#this is completely subjective but i feel like whatever your opinion is on this says a lot about you

[hannieehaee]

Svt ot13 having to break up with their s/o for the sake of the group and their public image?

having to break up bc of their career (but not really)

content: established relationship, potential break up, public scrutiny, angst (no sad ending though ofc), etc.

wc: 804

a/n: i switched this up a bit to how they'd react to controversy about your relationship since i hate writing unresolved angst or angst with sad endings oops sorry </3

masterlist

seungcheol -

im sawrryyy his ass is far too stubborn to break up a relationship just bc his label wants him to. he also would not care what the tabloids are saying. he'd maybe consider it if it was affecting you, but ultimately he'd rather go on hiatus or just put up with the scrutiny rather than actually break up.

jeonghan -

he'd never admit to a relationship publicly no matter how damning the evidence was. would just completely ignore the subject and throw subtle lies about it. wouldnt even have to consider breaking up with you bc he wouldnt even acknowledge any backlash from your relationship at all lol.

joshua -

kinda odd to write about him considering ... anyways i think he would do the same as hannie and just not acknowledge the damage a relationship would do to his public image. i mean. if he finally found someone who he feels strongly enough about to let into his messy life why would he ever consider ending it? he'd feel affected by it, though, knowing the scrutiny would also fall on you.

jun -

he might bring up the controversy very subtly during a live or maybe one day straight up make a statement about it but never actually let it go further than that. he seems super private with his family, so if your relationship were to begin causing public uproar he'd just tighten the reigns on his privacy a bit more.

soonyoung -

just annoyed and frustrated about it. would try and subtly scold the media (and carats a little bit) about it on one of his private weverse lives. if the situation got too intense, though, he'd just opt for hybe putting out some type of statement denying the relationship in order to protect you from public opinion as much as be could.

wonwoo -

he's so nice and understanding and never blames fans for anything (even though sometimes he 100% should *cough* the mobbings *cough*) so he wouldnt blame anyone for their emotions towards his relationship. would consult with you and give you an out if you felt like you couldnt handle the situation (even though it absolutely broke his heart to even consider breaking up) but when you denied him he'd simply opt for putting up with the negative press and just continue to love you as privately as he could.

jihoon -

only one who gives me the vibes that he might actually try and break up with you just bc he loves you too much to put you through all this unwarranted hate all bc of his public image. butttt would not survive the heartbreak he felt at breaking up with someone he clearly still loved and would run back into your arms within the month.

seokmin -

just complete emotional turmoil. he wouldnt wanna break up, but if you did, he'd do it just for you. he also wouldnt wanna deny your relationship bc he'd feel like that'd be disrespectful to you. anddd he also would not wanna confirm your relationship since that'd just add extra hate to you. he'd opt to do anything you chose, making you his main priority.

mingyu -

his ass would NAWWWTTT care if people thought badly of him being in a relationship. he'd keep it as private as he could, but would never even entertain the thought of breaking up when dispatch suddenly got a hold of your relationship and the situation blew up. very nonchalant about it all, feeling too confident in your love to think anything could ever drive the two of you apart.

minghao -

gives me the vibes that he might just opt for making the usual statement idols always make of 'x idol is seeing x idol with warm feelings' or whatever the fuck they usually write. other than that he would still keep the relationship very on the down low and never allow public opinion to affect his emotions towards you.

seungkwan -

would take a very logical and professional approach to it by immediately denying any relationship and claiming the two of you are friends lol. he's so friendly with everyone it'd be very believable. wouldn't have it in him to break up a personal relationship over his career thoughhhh he's just too full of love to do that.

vernon -

yet another member to just absolutely ignore anything going on and straight up not care for any public reaction about it. wanna send trucks? wanna write articles about him? he's not even gonna see them.

chan -

would feel insanelyyyy bad that he ever put you in the limelight in such a negative light. would also feel embarrassed and annoyed at the fact that merely being with you would become such a scandal. in the end, he'd also just opt to ignoring the situation and denying the relationship in order to preserve your peace.

[mr-ribbit]

this isn't meant to soften or reduce the objective transmisogyny + additional hate action going into this, but since the people running these harassment campaigns are acting like they're literal baby children who need their hands held to understand anything, maybe this needs to be said:

what you're doing and how you treat trans women on this website is fucking MEAN. if you want to sit there and honestly convince yourself that you're *not* a transmisogynist or a transphobe or a misogynist or any other type of bigot - like if you genuinely believe that and are confused why people are calling you these things - then maybe we need to start from little primary colored building blocks and tell you that you're being fucking mean and rude and actively harmful to real people who read the things you say. im not sure why we need to start off with "trans women have feelings" - just kidding I know exactly why we need to - but maybe you don't.

no matter who you're talking to, do you honestly think accusing someone you do not know of being a pedophile, en masse, behind their back /and/ in a public forum, is a reasonable way to treat someone for making a tumblr post about video games or political opinions? even if you strongly disagree with the post, you think someone deserves to be treated like that by people they don't know? take a second please and sincerely imagine how that would feel. wouldn't it be scary? wouldn't you wonder who the people were who thought this about you - if they're people you know - if they're just a few people that will continue saying mean things to you forever or if there are thousands of people who choose to dedicate their time and energy specifically to making you feel bad? if you accidentally write a post in the wrong tone or unknowingly interact with a shitty person, that there are uncountable people that will keep track of that just to hurt you later? that's fucking horrifying

and to zone in on what's specifically happening here: do you think randomly accusing people of being pedophiles or sexual abusers has no effect on them? like a lot of you tend to excuse yourself in these discussions by saying "I didn't actually see the context of what they were saying" or "I didn't see that they apologized already" or "I didn't actually understand the post was a joke" or whatever other kneejerk response to make sure *you* aren't seen as a bad person. do you realize that makes you look even meaner? you didn't bother to actually follow up on a thought you had about someone before sending them hateful messages or making public accusations about them? those actions are harmful whether or not you like the victim at the end of the day.

believe it or not some people you send this shit to are survivors of abuse themselves, or have their own historical personal reasons to be weighing in on a touchy subject. when you baselessly decide it's ok to call someone an abuser of any type, that person is probably *also* disgusted by whatever horrible shit you're accusing them of. as someone that hates these things as much as you do in order to attack someone for them: what do you think it's like to have complete strangers think that about you? how many eggshells would you walk on if random people thought so little of you that they were ok doing this?

it's mean. it's heinous, cruel bullying, and if you genuinely think you are not doing it from a place of transmisogyny or hatefuk bias over the victims' identity, then you need to understand that that's not an excuse. "i didn't even know she was trans" ok, it was still mean to call her a pedophile with 200 of your closest friends in public. "im trans so it can't be transphobia" ok it was still mean to assume someone was endorsing abuse when they were talking about being accused of abuse. "i didn't see the post where she said it was a joke" ok it was still mean to actively harass someone without bothering to look into the full context.

at the end of the day, yes, obviously I still think you're all transmisogynist assholes who are clearly willing to gang up on a woman who has nothing to do with your problems simply because she dared to speak on them. i think you're bigoted and unwilling to examine that if it means giving up your vitriol against someone who doesn't like your favorite video game or whatever excuse of the week. but like even if you were just doing it for love of the hate game, it's fucking weird heinous shit and i hope you're happy having that be a central part of your life

to be clear: im not transfemme and if I'm overstepping or talking over anyone please let me know. im not speaking for anyone's actual experiences except my own, which is the experience of being angry at how much literal bullying and harassment I see excused on this so-called progressive queer blogging website

[f1byjessie]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS ━━ LN4.

sometimes the right words are hard to come across, and sometimes everything you need to say can be captured in an image.

( lando norris x photographer!reader )

━━ part two.

Friday evenings are typically spent in the comfort of your flat. Normally, you’re half paying attention to reruns of whatever shitty reality TV happens to be on and half scrolling through social media to keep up with the ever-fluctuating trends of content as per your job requirements, all the while eating your body’s weight in takeaway. It’s not the dream, but it’s certainly a dream.

Tonight, you plan on amending things to include going through the pictures of Bali’s stunning beaches that Lando’s been spamming you with throughout the day, but beyond that, you have no intentions of deviating further from your norm.

You’re actually really looking forward to it. Though you’d rather cut off your own hand than admit it to his face and give him new ammunitions to tease you with, you miss Lando during the winter breaks. So much of your year is spent having him nearby━ a near-constant presence buzzing with the inability to slow down let alone stop━ and when he isn’t around, the silence seems louder. There’s no one else who manages to annoy you the way he does, and it’s just not the same without him.

To make matters worse, between your new job, Lando’s travels, and the scheduling conflicts that have arisen in turn, you haven’t had a chance to catch up with him beyond a few back-and-forth messages about his current escapades. So you really, genuinely, truly are looking forward to it.

Garrett Ward throws a wrench into things.

You have mixed opinions of Garrett. He can be very sweet, and he’s gone out of his way to make you feel incredibly welcome in your first week with the Manchester City team. He makes good conversation and seems genuinely interested in what it is you’re doing, often asking questions about your equipment and process, which is a nice change of pace from most other clients you’ve worked with in the past who rarely give two shits about anything beyond the final product. But his reputation is… concerning.

Garrett Ward is infamous in English tabloids for being a notorious womanizer.

There are several articles that come to mind, but the most damning of which is from 2019, before his trade to Manchester City, detailing with very incriminating photos how he’d been seen entering a club with two women and then leaving just a few hours later with a completely different pair. You don’t want to assume he’s the same man now as he was back then, nearly a full five years ago, but you’ve been working in the sports industry long enough to know that athletes can have anyone and if they want then they will have anyone━ there is no shortage of temptation.

And you are not arrogant enough to assume you would be the outlier.

Which makes his interest in you feel less like friendly curiosity and more like something you need to be wary of.

It’s also why━ as you make the trek through the Etihad Campus car park━ you feel dread begin to pool in your stomach as you answer your ringing phone. “Hi, Garrett.”

“Y/N!” He exclaims excitedly, sounding like he hadn’t just seen you barely ten minutes ago in the weight room. “I meant to catch you before you left, but you were outta there so fast I wasn’t able to.”

And there’s probably a reason for that, you want to say, but you hold your tongue. “Yeah, I usually try to be pretty quick about it.”

There’s an awkward pause left open as if he expects you to say more, and when you don’t he clears his throat. “Erm, well, I was actually just calling to see if, perhaps, you would like to grab dinner with me this evening.”

You don’t. At all. It’s one of the last things you would like to do. There are plenty of other hellish things you would willingly rather subject yourself to before sitting down and sharing a private meal with this man━ jumping into the Thames is one of them, and letting Lando drive you around on the autobahn in his Spider is another. Both could very easily result in death, permanent disfigurement, or any other number of horrible outcomes, but neither includes Garrett.

Your hesitating silence must be an answer enough for him, because he chuckles again and adds on quickly, “No strings attached, I promise. It’ll just be two friends getting dinner.”

All you want to do is get cozy on your couch in your pajamas with a kebab from the place down the street and watch pretty people deal with their pretty people problems on TV. You don’t think that’s too much to ask for, but apparently, some higher power does.

“I suppose that’d be alright then,” you agree tentatively, speeding through the stages of grief as you mourn the initial plans of your Friday evening━ the easy, simple, comfortable plans. “Shoot me a message with the time and place and I’ll meet you there.”

“Awesome!” Garrett cheers. “See you later then.”

The peaceful silence that awaits you after you hang up feels like it’s mocking you. Too bad you can’t flip off silence.

“Look, the truth is, City is looking at trading me at the end of the season if I can’t clean my act up.” Garrett’s voice is quiet as he admits the reality of his future to you, but it breaks the silence of the world around you like a gunshot. “And not just loaning me out━” he adds, a twinge of something akin to anger noting his tone, “━but fully trading me. They’re saying that my image makes things too hard for them and the only way they’ll consider re-signing me is if I can either keep my name out of the tabloids or try to clean myself up.”

In Garrett’s defense, he technically did hold true to his promise of just two friends getting dinner. Things were actually going quite well, too. The restaurant was a little more high profile than you would’ve expected for a casual meal, but that can easily be passed off as the luxurious lifestyle and expensive tastes of a pro athlete who can certainly afford it. Expenses of your meal aside, he’d been good company, asking after the ways of working in Formula One and then finding similarities in his football career that made it easy to chat about the struggles and stressors of professional sports.

But you can recognize that this is where it’s all beginning to go downhill.

He’s announced it completely out of the blue as you’re walking back to the garage where you’ve both parked your cars. On top of that, his pace slows and you’re forced to slow down as well to match it until you both eventually come to a halt in the middle of the pavement.

You feel for him, in all honesty. You understand the difficulties of contract negotiations and how easily they can fall apart. The fragility of Formula One contracts is its own special brand of tricky and you’ve seen many friends move on to other teams in the blink of an eye just as they’ve begun to settle down and make their mark where they are. You can’t say for certainty that you understand the mechanics of football contracts to the same degree, but you can imagine they have their own fragile fine print.

But the chill of a January night in Manchester is brutal, and you’ll be the first to admit that your outfit does not protect against it. You don’t really want to be having this conversation in general, because you’ve known Garrett for all of a week which makes you acquaintances at best, but you especially don’t want to be having it now, out here in the cold when all you want to do━ all you’ve wanted to do since this afternoon━ is curl up in something warm and comfortable and pretend the world outside your flat doesn’t exist for a few days.

“I’m not sure what this has to do with me if I’m being honest, Garrett.”

He shrugs. “I just thought you might be able to help.”

You shove your hands in your pockets in a desperate attempt to keep your fingers from going more numb than they already are and shake your head at him. “I don’t know how exactly you think I can help you with that. I’m a photographer, not a PR officer.”

“My agent thinks it would be a good idea if I showed the media that I could hold down a steady relationship. Prove to them that I’ve changed my ways, and have matured.” He shrugs again, nonchalant despite being the one to bring this up in the first place.

“Have you?”

He makes a face, something between a flirty smirk and a suggestive wink, “Well, I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Garrett.”

“Look,” he crosses his arms and levels you with a look that fills you simultaneously with more rage and annoyance than a single person has ever made you feel before. “It would just be for a couple of months, and then we could stage an amicable breakup and that would be that! It just has to be long enough to show everyone that I’m not the same as I used to be.”

You give him a look right back, hoping it conveys how appalled you are by his audacity. “Okay, but why me of all people? Christ knows you probably have a list of women in your contacts who would jump at the chance to pretend to date you for a few months.”

His face pinches up in disgust. “Yeah, but they’re all former hookups, and I mean, they’re kinda psycho about me to be fair. If I tried to end things, they’d probably go to the tabloids themselves and smear my name with the worst things they could come up with.” He shrugs again, and you’re starting to find that you hate it when he does so. “I need someone willing to just play along for the time being and who will be discreet when things are over.”

“And you think I’m that person?” You scoff. “You’ve known me for a week!”

Your voice echoes and it reminds you once again that you’re having this conversation in the middle of a random street in Manchester. It’s cold and dark, and you’ve been attempting to bite back your frustration since the moment Garrett called you. You’ve been as nice as you possibly can be for this man, shy of bending over backward to worship the very ground he walks on, and you’re so close to your limit that you think if he shrugs one more fucking time━

He shrugs. “Well, yeah, but you know how this industry works. So I know you can be trusted.”

You take a deep breath to try and retain what’s left of your quickly slipping composure, before you say, “Garrett, this goes beyond unprofessional. I could potentially get into a lot of trouble for this. You’re technically my co-worker, if not my client by proxy. It’s not a good look for me to be getting with the athletes I work with, considering my entire career is based on working with athletes.”

He makes a befuddled face as if asking what that has to do with anything. It occurs to you that he’s probably never had to worry about the ethics of hooking up with someone when most of the women who are interested in him would do everything in their power to spend a night by his side whether it’s morally just━ or legal, for that matter━ or not.

“That doesn’t seem to stop you from being all cozy with that Nor-whatever guy,” he grumbles.

“What?”

“That driver,” he repeats. “You post him all over your socials, like, all the time.”

You tear your hands from your pockets and throw them up in the air, “Because that’s my job?!” The stupidity of the man before you is genuinely baffling. He’s been asking about your job all week long but the way he’s talking now makes it seem like he didn’t catch onto the fact that your entire career is centered around media and the creation of content made with the explicit intention of being shared.

“I am quite literally paid to take and post pictures of him per my contract with McLaren,” you continue. “And even if I wasn’t, he’s my best friend?! I’ve been working and traveling and spending the majority of my time with Lando since 2019 so of course I’m going to be close with him. Do you not post your mates every once in a while?”

“Yeah, but it’s different. All my mates are guys, so nobody thinks I’m dating any of them when I do it.”

You scoff in disbelief. “I cannot believe this right now. You know, for a moment, I briefly considered helping you. But you’re actually exactly the type of prick the tabloids say you are.”

He takes an intimidating step closer, and his voice drops an octave lower. “I would reconsider if I was you.” You’re not short, but Garrett isn’t either. He’s one of the tallest players on the Manchester City team, and the way you feel now with him staring you down makes you wonder if this is what it feels like to be his opponent on the pitch.

It’s fucking terrifying.

But you’re fucking livid, too.

Your jaw clenches and you bite out sharply, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“What it means,” he starts, “is that if you don’t help me, maybe I slip a word about something or other to my boss who slips a word to his boss who is, also, your boss, and suddenly, whoops!” He gives you a cocky smirk, so sure of himself that it makes you feel like your blood is literally boiling. “He’s not your boss anymore. In fact, nobody is your boss anymore, because your ‘slip in conduct’ was very inappropriate and made several players uncomfortable, which doesn’t look very good when trying to get jobs elsewhere in the industry.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Well,” he fucking shrugs. “When you say it like that, yeah. I guess I am.”

You cross your arms, your hands clenched into fists so tightly that you can feel your nails digging painfully into the flesh of your palms. “You’re a real bastard, you know.”

“You’re not the first person to tell me that, love.”

If only it were legal to kill a man━ Garrett Ward would be six feet under and picking worms from between his teeth.

You weigh your options, though. You’re not sure how much weight his word actually carries. For all you know, he could tell his boss, they could bring you in to discuss things, and then you could explain it all from your point of view. Garrett is a notorious flirt and you doubt it’s the first time he’s tried to pursue someone who isn’t interested in him. You doubt it happens very often, but it has to have happened at some point. Not to mention, his reputation regarding women is bad enough that Manchester City is already giving him an ultimatum, so you probably have a chance, and the worst-case scenario is that you amicably part ways with the team and that’s that.

But realistically there is a worse worst-case scenario, and it’s pretty damn close to what Garrett is threatening. Losing this side gig wouldn’t really be too much trouble. It would put a dent in your savings, and you’d have to be a bit better about how you ration out your groceries and other necessities around the flat, but losing your job at McLaren? Being blacklisted from the industry entirely? That’s life-destroying. You would lose everything━ all the blood, sweat, and tears you shed to get where you are would be for nothing.

All because of a prick in sky blue.

“Fine,” you utter from between gritted teeth. “I’ll help you. But I won’t post you on my account. I won’t bring you home to my parents. I won’t go round to your flat and I certainly will not have you round to mind. You get one kiss to make it official to the paps, and then nothing more.” You take your own threatening step toward him, and a vindictive part inside you shines with malicious glee when he shifts ever so slightly backward. “If you try anything else, I will run to the papers and drag you through the mud worse than any of your little psycho groupies ever could.”

He scoffs, “You’d ruin your career.”

“But I’d tear you down with me,” you reply.

He takes a moment to think, staring into your eyes and weighing how serious you are. Whatever he sees staring back at him must be convincing enough because he sniffs, nods, and smirks.

“Deal.” He leans down, “I think I’ll be taking that kiss now. Make sure to really sell it, yeah?”

━━ tags: @maih23 @urfavnoirette @leclercsluv @f1luvur @formulaal @a-disturbing-self-reflection @starlightpierre

━━ a/n: i feel like i say this every time, but i am seriously blown away by how well the first part of this was received! like, seriously, thank you so much for the kind words everyone said about it! hopefully this second part lives up to the hype of the first, it's a little denser, but the events are important to establish for the rest of the story so it needed to happen!

[stuckinapril]

how do you fall in love with yourself

unlearn the idea that confidence is conceit. i see this belief imposed on women especially, that if they’re very unapologetic about loving themselves it automatically means they’re narcissistic / think they’re better than everybody else. that’s not true at all. you can love yourself while also acknowledging you’re not inherently better than anyone else. you can love yourself while also being kind & supportive to others. it’s okay to be both of these things at once.

let go of the scarcity mindset. women (everyone really, but especially women) get pitted/compared against each other all the time. you see it w female celebrities in the media, but it’s very prevalent in real life as well. this is very much years of societal conditioning & both women & men partake in this behavior. ignore it. rest easy knowing that there can be multiple beautiful women, multiple smart women, multiple funny women in any environment at any given time. there is enough clout to go around; you don’t need to feel like if there’s another pretty/smart girl it means you no longer have the space to also be a pretty/smart girl. instead operate from an abundance mindset: always (alwaysss) be happy for other girls when they succeed, when they’re praised, when they’re loved, whatever. see them not as competition but as inspiration. envy is such a colossal waste of time bc nobody else’s accomplishments have any bearing on your own!!

get to know yourself more. i love the analogy of dating yourself bc it’s true. i went through a rough period of being around my ex 24/7 to the point i didn’t even know myself, and then i spent the post-breakup year hanging around everyone else constantly to numb my thoughts. now i’m spending more time alone than ever & i’m getting to know myself so much. learning about my taste in fashion, music, everything. and i’ve had so much more time to invest in hobbies & skills, which is very instrumental to building healthy self-esteem. ofc there’s a more balanced way to do this, but make sure you’re not running away from yourself!

what do you like outside of everybody’s opinion? don’t interpret this the wrong way—it’s completely fine to be inspired. every single person you know has copied someone else to an extent. but if you find yourself going too far, not trusting yourself to make the simplest decisions, just following trends blindly and nothing else, you’ve left the inspiration territory and started crossing into plagiarism. move from a place of self-direction and really think about what is naturally appealing to you. it doesn’t matter if it’s not popular or nobody else likes it. if you like it & if it makes you happy, that’s all you need.

practice self-love! i had to do this lol but it works wonders. i started intentionally telling myself that i trust my own taste, that i trust my own choices, that if i think something’s cool it’s good enough, talking to myself kindly etc etc. eventually all this stuff will become natural to you & you won’t find yourself having to expend so much energy into simply loving you for you. don’t give up even if it’s hard to believe at times.

don’t give a fuck. seriously. just don’t give a single flying fuck what someone else has to say. there will always be That One Person who tries to tear you down, belittles you, gaslights you etc etc and if you know in your heart you’re not doing anything wrong, just ignore and keep it pushing. you can’t be everyone’s favorite person (nor should you want to be). think of your favorite celebrity. anyone ever. they probably all got subjected to hate. now think of how they’re successful still & how it didn’t take anything away from them. there you go <3

if literally everyone on this planet starts hating you, loving yourself is still the antidote. to clarify, how others perceive us does hold weight. but if legit every single person i know started hating me, and i still loved myself, i’d probably still live a full life bc my perception is all that really matters in the end. i don’t need anyone else to be my #1 fan—i can do that myself just fine. it technically is actually your world & everyone else is just living in it. so enjoy that! stop giving a hard time to the one person who will always be w you through thick and thin (yourself). eat good food & watch good shows & read good books & just have fun. i love u

[meowzfordayz]

NSFW Alphabet — Uzui Tengen

Author’s Note: for my own sanity, only some of these headcanons include Hina, Makio, and Suma. 😆 As w/ all hcs, these are simply my opinions in this exact moment of writing, and are subject to change depending on the context/my mood! 😉

NSFW Alphabet — Uzui Tengen

Uzui Tengen x Reader

Word Count: ~3,100

CW: 18+NSFW, ass!play, cream!pie, degrading language, explicit language, Fem!Reader, oral, public

MILESTONE 20.0

~faqs~

Aftercare? what they’re like after sex

Tengen’s aftercare can be… overwhelming. 🤭 Water and cuddles are appreciated, but do you really need a three course meal? An entire change of bedsheets? A steamy bath complete with petals and/or bath salts? A full body rubdown? Occasionally, the answer is YES! 😌 But oftentimes, the answer is: “Tengen, I’m not going to make it through the appetizer, let alone whatever else you’re planning.” 😴 Because as grateful as you are to be thoroughly pampered and cherished, sometimes the best aftercare is simply a quick rinse followed by promptly passing out.

Body Part? their favorite body part(s)

Tengen’s obsessed with your tits. 🤤😍 I mean, have you seen Hina, Makio, and Suma?! *cue that “You six are the most important things to me.” “Six? But Lord Tengen, there are only three of us.” “I said what I said.” meme* 😂 Sensitivity matters more to him than size or shape; if he can’t elicit a soft gasp from brushing his fingertips across your nipples, then what’s the point? ☹️ He’d be your personal bra if you’d let him, glued to your back 24/7, hands cupping your tits. If you have smaller tits: “But Tengen, they’re not even that big. I don’t need a bra!” “Okaaay, but I come with heating and massaging services! 🥺” If you have larger tits: “Honey, do you need help? ☺️” “Help? 🤨” “If they’re too heavy, I happen to know a strong man who can ease your burdens.” *cue Tengen winking exaggeratedly at your tits*

Tengen’s arms and thighs are to die for. He can hold you up against a wall, biceps flexing as your nails dig into his skin, cock thrusting steady and deep into your pussy, hardly out of breath, until you’re whimpering T-too much, g-gonna cum a-again. He can also keep you in place while you grind your clit against his thigh, forearms toned and unyielding as you melt into his chest, whining as you near your orgasm, unable to rest under his gentle, unforgiving guidance. “Mm, such a pretty thing, getting off on my thigh,” squeezing your waist in warning as you try to slow down, “What a pathetic whore, so anxious to cum the moment she sits on my lap,” grinning smugly as your body shudders, “There’s no stopping now, babygirl’s gotta finish what she starts, gotta make a mess on my thigh, then, maybe, I’ll let you go.” If you really think he’s letting you go after slipping your panties aside to feel your wetness seep through his pants, casually lifting you—with one arm, of course—just enough to fuck rough fingers into your clenched heat… think again. 😃

Cum?

Tengen prefers cumming in your pussy or on your ass. When he’s feeling intimate, finishing in your pussy feels like the ideal ending; it’s heavenly, sexy, and the perfect amount of lewd when you spread your folds so he can watch himself drip out of your stretched hole. If he’s feeling dominant, cumming on your ass satisfies his urge to claim and mark you in a more degrading manner; “My filthy fucking bitch,” as his cum coats your asshole, dribbling down the backs of your thighs, making a mess of the sheets below, “Wearing my cum so beautifully, what a slut.”

Dirty Talk?

Uzui Tengen aka King of Dirty Talk™️. Mind you, King™️ doesn’t mean everything he murmurs into your ear is mouthwatering, panty dropping, orgasm inducing, but it does mean he talks. A lot. Constantly. “You close to cumming? Close to squeezing the life out of my cock? Can’t wait to die by your pussy, mmm, yes darling, kill me.’ … … … 💀 To be fair, 9 out of 10 times he says something that’s actually pleasurable. 😆 “You hear that babydoll? The sound of your greedy pussy squelching around my cock? Look down gorgeous, look at how well you take me. Look and listen, tell me what you think, hm?” Spoiler alert: there’s no way you’re telling him what you think, because fucking you speechless happens to be his specialty.

Experience? their level of experience

Factoring in Hina, Makio, and Suma, Tengen’s quite experienced. They don’t have foursomes too often (coordinating four schedules is a nightmare lmao), which actually benefits his sexual familiarity and comfortability, because 1-on-1 with three different women means plenty of consistent variety and opportunities to experiment/learn/grow. Toss you into the mix (they’re all very happy to get to love and be loved by you 🥰), and fivesomes are even rarer than the elusive foursome. Omitting Hina, Makio, and Suma? Tengen’s still experienced, but sexual experience doesn’t necessarily equate to emotional or romantic maturity. Does he know how to bring his sexual partners to world shattering climax? Yeah. Does he know how to nurture intimacy and depth beyond carnality? ~Eventually! He isn’t inherently closed off to the idea or concept of closeness — he just needs the right person (you, heh) to feel like taking that next step is worth his time, energy, and investment.

Foreplay?

Tengen LOVES foreplay, but he also LOVES penetrative sex, so it’s a perpetual, inner debate for him. 😖 Does he bask in the glory of you giving him head while he’s gaming with Kyojuro and Sanemi, or does he go afk (away from keyboard) to bend you over the bed and fuck you between rounds? 🤓 On that note, he prefers receiving, primarily because it’s easier for you to randomly suck his dick than it is for him to randomly perform cunnilingus. 11/10 has calender anniversary reminders for all the various places you’ve blown him i.e. 1/27 Bar Bathroom Blowjob 🍻; 4/19 Changing Room Blowjob 👕; 10/31 Halloween Party Blowjob 🎃. Besides blowjobs and cunnilingus, he’s a sorry sap for making out (when he supports the back of your head/neck and kisses you deeply UNF) and pinching your nipples until you’re begging him to play nice.

Goofy? their sense of humor

Ever seen movie/tv show bloopers where actors laugh while trying to film a serious/sad/etc scene? That’s Tengen during sex. He isn’t consciously silly, but his intensity/somewhat domineering attitude occasionally misses the mark. To his credit, he’s generally aware of your mood and what the ~vibe is, but sometimes all he wants to do is spank you—”Can you be good for me? Can you count? From one to ten, can you count out your punishment?”—and all you end up doing is giggling and sassing off: “Can I count from one to ten? Why, yes, yes I can!!!!!” *cue unstifled laughter* 🤪

Hair? pubes maintenance

Short of zero maintenance, Tengen has next to no preference about his pubic hair. If you want him clean shaven? He’ll do his best (shaving his balls only scares him ~a tad). If you appreciate ~some hair? He’ll literally have you sit on the bathtub beside him while he grooms, and rely on you to tell him when to stop. And if you also have next to no preference? He falls into a monthly trim routine.

Intimacy? their degree of intimacy

Sex with Tengen tends to lack toe curling intimacy. Your toes will certainly curl for other reasons, but he isn’t really a stare-into-my-eyes-as-I-whisper-sweet-nothings lover; he’s a, “Look at me while I fuck your pretty cunt,” firm thumb lifting up your chin, “I said look at me,” fucker. If you ask for more intimate sex, then he’ll certainly try his best, but all it takes is a few clenches of your walls around his cock—your eyes rolling backward, soft whine pushed from your chest, as he buries himself balls deep—for him to dissolve into his usual demanding demeanor.

Jack Off? masturbation

Including Hina, Makio, and Suma, he hardly ever masturbates. Sex isn’t a given—he doesn’t take anyone for granted, nor assume that someone’ll be available whenever he’s horny—but he doesn’t want any of you to feel rejected or neglected either. It’s a careful balance between respecting his right to privacy and personal time, as well as him not constantly declining sex because, “Oops, I already masturbated today.” Excluding Hina, Makio, and Suma, he tends to masturbate/initiate sex more days a week than not. If you aren’t in the mood, then he still checks in that you’re alright with him satisfying his needs alone, because again: he cares more about you feeling desired and taken care of than he cares about immediately fulfilling his sexual urges. He’s less so asking permission to masturbate, and more so ensuring nobody feels left out.

Kink? ~specific turn ons

Tengen enjoys shibari, but only when there’s enough time for it to be artistic and sexual. Bondage satisfies him too, but there’s a distinct difference between tying your wrists and ankles to four corners of a bed versus having you kneel and move in front of him as he creates fluid, silky knots and patterns across your body. Both forms involve you trusting him to a degree that riles and soothes his desires to control and protect you, just as both forms typically end with him cumming in your pussy, hands clutching your hips as he trembles, feeling his slick squelch out from the fullness of his cock inside you, balls soon sticky and messy. However, shibari is more meditative and collaborative—a mutual dance—whereas bondage leans toward leading and following—precisely choreographed (and he’s the choreographer). P.S. He’s definitely the type to own a sex swing. 😵‍💫

Location? where they prefer to have sex

When it comes to penetrative sex, Tengen prefers the bedroom (or living room) — nothing like knowing there’re solid walls to hold and fuck you against, as well as a soft and comfy bed (or couch) for less effortful/more creative positions — the bed/couch provides cushioning for potential falling/mishaps when trying something new. But oral sex? Tengen’s happy to receive a blowjob practically anywhere, anytime (so long as you’re comfortable). He’d much prefer he be caught with his pants down than you, and has likely had to laugh off one or two ~interruptions. 😅

Motivation? ~general turn ons

Modeling clothing and sleeping in his shirts! 😍 You could model a winter coat and snow pants, and Tengen would still be eager to “find” your breasts beneath the thick layers of polyester and fleece, as well as squeeze your now thoroughly padded ass. 🤪 And if you model lingerie, swimwear, or anything remotely revealing? He’s 100% chugging water and fanning himself, legs parting as he not so subtly grabs his crotch, “I think we need to do a sit test before you buy those,” while patting his thigh. Are some of his reactions exaggerated? Yeah. 😂 But does he do it all to hype you up and because he’s attracted to you? Also yeah. ☺️ On a different note, wear his clothing, and he’ll immediately offer to let you keep it for forever. “Wearing my shirt?” he grins slyly. “Mhm.” “Keep it,” he declares. Eyebrows raising, you tilt your head, “What?” “I just want you to have sweet dreams!” he winks. “And wearing your shirt…” “Will obviously grant you sweet dreams.” “Surrre,” you drawl, arms crossing amusedly. “Aaand you’re absolutely gorgeous.”

No? turn offs

Unless it’s with his cock, Tengen isn’t huge on breathplay. Light choking? Sure, if you ask nicely. But more serious breathplay? He’s just a little too informed about the dangers of cutting your brain off from oxygen to properly enjoy it. 😕

Oral? giver or receiver

Tengen prefers receiving oral sex, mostly because he can’t get over how stunning you look with his cock in your mouth. As beautiful as you look—and feel—cumming while his tongue flicks rapidly at your clit, it just isn’t the same from between your thighs; your head tilts backward, pretty eyes disappearing from view, legs suffocating him and his view. But you, tracing the tip of his cock with your glistening tongue, one hand shoved between your legs, the other clutching his thigh, struggling to balance bringing yourself to orgasm and coaxing shudders from him? That is a sight he’ll never tire of.

Position? their favorite position(s)

For cumming in your pussy, Tengen adores having you on top. Make no mistake—he’s happy and able to do most of the work (grabbing your hips and thrusting upward into your cunt)—there’s just no better way to watch your tits bounce. Make him suck on your fingers before playing with your nipples, and he’s liable to cum much sooner than anticipated. For cumming on your ass, Tengen doesn’t really care what position you’re in; he’s focused on chasing his orgasm and keeping his thrusts as hard and precise as possible. If you’re on your back, then he’ll simply flip you over when he needs to cum, impatiently waiting to paint a lil heart on your ass with his cum (he cums first, and then uses it as ~paint — his swollen tip’s the paintbrush). 

Quickie? a fan or not-a-fan

Tengen isn’t the hugest fan of quickies. He considers sex a privilege, an indulgence, an experience, and rushing it means less time to reach its potential. That being said, if he’s in the mood and there’s only time for a quickie, then he won’t hold off— he has the stamina to chase immediate gratification and enjoy his time (with you) ~later too. 😌

Risk? their risk tolerance

Despite his flashy persona, Tengen would rather partake in safe, “tame” sex than put his partner(s) at risk of bodily/emotional harm. Regarding himself, he’s less reserved. In other words, if someone’s going to be caught with their pants down, then he’d prefer it be himself than his partner(s). Even if you tell him, “Getting caught sucking someone’s dick can still be as embarrassing as getting caught having your dick sucked!” he’s unlikely to acknowledge his double standard — you’d really have to push to be the one undressing in a ~risky situation.

Stamina?

Tengen can go for hours, primarily because he can stave off cumming for hours. Sometimes you have to beg him to cum, as in, beg for him to cum, because your pussy’s swollen and sore and the copious amounts of lube aren’t enough anymore. “Tengen, please,” you whimper, mouthing weakly at his neck, body folded sweaty and exhausted atop his chest. “What is it?” he murmurs, only slightly breathless, slow thrusts continuing as he kneads your ass, “Please what?” “Please cum,” you groan, folds stinging from the relentless friction, “I swear if you don’t cum soon-” Smirking, he rocks his hips sharply upward, eyes closing as he drawls, “Then what?” “Then you’re pulling out and cumming in your fist.” That changes his pace real quick — best believe he’s cumming in your pussy, or not at all. As for his actual refractory period, he’s capable of multiple orgasms throughout the day, but the more he cums in a day, the more days he’ll need to recharge afterwards. 🪫

Toys?

Tengen may or may not dedicate a sizeable portion of his income to sex toys, especially factoring in Hina, Makio, and Suma. While he appreciates being called a Sex God™️, he’s a relatively humble god 🙃, and is fine acknowledging the usefulness and efficiency of dildos, vibrators, etc. He definitely researches options of intrigue before buying, and only purchases well reputed— oftentimes more expensive—toys. If any of you (“you” being Hina, Makio, Suma, and you) request a custom dildo of his penis, then you bet he’s making four of them!!!!! 😃 Why would he squander the opportunity to watch all four of his partners—all at the same time—fuck themselves with ~his cock? 😤 If you’re into anal sex, then he might splurge even further and make eight… because why would he squander the opportunity to watch all four of his partners—all at the same time—stuff all of their holes? Does this mean he’d technically need twelve if we’re counting mouths as well?

Unfair? how they feel about teasing/being teased

Tengen loooves teasing, but isn’t fond of being teased himself. 😬 You can tease him—he isn’t a jerk about it/won’t promptly shut you down—but he will flip the tables sooner rather than later. Verbal banter goes over better with him than physical playfulness, because it’s just too easy for him to manhandle you. If you’re dominant/switch leaning, then he’ll occasionally relinquish his reins, but doing so absolutely requires lengthy discussion and upfront negotiation/explanation (of your needs) prior.

Volume?

Tengen murmurs lowly and grunts loudly; a combination of seductive, filthy, and sometimes nonsensical dirty talk + guttural, staggered noises as he nears his climax. If he’s cumming multiple times in a day, then he’s definitely shouting, “Fuck, fuck, fuckfuck, FUUUUUCK!!!!!” by his last orgasm — similar to shouting through a difficult part of a workout, because cumming multiple times in a day is 😮‍💨.

Wild Card?

Tengen’s contemplated getting his dick pierced more than once, but hasn’t followed through with it because he’s afraid of the pain. Don’t get him wrong!!! 😠 He’s tough!!!!! 😡 Just not that kind of tough. 🫠

X-ray?

A show-er for sure, almost 8 inches when fully erect, and as thick as you’d expect (very). Proper preparation and lube are generally a must—another reason Tengen isn’t super into quickies—but he’s fairly straight with minimal veins, aka no wicked curves or texture that require further adjustment. The head of his cock is relatively small, so getting through the initial squeeze and fullness isn’t the hardest part; it’s a ~journey all the way down to his balls. 🤠

Yearning? sex drive

Goes through periods of initiating sex every other day to not feeling anything in particular about sex for like, a week. With four wives, that neutral period is important for resetting himself and getting shit done — taking care of himself + four partners sexually can take up a lot of time! Of course, you can obviously pleasure yourself + each other too (permutations, math, 5 numbers), and he’s more than content to watch—or hear about it later—when he’s not quite up for participating himself.

Zzz?

Instead of crashing immediately after sex, Tengen crashes immediately following aftercare. He has plenty of energy to go ~overboard with aftercare, and precisely no energy once he knows you’re both comfortably grounded and sated (if you let him, then he will cook you that three course meal mentioned in Aftercare, and he will start nodding off at the dining table once you’ve taken your last bite 🥱). He’s pretty indifferent about how you sleep after sex; just don’t roll over to the complete opposite side of the bed without even a pinky toe or finger touching him 🥲 — he’ll fall asleep thinking he’s upset you, but too tired to actually ask. 🥺😴

[ouidamforeman]

R.e. discussions abt the new Good Omens season being polarizing on whether it’s good or bad writing, I think just saying it’s bad writing is weird and dismissive of what actual problems someone would have with it, and is just dismissing what it’s trying to do because it wasn’t to your taste. I think it more or less succeeded in doing what it wanted to do, which is an entirely different metric of judgment than whether or not you LIKED the effect of what it was doing. Regardless of what issues I personally have with it, I still think overall it effectively did what it set out to.

The thing is, it reads less like a traditional season of television and more like half of a novel. It’s weird. It’s directionless and meandering not because it’s poor storytelling but because I genuinely think it’s doing those things on purpose for other reasons. This is a single chunk of a larger story and I believe the overall purpose of season 2 isn’t to like, actually have a big plot or complete character arcs? If I look at it solely from where it is and what it’s presenting to me and let go of my preconceptions and expectations it appears that this season is just trying to put a few plot set pieces in place for the continuing story, and to nestle those plot pieces in a nonlinear narrative solely focused not on character Development but on character exploration and revelation. I feel like that’s why the actual moving plot this season was a very basic mystery, because it isn’t really the point? The actual story events are just backdrop for revelatory character vignettes, and I think that if this piece of storytelling was part of a novel that included whatever season 3/the actual story conclusion is going to be then people wouldn’t have nearly as many criticisms about the writing as they do when it’s presented as a season of tv. That’s also why it reads so fanfiction-y imo. My honest opinion is that s2’s biggest flaw that isn’t something incredibly subjective is that it’s let down by the fact that it got trapped in needing to present itself as a television season with all the baggage that medium has and not something more unconventional that would be kinder to its weird beginning-of-a-novel-ish meandering. Is this something a season of tv SHOULD do? I don’t know. Is this a fucking weird piece of television story wise? Yeah. Is it now officially a different story from the original novel? Absolutely. Does it have flaws, maybe even flaws that amplify the issues already present in season 1? Yeah. Does it accomplish what it sets out to do though? More or less yeah, I genuinely think so. Now if any of that translates into “badness” for you that’s fine. I think it was an immense risk to do this kind of thing for a tv season and it’s not going to click for everyone. But that’s fine. This is a bizarre and novel-y piece of tv media that’s just sort of doing its own thing, and whether you think that’s bad or not is secondary to how interesting that is I think. I just wish the criticism was more engaging with it instead of judging it, because I think what’s happening here is both much more simple and much more complex than most people are implying with their critiques. It’s much more interesting to meet it where it is imho, even though I do strongly wish it didn’t have to be released in this technically incomplete form.

TLDR I think ppl pointing at this season and calling it bad writing are partially not actually engaging with it on its level and partly confusing objective badness with personal taste. Regardless of whether you LIKED what it tried to do or not it was at least trying to do something, something that it mostly succeeded at, and that’s all i can really comfortably judge a piece of art on

[akutasoda]

Hello, can I request a request for chuuya,dazai,akutagawa and fyodor

With a s/o with yuta okkotsu (jujutsu kaisen) powers and his backstory

a curse from the past

synopsis - how are they with a someone that's seemingly haunted by there past?

includes - dazai, chuuya, akutagawa, fyodor

warnings - gn!reader, fluff, some angst, jealousy, hints to deaths, wc - 789

a/n: i got slightly angsty of some parts haha

osamu dazai ★↷

↪the first thing he could recognise about you was the sort of crushing pressure that followed you like a ghost. he almost felt overwhelmed by it.

↪it was a stark contrast to your quieter nature. but despite you rarely speaking to those you weren't familiar with, when you did he could tell you did hold a high intelligence.

↪then he learnt of your ability. he absolutely adored it, he had so many questions about it. could you copy his? if so what would happen if you both used it on eachother? and such.

↪ he also adored your swordsmanship. he loved to watch you in conbat as he always could admire one that was good with such a weapon.

↪and when he became closer fo you he learnt of that pressure you carried around. he understood why you didn't just shell that information out to whatever passerby should ask.

↪ he'd lost someone dear to him aswell. someone from his childhood too. so while he probably isn't that good with touchy subjects, he could still sympathise to a degree.

↪he almost felt envious really. he'd lost someone and he'd never be able to see them again. yet here you were having lost someone but atleast they still stuck by your side even in a different form. how unfair it was to him...

chuuya nakahara ★↷

↪while he initially had a strong discomfort to your presence, due to the overwhelming pressure you seemed to exert, he did quite like your combat skills.

↪from your swordsmanship to your hand to hand combat. he loved it all - he can never not admire good skill in combat.

↪he also found you rather easy and nice to hang around in general. your quiet nature was easy to be around and he could get along with your calm way of thinking.

↪your ability he was rather indifferent on. while it was admirably strong, he didn't like it's functionality. many because he was scared if you ever tried to copy his. would it even work?

↪and yet again, when he got closer to you he became more sympathetic than indifferent. he'd lost many of his friends, if they could be called that. but he saw the curse that stuck around you as a rather bittersweet reminder.

↪he could imagine how it must be rather rough, having your childhood friend hang around you and you both barely able to understand each other.

ryunosuke akutagawa ★↷

↪he only started getting to know you after a mission. he deemed you probably weren't that bad to be around, a complete three sixty from when he first met you. he saw the aura you admitted as uncomfortable and refused to be near you.

↪but seeing that you yourself weren't that bad he became a cautious presence around you. he enjoyed the fact that you were rather silent yet so calm and sort of collected in situations.

↪your ability wasn't much to him. sure it was rather strong but that was about it. abilities are abilities he wont form many opinions on other peoples. he's got his, you've got yours. until you copy his.

↪your little seperate 'ability' did slightly unnerve him. just the pressure of it made him stand on guard and be very wary. and that wouldn't change when he saw it's true form or even when he learnt of it's origins from your past.

↪ bittersweet is what he would say. losing your childhood friend just to be practically haunted by it must be conflicting. he struggles significantly with conveying emotions but he dies feel a tad bit of sympathy for your situation.

fyodor dostoevsky ★↷

↪as he did for everyone, he never really took notice of you. especially because you were always silent and never really made your presence known.

↪he only began to get close when he realised how easy you were to be around, unlike some of his colleagues. and mainly because he learnt of your ability and found intrigue in the strong presence that hung around you.

↪the ability to copy abilities was very intriguing to him. a rather strong ability that he wanted to learn more about such as limitations. but at the end of the day if he could, he'd remove it alongside all other abilities.

↪his main interest still resided in that presence you carried however. he investigated it so much that you didn't even have to inform him of your past for him to know.

↪he felt no sympathy for how it came about. but he was intrigued on how ypur past childhood friend had became this curse that hung around you. especially how could you utilise it's power? it seemed to be through your emotions however.

[drizztdohurtin]

Rolan Headcanons: Makeup Sex

pairing: Rolan x gn!Reader

[ masterlist ] [ wip list ]

A/N: This is shorter than normal, I think because the subject can be quite nuanced... I hope you all still like it, though!

What to expect: no explicit mentions of anything, but the entire post is about sex. the most explicit language is about being "inside"

suggested pre-reads: in conflict with his partner || NSFW headcanons

Given how nuanced it would be to try to cover "makeup sex" after every type of argument that could possibly happen, I'm instead going to focus more on the arguments that are fairly out of the ordinary for your relationship - more intense arguments where emotions were heightened and tension was high

To get it out of the way, I must be honest with you..... I do not see Rolan as the type to be interested in fixing an argument with sex, unless under specific circumstances

There's a trope where two people are fighting over something and then suddenly start fucking just because tension was high and it was sexually arousing for them - I don't see Rolan working this way... I don't see such emotions getting intertwined within him

The special circumstances I mentioned would have to do with when the argument is about something somewhat emotional and/or delicate revolving around you, him, and your relationship

For example: you're feeling neglected by him, the time he spends at work far surpasses the time he spends with you... it was starting to take a toll on your relationship and self-esteem, and all of your emotions finally came out

or maybe he's feeling insecure, perhaps something happened with you and someone you're close to that made him anxious and eventually his feelings finally pour out of him in a worried ramble, somewhat accusatory because he's lowkey freaking out on the inside

In both of these cases, there's not necessarily something to argue about, but a conflict might still happen due to the emotional turmoil - these are the moments I think he'd be completely okay fixing with intimacy, something passionate (whether slow or not) for two people to remind each other how much they love one another

With that being said, any other moments of makeup sex will happen after the conflict has been resolved

It might be another unpopular opinion but I see all makeup sex with Rolan as a slow and intimate affair

Some hurtful things were said? Voices were raised? Accusations were made? The sex that follows is still sensual and slow-paced as a way to bring such firey emotions down to a barely smoldering blaze, using the act to apologize to each other (or perhaps one of you more so to the other)

At the very least it always starts out slow, but it could get fast and intense if that's something you prefer

Maybe it's something you two really need after fighting, like there's a wildly overwhelming urge to feel so many things at once and keep your blood pumping fast - so desperate to be fully consumed in each other's love

Or maybe it's been such a long time since you got to be with each other intimately, things just hadn't been the same in your relationship for whatever reason and you were finally remedying it... it starts off slow until all of the feelings you had been missing out on over the weeks or months finally accumulate at once, and that same desperation takes over

Onto some of the specifics of makeup sex with Rolan

So normally he's a big fan of kissing during the act, he finds something about penetration while his lips are locked on yours to be so intimate - but in this case it's different, his lips aren't glued to yours like they normally are...

he still kisses you often but spends more time with his cheek or forehead pressed against yours, or his face buried in your neck so that every single breath is filled with you and only you

he's more interested in fully experiencing the moment, the closeness of your bodies, and the pleasure of it all

For those of you who tend to prefer a submissive Rolan like I do, I gotta say that he'd really want to take a far more involved part in the sex following a fight -- 9 times out of 10 he'd want to take the lead if you allowed him

It's just that a part of him is terrified when you two argue, he's wondering if he's going to lose you... so once it's resolved he can't keep himself away from you - he touches you like he's thanking the gods that you're still his

Even if the conflict was 'your fault'/he was the one who was upset and you're trying to make it up to him, he'd still have a hard time allowing himself to fully relax back and let you take care of him

I can definitely see him wanting to draw the sex out for as long as possible, it gives him the reassurance he probably didn't realize he even needed until it was already happening

Lots of "I love you's", like more than normal, and during the particularly intimate moments he'll put emphasis on the phrase ("I love you more than you'll ever know"/"I'll love you beyond my final words and dying breath")

Aftercare is going to be more important than usual, and last a little longer - he wants to come down very slowly with you

He might want to spend much more time pressed against you (if he's inside you, he wants to stay like that for a while, and vice versa), kissing you and breathing in your scent, rubbing your back or having you rub his, etc.

It's also a good time for more "I'm sorry"s and verbal reassurance

He'd like to suggest a warm bath with you, using relaxing salts and soaps, just wanting to spend more quality time holding you and releasing as much tension as possible

(He probably wouldn't be opposed to more intimacy, as long as the first session didn't knock the wind out of the both of you)

I could see the sex starting in the bath, too :))) Especially if he brings wine for you to share

The most intense instances of aftercare would follow the "fixing the argument with intimacy" moments in the examples I gave earlier

Since one or both of you would be particularly sensitive in this case, especially when talking about feelings of insecurity or neglect, there'd be much more of an urge to rectify those feelings

Overall, the specifics of the situation really come down to what you prefer and why you were arguing in the first place, but Rolan would always use the time to reconnect with you and express his love and apologies to you

[verystrxxwberry]

Hi, Alex! How is your day going? I was here to do a request about MCL high school life (completely sfw, so it is safe!) about the routes dealing with a reader who is stressed because they overwork in school and still doubt that will never achieve the dream of going to university?

It's just I am pretty stressed with the thought of not being able to go to university, because even if I overwork a lot, I don't get the perfect grades that I would like :(. Anyway, thank you so much! Love your writing<33

MY CANDY LOVE HSL; When you are stressed about school.

♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭: fluff, MCL HSL routes, comfort. ↝ 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: Greetings! I am doing quite good, thanks for asking. Regarding your issue, I understand you a lot, because my last year before entering university also was like that. I don't know how your country's education system will work, but whatever it is, university is not the only path in life. There are many people who have moved on without a career or something; and above all prioritize your own health! I understand that you want to get good grades, but if you overwork yourself you will only block your brain and not allow it to function well because it will be exhausted since it has no rest. Good luck, and take life easy, it's only one life you have and you have to enjoy it!

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CASTIEL 

He didn’t start caring about his grades until he saw that he failed almost every subject during the first months of classes. Sigh… he can’t let that happen.

Initially, there was a contrast between you and him. He was the stereotypical rebellious kid who didn't care about classes, and you were that student who was always keeping up with the class. Castiel is aware of how much effort you put into studying. Many times he would tell you to come to his house to spend time with him, and he would let you study on his desk for a while without any problem. Of course, he is strict about breaks and insisting that you give your little head a rest.

He will even quietly kiss your head spontaneously as you are focused on studying, to cheer you up however he can.

Castiel feels confusion when he sees that a grade matters so much to you to the point of breaking down over it. He doesn't blame you, but considers that you don't deserve so much pressure regarding grades. As he looks you in the eyes  and pulls your hair out of your face, he would say "Come on, life doesn't end because of a grade. You're human, not a machine; although sometimes machines fail too. But so what? We can't be good at everything. Ask for help, don't give up." You can feel his hand cupping your chin to make you look at him. And you can see the worry and affection on his eyes.

He's concerned about how this issue affects your mental health. After every test you take, he would take you somewhere for a date so you don't get over stressed. A break for your own good never hurts.

In Castiel's opinion, college is overrated; but he knows you are capable. More than once he will have had deep conversations with you about "You're already too hard on yourself, don't drown yourself in an abyss of negativity before you start something you want." 

Even if you didn't go to college, that wouldn't make you any less human. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Castiel would support you no matter what your decision, though he'd rather you take things more lightly. He doesn't like to see you stop enjoying your actuality because of the stress of school.

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel's strict prioritization of his studies was mainly because of his father, but Nath had inner desires that went against the stereotype that he was.

During class he already noticed that you felt some frustration when you received your test grade. His hand rested on your forearm and he looked at you with concern. "Hey, what's wrong?" 

When you explain your disappointment in reference to your exam grade, he sighs and shakes his head. "Get that thought out of your head, dear.... No grade is perfect and everyone has their strengths and weaknesses." He strokes your back gently, in order to comfort your state of mind.

If you're struggling with something, he has no problem helping you to understand it. He makes dates to study with you in a cafe <3 (he would end up inviting you to dinner or a drink in the cafe itself). And never feel ashamed of failing! Everyone does and there are always opportunities to improve. If there aren't, then life goes on; don't get stuck in the past.

Whatever grade you have, it will be something Nathaniel will congratulate you on. What matters is that you tried!

Nathaniel knows that having a good healthy schedule for your homework and study management will be what helps you get to college. He supports you, as long as you don't break your boundaries. Don't set expectations, don't compare yourself, just do what you can without pushing your limits and you can get to where you want to be.

Another thing Nath would also do is to talk to the teachers so that they can help you in those subjects that are more difficult for you, and he could accompany you if you wanted. Anyway, he does it for your sake and seeing that you also put dedication makes him feel happy and proud. At the end of each day, before you each leave for home, he would give you a little kiss on the forehead and say "Good job today."

LYSANDER 

Lysander takes everything calmly, even studies. During classes he takes light notes, but generally listens to the teachers. Not ironically, his memory does not usually fail when it comes to his studies. Likewise, he is not a strict person with his schedule and he will see that you are quite strict with yours. Why do you study so much if your brain needs a break?

Lysander has no problem accompanying you to the library, but he insists that between assignments you take certain breaks. More than once he will tell you "Don't be so hard on yourself, it will have negative consequences in the future."

After each study session he sings to you to relax in his arms, to take your mind off anything study related and get some rest.

Lysander believes that you shouldn't look so much into your future, since the present is already unpredictable enough without planning for something stable in the future. You build your way towards that goal you have, but you will always encounter some difficulty along the way. He knows that your grades are that difficulty that keeps you from moving forward in terms of your hopes of going to college.

"Honey, do what you can; what matters is that you tried. Life goes on, sometimes you have to take shortcuts or other paths that don't allow you to reach your goal. But it will never be your fault, since you already know that you have done your best" He would tell you while caressing the back of your neck. "Be proud of yourself and stop criticizing yourself so much. You don't value yourself enough to see that you are capable enough to put so much effort into things; and that is what should be valued the most."

KENTIN 

Oh no, he's not going to let your little oretty face fill with sadness over something as annoying as grades. He understands that you want to go to college and he will certainly encourage you to follow your dreams; but in moderation! He would suggest that you come to his house to study with him, or to the library, and then he would reward you with cookies.

Kentin will force you to take at least two or three hours a day for yourself. You know what they say about playing sports for a while a day so you can exercise your concentration? Well Kentin believes it and will encourage you to join his routines so you can concentrate better and study in less hours than extending them to the point that it affects you negatively.

There's nothing more upsetting for Kentin than seeing you cry over a grade. "Hey, nooo, listen, you're more than enough, don't let a grade ruin your life! You're very disciplined, I'm sure that facet already opens many doors for you even if you don't make it to college" He would tell you as he cradles your cheeks in his hands.

He's going to kiss your tears, he's not going to let you be sad for long.

Kentin is very involved in you taking some time out of your day just for you. He invites you to his house to take a nap, or to go practice sports with him, or bake cookies in his kitchen. But he also supports you to study and spend time studying; but he offers you the idea of balance your organization so that you can clear your mind and have a more positive mindset.

ARMIN 

Maybe Armin is a bad influence when it comes to giving school advice?- He would literally tell you to focus on being happy and leave all those worries behind you. In fact, he supports that idea of; if it makes you feel bad, leave it.

But he knows he can't be such a bad influence and push you to make decisions that distract you from your path for so long. 

It confuses him why you care so much about your grades. He witnesses all the effort you put into studying, since during exams time he can barely see you :(. Usually because he always brings his console with him, and that's going to distract you from studying. He doesn't mind being patient; he will always send you messages of support when you go to study!

It took him a while to realize that it really is an issue that affects you, but when he saw that it was serious, ah-ah, don't even think about overworking. "You know what happens to a character when they run out of stamina? They feel weak, they can't cope well with situations and they need rest. So do you!"

The easiest way he has to distract you is to write you a message in discord and saying “hop on terraria, bb” (or any other game). But he can completely adapt to those things you enjoy doing! He doesn’t mind (even if it is out home he is gonna whine a lot)

No matter the grade you get on an exam, he is gonna clap at you and feel very happy for you. Sometimes he’d make you blush from embarrassment at how loud he can be… But still, he is very proud of you. And he is not gonna hide it!

“Oh, hey, what’s with that pout? Come on, smile! You did such a great job.” He speaks in such a sweet way that it barely looks like him, but he wants to make you smile, to squeeze you in between his arms. “Never give up, you are strong enough to deal with this and more! But do it at the needed pace to not drain yourself, remember?”

Never back down never give up

✰; remember to reblog and like to support my content, I hope you enjoyed it!

[teamatsumu]

Helloooo! I'm just thiiiiis happy you're open to hearing requests because I adore your writing so much!

I'm flying a lot this year for work and weddings and whatnot, and I'd love your take on Haikyuu characters travelling solo overseas on a plane! How they react if they're seated next to a cute reader and do/don't make any moves, or they're a complete mess and somehow miss the flight - whatever your thoughts may be on them as passengers 😊

Akaashi, Suna, Osamu have been on my mind but I'd honestly eat up anything you write about anyone really ❤️

Ohhhh my god i love this idea my thoughts are RACING

AKAASHI:

He is very quiet on planes, I think. Keeps to himself, doesn’t bother anyone. Definitely gets a window seat, doesn’t get up to use the bathroom unless it’s absolutely necessary. His flights are uneventful at best, and he manages to finish that one book he was slowly reading over the last few weeks.

If he is seated next to someone he finds cute, he doesn’t say anything about it. He will look at you from the corner of his eye, tiny glances every now and then, but he won’t bother you. But if you initiate conversation, he will definitely engage in it. And quite enthusiastically too. You nearly fly off your seat when you realize he works as a manga editor, and Akaashi happily answers all your wonderous questions. He thinks you’re enthusiasm on the subject is contagious, and he feels elated when you ask for his number near the end, because he is not sure if he would have the courage to.

SUNA:

Suna also minds his own business. He has his laptop, his phone, and a good pair of noise canceling headphones. He is set for the trip. He is someone who puts his comfort above all. Meaning his own pillow and blanket, and even more comfortable slippers for longer flights. He is about to have the time of his life.

But then he notices that his neighbor is cute, way cuter the more he looks, and he can’t help but have half his attention on whatever you’re doing. He might comment on something too, and if you respond positively, that can spark conversation. He doesn’t talk more if he thinks it’s bothering you. Suna knows his boundaries. But he is not shy, and he is sure he can use his wit to create a little friendship and maybe get your number by the time you two get off the flight.

OSAMU:

Osamu is a patient flier by all means. Between him and Atsumu, he always guns for the window seat, and often gets his way too after a few choice words and winning a few petty bets. When he is traveling alone, he exclusively gets a window seat, even if he has to pay extra. And of course, he needs to know what they are serving on the plane.

Okay here’s my Osamu headcanon, he does not like plane food. And he has a habit of mumbling under his breath about it. Usually, people who complained about it would annoy you, but the boy next to you has this thick accent and is speaking in a dialect you haven’t heard before, that you find extremely funny.

You indulge him, and he opens up immediately. He complains about the food and you echo his opinions. Before you know it, you are having a fiery discussion on food, and Osamu is seconds away from kissing you on the spot when you say that you think Udon is the best noodle.

Time flies by with him, and you get off the plane with promises that you would visit Onigiri Miya for a free meal soon.

[hot-take-tournament]

SUBMISSIONS REOPEN!

THE HOTTEST TAKE TOURNAMENT!

(header art by @haycoat and @canadianlucifer <3)

(We also punt people into the Sun at @would-you-punt-them if you've got the bloodlust)

I feel as if this tournament must exist somewhere, but I looked for two hours and couldn't find it. So I've decided to be the change I want to see in the world and subject all of you to it.

Do you have a red-hot take that you know most people wouldn't agree with, but are still absolutely willing to fight for it? This is the place where it belongs. Let's pit them against each other in a fight for validation!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

All submissions are anonymous.

Your take can be about literally anything at all, as long as you feel the vast majority of people would disagree. Even though you're right. And they're just afraid to admit it.

Basically, if it's a hill you're willing die on - even if you have to do it alone - then it belongs right here.

Oh, and it kinda goes without saying, but terfs and bigots stay away.

You can submit all your scalding takes right here:

Feel free to submit as many as you like!

HOW SUBMISSIONS WILL BE CHOSEN (updated):

Once all the submissions have been collected, we'll run preliminaries for the most contested topics, and most controversial takes will qualify for the bracket.

Then, I'll take all the remaining submissions and put them into a randomiser. It will be in fate's hands after that.

Whatever submissions the randomiser picks, no matter what they are, will fill out the rest of the bracket. No re-rolls.

After that, all of the matchups will be shuffled again, so the resulting bracket will be completely random. No seeding, no creator bias.

All we can do then is pray.

RULES FOR VOTING (updated, edited on request x3):

Everyone will vote for the take they most agree with, and the most validated take will advance.

The last take standing will then graduate from "hot take" and be crowned MOST OBJECTIVE FACT OF ALL TIME FOREVER.

Please do vote and reblog if you can! It does really help spread the word!

Propaganda is encouraged - fight for your cause!

(Inspirations under the cut)

@arrowtossingtournament @fictional-musician-competition @videogamedogbracket @moon-swag-tourney @dialogueless-duel @pinkhairswagtourney @hauntthenarrative @look-how-they-massacred-them @unlikely-adversaries-bracket @goodforher-showdown @tournament-winners-tournament (and too many more to mention!)

[saintsenara]

12, 14, 16, and 22 for Snape asks please

I am most interested in your view of Lily as a character. To me, she never really seemed to live up to the hype I see? Like, I get the point that she's supposed to be Harry's mother and is supposed to be seen as the one who can't do any harm because of the sacrifice and all that. But I don't know whether JK purposely or intentionally put, like, the worst flashbacks to portray her as angelic(?). If I remember correctly, she wasn't even talked about as much as James by Remus or Sirius, they had to add things about her in the movies.

I can't ever see Lily as a good friend to Severus. To others, maybe, but I feel like it was different with Severus. More like a complicated one that was give-and-take, including Severus. Severus, an abused poor boy from Cokeworth, who knew about the wizarding world and Lily, a girl brought up in a happy family, who knew nothing about the wizarding world. Severus was able to get a friend while Lily gained knowledge of the wizarding world. But the one thing that cements this view of mine is the line where it says that Lily looks as if she was about to smile when Severus was being flipped over. Plus, I don't care if anyone says that she tried to defend him, but girl couldn't even use her wand or take points off as Prefect?? Girl was literally making a show, or whatever you want to call it.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm all for a good friend Lily in fics but when people say she was like that in canon? Maybe at times, but not when it mattered. I'd love to hear your opinion though.

thank you for the ask, @be-at-peace05!

[snape ask game here]

12. if you had to choose a golden trio era student to be snape's friend, who would it be and why?

while i don’t subscribe to the idea that he’s his godson, snape’s affection for draco malfoy does seem to be completely sincere. malfoy is also possessed of the sort of intellectual curiosity which snape obviously values (for example, how he figures out how to repair the vanishing cabinet - it’s genuinely impressive, and the fact that this is what he might be doing is certainly something which doesn’t occur to anyone in the order) and, while there’s no doubt that snape probably has as little interest in hearing him whine about everything as lucius does, i can see them having some genuinely fulfilling chats about potions. after all, malfoy gets an outstanding at owl, he must be good at the subject and he does seem to be interested in it.

14. what do you think is snape's favourite potion to prepare?

veritaserum. you just know he was chuckling to himself the whole time he was whipping that fake batch up for umbridge.

16. were you ever a snater? how and when did you become a snover?

i’m also extremely theatrical and fond of chemistry, so snape was always my boy.

i’m also capable of understanding the genre conventions which govern children’s literature and which require him to act as he does, so even when he was being a cock to various children we were chill.

22. do you think that lily was a good friend to snape?

well… this is the big one.

and the answer is no - but.

i always think it’s worth, before discussing lily, doing some quick acknowledgement of her narrative role in the story, which is a major contributing factor to why she feels a bit of a flop in person compared to the way she’s built up by other characters.

lily’s characterisation in canon is primarily hamstrung by two things. the first, as you note, is that her sacrificial role within the story requires a certain degree of perfection - not least because the harry potter series borrows heavily from the genre conventions of christian literature. lily is the analogy for the virgin mary - as we see when her purity of spirit succeeds in inflicting the first defeat on the satan-coded voldemort which will then be fulfilled by harry-as-the-resurrected-christ in the final stages of deathly hallows. obviously, a marian symbol is denied the complexity of other women - and that’s without even getting into the fact that the series has an extremely limited view of what ‘good’ motherhood is.

the second issue is that the text needs to keep lily’s centrality to the mystery hidden for as long as possible, not least because it needs to obscure snape’s true loyalties - and the role lily played in triggering them - until the very end of the seven-book series. this is the reason why sirius and lupin only speak about her once (after harry sees snape’s worst memory - and, even then, they’re mostly talking about james) and why harry’s self-conception is rooted entirely in his father - or in characters like sirius who are stand-ins for james - until half-blood prince, when the narrative begins to suggest that his mother is much more important than harry has previously given her credit for.

[the best way to illustrate this is to note that harry doesn’t give a shit in order of the phoenix that snape calls his mother a mudblood. his primary concern is that his father was a bully and that sirius aided and abetted him - when he thinks about lily, his concern is only that she doesn’t seem to like james, and his worry that his father forced her into a relationship. he doesn’t raise the fact that snape called lily a mudblood with sirius and lupin, and he doesn’t mention it to anyone else. but he cares - viscerally - about the slur at the end of half-blood prince, once the narrative is explicitly trying to convince the reader that snape is an unambiguous villain.]

these narrative necessities are a heavy burden for the canonical lily - and so i think she deserves some grace when it comes to how we analyse her behaviour in the snapshots of her as a real person we get in canon.

because of course she’s not perfect. why should she be? teenage girls are allowed to be less than flawless people - even towards their best friends.

[as an aside here, i think we have to be very careful - in our reading and our writing - not to replicate the contempt that jkr has for women who don’t fit her narrow view of ideal female behaviour. jkr loathes bitchy, girly, flighty, butch, rude, vapid, ugly women - just look at anything she’s ever said about pansy parkinson - and she tends to write her heroines - ginny and hermione chief among them - as that perfect not-like-other-girls storm of exactly pretty and clever and popular and brave enough to be worthy, but not so pretty as to be vain or clever as to be haughty or popular as to be slutty or brave as to be villainous. lily gets this treatment - and i think this drives the tendency of readers who dislike the way she behaves in canon to be hyper-critical of her characterisation. but the issue with this is that it’s also confining ‘good’ women to narrow boxes - while, all too often, allowing male characters a complexity their female counterparts are not permitted.]

which is to say: no, lily isn’t a good friend to snape. but he’s not a good friend to her either.

the issue that the two of them have is that they each relate to the other as though the other is the version of them that they’ve constructed in their head. they never take each other as they actually are.

it’s clear in canon that lily never moves beyond seeing snape as the child - devoted only to her - whose role was to teach her about the wonderful world of magic, and who acted primarily as a tool of her own self-actualisation. this is the reason why she can’t understand why snape is so concerned about fitting in at hogwarts - above all, why he wants to be friends with mulciber and avery - or why she never realises that he wants to be reassured of her affection for him versus the marauders, or why she doesn’t take what happens to him at the marauders’ hands seriously until she is made a part of it by james, or why she doesn’t understand snape’s relationship to his own social class and its role within slytherin. she simply doesn’t conceive of him as someone who exists for himself or who has a life of his own - he exists for her.

and snape thinks the same - he sees himself as the person who gave lily the wizarding world and, therefore, as the person who gets to dictate how she understands it. this is the reason why he can’t understand why she pushes back on his defence of mulciber’s use of dark magic (since he - in a very voldemort-ish move - clearly thinks that applying boundaries to what magic can and should be studied is gatekeeping), or why she doesn’t agree with him that the death eaters will help him, or why she’s upset when he’s rude to petunia, or why she leans into the performance of class expected from muggleborns (sucking up to slughorn, taking her pureblood husband’s name) in a time of increasing sectarian tension. she exists for him.

this assessment obviously makes them both sound incredibly cruel, but actually this is the way that childhood friendships often go. it’s very easy to see how the fact of being the only two magical children in cokeworth was validating for both snape and lily, and how this formed a tie between them which was very fierce but very brittle - which was never going to do anything other than shatter as they grew older, especially as they became aware of things like social structure, political affiliation, and sexual desire. it’s cruel of lily to laugh at snape’s poverty - absolutely - but it’s also the way that lots of teenagers who haven’t entirely grappled with their own relationship to society behave, and it’s also true that acting up in front of a boy you fancy is a time-honoured tradition which can also cause you to be quite cruel. lily isn’t nice by any means when snape is being attacked by james and sirius, but she doesn’t have to be. she just has to be human.

there are two final points which i think it’s worth being aware of:

the first is that snape evidently stands out as one of the few visibly working-class students in the castle [so much so that i have a meta in my drafts about whether or not hogwarts is a selective school] and the fact that he is obviously targeted for his poverty is cruel, and i understand why it makes many fans want to defend him - particularly given the fandom’s fondness for glorifying aristocracy and wealth.

but lily is also an other in wizarding society. i think it’s often not taken as seriously as it should be by snape fans just how terrified she must have been for her own safety, particularly from the later 1970s onwards, when all the evidence of canon is that voldemort is about to win. the wizarding world is set up to exclude her just as much as it is snape, and while we can and should be critical how her response to his poverty is unfair, we have to do the same for his outright refusal to acknowledge that she is subjected to discrimination on the basis of her blood status.

the second is that we don’t actually know if lily was a prefect - she was head girl, but james managed to become head boy without having been one. the person we do know was a prefect was remus lupin. if we’re criticising anyone for failing to intervene, it should be him.

[di-42]

I've been putting off writing this because I was trying to find a way to not sound defensive. But, I mean, I do feel attacked on this subject, so I may as well sound defensive in my response to it.

If you have read some of my other posts and are wondering... yep. Yes, you might have guessed this is yet another post about Aziraphale's choice in the final 15. Or, rather, not. This post is not about Aziraphale. This post is about explaining Aziraphale's choice in a way that differs to the one-layer depth that we are shown on screen and being accused of lacking the ability to accept that characters I like can be complex and can make mistakes.

Oh, the irony!

So, I mean, possibly no one will be interested in this but let me rant on.

So first off, and I can't believe I'm having to say this, my opinions on Aziraphale are just that: my opinions. I won't specify that on every post I write. If your opinions are different to mine, I strongly encourage you to reply/reblog my posts with your own thoughts and pointing out what and why you disagree with. I take this as a healthy exchange of opinion and really what the fandom is for! I can learn from you! Just, needless to say, keep personal attacks out of this.

Secondly, surprise surprise, Aziraphale lovers can see clearly that Aziraphale makes mistakes. We have watched him making mistakes for 2 seasons, dropping our jaws and shaking our heads. He can be self-righteous, self centered, oblivious to other people's (especially other demons') feelings and incapable to read the room at times. But you know what? He gets it right the time that matters. And that time we are talking about mattered. But that's beside the point. The point is, the point is, we know Aziraphale can be, deep down, a bit of a bastard (and we know Crowley wouldn't love him as much as he does if he wasn't). So, these two things live together in our little, simple, depth-deprived minds: the knowledge that Aziraphale can be a bastard and the feeling that that one time he wasn't being a bastard, he was in fact being selfless.

Thirdly: our little, simple, depth-deprived minds know that stories can have, wait for it, plot twists! When something later on in that story is revealed to have happened for different reasons to the ones that were apparent at a previous point in the story. Neil Gaiman has done it in most of his work. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean he's doing it here. Again, this is just my opinion. But really, dismissing completely the idea that there can maybe be reasons we don't know yet behind Aziraphale's choice is doing a disservice to Neil Gaiman.

Fourthly (do you even say fourthly?). The most important point of all: do you think we don't feel for Crowley? Do you really think that, because we believe Aziraphale didn't betray Crowley, we can't identify with Crowley's feelings of abandonment? Do you think our little, simple, depth-deprived minds can't hold these two feelings at the same time? Do you think we are dismissing his and our own traumas? Do you really, really think we never wanted to drive that Bentley off a cliff? We do feel for Crowley. We do feel desperate, broken, empty. We know he's lost EVERYTHING and we do recognise that feeling as well as you do. Whatever I think the reasons are behind Aziraphale's choice I do enjoy reading fiction that explains it in a different way to what I think because, again, I can believe something and feel something different at the same time. Reading so wonderfully written fiction about Crowley's pain makes me feel less alone, like bloody all of us. I write my own poems from Crowley's desperate, heartbroken point of view. It is much more alluring than the calm certainty of trust. But I digress. My point is, don't think for one second we are dismissing Crowley's pain. Don't think for one second we don't love Crowley as much as you do only because we believe Aziraphale loves Crowley even more.

Rant over, I guess.

Justice for Aziraphale. Justice for Crowley.

[daisys-reality]

After two years I still don't understand what shifting is or what it requires, like is it about how strongly you believe in it, does it require a certain meditative state, is it about how effectively you manipulate your senses, is it fully up to you or does the universe/spirits whatever have a say.

I honestly think my main struggle with shifting is my lack of understanding of what it is, it feels both way too subjective but also a really objective experience with specific rules

I'm not quite sure what exactly you want me to do, whether it's giving you space to rant, giving you advice or answers. But to be honest the first thing i had in mind as a reply was: shifting can be whatever you want it to be.

I can totally understand your way of thinking though. It seems you feel very lost/confused about this at this time which makes it probably very difficult for you to connect with 'reality shifting' itself. You've heard this probably already many times but one's shifting journey is a very personal journey.

You know reality shifting as we call it now is something that has been practiced a long time ago in many different fields. And people from these different fields have learned and approached 'reality shifting' with different mindsets, attitudes and different kinds of understanding. And they still did it! There is no one specific way that works - no, it depends on each person individually. It is very similar to one's spiritual journey. Both are journeys where you have to work with yourself on a very deep level and everyone has very different experiences.

No one but you has a say in this. You ask what shifting is and what it requires, as annoying as this sounds but you have to decide what reality shifting is TO YOU and how it should work FOR YOU. You write your own story. In one of my recent readings I had the expression come up: Choose happiness for yourself and accept it. And this is so important in my opinion. Choose what you want and accept it. Commit to it from your heart and see where you go from there. But always listen to your heart and to your feelings. Accommodate things to you, you don't need to break yourself "trying to make it work". If you ever notice yourself overworking or overstretching yourself for something, remind yourself that is not how it should be, you're not being true to yourself. Your view seems clouded and you're just punishing yourself in those times. Never forget to treat yourself with respect and to focus on your well-being while being on this journey. A healthy body carries a healthy mind, right?

Another aspect I recently talked about in one of my readings was about the doubts we have on our shifting journey. Doubts will probably always prevail because it is something you don't completely understand, and you probably will never fully do! But that's ok. (You don't really need to know how it works anyways.) Doubts are natural and they will never stop you from fully shifting. It will happen even while you have doubts. It's more so about commitment and willpower. Perhaps, a well balanced mix of spiritual and practical efforts that helps you improve and move forward on your journey. You know your beliefs can move mountains. So instead of searching for the correct information and answers, choose how you want to view shifting yourself, make it fit into your world view. Make it your own little fun thing. Belief it, connect to it and practice feeling it. I know you can do it, don't give up but also don't stress yourself out, okay?

For example, you could for the next few days do some little sessions during the day (like 5-10 min sessions). Make yourself comfortable, put on your favourite music or subliminal whatever and try to think about your beliefs or about how you are able to shift easily, imagine it. You can even tell yourself affirmation. In a way, yes, you try to convince yourself like you said. But you do this in the beginning to develop a certain belief. Once that is established you don't need to convince yourself every time, you will just be able to do it then. It becomes easier.

But for now, I think it is important for you personally to decide on what you want to believe in first. (And then work on strengthening that belief.)

I don't know how helpful my answer is but I believe in you and I know you can do it.❤️

[thegayhimbo]

Ranking The Stranger Things Tie-Ins:

Now that I've finished the reviews (for the time being), I wanted to do a ranking of all the tie-in comics, graphic novels, and books. Originally, I was just going to do a Top 5 Best and Worst List, but I figured it would be more fun to make a complete list of all the tie-ins while also giving my brief thoughts on each one (especially for those who don't want to read my lengthy reviews). Please note this is all in good fun and just my personal opinion, which can be subjected to change.

Also, this list will NOT include any of the show's episodes, video games, tabletop games, children's tie-in books, the Choose Your Own Adventure book, the Stranger Things Experience, or the stage play The First Shadow.

With that out of the way, let's begin in order from Worst to Best:

#26: Stranger Things Summer Special (See Review Here)

I never cared for Powell and Callahan as characters. They barely have anything to do with the show's main arc, they're NOT funny, and the "bumbling cop" trope is something I've grown tired of in recent years.

The premise of this short, where both of them are conveniently present at key events during season 3 in their lousy pursuit of being "good cops," all the while having constant near-misses with the Upside Down, the Flayed, and the Meat Flayer, is a repetitive joke that quickly grows old. That's not even getting into the huge continuity errors plaguing the short and creating a bunch of plot-holes. Completely unnecessary. Hard pass.

#25: Stranger Things The Bully (See Review Here)

This only ranks slightly higher than Summer Special because I like the artwork better, and it doesn't mess up the show's continuity like the previous comic did. However, that's all this really has going for it.

For whatever reason, they decided to make an entire graphic novel focusing on Troy and James (the bullies from season 1), and all I could think about while reading it is "This is a huge waste of time." I already didn't like Troy to begin with, this comic does NOTHING to improve my opinion of him, and considering that neither James nor Troy have appeared on the show since (and probably aren't coming back for season 5), I don't see what the point of this story was. This paragraph from my review sums it up best:

#24: Stranger Things x TMNT Crossover (See Review Here)

I'm sure there are fans who enjoyed this bizarre trip while embracing its absurdness and surrealism, but I am not one of them. I like TMNT and I like Stranger Things, but I draw the line at saying both properties exist in the same universe. That's not even getting into the haphazard attempts by the writers to make this comic canon with the show. Knowing the Duffer Brothers, that's likely not going to happen.

#23: Stranger Things Tales From Hawkins (See Review Here)

The idea of doing an anthology comic focusing on Hawkins residents was intriguing, but the end result was disappointing. They should have broadened their horizons regarding which characters to focus on, and not just set the stories exclusively in the first 2 seasons.

Murray's story (Issue #2) and the Pumpkin Patch Rivalry (Issue #4) are arguably the best ones. The rest are either forgettable or derivative.

#22: Stranger Things Six (See Review Here)

My first venture into Stranger Things comics. I've come a long way since then! :)

I remember looking forward to this particular comic to learn more about Hawkins Lab, Dr. Brenner, Project MKUltra, and the special kids............only to feel underwhelmed when I actually read it. I wanted to like Francine/Six, but I didn't find her interesting or compelling as a character, and the attempts to include other aspects of the show's lore (i.e. The Upside Down, Terry Ives, El and Kali, etc) felt shoehorned. Combined with the direction season 4 went, and it's a safe bet to say this comic is NOT canon (if it ever was).

#21: Stranger Things Suspicious Minds (See Review Here)

Suspicious Minds ranks slightly higher that Six for doing a better job fleshing out the experiments that were taking place at Hawkins Lab, as well as giving more details about Kali, Terry Ives, the test subjects, and El's biological father Andrew. It helps that Brenner is a threatening presence in this book, and that the narrative excels in maintaining suspense.

However, similar to Six, the events of season 4 render most of this book non-canon. That's not even getting into a major continuity error regarding El's date of birth that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Suspicious Minds serves as a cautionary reminder that if you're a creator and you've planned out a major twist for your show, then you either need to have a direct hands-on approach to how tie-ins are written and approved, or you need to be willing to share that twist with those you've hired to write tie-ins for the universe you're managing.

In any case, it is PAINFULLY CLEAR the Duffer Brothers didn't share information about Henry/One/Vecna with Gwenda Bond when she worte this book (or Paul Dichter for that matter when he helped oversee its development), and boy does it show in the final product. 😖

#20: Stranger Things Kamchatka (See Review Here)

Another example of a comic where the premise sounds intriguing, but they squander it on characters who aren't going to play a role on the show while also giving very little (and in some cases, contradictory) information about the show's lore.

While I liked the darker tone, the Cold War setting, and the spy thriller aspects, the characters didn't do much to impress me, and I was also frustrated by the lack of canon characters (Hopper, Dmitiri, Yuri, etc) who could have been in this comic and weren't. It's not bad, but it is mediocre when it didn't need to be.

#19: Stranger Things Into The Fire (See Review Here)

A sequel that improves on its predecessor (Stranger Things Six). While the comic likely isn't canon for the same reasons Six isn't, I appreciated the personal stakes this time around, I loved the creepy gothic aesthetic they did with Jamie/Nine's hallucinations, and it was nice to see Kali utilized in this story in a meaningful way. Here's hoping the Duffer Brothers wise up and bring Kali back for season 5 because she deserves so much better!

#18: Stranger Things Creature Feature (See Review Here)

One aspect of Season 4 that was disappointing was how little we got to see of the family dynamic with El and the Byers once they moved. It's hinted at, but not explored deeply. Creature Feature dives a little more into that, as well as El's struggles with PTSD, and gives a nice heartwarming scene between El, Jonathan, and Will towards the end that makes the short stand out.

However, the one-shot comic is sadly brief, and it may leave people frustrated about why they didn't go for a longer comic/graphic novel about El and the Byers adjusting to life in Lenora. I would've been interested in seeing that!

#17: Stranger Things The Game Master (See Review Here)

A one-shot comic where we get to see Steve and Nancy back together after the events of season 1 while also getting a surprisingly sweet interaction between Steve and Mike that isn't them griping with one another. I don't care much for Steve and Nancy's relationship, but I did like their attempts to help Mike feel better after El's apparent death. That was enough to elevate this short.

#16: Stranger Things Erica's Quest (See Review Here)

Not a fan of the artwork, but I was happy to witness the Scoop's Troop back together again. I also love how this short confirms Steve has played D&D before, which gives context to that scene in S4 when Dustin calls Steve asking him to be a substitute player in Eddie's D&D campaign.

#15: Stranger Things The Voyage (See Review Here)

Major improvement on Stranger Things Kamchatka. It's highly doubtful the show will include any mention of this comic (though if the Duffer Brothers decide to bring back the Russian arc for S5, I hope they incorporate Dr. Karine as the main antagonist), but the story is scary, suspenseful, and has the kind of gruesomeness you'd expect from an R-Rated horror film.

#14: Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (See Reviews Here)

Having grown up reading a lot of murder mysteries, I have a soft spot for the genre. Hearing that Hopper's backstory involved him tracking down a deranged serial killer in New York City back in the 70s while also dealing with a dangerous cult was enough to get me on board with this book.

This novel isn't perfect, but it makes up for its shortcomings in creative ways. Hopper's backstory with the NYPD is fascinating, the story's focus on issues related to poverty, crime, mental health, law enforcement, and societal woes works well (even if they drop the ball towards the end), Hopper's interactions with El in the present are a highlight, and the narrative is effective in keeping the reader invested.

#13: Stranger Things Erica The Great (See Review Here)

A light-hearted graphic novel that bridges Erica's arc between seasons 3 and 4 while expanding on her growth as a character and development as a D&D play. It was cool seeing Erica's friends get their day in the limelight (one of whom might be making an appearance in S5), and the story has enough funny moments to keep the reader entertained.

#12: Stranger Things Flight Of Icarus (See Review Here)

I know fan reaction towards this book was cold when it was first announced, and I'll admit parts of it were hard to read given we all know how Eddie's story ends. I'm not a fan of media that teases false hope to the audience, only to cruelly yank it away.

That being said, I will go to bat for this book: It's well-written, and does a good job expanding on Eddie's character and his relationships with others (Wayne, Al Munson, Jason, etc). I also appreciate the book's themes regarding "forced conformity," and its scathing criticisms towards individuals and institutions (school teachers, law enforcement, students, residents, etc) who scapegoat and punish people like Eddie for existing while allowing (or in some cases, enabling) truly vile people to get away with being vicious and cruel towards "acceptable targets."

Considering how certain individuals on Tumblr and varying social media platforms have been treating others for the past few months, this book couldn't have come during a more relevant time.

#11: Stranger Things Halloween Special (See Review Here)

A delightful Halloween comic taking place before season 1 which centers around the Party telling an urban legend about the Child Eater of Hawkins, which coincidentally has eerie parallels to Vecna. Creepy artwork, an unsettling atmosphere, and a fun twist at the end! :)

#10: Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors (See Review Here)

Same deal as the Halloween Special, except it takes place between Seasons 3 and 4, and features multiple horror stories told by Steve, Robin, Nancy, Max, Lucas, Erica, Dustin, and Mike while they're all trapped in the Video Store during a power outage. The stories are scary and reminiscent of horror anthologies like Tales from the Crypt and Goosebumps, and some of them even cheekily foreshadow certain events that occur in season 4.

#9: Stranger Things Runaway Max (See Reviews Here)

Like Flight of Icarus, this book is hard to read, albeit for a different reason: I don't enjoy stories with characters trapped in abusive situations, and this book does not pull its punches in depicting the utter hell Max suffered through living with both Neil and Billy.

That being said, I grew to have a new appreciation for Max's character because of this book, and I liked seeing her backstory, her perspective on the events of season 2, and her thoughts about the characters she interacts with. I loved seeing her relationship with Lucas develop, I liked her brief interactions with Steve, and there was a satisfying payoff in her standing up to Billy and finally regaining some control over her life. If you love Max's character, this book is for you!

#8: Stranger Things Winter Special (See Review Here)

The closest Stranger Things will ever have for a Christmas Special (not counting the endings of the first two season finales). So many little details (i.e. the way the Party explains different Christmas stories to El and how she visualizes them, the revelation about what happened to the demodog in Joyce's fridge, etc) that make this an enjoyable read.

#7: Stranger Things Lucas On The Line (See Review Here)

One thing I will say for the tie-ins is that I appreciate how they expand the perspectives of characters from the show. Such is the case with Lucas on the Line. It takes place between seasons 3 and 4, and explores Lucas's attempts to come to terms with his trauma, the growing rift between himself and Max, his attempts to balance his strained relationships with his friends and his desire to play basketball and break out of the "nerd" stereotype, and it gives a very brutal but effective portrait of what it's like for Lucas to be one of the few black kids in Hawkins constantly surrounded by people who are either outwardly racist or project their biases and prejudices in truly insidious ways.

There are two reasons I'm not ranking this novel as highly even though it's a fan-favorite: 1.) There are continuity errors that took me out of certain moments while reading it, and 2.) The third act (which is when S4 begins) does a clumsy job tying in with the rest of the book and its themes. I really wish the book had continued with Lucas's story up to the end of S4 instead of stopping halfway through.

#6: Stranger Things The Other Side (See Review Here)

I always wanted to know what was going on with Will in season 1 when he was taken to the Upside Down. This comic thankfully elaborates on that and doesn't disappoint. Will's journey to survive is both intense and terrifying, and the way the comic seamlessly connects itself with the events of season 1 is to be applauded.

I have no clue what the Duffer Brothers plan to reveal in season 5 about the Upside Down and why time froze in 1983 when Will was taken, but considering they talked with the writers and artists for this comic and gave their stamp of approval, I'm hopeful the events of The Other Side won't be retconned.

#5: Stranger Things Science Camp (See Review Here)

Who knew that when Dustin went to Science Camp, he walked right into a Friday the 13th movie? 😂

Don't want to spoil too much about this one, but I had a blast reading it. Dustin's perspective is always entertaining, the comic works as a brilliant introduction for Suzie, and the mystery plaguing the camp is genuinely interesting and has a good twist. High recommendation.

#4: Stranger Things Zombie Boys (See Review Here)

I'm still bitter that the character of Joey Kim never made an appearance on the show despite the camaraderie he had with the Party, as well as how he gave the boys some catharsis from all the shit they were put through in season 1.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the premise of the Party making a zombie movie, and I appreciated how it handled the characters' trauma without being patronizing. The artwork was also impressive and beautiful to look at. Here's hoping we get more comics and graphic novels like this in the future!

#3: Stranger Things Tomb Of Ybwen (See Review Here)

At its core, the comic manages to explore an aspect that wasn't given much coverage on the show: Will's reaction to Bob's death and his attempts to come to terms with it. All of which culminates in a quest Will undertakes when he finds a map from Bob that (allegedly) leads to an ancient Viking treasure buried in Hawkins.

I don't want to give too much away in terms of spoilers, but the story is both emotional, sad, and heartwarming, and it does an excellent job reinforcing the friendship between all 4 boys while also demonstrating the impact Bob had on Will's life.

#2: Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons (See Review Here)

Speaking as someone who's occasionally crafted various fantasy scenarios in my head to cope with the stresses of life, this comic was deeply relatable. The show never shied away from emphasizing the importance of D&D to these characters, and this comic expands on that by illustrating why they became interested in D&D in the first place, how they've used D&D to cope with living in Hawkins, how the events of the first 3 seasons factor into how they play D&D, and how the game evolved with them as they continued to get older. It's like the piece of media from your childhood that stays with you as an adult. Arguably the best comic in the series (so far).

#1: Stranger Things Rebel Robin (See Reviews Here)

My favorite book and tie-in of the series. Speaking as someone who's gay, this story spoke to me on a personal level, and there were a lot of parallels I was drawing between Robin's experiences in high school and my own: The fear of being outed and ostracized. The desire to break free and explore the world. Recognizing the injustices that exist in society and wishing you could do something about them. Getting a nasty dose of reality that people you thought you could trust aren't reliable, and may even be more awful than you anticipated. Been there, done that, still dealing with some aspects of it.

It's funny because even if you take out the plot elements relating to the Upside Down, you still get a great coming-of-age story, and one that speaks to many people, LGBT+ or otherwise.

That concludes the ranking and reviews for right now! Thank you again for those who've been reading them! :)