#for your sanity please don't feel like you have to match

[kaciidubs]

Imagine like waking up and being needy because wouldn’t if your boyfriends are Felix and chan. So you decide to be nice and start to press kisses all over Chan’s neck sometimes slightly biting down on the skin of his soft neck, when you feel Felix hands wander over your chest and suddenly you hear his deep voice right beside your ear “wanna make our Channie feel good Sunshine?” Felix deep voice made you shiver but you nod anyway moving your hand downward to Chan’s morning wood, as you slowly push your hands inside Chan’s boxers while Felix whispered praises in you ear with his deep voice. As you wrap your hand around Chan’s dick he whines in his sleep letting out a breathy moan at the feeling of your soft hands around him.

Now u can suffer with me from the thought of pleasing both chan and Felix 🫠🫠🫠

Oh bestie, this is more than just pleasing Chan and Felix, this is everything I could have asked for with poly Chanlix - Felix being the instigator and you being the partner in crime to all his naughty ideas~

Felix murmuring against your lips how you should give Chan something nice to wake up to since he stayed up for so long, and you aren't deaf to his insinuations - especially when he uses your hand to reach behind and feel Chan's morning wood.

The sheer amount of ease it is to get Chan into his back without making too much of a fuss, followed by the both of you shuffling midway down the bed; you on one side of Chan's legs, with Felix on the other.

This is one of the moments you're slightly annoyed he chose to wear underwear to bed, but with two sets of hands it doesn't take long for that problem to be remedied. Before you know it, you're peppering kisses up Chan's cock while Felix is whispering hushed praise.

"Just like that, sunshine, don't wanna wake him up just yet." "Make sure to get it wet, you know how he is - need me to help you?"

That's when you're both making out with Chan's dick between both your lips - all tongue and spit and needy whimpers and whines; you suck on the tip while Felix works the shaft, before alternating effortlessly.

It doesn't take long for the telltale signs of Chan's impending orgasm, the throbbing against your tongue welcome as Felix eggs you on to deepthroat.

"Fuck, look at you - doing such a good job angel-"

He's cut off by a sharp gasp, Chan suddenly snapping himself awake before moaning loudly, hands scrambling to hold onto something for his own sanity.

"W-What- Oh, fuck, fuck, 'm gonna-"

His orgasm takes him by storm, his cum costing your tongue and filling your mouth faster than he can comprehend.

You take it with a needy moan, humming around his tip before pulling away; only to tug Felix toward you and pressing your lips to his, parting them to let the cum slip into is own mouth.

The moan he let's out matches your own as you both make out with the taste of Chan's cum in your tongues - it's hot, it's sloppy, and so, so satisfying.

Chan watches you both, breathless and dazed, until the two of you turn to gaze at him with desire plainly written on your features. "So... I guess neither one of you wants to be able to walk today."

[Unedited]

#✧. ┊ kacii answers #✧. ┊ lovely chqnverse #skz smut #stray kids smut #bang chan smut #bangchan smut #lee felix smut #lee yongbok smut #bang chan x reader #bangchan x reader #lee felix x reader #lee yongbok x reader #Poly! Chanlix

[theveesbf]

The Vees X Reader using the silent treatment

︴Notes - Hey everyone!! This was an idea that a friend of mine gave me, and I needed to write because she was beginning to like the Vees so like 😁😁 anyways I hope y'all enjoy it!

︴Content - Headcanons of Vox, Velvette and Valentino X Reader who used the silence treatment after a fight.

Vox doesn't like to have the feeling his the wrong one, so after fighting with you he expects you to be the one reaching out to him.

But you just don't.

Vox waits for you the whole day, and you never show up to even say a good morning!

When he finds you watching TV, he goes to talk to you, but the fact that you ignore him makes Vox freeze.

I mean, he was never really ignored, and the fact you, as his partner, did this was like denying candy to a spoiled child.

He spent a whole 10 minutes trying to talk to you and no matter what he said you didn't even looked at his face for a single moment.

Vox was almost losing his sanity as he decided to say the one thing he knew was going to destroy his ego.

He remembered that earlier that day you asked Vox to go out with you, but he told you he was busy.

Obviously you said that he was always working and that 10 minutes wouldn't make his business go down.

He just ignored you and continued working, without even saying no again.

Knowing what happened he decided to apologize to you.

"Listen uh, I'm... I'm sorry okay? I should've considered your feelings more."

The moment he finished saying you turned around to look at him with a smile.

"See, now that wasn't so hard, was it? But I forgive you Vox. "

That's how Vox never ignored you anymore without a good reason.

Velvette sometimes doesn't even notice that what she says can hurt people.

And that includes you. She wasn't really used to dating someone and this made her be a bit insensitive sometimes.

Velvette never pays attention to what she says until she went to talk to you and you just, ignored her.

She was so confused, she thought you didn't heard what she said.

But when she already repeated the same thing 5 times, Velvette knows you're doing it on purpose.

And she has no fucking idea on why!

That fact already makes her stressed all day because you never even glanced at her.

So she tried to remember everything that happened all day that could've made you like that.

That's when Velvette remembered that she told you how your outfit didn't match at all and it was really ugly. And she didn't saw how sad you got when she said that.

"Hey honey, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't noticed that what I said was hurtful."

Velvette is definetly the one who tries the best to apologize to you, even if it hurts a bit inside lmao.

You wanted no time on hugging her when she finished it.

"I forgive you Vel, just try to watch your words better 'kay?"

Velvette only laughed it off, and every time you ignored her, she knew that she had to try harder on thinking before speaking.

Valentino can have a hard time respecting people's boundaries, and even if he tries his best with you, it's still... In progress.

Especially with how easily angry he gets. Valentino can't take a no without getting annoyed.

Of course, with you it's better, he actually tries to be a good partner for you.

But sometimes he let his emotions take over him, which leads to situations like this.

Valentino was going to kiss you and be all clingy to you, but he was hella confused when you walked past him.

He quickly walked to your direction to ask you what happened but you never took your eyes off the cellphone.

Even when he grabbed it off your hand, you just kept walking. And that made him both confused and mad.

He tried a lot of things but you never talked to him, until he remembered what had happened earlier.

Val was stressed and that made him yell at you when you got inside his studio without asking him first.

He never says sorry, so apologising to you was a bit awkward.

"Amorcito, please don't be mad at me. I was just stressed, you didn't asked me to go there. Can you forgive me Amor?"

His apology was definetly a bit weird but you knew that's just how he was, and you kissed him before answering.

"Of course Val, just try to be more patient next time."

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin x reader #hazbin #the vees x reader #velvette x reader #valentino x reader #vox x reader #the vees #valentino #vox #velvette #hazbin hotel velvette #hazbin hotel vox #valentino hazbin hotel

[kquil]

REMUS LUPIN | 17:27 ⏤WHEN I WIN

SUM. : as an underground fighter, remus is compelled to keep you away from it all but your persistant devotion makes his resolve crumble

G. : best friend reader ; underground fighter remus ; muggle au ; modern au ; fluff ; slight angst ; longing and resistance ; there's a lot of tension here oop-

LENGTH : 0.6k

NOT PROOFREAD OR EDITED

“You don’t have to do this (Y/N),” Remus comments, voice soft and gentle as he watches you with tender eyes wrapping up his hands and knuckles with gauze. 

“Just let me, Remus,” you counter in a similarly delicate tone. The act helps you cover up the scars and bruises embellishing the skin of his hands, which offers some relief, but it’s immediately taken away as soon as you remember that this was all in preparation for his next fight. After bandaging up his right hand, you don’t let go and stay exactly where you are; standing in between his thighs as he sits atop a table backstage, “...why do you have to do this, Rem?” your voice is shaking and on the verge of crumbling away for rampant sobs to push through. In an attempt to tamper it all down, you play with his large, calloused hands and trace your fingers along the veins that protrude from his scarred skin. 

“You know why…” he lifts up your chin, trying to meet your eyes but you can’t look at him. Instead he holds both of your small hands with one of his and lifts your arms up so that he could tuck his face under them and bring you closer by the waist with his free hand. He locks you in his embrace and breathes in your comforting scent, it’s warm and intimate; you smell like home. He’s so lucky you’ve stayed by his side even though you have no obligation to.  

“Remus, please,” he didn't answer. Silence follows your plea and it persists even when he suddenly moves to drop down from his perch on the table, turn with you still in his arms, pick you up by the waist to sit you down where he once was. With your positions switched, he locks you in by placing his hands on either side of your thighs and presses his face into the junction of your shoulder and neck with a deep inhale. You are all he needs before a match. You’re his good luck charm, the only thing that can bring peace to his mind and help him rise to victory. 

He just hates seeing you so upset over him. He knows you deserve better, so much better than what he can ever hope to offer you, and he should just let you go so that you aren't tied to him but Remus is addicted to your devotion. You’re the closest thing he has to a loving partner. He wants you to know how much you mean to him in the hopes of becoming something more but he’d feel too guilty if he held onto you any tighter than he already is. 

“I really appreciate you being here for me…” he rasps beside your ear before proceeding to kiss your temple, “I love you,”

“What was that?” you ask, missing the words he had muttered into your skin. You had a vague idea of what he said but didn’t want to get your hopes up, your eyes gave away your hope, however, and Remus had to pull away before he lost the reins to his resistance. If temptation was personified, it would be you. 

Nevertheless, Remus settled for gripping your waist, his thumb sneaking underneath your shirt and fondly massaging your supple skin and groaning at the unsavoury thoughts pervading his mind. 

‘She’s my best friend, she’s my best friend she’s my best friend…’ he chanted internally for his own sanity

“Remus I-” you’re cut off by a rapid knocking at the door. 

“You’re up! Get out here!”

Remus presses a lingering kiss against your cheek and steps away from you, smiling fondly at the hand you subconsciously reach out to him with, “I’ll tell you what I said when I win the match,” without another word, he’s out the door, eager to get in the ring and win the match. 

Fuck being your friend, he’s making you his lover once he’s secured his victory. Like all the underground matches he’s won before, this fight was for you.

A/N : i don't know if there are any underground fighter remus fics out there but i am obsessed

NAVI.

#☽ : TIMESTAMP #remus x reader #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin #remus x you #remus lupin x y/n #remus lupin fluff #remus lupin imagine #remus lupin fanfiction #remus lupin x you #marauders

[nuhuhwinniethepooh]

C-rumble

Wanted to make a gojo fluff fic but it matches sukuna's vibes too 🥲👍🏻sukuna's scenario won tho cuz why not 🤷🏻‍♀️

Trueform!Sukuna x F!Reader

Pt.2 of A-muse, can be read as a standalone or a series depending on what you want.

Trope: Gore ( I really, seriously don't know how much is too much so please don't come after me ), violence, Fluff? ( idk if I'm twisted or sumn🤷🏻‍♀️ seems like fluff to me), Angst if you look hard enough

Preview : As the town crumble and silence surrounds the chaos, only then did he crumble at your touch.

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Sukuna was bored, bored of the same repetitive life, bored of the way he was revered, bored of everything he had and most of all, bored of the people around him, they were visibly unamusing. Barely holding on to his sanity with the little amusement he had with a massacre every now and then because for once in his life, he wanted a challenge.

Sukuna wanted someone, hell even something would've sufficed, to challenge him- to push him to his limits, to make him high from the adrenaline that can be obtained only from a death defying fight but everyone he met and saw disappointed him to no end. He was immensely disappointed; disappointed in the fact that they were all bravado, disappointed in the fact that the fight lasted only a few single minutes, disappointed in the fact that they all broke in the end, disappointed in the fact that they were all bark and no bite, disappointed in....the list went on and on.

Until he met you.

Sukuna was amused for the first time in a long while. He was amused at the lack of emotions in the chaos ensuing around you, amused at your actions, amused at the fact that you had lasted so long, amused at how you somehow managed to crumble his pride into dust and most of all, amused when you voiced your agreement to his proposal. You literally just agreed to be the queen of curses with no hesitation, of course he'd be amused- a little excited too but he'd never admit that.

But right now, all he felt was a rising rage as he watched from afar, rage against you, rage against the servants surrounding the both of you, rage against the very earth with it's flourishing bloom and most of all, rage against the slightly upward curves that graced each ends of your lips as you listened to your maid, Rita, excitedly babbling on about curses knows what ! That vermin had the audacity to not notice your smile at her words- the audacity you had to have cracked your first smile to a mere human instead of him, your husband-to-be ?!

Sukuna was angry at the fact that his efforts had gone down the drain; he had tried for months to get an expression out of you and when he was finally giving up, you finally showed him an expression different from your default face of unmoving lips and uninterested eyes that seemed to register nothing but everything at the same time. You had finally raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a peculiar look when he unknowingly knelt on both his knees to present a gift he painstakingly had customized and he had experienced true joy then, refusing to give up on his attempts with renewed motivation. You actually could react !

But now, he felt rage and betrayal at seeing your smile, however small, gracing a presence that wasn't his. Sukuna stands from his seat and walks over to you with an overwhelming aura that had all the attendants straighten their backs and lower their themselves almost as if they were trying to meld within the ground. As he stops and towers over your seating figure, he watches your head move up and your eyes gaze at him, your smile no longer present on your face- he feels disappointed, an itching uncomfortable feeling clawing at his chest.

One swift movement was all it took, a barely noticeable move before a sliced head falls down right next to your feet, the eyes of the dismembered head blinking once, twice before it finally noticed that it had gotten sliced off and falling limp with the body finally dropping on the floor with a thud. Blood sprinkled around the ends of your kimono as your eyes followed the sound only to see Rita's dismembered head resting next to your feet and her bleeding headless body right behind.

He watched and waited with bated breath, you had graced her existence with a smile so that must mean she meant something to you, which could only mean that he could finally see a new reaction other than the two reactions you showed him but alas, Sukuna was disappointed, he expected a gasp or maybe even a look of surprise but all you gave him was the same raised eyebrow, the peculiar look on your face.

The rising anger had finally reached his peak, how dare a mere woman mock the King of Curses, in front of an audience that too!! Barely audible gasps was heard before all the attendants around was dismembered from head to toe, blood and innards gushing out like rain on the pristine grass, splattering bright red all over the area.

His eyes still on yours and yours on his before he roughly grabs your arm, refusing to show the courtesy of holding out his hands out for you to take. Oh no, he wasn't gonna show any courtesy to someone that doesn't do the same for him.

He drags you behind him, taking singular big steps against your multiple small steps just so that he could have the small pleasure of having you stumble on the rough and uneven road that soon followed after the flowering place although it was now filled with soon-to-be rotting dead bodies.

The crunch of pebbles and dried leaves echoes in the dying light while you two continue to walk for what seemed to have been hours. Not a sound of complaint was heard or raised besides the soft huffing that escaped from your lips which in turn soured Sukuna's mood yet again. He had expected a question or maybe even a complaint, but all he did in the end was expect before finally reaching to a stop.

A town finally came to sight, your breathe heaving before your eyes falls upon the sprawling buildings and markets filled with people at every inch before resting on the large, looming building at the center of it all.

"Multiple vermins and tributes were sacrificed to me as an offering of peace by this town which was once a desolate village, our attendants were filled with them and I left them in your care since you seemed to like the people from there, but you have disgraced my kindness," Sukuna hisses in a low threatening voice, his hold tightening around your arms as he points at the town.

"My protection allowed them to flourish but since none of the vermins from there now attends to me, I no longer see any reason to grace my protection over them. You dared to show your smile to a mere maid and now her hometown will no longer be in existence and it's all your fault," He continues, turning to face you. All four eyes burning red with bloodlust- he had restrained himself from going on a massacre for a long time now, choosing to spend his time with you and amuse himself with your presence but the situation at hand, had his self control crumble to nothing.

One moment you were standing on the top of a hill looking at a sprawling city, illuminated with the setting sun and the next moment you find yourself standing in the city, illuminated with raging fires and screams that was seemingly coming from everywhere. A seemingly curious glint in your eyes as you walk in the market area that was once filled by people and still filled by them except now, their blood and body parts had made a path for you. A red carpet of sorts for your grand entrance that led to your maniacal, blood-thirsty husband-to-be.

Sukuna finally stops after making sure every house, every shop and every living thing had been torn apart. He turns around and sees the red carpet he laid down for you, proud of his accomplishments as he watches you turn the corner and walk up the stairs of the large building in the middle of the city, towards him. He may have had destroyed the city but he saved the best for the last, a grand finale where he makes you watch him fight against multiple sorcerers- he wanted you to watch him in awe and worship him as he worshipped you maybe then, you'd realize his strength and listen to his wishes as he did yours.

Yells emanates from the building as sorcerers begin their attacks upon him, cursed energy upon cursed energy aimed only at him but his eyes was on your climbing figure- your disinterested gaze steady as you walk up the bloody stairs towards him. Flicking away the attempts of attacks at him easily, he presses a kiss on your forehead with a grin on his face before rushing towards the top, ripping apart summons and summoners alike with bare force.

Sukuna was done before you arrived at the top, sitting on the benches that resided next to the entrance, waiting for your timely arrival before ripping apart a terrified sorcerer right in front of your eyes, grin reaching from ear to ear, adrenaline coursing through his veins as his deathly aura emanates the surrounding. He hopelessly wishes to see you falter, at least this once.

But your walk towards him never falters, your eyes on him never wavers and your body never halts, stopping only when you stand in front of him.

Your hand reaches up to his cheeks as he wonders curiously at your next move, only to flinch internally from surprise when your fabric comes into contact with his skin. Sukuna is further surprised when he realizes that you were wiping the blood on his face before he relaxes into your touch so naturally it felt like breathing, he looks up to you.

His breathe stops, his body turns rigid under your touch and he can't believe his eyes, all four eyes were left unblinking, frozen and on you.

Your lips were curved, not slightly curved like how it was before- barely noticeable unless paid close attention to. No, it was curved to the point that creases formed around the corner of your eye and the uncomfortable feeling in his chest is replaced by a blossoming and growing warmth. All thoughts and previous feelings of betrayal and rage was gone- all he could do and did was gaze in wonder at your smile, at the softened look in your eyes that no longer held any disinterest towards the world because all you saw was him.

All you saw was him- Sukuna Ryomen, The king of curses and your husband....-to-be.

The town releases a loud groan in the silence and the floor rumbles along with it, breaking the moment as you turn to look at the sea of flames surrounding the two of you but Sukuna is unwilling to break the moment so he places a hand atop of yours and you look at him with the same smile on your face.

His breathe hitches at the beauty of it- your blood stained kimono, your loose flowing hair, your soft figure and face illuminated by the fire, your even softer eyes that reflected him and the smile that rested on your lips, only for him. Sukuna burns every little detail into his memory and into his very essence, his soul.

"Shall we go home, Ryomen?," You say softly, your voice ringing in the silence and everything is perfect for Sukuna Ryomen.

He presses a kiss on your hand that held his cheek and stands, this time refusing to hold out his hand for a completely different reason. You had walked a long way because of petty anger and he sure as hell wasn't gonna repeat the same mistake again.

He slides an arm under your knees and supports your back with another before gently lifting you up, your hand sliding over his shoulder as if natural and he walks towards the burning city, towards the direction from where you came.

As the town crumbles and silence surrounds the chaos, only then did he crumble at your touch.

"Let's go home, my Love," he whispers and this time, he meant it.

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My imagination went on overdrive on this👹 didn't proofread so it might be kinda funky

I'd appreciate any sort of interactions with this post, also should I write the gojo fanfic I have in mind too??🤨Same title and alphabet, just different scenarios.

Masterlist

Tags ( due to request of pt.2 )

@badtrinia

@kariatenoh

#nuhuhwinniepooh #jjk x reader #sukuna x you #jjk sukuna #ryomen sukuna #sukuna x reader #sukuna x y/n #sukuna imagine #sukuna scenarios #jjk x you #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x y/n #ryomen x reader

[hiorisgf]

##FOR GOODNESS SAKE, PLEASE USE A NORMAL PETNAME!

↪In which you call your dearest with uh.. Eccentric petnames

↪Ft. Sae, Isagi, Kunigami, Rin, Bachira

↪What's on your mind?: many thanks to @kxmikomrade And @a-pair-of-socks For helping me put here. Ily.

Isagi Yoichi + 3 cups of flour

♡~"Haha, what a cute nickname" it isn't "But why am I 3 cups of flour?"

♡~Uh yea. Sure.. Haha. Acts like he likes it* no but seriously. What in the name of christ [Name]😐😐 where do you even get the idea from??

♡~Gives up. He's already learned from past experiences that arguing about the petname with you is pointless. So he just..lets you be

♡~Is done. He's so used to your odd nicknames to the point where he just can't find it in himself to get upset at you when you call him with the strangest nickname ever heard to man.

♡~"So, you know how flours are what makes the structure of the sweet? Well, you're similar in the way that it's you who gave me friends and what I became today"

♡~Blushes. Naurrr why are you being such a romantic all of a sudden, stawpp you're making him blush/j can't believe he's actually alright with being called 3 cups of flour but now that he's learned the meaning, he doesn't mind it at all. And infact, feels flattered.

Sae Itoshi + Honeybunchsugarplumpumpyumpyumpkin

♡~Cringes. Shivers runs down his back. breaks out in cold sweat. Hands trembles. Terrifying. Stiffly turns and glares at you.

♡~Acts like you've just said the most atrocious thing ever in history. Which, in his totally unbiased opinion, thinks you just did.

♡~Uhh congrats?? You managed to make Sae make an expression even if it isn't pleasant..

♡~ "Hi my honeybunch—" "No." "But—" "No."

♡~Loves you and all and he would have let you call him with any other petnames but out of thousands, this is what you settled on..? Wow.. You act so similar to kindergarteners he's wondering is he's dating a manchild.

♡~Please just stop. This is his 20th reason why he should break up with you. /j (or is it? Hnmm) for sanity's sake, just use a normal petname for once you glorified monkey.

♡~Sae loves you truly but its moments when you act like this that makes him doubt his decision to stay by your side for life.

♡~But if you really want to call him by that name, he supposes he could let you call him that. But just know he still cringes everytime he hears that name spill from your lips.

Kunigami + Macho mack

♡~??? Is that me? <-Him when you call him by that nams

♡~Acts clueless and confused and that's HE IS😭😭 POOR BOY WONDERS WHERE YOU GET YOUR PETNAMES FROM

♡~I MEAN. HE LOVES YOU BUT HE'S SO CURIOUS. WHERE DO YOU GET THOSE IDEAS😭😭 HE MIGHT NEED SOME OF YOUR CREATIVITY IF HE WANTS TO MATCH UP WITH YOU

♡~Finds it weird but doesn't really mind. That's not the worst—infact, he thinks its one of the decent ones you've ever given him😭😭

♡~Again, he doesn't really mind. He's known worst. But even then, he still lets you call him those. Man loves you too much to ever say no to your petnames. Even if it's the cringiest shit one could hear😬

♡~Bless this man and his ability to tolerate whatever you do.

Rin Itoshi + Oogly boogly

♡~Ew. No. Absolutely not. Don't you dare call him that again lest you want him to commit homicide.

♡~CRINGES. LIKE GIRL I KID YOU NOT. HE LOOKS SO DISGUSTED AND UTTERLY CREEPED OUT ITS ACTUALLY FUNNY

♡~Dies inside everytime you call him that. He may live you sure. He may hold you closer than others—but no way will he ever tolerate something like this.

♡~Contemplates breaking up/hj insufferable bastard </3

♡~But.. And BUT if you really want to call him by that name he supposes he could let you. IN PRIVTE THO. IN PRIVATE. He'll learn to get used to it or whatever🙄🙄j

♡~But watch him freeze, stiffly turn, and glare at you like you're the most despicable thing he has ever been with/hj (he does hold back on the insults. Bro doesn't want to push you away like he did before. Never again)

#blue lock x you #blue lock x reader #blue lock x y/n #bllk x reader #bllk x y/n #bllk x you #sae itoshi x reader #itoshi rin x reader #isagi yoichi x reader #kunigami x reader #@@.xylvie's works

[dentiststoothfairy]

Okay, okay...how about a hc about a reader that just sacrifices everything??? Like...

You have not enough money? READER GIVES YOU ALL THEIR MONEY!

You and reader have barely eaten and there's only one plate of anything left? Oops, reader has already given you the plate.

In a match? Everyone got away except reader because they always sacrificed themself OOPS

I noticed that I always sacrifice myself for my friends, be it rl or in idv, it's always the same..ehehe

Could I wish for norton, orpheus, naib and emma for this? I'm afraid I don't know how many people you write for. If there are too many, you can leave some out

Ps. Love your writing style!! 💕

[ 🦷🎀 𝙰𝚠𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍! 𝙸'𝚖 𝚐𝚕𝚊𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚝𝚢𝚕𝚎. 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍! <𝟹 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝟹 𝚊𝚖 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎, 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝. 𝙸 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎, 𝚜𝚘 𝚗𝚘 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢! 𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊 𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎. 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍!]

🍩 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥 🍩 , 📖 𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐮𝐬 📖, 🟢 𝐍𝐚𝐢𝐛 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐫 🟢 & 🌿 𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐚 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 🌿

𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒/𝐎

🍩 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥 🍩

This guy grew up on the generosity of others. Being in the mines, it was pretty tough so everyone did what they could to make such a dull a little easier on each other.

Listen. He won't say no if you're coughing up money. Absolutely not... Donuts too? Okay damn-.. HEY! HE'S THE HARASSER! DON'T START TRYING TO PROTECT HIM-

He isn't the type of person for a charity case. He prefers to work hard to achieve what he wants. It not only, shows that he deserves it, but it's plenty refreshing when he actually earns it. So he's a little off put by your generosity at first...

Everytime you give him something. He clarifies "I'm not giving this back".

He's always dumbfounded by the "I know!" Response he got back. Sure, there was generosity... But you were either just.. Stupid or had no sense of value to anything. He just sort of... Questions your sanity a bit.

📖 𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐮𝐬 📖

Honestly, he finds it pretty damn endearing. He doesn't really need anything, but the way you just give anything up to anyone in need truly inspires him.

It's also a little concerning-. Like... You need to take care of yourself, please start putting yourself before other people. You're just as important as others.

He definitely feels bad everytime you're left on chair. You're the type of person to give the shirt of your back to someone in need, so how is it fair that you always get sent back?

He definitely gives back to you in some way. Maybe he slides you some of his own food when he's not hungry to make sure you're getting properly fed, or bodyblock you so you quite literally can't sacrifice yourself without wasting precious time and energy. Hehe, sneaky novelist.

🌿 𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐚 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 🌿

This girl finds it a little funny that you're always getting sent back to the manor. It's not anything too bad.. It's just an instinct for you to throw yourself into danger so she can escape. It's pretty sweet..

She's also pretty self sacrificing herself. So you know that one picture where it's this couple being held at gun point and they keep going 'noo' to protect each other? Yeah that's you two.. It's all pretty light hearted though.

Does not forget to show you love for all the things you do for her. Flowers litter your room, attempted meals made by her showcase her appreciation and lots of affection. She truly does appreciate you.

She knows you can be pretty self sacrificial so she's often trying to help you out by disabling chairs before you can actually get chaired. This gives you a small opportunity to self heal and RUN.

🟢 𝐍𝐚𝐢𝐛 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐫 🟢

Listen. He loves you. But oh my gOD. He does all of those rescues FOR NOTHING. CAN YOU AT LEAST TRY TO STAY OUT OF DANGER BECAUSE YOU ARE ON YOUR LAST CHAIR AND HE ABSOLUTELY WILL LEAVE YOU HERE.

He appreciates any food you give him. But, he will often half the food you do give to him. Like, if you slyly slip a loaf of bread suddenly onto his place, expect to enjoy half of it with him. He knows what it's like to go hungry and he doesn't want you to experience that.

No matter how many times you frustrate him to hell and back with your absolutely generosity and kindness, he can't help but admire that about you. The world is filled with assholes of every degree, you make this manor a little more tolerable.. Sometimes.

He can also be kind of self sacrificing due to his time in the army, so he will also do his best to make sure you're in tip top shape, but he will indulge in your kindness as some sort of guilty pleasure for the mercenary

#its 3 am #identity v #idv #anon #anon ask #x reader #x y/n #naib subedar x reader #naib x reader #naib subedar #idv naib #norton campbell #norton campbell x reader #norton x reader #emma woods #emma woods idv #emma woods x reader #emma x reader #orpheus identity v #orpheus idv #Orpheus x reader

[inkblackorchid]

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 3)

Trying my absolute damnedest to finish this one and part four sooner now that I've finally covered the Pearson backstory. *Ehem* Hello again! I hope you're ready for more yelling about a certain spiky-haired Blackbird aficionado, because I sure am.

To get some things out of the way first, though, here come the usual disclaimers:

This is part three of a series of posts about hpw Crow's character was handled during 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here and part two here. Reading them technically isn't required, but things sure will make a whole lot more sense if you do. (Bring snacks, they're long.)

This post isn't meant as a Crow hate post, nor is it meant to convince people who didn't vibe with his character to change their mind. This is my very long winded-attempt to analyse the writing decisions surrounding his character as best I can, without too much bias. That said, full disclosure, I do personally like Crow, so there's a good chance that will shine through whether I want it to or not. But also, I'm trying to have fun here, so please cut me some slack.

In case you haven't read my previous Crow posts (no shade there) and/or still believe the many, many production rumours that have been haunting the 5Ds fandom since the show's original run, please let me burst your bubble(s) with some insanely comprehensive research by someone over on Reddit (thanks again to @mbg159, who's also here on tumblr): No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, or the final boss of season 1, and his spike in screentime has nothing to do with his cards. And also, No, Aki didn't get less presence in the narrative because her VA got pregnant. What if you don't have the time to read either of those long posts? In that case, please take away this simple, very easy rebuttal of why the above theories are bullshit: Their would-be "key points" don't line up with the 5Ds production timeline. At all. Not even vaguely. So please, ditch them, let them die, seeing them still talked about makes me feel like I'm gonna break out in hives. And for the love of god, don't use this post or in fact anything else I post to pit Aki and Crow against each other. Both characters have their strengths and their reasons to love them. I am not the least bit interested in starting any character discourse. So please, spare my sanity. Ok? Thank you.

And now, we can get to the good part at last. In my previous post in this series, I stopped my analysis at episode 95, a.k.a. part two of the Pearson backstory. In this post, I will thus be picking up right after, at the very start of the WRGP—with the Team Unicorn match. The goal for this post is to analyse Crow's part in this particular arc, then provide some food for thought/ideas on how things that rubbed some people the wrong way could have been improved.

More below the readmore, and I give you not just my usual warning, but an extra warning, too: The universe will not let me write short things, so tread with caution, stay hydrated, and expect a veritable dissertation below, because this post feels long even to me, who has long since lost her sense of length when it comes to text. (But I'm well aware this is the result of me refusing to split the WRGP part into two separate posts, so I take full responsibility for that.)

Since we left off right after I chewed through all the issues with Crow's rather belated backstory and especially Black-Winged Dragon last time, we jump right into the thick of things now, with episodes 96 and 97, which serve as the preamble to Team 5Ds' first WRGP duel against Team Unicorn. Crow only gets two major things to do during this short stretch of episodes, the first being that he's Team Unicorn's gateway into roping Yusei into a duel during practice, which helps them set up a ruse that baits the 5Ds gang into sending Jack as their first wheeler because they think Jack's deck is best suited to countering Andre's—which, as it later turns out, it is not.

(Arguably the screenshot where Crow gives off the strongest Youngest Sibling Vibes during the entire show. Look at him, all chastised.)

Crow's second role is an odd one that I argue only he out of the main three guys could fulfill at this point: He's the one to get injured right before the Team Unicorn match, rendering him unable to compete, which leads to Aki offering to take his place for that particular match.

(Pictured: Bird Boy regretting all his life choices up until that point simultaneously.)

Here's the first moment I have to talk about in greater detail. See, the thing is, I don't know what the fandom consensus on Crow getting injured here is, but I argue that this moment was a (rare) strategic decision made by the writers at this point. Crow's injury accomplished several things: 1. It sets up the mystery of why his back wheel locked up out of nowhere, which is later paid off through Team Catastrophe's shenanigans. 2. It organically allows Aki to take his spot without introducing any argument about which of them is "worthier" of having that third spot. 3. Through this, it also allows him to actually bounce off Aki for once (a point I will come back to below, during the Team Catastrophe section). And 4. It allows the show to (TECHNICALLY) pay off the setup they did in letting Aki get her turbo duelling license and train with the boys. (Generally, Crow's and Aki's character writing intersects a bit during the pre-Diablo incident WRGP section, something I'll touch on below.)

Moreover, I think this is also the only match where they could have done something like this, and the reason for it is very simple: Team Unicorn are one-off opponents whose presence in the narrative is only relevant as far as it concerns the WRGP, and they are also one of the first teams the 5Ds gang faces. If we think about the opponents Team 5Ds has after this, it becomes very obvious why Crow could only be injured during this duel: If they had tried pulling this stunt later, it would have forced the writers to pull Aki centre stage during a much more plot-relevant duel than this one (which they were apparently allergic to, but let's not go there), not to speak of the fact that it would have forced them to sideline someone they were definitely trying to sell as the third portion of their protagonist trifecta, which would have probably been awkward. (If not for the fact that they literally did this to Crow later in the show, but I'll get there. Yes, I know there's a lot already that I'll still be "getting to".)

The thing is, whether or not it feels like an awkward writing choice to make so early in the big tournament of this arc (you be the judge of that), Crow's injury finally allows him to have a few interesting character moments for once. For one, there is his immediate disappointment about being forced to stay on the sidelines. Aside from the fact that this is a human and relatable reaction to his injury, it stings even more for the character than it does for us as the audience, because Crow got a moment where the Satellite orphans he previously took care of cheer him on for the tournament literally within the same two Team Unicorn preamble episodes.

(Say what you will, this is just stupid cute.)

So when Aki eventually offers to take his place during the match, he's understandably apprehensive—and again, this is human. It may seem mean in the moment, but from a character writing standpoint, it's a natural response. Plus, it's certainly more interesting to watch the group have a bit of conflict among themselves, rather than everyone immediately jumping straight to acceptance. It introduces tension, and, for however brief a moment, raises the question of whether Crow might refuse to let Aki take his spot. This is also the point where Aki and Crow's character writing officially intertwines, at least for the stretch of episodes between the Team Unicorn duel and the Team Catastrophe duel. And you know what? Say what you will, but I think it does a world of good for both of them. The 5Ds cast, as lovely as it is, doesn't get a lot of room to bounce off one another where it concerns personal matters anymore, once the WRGP starts. Arguably, they get little time to bounce off one another outside of plot-related discussions at all once this portion of the show comes around. The characters are treated as "fully developed", and thus, the writing largely doesn't take the time to show us how the group naturally interacts with one another anymore, especially not with how many side characters (chiefly Bruno and Sherry), antagonists, and duels the show now has to juggle. So Aki and Crow getting even a smidgen of personal conflict here is honestly a breath of fresh air. The interaction kicked off by Crow's injury isn't completely plot-irrelevant, like most character interactions during the pre-WRGP were, but it's not something that feels like it's only there to explain the machinations of the antagonists to the audience, either.

Let me go through this in a little more detail to illustrate my point.

So, episode 97. Crow storms off after Aki offers to take his spot, while Aki heads out to prepare her runner, intent on helping her team. The personal motivations here are already very nice and reflective of these characters as we've gotten to know them up until this point: Crow's angry and disappointed (mostly at himself, which is noteworthy!) because he can't compete. And specifically, he's angry because not being able to compete in the first match means he can't show the kids his duelling like he wanted to. Then there's Aki, whose offer to take Crow's place is every bit as much of a strategic suggestion as it is a bid for acceptance from her. Acceptance, which is the thing she's been all about ever since she was introduced, basically. So she pleads with her friends to accept her, see her as an equal, and allow her to duel for the team, which they do. And Crow initially throws a fit, but then...

(Listen. You have no idea how much Crow and Aki getting to actually be friends means to me.)

He comes around to the idea and not only gives Aki his express permission to take his spot, he even coaches her a bit right before the match. Moreover, as his text states above, he literally entrusts her with the kids' hopes, as well as his own. This quickly brings both of them full circle: Crow, who already has a theme of legacy attached to him, passes the torch to Aki for this match, and in so doing, offers her the acceptance she asked her teammates for. (Frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why on earth people were so eager to pit these two against each other, when their shared moments are actually some of the best-written during the often rocky WRGP arc.) So, though this injury pulls Crow out of the duel, it, funnily enough, ties him better into the story and to the other characters.

From there, we then dive into the Team Unicorn match proper. And well, being injured as he is, Crow doesn't exactly get a whole lot to do there. However, since we're in the portion where his and Aki's writing overlaps a bit, I do need to go on a quick tangent about what Aki's portion of this duel means for Crow.

(Sigh. Okay, buckle up for a quick and rough detour.)

First, something I need to get out of the way and off my chest: I have made no secret out of the fact that I hate Aki's portion of this duel, save for the moment where she summons Stardust. Hell, this duel segment is pretty much universally hated by anone who has even a smidgen of sympathy for Aki. It's regarded by many as the very moment the writers axed Aki's character, and for good reason: After all the buildup surrounding her getting her turbo duelling license, the supposed "payoff" of it all is that she gets to duel against Andre for a depressing four turns before being defeated immediately, which leads into Yusei's frustrating portion of this duel, which, to my knowledge, isn't regarded any more kindly by fans than Aki's segment. It's a massive let-down, simply put. But the thing is, it's not just a let-down for Aki. After all, the brief character conflict she had with Crow about taking his spot here can and should be regarded as part of the setup for this moment, and as such, it can also be considered to be wasted the second Aki leaves the track after barely making an impact whatsoever.

However, I do need to mention that I have a theory on why this segment was handled the way it was, mostly because I feel like Crow's later interaction with Aki, shortly after she's out of the duel, underlines it (mind that this is just my personal theory, though, after having watched the show perhaps more times than can be considered sane): I think there is a cultural aspect to this duel. See, the word ganbaru, which anime subtitles often like to translate with "do your best" or something along the lines, has a greater significance than the translation implies. Though it's not inaccurate per se, there's more than just the idea of doing your best behind ganbaru, because it's something like an umbrella term not just for doing your best and succeeding, it's also the idea that you have to keep trying, even if you don't succeed. It's related to tenacity, to persistence, even in the face of terrible odds. And make no mistake, I don't mean the Japanese equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed, try again" here. I genuinely do mean "you have to keep trying, even if you fail". There is no guarantee of success here. And for that reason, the idea behind ganbaru is also that it's not simply the success that has value, but the effort made in the attempt to attain it, regardless of the result. (Side note: I tried to scrounge up a resource I could link to that nicely explains this concept, but unfortunately, all the promising articles were paywalled and the ones I learned it from require institutional access to lecture materials.) And this is where I will posit the tentative theory that this is exactly what the 5Ds writers were going for with Aki's segment of the duel—it was very much meant to be the payoff for her turbo duelling license setup and her plea to take Crow's place, but it wasn't so much her success that was meant to be valued, as the effort she (and by extension, Crow) made for and during this duel. And this is where Crow's little pep-talk with Aki after she's out of the duel comes in, because it feels like it supports exactly this interpretation:

(This is essentially the whole sequence. Note how Crow, despite so fervently entrusting Aki with his and his kids' hopes prior, doesn't admonish her for making a bad showing in the slightest.)

I don't think it gets any clearer than it is here. During this sequence, Aki is painfully aware of how poor her performance was against Andre, especially after she was so insistent on duelling at first, and despite having been entrusted with Stardust by Yusei, to boot. Yet, Crow doesn't have a single word of criticism to offer her. Instead, he even tells her she did well and that nobody's perfect. It very much reads as valuing Aki's effort over the result she achieved to me, and thus seems perfectly in line with the idea behind ganbaru.

However, if we assume I'm correct about the intentions behind this writing choice, we come back to why Aki's segment of the duel is so hotly debated and why it may have arguably been a disservice not just to her, but to Crow, too, character-wise. Because the majority of non-Japanese watchers of the show culturally don't have a 1:1 applicable concept like ganbaru, this writing choice was more likely to fall flat for them, because to someone who wasn't raised to understand the idea behind it, Aki's portion of the duel doesn't register as a payoff; it registers as a massive disappointment, because it feels like the writers, who had so much setup already done for her, let her fail on purpose, just to later let Yusei attain his arguably dumbest victory of the entire show. Thus, they also essentially waste the conflict she had with Crow about whether she would be allowed to take his spot in the first place, because with how little she achieved during the duel, she may as well not have gotten on the track. (Figuratively speaking. Please Do Not take this to mean I would prefer a version where Aki hadn't duelled at all. That would be worse. It would be infinitely worse.)

(Also, side note: If this post reaches anyone who's actually Japanese and still remembers this duel, I would genuinely love your input on whether my interpretation is feasible or just wishful thinking. Did you interpret Aki's part of the duel the way I did here? Or did it fall flat for you, too? If what I'm saying here feels like an absolute reach, please tell me. I'm honestly just trying my best to make things make sense here and remembered this concept from some classes I took in Japanese studies at uni.)

With all that in mind, it doesn't come as a surprise that some people were just as frustrated with the way Crow was barred from duelling here as they were with Aki's segment or Yusei's later victory. But it is what it is—the Unicorn duel concludes the way we all know it to, and with that, the show begins setting up the following duel with Team Catastrophe.

The only other, non duel-related, noteworthy thing that happens between the Unicorn and the Catastrophe match is a brief appearance at the Poppo Time by Sherry, who admonishes the signers for celebrating their victory early and warns them about Iliaster. Why do I bring this up? Because it's one of less than five times that Crow is in the same room with Sherry. Remember, Sherry. The girl he later, during the finale, talks out of working for the big bad evil guy because he suddenly seems to have such a deep understanding of her motivations and character that he can accurately deduce what argument will make her understand that working with Z-ONE won't give her what she's looking for. So, does Crow get a meaningful interaction with her during this scene, then? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Crow says exactly one sentence that is aimed at Sherry during her appearance, and that sentence is this:

(What a meaningful conversation!)

And yes, I will come back to Crow and Sherry's dynamic in particular. But we'll save that for the Ark Cradle arc post. For now, just keep it in mind as we move along to the other WRGP duels.

So. Team Catasrophe.

During the duel against this team, which was previously only hinted at ominously, the writing for Crow and Aki overlaps again, and this starts with the writers essentially doing a complete switcheroo of what came before: Instead of Crow getting injured and being unable to compete, it's Aki who crashes, ends up in the hospital, and is thus forced to give up her spot during the duel. (This also goes hand in hand with her suddenly losing her powers, which we are given absolutely zero explanation for, but let's not talk about that clusterfuck here. If you're interested in my opinions about that particular trainwreck, I have a rant for you.) Additionally, it's during this stretch of episodes (103-105, which is a whopping four episodes less than Team Unicorn got) that we find out that not only Aki's crash, but Crow's previous one, too, were both sabotage, caused by the rather unscrupulous Team Catastrophe by way of a special card that can cause real damage even when there is no psychic duellist present. (A card we also find out was given to them by Placido/Primo, but this is irrelevant for both Aki and Crow.) Crow's reaction to this piece of information, particularly once Aki gets injured due to the same thing, is where things get interesting for him again, because he gets pissed, to say the least.

(A moment I imagine firebirdshippers must have been positively delighted about.)

Here, I have to reiterate an earlier point: Think what you will of Team Catastrophe, of Aki's crash, and of the sequence where her powers suddenly don't work, but this moment here, where Crow gets angry on her behalf and swears to duel Team Catastrophe into submission—not because he wants his kids to cheer for him, or because he wants to prove himself, but as revenge for his friend—is one of sadly only a handful of moments the writers use to show the strengthened relationships between the individual members of Team 5Ds after the dark signers arc. It's one of the precious few scenes that actually shows, rather than tells us or lets us search for scraps in the subtext, that the signers, and the members of Team 5Ds as a whole, care for each other outside of revolving around Yusei like planets around the sun. Even if it's laughably small, it's at least a hint that there are individual friendships between the other signers, too, that they all stick around one another for reasons beyond gravitating towards Yusei for one reason or another. And for that alone, I'm grateful that they put this here, even if Team Catastrophe was otherwise so ridiculous and made such a bad showing at their actual match that they could barely be taken seriously as antagonists at all.

Speaking of which. The actual meat of the matter. The Team Catastrophe match. What does Crow do here? Well, he duels! Even though he wasn't supposed to, for injury-related reasons. What both his participation as well as the actual duel accomplish, though, are that they not only showcase previously established character traits of Crow's again, but they also make a (possibly unintended) callback to a previous, major duel Crow took part in: His dark signer duel against Bommer/Greiger. Where and how? Let's see.

Firstly, Crow's participation. The reactions of the other characters to this make it very evident that Team 5Ds did not plan for this, with Yusei and Jack even going as far as to say they "had no choice" but to let Crow duel, because he insisted. This is perfectly in line with the stubbornness we already know from him at this point—a stubbornness that was also a major reason for why he took Bommer on and later continued his duel with said man, despite Yusei showing up and telling him he shouldn't be duelling a dark signer.

Secondly, there's the manoeuvring thing, and here's where I can call attention to a fun tidbit: The WRGP isn't what introduces the concept of manual mode during turbo duels to the audience. It's Crow. During his duel with Bommer. Being crafty and a bit shrewd as he is, Crow, during said duel in the DS arc, purposefully switches to manual mode when he duels Bommer, because he figures that attacks that can deal real damage can probably be evaded if you actually have control over your runner and aren't stuck in autopilot.

(Don't believe me? Here it is. And frankly, it is somewhat hilarious, yet also very fitting that Crow is the only one who thinks to do this during a duel with a dark signer.)

The reason this particular bit is relevant during the Team Catastrophe duel is because Crow essentially repeats this trick here. Of course, it's a bit less impactful now, given that manual mode is standard for WRGP duels, but still: Due to Hook, the Hidden Knight, Crow is forced to pay attention to the track and manually evade the monster's attempts to make his back wheel lock up during the duel, mirroring how he thought to manually evade Bommer's attacks during the DS arc.

Thirdly, there's the revenge angle, and this one is a particularly juicy callback. Remember, Crow's major reason for taking on Team Catastrophe, despite being injured, is that he wants to get revenge for Aki. This directly parallels how his major reason for duelling Bommer during the DS arc was that he wanted revenge for his kids, whom he believed to be dead at that point in time. (It also, interestingly, establishes a bit of a connection to his deck, which boasts a fair amount of revenge effects, but I'll not get into that here, seeing as I've talked about Crow's cards a bit before.)

Keep in mind, despite all the things listed above that this duel accomplishes, it's also by far the shortest WRGP duel. It lasts a whole six turns, total, which is ludicrous compared to the likes of 27-turn Team Unicorn, 26-turn Team Taiyou, or 25-turn Team Ragnarok. And I don't think it's controversial to say that the Catastrophe guys are probably the most forgettable WRGP Team, too. Yet, somehow, despite all its shortcomings in terms of memorable antagonists and plot relevance, this is one of the best duels of the WRGP where Crow's character writing is concerned. Now, I'll be perfectly candid: Coming into this post, I did not expect the Team Catastrophe duel, of all things, to end up being as good at actually showcasing Crow's character and his ties to other characters (who aren't Yusei) as it was, but here we are. And we had better hold on to the good the Team Unicorn - Catastrophe segment did for Crow, because the next thing that's coming up is a harsh break from the WRGP, starting with the sudden appearance of Placido's home-engineered army of killer duel robots. And what does Crow get to do during this part?

Uh. Well.

(Pictured: Bird Boy being demoted to benchwarmer while the city's being ransacked by murder duel robots.)

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing, is what.

During the duel robot invasion, we only ever flash back to Crow to ascertain that he is, in fact, useless during this part of the show, something he shares in common with Ruka, Rua, and Aki here, because all of them get pretty much nothing to do while Yusei finally gets the hang of accel synchro. Granted, Aki gets to save a little girl at the hospital, but in comparison to Yusei's lengthy, plot-heavy duel with Placido, this feels like a consolation prize. And for once, Jack is only marginally better off, too, because sure, he gets to beat up a couple of robots, but that's it, really.

Where Crow is concerned, his plot relevance doesn't actually resume once the Placido duel finishes, though. (And neither does Rua's, Ruka's, or Aki's, while we're at it.) Because wouldn't you know it, the next big thing directly after the duel robot invasion are the Red Nova episodes, where three out of five signers (Crow, Aki, and Ruka, unsurprisingly) are removed from the screen almost in their entirety again while Jack gets his much-needed dragon upgrade so he can keep up with Yusei, in order to uphold his status as a classic, almost-evenly-matched yugioh rival.

Speaking of upgrades and dragons, let's make a quick detour while our protag and rival duo take their express vacation to the Nazca plains. It is, of course, no secret that no signer outside of Yusei and Jack ever got a dragon upgrade within the anime. (No, I'm not forgetting about Life Stream Dragon. But that one, unlike Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon, was a.) teased all the way back in the DS arc and b.) didn't have a unique summoning method or some other gimmick that made it an "elevated" synchro. So I'm discounting Life Stream as a "proper" dragon upgrade on purpose.) Is this the point where I start arguing that Crow should have gotten one, then? Well, not quite. Not with the writing the show canonically gave us, at least—after all, with how late Black-Winged Dragon was introduced, it would have been bonkers to upgrade him here already, if even at all. However, I do argue that the way the show hands only Yusei and Jack upgrades seems a bit... off. Now, I know why only those two get upgrades, or at least I think I do. After all, they're the central protag/rival duo, and within the framework of the character archetypes the larger yugioh canon has created for itself, this would have always made them the first, if not the only candidates for dragon upgrades. What feels a bit off to me, though, is that specifically the 5Ds cast feels like it... chafes a bit against those character archetypes, for lack of a better word. The problem is this: The signers, as far as the first two arcs are concerned, are sold to us as equals who all have very powerful ace monsters. Yes, Jack and Yusei are still undoubtedly the best duellists among them, but not on account of having uber-powerful extra special monsters that were acquired through supernatural means that are categorically inaccessible to the other signers. However, with the appearance of Shooting Star and Red Nova, this changes. While Yusei and Jack were previously and would have always been the two guys who had a Special dynamic with a capital "S" on account of their character archetypes, their acquisition of the dragon upgrades—and even more so, the lack of upgrades their fellow signers receive—now decidedly puts them in a different power bracket and skews the balance between previous, supposedly "equal" characters. (Which, unfortunately, is yet another thing that makes everyone else easier to sideline.)

Why do I bring all this up in a post dedicated to Crow? Because this new power imbalance arguably impacts him more than the other signers—because he's Team 5Ds' second wheeler and doesn't miss another WRGP match from here on out. Thus, that power imbalance is felt in the upcoming duels, where Yusei and Jack bust out Shooting Star and Red Nova like it's nothing, while Crow is left manoeuvring with the somewhat underpowered Black-Winged Dragon and whatever else he can come up with. This is also why I claimed that the show did sideline Crow in some aspects further above. Because while some parts of his writing go to great pains to establish him as part of a protagonist trifecta that is now supposed to take centre stage before the other characters, he also permanently lives in Jack and Yusei's shadow, ultimately barred not just from reaching equal status as a signer (due to his late and rocky introduction and dragon acquisition), but also barred from becoming the equal of his foster brothers as a duellist. Frankly, I'm surprised the show didn't make this a plot point, because the first thing my mind jumps to when I think about this is whether Crow felt left behind after his brothers acquired such immensely powerful, special cards. But more on my personal writing ideas later. For now, let's just put a pin in the power-imbalance thing.

So, when is Crow back on screen in any meaningful role, then? (Note that I mean this as literally as possible. As per my discussion about "screentime" and my gripes about it in part two, I gloss over the parts where Crow is on screen, but could be traded for any other signer or even a lamppost without affecting the scene at all.)

Well, the next thing Crow gets to do isn't exactly glorious, but it sure is funny.

(I want you all to remember that he has to wear this costume and play this part in Team 5Ds' absurd plan to capture Yaeger/Lazar because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. This will never not be funny to me.)

Ignoring the hilarious outfit and Crow playing the bait at a fabricated cup ramen promo event meant to lure Yaeger in, bird boy does actually get something that's not just for funsies to do during the two episodes where Team 5Ds is trying to get more information about Iliaster: He gets to have a duel revanche against Yaeger, who, if we remember the DS arc, ditched him the last time they squared off. Much like the Team Catastrophe duel, this one, too, calls back to previous duels Crow has had: For one, it's the obvious conclusion to his unfinished, first duel with Yaeger. And for two, Crow repeats a "trick" (for lack of a better term) here that is also unique to him: losing on purpose, which we remember from his duel with Lyndon.

(Identical-looking clown family jumpscare be upon ye.)

And again, much like getting injured for the Team Unicorn duel, I argue that this story beat here is something that could also only have been accomplished with Crow. Because he's the only one who has previously duelled Yaeger, firstly, because not wanting to make a child cry by beating their dad in a duel makes sense for him as a character due to him being a family-oriented person who loves children, secondly, and because losing on purpose in this scenario is a tactic that would seem out of character from anyone else, thirdly. (We recall, the only times Jack and Yusei, respectively, ever consider/offer to lose on purpose is when the lives of people close to them are on the line, in the shape of Carly/Rally. As for the others, aside from not being present, Aki, Rua, and Ruka are so heavily sidelined at this point that they would have never been an option for this. And if his writing is anything to go by, Bruno is mostly purposefully forbidden from accomplishing Plot Things, especially through duels, while he's Bruno.) But hey, due to the way this episode is set up, losing on purpose works out for Crow, because it convinces Yaeger to stop hiding and actually share his knowledge about Iliaster. This, by the way, is the second scene where Crow gets to be in a room with Sherry for a longer stretch of time. And look, him joking that Sherry might kill Yaeger if he doesn't spill the beans about Iliaster soon is fun and all, but in light of the Ark Cradle duel later, I have to point out that he, again, doesn't get to have so much as a shred of a meaningful conversation with Sherry here. Again. But moving on. The scene with Yaeger at the Poppo Time then leads us first to the small sequence in the arcade where the gang has to win a simulated duel to get Yaeger's encoded intel, then to episode 116—the Moment Express episode, where, due to this being a Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno-focussed episode, Crow gets nothing to do again. (And also doesn't get to interact with Sherry again.)

Congrats! We've survived the WRGP break. This leaves us with three more WRGP duels before shit hits the fan and the Ark Cradle arc commences. And full disclosure, I'll be doing a bit of a quick-fire round of those three duels. Why? Because despite them all having their merits in their own rights (they're the better liked duels of the WRGP for a reason), there honestly isn't that much focus on Crow during them. He duels, yes, and I've seen people point this out over and over again as the supposed smoking gun that shows how Crow had so much more relevance and screentime than Aki and yadda, yadda. We've been there. And it's not that I can't see where this argument is coming from—I'll be the first to tell you that it's a travesty that Aki never got to duel in the WRGP again outside of the Unicorn match. But I want to use the final three matches to dig into how the way these matches—and especially the opponents to go with them—were set up made it nearly impossible for Aki to replace Crow again during any point of the WRGP finals.

First, episode 118. This is the only preamble episode we get for the first two WRGP finals teams, and here, our group is split in two: Yusei, Bruno, and Rua introduce us to Team Taiyou, while Jack, Aki, and Crow introduce us to Team Ragnarok. There isn't much to say here, because the only thing this episode does for Crow is a shallow repeat of what the Team Catastrophe duel did: By putting him in a group with Aki and Jack, and letting them decide among themselves, independently, to check out the exhibition match, it implies that he voluntarily spends time with signers who aren't Yusei. Thumbs up. Gold star. You made an effort (I guess). Then, the real fun starts.

Round one. Team Taiyou.

(Pictured: The sweetest country bumpkins to ever grace this earth. Yes, I'm biased.)

So here's the deal with Team Taiyou, from a narrative standpoint, as best as I can grasp it: They are a callback to Team 5Ds' roots. Specifically, to the boys' Satellite roots. The Taiyou boys come from humble origins, have only one, mostly home-engineered duel runner, and play using old cards that are widely considered shitty, as 5Ds canon tells us. They are essentially the non-signer, countryside version of what Jack, Crow, and Yusei once were, which is why this is the first duel where the duellist constellation on Team 5Ds' end couldn't possibly have been altered. Team Taiyou is there to remind us where our boys started, so it has to be our boys duelling them. This also goes for Crow, even though this duel otherwise doesn't accomplish much for him, character-wise. Instead, it's more of a narrative wink at the audience, as well as providing a breather between otherwise extremely tense, plot-focussed duels. But yeah, Crow's part in this match isn't much to write home about; he doesn't get any verbal interactions that are very meaningful to his character, can't get so much as a scratch in on Zushin, even with Black-Winged Dragon, and is defeated so Yusei can take out the legendary giant.

Round two. Team Ragnarok.

(Behold the pizzazz of at least two contenders for Haircuts With The Most Spikes in the show.)

Though this duel is framed as being even more so aimed towards bolstering Jack's character writing than Crow's, given the inclusion of Dragan's personal history with Jack, Team Ragnarok gets significantly more interesting for Crow again than Team Taiyou did. This is, of course, mainly because of Brave/Broder. Where Team Taiyou were a callback to the 5Ds boys' roots, Team Ragnarok are their narrative foils. Dragan is the duellist who lost his pride to contrast Jack, who's brimming with pride at all times, and Harald/Halldor is essentially the rich, "destiny isn't bullshit, actually" version of Yusei. Meanwhile, unlike the first two, who highlight our 5Ds boys' characteristics by contrasting them, Brave acts as Crow's mirror. Through Team Ragnarok's flashbacks, we see that he gets almost exactly the same, lovable-rogue-type backstory that Crow did during the DS arc, just in a different setting. The only, major difference between them is that while Crow is more down-to-earth, Brave likes to be pretty flashy.

(Keep in mind that he's doing this on a runner. Is there such a thing as courses on how to do acrobatics on your runner? Like there are courses for vaulting on horseback irl? I'm overthinking this again.)

Unsurprisingly, the duel thus ends up addressing the similarities between Crow and Brave, mostly through two things: One, the duel essentially becomes a contest of who can out-trickster who, culminating in the famous, ridiculous-in-the-good-way sequence where Crow activates a trap from his graveyard, to the shock of pretty much everyone present. And two, despite being on opposite sides, the two bond over their concern for the children they took care of and their concern for children in general, which is expressed most clearly in the scene where Crow's kids, in an attempt to hold the poster they made for him higher, very nearly fall over the barricade in the WRGP stands. Despite the hefty length of the full duel, these are pretty much the only things actually related to Crow's character that come up, though. They're good, don't get me wrong, but in a duel that is otherwise this dense with plot, Aesir shenanigans, and Iliaster foreshadowing, it's no surprise that the duel doesn't add that much to Crow's character, outside of giving him someone he can bounce off very well and relate to. Again, though, we are faced with the same situation as with Team Taiyou: Due to the way the members of Team Ragnarok are written, meant to contrast/parallel one male duellist each from Team 5Ds, nobody other than Crow could have taken the third spot here, either. It would have felt awkward from a narrative standpoint (as much as I would have loved to see Aki duel more).

Now, finally. Round three. Team New World.

(Welp. Here come the robots.)

I had to check to make sure I wasn't misremembering this, but due to the way this duel was set up so José/Jakob could bust out Meklord Emperor Granel with a ridiculous amount of attack points, Crow gets a resounding four turns total in this duel. (Gee, I wonder which other character got this treatment during a WRGP duel.) During those four turns, there are only two things he accomplishes: One, leaving behind two combo pieces Yusei later uses, and two, showcasing the shrewd tactics that earned him the label of "trickster" during the Ragnarok duel by bringing out a non-synchro monster that can take advantage of a synchro monster's attack points and effects—Aurora the Northern Lights. And arguably, this is a very smart play, moreover, it's the only time anyone in the show has the bright idea to not use synchro monsters against the known and feared synchro-killer Meklords. Unfortunately, as smart as it is, the narrative doesn't reward Crow for this play—José all but shrugs what could have been a turning point in the duel off, then proceeds to steamroll Crow the next turn, leaving Yusei to score the win, as usual. To get back to the "Crow got so much more screentime than Aki during the WRGP" thing for a second, of all the duels in the WRGP finals, this is arguably the one where Aki could still most easily have taken Crow's spot again, because here, it doesn't matter whether it's him or someone else, as this duel isn't tied to his character in any way. Unfortunately, due to the Granel-steamroller-strategy, this is also the duel where letting Aki take his spot again would have been the biggest shot in the foot, because unless they had changed Team New World's strategy, Aki would have gotten brutally guillotined here, same as Crow—something I can't imagine anyone, not even people who hate Crow, being happy about.

With that, though, we've finally made it through the WRGP. So, what's the bottom line here? Frankly, speaking from my own interpretation, Crow occupies an... odd spot during this tournament, to say the least. Though he does get to duel the majority of the time, few of the duels actually cater to his character in any way. Moreover, he only gets to be the star of the show in a WRGP duel once, during the by far most forgettable match against Team Catastrophe. And mind that I use the term "star of the show" very loosely here, because the problem the WRGP arc as a whole has, in my opinion, is that the rather lame Team Catastrophe duel is the only one in the whole tournament that isn't won by Yusei, which categorically means that any of the other character's big moments are usually undermined by the fact that they ultimately still need him to save the day. Thus, moments like Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Crow using an anti-synchro-killer strategy that for once actually forgoes synchros are somewhat cheapened by the fact that they're not actually the turning-point moments they're initially painted as, because ultimately, Yusei always has to be the one to save the day. What's worse is that this almost feels like a bit of a non-issue that could have easily been fixed—given that the show tells us that teams can shuffle around their line-up for a match any time. But unfortunately, the writing never interacts with this as a possible strategic element, nor does it ever seem to consider letting Yusei lose, or forcing him to give up his spot for a match. I feel the need to say that I don't put the blame at Yusei's feet here, though: This strongly feels like an oversight by the writers, and perhaps a disproportionate need to have a nigh-infallible protagonist (on the duelling side of things) that their audience would never run the risk of calling "lame". For Crow, though, this chiefly means one thing: In any duel other than the Catastrophe one, it was always clear that even if he partook, he would never finish the match. And yes, this is technically an issue Jack has, too. But this is where the character writing outside of the duels comes into play, too.

Unlike Jack, who actually gets to do something during the Diablo invasion (albeit very little), who gets his very own dragon upgrade and who gets a very personal, pre-duel plot with Dragan, the show's writing doesn't bother giving Crow a lot of plot- or character-relevant things to do, once the WRGP starts. This is also why I was so surprised at how much the Unicorn and Catastrophe duels embrace his interactions with Aki—compared to the later duels in the finals, this portion still makes Crow feel genuinely relevant and interwoven with the other characters. Meanwhile, out of the three final duels, only the Ragnarok one actually tries to establish a connection to his characterisation, through Brave. The Taiyou duel only sets itself up in such a way that Aki partaking instead of him would have been awkward. Meanwhile, the New World duel just has him being treated like a floormat in a sad parallel to Aki during the Unicorn duel, seeing as they both get a nice moment where it looks like they might turn the duel around (Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon onto the field at the same time; Crow summoning Aurora the Northern Lights, which couldn't be absorbed by the Meklords), only to have their hopes dashed as they're mercilessly cleared off the track. Outside of the duels, many scenes sadly give the impression that they may as well not have included Crow, though—he often gets so little to contribute to a moment or even to say at all that substituting him with a cardboard box seems like it would not have impacted the scene in any way. And that's without addressing his non-existent connection to Sherry, which feels extra glaring, given his later interactions with her on the Ark Cradle.

All in all, the WRGP feels like a very mixed bag, where Crow's character writing is concerned. His belated backstory, which I talked about in part two, is front-loaded and asks as many questions as it answers. Then the tournament commences, gives him some actually decent character interplay with Aki for once (at the cost of letting her succeed in the tournament, it seems), only for him to be basically irrelevant during the WRGP pause again. And once the whole thing resumes, it becomes this hot-and-cold thing where some duel aspects seem tailored to him, while others treat him as completely expendable. The end result is an arc where I'm left wondering why exactly the writers felt the need to make it seem like Crow made up one portion of a protagonist trifecta, if they never actually bothered treating him as equal to the other two. (The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the fumbled setup they did for him during the Fortune Cup and DS arc, and the way yugioh in general treats its character archetypes. But that's just speculation on my part.) The one, saving grace the WRGP (outside of the Pearson backstory) has for Crow is that it at least doesn't introduce any new character- and/or timeline inconsistencies. In fact, his character stays remarkably true to form once the tournament begins.

Okay, onto the final bit, then. As I've done in both previous posts, let me delve into completely subjective territory and offer some ideas on how this arc could have been handled to make it seem a little less all over the place with Crow. And since his writing here canonically intersects with Aki's several times, let me try to do it while offering the best of both worlds to both characters, if I can.

As far as Crow's backstory is concerned, I've already offered my solutions to that in part two. Now, to stay consistent with my own suggestions, I'll try to branch off what I wrote in the last post. This means that, as per my previous two analyses, we're dealing with two scenarios again: One, Crow stays a signer and we try to touch canon as little as possible. Two, Crow isn't a signer and we adjust canon in whatever way we need to to make him feel interesting and necessary despite/because of that.

First, though, let's get two adjustments I personally would have made in both versions out of the way:

The way the WRGP is structured puts every character that isn't Yusei at a massive disadvantage, where character moments in duels are concerned. Thus, I propose an overhaul. Among the changes I think could have benefitted the characters (yes, all of them) are: One - Aki actually getting to accomplish something during the Unicorn duel (she can and should still have her moments with Crow, but maybe let her portion of the duel end in her thanking him for coaching her, creating a more upbeat scene that strengthens their friendship, which could double as good setup for their later double-duel against Sherry). Two - letting the Team Catastrophe duel actually play out properly (as in, they become more meaningful as opponents by having a better strategy, for example, and Crow could stick it out longer against them, in order to make this more so his win than Jack's. Also, why not let Aki actually see him get back at Team Catastrophe for her?). Three - giving Crow an actual character moment during the Taiyou duel (what if one of the country boys had played a card or two of the ones he learned to read from? It could have helped drive the parallel between the two teams home.) Four - letting Crow's anti-Meklord strategy get at least a little payoff, if only for two turns (show us at least proof of concept, damn it!). Yes, the Ragnarok duel is the only one I wouldn't rewrite (unless special circumstances are introduced, see below). Additionally, let Team 5Ds alter their line-up more than once, damn it. Let them actually strategise about the duels, let them take into consideration who should go first when and whose deck might be better suited to which scenario. Also, remove Yusei from at least one duel. Doesn't matter how, just let him not partake once. Perfect setup to let Aki duel again, and would also allow for spicy character interactions. (Arguably the best duels where this could have been done would have been any of the final duels, though it would have also required rewriting the antagonists somewhat in any case.)

For the love of god, give Sherry and Crow some setup. Let them actually interact, let them introduce their philosophies to one another, just do something, anything to make Crow understanding and talking sense into her during the finale seem earned. A few chance meetings, or maybe even a tiny side-plot could have done so much here. And if you can't let them interact outright, at least let Aki and Crow talk about Sherry! Double whammy! The two characters who end up duelling against her are made to seem even more like a team, and Crow actually gets to find out what Sherry's deal is on-screen. Just. Set. it. up. I beg you.

There we go. Now, onto the two branches.

Option A: Crow stays a signer and obtained Black-Winged Dragon.

Seeing as Crow's signer status, funnily enough, isn't all that relevant during the tournament itself (save for two notable exceptions), there aren't that many fixes to be made here. Crow can still get injured, miss out on the Unicorn duel and be the star of the Catastrophe duel. But giving him something to do during the duel robot invasion that isn't standing around and hoping Yusei will fix everything would also be nice. It's fine if he can't drive out there and duel, but why not let him do something else? He's a crafty guy, why not let him find, say, a way to fry the Diablos' runners, taking a few of them out even from a semi-stationary position without duelling them? He could at least get as much of a consolation prize scene as Aki got with her saving that child. Then there's Team Taiyou, which, save for what I proposed above, is a duel that doesn't feel like it needs changes. Crow does his thing here. That's it. The same goes for Team Ragnarok, especially given that they're specifically written to oppose an all-signers Team 5Ds. Finally, there's Team New World, which, if I'm being completely candid, I would personally overhaul to change the cyborgs' strategy entirely in order to actually let all three members of Team 5Ds shine. But this is the version where I touch canon as little as possible, so... Aside from what I wrote above, no changes needed. Just make Crow seem a little more relevant, make his strategy have at least a little payoff, even if Granel's back out and menacing literally two turns later.

Option B: Crow, as per my previous posts, isn't a signer and doesn't have Black-Winged Dragon.

This is the version that would categorically require heavier changes, though they honestly don't arrive until the break in the tournament. Unicorn and Catastrophe stay the same, I would still propose that Crow gets to be a little more useful during the Diablo invasion. But! In this version, seeing as he never acquired BWD, the break in the WRGP would be an excellent spot to let Crow acquire an upgrade for his beefy Blackwing ace monster of choice. Give him a little side-plot, too, something to do, something where he proves himself. Maybe let him run into Iliaster here, or maybe call back to Pearson again and introduce the new Blackwing upgrade as a treasure Pearson stashed away before he died (maybe this could have even been the card Bolger was actually after; the world is our oyster here). Then he's beefed up, too, and actually feels a little more on the same level as Jack and Yusei. The tournament recommences and again, the Taiyou duel could stay mostly the same, I think. Ragnarok and New World are where it gets really interesting, though. The way I see it, Ragnarok could go two ways with Crow not being a signer: Either he partakes as he did in canon and his non-signer status is called out as a peculiarity by our Swedish boys who happen to be obsessed with fate (which would make his performance against Brave seem all the more impressive), or, due to this being a duel all about destiny and celestial pissing contests, Crow's spot is given to Aki again for this duel due to her signer status (this would, obviously, require rewriting Brave, perhaps even switching him out for a Ragnarok lady instead). As for Team New World, this duel would honestly be a lot more juicy with a non-signer Crow, because much like he was for the dark signers, a non-signer Crow would essentially be an unknown in their plan for the cyborgs. He would be the guy who's Not Supposed To Be Here. Granted, he would still be beaten, but he could still get an excellent moment where his out-of-left-field anti-Meklord strategy genuinely seems to turn the tables for a bit, angering José and providing even stronger setup for Yusei to win later.

Aaaaand that's that. Somehow, I get the feeling the WRGP had the least things that needed fixing because it also had the least actual character writing. But that might just be me. It's late and I have been writing for A While. But hey, I got out part three faster than part two! I consider that an achievement.

Now, while I get my talking points in order for part four, I hope you'll have fun chewing on this one. See you in the grand finale to my Bird Boy dissertation.

#yugioh 5ds #crow hogan #ygo 5ds #5ds #yugioh meta #team unicorn #team catastrophe #team taiyou #team ragnarok #team new world #holy shit my brain is smoking #so. much. stuff to talk about. #the irony that I'm posting an analysis of this length about crow #on a blog with an aki theme is not lost on me #listen I love them both. they are so good. #and tbh I think I made it abundantly clear that I do here #they are friends. they don't need to fight. #also again if anyone wants to use my fix suggestions as fic premises #please do and tag me if you publish it #anyway *yeets this out into the wild* take it

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Poll analysis part 3

Well I haven't done one of these in a while because I've been focusing on the nicknames and funny tags post But we are definitely due for another one because I've definitely noticed a change and behavior. Plus we've had a lot more and fandoms requested so that might be a contributing factor.

Let's start with the unhinged trio. Think we're due for a lineup change there. It used to be JJK, Black Butler and Dorohedoro. However the latter two only go crazy over a certain character.

Jujutsu Kaisen definitely still deserves its spot There's a reason I picked them to be the first fandom to get a Nicknames and funny tags post in fact they need an update Desperately because you guys are still up to your same old unhinged antics. I've just been busy with other fandoms (one piece) that say even more outrageous crap in the comments

Now One Piece I think you guys took that nickname and funny tag post as a challenge to be as unhinged and creative with your tags as possible because every time I think you all can't possibly get any worse. Someone puts a tag that's even crazier and now I have to update that post with more tags and new characters again.

Now the third spot of the unhinged trio should probably go to Trigun because you guys can't stop talking about Wolfwood's slutty Catholic titties and Vash's snatched little slutty waist. Plus someone has sent a match up request of their weapons no less than three times even though the rules plainly state no weapons so I think we definitely qualify for unhedged trio territory.

My Hero Academia You guys only showed up for the bunny girl and I get it. She's hot. Or to crap on endeavor, that's about it.

Attack on Titan. I finally have found proof of life. The fandom might be in a coma, but at least there's a pulse I thought that fandom was dead but someone or group of people is sending in quite a few requests for that fandom.

And now on to Naruto my problem child fandom. I am not kidding You're the fandom that refuses us to send in photos, but will throw a tantrum if it's not the photo from the correct era of the anime even though I have no clue what you're talking about. Normally when people don't like the photo with any other fandom a dozen better photos of the character will randomly appear in my inbox. Not with the Naruto fandom. I get 10 hate messages saying it's from the wrong era of the anime and I should know that. But does anyone send me a better photo from the correct era of the anime? No. Well actually that's not entirely true the a few times this fandom has sent in replacement photos it's from when in the anime I know the characters are still 14 I've done way too much research into when in canon characters turn 16 and what particular character design/outfit marks that in the timeline for this particular show because of how much I feel like I can't trust this particular fandom as a whole to follow rules. So, remember people I can't read your mind and you are the only fandom that wants to throw a fit over photos like this. Plus the few times I have tried to address the issues with the photos and try to fix the problem you guys want to get combative and very aggressive in the comments. Plus I swear you all are allergic to rules because at least 70% to 80% of requests relating to your fandom have some sort of issue. Whether it's trying to bend the rules or just outright breaking them to massive formatting problems. No other fandom causes me this many headaches. So please for the sake of my sanity do better

Sorry about that. I needed to rant about my problem child fandom maybe now they will start behaving.

When it comes to formatting there is a group of about three people that made requests either everyday or every 2 to 3 days and it was the max amount of request/matchups they could do in a single day according to the rules. They did this the entire time the box was open so they had their formatting down to a science. So basically any fandom that these people requested a lot of had really good track records for formatting and not trying to blatantly break the rules. So One Piece, JoJo's, Attack on Titan and Avatar/Korra all have very good track records right now

But with most fandoms they do a pretty good job of following the rules. No one is as bad as Naruto. Now there are some common issues and major incidents I've had so I'll go ahead and list them below

The common issues are just forgetting to put the name of the show or spelling, but Google can normally figure that out so that's not a major problem or people submitting a character that is video game only and not part of the anime adaptation. Persona, pokémon and Tekken are The worst offenders when it comes to this. Other major issues that come up frequently are with character ages? But it's normally with characters that look like they're adults. So I really don't hold that against people. I'm just guessing that people didn't realize they're actually teenagers but hopefully that will not be as much of a problem but since I dropped the age down to 16.

Now recent issues I've had to address were formatting issues where it was bad enough that I couldn't make it out due to dyslexia. Trigun has tried to submit weapons no less than three times even though that is blatantly against the rules. Like I mentioned earlier Naruto likes to submit photos from when the characters are 12 to 14 that doesn't fit the rules especially when photos are available from the correct age range that do follow the rules. So those are the ones I use no matter how many times they throw temper tantrums. Dungeon Meshi has submitted a 14-year-old and Soul Eater submitted a 13-year-old and said they were 16 in the request. So they lied. Luckily someone told me so I was able to delete those polls quite quickly, but now I can't trust anyone. So if you ever wonder why it takes so long for me to empty out the request box this is why

Oh but good news, no one has submitted a request since I've closed the box I basically consider that a miracle because the last two times there have been people that have not cared that the box is closed. So let's keep it that way please. I don't mind questions, just no requests. The box is closed I still have like 150 more individual messages that have multiple poll requests on them to get through before I open it again

Well that's going to be all for this post again. And I hope at least someone found this entertaining or informative or at least something. There will probably be another one of these in the future

#poll analysis #fandom trends #not a poll

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

the skellies who are good at fighting / are in the royal guard, how would they react to finding out s/o being way more powerful than they realized? And how would they find out about it? That depends, s/o is a retired assassin/hitman who now works at innocent jobs like at a bakery, preschool, animal shelter,etc. Before they found out about it, they found it amusing how protective the skellies were, even if you can very easily defeat people with one hit. Like they could beat them in a fight, they could beat Asgore or Undyne in a fight! But they've never really shown it because they want to leave their past behind, wanting to forget how young they were forced to kill and fight to survive and to work like that.

Undertale Papyrus - He's quite in awe. Not a lot of people are actually matching his strength (and not even Undyne, even if he's really good at pretending), but you do. He just wanted to spare for fun but he's struggling a lot, and he actually loves it. That made him curious, but if you really don't want to talk about it, he won't force. He likes when his S/O has one little part of mystery. I mean, he has too. He would love to spare more though, he feels like he could learn more with you in one session than with Undyne in 10 years. Even if he likes Undyne style too. But there's just something with you that he finds very attractive.

Underswap Sans - His mind is totally blown. He expected you were stronger than you seemed, but this? He got a called some man was assaulting you, and he rushed to save you, only to see you beat the guy down without any effort, and holding him on the floor until he cries like a baby. What the hell. He will definitely try to know more about you, even if you're clearly not too enthusiastic about this. He just needs to know, please.

Underfell Papyrus - He wanted to teach you self defence as a cool couple activity, but then you said his techniques was bullshit and you throw him on the ground with ease, holding him in a very uncomfortable on the floor for long minutes, as he's unable to move. Edge is screeching angrily, saying that your techniques are bullshit and that you're not scary him. The more he gets angry, the more you're locking him in place, and he's starting to lose it. What the hell?! You can't be better than him at fighting, that's illegal! He refuses! He's so offended right now! The next months are going to be full of moments where Edge randomly attacks you to win, but never win and is slowly losing his sanity over this. His LV is higher than yours, that's not fair!

Swapfell Sans - He's surprised, but it's good surprise. Not a lot of people can stand more than five minutes in a fight against him. That's one of the first time he's actually having fun sparing with someone. People are usually too scared of him to spare for fun, or it's for bad reasons, like with Alphys. He forgot he loves sparing without fearing to be betrayed. He's a bit curious about where you learned how to fight, but he well knows this subject can be upsetting and will not push you if you don't want to talk. But it's a rare talent and he will say that he thinks you should let him train you if you want to go further. You actually have more potential than the entire Royal Guard he trained back Underground. In his world, you would definitely be a Royal Guard's Captain by now.

Fellswap Gold Sans - He pissed you off bad one day and you just challenged him in a fight. He laughed at you until you beat his ass in seconds and now he's not laughing at all. What the hell? That's just luck. He wasn't focusing. Except he focused to attack and you did it again??? He keeps attacking, more and more angry, but you're just stronger than him. He's so mad. You're a human. That's ridiculous! Humans are weak and don't even have magic! After half an hour, he's throwing a tantrum on the floor, screaming you're cheating and that it's not fair. He's questionning his entire life. He swears he will have his revenge! He's stronger and better at fighting! He'll prove you!

Mafiatale Sans - He's secretly jealous. He knows he's not the best fighter, but still. He's in the best mafia of the world, you're an independant and you could break him in half like a branch. That's scary. And awesome. He wishes he was that strong.

Mafiatale Papyrus - He expected something when he noticed your LV was high, and tried since to fight you to test you. He's goodly surprised when you finally accept and beat him like he's a weak baby. He's so exciting! Why the hell didn't you say it sooner? You could be a nice addition to the mafia. When you say you don't want to, he's quite disappointed. Talent like this shouldn't go to waste.

Mafiafell Papyrus - Torpedo is actually quite conforted knowing you can perfectly defend yourself. He has a lot of ennemy and you're an easy target for them. He can't stop chuckling every time he gets home and finds you beating the shit out of one of his rivals, waiting for him to get home to pick them up. You're not a part of the mafia, but even Asgore, the mafia's boss, knows not to mess with you. You're like some urban legend in the mafia.

Dustale Sans - What. You don't even have that many LV. That's insane. And quite scary. He's not too sure how he feels about that. He doesn't feel very safe knowing you can kill him in his sleep. Not that you will kill him in his sleep, but... He doesn't know. He had only bad experiences with old killers. He doesn't like it.

Killer Sans - Welp. You're hired! You ask him what he's talking about, he says that you can replace it with Nightmare, thanks you and leaves. You screech at him to come back here. You're not doing his job!

#undertale #underswap #underfell #swapfell #fellswap gold #mafiatale #mafiafell #dustale sans #killer sans #sans #papyrus #undertale ask blog #undertale asks #undertale imagines #undertale headcanons

[hyuuukais]

.・゜-: ✧ :- FICTIONAL REALITY .・゜-: ✧ :-

pairing • bang chan x fem reader

synopsis • fiction or reality? y/n preferred the former, escaping into another world, escaping her problems. so what happens when reality takes that away from her; wiping her own story-in-progress off both her laptop and beloved usb? and what happens when she opens the door in the middle of a crisis to none other then the love interest of her novel... and he's holding her usb?

warnings • general, implied abuse going on, things get a lil suggestive

MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

CHAPTER ELEVEN • THE CALM (3k)

"You're not supposed to be in here."

Whispers grow louder and louder until they're right outside the door. Staring at the closed door, you clutch the hem of your shirt anxiously. There's no other exit, that is besides waking up.

Fear settles in your stomach. You don't know how to wake up.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Panic rises higher, your body tingling and breathing constricted. You never should have attempted this- you should have gone back to Jeongin. No, you couldn't do that to him again.

You look back at your own body lying in the high-tech chair across from Yeonjun. What would happen if you ripped the cords out of your neck? The tube out of your forearm? Would all of this end? Or would that further doom everyone? Too many questions, not enough answers. You can't risk it.

Pounding on the door gains your attention, and you sink down to your knees in the water. The water, which has risen in the past few minutes, now covers up to your mid-thigh like this. It takes everything in you to push yourself back up, swallowing the anxiety that weighs down each step to your body. Just like the others, your skin is cold to the touch, but your breathing matches your own.

"Wake up." Did you really think that was going to work? "Wake up, please."

Pleading quietly, shaking your own shoulders lightly with the little bit of energy you have left. This place is consuming you, bringing you into its darkness bit by bit; you've made a grave mistake coming here.

All you can think of as you beg is Minho. Minho, sitting beside your body no doubt worrying as you lie there motionless, too still. Minho, who, despite everything, you love just as much as you did before leaving. There's no reason for you not to, but you've tried to forget everything and everyone from that life including him. Minho, who hasn't dared to leave your side unless you've asked him to, who hasn't questioned your sanity or judged you, who's made you breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day since he arrived.

Minho, who's about to lose you forever.

The door bursts open with a gust of air, but the voices are gone, leaving you alone sobbing over yourself. Clutching onto her shoulders, you put your head down against hers and let the chair bear your weight. You can hear footsteps behind you in the still-rising water, stopping right by your side, but you don't bother looking up. It's taking everything in you to hold yourself up, just enough of you still there to fight the dark.

A hand rests on your shoulder and you flinch. "You'll save him. You'll figure it out, I believe in you."

Something ignites in you at their words and their touch, allowing you to push away from your body and turn back to the door. Nobody is there, just you making your way back to where you came from. The door is shut again, but there's a new light streaming through the cracks, warm like daylight.

Your hand finds the knob, pushing out into the open.

-

Minho sits silently, waiting for you to return. It's been nearly seven hours since you left and your body hasn't even twitched. He's seen you sleeping before. Watched the slow rise and fall of your chest, heard your cute, soft snores and sleep-talking. You always move, stealing blankets and pillows and anything you could get ahold of, so seeing you so... unlifelike, is unnerving, to say the least.

Around the eleventh hour, you sit straight up gasping and grabbing the collar of your shirt. Feelings of shock are quickly pushed away, Minho kneeling by your side to rub your back as you cough and cough and cough. He takes off your headphones, placing them on the table with one hand, the other still on your back.

At this point you're trying to claw your shirt off, so he helps you out of it the best he can. You don't seem to even notice him yet, eyes squeezed shut, bringing your knees up to your chest with a sob. It hurts, seeing you like this and knowing there isn't much he can do besides be there.

Once you've calmed down, you speak, voice rough. "I thought I was stuck in there. Min, it's got us all hooked up to these weird chairs unconscious, but I don't know if there's a safe way to unhook someone without damage. I don't even know if that would help or if it would make things worse. Hell, I don't even know if it was real." As you explain everything you saw, you realize something. "...but I didn't see you there."

"What?" His face pales.

"I didn't see you." You look at him, searching his eyes for something, anything, that could explain why. Of course, you didn't want to assume he had to do with what's been going on, but he's the only one you didn't see, the only one who hasn't had any dreams or visions, the only one seemingly unaffected by whatever is haunting you.

"No." Minho shakes his head, a look of betrayal on his face. "You don't think this is all me, do you?" It's like he's read your thoughts, standing up and walking a few steps away. With his back still turned, you see his hand fly up to his face. "Y/n, why would you think that? I- I could never hurt you! Could never dream of hurting you, and you-"

His voice is cut off by a harsh knocking on the door. You move to answer the door, but Minho gestures for you to stay sitting. He opens the door, slightly hesitantly.

"Is Y/n here?" Jeongin's voice travels down the hall, slightly out of breath.

"Right here!" You quickly move to the entry, pulling your discarded shirt back on and sliding beside Minho in the doorway. "What's up J- oh my god, are you okay?"

There's a bruise forming on his left cheek, deepest nearing the high point of his cheekbone. Your hands come up to his face, tilting it gently to examine the damage.

"I'm-" He winces when you accidentally graze the edge, whispering a quick apology. "I'm fine. Are you okay?" You give him a confused look. "I felt a sort of... shift. Everything was telling me to get here ASAP. What did you do?"

He gives you a look that makes you shrink back into Minho, who wraps an arm around your shoulders protectively.

"I went back."

"You what? On your own?" Jeongin looks at you with disbelief. "Do you realize how dangerous that is?" His voice raises with every word, hands on his head, raking through his hair. "Seriously! Tell me everything and don't you dare leave a single detail out. God, you could have died!"

Jeongin paces back and forth on your porch, trying to calm himself down. He doesn't notice the way you grip the neckline of your shirt, the way your breathing has picked up, the way you've backed up into Minho, body begging you to run up the stairs and hide. All because he raised his voice.

But Minho notices, of course, Minho notices. And he holds you tighter, brushes his fingers through your hair the way he knows used to calm you down, hoping it still does. When you slowly loosen your grip on your shirt, he knows it's working.

"You're okay," he whispers, nudging his nose by your ear. "You're okay," he repeats, head turning back to a still-pacing Jeongin. "Are you gonna come in or what?"

His words bring the younger boy back to Earth, walking inside when you shift out of the way, out of Minho's touch, and back into the living room. It's the first time Jeongin has ever been to your house; you don't even know how he knew your address. The boy looks up and around, eyes falling onto the old photo of you and Minho resting on your coffee table. He opens his mouth as if to ask about it, but decides it's best not to, not right now with more pressing matters.

"I wanted to see if I could find it," you say, avoiding eye contact, but feeling Jeongins stare piercing you. "Maybe then I could figure out how to stop it without seeing Yeonjun, but if anything, it only solidified the fact that's the only way."

"Well that's not happening," Minho says, the same time Jeongin says, "You don't even know what it is."

You look up at Minho, frowning. "You don't get to decide that."

What he does apparently get to decide is a topic change. "Jeongin, how did you get here?"

"Oh, I asked Chan to bring me since I knew he'd been here before." His face flushes. "And because I had no one else to ask."

"Not your grandmother?" You ignore the fact Chan may be waiting for him outside, swallowing the rush of feelings.

"No." Jeongin shakes his head hard, face turning redder when he realizes the quickness in which he answered. "You know she doesn't approve of my... my gift. If you can even call it that."

He looks down, shrinking into himself automatically. Everything in you wants to hug him, comfort him, but you don't know how. Whatever he's going through at home, he doesn't deserve it. Maybe one day, when all of this is over, the two of you can run away from this town that you're now realizing has never been, and will never be, home. For you and for him.

"Is Chan outside?" Of course that's what Minho is focusing on.

"Yeah," Jeongin says, fiddling with his fingers. "He should be in his car down the road a bit."

"Stay here, I'm gonna go talk to him-"

"Um, no?" You cut him off. "You're gonna scare him off."

"You have so much faith in me." Sarcasm drips off his tongue, a small smirk playing at his lips. "Relax, I was just going to invite him in. Seems this conversation may be a little longer than expected."

You're about to agree, however since Minho's arrival, you haven't really gotten the chance to talk to Chan completely alone, other than the one time in his apartment.

"I'll get him." You leave before he can protest.

-

"Knock, knock!" You announce yourself with a knock to the passenger side window, causing Chan to jump in his seat.

He rolls down the window. "Now, why should I let you in after that? Giving a dying man a heart attack?"

Words meant to be taken as a joke make your heart sink. Because he's right- he's dying. Noticing your expression, he leans over to unlock you door.

"Hey, I'm sorry." You hesitate, but sit down. "I was joking, but, ah, bad joke. Noted."

You shake your head. "No, I'm sorry. This is all so fucked up Chan and I still don't have more than just theories. We have, what?" Pulling up your phone calendar, you quickly check the date. "A month and a half to figure this out? And if we don't, you're just gone? Like you never existed?"

Chan inhales sharply, eyes detaching from yours and onto the road ahead.

Sunlight streams through the cracks of the surrounding forest, sun rising slowly. It reminds you of the warmth of waking up in his apartment, in his arms; not only warm because of the sun.

"You forget, I never existed in the first place." His words are strained. "This is just the universe correcting itself."

"No," you say, a little too quickly, a little too loudly. "Sorry, but no. You're here for a reason, Chan, and I'm not letting you go that easy."

"What, you care for me already?" You blush.

"Considering up until now you were the main love interest of a book I've been writing on and off for the last few years? Yeah, I care about you." You huff, slouching in your seat just a bit. "You were meant to depict everything I value in a person, in a lover. I knew you more intimately than my own boyfriend. My own fiancé. You made me feel safe and loved, even if it all was of my own creation. You were my happy space."

"I could still be your happy space," he blurts.

When you look up, he's looking away, avoiding your eyes. Telling you he didn't mean to say that, at least, not out loud. He watches as leaves fall off trees, willing you not to acknowledge what he said.

"You could be," you confess.

Have you known real him for very long? No, not at all. But now you have the chance to know him, to accept love you deserve, even if you don't think you do. The chance to put your past to rest.

So you lean in, cupping his cheek, turning him to face you. Chan's eyes look into yours, a comforting dark brown, nothing but love in his gaze. And you realize, probably before he does, he loves you. But that's the way you wrote him. You wrote him to love you.

This is all wrong.

You pull away.

"Y/n?" Chan catches your hand before it can hit your lap. "What- did I do something wrong?"

"I did." You can't look him in the eye. There seems to be a lot of that today, being unable to look others in the eye. "The only reason you feel like this way is because I made you like this."

"Oh, please," he says, softly. "Tell me the way I feel."

"You love me! You love me, but have no say in the matter." Now you do look at him, searching for agreement. When he says nothing, you continue. "You were created because I needed an escape from real life where I couldn't find that love I wanted so desperately. Because I was scared. Now, here you are, and you love me. But everything feels wrong. You didn't get to choose this."

"Then let me choose now," he says, hand locking your fingers together. "I choose you. Okay?"

Chan leans in, brushing your nose with his. You want to reach out and touch him more, trace his features with your fingers and memorize the details. He's a piece of artwork, and you're his artist.

"Okay."

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Please."

And kiss you, he does. Romantic, soft, lips hovering before enveloping your own. The hand not holding yours finds your waist, rubbing up and down soothingly. Kissing Chan is a breath of fresh air; you've been drowning without it. All his feelings push into you, leaving you breathless when he licks your bottom lip. Immediately, you open your mouth; you'd be a fool not to.

Chan leans over to you more, hand wandering upwards, his other unlocking from yours and joining in. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pull him in closer as he deepens the kiss. Hands find the small of your back, making a move to bring you onto Chan's lap, but in the process of doing so, your head hits the roof of his car, hard.

"Fuck!" You rub the top of you head, collapsing into Chan instead of what was supposed to be gracefully sitting in his lap.

"Y/n! Are you alright?" He's fast to bring you up, examining your head and checking for any bumps.

"I'm fine," you can't stop laughing. "Just... embarrassed."

Between yours and Chan's laughter, you just barely hear your phone ringing in time to answer before it stops.

"Hello?" You're taking deep breaths, climbling backward into your seat again.

"What's taking so long?" It's Minho. Oh, right, there was a reason to be out here other than make out with Chan.

"It's Min," you whisper, covering the speaker. "I forgot I was just supposed to invite you inside."

"Do... do I want to know?" You hear Minho say.

"It's nothing. We're on our way back now." You hang up with a quick goodbye. "You can park in my driveway, you know? You didn't have to go so far."

"I'm not that far."

"Yes, you are," you laugh again. "I had to walk, like, ten minutes to get here. I was starting to think Jeongin tricked me or something."

Chan's face pales at the mention of Jeongin.

"What?" You turn in your seat to face him better, tone serious as he rubs his neck nervously. "What is it? Jeongin?"

"Yeah, he..." Chan's eyebrows furrow. "Something's wrong."

"Wrong how?"

"I don't know." Chan sighs through his nose, frustrated. "At home, but also he doesn't sleep or eat or anything."

"What do you mean?"

Has Jeongin been with Chan longer than you knew? The bruise on his cheek, Chan wouldn't... would he?

"He was telling me all this on the way here and last night-" Chan looks at you, new confusion on your face. "Right, I guess you wouldn't know. Jeongin, he came back to my apartment last night completely out of breath. At the time he just said he needed a place to stay for the night, so I let him. He didn't say much at the time, but he kept wincing when he breathed, and I'm sure you've seen the bruise."

You say nothing, your silence speaking for you.

"On the way here, he opened up more to me." Chan looks away briefly. "I won't go into the details; that's not my place. But I will say that maybe it's best he stays with one of us for a little while longer. Of course I'd be happy to let him stay with me-"

"No, let him stay here," you say, holding up a hand. "I have tons of space. He can crash in a spare room."

"Okay." Chan nods, looking back up at you.

"So can you, you know, if you want."

When did you get so bold?

"Of course," Chan says, surprised. "Yeah, yes, sure."

The sun is on his face now, making his eyes brighter and skin glow. You want to kiss him again.

"We should be heading back," he whispers, eyes flicking down to your lips, just for a moment.

"I guess we should be," you reply, another phone call from Minho coming in, no doubt asking where you were again.

●

notes • all i will say is 👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁

taglist • @yongbbokkie @chaeryred @tenebrisirae @toplinelix @chansdoll @amaranth-writing @3rachachoo @linosjureumi @thebrownemo @tfshouldidohere @channie-143 @frogieeheart @kangaracharacha @skzswife

TAGLIST CLOSED ^^^blue means i can't tag you

#.・゜-: ✧ :- FICTIONAL REALITY .・゜-: ✧ :- #bang chan x reader #bang chan x fem reader #bang chan fic #stray kids fanfic #skz #stray kids #skz x reader #stray kids x reader #bang chan au #bang chan series

[respectthepetty]

Hii, i have been occupied and wanted to come back to watch BLS, my last one was naughty babe. So what's are your current obsession!?

Anon, you have missed a lot in the last six months! BL Land has had several shows in that time, and, of course, I've consumed most of them. My capability to become obsessed with a show is unparalleled, and as I mentioned in my last obsession list, I can be obsessed about several things simultaneously. Since you've been out for a minute, let me recap some of the shows I sent a Valentine's Day card too.

Note: These are NOT recommendations.

Shows I liked for color reasons but wasn't obsessed:

Twins

Pit Babe

Middleman's Love

My Dear Gangsta Oppa

Bake Me Please (* I AM obsessed with the lead actor, Guide)

Shows I liked for the colors AND the plot but wasn't always obsessed with:

The Sign

Perfect Propose

I Cannot Reach You

7 Days Before Valentine

I Became a Lead in a BL Drama

Shows I should've been obsessed with if I was normal:

Cooking Crush

Love for Love's Sake

Cherry Magic (Thailand)

So now that we recapped some of the shows I was mildly normal about, it's time for me to reveal the shows I'm currently so obsessed with that I cut off some of their hair while they slept and now I'm attaching it to a cloth doll in hopes of binding us together.

For. Ev. Ah.

Dead Friend Forever (forever, forever, ever, forever, ever?)

Obsession Level - Buying us matching BFF necklaces with vials of our blood attached to them after my therapist tells me my relationship with it is unhealthy, and I need to take a step back from it.

It just ended, and it isn't a BL, but I have no words. If I tried to explain why I'm so obsessed with this show, people would be really worried about my sanity. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't want to stop thinking about it. I hate all the characters. I love all the characters. I want them all dead. I want to raise them from the dead and make them do it all again. I want to heal them. I want to make them worse. I want to be in that house with them.

Unknown

Obsession Level - Holding pictures of it close to my heart while I lay in bed even though it is laying right next to me in the same bed because I need it to fully grasp just how crazy about it I am and have been.

It's Taiwanese. It's color coded. It's about "brothers." And if you looked at my previous obsessed list, you know those three items are a clear path to Obsession City for me (Looking at you, Kiseki: Dear to Me).

Anti Reset

Obsession Level - Baking all its favorite sweet treats and sitting them on its porch early in the morning then running away even though I know the security camera is filming me each time (which is why I wear cute outfits when I do it).

It's Taiwanese. It's color coded. It's about a robot. It doesn't hit all the points on my obsession scale, but it's part of Vidol/VBL's universe, so it has my attention and a little bit of my heart.

Lady Boy Friends

OB. SESSED! Level - Knowing it's expired and toxic, but I can't stop eating it because if ending up in the hospital is the price I have to pay and possible death, then I guess that's the sacrifice I gotta make.

It's a remake of a 2015 series, it dropped with no promo, and only one episode has aired, yet this show is hellbent on being a whole ass problem, so of course my trashy ass loves it. There is transphobia, homophobia, sexual harassment, colorism, elitism, and every other -ism that it could pile in because the entire show is begging to be everyone's trigger warning. There is a love story in there somewhere, but I don't give two shits about it when the skinny femmes and the fat femmes are fighting, and the one pictured above is about to enter her villain origin story. The subtitler is doing the Lord's work, and I feel truly blessed with this hot ass mess.

But please remember, one person's trash taste is not another person's treasure, so THESE ARE NOT RECOMMENDATIONS!

#my current obsessions #dead friend forever and ever and ever ever #unknown #anti reset #lady boy friends #NOT RECOMMENDATIONS #I'm trash and I know it

[pandoa]

Let me just scoot myself in here real quick AHEM! I would like to participate in this 100 followers event!

I would like epel with....

Daisies ~ “it’s our little secret, alright?”

AND

Freesias ~ “you’re an idiot” “no, i’m not” “i hate you” “love you too”

Thank you^^ you don't need to do this if you don't want to and congrats on 100 follower you deserve atleast 500 but I digress.

Daisies ~ “it’s our little secret, alright?”

Freesias ~ “you’re an idiot” “no, i’m not” “i hate you” “love you too”

~epel felmier x gender neutral reader~

warnings: just random people thinking epel is a girl while on a date with reader.. bless his heart. pls remember that although here, in this fic, it's to be taken as light-hearted comedy in a fictional scenario, misgendering others can have serious effects on people irl. always remember to never assume the important things about a person just because of their appearance. thank u <3

YAKOOO TYSM I KNOW YOU DON'T REMEMBER WHAT YOU REQUESTED BUT HERE YOU GO LMAO- we're actually almost at 500 atm hehe anyways HOPE YOU ENJOY MY DEAR YAKO

♡manly misunderstanding♡

Epel wasn’t too sure what it would feel like to overblot. But he was sure that he would be moments close to forming the oozing, black liquid from his pen if you and him did not walk out of the mall you both had been shopping in as soon as possible. Because what had disrupted your very first date together as a couple was just outrageous.

Out. Rageous.

“Hello, Miss!” an overly cheery voice called out to you both, specifically referring to your startled boyfriend who jumped up in surprise. “Would you like to try out our new moisturizer?” the saleswoman chirped, “It's one hundred percent made of natural ingredients like coconut oil and shea butter! Perfect for a self-care day!”

Epel hesitantly raised his pale hand in refusal, instinctively shielding you from the gazes of the insistent advertisers as if you were a jewel in need of protection—even despite the fact that he was clearly the one in need of more protection rather than yourself.

 “Ah—No, thank you,” Epel politely declined, “I think I’m alright—”

The bright saleswoman, however, continued to tread closer and closer to the first year’s defensive form as she eagerly passed down a fancy-looking bottle of lotion into his hand, “Are you sure? We are having a limited-time sale for this season only! Here, come into our store and see for yourself—”

“Young Lady!” Readily backing away from the previous shop, the two of you hastily moved forward to flee the creeping stares of the mall only to immediately be caught by another spokesperson. “Please have a sample of our latest concealer!” The seller, this time a very young and refreshing boy, called out to Epel, “Clogs no pores and nurtures your fair skin!”

“Ah—Sorry, I’m not very into that sort of thing—”

“Hi! Wanna try out this trending red lipstick? I bet it would SO match that cute top you have on right now, Miss. Post and share it with your girlfriends, too! Or even your boyfriends!”

“Please, just leave us alone—” 

“MADAM, DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN FREE TICKETS TO SEE POPULAR ACTOR NEIGE LEBLANCHE IF YOU ORDER A CASKET OF OUR RED APPLE SODA RIGHT NOW! THAT’S RIGHT! FREE TICKETS TO SEE OUR MEDIA PRINCE, NEIGE LEBLANCHE IF YOU PURCHASE RIGHT NOW! GET YOUR DRINKS TODAY!”

“OH FOR SEVENS’ SAKE!”

Hollering in frustration, Epel’s sanity had ticked its final thread of patience as he bolted towards the blaring red lights of the mall’s heavenly exit. You quickly followed behind him, concerned but slightly amused by your boyfriend’s struggle to escape the grasps of the endless sea of salespersons as they all flocked the young boy like a stray piece of food being surrounded by a wave of birds on the shoreline. Dashing past the tempting aroma of the plentiful food stalls, speeding away from any stranger who had so much as looked your way, and skipping across the wooden tiles of the mall’s boardwalk, you and Epel had finally stopped to rest as the advertisers were now nowhere in sight.

Well, you had thought so, at least. 

“...You know,” your voice said tiredly, finally catching your breath from the strenuous chase, “if the other first years saw this, they’d never let you live this down, right?”

“Shut up,” Epel glared back at you with no real ill intent. “It’s our little secret, alright? And no tellin’ Ace or Deuce ‘bout this! Nev’r!”

“Really~? What if I accidentally let it slip out one day during alchemy lessons that we were both chased down by a bunch of your fangirls and fanboys because of your beautiful looks? What would you do then?” a smug smile then slowly grew on your face, clearly trying to cause some sort of mischief between the two of you with your jokes.

The boy proceeded to maintain an exhausted stare at your comment, “You’re an idiot, (Y/n).” 

“No, I’m not.”

“I hate you.”

“I love you, too.”

Epel, upon hearing your words, stood still in shock for a fragment of a second as he took in what you had just said in its entirety. “That’s… that’s not fair,” he muttered in what seemed like a flash of defeat, “But you were kiddin’, right? You wouldn’t actually—”

“Hey, you there!” another unknown voice coming from the store adjacent to the both of you pierced your ears like a dozen nails on a chalkboard, “Would you like a special sample of this new cologne and perfume by a well-known rising actor and model? May I present to you, madam, Fairest and True, Schoenheit: The Fragrance—!”

“NO, PLEASE,” Epel curtly yelled as he leaped yards away from the salesman innocently holding out an elegant, violet bottle of perfume towards his stature, “ANYTHING BUT THAT—”

a/n:  currently imagining vil in a fragrance commercial like adrien agreste from miraculous ladybug. i am dying.

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst imagines #epel felmier #twst epel #epel twst #epel twisted wonderland #epel felmier x reader #epel x reader #epel x you #pomefiore #blossom grove prompt event

[seraphiism]

❀ ﾟ. ༄ ┊ & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 ( 𝐩𝐭. 𝐢𝐢 ) ;

( my heart slams against my ribs when i think of the slaughtered nights i spent all over the world waiting to feel your touch. )

characters : vere / mhin fandom : touchstarved quote cr : henry rollins a/n : each character is limited to 250 words! pt. i [ ais / leander / kuras ]

↬ vere ࿐ ࿔

THIS MONSTER IS BIRTHED FROM EVILS , THE BLOOD BENEATH HIS CLAWS FROM THE SOULLESS & HUMAN. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING WITHIN THIS CREATURE LYING DORMANT : A MURDER, A HYMN, AND AN ALTRUISM.

vere learns that trust is myth and fable cursed, but there is glory to be found beneath it all-- the violence and sanguine a wretchedness intertwined with exhilaration that serves as reminder of one's true form. he swallows hard, the collar around his neck too tight yet not tight enough-- a known presence that will be a haunting until the end of days, a punishment in existence, a dreadful binding to fate deserved and undeserved.

the little proximity between your bodies is too close a recollection of first encounters; you fight the urge to shrink away, pride on the verge of vanquish, nerves frayed.

"what have you done," your fear ever so present in a whisper, "to be bound like this?"

something flickers in vere's eyes : disgust, hatred, cold fury. it sparks, ignites, but dies in moment's notice, replaced with utter amusement. he reaches out to you, finger curled under your chin, forcefully tilts your head upwards. he wonders what is worse : your curse or naivety? it doesn't matter, he thinks; they will both end in your demise.

"does it make you sad, this leash?" his words are gentle yet taunting, seductive and heavy with warning. he leans closer, lips brushing against your ear. "don't be. not even that will save you from being torn apart by me."

↬ mhin ࿐ ࿔

SOLITUDE AND LONELINESS ARE NOT OF IMPORTANCE IN A LIFE DEPLORABLE, THE OUTCAST'S HEART OBSOLETE AND WORN ON ONE'S SLEEVE.

mhin is desperate, heart pounding in desire for answers. how daunting the senobium is-- the answer, the solution, the cure. how many days has it been since they've been here, stuck in endless loop, sanity slowly slipping? you share the same goal, the gaining of entry to a place mysterious and despised, but you are too persistent, too unreadable, and they hate it.

"i need you, mhin." your words are clear, straight to the point, but there is an edge to them that is desperate and wanting.

they blink, eyes wide for a split second before they shift their gaze elsewhere. the red that blossoms on their face is too endearing, but you keep focus, speak up once more.

"you need me, too." your skin burns, fingertips etched with an aching. "please, mhin. we can work together, find some way in. that's all i need."

silence. they do not dare look at you, scowl on their face nearly muscle memory at this point.

"obnoxious." a sharpness that fails to match with one's flustered gaze. "fine. i won't help you after this."

nothing good will come from this ; something foreign burrows in their chest, warns them of a future to come.

--no, nothing good will come of this, but there is a cruelty in denial, and even mhin cannot fight the humanity that still fights to exist in a rotting heart.

#touchstarved #touchstarved x reader #vere x reader #mhin x reader #oughghghg these 2 are so much harder to write for . spent 10 yrs figuring things out and rewriting #aAAAAAAAAAAA i love mhin though they r so . pinches them #.: writing #.: multi

[meidreamsdelivery]

《Forbidden game》

[Genshin Gorou, R18]

Pairing: Femboy!Gorou x Fem!reader

Note: Image(s) is not mine and credit goes to its original owner.

Summary: You and Gorou have discovered a kind of 'forbidden game'. A game where he dresses up like a girl. And gets pampered.

"Y/n...you've really acquired some weird taste while you were away."

"Ah, won't you please, Gorou?"

"Uuu...But..."

"Just a little bit would be enough."

"I promise. This is the last time."

"Uuu..."

"How...do I look...?"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAA SOOOOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUTEEEEE ♡ AAHH ♡♡♡♡"

"You're an absolute angel~ ♡ I can't believe such a cute person exists on Watasumi Island~ "

"Haaaaah~ I just wanna eat you up~ ♡ Oh, just what should I do? ♡"

"You're so cute that there's no way I can keep my sanity~"

"How can you be soooo adorable?! ♡♡"

"So, Gorou, please ♡"

"Can we do......that today as well...?"

*Gorou pouts*

"That's not fair."

"You know I can never say no to you, Y/n..."

*You kiss him from his back*

"Mnnh...♡"

"Huu...♡ Mnnnnh......♡"

"Mnnm...♡♡"

*You maneuver your hand to his cock*

"Hehe, just a little kissy made your cock get so big in your girl undies."

"Iyaah...Aaah...Aaah!?"

*Your finger rub his tip in a circular motion*

"Uwaah"

"Gorou is really such a bad child..."

"Super supper cuuuuute Gorou's cock. ♡"

"I'll use my mouth to give your tip some more strokey strokies. ♡"

*You gobble up his cock in an instant*

"Iyaah..."

"Aah...Aah~"

"Aah~ Aah~ Aah~"

"Hehe, Gorou, even your voice is becoming like a girl's."

"Mnnh..."

"Your agonised expression is really sexy...so cute...♡"

"Mnnnnh~"

"It's okay. Go pssh pssh and shoot your girly milk deep inside my throat. ♡"

"Iyaah~ Aah"

"Aah..."

"Aauuu~"

"I'm about to shoot...I'm about to shoot!"

"Mnnm~"

"Mnnnnh~~ Uuuu~ Mnnnnnnnnn~~"

As Gorou cummed inside your mouth, he recalled the previous small happenings.

After you saw how he looked in a girl's uniform for the first time, the colour of your eyes literally changed. That day, he was milked until he lost consciousness.

From that day on, you begged him repeatedly everyday to wear all types of clothing and make love with you. Wearing matching cute, Inazuma-styled evening gowns. Sometimes he was doted on until his brain was about to melt into jelly.

"Iyaah...Aah. That place is...really dirty......Aahn......♡"

"Don't put your tongue in...♡"

He trembled in pleasure, suddenly remembering the moment when he sticked his butt out for you to play with. Sometimes you would mercilessly attack him without stopping, until his body was about to turn into malleable clay.

"Today you have to shoot cum to your heart's content like the girl you are. ♡"

"Let's rub against your little pee pee hole as well. ♡"

"Won't you let me hear more of your cute and sexy sounds? ♡"

"Uwaah...Y/n...Y/n..."

"Hehe, so obedient. Such a good child."

"Bad child. Gorou's such a bad child."

"So much fluid spilling out. Gorou you pervert. ♡"

"Gorou masturbating like a girl. ♡ It's really cute."

"Gorou ♡ Gorou ♡ I love it. ♡"

"Y/n~ Y/n~ Faster...Faster please..."

"I'm begging you..."

"Here, Gorou, can you feel it? ♡"

"The entrance to my womb is playing kissy kissy with Gorou's cute cock. ♡"

"It seems like it's begging Gorou to quickly go pssh pssh and shoot lots and lots of cum out. ♡"

As these days passed...his conversations with you have become more and more erotic. Both of you demonstrating your increasing love for each other in bed. He smiled as he looked forward to his future with you.

#genshin impact #genshin impact smut #genshin smut #genshin x reader #genshin x y/n #genshin x you #genshin x reader smut #genshin x female reader #genshin impact imagine #genshin impact drabbles #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact scenarios #genshin scenarios #genshin drabbles #genshin gorou #genshin impact gorou #gorou smut #gorou imagines #gorou x reader #gorou x you #gorou x y/n #cute crossdreser #cross dressing #genshin fanfic #genshin headcanons #genshin fanart #genshin impact fanart #gorou fanart #gorou genshin impact #genshin

[gothy-froggy]

Gotham! Jonathan Crane Headcanons

I feel like Jonathan is one of those on & off switch introverts. Especially if you're his best friend or in a relationship with him.

Like he can be the shy one having you being like, "he asked for no pickles", then to him threatening the HELL out of someone for staring at you.

"I'm going to shove this can down your throat if you don't look the other way" kind of energy.

When it comes to disagreeing with you, he's barely talking. So nervous that he'll make you upset. He doesn't talk at all when it's a playful argument.

"Jonny I have something for you!" He tilts his head slightly. He watches you pull out some kind of body suit. No, it's a onesie? Scarecrow themed. 'Oh God no please.' He thought. It was too cute to be a scarecrow. They have the word Scare in there for a reason. He found it cute how you wiggled the scarecrow onesie in front of yourself. He just stares at you.

"Please Jonny?" He shakes his head no. There's no way in hell he's putting that on. He'd rather see you in it. That would adorable. He kept his stare on you, remaining silent.

"Please?" Not the sad look on your face. He shook his head no again and earned a sighed fron you. He thought he won, but boy was he wrong. You knew how to get what you want. He watched you neatly place the scarecrow onesie down and reach into the box again.

"That's a shame because...I got a crow one for myself. We could've matched.." Goddammit. He held the scarecrow one in his hands and looked back up at you. "Changed your mind?" He nodded. Maybe it isn't..terrible.

Gets jealous easily. So easily. Him being very jealous and very insecure is common, but it's very rare for him to lash out at you because of it. Actually, it would be the only time he ever would yell or be angry towards you. You need to reassure the poor guy. He'll constantly apologize to you after he calms down.

He feels like he doesn't deserve you. You have been taking care of him abd having to deal with everything you come across because you're dating him.

If you knew him before he became the scarecrow, then you've been caring for him for a long time. And he feels like he hasn't returned the favor. You would most likely have to wake up in the middle of night to calm him down after a night terror.

With everything going on and the Legion of Horribles, he feels like he can't return the favor too. It's too much of a risk. So instead he gets you little gifts for now. Oh? You likes that jewelry from a shop you passed by? He stole it for you.

Are you into art? He makes an art room and gets you the supplies you need. Do you like tea? He'll go to Jervis to get you new flavors to try and get you your favorites too. While working, if he finds anything shiny on the ground he'll give it to you. If you have a box of all the random items and trinkets he gave you that made might marry you on the spot.

This man would sacrifice anything for you. Even him and his father's work. Just for you. I don't think he could stand being alive without you being by his side.

After made him something? He's keeping it forever. Though he'll never tell you that. He keeps it hidden because he thinks you'll find it stupid or funny. If you find it he'll be super embarrassed.

Dates with him will not be fancy. Most likely junk food late at night in the car watching a show off on either's phone. Definitely cuddling.

The other date would just be him cooking you a nice dinner and watching movies on the TV. He will most definitely get upset if anyone interrupts his date night. Will bring his entire mood down.

If you ever get hurt he'll blame himself. He will never forgive himself. Would probably cry when he gets some time along. The guy lost his mother in a fire then witnessed his father get shot. If you were next, he would lose the last bit of sanity in his mind.

Please hold him and comfort him. He needs it. If you comfort him and tell him none of this is his fault he'll look up at you and tell you that he's going to marry you. He will and he knows he won't have any regrets doing so.

#gotham #gotham jonathan crane x reader #jonathan crane the scarecrow #gotham jonathan crane #jonathan crane x reader #jonathan crane #gotham x you #gotham series #gotham x reader #gotham tv #jonathan crane headcanon #gotham headcanons

[ursulaismymiddlename]

A Spark in the Night | Dream of the Endless x Reader

A spark of inspiration, kindled in The Dreaming

Rated E for Endless, Eyes, and Everyone wishes they could be in this library, don't lie

A special note to thanks @captainpoopweinersoldier for reminding me that in these fics, these dreams, we can and must be the best versions of ourselves, for our souls, for our sanity. What once was a wallow fest of self-doubt and insecurity has blossomed with hope and catharsis. Thank you, Lisa, for not giving up on me and for all your encouragement. <3

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

The hallways of your high school don’t look quite like you remember.  They’re too bright and too empty and… since when was there a rabbit hutch on the wall instead of lockers?  There aren’t even any rabbits in it, just downy little feathers fluttering about, but you know it’s a rabbit hutch just the same.  And why are you even here?  What class could you possibly be missing? Didn’t you graduate already?

A dream.

You’re walking through a dream.

And yet, even knowing this now, you still feel an urgency to duck into one of the classrooms.  Like you’re expected.  And you don’t want to disappoint whoever is waiting.

But what is through the door is no classroom.  It’s really unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.  The marble tiles seem to glow, bathing the place in a surreal light that travels up the half dozen chiseled columns and archways.  Archways that seem to magically dissolve into a purpled midnight sky where a ceiling ought to be.  It dances with an aurora borealis in vivid greens and electric blues that nearly stop your heart as you stare in wonder.

The sound of a book closing draws your attention back downward.  A large ornately carved table commands the center of the place, the darkest wood of it matching the brimming bookcases that line the walls.  At one end of the table sits a singular high-backed chair, and in it, a man with a leather bound tome in his pale hand.

Dream.

You realize he must have been watching you since you came in, but when your eyes finally settle on him, the ghost of a smile crosses his face as he tilts his head.  “Ah, there you are.  I have been waiting for you.”

“Sorry,” you mutter offhand, attention torn between the marvel above you and the Dream Lord as you draw closer.  “What is this place?”

“There’s no need for apologies.”  He stands then, looking every bit the ethereal king you know him to be, but there’s something endearingly mundane about the way he cradles the book in his hand and straightens his shoulders formally.  “Welcome to my library.”

That takes you aback.  This place is much too small to be The Dreaming’s library, no way all the stories of the collective unconscious could be housed in these beautiful, but decidedly close quarters.  As if reading your mind, or perhaps just the puzzlement on your face, Morpheus adds “This is my private collection.  I thought it to be… less overwhelming.”

You stop beside the table, glancing up once more at the colors dancing above you both, and fix him with an incredulous look.  “Right, much less overwhelming.”

His gaze follows yours up to the lights a moment, falling back to your face with the slightest quirk at the corner of his lips.  And it almost seems like the flickering blue has been caught in his eyes as he rounds the corner of the table to approach you.  Your mind takes you back to your first meeting with this Endless and you realize that blanket of calm has returned.  Except where there was once fear, something else rests in your chest.  Something else you’re not quite sure you have a name for just yet.

“I wrote the thing,” you offer, remembering the last dream and the story ideas that had flooded your mind. How he had already known them as sure as anything you’d actually put to paper.  “The angsty one.”

“I know.” Of course he does, how could you have possibly thought otherwise.  But there isn’t any smugness in the look he gives you as he stops a scant arm’s length away.  It’s softer.  It’s… kind.  “I am pleased to hear it. Now, what shall your next one be?”

The book he’d been reading is still in his hand; he raises it in acknowledgement before setting it on the table between you both and you suddenly know that’s it. That’s the book that holds all your stories, everything you’ve ever written and everything you’ve never written.  Without realizing, your hand finds its way to the cover, itching to open it, to know.  But you stay yourself, fingers feeling along the spine wistfully.

“I don’t know.”  You shrug a little, letting your hand drop to your side as you look back up at him.  “Matthew, maybe?”

Lord Morpheus, Dream of the Endless, surprises you with a half-annoyed little huff.  “He will be flattered, I’m sure.”

Your lips draw thin as you try to contain yourself, peering at him curiously.  “Jealous?”

Perhaps you were too bold, because your heart drops at the affronted way he raises his chin, brow cinched and lips parted as if to retort, to deny.  But the spark in his eyes softens first, followed slowly by his expression, into something that feels almost playful.

“Are you laughing at me?”  He squints at you, studying you, though his mouth quirks gently.

“No!” It comes out so sharp and fast you nearly startle yourself.  This only seems to amuse the Dream King more.  “No, of course not.”

His gentle hum is enough to soothe any worry in you.  Though not quite enough to dispel your look of chagrin or the heat in your cheeks.  Those you try hiding with another glance up at the color dancing across the glittering sky above.  It’s beautiful, wondrous, and threatens to make you feel so small.  Except…

“Can I…” You pause a moment to look at Dream again, not exactly sure where the ember of curiosity has come from, but feeling it fanned by the way this Endless watches you so intently.  “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

The confused pinch between his brow really does make you laugh this time.  Though it’s more at yourself than him; nervous, delirious, uncertain.

“Why give me all these ideas?” you continue with a little shake of your head.  “Why show me these things?  This place?”

“Because I wish to read them.”  As though it is the most obvious thing in the world and not some mystery tickling at your brain.

You guffaw at that, momentarily dumbfounded by what feels like a celestial joke. Spinning on your heel to escape his constant starry gaze for a breath, you take a few aimless steps.  “Okay… then why me?  There are plenty of people you could get to write for you.”

Morpheus’s fingers wrap around your elbow, gently urge you back toward him.  His eyes study you like some fascinating puzzle he can’t quite sus out.  “You humans are so strange.  Half hope, half doubt.  Never knowing quite which side to fall on.”

“You’ve never doubted yourself before?” You’re not sure where such words, such bold familiarity comes from, but out it tumbles in a gentle press; a little plea for empathy.

This gives him a moment’s pause before a soft smile warms his pale features.  “Perhaps that is why you, Little Writer. Or that I whisper these things to you and you build worlds with them. As sure as anything I build in The Dreaming.  It is your words I want for my library.  I will keep them well here.”

Speechless.  Something aches inside you at his sincerity, at the way he speaks his last sentence like a reassuring oath. He asks for your words and yet there are none in this moment you can piece together in response.  

But this doesn’t deter the Dream King.  He merely steps closer, cool fingers tracing electric  down your arm to settle at your wrist.  And his voice is somehow deeper in its quiet, its intimacy.  “Let others have their dreams and inspirations.  Let me be yours.”

“Mine?”  It comes out unbidden, a choked whisper into the space between you, more longing in it than you realize.  It deepens the ache in you, finding that feeling of wonder and smallness in his glittering eyes, as striking as the vaulted ceiling above.

Realization seems to dawn on Dream’s face and his soft, amused chuckle hums in your chest.  He knows.  He sees your ache and your smallness.  But he doesn’t back away, he doesn’t back down.  Instead, delicate fingers clasp your near trembling hand.

“I thought I’d made my intentions quite obvious,” he muses, perhaps more to himself than anything, raising your joined hands to press a chaste kiss to your knuckles.  “I mean to court you, Little Writer.  If you allow it.”

“Court me?”  You blink, shocked, flustered.  Skin all too alive under the barest brush of his lips.  Feeling all too like some dumbfounded parrot with the way you can only repeat his words that strike you hardest.

The barest hint of concern etches his features, though his gentle touch never falters.  “Are my advances… unwelcome?”

You nearly find yourself repeating him again in your haze, but you catch it, gaping mouth snapping shut as you force yourself to a more coherent answer.  “Not unwelcome. Just unexpected.”

This seems to please him.  You can almost feel it in his touch, it hitches your breath ever so quietly.  That pleases him too, his mouth tilting smug.  “Have I overwhelmed you?”

“Oh, maybe just a little,” you manage to snark back at him, earning a wider grin that heats your face like the sun. Your eyes scan the room again, across the starry ceiling, trying to calm your wild heart.  “I’d hate to think just how overwhelmed I’d be if you’d picked some place else.”

“Then my apologies are in order,” Dream murmurs gently, fingers slipping from your hand.  But before you can protest, they’re silencing you with a touch at your chin, holding your gaze on him lest it wander again.  And it’s all so very soft you could melt.  “Morning breaks in your realm.  The Waking World calls you.”

“Can’t I stay here,” you whisper, though you can feel the truth of his words, see pinks and oranges starting to leech into the starry night beyond his dark mess of hair.

“But then who shall write these stories for me? Or for my dreamers?”  His quiet tease does nothing to change your mind. Yet still you feel yourself slipping away, eyes heavy, fluttering closed at the feel of his thumb grazing the curve of your lips.  “Go, Little Writer.  I’ll be here when you return…”

Your eyes blink open slowly to sunlight streaming in through your bedroom window.  Some black bird flutters past and brings a wistful smile to your face.  What a wild dream. Your old high school.  A gorgeous, dancing sky.  A dark-haired man with stars for eyes.  

If only you could remember more…

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