#i just unfortunately have a long rant so i'm waiting for the time to type it all out rip

[deepfriedpaddymayne]

girls when they remember that wilfred owen was killed in action A WEEK before the armistice was signed

#look. it's a dead gay world war poet it goes with the theme of this blog. #wilfred owen #oscar rambles #i was rereading wild with all regrets which is the alternate version of a terre #he wrote it a little less than a year before he died and dedicated it to sassoon. #and i can't stop obsessing over the fact that the final lines #the ones about the soldier dying and his friend grieving him #almost feel like a premonition. he is going to die and his friend is going to grieve him. i feel insane #been on the verge of tears about this all day #also person who sent me an ask two days ago if you see this i have NOT forgotten about it #i just unfortunately have a long rant so i'm waiting for the time to type it all out rip #oh just cause someone mentioned in the tags this is ok to reblog #we are all sad about the gay ww1 poet sometimes it's okat #also omg i had completely forgotten that wo was also in a magnus statement

[riddle-me-ri]

hi if its fine with you id like to request riddler with an artsy s/o and like theyre suffering artblock so they do a painting of him (he finds it sweet)

can be any riddler of ur choice and i also prefer gender neutral but if u end up writing fem i dont mind!

have a good night/day

-anon

A/N: aahhh that’s meee…this request resonates with me so well as an artist that suffers from art block or a chronic victim of endless reference scrolling to where I get lost saving references for everything but what I was looking for rip…only for me to settle and just draw Eddie from different media lol. And I'm so sorry ahead of time this got ridiculously long, I got really carried away and was having so much fun with the idea rip. So sorry for the length!

Riddlers React to Reader’s Art of Him:

Arkhamverse Riddler:

Edward always appreciated your capability to occupy yourself. While he was busy plotting, building, and scheming…you were sketching, collaging, and painting.

Of course, until one unfortunate day. Nothing was coming to you. You’ve just about drawn and sketched every riddlebot, every henchmen, and you even started scribbling question marks all over the pages…wait…what? Ugh. 

You needed to find a new muse. Anything…anyone…well there was one person you haven’t painted yet. 

However, you knew you wouldn’t be caught dead with your supplies in his workspace. The minute the paint spilled on the floor or god forbid you put your eraser down and it disappeared among the chaos. 

You grabbed your phone and began scrolling through your phone. You’ve taken enough candid photos of him, surely one of them would spark your interests. Your artistic eye landed on one such photo. Edward was smiling in this one, it was when he first got one of his riddlebots to work. Quickly you took to sketching the thumbnail for the portrait. 

There was knocking on the door. 

“What is it, Y/N! I’ll have you know I am very busy!” Edward was already raving and ranting before he even opened the door. 

“I-I know, Ed! This’ll only take a minute, please?” You begged, grinning your teeth into a smile as if you were trying to coax him and he was in front of you. 

Edward opened the door and looked at you. “Well? What was so pressing, you had to–”

You pulled the canvas out from behind your back. Edward was stunned when familiar green eyes met his own. 

“Y-Y/N…w-when?” He reaches out to grab it, but you quickly snatch it back. 

“Uh-uh, not with those filthy gloves. Take them off!” You ordered. 

Edward groaned annoyingly, but took them off whilst rolling his eyes. His eyes came back to the painting however as you let him hold it. 

Ed allowed the smallest grin lopsided along his face. He looked surprised, almost mesmerized…he was happy. 

Of course, that window of vulnerability smacked close the instant it let just the tiniest bits of light in. 

“Well, I wouldn’t expect anything less considering you had the most ideal subject to work off from.” 

Now it was your turn to roll your eyes, well the moment was sweet while it was there. 

Reevesverse/Dano Riddler:

Edward was practically the perfect subject for a life drawing. He had his usual comfort positions whenever he was enthralled in any of his usual activities. Which made him sit stable in one position. Whether that was playing games online, reading the paper and doing the crosswords, or endlessly scribbling away at his ledgers. 

You both mutually respected each other’s creative spaces. Not allowing one or the other to look unless invited. You rarely saw what was in his ledgers (you doubt you’d ever get the chance to) and you equally rarely show him your sketchbooks. 

It couldn’t be helped though. He was just too adorable. His small little smirks, his round cheeks, and pretty eyes. He was the best subject…not to mention he was always so still. 

You caught yourself staring glances of him at that moment. He was writing and typing away about something. Probably jotting down some riddles or puzzles of his own. Meanwhile you were steady sketching and erasing away. 

Both of you lost in your own little worlds. 

You didn’t even realize how much time has gone by or how Edward was all of a sudden in front of you. 

You jumped back in shock, curling your arms around your sketchbook to shield its contents. 

“Oh…sorry…I-I didn’t mean to make you jump.”

You sighed. “It’s okay, just lost in the zone for a minute.”

There was a moment of silence as Edward decided to take a seat next to you. You were pondering your next move, but maybe it would be a good step towards moving your relationship forward. 

“W-Wanna see what I’ve been working on?” You offered.

Ed’s head immediately picked up. “O-Oh…uh…y-you don’t have too if you’re not comfortable.”

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.” You handed your sketchbook to him. 

He glanced his eyes back and forth between you and the sketchpad. He slowly gripped it with a soft excited smile on his face. You shrugged in on yourself, hoping you made the right call. 

“W-Wait…” He gasped. “T-That’s me? You drew me? Just now?” 

“Ehh…more like the past hour and a half.” You chuckled nervously. 

“I-It’s great…I-I’m f-flattered even. Is this how you see me?” Edward was beside himself. He usually can’t stay looking at himself in the mirror. Seeing his inner self-loathing grow and spread from the inside out, but…but he liked this Edward, the one drawn by you. 

You nodded. “Yeah. It is.” You put your hand on his shoulder and wrapped the other around his waist. You gave him a small side hug and a kiss on his cheek. 

Gotham Riddler: 

You were probably the only one in the whole precinct that actually enjoyed his ramblings and absurd amount of info-dumping. He was too animated to ignore and he made for the perfect drawing subject when you found yourself stuck on what to draw. Thankfully, he’s usually too lost in his thoughts and verbal vomit to pay you any mind to you doodling away. 

Until today anyway. 

“What’re you doing?” 

“Huh?”

“I’ve noticed that while you are actively listening to me talking, and I do appreciate you actually paying attention…I’m curious to what you’re also doing while I’m talking…” He stammered. 

Well, you weren’t prepared for that discussion. 

“Oh, uh…well…I-I’m actually drawing you..” You answered. 

The room was silent. Edward was prepared for every answer…but yet not that one. 

“I-uh-oh...um…wasn’t expecting that.” 

“Did you think I was taking notes?” You giggled.

“Err…actually I thought you were just keeping yourself busy cause…I thought I was boring you.” Edward admitted. 

“What? I don’t find you boring at all. Look!” You quickly handed him your sketchpad before any other negating thoughts came to his head. “I love listening to you, and watching you speak. You’re so animated and brilliant and I want to capture it...or try to anyways.”

Ed’s eyes lit up at you mentioning him, in a positive light. No one’s ever referred to his ramblings as…animated and brilliant before. “C-Can you show me? T-The drawings of me?”

“Oh, uh…” You seized up, the amount you’ve actually drawn finally dawning on you as probably reading on borderline creepy. However, he wasn’t going to believe you unless you showed him the proof. 

You quickly handed him the medium sketchpad before you had time to refuse. 

Ed’s eyebrows raised as his eyes widened. He immediately recognized himself, he could almost recall the conversations. He found himself softly chuckling at the small footnotes to what he was saying beside the sketches. 

“D-Do you like them?” It seemed silly to ask, but you needed vocal affirmation to the silly grin on his face. 

He looked up at you, completely bewildered but extremely giddy. His smile was stretched across his face, no doubt the biggest smile you’ve seen from him. 

“I-I-I love them…they’re great! Y-You’re incredibly talented Y/N…”

“Nah, I’ve just got a great subject.” You nudged your shoulder with his. He returned the sketchbook to you. 

There was another moment of comfortable silence until Ed stole glances between you and the sketchpad. 

“What is it, Ed?” 

“Well, I don’t want to start sharing until you’re ready!” He grinned. 

You smiled back but quickly plop down on your seat and grab your graphite pencil. “Okay, I’m ready.” 

BTAS Riddler: 

You were way too focused. After months, almost years of drawing Eddie, you were confident enough to pull off this decent sized portrait of him. He’s been your whole world for so long, he occupied a lot mroe of your thoughts than you cared to admit. Although, there was nothing wrong with showing that appreciation. 

You were too excited to wait for his birthday or Christmas or Valentine’s Day. You just wanted to give him something, plus drawing and painting him help broke you from your art block the past few weeks. Seeing his adorable face slowly come to life on the canvas, you even amazed yourself at a moment or two. 

It was the hardest secret to keep until you finally were ready to reveal it to him. You two just had a fun date night. Everything was perfect, and the mood was just right. Love, passion, and tenderness flowing between the two of you. 

You’re reminded yet again, just how much you love and adore this man. He leaned down to kiss you when all of a sudden you remember your portrait drying in your studio. You gasp which shocks Ed but you tap his nose and tell him to wait in the living room. 

He quirks a curious eyebrow at you but stays put. 

He’s shocked when he sees you carrying something almost as tall and wide as you behind your back. You pull it out from behind your back, a thin protective sheet of paper still covering the art. 

“I-I made this for you, Eddie.” You said softly, handing him the canvas.

“D-Darling..you…you didn-” When he pulls the protective back, he’s in complete awe. He finds himself breathlessly chuckling. “I-It’s me?”

“Of course it’s you, there’s no one else more handsome!” You went up and kissed his cheek. “Do you like it, Eddie?” 

“I-I-I’m in awe, I love it…You’re so talented, my dear…thank you.” He kissed your temple in return. You grabbed his chin and leaned him down to properly kiss you like he tried to do before. 

Zero Year/Capullo Riddler: 

Now, this asshole…he’s surprised you weren’t already drawing him. Like what better muse do you need, Y/N? He’s right there! He knows how much you love his face, the way he grins, his expressive eyes, and even more intricate and expressive hand gestures. You don’t say it but he can see it in your eyes, you don’t hide your obvious attraction to him well. 

However, you still sketch away even while rolling your eyes. As much as you hated to admit it (and as much I, too, hate to admit it) the smug bastard was fun as hell to draw. His face was so pudgy and he was able to do certain expressions you haven’t seen before. 

“Why don’t you ever ask me to pose for you?” He teased you. 

“Because quite frankly thinking of painting you like…uh…French girl, doesn’t sound amusing to me.” 

Edward blinked at you in disbelief. You found yourself succumbing to your chuckles at his displeased expression. 

“Now, you and I BOTH very well know, that’s a lie!” He crossed his arms defensively. 

“Is it?” You challenged. 

Edward nodded. “You may not think it, but I’ve seen you draw me before, and even I have to admit, you capture my essence pretty well.”

“Does that essence portray a conceited dickhead?” You asked. 

He narrowed his eyes at you. 

“I’ll take that as a no…damnit guess I’ll have to fix those..”

“C’mon, Y/N! Just this once!” 

“Are you paying me?” 

“What? NO!” He laid down in front of you on his side on top of the thankfully empty coffee table. “I should be offering payment for my services, but this will be a freebie.”

You found yourself reeling your eyeballs back into your sockets. After more minutes of bickering you conceded and painted the egomaniac. You tried to stay focused no matter how often he kept teasing you with winks and kissy faces. 

When you flipped the canvas around to show him the final product. You made sure to steady look at his face. He may be a conniving manipulator, but if he was pleased or surprised he couldn’t hide it. You found yourself grinning, as his mouth opened to a soft “oh” shape and his eyes were widened. 

“Well, what do you think?” 

Somehow hearing your voice snapped him out of whatever thoughts he was having. Gone went the wide eyes and speechlessness. 

“Well, I mean..it is amazing, but then again your subject matter is pretty incredible…”

You snatched your supplies and started storming off.

“Hey! Come back! It looks good! You even got my eyes right this time!” 

“Oh fuck off! I never screw up your eyes!”

“So you do stare at me?”

“Ugh!” 

Twojar Riddler:

Just call him the David to your Michelangelo. You would never outright admit it but it was pretty clear to the two of you that you had a mutual appreciation for the other as muse and artist. Whenever you had a slow art day or when you weren’t getting any ideas, Edward was usually always free to stand in as your art subject. 

Almost too willing some times, even suggested it on days you were doing well enough on your own. Although it never hurt to practice more life and anatomy practice. Edward would very much prefer it was HIS anatomy as opposed to anyone else’s. 

One day, you realized that you never actually truly painted him. It was usually just quick thirty minute or sometimes an hour long sketching sessions. He was always pleased with whatever you drew, sometimes teasing you where you tend to mostly put your focus on when drawing him. Whether it was his face, his hands, or chest. 

Regardless you wanted to wow him at least once with your skill. Lately you’ve been pulling out the paints again. Ed noticed but never mentioned them. You were thankful for, you wanted to be able to get better at the medium before putting your favorite subject to the test. When you felt like you painted everything under the moon and began running out of ideas to practice on…you felt like it was time. 

“You want to paint me this time?” Ed asked, wearing a white dress shirt with barely one bottom button barely buttoned. He also wore some dark green slacks. 

“Yeah, thought I’d change it up a bit. I’ve been practicing with the paints for a minute.” You explained as you set up your easel and paints. 

“I’ve noticed, you’ve picked up on it rather quickly, not that I’m surprised.” He grinned. 

“Well, hopefully, I can impress you instead.” You chuckled as you finally took a seat. 

“You always impress me, dear. I always admire you and your craft.” 

You smiled softly at that. You shook your head to get rid of the blushes coming to warm your cheek as you began to focus. 

It took an extra hour and a half than you liked. Edward occasionally talking to make conversation. You two never sat well in silence and oddly enough, these were the few intimate moments you got to catch up with one another. 

“Well, darling?” 

“I-I…well…”

“I won’t move until you’re certain.” 

Your heart swelled at his commitment. “You can see it, Eddie…” 

It was eternity for him to go from his sitting spot to your side. You didn’t miss the small intake of air and the wide smile on his face. 

“Well?” 

“I-It’s outstanding…y-you’ve outdone yourself my dear.” He complimented. 

You couldn’t resist the squeals of excitement that came out as you wrapped your arms around his neck in an embrace. “Thank you, Eddie! That means a lot!”

Gotham City Sirens Riddler: 

It wasn’t unheard of that there were slow days at the office. Much like this one dull and dragging Wednesday evening. After all your spring cleaning and organizing your office space was done, you figured it wouldn’t hurt to pull out your sketchbook. 

Usually Ed had the door to his office closed, but since he likely was not expecting any new cases today he decided to leave it open. 

After scribbling some random faces and various shapes to get the drawing muscles warmed up, you took a glance into Edward’s office. 

You haven’t drawn him yet. Sometimes you’ve caught Harley or Selina waiting and got to draw their faces. Every now and again you got to draw the clients that came in. Better still, there were a couple cases Edward required your artistic skill to draw a possible person of interest or whatever descriptors a client may have to help him go off of. 

You liked those cases best, they made you feel good like you were actually helping Ed and not just his book keep. 

You started sketching out your basic shape and guidelines. Stealing the glances of Edward like a kid stealing cookies from a jar. Just to make sure Ed didn’t have the slightest clue to your creative activity. 

“Well, Y/N. I guess it’s time to call it a day, I suppose it was a good day to–Y/N?” 

“Yes, sir?” You looked up and almost jumped from your seat when he was in front of you and not in his office. 

“What were you doing with your spare time?” Ed smirked. He looped around the edge of your desk to where he was beside you. 

You didn’t have a chance to explain it before he saw the drawing of himself. 

“I-I’m sorry, Eddie…I-I don’t mean to freak you out, I was just…didn’t know what to draw and I’ve never drawn you before…”

Ed scoffed. “Could’ve fooled me, this looks amazing, Y/N. And dare I say, extremely flattering too.” He winked at you. 

You gulped the slowly suffocating and growing lump in your throat. “I-I uh..t-thanks, Eddie.” 

“Thank you…come on, let’s get out of here. Perhaps we can discuss future art projects for you in the future with yours truly.” 

Young Justice Riddler: 

If you could say you had a number one fan of your art, it was Edward. You could doodle a tiny smiley face any child could draw and he’d absolutely adore it. He adored your sketches of the teammates, or your landscape studies of different places you guys travel too for the Light. 

One day on such a trip, you found yourself at a complete loss. You didn’t feel inspired to draw anything, and you wanted to draw. It always helped pass the time on these trips. 

You looked over and saw Eddie busy typing away on his PC. No doubt doing research for this upcoming mission. A lightbulb went off in your head. You quickly started sketching him, your heart every now and then skipping a beat whenever he smiled at his screen. You were thrilled he hasn’t spotted you yet, it gave you all the motivation to get it done as quickly but accurately as possible. 

“Y/N? I didn’t know you were in here!” 

You looked up and your eyes met warm brown ones. You quickly glance back down at your pad and back at him just to see if they are any more details you needed to add. 

“Oh hey, Eddie! Yeah...I-I’ve been in here for a minute.” You chuckled. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He took a seat next to you. 

“Well, because I wanted the chance to draw you!” 

“D-Draw me?” He even pointed to himself with his thumb to get double affirmation. 

“Yeah! Look!” 

Edward took the sketchbook in his hands and his breath was immediately taken away. He saw himself in black and white on the paper, yet…it was how you saw him. You somehow drew the confidence he struggled to find in himself…onto him. 

“Is, is this how you picture me?” He asked softly.

“Yes, babe…that’s you.” You smiled. “I’m kind of impressed with myself. I captured your sweet smile I love. I got your eyes just how I like…it’s all you, and everything I adore about you.” 

Edward found himself chuckling. "I-I…I love it, you make me look…how I want to look like.." 

You put your head on his shoulder. "You already look that way to me." 

You kissed his cheek, giggling as his face started to blush.

Telltale Riddler: 

God, it was so damn difficult and intimidating to impress him in any and every possible way. 

However, you knew Edward had an appreciation for the arts. Thankfully you were artistic, and he seemed to enjoy the little still lives you drew. Giving you the smallest nod or the lowest of satisfied hums. 

Well, what was driving you anxious now was how he’d react to this portrait of him you did. You had a major art block and wanted to paint human figures for once. It made sense to paint Edward considering how long you’ve been with him…however predicting his reaction was nerve-wracking. 

Would he like it? Would he just give you pity comments but totally roll his eyes at it? He’d probably comment about how you had better things to do with your spare time. 

However, you knew he would have questions to what has kept you so busy the past couple of weeks. While he was tinkering away in his hideout. You occasionally reached out periodically but mostly stayed in your apartment. You invited him over for dinner so you can unveil your painting to him. 

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?” As soon as dinner was over, Edward didn’t beat around anymore bushes. 

“Well, you were asking what was keeping me so busy. I was working on a little project, to surprise you with…” You tried to swallow down the lump of nervousness in your throat and slow down the anxious pacing of your heart. 

“F-follow me.” He followed you down the hallway and to your little studio in the room right across from your bedroom. 

The painting was covered with a protective thin sheet over it. You went to the side of it and with a quick breath your snatched it off. 

It was a mid-waist portrait. He was in his Riddler get-up, the hood was down, but his eye mask was still on. He held his staff in his hand and leaned it against his shoulder. 

Edward was speechless. He was hardly ever speechless…so you weren’t sure if that was exactly a good or bad reaction. Eventually the quiet was eating away at you. 

“Edward?” You asked, slowly dropping the sheet from your hands. 

“I-I-I…” He finds himself flabbergasted. No one’s ever done anything like this for him. The only pictures of him are either from mugshots or wanted posters. Pictures of him were usually videos or images of him in mid-heist. 

“This…this is very impressive, Y/N. Is this what kept you busy these past few days?” He was steady staring at his portrait. 

“Y-Yes…I wanted to surprise you with something, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at figures.” 

He looked over at you and grinned. “You certainly did that, you surprised me and impressed me. If you ever wish to…draw from real life…feel free to bring your supplies to the hideout. Just as long as you clean up and keep up with them.” He winked. 

Hush (DCAU) Riddler: 

Hmm…just one more little line here…erase that guideline that was still there.

"Hey, Y/N! What're you drawing this time?" 

You had your supplies all lined out on the living room table. You had your artboard in your lap with your sheet of paper. You were drawing while waiting for Edward to come home. 

"Oh…just this really handsome person I know. I see him every day and yet I never thought to draw him. It was the perfect way to break out of my art block!" 

He was hanging up his suit jacket, hat, and mask while he took in everything you said. Yet it just now registered to him as he started walking towards your makeshift work station. 

"W-wait what? You drew me?

"Well I'm glad to know you know it's you." You chuckled. 

Edward leaned over the back of the couch and looked over your shoulder. 

“Whoa…you weren’t kidding.” He mumbled.

“Why would I kid you? Do you like it?” You leaned your head next to his. You could feel his smile stretch to scrunch his cheeks. 

“I-I love it…I look amazing! W-Well I mean..you drew me amazing..I’m still just me..” He chuckled. 

You giggled back, turning his head to the side, you leaned in and met his lips with yours. “I love you, and I drew you as I see you. You’re always amazing to me, Eddie.” 

He smiled back at you, with the most loving eyes imaginable. 

“I can keep drawing you, if you wish. If that’ll make you believe!” You nudged his shoulder with yours. 

He laughed. “I don’t know about that but I do know I like the idea of being your “go-to” muse.”

#ri writes #this post almost broke me #I thought I lost it when I was literally two riddlers away from finishing #the riddler x reader #edward nygma x reader #edward nigma x reader #edward nashton x reader #arkhamverse riddler x reader #reevesverse riddler x reader #dano riddler x reader #gotham riddler x reader #btas riddler x reader #zero year riddler x reader #capullo riddler x reader #twojar riddler x reader #gotham city sirens riddler x reader #yj riddler x reader #young justice riddler x reader #telltale riddler x reader #hush (dcau) riddler x reader

[aelaer]

About the fanfic trope ask game, I think I need to ask for Time-Travel 👀

There's of course the Time-Travel Fix-it (which I think is the most prevalent type?) but also the Time Loop subcategory... 🤔👀

Hah! You, asking about time travel? Who would have thought?

B+

Time travel's an interesting one because it's more prevalent in some fandoms than others. My three main "fanfic" fandoms over the years were LOTR, BBC Sherlock, and the MCU, with small doses of Dishonored (a video game) and Harry Potter.

Of those five, the time travel trope seems most prevalent in the MCU. I imagine it's definitely around in Harry Potter, but I didn't encounter it too much as most of my HP stuff was with crossovers. But generally speaking, I didn't have much experience with time travel until the MCU. The closest it came to in LOTR was reincarnations in the modern world (a couple of which were just awesome... I need to find those stories again and see if they were as good as my memory thinks they were. Sort of afraid to look deeper into it just in case I end up disappointed though).

Anyway!

A lot with tropes are less about the trope itself and more about its execution. I don't tend to comb AO3 for tropes or pairings, but characters instead, for instance. But when I see this tag on a Stephen-centric fic, I'm usually really interested. I only duck out if it's a "Tony's the center of the universe and he's never wrong" piece, which unfortunately accompanies this trope fairly often. Where the fuck are my time-travel Avengers as Family fix-it pieces, people? And yes, I mean *all* of the OG! Stephen's just now a part of them.

(They exist in very small numbers, which is why I'm writing one myself, once my current series is finished. Expect it around 2026 at my current rate of writing.)

I'll take both the time loop and time-travel categories. Again it's totally about execution rather than the trope itself.

Some favorites include:

The asker's own fucking masterpiece, which must be finished if you want me to live a happy and healthy life, no pressure.

Born Of The Same Impulse by GwendolynStacy (she only wrote Stephen like, once, and I just thank God that she decided to do so as this is still in my top 3 long fics to this day)

By the End of Today by Imagined (here's an author I hope is inspired to come back to the MCU one of these days - one of my favorite "wrote more than a couple MCU fics" authors, but alas, she's been devoured by another fandom)

Shout out as well to The End of Infinity by FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls for being an over 900,000 word time-travel IronStrange fix it, combined with Team as Family dynamics. It's honestly too long for me to read fully but I've skimmed it and it's good if you like the tropes it presents. I might read it in full once it's finished (yeah, it's *not finished*), but for now it's a bit too much. Her shorter works are good, too--and a wee bit more manageable haha. Recommended.

There are a couple newer IronStrange WIPs that I want to add here, but they haven't gotten to Steve Rogers and the Accords yet, so I'm waiting to see how the authors handle that. Neither of them are tagged "not Steve friendly" currently, but if say that Steve was trying to kill Tony in Siberia and terribly wounded him in their version of canon and left him to die, I'm gonna politely ask that they add the not Steve friendly tag and be very sad that they went that... let's say fanon route. So we'll see. (And yes, I have an excellent essay on why that's not canonical for Steve and thus not Steve friendly, thanks for asking ;-) ).

But yeah. That's all about time travel and the slight rant that accompanies it.

Original: Ask me to grade a trope.

#whitefoxgone #ask #answered #tropes #fanfic #stephen strange #this also went a little ranty whoops #but fairly mild for me #fic recs

[cleromancy]

i really hate that jason telling dick he killed tim was in bftc bc that could have been so good but instead it was bftc

extended bitching under the cut 🤪

wait actually FIRST OF ALL i just want to say that if jason genuinely believed he straight up killed tim with a single rusty old batarang that broke in a really unfortunate way that would be so funny. like oh my god bruce did you replace me with a child made of actual GLASS?

anyway lmao. like. obviously i reject the entire premise of bftc and the execution of literally everything was so completely borked but its so annoying that there are these seeds of ideas i really *like* like dick lying about what was in bruces will and bruces message for jason being so awful and triggering that jasons just like OKAY NAUGHTY CITIZENS ITS MURDER TIME and ckfkcilfkcpckc honestly tim hitting jason with a crowbar........... theres a lot of fucking potential!!

but first of all dick purposely triggering jason wjth bruces farewell message a *second time* and then after jason falls seemingly to his death being like why didnt jason take my hand 😢 why the fuck do you think Richard. (sorry dick i dont actually blame you for the choices you made when fucking tony daniel was writing you)

bc like dick reaching out offering jason a hand in a way that jason would be unable to accept would have been good too except like actually i wouldn't fucking take dicks hand either in that moment

anyway like the tim thing made no sense and also *if* you want me to believe bruce trained tim to have a physiological rxn that makes him flatline in order to appear dead in response to certain physical stimuli. like *if* you want me to go along with that. Jason would fucking know about it (and for that matter so would dick) and also that pokes a hole in the concept bc if dick knew that bruce had repeatedly made Tim flatline to train his body to automatically do it i think bruce would have died a long fucking time ago. or dick would have done SOMETHING to put a stop to it imo bc that crosses a very clear line

but i just wish it had been like. yeah jasons lying to dick and dick simultaneously does and doesnt believe him instead of the bullshit that happened bc [character rant redacted i dont feel like typing it right this minute]it could have been like so tragic and good bc it would be like. 1) obviously mirroring the joker doing the same thing b4 dick beat him to death and 2) a really tragic thing from jason to fucking lie to dick, who has no evidence to the contrary, bc he wants dick to not believe him

and its like thats why i want jason to reject dicks hand yk. bc he self sabotaged and now he thinks dicks lying about thinking he has the potential to be better or whatever. and instead it reads like dick purposely aired out bruce calling him a failure & broken and going on and on about how giving jason the best years of his life was a *mistake*

anyway im bored of complaining now (for the moment) so ill stop but god damn i really just wish his comic were good instead of bad

wait one final note. like i said earlier i reject the entire premise of bftc bc by necessity it ends with dick in the cowl and cass isnt even there. and well if cass *was* there why the F<UCK would dick get the cowl ykwim... that said i do think like if the comic had made a point that damian needs robin and cass is not in a position to be batman *to* him that could feasibly lead to cass being like "ok 👍 i dont want to look at you anymore tho so I'm going to travel around the world for a few years" (/months in universe). but obviously that is not fjckkng in the comic. also alfred giving damian the suit was so bogus I'm glad everyone pretends dickie did it xjdkcnoxck (i maintain if there was a robin suit in damians size it had to have been dicks idea anyway)

#dc #bftc #lmao

[vacantgodling]

☕️ + okay honestly i saw you mention that you hate zelda so i'm curious for some of your thoughts on her if you don't mind sharing!!

LMAOOO

like i’m gonna be real with you it’s not ✨super✨ deep i just want y’all to know that i blame the fact that my venus is in scorpio but like tl;dr i’m insanely attached to link. like jealous insane mf type attached (i have a whole oc and au for him specifically botw but for link in general which is @breath-of-reincarnation LMAO that’s the only time i’ll plug this) and i just really really dislike when people ship literally ANYONE with link. — this includes why i lowkey still greatly dislike mipha like i’m literally just a jealous possessive hoe 💀

obviously zelda is the main candidate bc she’s the damsel and they’re “connected” or whatever but like literally fuck off they’re like siblings if anything (to me) and while chosen one x damsel can be a “cute” dynamic i’ve always preferred chosen one x person who’s always there helping them or whatever so like. even if i don’t see it romantically at least i understood why people shipped link and sidon or link and midna or whatever.

like tbh i am very Possessive in general about the media i like and i have a hard time Not Being Like That so i just don’t engage in fandom but like. unfortunately ze////link is a huge ship within loz so like it’s fucking annoying to avoid it.

that and like the only good zelda’s are tp (her design + her character in smash but the actual game eh) and tetra from windwaker bc again falls into the “character that’s jus helping the hero out” category. i was SO PISSED when tetra turned into zelda lmao 😭 and like tbh i just kind of lack sympathy for her esp in botw (which is my favorite zelda game sue me). she’s so fucking annoying and like idc if it’s relatable i’m petty and mean and im allowed to be >.> like it just pisses me off how she’s so important and everyone coddled her and she’s like oh well i get to be a dick to link now bc he has a destiny and i’m just a failure and can’t be what i want to be… to oh wait i’m in love with u please care about me link uwu like MAAM. and it’s not “her fault” so much as the developers but why tf is she useless in like every game like girls don’t have to be big and tough and be able to fight to be valid that’s not my issue my issue is like (again in botw to me) she has the constitution of a piece of toilet paper like come ON.

i also have like a very specific headcanons about link for myself so like idk. biting people.

so like this is a bit of a rant and i didn’t mean to go on for so long JRJDTJRJ but like im just petty that’s really why i don’t like her.

#it virtually has nothing to do with her really it’s mainly just me being like #gET oFf mY mAn #like i literally disliked sidon for awhile too but he’s too charming to hate #doesn’t mean i like seeing shop art but yknow #i’m usually very private when i’m into stuff for a reason i get so stubborn LMAO #about renjamin

[in-a-realm]

Don't mind me: just a personal rant I needed to get out but I felt it was easier to type than to write in my journal rn as I'm laying in bed.

Sometimes my rsd is worse than others. Tonight is one of those nights. It feels really silly to overthink the way a simple message is structured and to feel fearful by it. The sentence could be nice, and it's fine. But maybe it wasn't enthusiastic enough, maybe it lacked equal enthusiasm as I did. Maybe I didn't receive an "I" at the start of the sentence and the answers didn't seem very meaningful or like the person was present when they wrote them. I'm also trying to analyse whether it's an rsd thing or if it's an attachment style thing.

Yanno, goodnights were very important to me as a child, I think they helped me to feel more secure, and reminded me that I was cared for and made me feel safe to rest. They reminded me that I'd probably still have my person there when I awoke. If I didn't receive them from my mum the way I felt was right for me, it would make me feel uneasy and it would be harder for me to settle. Trying to look back to my childhood and understand why goodnights mattered so much to me doesn't make a lot of sense. I hadn't necessarily had any abandonment wounds open up for me yet. It could have simply been that I'm on the spectrum. But then again, I used to have to wait almost an hour in bed as a child to say goodnight to my dad, and I wouldn't hold it against him to this day, he was just busy - but the goodnight would matter so much to me that I would stay up very late to have it. Sometimes I would start to think he'd just forgotten and wasn't going to come in at all. When he finally would come to say goodnight, it would often last a very long time - he would tell stories and I'd just listen for ages, even though I was very tired.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that, I think goodnights matter to me a lot more than I realised. I think these could be the reasons why. It's a comfort thing, it's a clarification thing, it's a reminder that my person isn't neglecting my needs and that they actually do choose me first (because it felt like as a child, I was the second most important thing, I had to wait, I wasn't a priority and therefore I didn't feel as important as other things). It's just unfortunate that it's as simple as missing an "I" to "love you" or a "good" to "night", that can make me question subconsciously whether my person truly cares how well I rest, or whether they truly sent the messages while being present with me, or truly thinking about it. They feel like empty messages, even when I know logically that my person does care about me, and they probably didn't at all mean anything less by the way they wrote their messages.

I think this is another thing I have to address in my relationship, I'm always scared that when I bring something up, it's going to end badly or they won't understand. I'm afraid they'll think there's too many things, and it'll start getting annoying. But I think I truly got lucky this time, with this one. I have never felt so secure and safe talking to a person in my life

Anyway,

That's all

#me

[twogyuu]

I absolutely love your stuff and saw your post about writing and trying to adhere to standards. And wanted to share my view on this in hope to tell you it is okay. Everyone has a different opinion, but I feel that whenever writers start to try and be more regular, with updating schedules and writing schedules they lose interest, get overworked and lose the passion for writing, especially those that aren't very good at being regular. Since none of you writers get paid, I can't stretch this enough: this is your blog and you should do what makes you happy! Want to write 300 word drabbles, live life! Are you inspired to write a full 500k word novel, you do you! As long as you get the satisfaction and pleasure from it, nothing else matters. Bcs those writings that came from true passion will always be the best works, and readers will (and should) be appreciative of whatever comes our way. So to conclude this rant: I love your work as it is and hope you will write what gives you energy instead of takes it. And will fight anyone at 3pm at the parking lot if they say anything about you nit being a valid writers, bcs you are! Regardless of the lenght and type of content you put out.

Loads of love from a reader who just wants writers to feel appreciated for what they do without the pressure🩷🧡

Op this is was so sweet and kind of you 😭😭😭 Thank you for taking time out of your day and writing all of this 🥺 I definitely fall into the category of not being good at keeping up with a schedule . . . It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place! I was talking about this with someone the other day - I feel bad for keeping ppl waiting, but for better or for worse, I also write impulsively (heat-of-the-moment, when I have strong feelings/ideas kind of ordeal). It feels all very inorganic when I force myself to write 😕

I know these things about writing for myself, not caring for notes, not comparing myself to other writers, etc. (I preach it myself when my fellow writers feel down 😭😂😭), but sometimes, it just gets hard for some reason? Tumblr is no place for competition nor do I treat it as such, but sometimes I encounter ppl who have very . . . uh very strong opinions about reading/writing fanfic (like what they want to read/refuse to read) and it just makes me overthink and become overcritical of my own practices. Ultimately, I try to write fics that both myself and followers would enjoy - it's hard balance that sometimes, like you said, unfortunately, sends a lot of writers into indefinite hitatus, which isn't somewhere I feel like I wanna go yet (or ever?).

Anyways, IDK where I'm going with this and am just rambling at this point 😭😂 Again, thank you so so so much sending this and now reading my long-winded response! It's never expected, but messages like this are very appreciated 🥺 Like the whip cream and cherry on top of an ice cream sundae! hahaha I hope to continue writing fics you enjoy for a long time :)

P.S. You're joke about the parking lot made me cackle because I always tell my friends I'm going to fight Seungkwan (affectionately ofc!) in the parking lot of Walmart 😭🤣

#imma go sob in the work bathroom brb #tfdfkdjfs #this was so sweet and kind #much love to you too op :((( #to save

[naughtysalamander]

i have a bunch of world build-y ideas thrashing around in my head, utterly trashing the place and making baby ideas. honestly some of them are cool. i haven't done any creative writing in a long time - not that i was serious about it ever but i used to write very short stories just to crank out ideas and get them out of my head. not even journaling, just typing away at random shit not always paying attention to grammar or formatting. like this post. my therapist said i should maybe start doing that again so i'm like yeah ok i'll give it a go, i guess. long rant i only wrote out of frustration under the cut.

i'd like to put all the pieces together. not just writing a 900 word monologue from the perspective some barely invented, nameless character having a philosophical moment and forgetting about it immediately.

i have ideas that aren't able to be used on their own about science fiction kind of stuff. concepts, organizations, philosophical ideals aliens might have. alien lifestyles, interactions between species. how pregnancy and birth occur for this really weird alien species. popular drugs, common jobs. slang terms. the works. stuff that would fit only in a long, extended story with world building that is very much deliberate and well-thought out.

unfortunately though, for the life of me i cannot think of a semi-original overarching story/plot. i get an idea and i'm like "wait i'm ripping off of *insert science fiction tv show/movie/game/book*". i'm perpetually stuck in this cycle. i really like some of my concepts though. i don't want them to be wasted. its pissing me off. this is one reason (of the numerous) i stopped writing lil story riffs. i can't stay in a cohesive narrative long enough. i can come up with cool concepts independently but literally do not ask me to blend them together.

pretty much everything i have is for a science fiction story atm. i tried to write a convincing history of how humans got to space. just as a really basic foundation so i could understand their place in the galaxy and/or story. i wrote probably 5 iterations and i became disgusted with all of them. i wasn't able write the middle part between the first actions/events towards space vs being in space and decently established. and when i did manage it, it felt extremely stolen and barely changed enough to be considered "inspired by."

idk it all feels like a sign this isn't for me. i hate saying that though. i wanna just write for fun. why can't i?

[apompkwrites]

Hi, I discovered your blog an hour ago and I fell in love with it. Your writing is amazing! I love the idea of 'Reader Impact', it's very original and it would be an amazing series. Also, I can't stop thinking about either Aether or Lumine playing Genshin Impact (yes, I'm a simp for the twins) and simping for the reader through all the playthrough.

reader impact || first meeting: traveler edition

series masterlist characters: aether, lumine genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: the twins are amazing and that’s that <3

aether's playthrough -

i like to think he's the softer one of the twins.

like, lumine is the one to beat someone up while aether wants to talk things out.

aether and lumine definitely stream together.

catch them playing little nightmares 2 together and lumine being the one to play most of the time.

fit checks at the beginning of the stream.

please he needs validation :((

anyway since genshin is primarily a single-player game, the twins can't really play together for the first part of the game.

they'd still play together, though!

they will start the game together and end the game together.

they're super excited to see that there are twins as the mc.

aether is not prepared for the start of the game.

please he jumps when he sees the main god appear.

now comes the fateful decision of which twin to choose.

aether picks you automatically because he just really likes you.

your scarf is so cute and your wings are so cute and--

he feels guilty when your twin is taken away :((

he really can't imagine the feeling where you lose your other half right in front of your very eyes.

"(twin/name)!"

he's rooting for you when you attack the god but he knows you won't beat her because there wouldn't be a game if you did.

"wait! don't go! give my (brother/sister) back! please!"

he will cry, don't test him.

he really likes your voice.

it's just really soothing for him to listen to.

when the game starts, he'll just jump around the beach for a few minutes.

"look! look at their scarf!"

he likes the physics of the clothes whenever your character moves.

he's just so giddy!!

lumine is teasing him but he doesn't care.

his chat really wants to know why he likes you so much.

and honestly? he just does.

you're cute and that's that.

he's sad he doesn't get to hear you talk that often though :((

he's like a little puppy please talk!

his chat doesn't like to see him sad so whenever they can, they tell him about the voicelines in your character profile.

honestly, they don't expect him to get that excited.

but he is and now he's obsessed.

he can and will make your voicelines a daily part of his life.

anyway, back to the actual storyline.

he gets scared by dvalin because he doesn't want you to get hurt.

"aren't they, like... professional adventurers?"

"yeah, but... i don't want them to get hurt."

LET HIM LOVE YOU

anytime there is a long silence during the stream, aether will cut in and just compliment you out of the blue.

like it's dead quiet except for the game.

you can hear aether's character (you) running through the grass.

"they're really cute."

aND HIS CHAT IS GOING WILD

anyway, he gets further into the game and him and lumine have top-tier characters.

even though he has a bunch of new four and five star characters...

hE JUST CAN'T LEAVE YOU BEHIND.

you will always be in his party, no questions asked.

and then he learns you can have different elements.

he doesn't care which one you have because you'll look cool with any one of them!

he soon gets used to your silence whenever something happens.

he appreciates the noises you make every so often when you're traveling because that's all he gets.

until the end of the liyue mission.

"name your price. you deserve that much."

"we still need to find our twin..."

you guys are in sync at this point istg--

"well... could you help me put up some missing person posters...?"

you've done it.

you've killed aether.

now his chat and lumine are laughing at him.

lumine's playthrough -

like i said before, lumine's the "tougher" of the twins.

it's not like she's a tomboy type, she just is more... confrontational.

she likes to stand up for herself.

we love a strong woman.

anyway, games.

she and aether tend to do more story-based games because they like the banter that comes with it.

her viewers are... different compared to her brothers, but she doesn't let that stop her!

the chat's exactly what you'd expect from a strong female streamer... unfortunately.

once again, lumine and aether stream the game together but with different playthroughs.

while aether chooses your sibling, lumine chooses you!

she really likes your outfit, ngl.

you. are. adorable. any other opinion is invalid to lumine.

"(twin/name)!"

YOUR SIBLING LOOKS SO SAD STOP--

and they're gone.

she's actually yelling at you to defeat the god, but obviously, it doesn't work.

"stop! give my (brother/sister) back!"

as much as she loves to tease her brother, she'd feel devastated if she were in your position.

if you have flowers just like lumine, she will purposely get matching ones and wear them for genshin streams.

WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE

anyway, she loves your fighting style.

if it's graceful and calculated, she loves watching your scarf flow behind you while you fight hilichurls.

if it's reckless and wild, she'd admire you for being so tough :0

lumine still teases aether for being so smitten over his twin, but she'd be just as guilty.

they'd rant on and on after ending the game about how cute and cool you are.

surprisingly, she'd be the one to point out the slight difference in the twins.

once lumine and aether can play together in the same world, she'd have them stand side by side and attack just to explain the differences.

like how your twin uses the opposite hand in every attack.

or how your elemental skills are animated differently along with different voicelines.

also, she'd argue with aether about which twin is better.

her side of the stream would definitely start with some of your voicelines.

she wouldn't go as far as to use your lines for alarms in her daily life but she'd definitely use them for her stream.

she loves gliding around teyvat with you.

"look at how cute they are when they're flying!!"

you are her main dps, no questions asked.

her sub dps wouldn't get as much attention,,,

and once you unlock the other elements, she is prepared.

any character she has that matches your element, you get their artifacts.

she will buff you no matter what element you use.

just like aether, she wished you would talk more but she wouldn't be devastated.

her chat would tell her not to worry because you'll talk soon.

she's kind of annoyed they told her but she can't help but feel really excited for that special moment.

"name your price. you deserve that much."

"well... could you help me put up some missing person posters?"

"please tell me someone's already clipped that."

even if she wants you to talk more, she can't help but feel like these scenes are special when they pop up. <3

#genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin x reader #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact scenarios #genshin impact aether #genshin impact lumine #genshin aether #genshin lumine #genshin impact aether x reader #genshin impact lumine x reader #genshin aether x reader #genshin lumine x reader #genshin impact traveler #reader impact

[thebibliosphere]

Hello Joy! Long time follower and I really enjoy your blog. I just wanted to hope into your asks bc i've had a very frustrating day of doctors appointments and even if you don't have any advice, i was just hoping to rant to someone who'd been around the block with elusive medical illnesses (though please dont feel obligated to respond to this at all), and i apologize in advance for an almost certain lack of coherence.

I've been dealing with quite a lot of doctors appointments over the years, from treating insomnia, my adhd, and depression and anxiety, but long story short we have discovered 2 years ago that I have low b12. I have also been dealing with a chronic cough for 2.5 years. Unfortunately, oral supplements did not work for the b12 and i had to get monthly injections, which stopped when the pandemic hit and, despite doing for 4 months, didnt bring my levels up to normal anyway.

I recently restarted the injections, but my doctor will not approve my request to have more frequent injections, which i think i need, because its not fatally low (its at a 170 based on recent bloodwork). I finally saw a respirologist for my cough, and she has no idea what the cause of it is, even suggested that its psychsomatic, and put me on a different inhaler that i tried before (ive tried a million treatments for it, from post nasal drip meds to ppis for acid reflux to allergy meds, and the inhaler is the only thing that helped a little).

I've gained 20-25 pounds in the past 2 months, when ive been the same weight since i was a teenager (im 22), but my bloodwork continuously come back normal for everything but b12 and vitamin d, so my doctor also has no explanation for that (including normal tsh, and the last time i brought up testing other thyroid factors the doctor told me they dont do that and honestly made me feel silly for asking. Though, granted, my current doctor is a different one). I'm going insane because of how tired i am all the time, and the fact that I feel like a hypochondriac bc all my tests are always normal, and my doctor is only available for appointment once a month.

Sorry for the long block of text, i just feel, when looking at your blog, a sense of hope that eventually i'll have answers and you're just really great. ❤ i hope you had a really good day today ❤

Get a new doctor! Get a new doctor right now!

When you dip below 250 is when you can start to experience chronic fatigue, mood disorders and worsening cognitive function.

170 is when you're on the cusp of things getting seriously bad and depending on your homocysteine levels can start to cause pain and nerve damage. This is also when my hematologist estimates I started to sustain prolonged damage to my nervous system. This was also when I started experiencing the symptoms of early onset dementia.

140 is when my iron and folate levels tanked suddenly and I was so symptomatic my (then) new doctor was worried I had cancer and rushed me through seeing seven specialists in a week. The same day as seeing the hematologist it dipped below 110 and I started hemolyzing and went into medical crisis as my kidneys and heart started to struggle. I owe that hematologist and his team my life.

The good news is the shots you are getting right now are keeping you stable, but your doctor should NOT be waiting for your levels to hit crisis mode to resolve this issue. Please do not give up on this, you deserve better treatment.

Also, what kind of supplements are you taking?

I don't absorb Cyanocobalamin well through my gut, which is the most common type of oral supplement prescribed. What I do absorb through the gut is Methylcobalamin, so if you haven't tried that yet, it might be worth a shot to try and help you manage your levels on your own. Same with folic acid, I don't absorb it for shit, but when I switch to a methylfolate supplement, my numbers start to climb*. If you have tried this and it's been ineffective, then I'm going to emphasize that you need to push your doctor to increase your number of shots to get your levels up because what you are living with is not an acceptable quality of life, and I am so sorry :(

I hope you are able to rest and have better days in store soon. Take care, and if you want to talk about b12 or stuff, hit me up.

---

*Before anyone asks, yeah, I'm aware of the MTHFR gene mutation. I just can't test for it because the procedure is considered to be "investigational" and neither my geneticist nor my insurance wants to run it and I don't want to sell my data to a gene company lol.

#chronic health tag #pernicious anemia #medical neglect

[thera-daydreams]

PLUS ONE

》 A TRESE TWOSHOT 《

[Maliksi x Reader]

📝 Summary: In which your beloved best friend snatches you from your apartment at dawn asking you to be his plus one for his cousin's wedding. Unbeknownst to the clueless you, everything is just going according to Maliksi's ultimate masterplan. With the help of friends and family, the Prince of the Tikbalang finally gets the girl he's been longing for. And oh, Señor Armanaz gets his dream daughter-in-law and the promise of grandchildren within the year.

📌 Warning: May contain some slight NSFW for spicy suggestiveness and cussing. No smut or anything super SPG—this girl can't write that for her life—but just be prepared. It's Maliksi we're talking about. We've got friends-to-lovers, obliviousness, pining, fluff, and a tikbalang simp. Figure it out. 😃

(word count: 7,454) ♥︎ Part Two: ?

》 AUTHOR'S NOTE 《

Not an Inday spinoff, but a lengthy oneshot in celebration of this blog getting 90 followers. Just ten more to 100, yay! Thank you so much for the love and support, everyone. I also promised that I'll be making this brainrot that @binibiningbabaylan and I have fangirled over a few days ago (find the original post here) when I finished the latest chapter of Inday. Here it is! 🥰

Before I forget, I was also inspired by the cute fic made by @crispybasil titled "Sunshowers" and the "Trese Boys As Things My Guy Friends Do" made by the amazing @smolla-than-a-bug (I bow down to your wonderful works in the Trese fandom). I definitely see Maliksi to be the type to go on spontaneous roadtrips and be the boyfriend to drive you around eveeeerywhere (while also driving you crazy). 🚘

There are also some songs mentioned throughout this work. You should probably listen to them while reading for the full experience. Ending was somewhat rushed but eh, I'm too exhausted and I've rewritten it too many times. Also, if someone makes some actual tikbalang smut, tag me please. Anyways, enjoy! 💕

The way it all started was hilarious. Absolutely fucking hilarious. It happened like a blur. Literally. One second, you were snoozing in your bed. The next? You had a seatbelt on in the shotgun seat of a sophisticated-looking car. Your brain didn't even get to process it yet.

"... So let me get this straight," you grumbled, still half-asleep from your sleep marathon. You just finished a hugely successful project at work yesterday, got promoted, and wanted to make up for the restless nights you spent overtime in the office. Of course you were irritated from being disturbed. You were on vacation leave for two entire weeks, originally planning to go into temporary isolation by deactivating your social media accounts and reserving a beach cabana for yourself in Batangas.

Well, turns out, you weren't going to Batangas anytime soon. All because your unreasonably spontaneous bestfriend of ten hectic years stole you from your apartment at 2AM. Was this considered kidnapping? Was this him just being more in touch with his tikbalang side, taking unsuspecting women in their sleep and leading them to their inevitable death? (He was going over the speed limit, so it was a valid thought.) Will wearing your shirt inside-out save you today? Lord, masyado ka pang pagod para mag-isip ngayon.

"Go on."

"You abducted picked me up in the middle of the night because you want me to be your plus one at your cousin's wedding in Tagaytay?"

"Yup. And technically, the venue is right on the outskirts of Cavite going to Tagaytay," he corrected you as a matter-of-factly.

"Same thing, whatever," you huffed tiredly. "Your cousin's wedding is at 6AM today. In a few hours. In four hours."

"Uh-huh."

You groaned exasperatedly, "Mal naman, eh! You didn't even let me bring anything. Could've at least given me a heads-up a few hours ago. I'm practically emptyhanded right now save for my phone! Sinungaling ka, you said this was just a normal midnight drive—not a freaking wedding!"

The Prinsipe ng Mga Tikbalang, son of the Great Stallion, heir to the Armanaz herd, and the Top Drag Racer of C-5 Expressway—if that was even one of his Game of Thrones-like titles—grinned as he continued driving beside you. He let you continue ranting in the passenger seat while he mulled over his ultimate masterplan that would change his entire life later on. He was a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy, so all this wasn't his thing. But for you? He'll make plans, alright.

"Wala man lang akong dinalang masusuot o kahit konting makeup para maging presentable sa harapan ng buong pamilya mo," you exclaimed, in absolute despair. "Do you know how out of my league you are? Your rich-ass family might judge me—hell, your dad might see me as a hampaslupa if I show up there in my pambahay and tsinelas!"

"Psh, I'm not out of your league," Maliksi waved it off, smoothly turning a corner. "And calm down. We've known each other for a decade! My dad practically loves you as his own daughter. Heck, the entire family knows you and keeps telling me they want you adopted in already. Lolo Andres and Lola Perlita said they'd have the paperwork settled. You just need to sign them."

It would be even better (and easier) if you married into the family. To him, specifically (as if he'd let anyone else have you). God, he was already being so obvious in his advances, but you were just so damn oblivious whenever it came to romance. None of this needed to happen if you just got it through your thick skull that he was madly in love with you.

"That's not the point, idiot!" you slumped back into your seat, hopeless. "Do you think the bride and the groom will get offended? Shit, baka masumpaan ako kung magagalit sila, Mal. Mukha akong patay galing sa South Cemetery."

The long-haired tikbalang rolled his eyes, "Huwag kang mag-alala. Nothing's going to go wrong. Chill ka lang diyan. I've got everything under control, babe."

Babe. Yes, he even called you babe but you thought it was him being a himbo and a massive flirt. Now, it was his common term of endearment for you, but you still assumed it was him just being irksome to you and that you couldn't stop the man from saying it anymore. Thus, you let it be (the most obvious hint of his attraction to you, bestie).

"... Ugh, why didn't you ask Hannah or Amie to go with you?"

He just smiled knowingly, shrugging and making up an excuse, "Nagmamadali ako, eh. Hannah and Amie are also coming, but they already have the other tikbalang as dates."

"'Luh, ako pala ang backup choice mo?"

"Heh. Whatever you want to think."

Little did you know that you were always his first choice. Always. Even when he pursued Alexandra Trese many years ago, trying to convince himself you were just his best friend, it was always you. How did he come to that realization? Well, an international band he was a fan of released a song a couple years ago and he heard it being played in a club in BGC. The song title?

It Was Always You by Maroon 5.

Needless to say, after hearing the song and being unable to get it—get you—out of his mind at night, he stopped courting Alexandra. Unfortunately for him, that time, you'd started dating other men. Therefore, he was left on the sidelines... until your latest and most painful breakup, at least. That was five years ago. You still hadn't dated anyone since then, kind of traumatized from getting into another failed relationship like that.

In the present day, as if the fates were playing on you two, one of your favorite artists played on the radio. A very ironic song given the situation you two were in.

Best Friend by Rex Orange County.

Maliksi knew it was a favorite of yours. He knew it by the way your eyes lit up like a star brightening the twinkling night sky. Like the sun first rising in the morning at Apolaki's command. Like the moon extending its gentle rays from the magic of Mayari herself. If there was anything he wanted to ask of the old gods, it was you—everything else be damned.

"I wanna be the one that makes your day, the one you think about as you lie awake," you half-sang and half-screamed happily, somewhat out-of-tune. "I can't wait to be your number oooooone! I'll be your biggest fan and you'll be mine—"

Maliksi glanced at you, not minding that his eardrums were probably getting microscopic ruptures from your aggressive singing. As much as he wanted to stare at you all day, he had to keep his eyes on the road. But the lyrics you were singing were wrong; the Prince of the Tikbalang was already yours from day one.

"Babe, McDo drive-through tayo for breakfast. Let me make it up to you. Gusto mo ng caramel sundae for your promotion gift? Sige. Ako bahala. Chicken nuggets din? Mabubusog ka ba niyan? I don't think they serve those this early..."

》》》

"Sandali lang!" you shouted out from inside an empty room. You'd just arrived at the venue—the Alta Veranda de Tibig in Silang, Cavite (practically the gateway to Tagaytay)—an hour or so ago. The hired makeup artist just left so that you could privately change into the outfit that had been bought specifically for you. Curse Mal and his ability to buy anything (perhaps anyone) he wanted. "Bwiset, Mal, you didn't tell me we'd be part of the damn entourage. We have to be walking the aisle in thirty minutes, simbako! You just love rushing me, don't you!?"

If only you were the one walking down the aisle today towards him.

When you exited the room, Maliksi couldn't help but let his jaw drop as he skimmed your figure, clad in the luxurious, silky satin blush midi dress he bought in one of those fancy stores in Makati yesterday. He imagined that it would look great on you, but now, seeing it on you in person... you looked divine (and frankly, he wanted to see it off your body to see what was underneath—but don't get too ahead of yourself, Mal). It was a whole 'nother level from his imagination. The deep cowl neckline and thin spaghetti straps showed your lovely collarbones... as well as a peek of your cleavage. His favorite and the best part of it all? It was backless, allowing him to gaze at the tempting curve of your spine.

He hadn't realized he had grown silent until you smiled and closed his mouth, tapping his chin.

"Lalangawin ang bibig mo, Mal," you laughed softly. Never had you seen him so speechless. You then flicked your hair back, ridiculously posing for him like you were on the cover of Vogue magazine (haba ng hair mo, gurl!). "Do I look that good? Char lang."

"... You look absolutely ravishing—I mean, uh, stunning. Hot. Yeah." That was all he could say. He mentally punched himself for not showering you with more suave compliments.

Still, your face brightened up, not knowing that the man in front of you just fell for you a thousand times harder, "Wow! Really? Damn. Ang galing talaga ng MUA na kinuha mo, ginawa akong artista. Give me their contact number later! May work event pa naman ako in two months. I'm shocked, it's like they made me rise from the dead! Even my eyebags are gone, Mal! How'd they do that?" Heck yeah, your confidence was boosted. He offered his arm to you like a gentleman, making you half-heartedly roll your eyes (you took it anyway). From holding it alone, you could tell that your best friend was a sinewy man (well, you knew that already after seeing his tikbalang form before—the little shit didn't even wear a loincloth like all his clanmates; your poor eyes were eternally scarred).

You looked him up and down. You wouldn't lie—Maliksi is and always has been an attractive man. Now? With his hair in a ponytail (pun not intended), definitely one of the hunkiest men you've ever known. "You're not looking too bad yourself, horsey."

"Ako pa!" He puffed his chest out in pride. You chuckled at his reaction.

"By the way, how do you even know my dress size and my shoe size?"

"Babe, I've known you too long. You know almost everything about me, I know everything about you."

You snorted at his confident tone, "'Di nga? You don't know every single thing about me, Mal. Assuming ka masyado."

"Alam ko nga anong cup size mo. Wala lang 'yang shoe and dress size."

You slapped his shoulder, cheeks quickly flushing red, "Huy, umayos ka! Walang hiyang tikbalang na 'to." With this guy as your best friend? You heard dirty jokes at least once a day. "Don't be inappropriate here!"

"What? It's only fair I know!" He looked down on you suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows. "You already know I always go commando, so of course I know that your bra is a size—"

"Shhh! Baka marinig ka, 'nyeta."

"So? Let them hear. My best friend has a nice set of melons!" he shouted. You were grateful there was no one around. Hopefully.

"Oh my God..."

Your best friend chortled at how flustered you'd become. He led you to where some of his family was waiting, with a couple of his relatives already greeting you. You instantly and quite easily mingled with them, your worries of them not accepting you far from even true (they all knew how much their prince loved the innocent you).

"Kayo na talaga, pare?" one of his older tikbalang clanmates asked while you went away to be fawned over by his aunts.

Maliksi chuckled, crossing his arms as he watched you from afar, "Heh. Hindi pa."

Another one of his clanmates—a younger one—laughed, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "Talaga? That's cap, bro. You two are like a married couple already and you guys still aren't a thing?"

"Ilang taon na ba kayong magkakaibigan?" the older one asked him.

"Almost ten years," Maliksi responded, a smile unconsciously pulling his lips up as he remembered your moments together. He watched you converse with his female relatives (who adored you the moment Maliksi brought you to a family event many moons ago).

The two tikbalang snickered as they saw the look on the Great Stallion's heir.

"You're down bad," the younger one said, snapping a photo of his lovestruck kuya. "You've got it so bad for her, dudeparechong!"

"Balak mong ligawan anytime soon?" the older tikbalang inquired.

"Heh. Balak ko na ngang pakasalan. Kung pwede, ngayon."

They looked at Maliksi as if he was crazy. He was very much serious, though, even if there was a huge, lopsided smile on his face. The Prince of the Tikbalang raised a brow at them.

"What? Don't give me that look. Our ten years of being best friends is practically the courting and the dating stage already."

"Eh... you're right. Don't waste anymore time. Go and marry her today, dude. Suporta kami sa'yo, basta groomsmen kami sa kasal niyo, ha!"

"Ge. Without question."

Meanwhile, on your end with the ladies of the family, they started pestering you on your love life (like all typical Filipino aunties). Chismis everywhere.

"O, iha, single ka pa ba?"

"Kailan ka magpapakasal? Malapit ka nang pumasok sa thirties mo."

"Do you want kids? How many?"

"Are you and Maliksi a couple? You look good together! Kayo na, 'di ba?"

"Will you be getting married next? Are you engaged? When's the wedding? Invite niyo kami!"

Before you could get overwhelmed by their questions, Maliksi swept you off your feet to lead you to the entourage that was lining up outside the chapel area. Again, it happened like a blur. He laughed at the partially nauseated look on your face.

"You okay there?" he asked, grinning.

"Your family thinks we're together," you muttered quietly, not meeting his eyes. You weren't sure why you felt... tingly about their statements.

He tilted his head at you curiously, gently setting you down on your feet and helping you stand.

"Do you hate the idea?" It hurt him to ask you the question, but he wanted your thoughts on it. Perhaps doing this was a bad idea. Maliksi was competitive in many things, including wanting you to be his, but if you were so opposed to it, he would never force you into something you didn't want. He let go of your hand; you didn't even notice he'd been holding it until he let go. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

Your wide-eyed gaze snapped back to look up at him, "No! No, it's not that! And... it's not bad." Your hand felt strangely empty now that his was gone. Biting your lip, you disclosed, "You're not making me uncomfortable, Mal. Don't ever think that."

With that, you shyly interlocked your arm with his, tearing your eyes from his to mask the growing warmth you felt spreading in your veins. You two didn't say anything else when the ushers let you walk down the beautiful, petal-covered aisle together.

The man beside you was starstruck. Hopeful. Maybe both of you did have a chance. Maybe somewhere in the depths of your soul, his feelings for you were being reciprocated. For the rest of the sacred ceremony in the gorgeous main pavilion, both of you relished in short, comfortable, and low conversations. He even cracked jokes every once in a while—really funny ones that made it challenging for you to you stifle your laughter.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride."

Maliksi fervently prayed to Bathala that he'd experience the same opportunity he was seeing with you someday. One day.

Even while the sun was brightly out, the sky began showering down light rain onto the land. You were in awe as you looked out the window.

"Hala, totoo nga pala! Tignan mo!" you laughed, tugging Maliksi's suit sleeve, pointing at the window.

"Na ano?" he curiously inquired, not understanding what you were referring to.

"Na kapag may tikbalang na kinakasal, umuulan habang may araw pa," you replied, eyes filled with childlike mirth and wonder. A rainbow had even begun to form by the clouds. "Look, it's magical! Ang ganda pala ng view dito kasama ang old Spanish architecture. Timeless na timeless. It's so pretty, 'no? Picture tayo 'maya, Mal."

Unlike you, it wasn't the sky outside that the prince was looking at. Amidst the loud cheers for the newlywed couple and the bubbles the guests were blowing, his vision could only focus on how magnificent you looked while being amazed. You were his best view. (Ed from 90-Day Fiancé, kabahan ka na, may katapat ka sa pickup line mo.)

》》》

"Smile for the picture!"

You giggled as Maliksi was dragged into a photo-op with the bridesmaids and the important older wedding sponsors a few feet away (funnily, he looked a little constipated around them). All of a sudden, when he was heading back to your direction, you were roughly pushed into the said man's arms. When you turned around, there was nothing (except maybe a gust of wind that came out of nowhere).

"Ooh, gotcha. Careful," the tikbalang steadied you, strong hands holding your biceps. "Natapilok ka?"

"... Huh, hindi naman," you wondered suspiciously, looking around. "I think someone pushed me? Parang tinulak ako... but wala namang tao."

"Weird. Maybe it was just the wind."

It actually was. Really. Maliksi knew for a fact that it was those two taong hangin who were spying on you from the corner, trying to pair you up. He gave them a thumbs-up while your back was turned in the opposite direction. Hannah and Amie returned the thumbs-up before vanishing. Suddenly, the two wedding photographers had moved on from the bridesmaids and were right beside you.

"What a lovely couple you two are!" she praised. Before you could correct her, she held up the black contraption she held towards you two. "Pose for the camera, lovelies!"

And so you did, the photographer guiding you two on what to do. Maliksi wrapped his arm around your waist and you leaned on his side, looking sidewards to the camera with one leg cocked in front of the other. Her assistant, who was holding a polaroid camera, printed out two photos for you.

"Thank you," you told him, taking the photos from his hands then flicking them rapidly to make the images develop. You and Mal were about to walk to the reception area when the photographer stopped you, handing the male beside you a business card.

"If you two need a photographer or a videographer for your wedding, call me," she signaled to both of you before running to another guest, bringing her assistant with her.

You gawked, "Mal, did you just hear what she said?"

"Loud and clear." A grin was on his face. He seemed very pleased at what he heard.

"... How can she even tell if someone is married or not?"

Maliksi's free hand took your left hand, tapping the ring finger, "Nothing here."

"Ooooooh. I get it now." Your brows creased. "Huh. This is like the fifth time today the people here have mistaken us for a couple."

Maliksi shrugged, teasing you, "Who knows? Baka may potential tayo, babe."

Before you could ask him what he meant, he was hurriedly towing you to the reception venue. While he was doing that, you stared at the now-developed polaroid photos you were holding. Huh. Maybe you two did look like a couple.

"Come on, they're serving some snacks at the welcome reception area. Peach pie and mango float-flavored. Paborito mo, babe."

》》》

The rest of the night went by without a hitch. You were actually enjoying the event—the host was great, the food was great, the music was great. Everything was great... that was, until the games.

"Alright! Now that the bride's garter has been removed, let's have the bouquet and garter toss... starting with the females!" the host announced. "Dear bride, please stay here in front. And all single ladies—and by single I mean ready to mingle and are not married—please rise and stand here on the dance floor. Let's play matchmaker tonight, everyone!"

"Uy, single ladies daw," Maliksi nudged your side. "Sign mo na 'yan." You snorted like a pig.

"Nope, ayokong madamay sa bouquet toss," you whisper-yelled at your best friend. "Do you know how embarrassing that is?! Besides, they won't notice if I don't join! Special tactic ko 'yan sa weddings: pretending I'm not single. Katabi naman kita."

More women came to the front, making you feel assured that you didn't need to participate. The host was about to say something, when the bride interrupted to whisper something into his ear.

"Hala, halaaa! Sabi ko all single ladies, pero may isang single lady na nagtatago pa!" he announced, making you freeze. Please don't let it be you. "What's her name, beloved bride?"

"Y/N L/N." You nearly spat out your champagne. You? Did they just call out your name? How did they know?

"Oh fuck," you cursed quietly.

"'Di ka makakatakas dito, babe," Maliksi jabbed, making you stand up. "Tinatawag ka na."

"Baka may ibang Y/N L/N dito," you resisted, attempting to sit back down. "I can't do this, Mal."

"'Sus, ikaw pa. And it's just a symbolic ceremony!" he encouraged, as if he didn't have any underlying intentions. "I doubt the bouquet will go to you anyway."

Sheesh, what a big fat liar you are, tikbalang prince.

You expressed your dissatisfaction with the situation, "Bwiset, fine. I'll just... dodge it. Or evade it. God, I swear..." You calmed down, confident. "I'm not going to worry. I've never caught the bouquet at my own friends' weddings anyway."

When you were at the dance floor, Maliksi snickered, seeing the bride—his cousin—wink at him. After all, he had thoroughly bribed her earlier.

《《《

"It's about time you settled down with someone, Mal," the bride commented while he slipped her the newest Hermés designer bag filled with a bunch of jewelry (plus some bills) two hours ago, right before the reception began and while you were in the restroom freshening up. "Hehehe, this is why you're my favorite cousin."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Of course. I'll make sure she participates. I'll also try to throw it in her direction."

"Good. Thanks."

"You better invite me to your beach wedding. I can tell how much you love her."

"Not a problem. I'll even make you a sponsor."

The bride stared at her bouquet, already practicing how she was going to throw it, "Tito's going to thank me so much for ensuring that he's going to get grandkids soon, hihi."

》》》

Back to the present, on the other end of the room, Maliksi saw a familiar duo give him a sign that they were ready. Bingo. Time to execute the most important part of his plan.

《《《

"I don't care how you do it," he told the two wind elementals after he bribed the bride. "I've already instructed the bride on what she should do, pero siguraduhin niyo lang talagang lumipad sa kanya ang bouquet."

"Mmhmm," Amie flipped her hair, a hand on her cocked hip. "And what do we get in return, oh great Señorito Armanaz?"

"Sagot ko bar-hopping niyo for one month."

The two girls pretended to think about it, making Maliksi roll his eyes. He had to pull out the big guns, huh?

"Fine. Magbibigay ako ng cash deposit plus pwede niyong gamitin ang black card ko for a one-week shopping spree in Ortigas." There. Bullseye. That's what they liked.

"Deal!" they exclaimed excitedly.

Hannah let a cool gust of wind enter one of the nearby windows, testing out how they're going to do this. "Ano pa bang pinaplano mo for Y/N mamaya?"

Maliksi hummed, "Basta."

》》》

You tried your best to hide within the densest part of the group of women. The bride seemed to have her eyes on you, weirdly enough, and she looked almost feral wanting to throw her flowers into someone's face.

That someone being you. Most likely.

"Target locked on," you saw her mouth move. She positioned herself like she was about to throw a football at someone (ahem, you). Holy shit, was she talking to you? Miss ma'am, it was a bouquet toss not a bouquet throw. The bride seemed to notice this, and once more regained her elegant composure.

"3, 2, 1," the host counted down. "Go!"

Surprisingly, the bouquet flew very high into the air (it was a wonder it didn't get tangled in the ceiling decor), but quite a distance away from you. You grinned, knowing it was too far to even touch you. Squeezing through the crowd of women eagerly awaiting the bouquet, you went to return to your assigned table.

Ah, what a wonderful evening.

Sike!

Something painfully landed right into your face, leaves and flowers getting into your hair and mouth.

... Wait, leaves and flowers?

Before you could comprehend it, the bouquet dropped right into your arms. What kind of ungodly, inhuman force allowed this to even happen?

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have our lucky girl for the night!" Everyone clapped, with some—those guests you knew—even cheering your name unbelievably loud. The host approached you, a glint in his eye which you couldn't understand. "Miss Y/N, kindly sit here while we await the lucky guy who catches the garter from the groom."

What just happened?

"All single gentlemen, please proceed to the dance floor. Remember, the man who gets the garter gets to slip it onto the lucky lady's leg later!"

Oh, God. You pinched the bridge of your nose. What you'd give to be back at home or to be in that resort in Batangas you'd planned on going to for a solo vacation.

"To make this even more exciting," the host stated, handing you a black blindfold. "Our lucky lady has to keep her eyes closed until her lucky man for the night captures the bride's garter! When the music plays, only then can she uncover her eyes."

See? Humiliating, just as you expected. Still, you wrapped the blindfold around your head (albeit hesitantly). You attempted to guess who it might be, thinking of all the tikbalang friends Maliksi had introduced to you back then whenever he invited you to his clan reunions.

"Groom, are you ready?" the host asked, microphone loud and clear.

"Ready na ready!"

"Single gentlemen, are you ready?!"

"Ready na ready! Awoo, awoo!" they loudly chorused, exactly mimicking Spartans about to engage in battle. You sweatdropped in the seat you were in. This was actually kind of scary. Maybe you felt a bit objectified.

"3, 2, 1, go!"

There was a brief moment of silence, which made you concerned. Ba't ang tahimik? Then, everyone erupted into roars and bravoes much louder than when you caught the bouquet—perhaps even louder by tenfold. What the heck was happening?!

The music played. Very raunchy, spicy, babymaking music. You expected it to be the typical Careless Whisper by George Michael or Pony by Ginuwine (corny songs which you could probably laugh at, at least), but no. Nuh-uh, this was probably worse. The DJ must be pretty young, the song of their choosing being a slowed, bass-boosted, sexier remix of Earned It by the Weeknd.

Ano 'to, bold? Fifty Shades of Grey? The hell was this?

Alright. This was embarrassing. Thank the heavens there were no children at this party. From the music alone and its implications, this was strictly for adults.

You removed your blindfold (that was okay now, right?) as the guests whistled playfully. You peeked one eye open reluctantly, then inwardly groaned. Oh, no. You should've expected it to be him of all people from how loud the reactions were. And all those yells from the crowd were from his family.

Son of a—

"Well, this has proven to be a very interesting arrangement!" the host proclaimed. "Our lucky man for tonight is none other than our great clan leader's heir, Maliksi Armanaz! Congratulations, sir! You get to slip the lacey little garter on Miss Y/N!"

The said very smug tikbalang stood a few feet away from the chair you were sitting on, smirking at you. His hair was no longer in that mesmerizing ponytail—instead, he'd tied it into a more sinfully attractive man-bun, loose strands framing his face and accentuating that sharp, angled jaw of his (say yes and thank you to Manny Jacinto's jawline, besties).

"Let's cheer him on in his new mission, everybody!" the host pushed. Was this that glint in his eye earlier? And was that a one thousand peso bill sticking out of his pocket?

The groomsmen, Mal's cousins and uncles whom you've met before, hollered words of encouragement to the tall man (who was, oddly enough, not one bit fazed). In fact, Maliksi seemed like he was famished as he stared you down.

You swallowed, feeling like you were going to get eaten (heh, say that again). Maliksi had shrugged off his dark suit blazer to the beat of the song (holy fuck, he also unclasped the suspenders attached to his pants right before your eyes—asdfghjkl). Were you prepared for this? No. Will you ever be prepared? No!

"Mr. Armanaz, before you begin," the host interrupted. "We have an additional challenge for you in this mission. Kaya mo ba? It was a request of the newlywed couple."

"What is it?"

"Use your teeth!" the bride and the groom cheerfully shouted, clapping with the other guests. Whatdidtheysaaaaay???

The cocky bastard didn't even hesitate, his smirk at you growing wider; those pearly whites of his on full display. Was it just you or were his canines a little sharper than usual?

"Anything for the newlyweds. Challenge accepted," he dashingly replied, winking at you. You sputtered indignantly. Pisteng yawa. Putangina. Putek. Pakshet. You swore you thought of every swear word in the book at that moment. What did that YouTube parody song about Filipino mythological creatures say again? About the tikbalang? Ah, yes. Half-macho dancer and half-stallion. Maybe the joke was true, especially when you saw what Maliksi did next.

He bit the shred of lace, loosening his necktie (bestie, you good there?), unbuttoning some top buttons, and rolling up the sleeves of his collared white undershirt up to his elbows (consequently showing off his toned, veiny forearms—those lucky bridesmaids behind him nearly fainted). Honestly, you felt like you were about to lose your mind from embarrassment. With how tantalizing your guy best friend was being? Let our response be: San Pedro, kunin mo na ako. Was he doing all this to tease you? To rile you up?

Because damn it all, it was working. In your ten years of knowing Maliksi Armanaz, withstanding all his daily dirty jokes and flirtatious attempts, never had you seen him like this. So... wolfish. Ravenous. Like he was a man that hadn't been fed in years.

He stalked closer towards you, falling to his knees in front of your legs. Your gown had a long slit that extended up to an inch or two below where your left leg began—your best friend was eyeing his target already, knowing where to place the garter. Normally, you would never even wear something as revealing as this gown. It just wasn't your type, but Maliksi was the one who bought this for you for this specific occasion, so you had no choice. It was this or your pantulog he stole you in just hours ago. At first, you were confident in the gown. Now? You felt too... naked.

Somehow, in the heat of it all, you'd muted out the noise of the venue. Maliksi teasingly lifted your foot up, fingertips slyly grazing the thin shoe straps around your left foot—his calculated touch leaving fire in its trail. Once the garter had been successfuly inserted past your high-heeled stilettos, the man kneeling in front of you kept his hands to himself. Despite the fact that now there was absolutely zero skin-to-skin contact between you and this man, your body felt hotter than it ever was before as he expertly slid the lacy bit of cloth up your ankle at an agonizingly slow pace.

Maliksi's warm eyes had turned dark, his pupils blown, a tinge of red in them—of his true beast—while he maintained striking eye contact with you, pulling the garter up your calf with his teeth. Smoothly tugging... tugging... tugging. Tangina, it was like he was undressing you with his eyes alone; like he was telepathically telling you to keep your eyes open.

To keep your eyes on him, where he was knelt inbetween your legs, his hands intentionally locked on his back. Did you ever imagine this? Him between your legs? Maybe. Once or twice. But you never thought about it seriously; Maliksi dated girls left and right in the past.

His lips... his lips were so close... so close to your leg that you could feel the heat of his breath along with the lace. Were you about to die? Perhaps you already did. Maybe you were in heaven. Up... up... up... snap!

Suddenly, he stopped, grinning up at you mischievously and letting the elastic bounce back to the skin of your left knee.

"I'm not going any further, don't worry, babe," he whispered, noting that your eyes had become misty and glazed over. Internally, he grew worried. "That's enough." Did he think it was from discomfort? From you being uncomfortable? Bitch, no. It was the exact opposite. You had never been this turned on in your entire life.

You felt like your soul had left your body at that moment. Did you just have a heart attack? Was your blood pressure okay? Before you or Maliksi could stand, however, someone bellowed from the wedding sponsor tables.

"Higher! That's an order!"

Fucking hell, it was Maliksi's father who shouted. He wasn't in the huge tikbalang form you'd normally meet him in, but he was still very intimidating in his humanoid form, commanding attention and subservience wherever he went. You could tell where Maliksi got it from.

Instantly, the other guests—already half-drunk and wanting the spirit of partying to continue on—joined in.

"Higher! Higher!"

The host cheered, "You heard Señor Armanaz! Higher!"

Maliksi gave you a questioning look. Even if it was his father who spoke up, he still wouldn't do anything you didn't want. Well, you two made it this far; there was no point in getting embarrassed now. You bit the inside of your cheek, nodding. You probably couldn't erase the redness on your skin with how much you'd blushed from this night. It was as if the heat was tattooed onto your skin.

"Go on, Mal," you whispered to him, bending your torso down closer to his face, eyes half-lidded from want. "Finish what you started, babe."

With those sultry bedroom eyes he'd never once seen you show him before—plus you turning the tables with that familiar term of endearment, how could he refuse? Like a switch had been flipped inside him, he immediately complied, taking the frilly scrap of stretchy lace between his teeth once more, moving it further up to your thighs until where your high slit ended—centimeters below the warming juncture between your legs.

Your legs felt wobbly... boneless, as you stood up from the chair, the fabric of your gown cascading over where the lace sat securely on your upper left thigh. The party was still going strong even after you two finished the garter wearing tradition.

"'Atta boy! That's my son!" Señor Armanaz blazoned, standing up and raising his glass for a toast. "Cheers to the newlywed couple! May they last forever!"

You guys weren't the newlyweds, but it did sure feel like it. If the clan leader was hyped up, everyone was hyped up. Heck, the groom and the bride didn't mind one bit what had just transpired on their dance floor. In all the chaos, Maliksi took you out of the reception area and somewhere quieter. More private.

You would need to have a serious, urgent talk with your boy best friend.

》》》

You two silently sat on a stone bench in a gazebo somewhere in the reserved venue for the wedding, trying to cool down and get yourselves back together (at this point, you needed ice from that steamy, half-scandalous event you just went through). Here, there was no one else except for the chirping of crickets, the lush trees surrounding the area, and the golden fairy lights strewn all over the roof. Awkwardness was something you'd expected after what just happened, but somehow, you still felt comfort in this man's presence. For the past thirty minutes, both of you just stayed still, lost in your thoughts and reflecting.

"Mal?" you finally spoke up.

"... Hmm?"

"Ano tayo?"

"Whatever you want us to be."

Your fingers instinctively reached out for his, just like they always did when you were anxious. Sensing this, he grasped your hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Soothingly. He massaged the skin of your fingers, distracting you from your nervousness. It seemed like both nothing and everything changed between both of you. The gesture was the same, but so different at the same time.

"Mahal mo ako." It was not a question. It was a statement. A truth—one that you'd been too blind to see before. One that you only discovered while you stared into each other's eyes in that party not as best friends. You realized with a jolt in your heart what he really felt for you, and now, what you really felt for him. In those thirty minutes of silence, you knew. You just knew.

"Yes. I do."

"... Just as a best friend?" you probed.

"..."

Finally, you gazed into his eyes, previously so dark and full of hunger. Now? Just reluctant. Vulnerable. Open. Unsure of what to do next.

Seems like you had to be the one to take initiative tonight. Taking out your phone, you opened your music app and pressed play on a certain song. Ikaw at Ako by Johnoy Danao. You removed your heels (which were starting to blister your ankles and toes), then pulled him up to stand.

"Dance with me," you murmured, grabbing his arms to wrap them around your waist. He was stiff. Tense. What was he to do when the woman he's been pining after for so long let him hold her? All his gallantry and ability to romance disappeared out the window the moment you let him touch you so intimately.

You two weren't even waltzing. Just swaying. Slowly, you leaned your head on his broad chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart.

"... I love you," Maliksi admitted in the middle of it all, feeling like he was dreaming. Your head on his chest kept him grounded to reality, however. "More than anything in the universe. I fell for you ever since you patched me up when you were nineteen and I was a reckless drag racer who didn't have a purpose in life. 'Nung dinala mo ako pabalik sa Armanaz Tower on the verge of death. Simula noon, ikaw lang."

"I realized that," you smiled, reminiscing the old memory. You were just a broke college student that time, coming back to your dorm from making your group thesis at a classmate's house. Imagine your panic when you found a half-man, half-horse bleeding out by some bushes on the way home at night. Despite your fear and your little money (only enough to feed you for the week), you went out of your way to buy a first-aid kit at the nearest 7/11. It was scary, but you managed to mend the creature's wounds by the side of the road. When he was finally able to speak, turning fully human (which you admit, freaked you out initially), you arduously carried him back to his address—to his father and his clan, even if you had classes the very next morning. Because of your heroic deed of saving their precious heir, the tikbalang clan had become indebted to you: a teenage girl on the verge of a mental academic breakdown, just making her way through the cruel adult world. How old of a memory that was, you thought, yet you still recalled it in perfect detail. "Just a while ago."

"Ah." He swayed you gently.

"Lahat ng ito, plano mo?"

"... Yes," Maliksi fessed up. "Except for this part where we're here dancing in this belvedere. Wala sa plano ko. Gusto ko sanang magconfess doon sa may fountain para sweet, pero..."

You lifted your head off his chest, smiling at him with one brow raised, "You know, between both of us, you're supposed to be the spontaneous one. Planning isn't usually your thing."

"I know. It's a failure, huh?" Maliksi sighed.

"Nah." You shook your head, then suddenly locked lips with him. It was so fast and surprising he didn't even get the chance to return your first kiss. For once, you caught him off guard. You pecked him on the lips again. "It's not a failure."

"Wha—"

"I'm sorry for making you wait, Maliksi. Ten years. We're twenty-nine now, and only tonight do I realize how blind I've been. We've been going around in circles, wasting so much time. Ayoko nang mag-aksaya ng oras," you whispered guiltily against his lips. How could you have been so blind? Andaming nasayang na taon. Making up your mind, you told him, "Yes. Sige, I accept. I'll be your plus one."

The tikbalang was flustered and baffled from the kiss, as well as your revelation, "... But, you already are?"

"No, silly. I meant that I'll be your plus one for life. For as long as you'll have me," you laughed, now processing that you were currently dancing barefoot with your boy best friend and had just kissed him in a wedding you didn't even plan on going to. The universe had a mysterious way of doing things. "Guess I'm the spontaneous one now, huh?"

Maliksi was tongue-tied. "Seryoso ka ba? Is... Is this a marriage proposal?"

"Whatever you want it to be," you echoed his words back to him. "Best friend, plus one, girlfriend, wife—mmpf!"

He kissed you so hard your lips bruised. After an impromptu makeout session which was definitely more in character for Maliksi, you both pulled away, panting heavily in search for air, still desperate for passion. He cupped your cheeks, giving you a sweet, featherlight Eskimo kiss.

"You're missing one more title."

"Hm? What do you mean, Mal?"

"Love of my life." He kissed you again, this time lifting you off your feet and spinning you around (his sneaky right hand was resting on your bum, too, giving it a tight squeeze). You know in the Princess Diaries where the main character's foot just... pops whenever the prince charming kissed her? Yeah, that happened to you on that humid summer night. This was right. You two were meant to be together. Everything was falling into place.

The bungalow you reserved for your Batangas vacation leave ended up being the site of your very eventful honeymoon with the Prince of the Tikbalang (with his libido, it wasn't that difficult to continue where you'd left off in the garter toss; that scrap of lace came off your leg the same way it went on). Actually, nauna pa ang honeymoon sa actual wedding (it was definitely spontaneous). Right after your confession in that alcove, you two went to Maliksi's father to ask for his blessing (which he gladly gave, cackling and saying that it took you long enough) before you guys went driving off to Batangas that night. You and Mal indeed had lots and lots of fun in that resort (I'll let you imagine the rest). More beautiful memories were made from that point on—this time, not just as best friends.

All that and your small, intimate wedding occurred in early April. Just when you thought that it'd be impossible to fulfill Maliksi's life goal of having a baby within the year (nine months of pregnancy meant that the earliest you'd give birth would be January next year), the impossible happened.

Exactly thirty-two weeks later, on New Year's Eve, the Armanaz herd welcomed one prince and two new princesses into the world. Triplets who were instantly adored by everyone in the clan.

Señor Armanaz had never been happier, and so were you and your husband. Your best friend. The love of your life. Your forever plus one.

Maybe being spontaneous wasn't so bad after all.

Taglist: @belladaises @binibiningbabaylan @4kodzuk3n @sparklingmallow @severuslovebot @holyshxtangel @marinac15 @space-flamingo @pippethealien @kashasenpai @disappointmentpastry @hornehlittleweeblet2 @seijohoe @monimiin @ibelievein2dmensupremacy @tinybonksharkcop @methehipster @banisuoh @genshin-idiot @lemonnie-kimmie

#trese #trese 2021 #trese netflix #maliksi #maliksi x reader #tikbalang #trese fic #x reader #trese x reader #thera.writes

[bangtanpromptsfics]

hyacinth. (m)

dialogue prompt #3: “Your tutor is so hot”

pairing: jungkook x reader

genre: f2l(?), light smut

word count: 1,540

warnings: heavy making out, grinding, blonde!jk

summary: you think your new tutor at school is hot and jungkook is determined to change that

a/n: another mature oneshot. I basically die from embarrassment while writing smut lol.

masterlist

“Your tutor is so hot”. Jungkook turns around to your attention so fast he could probably snap his neck.

“Mr. Seokjin? ”, he knows who you are talking about. The new personality development tutor of your school, more like the entire population’s crush at this point. And Jungkook hated him just for the same reasons, it seems petty but he can't help himself.

“Go fuck him then”, he snorts, swinging his back pack from one shoulder to another while you grin. Almost as on queue, Seokjin appears on the hallways and passes a smile towards all the students.

“Oh yes. Look at that a--”

“I guess that's enough for today, come on we gonna get late”, he grabs your arms and pushes you forward to move, having enough of your daily ranting about angelic beauty and who the hell laughs at some dad joke?

“When were you ever interested in math Kook?”, you tease him, resisting him to walk slower, “Oh are you perhaps… jealous!? ”

“I'm not jealous. You are annoying”, he shoots cold face.

“Hey! I'm just saying he's attractive you don't have to be so mean about it”, you whine, hitting his arm.

You see, the fact that Seokjin stole Jungkook’s high school heartthrob position in two days is one thing, but he never expected you to act the same, especially when you were so different from most students on the campus. In fact he is shocked to see you crushing on someone. You despised people in general and he kept wondering what's there in their teacher to be so lurk about because he honestly doesn't see anything.

“He's old. And everyone knows he has a girlfriend, you guys dumb or what? ”, Jungkook teases back.

“Doesn't mean I can't praise a beautiful human”

“So he's the only attractive guy in the school? ”, he's curious now and also lowkey wants to find out if you had felt anything like this about himself.

Jungkook knew he was hot. He knew he could destroy Seokjin's reputation with one different hair color but that's too much drama over nothing. As if there isn't ten assignment waiting for him at home. Yeah he got better things to do.

“Nope”, comes your immediate answer. And man that hurt. You are smart and cocky and it would be cool to know someone like you finds him attractive, but you just hurt his ego.

“Not even me? ”, he asks, all squeaky and with a small pout and you return him a smile.

“See you at 7 Kook”

____

School ends at 5, and thankfully both of your residence are nearby and there's a party hosted by Jimin at his house which is a five minute drive so Jungkook has roughly one hour and fourty five minutes to make an appearance to the party. And by appearance he means to look absolutely endearing. He's never the type to bang a lot of chicks, he didn't even need to do anything than to wear a black tee and jeans to a party and could still get laid. If he wanted sex, he can have that any time he wants.

But today is different.

He's never been this eager to be at a gathering, took time to pick outfits and oh dye his hair. He has never experimented with hair colors except that one time he tried red and got famous by the name ‘cherry head’ in the entire locality.

You of course give yourself the usual thirty minutes to do slight makeup and wear shorts with oversized tee styled enough to merge into the party. And boy you have no idea what you are going to witness today.

Jungkook arrives ten minutes late because the highlights took time to dry off. He styles them, but not too much. He still wanted to look effortlessly handsome and got that long abandoned shear black shirt with blue jeans.

“Woah is that Jungkook!?”, some girls whisper beside the bar you are currently seated at and you turn around, only to feel a pang to your chest. Fuck. A completely look through shirt with fucking tight blue denim is he fucking kidding? And blonde hair? Yeah it's that complete ‘drool over me bitches’ package.

You suddenly feel self aware of how simple you looked. He should have given a heads up because one needs several business days to process blonde Jungkook. He seemed unrecognizable.

“Woah… What's up with this new look!?”, you approach finally. Many people eye him shamelessly in your peripheral vision which is pretty much obvious.

“Nothing. Just felt like it”, he grins, having won you. Jungkook is not attractive who? Yeah he bets Seokjin will never pull off this look.

“You like it? ”, and he undoes first two buttons, exposing a bit of his toning straight to your eyes. Is he fucking teasing? You want to confront him because he's acting weird. But you don't know if this is because you feel different around him.

“Y-yeah… It's good”, you tug a smile.

“Wanna dance?”, he asks and you nod, taking your hand to the dance floor. Most people are wasted but both of you are not. So when you feel him touching more than usual, you are absolutely aware that it's not an accident.

He holds you so close all the time, as if it's something you do daily. Fuck.

“Hold me like this”, he says out of nowhere and throws your hand behind his neck. He knows what he's doing. And you are aware too, but too weak in knees to retract. You hate that you are actually enjoying this and he loved it.

“Y/n….”, he whispers to your ear, tucking a strand of your hair behind it, “Can I kiss you love? ”

Your nod is so soft and innocent before you give in. Most people who were looking forward for Jungkook’s company give up and hook up with other guys around because they know he isn't here for anybody else.

He flushes your hips against his as he kisses you, obviously tongue all the way. He doesn't know why but he wanted to shut your mouth exactly like this whenever you swooned over Seokjin. And he is most certain that all those memories are perished along with the kiss.

He pulls your bottom lip out and looks into your eyes and grinds his hip on yours, and you moan lowly. He internally curses at how sweet you sounded.

“Come with me”. He pulls you out of the crowd and into a private cubicle where people usually make out. And thankfully there was one vacant.

But he isn't quick to act once inside the space. He takes his time to lock the door and to sit at that one chair in the centre, manspreading luxuriously for you to see.

You never did anything like this with Jungkook. It was not like you had friend zoned him, you actually don't know why, all these years you spent casually flirting and shrugging off with each other, and now you can't wait to devour him.

You make your way to his lap and sit right on his hips, sighing at the contact. He grabs the back of your head and pushes it towards him. His other hand taps your butt to continue grinding which you happily do so.

He continues exploring your skin, hooking his hands on your shirt and rubbing circles at the skin there. Feeling his cold hands, you move to undo two more of his buttons to get a peak of his pecs, something you wanted to do the moment you saw him.

He moans into your mouth when your movements start to get him worked up, feeling high and ecstatic. Even with the denim shorts on, the dent on his pants was enough to get you close to orgasm.

“J-Jungkook… ”, you trail off, head slightly falling back which he catches.

“Go on love, almost there”. Fuck. You loved it when he called you names, but this one was, exceptionally very much turning you on.

He detaches his mouth to suckle on your collar bone, exposing it by pulling your t shirt slightly down. It becomes all too much, and you focus on the knot forming at your stomach.

Jungkook stops kissing you, indicating he's chasing his high several moments after yours, glad that both opted for thick denims as bottoms to cover the mess you made.

“We should've done this way before”, you imply, separating the strands of his hair sticking to his forehead.

“We could've, but you were busy drooling over some teacher”, he smugs.

“So you were jealous! ”.

Unfortunately his cocky being doesn't have an answer for that so he dodges it with another long kiss, breaking off with a loud smooch.

“God I can kiss you forever Y/n…”

“And...then? ”, you ask your confusion. You don't know what's your relationship with Jungkook is anymore, now that you had made out with him.

“... then… maybe you'll fall in love with me?”

“See you at the party Kook”, you peck the corner of his lips and get off his lap. After taking a moment to fix your outfit, you leave the cubicle.

And Jungkook knew exactly what he was going to do.

Thank you so much for reading!! ♡

Original Content of ©bangtanpromptfics

#jungkook scenarios #jungkook x reader #jungkook fluff #jungkook smut #bts smut #smut #jjk smut #jungkook hot #blonde jungkook #bts ff #bts jungkook #bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts fanfic #bts #bts x reader #jungkook oneshot #bts oneshot #jungkook drabble #bts drabble #jeon jungkook #jjk #jjk x reader #fan fiction #fanfic #fanfiction

[non-binharry]

hi asia! hope you’re well. absolutely no obligation to answer this but i had a general gender question (about myself) and i don’t have many queer friends to turn to atm. adult genderfluid person here, and i’ve been noticing the way my gender sometimes feels in flux in accordance with what i’m wearing. so like gender identity and gender presentation are obv two different things that can interrelate but like specifically i’ve been trying out more “feminine” things that i always shied away from when i was younger bc some instinctual part of me knew i didn’t love being coded as a feminine binary woman (unfortunately it also manifested as some nlog energy but i digress), including dresses and skirts and i’ve found myself wishing and wishing i could be a man wearing dresses every time i’ve done so and then was always like well i know i’m genderfluid like i still do feel connection to other forms of identity so it’s not that i’m necessarily a trans man. and then i was sorta like wait duh i’m genderfluid maybe i can be a sort of man when i feel like it? but then i worry that that’s invalidating of like other identities that aren’t fluid so idk i guess i’m just here spilling my thoughts bc i’m confused. at other times i’ll be wearing a binder and baggy shorts and be like i am the womanliest woman to ever woman. which i guess now that I’m typing it I’m like okay if i were my friend i would be like dude this is valid but bc it’s me I’m like ~no other ppl’s identities are all valid but i must be faking it for attention (even tho I’m literally closeted) etc etc~ also sometimes i feel way more comfortable just performing “femininity” if i feel like i “look like a boy” (quotes bc this is all socialized) i’ll be more flamboyant in my expressions etc. does this even make sense? and when i “look like a girl” i’ll often manspread and talk in my lower register and i don’t even think that’s like a conscious decision on my part it’s just what feels comfortable. so am i just comfortable like not fitting neatly into presentation categories? is that part of my gender fluidity? are questions I’m asking myself, obv not trying to like put all this on you (even though i am in your inbox, ahh i just find you really really comforting and supportive and affirming as a trans poc!)

anyway sorry for long rant, i’m in a totally okay and like stable spot and no worries if this is like not something you can respond to for whatever reason! i don’t really even know where i’m going with this other than I’m confused and sometimes i might want to be a boy? but usually it’s when I’m presenting as feminine? do i just like fucking w peoples minds?? does that matter is that even a meaningful distinction??

anon, i wish i could apologize a million times over for how long it has taken me to respond to this message, and frankly, it hurts me when you all are like "you don't have to respond" because i worry that my lack of response will make you think that's the option i've chosen lmao i've been so devastatingly busy with work and life lately when i do find a moment of quiet i can't even find a way to articulate anything other than "harr style big tittle" like a caveman

that being said, i love you, and i'm in love with you. i think you're doing exactly what a funky little fluid fella would do and should do and could do and i don't think you should doubt yourself for one minute because fucking with gender is sort of exactly what you're designed to do.

the thing is, your presentation is for yourself, even if no one else gets it. it's an expression of your gender identity, whether that's a fluid man in a dress, or a woman in a binder and baggy clothes, but that's YOU, and that's you expressing yourself how you best can. you're never going to nearly fit into anything, and that's the point. i don't want you to stress over thinking so much whether you're faking it because you're not, you're just experiencing yourself how you're meant to be. and i think that's neat.

i hope you're still around and see the response to this message because i do get the feeling that you are very settled into yourself despite whatever curiosities you may have, but it's always nice to have some reassurance and i'm here to say you're doing great 💗

#anonymous #mensaje mensaje

[laraplisetski]

Dating Iwaizumi Hajime

A/n: This isnt related to the headcanons but I have this request for Seijoh’s libero and since I'm doing dating hcs for all of Seijoh by their jersey numbers. So anyways please wait a little bit longer as I might tag you in the dating hcs for Watari. Sorry for any mistakes tho.

Special announcement! 

I just reached a hundred follows today! Thankyou for for following me and I'm so thankful for all the support. If I could, I would try to show more gratitude in any way.

Words: 1790

Tags: @imthatchishiyasimp​, @kekozume​

(These arms tho)

Iwaizumi routinely calls you something like baka or dumbass but he says it in good faith.

For example whenever you do something stupid Iwaizumi call you a dumbass.

But he doesn't mean it, it's just how he shows his worry.

He's just a big ass tsundere, you cannot tell me otherwise. 

A lot of people think Iwaizumi would be a gentleman but like I feel like he would treat you like Oikawa but like way less harsher. 

Like he would let you call him nicknames like ‘iWa-ChAn’ and just blush and call you dumbass.

*cough cough* tsundere *cough cough* 

Also he's bad at giving compliments,

Like you'll be wearing nice clothes that really fit your form and he’ll really like you wearing them.

And you'll ask him if he likes your clothes, and hell just blush furiously grab your hand and just start walking.

‘Iwa, do you like what I wore today? It's my favorite outfit.’

‘Ye-yeah, we have to go, we'll miss our bus.’

One time you guys had a huge argument over this.

You feel insecure because he treated you more like Oikawa who was his best friend than his s/o.

He tried really hard after that to compliment you whenever you looked good.

(In his opinion you always did)

And you really appreciated him trying.

After that your bond grew stronger as both of you knew that you would be willing to for the other.

As your bond grew stronger the more you started to open up to him about your struggles. 

Now Hajime isn't a very open person. (Well he is but he doesn't like to admit it.)

And he's a little brash and very straightforward with his feelings or his thoughts. 

So when you're acting down he straight up asks you what's wrong and doesn't consider that you don't/wouldn't want to talk about it.

This might make you a little more agitated since you're already very sad but when he realizes that you don't want to talk about it, he immediately regrets it and apologies straight away.

One thing I love about Iwaizumi as a character is that he isn't afraid to tell the truth even if he knows he's in the wrong. 

But these things only happened in the start of your relationship because when you two spend much more time together he starts to notice patterns in your behavior and how you act based on how you feel. 

That really helps him to know if you're sad, angry or irritated at someone. 

Later in the relationship, he knows when to comfort you, when to give you space and when to scold you. 

You really appreciate this because he doesn't sugarcoat his words and he gives you advice that is honest and comes from his heart.

Moving on, let's talk about his friends.

By friends I mean Oikawa. 

When Iwaizumi first got a s/o Oikawa was fuming because 

‘wHo wOuLd DaRe taKe mY iWa-cHaN aWay frOm mE’

Iwa slapped him on the back of his head after he said that. 

After that every time you would come to school, Oikawa would stick to Iwaizumi like a leech

(for comedic purposes of course)

Iwaizumi found it amusing at first how jealous you would be that Oikawa was getting all your boyfriends attention. 

But then as time passed you started waving to Oikawa whenever he was sticking with Iwa and he started waving back. 

After that you two developed a friendship.

You know what this means.

Hell for Iwaizumi has started. 

So Iwaizumi would always walk you to class in the morning and you guys would sit with Oikawa for lunch.

Now that you're friends with Oikawa.

Ohoho, I'm sorry Iwa you have to suffer. 

So you guys get along very well and Iwaizumi is very thankful for that because the two most important people (other than his family) are getting along.

It's fine for the first two weeks but then you and Oikawa develop this sibling-like bond.

It's almost identical to Iwa and Oikawa’s bond but because you share the same sense of humor Oikawa doesn't get teased.

Also one time Oikawa convinced you to call Hajime, Iwa-Chan for a day.

To say Iwaizumi was not pleased was an understatement. 

The good thing is Oikawa got the bad end of it but it was worth it.

Also you guys eat lunch together and you and Oikawa keep making bad jokes and Iwaizumi has no choice but to sigh and deal with it, cause he loves both of you.

Poor iWa-ChAn.

You also tend to stick up for Oikawa during practices when the team is teasing him. 

Due to you thinking of him as your little brother (It doesn't matter if you're older or younger Oikawa gives off major annoying little brother vibes.)

And the team cant rebel against you cause if they did Iwaizumi would murder them.

Other than that they absolutely love you cause you take care of the first and second years and keep them in line.

And you get along with Matsun and Makki and share memes with them.

Surprisingly Kyotani also respects you.

And he actually listens to your advice.

(Because of this Oikawa will whine about how no one respects him and goes on a rant and then you have to cheer him up while simultaneously giving everyone attention in the team.)

Being a team mom for Seijoh is very hard.

Also I feel like the reason Kyotani respected you when you became Iwa’s s/o was because you were Iwa’s s/o.

But now his view on you has changed.

He's very inspired by you and looks up to you.

He's always amazed by how you can be such a naturally caring person and be such a good leader and team player. 

He also might come to you for advice if he had an argument with someone.

If you're a volleyball player as well and you're good, be ready for Kyotani following you around everywhere asking questions.

It's sort of endearing.

You and Iwa and Kyotani have this parent-son relationship and it's so wholesome I swear.

(Please adopt him.)

You do not only help keep the team in check you help them with matches too. 

Like maybe getting their opponents videos for Oikawa. 

You also sit down with the first and second years to watch their opponents videos and point out what seems peculiar and what not. 

One time the person who usually took videos of the matches was unavailable so you went out of your way to do it yourself. 

When Iwa found out he hugged you really tight and had this proud look in his eyes.

I bet when Oikawa found out he just clung to you and started full on crying.

(You're basically their manager at this point.)

Also when the team found out that you taped it yourself and all that, their respect from you went out the roof.

Now you are a goddess among them.

(Kyotani literally be looking at you with star eyes)

Enough about the team tho

Let's get back to Iwa and you.

You always try to be sneaky and steal his clothes but he catches you midway trying to sneak one of his jumpers out.

But he lets you have them anyways cause you look fucking cute in them.

Whenever he sees you wearing his clothes this man just blushes like 50 shades of red.

(I'm sorry pun wasn’t intended)

But anyways what I'm trying to say is that he blushes a deep red and basically just becomes a stuttering mess.

You like kiss him on the cheek like this once and he's putty in your hands. 

I'm not even kidding.

Also Iwa’s pretty muscular so no matter how long you are his hoodies will always be loose on you in some way.

(sorry muscular people)

And Iwa finds it so cute like

His s/o in his hoodie that's all loose on them.

Just like internally crying at that point.

Also mind you Iwaizumi loves back hugs like. 

Imagine you are wearing one of his articles of clothing and you just casually back hug him.

Man will short circuit but will never admit he likes them because hes a 

Tsundere~~

But this might just be my love of back hugs talking who knows.

When he doesn't have practice he usually stays at home and cuddles with you or you have movie nights with Tooru but that is rare cause he has to take care of his cousin.

But you guys just calmly cuddle and no one is really speaking.

Just basking in each other's presence and being comfortable in each other's company. 

Sometimes one of you falls asleep and the other just strokes their fingers through their hair.

It's basically the same when he comes back from practice but the only difference is that he takes off his shirt and you massage his strong muscles with some oil. 

After that y'all cuddle but you're blushing the entire time because like Iwaizumi’s shirtless excuse me!

‘And this bitch just goes,

‘Take a picture it'll last longer’ 

Like what, how do you expect yourself not to short circuit.

And curse you Oikawa, you don't have to teach him the ways of flirting.

Usually you wouldn't react to that type of comment but he's shirtless and now you're putty in his hands. 

So you both are like beans. 

Also I'm like a hundred percent sure Iwaizumi is a big spoon. 

He just loves caging you in his arms and making sure you feel protected. 

It also keeps him very grounded and just honestly happy to have you there with him.

There was this one incident in which you and Oikawa were bantering and Iwaizumi wasn't having any of it so he picked you up and threw you on his shoulder. And walked away like nothing happened. 

After that you guys sort of had an impromptu make out session in the club room, which was unfortunately interrupted by Kindaichi barging in.

Bless him.

And his eyes.

You and Iwaizumi had to sit him down and make him swear to not tell anyone. 

After that you two continued but Kindaichi might've accidentally spilled to Kunimi 

Opps.

Bonus points

Iwaizumi likes to buy purple hyacinths for you on valentines day because it's your favorite flower and to also say sorry for when he was not boyfriend like in the beginning of your relationship. 

(Yes I referenced Purple Hyacinth the webtoon, go watch it)

Also the team has a custom made Seijoh jacket, just for you!

And the first time you saw it you just hugged Iwaizumi and started sobbing because these boys were too precious and just too pure. (I love Seijoh)

The end.

#haikyuu iwaizumi #iwaizumi hajime #iwazumi x reader #iwaizumi prompt #iwaizumi headcanons #iwaizumi dating hc #x reader #xreader #x gender neutral reader #haikyuu!! #haikyū!! #Haikyuu #haikyu x reader #haikyuu prompts #haikyuu headcanons #anyways #bye😃

[incarnateirony]

Why do you think so many people in fandoms of tv shows, movies, games and pretty much anything have such a strong resistance to a character being revealed to be LGBT? I've seen it so many times, and I know you've seen it a lot as well, and it's just so weird to me how offended people are by this. A recent example is in the fandom of a videogame I'm in, were many are just outraged by the notion some believe that a main character, a white, male soldier that exists since 1997 could, maybe, be LGBT.

The fight over this crap is kind of intersectional. Everything from homophobes to our own. This is heavily tied to (America, since this is intersectional with an american show, but also global) opinions shifting on things like oh, gay marriage. (x) Such as modernly 15%~ of citizens are homophobes and think The Gay Sexinating should be illegal. Which sounds shitty as all kinds of fuck until you scale that against 43% in 77′, and 77 was actually *before* the AIDs epidemic really became central or anything so you can imagine what those numbers realistically became then.

We’ve made progress, and there’s still progress to be made, but it was literally less than half a century ago – two generations ago – here, in many of our lifetimes, or at least in the lifetimes of people the younger reading audience here *knows* – that this landscape wasn’t even *recognizable*

So socially speaking this works in waves of conversation– be that the gays being cursed by god yadda yadda and thus deserve to die of AIDS and be treated like lepers – down to “Why do they even need included in anything” following shortly after, with a mindset of “perversion” still heavily steeped in the population that would plague children of the 80s and 90s heavily. You wanna deal with some internalization, there’s some internalization.

Keeping a thumb on the fact that the needle *has* shifted is a great deal of it, I think – obviously not “OK! WE’RE DONE NOW!” but being aware there’s not a 50%~ chance someone you walk by thinks you should be arrested or killed anymore, that more than 1 in 8 douchebags are going to be whole thundergeese about it, and that it is what it is, and it sucks, and we’re waiting to get further-again. Also there’s whole other issues WRT MLM vs WLW and what earns what kind of resistance but that’s a WHOLE other rant.

The thing is, when people grow into an environment of being *disadvantaged*, if they don’t as much take time to celebrate our *progress* as much as rant about everything that *isn’t going perfectly right*, we lose our scale. It maintains this feeling of being the completely 100% hated unseen minority that the whole world still hates, when we can’t look back and go, you know what, in 2019, 83% of people don’t think it should be illegal, 2% have no opinion. That’s just a very congealed residual screaming mass of assbags and subconsciously we all know it, but continuing to gear the conversation as if we’re fighting from the pits of the 60s or 70s is??? really weird???

But at the same time understandable?

So on the one hand you get The Gays arguing from being an angle of being incredibly more disadvantaged than they are. And then, you get people from this shifting demographic – be it the 15% remaining douchebags congealed into a screaming lot, or the 40% slide that have come to realize we’re just minding our own business and loving who we want between 77 and now – that, still lost *in* that dark history and frankly propaganda hold onto *resistances*. So if we’re talking about a character that, say, probably straight white guys have attached to since the 90s, if they attached to that character in the 90s, odds are, they were fairly developed and at least 15 years old if not more already. And odds are, they were subject to everything from the impact of the epidemic to just older nonsense clouding their vision, and whether we like it or not, these people *will* have likely resistance.

Because we may not like that chapter of history, and we give no excuse for homophobia, but in perspective when an entire country’s homosexual population was ravaged by something ignored by government and hospitals, and dismissively packaged as a curse by evangelical america in a country about 75% christian, just how *much* that *completely* fucks up people’s internal understanding. It’s the same dehumanization that was used against anyone else genocided, in other major historical moments we all know about. It doesn’t make the passivity right, but welcome to how literal propaganda can fuck up entire populations.

So to roll back to the Nonnie: These fights in general seem to strike me as a mix of intersectional… lack of understanding. Young Gays that don’t really get what the world was like 40~ years ago or even 20~ are absolutely baffled why anyone would get so reactive to an idea. Old Gays do want better representation, but some have had a hell of a time *from* internalizing those ideas.  The Straights of the time have a WHOLE other mess of shit to sort out in their heads before coming around to being open and understanding. Everybody’s talking across each other, instead of talking with each other, and some have unfortunately entirely convinced themselves they are still as hated as they were back then, which turns into more circular representation visibility fights, which turns into another circus, yeehaw. 

Which sometimes even turns into striking down their own representative work (be that SPN here or the goblins we all know on this hellsite that tear down anything that looks vaguely like representation because it isn’t XYZ enough). Because in the interest of arguing with *maybe 15 percent of the population that doesn’t think you have the right to exist* about *fictional content* being made to *represent YOU, not them*, we ironically do a lot of damage to our queer canon by just stomping on current incrementalization and expansion without minding the history and steamroll it. Which frankly makes us all look like disorganized lunatics trying to Make Everything Gay™ even if that’s not what it is remotely.

And because I know this will be misunderstood I’ll continue to frame this point from a few angles before it’s misrepresented: Wanting rep/seeing queer narratives wherever you go is fine and the nature of the fight, I’m just trying to explore the divide between r/NiceGuys that get mad at the gay vs the modern LGBT comm and frankly the general bloated, inflated relevance they have that the community at times lets, or even invites dialogue of, their heteronormative framings, often rooted back from times of REALLY DARK PROPAGANDA AND GENOCIDE and how it affected culture – to damage and bury their own content, generally in the logic “if they don’t see it, then it doesn’t count!” when, if-and-when queer coding or open in your face textual coming-out canon or even just low-visibility text is conscious, that is content for *you.*

And it’s not saying “stop and settle” to put this into perspective. It’s “don’t piss on the work everybody else did before you – or worse on what they’re doing right now – just to argue with the couple of assbags left in the universe.“ They’ll go away too eventually. It doesn’t happen overnight. And they’re not going to stop happening overnight. No matter how many gay video game soldiers you find at this type, no matter if Dean Winchester just quietly voices his repeat encounters with men in a way that landmarks it so loudly you NEED to break out alt-right dialogues those same 1 in 8 have that I have beaten to death – to choose to interject that kind of long-ago-addressed conversational edge is literally to choose to interject homophobic dialogue into conversations of how LGBT rep should work and honey if you need an indicator that you may be leaning in the wrong direction, there’s your sign.

But it can be hard to unplug and stop thinking the world is still as bad as it is back then, BECAUSE you run into those assbags that resist it loudly. But like many things, numbers show they’ve died off into a minority. We still have a way to go, but this is a weird ongoing self-inflated fight that seems heavily unaware on WHY people react like that (as per the original ask) much less how ridiculous it is to keep dragging dialogues born in the AIDS epidemic days into these discussions.

Simple point? If you aren’t able to really mobilize on content (yelling online generally ain’t it, chief), ignore them. Enjoy your content if it’s yours, because there’s a lot of effort in simply erasing normalizing queer content because if it’s not EXTREME enough to win against THOSE GUYS *POINTS AT* then NYEAAAAAAAAAH.

It was never gonna be enough to win on those guys, even if it was full queer cinema canon LGBT stories and not stories that just include LGBT people normally.

Look I don’t even know what soldier you’re talking about, and I don’t care. Enjoy your shit your way and remember how easy it is for a minority to be ruthlessly loud when they can connect themselves across the wholeassed internet. 

But until people really learn the history of why certain mindsets cropped up or how they invaded conversation or what rattled entire generations to their core, prople are gonna have a hard time fucking communicating with each other instead of just talking over each other. And sometimes even talking over their own within the community/engaging in deletion/the carousel runs in a circle.

But *why* that mindset exists? It’s not difficult. It’s because this nation got saturated in propaganda that warranted letting the homosexual community suffer and die in numbers that would make your head spin, where everyone knew someone with it, as coffeebrainblog has said, where we were treated like lepers, or “cursed by god”, or as lesser, inhuman things and climbing out of that hole has been a hell of a ride, but the community has to also de-internalize that propaganda and realize WE’RE PRETTY MUCH THERE. Like the road isn’t over, the war isn’t 100% won, but if the statistics alone don’t get you, if you *really* sat and read this reply, maybe where the din and eternal upset has buried our *progress*, you’ll realize that progress has dramatically pitched that into being the minority.

But it keeps everybody arguing from disadvantaged levels and even some choosing to self-handicap by creating their own definitions, rules, boundaries and almost states of the universe they’ll accept, because 1 in 8ish people hate them, but they’re still stuck in a world where 1 in 2 might want you dead, somewhere in your headspace. It’s like setting your own handicap bar which… is kind of the opposite? Of what we’re supposed to do? We’re supposed to knock down those cages? And point out we’re the same as everyone else? Running to prove things to people who still think we might carry God’s Plague And Be Judged that haven’t listened to decades of correction so far, just to dissect and dismantle your own contents or enjoyments – it’s a really, really weird backwards pedaling thing to aim for.

I *get* why people think it’s the right way, again, as per all of this, but it’s… it’s pedaling backwards and thinking it’s moving forward. 

So while I don’t know what soldier you’re talking about, it was a chance to address A) why there’s resistance in some generations B) what that did to us, as a community C) where sometimes we lose track of ourselves in a carnival of competition.

EDIT:

This note by @amitywho rings home:

Excellent analysis. I’m extremely ancient - I was a grown-ass adult in a flyover state back in 1980 when the first whispers about “the gay cancer” in New York and San Francisco began to make their way to us. I had to drive 150 miles to find a bookstore that carried any kind of gay-positive literature. We parked across the street to watch and see who might be loitering in the neighborhood - if they had baseball bats, no one would be coming to help.

I’ll also add there seems to be OUSA influence, but I centered on the american demographic of an american show; but it still impacts online worldwide net conversation. That OUSA influence varies between highly oppressed countries having heartier ala-80s POVs on LGBT, to on the exact opposite OUSA fans not really having their heads wrapped around the American side of the history beyond what it means in a few articles if they came from more progressive countries that didn’t, like, genocide their gays. So even older LGBT OUSA people look at it from the disembodied angle of a few headlines they remember, not being in the blast zone and resulting fallout.

Also to drift to another topic of LGBT exploitation: If you want to know why CW has “dare to defy” as a slogan just behind the idea that they have PoC or gays on their channel, I really need someone to sit and think about that. Welcome to a bunch of older people that remember these days that see it as *DEFIANT* to do at our current intersection. Nevermind them now exploiting that to try to find a new center for their network after CBS fucked them WRT Netflix, but hey. Yeah. Put that in scale. Why does it need virtue signal marketing, and moreover, what are they “defying”? This. This kind of mindset. Which is heavily sourced in an age demographic likely to be the core of CW Exec boards and marketing. 

If you want an idea how deep rooted in our psyche stunted dialogues are, the fact that few people even blink at that says a fuck of a lot to me. No, we dared to defy decades ago, you’re just trying to profit on what you still run through marketing and demographics and ho-hum but think you can pull money from. There’s a difference. But it does betray the minds behind it. It should be more like “DARE TO LOSE 15% OF OUR PROFIT MARGIN AND HOPE WE GET THAT 20-30% OF GAYS INSTEAD” – it’s profiting off of the work the LGBT community did and acting like they’re brave for doing it at a point that they actually risk more losses to NOT start. It’s signaling themselves as heroes in a battle they had nothing to do with. And it’s pretty standard fare.

(And, ON that aside, it spins me out how often I’ve seen in misc fandoms fans acting like queer content that is canonically queer doesn’t count if it’s not overtly marketed and shopped explicitly as LGBT content, rather than content that happens to have LGBT elements – why are you BEGGING to be exploited before you consider yourselves valid, I’m confused. We’ve already had our big grand coming out stories and tales of struggle and there’s a whole queer canon history I’ve posted about this. The whole point of our current junction is getting content everywhere that reflects how normal-and-everywhere we are, why are y’all like this)

[kae-karo]

Since you mentioned being in the mood for asks: I think I like my best friend. She knows I'm not straight. But has never actually said she's not straight but has discussed possibility of her sexuality being fluid? She doesn't open up to anyone. And so it's really hard to understand her feelings and I am always afraid of crossing the line by asking her too many questions? So I just avoid asking a question twice. I know our friendship will be ruined if I let her know about my feelings ( 1/2 )

But idk what to do with all these pent up feelings :( she gets close to me but then seems to be very distant after a while. Back and forth. Idk what to do. Especially with all this time in my hand during quarantine all I do is overthink about everything in my life including her. Oh no I'm ranting. Sorry have a great day !!! Love you Katie !!! 🖤🖤🖤 :) ( 2/2 )

hello dear!! 💜💜💜 okay first and foremost never never feel like you have to apologize for sending long/multi-part asks/rambling/etc i adore getting asks and it is never something you should feel bad about!!

now, onto advice here...there are a lot of different options ofc for what you could do, and i won’t say that there’s one right answer or one thing that’s better than another. i am and always will be an advocate for communication and honesty in relationships/friendships/etc, but i think the first thing that needs to happen is you need to decide what route you want to go

the kind of key directions would ofc be to 1. explain your feelings and see if she feels the same 2. decide that you do Not want your current friendship with her to change and that you would rather move on from being interested in her without mentioning that you have feelings or 3. keep on the same path you’re currently on and sort of just...wait it out

uhhh i will say that option 3 is usually...one to avoid, if you can. specifically bc this will probably leave you feeling Bad and that’d be something that’s uhhh not good lmao

so say you want to try telling her how you feel, naturally this comes with the risk (as you mentioned) that she might not feel the same/that you might ruin the friendship by saying something about it, but unfortunately...there’s not really much of a way around that risk. that said, and keeping in mind that idk her or how she tends to act/react to certain situations, there are probably ways to go about this that mitigate some of the risks

if i were in your shoes and decided i wanted to go this route, i might genuinely try to keep it as lowkey and casual as possible, and try to avoid making it some Big Thing™. i’d probs just say smth like ‘hey y’know i think i might have feelings for u beyond just friendship, i wanted to just let you know in case you felt the same, but if not, no worries! it doesn’t change that i still want to be friends with you, and i obviously am not gonna act any differently toward you if you don’t feel the same.’ like. i would try to make it clear that 1. i wouldn’t want anything to change if she didn’t feel the same and 2. that i have no expectations of her

especially since it sounds like she’s still figuring out who she might be into, i might also add something like ‘i totally understand you’re still figuring stuff out, i don’t want you to feel any added pressure, just wanted to be open and honest with you’ (sometimes being open can help others open up too!)

now, that said, it sounds like you might be erring more on the side of wanting to move on and get over your feelings for her - which is totally valid! or, ofc, if you tell her and she’s like ‘yeah man sorry i’m just not into you!’ then u would naturally want to move on without making things uncomfy. in that event, i have one very major recommendation: distractions

i get it! it’s hard with quarantine to keep your mind occupied with other things/people/etc, but unfortunately, moving on isn’t something that can just be done, it requires practice and patience and time

one thing you can try is choosing something you already enjoy and finding an aspect of that to dive deeper into. for example, fan of a show/book? go search for fanart or fanfic if you’re into that! come up with an oc just for fun in whatever universe that piece of media is in, even if u never show it to anyone. pick a few blogs you’ve seen who post a lot and check them out, maybe follow if they seem cool! write fic or draw art, whether it be of an oc or existing characters or even just scenes or something! especially try this out even if you’ve never done either of those things before - and don’t get discouraged if those things aren’t perfect, just give them a shot and you might find something you really enjoy! grab a character or ship you usually don’t give much attention to/haven’t seen before and go check out their tag!

along this route, i speak a lot about fandom/fictional media bc that is what i personally use as an escape, but the same goes for activism/politics/languages/animals/other subjects/literally anything that is of interest to you! there is almost always an unexplored aspect of something that you can dive into. but! in the event that you can’t or don’t find anything interesting...

another thing is to find something new! a show you’ve heard about but never watched (or a show you’ve literally never heard of before but like just keeps popping up on ur netflix page), a book you’ve been putting off reading, a youtuber that seems p cool, a skill or language or craft or really, literally anything you haven’t done, and trying it. invest a bit of time and energy and just see where it takes you, let yourself think about this new thing and follow your line of curiosity. some of the best (and worst/dumbest/most cursed) ideas i’ve ever had came from just. randomly following the line of curiosity in my head and seeing where it takes me. hell, that’s what led to me writing fic in the first place!

and be forgiving of yourself too, don’t associate thoughts about this person with any kind of ‘oh shit i’m not supposed to be thinking about her’ kind of reactions, just gently redirect your thoughts to that one episode you just watched, or the question you have about the universe it exists in, or what crocheting pattern you want to try out first, etc etc etc. again, this kind of thing takes time and patience and won’t happen overnight, but you absolutely can get there!

the last ‘distraction’ i tend to go for is revisiting old interests! that fic or book you read a long time ago but still have/still have bookmarked as a fave? pick it back up and give it a reread - the cool thing about stories is that, over time, our perspectives change, and the way we experience the story and the emotions we feel over it change as well. same goes for old shows, esp if it’s been a minute! you can even do this in tandem with the first distraction type and dig back into fandoms you haven’t seen in a while!

it can be hard to remember sometimes - esp while we’re in quarantine! - that worlds exist outside our current interests and spheres of influence. whatever you decide to do, dear, just remember that things will be okay in the end (even if they’re not okay at first) so long as you try to do what’s right for you and be thoughtful and caring along the way. i hope this helped at least a little!

#advice #anon #ask #kt