#also joining the sentiment of the fandom

[yayakoishii]

Want | Sanji x Chubby! Reader

Fandom: One Piece

Pairing: Vinsmoke Sanji x Chubby! Reader

WC: 5.5k

Genre: Fluff, slight Angst

Warnings: Sexual harrasment, derogatory terms for chubby people, mentions of blood, insecurities that lead to a bit of light self derogation (Please remember you're absolutely beautiful as you are <3)

A/n: The response on Hunger is insane. Over 700 likes?! I didn't expect much beyond a few 10-20 likes, thank you for all the love 😭 This is another self indulgent fic, more personal to me because I'm chubby myself so... I'm not super proud of the pacing tbh, but it's still pretty good, in my (biased) opinion, haha. I hope you enjoy it!!! ♡

also available on ao3!

When you joined the Straw Hat crew, you didn't expect to fall in love with the blonde chef.

Actually, when you joined them, you weren't in the mindset to think about love and silly crushes. Your island had been destroyed by the Marines for a 'good cause' and despite the Straw Hats' best attempt, you were the only remaining survivor. Luffy kindly offered you a place on his crew, and you joined as an assistant to Chopper, slowly learning from him.

The first few weeks after you joined were tough for you, who had never travelled outside of your island. It took time to get used to the environmental changes along with the emotional grief of losing all your loved ones. The crew tried their best to cheer you up in their own ways, and you would forever be grateful for every one of them for at least trying, even if their methods weren't the most effective for you. It was the thought and the sentiment behind it that counted.

But what did work for you was… food. Ever since you were a child, you had loved food and it was the way you connected to life. Though you were not the greatest cook out there, you were capable of making things that were edible and quite good at times. On the ship though, you never had to cook, because Sanji would always do all the cooking. Whenever you offered to help, to take your mind off the pain you were feeling, he would kindly decline, saying that he would make you whatever you wanted.

But he couldn't. The dishes from your island were not recipes known quite to the rest of the world. Hell, even you didn't know all of them, save for some of your favourite foods that you had learnt from your mother. So you snuck in after dinner and made a dish from your hometown. It wasn't the best food you ever cooked, but it still meant something to you, because you were reminded of home.

You wrote down all the recipes you knew into a book, and kept it close. Whenever you missed your home, you would sneak into the kitchen at night and make yourself something with your wonky cooking skills that made the dish taste different every time. Still, the familiarity was enough to comfort you and let you wallow in the grief at the same time.

Until one day, you couldn't find your book.

"Nami?" You called unsurely to the navigator, who was lying on the deck under shade next to Robin. Behind them, Sanji was serving drinks. The three looked at you in question and suddenly under the scrutiny, your confidence faltered. "Um, uh.. d- did you see a journal somewhere? I can't find mine…"

"The brown one?" She asked, pushing her sunglasses up into her hair. You nodded frantically, hoping she knew. "I don't think I did. Did you check under your bed?"

"I did," you whispered, feeling the sadness wash over you again. It's not like you didn't still remember the recipes, but your memory wasn't the best. Without the book, it would be hard to remember them all.

"Don't worry, we'll find it," Nami got up and reassured you, looking concerned. "Sanji. Robin."

The two of them nodded along and then the four of you were searching for it everywhere, until Sanji had to excuse himself apologetically because he had to go cook lunch. You could only nod, trying not to get down in the dumps again over a book, but it felt a little hopeless. Until you heard Sanji shout from the kitchen. The three of you ran over to find him scolding Luffy, your journal in his hand.

"I just wanted to see what was in it!" Luffy pouted, his rubbery hands swinging around to try and get it back.

"That's an invasion of privacy, Luffy!" Sanji looked angry, but you were too relieved about the fact that you had found the book to get upset with Luffy.

"It's okay," you said, reaching forward to get the book. "It's just… recipes, Luffy. From my hometown."

There was silence in the kitchen for a few seconds and Luffy's face dropped into a serious look.

"I'm sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I thought… If I knew how to help you, you'd be happier."

It made you laugh softly, your heart warm at his kind intentions.

"Thank you, Captain," you smiled at him, eyes crinkling into crescent moons. "I am happy here. I just… miss my home, sometimes."

He wrapped you into a hug and Nami ruffled your hair a little. You smiled under the attention, holding the book close. Sanji for once was quiet, just staring at the book thoughtfully, though you didn't notice it then.

A few days after that event, Sanji called you to the kitchen before lunchtime. Curiously, you followed him to find… a plate of your favourite dish from your hometown. It was plated beautifully, making it look fancy and yet it still had that homey feeling to it. Sanji didn't say a word, just held out the chair for you to sit. You sat down in a daze, too focused on the smell of it lingering in the room.

It smelled like home.

And when you tasted it, you burst into tears. Because it tasted like home. It tasted exactly like your mom's. All the tears you had held back to not worry the crew were now spilling out without any end but you didn't care. Here, where only Sanji could see you, you let it all out. He didn't say anything, just placed a gentle hand on your shoulder and squeezed to let you know he's there for you. You turned around to face him, but the tears made it all blurry. Knocking your head against his stomach, you cried harder.

Sanji just held your head, carding fingers through your hair in comfort, offering you a handkerchief. That, you realised later, was the moment your feelings for Sanji began.

✿

After that day, you became a lot happier. Somehow, without words, just eating the food that Sanji made was enough to heal your broken heart bit by bit. Sometimes, he made extra because Luffy was curious and wanted to taste it too; and then the whole crew wanted it so Sanji made a few of your dishes for dinner. In that moment, surrounded by the smell of home, around your new family, your heart finally started healing.

You started noticing Sanji everywhere after you got used to life on the Thousand Sunny. From the small things he does, to the loud expressions of love he made, everything about him seemed wonderful and warm to you. Because you knew that beneath his overt affections for all the ladies, he was an infinitely kind, caring and observant person. How were you supposed to not fall for him, when he went above and beyond for you?

And yet, for all his admissions of love, you never believed that he could truly like you back like you felt for him. You were after all, not the prettiest girl around and you knew that. You were not slim like Nami or Robin, and it's not like you absolutely hated your soft and squishy body. But you wondered if Sanji would like you even though you weren't pretty.

All that self consciousness went out the window every time you were in his presence. He never made you feel less, or ugly– in fact, the way he spoke to you always left you a blushing mess. He made you feel special, and in the moment, it would be enough. Until you saw him fawning over Nami or Robin, and then the sneaky voice in your brain would whisper quiet thoughts comparing you to them. You had no chance with him, and you knew that.

And that was fine. You could live with that, couldn't you? You had to, because wanting more than you should never ended well. All it would leave behind is rejection, hurt and awkwardness. So you pressed down the feelings and acted as normally as you could.

The moment you realised that you loved Sanji was probably a memory you would never forget. Although it was unforgettable for you, it probably wasn't particularly that unique to others. That didn't matter to you because it was a memory you cherished ultimately.

It happened when the ship docked on a peaceful little island. Everyone else was going out to enjoy their time, and you wanted to spend that time with Sanji. So, casually, you made your request.

"Sanji?" Your timid utterance of his name got an instant reaction from the chef, who straightened up and looked at you with hearts in his eyes.

"Yes, (y/n)-chan?" He asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Um, you're gonna go grocery shopping, right?" You had seen Nami complaining while handing him the money for the shopping.

"That's right," he leaned closer, almost too close but not quite into your personal bubble. Still, the proximity was enough for you to smell the mild smell of his perfume that left you a little weak in the knees. "Did you want me to get something for you, sweetheart?"

"I just," you hesitated, suddenly scared that he might realise your feelings and get disgusted. No, Sanji wasn't like that, you had to remind yourself. He would never treat you unkindly, even if he knew your feelings. "I heard you always do it alone. I thought you might enjoy some company?"

The hearts in Sanji's eyes disappeared as he stared at you like you were speaking gibberish for a few seconds. Under the intensity of that stare, you fidgeted and waited for his response.

"You're too kind, (y/n)-chan!" He finally cried, holding up your hands in his own bigger and colder ones. You flushed at the action, stammering out an actual gibberish response this time before you were whisked away by the blonde chef to town.

It felt all too much like a date to you, when you walked next to him. Sanji somehow made grocery shopping fun, or maybe that was just because of how much you liked him that anything with him was enjoyable? It didn't matter, you decided, because whichever it was, you couldn't deny that Sanji was equivalent to the sun on a cold day.

He enthusiastically showed you around, as if you were a tourist and he were a guide (when in fact, it was the first time in this town for both of you) causing you to giggle. Whenever you stopped to buy things, he would humour your curious questions on how to pick which vegetable and what cuts of which meat are the best. It felt awfully like a domestic date, one that made you smile when you imagined doing this with Sanji years down the line every week.

"And that's the last of it!" Sanji said happily, picking up the last bag. He was holding all the bags since the start, despite your insistence and now you were anxious, seeing him hold so many bags in his hands.

"Sanji, let me hold a few," you tried again, hands reaching out to take some of them. But Sanji just turned around so you couldn't reach the bags and grinned down at you.

"Nonsense, how could I let such a delicate lady hold such heavy bags?" His words made you flush in embarrassment. You were not delicate in any sense; surely, Sanji knew that too. And in spite of all his sincerity, the word just felt like it was mocking you.

"I'm… not…," you struggled to say, not wanting to argue but unable to keep it in either. With your chubby frame, no one had ever considered you as delicate.

"Let me do this for you, my love," Sanji's voice was soft and infinitely gentle, as if he was indeed holding something fragile in his hands. "I wouldn't feel good letting you carry anything when I'm more than capable."

"But Sanji!" you lightly whined, wringing your hands. "I don't feel good letting you carry all the burden either! Come on, just a few bags?"

Before Sanji could respond, you heard a scared squeak. Your brows furrowed and you looked around the marketplace, finding a man cornering a girl a few feet behind Sanji. She seemed uncomfortable and he was all in her personal space, saying something in a rough, sleazy voice that gave you shivers.

You were not a fighter, but the instinct to protect her overtook the rational part of your brain and you crossed the distance to where they were. Pushing him back, you stood in front of the girl to block her from him.

"Can't you see she's uncomfortable?" You said coldly. "Back off."

The man took an involuntary step back until his eyes fell on you. He reeked of alcohol and smoke and you felt like puking from the putrid stench coming off him but you held it together, trying to come off as more confident than you felt. His eyes roamed over your body shamelessly, and you felt dirty and uncomfortable from the action.

"Don't get in our business, fatty," he grinned, the smell of alcohol doubling the moment he opened his mouth. "Are you jealous that no one will ever give you the attention she's getting?"

The words stabbed you in the gut, even though you knew rationally that you were better off without the bad attention. That was the one perk of being conventionally average in looks– no one really looked at you, in good ways or bad. Or maybe you had just been lucky so far. But hearing him call you that, saying those words, even from someone like him, it hurt a small part of you. Before you could respond, a leg in black slacks came up and kicked the man down with such a force that everybody around paused, shocked by the sudden action.

Even you stepped back automatically, gasping when you saw that it was Sanji, still balancing all the bags perfectly while he had roundhouse kicked the man into the ground with so much force that you could see his teeth had become bloody and he was on the verge of unconsciousness.

"(Y/n)-chan doesn't need the attention of sewer rats like you," he said calmly, straightening back into position smoothly. "Her beauty only deserves the best of the best."

The sight of Sanji saying that with a calm face, his hair slightly tousled, his hands balancing the bags and his leg muscles rippling under the slacks – that image was imprinted in your heart and brain for the rest of your life. The words sent you into a shock, but when they finally processed, you couldn't deny the overwhelming realisation that crashed into you.

You love Sanji.

It wasn't just a silly crush, or something that could go away if you gave it time. The chef had unknowingly carved himself a place into your heart. He was taking over it, chamber by chamber.

"Sanji…" The word came out as a whisper, inaudible under the din of the market as people were talking about what was going on. You snapped out of it when you felt the girl behind you shuffle and you immediately squashed your thoughts down to examine them later. You turned around and asked her, "Are you okay?"

She looked very alarmed and upset, but she still shot you a grateful smile as she murmured, "Yes, thanks to you two."

"He didn't hurt you?" You asked, hands hovering over her as you looked to ensure if she was safe. A peek of crimson caught your eye when she raised her hand to rub her face. Her elbows had scraped against the rough brick wall in his tousling. "You have some scratches!"

"Oh," she turned her arms to look at the wounds, now feeling the burn after the adrenaline and fear response was receding.

"Come on, I'll treat it for you," you offered, opening your sling bag which had some emergency first aid. You usually carried it around for the members when you were off the ship, knowing that they were all too reckless to give a second thought to any wounds.

"Oh, no, no, I couldn't trouble you more!" She said, mortified but you gently shook your head, offering her a hand.

"It's no trouble," you reassured her. It took a little bit of convincing but she eventually calmed down and let you clean up the wound before you parted. Finally, you allowed yourself to look at Sanji, who immediately schooled his features so you wouldn't see the warm adoring look he was giving you the whole time. "Sanji… Are you okay too? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"

"Do you think I'm that weak, sweetheart?" He smiled teasingly, but you felt the need to defend yourself.

"I know you are strong," you insisted, worrying your lower lip as you tried to look him straight in the eyes but kept getting flustered. "But even strong people get wounds. Just because they are strong, doesn't mean that they don't feel the pain. So tell me honestly, Sanji. Are you hurt anywhere?'

"No," he promised. "But if you're that worried, I'll let you check me all out back on the ship."

He ended that with a wink, and this time, you couldn't hold back the flush threatening to overtake your face again. Sanji couldn't help making the mood light again, but he had no idea of the effect his words had on you.

"Stupid," you weakly pawed at his arm, walking away before he could say anything. The blonde chef just laughed and followed you, face once again soft and fond as he watched you.

✿

Sanji may have been one of the only people onboard who was oblivious to your feelings, because a few of them did figure it out after watching the way you interacted with him. The first ones to realise were Nami and Robin, who called you out on it when the three of you were lying under the shade on the sunny deck.

"Really?" Nami had scrunched her nose, eyes critically analysing Sanji as he walked (danced, really) back to the kitchens after serving drinks to the three of you.

"Really what?" You asked, too busy sipping the cool drink to notice that she had noticed the way you had warmly thanked Sanji and given him a bright smile.

"Sanji?" Nami gave you a pointed look. The name made you freeze, and you tried to play it off.

"What about him?"

"Oh, come on!" Nami threw the slice of lemon that was on her drink. You caught it before it could fall on your shirt and muttered an indignant 'hey!' that the navigator ignored. "You like him, don't you?"

The words were enough to make you hide your face in embarrassment. Robin was smiling knowingly from the other side of Nami and you felt exposed, like they had both just turned you inside out.

"I do," you whispered after the few minutes of silent mortification that Nami had spent in self satisfaction.

"Why that loser though?" She said without any real bite. You knew she wasn't actually demeaning him; it was affectionate, in the way one would talk about their sibling's lovelife.

"Because!" You whispered, eyes running everywhere to check if no one else was around to hear you. "Have you looked at him? He's literally so pretty! He is kind, caring, and so, so thoughtful and generous. Without expecting anything in return, he is always giving and giving and he makes my stomach do silly things. He has curly eyebrows, Nami! I didn't think those could look good on anyone. Hell, I know I would look ugly with them, but he makes it work! It suits him, and he's so beautiful and I'm just–"

You collapsed onto your chair, your wet fingers from the condensation on the drink glass finding purchase in the dips of your face to hide it. Just talking about him was enough to get your heart beating fast, and the mortification of what you had just spilled to the two girls made you want the ground to swallow you already.

"You really like him," Robin's soft observation made you relax. She wasn't teasing you. You turned to look at her and caught the comforting smile she was sending your way.

"I was going to say you could do better," Nami turned to face you, swinging her feet around to your side, "but after hearing all that, I think… You two are perfect for each other. Despite all his antics, he has a good heart. And you'll be good for him, because you see him as he is."

"Yeah?" You couldn't help the small flower of hope blossoming in your chest.

"Really," Nami smiled, a rare genuine smile that was usually reserved for late night talks and reassurances in down times.

"You don't think…." You trailed off, fidgeting with the hem of your top, "he won't… find me good enough?"

"Are you crazy?" Nami snorted, picking up her drink. The melted ice had made the level go up so much that it was threatening to spill any moment. "You're better than anything he could dream of. I told you, didn't I? You would be good for him. Having someone like you in his life to ground him, I think there's nothing better than that. You're one of the sweetest people I have ever met. If anyone here isn't good enough, it's him."

"Hey now," you frowned, ready to defend Sanji but hearing his voice stopped you.

"Who isn't good enough for (y/n)-chan?" His face was stuck in a weird smile, like he was forcing it. He carefully placed the plate of pastries he had brought as he continued casually despite the silence, "I don't know who we are talking about but Nami-chan is right. No one is good enough for our lovely (y/n)-chan."

"Oh, look at that!" You hurriedly switched the topic, looking at the plate he had brought. The tiny pastries were adorable and colourful, looking so delicious that it would have made your mouth water if you weren't distracted at the moment. "This looks so good, Sanji. Seriously, if you keep feeding me like this, my weight will keep increasing!"

The last line became a teasing complaint, but you didn't expect Sanji to come to the side of your chair and lean down to where you were tilted. The proximity caused your eyes to widen, the blood thundering in your ears as he carefully tucked in a stray strand of your hair behind your ear, face so soft and warm that it make your insides feel like they were vibrating.

"All the more for me to love, so I would keep winning, wouldn't I, sweetheart?"

You choked, and the need to get away from him before you did something wild like grab him and kiss him got so much that your knee accidentally shot up and into Sanji's back, pushing him forward. The chef's eyes widened at the sudden attack, but he managed to not collapse on you by quickly holding onto the sides of the chair but now you were trapped in between his arms on top of the close proximity.

It made you so weak in the knees, and there was something hot and warm curling in your gut as you stammered gibberish, feeling like you were about to faint because Sanji's chest was practically touching yours and it was all too much.

"SORRY!" He hurriedly backed off the moment he got his bearings, and for the first time since you had come onboard, you saw him have a genuinely heavily flushed face. There was a little blood starting to leak from one of his nostrils and somehow, it helped you calm down. He was just as affected as you were. The idea was enough to lessen your embarrassment by a little.

"I'm the one who's sorry, Sanji," you said remorsefully, hiding your face completely in your hands this time. "I kicked you!"

"It wasn't on purpose," he said, right hand coming up to hide the blush on his own face. "I'm sorry for… for making you uncomfortable, (y/n)-chan!"

Uncomfortable? Did Sanji have any clue just how comfortable you actually felt? The problem wasn't that you were uncomfortable in the proximity; it was that you were too comfortable, to the point that you never wanted to leave. But that would be a dead giveaway of your feelings, right?

"Okay, this is just painful to watch now," Nami sighed, jolting the two of you. You had nearly forgotten that she and Robin were right there, and they had seen everything. She looked at you unhappily, mouth set in a tight line. "How about you two get a room and make out there?"

"Nami!" You cried out. She really just gave away your crush like that?!

"Just be grateful I'm not demanding money to make up for what I just had to witness," she sniffed haughtily, swinging her legs back onto the chair and pulling down her sunglasses. "Seriously, you two, go talk shit out. Or else, knowing you, you will just be awkward around each other and that's gonna be even more painful to watch."

She wasn't totally wrong. You were planning to avoid him, possibly by jumping off the Sunny and drowning to death since you didn't know how to swim. But that wasn't really a solution and even you could admit that.

"W- What's there to talk-?" Sanji seemed a little scared, wide eyes glancing between the three of you. Nami ignored him, and you were too flustered to look him in the eyes. Nami's suggestion was essentially for you to come clean, wasn't it? But that was easier said than done. The fear of rejection and the eventual awkwardness was gripping your insides in a chokehold, and you couldn't move your feet even if you tried.

"Sanji," Robin said calmly. "Pick up (y/n) and go to the kitchen."

"Huh?" You were startled at her words. Pick you up?! No way! "No, no way, I'm too… I'm too heavy, there's no need for that!" Even as you said that, you couldn't actually bring yourself to move.

"I don't really get it," Sanji admitted, looking between the three of you as he spoke, "but I can do that. (Y/n)-chan?"

"No, Sanji–" the protests died down the moment he bent down and picked you up like you weighed nothing. Even as he walked you across the deck, you couldn't help but think that it was kind of hot just how easily he picked you up. "Sanji…"

He didn't look at you until you were in the kitchen and the door was closed behind the two of you. He walked over to the table and then carefully placed you on it, as if you were a teacup made of fine china teetering with tea. Finally, he let his clear blue eyes stare down at you, the expression on his face more vulnerable and exposed than you had ever seen on him.

"Sanji?"

"I know I made you uncomfortable," he said quietly, backing away. His hands came up to rub away the blood but it only made it spread around and you winced at seeing that. You never wanted to see any blood on Sanji, if you could help it. "I touched your… you. It wasn't my intention, I swear! I just, I wanted, I–"

He abruptly shut up, looking frustrated with himself.

"Sanji."

He didn't look up, fists clenching at his side the moment you said his name.

"Come here, Sanji," you whispered, holding out your hands to beckon him closer. His eyes flickered over your face, as if trying to gauge out what you were feeling, even as he followed through your request without a second thought. You pulled out the handkerchief he had given you long back, and wiped away the blood over his upper lip and cheeks carefully before you picked up his hand. The thumb was bloody too, so you gently held the limb in one of your hands and wiped it with the other. "You didn't make me uncomfortable, Sanji."

He stayed quiet as you continued to wipe it until it was all gone.

"Didn't I?" He said the moment you were done.

"No," you said, looking up at him. You didn't let go of the hand, though you dropped the handkerchief beside you. Somehow, holding his hand seemed to give you the courage to make the admission Nami had told you to. "I… Sanji, I like you. A lot more than I ever thought it was possible to feel towards someone. I like you so much that it physically hurts when I see you flirting with other women. I like you so much that my heart feels warm whenever you are around, and I feel so safe in your arms that I never want to leave. I like it when you are close to me. But I know that you don't like me like that, so whenever you get so close, and I can't help but want you so much, it's painful for me. I never want to let you go."

Sanji's eyes darkened with every word you spoke, a gradual change that you didn't notice at first because you were all in over your head. His hands hovered around your waist as you finished.

"Who told you?" His voice was a little hoarse, and he cleared his throat the moment he realised how desperate he sounded.

"Told me what?" You asked timidly, looking down at your lap.

"That I don't like you?" Sanji's voice was a broken whisper like yours had been. "I have never heard anything more untrue than that. All this time, I wanted you but I kept my feelings to myself. Because you deserve so much, so much more than I am, so much more than I can give. I wanted and I wanted and I felt so greedy, wanting more and more of you, more than you would let me have– I wanted anything you were ready to give, and I also wanted everything you have to give. I thought you wouldn't want someone like me, when there are so many better options around for you–"

"What?" You couldn't help but laugh. All his words were making you delirious; this had to be some wild dream you had conjured up. It didn't feel real. None of it did. "I had better options around? Sanji, I was so sure you would never look twice at me! I never felt like I was pretty enough, or good enough to get your attention and you're telling me… I had better options? That's so–"

You kept laughing, body shaking from the weight of the laughter. Sanji stared at you, unsure hands still hovering around you. His fingers twitched from holding back the urge to pull you into him.

"You are the prettiest girl I have ever seen," he mumbled. "Not good enough to get my attention? Darling, you have had all of my attention ever since I met you. No other woman could compare to you from the moment you made your place in my heart known."

"Did I really have all your attention?" You asked, letting your insecurities bubble up. Now that you were both being honest, it was better to get it all out of the way, right? "Even when you looked at the other women…"

"I never looked at them the way I did you," his words were sincere, and in that moment, they were enough. You looked up at him, and your body broke into shivers the moment you realised the heat in his eyes as he stared down at you; like you were some unique dish he was finally getting the chance to eat after years of craving it.

"I didn't want the other options, Sanji," you whispered, the volume enough for the proximity you were in. "The only one I ever wanted was you."

You held his collars and pulled him in, and it was like he finally snapped, now that he had permission. His hands immediately grasped at your sides, gently holding the soft flesh there as he kissed you. And now it was your time to give and give, while he took from you like your lips were spilling with ambrosia and he was determined to get every drop. His warm breath fanned over your lips and the goosebumps on your skin rose again, your fingers tightening around the collars of his shirt.

When he let your lips go, he was greeted with the sight of your flushed and pleasantly buzzed expression, like you were drunk on him. Seeing you like that, because of him, it was enough to get him groaning.

"So beautiful," he whispered, leaving feather light kisses all over your face. "So gorgeous. All for me. All… for me to have?"

"Yeah," you whispered, looking up at him and seeing the devastated yet over-the-moon expression on Sanji's face. Even without words, he could always just cleave into your heart and press himself within its walls like they were made to fit him, and only him. "You can be greedy. Take all you want. I'm all yours."

°•❀•°

#one piece #one piece imagines #one piece fanfic #one piece fanfiction #one piece x reader #one piece sanji #vinsmoke sanji #sanji x reader #vinsmoke sanji x reader #black leg sanji #op sanji #sanji #sanji fanfic #sanji fanfiction #I can't reply to comments because this is a side blog but I appreciate them all #fanfiction #chubby reader #insecure reader #shy reader #reminder that you're beautiful and awesome as you are!!

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Hello Brainrot! Just joined the arcana fandom recently and found out about your page a few weeks ago. ABSOLUTELY obsessed. The hcs are so well written and fun to read! So my silly shy self gathered the courage to make a request LOL

Could I get a mini hc of how the m6 would react if some random kid told them they will marry Mc when they grow up? Is a very cute scene I usually see on some series or fics, it would be very cute to see how they would react to it! :3

(Also lots of love and support for your recent loss, I hope you're doing ok! <3)

Is there a MOSQUITO anon yet >:)?

–🪰

The Arcana Mini-HCs: M6 when a kid says they'll marry MC

Julian: laughs in the moment because he wholeheartedly understands the sentiment. wakes you up at 2 AM that night because now he's wondering if there are other suitors he's kept you from considering and are you sure you haven't committed too fast?

Asra: gives the kid the sweetest smile and tells them that that's a great dream to hold onto, and that you would be an amazing person to marry. super flirtatious and adoring for the rest of the day because saying so reminded him all over again why he's so glad you chose him

Nadia: far less concerned with their affection for you than she is with this child's apparent disregard for age gap issues. accidentally breaks the kid's heart by telling them that marrying people old enough to be your parents is usually a bad idea and that they should stick to peers

Muriel: can't think of anything to say, so he just nods instead. the kid takes this as an invitation to keep talking - they'll marry you in the spring, and you'll give them as much candy as they want, and they'll have twenty kids. Muriel repeats this word-for-word to you later

Portia: gives a strained smile and tells them that you're a great option, but you're already promised to her, and that they'd have better luck looking for someone like you who is their own age. feels bad when the kid looks sad and gives them chocolate chip cookies

Lucio: this lights a competitive streak in him (oh no). what better way to display what an awesome person he is by bragging about the fact that you're already together with him? (don't, don't do it -) maybe if the kid tried being as cool as he is, they'd have a chance with you (no)

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #the arcana game #asra the arcana #julian the arcana #nadia the arcana #muriel the arcana #portia the arcana #lucio the arcana #asra alnazar #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #muriel of the kokhuri #portia devorak #lucio morgasson

[stirringwinds]

do you like rochu?

sorry anon, but it's personally in the notp corner for me. presently, i find his relationships with other asians like kiku, yong-soo, taiwan, india/aditya, vietnam/lien, hk, singapore etc—or rome, alfred and arthur more interesting to explore. as a chinese person, i'm a little burned out on ro//chu mainly because when i first joined the fandom there were a lot of orientalist depictions reducing yao to this delicate, blushing and sexually-inexperienced character next to ivan. another issue i had generally was the tendency to simplify or completely sever yao's far more deep and important relationships with people like yong-soo, kiku and india to prioritise whiteness, rather than like, inserting russia-china into that context of intra-asian histories.

i think the fandom has improved somewhat in this regard in that I do see more realistic Yao depictions, and i definitely wouldn't generalise all shippers, but that's the reason i couldn't quite 'get' into this ship. also because the perspective i take is the fact that china and the soviet union were competing for leadership of the communist bloc, so yeah, ro//chu as romantic communists for me is kind of...overblown and if anything my take on it is a fairly calculating and at times antagonistic relationship that can be interesting to dig into, but isn't very sentimental. no offense if you ship it; i will be honest that my blog just wouldn't be the right place for that.

#hetalia #hws china #hws russia

[yanderes-galore]

I hope you don't mind me sending this early because it's late at night where i live and I'm about to fall asleep 😭😭😭

Fandom: JJBA

Character: Okuyasu Nijimura

Pairing: Romantic

Type of fic: Concept, plus if you want the reader could also be in the duwang gang?

(If you don't write for him you can ignore this obvi 🤍🤍)

Honestly, been a hot minute since I've written for JJBA or watched Part 4 so if anything is off I'm so sorry. Here you go though :) I need to write more for this show... I missed it. (For those who don't know, I started yandere writing through JJBA on Wattpad. Although I don't like most of my old work for it now.)

I may add it to my next fandoms since this sparked my interest again 😅 Maybe even bring back some old JJBA fics if I feel I liked them enough, although most of them are female reader so... we'll see. Anyways! I hope you enjoy the new content I bring to the table!

Yandere! Okuyasu Nijimura Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Delusional yandere, Clingy behavior, Jealousy, Violence, Possessive behavior, Stalking, Threats, Attempted murder/Murder implied, Abandonment issues, Mentioned kidnapping, Dubious/Forced relationship.

Okuyasu is a very driven character.

He acts through his heart and is often very impulsive.

He even complains about the fact he has no girlfriend in the show.

I feel Okuyasu can both be a very intimidating yandere while also being extremely sweet.

Especially if you are part of the Duwang Gang.

I feel Okuyasu would be very sweet, considerate. and caring for his darling.

However I also feel he'd get easily carried away.

His emotions drive him too much at times which can lead to some problematic situations.

Okuyasu gets to know you when you join the friend group either through Josuke or Koichi.

Okuyasu may even be the type of guy to fall in love fast when he finds the one for him.

As stated before, Okuyasu allows his heart to guide his actions.

The heart wants what the heart wants!

While this behavior can make him sweet at times, it has side effects.

Such as making his jealousy and aggression more intense due to his impulsive behavior.

He doesn't always think his actions through and with a stand as strong as The Hand, that's a dangerous combo.

I don't imagine Okuyasu is good with flirting but his actions certainly show he has attraction towards you in the friend group.

He's very honest in his actions and openly compliments you but he's also respectful.

I no doubt feel Okuyasu pursues you slightly out of jealousy due to Koichi's relationship (Which has its own problems).

Okuyasu seems like a yandere you'd be able to control for the most part with Josuke but there's times he gets out of hand.

He takes dating advice from others on ways to impress you.

Then he tries to apply that to pursuing you.

Okuyasu feels like he'd be a clumsy stalker but still would.

Okuyasu also seems like he'd be a bad liar and feel horrible doing it, which means Josuke or Koichi would pick up on his tendencies quickly.

It's hard not to when they keep catching Okuyasu making puppy eyes over you.

It's like there's not a time he stops looking at you.

He's always just daydreaming about you and often lets his crush over you control him.

I'm sure Okuyasu means well but he would come off so strong in his obsession.

He can't help complimenting you and often gets jealous when you give away your attention to someone else.

Ah here it is, the problematic part.

Due to his impulsive behavior, Okuyasu would definitely get aggressive towards anyone he feels are taking you from him.

He's been shown to threaten those he doesn't like in the show and has tried to use The Hand for lethal force too.

It would take you to calm him down since I feel Okuyasu cares for you enough to calm down.

He doesn't want to look bad in front of you, after all.

His emotional behavior extends into other aspects of his obsession too.

If you gave this man anything of sentimental value, like a gift or a hug, it excites him and probably nearly sends him to tears.

Okuyasu holds so much love towards you and has no idea how to vent it.

He feels he can finally have a partner if he just plays his cards right with you!

Okuyasu is so optimistic and hopeful, too.

He thinks one day you'll get together, even if you don't show any signs now.

I feel if he ever asked you out and you rejected him he'd act fine, shuffle away, then start sobbing.

However, afterwards with some encouragement, he just thinks he needs to wait a bit longer before asking again!

Honestly, Okuyasu may accidentally guilt you into dating him as he's persistent.

He just knows you have to be together!

When you eventually do start dating, Okuyasu does whatever he can to please you.

He is completely head over heels for you when you finally give him a chance.

For the most part he is very sweet.

He asks others for advice on what gifts he should surprise you with.

He's often physically affectionate.

Okuyasu's biggest problem is his emotions towards those he doesn't like.

If he felt someone was flirting with you, even if you were just talking, he'd probably beat them up if not stopped.

Okuyasu can be clingy by following you everywhere.

He hangs out with you with the rest of the friend group, he even plans little dates with you alone.

As said before, Okuyasu means well, he just easily gets carried away.

If not kept under control then he may become a disastrous yandere.

For example, wiping away someone undesirable with The Hand.

I want to say Okuyasu wouldn't kidnap, he seems like he'd know better in a way.

Although if he was really pushed he may do it by accident, like in an attempt to get you to not leave him.

For the most part I feel Okuyasu would just be clingy and follow you around.

He really just acts like a puppy at times around you.

It's cute until people start going missing... and he just never wants to let you go.

Okuyasu may also have abandonment issues due to what happened in his past.

Which would make breaking up nearly unbearable or downright impossible.

Okuyasu would go into denial to the point of accidentally forcing you to stay.

He'd do anything for you!

Don't just let him go!

I feel like I want to say more about him yet I'm also out of ideas.

Overall Okuyasu certainly means well in his obsession but that same driven behavior causes dangerous problems.

From stalking, threats, potential murder, and maybe even kidnapping... Okuyasu just wants to please!

If isolating you will keep you guys together... Maybe he has to do it?

All he knows is he depends on you... he can't have you leave him!

He'd do anything for you to please you... just as long as he can have you as his.

#yandere jojo #yandere jjba #yandere jojo's bizarre adventure #yandere okuyasu nijimura

[lokisgoodgirl]

Ok, so something different to distract you.

I have this HC that Tom actually lurks on here and AO3 and reads our fics.

It makes me wonder what his handle would be. Would it be something so obvious that no one would think it was him and just someone else in the fandom? Or would it be more obscure and he can roam and lurk freely.

He must know we write stories about him.

OK let's assume for a minute that after a cointreau or four, Tom enjoys whipping out the ol' laptop and seeing what's new with Loki because he's sentimental and wants to know his boy still gets love.

Bold as Brass Tom

Something like @kingtwhiddleston (sorry for tagging you but I just feel like your username would be perfect...) I think is so obvious that it would be, like you say, 'it couldn't possibly actually be him' - hiding in plain sight. Cue Zawe rolling her eyes as he chuckles to himself.

Touch of Mischief Tom

Something like @loki-is-my-alter (which is quite a good blog name and apparently, not taken) - he'd blend in just fine, reblogging all the Loki gifs and having a grand time on his lil blog with a profile pic of himself.

I also think he'd join in on Loki discourse on this account, things about his personality and what what. Some nice art, perhaps.

Deep Cover Tom

Something obscure - @1269londonjapes

He'd have a blurred avatar and we'd all block him cos it's a blank blog there ain't shit in the bio. Sorry, Tom.

---

In this world I will now HC with you @mochie85 - he sometimes reads a fic. But only if the guys are round and it's all a bit of a laugh. They do the voices between them. I think it sounds fucking great. Guys night wouldn't be complete without some live reading blush-inducing ribbing.

Annnnd that's my take.

@lokischambermaid

#tom asks #funny asks

[missmaywemeetagain]

Pink Scarf - PART 17 (Elvis/Austin!Elvis x Reader)

Character/Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Requested: kinda

(Read more here--Pink Scarf Series Masterlist!)

Prompt: You are part of Elvis Presley's coveted inner circle, and the currently-disgruntled wife of one of the members of Elvis' famous entourage, the Memphis Mafia. After Elvis' dynamite first performance in Vegas, you find yourself in deep water when his magnetism finally gets to you after all these years.  [ Fem!Reader ]

TW: SEXXX. Verbal Abuse. Assault, both sexual and physical. Blood. Violence. ANGST. Cussing. Infidelity. Historical inaccuracies in the Vegas timeline. Priscilla doesn't exist in this timeline.  

Rating: Explicit/Mature (NSFW, 18+, so minors Do NOT Interact)        ||     Word Count: 10k

A/N: PREPARE YOURSELVES, cuz this is an INTENSE roller coaster ride, y'all. Also, PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. I'm not gonna say much else, other than this is a beast and I cannot wait to hear the unhinged responses after. And thank you for your patience!

As always, to all my babies, honeys, and lil' mamas supporting me out there, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL and your reactions, reblogs, messages, asks, and comments you've given me have been a blessing beyond expression. You all are the best community a writer could ask for! Thank you so much for your support. I am loving getting to know y'all better! I love every single reaction and comment and ask, and I'm sorry if I don't get back to them all as soon as I'd like but know that I love you all and am so excited to be making new friends! And a big "Hey, Y'all!" to our friends from Elvis Twitter, Elvis Discord, and Elvis Instagram--I see and appreciate you coming over to join us! 👀💋

If you feel so moved, please let me know what you think or how you're feeling (or send me asks)! I think I put everyone on the taglist who requested it, but please let me know if there are any issues or if I missed anyone. There seem to be some issues with tagging that I can't seem to fix, so please know I'm not leaving you out intentionally! Also, if you comment on a previous part that you want to be tagged, I might not always see it, so feel free to message me if I miss you!

I imagined this with Elvis in mind, but Austin!Elvis works here, too, whatever floats your boat! 

Apologies in advance if there are any grammatical errors or TW that I didn't catch. 

(I did start cross-posting Pink Scarf to my long-neglected AO3 account (which some of you already discovered!), so if you are so inclined, you can check it out over there!)

“You need me?” you question him, honestly taken aback by the sentiment, even though he has said it before. It’s just still so hard for you to believe that a man like this needs a woman like you. Running your fingers through the soft, damp hair at the nape of his neck, you look at him with wide eyes.

“Yeah, baby, I do. I really do,” Elvis says, wrapping his arms tight around you and pulling you close. His head buries in your neck, in your hair, breathing you in.

“Show me,” you whisper in his ear, surprised by your own boldness. But his declarations have you some kind of way and that coil is still like hot coals smoldering in your belly. You feel his body stiffen against you, knowing that he is even more stubborn than you and doesn’t want to give in to you just yet.

You run your hands over his exposed chest and under the deep V of the fabric, grazing over his nipple with your fingernails. He twitches and jumps under your touch, despite his efforts to stay neutral.

“I need you,” you breathe, pitching your voice up the slightest bit as you look into his eyes. And you do. You desperately need him, in every way. If you could crawl inside of him, you would. You need to believe his promises are true, that he will take care of you and be everything you need. You need him to show you.

This must read on your face, because he cannot seem to mask his response this time, his azure eyes widening and pupils dilating.

“Take care of me,” you say, your voice nearly a whine.

That’s the ticket. “Fuck, okay…yeah, let me take care of ya,” Elvis breathes in your mouth as his lips find yours, your sins forgotten for the moment, if not forgiven completely. His lips devour yours and your hands can’t get enough of him, starved from before when he had you tied up. They roam over his chest, wind around his neck and into his hair before scraping down his back and clawing at his waist.

Elvis pulls back for a moment and surveys the space in the room. You can see his wheels turning, then how his lips curve up in a smile as he figures out how he wants you. He leaves you hanging for a moment as he pulls a chair right in front of a huge, floor length mirror. Sitting in the chair, his legs spread wide, he beckons you to him.

“Come sit on my lap, baby,” he purrs at you, and you immediately obey, settling on one of his strong thighs and burying your head into that deliciously long neck of his. The salt of his sweat stains your lips. His strong scent surrounds you, magnifying your need for him. You suddenly feel very small in his arms in addition to that need. He seems to sense this, letting you first cuddle into him a bit before winding his large hand below your jaw and peppering kisses down your neck.

“Gonna be a good girl and do as I tell ya?” Elvis asks, his voice low and gravely as he grabs your chin.

You nod. He truly fucked the fight right out of you before, over there against the wall.

“That’s my girl. Now turn and face the mirror for me,” he says, guiding your hips to swivel in his lap. He pulls your dress up and over your waist, leaving you in your lacy panties. You feel a little self-conscious looking at yourself perched on his lap like this, your cheeks a flaming shade of red. You are very close to the mirror, too close. But you watch as your eyes go wide when he grabs your inner thighs, spreading them open with his large hands while sliding his strong thighs in between to keep yours apart.

The lacy fabric of your already-soaked underwear strains as he massages your legs from your knees to your hips. The groping shoots fire through you and you press back into his lap, encouraging him to continue. When he ghosts over your core, it steals your breath away, and you are so incredibly ready for whatever he has to give you.

“Let get these off,” he says, tapping your clit over your panties and causing you to jump with the sensation. Nearly frantic, you shuck them down and off with lightning speed, along with your heels. Elvis chuckles, spreading you open even further when you sit back in his lap. Your muscles strain with the stretch, but you don’t care.

“Be a good girl and put your feet up on the mirror for me,” he instructs, and albeit confused, you do as you’re told. “Nice and wide for me, honey. Yeah, just like that.” He scoots your hips down a bit as you adjust and cradles your upper body with his, his head resting over your shoulder, looking at you both in the mirror. You are completely exposed and utterly vulnerable before him once again.

“Now look at that,” he breathes almost reverently, “You’re stunning, in every way.” You both watch in the mirror as he runs his fingers down your face, your jaw, then over your body. You shiver in his lap, earning his famous lopsided smile in return.

Elvis gets more serious as his fingers reach your core. “But ain’t this the prettiest pussy I’ve ever seen,” he whispers in your ear, running his pointer finger ever-so-lightly over your folds as you watch. The combination of sensation and the visual you are not used to seeing has you squirming in his lap, aching. He locks his other arm around your pelvis, pressing you against him and immobilizing you.

“Be good, baby. You promised,” he says in your ear, and you watch yourself nod furiously, stilling. He commences his lecture. “I wantcha to see what I see, baby. Look at how pretty and red you are for me like this, all slick and swollen and needy,” he says, watching intently, hungrily, as his finger grazes your lower lips, up one side and down the other. You whine and grip his arm for purchase, feeling like he is calling all the blood in your body to gather in your cunt. It feels heavy and pulsing, burning with need for him.

Elvis brushes up to your clit. “Hmm, one of my favorite little spots,” he hums, circling it softly, making you keen as you lean back into him. Then, obscenely, he uses his first two fingers to spread your lips apart. “Christ, baby, look at that,” he says, voice filled with lust and awe, “You’re fuckin’ weeping for me.”

Your eyes travel down to your exposed hole, and sure enough, you are literally dripping with arousal, both yours and his. It glistens as it gathers, a slow, eager little drop sliding out. You cannot stifle the low moan that escapes your lips at the erotic nature of this little show, your pussy buzzing with heat and want, on display for all to see.

Elvis senses you need more, and he lets your folds wrap around his long middle finger, dragging it up and down through your slick as you watch.

“Oh, god,” you sigh, thankful for the friction, your hips automatically rolling for him.

“Touch yourself, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll help you,” he says, moving your hand over your mound and guiding your fingers in slow circles over your clit before he returns to rubbing in between your slick lower lips. The wonderful combination makes your eyes flutter closed and your head fall back onto his shoulder.

“Nuh uh! Eyes open!” Elvis nudges you, and your eyes pop open. “I want you to watch yourself come, baby. I need you to see what I see.” He smiles, and it’s almost boyish in its mischievousness.

It’s not going to take much, considering how primed that coil was before you even sat down, and how strangely erotic this whole scene is. How it’s making you feel lightheaded and buzzy and hot all over. You begin to work your clit furiously, watching as Elvis runs his fingers over then through your sopping, swollen folds. When he dips one long finger, then another into your weeping hole while you watch, the string of curses that leaves your lips is utterly filthy.

Your senses are overloading, which you imagine was his intention. The sight of you swallowing his fingers so needily, so readily, your arousal shining, the wet suckling sound coming from your cunt as he expertly works his fingers in and out of you pushes you headlong to the edge. Coupled with this and your barrage on your clit, you hit your climax hard with a loud cry, pressing your heels into the mirror with such force, you’re afraid you might crack it.

“Look, look, look, baby,” he pants, forcing your focus back to him, back to what he’s doing to you. “Look at how you flutter around me!” He’s right; you watch, mesmerized as your hole clenches at his fingers through your orgasm, and fuck if that isn’t amazingly hot.

You whimper at the sight, shuddering and panting at the exertion. He chooses that moment to curl his fingers, pressing that special spot inside you that is only his, and another wave of pleasure shoots through you so strongly that you lose your breath. You crest the hill again, stars shooting through you, forgetting that you ever came here to break this off, to run away from him.

There is a wild, desperate look in your eyes that you’ve never seen before as you writhe against him in your ecstasy, keeping you fucking down onto his fingers even though you are sore from before. You can’t stop the waves that keep crashing over you, engulfing every inch of you as you watch it happen before your eyes.

And Elvis looks gorgeous, those blue eyes flashing with his magnetic sexual energy, his pouty lips open and pink and panting right along with you. He is hard again, his length pressing into your spine through his suit as you furiously roll on his fingers, and you can feel him begin to shudder underneath you. You know he gets off on watching and this is quite the show. You rock your hips more deliberately now, feeling the length of him slide between your ass cheeks, and he groans.

“Am I gonna make you come in your pants, E? Gonna make a mess for me?” you mewl seductively, wanting to push him over the edge, too. “You like watching me get off on your fingers, don’t you?”

“Jesus, baby, yes,” he moans, “but I need to watch you come again. Come with me, honey.”

You’re not sure you can. You are overstimulated and over stretched and near hysterical with pleasure. Your heart is thrumming so fast you can barely breathe.

“You can do it. I’ve got you. Let me take care of you, baby. Watch me take care of you,” he pants heavy in your ear, his eyes glassy, unable to take his eyes off your pussy. He moves his hips in tandem with yours now, then without warning, slides a third finger inside you.

Your eyes are glued to the mirror, seeing just how well you take him. You automatically adjust to him, and he works you as only he knows how. You work your clit and grit your teeth as you feel that coil poised to spring again.

“E-El-El-vis…F-f-fuckkk!” you cry breathlessly, coming completely undone around him again.

“Oh, fuck, honey…GodDAMN!” he groans into you simultaneously as he slams his hips up with a violent shudder that matches your own. You can feel the heat pulse under you, dampening the fabric of his suit.

But you continue to shake and shiver on top of him, your orgasm ripping through you, stealing everything you have left, draining every ounce of energy from your reserves, which isn’t much considering the insanity of the last 24 hours. You sense much too late that your body cannot keep up. Your heart is too fast, your breathing too labored, and your muscles too weak.

You shouldn’t be surprised, then, when your body goes limp, the blood drains from your head with a cold rush, and the world goes dim and then black.

*

“Y/n! Y/n! Jesus, Satnin, c-come on baby, w-w-wake up!” you hear Elvis’ panicked voice from far away, but you are so very tired and just want to sleep, thinking maybe it’s a dream.

…no, no! Oh, God, don’t—please don’t go. I-I lo…The faraway echo of long-ago words in this too familiar panicked voice fades away like a dream. You slip back into darkness.

It’s the piercing fear in his voice when he calls your name again that has you finally coming back into yourself. You blink a few times, willing the world to come back into focus, confused.

“O-oh, shit. Oh, t-thank God,” Elvis breathes. He is right above you, his eyes bright and flooded with fear, near tears.

“Wh—what happened?” you murmur, feeling buzzy and strange, and like things aren’t moving fast enough.

“You scared the shit outta me is w-what happened!” he looks down at you, now placed on the couch, his eyes quickly shifting from fear to anger. “You—you just fuckin’ collapsed!”

Your eyebrows furrow as you try to remember what happened. You’d come here to break up with him, to tell him you were leaving…then you argued. Then you fucked. The mirror.

Oh, god, had you passed out from coming too hard?

You start to giggle at that, uncontrollably.

“Baby, what the fuck? It’s not fuckin’ funny!” Elvis fumes, leaning over you.

That just makes you laugh more. “I came…s-so h-hard I p-passed out!” you hiccup out.

“That’s not normal!” he cries, throwing his hands up in the air.

Another peal of laughter at the absurdity of it rolls through you. He’s not wrong, but whatever is happening to you seems to be overpowering your sense of self-control.

“Are you on something?” he asks suddenly, grabbing your jaw to get you to focus. He looks over you carefully and then a flash of horror comes over him at what you assume is the thought that he’s somehow taken advantage of you.

“N-no, of course not,” you finally manage to get out. You are shivering now though, and suddenly freezing. “S-something’s not r-right,” you finally chatter out.

“No shit,” Elvis mumbles, eyes narrowed, obviously trying to figure out what’s wrong with you. “Baby, when was the last time you ate?” he asks.

You blink at that, trying to run through the last day in your mind, but all the days have been running together. You honestly don’t know.

“I-It’s been at least a day, I think,” you finally eek out. “Maybe l-longer?”

“’Maybe longer?’ Goddammit, y/n, you can’t just go without fuckin’ eating!” he yells, getting up from the couch and storming over to the phone at the other end of the room. You hear him ordering someone to bring food immediately as you attempt to sit up, but your dizziness has you lying back down quickly.

Yeah, well, maybe if I wasn’t in a constant swarm of emotional and physical upheaval for the last week, I would remember to eat, but who’s fault is that?

Elvis slams down the phone and paces back over to you. “When was the last time you slept, y/n?” he angrily asks now, his eyes a churning gray-blue, as he pulls your dress down modestly and throws one of his plush robes over you.

“Um, on the r-roof,” you get out.

“Christ, that was barely sleep,” he mumbles, obviously frustrated as he continues to pace the room. “You have to take better care of yourself, y/n!” he erupts.  

You recoil a bit but are touched by his anger, knowing it is fueled by concern. But you are also annoyed because it isn’t all your fault.

“Well, I’ve been a b-bit busy,” you manage.

“Not that fuckin’ busy!”

He’s not getting it. You shake your head, tears coming to your eyes.

“Th-this is part of the problem, E. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, I’ve been so s-stressed, I don’t know which way is up…” you shiver out.

He halts. Your words must be sinking in because the blood drains from his face and you’re suddenly afraid he might pass out.

“This is because of me,” he finally says. The way he phrases it, you’re not sure if it’s a question or statement.

“It’s not—” you start, not wanting him to spiral more than he already is.

“Goddammit, you’ve been tellin’ me you’re strugglin’, and I been yammerin’ at you to trust me to take care of you and then I did the opposite. Shit,” he curses. “I’m so sorry, baby.” Elvis deflates onto the couch next to you and pulls you into his arms, kissing your forehead, your cheeks, your eyelids.

You are too tired to respond other than to brush the errant tear that runs down his cheek with your thumb. You wish you could see this sensitive side of him more often.

“Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen: I’m gonna get some food in ya, then I’m sending Jerry with you upstairs so you can rest—”

You open your mouth to argue.

“There’ll be none of that,” he hushes you. “There’s no way you’re doin’ the show tonight. And Jerry’ll get you woken up before we come up after the show, and everybody’ll be none the wiser.” He gives you a stern look.

There’s no point in fighting him or telling him how his plan could go wrong. You’re still confused exactly how things with Jack are going to be handled or if anything Elvis said while fucking your brains out earlier was going to come to fruition, but you’re not in the frame of mind to try and solve that this minute. So instead you just nod.

The food comes, somehow all of your favorites. He knows my favorite foods? runs through your mind, but you are too hungry to dwell on it. Then, as he instructed, you head upstairs with Jerry, who without judgement, sends you into Elvis’ suite to rest. You think your mind won’t possibly let you sleep, but between the food and your exhaustion, you drift off before your head hits the pillow.

*

Circle G Ranch, February 1967

You wake up early, your eyes blinking out the dull winter morning light streaming through the window. Well, it’s not early for normal standards, but in Elvis’ world, most haven’t even gone to bed yet, you think, looking at the clock. You being awake now is likely due to the fact you couldn’t keep up with the partying last night and had excused yourself much sooner than usual to go to bed.

It takes you a moment to realize where you are. Being at Elvis’ newly acquired ranch in Mississippi has been a welcome change of scenery yet is still a little disorienting. You are used to Memphis, and even occasionally California, but this place is new for you all.

Completely dissatisfied and not having any semblance of control with his career, Elvis recently decided that he wanted a place in the country, a place where they could all come to relax and ride the horses he’d bought for all the men and their wives. A place where they could work the land and have a little fun. And you wonder if he just wanted to feel a little normal for once, thinking that a ranch would do that for him, that it could give him the control he so desperately craved. That maybe it might bring him some of that happiness and zest for life that had been bled out of him for all these years, turning him into someone you barely recognized.

So, Circle G Ranch was purchased, and you’d all arrived to take in its splendor and fresh air. And it was working. Elvis seemed happier here than he’d been in a very long time, the sparkle beginning to return in those expressive eyes of his. And when Elvis was happy, everyone else was allowed to be happy too, theoretically.

You think maybe all that horseback riding and fresh air is part of the reason you were so tired last night. Turning over, you notice that Jack hasn’t come to bed. Your heart sinks, though out here in the middle of the country, it’s not like he can get in too much trouble. It’s just likely the guys are still awake.

Either way, there is an emptiness in your chest that misses your husband. Each time he leaves with Elvis, less of the man you knew returns. You are hoping that some leisure time on the ranch will help him, too. There is less temptation out here, and more opportunities for you two to spend time together.

Unfortunately, he has not been very receptive to that so far, opting to hang with the guys more than you. But considering that he has been drinking more, part of you is glad for it. If the last couple of years have shown you anything, it’s that Jack is a mean drunk, just like his father.

With that thought, you decide to get up instead of dwelling on things you cannot change. As you get dressed, you hear the door of the trailer slam.

“Jack? Is that you?”

“Who else would it be?” he replies belligerently. The tone of his voice tells you immediately all you need to know. Your heart speeds up as a warning discomfort blooms in your chest. You steel yourself before walking out into the living area.

“Morning, sweetie. Want me to make you some breakfast?” you ask in a light and easy voice. If nothing else, food might help sober him some.

Jack’s response is a grunt in the affirmative, and then he shoots you a glare, his brown eyes dull but cutting all the same. You have no idea what you may have done to upset him, but he is obviously not happy with you. The tightness in your chest increases and you force a smile, not wanting to set him off. If you act like everything is fine, he might forget what is bothering him. It happens that way sometimes and is generally the best-case scenario when he’s like this.

“Okay, I’ll get that started,” you smile, and he settles with a huff on the couch. Scurrying off to the kitchen, your smile falls and you get to cooking as quickly as possible. Steak and eggs, you think. That’s his favorite and will help clear his head.

Your mind races as you cook, trying to find a reason for his ire. You dissect every moment from the day and night before but cannot pinpoint anything in particular that you might have done to make him upset. This has you feeling uneasy, on eggshells. If you knew what you’d done, you could apologize and make up for it before things get out of hand, but it occurs to you that he might be too far gone for that anyway.

Lost in your thoughts, it takes until you smell the meat smoking to realize you may have cooked it too long. You are hoping he is too drunk to notice. With renewed focus, you plate your breakfasts and walk to the tiny table.

“Soup’s on, babe!” you say in a cheerful sing-song voice. Part of you cringes inside to hear yourself like this.

He grunts off the sofa and stumbles to the table, plopping down with a screech of the chair. You keep yourself from wincing at the sound, wanting to stay as sunny as possible as you begin to cut into the meat. You’re unable to keep from looking up at him to check his body language, his affect, as he begins shoveling eggs and toast into his mouth without so much as a word to you.

You pick at your own breakfast, your appetite low because you feel so on edge. You can sense the tension in the room and know better than to speak at this point.

“What the fuck is this?” Jack grumbles, throwing his knife and fork clattering onto the plate.

You look up quickly, your heartbeat skipping. He’s fuming now, his eyes bloodshot and narrowed at you, his scar an angry red with the flush on his cheeks. You don’t have time to piece together whatever has happened before he continues, his voice shaking low with anger.

“First, you embarrass me by taking off in the middle of everyone having a good time last night. Everybody asking, ‘What’s wrong with her, is she okay?’ blah, blah, blah,” he says with a mocking venom that sends a chill right down your spine. “And now you can’t even make me a decent breakfast. Can’t even get that right,” he growls, pounding on the table.

The table rattles and you start to shake a little, frozen to the spot. You realize that maybe Jack is more than just drunk, that maybe he took something on top of it that has him worse than usual.

“I…I’m sorry, I was just tired from all the activity yesterday, and I can make you a new—” you sputter out quickly, but still unable to move, trapped in his furious gaze.

“I don’t wanna hear your fuckin’ excuses, you stupid bitch!” he screams, exploding out of his seat, the chair toppling over behind him with a clatter. “What I want is a fuckin’ steak that’s not cooked to death!” he roars, then picks up his plate and hurls it over the table near your head. You barely have time to register what’s happening, leaning out of the way at the last second on pure instinct, and the plate careens into the wall behind you with a crash, sending food and ceramic flying everywhere.

Your brain misfires and your heart leaps to your throat, the terror in your veins pulsing through you so intensely that all you can do is turn and run. You have to escape because you don’t know what he’s gonna do, he’s never thrown anything at you before, and he’s yelled, yes, but not done anything to hurt you, and oh, god, you have to get out, get out, GET OUT.

You fly past Jack, his rage too consuming and his senses too dull to catch you as you go, and you are out the door of the trailer in a flash, not stopping to see if he’s following you. No, all you can think is you have to get away, you have to escape, and you fly through the rows of trailers housing the other men and their wives. Your heart slams against your ribcage, fueling your body forward as you sprint down the dirt road towards the barn in the distance. Your socks stick to the cold ground as you run but you don’t care—all you need is to get to the horses. You’re not sure why, but you just know that if you can get to the horses, you’ll be safe.

You run and run, only hearing the crash of the plate in your ear, feeling the splatter as it shatters behind you. Only hearing Jack’s screams, “You stupid bitch! You stupid bitch!” You don’t even register the tears burning down your cheeks as you finally reach the barn, flinging open the door with what little strength you have left and frantically looking in the stalls for the horse that Elvis gave you.

Moonbeam. You finally see her near the other end of the barn, her gray and white coloring standing out in the sea of darker equines. You skid to a stop in front of her. Knowingly, as if she can sense your distress and your need for her large, calming presence, she turns and pokes her head out of the stall, nuzzling your tear-stained face.

“Oh. Oh,” you gasp, completely out of breath from the exertion. You cling onto Moonbeam’s strong neck, her coat soft and warm under your shaking arms. Your chest heaves, desperately trying to take in air. If you could, you would jump right on Moonbeam’s back and ride as fast and as far as you can, but she is not saddled, and you have no idea how to get her ready.

The light tap on your shoulder sends you flailing into the stall door with a shriek.

He’s found me he’s found me he’s found me, is all that runs through your head, though if you were anywhere near logical, you’d know that Jack was in no state to chase you all the way to the barn.

“Hey! Hey, y/n, it’s okay! Honey, it’s just me!” You turn toward the warm, familiar voice and are met with concerned deep blue eyes, a far cry from Jack’s bloodshot and brown glaring ones.

“Oh,” is all you can manage to huff out as you look at Elvis, your muscles starting to burn and shake. Your heart is still beating too fast.

“Are you okay? What the hell happened?” Elvis says worriedly but gently, looking over you, seeming to sense how on edge you are. He goes to touch your shoulder, but you reflexively shirk backwards, knocking your elbow into the door with a thud. He quickly backs away a step, putting his hands up in a non-threatening way.

You suddenly slam into the present moment, realizing that you must look insane. Your hair is windblown, you are makeup-less with tears streaking down your face. It’s the dead of winter and you are without a coat or shoes, your socks dirty and torn and bloody from your sprint. You have food splattered down your left side, and you are gasping for air like you’re drowning.

“Y/n, I need you to tell me if you’re okay,” Elvis says, quiet and calm, as if talking to a spooked horse.

You glance over his shoulder, suddenly afraid that Jack could stumble through the barn door at any moment. Wide-eyed and frantic, you look back at Elvis. You realize he’s between you and the door and that gives you some comfort. Jack would have to get through Elvis to get to you, and while you know you’re not in your right mind, you are completely certain that Elvis wouldn’t let Jack hurt you.

With this relieving thought and your adrenaline beginning to wane, you suddenly feel extraordinarily tired as well as embarrassed that Elvis is seeing you like this. You realize he’s waiting for an answer, but you cannot speak. You don’t want to bother Elvis with any of this, so you nod your head, bobbing it up and down quickly.

Elvis tilts his head and looks at you perceptively. Of course you’re not okay, and Elvis reads it all over your face and appearance. You finally give up under his watchful gaze, shaking your head. It falls back against the door behind you, and you choke back a sob. Your exhausted body shakes with cold and the remnants of your fear, and you slide down the door, unable to support yourself any longer.

“Oh, shit, okay. Honey, it’s okay,” Elvis coos at you, stepping quickly to your side but not wanting to touch you and invade your space, lest you freak out again. Instead, he slides down the door with you, letting you lean into him for support. And you do. As you reach the cold, straw-covered ground, you lean your head onto his shoulder, his warmth radiating comfortingly into your side. You begin to shiver.

“Here, baby,” he says, taking off his thick coat and wrapping it around your shoulders. Immediately, you feel calmer, as the heat and his distinctly Elvis scent of musk and Old Spice, coupled with the woodsmoke from last night’s campfire surrounds you like a blanket.

You both sit in silence for a while as your body comes back down from the fear of Jack’s outburst. He’s yelled at you before, even called you names, but he’d never gotten so close to actually physically hurting you.

He must’ve been on something, you think. Jack would never hurt me.

I should’ve been more careful with the breakfast. I should’ve paid more attention. I should’ve stayed up last night with him. The thoughts run through your head, as though if you examine them enough, you can possibly avoid setting him off in the future.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Elvis asks quietly, sensing the wheels turning in your head as only he can.

Humiliated, you shake your head vehemently. Elvis does not need to know the specifics of your marriage. He does not need to know of your failures.

But part of you wants to tell him he’s created a monster.

Without Elvis, Jack might never have gone into the bottle. Without Elvis, he wouldn’t be taking other shit that makes him fly off the handle at any moment. Without Elvis, without Elvis, without Elvis…

You are too exhausted for blame and anger right now, though, so you bury it instead. It is what it is.

Elvis doesn’t push you, though you can tell he wants to know everything. You can practically feel that he’s quelling some deep instinct to protect you, his muscles tensing and releasing, his jaw working. But maybe he begins to piece it all together himself because he remains quiet. You are safe now, and that’s what matters, right?

And perhaps it is your heightened emotions, but you suddenly crave the nearness of the man who used to be your best friend. The man that, for reasons you don’t entirely understand, time and circumstance somehow stole from you when you weren’t looking.

So you lean into him, into his strength and sensitivity and his unique power to draw you to him, even when part of you wants to blame him for everything. Even after all these years of confusing behavior and emotional distance, you can’t begin to imagine your world without Elvis Presley in it.

And now you sit here on the cold floor of a horse barn in the middle of the Mississippi countryside in the dead of winter, wondering how in the hell your life became this.

*

Jerry wakes you gently with a whisper and a poke on your shoulder but you startle anyway, pulled out of the dream violently with a gasp.

“Sorry, y/n, but everyone is on their way up soon. EP told me to wake you,” he says apologetically.

The room is dark, and you are still exhausted, but you are somewhat grateful to be pulled out of that dream-memory. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and a sick feeling in your stomach. You can’t help but chastise yourself for letting Jack grovel the way he did after he’d sobered up that day, for how you forgave him so easily because it certainly was not the last time he went crazy like that on you.

“Thank you, Jerry. I’ll be right out,” you say blearily. You blink the sleep from your eyes and stagger into the bathroom to make yourself presentable.

Anger at Jack festers like an open wound, but the dream has also reminded you of your anger towards Elvis about all of it. That makes you feel uneasy, especially coupled with that nagging feeling that he is hiding something from you. You don’t want to feel angry at Elvis, but some of his actions over the years have contributed to your overall dissatisfaction with your life.

You didn’t fully realize until now how upset it had made you that he just stopped being your best friend one day. You still don’t understand all of it, though you feel like these unearthed memories are trying to get you there. But it doesn’t change the fact that both he and Jack abandoned you in different ways. And this pisses you off.

Fucking men, you think, touching up your makeup and straightening your dress. Your unease deepens when you realize you are going to face the group very soon and you have absolutely no idea what Elvis is going to do or even if he will do anything. Is he just going to pull you to his side and tell Jack to go fuck himself? Is he going to act like it never happened at all? You’re not sure which is worse.

Your stomach churns and you desperately need to talk to Elvis before he does something stupid. Panic rises, but you slam it back down, willing yourself to just be normal for the time being.

Be normal. What a laugh. As if any of this is remotely normal.

Steeling yourself, you head out to the living room just as people start walking through the door. Sandy finds you immediately, giving you a concerned and questioning look. You can’t tell if she’s surprised to see you or not, but you turn from her, still annoyed that she ratted you out (even if it was in an attempt to help you).

As the room fills and bustles, something is itching at you, poking at the corners of your mind. You think maybe it is paranoia. It feels as though Red keeps shooting knowing, snide looks your way. You can’t help but examine everyone around you, searching for signs that they know. You squirm in your skin, unable to get comfortable.

It doesn’t help that Jack slides in behind you when you aren’t looking, wrapping his arms around you a little too tight. He reeks of whiskey and cigar smoke so badly you choke. “Where you been, treasure?” Jack asks a little too pointedly, suspiciously, as if he knows something is up. Your heart plummets and you resist the urge to push him away but can’t help but try to worm your way out of his clutches as Elvis strolls in the room.

Elvis’ intense eyes find you immediately, and you watch his jaw clench as he keeps himself in check. You manage to slip out of Jack’s grasp and Elvis relaxes a bit, distracted by one of the guys. It seems like he doesn’t want to make a scene over the two of you in front of the group, which has you breathing a sigh of relief.

What doesn’t have you relieved is that Jack is once again all over you as everyone finds a seat. You feel trapped as the conversation begins to flow, wanting nothing more than to go hide in Elvis’ room, far away from the fumbling hands of your husband. His hands are heavy on you, creeping up your thigh, drawing circles on your shoulder with his fingertips. It used to be a comforting gesture, but now it feels possessive.

He knows. Maybe Red already told him, you panic. Your heart gallops in your chest and you try not to lose it.

No, don’t be an idiot. He wouldn’t be this quiet if he knew, right? Jack is a few drinks in at this point, and the more he drinks, the louder he generally gets. Though based on his hands, you think that he is feeling something else altogether.

You can feel Elvis’ jealous eyes bore on you as Jack touches you, but you are caught between a rock and a hard place. If you shirk your husband’s advances to obviously, it will seem strange and garner attention, but if you don’t, you fear Elvis will give you both away. And you aren’t ready for that, not before the two of you come up with a cohesive plan.

If you are going to leave Jack (no, when you leave Jack, you remind yourself), you certainly don’t want to do it in the middle of an afterparty with the whole gang listening in.

“I’m going to get something to drink,” you finally whisper, excusing yourself with a forced smile, needing to escape Jack’s clutches. “You need anything?” you ask.

“Oh, I need something alright,” Jack breathes sloppily in your ear, attempting to be seductive and failing. But it has an edge to it that worries you.

“You’re hilarious, babe,” you say as sweet as you can while standing to make your escape. Jack takes the moment to grope your ass and you can almost feel the wave of irritation coming off Elvis from across the room. “I’ll get you a drink,” you sputter out, sliding out of Jack’s grasp, shooting Elvis a quick, warning glance to not do anything stupid. Then you scurry away as fast as you can without seeming strange.

Instead of heading to the kitchen, you make a beeline for the bathroom, desperately needing a moment away from all the eyes you feel are on you tonight, wanting things from you that you cannot give.

Fucking men, you think again, closing the door behind you.

To your shock, it doesn’t close. Jack pushes in and your heart drops into your stomach. The look in his dark and muddled eyes bodes nothing good.

“Hey, treasure,” he slurs with that disturbing edge to his voice, grabbing your waist and pulling you in for a sloppy, whisky-tinged kiss. You try rather unsuccessfully to not cringe at the feel of his lips on yours.

Maybe he’s too drunk to notice, you hope.

“I thought you were going to get drinks,” Jack says suspiciously. He locks the door behind you, warning bells exploding in your brain for a multitude of reasons, one being Elvis breaking the door down, another being whatever Jack expects of you.

“I had to pee first, babe,” you say as evenly as possible, “Now get so I can!” You playfully swat him on the shoulder, as you’ve done a million times before in your life together, but this time is different. This time, Jack’s chocolate eyes blacken as he grabs your wrist.

Your breath catches, and your heart starts to speed up as Jack’s hand tightens. “Honey, you’re hurting me. Let go,” you whisper.

His dark eyes rake over your body with what you think is lust, but it is tainted with something frightening. “Oh, I think you came in here because you wanted something else,” he says, backing you into the vanity. “You know, some of the guys are saying that you’re stepping out on me. Can you believe that?” His head buries in your neck, his lips dragging roughly against your skin.

Fucking Red.

“W-What? That’s ridiculous,” you manage to eek out, trying to lean away from his touch, but there is nowhere for you to go. Your heart is in your throat, but before you can say anything else in your defense, he’s changing the subject.

“You’re wearing this scarf again?” Jack questions because it impedes his barrage of his mouth on your neck. He unties it and you watch the pink and black silk flutter to the floor.

“It goes with my outfit,” you reply. You attempt to push him away but get nowhere, his broad chest stubbornly immobile. “Seriously, Jack, I need to pee,” you whine now, hoping that will do the trick. Every nerve in your body is on alert as he kisses your skin, as he presses into you. You can feel the bulge in his pants growing, poking into your pelvis.

Every fiber of your being wants out of this enclosed space, a space that only a moment ago felt like a refuge but now feels like a prison. You don’t want this, and if Elvis finds out, there will be hell to pay. But Jack is too far gone to listen and too strong for you to move.

Jack picks you up easily and places you on the counter, his hands pushing the unyielding fabric of your dress up your thighs so he can spread them open and step between them. It feels cold—nothing like the warmth and passion you felt when Elvis did the same thing earlier.  

“I told ‘em, ‘Not my treasure. She knows her place. Besides, who else would want her anyway?’” he laughs cruelly, grinding into you. The words cut, as he intended, and you become fully aware that you are in trouble. Your stomach rolls, nausea consuming you.

“Jack, seriously, stop it. I don’t want to do this right now. You’re too drunk,” you protest, pushing your palms into his chest to try and put space between you.

But he seems to take your protests as being coy, or perhaps he just doesn’t care, and chuckles darkly into your neck. “Didn’t stop you from sucking my dick the other night.” He lathes his tongue against your collarbone, causing an icy shiver down your spine that he interprets as positive, smiling on your skin. His hands roam to your back and unzip your dress.

You squirm, but it only serves to assist in his attempt to undress you, his hands roughly pulling down your sleeves and bra straps.

He stops abruptly, to your relief. “What are those?” Jack asks, suddenly on edge, his tone changing completely. He pulls back from you and for that you are grateful but confused.

“What’s what?” you reply as he stares at your chest, his eyes narrowing, the lust being replaced fully by anger.  

Jack is on you in a flash, too fast for you to register what’s happening and then he’s yanking down the front of your dress, your bra, exposing your breast.

“Jesus Jack! What are you doing?!” you shriek, trying to pull away as he manhandles you, but you have nowhere to go.

“What the fuck are those?” He pulls you roughly off the counter and spins you around to the mirror, pointing to the series of purple welts on your breasts.

Oh, fuck.

“I…uh…I…,” you sputter incoherently. Your brain misfires, too panicked to think of anything clever or even anything at all. There’s no logical explanation for the dark bruises other than them being what they are. Your mind flashes back to the other night, how Elvis had claimed you, his pouty mouth suckling your skin roughly as he’d fucked you into oblivion on the couch.

You hadn’t even thought to cover them with makeup, since Jack hadn’t seen you naked in eons.

“You stupid fucking slut! Who are you screwing?!” Jack screams, ballistic, swinging you back around to face him.

You’ve never seen him this angry, his face and scar turning beet red, his eyes like daggers. But this reaction is rich coming from him, which triggers your own anger as much as your fear.

“Really, Jack? You barely come home and when you do you smell of cheap perfume, but me, I’m the slut?!” you yell back at him, your body shaking all over, as you pull up your bra and dress. You certainly hadn’t planned to do this here, now, but you’d known in your heart for days that this was coming.

The vein in his forehead pulses dangerously, and he looks like he truly wants to hurt you. He grabs your wrists painfully as you try and zip up your dress. You’ve never seen him look at you this way, even in his worst moments, and it send a shudder of fear through you. “You’re my goddamn wife! Nobody touches my wife!” he yells, his spit flying in your face, ignoring your reasoning completely, too far gone.

Then, he unlocks the door and yanks it open so hard it slams into the wall with a crash, and then pulls you into the hallway, dragging you behind him.

“Jack, stop. You’re hurting me!” you say, trying to wrench out of his iron grasp. “What’re you doing? This isn’t the place for this,” you hiss frantically, scared of what he might do or say next.

Jack manhandles you into the living area where people are conversing and laughing at someone’s jokes, and roughly pushes you into the middle of the room.

The laughter dies out quickly as all eyes turn towards you.

Your heart pounds in your chest and heat burns your cheeks. You are furious and scared and now embarrassed, the back of your dress undone in front of everyone. You watch as Sandy’s eyes widen, immediately gleaning what’s happening, and she starts to stand, but Jerry grabs her arm to stop her.

You rub at your raw wrists, but you don’t turn to look at Elvis, who is behind you. That would give it all away, and for now you at least have control over that.

“Who is it, huh? Who are you fucking? All of them?” Jack shouts at you in front of the group, pointing aimlessly at the men. There are confused and alarmed glances on most faces, though Sandy, Jerry, and Red all attempt to cover their knowledge with surprise. Some are better than others at concealing it, but Jack is too busy looking at you to see them.

“Hey, man, cool it,” Elvis says from behind you, trying to be nonchalant and deescalate the situation, but you can hear in his voice the effort it’s taking him to be calm.

Jack whirls you around roughly by the arm to face Elvis, as though he’s trying to shame you at court in front of the king. Elvis looks at you, unable to hide his concern and budding fury completely, and you shake your head the smallest amount, for only him to see, telling him to lay low and not give himself away. You may be fucked, but this can still be contained, at least until Jack has calmed down and not everyone is watching.

“This ain’t your problem, EP!” Jack yells. It’s as though the most obvious has escaped Jack’s rage-addled mind, since he’s not even considering Elvis when he’s the biggest threat of all.

But one doesn’t yell at Elvis. Not without repercussions.

“The hell it isn’t, not when you come in here drunk and hot like this, fixin’ to ruin everyone’s mood,” Elvis warns, standing slowly. He’s not yelling yet, but his eyes are starting to turn hard and dark. Elvis can be incredibly patient, but if his temper turns, it won’t be pretty. And he was already done with Jack before this wretched display. The tension in the room thickens to a heightened degree, leaving everyone on edge.

So hot with fear and embarrassment and anger, you think you might burst into flames right here. Your heart is thundering against your ribcage and you can barely breathe. Your legs itch to run, but you are surrounded by prying eyes, trapped between the two most important men in your life.

Jack is incensed, fuming, and not backing down. He’s gearing up for a fight, which is bad. His grip on your arm tightens and you can’t help but wince. You watch as Elvis takes a step towards you both and you shoot him a look to stay put.

“Jack, stop this,” you say as calmly as you can. “Let’s just take a breath and talk somewhere else and let the party go on.”

Jack’s chest heaves and he turns on you. “Shut the fuck up, you whore!” he snarls.

Then his fist brutally collides with your face.

Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion after that. The pain is instant, radiating through your cheek and your jaw, up into your eye socket. The metal of his rings snag at the corner of your mouth and scrape your face. Shock and disbelief course through you as the air rushes out of your lungs and hot tears spring to your eyes. The momentum of his strike sends you careening to the floor, and you manage to throw your hands out to catch yourself just before you hit the carpet.

A stunned silence falls over the group.

He hit me. He fucking hit me, you think in disbelief, through the pain, through the ringing in your ears.Jack had never, ever laid a hand on you before. You reach your hand up to your face, and it comes away bright red, bloody, your lip split. You can’t hold back the choked, shaking sob that escapes your lips.

Everything explodes at once.

The roar that comes from Elvis is like nothing you’ve heard before. The anger he’d shown you is but a fraction of what you see now as he crosses the room, a menacing bull after a matador. He strides so quickly and fiercely with those long legs of his that Jack barely has time to register what is happening before Elvis punches him square in the jaw, then rapidly again right in the nose. You can hear the sickening break of it which turns your stomach. Or maybe it’s your own pain doing that, you’re not sure at this point.

Elvis doesn’t even say anything, so blacked out with rage that he can’t even speak. You watch from the floor as Jack stumbles back and his eyes widen in shock, then confusion.

“EP? What the—?” Jack starts to say, holding his nose as it starts to bleed down his face, but before he can get it out, Elvis has him by the throat. Those long fingers wrap around and begin to squeeze as Elvis walks Jack back into the wall. Shocked, you watch from the floor as Jack’s face begins to turn red and he begins to sputter, clawing at Elvis’ hand and arm. True fear begins to play over Jack’s features.

Suddenly, the guys are all yelling and rushing around you. Sandy’s hands yank you up and back out of the fray, and you feel dizzy, swaying on your feet. You’re not sure how, but she manages to get you on the couch, zipping up your dress in a flash, and then examines your injuries.

“Are you okay? Y/n, are you okay?” she asks frantically, but with the commotion in the room and the fuzzy white noise in your head, she feels a million miles away. Your eyes are locked on the insane sight in front of you, freezing you with shock.

The guys are desperately trying to pull Elvis off Jack, but his hand is like a vise around Jack’s throat. He’s strangling him, truly choking him because you can see Jack’s face start to go purple and his eyes begin to roll back.

Three of the guys are on Elvis’ back now while Red chops at his arms, trying to break his hold on Jack’s throat unsuccessfully.

Oh my god, if Elvis kills him, I’ll lose them both and it’ll be all my fault, you realize.

You rise to your feet, ignoring Sandy’s protests, ignoring the dizziness and throbbing in your head, and you somehow, through pure will, push yourself through the throng of men to Elvis’ side.

“Elvis! Elvis, you have to stop this,” you say firmly, staring into his beautiful, terrifying face. His eyes are black and unyielding, almost unrecognizable. His jaw is so clenched in his murderous fury that you think he’ll crack his teeth. You’re not even sure if he can hear you because he doesn’t give any indication that he can, but you have to get him to stop.

“Baby, you can’t do this. You’re killing him. You can’t kill him. Satnin, I can’t lose you and if you do this, we’ll both be lost,” you murmur, pleading in his ear for only him to hear, hoping against hope it gets through to him.

You watch Elvis blink a few times, as if waking briefly from his trance, his shoulders relaxing just enough that when Red slams down on his arms again, they give way. Jerry pulls you backwards with a yelp, as Jack coughs, sucking in deep, rattling breaths as he slumps down the wall.

You do not go to him.

Elvis’ lapse in rage is short lived, for he sees Red and turns on him quickly with another roar, throwing brutal punches. You see on Red’s face that he knows exactly why Elvis is coming for him. A few punches land hard, and you hear more of the crack of flesh on flesh. You can’t help but smile a little inside at Red getting what’s coming to him, but horrified at yourself, you push that thought right out of your brain.

But there is a reason Red is Elvis’ bodyguard. He’s tough and scrappy and much more prepared for a fight than Jack was. You can see he doesn’t want to hurt Elvis but blocks and dodges some of his punches more readily. Four of the Mafia surround Elvis now, grabbing his arms, his waist, holding him back from Red, holding him down.

Elvis struggles against them and lets out one last terrifying primal cry before they get him subdued, pushing him to his knees. His chest heaves as they continue to hold his arms, his chin lowered, those lethal blue eyes peering out from under the black hair falling in his face. They still home in on Jack and Red, who are licking their wounds at the other end of the living room.

Adrenaline courses through you, your heart threatening to pound through your ribs, the blood rushing in your ears, as you watch four men have to hold down the man you love to keep him from killing the men that hurt you. And you aren’t entirely sure how to feel about that. A small part of you is frightened by this side of Elvis, how he is gone so deep into his rage that the man you know is barely there at all. And you can’t help but feel responsible for this turn in him.

But another part of you feels vindicated and relieved and almost proud of his defense of you. Part of you swells with so much love for him that you want to fall to your knees and kiss him as if your life depended on it.

“You sonofabitch. You fucking wife-stealing asshole,” Jack rasps out bitterly at Elvis, cowering on the floor with Red and a couple of the other men surrounding him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” some of the guys cry, having to hold Elvis back from going ballistic again. His glare at Jack is so fierce, you think the look alone might kill him from across the room.

But you don’t stop to find out because you wrench out of Jerry’s grasp and somehow make it over to Jack before your brain catches up with your body. You don’t even have time to think twice before your hand pulls back and slaps open-handed across Jack’s cheek, the smack reverberating in your ears and stinging through your hand and up your arm.

But you don’t care.

Silence falls over the room once more. Jack stares up at you wide-eyed, with shocked indignation.

“Shut the fuck up, Jack,” you seethe, now fully infuriated that the man you once loved had hurt you so badly, in so many ways. “You lost me a long time ago, and Elvis had nothing to do with it, you cheating, lying, drunken bastard!” You lean over into his face, your voice low and biting, “And don’t you ever, ever, lay your hands on me again, or next time I won’t stop him from tearing you apart.”

You watch the mixture of surprise and contempt and fear play over Jack’s features for a moment before stepping back. You look back at Elvis and see his lip curl into a sly grin.

And then it all hits you at once. All your mistakes. Everyone staring at you in shock. Your dirty laundry aired out for all to see. The blood and pain bruising on your face, your head pounding, your vision hazy. The mortifying violence that has occurred in your name. Your lover almost murdering your husband.

Oh, god.

Suddenly, vertigo hits you hard and you are so dizzy that the room swims and sways in front of you. The bile rises so quickly that you don’t even have time to process what is happening before you are hurling your dinner onto the shag carpet.

Something is quite wrong, you realize. All your anger and doubts and regrets and love drain from you with a tingling coolness, and everything and everyone feels very far away, their cries muffled by the pain in your head. Then you fall into a dark oblivion, leaving the pain and consequences of your actions far, far behind, and you wonder fleetingly if it was all worth it.

Taglist:

@atombombbibunny @yesimwriting @uselessbutinteresting @mirandastuckinthe80s @dark-as-love

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@fic-over-cannon @lacyluver

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#Pink Scarf #Pink Scarf Part 17 #elvis #elvis presley #if you’re looking for trouble #you came to the right place #elvis 2022 #elvis movie #elvis presley x reader #elvis x reader #austin butler elvis #elvis smut #elvis fic #elvis presley smut #elvis imagine #elvis presley imagine #austin!elvis x reader #austin!elvis smut #austin!elvis x y/n #austin!elvis imagine #elvis x y/n #elvis x you #elvis presley x y/n #elvis presley x you #elvis presley fanfiction #austin butler

[kurosstuff]

Hello! I do have a writing account, I just have a terrible habit of going anon that I've been trying to break out of. Also I must warn you that I currently don't have any Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss works and probably won't for a while since I've got too many fics in other fandoms that I need to finish first.

Anyway, here's the promised horror-esq Rosie POV

Rosie sat with you in the backroom of her emporium. She hoped you wouldn't mind the light dust that coated the shelves or the cobwebs that littered the ceiling above but this was the only area in the entire store were no one could see you with her. Normally she would be proud to be seen with her lover on her arm but it seemed that you had failed to pick up on her attraction and without a confirmation, she was beginning to feel rather territorial towards you.

She could see the faint trembling of your shoulders. Where you cold? No. It must be nerve. She silently slid her much larger hand across the table and incapacitated your own. Don't think she didn't notice the way you ceased your trembling as she brushed a soothing thumb over your fragile knuckles. You need not worry, she knew that it only would take a little bit excess pressure to mangle your limb beyond use but she had no intention on doing so, all she intended to do was hold your hand. And oh how wonderful your hand felt in hers. She could feel the light tremors of your tendons fighting against the urge to run away, they pulsed so rhythmically, it was as if she could feel your plump, red heart beat through your very finger tips. It was sensation that made her heart swoon all on its own, its such a shame that she couldn't hold the that beautiful muscle of yours without it halting its exquisite thumping.

You couldn't look her directly in the eye. You were afraid of her, weren't you? You were smart if you were. Love and hunger was a thin line that Rosie walked regularly, she was known throughout Hell for being a heartless monster who ate her lover once the excitement faded.

Was that what she was to you? A monster? She could be if you wanted her to be. She could be the monster who waits patiently under your bed, nibbling the fingers you carelessly drape off your bed. Or she could be the beast who relentlessly stalked, pouncing onto with gnashing teeth and scratching claws once you were finally cornered. She could be what ever terrifying nightmare being you wanted her to be, she wouldn't judge, there is alot of things her past lovers could call her but none of them could ever say she wasn't accommodating.

Of course that was a conversation for once you two became official, which would hopefully happen tonight if you accepted her invite. She had been looking forward to this night in weeks, reservations were booked long ago, too long ago. She couldn't wait for tonight, she licked her teeth as she imagined all the tasty morsels you would feed eachother but you have to be careful with those brittle digits of yours or else she might just have a small taste of you too.

The sharp inhalation you took made her realise that you caught her in motion. She chuckled to herself as she produced a thin handkerchief from her skirt pocket, drooling in front of your current potentially suiter wasn't exactly very ladylike behaviour.

She dabbed at her lip with the one square of fabric. She hoped you wouldn't mind her keeping it, it was a gift from a past suitor who graciously gave it to her on their anniversary, the blood on it was less willingly given by them on a later date but Rosie was a sentimental fool who couldn't part with such things. She wondered what gifts you'll leave behind.

"I'm sorry, dear," She smiled as she lowered the handkerchief from her face, she watched as you spine went ridged as her eyes finally met yours, "I'm just looking forward to dinner tonight."

Her thumb laid flat against the back of your hand. "Care to join me?"

OOOO OMF'HELL YEAH-

GOD. tbh horror fics are so much fun to write about

RHIS IS SO GOOD- I read some of youe other fics too! I really like how you write! Its amazing!! Your a really good writer♡♡

#hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel #hazbin rosie #hazbin hotel rosie #rosie x reader #not my writing

[belong2human-kind]

Hey guys, Clara here!! How are you??

I'm here to talk about something more serious right now. But don't worry!

As someone who is deeply in love with the SW Rebels saga since even before the first airing and someone who has accompanied all of the development of this amazing expansion of the Star Wars' universe, I want to say that this is one of the most diverse community I've met, and this makes me really happy about how so many different beings share the same interest and passion for this show as I do 🧡

So.. my profile won't lie huh? I'm down for a ship of this show so so bad, and if you, person on the other side reading this, still don't know what I'm talking about, let me tell you: I'm a biig sabezra shipper and fan! Since the first time I saw these two interact, I feel in love with their dynamics. And as the show continued, the sentiment that they could be one of the healthiest pairings of the entire saga only grew more. I love both characters individually, Ezra and Sabine, and also love them as a couple.

Joining tumblr and being active here about them, I entered the community and even dared to share my weird thoughts and stuff and own creations about this universe I love so much. I was so so so motivated by amazing people who gave me support to show my little creations, and I made truly wonderful friends here on the ship community that I'll cary for life. I won't lie that I am very eager about this ship so whoever I see engaging in Sabezra, I tend to follow XD (I hope this isn't too weird heh ^^)

I'm here to talk about two things.

1. I am very thankful for the friends I've made on the ship community and the series community as a whole too. Also, the majority of people I interact with are absurdly amazing, kind and sweet, and as I said, it's really touching and heartwarming to me to know that such a different and diverse community is united by one specific passion about SW. You guys are amazing, stay awesome 🧡💜

2. This being said, unfortunately, things can get a little heated up about some topics, specifically the ones involving pairings. So, I'm here to talk/ask, all of the people who, like me, are part of this community, to just remember that, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who you support your character with or without: we are still united by the same interest, this one being the love for those characters with such deep, unique and touching stories.

The Ghost Crew is a family, and we, the fandom, are kinda like a big one too. So what I'm here to ask is: Hey, be kind to each other 🌻 Different opinions exist, but this is not only fine, this is amazing. It'd be boring if everyone on earth loved Rebels or even my favorite ship, sabezra, because if everyone did then it wouldn't be something so unique and especial, and it is. As I said before, this community is so diverse! We can enjoy different things, we actually should do that! But, by the end of the day, we're just a bunch of people who love star wars. I think we can all agree on that ^^

That being said, I also apologize. I try to not engage with any hate spreading messages, and I know that there are quite a few here on both the shipping communities and the entire community too. Nothing can really justify being mean to someone (at least that's what I believe and try to hold myself on) but I know that we never know what's really happening behind the screen for someone, even if they share. Life can be tough, I know this myself. So I apologize for all of my friends and community colleagues that might have hurt on others, and also, apologize on myself as well if I did let this happen too. As much as I try always being kind, I'm still a human, with ups and downs and one that can make some mistakes too. I try my best to make people around me (physically and virtually) to feel comfortable and embraced because I think everyone deserves that. But at the same time, we can hurt people intentionally and unintentionally so easily :( So yeah, I apologize for that. And I hope we can interact with each other with kindness and respect. I think this is one of the most important things to do as a human: be gentle to others and the nature around you.

Uhh I speak so much :'n It's 2am now and I have class tomorrow, my adhd brain is still running on circles on my head LOL so I'll be off for now. Keep awesome guys! And stay safe 🌻

#about sabezra #sabezra #star wars ships #sabine wren #ezra bridger #be kind #i hope things get better soon #i hope we can all enjoy our shared interest with kindness and respect for each other! #stay awesome guys 🌻

[warlordgab]

Analysis of shipping: One Piece anti-romance arguments

Years before Oda was asked to write Strong World, years before the Summit War saga, even years before many of us joined the fandom, a significant portion of fans shared an anti-romance sentiment.

This perspective was so widespread that it seemed as if the One Piece community in general was convinced no pairing would ever become canon. Sure, there were some exceptions: 

Some people dispalyed indifference toward the anti-romance trend, but also towards the emotional narrative of the story. So, they would likely support shallow premises anyway

Others shipped characters by relying on inter-series comparisons that no longer hold up nowadays. (it didn't take long for perceptive individuals to find out how unlikely those "theories" truly were)

Some of these people were editors on other wiki sites, that pointed out how filler provided shipping fuel for stuff that never gets actual development in the manga. And yet, the same editors also promoted a non-existent "sexual tension" as many shallow shippers would, but I digress.

Still, since that era, a lot of arguments had been made for this position regarding romantic love; some were forgotten, and some stuck but in pretty unexpected ways.

So, here we’re going to consider those arguments, how bad they aged, and what possibly led to the anti-romance idea losing its initially strong foothold in the fandom.

The anti-romance idea through time

Firts, let us consider that one of the most important elements that helped the anti-romance idea to grow was how Oda talked about the subject. When the mangaka was asked about if someone from strawhats (except Sanji) was in love, he replied in a SBS they were all "in love with adventure."

While that was a pretty creative answer, it seems some readers weren't satisfied with Oda’s reply. But, it wasn’t like fans couldn’t agree that the statement was technically a correct.

Not to mention that fans back then didn’t have the Hancock character westerners simp so hard for. Instead, they had Alvida as the first woman calling dibs on Luffy...

... But, this was easy to dismiss given how they never became allies or friends.

Still, that doesn’t mean the anti-romance idea didn’t have its weak spots. In fact, Oda gave us an interesting “insight” on one scene, that LuNa fans loved, in the SBS Volume 32:

This was long before Summit War saga. It's interesting how the only girl that managed to make Luffy a “little horny" was Nami.

It’s true that the Oda’s answer would later change to what basically amounts to “bad influence,” when he was confroted with the fact Hancock’s beauty couldn’t get the same response from Luffy. But, the fact, still remains that it was Luffy’s response, unless people want to argue Luffy’s companions have a greater influence on his libido than Hancock’s beauty ever could. Doesn’t sound so good when you think about it, does it?

Of course, a lot of perceptive readers and even some anti-shippers know that being as “horny” as a “healthy boy” is not something inherently romantic. So, even if this moment left a crack on the anti-romance argument by displaying Luffy’s “healthy” reponse to Nami’s sex appeal, that still wasn’t enough to debunk it.

Needless to say, some anti-shippers may claim being “horny” is a must for a relationship to grow, but that myopic perspective completely disregards how emotional connections can develop by sharing meaningful moments instead of lusting after a potential partner. 

Moving on, Oda’s vagueness back then just encouraged readers to keep discussing the subject of potential romance by relying on the manga material they had so far. Still, the anti-romance crowd would shortly get another argument, when Oda stated the following:

“One Piece is basically a shonen manga, manga for boys, so romance isn’t depcited“

Ironically, this is where the another crack in the anti-romance idea starts to show. As many chapters later, we got something subtle about Usopp and Kaya at the end of the Ennies Lobby arc.

But, the fact the story focused more on its plot, themes, and other characters, probably made it easier for everyone to miss how this relationship could contradict the 'no romance depcited' argument.

Later, the fandom got introduced to Boa Hancock. While Alvida’s interest in Luffy got scratched as “not romantic enough,” Hancock’s infatuation for the hero couldn’t be ignored due to how over-the-top it was. But, it still wasn’t enough, why?

Because the relationship between Luffy and Hancock never develops into something deep or truly impactful, as Hancock’s crush remains as one-sided as it can get.

Luffy’s rejection to Hancock’s proposal just made it a lot easier for the anti-romance argument to stay strong despite the few cracks it had at that time.

Specially, when you factor context. Luffy’s reply was framed as a negative response to Hancock’s promotion of herself as a potential wife. Add Luffy’s personality to this setup, and no matter how you try to put it, he sunk that ship before it had a chance to sail.

Debunking the “no romance” myth?

So far, we’ve seen things that could a best put a dent on the anti-romance argument. But, what actually destroyed this myth?

We have to flashforward to the Dressrosa arc. Two pairings with tragic backstories were introduced: Kyros and Scarlett & Señor Pink and Russian

Kyros' relationship Scarlett story serves as part of the compelling drama of his background. And we can tell how Pink’s relationship with Russian made his character and current state and struggle emotionally impactful.

This obviously destroyed the argument of “no romance in One Piece” and contradicts Oda’s own “romance isn’t depcited”

It became easy to see that romantic love was not only playing a part in the story, but it was doing so in a way that didn’t negatively impact the author’s work. Instead, Oda used romantic love to enhance both character and story.

And this wasn’t going to be the last time, as One Piece Film: Gold gaves us something we’re about to consider in the following section, as Tesoro and Stella were depicted as lovers.

However, the greatest blow to this argument was delivered by something that not many people saw coming: SanPu's tragic love story

We already know that Pudding’s initial affection was just an act to fool Sanji and carry out Big Mom’s plot against the Vinsmoke family. But, as soon as she has her first genuine moment with Sanji, she develops actual feelings for him as the chef shattered the image she had of her own self for years. 

Needless to say, due to their respective crews being enemies, this relationship couldn’t become official, as Pudding gives Sanji a pretty romantic farewell... before removing it from his memory.

Here, romantic love plays a important role in the emotional narrative of the final scenes.

I could mention Kinemon and O-Tsuru, as well as Oden and Toki, but I think that would be overkill at this point.

Still, while the “no romance” myth got destroyed, the anti-shippers didn’t give up, those who saw how this approach became ineffective in promoting anti-romance just made their arguments undergo a microevolution. And this is where we get to the final stage:

“They’re in love... with adventure”

Given that the statment of “romance isn’t depcited” became completely useless, one would think that’s the end. But, instead of trying to encompass the entirety of One Piece, the idea came back to its origin.

All strawhats are “in love with adventure,” so accordig to self-aware anti-shippers, there will be no romantic relationships between members of the strawhat crew, because adventure is their only “love.” But, as the philosopher George Santayana once said: 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

And even the old version of this argument started to shows some cracks at the Zou arc:

Nami was both happy and eager to receive Luffy and the rest, and as pointed out by perceptive readers, she could've ran to someone else, like Zoro, something some westerners in high positions clearly wanted, but I digress.

Instead, she went straight to Luffy and only then she let out how she felt about their current predicament with Sanji...

...people try to downplay it by saying the moment was all about the chef. But, the thing is, not only she could’ve ran to someone else's arms, she ran straight to Luffy, but also poured her heart out only when she was with him.

This scene was truly remarkable as it was not only impactful, but also consistent with previous developments between Luffy and Nami as seen in Oda's works.

As we already already analyzed multiple times in this blog, this matches the trend of Nami seeking (and finding) hope, comfort, and strength in Luffy.

While this isn't something explicitly romantic, this consistent bonding could likely lead to a potential growth and an eventual relationship upgrade if the author keeps working on it.

After Dressrosa damaged the credibility of their arguments, and the possibility of more development from characters so important to the story, anti-shippers had seen better days. But, that wasn’t the only thing that left another crack on the last anti-romance argument.

Let’s talk about One Piece Film: Gold

At this point, a lot of LuNa fans, and many people who read my post already how Oda changed the climax of One Piece Film: Gold, and his work speaks for itself...

...as explained in the special Volume 777, Tesoro was in a romantic relationship with a slave: Stella. Their romance ended up in tragedy when he failed to save her from getting bought by a noble.

If we see the climax of the movie, as well as Oda’s draft of the scene, we can see that the intent was for Luffy’s situation with Tesoro holding Nami in his grasp to mirror Tesoro’s own tragedy back when he lost Stella. And thus Oda drew a parallel between Luffy/Nami, and a romantic pair: Tesoro/Stella.

However, many people would find such things too subtle or simply insufficient. But, even if we ignore emotional narrative and trends, the real weak spot in this “no romance in the crew” argument, is the basis itself: “They’re in love with adventure”

This isn’t only a clever response, and a way to avoid the subjet. It is a reminder of what One Piece is at its very core. 

You probably don’t hear this one pretty often, but One Piece story is “romance.” In fact, here are some definitions that show how that statement is far more accurate than more people would imagine:

Romance:

“A mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful”

“A long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place”

“A narrative in verse or prose, written in a vernacular language in the Middle Ages, dealing with strange and exciting adventures of chivalrous heroes”

– thefreedictionary.com, 2016

“A prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious”

–  Merriam Webster, 2016

Romantic:

“Marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized”

“Having an inclination for romance: responsive to the appeal of what is idealized, heroic, or adventurous”

–  Merriam Webster, 2016

Remember what’s the title of the first chapter of the manga? “Romance Dawn.”

The claim of the strawhats being in love with adventure fits the definition of “romance” in the framework of the series. But, does this concept exclude romantic love?

No, this narrative style can easily include romantic love if the author wishes to. In fact, as far as we seen, One Piece featured this kind of relationships multple times in the story.

So, trying to uphold this anti-romance phylosophy is ultimately pointless as the only argument left is not enough anymore, and the story already debunks most, if not all of the arguments.

Shippers take the anti-romance approach?

While anti-shippers don’t have a solid ground to stand on, some of their arguments are still used nowadays. Ironically, they’re used by shippers in an attempt to discredit rival pairings

This why the “no romance in the crew” lives on. More often than not, shallow shippers don’t even try to quote the author, instead they repeat what they hear or read in YouTube or Reddit. 

This applies to many newcomers that lack the time and patience to stomach a long-running series, as well as people who let their bias for certain characters dicatate their view on the story, something akin to the mindset that feeds the endless squabble of Zoro Vs. Sanji.

Still. the point is that the anti-romance arguments are now the greatest assets for pretty loud individuals to wage shipping wars out of ignorance and hate.

However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any active anti-shippers using these arguments. It’s just that LuNa seem to be their favorite target

But, that leads to the question: Why LuNa? Why are pairings like LuHan, SaNa or ZoNa seemingly getting ignored by anti-shippers for the most part?

Well, you guys probably realize I haven’t mentioned Sanji at all in the “Debunking” section. That’s wasn’t something incidental

By the time, the community rebuffed the idea of romantic love in the series, Sanji with all his corny flirting and pervy gags never made a dent in the anti-romance arguments because most people knew back then that being horny is not something romantic. Even when Hancock appeared, fans knew a well-written pairing could only happen if the feelings between the characters become mutual.

So, what makes Luna the favorite target of these people? What makes the pairing stand out to anti-shippers?

Is it because their consistent bonding is the perfect setup for a relationship upgrade? Is it because their moments are far more meaningful and impactful from a narrative standpoint? Or is it because the alternatives to LuNa lack the potential to grow? I’m not sure about it

Still, those who had seen all of this, know better. At this point, anti-romance arguments mean little to nothing in the story. And Oda will keep writing characters and human relationships regardless of what fans do or say.

So, instead of going around making noise about how “there shouldn’t be a romantic relationship in the crew” or trying to start senseless war between fandoms, we should enjoy the ride and see what Oda has in store for us in the final saga.

#one piece #Analysis of shipping #analysis #anti-romance #eiichiro oda #anti-shippers #ルナミ #sanpu

[peridot-tears]

While Blue Eye Samurai is about how Edo-era Japan was hostile to women, and highlights the strides Japanese society has made then, let's not fall into the trap of thinking misogyny is in the past.

I saw this comment while scrolling, and it really highlighted a sentiment I've seen in a lot of another posts, not just this one:

Yes, we have made incredibly hard-earned gains in women's rights, but if you are a woman athlete or soldier, it would absolutely be turned into a big deal.

In the United States, for instance -- a western country that consistently praises itself for its progressive feminism -- women still see high sexual assault cases in the military. (source, source, source) You can see that I chose three very different types of sources that count the numbers differently, but they all come to the same conclusion. I remember the fucking fit people threw when women were finally allowed to join the infantry unit in the last decade on the basis that women are physically weaker than men and couldn't possibly hold their own in that position, when women had already been serving in non-combat positions that already required a shitton of physical work.

I'm going to fully admit I don't know what Japan's numbers are in the military, but I've always viewed women's rights as similar to here in the US. Anecdotally, my friends from there have told me about how in Japan, when a man and a woman are in a relationship, the woman is expected to be less smart than the man, which I always found similar to the still-lingering attitude here in the US where men are expected to make more than the woman. Not to mention that the whole reason there are women-only cars and buses on Japanese trains is precisely to protect them from perverts.

I'm not writing this post to dunk on the people with the mentality that things are better now, because hell yeah, a lot of things are! I just want us to remember that the reality is that in the US -- where the creators of Blue Eye Samurai are from -- and Japan, where the story is set, women's rights are not perfect, and both countries are still patriarchal societies.

I'm also wary of these kinds of sweeping statements about stories set in East Asia, because I have seen in past fandoms this idea that western progress is the only progress that exists in the world. I remember a particularly icky set of comments and reblogs that insisted that the society of Mo Dao Zu Shi (a Chinese story) would be vastly improved by putting democracy in its place, which is the biggest fucking imperialist dogwhistle I have ever seen.

I haven't seen this similar sentiment in Blue Eye Samurai at all...yet. But you'd be surprised at how easily people come to these conclusions, and how little they question it.

#also as a female asian american athlete #i've had to deal with ALL of these issues #the western imperialist dogwhistling the small dick energy the bioessentialism the objectification of women #blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #mizu #netflix blue eye samurai #bes #tears falling like peridots

[angelofthenight]

Children of the Corn: Yandere Alphabet

Characters Included: Isaac Chroner, Malachi Boardman, Micah, Eli Porter

(Gn!Reader)

Overall warnings: Yandere, Dark themes, Swearing, Unwanted/Non-con touching, Forced religion (only in Isaac), Murder, Unhealthy relationship, Violence, Jealousy, Social isolation, Manipulation, Possessiveness, Obsessiveness, Clinginess, Stalking, Spying, Gaslighting, Invasion of privacy, Power imbalance, Mention of sexual assault (only in Malachi), Emotional abuse, Non-con kissing, Mention of sexual dub-con (only in Micah), Brief suicide mention (only in Micah), Guiltripping, Unhealthy mind games (only in Eli), Controlling behavior, Hypersensitivity

( This was supposed to just serve as a writing exercise to get me back in the groove for another yandere book I’m still writing, but I kept going with this so I just decided to post it. )

( Also idk if the Children of the Corn fandom is either underground or so underground it’s dead but I hope like the two CotC fans on tumblr will enjoy it😭 )

Isaac

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Isaac’s main display of his love and affection is through caressing your face or cheek and cradling your head as he speaks to you. Other than that he’s not super affectionate. Although when you’re on super good behavior then verbally demonstrating his love is more common. He can be quite a devout, as if you were his religion, when it comes to you if you let him.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

It depends on the circumstances. Most of the time he’ll keep it clean and just use them as sacrifices, but making their deaths more slow. But sometimes if it’s in the heat of the moment he’ll hastily slash someone’s throat in a fit of rage depending on what they did.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

He wouldn’t abduct you but the basic equivalent to that is after all the adults have been butchered. He’s smug at heart but his attitude when he finally has you is like he won a game and you lost. He’s extremely smug and cocky about it all. But he does treat it like it’s for the best, that he’s done you a favor, as you look at him completely mortified at what he has exactly done.

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

Yes. He’s the only one of the four characters who forces you to join his religion, even when he knows you’re a nonbeliever, and makes you pray with him.

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

He doesn’t get emotionally or sentimentally vulnerable with you but he does talk you through a lot of his thoughts. He doesn’t keep very many secrets from you, if not very many then none at all, and is typically very open about his life with you. The day he would cry in your arms is the day pigs would fly.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

Isaac would be very annoyed above all else. He absolutely hates when anyone, not just you, tries to lay a violent finger on him. This is one of the few times he’ll get furious with you, and it scares you out of fighting him. You’ll throw your fists at him knowing you could overpower him but then he’ll either grab onto your shirt or your throat (depending how violent you are) and scream into your face about how ungrateful you are, giving you mental whiplash due to how calm he is most of the time with you.

“How DARE you have the audacity! I am the one keeping you alive! You’re lucky I don’t throw you to the vultures to RIP OUT YOUR EYES!”

He doesn’t mean what he says when he’s angry, but you don’t know that.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

This is most certainly not a game to him but he doesn’t show much care when you try to escape since you never succeed. If you do it repeatedly then he’ll get vexed and annoyed with you, your relationship is most similar to a mother and her rebellious toddler. But overall he’ll just be disappointed and confused as to why you would want to leave such a “happy place”.

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

Isaac was loudly lecturing you, something about how He Who Walks Behind The Rows will not tolerate your insolence and how much you owe Him. You, at your breaking point and finally snapped, cursed and mocked his beloved god. He shoved you to your hands and knees in the dirt and forced you to pray to that very same god. Everytime you would try to lift yourself up he would slam his foot on your back, forcing you back down as he never ceased his screaming down at you. This was in front of everyone who watched in silence. Embarrassment embraced you as the public dehumanizing humiliation burned tears from your eyes.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

In his ideal future, you have finally converted to the cult and lead beside him. I think he would think he’s an exception for the “death at 19” rule due to being the giver of His word and you would get to live with him.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

It’s quite obvious when he’s jealous. If he notices you purposely standing next to someone in a close proximity or looking at specific people (for whatever reason, it doesn’t even have to be attraction), he’ll get very snappy and grumpy attitude-wise. He’ll aggressively interrogate you over it, blowing things way out of proportion and making the biggest deal out of it.

Kisses: What exactly made them fall for their darling?

Your natural purity.

Love story: How did they meet their darling? How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

When he moved to the small town at a young age, it was extremely difficult for him to make friends. He wasn’t the most pleasant person and naturally became an outcast. You were warmly friendly and was the only one to reach out to him and befriend him, being an outcast of the town yourself as you never really fit their norm. Although he was very unusual and peculiar, it only furthered your fondness of him. He went about trying to court you through creating intimate, tensioned moments with you like lingering hand touches, not elaborating on his specific compliments on you, and fleetingly caressing your cheek with his knuckles. You picked up on his signals easily and sometimes you would return them. But he started to get bolder with his moves when he started converting kids in his little religion. You started to grow distant from him after learning from him about what his religion is truly about.

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

Not really but he is typically in a happier mood when he’s with you, the most he’s ever smiled is when he’s with you or when watching you sleep. He also goes much easier on you and everyone knows it, he’s basically a mother with her obvious favorite child or a teacher with their obvious favorite student. His favoritism annoys the crap out of Malachi.

Nemesis: Who do they consider a rival?

Kind of no one. He’s a little cocky about how he knows no one would dare take you from him, plus he socially isolates you. He’ll only seriously consider someone a rival if you yourself hint/show interest in someone else.

Obsession: Are they more obsessive or possessive?

Surprisingly, despite how manipulative he is and how much he socially isolates you, Isaac’s much more obsessive than possessive. He isn’t very verbal about it though since he doesn’t believe your bad behavior deserves his romantic words describing what he truly feels about you. He is more reserved and reclused about his worshiping obsession with you. His obsession with you is almost in a religious manner, viewing you as an earth-bound god that deserves to be their own religion. If you were your own religion, Isaac would blissfully suffer from scrupulosity. He puts you on a holy pedestal and often parallels you to religious figures, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

When it comes to your bad behavior, he’s willing to be patient for awhile but if you prove to show signs of never changing then that’s when he finally snaps at you. Just don’t push your luck with how many times he lets you off the hook without punishment when you break rules. When it comes to waiting for you to love him back, he thinks you have no choice but to eventually fall for him back. He’s willing to wait for the stockholm syndrome to kick in. And if it doesn’t, well you better start faking your love for your own sake.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

Isaac is a very interesting story compared to the other characters in this list in the case of your death. Now of course he would be utterly heartbroken, probably dissociate for an hour or two, but he would then reassure that it was His will and that your death was part of His plan. He would bring you up constantly though. If the other cult members aren’t in check or aren’t doing good he would grow furious and internally panic that they were putting your death in vain.

He would never let you leave him, at least easily. He would gaslight the hell out of you and make you believe that he’s the only one keeping you safe and/or looking out for you. He’ll plant the idea in your head that the others want you dead because they know that you’re a non-believer and that Isaac is the only reason you’re still alive.

There’s a very slim chance you’d ever successfully escape. If you go through the corn, you’re either not coming out alive or ending up back where you started, as if you never left in the first place. If you stay on the road, Isaac would send almost everyone after you to bring you back. Being the leader has major perks so Isaac would lie to the others saying that He Who Walks Behind The Rows needs you alive, thus making it much easier to keep you.

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

He will never feel guilt and he will never let you go, no matter how much you beg and cry.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

Attachment issues and the fear of losing the one person who cared about him when the whole town was once against him (pre adult massacre). He’ll never forget that rare, angelic kindness he saw within you.

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

He finds it agitating and a waste of time. He doesn’t think you deserve to be comforted when you act like a baby. He’ll threaten you out of all three of those things.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

He’s not as bloodthirsty or jealous, plus he’s a cult leader so that changes a lot of variables.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

One of Isaac’s biggest weaknesses is his arrogant trust in you. I say arrogant because he knows you have nowhere to go, he knows you cannot escape with the corn and the cult surrounding you. So he lets you roam around town without supervision and he also often lets you off the hook without a proper punishment after catching you disobeying him. So you can easily use all of this to your advantage. Plus he can never stay mad at you if/when he catches you. So you’re going to have to outsmart him. And not just him, but the whole cult too. As well as He Who Walks Behind The Rows depending on your escape plan. And actually, you could also use Him as a weakness against Isaac. And I’m talking about lighting that cornfield to flames.

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

He doesn’t like or enjoy inflicting harm on you… but he is a slapper.

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

Like I said before, Isaac is secretly more on the obsessive side and unhealthily worships you as if you were a god, admiring you like you’re a fallen angel. And if you were a religion Isaac would be your passionate priest and most devoted preacher. His romancing words weren’t enough to win you over before so now he results to just manipulating and gaslighting you into loving him. He paints himself in a way of a savior and your only suitable option, asking if you’d rather be with him who only wishes for your safety and happiness or any of the others who have always thought lowly of you and are savages at heart. Sometimes you hope the others will one day find out about how much he shit talks them all and turn against him.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

He silently pined after you for a few months, resisting his attraction as much as he could, but then slowly started getting worse. He snapped after he started hearing He Who Walks Behind The Rows.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

He thinks about it sometimes, just as an option though. But he doesn’t see you ever getting so ill-mannered that you would need to be subjugated to that.

Bonus: What do others think of their relationship with their darling? Do they try to interfere or intervene?

I mean, none of them think it’s normal. But they don’t care enough to step up for you. In fact, they kinda think you’ve set yourself up for it since you two were so close pre-adult massacre. Plus you’re the most infamously nonbeliever so some of them choose to believe Isaac is just trying to convert you through intense love. Probably the closest thing they do to worrying is whisper to each other about how weird Isaac’s infatuation with you is or how unfair his soft spot for you is since he lets you off the break for multiple rule breaks.

~

Malachi

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Malachi shows his love through acts of service and protectiveness of you. He’s not physically affectionate to an intense level but he does also show his love through affectionate touches like hand holding and really always just having a hand on you whether it be on your arm or your back. He is surprisingly a big cuddler, but it’s a little too overwhelming for you as he holds onto you tightly and will not let go even if you start to struggle and ask him to loosen his grip a little.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

Oh the bloodier the better. He’s very impulsive when it comes to killing someone for you so leaving behind a big mess is very common.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

Like Isaac, the equivalent to abduction is the aftermath of killing the adults. He’ll be over the moon that you can finally be together without anyone trying to tear you apart. He’ll be very confused and a little sad when you appear to be the opposite but then he’ll grow to be aggravated.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying? What can I do to make you feel better? Do you just need to eat? STOP CRYING!!”

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

He tries to keep it at a minimum but overall yes. That includes forcing “couples” things on you like kissing, physical affection, forcing you on dates, forcing you to tell him what he wants to hear. He would only force intercourse with you if he was not in the mood to be refused at the moment (probably got publicly scolded by Isaac earlier so he needs to do something to feel in charge).

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

Surprisingly, Malachi gets very vulnerable with you. So vulnerable it gives you mental whiplash and you wonder if this was really the same boy who forced you into a relationship. He’ll get too comfortable and then he’s crying in your arms about what his life was like before the cult started. You’re almost guilted into liking him back at that very moment. But after his non-dignified crying session in your cradling arms, he’ll get up and wipe his cheeks then walk away and treat it as if it never happened to begin with. Again, mental whiplash.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

He gets angry but easily overpowers you. He focuses more on keeping you down to make you stop struggling rather than attack back. He’ll wrestle you to the ground and pin your hands above your head until you stop kicking and screaming.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

He wants you to stay where he puts you and gets very angry when you flee, well, try to flee. However he’d be lying if he said he doesn’t enjoy the chase. So in a way it is kind of like a game to him. He loves that adrenaline rush during your guys’ game of cat and mouse, especially since he always wins.

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

You will never experience the same fear and horror you felt when Malachi took you for the first time. You ran down the stairs of your house after hearing a string of crashes and yelling and once you made it to the living room, the sight of your parent’s with their throats slashed open as a smiling Malachi stood over their fallen bodies was shoved right in front of your very eyes. You screamed bloody murder and you took off right back up the stairs, Malachi instantly chasing after you. You just barely made it into your room and locked the door then began trying to push open your heavy window. Malachi used his bloody axe to break the lock and force himself inside your room, making it just in time as you were beginning to escape out the window. He manhandled you out of the window, all while you screamed and cried and thrashed around, and tightly dragged you kicking and screaming down the stairs.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

He doesn’t intend on living past 19 due to his beliefs so his ideal future is the two of you walking into the cornfield hand to hand (if his birthday comes first then you’re joining him but if yours is first then he’s joining you. But if he had a change of heart then I think he would be the only one of the four boys who would want a family with you.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

Malachi’s always been the jealous kind starting from the early stages of his growing crush on you. He would get jealous of every single person you interacted with, they were so casual and charismatic with you and you always returned it. He knew he could never be that kind of person you easily converse with. In the cult, after he finally has you, he’s most jealous of Job and Sarah (just adding more reasons as to why he wants them gone). You always seem the most content when you’re with the two little kids and he hates it. He either kills the person he’s jealous of or throws a private tantrum, it’s rare that he takes it out on you.

Kisses: What exactly made them fall for their darling?

He crushed on you at first because you were attractive, nice and funny but he fell for you after your kindness did not falter when talking to him, treating him like a normal human being.

Love story: How did they meet their darling? How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

He’s had a schoolboy crush on you ever since the third grade. He never really knew how to approach you so the only way he could get your attention was by doing the stupid teasing hair pulling and nudging you roughly in the halls. As he got older he grew too shy to even do that so he just resulted to admiring from afar. At first it just started as weird but simple crush things like sniffing your hair as you walked past and staring at you. But following you in the halls turned into following you home which turned into full on stalking and spying on you.

He was scheming ways to talk to you or spend more than three seconds together. He would get tongue tied and socially awkward every time he would try to talk to you though. He would get a sudden burst of confidence and walk right up to you but once you turned around, waiting for him to say something, his jaw would go slack and not a word would come out. His eyes would naturally shift into glare without his awareness. Then he’d grunt and quickly walk away, leaving you very confused. Yeah, his approaches were that weird.

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

Oh my god he’s almost like a completely different person (when he’s not angry with you), it literally gives you a mindfuck. With everyone else he’s this temperamental enforcer; psychopath. But with you it’s as if a switch is flipped and he becomes his own exact opposite, soft with puppy dog eyes.

Nemesis: Who do they consider a rival?

He’s a territorial yandere and is insanely paranoid about every little thing, but he considers Isaac his arch nemesis when it comes to your heart. It’s for a very dumb reason though. He thinks Isaac wants you all for himself when in reality Isaac doesn’t care much for you, he’s aware that you are miserable and don’t reciprocate Malachi’s feelings but he doesn’t really care about your predicament.

Obsession: Are they more obsessive or possessive?

He may act more obsessive but he falls under the possessive category. He’s greedy for your attention and sometimes acts like you’re just a prize he won and not a real human being with rights and feelings. He treats others with the “finders keepers” mentality when it comes to you. He’s selfishly overprotective of you and is paranoid that everyone wants you. It’s like he’s a wild dog hogging meat all for himself.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

He really does try to be patient with you but ultimately fails. He’s just never been a patient person his whole life. When he wants something he wants it within minutes.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

If you die, Malachi would not be able to move on. He will never see anyone else in the way he saw you. He would become a monster, as you were the only thing that kept him grounded. He would become much more angry and violent, and much more forceful when it comes to keeping the other cult members in line.

If you left him, Malachi would use physical force and aggression to force you to stay with him. He would also pull the toxic, “where would you go?”

If you successfully escaped, it wouldn’t be for long. He would notice your absence quickly and instantly begin the chase. If you’re still on the road, he would easily catch up to you and drag you back into town. When it comes to you, he never slows down nor wastes a mere second of time. If you made it past the road then it would take Malachi some time to find you. He would try to bring some friends to help him but Isaac would refuse, even telling Malachi to stay and forget you. But he would go against orders and still chase after you, which he eventually would since, as stated before, he is unhealthily relentless and does not slow down. So just like the Tortoise and the Hare, you would take a break while believing you’ve made it far enough unknowingly allowing Malachi to finally catch up to you.

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

The closest to guilt he will get is feeling sad when you cry, that’s the closest he’ll get to feeling remorse. I think he would consider letting you go for just one fleeting second at a maximum of one time, but other than that I don’t think he ever would.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

His lonely childhood.

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

Like I said before, he gets sad when you do any of the listed things but the more you ignore his questions on what to do to make you feel better then he’ll grow angry and snap at you.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

Even though he’s a loose cannon, with the right words he’s easier to keep under control compared to most yanderes.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

Malachi’s sick love for you. He’s very paranoid about you so if you add fuel to the fire of his worries you might be able to sneak in a chance of escape. The prime example is making him so paranoid about your safety, like make him worried that some of the others have been giving you predatorial looks, and plant the idea of letting you stay in the abandoned house closest to the road by yourself… for your safety of course. You just have to make it sound like it was his idea though. So if you play your cards right you can have him wrapped around your little finger.

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

He would never, like, beat you up or anything. Probably the closest thing to that was unintentionally slapping your face in a fit of rage one time. I honestly think Malachi truly does not want to physically hurt you in any way, it’s close to being a weakness. But that doesn’t include roughly grabbing onto you with an iron grip and aggressively manhandling you, resulting to light bruises on your skin.

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

He’s not the best at putting his emotions into words at all so you don’t really know how much he practically worships the ground you walk on. He shy’s out of telling you how much he loves you loads of times, he just wishes you could read his mind to understand that there is no one in existence that he adores more than you. Although he’s bad at expressing his feelings, he'd do anything to win you over and does indeed try everything. He experiments with a variety of love languages to try and appease you.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

He’s always been very strange and weird for you but he officially snaps as soon as all the adults are killed.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

No… well, like Isaac, he does remind himself it is an option if you prove that you’re never going to stop fighting him. Just don’t get confident in thinking he wouldn’t do it…

Bonus: What do others think of their relationship with their darling? Do they try to interfere or intervene?

People are only more concerned when you’re not with him. You keep him grounded, you keep him basically leashed so if anything they want to keep you two together. And even when they do get a little concerned with its effects they don’t dare say anything about it.

~

Micah

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Oh my god, starting off strong. Micah is the most overly affectionate out of all four boys. He shows his love in any way possible like gifts, acts of service (except his interpretation of service is murder), and quality time (except to you it's most of the time just him following you around and not leaving you alone, it’s suffocating).

He shows his love the most physically and verbally. He constantly goes into preaching frenzies about how much he loves you. Some things he says are actually poetically romantic but most of the time the way he says things and how he phrases things comes across as excruciatingly creepy and morbid, making you unbearably uncomfortable and sick to your stomach and desperately wishing he would just stop.

He outrageously smothers you in physical affection (hugging/holding you, kissing/making out, hand holding, cuddling, caressing your skin, cradling your face, standing too close to you) to the point where it’s overstimulating and claustrophobic. He won’t stop even if you’re in tears begging him to let go of you or back up a little or if you’re clearly hyperventilating.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

More than willing. He’s very passionate about killing someone in your name, more than for He Who Walks. To him, the sooner he kills the person the better. He likes giving people slow and torturous deaths.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

Once again, the equivalent to abduction is the aftermath of killing the adults. The first hour after they’re all gone Micah is quite a bit manic with you. He does this long preaching rant with you about how no one can come between you now, that you are finally all his, how you’re soulmates, etc. After all of that madness you are cursed to witness and endure, he’ll act like his previous self with you again, just more touchy and obsessive, a lot more touchy and obsessive.

The closest Micah would get to mocking you is if you cry for too long.

“Come ON now darling! I am sick of your whining!”

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

Yes, but Micah always likes to think that it’s not against your will. He’s so delusional that he believes that when he’s forcing something on you or you to do something, he’s just giving you a small nudge into doing something you deep down do want. Also a few things he does against your will he will do slowly and steadily throughout time, slowly leading you away from the thing he doesn’t want you to do anymore.

Micah invades your privacy a lot too. Stealing your stuff, going/looking through your things even though you’ve yelled at him to stop. He’s a major Peeping Tom as well. Less looking into your window and more not leaving the room when you tell him to when you want to change. He forces kisses on you too, with tongue. He doesn’t force sex on you though, he’s mastered seducing you into it (but it sometimes falls into dub-con).

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

He’s an open book with you. In fact, sometimes he overshares a little too much. He’s one of those people who blatantly and casually trauma dumps, (he had a physically abusive father so there’s a lot to unpack with him). He’ll sometimes bring himself to tears while going on one of his long tangents about how much he loves you. Even though he’s very vulnerable with you about his emotions, he’s not always honest with you. Well, he doesn’t lie to you, he just keeps a lot of secrets from you and hides a lot of stuff from you. Overall you’re not always in the loop with his plans.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

He’s confused and tired of it. He’s a bit delusional about how this all affects you and how you don’t want to be with him. He’s one of those annoying guys who babies you when you’re trying to physically hurt him, he’ll wrap his arms around you and not let go as you squirm and kick in between his hugging arms. He’ll talk over your curses toward him.

“Why are you fighting me?! We could be so happy if you would just stop fighting me!”

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

He does not consider it a game, and if it is a game he’s not having fun at all. He does not enjoy watching you try to escape. It frustrates and upsets him. When you are returned back to him you will be getting quite a loud earful about how ungrateful you are, how disappointed he is in you, why would you want to abandon him, etc.

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

He sacrificed your parents right in front of you. You crumbled to your knees, sobbing hysterically, before he forced you to stand and kept a painful grip on your biceps to keep you close to him. He loudly and passionately declared his devoted love in your face as you uncontrollably bawled your eyes out. His speech sounded nothing but muffled to your overwhelmed ears but the few things that you understood him saying was, “There are no others to come between us!” and “Now say that you love me!”

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

I don’t think he really cares what the future holds just as long as you two are together with no more issues or problems. He’s so focused on making you accept him that he hasn’t given it much thought about what would happen after. But he does wish for marriage.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

Oh my god, Micah’s by far the worst one of the four boys when it comes to jealousy. He gets jealous over all your interpersonal interactions. He gets jealous over the stupidest things. Why did you glance at that person over there? Why did you look to your feet when you were talking with that person? Were you flustered by them? Why were you even talking to them in the first place? You’re spacing out… are you thinking about someone else right now?! He should be the only person you think of!

He’s equally as bad when it’s the other way around. Why did that person walk past you? Did they try to smell your scent? Your sweet scent is for his nose only! Why did that person look at you? You are for Micah’s eyes only! His solution to his own jealousy is typically always murder but sometimes he’ll complain for hours to you, interrogating you over his suspicions.

Kisses: What exactly made them fall for their darling?

How nice and gentle you were with him. Sticking by him and proving that you genuinely do care about him and his feelings.

Love story: How did they meet their darling? How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

You resided in Hemingford when the Gatlin kids were moved there after their town’s mysterious tragedy. Your mom was friends with the Bed and Breakfast owner who took in Micah, so you ended up meeting him over breakfast. You’d never admit it but you had a bit of a savior complex with him, seeing him so despondent and lonely. You quickly befriended him and sooner than later, almost overnight, he returned back to normal. It was easy for his crush on you to form then evolve to him falling deep in love, becoming hopelessly lovesick. His way of pursuing you was taking fast baby steps in trying to make your friendship something more like opening up more and seeking you out to spend time with you. It was almost natural that you two ended up in a romantic relationship. Until he ruined it by his absurdly concerning behaviors.

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

Yes. With the cult he’s intuitive, self-composed, assertive, and has no time for shit. But when he’s with you it’s like he loses his dignity. He loses his self-restraints and becomes perverse. But thankfully he’s not like that all the time, the other times he’s relatively calm and acts more like a casually normal boyfriend.

Nemesis: Who do they consider a rival?

Anyone who looks at you. I’m not kidding. Micah can’t even stand the sight of you merely standing next to someone else, can’t even stomach the thought that others share air with you. He has that mindset where only he can look at you, only he can talk to you, only he can think about you. And he is absolutely the only one who can touch you or go near you. He wants you all to himself. Absolutely no one on the planet can have you and he would rather set fire to the beloved cornfield than share you with anyone. But specifically, he sees adults as the biggest threat. There’s always an adult trying to come between you and separate you for your sake. Just another reason as to why he needs to get rid of all them.

Obsession: Are they more obsessive or possessive?

Micah is by far the most obsessive of all four boys. He is needy, bigoted, fervid, and so delusional that it’s erotomania. He is so unhealthily obsessed with you and hyper fixated on you that his overwhelming attraction to you is practically his whole personality. His obsession with you is compulsive and he has lost any control over it, happily just accepting it. You preoccupy his mind intrusively to a troubling extent and he’s addicted to every little thing about you: the thought of you, the sight of you, the smell of you, the taste of you, everything about you. He is so obsessed with you that it sometimes brings him to tears; he is utterly lovesick. He really needs to see a doctor.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

He’s surprisingly very patient with you. It typically benefits him in the end. Like when he waits for you to finish your tantrum and now all your energy is drained, then he gets to cuddle you without you struggling against him and trying to push him away. His patience is almost like a manipulation tactic in a way. And since he’s so delusional, he’s convinced that you do love him deep down but you’re just in denial.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

If you die, Micah would be a tragically heartbroken mess. Bawling his eyes out while hopelessly clinging onto your limp body. He would never move on. In fact, he would find a way to resurrect you since this is the Children of the Corn universe. I think he would make a deal with He Who Walks Behind The Rows, your soul in exchange for a whole sacrificed town. Either that or he will off himself.

Micah would never allow you to leave him. You would tell him your reasons for wanting to end the relationship and he would guilt trip the hell out of you and go on this long ass rant consisting of the lines “am I not good enough for you?”, “I cannot breathe without you, do you wish me to die?”, “I’ve given you everything that I could, and it’s still not enough for you”, “after everything I’ve been through, don’t I deserve to be happy too?!”. Even when you don’t consider him your boyfriend anymore, that won’t matter to him at all. His behaviors would not change and he will act the same exact way he did when you were together, except maybe a little worse.

If you somehow successfully escaped, Micah would never move on. He is obsessed. He would hunt you down and would never, ever stop. He would track you down for years on end if he had to. With the corn and the cult on his side, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you were eventually caught and dragged right back to where you started, back in Micah’s arms.

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

His guilt is barely at the minimum. Even though he’s insanely delusional, he’s not blind or stupid. He does indeed notice how unhappy you are and always tries to make you feel better, unknowingly making it worse. But he’s never considered or thought about freeing you from the thing that’s making you miserable, himself.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

When he was abused by his father he always thought that the world was saving him something amazing in the future after all of the pain and suffering. He was always a little too obsessed with that concept, clinging to it through every beating. And He Who Walks possessing a part of him also prompted this side of him even more.

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

Micah hates it and feels like it’s a personal attack. When you scream or cry he’ll get super close to you, so close that you panic and feel claustrophobic/suffocated which makes you cry even more, and try to hold you as an attempt to make you feel better. He just makes it worse though but he’s oblivious to that fact. If you isolate yourself from him that’s when he’ll grow angry and manic, screaming at you and going on a long, loud tangent preach about how you’re meant to be together.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

Not that I can really think of other than that he exposes his calm/normal side of himself to you more than most yanderes.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

With the right choice of words you can exploit his abusive past with his father. You have to use the right words though, like be very careful with your wording. So it really just depends on how manipulative you can or are willing to be. Your freedom depends on it.

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

He doesn’t like hurting you at all, but he has given you a few slaps across the face while claiming that you forced his hand.

“Look at what you made me do!”

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

He fanatically adores you, like he is physically on his knees worshiping you, worshiping every inch of your skin. He would go to extreme lengths to win you over, from murder to straight up begging.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

He pines for a couple of days, maybe a little over a week, before he starts getting creepy and weird with you. He officially snaps when you try to leave him.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

Never. He doesn’t even consider it an option but he sometimes threatens it against you to scare you into doing something. But he would never do it. Why would he drain the personality he’s unhealthily obsessed with? He’s too convinced (and delusional) that you will someday return his love.

Bonus: What do others think of their relationship with their darling? Do they try to interfere or intervene?

Before you were exposed to or aware of Micah’s true intentions with you, you were quite defensive when people would question your relationship. Most of the adults in Hemingford that didn’t trust the Gatlin kids tried to urge you to stay away from their crowd or that you shouldn’t be hanging around Micah. You would angrily argue in Micah’s defense that he’s been through a lot and they should leave him alone. You heavily regret ignoring their warnings as now none of them are left alive to save you now. And all of the cult kids don’t care about Micah’s intense infatuation with you, only wanting you to join them.

~

Eli

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Eli’s love language is really just quality time. Before he revealed his true colors and just put up the innocent and charming facade, he showed his affection verbally about what he felt for you through words that made you swoon and flustered. But once the act dropped he only used those romancing words to mock you or emotionally manipulate you. His love is really only shown through his clinginess and how he refuses to be away from you.

Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

Very willing. He’s meticulous when it comes to getting rid of someone and plans out each and every death, making sure each one gets their deserved pain. He does most of his killings behind your back but certainly does not keep it as a secret, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t up to slaughter someone in front of you.

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

Unlike the first three boys, Eli is the only one to actually abduct you. But it’s not like you’re held captive in a basement, you can still roam wherever you want but you just have to basically be Eli’s shadow or him be yours. He won’t bother putting up the soft and charming act anymore so you’re just now more exposed to how much of an evil asshole he can be. He only mocks you if you try to escape.

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

Of course. He really thinks he doesn’t need your permission or approval to do anything. But specifically he forces you into assisting him in his immoral plans.

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

He’s a little nightmare. He’s always keeping you on your toes and can never guess how he’s feeling or what he’s thinking. You can only get a close to accurate guess to his thoughts or feelings if you do or say something that catches him off guard. So if you couldn’t already tell, he doesn’t get very vulnerable with you. He sees it as a sign of weakness and he’ll never lower himself to that level. He’s smug and arrogant and likes playing mind games with you to keep you off the scent of his secret thoughts/feelings. Or he just wants you to figure him out all on your own. Like he makes you play detective just to find out about his past. It’s exhausting.

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

It’s where he gets some of his entertainment. He knows there is no possible chance of you overpowering him so he finds it cutely pathetic when you try to. He’ll catch your punches and attempted slaps and laugh. He loves how fiesty you are and how you scream at him to let you go and how you wished he would drop dead, you’re so cute when you’re mad and fearful.

He especially loves it when you bring weapons into it. You’re so sure that you’re going to kill him that he can’t help but encourage you.

“Alright then. Come over here and stab me in my chest. Defeat me and end all your suffering. I’m the source of all your problems so go ahead.”

You’re absolutely mortified when you learn through experience that he cannot be killed.

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

Eli loves games. And your little pathetic attempts of escape are one of his favorites. He finds it cute how naive and hopeful you are. Trying to escape from him is like walking through a haunted house. First he’s right behind you, then he’s gone, then you see his shadow on the far wall, then he’s jumping out at you, and you can swear his voice and shadow are on two opposite sides of the hall. He jumpscares you and loves giving you mini heart attacks. It’s going to be so bad you’re going to wish you never tried to escape in the first place. He also likes playing mind games with you, making you think you have a chance then takes it away when you’re a hair away from it. Like you’re about to open the door to make a run for it, into the public, and he’ll appear and be smug and cocky.

“Go ahead, open the door. Escape your living nightmare once and for all.”

You’ll open the door and boom he’s on the other side of it. And lastly, he fucks with your mind and makes you hallucinate that you did escape just to break it and reveal that you never left.

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

It was the first time you were truly exposed to what Eli was capable of. It was when you became fully aware of Eli’s massacre plan and you got into a huge fight. Naively believing that the little cornfield he grew in the abandoned warehouse was the main source of his powers, you grabbed garden shears and ran over to cut it all down. You heard Eli slowly and calmly approach you from behind and once you turned to look at him he roughly shoved you into the center of the garden. Once you hit the dirt and stood back up you had realized you were in an entirely different place, a massive sized cornfield. You walked for hours as Eli tormented you. You would hear his laugh right by your ear but he was nowhere near you, corpses reached from the dirt to try and grab your legs, and it was as if the corn was alive and closing in on you as well as grabbing onto you temporarily. The third time you broke down while crying out for Eli and begging for his forgiveness and how you swore you would never go against him again, is when Eli finally appeared and took you in his arms and magically pulled you out of the cornfield and back to the warehouse. You clung onto him while sobbing before glancing up to see him sinisterly smirking down at you. It was then you finally felt the true fear of what Eli was.

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

Although he adores your little game of cat and mouse and how much you struggle and fight, in his ideal future he does want you to eventually love him back so that the two of you can live your immortal lives happily in love in a world of no adults. You’d probably live back in Gatlin surrounded by corn.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

Eli’s clingy a ridiculous amount, as well as possessive, and wants you all to himself so jealousy is a frequent thing for him. He’s like a toddler with their favorite toy; insanely greedy, won’t let anyone touch it, “no it’s mine, mine, mine!”. He just gets so mad that you’re more happy with others than with him and seem to enjoy their company more than his. What do they have that Eli doesn’t?! They’re pathetic and weak! Even though the rage burns like hellfire inside him, he goes about it calmly. You two will either be sitting next to each other in silence or be back to back in bed at night and his typical smugness will drop, coldly bringing up how he forbids you from talking to the person. He acts just like a scorned wife. But later he’ll kill that very same person, just to be sure the two of you can never interact again.

Kisses: What exactly made them fall for their darling?

Your care about the earth you live on.

Love story: How did they meet their darling? How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

His adopted “mother” and his brother encouraged him to join a club to make some friends. The only club he was interested in was the gardening club. You were its only member. Not many city kids cared about gardening but that just gave the two of you more alone, one on one, time. At first, he originally planned to only use you for your garden to grow more of his brainwashing corn but the more you spent time together the more interested and attached to you he was. When he accepted that he was more than attracted to you, that's when he started to make moves on you. It was all quite casual as he just used his natural charm and did subtle flirting, and sooner than later you were caught in his web.

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

You’re envious of others who don’t know what he’s really like. With others he puts up this innocent, ingenuous, charming act (the same act he used to woo you and lure you in). Sometimes he’ll pretend to be like that with you but majority of the time you’re exposed to how cruel and wicked he truly is.

Nemesis: Who do they consider a rival?

Eli is overly possessive, ridiculously jealous, and unbearably clingy. So he’ll see basically anyone as a rival if they get too close to you or look at you for too long. Especially every single one of your friends. Also anyone who poses a threat to your relationship with the intention of splitting the two of you up for your safety; teachers, social workers, friends, family, that damn priest. But he shuts it down before those people become a problem.

Obsession: Are they more obsessive or possessive?

He is wildly possessive. He is excessively clingy and wants you all for himself, your attention needs to always be on him and he’s a total brat when it’s not. He’s proprietorial, controlling, and eliminates anyone who poses a threat in separating you two. He owns you and acts like you are his territory.

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

He has all the time in the world so you are very lucky that he isn’t impatient.

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

If you died, Eli’s resurrecting you somehow. I don’t believe he even wants to think about what he would do if you died. Since he’s immortal, he’s aware that age would slowly take you from him so he would find a way to make you immortal as well (even if you’re begging him not to do it).

If you left him, he wouldn’t worry all that much or even beg you to willingly stay like the others would. He would use emotional manipulation to guilt trip you into staying. And if that doesn’t work then he would simply work his demon magic and scare you right back into his arms. He doesn’t care that he’s using fear to keep you with him.

It would be extremely hard to escape Eli, and even harder to stay escaped from him. I actually think it’d be impossible due to the fact he’s a literal demon. So no matter where you go, where you hide, how long you run, Eli will always catch up to you and will always find you. So in hindsight, there is no escaping Eli. I'm truly sorry for you.

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

No to both. It’s never even crossed his mind.

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

Being an independent demon for so long and not knowing how to deal with romantic emotions.

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

He finds it all quite funny.

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

Even though he’s extremely clingy, he’s not very touchy and gives less than the average-yandere amount of physical affection, he’s not even that big of a hand holder (but this is all kind of a plus for you since you don’t have to worry about non-consensual touching or forcing affection with you). He’s content with just being near you and having you always by his side.

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

I think the only thing you could ever use against him is his Bible. Unless you suck up to him enough to make him slip out a secret weakness, it will take awhile though. But it’s mostly his bible, he doesn’t even like you looking at it which just makes you more suspicious of why he’s so defensive about it.

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

He doesn’t need to. He uses fear to control you and all he has to do is use his mind powers to shake your surroundings to scare you into obeying. His touches are nothing but soft and gentle.

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

He admires you more than he worships you. His worship is closer to how a scientist would obsessively study an animal, dedicating their life to observing it. He truly thinks you’re the most fascinating, interesting human. He doesn’t really bother with actively trying to win you over, you are his now because he said so and he does not care if you don’t feel the same.

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Like Micah, he snaps when you try to leave him.

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

Nah. He likes how human you are, how fragile and sensitive and reactive you are. It’s entertaining to him and he knows you’re enough to keep him entertained for centuries. He knows that you’ll grow to love him, you’re stuck with him for eternity after all. And if you really never don’t… well then that’s just gonna suck for you.

Bonus: What do others think of their relationship with their darling? Do they try to interfere or intervene?

The bystanders feel bad for you. Those who haven’t had enough interactions with Eli and only see his sweet and charming act can still see as clear as glass that you are not happy in the relationship, or as happy as you should be, which makes them grow to be suspicious of what Eli is like behind closed doors. And those who are already suspicious of Eli are confused as to why you’re around him so much but after awhile of noticing how fast your smile drops when Eli’s not looking is when they would try to subtly put space between you. Eli always notices right away, being so clingy that he’s sensitive to even being in a different room than you, and always makes sure those people don’t try that ever again. People would reach out to you privately but you would assure them you’re fine and end the conversation quickly out of fear of what Eli would do to either of you if he found out about your exchange.

#stephen king #children of the corn #the children of the corn #reader insert #dark fic #yandere #yandere x reader #yandere alphabet #children of the corn x reader #Isaac chroner #Children of the corn Isaac #john franklin #Malachi boardman #Isaac chroner x Reader #Malachi boardman x Reader #Children of the corn Malachi #courtney gains #children of the corn 2 #children of the corn the final sacrifice #children of the corn 3 #children of the corn urban harvest #Micah #micah x reader #children of the corn Micah #Eli porter #Eli porter x reader #children of the corn Eli #Ryan bollman

[bitfruity]

i hope everyone had a good holiday! i wasn’t very active yesterday because it was christmas day here and i was with family. but i wanted to say thank you so much for the wonderful christmas tree messages (i had to download the app later to read them🙄) they really warmed my heart😊💚

i know others have made some lovely posts about this fandom and the community here that are way better than anything i could put into words. but i just wanted to say thank you all because i’ve honestly never interacted with or had the confidence to post much of anything in a fandom before. i’m a very socially anxious person and unfortunately that carries over to online interactions as well so i usually used to just lurk and maybe leave a tag here and there.

but this beautiful frandom has made me come out of my shell more and given me confidence to post my silly thoughts or contribute to the conversation. i’ve even made some internet friends which is something i’ve never done before!

one of the tree deco messages said that they enjoyed reading my tags and that made me really happy because i didn’t used to do that very often and now i feel like i’ve joined in on the fun. i often have insecurities if i’m doing fandom/internet speak right or if my jokes even make sense😅 so it’s really validating to hear that at least one person enjoys my commentary just like how i enjoy so so many of yours💚

anyway before i get too sentimental here are some of the gifts i thought you guys might enjoy

my sister made me this card🤩💚

and she also got me a gengar plushie😈

#christmas was about as lovely as it can be #i feel so greatful to have such a talented sister who enjoys the same things i do #she may not be as big of a fan as i am but she’ll listen to me talk endlessly about my interests and hyperfixations #so i love her very dearly❤️❤️❤️ #i can’t believe she forgot the rammstein tattoo tho cause she’s a huge fan of them😅 #sadly i didn’t get any kä related gifts but i understand cause the exchange rate and shipping to the US is pricey #she got my hopes up with the card but it was still a good christmas #i even got a 1in button maker from my older sister so i’m excited to maybe make some KäCU related buttons👀 #käärijä #häärijä #art #pokémon #gengar #fruity thoughts #my posts

[ofbreathandflame]

Here's my thing: Why join (or continually contribute) a fandom with an author who is known to be racist -- that is racist by your own admission -- and then get mad when other people continually talk about those problems?

I'm not even saying fandoms can't reclaim and participate in fandoms with irksome authors -- I'm saying that when you're in those fandoms and you seem irritable at those critiques then there are some ideological problems there. I like ASOIAF but I live for the scathing anti-criques because they're absolutely right. I scroll through like yep, yep, yep. It never bothers me, not even a little. That's for every fandom I participate in. Because racism is never just an irksome problem, it should never get on your nerves, and I could talk about it all day. Because when you look at the world through the lens of a black woman (and other women of color ofc) you are NEVER not going to see it. I like TVD but there was so much shit one dealt with, that we had to actively ignore for the sake of being able to enjoy the show. I really wish I could ignore it all, but sorry not sorry.

I feel like a lot of people like to make their annual post about SJM's racism, and then don't want to consider two things (1) that the racism isn't actually isolated and permeates throughout all of her works and (2) there are consequences (or at least there should be) to being racist. Even if you have somehow come to terms with the racism in the story, that doesn't mean other people will or have to. The only way we even begin to solve the problem is by continually talking about it. It's just very crazy, IMO, to say that we are allowed to be upset -- but not in a way that disrupts your fandom experiences. That little irritation you feel every time a new post hits the anti-tag is racism. That little irritation you feel every time someone brings up Nehemia and the problems in Throne of Glass -- is also racism. I may be over the character conversation, but I'm not over the ones like these that have real consequences in the world of literature. It's just very frustrating to see people turn criticism of SJM's writing into a misogyny problem when the majority of the people doing the criticism are women of color.

LIKE -- are we supposed to talk about the racism once every blue moon for kudos points and then go back to pretending it doesn't exist? What are we gaining with that approach quickly?

The anti-anti sentiment is tired, and much more representative of people's unwillingness to address the problems than anything else. Like y'all are asking a group of people to....sympathize with someone who doesn't see her black readers as human enough to live on the page/?? Human enough to be represented as actual, complex human beings -- it don't sound wild to y'all? I'm pro anti for any racist author who crawls up the depths into the light of the publishing industry.

We complained about Nehemia and not only were we met with silence -- she did it AGAIN. And then stuck the remaining mixed race women with the man the story thought needed to be redeemed, with the main whose people enslaved her own -- and then the next black women we met come in the form of servents, and then the next black women as jealousy fodder, and then the next black women is brutally murdered, debased -- and I think has her head shaved, and that was FOR HELPING the main character. Then the next black woman is sidelined for the villainous, blonde-haired sister who got all of two words in the first book of CC. Lack of diversity is bad, but not inherently racist -- rather a symptom of white privilege. I wouldn't fret about it. Conscious, negative, and continuous bad representation is another thing entirely.

Anywho may the anti-community continue to thrive for this and any other racist author ❤️

#i hate antis aww well sorry not sorry #anti sjm #am i supposed to feel bad??? well i don't #be nice??? #to a r*cist author? #i think NOT #yall dont send me bait posts i am not that strong

[jbuffyangel]

Hi this may be an odd question but reading your blog (and other Olicity blogs) it strikes me that while you provide insightful in depth analysis of the show at large you proudly admit that Oliver and Felicity’s relationship is paramount to your overall enjoyment and investment in the show. I personally possess a lot of internal shame stemming from my primary focus on the ship and will feel the need to justify my interest in the other aspects of the show (which I do love but I also love Olicity). I struggle with this with not just Arrow but any tv show where the romantic relationship isn’t intended to be the main premise of a show. I know I am allowing myself to be impacted by the views of comic book (and mostly male) fans and I can acknowledge that many of their views on Olicity fans and the show at large when it comes to the ship are at least somewhat if not primarily misogynistic. Despite knowing it comes from a sexist place which loves to shame women for enjoying romance and reduce our enjoyment to a surface level guilty pleasure unaware of the ways a romantic relationship can add major depth and development to a story as is the case with Arrow (although even if it didn’t add that it would still be valid to like the romance aspects), I still internalize those sexist sentiments and feel ashamed and like I cannot fully enjoy those things are I have to add caveats of my enjoyment. I was just wondering if you ever struggled with this or if you have always felt confident in proudly proclaiming your interest and investment in ships or if it was something that evolved over time. I’m sorry if this is a weird question I just witnessed your confidence in the validity of your passion and I wish I could have that conviction and not feel the shame that misogynistic society has given me in regards to shipping and enjoying romance. It’s definitely much harder in a fandom like Arrow where antis will openly voice their disdain for shippers and make extremely disparaging remarks and assumptions about Olicity shippers but I have felt this way in other fandoms too even when non shippers aren’t this aggressive or sexist.

Hello Nonnie!!!! I am so happy you reached out :) Apologies for the delay. I haven't checked my inbox for about a week. You write so beautifully!

To be honest, I've always marched to the beat of my own drum. I was a sick kid and had difficulty making friends because of it. I was teased in school a lot because of my health issues. Elementary school was not fun. I liked my mom and I liked being home. (These things really haven't changed). The Lord blessed me with a great imagination and a love for stories. I would just play by myself because the world I invented was so much cooler than reality.

It did give me a very strong independent streak, which my parents encouraged. The world had been very cruel to them as well. I was highly encouraged to stand up for myself, tell people where to stick it, and not care what other people think.

I was much healthier in high school and made a bunch of friends. But even my friends, who I know love me to this day, thought it was weird how obsessed I was with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My family thought I joined a cult lol. I just like what I like. It never mattered to me if anyone else liked it.

I find it absolutely insane that anyone looks down on love stories. Love stories have been around for as long as there's been human beings on this planet. Every culture has love stories. Why? Love is central to being human. Love is what MAKES us human. We are here on this planet to be loved and to love in return. It's the whole damn point. And I'm not speaking just about romance. We build our lives around all kinds of different relationships. It is not exclusive to romantic love.

But let's address romantic stories, since that seems to be the genre asshats have a problem with. The question is why? Probably because it's popular with women and God forbid we'd be supportive of women and things they like. The horror. I think you absolutely nailed it here:

Despite knowing it comes from a sexist place which loves to shame women for enjoying romance and reduce our enjoyment to a surface level guilty pleasure...

But sometimes I think there are more personal reasons people have such vile reactions to it. Maybe they don't have romantic love in their own life. Maybe they've been hurt by partners. Maybe they've been rejected and are lonely. Maybe romance stories are a painful reminder of what they don't have. I'm not sure. What I do know is that hurt people hurt people. So, more often than not, what I feel is not shame, but pity.

We're clearly on the right track since every television show, movie, book and comic book has some romantic element to it. Romance sells. So, feel confident because you are in the majority.

I don't give the comic book crowd too much thought. My attitude when it came to Arrow was there's plenty of room for everyone to love what they love, hate what they hate, and go about their merry way. Don't like my blog? Cool. There's the door. Plenty of fish in the sea friends. Seek out other bloggers. Start your own blog! The internet is a vast place. Go with God.

But there is an element of ownership within that community that makes them think they can dictate who can watch a show/movie, what we can like or dislike, who can portray the characters on screen, what stories should be told and how they should be told. It's not just romance. Comic book fans are LOUD about basically everything.

To a certain extent, I get it. You love a character and their stories for a long time. It's very exciting when those stories which only existed on paper are going to be brought to life onscreen. Comic books are a refuge for many people, no different than books or movies. So, it can be very upsetting when you don't feel the tv show or movie has met your expectations. I've been bummed out on more than one occasion with books being made into a movie or television show. We've all been there.

But that doesn't mean they get to be the bouncers at the door. They don't get to gatekeep. They don't get to be racists assholes when an actor or actress doesn't look exactly like the character on the page. They are entitled to their opinion, and their opinion only, but it does not give them a free pass to be hateful towards others who may disagree.

I don't want to single out comic book fans out - this is a general internet problem. People just become assholes behind a keyboard. They say things they would never have the guts to say in person. And clearly this is not ALL comic book fans. I have met many wonderful comic book fans who are welcoming and kind. They love Olicity just as much as I do. Even if they didn't, they respect differing opinions. They are just good human beings overall.

In the beginning of my blog, I debated with antis a lot because I thought we were all just having fun. But when the death threats started because I like Olicity and believed Arrow was going to kill off Laurel Lance, then I reached a point where maybe I was dealing with people who were a few paper plates short of a picnic, if ya know what I'm mean. It's a TELEVISION SHOW. These characters are NOT REAL. But there's no reasoning with crazy.

Do you know who are huge comic book fans? Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim. We're talking HARD CORE. And who created Olicity? Greg and Marc. Don't even get me started on the hate they receive.

I know there were entire Reddit threads devoted to trashing me and my blog. Did I read it? No. Did I engage with those people? No. When Stephen Amell's Facebook became a cesspool of terrible antis going after Olicity fans - I left. Did I read the messages in my inbox that were nasty? Nope. DELETED. Did I read the Lauriver tag on tumblr? Nope. We were North and South. The Red Sox and the Yankees. We were never going to agree, so you stay on your side and I'll stay on mine. And when some in the Olicity fandom turned on me because I was still enjoying the show in later seasons, I unfollowed and blocked if necessary. It really boils down to this - can you disagree with someone and remain a polite and kind person? Many folks do not have this skill.

The key to mental health on the internet is control your environment. Do not engage with people who are mean. It's really that simple. Because no matter how "strong" you are mentally, over time, nasty and demeaning comments have a way of sinking in and taking root inside your mind. It's completely understandable that your feelings get hurt because that's the intention! They are trying to hurt you. They are trying to shame you. So don't give them the opportunity.

Does that mean there will be some websites, blogs, social media sites that you don't go to anymore? Yes. Does that mean there will be some fans you don't engage with? Yes. But you know what? The internet is a vast place and there are plenty of people out there who share your opinions. Who love what you love and want nothing more than to chat with you about it until 4 am in the morning. Those are your people. That's your community.

And just for the record, romance loving shippers can be terrible too. I've seen awful behavior from our side of the fence so we're certainly not exempt from the behavior we receive from antis. And loving romance is no guarantee people will be nice either. My shipper flag was forged in the fiery pits of shipper hell - The Vampire Diaries fandom. Nasty doesn't even come close to what I experienced in the great Stelena vs. Delena wars. Arrow is child's play in comparison.

Here's the thing. Arrow is about one man's evolution to a superhero. He could not become that superhero without the love of one woman. LOVE is central to Oliver Queen's development and if you don't understand that part of the story then you really don't understand Arrow.

I think you'll find when it comes to Arrow that it's not romance antis have a problem with. It's who Oliver's romantic partner is. If it was Laurel Lance they would've been happier than clams. But Arrow deviated from "comic book canon" and developed an organic character with an actress Stephen Amell actually had chemistry with. And they CANNOT get over it. But thems the breaks.

I think my perspective on humanity has not really evolved past age six in kindergarten. If you make fun of me or are cruel then you're not a nice person and I will have nothing to do with you going forward. I've approached life like this and overall I have come out the other side a healthier person because of it. The beauty of the internet is there's always another playground to find friends.

I've always been a shipper since I was a little kid. I could never understand why Bobby & Pam couldn't work it out on Dallas. Loved every single husband Erica Kane had on All My Children. (My mother let me watch some wildly inappropriate tv as a kid). I was really torn between Prince Lotor and Keith for Princess Allura on Voltron. I really didn't understand why He-Man and She-Ra couldn't date. I was obsessed with Jerrica and Rio on Jem. And on and on it goes.

In the immortal words of our Queen, Taylor Swift, "The worst kind of person is someone who makes someone feel bad, dumb or stupid for being excited about something.” She's bang on. Always trust in TSwizzle. I'm a 42 year old woman with a full life who wears her shipper flag proudly. Love what you love my friend. Screw the haters.

And feel free to message me whenever you want to talk shipping. This is a shipper safe zone and always will be. You have absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of.

#arrow #arrow fandom #olicity #olicity fandom #personal #arrow meta #olicity meta

[autistictaylorhebert]

See, if wildbow did join tumblr (and was active here) i don't think he'd get "bullied off" the platform, but I also don't think he'd "win" and get the interaction he wanted out of the community. No one would win, and no one would change anyone's opinion.

The most likely possibility by far is that he would just create dividing lines within the fanbase on tumblr, and/or intensify the dividing lines that were already there.

He'd get into arguments, people would make fun of him and defend him, people would block each other, and he'd probably end up with a group of blogs he could have Neil Gaiman-esque interactions with. A bunch of other people would go on with him blocked/ignored, and a good chunk of people would deactivate or just stop posting.

But crucially, fundamentally, this wouldn't give wildbow what he wants. He would still get takes on his dashboard that he hates, as well as art he doesn't like. There would be well meaning fans who ask questions or interact with him in ways he isn't comfortable with. There would continually be new controversies and clumsy fan interactions, especially with new blogs who had just discovered his writing.

I know this, because this is how /r/parahumans already works.

There's the main subreddit/community, and then there are offshoot groups that have been somewhat alienated and separated. Examples of this include the spacebattles fanfiction scene, wormblr itself, and to a lesser extent places like /r/wormmemes, /r/occultmagiconline, and various discords.

These places obviously aren't monolithic and or divided from each other in a meaningful sense, but there are big differences in prevailing sentiment and opinion from place to place.

This is kind of deliberate on wildbow's part, he has made a deliberate effort to moderate the subreddit and limit specific things people want to talk about there.

The thing is, again, this doesn't work out how he wants it to:

For one thing, over time, those differences in sentiment between websites have become more extreme and fermented, as a direct result of the fact those sentiments and ideas were limited in the platforms wildbow moderates. You can't really talk about fanfiction on /r/parahumans, so /r/wormfanfic and spacebattles became more insular. Criticisms of representation and similar are looked down upon in the subreddit, so parts of wormblr got more focussed on this criticism (even if this is often balanced by other, more positive posts).

Additionally, wildbow isn't able to consistently keep those sentiments (or ways of responding to his writing) away from the subreddit. There's still bleed over (it's just more extreme than it otherwise would have been), and there are always new fans who haven't really read the room yet.

You still get posts from fanfiction readers asking about jumpchain or quests or shipping. You still get people trying to talk about the bad gay representation (or just wholesale linking tumblr posts without the bloggers' permission). You still get people on the subreddit surprised about ward!Amy and similar things...

...and it results in continuous, intermittent discourse.

It's a pattern that we've seen happen over and over again, and it would probably play out the same way on here as well.

Finally, recently, wildbow has been making these kind of lamenting comments about how the fandom was toxic to him, or how someone crossed boundaries, or someone made fanart he didn't like, etc.

On one level I think he's telling the truth about some of the more toxic or parasocial instances he talks about, and those things are a real shame.

But at the same time, I think there's this undercurrent of wildbow having all these expectations about how much he can control or direct the response to his work, and then getting frustrated when he comes up against the fact these expectations are largely unrealistic.

#parahumans #this is a long ass post about something that is extremely online #but i did need to get it out of my system #so #here it is

[ikiyou]

BSD Rewatch Ep2

In episode 2, near the beginning, Dazai says something interesting after stating that the other ADA members didn't pay much attention to his barrel suicide antics:

"Anyone gifted with supernatural powers has something wrong with them inside…"

I've seen speculation by others in the fandom that Abilities come from some kind of trauma. I'm not saying this is any kind of confirmation of that speculation, but it is an interesting statement that he throws out there.

Could also refer to the idea that having an Ability eventually twists a person in some way - having power, having something weird with you, etc, can change a person. Being clearly different from others and from other Ability users (usually, it seems no 2 Abilities are similar), an Ability user is a lonely person with unique experiences that cannot be shared by anyone else. No two Gifteds can see the world the same way. And it is virtually impossible to share the impact one's Ability has on a person or forces them to experience.

And interestingly, later on in the episode, Tanizaki repeats Dazai's statement, "I swear, anyone gifted with supernatural powers has something wrong with them inside…"

So this isn't just a random statement…

From Tanizaki's POV as the 'bomber' enemy, clearly his take is that Ability users are unnatural freaks who can cause problems (he's there for 'revenge' after all). Although the stance of the public is rather unknown in BSD, this shows that there is at least some sentiment floating around that Ability users are some kind of mutant, unnatural form of humanity. Maybe not even human.

The fact that we learn a little bit about an 'Ability War' - some war possibly fought against Ability Users (or is it with and not against Ability Users?) - as well as the government's elite Hunting Dog team meant to hunt down and kill Ability users like they are rabid dogs, and even the government's Special Ability Department, meant to track and handle 'rogue' Ability users and the issues they cause - this all points to a pervasive distrust of Gifteds. At the very least from the government side, even if we never really see what the public thinks of them.

Having such sentiment plied on one from outside means one can possibly begin to believe it.

I'd say it's a thread that isn't really taken anywhere later on in the series - and it's NOT baked into the makeup of what we are exposed to as daily life in the BSD universe - but the major enemy of the series, Fyodor, very much believes this. So this is very much foreshadowing.

I'd just appreciate it if we could see more of this in the world building instead of having it relegated solely to plot moments.

And furthermore, it's interesting (admittedly jokingly), but at the end of the episode, Dazai says that were Atsushi not to join the ADA, he's a wanted tiger (despite the legal distinction between a murderer and a proven plea of insanity, which would be a parallel) and he would at best be fired, at worst captured and shot. Despite being a human being, who, even as a tiger, has not even harmed another human. Perhaps Dazai means that in his tiger form, he'd inevitably be shot rather than as a human, but. That still throws a bit of light on the idea that Ability Users are an exception to a normal treatment of a human being.

#bungou stray dogs #bsdrewatch2023 #bungou stray dogs meta #ep2 #Honestly I was wondering if I would even have anything to contribute since I don't tend to rip out pieces to espouse on like everybody else #But it's interesting that everyone tends to key on different aspects for different reasons