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just-jordie-things · 6 months

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the subject of every photo - fushiguro megumi

word count: 5,555 (i'm so proud of that) warnings: swearin' summary: a photoshoot at the pumpkin patch isn't his ideal day, but at least megumi gets to spend time with you. and maybe he'll take a few pictures anyway. (a/n): really delayed pumpkin themed fic with the softest boy but i needed to write this ok a greater power called upon me to do it

___

“It’ll be fun!” Nobara had claimed, although her tone was more threatening than bubbly. “It’s just a little photoshoot at a pumpkin patch, why so gloomy about it?”

And it wasn’t that Megumi was gloomy about it, because he wasn’t. It would be immature to pout about a simple hangout among friends. The thing was… he just didn’t care for the whole pumpkin patch thing that really seemed to take off on instagram and tiktok these last few years.

He hadn’t carved a pumpkin since he was just a tot, and even then he’d only done it to satisfy Gojo’s bonkers need to participate in every holiday tradition. He never particularly liked scooping the guts and seeds out, and as a kid wasn’t decent enough with a blade to carve a face that actually looked interesting. Not to mention, it was always chilly in late October, making it insufferable to wander around outside solely to pick out a big orange vegetable.

Really, if he wanted a pumpkin that bad, he would’ve picked out a discount one from the grocery store. But really, he didn’t want a pumpkin.

Nonetheless, Nobara had bought four disposable cameras— which he didn’t know were even still a thing— told everyone to wear their cutest, coziest outfit, and pretty much demanded they all go spend the afternoon at one of the more popular farms in town. As with most plans, Megumi begrudgingly agreed.

Even under three layers— his coat, his sweater, and the long sleeved tee he wore underneath them both— the crisp air still pricked at his skin and left goosebumps in it’s wake. It was hard to enjoy being out here when he was fighting the urge to shiver.

“It’s pretty cold for this, huh?”

Megumi wipes away the resting bitch face he’d been making, opting instead for as much neutrality as he could muster. He turns to (y/n), only to find her peering up at him from behind her little plastic camera. His brows wrinkle.

“Don’t take a picture of me at that angle”

He puts his hand over the lens and pushes it away before she could even think about snapping the photo, and she chuckles a bit at his boyish antics. He almost cracks a smile when she’s peeking up at him with her cheeks tinged pink from the cold. He squashes it before his lip could curl too far.

“Well what side do you prefer then?” She teases, shifting around to stand before him and raising her shitty little camera again. “Full portrait? Or perhaps a side profile?”

Megumi rolls his eyes, but when he starts to walk away, she’s quick to follow. He doesn’t dislike her company.

Nobara is off farther in the field, ordering Yuuji to pick up as many pumpkins as he can for the perfect picture. It was only a matter of time before she came over and started barking at the two of them to make the perfect poses as well.

“So why do you hate pumpkin patches?” (y/n) breaks their silence, but when he turns to her again, she’s fixing her camera on a sparrow pecking away at a less than ripe pumpkin.

“I don’t hate pumpkin patches,” He replies, but even he has to admit the dryness in his voice makes it seem a bit unbelievable. “It’s just…” He glances at her out of the corner of his eye, but he’s quick to straighten his gaze when he finds her full attention on him now. “Cold” He finishes, lamely, but it’s not untrue.

He fiddles with the plastic camera in his hands.

“Yeah,” (y/n) agrees from beside him. “Would’ve been nice to do this a few weeks ago, when it was still sunny”

Megumi nods back at her, unsure of what else to say.

He hoped that they weren’t doomed to only speak about the weather today. However that meant he’d probably have to put the effort in to change the subject. His palms began to sweat.

It was their day off, so he didn’t want to strike up a conversation about work, and preferably he’d like to avoid the subject of sorcery altogether. So that narrowed down the options by a lot.

He knew that like him, she liked to read. But she was more into the fantasy stuff, and the only book off the top of his head he could make conversation about was The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and he was fairly certain that wasn’t currently on her shelf.

Was it always this hard or was he just overthinking it?

“Wait, stay right there!”

Before he can suck it up and ask how her most recent assignment went, (y/n’s) throwing her arms up at him to make him freeze in place. Megumi startles at the sudden movement and holler, but he listens and stays put while she backs up a few steps.

“The sun is peeking out,” She explains, before steadying her camera in front of her face. “The lighting is great” She says with a grin, and then without warning, she snaps the photo.

Megumi wants to complain, he didn’t even have time to smile or pose or anything. When that picture got printed, he’d just be a guy standing there, probably with a resting bitch face. Nobara wouldn’t be happy.

But (y/n’s) still grinning as she lowers the camera.

“Too bad we gotta wait so long to see ‘em,” She says as she heads back towards him. “It’d be nice to—”

“Stop moving”

He’s more blunt than she is, already lifting his camera and peeking through the small lens. (y/n) gets the hint and retraces her steps to fit properly in the frame.

“Better?” She asks, tossing her hair over her shoulder dramatically before posing with a bright smile.

Megumi snaps the photo without warning, although he’s sure that this one will turn out much better than the one she’d taken of him. For one, she’s smiling, but he’s also certain that she’s much more photogenic than he is.

She’s at his side again as they wander around the patch, fiddling to fit the camera into the pocket of her coat. It takes him a few minutes to find his courage again, but eventually Megumi clears his throat and tries to spark conversation.

“Gojo used to take a million pictures of me and Tsumiki”

That seems to be exactly the right thing to say, because (y/n’s) entire demeanor lights up as she looks up at him with wide eyes.

“Really?” She laughs softly at the mental picture. “Did he keep, like, photo albums and stuff?”

“Oh yeah,” Megumi snorted, recalling the rows of photo books on the living room bookshelf when he was young. “Dozens, at least. It was like he couldn’t commit a thing to memory, always had to document everything”

When he was young, it was obnoxious to always have a camera shoved in his face. Now though, he wonders if the crazy bastard still had those albums.

“That’s sweet,” (y/n) muses, wandering off a bit to check out a display of gourds, all varying in shapes and colors. “I bet there’s tons of embarrassing ones of you, too” She teases.

Megumi doesn’t give her an answer, instead silently watching as she picks up a large green vegetable with a curly top. She holds the long end in her hand, before turning to face Megumi with the plump end out, holding it like it was a very deformed gun.

He rolls his eyes at the joke, but just as she looks away, he snaps a photo.

(y/n) seems to not even notice, setting the gourd back on the display and turning back to Megumi to continue their conversation.

“Was he a scrapbook mom?”

He chuckles, and he wants to deny it, but he can’t. Even if he tried he thinks she’d see through it with how he smiles with all of his teeth. She’s laughing before he even explains.

“He made one scrapbook, ever,” He tells her. “And you have to swear to never tell them this,” He adds quickly. (y/n) doesn’t have to ask to know who he means, and she simply drags her thumb and forefinger over her lips as if to zip them up. “It took him weeks. I think the kitchen table was covered in all of his crafts for a solid month”

“You’re kidding!” She laughs louder, loving the image of her mentor hunched over a table while he glued down photos and ribbon to pretty sheets of paper.

“I wish I was. I think it’s why he only ever made one,” Megumi shrugged. “But it’s… a lot. Every sheet was three dimensional. The spine of the scrapbook was stretched so wide the thing couldn’t even sit flat”

He knows that all of the pictures in that book would be embarrassing now. Gojo liked to document every first— first day of school, first science project, first A+, along with more ridiculous milestones, like when Megumi chopped all of his hair off in the fifth grade and looked ridiculous. If he remembered correctly, Gojo glued that hair in the book too, as if it were his baby hairs. That scrapbook really should be burned, but a part of him wishes he could show her now, just to prove how messy it really is.

“I’d do anything to get my hands on it,” (y/n) sighed, almost as if she could read his mind. “My parents did some stuff like that, but they certainly weren’t obsessive”

“Obsession is all he knows” Megumi mumbles, and he doesn’t mean to be funny, but she laughs, and it makes his chest feel warm.

“I still think it’s sweet,” She assures him, and then she stops in their slow and aimless walk, kneeling down to tie the shoelaces on her boot. Megumi waits beside her. He cared much more for her company than he did seeing the pumpkin patch. “He probably just wanted to save lots of memories of you guys when you were little. All parents say it goes by fast”

She goes to tie the other boot, and Megumi can only stand there in soft surprise. Sure, deep down he always considered Gojo his parent, because he simply just was. But no one else referred to their relationship that way, the others always called him teacher or mentor. But (y/n) must’ve understood that it was more than that.

He’s pulling his camera out again and stealing another quick picture while she was still focused on her shoes.

When she stands, he’s got the camera tucked back into his pocket and an innocent look on his face.

“Want to take a picture over there?” She asks, pointing to the tower of hay bales set up mostly for photos. Originally it was for children to climb and play on, but it’s purpose was far more often served as a posing station.

Megumi simply nods, and follows her as she races over the tower. It shouldn’t have surprised him when she started climbing the thing right away. Surely Nobara had been over here earlier, striking a pose with one hand on her hip and the other on the stack of hay, but not (y/n), who was almost to the top.

“You’re not gonna fall, right?” Megumi asks unsurely as she’s grabbing at the highest bale.

“I’m a trained athlete!” She shrieks back, clearly offended.

“I’m more worried about you destroying the play area” Megumi retorted, his lip curling upwards against his will. He can’t help but take a picture before she’s settled. Her hair’s a mess and her limbs are everywhere as she tries to steady herself on the wobbling tower, but it’s a perfect picture nonetheless.

“This is great!” She shouts back at him, before stretching her hands above her head. “Take my photo like this!”

It’s silly, it’s childish, but Megumi’s laughing to himself as he snaps a couple.

Somehow she manages to climb down without toppling the entire thing, and they quickly make their way across the pumpkin patch before an employee could scold them for being grown adults playing on the children’s setup.

Megumi finds it easier to talk with her the longer they walk around, aimlessly eyeing pumpkins without committing to picking any out, taking photos here and there, but mostly they just wander around and talk. Yuji and Nobara seem so wrapped up in the full on photoshoot they were having with each other that it could seem like they’d completely forgotten the other pair, but Megumi didn’t mind one bit.

Hang outs never turned out like this. Nobara tended to cling to (y/n) like a lifeline. She was always dragging her off to the next boutique on the strip or game in the arcade or exhibit at the museum— wherever they went, it seemed as soon as Megumi would get a minute of alone time with her, Nobara would steal her away. It was deflating, but he couldn’t be mad, they were best friends after all.

Today was like a gloomy day miracle. He almost felt spoiled having the last half hour with her all to himself. All of her laughter and smiles were only for him. It warmed up his chilled hands until soon, even the breeze wouldn’t make him shiver.

(y/n) didn’t appear to have the same effect, shaking like a leaf every time the wind picked up. She always shrank into the collar of her coat and shoved her hands into her pockets, and after a few times, Megumi couldn’t stand to see her freezing.

“Let’s go inside for a bit,” He nodded his head towards the small shop. (y/n) pouted back at him, before glancing around the pumpkin patch, clearly looking for their friends. “They won’t be upset that we went inside because we’re cold,” Megumi chuckles to himself, before gently pushing his hand against the small of her back so that he’d follow her. “I’ll text Itadori” He adds for good measure.

After a moment of hesitation she agreed and walked along with him, but just slow enough that he left his hand on her lower back. Just because it was nice to be so close to him.

Stepping into the shop was an instant rush of fresh warm air, and she finally felt like she could stretch her fingers. There was a small bakery inside with only a couple of tables, but without anyone else inside it was perfectly quaint to warm up in.

“I’m going to order a hot chocolate, do you want anything?”

The offer was sweet, but she’s already making her way to the counter, set on a mission as soon as the alluring smell of apples and cinnamon wafted past her nose.

“I could go for a coffee” Megumi hummed as he followed.

He’s ordering for the both of them as soon as a clerk arrives behind the counter, two drinks along with the enormous bear claw in the glass case that (y/n) hadn’t torn her eyes away from since stepping up to the counter. She tries to fight him when he pulls out his wallet but he’s faster at tapping his card to the reader than she is at hitting him.

Even once they sit down with their drinks and the pastry that takes up most of the table space between them, she argues with him about the payment, and all he can do is shake his head— and maybe smile to himself just a little bit. After realizing arguing is futile, she decides that as long as he eats some of the bear claw, she can forgive him.

And they continue to chat, about dumb things, about nothing, about everything. Megumi learns all about the book series that she is reading, along with her plans for getting promoted faster, and that her dream pet is a sugar glider.

“That’s ridiculous,” He mumbles through a mouthful of almond paste and cinnamon. “When would you ever have the time to take care of something like that?”

“That’s why it’s a dream pet, dummy,” (y/n) rolls her eyes at him. “Doesn’t have to be realistic. Don’t you have a dream pet?”

“I kinda already have a lot of pets”

“Oh, right,” She laughs to herself, and he thinks he can see a hint of a blush dusting over her cheeks. Was she embarrassed? He wasn’t sure exactly. But it was really cute. “Well if there’s ever a sugar glider shikigami, please summon it for me” She tells him in all seriousness, and Megumi bites his tongue as he agrees to the condition immediately.

He pulls out his camera for the tenth time that day and rests his elbows on the table as he brings it to his face. (y/n’s) eyes widen before she’s covering half her face with one hand.

“Are you taking a picture of me right now?” She hisses anxiously, before shaking her head at him.

“Duh” He mutters out as he tilts forward and back, trying to find just the right angle of lighting.

“I’m eating—”

“So? Not like you have food on your face. Hush. Go back to eating or something”

“I am not letting you take a picture of me while I eat”

“Alright then just sit there then”

She’s grabbing her paper cup of hot cocoa to use as a shield, but it’s too late. Megumi clicks the button and she can hear the soft whirring coming from inside the camera.

The lens cuts to black and Megumi pulls the camera away, eyeing the little roll of numbers next to the lens.

“I’m out already,” He says, tossing it onto the table. “Guess I win”

(y/n) laughs to herself.

“I didn’t know this was a competition,” She takes a sip of her warm beverage before setting it back down. “But I can’t believe you finished before me”

“How many do you have left?”

Curiously, (y/n) pulls the camera out of her pocket and eyes the tape with the amount of film left. She frowns as she looks back up at him.

“Just one,” She answers, and her frown tilts into a small, soft smile before she asks, “Do you want to take one together?”

___

Greedily, Nobara snatches the stack of freshly printed photos out of Megumi’s hands. (y/n) and Yuji are too busy sharing theirs with each other, and Nobara had been dying to know what photos Megumi and (y/n) had taken on their last outing. By the time the group had met up and gone home, their cameras were already full, and she knew she hadn’t been the subject of a single one of them.

“I swear Fushiguro if these are all dumb pictures of pumpkins, I’ll—”

But her threat falls short after sliding through the first three pictures.

The first was (y/n) on the path, just standing and smiling. It wasn’t special, there wasn’t even a pumpkin in the background, but it was cute.

The second was a picture of her crouched down and tying her shoe. Her face wasn’t even in the picture, her hair was hanging in front of it, but if you squinted you could barely make out the tip of her nose.

Then the third was another candid, where she was pretending to hold a gourd like a gun.

“What the—?”

Nobara flips through to the next one in the stack, and yet again there’s a candid of her climbing up the side of a hay bale tower. At least that one captured her smile. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see the fifth one in the stack was also of (y/n), this time sitting on top of the haystack victoriously

“You’ve got to be kidding me, dude”

“Okay give them back—!” Megumi tries to grab the stack of pictures from Nobara before she could keep being nosey, but she deflects fast, swiveling to turn away from him and keep skipping through the photos.

He shouldn’t have let her get her hands on them to begin with, but it was too late now. If he caused too big of a scene, Yuji and (y/n) would notice. He didn’t exactly want all of his pictures on display.

So Nobara kept flipping.

One was of her lifting up the tiniest of pumpkins— definitely the runt of the whole patch. It fit in the palm of her hand but she seemed delighted by it.

The next few were just of her walking around, nothing too exciting in the frame. Just the occasional pumpkin in the background.

There was a decent one taken from inside the shop. (y/n) was still in the frame but her back was turned as she eyed the glass case of sweets. Nobara could almost let Megumi off the hook for that one. Almost.

And then the last photo was of her laughing, the blurry image of a paper cup waving in the space beside her face. Her eyes are on the camera, so she must’ve known he was taking that picture, but judging by the surprise in her expression, it was easy to conclude she was trying to hide behind that cup.

Once she’d ogled every picture, Nobara finally turned back to Megumi. Her brows twitched and furrowed, lips parted in shock, not a single word spoken as she handed the stack back to him. It’s practically shoved towards him, but he doesn’t complain, just snatches them back as fast as he can.

He wants to find a way to quickly and discreetly ask her to keep this to herself, but before he can find the words, she’s gawking at him again.

“Every single one?” Nobara asks in a mutter.

“We hung out the whole time, okay? It's not like—” Megumi tries to defend himself, but it’s no use. Nobara’s already speaking over him again.

“It’s almost pathetic, dude. Just ask her out like a normal person”

His brows almost raise to his hairline in shock. Here he thought she was about to call him out for being a creep or something. But no, her disgust only lied in his pathetic pining and lack of action. Maybe he should have assumed that already.

He doesn’t get the chance to say anything before Nobara’s marching over to Yuji and demanding to see his photos as well. Megumi’s left reeling from the whole interaction, the humiliation still lingering in his gut.

The feeling remains as (y/n) makes her way to him, her own fresh stack of photos in her hands. There’s a nervous sort of smile on her face as she glances back at Yuji and Nobara, double checking that they were out of earshot.

“They took that pretty seriously, huh?” Her voice was still low, careful not to draw the attention of their rambunctious friends. “Yuji takes great photos, don’t get me wrong. But I think she should pay him for his time”

There’s some relief in his chest when he cracks a smile, a small laugh coming out. He could only imagine the quality of Nobara and Yuji’s photos, certainly prepped for instagram.

“I bet she still puts filters over all of them” He mutters back, and (y/n) stifles a giggle behind her hand, but nods her head in agreement.

“Can we leave now or what?” Nobara calls out, already dragging Yuji by the arm to leave the store. “I want to get boba before home”

“Boba sounds good,” (y/n) agrees softly. “Let’s go”

As the red head continued to drag her friend despite him arguing that he was an adult who could walk by himself, she turned and aggressively whispered something to him. After her obvious threatening, she glances back at (y/n) and Megumi, which Yuji promptly follows her pointed glance. Suddenly after that he was upright and speed walking along with her.

(y/n) and Megumi share a baffled look as their friends so blatantly ditch them, but they don’t exactly pick up the pace to follow.

“So, did you get good photos?” Megumi asks, tucking his own away in his pocket. Foolishly, he hoped if they were out of sight she wouldn’t ask him about them.

“Oh,” (y/n) chuckles nervously, holding her stack of pictures in both hands. She tilts them towards herself so he can’t see, and Megumi raises a brow at the secrecy. “It’s kind of embarrassing, actually” She says sheepishly.

Her cheeks flood with color, and Megumi can’t help the curious grin that begins to stretch across his face.

“Embarrassing?” He repeats, sounding horrifically hopeful. (y/n) sighs, and sticks her arm out, handing him the stack. He’s quick to take them and start flipping through, eyeing her anxious demeanor in his peripheral vision.

“Yuji’s probably going to tell you anyway. But… they’re sort of all..”

His steps slow further after quickly sliding through the bunch of pictures.

The first was at the entrance of the pumpkin patch, with the cute sign with the family name painted on it, and just under it was him. He wasn’t paying attention, and quite frankly he looked rather bored standing there. She must’ve taken it while he was still pouting about having to go.

The next photo was of the sparrow poking at the rotted pumpkin, and he had to admit the way she captured it actually was sort of cute.

The third was the photo Megumi dreaded seeing. He recognized it as soon as he saw himself standing on the thin path of dirt. He grimaced as he looked closer to see just how bad it was. But to his surprise, he wasn’t scowling like he thought he’d been. He was actually smiling.

Which was odd… he certainly didn’t remember smiling for that picture. He clearly remembered being upset because he hadn’t tried to look nice for her picture at all.

He glances at (y/n) to gauge her reaction so far, but she was holding her expression at a neutral state, waiting for him to react first.

So Megumi goes back to the photos, and flips to the next one. Which was… also him. It wasn’t anything special, just him standing there, but he was smiling a little bit in that one, too.

When the following is also a candid of him with that dumb little smile, he glances over at (y/n) again, raising a brow at her in silent question.

She’s a tough one to crack, but the corner of her lips gives her away as she tries to bite back a smile. His own smile is unable to be hidden as he flips through a few more photos.

And to his shock and delight, they’re all him. Him while he was picking up that big pumpkin she dared him to, him while he was drinking his coffee and not paying attention, him just standing and doing nothing in particular, but for whatever reason, she’d used up all her film on capturing it.

His favorite is the one of the both of them. She’d given him the camera so he could stretch his arm out and snap the photo selfie style. They’re sitting at the small table, two paper cups and the enormous bear claw between them, but pushed aside as (y/n) leans across the tabletop in order to better center herself. She’s grinning from ear to ear, her chin set in one hand while the other holds up a peace sign. Megumi’s smile isn’t as wide but nevertheless it’s genuine, and anyone looking at the picture would know. It’s a great picture of the two of them, and he thinks it’s probably the first, too.

Megumi hadn’t realized he’d gone through the whole stack till he flips to the next one and is met with the first photo, but once he does, (y/n’s) quick to reach out and take them back. She doesn’t snatch them as aggressively as Nobara had, she handles them gently, careful not to leave an ugly smudge or crease.

Megumi watches with eager intrigue as she tucks the edges together neatly, making the stack smooth in her hands.

“Sorry if that’s creepy— is that creepy?” She turns to him suddenly, full of worry that she’d crossed a line, but Megumi just chuckles, and shakes his head at her.

“Not creepy” He muses, his soft smile remaining as he dips his hand into his pocket, retrieving his own small collection of photos.

He stares at them for an indecisive minute, clenching and unclenching his jaw, working up the courage to make the smallest of gestures. When he does hold them out to her, he still doesn’t say a thing. His throat is too dry and hot to even try. He thinks it would be worse if his voice cracked right now.

(y/n) smiles as she tucks her pictures away in her purse with great care so that she could better look through the pictures he’d taken. His face flushes with color when she finally takes them from him. Even the small brush of the tips of her fingers against his has Megumi’s breath catching in his throat.

And he holds his breath as she eagerly slides through the stack of photos. His throat is far too constricted now to show any sign of life. He very well could pass out at any moment. He just hopes she’d leave him there in a heap on the ground.

The relief of the exhale doesn’t come until she begins to giggle. It’s soft at first, almost under her breath as she continues admiring his photos, but then it erupts into something brilliant and bubbly, as if it was coming out of her uncontrollably. As lovely as the reaction was, it didn’t do much to ease Megumi’s nerves. They began to sink their teeth into his heart and gut, and he knew that any minute now, his knees would give out.

When her laughter calms down and she finally looks up at him, the surprise is evident on his features when he sees her colored cheeks and nervous smile. She hands the stack back to him, and Megumi’s quick to tuck them into his pocket, where maybe he they’d disappear forever, or at least just from the front of their minds.

“That’s pretty cute, huh?” She asks, an aftershock of quiet laughter shaking her shoulders and crinkling the corners of her eyes. This time, Megumi can’t help the way he laughs with her, but he does duck his head bashfully.

(y/n) thinks it’s all the more cuter, how he resorts to his nervous habit of rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but directly at her. She wonders if he even knows he’s doing it. With a surge of confidence, she rocks on her feet.

“Wanna ditch our friends and get lunch or something?”

He shrugs and nods, thinking anything would be better sustenance than the too-sugary drinks that Nobara had an addiction to. But the implication of the question dawns on him too late, and suddenly his eyes are widening as he realizes what she really meant.

“You mean— like, a date?”

It’s so damn cute the way his brows furrow and then raise ever so slightly, waiting without a single ounce of patience for her clarification. (y/n’s) giggling again as she nods her head, putting him out of his misery.

“Yeah, like a date,” She repeats teasingly.

Megumi nods his head again, this time faster, as if there was a time limit to her offer and he was worried he’d already wasted too much of it. Her smile brightens and there’s a small but noticeable skip in her step as they head off in a new direction together.

“Now maybe it won’t be so creepy when our friends see those pictures” She says, and Megumi can’t decipher if she’s messing with him or not. The look he gives her barely hides his panic.

“They’re gonna see them?”

“What do you think they’re talking about right now?” (y/n) retorts, knowing for a fact that Yuji and Nobara were gossiping away about the pair’s photos that consisted only of each other.

The thought makes Megumi’s face feel hot, and there’s no discretion in the way he tugs at his collar. The idea makes him nervous, his stomach flipping excessively. That said, he knew with the amount of gossip those two chatterboxes would generate, there was plenty of time to add a date to today’s agenda.

“They probably won’t even notice we’re gone”

(y/n) nods in agreement.

“They’ll be grateful to have the time for girl talk,” She teases.

With purpose, she steps closer to him so she could link her arm around his, tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow and shyly smiling up at him. Megumi returns the smile, his arm hooking a little further to keep her tucked next to him as close as he wanted. It was another chilly day outside, but he could almost forget about it with the way her closeness sparked warmth in his chest that flooded throughout his whole body. He hoped he’d get to do this for the rest of their day—

“So… where do we want to go?”

—and more days to come. ___

xoxo ~ jordie

#fushiguro megumi #fushiguro megumi x reader #megumi x reader #megumi fushiguro x reader #fushiguro megumi imagine #fushiguro megumi x reader fluff #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x reader fluff #jjk imagine #jujutsu kaisen imagine #megumi brainrot

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etoiile · 5 months

Text

CLINGY

starring suna rintaro!

synopsis: when suna pushes your hug off of him, it makes an insecurity grow.

notes: first time writing for hq! def very very ooc for him but wtv im working on it

your possibly biggest fear ever was being annoyingly clingy.

your main love language was physical touch, and you had a very clear way of showing your love and affection. any one of your friends could easily say, "yep, they're really clingy," because you were. you'd greet them excitedly with a hug, cuddle with them during movies, and sling an arm over their shoulders when sitting next to each other.

you knew that you were clingy, and it didn't bother you much. no one around you seemed to dislike it and you knew yourself how much you'd like it if someone paid that much attention to you. you felt most loved when you felt seen, and having someone shower you in hugs made you feel that way, so you did it to other people, to show them how special they were to you.

one of the things that came with being clingy, however, was fear. fear that even though it was something you knew you'd appreciate, it was something annoying to others. the last thing you ever wanted was for someone to find you annoying to be around. that sounded like an absolute nightmare.

so, when you surprised rin with a backhug and he stood there, not reciprocating your hug, and then gently shoved you off, telling you he wasn't in a good mood, not to bother him, and to please, "stop being like a fucking mosquito clinging onto him all the time," you could feel your body trembling as you quickly retreated, tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

when he later apologized to you, telling you he was sorry for lashing out at you, you accepted his apology, but the insecurity still lingered.

----

suna was in a great mood.

he'd done really well at practice today, they got let out early enough that the sun was still out and shining, and he practically skipped home at the thought of coming home to your arms.

he unlocked the front door and yelled an, "i'm home," as he pulled his shoes off and set his bag down. you came over to greet him and he found his body tingling with excitement, ready to grab onto you and hold you tight.

"welcome home, rin," you smiled warmly at him, but then turned around and went back to your laptop. he stood there, dumbfounded. what just happened?

he followed you suspiciously, wondering what was going on. you always greeted him with a hug. always. why were you being different today? had you simply forgotten? no, it doesnt work like that. you didn't forget, you chose not to. why?

"...is everything ok?" he asked hesitantly. you didn't seem to be in a bad mood, so why were you acting weird?

you looked up at him, confused. "yeah? why, is something wrong?"

"yeah." he replied, plopping down next to you. "with you."

you frowned, your heart beginning to beat faster. first, you had stopped yourself from throwing your arms around him, which you so desperately wanted to do, in order to be less annoying, but there was still something wrong? what did you do? how were you still annoying him?

"...what do you mean?" you asked, trying your best to mask the nervousness in your voice. you really, really, really didn't want to be annoying. you wanted to be someone rin wanted to be around, not someone who pissed him off when he spent time with you. you really did want to work on the things he didn't like, and improve yourself for him. you braced yourself for what he might say next, reminding yourself that you can't cry just because someone brings up an issue about you.

"you didn't give me 'welcome home' hug." he muttered a little sheepishly, rubbing the bag of his neck. he looked up at you, his hazel eyes making your body feel like jelly. "did i do something wrong?"

you could feel your lower lip trembling as you tried to stop it. "..no! no, of course not. i just...thought that after what you...said yesterday, you'd want some space! i know im clingy, so im gonna work on it, ok?" you mustered out, trying to keep a smile on your face.

suna's eyes widened. he'd lashed out at you yesterday, but he'd apologized for it already, so he thought that meant you knew he didn't mean it. plus, you two were people who joked around a lot and spewed random shit all the time. he knew you knew that, so he didn't think it was on your mind and he didn't think you you thought what he said was true, because it wasn't. at all.

though, seeing as how you were struggling to keep it together, and how you hadn't welcomed him home with a hug for the first time since moving in together, he realized his words had cut deeper than he realized.

"hey," he turned to completely face you. "look at me." he gently guided your chin to meet his eyes, as you were apparently very keen on looking everywhere but him, and forced you to look at him.

"what i said last night... i didn't mean it. at all. you know i love your affection, right? i was just in a bad, bad mood yesterday, and 'm real sorry i lashed out at you because of it. i know i might be shit at expressing it right, but i love you and your clingy ass so much, and i'm sorry if it didn't seem that way. i love your touch and affection, really."

and with that, all of the fear came rushing out of you in the form of tears, and you jumped onto rin as you held him tight, your heart soaring in relief when he did the same. embarrassed to be seen, you buried your face in his chest and just sniffled silently.

"...you really mean it?"

"yeah,"

"it's not annoying? 'coz i want you to tell me if it is, and i'll work on it. really."

"it's not,"

"...you're sure?"

"i'm sure."

you then wiped your tears and giggled as you peppered his neck with kisses, laughing more when he scrunched up from the ticklish sensation.

"i love you," you said, stopping your flurry of kisses for a minute.

he gave you a boyish grin that made you melt and ran his hand through your hair. "i love you too, doll."

𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐈𝐋𝐄 ©𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 please do not copy or repost my work on any other site. interactions appreciated! 🤍

#ami writes 💌#this is ... kind of bad HAHAHA #first hq fic so im working on it!#wrote this js to get the juices flowing coz im having a hard time w my rqs #trust my next hq work will be better. promise!!#haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu drabbles #suna fluff #suna x reader #suna drabble #suna imagines

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peachy-wolfhard · 2 months

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dating yuta okkotsu

a/n: wowzers more than one post a year??? also HAPPY BDAY YUTA LUB U BABYBOY

Warnings: swearing, sims death, yuta gets elbowed accidentally, a little angst

Word Count: 823

My literal bf

He's so in love

Heart eyes whenever someone even slightly mentions you

Yuta will be talking to someone and if they slightly mention something you like he starts rambling about how amazing you are and how much he loves you while blushing and borderline giggling and kicking his feet

He's so sticky too like anything you do he's right there like a shadow

Yuta is also really quiet when he is being your shadow so 99% of the time he ends up scaring you when you turn around

One time after a mission, you're nerves were still on edge and Yuta just happened to walk behind you and ended up getting an elbow to the eye (Rika beat ur ass sorry)

Yuta isn't that big of a gamer himself but he LOVES to watch you play the sims, especially if you made you and him

Speaking of the Sims ! Whenever Yuta is away for missions you always update him about what's going on

hi yu! Update ab our sims…OUR SON DIED HE DIED IN A FIRE IM SO SAD!!!!!! BUT ITS OK WE CAN MAKE A NEW ONE ;) wink wink anyway we moved to a farm and ITS HAUNTED. ok bye bye baby ilysm MWAH

VOICE MESSAGES!! Yuta can't get enough of them he loves sending them to you and he loves when you send them

yuta

“Hi honey, I just saw a really cute cat that reminded me of you. I swear it looked almost one hundred percent like you, not even joking…ok i gotta go bye i love you!”

Facetimes are another thing that is pretty regular. Its either you walking around campus showing him to all your friends or him show you around wherever he is

“Yuta, look at these freaks. They’re going crazy without you here…me too honestly”

“I know I'm losing my mind not being around you guys but especially you.”

Another thing he loves is sending random pictures to each other

*picture of yuta being cute*

y/n

OMG IM SOBBING MWAH MWAH IM GONNA EAT U I LOVE MY BOYFRIEND

*picture of you doing something*

yuta

Cries sobs screams throws up I MISS UUUUUUUUUU <333333 :333

ONE LAST THING

Yuta barely uses emojis, he's an emoticon boy :3

He always brings you presents back from wherever they send him

There's always a big dramatic reunion when he returns. Running into each other's arms, fake loud crying, one of you carrying the other (translation: you carrying Yuta) …the works

Nights after he gets home are very chill. Ordering take out and watching reality tv while just enjoying each other's company. Ending the night by cuddling each other to sleep

Yuta has a note in his notes app of EVERYTHING you like and dislike

Everytime you slightly mention something you like or dislike he makes a mental note to write it down

Even if he doesn't write something down, he memorized it. Remembers what kind of candy you like, what your favorite flowers are, your orders from take out and restaurants

While your guys relationship is lovely and amazing it does get hard sometimes with Yuta always being gone and you having missions and school

Going days without hearing from the other because the two of you are so stressed and busy then having to update each other all at once in one message then repeating the process

Trying to facetime each other but when he's in an entirely different timezone it's hard. You'll be almost asleep and his day is just starting

After a while it started to get to you, that your boyfriend was away for so long, you weren't able to see him, and when you were you had to prepare for him to leave just a few weeks after

Even though you were surrounded by your friends and teachers that love you, you felt so lonely

Finally you talked to him about it, about how all his traveling made you feel so alone and he agreed with you. That he too felt so alone (because most of the time he was) and that he just wanted to stay home for at least a year

Loves snuggling with you but only in private (Maki beat his ass)

Holds you so close at night to the point it feels like he's trying to get into your skin

Seems like the type to either wear minimal clothes to bed or pajama sets, no in between

Kicks the blankets off then curls up to you when he inevitably gets cold

Yes he's very sweet but he still likes to mess with you ESPECIALLY at night

His favorite thing to do is putting his cold hands or feet on you and asking “are my feet/hands cold”

ONE LAST THING

He 100% gets you guys those Lego roses so you can build them together

Overall he very much loves you and cant get enough of you

#yuta okkotsu x reader #yuta x reader #okkotsu x reader #okkotsu yuta x reader #jjk x reader #yuuta okkotsu x reader #yuuta x reader #yuuta okkotsu x you

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wifegideonnav · 2 years

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the importance of pov and kiriona gaia as gideon nav’s imperialist aspect

others have already made some really smart posts about how kiriona is gideon when she’s lost everything and everyone that made her who she was, and how even in the first two books, gideon was this terrifically sad creature who was disguised by the fact that she was her own narrator.

but I want to expand on that last bit, because yes. kiriona is a gideon who has lost everything, who has had to make tough decisions to survive, who has had to adapt to being primarily around her father (a manipulative asshole) and ianthe (ianthe). but this is also the first time we’re getting to see gideon from a perspective other than her own.

we’ve always known that gideon is a beautifully unreliable narrator - see her complete understatement of the fight before harrow opened the tomb, where she neglects to tell us that she almost killed harrow with her bare hands - but I think that for a lot of us, the introduction of kiriona was when we first felt that.

now, nona is not an objective narrator either (lmao). and she does actively dislike gideon (which is fascinating, and which I could go on about for several posts). but she does offer an outside perspective on gideon that we have, up to this point, been lacking.

because… yeah. sometimes, like anyone, gideon’s kind of mean. we know she’s a good person - her goodness is in many ways one of the central drivers of the plot - but that doesn’t mean she’s nice all of the time. it’s just that when she’s being mean to crux, or ianthe, or even harrow we can say, well that person deserved that. but the truth is, gideon has lived through the kind of hell that very few people could survive with any kind of goodness and softness left intact. she didn’t live through it, in fact. she’s just kind of… existed through it.

I saw another post point this out, and I want to reiterate: gideon’s goal, her whole life, has been to join the cohort. when we first meet her, we’re like, ok, makes sense, that’s the only ‘out’ available to her. and we kind of forget, even as we learn more about the empire, that what gideon wants to join is this actively and horrifically violent imperialist force. when we get to nona, and we meet hot sauce and her gang and joli and the angel and even the edenites, we expect gideon to have kept up with us somehow, to reject the empire. we want her to be one of the “good guys” (goodness in the tlt universe is another longass post I want to write…).

but gideon doesn’t reject the empire. because, crucially, she IS the empire - she is its heir, never mind the fact that that doesn’t really mean anything when the current emperor is immortal.

what I am trying to say is this: kiriona is gideon when you take everything from her, and then replace it with her father and everything he represents, and then take a step back.

that step back is crucial. it is what allows us to remember how imperialism - and by extension, or by metaphor, cruelty - works. gideon becomes cruel because she is in proximity to cruel people, AND because she is not in proximity to us.

THAT is what Muir is saying with kiriona. even the most kind, good, earnest protagonist can become a tool of evil in the right circumstances: and those circumstances include perspective. gideon, like it or not, is currently actively choosing to be a tool of empire. and if we were in her head, we might be able to - or we might be tricked into - accept her justifications for why she’s doing it.

the perspective shift is what allows us to see gideon as she - currently - truly is. it is no accident that this is when we get the outside pov. Muir allows us nowhere to hide; we have to confront what gideon has become and by extension what she always has been.

gideon nav is a good person, and I fully believe that in alecto we will watch her reject her father; I fully believe she will get to be a hero. but in order for that to happen, she - and we - must first undergo radical change and growth in terms of her worldview and attitudes. kiriona is not gideon’s final form. but in the same way that john is described by harrow as having aspects, kiriona is the aspect or facet of gideon that embraces cruelty, that perpetuates empire.

Muir tells us: even the most beautiful-hearted, trod-on girl in the world can become a tool of empire. but I have no doubt that in alecto she will tell us: this is how that girl can destroy it.

#does this make sense???#i don’t usually make Serious Meta Posts like this lol but this is important to me #op #tlt #tlt meta #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #ntn #gideon the ninth #gideon nav #kiriona gaia

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raisedbythetv89 · 6 days

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The writers I think mostly completely by accident with the assistance of James charming his way into becoming a main character created the perfect storm to ensure people who love spike would reach absolute peak levels of being completely obsessively deranged about him forever

Season 2:

He’s a punk rock villain with killer cheekbones, enchanting eyes, and an absolutely DEVILISH smile - who’s an incredibly dedicated and dangerous fighter who specifically seeks out challenging fights he’s not guaranteed to win (brave and reckless - normally traits seen in heroes) hates everyone except his mentally ill physically sick wife (the statistics of men who leave their wives when they get sick in the US is horrifying like nurses literally have to warn married women who get sick it happens so often) who he’s hopelessly devoted to and unbelievably soft with and always listens to her while also exuding a psychotic amount of sex appeal and is just F U N he loves being a vampire and he loves fighting and it makes it so much fun for the audience. While still showing how much he respects and admires his enemy for her skill, strength, resourcefulness, and intelligence - NEVER underestimating her just because she’s a tiny blonde girl - and instead of destroying the world for love he SAVES the world for love - a villain doing good to get the love of his life back who essentially dumped him for her ex????????? D E V O T E D and shockingly extremely trustworthy??? And has amazing chemistry with our heroine and is there for a pivotal moment in her life and is the only one there for her when she has no one else????? *enemies to lovers girlies ENTER THE CHAT*

Season 3:

He shows he fucking MEANS IT when he says Dru is the love of his life when he shows up in Sunnydale because he blames Angel not Buffy or Drusilla but the man actually responsible for all their problems and he is the most pathetic mess we’ve ever SEEN!!!! He’s crying and drunk all the time and he’s so sad he goes to Buffy’s mom TO TALK 💀😭 our pathetic sensitive little self admitted lover boy who KNOWS he’s love’s bitch and he won’t be pretending he’s anything otherwise who shows how clearly he sees and understands other people and the depths of his emotional intelligence so much so Buffy herself admits she can’t fool Spike she can fool her friends BUT NOT SPIKE OR HERSELF EXCUSE ME MA’AM WHAT???????

AND Spike doesn’t just uselessly MOPE forever he gets some perspective and is like I know what I’m gonna do to her back and I’m gonna go do that now! 😁👍🏻 showing he never stays down for long and is always gonna get back up to keep fighting for his love while BOTH he and Buffy still honor the truce even though he’s broken it by coming back??? While Buffy’s all “I violently dislike you” YEAH OK GIRL WHATEVER YOU SAY *enemies to lovers girlies chomping at the bit intensifies*

Season 4:

CLEARLY heartbroken about Drusilla (DEVOTED!!!) but it’s turned into anger and resentment directed at Harmony who how bizarre looks nothing like Drusilla but A LOT like Buffy…… hmmmmmmmmmmmmm HOW INTERESTING *enemies to lovers girlies are vibrating with anticipation that turns into a full blown combustion when something blue happens*

Spike doesn’t pretend to love Harmony in order to get what he wants from her (shown in direct contrast to Parker) he’s ironically very honest despite being a villain - he’s showing he’s STILL loyal to Drusilla in ONLY loving her even after she’s dumped him... again!

We see Spike treat Buffy the EXACT same way he treated Drusilla during something blue reaffirming THIS IS HOW THIS MAN LOVES WHEN HE LOVES YOU. He’s extremely affectionate, helpful, protective, caring - D E V O T E D - and is truly just the most certified lover boy we’ve ever fucking seen

Season 5:

SURPRISE HE’S SECRETLY A LOVESICK MAMA’S BOY POET AT HEART UNDERNEATH THE BAD BOY PERSONA AND A PROTECTIVE BIG BROTHER AND NOW BUFFY AND HER FAMILY’S MOST LOYAL DEFENDER AND IS WILLING TO DIE NOT JUST FOR BUFFY BUT FOR ALL THE SUMMERS WOMEN AND HE KNOWS AND SEES BUFFY SO DEEPLY AND INTIMATELY AND CAN HOLD SPACE FOR HER PAIN LIKE NO ON ELSE CAN AND SHOWS THE DEVOTION THAT ONCE BELONGED TO DRUSILLA NOW BELONGS TO BUFFY AND IT IS GOING NOWHERE EVEN WHEN SHE DIES AND WE'VE SEEN IN HIM CRY BEFORE BUT NEVER HAVE WE SEEN HIM BREAK DOWN LIKE HE DOES AT THE SIGHT OF BUFFY'S BODY!!!!!!!!!!!

*all of us screaming, crying, throwing up, climbing the walls and generally just losing our minds*

Season 6:

No soul, his love is so great for Buffy as is his loyalty and devotion to her, he now helps all of his dead love’s friends fight evil and is raising her sister and dreams of saving her every night for 148 nights 🤚🏻😭 don’t even fucking talk to me I can’t take it

Forgive the absolute 180 in tone change here:

Dick game is FIRE - his touch is the only thing that makes Buffy feel alive AND SHE WAS IN HEAVEN BRO SHE KNOWS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE IN HEAVEN AND SPIKE IS THE ONLY THING KEEPING HER GOING like damn girl yes YOU FUCK THAT HOUSE DOWN!!! Also he is now just naked 50% of the time just to drive us all even FURTHER out of our minds and somehow has just gotten even hotter as the seasons have gone on like this is what’s been hiding under the leather jacket all this time! Enjoy!

And THE MOST unintended consequence of jw’s vindictive writing:

SPITE

He clearly didn’t want us to love Spike and tried to manipulate us into hating him in such a blatant and clumsy ooc attempt all that did was weed out the weakest amongst the Spuffy/Spike fans until all that remained were us:

The most devoted and stubborn fans who REFUSED to have the thing they loved ruined or taken away from us and were smart enough to see through his bullshit manipulation attempt in the first place.

Genuinely they created the equivalent of supersoilder strength level fans with this absolutely lethal combination of events 💀

AND THEN as if all that wasn't enough he goes and gets his soul on purpose for Buffy so he can be the man she deserves and she can love him without hating herself for loving him despite the immense pain it will cause him which is the most selfless thing we have ever seen anyone do for Buffy only to be topped when he sacrifices himself to destroy the hellmouth, save the world and free her from Sunnydale!!! Plus ya know once he gets the soul even though he did it for her he never tries to use that as leverage to get anything from her like he truly expects nothing from her at all but still wants to help her and James delivers the most devastating performances we've ever fucking seen, finally tells her friends off which has needed to happen for 5 seasons, the "you're the one speech" him being a dad to all the potentials with Buffy giving us supernatural parent core who made it through their rough patch with their first kid in season 6 with Dawn and now are just the beautiful team with their found family and Buffy finally has someone who can truly carry her burdens with her and just all the tenderness and devotion they both deserve after so many years of pain and fighting. Basically giving the audience the message that even if you have a metric ton of pain and trauma there are people out there who see you and understand you and there is a chance for you to heal both together and separately to build your own version of a more normal and stable life. It's a message of such hope and I personally know several people, including myself who watched what Spike and Buffy have and it inspired us to look at the relationships we were in and realize we deserved SO MUCH MORE than what we were getting and in my case it turned out I was being emotionally abused and manipulated that entire time!! Much like Buffy was by both Riley and Angel. So it isn't an exaggeration to say Spuffy saved my life in a lot of ways both in being there for me at such a dark time and helping me draw a map of how to get out. Not to mention loving them in fandom spaces has helped me connect with so many people just like me who share very similar experiences and have helped me feel so much less alone and has helped me heal in so many ways 🖤

Spuffies get "hOw cAn yOu liKe sPiKe aFtEr wHaT hE dId" all the fucking time and truly the better question is how can you NOT like Spike???? HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION AT ALL??? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT GOOD RELATIONSHIPS NEED TO WORK?? BECAUSE AT THEIR CORE SPUFFY HAS THEM ALL!

It's jw writing so NOTHING will escape his toxic bullshit but Spike - because he was hated by jw for so long - so much of the time when he tried to make Spike less popular he just kept making him better and more complex and more and more targeted to the female gaze which is exactly why he snapped and made the choices he literally forced everyone else to go along with despite their protests with that scene to make it the most traumatizing scene in all of Buffy history not just for the audience but for the actors as well because yes it is incredibly horrific and upsetting to watch (which is why I skip it on rewatches) but I still am able to see if for what it is which is a narcissist lashing out at people he hates because he hasn't been able to control them and too bad for him I refuse to be manipulated by his bullshit so it failed completely and made so many of us that much more stubbornly protective of Spike and his and Buffy's relationship not just from other fans but from the creator himself 🙃🖕🏻like he basically just trauma bonded us to Spike and Buffy which has led to the creation of one of the most devoted, loyal, intelligent fanbases who is absolutely unhinged (affectionate) with their love of this character and his relationship which is why we are all still creating and writing about this character 25 year later and show absolutely zero signs of slowing down or stopping 💀

#spuffy #spike btvs #meta #btvs meta #spike and buffy meta #spike btvs meta #spuffy meta #also every spuffy I know shares so much life experiences and personality traits with buffy herself like we are often making choices #and judgements about the narrative from the perspective of buffy herself & we’re all picking spike #so many people who pick other love interests truly so often rarely see buffy for who she is either #if you don’t get spuffy you don’t truly understand buffy herself

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writingforatwistedworld · 11 months

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Hi! If requests are still open, can I request for a Reader who like prince charming in manga or manhwa? Like the reader is such a gentleman(or gentlewoman), treat the TWST guy like a princess, and even when the TWST guys fall the reader just caught them and say "are you ok, princess?"or something similar? For self-aware!Au and Leona/Malleus/Vil if possible? Thank you! Please take time to rest and feel free to delete it if it broke the rule or you are not comfortable making it! 😊

Self-aware au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNING: Yandere themes, neglect, family problems, stalking, taking photos without consent, invasion of privacy, violence, unhealthy relationships

Leona Kingscholar/Vil Schoenheit/Malleus Draconia-Player is like prince charming

Imagine this: Leona tripping over air, a most heinous thing hiding in plain sight, and then suddenly something catches him

If it weren't for your face being so famous he would have thought you were a student from RSA

“Are you alright?” Yeah, I think he is. Other than the fact that he stares at you like the red dot of a laser pointer is on your forehead, he is fine

What he didn't know though was how everyone else in the hallway was just staring at the two of you. Could be the stars and flowers surrounding you two but what do I know?

If Leona wasn't such a loner then he would have started a fan club or something like that

But since he can't he is more on the “silent screeching teenager on the inside” trip

Like, my man is hiding behind corners, snapping pics, trying to smell the slightest bit of your perfume

Ok, maybe he is a bit more intense than an entire fan club usually is but he is just trying to figure out more about his prince char- *ahem* you

And we wouldn't be talking about Leona if there wouldn't be the tiniest bit of that, you know, manipulating others

Ruggie once more gets a chance to make others have “accidents” but if it would be too obvious why he orders him to do that then he can also take care of it himself

You know, roughing up a few students who came too close to you. That kind of stuff

But oh, how much he wishes that you would pay most of your attention on him

Leoan might not seem like it but all the years of neglect back home had made him crave it

So he gifts you a lot of things

From simple things for everyday use to luxurious accessories

But why won't you accept them? Do you dislike him that much? What else does he need to do? Tell him. Tell him!

Dramatic violin chorus, Vil falling backwards from the stairs, heels caught in the carpet, one last desperate look into the air before a chorus of opera singers screams in despair to add even more dramatic flair to the situation

And then, nothing. A soft cello plays a soft tune as arms close around his waist, stars sparkling in Vils eyes as his gaze falls upon his savior

Birds are singing and warm sunlight falls upon the duo... until the two Pomefiore students who carried a mirror start to move again making the reflecting light which fell on the two of you break away once more

Five meters away Epel just stares at you two with an expression that can only be described as “Ugh”

Rook stops the music which played in the background, the piece surprisingly supportive of the situation

As if the moment needed even the slightest bit more to seem like an abridged version of a Disney film you even asked Vil if he was alright

One second later and Epel asked himself what the heck Disney is

But congrats, you have now what Vil would call “a troublesome fan”

Oh no, Vil wouldn't buy merch of you or something like that. He has an even better collection

If you were to push his clothing in his closet to the side you would see its wooden back littered with photos of you

Some are a few selfies the two of you had snapped together (it was just a nice memory. He totally didn't mean to use it in any creepy means) and other photos you were not aware of

Some of them are taken disturbingly in private moments like when you were cooking and somewhere buried even deeper is even one when you were starting to change your clothing...

Vil also starts to hog all your time

No more eating lunch with a group of students you deemed your friends. Oh no, now it's Vil, Epel and ,if our local harassments of overgrown house cats has behaved well, even Rook

Although Vil doesn't trust Rook 100% when something is about you. The queen knows after all that the hunter has his own sights on you and is more than ready to snatch you up at any moment

Should you try to distance yourself though I recommend wearing long sleeves, otherwise the desperate clawing of nails that are way too sharp will rip your skin to shreds, a desperate fan of yours hanging just as desperate as the fairest Queen was on her beauty on your arm

Do you hear that too? What you don't? Did I imagine the wedding bells just now?

When Malleus fell from his broom, most ungraceful, he was surprised when you suddenly caught him (although this tiny bit of hight wouldn't be able to harm him)

Even after he reassured you that he was more than just alright you still insisted to bring him to the school nurse just to be sure and even then you still treated him like he was something easily broken

Is... Is this how normal people feel when someone takes care of them?

The poor school nurse was almost screeching in fear when Malleus suddenly made a sound akin to purring

The situation is kinda as if the prince who fought against Maleficent suddenly apologized after striking her, making sure that she got better and then proposing to her

Ok, maybe he imagined the last part but he is just a lovesick fire spewing lizard in human form. Let him have his fantasies!

Malleus isn't your ordinary Fae though. Oh no. You are courted by royalty here but given his rather... unhealthy interest in you I am not sure if you could consider this a win or a loss

Gold, rubies, diamonds and much, much more is at your disposal. Don't tell anybody. Otherwise there will be break-ins

At this point it's a normal occurrence to see a scene from those clichè romance novels acted out in the hallways of NRC

But since Malleus has “Fae-prince-who-can-end-your-life-with-the-snap-of-a-finger” privileges no one dares to say anything

Malleus wouldn't be a good dragon if he weren't even the lighter bit hoarding

Only that it isn't just “a bit” but rather “hoards all the time” when something concerns you

And suddenly eh invites you to visit the Valley of Thorns

“Visit” haha, funny

Have you heard? There are rumors of Briar Valley soon having a second future ruler. Huh? Who? I don't know? But aren't you close to Malleus? Maybe he knows something

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movedtone0mile · 1 year

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regal antics

prince!haechan x maid!F!reader

warnings: enemies to ???, donghyuck is annoying and pretentious, but honestly Y/N is kind of a bad person too, this is not a healthy relationship ok, angst, mention of alcohol, smut, unprotected sex, not healthy dynamics overall

word count: 6.5K

summary: Y/N does not put up with Donghyuck’s antics, and it is often irritating to serve him, but soon, he’ll have to marry and the king has decided that it will be better for his son to know what to do on his wedding night. Or where Y/N, maid of the capricious prince Donghyuck is requested to sleep with him, in order to prepare for his upcoming wedding.

A/N: I struggled a lot with this one, and I gave it up a lot of times too. I’m not sure I’m very satisfied with it in the end, but I spent too much time on it so here it is. I honestly fear that the transition to enemies to whatever it is, may be too rushed. I hope you don’t feel this way but if it’s the case I’m so sorry :(

His Majesty the Prince Donghyuck was as capricious as a baby. He was narcissistic, egoistical and whiny. The day he would become king would be, for sure, the death of your city.

But you owed the royal family, and could not refuse your king anything, so you served his son as a maid regarding of your dislike of his character. You, as opposed to the other servants, did not care to hide your feelings about the prince’s behaviour -you knew the king and queen liked you too much to throw you out of the palace anyway.

“Y/N!” A straining voice called out to you. Here was his majesty…Turning around, you bowed in front of him, asking with the sweetest tone you could manage to let out, how you could help him. “You could do me a favour yes, pick up some oranges for me. I could use something to eat.” He asked, not even looking at you. Rolling your eyes, you made your way to the market, you knew better than to argue with him. You passed the palace gates wondering how Dongyuck could be so lazy, considering that he spent most of his days singing and playing the lyre while lying on a sofa. But it was not your place to think about this.

The walk to the market was quite refreshing nonetheless, you were relieved to be away from Donghyuck when his father was back from his trips in the mountains to hunt. He was even worse than usual when it was like this. Of course, you pitied the other servants who were way more patient than you were, but you had the feeling that the prince relished annoying you. When you returned to the palace courtyard with a drizzle of oranges, Donghyuck was fast asleep on the sofa. You shook him, handing him the net. “Your Highness, I have the oranges you asked for.” You told him. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up. He took one of the oranges and you watched him peel the skin off each quarter of the fruit.

Reaching out a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, he asked you, “Y/N, do ever get tired of serving me?” Your eyes furrowed, unsure about how you should answer this question. You paused and thought about it for a moment before answering carefully, “Well, I must say it can be quite challenging sometimes, but I take pride in my work.” He smiled, amused. “You take pride in your work hmm…” He mused with a raised eyebrow.

As you prepared to argue, you were interrupted by the footsteps of a servant, visibly running in your direction. Arriving at your level, she bowed down in front of the prince before she spoke, “I am sorry to interrupt Your Majesty, but your father, the king is asking for Y/N.” Raising your eyebrows, you watched the girl taking back her breath. The prince’s gaze went from you to the servant and he waved. “Well, go do the work you take so much pride in,” he said, a condescending smile on his face. You knew he was making fun of you, but that was nothing new, he always did. So, without giving him the pleasure of losing your temper, you followed the young girl inside the palace.

She took you to His Majesty’s room, you wasted no time in knocking on the door, worried that something might be wrong. A hoarse voice allowed you in and one of the guards outside the room opened the doors for you and you bowed low as you entered the room. “Your majesty, you asked for me.”

“Yes, come sit child.” The old man was sitting on one of the various red velvet sofas and motioned you to one next to his. A bit awkwardly, you sat down, waiting for instructions. “Y/N, what I am about to ask you is very embarrassing I must say.” He said, looking quite uneasy. “As you may know, my son, Donghyuck, will soon be married.” You nodded your head, the reminder making you feel bad for the lady who was going to become Donghyuck’s spouse. The king cleared his throat before pursuing, “I am sure I am not the one teaching you this, but… It is customary for young men to already be experienced once they wed.” You furrowed your eyebrows, “Your Majesty, I am not quite sure I understand what you are referring to.”

“Well, I am talking about the wedding night…” Heat rushed to your cheeks. “You see, I trust your discretion, but unlike the other young men of his stature, Donghyuck has never visited courtesans.” Your eyes widened at his revelation. It was much more than you wanted to know about him. “He also never had close friends, so I am almost certain when I say that he has never had any experience.”

Confusion written on your face, you thought about it again. That Donghyuck never had a friend was absolutely certain, no one could put up with his whims for more than a few days, but that a member of the royal family, as self-sufficient as him, never had an affair with a prostitute or a servant, was hard to believe. However, the more you thought about it, the more confused about your role in this situation you were.

“Your Highness, I do not understand why you are entrusting this to me.” You told him, crossing and uncrossing your legs. “I have thought about it, and I think that you would be the only one who could actually teach him a thing or two.” He phrased, cautiously, but your mouth had already hung open. “But your highness, I work at the palace every day, I do not think I could be the most qualified person to take up this task. You may hire someone whose profession revolves around it.” You argued.

It was true that you had already had affairs. Servants had to, who else would love them? They had little to no family, and they did not have time to leave the palace for anything other than work. You had to look for love elsewhere. So yes, you had already shared your bed with other servants, but there were certainly a good hundred people in the city who would be better for this task. “I know, and I will, if you refuse, but I had to ask you. I know, even though he would never admit it, my son has respect for you, and I would like him to learn with someone he likes, at least before he meets his future wife.”

You had to hold back a snort. Donghyuck, liking you? Even, you weren’t sure if he knew what the word “respect” stood for -except when it was due to him, indeed. But, it made you think about it for a second. After all, it would probably be best for the lady who was going to marry him if he practised with the only person in the kingdom not to be afraid of him, -she was miserable enough already. The king must have known that you would be brave enough to tell Donghyuck if he was doing something wrong, and the dots started to connect in your mind too. Also, it could be a great opportunity to have the prince vulnerable and take the upper hand. Now, that did not sound like a bad idea.

“With all the respect I have for you, I must think about it, before giving you my answer.” You bowed once again. “Of course, I give you a week. I do not want to force your hand, but I would really like you to consider it.” When you left the room, you were still puzzled. For the king to ask you this seemed unbelievable, and you scolded yourself mentally for even considering it. How could you even picture yourself in Donghyuck’s bed? He was the most irritable human being you have ever met, it was already difficult to bear talking to him, so considering touching him…

You made your way to your room as fast as you could, you needed to be alone and think about what just happened.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

In the quiet of your room, you hid under your blanket, ashamed about the thoughts running inside your head. Of course, Donghyuck was handsome, very handsome. Much more than any person you ever knew -he wouldn’t let someone prettier than he was around him anyway. But he was unbearable. And nothing could change that. In years of serving him, he never showed any sympathy, for you or anyone other than himself. It was hard to imagine him in an intimate situation anyway. He always seemed so detached, it was difficult to believe that he could be an attentive lover. Not that you cared, of course. Pretending to have a fever, you managed to stay in your room for the rest of the day, someone would replace you in the tasks you were supposed to get done, you would have been incapable of facing Donghyuck today.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

Eventually, you had to step into the real world. Outside of your room. And you did, the next morning. A few other servants asked you about your illness and you offered them your greatest acting skills, telling them that you were still a bit tired, but thankfully, you were recovering fast enough.

On this day you were assigned to do laundry, along with other girls of about your age. Your knees, bare against the tiled floor, you soaped and scraped pieces of clothing repeatedly in the washtub, until both your wrists and biceps grew sore, and your knees began to burn a little. The sun shone brightly and the air was hot and humid, so much so that you had to wipe drops of sweat that gathered on your neck, rolling down your eyebrows to your eyes, every once in a while.

If the other girls chatted just a few seconds before, now they had all gone quiet, as light footsteps approached your group. “Good morning ladies, what are you all up to?” Donghyuck’s annoying voice was a straining nuisance to your ears. “Doing laundry, Your Highness.” You answered before the others, your tone as cold as it could be. “That sounds like hard work for such delicate young ladies. I am sure you would not mind a little help?”

Tilting up your head with widened eyes, you tried to reason with him, “Your Majesty, I am not sure this is a job for you. You should go back to your usual activities.” But he had already rolled his sleeves up and went down on his knees to join y’all. “Oh come on Y/N, do not be so strict. I can handle a little laundry, and I would be delighted to spend some time with such beautiful damsels.” He smiled as he winked at some of the servants. The girls exchanged glances and chuckled as Donghyuck plunged his hands into the soapy water. You, on the other hand, were only wondering what was he up to. The prince never helped with anything -not that it was his place anyway- but if he decided to now, it was probably a new way of his to get on your nerves.

As usual, you were right, and Donghyuck grew tired of the chore, even more quickly than you had expected. Swinging back, he let out a huge sigh of fatigue. Soon, he started to splash you and the girls, causing them to shriek and laugh. Not amused at all by his actions, you tried your best to stay calm and focus on your task. The girls giggled and blushed, as the prince shamelessly flirted with them. For servants to receive the attention of the prince was something they could not resist, he knew that, and obviously took advantage of it to satisfy his huge ego. Your frustration grew, and you scrubbed the cloth harder by the second.

Glancing at your companions, you were angry to notice that they all seemed to enjoy themselves. You could not help but feel a bit jealous of their carefree attitude. Why did everything seem so effortless for them, why couldn’t you just get yourself to like Donghyuck, just like they all did? Of course, you understood how he was charming to them, but you just couldn’t overcome his whimsical behaviour.

Right now, his disruptive presence made it impossible to get any work done. Watching him having fun and them giggling, was getting more and more irritating. Soon, you couldn’t take it anymore and suddenly stood up. “We cannot work with you here.” Looking up at you, Donghyuck raised an eyebrow, “Pardon?” You took a deep breath and continued, aware that you had certainly put yourself in trouble, “I said that we cannot work properly because of you.”

Taken aback by your bravery, he got up on his feet, visibly offended. “Well, if you think I am such a nuisance, I will go find something else to do.” He turned back on his heels and now it was your turn to be taken aback. It was too easy, you had crossed the line, and you had expected him to shout or even lock you up in a cell, but Donghyuck was walking away. When you faced the other girl servants, they glared at you, before resuming their task in silence. Ashamed of having ruined their moment, you lowered your head and plunged your hands back into the water.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

A day had passed since you last saw the prince. When you asked other servants if they had seen him, they either replied in the negative, or did not reply at all, but the less you heard of Donghyuck, the more anxious you grew. You had the uneasy feeling that he was up to something, something that would make you regret your behaviour of the other day.

In the evening, you retreated to your room, put on your nightgown and brushed your hair by the bed. A few knocks on your door interrupted you, and you went to open it. “Already in bed?” Well, you should have expected him, but you were still surprised that he knew where your room was. “Your Majesty,” you took a few steps back, embarrassed that he saw you in your night clothes, but you knew you had no right to leave him at the door. “I think we have a few things to discuss, just the two of us,” he said, stepping in and closing the door behind him.

You stood like this, in awkward silence for a moment, your eyes glued to the ground before he decided to break it. “Well, if you ain’t going to do it yourself, I will have to ask you.” Looking up at him, you noticed that his usual expression had changed. It was not all smirk and raised eyebrows anymore. His face was stern, and you were not used to it. Donghyuck took a step forward. “Apologize.”

“What?” Truth is, you had not expected him to make it to your room only to ask you this. “Why does everything always have to be so hard with you? Can’t you just do what you are told to?” He sighed. You were at a loss for words. You should have been publicly humiliated, locked in your quarters, asked to do extra chores, for having talked to the prince the way you did, not do private apologies. His eyes never left yours, awaiting.

“I- I am sorry Your Highness, I shouldn’t have talked to you the way I did the other day. It was not my place, and it will not happen again.” you bowed down as you spoke, and he finally cracked a smile when you were finished. “See? That wasn’t so hard.” He was wrong, for you it was. You hated to belittle yourself in front of him. You had no problem obeying someone like his father, someone you had respect for, someone who fulfilled his duties and actually cared about the people under him. But even after so many years, you couldn’t get yourself to accept that you were under Donghyuck. He was self-centred, disrespectful and overall, a kid in a young adult body, who deserved nothing he had.

The way you gritted your teeth did not escape him, and he took even a step further. “You know, you should thank me, for I haven’t ordered you to do this in front of the whole kingdom.” his tone was threatening, and you shivered at the idea of such a humiliating perspective. “Try to keep in mind how generous of a person I am, before you dare to speak to me like that again.” This time, his voice was barely above a whisper, but he was close enough for you to hear. “I will.” You forced the words out of your mouth, your jaw tense.

“Good. I have nothing else to tell you.” Turning back on his heels, he left the room, after giving you one last look, “Good night Y/N.” When the door closed you collapsed at the foot of your bed, your head in your hands. You were going to say yes.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

“What made you make your decision?” The king asked, at the discretion of his room. You had thought about it, and even if you weren’t thrilled about the idea, you couldn’t miss your only opportunity to give Donghyuck a taste of his own medicine. You were going to enter his intimacy, and take advantage of it to humiliate him, but of course, you could not tell him that. “It is my duty to help the prince when I am asked to, Your Majesty.” He nodded, pleased with your answer, “Thank you Y/N. You really are doing me a favour. I am glad Donghyuck will get to do this with someone like you.” Your cheeks flushed at his words. He told you he would inform Donghyuck, and sent you on your way.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

Another week had passed, and Donghyuck’s anger towards you transformed into sly grins he would send your way, whenever he got the chance. He had certainly been made aware of it now.

Ever since His Majesty told you He would tell His son about what He had planned for him, you imagined every possible scenario. But no matter how hard you tried, it seemed impossible for you to predict what his reaction would be. Was he going to be glad? Mad? Embarrassed? Anyways he would, with no doubt, laugh at you for accepting such a proposition. And he would be right to do so. What were you thinking? You still had no idea when, where and how it was going to happen. You were simply left with that idea in your mind, like a Damocles sword above your head.

Today it was your turn to make the Prince’s bed, and as you spread the silk sheets on the mattress, you caught yourself wondering if you were going to lay in that same bed he was sleeping in. Were you going todo it here? Where else? Not in your room, Donghyuck was too delicate to go into the servants’ quarters a second time anyways. At the reminder of his personality, you shook your head and resumed stretching the sheets. How were you supposed to be intimate with Donghyuck, out of all people? And how could you even imagine that he would be less intolerable in a bedroom?

“Y/N?” a soft voice interrupted your train of thought. You turned your head to face a chubby girl with red cheeks. She wore a grey uniform with an apron, she was a maid, just like you. “I was requested by His Majesty to come and fetch you later in the evening.” She said, looking at her feet. When you opened your mouth to ask if she knew what was the matter, she continued, as if in a rush, “I just had to let you know.”, before disappearing in the hallway.

So this was it. It was for tonight. You went on with your tasks for the day as if you had a fever. There was a constant buzzing in your ears that you were certain you were imagining, and your head spinned every once in a while. When you were finished, you went back to your room, to prepare for God knows what was going to happen. You figured you should be at least presentable, so you changed your maid uniform for the only dress you had that wasn’t one, and took care of arranging your hair. Once done, you looked at your reflection in the mirror, puzzled. What were you doing?

You heard the knocking on your door but continued to stare at yourself. It was your last chance to change your mind.

꧁ ♡ ꧂

The girl with the red cheeks led you to the princely suite, and when you both got to the door, she stopped next to it, as if to signal that she was not going in with you. You should have expected that, but on the other hand, you couldn’t help but want a bit of support. However, it had been your decision, and now you had to face the consequences alone.

Standing straight, you took the deepest breath you ever took and pushed the doors with all the strength you could gather. When you stepped in, the door closed behind you on its own, and you were left alone, in the dim light of the room. Well, not quite alone indeed, Donghyuck was sitting in a velvet chair, not far from the fireplace warming and illuminating the place. You had not been alone together since he forced you to apologize the other day, and you apprehended his next move.

Eventually, he looked your way, eyes slowly taking in your appearance, from the hem of your dress to your neatly styled hair. “Well, this is pretty uncommon to see you all dressed up.” he sneered with his chin up. He was not going to make it any easier. Neither were you. “This is far from my usual tasks, Your Majesty.” He narrowed his eyes defensively as you took one step forward. “But I must admit, this is one of the most tedious ones, so far.” Donghyuck’s eyes widened, and he let out a chuckle. “Tedious? Are you implying that sleeping with me is boring?” You smirked, “How could you know?”

You noticed his jaw tensing. Now, you did not regret your decision at all, you had your revenge. There was a moment of silence, you could almost hear the sound of him gritting his teeth. The thrill of excitement that rushed through you at this exact moment, was like nothing you had experienced in the past. You wished you could stay like this forever, and watch him drown in humiliation.

“Well, you did not come here to quarrel now, did you?” he inquired, his eyebrows frowned and his hand holding the armrest harder than it should. “I did not.” Another step closer. “Have a drink, otherwise I fear it will be impossible to do what you came here to do.” he sighed, pointing at one of the two goblets set on the coffee table. You watched him, wary. “You talk as if I am the one who needs this.” You could tell by his reaction that you had hit a nerve, again. “Sit, please.” With a hand supporting his head, he motioned at a chair facing his. You figured that at least for once tonight, you could do what you were told to and sat.

“Listen, I know you despise me,” he stated, his voice softer, leaning to pour wine into both goblets, “but I do not.” You grabbed the goblet, nervous to have something this expensive in your hands. Donghyuck raised his to his lips and sipped eagerly. “You do not wonder what I mean by that?” he asked, curious. Taking an experimental sip, you grimaced at the sour taste of the drink, before answering, “No. I know you. I know that you thrive in watching people anguish about what you may think of them, but I do not feel this way.” Setting down his drink, he smirked at your declaration. “You know, you are not as good at lying as you think you are.” taking a pause, he stood up, and crossed the six feet distance between you both in an instant. As he placed both of his hands on the armrests of your chair, you sank into your seat, caged in. “You are not special Y/N, you care about what I think of you, just like everyone else. The only difference is that you love to pretend that you hate me.” He said with a low voice that you did not know him, and a shiver ran down your spine.

He had never been so close. So close that you could feel his hot breath on your face. Instinctively, you closed your eyes, now aware of all the lines you had crossed since the moment you entered his bedroom. “No, no, do not flinch now. I thought you came here on a mission?” His chortle did not help you regain the courage you just lost. “I bet you accepted my father’s absurd proposition to make fun of me, hmm? You thought that it would be your chance to mock me. To finally take the upper hand.” he took a step back, “But where is that confidence now?” You hated his condescending tone, he was talking to you as if you were pathetic, but he was right, you couldn’t even lift off your seat.

“I always knew you were all bark no bites. Now that you finally have the occasion to get back at me, you sit here and stare at me with your eyes wide open,” he added, looking down at you with raised eyebrows. You stayed like this for a while, in the silence of lead, before he let out a long sigh. “Why did you accept this stupid idea, Y/N? We are not going to make love, we cannot even be in the same room without squabbling. I do not understand why my father asked you, out of all people.”

“He said that you liked me.” You spoke under your breath and you caught his eyes widening in surprise. “Like you?” You gripped the fabric of your skirt, looking down at your hands. “What does he know? He mumbled through gritted teeth. Gathering your courage, you got up on your feet, “This was a mistake. I-I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.” You stuttered, “I should go.” With that, you rushed to the door, ready to leave, but his hand gripped your wrist, holding you back.

“Y/N, stay.” You turned around to face him. “You just said that all of this was stupid, and I agree with you.” You spat, louder than before, “I will return to my room, and both of us are going to act as if this never happened.”

Tugging a bit on your wrist, he managed to pull you closer and asked, “Now that you have pictured yourself in my bed, will you really be able to act as if nothing happened?” It was back. That smug smirk on his face you hated so much. And that complacent attitude of his…

Raising his hand, it reached for your face and when he cupped your cheek, you were so dumbfounded that you couldn’t even argue. “Oh, I’m sure you’ve imagined it at least once or twice… But I cannot blame you, I did too.” He whispered the last words, and you considered having misheard them. He raised his eyebrows in a teasing manner, he was trying to undermine you. But it would not work, not if you could get him to submit first.

Taking a step closer, you grabbed his shoulders to connect your lips fervently. You closed your eyes not to see him, but you felt his, wide open in shock. Pushing you back gently, Donghyuck broke the kiss, staring right at you, astonished. “What did you just do?” he let out in a strange voice that you never heard him use. He sounded confused, but most importantly, he was visibly lacking confidence. You had succeeded at weakening him.

His gaze travelled from the ground to your face, which he stared at for a moment, breathing audibly, before he grabbed both of your arms and pulled you against him in another kiss. He moved his lips against yours feverishly and squeezed the flesh of your arms way too hard, but as horrifying as this may sound, it wasn’t so terrible. Kissing Donghyuck was nothing like what you had imagined, and if you had drank more of that wine earlier, you might have admitted that you liked it. Without realizing it, both of you had melted into each other’s embrace, and you kissed for several minutes. When you pulled away for air, you still looked at each other with animosity, you weren’t lovers, you were rivals, you had always been, but for once, you were actually on the same level.

“So, are we going to do it?” he asked, out of breath. You chuckled, letting your guard down for once, “You really don’t know how to do this, do you?” Letting you go, he threw himself on the bed, “You know what, since it is what you came here for, and you are so experienced, show me what you are capable of.” He said, putting his hands behind his head in a laid-back manner. You climbed on the bed with him, kneeling next to his body. With your breath held, you slowly untied the ropes of his shirt, as if you had no mastery over your actions. Oh, you were going to show him.

Judging that you were taking too long, he took out his shirt and every garment underneath, himself, before pushing you onto him. You do not know what took over you, but as you were laying on top of his naked chest, you kissed him once again. It was so much better like this. With his soft lips on yours, when he couldn’t get to talk. It was addictive. He tasted like honey, and he was so much more likeable in this position. Not breaking the kiss, Donghyuck managed to loosen your dress, exposing the skin of your shoulders to his hungry eyes. He was letting out breathy moans between kisses and began to mindlessly rut his hips into yours.

Suddenly, he pushed you down on the mattress so you were laying on your stomach. Your first reaction was to laugh at the brutality of his action. “Oh please, don’t act like you know what you are doing.” You sneered. “You know, I haven’t quite made up my mind about you talking back,” he said, hovering over you, straddling the back of your thighs, “I don’t know if I hate it, or if I secretly enjoy it.” Without you paying much attention to it, a smile drew on your face. Maybe you finally found a way to fight without it being too unpleasant…

Now that you were back to him, he was all over your neck, kissing it as if you were lovers. Lifting your skirt, he reached for your garments and pulled them down. You were starting to get dizzy, you did not mind being exposed to him like that right now, his kisses made up for everything, somehow. You heard him pull his pants down enough to free his hard cock and a shiver ran down your spine when you felt his length against your entrance. “Do not worry, I may be an amateur, but I know the basic theory on the subject.” he chuckled, sliding it against your wet folds for lubrication. It was almost embarrassing how excited his ministrations had gotten you, an hour ago you couldn’t stand the thought of his very existence.

Slowly, he entered you with a loud groan, you had to remind yourself that the feeling was new to him. Your walls stretched around him and the sensation of him inside you was far from as disagreeable as you had imagined it. In fact, when he began to thrust into you, which he did not long after bottoming out for the first time, you found yourself gripping the sheets and holding back whimpers. Despite his lack of experience, you made so much fun of, you had to acknowledge that Donghyuck was naturally skilled at it. His movements were smooth and sharp at the same time, and if you weren’t focusing, your head would already be spinning.

The room quickly became steamy, and you were beginning to forget yours despise of each other. Releasing your lip from your teeth, you allowed yourself to sigh and moan as loud as you needed to. After all, Donghyuck himself was everything but quiet. It seemed like he had given up on his pride, at last. He was crying out for the whole palace to hear and gripped your waist for dear life.

“Tell me you love me.” he panted in your ear. As good as he was making you feel, you could never say that. You hoped that your whimpers would be enough answer to his demand, but he squeezed your waist harder and repeated,“ Please, tell me.” His voice had cracked and he sounded miserable. Maybe he was not making fun of you after all. Grabbing his face from behind, you pushed his head closer to yours, connecting your lips in a desperate kiss. This would have to be enough.

Donghyuck breathed heavily through his nose, leaning in, impossibly close to you. The kiss was a mix of frustration, neediness, and maybe, something else, but you figured it was in your best interest not to question it too much. When he pulled out to plunge his head into the crook of your neck, his thrusts became even more erratic. You could tell he was coming closer to the edge, but a little voice in your head was screaming that you needed to see this, or perhaps you just craved watching him lose it.

So you managed to remove him from behind you and pushed him onto his back. He watched you intently as you removed your dress and everything you wore for good, exposing your naked body to him. The snarky remarks a part of you still expected never came. He gazed at your figure for a moment and eventually fumbled with his own clothing. When you were both naked in front of each other, you took a moment to take in the other’s appearance. You never appreciated at their true value, his gold-like skin, and the delicacy of his features, but now you did. He was, indeed, as handsome as he had always bragged about being.

And it took him to look like a mess, his lips swollen and his eyes half-lidded, for you to finally feel tenderness for him. You pitied him. He had always acted like he was above everyone else, when in reality he felt desperately alone and was pathetic enough to beg you to tell him sweet words. Yet, deep down, you could neither forget, nor totally forgive what he had made you go through all these years, and for that, he did not deserve your mercy.

Grabbing his wrists, you straddled his lap and held his hands above his head, on the headboard. Sinking down on his length, you let out a breathy moan, not only of pleasure but of pure thrill and victory, as you were finally the one looking down at him. You began to move, this new position quickly proving itself to be more pleasurable than the previous one. He was able to reach deeper and your walls were clenching around him, in a way that was driving him crazy.

You rode him as if it was a way for you to let out all the frustration he had made you feel in years. His eyes were tight shut and he was biting on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. You couldn’t get your eyes off him. You had not realized it before but this was everything you ever dreamt of, to see him like this, at your mercy.

Droplets of sweat were rolling down between your breasts and shoulder blades. Heat radiated through your burning bodies, and the room was filled with your moans and whimpers. Donghyuck had lost it long ago, maybe if you stopped your movements just for a minute, you would see the tears forming in the corner of his eyes, but you could not.

You bounced frantically above him, and he was thrusting upwards to meet your hips, it was no different from your regular quarrels. Both of you had something to prove to the other. And you were pleased to finally win in a field. He was clenching his fists and you could see the muscles of his abdomen contract. Letting out a cry that was music to your ears, he came inside of you, his arms trying hard to release themselves from your hold. You felt him twitching between your walls, which got you closer to the edge yourself, and you continued to chase your high as he was experiencing his.

A few rolls of your hips later, your whole body froze, all your muscles tensing, and you let go of his wrists to claw at the skin of his chest. All the tension inside of you snapped, and at that moment, when the wave of pleasure washed through you, you swore you did not hate Donghyuck anymore. Your view turned blank for an instant, and you let out a raspy groan as you came around him. When you had released them, his hands immediately went to grab your thighs, and Donghyuck was now helping you grind on his lap.

When the stimulation became too much and your moans turned into cries, he released your thighs and laid you down on your back. He snuggled close to your side, watching your face closely and drawing figures on your belly with the tip of his fingers, and whispered, “What have you done to me? Now I have never been so sure about not wanting to marry.”

part 2!!!

#nct smut #nct 127 smut #nct dream smut #haechan smut #nct x reader #nct 127 x reader #nct dream x reader #nct scenarios #haechan x reader #haechan angst

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marimbles · 6 months

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ok since i’ve really only whined but not actually explained my reasoning lol, here is my take on the s5 finale. (this is long, sorry)

I think we’re all on the same page about the idea that gabriel being seen as a hero, by all of paris but especially adrien, is icky. and on top of that it does not feel good that marinette is supporting that lie, even if it’s out of love for adrien. most people are assuming this issue will be resolved somehow in 6, probably by lila exposing the truth. cool. that’s my hope as well. but even if that’s the case, i still dislike the framing of his wish and what the surrounding context seems to imply about it.

it is not my assumption that gabriel’s wish included green initiatives and a reformation of the parisian school system lol. I assume that his wish was to exchange his own life for nathalie’s. but as we know, wishes literally rewrite reality. the fact is that paris improved after his wish, so it is still related. he remade the world, and the new world ended up better. It all supports the idea that his wish was a good thing—a noble sacrifice that redeemed him in some sense. my impression is that even if (hopefully) he is exposed as hawkmoth, the actual wish he made will still be framed as admirable. obviously marinette found it noble enough to agree to lie to everyone about gabriel’s identity as hawkmoth.

which brings me to another pain point: the fact that gabriel essentially won the long battle against ladybug and chat noir. i’ve heard arguments that he didn’t win because he died and how is that winning? he got what he deserved in the end. but imo, he just put himself out of his own misery, because he was on the brink of death anyway because of his cataclysm wound, and he basically escaped having to face any emotional consequences from his literal terrorism and child abuse. and even if you don’t consider that a win, you also can’t consider marinette’s end of the deal a win either. her goal was to prevent hawkmoth from unifying the miraculous and making a reality-altering wish. which is exactly what happened. so she failed her mission. ladybug lost. and to me it’s sort of bizarre that the narrative seems to be framing that as a good thing? ladybug lost, but the new reality that resulted from it is so much better than the old one, and she is actively choosing to lie in order to protect the seeming goodness of that reality.

marinette is lying, of course, to protect adrien, which does not feel out of character. we’ve seen her do this before. but it is frustrating to me for precisely that reason. the final battle was meant to highlight how much marinette has grown over the past five seasons, but her choice here highlights the ways she has not grown. starting with syren in season 2, she has witnessed how much it hurts chat noir to be left in the dark and how it weakens their partnership. in that case, she convinced master fu to let him be in the know, and trust was restored. but then she continued a habit of keeping things from him, putting more and more distance between them, till it culminated with kuro neko in s4—a total breakdown of the ladynoir partnership, where chat noir renounced his miraculous. i would have thought that marinette would learn from that experience and realize that keeping people in the dark is harmful and that even if the truth hurts, adrien has a right to know it. but she once again made the decision for him, and when he finally finds out, it will be all the more painful to know that the person he loves and trusts most in the world lied to him. i actually really appreciate that marinette as a protagonist has such a good heart but is still such an imperfect character, so i want to respect this choice as a manifestation of her flawed but good intentions. i just can’t help but be really disappointed that after 5 seasons of making the same mistakes again and again, she has apparently not learned from them, which makes me feel she has not grown the way the writers say she has.

her facing hawkmoth alone for the final battle is supposed to be a sign of that growth—and yes, I can see how she has grown a lot in confidence and capability since her shaky debut as ladybug. but i also feel that her flying solo defies one of the central themes of miraculous: that in the fight against evil, good people need to stand together. just think of the difference between the s4 and the s5 finale. in strike back, ladybug is broken and sobbing because she has lost the miraculous and feels like a failure who is all alone. but then she is buoyed up by her faithful partner and all of paris, who express unbreakable faith in her and vow to stand by her side. that was so powerful! showing that she doesn’t have to be alone, and she’s not supposed to be alone, and that part of being a hero means accepting help and working with others to achieve good goals. this message was a major part of marinette’s character arc in s4 and it’s something that was introduced from the very beginning and has been supported over and over in the show. but then in “re-creation,” she has no team, and she doesn��t need one. which … good for her, I guess? But then why did we have 5 seasons of “you and me against the world” if in the end it was always going to culminate with “I'm sure we can figure out a solution if we work together. You … and me”—referring to Marinette and Gabriel, while Adrien is literally locked in a blank white prison hundreds of miles away?

it just really kills me that in kuro neko, adrien gave up his ring under the assumption that chat noir was not needed—that he was entirely useless to ladybug. and then the narrative proved him right. ladybug did not need chat noir to defeat monarch. she just needed his ring. the writers confirmed in their recent commentary that they had planned a bug noire fusion from the beginning, and they intentionally sidelined adrien so that could happen—they even had to figure out an excuse for why he wouldn’t be there. so they traumatized him with nightmares of destruction and fear of akumatization to ensure that he would once again give up his ring and conveniently remained locked away while bug noire faced down monarch alone.

you could argue that it’s better for adrien to have missed the final battle anyway, since facing his own father would just be even more traumatizing for him. i understand that. (that’s the reason i liked that in the owl house, it ended up being just luz vs belos, and hunter did not have to face him again.) but at the same time it feels so narratively unjust that chat noir—who has been fighting against hawkmoth by ladybug’s side since day 1—has zero part in seeing his mission through to the end. even though it’s all about him. because while marinette is the protagonist, adrien is the connecting piece of the whole story. it’s always been ladybug vs hawkmoth, and adrien is in the middle of them, because he’s both ladybug’s partner and gabriel’s son.

you’d think, logically, that as the connecting piece, Adrien’s decisions would be vital to the plot. That he’d have the power to tip it either way. but instead he is completely stripped of his autonomy—literally, because he’s a senti, and also symbolically in the narrative, because he’s simply removed from the equation. Like, he’s still central to the equation but he has no say in it. It’s all about him but he’s not even present. Everyone is fighting for him but he can’t fight for himself. Everyone is speaking for him but he doesn’t even have a voice.

the finale kind of sets up marinette and gabriel as narrative foils of each other, showing how they have the same motivation—to make adrien happy. and they make the same decision to protect that goal. which is interesting, sure, but also kind of effed up to me? i’m not sure what to take from the idea of the protagonist mirroring the antagonist in this way. that’s been done loads of times, but in this context, for a child audience, i don’t know what to make of it. what kind of message that is supposed to send to the children who are the primary audience of this show? ladybug is a good guy, and in the end, she’s just like the villain because they both love adrien and want to protect him. so that’s why she agrees to tell everyone the bad guy was a hero. ????

that gabriel/marinette parallel leaves adrien to parallel emilie, which makes sense and is fitting but also just sort of … depressing and again, lowkey effed up. that adrien ends up with the same narrative role as a corpse in a coffin. almost, like, macguffin-esque—a thing that motivates the agents of the story but has no agency itself. despite him being so central to both sides of the main conflict, his decisions don’t affect the outcome. because he doesn’t have the option to make any. because he’s not even present. both gabriel and marinette made a life-altering decision for adrien, thinking it was best for him, without considering that what’s best for him is to know his own story and make his own choices. him getting the rings was somewhat relieving, but it also felt like kind of a slap in the face. because it’s like, “look, adrien’s free! he has his amok and no one can control him anymore!” but, like, how free is a person who is living a lie? will he ever experience true autonomy, or will his life continue to be dictated by the decisions others make for him? will the narrative give him decision-making power or will his role continue to be symbolic?

one thing that makes this all extra dissatisfying is that Adrien literally does not have the option of getting closure with his father, because he’s dead. maybe a dramatic reveal in the middle of the final battle would not be the best way to go about it, but now he can’t have any sort of closure. in the owl house, it didn’t feel necessary for hunter to be present in the belos takedown because he already had his confrontation with belos in graveyard possession scene. belos tried to physically control him, and hunter broke free, and spoke his mind, and as traumatizing at is all was, it was good for him to be able to do that. it would’ve been so nice if adrien also had that opportunity. if he did break free from his father’s control, either by overcoming akumatization or the control of his amok somehow. or if not that, if he were just able to have one honest conversation with his father about emilie. like he did with his alt self in the paris special. it was so significant for the writers that bug noire detransformed and spoke to gabriel as marinette. why couldn’t adrien have done that? Marinette is the one to tell Gabriel that Adrien wouldn’t want him to make the wish and hurt someone else, that Adrien has made peace with his grief, that he has learned to cherish his mother’s memory without living in the past. wouldn’t that be even more powerful coming from adrien himself? if adrien was part of that final confrontation just as himself, we could even still have bug noire play a primary role.

i get that adrien being part of the battle is a risk, since we saw in chat blanc one option of how it could play out. but we also saw in the collector another potential way adrien might respond to learning that his father is hawkmoth—charging into battle by ladybug’s side. especially if he was given time to process the idea beforehand. it’s not impossible. you’d just have to compose the scene and its buildup a different way. so honestly it feels sort of lazy to just remove him for the sake of ease? and also sort of a waste of narrative potential? the villain being the father of one of the main characters is such an interesting plot element. imagine if luke skywalker did not ever face darth vader. if he never even learned that vader was his father. or if he learned that fact after vader’s death, which was the result of a confrontation he was not present for.

of course, i know adrien is not the protagonist. marinette is. and of course i want her to be empowered by the story. but i’m getting a little tired of what i see as kind of cheap feminism in ML. like, girl power for the sake of visibility so the writers can pat themselves on the back about it, if that makes sense? this show does have so much good feminist power with a strong female lead who has realistic flaws and a big heart, who overcomes self-doubt and other struggles, and who has proven time and again to be a smart, capable leader who has earned the trust of everyone on her team. but all of that sometimes feels undercut by the narrative treatment of adrien—like he has to be put down somehow to elevate marinette. ML has subverted gender roles in a lot of ways by having ladybug lead with her brain while chat noir follows with his heart. and adrien has a lot of other strong feminine associations—the focus on his physical appearance, the expectation of perfection and obedience, his soft and gentle nature, his romanticism, etc. And one of the biggest ones is all the ways he is trapped, all the ways he is pushed down and made to be submissive. they even depict him as a princess locked in a tower, with marinette as the knight in shining armor to save him from the evil dragon (his father). with adrien in that traditionally feminine role, it would have been empowering to see him to take a leading part in his own liberation. instead, he was locked away both literally and symbolically in favor of a solo bug noire confrontation, so marinette could look like a girlboss in her cool new outfit, taking on the bad guy all by herself, even when it would (imo) fit better with the themes of the show and her own character arc for her to fight alongside her partner. but as Thomas Astruc said, “She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?” (X) it just makes me feel that the writers cared more about the cinematic value and feminist brownie points of that battle than its narrative significance—which i feel could only be increased by adrien’s participation. “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing” … and that is all adrien was allowed to do.

i think a lot of fans at this point are just assuming that whatever feels dissatisfying/off will be fixed in s6. they’re trusting that the writers have a brilliant master plan that we just have to be patient and wait to see come together. idk, maybe i’m just tired. or a little jaded. i think there will be a lot to enjoy in s6, but i’m also prepared for disappointment. i honestly did not love many elements of s4 as well as s5, and i had expectations that weren’t fulfilled there either. i’ve felt let down by the writers many times now, so i expect that many of their future choices will not resonate with me. but i still love ML, and I am eager to see how everything will unfold. i’ve also read a lot of other analyses of the s5 finale, and there are great points being made on many sides. this is just my personal interpretation and opinion. i did not like the finale when i first watched it, and after sitting on it for months and trying to evaluate my feelings and look at it logically, i still do not like it lol. if you do, great! this isn’t intended as a personal attack on anyone—just me expressing my two cents, which ended up being more like $20. thanks for bearing with me if you read all this ✌️

#ml #mine #ml meta #ml re-creation #ml s5

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0daylighthours0 · 22 days

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My Mother's Unbiased Byler + Milkvan Opinions - Viewing ST for the 1st Time!

(UPDATE)

My Mama has now witnessed Stranger Things in its entirety. Her favourite season was the third, her favourite characters Hopper and Joyce, her favourite pairing would be those guys too, and her most disliked pairing? Can only assume.

I wanted to write out her thoughts on the second to last episode previously, as she'd held many, but before I knew it we'd finished the whole show and I was forced to an income of NEW opinions which ruled out my memory of any old ones. Shucks. But boy did this lady have much to say. The only way I can break it down is by providing a sample of quotes she'd delivered, in order, a day after having finished the series.

All are just things she said about milkvan and byler, as they're this post's main focus. There's simply much to say about these relationships too, being so up in the air over where they ought be expected to turn out. These are all direct quotes too (as I typed as she talked, unkown to her) so you'll have to excuse the natural way in which some lines come off as unfocused, being written after real time conversations. Let's get into it:

Ok I really don't know whether she likes Mike very much. She actively disliked the guy earlier on, and now her feelings appear to be more mixed. A lot of her discussion was solely around this guy's actions.

"It's almost like he's [Mike] forcing himself like- ok Hopper he was kind of very passionate and kissing, you know he sort of instantly- with Mike, from being obsessed and spending so much time with her [El], suddenly he starts cooling off more and more and suddenly- they even separated right? I mean yeah that was out of his control but he, but he didn't really seem like he missed her you know it's like he just got on with it."

This point caught me off guard. I don't know how much I agree with my mother on this. It made me realize that during Mike and El's separation, there weren't many quiet Mike moments in which he expressed worry for her, beyond a couple that blend into him simply having breakup concerns. Any time Mike mentions distress for her whilst she's away, his talk evolves into him simply anxious over the state of their relationship. As a group, everyone in our Cali gang clearly wanted to save Eleven, but Mike really should have gotten more heartfelt moments in solitude (that means without Will you suffer bros) in which it is demonstrated to the audience that he really does miss her, as someone who is in love. Her being away shouldn't simply come off as a writing excuse for him to vent to Will. There wasn't enough of that tenderness milkvan desperately needs, and if anything I watched was an attempt then it really wasn't translated well - never trumping everyone else's familial or close frienship-like fret for El, never showcasing his concern to come from a more personal place. I mean how hard is it to have him in her room, staring longingly at a photo of hers, with a background composed of soft music. Then literally leaving it at that. I mean that is it. No Will rushing in there to insist, "you can tell her that thing when you see her k? It'll all work out trust me ight, you're the heart you're the HEART!" que affectionate gazes, constructs a byler scene for no reason I guess .

"I mean how do we know that he missed Will? He articulated it. Why didn't he articulate this the same way to El?"

True. I mean the fact that I can't remember a moment after they find El in which milkvan ask oneanother how they are, and communicate how much they missed eachother, does indeed say something. They shared a hug and touch when they first reunited, which was gladly interrupted by Will. That pineapple + pizza thing was not long enough, or sensitive enough, to be their moment. There was clear bonding, but it didn't breach a level of romance and chemistry nearly decently. It's good that they got at least that, I mean we need to know that these guys are at LEAST really close friends. And then the camera just felt like panning over to Will about to burst into tears in a corner. Like huh? Bruv you've now made it so that milkvan's pizza bit leaves a bad taste in our mouths. If I were a milkvan I'd be furious.

"You know what, I think it's done purposefully to create that sort of cold, distant, confused, you know they wanted to make people say he's [Mike] bisexual. For people to question. They want to get people to think that."

My Mama believes writers intentionally soured milkvan for viewers to "confuse" audiences, build up anticipation, make them question milkvan's relationship and wonder if our main man will spin to Will. I agree. They want that good ol' triangle comeuppance.

"They really are trying to bring that across- so that people start thinking Mike, you know he doesn't love El, he loves Will. They're really trying to, make people think that. Giving them [milkvan] a really nitty gritty relationship."

Yup.

"When you're gay. Coming out like that it's- it's terrifying. You have to be very careful. And Will could, he could tell. You know when someone is attracted to you. I think, things became sort of- sort of complicated. And Will sensed, he could feel that Mike is attracted to him. And that's why he could open up like that. Because you can always tell. You know, you just know, so that's why Will was able to confess these things to him [she sees painting scene as a confession, whether Mike realized it or not, and so do I]."

Well damn Mama. And there you have it folks. My.. I'm not gonna call her the h word but.. my- notabigfanofgaythingsandwouldbehappytopretendtheydon'texist mother, perceives Mike as a homosexual kid, and just that. Well bloomin heck that's all the confirmation I need.

I didn't expect this as a turnout, I mean so particularly. My Mama actually didn't like byler - I think. Well. Bloomin heck. She actually enjoyed Vickie x Robin, and this shocked me to my core. I don't know whether this is simply due to her being a fan of Vickie's actress (recognizing her from Anne With an 'E'), but I do know that my mother has a bias in gay relationships and sees ones involving females as more "pure" than that of two males. So her language when describing Will has changed since her realization that he loves Mike for sure (which became undeniable in the van scene). She describes him as being 'obsessed' with Mike, and says writers really wanted to get that obsession across. I agree with Will having been one note during season 4, him hopefully having more time to shine in the approaching season, but I thoroughly disagree with him coming off as obsessive. I suppose our camera man displayed the guy's little glances at Mike so often that my Mama felt it was overdone, and unable to be ignored. I also think she's just avoiding use of the word 'love' when describing anything homosexual.

She still doesn't think Mike demonstrates how much he loves El enough to leave no room for debate. According to her, his moments with her seem surface level. Just as a reminder she does not know my thoughts. She watched that entire 'I love you' thing and still isn't secure in any genuineness of the guy. I believe she supposes that we're intended to acknowledge milkvan's romance, but also probe it.

I now wonder whether my Mama was good enough representation for the average audience, because she actually does own a bias - this being that she usually actively dislikes gay things. So I puzzle over whether her brain overanalyzed any of the boys' highlights, wanting to "expose" their homo intentions. At first things were up in the air, but it became clear that Mike did not pass her gaydar, he was simply too intimate with Will to make that pass. And this wasn't the case in other seasons, she never questioned their friendship til now. She also hasn't acknowledged any supposedly queer relationships besides rickie (vobin?) and byler, meaning that other fan favourites such as elmax, steddie, ronance and such else didn't stand out as gay to her. This doesn't signify those other relationships to not have a chance, I'm elmax's personal cheersquad, it's plainly clear that my mother didn't have a tendency to point at every same sex relationship and yell suspicious. Byler was purely undeniable. You can thank Will's love being canoned for this, otherwise noone would have a need to read into Mike.

I don't know whether she supposes byler to have a chance moreso than the milk in the van, even with Mike's ambiguity. It would seem that as of right now her guess is that watchers are intended to second guess both relationships in order to build up interest. However, she doesn't know how unlikely Will's love life is to turn out negatively seeing as those damn writers manipulated crowds into consistently sympathizing for him. Dunno about the rest of you but that sounds like good news to me.

I have no idea how to close this analysis. Is it an analysis? There's much more I want to say, much more she said, but I fear this to be too jam-packed and aimless as is. I'm writing a third part to my most recent milkthevan failing relationship deep dive, and that'll possibly consist of thoughts I wish to input after gathering so much data from my mother.

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disgruntledexplainer · 3 months

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It's kinda fascinating looking at the differences between Ben's and Rex's approaches to combat. I'm not talking fighting style, I'm talking about how they carry themselves, and interact with their opponents and bystanders.

Ben 10 is motivated to heroics primarily by his dislike of bullies, though it can sometimes be masked by his love of the limelight. he sees his opponents as bullies, picking on people who can't defend themselves in order to make themselves feel more powerful. in fact, almost all of his major villains fall into this category, including Vilgax, Kevin 11 (before redemption), Hex, Charmcaster, the Highbreed, and Agreggor. When Ben approaches combat, he approaches it as someone intervening in a schoolyard fight. He gets in between the aggressor and the victim, transforms into one of his more intimidating aliens even if it isn't the right one for the job, squares his soldiers, looks his enemy in the eyes, and demands that they redirect their aggression. He even uses phrases like "why don't you pick on someone your own size". He doesn't usually harbor any real ill will toward his opponent, but he wants them to stop what they're doing immediately.

The story of Ben 10 is the story of a kid who got bullied through much of his childhood, who suddenly gained the power to stand up to the bullies for the sake of other kids, and adults as the case may be.

Rex's approach to combat is a bit more complex, because he basically has 2 varieties of enemies, and thus 2 "modes"; hero mode and soldier mode.

The majority of Rex's opponents are EVOs. These are normal, regular innocent people who have become monsters through no fault of their own. To Rex they aren't bullies, they aren't even enemies; they are just innocent, sick, scared, and extremely dangerous people. Rex wants to help them, and indeed he really is the only one who CAN. But he can't let them hurt anyone else. Rex is also very conscious of his position, the fact that to so many people he represents hope of getting out of this dark time. When dealing with most of his foes, Rex first aims a blow at his target to knock them back and hopefully stun them, and then if there are any people in immediate danger he checks in on them quickly to see if they are OK. He might try to get them out of the area before engaging, or he might delegate that task to a nearby providence agent or less powerful hero as the case may be, but he usually checks regardless.

If he is convinced that everyone around him is at a safe distance, the show begins. He turns his cockyness and snark up to 11 and begins making aggressive, annoying moves to try to focus his opponents aggression on him. He projects confidence to everyone who can see him, to assure them that yes, he has everything under control, and everything will be fine so long as they follow his instructions. He carefully gauges how much punishment his opponent can take and only uses that much to take them down, even if it extends the fight. He will try to stun his opponent and cure them if possible, and if not he will hold them off long enough for Providence to come in and contain them.

By dramatic contrast, his other opponents are typically not just villains, but actual irredeemable psychopaths, the kinds who will maim, torture, or kill if it suits their purposes, or even just because it amuses them. In this case, as soon as Rex realizes what kind of opponent he is facing he switches "modes" almost instantly. He will immediately try to lure his opponent as far away from a populated area as possible, and if that isn't possible he will task providence agents or minor heroes to move everyone out as fast as possible. Then he fully switches to soldier mode. When in this mode, Rex's goal is to take his opponent down fast and hard, using lethal methods if necessary. Every second his opponent remains standing is an opportunity for that opponent to kill someone, so he has to take them down without hesitation. Just look at the difference in how Rex treats everyday EVOs compared to how he treats his main antagonists, like Van Kleiss or Quarry. He goes straight for the kill, sometimes without even saying anything if the opportunity presents itself. This is the result of his paramilitary background and painful experience.

anyways, these are my thoughts.

#ben 10 #generator rex #rex salazar #fighting styles

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ladyluscinia · 7 months

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Ok. Ok. Time to put my thoughts in order about S2 and we're starting at literally the first scene because whoo boy is there a lot going on that I like.

So. Stede's Fantasy Pirate Rescue aka this show having no illusions about Stede's fuck ups and where the story-driving conflict is coming from (*cough* Stede and Edward themselves *cough*)

It opens with what frankly a concerning amount of fandom seemed to view as the solution to all the problems of S1 - namely a Stede vs Izzy swordfight. Stede is really going all in on his dashing pirate hero fantasy. He has the beard. The sword skills. He gets his sword knocked out of his hand (again) but this time it ends on a witty one liner and stabbing Izzy with a concealed knife before artfully claiming his cutlass. He even dramatically kills him! And, villain defeated, there's Ed running through the surf to embrace him! Everything is perfect and wonderful and conflict free - and it all collapses back into reality with Wee John literally farting all over it.

Pete even openly mocks his moaning "Ed, Ed" in his sleep!

Because it's a fantasy! A ridiculous one at that! And the truly fantastical bit isn't even the reunion, or Stede's heroics. No... The part that's absurd, that even Stede can't make himself believe in his own subconscious mind, is that there's a convenient external villain to all of this and he and Ed can just pick back up where they left off.

Fantasy!Izzy and Fantasy!Ed are basically barbie dolls in this dream, but you can watch Stede's awareness that this is truly just a comforting fantasy slipping through.

Fantasy!Izzy gets cast as the villain because why wouldn't he? Stede has disliked him going back to that conversation at Spanish Jackie's where he basically offloaded a bunch of his own issues on this random pirate guy for having bad vibes, Izzy did betray him specifically to the Navy, and the last thing his crew would have been able to tell him about was Izzy ordering his stuff tossed and rowing them to an island (on Blackbeard's orders, but that's easy enough for Stede to ignore). He's even got him putting on a villain voice!

But the line. The only fantasy character line in this entire dream that connects with the situation in reality instead of sounding like stock NPC responses. Stede defeats his villain and The Villain / Fantasy!Izzy / Stede's subconscious looks up from his knees and reminds him:

"I never made you leave him. You did that yourself."

And Stede kills him for saying it! Goes back to the comforting script where he demands to know where Ed is and Izzy calls him a twat! Shut up, subconscious, Stede needs to rescue his damsel!

And his damsel barbie doll is so happy to see him! Fantasy!Edward's lines are the most disconnected, NPC babble. It's hilarious 🤣

Fantasy!Ed: "I knew you'd find me, babe"

Stede: "You're not mad?"

Fantasy!Ed: "I knew you'd find me, love"

Stede: "So we're good? About everything?"

Fantasy!Ed: "Fucking love the beard, mate".

Can I mention how much I love the repetition there? Zero engagement in the conversation, totally amps up the NPC vibe.

Stede is begging his own dream to reassure him that he didn't hurt Ed that bad, to tell him Ed will be so happy to see him it will fix everything, and he doesn't get what he's looking for. Because it's not true. The show in fact laughs in the face of that interpretation. Stede's making up a idealized "fix" (being a dashing hero) for the BlackBonnet relationship, and even Stede knows it's bullshit.

Edward and Stede's relationship issues and personal struggles have a bodycount this season (R.I.P. Ivan 😭) and it's immensely satisfying that so far no one is inclined to pull their punches on this fact or foist the blame elsewhere.

Not even Stede's subconscious!

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd 2x01 #stede bonnet ofmd #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #ofmd meta #ladyluscinia

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blood-orange-juice · 4 months

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ok so ive never properly played genshin and don’t plan to but i know a bit about it’s lore and characters and i think it’s really neat. however i have thousands of hours on ffxiv. on that note please explain why graha and childe are similar. i only have very basic knowledge on childe and i gotta know

Fellow ffxiv enjoyer. <3

(anyone asking me about G'raha has a 100% chance of getting a wall of text and I'm not apologising for that. enjoy your wall of text)

I'm not entirely sure I'm not a case of a person with a hammer to whom everything resembles a nail, but I do think they are the same archetype.

Sweet characters who could have been perfect sidekicks (who still are perfect sidekicks) but listened to too many epic tales as kids and found themselves in a wrong place at a wrong time and now have to play a key role in some universe-changing story.

Both are defined mostly by their stubborness, they are not very suitable for the roles they've chosen and fail over and over again until they do it somewhat right (barely).

No matter how badass they look, their power is not their own, G'raha is a glorified technician of someone else's miracle and little else than a living key, Childe wields an art of old Khaenri'ah without fully understanding it. It's all borrowed from someone else who needed them to achieve a goal.

They do look badass, but mostly because they larp. I'm honestly not sure which one enjoys theatrics more.

Civilisations that created the magic they use specialised in perversion of the natural order of things. They try to use it in relatively noble ways and mostly hurt themselves but the flavour is there.

Both are unbelievably tragic and both somehow make their stories seem almost lighthearted. Complete absense of self-pity. I think that's what makes them both so charming, it's a rare trait.

Both have an incredible capacity for loyalty and love and an incredibly twisted view of what relationships look like. "I'll cross time and space for you, I'll die for you, I'll build a city for you, I'll live for you but please don't ask me to share my plans." "I'll sacrfice my own health and respect of my subordinates to keep my brother's happyness, probably my humanity too, but don't expect me to actually interact with him."

Both have something that looks like self-sacrificial tendencies bordering on suicidality while being, if we are honest, a self-serving trait (partially born out of low self-esteem but still self-serving). They want to live in an old myth and sacrificing oneself is a perfectly reasonable price for that.

Huge egos. And I mean Huge Egos. It's a bit less obvious in Graha's case but I know the type, you see guys like that in PhD programs a lot.

Huge dorks. Both of them.

Both are stuck somewhere between human and non-human and, hmm... their ability to remain human is the most astonishing quality of both. By all accounts, neither should have. They somehow did.

Both are incapable of lying to the point where a third of each fandom headcanons them as autistic. Both are somewhat all right with tricking people without technically lying (although Childe had more practice).

Both are secretive because no one would understand anyway.

FF XIV is a kinder story, so it's easy to overlook, but technically G'raha is a case of body horror, accepts the role of a villain for a while and hides from the player way too much. Hmmm... Where else have I seen it. Hmm. Oh right. That ginger guy from Genshin.

Minor things:

Both are little shits and enjoy annoying the hell out of people they dislike.

Abysmally bad fashion sense. There should be a name for this particular type and level of bad. I don't think I've seen this anywhere else.

And then there's the colour scheme. Red+black+white+blue and red+black+light grey+blue (it's an "anime magician" color profile, I think. black-red-white as alchemy colours + blue as pure magic/something elemental). Childe doesn't quite fit but still the combination is rare.

They way they talk. Dear gods. Who the hell talks like that.

Here's where the similarities end.

One is morally grey but ultimately a good guy (technically. I think the point of ShB was that Emet and G'raha are almost the same), another is a morally grey but still (kind of) a bad buy.

At every step of his story Graha is surrounded by people who love or at least appreciate him, Childe is pretty much on his own and surrounded by people who are either shitty or clueless.

G'raha is kind. Truly and astonishingly kind, in a doomed world he chooses to love everything he touches. Silly little priest of hope. Of all the things he has done this is the most wondrous, I think. Not the time travel, not the city he founded, just being able to remain kind after everything that happened to him.

Childe is... well, Childe. I think he is a deeply decent person (to the point of having a visceral distaste for any kind of unfairness) and he's idealistic but he's indifferent more than he is kind. Empathy usually develops only when someone has shown the person empathy first and, as far as we know, he didn't have much of that in his life.

Also G'raha builds things. Childe breaks things. Childe breaks pretty much everything he touches.

One is an archeologist and a mage and another is a warrior.

I think these differences are caused mostly by the settings they were put into. Childe raised in Sharlayan would have been a very different person. G'raha trained by a voidsent and shipped off to Garlean military would look very much like Childe.

G'raha also has a beautiful character development arc. I love his ShB role. He has this huge ego in the raids and is insufferable and then we see an older and wiser him with a bunch of actual achievements and a bad case of impostor syndrome (trying to do anything real always humbles a person, we all know that real world is held together by sticks and scotch tape. honestly, this change alone is beautiful). And he gets to be an actual hero when he abandons all hope to be Important and resigns to die as a nameless villain if it saves everyone and spares his loved ones from heartbreak.

Childe's character development is yet to happen and I'm not hoping for much but we'll see.

The only difference that definitely isn't created by setting is that G'raha is naturally manipulative. In a kind-hearted way and mostly for the sake of better larp but he isn't that straightforward. Childe is spectacularly blunt for all his mysteriousness.

As a bonus, they both compare main characters to stars, but in completely different ways.

"No doubt your heroism will be the star by which I chart my course," says G'raha to the WoL.

Childe mentions the morning star, which is, of course, pretty and a good companion to a lonely traveler, but also it's not a celestial body you can chart your course by.

It's a guy whose signature weapon is called "Polar Star" and his first artifact set was full of nautical themes, so I think he fully understands what he's saying. "You are my friend but I won't change anything in my life for you."

So I don't think his story will be anything like G'raha's, his life took a different turn very long ago. I do think they used to be similar as kids, bookish boys who dreamed of adventure and being special. So it's fun to compare.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. <3

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