#when i say me about the situations i am unfortunately refering to this one guy who's a piece of shit

[whatifwekilledgodandwebothgirls]

The situation drunk texted me 8 dead 5 injured

[avtrbee]

the prince

✢summary: what happens when your husband brings home a son that is not yours?

✢tags: arranged marriage gojo satoru x reader, reader is a clan kid, she’s v traditional, obvious cat and jon snow references

✢tw: implications of cheating, mentioned abuse, misogyny ig

✢ a/n: i’m not gonna lie to you guys, i know i’ve been a while and im really ashamed that i come back with something that i believe this isn’t my best work at all. i had this prompt in my head for a long time and i have wanted to publish this ever since. always love hearing from all of you and i’d like to get some feedback as well <33

You were a clan kid fortunate enough to be born with the clan’s cursed technique but unfortunate enough to be a woman. Your childhood tutors had drilled the duties of wives in your head, and had made you comfortable with the idea of an arranged marriage. You pride yourself as a good traditional daughter, whose greatest honor would be marrying your husband.

Never in your life did you imagine yourself caring for a child that is not yours.

That was, of course, until you met your husband.

You have heard of Gojo Satoru before and fought him a few times during sister-school events, but never in your life did you think he’d be who you were destined for. Still, he surprised you.

“You are my wife, my equal,” he promises you at the night of your wedding. The ceremony was over and the guests have gone home. You have said your vows in front of the gods and they have bounded you to this man.

He drags you off to bed and makes you sit on the floor with him.

Satoru looks at you with the moon shining on him making him look like an ethereal god. And to you, he was. Which is why you tilt your head at his statement. “Gojo-sama, I do not understand-”

“Satoru,” he says. “I am your husband, you should call me by my name y’know.” His voice is light and teasing, underplaying the reality of the situation. “I don’t want a slave. I want a confidant. A partner. I need someone. Do you understand?”

You nod. Strangely you do. “We must protect each other.”

You were both very lonely people thrust into a union none of you asked for. There are targets on your backs for sins you cannot control. You were alone, but not anymore.

Your husband nods and he takes his glasses off. You realize for the nth time that Satoru is a pretty, pretty man. His blue eyes shine and twinkle like the stars above.

He reaches for your hand- a strange gesture but you allow it anyway. “I will do right by you,” he promises. In his mind he remembers his mother, the one who loves too much but is loved so less. Like her, Satoru’s marriage is arranged by the clan. But he will not be his father.

He is a man of his word.

The next morning you find yourself waking to an empty bed with a smell of burning food. You catch your husband defeated before the stove with burnt scrambled egg on the table. “This is what couples do, right?”

You stare at him, simply horrified that you had failed to wake up first. You were supposed to cook him breakfast, not the other way around.

Satoru catches your expression. “Hey! It’s not that bad!” He pokes the pathetic excuse of a scrambled egg. His mother had always cooked for the family, it shouldn’t have been this hard. “…right?”

You ban him from your kitchen.

He takes you to the school next. You walk behind him, as is the norm, but Satoru makes a face that pushes you to stay beside him. His voice echoes in your head, you are my wife, my equal.

The weather was perfect, but he fusses about the fact that you decided to wear a sleeveless sundress that he deems inappropriate for the wind.

“Are you sure you’re not cold?”

“Yes, Satoru.”

Satoru’s eyes narrow suspiciously, like he does not believe you. He reaches over and takes your hand in his. His face morphs to an expression of victory. “Ha! Your hands are cold. You’re such a bad liar, Y/N.” He spits, but his voice lacks venom. You pretend to ignore his poor excuse to hold your hand. Deep inside you like it. Romance is for fiction and some anime you were lucky enough to watch. A distinguished member of your the Gojo clan does not deserve it, but your husband is a romantic.

He stops you from walking out of the shade of the trees and into the sunshine. He opens his tote bag and points to a closed umbrella. “Do you need this? To protect you from- y’know.”

His points up to the sun.

Against your will you find his needless worrying endearing. He does not know his role as a husband well, but he is trying. When you finally arrive inside the Tokyo school, his hand is still clasped in your. Satoru is loud and proud when he introduces you to everyone, even if you have done nothing to deserve such pride. His co-workers pity you for being married to him and offer their condolences. Satoru protests strongly.

“Y/N loves spending time with me!” he says, stomping his feet like a child. He tugs your hand and looks at you in support. “Right?”

You smile and nod. You do. You wonder if you may love him someday.

-

The night is dark, and Satoru is not home yet. It has been a slow 8 months since your marriage. The ladies from your clan were wrong. Your husband is not cruel. He does not scold you if you use your cursed technique even when you accidentally use it on him.

You have never been someone good with words, so you decide to bake him a simple carrot cake. Your husband has a sweet tooth and he has a penchant of liking things better if it came from you.

You had only just finished adding icing the cake when you felt Satoru’s cursed energy through the door. You take a look at your cake one last time before heading towards the door to greet him.

Traditionally a wife must wait for her husband to enter in the middle of the room kneeling for supplication- a tradition most ingrained in your head more than most. As a compromise, Satoru suggested to have you greet him by the door instead because- “The first thing I want to see when I get home is your cute face. Obviously.”

You dust off imaginary crumbs off your hands by wiping it on your pants before sliding the door open.

“Welcome ho-”

In front of you, Satoru looks cold. You wonder if this is how others see him. He looks down at you with a cold gaze, He does not tremble. There is a child in his arms.

Both child and Satoru looks at you with twin cold eyes. You shiver. “He’s mine.”

You hear maids scuffle from behind you, but you do not care. The child innocently rests his cheek on Satoru’s shoulder looking at you.

There is no doubt the child is his. Your husband’s hair is on his head and dear god- their eyes. They have the same eyes.

In your head you hear the ladies of your clan again. Stand tall, Y/N. They may have their mistresses, but you will always be his true wife.

Of course you knew about Satoru’s womanizer past- present. Are you upset? Are you angry? You do not know, truly. You are simply confused.

Your clan’s ladies have prepared you for worst; what to do when your husband brings home another woman, what to say if they came home violent, where to go if you are too broken and beaten to sleep beside him. But what if your husband brings home a son that is not yours?

There is a pain in your chest you do not understand. This is expected! Men cannot be held down by just their wives. Did you expect him to be different? A cold fury washes over you

“Welcome home.” You finish instead.

-

check out my masterlist, and don’t forget to lmk how i can improve this fic <33

[perfectfangirl]

on the topic of possessiveness [from cooper, towards lucy], i suppose i'd have to reference how he acted prewar. that's the best foundation to me about it because though he's changed a great deal in a lot of ways, his expression of love seems to be somewhat unchanged and let me explain that idk--- nothing about cooper's behaviour towards barb seems out of the ordinary or even "possessive" to me with regards to his love and expressions their of. at least anything that was presented prewar and to me. he wasn't upset about her having male coworkers, he wasn't upset at those male coworkers getting their dry cleaning, he wasn't upset she often brought work home with her and received work calls at home. this all seems like reasonable stuff, even perhaps bare minimum. now as for some other things... he let her have house parties without his consent or knowledge, he got roped into endorsements for companies he was unfortunately defending the ideals of. he'd get into arguments with her and backed down pretty quickly even if it seemed like he was making more sense than her or was probably even right. going as far as to say cooper is a doormat is not what i want to imply here. but i do think his love was kind of total, absolute... if not blind. he did almost anything she asked. so that betrayal must've been devastating realizing how entangled his life became trying to disentangle from someone who you come to find to be terrible. i saw nothing but love and respect in cooper's interactions with barb. if i read anything as "possessive", i'd wager it's when he'd be respectfully ignoring his bosses or her coworkers about work and would flirt with/stare at his wife while she/they was at work. or when he'd ask if she just had to work at vault tec and be around those type of guys she was around, who irritated and actually literally bothered cooper. i would not conventionally label these times as possessive because to me, cooper was just being a wife guy and was also annoyed with some corporate fanboys. he just seemed like he liked spending time with his family and wanted to spend time with his family, it was important to him, he liked being at home with his wife, chillin'. so then, on one hand, i am of the opinion he's closed that well off pretty good and it would take a lot of prying to open that back up again. so possession would probably not be on his mind, far from it. cooper would sooner try to not have any feelings at all, would prefer to chem them away than admit he's anywhere near in love, let alone possessive. but on the other other hand--- he's been alive for two hundred fifty years. wandering the wasteland. sometimes buried in the ground. with all ten fingers of his intact. he just took off his gloves for this vault girl to bite one of them off. then sews her finger onto his hand. he's uh going through some stuff, yeah dgdkfgk. he probably hasn't encountered an actual morally good person in centuries, he use to admire and love barb for her goodness and i suspect also for her will, intelligence, and independence. something lucy also strongly has. with what i have seen, the only thing i'd say i suspect cooper would be possessive of is her goodness. noble in one extreme, toxic in another. putting himself in harm's way, protecting her, ironically being the voice of reason and morality in a tough situation... just so she can stay "clean" and "good". now that's the possessive i could see. after she saved him, i could imagine he'd literally never want her to get her hands too "dirty" ever again.

[finn-m-corvex]

They are not painting cole as someone who "wants" to keep his families separate wtf? Just because you guys are biased against the finders does not mean the writers are biased towards them.

DRS2 PT1 POTENTIAL SPOILERS

I'm not sure who "you guys" is meant to be referring to considering I am the only one who has expressed dissent against the Finders of this variety, but here we go.

Whether you like it or not, there is evidence in the show of Cole considering the Finders and the Ninja to be two separate families. There are more than one examples of this:

-Cole saying IN DRAGONS RISING SEASON 2

This single line, whether you like it or not, implies that Cole's line of thinking has shifted to considering the Finders as his primary family and not the Ninja, and this is a fucked up line of thinking for me personally. And I am allowed to have this opinion.

-Cole not telling the Ninja about his father. This is a small thing, but he does have a history of not telling people about his previous families. It is a pattern, albeit a small one.

-Cole NOT telling the Ninja about his mom??? Hello??? He loved his mom???

Look, I will be the first person to say that I can be pretty obstinate and set in my ways, but this isn't right. None of this situation when put in this context is right. Because treating either one of your families like that is fucked up. I am someone who has grown up and is in one of those families, and it hurts, and it is not a good way to treat people.

Whether Cole is aware of it or not, he does think about the Ninja and the Finders as two separate families, who cannot coexist. The writers are not biased against the Finders, but they have made Cole look like he is biased against blending the Finders and the Ninja together, and that is not a good look for him or for them.

Geo should've had an inkling of who Nya was. Bonzle should've recognized Jay to some extent. The Ninja should not be strangers to the Finders, but they are, and that has implications whether you would like to admit it or not. Cole has not told them about the Ninja, just like he didn't tell the ninja about his mom and dad until he absolutely had to, and that isn't right. That is what I don't like about this situation, not the Finders' existence.

I apologize that my opinion has made you feel like you need to send in an ask, but unfortunately I am entitled to my opinions regarding this situation and you cannot change how I feel about it that easily. Thanks though.

[drawnthejayys]

Meet my BLU Team OCs !!

Info/Bios under cut!

Dr. Warin Kölher

• Born in Mannheim, Germany

• Team Leader, some refer to him as "Mother Hen" because of his protective motherly attitude

• Lost his medical degree early because he kept experiencing near death situations around his workplace, they thought it was becoming too dangerous even though nobody else was affected 💀

• Survived hell and back more than once (literally) before becoming a mercenary

• Happy face pin on his hat expresses his emotions somehow?¿

• Not a demon or anything, trust me!!!!!

• Likes crows, wants one as a pet

• Says he has a rare skin condition (is lying)

Jenny Thomas

• Sees Dr. Kölher as a parental figure

• "IF AUTISM DIDN'T EXIST, GOD WOULD NOT HAVE CREATED ME!" /ref /j

• Actually born in Canada, does not know

• Sent to Michigan (in a box) as a baby and grew up there

• Collector of many things (rocks, sticks, nuts n bolts)

• Can be very trigger happy especially on the battlefield

• Dr. Kölher gives her star stickers when he's good, he sticks them in his helmet (is tryin to collect 50 of them 🇺🇲)

• Owns chewelry because she has a biting problem but easily breaks through all of them in less than a week

Mason

• nickname: mason jar

• If Mundy listened to midwest emo (/hj)

• Look, we don't know how they escaped New Zealand when its currently at the bottom of the ocean but we don't ask

• Laid-back but lazy at times, takes a lot of naps

• Smokes more weed than Spy smoking cigarettes /hj

• Dumpster diver

• Their Jarate skills kinda go crazy

• Games with Junior, they love first-person shooters

Spy (alias: Rune)

• Get half filipino'd loser🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

• Backup strategist for when things go to shit but also the last resort for a lot of things unfortunately

• Anxiety ridden, visits the doc often

• Good at stabbing, not much with shooting

• Acknowledges Scout as his son but is a very awkward dad. He's trying at least

• A hopeless romantic and has been looking for a partner since the divorce(tm)

• Smokes but is trying to quit, often been seen with a toothpick instead of a cigarette

• Autistic just like me fr, stims with his butterfly knife

Dallas

• Tough cowboy, doesn't play around

• "Watch your piehole son or imma SLAP YOU SILLY."

• Probably the sanest in the team

• Grumpy-pants who needs a break

• Very "tough love" kind of father figure

• "MY TEAMMATES ARE ALL MORONS!!!!" /ref /j

• Homophobic homosexual (/j)

• Despite his name, he might not even be Texan

• Tolerates Dr. Kölher the most

Dymitry (Mitya)

• Here to do his job, nothing more

• Intimidating just like the OG Heavy

• Fond of animals and small creatures

• Actually quite calm, its hard to piss him off

• He has a soft spot for Jenny and Meeka and buys them snacks on the weekends

• Jenny calls him Mitts!

Junior

• Transmasc bastard

• He'll beat your ass (for fun!)

• Good friends with Sniper, they listen to music and play video games together!

• Knows Spy is his dad and is very nonchalant about it, much to Spy's dismay ("I am your fathe-" "Whatever, don't care, didn't ask")

• Has braces paid for by Spy but has to leave base monthly to go to an actual dentist because Dr. Kölher didn't wanna keep seeing him cry whenever he had to get his braces tightened

•Still has buck teeth :3

Meeka

• Your honour, they're just a little guy

• Hangs around Mitya to keep him company, theyre the best of friends!

• Goes on crazy killing sprees with Jenny during matches

• Ongoing beef/goof-off with the RED Team's Pyro

• Pinkie Pie energy!!

• Dallas is their (adoptive) dad!

Angus

• Superstitious about a lot of things but keeps it to himself

• For some reason is always very warm which is why he's shirtless 90% of the time

• Has some amazing tits ngl

• Will wear a dress to the function and be the hottest one there

• His fav food is burber 🍔

• Loves hard rum and scotch (its important to me that all my demo ocs have a fav alcoholic beverage)

------------------------

That's all of them! I hope you like them :3

[autisticlalna]

The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Establishing Contact With R.C.

im being exploded from all angles but i bring news from the skyblock kingdoms discord. which is also news from fool's chat last night. WE HAVE MADE CONTACT WITH R.C.

"leo. leontids mathonwys what does that mean" IM GLAD YOU ASKED <- unhinged

after Rubyco's episode dropped yesterday, someone was curious about what was going on with the weird galactic messages. Solar and I gave an overview of what we know, which dovetailed into talking about V.P., and because im incredibly predictable i also started talking about Navigator.

normal behavior.

and then...

He is definitely someone to keep in mind.

im gonna just post some screenshots going over this part, because it got very chaotic very fast.

or, to summarize: SBKCD attempts to figure out who to yell at for being ominous.

things somehow get even more chaotic, with several others chiming in Galactic, Enderian, letter substitution ciphers, and fucking hexadecimal at one point. im gonna skip over most of it and zero in on the other message we got from R.C. during this:

leo: i was supposed to be clipping something. aces: Team L.O.R.E. Suffering continues R.C.: :) R.C.: [Suffering is not the intention]

okay! cool! awesome. R.C. making the discord explode was not part of their plan, whatever it is. more importantly hi hello what the fuck do you mean nav is someone to keep in mind

this is, somehow, not the end of it. later that night, during Fool's stream, Ruby-- or the Rubyco clone, to be more specific-- was lurking around being threatening and all-around very suspicious. Solar was in Fool's chat and feeling very stabby (which Fool shot down), and when it became clear that Ruby was stream-sniping, decided to cause a distraction.

solar: also -- fool, ignore me for a second -- R.C., pal of all ours. [i don't suppose you're listening in?]

unexpectedly, there was a response from Rubyco in Fool's chat:

R.C.: [I am always watching]

Solar and R.C. then proceeded to have a conversation, still in Galactic.

solar: oh, awesome! great to see you! [out of curiosity, do you take up capacity for this line of sight? which is to say, can that other ruby see right now?] R.C.: [I am not a parasite] solar: would never accuse you of that! quite the opposite, [i wonder if your presence protects us from the prying eyes of that impostor.] R.C.: [I do not influence the worlds- i am not him, i should not communicate- but this is different.] R.C.: [You are an ear that will listen]

a couple other chat members chimed in in Galactic, and im assuming Fool noticed what was going on (i had his stream at near-zero volume unfortunately) because R.C. ended communication with this:

R.C.: [Do not tell about my existence] R.C.: [Please tell him this too]

incidentally, the distraction didn't work. after all, they outright told Solar "I am not a parasite"-- this isn't a Sapphire situation.

what's interesting is that, in other instances of R.C. speaking to the viewers so far, they've referred to themselves as plural-- "we". this includes in the most recent video that started all this: the hidden messages include "This was the only one we could save", and the description says "We are not sure of their location".

however, here we're speaking to an individual, or at least someone speaking on behalf of themself and not as representative of the assumed greater whole. "I am always watching". "Do not tell about my existence".

hey guys what the fuck

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I don’t think JA is evil or anything but it is odd to me that even ignoring the cheating lines in the peripheral of the album, everyone’s reaction to “he didn’t want to marry her and kept her in quiet stasis for years” is “ oh he’s not bad”.

Not even from a talking about celebrities perspective. The numerous references to wanting children and lost youth on the album just hits so badly in your 30s. And it’s odd to me that wasting someone’s time to that extent while resenting their success is looked at as being a good guy. It just seems like trivializing an issue women have

Anon, I don’t mean this directed at you specifically, just a blanket reminder for myself that I don’t really care to discuss these men generally because I don’t think they’re worth the time or space and frankly, I don’t know enough about them or care to to devote space to them on my little fan blog.

That being said, I think the reason my take on it is more… subdued is because, well, unfortunately I think the situation inferred from Taylor’s music is so, so common. I have several friends (two in particular I can think of) who went through situations so eerily similar to the one Taylor and Joe presumably went through. Which is not so much to say that I’m being parasocial, but more that all breakups are the same to quote @taylortruther. It’s not to condone the men’s behaviour, but more to say that even amongst “dull normals,” most of us have firsthand or at least secondhand experience in it and have had to navigate the same conflicts.

I have no opinion on whether Joe is good or bad because I don’t know anything about him beyond Taylor’s music and I have zero interest to learn anything further. I have my own guesses as to what went down, which are probably similar to what most people around here are assuming, and it’s again so painfully pedestrian, especially for people in their 30s. Which is obviously so painful as a woman of childbearing age who is hoping to have those things.

I do agree that there is a lot of trivializing of these issues for women in general, and especially for Taylor in general in TTPD. Not to be all “I/we understand Taylor better” about it all, but there’s soooooooo much in TTPD that I think *a lot* of people are not picking up, which is why i say over and over again that it really is the thirtysomething album. (Which is not to be ageist lol, it’s more a state of mind.) Like, while I am not someone who foresees having children or even getting married myself, most of my close friends are and have, and so much of what Taylor sings about literally and subtextually is so painfully obvious to me and palpable that I’ve been shocked at how it’s been glossed over. (Maybe you don’t fully understand it until you’re sitting on your friend’s bathroom floor consoling her as her entire life crumbles before her eyes? Or is that just me?) But, many of us here on tumblr dot com have picked up what she’s put down.

I think it comes down to: even with “good” guys (and particularly with those who aren’t), the whole family thing does *not* mean the same thing to them, because the time constraints just don’t apply to them. You’d hope your partner would feel why it was pressing to you, but unfortunately I can think of a lot of people even in my own life who’ve experienced this same conflict with their partners. Because men can drag their feet until they think it’s the “right” time in a way women simply can’t. I had a friend who had a very Joever-like breakup over that very issue and it’s so, so painful and can also drive them to make questionable choices in the immediate aftermath.

Then when you add the whole resentment/whatever issue on top of it… it’s… a lot.

[sultrybaby]

Much Ado About Nothing (N.RK)

in which you and niki have some misunderstandings, and a nosy jay is done with it [inspired by a scene from bones haha]

a.n./ this is for the @kflixnet event haha. For @yoongimooni . I have not written in a while but I tried my best. Hope you enjoy it

💞Warnings: profanity, misunderstandings, a lil bit crying, i have described a very simple situation in a very dramatic fashion, reader has a younger brother by the name of alex💞 Word count: approx. 2k💞Pairing: Nishimura Riki x Fem!Reader (featuring jay, sunghoon, jungwon, alex (younger brother))💞 Genre: Fluff, a lil angst (established relationship)

When your thirteen year old self prayed to have a romance like the books, you were not referring to the abduction and trapping. It seemed as if the universe had misread your wishes, for here you were, being dragged  by Jay.

"Would you mind explaining why you're doing this?" You asked, to which Jay gave you what seemed to be his standard response where he would not say anything.

"DUDE!"

"Okay fine!" he said in exasperation, "I was sick an tired of you and Niki constantly bombastically side eyeing each other, so now I am going to lock you in a room for three hours until you guys figure this shit out because I can not deal with you petty kids anymore"

"What-?"

Before you could even process his answer, you were thrown into a room (which you later recognized as Riki's) and the door was shut. Sighing, you nonchalantly walked backwards, habit bringing you to sit on Niki's bed.

Your peripheral vision unfortunately missed out on the 6 foot tall boy that was already sleeping there.

"What the fuck?" Niki exclaimed sleepily, his deep voice softly booming across the room, causing you to let out the most guttural scream in history.

"Oh, you," said Niki, his face falling into a seemingly non care-ish expression that kind of hurt your feelings. It also made you quite mad. Like why is he pretending like you're the one in the wrong here. The literal audacity of this boy to pretend to be the victim here is astonishing.

"Okay what is that supposed to mean?"

"What? I didn't say anything..." he grumbled "just let me sleep..." He lazily lifted the blanket over his eyes.

Okay now he was seriously pissing you off. Yanking the blanket away from his face, you leaned in and held him by his collar.

"Okay listen here you little piece of shit. Your self-appointed older brother or dad or whatever JAY said he's gonna keep us locked in here until we settle our differences. So I think it's best for both of us if you man up and apologise," you said, finishing off with a gentle slap to his head.

"Why the fuck should I apologize, you're the one who has some secret vendetta against my dog," he clapped back,  sitting up straight.

Excuse me what now?

You turned back around to face him, confusion etched all over your face.

"I have nothing against Bisco- what the hell are you talking about?" you asked him, the tone of your voice softening due to hurt. You loved Bisco.

"Oh don't pretend to be so innocent. I know you're the one who stole his dog food from my cabinet."

"I would never-"

"And that's not it," he interrupted you, "I noticed that you haven't been spending as much time with him lately. You always do homework or practice during times when you usually walk him, something you claimed to have really liked. Recently whenever he comes to hug you on the couch I can see you inch away from him. If you have something against him you could have just told me but noooo~, you would go as far as to starve him??? Unbelievable..." he said, ending his rant by rolling his eyes at you.

You were speechless. You had no idea that he noticed these things. The feeling of guilt caused you to momentarily forget the anger you felt at him.

It was time to tell him- you owed him an explanation.

"Niki I...I have something to tell you," you said reluctantly.

"Damn right you do -_-"

"It's...not what you think it is..."

Niki turned to look at you curiously, starting to become a bit confused. Taking a deep breath, you said,

"I'mallergictodogfur"

"I'm sorry what?"

"I said," you paused, "I'm allergic. To dog fur." You looked down, unable to meet his eyes. You felt really bad about the way you had hid this from him- Niki really loved that dog of his.

A slender finger ducked underneath your chin, gently lifting your face up. You were now eye to eye with Niki, his face inching close to yours. Wearing an amused expression and that goddamn annoying smirk, he looked at you intently.

"What..." you asked, embarrassment evident in your tone.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he sighed, his tone soft.

"I thought it might hurt your feelings"

"And hiding it would make me feel better?" The question was valid.

"When did you find out?" he asked, hugging you closer. Nuzzling in, you narrated the incident to him.

"It was actually during one of my walks with bisco. He was about to lick something I'm pretty sure he wasnt supposed to, and since it was my first time with a pet, I was cautious and terrified. So I picked him up, away from the ground and towards my face. That's when I started sneezing really bad." you finished, looking up at him.

"Well," Niki said, "You should have told me."

"I know"

"Instead of just ignoring me the way you did"

"Actually," you started, sitting up straight, "that's not why i was ignoring you" you said, feeling the anger boil back into your system.

"What do you mean?" he asked- timidly, a response to your sudden change in tone.

Without a single word, you stood up and walked towards his cupboard. Sliding the door open (perhaps a bit too harsh), you took out the box that you had found while looking for a hoodie a week ago. For the sake of assurance, you opened it, and once again you were met with the horrible sight.

You could feel your jaw ache from emotion as you stared at the torn pictures and broken pieces. With a feeble attempt to ignore the clouding of your eyes, you marched back, throwing the box onto the bed, causing the contents to cause a mess (one toy wheel hitting niki's forehead).

Scraps of pictures littered the bed. Fragments of pictures you had taken with niki, bisco, and some of your little baby brother, one that niki insisted on keeping in his bedroom now nothing but a broken frame. The sight of the poorly torn edges  was all it took for the dam to break.

Your sobbing form meekly reached and held the wheel of a very familiar toy car.

"You..." you trailed off, catching your breath, "is something wrong with us, niki? Is something making...making you mad? Is this how you take out your anger? By breaking things? Did I- did I do something wrong? What does this mean?" you ranted breathlessly, not waiting for a reply.

You clutched the plastic wheel harder, holding it to niki's face.

"This... You said you were going to give this to Alex. You said you couldn't wait to play with him, that you wanted to gift him like a good big brother. So why..." you paused, heaving, "why would you break it? Did i say something niki?"

His lack of response only made it harder for you, as you continued to sob relentlessly.  Until you felt him gently take hold of your hand.

"Oh sweetie..." his deep voice rung through your ear, causing you to look up slowly, your hiccups slowing down. You faced him, and you were surprised to see a subtle smile.

"Why...why are you" hic "why are you smiling?"

He sighed, and then got off the bed and stood up. Walking to the still open cupboard, he unlocked a drawer hidden behind a bunch of unwashed clothes. You could hear a bit of rattling and jiggling as he pulled something out.

"I wanted this to be a surprise..." he said, his back still turned towards you, "but i guess i have no choice"

Facing you, he walked over and gently placed the item in your hands.

The sight was absolutely heartwarming.

You observed the thin threads, inexpertly but lovingly tying together cut out pictures of you, Alex, and niki- pictures childishly stuck into paper balls. There was sincerity in the little doodles that niki had drawn on the sides of the balls and the adorable cartoon drawings hanging from gold threads. You observed the wooden handle with innocent wonder, caressing it gently. It was beautiful.

Niki had made alex a baby mobile. With all of you in it.

"You think he will like it?" he asked hesitantly, unsure of your reaction.

Turning to him with a bittersweet smile, you simply looked into his eyes, hoping he could see the utter happiness you felt.

And then you grabbed his collar and kissed him.

Although surprised, Niki responded soon enough, cupping your face and smiling into the kiss. You pulled back, foreheads still touching.

"He's gonna love it," you whispered, "just like he loves his big brother."

Resting your head against his shoulder, you held it up as niki clicked the remote. Both of you watched silently as the mobile turned around. The sound of music box nursery rhymes filled the room.

"I used the motor from the car for this, you know" he said, breaking the silence.

"It's wonderful sweetie" you replied, turning around to kiss him again. He locked his lips with yours as you both held each other, happy and content.

"Good to see you're both back at it again- can't say I missed it"

'WTF!" you said, turning around, shit scared.

"JAY CMON MAN" exclaimed niki as both of you looked away, red faced and embarrassed. 

-

*Bonus*

It was no later then 12 am as a strong man nimbly and silently made his way across the dorms. Cautiously amd carefully, without losing hold of the bag in his hand, he opened the door without a single creak. Expertly nudging in, he silently marched to the kitchen cabinet, and placed the packet inside the cupboard.

"YOU BITCH!"

Sunghoon turned around, scared for his life. And in the darkness of the kitchen was you, standing in front of him  menacingly. He desperately clutched the edges of the table as if his life depended on it.

" You scared me, ___" he said, "why are you awake right now?" he asked, chuckling nervously.

"Oh shut it! Don't pretend to be so innocent," you said, eyeing him judgementally, "I can't believe you let niki think I was the one that stole bisco's dog food"

"Okay look-" he said, attempting to defend himself in vain. But he took one look at your face and decided there was no point in doing that.

"Okay fine. I promised my sister that I would get the dog food this time and I may have forgot and she may have had a bad day at school and she may have been in a really bad mood because of that and i may have freaked out and stolen niki's dog food and i may have not said anything when he asked which may have led him to pick a fight with you but hey, come on, that's life right?"

"Hmm...okay" you replied, causing sunghoon to sigh in relief.

"And you know," he continued, "I practically did us a  favour."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, there is no way of knowing jungwon hasn't tried eating dog food"

"What the fuck?"

Sunghoon whipped his head around, nearly breaking it in the process.

"I'm sorry did the couch just speak?" he asked.

An angry jungwon crawled out from behind the couch, a phone camera in hand.

"What do you mean you think i eat dog food?"

"WHERE TEH FUCK DID U COME FROM?"

"Relax sunghoon," you drawled, "I just asked him to record this so that i could show niki the truth"

"Hey you can't do that-"

"If she doesn't, I will," said jungwon, trotting up next to you.

"Dammit."

-

TAGLISTS 💞

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[mortemoppetere]

TIMING: current LOCATION: van's apartment PARTIES: @vanoincidence & @mortemoppetere SUMMARY: emilio helps van hang a gay painting. somehow, it manages to become chaotic. CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

Van sat on the couch across from where Emilio stood, shaking her head. “No, you need to do like, a little to the left.” It had been like this only for a few minutes, snacks provided forgotten due to Emilio’s inability to take literally anything from her. He wasn’t her first choice when it came to asking for help, but unfortunately for him, he was the only one who answered her call. She could’ve gotten a step ladder, but that would’ve been a whole other thing, so it made more sense to call somebody who had some semblance of… being an adult to help, right? “Yeah, like that! Okay, do you um– I think Regan is like, totally okay with nails in the walls. If not, I’ll do the whole landlord's special thing later.” 

— 

He liked to be useful. It was nice, feeling like things were better with him around instead of worse, though it seemed a rare thing these days. When Van called and asked him for help hanging some decoration in her home, he’d been a little surprised she was asking him, but he hadn’t hesitated in saying yes, anyway. He liked to be useful, and it would be good to get out of the house. Besides, he’d like to see her with his own eyes to make sure she was in one piece after Aesil, anyway.

He’d just forgotten how annoying she was. “I had it a little to the left,” he replied. “And you said to move it to the right. Do you even know where you want this thing?” But, despite his grumbling, Emilio shifted the decoration to the left and Van seemed satisfied. “I think Regan will be fine with it.” He had no idea if that was true, but he also had no idea what the landlord special thing was, and driving a nail into the wall sounded like good stress relief. “Hand me the hammer.” 

—

“Yeah, I want it a little to the left.” Van pulled one of the throw pillows she’d gotten with Regan’s Ikea gift card into her lap, picking at the loose strands of fabric. “I don’t think Regan will care… she’s like, letting me live here and stuff.” She even let Thea live there, even without meeting her. Maybe that’s what being respected was like– being allowed to do things and exist as she wanted to. “I thought you had like, a tool belt. You’re an old guy, don’t old guys have tool belts?” Van tossed the pillow to the side and got up, slinking down to where the hammer was before extending it up towards Emilio. 

“Do you need anything else, Bob?” He probably wouldn’t get the reference, and he would probably remind her that his name was Emilio. Van took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest, nodding in approval. “This is a cool painting, right?” It was just Catradora hugging each other, but she had finally gotten the print framed after being gifted it like… eons ago. It made her feel a little more adult. “You like gay things, right?” 

—

It was hard to say for sure how Regan would about Van hammering nails into the wall of the apartment, but only because it was hard to say for sure how Regan would feel about anything. Emilio didn’t think he’d ever successfully predicted her reaction to any situation. Mostly, he just didn’t want to deal with Van going back and forth about whether or not something was allowed for half an hour, so he nodded. “She’ll be fine with it,” he said, with more confidence than he felt. Still holding the decoration in place, he turned to look at her when she mentioned a tool belt. “Do I have a — Does it look like I’m wearing a fucking tool belt, Van? You are looking right at me. I am not wearing a tool belt. Why would I own that?” The closest thing he owned to a tool belt was a harness for holding weapons, though he rarely wore it. It was a little too clunky for his tastes

He gave her a blank stare, predictably missing the reference entirely. “Who the fuck is Bob?” He’d ask if she’d hit her head or something, but… Van was just like this. Emilio had learned not to question it. Looking to the painting, he shrugged. “I don’t know these people,” he replied. He wasn’t sure why she wanted a painting of two people hugging in her living room, but maybe they were important to her. “Well, I like Teddy, so I guess I must. Is that what this is? A gay thing?”

—

“I think that you should probably own a tool belt if you’re like, oh let me come help you hang things up in your apartment.” The last part was in lower pitch in an attempt to match Emilio’s tone of voice, but Van knew that she totally butchered it. He would get annoyed regardless of how she sounded, and she would laugh it off, because even though she knew his annoyance was… a palpable thing, it was all in good fun. Or, at least she wanted to pretend it was. If she really pissed him off that much, he wouldn’t have shown up when she asked. 

“Bob the builder. I guess you’re not building anything though, so maybe it was a bad reference.” Van sighed, knowing well enough that she’d need to message Teddy later and force them to give Emilio a masterclass on all things child media. They probably would, knowing their love of the bit. Maybe together they could convince Emilio that Bob the Builder was the next Inception or something. The longer she looked at him though, the more she realized he probably didn’t even know or care what Inception was. She wondered what his favorite movie was, and thought about asking, but she snorted in response to the gay thing. “Yeah, Teddy is definitely like, categorically one of the gay things.” She loved them for it, too. “You should know these people, though. It’s a good show. I think you’d like Catra. You share…” She motioned faintly towards him. He wouldn’t get that reference anyway, and he’d probably yell at her for comparing him to a cat. He was more of a badger, anyway. 

—

“You called me to help you hang things in your apartment,” Emilio protested, sounding a little outraged. “And I don’t sound like that. You are bad at trying to sound like me. Are you this annoying to everyone you call for help?” The answer was probably yes. Van seemed to have a singular talent towards being annoying. It was an effective thing, really; his irritation doubled as relief, because it meant that she was all right. Whatever had happened with Aesil, Van was still Van. Emilio would take his victories where he could get them.

“And I’m supposed to know this man? Do you expect me to remember every builder in town?” It was a ridiculous expectation, especially since she was right and he wasn’t building anything. He was hammering one nail into a wall to hang a painting of two people hugging. It wasn’t exactly delicate construction work. He lined the nail up with where it needed to go, shifting to move the painting as he prepared to hammer it into place. “It’s a show?” He pounded the hammer against the nail once, careful to check his strength. If he let himself hit the nail at full slayer strength, there’d probably be a hole in Van’s wall. “Ah, not so sure I’d like it. Never been good at watching the TV.” He pulled back, nail firmly in place with the single tap, and picked the painting back up to hang it. Carefully, he straightened it out before stepping away from the wall to inspect it. “Share what? Because I am gay, I am like this person in the gay painting?” Bi, technically, but he’d learned it all fit under a certain umbrella. “Does that look okay?”

—

“Yeah, and you said you would. I thought that somebody who like, said yes would definitely have a tool belt of some kind.” She knew she was dragging this whole tool belt thing on for way too long, but it was funny to watch Emilio get flustered over things that didn’t actually matter. Although, she felt as though she’d known him long enough to realize that this was just who he was. There wasn’t really anything else to it. Van was kind of glad for it, too. It was something familiar, considering all of the unfamiliarity that’d swarmed around her lately. “I’m not even being as annoying as I could be, Emilio.” She gave him a pointed look, because they both knew that she was right about that, at least. 

“You should really try and meet him. Maybe Teddy can introduce the two of you or something.” Sometimes, Van tried to imagine who Emilio was outside of Wicked’s Rest. She tried to imagine who he was outside of his scowls, but she had seen it in moments with Wynne and with Teddy. With her, too, when she wasn’t pushing him over the edge of annoyance. “Yeah, it’s a show. It was like, an old show– uh, he-man, but then they remade it for she-ra. It’s good.” The older version was… severely outdated, but she knew it still deserved some flowers. She had forced herself to sit through moments where both Adora and Catra showed up, only to be visibly disgusted by the blatant sexualization. “You should watch more t.v, I think. Maybe you’d get like, literally any references.” She figured he’d argue with her that he had better things to do, and maybe he did. As Emilio took a step back and asked for clarification on whether she meant the gay thing, she waved away his question. “It doesn’t matter. That looks like, really good actually. Thanks.” It was probably the most polite she’d been to him. She turned towards the kitchen, back to the wall, and then heard a loud thunk. The painting was already on the ground, and Van looked at Emilio. “I thought you said you knew how to do this.” 

—

“I can say yes without having a tool belt. I came here to help you, because you are too short to hang things on your own. You should be nicer to people who are tall and come over to help you hang things.” He threw his hands up in frustration, the end of the hammer getting dangerously close to her wall but not making contact. Emilio didn’t seem to notice the close call at all. “You are always annoying. It doesn’t matter how annoying you are being, because it is always there. I’m always annoyed when you’re here.” 

Meeting a builder seemed like the last thing that Emilio wanted to do, though he was unsurprised to learn that Teddy was familiar with this ‘Bob.’ He’d learned a long time ago that Teddy knew pretty much everyone. “I do not want to meet him. I know enough people in this town already.” Some days, it felt like he knew too many. There was something a little uncomfortable about knowing how many people would mourn him now. He tried not to think about it. “Are those names supposed to mean things? He-Man. She-Ra. It sounds made up.” Maybe it was. Maybe this show didn’t exist at all, and Van was messing with him. It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. “Don’t like sitting still for that long. Get, uh… restless, I think.” Stakeouts usually consisted of him getting bored ten minutes in and going for a more hands-on kind of investigation; watching television tended to end with him abruptly getting up halfway through an episode to do something else and forgetting he’d been watching anything at all. He’d resigned himself to not understanding references, at this point. He shrugged when Van said it didn’t matter, relieved that she was happy with the painting’s placement. At least that meant he could leave. 

Leaning down, he set the hammer against the couch. A thunk sounded the moment he turned away, and he looked up to see the painting he’d just hung laying on the floor. His brow furrowed in quiet confusion, and he looked back to the hammer. “I do know how to do this. I hit the nail with the hammer, I hung it up, it was fine. There must be something weird about your walls.” It was Kavanagh’s apartment; that didn’t seem far fetched. “Whatever. I’ll just hang it again.”

—

Van frowned, “I’m not– you aren’t– you’re not that tall.” He was much taller than her, but she had definitely seen taller. She’d seen taller people everywhere, especially compared to Emilio. “You came here, so that means like, you specifically came to help me, knowing you’d be annoyed. That sounds like your problem.” She arched a brow, not totally sure that her argument made any real impact, but she was still kind of annoyed that he’d suggest he was tall. Didn’t he know that other people were way taller? “I could’ve called that French guy who ran around the zoo naked. I think he’s taller than you, actually.” She didn’t know for sure, but based on their public conversations, Emilio seemed annoyed with him, too, and Van was sure that’d hit a sore spot. Wasn’t that what most of their conversations were about? Tearing one another down without any actual psychological damage? “But like, even I have standards. So that’s why you’re here. Not because you’re taller.” She felt the need to clarify, only because… well, she wasn’t sure why. 

In reality, what she would have done was call Jade. But Jade was short like her, and the two still weren’t really talking. So it was Emilio’s problem. “I think you’d like Bob,” Van hummed, not fully believing in her own words. Only because Emilio would never meet Bob, unless this town created a manifestation of children’s shows and made him. “Somebody made it up, yeah. Then it got turned into a show. That’s how like, language works I’m pretty sure. None of what we’re saying even meant anything at one point, I don’t think.” If she thought about language and how it worked, it’d hurt her head, so she quickly ventured off from the subject, “maybe you can do what those like, soccer moms do, you know? Put your phone on Netflix and run on a treadmill.” That probably would’ve gotten her to exercise more, too, but replace it with Mario Kart and she’d be golden. She’d be so fit. 

“They aren’t even my walls, they’re Regan’s walls, and I don’t think you should say that. She might get offended.” Van gave him a pointed look before sighing, walking back over to the painting. The frame wasn’t cracked, at least, and neither was the weird plastic-y glass that covered the photo. She held it up towards Emilio, “I thought you’d need the help ‘cause you’re kind of short and stuff.” He deserved that one, only because he clearly didn’t know how to hang a painting. 

—

“I’m much taller than you.” It wasn’t saying much, but in this town? Emilio had to take height victories where he could get them. Most people in Wicked’s Rest seemed to tower somewhere above six feet, which made Emilio’s respectable height seem so much less impressive than it really was. He shot Van a look, brows raised as she pointed out that he’d come here, even knowing how annoying she was. “That’s because I’m a Saint,” he replied flatly. It was categorically untrue, of course, and there was a hint of white-hot guilt at the mere implication of it — religion was a hard thing to outrun, even if he hadn’t believed in the Church’s teachings in years now — but he thought it was funny and it would probably piss Van off, and that was what was really important here. “Langley? He isn’t tall. He wears special shoes. They make him look taller.” Emilio knew that wasn’t true, but he thought if he said it with enough conviction, Van might believe him and spread it around town.

He snorted at the implication that he might like this Bob, offended without any real reason. “I wouldn’t like Bob. I don’t like anyone.” That wasn’t a complete lie. Emilio did tend to dislike most people, but he could hardly pretend he hated everyone when Van had seen proof of the opposite. “Most of what you’re saying doesn’t make sense to me now,” he replied flatly, though he could admit that she probably had a point. Language was all made up, invented by people who probably had big egos and inflated senses of self importance. “I don’t run on a treadmill.” He didn’t do much running at all, these days. Walking, sure, but running? Attempting it tended to make his knee protest so loudly that he paid for it for days afterwards. 

“Exactly. If they’re Regan’s walls, who knows what kind of weird shit is going on with them.” Maybe the small people from her computer were responsible, the ones she’d said had gone to live in the clouds after their disappearance from Jade’s broken laptop screen. “I do not need help. Shut up.” He lifted the painting again, holding it up and looking back at her. “Here?”

—

“Yeah, that’s like, a lot of people. Do you want a medal?” Van hadn’t ever been super upset by her height, only because her entire family practically stood at her same stature. Maybe if she had some taller cousin who loomed over her or a sibling, it would’ve been different. But it’d always been her, her parents, and her grandma. Now, it was none of them. Now she was left with people taller than her. “Your name is Emilio, not Saint.” She knew what he meant, but she wasn’t going to feed into his delusions. She’d let Teddy do that, or maybe Nora and Wynne. She was supposed to be the challenging annoying one, after all. “Wait, really? That makes like, total sense. I guess a guy who runs around naked in public would wear special shoes, too.” Van knew that Emilio was probably lying to her, but if she could scrounge up more ways to make fun of somebody else (especially somebody unapologetically French), then she’d definitely do it. 

“You like Teddy. Should I tell Teddy you don’t like them?” She never would. If for some odd reason, Emilio came to her with his deepest, darkest secret, she wouldn’t divulge it to anyone. He had kept her secrets intact (or at least hoped so), and so she’d do him the same favor. Van knew it wasn’t true, though– that he didn’t like anyone. He looked at Teddy like they’d hung the moon and stars in every specific spot in the sky, and looked at Nora and Wynne as if they were his own. Maybe he didn’t notice it, but Van definitely had. “Nothing I ever say makes like, any sense to you. Maybe you need to get a dictionary or something. I’ll write you one with things I say so you can translate it.” It wouldn’t be the first time somebody had suggested she do just that, but the idea of actually following through and seeing Emilio trying to parse out what she was trying to say from a book was funny. The knee, right. She knew about the bad knee. “Me either.” Tongue in cheek, she decided to let that one go. “Maybe you can watch it when you’re letting paintings fall to the ground after you were like, all sure you did it right.” There, that was better. 

“I’m going to tell her that you think her walls are weird.” She probably wouldn’t care, and would probably come by the apartment to figure out why he would think such a thing. Van sighed, nodding as Emilio placed the painting back up exactly where it’d been before. The nail was still there, which didn’t make all that much sense as to why it had fallen. “Is the hook on the back messed up or something? Do you see how it fell?” 

—

“I deserve ten, for putting up with you.” Despite the faint irritation that came with being in Van’s presence, Emilio found some relief in the familiar back and forth. It felt as though so many things had changed lately; it was nice to know that this hadn’t. Van was still annoying. Emilio would still bicker with her. There was comfort in the constant. “I said a Saint. Not that my name is Saint. Saint of putting up with annoying people.” Though… that probably wasn’t entirely true. Emilio tended to lose his patience pretty quickly, after all. He wasn’t sure if Van actually believed him about Kaden wearing special shoes, but she seemed interested in it, which would serve his purposes all the same. He nodded. “Yes. Has them on everywhere he goes.” At least making fun of Kaden was something he and Van could agree on.

He huffed a laugh at her threat to tell Teddy, recognizing it as an empty one. “Sure. Tell Teddy I think they’re annoying, too.” It would inspire a back and forth with Teddy that was just as familiar as the one with Van — and just as comforting. There were few people who could make him feel steady with as much ease as Teddy. Emilio figured that made him a sap. He couldn’t bring himself to care about it very much. “Or maybe you should just start saying things that make sense. If you have to write down everything you say so someone can look it up in a book later to understand you, I think you are the problem.” He probably wouldn’t understand any book Van wrote, anyway. Knowing her, her definitions would make as little sense as the terms they were meant to define. He shot her a glare, though there was no heat behind the expression. “It isn’t my fault it fell.” He knew he’d hung it up just fine.

He shrugged off her threat to tattle to Regan on him the same way he’d laughed off the one to tell Teddy. Van really was a little snitch, wasn’t she? “I’ll tell her myself, but then it’ll be your problem.” She’d probably come in with a hammer of her own and knock down the walls looking for bones or something. Turning the painting over, he looked at the back of the frame. The hook was intact, just as the nail was. “I’ll give the nail another hit,” he offered, pounding the hammer against it again to drive it further into the wall. Then, he put the painting back in place and took a step back. It looked stable. “There. Must have just been a fluke, hm?”

—

“Ten is way too much.” Van didn’t put it past Emilio to put in an Amazon order (if he even knew how to do that) and order himself some plastic medals just to prove a point. Maybe he’d figure out another way to do it, or maybe Van would buy them for him herself, and they’d all read I SMELL BAD on the back in some language she knew he wouldn’t bother to translate. Somebody would read it and be able to figure out what it meant. “For putting up with annoying people, you sure act like, really annoyed.” She figured that Emilio’s patience had long since expired a while ago, and it was pretty clear he didn’t actually care about being polite in any capacity. “Do you wear special shoes, too?” She couldn’t let him win entirely, brushing off the whole height argument onto the weird French guy. 

“I’m not the problem. I think there are lots of things that you say that don’t make sense, and I could definitely use a book.” That wasn’t necessarily true, considering Emilio was particularly forward. But really, Van figured he could benefit from a translation on whatever the hell she meant. Maybe Regan could, too. Both of them almost always misunderstood her. Then again, it wasn’t their fault– it was their age, wasn’t it? A generational divide, or maybe some divide between fae, magic users, and … annoyed old men who kind of fell onto the track that Jade did. But she didn’t want to think about that right now, much less the Jade of it all. “I’ll make sure to laminate the book, that way if you spill any coffee on it, it won’t make it unreadable and then I have to re-do the whole thing, okay?” It was an empty offer, but if he agreed, she’d do it just to commit to the bit. “I think it is, since you’re the one who hung it up in the first place,” Van countered with another sigh. 

“How is it my problem? You’re the one being rude.” Van didn’t actually intend on even telling Regan Emilio had been over, mostly because she felt it didn’t matter. Was this even really the woman’s apartment any longer? Sure, some mail got delivered to the address, but for the most part, it was just her, and whoever decided to crash for that night. The noise from the hammer hitting the wall was grating and Van clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “A fluke? Or you just don’t know how to hammer things.” It stayed put for as long as Van looked at it, but as soon as she turned away, it fell again. This time, she caught something out of the corner of her eye scurrying away. “What was THAT!” Van pointed towards it, stepping forward to shove Emilio at the small… she wasn’t even sure what to call it, “there!” She pointed behind one of the drawers at the side of the t.v. “Do you see it? Emilio, what is that?” 

—

“Ten is not enough,” he shot back rolling his eyes. He wasn’t invested enough in the conversation to bother with obtaining the medals, though he could be pushed to change his mind if Van continued irritating him. Emilio was nothing if not petty, after all. “I didn’t say I wasn’t annoyed. Real strength is being annoyed and putting up with you anyway. That’s what makes me a Saint. If I weren’t annoyed at all, putting up with you wouldn’t be hard.” He crossed his arms over his chest, shooting her another half-hearted glare as their brief truce came to an abrupt end. “I do not need special shoes. I’m tall on my own. This is why you called me to hang your gay painting on your weird wall.” Maybe she needed the reminder that she’d already admitted to his impressive height just by inviting him here.

“You are definitely the problem. You are all of my problems.” It wasn’t even remotely true. Emilio had more problems than he could rightly count, and Van wasn’t the source of any of them. (He wondered if she’d feel as though she were, if she knew what had happened with Aesil. It was better, he thought, not to bring it up. He’d rather not know the answer.) Still, this was how the back and forth was supposed to go. Emilio made a bold, sweeping statement. Van argued against it. She made a statement of her own, he argued against that. The script was already written. It was nice to be able to just sit back and read it. “I wouldn’t spill coffee on it. Unless it was on purpose, because you are annoying. Then maybe I would spill coffee on it.” Frustrated, he threw his hands up again. “It’s your weird walls!” 

With the painting hung again, Emilio turned away. And, again, the moment he did, it fell. He turned back too slowly to see what had caused it, but apparently Van had seen something, and she shoved him towards it. Emilio, not expecting the push, stumbled a little as he moved towards the dresser. “Relax. It’s probably a rat or something.” He held the hammer up, preparing to smack whatever it was on the head. “If I kill it, are you going to yell? I’m not going to kill it if you’re going to yell.”

—

Van stared at him, not certain she was even really following his line of logic. Was this how he felt when she spoke to him? Clearly it was, considering he often looked confused every time she opened his mouth. Really, she had chalked it up to him being old. “You sound totally convincing, by the way.” Maybe hanging a comment off of his comment would be the best way to counteract whatever the hell he had meant by his words, right? That way, he’d wonder if she actually thought he was convincing. She wasn’t sure why she cared so much, even though in the back of her head, she knew why. Her conversations with Emilio reminded her of ones with her dad, where they’d bicker back and forth. Of course, he never… no, he had definitely called her annoying a few times. Calling her too much had definitely meant that, right? But Emilio wasn’t her dad. They couldn’t be more different. “Maybe I thought you were taller because you’re wearing special shoes. Ever think about that? I did say I could’ve asked the French guy.” She rose a challenging brow, knowing that both of them knew she wouldn’t actually have asked Kaden to help her with this. 

“Wow, a twenty– I mean, a twenty-one year old is really the source of all your problems? It sounds like you need to get bigger problems.” In this town, he probably already had bigger problems and she knew that, but joking about it was easier than blatantly stating it with a straight face. Van rolled her eyes, “you’d probably spill coffee on it ‘cause you were clumsy or something.” She didn’t actually take him as a clumsy person. Even with the bad knee he complained about a lot, he was actually pretty fluid in his movements. Maybe that was the Jade-adjacent thing. She pushed it from her mind again, the sour taste beginning to coat her tongue. That meant anxiety was on its way. She needed to deflect that for as long as she could. “Not my walls,” she reminded him in a sing-song voice. 

But it didn’t matter whose walls they were, because there was some weird little guy (or what she assumed was a weird little guy) living in them. Or outside of them. Maybe in the drawers, or in the dust bunnies that Van had forgotten about time and time again. “You’re going to kill it? Why don’t you just let it out! It’s not like it can open doors!” She didn’t think it was a rat, or at least she hoped it wasn’t a rat. She knew the “rats” that had eaten the metal at Sly Slice weren’t rats at all, but something else, but she really didn’t need them to be here in Regan’s apartment. “It’s right there! In that corner!” Maybe she should grab a bucket like Jade had. As soon as she moved, though, the little creature scuttled away. Unmistakably, it was wearing a cloth hat– the very one that had disappeared from the top of her Keroppi plush. “Hey! That’s not yours! That’s not a rat! You’re not a rat– Emilio what IS THAT!” She clambered towards it, practically diving at the floor as she tried to move another piece of furniture it was trying to hide behind. Now, eye level with it, she let out a high pitched scream. “IT’S A LITTLE MAN!!!! AND HE IS WEARING A HAT THAT ISN’T HIS! THAT’S MINE! IT’S MINE!” 

—

What was that supposed to mean? He was convincing. And his logic made sense. Maybe he should ask Wynne about it without mentioning Van by name and allow them to weigh in; he was pretty sure they’d agree with him so long as they didn’t know it was Van he was calling annoying. “Maybe you know I am tall because you are short and always need to look up at me.” Not his strongest argument by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn’t much matter where Van was concerned. Emilio thought ridiculous arguments might actually work better on her, given how their conversations often devolved. “Ask the French guy next time, then. Invite a French man into your home to hammer things on your walls. Is that what you really want to do?” The challenge was a bold one, but he knew the answer.

“I have very big problems, actually. You’re just annoying enough to cancel all of them out. People are trying to kill me every day, and still you are so annoying that it means nothing.” It was a blatant lie, which Van would probably pick up on, but that was part of the game. “I am not clumsy. If I spill coffee, it is because I want to spill coffee.” He wasn’t the hunter anyone had wanted him to be, but he still had those old skills firmly in place. Bad leg or no, he moved with purpose. He’d probably still spill coffee on her book just to spite her, though. “I don’t care whose walls they are! They’re stupid.” 

Of course, he knew now that the walls weren’t to blame. There was some kind of something knocking the painting from the wall, and Emilio figured it was his job to take care of it. With a hammer, preferably. “Let it out? If I pick it up, it will probably bite me.” Not that it would hurt, given Emilio’s tolerance for pain, but there was a principle there. He spotted the creature and lunged towards it without thinking, but it was a little too fast. And… decidedly not a rat. And wearing a hat? “I don’t know what it is!” The scene devolved into chaos so quickly. Van fell down to eye level with the creature — the little man in a stolen hat, apparently — and Emilio lunged towards it again. It scurried out of reach, hat still firmly on its head. “I am trying! Why do you have a hat so small? That wouldn’t even fit you!” He threw the hammer at the creature, hoping to startle it into slipping up.

—

“Um, obviously. That’s kind of what being shorter than somebody else means. Having to look up, right? But I could used a step stool, but it’s not like I’m going to just carry one around. That’s stupid.” She would’ve done it, should she need to, but the whole point of this had been so she wouldn’t need to use a step stool. It occurred to her as she looked at Emilio that she could’ve asked Thea for help, but she still wasn’t sure what was going on there given the whole… kiss of it all. The accidental kiss, and the actual kiss that Van hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. But now was not the time to think about the kiss, especially when somebody like Emilio (who was decidedly stinky) was in front of her. It wasn’t like she could ask him for advice, anyway. Only slightly defeated, Van rolled her eyes again. “No, that’s not what I want to do.” She could’ve made a joke about how at least they’d smell the same, but she didn’t actually know what Kaden smelled like, and if he smelled good, then that’d be a compliment in Emilio’s direction. She couldn’t chance that. 

“Maybe you should be less killable. Did you think that maybe people want to kill you because you’re annoying?” She felt as though she had made a good point with that one. It made sense, considering… well, everything. She was sure people had tried to kill her because she was annoying. Van thought about the banshees and grimaced. Yeah, they definitely hadn’t been impressed with her. “Why are you spilling coffee on things? That’s kind of weird. Do you just go around doing that a lot? Spilling things on purpose? That’s weird, and you should like, totally examine that behavior.” She did a lot of things that she should probably examine, but it wasn’t like they were talking about her right now. They were talking about Emilio! Or, at least, she was. 

“it’s Keroppi’s hat! Not my hat, but it is mine!” Van crawled on her hands and knees to where she had last seen the small creature scurry. This time, it was caught in the corner. Its little chest was heaving, and its little arms were in front of its face. DON’T LOOK AT ME! I AM HIDEOUS! Van hadn’t anticipated that, so she froze. “Did you… hear him?” Van looked over her shoulder at Emilio who looked now slightly disheveled. I AM HIDEOUS! USE THY EYE TO LOOK AWAY AND YE SHALL BE SPARED FROM– The little man started to cough, and he tucked the hat further down over his eyes, PLEASE, I AM JUST A HUMBLE… LITTLE MAN, AS YOU CALLED ME, AND I AM ADJUSTING THIS HOME TO THE WAY I KNOW HOW. Van couldn’t quite keep up with the reason as to why he was doing what he was doing, but she stared at him, still close to the ground. Now that she was closer to him, though, she could pick out the parts of him that might make him… well, discouraged by his physique. But Van certainly wasn’t anyone to judge another on their physical appearance, even if he was actually quite terrifying. Her stomach lurched and she forced down the anxiety. “Emilio, tell him he’s handsome.” It was said in a tone that even surprised her, and she looked over her shoulder as she shoved the last item the little man was hiding behind. “Tell him he’s handsome. If he tells you you’re handsome, will you leave?” She looked back at the little man, not quite in disbelief that this was her life now (because of course it was). 

—

“Then get a step stool! Stop inviting me over just to be ungrateful for my help!” There was no real malice to the words; if anything, someone who knew him well enough would be able to pick up on the hint of amusement lurking somewhere in the undertones of the exclamation. But Emilio couldn’t let Van know that he was amused by her, and Van probably didn’t want him to drop the act, either. He flashed a victorious grin as she admitted that, no, she didn’t want to invite Kaden into her house. “Then you have to be quiet and deal with me. Or next time, you get the French guy.”

He huffed at her statement, rolling his eyes. “People do not try to kill me because I am annoying.” Except… that was why Aesil had targeted him, wasn’t it? He swiftly pushed the thought away. Thinking about the demon at all made him feel sweaty and stupid, but thinking about them in Van’s presence seemed like a risk. Like, somehow, she would pull his thoughts from his expression and know what had happened, like she could internalize it from his furrowed brows alone. “Maybe I should try spilling coffee on you.” It was easier to fall back into that, into the bickering. It was simpler.

In a way, even the strange creature scurrying around the floor was a relief. It gave him something else to focus on, another way to be useful. Emilio liked that, even if he got the feeling he shouldn’t admit to it while Van was screaming about a hat belonging to someone named Keroppi, who must have had a very small head. She managed to corner the creature, and Emilio rushed over… only to pause as it spoke. “Uh…” He glanced to Van, wide-eyed as she asked him to… compliment the thing. In a low tone, he said, “Why do I have to tell him he’s handsome? Why can’t you do it? You’re the one who gave him the hat.”

—

“This is like, the only time I invited you over. You broke in the last time, remember? The cat? The cookies?” She would never let him live that down, even if she didn’t exactly think he cared about being reminded. It had been an inconvenience to her, so surely he thought it was funny. “Maybe you should stop saying you know how to do these kinds of things when you don’t even have a tool belt.” Van scowled at him, knowing well enough that having a tool belt or not didn’t really mean anything when it came to hanging paintings. It probably would’ve been different if he had come over with the intention of fixing her sink or something. Which luckily, it didn’t need any fixing. 

“They probably most definitely do. You’re like, threatening to spill coffee on me and you don’t think that’s annoying? That’s weird of you.” Van knew the back and forth would never end, and that was a part of the fun, wasn’t it? There was no thinking about the words that would come out of her mouth. She wouldn’t be reprimanded, and instead met with the same kind of energy. It was kind of nice, all things considered. 

“I didn’t give him the hat, he took the hat, and I think that it coming from you would mean a lot more than it coming from me! You’re both men, right?” The small little man nodded his head in agreement, teeth glaringly obvious the longer that Van looked at him. He was kind of disgusting, and Van felt kind of bad for him. “Tell him he’s handsome.” It was said again with more desperation this time. “If he tells you you’re handsome, will you leave and stop knocking over my painting? I can take you to somebody else’s house you can terrorize.” Janice would hate this, and she’d never find out what was happening, and Van was fine with that. “Not your house,” Van said quickly before Emilio decided that obviously he was the next victim. I WILL LEAVE, YES. LEAVE I WILL, AND I WILL GO WHERE YOU TELL ME. I LOST MY FAMILY.. THE OTHERS, THEY ARE GONE. SWEPT OUT, NOW I AM HERE. I AM NOT HANDSOME, PLEASE TELL ME I AM HANDSOME, TALL MAN. Had the little man heard their conversation? Did he know that Van had told him he wasn’t that tall? God, Van was never going to live it down now. “It’s because he’s also small,” Van quickly commented before Emilio could get any ideas. 

—

“It doesn’t matter how many times you invited me over, it matters that you invited me over to help you and then argued with me. Do you do this to everyone you invite over to help you? It’s very rude.” As if Emilio, of all people, had any room to accuse anyone else of rudeness. “I don’t need a tool belt! Who brings a tool belt to hang a painting? You need one tool. You need to hammer, and that’s all. You don’t need a screwdriver or — or other tools.” It occurred to him that he didn’t know much about tools. He wasn’t much of a handyman; most of his attempts at fixing things were made with makeshift tools rather than formal ones.

“I would only spill coffee on you because you are annoying. That is not weird. Me being annoying in response to you being annoying is fine.” They could do this all day, he knew; this bickering, this easy back and forth. Maybe they would. Maybe it would make things feel a little less heavy to just argue about shit that didn’t matter for a while. 

“How do you know it’s a man? You’re not supposed to just assume that!” Granted, the little creature had referred to itself as a man, but it had only been parroting what Van had said in the first place. Emilio didn’t know if that counted. Van was trying to negotiate with it — and she was right in thinking that if she hadn’t clarified, he would have assumed she planned to release the thing in his house — and Emilio sighed. But the thing went on, talking about its family and how they were gone and — shit. He was not going to empathize with a rat-sized man-thing that stole Van’s tiny hats. He had to draw the fucking line somewhere, didn’t he? He crossed his arms again, shifting his weight uncomfortably. Goddamn it. “Fine,” he grumbled, shooting Van a triumphant look as the creature called him tall. It turned back into a scowl when she immediately pointed out that the creature was also short. “You are very handsome. More handsome without the hat, even.” Anything to make this be over. 

—

“You’re always arguing with me, what do you even mean?” Van could say anything, and she was sure that Emilio would find an issue with it. Although, the same could be said for her. Anything he said, she’d try and one-up, whether in terms of ridiculousness, or out of something  else. “I don’t know. Maybe if you had a tool belt, it could hold your one tool, and then you wouldn’t need to hold it in your hand, you know? Free hand, or whatever. I wouldn’t have to hand you the hammer. You’d have it already. It’d save time.” Maybe she should be a salesman instead of a cashier at a pizza place. She’d do good, she thought. “You could also probably keep duct tape on it. You use that a lot, right?” She swore the last time she was at his old apartment, she’d seen it on one of the walls holding the wallpaper in place. Or maybe it was the actual wall. 

“If it’s hot coffee, I could sue you, you know. I could totally sue you for that.” She would never sue anyone, that’d take way too much effort, and she’d probably cry on the witness stand. The government made her nervous in pretty much any capacity, even if it was supposed to be on her side.

“He literally said he was a little man!” Van splayed a hand out at him, still on the ground, though she didn’t put it near him out of fear that he might actually bite her. His little chest was heaving, and he had his hands still covering most of his face, but Van could see the important parts– the parts that were clearly meant to be… terrifying. Van watched the little man with baited breath as Emilio’s compliment splintered into the space before them. Astonishment rose over the little man’s features and he quickly took off the hat, revealing… Well, Van felt guilty for being disgusted, so she quickly waved at him, “no, you can keep the hat! Parting gift! It’s yours now!” The little man’s eyes widened and he quickly tucked the hat back over his head. FOR GRATITUDE, I HAVE! I HAVE SO MUCH, AND I WILL LEAVE NOW, AS OUR DEAL IS COMPLETE. I AM MORE HANDSOME THAN THE TWO OF YOU, AND THOUGH I WILL NEVER BE AS TALL, I AM BEAUTIFUL. I AM A FLOWER. Van wasn’t entirely certain where he had gotten all of that, but he sauntered off, no longer pressed to the corner of the wall that both Van and Emilio were looming in front of. His little boots that she hadn’t noticed him wearing (were those Polly Pocket rubber boots???) squeaked as he scurried off. THE DOOR, PLEASE. FOR I NEED THE DOOR TO LEAVE. Van quickly got up and half-ran to the door, yanking it open. He hurried over the threshold, disappearing down the stairs in a clunky fashion. “I didn’t even tell him where Janice lives,” Van said quietly as she shut the door. She turned around to look at Emilio. “Are you going to uh, hang the painting now?” 

—

“You know what I mean,” Emilio replied, mostly because he’d forgotten what they were arguing about and figured this would piss Van off the most. “Why is it a problem to hold it in my hand? I have two hands. I don’t need two hands and a belt. It seems like these belts are for people who do not know how to hold things. I know how to hold things.” Though the idea of being able to carry more duct tape did intrigue him, he was careful not to let the interest show on his face. Van would be insufferable if she knew she was even a little right. Emilio wouldn’t be the cause of something like that.

“Sure. Go ahead and sue me.” Emilio wasn’t sure what suing someone did beyond the fact that it ended with you getting their money, and he didn’t have a lot to give in that sense. Most of his money was either stuffed in the mattress of his Worm Row apartment or lining the cabinets of Teddy’s kitchen in the form of cheap whiskey. There wasn’t much to be gained from suing him. 

“He was only copying what you said!” He kept an eye on the creature through the conversation. For all he knew, the thing was just waiting for them to be distracted enough for him to gain the upper hand. He wasn’t about to risk having it attack him or Van, no matter how small and harmless it might have seemed. The compliment seemed to appease it, though, and Van’s offer for it to keep the hat only furthered its excitement. Emilio made a sound of protest as the creature claimed to be more handsome than the two of them. “Now I didn’t say that—” he started, but cut himself off before he could get too much further. They just needed the thing gone, really; let it think whatever it wanted. In any case, it did seem to be leaving. It took off for the door and was gone the moment Van opened it. Emilio stared after it for a moment. “He really was ugly,” he mused, glancing back to the wall. “Yeah,” he agreed, “all right. Let’s get your gay painting up to stay this time.”

[windypuddle]

WHO ARE THE GAY ENSTARS MEN ?! THE ONE WITH THE BLUE HAIR ?? THEIR ROMANCE WAS WORLD SHATTERING? ! I AM DESPERATE AND DEHYDRATED WHO ARE THEY

alright. i know you asked me this because im the Enstars Person you know so while i am not the expert on this i will try my best to answer! also drink water bestie

ok so im assuming you are talking about wataei because of the ship wars thing. and theyre the only ones i can think of that ive seen described like that recently.

alright so theres a common joke that eichi (blond one) started the war (massive social and school politics effort to reform the idol system in yumenosaki academy) because he had a crush on wataru (blue hair one). this is not true eichi started the war because he loves idols and wanted to make a fairer system for them.

this reform effort actually happened in two stages: the war was the first stage, where eichi made the five eccentrics the scapegoats for all the vices of the school, which worked because they were so good at being idols everyone saw them as otherworldly and not one of the rest of the human students. eichi, with his power as both student council president and Local Hella Rich Guy, orchestrated a battle of the bands system where he and his unit, fine (usually in this period referred to by fans as ex-fine) defeated each of the five eccentrics and brought supposedly equal chances for the students at the school. the main part of this rhetoric relied on framing the eccentrics as godlike beings, and fine as just regular humans, to show the student body that with hard work, even regular people can rise to great heights.

part of this whole situation was wataru. Wataru was one of the original members of the five eccentrics, and eichi greatly admired him and his skills. a secondary motivation, for eichi specifically, was to raise himself to the same level as wataru so they could communicate as equals. so like yeah he had a crush on the guy but that wasn't his main motivation.

wataru is a fascinating character. he has layers (like an onion) and he is always acting and rarely shows his "true self" and often talks about narratives and such in a very meta perspective (eichi talks this way a lot too, which is why theres so many monologues in enstars, but eichi views himself as just some guy while wataru views himself as the ultimate actor). wataru was also the last of the eccentrics to be defeated by fine. natsume, the youngest of the eccentrics, caught onto the fact that wataru was acting according to the "script" of the war (because he agreed with eichis ideas of reforming yumenosaki), so natsume wrote his own script where the eccentrics won. unfortunately, wataru discarded the idea, essentially For The Sake Of The Narrative. (natsume ended up burning the script, which is an interesting parallel to tsumugi burning the records of the deeds ex-fine did during the war, but thats another matter.) so wataru lost, as he was Supposed To, and eichi and ex-fine won the war for yumenosaki.

up until now eichi and wataru have been distant, only interacting occasionally (including one conversation where wataru has stuff to say about acting, or whatever. its all very meta of them). but after this, eichi is hospitalized, and rips out his IVs and such and refuses to let any of the nurses treat him. Wataru climbs in through the window of his hospital room to find him like this, and essentially asks him: What Now? they start talking about the results of the war, and the future, and they essentially write a script for how yumenosaki can change further for the better: this is Stage Two, trickstar's revolution. only when they plotted it they didnt know it would be trickstar, or the extent to which they would change things. because eichi, in the war, made himself and ex-fine powerful enough to defeat the eccentrics, which gave the students hope; but he did this through the power of being rich and also student council president, and other things like tsumugi's connections to basically everyone in the school. so he ended up having the school in basically a tyrannical rule, but that still wasn't the best environment to encourage idols to grow. so eichi and wataru wrote out a plan for an idol group to overthrow eichi himself, and bring about full change.

basically wataru and eichi combined have orchestrated the majority of the narrative of both the war era and the ! era stories. also they both know each other so intimately on a psychological level. youve probably heard people talk about wataei proposal and that is referring to the last story of the ! era game, where wataru and eichi met on the roof of yumenosaki one night and had a deep conversation-- i dont know all the details because i havent read it in full, but wataru offers eichi one of his theater masks and eichi recognizes the gesture as wataru offering him all of himself, to be wholly known and understood. eichi accepts the mask and yeah you get the point theyre so in love its ridiculous

[unsleepingtales]

A lesson I have learned about myself in the past few months is no matter where in the world I am I will make time for fantasy high!

Greetings from Not Home, my sleep schedule is absolutely fucked. Without further ado let’s dive right into episode 18 (!!)

So. Picture the ocean.

Burth Bakarath <3

Yeah the fact that they’re allowed to hold the election off of school grounds is still wild to me

Oh my god MURPH came up with Gerard Neigh???? Love him so bad

Happy Birthday Me And Congratulations President Applebees

Ooh okay so they’re trying to get the nightmare king to fuck with the ship?

Sprak!

I love ship stats!!!!

As the birthday boy/most popular kid in school ☺️

The bad boys are steering the ship!!

I love the dynamic of the Most Powerful Girls In The World and The Coolest Guys

Hey guys be nicer to Jawbone please

K2 was such a gift to Ally

! My stepdad lives on a houseboat !

(Lou making panicked flailing sounds)

Emily. Fully making matcha.

I’m gonna do a full matcha ceremony!! It always makes the meth go down smooth!!!

What the fuck is happening guys. Am I out of it or is this just unhinged.

Classic back of house actions

I’m SO glad that Fight Me In The Sky is an enduring bit

ASO reference??

Take one and pass it on!

Oh my god look at the little party lights on the Hangman mini!! It’s so nice!!

There’s always time for a weird jawbone story!

Cmon mannnnn

We were all rooting for you!

Beautiful. Majestic. BAM.

Ooh what does Zac’s shirt say?? It’s blocked by the cloud. World Oyama something

I know it’s huge actually but the teeny tiny dragon mini is so cute

Yeahhh let’s keep it voting!

Murph’s hair looks very nice!

Zac’s shirt says World Oyama Karate!

What does knocked prone mean in this situation

Oooh Adaine had silvery barbs now!

Zac just Lives in crit city now

Gorgug Thistlespring the man you ARE…..

Keelhaul the fucking dragon hell yes

Thank fuck for uncanny dodge

Aaaaaaaa gorgug

And there’s the shot from the trailer!

We’re actually being attacked by dragons, we’re just making it fun!

I am trying to scroll tumblr as I watch the episode and I am fighting for my fucking LIFE to not get the Beardsley wild moment spoiled

Ayda!!!

‘Remember when we died?’ Oh you two are best friends who died together <3

Even the dragons look afraid

The nightmare king!!!!

Oh that hand is so coooool

Damage thresholds are so great

Oooooohoho Eugenia love you

Ain’t no party like a seacaster party cause a seacaster party blows up!!

I’m so glad that Riz likes his teacher now

I’ll be nearby! But I Have To Go

Steve Kornacki mention !

Have they guaranteed that everyone at the party is voting for Kristen? That’s just a given at this point?

I love the rain animation so much but it is kind of distracting unfortunately

Adaine Abernant PARTY WIZARD

Oh FUCK

God they keep saying Gerard and it keeps catching me off guard.

Solo Baxter? No Sandra Lynn?

“(mouth full of almonds) Oh my fucking god” cc writers ilyyyy

Zac was that to the tune of grandma got run over by a reindeer

They work together so well!!!!

I love Eugenia’s energy

I am gonna have it dissolve her. If it works.

She’s going to Hudol! She’s going steady with Perceval!

Literally 50/50 odds but we all know how this is gonna go

Zac fully dming this moment is beautiful

She might be pregnant??

You had your chance, and what you did was say blimey

She extrudes through time back to… England.

Heyyyy tornado!!!

Yeah how do you go back to plot after that

Oh fuck!

Oh god the editing for the sneak peek for next week was fantastic

[safic4-m]

❤️‍🔥Lady Lesso

Pairing: Lady Lesso x Fem Lector

Author's Note: I honestly feel like Leonora is a little thing in need of affection, who just plays hard to get.

Word count: 859

~Master list~

One-shot

Wattpad

He who does not know his history is condemned to repeat it, but how can you know the history if it was erased from the mind of each person to forget that great tragedy. Many years ago there was a villain with enough power to put an end to good and evil and sincerely did not hesitate to do so.

Except that when she destroyed everything, there was no one, everyone had died because of what she did so she decided to remedy things by returning everything to normal and make each person forget about her existence, because although she was a villain she could not stand the idea of having ended all those lives, so many innocent people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Opting to stay away from society so that you would never hurt anyone again.

You had been living all this time in a small cabin in the middle of the forest where you had the opportunity to connect with the earth and exist in perfect harmony.

The rumor about the destruction of good and evil had reached every person in this place so you had chosen to leave your retreat to investigate what had really happened. Thanks to your great power you managed to live all this time maintaining a youthful appearance, doomed to maintain stability between good and evil.

But you were surprised to realize that both schools had united, there was no more rivalry, they were in harmony with each other, so there was no reason for you to be there, you could return to your hut avoiding interactions with the rest of the world.

Unfortunately before you could leave you ran into a rather attractive, curly-haired red-haired woman with a dark aura about her.

-I'm not supposed to be in class,- says the woman with a touch of arrogance.

-I don't think so, besides I was on my way out, Reader,- walking past her, but being stopped by a strong grip on your wrist.

-Excuse me?- referring to the term you called her with.

-You're excused,- flashing a smirk.

The woman pulls you by the wrist and leads you around the academy to the dungeon, chaining you to a chair.

-I would enjoy this if it were in a different situation and you were the one chained to this chair,- you say with a sly smile.

-Who are you?

-The question is who are you Leonora?,- you say in a rather deep voice.

-How do you know my name?- you ask with annoyance.

-I know everything honey, and please don't play the bad guy with me,- sounding condescending, -because you have no idea who you're messing with,- seeing her take an axe.

-That's for me to decide,- standing behind you and putting the blade of the weapon on your neck.

Suddenly you disappear leaving the handcuffs on the chair and reappear behind Lesso with a knife on her neck.

-I warned you my dear,- sensing the woman's fear.

You take some distance letting her regain her composure.

-I am T/N/C better known as "The Mind Flayer"-seeing the surprise written all over her face.

-I thought I wasn't real, just a fairy tale to scare the ever

-You're wrong, I'm very real, but no one remembers anything about me,- walking around the place.

-Why?- she questioned confused.

-I made everyone forget, I killed innocent people because of my thirst for power,- passing your finger over the edge of a sword, -I just came to find out what happened here,- turning your attention back to the woman.

-Rafal,- she says as if that explains everything.-Of course,- you say sarcastically.

You run your hand along one of the walls and images of what happened in the place come to you.

-Even though I enjoyed our BDSM game I have to go and if anything happens again call me,- leaving behind a ring of a black sun, you say sarcastically.

There was something about her that you found charming, but you couldn't fall in love, love only makes you weak and you couldn't allow that.

- - - - -

You wake up suddenly when you hear someone calling your name, you turn to look around without finding anything, you hear your name again this time recognizing the voice. You find yourself in a vintage gothic style room but your attention goes straight to the woman writhing on the bed.

-Please Rafal," she pleads as she sobs.

It breaks your heart to see the woman in this state, she looks so small and vulnerable, as she is tormented in her dreams, hearing your name come from her lips brings you back to reality, pulling you closer to her.

-Shh...it's okay honey, you're safe,- running your hand through her hair, calming her mind with your power.

The woman starts to wake up, startled by your presence.

-What are you doing here?

-You called me,- you answer giving her a smile.

-I'm so sorry,- wiping her tears aggressively.

-You have to apologize,- not knowing what to do next.

You wanted to hold her in your arms and tell her that everything was going to be alright, that you were there to protect her from whatever.

-Well...I'm leaving,- leaving the woman alone before saying something you shouldn't have said.

-Stay,- she says to the nothingness, feeling alone again.

[meimi-haneoka]

I am so sorry that I haven't been responding to your articulate and kind answers to my asks. Honestly, my professional as well as personal life in the last month and a half had been a complete mess (it would be more appropriate to call it a tragicomedy at this point) but I had been wrapped up in my exams even though I had tried to keep myself up to date with the announcements. From what I understand, no news of season 2 of CCS CC anime, right? In any case, it does seem that patience would be the best virtue for now. Sigh. On the other hand, I have come across some screenshots of a CCS CC mobile game from a few years back. From what I gathered, it had a scene where Syaoran teases Sakura by saying cheesy romantic stuff in English and then refusing to translate it for her. Lmao. This guy. I am beginning to see shades of Horitsuba's Syaoron and TRC's Li Tsubasa in him. Look at this formerly grumpy little brat being all sly and flirty. Plus I also saw screenshots of elementary school age Syaoran with Fujitaka at the latter's home, presumably discussing archaeology with interest and Sakura serving them sweets and mostly smiling indulgently from a distance. I really want to know the context of this one. Fujitaka and Syaoran's bond was one of my fave in TRC and to watch them in CCS, bonding over archaeology despite the different contexts and origins of this interest in this world would be a joy. You just know that Fujitaka's greatest fanboy is going to be his son in law. (Also, is it just me or is Li Tsubasa more of an anthropologist, like the cultural anthropology kind, than an archaeologist like Syaoran?)

Dear Aubretia, you don't need to apologize! I also don't always feel mentally available, or have time to answer to asks, so I might take some days too! But your comments and asks are always welcome here, whenever you feel like it!! I hope your situation got better in the meantime! 🙏

Yep, April 1st didn't bring any anime S2 news aside from CLAMP confirming in a Space that an announcement might take some more time, but it is surely on the way: now everything is basically left in Kodansha's hands, to make that announcement.

Ohohoh I know very well what you're talking about! The legendary (and defunct) Happiness Memories mobile game! I played that game myself for the one year it lasted, and sometimes I was literally shocked at how pertinent and relevant that game was to the anime (but also manga) storyline...so much that I wondered more than once if Ohkawa wasn't a ghostwriter for it or something... For example, in the game you could play a "photo story" where Akiho practiced with Kaito her introduction for her first day of school at Tomoeda...it was very sweet but I thought it was just "an invention" of the developers of the game... But when the two Drama CDs came out with the Special Edition of volume 7 and 8 of the manga, I was shocked to realize that Ohkawa wrote a line for Akiho where she recounts her first day of school to Kaito, and she says "I was able to greet everyone in Japanese, just like I had been practicing!" <- just like in the game!!! That felt too much of a coincidence (in a CLAMP thing?? coincidences don't exist!!) to me, so I lowkey consider whatever happens in that game "canon"! 😁

I had made some threads on my Twitter account, back then! And I remember I translated some of the content of that SyaoSaku Happiphoto here!!

I also remember the one about Fujitaka and Syaoran, I mentioned it in my Trivia post about all the literary references, because in that photostory Fujitaka mentions a particular book to Syaoran while talking about archeology...but unfortunately I didn't get to play that photostory, so I don't know many details about it!! But yes, I totally agree that Fujitaka's biggest fanboy will be his son in law (and this reminds me we didn't get an interaction between them in Clear Card!! This is totally one of those things they can feature in the anime, though! 😁)

Hmmm for Tsubasa and Syaoran, yes, it might be like you say! And it would make sense because despite one is the clone of the other, they are two different people and had different experiences, even their personality is sliiightly different!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

hello I don't understand, like homophobia and racism, etc. in the twst fandom? :00 Did a problem happens? I'm not aware ;-; or I didn't realize it idk, could you tell me what happened, maybe you know something because the truth is that until now I haven't seen anything that rare :'v

[Referencing this post!]

I'm not 100% sure if that Anon was referring to specific incidents, but these things do occur (especially the larger the fandom). You're just statistically more likely to encounter "rotten apples" if the pool of fans is larger to begin with.

I'll do my best to list some examples that happened through the years, though again I don't know for certain what events the Anon was referencing.

In the initial ask, the Anon refers to this hatred being directed at their favorite TWST content creators. I'm sad to say this, but I've witnessed far too much of it, both personally and directed toward my peers. The most common and far-reaching example I can think of is that some fans push the concept of "female Yuu" rather than accepting that any Yuu is possible, which inflames fans that don't identify as female. A lot of fan content also caters to females over fans elsewhere on the gender spectrum. This has led to a lot of feelings of alienation and feeling like the fandom doesn't accept anyone that doesn't conform to the majority. In one extreme case, an artist was told that a TWST character would never love their OC because that OC 1) was a guy too and 2) had dark skin. However, when non-female identifying fans defended themselves, some took this to be “discriminating against female OCs/fans”, which only further heightened tensions.

There's been plenty of harassment too 💦 mostly over ships (ah… ship wars, a staple in fandoms 😔). Some fans get overly possessive of their favorites and go around telling others they aren't "allowed" to like those characters or to ship their OC with that character. There are also some popular TWST ships that are immensely popular, and simply saying that you don't care for it gets you marked as a "hater" and relentlessly harassed. (This, unfortunately, happened to various mutuals and friends of mine.)

Another issue that happens a lot is accusations of plagiarism or copying just due to how popular OC culture is in the TWST fandom. A lot of times, fans will create characters “twisted” from Disney inspirations, which leads to a lot of overlap in powers, personalities, and backstories. However, I don’t think everyone realizes this and tends to point fingers at each other. Genuine plagiarism does happen, but people are just way too quick to jump the gun about it.

On the subject of OCs, sometimes there is a heated situation because someone makes an OC from a culture they don’t understand or don’t make an effort to understand. Thus, the culture is watered down or used for just the aesthetic. This, quite understandably, offends people from the culture that is being misrepresented.

Lastly 💦 this isn’t something I like to talk about often, but as I mentioned before, I, too, have been harassed. It was over something very minor too (saying that I don’t like a particular character). This led to about a year of anonymous asks demanding if I “liked [character] now” or “what do you think of [character] now” every time new content was released, as well as sometimes up to 6 long asks a DAY (from the same individual) defending that boy. They would gaslight my understanding of the game and its characters, talk down to me and other people and characters’ intelligence, and claim I didn’t “understand” him yet because if I did then I would actually like him. Every time I blocked the harassment, they would return on alts or pretend to be new people “discovering” my blog for the first time before continuing the asks. It really took a toll on my mental health and it’s a part of the reason why I am more hesitant to do creative writing for the public or to entertain certain asks these days.

I hope those were sufficient enough to give you an idea of what the original Anon was talking about. As I said in the original post, it’s best to find a group of friends to enjoy this content with. The fandom on a larger scale is so much scarier 😔 We’re all here in the fandom to just have have fun and enjoy cute boys and a magic-filled world, so I wish we could all get along a bit more 😅

vhbn

plagarism

clarifying lore about vil defending his actions

tracism

possessive of characters and defending them poorly or reacting badly when people say thy don' like ships.

[arcplaysgames]

slurps tea loudly

okay as I recap this I am gonna try to navigate my emotions

Oh its the Fortune Arcana boss from Persona 3 but not as good! But the whole point is Sae's cheating anyway so it's not supposed to be fair or fun, that's fine. After proving she's cheating, she turns into her monster form.

She looks like if the SAW movies were a person, jesus christ.

Anyway, lets get to the meat of the situation; the big escape.

Even though Sae's treasure was stolen and the Palace Ruler has been defeated, the casino is not coming apart like normal. (Which is because the treasure they're taking is a decoy, but more on that later.)

And finally we return to the cold open, which admittedly: I fucking loved this. I love that nothing is changed at all, it's just the same sequence again, but now you have context for what the fuck is happening. Now the face the player can use their persona makes sense, now the presence of shadows in a 'real' location makes sense, everything comes together.

No matter how I fall on my opinion on this game, I have been convinced that Joker is the best protagonist of any of these games. With the unfortunate exception to the lack of Gay Options he gets, he is an enormous improvement from P4MC in every metric. I know who this character is, even absent my own input, and he's weird and funny and kind of a huge bitch and salty as the Dead Sea.

Huge fan.

This sequence becomes such a victory lap. Like, I'm still figuring out how I feel about the Whole Thing, but this moment of handing the player control and going "Hey, remember this?" and letting them fucking RACE to the end in the hopes of finally figuring out what the fuck is going on, it's a pretty clever trick. /slow claps for the devs

It's still fucking weird that Kasumi is here tho.

Also: Kasumi has the worst mask of everyone in this game by far. Every time i see it I wanna give her literally anything else.

I do wonder if its a Bebop reference. Oh well.

In the present, Sae offers Reverie a plea deal if he gives her the other Thieves. No go.

His beat-up face is so soft and sad, I just wanna hug him close. He needs a bag of peas against his cheek and a hug from dad so bad.

holy shit the fucking pancakes. Morgana was the one demanding pancakes when the team was talking in the hallway before the studio recording and Akechi walked in saying he heard something about pancakes. He couldn't have heard that unless he'd been to the Metaverse before. He's always known what Morgana's saying from the moment everyone met.

HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT

That's really fucking smart honestly. Like, I sussed out Akechi because I'm the audience and I know tropes and story structure so it absolutely had to be Akechi. (Also there were a lot of other hints.) But I'm happy there was a hard piece of evidence for the characters that was more concrete than "have you MET him, he's a murderer."

As everyone and their dog guessed, when Futaba grabbed Akechi's phone, she slapped one of her wiretaps on there. That part's easy.

After that is where things get tricky.

The last thing Reverie does as Sae leaves the room is convince her to take his phone with her and to show it to Akechi.

I am completely convinced that no one in this game has met the real Goro Akechi. Not Sae, not Shido, not anyone. That facade is made of four layers of reinforced cement and the windows are all mirrored glass. He's kind of the inversion of Adachi, who looked like there wasn't a since thought bouncing around in his vacant gaze. Akechi is nothing but loud thoughts, but the container is soundproofed.

Also, it occurs to me right here that someone is directing Akechi, someone has a hand on that leash, and I wanna know what the hell keeps Akechi from spinning around and killing that guy.

Anyway, Sae shows Akechi the phone, he's like ?????? whatever? and they part ways.

Akechi waltzes in, deep-sixes the guard with his own gun, and shoots Reverie in the head.

Your hair has never looked worst, Beige Boy.

"A TRULY SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS," MEMBER OF LEOPARDS EATING PEOPLE'S FACES PARTY SAYS AFTER LEOPARD SHOCKINGLY EATS HIS FACE.

Out of images.

[defectivegembrain]

So generally I'm of the unpopular opinion that season four of Community is pretty good actually. Like I like most of the episodes in it, and it's definitely better than seasons five and six. But one part where you can really feel the absence of Dan Harmon is in some of the portrayal of Abed. Like, say what you want about that man, but an actual autistic person is important to writing an autistic character.

Like this is the season where you get Abed describing himself as "emotionless" (while literally displaying emotions). You get Troy of all people saying he has "no emotional hangups" (which is the only part of Basic Human Anatomy I dislike). And then there's fucking Conventions of Space and Time.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the episode. It's funny and sweet for the trobed content, and the detail put into the convention is really cool. But first of all, we get Troy hiding that he's sleeping with Britta because Abed's "fragile"? I mean he can't be both fragile and free of emotional hangups, make up your mind. But it's out of character for Troy to be condescending like that. Anyone else I would buy doing that. But Troy?

More than that, I feel somewhat uncomfortable about the Toby thing? We get another character who's supposed to be neurodivergent, probably autistic, but he's...like that. He's a caricature of the worst autistic nerd guys with their heads up their asses about it. And they do exist, it's just...coming from most likely allistic writers (I am speaking generally, obviously I do not know their individual situations) and being the only rep apart from Abed...it feels off. Especially since Abed acts more like that around him.

Toby refers to neurotypicals in a derogatory way (and also I really would not put Troy in that category but that's another thing lol). He talks about them getting distracted by "marriage, kids, competitive cooking shows"...as if any of those are things autistic people can't be interested in?

Abed ultimately does not take the bullshit, but his counter argument is just as grating. "Maybe all relationships are made up of logical inspectors and emotional constables, and we need both to make space and time a better place."

Like. First of all, that has the unfortunate (I'm guessing and hoping unintended) implication that autistic people somehow can't have relationships with each other, and need an allistic person to make it work? Which, uh, no.

And then also uses this weird stereotype that all autistic people are logical and unemotional. Which is bullshit both irl and in the fictional situation being addressed. Toby is a guy who decided that someone was his soulmate based on an email and decided to hold that person captive when he refused to go live with him immediately. That's definitely not logical.

And while Abed can be logical about some things, he's also, you know, a guy who thinks he can predict his future using a bunch of cardboard tubes and would have gotten his legs broken for debts if left to his own devices. And hallucinates when he feels abandoned. Like he is full of emotion and impulses and all that does not actually contradict the ways he tries to systematically analyse things and be practical in other ways. It all fits together, that kind of nuance is how people are, including autistic people. And all that existing in the same person is one of the best things about his character and just...someone in the writing process did not get that.