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glassartpeasants · 2 months

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I was doing a writing warm-up and made this piece. I kinda like it and might make a fic series about it if anyone is interested. Also, I call Kid 'Eustass' in this because it felt right for some reason?

Eustass Kid/ Trafalgar Law x F!Reader

warnings: Angst, small amount of blood, cheating, slut shaming maybe? Modern Au

~~~

“Does he think I’m a fucking idiot?! Does he think I can’t see the way his eyes follow girls’ asses as they walk by?” Gripping the edge of the bathroom sink, you struggle to hold back tears as you talk to your best friend on the other line.

“What am I doing wrong (....)? I’ve done everything right! I gave him all of me, and he’s out here eyeing other women!”

“That’s just the way he is (Y/N). I tried to warn you about him. You can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change.” You bite your lip as your body shakes. Emotion overwhelmed you to the point you could no longer hold back tears.

“I don’t understand. He told me he loved me and that he couldn’t imagine a life without me. He made me a matching ring to his. He promised me that his playboy days were over…”

“Well, if he’s staring at other girls, then obviously he broke his promise.”

~~~

You're feeling a lot more numb than you thought you would. At first, you thought you’d be yelling, crying, and screaming. Asking him why? But now that you're actually hearing his moans along with an unknown woman's echoing in your shared bedroom, no tears fall from your eyes.

Maybe your heart and mind were mentally and emotionally ready for this. There were many signs he was starting to stray. Staring at other women, no longer being affectionate in public, you even saw him take off his ring once. He hasn’t done it again, but that was the last straw your heart could take when you tried to ignore the signs.

You should've known it’d end like this. He’s been a fuck boy all throughout high school and college. Slithering his way into vulnerable hearts and crushing them without a care about the people he’s heart. How you’ve been friends with him for so long and knowing what he was doing was something you criticized yourself for.

While you weren’t best friends during high school and college, you both always had a class together. The two of you just ended up talking during each of them. Well, him hitting on you and you always telling him that you rather swim in hell’s flames than get with him. All throughout high school and college, he’d do this. In a way, you said no to avenge all the hearts he’s broken. But once college started, you accidentally started growing feelings for the idiot. Yet, you still said no until graduation day. He came up to you with a bouquet of roses made of metal that he made in shop class. Every rose was made individually, letting you pluck one out and hold it in your hands. Everyone in said class said he’d been working on it forever. Throwing away and remaking it more times than anyone could count. All to make sure it was perfect. It was then that you finally said yes. No one had done anything so thoughtful for you before.

But when you told your best friend the news, she wasn’t happy.

“What?!”

“Listen, I know it sounds stupid-”

“That’s because it is stupid (Y/N)! We both know his past and how he still was before you agreed to go out with him! How are you sure he isn’t gonna do the same shit to you?!”

“He’s been asking me for years and actually made me this metal bouquet of flowers. Aren’t they beautiful, though?” Showing her the flowers, you watch her sigh.

“What happens when he breaks your heart? What will you do then?” You were silent as you looked away from her. Her hands go to your shoulders, and it makes you look at her.

“I just don’t want you crying over someone like him. I’m just worried about you, okay?”

“I know. Thank you for watching out for me. I’m going to give him a chance. Maybe he’s ready to grow up? But if I get my heart broken. Then you’ll get to say, ‘I told you so’.” Laughing at the last part, you pull (.....) into a hug and enjoy how you could always rely on her to be by your side.

Your eyes caught the metal bouquet on the kitchen table. The sun hit it just right to where it shined in your eyes. Furrowing your brows, an immediate disgust came over you as you looked at them. The one thing that had you thinking he’d changed was laughing at you and calling you a fool for falling for it.

Turning away from the bedroom door, you carefully and quietly walked to the metal sculpture. You pull one of the roses out from the vase they resided in and look at it. You twirled it with your fingers before gripping it tightly. Using your other hand, you encase the metal rosebud with the palm of your hand before twisting it harshly.

The sharp metal cut into your hand as you ripped off the rose head. A small hiss escaped you, yet you continued. Putting down the first destroyed rose, you move on to the second one. Then the third, fourth, fifth, until every single rose had been ripped apart. By the time you were finished, the stems of the flowers were scattered across the kitchen table, as well as the blood-covered roses. A good representation of a broken heart if you say so.

You could still hear the moans coming from the bedroom, and the more you listened and paid attention, the more you swore you recognized the tone of voice. Tip-toeing to the door, you place your ear against the wood. Taking a few seconds, you listen carefully to try to pinpoint who it could be.

“Eustass~”

As soon as the words were heard, you felt your world shatter. That was (.....)’s voice. That was (.....) in there fucking your boyfriend. And your boyfriend was cheating on you with your best friend. The two people you cared about the most stabbing you in the back. It’s even worse knowing that (.....) was cheating on her own boyfriend, Trafalgar Law. The smartest person you’ve ever met. He was valedictorian in high school and had the highest grades in college. He's now a world known respected doctor who’s saved so many lives. Everything he’s done, and this is what happens to him? How could Eustass and (.....) pull this on you and Law?

A rage washed over you as soon as you heard her moan his name again. Grabbing your phone from your pocket, you unlock it and call Law. You thankfully had his number after a project you guys did together a month before college ended, and you just never remembered to delete it.

“Come on, Law. Pick up.” Whispering, you cross your fingers.

“(Y/N)-ya? Why are you-”

“I really need you to stay on the line, okay? I’m going to facetime you now, alright?”

“What? Why? (Y/N)-ya, I have to go back to work-”

“(.....)’s cheating on you with my boyfriend right now as we speak. Don’t believe me? Listen!” You put your phone against the door, and all you heard was silence on Law’s side of the phone. A groan of (.....)’s name leaving Eustass’s mouth finally made you snap.

“That’s it!” Busting open the door, your met with a half-naked Eustass and a very naked (.....).

“Shit (Y/N)!”

“(Y/N)! It’s not what it looks like!” Clutching your phone tightly in your hand, you finally feel your anger bubble over.

“Don’t pull that shit with me! If your gonna be a backstabbing whore at least admit it! Fucking my boyfriend?! The boyfriend you hated?! Did you just want to fuck him the whole time?! How long has this been going on?!” You watched as (.....) scrambled to get her clothes on, and Eustass pushed his dick back in his pants.

“This is the only time it’s happened, I swear!”

“This is all an accident (Y/N), okay? I promise-”

“Oh, so your dick accidentally found its way into her? I don’t believe that for a second! And don’t tell me about your bullshit promises!” You can feel the cut on your hand finally start to sting as blood starts to puddle against the floor. The cut must have been much deeper than you originally thought.

“You're bleeding! (Y/N) are you okay?!-”

“Oh, don’t act like you care (.....)! If you actually cared, you wouldn’t be fucking my boyfriend in my bed! If you actually had a fucking heart, you wouldn’t have cheated on Law either!” The mention of Law's name has a look of horror appear on (.....)'s face.

“Please don’t tell him (Y/N)! I love him, and I don’t want him to leave me!”

“I’m breaking up with you.” (.....)’s face dropped when she realized Law heard everything. Tears start pouring down her face.

“That makes two of us.” You take off the ring Eustass gave you before walking over to (.....) Plopping it into her hand, you look at her with hatred and a disgusted smile.

“Obviously, this was meant for you since he loves you so much he can’t stop saying your name.” You grab the bag you left by the bedroom door before turning around and start to collect things around the apartment that you need.

“I’ll make sure to tell the landlord that my name’s off the lease and that I’ll gather my things tomorrow morning.” Holding everything you could gather at the moment, you make your way to the front door.

“Where do you think you're going?!” You feel Eustass grab your wrist and bring you closer to him. Looking into his eyes, you see panic, fear, and anger swirling around in them.

“Leaving, obviously! I’m not gonna stay and shatter my heart more after seeing a man I loved, wanted to marry even, fucking my now ex-best friend.” The panic grew more evident as he pulled you to his chest. Both arms wrapped around you so you couldn’t leave.

“You can’t leave, alright! I know I fucked up, but please, let’s talk about this. She means nothing to me! She’s just some slut-”

“A slut you fucked knowing you were taken.” Tears started spilling from your eyes as you felt him hold you closer.

“Why? Why would you do this to me? Why’d you say you loved me when you out fucking my best friend? How dare you hold me close and act like the stench of sex and her perfume isn’t surrounding you?”

“I’m outside in the car (Y/N).” Hearing Law’s voice shocked you as you remember you never hung up on him. He was so quiet, and you heard nothing on the other side of the line. Having him even show up was surprising, but you weren’t gonna throw away this opportunity to get away from Eustass and (.....).

“Alright, be right there-”

“No, she won’t! Fuck off, Trafalgar, and take your bitch with you!” Eustass grabbed your phone and hung up before throwing your phone on the couch.

“Eustass! Are you-” You feel one of his hands push your head to his. His lips met yours, and you could feel the urgency in his kisses.

“Please don’t…leave me…” Kissing your between words only had your heart shattering more. How could he kiss you like he loves you after pulling a stunt like this?

It took almost everything inside you not to dig your fingers into his hair and kiss him back. You wanted it all to be a dream and that when you woke up, you’d be sleeping against his chest.

Putting your hand against his bare chest, you feel his bare skin against your open wound. It made him pull away from his panicked kisses when he felt your bloody hand on his chest.

“Jesus (Y/N)! What happened?!”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Stay here, I’m grabbing bandages!” Letting you go, you see him rush to the bathroom. Taking this chance, you grab your phone and start running out the door. Anything you can carry in tow, you run down the stairs as you hear (.....) scream your name and Eustass yelling at you to stop.

But who was he to tell you what to do?

Bursting out the apartment complex’s door, you see Law’s car parked waiting for you. Using all your strength, you run as fast as you can. Grabbing the car door, You swung it open before slamming it shut. Everything you brought with you on your lap.

“Drive!” Wasting no time, Law stomps on the gas, and as you see Eustass run out of the apartment, watching you and Law drive away.

~~~

If you guys do want this to be an actual fic series, let me know cause this concept is quite interesting to me.

#one piece x reader #eustass kid x reader #eustass captain kid x reader #trafalgar d law x reader #trafalgar law x reader #law x reader

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kingtomura · 1 month

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Deja Vu | 1 | January Embers

summary: Your best friend died years ago. He went up in flames until there was nothing left — so why does it feel like you can still see him sometimes? content: touya todoroki x female reader, childhood friends au, reader has a quirk, time skipping, flashbacks, fluff, heavy angst, bullying, eventual smut, eventual meaning next chapter, soft touya, hurt/comfort, tragedy, mdni wc: 4.5k | Chapter 2 | m. list | read on ao3

You meet Touya Todoroki when you are four years old.

He was a redhot firecracker that demanded the attention of you and all those around him.

Touya Todoroki was also the first in your class to have his quirk maifest. It was the talk for about a week, everyone expecting nothing less from the son of the flame hero, Endeavor, himself.

You would watch him some days, flaunting his newfound power on the playground in front of others, knowing he would be some great hero one day. Even better than All Might, he would yell to anyone that would listen. It was a decent dream, you believed. Maybe someone could actually be better than All Might.

It didn’t seem like that would be in the cards for you, as it became more apparent as the days went by that you may not have a quirk. The excitement of watching every other child’s quirk manifest began to fill you with a pit of dread.

Quirkless.

It’s something you never thought you would have to think about. The realization hadn’t caught up with the rest of your class yet and you could only thank the stars.

But it was only a matter of time before a group of three noticed.

They cornered you while you tried drawing shapes in the sanded area of the playground.

“Hey,” one kid dragged, horns proudly peeking out of his head. “What’s goin’ on with you?”

You spared him a glance before going back to your sand, gliding the stick you found through the yellow grains. “What do you mean?”

One girl behind him pipes up, curly pigtails bouncing with the tilt of her head, “Where’s your quirk? Aren’t you turning five soon?”

The emphasis on five makes you jolt a little and you try to play it off — offering a little shrug to the trio. “I dunno. Mom says I'm a late bloomer.” you pray they will be satisfied with your answer and leave you alone.

The third kid finally speaks, sporting a new pair of bat-like wings. “No way, I bet you’re gonna be quirkless!”

The other children erupt in a loud laugh that calls the attention of your other classmates — much to your dismay.

“That’s so sad for you!” the girl yelled, grin on her face showing not an ounce of pity.

“Yeah, really!” The first boy laughs, taking a step forward and kicking the sand you were drawing in towards you, effectively ruining your picture and your day.

You go to stand, brushing the sand off of your dress before the girl rushes forward to push you, sending you down to land flat on your bottom. Your bottom lip wobbled as you tried to hold back the tears and humiliation threatening to spill over and out.

The bat-winged boy pointed to you, “Look, guys, she’s gonna cry!” Yelling out to anyone who could hear, only causing you to dip your head in shame, now unable to stop the warm tears from trailing down your cheeks.

And you thought today couldn’t get any worse.

“Hey! Knock it off!” You hear a voice yell, familiar. “Flashfire fist!”

You feel the heat before you see it, hot and swift.

The screams make you look up. Its Touya, red hair and fist aflame, standing in front of you and effectively blocking you from the trio of bullies before.

“Ouch, Touya! You could have really hurt us!” the girl with pigtails cried, holding her own wrist as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

The boy who kicked sand at you spoke up next, voice wavering on the verge of tears as well, “Yeah, you jerk!”

Touya shrugged, flames dissipating and points a finger at them, “I don't care. Bullies’ feelings dont matter!”

You could only stare with wet lashes as the trio ran off — no doubt to tell the teacher. Touya didn’t seem to mind, as a matter of fact he seemed proud as he turned to you and reached out a hand to help you up. He was all smiles and warm eyes, “Are you alright?”

You take his hand, noting how warm it still was from his previous quirk use and nod, “Mhm, thank you.”

“It’s no problem,” he helped you to your feet before continuing, his smile almost blinding, “I’m Touya Todoroki, the next number one hero.”

You nod and introduce yourself, cheeks warm and smile dancing across your face. His mood is infectious. “Nice to meet you, Touya, next number one hero.”

Later that day you realize Touya does get in trouble for improper quirk use and can’t help but apologize.

“It’s fine!” He returns, not bothered in the slightest. “I’d do it again and again, if I had to.”

After the incident Touya insisted on being by your side the rest of the day. During lunch, arts and crafts and even nap time. He would go where you would go and you couldn’t say you minded. Once school had finished for the day and it was time to break apart Touya insisted you both hang out more.

Even going as far as to introduce himself to your parents as they came to pick you up.

His foot tapped in excitement as he told them about your days and how you should hang out more.

That’s how you both find yourselves in some forest on the weekend, walking together through the fresh snow, because Touya just had to show you this cool training spot.

“But, don't you think we’re going too far, Touya?” You ask, nerves trembling as you look around the forest. You wouldn’t know your way back without him and you’ve never been this far out alone.

“No,” he singsongs, “C’mon– don't be such a baby,”

You puff your cheeks, running to catch up with him, “Don’t call me that, but okay!”

He grabs your hand once you are by his side and it's warm. Touya is always warm.

“We’re almost there, anyway!”

This special place looked the same as any other place in these woods, but you wouldn’t let Touya know. He’s so excited to show you what he came to do.

“My dad and I train here sometimes.” He starts, smiling as he backs away from you to show you a flame in his hand. “He thinks my flames will be hotter than his one day.”

You can’t hide the way your eyes fill with sadness as you look to the ground.

“I don’t think I’m gonna get a quirk, Touya.”

The boy’s smile drops instantly, as he rushes over to you, taking your face in his tiny hands. Still so warm, like always.

“Hey, don’t say that! Maybe you aren't trying the right things.” He dips behind you before you could turn to stop him, “Maybe you can see in the dark!” His hypothesis being tested by covering your eyes.

You bite back a laugh, “No, Touya, I don't think it works like that.”

The boy lets you go and runs to a rather large, fallen log – climbing atop it and looking down to you. “Well, maybe you can fly. Have you tried that?”

You shake your head, unable to hide the worry in your face. Touya was up pretty high. “Hey… you shouldn’t be up that far.”

“What do you mean? It’s fine!” he reassures, continuing his musing while walking along the fallen log. “Besides, it’s not like I'm clumsy or anything—!”

The boy’s words were cut short by his shoe stepping down and slipping on the ice below it, sending him crashing down to the patch of snow and debris below.

In that moment, your hand shoots out before you can think and there’s ringing in your ears. Your eyes squeezed shut as you wait for the impending crash. But it doesn’t come.

You slowly open your eyes and see… Touya. He’s okay. Better than okay because he’s floating above the snowy patch of grass below, debris and everything brushed away. Your hand is still out as you meet Touya's wide eyes.

“Whoa!” You finally pull your hand back and watch his feet gently touch the grass below. “Dude, you have mind powers! So cool!”

You will your breathing to go back to normal as you take in the new information. You do have a quirk. All hope was not lost.

The feeling of warm liquid creeping down your nostril catches your attention. Bringing a finger to your nose, you pull back and see the crimson drop. Blood. The sound of Touya’s steps through the snow breaks your focus.

“Hey, what happened? You're bleeding.” He takes your finger in his hand, red brows furrowed and cerulean eyes filled with worry.

You shrug, taking your hand back and wiping your nose with your sleeve, unaware of the tiny smear of blood you left across your face. “I dunno. I’m not hurt, though.”

At this, Touya smiles, bringing his own hand to your face to wipe the remainder of what you smeared. “You better not be! We’re gonna be heroes together — you and me!”

It’s so infectious, the way he lights up with a smile, you can’t help but return it. “Yeah, we sure will.”

—----------------

The first time you think you see Touya it’s while you are on your way home from the bustling area of downtown.

The shops are crowded with people trying to get their last minute gifts for the holidays and you promised your parents you would be home hours ago. It’s a flash – so quick you almost miss it.

Almost.

Through the crowd there's a glint of white hair and blue eyes. You stop, sending the people behind you nearly barrolling into your backside and profusely apologize, half heartedly hearing their grumbles as you make your way through the flurry of people.

The snow white hair is a little further ahead, but you can see bits and pieces where the sea of heads will naturally move.

Was that…

It couldn’t be. Your heart picks up as you nearly chase your way through, mumbling faint excuse me’s and pardon me’s to those around you as you lock onto the moving person. It's becoming harder to keep up and you break out in a light sprint.

The person takes a sharp left into an alley and you follow behind, only to be met with the emptiness of a damp back alley.

There was no way it could be him. Your mind was playing tricks on you.

You shake your head, hoping you could physically shake those thoughts from your brain and turn to head home. It had been a long day.

There is a battle raging in your mind — one that you are not sure is formed from grief or from anxiety. it is an all consuming inferno of blackened dust in your heart and you cannot stop yourself when you bring it up to Fuyumi.

You both have been sitting in silence for a while, wrapping gifts for the upcoming holidays. She has been in her own little world, humming christmas tunes, while you have been in a fit of inner turmoil.

“Hey, Fuyumi,” you start, instantly catching her attention in the otherwise quiet home.

“Hm?”

Your nerves are eating your confidence and you start to second guess yourself. Only the warmth in her gray eyes gives you the resolve to continue. “Something weird happened at the market the other day.”

She tilts her head, flowing ponytail following the direction, “What’s that?”

“I was walking and,” you stall — unsure if bringing up your friend's dead brother before the holidays would be a good move. “I swear, I thought I saw Touya. It was a flash, but the guy had his white hair and,” unwanted tears are blurring your vision, “and his eyes were so much like Touya’s i don't—” you're choking up, tears fighting their way through your throat, “I thought i was going crazy.”

Surprisingly, Fuyumi takes it well, reaching a hand out to touch your shoulder, a comforting motion you’ve grown to know over the years.

“Hey, it’s okay. That could have been anyone, you know?” She smiles, and it’s bittersweet like the flowers at a funeral, “it’s the holiday season so everyone is out right now.”

You nod, reluctant, but logical. “Yeah, yeah you’re right. It was pretty crowded in that area.” the tears would force their way through your resistance whether you fought them or not, so you give up – letting them flow down your cheeks. “I’m sorry for bringing it up, Fuyumi.”

“No, it's okay! Don't worry about it." She looks to the side. “It’s only been three years since it happened, and the anniversary of his death is coming up too. It's harder around this time of year. For all of us.”

You can only nod as Fuyumi brings you into a tight hug. Your resolve melted away in her arms as you cried, it felt like things would never get easier.

A life without Touya wasn’t a life you could see yourself living happily in.

You wished and prayed for him everyday — unwilling to believe your best friend was really truly gone. It felt so surreal. Like something that happens in movies and not to you.

Fuyumi said nothing as she held you and rubbed soothing circles on your back. She has been a pillar for you in these times and you couldn’t be more grateful. Only wishing you could show your gratuity in a more effective form than just sobbing into her shoulder.

There is an anguish in your heart that will not go away. A part of you died when Touya did, there was no denying that.

Fuyumi pulls away, holding you by the shoulders as her eyes meet yours — she's started crying too and it's enough to make you shake with sobs again.

“Hey, hey,” Fuyumi starts, her voice unwavering despite the tears. You wish you were strong like her. “We’ll get through this, okay? We just have to be strong.”

You give her a pathetic nod, one more for her sake than yours, and try to sit up straighter.

You knew that Touya wouldn’t want to see you like this.

—-------------------

When you are five years old, you notice there is a change in Touya.

You gasp when you see him again, “Touya! Your hair!”

His eyebrows scrunch at your pointing and then widen in realization. “Huh? Oh, don’t worry about that.” Touya huffs, “were you even listening?”

The question startles you and you quickly nod your head, knowing you didn't hear a word he said. “Mhm!”

Touya keeps talking, now bringing a hand to his hair, rubbing a lock between his forefinger and thumb, “Okay, so what’s the deal?”

You can't stop the confused look in your eye as you watch him, cheeks rosy from the cold. It snowed again yesterday, and Touya never seemed bothered by the cold. You were freezing though.

Somehow you let him bring you back to this forest — it’s become your go to hangout. A place where the both of you could practice your quirks in peace.

“Do you like All Might or something?”

You shrug, indifferent to the well known hero. Your parents weren’t heroes and neither was anyone in your family. He seemed more like a comic book character than an actual person.

“Well, it doesn't matter. My dad told me I’m gonna be even better than All Might! So he better watch out.”

You smile, seeing his eyes light up, “Oh, yeah? How are you gonna be better than him, Touya?”

You don’t know why but it makes your heart dance when he gets this way. Stars in his eyes and world in his hand. He’s your hero, you absently wonder if he knows that.

Touya shrugs, scrunching his nose in thought, “I dunno. I haven’t gotten that far yet.” He snaps his fingers and turns to you, “I know! I’ll look it up. It can’t be too hard, right?”

You laugh now. Of course he doesn’t have a plan.

“Don't you think if it were that easy he wouldn't be the number one right now?” You test, and Touya gives you a look, pout strong on his face.

“Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?”

“Yours! So, I don't want you to waste your time on silly stuff.” You offer, looking at the leaves you're making dance in your hand.

He groans, the frustration evident in his voice, “Whatever! I’ll figure something else out.”

In that moment, there’s a great gust of wind — whistling and blowing the leaves in your hand away. It’s chill makes you wrap your arms around yourself, shivering.

“Touya, don’t you get cold?” You ask, arms doing little to warm yourself as you continue to shiver.

The boy looks at you, brows furrowed and eyes confused. “No, do you?”

“Yes!” You shout, “all the time! It’s so c-cold out here. I don’t know how you do it.”

He walks over to you, pondering and examining your face. “Yeah, your nose is all red. Rudolf.”

He takes your face into his hands and closes his eyes, rubbing his nose against yours back and forth. It’s warm and it makes you flush. Your cheeks burn when he pulls away, stunned at the smile on his face and stars in his eyes.

“Better?” He asks, innocent question ringing in your ears and you realize yes, you do feel better, but you also feel warm and fuzzy like there are butterflies dancing around in your belly and you can’t get them out — so, you just nod instead, slow smile creeping on your face and Touya grabs your hand again.

“Good! Now let’s keep going! There’s this cool new move I wanna try.”

And you follow behind him. He was your best friend after all. You feel as though you would even follow him through the icy storms of Antarctica if you needed to.

—-------------------

Christmas with the Todoroki’s has always been interesting. For one, half of them were not present during the dinner. Rei being sent to the facility, endeavor choosing to work on his hero duties and little Shouto desperately trying to eat with all of you without Enji coming home to find him out of his room.

The silence is eerie – other than the sounds of metal clinking against porcelain plates.

You couldn’t help but break the tense air, words sounding loud in the quiet of the room, “Thank you all for inviting me over. The food is really good, Natsuo.”

At this, Natsuo perks up, a smile so wide on his face it makes his eyes squeeze shut. “We love having you around! You’re like the big sis we never had!”

“Hey!” Fuyumi squawks, ready to scold her little brother, “I’m the one who knows where you sleep Natsu, so watch it!”

You can’t help but laugh at the threat, knowing Natsuo has been a victim to many of Fuyumi’s pranks. Shouto only watches on, eating as much as he could before he would inevitably go back to his side of the home. There wasn’t much expression to his face, but he seemed content to watch his older siblings bicker back and forth.

Times like these were nice, you decide. It pulls your mind away from the reality and into the more lively parts of growing up.

After the dinner was done, and the gifts were passed out, there was a somber air growing about you all once more.

Shouto went back to his room and Natsuo found his place in the living room, playing video games and insisting that since he cooked most of the meal, he shouldn’t wash dishes as well.

Much to Fuyumi’s dismay, you agreed with Natuso, but offered to help her with the dishes. It was something to prolong the inevitable walk home.

“What did you get for him this year?” Fuyumi asked, passing you another plate to dry.

You glanced at her, noting how she avoided your gaze, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth instead. “It’s something I’ve been working on for a while. A necklace — with charms and things I think he would like.”

She nods, bringing an arm up to wipe her eyes with her wrist, “Yeah, I’m sure he would love that. He always liked your gifts.”

It’s impossible not to find yourself tearing up.

Once you were done washing dishes with Fuyumi, she went to join Natsuo in the living room, offering unwanted tips on the current game he was playing and receiving groans of irritation in return.

You take that as your cue to leave and make your way to the place you’ve dreaded all night.

Touya’s shrine.

His memoriam stared back at you as you dropped to your knees, lowering your head in prayer and then placing the small decorated box onto the shelf of his shrine.

“Oh, Touya… it’s been three years.” You say to his photo hanging above the shrine. It’s his school photo. You were both in the same class, already talking about what high schools you would be choosing in the upcoming years.

It doesn’t feel like three years. It feels like everyday is the same — you wake up and he’s not there. Like a day you’re doomed to repeat until the reality of it all finally sets in.

What would he look like now, you wonder. Would he have gotten taller? He had always been smaller than the other kids. Would he still have dreams of being a hero? You didn’t know. You wished you knew.

Your fists clinch in your lap and the tears flow freely from your eyes. Even with your head bowed you can’t stop seeing his picture etched into your brain. Those blue eyes staring into your eyes.

A sob escapes your lips and it all comes crashing down after that.

“God, Touya..!” Your words break down, sending your resolve with it. It feels like your heart has been ripped out of your chest and you’ve been openly bleeding out for three years.

You are only sixteen years old and expected to spend the rest of your life without the boy who would put the moon in the sky for you.

Unthinkable.

You’re not sure how much time has passed once you’ve calmed down, but you know it’s late now.

It was time to head home, and you wished Fuyumi and Natsuo well as you hugged them. They wave you off, faces somber and words tight. If they heard you crying, they didn't mention it and you’re thankful.

The trek home would not be not a long one, but you couldn’t stop yourself from taking a detour.

The forest where you and Touya always hung out was nearby and you can't stop your feet when you make a sharp right turn and head that way.

It was getting dark and snow was beginning to fall, but you felt at home.

There's a river you like to walk along. It's such a small little stream that never seems to freeze over, no matter how cold it is outside. It is where you find yourself trailing beside. The water being the only noise breaking through the quiet of the forest.

It kept you company until you reached the familiar open patch of grass, which was currently covered in snow.

Some trees were still charred from the incident, but others were still standing proud. It’s strange how that works — some things can remain the same through adversity while others are damaged beyond repair. You wonder if things could ever grow back from such tragedies.

Maybe the growth of something new could come from the ashes of the old. Like a phoenix.

The snapping of a twig snatches you from your thoughts.

It's a forest, yes, but this area doesn’t have much food for the animals. You stand to your feet, absently wondering when you had taken a seat in the first place, and look around. Maybe it was a trick of the wind, or something falling.

The snow crunches under your feet as you begin to take your leave — you’ve been out long enough.

You make your way through the thick of the trees until something brings you to pause.

Your steps were not the only steps you were hearing.

“Hello?” You call out into what you hoped had been an empty forest, only to be met with silence. It is not a comforting quiet, it was a quiet that crept underneath your skin and gave you goosebumps.

It felt like you were being watched.

“This isn’t funny!” You yell, taking cautious steps backwards, preparing yourself for a sprint in the opposite direction.

You turn, ready to take off when a glimmer of silver catches your eye, the flicker making you halt your movements.

Your heart hammered against your chest.

There was no way.

It was so faint, but you knew the necklace you crafted like the back of your hand.

“Hey! Stop fucking around, whoever you are!” You don’t know where this brave face is coming from, but you aren’t backing down. You could fight if need be.

Against your better judgment, you take a few steps forward, and like you thought, whoever was around took those steps with you. Your breath hitches when you see it.

A flash of white hair.

You break off into a sprint, and the person is already off, having a headstart and leaving you behind.

You couldn’t see as well through the snowfall, but you didn’t need to. White hair and the shimmer of a necklace around the person’s neck has you chasing them deeper into the woods.

“Stop..!” You cry out, reaching a hand forward in an attempt to activate your quirk.

The force of it causes branches to fall from a tree further ahead of the person and he only changes direction.

You follow behind, lungs burning as you struggle to keep up. There was another attempt, bringing an already leaning tree down in front of the running man. It still did not work, he simply jumped over it and continued on.

You were approaching your limit with your quirk and desperate. If you let this slip through your fingers it would drive you mad.

“Wait!” You try again, reaching both hands forward and focusing all you had on the man before you. It was hard to ignore the blood trickling from both nostrils with your quirk use, but you had to, this was your only chance. “Touya..!”

And in that moment, the man stopped — whether it be from your quirk holding him in place or his own will, you weren't sure. All you knew was that the man stopped, and turned.

Your vision began to blur as your head pounded from the overexertion — your quirk was difficult to use on a living being, but it didn’t matter. You would know those eyes even in your darkest hour.

The cerulean blue was the last thing you saw before your world went dark.

And in your final moments, only one thought rang in your mind.

Touya is alive.

#todoroki touya #touya todoroki #todoroki touya x reader #touya x reader #dabi x reader #dabi #touya todoroki x reader #my works #mha x reader #dabi x you #todoroki touya x you

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darling-i-read-it · 10 months

Text

Reunion Part 2

Part 1

Trevor Philips x fem!reader, Michael Townley x fem!reader

Word Count: 3,4k

Warnings: general gta things, murder, the mission where tracey is auditioning for fame or shame, violence, heavy allusions to smut

Author’s Note: Trevor Philips <3 Trevor <3 T <3 (also I don’t plan on continuing this idea but would love requests for this game if anyone has any :))

Tagging: (hope you guys don’t mind me tagging you! You showed interest in a second part and I finally was able to finish what I had <3): @pngxxx, @ugh-why-ugh, @raspberriesbbylol

Summary: The reader and Trevor go to confront Michael.

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

When he pulled up to Michael’s house it was with a slight amount of tension. You were more nervous than him. You had decided the two of you would crash at his friends place while you were away from Sandy Shores, though he made you swear you would go back to the trailer. You weren’t sure why he had fallen in love with the place but you were willing to oblige. You just wanted him to shower first.

“So this is where Michael Townely is living out his days,” Trevor grumbled. He shut the car door aggressively. You crossed your arms. There was a car in the driveway. You wondered if it was his or Amanda’s. Maybe the kids. They would be so old by now. The last time you had seen them they were just little ones, running around, finding personalities.

“Michael Townely leaves the door unlocked,” you noted as you pushed the front door open.

“Fuckin rookie.”

Trevor pushed past you. You could hear the buzz of a conversation happening in the other room. You followed him as he followed the noise.

“Stop it you two! You’re ruining my fucking yoga!” You recognized the voice of Amanda. The shrill was hard to forget.

“Somebody say yoga?” Trevor stepped forward. You remained back a bit, watching to see how they would react to him. Plus, you knew Trevor wanted his moment. There was a long stunned silence.

“Trevor?” Michael asked. Even hearing his voice made you angry. You didn’t know how Trevor was holding it together.

“Michael…” “Hey..it’s good to see you man.”

“Hmm yeah I bet it is. ‘Course, I’m not the one that’s been resurrected.” You stepped into the room, causing another gentle stunned silence.

“Nice house you got here Mikey.”

Michael had gone to your house. He had waited there and you never came. He figured you had skipped town at the very noise of something happening with the job but he should’ve known better. He should’ve known you would go to Trevor first. You would always go to Trevor first.

Michael put his son behind him subtly. You tilted your head at the silent insult. You had held that kid the day he was born.

“I got in a bit of an awkward situation.”

“Hmm you’re telling me bro. One of those…fake your own deaths to your best buddy and then run off with the dough..live in a big mansion. Awkward. Situation.” Trevor approached him. Michael eyed you. If he had the capacity he would be stunned by the look of you. He had missed you so much. A part of him had even missed Trevor. Maybe he just missed the then.

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

“Yeah? Do you have any other ways of looking at it?” you asked. You crossed your arms, leaning against the wall beside a man who had an unnaturally large bun in his hair. You recognized the others in the room but not him. Maybe he was Amanda’s boytoy. You almost snorted.

“It’s been a long time. I’ve been in witness protection, I still am.”

“Save the excuses Michael,” you argued. You pushed yourself off the wall.

“Where are our manners!?” Trevor exclaimed. “We come waltzing in and don’t even say hi to old friends. Amanda, it is good to see you. I missed you. You used to be fatter. Nice new tits by the way,” he said, approaching her. She backed away as he walked forward. You eyed her evenly. He pointed at Jimmy. “Jimmy, you used to be thinner. But ah, can’t blame you.” He gestured to Jimmy’s parents.

You stared, reminded of a life you could have had and never got.

Trevor stopped at the man with the man bun.

“Who are you?”

“Namaste. I’m Fabien.” You snorted. Trevor turned to you.

“You all remember Y/N! Except you Fabien.” You waved. “You know, she thought I was dead. I thought she was dead. I wonder who would’ve pushed that idea!” Trevor was standing in front of Michael again. You walked forward.

“You look good Michael,” you mused. “Amanda, are you fucking Fabien? I’ve gotta know, I’m sorry.” Amanda gasped and tried to stammer out half thought up answer. Trevor interrupted her.

“Where’s Tracey?”

“Jim, where’s your sister?” Michael questioned.

“Uh..um…uh she’s..she’s trying out for TV.” Everyone turned to look at him. The tension dissipated.

“She’s what?” Michael asked.

“Yeah, she’s auditioning for Fame or Shame.”

“The fuck you talking about?”

“You know, it’s that talent slash skill show. She loves it, you guys know that.” “What’s her talent?” “Dancing.”

“Oh Christ, she’s a horrible dancer.”

“She might disagree with you on that.”

“Jesus Christ, now. Now? Where?”

“Um..the Maze Bank Arena.”

Trevor jumped into the father son conversation.

“Our little Tracey being humiliated, let’s go. We go get her.”

“We?” Michael asked.

“We,” you agreed. “You gonna stand there and argue while your daughter becomes a national laughing stock? You’re worse than I thought.” Michael held your eye contact.

“Fine.”

You grabbed Tracey, who was ecstatic to see you and Trevor until she wasn’t. Then you followed some dick head through Los Santos. Trevor punched him, stripped him, then recorded him doing some shitty dance. All regular Trevor things.

“You comin’ babe?” Trevor asked, hoping into the front end of a semi.

“I’ll meet you back at the apartment,” you promised. “I’ll have this asshole drive me.” You gestured to Michael.

“Don’t put any bullets in his head without me.”

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t be long!”

Trevor took a hard turn but before he left completely he leaned out the window.

“Hey Michael!”

“Yeah Trevor?”

He leaned forward, a small smug smile on his face.

“She fucked me. She fucked me.” Nine years of that lingering question and there it was. There was the truth that Michael had been hanging off of. The way Trevor said it, he knew it was true. The eye roll on your face was too obvious. “See ya soon.”

He drove away. You were left in his dust, in the Trevorless hole. You looked at Michael.

“That true?” he asked, like he didn’t know the answer.

“Nine years. All our money. Death certificate.” He nodded slowly.

“So you found the easiest psycho on the block?” Your jaw hardened.

“I found my best friend.” Michael knew he was being hard on you. He shouldn’t be. You weren’t insane like Trevor. You were insane with Trevor. He might’ve been able to build a relationship with you if he had told you he was alive sooner.

You were offended. Michael was acting like he hadn’t just waltzed back into your life after being resurrected. He had no right to judge you and Trevor.

“I thought you were dead,” you told him. He nodded once, gesturing to the car. You got in the passenger seat. There was something to be said about you trusting him enough to drive you around. He could cap you and leave you, you knew that. He was capable of it. But he wasn’t going to, not now that he finally got you back.

“I couldn’t exactly tell you I was, after it all went down.” He started the car.

“Where are we going?”

“I ain’t taking you back to Trevor if that’s what you’re asking.” You rolled your eyes. He avoided your question. “I knew you were out there, I figured Trevor was. I knew Lester was. It was better for everyone if I stayed dead.”

“Brad went to jail.” Michael gave you a side eye. You squinted at him, confused. Finally your eyes opened wide in realization. “They killed Brad.”

“Brad died,” he said, like it was any better.

“Who is in that jail cell?”

“No one.” Your mouth dropped a bit in amazement. All this time, the grave you had been mourning at was not Michael’s but Brad’s. You felt a pang of guilt. He deserved your grief all this time. You looked straight ahead. He was driving through the heart of Los Santos.

“Damn,” you muttered. “Still can’t believe you’re alive Mikey.”

“Me too girl. Me too.” He took a sharp turn. “Thank you for helping me with Tracey. Not that I needed it.”

“You had it handled, I know.” You rolled your eyes. You glanced over at him. Your Michael Townley, alive again. You shook your head. “Amanda seems happy.”

He scoffed.

“You met Fabian. She’s clearly happy.” You snorted.

“I never liked her and then Jimmy came along and…”

“Yeah well I wanted a family,” he admitted. “Fat lot of good it’s done me now. Both my kids hate me and my wife cheats on me. I’m back in the world of crime with my formally dead best friends.” “We were not the dead ones.”

Michael thought of Lester’s words.

She deserved better than both of you. But you have to know she would’ve always chosen him.

He shook off the haunting thoughts. He didn’t let himself feel how much he had loved you.

“I went to your apartment,” he said.

“Stalker.”

“Yesterday,” he corrected. “I waited for you. I had Lester tell me where you lived and I waited,” he explained. “You never came.”

“Yeah I think Trevor cleared that one up for you,” you muttered. “I was in a shitty trailer bed in Sandy Shores.”

“You were always welcome in my bed in Rockford Hills.” You rolled your eyes.

“Townley, you’re a married man!” He glanced over at you. You met his gaze. The joke hung in the air and slowly became more serious. You pursed your lips and a sense of melancholy went over his eyes. “What a life it would’ve been though huh?”

“It doesn’t have to be-”

“Yeah Mikey. It does.” Your voice was serious. The one you used during business. He pulled into the parking lot of the boardwalk. He wasn’t sure what made him come here. He just didn’t wanna go home yet. Kids passed in front of the car, going towards the rides. The car stayed running. “You died on me.”

“I’m not dead now.”

The look you gave him was not a forgiving one. You reached across the center console, grabbing his hand. You smiled sadly at him.

“I gotta go.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yeah, I do.”

For a moment he thought you were gonna kiss him. Your lips were so alluring and so close. The same lips he had fantasized about when he was still a kid technically, early twenties, filled with hormones. Your look was too fucking sad. He had gotten you back, your lips were right there. What had he always sworn he was going to do if he saw you again? Damn Amanda, damn Trevor?

He kissed you. It was feverish. Fast, passionate, filled with years of tension. You kissed him back for a moment. There was a moment in that kiss, maybe longer than a moment, where it was all okay. It was the kiss he had always wanted and it felt as good as he had always thought it would.

You pulled away and got out of the car. You didn’t speak, you didn’t break that moment for him. He was still leaning across the console when you left the car and he lingered there for a moment too long. You took out your phone, walked towards the amusement rides, and called a cab.

You tossed money at the cab driver, enough for a tip as well. The driver left you quickly, back at his job just as quickly as he had come. You were grateful the drive wasn’t long.

Michael’s lips still stained yours. You wanted to kiss Trevor. Bad.

It wasn’t that the kiss with Michael wasn’t good. In fact, it was great. It was a good kiss with a guy you had once loved, with a guy you could’ve built a good life with. But now it tasted like betrayal and lost worlds.

You didn’t bother knocking. The door opened slowly into the hallway. You could hear voices coming from inside the apartment.

“Debra isn’t gonna like this,” Floyd said nervously.

“Debra isn’t gonna like any of this. Don’t fuckin worry, I’ll make sure you’re man of the year in way of making girlfriends angry,” Trevor’s voice responded. When you turned the corner you could see Trevor was writing on the walls. The main entrance that had once said live, laugh, love, was now crudely covered with eat, shit, die. You recognized the handwriting.

“I really would prefer it if you didn’t,” Floyd said. Trevor turned around to answer him, some sarcastic answer hanging on his lips. He didn’t say it when he saw you. His face immediately softened and whatever snarky comment he was going to say died in his mouth.

“That was quick.”

“Michael’s fast,” you muttered. He narrowed his eyes on you.

“You didn’t-”

“No. No.” He nodded once. He felt relieved to hear that. You were his. He wasn’t gonna share you any more, he was sick of sharing you.

“Do you think you could get him to stop?” Floyd questioned. You looked at the walls, covered in black markers. You shook your head.

“He doesn’t have a leash.”

“My girl.” He waltzed back over to you, cupping your cheek with his hand and kissing you. It was the kind of kiss you were wanting. You melted into it, not caring that Floyd was watching.

Floyd wanted to make a comment about how you deserved better. But the way you leaned into the kiss was something Debra had never done for him. Maybe he could take some notes from Trevor.

“I grabbed the guest bedroom. King bed.”

“That’s Debra’s bed,” Floyd muttered, but neither of you listened.

“That sounds fancy,” you admitted. You smiled up at him, happy to be back. It was like a dream. All of those fantasies you had about what life could’ve been had started to mold into this weird perfect situation with Trevor. “You test it out yet?”

“I wanted to wait for you m’lady,” he said, lowly. You rolled your eyes but it didn’t seem genuine with the smile on your lips. He put his hand on the small of your back.

“Did you take a shower?” He was the one to roll his eyes this time.

“You’re askin a lot of me doll.”

“We need to go shopping too. I can get you all snazzy,” you promised. “I’ll steal some of Townley’s money to do it too.”

“You had me at steal.”

He was like a love struck puppy. It read in his eyes. Trevor fell in love with every girl who gave him a passing look. This one was looking right at him, always had been. He was so exhilarated with winning the game he and Michael had played for so long that he couldn’t feel anything else except lust and love.

“Shower.” He groaned, long, dramatic.

“You wanna come?” Your smile was playful. You pushed him towards the bathroom. He took it as a no. His hands lingered on you for as long as you let him. “I’ll be five minutes.”

“Scrub between your toes too T.”

“Yeah yeah.” He walked into the bathroom, waving. He hadn’t brought clothes in with him. He would either walk back out in the same outfit, defeating the purpose of the shower, or he’d walk out naked. You walked to the guest bedroom and grabbed some clothes for him, feeling Floyd’s eyes on you.

“How long do you think you guys will be staying?” he asked nervously. He could read Trevor but you were harder to understand. You seemed normal for the most part. He was worried you might blow up on him.

“Hopefully not long,” you promised. You could hear the water running so you opened the door.

“Ocupado!” Trevor called. You put his clothes on the sink.

“Wear these.”

“Is it lingerie?” You rolled your eyes and shut the door behind you.

“I’m sorry we crashed like this. Been a long time since we’ve seen each other.”

“He doesn’t exactly care for boundaries does he?”

“Don’t say that too loud Floyd,” you joked. You looked around. Everytime you entered this apartment it was slightly dirtier. You wondered what would happen when Debra returned, storming through the door. “We’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible,” you lied.

“Okay,” he muttered. He looked down at the table, smeared with pizza sauce and other substances he didn’t want to identify.

“Sorry about him. He’s just kinda..like that.”

“So you two haven’t seen each other in a long time?” he repeated. You nodded once.

“I thought he was dead. He thought I was dead. Life of crime is not for the faint of heart,” you said offhandedly. You wondered if you should run to your apartment and grab some clothes. You wondered how long Trevor planned on staying.

“Yeah I don’t think I wanna be involved,” he explained. You shrugged.

“Happens to the best of us.”

You walked into the guest bedroom to look around for some clothes of your own to change into. You tossed your phone on the sheets, noting the new contact in it. Michael De Santa. There was a text from him.

You looked at it from afar, like reading it through a squint would make it less real.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

That was it. He knew it had to be like this. You had told him. You had a text from Lester as well. His faceless contact made your phone screen bright.

It’s safer to stay out of this, was all he said. You rolled your eyes. When had you ever cared about how safe something was? Your bullet wound in the shoulder ached with the memories. You didn’t like being warned or being persuaded. You turned your phone around.

The bathroom door opened. You were standing beside the closet, moving aside some of Debra’s things. Thankfully she seemed to have brought most of it with her, wherever she went.

Trevor walked into the room, closing the door lightly behind him. You met his eyes. He was clean, wet from the humid water. Finally wearing clean clothes, sweatpants and a shirt. He dipped his head to kiss you like you were giving him his last breath.

“I wanna get married,” he muttered against your lips. He was leaning against the bed, his back legs flush with the sheets. You laughed. “I’m serious. It’s been too long. We would’ve done it ages ago.”

“Slow down cowboy.”

You gently pushed him onto the bed. He looked up at you with the most devoted eyes. You straddled him, pushing your hair so it was out of your face.

“Aren’t you wanted by the FIB?” you questioned. “You think they’re gonna sign our marriage certificate?”

“We can get an Elvis. Get drunk. Have a month long honeymoon.” His eyes wandered your body. His body reacted quickly to you being on top of him. The thought was alluring, you couldn’t lie.

“Okay,” you breathed, kissing him. “Later. We have all the time in the world now,” you promised. “I just wanna stay right…here.” He moaned as your lips nipped his ear.

“Whatever you want.”

#trevor philips x reader #trevor philips x fem!reader #michael de santa x reader #michael de santa x fem!reader #michael townley x fem!reader #gta imagines

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dinoshimaaa · 8 months

Text

some day, someone will like me like i like you. (pt 2)

this damned feeling. a curse laid upon him for all of eternity. unescapable, tormenting, torturing. first it was disappointment he felt in himself for succumbing to it. but that feeling of shame was soon washed away by the bliss that accompanied the fluttering feeling in his chest, its intensity so strong that it overpowered every other emotion in him, to the point that he only ever thinks and feels of you when you are near. what a shame that you do not feel the same. (feat. wanderer, tartaglia, lyney, gn! reader) (pt 1 here)

or: their heart will always be yours, but you…

(p.s. scara for @seveninchesfrominsanity 😎 and gingey for my best boro @souglias 😍 good luck to everyone on their child pulls!!!!!!!!)

(p.p.s. 8 year-old tartaglia refers to reader as a princess once, but it’s gender neutral otherwise + archon quest and lyney story quest spoilers)

the wanderer of sumeru is all but lovely. he is “hat guy”, the mysterious vahumana scholar who showed up out of nowhere just days ago, already gathering an infamous identity for being scornful and anti-social. he is lesser lord kusanali’s assistant, a thinly veiled title to mask the fact that he is a prisoner under her watch. many do not know him because he refuses to work in the spotlight, much like the acting grand sage, and those who do don’t always have the best impression of him.

and even lesser truly know of where he had come from: his mother who is raiden ei, his origins in tatarasuna, his affiliation with the fatui, his obsession with the electro gnosis, and what he once was to sumeru: a false god, a monster, the near-cause of the land of wisdom’s destruction.

but the lack of something will always be attracted to an abundance of something. you are nothing but lovely; the loveliest, if anyone had to say. you are dazzling and you are beautiful, turning heads towards you when you walk the street. you are kind and generous towards the stray kittens on treasure street, and cheerful and easygoing with the store owners when you visit them. people sing praises of you everywhere wanderer goes, and to say he hadn’t had his own experience with you was incorrect.

he remembers himself fighting wave after wave of fatui soldiers, and himself slowly getting more exhausted by the minute, when you came in like a saviour angel from above, plunging on the last of enemies with your bow. he recalls your hits being barely a fraction of how hard he can slice through an enemy, yet when you assisted in defeating those annoying fatui back then, you turned around and asked if he was okay with the brightest smile imaginable.

(to the traveler or nahida, he would’ve given a sarcastic reply. to any ordinary civilian, he would’ve ignored them and been on his way. that day, he recalls being utterly speechless, while the rising sun glows behind your head, giving you a halo, illuminating your smile further. you are the most radiant sight he has ever seen.)

he seeks you out secretly like a stray cat following the only kind soul who fed it milk. sometimes, he watches over you in the air, making sure you’re safe. other times he just observes your interactions with others, ever so relieved to see that you are loved by sumeru just as much as you have shown its people love. more often than not he catches himself drifting off to a dream filled with you, being flustered and ashamed of such pathetic behaviour. but sometimes he also gets too lost in his thoughts, melancholy overtaking his face when he thinks of the shining star that you are.

wanderer’s hands are decorated with filth and blood. they show, sometimes, after an exhausting fight with the fatui. in his peripheral vision, hallucinations of that kid, that blacksmith, and the doctor come and go. in the dead of night, when sumeru sleeps soundly and all that is to be heard are the rustling of leaves in the wind, wanderer looks at his shaking hands and closes them in a fist, wiping them harshly, trying to rub off the sins stained on them. he is a terrible person to others. he is a terrible person to himself.

he is not a lovely person. you are the embodiment of ‘lovely’ itself. he couldn’t possibly deserve to be with you, lest his filth and sinful hands taint your pure being. it would simply be unconscionable for someone like him; damaged past, wreck and ruin, an empty soulless shell, to be close to your brightness. no one, not even himself, would forgive him if he were to ruin who you are: sumeru’s loveliest, the one who loves sumeru, and the one whom sumeru loves.

it is yet another night of watching you enter your house safely, staring at your front door for a few moments more before heading back to his residence (nevermind that he was the one to clear all the enemies in your path ahead, while you weren’t seeing). if nahida ever pointed out the lingering fond look in his eyes, or if the traveler teased him about having a possible crush on someone, there would be no need to blush madly and scamper away like a schoolgirl, for he knows that there is zero chance of “us” with him and you.

there are many fairy tales that are popular in morepesok village, most of which ajax have heard in his childhood many times. his distant memories include his mother, still youthful and full of smiles, reading him one of such fairy tales to lull him to sleep. he remembers her warm caress, the pulling of a quilt over his tiny body, and the soft flicker of the candle beside his mother, waiting to be blown out for the night. he also remembers you, his childhood best friend, his sleepover buddy, his other half, tucked into bed right next to him. if he searched hard enough, he might find some candid pictures of you and him, cuddled next to each other in the bed, in his childhood home.

“so then, the prince and the princess ended up happily ever after again?” 8 year-old ajax yawned, a sleepy smile on his face.

“they did, again,” his mother’s warm chuckle resonates throughout the room, through his ears, into his heart. he stores her laugh like a cassette tape in his memory, wanting to play it over and over again in the future.

“i can’t imagine a fairy tale where the prince and princess don’t end up together,” you murmured beside ajax, as his mother tucked the two of you in.

“that should be us, then,” ajax turned to face you and grinned, “so we’ll never be apart. let’s pinky promise that you’ll always be the princess and i’ll always be the prince!”

“why do i have to be your princess?” you complained, only to be shushed by ajax’s mother before she blew the candle out, signalling the end of pillow talk and the start of dreamland.

(all three of you knew it was impossible for you and ajax to be completely silent after lights out. the giggles that progressively get louder and harder after his mother leaves the room are testament to that.

this time, however, ajax is deadly silent, and you reach out to cup his face to ask what’s wrong.)

“sorry,” ajax holds the hand you cupped his cheek with. “you don’t have to be the princess, it’s okay. but i want to be your prince. i want to rescue you from the bad guys and defeat bad guys in your name. i’ll even do a pinky promise to prove it.”

even though you don’t give him a verbal answer, you hold his hand as he sleeps. it brings enough reassurance to 8 year-old ajax.

such peaceful times are unreachable now, ever since he fell.

ajax has not seen you for ten years. you have seen tartaglia for none.

when he returns, his familiar fluff of ginger hair in front of your doorstep, you have to do a double take. gone is the scrawny boy you knew, that got sick after every ice fishing trip, and cried over the smallest of scratches; in front of you now stands a fearsome harbinger, the tsaritsa’s vanguard, a killing machine with no life in his eyes.

(that is not ajax, any longer. that is tartaglia. that is a fatui harbinger. where is your ajax?)

you cannot bring yourself to smile when he presents you with a bouquet of pink roses, despite how beautifully preserved and fragrant they are. your heart doesn’t soften even when he greets your parents politely, plays with your siblings, cooks your family dinner, and helps with the dishes. that is not ajax whom you’ve let into your home, in contrast to what the rest of your family believes. that is a stranger who has intruded your safe space.

it hurts childe more than it hurts you to be on the receiving end of haunted eyes and hostile stares. he knows that he is vastly different from the childhood best friend he was to you ten years ago, and no matter what he does now, you will always see him as tartaglia, childe, the vanguard. you love ajax, but ajax is who he once was. ajax had been forced to throw himself away to survive. it wasn’t his fault that ajax is dead, but he cannot blame you for defiantly wanting your ajax back.

so when he kneels in front of you, the snowy wind feeling a lot more colder than usual, he ignores the way your hands tense when he holds it. he wants to cry when you attempt to pull your hand away even though he kisses it as gently as gentle can be. if an outsider were to witness this, they’d call this a romantic scene, between a prince and his beloved. but both you and ajax know that the fairy tale you yearned for in your childhood is completely unreachable now.

(“give me back my ajax.”)

(“i’m sorry.”)

to say that the great magician lyney is fully authentic in his shows would be a bit of a stretch, for he is an actor on the stage before he is a magician, however hard or long he may rehearse the day before the show. every smile had been sculpted and practised for hours until it was deemed perfect enough to be seen by his audience. needless to say, ‘the great magician lyney’ is merely a farce, an identity of its own. he wishes not to confuse that lyney with ‘fatui lyney’ and just ‘lyney’.

you were just supposed to be another face in the audience, an unsuspecting fellow he was meant to charm, attract, and never remember the face of. but you show up to a show once, then twice, then thrice, and soon you become a familiar face that lyney notices in the audience every now and then.

(that’s what lyney says, at least. lynette knows that he secretly seeks out your face behind the curtains, and the moment he finds you, his smile widens a tad bit, and his voice is a little cheerier as he steps out on stage.

by the way, since when did he start using rainbow roses in his performances? ugh, darn charlotte.)

but it is not easy to always be just ‘lyney’ with you, for he is called to be the great magician by day, and fatui by night. rarely is there time given to him to be his true self in front of you, to let the curtains fall and the farce fade. you can’t remember the last time he was allowed to let his shoulders slump, his face be bare of makeup, and his head rest under your chin as you kissed his tears.

and it seems you won’t be seeing those ever again.

lyney feels his blood run cold the moment father mentions your name in a mission, so casually, almost as if she had let your name slip out of her lips innocently and accidentally, if he hadn’t known any better. but lyney has been her loyal servant, her ‘favourite child’ for years, and he knows that the mere mention of your name is but a warning to him.

“i seem to be craving coffee recently. no one brews it quite as well as [name] does, i fear,” is what the knave says.

that person seems to be distracting you. i will eliminate them soon, is what she means.

lyney cannot afford to let anymore people close to him get hurt. his parents, who passed when he was very young… lynette, whose life had been endangered too many times to count… cesar, who taught him everything and treated him with love even in just ten days…

you shouldn’t need to fall into the same trend as well. your life is peaceful, precious, and untainted unlike his. so, it should remain untouched. and lyney decides that this is when he does what he has to do.

on the day that you return home and see lumidouce bells on your doorstep instead of lyney, you feel your heart plummet to your stomach. your gut turns and folds nastily, and stars increasingly flood your vision while a silent plea rings in your head, but there is nothing logical that refutes the contents of the letter that lyney had left you. that is all you have left of him.

the rest is to be expected. feeling betrayed and abandoned, you lose all feelings for lyney, not wanting to be associated with him again. his gifted trinkets left in your house are all thrown out. you can’t look at a magic show advertisement for more than two seconds. it takes only a little while to get over this heartbreak, but once you are fully free of all emotional attachment to lyney, you never think about him and his rainbow roses ever again.

lyney’s plan goes exceptionally well. of course it does; it was as meticulously planned as all his performances are. he returns to the house later that night to report back to father, submitting his response to her threats weeks ago: [name] is nothing to me now. hence, you cannot hurt them.

(however successful his plan was, he cannot bring himself to smile in response to the knave’s satisfied one.)

later, on the same night, when he slips out of the house, he finds himself wandering towards the place where he usually picks his rainbow roses from. a gentle pluck, a flick of his hand; a lumidouce bell takes its place instead. he smiles at his own trick bitterly, before pressing his lips to the blue flower and intertwining another rainbow rose with it.

a moment of hesitation comes, followed by a few minutes of uneasy pacing, until lyney makes the decision to squeeze the petals with his gloved hand. the crumpled pink and blue petals fall to the ground. lyney only gazes as they do so.

(he wishes he could do the same to his own heart, but that is barely a fraction of how he made you feel. he will look for more ways to punish himself, then.)

#CAN YOU BELIEVE FEIYUE POSTED AGAIN. WHAT #DURING EXAM SEASON TOO ❓❓❓❓🔥🔥🔥🔥#genshin #genshin impact #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #lyney #lyney x reader #childe #tartaglia #childe x reader #tartaglia x reader #scaramouche #wanderer #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #dawg why all these fatui bitches have so many names

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quillthrillswriting · 10 days

Text

sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?

yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.

also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"

this idea was originally inspired by the talented @allgremlinart's aged up aang drawings, so please go show them some love!!:)<3

enjoy the excerpts from chapters one and two!

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Aang chuckled, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees. He was… taller than Katara had realised, taller than Sokka. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, turning to look over his shoulder at the remains of the boulder-sized chunk of ice he had just been blasted out of. “Aang. My name’s Aang.” He hesitated, momentarily seeming to puzzle something over. “And honestly? No clue. Don’t remember how me and…Appa!” He yelped, suddenly scrambling back over the hill of ice and snow. Katara followed him without thinking, and Sokka, grumbling under his breath, followed moments later.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”

“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare.

“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.

“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”

“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before.

“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly !”

Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on.

She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more.

“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”

Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought .”

“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo.

“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”

“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.”

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Aang smiled back. “Now is our time to try to make up for that. I can’t bring back everyone who was hurt in this war, and you can’t bring back your mother, but together, the two-, three of us can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“I’d like that,” Katara exhaled, her breath calming down and tears dissipating. The two spent hours talking back and forth, exchanging the stories of their respective childhoods. Katara learned that Aang had invented several new bending moves and had been a big fan of fruit pies, while Aang learned that Katara had always been the bossier one between her and Sokka and that she had almost chipped a tooth on seal jerky when she was six. They continued talking back and forth in increasingly hushed tones until the world faded away under the cover of clouds and sleep.

Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother.

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them.

“Ouch, Sokka !” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously.

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

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danmeiconfession · 3 months

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No. I think Shen Yuan never really see these people as people even at the ends of the book. My dude really condemned Shen Jiu a modern man really gave no shit or felt any sorrow towards his enslavement and abuse. I read a fully grown man with modern sensibilities and values watch a child being horrifically abused. A child that was ENSLAVED, restrained, beaten, TORTURED by another man, an OWNER. And I read SY's thoughts on the matter. Read him condemning the child and feeling no horror or disgust at the act of child abuse. He felt nothing regarding the immorality and cruelty of slavery. Hell, When ZZL murdered GYX who was only ever just, kind, and helpful in all his interactions and to SY himself, I was upset SY seemed to feel nothing and felt no censure towards ZZL or sadness or guilt towards GYX who was trying to save him. But I excused it as him having other things to do because maybe for SY, it's easier for him to just push aside feelings over someone's death to focus on other things (though I was unnerved that he never seemed to think of it again or care).

SY intentionally condoned the murder of dozens of individuals to save his own skin, and never wrestled with his conscience over it. While SJ's self-hatred is detrimental to himself and those around him, at least he struggles emotionally and morally with his decisions. He still does them, but at least he doesn't excuse them or not even feel guilt or shame. SY however is completely shameless in doing whatever it takes to live. I honestly find characters like this interesting, but I found SY's character to be lacking because the author wanted him to be a self-centered survivalist while also a sweet, holy mother/mentor figure to LBH. That's a BL trope I usually find tedious and boring, especially because authors never have said overly kind, overly forgiving characters be kind to anyone accept a handful of characters who are plot relevant (sometimes even only the ML or villain) while they treat every other character as air or cardboard.

I was so convinced of SY's point of view on the original characters and novel, that I kept making excuses as SVSS unfolded. When he recounted the scheming and murdering of Sha Hauling in PIDW while fanboying over how excited he was to see her, I excused it as him not realizing the gravity of her crimes when they're committed against living people. And once he decided she wasn't that great and LBH deserved better, I was assured, even though he seemed to only do so because she was rude to himself. When he celebrated O!LBH's torture and mutilation of SJ for bullying him in his teen years and even called for SJ's castration, I excused it because who doesn't want to see an evil pedophile get what they deserve, and fans can get overly enthusiastic sometimes, even if calling for slow, multi-year mutilation and torture is a bit extreme even if LBH is your favorite characte

It seems a lot SJ haters like to excuse LBH's behavior the way they claim SJ fans excuse SJ's. LBH was the poor kid and bullied by kids in the neighborhood, then singled out and bullied at his school, before being treated to the abyss where he utilized the training he received at CQ and his innate demon heritage to establish himself. In PIDW, he proceeds to commit large scale mass murder, borderline genocide, destroy the human realms sects and defenses against spiritual and demonic threats, all why gruesomely maiming, torturing, dismembering, disemboweling, and feeding alive anyone he disliked. Uhhhh... disproportionate, much. Bitch slap and shame people if you want, but O!LBH is a monstrous, self-centered, sadistic freak show. He goes far beyond a victim of abuse reacting with anger and defensiveness. He controls the lives and wellbeing of all the people in the realms, and repeatedly makes time to find enjoyment in the torture, pain, and suffering of others on a scale he had never experienced himself. Meanwhile, SVSS!LBH still decided to start widespread violent capture of cultivators to date Xin Mo while SY was out of the picture only sparing CQ because he knew once SY was brought back, SY would be upset with him if he did. He shows no care for anyone else, human or demon, in the world of SVSS besides SY. His only regards for others are as useful allies and subordinates, enemies, and people he knows SY would lightly scold and admonish him for killing. LBH is fucked up in every universe, whether he gets bullied at school, or his teacher turns him into a live in homemaker.

At best, I could excuse this as SY not seeing other people as actual people. Maybe because he read about them as fictional characters first, he can't fully perceive them as humans, just characters, not as real people like him and SQH. Maybe he made an exception for LBH because LBH is his favorite character. But that care and regard clearly don't extend to anyone else.

I have no idea where people get the idea he sees them as real he doesn't. I couldn't care about a protagonist who didn't react with shock or horror or even just resigned sadness to child slavery. I couldn't give a shit about his romance anymore. I stopped reading. To be clear, I don't hate SY, or even his type of character. I'm just disappointed because I went into SVSS thinking I'd be getting a cute, sweet, slightly stupid, modern nerd flailing though a comedic romance full of ridiculous misunderstandings and pitfalls. It turned out, I got a self-centered, apathetic fanboy simultaneously stalking while trying to avoid and stay on the good side of his mentally unstable, over powered idol. Which I've actually read before too, but at least the author wasn't forcing every other character to remark on how sweet, kind, and good the fanboy who cared about nothing but his favorite character was.

Clearly, his anti-abuse philosophy only extended to LBH and no other child. He felt nothing regarding the immorality and cruelty of slavery." The hypocrisy displayed by SY is astonishing. It's fascinating how SY condemns child abuse, expressing concern for Binghe's mistreatment, yet dismisses Binghe's daily killings over five years to control Xin Mo as a consequence of past abuse. There's an apparent double standard. Moreover, in the same breath, witnessing SJ's appalling abuse, SY downplays its impact, suggesting that SJ's mistreatment doesn't excuse his transformation into a reprehensible individual. SY seems to overlook the scumbag-like behavior, focusing instead on SJ's skills, status, beauty, hard work, and wealth.

Why do people like this character lol?

#svsss #scumbag self saving system #shen qingqiu #shen jiu #shen yuan #luo binghe #scumbag system #zhuzhi lang #shang qinghua

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new-ronantics · 2 years

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i don’t think people realize that at this point it’s much more important for queer stories to be shown in a positive light than it is to portray them “realistically”.

(there’s also an issue in the idea that queer characters/couples not suffering 24/7 is inherently unrealistic, but that’s another can of worms.)

there are plenty of “realistic” queer love stories out there. we get it. most queer people lead miserable lives, never get happy endings, and are generally shunned from society, right? we know this. we see it all the time. we experience it. i’d like to think that we’ve come far enough to say that representation is no longer just about queer people being included—it’s also about depicting them in a way that’s somehow meaningful, fulfilling, and—dare i say—hopeful.

is will’s self-hatred, shame, and overall reluctance to come out to anyone a realistic portrayal of the experience of being a closeted gay kid in the 80s? yes, of course it is. nobody thinks it isn’t. the problem is that, ultimately, this is a TV show with a narrative. it’s supposed to tell a story, and a good one at that.

my question is this: what does will having unrequited feelings for his (supposedly) straight best friend do for the narrative? what does it do to develop any characters involved? the answer is nothing. it does absolutely nothing. it’s just another unnecessary tragic ending for a queer character who’s already suffered beyond belief. will’s arc could have easily been separate from mike’s; it could have been all about self-acceptance and gaining confidence in his identity, but this is very pointedly the route they didn’t choose, and that is why queer people are upset by the path vol 2 went down.

to watch a gay kid’s feelings be used as a prop to push the main heterosexual couple back together is humiliating. to see a lesbian watch as her crush kisses her shock-factor boyfriend is humiliating. it’s like it’s being rubbed in our faces—hey, look, people like you will never be happy! haha!

that’s not the representation we need anymore. it’s not impactful or satisfying or new, it’s just depressing. realism only matters so much in a sci-fi horror/drama, and i’ve honestly never seen so many people bitch and moan about realism until the conversation was about queer characters finding happiness.

so no, queer people are not just sad because their ship didn’t become canon. that is not what this is about. pay more attention, please.

#to any queer people who enjoy the storylines of these characters/feel seen by them: good! i’m glad something good has come from this #this is just the way i see it and an attempt to explain why so many people are unhappy with vol 2 #i could say a lot more but unfortunately i am stupid #byler #will byers #robin buckley #mike wheeler #stranger things #st4 spoilers

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absolutebl · 2 years

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Love in the Air & also the smell of burning trash

MAME’s adaptation of her novels “Love Storm” (พายุรักโถมใจ) and “Love Sky” (พระพายหมายฟ้า) this is a duology focusing on two different couples and their storylines.

Well, fuck me.

This is your fault tumblr and I blame all y’all entirely. But yes, guess what this is?

Well, it’s me flouncing, but apart from that?

Another MAME dumpster fire marshmallow roasting trash watch.

Some of you even begged for it. Or maybe if I’m a MAME character, you didn’t beg for it but I’m gonna gaslight you into thinking you did and then ruthlessly kiss your neck.

Look. I DON”T KNOW WHAT’S GONG ON EITHER.

Good start, ABL.

Real good start.

You see what this show is doing to me already?

Fortunately for the few of you who like unconsenting trash-watch neck kisses, and unfortunately for the rest of you, the opening of this bloody show made me realize that I had to do a trash watch.

Take the neck kisses.

Take ‘em and like ‘em.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Episode 1 - WHHHHYYYYYY???????

The longest establishing shot in the history of establishing shots, Kubrik take notes.

And what is it focused on? The gayest bridge in Thailand! (okay maybe not, but it looks a lot like it)

Did the overdramatic music make me laugh? Yes it did.

My brain on BL figuring out what is being trafficked inside those 3 big trucks.

A bunch of acoustic guitars?

Vats of pink milk?

Stacks of white towels and plastic bowls?

MAME’s morals, value system, and taste?

I’m a motorcycle rider and I’m still disappointed they were full of motorcycles.

Speaking of which, is anyone reminded of the trailer for that one Thai BL called Motorcycles from years ago? It never got made.

Cute meet cute in the rain with the umbrella. Styling trope drops, actually.

Takes me back it does...

Can’t knock MAME’s meet cutes.

Just everything else.

The Characters

Rain = Random assholery disguised as tsundere + flirting + homophobia wee. Also kinda stupid, dramatic, and slightly cute.

Matched with P’Phayu = a bisexual predator-slut (TM) because MAME can’t leave THAT one to dry for one fucking show. Bonus seme points for eyebrows even more aggressive than he is.

I like Sky = snarky bestie with solid moral compass and epic eye rolls. Maybe she’ll let him be cool? (Oh noes, I said something, he’s doomed.)

Random bratty kid in the seat behind Sky = I have seen that actor before, damn it. WHERE? OMG it’s Dr. Sing from Triage!

Look I’m beginning to get slightly weirded out over the age jumping Thai actors do.

He’s in high school,

he is an office,

he’s in uni,

he’s a doctor,

he’s back in high school.

Are MaxTul the only ones allowed to grow up?

Okay, grow up = wrong term entirely. Whatever. Don’t distract me with MaxTul, where was I?

Right, instead let’s talk MewGulf. Anyone else think MAME is gunning for that pairing style with this lead couple? PhayuRain giving me... vibes of the TharnType variety, shall we say? Not exactly, of course. So maybe not vibes, more sort of squint your eyes wiggles target practice?

Back to the... episode.

I’m losing the plot already. Fortunately for me, said plot is pretty banal, but what do I expect?

Also the pacing is odd. Things are moving physically faster than they should, but with no real establishing emotional connection. Again normal for MAME. It’s either emotional chemistry drawn out as unnecessary angst over the whole show, or physical chemistry shoved in your face like a wet waffle with an attitude problem.

I don’t know enough Thai slang to know if the double asshole entendre was on purpose with this dialogue.

But if it was, it might actually be the greatest line ever executed in a BL.

And I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for thinking that.

Get it? Ass-shamed.

To conclude:

Screw all you all, I’m dragging you down with me into this hell (ass)hole. And since I highly doubt there will be lube, this is gonna burn like the dumpster fire it is.

I refuse to take responsibility for anything I say or do around this dumb show, it’s @fandomwithjoy ‘s fault.

Episode 2 - in which I do some actual analysis about VO work as victim blaming and then get distracted by spankings and scoop neck t-shirts

Serious moment of film studies?

Do I think we are getting Rain’s voiceover (narration track AKA VO) because otherwise it’s too dub-con and this is MAME trying to avoid complaints? YES I DO. Basically we get Rain’s thoughts during the “almost rape” stuff so MAME can say:

“See? He actually wants it.”

Look, here’s the thing about having a character VO narrate anything, it’s clumsy. It smacks of not trusting the audience (to be clever enough to follow the story) or the actors (to be good enough to transmit the emotion) or the genre (to convey the world building in a show not tell manner). That’s why so many in the film industry are against it. (See the Bladerunner VO controversy.)

Do many of my favorite BLs do it? (Cough cough.. JAPAN.) Yes. But then I’m not as against it as many because I like super complex world building and I don’t mind some lazy technique in the pursuit of audience comprehension. Also yaoi was all about head hopping.

HOWEVER, I’ve never seen voiceover work used as an excuse for portraying dubious content before. Essentially this show is doing a victim blame version of VO.

Ballsy of you, MAME. VERY ballsy.

I don’t know if I should be impressed or appalled.

Typical.

The thing about MAME is, regardless of anything else you know you’re going to have a lot to talk about. I suppose that’s why she always summons a trash watch.

Quick add from the future:

I went off on Takara & Amagi because they manage to use VO to directly combat dubcon (or at least the issues with BL that lead to dubcon) in a GOOD way. So if you’re intersted in this technique working, you should 1. be watching that show and 2. read this post about it.

No booze tonight but that’s only because allowing BL to drive you to drink once a week is expected, but twice? That’s just schedule mismanagement.

So next week I might delay Unforgotten Night for Thursdays and just decree:

Thursdays = BOOZEY BADGAYDAY!

Trashlush Thursdays?

Eh, I’m more creative when I’m drunk.

Moving on to the new ep.

It’s a weird quirk of Thai that no matter what, they will not believe that work is not pluralized in English these days.

Every time it’s translated plural I think of little Victorian maiden aunts doing good works for their community, knitting, or darning, or tatting.

And now I’m picturing Payu draped fiber arts.

Back to Daddy Payu...

No.

I can’t.

He just doesn’t give daddy vibes. Bad boy vibe = yes, daddy = no.

Back to P’Payu disciplining his bad boy in the bathroom.

With... erm, neck breathing, I guess?

Still, oddly sexy.

Also... RESULT. Rain used polite (submissive) language.

Am I taken with the idea of Domming for linguistics? YES I AM.

Shall we try?

Nong Thailand, NO MORE “works” FOR YOU!

I will now breathe heavily on your neck until you stop sticking that “s” on the end.

Nope, that didn’t work. Works. Ha!

Question: Who the hell is directing this? It feels like Tee’s work but he’s not listed on MDL. ***

Look the thing about bratty militant tsunderes without reason like Rain (or Type for that matter) is I fail to see why anyone likes him or wants to be friends with him, let alone fuck him. Fuck with him, sure. But he’s not hot enough to get over a bad personality.

Sky deserves better friends!

The seme’s race track consult. Nods in the general direction of Cutie Pie, like anyone could out-seme Zee and Max, are they cray cray? Body language alone.

But could we talk about the sound in this not-Cutie Pie seme-conspiracy scene? It is so SO BAD. They just what? Hooked up some cheap-ass wireless mics during a wind storm and thought, why bother looping? Flipping heck. MAME’s got money, this is insulting,

Moving on swiftly please.

Poor Sky, abandoned by his so-called friend to be (presumably) seduced by greasy motorcycle dude with bad sound tech. (Yes I think that’s where they meet but we won’t see it until their section, which I’m guessing will be in the second half of the series. I believe we got a Star & Sky approach happening here.)

And now...

Slap that baby, make him scream!

(10 points to the first elder goth who gets the reference.)

But also...

A spanking!

I had to, okay.

To my knowledge this is the first spanking scene in BL (Japan doesn’t go in for spankings as a rule, everything else of course). Thus Monty Python is required on such an august occasion.

This is a serious, hallmarked event in the history of the genre.

Heh he. Hall...marked. Get it?

Okay, I did find it cute that Payu chose a scoop-neck T for his boy, clearly we got a neck fetish going on.

That’s it.

That’s all I got. It was what it was, I’m not mad about it, just a little... okaaaayyyy. It’s MAME, no whiff of consent shall there be. I’m not excusing it but dub-con has just GOT to be her kink.

Gotta go, works are waiting.

*** Spies reported in:

Apparently the director is Neti Suwanjinda. He's new to BL who previously seems only to have done short films and music videos. Prior to that, he was bassist in the 2000s rock band Am Fine. Good times.

NO SINGING

Episode 3 - Linguistic Domination is a Go!

am one and a half glasses of wine in and ready to do this thing!

Sky is the best boy and also kinda a little shit. Good combo. Like red wine and dark chocolate.

Sky, are you trying to remind us that there is meant to be a plot?

Please don’t.

I love how they called out English 3rd person gendered pronouns in one tricky little scene.

THAI LINGUISTICS DOMINATION CORNER!

Okay so when he is being polite Rain uses Phi/pom + krap (with he full roll).

When he not being polite he still uses phi but he’s slipping in wa (instead of na, which makes it rude and informal) and not using krap at all (which makes it curt and impolite).

So the little training session was about particle use.

Cute.

Then we got a date, I was very distracted by interesting food choices ordered off that menu, and am mad we did not get a good shot of the table after they were served the dishes.

I’m starting to get tsundere Can vibes from Rain, and tsundere Tharn vibes from Payu. Not sure what that means except MAME only has about 6 character personalities she rotates though. We kinda knew that already.

Well, this is BL.

OH WAIT, is Sky gonna be like a snarky Pete character? Wouldn’t that be grand?

And Dr Sing is playing the Techno of this drama. As always: never enough Techno.

I’m not gonna explain that statement, it’s like 5 BLs deep.

All in all not a bad episode (not a good one, either).

Shoulda had more spanking, tho. And more wine.

Ooo, wine!

Meanwhile:

I just realized the actor playing Payu kinda reminds me of Seonghwa from Ateez and now I can’t stop imagining him in a cropped shirt and vinyl, and it’s BAD people.

Episode 4 - I just... ARGH

Payu is just such a manipulative hot/cold arse. I don’t even like Rain and I think it’s cruel the way Payu jerks him around. You don’t train someone up and then abandon them for any reason. Payu is really pissing me off.

Their chemistry is good though. That age old agony with MAME.

I am going to state for the record that no one deserves Sky. Sky is too good for this show let alone his friends or boyfriends. MAME should leave my precious Sky ALONE. Sky is best cinnamon roll ever frosted.

Meanwhile, cruel or not, I guess Payu’s training technique is working. I just wish it had been negotiated. I think I’d really like this show if they’d had a five sentence kink convo verbal contract in ep 1.

It’s a dangerous game that we play

when we seek to rewrite MAME

for the characters stick

to just one pony trick

only chemistry will save the day

Although I’m not sure ‘bout that sex scene.

no opening condoms with teeth, I don’t care how sexy

no one can one-hand a glove that fast, not even a pro

no lube and no prep?

Look I’m just gonna pretend Payu was riding, makes me feel better about everything. Then I can pretend he took care of the necessities ahead of time. Or maybe it was just frotting?

Episode 5 - In which MAME as officially ruined my favorite thing

I’m not drunk but I am jet lagged and that’s almost the same thing.

I see why they don’t have the seme actor with his hair down often, he looks way too young.

Oh dear, baby was caught in the rain. Baby got sick. This is BL. Bound to happen.

The horsing around flirty boyfriends is VERY cute.

I didn’t get any more from the meeha bits than was translated. My stuff on wifey language in Thai BL is here.

These two are good kissers but it’s getting to be a lot of kissing.

Sky puts up with epic amounts of shit.

I guess MAME is preparing him for his own story line?

Get it?

Moving swiftly on from my crassness.

Also Sky, baby, your friend was silly long before he got a faen.

Oh yay!!!! A counter lift! That’s almsot as good as a spanking!

Hooray!

WAIT.

What is this?

NO SINGING.

I now know the only time I don’t love a counter lift is WHEN IT IS COMBINED WITH SINGING.

MAME has ruined my favorite thing!

(To be fair she’s been ruining perfectly good BL for ages now, so I guess she already was ruining my favorite thing... gah, where was i?)

A perfectly lovely counter lift mutilated by acapella.

I feel like I should write an ode, or a dirge. But I wouldn’t ruin your day by singing it.

OMG I’M SO UPSET RIGHT NOW.

Don’t laugh, I can see you laughing.

I’m spiraling into a deep depression as a result of counter lifting Thai soloists.

There will be nightmares. I tell you. Nightmares.

I should have been drinking.

Stupid MAME. It was actually a perfectly serviceable episode.

Until the singing.

I’m going to bed now.

Episode 6 - We Are Now Calling this show “The Taming of the Screw”

And by “we” I mean me. And you can’t stop me. Can never stop the bad puns, for they MUST live!

(source)

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misspickman · 2 months

Note

“Will you stay with me? Tonight? I just— I’d feel better knowing you’re near.” make those bitches vulnerable

If anyone could explain the counterintuitive nature of the mind, Kon would listen, carefully, then disregard every bit of it. It would eat at him but ultimately he would not learn from it, as is the story of his life. It frustrated him to no end, and it made changing the habits he'd grown into no easier.

He'd just about made out a Tim-shaped figure at the door as the sudden light filled out the room. As the light hit, so did Kon's headache. He groaned and covered his face with one of Tim's many pillows scattered about the bed.

Tim startled, slow and unusually jumpy in his movements. Would you look at that? Kon was starting to sound like the resident Bat himself. Maybe there was some merit to watching Tim work, aside from getting to stare at his scrunched up face.

A second later he heard the soft click of the light switch again. He heaved a sigh, but stayed underneath the pillow, part for the dramatic effect, part because it actually made him feel better in some messed up placebo way.

He could hear Tim shuffling around the room, taking his suit off, his boots, all the while trying his best to keep it as quiet as possible. It didn't work but Kon could appreciate the thought. As the sounds of hard kevlar and leather hit the floor in a heap, the musky smell of sweat filled the room.

“Why are you in my room?” Tim asked, voice muffled and too loud.

“Bart is running laps upstairs and playing on his DS. Loudly.” Each one of his steps was like thrown pebbles making ripples in the water, if pebbles were sharp and hateful and ripples made your head scream in agony.

“That doesn't explain why you're in my room.”

Why was he? Kon's room was lead isolated for this exact purpose, keeping him cocooned from the onslaught of noises that scraped his brain raw at times like this. Kon's room also held the generally helpful set of noise cancelling headphones Tim had gotten for him. None of that mattered when Kon didn't want to be in his room.

He shrugged, and said matter-of-factly, “I didn't want to start the next Halloween movie without you.”

Tim groaned; a loud, guttural sound that Kon followed with a stifled whine. Even though it must have been obvious at this point, he didn't want Tim too aware of his problem. Kon liked to pretend he wasn't as transparent as he knew he was. He didn't enjoy it, but it was a matter of necessity for his survival.

The springs of his bed creaked as Tim sat down, the warm skin of his thigh brushing against Kon's feet. Internally Kon cursed himself for his depravity that made him overly aware of the fact that his friend was half naked right now, next to him, as if they hadn't seen each other in similar states of undress before. Even then Tim had been particularly touchy about this sort of thing; nakedness, intimacy, and who was Kon to preach to him? He had even less of a normal relationship with both. That only made him appreciate the moments when Tim was too exhausted to care about propriety.

Too bad he had a pillow over his face. Peeking over it would only make him more obvious and desperate. The older they got, the less excuses they had for being sort-of-undressed in front of each other. They were no longer clingy kids who hung off of each other half the time they spent together—mostly they weren't, at least. Kon didn't feel much different from the gangly sixteen year old he used to be. Except now, he knew why his eyes would linger on Tim when he'd pull his shirt over his head and his back muscles moved and made Kon's brain go huh.

Not that he was looking for excuses to see his buddy naked. He only appreciated them when they showed up, then felt strongly shamed by them.

“I'm not staying the night,” Tim said, and sunk Kon's heart. He made a pitiful little noise. “Don't whine. I have stuff to take care of.”

“Yeah,” Kon grumbled, “me.”

He could imagine the pointed arch of Tim's eyebrow. Hell, he could hear it in his voice. “I thought you were fine.”

And he was. Mainly. The magic bullet only grazed him, and the whole situation was honestly more ridiculous than anything else, barely endangering. Who the fuck makes a magic gun? People need to get their gimmicks together.

Just a graze still landed him at medbay, and he bitched at Tim the entire time there. Tim gave back as good as he got, proud and unbothered, while Kon was very much bothered.

“I am,” he admitted. But two could play this game. Kon had watched Tim fight and flinch each time he stepped wrong or swung his staff too hard. He wasn't an idiot. “How are you doing?”

For a moment Tim fell silent, thrown off. “I'm… okay? What?”

“I saw you limping,” Kon said, feeling just a bit guilty for acting smug about noticing something like this. It was not the sort of remark Tim could take lightly. “Did you sprain something?”

He knew Tim didn't. He was offering him an out, sort of, because he knew an active injury would be easier to admit to than a constant not-so passive pain. Tim liked to think he was pretty sleek, too.

“No,” he denied, as Kon assumed he would. “You're deflecting.”

“I don't want you to leave.”

Tim was easy to disarm with staunch vulnerability, not because he didn't believe it was there, but because he didn't know how to throw it back in your face. He could bicker with the best of them but if Kon offered some honesty and outright asked what he wanted, Tim found it impossible to say no.

“Me being here won't help with your headache,” Tim said. “Actually, it will only make it worse.”

That was true. Well, mostly. The constant movements and sounds every functioning body made would only add to the sum of it all, but it would help because Kon wanted him here.

Gently, Tim added, “You also probably shouldn't be staring at screens if your head hurts.”

How damn hypocritical was it of Tim to be dolling out preachy advice about being careful with your pains when he himself was planning to go jumping rooftops? “Don't tell me what to do.”

The headaches had been Kon's company for as long as he could remember using his powers, not Tim's. That, and the occasional thought of knocking his skull open that he entertained from time to time, were sources of momentary comfort. Didn't do much else, but he felt lighter with the ability to turn the pain in on himself twice folded.

“Would it kill you to accept help?” Tim asked.

“I am accepting your help. In the form of you sitting your ass down and watching the rest of this movie with me.”

Tim's eyebrow twitched. “I thought you didn't want to start it without me.”

He didn't, but it had taken Tim so long to get here and Kon desperately needed some horror movie shaped comfort if he was already lacking the friend shaped kind.

He rolled over on his back and lifted his arms in Tim's direction, in some form of a mocking plea. “I'm only five minutes in. Our friend Michael hasn't even showed up. Come on, man.”

“I don't even like those movies.”

Kon lifted the pillow off his face and looked at Tim, at his pale, fallen face and his unfocused eyes. His hair was half tied up and half falling around his face in oily strands. Kon thought he really, really needed a shower and a nap. He said none of that, only looked at him and hoped that he made a sad, pathetic sight.

“You don't have to watch. Will you just stay with me?” he asked, pleading; more sincere than he'd like to admit. “I’d feel better knowing you’re near.”

A flash of shock ran across Tim's face before he steeled it back to some semblance of a careful neutrality. It might have worked on someone less Tim-experienced, but it did not work on Kon.

“Don't be dramatic,” Tim muttered.

“I'm not,” Kon insisted. He stretched out one of his legs and folded a grimace. “A bullet grazed my poor ankle, you know. Ouch. It hurts so bad and I'd feel so much better if my mean friend stayed here and watched a movie with me.”

He could see Tim's apprehension at being called mean, even if he had to know Kon was just pulling his leg. Guilt tripping him. Same thing.

Tried and true process; it worked like magic.

“I know you're fine,” Tim said as he settled more comfortably on his portion of the bed. Kon saw how slow he moved, for Tim. Careful movements, aware of the spots where it hurt and how not to aggravate them. “Your poor patient play is not fooling me.”

Kon gasped. “How cruel. How mean! You'd be so harsh with your friend when he's suffering an ailment so severe?”

“Stop it,” Tim said, grumbly, but with a smile.

The wound stung a bit still. If Kon were smart, or any less stubborn, he would have sat in the Sun for an hour or two to get himself in top shape again. It sounded almost too easy when he thought of it that way. The Sun though, in a funny turn of events, hurt his eyes whenever he got like this, and didn't need more direct stimulants to make his life hell.

A bit of a sting on the surface was such a ridiculous little thing that it felt unnecessary to mention, especially when he knew well enough that if Tim got a whiff of it he'd get all up in his head about lingering magic effects and so on and so on, and it would take the rest of the night to shut him up. Kon didn't want that for either of them. He didn't want to end up back in medbay and he didn't want Tim stressed over nothing.

He balanced Tim's laptop on the edge of the bed. It made his headache spike, and got him squinting, but the movie wasn't going to play itself. He never noticed how much he used TTK in his daily life until it hurt him to do so.

Tim swatted at his hip. “Give me that.”

He took the laptop and set it up on a chair, while Kon made himself comfortable further up on the bed, to make more space for Tim. Not that he didn't like Tim so pressed up against him while in nothing but boxers but—but. Propriety. Very important.

Finally, with both of them settled on the bed, Kon hit play. On the screen, a gaggle of kids gathered around a TV screen as a jolly ad for a collection of Halloween masks started playing. Next to Kon, Tim laughed.

“What?” Kon asked, with a distinct feeling that he was the one being laughed at. It got him wary on instinct, but then it was Tim laughing—hard to be worried about that.

Tim brought up a hand to his face to cover his grin. His eyes didn't move from the screen, which bathed him in gentle blue light as the characters moved.

“I thought we were skipping the third part?” he asked.

“We're watching all of them.” Kon noted the way he avoided an answer. “Means no skipping. What kind of a dirty cheat do you take me for?”

Tim sighed. “Well, this one is—”

The possibility of Tim outright spoiling a movie for him almost made the headache go away entirely for a full three seconds. “Nuh-uh! Shut up! I'm watching!”

He stuck his uninjured leg in Tim's side in protest. It jostled him and Kon saw a brief grimace fly over his face and just as he was about to apologize, Tim's hand wrapped around his calf and squeezed.

He could never hurt Kon with his bare strength but he could inflict pressure. It was very effective. It got him quiet, it got him paying attention to the movie so his mind wouldn't start running wild.

“It's kind of catchy,” Kon muttered, feeling altogether dumb, subdued and flustered. “The jingle.”

Tim hummed, ominously, and Kon cursed him for having seen the movie before and being all sly about it. It made him all smug and insufferable and Kon… rather liked how that looked on him.

It occupied most of his brain space as he tried to follow the plot of the movie, because Tim kept his hand firm on his leg throughout. If pressed, he would insist that it was the overstimulation that made him so overly aware of the touch, but Kon knew it wouldn't be true. He knew Tim had nice hands; bony and rough with scars and cracks. Knowing it made him restless, almost guilty, like it wasn't for him to know.

He shifted to the side and Tim pulled his hand back. It wasn't awkward and stilted at all. Nope. There would be no reason for it to be weird, because Tim knew and doubted nothing.

When it was apparent that the mandatory sex scene was about to happen, Kon became very glad for the lack of physical contact between them. Even the proximity felt too palpable, too charged between them; to Kon, that is. He had no doubt Tim was having a good ol’ regular time watching a movie, oblivious to the tension radiating from his right.

Still, Kon snuck a glance at Tim, just in time to catch a pent up grimace on his face. He laughed.

With no real push behind it, Tim swatted at him. “Shush.”

“How old are you again?” Kon asked.

“I just think it's unnecessary for the movie,” Tim said, looking as uncomfortable with words leaving his mouth as he could. “No one does that—no, shut up, don't say anything. I know they do. That's not the point.”

While Tim got lost in his own points, Kon debated the level of potential weirdness and merit of a joke, and decided that it was not actually weird or creepy if what he'd be doing was clearly just trying to get on Tim's nerves.

He opened his mouth and saw Tim's face fall. “Rob, if you were a divorced doctor, and I a young lady on a mission—”

“Do not finish that sentence.”

See? Jokes. Never awkward. It certainly closed the topic of sex, which Kon was thankful for.

Not long after, Kon was watching an insect emerge from what remained of that woman's face, suddenly wide eyed and awake and paying attention. The camera stayed on the shot for long enough that he figured they'd spent a good deal of money on making it look as grisly as possible.

“I miss him,” he said, somewhat regretfully. Next to him, dozing off, Tim hummed in question. “Michael.”

Tim huffed and stretched, and that was enough to steer Kon's attention away from the scary movie once more. He resisted the urge to pinch Tim's exposed side, thinking it would be too weird, considering the everything of tonight.

Tim pulled his leg up and rested his chin on his knee with a sigh. “You're not the only person who felt this way.”

So Tim went on to tell him about the reception of the movie, about producer's intentions for the franchise, and Kon mostly tuned it out in favor of watching him talk and pay rapt attention to the movie at the same time. He would stop occasionally to point out a detail Kon wasn't following, and was instead starting to question Tim's initial distaste towards the movie.

“Are you watching?” Tim asked at one point. “I thought I had to stay here with you so you could watch.”

That had been the main excuse, yes, and Kon felt hot with shame at being caught looking. He turned back to the movie, the dull ache against his skull prompting him to shut his eyes for just a moment.

“Should I turn it off?” Tim asked, no accusation in it. Again, Kon found himself resisting the obvious smart choice. Go to sleep. Wake up maybe-mostly headacheless. Continue his life. He could be smart, or he could put his legs up in Tim's lap and continue half watching the movie that was steadily creeping him out.

Tim snorted at his silent protest but didn't complain. He took two pillows from Kon and piled them up behind himself to lean against, not quite stifling the soft whine as he rolled his shoulders.

The plot was starting to unravel with sudden speed, so Kon didn't get an excuse of a slow scene to question Tim about it. It wouldn't be appreciated either way, so he comforted himself with the knowledge that it had to be better this way. Kon couldn't exactly call Tim out on this without being called a hypocrite, but he could force Tim into taking a break. This way they were both ignoring their problems very professionally while not overworking themselves. A win-win situation, as far as Kon was concerned.

~~~

A crackle of a doorknob stirred Kon awake. Mostly awake, at least; his vision still swam as he blinked his eyes open, then decided it wasn't worth it.

A whisper came from a bit further away, then neared him. Tim spoke to him in a hushed tone. “Sorry. I was just leaving, I didn't mean to wake you.”

“Leaving?”

He could feel Tim hovering, but Kon was too sluggish in both his movements and thoughts to focus on any of it. A bit louder, with an underlying roughness to his voice that Kon associated with exhausting fights and mornings after, Tim said, “Movie's over.”

Right, the movie. Kon must have passed out right after it ended. He dimly remembered seeing the credits roll, in that dreamy, unfocused state of drifting away.

“You can stay,” Kon slurred. “It's your room.”

A clammy hand rested against his cheek, then the side of his forehead. Checking for fever, Kon thought. It was one of those habits people had and found hard to break, even though he himself couldn't get a traditional human fever.

“I don't have magic fever,” he said, because he knew that to be the sort of worry Tim would have. “My leg is fine, my blood is fine, where are you going?”

Kon rolled to his side, looking up at Tim all bleary eyed. He painted a special picture in the dark, as did most people, because they didn't count on anyone seeing them. Kon did; Kon could see Tim move his hand from his face and yawn silently, he could see how sleepy he was, face slack and expressionless.

“I was going to crash into your room,” Tim admitted.

Even half asleep, Kon knew that inviting Tim to stay in bed with him would be crossing some unspoken but well known boundary of a normal friendship. But the dark worked on him too, and the implicit safety of it made him stupid.

“Idiot.” He yawned. “Perfectly fine bed here.”

Tim politely ignored that suggestion. “How's your head? Feeling better?”

He was sweet. Annoying in his worry, sometimes, but sweet. It was hard for Kon not to think so now, with one foot still in dreamland.

“Better if you stayed.”

Tim sighed softly. “I'm not crowding on this bed with you. You hog all the blankets.”

“And you snore,” Kon threw back, petulant, and was just a second too late to realize his mistake in it.

He could see a slow smile stretch across Tim's face. “All the more reason for me to leave.”

He got up from where he'd been crouching next to the bed with a quick good night said over the shoulder, and Kon watched him go, disappointed but not present enough to be an active participant in it. He was out cold again before Tim even shut the door behind himself, and in the morning the memory would seem more like a stray dream. Or so he would tell himself to avoid facing his own embarrassments.

#i changed the sentence a bit but hopefully it still works #thanks<3 yay #my writing

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definitely-not-captain-america · 2 months

Text

Spoilers for the first episode "Aang" of the live action ATLA under the cut. I'll always put spoilers under the cut so as to not ruin it for anyone who has a life and hasn't seen it yet

Content warning for depictions of fantasy violence and death.

I think the animated series starting with Katara and Sokka was a good choice, but I like this one starting with Aang in his original time. It's cool to see the air temples full of people, and Aang is better humanized beyond the "goofy 12 year old who never takes anything seriously," which is partly true but not fully accurate to his character.

The genocide happens so early on so it's impossible to not talk about that right away too. We literally watch firebenders burn airbenders alive, so there's that. I do have mixed feelings about the genocide. On the one hand, I think it's a little tasteless showing it, especially the amount of people who will watch it, sympathize with it, but then not do a thing to support the genocide in Palestine right now. At the same time, I think it's important to show it. It shouldn't be an easy topic, it's supposed to be devastating and horrifying and I think the scene was the right amount of graphic for that. Not to mention the allusion of Sozin killing those kids after he killed Gyatso.

Like others have said, I don't really agree with them cutting out Sokka's sexism. It was a major growth in character for him, and it's important to show young men growing up from things like sexism and maturing and apologizing after you're proven wrong. Still, the casting is incredible so far and all the actors definitely feel like their characters, so that's good too.

Onto Zuko and Iroh (I'm literally writing all this as I watch the episode). I see people say Zuko's scar should've been a lot uglier, for lack of a better word, and I agree. It's small, it doesn't look like it has much texture, and his eyebrow is still there. It's a burn scar, and burn scars never really look pretty in the nice, aesthetic way they made it in the live action. Of course, animated Zuko was always hot, but for the scar to be a point of shame that the audience can really understand, I think it should've looked worse. (Sorry for my brusque language. I don't mean to say that burn victims are ugly and horribly disfigured. Zuko's scar is just so far from a burn scar that it's mostly just aesthetic in the live action.)

Also, and it's so early in the show, but so far Iroh has a bit of a tough love thing going on and I kind of like it. We all love the gentle, tea-loving, proverb-using old man who probably-definitely committed war crimes but is now a big softie who regrets his actions, but I kinda like what may be happening here.

Their village in the South Pole is beautiful, and I'm glad they have more than just like 12 people living there. It's still obvious that all the men went off to war, and I always kinda hated how empty the village was. Plus, like I said, it's still really pretty, so we get to see how there was a culture there that's been somewhat lost.

I love Aang and Katara's conversation about them growing up fast. I think it's a little easy to forget how young everyone is in the animated series — everyone who's not Aang anyway, because even sixteen/seventeen is very young and we can forget that when everyone is drawn to be muscled and attractive and without any real baby fat.

I don't really like how Appa looks, but I typically hate all CGI animals because their fur always looks weird. He isn't terrible, it's just a serious case of uncanny valley for me so it's just not my thing.

I kinda like that Katara goes off to the ship on her own before Aang. We get her gentleness and a lot of her uncertainty, but we also see her conviction and the fact that she'll do whatever she wants if she believes it's for the right reason.

Right along those lines, I really love how evident Sokka's role as the child soldier/child leader is. Katara mentioned that he was told to watch the village since he was 13, and he's doing what he can. He has no idea what's right, he's just doing everything he can to hold things together and keep people safe. Aang calling him the bravest person he's ever met was so wonderful and exactly the validation Sokka needed to hear but probably never did. It also helped him come to his decision to help Aang, which was awesome.

I also love the reckless abandon we see with Zuko and the other firebenders. Sozin entered the Fire Nation into a world of divine right and basically the American Dream of conquering and doing whatever you want because they're in charge, they have the right, so they can. I also love the slight juxtaposition of Aang and Iroh's short encounter where Aang asks why the war was started. I just really like all the character interactions so far.

We also really get to see Zuko being young. His desperation when Aang escapes, the anger and fear he experiences. It's all very realistic and I'm glad we get more of that in this one.

I can't quite figure out if I like the costumes and the setting a lot. I don't like CGI heavy movies because they never look real or good to me, which is something I care about. I'm also not a good judge of whether CGI is good or not. I end up comparing everything to Narnia or Babe the Pig, both of which were pretty incredible, and nothing has been to those standards since.

In that same vein, I can't tell if I like the bending or not. It's not terrible, but the hand movements always look a little off to what ends up happening (which, I understand why, I just think it could been a little cleaner). Though that's probably just a byproduct of this being a live action, and the animated will always be better for bending. That earthbender in the beginning just took so long to earthbend, and I've always appreciated that earthbending is like, the heaviest and there's a lot more force that goes into it, but he was taking too long for me.

I 100% love this cast. So far they've all been very true to their characters while also being slightly new interpretations, which I like. I can't wait to see how they develop throughout the show, especially Katara, who I think goes through the most amount of growth in the show in a fairly short amount of time. Aang is still playful but also a bit more grown up, Sokka is still sarcastic but also focused on being a leader, Zuko is young and scared and angry and desperate to prove himself. I'm really happy with this actually, because it'll be easier for me to forgive the parts I don't like because these actors are so good.

That was very ramshackle and haphazardly thrown together. Oh well. This is starting out better than I expected and I'm excited for that.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #live action atla #live action avatar #netflix atla #netflix avatar #lok #legend of korra #aang #katara #sokka #zuko #iroh #appa #waterbending #airbending #earthbending #firebending

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meteor752 · 2 years

Text

Double life except instead of just the sharing of pain and lives they also share a child together

Exactly what the title says

Like, one month after the gang was all dropped into Double Life, they all got a notif about seven new entities spawning in. When checking spawn, then gang finds six multicolored baskets all containing a child, an egg, and a letter. The letter is from The Watchers or smt, essentially saying “Sup, here’s some kids for y’all, lol take care”. Panic ensues

Also all the names are very arbitrary apart from one being chosen for a dumb pun

Liana no last name given

Professional Scammer and pathological liar, Liana is the fledgling that hatched from the egg belonging to Scar and Grian

She’s a manipulator at heart, a con artist through and through, tho she hides it behind sickeningly sweet words, large puppy eyes and bright colors

Has great relationships with both of her dads, even though their parenting styles are very different

Grian is a total helicopter parent, Liana was barely allowed to leave the base as a kid in fear of her getting hurt

Scar does not give a shit, she could be telling him that she’s off to summon a wither and he’d just ask her to be home for dinner

She inherited the “Looks like a cinnamon roll but can actually kill you” vibe from Grian which she uses fully to her advantage

Scarlet Macaw hybrid, though her wings are too small for her to actually use them to fly, but they do help her glide

Dressed in strikingly bright colored suits just to throw people off, and smokes a pipe for pure aesthetic

Can’t build for shit, she’s a shame to the family

Dating Jassy

Wes Double-SV

Local stressed out mom friend, Wes is the baby from the yellow basket belonging to Impulse and BDubs

He’s an overachiever, always feeling a need to be perfect and do everything right

Suffers from a lot of OCD and anxiety

His relationship with his dads are a bit rocky, especially with BDubs

Both Impulse and BDubs are a bit like those Beauty Pageant moms, always feeling a need to prove that their child is the best. This is partly the reason for Wes’ disorders. Impulse can be a bit more chill than his hubby however

He does love his dads though

A thing that does add to his stress level however is the fact that all his friends are fucking maniacs and he’s the only voice of reason they have

Part imp like his father, his horns are his pride and joy

The tallest of the squad, usually carry the others if they get tired

Has a bit of the clock obsession, he’s got both a pocket watch and a rolex just because

Dating Jekiv

Gertrude Statz-Diggity Dawg

Chillest person to have ever walked this earth, Gertrude is the pup from the blue basket belonging to Ren and BigB

She’s a Redstoner, a damn good one at that too, and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty

Does not give af about anything, just here to vibe

Her relationship with Ren is very casual, they’re more like dude bros than father and daughter

BigB is the more parental of the two, he’s the one who baked her cookies when she felt sad and told her stories when she couldn’t sleep

Dog hybrid and part werewolf, once every month she becomes ‘Weretrude’ (That was the dumb pun)

A big gal, second tallest of the gang, standing at six five, and ripped af, wears tank tops to show off her muscles

Wears shades so much that the light actually hurts her eyes at this point

Still got a lot of dog instincts to deal with, so don’t go throwing any sticks around her because she will just up and chase them before anyone knows what’s actually going on

Dating Novo

Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Tek

The server’s dashing charmer boy, Johnny is the country boy that was found in the red basket belonging to Jimmy and Tango

A true boy of the farm, this lad gets up every day at five am to do his chores, whistling a country tune as he does so

He takes more after Tango in terms of looks, but Jimmy when it comes to personality. He has his father’s blazing temper though

He’s the apple of his parents eye, an absolute breeze to handle as a kid which helped a lot because they’re both disasters

Talks with a very, very, thick southern accent that no one knows where it comes from, since no one else on the server has it

He plays the banjo, because of course he does

Demon hybrid, tries to hide his more demonic features like the horns and tail as to not scare the animals

Secretly kind of a monster fucker

Aromantic, so not dating anyone

Jassy Smallishbeans

Anime ninja extraordinaire, Jassy is the girl that was found in the gray basket belonging to Etho and Joel

Tries her dang hardest to have a cool and intimidating presence like Etho, but she’s a bit too much of a goofball to be able to

The biggest fucking fan of puns, will go to serious lengths to tell a bad and witty joke

Idolizes Etho, he’s the coolest fucking person in her eyes and she wants to be just like him

He’s very protective and constantly worries about his daughter, even if he tries to act like he’s not

Joel is a bit of an awkward parent, he tries his best with her but he’s not cut out for parenting

Jassy is genuinely a very good fighter, stealthy enough to sneak past skulk sensors with no issue, and a master marksman. She just has a problem keeping a straight face sometimes

Has a few anime attributes, such as the unnatural white and ridiculously styled hair, a very strange way of eating*, and the swirly eyes whenever she gets knocked out

Lean mean speedy machine

Has to wear a mask covering her mouth to hide the goofy smile she gets constantly

Dating Liana

(*That thing Anime girls do when they take the smallest fucking bite out of something and then immediately like, orgasms or something it’s so weird, look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about)

Jekiv Inthelittlewood

The Half dead sass master, Jekiv is the zombie child that was found in the green basket belonging to Cleo and Martyn

Is very monotone without really meaning to, but yeah this boy will roast the shit out of you

He was mostly raised by Cleo, since Martyn wasn’t too keen on having a child. He gets along great with his mom, but his relationship with his dad is pretty much non existent

Martyn tried to reforge it when Jekiv became a teenager, but the damage was already done and the daddy issues had settled in

Absolutely fucking adores frogs, they’re his buddies and his pockets are filled with them

Kind of hates his sorta Step-Brother Novo

He is a zombie hybrid, which means that he can’t sleep, his skin is rotting away, he limps when he walks, and he’s sensitive to sunlight

Wears a light pink cloak to cover up his skin. Is also always dressed in pastel to counter his kind of horrory and gory look

Dating Wes

Novo Major-Moon

Unhinged freakster of the server, Novo is the half elf in from purple basket belonging to Scott and Pearl

Superstitious as all hell, wears a four clover necklace around his neck, a rabbit foot around his ankle and had his pockets filled with acorns

He thinks his mom is really cool and awesome, and even if Scott had the majority of the custody this bitch still turned out insane

He’s got them crazy eyes, a slight twitch to his movement and absolutely zero filter for his mouth, spouting out every random thought he could think of

He’s absolutely tiny, standing at barely five feet, with zero muscle, which makes him the ultimate twink

His makeup look consists of heavy eyeliner and then a spray bottle to the face, giving him the running mascara look. He knows he’s unhinged and he commits to the aesthetic

His dad thinks he should calm down a little and such, but he does support his son in his weird makeup and his beliefs

Adores annoying his kinda Step-Brother Jekiv

Dating Gertrude

Was this an excuse for me to make a bunch of fankids? Yes. Am I ashamed? Not in the slightest, no

Also if ur wondering Wtf kinda names these are, I was just sitting with a document typing random shit in until I found something that fit. Sometimes I got something nice, like Gertrude, and sometimes I just got a random bunch of letters, like Jekiv

I made some cute ship names for the couples as well, so we’ve got Stress and Sass, Tol and Smol, and Pirate and Parrot. Y’all can probs figure out who’s who.

But yeah I had fun doing this, character creation is one of my favorite things and I’d say it’s one of my biggest strengths as well, which is actually kind of sad

Also when I started this it was just the end of session three, and like now two couples have died so rip Team Ranchers and The Box duo, you’ll forever live in my heart

Edit: These babies now have DESIGNS! Check ‘em out!

Edit 2: These babies now have some CHARACTER TRAITS! Also DEATH!

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primeministerofantarctica · 9 months

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A3! reading club: act one (chapter 1-6)

(cw: talking about parental neglect and abuse, orientalism, one mention of suicide)

Hey, ten out of twelve isn't bad, all things considered! This very well could have gone down in October. Also, since it's February (March if you wanna be generous), does that mean everyone in Harugumi's slightly younger than their Year One ages now? Ack, timelines are confusing.

Izumi casually talking about how Yukio neglected her and following it up with "well, it was probably because he loved this theater so much!" is. Oh, girl. No wonder she snapped when Sakyo suggested he'd abandoned Mankai, because if he hadn't loved it, then why did she have to go through with that?

I'm not versed enough in Japanese particles but I recognize "daijoubu" and Tsuzuru watching this trainwreck unfold and saying something along the lines of "are you guys, like, okay?" is extremely funny.

Then we get to Sakuya and Masumi's family situations, which. From a meta perspective, it makes sense to want to give your minor protagonists the freedom that having parents limits. That's why the trope of "young protagonist in kid's spec fic media is conveniently an orphan" is so common. (was? I think it's becoming less common now.) The problem lies in the lack of willingness to follow through with the emotional conflict it creates, or resolve said conflict in a satisfying manner. Sure, I'm assuming they weren't starved or physically abused, but being treated like a burden when you're a child is still fucking traumatizing! Basically I think Izumi Sakuya and Masumi should start a union. And I'm glad later chapters go the reasonably more toned-down route of "my parents have a reasonable amount of trust in me to make these kinds of decisions".

Also, can we talk about Sakuya and Masumi, because they're one of my favorite brotps here. The way Sakuya appoints himself as Masumi's surrogate big brother? He's so eager to potentially share a room with him ;-;. (personally I hc that Ms. Sakuma was expecting another child before the accident or whatever killed them, so Sakuya's been a big brother without a younger sibling all this time </3)

Wow, that doesn't sound like a metaphor for anything! You're right, Izumi, why would you go the easy route of taking something prepackaged and guaranteed when a bunch of wildly different spices can create a delicious meal if you know how to utilize them right?

Am I grasping at straws here. Probably.

The little ka-ching sound effect is adorable.

Tsuzuru, I'd think "antagonist" should be near the top of the list...also, there's plenty of plays that have been pulled off with two or three actors. Just put on "night, Mother" or something. (Joking. Don't look up night, Mother if you're sensitive to themes of suicide.)

"Tsuzuru, you picked this troupe because it had a dorm, right? ...Then maybe our best bet is to focus on more people in your shoes."

"People in my shoes? In other words...."

"The homeless?"

I CAN'T ASJHGSKSDSK

he's literally doing the 😔 face i'm on the floor.

HE'S HERE! Funny how Izumi's right about Citron not being a regular tourist right off the bat. He may not be from another troupe, but he's definitely "in character" right now.

Also, oof. Citron's my second fave in Harugumi after Sakuya, but it's glaringly obvious how much of his character is rooted in orientalism. Sure, maybe it's an act, but why is he talking about how "shameful" showing skin is when his top is (conveniently for us) THAT low-cut.

On another note, I know people have pointed out his distaste for pig's feet as evidence for headcanoning him as Muslim, but I haven't seen anyone point out how he calls Veludo Way a "mecca" of theatre. Like yeah, mecca can just mean hub, but...why didn't they just say hub? Words Have Connotations. I'm not saying this coding is good or bad, it's just a neutral observation.

AND HERE'S THIS BASTARD (affectionate)

Oh, Kasumi! (insert pointing reaction pic bc I've run out of photo space.) It's Kasumi, guys! :D

#astra rambles #a3! reading club

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mdhwrites · 11 months

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Hi there! Yesterday I finished The Owl House and while the technical aspects were nice, I thought the writing aspects fell flat. I came across a few of your posts and thought they perfectly represent my issues with the show. I look forward to reading more.

How would you have portrayed Belos and the Emperor’s Coven? Would their goals and motives and coven system be different, would they use more magic etc…

Have you seen Gargoyles or Mistborn? Gargoyles has both simple villains and tragic villains, and does justice to all of them. It’s steeped in intriguing lore and detailed worldbuilding. The xenophobic villain Demona puts Belos to shame. Mistborn admittedly has a Deus ex Machina that seems out of place at first, but is eventually explained in a way that puts agency into the protagonists’ hands. Unlike Titan Luz.

Going backwards as I sometimes do: I am JUST too young to have watched Gargoyles as it was airing and never saw it. I've never even heard of Mistborne. As for how I would have done Belos/The EC... So, this isn't technically how I would have done it. Being in the middle of a project without hindsight is always harder than when you're in the middle of it and so if you want to claim you could have done something better, that implies that on a conceptual level, the execution is flawed. Conceptually, the EC and Belos are both fine. Not great but fine and they work for the thematics of fantasy vs. reality, conformity versus self expression, etc. like that. This is of course talking about them more as a narrative tool than a threat.

This is because the EC existing is a good idea for TOH but their physical presence is not as much. Lilith works okay in S1 because while she is the butt of a lot of jokes, her and Eda are actively having a dialogue in their actions and words about the theme of conformity vs. self expression. The sacrifices we make for safety and for freedom. This is because S1 is the only time the IDEOLOGY of Belos/The EC is ANYWHERE near consistent. It's not, don't get me wrong, but there's an attempt. Eda is a criminal. Lilith is the law. Being a wild witch is a crime. Lilith hunts Eda in part because of that as well as resources she sees Eda missing out on because of her lifestyle. In a bubble, it is actually incredibly consistent world building and characterization. No one's traits or aspects are being sacrificed for anything.

But the EC and the covens don't exist primarily to the writers for these purposes. This is where we get Eda being allowed at a school without Bump even flinching despite how much she's wanted. Her being criminal appears to be mostly forgotten about at those times. Being a wild witch is also forgotten anytime the audience is with Hexide kids. The one class only system isn't actually painted as a part of Belos' rule, besides the main nine EXISTING, but just a dumb rule of Hexide. It's never blamed as something Belos mandated and multi-classing magic in that episode, or whenever the kids are brought up until LABYRINTH RUNNERS, is never seen as even questionable to literally ANYONE. Not for reasons based in the rules of the setting. Even in Labyrinth Runners, there's no questioning if they brought this on themselves by breaking the law, it's just that the mean coven head is being a doodoo brain.

This is frankly this is the biggest problem with the EC, Belos and even the Isles. Because the show is more focused on meta commentary and how they can warp their own elements to make meta commentary, like treating the covens as normal school subjects, treating it college, etc. like that (never forget that becoming a wild witch is not something ANY of the Blight children even blink at as having potential consequences besides disappointing their parents and not LEGAL TROUBLE) that it fails to have a point overall with them or to keep an identity for any of them.

The EC is both a weapon of Belos that is to be feared where an ex wild witch will talk about her old behind hushed doors and also this thing that a bunch of teenagers are doing because it's the new fad introduced by an exchange student. Belos is an all powerful monarch that the people love but also people really easily question and betray him and leave his coven without repercussions. The Isles is both a place where a child can be threatened with a fairy wanting to literally eat their skin or where people will cheer on stage murder of a child for HOME DEFENSE PRODUCTS while also having an organized school system that is no different than ours and child endangerment laws.

It's all a part of the most damning things for TOH: Its multiple personalities and lack of commitment. Wanting to be everything while simultaneously not committing to any element either. Wasting time because even the writers don't seem to actually know what is important or care about what is important in their setting, world, plot, stories, characters, etc. even back in S1 where they spend 90% of the season treating King like a comic relief character when he is ostensibly the most important person to the story that Luz EVER meets.

So to the question of "How would I write I the EC/Belos"... The mean thing is that most SHOULD answer with "I would just remember what they are. I would care about my world building. I would respect the rules of my setting and the themes of my concept."

But that's not rewriting this element. That's just being a good writer.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #The Emperor's Coven #belos the owl house

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