#it just doesn’t make sense if I don’t give a lot

[proxima-writes]

𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄

PAIRING: JACKSON!JOEL MILLER X FEMALE READER

RATING: EXPLICIT (18+ MDNI) | WORD COUNT: 1.5k

SUMMARY | Nowadays, he’s got the look of a man who’s discovered safety after survival, more life in his face, more weight on his bones. His hair has grown out, curling around his neck and more prominent streaks of gray at his temples and in his beard. This thing between the two of you remains undefined, comes and goes like waves crashing on a shore, but you’ll take what you can get because you’ve never been good about avoiding temptation.

AUTHOR’S NOTE | One glimpse of Pedro as Joel in the new season has turned me into a woman possessed. Thank you @undrthelights and @janaispunk for giving this a read for me 💕

ways to help palestine

WARNINGS | explicit sexual content (18+ minors do not interact), no use of y/n, porn without plot, mild angst, able bodied reader, no physical reader descriptions or age mentioned, jackson era, mentions of joel's weight (in the context of looking healthier in jackson), emotionally constipated joel, dirty talk, praise, pet names, kitchen sex, oral sex - f receiving (while standing), unprotected p in v, limited aftercare. let me know if i’ve missed any!

A noise breaks through your dreams, a loud banging that startles you from sleep and leaves you blinking at the ceiling. Thoughts still fuzzy, you stumble down the stairs and through your kitchen to the back door that rattles in its frame with each pound of a fist against it. You glance at the neon red numbers of the stove clock and at this hour, there can only be one culprit.

“Joel, what the fuck,” you groan, opening the door. “It’s two in the morning, what is wrong with you?” He doesn’t answer, simply shoulders past you and into your house. “Oh, sure come on in, make yourself—“

Your sarcastic remark is abruptly cut off by his lips crashing against yours, mouth hot and hungry as he skips any semblance of pleasantry and dives straight into carnal desire. His teeth graze your lip, the sting soothed by his tongue before it tangles with yours. Your fingers curl into his jacket sleeves, hanging on for dear life as he backs you into a wall, the two of you hitting one with a dull thump that disturbs the picture frames.

He shoves a knee between your thighs and pins you to the plaster, every sense invaded by him as he continues to consume you. When his mouth leaves yours and begins to leave hot kisses like brands across your neck, you finally find your voice again.

“Joel, what—“

“Shut up,” he grunts. You’re taken aback by the command and you have half a mind to smack him across the head for it, but he’s got his teeth on your earlobe and he adds, “I just, I need this, okay? Please?”

The fight leaves you in one fell swoop because you’d do anything for Joel if he just asks nicely. You nod and he returns to his task of turning you into a puddle with a single minded determination. When you start to rock your hips against his denim clad thigh in a desperate bid for friction, you feel, rather than see, the grin on his face.

“Mm, just as needy for me, ain’t you?” He teases. You frown.

“Don’t push your luck, Miller,” you snap. He laughs, a deep rumble that reminds you of the thunderstorms in the spring. “I can still kick you out of my house.”

“You won’t.” Confident, cocky, a man who knows he has you in the palm of his ridiculously skilled hands. “If you’d been smart, you would have kicked me out the first time. Now I’m just like a stray dog, ain’t gettin’ rid of me now.”

The first time, when he showed up in Jackson with a chip on his shoulder and a frown on his face. His hair had been shorter, his frame a bit smaller, his eyes a lot more vacant. He walked you home one night from the Tipsy Bison and when he kissed you under the glow of your porch light, his mouth tasted like whiskey, not unlike it does tonight.

Nowadays, he’s got the look of a man who’s discovered safety after survival, more life in his face, more weight on his bones. His hair has grown out, curling around his neck and more prominent streaks of gray at his temples and in his beard. This thing between the two of you remains undefined, comes and goes like waves crashing on a shore, but you’ll take what you can get because you’ve never been good about avoiding temptation.

While your thoughts drifted to the past, Joel has dropped to his knees and is curling his fingers into the elastic of your underwear, dragging the fabric down your thighs.

“In the kitchen? Really?” You huff. “There’s a perfectly good bedroom upstairs.”

“Too far,” he says, tossing your underwear aside.

Despite your complaints, there is something undeniably sexy about having Joel kneeling before you, impatient enough that he’ll take you right where you stand. He shuffles closer, lifts one of your legs over his shoulder and lavishes your clit with broad swipes of his tongue.

Your head drops back as you moan, your fingers tangling in his hair as he pulls out every trick in the book of your pleasure, alternating between fast circles and sucking the bundle of nerves between his lips. It’s not long before you’ve reached the precipice of your release, teetering on a razor thin edge before finally falling into oblivion with a gasp of his name. He groans against you as you come, waves of it rolling through you.

“So fuckin’ good,” he says as he pulls away. You look down at him with a half-lidded stare, his chin wet in the low light and his own gaze dark with lust. He stands, slowly, with a bit of a wince because of his bad knee that he tries to hide with a grin. “C’mere.”

You let him pull you away from the wall and into his arms where he kisses you, his lips and tongue drenched in your taste. He walks you back to your little kitchen table, kicking a chair out of the way so that he can turn you to face it, a palm between your shoulder blades urging you down until you’re bent over the wooden surface.

The clink of his belt buckle falling to the linoleum makes your muscles clench in anticipation. Joel’s palm smooths down your back, almost reverently, before reaching your ass and giving it a rough squeeze.

“You’re killin’ me, you know that?” He asks. You turn your head, glancing at him over your shoulder.

“Me? I’m not doing anything, I’m waiting for you to quit teasing.”

“That’s just it,” he says, sliding the head of his cock through your messy pussy before notching himself at your entrance. “You ain’t gotta do anythin’ except exist and you’ll drive me crazy.”

Any response you had dies a swift death as he presses inside of you, filling you in the most tortuous way. The ache of the stretch quickly fades as he bottoms out with a deep groan, his hands gripping your waist tight enough that you know you’ll feel the phantom sting of bruises in the morning. He sets a rough, demanding pace, the sound of skin against skin cacophonous in your little kitchen. You can’t hold back the noises of pleasure he wrings from you as he slams in deep with each thrust and pulls out so far that you’re practically empty before doing it over and over again.

“So fuckin’ gorgeous like this, so tight,” he grunts. You arch your back the slightest bit, changing the angle so that each drive of his cock drags against that spot inside of you that has you seeing stars and whimpering his name. “God, that’s it, sweetheart. Take it so pretty.”

“Joel,” you moan. “Please, please, please.”

“Beggin’ to come again?” He asks. “So greedy, ain’t that right?”

“Yes,” you sob. “Need to come, please, Joel!”

“I gotcha, baby.” His hand slips between your thighs and his fingers pinch your sensitive clit. “Come on, come on my cock so I can fill you up.”

It’s an empty threat, but one that works. Your muscles go tight with your second orgasm, your cunt pulsing around him as his thrusts grow erratic, uncoordinated as he chases his own high. He pulls out just seconds before making good on his word, painting your skin with warm release.

As you catch your breath, his warmth leaves your side. You vaguely register the sound of running water before a cold rag is wiping away the mess on your ass and cleaning up the slick between your thighs, the rough fabric over your sensitive flesh making you jump. Joel shushes you, another pass of his soothing palm down your back as he finishes wiping you clean.

You stand up straight on shaky legs and collapse in the chair that he’d kicked from the table to make room for your bodies. He’s already pulled his pants back up, the only evidence of your tryst in the sheen of sweat on his brow and his hair in disarray. His jaw grows tense as you watch him and he shoves his hands into his pockets, shifting his weight from foot to foot in the awkward aftermath.

“Thanks,” he says. “Needed that.”

“So you said,” you reply. “Did something happen?”

“Just some bullshit with Tommy.”

“Brother bullshit or town bullshit?”

“Bit of both.”

“Oh.”

He nods, glancing at the door. “I should get goin’.”

“Right.”

Joel doesn’t move for the door, though. No, he steps in close, taking your face in his warm hands and kissing you softly, gently, a wild juxtaposition to his earlier attentions. When he pulls away, you can’t help but reach up and smooth a thumb between his eyebrows, trying smooth the line of concern there.

“You don’t have to leave,” you whisper. You’ve said it before. You’ll say it again. You’ll keep saying it, until the ship that passes you in the night returns to your harbor.

“I do,” he replies, stepping back. You give him a tired smile.

Tonight isn’t that night.

Thank you for reading! Please consider reblogging or commenting if you enjoyed! You can find more of my writing below:

Joel Miller masterlist | All character masterlists

#joel miller x reader #joel miller #joel miller fic #joel miller x female reader #joel miller smut #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller x you #joel tlou #joel x reader #no use of y/n #jackson era joel #long hair joel

[i-am-hungry-24-7]

[Ghost crashed into a car before he parked ours] - Mafia!TF141*F!Reader

Summary: You sigh when it's the fifth time someone fights in your poor tea shop this month. You just open it two months ago, in an area ruled by mafia called '141'. Maybe you should find their boss and give them money or what to stop the bullshit keeps happening in your shop. (well, here they come)

Mafia!TF141*F!Reader

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

To your surprise, Kyle, or Gaz – the model-like man introduced himself as – is such a considerate person with a nice sense of humor, at least compared to Soap or Ghost. 

That day you trapped yourself in the predicament with John, he seemed to sense your embarrassment, hence he just handed his boss a backup shirt without making fun of you like his boss, so you have a lot of time for the man. 

Like now, he’s sitting and sharing a plate of biscuits with you, enjoying a tranquil tea time accompanied by the pleasant smell of Earl Grey.

“You don’t have jobs to do today?” You raise your cup and ask, before taking another sip and watch Kyle finish his bite and reply.

 “Ghost’s in charge of dealing with the enemy today.” 

“Ehmm, okay” You refuse to figure out what ‘dealing’ means “What about others?"

"I killed mine yesterday.” 

Okay, you truly don’t mean this, but let’s just end this topic and move on. With a few biscuits down to your stomach, brainwashing yourself to forget what you heard seconds before with the sweetness, and buying you some time to come up with a better subject, you open your mouth again.

“Every time one of you comes here, you just scare all my customers away.”

“Isn’t that better?” 

“I need customers to earn money, Kyle.”

“You have us to pay you.” He points at the badge pasted on your wall. Of course, you’re not the one who put it on, you rather read the military smut out in front of all British than do it, but if you try to take it off, Soap will put a new one back, so in the end you just compromised and let him claim your shop publicly.

“This place isn’t only served for you guys.”

“It isn’t?” 

Is it possible to refute when Kyle flashes you a smile that you almost get blind and start wondering if he can replace himself as your lights and save you the electricity bill? Maybe counting this as one of Kyle’s humor will be better than explaining. All required is to ignore the evil glints in his majestic brown eyes while he questions you.

But even though Kyle said he doesn’t have work today, he doesn’t stay long after he finishes his tea.

“Gotta head back to help the boss.” He grins as he turns the knob and waves you goodbye.

What’s weird is that   after Kyle leaves your shop, customers start flooding back. Many of them are familiars of the shop, as you’re sure they’re 141’s lackeys too.

You remember them see you as one of the henchmen… Although they're not as afraid as when they first visit the shop because of your hospitable attitude, you can still sense the attentiveness in their demeanor.

No matter what, you’re going to figure out what’s  actually  happening.

“Hey, you.” You walk to one of the minions' sides. “Mind to tell me about why you guys always disappear when Gaz or Ghost or others come here?”

“We…” The guy’s eyes avert, shooting his friend a glance for help “It’s just a coincidence.”

“Coincidence?” Raising your eyebrow, you lower your voice to make it  menacing 

“It  really  is, ma’am, nothing to bother with the Sirs.”

“Show me, they must have sent some messages to inform you guys, right? Let me take a look, or I will…” You will what?  Actually,  you have no idea what you can do to these guys that can lift you  up  and throw you into a trash bin like a shot “Wait a second.”

Quickly running back to your kitchen, you come back with your most intimidating weapon – 

“Or I will hit you with my pan!” You wiggle your arm as a threat.

“…” 

They don’t look scared of the pan for a tiny bit. Wait, you should take your kitchen knife instead, who the fuck will pick a pan? You idiot.

yet to your satisfaction, they still fish out their phone and let you have it, and you don’t waste any time as you open the texting app.

‘Announcement: Boss will arrive at the tea shop in 10 minutes, clear the shop immediately.’

So they  really  are scaring your customers off. Give the phone back to the poor guy with pity in your eyes, you bring him a few more biscuits.

You’re strolling through the aisles in the shop. You’re out of flour and sugar, and every Wednesday the groceries are on sale. You never miss these chances to build up savings.

What a nice shopping trip. Quiet, leisure, just enjoying your own time, picking up different brands of cereal and calculating which is cheaper like a competent broken adult. Things never go wrong when you’re alone.

“Hey lass!”

Well, you’re kidding, things go south too quickly. The voice’s too familiar. It must be a hallucination.

“Lass? Bonnie?”

 Don’t look back, keep walking. It’s not the detergent man with a stupid chicken crest yelling at you.

“HEY!” A hand pats you on your shoulder and makes you jump. Sighing internally and prey there won’t be any trouble caused by the man, you turn around and face him.

“Oh, Soap, Hi.” Shit, looks like you just can’t have a break from these men. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Even though the nan outside tells me te shut the fok up?”

“Yes.” you shamelessly admit, pro tip to confront people without shame “Why are you here by the way, Soap?”

“Oh, we’re in need of some things, so Ghost pulled off during our way home.”

You take a glimpse at his basket. A rope, a roll of duct tape, and a knife. 

They must be going on a picnic. Yes, don’t overthink. The rope is for securing the tent, the duct tape is for concealing the holes on it. Knife? they surely will need it when cutting apples.

The image of Ghost slaughtering… peeling apple you mean, with Soap and Gaz playing red light green light and John napping in the tent is so vivid in your mind that you need to restrain the laugh with a clear of your throat before you grunt in affirmation and restart your steps.

With Soap depriving you of your last respite, you choose to grab what you need and head to the counter. All you want is to get home, have a nice shower, and lie on the bed reading the new fic you found last night.

“Do ye need help?” He watches you shove the products in your bag, but 5 huge cartons of milk are too heavy for your weak limbs, you can feel your arms trembling under your attempt.

“It’s okay, my car’s near the door. I can carry this myself.” Again, cheekiness works every time. You don’t care about strangers staring at you struggling with the bag and exit the supermarket in a crab way, as long as it can bring you back into peace faster, and you almost tear up when you see your car, the white of it is like the lighthouse in the atramentous night.

Hey, but you don’t remember your car has a goddamn huge dent at its boot.

“Oh yeah, forgot to tell ye. Ghost crashed into a car before he parked ours, and he’s contemplating whether he should kidnap the driver when they come back and make them shut up, or just kill them.” Soap looks at you stopping in despair as he recognizes what you’re looking at. “So it’s your car aye?”

You don’t answer him, you just watch Ghost materialize from the Shadow beside your car and give you a nod.

Fuck your life.

a/n: ty for reading :D have a nice day/night!

Car -1, Peaceful night -1

tag list :D - @blackhawkfanatic @nexthyperfix @danielle143 @goodbyegh0st @reaperxxxxzz @kaoyamamegami @imyprice @cod-z @poppingaround @live-for-fluff @masterstr0ke @mall0ww

#cod imagine #cod x reader #cod x you #ghost x reader #ghost x you #simon riley x reader #simon riley x you #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #soap x reader #soap x you #john soap mactavish x reader #john soap mactavish x you #kyle gaz garrick x you #kyle gaz garrick x reader #gaz x reader #gaz x you #price x reader #price x you #john price x reader #john price x you #tf141 x reader #tf 141 x reader #tf141 x you

[figsandphiltatos]

share your buddy dawn hcs pretty please..

OKAY, buddy hcs (or at least some of them, i am trying to be so normal you can’t imagine. this guy lives in my head rent free)

a lot of my hcs about buddy also involve his family, just because the family stratification that happens in southern evangelical families is SO fascinating to me.

SO: buddy is a southern grandma’s boy. if you’ve lived in the south you know this guy. his grandma helped raise him, he calls his grandma ‘mimi’ and, to his grandma, he’s essentially the second coming of christ, he can do NO wrong in her eyes. buddy and pamela dawn have the kind of enmeshed relationship that would simply blow your mind

as an addendum to this: buddy dawn calls his grandma ‘mimi’ and his grandpa ‘pawpaw.’ if you are his friend, the whole family will invite you to participate in this naming tradition. this will make you uncomfortable but there’s no way out of it without seeming rude (this is a struggle i know well as a yank living in the south)

on the topic of pamela dawn, i think she’s like such a Matriarch, at least as much as one can be in that kind of misogynistic social system. i think she clings to what power she can grab and is incredibly vindictive (but never direct) about it. i think she was probably just as enmeshed and close with buddy’s dad (think #boymom) and probably HATED buddy’s mom, regardless of how good of a mom/person she was

we don’t know a lot about buddy’s parents, but my vibe is that they’re dead. if they weren’t, it doesn’t make sense to me that they would let bobby and pamela move away with their son (there are other hcs i’ve heard on this topic that are equally interesting, such as buddy’s mom and dad having a different idea of sol/helio worship and being pushed out of the family). my vibe is that they died on a mission trip. this explains why bobby didn’t just revivify them, but it also adds to the themes of legacy and family name that buddy has to contend with. like imagine if your grandpa is The Sol Televangelist Of All Time and your parents were martyred on a mission to the mountains of chaos?? oh the crushing pressure of familial expectations (and helio didn’t even choose you as his chosen one)

buddy’s legal name is robert. this one has no real evidence (in fact i feel like it’s likely that there’s no more to his name, at least canonically, than just buddy), but it makes sense to me that a man like bobby dawn would be obsessed with passing down his name and legacy. so i think it’s likely that his dad was also named robert (maybe called robbie or rob)

OR

buddy’s name is specifically NOT robert, and that’s exactly why he got the nickname buddy. this hc is a bit more convoluted, but here’s the gist: imagine buddy’s mom didn’t name him robert despite all the familial pressure to do so. of course there’s nothing bobby or pamela can really do, but they can give this kid a nickname that’ll stick for the rest of his life. plus, buddy has always seemed like a kind of condescending nickname to me and i think that would piss off his mom even more (which tbf is what i think pamela’s goal would be). but, if buddy’s legal name isn’t robert, i don’t have any super strong contenders for what his legal name would be

(i could get into a whole thing about hcs i have about his parents good god)

i think buddy grew up listening to his grandparents' old records! this means he was raised on old gospel and old country and that’s still the majority of his music taste (it doesn’t help that he’s not allowed access to most tech, especially tech from solace, so the influences he’s pulling from are relatively limited)

this is already. so. long. so i’m going to stop myself now lmao. but thank you for asking!!!!! i ALWAYS have thoughts about this fucking guy so thank you for the ask!!!!!!

#i will. rant about him. always #buddy dawn #fhjy spoilers #just in case? i don't think literally anything i've discussed here is canon lmao #but still #fantasy high junior year #rat grinders

[ghost-orca]

Chapter 3 : Channeling your love

warnings: fluff, PTSD, trauma, future smut I prommy, suggestive shit, snow

Description: You and Joel end up going on patrol together

 Joel’s eyes start to flutter open as the morning sunlight beams through the blinds of the window in the recording room. Looking around, Joel’s notices you're fast asleep with his leg still sprawled across your thighs, your hand clutching his jean covered calf. He watches you like this for a while, the way your chest moves up and down with quiet breaths, the way your eyelashes curl up. You start to mumble in your sleep and Joel listens closely, most of it is incoherent and doesn’t make much sense, until finally in a clearer voice he can hear you say “please, just let me go”. Joel’s forehead scrunches with concern, and he can feel his heart break a little for you, just what have you been through? He thinks to himself. He decides to nudge you, trying to pull you out of whatever nightmare or memory you were in. You open your eyes, taking a deep inhale through your nose, exhaling as you stretch out your arms and neck hearing some of your bones crack as you do. You look at Joel and smile, “Mornin’ sunshine”. Joel’s surprised, despite what he heard you say in your sleep, you seem chipper as ever, ready for the day. You don’t wait for a response, “How’s your foot feeling?” you gesture towards it as you bump your hand tired but playfully on his calf. Joel looks down at it, moving it around and twinkles his toes for a feeling, still a bit sore but nothing he can’t manage. “It’s a helluva lot better than it was last night, you got a strong swing in those arms.” Joel gestures to you as he crosses his arms behind his head, stretching out his body to make himself comfortable. You chuckle at his response “Hmm, well, I’m just glad I didn't permanently break you Joel.” you say as you check the time on your bedside alarm clock and see that it says 6:30. “I gotta start getting ready in thirty minutes” you tell Joel as you begin to yawn. Joel nods, removing his leg off of your thighs and pushes himself up off of the couch “Yeah, should prolly get back before Ellie wakes up” he mentions flustered.  

  You both hear a knock at the front door from downstairs and the door opening, “Hey, it’s me.” You recognize that it’s Maria’s voice, “Can I come up?” she asks. You sigh and pinch your nose, knowing exactly why she’s here. Well at least she isn’t ordering for me only a night before to go on patrol you think to yourself. Maria’s already walked upstairs into your home before you can answer her, and she sees Joel standing next to the couch, his hair ruffled, as you're still sitting on the couch rolling your eyes “Oh, please, by all means make yourself comfortable if you wanna just invite yourself in.” Maria scoffs at you and rolls her eyes as well, “Well I see my brother in law already has. Joel.” Maria remarks at Joel giving him a nod, he doesn’t miss the look of suspicion or distrust in her eyes. “Good morning, Maria. I was just stopping by, I don’t know if you heard but our dear host is letting Ellie take on some of the reins for hosting their show.” Joel tells her avoiding explanation. Maria smirks, “I did! That’s actually a part of why I’m here.” she decides to let go of her suspicions of him for now and looks to you, “One of our patrol guys, Brennan, caught a pretty nasty fever, weather must've gotten to him, so we’re short on forces for tomorrow. I thought with Ellie’s new promotion,” she says the word making finger quotes around it, “you would be the one up for the job. Just one day, I promise.” 

 You groan as you sit up from the couch, “Ellie only started yesterday, she still has a lot to learn before she can start doing everything by herself here.” As you say this Maria shakes her head, “She’ll be fine, Ellie’s a smart girl. Plus we have a deal, remember? Any order I give you, you take it because you are one of the few adults in Jackson that can really handle yourself outside the walls, and I let you keep doing your, thing here” She gestures to your cluttered work space as she says this. You take a long sigh, nodding “I know, Maria, I know but now isn't a good time. Isn’t there anyone else who can do it?” Joel steps in, having listened to the whole conversation “I’d be happy to take it on if that’s okay with you” he offers, Maria turns to him “Well that's real nice of you to offer Joel, but you’ve already been posted for search and guard duty with Tommy tomorrow. Don’t you have a kid you should be looking after right now?” Maria responds sternly. Joel looks at you and then back to Maria “We weren’t finished talking.” Joel matches her sternness in his response. Your breath hitches at this, and you decide to step back into the conversation, “Fucking fine! I’ll do it, ya happy Maria?” She smirks, “Very, you’ll be starting at 6:30 tomorrow morning with Gregory” She responds.

 Fucking Gregory? You think to yourself, you had gone on one date with him years ago, and hooked up a couple times after because it was just something to do for you. He didn’t show any interest in your work, and the sex was…disappointing. You remember Eugene asking you why Gregory was telling everyone you two were officially dating “He’s practically bragging about it Ash '' he'd told you. You decided not to approach the situation to avoid confrontation, but instead broke the news after airing Rumors by Fleetwood Mac on the radio, speaking into your mic “So listen guys, I’ve kinda been seeing someone recently, and I thought it would only be appropriate if I told him how I felt by playing this next song for you guys, Not Fair by Lily Allen. This is for you Gregory. Be sure to listen closely, everyone!” You had slammed the mic back onto your desk as the song began, getting up to dance along in your office without a care in the world. He’d confronted you about it the next day calling you “immature” and “just as lousy a lay” before storming off telling you to “grow and up and go fuck yourself”, and you’d avoided him ever since.  

 Joel notices a look of discomfort on your face, Who the hell is Gregory? He thinks to himself. “Alright, I’ll see you both at posting tomorrow morning.” Maria says before she goes to exit, leaving you and Joel alone again. Joel clears his throat before speaking up, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you back there.” he apologizes. “It's not your fault Joel, really. Maria’s pretty much always on my ass about work. I appreciate you trying to help though.” You respond earnestly. You turn your head towards your alarm clock and see it says 6:50, “I gotta start getting ready for the day, a lot to do, lemme walk you out Joel.” He follows you to the front door, holding it open for his exit, “By the way,” you start “I won’t mention you spending the night here to Ellie, don’t worry.” Joel looks at you and blushes, “Sure- right thanks. She’s young, she might assume…Y’know.” he says while wiping his mustache lightly with his thumb, “Right…Exactly…” You agree sheepishly. Back to being awkward with each other I guess, you think “Could you ask her to come over early when you get back? We’ve got a long day ahead of us, she might wanna pack a bag with her to spend the night here as well.” Joel is nodding his head along with your words as you make your request, “No problem, I’ll just tell her I ran into you and Maria earlier when I get back, M’ sure she’ll be too tired to question it.” You smirk and look down at your shoes in a timid form. “I’ll see you around?” You ask, and Joel smiles back at you, “Definitely.” 

 When Ellie arrives you’ve already showered and changed into a clean set of clothes. You spend the whole day crunching to teach her as much as she could learn in as little time as possible. Ellie feels your stress, knowing you want everything to be right, “Calm down R.Q! I promise you I’m gonna be fine! Let's take a break, please?” You sigh and agree, apologizing for how stern you’ve been. “How about you show me what you’ve picked out for your set list tomorrow?” Ellie shakes her head at you, holding her journal close to her chest. “No way dude, you’re gonna have to wait to hear it until tomorrow. I want it to be a surprise!” Ellie smirks. “You know I won’t be able to listen in when I’m out on patrol tomorrow, Maria doesn’t exactly allow us to carry radio’s around when we’re dealing with infected.” you tell her. Ellie doesn’t let up, “I know, but something tells me you’ll find a way to hear it. I promise you it won’t suck! You can trust me.” You give Ellie a smile and decide to let it go, “Alright, alright, I trust you.” you tell her chuckling and you see Ellie do a fist bump by her side, whispering “Fuck yeah” to herself.

 You decide to give Ellie a thirty minute break from work and she goes to sit down on your couch to write in her journal out of sight from you. When she plops herself down on the couch and opens her journal, she looks up and catches a glimpse of the two used drinking glasses next to a half filled glass bottle of whiskey on your coffee table. She looks in your direction and notices you're staring off into space with a pencil in your hand when you were supposedly writing a list of reminders for Ellie to check off tomorrow, and you're humming along to what's playing on the radio, Come and Get Your Love by Redbone. Ellie squints as she observes you and starts thinking to herself. It dawns on her that Joel was up really early this morning, and she’s usually the one who wakes up before him these past couple weeks since she started working with you, and telling her that he “just so happened” to run into you and Maria this morning. Ellie’s gears are running, there’s no real proof that it is what she thinks it is, but she has a hunch and that's enough for her to make up her mind. Her first thought is ew, really? But then she thinks about the times Joel has lit up whenever she talks about you, his eagerness to greet you whenever he comes over to walk her home at the end of the day, and Ellie starts to smile at the idea of you bringing out a softer side of him. Okay Ellie, I guess it’s time to play cupid for these crazy kids she decides. 

 You’re lost in thought, playing with the pencil in your hand as you remember Joel watching you dance the night before, laying your cheek on your palm as you stare off. “Knock knock” Ellie says as she physically knocks on the office door frame twice and pulls you back to reality. You see her smiling with her arms crossed, “Hey, you have 15 more minutes for your break right? What’s up?” You ask her as you check your watch for the time in case you were spacing out for too long. “I’m feeling pretty hungry, can we get something to eat?” She asks, you smile and nod at her, “Sure, you wanna pick up some sandwiches from Seth?” you ask. Ellie’s face pinches, “I don’t like Seth, he always smells like alcohol and stares at me weird.” You purse your lips and furrow your brows at what she says, “Yeah I don’t like him either, makes a pretty good sandwich though.” You say, “That he does” Ellie agrees. You see her stare at the floor awkwardly assuming she’s not sure how to go about the situation. “Tell you what,” you start, “How about I go pick up sandwiches for the both of us and you can stay here to hold down the fort?” Perfect, Ellie thinks, but plays coy by responding “Oh you don’t have to do that.” “It’s no problem really, besides I haven’t left the apartment yet today and should get some fresh air.” I knew Joel didn’t just run into you this morning Ellie thinks and she smiles “Well, if you insist, thank you R.Q.” she says and you get up giving her a pat on the shoulder as you pass to grab your coat. “I should be back in about 10 minutes, okay Ellie?” “Okay!” she responds and you walk out the door. 

 “Time to search for the perfect song.” She says to herself, going straight to the shelf of your favorite albums. She remembered when she’d asked you about it, 

 “Those my dear are my personal all time favorites.” You had said with a sense of pride. Ellie had skimmed through the collection and didn’t recognize most of them, “I’ve never heard you play any of these on the radio before.” she pointed out. “Good eye, I usually save them for very special occasions.” “What kind of special occasions?” she questioned, and you shrugged, “Dunno, maybe to dance with someone really special.” Ellie took a mental note of this. 

 Now she was currently searching through albums reading out song names on the backs to see if she could remember any specific song you may have mentioned in the past. One particular album sticks out to her, and places the cd in a player, skipping songs that didn't have the right “mood” to them within the first five seconds, and then she hears it, letting the song play out fully “That’s the one” she says. She ejects the album from the cd player putting it back in its case. Walking over to your desk, she pulls out her journal and crosses out one of the songs for later in the day on her list, praying that you’ll hear the song with Joel once it airs tomorrow. 

 Then it occurs to Ellie, Oh shit, how do I even know if they’re gonna be partnered together tomorrow? Ellie hears the front door open and close, “Hey I’m back” you yell up to her. Ellie quickly slams her journal closed and quickly gets up from your desk chair. You place both sandwiches on your kitchen counter and start grabbing plates for the both of you. She walks up from behind you, “Welcome back R.Q…” She says. You  turn to look at her with confusion “‘Welcome back’? Why so formal kiddo, someone die while I was gone?” You question half jokingly, slightly worried something happened. She shakes her head, “I was just wondering, who are you patrolling with tomorrow? Do you know?” She asks you avidly. Now you’re even more confused, but you think maybe she could tell you were stressing over it, you cringe a little at the thought of Gregory. “Just a guy named Gregory, why do you ask?” “It’s nothing, you just seemed kinda stressed about tomorrow and I was curious.”She says. You pout, feeling guilty for supposedly worrying her. You turn to face her, “That’s so sweet of you to worry about me Ellie, but I’ll be fine, I promise.” You see she’s not totally satisfied with your response, “Are you really just worried about me? Or are you nervous about tomorrow? You can tell me.” You cross your arms across your chest and pick your head up, attempting to put on the appearance of the ‘cool adult’ she could confide in. Ellie thinks for a moment as you stand in front of her waiting for a response, “I just realized I need to do something, something really important.” She blurts out finally. You’re taken aback, “Okay, does this ‘something’ have anything to do with hosting tomorrow?” You ask “Yes.” She replies bluntly. You squint at her, “Do you need my help?” you continue questioning her, “No, it’s also really important that I do this by myself.” she replies sounding almost desperate while she bites the inside of her cheek. “Hm.” You simply react as your lips purse in consideration, “How long do you need?” you ask, “Just an hour, tops.” Ellie sounds very sure of herself. You decide to let her do her thing, “Okay, but if you’re even a minute late I will have to tell Joel about it. Plus I will not be thrilled, and you don’t wanna see me when I’m…not thrilled” You tell her trying to hold a sense of authority in your voice, but you’re still giving her the benefit of doubt. Ellie sighs in relief, and gives you a hug as she says “This is gonna be worth it for all of us, trust me.” Your eyebrow raises as you hug her back, “Wait wha-” “Gotta go bye!” You watch her run downstairs “What about lunch?” you yell out, “Not hungry!” she responds, and you find yourself dumbfounded once you’re alone.

 Fifty minutes go by while you’re alone, packing a backpack of supplies for the morning. Once Ellie returns she runs up the stairs to greet you, “Hey Ellie, you get what you needed?” you ask and she nods her head excitedly, giving you a big smile. “You wanna tell what was so important for you to do?” you question, shaking her head and replies “mm-mm” while still smiling. You chuckle and reply, “You are so weird.” You wake up early the next morning at 5:30am, sleeping on your couch so Ellie could take the bed. Two nights in a row on this thing, I’m gonna have back problems before I’m forty you think to yourself. You get dressed in the bathroom after a quick shower, trying to avoid waking Ellie up. You gather your backpack of supplies, double checking you have everything you’d need for the trip. You go into your office and grab a piece of paper to write in large letters ‘You got this Ellie :) Proud of you and remember, HAVE FUN!!!!!’ You place it on your bedside cabinet for her to find before carefully tucking her into the covers. She rummages in her sleep a bit and you make your way to the patrol meeting gate.  

 You’re waiting 30 minutes looking for signs of Gregory with your guns and weaponry ready, It’s not like I wanna be partnered with him either, but he doesn’t need to torture me by making me wait, the sooner we get this done the better you think to yourself impatiently. You feel a finger tap on your shoulder and spin around to meet eyes with Joel. You give him a warm smile and tell him good morning softly, “Hey, so, Tommy just told me we’re partnering up. Says Gregory can’t make it today, musta caught whatever Brennan has.” Joel tells you. You raise your eyebrows in surprise and a sense of relief washes over you. “Who’s Tommy partnering up with?” You ask, Joel shrugs and says “He’ll figure it out”.

 At 9:30am Tommy makes his way to your place letting himself in and calling out Ellie’s name. She’s sitting at your office desk taking notes and looking at the time on her watch to keep on schedule. She turns to look at Tommy, “I shouldn’t have to be the one telling you this, but you shouldn't go getting people sick jus’ so you can play matchmaker kid.” Ellie blinks, “Did you partner them?” She asks on the edge of her seat. Tommy sighs and nods his head, “Yeah, they’re out patrolling together as we speak.” Ellie yells a celebratory “YES!” and thanks Tommy, “Yeah yeah, you owe me one kiddo.” Tommy says and then questions “How’d you do it anyway? Get Gregory sick?” Ellie shrugs, “Spit in his drink when he wasn’t looking at the bar. To be fair he seemed pretty smashed, so that's on him.” Tommy rubs his hands on his face hearing this, “Really hope Joel doesn’t blow it for Gregory’s sake, christ….”

 You follow behind Joel making the rounds to search for any infected or signs of trespassers for a couple of hours, snow begins to fall as the sky grows darker. Joel’s been keeping an eye on you the whole day, making sure you feel safe, but you’ve been nothing but completely focused the whole day, finger steady on your rifle trigger and ready to act when opportunity strikes. He didn’t think you had this kind of side to you, Guess that’s why Maria trusts them on these jobs he realizes. Occasionally you’d watch Joel and come to the same conclusion about him, Always got his head in the game I see, good. The wind starts picking up harshly as time passes, and the snowfall continues growing stronger, quickly covering each other's footprints. “We should get to some shelter for the night, I don’t see this storm letting up anytime soon.” You suggest, “Tommy n’ Maria been saying this winters only gonna get worse. We should hurry.” Joel agrees. 

 You spend thirty minutes walking in the storm before finally approaching some proper shelter that Joel mentioned he’d spent the night in before with another patroller named Hailey. You frown at the thought of this, until he also mentioned that she spent the whole time sulking because she wasn’t partnered with some boy she liked, “Told her she should just tell him how she feels, n’ I saw them dancing at the bar just last week.” He smiles at you, and you smile back “Well look at you, Mr. Matchmaker Miller! Should I tell Maria to start partnering you up with love hungry singles? You could start charging them for counseling.” You teased him making your way up the stairs behind, as he’s shaking his head and chuckling. “Sure, you could be my first official customer.” he says while holding the door open for you to enter, he waves his hand to bow graciously at you “Step into my office why don’t ya?” You start giggling as you enter through the door, Everyone I’ve met in Jackson who’s talked about this man said he was a stern old fucker with a stick up his ass, but he’s really just…a big dork, like Ellie…You realize. 

 You stomp your boots on the ground and take off your bag and jacket to drop them to the floor in the entrance corridor, and peel your boots off to keep snow from making water tracks inside. You walk over to one of the cabinets to search through them. “Whatcha doin?” Joel asks as he’s taking off his jacket, “Lookin’ for goodies” You respond, “Sometimes patrollers leave stuff behind and completely forget they even left it there.” “Ahh okay” Joel says, walking up to a pantry on the wall of the kitchen, you hear him open it up grabbing something and you turn to see him holding a mostly filled tall bottle of alcohol. He looks at you and smiles “You mean somethin’ like this?” You nod and smile back, “Yeah, something like that.” Joel walks closer and points behind you “I also set up a radio in here for future visits, thought it’d be nice to listen to you n’ Ellie if I ever get stuck out here.” You look to see a portable radio set up on a small table next to the couch. Looking back at Joel he’s still smiling at you, “Wanna turn it on and see what Ellie’s up to?” He asks in an earnest soft voice.

 You feel your cheeks burning up, you start thinking about what Joel said about coming to this place only once before, but the place looks well put together compared to other Jackson hideouts, none of the furniture is dusty, and there’s actually a decent supply of stock besides the alcohol. “That story you told me, about only being here with that girl Hailey, was that true?” Joel looks flustered at your question, he clears his throat, “Well that did really happen once, ‘cept it was actually Tommy who helped her out while I just napped on the couch. I liked the place well enough that I kept coming back here to make it my own spot. You’re actually the first person I’ve brought here since I found it with Hailey and Tommy.” Joel swallows before he continues, “I’m sorry I lied to you, I think I was just tryna impress ya.” Joel’s cheeks are flushed red as he rubs the back of his head, looking up to you and back down to the floor awkwardly. You sigh, shaking your head as you watch him, face now completely serious “I just have one question for you, Miller.” Joel looks at you with a shared serious but nervous look on his face, ready to have it from you, and in a completely firm voice you ask “Did Hailey and that guy she liked ever really get together?” Joel’s eyes widen, he chuckles nervously, “Uh yeah, they’re actually really sweet together.” You break the very stern look you're pretending to hold on your face, snorting at Joel’s response, and start laughing. Joel sighs in relief and chuckles with you “God damn you had me real scared there for a moment.” Joel admits, you cover your mouth as you giggle and start apologizing for tricking him “I don’t care if you’re not really a matchmaker Joel, well, maybe a little disappointed but really.” Joel smiles as you continue to giggle at him “Yeah yeah, ya got me.” He admits defeat. You take a deep breath as you wipe away some tears from laughing, “C’mon, let's hear what Ellie’s playing, she told me she wanted to surprise me yesterday and I’ve been dying to hear what she picked out.” you tell Joel “Alright, start ‘er up” he says gesturing to the radio.

 You tune into your channel on the radio and immediately hear Ellie’s voice booming with excitement through the static, “Sure is piling up out there, I guess our dear Radio Queen’s gonna be stuck out in the trenches for the night. That’s okay though! I’m fucking awesome at this job, still, I hope you’re listening R.Q. and staying nice and warm wherever you are.” You place your hand on your cheek and feel pride takeover your heart, I’m so fucking proud of her you think. “And Joel, if you’re listening, take good care of them, and don’t be a hard ass for once, I don’t want you gettin’ me fired' when I’ve only just started! Anywho for those of you just listening, my name is Ellie, and I’m the world's BEST radio host, unless R.Q. is also listening, then I’m second best.” Learn To Fly by Foo Fighters starts playing and you immediately start turning the sound dial down when you recognize it, “Not a fan?” Joel asks, smirking at you. You snort, “I mean, I have copies of some of their albums at my place obviously, but they're not my favorite.” You admit, Joel hands you the bottle and you take it saying “I’m still so proud of Ellie, so I say cheers to that.” and you take a sip, making a face of slight disgust at the taste shaking your head after. “Yeah I’m real proud of her too'' Joel says as he takes the bottle back from you and takes a sip for himself, showing no reaction to the taste, just watching you as he sips and smirks at you. Your heart skips a beat watching him look at you.

 Time passes and the sun has fully set outside of the cabin, you and Joel had lit a bunch of candles around the living room to keep away the dark, making yourselves comfortable. Joel now watches you dance along to Mr. Brightside by The Killers, several more sips of alcohol in both of your systems, using your socks to slide across the hardwood floor as you dance. Joel is sitting on the floor laying his back against the front of the couch, eyes following your every movement as his hand taps against his knee along with the rhythm. He takes another sip from the bottle keeping his eyes on you. You see him sipping while attempting to slide your way over to him, tripping over your toes and landing forward to catch yourself on your hands and knees in the process. Joel almost gets up to check if you’re okay but you start laughing at yourself, rolling onto your back as you do and Joel starts giggling with you as he watches. You roll yourself back over onto your hands and knees and start to crawl his way. Your ass is perked up slightly as you grab the bottle from his hand and stretch your legs out to sit yourself up in an almost split like pose, with one hand that's steadying you placed on the floor. The other is holding the neck of the bottle as you take a large sip, keeping your eyes on Joel the whole time. You wipe your mouth with the back of your hand after placing the bottle on the floor and Joel licks his lips involuntarily, watching you. You smile and flutter your eyelashes at him as the song fades out. 

 Ellie’s voice starts booming through the radio and slight static again, “So you guys! I have the amazing Eugene here with me right now because he wanted to come by and say hi, and I thought it’d be appropriate if he sat with me while I hosted for the remainder of the night. How would you say I’m doin’ so far Eugene?” *A beat passes*, “Y’know Ellie I’d say you are doin’ a fantastic job so far, I guarantee if Ash and Joel are listening’ right now, they’re real proud of you.” “Aw thanks Eugene, I just hope they’re listening!” You giggle and start cheering for Ellie, “We are so proud o’ you girlie.” you slur your words a bit, still holding the same position while pointing your hand at the radio, Joel rests his head against the couch mattress and starts laughing at your cheers. You stop laughing when you hear the next song start to play, Good Dancers by The Sleepy Jackson “Oh my god” You say. Joel looks at you and asks what's wrong, You start to giggle again, “This is one of my absolute favorite songs, Ellie must've gone through my drawer of favorites and wanted to surprise me. I usually save those songs for special occasions.” You tell Joel, and he gets up off of the ground, holding out a hand to you, “Y’wanna dance?” he asks as you're still seated on the floor. You bite your lower lip as you smile and nod, placing your hand in his, and he lifts you up to your feet. He takes your left hand with his right, placing his left hand on your hip, and you place your right up on his shoulder. You begin to dance around the room together as the music plays and you start to giggle as he smiles down at you.

Don’t always dream for what you want

But I love to watch good dancers talk

My heart is stronger than you all

But I love to watch good dancers talk

 You lay your head against Joel’s chest, taking in the smell of him. Whiskey, gunpowder, and pine. You sway together as the music plays, and Joel lifts his hand from your thigh to take your chin into his hand and gently lifts it for you to look into each others eyes. Your sway’s start to slow down, “Can I kiss you?” Joel asks you as you continue swaying, your eyes widen, and you feel so drunk and yet so sobered all of a sudden, taking in a deep breath. “Yes” you whisper, and Joel cups your face with both hands. He lowers his face to yours, whispering “Are you sure?” You look down at his lips and then up to his eyes and nod “Yes Joel” He reaches down connecting his lips with yours, and you lean into his kiss as you close your eyes. His lips feel so soft and gentle against yours and you feel butterflies rise in your belly as you kiss and sway.

Don't always dream for what you want

But I love to watch good dancers talk

(When you think with your mind

You've got a place to go now)

My heart is stronger than you all

(When you think with your mind

You've got a place to go now)

But I love to watch good dancers talk

(When you think with your mind

You've got a place to go now)

 The song slowly fades out and you open your eyes, your lips still connected, the first thing you see is Joel’s gray hair and a memory seeps in. Something awful, something you blocked out a long time ago. Then Ellie’s voice booms out from the radio and you jump away from Joel. “Alright everybody, you’re not gonna believe this but Eugene just told me he once saw The Rolling Stones perform live! Can you tell us more about-” Joel turns the radio dial off as he says “Let’s just- turn this off for now...” He approaches you and goes in for another kiss and you accept, his hands slide down from your back down to the back pockets of your jeans. A memory starts crawling back into your mind and you hear a man's voice belonging to someone you tried hard to forget a long time ago say look at you pretty little thing. You begin to put your hands up against Joel’s chest trying to push him back, and when he doesn't realize, you start to panic “Don't-wait-don’t FUCKING touch me!” you exclaim and Joel backs away from you immediately. He holds his hands up noticing you panting with a wild look in your eyes and tears falling down your face when you try to avoid his eye contact “Whoa- hey, I am so sorry” he says as you look at him remembering where you are. “Are you…okay?” He asks you with genuine concern, and you just stare at Joel like you don’t even recognize him in silence. “I need a minute, sorry.” You say this as you quickly exit the living room and find the nearest room to enter, slamming the door behind you.

 You find yourself in a dark bathroom and light a candle with a matchbox set next to it on the windowsill, noticing your hands are trembling. When you look at yourself in the mirror you see tears have already been streaming down your face, I always suffer in silence, you think to yourself. You start to turn the faucet to run the water for noise but are quickly reminded that the plumbing system doesn’t work here, cursing motherfucker under your breath. Your body is trembling and you’re choking back big sobs that start to overwhelm you. Forming your hand into a fist you bring it to your open mouth and bite down a bit to muffle yourself before you can start screaming. You spend a long time like this in the bathroom, seeing yourself in the mirror you think you look pathetic. I can’t do this with Joel, he reminds me of what happened, and remembering hurts too fucking much you think to yourself. You decide you have to distance yourself from him to protect yourself, as much as you like him, you can’t handle how you think and feel when you look at him now. The guilt of it begins to weigh on you, you don’t want to hurt Joel but you have to.

 Joel spends his time alone in the living room sitting anxiously in silence, shaking his leg the whole time without notice or realization. He replays what happened between you two in his head, did I overstep asking her to kiss me? What just happened? He thinks to himself trying to assess what he could’ve done to offend or make you uncomfortable. Is it my age? I’m old enough to be their father, maybe hearing Ellie’s voice made her realize that and it made them uncomfortable…He can’t stop thinking about it, the moment was so perfect for him, until it wasn’t. I really like them…we’re in big trouble, Joel…

 You finally step out of the bathroom with puffy eyes and bite marks on your hand. Joel stands up as soon as you step into the living room, rubbing the denim covering his thighs up and down to do something with his hands, “Hey, uh, are you alright? Looks like you’ve been crying.” You fold your lips and wipe your cheek in case of any tears he might notice on your face, “Yeah I’m fine, sorry.” you say with no emotion in your voice, extremely straightforward as if you’re still outside on patrol.

Joel notices your total change in tone and grows more concerned for you, “Do you wanna talk…? About what just happened I mean?” You put your hands in your pockets trying to hide how much they’re shaking and purse your lips out as you shake your head no, “Honestly Joel, I think we should just get some sleep, we have a pretty early morning ahead of us.” Joel nods his head in disappointment, “Right.” he replies.

You walk away from him saying “I can take the couch, the beds all yours.” “Okay.” he says back. You can hear a sadness in his voice and feel his eyes on you as you face away from him laying yourself down on the couch. “Alright well, goodnight, and um. Yeah.” Joel ends the conversation and you hear his footsteps further away from you until you hear a final thud against bed springs from afar. You shut your eyes tight and cover your mouth with your hand so he can’t hear you crying again, curling up your body in a fetal position as you quietly cry yourself to sleep. 

#joel miller x reader #tlou #joel miller #troy baker #pedro pascal #the last of us

[sadie-bug345]

could you the gang on a museum school trip please? <333

BYE cause this was requested so fucking long ago i feel so bad😭😭😭anyways im finally answering this amazing request‼️

gang at a museum🤓☝️

ponyboy:

actually pays attention to the exhibits

like bro is probably out here taking notes or smth😭

POINT IS:

pony’s into it and good for him

gets kinda tired of it halfway thru though

by then he doesn’t get whiny but he’ll def drag his feet everywhere the gang goes

not the best team player ngl

will stay at the same exhibit for hours and just think about life (??)

johnny:

just goes along w what the gang wants

i feel like johnnys canonically opinionless when it comes to these not so serious activities

just vibing ngl

splits off w dally and two and they jus make fun of peoples names and achievements

and you can just hear pony from across the room like

“guys stoooop the cotton gin was a very important invention considering-“

and darry just cuts him off💀

sodapop:

he and steve pair off and just wreak havoc i can’t even 😭😭

they race up and down stairwells, spread false info about people featured in exhibits

you name it

they’re the employees worst nightmare😭

but like after 15 mins they get bored asf and just mope around

darry probably sends them to go sit back in the car since they so clearly don’t wanna be there anymore💀

darry:

tries to keep the group in line but let’s be real:

is that even possible😭

eventually gives up after 5 mins of trying

just puts on his little headphones and informational tape thingy and death glares anyone in the group who he senses has made a disturbance

he was standing at one exhibit when he heard a big clatter behind him

confident it was two bit, soda, or worse-dally- he whipped around his head w a nasty look on his face

only for it to be a 7 year old boy who burst out crying cause damn if someone as strong and intimidating as darry looked at me like that, i’d do the same

bro was so fast to get out of there😭😭😭

dally:

yeah he a menace, are we surprised?

in general doesn’t really get a lot of fun w it though

cause he’s just put out about being there in general so it doesn’t leave his little brain a lot of space to come up w genuine mischief

kinda goes along w whatever two wants to do cause he knows two is always down w wrecking stuff

tries to hang out w soda but his upbeat energy left dally SO emotionally drained just hanging around him😭

two-bit:

GOOFY GOOFY

bruh races steve around the museum and they are SO loud

in general it’ll just be quiet and you’ll hear a loud cackle of laughter and you just KNOW two is within a five mile radius of your location

makes jokes about ANYTHING

”man, who names their kid seymour🙄” dally groans at an inventor exhibit as he struggles to find something to complain about at the normal, basic, museum

“why dal, seymour is my middle name! seymour BUTTS” 😀

and dallas is just like 🧍‍♀️

steve:

races two to see who gets through the museum faster

trips over a couch which makes the most ungodly clatter noise

everyone and their mother looks up disapprovingly at steve who’s already booking it to the stairwells💀

istg steve is just the type to spawn and despawn SO fast just in general

youll be walking outside the school and he’ll just be like “HEEEEY what’s goin on huh?” with NO warning lmaoooo

TY SO SO MUCH for requesting i’m sorry it took me so fucking long to write this😔anyways my requests are open and i’ll get to them in about a year, trust🙏

#the outsiders #dallas winston #ponyboy curtis #johnny cade #darry curtis #steve randle #the outsiders sodapop #two bit mathews #matt dillon #sodapop curtis

[slytherinboysappreciation]

Scatterbrained - T. R. x male!Reader

A/N: I finally wrote a part two! It’s unedited and barely proofread so please be nice about it. There’s no use of Y/N. I think I tagged everything, but please let me know if I missed something!!

Gif found on Pinterest here

First part here

CW: Worry; one instance of smacking; excitement; fluff; Tom is so in love; kissing; nonconsensual mind-reading; light teasing; lots of kissing; one instance of pet names; mild descriptions of making out; Tom’s evil plans

1248 words

You were late for your date and Tom was worried.

What if you’d forgotten? What if you’d changed your mind and didn’t want to go anymore?

Even worse, what if your friends had realized his plans and had convinced you he was evil?

Tom worried and panicked as he waited at the bridge to Hogsmeade. Every time a carriage rolled past his head would snap up, quickly searching for your face.

No such luck.

Abraxas Malfoy joins him at the fifteen minute mark. Tiberius Nott wanders over at the thirty minute mark.

They stand on either side of Tom, silent as the minutes tick by.

Finally, Nott speaks. “Maybe he’s not coming.”

Malfoy reaches around Tom to smack Nott’s head. “You idiot! Of course he’s coming. He’s Riddle’s date.”

Tom’s jaw clenches a bit, but he doesn’t say anything. Just watches yet another group of carriages pass.

No you.

He’s trying very hard to not let his hope wilt. Through sheer force of will alone, he refuses to give up.

You will arrive. He’s sure of it.

Nott and Malfoy start bickering, arguing about whether or not you’ll arrive.

Tom thinks about your smile.

He’d helped you dye your hair last night, with a much safer and simpler spell than the one you’d been planning on using.

Your smile when you’d looked in the mirror afterwards had sent butterflies throughout his entire being.

Finally, just as his hope is starting to wilt, he catches a glimpse of familiar color. Your hair.

His heart soars, excitement bubbling in his throat before he catches himself. Since when has he been so excited over you?

He forces himself to remain calm as you approach. You look…

Good. You look good. Really good.

You’re holding a small bouquet of flowers, which you sheepishly give to Tom. “Sorry I’m late… I couldn’t decide on an outfit, and then I missed the carriages so I had to walk.”

Tom studies you. For a moment. A very long moment.

Finally, he clears his throat. “You look good. Great. Handsome.”

He inwardly curses himself. He’s never struggled with words before, so why is he doing so now? He’s never been more grateful for Malfoy and Nott’s sudden disappearances.

You, however, grin; your cheeks pinking slightly. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Tom nods. Then his brain catches up to him. “Don’t worry about being late. I’ll forgive you…”

He pauses, and you give him an adorably hopeful look.

“… for a kiss.”

Your expression is so adorably dumbfounded Tom can’t help but cast Legilimency on you. It’s becoming a bad habit, but he can’t help himself.

You wince and rub your forehead, but your thoughts come clear as day.

He… wants a kiss…?

Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!

Is he flirting with me? He has to be flirting, right?

He must be joking or something. There’s no way he wants a kiss from me.

Tom could’ve spent all day listening to your adorably baffled thoughts, but he has a plan to uphold. So he clears his throat and steps closer. “May I?”

Oh Merlin! Oh Merlin!

Say yes! Say yes! This is your chance!

You give him a shy smile, nodding your head a little. “Sure.”

Tom cups your cheek and leans in. He gently presses his lips to yours in a chaste but intense kiss.

He feels breathless, dizzy, when he pulls back. But it’s nothing compared to the sudden blissful silence in your mind.

There’s only one thought in your head.

He kissed me…

You’re wearing this dumb smile, but Tom finds it cute. He takes your hand and gently pulls you along after him.

You stumble after him, slowly coming back to your senses. Your thoughts trickle back in, gradually filling your mind once more.

He kissed me…

Where is he taking me?

He KISSED me!

He’s holding my hand…

We kissed! On the lips!

Tom breaks the spell with a flick of his wrist. He chuckles softly, tugging you a little closer to him as he guides you along. “You’re quiet today.”

You smile bashfully and give his hand a light squeeze. “Sorry. Just lost in thought.”

“Was the kiss that bad?” Tom teases softly. It feels easier to be around you now. Like he knows what to say and how to say it. It feels… comfortable.

“No, no,” you say hastily. “It wasn’t bad at all! It— It was quite good, in fact.”

Tom grins. He doesn’t consider himself a particularly prideful boy, but every scrap of praise from you sends butterflies through his chest.

“Good,” he says, with only a little smugness. “Come on. We’re almost there.”

Tom takes you to a quiet corner of the Three Broomsticks. You each have a mug of butterbeer, paid for by Tom.

He sits next to you in the booth, taking slow sips of his drink. You happily sip on your mug, watching the people chatter and mingle in the tavern.

“So,” Tom asks, glancing over at you. “How are your classes going?”

You grin and launch into your answer. And Tom?

Tom finds himself unable to look away from your eyes. Your face. Your lips.

Now that he’s kissed you once, all he finds himself wanting is to kiss you again.

Would your lips taste like butterbeer? Would they be just as warm as before?

Tom is so lost to thoughts of you that it takes him a good moment or two to realize you’re trying to get his attention.

“Tom… Tom… Do I have something on my face?”

Your eyebrows are knit, a frown lingering on your lips.

Tom pulls himself from his daze and gives you a charming smile. “I’m sorry, love. I seem to have gotten lost in your eyes for a moment.”

It’s a smooth line, even for him. And he loves the way you react to it.

A flustered expression crosses your face and you start to stammer over your words. “I— You—“

Tom smiles, unable to help himself. He reaches out and tilts your chin to face his. He leans in, softly murmuring, “Let me make up for my absentmindedness.”

Your lips meet, and it’s just as butterfly-inducing as before.

You make a soft sound into the kiss and reach out to pull Tom closer.

You kiss again. And again. And again.

Your kisses get more intense. Less chaste. Longer.

You’re in the middle of what’s basically a full on makeout session when the thumping of a mug on a nearby table startles the two of you apart.

Tom flushes, but his gaze warms when he notices your flustered reaction. You hastily wipe your mouth with the back of your hand, adjusting your shirt and hair.

It’s adorable.

It’s almost enough to make Tom pull you in for another kiss. He thinks about it, and then does it anyway.

The rest of the date goes smoothly.

The two of you finish your butterbeers and chat comfortably for a while.

You two go on a walk around Hogsmeade to enjoy the evening, and maybe to kiss some more. And then you make it just in time to catch the last carriage.

Tom holds your hand during the carriage ride, your fingers entwined.

The smile you give him when he kisses you goodnight sends butterflies throughout his stomach.

The date went perfectly. Just as he’d planned.

All that was left was for him to make you his boyfriend.

Everything was going according to plan, and Tom couldn’t be happier.

#tom riddle #male reader #divider by cafekitsune #tom marvolo riddle #tom riddle x male reader #tom riddle x you #tom riddle x reader

[hornychristianprincess]

NSFW A-Z: WONBIN

a/n: this is just my personal analysis based off my perception and observations of wonbin's personality. all of this is fiction/fantasy

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Immediately after sex, Wonbin wants to be close to you, no matter how sweaty or gross the two of you are. While recovering in bed with you, he’ll be filled with a sort of cocky smugness as he reflects on just how good the sex was. His confidence will be boosted, causing him to be more talkative than usual and say whatever’s been on his mind. Once you’ve both recuperated, he’ll more often than not want to go for another round.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On himself, Wonbin takes a lot of pride in his abs/torso. As a dancer and performer, he works hard to achieve and maintain his physique. I can imagine him having a lot of shirtless pics on his phone.

On his partner, Wonbin is a boob man all day, every day. Regardless of his partner’s size, there’s just something about the softness of them that is comforting to him. Even just feeling them through your shirt during a hug is enough to rile him up.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

I think Wonbin is a little finicky when it comes to any sort of mess so I’d say he prefers to come inside of his partner or in a condom. When he’s finished, there’s ease in being able to either throw the condom away or take a shower with you so you can wash up together.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

We all know Wonbin works really hard to maintain this mysterious, cold image, but with a partner who he feels comfortable with, Wonbin is the biggest softie. When he finds someone he loves – a feat on it’s own since he is such an introvert – they become his entire world. He would do anything to please them. He doesn’t want anyone knowing this because of how it would crack this persona he’s crafted for himself.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Wonbin has been handsome his whole life so I would guess he had no shortage of suitors. However, I don’t see him as the type to just go around slinging dick to everybody. It takes a lot for him to take interest in someone and even longer before he’s comfortable initiating sex. Still, I’d venture to say he has some experience under his belt.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Wonbin is a fan of any position where he can comfortably look into your eyes, so usually missionary or cowgirl is what he goes for. Being able to see your expressions as he pleases you is integral to Wonbin’s own pleasure. He likes to maintain intense, searing eye contact with whoever he’s fucking, and these two positions are what most easily allow for that.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

In the lead-up to sex, Wonbin uses jokes to mask how nervous or excited he is. He hopes that by being playful he’ll come off as cool. Once the sex actually begins though, he is deadly serious and intense. He becomes too focused on either giving or receiving pleasure to find anything funny. It’s similar to how he is when he performs on stage; Wonbin on stage and Wonbin off stage are two different people. Off stage, he can be personable and charming, but once he gets into performance mode, he takes what he’s doing so seriously that he can’t consider anything else.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

Wonbin only bothers to groom himself when he has a partner, otherwise he can’t be bothered. In the beginnings of a relationship, he appreciates it when his partner puts in the effort to shave. But once you’ve been together for a while and built that camaraderie, he couldn’t care less.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

I think Wonbin enjoys receiving intimacy but not giving intimacy if that makes sense. Like he is fully comfortable with saying romantic things to you and watching as it makes you get worked up and emotional. But the moment when you do the same and he starts to get overwhelmed with emotion, he’ll be quick to hide his face in your neck or bite your shoulder to hold back his whines. As I’ve already alluded to, he shies away from anything that would put a crack in his mysterious persona. In other words, emotional vulnerability is difficult for him but he’s more than happy to hold space for and even provoke your own expressions of emotional intimacy.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Wonbin masturbates rarely and mostly as a means to either let off stress or cure boredom. I see him masturbating the most in the shower after a long day of work, allowing his worries to release down the drain. In many ways, I see him as someone who only appreciates masturbation for its basic utility rather than for the pleasure it brings. To him, sex is a pleasure best enjoyed with a partner.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

overstimulation (giving and receiving): Wonbin is turned on by the idea of fucking until you both literally can’t anymore. To do that requires draining each other’s bodies for all of the energy they have. This man likes to go for rounds. And he won’t want to stop until you both can’t move.

marking (giving and receiving): seeing marks on each other’s skin after sex is a pride point for Wonbin. It’s evidence of just how good the sex was. when receiving, Wonbin likes scratches on his back or even a bloody lip after a passionate kiss. When giving, Wonbin likes seeing the fleeting mark of his handprint on your ass after he smacks it, and more longlasting, hickies on every part of your body.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Wonbin doesn’t have any location preference. He is honestly down to fuck you any time, any place. Still, he’s aware that his partner would likely feel most comfortable to let loose in the privacy of a bedroom, so he’s fine with that.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Before sex even comes to mind for him, he is turned on by a person who is a little hard to get. Because he is so used to the attention of potential suitors. It’s easier to get his attention by not trying to pursue him at all, at least initially. Additionally, he is attracted to unique people with lots of confidence in themselves and their interests. 

What motivates him sexually is feeling a strong level of trust with his partner. What also motivates him is his desire to please. I think Wonbin sometimes has thoughts of not being enough for a person. He sees sex as being the thing that could make someone stay if they feel like he’s lacking in other places. When he fucks, he makes the pleasure of his partner his biggest priority. He is turned on by their reactions and praise. In many ways, he sees praise of his sexual abilities as an affirmation of his personhood. Sex is one of his ways of expressing his love. Whenever he feels a strong surge of love for you romantically, it will immediately translate to him wanting to fuck you.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He’s turned off by someone who makes him feel even slightly judged for who he is as a person. I mentioned earlier that he likes people who play hard to get, but once you get past those initial meetings that define the beginning of the relationship, he has little tolerance for indifference. He wants his partner to be just as into him as he is into them.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Wonbin loves both giving and receiving head. As mentioned in my last answer, Wonbin is a huge giver. What turns him on about giving head is seeing his partner’s satisfied expressions and knowing that he possesses the power to make them feel euphoric in this way. And being the man he is, he loves to receive head. He finds you sexiest when you’re salivating over his dick, begging to have it in your mouth even after you’ve already made him come so many times this way before.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

By and large, I think his pace is dependent on whatever his partner asks of him at that moment or whatever he thinks is gonna feel the best for you. Usually he’ll start out slow just to get a feel for the rhythm of things, but he’ll have his moments where the sex starts to feel so good that he’ll get overwhelmed and start rutting into you roughly.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Quickies aren’t Wonbin’s favorite way to fuck, but he’s also not at all opposed to them. It’s not something that happens often, especially because he likes to carve out substantial time with you so that he’s not having to rush intimacy. Still, in moments where you only have a few moments to yourselves, he’d rather have you for a short time than not at all.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

There is nothing inherently satisfying about taking risks for Wonbin. Rather, he can become so turned on by his partner that his desire outweighs any fear. If you and Wonbin are in public and he finds himself enthralled by you in some way, he has no problem with pulling you aside and having his way with you, or even playing with you under the table during a public dinner. The risk of getting caught is irrelevant if not meaningless to him. Were he ever to get caught, he would be quick to shut down any teasing or outside conversation. He prefers to keep the private life of himself and his partner out of the conversations of others.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – rounds rounds rounds rounds. In each round, Wonbin’s first priority is to make you come, and with that in mind, he is able to hold back on his own orgasm for however long he needs to. After each round, he does need some time to recuperate, but once he’s good, he’ll be ready and needy for more. On a perfect day with Wonbin you’ll fuck, watch a movie, get bored and fuck again, get some food, fuck, and just keep going in that pattern until you collapse in bed tiredly by the end of the day. Once he’s done though, he’s done. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Wonbin is open to both using toys and having toys used on him. While he’s fucking you, I could see him reaching over to a bedside drawer, grabbing a vibrator and using it to stimulate your clit while he gives you long, deep thrusts. Conversely, if you were to incorporate a vibrator or cock ring while giving him head, he might just cry like a baby. All in all, anything that can be used to enhance both of your pleasures’ is a win for him. 

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Wonbin is only a tease outside of the bedroom. Inside it, he gets right to the point and doesn’t have the patience to delay anything by teasing you. His focus is on making the both of you feel good. To him, pleasure is a feeling best enjoyed when instantaneous rather than to be delayed by pointless lollygagging.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Wonbin only allows groans and grunts to come out when he feels like they sound dignified and gruff. The moment a whine threatens to come out, he’s quick to bite your shoulder to hold it back. If a means of hiding his whines isn’t immediately accessible, he’ll just look and sound really pained as he fights to hold back what he’s feeling. He always wants to appear composed and in control of his reactions.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

“I love you,” he’d say, a breezy tiredness to his voice as he fucked you for what felt like the tenth time that night. “So, so much.”

These were the sort of inclinations Wonbin would get every time he was inside you. The soft, sentimental part of him is something you only got to see, something you managed to bring out of him so easily with the pleasure of your sex. The closer he got to coming, the rougher and more restless he come feel himself being. He pinned your wrists against the bed, eyes never leaving yours as his thrusts increased in impact.

“You’re mine forever, Y/N. No one can fuck you as good as I do. You belong to me,” he’d growl, each thrust punctuated by a kiss from his signature star shaped necklace, hanging from his neck and dragging up your face. You were close, and he could tell, the feeling of you clenching around him plus the telltale shutting of your eyes giving it away. Longing to be close to you in these moments, his face collapses onto yours as he initiates a languid, messy kiss.

“Come for me. Wet me,” he’d pull away to command. “Wanna feel you drip down my cock, pretty girl.” Those were the last words you were able to register before you were launched into the most powerful orgasm of your life, Wonbin following after you with a poorly suppressed whine only shortly after.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

I don’t have any strong inclinations either way. I just know that whatever he lacks in the sack he more than makes up for in other areas. Whatever his size is, it gives him no reason to not feel confident in his sexual abilities.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

I’d say his sex drive is pretty average. Sex with him is pretty physically demanding so it often happens that you fuck 1-3 times a week with a day or two between each time. 

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Once he’s gotten all the rounds out of his system, his energy is completely depleted. He’ll sleep like a baby.

#wonbin smut #park wonbin #wonbin #riize smut #riize #riize fluff #riize angst #wonbin fluff #wonbin angst #wonbin riize smut #wonbin riize fics #partk wonbin smut #park wonbin fluff #park wonbin angst #wonbin riize angst #wonbin riize fluff

[hiorintruther]

An Updated ‘Reasons Why I Ship Hiorin’ — Because It’s Been Ages Since I Made The First One And I’ve Had More Thoughts (and we got more moments!)

Aka: can you tell this ship makes me mentally unwell?

Hi again! It’s been a while. I did make one of these long posts a while back outlining why I choose to ship hiorin even though they’ve barely interacted and on the surface don’t look like they’d make sense at all. Since then, hiorin has gained quite a few shippers in the fandom and I keep thinking about my boys, especially with the Bastard Munchen vs PXG game FINALLY giving us some new moments. Unsurprisingly, ever since making the first post I’ve also had a lot more ideas about the dynamic, it’s potential, some more connections between them that I never touched on before, etc… and rather than editing the other post I thought it would be easier to just make a new one.

Some stuff I go over here might be familiar from the first post. I want this to be a kind of hub for any and all of my hiorin interpretations, analysis, trivia, headcanons, ‘theories’ (which I don’t think will be canon but the narrative potential for them is through the roof) and anything else I think is relevant to the ship. Feel free to jump around and read whatever is most interesting for you. Hiorin is a ship that, for me, is built on mountains of untapped potential. I just want to bring that potential to light all in one place.

Note: for this post I’ll only use information that has been written by Kaneshiro, drawn by Nomura or Sanomiya, or has otherwise been green-lit by Kaneshiro as canon. Merch collabs, voice actor QnAs, the PWC game etc… for me do not count as canon and I won’t use them. Also, the 10-image limit is biting my ass so my formatting for certain bits might be a bit all over the place. Apologies.

So without further ado. Let’s start! Enjoy the yap sesh!

Part 1 — The Manga Canon

Hiorin get their (very sparse and brief) interactions mostly from the Third Selection Arc (chapters 87-108) and the U20 arc (chapters 109-151). We recently got some new moments in the BM vs PXG match (chapters 250-present).

First off, the tryouts. It’s implied here that Hiori and Rin have never met, as Hiori notices Isagi’s response to Rin and asks if Isagi knows who Rin is. Rin also doesn’t acknowledge Hiori in any way here, so we can presume they’re strangers (although some shippers like to headcanon that they met during the first selection).

That being said during the match, after Isagi has been thoroughly shut down by Karasu, Rin turns his attention to Hiori as a teammate to help him get the ball up the field. Rin has never seen Hiori play before (as far as we know). They’ve never even talked. They’re barely getting familiar with each other’s play styles. And yet, they immediately link up to form a clean, deadly back and forth that optimises Rin’s play style. In fact, this duo helped Rin score 1 goal, and it would have helped Rin score 2 had Shidou not rudely interrupted the second.

It was so deadly that Otoya had to intervene specifically to break them up, so that they could no longer continue their one-two passes up the field and threaten to go for another goal. (Also notice in this page below how as soon as the kickoff happened, Hiori was already running into position in the background. He understands what Rin wants to do).

Not only did Hiori and Rin naturally form a link-up, but Hiori was also fully capable of keeping up with Rin, something Nanase admitted he struggled with during this match and even Isagi was struggling with as well, since later on we see Isagi fail to intercept one of Hiori’s passes due to not being able to reach it in time (which presumably Rin would have been able to were he in Isagi’s position). So, from what we see of Hiori and Rin in this match, they’re on a similar wavelength in terms of skills, field vision and gameplay, and are naturally able to link up even as strangers. I’ll note here that neither of them were playing at full power — Hiori was playing on 0 motivation, and Rin was still utilising his Puppeteer play style instead of his Destroyer. More on this later in the ‘Headcanons’ section.

After the Tryouts, we next see them interact in the U20 match. We start with a brief callback to their tryouts link up in chapter 132, where Rin passes to Hiori. Hiori is acting as a relay between Isagi and Rin, which in my opinion would be a good way to utilise him in the current manga after the NEL. Whether or not that’s how Kaneshiro chooses to use him in the future is anyone’s guess though.

The next big moment comes in chapter 140, after Shidou has kicked Rin in the face and the game has briefly paused. I think this is by far the most ‘iconic’ hiorin moment. While Isagi is analysing the previous gameplay and Karasu is arguing with the ref, it’s Hiori who is the only one to actually go and check on Rin. Even Bachira and Reo were right next to Rin and neither of them were the ones going up to him. Hiori was further down the field but he was the one who moved to help Rin first. Not only is he gentle with and worried for Rin, but by some miracle Rin actually accepts his help! It feels almost out of character given how angry Rin is for the rest of the match, but for this very brief moment he lets Hiori help him up and reassures him that he’s ‘totally fine’ (yeah sure buddy…).

For many this is the main ‘ooooooh’ moment with hiorin. But what if I told you it actually happens a second time this match? After Aiku goes rogue in chapter 142 and tries to score a goal, Rin ends up slide-tackling him to prevent it. And once again, if you look in the background of the panels following the interception in chapter 143, who is it helping Rin stand? It’s Hiori. And this time they actually hold hands!

The final hiorin moment in the U20 match come soon after this in chapter 144, when Rin is about to enter his Destroyer mode. When Rin enters Destroyer mode, Hiori is in possession of the ball and so Rin steals it from him in a completely unpredictable move that had everyone stunned.

The U20 match moments, for many of us hiorin shippers, felt like the last time we’d ever see them properly interact. I at least had zero hopes for PXG. But oh boy was I wrong! Kaneshiro might not realise the dynamic he’s setting up with this duo but I’m gonna milk every interaction for what it’s worth! And so with that, I’ll bring you to the BM vs PXG match (note: currently still ongoing, so I might have to update this section soon). Since the U20 match, we’ve had some changes. The biggest one is Hiori’s personality. After going through his arc in Ubers, Hiori has become more outspoken and confident, playing into his ‘Ultra-Sadist’ style and being more than happy to speak his mind. He’s more argumentative and can whip up a good piece of trash talk (my gamer boy fr!). We see this on full display in chapter 251 when he completely shuts down Rin’s goal opportunity because Rin was too focussed on Isagi to see the bigger picture of the match. He turns around, points at Rin, and tells him “if ya want a goal… come at me with an unpredictable script!”

Notice here how he isn’t simply putting Rin down for not being able to score. Hiori may be taunting Rin, but he does still technically give Rin helpful advice. In a previous panel he explains how he was able to read Rin because Rin was too focussed on Isagi, and in combination with Hiori’s ‘unpredictable script’ line it forms some rather blunt and rude but nevertheless useful advice. Hiori is telling Rin exactly how to get past him and what Rin needs to do to improve. Notice the focus on unpredictability. This is veering into headcanon territory, but I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to think that perhaps Hiori is thinking about Rin’s unpredictable Destroyer mode. He experienced it first hand when Rin stole the ball from him in the U20 match. He knows what Rin is truly capable of. To Hiori, that version of Rin is a reasonable expectation (and I’ll get to their relationship with ‘expectations’ later) that would be the perfect key to getting through BM’s defence. But Rin isn’t showing that off because his obsession with defeating Isagi over scoring goals is hurting his performance. Hiori’s advice is reasonable and maybe Rin should listen to it.

As of right now, the final moment we have of them together is from chapter 259, where Hiori is aided by Raichi to block Rin in a 2-person press, causing Rin to lose the ball. From a purely indulgent shipping perspective, notice how Hiori and Rin’s legs are touching, their hands are on each other’s chests and they’re looking at each other. Raichi is just there lol.

This may be it for their canon interactions, however it’s far from all the canon information we have about them that’s interesting for the dynamic. A big part of the hiorin ship is about looking at their individual information and drawing together similarities and/or parallels. While on the surface they seem very different, almost opposites, digging a little deeper reveals a lot of small coincidences about them that build up to make you realise that they’re a lot more similar than you might initially think.

Part 2 — Where Hiori and Rin Align

Analytical players. Both of them have a deeply analytical play style that utilises field vision and high levels of technical skills. They don’t rely on brute strength or pure intimidation to get through the opponents’ defence, rather they analyse, play with and overcome their opponents with strategy and out-play their opponents with sheer levels of skill. This similarity is likely what led to them to be able to so easily link up when they first met.

Sadism. Both are known sadists. Rin’s Destroyer mode is particularly sadistic but in general he revels in being at the top with others under him. He’s open with his insults and destroys chaotically, looking for breaks in his opponents’ defence and completely tearing them down until there’s no hope of his opponents winning. Hiori is a self-proclaimed “ultra-sadist” (personally I think he’s more a sado-masochist but we’re sticking to canon only here). After his arc, he enjoys watching his opponents scramble to try and keep up with him only to be destroyed by his top-tier plays, especially in a ‘best play’ scenario with his chosen striker of the moment. He’s also not loyal to any one striker and will leave them behind if they’re not playing up to his standards or goal vision. Hiori’s sadism also manifests as him teasing his friends, as we see in chapter 241 when he jokingly teases Isagi for getting shipped with Kaiser by BLTV fans.

Sae connections. Rin is Sae’s younger brother and was abandoned by Sae after Sae returned home from Spain. He says he hates his brother after the U20 match, when Sae noticed Isagi over Rin, and now Rin is playing for the sake of crushing Sae (more on this later). Hiori also has connections to Sae though. He’s been compared to Sae twice in-universe, once by Sendou in chapter 129 who said his passes had the same level of skill as Sae’s, and once by Yukimiya in chapter 241 who thinks Hiori’s ultra-sadist mindset is similar to Sae’s.

They’re both gamers. Obviously we know Hiori is one. That’s been a big part of his character ever since we first met him. However, Rin also plays video games, specifically horror games. We get this info from both the Egoist Bible and his prequel light novel, where it explains that he plays horror games to de-stress at night: (chapter 2) “… even games, should be chilling and scary. Playing horror games alone at night is quite thrilling”.

Horror, gore and zombies. As well as playing horror games to de-stress, it’s explained in the Egoist Bible and Rin’s light novel that he watches horror movies for the same reason: (chapter 2) “When he’s done, he watches a horror movie and then goes to bed. This is his daily routine. For some reason, since Sae has been gone, he only watches horror movies. Movies, videos …”. The light novel slightly expands on this to specify he enjoys splatter films, as well as showing an illustration of him watching rather a gory zombie movie: (chapter 4) “Lately, he's been into splatter films. The one where a killer comes out with an electric saw and a big-ass ax, then blood splatters all over the place. The one where a killer chases you no matter how hard you try to escape, and if you get caught, you end up being dismembered. His heart is pounding, but he’s not the type to show on his face, so Rin watching the slaughter scene without any expression on his face is much more horrifying”. Likewise, Hiori is shown in chapter 206 playing a zombie shooter in which he imagines the zombies being his parents and he violently kills them. We see his inner monologue of this in his prequel light novel, showing the depths of how much he wants them to suffer: (chapter 6) “Before he knew it, in his imagination, his parents became zombies. His father and mother are coming towards him, laughing. He shoots without hesitation. Bang! Headshot. The bullet that entered the father's jaw blew off the back of his head. Bang! Bang! His mother's eyeballs pop out and there's a hole in her chest. He aims for vital spots with rapid fire, but they don't fall easily because they're zombies”.

Solitude. They’re both introverts according to their MBTIs. Rin is ranked as the most anti-social member of Blue Lock in the Egoist Bible. He says he “doesn’t have time for lukewarm conversations” (although I do think on some level he longs for approval and love from someone, given how much he craves his brother’s attention). He is also one of the only characters who genuinely has no friends in Blue Lock. He tolerated Bachira for a time and trained Nanase begrudgingly, but no one is very close with him at all. Now, at a glance Hiori might seem far more social. He has a lot of friends and seems to enjoy hanging out with them. However, in a Twitter qna (which tend to have questions compiled for the Egoist Bible but alas Hiori doesn’t have a page) it was revealed that his ideal type in a romantic partner is “someone who can leave me alone”. The wording he used — 放置し合えるん — seems to imply a reciprocal nature of this ‘leaving alone’, ie ‘you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone’. Now tell me that arrangement wouldn’t work perfectly for Rin. Hiori is also shown in chapter 172 (pre-character arc) spending time alone in the BM dorms while others are out training. While Hiori can enjoy socialising, he also needs plenty of time to himself to the point where it becomes a deal-breaker in a relationship for him.

Ochazuke (tea on rice). Rin’s favourite food according to the Egoist Bible is ochazuke, specifically taichazuke. In the new Episode Rin extra chapter we also see him going to enjoy some taichazuke at a traditional restaurant because he was hungry for ochazuke. When Hiori was asked in another Twitter qna what his favourite accompaniment for rice is, he replied that it was the ochazuke brand Nagatanien.

Stripes. Rin’s casual outfits for both the Shibuya collab (designed by Nomura) and Episode Rin feature a striped/ribbed pattern. Likewise, Hiori’s casual pyjamas, childhood design and one of Nomura’s coaster designs all feature him wearing striped clothing.

Eyelashes. Both of them have long under lashes. That’s kinda it for this one lol.

Name kanji (yes, I’m in this deep). In Rin’s surname, the kanji 糸 means ‘thread/yarn’. In Hiori’s surname, the kanji 織 means ‘weaver’. Both of them have kanji relating to weaving, likely in relation to both Rin’s Puppeteer play style (and Sae’s insane control of the midfield), and Hiori’s way of ‘weaving’ together a best play through his skills (and his parents ‘weaving’ his life for him rather than letting him control it himself). To get poetic about it, you could say Hiori is the weaver who knows how best to utilise Rin’s threads and can guarantee their shared goal vision will be woven into place. To get even more conspiracy theorist-y, when Charles meets Hiori he calls Hiori “水色お兄さん” — literally ‘water-coloured big brother’, likely in relation to his hair colour because 水色 can also mean ‘cyan’. To keep it on the topic of water though, whose aura is made of water? That’s right. Rin’s! (yes I know this is really grasping at straws but I did say this post was for EVERYTHING hiorin soooo).

Part 3 — Family Relationships: Love, Expectations and Abandonment

Rin and Hiori both have relationships with particular members of their family that are similar and also unique among the rest of the cast. For Rin, it’s his relationship with Sae. For Hiori, it’s his relationship with his parents.

To begin with Hiori, his parents only wanted a child who could fulfil their dream of being number 1. They held this expectation of him throughout his whole life, pretending to genuinely care about and love him when in reality all they wanted was for him to be the best. If he tried to step out of line, they’d become monstrous, as seen in Hiori’s light novel: (chapter 2) “Can I take a day off from soccer tomorrow and go play with my friends?” As soon as he said this, the smiles disappeared from his parents’ faces. His mother looked very surprised, and then she made the scariest face he's ever seen. “......!” He doesn’t remember what she said. He just remembers that he was scolded terribly. After that, he was hugged tightly. “Hiori, you are born to be the best at soccer.” “You can play with other kids anytime you want.” “But if you don’t do soccer properly from now on, you will never be the best.” His mother was desperate. His father was behind her, looking sadly at Hiori. “Please, Hiori, trust us and play soccer.” Hiori felt that he had done something very wrong. … What should I do? I said something bad. I'm sorry. The air was stifling, as if he had been locked in a room full of needles. He felt like he would get hurt if he moved, so all Hiori could do was nod.” We also see the extent of this in chapter 206, when Hiori overhears his parents threatening to get a divorce if he isn’t the best. This makes him realise that if he doesn’t fulfil their expectations, he’ll be abandoned by them.

With Rin, it’s a bit more complicated. His relationship with his older brother Sae is still pretty up in the air as to what really happened from Sae’s perspective. We need to distinguish between what actually happened (which is difficult to determine as of right now) and what Rin interpreted as happening. From his perspective, Sae pretended to love him while they were growing up, only using him as a stepping stone to get to the world stage. After that had been achieved, Rin was abandoned (as seen in his inner monologue in chapter 125). While it’s difficult to discern, on a broad scale we could argue that instead of this, Sae has a particular expectation of Rin that currently Rin is failing to meet, and as a result Sae sees this abandonment as somehow ‘necessary’ to get Rin to evolve… or he really has abandoned Rin and is just an asshole, but I hope towards the former. This is where I cry on deaf ears for a Sae light novel or spin-off chapter, anything to get his side of the story. My current interpretation of canon is that Sae still loves Rin, however he knows that Rin’s desire to be the world’s best as a duo is impossible, and his way of trying to ween Rin off such a dream was to sever their relationship. No matter what really happened though, I’m more interested in what Rin interpreted and took away from being abandoned, which is an interesting mix of hatred and confusion but also still a desire for recognition.

This to me reads as very similar to what Hiori’s relationship with his parents used to be. He hated them. He wished death upon them. And yet he kept fighting for what they wanted, fulfilling their expectations because he was so afraid that if he didn’t, all the blame would be placed on him for their family falling apart and his parents abandoning him. Rin’s situation is sort of a dark mirror to Hiori’s where instead of just fearing that abandonment, Rin was abandoned, with all the blame being placed on him by Sae. And yet, deep down, he’s still fighting for Sae’s approval and love again, trying to find any way he can to fulfil Sae’s expectations. We see this in the way Rin has chosen Isagi to be his rival, not because of anything in particular that Isagi has done, but because Sae acknowledged Isagi over him. We see his desire for love in the way he travelled to Tokyo in the Episode Rin extra chapter to possibly watch Sae’s match, even though they’d already fallen out by that point. Rin and Hiori both strove for love from their families, it’s just that Hiori has now managed to break free from this mindset and fight only for himself, meanwhile Rin is still clinging to the memory of Sae no matter how much he wants to crush Sae for abandoning him.

This complicated relationship the two of them have with love, expectations and abandonment in relation to family members is what draws me to a lot of hiorin headcanon material. Rin is cold, antisocial and ruthless, and yet Hiori potentially has the capacity to understand his pain more than anyone else. This is especially true now that Hiori has broken free of his parents’ expectations. It gives him the freedom to look at these situations more objectively while retaining an understanding of their emotional core. He knows how difficult it is to both hate your family but strive for their approval, perhaps fruitlessly. And likewise, Rin might be able to actually learn something from how Hiori overcame his situation by going all-in with the egoist mindset, playing only for himself, completely discarding his family members’ expectations.

Part 4 — Headcanons Part 1: The Hiorin Potential For A Joint Arc (which yes I know won’t happen. Let me dream)

Anything from this point on is pure headcanon, taking into account all the canon information listed in the previous sections. This is NOT ‘speculation’. I genuinely don’t think any of this will be canon or else Kaneshiro would have started calling attention to it by now in the main manga. However by the end of this I’m sure some of you will join me in wishing it could be canon, because even if Kaneshiro hasn’t consciously laid the groundwork for Rin and Hiori to have a joint arc together, he has done so by accident and all the pieces are in place.

The bulk of this section revolves around Rin’s Destroyer mode and Hiori’s ultra-sadism, as well as the ‘best-play’ scenario theorised by Isagi and Hiori in the recent PXG chapters. Basically, I think that a ‘best-play’ chemical reaction between ultra-sadist Hiori and Destroyer Rin would be both broken as fuck and would be a great way to showcase Rin’s character development as he learns to break away from wanting to crush Isagi and Sae.

In Rin’s light novel, we learn that as a child playing alongside Sae as a duo, Rin didn’t have the Puppeteer play style he’s known for in the main series. Instead, he was fully zoned in on himself and the game, moving on instinct, looking for the perfect spot to break through the enemy’s defence, trusting fully that he’d receive Sae’s pass (chapter 1): ‘“Rin, what are you thinking about when you play soccer?” Rin scored two goals in today’s match. Meanwhile, Sae scored three points with a hat trick. His Nii-chan is great after all. “Hm? Nothing. I guess it's just about goals. I just run to the bad area and then Nii-chan passes to me.” “What do you mean by bad area?” Sae asks, while playing with the stick in his mouth. “Hm. The area where the enemy panics and falls through.” The area the enemy falls through. Sae let his younger brother's words quietly seep into his mind. “You rely too much on your intuition, you know.” “But Nii-chan always passes to me, so why not? Nobody else is good enough for me.” That’s why it’s okay to move on impulse without thinking. “......What will you do when I’m not around?” “I don’t know but, I guess I’ll look for a replacement.” Rin says nonchalantly.’

This method of running ‘to the area where the enemy panics and falls through’ seems to be alluding to Rin’s Destroyer mode — the version of Rin we see in the final moments of the U20 match after he loses control and goes on a destructive rampage. Indeed, in chapter 152 we also see Rin wondering what this side of him is truly capable of and how he wants to try harnessing it more, but he still only wants to use it to destroy Isagi and Sae rather than playing for himself. His Puppeteer is not his original play style, instead it’s one he developed after Sae left in order to appease his teammates and be a able to carry his team to victory by himself (chapter 3); ‘Even in a high-level club team, no one could handle Rin’s moves’, (chapter 4): ‘Without Sae's passes, he can't play the way he wants to play’, (chapter 5): ‘Rin erases his best image and then captures the whole picture. In his head, he sees the movements of all the players, as if filmed from a drone’, (chapter 5): ‘No one understands Rin's frustration. But they can win, so that's fine. It's as if there are marionette strings attached to his teammates, controlling and moving the team…… That is Rin's new weapon. It is a play that can only be made with Rin's combination of technical, physical, and tactical skills. It has also led him to bring out the best in his teammates’. It was only in the U20 match that the Destroyer was able to come out again after it had been sealed away for so long. It was a completely different way of playing that was more primal and natural for Rin but less controlled and more clumsy due to his lack of practice using it. Still, its pure destructive power was insane enough to almost score.

In the current chapters of the manga, we know that Rin has gotten a certain better grasp of the Destroyer since the start of the NEL. In chapter 239 (immediately after Hiori says he’ll happily drop Isagi for someone else should they come along, mind you) we see Rin utilising a seemingly toned down version of the Destroyer against Nagi in the PXG vs MC match. Clearly he has been trying to improve it since first letting it loose again during the U20 match. However, so far in PXG vs BM we haven’t seen it at all. Given Hiori’s comment about focussing on Isagi and predictability, as well as Isagi and Hiori’s theory of ‘ego types’ and a ‘best play’ scenario, it appears as though Rin’s biggest problem is that he’s using a world-type ego to show off his skills to Isagi (and therefore, by extension, to Sae as well). This is the ego type suited for the Puppeteer, one that utilises teammates and was created for the sake of appeasing others. The Destroyer on the other hand seems far better suited to a ‘self-type’ ego because Rin accesses it when in a state of mind that ignores Isagi, ignores Sae and hyper-zones in on himself and his own ability to score a goal. This would mean that Rin’s ‘true’ ego is a ‘self-type’ but he is hindering himself by using a ‘world-type’ to try and prove something to Isagi and Sae.

Now, undoubtably we’ll see the Destroyer at some point in this match, and I really hope when it comes out we see it decimate Hiori. Since Hiori flat out told Rin to come at him with ‘an unpredictable script’, the Destroyer can be the ‘unpredictable script’ that blows Hiori away. And I think that would catch Hiori’s attention. Remember, his resolve in chapter 239 is to create the greatest striker, and his ultra-sadism means he’s more than happy to drop Isagi for someone he thinks is better. So, no matter what the outcome of the match is, I think Rin’s Destroyer should pique Hiori’s interest as a potential best striker candidate. This is especially so when you remember that Hiori has technically already experienced Rin’s Destroyer first hand in the U20 match, when Rin stole the ball from Hiori (interesting side note here: Hiori’s immediate thoughts before the ball was stolen from him were him struggling to figure out who he should pass to, Barou or Nagi. He thought ‘which one of you?’ but didn’t pass, in my eyes because he couldn’t envision the play working with either of them, and then immediately Rin stole the ball. Rin unknowingly answered the question Hiori was asking in those crucial seconds).

In the next arc (a U20 World Cup training mini-arc I’d presume), I’d have Hiori and Rin slowly start to come to an understanding. I think Hiori’s ultra-sadism would be incredibly useful in helping draw the Destroyer out of Rin because Hiori only passes to the best spot on the field. He doesn’t alter his level of play for the sake of his striker. So, if Rin is in a mindset where he’s too focussed on proving Sae wrong, crushing Sae and defeating Isagi, then his plays become affected and Hiori simply won’t pass to him, likely passing to Isagi instead. This creates a bottle-neck where Rin has to evolve his mindset, discarding the ‘world-type’ ego of the Puppeteer (which is still useful in some cases, but not here) and instead fully embrace the Destroyer. If he can get into that mindset, only focussing on himself and not Isagi, Sae or even the other players around him, zoning in on just the goal ahead, he is guaranteed to be rewarded by receiving Hiori’s perfect pass to the ideal spot where the enemy ‘breaks’. It mirrors how Sae used to pass to him in their childhood (remembering Hiori has been compared to Sae in terms of both skill and mindset), except now Rin isn’t thinking that he’s part of a permanent duo, rather he alone is the star and he can trust his midfielder to aid him and match goal-visions without the need for the Puppeteer.

The key word here is trust. Rin and Hiori would have to develop a level of trust. Hiori has to trust that Rin will embody the Destroyer, and Rin has to trust that Hiori will side with him. It’s why Hiori has currently been able to work so well with Isagi. Their goal visions aligned and they placed the utmost trust in each other to perform at their individual bests, thus leading to Isagi scoring successful goals. For me, if Rin could also reach this state, it would be a showcase of the culmination of his development as he breaks free of Sae and learns how to play fully for himself. It would simultaneously be a return to his childhood, where he was able to freely utilise the Destroyer without worrying about the rest of the team, while also showing his evolution because he no longer places that trust onto just Sae ‘because it’s Nii-chan’. When Rin trusts in Hiori, it wouldn’t be because ‘it’s Hiori’, rather it would be Rin fully focussing purely on himself and his own plays, forgetting about everything and everyone else, and simply allowing the ball to land in the ideal spot at his feet. It’s a completely sadistic, self-serving mindset, just like Hiori’s is from a midfielder’s perspective. Hiori’s ultra-sadism means he likely can’t be controlled by Rin’s Puppeteer style, since he plays for himself fully. Therefore in order to successfully earn Hiori’s passes, Rin would need to fully embrace the Destroyer, abandon Isagi and Sae clouding his judgement, and throw himself fully into goal-scoring. Hiori can’t be controlled but he’s reliable and can be trusted. I do think the road to building this trust should have its ups and downs. Let Rin get frustrated at Hiori not being controllable. Let Hiori want to see Rin improve while also not bending to Rin’s will. Let Hiori refuse to work with Rin sometimes. All of it would be part of a gradual, arc-spanning development for Rin that doesn’t take place in a single chapter.

In my personal opinion, having Hiori specifically be the midfielder who helps Rin most would be more narratively satisfying someone like Nanase (no hate to Nanase or nanarin tho. Love them 🫶). While Nanase works as a nice support for Rin especially at the moment in PXG, plus his sunshine personality might help to make Rin relax and open up more over time, his skill level isn’t quite up to scratch for Rin’s highest level plays. Nanase’s passes are useful with his ambidexterity but they aren’t clean. They aren’t as reliable. Rin still has to pay attention to Nanase in order to guarantee a successful play. He can’t block out literally everything else to hyper-focus on goal-scoring in this state. Hiori on the other hand provides that high level of play which means that Rin can afford to essentially forget Hiori even exists — the ball will still find its way to him. They wouldn’t even have to look at each other (much like the Isagi x Hiori best play we saw in Ubers that was recently recreated in PXG). There’s also the thematic element that Hiori has been compared to Sae before, setting him up as a Sae parallel which I think could be utilised in Rin’s evolution. Placing trust in Hiori would show that Rin is finally able to detach his reason to play from Sae and he can stop striving so strongly for Sae to notice him. Then there’s the shared relationship Hiori and Rin both have with expectations, love and abandonment, which could arguably help them get on each others wavelength to understand exactly what they want from a play and how best to execute a strategy they haven’t even discussed beforehand, as well as have Hiori be the one to help ‘create’ Rin since Hiori has already gone through the mental baggage of his arc and would understand Rin’s mental blocks.

Still, I do think canonically Rin and Nanase will be the duo that continues forwards into the next arc. Rin’s development will likely come from a combination of Nanase’s kindness, Isagi’s yap sessions and a lot of internal monologues. Meanwhile, Hiori will continue to improve alongside Isagi as a plot device who can be pulled out at convenient moments, while occasionally passing to other strikers for dramatic flair (I don’t really like this after Hiori’s resolve so strongly telegraphed that he’d very happily drop Isagi without a second thought, but oh well, what can you do?). I doubt Hiori will canonically play into Rin’s development at all.

Still, from the moment Rin and Hiori met in the third selection tryouts, they were able to flawlessly link up without the need for planning or communication. Hiori understood what Rin needed and moved to the perfect spot to work with him. If both of them were in Flow, creating a ‘best-play’ scenario with the Destroyer and the Ultra-Sadist, it would both be a show of incredible skill and high-level play while also showcasing Rin’s personal development and evolution, as well as utilising Hiori as a narrative support in a way that doesn’t impose him too strongly on the main plot but keeps him relevant and active in the story.

Part 5 — Headcanons Part 2: Some Fun Ideas

This section is all about some fun ideas I’ve had about hiorin, mostly trying to use canon as a strong basis so that they make sense. They aren’t things I think will ever be explored in canon but they’re fun to think about nonetheless. These can range from canon-adjacent to domestic AU material, it’s a whole mix really. I’ll probably come back to this bit every now and again to update it with new ideas I have, so keep an eye out for that.

A shared understanding. Since they’re both familiar with what they perceive to be feelings of false love from family members, it creates a situation where they can understand why they act the way they do better than anyone else. I hc that this would help them to more naturally form link-ups on the field, since they’d be in tune with each other’s mental states as well as general play styles, and off-field in being able to recognise when something has ticked off the other and resurfaced some unpleasant memories. I don’t think they’d really be ones to talk about their family traumas to each other openly, but they’d have an understanding of the things they do find out and wouldn’t think the other is overreacting, especially Hiori understanding Rin. While I think it’s good that Rin has friends like Nanase who he can be more chilled out with, I personally prefer the idea that his partner be someone who can actually understand the depths of his issues and sit with him in the eye of the storm rather than trying to just ‘fix’ him or drag him out of it.

Touch-starved and both slow to physical affection. Since they’re both introverted and Rin is emotionally constipated as fuck, they aren’t really a couple that would be very into PDA. Not even hand-holding. But it doesn’t really matter for them. They’re both not very used to that sort of physical comfort especially in the presence of others. However, while I think in general Rin might be a bit more reluctant to initiate intimacy than Hiori, I do think he’d still be more inclined to initiate hugs. Why Rin of all people? Because he grew up with a sibling. And he was a younger sibling at that. On some level he would have received attention from Sae while their relationship was still good, even if only a little bit. Hiori on the other hand grew up an only child in a household where hugs and doting were used as a tool to manipulate him. He’d likely not be used to the idea of hugs as a genuine show of affection. But Rin’s hugs are always genuine and often given out sparingly and bashfully, after a lot of hesitation. They’re both slow to physical affection but they’d find a way to navigate their wants and needs together, taking their time.

All-nighter horror dates. Be it playing co-op horror games or binging horror movies in the dark, I think they’d both prefer that as a date night over going out to a restaurant. It’s an activity they can both have fun with as a shared interest, just the two of them, alone at home with no need to even leave the house. They can let themselves get more passionate and competitive (and sadistic) while playing horror games too.

Yoga together. While we only have canonical confirmation that Rin both regularly does yoga and is good at it, I hc that Hiori would also be quite good at it due to his parents likely drilling him with intense schedules and being helicopter parents about his health. Yoga would likely fall into it somewhere as a cool-down and a good way to exercise on rainy days. While Hiori initially wouldn’t find yoga fun to do with Rin due to his negative associations with it, I feel like over time it could be a nice bonding activity for the two of them. It requires minimal talking of they’re doing their own things, and as long as Hiori isn’t messing up the moves I think Rin would tolerate the two of them existing in the same space. At the very least, Hiori wouldn’t try to one-up Rin with moves he can’t do and topple into Rin as a result (looking at you, Isagi…). They wouldn’t do couples yoga though, just their own thing in the same space.

Sharing food. In the Twitter QnAs, it states that Hiori’s favourite food is salt-grilled saury (saury shiyoyaki) “including the bitter bits”. His least favourite food is cotton candy because “it’s just sugar”. Therefore, I hc that he tends to enjoy bitter food while disliking sweet food. In contrast, we know that Rin quite likes sweet food because he used to eat ice cream with Sae on the way home from practice, plus in the Episode Rin extra chapter he goes to buy dessert at a special desserts cafe after eating ochazuke (a traditionally salty dish). Because of this difference in tastes, I like to hc Hiori giving any sweet food Blue Lock offers in their meals to Rin. Likewise, if the main meal Rin is given is ever burnt or charred too much for his liking, he gives the charred bits to Hiori since he knows Hiori will eat them so the food won’t be wasted.

Tea and coffee. As an addendum to the previous hc, I think Hiori would be a coffee drinker and Rin would be a tea drinker. This is because coffee tends to be more bitter, especially ones without sugar like espressos, so I can see Hiori preferring it to tea. There’s also the idea that ochazuke is made with tea, which is a bonus for Rin liking tea over coffee.

Cooking. Last food-related one I promise! While Hiori likely has a ton of technical knowledge about nutrition, dieting, calorie counting etc… due to his mother’s frenzied control of his diet growing up, I headcanon that he doesn’t actually have a clue how to cook. Once again, this is because of his parents being overprotective and worrying that he’d injure himself with a kitchen knife or on the stove. So he has zero clue where to start in the kitchen. On the flip-side, while Rin isn’t the best cook in the world I reckon he’d have somewhat an idea of how to cook the basics, plus he likely also has knowledge of dieting and nutrition for the sake of his own health. So while they’d both have things to learn in the kitchen, it would be Rin doing more of the actual cooking and Hiori deciding what meals to eat to optimise their health and training.

A joint-aura that’s a blizzard — in the event that they ever were to team up on the field, I think that the aura they’d give off together should be a blizzard. It makes sense to me for them to have this because Hiori has ice associations with the kanji 氷 in his surname, which means ‘ice’, and in chapter 239 when he gives his monologue about finding a reason to play, a metaphorical key appears with a snowflake on it to symbolise his newfound resolve. Rin’s connections to snow are less positive though, since it was snowing the day that Sae abandoned him. I think making their joint aura a blizzard could symbolise both Hiori’s ultra-sadist resolve to play, and Rin finally being able to move on from Sae to associate the snow with his sadistic determination. The fact that it’s a snowstorm emphasises the pair of them having a sadistic, destructive take-down of their opponents.

Hiori has a type. His canon type is already ‘someone who will leave me alone’ as I previously discussed in section 2. However, I do like to semi-jokingly say that his type is also ‘dark-haired, analytical guys with an attitude who are really good at football’. Obviously this is meant to refer mostly to Isagi and Karasu (we’ve all seen the heart-eyes you give them, Hiori!), but it is amusing to me that the description also fits Rin perfectly.

Part 6 — Transformative Works I Recommend For New Shippers

These are just some of my favourite fanfics all linked together in one place. I’ll start with a shameless plug of my own fic:

14 Days To NOT Fall In Love (but guess who did anyway)

Summary: This annoyingly mandated break of Ego's was only fourteen days long. That would never be enough time for Rin to fall for this aggravatingly sweet, understanding, level-headed, cyan-haired gamer boy... Okay, maybe he'd need to exercise SOME restraint. Aka: how Rin and Hiori become mutually pining idiots after the U-20 match through a combination of video games, late night discord calls and learning that perhaps they're not all that different after all.

(Chapters: 10 , Word Count: 67088 , Rating: T)

And now for my personal favourites I think new shippers will enjoy, in no particular order (if any of the authors see this and have tumblrs you want me to tag, lmk!):

catch us in the morning by transrightssokka (kellallyourfriends)

Summary: Hiori looks down and brings his hand up to his mouth, hiding a faint smile. “You don’t wanna go home, do you?” “No shit, I don’t,” Rin says. He’d rather sleep on the sidewalk than spend the next two weeks with Sae. Hiori is silent for a minute. His pretty eyes flick to his feet. Up to the back of the seat in front of them. Over to Rin. “So.” “So?” Rin says. Hiori lowers his voice. “So, what if we didn’t?”

(Chapters: 3 , Word Count: 27206 , Rated: M)

Even When It’s Starless by saturnshots

Summary: Everyone’s had an imaginary friend or two — it’s not often they change the course of your life, but who says being imaginary could stop them from bringing your dreams come true?

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 2838 , Rating: G)

sine wave by starstruckdove

Summary: Rin discovers Bachira’s “super secret surprise” sooner than he’d thought. There’s a new boy standing next to Ego at practice, and Rin knows he’s new because each of his unfortunate teammates have made their presence (loudly and raucously) known in his life. The boy has a nice face–wide eyes and soft mouth, all rounded corners instead of sharp edges. His hair is a shocking shade of blue and Rin finds it almost familiar. “This is your new manager,” Ego says with about as much energy as a dead battery.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 8990 , Rated: T)

Daydreaming by em_hiorin

Summary: Hiori can’t seem to concentrate during practice, as a certain Itoshi has been plaguing his mind.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 1560 , Rating: G)

My family thinks we’re dating. by akiangelsolos

Summary: “Oh, I see.” His mother hummed, placing her silver fork down on the table. “You must be upset, Hiori hasn’t come over in a while. You have to be lonely without your boyfriend around.” “I’m not lonely-” Rin shot his eyes at his mom, “What did you just say?”

(Chapters: 2 , Word Count: 5486 , Rating: G)

Part 7 — Wow, You Made It This Far? Congratulations And Thank You!

If you’ve made it this far, then I am both immensely thankful and I applaud you. Seriously, thank you for putting up with my insane, delusional brainrot over this silly rarepair that has barely any canon backing to speak of. Hopefully if anything, you now understand why people are starting to take interest in the ship (or at least why I enjoy it). And if you’re a shipper now, welcome to the club! You will now have to watch Hiori and Rin never affect each other’s development, never interact in any meaningful capacity and you’ll be eternally bitter about it 👍. For any aspiring fic writers, I hope this can be a nice hub of info for all of you if you want to consult the hiorin ‘dynamic’ (i say in quotations because let’s face it, I made up like 95% of the dynamic based on analysis and a canon dynamic doesn’t actually exist). Also, bear in mind that in the off chance we do get some more moments, I plan to update this post. So you may end up being subject to even more brainrot in the future.

Until that day comes though, I can only thank you once again. Hiorin is my otp and no matter how much Kaneshiro doesn’t make it come to fruition, he will have to try incredibly hard to make me stop shipping them. The dynamic can change. They can become more and more ‘incompatible’. I don’t care. If hiorin has no shippers, I have passed on from this world.

#blue lock #bllk #hiorin #hiori yo #itoshi rin #blue lock hiori #blue lock rin #FINALLY this post is finished!!! #I’ve been working on it for weeks #it’s mostly for myself ngl #just a nice place to compile all my screaming into one clump #might as well share it with the world yk? #I hope it makes even a modicum of sense to any unsuspecting readers who don’t ship it #rinhio #rnho

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

To anon who says the facial hair doesn’t make sense, consider that we are talking about the suspiciously-humanoid-shaped robots that turn into cars. Like… sure, the facial hair maybe isn’t realistic but also mouths? Tongues? Noses? Technically they don’t make sense when 1. Pretty sure robots can’t smell and 2. Simple intake port for energon exists so why bother with like teeth or whatever

Which brings me to the actual point of the beards. It would be so much easier for everyone to logically be a masked, visored bot because why bother with the anatomy of mouths and stuff? But no, faces- proper faces- give bots character, they tell you a lot in a way- hell, pretty sure in some places they are literally fashion choices, but don’t quote me on that- but try imagining megatron without his intimidating-but-sexy face, the literal face of the decepticons- and it’s just not the same. Faces are a stylistic choice, and by extension, beards are too. They add character just like the rest of the face. Hell, sometimes they even serve a function like minimus’s facial insignia denoting him as one of the House of Ambus.

then again, I may also be reading into this too much. … Yeah who cares if they have a purpose, actually, they’re just there to make certain zesty blue unicronian officers look hot honestly and we all know it

Spitting facts in the ask box tonight

#not polls #scourge war

[viviennelamb]

Hi Vivienne!

I just started reading your blog and so far I love it. I just have some questions and I hope this doesn’t come off as mean spirited but I’m not very good with words and I don’t know any other way to say it: How do you cope with knowing that you may never have a friend group or a significant other because of your strong believes? Do you plan to live a hermet lifestyle or plan to pray for god to send you someone? Do you believe that we are meant to live a solatary lifestyle or that god would want us to commune with others who share the same believes or at least some of the same believes? How do you know? Could you tell me what qualities you think are good to look for in a friend? I didn’t have any friends in school and my Gran would always ridicule me as if it was my fault when I really did want friends but no one liked me because I was quiet and weird. She would say that humans are social creatures and too much loneliness makes you sick. She’s a single Christian lady with no friends herself if that matters. I never believed her because I thought I would be miserable either way. Until last year I made a friend with this girl in my physical therapy group (I shattered my leg skating) and we’ve been on many friend dates and FaceTime almost everyday to talk about everything and anything. We only known each other for a 8 months but I now finally believe what my Gran meant by humans are social and do better with companionship. I don’t know how to explain it but I feel so free, happy and loved around her. I feel like god answered me after years of wishing for a real friend. I won’t get into details but she really came into my life at a time where I almost lost all hope for myself. The only thing is before we were friends she used to have a boyfriend in high school for several years. We’ve never talked about boys or sexual things besides that I’m a virgin and she isn’t and ofc the boyfriend. After reading your blog I feel like maybe I’m wrong for being friends with her. Do you think I should ask her if she plans on getting another relationship or just wait and see? I heard her mom mention something once but she said she’s focusing on herself which I am too. I tried praying to god about it but I feel like it’s just radio silence. I erased a lot of my message because it was just rambling and oversharing but I hope this is enough for you to give me some advice. Thank you!

Hello, thank you for your question.

To clarify:

God doesn’t need coping mechanisms, but if an individual needs a coping mechanism, God will allow them to depend on it.

God is a friend of all, but if nobody wants to be friends with God, that makes no difference to her to perfection.

God loves and is loved by all, but if nobody loves God, God is the same with or without their emotions.

God is the community, but God is also the lack of a community.

God doesn’t need anybody to believe anything, but if an individual wants to believe something is true, God will allow them to have that belief.

God allows all free will, even if that individual wills to become a slave.

God doesn’t need prayer. God is omniscient and already knows what you want and will give it to you exactly when you need it.

God doesn’t beg for a person to come into her life, the person who wants to be in God's life will make the effort to do so.

I'm not trying to be a socially acceptable human being, I'm becoming God.

Found a new friend

I don't plan anything. The ego “plans” for a false sense of control.

If you believe that humans are social creatures, then it's true. If you want friends, a significant other and community, you're free to embark on that journey.

If you believe that being alone makes you sick, you can believe that as well.

Everything you believe communicates your state of consciousness, but there is no scientific evidence for anybody's “belief systems being true.” What is factual is irrefutable because it happens in real time. In other words, there's nothing to discuss about reality, let alone opinions to hold.

God gave you a friend, which is what you asked for. And you're asking me this question because you've become afraid of losing her, or you're thinking, “now what?” My following response will be in this context:

God typically gives somebody a reason to keep God alive in their hearts. You have a frame of reference on how to achieve the feeling of happiness, but if you depend on the material world for that happiness, it will become fleeting and a source of pain. What you feel with your friend is what I feel with God, except it's everlasting. I don't have to worry about God leaving me like a friend, family member or community would, and that has removed every burden from my life and resolved all of my deficiencies.

Your grandmother was right about what she said about loneliness, but are you sure she was “single” and “had no friends”? Do you think she was referring to God in these aspects? Most lonely people are married and have a large circle of friends. Most people that I've met who were dealing with depression and a lack of motivation got the world they wanted and plenty of support, yet they couldn't do anything notable with what they had.

One's loneliness is 100% dependent on their relationship, or lack thereof, with God. Period. I don't consider myself single and without friends, but an ego would. I consider myself experiencing life.

You should remain present with your friend. If you really feel the need to ask about her situation with her boyfriend, you can ask. Don't get attached to the outcome of this question, but if you keep this question burning within you, your health will pay for that as well. Now your state of happiness is at her will.

God is waiting for you to return your attention to the present moment. God is only right here, right now. If you pray with something else on your mind, God will stand to the side and allow you to pray to that thing. The nasty part is you genuinely believe you are praying to God, but you've made a material item (including people) your god. You're praying for that thing to centre in your life instead of praying for God, who is omnipotent, to become the centre of your life.

Once you start sincerely praying to God because you genuinely see God as a friend instead of someone to ask things for, then God will talk to you. This may take months, years, decades, lifetimes, depending on how long it takes you to realize that nothing in the world will give you lasting happiness. God is generous and forgiving, but shy.

If somebody only talked to you when they wanted something, but they never felt free and happy around you, would you be excited to talk to them? You would just give that person what they asked for and go back to placing your attention on people who adore you. Most people treat God like a shopkeeper, so that's the relationship they will have.

My experience with egos

If God wishes to place friendship, a significant other or community in my life, I will accept it and when they dissolve, I will accept that as well. I strongly prefer solitude right now because I want to place my attention on becoming a perfect meditator.

For the average person to feel good about herself, she needs to hold the idea in her mind that she is valuable because she has followed society's rules. When an individual can live completely and totally in the present moment without intrusive thoughts from the past, or how life "should be," she has attained consistent inner calmness and becomes soul-conscious.

It's impossible to be happy when you're not at least soul-conscious because the ego always has a new desire which will cause you to, define yourself by the outcome of those desires. This leads to an unstable sense of self, and many people are diagnosed with this ego-condition (such as BPD, narcissism, psychopathy, etc) when this state of mind becomes severe.

You know how some people are codependent and require somebody attached at their hip to feel secure? People who have always had their ego stroked everywhere they go in life? I've experienced the polar opposite of that. I've never felt close to anybody, nor have I wanted to. This blog is primarily for those people, as few as they are.

One time, while I was in a "friend group" I tried to communicate my feelings and a chick I wasn't talking to started yelling at me about “You know what I do when I feel left out?! I put in my fucking earphones” and she demonstrated her putting in her earphones in an exaggerated manner while berating me and foaming at the mouth. She hated my guts for whatever reason. There was another time I went to dinner with this group. Everything was fine until the same chick started yelling at me over of people's food about something random. Nobody cared. I told a dude who was also abused by this chick about the situation, and he couldn't believe that nobody said anything to her and said that they were all fake and enjoyed it. He was right. Anyway, it's my responsibility to leave when somebody shows red flags, so I did. Guess who the bystanders came running to when they became targets? Guess who didn't give a fuck?

I had another friend group make a separate group chat just to talk shit about me, even though I was the glue of the group. I went to each person's home to pick them up and dropped them off to maintain the relationship. The last time I engaged in free labor was when one of my friends was an hour late to walk out of her front door. I told her I waited forever, and she shrugged her shoulders and said called me her chauffeur. Couldn't even offer a pity apology.

My desire for a social life is at an absolute zero.

I have people in relationships ask me how I achieved emotional stability, yet they're all in relationships... Shouldn't they be the pinnacle of health? They tell me about their sadness, loneliness, their infections, etc, and I have nothing to say to that because when I tell the truth, I'm told I'm living life wrong and that I'm unhealthy. Now I'm keeping my unhealthiness to myself.

Since I live in the present moment, if somebody isn't right in front of me communicating with me, they're out of sight, out of mind. I don't feel any sort of emptiness or desperation to gain anything because nobody has anything I want. I don't feel the need to control others either, so their opinions don't matter.

Furthermore, I've never received validation, other than surface stuff. I don't see a purpose in having friends/a community; this is based on the constitution of my life path. Most may say it's unfortunate, but I got social liberation. I regret ever trying. I would've been so much farther along spiritually, but it is what it is.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle you're living right now is what God wants for you because you want it for yourself.

My belief system:

Everything is perfect.

Everybody is precisely where they should be.

God doesn't make mistakes.

I don’t have any coping mechanisms because I’ve cleared my Karma. I’m in a constant state of happiness/calmness. It's impossible for the Ego to find happiness. The Ego likes to overcomplicate life, trying to have his cake and eat it too. The day you realize you can't have the world and God, and live accordingly, is when the Ego dies.

Coping mechanisms are preferable to the Ego because he can still gain validation from the world while feigning a connection with God. Women’s collective Karma is being social slaves. I’ve transcended that. I do not gain what other people gain from relationships. Relatability, connection, and the like are what I constantly receive from God. Now I’m only interested in gaining complete control over the body and realizing the Truth.

In person, I'm friendly and agreeable because it's easy to be that. Resistance brings conflict and problems, I don't care to deal with. Most people mistake this for friendship when I'm indifferent to them. Even if somebody agreed with me… so? This level of freedom is intimidating to people because they're used to their egos being worshipped and ooh'd and ahh'd at.

Whether they’re nice or mean, both friends and enemies pretending to be friends have placed me further to the Truth, so I'm thankful for all of my experiences. They have murdered every false desire within me, and now I'm free. I don’t pray for egos to come into my life, I don't hate myself anymore.

I have God and Guru and that’s more than enough.

What should you do?

If you are doubting your friendship with this person, there’s a lesson incoming. Somebody who is satisfied with materials and worldliness wouldn’t read spirituality blogs, so your soul already knows you will not achieve everlasting happiness with this friendship or any other future relationship. The key word here is "lasting." Temporary ego-boosts are highs, but you will hit a low and that usually results in fallout within the relationship, which you will compromise to maintain. You probably won't understand this now, but you will when the time comes.

When you are ego-conscious, you’re a slave to vanity. You want your life to look a certain way so that you feel like you’re socially acceptable, but this is non-presence. Instead of thinking about your happiness, you’re thinking about how well you fit in. Having doubts about a relationship is a sign of fickleness. If you think this friend will abandon you because of her boyfriend, there is likely some type of discussion going on between your friend and her boyfriend that you’ve picked up on.

Everybody has their own karmic path. You can either find a way to live where you achieve permanent happiness or continue on the rollercoaster of fear, doubt, and uncertainty.

#ask #not sure how long ago this is but hope your leg had a full recovery

[oddly-casual]

Fiona and Cake spoilers seriously

(Something I noticed abt Betty and Simons relationship)

I love Betty and Simon’s relationship, I think their back story is so cute and romantic and all that lovely stuff don’t get me wrong.

But there’s this under tone of Betty constantly giving things up for Simon and we don’t really talk about it a lot???

Like, Betty let Simon have his moment with the artifact and the pubic, she also doesn’t go to her trip in favor of going on an expedition with Simon. Then when she goes to leave again she stays for Simon.

Even Fiona is like “you went with her on the bus?” And Simon just looks all confused like “what? No, why would I do that?” Like- hello???

Then after that she gave up her entire life and mind to get Simon back to the point where she literally says “I don’t know who I am without him anymore.” And that just sucks! Since the beginning Betty has been the one giving up the most, her mind, her own possible career, and it’s a story of love of course and it’s very sweet but it’s also a story of sacrifice.

Their love wasn’t a perfect solution, it was already sort of imbalanced when it started and I lowkey love how we see those cracks even before they’re together.

Again, I love their relationship and I think it’s sweet. I just think we should talk about Betty’s side more, especially when she tells a story of what most women do in relationships, sacrifice.

#fiona and cake spoilers #fiona and cake #simon petrikov #betty grof #It made itself really apparent in these newest episodes and I couldn’t stop thinking abt it #like Betty idolized Simon before they formally met so of course she was gonna drop everything to go on that expedition with him #but it was more after that too like she was going to leave to study in Australia but Simon stopped her #and Betty’s a grown woman she can make her own decisions #but even Betty’s friend was like ‘don’t make her miss the bus!’ because Betty had a real opportunity to do something else #and maybe It’s that true love trumps all or what ever but the way they frame it in the show feels weird to me #like Why have Fiona ask if Simon got on the bus with Betty if it wasn’t important??? #the way Simon responds feels weird too he responds like Fiona doesn’t make sense when asking that question #BUT ITS VALID Like why wouldn’t you encourage Betty to go off and maybe start her own career?? #or just go with her?? like she gave up stuff to go on your exhibition why wouldn’t you return the favor??? #and obviously Simon doesn’t do this on purpose I’m not saying he did #he didn’t guilt trip or force Betty or even ask her to give up these things to be with him Betty did all that on her own #i think it’s just interesting the way the show frames their relationship #like Betty gives up a lot to be with Simon in Fiona and Cake and in adventure time too #but she idolizes Simon and after Simon becomes IK she’s chasing after the man he used to be #meanwhile everyone learns to live with who IK is now it was just Betty who was clinging to Simon the whole way through #obviously they love each other and respect each other but I think Betty idolizing Simon didn’t just stay when they were kids #or college students or what ever it keto’s going even when the world ended and Simon became Ice King #this is was so much more than I planned on writing-

[exhausted-archivist]

In regards to my last reblog on the scale of Thedas, latitude and stuff. I’ve been thinking about how much thought I give all this. Especially because this topic is one I’ve been talking with a lot of people about lately. It crops up a lot with people who, like me enjoy natural world building or are fanfic writers. Or really anyone who sits down and reads the lore at length. More times then not the question of Thedas’s scale comes up.

So, I want to establish I am very well aware that I’m likely giving it more thought than the devs. I have that luxury as a fan and consumer of the series. It is extremely relevant for me because I like making maps for the series, plotting out travel paths, and scaling things for da ttrpg campaigns I write.

So because I think about it a lot, I notice all the many different scales of Thedas in terms of travel time. How the scale they gave the ttrpg doesn’t match up with any scale they established in the main games or books. I think if the devs sat down and thought about establishing a standard scale and also considering just basic stuff we also wouldn’t have the Deep Roads be 2-4 miles / 3.21-6.43 km below sea level and display a lack of geothermal qualities. I think they’d consider how they built a world with at least 9.1 million people and tons of mega fauna such as giants and dragons and 14’/4.26 m tall bears that hunt dragons, all squished into roughly 1/4 of Europe and how much that isn’t really sustainable. How there would be much more impact if nature encroachment in civilization and how common things like that would be in places. Which they do consider it to a degree, I’m not saying they don’t. But I think if they thought about it just to make the world something that holds up a little better to idle musings, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. That the world would feel more real and alive and also narratively give them more to work with.

The contradictions and lack of consideration for the natural world has always been one of my critiques of Dragon Age, among other things. The reason why that is, is mostly because of a noticeable trend the lack of natural world building in fantasy. It’s a topic that has been discussed elsewhere and at length by other people, but to summarize nature is slowly having less and less impact in fantasy even in an ambient quality. Obviously this isn’t a universal statement, nor a universally required thing for a story to explore and have. That there are things that do focus on and explore it, but speaking in general terms, it is a trend in the majority of media.

Which for me is a bummer as it is an aspect of writing and world building I enjoy. I really like themes of man vs nature and to have that you need to have a basic level of natural world building. Which BioWare doesn’t really explore in Dragon Age despite having elements of it - such as how regular raw lyrium is explosive, mages get sick around all lyrium unless it is diluted to a safe amount for mages, and raw lyrium straight up kills them if they’re in the same room.

So then you have questions of how do mages go/handle being underground with such a risk? Dwarves have stone sense but would mages be able to tell when they’re getting close to large lyrium deposits because they’re getting sick? Does this impact grey warden mages? Darkspawn mages?

Things that don’t get fully acknowledged or explored despite being mentioned casually in codices most people don’t read. And they don’t for a couple of reasons such as potential coding issues but also all the questions you’d have to ask:

How would you implement that as a mechanic? Would you lock mage players out of entire areas featuring raw lyrium? Would they take environmental damage if you wanted the players to explore it regardless? Would it be a mechanic only applied by in harder difficulty modes? Do you acknowledge it in banter but not in any other way? Create a way to explain why the pc mage and their mage companions aren’t dropping dead?

BioWare’s answer seems to seemingly just ignore it because it would make gameplay too challenging/punishing and likely might not be fun for a player to deal with. But they compromise by keeping the lore active in the canon through codices and low impact additions. Which is a completely okay solutions, not my preferred but I get why they do it.

When I approach this lore, I do so without expecting them to fully flesh out each nation or know which city has the most resources and the geologically rich lands in said country. Dragon Age, and BioWare in general, relies on semi-soft world building. The world was after all designed for a game. They only need to build out what they need and what hopefully won’t paint them into a corner with future installments.

Additionally, the writing style for Dragon Age doesn’t suit the hard world building that I prefer, I’m quite aware of that but also know that when it comes to talk about world building in any media, there is always the issue of people (like me) who world build for fun and consider all these small aspects but ultimately they aren’t always needed and necessary for the story a game like Dragon Age is telling.

Dragon Age is told with the intention of things being given from an unreliable narrator. Built on the concept of: there’s three sides to the truth, what x thinks happens, what y thinks happens, and then what actually happened. Which works and I love the premise.

That said, I think that it also impacts lore that shouldn’t be subjected to the unreliable narrator. Foundation or anchor lore points to be specific. Which, as we know, BioWare has always struggled with consistency in their lore, particularly with Dragon Age.

Distance is one of those foundational points that shouldn’t change, and it’s also one of those points that you don’t have to give exact travel times. You can leave it vague and stick to the official statements like the ones we have of Ferelden being the size of England (or Ireland depending on the source you use). If you’re going to be giving specifics, then I think being consistent with how long it travels to get to point a to b and not changing it multiple times in one game should be a basic expectation that is met.

Other ones the series has and is pretty consistent with is how we know Thedas has 24 hours a day, they have seasons like we expect, and are in the southern hemisphere.

Do they sometimes slip up because editing doesn’t catch they’ve made a reference that applies only to the northern hemisphere? Yeah, and that’s not bad. There are a lot of people working on the project and things slip through.

I know I have the luxury to think about Thedas in a capacity that allows for the hard world building that I like. I also know I focus on and enjoy aspects of lore that are not exactly popular for their main audience and are pretty niche.

I don’t expect BioWare to world build how I do because I’m not world building for a massive and varied audience. Not even when I do world building for my tabletop games, because I’m catering to a smaller and more specific audience.

Still I think it’s valid and worth pondering these little elements of the world building. For fun, appreciation, and to nurture one’s own creativity and understanding of media, the world, and what they think makes a believable world.

Devs might not have time to consider it but we sure do and that’s half the fun of enjoying media I think.

#dragon age #archi is musing #long post #I saw some people on my older posts while I was writing this talk about how its ‘not that deep’ and not everything needs to be explained #and like I’m aware of that lol #I’m just critiquing how logic and immersion breaking it can be to not be consistent on the fundamentals #how much I personally don’t enjoy a world built that starts crumbling if you think too hard on all the provided lore #love the game and the series but evaluating the media you consume and engage with is a good practice to have #as a creative who world builds knowing what I value and like in world building allows me to grow as one #I also think dragon age has a lot of really cool and under used elements of natural world building and while I would love to focus on that #BioWare gives the curve ball where I’m sent down a rabbit hole often because I realize it doesn’t make sense in context of the lore

[god-u]

random but this showed up in my activity again cause someone liked a comment i made when i first saw it on tiktok and it made me think of when ppl were discussing how jordan and marie were casted

derek/london are both biracial and jaz is as well, but their parents are fully asian and hers fully Black

even though this is about a play, there’s no way so much of the casting in hollywood just happens that way. sometimes it’s just blatant racism and it makes me sad (and mad actually) for all of my friends fighting to get significant roles in the industry

#you rarely get proper representation when you’re a brown or dark skinned Black woman because hollywood doesn’t want us on tv #i can’t speak on the wasian thing but a lot of biracial Black women get cast as fully Black ppl #and it’s usually half white BW like i don’t think the ones who are half another race of color tend to get big roles either #which really tells you all you need to know about how deep white privilege goes #cause being mixed with white will definitely get you a role before another mixed person which is kind of insane when you think about it #x #just sharing cause it’s been on my mind #one of my friends is going into acting and i’m just sad she has to deal with so much bullshit #i gave up all my dreams of singing or entertainment as a whole because i realized i didn’t fit the look they wanted #i’m also not a nepo baby and don’t really have connections though i know ppl who know ppl if that makes sense #also having support is important as well and i didn’t & don’t have that #anyway yea then you have ppl tokenizing the biracial women and casting them to play roles that they wouldn’t even fit in remakes or biopics #i also feel like ayo has become one of the tokens and i need ppl to realize when they make lists she’s the only brown/dark skinned one #it’s kind of embarrassing that they don’t even see it themselves #that’s my wife but like you clearly don’t know any other dark skinned or brown skinned women you give a damn about #it’s like when ppl make horror final girls lists and lupita is the only woc or Black woman at all ☠️

[sweetandglovelyart]

Instead of drawing some Metadede art or Taransusie art for Valentine’s Day I’m considering drawing some art for my Kirby crack ship instead, just because I think the concept of this particular ship is hilarious. It makes zero sense on the surface, but in a weird way I think that it could actually kind of work if certain things were addressed.

I won’t reveal what the ship is right now, but if I have time to draw something for it for Valentine’s Day then I’ll reveal it on Valentine’s Day. I don’t think that anyone will be able to guess what the ship is, but I’ll give you all a hint: both characters debuted in the same game. Not saying which game in the series, but they first appeared in the same game.

#text post #I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of Kirby crack ships lmao so I’m contributing to that #the only one I’ve really seen is Kine and Yin Yarn #how did that one even start by the way like isn’t Kine married and he’s not even in Epic Yarn lmao #my two main Kirby ships that aren’t crack ships are Metadede and Taransusie #I just really like the dynamics of both ships and they make sense to me I was surprised to learn that Taransusie is considered a rare pair #because it makes a lot of sense to me lmao they’re both from a 3DS game they both have tragic backstories etc #anyways those are the legit ships that I ship #but my crack ship I only really ship because I find the concept of it hilarious lmao #it doesn’t work yet it also weirdly kind of does lmao #like on the surface it seems insane but I think it could work if a few things were addressed lmao #I don’t think that anyone will be able to guess what the ship is but I’m interested in seeing what everybody will guess lmao #both characters first appeared in the same game that’s the only hint that I’m giving

[mars-ipan]

currently thinking abt the despair disease and the character analysis potential it brings

#literally the best motive in the whole franchise <3333 #i regularly think abt how it affected komaeda. he got the fucking Liar Disease #why? because he is completely and fully sincere in everything he does #he lies occasionally yes but overall he is honest and hides nothing #he’s an incredibly earnest person. that’s what makes him so scary #and it’s also why the liar disease would be the perfect source of despair for him. makes a lot of sense #personally i don’t believe that despair disease gives you the ‘opposite’ trait #just a trait you would hate to have or is very uncharacteristic of you #i mainly think that bc the opposite of ibuki isn’t ‘gullible.’ but she probably doesn’t like listening to others (punk and eccentric) #so the gullible disease that forces her to always believe what she’s told is despair inducing #and akane! obviously she’s very good at compartmentalizing #she never seems to show fear. ever! #as such the coward disease is Mortifying. she hates being anxious and she hates showing it even more. literal hell i’ve been there girlie #so overall. i think it’s a great way to analyze a character #obvi with komaeda it’s an EXCELLENT analysis tool bc it’s basically a roundabout truth serum #if everything you say is a lie then all you need to do is reverse it and that’s the full genuine truth #so we get confirmation of things with him. like his desire for companionship. and his genuine distress when he wants to tell everyone to be #hopeful but all he can say is ‘despair’- he gets so worked up about it that he collapses #i also like to imagine what it would have been like with other characters #what would hajime have? i’ve seen an honesty disease. i’ve also seen a happy disease #both are great. i think he has a good few options #personally though i think the thing that would stress him out a Ton would be an affectionate disease #not in like a silly friend ‘i hug everyone’ way #but in a ‘tells everyone specifically what qualities he admires about them and is vulnerable to others’ way #i think he’d be MORTIFIED. haji’s a very blunt snarky person #and he does have a lot of affection for his friends but it’s mostly shown in a teasing manner #he’s also quite closed off about his own insecurities. AND he finds komaeda incredibly offputting #to wake up one day and start both genuinely making himself vulnerable and praising everyone nagito-style would actualky be hell for him #maybe call it the admiration disease. or affectionate disease depends on ur perspective #other character have interesting possibilities too (even dr1 + v3) but I Care Hinata so. he gets spotlight for a sec

[sleepdepravity]

Also I’ve finally started reading through the jasper fforde books I’ve missed out on and the world of early riser is absolutely horrifying, with its “pooled parentage stations” that basically is a nunnery but the nuns are devoted to constantly giving birth to support the population but at the same time there’s something extremely funny about names like “mother fallopia” and “sister zygotia”

#malky reads #early riser #jasper fforde is a guy that I think is good at like #making up terminology and stuff to support his worlds #and developing the worlds as well to push them to interesting degrees and extremes #this one is a ‘what if humans hibernated’ sort of thing #and then building on top of that with ‘some of them don’t make it through hibernation’ #and then ‘population is going down’ #so obviously to compensate #the government has an ‘office of population control’ #but not everybody is subjected to mandatory birthing #rich people instead opt to adopt kids from the pooled parentage stations #the stations have a veneer of religion so obviously some of the society truly devote themselves to the cause #and rich people take advantage of that to essentially adopt rather than give birth as (I assume) the lower classes are unable to do #only adoption is called ‘birthing avoidance’ which is separate from ‘birthing evasion’ #these being a legal distinction which may or may not imply that adoption is still frowned upon legally #but perhaps doesn’t have as harsh a punishment #(I haven’t gotten very far in yet so I don’t know) #that’s just a small part of the world building though. there’s certainly a lot more #but what is very good about him is that he definitely has a sense of humor and doesn’t take his stuff too seriously #as much as other authors do #but not to the point where he doesn’t care about the world he’s writing about #i think I like his more uhhh ‘irreverent’ type of worlds than the more grounded one like these though #as in Thursday next or the nursery crime series #but he’s fun either way #if only he would just sit still and focus on some of his series at a time #how long has it been since the title of the third nursery crime book was announced #oh my god 2012 #it’s literally been a decade