#though... I'm sure I've mentioned how their interactions could be interesting

[transingthoseformers]

https://www.tumblr.com/transingthoseformers/781106553826721792/i-need-optimus-to-catch-someone-doing-something

I need this to happen to Getaway

HDGSGGD OMG YES

[carn4g3]

Can you do a HC for Masky, Hoodie, Slenderman and X Virus pretty please?

Creepypasta Relationship HCs (3)

Characters: Bloody Painter, X-Virus, Nina the Killer & Slenderman x GN Reader

Summary: How they are in a relationship aka the most unhinged yet.

TWs: Descriptions of yandere behavior, kidnapping, possessiveness, stalking, brainwashing, isolation, and unhealthy relationships, mentions of murder, blood, and violence, & very brief mentions of sex.

Word Count: 3.4k (~700 to 900 each)

A/N: This is a combination of about three hc requests and I decided to throw in Helen for the hell (ha) of it. I've never technically written for any of these characters before, so I hope I'm able to do them justice!

Part 1 | 2

Bloody Painter

I don't know how many of y'all reading this have read the Night Shift (check my pinned post if you're interested), but Helen was originally supposed to be included as a love interest. I kind of ran out of ideas for how to write him and decided to scrap the idea... but we're fixing that now!

In terms of his appearance and even mental state, Helen is probably the most worthy to interact with the public. That certainly doesn't mean he likes to, though. He avoids social interaction like the plague, and any "friends" he's accumulated under Slender have been by mere chance, in his opinion.

His interest in you is a result of a similar random chance. You could be under Slender's control or not, it doesn't matter to him in the slightest. Helen finds himself most enraptured by your appearance; it's practically love at first sight. Unlike some of his other victims of choice, he sees you as his ultimate muse. Killing you would simply be a waste of all that you're worth, he needs to keep you to be his alone.

He'll stalk you a bit before he makes his first move. He just has to be sure that it's not a fluke that you're so interesting. At this point, he's already hooked, so it's only a matter of time before he makes his presence known. Helen is perfectly capable of approaching you normally, perhaps trying to get you to fall for him on your own, but that just takes so much time. He's surprisingly impatient and also incapable of being subtle. It's just easier if he whisks you away first and handles all the reciprocal stuff later.

I gave a lot of the others the benefit of the doubt that they wouldn't outright kidnap someone of their interests, but I just can't imagine Helen any other way.

Needless to say, your relationship is monogamous. Helen doesn't let you interact with others without his direct "supervision," and, even then, it's probably exclusively people he knows. Admittedly, he's not the best at establishing boundaries with his equally psychopathic friends, so they tend to just burst in regardless of his wishes. In the case that you have your own role under Slender, Helen will reluctantly let you out of his grip but only when needed.

Despite the pretty self-serving nature of his relationship with you, he eventually comes around to trying to capture your interests. It's no mystery that his infatuation stems from a need to express your beauty through any and all artistic forms he can master. He doesn't necessarily give these pieces to you, but they're constantly on display. You likely have your own room in whichever place he resides in, so Helen takes the liberty to decorate it with your own face and body. Even his own room is littered with additional drawings and paintings that he considers to be the best.

Quality time is the most clearly identifiable form of affection he demonstrates. Most of his artistic process involves sitting and staring at his reference (you) until he can get each feature, expression, and pose just right. Helen loves to just linger around you, not necessarily talking or doing anything with you, but rather watching. His blue eyes pierce into your soul in such an unsettling way that it might drive you to madness alone.

He's not actually a big fan of physical affection, but he initiates gestures like that anyway. Helen's knowledge of romantic relationships stems almost exclusively from a handful of romance novels and telenovelas, so he assumes physical touch is just a given in any relationship. Whether you're comfortable with it or not, he'll press a kiss to your face as a form of goodbye or cuddle up behind you when you sleep.

Helen's wardrobe is specifically curated to take into account every issue he has with certain fabrics and other textures against his skin. Since he sees you as a glorified pet, your clothing selection is equally as controlled. Not only can he look at you and not imagine that texture on his own skin, but he can also initiate physical affection as he pleases. On rare occasions, he'll give you an outfit for the sole purpose of drawing you in it. However, if you choose to wear it to avoid physical contact, you might find it missing rather quickly.

X-Virus

I'm not sure how long X-Virus has been around, but he was a bit of a new character for me when I re-entered the fandom a couple of years ago. So, my hcs for him are pretty fresh.

Like many of the others, I think he's fascinated with what he perceives as a "normal" life. He hardly opposes his murderous lifestyle, but rather finds a fascination in those who didn't go down the serial killer route. Do you not know how much easier everything is when you just go batshit? Why wouldn't everyone want to live like this?

My understanding of Cody is that he's meant to be like Toby but with a few tweaks. Undeniably, there's similarities between the two and what they look for in a partner. He's certainly just as interested in someone who exudes mentor/parental energy and would probably develop feelings for someone who's a bit older than him in age. He wants to please, the thought alone sets his heart ablaze. Differing from his counterpart, I don't think Cody quite has the same aversion to authority figures. He's hardly the most rule-abiding, but he doesn't clash heads with others quite as much.

Keeping on theme here, he stalks you relentlessly before making a proper move. Cody might look like the average guy, but he doesn't really see himself that way. He avoids lingering in public spaces if he can help it, so your initial run-in with him was pure chance-- fate, as he would call it. He wouldn't really need to see much of you or your actions before deciding that you're the one.

Cody's role under Slender has very little to do with stealth operations, and that's on purpose. In a crowd he might be able to blend in, but he's a bit of a lost cause when stranded entirely on his own. Cody has none of the patience to be waiting around for hours on end while you just sit there; he needs to be involved. He breaks into your home on numerous occasions, sometimes even while you're still there.

You may never see an actual person, but you know someone else has been in your space. Cody takes your things, leaves drawers and doors of all kinds open, and creates a mess wherever he chooses to prowl. Even if you're smart enough to start taking preventative actions, he evades them. Extra locks? He'll make a copy of those keys as well. Alarm system? He has a friend (BEN) that can disable them with the touch of a button. You can not keep him away from you.

He tries to fabricate a handful of meet-cutes, but they likely won't ever go as planned. Cody can have all the technical details he wants; he simply doesn't have the charisma to make a short encounter charming enough. Actually talking to you causes the words to get caught in his throat, and, when he does get around to speaking, he's clearly not the most socialized person.

At the end of the day, he doesn't honestly care if he's successfully attracted your attention. He loves you, and that should be enough to get you to reciprocate. No matter what, Cody's impatience will take hold and he'll involve himself in your life. The situation is far from seamless, by the way. The reveal that he's been your stalker is sudden, and his reappearance from that point on will become expected. If you try to ignore him and his affections, maybe even seek out another partner, he'll take matters into his own hands.

He's a bit shy with his affections at first, but he comes around pretty quickly. Much like Toby, he's big on acts of service. He would do almost anything for you if you asked. Even if you don't ask, he might do things he thinks you'd like him to do just so he can hear you gush and thank him for his efforts. Nothing puts a blush on the man's face more than a simple "thank you" from you.

Y'all knew this was coming up, but would he purposely infect you with an illness? At first, the thought would be last on his mind. He sees those he infects as nothing more than easily disposable subjects, and you're the furthest from that to him. Though, it's quite easy to become sick regardless of his interference. It's sort of like breaking a seal in his mind once you get sick for the first time. He can take care of you, and, depending on how ill you are, you probably won't even reject it-- hell, you might even need to depend on him. Cody will never intentionally expose you to something he worries might kill you. But, becoming exposed to the common cold every few months? He'll be there to take care of you.

Cody isn't too good at initiating physical affection, but he does want it from you. Growing up without any properly nurturing parental figures then being quickly funneled into Slenderman's killing apparatus, he doesn't know touch very well. Initially, he might think of himself as touch adverse, but he's quick to figure out the racing of his heart when your skin brushes his isn't a totally bad feeling. Cody was pretty clingy in the first place, so this revelation just increases that tenfold. Like an overly attached cat, your personal space is his as well.

Nina the Killer

I was originally thinking about doing a post with just relationship hcs for the girls, but I might just do one for all the other girls anyways.

Getting into a relationship with Nina isn't a particularly long process. Once she has her sights on you, she hardly waits before deciding to sink her teeth in. She doesn't express her interests explicitly right off the bat, but it's no secret that all of her moves are an attempt to make you more and more interested. If you indulge her efforts, that's when she makes her intentions clear. Don't accept it? Nina doesn't care. She'll keep trying.

She's not too picky, but I think she would be more likely to stick with a partner who is under Slender's control than one who isn't. Few things hold Nina's attention for very long, and a relationship is not an exception. If she has to travel a significant distance to properly see you, the thrill becomes old all too quick. Meanwhile, Slender's pawns tend to reside in much closer succession to each other than the outside world, so she's more likely to seek you out-- finding thrill in aspects other than sneaking around.

Even then, it's not a guarantee she'll stick around consistently. When she becomes interested in something, it's a slippery slope to boundless obsession. Nina's fixated on you at first, maybe even longer than usual since you two managed to reach actual relationship status, but it'll inevitably fade. From that point, you're almost like her rebound-- a middle point to go to as she finds the next thing.

Jeff was her first true obsession, so her approach can be kind of similar to his but there are some key differences. Nina's interest in a relationship isn't just the sex, but the romantic aspect as well. She wants to be doted on and obsessed over just like she's done for everything in her life. While it may seem like a one-sided thing, she's actually pretty competent at reciprocal gestures. Her ultimate understanding of you may just be a projection of herself onto another body, but that does mean you'll get back most, if not all of, the affection you pour into her.

Speaking of Jeff, he also exists as a sort of middle point for her. Her brain can't sit still for long, so, if something hasn't hooked it for long enough, she goes back to old habits. Sometimes that results in her being extra attentive to you, but it can also mean a return to Jeff. Even worse, she will not hear you out if you have a problem with it. Once again, Nina can really only emulate the feeling of empathy by seeing others literally as herself. So, you should know just how much Jeff means to her.

On that topic, Nina's obsessions aren't always romantic in nature, but there's no denying they can be. As soon as she's interested, you're the last thing on her mind, and she will disappear for months on end until the dopamine rush fades. Just like with her and Jeff, your complaints about this behavior will fall on deaf ears. You simply can't police her on that. No amount of threats will change the matter.

Most unfortunate for you, she does not see this as a two way street. She can have her little obsessions, but you so much as looking at another person in a certain way might set her off entirely. While she's gone, Nina certainly isn't keeping tabs on you and whatever you do with others. But, once she returns, you're expected to welcome her with open arms at a moment's notice. In her mind, it's simply not possible for you to split your attention between her and someone else like that. She's not totally opposed to hearing out whatever counter argument you make, but it certainly won't sway her opinion in the long-term.

Moving on, Nina is a big physical affection girly. Hug her, kiss her, cuddle her, crawl into her skin, all possible options! As established, she'll give you just as much physical affection back. She doesn't have a consistent schedule of any kind, but she almost always fits a nice mid-day nap into whatever it is she's doing. Nina expects you to curl up with her regardless of your own schedule or responsibilities. You two have to look exactly like these two cats shaped like hearts or else you don't love her. She's only sort of joking.

Meaningful words of affection aren't a strong suit of hers. She tends to fling around compliments and "love you's" to a lot of people, so they don't really mean too much to her when they fall from her mouth. On the flip side, you saying those things to her is about the equivalent of a marriage proposal, especially when she's deep in her obsessive swing.

I think Nina is a great gift-giver as well. Her artistic skills aren't quite as extensive as Helen's, but she's not half-bad. If she feels especially enraptured by you, she'll give you a drawing she did of you or even the both of you together. I don't know anyone who doesn't think of her as a scene girl, so her main gift to you is in the form of kandi bracelets. She can string one of those together like it's nothing and could probably give you 1000 a day if you had the arm space. Giving them to you is one thing and seeing you wear them is a must. She's usually satisfied seeing you wear a particular one for at least a week before giving you another

Slenderman

Oh boy. I tend to write Slender as an embodiment of societal issue rather than a character of its own, but I thought I'd try my hand at something new :)

Also (just because I love info-dumping about my writing), I use varying pronouns for Slender based on a character's perspective. If a character doesn't like Slender or only views it as some evil master, then I use it/its. But, in the case that a character likes the creature and sees him more friendly, I use he/him pronouns. It's not super important, just a touch I really like adding.

You will become Slender's pawn if it takes an interest in you. That's a non-negotiable, being near it is impossible otherwise. Its treatment of you, on the other hand, is much different than that of its actual pawns. Whether Slender has real feelings or not is unclear, but it's not easily capable of growing attached to its proxies. It collects them for a specific reason just as it collected you.

You're probably nothing too exceptional, not a killer with a crazy backstory, just a normal person. It sinks its influence into your mind at a much slower rate than usual in order to not alarm you. You'll barely even notice as your dreams become more and more consumed by the image of the woods just outside your home. Feelings of fear and discomfort shift to those of delight as the faceless being slowly reveals itself to you. Before you even know it, you're walking happily towards its awaiting form to be taken for good.

No surprises here, it simply whisks you away from civilization as soon as the brainwashing process is complete. Slender doesn't particularly care how its other human extensions live as long as they keep themselves alive enough to complete the next task. You, on the other hand, deserve much better accommodations than that. The woods are a vast and endless space that Slender controls, so it'll probably locate a quaint little cabin far from civilization to trap you in.

You're a more well kept secret than nuclear launch codes. To the world, you've disappeared, and it will inevitably erase even that memory from public consciousness. Any wanderers will get inexplicably turned around if they get too close and not even its closest proxies know of your existence. There's no need for something with even a speck of human emotion to conceptualize taking you away from it.

More often than not, you don't see Slender, but you feel it's there. Gifts are the most common sign of its presence. People "lose" things of all shapes and sizes in the woods all the time. And, since it knows everything about you, the perfect gift is always just one dead body away. That might be the only tell to its proxies that there's something different going on with the creature; it's much more sadistic than it was before. In the case that it doesn't want to pillage worthless human goods, it'll leave you a bundle of wildflowers. Slender certainly appreciates other forms of nature, probably the more macabre. But, It views you as something similar to one of those little flowers that grow in its domain; something small (relative to it, at least) and beautiful amidst the horrors of humanity.

From one tentacle monster lover to the next, I hate to disappoint, but Slender does not care for physical affection. Its tentacle appendages can't really feel much except for the fading pulse of whichever sorry creature ends up in its grasp. So, whenever it shows you it's physical form, it just kind of... stands there. No face, but always watching-- as they say. If you try to reach out and touch its form (hands, face, etc.), it might indulge your interests, but it doesn't particularly care for it.

Words of affection are a similar beast. It doesn't have a mouth, duh. But, even if it did give its form one, Slender can only communicate through the mind. It's an old creature too, so its compliments can be semi-convoluted or just Lovecraftian (I said Shakespearean originally... but I feel like referencing Lovecraft is funnier). You know it means well, but you might not be able to pinpoint exactly which words indicate that much.

After all I've said of Slender, it's control over you isn't entirely ironclad-- there's a few gaps. Certain sensations, scents, maybe even items might inexplicably remind you of the life you once lived. When those memories surface, they're extremely blurry, and Slender tends to jump in rather quickly once it senses that distress in your mind. They give you a certain sense of having lived a previous life, like there's something you're missing. You likely won't come to fully realize any of it as long as the creature lives, but it can't completely eradicate your curious human nature.

[thewertsearch]

Anonymous asked: just read through your entire liveblog and wow. what a place to catch up. do you have any predictions about what the postscratch versions of the guardians will be? what about the guardian versions of the kids?

So.

Mom Lalonde, Grandpa Harley, Nanna Egbert, and Bro Strider, reborn as the story's protagonists, and thrust into a Playerdom I never expected them to bear. The consequences of this reveal are likely to kick in on the very next page - and since that's a page I'm clicking on tonight, this is my last chance for some blind speculation.

There are an absolute mountain of angles I could potentially cover here, and it's impossible to address all the implications of this twist, so I'm just going to touch on a few key questions that Act 6 will need to answer sooner rather than later.

Without further ado, let's dive into our first question.

Who, exactly, is raising these kids?

The simplest solution, of course, would be a one-to-one exchange between each Player and their Guardian. That certainly seems to be the case for Jade and Grandpa, who have been directly swapped. This would imply that Rose raised Mom, Dave raised Bro, and John might have raised Nanna. (More on that later.)

Still, that's not the only possibility. There's no reason why Dave couldn't raise the adolescent Mom instead, for example, with Rose adopting the younger Bro in his stead. That particular configuration has a lot of character potential, actually, because Bro Lalonde would undoubtedly be an unholy terror, and Mom Strider might just be one of the coolest characters I've ever conceived of.

This aesthetic, with those shades? Come on.

...all that said, though, I'm fairly sure we are just getting a one-to-one swap. That's how it appears to have worked for the trolls, and the one post-Scratch Player with a confirmed Guardian already matches this pattern.

Plus, swapping the kids with their own parents is just so interesting, on a character level, as it'd add a whole new dimension of analysis to the fucked-up relationships between Bro & Dave, Mom & Rose, and Grandpa & Jade.

Seeing how they all treat each other, now that the roles have been reversed, would be incredibly illuminating, and might shed some light on the thought processes of the pre-Scratched Guardians, as they were raising their own respective charges.

Anyway - now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about each individual family.

The Egberts

Astute readers will notice that I only mentioned the Guardian-Player parallels for three of our Players above - and that's because when it comes to the fourth, there's a slight complication.

Namely, Dad Egbert no longer exists.

This means that Nanna's home life can't parallel John's, because the man who raised John was never even born. It's possible, then, that John will simply raise Nanna himself, as her grandfather.

Honestly, that's the scenario I'm hoping for, here. Out of our four original Players, I think that John would be the best parent by far - he's sweet, resilient, and has a natural talent for nurturing the positive qualities of the people he loves. If a baby lands in his backyard, he's going to rise to the challenge, octogenarianism be damned.

...now, here's where I'd speculate a little about Nanna's personality, but she's the one post-Scratch Player I can't really get a bead on. We only ever interacted with her Spritesona, whose personality was obviously corrupted by the presence of the jester doll.

As a result, I don't really have a clue what Nanna will be like. The only thing I'm sure about, if John's the one raising her, is that she'll be loved.

The Striders

First of all, I have faith in Dave.

I think he's more or less guaranteed to be a better Guardian than his brother ever was. Granted, I don't think Dave would be particularly paternal, but I also think he'll be able to refrain from beating Bro's ass with a puppet, which is progress.

I think Dave would be a laissez-faire type of guardian, who allows the younger Bro a lot more agency and autonomy than other kids his age, but also struggles to be the adult in the room when his kid needs guidance. He's not going to be as traumatized as his younger self, but I bet it's still borderline impossible to have a serious conversation with him. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Kid Bro turned out to be the more mature of the pair.

In a nutshell, Dave was born to be a cool uncle, but was forced unwittingly into a parental role instead. He's doing his best.

Quite frankly, I'm very worried about Kid Bro.

If we assume that every Paradox Clone keeps the same Veil item as last time - and there's no reason why they wouldn't - then Bro will be coming down with Lil' Cal, the cursed puppet created by Gamzee's Chucklevoodoos.

I'm still convinced that long-term exposure to this abomination was the main reason Bro was so batshit insane, and while the younger Bro won't have been around it for quite as long, he'll still have thirteen years of an evil Juggalo's Rage miasma being beamed into his brain.

I think Kid Bro will be a little batshit, but not completely batshit. We'll see a child with the potential to become the deranged ventriloquist who tormented Dave, but one who can still be saved, if we can just get that hell puppet away from him.

Separated from Cal, I still think Bro will be a memelord, and I'm sure not all his interests came from the puppet. I think this guy was always destined to be a pretty bizarre dude - but with luck, this iteration of him will be a little more pleasant to be around.

The Lalondes

Rose... could go either way, honestly.

Just like Dave, I don't think she's the type who'd willingly choose to be a parent. Rose doesn't want a baby, she wants a library full of cursed tomes, a coven of witches to scheme with, and to live in an enormous gothic castle with her wife, Kanaya Maryam. Her ideal lifestyle couldn't handle a kid, and I think she's self-aware enough to know that, and adopt a hundred mutant kittens instead.

That said... if she had to raise a daughter, I think she'd try her best to do right by the girl. I think some part of her would absolutely resent the fact that she's a background character in someone else's life - especially if, like the Sufferer, she remembers being a Player - but she'd do everything she could to keep that resentment to herself.

Rose would be an alright mother. A little cold, maybe, and more than a little distant, but she'd still love her Roxy.

As for Roxy, I can only assume she's a gigantic fucking badass. Even among the Guardians, her barehanded combat feats were always astounding, and I think she and Kid Bro will be the primary combatants of their session.

I also think she'll be one of the most analytical, scientifically-minded Players we've ever seen. Her adult self was experimenting with Ectobiology even outside of Sburb, which suggests to me an intense curiosity about how all this shit works, which isn't present in most of our other heroes. Like Rose, she'll be a researcher, and maybe even a Seer - but while Rose searched for the truth via magic and mysticism, Roxy's research will be entirely scientific.

Honestly, the most exciting thing about finally meeting Roxy is the milestone it'll represent. I'll finally, finally have encountered every character I knew about prior to starting the comic.

The Harleys

Grandma Jade was still the Witch of Space, and was clearly aware of that fact.

This tells us that:

John, Rose and Dave also retained their Titles, even if they don't know it.

Grandma Jade was probably aware of Sburb and its secrets, especially if she was living near the Frog Temple.

Grandma Jade was the Witch of Space. She's gone.

...and I have a theory about what happened to her.

I think that when Grandpa was a baby, Jade travelled to Anachronism Island, just like her predecessor did - but this time around, it wasn't Bec who greeted her at the Temple.

No, I think Jade had a fatal encounter with the new First Guardian of Earth - a corrupted First Guardian, spliced with the same HONK code that created Scratch. Kid Grandpa clearly survived whatever happened next, and I think it's horribly plausible that the new First Guardian is a pseudo-Guardian to him, the same way Becquerel was to Jade.

In other words, this kid might be completely compromised, manipulated by English's servant since infancy. Let's not forget that he's the one who suggested making the bunny to Jade, which is the reason Jack was able to ascend in the first place...

...but someone suggested it to him, first.

Anyway, those are my high-level thoughts about the new timeline's key players. We'll be starting Act 6 in an hour or so, and I've got a feeling that we're about to see Nanna standing in a very familiar room.

After all, it just so happens that today...

[savi-our]

Hello! I have a request

would you be willing to do a Syrup, Mutt, Edge, (and maybe possibly Coffee as well) x reader who is a cute little innocent sweetie pie who loves being lovey dovey with their bf?

Have a wonderful day/night!! ♡♡♡

☕Hi! Thank you for the request, I really do appreciate it! That being said I've only recently woken up from a stress induced motivational coma so I apologize if what I've written here is maybe a bit off.💀 I'm trying to slowly get back into writing so this is kind of a warm up/character reintroduction. I ended up skipping Coffee for now but I might add him on later in a reblog - hope that's okay!☕

FS Papyrus - Mutt

Ouch

This man would pass away.

Mutt is by no means a stranger in affection, the opposite really - but that only applies to people he doesn't really see as romantic interests, and by that I mean flings or one night stands for the pure fuckery of it. When it comes to pure and innocent romantic affection though? Stars save him. Mutt is probably the worst when it comes to pure affection, he has no idea what to do, think or how to act - and it would take him a good while to actually get used to it, so depending on what stage it is in the relationship, the reactions will be widely different.

If its new then he'd be an absolute mess, almost like an awkward prepubescent teen trying to poker face his way out of confronting his crush. Every time you'd kiss him softly, every time you'd squeeze him in your arms, every time you looked at him with nothing but pure affection in your eyes - devoid of any ulterior motive, his mind would go blank.

Even though you'd be in a relationship, he'd be crushing - BAD.

He wouldn't be able to keep his mind off of you, the way your hand fit in his, the way your smile made his soul hitch, how cute you looked on your last date. It would be embarrassing, the way he could recall every outfit you ever wore out with him without even having to think about it, the way sweat pooled in his palms whenever you held hands, the way all of his rehearsed pick up lines dried up and turned into dust whenever you blinked up at him with those big eyes of yours. He'd be a mess, and he'd make it his life's mission to hide it.

Later on he'd get accustomed to it - to romantic love that is, and it would come more naturally to him - but that comes with its own "issues".

He wouldn't be able to stop thinking about you in other ways, in ways that his dirty mind used to openly invite.

He just wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it, how innocent and pure you were, how loving, how he could make you feel good in every way imaginable.

I've mentioned this before but Mutt has a serious case of corruption kink, so you can imagine his excitement over the dynamic as a whole.

SF/FS Papyrus - Syrup

Syrup adores you - no, I mean, really. Syrup would go for any type of personality, the person just has to peak his interest in the right way - and by that I mean the way that actually makes him feel something other than utter indifference - and once that's been accomplished? There's nothing you can do or say to tear him away from you (no, again, I mean that seriously)

So a lovey-dovey and innocent s/o? He'd be very satisfied indeed. He'd take you out on the perfect dates, without you even having to tell him where you wanted to go.

He'd give you all the best gifts, even the ones you didn't know you wanted.

He'd spoil you with affection, greedily drinking in every interaction like a man deprived.

Every time you'd kiss him, he'd purr, low and needy, and often those innocent kisses would escalate because he couldn't possibly help himself - especially with how sweetly and naively you'd look at him sometimes. He'd relish the amount of trust you'd place in him, how those bright and sparkling eyes looked at him like he was the love of your life.

You drove him mad sometimes.

He'd constantly look out for you, because surely such a sweet and innocent thing like you needed to be protected, to be sheltered and doted on.

He'd protect you from the people who found faults with the way both of you expressed your love, because surely you don't need such negative people in your life - you were too pure to concern yourself with such thoughts.

He'd take care of you - every and any need you have. You didn't need to think about anything else, anything else but you and his relationship was just idle distraction, there was no need for you to go outside, in that shitty miserable world, for work or for leisure or for fresh air - he can bring it all to you instead.

You were too innocent, too sweet and loving for the outside, its best you stay right here, right where he can keep you all to himself, away from any dangers.

You don't have to worry about anything else, just keep looking at him with those sweet, innocent eyes and he'll do the rest.

UF Papyrus - Edge

Here's the thing, while I fully write the boys as characters who would absolutely go for most any type of personality - Edge is one of my more complex and needlessly opinionated characters. Why do I mention this? Because Edge has a serious upper limit to affection - especially in the beginning stages of relationships. Edge will hardly ever allow any PDA outside of the occasional hand on the small of your back or the momentary brush of his fingers against yours - and its not because he dislikes affection, its more so the consequences of his upbringing.

This also translates to private moments between his s/o. Id like you to imagine a stray feral cat, or maybe an abused fighting pit dog that is suddenly found a forever home and has to now suddenly go against every instinct he's ever had because he loves you and the last thing he ever wants to do is hurt you - but here's the thing, you cant expect him to just be okay with affection even if he loves you. So to get to the point, overly lovey-dovey stuff wont be his thing, UNLESS he's the one initiating the affection. It has to be on his terms, and believe me, he does want affection, but considering his underground had the equivalent of a deserts worth of examples of how pure and innocent affection goes, most of it will be either awkward, almost scripted attempts of recreating romantic movie scene settings OR sexual intimacy (there was no shortage of sexual intimacy examples back in his underground, it was the only affection that was deemed "appropriate") He does enjoy simple domestic things though. Cooking for you, watching you read or idle away on your phone whilst cuddled up next to him, safe and within his view. He would stiffen up whenever you leaned into him, sleepy from having just woken up. He'd love the feeling of your arms wrapping around him, you pushing yourself up against him whilst he's doing the dishes or some such, even if the gesture makes his face grow unbelievably red and his hands freeze up below the running water. The best affection you could give Edge is the very soft and delicate kind - the kind where you tell him about your day, nestled safely between his legs under the soft covers of your shared bed, your voice a hoarse whisper as you listen to his soul thrum steadily as you lay across his chest. He'd feel complete, in the calm of a gentle and understanding affection that doesn't suffocate him, but lets him sink into the warmth of your gaze, the touch of your soft hands and in the softness of your words.

[timeslipcamp]

i always thought it was interesting that people point out the first anomaly that mc interacts with is the "snakes of hera" and focus on the bridal veil aspect of it. hera was a bride, that's for sure, her and zeus' wedding feast lasted 300 years according to some sources. but according to a lot more of the myths, she was an extremely reluctant bride, not to mention she was never really depicted with snakes.

rambles below the cut, spoilers if you haven't finished chapter one i guess lmao

hera is kind of the epitome of an unhappy bride whose union was forced on her, but she was also the goddess who oversaw marriage and fertility. so i can see where people keep looking into the bride thing. but i don't think the focus should be on the veil.

the only place in mythology we really see hera use snakes is when she sent them to kill heracles as an infant, someone her husband had sired out of wedlock. these snakes were sent out of revenge for a wrong being done to her.

i'm slowly getting the idea, especially after writing that post about the houses, that revenge might also become an important theme in this story. the first anomaly we encounter (other than another greek named one, the kyklos) is named after one of the most classic tales of anger and revenge.

the snakes protect the wearer, the bride, against those who would do her harm. hera would like that. anyone who threatened her marriage (and even her to some extent) she went after. if not directly, then by sending creatures to attack. (actually. literally as i typed that, mc never uses her powers directly to fight the anomalies. we're always sending the ghouls.) the snakes certainly tried to go after romeo. and then later, the snakes turned into a ring.

sure, bridal ring. i could see that, i guess, considering it's on the ring finger.

but this doesn't really give wedding ring vibes. the pentacle on the ring is the main reason why. typically, pentacles symbolize a complete balance of the elements, though it seems this ring gives us the ability to enhance the ghouls' stigmas.

there's been a few hints that some of the ghouls have issues with their stigmas being painful, and it doesn't seem like the process of gaining those abilities was any walk in the park. eating part of the demons soul? eurgh. not to mention most people don't survive making a pact. so i'm wondering if this ring is completing some part of the process that bridges the gap enough that it doesn't affect the human parts of them as much, and thereby strengthens them by giving the full gift, not just a taste of the power.

i've also seen the ring of solomon theory being thrown out, but that one is typically depicted as a six pointed star, not five like we have. i'm sticking by my pentacle theory, because you know what else that symbolizes???

damn chimi how come you got so many cycles in your symbolism

anyways i'm sticking with hera. i think the ring balances the power in the stigmas, represents the cycle we're in, and the combo of hera (protector of women during childbirth.) i'm not saying mc is pregnant, but she certainly is carrying something inside of her, huh :)

[bahngarang]

chapter 7.0 ☆ the lock and key theory

ss: 7

wc: 1,692

cw: swearing, food mentions, jokes about disability (from a disabled writer)

a/n: seeing my work while I'm innocently scrolling through the skz x reader tag is WILD y'all

yn's office hours were... interesting. during their first year as a part-time professor, it had initially been pretty boring. no one really came to their office. the students preferred to go to their more serious professor, as it were – and dr jang was definitely more serious and more experienced. she had more of a reputation. which was fine, yn was perfectly happy to lesson plan and do the more computer heavy side of their research in that time. they enjoyed working alone. no distractions.

the second year? not so quiet.

it had started small. justin being the main instigator. he was always one of the more outgoing ones. he came in once or twice a week, bothering them with questions about the material. things he probably could have figured out on his own, but it was kind of nice. 

now, yn had justin, and oftentimes a few of his friends, hanging out with them during office hours. doing homework, asking about assignments and essays and sometimes just yapping. and, strangely... yn liked it. sure, sometimes they had to use urban dictionary to decipher the young people language, and deal with the occasional millennial/old person joke, but it was pretty fun.

today was one of the more yappy days, clearly. justin did have his laptop out, precariously placed on his legs, but he was completely ignoring it except to make sure it didn't drop to the floor. instead, he was rambling on about how painstaking sewing beaded fabric was, and stitching and so on. don't get them wrong, yn was absolutely listening, but they were also having something close to a religious experience with today's cheesecake that dr jang had brought up from the cafeteria for them.

"–and i've already managed to break two needles on that stupid stuff, even though I spent ages unpicking the beads by hand, like, at this point, is it even worth it?"

"mmh," yn hummed sympathetically, taking another bite of cheesecake, chewing slowly. shifting on their desk chair, they crossed their right leg over their left to get more comfortable. "well, considering how much you've been talking about this for the last couple of months, I don't think you should give up now just because you're frustrated over some fabric."

justin huffed. "yeah, but it's annoying, and-" he stopped, and yn looked up at him from their lesson plan after a few moments of silence.

"what?"

"nothing, it's just..." he squinted at their knee. "has that tattoo on your knee changed? did you get a cover-up or something?"

"it's not a tattoo, it's my soul mark," yn said, before looking down at their knee in confusion. they were less averse to showing it now that it was pretty much unreadable. or... it was.

"what the fuck..." yn muttered to themselves. it wasn't completely as it was before all the knee surgeries, but it was definitely... closer than it used to be. and even through their sheer tights, they could read a few initials – b.c., s.c., and y.j.. well. shit.

"do soul marks... usually change?" justin murmured.

yn's area of expertise was not soul marks in any capacity, but it couldn't be a coincidence that the only three of their soulmates that they'd seen – and touched – were the ones who's initials they could read now. one? sure. two? weird, but okay. but three? yeah, something was definitely going on. yn hadn't heard of soul marks changing after interactions with soulmates, but then again, they also didn't know anyone else who'd had their marks fucked up, especially to the extent of their one. "uhm... not that I know of..."

"that's... weird."

"... yup."

"does it feel any different?"

"i would have noticed earlier if it did," yn replied.

"do you know why it's doing that?" justin asked curiously, leaning further over yn's desk to look closer at it.

"i... have an idea," yn said to their chagrin.

"cryptic."

"you're my student, you don't need to know about my love life," yn said. "i'm sure you have much more pressing matters to worry about. like... studying..."

"boo. that's boring," justin said, heaving a sigh and draping himself over the back of his chair.

"i feel i should remind you that you have a test next week," yn said flatly. "and while studying may be boring, it does help your results." yn left out that they had not been the most avid studier during their university years. do as i say and not as i do, right? justin didn't have to know.

not that he listened, continuing his impassioned rant about beaded fabric and other things, while yn silently had a mini crisis over the new development in the soulmate department.

"hi," yn mumbled, frowning down at the pan in front of them. they were... attempting to cook dinner, their phone set up against the back wall of their kitchen counter. but it was one of those days when they had to drag a chair into the room so they didn't have to stand up, so it wasn't a particularly nutritious meal. still better than not eating, though.

"hey." the audio from minji's end was... crackly. the connection in the gym she went to was shitty, to say the least. and she'd chosen to accept the video call while on the treadmill, which was a choice, for sure.

chika giggled quietly, and the half-drunk margherita that she held told yn she was at least a little tipsy. her location was unclear, but it was clear she'd found some room away from the main party where she wouldn't be disturbed for a while. "guess who I'm with," she hummed out in a sing-song voice, before turning the camera to bring her companion into frame.

yn, at this point, wasn't surprised at who it was. it was, in their mind, only logical – chika was at a versace event, so was hyunjin, and fate seemed to have it out for them recently, so why wouldn't it be him?

"we're hiding," chika whispered. "it's very loud. and there are too many people. i am quite overstimulated."

"hello," hyunjin said shyly, giving a small wave to the camera.

yn, for all the repressing of their feelings, still couldn't deny how cute he was. it was just one of those things. they suspected it had a little to do with the fact that he was their soulmate... but it was also just one of those things.

"so, what was the stuff in the group chat about your soul mark changing?" chika asked, a shit-eating grin spreading across her face, as if one of my soulmates wasn't unfortunately right beside her.

"shut the fuck- oh, my god, get your furry ass off my counter!" yn complained, getting up off their chair to grab bingus, who was making his daily escapade into the kitchen cabinets. honestly, they wouldn't really have a problem if it was the ones at ground level, but trying to haul the cat's fluffy body out of the top shelf of the higher cupboards every day was just... it took far too much effort. they sighed, walking back into frame, holding bingus like the little baby he was, slumping back down into their chair, breathing a little heavy. "he's such a pest."

"just grabbing your cat has you breathing like that? damn..." minji said with a slight laugh, the background noises of her running slowing down as she lowered the speed of the treadmill.

"yeah, well, health is wealth and I am dirt poor, if you catch my drift," yn said, scratching bingus behind the ears and kissing his little forehead.

hyunjin gasped from the other side of the camera, his eyes going wide. "you have a cat?"

yn chuckled, picking up their phone to hold the camera closer to their kitty. "he's called bingus. i woke up to him sitting on my face this morning."

hyunjin muttered something that the microphone didn't manage to pick up, but evidently chika found it absolutely hilarious in her drunken state. "he's so cute..."

bingus meowed gently at the camera, blinking his wide eyes innocently like he wasn't just trying to use yn's ramen stash as a cat bed, instead of literally any other surface in their apartment. he was a strange one. although, maybe that was just cats in general.

"that he may be, but he also made five escape attempts in the past hour and was sulking until about ten minutes ago because I wouldn't let him risk his life in seoul traffic," yn replied in exasperation.

minji sighed sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "you clearly don't love him then."

"yes, i hate my cat and want him to live an unfulfilling life. he reminds me of that often. maybe i shouldn't have trained him to come with me on my bike. i've given you a taste for danger, hm?" yn smiled down at bingus, kissing his cheek.

"you have a bike?" hyunjin asked.

"yeah," yn confirmed. it was pink, and had hello kitty detailing – what more could you want?

"they're objectively less safe, you know that, right?" minji said. it was a conversation they'd had many times, but it always ended the same.

"i never said it made sense," yn protested. "but, unfortunately, i don't have the luxury of being able to walk everywhere, i'm scared of cars, and me and public transport don't mix well because it's usually too busy to sit down, so... this is my solution."

"i think we should go back," chika said, finishing the conversation abruptly. "i think donatella has some attachment issues," she whispered, not that it was any quieter.

yn chuckled. "alright. see you in a few days."

minji's pout was practically radiating through the screen as she said her goodbyes, to no surprise. it wasn't just donatella versace who had attachment issues.

and so, yn was left alone with their thoughts again while they ate their noodles – and simultaneously tried to stop bingus eating them as well. hyunjin was... nice to talk with. not that they expected otherwise, but... a part of them wished he wasn't. it would have made it easier to reconcile staying away for so long.

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[witchygod]

Thinking about Kenji Sato Flanderization

I think certain scene with Kenji certainly stood out out about Kenji for fans, particularly the "do my own thing" and "I know it's been a long year but you got me now" scenes and I've noticed a trend where Kenji is characterized as well honestly a bit of an asshole, sometimes to an unlikable degree so let's talk about it.

I also think these scenes have paid into some instances of flanderization of Kenji's character. Yes he's a bit arrogant and witty but he's not as egotistical as everyone thinks- he's certainly not as RUDE as everyone seems to perceive him though he does have a temper. It should be noted his temper only seems to come through when he's extremely stressed or on the field- in conflict. He's very graceful in how he handles Ami's questions as wel. He only gets snarky with his coach because his coach approached him first with abundant hostility which I'm gonna be real- not the kind of behavior that is ideal, one could argue he was trying to weigh Kenji's value but with the context of Kenji being a world series player in America this is value as an athlete that should be proven already, if he's concerned about Kenji's arrogance that'd be another thing and while that's certainly AN issue but he admits it plainly what it is 'this is Japanese baseball not American' and Kenji responding to that with a bit of disrespect is extremely fair- and coming from his coach it very much paints the tone of how he's gonna be interacting with his teammates.

A large part of Kenji's rudeness is a direct result of hostility or an active defense from either invasive questions perceived attacks on how 'japanese he is'. This is not a subtle sub theme of his character mind you- he straight up admits to Ami that the reason he 'doesnt give a shit' is because he had to learn to because he was always being judged for being Japanese in America.

Let's not get it wrong though- Kenji is arrogant and egotistical because seriously who gives out their autograph without being prompted. These are some traits, but he's not entirely up his own ass, and he's not rude (Mama Sato raised a very good boy... Ultradad helped too) . Aside from when he was pissy with her for asking some extremely personal questions off the back at a press event- Kenji is extremely respectful of Ami, he makes sure to remember the reporters by their names not publicist and while he's not humble he's very sociable. Hell he's even polite talking to the Kaiju- actively taking a gentler tone of voice with Gigantron despite his frustrations (and increasing panic over the fact the KDF is going to kill her and he can't figure out how to stop it)- he's snarky with Mina but even then he isn't entirely dismissive of her, honestly he treats an AI more like family than a servant which is a big difference in attitude than most egotistical superheroes with ai companions.

Kenji is not the sort to be a womanizer hell he doesn't even seem the sort to attend parties unless he's forced to, it's pretty clear he's a bit of a loner- this is evident as much as there is never a mention to him missing his teammates in America and the fact the only person he has to talk to in Japan aside from his father is an acquaintance he's not even certain won't publish his personal conversations with. (She won't because she's a fucking professional with ethics which is also the reason that she's not a love interest God bless I love you Ami💕) He's overwhelmed by relearning how to fit in to Japan, dealing with the xenophobia,adjusting to the new culture of baseball become Ultraman deal with his daddy issues and mourning the disappearance of his mother- all things that heavily influence his attitude and a lot of times seem to be overlooked by people.

We take away one or two of those stressors Kenji goes from snarky and arrogant to a whole lot more sociable and pleasant. He's at his core a sensitive and confident individual who's just really passionate about baseball. He's kind enjoys teaching others about his special interest and is charismatic and bold despite being prone to holding people at arms length. Which is fair because he has a lot of dangerous secrets.

In short Kenji Sato is just a Mama's boy girl(jk)

In short Kenji Sato is a pretty complex character who suffers from a decent amount of emotional constipation and just straight up having no friends. He's respectful and kind and a bit sensitive which can make him seem pretty temperamental and he's prone to pushing people away at the first sign of hostility or when they overstep his boundaries. He's extremely stressed throughout the movie and adjusting to a lot of NEW, and the KDF/Kaiju trying to get chunks out of him and the pretty blatant xenophobia from the baseball scene (ill justified by him playing badly :/) doesn't help.

I also didn't mention much of his reluctance to being a hero and his irresponsibility to the role initially I realized and I think that should be its own subject because what's going on there is less a personality thing and more.... Directly correspondent to his relationship with his father, and the fact he was GROSSLY unprepared for the role. But I do want to note that his sense of responsibility is a lot stronger than people think because it doesn't really take a lot to convince him to do the right thing after Nobiranga's death. If he was still prone to inaction after this event I'd chalk it up to a personality defect but no he's pretty quick to make more of an effort as Ultraman after this, he saw the consequences of his actions and while he's gonna whine about it he does what he has to.

I may also go on a Rant Rant later about his coach and how the next movie really needs to try to save his character because he's shit at his job....

[creepsterdreams]

Hey, I've been thinking of mc having 5 pet snakes. I want to know how ts LI's reaction to it. (not the small kind of snake)

I can say as someone who absolutely loves snakes this would be so funny to watch them react to this

TOUCHSTARVED LI’s HC's: MC having five pet snakes (5 burmese pythons)

Summary: After paying a visit to your new home, that you were finally able to get after living in the Wet Wick for some time, the LI’s are extremely caught off guard when they find five massive pythons resting there.

CW: snakes, mentions of violence and death, Leander being himself, Ocudeus mention, could be read as platonic or romantic

LEANDER

This fucking guy

Upon walking in he just stands there as if you suddenly grew another head

"Hey um...where did you get these?"

You tell them you found them in the market somewhere and the merchant was just giving them away because they couldn't afford to care for them. That's why you were so hooked on moving out of the wet wick so quickly

Hey at least he can stop telling himself it's because you wanted to get away from him-

He just nods and brings his attention back to the snakes

I have a feeling he's one of those guys that pretends he's not afraid of them but is lowkey terrified

You have to convince him that their completely chill and okay as long as you don't give them a chance to suffocate you

As in don't let them wrap around his neck

And for the love of the allmother do not let him convince himself he can tame them or get them to be his bestie, it will not go well

So for a while I just recommend watching whatever interaction he has with them

If you don't have names for them, he will give them names

But it'll be the most random yet cute ones ever

"Good morning, Pesto! ^_^"

"You ready for your lunch Missy?"

"Please get off of my coat Polly I need that-"

And so on

He can take care of them whenever he has the time, and you need to go somewhere

Just don't be surprised when you come back and they all have verryyyy expensive things that you aren't even sure where they came from

Somehow gets his hands on five personalized styled enclosures for all of them?? Where did he even get the money?

"Only the best for my little buddies!! ^_^" he says

You swear he's trying to make them like him more than you

Even though they are snakes and probably don't care that much

"Hey there, I wasn't expecting you to get home so early." You hear Leander say as you walk in through the door.

You hum and put your cloak on a nearby hook, still not turning around to look at the man. "Yeah that gig took less time than I thought, I'm just happy I was able to get the money and go." As you continued on, you eventually look towards Leander, but your words are cut off as you catch sight of what looks to be...him putting tiny hats on your snakes?

"Leander, what are you doing?"

After setting the thing down, he comes towards you, grabbing your hand so he can lead you towards them. "I just..wanted to see which one suited who the best."

Nodding as he says that your gaze drifts back toward the scaly creature, analyzing its new appearance. But once you notice the hat, you can't help but laugh. "Is that a tiny wizard hat?"

"Don't look at me like, it complements the silver in his skin."

AIS

Just walks in and kinda acts as if it's normal?

"Huh, didn't know you were one for pets sparrow."

Goes up to one of the snakes and just...pats it on the head?

Kinda wholesome honestly

"Your owner been treating you right? Blink if you need help."

Okay back to wishing on his downfall

The kind of guy that walks in and greets them as if they're your roommates or something

Has entire conversations with them while you aren't looking, and it's kind of cute to watch

"Yeah, and then the guy just walked away. I know if you're gonna pick a fight with me at least make it interesting."

He knows that they are not the poisonous kinds of snakes, but 100% lies and tells other people they are just to mess with them

He's an asshole we all know this

Ocudeus has a love-hate relationship with them

On one hand, he's impressed you're so comfortable living with five pythons

On the other hand, he doesn't like that they take up most of your time

He's possessive, okay?

Ais one day brings Princess over don't ask how he manage to get her through the city to play with your danger noodles

It goes well, for the most part

Princess and you are a little confused on how it's supposed to work but eventually she gets the hang of it :3

Kinda just....runs around them while they whip around trying to keep their eyes on her

For you and Ais it's like watching your kids have a play date

If he's ever doing anything important, he has at least one of them nearby so they can look over his shoulder so they can watch

You ask him why because there's a good chance of them, not caring

But he just smiles and says "Wouldn't want 'em to not feel included."

Fair point

The best soulless AND snake dad

After waking up from a much-needed nap, you walk towards the room where you kept the enclosers for your snakes, you know that Ais will be visiting, so you won't have to worry too much about them being neglected, as at some points it felt like they were more of his pets than yours.

But you didn't expect to see Ais sitting on the floor, all five of your precious pets surrounding them as they held their heads up in curiosity. Him using one of his fingers to slowly caress the tops of them.

"Having fun there?" You said while leaning against the doorframe.

He turns around, looking up at you with an almost smug gaze. "Thought they could use the company."

You send an equally playful smile and walk up next to him. "How long have you been here, by the way?"

"Long enough that I snatched some of your leftovers."

"...You ate my food?-"

KURAS

Fascinated

That's the best way to describe his reaction to everything

Although he's mostly curious about how you're managing to take care of five giant pythons, given their diets in all

Definitely asked if can study them a bit, even though he's idk how many centuries old and most likely knows a lot about animals

But they are your pets so I guess it feels different

Offers to watch them whenever you can't, so he can observe them a little more

Whenever you come back home you just see him quietly writing things down while glancing at the snakes every few seconds

Once he finally looks up and spots you, he smiles and asks how the journey was

Although he is a doctor, he will do his best to keep up with the health of the precious ones

For you, of course <3

But that also means if there's ever a problem he's the one you turn too

So imagine having a carry a 100-200 pound reptile all the way to the clinic

Not only that but if you had a coin for every odd stare you got you could probably but another snake

Once you do eventually reach Kuras, he does take your concern seriously but if ends up just being a minor issue, don’t judge him if he chuckles a bit

“MC, he isn’t sick, I’m afraid he was just trying to mess with you.”

Oopsie

At least once a week he would bring one of them with him to chill at the clinic, it’s very cute to watch

He’ll be taking care of a patient while the little thing is resting in the background on a branch he bought from somewhere

And as time goes on, it becomes less of my pets and more of our pets

Walking in, your greeted with the sight of what looked to be Kuras sitting on the couch, reading, but what really caught you off guard was one of your pythons leaning over his shoulder, as if they were following along with whatever he was looking at.

The sight alone was enough to warm your heart.

Kuras eventually notices you, looking up from his book and softly smiling. “I was wondering where you had been.”

You nod, taking a seat next to him and gently rubbing the top of your pets head. “I suppose you were entertaining them in my stead?”

He laughs. “They all were well behaved enough, nothing out of the ordinary.”

Humming in response, you lean over to peak at the book, wondering what was so interesting about it that it caught a snakes attention. But before you could even start reading, Kuras spoke up again.

“Although, you might want to worry about finding more enclosures. I caught two of them mating in the tree.”

VERE

You know those cartoon villains that always have some kind of animal companion by their side? Yeah that’s Vere

Upon walking in, Vere's attention is automatically drawn towards them

Walking over and crouching down so he can have a better look

"Oh my, dangerous little darlings, aren't you?"

The only one out of the group to call dangerous animals cute in any way

I, unfortunately, can relate but that's not what we're talking about here

You just stand there and watch as he gently scratches underneath the chins of the reptiles, cooing at them as he does

Honestly it could be one of the few times you see him genuinely smile

Yes, you keep staring because you want to make sure you never forget this moment, why wouldn't you?

Will absolutely take care of them whenever you can't

In fact, he's the first one to volunteer

Except this time when you come home, he's laying down on his back, all five of them surrounding him in what only could be described as an odd cuddle pile

How he got them into that position without risking himself being suffocated, no one will ever know

But that's pretty much what you expect now whenever he's over

Even whenever you're not there, he still finds a way into your house

He keeps getting in because he stole the key

"Oh I wasn't expecting you to get home so early. ^_^" He says as he's currently putting different scarfs on the python

Please try to talk him out of this but he WILL attempt to teach them to suffocate and only harm the ones he dislikes

Yes that includes Leander-

If you try to stop him he'll smirk and tell you to let him have his fun

All in all an okay snake dad

You watched as Vere held one of your snakes in his hands, its head resting on his palm as he leans in close, cooing as he always did.

"Such a beautiful one you are, the perfect mix of viciousness and elegance." He continues as he caresses the tops of their head.

At a certain point, you think he cares more about them than you. And honestly, you wouldn't be surprised if he did. This was Vere we're talking about.

Looking back up at you, his grin widens, as he gently sets them down and stands up from his seat.

"Oh, come now, don't tell me your getting jealous."

You huff and walk past him, picking up your pet to move them back into their enclosure. "You wouldn't know."

Vere lets out a halfhearted laugh, before sitting back down and watching you take care of the little ones he's grow oh so fond of.

MHIN

In all honesty, wouldn't react as much as you think they would

I mean, they would be surprised, but not enough to raise any bells

They would mostly be questioning if you are actually able to care for all of them properly, given that Burmese pythons can have a fairly big appetite

Although most of their knowledge is in anatomy, they're willing to learn more about reptiles if it means giving you advice about caring for them

Definitely not also because it will be an excuse to talk to you

They toss you a kind of food for them and say, "I saw this somewhere in one of those books, thought you could learn from it."

Meany

Not the type to jump at the chance to volunteer to care for them, or really want to for that matter

No hard feelings just with everything else going on in their life they don't really think they'll have time for it

But that doesn't mean they abandon the idea altogether

If your gone for a long period, then they stop by every once in a while, to check on them, and feed them if needed

One time you came back unexpectedly early and you watched them move around with one of the snakes as if they were mimicking each other

Once they realized you had come back, they pretend as if nothing just happened, but they know, and you know that you saw the whole thing

Will still deny it to this day though

On the occasion whenever they pass by, they would hang out near the enclosures, never asking you to take them out but I guess just, preferring to stay close by

They'll never admit they enjoy them as much as they enjoyed cats

Watching closely, you look as Mhin softly drags one of their hands down the scaly body of your yellow-white python. Even if they didn't know it themselves, you were beginning to think that they had a favorite.

Although they were silent, you could see the calmness in their expression, how their eyes were softened instead of glaring, how their lips shaped into an almost invisible smile. It was rare seeing Mhin happy, even if it was barely noticeable. But it was enough for you to be as silent as possible, not wanting to ruin the moment for them.

But unfortunately, you were dealing with a hunter, so the truth was they had sensed you long before you even walked in.

"Are you going to just keep standing there or what?" You look unsettling."

You jump, not realizing their eyes had been set on you despite not even facing the same direction.

"Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt."

Their content gaze quickly fell to their usual scowl. "Their your damn pet, you wouldn't be interrupting anything."

Guess they did have a nice side.

[masoncantthinkofaname]

Hello, Mason!! 💛

(I'm so sorry in advance, this is really long).

To start, I rarely interact with shifttok or shiftblr in general, but you have been one of my favorite shifting-centered creators for several months now. I really look forward to every post you make, though I mostly see them on TikTok nowadays. But either way, they never fail to motivate me, especially the posts about your relationship with your husband and family.

It is just so comforting to see someone else who shifts alongside their partner (who is also not in this reality). That's what I do as well. Or at least that's what my ultimate goal is.

My own soulmate is someone who does not exist in this reality in any way, shape, or form, with the exception of the content I have created myself. (I'm trying very hard to avoid calling him an OC, cuz he's really not 💔). I have always felt like he wasn't just a love interest I "created" for myself since he entered my life, but that was before I knew channelling and other such things were possible. That was still in the early stages of my shifting journey, so I was figuring things out. (Over a year ago now, God time flies). But, now I know that he's the one that I was always meant to be with in the end.

I've been meaning to ask you, (though feel free to tell me if you've already talked about this), how you deal with separation here in this reality? Or any other realities where you're physically apart from your husband and your family?

It's been kicking my ass for months now. I miss my Angel more than words can express, I'm genuinely tearing up just writing all of this. I've technically never "successfully" fully shifted before, but I've had minishifts (some where I've felt or heard him). Despite this though, it feels like I've known him for a few lifetimes, which makes the physical separation 100x worse.

I usually comfort myself with art or writing, but I haven't been able to finish, (or even really start), any of my scripts lately because they just feel so empty? Like his parts are missing and my brain can't fill in the gaps. I feel like I'm in limbo, waiting to finally write these with him, cuz doing so without his input feels wrong. Not to mention I've had no time for proper art.

I have scripted a waiting room for us both, where we will shift together, and it has been my main destination for a few months now. He's there, waiting. That's where we'll physically meet for the first time. But the longer I'm emotionally attached to that place, and the more failed shifting attempts I have, the more the separation anxiety weighs on me. I know he is there and doing well, and the wait truly does not matter in the end. But my brain is so loud, and so restless, that I've just been feeling like a rat pacing in a cage of my own making recently, lol.

Like, sometimes, I genuinely catch myself caressing the air and pretending he is there like a crazy person. And when I focus hard enough, I can feel him, in my mind. Which also drives me absolutely mad.

I'm not sure when I will shift, but I know that the separation anxiety is not helping my chances of doing so soon. (I feel like it's putting unnecessary pressure on me, and making me very anxious during shifting attempts).

So I was wondering, how do you deal with it? Is that something you have to deal with at all? Or do you have any experience with similar emotions? Is there anything you do to feel more connected with your husband when you're physically apart? Like channelling, I assume.

(Also) On a side note, I have been wanting to channel my man directly so bad. But I saw some TikToks about that during the early stages of my shifting journey, and I can't get rid of this belief that if I do not have the right equipment (herbs, candles, charms, stuff like that), I will end up channeling harmful or trickster entities. I don't have the money to buy these, and I don't know how else I could protect myself, or if it is even needed at all? I know my partner's energy like the back of my hand, but I'm still inexperienced, and my mind is so foggy most days that I am too anxious to try it properly.

(Also also) Honestly, half of this ask is a sleep deprived ramble, feel free to skip it if it's too long, I promise I won't mind 😭 I drafted this before you shifted away/and back, I'll completely understand if you do not want to answer it 💖🫶🏻

First of all, there is no need to apologise, really. My responses aren't always the quickest, but I don't want anyone to feel anxious to ask for advice or reassurance, especially when you have been bottling it up!

I understand you, completely. The separation can be painful and seemingly infinitely long. You're not weird or abnormal for being affected by it.

I want to start off by letting you know channelling is nothing to be afraid of. It's natural. You have to remember you're in control, always. You don't need protection, you won't channel tricksters or bad entities. If you assume you'll be safe and only talk with your man, then that's what will happen! You can channel in so many different ways, ask for signs, send letters, he can visit your dreams, spend time around you. There are so many options to feel more connected and less alone.

I have a few established signs with my husband. Yellow flowers is one, especially sunflowers. Forget me nots, in general just hearts, and more! These are signs he has sent me so many times that it's easy to recognise them anywhere, and know it's him. You can simply just establish them with your man in a letter or through channelling, and it can help a lot with knowing he's there! Especially if you pick something that's not too uncommon for you to see, but also not something you come across daily.

Always remember that your time here is temporary, and about to be replaced with an eternity with him. No matter how painful it is, he's there, he's watching over you, and supporting you along the way. You're not alone and never will be. Remember that it will all be worth it. You're allowed to be sad about it, but try not to focus too much on the fact that you're not together yet. Instead see every interaction or minishift as motivation and an encouragement to keep going! You got this, before you know it you'll be together :)

[ordowrites]

curses, curses, blessings?

cw: some swearing, Wanderer is referred to as 'Wanderer' in this and sometimes "Hat Guy", some pining, banter, mild flirting, Wanderer being terrible with feelings, this is just crack so there's very little logic behind it, hybrid-ish reader (-ish), gn!reader, minors dni, mdni, SFW, extremely mild but referenced yandere tendencies (possessiveness/obsessiveness, mentions of stalking), user has an Electro Vision, reader is Not the traveler, possible OOC-ness

notes: i hope i didn't make him sound too rude in this fic - i'm still trying to get a taste on how to write him. but enjoy this li'l crack fic while i die in the summer heat~!

summary: in which you encounter an issue and the Wanderer sometimes has issues with keeping is mouth shut.

You were told by your team to not go on your own - to wait until everyone was ready to go but honestly, it was a simple investigation into something strange that had recently appeared. The Traveler was due to arrive in a few days, but you chose to go on ahead to scout and make sure everything was in order.

Unfortunately for you, the Abyss Order had been involved and unfortunately for you, magic went awry and what was supposed to be an easy take down of a Pyro Abyss Magic became something else. Sure, the Abyss Mage was defeated, in the end but at what cost, really?

Your pride, that's what. You could cover the obvious triangular ears on your head but not the tail, so of course you'd hurry through the streets in hopes of nobody stopping you and talking to you. You mostly didn't want any sort of I told you so's from the rest of your team you'd have been working with for this stupid class you're sure you're going to fail anyways.

Relieved that nobody stopped to talk to you - though you're sure you saw Kaveh staring at you - you were able to make it to your destination without too much of an issue. And that's why you're now hunkered down in the library, books scattered everywhere in hopes of finding a way to undo the magic the Abyss Mage casted upon you.

"I didn't know you could read."

Great, your day just got even better. You don't want to look up but you do - the Wanderer, Hat Guy as most people call him, stands there with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What do you want?" You ask with a heavy sigh. Engaging with him is difficult and you're already too busy to focus on him. You hear a soft hmph from him and roll your eyes. "I'm busy, Hat Guy."

"What are you reading?" He sounds so irritated with that nickname and you grin to yourself. "I was told to come and fetch you." He finally elaborates, when you refused to answer his question. It sounds like a lie - he often seems to appear when you're in trouble, upset, or just milling about and always has an excuse for it. But that is a thought for another time. "'cause apparently some idiot when to these strange ruins by themself."

"Well that idiot was merely a curious scholar."

He scoffs at your answer. "Now that I've answered your question, answer mine."

"Why are you so interested in what I'm reading? I thought you were allergic to social interactions." You quip back, looking up at him now with a blank expression. "But if you're actually dying to know, I'm just reading up on...abnormal curses."

"Abnormal...curses?"

"Yup." And without a thought, you look back down.

"That's stupid."

"What is?"

"Why are you reading on abnormal curses? What, did you anger some god?"

You heave a sigh. It can't hurt to tell him, right? Or well, show him. If nothing else, the Wanderer simply just lives and let live and he won't laugh at you. With great reluctance, you pull down the hood of your cloak, letting your cute, furry ears pop up. He stares at you with those pretty violet eyes of his, and watch his mouth quirk a bit. A soft snort from him, followed by a soft heh.

"I'll punch you." You threaten, uselessly.

"What happened?" So you recount your little expedition and he listens somewhat politely - clearly struggling to not make fun of you for your appearance, his eyes still on the fluffy ears. When you finish, he has yet to look away. "Hm. Fascinating."

"Any clue to undo it?"

"How would I know? Abyss power is weird and I'm not sure why an Abyss Mage would do this type of curse."

"Me neither." You let out a heavy sigh. "Guess I'll have to wait it out."

"Yeah," Hat Guy says with a nod. "Guess you will." His eyes have not left your ears for even just a moment.

"You hardly stare at Tighnari like this." You mention, after a moment and his face goes red as he looks away. "Aw, do you like them?"

When the Wanderer refuses answer you, you can only heave a sigh and close the thick book shut. It's time to put your mess away and call it quits - you're very surprised, however, when he starts helping you.

He grins when he uses his own Vision to hover in the air, to reach the higher spots and you glare up at him. Show off is what you think as he lands too gracefully on his feet.

You wonder if you should thank him - he's looking like he's expecting something.

"Thanks, I guess." You turn to leave, grabbing your bookbag as you go. "Will keep looking for ways to undo this tomorrow..."

"For what it's worth, I think you look cute like that."

"I'm sorry?" You stop dead in your tracks to turn to look at him. Did you hear him right? Did he compliment you? The Wanderer, who only ever seems to enjoy riling you up? You stare at him.

For a moment, it looks like he's about to backtrack on his words and pretend he did not say anything so kind to you.

"You heard me." Wanderer answers, gruffly as he crosses his arms over his chest. "What're you gonna do about it?" Now it's your turn to blush and you clear your throat as you fumble to find the right words, a snarky comeback, anything but you can't. Not when he's looking directly at you and with more of an earnest look than he has since you two met. "If it were up to me, you'd keep them."

As he's talking, the Wanderer is already walking away. He stops. "You coming or what?"

"Where are we going?"

"Dinner? Geez, how did you get into the Akademiya?"

You shake your head and quietly follow him, mulling over his offhand compliment. Unconsciously, you reach up towards the ears and gingerly touch them.

Maybe they won't be so bad?

[rollinouttahere-writes]

Hello! I've been reading your drabbles and works since 2 years ago (with a year gap cause at the time I lost interest in one piece for a bit) and I wanted to say that I adore the work you do! It's honestly so rare to find fics with platonic relationships as usually there's only romantic or nsfw stuff in the tags I browse, which isn't really my thing (no shade to other creators of course! it's just not what I prefer) so your blog is like a haven Not to mention the amount of work and dedication you put into everything you write! The story, the accurate characterization, the dialogue, the plot, everything is just 😚👌 CHEFS KISS Even though I'm currently not into one piece, I still love to read your works just because of how much of an incredible writer you are. It's almost stress-reducing in a way Anyways- sorry for the long rant, I just wanted to ask that since you wrote for Straw hats, Red Hairs, and Whitebeards, which ones would you rank best to worst as platonic!yanderes? I'd honestly choose Red Hair as the best just because they seem the most lax about everything. They let you do your own thing and won't bother you (much), and the only rule in place is that you're not allowed off the ship unless you're accompanied by shanks or someone he trusts to protect youThe middle ground are the Whitebeard pirates. They're definitely pushy and have more rules for you, but I do think the majority of the crew is okay. Sadly I gave up on One Piece before the Whitebeard pirates were introduced so I'm not sure what else to say 😔

The worst in my opinion are the Straw Hats. I'm not sure whether you'll hate my opinion on this but hear me out 😭😭 Every single member is chaotic in their own way. I'd rank Luffy, Nami, and Usopp as the worst because they're more energetic, more demanding, more expectant, and after a while they're kind of exhausting to be around. Sanji and Chopper are middle ground since they're more on the calmer side, but they have their flaws. The best ones would have to be Robin and Zoro as they're not completely crazy for you and wouldn't meddle in your business, but they always keep watch of you

I know there are more members but again, I wasn't introduced to them so I won't write how they're like since I don't want to mischaracterize

But wow.... I honestly didn't expect to write this much for an ask. I hope the amount I wrote doesn't bother you cause I know that the tumblr format sucks with showing a lot of words… But if you do interact then I want to say thank you! I’ll continue to read whatever you publish because you’re actually so talented 🙏🙏

AAAAAA THIS IS SO SWEET

Trust me, I'm not going to complain about someone sending me a lengthy message, I'm just flattered that you have so many kind things to say about my writing! Also it's absolutely insane that you dropped One Piece but are still read my fics. Like what do you mean I'm able to hold your attention better than Oda himself?? You're giving me an ego.

While I do enjoy writing romantic stuff, I think I'll always have a preference toward platonic relationships. Especially when it comes to yandere content since platonic yanderes are what really dragged me into the whole yandere fandom in the first place. So worry not, there will never be a long term absence of it here!

As for your question about ranking those crews from best to worst to have, I do agree with the Straw Hats being the worst, but I would switch The Whitebeard's and Red Hair's around.

I would put the Whitebeard's as the least bad because (and I'm assuming you don't care about spoilers since you dropped the series) if you really want out, well, almost all of them die. Eventually it'll just be you and Marco, and he's pretty lax most of the time; though he would definitely be a little clingy after losing basically his entire family. Depending on how attached you would get, this could also make it the worst, but your wording implies that this involves a very unwilling darling. Even when they're all alive, at worst you'll just feel like you're stuck with a very doting helicopter family. Yeah there are rules, but none of them feel particularly harmful since they generally pertain to your health and safety.

The Red Hair's are in the middle because that crew would give me a damn headache! The ship smells like a frat house in the absolute worse way, everyone is drinking and trying to drag you into their partying, and everyone is so over-powered that you have no chance of escaping for any meaningful length of time. The only thing keeping them from being worse is the fact that they're already so established with Shanks being an Emperor that they don't really get up to that much.

Unlike the worst crew, the Straw Hat's, who are toppling governments and fighting fucking everyone every damn week. Not only are they an inescapable crew, but they also drag you into their bullshit constantly, so you can't even relax. Then there are all of the wild personalities on board. Robin, Zoro, and Jimbei are all consistently pretty chill. Brook, Franky, and Chopper can be handfuls but not consistently. Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji are all velcro-yanderes that won't leave you the hell alone.

Thank you again for the lovely message! This really made my day! <3

[the-entity-down-the-street]

Okay so. The New Beetlejuice Movie.

I have thoughts about Lydia and Beetz, and how Beetlejuice's feelings developed for her.

Yes. I ship them. I don't think I've come out and said it yet, but yeah I'm one of those. Block me if it bothers you. Winona and Micheal ship it, too. For the record.

Analysis under the cut

Okay folks. So, I don't believe for a second that Beetlejuice loved her in the first movie. He doesn't know her, barely interacts with her, doesn't care about her outside of having a means to an end. You can see this in how he treats the wedding, too. He rushes it and does everything in his power to stop everyone from saying his name. I don't even think they had a cake?

Now, this isn't to say he isn't intrigued by Lydia.

"I think I could get along with Edgar Allen Poe's daughter, she gets me."

Let's be real, though. He's a scumbag and a sex pest in the first movie.

This is in stark contrast to the sequel. He calls Lydia the love of his life, keeps a photo of her on his desk, fulfills all his promises to her, helps her get revenge on Rory *after* making him tell the truth about his motivations, and the DANCE SEQUENCE?? If his goal was just to escape the Netherworld, he'd have rushed the wedding vows and gotten it over with as quick as possible. And considering he has *more* motivation to get out than the first movie-- Delores coming to kill him, for real, permenantly-- that makes the second wedding even more romantic. He is down BAD bad.

So, how did we get here?

That's what I've been puzzling over for past couple days. I think it has something to do with the psychic connection Beetlejuice mentions to Bob.

@herefortheships has an excellent post that helped fill in the "why" of the psychic connection. Lydia can see all kinds of ghosts. What makes Beetlejuice different?

It's because they almost completed the wedding in the first movie. Sure, Lydia never said "I do", but they were almost there, and with this marriage ceremony being so powerful as to bring the dead back to life, even an interrupted wedding forms a link between them. Beetlejuice being such a powerhouse himself, and Lydia being naturally psychic, probably strengthens it. The closest comparsion I'd make is never closing out with a Ouija board. A very powerful, horny Ouija board.

So, this gives Beetlejuice a chance to get to know Lydia over the years. He watches her grow up, with a set of ghost parents no less. He sees her powers strengthen, and how she goes on to start a show utilizing her gift. I wonder if the show inspired Beetlejuice to start his own business?

She becomes a wife, a mother, a fully rounded adult who never loses her adoration of the macabre. I think he sees what he originally saw in Delores, and it ignites something, for lack of a better term, long-dead within him. Lydia is a much better person than Delores, too, and Beetlejuice knows that. After all, she originally agreed to marry him to save her (already dead) friends.

No wonder he's fucking smack dizzy in love. He softens, becomes a marginally more respectable person. Keeping a picture of teenage Lydia on his desk is objectively creepy, but that's also when he saw her in person last, so it makes sense.

Something else I noticed, and this kind of a tangent, but it's interesting.

He only started appearing to her again recently. Like, she'd felt him around the corners, but it's only around the start of the film that he tries to actively get her attention. I have a theory as to why. In part, he wanted to make himself better for her before making a grand entrance (reputable businessman and all), but there's something else that's more obvious.

Rory. He knows Rory's bad news, and I wouldn't be surprised if he used his connection with Lydia to spy on him. Beetlejuice probably knew he was planning to marry Lydia for her money soon. Now, he couldn't talk to her properly due to her blatantly trying to push him out, but he could still be loudly present.

Notice how when Rory summons him, Beetlejuice presents as a relationship counselor. He even says "I think there's an enabler here, but we'll talk about that later," which I think is because he wants Rory to know he sees through the emotionally manipulative bullshit.

I think he also knows Lydia was not going to believe him if he said Rory was a creep. I mean, why would she? Beetlejuice bides his time with gross out gags and other typical Beetlejuice antics. It's only after he's proven himself honest enough to stay true to his word by saving Astrid and sending her boyfriend to hell that he gives Rory the truth syrum.

He's really, really grown to genuinely love Lydia, way more than he ever loved Delores I'd say, and it's because he's fallen in love with the woman he got to watch her become.

[selineram3421]

📹

You're Off-key

Part 5

Part 4

Reader X Gravity Falls

Warning ⚠

⚠ everyone is aged up, Italics= thoughts, food mention-breakfast food and spaghetti, weapons, blood mention, interrogation-polygraph test ⚠

"I wouldn't have a serious conversation before breakfast but this is a topic that must be discussed.", Ford says as you and Dipper follow behind him to the kitchen.

You were freaking out, pulling out a chair to sit down at the table and then getting a breakfast plate.

At the moment it felt like the walls were closing in on you. The room was shrinking, the light over the kitchen table started to make the room feel more like an interrogation room. Maybe it was because you were freaking out but Stan began to stare at you down, as if you robbed him of all of his money.

"It seems that our guest here has had a run in with Bill.", the older nerd twin says. "We need to check the statue in the woods and make sure to set up barriers around the shack."

What do I do? WHAT DO I DO!? You try to pick up a utensil but with your hand shaking so much, you end up dropping it.

All the talking around you sounds muddled, like its underwater.

"You ok?", Mabel asks and places a hand on your shoulder.

"To be honest? No.", you laugh and rub your hand over your face, only to clutch the side of your head. "I've been trying to keep it together this whole time but I have no idea what to do. Ever since getting here, I've been worrying about my best friend."

Dipper gets into your view. "Your best friend?"

You sigh and rest your hands on the table.

"I'll tell you guys everything that happened.", you frown as you glare down at the yellow table top. "And where I actually come from."

The room was quiet for a few seconds.

"Is it bad that I'm excited for their story time?", Mabel suddenly whispers to her brother.

"Mabel! Now is not the time!", he whisper shouts.

You laugh at that and feel yourself calm down a little. Steeling up your nerves, you turn to look at the older set of twins.

"Brass knuckles and some kind of ray gun, on the table.", you say with a stern face. "I'm not asking again."

The two look at you in surprise, a little unsure as they place the weapons on the table. "How did you know we had these on our person?", Ford asks as he lets go of the ray gun.

"The way I know Mabel has a grappling hook.", you say and point to the said twin. "She'll at least apologize to me before shooting at my head.", you shrug.

"Are you psychic?", she asks with sparkling eyes.

"No, I'm not.", you wave off that idea. "Golf club.", you point at Dipper.

The said twin slowly lowers the golf club and it clatters onto the floor.

"But it would be really cool if I was. You know how many lotteries I could win? There was one time that I almost won the lotto with just guessing.", you say.

Stan sits a little closer at that. "Go on.."

"We're getting off topic.", Ford says and crosses his arms. "Tell us everything."

"Right.", you sit up a bit straighter and clasp your hands together. "What do you all know about the multiverse or different dimensions?"

You can see the two nerdy twins get interested.

"I've traveled multiple dimensions.", Ford says.

"How many more are there?", Dipper asks you and pulls out his personal journal, clicking a pen.

"A bunch.", is all you say on that. "The one I come from is..more secluded. I'm able to see into worlds of different dimensions but can't interact with them. It's kind of like watching t.v. in a way.", you explain.

Dipper is writing away in his journal and nodding along.

"Your universe is a cartoon show. It came out around 2012 and well, I watched how the twins spent their summer in Gravity Falls."

"WHAT!?", Mabel screeches and slams her hands on the kitchen table. "You saw everything!?"

"NO! No.", you wave your hands. "Though I did want to see that race with the space lizard, the one in the snow I think.", you look up in thought before looking back to the family. "Still really curious about that one."

"Why keep quiet about it? Why not tell us?", Dipper suddenly asks.

You raise an eye brow with a "really?' face.

"Imagine if I walked in here, bloody faced and all, suddenly treating everyone like best friends and talking about Bill?", you say and point at all of them. "You'd for sure hit me over the head first and ask questions later."

"What do you think is stopping us right now?", Stan leans over to say.

"Nothing.", you respond. "I'm here with a mild concussion, hoping you guys don't harm me, and honestly wanting to finish breakfast.", you gesture to the plates of food on the table. "I'll let you know everything that you ask for, and.."

You sigh and look down at the table again.

"Tell you about my dream last night."

"Dream? What happened?", Ford asks. "Did Bill visit you?"

Before you could respond, Mabel puts a fork in your hand.

"Let's eat, yeah?", she smiles. "I'm in the mood for pancakes."

⯅

You're hooked up to a lie detector machine on the game table, curtsy of the two older twins, and Dipper holds the camcorder.

It kinda felt like it was too much, but with the triangle being Ford's evil crazy ex, you could understand why they would go to such lengths. Mabel even took out the tape recorder and pressed the record button.

"Today is June-", the twin in the cassette sweater starts with a chipper voice. "As you know, we got a new friend we met in the woods but turns out they have some secrets and they decided to share with the whole family today!", she then goes on about what happened earlier.

"Mabel, we need to record them talking. Not you.", her twin says.

"Oh, right.", she says and puts the recorder on the table.

Dipper starts recording and asks you basic interrogation questions. Like your name, birthday, and today's date.

"I have agreed to do this for the safety of myself and well..everyone here.", you say. "Ahem.", you clear your throat. "I'm from a different dimension and Gravity Falls is a cartoon show back in my universe. The show ended a while ago but recently the fandom has been active due to a book put out by the creator called: The Book of Bill."

"Didn't we lock that up?", Mabel asks.

"I was one of many who got the book and read through its pages. After reading it and checking out the website, my best friend and I set out on a road trip that inspired the show. We went to multiple tourist locations and to the original "Mystery Shack" areas.", you said. "Of course, there's Confusion Hill and The Oregon Vortex, not entirely sure which one is the original, original. Ya know?", you shrug. "The last location was to Bill's statue."

"Bill's statue is in your universe?", Dipper asks.

"Oh, yeah. A bunch of fans went to find it once the creator showed a picture of it on the internet.", you explained. "It's in California now.", then you continued. "Anyway, I bought spaghetti before we stopped at the statue because I read somewhere in the book that it was a way to summon Bill, I did it as a joke."

"Was the spaghetti good?", Mabel asks.

"We are talking to someone from a different dimension, and you ask if the spaghetti was good?", Dipper says.

"What? I'm curious!", his twin defends herself.

"The spaghetti was really good.", you confirm. "I set up the spaghetti like the book instructed and my best friend tried to take a picture of me shaking hands with Bill and well..the crazy triangle showed up and said he had been waiting for an eternity to meet me.", you gesture to everything. "Then after he dropped me into a hole, I ended up here in Gravity Falls, with a concussion."

"How long were you in the woods for?", Ford asks, reading the scribbles on the paper from the lie detector.

"I'm honestly not sure?", you confess. "I kept waking up and passing out. I think I showed up around noon or a little after. And then I think one of the twins bumped into me and I passed out again."

"That's true. It was Dipper's fault.", Mabel says.

"I wasn't looking where I was going, ok!?", he defends.

"No hard feelings.", you say. "I was too zoned out to pay attention to what was in front of me."

"How do we know that you're not working with the triangle right now?", Stan asks.

"Oh, good question.", you say. "Last night I had a dream in my mind space and Bill showed up asking how you, the Pines family, were doing.", you say and try to remember everything in the dream. "He tried to make a deal with me, I laughed in his face and told him no, then he got mad at me cuz I said..something."

The family glanced at each other before looking back at you to continue.

"And then he tried to tear me apart but I woke up before he could.", you finished. "The end."

"Wow, that was interesting.", Mabel says and stops the tape recorder.

"Were they telling the truth Ford?", Stan asks.

The two nerdy twins look over the polygraph test.

Being somewhat of a nerd yourself, you look at the papers as well. "Sometimes these tests can be wrong since it mostly measures heart rate, blood pressure, and other little stuff.", you explain. "The trick is to stay calm."

"If you knew how to pass the test, how do we know you weren't lying?", Dipper questions.

"Well, I could have lied about anything but I didn't. I already kinda lied earlier when I asked who Bill was.", you say. "Remember? Twenty percent lie rate."

"Hmm...", Mabel hums and then smiles. "You know what this means? Another quiz!", she cheers. "We can quiz them about ourselves! If they know stuff from the "show" like they said, then we'll know if they are lying!"

"Mabel, I don't know how we feel about confirming secrets about ourselves to some random person.", Dipper says. "No offense? I think?"

"No worries, I would also feel weird about sharing things about myself to a random person.", you nod.

Ford and Stan step away to talk about everything that happened within the last hour, while Mabel starts her questionnaire.

The older twins come back and nod.

"Mabel, do your worst.", Stan says.

"Way ahead of you!", she says and rushes off to get, what you assume, is glitter.

You sit there and then remember that you could just re-tell the episodes.

"I could just, you know, tell you what I know about the show?", you say.

"We'll do both.", Dipper says and stops the camcorder.

This might take a while...

*slurps spaghetti pasta* Oh, yeah. It's all coming together.

~Seline, the person.

Part 6

Taglist@

@diffidentphantom @sleep-7372 @boredwithlifeatthispoint @mspurpl3 @gxstiess @lynkolnevans @fries11 @paastaboi @the-monochrome-jester @staygold162 @geckodarla @klwrites @alias-sam @eddwardtheseventhspacewizard @agreatcheesecakestudentstuff @dinsfire24 @+?

GF List🏞 | YO-🎹

[myeyesarebiggerthanmybladder]

Introducing myself to the many people of Tumblr!

Hello! Depending on the time zone of whoever is reading this, it could be morning, afternoon, evening or night, so I thought a simple greeting would suffice -- otherwise I would of course have said "good evening". I should also note to myself that not everybody will read this at the same time, so even if time zones were not a problem it could still cause issues to mention a particular time in my introduction. I will try to keep this as concise as possible so as to account for the fact that blocks of text are difficult to read on a screen as well as the unfortunate fact that people's attention spans are decreasing almost by the day. I myself struggle to pay attention to something for a long period of time unless that thing is of particular interest to me, so I understand how necessary it is to keep my words to a minimum. I suppose I should tell you my name here, which as you can see from the title of my blog is Akechi Touma. I won't tell you my age or the name of my school -- disclosing my full name is already a risky decision and revealing anything more would be incredibly careless thing to do! While lurking here I've noticed that many of my real-life acquaintances have chosen to share their location as part of their introduction and I must say that I shake my head whenever I see it. Internet safety is no joke, and revealing too much of your personal information online could have serious consequences! Fortunately I am someone who likes to keep things close to my chest, so I am fairly confident that I will be safe from stalkers or predators or anyone else who may wish to do me harm. Speaking of predators, if you do plan on saying anything lewd or "Not Safe For Work" in my inbox then I must ask that you refrain from interacting. I won't hesitate to block those who break this rule as it is one I take very seriously and I simply do not wish to deal with people like that. I sometimes wonder why these people don't have anything better to do, and how sad their life must be if their primary source of entertainment is making strangers uncomfortable over the internet. It's important to remember that those behind a screen are still real people, and your perverted or unkind words can affect them a great deal. That brings me to my second rule, which is that I kindly ask you to refrain from rude or bullying messages in my inbox. That sort of thing is incredibly unkind and can really bring a person's mood down -- although I do try not to let strangers' words affect me too much and have had plenty of experience with rather unpleasant people which has led me to develop a relatively thick skin. This, like the first rule, will result in an instant block if broken -- though I will devise a personal point system for how rude a message must be before I block the person sending it. Sometimes a person can be rude without intending to -- unfortunately people have told me that I tend to fall into this habit myself -- so I will endeavour to be as tolerant as possible. I don't think there are any more rules I need to mention, though if I think of any more I will be sure to add them!

TL;DR: no nsfw and no bullying! Otherwise, ask whatever you like.

OOC:

This blog is co-run by @billiuspendragon and @beepaboopadoop

To clarify on the rules -- I won't allow anything NSFW beyond the kinds of jokes that are in the canon of Saiki K. Akechi sometimes rambles about inappropriate things himself but I'll use my own common sense to figure out whether asks cross the line or not -- I'm not a minor but many people in this RP community are and I don't want to make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

I have quite a lot of RP blogs now so we'll see if I can keep this up lmao. I just really wanted to try roleplaying as my guy!

[earlysunshines]

moonlight serenade

kindergarden teacher!sana x fem!reader. (pt. 3)

summary: sana finds you even cuter after seeing you in shark pj's, you two are hopeless lesbians, you drive sana home and it's more romantic than it should be – oh my god you're not a mother?

wc: 5.3k

warnings: mentions of food, i think that's it ; reader has tattoos ; u two are hopeless romantics ; lesbians being lesbians

pt 1. pt2. pt4.

a/n: I love jazz. I've been listening to jazz in a bakery/cafe while writing each part actually. pls listen to moonlight serenade by ella fitzgerald, it's a work of art and one of my all time favorites :-D

(are lyrics in fics corny? I have no idea. I just love jazz and thought this song was perfect for this part.)

trying to write as much before I move! enjoy ;-]

-

“Are you actually serious?” Jihyo says, placing her cup of coffee down. Sana pinches the bridge of her nose and lets out a small breath,

“Jihyo, I don’t know what to do,” Sana says defeatedly.

Two months have passed by and that means two months of seeing you every now and then. Johnny, your brother, has returned from his business trip, so he ended up being the one to take Hana to school in the morning and the one to pick her up in the afternoon. You, however, were not going to miss the chance to see this lovely woman named Sana. 5'4 inches of pure beauty and charm. So, you convinced him to let you take Hana to school once or twice a week just to see who you think is the woman blessed by Aphrodite. 

I mean, the temperature is dropping, and the warmth that spreads through your body when you see Sana is definitely something you need for this weather.

Every week Sana would see you in the morning once or twice. You two would exchange your friendly greetings before Hana goes off to chat with her new best friend Jiyeong, you’d stare at each other all lovingly (you two are oblivious, it’s sick), and then part ways. Rinse and repeat, reuse, reduce, recycle, etc, this went on for two damn months. 

Sana would never say anything more, she wouldn’t flirt, she wouldn’t ask you out, and she wouldn’t do anything but be friendly. She still believed that you were literally her student’s mother, and there was a guilt that got heavier every time her heart did a flip from seeing you.

Each interaction sparked a small flame in your hearts, and just before it grew bigger, you’d wave goodbye; the flame would die again, never growing large enough to really warm you two the way you both needed.

“Sana… I honestly have no clue what to say,” Jihyo starts, and she looks at the young teacher in front of her, practically losing her mind, “I mean, you’re sure she’s her mom?”

“Yes, I mean, the girl’s dad and her take turns dropping her off and whatnot. I'm not going to be more delusional than I already am trying to find anything that makes her seem less like a mother, I mean, it's clear that she is the mother of that girl.” Sana explains, and her heart sinks a little, “I guess her dad is nice, though, and tall, I don’t know.” Sana groans. 

Jihyo watches Sana stick out her signature little pout and swirl the coffee in her cup, 

“Well… There are always others, no?”

“I don’t know, it’s just something about her Jihyo,” and Jihyo listens with interest, “I just, ever since we met, I feel like, there was some kind of… god this is so embarrassing…” Sana trails off, putting a hand on her forehead and pinching her eyes shut from slight embarrassment. Sana reminisces the way you’d joke about Hana making your wrinkles appear if she kept it up with her little antics, how you’d make her laugh at your little comments, and the way your eyes scan the room for her in the mornings and -

“You’ve been a hopeless romantic since we were roommates, I’ve probably heard worse.” Jihyo sighs, and she reminisces about the days when Sana and she had to share a small single-bedroom dorm, and how she would gush about anything and romanticize everything. 

“Look, she’s just so pretty… Maybe we could just be friends? She’s sweet.” Sana suggests, and Jihyo laughs in disbelief.

“You want to be friends with someone’s mother that you also, or, might have a crush on?”

“Maybe.” 

-

You let yourself in through the front door with your spare keys, hanging your jacket on the coat hanger and sliding your shoes off, setting them on the shoe rack. 

There’s a faint melody of a slow, soft song playing, and there’s a low voice that hums along to the old tune. It fits the atmosphere of the quiet house on a Thursday night.

You creep through the hall quietly to see your brother in the dimmed kitchen washing a few plates. He’s in a navy long-sleeved shirt with its sleeves rolled up so water doesn't temporarily shade his apparel, and loose shorts that go down to just above his knees. His hair is a bit messy, and he looks nerdy with his circular black glasses on. You laugh at the sight of him in his pajamas and slides, he jumps a little and turns his head in surprise after hearing you.

“My god, at least text me.” He sighs, and you chuckle at him. You make your way over to the area where he is and sit across from him at the kitchen island, he directs his attention back to the dirty plate in his hand, “Did you need something?”

“Kinda.”

“You know where everything is, just grab it if you need it. Also, be quiet, Hana just fell asleep.” Johnny responds, turning off the sink and placing the white dish in the dishwasher. 

“It’s not a physical thing, I just… maybe some advice, or at least your thoughts.”

“...On?”

“There’s this girl,”

"Oh," He mumbles quietly, “You’re ready to date again?”

“I think so,” You begin, “She’s different you know. Not like that girl in high school. She’s actually the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and she’s sweet and nice and caring and-”

“How long have you known her?”

“Two months...”

“So it is Ms. Minatozaki.” Johnny scoffs, though, not in an insulting way, more of an ‘I fucking knew it’ way. He picks up a rag and starts to wipe it on the countertop.

You look at your taller brother in surprise, “How did you know?”

“Hana tells me all about you two y’know? Why else would you willingly wake up earlier than you should to drop off my daughter at school? And, she tells me that you ask about her teacher?” He laughs, “You’re not good at hiding things, never have been.”

“Hey!” You say defensively, and a little too loud as it makes him put a finger to his lips,

“Lower your voice.” 

“Sorry.” You mumble, laying your head on your palm. Johnny turns his body to face you instead of the counter connected to the sink that he had previously been wiping,

“Soooo, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know Johnny.”

“You think she likes you?” He asks, genuinely curious about your new interest. Johnny grabs two glasses of water and places them on the counter, then sits down to the right of you, making sure to give his full attention to you. 

Johnny has always been a good brother, and you two had your necessary brother-sister moments where you were at each other's throats; in fact, you’d bicker all the damn time and it even went on into high school. However, you two always had each other’s backs. Even when you hated each other there would be moments where you two were the only ones who understood each other, and sometimes time seemed to stop when you’d talk about the deeper topics and anything bothering you two. 

And so, time slows down as Johnny listens to your rant.

“We’re friendly, I mean, what am I thinking? I feel slightly delusional I won’t even lie,” You sigh, “She’s so pretty and sweet and I just, I really want to get to know her. Like ever since I met her I felt like… It’s so corny but I swear the world literally paused for a moment.” You add, shifting your look away from your older brother.

How are you supposed to tell your brother that this woman that you’ve known for two months is making you lose some sleep, and, by the way, you haven’t even had a full conversation with her either. You think of the woman that you go out of your way to run into and see for ten minutes a day total, twice a week. You think of her radiant smile that rivals the sun's rays, the voice that’s more soothing than any song on your playlist, and the way her eyes light up when she sees you, and -

“You’re head over heels, huh,” Johnny says, amused.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I barely know her.” you lie,

“Well, you could.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? ‘Oh hey I think of you day and night just because I think you’re cute and nice and I think I almost overfilled a cup of cold brew while daydreaming about you, uh maybe we could go out sometime?’”

“Maybe don’t say that much, dumbass.” Your older brother says playfully, “Just start with a compliment or something, you seriously suck at this romance stuff.”

“Thanks,” You mutter, rolling your eyes, “But what if she thinks that’s weird? I’m literally her student’s aunt.”

“Maybe,” Johnny sighs and finishes the water in his cup, “Maybe you should get some rest, y/n. If you lose sleep over this woman who you’ve never had a full conversation with, imagine how much sleep you’ll lose when you finally do.” He stands up and makes his way over back to the sink to rinse the glass cup you had gotten him for his last birthday, “So, maybe you should catch up on rest now and rant to me when you finally have the balls to actually make a conversation with her, then I could actually give you some decent advice."

“You suck.”

“I want to give you my feedback and advice, but this is literally all I can say right now: ask her out and come back to me.”

“This is too much.”

“You’re a loser, y/n.” Johnny jokes, and he takes the cup that you hadn’t touched away and then rinses it.

-

You don’t even get to plan anything or prepare yourself for your next interaction with Sana, and you look stupid when you run into her too.

You’re at the nearest convenience store in an oversized t-shirt that was your brothers’, the gray shirt with a shark graphic on it that was too comfy to not steal. Paired with that tee were plaid shorts and white socks with more sharks on them that you had gotten from Hana last Christmas, along with grayish-green clogs on your feet. 

You were dressed like a college student that was on a budget, and of course, you had to run into the woman of your dreams at a convenience store at 12:24 am on a Friday night while looking stupid.

Sana had run into you while you scanned the drinks section. You didn’t notice her calling out your name while there was pop music playing in your earbuds, and when you turned to see who had tapped on your shoulder your eyes widened.

Sana held a small basket in her hand, and she wore a purple sweatshirt along with gray sweatpants, much more presentable than what you were wearing. Your face goes red as you realize that she’s caught you looking ridiculous, all while she looks perfect.

Her hair is clipped up and some strands fall over her face, and she looks so unbelievably adorable just standing there smiling at you.

“Hi.” She says, looking you up and down. 

She scans your whole look and gets a little flustered by how precious you look. Your hair is messed up and disheveled at the roots, as if you’d just gotten out of bed and ran a hand through it. The oversized t-shirt drowned your figure in comfort, and your inked, toned forearms were revealed. The t-shirt you wore had a cute shark graphic on it, Sana had guessed that your daughter had something to do with why you had that shirt. She smiles at the sight of you in such comfy clothing, looking lovely as ever while you stare back at her. 

“Hey.” You respond, taking out an earbud,

“It’s surprising to see you here y/n,” Sana giggles, “Thirsty?” She questions, and she’s peeking at the vitamin water in one of your hands.

“I guess so.” You mumble, biting the inside of your cheek and putting a hand in your pocket, “It’s pretty surprising to see you here too.” You add. Surprising, but wow, definitely lucky. When would you ever see her looking so comfy and out of her workplace looking so cute? 

Sana giggles and you feel like a huge gust of wind has hit you so suddenly, about to hit you off your feet. You smile brightly. 

“I couldn’t sleep, I wanted something to snack on,” Sana shrugs. You glance at her basket and see some spicy turtle chips in the basket,

“Eating something spicy at this time is new to me, most people would have something warm, no?”

“Maybe.” Sana mutters, “I like your outfit, by the way.” 

Your ears turn red again and you look down at your clothing, “Yeah… It’s a shirt from Hana’s dad, haha, that’s why it’s so big.”

Sana’s heart sinks a bit at the mention of Hana’s dad. 

Sana and Johnny had met other times, and Sana thought he was nice, sweet, and she can't lie he does has a nice smile, but not as nice as yours. He treated Hana with care; Sana could tell he loved her dearly, as much as you did. 

“I see, I like it. The two of them must love sharks, she always draws them during class.”

“She and her dad are very similar, lots of shark things in the house. I prefer koalas.” You reply. You wonder why the hell you’re mentioning koalas at this time, at this moment in this place, but it doesn’t matter because it seems to spark some kind of conversation with the woman in front of you, and Sana thinks it’s cute, actually. 

“Koalas?” She questions amusingly, "They’re cute. I think hamsters are cuter, though.” 

“hamsters?”

“Mhm.” 

You chuckle at her response and wonder, how does she get cuter every time? Sana turns her head to eye at the drinks, then makes her way to the refrigerator door to grab one for herself, she grabs a canned iced americano and turns her body to face you again, 

“Do you live near? I feel like I would’ve run into you sooner if you did.” Sana says, looking at the can in her right hand. 

“Uh - no. The nearest convenience store closes at 12, so I just drove around until I found one open.” You answer, “Do you live near?” You ask. You wonder if the question is too weird or creepy to ask, I mean, this is a woman you don’t know too well, and would it be weird to ask a person you find so attractive where they live?

“Kind of. It’s a fifteen-minute walk, maybe less, give or take. The one right next to my place is closed too.”

“You walked? At this time?” You question her. Worry takes over your whole body because she walked alone? In the dark? At this hour? 

Sana just hums in response, “Yeah, the neighborhood is really quiet and not too bad.”

“Still, you should’ve driven or something.”

“I don’t drive.” She simply states. You furrow your brows. She just stares back at you with those big brown eyes, it almost makes you forget about worrying.

She walks past you and heads to the self-checkout, you follow. There's a sudden idea that pops up in your mind, and you usually wouldn't be so bold to suggest or ask anything so direct, but it's twelve in the morning and your mind is too scrambled to make or think of any decent decisions.

“Sana,” You murmur, voice just barely above a whisper as you find the confidence for what you’re about to say, “Uh- this might be a little weird to ask, but, um…” You stutter, why the hell are you stuttering? She’s staring at you with those large espresso-colored eyes that remind you of your job at the moment, and the longer she stares back at you the more your mind races. This woman has your heart doing flips and pounding through your chest, you can barely manage your thoughts and words,

“Yes?”

“Uh, could I take you home?” You finally say, barely managing to make eye contact with her and it’s a humbling experience as your usually leveled (at least you think) demeanor crumbles under the presence of this woman.

“You don’t have to. It’s late and I don’t want to cause you too much trouble, y/n.” 

“I’d be much more troubled if I knew you were walking home alone at this time, I insist.”

“Alright then. Let me pay first.”

You pause for a moment and Sana just turns back around, scanning the chips and canned coffee she had in her basket. It’s almost 12:30 now, and a pretty girl is letting you take her home. This wonder of the world is letting your disheveled self take her home.

-

“You have a nice car,” Sana says. She's never had a thing for cars or really knew too much about them. She's only paid attention to Jihyo’s five-seat white Lexus and the black, modified BMW that belonged to her childhood friend Momo. Other cars don't really matter or stand out to her, but Sana’s interest in you grows when she first sees the green Mercedes. Five-seated car looks nice and neat from the outside, for some reason, it really catches her attention. When she sits in the passenger seat she’s hit with the smell of coconut and vanilla. There are two things hung from the internal rearview mirror: One, a small keychain of a koala, and two, a picture of you and Johnny.

Sana can’t help but smile at the picture of you two, you two look happy.

You start the engine and put on your seatbelt before putting the drink you bought in the cup holder. You press on the screen in your car and a slow jazz melody plays. Of course, it had to be a love song. 

“I’ve never seen your tattoos up close, they’re really pretty.” Sana suddenly says as you start to move out of where you were parked. Her eyes scan from your upper forearm, where the tattoo started, and down to where it ended just below your wrist, “I only saw a bit of them when you had dropped Hana off the first day.” Sana added.

She wanted to add on about how she also noticed the tattoo just under your knuckles too, and how she found the ink on your skin so endearing. She wanted to tell you all about the things she found attractive about you. From the noticeable things like your bold features to the little things she’s noted in her mind from every meeting. The way you’d always run a hand through your beautiful hair once or twice, the eye contact you couldn’t hold with her, the way you bit the inside of your cheek when you were quiet, the way your fingers often tugged at the beaded bracelet on your hand, how cute it was to watch you say bye to your daughter, and various other little details. Sana wanted to tell you all about those things, but that would be incredibly weird, right?

“Oh, yeah, thank you. I got the tattoo on my forearm a couple of years ago. Hana picked out the butterfly on my hand last year, actually.” You say, looking at the screen of your car as you back up a bit, making sure you don’t hit anything. 

“Oh, also, you can type the address on my phone. Here.” You add, handing her the device. Sana types in her address quickly and it pops up on the screen. It’s a quick 4-minute drive, and you both wished it were a bit longer.

The music continues to play softly while you two sit in silence, and it somehow makes the mood a bit more intimate whilst the faint sound of Ella Fitzgerald's voice echoes,

I stand and I wait 

For the touch of your hand in the June night 

The roses are sighing 

A moonlight serenade

Your breath hitches, “Um, you can change the song if you want…” You say embarrassed. Sana shakes her head and mumbles, 

“It’s alright. I like it, It’s cute.” She admits, making you blush a bit. You grip the wheel a little tighter as you stop at the red light. The heartfelt lyrics fill the air with a romantic hum, and only the tender melody is heard as you sit together in silence.

The stars are aglow

 And tonight how their light sets me dreaming 

My love, do you know 

That your eyes are like stars brightly beaming?

Sana’s heartbeat skips a little knowing that you listen to such romantic melodies, and she wonders if you love as romantically as such songs. Her mind wanders to the thought of you serenading her in the moonlight, or serenading her in a more domestic setting. The sudden thought of you humming along to these tunes while you cooked or cleaned allowed made her cheeks flush a bit. Jihyo was right: Sana is a hopeless romantic. She’s too far in to get out of the hole of these feelings, and her heart aches a little, the guilt piles up.

You on the other hand are freaking out.

Sana likes your lovey-dovey taste in music, and she seems content (Sana's having a crisis). Maybe you do have a chance with this woman, I mean, she’s already in your car and letting you take her home. Maybe you can do this again, maybe you can listen to songs like this together in a more intimate setting rather than your car, and maybe you can do more than just listen to Ella Fitzgerald together. All the maybe’s in your head are cut short as you reach her place and park in front of her apartment complex. 

“We’re here.” You mutter, and you wish you weren’t.

Sana nods and reaches for the eco-friendly bag she had set down, unbuckles her seatbelt, then turns so that her eyes stare into yours with a new intensity. She puts her left hand on your right hand that had been gripping the gear shift ever so gently, your jaw tenses a bit and your left hand that had been on the wheel tightens its hold once more. She looks from your eyes to your lips, then back to your eyes again. Your heart is suddenly an acrobat the way it's doing so many flips.

“Thank you again, I appreciate it.” She says, and her other hand is on the handle of the door, ready to get out, but she doesn’t.

“Anytime, I didn’t want you to be out alone at this time.” you wonder how that sentence leaves your mouth so calmly because your heart is beating at least two hundred times per minute. 

Sana’s lips curve into a smile again and you relax a bit,

“Well,” Sana starts, and she opens the door, “I’ll see you soon?”

“I’m picking up Hana on Monday.”

“Great. See you then, y/n.” She finally says, turning away and getting out of the car. You two look at each other again and your eye contact lingers a bit before she finally closes the door, waves, and turns to head inside the apartment complex. 

The music continues to play, and your heart longs for her once again.

I stand at your gate

And I sing you a song in the moonlight 

A love song, my darling 

A moonlight serenade

-

A week passes after this encounter, and Sana is currently giving the kids an announcement that might have them jumping off the walls.

“Alright everyone in your seats please.” She says kindly. The students listen to her and shuffle to their seats, some chatter being shared as they do so. Sana claps her hands in a pattern to bring the students’ attention to her, and they clap their hands the same way that she had, quieting down in the process.

“Alright everyone, before I make this announcement, I need everyone to behave and not get too rowdy, okay?”

“Yes Ms. Minatozaki!” The class answers enthusiastically. Sana nods and smiles at them,

“Alright. So, there’s a special trip that is planned for you all next week.” She begins. The kids' faces start to light up after hearing the words “special trip” and almost all of them are itching to get more details on it. Sana’s face seems to light up with theirs from just looking at the excitement on their faces, so she continues,

“Next Wednesday we will be spending the day at the art museum downtown. There are going to be multiple people guiding you throughout the museum, and you’ll be able to learn about the art.” Sana explains, “And, at the end of the trip we’ll all meet back at a special room where you can paint along with an instructor.”

The kids’ smiles grow even wider, some are whispering to each other while others continue to keep their attention on the young teacher. 

“Now, I also wanted to add that we will be needing some chaperones to help look after the class. I have some papers that I’ll give to you, make sure you show them to your mom, dad, or guardian. If they’d like to tag along to help out that would be great, and highly encouraged.” Sana says, pulling out a pile of papers from her desk, she begins to pass around said forms.

-

An hour passes and it’s free choice time. Hana walks up to the young teacher with the form that Sana had previously handed out. Sana smiles at the young girl and tilts her head,

“What is it, Hana? Is everything okay?” The young teacher questions,

“Um, Ms… What does guardian mean? You said mom, dad, and guardian earlier. Does that mean grown up?” Hana asks, and she looks at the paper as if her five-year-old self can read the whole thing with ease, 

“I guess so. It’s an adult who takes care of you.” Sana explains to the girl. The girl hums to herself and furrows her brows,

“Does that mean y/n can come?”

“Of course, she’s your mom isn’t she?” Sana asks, and she’s confused as to why the girl looks up at her in surprise,

“My mom?” 

“Yes… She’s your mom, no?”

“Ms. Minatozaki, Y/n is my aunt.” 

Sana’s whole world stops for a moment. Y/n is her aunt? 

“So your dad and her are…?”

“Y/n is my papa’s younger sister, she always jokes about him being so old,” Hana says, laughing to herself.

Sana genuinely stops functioning as she processes this new information: You’re not taken. Fireworks set off in her heart and confetti seems to pop: you’re not her mom. All the guilt that had been on her shoulders from thinking she was infatuated with a taken mother is gone, and it all makes sense now. Sana wonders how stupid she could’ve been, I mean, you and Hana’s dad had similar features, face shape, hair texture, and color. The young teacher had also realized that Hana only called you by your name, and not “mommy” or “mom” or anything like that; how could she have been so stupid?

“Ms. Minatozaki?”

“Oh, yeah, yes Hana. Y/n can come, of course, she can.” Sana says, and she really hopes you do come. Hana smiles and looks back at her paper before talking to her teacher again,

“You know, my aunt, she asks about you a lot.” 

“She does?” Sana says, her heart skips a beat. Hana nods and looks back up at the teacher,

“She always asks about how school was, but she always ends up asking more about you and how you were during the day.” Sana’s eyes widen and she looks at the young girl in front of her, exposing you for being so interested in her. 

The flame in her heart grows bigger, and it seems that the flame has no intention of dying down now that she knows you’re not Hana’s mother. Hana turns around and makes her way back to her desk to color after seeing that Sana wasn’t capable of responding again, and Sana doesn't even notice. Hana sits down unbothered, not knowing that she just turned Sana’s whole mood around, not knowing that this new piece of information will have her daydreaming the rest of the day – no, the rest of the week – maybe the rest of the month.

-

The school day comes to an end and the usual routine occurs: bell rings, kids scream, talk, and practically leap out of their seats to get in line to go to the entrance of the building. Sana waits with her usual group of eight, which includes Hana, and she hopes that today would be the day that you decided to pick her up. You had already picked Hana up on Monday, but now it’s Wednesday and those are the days that Hana’s dad would usually pick the little girl up, great.

-

Forty minutes pass and Sana sits down at the main office with Hana, no one had come to pick her up yet. Hana seems to be unbothered by this as she colors and draws on the sheet of paper that Sana had given her to cure her boredom, but she worries slightly since Jihyo still waits for her in the front. 

Sana texts Jihyo a string of apologies and explanations and before she reads the instant reply, the sound of heavy breaths are heard as a familiar face enters the room, looking around all worried until her body relaxes when she sees her niece.

Y/n lets out a sigh of relief seeing Hana sitting down, coloring as if there wasn’t a single problem in the world. Her look shifts over to Sana, who is already looking at her. Their eyes meet and it makes the two women smile at one another.

“Hana,” your voice makes the little girl turn her head. She smiles and runs up to hug you, leaving her art on the desk,

“Aunt y/n!” And this is the first time Sana hears the little girl actually call you her aunt, she wishes that she would’ve called you aunt earlier (it would've saved her sleepless nights of wondering what the hell to do with her feelings, but at least she knows now). 

You hug the little girl back and swipe away the strands of hair on her face, “Hi little one. Your dad had something come up at work, I rushed over as soon as my shift ended.” You explain. You turn back to share eye contact with the young teacher, eyes narrowing and lips curving upwards as you smile at her, “Thank you for watching her, I’m sorry for being so late.”

“It’s all right, really.” It’s more than all right, Sana thinks. 

You grin again and turn your attention back to your niece, “Ready to go?”

“Yup!” 

“Okay little one, come on.” and you crouch down to let her wrap around your shoulders, letting her piggyback ride you. You grab the art that your niece had made on the table and finally stand in front of Sana, thanking her.

“I’m sorry again, thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem, it’s nice to see you again,” Sana admits, a bit shyly too. The grin that’s already present on your lips grows and you wave to the shorter woman,

“I’ll see you.” You finally say, waving with your free hand and turning your head to the little one, “Let’s get going, your dad will be back by dinner.” You mutter, and Hana hums tiredly in response before you head out the main office doors, taking a quick glance at Sana, smiling again.

…

Jihyo’s going to lose her mind when I tell her all of this, Sana thinks to herself.

[firelxdykatara]

I too ship Zutara and think they should have been canon. Although for me it's important to know how such a rewrite would go down. I tried to think, and I'm lost.

After Mai betrayed Azula for him, will he just go "sorry, not interested"? He isn't obligated to date her because of this, but her redemption hinges on Zuko and I don't see it being satisfying if he ends up rejecting her after this.

I thought the solution would be to rewrite her arc in boiling rock to make her have a moral realization, but then the problem with Maiko is practically solved. Their relationship wasn't salvaged by her redemption because last time they talked, Mai still didn't understand what's wrong with the Fire Nation and only changed because she loved Zuko. So how do you make it both satisfying & logical?

With Kataang the problem is the Chakras. The problem with the original (in my opinion) is that after he opened his chakra, letting go of his attachment to Katara, he's still attached (forcing a kiss on eip). Should TCoD get rewritten so that Azula shoots him before he opens it? Then why wouldn't he just open it later? Maybe the chakra would be locked so he feels as though he doesn't need to overcome his attachment just yet. In that situation, how would his chakra even unlock? The stone thing felt like nonsense, so how would I do it?

So yeah I have no idea how to approach this. How would you? (Thanks)

I've been rotating this ask in the back of my head like a rotisserie chicken for a few days--it's interesting because I don't generally stop to think like, how would I write them out of these relationships, I either ignore the relationships completely (which isn't hard, they were barely footnotes in the cartoon) or play a little bit with jealous exes or something. Thinking about like, In A Perfect World where Bryke wasn't in charge of ATLA post-canon (because if zutara had been canon, you can be sure they would've made us regret it) is interesting, and I do have thoughts on how I'd handle their relationships in a rewrite.

(this got long, so the rest is beneath the cut)

Assuming you mostly want to keep canon intact, I think maiko would be the easiest to work around, given how little relevance their relationship has in canon. The problem with maiko as an endgame ship is that it was not set up that way--if it had been, it would not have begun entirely off-screen and their whole relationship would not have been a study in misery and utter inability to connect emotionally. His relationship with Mai was there to showcase just how much he had changed and how little he fit into the life he had been so sure he wanted more than anything since his banishment. It worked very well to highlight Zuko's growth--how that contrasted to Mai's lack of it and why she could not understand him even at his most open and vulnerable--and did not work nearly so well when she was shoved back with him in the epilogue, after he'd quite literally forgotten her existence (he never mentions her again after Boiling Rock, not even to say a word of mourning, considering he'd have every reason to believe she was killed for defying his sister).

I don't think you can fix this by giving Mai some moral realization, because there simply is no room for it. As @araeph says in the essay I linked:

As a character, Mai is very useful to the story during Zuko’s return, because she represents everything that Zuko gains by sticking by his father. A girl who cares about him; the ability to indulge her; the authority he has over others at the palace; we see it all in his interactions with Mai. But this makes Mai a tether to a life he has long outgrown. Her function is not to advance Zuko’s character development, but to obstruct it, which also unfortunately means that Mai gaining a full understanding of Zuko’s trials would be disadvantageous to the story. If she knew everything about him and still wanted him to stay, it would give Zuko more cause than he should have to remain in the Fire Nation, but if she knew and encouraged him to leave and join the Avatar, it would rob Zuko of the triumph of making this decision on his own. In other words, there are good narrative reasons for keeping Mai in the dark; it just doesn’t make their relationship any stronger.

The seeds of a genuine redemption arc (one that includes some sort of moral realization and change to her moral framework) for Mai would have to have been planted far earlier than five episodes from the end of the series, but doing so would have of necessity detracted from Zuko's own character arc and the realizations that he makes despite his attachment to Mai (or more specifically to their relationship, which I feel like he was clinging to more out of a sense of abject loneliness he couldn't shake rather than genuine feelings and emotional connection).

So, in my mind, since we're tackling this with an eye towards getting rid of maiko with the fewest ripples to the overall story anyway, the easiest way to do this would be make one slight change to the end of the Boiling Rock two-parter--have Ty Lee (who had always been the least gung-ho of the trio about bowing to Azula's whims and had to be textually threatened into joining her in the first place) save Zuko's life, and then have Mai (who showed the most genuine affection for Ty Lee anyway) save Ty Lee. I love Zuko more than I fear you always fell flat for me as some epic declaration of love, anyway, since a) Zuko is not around to hear it, and b) unlike Ty Lee, she never showed much fear of Azula to begin with, so it wasn't a very high bar to clear. It was a cool line that was entirely unearned, and I don't think it would be missed, there would be some cute mailee crumbs this way, and a throwaway line of getting them released from the prison after the war ended could wrap up their presence in the story pretty nicely.

Now, kataang is a little trickier, if only because the last leg of Aang's character arc is almost completely derailed by his refusal to let go of his possessive attachment to Katara, to the point where he never naturally reopens his chakras, he has to have the Rock of Destiny hit him in just the right place, and the deus ex lionturtle there to give him a way out of having to make a hard moral choice. (I've maintained for years that if you work the final act of your main character's overall arc in such a way that it could have been solved by one good session with a chiropractor, something got fucked along the way.)

The thing about Aang's chakras is that, narratively, his whole thing with Guru Pathik and leaving his training early to save his friends was basically his version of Luke running away from his training with Yoda on Degobah because of his Force vision, only to find out that his friends were in the process of rescuing themselves and then losing his hand because he hadn't completed the most crucial part of his training. What's missing, therefore, from the last act of Aang's character arc, is the return.

See, in Star Wars, Luke pretty explicitly makes the wrong choice when he chooses to prioritize saving his friends over attaining enlightenment and fully mastering the Force. It was the only choice he could have made, but it was still the wrong one--because, like Aang, his friends did not actually need him to save them, he actually almost makes it harder for them to get away by requiring them to save him because, like Aang, he loses a battle in a very critical way. This was a lesson he desperately needed to learn, and it is clear he has learned it by the time he makes it back to Degobah and witnesses the end of Yoda's life, his own enlightenment having already been reached.

But Aang never goes back to the Guru.

And the text refuses to allow us to sit with the fact that he made the wrong choice in prioritizing his attachment to Katara over his ability to master the Avatar State. He is actually narratively vindicated about it, because the plot bends itself into a pretzel so that he doesn't have to spend any time during the last book trying to reopen his chakras and regain access to the Avatar State, handed both in the final battle with no excess effort on his part, and handed the girl into the bargain. (The girl who never even wanted him, so far as we can tell from all the lack of cues she gave him that she actually returned his feelings.)

And I think this could have been solved with a few scattered scenes. Let Katara actually have some agency in her own romantic relationship (or lack thereof), insofar as noticing Aang's advances and clueing the audience in to how she actually feels. Let Aang struggle with the fact that he can't reach the Avatar State, that his mastery of the elements is in limbo because he can't access his full power, rather than ignoring all of this until the end of the show. If we're trying to keep the shape of the last season roughly the same, let Katara confront Aang about the invasion kiss.

This would have been the perfect time to establish that Katara actually does feel some type of way about Aang prior to the epilogue, and it could have saved us from the exceedingly cringey EIP kiss that Aang never apologized for. How it comes across now, of course, is that Katara basically pretends it never even happened, to the point where she doesn't even know what Aang is talking about during EIP until he reminds her--the death knell for any shot their relationship had at looking requited, because I can tell you, as someone who's been a teenage girl, if someone I had conflicted but burgeoning romantic feelings for had kissed me, I would not have completely forgotten about it only a few weeks later--and we never get any indication as to what she actually felt about the kiss (which was not mutual, despite what Aang's dialogue in the EIP scene implies) except for the fact that she looked away and frowned afterwards. (A change mandated by Bryke, who wanted to leave her feelings completely ambiguous; the original storyboards had her smiling to herself.)

So, with an eye towards wrapping up Aang's puppy love crush and establishing Katara's distinct lack of romantic feelings for him, have her talk to him about the kiss. A good frame of reference for this would be Meng's conversation with Aang in "The Fortuneteller", where she finally realizes that he doesn't like her in the same way she likes him. Katara and Aang's conversation about the invasion kiss could be a callback to this, with Aang having some important realizations--that just because Katara doesn't share his feelings doesn't mean she loves him any less, and just because he can't have her the way he wanted doesn't mean he has to love her any less, that she doesn't belong to him but that's ok, because she's still his family and they'll always have each other's backs. Which could have functioned well in helping him take another step towards unblocking his chakras. Going back to the Guru directly may not have worked, since by this point in the story we're hurtling towards the final confrontation and Sozin's Comet, but let Aang reflect on what the Guru told him with new understanding granted him by his experiences throughout the first half of the season.

To keep the stakes high and up the suspense, obviously, he shouldn't have fully unlocked his chakras and the AS before the final fight, but the seeds could be planted--little moments like a talk with Katara about the invasion kiss, maybe a little more empathy and understanding from him about why Katara needs closure in TSR, etc--and then, during the final fight, rather than hand him all the answers on a silver platter, have him almost lose. He still can't go full Avatar, he's out of time, he still doesn't know exactly what to do about Ozai given his own pacifism and desire to preserve that part of his culture--he tries to fight but he's pretty quickly overpowered. Idk how I would've animated this, and maybe it wouldn't have looked as cool for the final fight, but the true climax of the finale was the Zuko and Azula agni kai anyway, so it hardly matters--I'm picturing him doing the rock-shield thing and going into a brief meditative state, where he finally achieves the enlightenment necessary to unlock the AS on his own, no rock of chiropracty necessary. And at this point, I'd give Ozai a Disney Death, since leaving him alive causes more problems than it solves and it's not necessary for Aang to kill him for him to die--they're fighting on a mountain ffs--but if you don't want to change that part then him figuring out energy bending as part of becoming a fully realized Avatar would at least feel more earned than the lionturtle just handing it to him. (And that could've been foreshadowed better by seeding the idea for it earlier in the season.)

After all of that, particularly if you up the emotions during the agni kai and have Zuko and Katara kiss there (or something less explicitly romantic but still tender, like a brief forehead touch), it'd feel pretty natural to have a just friends ending for Aang and Katara. Maybe a brief, slightly awkward but ultimately amiable conversation if Zuko and Katara had a ~thing at their final fight, and then the final shot of the series could be the gaang all together, maybe zutara holding hands or Katara resting her head on his shoulder or something, but since they already kissed there wouldn't feel like a need to end the whole show on romance, something which I've always felt missed the point of the series.

And then, y'know, after that, the world's your oyster! This is how I'd do it if I were trying to keep the bulk of the final season intact. Of course, breaking it all down to its component pieces and rebuilding from the ground up is also an option, but that'd probably be a longer post lol.