but I just can’t teach I’m really weird and all, so sorry. I’m so bad at teaching I hope you understood if it was too complicated just tell me….” As the girl went on and on, her voice got softer and softer, until she stopped speaking all together. “It was great, thanks.” Draken replied. The girl blushed a deeper shade of red. “T-thanks, it means a lot….” “Let’s be friends. You can help me with math and shit.” A deeper shade of red appeared on her cheeks. Friends….? Dang, she didn’t have a lot of that…. “I take that as a yes.” Draken stared at her before packing his things and walking away.

Time Skip. The young couple falls in love…

Dating Draken while being shy and nerdy would include….

Due to your shy personality, he feels an even more overwhelming sense of protectiveness over you

bring you to meet toman when your comfortable, of course

would 100% bonk anyone on the head if they try to make a dirty joke, he’d rather keep your innocence

A lot of times you rant about the topic your interested in to draken, although he doesn’t know what your talking about 90% of the time, he’ll listen anyways

remembers the stuff you rant about. He would see something related and would be like “hey don’t you like this”

very caring, protective and accepting! 10/10

if anyone bullies you, he’d beat them up, immediately

You groaned as your classmates who are a waste of oxygen forcefully pushed you against the locker again, slamming a hand beside you, causing all your books from your hand to fall to the ground. The smirk on his face only grew wider at your scared expression. What’s he gonna do next, beat you up? Like every other day? “If it isn’t the ner-” blood splattered on your cheek as your classmate fell onto the floor, blood trickling down your nose. Huh? What just happened? A tall figure loomed over you, as he placed his hands on your shoulders, a gentle but firm voice rang out. “Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?” You nodded your head, you were perfectly fine, after all. Draken nodded, before straddling the guy and beating the shit out of him, saying some curse words you didn’t even know, spitting insults here and there. As you were bullied quite frequently, more beating occurred. More shouts. More blood. More gore. More swears. Of course, it started to affect you in some way!

Three missing assignments, two exams, and 7 worksheets to complete by tomorrow. You were pissed. Very pissed. Things really decided not to go your way. You were sick, absent for only TWO days, and your asshole of a teacher decided to release all the homework that was meant for like, a fucking week. You weren’t even given an extension! Oh the urge to stab a knife into your teachers stomach and twist it, see her beg for mercy as more blood flowed out— “Ah!” You collapsed to the floor, scraping your knees on wooden floor somehow. “Oh! Isn’t this the WHORE who’s dating Draken? How did you even pull him, he’s so out of your league! Hahahah! I know, maybe it’s because you’re such a SLUT!” Of all days, she decided to piss you off today. Fuck. You were so done. Standing up, you launched right at her, pushing her onto the ground as you slammed her head against the locker. Screams sounded as both her and your classmates were shocked. Several others from other classes begun peeping their heads in, curious about the commotion. Grabbing her hair, you forcefully lifted her head, before slamming her head down again. You’ve seen draken do it many times, it was pretty easy to imitate. You lifted up her head tearing her hair. “I hope you get raped. Multiple times.” Taking your scissors, you brought it to her stomach, running the blade through her clothes. “I’m gonna make sure all the yellow fat from your stomach flows out.” Pressing a bit harder, the girl screamed and kicked, but the immense unknown strength from your body kept her down. Blood began to flow, but before you could continue, somebody picked you up, throwing away the scissors from your hands and pulling you into a hug. As you the scent of Draken’s shampoo filled your nose, you relaxed and leaned into his arms.

Draken went to the classroom too because, firstly, it’s your classroom, secondly, there was screaming.

But instead, he found you slamming your bully’s head on the floor, blood spilling everywhere.

He knew you would usually cower behind your own hands, but this time you didn’t even flinch.

“W-wha…?” Draken is SO confused, what happened to his cutie potootie pookie wookie sweet honey bear gentle girlfriend?

he can’t even MOVE. That’s until you started going a little too far

Back at the brothel, Draken used some wet wipes to gently scrub off the blood off your face. “So…who taught you all that….?” “You…?” You replied bluntly. Draken gulped. Guess there’s no turning back now

[harryscherrypie]

Scared? Of him?

Harry Styles x fem!reader - can be read as best friends or as lovers (not specified)

summary - People on TikTok seem to be slightly scared of long-haired Harry, thankfully for them, you have some very incriminating proof that he wasn't scary at all.

warnings - fluff, nothing else, slight anti-larry talk? Is that even a warning?

wordcount - 2k

a/n - this popped into my head because I've been seeing these videos on my fyp, they are fun. I hope you liked this little thing I quickly put together.

---

Everyone had a little past time to get through the boring hours while on tour. The past times went from the classics like crocheting and knitting to less traditional ones like rock painting, all of the band members had something to waste their time with.

When you went on Harry’s first tour with him, you found out that having a pastime was something necessary. You spent many hours at soundchecks or just sitting around in the dressing room, waiting for something to happen. Back then, you picked up on bullet journaling. It didn’t stick with you after the tour, because you didn’t have as much time as you used to, but you still kept the journals you filled and went through them when you were feeling nostalgic.

Your past time this time around wasn’t something you were proud of. While on the first tour, you could use the time to be productive and creative, this time, you just scrolled. You knew about TikTok for a few years. You never joined on because you knew you would stumble upon people who would hate on you, and you didn’t need that kind of negativity in your life.

But after all these years you finally gave in and downloaded the app. At first, the things you saw didn’t entertain you. You couldn’t spend more than 10 minutes on the app before you exited it out of boredom.

This was around the time of Harryween and you really wanted to see what people thought of both of Harry’s outfits. You gave in and searched his name in the search bar. Thousands upon thousands of videos popped up, mentioning Harry’s name, which even after years of him being famous, still made your head spin.

Since then, Harry has been one of the main topics on your fyp. Along with film edits, fashion, recipes, memes and travel montages, his face appeared quite a lot. At first, you weren’t at the One Direction side of the Harry side of TikTok, but soon after, the videos started to appear too. Edits, conspiracies, rankings, and to your dismay also Larry videos, you name it all.

After a while, you started noticing similar videos, to your absolute horror, calling Harry with his long hair scary and terrifying. You couldn’t wrap your head around that. Your Harry scary? Absolutely not.

You were friends since you were 12 and you were with him through all of his yearly glow-ups, which means also his long hair era. You could remember a lot of things from those years, with them being one of your favorites. He wasn’t scary. Never.

He was always the sweetest person you have ever met. Sure, he might’ve looked a bit more macho than he does now, but he compensated with his actions.

One of your fondest memories is teaching him how to braid friendship bracelets while you were on the boys' tour bus.

“Harry, don’t forget, this half is going to be done with the backward knots, it’s the background so we won’t need to do anything else with the strings yet,” you reminded as you hiked up the first string from the right to the top of your finger.

You were teaching him to make little heart friendship bracelets, which he begged you to do for quite some time. You picked up this hobby back when you were in primary school when all of your friends came back from summer camps and learned to make them during the summer holidays.

“Okay, so first, I do the chevron at the top of the heart through the whole length and tie the middle strings together to connect them to the bracelet,” he clarified and you nodded, muttering a ‘that’s right,’ as you started to braid the bracelet.

Things got a bit complicated when you got to the top of the heart. Harry started to mix up which sides to do which knots, and where to move the strings. You were almost done with your bracelet, while Harry was only on his second heart.

When you tied it finished, you looked over at Harry and you laughed under your breath. He sat on the couch, hunched over the coffee table with his hair falling into his face and his tongue sticking out in extreme concentration.

You sneakily took a picture and a short video of him before you took the hair band from your wrist and started tying his hair back, out of his face, into a neat bun at the base of his neck.

“You are doing great Haz,” you smiled and he shook his head.

“My fingertips are burning, why is it so hard?” He whined childishly and you chuckled at his antics.

“I’ve had a lot of practice over these years, if you practice a bit, you will get used to it, and it will get easier to grip the thread as well,” you explained and he nodded his head.

All of a sudden, he leaned closer to you and laid on top of you, pinning you to the couch with his body weight.

“I think I deserve a small nap, don’t you think? I’ve been working so hard,” he mumbled as he nuzzled against the collar of your shirt.

“Sure love, take a nap, I will be here,” you smoothed a hand over his hair, scratching his scalp lightly and he keened into your touch, making you smile.

---

You had many videos to prove that Harry was still a big sweetheart, even with long hair. Whether it was him cooking you a midnight snack while you were tired, wearing a fluffy hot pink bathrobe with a sheet mask on his face, or him jumping up and down around your living room when he got the perfect score on the random demo of Just Dance on your old Xbox.

The more videos you saw, the more you wanted to post a video of him back in those days. You knew the videos weren’t malicious or making fun of him, but you had a soft spot for that era of Harry, maybe bigger than for the rest of his eras, and you needed to defend him and prove, that he actually wasn’t scary.

You brought it up to Harry one night while you were laying in his hotel room in Amsterdam, watching some random Dutch show on the telly.

“What would you think about me defending your long hair era, hm?” You asked absentmindedly as you massaged the palm of his right hand and fingers to help with the soreness of it and with the bloodstream.

“What do you mean?” He asked humorously as he looked away from the screen to stare at you intently.

“Well, I’ve seen a lot of videos on TikTok about you with your long hair, that you were kind of scary sometimes, and I have a soft spot for that era, you know that,” you explained as you kept digging your fingers into his flesh.

“Whatever you want love, just show me the videos you want to post, just in case,” he shrugged and you sat up beaming at him.

“Really, I can?” You smiled and he nodded.

“Of course, I don’t mind,” he smiled. You threw yourself at him, tucking yourself into him and squeezing his waist in a happy hug.

“Thank you, thank you,” you mumbled against the fabric of his shirt.

“You are welcome love,” he smiled.

And that got you here, ready to post your first, and probably the only TikTok ever.

After consulting with Harry, you picked out 3 short, but sweet and not too private snippets of Harry with his long hair.

The first one was the longest.

---

He was sitting in front of the computer with a youtube video pulled up with a mess of hair ties, bobby pins brushes scattered around him.

You slowly approached from the back, capturing him as he messily tried to dutch braid his hair, now that it was finally long enough for him to be able to do that.

“You having a bit of trouble there sir?” You asked and Harry jumped slightly, dropping all of his messily braided hair from his hands.

“Noo, you made me drop it, I have to start again,” he pouted and your voice could be heard snickering from behind the camera.

“If you wouldn’t been mean to me earlier, you wouldn’t have to do this,” you pointed out and he slouched his form in defeat.

“But you were really, truly pulling my hair,” he pouted.

“I know, but if you didn’t have stupid comments, this wouldn’t be happening,” you teased. He went quiet for a while before he made grabby hands at you. You walked closer to him, finally having enough of teasing him.

“I’m sorry I said I could braid it better than you, I now know the error of my ways,” he mumbled against the plush of your stomach and buried his face against the soft fabric of your shirt.

“Okay mister, now let me braid your hair, otherwise you will get it all matted and tangled if you continue like this,” you pushed him back gently and he turned around with a dopey smile on his face.

That was where the clip ended and another one began.

---

This one was set on the old tour bus. You and Harry were squished in Harry’s bunk with the curtain shut. The camera faced the two of you, showing your faces, which were scattered with star-shaped pimple patches and under-eye patches on your smiling faces. You had a habit of sometimes recording little vlogs at the end of the day and making a short summary of the last 24 hours.

“We visited the city today,” Harry cheered quietly and you nodded enthusiastically.

“We went to the louver and the Eiffel tower, and walked around the pretty streets,” you gushed and Harry smiled at you.

“Well, none of those were more beautiful than you, my dear,” he joked. Even though the sentence.

“Shut up and don’t talk too much because the star above your lip will fall off,” you put a finger against his mouth and he didn’t waste time and licked it.

“Eww, Harold,” you shrieked and immediately exited the bunk with a thud against the floor.

You flipped the camera and the screen showed a pouty-faced Harry as he reached his arm out, trying to get you back to the bunk bed.

“Come back, please,” he pleaded.

“Fine, but don’t be a disgusting pig, or I’ll leave and sleep next to Niall,” you warned and Harry nodded his head, showing he completely understood.

“Good,” you mumbled and ended the video.

---

The picture cut into the third little video of you two sitting in front of mirrors in a dressing room for an event, you don’t even remember the name of. The video showed a frowning Harry as he looked down at his lap.

“Don’t frown,” you scolded jokingly and he looked up at you.

“I wanted to paint m’nails,” he murmured and you shook your head.

“I know bub, how about we paint them when we get back to the hotel hm?” You proposed and he nodded vigorously.

“That sounds good, we can even get matching colors,” Harry’s eyes lit up as he sat up. The hairstylist behind him tapped his shoulder to say that he should settle back down. He did as she asked, but a happy smile still played on his lips.

---

You looked over the videos edited together at least a hundred times before you went on TikTok and started to record the beginning of your video.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of people saying that long-haired Harry was scary. I don’t agree and with Harry’s permission, I want to show you 3 little videos of him, after which you can’t look at him and see anything scary. Here they are,” you smiled and cut off the beginning. You edited it together so it didn’t have any mistakes and posted it with the caption.

“He was the moment, I miss him :(”

And now that you’ve created chaos on the internet, you turned off your notifications and went to cook some lunch for Harry and you.

---

I hope you liked this one, I had so much fun writing this, so it would be awesome if you followed, reblogged, and liked, it would be very appreciated.

Thank you for reading <3

[montywithchildhoodtrauma]

So from the look of the new hotel Lucifer might be staying with them from this point on, becoming a beloved main character with the rest.

I love this fact but... I haven't seen the topic of his depression come up yet with this new living situation.

Sooo head cannons.

Warning, this will contain suicidal thoughts, intrusive thoughts, self harm, throwing up, and thoughts of self harm. If this triggers you in any way shape or form, please, for your safety don't read.

People often talk about depression meaning you sleep a lot and you're sad all of the time. And yes that is one thing that can happen, but people don't often talk about the exhaustion of being too tired to do anything and your brain to loud and filled with hateful thoughts that force you awake. Lucifer often lays in bed for hours, the night ticking away slowly. He knows that he has to get up soon but the thought of not getting any sleep hurts his head. But he can't, and he doesn't know why- hes exhausted and tired but his head wont shut up-

He stays in his room for days on end. Any attempts to coax him out of his room fail, after a while they just start leaving plates of food that never get eaten outside of his room.

He often forgets to eat. Doesn't deserve it anyway

Sometimes he purposely doesn't eat. Hes just gonna throw it up again-

He wanders the halls of the hotel when everyone else is, theoretically, asleep.

Man drinks so much coffee he should be double dead, five times over.

The only one who hasn't vented to Husker. (Its only a matter of time- Huskers hidden all of the wine and champagne)

Everyone now has their own custom Duck! Alastor's is set to explode soon but lets not talk about that (A lamb duck is set carefully at the bottom of a lovely statue, wonder who it could be for...)

After staying in his room for days he does wayyy too much for everyone, it's concerning.

Depression meals! (Its- two slices of bread and cheese?)

Non depression meals! (Very nice- Coffee isn't a meal)

He and Alastor have been given separate kitchens due to... complications...

Pancakes and jambalaya don't go together- Holy fuck, they don't go together-

He keeps his windows shut and covered at all times, no matter how stuffy his room gets- It would be so easy to just fall, everyone would think its an accident, no one would care~

The windows stay shut. One little lock between him and a free fall

He tries to avoid Nifty as much as possible, not that shes really interested in him anymore, she just... freaks him out.

Depression meal squared! ( All he did was add a second slice of cheese)

Wonder where all this blood's coming from... it's staining the corners of Lucifer's sleeves.

A few knives from the kitchen have gone missing... ah Nifty probably took them.

Interventions won't work! Hes the king of hell!

Damn it, the puppy eyes get him every time.

Refuses to join in on the trust exercises. Hes almost as stubborn as Angel on that front.

He often forgets what hes doing or what he should be doing.

I'll make a part two if anyone wants me to!

[generalhumancloudalmond]

Hello. Hope you are having a good day. Please, can you write about Platonic Yandere! Fukuzawa x Child! Fem! Reader? Thank you.

Thank you for your request! I hope you having a good day too and I also hope that you don't mind that I also added a Rampo to your request 👉👈. I tried to write something with only Fukuzawa, but because of the new series, it turned out to be more complicated than I thought.

...

Melon bun

Platonic!Yandere!Fukuzawa x Child!Fem!Reader x Platonic!Yandere!Rampo

You were in a juvenile prison when Rampo proved your innocence, and the director of the agency took you away, as it turned out later, they were just catching the criminal for whom you were accused. You've been living with them for about a month now and, to be honest, after prison it was like a contrast shower for you. Too loose, easy and noisy. But one thing remained unchanged: you were constantly followed and watched, only now it was mostly the director.

And even so, everything could be fine if you were allowed to see your mother. It turns out that almost immediately after you got out, she was also put in prison. At first you were very upset, but then all you wanted was to meet her. However, it wasn't that easy and your Fukuzawa only made things more complicated.

"I just want to meet my mom! What's wrong with my wish?"

"Nothing, I just don't want you to see that woman."

"But she is my...!"

"Y/n, I said no. End of conversation."

The three of you were sitting at the table eating breakfast when you brought up this topic. During the argument, Rampo was surprisingly quiet and just watched what was happening. After a moment of silence that reigned in the room, Fukuzawa pushed a plate with a melon bun towards you. However, you ignored this gesture.

"Thanks, but I don't want to."

"Well, Y/n! Don't be so offended, but the fact that you refuse a bun, then it's right!"

The detective leaned on you, reaching for your bun, but the director's warning look stopped him. But Rampo didn't stop piling on, on the contrary, he only intruded more into your personal space, putting his head on your lap. Your irritation began to be replaced by resentment and Rampo did not help at all. In the end, you couldn't stand it and a couple of drops fell right on the detective's face. His eyes immediately opened and he instantly jumped up.

"Y/n, what are you doing?! I am... It's not because of me, right?!... Y/n, I'm not on purpose, honestly! The word of a best detective!"

While Rampo was trying to calm you down, which only provoked you more, Fukuzawa got up from the table and sat down next to you. He pressed your head to his chest, even though you tried to resist out of undisguised resentment. Immediately after your head was in his hands, he stopped moving, only occasionally and uncertainly, he patted you on the back.

It was weird. You both didn't know how to talk to each other. He was unemotional and straightforward, and you were just you, just a little child whose childhood was awful and whom he wanted to protect so much, even from your own family.

The director carefully watched how you calm down and uncertainly loosen your grip, but you are in no hurry to pull away. Rampo taps you lightly on the shoulder and you turn around, he holds out his favorite candy and you accept it. Fukuzawa, seeing that everything was fine with you now and you calmed down, gently pushed you away and handed you to Rampo.

"I need to go away for a while. I'll be back in 2 hours. Rampo look after Y/n, please."

"Of course, I will look after her."

Fukuzawa nodded and headed for the door, opening it and leaving the room.

No, he didn't do anything wrong, all this is just to protect you.

[14thcommander]

she lives in daydreams with me | mikasa ackerman x reader

summary: mikasa has always been the coolest girl you know- it isn’t until you go away for college that you realize your feelings are way deeper than simple admiration.

cw: 18 PLUS ONLY! internalized homophobia, queer angst, small town shenanigans, yearning, hints of mental illness and trauma, mutual pining, coming of age vibes.

author's note: i'm genuinely so excited and scared to put this out in the world. this fic holds a huge place in my heart, as well as the topics i wrote about. thank you to the amazing @strawberrystepmom for beta reading it for me! ily

dedicated to @utahimeow

You take a deep breath before exiting your car. 

As you approached your front yard, with a heavy suitcase in hand, you started naming five different things you could see – then, five things you could smell. The way your chest seemed to tighten when you rang the doorbell didn’t go unnoticed by you, although you did fully ignore it. Coming back to your hometown has always made you feel like cattle arriving at the butcher’s. 

The drive is easy, familiar – even though you only come home a couple of times a year, strictly for important holidays. It isn’t that you hate where you come from, it’s more complicated than that and, frankly, sometimes you wish it was that simple. 

Catching up with your parents seems to be the less difficult part out of all of it: their questions are simple, easy. You can’t quite tell if their interest in you only goes so far, or if they are scared of what you may answer them. Either way, it’s a routine you’re already used to.

“School’s fine, mom.” You reassure, hugging her tightly. She mentions something about how quickly time passed since you first left for Trost University, and you hum in agreement. It’s been around four years, and, although you visit on Christmas, your mom repeats the same questions. It’s a mom thing, you figure.

“How are your friends, sweetie?” Your father asks, helping move your suitcase into the house. His words are supposed to be caring, normal even – although you can’t help but feel your throat tighten with the threat of tears. 

“They’re all good.” You answer with a smile, hoping he wouldn’t ask further – and he doesn’t. This one would be hard to explain.

Despite feeling emotional about being in your old home, you can admit there’s some part of it you actively enjoy. It’s less noisy than the place you rent at downtown Trost, and, on summer nights like this one, you might be able to see a few fireflies in your front yard. It’s almost comical, how Shiganshina seems to be frozen in time – or, perhaps, you’re the one who’s been going through constant changes. 

Greeting your family members, playing with your childhood dog and sleeping in your old twin sized mattress are part of it. You feel like an external visitor when you walk up the stairs, even though you’re still very much aware of which steps snap under your weight and which doesn’t.

Your phone buzzes when you’re brushing your teeth to go to bed, an hour or so after excusing yourself from your mom’s inquiry – how’s school? Are your friends nice? Your father says Trost is a great place-

connie springer: 

long time no see, stranger

Your heart skips a beat. The toothpaste in your mouth almost burns your tongue, as you stand in front of the foggy bathroom mirror before spitting in the sink. What does your friend-from-high-school-who-you-haven’t-talked-in-a-year wants from you, at almost midnight? 

you:

hey connie, how’s it been? 

connie springer: 

eh, same as usual. u?

you: 

i’m alright

connie springer: 

cool

stori was asking for your number, can i send it to her? 

You frown at the message. None of this situation makes any sense, especially given the fact Historia Reiss definitely has your number and you text each other – as well as Ymir – on an almost daily basis. 

you:

yeah, sure

You breathe deeply, exiting the bathroom and entering your childhood bedroom, feeling suffocated by the past – polaroids, fairy lights and books on top of books don’t fail to bring back memories of which you so desperately want to forget. You cannot bring yourself to spend another night plagued by thoughts you wish wouldn’t clog your brain – your therapist wouldn’t be proud of that, you think. 

Unlocking your phone, you look for Ymir’s number, refusing to debate with yourself on whether to call her. 

“Hey.” She answers after a few seconds, seeming to expect your call. “Before you say anything, I know. Also, I’m with them right now.” The last words are whispered, muffled by loud music playing in the background – some trendy Doja Cat song indicates she’s at a get-together at one of your mutual friend’s house. You’re not upset: no one else knows you arrived at Shiganshina today, however you give a day or two before you’re spotted in public and everyone else finds out.

“Ymir, what the fuck is going on?” You question, sounding more scared than angry. Your breathing is shaky, and your friend can hear your worry through the static. She’s been that, done that and won’t judge your behavior – even though it seems a bit uncalled for.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. Historia’s birthday is next week, and we had to pretend to have lost your number since you changed it cause, you know…”

You do know. Historia and I have to pretend we’re not in touch with you, out of respect for what you asked us a couple of years ago. Your eyes shut, and you sigh. 

“You’re safe, they don’t know yet… but I don’t think you can keep running from them any longer. Jean is one step away from pulling up to your folks’ place with the whole gang.”

You snort in response, imagining a scene of your friends stuffed in Jean’s jeep. This is what you get from hiding, you guess. You hear someone calling Ymir from the background, which she doesn’t pay any mind to.

“Yeah, I understand.” you reply. “Thank you for the support, really and, um… see you soon, I guess?”

Ymir smiles genuinely at your words, lowering her head to watch the scene of Sasha running after Connie from the balcony. 

“See you soon.”

-

The sight of the local grocery store doesn’t ease the sinking of your stomach – in fact, it only makes it worse. 

Your father texted you during your morning run letting you know you ran out of eggs, and he’s in the mood for pancakes. It was your unspoken duty to get them for him, and this time you don’t whine like when you were a teenager. Moments like this with your family are more appreciated by you, now that you’re no longer around them.

Getting out of your car, you place a pair of headphones on your head and select one of your carefully made playlists. You enter the store, nodding to the customer who gets out and passes you by – a friend of a friend, maybe. Small town culture. 

“Morning.” You greet the cashier, a teenager bored out of his mind, but still greets you back. 

You walk down a couple of aisles before finding the one you were looking for. You smile to yourself, feeling proud of the muscle memory ingrained in your body. Even after all these years, you still remember small details about Shiganshina. 

The moment is short lived, given the fact someone calls your name – a raspy, almost angry voice. 

Of course Levi Ackerman, out of everyone, is who you end up bumping into. 

“Hey.” Your voice is small even when you take your headphones off. The short man eyes you up and down, opening his mouth like he was about to say something. 

“Kid, how have you been?” A stronger, more demanding voice comes from behind the both of you. “We haven’t seen you in ages.”

Wherever Levi Ackerman goes, Erwin Smith is surely with him. 

“Erwin, hi. I’m alright, just busy with school… you know how it is.”

Your tone is playful, almost as if you’re talking to an old friend – and, well, you kind of are. Levi is Mikasa’s older cousin, who took care of her ever since an early age. You remember he had a full time job, while still attending Shiganshina’s community college. He has always worked hard, for both him and Mikasa – and, when things got rough, their crazy uncle would drop by and help with groceries and rent.

And Erwin is, well… Erwin. Always with Levi, following the brunet wherever he goes. Roommates, is what the people around town call the pair – even though you, as well as other people, know better than that. 

Levi resists the urge to roll his eyes at your response, and you should be aware he’s known you enough time to get a lie straight from your lips. Despite the joyful tone you offer them, he can tell this is rehearsed. 

“Erwin, did you get the dog food?” The shorter man inquires, and his partner in crime sighs playfully. Baby blue eyes look into gray ones, as they seem to exchange a message that only they could understand. 

“Ha, I almost forgot it. And kid, don’t be a stranger.” He winks, before exiting the animal products aisle, walking towards the store entrance.

This is the second time someone says don’t be a stranger under, what, twelve hours? You resist the urge to curse under your breath, lowering your head to hide your gaze from the eldest Ackerman.

“Listen,” He starts, voice barely above a whisper – even if you’re the only two people in the aisle. Your sneakers squeak on the floor when you move your legs in order to fully face Levi. “My cousin is too much of a stubborn brat to let you know that she misses you.”

You sigh. Your brain short-circuits with information and flashbacks: the last time you saw Mikasa in person was over a year ago, and frankly, you don’t think you’re ready to see her again. Even though you know she’ll be at Historia’s birthday celebration. 

“She said that?” You ask, voice coming back to its normal tone. 

“Of course not, it’s Mikasa we’re talking about.” He replies, and before you can ask him then how the fuck do you know that, he answers it for you. “She talks about you whenever she gets the chance, though. So does the lanky blond kid.”

“Armin?”

“Yeah, think so. Either way, take care, kid.”

That morning, you left the grocery store with a carton of eggs and an even more bruised heart. 

-

You were watching reruns of a 2000’s television show a couple of days after the grocery store incident, when the doorbell rang, as your dog barked at the sound and got up from its place between your legs.Your parents had left to visit your uncle a few towns over, and miraculously didn’t make you tag along – perks of being an adult, right? You mom had said. 

“Coming.” 

You open the door to be met with the sight of your close friends. 

“Oh, it’s you.” You mumble, rubbing your eyes as shy rays of sunshine enter the living room – you had closed the curtains a few hours ago, in order to remain in the dark. “Come in.”

“You know, ever since moving to Trost you kinda became a bitch.” Ymir says, entering your house as Historia giggles beside her. “I dig it.”

You smile as your dog barks at your friends, which causes the brunette to call him a little shit just like his mom. 

“Mi casa es su casa.” You announce once you enter the kitchen, a place that holds many memories: preparing snacks for movie nights, cooking with your mom, helping your dad fix a cabinet or two…

“Speaking of Mikasa…” Ymir teases, as Historia sits on a stool near the kitchen isle, laughing at her partner’s incredulous choice of words. “It’s about time you talk to her.”

“True.” Reiss chimes in, in a soft manner. “She asked if you’re attending my birthday trip.”

“Trip?” You exclaim, opening the fridge and looking for cans of soda. 

“Yeah, if you can consider going to Jean’s lake house for a weekend to be a trip.” Ymir huffs playfully, grabbing random ingredients from the cabinet. “Anyway, you have to go or we’ll have to kidnap you.”

You close the fridge, clumsily holding three cans of Pepsi in your arms. You place them on the counter, laying your elbows on the cold marble. 

“Of course I’ll go. Wouldn’t miss Stori’s birthday.”

She smiles, letting out a soft awn sound. 

Ymir places the ingredients on the kitchen island – two bars of chocolate, brown sugar, flour, vanilla essence. It’s a scene you’ve seen many times before, but it doesn’t fail to make your heart fill up with warmth and love for your friends. 

“If you don’t talk to Mikasa willingly, I’ll make sure you will eventually. Got it?”

You laugh, despite her tone. You’re well aware it’ll happen sooner or later.

“Yes ma’am.”

-

The drive to Jean’s lake house, a few days after spending the night baking with your close friends, is less awkward than you thought it would be. 

“Psych major huh?” Connie teases, playfully elbowing your ribs. You smile, playfully rolling your eyes. 

“Yeah. It’s less glamorous than it sounds, though.”

Ymir takes a turn, brown eyes focused on the road ahead. The sun was starting to settle, bathing the world in an orange light.

“Reiner is too, right?” Historia attempts small talk, looking at you from the rear view. Her acrylic nails gently tap her bright phone case. 

“Uh, yeah.” You answer, suddenly feeling a bit sour. It’s conflicting: you don’t want your Trost life and your Shiganshina “former” life to be tangled together, although it seems inevitable. “He’s uh, he’s in my class.”

Ymir snorts. 

“That guy realized he’s gay yet?”

“Ymir!” You exclaim, even though her words earn a genuine laugh from you.

“Babe, you can’t say stuff like that.” Historia gently scolds her girlfriend, giving you a don’t mind her look. “What if he hasn’t told anyone about it?”

“Oh, please.” Sasha chimes in, through mouthfuls of potato chips. “He posts Berthold on his private account almost every day.”

Connie laughs – no, cackles actually. She’s got a point. The blond has a tendency to post pictures of his lover every now and then, drinking coffee together or having dinner at downtown Trost. 

“True that.”

At that point, your soul almost leaves your body upon realizing your friends, who know nothing about who you are now, have access to Reiner’s private social media account. It shouldn’t shock or bother you in any way – unless they put the pieces together. 

-

You arrive an hour or so after the rest of the group. 

There’s loud simultaneous calling of your names, someone calling Ymir out for being late as always (which she responds with a middle finger), Connie running towards the welcoming sofa placed in the middle of the living room. Looking around the scene, you smile, feeling like you were watching a movie. 

You see your friends interacting with each other, as you grip the handle of your duffel bag a bit harder. It feels like you’re a fly on the wall, frozen in time, doomed to watch life happen around you as your feet sink further into the hardwood floor. Armin is the first person to notice you – or, at least, the first person to be vocal about it – snapping you from your constant daydreams. 

He says your name, approaching you with a bottle of beer in hand. His kind blue eyes seem softer, not hidden behind his blond locks anymore. 

“It’s been so long, it’s good to have you back.” He offers, and you hug him.

Armin doesn’t mention the visible changes: your haircut is wilder now, but it still feels like you. There’s a few tattoos adorning your arms, peeking through your shirt. You stopped getting your eyebrows done, but it suits you better. The clothes you’re wearing are stylish, that much he can tell – although not in Shiganshina. 

Leaving for the big city really has changed you. It looks like Trost allowed you to grow into this new version of you – or, if Armin is reading this right, you’ve always been like this: Shiganshina just never allowed you to exist like this peacefully. 

“Yeah, you’re right.”

It’s been too long. Long enough for you to become someone else, you think.

“C’mon, let me show you your room. You’re staying with Sasha, I think” He says after you greet the rest of the group – which takes up about  half an hour of small talk and lies from your part, and questions from them. Yeah, Trost is amazing. Psychology is a great choice, I know. Visiting is hard, with constant exams and all that. I’m glad you guys understand. 

Armin leads you towards the stairs, before turning around and making a wait gesture towards Mikasa. 

It’ll be a long weekend.

-

Twilight is long gone, and the sky is washed in its regular black color, beautifully adorned with stars that are only visible in this sort of place. It’s the type of night that calls for drinks and exciting conversation. It’s less overwhelming than you thought it would be like, due to the fact you aren’t the only one who has been gone – although you’re the one who’s been hiding for the first time, avoiding your hometown friends like the plague. No one seems to address it, though, and for that you are grateful. 

You’re a few shots in, finally starting to let loose. It feels magically nostalgic to have the whole group together. You haven’t met up like this in ages, due to most of your friends leaving Shiganshina behind to follow their own path. It seems like you’re the only one to hide and rarely come back, though.

“Truth or dare?”

A nostalgic night calls for nostalgic games.

Ymir’s voice sounds meaner than usual, almost as if she’s taunting you with her words alone. The chatter around you dies down a bit, as a few people – mostly Armin and Jean – stop what they’re doing – stalking Sasha’s new boyfriend on social media – to watch your answer. 

You can feel your heartbeat picking up, as you unconsciously press your fingernails against your palms, creating half-moon shapes. You can feel Ymir’s laughter bubbling inside of her, regardless of the choice you make. But mostly, you can feel Mikasa’s eyes on you, and it feels like you’re the lamb who accidentally entered the lion’s den. 

“Dare.”

A variety of things happen simultaneously once the word leaves your mouth, before you could even rationalize it. Connie whistles and, as you previously imaginez, Ymir cackles – which causes Historia to shush her, attempting to protect your honor. 

You can’t bring yourself to understand why you chose dare, in the first place. Although, it felt freeing to let someone else choose your fate for you, even if it’s just a teenager’s game. Perhaps, what you’re not willing to admit to yourself yet, is the fact you know Ymir might help you make the decision you’ve been laying off for some time now. 

-

Mikasa has always been the coolest kid you know. 

Ever since you became acquaintances during freshman year, when you had braces and didn’t know how to properly do your makeup – Mikasa has had a special shine about her. You remember briefly bonding with her over the same bands you liked, given the fact she would wear metalcore band shirts like it was the school’s uniform. With her dark hair contrasting against her pale skin, and a pair of doe eyes that made all of the boys melt instantly, it was obvious she would end up like this – not popular, but cool. 

You can even recall a moment of jealousy or two, as the hairy green monster clawed at your chest repeatedly. The feeling of your eyes burning at the scene of Mikasa and Eren making out at prom, dancing together as if the world belonged to them, is something that you have engraved in your mind, deeply so. Going to college, meeting new people, having new experiences everyday – that helped you with the process of finding out who you really are, who you’ve been all along. 

It wasn’t until you turned twenty two, about to graduate university, that you realized you were never jealous of Mikasa because she got the boys’ attention – you were jealous she was dating someone who wasn’t you. 

-

“Hmm, let’s see…” Ymir’s voice echoes through the living room, filled with outdated but expensive furniture. “I dare you to spend an hour in the basement.”

You snort. That seemed like an easy task, which makes the butterflies in your stomach die down a bit. You get up from your spot between Reiner and Annie, ready to spit a smart comment to Ymir, when her voice cuts through your eardrums again, causing your blood to freeze.

“With Mikasa.”

[suenitos]

A point for point summary of dream's drituation talk from 11/10/2023 stream under the cut

(disclaimer: this is not a transcript. a lot of this is taken from his words, but with some clarifying wording from me and some shifting i did of certain points he made to create a more structured and detailed summary. i recommend watching the vod to hear it from his voice and his wording because there are some details i left out, but this is basically what he said if you dont feel comfortable approaching the topic through audio.)

1. he didnt groom her. there's lots of complications in talking about it because its a very intense/serious thing to accuse someone of.

2. it's very scary to talk about for him because its such a real issue and anything you say in defense can devalue other victims from having their voices heard. but, she is a liar, and manipulated the situation. its scary for him to say that because it can devalue victims and come across as accusatory

3. because people made accusations of this sort to other people close to him (sapnap, bad) he was the first person to jump to their defense so he had to handle this very differently as the one in the hot seat. he told people not to publicly jump to his defense.

4. because she did not end up going to the police/legal route, suing her to prove he didnt send her any messages on snap or IG at all would be very difficult. defamation is insanely hard to prove because it involves having to prove the person you're suing is lying, lying on purpose, and with malicious intent.

5. for first few months, lawyers told him to wait and just countersue if she did go through suing, and sit tight. nothing moved at all from her side, so nothing ended up happening. he feels more comfortable to talk about it because enough time has passed and she has done nothing to go forward with her accusations. on her end, she only proved he messaged her privately but did not provide strong evidence of grooming. deleted messages of her own, apparently had a bf and fake accounts he doesnt really know exactly what happened

6. timing thing- he has to think of public opinion and his reputation because unfortunately a lot of this hinges on his reputation as dream. him and his lawyers had to think about the "strategy" of talking about it with timing, and he was busy with other stuff, and now that he's becoming more active again content wise he feels it's appropriate to address it.

7. plans to make a video on dreamxd in the future to talk about it

more details:

-he downloaded snapchat data to reveal that she doctored stuff, he questions her choice to not do that in order to prove her accusations

-didnt know she was a stan (which he admits sounds ridiculous), deleted the whole chat from instagram multiple times (swiped out of inbox, but until you block someone on instagram the messages stay forever). chatted about music and only had friendly messages becuase he thought she wasnt as big a fan/wanting to get into streaming because she asked him about that

-he has 3 snaps: priv priv snapchat (close friends family), private public snapchat (mod team, editors, old irls, csgo lobbies etc) <- the one she was on, the Public snapchat (that everyone can add him on, dreampublic)

questions from chat:

-why did you add her on snapchat? talking about music, wanted opinions outside of friends, and wanted to share on snap (deletes messages after 24 hours because she could leak it from ig and he didn't trust her)

-but she was a fan? didnt think she was that big a fan, also he tried to get her out of the inbox many times. assumed she was a small cc or a fan but not a stan

-why on personal snap? WASNT personal snap, it was front facing but it wasnt his public public one

-sexting: he thought she was 18 which doesnt really matter BECAUSE nothing he "wanted" from her was sexual. he never sexted her, her story takes place during the faceless era and that he added her on snap and then a week and a half of "talking" sent her a dick pic

-what proof does he have to show dishonesty: timeframes, intentions, snap data, transcripts of IG dms, she deleted a lot of messages that made her look weird that were showed in her video

-gift cards: grooming often involves gift giving and this is something people weaponized against him because he gave her a gift card as she said it was her birthday. she had said it was her birthday and he gave her one (he gave a gift cards to his mods etc for christmas and had a lot left over), not grooming just him being nice

-the meetup: the only person he met up with while faceless was sapnap, he didnt meet up with anyone during that era

-bikini comment: (apparently) he said she was gorgeous after she sent him a picture of her in a bikini when she was 18. he said saying that compliment probably wasnt far fetched from him but that message wasnt there on snap data, proving he didnt say it. he also thinks given the fact he is a massive figure who was faceless this entire time that it makes no sense for him to be so careless about who he's meeting up with or messaging and he always has to be careful about how he approaches messaging people who are under 18 or who he doesnt know. considering he had never even showed one of his best friends his face before meeting up with him, it makes no sense that he would be so risky about being "intimate" with someone he isn't that close with.

final comments:

-it affected him more than anyone knows. he was a victim in a situation but he doesnt want to victimize himself. he cares more about actual survivors and he wants to be respectful of that and be careful of what he says because it could come across as harmful or triggering to survivors

-there are factors of this situation that are out of his control like her (she can just say "believe victims" and people will be quicker to jump to her defense due to her positionality), and he wants this to die off as much as possible. he's talking about this against the advice of his management but as dream it's never going to die down so might as well talk about it.

-he understands as a controversial and flawed figure, the only way to convince people and get through to people is through compassion when people are spreading misinformation or malicious information against dream -> then he moved on to a conversation about general misinformation and how he thinks we as an audience can help mitigate toxicity and increase compassion and kindness from the community

reiterating this again: this is not the only time he's talking about this. he plans to make a video on dreamxd providing more concrete proof and actually going into depth more than this stream.

[scratchandplaster]

FEBUWHUMP DAY 12 - Semi-conscious

CW: conditioning, parental Whumper, amnesia, emotional manipulation

Previous | [Masterlist] | Next

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

.

..

...

"...easy to return here whenever I..."

"My words...you know how to..."

"...slowly coming back to the waking world."

Someone was speaking to him, though Ben was still far too gone to register it.

"Eight. Feeling the tranquility join you from within, always following my voice."

Not yet, he wanted to stay in the pleasant darkness.

"Nine. Coming back to me now, and ten: Wake up!"

With a snap, Bens eyes plopped open, searching confused for the origin of this command. There he was again: Dad, rubbing up and down his spine to help him stir back to the present. The warm smile Ben all too gladly returned only helped to hold on to it.

"Well then, how are we feeling?"

Blinking a few times made the fog in his head partially vanish, but the airy, sticky presence at the back of his head never budged. Yet Ben didn't just feel okay, he felt great! Like a heavy burden was lifted from his chest.

Not strong enough to use his voice again, he simply hugged his dad as tight as he could. Oh, Ben missed him so-so much, it was killing him. Shepard, too, was freed of the heavy pressure inside his heart, never stopping the calming pets that kept his son's mind warm and pliable.

"Ben, do you have any questions about what we discussed?"

Questions? What did they talk about? Maybe Ben spaced out again, like he always did if his wits weren't required... Well, it couldn't have been very dicey if his thoughts already jumped to another topic.

"No, thanks."

Dad's smirk told him that this was somehow the right answer: "Perfect. Dinner will be ready soon, so let's get you to freshen up a bit."

Though Ben had no idea nor clue about what was happening to him, he trusted his dad to guide him. Shepard always knew what to do.

During the past few hours spent together, the sun had begun to set again. The dim twilight didn't really help in getting rid of the fuzziness adorning the world around the edges - focussing felt impossibly hard.

Only as a damp wash cloth wiped through Ben's weary face, his mind began to clear up further, yesterday's worries nothing more than a bad dream.

Cleaning up the crumbs of sleep from Reuben's eyes let Shepard reminisce of how it used to be between him and his sons, just the three of them hand in hand. Since then, everything had just become more complicated. Maybe too complicated, seeing how the boys saw themselves as abandoned and unloved enough to leave one after another. A mistake he had to correct.

After getting the debris off Ben, Shepard picked up a wooden brush to comb through his untamed hair. As far as his dad could tell, Ben enjoyed the endless attention, nearly whining when it stopped.

"It's chilly outside," Shepard whispered and eyed Ben's unusual outfit; too much polyester for his taste, "I don't want you to get a cold, so I made a little something."

Rummaging around behind himself, Shepard pulled out a cardigan and unfolded it to let Ben be the judge of it: it was brand new, mustard-yellow yarn loosely knit into itself. Ben found it beautiful, especially the little cherries stitched on it.

Cherries…just like Sam gave him. Ben hoped they wouldn't join them for dinner too, and cursed himself for it instantly. A cracked ego was no reason to be rude.

"I tried a new pattern. You still grow like a weed, so I had to tweak the measurements a bit," Dad explained and helped him into it, beaming with joy.

Ben, fuzzy and floaty, was also handed a shiny bar of chocolate from a trunk besides them.

"What's that?"

"The present you bought for us," Shepard responded confused, arranging Ben's hairdo into a neat side parting.

"Uhm-"

"At the store? You said you wanted to hand it out at dinner. Shawn couldn't sit still because of all the anticipation."

"Oh, sure." Dinner - there was a stray memory about a gift, though escorted by the faint impression that something was off. This fugue state Shepard recognized only grudgingly.

"You don't have to share, it's yours. You're free to decide."

"No-no, it’s okay. I'm just a bit lost." A clear understatement, dear Ben would forget his own head if it wasn't screwed on. Biting his lip, he had a question for him after all: "Dad, I-I want to know beforehand: how - what will be my punishment?"

Shepard's face twisted painfully: "Punishment? Punish - no! We are so thankful that you came back to us, none of us would ever punish you for that."

Reuben doubted his candor again, as if Shepard didn't just spend hours educating him otherwise. Soft words were not enough this time, it seemed, as Ben kept on dodging his shocked gaze: "Luke said you'd hate me for leaving."

"Oh sweetheart, come on," Shepard sighed and gently took his hand, "I'll show you the truth."

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Thanks for reading 🤍 [Febuwhump 2024 Masterlist]

@febuwhump

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

Hello, can I ask what do you mean "in canon it's impossible for Sherlock to settle down with a woman"? Like, as a fan of Holmes and always read the books since middle school, I'm kinda confuse here, I don't mean anything negative. Sorry, do you think Poirot (from Agatha Christie) is also queer?

Maybe because I grew up with very religious mother and lived in anti-LGBTQ country, I'm kinda slow in picking up subtext. Like until now I'm still kinda confuse with my friend who have ships from any fandoms (but I still love to hear and read her headcanons or fics about those characters)....

I really agree with you, I've seen many Holmes' adaptations (cartoon, tv series, manga) but Yuumori is clearly the closest to Doyle's works. Do you think the mangaka also love to read Holmes' books?

Story time! (Welcome to "Hyper answers asks like an old lady going on an hour long barely-on-topic tangent at the slightest prompting.)

I totally get where you're coming from, I was raised in like...knockoff Southern Baptist churches. Growing up, homosexuality was presented to me as a sexual perversion incapable of involving real love. It's kind of silly, but it's true: a ship was a big part of changing that for me. I read Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as a teenager, and Kurogane and Fai had something that was inescapably romantic and beautiful but never strictly sexual (tho the potential is certainly there). Between that and an online community of LGBTQ+ adults who were incredibly patient and kind towards me even when I was suuuuper ignorant, I started to open up towards queer relationships as...well, just relationships. Relationships that can encompass sex and also encompass love and friendship and communication and partnership and all those other things I'd been taught were exclusive to monogamous straight people. And then, even as terrified as I was, I was eventually able to face the fact that I'd always had crushes on girls just as often as crushes on guys. So yeah, there's a reason Kurofai is my ship of all ships, the actual One True Pairing for me. Because it cracked open a door just enough that I could slowly lever it open the rest of the way. There seem to be quite a lot of anecdotes like this: women enjoying BL/mlm ships is often seen as fetishy (which can certainly be part of it) but for some reason I can't fully articulate it also seems to sometimes be a means for girls and women to explore their own not-straightness.

ANYWAY. SHERLOCK HOLMES. Tbh I'm not gonna go too in-depth because I would bet good money that there are a bunch of scholarly articles on Holmes' queerness. People have probably done their doctorate theses on this! Much smarter and more well-read folks than I have already covered the topic. For me, it really boils down to: he never outright expresses sexual or romantic interest in anyone (we must resist the urge to assume his respect for Irene Adler is romantic just because he is a man and she is a woman). He's almost certainly on the asexual spectrum. But when he does exhibit symptoms one might associate with romantic and/or sexual interest (particularly romantic, imo), it's always towards men (usually Watson, of course). For example, notable flirt John Watson saying that Holmes blushes at his compliments the way a girl does is...suggestive.

The whole thing is complicated by Watson being (in my opinion at least) an unreliable and sometimes downright petty narrator. He keeps going on spiels about Holmes being cold and heartless, only to turn around and describe him greeting his friends warmly and being emotionally moved by music and baby-talking puppies and charming old ladies. It makes Watson sometimes come across as one of those allo people who are so unable to conceive of a life without romantic and/or sexual desire that they start dehumanizing those who don't experience it. Alternatively and maybe more charitably, he just has a big ol' crush on Holmes, is understandably alarmed by it given the time period, and gets bitchy and defensive when he feels it might not be reciprocated.

But ultimately...do I think Arthur Conan Doyle sat down at a desk in the late 19th century/early 20th century and was like "I am going to write some ace queer representation for the tumblr girlies (gn)"? Obviously not. 😅 I do think he might have set out to create a character who very deliberately did not need to have the otherwise almost obligatory straight romantic side-plot. Holmes is never in any way set up as having a life headed towards marriage and children, in spite of how typical that was for the time. The companionship he does express a need and desire for comes in the form of another man. He's "lost without [his] Boswell." He sneakily buys Watson's practice out from under him so he'll be free to move back in and go on more adventures with him. He threatens violence when Watson is hurt. Etc etc. I think it's very fair to interpret it all through a queer lens, the quibble would be more in whether that queerness ever manifests sexually.

I definitely think the Yuumori creators have not only read ACD but also other fiction based on the stories, possibly even including some very old pastiches like this one. I love how seemingly nerdy they are about it haha! The series is full of easter eggs and callouts to other Holmesian works.

As for Poirot, I know very little about the character beyond a few episodes of the show I watched as a young'un, but that is not the mustache of a straight man (I'm joking I'm joking I have absolutely no opinion on that one! 🤣)

Thanks for the ask, and for actually reading this ramble if you got this far! 😅

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Thank you for the advice! On the topic of the Miracle Box and character bloat, I do struggle with the latter as I'm quite fond of the Miracuclass and have already attach myself to them. I do want to give them character developments since the show never did, but I am aware that having a massive cast will be difficult to write. For now my source of inspiration is Young Justice since they have a huge cast of heroes as well.

As for the Miracle Box and the shows rep on Chinese representation, I'm curious to hear your thoughts and what you would have done about it. I am Chinese-Indonesian and we celebrate Chinese New Year so I'm pretty familiar with the Chinese Zodiac. There is a story that about the origin of the Chinese Zodiac, the emperor held a contest to decide the animals that will be included in the calendar. The first is the rat and the last being the pig. Interestingly enough a cat originally wanted to join the contest only for its spot to be stolen by the rat.

The massive cast could have worked if they got ride of Marinette being the source of everything wrong in the universe and just had each episode deal with a conflict caused by one classmate or another, so I don't think you have to abandon them if you're going to match canon's monster-of-the-week format. Just be aware that it's downright impossible to write 18 characters (all the teens) or 36 characters (teens + kwamis - Nooroo) in a single scene and have the audience be able to follow what's going on. I'd strongly encourage you to scrap making most of them heroes and just keep them normal teens, but it is ultimately your call as you're the one who knows what story you want to tell.

I absolutely get the temptation to use the whole class because I personally love Rose and Juleka, but I ultimately chose to keep them as minor background characters because that's what was best for the story and I live by the code of kill your darlings since my goal as a writer is telling good stories.

I'm familiar with the Zodiac myth because of the anime Fruits Basket, but I am not Chinese* nor am I an expert in Chinese symbology and beliefs*. Please keep that in mind as I discuss this next section. If I get something wrong, then anyone is welcome to chime in and correct me or to give further context as this stuff is really hard to research if you don't read Mandarin or Cantonese and/or if you don't have a background in this stuff to help set off your BS detector. A random blog could have good info or it could be written by a person making stuff up and I don't have the background to tell, so I'm skeptical of all of them which is why we're just going to talk about what's on Wikipedia here since that's usually at least mostly accurate and it gives us enough info for me to explain why I took one look at the zodiac stuff and went, "Hell no!"

My rewrite came about long before we knew all of the powers of the zodiac miraculous, so one of the first things that I had to do was figure out what to do about that because I wasn't going to just make up powers. I was going to base my stuff on the actual zodiac since I do try to be respectful to other cultures. This lead to me researching the Chinese zodiac*.

I very quickly realized how complicated this thing was. Every animal in the zodiac is associated with personality traits, two of the other animals, one of the five elements, and either yin or yang as well as several other things. I'll also note that Western representation of the zodiac has simplified it as there's more than just the 12 animals of the years. There are also animal signs assigned to the month (called "inner animals"), day (called "true animals"), and hour (called "secret animals") of your birth.

In other words, there's a lot of depth to the Chinese zodiac* and it has real cultural significance in China.

I was immediately wildly uncomfortable trying to come up with random powers that somehow respected that depth and significance. I also realized that the show didn't seem to be using the real zodiac to guide the powers it had assigned or the way the kwamis were being written, which also made me uncomfortable! I had previously assumed that they must have a cultural consultant to guide the cultural elements, but that does not seem to be the case for any element of the lore or Marinette's writing. Like to point out a big one, as best I can tell, a miracle box based on Chinese lore would not use a ladybug for good luck and it definitely wouldn't use a black cat for bad luck.

In other words, the miracle box seems to be about as Chinese as fortune cookies.

Between all of that, the character bloat, and the fact that the team is fighting one villain (meaning that you really don't need 17 powers), I decided to completely scrap the idea of the miracle box being tied to a specific culture and came up with my own lore that I won't go into here.

If I had the money to hire a cultural consultant or personal knowledge of Chinese* beliefs, then I would have considered redesigning all of the zodiac miraculous to be based on Chinese* beliefs and changed them into powerups to replace the colored macarons and cheese that have basically been forgotten about. (We are never seeing what the last three colors are for. Never!) I think that would have made more sense than the potions and it would have been more fun/limiting. It's basically how the show is using the zodiac anyway. The temp heroes are defined by their powers and little else since Ladybug is the only team member who is allowed to have a meaningful role on the team.

Basically, the Zodiac animals have a ton of potential to be something really cool that teaches us about Chinese* beliefs and I would love, love, love to see someone take that on. I mean, why have a main character who is half-Chinese and a box based on Chinese lore* if you're not going to capitalize on that?

*I bet you were wondering about all the red asterixis up there, weren't you? Well, buckle in because it gets worse.

I am not going to touch on this further because I am wildly unequipped to do so, but I would be remiss to not acknowledge the fact that the miracle box is said to be Chinese, but the miraculous monks are explicitly stated to be Tibetan, which is yet another "hell no!" There is a massive conflict over the fact that China claims that Tibet is not a country, but a part of China while Tibet claims to be its own nation. Some brief research on my part indicates that Tibet may even have its own beliefs around the zodiac and no. Just no. No, no, no! I'm not touching that minefield for a million dollars! Idk what the writers were thinking combining the two cultures like that, but that does seem to be what they're doing otherwise it would be the Tibetan miracle box or the monks would be in China. Writers, what are you doing?

Once again, I am not a part of any of the above cultures and I am not claiming to be an expert on them. I am just giving you my logic for why I took one look at the miracle box and went running for the hills. Aka why redesigned it to not be a mine field for my personal ethical code what which can be summed up as "research and represent all cultures to the best of my ability as cultures are not aesthetic. If I don't want to do the research (or can't for some reason), don't tie the setting/lore/whatever to a real culture." I'm not claiming to be perfect about that, but I do try and I like to think I know when I'm wildly out of my depth which was 100% the case here. No. Just no. No, no, no.