#though it might be a while before I do anything with it

[kathleenkatmary]

I really think it depends on the situation. If there's already a conversation happening where people are disagreeing with each other and they're doing it respectfully, then yeah, I think it's okay to jump on in. If it's not being done respectfully then it's probably best to just not engage at all. And of course, if the OP has asked for opinions, or you know them to be someone who welcomes different opinion and enjoys engaging in discussion, that's fine.

But if none of those things are true... well, I think it still depends. If it's a pretty common opinion within fandom, I don't think there's anything wrong with going to your own blog and talking about what you think. But if it's one that's not particularly common where it would be pretty obvious who you were responding to, then it's probably best to just leave it alone. Unless their take is like, horribly offensive in a way that's bigoted or based in really hateful mindsets or something like that.

I do think, though, that if someone blatantly mistags something (like putting anti-ship posts in a ship's tag, or shippy posts in an anti-ship tag, stuff like that), then that person does kind of lose the right to being treated according to respectful fandom etiquette, and you'd be totally in the right to rip their garbage takes to shreds.

As far as whether to to use replies or reblogs... I have no idea. I've never really found there to be too much difference when it comes to this kind of thing. Replies are good for when you want to respond to something but you don't want the whole post blasted out for all of your followers. So I suppose if your mindset is something along the lines of "I want to respond but I don't want a bunch of other people on my side of the fandom seeing it so that it won't result in a dogpile". But I feel like if that's the thought process behind it then it probably is just best to not respond at all.

EDIT: I also think that it's really important to pay attention to how an OP has tagged something. If someone has been careful to tag things in a way that it was clearly only meant to be seen and engaged with by certain parts of the fandom, then I do think it's pretty shitty to respond to it. While I am generally of the mindset that if someone is putting something on social media they're putting it on a public forum and they shouldn't get upset if people reply in disagreement, I also think the whole point of careful tagging like that is to make it less public, and that should be respected. I do feel like it's worth taking the few extra seconds to go back to the original post to see how it's tagged before responding.

And in general I just have very little respect for the "well people are too sensitive these days and if they can't handle a little disagreement on an opinion they post then they're just too sensitive and trying to isolate themselves from any disagreement and that's just bad etc etc." Because we have no idea what's going on in anyone else's lives. What they do and how they act on tumblr is just a small part of who most people here are, and there's just no way to look at how they act on tumblr or engage with fandom and know anywhere close to enough about them to make those kinds of judgement. For all we know, that person might deal with disagreements and different opinions all day with grace and respect, and they like their fandom hobby to be the one place where they don't have to deal with that. There are all kinds of reasons that a person might not want to engage with different opinions when it comes to fandom, and in most cases you're probably never going to know enough about that person to know why, or to make some kind of "well they just can't handle anyone disagreeing with them so they shouldn't be posting online" assessment.

So many people act like this whole "people just can't handle others disagreeing with them" idea is like, THE big problem of fandom, or even just online discourse, but I think the biggest problem is how little respect people are willing to extend to others. People will come up with so many excuses to just not have to treat someone else with even just a little bit of respect, and to frame themselves as still being in the right.

i actually need to know people's thoughts on this because at least in my experience the answer to this has drastically changed since i was on tumblr in the 2010s and its driving me fucking insane

*im talking about fandom takes specifically. not someone being horribly evil about a real-life issue or or blatantly factually incorrect. literally just harmless fandom disagreements or differing interpretations of a text/character/etc.

[technicallyastar]

Survivors, Killers, and Debauchery

Basically, who’s willing to get freaky outside of a relationship. I was actually a little torn about making this. Like, I think it would be a bit less common to hookup with these people due to a lot of factors… but also everyone is kinda stuck in a pocket dimension for eternity, so, ya know....

Banner by Snaileek_@the_floops on Instagram

DTF

Chance. He’s got a pretty high libido and has no problem separating feelings from sex. As long as he doesn’t hate you, and there’s mutual attraction, he’s down to clown.

John Doe. He’d take a bit to build some trust first, but after that he’s down for a quicky. He understands that hormones run high sometimes, and it doesn’t have to mean anything beyond needing to get off, this is especially true for him after a match adrenaline pumping through his veins and warm blood caked on his body he definitely pops a boner. I don’t recommend a hate-fuck, but hey if that’s what you’re into.

Guest 1337. He’s of the opinion that this unconventional situation calls for taking your comforts where you can get them. He’s also pretty good at keeping sex and feelings separate, but requires a base-line trust level like John Doe. He can’t be watching his back when his dick is out. He understands craving intimacy, so he’s willing to be sensual even for one-off hookups.

Noli. As long as you’re into the crude types, he’s alright for some fun between the sheets. he can keep feelings and sex separate as long as he can isolate from you for a few days after the fact. Gotta cancel out that post-sex dopamine.

Shedletsky. He’s fun, friendly, and lived life constantly on the move! He’s fine with flings, but would prefer something like FWB, if not an actual relationship. He trusts friends to communicate with him more, which takes more stress off his shoulders and keeps things lighthearted.

Guest 666. As long as they're attracted to you and you get along, they're down. Frankly, they're always been a bit impatient and has trouble waiting for the things they want. (Your body included.) Who needs those drawn-out foreplay rituals when they've got a perfectly good floor beneath them?

iTrapped. If he finds you interesting, he’s probably willing. He doesn't even really need to like you--he's another willing to hate-fuck. His libido is lower than others, though, and he’s busy, so hookups won’t happen as often as with others. Also a little more likely to develop feelings for his bedroom partner…though they may be based more in possessiveness than romantic interest.

1x1x1x1. Don’t know if I recommend this…but you know what, you do you. Definitely hate-fucks. It's... Rough too put it lightly. Good luck...(They hate pretty much everyone, so there you have it.)

In Certain Conditions/ It’s Complicated

Bright Eyes. The circumstances are a bit dubious, but she finds sex to be a good distraction. Another one of those bad coping habits she leans on when she’s a bit desperate. Deep down, she’d rather sleep with someone she’s exclusive with.

007n7. He would strongly prefer to be in a relationship first, but if you have some reasonable apprehension about commitment, he’s understanding…and can be seduced.

Taph. If he sleeps with you, he’s been pining for a while. You don’t have to be exclusive yet for him to break, though.

Dusekkar. You don’t have to be exclusive yet, but if dusekkar is taking you to bed then you should know he is, in fact, courting you with the intention of being exclusive later.

Only With a Romantic Partner

King. Literally if you’re not dating he doesn’t even like you. (Though, there’s a chance you might have a “hook up” before you know you’re in a relationship with him lol.)

Noob. They dont trust anyone but a partner to touch or see them like that.

Azure. Like Noob, he doesn’t trust anyone enough for that. Even a romantic partner will be waiting a while for him.

Builderman. he’s busy with other things, and frankly doesn’t even notice his own physical desires unless he has a partner he can spend extensive periods of alone time with.

Jane Doe. First of all she's married, and seems to be quite committed... Safe to say she's not popping pussy anytime soon. (Her skank ass husband, who given... has lost his memories will sling dick like it's on sale, Excuse my crude language)

(I should probably make a masterlist huh...)

[wattpadbxtch]

Stressed for What?

pairing: spy!paige x techy!azzi

Paige had never sat still in her life.

And this was a woman who’d been strapped to a chair for two hours during a fake hostage drill and still managed to dislocate her own shoulder just to stab someone with a pen cap. So stillness? Not in her DNA.

But today, the pacing was different.

Because Azzi was in the field.

Azzi.

Her Azzi. Her engineer. Her tech lead. Her “I prefer low-risk environments and only carry a sidearm to shut you up” girlfriend.

And even though it was a low-tier recon gig—“in and out, no combat, light surveillance”—Paige couldn’t stop spiraling.

“She’s not field-trained like we are,” she muttered, half to herself, half to the unlucky comms tech sitting nearby. “She overthinks. She double-checks her equipment. That’s adorable when she’s fixing my optic scope, not when she’s surrounded by armed targets.”

“Agent Bueckers,” the comms tech tried, gently, “She’s in a secure zone with four escorts and live satellite backup.”

“She didn’t eat enough before she left,” Paige added. “She gets light-headed when she’s stressed. What if she fainted while hacking a terminal?”

“She’s literally standing up straight and typing right now,” the tech replied. “I can see her.”

Paige growled and paced again. “If someone even breathes in her direction wrong—”

Azzi’s voice crackled over comms, calm and casual:

“Extraction complete. Files recovered. Heading to dust-off. ETA: seventeen minutes.”

She sounded like she’d just wrapped up a grocery run.

Paige all but tackled the comms unit.

“Azzi? Are you okay? Are you safe? Did anyone make eye contact with you too aggressively? Blink twice if you’re emotionally disturbed.”

There was a long pause on the other end.

Then Azzi’s voice again, this time flat with amusement:

“I’m literally walking and drinking a juice box.”

Paige blinked. “…They gave you a juice box?”

“Yeah. Grape. Not even expired.”

“Baby,” Paige said, pinching the bridge of her nose, “do you understand that I’ve spent the last hour planning what kind of revenge rampage I’d go on if you so much as scraped your elbow?”

“I didn’t even walk near danger.”

“I had your emergency blood type printed onto my jacket in case I had to extract you myself.”

“Okay, that’s… kind of sweet but also insane.”

Paige sighed and slumped into a chair. “I just—don’t like being the one left behind.”

“You’re cute when you’re feral.”

“Don’t patronize me, I was ready to burn a village.”

When Azzi got back, Paige met her on the tarmac before she could even fully disembark. She looked fine. Perfect, even. Wind in her curls, that smug little half-smile tugging at her lips.

“I’m home,” she said, holding up the juice box in victory.

Paige didn’t say anything. Just walked right up and hugged her like she was afraid Azzi might evaporate if she didn’t hold on tight enough.

Azzi, slightly breathless, hugged her back. “Okay, wow. You were really stressed.”

“You don’t go in the field,” Paige mumbled into her shoulder. “I don’t like this. You’re not the one who gets shot at.”

“I wasn’t even near bullets.”

“I don’t care. I imagined you in like, thirty different hostage situations and one laser trap scenario that involved wolves for some reason.”

Azzi pulled back and kissed her. Soft. Reassuring. “I was fine.”

Paige nodded, but her grip didn’t loosen. “I know. I just love you. And I like loving you alive.”

Azzi smiled. “Then let’s go home, Agent Feral.”

[maewphoria]

⠀

⌗⠀양정원⠀⠀CAT⠀DISTRIBUTION⠀SYSTEM⠀꒰⠀PT.4⠀꒱

⠀

SYNOPSIS⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀starting college in a new city, you’re settling into your apartment and trying to make it feel like home. on your first day, a fluffy calico cat appears on your neighbor's balcony, jumping towards yours as if to greet you, stealing your heart instantly. but when a voice calls out for the cat from the next balcony, panic sets in—you rush back inside, too shy to meet your new neighbor. that neighbor turns out to be yang jungwon, a fellow student in the same university who’s also new in town. thanks to his mischievous and adventurous cat, the two of you keep running into each other in the most unexpected ways. a friendship blossoms, slowly turning into something deeper—though jungwon keeps insisting it’s nothing more than friendship. as feelings grow stronger, the question remains: will their bond turn into something more—or remain just a college memory?

pairing⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀college student!yang jungwon x college student!f.reader. featuring⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀all enhypen members, le sserafim yunjin, kazuha, and chaewon, aespa winter and karina (soon). word count⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀13.562k genre⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀sfw, fluff, angst if you squint, kinda slow burn, college life, university life, slice of life, comedy (although i don't find myself funny), friendships, relationships, and the cat distribution system. (it has chosen you and gave you two lovely cats.) warnings⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀drinking alcohol, parties, getting drunk (obviously), misunderstandings, jealousy, denial (jungwon is in denial), cowardice behaviour (jungwon is also a coward), lots of flirting and tension, cat keeps breaking into your apartment, kissing, skinship, reader (aka us) is very delusional and does a lot of overthinking, a bit cringe (i think it's cringe bcs i wrote it), and might contain suggestive content in the later parts that are yet to be posted. lowercase letters intended. very proofread. tell me if i'm missing anything. mæw's notes⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀hi guys! pt.4 is finally out! please enjoy! i kinda had a hard time writing pt.4 because i don’t really know what it’s like to study at a university abroad. i had to do some research on schools like harvard and ucla, and i found out they have over 100 buildings—like wtf? so i ended up creating my own university from scratch, added courses, building names, and all that. i just hope it’s somewhat close to how it is in real life. likes, reblogs, and comments are highly appreciated.

library⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀part one. part two. part three.

#⠀OO5⠀:⠀WRONG TURNS AND REGRETS.

it had been three weeks since the welcoming party for the architecture students—an event you had somehow, miraculously, survived despite being a business ad major who had absolutely no business being there in the first place. yet the mystery gnawed at you still: how, exactly, had you gotten home that night?

for days, you pestered your friends for answers, clinging onto the hope that someone, anyone, might remember. but their confusion only mirrored your own. none of them knew how they had returned either.

they had all woken up already sprawled in their own dormitory as if placed there by invisible hands.

yunjin and kazuha were tangled together in a half-conscious cuddle on the living room carpet, while chaewon had managed to claim the entirety of the sofa for herself, mouth slightly agape, a small snore escaping every few breaths.

their recollections aligned eerily with yours—except for the part where you woke up tucked neatly in your own room.

your cropped crochet open-knit bolero was gone from your shoulders, folded neatly atop your bedside table. left behind was just your black spaghetti strap crop top, the hem riding a little too high up your stomach because of how deep your sleep was, and your shoes and socks resting side by side on the floor.

the scene was unsettlingly familiar, like déjà vu reaching out and tapping you on the shoulder. it reminded you of that night, just two nights before, when jungwon had helped your drunken self wobble back home with both patience and grace.

perhaps, maybe, it was jungwon once again.

except—you hadn't properly spoken to him since that afternoon when he had helped you carry and move your furniture into your new apartment.

he hadn’t even messaged, save for that polite "you're welcome" he sent, replying to your thank you message the morning before the party, a message so brief yet so final it almost stung. you didn’t even know if he had attended the party.

you and your friends obsessed over the mystery for a few more days, exchanging theories that grew more ridiculous with each retelling, until eventually the puzzle pieces were abandoned, scattered into the corners of your minds. life simply moved on.

your days resumed their steady, predictable rhythm.

yami would occasionally grace your apartment with her presence, weaving between your legs and purring like she owned the place.

you also dedicated yourself to preparing for the impending start of classes, assembling supplies and adjusting to the small, adult routines of calling your parents, updating them on your well-being and pretending everything was under perfect control.

you often found yourself heading down to the lobby to collect yet another delivery or two—nothing screamed adulthood like ordering a random cat mug at 2am. you ran errands with your friends, laughing over the ridiculous list of essentials you somehow convinced yourselves were necessary for survival.

yet despite all the activity, one thing remained absent: jungwon.

not a glimpse. not even a fleeting shadow at the end of the corridor. despite living on the same floor, breathing the same recycled air of the building, he remained conspicuously missing.

you told yourself it was simply bad timing. maybe he was busy, after all, school was only a week away, and the looming pressure was starting to make even the calmest of students a little erratic.

yunjin, in particular, had turned into a delightful hurricane of stress, insisting she didn't have enough materials even as her arms overflowed with sketchbooks, pencils, and highlighters of every conceivable color.

you, chaewon, and kazuha simply watched her spin through the aisles of the school and art supplies store, your expressions a perfect blend of concern and secondhand embarrassment.

"she must be excited," the three of you thought in unison, exchanging knowing glances as yunjin bolted toward yet another aisle like a woman possessed, clutching a sixth sketchpad to her chest.

the last week of the month slipped through your fingers like water, and before you could truly brace yourself, it was already the morning of your first day, orientation and tour day.

now you stood frozen in front of your closet, eyes darting from hanger to hanger, as if the right outfit might magically materialize if you stared long enough.

nerves twisted in your stomach.

you were nervous—nervous that you might get lost on campus despite yunjin thoughtfully printing out campus maps for all of you, highlighting routes and buildings like a seasoned tour guide.

nervous that you might embarrass yourself, trip over nothing, mispronounce a professor’s name, or somehow make such a terrible first impression that your professors would loathe you on sight (spoiler: they wouldn’t).

but above all else, you were nervous because, even though your friends were attending the same university, they were scattered across different programs and faculties. for the first time in one month, you were truly on your own.

after what felt like an eternity of agonizing, you finally chose your outfit—something comfortable yet respectable—and swiftly packed your tote bag with every essential you could think of: a notebook, a pen, your wallet, a mini hand sanitizer, a spare charger, tissues, your mini make up bag, and a quiet hope that you wouldn’t cry in public.

you quickly ran a brush through your hair, trying to tame the chaos, then hurried out of your apartment, juggling the strap of your bag over your shoulder as you half-sprinted toward the elevators.

as you rounded the corner, a familiar figure came into view—jungwon.

your heart skipped a beat, a flash of relief blooming in your chest. instinctively, you called out to him, voice light with the kind of casual friendliness you reserved for someone you were hoping to bump into.

he looked up, his eyes locking onto yours—and for a split second, something unreadable flickered across his face.

but then, just as you reached out your hand as if to tell him to stop the elevator doors from closing. despite seeing you, jungwon did the unthinkable.

he let the elevator doors close.

right. in. front. of. you.

you stood there, blinking at the now shut metallic doors, your hand still slightly raised in midair, feeling like you had just been personally victimized by the universe.

“what the fuck was that about?” you muttered under your breath, pressing the elevator button with a bit more force than necessary, your mind racing through every possible explanation, none of which made any sense.

meanwhile, inside the descending elevator, jungwon was a whirlwind of self-inflicted misery.

he leaned his forehead against the cool metal wall, lightly banging it once, twice, before dragging his hand through his hair in pure frustration.

“fuck,” he hissed to no one in particular.

he could still see it—the exact expression you had given him through the narrowing gap of the doors. you had looked so... betrayed. and annoyed.

so wonderfully, vividly pretty despite the negative emotions plastered on your face.

this was the first time he had ever seen you wear that expression, and somehow, it managed to stab him right in the chest despite only knowing you for a month.

he wished he could rewind time, shove his foot between the doors and do anything but what he had just done. but deep down, he knew that even if he had stopped the doors, the air between you would have been thick with something worse than awkwardness.

because the truth was, jungwon had been avoiding you. deliberately.

and the worst part? you didn’t even know why.

technically, you had done something. but you were so devastatingly drunk that night, you couldn’t possibly remember it—and jungwon wasn’t planning on telling you, not now, not ever.

not if he could help it.

he let out a heavy sigh, a sound full of regret, and stepped out of the elevator, shoulders slightly hunched as if he could physically shrink away from the guilt clinging to him. he barely made it out of the apartment building when a voice cut sharply through the air, halting him in his tracks.

“jungwon!”

he gasped audibly, body stiffening like a startled cat. he knew that voice—knew it down to the very marrow of his bones.

he didn’t want to turn around. every instinct screamed at him to keep walking, to pretend he hadn’t heard. but guilt is a heavy thing, and it anchored his feet to the ground.

reluctantly, jungwon turned.

and instantly wished he hadn’t.

there you were, standing not far from him, brows knitted together in pure exasperation, confusion swirling in your eyes, and—worst of all—a tiny glint of hurt buried beneath it all.

he felt the ground tilt beneath him.

“h-hey, y/n…” he stammered, voice pitching higher than he intended, forcing an awkward chuckle out in a weak attempt to appear casual.

you raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow, the kind of expression that could slice a man’s ego clean in half. then, with deliberate steps, you closed the distance between you.

jungwon froze again, practically forgetting how to breathe as you stopped right in front of him, arms folding across your chest in a perfect display of judgment.

“earlier. at the elevator,” you said, your tone flat, leaving no room for misunderstanding. “what the hell was that about?”

your bluntness struck him like a slap, and he scrambled internally for an answer that would save him. his eyes darted everywhere—from the pavement to a passing bird to an invisible point in the sky—anywhere but your face.

for a brief moment, his brain offered him nothing but static. then, like a merciful flick of fate, an idea sparked.

“i—i misjudged!” he blurted out, straightening up a little, trying to sound convincing. “i thought you weren’t going to make it to the elevator in time!”

he mentally patted himself on the back for that one, almost proud of the quick recovery.

but you weren’t buying it.

you narrowed your eyes at him, your frown deepening. “i could’ve made it. easily. if you hadn’t just stood there like a damn npc and let the doors close.”

jungwon winced, the truth of your words hitting harder than he cared to admit.

“oh… right,” he muttered, suddenly finding the cracks on the sidewalk incredibly interesting. he shuffled his feet, searching desperately for an escape hatch, but it was obvious—he was trapped. there would be no running from this confrontation.

so, he went for the simplest, oldest trick in the book: sincerity (and his looks).

“i’m sorry, y/n,” he said, lifting his head to meet your gaze with the most devastatingly apologetic look he could summon. his big, round eyes practically screamed forgiveness, the corners of his lips tugging down in a perfect portrait of remorse.

and it worked. he saw it—the moment your defenses cracked, a twitch of a smile betraying you.

jungwon seized his opportunity like a man who had been offered a pardon.

“then—goodbye, y/n! see you around!” he chirped brightly, spinning on his heel and sprinting away like a guilty cartoon character.

you blinked, stunned into silence, watching his retreating figure with growing disbelief. it took your brain several long, painful seconds to reboot, short-circuiting somewhere between ‘he looks so cute!’ and ‘wait, did he just run away?’

“hey! wait, we’re going in the same direction!” you called out, but it was too late. jungwon was already halfway down the street, pretending not to hear you.

you stood there, blinking dumbly after him, utterly bewildered by what had just transpired.

you exhaled through your nose, trying to calm your nerves, and pulled out your phone with a resigned sigh. you booked yourself an uber—because clearly, walking in the same direction as jungwon was not on today's agenda.

as if sensing your gaze still somewhere near him, jungwon abruptly veered off to another street, almost comically dramatic with the way he ducked his head and hurried his steps, clearly trying to escape your line of sight.

pathetic. dramatic. suspiciously fast. definitely guilty.

meanwhile, in his small spiral of panic, jungwon fumbled with his phone, his thumbs moving in a frenzy as he typed out a message to riki.

jungwon: where r u. pick me up. now.

but before he could even finish cursing under his breath, riki’s familiar car came to a stop right in front of him, its timing almost poetic.

the passenger-side window rolled down with a mechanical hum, revealing sunoo, who stared at him with an expression that perfectly blended confusion and secondhand embarrassment.

“yo, you look like you just got chased by a ghost,” sunoo said flatly, squinting at jungwon’s slightly sweaty forehead and thoroughly ruffled hair. “or, like, karma.”

jungwon rolled his eyes with a dramatic groan, not even trying to explain himself as he yanked open the back door.

“long story,” he muttered, flopping into the seat like a man who had just survived a war—an emotional war, perhaps, but a war nonetheless.

riki, in the driver's seat and already smirking, glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “good. we’ve got time,” he quipped, clearly eager for some tea.

jungwon waved a hand weakly in the air, “just drive,” he muttered. “we’ll be late.”

riki turned to sunoo with a knowing look. sunoo shrugged, as if to say ‘don’t look at me’, and riki shrugged right back. without further protest, he shifted gears and pulled out of the street, the car humming softly as they began the drive to campus.

jungwon leaned his head back against the seat, shutting his eyes. he could still see your face—your expression when you caught him ditching you at the elevator, the betrayal in your eyes, the sheer ‘what the hell’ radiating off you like heat.

and worse, he could still hear the echo of your voice: “we’re going in the same direction!”

tragically… you were right.

you, on the other hand, had already slipped into the back seat of your uber, the cool leather offering a small comfort as the city passed by in a blur. the ride was quiet—your driver occasionally humming along to the radio while you stared out the window, half-lost in your thoughts. within minutes, the car pulled up to your destination.

there it was. your university. grand horizon university. standing tall and proud, like an academic kingdom with gates flung wide open, welcoming—and slightly overwhelming—its new citizens.

students swarmed the entrance like ants on a sugar cube. some were poring over crumpled maps with puzzled brows, others paced in small circles while mumbling to themselves. a few brave souls had resorted to asking complete strangers where to go, and many had approached the campus security guards like weary travelers begging for directions to the nearest oasis.

you reached into your tote, pulled out your phone, and snapped a quick photo of the chaos—a little memento of your first day. the picture captured the mix of excitement and confusion around you, and you sent it to your group chat with a quick message:

you: i’ve arrived. front gate. help before i disappear into the crowd.

you were just about to scroll idly when you felt a sudden presence behind you—followed by familiar squeals and arms flinging around your shoulders.

“boo!” yunjin’s voice rang in your ear, immediately followed by kazuha and chaewon joining in on the ambush, their smiles wide, their energy contagious.

you spun around, pretending to scowl but unable to stop the grin tugging at your lips. you hugged them all back, your nerves easing just a little with the comfort of familiar faces.

“you could’ve warned me,” you muttered with faux irritation, brushing your hair back.

“where’s the fun in that?” kazuha smirked.

together, the four of you started walking toward the main entrance towards the main building in the middle of the university, your chatter bouncing lightly between you, an easy mix of nervous laughter and unfiltered panic.

“okay but like... are we ready?” chaewon asked, adjusting her strap bag anxiously.

“mentally? no. emotionally? also no. physically? barely.” yunjin replied, flailing her arms dramatically. “but spiritually? absolutely not.”

you all laughed, and for a moment, the tension melted. but as soon as the university doors opened, the noise hit you like a wave.

inside was just as chaotic—if not worse—than outside. students were huddled around bulletin boards, craning their necks and squinting as they tried to decipher lists of names, classroom codes, building numbers and names, and professor names that sounded made-up.

you weaved through the crowd with your friends and finally found your schedules, each of you staring on your copies of the campus map.

and then came the collective groan.

“ugh! why does this university have to look like a whole freaking village?” yunjin cried, clutching her map like it had betrayed her.

“tell me about it,” kazuha added, staring at her map like it might rearrange the buildings if she blinked hard enough. “i swear, i’m about to rent an electric scooter. or a horse.”

“why,” you said slowly, squinting at the map, “does this university have two hundred and thirty buildings?”

they both turned to pat your shoulders in silent solidarity, as if sharing the same academic tragedy. you sighed dramatically, already feeling the weight of your future footsteps.

you all then looked at chaewon, silently praying she had it just as bad.

she glanced at her schedule and gave a sheepish shrug. “mine’s kinda near... but also not? like, it’s not far-far but it’s not close either.”

you, yunjin, and kazuha groaned in unison before rolling your eyes and playfully turning your backs on her, walking away as if she had betrayed the sisterhood.

“rude!” chaewon called after you three with a laugh, instantly chasing after you with quick steps, and soon enough, you were all walking again, side by side, navigating the labyrinth together.

“good thing we only have orientations and campus tours today. if we had actual classes right now, we’d probably be buried under a pile of wrong turns and regrets,” you said, half-laughing as you glanced down at your phone.

you tapped a quick message to your parents—‘i made it to school safely’—along with a photo of the university gate for good measure. your mom had already sent three heart emojis and a good luck gif. classic.

with that done, you turned your attention back to the ever-confusing campus map that you folded and tucked between your fingers, just behind your phone earlier.

“okay, so right now we’re at aurora hall,” you began, squinting at the tiny lines and icons. “and i need to get to the south part of campus.”

your words caught everyone’s attention. three heads immediately leaned over your shoulder, eyes narrowing like detectives over a case file.

“wait—you’re going to the south campus too?” yunjin asked, pointing at the lower quadrant of your map. “what building?”

you tilted your map toward her while pointing at the building. “the vanguard business hall. apparently that’s the main building for business admin majors.”

as soon as the words left your mouth, the excitement erupted.

“no way, i’m headed there too!” yunjin gasped, then quickly clarified. “well, not there—i’ve got architecture at arcadia studios, but it’s in the same area.”

“me too,” kazuha chimed in, flashing a grin. “grand horizon performing arts center. sounds dramatic. fitting, right?”

chaewon raised her hand like she was in class. “silver screen studios for film and tv. also south campus.”

and just like that, a burst of collective relief washed over the group. you all let out a synchronized squeal, followed by a group hug that was slightly chaotic and entirely uncoordinated. still, it felt good—like the universe had decided to bless you today.

at least for the trip to south campus, you wouldn't be alone.

“okay, transportation,” chaewon said, already back in planner mode. “should we rent e-bikes or ride the shuttle buses?”

you all looked down at the map again, tracing little lines between buildings, searching for the nearest shuttle stops and rental stations.

“e-bikes sound cute in theory,” yunjin mused, “but we’d probably end up somewhere in a forbidden faculty zone and get expelled before day two.”

“true,” you said, nodding. “let’s not risk accidental trespassing just yet.”

the group collectively agreed: shuttle bus it was.soon enough, you were all sprinting through the university corridors like you were in a slice-of-life anime opening sequence. wind in your hair, laughter echoing behind you, dodging slow walkers like pros, and somehow managing to arrive at the shuttle bus station just in time.

the vehicle hissed to a halt as students boarded one by one, and the four of you squeezed into the middle row, still catching your breath and trying to act like you weren’t about to melt from the sprint.

as the bus rolled forward, it passed through winding lanes, landscaped gardens, and sleek buildings that shimmered beneath the sun. the driver, with a calm voice and an obvious love for punctuality, announced each stop clearly through the overhead speaker:

“silver screen studios.”

“grand horizon performing arts center.”

“arcadia studios.”

one by one, your friends got off. chaewon first, waving enthusiastically. then kazuha, who gave a little spin before hopping off, dramatically clutching her schedule like a script. yunjin followed next, shooting you a thumbs up as if to say ‘you’ve got this’.

and finally, it was your turn.you stood, your tote slung over your shoulder, and stepped off with the others headed toward the vanguard business hall—a part of the sprawling college of business and management complex.

as your shoes hit the pavement, you took a deep breath. this was it. your first real step into university life.

then, you looked up at the towering structure before you, your breath hitching slightly in awe.

the vanguard business hall stood like a monument to ambition—ten stories high, cloaked in sleek panels of silver and glass that shimmered beneath the morning light. its clean lines and polished finish gave it the kind of sharp sophistication that whispered, ‘only the bold survive here’. it was the kind of building that didn’t just exist—it announced itself.

for a moment, you stood at the base of it, tilting your head all the way back just to take it in, as if you were trying to absorb some of its power through sheer admiration. you could almost hear it taunting you, daring you to prove you belonged here.

you exhaled softly and squared your shoulders, adjusting the strap of your bag as if it might suddenly make you feel more grown-up, more prepared.

then you quietly muttered under your breath, a little pep talk to yourself, “okay... good luck, me.”

and with that final whisper of hope and bravado, you stepped forward and pushed open the glass doors—walking into the future with all the courage, curiosity, and slightly faked confidence you could muster.

just a few minutes earlier, jungwon and his friends had found themselves in a strikingly similar situation as you and your group—equally disoriented, equally overwhelmed, and just as hilariously unprepared for the sheer sprawl of campus life.

the five of them had huddled around a map, each trying to decipher the labyrinth of buildings, shuttles, and cryptic acronyms like they were decoding ancient hieroglyphs. eventually, the group had to split, though not without groaning dramatically about the injustice of parting ways on their very first day.

jake and sunghoon, after much squinting and turning the map sideways for no apparent reason, had discovered they both needed to head north.

jake was assigned to the science complex—ominously named the helix research center—while sunghoon had to make his way to the monolithic fusion engineering complex, which honestly sounded more like a boss level in a video game than a school building.

meanwhile, jungwon, riki, and sunoo were bound for the south campus. jungwon had orientation at the arcadia studios—the heart of the architecture department. riki was heading to the grand horizon performing arts center, while sunoo was off to the silver screen studios, home to film and tv production students (and future dramatic monologues, no doubt).

the farewell was brief but not without flair. sunghoon and jake darted off to their own shuttle station with mock salutes and promises not to get lost or abducted by rogue professors. the remaining three made their way to the same shuttle bus station you and your friends had used earlier.

though fate had kept your paths from crossing that morning, something about the moment had tugged at jungwon—a peculiar sense of déjà vu, or maybe just the faintest echo of your voice from that first conversation you ever had. it hovered somewhere in the back of his mind, stubbornly refusing to take shape.

the shuttle ride was short, efficient, and surprisingly smooth and now, jungwon stood before the arcadia studios.

he didn’t enter right away.

instead, he lingered at the edge of the building’s shadow, tilting his head back to fully absorb the sight before him. the arcadia studios were a brutalist marvel—raw, unapologetic concrete rising like a fortress. but the roughness was softened by its tiers of lush greenery, terraces overflowing with vibrant plants that draped down the façade like ivy at an ancient castle. it was both cold and alive, severe yet poetic.

in his eyes, it wasn’t just a building.

it was a declaration. a promise that creativity didn’t have to be polished to be profound. and for jungwon, a budding architect with dreams too big for his own good, it was love at first sight.

he smiled softly to himself, the earlier tension melting away just a little. then, with one last breath of courage, he stepped through the wide doors and disappeared inside.

once everyone had disappeared into their respective buildings, the real whirlwind began.

orientations were in full swing. professors, sharp-dressed and bright-eyed (well, most of them), made their introductions—some warm and charismatic, others slightly robotic, as if they’d already rehearsed their welcome speeches one too many times over the years.

after a short talk, students were nudged into groups of ten for the ever-dreaded yet unavoidable “get-to-know-you” icebreakers.

each person took turns standing up, voice wavering or booming with overconfidence, depending on their personality. they shared their names, the courses they’d chosen, and why they had enrolled at grand horizon university.

the stories were a mix of heartfelt dreams, practical decisions, and the occasional joke that drew scattered chuckles. one guy said he only came here because the food in the cafeteria was ranked top ten in a blog he trusted religiously. no one knew if he was serious. he probably was.

some students spoke with ease, others visibly battled secondhand embarrassment for their peers, and a few simply tried to survive the social gauntlet without spontaneously combusting. it was a chaos of charm and awkwardness.

once the introductions settled down, the next phase began: the grand tour.

sleek shuttle buses lined up like in front of the buildings, waiting to tour the new students around the southern half of the campus. professors climbed aboard alongside their groups, and designated student guides took to the front, bright smiles plastered on as they reached for the intercoms.

the tour was fairly straightforward—an overview of each building as they passed, the guide pointing out massive lecture halls, pristine laboratories, sunlit studios, and confusingly named complexes.

each announcement was followed by students craning their necks to look out windows, snapping quick photos or scribbling down building names as if they'd remember which was which by tomorrow. they wouldn’t. no one ever does.

on your side of things, the tour had turned unexpectedly delightful. two students sitting near you had sparked up a conversation, and before you knew it, laughter flowed easily among you. you talked about your majors, your expectations, the panic of navigating an unfamiliar campus, and which professors looked like they've already prepared our downfall for fun.

your nerves slowly melted away into genuine enjoyment. there was something comforting about realizing everyone else was just as lost and excited as you were.

meanwhile, on another shuttle just a few buildings away, jungwon sat stiffly in his seat, listening to the tour guide’s voice drift through the bus. he nodded now and then, more out of politeness than curiosity, but his thoughts were elsewhere—spiraling.

something was gnawing at the edges of his mind. he couldn't shake that strange pull, the feeling that he'd forgotten something important. something—or someone.

then, as if fate had impeccable comedic timing, he turned his head toward the window.

and there you were.

riding a shuttle labeled ‘college of business and management complex’. chatting animatedly with the people beside you, smiling in that way that made things feel lighter.

his eyes widened as it hit him all at once.

bsba hrm. that’s what you said when you first met. that's your major. and now, here you were, in the south campus—his campus. so much for thinking he could spend the day dodging any accidental reunions. the universe had other plans.

“oh, i am so screwed,” he muttered under his breath, dragging out his map and promptly holding it up like a newspaper in a spy movie, trying to block his face from view even though you were clearly far too engrossed in your conversation to notice him. still, he wasn’t taking any chances.

he slumped deeper into his seat, sighing into his collar. maybe if he wished hard enough, he’d turn invisible. or teleport. either option sounded appealing.

once the orientation and tours wrapped up, you were quick to text your friends, fingers flying across the keyboard as you asked if they were finished and where they wanted to meet.

the replies came fast—chaewon, kazuha, and yunjin had wrapped up too, and without much debate, you all agreed on a place: the design & arts café tucked near the college of architecture, design, and planning.

it was quaint, cozy, and boasted drinks with pretentious names like “aesthetic matcha fog” and “monochrome americano.” you loved it.

coincidentally—though destiny might argue otherwise—jungwon, riki, and sunoo had just finished their own orientations and had exactly the same idea.

“design & arts café?” sunoo asked, scrolling through his phone.

“sounds good,” jungwon mumbled distractedly, still recovering from the earlier heart attack.

and so, completely unaware of each other’s plans, both groups set off toward the same charming café… one for coffee and comfort, and the other, unknowingly, toward a collision course with chaos—or maybe just an awkward reunion.

the four of you arrived at the café first, fortunate enough to beat the incoming tide of students that soon began trickling in, like drops before a storm. the design & arts café, with its warm amber lighting and soft hum of lo-fi music, was already halfway to overflowing.

its charm lay in the deliberate mess of creativity—sketches and prints hung on the walls, mismatched chairs that somehow worked together, and menus handwritten in chalk that made even the simplest drinks sound like a masterpiece.

yunjin and chaewon, ever the designated errand duo, volunteered to place everyone's orders, slipping away toward the counter with practiced ease. meanwhile, you and kazuha remained at the table, guarding everybody’s bags and phones, nestled in the quiet lull before the café reached peak chaos.

“good thing we got here earlier,” kazuha remarked, eyes drifting toward the growing line that now curved around the entrance.

you nodded, grateful for the lucky timing. while waiting, you and kazuha exchanged stories about your respective orientations and campus tours, comparing professors, the energy of your groupmates, and the many moments of near-miscommunication that left everyone either giggling or sweating.

just as you were imitating the overly dramatic voice of your tour guide, yunjin and chaewon returned, trays in hand and cheeks flushed from the heat and noise of the café.

“they said the food might take ten to fifteen minutes,” yunjin announced as she plopped down beside kazuha, setting the drinks on the table with theatrical flair.

chaewon took the spot next to you, carefully distributing napkins, straws, and drinks before handing the empty tray to a passing waiter. “thank you!” the four of you chimed in chorus.

“what were you guys chatting about?” chaewon asked, leaning slightly closer, curiosity evident in her eyes.

“just our orientations and the tour,” you replied, already sipping from your drink, the coldness cutting through the lingering warmth in the air.

“were they fun?” yunjin raised a brow, stirring her iced latte lazily.

you all nodded enthusiastically, breaking into a rapid-fire exchange of stories—mock reenactments, dramatic gasps, and exaggerated impressions of professors who clearly didn’t know how to use microphones.

laughter filled your little corner of the café, wrapping around you like a comforter. and then kazuha suddenly paused mid-laugh, eyes lighting up as if a forgotten memory had just barged its way back into her consciousness.

“oh right!” she said, waving her hand to corral everyone's attention. “something happened earlier.”

you looked up from your cheeseburger croissant, mid-bite. “what happened?”

kazuha leaned in a little, her tone dropping as if she were about to share a scandalous secret. “this guy came up to me and said he knew me—like, knew us. he asked what happened after the welcome party, when he helped us three back to our dorm.”

chaewon’s eyes widened in recognition. she gasped, slapped a hand over her mouth, then quickly chewed and swallowed whatever she'd been munching on before blurting out, “wait! the exact same thing happened to me!”

the table fell quiet in suspense as chaewon leaned in. “a cute guy—super polite—walked up and asked the same thing!”

“cute?” yunjin perked up, clearly invested now. “did they say their names?”

kazuha squinted in thought. “he said his name was… riki? or maybe kiki? something like that. honestly, i’m bad with names.”

chaewon giggled, nodding in solidarity. “mine said something like… sunoo? or soonoo? i think? he had great skin though.”

you blinked. “you guys are hopeless.”

kazuha, unfazed, twirled her fork through her carbonara. “i asked him how he even knew about us and he just smiled and said, ‘a friend of ours is a friend of yours.’ like—hello? what does that even mean?”

“that sounds like the start of a treasure hunt,” yunjin muttered, eyes narrowed. “or a mafia movie.”

you all laughed, tossing out theories as if you were detectives in a teen mystery drama. maybe they were undercover students. maybe it was a dare. maybe one of them was a secret admirer pulling the strings behind the scenes.

what none of you realized, however, was that not far from your table, just past the display case of pastries and behind a pair of oblivious art majors discussing something color related, stood jungwon, sunoo, and riki—utterly unaware of the conversation unfolding about them.

while riki and sunoo bickered over the menu—sunoo insisting on the blueberry muse tea, while riki claimed it sounded like a shampoo—jungwon stood a little apart, tuning out the noise of their playful quarrel.

the café was now a full-blown frenzy, packed with chattering students, baristas calling out names over the whirr of machines, and the occasional chair scrape that made everyone flinch for no reason at all.

jungwon sighed softly, the way someone does when they’ve just realized they're the only sane one in the group. he turned around, neck craning slightly as he scanned the room in search of an empty table. a small miracle: tucked near the corner, almost hidden, was a table clearly meant for four—but with one chair missing. three chairs. three of them. perfect.

just as he opened his mouth to share the discovery with the others, his words caught in his throat.

at the edge of his vision—soft, golden, unmistakably familiar—was you.

you were sitting with your friends, smile wide, laughter lighting up your features in a way that made the café’s dim lighting seem brighter for a second. jungwon froze. the kind of stillness that only happens when something—or someone—unexpected reappears.

he hadn’t even realized he'd stopped moving until a light tap on his shoulder brought him back to earth.

“jungwon, you okay?” sunoo asked, eyebrows raised in concern before following jungwon’s line of sight. and then, he smiled. “oh, is that chaewon? i think that’s chaewon.”

sunoo tried waving a little in her direction, although chaewon didn’t notice—too absorbed in peeling the lid off her drink. jungwon blinked rapidly and looked away, but not before sunoo had seen enough to realize this wasn’t about chaewon, it was about the girl sitting beside her.

“what are you two doing?” riki called out from the front, motioning to them to move up in the line. “we’re holding people up.”

“we saw someone we know,” sunoo explained as he fell in beside riki. “chaewon’s here, in the café. she’s in my major too.”

“oh yeah,” riki said, recognition dawning. “i think i met one of her friends too—kazuha, i think? she’s also in performing arts.”

they shuffled forward in line, but jungwon lingered behind, staring at the floor like it had just whispered his deepest secret aloud.

“guys,” jungwon said, voice low, “can we… maybe go to a different café?”

sunoo and riki turned to him, nearly in unison. “huh? why?”

“i mean,” he started, a little too quickly, “i just thought maybe we could eat near the north campus instead? maybe link up with sunghoon and jake? it might be less crowded too.”

riki and sunoo exchanged a look—half confusion, half telepathic best friend conversation. they could see it: the slight panic in jungwon’s eyes, the nervous clench of his jaw. something was up.

but they didn’t press.

“sure, man,” riki said with a shrug, stepping out of the line as if they hadn’t just spent fifteen minutes arguing over drinks.

sunoo smiled gently, falling in behind him. “that’s a great idea, actually. i’ll text sunghoon—see where they’re eating.”

jungwon exhaled, the relief immediate and visible in his shoulders. he trailed after them, grateful, fingers twitching with the anxious energy he hadn't managed to shake off since seeing you.

as they exited the café, the soft ding of the doorbell signaling their departure, jungwon allowed himself one last glance over his shoulder.

you were still there, surrounded by laughter, unaware of the ripple you’d sent through him.

he looked away and sighed, the sound quiet but heavy, and walked out into the sunlit afternoon, where his friends were already waiting.

as soon as they received the location from sunghoon and jake, the three made their way to the stem fuel stop, a modern, industrial-style café nestled just outside the college of science and mathematics complex.

the walls were covered in chalkboard doodles and formulas no one actually read, while the smell of roasted coffee beans and sizzling fries hung comfortably in the air.

they walked in, instantly greeted by jake’s enthusiastic wave from across the room. he was already seated at a corner table, mid-bite, with a tray of fries between him and sunghoon, who looked up from his phone looking like he just aged five academic years.

“there you guys are,” jake grinned, mouth half-full, before popping another fry into his mouth.

sunghoon gave them a small nod, setting his phone down slowly, eyes shifting to jungwon, who hadn’t said a word since entering.

they took their seats—sunoo on one end, riki beside him, and jungwon in the middle, visibly tense. sunoo and riki exchanged a glance before both quietly turned their attention to jungwon, brows slightly raised.

“so… what gives?” jake asked, licking salt off his fingers. “thought you were all eating at the design & arts café?”

“we were supposed to,” riki replied casually, reaching for a fry. “but it was already packed when we got there, and jungwon suggested we head here instead.”

his voice was nonchalant, but the way he tilted his head toward jungwon didn’t go unnoticed. jake and sunghoon caught it immediately, their gazes now fixed on the boy in question.

“okay,” sunoo began, arms crossed, leaning in a little. “jungwon. spill.”

jungwon let out a sigh so deep, it seemed to come from the soles of his feet. he closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to meet four sets of expectant eyes. and so, with the weight of an overly dramatic confession pressing on his chest, he told them everything.

he began with that night—the aftermath of the architecture welcoming party. how he’d offered to take you back to your apartment, just trying to be polite and helpful. everything was fine... until it wasn’t.

“i swear, she just stopped in the kitchen,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “and then she cupped my cheeks. my actual face.”

riki choked on a sip of soda. “no way—”

“yes way,” jungwon groaned. “and before i could even process what was happening, she just—started kissing me. on the face. like how she kissed my cat. repeatedly. with affection. so much affection.”

sunghoon blinked. “you got yami’d.”

“i got ambushed,” jungwon clarified, looking pained. “i didn’t even have time to run.”

his friends looked equally horrified and amused, already piecing the chaos together.

he went on to explain that ever since that night, he'd tried to maintain distance—create space. but you always showed up. in places he least expected. like some kind of charming poltergeist with perfect comedic timing.

then came this morning’s catastrophe.

“remember earlier,” he added, shifting uncomfortably, “when you caught me hiding behind a wall just a street away from my apartment building looking like i saw a ghost?”

sunoo nodded slowly. “we thought you were being dramatic.”

“yeah, well, the ghost was her.”

the table burst into quiet laughter, and jungwon rolled his eyes before continuing.

“i just stepped into the elevator,” jungwon said, leaning forward with an exasperated whisper, “and then she just—turned the corner. like it was a horror movie. i panicked. froze. and let the elevator doors close right in front of her.”

the entire table groaned in unison, hands flying up as if trying to physically catch the level of secondhand embarrassment in the air.

“oh my god, you didn’t,” sunoo winced, clutching his chest.

“i did,” jungwon sighed, defeated. “and of course, she was already behind me before i could go outside the building. called my name. asked me what just happened. i panicked again and said—” he paused, covering his face. “the most ridiculous excuse ever.”

“what did you say?” jake asked, eyes wide.

“i said ‘i misjudged! i thought you weren’t going to make it to the elevator in time!’” he said and groaned.

they all stared at him before groaning, basically saying ‘what the hell man?’

“i know!” jungwon snapped. “and she called me out immediately. saying, ‘i could’ve made it. easily. if you hadn’t just stood there like a damn npc and let the doors close.’”

sunghoon shook his head, biting back a smile. “and then?”

“i did what any respectable man would do,” jungwon mumbled. “i gave her the puppy eyes. apologized. and then ran the second i saw her hesitate.”

a silence fell over the table.

then: laughter. loud, unforgiving laughter.

jake slapped the table. sunoo buried his face in his hands. riki leaned back like he was about to fall off his chair, while sunghoon just shook his head, muttering something about how this was better than any tv show.

“okay, but real talk,” sunoo said once the laughter settled. “don’t you think it’s a bit unfair? you’re avoiding her like she did something wrong, but she has no idea what that is.”

the others nodded slowly, their amusement now replaced with a kind of thoughtful concern.

jungwon let his head fall back against the chair, eyes staring up at the ceiling as if searching for divine intervention.

“i don’t know,” he admitted quietly. “i thought... ignoring her would be easier than explaining everything. i just didn’t want to deal with it.”

“look,” riki said, tone more serious now, “we get it. but just tell us what you want to do. whatever it is, we’ve got your back.”

jungwon sat up, looking around at the four boys who had somehow become his emotional support team. he smiled faintly, the knot in his chest loosening a little.

“she’s a business ad major,” he said. “her classes are in the south campus. there’s a real chance i’ll run into her again, and... i’m not ready for that. not yet.”

“then that’s what we’ll do,” sunoo said simply, clapping his hands once. “operation: avoid the girl who kisses like she’s greeting a house pet is a go.”

they all agreed with a chorus of nods, their expressions varying from concerned to playfully dramatic.

jungwon smiled genuinely this time, the kind of small, grateful smile you give when you feel seen—even if you’ve made a mess of things.

“thanks, guys,” he muttered.

they all smiled in return, and just like that, the conversation shifted. no more drama, no more awkward elevator encounters—at least not for now. they moved on to safer territory: their orientations, campus tours, the professors they’d met, and the weirdly aggressive squirrel sunghoon swore chased him near the library.

for now, all was calm. or at least, calm enough.

once the last bites of lunch had been savored and the cafés began to quiet, the university crowd began to drift toward a new destination: horizon square.

nestled at the very heart of grand horizon university—between the bustling north campus and the vibrant south—it stood as a kind of living crossroads, a wide-open plaza pulsing with student life. its sprawling walkways were paved with stone in geometric patterns, bordered by stretches of manicured lawn and punctuated with fountains that danced softly under the afternoon sun.

shuttle buses lined the curb like a mechanical parade and near the square's edges, street food stalls sizzled and smoked, perfuming the air with the smell of grilled meat, buttery pastries, and something sweetly unidentifiable.

this was the university's beating heart, and today, it was dressed for an occasion.

dozens of vibrant club stalls had taken over the square—each one boasting colorful tarps, makeshift banners, and enthusiastic upperclassmen who were equal parts persuasive and unhinged. this was club day, and at grand horizon university, it wasn’t just tradition—it was a requirement. every student had to join at least one club, a law more binding than some course requirement.

you stood with your friends at the edge of the square, bright pamphlets in your hands. it had been handed to you by a particularly energetic senior who’d practically stuffed it into your chest mid-walk. the paper listed every club on campus—from the usuals like student government and photography to more obscure options like the “modern escapists book society” and the suspiciously vague “club club.”

yunjin, kazuha, and chaewon had already circled their picks with the decisiveness of people ordering dessert after a good meal. you, however, stared at the list like it was written in another language.

“you okay?” chaewon asked, peeking over your shoulder as you flipped the pamphlet upside down, hoping it would spark inspiration.

“honestly?” you sighed. “none of them are calling out to me. i don’t want to just pick one because it sounds cool and end up trapped in a weekly horror show of forced interactions.”

“too late,” yunjin quipped, nudging you playfully. “that’s called college.”

she had already chosen to join the design society, which made perfect sense—she had the aesthetic sense of a pinterest board and the confidence to back it up. kazuha, on the other hand, had naturally gravitated toward the grand horizon dance company, drawn in by the familiar rhythm and stage lights. and chaewon? she surprised no one by going for the film & tv production society—if anyone was made for dramatic camera pans and chaotic editing rooms, it was her.

you admired their certainty as much as you envied it.

“i think i’ll just walk around,” you finally said, eyes scanning the lively square. “i want to see if any of these clubs actually speak to me. like, soul-to-soul.”

“sure,” kazuha smiled. “we’ll just see you at aurora hall when we’re done?”

“deal,” you nodded.

with that, the four of you drifted apart, each pulled in a different direction by color, curiosity, or convenience. the square buzzed around you like a beehive—music blasting from bluetooth speakers, laughter echoing, students juggling flyers and iced coffees, shouting over one another in a chorus of invitations.

and somewhere among that cheerful chaos, you were hoping to find your place.

or at least a club booth that didn't have glitter in the air and desperate energy in the eyes.

somewhere near the heart of horizon square—surrounded by the hum of voices, the rustling of pamphlets, and the occasional clang of a tambourine from a wildly enthusiastic music club—stood jungwon and his group, each of them absorbed in their own glossy paper map of campus club life.

the pamphlets were colorful, almost aggressively so, each one a collage of ambition and chaos. every square inch was crammed with names, taglines, and wildly optimistic descriptions. jungwon’s friends were already forming their personal paths, choices made with the kind of ease that made jungwon’s indecision feel a little louder in his own chest.

“alright, let’s split up and sign up,” sunoo declared, already folding his pamphlet like a seasoned origami artist.

“creative writers’ forum, here i come,” he added with a proud twirl, like he’d just been cast in a play.

riki, unsurprisingly, had set his eyes—and rhythm—on the grand horizon dance company. he gave a little spin for dramatic flair, earning a thumbs-up from sunoo and a head shake from jungwon.

“we get it,” sunoo deadpanned. “you’ve got moves.”

“can’t waste this talent,” riki replied, flipping imaginary hair as he walked off.

jake, meanwhile, had found unexpected excitement in the biology enthusiasts club. something about their tagline—“where science meets obsession”—spoke to the budding lab rat in him.

sunghoon stood frozen, his pamphlet flapping lazily in the breeze. “i... don’t want anything that screams ‘engineering.’ i’m traumatized already and school hasn't officially started yet.”

“so just do something chill,” jake shrugged.

and with that, sunghoon chose the chill spot: a club that promised board games, snacks, naps, and zero productivity. the dream. the sanctuary. his people.

but jungwon remained where he stood, pamphlet still unfolded in his hands like a riddle waiting to be solved. while the others peeled off one by one, he found himself flipping pages and rereading club descriptions with growing restlessness as he walked aimlessly.

he wanted something... more. something honest. something that would let his creativity breathe.

and then he heard it—a very familiar voice. a voice he would never forget.

“would you like to join our club?”

the voice wasn’t loud, but it was enough to cut through the noise. jungwon glanced up, heart skipping in recognition. there, behind one of the stalls, stood someone he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“jay?”

he didn’t even realize his feet had started moving until he was already crossing the short distance, smiling wide, pamphlet forgotten.

the man behind the stall blinked, scanning the crowd for the voice. then, spotting jungwon, his eyes lit up. a grin cracked across his face as he stepped out from behind the table.

“bro! what are you doing here?” jay exclaimed, clasping both hands on jungwon’s shoulders like he was trying to confirm he was real.

jungwon chuckled, brushing his hands away and dapping him up. “what do you think i’m doing here? obviously pursuing higher education because my parents say it's ‘necessary’.”

“classic,” jay laughed. “same old jungwon.”

he gestured toward the stall, ushering him over like he was welcoming a guest into his home. jungwon followed, sinking into the offered chair with a soft smile playing on his lips.

“how’ve you been?” jay asked, leaning against the table. “how are sunoo and riki?”

“i'm good and sunoo and riki are actually here too,” jungwon said, lighting up. “we all got in. they’re off somewhere now, signing up to the clubs they wanna join.”

“no way,” jay said with mock disbelief. “the gang’s all here? man, time really does fly. one second we’re cramming for high school finals, the next we’re at the gates of adulthood, pretending to have it all together.”

jungwon laughed quietly, nodding. “yeah. wild.”

jay had always been like an older brother to them—cool without trying, always knowing just what to say. back in high school, he was the one they ran to when things got too loud or too confusing. even now, just seeing him eased a weight jungwon hadn’t realized he’d been carrying.

“so,” jay said, crossing his arms, “have you picked a club yet?”

jungwon hesitated. “not yet. i’ve been looking for something... art-related, maybe. i’m not really confident in my skills, but i know i have decent skills. i just don’t think it’s enough.”

jay hummed thoughtfully and, without missing a beat, took jungwon’s crumpled pamphlet right out of his hands.

“let’s find it, then,” he said, scanning the list like a detective about to crack a case. “you’ve got good instincts. we just need to find the right space to grow them.”

and in that moment, jungwon didn’t feel so lost anymore.

“how about the art & sketch society?” jay offered, handing the pamphlet back to jungwon with a confident flick of his fingers. “focuses on drawing, sketching, all that creative jazz. sounds like it’s right up your alley.”

jungwon blinked, unfolding the slightly crumpled pamphlet with renewed interest, eyes scanning the maze of club names and descriptions. “where did you even see that? how did i miss it?”

jay leaned over with the air of a man who’s done this far too many times, pointing to a modest little box near the bottom corner of the page. “right here. you need better eyesight, man.”

jungwon rolled his eyes but chuckled, the corners of his mouth curving upward. “what would i do without you?”

“probably join something tragic or something that requires anything physical like taekwondo,” jay said with mock solemnity.

jungwon snorted.

“actually,” jay added, a little more seriously, “i was gonna ask if you wanted to join our club. but, uh, figured it might not be your thing.”

he handed over a smaller, more personalized flyer—clearly homemade, slightly chaotic in design, and deeply proud of it.

jungwon read the name aloud, brow furrowed. “the... multi-maybe club?”

jay grinned. “we call ourselves the m-and-m’s. the m-m club, if you will.”

jungwon looked up, deeply confused and deeply amused. “what do you even do in a multi-maybe club?”

jay’s grin widened. “maybe everything. maybe nothing. maybe you paint a wall. maybe you'll nap under a tree. it’s a lawless land, my friend.”

jungwon burst into laughter, the kind that bent him slightly at the waist and made him cover his face for a second. jay stood back with a smile, watching fondly like an older brother watching his favorite sibling crack up at a dumb joke.

“dude,” jungwon said through the laughter, wiping at his eyes, “you just made my whole day.”

“glad to be of service,” jay replied, giving a mock bow.

as jungwon tried to catch his breath, he remembered something. “sunoo and riki need to know you’re here. they’d lose their minds. you free later?”

jay looked down at his wrist, as if checking a watch that didn’t exist. “hmm... maybe i have time.”

jungwon raised an eyebrow.

“okay, okay,” jay laughed. “i’m free. just gotta find one more person to sign up for our club, and then i can pack this whole thing up.”

he stood up straight, brushing invisible dust off his pants, and jungwon mirrored him.

“we’re all meeting at the stem fuel stop later, after everyone’s done signing up,” jungwon said, slowly backing away. “also, we met two new people—you’re gonna love them. they’re... something else.”

“perfect. i’m bringing someone too. you’ll love him,” jay replied, raising a hand in a casual wave as jungwon turned.

“see you later, m&m,” jungwon called over his shoulder with a smirk.

“go find your sketch society, art boy,” jay shot back, laughing.

with one last grin, jungwon disappeared into the crowd, pamphlet in hand, his steps a little lighter now as he searched for the art & sketch society’s stall.

you, on the other hand, were still wandering—admittedly a little lost and, at this point, thoroughly over the parade of pamphlets being thrust in your face.

upperclassmen lined the plaza like cheerful merchants at a bizarre bazaar, each one passionately marketing their clubs as if their lives depended on it. from anime appreciation societies to eco-sustainability coalitions, everyone seemed to have something to pitch. and yet, nothing called out to you.

you smiled politely, declining brochure after brochure with a soft “no, thank you,” until your feet—bored of your indecision—guided you toward a rather peculiar-looking stall.

its banner was simple yet striking: two large block letters—M M—hung above, bold and cryptic. beneath the sign, in slightly chaotic handwriting, read: the multi-maybe club.

you tilted your head. multi-maybe?

it sounded like the kind of club that didn't quite know what it wanted to be. a filler club, perhaps. the type students joined just to finish a university requirement. and yet... there was something oddly magnetic about it. as if those two bold letters were speaking directly to your soul in a silent language only lost, curious freshmen could understand.

drawn in by either fate or mild existential curiosity, you approached.

the guy behind the table was currently mid-conversation with another student, his animated gestures suggesting a practiced pitch. but then his gaze shifted and locked onto you.

“oh—hi there! are you interested in joining our club?” he greeted warmly, already reaching for a flyer. he handed it to you with both hands, like it was something sacred.

you glanced down at the handmade paper. bold scribbles, doodled stars, and a questionable amount of glitter glue outlined the text:

‘welcome to the multi-maybe club! where you can do everything... or nothing. your multiple maybes? might just happen here—or maybe not. it's your choice!’

he flashed a grin and pointed proudly at the sign above his head. “we're all about possibilities,” he said. “maximum freedom. minimal expectations.”

you looked at him, then at the sign, then back at the flyer.

“…where do i sign up?” you asked, surprising even yourself with how fast the words came out.

the guy's smile spread even wider, his eyes practically lighting up. “you just made the best maybe-decision of your life, miss..?” he declared, handing you a clipboard with a list of names. without hesitation, you wrote down your name, your major, and scribbled your signature at the bottom.

“y/n,” you said. “just call me y/n.”

“y/n,” he repeated with a nod, committing it to memory. “nice to meet you. i’m jay—vice president of the m-m club. our president’s off being a busy graduating senior, but she exists. i promise.”

you chuckled, handing back the clipboard.

jay reached under the table and pulled out a more official-looking pamphlet—actually printed, this time. “here’s our schedule, basic club info, building details. you’ll mostly find us in the lucent library next to aurora hall. the librarian kinda loves us. mostly because we either do absolutely nothing or occasionally help re-shelve books. it’s a vibe.”

you scanned the paper, trying not to laugh at how absurdly laid-back the club seemed. still, it felt oddly right.

“thanks, jay,” you said, tucking the brochure into your tote bag. “see you around.”

“yep, see you around,” he replied, giving you a small wave as you turned to leave.

as you walked away, your thoughts drifted. ‘did i really just join a filler club?’ you shook your head, a small laugh slipping from your lips as you slid the flyer into your bag, tucked just beside the brochure.

but strangely enough, you felt something warm bubble in your chest.

excitement.

not the wild, overwhelming kind—but a quiet, budding curiosity.

as soon as you managed to escape the buzz of horizon square—dodging the last wave of overly enthusiastic club recruiters—you finally spotted your friends. they were gathered on the broad stone steps leading to aurora hall, their silhouettes bathed in the golden hue of the afternoon light.

you waved both arms above your head as you jogged toward them, the crowd now thinning as students slowly trickled out of the plaza. some were heading home, others drifting into the campus cafés, tucked-away eateries, or lingering in the comfort of air-conditioned student lounges.

yunjin noticed you first. she raised a can of diet coke in the air like a sacred offering, her expression amused. you couldn’t help but let out a chuckle—she knew you too well.

you reached them with slightly breathless laughter and dropped yourself between chaewon and kazuha, letting your weight sink into the cool steps. yunjin was perched two steps above you, and with no hesitation, you leaned back so your head could rest comfortably on her thigh. she handed you the drink without a word.

“bless your soul,” you mumbled with a grateful smile as you cracked the can open and took a generous sip. the fizzy sweetness coated your tongue, and you exhaled with an exaggerated, refreshed sigh. without a second thought, you leaned back further, letting your body melt against yunjin’s warmth as she absentmindedly played with your hair.

“should we go home now?” she murmured lazily, fingers threading through your strands.

the word home struck like a silent spell.

no one answered immediately. instead, all four of you sank into an almost meditative silence. just the thought of soft pillows, cool sheets, and the sweet hum of an air conditioner was enough to temporarily sedate you all.

you each had things to prepare for tomorrow—yes, technically syllabus week, but the illusion of leisure was already wearing thin. there were class schedules to memorize, supplies to organize, nerves to settle.

after several long, deliciously quiet moments, as if perfectly choreographed, you all nodded slowly and muttered a collective, almost reverent: “yep.”

no further discussion was needed. you stood together, heavy-footed and slow-moving, like four survivors of a mild but exhausting war.

“we should head back and recharge,” you said, walking in step with them. “we’ve only got one week to mentally brace ourselves for whatever academic avalanche awaits.”

“and we find out our schedules tomorrow,” kazuha added with a groan, already opening her phone to book a ride. “can’t wait to see if fate puts me in an 7a.m. class in the first semester.”

“tell me about it.” yunjin grumbled.

chaewon simply sighed like she’d already accepted her impending doom.

you booked your own ride and the four of you migrated to the waiting shed just by the university’s gate. the air was beginning to cool as the sun dipped lower, casting long shadows along the sidewalk.

your uber arrived first.

you gave each of your friends quick hugs and soft cheek kisses—half-hearted from tiredness but no less sincere.

“text us when you get home,” chaewon reminded you just as you slid one foot into the car.

you gave her a lazy thumbs-up before disappearing behind the door and letting it close with a soft thud.

the ride home was quiet. your head leaned against the window, and the city outside blurred into pastel streaks as exhaustion settled in your bones. by the time you arrived at your apartment, you barely had the energy to thank your driver.

the moment the door shut behind you, you kicked off your shoes and peeled away the layers of your day until you were down to nothing but your underwear and bra. with a long exhale, you padded barefoot across the floor and into your bedroom, phone in hand.

a few quick texts were sent—first to your group chat: ‘home safe’, then to your parents, followed by a small heart emoji. you dropped your phone onto the bed with a soft thump and made your way to your closet, grabbing a change of clothes.

the shower was bliss. warm water cascading down your skin like a gentle reset, washing away the sweat, the noise, and the weight of navigating new beginnings.

after drying your hair and pulling on fresh clothes, you collapsed onto your bed. the mattress embraced you like an old friend. the pillow welcomed your head like it had been waiting all day.

you meant to grab your phone again.

you meant to check messages, maybe scroll a little.

but your body had other plans.

within minutes, your breathing slowed, thoughts blurred, and sleep took you—soft and soundless.

meanwhile, tucked into a corner booth at the stem fuel stop, jungwon and his group were in a state of quiet suspense—well, most of them were. jake and sunghoon were entirely absorbed in their own little worlds, multitasking between snacking and scrolling through their phones, while sunoo and riki eyed jungwon like he’d grown a second head.

“won,” sunoo said, voice laced with suspicion and a bit of exasperation, “can you please tell us why we’re still here? i thought we were just gonna meet up, take a break, maybe grab some food. but you’re not even eating. you’re just… smiling at the window.”

sunoo gestured dramatically toward jungwon, who was indeed sitting there with the faintest, most serene smile on his face. every time the café door swung open, his head would subtly turn, eyes lighting up with anticipation. it was getting weird.

“just trust me,” jungwon said, practically glowing with mystery. “you’ll be surprised. and happy. very, very soon.”

sunoo narrowed his eyes but leaned back in his seat with a long sigh, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, “i swear… him and his mood swings.”

riki raised an eyebrow and tilted his head toward sunoo, silently mouthing, ‘what’s up with him now?’

sunoo just shrugged, the universal response for ‘no clue, don’t ask me.’

riki glanced at the clock. “he sure is taking his sweet time,” he muttered under his breath, peering down at his phone, clearly considering whether this whole setup was worth the wait.sunoo shot him a look that said ‘tell me about it’, when—

“i see you two are still as impatient as ever.”

a familiar voice, smooth and teasing, landed behind them, a head popping from behind them and a hand gently pressed down on both their shoulders, startling the two boys upright.

they twisted in their seats, eyes wide.

“jay?!” they both gasped in unison, voices laced with disbelief, joy, and the slightest touch of betrayal—how dare he sneak up on them like that?

sunoo shot up from his seat and threw his arms around jay’s neck like he was making up for lost time. riki was still half in shock, but his body moved on instinct, arms wrapping tightly around jay’s waist.

“woah—hey—okay, this is happening,” jay laughed, slightly thrown off balance by the ambush hug, his arms eventually resting around both their heads, gently ruffling their hair like he used to.

jungwon, still seated and watching the scene unfold, burst into a quiet laugh. there was something so warm, so stupidly precious, about seeing his friends melt like kids at a surprise reunion.

“did you guys miss me that much?” jay teased, smiling as he tried to wiggle free from their emotional death grip.

sunoo and riki both nodded emphatically, faces buried in opposite ends of jay’s shoulder and torso.

jay chuckled, “you do realize it’s only been two years, right? not a whole lifetime.”

sunoo and riki pulled back just far enough to glare up at him, eyes narrowed.

“that is a lifetime,” they chorused indignantly, as if he’d just said something blasphemous.

jay held up his hands in surrender, laughing again. “okay, okay. two years is forever. my bad.”

he patted their heads again, endearingly like an older brother humoring two very dramatic younger siblings. “now, can i sit? or do i need to earn that too?”

sunoo finally slid back into his seat with an exaggerated sigh, while riki made room on the other side. jay sat between them, comfortably wedged in the heart of the group once again—like he’d never left.

“umm, guys?” jake’s voice sliced gently through the warmth of the reunion. it was the kind of voice people used when they were trying not to intrude but also couldn’t ignore the rising curiosity bubbling inside them. his hand hovered mid-air like a student with a question—half-hopeful, half-hesitant.

he and sunghoon had been sitting quietly, mere spectators to the emotional reunion unfolding in front of them. they didn’t want to interrupt something that was clearly meaningful, but the urge to be part of it was beginning to hum louder deep inside them.

besides, judging by the way riki and sunoo lit up at the sight of jay, this wasn’t just a casual catch-up—this was the friend reunion. and they wanted in.

“are you gonna introduce us,” jake said, tilting his head, “or should we just keep watching from the audience section?”

jay chuckled, the sound low and familiar, like laughter shared in hallways and cafeterias. he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “sorry, sorry. name’s jay. i’ve been friends with these three since high school. i’m a third year here at grand horizon—marketing major, occasional chaos enabler.”

he reached out to shake their hands.

“jake,” the boy said with a bright smile, “biology major. aspiring mad scientist.”

“sunghoon,” the other said smoothly. “engineering. part-time realist, full-time eye-roller.”

jay grinned as he shook both their hands. “i like this group already.”

“how’d you all meet, anyway?” he asked, looking around as he settled into the seat like he belonged there.

sunoo, ever ready to explain, perked up. “sunghoon’s my dorm mate, jake’s with riki, and we kinda just... adopted jungwon last month. it was very wholesome.”

“like a stray cat,” jake added helpfully.

jungwon made a face. “i’m right here, you know.”

“we know,” riki said, patting his head.

jay laughed, then, without missing a beat, leaned over and stole a fry from jake’s plate with the grace of someone who had clearly done this before.

“did you just—?”

“i did,” jay confirmed mid-chew, grinning. “anyway, it’s great to meet you guys. you’re gonna love it here, i promise. oh—and i’ve got a friend coming. he should be here any minute.”

as if on cue, the bell above the café door gave a soft chime, announcing the arrival of someone new.

and then—he walked in.

a young man with striking red hair, not the playful kind, but the bold, unapologetic shade of red that demanded attention the moment he entered a room. his presence was immediate—subtle, but undeniable.

he wore a black tank top tucked effortlessly into dark gray, high-waisted trousers tailored to perfection. they cinched his waist and flowed down with structured elegance, every step a study in confidence. layered loosely over his frame was a glossy black leather button-up long sleeve shirt, worn open, the material catching the light with each movement like a ripple of shadow.

a thin, silver chain with a cross pendant rested against his collarbone, glinting faintly. tiny silver hoops adorned his ears, understated yet intentional. and slung diagonally across his torso was a sleek black crossbody bag, the strap sitting snug over his chest, completing the look with quiet precision.

he didn’t look around frantically. instead, his eyes swept the café with the calm disinterest of someone who had no need to search—only to be found.

he looked cool—effortlessly so. intimidating, even. the kind of person who didn’t need to try hard to stand out. he just did.

all five of them froze, except for jay. the kind of freeze that wasn’t fear, but awe. they weren’t sure whether to hope this was jay’s friend or pray it wasn’t—because if it was, they were suddenly not sure they were dressed well enough for this sudden meet up.

jay raised his arm and called out with a wide smile. “yo! heeseung, over here!”

the red-haired man—heeseung—glanced over. a faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips, quiet but genuine. and then he moved, heading toward them with long, unhurried strides, each step measured and magnetic.

“wait... that’s his friend?” sunoo whispered, eyes wide.

riki nodded slowly, voice distant. “he looks like a runway model who just woke up and decided to casually destroy everyone’s self-esteem.”

“and somehow he looks even taller in person,” jungwon muttered, blinking.

“i'm probably taller,” riki tried saving his self-esteem even though he wasn't sure if it was actually working.

jay was already stylish—sharp jawline, good taste, an air of familiarity. but heeseung? he walked in like a scene from a movie. red hair, glowing skin, dressed like a secret. he didn’t blend in. he redefined the space around him.

even jungwon, who had his own soft kind of charm with tousled blonde hair and a boyish smile, felt like a background character.

heeseung approached the table with the quiet composure of someone used to eyes following him—unbothered, but never arrogant. like the world always adjusted itself slightly to make room for him.

he walked past everyone at the table, his pace unhurried, presence effortlessly commanding. but instead of acknowledging the wide-eyed stares or curious glances sent his way, he went straight to jay, greeting him with a casual dap that spoke of years of shared moments and easy trust.

after the brief gesture, heeseung’s gaze swept across the table, his lips tugging into a soft, almost bashful smile. it was surprising, really—how someone who looked like a living editorial spread from a fashion magazine could also look so... shy.

he leaned closer to jay, his voice low. “umm, do i have to introduce myself first?”

a second ago, he had seemed untouchable—cool, collected, almost intimidating. now, he resembled a new kid in class, unsure where to begin.

jay chuckled, amused by the contrast, and gave heeseung a light pat on the back. “just sit down and start talking,” he whispered, then gently nudged him toward the only empty chair—right beside jungwon. heeseung blinked, then allowed himself to be pushed down into the seat like a confused but obedient hamster.

“oh, okay,” he muttered under his breath, then cleared his throat and addressed the table. “hi, umm... i’m heeseung. a friend of jay’s. third year. music composition major. we’ve also been in the same club since first year.” he nodded once, firmly, as if that sealed the deal on his introduction.

there was a beat of silence before everyone else began introducing themselves, one after the other.

first came jungwon, polite and reserved. then sunoo, bright and curious. riki chimed in with a charming smile, followed by jake, who had the enthusiasm of a golden retriever discovering a new friend. sunghoon went last, cool and composed, giving a small nod as if he were in a press conference.

the energy was a little awkward, but thankfully, everyone seemed willing to push past that initial stiffness. questions began to float into the air, light and genuine.

riki leaned forward first, his tone friendly. “so, how’d you and jay meet?”

heeseung let out a short laugh, the memory lighting up his face. “we met on the first day of uni, actually. both of us were at horizon square, just wandering around trying to figure out what club to join. then we ended up standing in front of this one weird stall that had two massive m’s on the sign. the multi-maybe club. weird name, right?”

the group chuckled.

“anyway, jay started talking to me out of nowhere—just asking random things like what my major was, what music i liked, what my blood type was. totally normal stuff.” heeseung grinned. “we didn’t know anyone at the time, so it was honestly nice he didn’t just leave after signing up. after that, we kept in touch. we’d study in the library together, eat lunch during breaks... even though we’re in different majors, he kind of just stuck around. and yeah, he’s basically the only real friend i’ve had here.”

jay, listening with an increasingly dramatic expression, slowly placed both hands over his heart like a victorian lady hearing a love confession.

“awww,” jay gasped. “i’m your only real friend?”

he reached out theatrically for heeseung’s hand, his eyes brimming with fake tears.

without even blinking, heeseung rolled his eyes and yanked his hand away—then flipped jay off with a casual flick of his middle finger.

the entire table erupted into laughter.

“well,” heeseung added with a playful smirk, “i’m actually hoping to change that by meeting all of you.”

jay clutched his chest as if he'd been shot. “and just like that, replaced. i should’ve let you eat alone.”

more laughter followed, the kind that comes when tension melts away and something genuine settles in its place. the group was still new to each other, but it no longer felt like strangers trying too hard. it felt like the beginning of something that might just be real.

the conversation continued to flow—light, casual, but slowly unraveling layers. they asked about each other's lives, traded stories of high school mischief, swapped sports preferences, and shared scattered facts with the kind of curiosity only new friendships carry. it was a soft chaos of voices, laughter, and the occasional gasp at unexpected confessions.

then, as if sensing a lull in the momentum, jay leaned forward and tilted his head toward jungwon.

“so,” he said with a glint in his eye, “anything new with you, jungwon?”

jungwon blinked, caught off guard. his mouth opened slightly, ready to reply—but sunoo beat him to it with a mischievous grin.

“he has a girl problem right now,” sunoo said in a sing-song tone, and jay’s expression lit up like a proud older brother watching his kid finally enter the dating world.

“what? finally?” jay laughed, eyebrows raised in delight.

jungwon’s ears turned an unmistakable shade of pink, his hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he let out an awkward chuckle. “it’s not a problem, she’s not a problem,” he said, shaking his head, clearly hoping to steer the topic elsewhere—anywhere, really.

but riki leaned in dramatically, eyes wide with faux shock. “ohhh, he’s defending her now? this is new.”

sunoo, never one to let a moment slip, immediately mimicked jungwon’s earlier voice. “she’s not a problem,” he repeated with exaggerated sincerity, clasping his hands to his chest like he was quoting poetry.

jay looked amused, borderline delighted, as he leaned closer. “okay, now i have to know. what happened?”

heeseung, who had been quietly sipping his drink and observing, now perked up as well. his eyes, already large, seemed to double in size, gleaming with pure curiosity. “i’m curious too.”

jungwon groaned, realizing escape was futile. “nothing happened,” he muttered. “let’s just say... i’m trying to avoid her. that’s it. end of story.”

he looked around the table, firm and resolute, like a man putting up caution tape around his heart.

everyone exchanged glances but decided—for now—to let it go. jay, however, had other plans.

with the stealth of someone used to scheming, he leaned toward sunoo and gave the slightest nod. sunoo caught it instantly.

sunoo sighed, already resigning himself to being the group's designated informant. jay then flicked his gaze toward heeseung and gave a small head gesture toward sunoo. heeseung, catching on, turned to sunoo as well. sunoo nodded once, a solemn confirmation.

a pact had been made. they were going to sunoo and sunghoon’s dorm later. mission: dig up all the tea.

it might’ve been a spontaneous plan, but in their group, that was more than enough. jay and heeseung were already honorary members. the invitation was unspoken but entirely valid. all they had to do was wait for jungwon to finally go home.

as if on cue, the topic changed, drifting into safer territory—about the orientation and tour earlier and old campus drama when jay and heeseung were first and second year. the sky outside had deepened into shades of evening, and before long, it was time to go.

the group slowly rose from their seats, gathering their things, still chatting as they made their way out of the café. they lingered at the front gate of the university, waiting under a waiting shed for their ubers to arrive.

jungwon’s car was the first to pull up.

“i’ll see you guys tomorrow,” he said casually, waving as he climbed into the vehicle.

“bye!” the group chorused.

“message us when you get home,” sunoo followed up as jungwon hops inside the car.

but the second the car door shut and his ride rolled away down the street, the rest of them turned toward each other with the same look.

it was time.

no one needed to say it. it was understood. they were going to sunoo and sunghoon’s dorm, and tonight, they would unearth the full story behind jungwon’s ‘she’s not a problem’ girl.

jake and riki, a bit late to realize what was happening, exchanged glances.

“wait—are we going too?” jake asked.

“you are now,” sunoo said, already walking ahead.

riki shrugged. “well, i do know the whole story…”

“perfect,” jay grinned. “you’re coming. we need to know every detail.”

and with that, the group disappeared into the night, drawn together not just by friendship, but by the irresistible pull of juicy gossip waiting to be spilled behind dorm room walls.

taglist⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀ @morganaawriterr @wondoras @mypolka @meowwwon @dolliehue @in-somnias-world @yjwonsgf @kirijuns @iifrui @momisanalien @vieniee @drunkjazed @hhyvsstuff @readinmidnight @noona-neomu-yeppeo @cutehoons02 @robotinvenus @starfallia @nijisanjigenshin @kkamismom12 @kinamurariki @soobundle1009 @supershy3 @nodoubtily @vrikisn @jayjw16enxp @skzfangirl143 @0leelina0 @noriiluv @o2whre @nocturnebite @userprdx (taglist is still open, comment to be added.) final notes⠀.⠀.⠀.⠀i hope you guys enjoyed! part five will probably be posted on saturday or sunday! see you guys then!

©⠀mæwphoria⠀|⠀all works belong to me. strictly do not plagiarize, copy, translate, paraphrase, rewrite or repost my works on any other platforms. if it's inspiration gained from my work then it's appreciated and i wish you good luck with your own stories. thank you.

⠀

[sunspotpony]

Then I’d apologize that it was stuck with such a poor model, welcome it to the family, and try to figure out how to help it have a place in the world.

I’ve “adopted” a number of folks who felt lost before. What’s one more?

Mind you, I’d probably still be a bit terrified it was going to eat me in my sleep, but, assuming it didn’t do that, I’d probably shave my head to make it easy initially to differentiate between the two — I wouldn’t force them to shave their head on account of convenience; that’s my burden to bear.

Now if they shaved their head after we’d had that conversation, I’d become a bit more concerned about the eating part, but, hey.

The biggest concern would be food and lodging and documentation— it’d become legally sticky if we had to share government ID, if it ended up having my same health problems and needing my meds, for example.

I’d probably get some sort of paternity testing kit — some cheap gel electrophoresis or something — to see if we matched genetically.

That might make it easier in some ways, more difficult in others. It’d make getting documentation probably slightly easier, maybe? Spin up a story that they’re my twin and through some chicanery, were shipped off elsewhere and ended up back here on account of someone thinking they’re me, and now they have no ID. I’ve white privilege and both my parents were citizens so I’d have less of a struggle there than were I another ethnicity—I don’t know. I’d have to research it more. I just know it’d come up at some point.

Now, if they were some sort of weirdly different genetic thing, at least then they’d hopefully be spared my health problems. Hopefully.

That side of thing opens up another weird can of worms — what would a fantastical entity that is identical to me, but not biologically? What would they eat? They’d probably need hidden from the government at all costs.

That’d becomes tricky, fast.

In terms of money, well, I’m sure we could leverage the identicalness for profit somehow.

It’d be hard to trust, but it’s hard to trust anything or anyone these days. And all you can do is be kind.

Tbh though the very VERY first thing I’d do is call my spouse, say only half the special code phrase we have, and that they are to now only trust me if I use the other half of that phrase, and to discard the first half, and then inform them that I’ve picked up a doppleganger— they seem friendly, but to please be very careful, ask them to always ask “me” for the second half of the code phrase, and always pretend the code phrase is maybe right, maybe wrong, no matter what I say, because by a matter of luck, the doppleganger is probably smarter and more observant than I am. But I’d also forewarn that if the doppleganger was at least as smart as I am and knew anything of what I knew, it’d have already reached out to announce that I’m a doppleganger and that I need to be cautiously protected, and so I’d tell my spouse to assume every me is a doppleganger. Assuming it hadn’t already shaved its head to prevent me from having to shave mine and also to therefore prove its authenticity. I’d still probably say that anyway, as my spouse would probably consider that a reasonable suggestion.

It’d be touch and go. I’d probably for a while need to figure out where they’d sleep, in a way that doesn’t TRAP my doppleganger, but also makes it blatantly apparent to everyone in the vicinity if it tried leaving the room it was given the sleep in so that if it did have ill intent I’d at least have a fair warning.

It’d all be very tough initially. Very very scary. Rules of reality suddenly being broken means literally anything could be true. Next thing I know I’d have a Fairy Riding a Walrus knocking on my front door.

Ultimately, as a matter of pure luck, my hope that its wish for love and to be a person were genuine, and acting according to that, would likely to me being killed and replaced. I’d probably attempt to beforehand convince my spouse that if EITHER of “me” ended up disappearing or dying in mysterious circumstances, they need to divorce me immediately and can use my piles of weird porn as justification, and then RUN.

But I’d still probably end up dead. Kindness changes the world, but individual kindness puts one at a great great personal risk.

But, depending on how close it studied me, what of me it copied, or if it was just a thing that looked like me, if it WAS on my side, we might just be able to collaborate to affect real change. Maybe. Who knows.

This was an amusing little speculation. I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Hopefully I wake up in the morning as opposed to the suggestion of the panic attack I’m having is would propose— that I’m not waking up at all. This little exercise ultimately is procrastination at what as far as my psyche and body are telling me, is a one way trip to meet the reaper. So, hopefully that ain’t it.

@sistertenebrae — you might enjoy this weird little paranoid exhausted ramble I’ve written. Tbh By the time you’ve read it I’ve probably already woken up and therefore didn’t die in my sleep, but on the odd chance I did — much love to you.

And, in fact, to everybody. I hope you all stay safe out there. World be spooky, and we’re all in this shit together. 💪✨ Even probably doppelgängers.

what if your doppelgänger wasn’t evil it was just a person. what if your doppelgänger wasn’t trying to replace you it was just trying to learn to be a person and you were the best model it had. what if your doppelgänger looked at you with your eyes and said with your voice that it just wanted to be loved. what then.

[simp-for-love]

Where the Fire Breathes Soft

DragonTamer!Mattheo Riddle x Teacher!Reader

You take your class on a field trip to a dragon sanctuary, expecting chaos and maybe a little fire. What you don’t expect is Mattheo Riddle — charming, clever, and surprisingly gentle beneath the smirk. Between sunbathing dragons, wide-eyed students, and a tour that turns unexpectedly sweet, you find yourself falling, just a little, for the dragon tamer with a crooked smile.

Warnings: none, fluff to the bones

Word count: 1,7k

A/N: my very late work for week 1 of @acourtofchaos's au event. Hope to catch up with the rest of them soon ♡

You’re pretty sure this wasn’t in the job description.

Sure, it mentioned field trips, but it didn’t say anything about standing ten feet away from a dragon the size of a cottage while trying to look calm in front of twenty excited eleven-year-olds.

You’ve never seen a dragon up close before — unless you count the fold-out pages in Fantastic Beasts for Little Wizards. Even then, it was hard to believe something so majestic and terrifying could be real.

But here you are, standing at the edge of a wide, green field fenced with enchanted barriers, blinking at a sunbathing Norwegian Ridgeback. It looks like an overgrown lizard lounging in the afternoon sun, its dark, iridescent scales gleaming like opals. Around you, a dozen kids press against the barrier, gasping and arguing over which dragon is the coolest.

“Miss! Miss!” little Clara tugs at your coat, eyes wide with awe. "That one just sneezed fire!"

You give her a smile, even though your heart’s trying to climb into your throat. "Yes, dragons can do that, sweetheart."

"She sneezed!" Clara insists, pointing. "She’s like me when I have a cold!"

A warm chuckle comes from your right, deep and effortlessly amused.

"That would be Marigold. She’s a bit dramatic, but harmless. Unless you're a cabbage,"

You glance sideways and promptly forget how to breathe.

The man standing next to you is tall, dressed in a well-worn leather jacket that’s clearly seen its share of flame. His dark hair is tousled, jaw sharp, and eyes startlingly intelligent with a hint of mischief behind them. There’s a dragon-scale glove tucked into his belt, and something about the way he stands — casual, confident, like the dragons answer to him — makes your knees go a little weak. His sleeves are rolled to the elbow, revealing strong forearms dusted with faint burn scars and inked runes. You catch yourself staring for a second too long.

"Oh," you manage. "Hello."

"Hi." He offers you a crooked smile, one that makes your heart do something unprofessional. "Mattheo Riddle. I work here."

You shake the hand he offers, and it’s warm, calloused, grounding. "I’m… You can call me Miss Teacher who is absolutely not terrified of dragons."

Mattheo laughs, low and easy, like sunshine on a cold morning. "Pleasure, Miss Teacher. You’re doing well for someone who looks like they might bolt."

"I’m just trying not to faint in front of the children."

"Good goal." He steps a little closer and lowers his voice. "Don’t worry. The dragons can smell fear, but they respect it. Means you’re smart."

"That’s comforting."

He grins wider, like he’s enjoying this, but not in a cruel way. Like he’s almost charmed by your honesty. “Which class is yours?”

"First-years," you say, glancing at the gaggle of kids giggling by the fence. "They’re obsessed with magical creatures right now. Their current theory is that dragons are just flying puppies with attitude problems."

"Not wrong," he muses with an amused grin. "Except for Blaze. Blaze eats puppies."

You gape at him in shock.

He blinks, then breaks into a laugh. The sound so warm and smooth that it makes your heart skip a beat. "Kidding."

You exhale the sigh of relief immediately. "Thank Merlin."

Mattheo chuckles again and gestures toward the enclosure. "Want a proper tour? I promise no incineration. Well, minimal incineration."

You arch a brow. "Do I get hazard pay?"

"No, but you get to walk next to me. That’s got to count for something," he says with a wink that sends a small stutter through your chest.

You laugh, caught off guard. "Charming, aren’t you?"

He gives you a little playful bow. "It’s in the job description," he said without any shame or second thought, grinning proudly.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ * ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ *

Mattheo turns out to be great with the kids. You watch from the edge as he kneels beside one of them, explaining the difference between ridge-back scales and horned-tail ones like it’s the most fascinating thing in the world. He’s patient when they interrupt, gentle when they get overexcited, and firm when one of them tries to climb a fence.

You hadn’t expected that. You thought he’d be cocky, maybe even reckless. Swagger and smirks. But instead, there’s this quiet strength beneath all that charisma. Something solid and steady. And it makes you feel... oddly comfortable and safe.

You try not to stare too much as he gestures animatedly toward a Welsh Green gliding in a distant paddock. The sun catches in his hair, and for a fleeting moment, he looks like he belongs to the dragons. Not as their keeper, but their kin.

He catches your across the enclosure and winks again. You look away quickly, cheeks warm.

"Professor?" Clara tugs your sleeve gently to catch your attention. "Do you like him?"

You nearly choke at her question. "What?"

"You’re looking at him like my mum looks at the telly when the handsome prince comes on," she explained calmly with a child's simplicity.

You blink at her for a moment in silence, feeling the heat on your cheeks intensified. "Clara."

"It’s okay," she says seriously with a nod. "He’s handsome. You have good taste."

You consider for a moment whether it’s possible to sink into the earth and never return.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ * ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ *

Lunch is a picnic under the shade of a charmed willow tree. The kids are still buzzing, mouths full of sandwiches, declaring their dreams of becoming dragon tamers. Some sketch their favorite dragons with crumb-covered fingers. You watch their enthusiasm with tenderness and a hint of amusement in your eyes. Soon Mattheo finds you near the feeding pen.

"Enjoying yourself yet?" he asks, leaning casually on the railing beside you.

"It’s... actually better than expected. No one's on fire, so I’m calling it a win," you say with a smile tugging on your lips.

He unwraps a sandwich and glances at yours, still untouched. "Not eating?"

"I'm too enchanted. I mean—interested. In all this." You laugh awkwardly and a bit flustered. "I’ve never seen anyone so comfortable around fire-breathing monsters."

He raises his brow in amusement. "You’re a teacher. You’re surrounded by tiny monsters daily."

You chuckle softly. "Touche."

He gives you a sideways glance, smirking. "You’re braver than you look."

You hum quietly. "Is that a compliment?"

"It is," he says easily. "You strike me as the soft type. Sweet. But you didn’t flinch when Ember tried to lick your coat."

"I couldn’t. The kids were watching."

"Still, you didn’t run." His voice dips slightly, more thoughtful. "That counts."

You glance at him, studying the way the late sun catches in his hair, the curve of his smile that’s equal parts playful and kind. There’s something magnetic about him, something that makes your chest feel light and your stomach full of fluttering things.

"You’re not what I expected," you say quietly.

He arches a brow. "No? What were you expecting?"

"I don’t know. Arrogance? Recklessness? Someone who rides dragons without a saddle and uses bad pick-up lines."

He chuckles smoothly, eyes shine with amusement. "I do ride without a saddle, but I leave the pick-up lines to the desperate."

"I feel honored."

"You should." He nudges your elbow softly. "Besides, I don’t need pick-up lines. I’ve got dragons."

You laugh again, unable to help it. Something about him makes you feel safe and smile wider. "You really do."

For a moment, the air between you settles into something quiet. Easy and sweet. You don’t even realize you’re smiling until he says, "You should come back sometime. Without twenty tiny chaperones."

"Is that a professional invitation?"

"Only if you’re into professionalism."

You tilt your head slightly, looking at him. "And if I’m into dragons?"

He gives you a look that’s all charm and slow-burning mischief. "Then I’m very interesting."

Your heart does a little leap again. "I’ll think about it."

"You do that," he says softly, gaze lingering just a moment longer than necessary.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ * ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ *

The trip ends too quickly. The kids piling back onto the carriages with sticky fingers and loud voices, waving their goodbyes wildly at every dragon in sight.

Mattheo walks you to the gate, hands in his jacket pockets.

"Thanks for not letting us get eaten," you say with a small smile. You want to prolong this moment, to stay in this fairytale with dragons and Prince Charming for a little longer.

"Anytime." He looks at you, something warm flickering in his gaze. "You really were good with them. The kids."

You shrug a little shy, "It’s easy when you love them."

"I think they love you back."

"Probably because I carry sweets in my bag all the time."

He grins. "Might have to start doing that myself."

You look at him, heart fluttering again. "Do you flirt with every teacher who visits?"

He tilts his head as if considering your question. "Only the ones who make dragon farms feel like fairy tales."

You blink, looking at him with wide eyes. "That’s—"

"Too much?" he asked with slightly bashful and boyish smile.

"A little," you admit with a smile. "But I liked it."

He steps a little closer, just enough for you to catch the warmth of him, the faint scent of smoke and leather.

"Come back," he says quietly and softly. "Next week. Or whenever you like. No pressure. Just... I’d like to see you again."

You bite your lip, trying to hide the silly smile his words cause. "Maybe I will."

"Maybe?"

"Okay. Definitely."

He smiles like you’ve just handed him something valuable. And the shine in his eyes is utterly disarming. "Good."

You linger for a second longer, then turn to follow your class, heart full of butterflies and something almost as fiery as the dragons behind you.

As you step onto the carriage, Clara tugs your sleeve again and whispers, "He definitely likes you."

You glance back to where Mattheo stands by the gate, one hand raised in a lazy wave. His eyes locked on you.

You wave back. "Yeah," you whisper with a silly grin on your lips. "I think I like him too."

[frenchkisstheabyss]

REQUEST TIME 😆

Ateez OT8 reaction to y/n chopping off all their highlights and reverting back to their natural hair color please 👉🏽👈🏽

☆ A/N: A request from one of my dearest bbys. Always happy to do something for you! I couldn't resist making every single reaction properly cute cause I'm 100% positive that's how the boys would be.

☆ Hongjoong ☆

To say that he loves your natural hair is the understatement of the century. The man can barely speak when he first sees you. It's jaw on the floor status. When he finally does it's to say, "It's so beautiful" a million times or to beg that you never change it back again. Even once he gets past the initial shock you'll catch him stealing glimpses at you every few minutes, each time with this awestruck look on his face. He'll probably make a comment about how your natural hair brings out the color in your eyes and obsess over all the subtle ways its changed you. All good things for the record. Hongjoong's always one to experiment with looks but something about seeing you just the way you are fascinates him. It's like being introduced to a new part of you, one that helps him gets closer to who you really are, and it'll be at least a few days before he's able to let it go.

☆ Seonghwa ☆

The gasp he lets out when he sees you is the most adorable thing in the world. His cuteness aggression gets activated immediately, cranked to the highest level, and he can't resist touching your hair to see if it's real. He spends so much time gasping and squeaking at you that you just have to ask, "Do you like it?" Seonghwa won't hesitate to tell you how much he loves it, gushing over you until the disbelief finally wears off. Even though he's infamous for experimenting with his own hair, he'll definitely make you pinky swear not to do anything else to yours for a while. He's already brainstorming all the different ways you can style your new hair. He might even ask to do it himself. If you're dating Seonghwa you definitely game together and he'll be super excited to update your character's hair to your natural color so that it matches.

☆ Yeosang ☆

It takes him a hot minute to notice that you've done anything to your hair. Not because he isn't paying attention, he's just used to seeing you a certain way. He knows something is different though and when it clicks he throws his hands over his face, covering the biggest smile. His excitement is quiet but that doesn't mean it's any less intense. He'll circle around you a couple of times, taking your new look in from every angle. Yeosang will ask you when you did it, why you did it, where you went to get it done, etc. It's all out of genuine curiosity and he sincerely cares about every single answer. He makes it no secret that he's super proud of you for embracing your natural hair color. It's literally the highlight of his night waiting for other people to notice the change so that he can brag about how cute your new hair looks on you to everyone.

☆ Mingi ☆

First and foremost Mingi is offended. You cut your hair and changed the color without inviting him to do it with you. You guys could've made a whole night out of it if only you would've said something. You do look amazing though, he can't deny it. Your cuteness soothes the pain of the betrayal a bit and he dedicates the rest of his time to clinging to you like you're a shiny new toy on Christmas morning. You're you, the same you he's always adored, but he's too fascinated by your new look to act normal. He'll insist that the two of you get dressed up and go out. There's no reason to let a new hairstyle go to waste. Prepare for him to be particular about your outfits too. Now that you have new hair it might as well be a new personality and your clothes have to match it perfectly. Basically you're his new Barbie doll. Get used to it.

☆ Jongho ☆

Somehow he finds out before you actually do it and he's skeptical if you'll go through with it or not so he insists on taking you to satisfy his own curiosity. Bringing him along is probably the best thing that you can do. Any of your nervousness melts away in his presence. He makes you laugh, pushing your doubts to the back of your mind. He'll even get a haircut himself if it'll make you feel better. He's right by your side the whole time, recording the process and uploading it to his Insta story like something monumental's happening. When you're done he's right beside you in the salon mirror. "You look pretty. Doesn't she look pretty?" You'll blush so hard it hurts and want to disappear but it's not like any of that will stop him. Afterwards he'll definitely take you out to dinner or ice cream, hearts dancing in his eyes the whole time he's with you.

☆ Yunho ☆

Yunho is the type to volunteer to help you do your hair yourself. If you text him in the middle of the night with some spur of the moment idea to chop all your hair off and revert to your natural color, he'll for sure encourage you to do it and be on his way to help without you even having to ask. Does he have a small heart attack each time some of it gets chopped off? Totally. But it's not because he thinks that your new hair will look bad on you. He knows from the start that he'll love it. He's just worried if you'll love it or not. For that exact reason you can get ready to be showered in reassurance. "It fits the shape of your face so well." "That color's perfect on you." "Wait until the guys see this." All while he has your cheeks squished against his palms, tiny kisses sprinkled on the bridge of your nose to emphasize every compliment.

☆ Wooyoung ☆

"Oh my god!" he screams, racing towards you. He notices the change immediately. It doesn't matter how far away he is, it's like he can sense it, and he's hype beyond words. You don't even have time to brace yourself before he's sweeping you off the ground and twirling you in his arms. If his friends are around he'll show you off, making sure that each of them tells you how good you look or else. He'll also use this opportunity to take as many selfies of the two of you together as he can. If he pulls his phone out to take a picture just pose and smile because there's no doubt that you'll be in it. When he finally posts them he'll definitely add an adorable caption too. Like one of the two of you out at the museum with the words, "Prettier than any picture." There will be minimum a dozen of those and it might make you a little bit shy but you've never felt more special.

☆ San ☆

Springing something like this on San is confusing at first. He only stares at you, his expression serious as he adjusts to the new change. It lasts for an uncomfortable amount of time before his eyes light up and his lips quirk into a smile that lets you know he likes it. "I love it" he'll say before shyly asking if he can touch it and by "touch it" he means play with it. He's far from a hairstylist but it's too much fun putting your hair in different styles, some so silly you can't contain your own laughter. At this point you might as well get comfortable because he'll do it every chance he gets. Not just the first time he sees it. He'll do it while he's watching TV or the two of you are talking. Just mindlessly twirling your hair around his fingertips, quietly admiring the new cut and color so that even when he isn't directly saying anything you just know how he feels about it.

[jjwolves]

BIT FLIP ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

What: 5 Yandere ENA X Reader Headcanons

Who: ENA from ENA by Joel G

How Much: ~1100 words, ~6 mins

Credits: Image Banner → Joel G

Warnings: Threats, Mention of Suicide, Toxic Behavior

Everyone that you talk to always assumes that you and ENA are dating. Sometimes it’s emotionless statements, sometimes it’s mild disgust at your incorrigible life choices. And yeah, you and ENA are really close friends, but you aren’t dating. At least, you don’t think so. Sure, ENA is pretty touchy with you in a way that she doesn’t display with anyone else, always making sure to link arms with you whenever you go out, or lean into you when sitting nearby. But you thought that maybe she was just really, really comfortable with you. You like her for who she is instead of the convenience she brings you, which you’ve come to learn is rare for her. She’s probably just really happy that she has someone she can call a friend, and her behavior is being misinterpreted. You could see why other beings would think that you’re an item, though–ENA’s affection is constant. And you doubt it’ll change anytime soon; it’s just how she is!

ENA’s your best companion and always will be, but you have other friends that you like to spend time with as well. You let ENA know. Usually she just tags along with whatever you’re doing, but you don’t want her to be out of her element with a lot of people who don’t know her. Her chipper side dulls a little and takes a moment to load before speaking quietly, more quietly than you’re used to. She stops her idle dancing and opts to fidget with her fingers instead, doing her best to seem contemplative instead of… this other feeling she was experiencing. A feeling she hadn’t learned the name of. “I see. Your incoming absence is… (ding!) recognized. Well, since you’re unable to eliminate your bindings, I must inquire: What should I do?” You shot her a quizzical look and asked what she meant by that. Wouldn’t she just do what she does normally, when she’s not hanging out with you? “Yes, well, it’s hard to postulate, isn’t it?” Huh? It was only a few moments before ENA was upon you with static tears. “Please please please don’t leave me! Don’t leave me for them!! I know they’re better but just don’t!” You try to calm her down and reassure her that nobody’s taking you from her. She hugs back, hard, but you’re not sure that the message is getting through.

You start trying to distance yourself from ENA a little bit. You think that she might be a becoming a little codependent on you, and while it’s hard to say for sure if relationships in this world even work the way you think they do, ENA’s obsession has been made clear. Sometimes, when you try to get a little personal space, she throws a fit. “No-hooo! You’re leaving me! You’re leaving me!” Other times, she ignores the attempt for distance and closes in tighter, this time placing a possessive yellow hand around a cheek or a hip. “Oh, what joy it is to be in your company. Don’t mind my presence. Conduct yourself as you would, as if I wasn’t even here!” After saying this, she starts hovering around you, watching you with a curious, open-mouthed smile wherever you go, whatever you do. Using the microwave? ENA is watching. Tuning the despair compass? ENA has her head on your shoulder. You are constantly admired by your observer. It’s a little weird and creepy, even for her. Even simply asking her why gets her gloomy. “Ohhh, I should have known you wouldn’t even let me watch… Wretched, horrible me…” Weirdo or not, though, you can’t stand to hear her say stuff like that about herself. You shake her out of it and say that she’s not wretched or horrible or anything; she just needs to learn boundaries. Her yellow side responds with an almost academic flair. “Now that is a word I’m simply unable to learn. How curious! May I resume documentation?”

Eventually, you find out why people think you and ENA are dating, and it’s not because of her overly-intimate touch or constant following. It’s because she walks to your friends’ houses and tells your companions that you’re taken. Well, in so few words. “I understand that the one close to my heart is close to yours as well, but it’s important for you to know that someone already loves them very much. And that certain someone can be a vexing variable when left in a state of lacking. Do you understand what I’m communicating?” A stutter. A tearing of the world and a sky-shivering wail. A white face and flashing eye. “Just leave them alone!! If you don’t-If you don’t-If you don’t (ERROR) I’LL END MY EXISTENCE AND MELT YOU INTO COLORS!!” Your freshly-accosted friends quickly learn to back off when you have plans with ENA. She is completely unpredictable and they’d rather keep their distance from the bi-colored madwoman.

ENA does some work behind the scenes. After running up on your other friends and menacing them with her unpredictability, they stop spending time with you after a while. At one point, they don’t even pick up your talksignals anymore. ENA lingers in the doorway of your home when you ask her why your pals don’t want to hang out with you anymore—why they all left, just like that. Maybe you don’t understand how relationships work in this place, after all. ENA shushes you, her voice soft, feminine and on the verge of tears. “It’s not your fault… You’re so beautiful and wonderful. I’m sorry that I had to go and ruin it all for you…” She gently takes your hand and strokes a cold thumb over it. In the meantime, you feel like you should be appalled at her admission, but you’ve started suspecting it by now. “But it was for you. I’m yours, a-and you’re mine. And I’m not gonna let anything change that! I’m not gonna give you up!” ENA grabs you up in a frigid hug, like the cold wind that comes with rain, but you feel a change of temperature halfway through. “I do hate showing such tears in front of you. Maybe I’ll cut out the blue and put you inside. You’d fill me to bursting!” A low chuckle. You feel a lot of affection for her, but for the first time, you think you understand why your friends were so scared of this blockhead.

[atangledfate]

Sonic's eyes shifted upward as if he was thinking alot about Shadow, and his relationship with him. They were friends? He guessed that was a loose term as often as they came to blows. Shadow was probably the only person on the planet who could understand Surge and what she was going through. They had alot in common didn't they? Well he doubted Shadow would give a shit though he to found it odd Starline gave her no data on Shadow.

" Mmm, Boy Shadow is... alot--- heh. We clashed alot in the past and probably clash again in the future. I---"

He was cute off as Lanolin got closer and simply scratched his cheek in thought.

" Well ... maybe i'll introduce you to him sometime when things are less crazy... i Think you'd prefer his company to mine..."

There was alot Sonic wanted to say but really they didn't have the time did they? Not just about Shadow either, about the whole situation and GUN. Really he only had one thing to say before Lanolin and Surge departed as he glanced over his shoulder toward them.

" Hey--- No matter what they say... don't trust GUN. No matter how good there promises are... just knows its never what it seems. "

Lanolin seemed to eye Sonic as if he knew something that she and Surge didn't. Though he just kept gazing up at that airship. The Sheep placed her hand on the back of her neck unsure how to respond or approach the situation. She still thought of Surge as a friend and was now being asked to hand her over--- it was a shit situation and Sonic's comment didn't comfort her at all.

" It's mad to think they'd do all of this just for you and kit... but then you did make a mess of the city with minimal effort. Maybe its just to make a point? I can't say why they did it... but then they wanted Belle to... so maybe it was more then that? All i know is... the deal is you hand yourself over and they lift the blockade... i hate it still... but we can't fight the government... "

She sighed and crossed her arms giving surge a knowing nod at her request.

" Yea... don't worry, we'll start moving him to a safe location soon as we can. Though we need to wait for there liaison to arrive to sign all the paper work. just thought you'd wanna this time to say your goodbyes... i don't know where they'll take you. Though i suspect to that prison where they sent Mimic ... or something similar. "

She touched her chin as Surge admitted Kit was stalking them from a distance and watching them. It didn't shock her at all considering how close they were. It must be eating him alive to know that he might lose her. They were almost like siblings in a way and separating them? it couldn't be easy on either of them.

" Hmmm, then things are winding down? Well Surge say the word and i'll take Kit with me to that place you mentioned. I can slip past any blockades without issue. Better to move him before they have eyes on him... that way we can hide him away while they are distracted with you... "

==============================================

Jewel wasn't so sure she could agree with blaze on this one. Surge already decimated a city, caused who knew how much damage. Despite all the good work that she'd done here. It would be so easy for GUN to spin her as an enemy of the state. Propaganda could go in two directions and GUN controlled the media more then she liked to admit. She knew the princess wouldn't do harm unless provoked she had less worry about that. Her main concern is what they'd do with Surge once they had her contained.

" I hope that isn't there intent... surely it would have been easier to steal away starines lab... most of his notes are in miles possession though so maybe it was't easy for them to get? Either way they seem more interested in her then anything else... i ever imagined GUN would sink this low... "

For all the vile things that GUN had done, most of it was uknown. Despite the awful things that Amy had to say about them. The details were never really spoken on by her. All Jewel knew was Amy said never to trust them, and that they were bad news. Maybe its why they took her out? did they fear she'd see through there plot in same way? or maybe she'd have taken a stronger stance against handing surge over?

" I don't know about this new general, or this president... but i do know GUN and i know enough to believe that if they wanted to replicate Starlines work--- they'd have the time and resources to do it. Worse if you think Eggman is lacking ethics... then i fully believe GUN is just as bad if not worse. Eggman has his rules... might be twisted but he follows them to a tee... its why he never kills amy despite capturing her many times... or why, he never killed Sonic despite having him for 6 months. His rules are mad but he has them... GUN not so much..."

Miles stated while occasionally chewing on his stylus in a nervous habit.

" Yea I know Belle but i need to scour that data and make sure there isn't something we are overlooking they could be after. They seem to interested in us to just be after Surge... if that was all they wanted there were better ways to do it... this feels like a big show to make a point...either way i wanna cover our bases... no point assuming anything without checking it over first. "

" as for the other bases... i'm sure they are fine... GUN feels focused on us and less on everyone else. But we can't help them until we help ourselves first "

"Haven't met Shadow, and I don't have any data information on him either in my head. I know he's tough and work's for G.U.N, that's it." Made Surge wonder why Starline never bothered to give her information on Shadow since he was supposedly a match for Sonic. That also includes Blaze. Eh, doesn't matter to her at the end of the day. "I don't intend to sugarcoat shit. No point if you ask me."

"Yeah, I know you've tangled with G.U.N before. I still have everything about you in my head, that ain't going to change soon." Surge wondered if that would start to fade or at least lessen with the other person in her head, or was she in their head? Ugh, yeah, she's keeping this to herself for as long as she can until she figures this shit out. "I'll have G.U.N dealt with before you even get there if they step out of line, watch me!" The tenrec's attention also shifted to the sound of someone running over.

"Geez, talk about pulling out all the stops just to lock me up in jail or whatever they want to try and do to me. Couldn't even try to hide it?" Surge thought they'd at least make it seem like it was just for messing up that one town when she was high on Wisp energy. "I hope they know I don't intend to go anywhere until I see with my own eyes Drippy is walking away." That wasn't going to change, and if they tried before a swift speed of light punch would solve that shit real quick.

"Drippy is sorta stalking me right now. Been hiding about a block down. Before you ask how I know it's some sort of link shit Starline put into us. We can sorta sense where the other is, and it gets stronger the closer we are to someone. Must've slipped out in the air vent or some shit."

===========================================================

"Not to sound like Sonic, though in this case I must say I make no promises." Blaze rarely found herself willing to do harm upon someone, though this was a rare case of being so angered. "If they intend to recreate Starline's work I doubt Surge will make it easy for them. Given her speed, power, and abilities it would be easy to prevent them from doing any in-depth scans on her body and power. Besides, once this gets out I'm sure a lot of eyes will be on Surge and G.U.N which should force them to play it safe." The media can be troublesome.

"I can, though there was nothing on the mainframe that could of be importance to them. Maybe funds, though that's safe now. I suppose a list of Restoration members, though most of that is public information by now, and it's not like we hide ourselves in begin with since we're a public organization. The main damage they've done is split commutation between all our bases. Even with you temporary getting us back into contact it's limited to a small range." Belle was honestly worried everyone was in complete chaos right now.

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 194 (A Difficult Father's Day For the Landgraabs)

For Nancy Landgraab, Father's Day was a distressing time. The day had always reminded her of her distant, misogynistic father Chester, but this year took on extra weight as the family mourned her husband, Geoffrey.

A better father than Chester had ever been, Geoffrey's absence was strongly felt. As the holiday passed at their penthouse in the city, though they danced to music to honour his memory, the Landgraabs were still grieving.

Spending the first part of the day at work to take her mind off her sorrow, Nancy returned home in the early afternoon to find her grandson chatting with Malcolm in the living room.

"Your mother tells me you're all going to Sulani as a family after your birthday," he said. "Are you sure you're ready to go back there since..."

"I'm not that worried about Sulani," Ash admitted. "I'm glad Marco's device malfunctioned to Sulani so Felix and Rafa and Lilith and Melissa were all there to rescue me. Besides, we'll be spending a lot of time with Rafa when we're there."

"And what about ghosts? Have you seen any of those lately?"

Ash was careful, but he wanted to be honest. "All the time, Dad. But it's fine! They're not scary."

"Just don't let your grandmother hear you talk about them, alright? She doesn't need to take anything else on these days, and ghosts upset her more since your Granddad died. But if you feel overwhelmed by anything in Sulani, you can call and I'll buy you a plane ticket home early, no questions asked."

"Thanks, Dad. Happy Father's Day!"

Malcolm knelt down to hug his son - the boy he once seriously doubted he could ever love. But since he'd come to his senses, he'd only ever tried to be a good father.

Deep down, Malcolm questioned his integrity at every turn. A Landgraab who tried to be a decent man, like his father, but who reveled in the misery of others. He was a little too much like his mother's side of the family.

Since Geoffrey's death, Malcolm worried he'd lost his moral constant, and he didn't want to think what that might mean for Ash, Bridgette, or his wife.

But for today, he cheered himself up through quality time with his family, and after a visit to Geoffrey's grave at Myshuno Meadows, they went to dinner as a family before making a detour across Uptown Plaza.

Nancy had been anxious to finally meet Charlie Wise, the San My Ballet Company's newest male recruit - a 16-year-old with striking features and effortless grace. She rarely found reasons to visit her brother and his family, but Father's Day was just the excuse she needed to say hello while meeting Charlie. Everyone else was happy to tag along, more excited than Nancy to hang out with Johnny and Eva and their kids.

"I didn't expect to see you here to wish me a Happy Father's Day," Johnny said to his sister. Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"Happy Father's Day, John. Did you spend the day trying to get your children to laugh at your jokes?"

"The kids already laugh at my jokes, Nancy. I spent the day sharing all my best material with our new houseguest, Charlie. The one you're really here to see."

Nancy's demeanor shifted as she pivoted to the young ballet dancer. "Charlie, it's a pleasure. I'm Nancy Landgraab. How are you getting settled in the city? It's a world away from Evergreen Harbour out here."

"I'm adjusting well, thank you. I've always loved cities more the the pulp and paper smell of the Harbour. And I know who you are." His tone showed just enough awe to make Nancy beam with pride. "It's nice to finally meet the head of the company board."

"She's the one you need to suck up to," Johnny advised him.

Charlie nodded. "I can do that."

"Plays the game as well as he dances, Nance. You'll love him."

"I'm sure he'll be performing on the Orpheum stage in no time."

"Pearl's going to be on the Orpheum stage one day," Ash said. "Will you be dancing with her?"

Nancy grinned. "Charlie will be able to dance with anyone in the company, but I see more than a few duets with Pearl Richards in his future."

"Pearl's cool," said Charlie with a nod.

"Pearl's the best ballerina in the whole company," Ash said assuredly. "You're going to be lucky to dance with her."

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe she'll be lucky to dance with me, too."

"San My Ballet Company will be fortunate to have you both dancing in our productions."

Though Nancy would have avoided her brother on this heavy day if not for the young ballet student he was hosting, the Landgraabs spent the rest of the evening with the Zests.

They danced to music from the stereo and played with the Zests' four dogs, with Nancy admiring Charlie's form as he showed off his ballet skills.

"I may not be as good yet as Pearl or some of the older dancers with the company, but I'll get there, Mrs. Landgraab. I'm going to work hard to be the best."

"Second best," Ash corrected, nearly under his breath. "After Pearl."

Charlie smiled as his arms stretched over his head. "Sure, kid. After Pearl." ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 2.1 Summary

Gen 1 Start | Gen 1 Summary

WCIF Poses Used: Grieving Heart pose pack by kreistn and @libetsims' Random Emotions for Kids at Geoffrey's grave.

[dandysworld-meh-imagines]

we have astro x reader, t!astro x reader, and astro x t!reader. now we need t!astro x t!reader to complete the quartet

may i suggest an angst comfort of Twisted!Astro x Twisted!Reader where astro is semi sentient and is trying to stay along with the reader who's pretty much a walking corpse? he doesn't rlly remember the reader but he knows they meant a lot to him in the dim past he tries to recall. gn and romantic pls

thank you and take your time!

(p.s i love your writing hehehe :D)

Twisted Astro With A Twisted Reader!

THE ASTRO SIMPS ARE EATING WELL, THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY BAHAHAHA!!

YES, WE ARE COMPLETING IT, DEAR ANON!! I'm giggling but mmmm (this would have been out sooner if I wasn't so sleepy shshsh), some angst with some comfort, yum! And thank you, dear anon! Here you go, thank you for requesting! <3

-Anna

-Something about you just.. drew Astro in. No other twisted he encountered before you was able to trigger such a specific emotion in him, it made him curious about you, a lot. It made him so curious, he couldn't help but slowly pace around, trying to understand just what you did to him. It was also recently that he started seeing you appear on the same floor as him. Hmmm.. were you someone that got left behind by a team or..? No matter, all he could focus on was on how you made him feel, you made him pause, he felt something in his chest hurting a little bit.

-And that's what he did what he does best, observing you. His eye watched intensely as you wandered around the floor. Astro was quite the stealthy guy, making sure to carefully observe you and also grew more confused the more he stayed near you. Honestly, it was a mix of confusion, softness and frustration the more he watched. Even when he made those echoey noises of his, you didn't even bat an eye back at him, not even when he was literally behind you. He hopes you weren't ignoring him but at the same time he didn't want you to look at him nor approach him. He felt.. complicated.

-You, on the other hand just kept walking like there wasn't any tomorrow, just like all the other twisteds he saw around. You didn't even care if you walked into somewhere like a wall or an object, you still got up, no matter how bad the injury was and just continued. The first time Astro witnessed that, he felt his chest heavy for a while and he didn't know what's wrong. He grabbed his face with two arms as he leaned forward and took deep breaths. He even felt himself crying a little but he was just so confused. He knows his feeling definitely connects to you, though.

-He even decided to sit out long enough just to watch you ignore all the other twisteds, just walking tiredly, minding your own business. You didn't even acknowledge THEM of all things here. It was like the ichor had truly corrupted your mind and made you someone who.. just wasn't you anymore. Astro didn't even want to do anything because he knew you might ignore him too and the idea low-key hurt.. he didn't know why but it did. Why does he want to stay closer to you? He kept overthinking this over and over.

-As time went on, he started making himself known to you, not forcefully or anything but just a presence near by. Though even when he was double your size, you only gave a small glance as you continued to walk around, it got Astro feeling some type of way, something negative. At least you seemed to be aware of his presence and that felt.. normal. But it stopped feeling normal when you just kept walking away from him. It made his hands gently tremble as his eye was focused on you.

-He made soft noises when you weren't paying any attention to him, though. It wasn't angry noises like he does when another twisted invades his personal space somewhere he decided to call his territory but he did feel quite hurt watching you just walk away from him. Astro actually found himself doing a lot of these calm and gentle noises when he was around you. It seemed to get your attention for at least some seconds, it looks like it even helped you feel a bit more calm as well even if whatever came from Astro was noises you have never heard before.

-Astro watches as you struggle to really sleep at night, tossing and turning and growling under your breath in frustration. He does the same thing he does with every other twisted here and even when he was just a regular toon. He used his powers not only to make the surviving toons very tired but he found it also works on the twisteds too. For the other twisteds, he uses it to make them shut it with their constant aggressive noises but for you? Astro didn't feel exactly angry, he felt.. concerned. He does it especially for you to sleep at night, he finds you sleeping oddly calming.

-It's also when he decided to give you something he has been working on for himself. He had to rip out the soft material on chairs or anything else he can get his hands on to make a kinda small bed. It wasn't perfect but it was better than sleeping on the floor or on the chairs or whatever else that is uncomfortable. Honestly, you had pretty much really lost your mind so you didn't understand what Astro was.. doing here and offering you.. whatever that was. Look, he really tries, okay? He even has kept his old small blanket somewhere. It's not enough to cover him at nights but it's big enough for you at least.

-It actually took a while for you to understand that he was offering you something better than the floor. Astro made sure to keep an eye on the spot for you to approach it yourself. When you did, he felt his shoulders relaxing, he didn't understand why seeing you comfortable was calming but he wanted to do what he could for you. He noticed how more comfortable you looked at nights with his blanket and the soft material under and something in him moved. He still used his powers to make you fall asleep fully but he heard your soft breathing more now.

-Astro might not be able to recall exactly but he knows you mean a lot to him when he stares down at you like this. It's also when he takes the courage after a while to reach his hand out and stroke your head for a bit. Hoping to hold you close to him when the time is right. He will always stay close to you and watch over you, wanting to understand this feeling fully. Truly, that's what he does afterwards for a long time, even if you are like this. In the end, though, he remembers you fully, even if it took him such a long time. He hopes you do the same, he'll treat you so gently until you can look into his red eye with love again.

Thank you for reading! <3

[paintedplum7]

Chewed Gum Theory and how Deltarune Chapter 3 might be a Commentary on Media Censorship

So a while ago, I made a mess of a post on Reddit rambling about a certain line of text in one of the Spamton Sweepstakes descriptions: "THESE [chewed up bubblegum wrappers] THOUGHT THEY COULD MAKE [merchandise] WITHOUT ME!?" It was very, very aimless and focused more on shipping than anything else, but after I stewed on the information for awhile, and talked about it with a friend, I think my ideas do have some merit! So how about I take this mostly self-indulgent theory on a larger scale and talk about how this throwaway line in the Spamton Sweeptakes might encompass Chapter 3 as a whole?

Content warning for suggestive language!

In context, for us as the audience, this line is about Fangamer, but what does it mean in-universe? The link on "[scrap heap]” leading to a Chapter 3 teaser certainly suggests it's about Tenna, possibly even his Cathodes Crew as a whole because 'bubblegum wrappers' is plural!

Chewed gum is often used as an euphemism for someone who's had too much sex, and as consquence became 'flavorless'. According to what I've read, the euphemism is often used by Christians to scare younger people out of premarital sex. It actually lines up for Spamton to use that phrase as it matches with the rest of his religious undertones, neat! But what does this have to do with Chapter 3?

First of all, Deltarune was recently rated to have 'mild sexual references' and 'mild gambling themes', which wasn't there before! I don't think Chapter 4 was what caused these content warnings to be placed; why would a church be a place of sex, gambling, and violence? It's more reasonable to conclude that Chapter 3 is what caused these to be placed. Film is known for sensationalizing those kind of topics, after all.

As much as I would love to talk about Tenna in reference to this theory, he really takes a backseat in here because there's not much yet on him as character to infer about as a whole. He and Spamton are heavily coded to once be in a relationship outside of their possible business partnership (romantic, perhaps sexual?), and that's really about it. The Tenna Supertheory is the reason why the Chewed Gum Theory even exists right now, so I recommend you go read that. Here’s a link.

I do want to talk about the Shadow Guys though! From what we've seen from them, they are linked to Toriel's socks; there's annimations of them putting her socks on, and there's of course the clip of one Shadow Guy shouting and getting embarrassed once you pull out the curtain and reveal them, wearing Toriel's socks. Toriel and her sock drawer has been a joke in UTDR since Undertale. Scandalous is an interesting choice of wording, because it implies there's something shocking or morally reprehensible about her socks (she doesn't even wear them!), and it lines up with what we know of her so far with her having occasional shocking moments in between the front she puts on (her swearing and alcoholism are two things that come to mind). While the socks themselves might not be a euphemism for something sexual, it is weird that they are emphasized to be something shocking, and how it reflects on the Shadow Guys.

This one is more speculation, but that How to Draw Dragons book, huh? That's definitely going to be referenced in Chapter 3 either as a joke or a fully-fledged Darkner. It's easy to brush it off as a joke, but it's presented similarly to how Toriel's sock drawer is. It's viewed as something scandalous Asriel owns, hell, it's even secluded in the bottom of a drawer. That certainly seems to be a running theme in the Dreemurr household, huh?

This is really all I have regarding concrete evidence in things we know happens, and is likely to happen in Chapter 3, so I'll be using real world background information for the rest of this theory!

My friend pointed out to me that while the previous chapters so far are based around settings surrounding entertainment, there's also a lingering commentary on how these concepts have a darker side. There's a little in chapter 1, but especially in chapter 2. All the darkners in Chapter 1 were left abandoned because the lightners who came to the classroom and played with them grew up and moved on with their lives, and Chapter 2 reflects on how invasive the internet can be at times with nonstop ads, and algorithmic learning systems that base around your search history; it's interesting! I wonder if anyone made a theory about it.

I think Chapter 3 also will have an underlying message on the dark side of television, and what is television and film infamous for throughout it's entire history? Censorship, of course! The most infamous example is Hays code, a guideline of censorship rules that deemed what is unacceptable for media viewing that was placed in the mid-1900s. It restricted depictions of sex, violence, and other topics seen as obscene during that time period. If we take the Shadow Guys, and How to Draw Dragons as a representation of obscene ideas being hidden by the people who don't want them getting out (The Dreemurrs), then it is likely that Chapter 3's Dark World will reflect that! I almost imagine the Cathodes Crew wants to be scandalous and obscene, but they're restricted by their "guidelines", the Lightners, the Hays Code in this situation. Obviously, they get around it, but it wouldn't have the same bite. The sexual and gambling references are 'mild', after all.

So that's my theory! It's really long, and I wrote this at 2 AM so there's probably more I could say but can't, but I hope it's coherent as it is! Feel free to tell me about your thoughts on it and add onto it! Thank you!

[leupagus]

I forgot that a) I'd written this and b) that it can basically work as a prequel to deep breath and off you go.

Here's some more I wrote like a month ago when I thought "haha this is a neat show with a fun little cast, but I'm sure it won't be a new hyperfixation or anything"

-

He gets back to Pittsburgh with almost thirty minutes to spare before his shift starts — the day shift, part of his deal with Robby and the neverending nightmare that is the Pitt schedule. It’s probably not a great idea to pull a twelve-hour shift immediately after flying across the country, but Jack gives a metaphorical shrug and drives straight to PTMC. It’s not like he’s going to make good choices anyway, and this beats getting blind drunk and punching a wall until his knuckles bleed.

“Hey, the prodigal son returns,” cheers Robby, from where he’s leaning against the Hub’s partition. He looks happy, as well he should — he’s taking a week off himself, courtesy of taking Jack’s night shifts this past week coupled with Heather’s fraying patience. “Did you turn out to know the way to Santa Fe?”

“The song’s about San Jose, not Santa Fe,” Dana says, circling around the partition to give Jack a brisk kiss on the cheek. “Thank God, someone to rescue me from these maniacs.”

“Might be a little bit of a frying pan/fire situation, slugger,” Jack says. “Plane was delayed, I just got in about forty-five minutes ago. So I might end up hallucinating around two or three p.m.”

“Oh boy,” Dana says. Without even looking up as she thwacks Robby on the shoulder.

“Ow, what,” Robby whines.

“Did you even ask him how he’s doing?” she demands. Since Jack spent a worryingly large portion of his time before, during and after the funeral sending thumbs-up emojis to the group chat’s questions about his mental state, Jack thinks that’s a little bit overkill. But Dana’s always had this weird idea about how emotions need to get expressed, or whatever.

“He just walked in the door,” Robby points out. “Also, I counted twenty-eight thumbs-ups he sent us in the group chat over the weekend.”

Dana gives him the fish-eye from over the tops of her glasses. “How do you get laid on a regular basis,” she asks, flabbergasted.

“It’s a mystery to me too,” Robby says, before turning to Jack. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Jack sighs, and makes shooing motions at Robby. “You, leave.”

Heather, who’d been one of the only people to act like a normal goddamn person about Dad dying and all, had spent the weekend complaining over text about Robby. Since complaining about Robby was one of his favorite things to do, Jack was delighted to offer whatever advice or commiseration he could; it wasn’t until Saturday, while him and Ma were getting comprehensively shitfaced in Dad’s woodworking shed, that Heather had made the horrifying confession that she was fucking Robby. Again.

Warnings and dire predictions of disaster had done nothing to convince her of the error of her ways; instead she kept asking how she could convince Robby to take some time off. I want to talk to him about what he wants out of this, and I can’t do that if he can just run away to the Pitt if he starts catching feelings.

Jack suspects the worst thing for any possible future between Robby and Heather is for Robby to catch any more feelings than he already has, but that’s Heather’s problem. Just tell him you rented a bang shack for a week and get some lingerie and idk handcuffs, he’d proposed, which weirdly wasn’t well-received. But she ended up getting a cabin down in the Monongahela National Forest, so really, who’s a “crass caveman” now?

Even with the prospect of Heather Collins in lacy underwear doesn’t seem to be getting Robby out the door any faster, though. “Are you sure, man?” he says, frowning at Jack. “I can stick around—"

“No you can’t,” Jack says, continuing his shooing motions. “Seriously, get out of here. Heather’s going to kill me if you do that fucking Minnesota Goodbye shit today.”

“And bury you where they won’t even find the body,” Heather says as she breezes past, one of their new medical students trailing after her like a baby duck.

“I’m not even clocked in and I’m already facing workplace harassment,” Jack complains.

Dana laughs. “Sounds like something you should bring up with the Chair of the Department.”

“Yeah, uh,” Robby says, as eloquent as ever as his gaze trails after Heather. It’s extremely hilarious and pathetic all at the same time. Jack is very, very happy for them both, not the least because there’s room for one suicidal ideation case in the Pitt and Jack has dibs. He wants better than that for Robby, a man who’s dragged Jack out of more holes than he can count. He just doesn’t want to know the details.

“Well said,” he says, and goes off to find Ellis.

He finds Mohan instead, looking ever-so-slightly crazy in West 13 with an anesthetized head lac and an impressive pair of bags under her eyes. “Dr. Abbot,” she chirps as he hesitates at the doorway. “How was New Mexico? I’ve heard it’s beautiful, I’ve never been. Not to most of the Southwest, actually — I was in Las Vegas a couple years ago for my cousin’s wedding, I guess that counts? But I didn’t leave the hotel, I was something like three weeks out from my certs and I’d brought all my books and study materials with me. I forgot an actual dress for the wedding, ended up borrowing my other cousin’s spare suit. Somewhere or other there’s a bunch of pictures with me and the bridesmaids like I’m a lesbian Casanova.” She stops talking abruptly and frowns. “Was all of that out loud?”

“Sure was,” he says, amused. Even sleep-deprived and babbling, she’s still a sight for sore eyes. “How long have you been here?”

“What time is it?” she asks, continuing her work on the laceration. Her stitches are perfectly in line, not a tremor in her hand.

“Seven a.m.,” he says. He leans up against the doorsill and watches her for a few minutes. It’s not the best use of his time, but he hasn’t seen her for more than a week and he knows she won’t mind. Won’t even notice, probably. She has nice hands — not dainty so much as deft, like she’d taken piano when she was a kid. There’s an assurance to the way she touches things, careful but firm, like she knows exactly what every movement means.

“What day?” she asks.

That yanks him right out of his daydreaming. “Samira, tell me you haven’t been here for over twenty-four hours.” He’s going to have to kill Robby and then get killed by Heather.

“I will not tell you that,” she says cheerfully.

“Why?”

“Because like all emergency medicine doctors, I have a finely-tuned sense of avoidance.” She finishes the last stitch and takes off the sterile paper covering. The patient, a 39-year-old waiting on the ICU, doesn’t stir. “And my aunt and uncle are in town and have taken over my apartment and if I have to stay there one more second entertaining them and my annoying cousin who’s just gotten accepted early admission to Carnegie-Mellon, I will probably kill them. Or at least maim them. So I’m here instead, and I think that’s very professional of me, actually.”

“Lotta homicidal impulses happening tonight,” Dana warns him, coming up beside him in the doorway. “You sure you want to stick around?”

“Why the hell didn’t Robby or you send her home?” Jack says, sticking his thumb over at Mohan.

“Because I’ve got an aunt and uncle just like ‘em,” Dana says unsympathetically, patting him on the shoulder, “and because I thought it’d be funnier to leave it with you.”

Tentative title is "Dana once offered to spread the rumor that she and Jack were sleeping together just to get the gossipers off his back, but Jack truthfully told her that everyone would know she was too good for him" although it might be a little long

continued from this, because there is nothing funnier than a middle-aged doctor who keeps getting nonconsentually paired up with every hot colleague at his hospital and would like it all to Stop Please.

-

Jack’s used to it, is the thing. Has been for his whole life; he’s the only boy in a family of five, with all the attendant you-must-carry-on-the-family-name expectations. Starting when he was about nine years old, people had questions about every girl he talked to. Ooh she seems nice, oh what’s her name, ooooh do you liiiiiike her? He’d probably be more annoyed about it except for the fact (which his mom liked to remind him at every opportunity) that the first time it ever happened was with Leslie, who he married as soon as he could and stayed married to as long as he could.

Turned out it wasn’t long enough, but the point is that he honestly can’t remember a time when people didn’t take a weird, invasive interest in his personal life.

“What personal life, out of morbid curiosity?” asks Lena, peering at him over her glasses. “Also why are you here?”

It’s 0300 the night of (technically, the morning after) Pittfest; the custodians are still getting the last of the rooms cleaned up after the chaos, but everything else is more or less back to normal. Jack managed to get almost four hours’ sleep before his bum leg prodded at him with phantom pains, the kind that only go away when he’s giving himself some actual pain to focus on. So here he is on his night off, and the charge nurse is giving him shit.

“Ow,” Jack remarks, pressing his hand over his heart. “Starting to feel a little unloved, boss. Didn’t you miss me?”

“Didn’t have a chance to,” says Lena, with a twinkle in her eye. “You left four hours ago, remember?” 

“Like it was a mere four hours ago,” he says agreeably. Lena’s mean as shit to most of the attendings and actively violent with HR, but she’s got a soft spot for Jack, which is usually a good thing.

Except for times like this, when it leads her to add, “But sounds like someone on days loved you plenty.”

“Oh, no,” Jack mutters, and tries to brace for it even as he scans the board — relatively easy night so far, Ellis and Shen and Yao with four patients each and Chairs down to an eight-hour wait. “What’d you hear, boss?”

“I heard that Doctor Mohan was very impressed with you,” Lena coos, just as Shen goes striding past.

“Woah, we talking about Sam? Dude,” Shen says, and offers what Jack assumes are very supportive finger guns. “She was talking about that little warzone crike kit you pulled out for hours. So after you guys left, did you and her—” He makes little pah-pow noises, his eyebrows raised interrogatively.

“You call her Sam?” Jack says, not sure if he’s more disconcerted by the noises, the nickname, or by the brand-new rumor that he’s shtupping Mohan. “And no, we didn’t, and no,” he adds, turning to point at Lena, “she wasn’t. Isn’t.”

“Wasn’t isn’t what, hon?” Lena asks innocently. 

Ellis, walking past with Janie, slows down with a way-too-alert expression on her face. “Who wasn’t isn’t?”

“Nobody,” says Jack, at the same time as Shen says, “Sam,” and Lena says, “Doctor Mohan,” with relish.

“Ohhh, so that’s finally happened?” asks Janie, clasping her hands together. Jack hates all of them and is going to ask for a transfer to a hospital in Anchorage. Or Mars, that weird rich guy must need doctors for colonizing Mars, right?

“No, it hasn’t happened,” he says, as level as he can manage. “Just like it hasn’t happened with… let’s see, last year it was Dr. McKay, year before that it was Nurse Jesse, year before that it was you,” he points to Ellis, who looks as grossed out as he’d been at the time. “Yeah. So thank you to all my yenta people—” he’ll have to ask Robby about the plural of yenta is— “but Dr. Mohan and I are not dating, nor are we…whatever that finger guns thing was supposed to imply.”

“It was supposed to imply fucking,” Shen says helpfully.

“You know, they had a betting pool on the two of us at one point,” he says, just for the joy of seeing all the color drain out of Shen’s face. Then multiple GSWs come sailing in from the ambulance bay and they’ve got to deal with that, and he hasn’t even put his bag down yet.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY - Journal #8: Route 0 (Ending) Days 91-100. [MASSIVE SPOILERS]

//Man...what a ride this was.

//But all good things must come to an...end? Well, at least it's ONE end. We still have what is probably 100 more to go at this rate.

//Before I start, I have to be completely honest about something.

//After I got to day 100 of the first route (Route 0) I kind of started binge playing through my second playthrough. Truth me told, I wasn't feeling very well last weekend, and was stuck in bed for most of the day, so I spent pretty much the whole time playing Hundred Line.

//The way I've decided to do things is I'm going to change up the format of the journal's a little bit. From here on out, after this one, I will be covering the routes in full, and my highlights from each.

//I know that feels like a bit of a dramatic change, but the truth is after all this time, I don't want to write about my experiences with this game regularly. I just kinda want to play it.

//The reason I bring this up is because there's one or two things I learn in my second playthrough that reflect back on here. Meaning I might use terminology that people who are following along with me haven't experienced yet. It won't be much, just one or two names.

//But once again...

DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED/SEEN THE HUNDRED LINE: LAST DEFENSE ACADEMY. I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT VERY SPECIFIC PLOT POINTS AND MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE GAME.

//So let's get started:

DAY 91:

//So this day starts off really shit. Which is super on point for just how bad these last couple days get.

//These days are also very long and there's a lot to cover in each of them, just so you all know. I remember being super scared of what might happen during them, and as it turns out, I had a right to.

//Eito shows up first thing in the morning acting shifty. He has been for the last few days ever since the Supreme Commander showed up with the negotiation offer to surrender. He's clearly been mulling it over for a few days now, and gets everyone to gether in the War Room to deliver his take on the matter.

//Eito suggests that there's truth in what both sides told us, and that the thing inside the Defense Room is indeed, as the Supreme Commander said, a weapon that will wipe out all the Invaders on Earth. While also taking us with it.

//And everyone just...believes that.

//Okay?

//So ultimately, Eito says that the best course of action would be to surrender after all, and submit to our enemy. This sneaky bitch really started getting on my nerves at this point, but the worse part is that everyone believes him.

//But what really gave me the chills about this whole scene is that when Nozomi gives an impassioned speech about it, it gets turned around on her SO quick.

//Because, somehow, everyone found out that Nozomi was connected to Kamukura General Hospital. They now all know the full story, in that Nozomi was part of whatever project it was that caused us to be sent here.

//Even though the only person who knew about any of that stuff was Takumi. When she told him privately in her room.

//But of course, Takumi never told anyone. We would have seen it if he did. And he never let anything slip either that someone could have caught attention to.

//Now, obviously, the would-be traitor of the school; the one who's been causing all of this shit to happen in the first place, has to be behind this. But of all the sneaky, shitty things they've done, even comparing it to killing Hiruko and the prisoner, burning all our food, and everything else, this takes the absolute cake.

//If there was ever an obvious sign that Eito was the bastard behind this, it's now. It's been a long time since Nozomi told us that info, which means he's been HOLDING ONTO THAT for a WHILE. Why else would the truth come out right when it's most convinient for him? Ammunition against the would-be voice of reason in this situation.

//I have grown to absolutely adore Nozomi over this playthrough and a half. She is one of my favourite characters in this game because she's pretty much the perfect person. Every time something bad happens to her like this, it just crushes my soul.

//What makes it especially bad is she blames Takumi for blabbing about it; not that I blame her. Again, Takumi is innocent, but he's also the only possible person who could have done it.

//And what I hate about this part of the story is the more he tries to get to the bottom of it, the more everyone insists that he's the one who tattled.

//Like...okay, genuine thing here. As much as I do love this game, and as much as I do love this cast, there is one thing that I REALLY don't like about them, at least in this route.

//Collectively, they are all SO...FUCKING...STUPID!!!

//I get that Eito has presented himself as a swell guy so far, but the reason why we're all on edge is because the Supreme Commander told us that by the end of these 100 days, we'd all be dead anyway. That's genuinely all she said, and yet, immediately, we jump to the conclusion that humanity are going to wipe us out along with the rest of the Invaders once we're done.

//We have...NO! PROOF! that this is actually the case. It was literally a SUGGESTION, and threat from one of our WORST ENEMIES!

//And yeah, I get that there's not an awful lot of reason to trust the people on the Satellite, because we haven't heard from them, but...that then automatically means that the Invaders are RIGHT!?

//What really pissed me off is how this same mindset almost immediately turned everyone against Nozomi. Nozomi, who has been a voice of reason, a team player, the LITERAL HEALER, and NOTHING but NICE to EVERYONE since the very start!

//Meanwhile, the Invaders have mutilated, absorbed, and done unspeakable things to some of our friends, to the point where Moko is dead, and Ima is stuck in Sirei's body, and yet, when things hit the fan, we believe THEM!?

//The fact that Nozomi is connected to Kamukura Hospital simply SUGGESTS she's a traitor. The Invaders are EVIL!

//It doesn't make ANY sense that EVERYBODY turns on Nozomi like this. Especially Kurara, who is not only against her now, but is basically the RINGLEADER of the opposition! And when Nozomi starts struggling with her rejection symptoms, Kurara tells everyone to just sit back and let her suffer!

//Like, I love Kurara, but this was LOW! Even for HER.

//Maybe there's some explanation to how it works, but I find no logic in it. It makes me SO ANGRY.

//Especially because this is just a rumor, and not only IS it a rumor, but Takumi can't even find out where it started from. Everyone seems to have heard the truth from a completely different person, until it loops back around.

//Takumi even points it out to everyone, and yet NOBODY finds it even remotely suspicious. NO! It HAS to be Takumi! HE has to be the one who did it.

//So this is an absolutely shitty situation to start this final arc off with. Everyone is going to surrender to the Invaders, Nozomi has been seperated from the group, and her relationship with Takumi has been compromised, in one swift motion.

//Everything went to shit just like that.

DAY 92:

//Day 92 is the last day of Route 0 where you get Free Time.

//I don't know if this was intentional, but the only person I can hang out with in the morning is Darumi. I.e. the one person who doesn't really give much of a damn what's going on about all this. Everyone else is just very against Nozomi, and Takumi too to an extent.

//The day ends with another dream of Karua; our first one in a while. But strangely enough, we've already seen this dream.

//In fact, unless I'm misremembering, this is the first flashback to Karua we ever got in the game. It's the same flashback where we first see Karua's scar, and Takumi originally making the promise to protect her no matter what happens.

//Yeah, I think I know what this is leading up to...

DAY 93:

//Today starts off very interestingly, as the Tsukumo Twins show up to Takumi's door, and give him some very important information.

//To recall, during the earlier incident when Ima was captured by the Invaders and forcibly merged with one of them, his DNA was altered, allowing him to comprehend the Invaders’ language and, more significantly, their internal culture.

//Ima ended up using this ability to feed information to us from the other side, but he has kept a crucial secret that he's only now shared with Takumi.

//It turns out the Invader Commanders adhere to a deeply rooted religious code. This belief system governs their actions with unwavering rigidity.

//Among their most sacred doctrines is a strict prohibition: absorbing the Cryptoglobin of another life form is considered an unforgivable transgression, a taboo of the highest magnitude.

//This revelation casts recent events in a new and disturbing light.

//If the Invaders truly abide by their religious code, as Ima’s understanding suggests they do, then the deaths of the captured prisoner and Hiruko, whose bodies were found drained and mummified from Cryptoglobin extraction, could not have been caused by the Invaders.

//With this, Kako pieces together a chilling deduction: the perpetrator must be someone on the inside. Someone with access, knowledge, and the willingness to betray their own kind.

//In other words, there’s a traitor among us.

//COOL, IT ONLY TOOK IS 93 FUCKING DAYS!

//Again, the sheer stupidity of this cast to not think for a moment that there might be a troublemaker in the group really gets under my skin for no reason.

//At the very least, the twins don't think it's Takumi, which is why they confide in him.

//Shortly afterwards, Eito shows up at Takumi's door, and let me tell you, I was NOT happy to see him.

//But he shows up in the afternoon telling Takumi that they'll all be celebrating their "last night" since all of them have given up on fighting, and hope to end the war tomorrow.

//Kyoshika is somehow drunk off of soft drinks...

//And DARUMI IS DOING DRUGS!

//Amidst the, ahem..."celebrations," Nozomi enters the cafeteria to very grim reactions. She tries one more time to get everyone to snap out of it and remember what we're supposed to be fighting for. But nope. Everyone's already given up. They're just completely checked out.

//Eventually, Nozomi realizes there's no getting through to them, and accepts it. Not because she agrees, but because she knows she can't force people to care.

//Still, she makes it clear she's not backing down. She's going to keep fighting the Invaders, even if it means doing it alone. Despite being sick with her rejection symptoms all by herself, she's fine dying so long as she's dying for what she believes in.

//At the same time, she says she won’t mess with whatever deal the rest of us want to make with the Invaders. If we’re going for peace or trying to find a way home, she’s not going to get in the way.

//Nozomi is such an angel, honestly. This last part of the story, as well as what I've seen from her in my first route so far, has solidified her as the absolute best girl. I think she might even beat out Hiruko and Kurara for me now.

//I said it already, but in general, she is just incredibly admirable, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this frustrated with the main cast. They’ve been treating her like garbage lately, and she doesn’t deserve any of it.

//I love Nozomi. I know that the rest of the cast is scared and never really wanted this in the first place, but it somehow feels like she’s the only one actually acting like a reasonable human being.

//The day ends with Takumi going to bed, and the UFB shows up again. Unfortunately, it seems that time when he rescued us was a one and done, because I can't hear him anymore.

DAY 94:

//...Today is the day. Where ALL of it goes to shit.

//Before all that though, it took me a little while, but I finally noticed something about this. In the last few days, Sirei has been introducing himself with this screen of puppets of all of us. And even though I've seen it a few times at this point, for some reason, I only just now noticed that Nozomi isn't included in it.

//I mean, makes sense, but still, I'm ashamed of my own narrow-mindedness. You'd think I was a member of this game's cast.

//So the school alarm goes off, and we all meet up in the War Room, everyone except Nozomi. Eito claims he tried to talk her into joining us, but honestly, I’m not convinced. It feels like he didn’t even make the effort and just said he did to save face.

//Then we all suit up in our Class Armor just in case, and head outside to meet the Supreme Commander of the Invaders. Who begins her speech by removing her mask.

I didn’t catch it on my first run, but on my second playthrough after finishing the main game, I found out her name is V’ehxness (pronounced vesh-ness). By the way, that is not an easy name to spell, and it kills me every time.

//Also, the rest of the Invaders have similar names that are either difficult to spell, or they are pronounced a way that they reasonably shouldn't be. For example, the blimp commander that was dropping eggs is called Quenzelle, but his name is pronounced "quen-zel-uh."

//The only one who has a normal name is the character who the group took prisoner, who's real name is apparently Eva.

//This exchange made me laugh more than it should have. Even at her worst, Kurara contnues to be so entertaining and unhinged.

//And yeah, I do agree with Gaku. She would be hot if she wasn't so hopelessly evil, as we'll soon see.

//Ima mentions that taking off their masks is a huge deal for the Invaders. Much like the whole thing about not absorbing Hemoanima, it's a sacred taboo, and they only do it when they are surrendering. We saw Eva do the same thing earlier in the story.

//V’ehxness starts speaking, and Ima translates most of what she says. Then she pulls out what looks like an escape pod for us, basically offering a way off the planet and back to the Artificial Satellite.

//I feel like Takumi’s not falling for it. He’s finally using that one brain cell. That, or he's still just too worried about Nozomi.

//And hey? Guess what? IT WAS A FUCKING TRAP! BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WAS!

//The "escape pod" is actually a dome-shaped cage that neutralizes our Hemoanima powers, just like the ones they used in the school courtyard. It traps everyone inside, except Takumi. And just to make things worse, V’ehxness grabs Ima and takes him hostage.

//What makes all this even more shocking is that it completely goes against the Invaders’ taboos, so it's strange that V’ehxness would do this and break the sacred rules of her people...EXCEPT there's ONE thing that we never considered.

//V’ehxness sees herself ABOVE GOD. Or rather, her ultimate goal is to become the "new God of this world."

//Which, honestly? That’s such a bold character move, and a really clever way to go about this scene, as obvious as the trap was. Just setting up all these expectations for how the Invaders behave, then having their supreme leader break them out of a lust for power.

//And then, in true no turning back fashion, she kills Ima right after she’s done talking.

//I haven't seen enough of V’ehxness to call her a top-tier antagonist yet, obviously. Honestly, I'm not too crazy about her, but...that could very well change in the future.

//As much as I hate to admit it, I was pretty gutted that Ima ended up getting squashed. I finally started to like him a lot.

//But Ima's death, as sad as it made me, does not COMPARE to the next segment and the next character to fall.

//Even though she’s in no shape to fight, Nozomi shows up to save the rest of us from the trap. Everyone’s caught inside the pod, and here she is, charging in like a total badass, despite barely being able to stand.

//Deadass, Nozomi is the only person here who deserves to make it out of this alive…and of course, she’s probably not going to.

//Then comes the cutscene, and after that, the first round of the final battle kicks off, with just Takumi and Nozomi on the field. I figured out pretty quickly that I had to destroy the cage to free the others. That part was fine. But then I…kind of accidentally got Nozomi killed.

//Yeah...

//See, in every battle before this, when Nozomi "dies," she just retreats. Obviously, she can't be brought back with the Revive-O'-Matic, and it's always been more of a story thing than a gameplay thing. So I had her self-destruct, to heal both herself and Takumi, thinking she’d be fine.

//But...she died. And I lost the battle in the one round where you're not supposed to lose it.

//Whoops!

//Weirdly, it worked out in a way, though. On the redo, I got the 300% Voltage bonus, which let Takumi go nuclear with his ultimate moves and end the round super fast. So…silver lining?

//And then it happens. Exactly what I KNEW would happen, but I hate it all the same.

//Once the pod is finally destroyed, we get a brutal cutscene. V’ehxness appears behind Nozomi in a blink, full-on "nothing personal, kid" mode, and stabs her right through the back with that monstrous sword.

//I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DIE AND I’M STILL SO ANGRY.

//Side note, I want to give an MASSIVE shoutout to Jay Rincon; Takumi's English Voice Actor here. He's been consistently great throughout this game, but he went to TOWN with this scene, and he nails the emotion here. Raw, frantic, and completely believable.

//Seriously, give this guy more roles. He, Christopher Ragland (Shouma), and obviously Elsie Lovelock (Kurara), are my absolute highlights of this game.

//While holding her, desperate to save her, Takumi lifts Nozomi’s shirt to stop the bleeding///only to freeze...

//Because there it is. A surgical scar across her midsection. One that looks EXACTLY like Karua’s.

//I KNEW it! I CALLED it! I FUCKING KNEW that the scar was gonna be what gave it away!

//So...yeah! Looks like Nozomi was Karua after all!

//But it’s not a triumphant reveal. It’s devastating. Because on the one hand, we still don’t know why she forgot him, or how Karua became Nozomi in the first place. And we don’t get answers, because Nozomi dies in Takumi's arms before she can explain anything.

//Other playthroughs I guess.

//But the real issue is that the one person Takumi has been fighting for since day one, the reason he endured all of this...just dies in his arms.

//And now she’s gone.

//The aftermath is just…rage. Pure, burning grief and RAGE. And it's EPIC!

//Takumi pulls himself together just enough to rally the others. And for the first time in 94 days, the Special Defense Unit is finally FULLY united. Not by hope, not by duty, but by shared loss and fury.

//Ima and Nozomi died right in front of us, and we couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. At this point, our fears, doubts, and personal agendas don’t matter anymore.

//All that’s left is REVENGE. The only thing we care about now is KILLING the FUCK out of these Invaders! Every last one of them!

//...But it ends up being weirdly more complicated than it should be.

//Out of nowhere, the smaller enemies that we have been battling throughout the game, suddenly begin to speak in fluent English. In real human words, not in twisted alien growls or screeches.

//Furthermore, they are not yelling threats. They're in tears. begging and pleading to be spared for combat. Some cry out for help like frightened kids. They should things like, "Where is my daughter?" and “Mommy!”

//This threw me off. I wasn't expecting it; I'm not sure how anyone could.

//Like Ima hinted earlier, the Commanders, like V’ehxness, are a separate species entirely from the grunts we’ve been mowing down. They're lab-grown and synthetic. But if that’s true…does this mean the foot soldiers aren’t aliens at all? Are they people? Humans, or something close, transformed into monsters and thrown into war as disposable weapons?

//Wouldn't put it past this game honestly.

//I actually don't like this. Like, in a meta way, I get what the game’s doing, but gameplay-wise, hearing them scream and cry like that while I’m trying to fight is more than a little distracting.

//Is there a setting to turn off the human voice lines? Because…yeesh. I mean I DOUBT it, but I'm telling you, that part sucked the enjoyment out of the final fight for me like a straw.

//The fight itself isn’t full of gimmicks or puzzles, it’s just brutal. I can’t even put my finger on what made it so hard. The enemies hit way harder than usual, and the pressure never lets up.

//It didn’t help that, mid-cutscene, the game decides to kill off my healer! Thanks for that!

//But that final cutscene? Worth it! Takumi loses it completely, and rushes the final boss, screaming like a FUCKING ANIMAL! He just snaps. The pain, the rage, everything comes pouring out as he drives his blade straight through V’ehxness!

//But then, something weird happens. By absorbing V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin, which...he somehow was able to do through his sword instead of his Infuser, Takumi somehow gains the ability to understand the Invaders’ language.

//So for him, V’ehxness's dying words are in his own language.

//With this new power, he tries to get answers. But even on death’s doorstep, V’ehxness won’t give him much. She kind of just laughs at him and taunts him. Tells the group that killing her means nothing. That their fate is sealed, and what’s coming is worse than death.

//You know, that cliche villain bullshit.

//Also that we were pawns too, forced to fight in a war none of us wanted, and turned into weapons just to die meaninglessly, just like the monsters we've been fighting all along.

//And then… Kako absolutely snaps.

//She just watched her brother, someone she barely got back, get murdered right in front of her. There’s no mercy left in her. Once V’ehxness finishes talking, Kako goes full-on berserker and tears into her. She stabs her again, and again, and again, until there’s barely anything left.

//Yeah, you go girl!

//Again, of all the characters in this game that I felt bad for, because their life just SUCKED because of this war, it's Nozomi and Kako. And even to the end, those two were done the dirtiest by this game, no question.

//This final fight is also the first fight in the game where I didn't get an S-Rank finish.

//Not surprising, though. I was barely keeping my shit together, trying to plan everything out and figuring out who needed to go where. And again, when Nozomi is straight up taken out of the fight by being killed in the cutscene, the fights in this game just get that much harder.

DAY 95:

//It's a lie!

//That WASN'T the final boss! It's time for the ACTUAL final boss! God help me!

//The next day, after holding a quiet funeral for Nozomi and Ima, we all come to a conclusion, largely led by Eito, but we all ultimately agree to it. If we’re going to die here, we’re not doing it without answers.

//We’ve spent this whole time defending something in the Defense Room, this supposed weapon of mass destruction, without even knowing what it really is. So we decide it’s time to find out what’s behind the Defense Room door once and for all. Eito steps up to lead the charge, and we head to the Defense Room door, ready to smash it down with our Class Weapons.

//I took a moment to talk to everyone before I started the final assault. The mood’s heavy, as you very well might expect. Funny that losing Nozomi basically makes everything feel pointless and lonely. That's the true power of a heroine right there.

//Everyone also kind of admits that the trap WAS obvious; just that they didn’t want to see it. We were scared and clinging to any chance of peace, even if it meant ignoring Nozomi.

//In hindsight, it’s clear that if her secret hadn’t been leaked, we probably would’ve listened. But someone made sure that didn’t happen. It's a clever mood that makes my teeth itch.

//Just as we’re about to break into the Defense Room, the Undying Flames Boy appears, not just speaking to Takumi anymore, but in front of the whole group.

//And now Takumi can actually hear him clearly for the first time.

//Honestly, why was it that only Takumi was the one who saw the boy? I know that he appeared in front of Tsubasa that one time, but why was every other time him seeking out Takumi? Because Takumi was the only one up at night? I doubt that.

//But we learn that apparently, the boy’s been inside the Defense Room the whole time. And now, thanks to the Cryptoglobin Takumi absorbed from V’ehxness, he’s able to "tune in" to the boy’s voice. No one else can hear him though, so Takumi has to translate.

//We start getting real answers.

//First off, the way the flame boy looks is not his actual appearance. It’s an avatar made from Cryptoglobin, same as his voice. His true body is what’s locked away behind the Defense Room door.

//On top of that, according to what he says, like the rest of the Special Defense Unit, he was brought to the school under the pretense of protecting humanity. But he was different. Due to some sort of genetic anomaly, he ended up with an incredibly rare and powerful form of Cryptoglobin. So powerful, in fact, that he can generate and control the Undying Flames. All of them, including the massive wall of fire surrounding the school.

//He’s been in the Defense Room this entire time, gathering and charging that power, stockpiling it for 100 days. According to him, when fully charged, the Undying Flames have enough destructive force to wipe out all life on Earth. Specifically the Invaders.

//Neither Sirei, nor anyone else, ever told him the real reason he was doing this. Like us, he was just following orders.

//Eito steps forward. Calm but serious, he asks the boy to open the door and let us see what’s inside. And the boy agrees.

//Looking back, it's really clever how this bit of dialogue managed to slip by me. Eito claims that he can't hear the boy, yet he still somehow knew that the boy's apparition wasn't his real body. Takumi even hesitates upon hearing it. But I didn't catch it. Takumi himself didn't really mention that part, at least, he didn't vocalise it.

//Inside, the air is dense with heat and silence. At the center of the chamber stands the so-called "superweapon." It’s a series of missiles lined up in a circular array, each one charged with the Undying Flames.

//The plan is to launch them across the globe to completely purge the planet of Invader life. It's a scorched-earth solution, the kind you don’t come back from.

//The boy, his avatar gone and speaking to Takumi purely through the cryptoglobin, explains everything. He’s been here for nearly 100 days, trapped inside a capsule at the heart of the room. Unable to move. Unable to speak. His body’s been hooked up to the system, and all it’s done is drain him. Every drop of his Cryptoglobin is siphoned away to power the missiles.

//It’s a fully automated process. Whatever he really is, he was manufactured to be a living fuel source. A weapon. Not even given a name.

//He tells us that the avatar he projected was the only way he could ever reach out, to try to be part of the Special Defense Unit. But until now, even that was limited. He couldn’t speak to anyone, not until Takumi absorbed V’ehxness’s Cryptoglobin and could finally resonate with his voice.

//He laments that he couldn't have talked to us all earlier. And it’s true. Looking back, he was trying to warn us. I mean, we knew that the whole time, but it's still kind of gutting to hear it.

//The real surprise here comes from when Takumi walks closer to the capsule, and peers in to see the boy's real body...

//Viva Reverie Voice: It was a BABY??

//Yeah, so, this is the real body of the Flame Boy. Barely more than a newborn, yet burdened with enough power to destroy the world, lmao.

//Shocking revelation, but before Takumi can even react, or even process the horror, everything explodes into chaos. A scythe whips through the air and slams into the side of the capsule.

//Takumi barely dodges it, then gets shoved down the steps by this unknown assailant. Who is it?

//Bro, who the fuck else?

//Congratulations Hundred Line. You have officially gained the Kodaka Krown for worst kept secret in any of these types of games.

//Eito walks up to the capsule like it’s nothing, slices it open, and straight-up kills the baby. Then he absorbs all of the Cryptoglobin for himself, making him superpowered.

//Now...I...Well...*sigh*...

//Okay...I'm just gonna level with you guys on something.

//When this game came out, I was trying to dodge spoilers like the matrix. But I admit that I knew this whole time that Eito would eventually betray everyone because I got spoiled on that very early on.

//Again, worst kept secret. Even among the fandom.

//So every time something happened in this game that actively went against what we were trying to do, I knew that Eito had to be somehow responsible for it. This was something I was made aware of accidentally very early on.

//HOWEVER!

//I think of all secrets in this game that I could have gotten spoiled on in advance, I'm glad it was this one. Because this game has so many secrets and plotpoints, that I can't be hit with ALL of them. The reason I'm glad that I figured this one out is because one: even though I knew Eito was evil, I didn't know how it was going to be revealed. I never saw the cutscene, I just got given that information.

//As long as the reveal was performed well, I think I would have been okay with it. And thankfully, the scene itself, and the way this final fight happens, is pretty damn masterful.

Two: Once again, Eito being a villain was as obvious to me BEFORE the game even came out. When you take the basic premise of Nagito Komaeda, and recreate his mannerisms into another character, Eito in this case, you can't expect me to NOT be sus of him. So even though I got spoiled, it was more of a confirmation of something that I had already figured out a long long time ago.

//The moment that shit started to happen internally, I knew that someone was up to shit, and he was the easiest person to point the finger at.

//And three: even though I knew that Eito was doing so much awful stuff, I never found out WHY. And now, I know. It's far from what I expected, but you know what? I fuck with it.

//He looks full-on evil now, holy hell.

//What I really love about this ensuing scene is that Eito is clearly tired of having to put up this friendly front for 95 days straight. So now that the full scope of his deviousness is revealed, he's just out confessing to EVERYTHING he did, in complete, total detail, even if it's unnecessary. For example, he explains that he was able to kill Sirei by taking him out in one hit, so even if Sirei blew him, he could be revived with the Revive-O'-Matic, while Sirei himself wouldn't be able to come back.

//Then he finally lays out his motive, and...yeah, it’s not what you’d expect. He’s not working for the Invaders, and he’s not trying to win the war for either side.

//He doesn't care if the Invader's win so long as humanity LOSES. For he wants humans to go extinct!

//Eito’s whole philosophy is based on this really dark, nihilistic worldview. He believes human beings are inherently cruel, selfish, and broken. That all of our conflicts, wars, and destruction, especially what we did to the Earth, prove we’re not worth existing. In his mind, the only moral thing left to do is wipe us out before we ruin anything else.

//It turns out Eito was born with some sort of rare cognitive disorder. The game doesn’t name it, but the way he describes it is messed up. He literally sees other people as monstrous, twisted things. He can’t stand the way humans look, nor can he bear the sound of human voices, and he’s hypersensitive to their scent. He’s been physically and mentally disgusted by everyone since birth.

//As a kid, he isolated himself and spent most of his time in the library, which he actually does mention earlier in the game. While hiding away, he read up on humanity’s history. But instead of finding hope or inspiration, all he saw was an endless cycle of violence, war, and suffering.

//It made him believe that his view of humans was the correct one, and that it was the world that was broken, not him.

//So by the time he arrived at Last Defense Academy, he saw it as the perfect chance. If he could stop the Special Defense Unit from winning, he could finally make sure humanity disappeared for good.

//He admits to everything. Most of it during the ensuing boss fight actually. Some people might not like it, but I am actually all for Eito going on a yap spree in his fight, because again, he’s just done pretending. He starts monologuing, going into full detail about everything he’s done, whether we need to hear it or not. It honestly feels like he’s relieved to finally be himself, as am I.

//He killed Sirei and Hiruko to cut us off from our guiding hands, sabotaged our food supply so we almost starved, knocked out Takumi and left him to die, freed Eva so she could kidnap Ima, then killed Eva once she’d done it, and most importantly of all, he started the rumor about Nozomi being an outsider to turn everyone against her.

//Turns out he was literally hiding under Takumi’s bed during the private convo with Nozomi and overheard the whole thing. That’s how he knew about her being from outside the group.

//I actually got the heebie jeebies by the way, from seeing this scene. This is the creepiest thing he does and it makes my skin crawl.

//And while Kurara and the others are understandably furious, Eito throws it back at them. He says all he did was spread the info. THEY were the ones who decided to stop trusting her and belittled her like they did. In his eyes, that just proves his point even more.

//And I do actually agree with him on this one. Eito just took advantage of what he believed humans were like, and these dumb motherfuckers proved him right.

//Also, all those scenes earlier in the game where Eito looked sick or had chest pain was just him having a full-blown visceral reaction to watching the others succeed. He was literally getting physically ill from seeing everyone work together and make progress.

//Now that he’s got the Undying Flame boy's Cryptoglobin inside of him, he’s done pretending. He’s sick of holding back. He wants to finish the job and kill every single one of us, just because he genuinely believes the world will be better off without people in it.

//And honestly, for how unhinged it is, the game does a pretty solid job making his logic feel internally consistent. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy who looked at humanity, didn’t like what he saw, and decided to end it.

//Much like Ultron, to be completely honest. At least Ultron from the MCU.

//So the boss fight...First of all, we can't talk about this final FINAL boss without talking about...the music...

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?

//What the hell kinda drugs was Takada on when he decided to pick this as the boss theme!?

//Eito’s boss theme is this insane track called “RUMBLE” by Paledusk, a pretty huge Japanese band. Apparently, they’re big enough now that they actually overtook Babymetal on the Apple Music metal charts, which is kind of wild considering how long Babymetal held that top spot.

//So yeah, pretty bold move by Kodaka and Takeda to use a song that current and chaotic for the final fight. But it weirdly fits.

//The song itself is all over the place, like genre whiplash in the best (and most confusing) way. It really hammers in the feeling that everything has gone off the rails.

//And honestly, that matches the fight itself perfectly, because the Eito boss battle is FUCKING BRUTAL! Like, GENUINELY hard.

//My ENTIRE party got wiped out except for Kurara, Yugamu, and Gaku. And Gaku basically kamikaze'd himself just to land the final hit. I’ve played a lot of tough fights in this game, but this one actually made me sweat bullets.

//Eito has total movement freedom on the battlefield; he just flies wherever he wants, no terrain restrictions at all. He hits a massive area, counterattacks every time you land a hit, and occasionally summons reinforcements to keep the pressure on. Plus, he can set parts of the map on fire, so stepping on those tiles deals constant damage.

//And since he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, his Specialist Skill has been powered up. A bunch of his attacks randomly inflict debuffs, which makes it harder to avoid damage or move out of dangerous areas. Basically, if you’re not planning carefully, he’ll grind your team down fast.

//The fight strategy is kind of the same as always. Take out the adds, whittle down the boss, keep your healer alive. But actually pulling that off is way harder here. He just has way more health and does a ton more damage. You’re basically in survival mode the whole time.

//Eventually, I did manage to take Eito down, but it doesn’t feel like a win.

//The moment he killed the baby powering the superweapon, the whole thing shut down permanently.

//What that basically means is that everything we've done, and everything we fought for, as well as Nozomi and the others' deaths have been completely, wholly meaningless. Right at the last hurdle, Eito screwed us all over, which means this pointless war has become just that. So much bloodshed, no longer for a reason.

//And to top it all off, Eito’s last words set up for something else, would you believe it. Apparently, once he absorbed the Prisoner’s Cryptoglobin earlier, like Takumi, he also gained the ability to understand the Invaders’ language. And he found something major out. But instead of telling us what he learned, he just dies with that knowledge, leaving us in the dark.

//So Takumi has no choice. He kills the guy who used to be his friend, absorbs Eito’s souped-up Cryptoglobin, and now carries the burden of everything that’s happened—along with whatever horrible truths still haven’t been revealed.

//Rest in piss, Yaoi Fangirls.

DAY 96:

//So yeah, these last 5 days are basically the wind down after all the shit. After Eito kills the baby powering the whole system, pretty much everything in the school shuts down. The Defense Room loses power, all of the O'-Matics shut off, and even the Undying Flames that were keeping the school sealed off just vanish.

//The entire facility basically goes dark, like all the tech and security stuff we relied on for 95 days is just offline now. So even if the Invaders don't kill us, our limited resources will.

DAY 97:

//Takumi is completely wrecked at this point. Nozomi, who he finally realized was actually Karua, the person he’s been trying to protect and reconnect with this whole time, is dead. Eito, one of the only people he thought he could rely on, also turned out to be manipulating everything and is now dead too.

//Basically, the two people who mattered most to Takumi are gone, and with them, so is any clear purpose or direction.

//His whole reason for fighting, surviving, and pushing forward was all tied to Nozomi/Karua. Now that she’s gone, and with Eito’s betrayal still fresh, Takumi is left standing in the ruins of everything, completely empty.

//It's like everything that gave his life meaning just got pulled out from under him, and all that’s left is this huge, aching void.

//This is really difficult to watch for someone who has grown to just love Takumi. I think he's a brilliant protagonist, despite what people say. Fundamentally flawed in all the places it matters, but someone strong enough to bear them.

//More on that in a bit though. Point is this sucks for him and I feel miserable.

DAY 98:

/FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-!

//Okay, yeah, not gonna lie, this was a literal jumpscare for me. Just came out of nowhere and sent my nerves into hyperspace.

//When the scene happened, Takumi described his body getting really hot, and then all of a sudden, the undying flames appeared in his room, and I deadass thought that what was happening is Takumi was becoming the Undying Flames boy.

//In one of two ways. Either because he absorbed Eito who absorbed the baby, the power of the Undying Flames is now within him, which...is not TOO far off from what happened. But the other alternative was something I'd thought of for a while.

// @rpganon had a theory a while back that the UFB was an alternate version of Takumi. Takumi possesses a special ability that allows him to send his memories back to his past self, which explains the in-game retries and redos. He suspected that the UFB might be an iteration of Takumi who has experienced multiple time loops, returning to the past to warn the current Takumi about his future.

//I did think this was legit, but it seems like they're entirely seperate characters at this point. However, I really did think that maybe, this was where Takumi would transform into the UFB, and the timeline reset with HIM in the pod, and a NEW Takumi Sumino taking the place of the character.

//Ultimately, that's not what happens. But I will give them credit for coming up with something that interesting.

//Speaking of the UFB, he actually shows up again!

//Turns out, because Eito absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin and then Takumi absorbed EITO, that power is now inside TAKUMI. So now Takumi basically has all, or at least most, of the power the UFB had.

//This gives UFB just enough presence left to speak to Takumi one final time. And even though his real body was that of a baby, he says he’s actually the same age as the rest of the SDU. He just never physically aged because his body wasn’t strong enough to handle the insane amount of power he was born with. It’s like his body stopped growing to keep from being torn apart by his Cryptoglobin. A huge tradeoff for being born with that kind of power.

//Even with all his strength, he admits that he doesn’t really understand what Cryptoglobin or Hemoanima truly are. He just knows that he’s been stuck in the Defense Room his whole life, treated as more of a weapon than a person. He was mostly raised by Sirei, but even that was more like being managed than parented.

//Because of how unstable his power is, he couldn’t let anyone get close to him. He never had the chance to make friends or live like a normal kid. But then, he heard that a group of students, Takumi and the rest of the SDU, were brought to the school, and for the first time, he felt genuinely happy. He wanted to meet them. That’s why he created the flame avatar. He just wanted to be part of the group.

//So wait...You mean to tell me...

//That this guy was THE 16TH STUDENT HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THIS SCHOOL WATCH OUT FOR HIM!!!???

//Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

//Of course, Takumi didn’t know any of this and thought the flame avatar was some kind of enemy, so he was always wary. Takumi apologizes for that now.

//The UFB explains that, even though he couldn’t interact directly, he kept showing up to try and warn everyone of the danger. He wanted to help protect them. And even though the group had its share of drama and conflict, the way they still fought together to protect each other and push forward was something he envied. He thought it was beautiful.

//UFB is baby. Metaphorically as well as literally. I will burn my hand patting his head.

//At this point, Takumi completely breaks down, apologizing for everything—for the misunderstanding, for failing to protect the people who died, for all the loss they’ve endured. Classic Kodaka moment of the main character shouldering all the guilt at the end.

//But then UFB drops something heavy: he asks Takumi, if he had the chance to go back and redo all 100 days from the beginning, knowing what he knows now, would he take that opportunity?

//And that’s not just a hypothetical. Because now, with all the power he’s absorbed, Takumi CAN actually go back. The option to reset everything and try again is REAL.

//I have to give a MASSIVE kudos to Kodaka, because the way that he sets this up is REALLY CLEVER!

//Eito’s Specialist Skill is called Special Fortunetelling. Basically, every time he takes an action in combat, he gets a random effect. Most of the time, it's something like an attack boost, a shield, or, sometimes. he just gets fatigued instead. It’s a gamble-type ability, which is another Nagito connection I spotted early on.

//But once he absorbed the baby’s Cryptoglobin, that ability got a serious upgrade. Instead of giving him random buffs, it instead gave the party random debuffs during his boss fight.

//Now that Takumi has absorbed Eito, and by extension, the baby too, that power has carried over and changed his own Specialist Skill as well.

//Takumi’s original Specialist Skill is called Special Redo. It’s got two main functions in the game: "Retry," which lets you start a whole battle over from the beginning, and "Wave Reset," which lets you restart the current enemy wave if things are going badly. It’s basically a second-chance mechanic built into the story.

//But now that Takumi’s Cryptoglobin has been supercharged with all that insane power, the UFB suggests that he might actually be able to push that ability way further. Like, not just restarting a fight, but rewinding everything. All 100 days. A full reset.

//In other words, Takumi could potentially start the whole story over from Day 1, only this time with all the knowledge and power he has now. That means he might be able to prevent everything that went wrong, stop Eito before he betrays everyone, save Nozomi, Ima, and all the others, and maybe even avoid the war turning into such a pointless bloodbath.

//So yeah, Takumi’s "redo" ability has gone from a gameplay mechanic to a major story decision, giving him one last shot to fix everything.

//Absolute genius move when gameplay meets story like that. Although I will say, it's a bit awkward that the Specialist Skills haven't been mentioned to be canon to the story so far for this exact purpose. Or...maybe I missed it.

//But those are the final words of the UFB, as he disappears for good. Just when we were getting to know him too...

DAY 99:

//Takumi starts checking in with everyone who survived to see how they feel about the idea of resetting everything and starting the 100 days over.

//Takemaru, Kurara, Kyoshika, and Kako are all for it. They say if there’s even a chance of reaching a happier outcome, they’d be willing to go through it all again. They want to try and fix what was broken.

//On the other hand, Darumi, Tsubasa, Gaku, and Yugamu are just over it. They’ve been through so much trauma and loss that the idea of reliving any of it sounds exhausting. To them, it’s not worth it.

//Shouma’s kind of stuck in the middle, not really sure if it’s the right move or not. So in the end, it’s an even split.

//That alone makes the decision hard, but honestly, there are still so many unanswered questions. We never really found out what happened with Karua, or how exactly she became Nozomi. And we still don’t know what truth Eito discovered after understanding the Invaders’ language, since he died without ever telling us. That mystery alone feels like a good enough reason to try again.

//Personally, I’d want to redo everything, not just to save people, but to finally get some answers.

DAY 100:

//It's time...

//So, weirdly enough, even though the school's power was supposed to be down after the Undying Flame Boy died, the War Room randomly boots back up, and it looks like the “Omni-Directional Attack” is being activated.

//Which makes zero sense, because the weapon shouldn't even work anymore after Eito killed the baby. Graduation music starts playing over the speakers again, which I think is a great thematic touch.

//But OH MY GOD, did I get so pissed here!

//There’s been a freaking escape pod this whole time!

//An actual, functional escape pod!

//One more time...

//There...

//WAS

//A!

//FUCKING!!

//ESCAPE POD!!!

//NOZOMI got absolutely DRAGGED for wanting to escape, and turns out she was completely right! We all called her a traitor and she literally died over it! WE DIDN'T EVEN FUCKING BOTHER LOOKING FOR ANOTHER WAY OUT!

//At the very least, everyone looks SO guilt ridden over it, and they FUCKING SHOULD BE!

//Naturally, Takumi blames himself, but honestly, that’s not fair. He was the only one who believed in Nozomi from the beginning. The rest failed her—not the other way around.

//It’s actually kind of hard to accept how much everyone fought and suffered, only to realize they were their own worst enemy the whole time.

//But Takumi thinks back to what the UFB told him about jumping back to fix everything. To start anew and give everyone a happy ending they deserve.

//Then suddenly, I get to make a CHOICE!

//Except NO I DON'T LOOOOOOLL!

//Clearly it's setting up to my decision making in the future of this game, but this hasn’t happened since Day 0 at the very start of the game.

//Unfortunately, saying "no" does nothing. You can technically choose it, but the story doesn’t move forward unless you agree. You don't even get a funny bonus scene like the one with Sirei at the beginning of the game.

//So much for agency, but hey, at least I tried.

//It’s still really unclear what happens to everyone if we do go back in time. The current timeline could vanish, or it could split off and continue existing separately. The game doesn't really give a definitive answer, so I guess it's up to everyone who's playing.

Takumi ends up deciding not to go back to the satellite with the others. His reason for fighting is gone, and without her, he just can’t find a reason to keep going forward in this timeline.

//It’s honestly pretty heartbreaking. I had my moments of frustration with Takumi throughout the game, but seeing him come to terms with everything and still want to fix it...

//That hit hard.

//He watches the escape pod launch toward Earth with a little smile, knowing at least his friends are going to be okay.

//Then, he walks back to the courtyard and uses his Specialist Skill to jump back in time, ready to relive the 100 days and try again.

//But right after he disappears, the escape pod that left… comes back. There's just a walkie talkie inside. Takemaru and Tsubasa are calling in, saying there’s something wrong with the satellite. Something they didn’t expect.

//But Takumi’s already gone.

//That last moment is so ominous. Gave me chills, and is a GREAT setup for the future of this game.

CONCLUSION:

//And then the credits roll. I caught a few names I recognized, and apparently, the voice of the Undying Flame boy in Japanese is Daiki Yamashita. That’s Deku’s voice actor from My Hero Academia!

//I obviously don't play this game in Japanese, but I do like Daiki-kun. He's a very entertaining and enjoyable person.

//Also, a lot of the credits are blacked out, probably to keep major spoilers hidden.

//But...Yeah! That's the first of many endings of the Hundred Line!

//Such a wild ending. So many loose threads. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.

//Like I said already, the way that these journal's are going to be structured will be different from here on out. Up until now, I've been breaking down my gamplay throughout the days. But since we have so much to get through, I've decided that my posts about Hundred Line going forward will be about the routes themselves.

//I.e. instea of documenting things day by day, I'm going to keep a record of the highlights of each route and ending I get, and then talk about them in each post.

//I get that that's a pretty big switch up, and it means the endings will be posted more spaced out, but the thing is I really like this game. And I want to play it as much as possible. And the more I write about it, the less I play it.

//I'll make it work somehow, promise. But in the meantime, Route #0.

//I have a feeling that even with the 100 different endings, THIS ONE has the potential to be up there, because this first route was TOP NOTCH!

//The character development for everyone in this route alone was brilliant, the characterization was on point, the story was full of awesome twists and turns, and the ending was masterfully crafted and so bittersweet.

//I didn't feel this way about Rain Code when it first came out. I do like Rain Code, but I don't like it as much as I like Danganronpa. This game on the other hand has the potential to shoot beyond those stars from this one route alone, especially because it gets me excited for all the other outcomes on this game.

//But that is the end of our first playthrough. My takeaways:

I love this game.

-Mod

[thelastchappie]

part 2 to the a/b/o choso drabble from a little while ago

i think i’m gonna go ahead and call this a slow burn.

a/b/o curse au, reader’s pov

i have a an idea for where this will go but i’m making most things up as i go along so if there anything you’d like to see or if you just want to talk choso feel free send me an ask!

anyways i hope you like it!

~

the polite comfort between you and choso has shifted. the one that had been so carefully curated over the past few months the two of you had been living together. and while you can’t reason why it’s happened, you can certainly recognize the source— choso.

his approaches at receiving any form of physical contact from you don’t go unnoticed. never inappropriate, never forceful; but it seems to have become essential for the half-curse to worm his way into your personal space, preferably right before leaving the apartment.

helping brush his hair into his signature hairstyle, after he suddenly ‘forgot’ how to do it himself. sitting a hair too close in the mornings so your shoulders brush— you’re too tired to mind but not enough for it to go unnoticed. standing dutifully by the shoes at the entrance when it’s time to go, has seen you trip and stumble trying to slip them on enough times to know you’ll reach a hand over to use him as a leaning post, if he’s nearby.

you would be inclined to believe the man is simply craving affection; after so much change and loss, following his release from over a hundred years of captivity. it didn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility that choso was simply seeking comfort in his many, somewhat peculiar ways.

and you’re more than happy to humor the half-curse in his efforts. however, his general lack of communication means you’re not entirely willing to make it easy for him. for the time being you’ve decided to let the man continue to figure out his excuses for the day, until he’s ready to come clean as to what’s on his mind, that is.

but the changes don’t stop there, though.

perhaps it would be easier to ignore. if the extent of choso’s shift in behavior was simply due to his new desire for affection and, possibly, lack of knowledge as to how to communicate these needs.

it’s his general disposition towards you that has changed.

where you where used to seeing polite indifference, verging on amiability between acquaintances, as time passed— now there’s a clear and defined attentiveness towards you. An interest towards your safety that you could almost compare to that of a mother hen.

~

you first notice it the day choso’s assigned a mission with yuuji, one of your first assignments where you don’t have him follow along.

the curse is an odd one, manages to catch you off guard more than once before you’re able to successfully eliminate it. in result you leave the fight with a few more cuts and bruises than normal, but still not entirely unusual given your occupation.

you arrive at the apartment much later than expected, due to your visit to the infirmary to let shoko look over any larger injuries that might need healing. the pair of siblings are already there, yuuji has decided to seize the opportunity to watch one of his favorite movies.

you barely have a chance to mumble out your tired apologies for being so late, before choso is shooting up from the couch— presumably at your less-than put together appearance.

you’ve managed to lock the door behind you, turning to look for the nearest surface to dump the jacket draped over your forearm— when you’re met with wide eyes and hovering hands that don’t quite dare to make contact yet.

even the teen looks stunned to suddenly be sitting alone on the couch, both of you left momentarily speechless at the half-curse’s reaction. choso barely notices, as he continues his assessment of the various scrapes and bruises littering what little skin he can see.

“what is this??” he hisses, an unfamiliar rumbling from deep in his chest affecting the timbre of his voice.

you’re still reeling from the unexpected greeting, when the tips of his fingers finally make contact with the underside of your chin. the half-curse tilting your face up to get a better look at a particularly unpleasant-looking bruise blooming on your temple.

“what is— huh?” is all you can come up with, you’re not sure what he’s referring to: the bruise, or the situation. you don’t know what this is either.

“a bruise..? i was on a mission, you knew that” you try answering both; you were fighting a curse, that should be explanation enough.

it doesn’t seem to be.

choso shakes his head like you’re not understanding him, and you aren’t. nothing about his reaction makes sense to you. “this doesn’t happen” he insists, his voice still sounding gravelly— a growl?

and he’s right, this mission should have been dealt with much sooner; and it would have, had it not been for the curse’s unusual behavior. the assignment certainly didn’t warrant the current state of disrepair you find yourself in.

still, you can’t help but grow defensive at his statement. did he not think you were capable of doing your own job??

he starts again before you have a chance to say anything, “the curse, what happene—“,

“i handled it” you interrupt, your tone snappier than your would have normally preferred. but it’s been long day and your patience had worn thin hours ago.

“you know, i’ve been doing this gig for years now and i’ve made it this far doing missions by myself” your shoulders are almost up to your ears, and every word forces your chin to press against his fingers. but you continue.

“and i don’t appreciate the insinuation that i might need you there to protect me”

a few seconds of silence pass, and the fight immediately leaves your body after your small outburst. all you can do is sigh. you look towards the teen, still sitting stunned on the couch, and immediately shame crawls up the back of your spine at your short fuse.

the half-curse stares, eyes wide and startled by your response. he doesn’t seem offended, or upset by you snapping at him. another series of emotions seem to follow, each just as confusing as the next. after his initial shock, his brows furrow; like maybe now he’s not understanding you.

“im sorry, im just tired. i do appreciate your help.” you sigh once more, a hand coming up to pat his chest in a way you hope is reassuring. “but im fine, okay? these things happen, i took care of it”

choso shakes his head,

“no, i apologize— i didn’t mean to imply you can’t protect yourself” his voice is softer now, the foreign rumble in his chest having died down. the fingers under your chin retreat like he’s only just realized they were there. the tension in his body replaced with sheepishness, pink dusting his cheeks as he takes a step back. you almost stumble forward with him, not realizing how much you’d started to lean on him.

with a clear of your throat, you’re doing your best to straighten up; hobbling past choso and beelining for your room. on your way past the back of the couch you reach a hand to pat the younger boy’s shoulder and offer an “sorry about that, yuuji”.

“have you guys eaten yet? can you order something while i get cleaned up?” you call out, mostly to the pink-haired teen, as you enter your room. “i’m starving and the last thing i wanna do right now is cook”.

~

choso does more than just follow you around out of obligation, now. he hovers. he stands a touch closer than he did before, you could barely take a step without looking and not risk bumping into the half-curse.

he’s always staring. at you; at others when they get too close, when they interrupt you during meetings; you have to grab his arm and force him to keep moving if someone is bold enough to bump your shoulder while walking. he doesn’t intervene, not really; though his face is one of genuine offense on your behalf each time.

you’re as flattered as you are confused.

it’s quite refreshing to have another person so fiercely on your side, even if you’re not sure where his behavior has come from. however, choso has a tendency to fuss; much like he does to his younger brother. he watches, he worries, he protects.

he has an uncanny ability of almost sniffing out an injury, no matter how small.

you’re barely even safe from his hovering in the safety of your own apartment. he’s under no obligation to follow you around when you were home, and previously he wouldn’t have any desire to. now he always finds any excuse to stay close.

this evening, you’re successful in convincing choso you can prepare dinner without assistance. after brushing off his several attempts, that is. the day has been a rarely idle one. you find yourself finally able to indulge in a home cooked meal, and a moment to breathe.

the dark-haired man sits a mere few feet away, you play music on the tv for even more ambience and leave the lyrics on display for him. he seems to enjoy taking in the words being said, you think maybe it helps him understand humans in some way. he asks questions about phrases or words that might be unfamiliar to him, or what the song itself might be trying to express.

“i like this one” he’ll confess softly, usually a sappy song with lyrics lacking any confusing slang; though his interests do vary, his focus is always geared towards the words being sung over the melody. you’ll hum in acknowledgment, and save the song to the playlist you’ve created for him with a smile.

this evening is no different, he sits and listens, reads; occasionally, he peers over the back of couch. to check on you, you assume. he watches for a moment, quietly assessing before he turns back to face the tv.

and although you already know the extent of his ability to fret, you still decide to want to test the waters. maybe you just want to mess with him a little, though you wouldn’t admit to that.

you wait for choso to focus his attention towards the screen, having already accidentally caught his eye when he was looking. he doesn’t waver at being caught staring; simply turns back around after a few moments of eye contact.

and once again, you’re not entirely sure why, maybe just to see what would happen. but you pretend to hiss out in pain, and carefully let the knife in your hand clatter against the countertop when you drop it. quickly, your grasp your pointer finger in your other palm like you’ve nicked it.

immediately he’s in your space, one hand coming up brush the hand covering your finger out of the way. he holds your ‘injured’ hand in his own, the other resting over your palm to keep it opened. worried eyes roam over your fingers, looking for damage.

he finds perfectly unharmed skin.

his eyes linger for a few beats, double-checking his initial findings. then, his gaze makes his way up to meet your own; questioning.

you simply stare back for a few seconds, fighting back a smile at the poor half-curse’s confusion. he keeps your hand in his hold, like he’s still not convinced.

“must’ve just been a graze” you suspect the mirth in your voice must give you away. you watch his eyes narrow the tiniest bit, and his head tilts like he’s trying to figure you out. the tension in his shoulders gradually disappears, he makes no move to leave your personal space, though. he simply hums.

“i can help finish the rest” he offers, eyes drifting towards the knife on the table; like he’s only just realizing the threat it poses.

and it’s then you realize the mistake you’ve made.

“noooo nonono, i was just messing with you— it was dumb im sorry” you’re immediately attempting to minimize the consequences of your little joke. “i’ve been using knives for longer, i’ll be okay” you can’t help but laugh a little at how ridiculous the situation is.

“i can learn, i can help” choso doesn’t seem bothered by your revelation, probably already caught along. it doesn’t change his current goal.

“that’s very nice of you, thank you” you say through your giggles, endeared by his desire to help. “how about next time i show you and you do the work, okay?” you offer, the free hand not in his grasp coming up to rest on his collarbone.

choso was back to staring at you the moment you started laughing. though he sends wary looks at the sharp object like it’s offended him somehow. he’s not completely satisfied with the answer, but he assents with a small nod.

“great! now go sit down, please. i still have to finish this” you give him a small nudge in direction of the living room. and with one last glare at the knife, he takes a step back from you; his hand brushes over your palm when he lets your hand go. and he’s finally making his way back to take a seat,

at the kitchen table across from you.

“right”, you can’t help but blow air through your nose in amusement. you decide to pick your battles. and this is a battle you walked right into yourself. you pick up the knife, and after making a small ‘ooooh’ sound, you watch his eyebrows furrow. you decide to stop trying to be funny around sharp objects.

you also decide it’s best not to create targets in your own home.

[towasdandelion]

Vagastrom, Jabberwock and Obscuary ghouls when you tease them all day

Last part of this one! Again this series is nsfwish!!

Leo sees through you. And it's so annoying. Constant eye rolls because... You're hot. Like really hot. And he has to deal with it as if he's not trying to hide his growing boner when you brush against him. Or when you bend over again. Ugh, he hates you so much. Honestly he deserves it, so make sure to "torture" him a little, okay? He'll act all cocky and mad, just to turn into a whiny mess once it's just you two. Now you can torture him in private! Go ahead and push his buttons. His eyes say "just leave me alone already" but his body... It's a whole different story. As embarrassing as it is, he might end up begging to let him fuck you. It's up to you to decide though.

Alan notices something is different, of course he does. But it doesn't click right away. He doesn't actually think much of it initially. But later as the day goes by, it's slowly starting to drive him crazy. Your subtle touches here and there.. giving him a good view of your cleavage. He can't, he really can't stay indifferent. He's going to give you soft looks, as if asking you to stop... He really doesn't want to lose his mind like that. Finally, when you two are alone, he's going to let out a deep tired sigh. He'll make sure you really know what you're asking for before doing anything. He will get a bit.. rough if you do say yes. But he can't help it, now that he can let out all of this pent up desire.

Sho won't even try hiding how much he likes what he sees. He'll even show you with his gestures. You started it, so you can't really blame him when he reciprocates can you? He'll grab your ass, sneak his hands underneath your shirt when no one is looking. He's tempted to just slam you against the wall and kiss you until you're both gasping for air but he's gonna hold back for now, waiting impatiently for the perfect moment to come... Cause that's when he finally gets you all to himself. He's urgent, impatient. He needs you here and now. So what if it's an empty classroom? Just means you'll have to keep quiet. Perhaps it's a small punishment for driving him crazy all day?

Ren is skeptical at first. Just what are you up to this time? He quickly realizes what is going on and already knows what he's in for, cursing himself under his breath. It's not like he's going to tell you to stop though.. because he can't keep his eyes off of you. Can you believe he even puts down his game the moment he sees you bend over? You have more power over him than he'd like to admit. He will grow a little frustrated though, not being able to touch you just yet. Later when you're at your place (We all know poor Ren doesn't have a lot of privacy in his dorm) he won't waste time. He won't even say much cause that's just so embarrassing obviously. But somehow, having you pinned underneath him while he gets his fill of you is not...

Haru's day just instantly gets better when he sees you show up in the skimpier version of your usual outfit. And it gets even better! You keep touching him and moving in a way that makes his head spin. He's basically in heaven and even his usual workload doesn't feel as bad. Well as the day progresses, he gets more and more turned on but he won't complain at all. After all he has you by his side, openly teasing him. He doesn't want this to end! The only better thing is when he can actually take a break and show you some proper admiration. He will savor the moment, letting you know just how beautiful you are as he sets a steady rhythm with his hips. He's hoping more distractions like that in the future.

Towa will simply be happy you're more clingy than usual! It will take a moment for him to register what's really going on though. From his face you won't be able to read much, he'll just keep his usual smile on even when he finally catches on. I feel like he'd be more in awe than turned on, seeing you tease him with a smile on your face. He absolutely loves your attention on him so he won't complain. Once you two are alone he won't be able to keep his hands off of you though. His hands will gently tease your sides as he whispers how much he loves you and how pretty you are!

Ed will literally wonder if he actually died when you show up to clean up his room in your little outfit. Now he's going to enjoy his day for sure and he won't even need his laptop for entertainment, because his eyes will be glued to you. If he's not feeling lazy he might even get up and admire you up close. I think you actually won't get anything done.. honestly you're a brave one teasing Ed like that! And good luck trying to get away, not happening. Once he makes sure it's just you two in the dorm, things will get interesting for sure. He will effortlessly lift you up (where did the weak vampire go?) and gently lay you down on his bed before having his way with you, until you're all covered in love bites.

Rui is so delighted! He loves being playful but loves it even more when you're the one teasing him. And it looks like you decided to take things further today. There is no way he will be able to keep his hands to himself. He just wants to let you know how much he likes it. Expect a lot of sudden kisses and not so innocent touches throughout the day. He knows he should focus on his daily tasks but how can he when you're around looking like that? His day at the bar will consist of a few shattered glasses and some spilled drinks.. He will just laugh it off of course, but that's when his patience snaps. He needs you, he wants you now. Let him show you just how much and you won't be disappointed.

Lyca is pretty much clueless for now when it comes to these things. He doesn't really know what's going on and how to even react. Of course he can feel himself drawn to you more than usual, but why? What's causing it? Well he certainly will notice that something about you seems different, but won't be ble to put a name on it. He will observe you with a fair dose of curiosity, not even noticing that his ears and tail came out.. And his tail will definitely be very expressive, swishing behind him with excitement and gently brushing against your legs whenever you're close to him. You might need to guide him a little, ask some questions to help him understand a little better. After that he will feel a bit better about having inappropriate thoughts about you.