#tumblr is being weird so I can’t @ you properly for some reason… ^^;

[robo-milky]

Art Trade W/ @seuing

(Feat. Pythios [@seuing ‘s OC], Leikata [Mine])

Thank you so much for drawing my son with the funny fish pie! I absolutely love the creative liberty you took to give him the apron and oven mitts, it’s so precious!! I had an absolutely blast drawing Pythios, and it was a good excuse to get me to sit down and work on something… rendered after a hot minute ^^; They’re both such cuties <3

[mr-walkingrainbow]

DESCENDANTS: The Rise of Red! (or the REAL hidden story in the movie + what’s gonna happen in the sequel THEORY!)

So we ALL watched the movie right? We ALL thought the plot sucked and the movie ended abruptly with a underwhelming climax?

WELL HERES WHY WERE WRONG!

So I did some really deep thinking, and I figured, these writers can’t be THAT stupid? The director can’t be THAT idiotic, lame, and boring? That would just embarrass Disney, not to mention all the well respected actors that are in this!

So I thought hard. I thought hard and I thought long. Like hella long. And I tallied up all the plot inconsistencies, all the weird explanations, all the very specific lines in songs, and I did it. I fixed descendants rise of red! I FIGURED IT OUT!

So!! Here it is! What TRULY happened that crowncoming night! And what going back in time actually did!

(I intentionally put a keep reading so if anyone wanted to avoid spoilers they can)

So! Now that we’re under the keep reading. Anything spoilerly can be said!

So first things first. The biggest theory everyone is saying.

ELLA DID IN FACT POISON BRIDGET!

Yes! I said it! We all thought the movie was leading to this! So it was underwhelming when it was revealed it was Uliana and her crew were the origins behind the prank.

OR WERE THEY?

We all saw that once they opened the book; they were frozen. Because they were ‘bad’ and Merlin’s security system was set into place.

And many of you came up with the giant plot hole that this would have happened REGARDLESS of whether Red and Chloe interfered.

AND YOUR RIGHT!

This sole reason, is why the group COULDNT have done it! Not only were they frozen, but they couldn’t read the recipe, and were properly sent to detention, ergo exonerating them from being at the dance! Meaning their was literally no way they could have been behind the prank!

So with them being withheld from the dance, who could it be? Who was the one person who was originally at the dance, but now no longer could be? What was the one actual change that Red and Chloe set off?

ELLA. AND THE VASE!

We all see that when the two go into Ella’s house, Chloe knocks over a Vase. Breaking it. Lady Tremaine GROUNDS Ella! Meaning that she COULD NOT go to the dance!

This DIDNT happen originally! Meaning Ella DID go to the dance in the original timeline! Which is proven when Cinderella (I’m calling Adult Ella, Cinderella) talks to The Red Queen (I’m calling Adult Bridget The Red Queen) about how the prank being pulled was wrong. She had first handed knowledge of the prank. AND she told Chloe she fell in love with Charming at the dance.

But! Since Ella is the only difference in the two timelines in regarding to the dance, this is PROOF that she was the one who actually pranked Bridget, NOT Uliana and her crew!

So here’s what I think happened!

Ella, who saw Bridget being bullied about the cupcakes, and saw Uliana take all the cupcakes. And promptly being threatened by Uliana. Decided to bake Bridget something to cheer her up. However Bridget literally has all of the cookbooks in auradon. As shown. So she snoops around and finds Merlin’s cookbook! (Because it’s also shown she’s okay with breaking the rules if it’s for a good cause. From her get our hands dirty song!) and double and, the book WOULD open for her because she is a good person. AND she was doing it for a good reason!

she flips through the book and finds some simple blase recipe that cheers Bridget up. Maybe gives her cool hair (Red hair??). Something simple but sweet.

However. While doing this, she happens to see the Monster food recipe. She doesn’t look at it for long of course. Just enough to remember it’s a thing.

BACK TO BRIDGET!

Now! I swear to whatever’s out there that the person who played Chloe said there was a queer character in Dedcendants 4. I can’t find it now but it was some tumblr or insta post. I know cause I immediately told my friend afterwards.

Anywho. I think Bridget is the queer character! We see in the movie her only friend was Ella. Not only that but she YEARNS for someone to care about enough to ask her out (in a romantic way like charming just tried to do for Ella) Ella, who again. Is Bridget’s only friend. And ergo, shows her love no one else does, IMMEDIATELY asks her to go to the dance with her! (Might have said as friends in the other timeline too. Who knows)

But! This only makes Bridget’s crush on Ella even BIGGER. And she falls in love with her! She probably thinks they might have a chance!

This is also somewhat proven by The Red Queens song ‘Love Ain’t It’

Title ; Love Ain’t It

Red : “With all the Grief you’ve experienced”

Red (Speaking of Cinderella) : So you Knew her?

The Red Queen : I saw through her. Cinderella and I were classmates in a way.

(Notice how she uses Ella’s mocking name after she has time to recover from the interaction. She said ELLA originally when she caught her off guard. Also. The line. I SAW THROUGH HER. It’s a double edged sword. Saw through her fronts. Saw the hurting girl inside. Saw through her LIES saw the mean girl behind)

Proven by the next lines

The red Queen : I spent way to much time in this place

So I had to escape

the people might smile

but their two faced, too fake.

Girl was relentlessly bullied and betrayed by someone she loved

And Ella Knows it.

Cinderella : Some people act mean at first, because their too afraid to feel

[the reverse is also true]

Cinderella : Look hon. Back in high school, a mean prank was played

And ever since that fateful day

She was never the same, it’s quite a shame.

So the Red Queen sings a whole song about how Love isn’t it. And we ALL KNOW that her only connection to love as a kid was through ELLA. meaning Bridget HAD A CRUSH on Ella. Was IN LOVE. With Ella.

So. How did Crowncoming originally happen you ask?

Here’s my theory

Ella and Bridget go to the dance. They are happy! They have fun. Bridget falls further in love with Ella. Meanwhile. Ella falls in love with Charming!

Her and Charming hit it off. And Ella starts to feel loved and appreciated for the first time in her life.

Then, Bridget performs her ‘Shuffle of Love’ dance. All the attention is on her! Even Charmings.

Ella feels robbed. She feels jealous. She feels angry that her friend is stealing the one good moment she is finally having to herself.

And so she briefly remembers the spell. And in a moment of error, she either A. Remembers the recipe already and makes the recipe. Or B. Re-Sneaks back into the office to see it. However I’m going with A because the book wouldn’t have opened again for Ella because of her bad intentions.

Whichever way. Bridget eats the baked treat. (I think it was a cupcake. Ella could have lied and said it was from the earlier batch)

And then. IT HAPPENS! Bridget is turned into an ugly terrifying monster. Everyone LAUGHS at her. Everyone makes fun of her

And Bridget, who is confused, understands only ONE person could have done this to her. She looks at someone she was in love with. And just sees Ella and Charming laughing. Laughing at her. Bonding over laughing at HER.

Bridget runs off. In tears. Broken inside. With an equally broken heart.

Maybe if Ella had immediately realized her error and run after her she would have turned out differently. But no. It is proven that Ella stayed at the dance and stayed with Charming. They wouldn’t have had the chance to fall in love if she left.

So Bridget. Spends the rest of the night terrified. Looking like a monster. And being laughed and screamed and made fun of everywhere she goes. And not only that. But her ONLY FRIEND. Her CRUSH. Someone she TRUSTED did this to her

Now THIS! THIS is something can break a person. This is something that can change their views on the world. On humanity itself. She was a kind girl. Was kind to everyone no matter how meanly they treated her. But through it all, Ella was her rock. Her friend. Her secret love. Someone who was good and kind through it all.

But she betrayed her. Tbe one nice person betrayed her. Showing that being nice doesn’t do it. Being nice does not mean good things happen. Being nice doesn’t is worthless if this is what it gets you. Everyone is two faced. And the only thing that’s real. The only thing she CAN feel. Is hurt. And pain. And fear. And so that’s what she swears to become. That’s what she swears to do. Be mean and cruel and heartless so she never has to feel all this pain ever again. So her eventual DAUGHTER never has to feel this again. It’s better to be alone and feared. Then alone and broken.

Ella probably realized the error of her ways the next day. But as she said. It was too late. Bridget was never the same.

This Explains why they had so many odd interactions. The raw feral burning chemistry between them. All the odd phrase. Why The Red Queen would be okay sending her BEST FRIEND to death. Why she would be okay killing her. And taking over auradon. To Her? Cinderella is the one who made her this way.

but also part of her still remembers. Still cares. It’s why she gave her once chance to kneel to her. (And as we’ve noted in the books and movies. She doesn’t give ANYONE else a second chance. She punishes I’m immediately and harshly)

And so! With all of this happening. Theirs gonna be some catylist in recent times. The Red Queen might be nice now. But something will have changed. Ella never went to the dance. (She clearly fell in love with charming somewhere else cause otherwise Chloe would have disappeared) but something happened when she wasn’t at the dance. Something that caused another problem. And THATS gonna be the sequel to this movie. Descendants : Rise of Red part two.

(as we’ve seen the official script for the movie is literally called Descendants : Rise of Red part one. MEANING they wrote it with the purpose of being part one to either a sequel or a threequal)

And THAT! Ladies and Gentleman, is what I think the REAL plot behind Descendants : Rise of Red is! A movie that is not idiotically not thought out at all, but really something so secretly genuis is blows your mind!

Hope you enjoyed!

[nights-at-crystarium]

As a twitter/tumblr user since 2010-2011, I believe I have sufficient grounds to say that currently we as a community are living through the scariest, shittiest time yet. This post isn’t trying to fearmonger, no I’m not leaving tumblr until it literally keels over, but I suggest that we don’t put all our eggs in one basket.

If twitter/tumblr stay usable, great! In the worse scenario, you’d have kept posting on a new platform and stayed ahead of the curve.

This post shares my personal experience with three potential “new”* fandom places, and is aimed to help fellow content creators. I’m an artist fully depending on internet to survive, my reasoning may not apply to you if you’re a hobbyist. Do your own research, it’s always healthy. * Pillowfort and mastodon have been around for 5+ years, bluesky is ~2 years old.

Discovering new people to follow kinda sucks on all three platforms, twitter and tumblr are eons ahead, but, given the recent chaos and uncertainty, I’m willing to be patient, keep posting on those, and feel safer than I would’ve otherwise been. More baskets good, one basket bad.

All three have poor visual customization, don’t expect custom tumblr themes.

This list starts with the least popular, but most human and easy to join, and what I personally trust the most. All three allow nsfw if labeled properly.

✦ Pillowfort is a barebones tumblr. Intuitive, cozy, but currently very, very small. Be patient with its clunkiness or lack of some features, it’s made by an AO3-like team. I’d personally love if the fandom crowd managed to redirect its attention to it instead of the sus bluesky.

Joining: is free, invite-only, but the waitlist is nearly instant.

Lurk around on their official tumblr: @/pillowfort-social

✦ Mastodon, for me personally, is impossible to explain directly. I’ll use several comparisons.

- Discord but all servers can interact. You’re still on a server curated by some human(s) that might tell you what you can and can’t post, BUT, if you don’t like that server’s policy, you can move to a new one while keeping your followers. - Email, users A and B may be registered on different domains, still they can talk. It’s a weird comparison, but fediverse (please I’m not explaining THAT but it’s a good thing) in general looks like another email story: unlike big sites that come and go, it might stand the test of time. - Someone compared mastodon’s structure to xiv’s dc and servers, if you look at its domain names that way, it might be easier to understand.

Depending on user, mastodon may feel gatekeepy/snowflakey. I haven’t spent enough time on there to form a proper opinion yet, but a warning’s due.

An actually good and hopeful thing about mastodon AND tumblr: the two might start interacting in future. Ever lamented that your fav asian artists don’t use tumblr? If they use misskey, or any other place on the fediverse, it might be possible to follow them directly from tumblr in future, and vice versa.

Joining: is free, however some servers close for new members sometimes, and have human moderators reviewing your request.

✦ Bluesky is a twitter without Musk: today’s average internet user reads this, drops everything and already looks to register there. It’s still sus, but people flock to it like crazy. Most likely to become the next big fandom place in my eyes, even if I’m not happy about that.

I personally have no good feelings about bluesky. Same as twitter, which I hated even before the 2018 tumblr exodus, yet the crowd decided to make it The New Fandom Place, and, grudgingly, I had to give up and also join them in 2022. During the year I haven’t stopped despising twitter, yet, I can’t deny that it helped me survive. I estimate half of my patrons, and, hell, even tumblr audience, comes from twitter. So, if bluesky ends up being the next hot shit, I’ll have to keep up because internet pays for my living.

Joining: is free but hell, invite-only, the waitlist is a lie, your best chance to join is a direct invite.

This’s all I’ve got to say for now. If you have a correction or an addition, replies/reblogs are welcome!

Screenshots of the current interfaces under the cut, you may spy on my profiles o/

Pillowfort

Mastodon.art

Bluesky

[justagalwhowrites]

New in Town - Ch. 3: First Family Dinner

Sarah comes to visit and has questions for Joel. A continuation of New in Town chapters 1-2 found on Tumblr here.

Pairing: Best Friend's Dad!Joel Miller x Female Reader

CW: Smut :D Yeah, they're horny, OK? Just expect a lot of smut in this fic. No use of Y/N. Age gap (reader is 35 Joel is 47, not a focus of the fic). Minors DNI, 18+ only

Length: 5.1k

AO3 | First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Joel actually felt pretty damn smart when he got to his house. He stopped at the trash bin that sat outside the garage and dropped his now empty coffee cup into it, just in case Sarah asked why he’d gone to the place with the name stamped on the side of the cup. 

He didn’t have a good fucking reason to be at a coffee shop by your apartment besides being at your apartment. And he knew he wasn’t ready to tell his daughter about the fact that you two were… whatever the fuck you were. 

What were you doing with him? What did you want with him? Why was it so hard to know and why was he so fucking afraid to ask? 

Didn’t matter now. The morning Sarah showed up to surprise him with a visit was not the morning to be having this discussion. 

“Baby Girl?” Joel called as he closed the door behind him, dropping his keys on the table in his entry way. 

“Dad!” Sarah flew around the corner and launched herself at him, just like she’d done when she was a kid. He caught her, the air knocked out of him, laughing as he caught his breath. “I missed you, old man!” 

“Missed you too, Baby Girl,” he said, setting her down and stretching out his back. “But you’re gonna have to cut me a break, think my back is gettin’ too old to be catchin’ you like that.” 

“How am I supposed to properly shower you in affection if I can’t just throw my whole body at you?” She smirked. “But fine, I guess if it’s for the sake of your health…” 

He rolled his eyes and tugged her against his side, kissing her temple. 

“Just gotta have you move back closer to home,” he gave her a squeeze. “Wouldn’t need to tackle me if I just saw you more.” 

“Yeah, I’m working on that,” she smiled. “Trying to get promoted from junior copywriter to intermediate so I can come to the Austin office sooner rather than later…” 

“That’s amazing Baby Girl!” Joel gave her another squeeze before leading her to the living room and settling on the couch. “I’m sure you’re close, they know how good you are.”

“Speaking of my grand plan,” she said. “I see you’ve been hanging out with my work wife.” 

Joel coughed to try to hide his surprise. 

“What?” He asked after a moment. 

“Well I know you didn’t do the Seattle Zombie 5K last Halloween,” she nodded at his shirt. Joel felt his stomach drop. “But I know we did.” 

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

“Not doing a walk of shame are you?” She asked, her eyebrows raised. 

“You ever known me to be the walk of shame type?” He asked, scrambling for a reason that he’d have your shirt. “I just fixed her garbage disposal for her a few weeks ago, got soaked. She was nice enough to give me a clean shirt so I wasn’t drippin’ wet on the drive home. Didn’t realize it’d made it into my dresser is all. I’ll have to wash it again, give it back…” 

“But you are hanging out with her then?” She asked. “I mean, you said give it back like you were going to see her again so…”

“We went out once since I helped with the sink and shit,” he said, telling himself that it wasn’t a lie, not really. You’d only successfully made it out of the house together once. Sarah scrunched her nose. “What, Baby Girl?” 

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I was just hoping you guys would be friends is all. You’re both kind of alone down here, you know? I worry. I don’t want you doing nothing but sitting in the house doing… whatever weird old man stuff you do.” 

“I don’t do weird old man stuff…” 

“And leave her alone too long and the next thing you know she’s on the dating apps and she ends up going out with some total idiots,” she said, ignoring Joel’s protest entirely. “Really, Dad, her taste in men is shit and I’m not here to keep her busy, I was kind of counting on you here.” 

Joel frowned. 

“Not on you to protect her,” he said. Though, from what little he knew, Sarah was right. Your taste in men was shit. “And I’m sure she’s got better things to do than hang out with someone who does ‘old man things…’” 

That was something that Joel had been thinking about a lot over the past two weeks. Yes, you seemed to be about as insatiable for him as he was for you and he didn’t have any damn clue as to why. But he could think of plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t be. How long was it going to be before you realized that he didn’t offer you much? He couldn’t take you to fancy restaurants every week or on nice trips. He wasn’t interested in another child and you were still young enough that you might want to be a mother. His body was often sore and worn after decades of damn near breaking himself to make a living. How much longer would you be wanting to pull him into restaurant bathrooms and make yourself come on his leg because you just couldn’t bear to wait anymore? How much longer could he text you to bitch about work while on a break at a job site and have you respond with a gif from Sharknado because you knew it would make him laugh? How much longer could he look at the selfies you sent him and think to himself “that’s my girl,” even though you weren’t even his girl now let alone in the future?

He was already in too deep with you, way too damn deep. Someone was going to have to pry you out of him, you’d already settled inside his skin and he liked it that way. Liked thinking of you first thing in the morning and just before he fell asleep, liked that you were the first thing on his mind when he got lunch at a food truck and he stumbled on something really good, liked that you showed up with his favorite beer and some obscure snack food when you came over to his place because you said you saw it and thought of him.

“Her taste in men isn’t dangerously bad,” Sarah waved him off. “Just… she tends to go for guys who definitely don’t deserve her, you know?” 

“Yeah,” Joel sighed. “I know.” 

Fuck, did he know.

“Anyway,” she said with a dramatic eye roll that reminded him of when she was a teenager. He smiled a little. “I’m in town until Wednesday! I know you’ll have to work…” 

“I can take a few days off,” he said quickly. “Get Uncle Tommy to make sure shit doesn’t go sideways…” 

“Awesome!” She perked up at that. “Because I think there are at least two Curtis and Vipers I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet and I’m going to require a handcrafted Dad burger - preferably grilled - while I’m in town. My apartment doesn’t let me have a grill on my balcony, it’s so dumb.” 

“Probably a fire code thing, Baby Girl,” he smiled. “But I think we can swing some movies and a cookout while you’re here. Tommy’d love to see ya, Maria too.” 

“Can we start by jumping in the pool?” She asked. “Because I haven’t gotten to swim in months.” 

“Might be a bit cold…” 

“Please,” she scoffed. “This is mid-summer weather in Seattle, plenty warm enough for a swim.” 

Joel smiled. 

“Whatever you want, Baby Girl.” 

The water was definitely colder than Joel would normally jump into but, for Sarah, he’d do just about anything. 

He was still getting used to drinking with his daughter, the two of them floating around the water with beers most of the day. Joel got out for a bit to make sandwiches - he put potato chips on Sarah’s just like he had when she was a kid - and he just listened to what she’d been up to, hanging on her every word. 

Joel had always felt incredibly lucky to have Sarah as his daughter. There were the obvious reasons, of course. She was kind and thoughtful, she was smart as a whip and loved to do well in school to the point that he almost never had to tell her to do her homework, she actually liked spending time with him. But she never had a problem being open with him about damn near anything. 

It wasn’t always the most pleasant experience - hearing about boy problems when he couldn’t actually intervene was harder than Joel had expected it to be - but he was grateful for it. He never had to wonder what his daughter was up to, she just told him. 

Part of it, he was sure, was because he’d asked her to grow up too fast. He hadn’t meant to, of course, but it seemed to come with the territory of single parenthood. There was no one there to back him up when he had to work late, no one there to take over the child rearing when he was sick or just so exhausted from work that he slept through his damn alarm. Sarah fell into the role of second parent, sometimes raising herself as much as Joel had. 

He was just happy she didn’t resent him for it. She seemed to recognize how hard he’d tried to give her everything, do everything he possibly could to make her happy and give her a good life. Even if it hadn’t always worked, he’d always tried. The fact that she’d made it to college on scholarship, that she’d finished towards the top of her class, that she’d gotten a good paying job doing something she liked to do, the fact that she was happy and doing something with her mind instead of breaking her body down like Joel was every damn day of his life was the proudest he’d ever been of anything. 

Could he really risk his relationship with her for you? Yes, you made him happy. So fucking happy. You were the first thing in years that he felt like he really, truly wanted. And it had hit him hard, so fucking hard. It was like he’d saved up all his longing just for you, like it had been waiting for something powerful enough to show up and unleash it all and it had knocked him off his damn feet. 

But you were Sarah’s best friend. 

“So one thing that’s seriously lacking in the Pacific Northwest is good TexMex,” Sarah said, lounging on a pool float, her face tilted toward the sun, eyes closed. “Think we can go out for dinner tonight? I need enchiladas and tamales and I need them sooner rather than later.” 

“Only if you don’t get mad that I ask for the real spicy salsa,” Joel said. 

“How did I end up so cursed that my two favorite people love to melt their tongues off as a hobby?” Sarah sighed. “But fine, order the miserable stuff. I’ll just get the regular salsa like a normal person.” 

Joel scoffed. 

“The normal ship has sailed with you, Baby Girl. Me and Tommy around you so much? Never stood a chance.” 

Just an hour later, he and Sarah were headed into her favorite Austin restaurant. Joel added it to his mental list of places to take you. It was Sarah’s favorite for a reason, after all. 

“Table for two,” Joel held up two fingers to the hostess but Sarah cut him off. 

“It’s three, actually,” she smiled, not looking at him. 

“Three?” He frowned. She ignored him and just held up three fingers to the hostess. It took him until they were at the table to really put it together. “Sarah…” 

“I’m here to see you but I really want to see her, too,” she said as she slid into the booth. “And I do think you guys will really get along if you actually give it a shot. Please, Dad? Give her a chance?” 

A chance wasn’t the only thing he’d given you. 

“Baby Girl, I’m sure she’d rather do something besides…” 

“Besides what?” Your voice appeared over his shoulder, Joel turning toward the sound so fast it made his head spin. You smiled a little sheepishly. 

“Hi.” 

***

Well Joel clearly hadn’t been expecting you. 

That boded just so well. 

“Hey Bestie!” Sarah squealed and got out of the booth to throw her arms around your neck. You laughed and hugged her back. “Ugh, I miss you! The office sucks without you there. So does the rest of Seattle, honestly.” 

You laughed. 

“I miss you too,” you gave her a squeeze before the two of you separated. “I keep trying to convince the VP at this branch that I absolutely unequivocally need a junior copywriter on my team. He hasn’t bought it yet but I think if I just keep asking him I’ll wear him down and he’ll cave to my annoying tendencies and just give me whatever I want.”

“Oh so you’re playing hardball,” Sarah teased as she got back in the booth and you slid in beside her. 

“Clearly yes,” you nodded sagely. “I read ‘The Art of War’ and just bothering people until they give up is the best battle tactic in the world…” 

You turned to look at Joel who was watching you intently. 

You hadn’t expected Joel to show up tonight anymore than he’d expected you. Sarah was playing you both like a goddamn fiddle. You’d worn a strappy, silky slip dress with a denim jacket over it thinking you were going out with your best friend, not going to be stuck trying to keep from staring at your who-the-fuck-knows-what sitting across from you. 

Who also happened to be your best friend’s dad. 

You tried not to think about that part. 

“Figured I’d force you two to get to know each other better over margaritas,” Sarah said brightly. “I can’t let you both just sit and stare at a wall all by yourselves until I can move back to town…” 

“I don’t stare at walls!” You protested. Sarah ignored you. 

“So you can at least keep each other company,” she finished. 

“Good to see you again, Joel,” you said, trying as hard as you could to not picture him naked across the table. 

Which was really fucking hard. 

His dark button down was rolled up to his elbows and fit his damn broad shoulders so perfectly all you could think about was the way he looked as he fucked into you, the way his muscles rippled through his chest and you had to fight to not bite down on them. His hair was tamed without being sculpted or overly styled and you wanted to run your fingers through it and sink your grip into his scalp as he ate you. 

“You too,” he said. 

You’d never had this visceral of a reaction to a man you’d fucked before, never, not even when you were a stupid teenager. Of course, you’d never tried to hide your relationship before, either. 

But you had the feeling that wouldn’t matter with Joel. You’d feel this intensity toward him whether Sarah was beside you or not, whether you could be open about your affection for him or not. 

And now you were going to have to sit across from him when he looked that damn good all through dinner. 

The second the server came to the table you ordered a margarita. You had a feeling you were going to need the tequila. 

It took conscious effort to pay attention to what Sarah was saying as she tried to bring up things she thought you and Joel had in common. Almost like she was trying to launch an ad campaign for each of you. 

It felt like forever but you were sure you’d only been seated a few minutes when you gave up on not touching Joel. You carefully slid your foot out of your pump and started sliding it up his inner leg, starting near his ankle. Joel jumped a little in his chair at the contact, his eyes darting to you. You just raised your eyebrows at him as you took a drink from your margarita and slid your foot up his leg to his knee. He shifted in his seat, his eyes steadily on Sarah but you could tell he had to focus on her now, actively work to give her attention. You smirked a bit at that. 

You kept the pattern up as the three of you waited for your food, Joel’s eyes always going a little wide when your toes made it to his inner thigh. 

“Ugh, I’m starving,” Sarah groaned as a tray of sizzling fajitas passed your table. “Here, scootch out, I’m going to the bathroom. That’ll make the food come.” 

“It always does,” you agreed, quickly shoving your foot back into your shoe and getting out of the booth. 

You both watched as Sarah made her way across the restaurant, turning to Joel the second you knew she was out of earshot. 

“Did you say anything?” You were whispering anyway. 

“No,” he replied. “We hadn’t talked about it, didn’t seem like the time… Did you say somethin’?” 

“Not a word,” you said. 

“I really need you to cool it over there, Beautiful,” Joel said. Any other time, you’d think he was teasing you but his eyes looked open and earnest now. “We can’t just go into a bathroom right now and it’s already a fucking miracle I haven’t tried to rip that goddamn dress off you, Jesus Christ, you can’t just show up places lookin’ that damn good…” “You’re one to talk!” You replied, incredulous, as you looked down at his exposed, tan, muscled forearms and back up at his face. “Fucking hell, Joel!” 

He smirked a little. 

“That’s all it takes with you, huh?” He teased, leaning across the table toward you. “Just a little bit of skin and you’re outta control?”

“Oh fuck off,” you rolled your eyes but grinned a little all the same. “I know you know what the rolled up sleeves thing does to women.” 

“I promise I do not,” he said, watching over your shoulder now. “But you’ll have to enlighten me later…” 

Sarah came back to the table and her face fell. 

“Shit, that usually works,” she sighed. “Alright, scoot in, we can just trade spots.” 

You obeyed and slid over, purposely leaning over the table as you did, giving Joel full view of your bra below your dress as you did. He was all but glaring at you as you sat back in the booth. 

Consciously, you knew you shouldn’t be pushing him like this. For starters, this was not how you wanted Sarah to find out. Assuming she was ever going to find out. 

But you shouldn’t be trying to frustrate Joel. Not like this, not so early on in your… whatever the fuck this was. 

You had a tendency to do this, to bend things until they broke the second something was looking like it could get serious, the second that it looked like it’d be worth the time and the effort. You were starting to think it was something your subconscious did on purpose. If you sabotaged the relationship early, there wasn’t the same kind of risk. Push the guy too far and he’d break things off with you and you could return to the relative emotional safety of dating apps and bars. Only ever go out with someone for a few weeks and it wouldn’t hurt that bad if they left. 

And they would leave. They always left. You might be worth the time for a bit but you weren’t worth the trouble for anything real, that much had been made clear to you in the years you’d spent dating around. It had gotten you hurt when you were young and stupid, back when you were Sarah’s age. Now, you fucking knew better. 

You knew better than to get anywhere close to what you were starting to feel with Joel. 

And here you were, doing it anyway, with your best friend’s dad. 

So of course your first reaction was to push him. Push, push, push. It’s what you did. 

You stirred your melting margarita. 

You’d never been more relieved to have food brought to your table. 

“Thanks so much for coming out tonight!” Sarah hugged you goodbye in the parking lot, the awkward, hesitant conversation at the table through dinner still tense over you. 

“It was so great to see you!” You hugged her back and kissed her cheek. “Seriously, I’m wearing the bosses down, start packing now because I miss you too much.” 

She laughed. 

“I’ll be on the first plane out once I get a job offer,” she said. “Either way, I’ll be back for the holidays, we have to hang out then. Just us girls at least once, promise.” 

You smiled a little, hoping Sarah would still want to talk to you at the holidays. 

“Sounds perfect.” 

Joel gave you a tight smile and a nod. 

“Talk to you soon?” He said, his voice too open and honest to fit the shared awkwardness of your position feet apart in the parking lot. 

“Yeah,” you smiled. “Text me?” 

“Sure,” he smiled back. 

You poured yourself a glass of wine the second you were in the door, only pausing to take your shoes off as you made your way to the kitchen. You settled in on the couch without bothering to change, carrying the bottle of wine with you, and you put on some shitty Netflix reality show you could zone out and barely pay attention to. 

You were four episodes deep when your phone lit up. 

“Fuck that was hard,” Joel texted. 

You smiled a little. 

“Was that hard or were you hard?” You texted back. 

“Both,” he replied almost immediately. Your smile grew and you downed the last of the wine. 

You hadn’t had enough to drink to be drunk but you’d had enough that it made you feel… bold. Like you wanted to try something new. 

You took off your jacket and slid the straps of your dress down so your cleavage was spilling over the top of it, your breasts barely contained by it. You took a selfie, a needy look on your face, and sent him the picture. 

“Need help with that?” You asked. 

“Jesus Christ,” he texted back almost immediately. “Good thing Sarah just went to call some boy she started seeing back in Washington, can’t just send a guy shit like that and expect him to sit still.” 

You bit your lip for a second, getting an idea. You headed for your room and shimmied out of the dress before you put on the sexiest bra you owned and switched to the matching panties. You posed in the full length mirror in the corner of your room, one leg out, a hand on your hip. 

“What about shit like this?” You asked as you sent the picture along. 

“Really fucking mean for you to send that when you know I can’t come take it off you,” he texted back. 

You flopped down on your stomach on your bed, reminded of how you felt texting guys when you were younger and you had to make sure you didn’t go over your texting limit for the month. 

“You can always fight back you know,” you said. “I can’t come rip your clothes off either.” 

“You trying to get me to sext with you?” He asked. 

“Maybe.” 

It took a few minutes before he sent you a picture. He was in his room, stripped down to his boxer briefs. He fisted his cock through the fabric of them, the veins on his hand prominent. 

“Something like this?” He asked. 

You groaned, your hand sliding to your clit before you even thought about it. You rolled onto your back and took a picture of your hand slipping into your panties before sending it on. 

“Just like that,” you replied. 

“Fuck.” 

The one word was all he sent for a minute before he followed it up with a picture of his cock in his hand. You moaned at the sight of him, a pearl of pre-come leaking from his swollen head. You wanted to swallow it up, lick up and down his thick shaft, take all of him in your mouth until you were choking on him and he spilled down your throat. 

“Tried to make this last but you’re too fucking much for me,” he texted. “Couldn’t wait.” 

You took off your bra and tossed it to the floor before taking a handful of your breast in your hand, holding the phone high over your head, high enough that it could capture your needy expression and the way you were touching yourself. 

“Neither could I.” 

Usually, when you fucked yourself, you used toys. You had a few that you’d become partial to over the years of cycling through men and relationships, the fake dicks in your life lasting a whole hell of a lot longer than the real ones. 

Tonight, you didn’t need one. Didn’t think you could pull yourself away from touching your own body long enough to pull one out, not with Joel’s face and body and cock on the brain. You slid your hand down your chest, your stomach, back to your pussy. You rubbed your clit in little circles with your index finger as you stretched your middle finger down, down, down toward your dripping hole. 

When his next message came through, you dropped your phone in your rush to open it and you scrambled to pick it up with one hand, your other one too occupied to want to do anything else. 

This time, it was a video. His large hand was working his thick length, his cock still looking big even in his grasp that dwarfed your own. He worked his cock slowly, his thumb sweeping over the head and collecting the pre-come before he slid it firmly down with quiet moan. 

“Fuck, I need you,” his voice was soft, a whisper. “Need to feel that perfect fuckin’ pussy…” 

You were about to rewatch the video, your mouth watering, when he texted again. 

“Can I call you?” 

You didn’t respond. Instead, you just called him, putting the phone to speaker and setting it on your chest between your breasts. 

He answered on the first ring. 

“Hey beautiful,” he said, voice low and dark and needy. “Fuck, I gotta be quiet…” 

“I know,” you said, whispering back even though you didn’t have a reason to. “Don’t care, as long as I can hear you.” 

“Tell me what you’re doin’ to yourself,” he was almost panting. “What you’re thinkin’ about…” 

“I’m rubbing my clit,” you moaned. “Got one finger inside of myself, thinking about you eating me out last night…” 

“Fuck you tasted so good,” his voice became a little more strained. “Wanna taste you right now.” 

You moaned and fucked yourself a little harder, a little faster, your eyes closed in pleasure. 

“Add another finger,” he said. “Want you to work up to this cock, want you thinking about me deep in you when you come.” 

“Fuck Joel,” you were panting now, too, as you added another finger. 

“Tell me what you’re thinking now,” he whispered. 

“You pushing into me,” you groaned it. “Opening me up for you…” 

“Fuck, Beautiful, you’re gonna fuckin’ kill me.” 

You heard the pace of his hand increase on the other end of the phone and you worked your pussy a little harder and faster, too, whimpering as you did. 

“Can you fit a third finger?” He panted. 

“Yes,” you managed, getting desperate, your body starting to feel tight, all the heat of you drawing deep into yourself. 

“Add it,” he groaned. “Fuck yourself deep, hard. Fuck yourself like I fucked you last night, how I’d fuck you right now if I were there.” 

You obeyed, thrusting your fingers in as deep as you could reach, whimpering at the stretch that you knew had nothing on his thick cock. 

“You were so fucking deep,” your legs were restless, the tightness extending so far down that you knew your orgasm was going to make your whole body quake. “Fuck, you’re so goddamn big, Joel…” 

“And you take me so fucking well,” he panted. “Take me like you were made to take this cock, fuck!” 

“I was made to take you,” you whimpered, desperate and aching. “Made to make you come, need you to fucking come, please Joel, please come for me…” 

“Fuck, fuck, I’m coming!” It was a choking, strangled whisper and you heard him muffle his moaning in a pillow, the sound of his pleasure sending you over the edge. 

It was the hardest you’d ever come from your own hand, harder than you’d ever come with a vibrator, almost as hard as you came with Joel deep inside you the night before. Your body throbbed with it, so much that it felt like your fingers might break as they stuffed your overwrought pussy full. You all but sobbed as you kept working your clit, even as it was too much, fucking yourself through your own orgasm the way you knew Joel would if he were buried inside you instead of in his own fist. Once it was over, you slowly, gently, pulled your hand away from your dripping slit. 

“Fucking hell, Beautiful,” he said after a minute, still trying to catch his breath. You smiled and laughed a little. “Christ, I hope Sarah didn’t hear that.” 

“You stayed a lot quieter than me,” you were whispering again. It was fun to whisper into the phone with him, like you were going behind your parents’ backs with it. 

“Still,” he said before he sighed. “I gotta go clean up, you made me make a hell of a mess.” 

“You’re one to talk,” you smirked a little, looking at the slick gathered on your fingers. 

“Can I text you tomorrow while you’re at work?” He asked quietly. “Something tells me I’m gonna miss you like crazy.” 

“Course,” you smiled, settling down into your mattress. “Text me whenever you want, I always want to hear from you.” 

Maybe it was the post-orgasm haze but you didn’t care that it sounded desperate. 

“Good,” he said. “Because hearin’ from you always makes my damn day.” 

You smiled at that. 

“Miss you, Beautiful.” 

You smiled bigger. 

“Miss you, too.” 

Next Chapter

A/N: Awww doubt is creeping in and they're still fucking each other's brains out from afar.

We love to see it!

Thank you so much for following along with this story! These two are so fun to write and I hope you're enjoying their journey. Love you all!

[nonbinarypirat]

I have never done a Ted lasso post despite the fact that when I first made my tumblr this was like, the first fandom I was apart of lol. But! I’m so fucking pumped for season 4, I really feel like the finale just didn’t do it justice fully for the show. Some thoughts I have so far:

I would love to see keeley, Jamie, and Roy be a thing but realistically probably not. Especially if it’s stays true that Phil Dunster will be too busy. But I hope they’ll repair Roy and keeley and Jamie and keeley relationship after the weird and awkward fight they threw in. I personally always thought that was a hamfisted ending for them, not to say people can’t relapse into old toxic behaviors but I just felt it was a lazy and overdone trope to end or have a conclusion to a love triangle

Speaking of, it’s still possible Phil dunster could reprise his role, everything is still be worked out and nothing is too set in stone. Hell, an actual season is not set in stone. I would be greatly disappointed if he couldn’t be in it, it wouldn’t feel the same. But if he can’t, at the very least I want a good reason and some cameos, over FaceTime if they have to.

Which brings me to Ted, idk if he’s actually going to be fully in it or just over zoom or something? Is he fully coming back? It would be interesting if they do something similar to the plethora of fanfics of Ted getting hit with mental health issues because “home” doesn’t feel like home anymore and causing conflict in his life and moving back with Henry. Adding to that, I want the ex wife (can’t remember her name rn and I have too much energy to look it up) to break up with the fucking therapist. Dump! That! Man! I don’t want them to get back together, I just want her away from that fucking unethical creep and move to England for her son. But maybe that’s wishful thinking.

Speaking of break ups, break up Beard and Jane. Point blank. One of the worst relationships in the show, toxic as fuck, and Beard deserves better. And get that man some therapy too

I also would like to see Roy’s progress with therapy on top of that. And more keeley with the crew again, I always wished she was included more in the show and not on a side quest. Bring her more in the fold again

We better see Trent Crimm, you can pry that man from my cold dead hands

Seeing Ted get in a new relationship could be fun since I think it’s been long enough distance and he’s grown enough for that. But tbh, I don’t care if Rebecca and Ted get together, I like seeing a platonic hetero friendship that doesn’t need to automatically be romantic. Sometimes people can vibe and just be friends and I always liked that about Ted and Rebecca. But I’m not opposed either if they write it well. Though I highly doubt they’d go down that route since they built up to the Dutch guy and with Rebecca possibly developing a relationship with his daughter, it’d be kind of heartbreaking if they breakup just to put her with Ted. So, if they don’t go the Ted and Rebecca route, I hope we see her relationship more and the daughter

More of Roy’s sister please, I love her. Also more Phoebe

Would love some of the other footballers get to shine. Want to see the women’s league. Love to see Roy struggling with being a new coach

Would like to learn Roy’s family situation since I feel like that’s an untapped well for trauma and issues that probably created and contributed to his anger issues

And I think as a final thing to this long ass post, I’d like to see the after affects of Collin essentially coming out and being the first openly gay player while playing in the league. People had to have seen him kiss his partner and while it was happy, it’s also going to open a floodgate so I hope we get to see that properly addressed and well written

[ivormybeloved]

if this gets sent multiple times my bad I’m on mobile and tumblr is freaking out a bit. Also lemme know if I’m spamming your inbox too much lol

Thinking about mining again and just tool usage in general, the cuffs would definitely inhibit Milo’s ability to properly mine or defend himself at first right? Like he can’t get the full range of motion with his arms that Reginald can, that’s the whole point of shackles

speaking of the shackles, Milo is gonna have some weird scarring around his wrists depending on how long he’s stuck in manacles for; they’re not exactly known to be comfortable, and they’re bound to start digging into his skin eventually when mining or fighting monsters

Reggie leaves to go look for more sheep so they don’t have to keep fighting over the one bed, comes home to find out Milo discovered what shears are and Jeb is now bald. Reginald is only mad at himself because damnit, why didn’t he THINK OF THAT SOONER?

more stir crazy Reggie; in addition to learning Redstone and farming crops, Reginald could also end up corralling other animals. Namely, chickens! I just think he should do some animal raising, as a treat

Reginald wins a wrestling match and gets the bed. Milo wakes him up the next day by pulling his eyepatch back and letting it snap back against Reggie’s face

i want them to argue over how to organize their chests. please I just KNOW Milo would be uppity about how things get sorted

Do you think either of them would try making maps of the area under Sky City? I could see them being useful for the boys in relocating caves and the likes, but it’s also a bit of a resource drain requiring a compass (four iron ingots + Redstone) per map (they don’t know abt cartography tables lol-)

pre-relationship but after the boys are getting along, I think it’d be cute if they decided after sufficiently lighting up the area around their base if they spent a night sitting on the roof staring up at the sky. Milo’s counting stars, Reggie’s staring at Sky City

food thieving Milo. Reginald turns his back on his food for ONE second and then it’s gone

YIPPE!!! Funny I was just drawing Reginald and Milo.

1—The shackles will be a bit hard to work with (especially swimming and fighting as you'll soon see), but Milo works with them for a bit. They do find a way to break them at some point. Also yes, I was planning for wrist scars.

2—Exactly. What makes it worse is Reginald probably comes back with a crafted bed and they either looked around for nothing or made Jeb bald for nothing. Either way, at least Reginald gets to sleep

3—Reginald just has a whole mini town for himself at this point. Milo is concerned.

4—Might work if Reginald doesn't hear his footsteps first. Or if Reginald manages to sleep at all. He does more thinking than sleeping sometimes.

5—Reginald probably just throws things in there. It drives Milo crazy.

6—Do they even know what a compass is? /J

7—This is a daily occurrence. Reginald reacts reasonably and steals from Milo on occasion

[moonjxsung]

hi star, it's currently 10:55 pm for me as i write this, and im scared to think we're only an hour and five away from 2025.

2024 has been an intense year for all of us, and im sure you took it pretty hard as well. i remember first finding your blog early to mid 2023 ish and then finding the courage to send an anon ask on your tumblr blog back in 2023 around late november for the first time, and i've been sticking with you since. it felt surreal going into 2024 headfirst, and it was even more surreal when you came back after your break in january, and i feel like we've built a pretty decent bond for the time we've known each other (it's been over a year now, holy.) star, (i swear this isn't some suicide note or marriage proposal as much as it's about to sound like one) from every song recommendation or speech and debate rant, or even just picture dumps ive sent you on discord, you've always replied back with such enthusiasm and effort that i absolutely love and adore. you have one of the most beautiful souls to exist, and please don't forget that through every harsh moment or happy tear. i truly mean this as a compliment when i say this, but i picture you as such a raw, unpolished human being. as much as it may feel weird to hear it in your perspective, but i feel like you're the epitome of an hidden uncut gem in it's most finest definition. you're not sugarcoated or too brutally honest, but your personality gives off some vibe of an in-between, and i mean it as a good thing. you are genuinely one of the most beautiful human beings i believe i have ever met, and i am so glad to have been able to know you for the time we have. your writing is absolutely gorgeous, and your very replies and enthusiastic messages are always filled with effort and passion. i think your talent to put things into words is genuinely stunning, because even your tumblr replies seem to have so much of your personality drained in them. it's hard to see people put genuinely this amount of pure effort into things, and it's so motivating to see you do it. you seriously give me a zeal to live. 2024, has been a rough year for all of us (i'm sure) and i know for a fact it wasn't too smooth of a ride for you either. so i'm here to hope that as we face the new year (for the umpteenth time!) as time strikes down to it's very last seconds of 2024, we're all able to reflect back on ourselves and so much of the world around us and face another brand new year together. this is the second new year i face with you and i'm so glad to be able to share this moment with one of the most beautiful souls i know. thank you soso much for the 1+ year we've shared together, and i hope there's more to come. i'm looking forward to anything and everything yet to see for 2025! happy new years. ~《☘》 finished 11:19.

My sweet dear lovely clover anon. I’m replying to this as my animal crossing villagers celebrate the new year on my island, and I’m fully in tears at this message. I could not have wished for a kinder message to ring in the new year.

First off- I can’t believe that this is our second new year together???? It’s hard for me to even fathom that I was on this blog in 2023. The time is slipping away from me and every so often I’m reminded that I’ve been here for a little longer than I can properly remember now. What a blessing and a lucky little thing to be able to call you a friend. From hearing about all your speech and debate tournaments, receiving all your pinterest selfies (guys, TRUST ME when I say clover anon is beautiful), hearing about all your final exams and getting the loveliest messages on my blog from you, it’s been nothing short of completely fulfilling to have you in my life. I am so blessed to have crossed paths with you in any capacity, and I’m even luckier to have the established friendship we now have. I truly think that you came into my life for a reason, and every single message we exchange only solidifies the overwhelming love I have for you. I am so, so, so lucky to know you.

It’s been a hard year for sure, and sometimes I’m scared at how quickly the time progresses. I often find myself wondering what this blog will be like just a year from now, what the state of my fangirl life will be, even if I still opt to write fanfiction later down the line. But what I do know is that the friendships I’ve created on here are forever, even if my blog is not. Please know that I’m always in your corner to lend an ear (or receive pinterest model selfies), in this year and the next and hopefully a lifetime after that. Unfortunately you are STUCK with me.

I have no doubt that this is going to be your year. Academic success, financial success, friendships, love- you’re so deserving of all those things, and you’re somebody who put out so much good this year. You’re bound to get it back tenfold. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for you in 2025 ♥️

I love you endlessly- thank you for every little interaction we’ve ever had and for being the most remarkable human being. Here’s to an amazing year full of love and light. I love you my clover, you know where to find me always 👼☘️💓

2025 clover anon’s year. I’m calling it now !

[iasmelaion]

WIP Tag Game

Rules: Share a snippet from whatever you’re currently working on, and then tag 5 people.

tagged by @firstelevens

tagging @pairofraggedclaws, @pineapplecrushface, @lugarn, @technicallyverycowboy, but no pressure! (also, wow, truly do not remember ANYONE's tumblr usernames without the little icon photos there to prompt me, damn. that took way longer than it should have /o\ )

Thank you for tagging me @firstelevens because it is providing me with the extra bit of motivation I need to finish up this ridiculous silly fic that started as a comment fic but that I just kept noodling away at because I didn't feel like working on anything else, lol. The prompt for this, for the record, was "vampire bucky au" and this is...not at all that, lol. These are, alas, the things that happen when you give me a prompt.

It's entirely Sam's fault that Bucky's first thought on realizing he’s been captured by vampires is: well, these guys aren't part of the big three. His second thought is: if vampires have been a thing all this time and no one fucking told me, I'm going to be so pissed. What the fuck else is real? Fairies? Wolfmen? Goddamn Sasquatch??

Ugh, if he survives, Bucky is never going to live this down. In his defense, how the fuck was he supposed to fight against fog. Bucky had been minding his own business, headed back to his apartment after acquiring some late-night take out, and he’d had about a second to think, that’s weird, it wasn’t foggy out earlier and then, when the fog did not move in fog-like ways, well, that’s not fog, but it doesn’t smell like any kind of gas either and then the damned vampires had coalesced out of the fog and surrounded him before he could run. 

“What the fuck are you?” he’d asked, baffled and pissed, and one of them had smiled, showing off some pretty gnarly and pointy teeth.

“We are vampires, of course.”

Then Bucky had felt the chill of fog behind him and a prick in his neck, and passed out, only to wake up on a plane.  

At least the vampires are polite. No one has tortured him so far, or even sucked his blood, and whatever they’ve drugged him with, it’s honestly kind of pleasant once he wakes up properly. He feels floaty and hazy and not particularly interested in breaking his bonds, not that he has any escape options other than jumping out of the plane, and anyway, this plane is even nicer than Zemo’s plane. Like, sure, his hands and feet are bound at the wrists and ankles, but he’s on a really comfy leather seat, and they’ve given him some water.

Also, and most importantly, the vampires don't appear to be especially tech-savvy. While he can’t feel his phone in his pocket anymore, no one has noticed Bucky twist the tip of his vibranium pinky, one of his panic button options, and one no one ever thinks to look for or prevent because it involves a motion that’s not physically possible in a flesh and blood pinky, not without breaking it, and definitely not independently. God bless Shuri’s cleverness in coming up with that one. Anyway, if Bucky’s got even a scrap of luck left, Sam is already on his trail. 

Though, fuck, it's not like Sam's gonna be prepared for vampires, what with them not being one of the big three and all. Bucky will have to gather what intel he can. Since they haven’t gagged him, he figures he might as well ask some woozy but totally reasonable questions.

“So…do you know Dracula?” he asks the vampire sitting across from him.

He doesn’t look much like a vampire at the moment, just an average white guy, apart from the eerie golden shade of his eyes.

“No,” says the vampire, lip curling slightly in what might be disgust, showing off the tip of a too-pointy canine.

“Do you, uh, want my blood?” Bucky asks. “A lot of people want my blood on account of how I’m a science experiment.”

The vampire blinks at him and frowns. “We do not want your blood.” Bucky tries and fails to place his accent. Dutch, maybe? Something European.

“Are you HYDRA?” asks Bucky. 

There’s no ostentatious squid-related branding or gloating about recovering the asset, so he doesn’t think so, but he figures he should ask.

The vampire wrinkles his nose. “Ugh, no,” he says. “We aren’t Nazis.”

“What do you want with me then?”

“We will not harm you. My master will speak with you soon,” says the vampire, and oh, that doesn’t bode well. “Sleep now,” continues the vampire, and Bucky wants to protest, but vampires have magic powers or what the fuck ever, he guesses, because he does in fact sleep.

It’s honestly kind of the best night of sleep he’s had in a while, so he’s in a pretty good mood for someone who’s been captured by vampires when he wakes up to being gently pulled out of a plush SUV and into the courtyard of—a castle? Bucky tries to crane his head up and around to get a feel for where the hell he is, but all he sees are starry skies and a lot of gray stone before he’s inexorably guided inside. While he’s no longer tied up or woozy, the vampires’ grip on him might as well be vibranium. He makes a tentative attempt to break free, just to gauge what it would take to escape, and is not encouraged by the results. He could do it, he thinks, but it would hurt. 

"Could we maybe talk about this?" tries Bucky, because it's what Sam would do, probably. "Do you have any demands, or am I in for yet another round of being experimented on or something? Because I'm not really into that. The third time is not the charm."

The vampires holding him are silent, and drag him down plushly carpeted, well-lit wide hallways into—what the fuck, is this a literal throne room?—where someone tall and pale and dark-haired is sprawled in the opulent seat at the other end of the room, at the far end of a long wooden table. The man looks familiar, and Bucky's about to start low-key panicking about this being more HYDRA bullshit, no matter what the vampire on the plane had said. Like, fuck, are HYDRA vampires now? Have they always been allied with vampires? He tries to make out what’s on the tapestries draped all over the walls, but then he gets closer and—

"Great Uncle Yakov?!" Bucky blurts out.

Because that man’s face is familiar—familiar as in family. They have the same damn dimple in their chin.

"James! It is wonderful to see you again!" says his surprisingly alive—undead? unalive?—great uncle, beaming in a way that shows off his pointy white canines.

[cozy-autumn-moth]

I’ve been creating some species and generally I’ve been really proud of the information Ive been able to compile and so I decided to put the info onto Tumblr. If anyone reads this then cool, hope you enjoy!

The Eplyxians (General)

-The Eplyxians are mysterious otherworldly humanoid creatures that just appeared on earth one day without any signs or signals whatsoever.

-In almost no time at all they’ve become the top apex predators and have shown no signs of stopping their growth. Thus they’ve become major threats towards humanity and currently scientists and researchers are trying to learn about the species.

-Might be included in a story of mine in the future idk, I’ve got some ideas.

The Eplyxians (Physically)

-Though they’re humanoid they are quite easy to tell apart from humans. For one they’ll be a lot taller than most humans, Eplyxians range from around 6 '4 at shortest and around 9' 0 at the tallest.

-In addition you’ll probably be able to tell Humans and Eplyxian apart since they’ll most likely be completely faceless with some being exceptions to the rule.

-All Eplyxians will wear a mask or a form of covering for their face. They’ll either find an already made one or they’ll make one themselves, either way they will have one and you’ll be hard pressed to find an Eplyxian without one.

-In terms of body shape a vast majority tend to be lanky and skinny as hell though some uncommonly can be chubby and very rarely muscular though they’re not impossible.

-They can grow hair and characteristically it is abnormally long and it grows at very absurdly fast rates. Some style it and some keep it wild but it’s up to them how they keep it. They can’t grow facial hair.

-When they seem threatened by something they’ll begin to produce weird black spikes or tentacle-like appendages to help fend for themselves. This is only a reaction to fear or anxiety though.

-They have black or gray coloration for their skin and around their bodies they’ll have some form of markings somewhere on their body.

-Their fingers are extremely sharp and pointy so they can easily cut through skin, tear through flesh, and break bone with ease.

The Eplyxians (Survival)

-Due to, normally, a lack of a mouth they can’t properly eat or drink. Instead they absorb liquids through their skin which hydrates and keeps them alive. Though they can’t absorb anything without thought because some stuff they can’t have. Their main known sources of hydration are water and blood.

-Water acts as something to hold them over for just a bit but it isn’t as reliable, think of water to them being what any every day snack food is for us.

-Blood is their most reliable and prized form of hydration and is generally the main reason as to why they’re so willing to kill anything with the stuff.

-They can live for about three days without any blood and water will only give them an extra one hour extension. Though depending on how much blood they have absorbed the extension can go from three days to weeks without the stuff, though it’s not recommended they go this long without the stuff even if they’ve absorbed plenty of blood beforehand.

-They generally live in the forest and stay there during the day, at night they’ll try and lurk around towns where large concentrations of humans reside

-Exposure to one for a certain amount of time will provide certain thoughts, nightmares, or hallucinations almost entirely unique to them.

The Eplyxians (Mentally)

-Eplyxian intelligence is very diverse. Some Eplyxians will be as competent as a normal human being where they can comprehend moral dilemmas and even be able to speak fluently in the language other humans speak and even be able to use forms of cunning and manipulation, but some of them have the intellectual capabilities of any normal wild animal and can’t even be put on the same playing field as a human in terms of thinking.

-Not all Eplyxians are bad or bloodthirsty, some have been shown to be able to have a kinship with some humans and even be able to find alternative ways of survival amidst their physical limitations.

Example Image

[lunarmaden]

heya ✌️ i'm tav / fable, i'm 23 years old, my timezone is est, i've been in the rpc for ~10 years, and you could pour soup in my lap and i'd probably apologize to you. if the way these are worded makes me sound a little harsh, it isn't meant to come off that way!! i've just been in the rpc for too long to be vague or lenient. that said, a few rapid-fire rules before we get into the lengthier ones that actually need explaining:

— don't follow me if you're any sort of phobic towards any group of people. — mun =/= muse, i don't condone everything my muses do, you get the drill. — vagueposting / guiltposting is an instant block from me. it's not cute. we're all adults here, let's communicate and act like it. — don't rush me for replies, period. rushing me for a thread at all will result in me flat out dropping it.

[ 1 ] for blogs that i can’t see myself interacting with, i will soft block you to keep my followers clean. personal blogs will be hard blocked immediately unless a sideblog is attached to it and i can easily see that your personal blog is a hub. note that it will take me a little while sometimes to decide if i want to follow back. give me a few days at a minimum. do not unfollow and follow again and again to get my attention. i will just hard block you and call it a day.

[ 2 ] i'm neutral on callouts. if i see them and think the proof provided in it is actually valid, then i'll reblog it under my psa tag and leave it at that, no further discussion. it will not go under "drama tw" or anything of the sort, because if it's serious enough, it isn't petty drama. it's a genuine warning passed to other members of the community so they can make their own opinions about. that said, i also believe people can change. if there is proof of that, then i see no reason to hold past mistakes over someone's head.

[ 3 ] i will only write with 18+ muns. if you follow me and are a minor or your age is not listed clearly on your blog, i will soft block you immediately. do not lie to me about your age, you will be hard blocked if i find out.

on a similar but less serious note, i also don't follow if i can't immediately see an alias. just...kinda wanna know who i'm following, is all.

[ 4 ] i get that plotting is kinda important for some people!! however, rarely will i ever fully plot a thread, and i heavily prefer using memes to interact. now, plotting for the general vibe of the thread and dynamic between characters? absolutely!! but frankly, if i relied on completely plotting threads, i'd kill my creativity and get even less done than i already do. i'm here for a fun time, not a stressful and / or long time, so please be aware.

[ 5 ] speaking of relying on memes, send me several at a time! you're probably more likely to get a response if you give me variety to work with. if i get a meme i don't think i can work with, i'll probably send several back to you to make up for it. just so things don't feel lopsided or something.

[ 6 ] i am 23 and valynn is an adult ( even though elven ages are... a little weird ), so nsfw content is likely to show up here in some capacity. when it does, it'll be tagged as "nsfw //" ( or "suggestive //" if it's only implied ). however, i'm likely only going to write those topics with people i'm close to.

[ 7 ] anon hate is cringe, so if you send it, it won't get a response from me unless it's to make fun of you. at this point i expect most of us to know not to answer it seriously otherwise the sender is just being encouraged, so if i keep seeing it being answered / talked about on the dash ( unless it's being poked fun at ), i'm probably just going to soft block for my sake because. y'know, you didn't wanna get the negativity, i don't wanna see that negativity, etcetera.

on that note, untagged negativity will also lead to me unfollowing. untagged posts in general will lead to me unfollowing if it's a frequent thing, honestly.

[ 8 ] with how difficult tumblr has made it as of late to properly source things, i have become significantly more lenient when it comes to people reblogging memes and musings from me, as long as it isn't like several posts in a row. that said, i expect this understanding to be mutual. i'll always try to reblog from the source if i can, but if not, it'll just have to come from whoever slapped it on the dash.

[ 9 ] if you need something tagged, tell me! i’ll do my best to remember to tag what i need to, but please remind me if i happen to forget. the system i use is just "trigger //". now, if you use fancy tags for nsfw posts or posts that otherwise need a trigger warning and refuse to adjust if confronted about it, that's getting a hard block. it isn't difficult to be respectful of what people need tagged. the refusal to do so for your aesthetic is kinda fucked.

as for what i need tagged, all i ask is that visuals of sunflowers are tagged appropriately. i would also appreciate detailed mentions of terminal illness being tagged, specifically cancer, but that's more of a squick than a trigger, so that one is less of a problem.

[ 10 ] obligatory "let's just have fun" rule here. we're all on this hellsite to write our silly little guys, it really isn't that serious. just be decent, and we'll be chill!!

[yeetlegay]

AU where Presumed Straight Boy™️ Porsche is roomies with Presumed Bossy Trust Fund Baby™️ Kinn

This was supposed to be like three sentences and then I got carried away so now it’s like an extremely sloppy not-quite-fic that I should probably just dump in a Google doc and write up properly, but instead I’m presenting it like tumblr is a potluck and I brought a casserole made out of whatever’s in my fridge. 🤲 (Also this is all @iffervescent ’s fault for coming up with the idea for a fic about comphet Porsche doing one of those “straight guy bottoms for the first time” pornos, at which point I lost my mcfucking mind.)

Porsche is having lots of fun, casual hook-ups but lately girls can’t seem to get enough of his ass for some reason. And it’s not that he’s not game to try, he just doesn’t get what the big deal is bc he always assumed anal was overhyped. And anyway some part of him feels weird about having that much focus on him and his body. He likes making girls get off and being useful and his own pleasure is almost secondary to the rush and satisfaction of making someone else feel good.

But this is the third time in a month that a girl’s asked—actually more like begged—to peg him, and he’s a people pleaser, okay? If ass play is such a turn-on for so many girls, he should at least give it a fair shot.

So he does, and…well. It’s sort of a bust. The girl isn’t doing anything wrong, it’s all him. He clenches up tight as a clam as soon as the spotlight is on him, can’t relax or bear down or take deep breaths or anything. He doesn’t even really like getting blowjobs, always too distracted wondering what the girl is getting out of it, feeling bad that he’s letting her do all the work for what seems to him like very little reward.

Ass stuff is all those feelings plus more complicated ones, discomfort and confusion and a faint, twisting sense of shame that he knows is bullshit but can’t quite shake. And nice as the girl is, she’s still a stranger, and it’s still just a hook-up, and patience has a limit. So after it becomes painfully clear Porsche isn’t up for what she’s after, she gives up and lets him fuck her quick and matter-of-fact, and after that night she doesn’t text him again.

Porsche tries not to take it personally or be too bummed by what a tight-ass he apparently is. But one night a few weeks later, he’s snuck maybe one or two more drinks than he should’ve at his bartending shift, and Yok has to call his #RichKidsofInstagram roomie Kinn to come pick him up. Kinn does, huffing bitchily the whole time as he practically carries Porsche from the bar to the car, then from the car to their apartment.

Porsche is a sloppy drunk. He knows this, and really he should’ve learned better by now, but he’s in a funk about his ass now and his filter was never good to begin with. So it’s probably inevitable that he ends up opening his mouth and letting some truly embarrassing shit come out of it. He tells Kinn all about the girls who want to plow him, how he’s happy to let them in theory but in practice he’s been a total disappointment so far. “I wish that thing in porn was real,” he slurs against Kinn’s shoulder as Kinn fumbles for his keys.

“What thing?” Kinn says, with the tone of someone already wishing he hadn’t asked.

“You know,” Porsche says nonsensically. “The thing. Where they have, like, a teacher. The whole oh no he’s an ass virgin, we’ll have to give him lessons.” He pitches his voice a little higher for dramatic effect, but Kinn is unimpressed.

“You watch porn about guys who are ass virgins?” Kinn twists the key in the lock and tugs Porsche inside.

“For educational purposes,” Porsche says, waving the question away with one hand as he stumbles behind Kinn into the living room. “You’re missing the point.”

“Which is?” Kinn shoves lightly at his shoulders, but Porsche’s balance is so pitiful, he keels back onto the couch with a loud oof, landing on one of Kinn’s plush, overpriced throw pillows.

“I want, like, a teacher. To teach me about ass stuff. Oh!” Porsche tries to figure out how to raise his head from the very comfortable pillow, but it’s too hard to do that and talk at the same time, so he picks talking. “Not a teacher. A coach. You know, like they have on that show The Voice. Just somebody helping me with my—I don’t know, routine or whatever. And then I go out and try it with somebody every week.”

“Does that mean you can get voted off?” Kinn’s voice is swimming somewhere overhead. Somebody’s unbuttoning Porsche’s shirt, which is fine because he’s sweating.

“Don’t try being funny,” Porsche warns him. “That’s my job. You buy the throw pillows, I tell the jokes. If you say anything funny, I’ll throw up all over you.”

“I’ll need to buy more throw pillows after this,” Kinn says grimly. “You smell like the inside of a vodka bottle.”

Porsche barely hears him. He’s thinking about that pretty girl from a few weeks ago, how disappointed she must’ve been that he couldn’t give her what she wanted. He feels ridiculous, a little pathetic even. It’s just his ass, for fuck’s sake. It can’t be that hard. Gay guys do it all the time—

“Wait!” Porsche’s eyes snap open. Two blurry, criminally good-looking Kinns sway in front of him. “I need a gay guy,” Porsche announces to him.

“For what exactly?” Kinn scoops his hands under Porsche’s shoulders, lifting him off the couch until he’s sitting up enough to slide the shirt off his arms.

Porsche lets him do all the work, too concentrated on keeping his head up. “Gay guys know lots about anal. I could find one and make him my coach.”

“You know, it’s not just gay guys who do anal,” Kinn says, struggling with one of Porsche’s arms.

“Well, duh.” Porsche tries rolling his eyes, but it immediately makes his stomach roll too, so he stops. “I’m trying to do anal, and I’m not gay. But they’re supposed to be, like, experts, you know? Like the OG connoisseurs of butt stuff through the centuries. If I’m gonna do it, I wanna learn from the masters.”

Kinn finally gets Porsche’s arm free of the uncooperative sleeve. “So you’re just planning on propositioning some random gay guy to be your ass play coach?”

Porsche frowns. “Well, no, I guess not. It’d have to be someone I know. Maybe I won’t freeze up if it’s a friend with me instead of a hook-up.” He groans and drops his head. “But I don’t know any gay guys!”

Kinn’s hands go still, even though Porsche’s remaining sleeve is still caught around his elbow. There’s a long pause. “Porsche,” Kinn says finally, sounding like he’s already regretting what he’s about to say. “You know I’m gay, right?”

The words take a few seconds to register, and when they do they don’t make any sense. Porsche lifts his head, bleary-eyed. “Huh?”

“I’m gay,” Kinn repeats slowly.

Gay. Kinn. Gay Kinn. Kinn gay. Kinn? Gay?

Porsche blinks at him. “I told you not to say anything funny,” he says.

And then he does, in fact, throw up all over him.

***

In Kinn’s defense, he hadn’t actually intended to offer lessons in anal to the idiotic roommate he’s been pining after for six months.

He’s sure Porsche won’t remember much the next morning—not the unpleasant ordeal of cleaning the vomit off both of them, or giving Porsche a strictly clinical sponge bath, or Porsche’s drunken over-sharing about his tight asshole and what a burden it is for him.

By the time he’s gotten Porsche clean and in bed, Kinn is hanging onto sanity by a thread. The only thing that could be worse than remembering the whole night would be Porsche remembering it too.

So of course he does.

And of course he’s nowhere near as embarrassed as Kinn is about the whole thing, aside from apologizing for throwing up on him. He slumps down at the little table in their kitchen the next morning, inhaling a cup of coffee and watching Kinn make an omelette. And within five minutes, he’s steamrolled right over any lingering awkwardness and is asking Kinn to be his “ass coach.”

Kinn says no obviously. That it’s a stupid idea, they’re roommates, Porsche can deal with this on his own—

“But I’ve tried that!” Porsche interjects.

“Tried what?”

“Dealing with it on my own.”

At this, Kinn swallows loudly and keeps his voice carefully neutral. “As in—”

“You know, fingering myself, that sort of stuff.” Porsche downs the last of his coffee. “After the fiasco with that girl, I figured I should practice solo until I was better at it. I thought about getting a few toys to see if that would help but they’re kind of pricey and—”

Kinn is, at this point, having an out-of-body experience. Just the idea, the knowledge, that sometime—anytime—in the past couple of weeks Porsche was in his room trying to work a finger up his own ass, makes Kinn’s brain stutter to a screeching halt. He’s staring unseeing at the kitchen cupboard, picturing it, trying not to picture it, having crisis upon crisis upon crisis in the span of about four seconds. All while Porsche is still talking, telling him about the articles he read and the porn he watched and how really, he thinks maybe he should just walk into a gay bar and throw himself at anyone who looks capable and not murder-y.

Kinn is only human, and very, deeply, stupendously gay, and the hot roommate he’s in love with is offering himself—specifically his ass—on a silver platter to any man who’s willing.

Really, it’s only a matter of time before Kinn gives in and says, numbly, disbelievingly, “Fine. I’ll do it.”

“Do what?” Porsche asks.

“I’ll be your—” Kinn swallows. Looks down at his hopelessly burnt omelette. Looks up at the ceiling, resigned and desperately turned on. “I’ll be your…ass coach.”

And the many, many, many weeks of education begin…

….but I’m not writing full-fledged smut on a tumblr post lol, I have to draw the very shaky line somewhere. I really should just make this a proper fic but I’m already drowning in WIPs so if I do end up fleshing this out into a proper Thing, it’ll be a while.

Anyway, the point is: I am Thinking™️ about Porsche discovering the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of prostate orgasms.

[scarletcitrus]

pagan min as a dragon.............this idea has been in my head for so long i’ve got like prototype pagan dragons and shit but this is my final design for him

if you want to see me go in-depth about him for reasons that are related to mental illness (i have it and it is his fault) there is more :)

okay so. i’m going to explain his entire design since it makes me happy and i’m going to start with the colors

obviously he’s super flashy and extravagant in canon so i couldn’t just Not let that cross over here. i tried to make him look like a living rainbow without actually making him a rainbow BUT i do have my reasons for each of the colors.

the golden orange-y and yellow parts are obviously, well, to represent gold and the fact that he is ummmmmmm Technically royalty despite stealing the throne? the combination of blue on gold is relative to the golden path and how he and ishwari were a thing yada yada . red is for the primary color his army wears and for lakshmana because her whole shrine is decked out in the color red and pink is for his lovely suit:)

...i couldn’t make it that vibrant pink his suit actually is or it wouldn’t have fit as well into the rest of the colors. also. all the colors are taken off the rakshasa pagan thingy but i gave them meaning to make it fancier ++++ it wasn’t my intention but the way his colors fade into each other reminds me of all the colorful ?dust (i don’t know what it is. is it just powder) in far cry 4 so that makes me happy

speaking of rakshasa pagan, the other parts of his design are very much based off of it. specifically, the bird one in shangri-la. i included the way pagan’s rakshasa face looks as best as i could but the rest of the little intricate details i all sponged off of the bird, like the armor and the crown and the huge talons. the crown i felt especially needed to be included if nothing else bc well. y’know LMAO

the vaguely peacock-looking feathers are because that seems to be his motif for himself and his army and kyrat or whatever tf i don’t really know. all i know is i see peacocks associated with him and BAM he gets some pretty feathers

p.s. ik the pose is weird in that image let’s all hold hands and pretend that he’s climbing down from something

okay bear with me . the wing size might be inconsistent but shhh don’t look at that it isn’t there also thanks to tumblr for maybe tanking the quality of these (we’ll see) . ANYWAY

he gets multiple limbs because of the golden statues (or statue singular? is there just one? i haven’t played it but god i want to) that are in his dlc and it gives me another reason to stretch the definition of “dragon” which is always super fun for me :)

his face is mostly immobile aside from being able to blink and breathe and close/open his mouth but it’s like his jaw is on hinges with the way it can only move up and down (and stiffly) because i want it to really feel like he’s got a mask on or something. like if you look at the rakshasa bird its face isn’t all that. mobile. it is made of some kind of metal i think and i tried to mimic that effect + the idea of his mask in the dlc

another p.s.! let’s all keep holding hands and pretending . this time he’s landing after flying. he doesn’t normally stand on two feet

his wings are heavy to the point that his front legs can’t really support him properly sometimes even though he’s got two pairs, so he often uses his wings as support to walk like how wyverns do. he feels like it’s inconvenient because he doesn’t want to get his feathers dirty and without a beak/easy way to close his mouth it’s annoying for him to preen them but that’s just an L he has to take

and this is just him flying 4 literally no reason. i struggle drawing animals/beings that have wings in flight (and also i struggle with the tucked-in legs that come with those) so i wanted to see if i could. i think it turned out okay? maybe

i hope this made sense and that i wasn’t totally incoherent about this! thank you for reading (if you did) (and perhaps expect more dragons... i’m a big fan of them lol)

[beannary]

Any thoughts or ideas on 3Below and how it could’ve been more deeply ingrained in the world of TOA?

*cracks knuckles* alright it’s time to make the entire ToA series better.

So in order to make 3below fit into ToA better there needs to be changes to Wizards primarily and then also in how the Arcane Order is introduced. Yes this may seem backwards since I’m not directly discussing 3below but stick with me for a second this will all make sense, or at least I hope it will.

Let’s start with the Arcane Order as they are the cumulative big bads for all three series. Now they were introduced in Wizards and their introduction sucked! To make ToA more cohesive and to make the arcane order fit better into the world as well as to build up their like danger level, one member of the arcane order should have been introduced per series. Belroc in Trollhunters, Skrael in 3below, and Nari in Wizards.

The main goal of the Arcane Order is to rebalance man and magic on Earth. Now let’s say that for some reason they can’t directly interact with Earth directly and instead have to act through vessels. Their first vessel would have been Morgana obviously back at the Battle of Killahead Bridge. That fails like in the canon series and Nari defects as usual. In Trollhunters Belroc attempts to bring about the downfall of man again, this time using Gunmar. And in 3below, after Belroc failed, they try to destroy mankind this time using idk Morando or whatever stuff they were building up with Seklos and Gaylen in the canon series. And then in Wizards idk Douxie and Nari become weird siblings and they love each other and have a fun time and nothing bad happens to them because I love them. Already introducing each member of the Arcane Order in each series connects them together and then having all three groups come together to defeat the reunited Arcane Order makes more sense because they each already have experience with one aspect of the order.

Ok now for Wizards. So I would say that Trollhunters and 3Below serve the same sort of purpose in the ToA series, to introduce the fantasy and sci fi aspects of the world. Now canon Wizards deals pretty much only with the fantasy side of the equation, so to make 3below fit better into the universe, wizards needs to serve as the glue to connect the fantasy and the sci fi. Now Douxie is a wizard from Camelot so we’ve pretty much already got the fantasy side set. But here’s my proposal for how to include the sci fi elements. So Douxie is immortal and as such has experienced loads of technological advancements. I think the wizards series should have one season showing snapshots of Douxie’s life over the course of his immortality, and show how he has discovered that magic works surprisingly well with technology. Maybe over the course of this season he learns more lore about the arcane order and so we’re building up to the final confrontation. And also this would allow us to see exactly how moppet!Douxie transformed into punk rock modern day Douxie but that’s a whole other issue. Then in season two we are now in the modern day, i think this would go mostly the same as canon wizards but Toby and Krel would have more prominent roles. Specifically Krel would have a more prominent world. He’s already living on a technologically behind planet and now he’s thrust 900 years in the past? Dude is going to have a complete crisis. But with whatever bits of Akiridan technology the gang managed to take back with them, he and Douxie can really begin the work together to combine the two. Plus being in the past we can see more of how medieval magic worked, and seeing that can serve as a contrast so we can see truly how well magic and technology are able to work together.

Oh also here’s another thing that I stole from someone on tumblr but o can’t for the life of me remember who it is so credit to them and if this is your idea and you see it I will for sure put an edit in to properly credit you. But the trolls should also be aliens and the darklands should be a different planet. Something happened to the darklands to make it no longer habitable to trolls, so they travelled to earth like millions of years ago and have been living here ever since. I think this would be revealed in 3below and that way House Tarron could still have a connection to the trolls. Maybe the Akiridians recommended earth to the trolls since at the time it had no sentient life forms or something and Aja and Krel then got sent to earth because well if House Tarron has allies on earth it would be a pretty convenient place to send the queen and king in waiting.

Idk how to do a TLDR for this so TLDR; to make 3below fit better into the ToA series there needs to be a more direct connection between the fantasy elements and the sci fi elements and I think rewriting wizards would be the best way to do that.

[reflectiondetonation]

ty tumblr for deleting one of my blogs for no reason but i was able to find the text

THIS SCENE WITH RIN IS. SOOOOOO FUCKING FRUSTRATING BC ITS CLEAR WHAT THEY -MEANT- TO DO BUT BOTCHED IT HORRIBLY

i’m copying and pasting this but

so i think this is like. Rin’s second most controversial scene in this entire anime. literally only episode 15 and the fandom war that followed that’s STILL raging to this day can possibly compare, but holy shit nothing else Rin does makes as much discourse as this scene because this one has both people who hate sessrin and people who love sessrin coming togethee to say “hey what the fuck-”

this is such a weird scene because i feel like. it is simultaneously misunderstood while also really deservedly called out on how it makes Rin look almost borderline sociopathic regarding the fact she’s talking to her kids about the fact things are literally always gonna kill them and i feel like this is a great example of “there are almost two separate characters named Rin in this show” and this one is endemic of like, a kid that never grew up, the one I don’t really like.

so it’s like this

i UNDERSTAND what this scene is meant to convey. that she’s not afraid because she knows her kids are always gonna come out on top.

the fact is: being Towa and Setsuna kinda sucks and it’s always gonna kinda suck even if things are better now. i’ve talked about how much i LOVE when Jakan refers to them as “Rin’s daughters” and not “Sesshomaru’s daughters,” but the fact is to the world at large outside of their social circles- until they build up their own legends properly, they’ll always primarily be “Someone’s” daughters, and more specifically “Sesshomaru’s daughters.”

there’s always gonna be an entire conga line of pissant demons that are gonna wanna take a shot at them for the sole reason that it’ll give them clout. in Final Act Jaken noted that a lot of demons wanted to take on Sesshomaru when he had no sword because even though he was in a severely weakened state with no weapon it’d STILL give them recognition if they killed him. killing his kids give them clout in some capacity. and even if they weren’t his kids, they’re still hanyou- free game to kill for fun and laughs.

so this scene. like.

the intent to me is clearly that she’s this relaxed because she knows there’s nothing they can’t overcome. there’s no need for Rin to be afraid or show fear because they’ll be safe. i truly believe that’s what this scene is meant to convey- laughing at the very concept that Towa and Setsuna can’t overcome an enemy that would challenge them- they’re their fathers kids, her beautiful and beloved children who along with moroha literally saved the entire world twice, once in the modern era and now in the sengoku jidai.

so this scene is mean to be her laughing it off and showing joy despite the macabre subject matter. i totally get it, and i think because of that, i’m less harsh on this scene than some others are. but also. 

JESUS CHRIST, RIN

look at her! she looks like she’s a cheerleader at an event or something! it looks joyful! if i was Towa i’d be fucking disturbed beyond words!!! like hey, you just saved the world twice, you had to have a tearful and sad goodbye with your adoptive family maybe forever- and THIS is how your mom talks about things always trying to kill you!? i’d probably ask Moroha, Kagome, and Inuyasha if I could crash at their place for a few days while trying to figure out what the FUCK is my mom’s deal!

“hey moroha uh. my mom kinda… cheered and laughed when talking about things wanting to kill me? think i can like. crash here for a few days or something? think the old guy who gives you bounties would let me stay at his place a few days if i agree to do some work for him?”

like. here’s how i think it should’ve been. and i’m just one western fan with no stakes in anything but like… i kind of imagine something that would’ve been significantly less controversial would’ve been her still smiling at the beginning when giving them gifts, and then her expression getting more serious when talking about the unpleasant stuff, like this:

and putting on like, a serious face about it. because yeah, it sucks. they can’t JUST live in peace. there’s always gonna be these assholes that are always gonna try to kill them. just because the most dangerous conflict (God willing) in Kirinmaru and the Grim Comet has ended doesn’t mean there won’t be danger- they’re going to be in danger for literally the rest of their lives, and she gets serious when talking about that to her only kids…

… but they’re both gonna be ok. she smiles again when expressing that. we’re not gonna pretend it doesn’t fucking suck. but they’re always gonna be ok. she has nothing less than complete confidence that they’re always gonna rise above and against everything that tries to harm them. she’s not fucking borderline cheering about it, but she has so much confidence in that, it’s not an opinion to her, it’s a fact.

so she smiles not only knowing her kids are OK, they’re gonna be OK even if things does, but to assure them that they’ll always be ok in the end. at most, there’s a little laugh at it all- “You really are your father’s children, you know? You inherited his power… you’ll be OK no matter what!”

and i feel like that would’ve conveyed what this scene was TRYING To do while also not making Rin seem borderline sociopathic about this fact and treating it like a game little kids are playing or a complete and absolute disregard for her children’s safety just so she can gush about her husband, the husband that Towa literally JUST confided in with her mother that she kind of. resents him a bit for not helping them out (WHICH IF THERE’S A CONTINUATION I WANNA SEE HAPPEN MORE)

i get this scene. i really do. so i’m not as hard on it as others are. but also holy fuck what the FUCK was the animation and voice acting direction with this scene? what the fuck? it would’ve been EASY to make it better!

thank god i found the text its just. SO frustrating bc i LOVE Yashahime, i love Rin so much i don’t CARE what anyone says or even if it’s not that great or anything, its just. i feel like there was a big intent in this scene, but holy shit it was so. bad. it’s executed SO BAD and i can’t get over it

(ALSO ANYONE THAT SAYS TOWA DOESN’T HAVE A RIGHT TO BE KINDA RESENTFUL AT SESSHOMARU CAN FIGHT ME)

[btsandvmin]

BTS&Vmin analysis pt. 2 - About me and my views

I think you who follow me here on Tumblr already know my stance on shipping vs. 100% believing a ship is real. Even if I’m making a lot of analysis like this, and find some things odd about Vmin, I am still not convinced they are real. I think I know they love each other, but I can’t know in which way. Love does come in many forms, and is complex and individual. I don't think anyone should feel convinced about Vmin being together after reading my analyses, which is why I post this to begin with. I could not with good conscience post something that might out an actual couple that obviously would have reasons to hide their relationship. Despite everything I think I know about Vmin it’s still not enough to convince me Vmin is a real couple. Just as no other ship analysis has convinced me about their ship either.

If you are unfamiliar with me I might recommend reading the posts My Vmin story,  I ship Vmin. and Shipping vs Believing to understand me and my view on Vmin and general shipping better. I do touch on these topics in this long analysis as well but I talk about it in more detail in these specific posts.

I will go through a few different points in this post to properly explain myself and how I think shipping should be handled, as well as some things I think are important to know before reading my analyzes (or any analysis really).

Proving a ship is 'real' and how I think about it

Trust in what we see and don’t downplay other ships

Narrative based on facts

My bias towards Vmin and going beyond shipping

If you haven’t read part 1 yet, here is a link: BTS&Vmin analysis pt. 1 - An introduction

Proving a ship is 'real' and how I think about it

Most ships in BTS have “strange” moments according to their shippers, and these moments are easy to miss when you only focus on one ship at a time. In fact it’s easy enough to miss things about your own ship, and you might not notice things until after other people bring attention to it. It's also easy to misunderstand or misinterpret moments for many different reasons. All shippers have these obstacles, in particular with shipping real complex people, but I think we rarely stop and consider these factors and how much it can affect our ideas and in extension beliefs.

Honestly, the fact that there are many “weird” moments with all ships makes the ships kind of cancel each other out. Or at least it makes a lot of things people use as proof pretty futile. Many moments are not unique to just one ship and can be seen between several members or even with people outside of BTS. Most of the time the biggest difference is framing by fans and interpretation.

When you love a ship you usually hyper focus and put more weight on the things your ship does compared to others. It can also happen with the most "threatening" rival ship; that we note their actions more simply because we have been conditioned to "worry" about them. Most people who write analysis seem to ignore their own bias and simply speak as if what they say is fact and unique to their own ship. This is why I want to talk about bias and other problems before I start my analysis, because with all ships you can pick moments and put them together to make things look suspicious and believable.

There are things speaking against all ships, Vmin too, I just choose not to include it. In fact you can partly use this analysis as a counter for other analyses, as well as using other analyses to counter this one.

The fact that several ships have many analyses and have people even believe them as true should say a lot on its own how much shippers simply believe what they want to believe. If people are just as convinced about something else being real as you are, how can you be so sure you are the one that is right?

Also, ask yourself why it’s so important that your ship in particular is real? Likely it has more to do with yourself than with what it would mean for the members. What difference would it make when looking at the members' relationships if they are romantic or not?

Most things brought up in these shipping analyses only show the members being close or physically comfortable with each other, not that they are in a relationship. Many analyses also say very similar things and have the same types of "proof", likely because the consensus is that certain things make the most sense if you want a ship to seem real.

I think it says a lot that many ships have theories about the same things. Like their ship using ARMY as a substitute for each other, that they hide in each other's rooms, that they sleep together, jealous moments, matching couple things, that their songs are about each other, that they leave clues for ARMY to find to support them etc. Some shippers even take other shippers' theories and bend them to fit their own ship as well by just applying a different perspective (for example inspiration behind songs). Basically people want certain things, often the same things, for their ships and thus will search and find clues to prove it. With a lot of material over 7 years, picking and choosing moments and presenting vague enough connections any ship can be made to make sense to various degrees. Especially when some of that material in turn can get slowed down, zoomed in on or taken out of context. And even more so if the person mostly focus on a ship and their moments are what they consume the most or even exclusively at times, because then they might not notice similar behavior with other pairs.

To many shippers it doesn't matter if different ships share similar moments though, because it's either not noticed, gets explained away, or has many reasons why their moment has a different weight to it. They might say the “vibe” is different to other ships. In Vmin's case everything they do is often excused as platonic soulmate behavior. No matter what they do people “know” it’s platonic. And many others agree, so it has to be legit right? But just because many say the same things it doesn’t make it true, though it for sure can make a shipper feel better and more secure in their belief.

Even if moments or behaviors are unique to one ship, we have no idea why they are unique to that ship or if they might be romantic or sexual in nature. In fact, a lot of "proof" used can still be 100% platonic and the nature of a relationship is very difficult to understand from a distance. If the relationship is controversial it might be even more difficult to define and interpret (as would likely be the case for any K-pop romance, not to mention a homosexual one). Remember that there are many K-pop idols dating and very few who reveal it willingly.

We also have to remember that making analysis regarding ships being real are often not based on objective facts. A lot is speculation and interpretations. You can't easily compare ships to one another because many aspects play a part in how and why they could act in a certain way. Shipping analysis tends to have a lot of gaps that people fill with their own speculations, interpretations and projections because we are missing too many of the pieces.

Things get interpreted as romantic or sexual mostly because that’s how shippers want it to be. The fact that most peoples’ go-to conclusion is a romantic, healthy and loving mutual relationship between two people also tells you it’s often tied to what the shippers’ ideal scenario and norm is. Reality could be much more messy and is usually more complicated than our own ideals and ideas.

In the end, there is no definite empirical evidence to prove any ship is real. Or any evidence to define their sexualites and/or gender for that matter. People might call it proof, but I personally would rather call it speculation as nothing has been confirmed.

Trust in what we see and don’t downplay other ships

Shippers, and even more so believers, have emotional stakes in being right, and this can often lead to wanting to disprove or discredit other ships or its shippers/believers. This isn't a versus game or fanfiction where everyone is a rival and there is a winner and a loser. If there is a real ship in BTS it doesn't change the fact that they are all close and love each other. Even if one ship proves to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship, that doesn’t make the other relationships between the members any less real and important.

There is no point in trying to disprove one bond to highlight your own ship, this just makes it seem like you don’t care about the members as individuals. They have said multiple times that they are close to and love all members. If you try to prove the opposite you don’t trust their words. And if you don’t trust what they say regarding some things, then why trust them only when it matches your own views and wants for your chosen ship? 

A theory might sound convincing because the creator chooses moments and narratives that benefit their own view. I, as a creator, also choose what to present and not to present in my texts. It’s what all shippers and believers do, conciously or unconciously. The basis for analysis should come from BTS themselves, and no matter how I shift the focus I need to recognize and trust the things they have said and shown us. I won’t discredit another ship because they look close, because I believe all the members are close and there is nothing wrong with that.

To me it's also important to not go against the material we have. I don't want to stray too far from what we see and in particular from what the members themselves say. For example when Vmin says they are soulmates I trust that they mean that. But this mindset needs to include trusting things that contradict my views as well. Because otherwise there are no boundaries for what is real or not. I can basically justify or believe anything. 

There is a difference between BTS lying by omitting or bending the truth and by making up things.For example, of course I don't want the soulmate claims to be fake, but I also see no purpose for them to exaggerate their bond to that extent. BTS can lie for sure, but some things wouldn’t make sense to lie about and would be very difficult to fake for this long. If BTS are lying about their relationships and are capable of exaggerating their closeness I see no reason to trust the members at all. Thus when I see BTS as a whole talk about being close I trust that.

My wish is for all shippers to realize that we need to be able to trust BTS for the most part or you can basically bend anything to fit your own view. Then the truth literally doesn’t matter anymore, because only what you as an observer says is true counts.

And please, no one needs to go to other shippers and tell them why they shouldn't ship what they ship or why their ship is better. Let's just try to be nice and ship and let ship.

Narrative based on facts

A narrative is basically the story a shipper or a group of shippers come up with to explain the actions of their ship and the members in a way that (supposedly) fits. But it’s still a story, only partly based on the truth and the things we know.

Any ship can be bent to look a certain way when a biased shipper picks what to show and puts their own meaning behind it. I am sure most shippers could make and do have a similar analysis to this one. Most shippers will make their theories in a way that presents it as a narrative, with something similar to a storyline and that is easy to envision and relate to. They have their own stories and fill in the gaps with interpretation to reach their conclusions. Shippers who make you believe in a ship are usually great story-tellers who write in engaging and convincing ways.

People who go beyond shipping and start to believe ships to be real can be called believers. These people exist in all fandoms concerning real people, and definitely for all the ships within BTS. I've seen analyses for not just the biggest ships but for ships like Nam*Jin, Hope*kook, Tae*Jin, Yoon*Min, V*hope, Min*yoon etc. where people present proof and are convinced of their ship being in a real romantic and/or sexual relationship. Everyone has their own bias and agenda regarding their ship. This leads to further problems like echo chambers, false information being spread, and interpretation being presented as facts.

I once again recommend reading my post Shipping vs Believing if you haven’t.

What you consume can be viewed and analyzed from many perspectives. A hater may attribute Vmin's odd behavior as dislike or them faking it, while I read it completely differently and a third person might not even have noticed these things at all. What everyone does is fill in the gaps, consciously or not it will happen. Since the material is not just limited but also at times shown with a particular narrative we also need to be aware of the gaps and what we fill them with.

The fandom can’t all agree on one thing, and not even shippers of the same ship has the same views or theories, which should tell you again rather clearly that it’s not fact-based most of the time.

Within the BTS fandom every individual chooses what they consume and what they hold on to. It’s important to ask yourself these questions when you consume fan material. Have people fact checked their information or not? Are they aware of the difference between fact and interpretation? Are they biased with an agenda? Are they open to having their view challenged? Because what you end up with every time you read a BTS analysis is your own interpretation of someone else's interpretation. And those two separate interpretations might not even have the same conclusion. For example, I have seen people misunderstand my own analyses many times. That’s because it’s not just facts, but rather a narrative based on facts that can be viewed differently. Every person is filling in the holes between the facts with speculation.

I do not want to end up spreading my theories as facts because it could be both deceptive and even harmful if it ends up as fuel for people who want to spread negative agendas or if it makes people believe in Vmin who then turns out to not be real. Again, these are all biased opinions and my analysis could be completely wrong, and that is fine, I am not here to “prove I’m right”. I am also not out to disprove or discredit any other ships and I do not want a ship war.

If you want, this big analysis could even be considered my Vmin storyline, the “BTSandVMIN narrative” rather than a analysis. All the things I’ve read into Vmin’s and the members’ behaviors while watching them and speculations on what it might mean.

My bias towards Vmin and going beyond shipping

I am a Vmin shipper, but beyond that I also think if a ship in BTS is actually real (in whatever form) Vmin makes the most sense. I have a bias towards Vmin and I love their type of relationship, which makes me partial no matter how objective I try to be. Confirmation bias always makes being objective very difficult.

I love Vmin's dynamics as a ship and is drawn to romance between friends in many stories/fandoms and real life. Vmin are easy to love and have a lot of great moments and a very close bond that I admire. No matter the status of their relationship their bond is something I aspire to and wish to have with a romantic partner. I suggest reading my post My Vmin story If you want to know more on how I got into BTS and fell for Vmin as a ship.

I try to separate the shipper in me from the analysis writer as much as I can, and see the difference between enjoying a fantasy and speculating if Vmin might be in a relationship for real. Enjoying Vmin as a ship is not the same as thinking they might be real or writing analysis, but being a shipper does make me more biased towards the conclusion that Vmin is real in real life. I suggest reading Shipping vs Believing for more on the subject.

I started off as a BTS fan, became Jimin biased, and then became a Vmin shipper rather quickly after falling for their bond. As for making analysis I started to write about reasons to ship Vmin (10 Reasons to ship Vmin, 10 more reasons to ship Vmin) and how they got friendzoned more than other ships (The “bromance” issue), because I was frustrated that people wouldn’t let Vminies ship Vmin romantically in peace. And as time went by I noticed interesting behaviors and patterns that I felt like pointing out. Not to prove anything or to say that Vmin must be more than friends, but simply to make people open up to the idea and discuss the possibilities. I also wanted to make it as a sort of counterweight to the other two maknae line ships which have a lot of analysis.

I am always trying to make think-pieces rather than propaganda. I don't want to tell you there is one correct way to see things, I just want to add my own perspective.

I am a Vmin shipper, and that preference and bias will always be present in the things I write. Thus my analysis can never be made with objectivity no matter how hard I would try. I think this is true to all ship analyzes, no matter how objective they might claim to be. There are simply too many things about writing shipping analysis that makes it difficult to be objective and conclusive. I will go through the things I find are some of the biggest and most overlooked problems with analyzing real people in my next post.

Lastly. Feel free to read my theories and agree or disagree. This is simply my way of thinking. Don't let me or any theorist writer do the thinking for you.

[viastro]

two missions [REMAKE] | yoon jeonghan

ミ★ synopsis: in which you and jeonghan go on an undercover mission to a gala to get info on one of south korea’s largest drug cartels.

ミ★ genre: undercover agents!jeonghan and reader, previous assassins!jeonghan and reader, humor, some fluff, some suspense 

ミ★ warnings: spiked drinks, mentions of drugs, implications of murder, slightly suggestive

ミ★ word count: 6,469

ミ★ pairings: yoon jeonghan x female reader

ミ★ notes: hi guys! in honor of my one year here on tumblr, i decided to remake my very first oneshot. i was originally planning to just delete the previous version of two missions, but it’s the first oneshot i posted and i feel like that makes it have some value. i will not be linking the original as i actually dislike it a lot so AJKGBRK i tried to make this more inclusive than it used to be as i feel that was a big problem in the first version, so i hope you guys enjoy this! happy one year of viastro !!

“So you’re telling me that your next mission is to be Jeonghan’s wife again? How do you survive when you have a raging crush on the man...” Mingyu whispers rather loudly through his mouthful of french fries. You immediately turn to glare at your pretty friend, smacking his arm. “Bitch! Why would you say that so loud? While you’re still chewing your fries no less.”

Mingyu giggles in response, putting a fry into your mouth to try and calm you down. You chew it nervously, glancing over at Jeonghan talking to one of your coworkers as they stare up at the menu. Your heart pounds against your chest as your eyes trail over him. His blue dress shirt is tucked into black slacks, and you take notice of his new undercut.

“I honestly don’t know how I survive. The time he slept at my apartment? I almost fucking died because of how nervous I was. My heart stutters whenever he smiles at me, I don’t know why Cheol keeps making me be his partner on our undercover operations.” You mutter absentmindedly, watching as he tilts his head while he tries to decide what to order. Mingyu rolls his eyes, now slapping your shoulder, making you let out a whine.

“Ow!”

“You know exactly why Cheol keeps pairing up the two of you. Not only because he knows of your little crush, but the two of you were both assassins before you became secret agents. Not to mention the fact that you look good together. That’s why Cheol makes you both a married couple whenever the operation calls for it.” Mingyu explains, and you purse your lips, turning back towards Jeonghan.

Jeonghan was transferred to your department last year, and the first time the two of you met was rather humiliating to say the least as you’ve never seen a man as beautiful as him. Not to say that your coworkers aren’t pretty, but Jeonghan was the only one to make your normally composed demeanor crumble. Mingyu still likes to make fun of you for it to this day.

“Everyone, this is Yoon Jeonghan. He’s the new recruit in our team, used to be a trained assassin but now he’s with us. He’s one of our strongest next to yn.” Seungcheol announces, eyes trailing over the eleven guys, squinting when he doesn’t find you among the crowd.

“Where’s yn?”

Joshua points towards the restrooms, “Yn went to the bathroom, you know how she always flosses after lunch.”

Seungcheol sighs, knowing very well how much you care about your dental hygiene. He’s about to dismiss everyone when the door to the bathroom shuts, and everyone turns to glance at you.

“Guys, we can’t ever have jajangmyeon for lunch again. Do you know how many times I just had to brush my teeth? Because it wasn’t pleasant-”

“Yn.”

“No, Cheol. You have to hear this cause I know how much you enjoy your jajangmyeon. Also, we have to talk about using the mini before you go spray bottles I got each of you for Christmas because I’m sick and tired of walking into the restroom just to have it smell like absolute as-'' You halt your movements when you finally look up from the floor, only to lock eyes with the most ethereal man you’ve ever seen in your life. His blonde hair is parted down the middle, falling a bit past his sharp eyes. His cheekbones are prominent, pairing well with his delicate nose and lips. He’s sporting an amused smile, and you audibly gulp at the sight.

“Yn, this is Yoon Jeonghan. He’s the new recruit.” Seungcheol introduces, holding back his own laughter at how shellshocked you appear. You realize that the rest of your coworkers are also trying to keep their composure due to their shaking shoulders, but you continue to stare at the angel in awe. Jeonghan finally raises his hand up and waves,

“Hi.”

You smile awkwardly and wave back, before hurrying over to Minghao and hiding behind him and Jun. You hear the two begin to snicker, and you slap their backs, feeling warmth flood your face.

“This is fucking humiliating.”

You find yourself smiling subconsciously when Jeonghan laughs at something Eunhee said, heart warm from the angelic sound. Jeonghan feels a pair of eyes on him, and he turns his head, only to lock eyes with you. Your breath hitches and you immediately turn away and rest your forehead onto Mingyu’s shoulder, making the latter laugh as he waves towards Jeonghan.

Jeonghan’s eyebrows furrow a bit at the affectionate gesture, but grins and waves back at Mingyu when the tall man greets him. His attention is demanded once he hears his order being called, and he turns back to the counter, attention suddenly focused solely on filling his empty stomach.

“You know you’re just humiliating yourself by avoiding eye contact each time he catches your eye, right?” Mingyu asks through his smile, and you squeeze your eyes shut, knowing that it’s true.

“Shut your whore mouth.”

“That was unprovoked?!”

You lift your head up once you hear the door open, catching Jeonghan leaving the McDonalds with Eunhee. “He’s so pretty I just never know how to act when we’re not on a mission.”

Mingyu chuckles and rolls his eyes, “How are you gonna survive tomorrow night this time, yn?”

You glance at the door Jeonghan just walked out of, sighing to yourself.

“I won’t.”

“You look so good!” Seulgi squeals as you step out of the stall of the restroom. You grin shyly, fixing the gun holster on your right thigh as you stare at yourself in the mirror. “Thanks for doing my makeup Seulgi, this is so much better than anything I could’ve done.” You tell her and she chuckles.

“Pfft, it was no biggie. I’m glad you asked for my help instead of Hyoon, honestly. Her makeup can be scary sometimes. I’ve been meaning to tell her that her eyeliner should at least touch the outer corner of her eye…” Seulgi trails off at the thought of Hyoon’s poor decisions in makeup. You giggle at her antics, before turning back to the mirror to look at yourself.

You eye the sheer corset of the top of the dress, trailing down towards the high slit of the silk emerald green skirt. You tilt your head to the side, adjusting the gun strapped to your thigh so that it won’t be seen. The bright crystal under each of your eyes reflects as it catches the light, and you let out a smile at the sight, thinking this might be too over the top for the gala.

“You know Seulgi, this is a mission to get more information on a drug lord. Don’t you think this is too much?” You ask, gesturing to your whole get up, putting a pause to Seulgi’s rant about Hyoon’s poor makeup decisions. Your friend smirks at you, causing you to raise an eyebrow at her.

“There’s actually two missions, yn.” You squint at her, and she narrows her eyes back at you.

You watch as Seulgi’s eyes brighten when a smile forms on her face, and she raises her arms up in the air. “To seduce Jeonghan so that the two of you will finally go on a date!”

You roll your eyes, shoving her slightly, causing Seulgi to let out a laugh. You open your mouth to tell her that she’s crazy, only to hear your phone beep in your clutch. Taking out the cool metal, you turn on your screen to find a text from Jeonghan.

“Ooo~ it's loverboy.”

“Shut your whore mouth.”

“You gotta stop saying that, yn.”

jeonghan: yn, i’m ready to go when you are. are you in the restroom on the eighth floor ?

you: yes i am !

jeonghan: okay i’ll be right there :)

Jeonghan puts his phone in his suit pocket, turning to glance at himself one more time. His emerald green blazer is over his velvet black turtleneck, paired with fitted black slacks. He eyes the silver necklace around his neck, looking at the charm that holds the tiny camera. Running a hand through his hair, he lets out a puff of air before leaving the restroom, heading towards the bathroom you’re at.

He turns the corner, seeing Seulgi walk out of the bathroom. He’s about to wave at her before he sees you step out and jesus fucking christ are those crystals under your eyes?

You’re giggling at something Seulgi said as you make sure your earring is on properly. Once you’re sure it’s secure, you turn your head, only to lock eyes with Jeonghan. You feel heat rush to your face as you take in Jeonghan’s appearance, finding him to be even more attractive than usual.

lord, i am not your strongest soldier.

“Hi.” You greet after a moment of silence passes between you three, and Jeonghan blinks out of his awed state, making you smile wider.

“You look beautiful.” Jeonghan blurts out, only to immediately turn away and bite his fist when he realizes he didn’t even return your greeting. Your eyes widen slightly, and you look down at the floor as warmth floods your face.

“Jesus Christ, just make out already. I’m taking my leave, I feel weird.” Seulgi announces, simultaneously making you and Jeonghan’s faces incredibly warm. She lets out a small, worried smile, “Make sure to be safe tonight guys, the target is at the top of the Cheol’s list for a reason.” Seulgi says, making sure to point at the both of you.

Jeonghan and you look up, giving your pretty coworker a thumbs up and saying you’ll be fine. Seulgi shakes her head a bit more urgently this time, and grasps your hand.

“I’m serious! This guy has eyes and ears everywhere, you have to make sure you’re at the top of your A-game. Look real husband and wifey, yn’s real identity is still unknown in this world of undercover agents and no one knows that Jeonghan joined hands with Seungcheol! Don’t mess up. I love you yn, you too Jeonghan.” You nod, making sure to look more determined. Jeonghan nods his head as well, giving Seulgi a thumbs up. She smiles softly, before finally walking off.

“Well, are you ready?” Jeonghan turns to ask you, and you glance at him. You take notice of the caramel colored eye contacts he has on, feeling yourself get lost in them as you nod your head.

“Let’s bust down this joint.” You say once you turn away, mustering the most determined look you can. Jeonghan chuckles into the back of his hand with a quiet, “So cute.”

“You make sure you stay beside me at all times yn. I know you’re fully capable of protecting yourself, as am I, but we work best when we’re together, okay?” Jeonghan tells you in the backseat of the SUV, staring at your gold dangly earring against your complexion.

she’s so pretty I can't believe this.

“You’re right. We should come up with a game plan though. What do we do if we end up having to be separated to learn more info? Or one of us gets caught, what happens then?” You ask, glancing up and finding the driver biting his lip nervously as he drives.

“Mingyu, I’ll be fine.” You say softly, and your friend stops biting his lip, only for a frown to take over his face. You let out a soft smile, before turning to look back at Jeonghan, who is still staring at your earring(?)

“Is there something wrong with my earrin-”

“We shouldn’t have to end up being separated, but if we do, make sure that the other is always in the other's peripheral vision. If you could, stay within an arm's distance.” Jeonghan cuts you off, snapping out of his mini trance in which he hopes you didn’t notice him blatantly ogling you. You nod slowly before he adds, “And neither of us will get caught. We’ll be okay yn.”

“We’re here.” Mingyu says from the front and you and Jeonghan glance out the car window to see that you’ve arrived at the hotel. You give Mingyu a reassuring smile, muttering, “We’ll be okay. I’ll see you later.” Before turning to find Jeonghan already stepped out of the vehicle, hand outstretched towards you. You smile and take a hold of it, letting him help you out of the expensive car. He flashes you a grin as you both head inside.

The walls are practically dripping in gold, and you find yourself in a slight trance at the sight of it. While you may have had many missions by this point, your reaction to these types of events has always been the same. You could never get used to the views you’ve seen.

Jeonghan glances over at you, letting a fond smile take over his face as he notices the look of pure awe on your face. Your mouth is slightly open as you let your eyes wander a bit, before remembering what you’re here for, promptly regaining your composure. Jeonghan turns his head to face forward, seeing the security check. You smirk slightly when Jeonghan hands them the fake invitation from his blazer pocket. The guards give the two of you a bow, letting you enter the gala after Jeonghan gets a quick pat down.

“You’re not armed right now?” You ask him in a small voice, eyebrow raised as you look at him. He lets out a sly grin, squeezing your hand.

“I snuck it past him, don't worry sweetheart- Hello!” Jeonghan quickly changes the subject as he greets an older couple. You let out a smile when you lock eyes with the target, letting Jeonghan take you over to their table. The couple smiles at the two of you, and you both bow before continuing to greet them.

“Hello Daehyun, how have you been?” Jeonghan asks the older fellow and he grins, “Business has been a bit slow as of recently, but it should pick up soon. I hired some new runners and I think their looks will persuade the customers to buy more. How about you? How’s business”

Jeonghan and the older couple begin some small talk while you glance around the room. You notice a few brooding looking characters at the table near the dance floor, staring at the female and male waitresses handing out drink assortments to all the guests.

“So, yn. Has Jeonghan here been a lot to handle?” Haeun asks you mid-thought, and you turn to glance at the older lady. Her hair has a few strands of white, but other than a couple wrinkles you wouldn’t be able to tell that she’s reaching the age of 68. You also wouldn’t be able to tell that this couple owns one of the biggest underground drug cartels in South Korea either, but that’s a problem you’ll take care of in a bit.

You giggle before shaking your head no, reciting the fake life you and Jeonghan had to memorize. You both quite literally had flashcards, quizzing each other on these fake identities and quirks you both have. He ended up crashing at your place that night since you both studied until 3 am. Mingyu and Minghao teased you later on about how that was basically a date, it took two weeks for them to quiet down on that matter.

“Would any of you like wine?” A waiter comes up to ask, and you turn your head to look at him. You see Daehyun and Haeun reach out for a glass, but the waiter maintains eye contact with you specifically. You notice something flash through his eyes for a second, and you raise an eyebrow. His lips quirk up in a small smirk, to which Jeonghan shakes his head.

“My wife and I would not be interested in a glass of wine.” Jeonghan answers with a sense of finality, his tone laced with a bit of venom that only someone who’s known him long enough would be able to tell. The waiter lets out a grin, bowing his head before stalking off to the next table. Jeonghan turns to look at you, and you give him a tight-lipped smile.

“Yn, would you please accompany me to the bar? That waiter gave me a horrible glass of wine. I quite literally can’t swallow it down.” Haeun requests, and Jeonghan immediately intervenes.

“I’ll accompany you Haeun-” She raises up her hand, cutting Jeonghan off.

“I want to get to know yn. You boys keep talking about… boy stuff and I’m bored. It’s time for a girl chat.” Jeonghan looks at you and you send him a reassuring smile, patting his arm as a way to say, I’m okay.

“Well, alright then.” Jeonghan agrees hesitantly. He grabs your arm before you go, leaning down to whisper into your ear, “Remember what we talked about in the car. If you need me just shoot me a glance, I have a clear view of you from the bar.” He moves back, kissing your cheek and giving you a warm smile.

Your heart stutters in your chest, and it takes a moment for you to smile back at him, remembering that you’re in the middle of a mission right now. However,

he-he just SMOOCHED MY CHEEK.

“You lovebirds are still in that honeymoon phase, huh?” Haeun asks as you both walk towards the bar. You grasp your face since you feel your cheeks getting warmer, and she laughs at your reaction as you both reach the bar.

“I’ll have a glass of Moët & Chandon.” Haeun tells the bartender as she takes a seat on the high chair.

You take the seat beside her and glance over at Jeonghan who is chuckling at something Daehyun said. His eyes lock with yours and he raises an eyebrow at you, to which you simply shrug back in response. He smiles before turning back to Daehyun. You look around a bit more before Haeun gets your attention.

“You know yn, I really love your dress. I remember when I was younger I wore that type of dress except it was a dark purple.”

“That must’ve looked so pretty on you Haeun. Do you have any pictures?” You ask and she sighs, shaking her head no.

“I wish I had some on me, they’re probably somewhere at home if you and Jeonghan would like to visit.” You simply smile as a response, knowing damn well you’d never attempt to go to their house.

“Your Moët & Chandon, and here is your Laurent-Perrier.” He hands Haeun her drink, while also handing you a glass. You raise an eyebrow at the beverage in your hand, “I didn’t order anything?” You tell him confusedly.

“On the house.” He answers with a charming smile, before turning around and walking to the other side of the bar.

“Well, thank you?” You say quietly, voice turning up at the end as if it’s a question. Haeun looks between you and the glass of champagne, before letting out a small chuckle.

“I’m taking that out of his paycheck.” Haeun jokes, and you grin in response. You turn your head to look over to the other end of the bar, finding the man making drinks for another couple.

strange.

“Surprised he didn’t see the ring on your finger though, it’s huge.” Haeun points out, distracting you from through thoughts. You chuckle, and take a glance at your left hand. The diamond glimmers back at you and you smile at it.

if only it were real, you think to yourself as you take a sip of the drink, finding yourself surprised at how light it tastes.

“This is actually really nice, he has good taste.” You say, gesturing over to the bartender, to which Haeun simply flashes you a close-lipped smile. What you are unable to notice as you continue to take sips of the alcohol, is the malicious intent behind the old woman’s smile.

“Where are we going?” You ask groggily.

you really don’t feel good.

“To the restroom dear, I think you need to wash up a bit.” Haeun responds, hand pressed to the small of your back. She guides you to another hallway that you haven’t seen yet, and you find yourself even more confused.

“W-What did you do to me?” You ask, trying to push the old woman away, but you’re so weak that Haeun doesn’t even stumble. She doesn’t respond, continuing to drag your limp body down the hallway.

You enter a room that doesn’t resemble a bathroom at all. The room has dim lighting, there’s only a couch and a drink cart. It doesn't match the rest of the gala at all. You pout when Haeun sets you down on the sofa. She pulls out her phone and you cock your head to the side.

“This isn’t a bathroom.”

Haeun smiles at you, placing her phone back into her pouch. She reaches out and grabs your chin harshly, making you wince slightly.

“You think I wouldn’t know who you are, yn yln? Or should I say, Dahlia?” Your blood runs cold when not only your real name is spoken, but your alias as well. You stare up into her eyes, finding a dark smile on her face. “I can’t believe Jeonghan fell for your deceit. I imagine he’ll be heartbroken when you disappear, but alas. He’s a handsome man, he’ll find someone else.”

Haeun lets go of your chin, and pats your head before turning and preparing to walk out of the room. You stand up after her, but quickly stumble and fall to the floor. Groaning, you lay there for a moment as you try to force yourself to sober up.

“What are you going to do to me?” You slur out, and Haeun simply sends you a cold smile as she begins to close the door.

“You’ll find out.”

You lay on the floor for a few minutes, squeezing your eyes shut and opening them to try and fight whatever is in your system. You let out a groan, wondering how you could be so stupid to accept a drink on a mission. Your internal self hatred ends when the door opens, gaining your attention.

“Well, what a sight this is.” You look up to see one of the guys from the table you glanced at earlier in the night. Your vision turns fuzzy as he helps you up off the ground and places you on the sofa, both of his hands remaining on your shoulders.

“My, my, my. What a pretty thing you are. Tragic that you have to die.” He mutters, tucking a stray hair behind your ear.

“No.” You whisper, reaching up to move his hand away but he only catches it, pressing a kiss to the back of your wrist. You try and snatch it back but your body won’t let you move as strongly as you’d want.

“Any last words, pretty?” He asks, stroking your cheek. Flinching back in disgust, you finally manage to push his hand away, reaching through the slit of your dress to grab the gun.

“Oh? This is a surprise-”

He’s cut off once you kick him in the crotch with as much strength as you can manage, which isn’t much by the way, and he screeches at the impact of your heel. You stand up, wobbling a bit, before pointing the gun at his head.

“I may h-have gotten drugged. However, I won’t hesitate to shoot you in your goddamn ugly face if you touch me again.” You threaten, tone ice cold as you hit him with the butt of your gun. He immediately falls back, muttering obscenities at you due to the pain in his head. You make your move to escape, taking an abnormally long time to unlock the door. However, once you do, you wobble down the hallway, putting the gun back into its holster.

You know that in your current state, you won’t be able to escape the man if you don’t find Jeonghan. You only have a few minutes to get back to the main gala, but you can only hope that Jeonghan is already trying to find you.

“Jeonghan, please help me.”

Jeonghan is in a state of panic. He looked around for you when he realized you were no longer at the bar, excusing himself from his conversation with the target to search for you. He walks into the middle of the dance floor, pushing past the couples who are dancing. He doesn’t care about the mission anymore, all he wants is to find you.

yn, where did you go?

Jeonghan turns his head to see Haeun laugh with a group of men, feeling his breath hitch when he realizes you’re not with her. His instincts kick in, and he dashes towards the restrooms, opening the door to the women’s bathroom.

“YN! YN!?!” When no response from you comes, he curses, running out and going to another hallway.

You stumble, grabbing your head as you walk with your hand holding the wall. Your head is pounding and you want nothing more than to just lay down on the floor and sleep. You look around, seeing the color gold surrounding your vision and it makes you want to throw up. Groaning, you attempt to walk faster but it feels like you’re in quicksand.

“HEY!” The guy��s voice resonates through the hall, and you feel panic settle in as you try your best to walk faster. You hear the sound of running feet and you reach for your gun, only to hear a second pair of footsteps. You hear a grunt and the sound of two bodies colliding onto the floor. You turn towards the sound, seeing a head of midnight black hair hovering over the guy from earlier.

“Leave her the fuck alone Gwan, she’s mine.” Jeonghan growls, hand wrapped around the other’s throat. The man looks into Jeonghan’s eyes with a mix of fear and hatred, “She’s not yours Jeonghan. You’re not fucking married last I heard-”

Jeonghan lifts up his left hand, the gold of his wedding band shining brightly back at the piece of shit. The man’s eyes widen, and they practically bulge out as Jeonghan's grip on Gwan’s throat tightens.

“That’s my fucking wife. Know your place, Gwan. You know what I’m capable of, I can kill you in a heartbeat. You wouldn’t have the time to blink and your neck would be snapped.” Jeonghan hisses and the man coughs.

“I was just doing what Haeun told me to do.” Gwan wheezes out, and the black haired beauty bites the inside of his cheek. After a moment, Jeonghan lets go and gets off the man. Gwan stands up and sucks in a deep breath, face bright red from the lack of air. Jeonghan points at the man with dark eyes, “You tell Haeun none of this, I’ll handle her later.”

Gwan does nothing but nod, before running down the hallway. Once he turns the corner, Jeonghan turns his head to see you passed out on the floor. His eyes widen and he runs over to you. Kneeling down to check your pulse, a wave of relief washes over him once he feels your heartbeat respond back to him. Jeonghan reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone, sending a text to Mingyu that he found you and needs him to come pick you both up at the west entrance.

“Yn… I’m so sorry.” He whispers to your sleeping form, furrow to his brow as he thinks of how anxious you must’ve felt. He reaches out and softly pats your head, wishing he was paying more attention to you so that this whole ordeal could’ve been avoided.

“Alright yn, I’m gonna have to carry you outta here. I hope that’s okay.” Jeonghan says to your sleeping form, placing an arm under your knees and another arm under your upper body. He lifts you up, and walks towards the west exit.

You open your eyes, only to shut them right away once the pounding migraine registers in your head. You let out a groan, rolling over and grabbing your pillow to cover your face. You sigh,

so comfy. i love my bed it smells so nice-

Pause.

You sit right back up, eyes wide open as you take in your surroundings. You’re in your apartment, but how in the hell did you get here? You do another double take once you realize you’re no longer in your dress, but in your Pikachu pajama bottoms and a t-shirt.

“Why can’t I remember anything?” You mumble, climbing out of bed to go and grab acetaminophen from your kitchen cabinet to ease your pounding brain. You step out of your room, rubbing the back of your neck as you walk towards the kitchen. Still a bit sleepy, you reach up into the cabinet to grab some medicine, only to halt your movements.

Acetaminophen in hand, you step backwards out of the kitchen and glance over towards your living room, only for your eyes to widen when you see the head of black hair laying on your couch.

“Jeonghan?!” You gasp and he stirs in his sleep, rolling over to lay on his side. You immediately cover your mouth with your hands, as if it would erase the fact that you practically just yelled the man’s name.

“What the fuck happened last night?” You whisper to yourself as you back up into the kitchen once again. You lean against the counter, taking the medicine and drinking water to swallow it down as you try to think about the events that occurred the night before.

You went to the gala with Jeonghan and almost peed your pants because of how handsome he looked. Then the two of you met with the target and Haeun later took you to the bar. You ended up receiving a drink from the bartender for free, and then you vaguely remember holding a gun towards the man’s head?

“Holy shit. Did I get drunk and beat up a man?” You mutter to yourself, tilting your head as you try your best to remember last night’s events. You purse your lips with the knowledge that you’re not a lightweight. “I only remember having one glass though, so how could I have gotten drunk-”

“Your drink was spiked, yn.” You squeak from the sudden deep voice beside you, only to groan from the throbbing getting stronger in your head. Jeonghan gives you a small smile, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

He’s wearing the white t-shirt and gray sweats that Mingyu left at your house from the numerous times he’s fallen asleep on your couch. It’s a bit baggy on Jeonghan since Mingyu is tall, but it suits him so well. How does he manage to look so good in everything?

Wait.

“I was-I was what?” You’re absolutely dumbfounded at his statement.

“Haeun found out who you were. She thought you were tricking me so that you could make an arrest, as no one knows that I’ve joined hands with Cheol. You retired from being an assassin long before me, so Cheol thought no one would remember you. He was wrong.” Jeonghan explains, reaching out and swiping away the dried drool at the corner of your mouth with his thumb. Warmth immediately floods your face from the contact, and you glance down at your feet. “Minghao and Joshua took care of it this morning, so they won’t be coming for you anymore.”

You stay quiet for a moment, wondering how it was possible that Haeun could’ve figured out your true identity. In your years of being a secret agent, no one has been able to discover who you were. Even when you were an assassin, you never showed your face or used your real name.

So how did Haeun know?

“Seungcheol is already trying to find out how Haeun knew who you were.” Jeonghan answers, seeming to have read your thoughts due to the worried expression on your face. You bite the inside of your cheek, before turning and walking over to the fridge, seeming to not want to discuss what happened any further. Jeonghan watches as you search your fridge, before you turn your head and hold up the box of Eggo waffles towards the pretty man.

“Want some?” Jeonghan smiles softly before nodding his head, holding up two fingers when you ask him how many he wants. You take out two eggs from the fridge afterwards.

“How do you like your eggs?” You ask and he shrugs, “However you make it is fine with me.”

It feels oddly domestic, all of this. Jeonghan thinks to himself as he sits himself up on the kitchen counter. He watches as you cook the eggs over-medium, quietly humming to yourself as you add salt. He cocks his head to the side when you suddenly freeze, watching as you turn to look at him with a questioning look in your eyes.

“Did you change me out of my dress?” You ask and he chuckles before shaking his head no. He lets out another laugh when he sees you visibly relax, before beginning to explain what happened.

“Seulgi was waiting here, so when we arrived she did all the cleaning up for you. She left afterwards since she had a mission in the morning, but she told me to take care of you once you wake up.” You smile at the thought of your best friend being so caring.

“Love that woman.” You mutter, turning back to the eggs. Jeonghan grins, feeling his heart warm at the sight of your smile.

He steps down from the counter once you put the last egg on the plate and turn off the heat of the stove. You wipe your hands on the towel, only to pause when you find yourself trapped between a pair of rather nice arms. You stare at your hands wrapped in the towel with wide eyes, unsure of whether you want to die or puke.

“C-Come here often?” You ask with a nervous laugh, turning around to face Jeonghan, only to immediately regret it because you just rubbed your nose against his. “You’re quite close.”

“I can tell that you’re bothered by how Haeun knew, but it’ll be okay. Seungcheol and the rest of the guys are on the case, you’ll be fine.” Jeonghan tells you in a soft voice, and you purse your lips, before nodding your head. The black haired beauty stares at you for a moment longer, finding you to be one of the prettiest people he’s ever seen, even if you’re wearing Pikachu pajama bottoms at the moment.

“I care about you a lot.” Jeonghan states after a moment of silence passes between the two of you, and he watches in amusement as your eyes visibly widen at his confession. You open your mouth, only to close it, then open it again, before deciding to just bite the inside of your cheek.

“I know that you’re perfectly capable of handling yourself, but next time we have a mission, please be more careful, yeah?” You only nod your head as you’re unable to form any words due to the close proximity between the two of you, and Jeonghan smiles softly. He pulls away and grabs his plate, but not before pressing a kiss to the top of your forehead, giggling at how shellshocked you appear from the endearing action.

“Do you like me?” You finally blurt out, and the black haired beauty simply sends you a mischievous grin.

“Perhaps… I wouldn’t just kiss anyone’s forehead, ya now? However, the real question is, do you like me?” Jeonghan asks in return and you bite the inside of your cheek. He tilts his head as he awaits your response, about to lean in close to your face once more when-

DING!

“Oh, the waffles are ready!” You exclaim, shoving Jeonghan out of the way so that you can reach the toaster oven. You take out the four waffles, dusting some powdered sugar over them, while Jeonghan stares at you in disbelief, plate in hand as he does so.

“Did you just shove me?” Jeonghan asks with a laugh, and you give him a smile as an answer, turning away and walking towards your dining table, plate of waffles in hand.

“Okay, but do you like me though?” Jeonghan presses as he follows after you, and sits down in the seat across from you. You quietly take a bite of your waffle, finding too much enjoyment in the fact that Jeonghan is acting like a lovesick puppy.

Oh how the turns have tabled.

“Is that a yes or a no?” He asks once again, and you smile.

“Perhaps.” You respond teasingly, taking another bite of your waffle. He rolls his eyes at you and leans back in his chair.

“If I asked you on a date for this Saturday, would you say yes?”

You visibly halt your movements, making Jeonghan grin at the sight. Your brain is running a million miles a minute. Even though it was confirmed that your longtime crush likes you back, hearing him ask you out on a date makes you want to pass out.

“Yes.” You finally answer after a moment of you screaming internally, and Jeonghan smiles. He nods his head, taking a bite of his waffle as the feeling of warmth floods him.

“It’s a date.” Jeonghan states, cutting out the yolk from his egg and placing it onto your plate, knowing that that’s your favorite part. You hold back a squeal, nodding your head in response.

What Seulgi told you the night before rings in your head as you eat the yolk Jeonghan gave you, and you roll your eyes at the thought of it. You can’t believe the mission was accomplished.

“You know Seulgi, this is a mission to get more information on a drug lord. Don’t you think this is too much?” You ask, gesturing to your whole get up, putting a pause to Seulgi’s rant about Hyoon’s poor makeup decisions. Your friend smirks at you, causing you to raise an eyebrow at her.

“There’s actually two missions, yn.” You squint at her, and she narrows her eyes back at you.

You watch as Seulgi’s eyes brighten when a smile forms on her face, and she raises her arms up in the air. “To seduce Jeonghan so that the two of you will finally go on a date!”

Smiling to yourself, you glance up into Jeonghan’s kind eyes and say,

“It’s a date.”

The bright smile that forms on Jeonghan’s face from your response almost makes all the worries you hold in your heart disappear.

key word: almost.