#& the characters w less than 3 lines had more personality that any of the main cast

[bibleofficial]

saw Poor Things earlier & there was a guy very loudly snoring during most of it & honestly ? yea

#stream #my bestie told me it was a comedy but like #girl #where was the jokes #is the joke ‘haha u shouldn’t talk about masturbating’ like … girl #ok #everything was just #SO ON THE NOSE #BORING #costuming ? they gave up at the hips #like #BLAND #the sets were nice though #& the characters w less than 3 lines had more personality that any of the main cast #BORINGGGGGGGGGG #my darling loved it though #so it wasn’t BAD i just thought it wasn’t. great #too much obvious sex like this isn’t meaningful in any way

[calextheneko]

Season of the Villains: The Forgotten One

Ok, going to admit it's pretty depressing that the idea I came up with to talk about villains all month and the series only has two posts. Will have to try again next year. Just, health has been a real struggle to do anything and most of the time I lay around just wishing the pain would stop.

But enough about real life things that suck. Time to get to fictional things that suck in a fun way!

So a bit of background before I introduce this villain. I'm a Forever GM when it comes to things like DnD and Pathfinder. Anyway after having run a lengthy Pathfinder campaign we were in the mood for something different. And not DnD of any edition cause it would be the same thing. Basically, we wanted to run a campaign in a setting that wasn't swords and sorcery. I wanted to run Mouse Guard, which I should have just used my GM override to say that's what they're playing. The rest of the party wanted to play Star Wars d20. So... Anyway, I bargained with them, and agreed to GM Star Wars under three conditions.

I got four sessions of Mouse Guard before we began Star Wars and they had to give it an honest chance. Lo and behold, even the guy who considered himself to manly to play Mouse Guard (lol at the fact that he's any kind of manly) admitted he enjoyed the game a lot and it was really good. So yay, if the game group had continued might have gotten a full campaign down the line but there were some problems with the group I can go over another time, mainly centering around two players who really hated each other that led to me just yeeting this group out the window eventually.

2. I would GM Star Wars, but I refused to set it in the modern era. If I was going to do Star Wars, I wanted to do the Old Republic. I found the setting infinitely more interesting than the modern era stuff and I really love that even the Sith Empire has a bit of nuance to it.

3. We're doing a primarily Sith campaign, because I wanted to do a campaign that involved Sith politics and power plays and not just 'You are destined to go defeat the bad guy.' I did say that after a certain point in the campaign they'd be given the freedom to leave the empire if they want and go see out the Republic to become jedi instead if that was what they wanted or become bounty hunters or anything, but the campaign was starting with all the force users as acolytes in the Sith Empire and the non-force users as mercs who had work in the Empire or were there for some other reason.

Anyway, that campaign is a heck of a story, but we're not here to recount the entire thing today, but instead talk about a villain meant to be a one off character who wound up taking the role of Main Villain for the entire campaign after a party member made some... Less than smart choices.

Introducing the Forgotten One

"I am the Forgotten One. My knowledge of the force and technology made me too dangerous to my people to be allowed to live but too valuable to kill. Instead, I was stripped of my name and identity and trapped in this prison for an eternity."

I sadly don't have any art for this guy.

BUT ANYWAY! When the party made a trip to Illum as part of their questline to build their lightsbabers. Or in the bounty hunter's case to get a crystal to power up his sniper rifle. They discover an old factory for mining crystals that has a strange structure built from force crystals, that turns out to be a powerful weapon that could be set to self-destruct and take out the planet. A bit of arguing here... See... The Star Wars party only had three people.

The Sith: Goal, become a Sith Lord, get a Dark Assembly set, master sith politics.

The Jedi: Despite being a sith campaign one person insisted no rolling a jedi. I allowed it under the condition he be flexible with his character since this was a sith campaign. After their original master is killed in the first section I also had them gain a new master through a holocron, someone who believed in balance in the force in life, and was willing to train them only under the condition they work together. His idea was that the light vs dark battles were tearing the article apart, and if he could train a jedi and a stih who could work as a team it would mean there was hope for peace for the galaxy if he could prove the two weren't incompatible. The Jedi will be the one ruining this guy's dreams and making all the bad decisions.

The Bounty Hunter: Non force user, wound up involved in the plot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and having a kill order put out on them with the rest of the party's original mentor when he was killed off at the start of the game by a sith lord named Darth Umbra trying to make a power play for the Dark Council by eliminating "traitors" and "heretics" within the empire. Naturally said traitors and heretics were always found among the people who opposed her ascension.

Sith tried to set the thing to blow the planet up because knew about another research time that was researching force crystals and to see if there was a way to make force based technology that non force users could use. Jedi got super upset about this and wanted to undo it but I pointed out he didn't know in character the sith had sabotaged the Force Crystal Engine. Meanwhile unknown to them both the Bounty Hunter had witnessed the sabotage and already warned the researchers about it so they could fix it. Ah, such a healthy party dynamic this is.

But that's beside the point, on Illis, they found a Rakata Mind Prison. Now anyone familiar with the Rakata know that they're bad news, and Mind Prisons are bad. Anything inside a mind prison is SUPER BAD NEWS. Especially when the thing inside is a Rakata Force Ghost.

And so enter the Forgotten One. No one in the party is smart enough to pass their knowledge check to recognize what they're looking at so the Jedi touches it and his mind is ripped out of his body and transported inside where he meets the Forgotten One, who immediately assaults the Jedi's mental self so that he can try to steal his body. This ultimately fails because... And get this... The sith, despite how much he hated the jedi out of character realized something was wrong when the jedi completely stopped moving after touching the mind prison, and went inside the mind prison on purpose to back him up. Together they were able to stop the Forgotten One from taking over the jedi's body.

So... The Forgotten One changes his tone, talks about how he was robbed of his identity by the other rakata who feared him for his knowledge. Leaves out A LOT of information about the actual why and how he was imprisoned. It wouldn't fit the narrative of trying to make himself out as a victim. And claims that he's basically gone insane after being stuck in this void for years and that he knew it was wrong but tried to take the jedi's body because he was driven to desperation to get out of this void and see the world again.

And he makes an offer to both the sith and the jedi.

"I know secrets of the force that are all but forgotten to both the jedi and the sith." This should have been a red flag that he was already able to probe the jedi's mind for enough information to find out some things about the jedi and sith and current world that he should have had no way of knowing and show that he wasn't trustworthy as was literally already chowing down on the jedi's memories for information from the battle they had before the sith rescued him.

Anyway... The rakata offers a deal.

"Take me with you. Let me ride as a passenger in the back of your mind just so that I might see the galaxy again through your eyes. I just don't want to be stuck here. In exchange I'll grant you access to all the secrets of the force I know. I can make you more powerful that you dreamed possible."

NOW! Here's the fun part. This whole force ghost Rakata thing was intended as a trap for the sith. Tempt him with the dark power he wants to become a mighty sith lord and get him possessed.

But here's the thing about the Rakata. They went so hard dark side they basically made the sith look like cuddly puppies. Want to know why Tatooine is a desert and the Sand People hate outsiders and technology? Because the Sand People were slaves to the Rakata, tried to fight back with tech, and rather than come down to the planet in person and put the rebellion down, the Rakata decided to glass the entire planet turning it all into a desert and just leave. The Sand People now live in fear of the outsiders bringing in outside technology and bringing back the wrath of the Rakata who this time will not stop at just leaving the place a desert.

It's wroth noting, that all Rakata who were still alive and active and not ghosts or inside mind prisons also got severed from the force. It's unclear why at least from the old republic games. I'm sure there's a novel spin off that explains it. But it seems to be that they went so hard dark side they broke the balance of the force to the point the force just severed their entire species as a result to stop them from using those dark powers.

So... Rakata are bad news. Rakata in Mind Prisons are even worst news.

So anyway, the party fails their knowledge checks. Seriously, none of you invested points in Int? And don't recognize what a Rakata is and the level of threat they're facing. But the sith listens to this and recognizes this as a clear Faustian bargain. And is like, yeah I'm not letting a ghost into my body that's just asking trouble for down the line. And so he refuses and since the Forgotten One has already been defeated inside the Mind Prison and can't take their bodies by force now I'm like and that's the end of that character.

And then the jedi asks a stupid question.

"Will these powers make me stronger than the sith?"

Me Mentally Out of Character: Wait is he really considering this?

The Forgotten One In Character "Of course, you'd be the strongest force user alive."

Jedi "But is this going to be dark side stuff, I don't want to use the dark side."

The Forgotten One "Light and dark are such naive ways of looking at the Force. The Force is the Force. Light and dark are illusions you come up with. It is a tool and what matters is how you use the tool."

RED FLAG WARNING! Surely there's no way after the Forgotten One dodges the question about dark side powers that the jedi would

Jedi "I accept."

Me Mentally: *gears grinding to a halt as I realize I now have to rework the entire campaign storyline to deal with the jedi being possessed by an evil Rakata force ghost because he wants to be stronger than the sith character due to their out of character rivalry.

So... The Forgotten One enters the Jedi's mind and rides in the back of his head, and they all leave the Mind Prison. The Forgotten One is now free from his prison. The Sith checks out what the jedi looks like under Force Vision and discovers two auras... And the second one a super heavy dark side aura that something about it is wrong that it makes even the dark side heavy sith uncomfortable to examine it.

SO YAY! Mistakes have been made!

Now that we got to how the Forgotten One got released... Let's talk about his goals and abilities.

The Forgotten One was imprisoned instead of destroyed because his knowledge was considered too important too destroy and thus they couldn't just kill him. But there was also a secondary reason. They didn't want this guy returning to the force either. Also, it turns out that he tried to take over the Infinite Empire (The Rakata Empire that ruled the entire galaxy, same one that glassed Tatooine) through the use of forbidden force techniques and slaying all rivals. Through a great battle with many other Rakata and they finally managed to trap him in a mind prison and left it on Ilum where they thought no one would ever find it and hoped that the need ever arose to consult him about his knowledge because he was considered that dangerous.

Why is he dangerous? Well... KOTOR2 fans are going to appreciate this one. He ate people. Not their literal bodies. But like the Exile and Darth Nihilus he possessed the ability to consume people through the force, absorbing their power and making himself more powerful. This was how he became such a large scale threat by consuming more and more Rakata in the past.

And of course, he still has that power now. He's patient. He's waited thousands of years in his prison so he's patient enough to wait for the right time to tempt the jedi further. Waits for the jedi to be in a dire situation where the risk of character death exist. The player is kind of a wimp and freaks out anytime their character is actually challenged in combat, complaining about the CR being too high forgetting that combat is supposed to challenge them not be a cakewalk. I adjusted the CR to fit the strength of the party rather than their level. Anyway... When the jedi feels threatened and fears for his life in a battle against an apprentice of Darth Umbra (who you may remember as the original big bad at the start of the campaign) the ghost offers to save the jedi. Asks to be unleashed just for a few minutes so he can win the battle.

RED FLAG

The jedi agrees. The Force Ghost takes complete control of the jedi's body, makes a single gesture and the sith apprentice just falls to the ground and stops moving. Then the Forgotten One surrenders the body back to the Jedi, knowing now is not the time to make the power play to take control for real. And instead pretend he's keeping his part of the deal.

As for the body of the now defeated sith. It's still very much alive. It's breathing. Pulse is normal but slow as if they were asleep. They basically come off as asleep or comatose. Until the party sith checks out what the enemy sith looks like under force vision. And he learns two things. The enemy sith is just gone as far as the force is concerned. There's no aura at all. The body is alive, but the force that should run through all things is just gone. And the sith is naturally disturbed by the fact someone could basically just do the Star Wars equivalent of eating someone's soul, and do it so effortlessly. Then he checks force vision on the jedi and the Rakata again, and find that the Rakata aura has grown bigger. The Rakata didn't give the power he consumed to the jedi. He kept it for himself.

This would become a running theme, anytime the Forgotten One was allowed to let lose. His methods were cruel and the fates he gave arguably worse than death. When interrogating someone for information, he forcefully entered their mind and forced them to relive their worst most traumatic memories, with injuries from the day that traumatized then reappearing on their body as they rexperienced the memories till they broke and told him everything he wanted to know. And of course, he ate a lot more people, growing stronger and stronger... Until the Forgotten One's Aura looked like a massive dark aura surrounding the jedi with what appeared to resemble marinette strings as part of his aura running from his aura to the jedi's aura. It's pretty clear at this point he believes and treats the jedi as his puppet. Also every time the jedi unleashes the Forgotten One he gets a dark side point. You'd think this would be enough to make him realize the guy isn't his friend. BUT NOOOOOPE! And since the Forgotten One is inside of him he can't clearly examine its aura and see what is happening, and the Forgotten One has at this point began secretly influencing his mind with me making secret rolls for things so that the jedi would be blind to the darkness growing inside of him.

And here's the thing about how the Rakata worked manually. It could attempt to take over the jedi's body, manipulate his mind or force him to do something. If it did so the jedi got a will save. But the more people the Forgotten One consumed the higher the DC became to resist him. And... Each dark side point the jedi gained gave him a stacking -2 penalty to his will save. The Forgotten One is playing the long game, and allowing the jedi to think he's in control. When the Forgotten One tries to come out in a battle under the justification of 'self-defense' and the jedi doesn't want him to he makes a will save to suppress the rakata. He thinks he made his save because wisdom is his best stat and will his best save. In reality, the Rakata is pretending to lose to his willpower to give the jedi the illusion he's in control. By this point the Rakata has become so powerful because the jedi refuses to stop letting him off the leash, and as a result the jedi has been tainted by so many dark side points it's virtually impossible to make the save with anything other than a nat 20. All he had to do was STOP LETTING IT EAT PEOPLE and he wouldn't have had those dark side points or had the DC shoot so high up.

So we've talked a bit about the Forgotten One, and how he's gaining power and manipulating the jedi, but not his end goal. So what is it he wants? Well, he sees in the modern day (Well Old Republic era) that the Rakata are basically gone from the galaxy as a force. So, he wants to complete what he originally started. Become the ruler of the Infinite Empire that rules the entire galaxy. So his plans are basically to ride out the jedi until he's ready to take the body for himself so he has a body, infect others with a dark side mind control plague to become his followers, create a new Infinite Empire under his control and conquer the entire galaxy and become the sole all powerful rulers.

So world conquest. A basic, but always fun goal for a villain to have. And once he conquered the entire galaxy he would then turn his attention to outside the galaxy.

Also, I mentioned a Dark Side Mind Control Plague. So anyway, the sith and the bounty hunter recognize that this ghost is a problem and needs to be dealt with. And so outright tell the jedi this and that if he won't get rid of it they will. Which means the force ghost here this.

So what does the Forgotten One do? Well at this point he's powerfule enough to split his essence in two. Remember the body of the sith apprentice to Umbra? The party had it in their med bay for the entire campaign. One night while the party is asleep he splits a part of himself off and has it use the escape pod to run off in that sith's body since it's completely empty and nothing there to fight back. Doesn't need as much power to manipulate it so can basically keep it as a secondary body he can operate remotely while keeping the jedi as his main body. But if the jedi dies he has a secondary body with his essence installed in it to immediately travel to and make his main host.

Now... The Sith and Bounty Hunter are having none of this once they realize what happened. They track the escape pod and realize it was picked up by a space station. As they had been building a power base for a war with Umbra they had built up several pirate connections to use in place of lacking a proper Sith Empire Armada. So they sent their pirates to lock down the space station and make sure no one gets in or out until they can get there to deal with the escaped force ghost.

The jedi misses a session and we have an excuse he's gone for special training. So, the sith and the bounty hunter take this chance to go to the space station themselves while the jedi is away and they won't be observed by the Forgotten Run. Things are strange when they get there, and the station is literally on fire.

First off, they find the body of the sith apprentice. And this time it's not only empty but the body is dead again. They correctly deduce that it moved on to another host. But they run into a problem.

Force Zombies.

Basically a bunch of the random citizens of the colony act as if they're in a daze and don't understand anything said to them. But then all start trying to kill the party. And despite the fact they should have all been non force users, they were throwing out things like Force Lighting.

And when the party examines them on Force Vision, finds basically a little seed of darkness planted in them that matches the Forgotten One's Aura.

Dark Side Force Mind Control Plague.

The party meets up with the resistance inside the station still fighting back, and is told not to go to sleep. Because when you sleep is when it gets you and you change. The leader of the resistance helps them track down the current host body, who is inhabiting the body of a small girl and building some kind of antennae that the party figured out would actually allow him to extend his force powers to broadcast them to far away planets and influence them from afar to repeat what he's doing here.

Party kills the host body even though it's a little girl as basically learns the hard way these people are already dead. They're just hallowed out shells to be used as puppets by the Forgotten One. Then they destroy the antennae and make sure it's destroyed to a point it can never be rebuilt.

At that point, the Sith, who is now a Sith Lord with some political standing, forcefully recruits all the survivors of the event into his power base. To which there is surprisingly little push back from.

RED FLAG!

He thought it was because they were grateful. In reality, it was because the little girl was not the real host body. It was the leader of the resistance who was. But also knew they wouldn't leave till they thought they had destroyed the secondary Host Body and so created a cover story. In addition, the reason people change when they fall asleep is they've already been infected with the mind control plague. Once they're asleep they lose the ability to fight back being unconscious making it the opportune time to take over. So, the secondary Host Body AND a bunch of infected civilians join the Sith's power base.

And naturally, they start to secretly spread the infection among as many people as possible. Considering multiple stations on different planets each with their own population and them not limiting the plague to just the sith's power base. It's not long before they have millions or even billions infected. But, they keep the mind plague inert, waiting for the opportune time to activate it. After all, if they activate it right away, the party will realize they failed. Better to activate it when they have enough people to recreate the Infinite Empire in numbers. But this time, the empire shall become a single person who has complete control of all the bodies and minds of its members.

So how does this go for the jedi? Well the Forgotten One knows the sith and bounty hunter will tell the jedi what happened. So before that can happen, he tells the jedi that he needs to tell him something, about the atrocities committed by the rest of the party. He shows the party gunning and cutting down civilians at the colony including children. But edits the vision he shows the jedi to leave out the part they were all puppets to make it look like they just killed random innocent people. Something that would be even out of character for the sith but

Jedi: Ok I believe you.

Wow, I almost feel bad at this point cause he's making it too easy for this villain to just take over. The Forgotten One then explains that all he wanted to do was create a secondary host body and hide it somewhere away from the party and that's all he did. Just hide. A blatant lie. But he points out the party was planning to try to find a way to destroy him, which was true because he's freaking ridiculously over the top evil, and so he had only made a spare body as a safety measure and definitely hadn't done anything evil or questionable with it.

Jedi: Ok I believe you.

The party and the jedi meet up again, and the party tells the jedi what really happened. He refuses to listen to them because the party sith is a sith and therefore he can't trust him. No instead he's going to trust the obviously evil dark side force ghost inside his head. Even after at this point having caught it in a lie multiple times about various things it said it was doing or not doing.

So... Anyway the party encounters actual jedis at one point who freak out upon seeing the party jedi because they've never felt so much darkness before. The jedi insists he's light sided and a jedi. With the amount of dark side points he has being in the teens... That's laughable. Might have even hit twenty. Jedi demand if he's really a jedi that he disarm and come with them to be healed of whatever darkness is in them, ghost isn't having any of that, and fully take control of the jedi's body to defeat and consume all of the jedi.

So you know you'd think at this point it would be really obvious he needs to get rid of this thing. But no, that's not that makes him finally decide to get rid of it. It was the amount of darkside points. See, in order to be consider a fallen jedi your dark side points have to exceed your wisdom score. Since he had been pumping wisdom all campaign he was able to get like 20 dark side points without turning. That means 20 times he committed an evil action beyond redemption. This isn't even counting the times he did something screwed up like shoot an unarmed party member who he randomly decided was evil cause said party member killed an enemy unit that was fleeing to get reinforcements in which I let things slide and often with the "I'll withhold the dark point you should get with this action if you stop arguing about it." So he honestly should have already fallen but I was lenient when I really shouldn't have been.

But he finds himself in a troubling situation. His dark side points are now equal to his ridiculously high wisdom score. This means a single dark side will render him as fallen and block out all the light goodies he wanted. So... He finally... FINALLY! Considers that maybe it might be time to get rid of the ghost. Purely for meta reasons of not wanting to ruin his light side build instead of the 50 million in character reasons he has.

Luckily, I had a whole redemption plot planned where he could get rid of the ghost. The party was advised to go to Voss for healing. Now, he was told the ghost was so ingrained into him removing the Forgotten One would permanently de-power him. Chasing power is what got him into this mess. He had to be willing to take a loss of power in the form of -2 con in order to get rid of it. Then, he would have to do a ritual where he would enter his own mindscape, be confronted by his internal demons before finally facing off against the Force Ghost itself and trying to kill it in his mind to be rid of it.

There were a couple of fun twists planned here. One of them, was that if he killed the Forgotten One inside of him, the Forgotten One would survive by making Darth Umbra its main host. She was of course attacking the party's power base and occasionally capturing people and the backup body had used this as a chance to infect her. So the two villains competing for main villain would have become one.

The other twist, was I told the jedi he could get weaker for doing the ritual. What I didn't tell him is he would also get stronger. I had a reward for him, where he would learn a special Force Shield technique that would effectively make him immune to all mind effects. It was also going to be very important in the ending... Because he would have been able to use the Force Shield on the Forgotten One in whatever host body they were in, trapping it there and cutting it off from its connection to all the people it had mind controlled and made into part of him, saving them and trapping teh Forgotten One in a body he can't escape from thus killing the body would kill him.

Now it's very important I didn't tell him about this reward in advance. The point was he had to be willing to let go of power to complete the ritual and defeat the Forgotten One. He had to believe there was no reward beyond being free of the ghost. As a result, if I had told him about the Mind Shield in advance he would have known he was getting an awesome new power and had that be his motivation instead.

Anyway... This is where our Jedi's story ends. Because he's stupid.

He's told he will not survive his mindscape alone and quickly be overwhelmed by his personal demons unless he brings friends with him that he can trust. His other issue in this campaign is refusing to trust his fellow party members even when they're helping him despite him acting more evil than the sith. Also I'm not spending 6 hours running a solo adventure for him. The entire party gets to come.

He refuses to bring the party. Is told both in and out of character if he goes into the mindscape alone he will die. Literally told over ten times counting both in and out of characters being told.

But he says he can't trusts the party so goes in alone, and dies. And then gets mad at me for not balancing the encounters right and I'm like no the encounters for balanced fine. For the entire party to be there. You went in solo to take on a dungeon intended for the entire group despite being told it would get you killed.

So, the jedi's spirit is destroyed. The Forgotten One takes full control of his body and steals the party's starship and flies off to finish his plans.

He would later return as the final boss after Darth Umbra was defeated, revealing that he had been using Umbra as a pawn after her infection to rebuild the antennae on an old Rakata station after the party destroyed the last one.

The party and the Forgotten One fight, and with all the power it absorbed over the cmapaign while living in the jedi, and then even more power absorbed once it had the body to itself to be free to do what it wants it's a powerful foe that would put the entire dark council to shame. The party is now facing a threat that is on par with the Emperor itself.

Somehow, the party turns the tables, and starts to squeak out a win. But the Forgotten One then warns them. It's still connected to everyone that it infected including the ones that the mind plague is inert in. If the party strikes him down, his final actions will be to activate all the inert mind plagues joining everyone with him so that billions of people die, including people the party cares about and much of their own power base if they strike him down.

The party considers briefly, but decides that they have to do it despite the cost. Because those people are already basically dead if he lives as soon as he decides to activate the inert mind plague and chooses to strike him down. Sure enough, true to his word, billions throughout the galaxy instantly drop dead. But the nightmare is finally over.

The party blames the deaths on Darth Umbra, and the super weapon she was building. Which was only a half lie since the super weapon was the force antennae that would allow him to project his powers to a much greater range. And they are forced to dispose of the body of the jedi that the Forgotten One had been riding in, putting the body of their former friend to rest even if he never treated them like friends.

But though the Forgotten One is dead, the impact he left on the galaxy will never heal. Billions dead. Several traumatized, and entire worlds with their infrastructure in tatters things to the people in charge of running things dropping dead. The party has won a victory, but one that came at a heavy cost.

And all because a single jedi refused to turn away from power.

#Halloween #Season of the villains #Star Wars #StarWarsd20 #DnD #Rakata #Forgotten One #Force Ghost #Mind Prison #Jedi #Sith #Bounty Hunter #Table Top RPG #RPG #Sometimes Players Make Really Stupid Choices And You Can Do Nothing But Let Them Play Out

[carneflower13]

perceives those character questions... how about ur man seymour anddd.. homura. variety. you don't gotta do both if you don't want

SEYMOUR!!! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH <3

favorite thing about them: Oh god do I have to pick just one thing?? I love his hair, I love his glasses, I love his clothes, I love his voice....I love how sweet he is to Audrey and to his plants <3 I also love how he was immediately convinced to kill orin when he saw him hurting audrey like YESSSSS KING!!! THE GUY SURE LOOKS LIKE PLANT FOOD TO ME!! He is also so SO sopping wet and pathetic and that only makes me love him even more.

least favorite thing about them: NOOOOOO I CAN'T SAY ANYTHING I DISLIKE ABOUT HIM I LOVE HIM TOO MUUUUUCH

favorite line: "Hi, Audrey! You look radiant today~ <3" OR "Twoey, that's disgusting." OR "You watch your language!"

brOTP: i guess him and twoey but only in AUs where twoey is actually nice and isn't trying to eat the world. I would like for him to have more actual people to be friends with!!

OTP: Him and Audrey, obviously. Literally they made me believe love is real <3

nOTP: Seymour/Twoey or Seymour/Orin. He does not deserve that kind of suffering.

random headcanon: He has autism (just like me!) and his special interest is plants/botany, specifically weird and exotic plants (His monologue in "da-doo" could be interpreted as him infodumping). Also, he's prone to sensory overloads bc he gets overwhelmed easily ;w;

unpopular opinion: hmmmm. idk. i think some people give him too much credit for his actions. some people like to act like he was some secretly fucked up mastermind from the beginning but he's literally Just Some Guy who was talked into killing people by a giant plant bc his life sucked and as far as he knew, he didn't have any other chance to make things better. he was living in poverty and stuck in a dead-end job. he was desperate. did he make mistakes? yeah of course he did. but like. idk. i feel like everything was more twoey's fault than seymour's.

song i associate with them: "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" by Paul Anka. Its from around the same era the movie takes place in and I can picture him singing it for whatever reason.

favorite picture of them: LISTEN i have a whole folder of pictures of this man its impossible for me to pick just one BUT:

this recent addition to my collection is pretty cute <3 he looks soft i just wanna kiss his cheeks and give him a big ol hug

aaaaaand now homura

favorite thing about them: SHE IS LITERALLY SO COOL. I like that she seems cold and distant but is actually feeling SO MUCH beneath the surface. I also like when she uses her guns or her time-shield thingy. OH and the sassy little hair-flips she does sometimes!!! ALSO she kicks kyubbey's ass all the time it's great. I also have a weakness for characters who have distinct "before" and "after" personalities (Homura's being her shy pre-magical girl/time loop self and her serious self that we see for most of the series)

least favorite thing about them: Her whole deal at the end of Rebellion is kind of weird I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it (I think the main series ended on a well-enough note) but her demon design is still pretty cool. Also she kind of gets into Madoka's business a lot like showing up at her window in the middle of the night?? It's funny but also girl what the hell are you doing?

favorite line: Uhhh I don't remember any of her actual quotes from the series so here's one from the legendary video Meduka Meguca: "MEDUKA DON'T GOOOOOOOOO"

brOTP: I feel like if her and Mami had a better, less antagonistic relationship they could be good friends.

OTP: Her and Madoka of course! <3

nOTP: I have no idea.

random headcanon: She is autistic and also a lesbian to me <3

unpopular opinion: ummmmm i don't know lol i don't really interact with the pmmm fandom much

song i associate with them: "In the End" by Linkin Park. I'm pretty sure I saw an AMV with her set to that song way back. Plus, the lyrics fit her situation pretty well

favorite picture of them: This one speaks to me

#jess speaks #seymour krelborn #homura akemi #answered asks #this was fun ehehehe >:3

[dreamyinception-world]

Black and Blue: Chapter 9

Genre: College!AU + Sugar Daddy/Sugar Baby!AU, Con Artist!AU, Smut, Angst, Light Fluff

WC// 11.1k (I KNOW)

[18+ content ahead, please read with caution]

Series Tags: Con Artists, Smut, Mental Health Issues, Stalking, Financial Instability, Established Sexual Relations, Blood, Gore, Violence, Sugar Baby, Sugar Daddy, Rimming, Blow Jobs

Summary: Everybody has their own secrets, some more damning and horrifying than the rest. For college best friends San, Wooyoung and Yeosang, their personal lives are nothing less than intense with each other's pasts crossing into their present day lives. All three of them are desperate for a life in which they will all finally have some peace and stability. The question is: how far are they willing to take it?

----Previous chapter---- ----Next chapter----

ch t//w: This chapter contains the following topics: mentions of prior assault towards a main character, emotional manipulation, hacking, blackmail, and revenge porn. If these topics are triggering for you or towards anyone that you know, please refrain from reading! For those who choose to continue, please proceed with caution and care. Your mental is worth more than anything.

ch s//w: fingering, 69, hair pulling, crying during sex (blissful, happy tears yer), hickies, rimming, blowjob, slight overstim, barebacking, creampie, power play (guess that’s what you could call what yunho does idk bro), slight praise kink (squint and you’ll see it)

~writer’s note~: ello, its kira. goddamn this took me more than two weeks or so to finish but fuck here we are. never have i written this much but huzzah we did it, gang gang. if there are any t/w topics that i missed, please message me so i can update them. i only know the major ones but there may be smaller ones that i’m not thinking about. don’t be afraid to reach out. i want everyone to feel seen and safe <3

[Taglist will be posted at the bottom! If you would like to be added, please feel free to message me and let me know. **Please be noted that no minors/underage people will be added to the taglist. Most of my work is 18+. If I find out you asked and you are underage, you will be blocked, no warning given**]

~x~

|| This chapter will be told from mostly Yunho’s POV using 3rd person. ||

~x~

“Mr. Jung?” 

“Come in!” 

There was a small shuffle of feet, the door opening slowly cracking open. A rather small girl walked in. Yunho looked up from his computer with a smile. “Ah, Chaeyoung. Do what do I owe the pleasure?” His voice always had a way of coming out sweet like honey, even when he was slammed with work. 

He could never be compared to any other head department leader within the whole company. While being serious and stern when he has to be, he supports his teams. Anyone who is struggling to make ends meet, Yunho helps to carry them the rest of the way through their side of the project- alongside dealing with his own work. 

Communicative, passionate, and kindhearted- these were all terms that made him so well liked while simultaneously being hated.

After shutting the door, Chaeyoung’s heels quietly danced across the tile floor until she was a few feet in front of Yunho’s desk. Pulling her iPad from under her arm, she looked at the screen. “You have been requested for a meeting with a..Son Youngtaek from the corporation known as HID.”

“HID?” He tilted his head.

“Heurit Inceptx Destiny is the full name.” Chaeyoung scrolled through the screen. “I took the liberty of doing some research on them, for your convenience.” She handed the iPad over respectfully before taking a step back, her eyes falling a bit from shyness. “I hope I wasn’t crossing a line.” 

“No, of course not.” He began scrolling through the information with his eyebrows furrowed lightly. 

The description of the company was extremely vague, at least from what was given by the requestor and what was found online. It read as a simple production-consumption business. However, all of the details weren’t exactly clear. Neither was the main goal/purpose of the company. 

“There wasn’t a lot of information that I could find. It seemed that some of it had been wiped off of the internet after some time. However, without much background information or evidence, the company claims that we have infringed on their company production through some sort of investment?” Chaeyoung held the same level of confusion as was on Yunho’s face. 

Yunho handed the iPad back to her, eyebrows pulled together harder than before. 

“Should I decline? We really don’t know anything about them, nor can we get any more information from them. We can’t even clarify if their claims are real or not.” Chaeyoung’s composure tighten, almost feeling insulted by someone daring to request to see Yunho without the slightest bit of information-

“I’ll meet with them.” 

Chaeyoung’s face went from frustrated to confused and completely stunned. “I’m sorry, what?” 

“Send them an email back saying I will meet with them, if they are serious and have ample evidence of my connection to their company, within the next hour.” Yunho leaned back with his hands folded in front of him. “If they cannot provide that, then I will not meet with them. That is my deal with them. Surely they can understand that by requesting to come here.” 

Chaeyoung stood there for a minute with concern on her face, unsure if it would be appropriate to provide her opinion in the position she was in. 

“Chaeyoung?”

“Y-Yes sir?” Chaeyoung perks up, eyes still laced in worry.

“I appreciate your concern. If anything goes wrong, you will be the first person I contact- as a matter of fact.” Yunho went into his desk and pulled out a small device with a button attached to it, standing up and handing it to Chaeyoung.

“What is this?”

“It’s an emergency sensor. I’ll have one too in my pocket. If anything happens, I’ll press it.” He leans down a little in her face, not enough to invade her personal space. “Does that suffice?”

Chaeyoung took a moment to compose herself, though her burning cheeks lingered behind, before nodding quickly. “Yes, sir. I will also make sure the security is on standby.” She tucked the iPad under her arm and bowed quickly. “I’ll leave you to your work now.” She left the room swiftly afterwards.

A small sigh left his lips once he was alone in the silence of his room, normally comforting him but in this moment it made him feel even the slightest bit of stress. Yunho returned to his desk and tapped his fingers lightly against it, his face remaining neutral whilst his eyes had a burn within them. 

“Hm..”

~x~

If Yunho was being honest, he didn’t expect this Son Youngtaek to have evidence and information prepared within an hour. 

Most who have tried to throw such heavy accusations at him came up with vague claims and evidence with so many holes in them that you could barely call it argumentative. Yet, Yunho would still give them the time of day to present their case and come to some sort of resolution to whatever issue he was able to see and seek closure. 

That was with businesses that he had long time connections to. This was a different scenario altogether. 

With every ounce in his being, Yunho was prepared to remain professional in his decline to any sort of meeting ground with the company if he saw there was no issue. If they truly found a problem with it afterwards, they should have no problem taking him to court over it in which then they would be able to try again in gaining more evidence about this “infringement” they speak of. 

Yunho walked with a small stride, eyes closed with two tall and built men walking closely behind him. Chaeyoung led the way with her iPad clutched tightly to her chest. They had taken their time to make this meeting as civil and professional as possible. However, the assistant couldn’t help the bead of sweat that rolled down the left side of her face at the thought of this situation potentially getting ugly. 

Remain calm. That’s what he told me to do. Remain calm and if he needs my help he will call me. Be professional. She let out a small sigh as they reached the door, standing on the opposite side. Eyes fierce and unwavering, her voice projected calmly. “We’re here, sir. They should be in the room now. If you are in need of any assistant, please don’t be afraid to contact me.” 

Yunho’s eyes opened, relaying the same fire as they did earlier, softened by his warm smile. He nodded towards Chaeyoung before looking straight ahead, the two double doors opening to the conference room. 

Inside, a smaller man sat alone in the middle area of the dark wood round table. His glasses were perched perfectly on his nose as he read through the documents in front of him. His black suede blazer had been discarded on the back of the chair next to him, his red dress shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows neatly. No one else resided in the room besides him, something that initially stunned Yunho upon stepping inside. 

Never not once had he met a businessman who was not accompanied by some sort of bodyguard or assistant.

“Ah.” Youngtaek looked up from his notes, standing and smoothing off his pants. “My apologies, it was a little warm in here so I took off my jacket.” His eyes were sharp, taking note of Yunho’s expressions and body language.

“No need. The air conditioning system has always been a little faulty due to the building being old.” Only the small corners of Yunho’s lips curved up. The two men met halfway and shook hands out of politeness, although it was obvious that there was tension between the two. “Jung Yunho. But I’m sure you are already aware of this since you were the one that sent the email, I presume?” The sound of the door closing to the room drew Youngtaek’s attention. Especially with the presence of two larger men at either door. 

“Yes.” His voice trailed off slightly as he examined the two before looking back at Yunho with a neutral expression. “Son Youngtaek. I’m here on behalf of the CEO of HID, who unfortunately couldn’t make it due to other business meetings he had to attend today. He extends his sincerest apologies, otherwise he would have come himself.” 

“That’s not necessary. As a businessman myself, when duties call you must answer them.” Their hands moved back to their sides with Yunho motioning for the two of them to sit down at the table. Once they were both comfortable, he let out a small sigh, smiling a bit wider. 

The boy across from him was certainly well put together. The company must own some form of money in order for him to be able to afford that type of attire. Prada. 

Wearing something so exclusive and yet I’ve never heard of you or your company before. Hm.. Yunho thought to himself, bringing his eyes to Youngtaek from the sound of his papers tapping on the table. 

“I suppose we shouldn’t beat around the bush here. I don’t intend on wasting your time by any means so I will keep my words clean and rather short, with leaving room for any explanations or clarifications you would like for me to make.” He folded his hands neatly on the table in front of him. Yunho held back a snort and nodded his head. A little bit of pretentiousness as well. Very interesting..

“Go right ahead. I’m in no rush. You have my full attention.” 

At the word, Youngtaek removed some papers from his small stack and placed them in front. Not to read off of them, merely to have them in his line of view. Deciding to stand instead of sitting, he slowly rose from his seat, palms flat on the table with a small exhale from his mouth. He straightened himself fully before speaking. 

“As I’m sure you were made aware of in your email, we have contacted you today in regard to an investment that you have made that has caused an issue within our corporation.” He kept his eyes low, moving away from his seat to walk along the walls of the room. Youngtaek’s eyes glanced over the paintings on the wall as he spoke. “But I suppose I should start with what our company does and why your involvement has become such an issue to us.” 

That would be the smartest and most logical thing to do, yes. Is what Yunho wanted to say. But that was not the professional aura and attitude he held within his own office. Instead he let out a small hum and continued to hold his polite smile. “Please, if you don’t mind.” 

Youngtaek continued his small stroll around the room, running his fingers along the edge of the wall as he spoke. “Heurit Inceptx Destiny is a supply and demand based company specializing in music distribution and production. Our recruitment process is handled by our demand or donors, as we refer to them as.” He stopped at the window and stared out onto the street below, watching as children crossed the street with their parents. “To put it in simple terms, our donors make selections of who they want to be a part of our team. In even simpler terms, those donors can be anyone that is in connection to our company, even the members themselves.” He turned himself back to face Yunho, noticing the confused look that was laced all over his face. He might have thought Youngtaek wouldn’t pick up on the slight smugness to his expression, but the boy decided to tuck this in the back of his mind. 

“I would think that would be a conflict of interest.” Yunho’s tone was neutral. 

“How so?” 

“Well,” The brunette leaned back in his chair, one leg folded over the other and hands in his lap. “If you were to allow people within the corporation to donate, their funding would go straight back into your pockets. In the end, they would basically be receiving their own money back, maybe even nothing at all. Financially, that would be like conning your own members out of their money.”

Youngtaek couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, one that made Yunho’s eyes narrow for a moment. The boy covered his mouth before waving it off. “My apologies. I just..” He faux wiped a tear from the corner of his eye before straightening himself, facial expression fallen. “Find it surprising how one dimensional you imagine a workplace like this to work. As a person who holds such power, I would have expected a better answer than that.” 

Yunho’s eyebrow twitched, jaw set. “Enlighten me, then.” 

“Gladly.” Youngtaek turned, looking out the window again. “While it may be perceived to others as us taking advantage of our members and their money in order to fill our own pockets. It’s quite the contrary.” He tapped his finger lightly on the glass. “Donating within the company allows you to achieve higher positions. Once you’ve reached a certain threshold, we will grant you permission to move up within the company. These all come with perks, of course, one of them being other business connections.” 

“So by obtaining said business connections..?” Yunho questioned. 

“Their social status will rise. Then, it won’t matter how much money they have, they will be worth more than what they earn.” Youngtaek answered.

His curiosity definitely peaked at this point. However, Yunho did not want to stray from what the point of this meeting was supposed to be. “Pardon my rudeness of interrupting your explanation of this business. I’m not sure what all of this has to do with myself, let alone my company.” 

Something in Youngtaek’s facial expression made Yunho feel uneasy. Maybe it was the way his eyes were unmoving and lacking any emotion, like a robot. In fact, Yunho couldn’t read a single emotion on the boy’s whole face. Even the ones that he presented earlier felt stiff and cold. 

He moved back to the table, opening the folder he had brought with him into the room. As if they were in some sort of interrogation, Youngtaek moved a small photo into Yuinho’s view. The brunette’s eyes widened. Y...Yeosang..? It was the boy’s university photo. Alongside it, Youngtaek placed three other pictures of the blonde boy. One inside the school building tutoring a student, another sitting outside reading a book under a tree, and another of him walking outside towards his apartment complex. 

“I’m not going to waste time asking if you know this boy. I can get my answer from the expression on your face.” Yunho’s eyes flickered up and met Youngtaek’s stone cold ones as before. Youngtaek tilted his head at his expression. “I’ll put this simply for you. He’s our target.” He placed his palms face down on the table, leaning in a bit towards Yunho. “And your involvement is the reason why I’m here, standing in front of you, telling you all about the company that I work for.” His tone became sharper. “So I’ll pardon your rudeness for now. I cannot guarantee that I will be so kind as to do so again in the coming minutes.” 

Yunho couldn’t help but let a short breath escape from his mouth. Everything that he had been fearing in the past about Yeosang and his situation was way worse than he thought. Not only him, but San and Seonghwa soon. 

“May I continue?” 

“...Yes.” 

For the first time since the meeting started, Youngtaek’s lips curved into a mischievous grin. 

He caught Yunho right where he wanted him, now he was holding all of the power.

“This boy, Kang Yeosang, was placed into our system this past June. He was processed with all of the background information we could obtain with finalization occurring in August. Our job is to successfully bring him forward into our team before next June.” Youngtaek moved back and straightened himself. “So we ask that you no longer be involved in our business and remove any resources that you have provided in order to keep us by doing so.” 

“Excuse me?” Yunho’s eyes narrowed, brows furrowed. “You mean to tell me that you’re the ones that have sent that guy Mingi after Yeosang?” Disgust was only the smallest word you could use to describe how he felt at the moment. 

“We have assigned him to this case, yes. Song Mingi was already attending the same university and was aware of who Yeosang was. He required less amount of training and information about the boy in order to know how to successfully bring him to us-”

“By harassing, stalking and literally trying to assault him?” His composure started to falter and Yunho had to keep his shaking hands hidden under the table. His eyes, however, held a fiery rage that he didn’t even attempt to hold back. His eyes became harder seeing the unmoving nature of Youngtaek. 

“You must understand, as the head of your department, that things such as business are never personal. I can assure you that we were in no way aware of Mingi’s tactics of completing his task. Some of our recruitment tactics are not understood by most people.” Youngtaek spoke with his eyes closed. 

Yunho couldn’t help the scoff that left his lips, shaking his head. Fucking obsurd. 

“Whether or not your practices are understood by the majority, Yeosang is a friend of mine.” Yunho slowly stood up, hands on the table. His eyes snapped up. “So you can understand why it would be a problem for me to no longer be involved.” 

Silence fell in the room as Youngtaek looked down at the folder that was in front of him. The two guards standing at the door couldn’t help but look at each other. There was an obvious level of discomfort that spread across both of their faces. Was this the cue that the meeting was ending? Neither one of the men moved, so the guards couldn’t tell. 

Yunho continued to keep his eyes hard on Youngtaek. Like hell he would give up. Like hell he would leave Yeosang so vulnerable for this sorry excuse of a fucking business. Never personal? Everything about this was personal! 

“So, is that a no to my proposal?” Youngtaek spoke quietly. 

“Absolutely.” 

Silence again. 

“Very well.” Youngtaek collected his papers that he had spread out one by one. Tucking them neatly into the folder, he sat it inside of his black tote bag that he brought with him. Putting on his jacket and adjusting it properly, he took a short bow before walking towards the double doors.

“I have every means of reporting you to the police for those photos of Yeosang. You and your company should know more than anyone that photographing people without their consent is illegal in this country.” 

Youngtaek stopped in his tracks with his back to Yunho. The brunette couldn’t see the look on his face. However, the two guards could. Although usually unphased by anyone that they come across that wish to discuss business with Yunho, the boy made note of the sweat that was collecting on their foreheads. Especially the way they both adjusted themselves and averted their eyes from Youngtaek. They’re...afraid?

“Ah yes.” His tone was flat. Youngtaek turned his head only a bit, allowing Yunho to see the side profile of his face. “Would you happen to know what the law thinks about prostitution?” 

Yunho’s expression mixed with confusion and anger. “What kind of question is that?” Youngtaek rolled his neck, relaxing his shoulders. 

“I’m merely inquiring if you are aware of what the law of this country has to say about prostitution.” He looked fully over his shoulder now, the smallest corner of his lips curled up. Within a mere fraction of a second the realization hit Yunho, causing his eyelid to twitch for a moment as they widened. 

“What the hell are you getting at?” He didn’t bother to correct his language. 

“Ah, there’s the right question then.” Youngtaek turned around fully with his smirk on display. “What am I getting at? Me? Well, let’s see.” He ceremoniously pulled out a medium sized photo of San, dangling it loosely between his fingers. “Well, you must know who I mean. I mean you must know everything since you were so quick to make a threat such as that.” One by one he pulled out many pictures of the boy and tossed them onto the ground, uncaring about how they fell. 

“Everything is so black and white, so easy is it not, Yunho? You can simply point out the smallest of problems, quickly think of the solution and then boom, problem solved right?” The pearly whites of his teeth began to show. “I’ve taken photos of Yeosang without his consent. I deserve to be punished. So easy~” He threw more photos of San on the ground out of his bag. Yunho’s heart began to race, the beating getting caught in his throat.

“Oh? But that would mean you’re innocent right?” Yanking the folder out of his bag and clutching it to his chest, Youngtaek gripped the end of it with the opposite hand. Chuckling lightly to himself, he swung his bag from one side to the other. A slew of photos cascaded and fluttered down onto the ground. Some were everyday photos of San and the others were more scandalous ones. San with his legs spread in a provocative pose, tongue poking the inside of his cheek. Another from Valentine’s day with San in red lingerie, the end of white rope in his mouth and his wrists bound. The last one that caught Yunho’s eye in particular was a photo of him and San sleeping together in that hotel room. The one that they had only occupied a couple weeks earlier.

“What the…How..” Yunho fell speechless just the way Youngtaek wanted him to. The boy stepped forward, crushing the photos of San under his feet.

“You see, people are so quick to call out who is innocent and who is guilty while simultaneously trying to hide their own sinful deeds.” Youngtaek tilted his head and looked at the photos on the ground. “Never did I think that there would be so many attached to your fuck buddy. I guess you could say I was pleasantly surprised?” Noticing Yunho’s lack of response, he continued. 

“I suggest you not talk with so much pride and ego about things that are illegal in this country before you look at yourself-”

“Who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t know shit about this! You don’t know a goddamn thing!” Yunho’s voice projected, startling the men at the doors. 

“Oh I don’t?” Youngtaek blinked with false doe eyes, not phased at all by the anger radiating from the man in front of him. “Let’s see then.” He cleared his throat before pulling out one paper from his folder, holding it up in front of his eyes. “Choi San, born on July 10th of 1999 to a single, unloved, widowed and now sickly mother. His father passed away in 2005, leaving San and his mother without money blah blah blah.” His eyes skimmed over the page. “Ah, met Jung Yunho on, what is referred to as quote ‘an app for established entrepreneurs to be linked with a potential suitor’. And after going through and analyzing the whole website, these types of apps are actually illegal believe it or not!”

The blood in Yunho’s face seemed to pool all the way down to his fingers and toes. His face had begun to look more ghastly than normal, even the bags around his eyes seemed to have sunken into themselves. The normally calm and collected CEO, gaining great power from his father’s connections but mostly from his own intelligent work, was now damn near close to looking sick. The words of what Youngtaek was saying echoed through his head but he wasn’t processing any of it. All he could think about were the array of photos. 

Of course the ones that were taken without San knowing were disturbing enough. The scandalous ones? Those he didn’t even understand how they obtained. Those were from his own private messages to San, ones that no one else should be able to see or have access to. So how were they in front of him right now? How was this happening? What was even happening right now? 

“Who..” Yunho’s voice quivered, all but stopping Youngtaek’s vile monologue of him and San’s back story. Perplexed by the change in his demeanor, the assistant cocked his head to one side. “Who the hell are you..?” The taller brunette tried his hardest to keep the lump that had formed in his throat from coming forward. It would certainly embarrass the shit out of him and would be another thing to add onto the list of prominent information that Youngtaek had on him. 

A playful hum rang from the boy’s lips. Youngtaek swayed on the balls of his feet, chancing his arms behind his back as he kept up the coy and childish act. “Well, that question is filled with many answers, Jung Yunho.” The final swing had him landing sharply on the front of his toes, falling back into his borderline robotic statue again, face fallen. “For the sake of ending this meeting, as it has become a waste of my time, I’ll keep it short and simple.” He took four short strides over to where the brunette was still standing confused and ill-looking. 

“I know everything about you, Kang Yeosang, and whoever this boy Choi San is to you. Anything you think we don’t know about, trust that we know it. All the way down to the apartment that Yeosang and San share. So it would be in your best interest to find a solution to this problem that we are having.” Youngtaek stepped closer till he was only a few feet in front of Yunho. A sinister smile tugged from the corner of his lips again, looking towards the ground at one of the sinful images of San. “Unless..” Graciously swooping up the one that caught his eye, he held it up to the CEO’s line of sight. 

“Tell you what. If you give me a fair trade, I will leave without a word. Your friend Kang Yeosang in exchange for Choi San.” Turning the photo towards himself, Youngtaek’s tongue idly and slyly slid across his bottom lip, eyes falling half lidded. “I wonder how good of a pet he would be for me. If he would whimper the same way he does with you-”

A small choked sound left the assistant’s throat as he was lifted close to his tiptoes off the ground by the collar of his shirt. The guards by the door made the motion to move and stop the situation from escalating, despite their boss not being the one potentially getting hurt, until they caught a glimpse of his face. Yunho’s eyes were wide and wild as he yanked the man close until their breaths were barely meeting each other’s face. 

“If you lay a hand on San, so help me I will make sure that you end up in Hell with me.” The anger had flooded his cheeks back to life, burning around the rims of his eyes. His breathing huffed out like a beast that was ready to rip their prey to shreds at the smallest move. Youngtaek, with as much breath as he could muster from the way he was being held, let out a short laugh.

“Oh please do, your precious friends will soon follow right after you.”

“M-Mr. Jung?” Yunho’s eyes flickered over to the door where the voice was coming from. They locked onto his assistant that had entered the room only a few seconds ago. One trembling hand reached out towards him. “P-Please put him down. You’re not this type of person and we don’t want anyone getting hurt.” Yunho’s burning eyes trailed over her and the other two guards, feeling his own slowly soften with anxiety at the fear that was laced in all of their eyes. 

“You’re really going to listen to those that are lower than you?” Youngtaek baited, his chuckles soft and labored. Yunho’s head lowered, the fabric wrinkling around the collar as his hand tightened. 

“Do not ever let anyone walk all over you. Put them in their place.” Those were always his father’s words. He knew Yunho’s demeanor since the brunette was only a small child. So many times Yunho had allowed people to say the rudest things to him, as if they were cursing him for simply just being alive. “They should remember where they stand with you, so they will never dare to hurt you again.” His father was never above doing this to others. That’s how he got to the top. That’s how those around him respected him. Never dared to cross him and never dared to leave him. He held all the power. 

Yunho’s the CEO, so he should be the one that’s on top. Nobody should be able to hurt him like this, no matter who they are. They deserve to be reminded of their wrongdoings and pay the price for them. 

“But is that really who you are, sweetie?” He could hear his mother’s tender tone lingering in his mind. Yunho could imagine her crouched down in front of him, as she did until the boy had grown tall enough for her to just stand in front of him. Her hand was always on his cheek with her delicate features curled up into a gentle smile. His mother was in no way like his father, the two were polar opposites. Her voice never raised above normal, even when people would try to discredit her, hurt her, or put her down below them. Her eyes were round and kind, like Yunho’s, and her smile was always there. Her words were melodic, charming those negative souls until they felt pain from their own words. She never gave back to them what they had given to her. She always went her own way. “You should always be the version of yourself that feels right to you. In that alone, people will follow you.”

She was right, as was his assistant. This whole meeting was not him. As much as he respected his father and all the businesses he had conquered through his power, that was simply not the way that Yunho wanted to be. 

Letting Youngtaek’s feet touch the ground, he released his hand from around the collar of his shirt. The boy coughed a bit, still with that disgusting smile on his face. With his head held higher now, Yunho held the eyes of his mother, yet stern. “She’s right. This is not the person that I am, nor will it ever be. I don’t see myself as high above others, even if their position is below mine. Their voices and opinions matter to me because I know that they follow me because of who I am. Those that don’t, they aren’t here.” Yunho reached over and adjusted the collar of Youngtaek’s shirt, much to the boy’s surprise. After seeing that the fabric was back to its original state, for the most part anyway, Yunho stepped back out of the boy’s space. 

“I think it would be best for you to leave now. We will tend to the photos that you have scattered on the floor and my two guards will see you out of the building. If you have any more things that you wish to discuss in a civil manner, we can discuss them over the phone. However, I think it would be the best- for the sake of your business and mine- that we do not converse like this anymore.” Yunho kept his hands in front of him. “My offer still stands that if your boss would wish to speak with me, I’m open to meeting and we can discuss when and where.” 

Youngtaek analyzed his face, drumming his fingers lightly against his bag. “Very well, then.” He crushed the photos of San under his feet again, moving towards the double doors with one already being open for him. He stopped when he reached the assistant, choosing to ignore the way she trembled harder in his presence. “You let Mr. Jung know that he has one week to make a decision about what we discussed.” Taking out a business card, he tucked it into one of the guard’s blazer pockets.  “If he chooses not to, I will make the decision for him and go from there. I suggest, however, that he not let it come to that.” And with that, the man left the room with the sound of his heels echoing down the hall. 

Chaeyoung turned back to Yunho, noticing him reaching down to pick up the photos. His posture was a bit off, as if all of the energy had been drained from his body. Her heels rushed over with quick haste and put a hand down over Yunho’s after bending down. “Sir, I can take care of this.” Her face saddened seeing the glassiness of his eyes. “Please.” 

The inner part of Yunho’s palm was white from his nails digging into them. He fought back the urge to cry from the guards and now his own assistant seeing San exposed like this. “N-No I should clean it up.” He flipped them over so that the images could not be seen. Chaeyoung decided not to press anymore, instead getting down to help him flip over the photos, collecting them neatly before Yunho’s hand stopped her. She looked up and inhaled sharply through her nose. Small streams of tears were running down her boss’s cheeks.

“Can you contact Park Seonghwa for me please?”

~x~

Seonghwa was more silent than Yunho was expecting as he recalled everything that had happened. He didn’t realize how much time had passed from being in the meeting, only noticing when his room was beginning to be bathed in a warm glow. His composure at this point had faltered almost completely. Fat tears ran down his face from helplessness and fear over the photos that were retrieved of San. He was sure this vile company had more of them that they were waiting patiently to dangle over his and San’s head. 

“I don’t know what to do, hyung. This is more than just a Yeosang and Mingi situation. This is far more dangerous than I could have ever anticipated.” Yunho sniffed hard, grabbing a tissue to wipe his eyes. Seonghwa kept his eyes trained out the window. “With how malicious they are, I can’t imagine what they would be capable of doing to Yeosang, San or even me. I don’t want to find out but I can’t risk-”

“Yunho.”

The brunette lifted his eyes up to meet Seonghwa’s, noticing the small burn inside of them. The designer reached over and put his hand over top and rubbed his knuckle against the slightly rough skin. “I need you to relax a bit for me. I understand this was a very stressful situation that occurred right in your office building. However, you will never be able to come up with a rational solution under these conditions.” Yunho nodded slowly before following Seonghwa’s deep breathing exercise. Once he was sure that the boy had calmed down enough, he moved his hand away. 

“Before we even try to remotely tackle this, I need you to listen to me. It’s going to be really hard but this is the only way that we can begin to decide our next course of action.” Yunho’s nails dug into his palms again out of a view under his desk. Seonghwa hesitated on what he was going to say next and braced himself for the response that he was bound to get. 

“You cannot let San know of anything that happened today. He cannot know about Yeosang being wrapped up in this mafia related activity. You cannot tell him that Mingi is involved in this and is targeting Yeosang. You cannot tell him about Youngtaek or the photos or anything, Yunho. You can’t.” The brunette immediately stood up from the words, moving away from Seonghwa towards the window walls bordering the side of his office. 

“How can you even say that? You don’t have anything to lose from not revealing this information!” Yunho’s voice was elevated, stunning the elder as he stood up from his seat.

“What do you mean by that? Have I not been taking care of Yeosang for the past month and a half? Is that not seen as a big deal to you?”

“You barely know Yeosang. San has been a part of my life for the past four years!” Yunho’s bloodshot eyes began burning with tears again. Seonghwa felt a tinge of hurt in his heart. He stepped a bit closer to Yunho.

“I may not know Yeosang as well as you know San. That does not mean it wouldn’t hurt me any less to tell him that something of this extreme caliber is happening to him. It’s not a competition, Yunho. This is about trying to protect them. Nothing good will come out of telling them right now if we don’t have a solution to the problem at hand.” The words that fell from Seonghwa’s lips were ones that Yunho truly didn’t want to acknowledge but he knew them to be true. 

San and Yeosang were both equally fragile and sensitive in their own ways, that’s how the two were always so close. Despite the fact that San had always been taking care of Yeosang since they met, Yunho thought about the way that San would feel hearing about the mess that his best friend is tied up in, alongside the things that the company had about himself. He would feel the same way that Yunho felt in the moment and during the meeting- completely hopeless. No matter what solution was to be discovered, telling them anything before they were able to have something more solidified was a sure way to bring both of them to a point that would be difficult to bring them down from. 

Yunho felt like his feet had been filled with weights as he sat back down in his desk chair. The tears in his eyes fell again with no effort made to stop them. Seonghwa knelt down in front of him, resting a hand on his knee but received no sort of response to the action, not that he was looking for one. He simply waited patiently for Yunho to respond to him or give him some sort of motion. 

Sniffing heavily, Yunho wiped his eyes, letting them fall to somewhere unimportant on the ground. “San’s mom is in the hospital right now. Kidney failure. He’s been going to see her almost every day while they continue to search for a donor.” He didn’t acknowledge the way that Seonghwa’s eyes widened. “He’s been going through so much. I’ve been trying so hard to be some sort of support to him, since he’s not great at taking care of himself. If I’m being honest, I don’t know how.” His eyes fell onto his lap, gazing over the way his hands were trembling. “I don’t know how to handle this situation either..I don’t know anything.” He felt a hand come up to his chin, tilting it up. Seonghwa put one knee to the ground and grabbed a tissue from the mahogany desk in front of him, gently wiping the tears from his face, flashing him a gentle smile once all the droplets were gone. 

“You don’t have to know how to do everything. You don’t even have to be best at the things you know how to do. What matters most- and I’m sure I can speak for San when I say this- is that you are trying. San isn’t with you because you’re the answer man. He’s with you because he knows you care about him and the same for him towards you.” Yunho nodded his head slowly, exhaling shallowly and shakily. 

“I...I love him, hyung.” 

A small breath fell from Seonghwa’s nose as he smiled wider, patting the top of Yunho’s head. “I know you do. I can see it in the way you talk about him.” Moving a hand back down to his knee, his face became determined and serious. “So, let’s find a way to resolve this situation as best as we can so that you can have the life that you both want without any more difficulties. Can you do that with me?” Yunho was a bit taken aback by Seonghwa’s words, staring at him for a moment before his face reflected the same as the designer’s, nodding. 

Despite any sort of situation that came in his way, Yunho always noticed how determined and unwavered Seonghwa was. Even in the moments that were extremely stressful where the odds were unlikely, he didn’t give a hint of doubt or reflect nearly any of the emotions that Yunho would have expelled had it been him in the situation. It made him feel an immense amount of respect for the elder, always finding a way to cheer others up and fill them with hope that they will be able to resolve any issues, no matter how big or how small they are. 

“Good.” Seonghwa’s knee was going to give out at this point so he made the decision to finally stand up, adjusting his pants leg. Yunho grabbed the last bit of tissue that he needed to rid his face of any lasting bits of tears that were still present, looking up when he heard a small hum come from the designer’s lips.

“What is it?”

“What was the name of the company that Youngtaek came from again?” 

“Ah..” The rosy cheeked boy tapped lightly on the keyboard of his computer, waiting for it to light up, scrolling for the file that he asked Chaeyoung to send to him. “The company name is Heurit Inceptx Destiny. In simpler terms, HID.” No response came from Seonghwa, causing Yunho to look at him curiously. “Why?”

“Hm?” The designer snapped out of his trance, waving his hand dismissively. “Ah nothing. Thought it sounded familiar to me. With a name like that though, there’s no way myself or my company would have any sort of association with them.” Seonghwa picked up his coat and tossed it over his shoulder, looking at his watch. “I should head out, have to pick up Yeosang from campus.” 

“Sorry to keep you away for so long.”

“Nonsense.” Seonghwa chuckled. “This was a serious matter. No need to apologize. Let’s talk some more tomorrow. For now, finish up and try to get some sleep.” Yunho nodded, although he knew for sure he wasn’t going to be able to manage any sort of ounce of sleep from the day he had.

After Seonghwa left the room, closing the door softly, Yunho looked back over at the photos of San that he had collected on his desk. He flipped over one of them, seeing that it was one of San sitting on a bench under a tree reading a book. He ran his thumb over the edge of where San’s jaw would be. 

~x~

“You seem far away.”

“Hm?” Yunho didn’t realize his gaze was fixated on the ceiling for so long, to the point where he didn’t hear a word that San was saying to him. Only a day or so had passed since the meeting he had with Youngtaek and it had been the only thing that was on his mind. It wouldn’t have been stressing him out so much, had it not been for San being involved now. Yunho’s mind kept replaying the image of that smirk on Youngtaek’s face while dangling San’s nude photos in front of his face.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” 

“Something on your mind?” San played with his hair, a lace of worry in his voice. 

Yes, a lot is on my mind. All of which I wish could tell you..Yunho thought to himself. He opted to close his eyes, feeling guilty from the way that San was looking at him. He couldn’t see him like that, it would make him spill everything.

“There’s just been a lot of things going on at work. We have a big budgeting project going on and it’s been causing me a lot of stess. Crunching the numbers, all that stuff..” He felt a lump form in his throat and cringed at the bit of sweat that had collected in the palm of his hand. He didn’t like lying to anyone, especially not to San. 

“Hm, maybe you can ask your dad for some advice. He does a lot of financial and marketing work right?” His fingers ghosted down Yunho’s arm, tracing little shapes before intertwining their fingers. Yunho squeezed his hand once.

“Mm, he’s busy with his own work. Besides, he would probably tell me to figure it out on my own or to pass it along to our financial team and just let them make the decisions on it. That’s not me though.” The brunette exhaled roughly through his nose. Neither is lying and yet here I am.

He opened his eyes when he felt San shift and move from underneath him. “What are you-” His question was answered when San straddled him, moving his hands onto his waist. Yunho didn’t know how to respond to the action, his eyes only widening when San smiled down at him, moving his arms on either side of the tall boy’s head.

“Well, I surely don't want to see you stressed out. I know it can’t be helped with your work and all so...maybe I can relieve some of it for you?” A sharp groan left Yunho’s mouth when San subtly rolled his hips straight down. Normally, the action would have made him give in immediately. But the guilt was still eating at the back of his mind. Was it okay for him to indulge in San like this? What about all the information that the company had gotten on him. Could they hack his or San’s phones to capture more evidence, in the form of audio, to be able to use against them later on? 

“If you don’t want to,” Fuck, he got lost in his own thoughts again. “We can always watch a movie and I can order some snacks or something yummy for us to eat. Or I can cook for you if you’d like?” San’s voice was tender to his ears, making Yunho’s heart race hard in his chest.

He felt his heart melting all over again when looking at his face. They were older now but San still held all the care and personality towards him as he did when they first met. Yunho found it strange in the beginning, always questioning why he would look at him with such fond eyes and talk to him in such a sweet way. His hair always fell just enough over his eyes to make him look innocent and sweet. His smile would instantly raise his mood, even if he had been completely emotionally worn out a minute ago. If Yunho had introduced San to his mother, she would have probably kept him and taken him in as her own son and not allowed him to leave. She would probably ask when they’re going to get married and try to rush them so that she can finally have a son-in-law. It didn’t matter what their status was, Yunho just wanted to be with him. 

His hand moved up San’s side, brushing against the skin underneath his shirt, moving farther upward until he reached the expanse of his shoulders. Finally landing upon his cheek whilst the other kneaded the skin on his waistline lightly, Yunho gave him an endearing smile. “How did I get so lucky to meet someone like you?” He smiled wider at the way that San flushed at the question before moving himself up a bit to kiss his loving boy deeply. He poured everything into it, wanting San to feel all of his love.

Regardless of any of the shit that was coming their way, Yunho decided then that he wasn’t going to let that stop him from loving San. He still wasn’t sure how he was going to handle it. However, he sure as hell was going to fight for it. 

He wanted to keep San by his side forever. His heart told him that much. 

Pulling back when he was convinced San would be the most breathless, Yunho moved his lips down the side of his neck, showering it with nips, licks and kisses to his heated skin. A small whimper trembled from San’s lips from the slow trail of Yunho’s tongue from the base of his neck up the middle, running small circles over his Adam’s apple, ending under his chin. 

“I-I’m supposed to be taking care of y-you. How did this end with you t-taking care of m-me?”

“Do you not like it?” Yunho’s tone was low near his ear, making San shiver along with the big hands that were now resting on his ass. 

“I-I didn’t say that,” Yunho hummed lightly, continuing his menstrations as San struggled to get the rest of his words out. “Y-You just said that you were stressed so I-I thought that I w-would help you-ah!” A loud moan erupted from San’s throat from Yunho’s tongue running over his ear, the wet sound and loud kiss over it made him begin to tremble. The sensation sent a tingle up his spine, making his arms buckle a bit. Feeling the twitching coming from San’s pants, Yunho smirked to himself, sitting up and holding onto San tightly. 

“But you are helping me.” The brunette kissed San’s chin, kneading his ass roughly between his hands and reveling in the way the boy’s ragged breaths fell from his mouth. “Is it wrong of me to want to pleasure you just as much?” 

“N-No! That’s n-not what I-” Yunho cut him off with another deep kiss, barely giving the boy room to process as he quickly rid him of his shirt and ran his hands down the expanse of his body. The brunette couldn’t help the way his hands made their way back to San’s ass, moving them under his sweatpants to feel the skin against his hands. A sound close to a growl bubbled in Yunho’s throat as he squeezed his cheeks hard, causing San to whimper against his lips. 

“W-Would you please let me finish my s-sentence!” The younger had a clear hint of pink to his cheeks, pouting but not actually angry or frustrated at all. Yunho looked at him with adoring eyes and dark half lidded eyes, nodding. He didn’t let up on massaging San’s cheeks between his hands though. San huffed, gripping the tall boy’s shoulders to have some sort of stability. “You always take care of me and I want to take care of you o-once, okay? So just let m-me.” San tried to move off of Yunho’s lap but the hands on his ass kept him in place, causing him to bite the inside of his lips. Yunho leaned in, breath ghosting over his lips as he smiled. 

“And what if I say no? Will you fight for dominance?” Yunho challenged, tilting his head while running a long finger in between his cheeks. He tapped his finger lightly over it, eyes darkening at the way San subtly pushed back. “Or..” He moved the hand back, holding it in sight of San, running it over his tongue until it was slicked before moving back and sliding it into him, humming in sync with the boy’s shaky moan. “Will you let me love every inch of you until I kiss your tears away?” Yunho reveled in the way that San’s lip got caught between his teeth and the flush that came to his cheeks. Although still having all of his clothes on, he could see the way his body was heating up and the way sweat began to collect on his forehead and along his collar bone. 

“What do you want to do, baby? I can wait until you give me an answer.” His breath ghosting over San’s ear made the boy take in a sharp breath. Idly stroking the inside of his walls whilst humming, he watched San’s fingers flex by his sides. Moving his head back, he examined San’s face to find any signs of seriousness or conflict, making a decision in his own head as he slowly moved to slide his finger out. He was swiftly interrupted and stopped abruptly when San clenched around his finger. They met eyes again, Yunho’s falling half lidded as the college student moved his arms around his neck, letting out a shaky whimper.

“Please..” He spoke after releasing his lip from between his teeth, “have me..” 

Yunho’s lips curled into a small, sweet smile, kissing San’s chin, his tone coming out like honey to San’s ears. “How do you want me to have you?” 

~x~

Wanting to allow him an inch of what he wanted at the start, Yunho laid back on the bed and let San strip him down completely after, of course, ripping his clothes off and tossing them throughout the room. A small hum rumbled from his throat at the heated kisses that the boy left behind after taking one item off. He didn’t rush him and noted the way that some areas had San’s lips lingering more, his tongue running along the edge of his pelvic bone. Splotches of dark red and purple began to decorate his lower body, settling with a deep groan after heat engulfed his dick. 

“F-Fuck..” Yunho breathed, eyes watching the way his cock disappeared between San’s lips, the slick and shine that was left behind making him twitch again his tongue. Gaze moving upwards, he noticed the boy’s eyes were trained on him and the way he was reacting to his actions. San tested relaxing his throat, taking in more until he felt Yunho’s cock bulge at the back of his throat. His eyes went from doe to half lidded at the hand that gently caressed the side of his face before leaning and cupping his throat. 

“You like seeing how good you’re making me feel, even taking more of me? What a good boy you are, Sannie.” Another hand came and cupped the back of his head, San adjusting himself a bit to allow Yunho to thrust into his mouth, meeting him halfway as the thrusts became faster. San tried to keep his eyes open as they pricked with tears, shivering in delight at the way Yunho was using him. He whined in protest when a hand firmly stopped his movements, not realizing his eyes had eventually fallen closed, letting out a muffled moan at the way Yunho’s dark eyes looked back at him. 

“Let’s take care of each other.” Were the only words he said, chuckling low at the dazed and slightly confused look that San sent back to him. A little bit of maneuvering had San’s cheeks flushed bright pink as his lower body hung over Yunho’s upper frame. The man licked his lips and spread his cheeks lewdly, groaning simultaneously with San’s whine at the action. “Don’t worry, baby. You know I wouldn’t hurt you.” San always knew this to be true but couldn’t hold back the excited noise that left his throat as he leaned down, stroking the taller man against his tongue. 

The two became awfully noisy, with San being thankful that nobody was home with the way his moans escalated in volume from the squelched sound that came from behind him. Yunho alternated between roughly pushing his tongue into, swirling and caressing his walls before slowly pulling back and completely pulling his tongue out, only lapping over his pucker before moving down to lap at his balls. San trembled in his arms, drool running down and leaving a growing wet spot on the sheet. 

He felt like he was going to melt from the inside out, just as Yunho would hope that he would feel. 

“You’re making such a mess, Sannie. Does it feel that good? Hm?” Yunho didn’t really have to question it, but he surely did enjoy the way that San’s moans vibrated down him, making him twitch hard against the boy’s skilled tongue. He took his time prepping him with three fingers, kissing and lapping at his balls eagerly until San began to tremble, barely being able to keep up with his bobbing. 

“Y-Yunho p-please” San exasperated, pushing himself back on the boy’s fingers with the hopes of sending the message that he wanted more. Yunho decided to test him a bit more with a small smirk, kissing his inner thigh before pulling his fingers back, chuckling to himself when San chased after his fingers.

“Tell me what you want, Sannie. I have to make sure I’m giving the absolute best to my favorite boy.” The tip of San’s dick drooled onto his chest from the sharp bite that he planted on the inside of his thigh. Had it not been for the fact that the two of them already had their bodies pressed against each other, San might have fallen over from the action. 

“I-I want you! Y-Yunho I c-cant hold on l-longer if you keep torturing m-me..” There was a small whine on the end of his words, still desperately trying to rut back against Yunho’s long fingers that were trying to run away from him. The taller male pulled back from his thigh, satisfied with the dark mark that was left behind before he tapped the boy’s thigh to move off of him. 

Before San could move too far, Yunho had him on his back, smiling down at him with a mixture of deviance and love. Although some have deemed this position to be particularly vanilla in nature, Yunho couldn’t help himself but to see San’s whole body wrecked with pleasure in front of him. He wanted to see it all in full view and know that every tremble, twitch and tightening of his body was because of everything he was doing. He was making San feel like he was on cloud nine, and even if San didn’t know it, just seeing it all unfold was enough for Yunho. 

He took his time, running his dick between San’s cheeks, watching San’s bottom lip quiver before taking one of his white knuckled fists and bringing it up to his lips. Yunho kissed San’s hand open from finger tips to his palm while slowly pushing into him, allowing his lips to linger on the inside of his palm as a loud shaky moan rippled from San’s lips. Kissing from his wrists down his arm, Yunho slowly rocked into him, picking up pace when San’s body began to relax. 

“I wish I had taken more time during our relationship to admire how beautiful you are. I guess I was just a little too eager to watch you unravel underneath me.” Yunho spoke with a relatively stable tone while San’s moans escalated, biting the corner of his lip to stifle the ones that had begun to become a little too loud. Yunho noticed how his breath was getting caught in his throat from the sweltering gaze that he had on him. Halfway down his arm, Yunho pressed soft kisses to the inner part of his elbow as San’s fingers laced into his hair. His eyes never left San’s, his hips slapping against his harder with each thrust. 

“I-I-”

“I’ll cherish you better from now on.” The tone of his voice made San shiver and whine loudly from the raising of his hips by Yunho’s hands, pistoning into him from a different angle that made the boy choke on his own moans. “I’ll make sure you feel every inch of how much I love you.” The words fell from Yunho’s lips before he could stop them, too drunk off of lust to acknowledge his mistake. 

But San heard it clearly, eyes widening from the confession. 

His heart had already felt like it was going to explode out of his chest, but even more so now than ever did he hear the sound in his eyes mixed in with Yunho’s voice. “That’s right, San. Did you know? Did you know how much I adore you?” He continued, eyes sparkling from the broken cry that left San’s lips when he abused that bundle inside of him that he had been searching for. “E-Ever since I met you, I’ve adored you every second of every day.” Yunho moved himself down closer as San grabbed at him desperately. 

“Y-Yunho!!” 

“I’ve got you. Just let go, baby.” 

San’s voice cracked, shaky lips following open as tears spilled over on his cheeks. He could barely hear his own damn near screaming moans as he spilled all over his abs and Yunho’s upper torso over the heartbeat pounding in his ears. His whole body jolted as another spurt of cum came rolling out and painting more of both of their upper bodies. Yunho’s eyes fell half lidded, chasing his own orgasm from the grip that San had over his cock. 

“Look..Look at how beautiful you are.” San’s breath hitched, cupping Yunho’s cheeks and rolling his hips down to meet his, despite being sensitive from cumming so much. The tears continued to lightly spill down his cheeks, ones that Yunho caught between one of his fingers. “S-So beautiful.” His voice came out more ragged and strained, a low groan bubbling in his throat as San clenched harder. San cupped his face, bringing them closer until his breath ghosted over Yunho’s lips. The swirl in Yunho’s eyes sharpened pitch black from the blissed out smile that fell over San’s face.

“You made me so beautiful, Yunho-yah. Will you paint me? Make me yours and yours only.” The words fell from San’s lips with a slight purr, pushing Yunho over the edge almost instantly, his pace staggering before he came with a low growl. He fucked his cum deeper into San, kissing him hard as the boy held onto him tightly, letting him use him to ride out his orgasm. 

Once sedated, Yunho slowed himself down to a complete stop, the two of them panting against each other's lips while idly sharing lazy kisses in between.  Yunho soothingly rubbed San’s legs, feeling how much they were shaking. He honestly felt a bit bad for how rough he was with him and how long they had been at it without caring to ask the boy if he was hurt or in any pain. But before he could pull back to muster a word of apology, San put a finger to his lips. 

“If it was really that big of a problem..I would have stopped you.” San’s voice came out soft and tired, pulling the man closer so their bodies were fully pressing, hugging him close with his eyes closed. Letting out the small breath he had been keeping in, Yunho’s lips curled up into a small smile, patting down the slightly damp back side of San’s head.

It took a while for the two to agree to separate and take showers. It certainly took even longer for them to find the energy to change the sheets, put the dirty ones in a basket at least, before putting new ones onto the mattress and finally getting comfortable in it. San’s mind has begun racing since they had gotten comfortable and, lucky for him, Yunho couldn’t see the expression on his face from being behind him. The man had taken himself into rubbing small soothing circles over top of the oversized shirt that he had brought with him to lend to the boy, eyes closed and nearly dozing off. 

“Yu?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you..” Thankfully the darkness was able to hide the way San’s cheeks were flushing. Yunho let out a soft, airy chuckle from behind him, leaning over and kissing his cheek, keeping him closer in his embrace. The fingers brushed lightly against each other, drawing shapes over each others’ knuckles. 

“I should be the one thanking you.” Yunho spoke near his ear, kissing the back of San’s neck with his eyes closed. He fell silent not long after that, tiredness pulling him into a deep sleep evident by the evening out of his breathing. San looked over towards the small sliver of his window that he could see from between his dark blue curtains. When he focused in enough, he could see Yunho’s charming face, small puffs of air coming from between his lips that couldn’t help but bring a small smile to San’s face. Although his heart was still pounding a bit in his chest, he brought Yunho’s hand up to his lips, kissing them softly enough to not wake him. 

“I..I love you too.”

©dreamyinception-world/deepnesta 2022 || please do not repost or use any of my work without my permission. Thank you ♡

~Taglist~

@atiny-piratequeen

#ateez fic #ateez yeosang #ateez wooyoung #ateez san #yeosang smut #wooyoung smut #san smut #ateez smau #kpop angst #kpop smut fic #con artist au #kpop crime au #ateez hongjoong #ateez mingi #ateez jongho #ateez yunho #ateez seonghwa #hongjoong smut #mingi smut #jongho smut #yunho smut #seonghwa smut #black and blue

[maddieinwonder]

A Lesson In Romance #3: The Cast

Spencer Reid x Fem!BAU!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.5k

Plot: Reader keeps getting caught in rom-com situations with Spencer Reid. This time, the team figures it out.

A/N: I'm guilty of writing too much Morgan and Garcia but I can't help it �� they're so much fun! I think them plus Emily would have the most dramatic reactions to Spencer in a (potential) relationship, though I'm excited to write about the rest too.

(Also, the reference at the end is from Lord of the Rings, because I love Lord of the Rings.)

Masterlist | All chapters here!

-----------

If you've learned anything from rom-coms, it's that every romantic lead needed a supporting cast. Whether they were siblings, parents, or childhood best friends, the main character needed somebody who would drop everything to talk to them — preferably showing up at their doorstep with face masks, nail polish, and a bottle of wine.

In your life right now, you suppose those people would be your teammates from the BAU.

Of course, this hypothetical scenario didn't require your potential love interest to be from work, but let's say for the purposes of the discussion that they were. Then you hoped, at least, that they would have an IQ of 150 or higher and a propensity for wearing mismatched socks.

But you were getting ahead of yourself. You were simply imagining the hypothetical scenario where your life was a rom-com. Hypothetically, you would need a love interest, and hypothetically, you kind of already had one.

“Hey,” Spencer waved you over from across the coffee shop. It wasn’t difficult to spot him when the place was nearly vacant. Everything was slow and quiet this early in the morning, and you weren’t going to make an exception.

“Morning,” you greeted softly as you sat down, relaxing into the smell of freshly roasted coffee and baked goods.

“I already ordered yours.” He smiled, tucking his book away in his messenger bag. “They had bagels this morning. Yours is cream cheese, but mine is strawberry jelly.” He looked overly pleased with himself, and you couldn’t help but crack a sleepy smile.

You eyed the spread in front of you, before lifting your gaze to meet his. “So your theory that you can predict my taste in desserts seems to be getting better.”

"Yes!" He shout-whispered, silently raising his fists in victory. “I knew I was right.”

You giggled at his overexcitement over something as small as getting your dessert order right. Although, he did once spend ten whole minutes explaining to you why dessert for breakfast was an underrated concept, so you couldn't say this was beyond your expectations for Dr. Spencer Reid.

You propped your head up with your arms, a smile plastered over your face. “Have I ever told you that you’re a weirdo, doctor?” You teased.

“Why, yes. Yes you have.” He replied with a smile, gesturing at you to try the bagel. His own was almost-gone, so they must be good.

And it was. Your eyes fluttered shut as the heavenly combination of carbs and cream woke up your taste buds. It was made even better with a sip of the perfect cup of coffee.

"Perfect," you sighed happily, digging into your breakfast further as Spencer quietly caught you up on the latest news in classical art.

Two weeks ago, you wouldn't have guessed that you would talk to Spencer alone, much less spend your mornings together with him. But as it turned out, a lot could change in a few days.

After the initial awkwardness between you had passed, you found that the two of you shared a lot more interests than interdimensional doctors and space opera. You both loved coffee, obviously, but you also had a mutual love for desserts, classical literature, and history.

It didn't take long for these interests to seep into the weekend, resulting in a suspiciously date-like afternoon with Spencer at his favourite museum. But you tried not to think too much into it. After all, the day had ended with a "see you at work", and not a "would you like to come in?"

Still, your dance between friendship and something more continued to grow wilder as days passed, until it reached a point where it inhabited your every waking thought. The only time it didn't, ironically, was when you were spending time with the person in question and every stray thought seemed to fall away.

Your mornings with him brought a necessary reprieve to the dark realities of this job, and some days you almost had to drag yourself out of your seat, knowing that you were straying from the calm of his company straight into the lion's mouth. But duty always called.

Your sudden hesitance to be apart from the resident genius hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of your team either; ever since the two of you walked into office one morning with matching coffee cups and smiles on your faces.

At first you enjoyed Spencer's company too much to care, but you knew that it was going to bite you back one day. And today seemed to be that day.

You could tell, because the lift doors to the BAU opened to one very determined Penelope Garcia with her arms folded across her chest. "Spit it out, you two," she said sharply without any greeting.

You and Spencer looked at each other, confused, before looking back at Penelope. "Spit out what, Pen?" You asked, a frown starting to form between your eyes.

"You know what I mean!" She squeaked, dropping her stern facade for a brief moment. "Are the two of you dating? The entire team has been dying to know, and I mean, d-y-i-n-g because there's a huge pot of money with my name on it if you are."

"Ah— No— I mean, you think—" Spencer stammered, his face instantly turning beet red in embarrassment, while your face began to grow red for another reason entirely.

"I think what he means is 'no', and what I mean to say is— what do you mean the entire team?" You half-yelled the question, while Penelope raised her hands defensively.

"What I mean, sugar, is that the two of you went from avoiding each other completely, to coming into work together everyday — and I know you spent last weekend together too, because you couldn't stop talking about it the next day at work and everybody noticed." She stated, pushing up her glasses.

"Not to mention, Dr. Reid here started wearing brighter colours subconsciously." She continued with her observations. "I know this, because in the almost four years I've worked with this man, I've never seen him wear anything brighter than violet. Or white. Or beige. But those don't count." She shook her head, getting back to her point.

"You get what I mean— and you," she pointed her pen in your direction, causing you to jump slightly. "You finally stopped doubting yourself as a part of this team. I knew this when you started talking more often during briefings — which I have nothing against, B-T-W, I totally support any effort in self-care and personal growth — but you also stopped shifting in your seat which you used to do when you felt nervous."

Penelope took a deep breath, preparing for the climax. "So all I can assume, is either you've been attending one of the 52 self-help classes that happen every weekend in Virginia, or somebody has been helping you find some serious zen."

"And my money's on the latter because every time you think nobody's watching, you're making eyes at Reid. But you're wrong. Garcia is always watching." She concluded triumphantly, raising one finger to point at herself.

"You might make a good profiler yet, doll." Derek remarked, walking up to the group with a smirk firmly affixed to his face.

"Expert at all things romance, and Cupid of the Behavioural Analysis Unit, Penelope Garcia at your service." She smiled, graciously curtseying to your other teammate.

"I know you're smart like that, babygirl," he grinned, draping his arm around her shoulder, "but you also don't know pretty boy as well as I do, because they aren't in a relationship."

He turned to you questioningly. "Are you?"

"No." You replied, glancing hesitantly at Spencer for his response, but his face simply looked blank with shock.

"See? Now it's time to collect my payout." Derek grinned at the tech analyst, making the motion of raining dollar bills.

Penelope tailed behind him grumpily as he walked into the BAU office, surely to share the "good news" with everybody else.

You hesitated to follow, imagining what teasing and looks would follow regardless of the outcome. Then you felt a tap on your shoulder. Turning around, Spencer gestured back at the empty lift with his head and you smiled, realising what he meant.

"That is the best hypothesis you've had all morning," you said. The two of you shared a laugh as you got back into the lift.

Even behind glass doors, you could hear a muffled "What?!" that you guessed came from Emily. "There's absolutely no way those two aren't together already. Have you seen them?"

There was a brief pause, then a loud groan.

"I know, that's what I told him!" Penelope's high-pitched voice was clear. "You know I'm going to be right about them eventually—"

The lift doors finally closed, blocking out the rest of their conversation. You looked up at Spencer, your gaze meeting his clear hazel eyes. He looked at his watch briefly before saying the next words.

"We've got time. Are you up for second breakfast?" He asked, referencing a movie from a conversation two weeks ago. He remembered. Of course he remembered.

You cleared your throat before replying the next line. "What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper?"

He laughed, and you felt a familiar peace return to you.

Whatever your teammates were yelling about, the two of you could deal with it later. Together.

-----------

Tag list:

@blue-space-porgs @nobutalsoyes @lady-loves-a-lot

#mads fics #spencer reid x reader: a lesson in romance #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid #dr spencer reid #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfic #cm fic #cm fanfic #bau #aaron hotchner #hotch #derek morgan #emily prentiss #david rossi #jennifer jareau #penelope garcia #criminal minds

[m-y-fandoms]

COMMISSION: Joker/Akira/Ren x Reader Part 3

This fic assumes Mishima isn't a confidant, the reader is the Moon arcana instead, keep this in mind.

word count: 6.3k words, SFW

- Admin Myah

Over the next few weeks spent with Akira, or… Joker, as he seemed to be called when the situation demanded, you learned that the world was much more complicated than you ever could’ve dreamed. Sure, you praised yourself for being a little less of a sheep than the idle-brained teenagers of your everyday life who thought of nothing but gossip, status and appearances, but now you felt insignificant, like you’d been asleep all this time until Akira, Ryuji and Ann had placed six symbolic hands upon you, and shaken you to life. Layers upon layers, he explained the subconscious world that lay beneath, which ached to be revealed, only to those who’d open their eyes.

＊

It’d been a rush, your first time in the Metaverse. You’d insisted to Akira, though he protested, that you wanted to see what all of this near-unbelievable nonsense he was explaining was all about. He’d never taken non-Phantom-Thief confidants into the Metaverse, and he was hesitant, silent for a long while before deciding that your help was worth the risk. After all, he’d already told you everything, and they had no way to erase memories… yet.

You remember Akira taking your hand, the skin on skin contact. Up on the school’s rooftop with Ryuji and Ann flanking you, Akira had told you it was a precaution, to make absolutely sure that you transferred into the Metaverse with them and landed in the same place. You had to be touching one of them, for your safety, and he’d eagerly volunteered. With the cat in his bag seeming to smile at you over his shoulder (an occurrence which made you feel like you were going looney already) he tapped an app icon on his phone, some scary red little square, and with that, your body lifted, began to float, or so it seemed. Red completely consumed your vision, red and black ink like those blobs you’d seen the Phantom Thieves appear from when this all began. You gasped, stumbling back a step as if you could escape the all-encompassing wave, and Akira, sensing your trepidation, squeezed your hand slightly.

The rooftop faded, and you felt like a character from a videogame fast-traveling to their destination. Almost as fast as it appeared, the trippy red and black sludge subsided, and before you sat a dark, dreary scenery. A castle, one that obviously belonged to a malevolent ruler sat amongst a purple sky and the smell of despair.

“What the…” your mouth hung agape for a second, taking in your surroundings before letting your eyes trail down to where your hand met Akira’s. Assuming you no longer needed it, you shook him off gently, not even sparing a glance his way, and his eyebrows creased just the smallest amount, not that you noticed. You were too focused on the giant cat before you, knee-height, with a round, bulbous head. “Is… are you-?!”

“Much more handsome and dashing in this form, wouldn’t you say?” Morgana - now confirmed - gave you a sly look as you leaned down to his height to run your hand along the fur on his head.

“Wow… so cute!” You cooed.

“Hey! Stop it! Stop it! I am a warrior and to be taken seriously!” he whined, shooing away your hands, his fur on end.

“Ha!” a sharp laugh rang out behind you, and you turned to see that Morgana wasn’t the only one who’d made a drastic change. Ryuji was now clad in some kind of leather pirate’s uniform, his demeanor far more fearsome and a skull mask across his face. Ann donned a skin-tight body suit and cat mask, and Akira wore a lavish long coat, red gloves, and a masquerade mask. He looked like a magician from some fairytale, or perhaps the leader of some band of Robin-Hood-inspired band of vigilantes… although you supposed that was kind of what he was now… either way, he would make amazing source material for your main protagonist. Such swagger, a commanding presence… he didn’t seem to exactly be the same Akira you’d met earlier.

＊

The trip to the Metaverse was almost completely uneventful… almost. Just once, when you’d begged Akira to press forward and show you the inside of the castle, something called a “shadow” attacked, and you got to see the band of thieves in action. It was shocking, leaving chills running down your spine. Here were your classmates, people your age with ghost-like spirits materializing at their backs, flipping through the castle’s corridors, shooting guns and slingshots and magic at terrifying beasts. It was all so fast-paced, so stunning, that your body locked up witnessing the battle. A shadow spotted you in the background, defenseless and clearly not part of the Phantom Thief entourage, and taking the petty opportunity only a sore-loser on the ropes would take, struck out against you. You shrieked, your hands uselessly coming up to defend your face as if it would help. Akira’s eyes widened, his reflexes so much faster in this realm, and turned on his heel, diving in front of you to deflect the blast of frosty energy swirling toward you. It bounced off of the side of his large steel dagger and ricoheted back at the shadow. After assessing the situation and asking if you were okay, Akira decided it was time to return you back to the real world. It was too dangerous for someone without a persona to wander here. The thieves would return later, once you were safe at home.

＊

Anyway, now you believed him, you knew everything he was saying, about Kamoshida and his fucked up mind, about confidants, personas and metacognition was real and very much a serious matter. Now all that was left was to decide just how you could help them, what kind of deal you could strike with the clever leader of the Phantom Thieves. Of course, he didn’t expect you to get something and give nothing.

It was decided that you’d offer your knowledge as a writer to help with negotiation and charming shadows in the Metaverse. You’d turn those golden lines you wrote on the pages into real-life lessons, and Akira would learn to seduce shadows, to out-smart them, to persuade them to give up everything they had: their money, precious belongings, even their very selves. He would flirt, threaten, intimidate, any honeyed word or silver-tongued method he could use to make deals with shadows go along more smoothly. Perfect. It would help him out immensely. But, what did you want, he’d asked again.

It felt embarrassing, now that you were put on the spot, forced to disclose it, but although those “golden words” translated well into lessons for others, you found that you couldn’t as easily take your own advice. You struggled with human interaction in your real life, especially of the romantic kind. You could write a healthy relationship out on paper, create the ideal love interest from scratch for a story, but stumbled along words like some socially incompetent fool once it came time to apply that knowledge. As much as you hated to admit it, these days even getting true, realistic romantic moments down on paper was a struggle. The well was drying up, writer’s block, as you’d explained it to your online friends. It was near impossible to make something from nothing, and you had nothing. No real romantic experience. You couldn’t help but think this was the route of the problem. Your writing, your precious romance novel would flourish, if only it’s author wasn’t completely clueless.

“Date me…” You mumbled, surprised out how your long moment of pensive introspection had accumulated into this clunky statement.

“What?” Akira let out a breath he’d seemed to be holding the entire time, just watching you think on what method of reciprocity was worth your help. Losing your nerve at the incredulous tone of his voice and the raise of his brows, you shrunk back a bit, ready to defend your words.

“W-wait!” You held a hand out between you. “Not really. I mean…” how to word this…? “Like, fake!” He looked even more confused than before. You released a noise of frustration. “What I mean is, you take me on dates - fake ones - stupid little stuff couples do, for my writing, of course…” You looked toward the ground, suddenly extremely interested in your shoes.

“How does that benefit you in any way?” He smiled, a bit forced, a blush dusting his pale cheeks.

“Well I- I’ve been having writer's block lately. I mean sure, I can give you lines and lessons from my previous works, drabble and things I’ve learned, written down in the past, but I have no fresh material. Stagnation is every writer’s downfall, but I have no experience, I need more to go off of… and then maybe I can even transfer what I discern from our… interactions - er… dates I mean - to you. Does that make sense?” You looked up at him hopefully.

“Uh… no,” Yeah, you knew it didn’t, but that’s all you had for him. His hand shook, much less confident as Akira than Joker, and he shoved it in his pocket.

“It’s hard to explain, I just… that’s my deal. Will you take it?” You clutched your bag a little closer to your body. “We don’t even have to tell anybody. I just want to experience it… going out… with someone…” It sounded a little more pathetic now that you were actually hearing yourself. You both stood in silence, Akira contemplating your words. It wasn’t that he didn’t like you as a person… it was just… complicated…

“Give me a day to think about it,” he spoke quietly, giving you a polite send off before parting ways.

That night, anxiety set in as you rolled around in your bed restlessly.

Did you sound like a creep? Were you being unreasonable? Was this asking too much of him? Does he think you’re crazy? You’ll probably never hear from him again. He’d probably rather find a way in that crazy Metaverse to erase your memories so he can forget the awkward exchange ever happened. Maybe he’ll kick your shadow’s ass one day.

You debated going to school the next day.

＊

Akira’s night, though not as horrendous as yours, was not a peaceful one. Like so many nights, he found himself awoken to the clink of a ball and chain, dressed in striped rags as he stood and walked to the bars of his cell. The twins were waiting, as always, anger in their eyes.

“Look alive, prisoner!” Caroline spoke.

“Our master would have a word with you!” Justine chimed in. Akira looked up, meeting Igor’s large grin.

“You’ve forsaken a bond, Trickster. One must ask, why?” Igor’s hands splayed over a deck on cards on his desk.

“Huh…? What do you mean?” Sleep lingering in his mind, and confused as to why he was here this time, Akira replied.

“I’ve told you, the bonds you strengthen over time and the new bonds you form, they will be what wins this fight. You can only complete your mission, save all that is, through the support your confidants provide, so why have you abandoned this bond?” Igor’s fingers folded together, hands clasped, a show of disappointment. “Now is not the time to not try hard enough.” Was that a hint of frustration in his tone? If so, he didn’t show it.

“...I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Akira rubbed one eye lazily.

“You’re not trying to understand, worm! Wake up!” Caroline’s fist banged down across the bars, startling Akira slightly. He looked to Igor again, who held up a single card between two fingers. On its face sat two wolves, both howling up at a glittering moon.

“The Moon.” Igor stated plainly. “Illusion, fear, anxiety, intuition, uncertainty, complexity, secrets, the unconscious mind. A friend, a possible lover, someone unsure of themselves and others. Creativity, shadowed by doubt. Someone who supports others but not themselves.” As he spoke, images of your face flashed in Akira’s mind. Igor threw the card into the air, catching it upside-down, letting the wolves fall into the moon, swimming in its glow. “Reversed: release of fear, repressed emotion, clarity, misinterpretations overturned. Someone who can fix what was upright. But you’ve passed over the opportunity.” Igor swipes his free hand in front of the card, and it disappears.

Scenes play out in Akira’s head. Confrontation with shadows, confrontations with real people, but these aren’t real… or rather, haven’t happened yet.

He receives clarity.

The Moon has more to offer than lessons on charisma, seduction, trickery, persuasion. His intuition will grow, his ability to perceive things before they happen, the ability to read and understand people, and be understood in return. Other bonds will grow, empathy will grow. More friends, closer friends, a flash of blue hair, white uniform, red hair, headphones, then a tidy uniform, a Shujin uniform, gloves, a beige jacket, and finally bouncy curls and a soft, high pitched voice. With your help, the Phantom Thieves can grow. Bonds will strengthen. Complexity, Igor had said. More than meets the eye. Was there more to you? You weren’t too bad, obviously intelligent… a bit odd, but kind enough, and he did find you cute… but pretending, a fake relationship? How could a fake bond strengthen

The card reappears, as if out of thin air, and Igor points to one upside down wolf.

“Me.” Joker whispers, as if guided by an unseen force. Igor points to the other wolf.

You.

He awakens with a start, nearly knocking Morgana off the bed. He has an answer for you now.

＊

He finds you at school the next day, huddled in the library and not where you’d said you’d meet him. You’d been dreading this, waiting for the rejection, your hand trembling slightly on the book in your hands. He sits across from you, a look of determination on his face. Waiting for him to speak was torture.

“I’ll do it.” He holds out a hand, waiting for you to shake it, seal the deal. A contact has been signed.

＊

Your first date with Akira is clunky, unpracticed, unprecedented of course. He doesn’t know much about what to do, either, so he takes you to Le Blanc for dinner. Some coffee and curry, maybe a soda and some conversation on the side? It couldn’t be too bad, right? That’s what dudes do, he thought, bring their... pretend sweetheart somewhere for dinner, right? Sojiro is teasing, of course, wondering who this new person was, why Akira was holding their hand. He smirks like a dad proud of his boy, and Akira, too embarrassed under Sojiro’s scrutiny now to sit down and serve you curry, rushes you upstairs.

After being dragged by the hand up rickety old stairs, you end up in Akira’s room alone. You look around, taking in his sparse decorations, humble belongings. It then strikes you that you are, in fact, alone. Alone with a boy in his room, for the first time in your life. You didn’t know how you got here, and so fast. Maybe you were in over your head. Maybe you just needed to calm down. This was part of the process, right? Real couples did this, to get to know each other. He beckons you over, gestures for you to sit on his bed with him. You’re hesitant, but Akira isn’t making a big deal out of it, and you’re not really alone, with Morgana right there, so you sit, as far from him as you could be on the surprisingly soft bed. Struggling for words and new to dates himself, Akira decides to treat you first and foremost like his friend. That makes this all easier.

He spends the next hour or so describing Mementos, his mentor Igor, the twins. He wants you to know everything, and it surprises him. His other confidants, save for the actual Phantom Thieves, don’t know anything about the hidden world their bonds are healing. He describes the arcana to you, the tarot, the way his soul resonates with The Fool, Ryuji The Chariot, Ann The Lovers. His doctor friend is Death, Sojiro the Hierophant. Morgana here is the Magician, and proud of it. He explains how he feels a bond with them, as he now does with you. They make him feel like he can do anything. You’re included in that now. You feel warmth rise to your cheeks. How could he say that so casually? It wasn’t like it was a love confession or whatever, but you had trouble seriously telling your online friends you appreciated having them in your lives without adding a joke or meme in there somewhere. Why did he even need your help? He seemed well spoken. You said so, voicing these opinions aloud.

“Huh.. you know, I actually don’t usually talk this much,” he smiled. “Must just be you.” He was only half teasing. You looked away nervously, feeling the need to change the subject.

“S-so, what am I?” You began to stroke Morgana’s fur, and this time he didn’t seem to mind.

“You mean your soul?” He scooted a bit closer.

“Yeah.” It didn’t go unnoticed.

“The Moon.” He replied softly.

He spent the rest of the night explaining the levels of Mementos, and some of the wicked people whose hearts he’s had the displeasure of seeing inside, but the absolute pleasure of changing. You say you aren’t surprised so many people are walking around so hurt inside or eager to hurt others. When the “date” ends - neither of you having even gotten that promised coffee or curry downstairs - you’re touching, sitting shoulder to shoulder looking at the moon outside his window with Morgana on your lap. The room seems a little warmer, a little less humble. Akira mentions with a sheepish grin that it’s getting late, and offers to walk you home.

Rank Up!

＊

You sit in your bed that night, Akira now having returned to Le Blanc, and think about if this will make good writing material or not. You had to have learned something, right? There was something to be gained from every experience… but you can’t help feeling like you’ve warmed up to the thought of Akira a bit more… not too much, however. You smiled to yourself at the thought of The Fool, tricked into dating the Moon, for all it can offer him.

He’d been so awkward at your front door when he dropped you off. You could tell he had no clue what to do. He was frantically looking around. People in movies kissed their date at this point, cheek or lips, depending on how the date went, right? He confessed that he’s one of those people who truly don’t know anything about romance, like you’d mentioned earlier in one of your conversations. You tell him it’s fine, that you didn’t expect anything, that you just met the other day. He thought he was being clear, dropping hints that he might want to peck your cheek, just a quick gesture to kick off your fake relationship, but maybe he wasn’t as slick as he thought. The hints seemed to go over your head. Maybe he really did need help.

＊

Your second date comes in the form of you begging to go back into the Metaverse for some inspiration. He fights you, bringing up the last time a shadow attacked you, but you are persistent. He gives in, taking you to the highest rung of Mementos, where the shadows are weak and he can keep you safe adequately on his own. It is a date, after all, no Phantom Thieves tagging along. Mementos is a bit more frightening than Kamoshida’s Palace, you mention, and he eases your fear, promising to protect you here, always. You take in his Phantom Thief uniform in more detail as you walk the long corridors of the realm of the subconscious and decide he looks quite handsome in it.

You watch him battle a demon that is the personification of lust, a succubus-like creature dripping with temptation and love, or so it thinks. Joker uses all that you’ve taught him so far, which isn’t much, and cons the false idol of love out of their money. It was quite comical yet a bit sad to watch the shadows expression fall from a cocky to a defeated one, but preformative love you’ve decided, is doomed to lose. The irony flies over your head.

From this experience, watching Joker fight with speed and grace, you settle on a genre for your novel. It will be a high-fantasy romance. Joker will inspire your main character, of course, but the love interest… was still undecided. You started drafting her to look like Ann, act like Ann, give off the energy and power Ann does. Ryuji was an option at first as well to inspire the love interest’s personality, but he was a bit too brash. You wanted someone strong, but soft and elegant at the same time. These characters were loosely based on the Phantom Thieves, anyway, so it didn’t really matter.

＊

When you leave the Metaverse, though Akira is a bit exhausted, he takes you to a local casual restaurant to make up for the last time at Le Blanc. There, sitting across the counter from you two is an older gentleman. Yoshida, Akira whispers, is a friend of his, another confidant. The Sun. Yoshida makes small talk, asking politely if you’re with Akira, and you feel your stomach clench. You knew this was fake, the agreement was clear, but hearing it aloud, the awkward ‘we’re just friends’ that was coming made you sweat. It still felt like rejection anyway. When Akira confirms that yes, you are in fact dating, your eyes widen, the coil in your stomach releasing. He smiles, taking your hand. This has to be an act, a show to play up the relationship. He’s just performing his duty, his role, holding up his end of the deal in order to simulate a real relationship and give you worthwhile source material… right?

Either way, you appreciate not being publicly humiliated, and smile back. That night, you write down everything, and what it’s like to not be alone.

Rank Up!

＊

Days pass, Kamoshida coming and going, justice being served, and you spend more and more time with your fake boyfriend. Your parents let him come over, and in your room you let him read some of the old poetry you’ve written, some lame pining drabble from your younger years, and some more recent things you’re proud of. He scours your room, digging up old hobbies and photos. You tell him all about them. He tells you he enjoys learning these things about you. You simply smile. It doesn’t seem to be the reaction he was looking for. Not liking the small frown that adorns his features, you pick the conversation back up, asking if he thinks you’ll ever have a persona. He smiles, maybe someday.

Rank Up!

＊

The Phantom Thieves are gaining fame, only more fodder for your writing. The more you hang out with Akira and his friends, the more real it feels. Your online friends can feel it, too. They sense you changing, talking less of writing and more of Akira. They tease you, of course, but they don’t get it. He’s just a main character… just a muse.

This time, Akira walks home to Le Blanc alone, wondering if he should tell you how he feels. He doesn’t like it, holding up this pretense of a fake relationship, pretending the glances and touches don’t matter. He wants to tell you…

...that he’s slowly falling.

You receive a little gift in the mail the next day. It’s a deck of tarot cards. The return address is blank. You call him to tell him all about it, and end up discussing the pros and cons of each card all night. What a coincidence that you should receive your own deck all of a sudden.

Rank Up!

＊

There are moments where you’re afraid you may be falling, too. There was the time that a blue-haired young man stalked you and your friends through Shibuya, turning corners when you did, always on your trail. When Ryuji finally got fed up and confronted the weirdo, asking why the hell he was following you guys, he’d revealed that his name was Yusuke, a student of a painting master, and that he was simply following inspiration where it lead.

“Your friend there, I was drawn to them,” he points elegantly, like some manga bishounen, past Ryuji and toward you. “I beg of you, allow me to paint your form. Something about your normalcy stands out. What I mean is, there is beauty to be found in not standing out, a silent grace in being so plain.” You could tell Yusuke meant no harm, that he simply may be a bit socially inept with his words, as well, but the way he was talking about you set something in Akira on fire. He stood in front of you, shifting until his body blocked yours from Yusuke’s sight.

“They aren’t plain.” He spoke with a dangerous edge to his tone, and you felt your heartbeat speed up. The hint of jealousy in his voice at Yusuke’s request for you to model for him, and anger at him calling someone he found so fascinating plain was evident.

＊

Yusuke seemed to be in denial in the coming days. Though your little troupe seemed to constantly be bumping into him, offering him sound advice and trying to awaken him to the mire of corruption that was the truth behind his mentor, Ichiryusai Madarame, he refused to see reason. He dove further into his art, but you could tell he was hurting. You used your time with Akira these days to teach him how art, much like film and literature, can reflect false truths and influence people. The deception, corruption and shallowness of the media extended to the art world, as he learned after one or two gallery visits with you.

It was then, in a gallery displaying Yusuke’s work, as you sat in a secluded corner alone discussing ways to take down Madarame, that Akira started to flirt incessantly.

He takes your hand, bringing up romantic tropes in movies he’s seen that seem so forced, one-sided, cliche, uncomfortable. He mentions that he would’ve done better, explains how those scenes would’ve played out if he had any say.

“Is that so?” Your brow raises, amused by how animated this usually quiet boy could be when he was passionate about something.

“Yeah! Of course! What, you don’t see me doing that?” he laughed breathily, going on about how the male lead of some high-school romance film Sojiro rented for him was clumsy, forceful, and didn't give his lover time and space to think about their feelings. “I would’ve treated them much, much better… “ his words trail off, as if lost in thought.

“...Is that so?” You ask again, studying his face and asking yourself how you didn’t notice before how beautiful the hue of his eyes were. You sure as hell were noticing now… steely grey, sharp, deep, purposeful. You’d have to write that down… for research purposes of course. When you pull yourself back to reality, no longer lost in the swirl of his irises, you realize he’s staring at you, and has been for some time.

“Do… can I-” he speaks, throat dry, and scoots himself closer. “May I kiss you…?” His voice is soft, so soft, scared.

“...Yes.” You answer, naturally, impulsively, voice just as soft. When Akira leans forward, and softly presses his apprehensive lips to yours, you feel like you’ve been set on fire. Your mind begins to go crazy, while your body is frozen. It’s not that you didn’t like it, some part of you did. You wanted more, but it felt wrong. This wasn’t real. You didn’t truly like him… right? This kiss was fake, for research purposes… to cure writer’s block…

...right?

You were frozen more from guilt than nerves. Weren’t first kisses supposed to feel like little butterflies in your stomach? Did he think he owed you this? Were you taking advantage of him at this point? Did he feel forced to kiss you to keep up his end of the bargain?

Akira deepened the kiss, a hand on the back of your neck, guiding you, begging you to reciprocate. When you didn’t, lost in your own head, he pulls away, a small frown tugging at his lips.

“W-we… we should head home. I’ll walk you…” he sighs. You both stand, make your way back onto the main street from the museum, and are silent the entire walk home.

You think he’s silent because you’ve forced him to think he needs to kiss you, and now regrets his decision. He thinks you’re silent because he’s just forced a kiss upon you, just like some Chad from a movie who can’t understand boundaries. Neither of you know your silence is for the exact same reasons.

Akira drops you off at home with a quiet ‘goodnight,’ and walks home, clearing his head in the cool night air.

“Stupid… jeez… fuckin’ stupid,” he huffs, repirmanding himself. This wasn’t real. You’d stated that from the beginning. This relationship was to benefit your writing, to help him in the Metaverse, nothing else. Nothing else.

Nothing. Else.

It was his fault he let himself develop real feelings. He has no right to be sad, to blame you, to get upset. You’d stated the terms from the very start…

Maybe he really was The Fool.

Rank Up…?

＊

The next few weeks are awkward.

Both of you think it’s your fault.

You go on dates like usual, but they are strictly business. You get writing material, he gets advice, no touching, and certainly no kissing. Yusuke joins the group. Things are great… friendly… strained, tense. Akira wonders what the hell he’s doing, if this bond is even worth it. Weeks pass. He feels your bond with him growing, but not in the way he wishes. It felt like all of his other confidants: visit, gain, rank up, gain power, learn. He wonders if he can keep this up. His heart aches. He wants to touch you more, but can’t, wants to tell you more, but won’t let himself.

＊

One rainy night, he calls you, like he often does when you can’t meet up in person, and tells you he can’t do this anymore. You lie, and say you agree. The guilt won’t let you tell him the truth, that you want to end the farce, move onto something more real. You can sense your feelings for him growing stronger each day, and it’s not fair to him. Without fighting, without the big “it’s not you it’s me you” you’re used to reading about in books, you tell him you respect his decision, and it’s over. When Akira hangs up, he finds himself a bit angry inside. You didn’t even try to fight for the relationship. There was a tiny little part of him that hoped you felt anything for him, that maybe it meant something to you. He cries that night, for the first time in a long time. They are angry tears, frustrated ones.

＊

In your bed, you find yourself sitting upright, dead inside, unfeeling, empty. You feel like a part of you is gone, but can’t pinpoint why. You don’t even notice the tears sliding down your own cheeks as you sift through the pack of tarot cards that mysteriously came into your life. You find The Moon, and play with it, twisting it between your fingers before sending it flying across the room like a paper dart. Did this mean you couldn’t hang out with the Phantom Thieves anymore? Were you losing your only in-real-life friends and… boyfriend(?) all in the same day?

You sifted through the cards and gently set aside the Emperor, the Lovers, the Chariot. Then your hand drifted over the Fool. You held it out in front of your face. A dancing man looking up at the sky with a jesters cap perched upon his head smiled back at you.

The start of a great journey, freedom from constraints. Each day is an adventure. Courage, anything can happen. There is a need to experience new things, to let yourself experience the love you deserve. Be willing to take risks.

A sad, thoughtful smile crosses your lips. You turn the card upside down.

If you disregard the repercussions of your actions, you are the Fool. You cannot see the position you’ve put yourself in. Is everything what it seems to be?

A breath catches in your throat, a wave of nausea hitting you. You scramble for your phone, and dial a number.

Silence, ringing, silence.

“...Yeah…?” Akira sniffles. He’s been crying???

“I want… can we talk… can I come over?”

“It’s late.”

“It’s not, we came home way earlier than usual. You’re just using that as an excuse.” You were feeling a little braver than usual, the spirit of the Fool within you. You heard him thinking, a sigh that came through as static.

“Yeah… fine, I’ll be waiting.” Relief washed over you.

＊

When you knocked on the door after speed-walking to Le Blanc, Sojiro let you in with a warm smile. He obviously didn’t know about your falling out with Akria, yet.

“He’s upstairs,” he gestured, exhaustion evident in his voice. You rushed past, thanking him with a small bow of your head. Only now was the inevitable fear starting to sink in. Akira heard footsteps creaking on the stairs. Sojiro never came up unannounced, and with that realization, his back stiffened. Morgana picked up your scent, excusing himself, passing you on your way up the stairs. He could take a hint.

He stood immediately, stepping toward you, stopping halfway. You shrunk into yourself, unable to meet his eyes.

“Akira… I wanted to talk…” you muttered.

“You said that… about what?” He was more than a little pissed, but he was always one to hide his temper well.

“Can we sit…?” You gestured to his small sofa. It didn’t feel right to sit on the bed. He hesitated, before shuffling over and sitting next to you. “I wanted to apologize.”

“For what?” Oh, there were so many things, but he wanted to know what you thought was worth apologizing over. Maybe he wasn’t being fair, he dialed back his attitude a tad.

“For… making you enter into the agreement in the first place. Someone’s affections, their love, their touch and body… it’s not something that can be forced. It should never be pretend.” You felt like the biggest hypocrite ever right now. His head shook a bit in disbelief, blinking hard.

“I wasn’t pretending!” His hands flew to his hair, mussing it. “That was the problem.” He sighed heavily.

“What?” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing.

“I wasn’t being forced… are you… you must be the most oblivious person I’ve ever met.” He laughed cynically.

“But-”

“Wait, wait, why did you think I ended our” he put air quotes up, “ ‘fake’ relationship.” He needed this clarification, now. For closure, for redemption, to fix things, whatever may come next.

“Because… because I was forcing you to date me! You were uncomfortable?!” You could feel your voice begin to break, tears clawing to escape. You’d never felt so disgusted with yourself as you did right now.

“Are you serious?” He took both of your hands, looking you in the eyes. You nod. “Answer truthfully. Do you have feelings for me? Real ones?” You bit your lip, that feeling of selfish guilt creeping like bile up your throat. You nod again. “This whole time?” Another nod. He releases you, turning away. “Sheesh, maybe I’m the oblivious one here…” he spoke more to himself than to you. You both sat in tense silence, not sure what to do, what to say.

“Akira…”

“It was real to me,” he moved closer, trapping you against the end of the couch.

“Really?” Your heartbeat was going crazy, and he leaned ever so slightly closer, his hand on the back of the couch for support. “I broke up with you because it was hurting me to pretend I didn’t have real feelings for you, and to think you didn’t want me back, not for real. I thought… that you’d always think of me as just some character for your book.”

“No… Akira… had I known you felt this way…” He leaned in further, your noses bumping slightly, clumsily. This time, he felt no discomfort, no hesitation from your side. His heart fluttered in excitement. You could feel his breath on your warm cheeks.

“May I kiss you?” He asked again, a secondary, unspoken question sitting beneath his words.

“Yes.” Your voice was shaky, but you were sure, for once, of what you wanted. His hand went to your back, cradling you into his chest to lay down flat against the couch. With a passion he’d been holding back, he pressed his lips to yours without reservation. You sunk into the warm, plush feeling, tilting your head at a better angle. He kept the kiss soft, shallow, low pressure, looking for you to give him the signal to stop. When your arms reached upward, snaking around his neck and pulling him harder down into you, he groaned softly, barely audible, before passing his tongue over your lips a single time. You parted your lips, allowing him access, and his hand, pale and trembling, came up and found its way under the hem of your shirt, splayed nervously against the smooth skin there.

#akira kurusu x reader #ren amamiya x reader #persona 5 protagonist x reader #persona 5 #joker persona 5 #joker persona x reader #x reader #gender neutral reader #reaction #fanfiction #fluff #sfw #angst #friends to lovers #female reader #male reader #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #shin megami tensei #scenario #anime fanfiction #s/o #reader insert #first kiss #romance

[nancydfan]

So I have been a fan of resident evil for a while now and I have to say without a shadow of a doubt Ethan is my favorite protagonist. I feel like the rest of the protagonists in the series are kinda the same, you’ve got the police/army guys (Leon and Chris) who are determined to save the world, and then with the rest of them they’re kinda the same, badass people willing to give their all to get rid of evil and return the world back to normal. And that’s fine, except it’s a kind of story that’s been told over and over again and not just in resident evil.

That’s why I love Ethan so much. He is a breath of fresh air that the series needed. And while yes, you can argue that his type of storyline has also been used a lot, it’s something that has never been explored in resident evil.

With the rest of the protagonists, they choose to fight. They volunteer to put themselves in horrifying scenarios for the greater good.

Ethan isn’t like that.

He’s literally just your typical average dude. He has a normal job, and has a relatively normal life which he was happy to spend with Mia until she went missing.

In RE7 Ethan doesn’t volunteer to deal with the horrors that he faces. He just wanted his wife back, and even after 3 years he still loves her enough to drop everything and rush out to find her.

When I finished RE7, I liked Ethan as a main character, but it was RE8 that made me fall in love with him. In RE7 there were a lot of times when he just didn’t respond or kind of reacts underwhelmingly, but I think this is less of his character and more of Capcom trying to make you feel more like Ethan and having him react too much might take you out of feeling like the main character is you.

Of course his actions are still very reflective of him, like when he first enters the house and has to “kill” Mia the first time, when she reaches out to him he reaches right back, implying that he regrets what just happened and that he still wants her to be okay, no matter what is wrong with her.

I know Jacksepticeye said one of the reasons why he doesn’t like Ethan is because he doesn’t have a character arc, but I disagree. Like I said, Ethan goes from not being very vocal at times/ underwhelming reactions in RE7 to I feel the exact opposite in 8; he talks a lot more with lines that make sense, and you can feel his emotions at times even with just seeing his hands. Now one can argue that Capcom just wrote Ethan differently, which I can see.

But I feel as though Ethan has changed- in the first game, he’s scared and confused, and finally ends on frustration as the game nears its end. In RE8 he is angry, angry that his life keeps getting turned on it’s head because of some stupid mold. He is angry, and fueled by his grief and determination to save the only family (he thinks) he has left. He is 100% done with everything and has honestly given his last fuck a long time ago.

And again, this is what makes him special- he doesn’t necessarily care about the mold, about Miranda or any of the “bigger issue” things- he just wants his family. In 7 he just wants to get his wife and get out of there, and In 8 he just wants to save his daughter. He didn’t sign up to be a hero, to save the world from it’s own creations. He just wants his family.

And honestly that’s what makes him more human and alive to me than the rest of the protagonists- the rest of them kind of just feel like characters with their (almost cheesy) need to take on insurmountable problems to save the world. But Ethan is different, he’s just a man who probably just wants to do his taxes in peace and have a normal, quiet life. The rest of the protagonists, though I’m sure would love to quit, wouldn’t change their jobs or their situations because they know someone has to do it and it might as well be them. But not Ethan. If he had the choice than he’d make it so none of this ever happened, and that he and his family never have to be involved in something like this again.

Which is why I think this is what makes his sacrifice so much more tragic. With any of the other protagonists yes we would be sad but we’d find comfort in knowing that they died doing what they loved (saving people), and wouldn’t have it any other way.

But Ethan is different.

He didn’t want to sacrifice himself- we can see that in the way he struggles with Chris to get out, to stay in one piece for his daughter because he wants to be there for her. He went through hell and he just wants to see his little girl grow up. And when he hears Mia’s alive that want only grows more because he has a chance to have his family back, but I think he knows he can’t. He’s falling apart, his body has dealt with so much and kept him alive but not for much longer. And so even though he desperately wants to go back with Chris, after hearing Mia’s alive he knows he can let go. I think another part of why he was fighting so hard to escape with Chris is because he didn’t want Rose to live without both of her parents, but when he hears Mia’s alive he realizes that Rose will be okay, she will at least have one parent. He is so tired, so tired of fighting that even though he hates the fact that he can’t go back with her (you can physically hear the pain in his voice when he says “Goodbye Rosemary”), he knows that it’s something he has to do.

And he isn’t happy or content with sacrificing himself. In fact this is the last thing he wanted, which again is what makes it so heart wrenching. After all the pain he’s been through he doesn’t even get to see his daughter grow up, doesn’t get to grow old with his wife, his painful adventure to get his family back ends just as painfully as he pulls the trigger to destroy the mold.

This is why Ethan is special to me. Ethan is just a man who wanted to be happy with his family, not some stereotypical stone cold hero who would gladly give up his life for the greater good. He is truly unique and in a way I saw myself in him and his personality, which is what crushed me so much when he died. I wanted him to have a good ending and he got handed a shitty end. I really hope Capcom gives him a good resolution, one where he doesn’t have to be a main character at all but at least give us something where we know he’s okay and reunited with his family.

Sorry for getting weepy and deep lol, it’s just I really love Ethan and have no one to talk about how upset I am at his ending lol. Thanks for listening to my rant!

Oh my dear nonnie you’re always welcome to rant in my inbox. Long or not, thoughts, etc. that’s why my box is always open :)

And just so you know, I’m currently crying in an airport lobby over Ethan Winters 😆

I’m on mobile so I won’t be able to properly respond probably except to say you are absolutely right on all of these things. He really is such a stark contrast to the rest of the RE heroes and that’s what makes him so special to me too. He is just a man. A man who does everything he can for his family. All he wants to do is be left alone to love his wife and raise his daughter. I keep thinking of that scene in re8 where he’s talking to the doc. That is the Ethan Winters Capcom refuses to let us see all that much. Easy, happy, carefree moment. There’s a lightness to his voice. He doesn’t care about the problems of the world. That isn’t his job too. And it’s unbelievably tragic that not only does he get pulled into this twice (with three years of suffering for Mia before Dulvey and then the heartache of her “murder” and Rose’s kidnapping), he then dies in the end???? He doesn’t even get the reward to live with his wife and daughter? WHAT DID ETHAN WINTERS DO TO YOU, CAPCOM!!?

also overcome? Miss me w that bullshit. Y’all blew him to smithereens.

I swear if Capcom doesn’t bring him back in some way I don’t know how I’ll proceed w this series. I love Leon and Claire and Jill a lot too but nothing like Ethan. And I’m super not interested in getting my heart ripped out every few years. Especially w a new protagonist.

Ethan is just the perfect representation of deserved better. He pays his taxes on time, probably helps that old lady down the street whose husband just died. Tells the same joke we’ve all heard a thousand times to the point only Mia and him are laughing at it. He would be there for every parent teacher conference and up at 130 with a flashlight chasing away the monsters from Rose’s closet. The world may be crazy somewhere but he’s content to just be here with his family.

And Capcom took all of that away. I don’t think I’ll ever not be angry about it.

#thanks for the ask nonnie 💜💜💜 #resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil spoilers #Ethan winters #Ethan Winters Defense Club #mrs joe speaks #long post

[clarste]

Since it's been a few weeks, what's your opinion on Chapter 8 of Arknights? Reading about your opinion on other pieces of Arknights has been very nice so far.

I find this enemy description inordinately amusing so I will start with this before going to spoilers below the break.

1) First of all I am a sucker for flashbacks following the villain, so the basic structure of Chapter 8 was right up my alley. Even if Talulah's arc was more or less predictable—who among us did not expect Alina to die? I think some people might feel that it was a little too long, but honestly I think it said everything it needed to say and frankly there is nothing more important the chapter could have said. If anything, the parts that weren't about Talulah would be first on my chopping list if I were editing this story down. In particular, the whole bit with Kal'tsit and the sarcophagus and all that had almost nothing to do with the themes of this chapter or the Reunion arc, so they seemed especially superfluous. Even if that story might have been interesting told on its own.

2) Talulah. The main character of this chapter, obviously. I think there are two different angles to approach her from that seem almost mutually exclusive, which are that A) she is a tragic figure who started with noble ideals but was pushed to her limits until she became a ruthless shell of her former self and B) she is literally possessed by Kaschey, ie: the Deathless Black Snake, who is the immortal spirit of Imperialism manipulating the country of Ursus into a constant state of war. From what I've seen of people’s reactions, I think most people focus more on angle B, which makes sense because that is literally true in the story, but what I took from it is that it's a lot more ambiguous than that.

What I mean is that the story is constantly emphasizing that the Deathless Black Snake can only take action as long as Talulah agrees with it. It's more insidious than just an external ghost taking control of her (and thereby freeing her of responsibility for her actions), it's a philosophy that was planted in her by her mentor, a way of thinking, an idea. A living meme. So when I say that it's the immortal spirit of imperialism, I don't mean that as a joke, it is the embodiment of imperialism itself, of imperialist ideals and goals, manifested in this particular person the moment she starts seeing her enemies as obstacles to be eliminated instead of people with their own motivations. I certainly don't think that the trigger for the transformation was set arbitrarily, that's just Who She Needed To Be in order to buy into the ideas that Kaschey and the Snake had taught her from a young age. It’s also an ancient god taking physical control over her, but hey, it's fantasy.

Ultimately, we didn't defeat the Deathless Black Snake in battle, we just gave Talulah second thoughts. And she will live with what she's done for the rest of her life.

3) Amiya. In this chapter, more than anywhere else, it's clear that Amiya is the main character of Arknights. Sure, we have whatever Kal'tsit is plotting, and whatever the hell the Doctor is, but that doesn't actually matter. In fact, they spent this entire chapter walking around in the basement and never once interacting with Talulah. The Doctor shows up at the end with no idea what's going on or what happened, which is quite comical when you think about it.

By contrast, Amiya sees the big picture. Of the three people on top of the tower during the climax, only Amiya knows what both Talulah and Chen have been through, or indeed what she’s been though. What brought them all to that point. She is watching all these flashbacks right alongside us through her empathy powers. Which, as I've mentioned before, is really the best superpower in this setting: the power to see the world through someone else's eyes, and to feel the pain that drives them. And we, the players, feel what she feels. In a certain sense, she's even more of a player avatar here than even the Doctor, which I mean in the best possible way.

And of course her empathy gives her cool shounen superpowers that are suspiciously similar to Emiya Shirou, but I will allow it.

4) Chen. Chen is honestly kind of the weak link here, imo. While of course we've been following her character arc since chapter 3 and I don't mind where they've taken her, it ironically kind of felt to me like she had no personal stakes in the final battle. Which is odd since the story seemed to be hammering that it's all personal for her, what with Talulah being her long-lost sister and all that. The problem (imo) is that her close relationship with Talulah is all Told-Not-Shown, and also that Talulah is being possessed by the Deathless Black Snake, so it kind of feels like she's being left out of the loop, both in terms of knowing the facts and also emotionally.

I'm not saying she doesn't get any good lines, or that her banter with Amiya isn't cool or funny, I'm just saying that what should have been a big emotional moment at the climax of the story just sort of fell flat for me, and I was left wondering "wait, why is Chen here again?"

That said, I did enjoy her bit afterward where she's like "you need to stand fair trial for your crimes, Talulah, but in this world that discriminates against the Infected, there’s nowhere worthy of giving you one." I feel that sums up the game's stance on these things quite succinctly.

5) Rosmontis. Rosmontis had sort of an interesting arc here because it separated her from Amiya and I almost want to say that was a good thing? While I thought her relationship to Amiya was one of the most interesting things about her in the previous chapter, it almost feels like it was preventing her from forming bonds with other people and becoming a more well-rounded person? I guess what I want to say that is that Rosmontis was being coddled, sheltered, treated as a child. While some would call her a monster, Amiya was always around to say "no no no, don't listen to them, you're cute!" And while that was certainly nice of Amiya, it feels like what truly made her accept herself was almost the opposite: being accepted as a monster (or rather, a person with monstrous powers) by people used to fighting alongside monsters. Being told that she's allowed to hate the people who hurt her, and to be ruthless to her enemies. That her own emotions, both good or bad, are valid. For the first time, she felt human.

What you'll note, of course, is that these aren't exactly heroic virtues, and in fact they're kind of similar to what Amiya rejects and what got Talulah into so much trouble? Honestly I don't know if I would say Rosmontis is a good person right now, but what she is doing is thinking on her own for the first time, and deciding what's right and wrong for herself. It sounds almost malicious to put it this way, but it's like Amiya and Rhodes Island were trying to mold her into someone she's not. In some ways the opposite of what Kaschey did to Talulah.

I don't think her story is over yet, of course, but I found it an interesting direction to take. Rosmontis is on the path to find her own justice, which may or may not align with Rhodes Island's.

Also, kitty:

6) W. Back when I was doing a write-up for chapter 7, I said that maybe she would have been better off being recruitable in chapter 8 instead of 7, because it seemed a little early in her arc for that. I was wrong. She wouldn't fit in for chapter 8 either. Honestly she probably shouldn't be recruitable at all right now, not that I'm complaining as someone who uses her. Just, you know, narratively she is not at a place where she would consider joining RI, and in fact she ends the chapter pretty much going "later losers, I hope we never meet again." Which implies that the W in my squad right now is like a totally different person who is either from an alternate dimension or the future, after a lot of character development. That's not like the worst thing ever, it just seems a little weird to have her right now. W's story isn't about Reunion and never was. It's about Theresa and Babel, which as of now we are still only getting little hints of. I'd be glad to see that story when it happens, but until then W's just kind of there.

7) Themes. For some reason, this one line in this chapter really hit me. While it's not literally true, especially if you count all the former child slaves or feral children and whatnot, it does feel broadly true that most of the characters come from middle-class backgrounds. Like, your Krooses and Orchids of the world. Kal'tsit goes on to explain that this is because RI can only really recruit in cities, and that rural Infected tend to get thrown into the wilderness on their own and have no idea that RI exists.

Interestingly, this idea also sort of comes up in Talalah's side, when it's revealed that Talulah is the daughter of a duke, making her followers hesitate for a moment. While I don't recall it being explicitly spelled out, the implication was obviously that she's not "one of them" and this might be a cause for distrust. But what are "they' exactly? Clearly she is in fact Infected, she made sure of that herself. But she wasn't abandoned in the same way her followers were. She had a choice, and chose to side with the Infected. Which is honorable of her and all, but it also indicates a fundamental disconnect between them because they never had a choice. She could've used her influence to hide her oripathy and be treated like a normal person (as we saw happened with both Chen and Patriot), or used her wealth to get sent to a fancy private hospital like Rhodes Island, with the latest medical technology and treatments.

So while the story focuses on the discrimination of the Infected, it's clear here that that's not really the only thing going on. Being Infected means little to those in power, while for those without power it's just an an excuse to intrude on their lives and make sure they aren't "harboring any Infected" or whatever. Basically the story starts discussing intersectionality, which I found interesting.

8) This is a good line:

#not touhou #arknights #chapter 8 #roaring flare #if we don't pick a name for ourselves we will only ever be called the names others give us

[tanoraqui]

okay I have to do this today because even I wouldn’t do it after the godforsaken finale airs, and it’s basically my specialty and I did spend like an hour thinking about it last night while washing dishes. Definitely partly inspired by @words-writ-in-starlight​‘s insightful post on everything Supernatural did wrong, and apologies in advance to all the characters for dragging them into anything related to Christian mythology:

Wei Wuxian’s parents die in a house fire when he’s 6(? I refuse to look anything up) months old

Jiangs are a hunter family I guess? That whole disaster of a family dynamic, except WWX dips out at some point to be idk an environmental activist bc at the time, that seems like the larger threat to the whole world. “Mom and Dad went on a hunting trip and they haven’t come back”, “bitch” “jerk”, 2 brothers in a beat-up old car, you know the drill

Jins are also an old hunting family, but more Men of Letters energy - they have a fancy bunker and do research and avoid getting their actual hands dirty. Jiang Yanli ducked out of the active hunting life a few years ago to be happily married to her peacock and settled down with a baby and she’s fine. We’re not going to bother Yanli. She’s safe and happy and doesn’t need to involved in any of this

so, WWX is the demon blood child developing exciting new abilities like telekinesis, mind control, exorcising demons by sheer force of will...etc, and Jiang Cheng is the Righteous Man. Lucifer, Michael, etc.

s1-3 probably proceeds more or less as spn canon...which I more or less remember...by the time they find their parents at the end of s1, Jiang Fengmian is...ugh, we probably shouldn’t kill him offscreen, I mean, we should probably meet him before he dies. I guess. Madam Yu lasts longer because I’m way more interested in her. But we do know that both Jiang parents are totally inclined to fling the boys into a metaphorical or literal escape boat and go hold the line for as long as possible, so...that’s spn energy...

Xue Yang is the one who’s like “fuck yeah, demon powers” and opens the gates of Hell, because I want him to have nice* things

*nice for Xue Yang

from characterization rather than memory, I’m 90% sure that Dean tried to hide his crossroads deal from Sam, but Jiang Cheng does it...better. I think it does come out, though. Right before the hellhounds do.

here’s where it starts to go farther off from spn canon. Jiang Cheng crawls his way out of the grave, gets stalked by a menacing presence that explodes windows for an episode, incidentally can’t find WWX...*Lan Wangji voice* “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition” (a baller line then and a baller line now)...and then the next episode starts with them all awkwardly standing around, and JC is like, “ok well let’s go find my brother then”, and you think there’s going to be an mdzs-riffing JC+LWJ Roadtrip To Find WWX...and they’re immediately attacked by like a dozen demons

in fact, the first time we see WWX in s4 is here, wherein he goes toe to toe with an angel and...holds his own. that’s new and terrifying! also is leading a squad of demons??

because here’s the thing: for the last 3(?) months, there’s been war in hell

because unlike Some People Mooses, upon finding out that his brother’s soul was legally nearly-owned by a crossroads demon, heir-apparent-to-Satan!WWX went, “actually fuck that” and kicked open the door of Hell (metaphorically, not loosing any demons this time) and was like, “who do I have to beat the shit out of to get a specific crossroads contract around here”

this did not work, obv. He didn’t know until it was too late, Lilith had already snapped up the contract, etc. etc.

obviously he also tried to offer himself instead, and got rejected for some reason

Since Jiang Cheng died, however, there’s been a war for control of Hell. Leading one side, Lilith, the Original Babe, who wants to break all 666(?) seals keeping Lucifer bound and in the meantime, break the Righteous Man so Heaven won’t even have Michael’s destined host ready for the Final Battle. Leading the other side, Wei Wuxian, infamous upstart, who wants to rescue the Righteous Man and restore him to life, tear Lilith’s guts out through her nose, and also stop her from doing the Lucifer thing because Wen Qing explained that yes, that’s a Thing, and it’s Bad.

Wen Qing! I’ve decided to combine Bela and Ruby’s roles and let WQ be both the cool badass example of how demon deals can go Bad and the demon deliberately leading our heroes astray for most of s3-4. Wen Qing is a very new demon; she used to be some sort of herbalist/witch but then she sold her soul in a crossroads deal to cure her brother of some lingering illness. 10 years of happiness and then boom, hellhounds. WQ is so obviously competent, though, that they (Lilith, I guess?) immediately offers her a job, with the promise threat that gee, that’s a nice brother you’ve got there, even with his Designated Chronic Health Condition getting all relapse-y. It’d be such a shame if something were to...happen to him...

we find this out at some point in last s3 I guess? some Monster of the Week case involves WN as a witness or something, or possible next victim, and WQ shows up to be A Normal Amount Of Invested In This, while desperately trying to avoid actually interacting with her brother (who thinks she’s dead). YES, the truth comes out; YES there’s a tearful reunion

now in s4, Wen Ning is fine actually, health-wise, bc he maybe made a crossroads deal with Wei Wuxian personally, and Wen Qing may or may not have admitted that she’s supposed to be working for Lilith to get WWX ready to host Lucifer? Or potentially that comes out later, idk. Either way, she’s 100% his top lieutenant in this exciting Hell War they’re waging

[insert whatever the hell (ha) happened plot-wise in s4 of supernatural]

we obviously mix up the relationships, too, bc it’s like, *LWJ internal monologue* I’m too young to remember my brother Lucifer as he was before he Fell, but surely Wei Wuxian is his Heir and Destined Vessel in truth, for he is Charismatic and Charming and Makes Me Feel Things, with his Clearly Feigned Righteous Drive and Compassion for All God’s Creatures and - why does heat keep pooling in the lower abdomen of my vessel when I look at his lips, which I am definitely doing a Normal and Not-Weird Amount - I’m just keeping an eye out for the famed Silver Tongue, and not in any way wondering how it would feel in my own mouth -

it’s actually DEFINITELY plausible for Lucifer to still be released even if our designated Heir Apparent is using his demon powers to his full potential and no one’s lying to each other about their motives. You just need to let Lilith be more scary too, and especially bc by “no one” I mostly mean Wen Qing; the angels are still totally hiding the fact that they, too, want to jumpstart the shit out of this apocalypse.  LWJ decides at the last minute that that’s a bad idea actually, gets himself discorporated to send JC to intercept WWX because he accidentally releases Lucifer, etc. etc. Oh yeah, the boys were def fighting before this, bc JC has actually fairly reasonable concerns about the sort of things WWX is getting up to in his quest to become King of Hell...

SO

...I neither know nor care what happens in s5

it does end with both Lucifer and Michael locked in the cage probably, bc I rather liked that solution. Fuck both of ‘em, basically.

I was toying with the idea that WWX also found Madam Yu in whatever hellish torment she was suffering after making a deal so her idiot son(s) would survive, and she was leading forces for him in the war against Lilith as well. If she came back to life somehow, body and all, it’d probably be compelling if she offered her own body to Michael - bc it’s her lineage! - and we’re all led to believe that she’s, uh, being a bitch and actually wants to risk destroying the world in order to destroy all demons...but then she seizes back control and flings herself/Michael and Lucifer into the Pit, because she’s just That Hardcore?

which means we’d actually have had her around and having characterization for most of s4-5, too, which would be fun

More importantly, it ends with newly crowned King of Hell Wei Wuxian appointing Wen Qing as Queen-Regent and ditching to go on an indefinite honeymoon with his new angel boyfriend (they’re going to fuck for like three weeks straight, then roll up their sleeves and go conquer Heaven in the name of free will), and Jiang Cheng gets to live out his hitherto-unknown-to-himself life’s ambition to be the sugar baby of the Queen of Hell. It’s very Hades/Persephone, except he goes back down to the underworld at least once a month. He gets his own demon squad whom he trains up in all the hunting techniques and it’s gr9. Wen Qing is reforming the crossroads deal process to make it more fair to the humans.

the end

Addenda:

it should go without saying but Jiang Yanli is definitely a recurring character, like, at least once a season there’s a filler episode where they go to Jiang Yanli’s for dinner and have to get along as a family, and also do the much easier job of defeating some sort of terrible demon that gets loose in the bunker and turns the evening into a horror movie. She’s their main research/emotional check-in person, a la Bobby, more often appearing in later seasons when there’s, uhhh, more to emotionally check in about.

Jin Zixuan is actually a perfectly competent hunter; he’s just a priss and we don’t Like him

we like Mianmian, though. Oh, I guess the official Hunter’s Guild or w/e tries to declare WWX a public enemy on account of the whole “King of Hell” thing and she’s like “actually what if you’re morons and assholes?” and joins hte team in s4 or 5? Yeah.

idk how the 3zun disaster happens in this ‘verse but I do encourage it to be happening in slow motion as a recurring subplot for several seasons. NMJ is a hunter, LXC is obv an angel, and JGY is...I wanna say one of the more human monsters, like a vampire? Or, you know, something that could be born from JGS sleeping with someone/something he shouldn’t have

#mdzs #the untamed #supernatural #ficlet #my fic #spn #ugh it'll probably fuck up hte bullet points again

[wokestraightpuffy]

Hallo, i hope you are alright and that my ask aren’t annoying but I wanted to ask do you have any c!puffy headcannons? —🤡

YOURE NOT ANNOYING AT ALL !!! NEVER THINK THAT ILU VERY MUCH. MUAH /p

as for c!puffy headcanons, i am not the best person to ever organize their thoughts properly but ill try my best >:’D

ahaha. this got. super complex and way too long and more of like an introspective study to puffy now instead of harmless fun headcanons so, uh. under read more <3 (also reminder this is all /rp and /dsmp)

* i like to think that she has a hero complex, but its a bit different since she never really sees herself as an ‘important’ part of the story, not the main character but a support one, hence ‘im fine with being the side character’ or how she’s said she doesnt care what happens to her and would gladly sacrifice(?) herself if there werent other people she had to protect. girl u need therapy urself <3

* though very open with how she feels and never afraid to say when someone/something is upsetting her, ‘opening up’ is still a whole mountain climb for her, apparently. like, she’d rant about the egg, get mad at the eggpire, let off some steam by committing arson or exploding stuff, she’ll rarely ever talk about how much the stuff that upset her actually HURT her. does that make sense? LIKE, she’ll lash out, she’ll get mad, she’ll take NO SHIT thrown at her face, but to show the kinda vulnerability of dealing with that? to cry about it talk about those feelings with someone? I think she’d rather eat her own foot lol

* adding onto the thing above, she doesnt necessarily actually realize this about herself. less of actively doing it and rather growing... used to the ‘cycle of violence’ in the smp as they call it. and the fact that rarely have people really asked, that no one’s actually available for that, w her losing her closest friends, bad and ant, sam being busy w the warden stuff... and niki. yeah. there’s foolish, but i doubt she’d ever see venting to someone she considers her son appealing

* also. puffy is just sometimes... really bad at conveying sadness. i think she’s a rare crier. id go as far to say that shes even more emotionally constipated than dream, lol (but maybe not while the guy’s in his prison arc) and that she’d be the type of person to tell you its okay to cry but beat herself up over something if she let a tear slip in a heated moment

* speaking of sadness. she’ll only ever actually Be Sad if she’s alone or with someone she doesnt necessarily care the opinions of. yknow how she mourned for tommy and blamed herself? those dialogue bits? yeah, those are only times shed actually be vulnerable

* puffy’s go to response to the egg and how its fucked up her relationship w her friends is pure fury. but, going off of her line about ‘failing bad and ant’ i like to think that she probably hates herself the most about it. THAT IS A STRONG WORD LOL BUT YEAH. she yells and curses and gets mad, but sometimes i wonder if the words she had spat before were more directed to herself

* THIS GIRL HAS SELF-IDENTITY PROBLEMS. CAN WE GET A HELL YEAH FOR THAT CHAT? outside of having no goddamn clue about where she came from, how she got here and who she even is, scrounging up a role for herself in a server with a war on the background and traumatized kids got her resignedly coerced into thinking that she is only a Parent. Only good enough when she’s actually doing something Useful for people. SO. when she finds that ship? of having a crew and having a curse? OF FINDING OUT SHE MIGHT HAVE/ HAVE HAD A MOM THATS WAITING FOR HER?  the sense of control she has on herself is absolutely crushed. shattered, and she’s left to pick up the pieces w no one to talk abt it with <3

* adding onto the above, it’s why the line ‘I’m supposed to be mama puffy. me.’ hurts me so much! so yes! please cry with me :D

* also to add more on the fact that she thinks she’s only worth something when she’s being useful, puffy literally contemplated leaving the server, thinking that it wouldnt matter leaving since no one really needs her anyway, since she’s failed so many people. bad and ant, tommy, dream. shes said how foolish can take care of himself on how tubbo and ranboo have each other, how she and niki have drifted so far away from each that it might as well be a break up.

HOOOOOOOOOO OBOY . anon youve really given me the perfect chance to ramble huh? sorry for the rather incomprehensible brainrot, here’s more lighthearted headcanons about puffy asdhfkd

* she cannot stand still sometimes. she always has to be doing something extra, walking when the prime path is right there? shed rather go through tedious little holes or hop and balance onto fences to get where shes going. she’ll mindlessly fix up the path when there are holes or mismatched wood, and one time went on a long, long LONG journey cleaning up the paths tommy purposely DESTROYED near lmanburg and even added cobblestone sidings which werent there before

* puffys a bit of a sentimental person. writing in her log to clear her thoughts sometimes and cared enough to try and preserve lmanburg with the glass sheet and trying to find possible surviving artifacts of history to respect it, even though she’s never been a part of it. its also why, when doomsday happened and lmanburg got permanently poofed, she began to appreciate the buildings that are still standing and began taking more pics 

* she’s not used to being... what do you call it, um, cared for? she’d deflect compliments sometimes, when shes having a particular bad day, like, she’d laugh nervously and change the subject, sometimes she’d outright deny it, most days she’d jokingly say ‘staphhh it’ and add a very genuine thanks. my point being is, do something for puffy that is mildly nice and she’d keep that moment in her heart forever. 

* also funny story regarding the above. u know how karl is notorious for stealing her materials? and how puffy was contemplating doing something in retaliation for them? karl says hi for once when she joins the server and she goes ‘alright fine youre safe for saying hi’ LOL THIS WAS PROBABLY A BIT META WISE but something about this implying that the bare minimum or LESS is enough to make puffy forgive someone is very sad and funny at the same time for me. girl really said ‘oh you said hi to me? thats nice all the crimes youve ever done towards me is now forgiven. <3’ (this is a bit of an exaggeration on my part, ofc, i just think its funny LMAO) 

* ironically, despite being the ‘captain’, whenever riding a boat with someone, she prefers being on the backseat and letting them drive. ig shes just there for the ride i suppose, her and her uber drivers :3

 * she either has a rather unhealthy obsession with baked potatoes or she just doesnt wanna waste eret’s massive potato farm

* idc what cc!puffy says is c!puffy will always and forever be 5′2″ in my HEART. u are the shortest member, u cannot change this <3

* shes really fond of animals/ neutral mobs. she often baby talks to them and they help boost her mood a lot when shes having a bad day :D

* up to this day, the little secret rooms she’s created around the server have all been yet to be discovered, unless the one under bad’s house has been found. she rarely ever really keeps tabs on them, and more often than not they are just collecting dust. she still visits sometimes and cleans them up ofc

* she still genuinely thinks dream can change. cc!puffy’s line about that, ‘i’m his last hope.’ really makes me think about this a lot. 

* ive seen people talk abt it a bit but the headcanon that puffy acts as the server mom to fill the ‘void’ of her missing her mom makes me cry at night /hj

* she really likes her rainbow onesie! i headcanon that eret gave her that along w the sunglasses, but she started wearing that less when she found her old captains uniform. shes never really said why, though, and nobody ever really bothered to ask

* god bless this woman but sometimes the server members get on her nerves sometimes so she goes out of her way to traverse along far away from the main community to maybe commit a few crimes. let off some steam. these take a few days but she always returns

i probably have a lot more hcs but i cant remember them >_> THIS IS A LOT ANYWAY. HOPE U ENJOYED MY BRAIN VOMIT. IF U READ THIS FAR ILU THANK U

if there are mistakes it is bc i am crying and cannot see my keyboard and also i am sleep deprived /hj

#captain puffy #tea speaks #god this is so long the brainrot is concerning ANYWAY #clownon

[alister312]

fic updates/concepts

spring break is soon for my job which means I’ve got time to write so:

Just Business will continue to publish as normal, aside from this week where it’ll be updated later than usual due to closing ceremony tomorrow. it’s another chapter with BIG revision so I’ll have another “my thoughts” accompanying the link upload.

the Damstophe fic I’ve been working on is almost done (@saturnpanther has been a wonderful beta for it) so that’ll come out soon, get hype!! it’s gonna have a little bit of nsfw 👀 but it’s mostly tame.

every day Davey Solokov gets less and less relevant and yet I still am working on the Lanskov fic… probably will continue to spend a bit of time on that during the break.

something I know for sure I want to start during the break is a Style fic set in an AU I’ve personally really come to love the concept of! i reached out to the creator of the AU for permission and inspo and I think y’all should be excited for this. so excited that i won’t say anything else lol.

as for other fics… I’ve got a couple ideas floating in my head that I’m considering. wanna lay the groundwork for hype here BUT I’m not promising anything so I’ll put the rest below the cut for those truly curious

first off, i have sitting in my drafts like 15 pages of a story currently titled “Gregory Goes to Therapy” wherein, well, Gregory goes to therapy. it’s set to be a gregstophe story with angst. all i have written is the Big Angst bit and my vague ideas outside of what that is. maybe i’ll do something with that eventually or perhaps those 15 pages will never see the light of day.

secondly, along the lines of gregstophe, i’ve conceptualized gregstophe one shots based off every song on Penelope Scott’s “Public Void” album. i’m thinking about doing that as one whole thing. that might be good writing warm up bc i want to try and practice brevity with those.

and AGAIN, still following this gregstophe train, i have a coregstophe one shot that has been on my mind for a while. what’s coregstophe? why it’s corey lanskin, gregory, and christophe ofc. i imagine their dynamic to be similar to people’s idea of gregstophlovski except corey is more chill than kyle

now, there’s 4 longer projects i currently have vaguely conceptualized that i’d like to get around to at some point. in no particular order:

1) a reboot of my Hell in a Handbasket aka zombie apocalypse AU fic. did you know i actually wrote 7 chapters of it but only ever published 2? crazy. anyways now i know where i actually want it to end!

2) i’ve REALLY been vibing with the idea of youth pastor craig/imp tweek lately and so i came up with an idea for a fic involving them. finally my catholic upbringing might come in handy

3) in one of my old RPs, my RP partner and i had this whole rivalry idea going on with the Tucker mafia vs the Cartman mafia. i forget where it came from but i want to do something with that. currently it’s got some creek/crenny vibes in my head but this one is the most vaguely planned

4) again with old RP stuff, it’s a “medieval” AU! this one would be style focused, being from stan’s POV. i’ve got all the different kingdoms w what noble rank each character is all thought out, as well as the main source of conflict. i know it’ll need good pacing to actually work tho and that is daunting

and that’s everything south park related that i’ve currently got on the mind in terms of fics! PLEASE do not hesitate to ask more about any of them, i would love to bounce ideas off of other people <3

#south park #south park fanfiction #sp fanfiction #sp fic

[transsexualhamlet]

sherlock holmes reactions part 4 (?) ive lost count already but unsurprisingly ive grown even more attached to him

using this as the cover image because i made him a playlist. cause im awful

no legit this is gonna need a read more because it's SO LONG SHIHEWIESHEFSHIEWHF

Had three mental breakdowns this week and realized i do in fact kin sherlock motherfucking holmes. this does not bode well for anything in my life mentally I've diagnosed him with so many things

Oh boy lol you want the list I think hes autistic (undisputed honestly) plus also adhd but on top of that there's the manic depression and uhhh the bpd lmao I dont even think that's it those are just. the obvious ones

But yeah man's a fucking mess and a shit person but in the same way as me so 👍

Some highlights I thought were very funny:

watson: we are in fact going to be waltzing into a place where people are Shooting People you do not have your gun. this is a problem

sherlock: don't worry watson I have my trusty stick!

watson: visible pain

This clearly happens like every day or so with them

but yeah there were some really honestly sweet scenes with them at the apartment and why am i getting soft over the crusty man being gay

have you considered tho. have you considered them

have you considered sherlock, who usually only plays absolute garbage on his violin serenading watson to sleep when he was tired and in pain and watson being so fucking in love with the man and waxing poetic about falling asleep to his music and waking up to see him fallen asleep on the couch next to him and oh my god them

They're just really sweet together for such a completely dysfunctional couple so much of the time lol I just. Sherlock being like.

Sherlock half of the time: watson you're fucking stupid. no i won't take care of my personal needs stfu. watson get a goddamn life. watson shut up. watson no one cares about your goddamn opinion. no i need to disturb you in the middle of the night it's for science. hey watson mind if i manipulate mansplain malewife

Sherlock the other half of the time: HELLO SIR YOU ARE MY FAVORITE MAN TO EVER MAN HELLO MAY I SPEND THE REST OF MY DAYS WITH YOU HELLO I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR YOU WE ARE PERFECT MATCHES I LOVE YOU AND I NEED YOU YOURE SO MUCH BETTER THAN ME PLEASE MARRY ME

They're... they certainly are.

ALSO OH MY GOD.

THIS ONE TIME WHEN SHERLOCK WAS JUST PACING AROUND THE ROOM AT 3 AM GOING "IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE >:(((" AND HUDSON LIKE BARGED IN TO COMPLAIN AND THEN WATSON WAS LIKE DUDE YOU GOTTA STOP DOING THIS AND PROCEEDS TO SAY THE LINE "YOU ARE KNOCKING YOURSELF UP, OLD MAN"

BAHGHSFHGRHEWHEWHIFEW

BRB SOBBING

CALLING HIM AN OLD MAN???? KNOCKING HIMSELF UP?? I DONT KNOW WHATS FUNNIER

The main highlight of this part was I have now gotten to see him have a great time watching his homo homie get married

Its so fucking funny.......

I was prepared for a funny reaction by yuumori sherlock's face when he said it lol but. Damn i was really not prepared tbh

watson: I'm engaged!

sherlock: *pained groaning*

watson: do you... not like her?

sherlock: no she's fine she's great you'll be wonderful together bUT I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE ARE HETEROSEXUAL WATSON DO I HAVE TO MARRY MYSELF THEN WATSON? ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME MARRY MYSELF.

watson: yeah... yeah... fair, I feel really bad because you did this whole case and I got a girlfriend out of it and all you got was me leaving you alone fuck man im sorry what are you gonna do without me

sherlock, highly sarcastic: dont worry watson I've always got my handy cocaine! *pulls it out and gets high in front of watson just as he's about to leave*

watson: *in fucking agony*

sherlock: good for you!

I DONT EVEN- THIS SCENE KILLED ME MULTIPLE TIMES OVER WHAT

ITS SO GODDAMN NONCHELANT ABOUT IT SHERLOCK IS JUST LIKE YEAH I WILL IN FACT NOT BE MENTALLY HEALTHY IF YOU ARE NOT WITH ME 24/7 BUT WHATEVER YOU DO YOU /S

I'd like to apologize to watson on sherlock's behalf lmao. man is being a bit too codependent on main

The last thing about sign of four I do need to address is yeah, there's the Horrific Amounts Of Racism in that one and the whiplash hearing it is just ridiculous because they seem to be so knowledgeable in all other areas and fairly... politically correct, taking sherlock's original misogyny as a purposeful character flaw, but then they just mention someone indigenous once and suddenly its all parrotting racist propaganda and just... really awful shit. There's no way I'm gonna speak for the group that just got absolutely hate crimed here but anyone can tell the author just has no clue what he's fucking talking about and it's physically painful.

And I don't know, it's just so bad it seems out of character? Doyle's making these motherfuckers say shit that honestly, Sherlock would know better about. And especially Watson. Come on, you cannot tell me watson is mentally capable of being prejudiced against someone. Please do not make him that way.

I'm not sure how to handle it specifically, or what's the proper way I should handle something like that in a media I otherwise like. Is it ok to say Doyle was clearly a piece of shit on the matter and separate those characters from his bias or is that insensitive?

I don't know, I was Not a fan of it and I'm glad to see they've at least finally shut up about the guy

But anyway yeah, uhhhh onto the short stories because I'm trying to read those before I get to the final problem

Scandal in Bohemia was a fucking ride, first of all, before we even get to Sherlock's girlboss arc we have to discuss how gay the whole situation was and how Doyle's attempt at making them less gay failed spectacularly

Like he's all "ah yes I need to marry off watson and uhhh make sherlock ummmm interact with a woman so they dont look gay" but he does it SO BADLY that it makes them look EVEN GAYER

cause i mean, even the conversation they had about watson getting married back in sign of four was gay af, but how Doyle handled things afterward was in no way straighter.

Cause you know, the man kind of wrote himself into a corner with the fact of Watson narrating these stories. So Watson has to be around to witness them, and to witness Sherlock's own thought process rather privately, so he has to be around sherlock at night, a lot. But trying to come up with a reason for that happening just... it didn't occur to Doyle. He just went. Ah yes this makes sense. And it's Watson just like Sleeping Over At Sherlock's like every other goddamn day and every time his wife leaves town and having them basically still live that cute domestic home life but they have absolutely no excuses for doing it anymore. It's quite funny

Like it was gay already the way they interacted when they officially lived together but it was like, a necessity for them. Now it's not, Watson just comes over because he goddamn wants to, and it's hilarious to me.

LIKE IDK I THINK THEY KIND OF BROKE UP FOR A YEAR OR SO BC OF WATSON GETTING MARRIED AND THEY LIKE DONT HAVE CONTACT WITH ONE ANOTHER BUT ONE DAY WATSON JUST INEXPLICABLY HAS THE URGE TO COME VISIT SHERLOCK ON NO NOTICE AND THEN SUDDENLY THEY ARE TOGETHER NEAR 24/7 AGAIN LIKE BARELY ANYTHING CHANGED AHIEHOEWH

SIT DOWN AND TRY TO TELL ME THOSE ARE NOT HOMOSEXUALS

Watson walks in on no fucking notice after a full year and Sherlock is just. In the middle of some experiment obviously but hes like

Sherlock, carrying around unidenfiable chemical mixtures: W A T S O N you look good you look good! i see you've gained seven pounds!!

watson: uh. thanks??? Hey lol *awkwardly waves* Uh um Wanted to Uhm sEe you

Sherlock: ABOUT gODDAMN TIME AND YES WONDERFUL LOOK LOOK SIT DOWN I HAVE THINGS TO INFODUMP ABOUT

watson: :) ok :) *turns to camera* and we were back to the old days

sherlock: makes a deduction

watson: wowwwwwwwwwwww !! so true bestie !!

sherlock: !!!!!!!!! :))) !!!!! :))) uh fuck im supposed to be smooth Its Elementary Lol

watson: *turns to camera* when i stroke his ego like this and compliment him he blushes like a girl like i just complimented his dress so i do it more because he likes it. this is a homie trait

watson: well i should probably get going! my wife will notice that i am gone my dear buddy bro homie!

sherlock: NO DONT LEAVE IM LOST WITHOUT YOU (pretty much a direct quote lol) your. wife doesn't. get back home until monday. I know this because I am smart and definitely have not been stalking you.

watson: alright :)))))

AND THEN HE FUCKING SLEEPS OVER LMAO FUCKING HOMOS

So yeah they're right back where they were before pretty much and there's a case bc of course there is

And honestly I think this short story specifically was so insane mostly just because of how absolutely fast it all went. Yuumori kind of made me believe the original Irene Adler was more of an important character than she really is? And I think that's. Honestly so funny. Motherfucker shows up for ten pages, girlbosses her way around town, and changes sherlock's entire opinion of the female gender while still keeping him gay?

LIKE NO LOL SHES NOT IN ANY WAY A LOVE INTEREST AND WATSON GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO SPECIFY THE FACT THAT IN NO WORLD WOULD THEY HAVE BEEN ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED BECAUSE. SHERLOCK. DIDN'T DATE WOMEN.

HE WAS JUST??? SO IMPRESSED AND SHELL SHOCKED BY HER EXISTENCE HE DECIDED IT WAS TIME FOR GIRLBOSS APPRECIATION DAY TODAY AND ALL DAYS HENCEFORTH???

AND THEY HAVE LIKE O N E INTERACTION?? God, the power this woman(?) has. Watson looks at her once like. damb shawty 😳 and she's like "no<3" and he's like FUCK

Like yeah it's pretty much just the king walking up like "help girl the whore is blackmailing me" and sherlock being like "ok lol this will be easy" and then it proceeded to not in fact be easy or even possible

sherlock like... posed as a dead body and tried to get her to give up the location of the photo but she out-acted him and skipped the town the next day after doing the 'good night mr. sherlock holmes' thing with sherlock completely tricked

and she just. sends a letter like "dear sherlock holmes. you're a fucking idiot and i think it's funny that you lost. nice job tho mad respect" and sherlock just SHORT CIRCUITS

the king comes back a bit later like "hey Dude where's my Photo" and sherlock's like oh yeah uhhhhhhhhhhh about that and the king is like HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN THAT GODDAMN HARD i would have dated someone more noble if she wasn't so pretty i swear im on a whole different level from her

and then. GIRLBOSSIFIED SHERLOCK HOLMES RESPONDS "from what I have seen of the lady, she seems indeed to be on a very different level from your majesty" ABSEHHESHEFHHFES ROASTED

and the dude just LEAVES

After that I read a few more of the short stories and well the highlights I got from that pretty much were these conversations

Watson: sherlock. honey. have you. eaten anything today

Sherlock: IT DIDNT OCCUR TO ME DEAR WATSON

Watson: ITS FIVE PM

and:

Sherlock: *having one of his Moment Moments at three in the goddamn mornig* GRRRR CRIME ISNT WHAT IT USED TO BE

Watson: MY DEAR SHERCOCK WHAT IS CRIME S U P P O S E D TO BE LIKE ACCORDING TO YOU

Sherlock: no one's original anymore fucking copycats

Watson: so you want the criminals to make things harder for you specifically.

Sherlock, exasperated: yes!

I love them your honor.

#rowan's hyperfixation essays #rowan screams into the void #rowan views moriarty #sherlock holmes

[mantra4ia]

Debris 1x13 "Celestial Body": rewatch Reaction'd, questions and comments

So if all those people are experiencing emotional convergence, who are they converging from? Who's sending the emotional signal that the debris is channeling, or is it the debris manifesting it's "consciousness" in a way that we can understand it by way of human conduits?

Maddox is clearly trading debris pieces with Irina (perhaps the piece that he took out of storage off the books), and Irina is on the phone with presumably her handler/ boss to negotiate this trade. She gives him lateral (which I assume means latitudinal) readings and then he asks for longitudinal readings which we don't get to hear. They are: Lateral 105, 112, 115, 120, 113, 110, 109

What's the significance of these measures? Latitude goes from 0° to 90° from the equator, so that doesn't track unless the scene is cut wrong and they're meant to be longitudinal (E/W) readings, which go to 180° relative to the prime meridian. That would make more sense, because after Irina is done with the first set of readings, the unknown caller on the phone says "drop to level two for vertical" and latitudes are North/South.

If we're talking Western longitudes, notable landmarks include: Denver, Salt Lake City UT / Phoenix AZ / nearly Sedona AZ - aka where the telesphere went, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe/ Nevada border, Great Salt Lake, Alberta-Saskatchewan border, and the Utah-Arizona border.

Or perhaps they're not part of terrestrial measurement at all. The act of "lateral reading" could just mean verifying your sources/accuracy as you go, where as vertical reading is reading for content first to see if something is worth evaluating for sources.

However, if they are part of coordinates, then is the fragment that Maddox is trading with Irina a legitimate "mapmaker" piece like George previously said Influx was seeking? Ya know, when he lied to his daughter. Can a mapmaker piece track moving/animate debris akin to the telesphere? Are those black dust cloud beings George is running from made up of animate debris?

Bryan: After becoming a parent you're in a heightened emotional state, emotionally raw.

George: Higher highs, lower lows, the joy of having a child, the postpartum depression, and the fear of getting it wrong.

Me: Are we in a pensive, self-reflective mood, George? Are you practicing your pub trivia Bryan, delivering exposition, or are you speaking from personal character experience? Seriously, how would you know?!

John Noble as Otto, man why does he always make such a good villain?

What is with the cryptic vagueness when Maddox tells Irina, "You know I can't let you leave with that case right? I mean you know that. There's another door for you Irina, one that only you can go through." They seemed almost on good terms in a previous episode, like friends or something more in a past life "nice car, i almost left / no you didn't", he wouldn't kill her, would he? Or is it more like a code between them, a sort of "I'm being watched, take the back exit"?

Hey, so why is it that sometimes George's eye seems opaque and damaged from the debris implant, but then when he's talking to Finola after he distracts Bryan while being Debris whisperer, his eye seems fine? PS: I googled Tyrone Benskin just to see what he looks like when he's not playing George Jones and I didn't know he's a former member of Canadian Parliament. Don't trust the government, eh?

George: "You're such a compassionate person, you always have been. So much of your mother in you." That's the second time that Finola's mother has been mentioned in the series, back from the pilot. Is it a coincidence that the first piece of debris that chose to interact with Finola resonated her mom? More than just Finola's desire being reflected by the debris, but the debris emoting it's first impression of her as someone compassionate that it can trust?

It also raises my heckles that George repeats, almost word for word, something that Finola said in episode 3. "If we can't help people, we do not deserve this debris / if we don't use this debris on these people, we are not worthy to have it." Are father and daughter that ideologically similar, or has he been spying on her progress this whole time, or both?

George: "I took my life to allow myself a rebirth, I paid the price. I want you to know that not one day goes by that I don't think of you and your sister. I want you to know this." This coincides with my initial impression that George staged his death to get away from Orbital after he assessed how his research was being used/abused.

George: "You never wanted to go into the pool, I had to throw you in, and you kicked and screamed, but you always did better that way." Immabout to throw you George, just keep talking!!!! I'm sorry, this charicature of absentee father reminiscing about the good old days really ticks me off from personal experience.

Also, as a person with a disability, I am not particularly pleased with the use of Dario as a plot device instead of a thoughtful character with a backstory at this point in the show for 13 whole episodes now. Pretty pissed off actually, so they better do something phenomenal and pivotal with Christian Rose (Dario) in season 2 [maybe have his character interact with debris in a similar way to Caroline]. But that's another rant about ableism in screenwriting for another angry day....

George: "A telesphere was born yesterday. It came from a pocket dimension inside Orbital. I think it's birth may have triggered the debris." This is perhaps the one-ish episode that I find George remotely interesting and also infuriating, particularly because of the way he speaks, like he's finally taken off the guise of the old, well-meaning eccentric and turned into a sharp, cunning, and at times calculatingly ruthless individual. I find it peculiar that he says a telesphere is born. Makes me think that the debris is not just part of a spacecraft, but a hybrid of the beings piloting that craft.

I get tremendous satisfaction from Finola head-butting people. This should continue.

I'm not familiar with all of the work of JH Wyman to know if this is a running theme or an ongoing joke. But does he keep his writing staff in a constant state of starvation? Is that why pieces of debris are called "Nachos", and why Influx has "Beans" to shield them from debris side effects, and why Bryan is always eating junk food? Should I be worried about the writer's room and start sending them healthy snacks?!? Just give me an SOS in the credit roll.

Speaking of: is the "Bean" that Finola ingested a piece of debris? Similar to the pieces of debris that fused with Anson Ash? Will it impart some physical benefits to her moving forward?

"I won't lose you again...you belong with me." What are you talking about George Jones, you made the conscious decision to leave your family. You didn't lose Finola, she lost you. In this version of reality at least. Or (unscripted backstory) did Jones and his wife separate prior to her death / was Finola brought up mostly by her mother? That doesn't seem the case if she was buying her father birthday presents and took it upon herself to settle his affairs after his death.

Why do the Influx Operatives Otto and Anson have tattoos on their hands, but not Loeb? Is he like the low end of the totem pole FNG who hasn't earned his stripes, hence why Otto gives him s***: aka "Careful you cretin. All the finesse of a butcher."

What is the hierarchy of Influx anyway? Despite being an anti-government "for the people/ elevate the human consciousness" organization they do still seem to have a governing hierarchy and Otto and George seem to be on the same level, pretty high in rank / they talk with confidence to each other like they go back a while.

What is that weird thing that Otto does with his hands to Bryan's head? What are all the weird things Otto does, including his massacre at the petrol station? Ick.

Why is it that Leob and George are freaked out by the black smoke (debris particle?) man, but Anson and Otto aren't? They seem to see them(?), but don't overtly react.

Bryan: "It seems like we're entering some kind of new phase." Gee where have I heard that one before? Oh yeah, the story of "Blackwater grandfather" and the black wind that they're still teasing endlessly while refusing to tether it into some kind of world building lore. Agggghh!

Lololol, Bryan and Finola's dynamic even in the midst of a very serious episode makes me laugh. "Devon Reese / two e's? / Two e's!" "This one smells like baby diapers. Almost as bad as the tech section of the plane/ You mean your section of the plane. / Almost." That zinger 👍

Paraphrasing Bryan: "[recapping, recap, and did I mention recap]...something about George doesn't feel right." Personal pet peeve: I HATE IT when episodes have intentional explanatory lines like this to point out the fact that we as audience are privy to information that the main characters aren't. Not only does it make the main characters seem less intelligent, it breaks the fourth wall a little bit and gives the impression that the audience, which is ahead of the plot, is not as intelligent and needs a reminder that we're ahead. Lackadaisical writing drives me nuts!!! I can't outright say that it's "bad" dialogue, but it's not a choice I would make if I wanted uninterrupted viewer immersion.

Finola: "My instincts are good" Me: You are an emotionally intelligent decision maker with gaping personal blind spots.

George: You belong with me, your father.

Finola: My father died six months ago, and you are not him.

Me: Chef's kiss 👏👏👏

Otto: "It would never have worked out with that girl [Finola], not in any iteration." Definitely makes me lean towards the fan theory that the alt!Finola in (presumably) suspensia in Sedona Arizona got plucked from another reality.

Surprisingly, the ending credit roll has no voiceover as all the previous episodes of the season have. Disappointed that there's no potential teaser to a season 2 if the show gets renewed. But I find it curious that the extras who were demonstrating emotional convergence were credited as: chess board persons. Not sure if that's relevant, but I definitely feel like this show is playing games with me and my emotions.

#nbc debris #debris 1x13 #debris spoilers #george jones #finola jones #bryan beneventi #celestial body #sci fi #high concept sci fi #questionable execution #this show guys #renew debris #but also I need to talk with JH Wyman

[eobard-thawne]

this post contains spoilers for justice society world war ii

tbh i didn’t like this film enough to rant about it but there was just SO MUCH to rant about and my love/hate relationship with dcau/dcamu is still strong as ever so i was still very excited about the film

i guess you can watch this film if you have time to spare. the film isn’t good at all. but it’s not so boring that it’s unbearable to watch either. but be prepared to be disappointed. or don’t have high expectations. 

BTW THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OPINIONS I DON’T MEAN TO HURT OR OFFEND ANYONE IT’S LITERALLY JUST AN ANIMATED FILM IF YOU LIKED THE FILM THAT’S COOL IF YOU DIDN’T THAT’S COOL TOO BUT MY OPINIONS ARE MY OWN AND I DON’T THINK I OWE ANYONE ANY EXPLANATION whywasthiswastooaggressiveimsorry ok bye <3

but if you wanna share your opinions w me feel free to pls <3

before anything else, i wanna say that i’m so glad it wasn’t barry who time travelled (WELL IT’S ACTUALLY MULTIVERSAL TRAVEL BUT ANYWAYS) himself, but it was dr fate who took him. in the film, it seems to be that barry is flash only for a few years so there was still so much he didn’t know about his powers. so even if he did do the multiversal time travel himself, it would at least be forgivable lol.

execs clearly ran wild with the script since the fik was not canon and it was out of the main continuity but i still didn’t expect it to be this messy and sloppy.

first of all, the title might say “justice society” but let me tell you it’s VERY wonder woman centric. as i’ve expected. unfortunately.

i don’t understand why wonder woman was the team leader since it was implied that she was living in themyscira until the island was attacked. so considering that, she was only in ‘the man’s world’ for max a few years, and it doesn’t make much sense for her to be the team leader. because she doesn’t know the world as better as the others. and the other heroes are at least old enough to have witnessed wwi too. but every team needs a leader and maybe that’s why rest of the team was portrayed to be “not capable enough” in that regard compared to her.

she is cool tho. wonder woman is always cool and awesome and amazing. but she shouldn’t have had this much screen time.

after ww, jay garrick seems to be the one who got the most screen time. it was also very cool seeing his scientist side too. but it still wasn’t enough in my opinion. i love jay so much though he was great and his scenes with barry was very sweet too <333

hawkman was so unfairly treated in the animated universe, i was surprised to see that he was given more than 2 lines lol. same with hourman. they definitely deserved more screen time and more lines-- since they’re heavily underused characters in the entire dc universe.

i honestly don’t know enough about the first black canary, dinah drake, but i loved her in the film!!! it seems that it’s made a lot of fans happy that she was a part of the film so that was beautiful to see. and i loved her dynamics with hawkman and i thought it would lead to more buuuut.......

i don’t wanna ramble much because the film is 90 minutes i swear i can find some flaw or a plot hole every 15 min but i couldn’t care less at this point :(((

the script was EXTREMELY BAD. there was no fluidity between lines. the dialogue was..idk if it’s the right word for it but.. irregular??? it was just very messy i don’t know how else to explain it. it wasn’t flooding. it was like they weren’t talking to each other or some lines were missing.

the world war ii part was only in the film UNTIL the team stumbled upon atlantis. i was very excited to see aquaman but it was quashed down very quickly bc he was under mind control by the advisor or whoever he was lol and you know, YOU KNOW mind control always ALWAYS ruins things.

so the scene completely changes after that!! world war ii completely forgotten, first 30-40 minutes we were in europe and fighting n*zis and all of a sudden everyone’s in new york and the rest of the film, the team fights those huge sea monsters in new york?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!???????????

btw there is like SO MANY MISSING SCENES between every scenery change. when dinah, carter and the others fight in new york, barry and diana are gone FOR SO LONG!!! like. where are they????? this happened so many times in the film it was so weird. i didn’t like it at all. :(

at some points aquaman is snapped out of mind control after ww breaks. his. trident (LITERALLY HOW LOL) and he just....leaves????????? he jusT LEAVES LIKE THAT DUDE AT LEAST HELP WITH THE CLEAN UP LIKE YOU’RE JUST GONNA LEAVE LIKE THAT?????????????? some lame “what have i done” and he just Left. hate to see you go but love to watch you leave arthur

(he deserved better)

(EVERYONE deserved better)

oh also superman is in the film too..........................yeah very underwhelming build up ?????? idek

there is SO many things i left out bc is it worth it?????????* no. 

hhhhhhhh im upset

#dcau #dcamu #jsa #justice society of america #justice society world war ii #the flash #wonder woman #hourman #hawkman #black canary #aquaman #superman #doctor fate #ask to tag #also i don't like iris west at all #so i was annoyed by her mere presence in the film too #but i didn't wanna add that to the post #bc her part was irrelevant #anyways what is this post #read at your own risk lol

[bean-pole-art]

Ed’s Borderlands Fics Masterpost

well finally

here is the masterpost of all of my Borderlands fics posted. most of them are Rhysothy focused to various AUs. I’m gonna update it as I post more but here it is, along with some of my commentary

right from the start big big BIG shoutout to @spoks-illogical-art​, my partner in crime, my biggest inspo, without them honestly most of these fics wouldn’t exist, please check out their amazing art <3

(latest edit - 21/02/2021)

Atlas AU - our main timeline, follows events of Moxxi’s Heist. lots of different concepts and ideas but the core really is Tim moving to Promethea to get help from Rhys. gonna sort em here with posting date, check the ao3 series for the “timeline”

Hypothetically - 2240 words summary: Rhys talks a lot, but usually thinks about it too little.

coffee, cats & monographs - 2880 words summary: “Hey hey, easy. You don’t want to repeat the accident from last week, do you?” Rhys cooed towards the cat and picked her up, just as Timothy instructed him to. Hearing these words, Felicity meowed. “Oh, don’t say that. This is my office and I have the power here,” he answered, carrying her back to his personal space.

Or Timothy's cat pays a visit to Rhys' office in the morning. note: I am a stupid mofo and at this point Tim would also have Loader Bot fkjbfd just imagine hes not mentioned cause hes wandering off, typical LB

Have Faith - 1470 words summary: During the 7 year lockdown at the Handsome Jackpot, Timothy couldn't really have any hope for himself. But maybe on Promethea it could be different. note: sudden feelings while watching JoltzDude139′s stream

Warm Cheeks, Cold Hands - 1170 words summary: Rhys comes home early and wants to say hi to his husband. With no ulterior motive. None at all. note: first fic Ive ever posted where characters are married, actually. fuck it, Rhysothy Real, his name is Rhys Lawrence

the battle (and the aftermath) of the ages - 2970 words summary: In a situation like this everything was possible, they could pull any punches they could think of. Four beasts playing against each other, every single one of them thinking of striking the winning blow.

Or Promethea Squad plays UNO. And then watches a movie. note: I love Promethea Squad with my whole heart

okurimono (贈り物) - 4/4, 17170 words summary: “Not a bomb. Just a device with a message for Rhys. Trust me on that,” this time an emoji of both winking and showing off a tongue [;P] appeared on the surface of Zer0’s helmet. Ah. So they were definitely trying to mess him up. In a way. Unfortunately, he really didn’t have any other options. Almost with a defeat, Timothy took the ECHOrecorder right from their hands and looked around it again. Or Zer0 gives Timothy a peculiar mission. note: my first ever multichapter fic. took me legit abt 8 months to finish but I am absolutely satisfied with this. also the bonus ending. yes

(there is) something I see in you - 8690 words summary: How one Rhys Strongfork met one Timothy Lawrence and how they fell for each other. More or less. note: best to go into this one blind, I swear. dumbest fic Ive ever written and please take this as a recommendation

this world is gonna pull through - 14380 words summary: Timothy really hoped it wasn’t anything important. He had that tendency to forget things easily, even if he tried to fight it. But Rhys kept on smiling and went by his side. So it couldn’t have been that bad. Still dumbfounded, he felt Rhys leaving a kiss right on his cheek.“November 11th? 

That- That seriously doesn’t ring any bells?” Rhys continued, brushing his hands against his shoulders. Or how Timothy spent one of his birthdays. note: also a love letter for Tim but a nicer one I guess kdjfnb dont ask how old is he i have no gdamn idea man

Strawberry Sweet - 3560 words summary: Rhys surprises Timothy with a gift for their date night in.

Happy Mercenary Day, Mr. Lawrence - 4670 words summary: How Timothy spent his first Mercenary Day on Promethea. note: I swear this is the best writer night Ive ever had. Ive written this whole thing in one night on Christmas day, solely on the inspo of that song I linked

Don’t Go Wasting Your Emotion - 4/4, 17080 words summary:  Afterwards, he went around with his usual duties. Getting a quick roundabout from his PA, checking several sectors himself and looking through the thousands of messages already sent to him via ECHOs. Rhys was ready to finally take on the day, yet when he made his way to the office, he saw the unusual envelope right by the edge of his desk. “For Rhys” was written on it. Straightforward enough. Or Rhys gets a letter from a secret admirer. note: another multichapter fic!! this one also took some time and well. its inspired by ABBA songs. cause only I would write a Rhysothy fic inspired by ABBA

Ratchet Effect - 7130 words summary: Knowing just how much overworked Rhys has been, Timothy wants to let them have a nice getaway in Lazy River Land. There's only one problem to overcome - ratch infestation. note: first fic of 2021!! Ive been playing a lot of bl3 suring the writing of it so it has a lot of stuff I had observed both on Promethea and on Jackpot

Reflections - 2250 words summary: Sometimes, Timothy needs a reminder.

Tales AU - second most important timeline. it’s Tales but Tim is a part of the group. sorted chronologically

A Story For Another Day - ongoing, for now -  2/25, 15280 words Tales AU main fic. it’s gonna be a big one

Connection Interrupted - 3240 words summary: With his driving shift finished, Timothy checks up on Rhys and Vaughn's plans.

Completely Hopeless - 1040 words summary: In which Fiona notices that Rhys behaves differently in front of a certain doppelganger.

infinity times infinity times infinity - 3460 words summary: Rhys and Timothy share some dreams and secrets underneath the stars. note: the beautiful combination of Sleeping At Last and Minecraft parodies. I promise it makes sense

reality can be whatever I want - 11420 words summary: “Hey, Tim?” Timothy didn’t even spare him a look, “Are we alone, or is he there with you?” Oh, this definitely won’t be pretty.

After the confession of Handsome Jack's AI in his head and his plan to infiltrate Helios, Rhys needs to set things right with Timothy. Somehow. note: thanosdancing.gif to Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” 80′s remix and a guest appearance from Ferocity but I cant legally say her name here

still here - 2820 words summary: It all had to go down, after Helios crashed. note: I have...a love/hate relationship with this one kjdfbfg I like it but it’s honestly an alternate ending and doesnt fit within our usual bad ending, so take it with a grain of salt. i ten jebany błąd językowy w summary, kiedy ja go poprawię

together at last - 5590 words summary: It all struck him down in an instant, in this one minute. They were all safe. And they were all alive. Nothing was threatening neither him, nor Timothy, nor Fiona. He could finally breathe out.

They all found each other again. note: I am multitasking most time of my life but I dont relate any other fic to multitasking more than this one. I was honestly doing 10 things at once while writing this dfkjbndf

David AU - this one is a sub AU to Tales AU and the plot is kind of complicated dfjkbfb please check the fic for further explanation

building in curved lines - 22490 words summary: “To be fair, you look terrible. You’re barely standing in one piece and none of your coffees will hold you together for that long,” Lilith paused, seemingly weighing the correct words in her head. “You haven’t really been holding on since… We rescued The Double.” Rhys sighed heavily. Why did she have to be so right about everything. Or how Rhys and Timothy adjust to the reality after the Handsome Jack AI. note: bday gift for Spok, EASILY one of my absolute faves and the longest fic Ive written thus far

outside of AUs - some concepts I play with that are honestly outside any of our concrete timelines/concepts + fics not focused on Rhysothy

Real - 770 words summary: Reconciling with your past is a little easier, when you have someone you love right in your arms. note: first blands fic I’ve ever written. the characterization isn’t really there yet but as a first shot at the game and my kind of “introduction”, I am still satisfied of it

(Un)Familiar Faces - 9620 words summary: Timothy pursed his lips and leaned over the wall a little. He’s had enough of this solitude of closed doppelganger cabinet. Today wasn’t the day for another self-loathing session. Today, he should go off on Helios and do something for himself.

Or Timothy spends the night at a Helios bar. But not as Handsome Jack. And not as Timothy Lawrence either. note: personal favorite of mine, tough love letter to Timothy Lawrence. I have so many fond memories of writing this, including getting drunk out of my mind just like Tim and Rhys here

basics of survival - 2010 words summary: Athena taught Timothy everything he needed to know about survival. Now, it was time to put these skills into use. note: wrote this right before rona outbreak on last day in my dorms. thats all

#borderlands #fic masterpost #fanfiction #fanfic #rhysothy #rhys strongfork #timothy lawrence #just tagging characters that I write the most #fiona the con artist #zer0 the assassin #lorelei the coffee commander #athena the gladiator #Ędi's writing

[emblemxeno]

1/? The more I think about the design choices for Byleth, the less sense they make. It’s not like the ideas the dev team came up with haven’t been done well before, it’s that they went about them in the worst way possible. If they wanted an MC w/multiple dialogue options that result in branching plots, then Fallout: NV did this with the Courier. If they wanted a silent protagonist w/ a defined personality, then another anon has already discussed how Link and Joker pulled that off. Byleth’s

2/? supposed character arc is that they are emotionless at first but grow more colorful overtime. This idea is not new by any means, but Laphicet from Tales of Berseria already succeeded with this. The main takeaway is that we are actually SHOWN Laphicet’s development rather than be told about it, ala Dimitri in part 1. It really felt like the 3h devs lazily threw everything at the wall rather than thinking about how their ideas should work. If they want Byleth to have no dialogue, then go the

3/? extra mile in having their facial and/or body language show their character (meaning not using stock animations for EVERY. FREAKING. CHARACTER). If they want to give the player dialogue options, then have those options actually matter (I’ve already bought up Fallout: NV in terms of how an RPG could handle this). To wit, there are 150+ prompts in JUST the main story cutscenes where you are only given one dialogue option. That’s not even including DLC, supports, or paralogues. That's also not

4/? including the myriad of multiple dialogue options that say the same thing, not mattering in how characters will respond, and/or a combination of the two. The worst part about this is that there are instances where Byleth DOES have lines unprompted by the player (Gilbert’s C-support, Dedue’s C-support, and Dedue’s S-support), which makes me question why even bother having them be silent in the first place if it’s not consistent. Honestly, there isn’t even a reason for Byleth to exist in the

5/? first place. Just have Sothis be reborn at the start of the game. She already has amnesia, so there’s at least a justified reason for her being info dumped, as well as why she’s not OP at the start but does overtime. Rhea’s reason for making Sothis the professor could stay the same, as well as Rhea keeping her in the dark “until she’s ready” (until she regains her memories) for fear of losing her mother again. Sothis already has a defined/likable personality, namely that she can be a nag

7/7 exposition was not going to be good, to say the least).

I got your 7th message but not your 6th, I think Tumblr fucked up.

But yeah I pretty much agree with the main jist. Just doing... something with them would’ve helped me engage with them better. I don’t like harping on things that games didn’t do, because that’s such an unfair criticism, but honestly it’s like they saw that people didn’t like Corrin’s character and decided to just eliminate that while exaggerating every problem people thought Corrin had and have it make even less sense.

#queue #fire emblem #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #storytelling