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changbunnies · 3 months

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Crave, Part 3 (18+)

♡ Pairing: Romantic Demon!Hyunjin x Plus Size Human Fem!Reader

♡ Genre: supernatural au, demon au, age gap relationship typical in monster fucker fics, the porn with plot you've been waiting for is finally here!

♡ Word Count: 6.4k

♡ Summary: "The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain." - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy. In which Hyunjin, a demon from the nine circles of hell, finds himself impossibly infatuated with the very human he once set upon himself to destroy.

♡ Warnings: please read the previous parts before reading this installment <3, part 1, part 2, supernatural abilities, some possessiveness, references to hyunjin's true appearance as a demon, references to vampires and spiders, not much else for this part!

♡ Smut Warnings (contains spoilers): some wine drinking (neither reader or hyunjin are drunk), pet names (my love, lovely, baby, gendered language such as "silly girl"), scent stuff ?? (hyunjin has a heightened sense of smell as a demon so. yeah.) dom/sub dynamics, pleasure dom hyunjin (we cheered!), kink exploration and establishing limits + safe words, lots of kissing (per my standard), some nipple play, oral (f receiving), fingering (f receiving), marking + biting + choking but make it Soft™, some crying, multiple orgasms, intended to be overall very romantic!

♡ Notes: here we go, the smut i'm sure most, if not all, of you have been waiting for <3 i usually keep body descriptions pretty neutral so anyone can enjoy but as a big girlie irl i wanted to be a lil self indulgent this time around, i hope those of you who don't fit this description don't mind :') happy reading!

♡ Disclaimer: please read responsibly, and remember that this work is fiction and meant strictly for imaginative fun. the idols used in fics are more accurately faceclaims and personality outlines for imaginary characters, and should not be interpreted as factual representations of existing people.

Dating Hwang Hyunjin is like a fairytale you thought only existed in the imaginations of young girls that had not yet experienced the disappointment of reality. You imagined he'd be a perfect lover, but you truly hadn't anticipated just how accurate your interpretation of him would end up being.

He took you on more dates than you could count on your fingers- museums and exhibits, to restaurants you'd never find on your own with delicious menus, on picnics with the scenic views of the city, of nature, or the setting sun, staying until stars hung in the sky and your only illumination was the vibrant moon shining on just the two of you. You learned that he was a reader of classic literature, with an impressive knowledge of romantic poetry and novellas, often able to recite the most beautiful lines you'd ever heard straight from his own memory.

When he took you to museums, you learned more from Hyunjin himself than the tour guide, and truly it seemed like he was an encyclopedia for all things creative, classic, and romantic in nature. He was multilingual, which you knew from his resume, but to actually hear him recite something in latin with ease was something else entirely; it was if it came naturally to him, like it wasn't technically a dead language, and you almost couldn't believe it was just an extra class he took in college for fun.

He endlessly impressed you- with his beauty, his intelligence, his attentiveness, his.. everything, really. And he never let you feel inferior to him, always assured you how happy he was that you were his girlfriend beyond just taking you out on dates throughout the city. He bought you many, many gifts- clothes that always fit you perfectly that not only suited your tastes but that he thought you'd look beautiful in. Sweet treats, often your favorites but other times just slightly outside your usual comfort zone, just enough to get you to try something new to fall in love with the taste of.

Stuffed teddy bears or other cute animals meant to remind you of him, jewelry that was sometimes dainty and meant to be office appropriate (in which he'd have the brightest smile seeing you come into work wearing it) and other times lavish, extravagant pieces that somehow were always stunning without being tacky or garish. If he brought you a necklace or bracelet before a date, he'd help you put it on, smiling when it fit you perfectly and complimented your skin tone, always touching you softly and showering you with compliments.

And while acts of service were clearly a huge love language of his, it wasn't like Hyunjin just showered you with gifts and fun dates and expected that to be enough (which would be valid if it was enough for some people, but you want more than that! You value emotional connection!) He always made time for you outside of the office or promised dates, coming to your apartment anytime you asked just to spend time with you.

He always listened to you so attentively, genuinely interested in things you liked, and listened to your input when it came to what to do for you next date. He listened to your thoughts and ideas, let you vent if you were having a hard day, hugged you sweetly if you needed reassurance or were feeling stressed. He'd spend hours on the couch with you watching movies if that's what you wanted to do that day, and he always paid undivided attention to you or what you were doing together, never pulling out his phone or mentally checking out even once.

Everyday with Hyunjin feels like it's Valentine's Day- and honestly you can't even imagine what he'll do when an actual romantic holiday or your anniversary rolls around when he's already so perfect to you. Even months into your relationship he still holds open doors for you, still carries anything that at all seems slightly heavy, still dotes on you as if he still has to prove he's a gentleman (when you clearly already know he is.)

You honestly can't express enough how perfect Hyunjin is, and how much you appreciate the relationship you now have, but.. well, if you're being honest there is one problem. Nothing major, of course, just.. You think you're going to explode if he doesn't fuck you soon, or at least touch you somewhere less than polite.

The first time he kissed you, after your third date and you were certain things were going well, you felt those infamous sparks other people talk about- like every cell in your body was gunpowder and it had just been ignited. You became addicted to kissing him after that, always seeking out his plush, soft and perfect lips, even if it was just for a quick peck to satiate you until later.

You made out for the first time just under a month ago, and that spark turned into a full on blaze, hot and raging and dangerously close to burning out of control. You wanted him so bad, more than you ever imagined you'd want someone; it was almost sad to say your past relationships and attractions paled in comparison to how Hyunjin ignited your deeply hidden passionate side.

Still, Hyunjin hadn't touched you intimately yet, and while you suspected it's because he's a gentleman waiting for the right sign or explicit, worded permission, you were going crazy inside. You don't know if you even have it in you to make the first move, truthfully; you feel almost.. intimidated? Whenever you think about it, your mind always travels to how effortless and beautiful he is, and despite how much he shows you that he wants you as his girlfriend, you are admittedly still struggling with thoughts of your own desirability.

It almost makes you feel ashamed despite how natural a feeling it is. You know you should be confident, but it's not something that just comes to you just because you know objectively you're worthy; knowing it and feeling it are different things entirely. You wish you could just pull it together with a snap of your fingers; like c'mon Y/N, you're a beautiful woman who holds an impressive leadership position, who graduated with high honors and has more than enough to show for it! Why wouldn't Hyunjin want you? You're a catch!

You sigh, setting down the knife you were using to cut the veggies for tonight's dinner with Hyunjin, closing your eyes to collect yourself for a moment. Isn't it a bit pathetic for you to be reduced to insecurity over past rejections and unrequited love when what you have now is such a fairytale? You wish it'd just go away, so you can tell Hyunjin to fuck you until you're dumb and have no thoughts left in your stupid head but his cock filling you up, but-

You jump slightly when you feel Hyunjin's arms wrap around you from behind, and he chuckles a bit, apologizing for startling you; you were so wrapped up in your thoughts you didn't even notice him rise from the sofa when he heard you sigh and put down the knife. "What's bothering you, my love?" he asks, his chest pressing firmly against your back as he kisses the top of your head, "You seem so tense tonight.. Is dinner giving you a hard time?"

Your heart always picks up when he uses that affectionate term for you; you're not sure if your relationship could already be classified as "love" when you've only been together a few months, but you love the way it sounds falling from his lips all the same. "No, it's not that.." you frown a bit, not melting into his embrace the way you usually do.

"Feeling stressed out again?" he inquired next, his hands moving up to your shoulders to feel for any tension and massage it away if it exists. You hum in confirmation, finally melting against his body when his hands rub soothing circles in your tender skin, just deep enough to relieve some of the built up tension without leaving you sore and achy. "Stressed, and.." you pause a moment, biting your lip as you consider if you'll really continue and admit what it is you really need.

"And?" Hyunjin's voice comes out in a soft question, clearly wanting to know what it is you want to say but with no intention to force it out of you. "S-Stressed, and.. frustrated." you finally acquiesce after a short-lived internal fight with your nerves. You're not even entirely sure he'll get the implication behind you saying it in the way you did, if he'll recognize your need for a physical touch beyond what you've felt with him so far but you hope he does, because you're not sure you're capable of just coming straight out and saying "please fuck me before I lose my mind."

Hyunjin is the next one to hum, his tone relaying understanding. Goosebumps erupt on your skin when he leans his head down to kiss your shoulder and neck, his hands traveling from your shoulder to rub down your arms. "Why don't I finish dinner, hmm? Have you relax in the bath while I take care of everything," his voice is soft, almost a whisper, his hands finding your waist and rubbing carefully over the area before moving down to your hips.

"It'll be finished by the time you're done, we'll have a little wine," he continues, his lips now touching the shell of your ear, his voice directly in your ear, "And after that.. I'll take care of you. In any way you want me to." A kiss pressed to your skin, a shiver running down your spine as you suck in a breath- he definitely got the message. His right hand reaches up to your face, fingers finding their place on your left cheek, guiding you to twist your face to meet his gaze from behind you.

He leans down to kiss you like this, one hand holding your face where he wants it and the other squeezing the meat of your hip. Hyunjin holds the kiss for several seconds, making sure it lingers and tingles on your skin when he pulls away, already expertly planting the seeds of desire and anticipation within your gut. "How's that sound, lovely?" he asks and you blink for a moment, your brain already feeling like it's going to melt out of your ears from how eager and desperate for more intimacy you are.

You nod, almost dumbly, and he smiles, planting a quick peck to your forehead before he helps you prepare for a bath. He runs the water hot, wanting warmth to linger for as long as you'll need it to once you're settled and used to the temperature, while you spend your time picking out what you'll wear afterwards. You swallow as you rummage through your drawers, possibilities seemingly endless.

You've never been in a situation like this- a situation where you knew with absolute certainty that you'd be getting your pussy wet by the end. Your sexual encounters were never preplanned, not even with your past boyfriends. It was always spur of the moment, especially since you were too college-then-career focused to spend time on dating apps looking for hookups. Honestly, it was kind of exhilarating; and suddenly you felt like you understood what the appeal of knowing you were going to get laid by the end of the night was.

And Hyunjin, well.. he promised himself he wouldn't fuck you until he was sure without a shadow of a doubt that you were head over heels in love with him and only him, because it was that kind of first time with you he was seeking. But that didn't mean he couldn't have fun with you in the meantime, did it? And how could he say no when he could literally fucking taste the desperation on you? He'd be a good boyfriend to you, and give you whatever he could within his limits, because you're his perfect girl and he'll always spoil you in any way he can.

After the tub is full, Hyunjin leaves the bathroom, smiling at you when he sees you standing in the hallway patiently, towel and a change of clothes in hand. "Take your time, lovely," he pecks your head again as he passes by, ready to tackle finishing dinner while you soak in the tub. You texted him instructions just in case before you left your bedroom with your clothes and towel, so you're confident that it'll turn out well without your guidance- and besides, Hyunjin cooks well anyways; you're sure it'd turn out delicious even if he didn't follow your instructions.

Your soak in the tub is spent entirely on thoughts of Hyunjin's hands and lips on your body, wondering what he'll do and how, and you wonder how much of the heat on your body is from the water and how much is from your own mental images of him between your legs. Thankfully, the water actually does manage to loosen up your tense muscles (despite your anticipation doing you no favors), and you do just as Hyunjin instructed; you take your time. Dinner won't be done any faster just because you hurry, after all, so why not soak and destress and indulge in your little fantasies?

You dry off thoroughly when you step out of the tub, pulling on your prettiest pair of white panties and a silky slip nightgown- a cream color with lace accents on the hems. You brought a cardigan too, just for warmth while you eat dinner, though you don't bother to button it up at all the way, leaving the upper most buttons undone so Hyunjin can have a clear view of your chest while you share dinner. It's a bit bold of you to purposely display your cleavage, but what's the harm in enticing him further? You know he wants you as his partner, but seeming him want you physically too would be everything.

The nightgown is just tight enough to hug your curves, and it also displays your stomach, but.. Well, Hyunjin isn't blind, you're certain he knows that the woman he's dating has a chubbier tummy than other women in the office. But he wanted you out of all of them, and he's spent so much time calling you beautiful and giving you the world, that you imagine he either likes bigger girls, or at the very least doesn't let weight dictate someone's appeal. So, you're not self conscious in the slightest- at least, not about that. You still have nerves, but you think that's natural when you're dating and plan to have sex with someone attractive enough to have people falling at his feet for a chance to be with him.

When you step out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, Hyunjin is just finishing plating the food and is pouring the wine into two glasses he pulled out from your cabinets, already familiar with where you typically keep them. "Feeling better?" he asks with a soft smile when he notices your presence, and you don't miss the way his eyes drop to your chest, a glint of something flashing in his eyes before he looks back to your face- desire for your body, you hope.

You sit across from each other at your dinner table, having the quietest dinner the two of you have ever shared- though the tension being built is far from uncomfortable. His eyes linger right where you wanted them to, tempting him, teasing him, and you're buzzing with anticipation, almost giddy whenever his eyes meet your again as he sips from his wine.

Your face is dusted pink all the way to your ears, but you'd blame it on the wine if he asked (though you suspect he'd know better than to believe that.) Hyunjin downs the last of his wine in one gulp when he's finished eating, and you do the same, wiping your mouth carefully with a napkin before you look at him again. He's standing now, gathering the dishes from the table and bringing them to the kitchen.

You follow, intending to help him wash and put them away, but he tuts at you, saying "Baby, you're supposed to be relaxing and letting me do the work! Go get comfortable and wait for me, hmm?" He instructs and you can't help but smile, doing as he instructs after you thank him, quickly making the trip to your bedroom.

However, the nerves hit you again once you're in your room, and you sit on the edge of your bed, fiddling with your hands as you think about what you should do next. Just lay down and get comfortable as you would if you were going to bed? Should you present yourself to him? Get into some enticing position he won't be able to resist? Stay right where you are now and let him lead you wherever he wants you?

You've never experienced so much build up before- you almost feel like the inexperienced girl you were in college again. God, you don't know what to do with yourself and you're definitely overthinking it- but you can't help it! Hyunjin is just so.. well, he's Hyunjin. And that alone is enough to send your nerves into overdrive as your mind races with the possibilities of what's to come.

You hear him chuckle softly when he's in the doorway, looking at you very clearly shy, twiddling your thumbs as you wait for him. It took everything in Hyunjin to not say "fuck this" over dinner and just take you on the table, the lust pouring off you enough to make him lose control if he was a lesser demon. And now, he can hear the thumping of your heart louder than ever, can smell the arousal pooling in your underwear even more clearly than he could over your meal.

"Silly girl," he says with a near grin as he steps fully inside your room, meeting you right where you are at the edge of the bed, "Why didn't you get comfortable? Sweet thing, you're nervous, aren't you?" He carefully nudges your legs so he can stand between them, and you swallow as you nod and look up at him, not sure how much more of the anticipation you can handle before you snap and just drag him to you in a fervor.

One of his hands comes to your cheek again, rubbing gentle, soothing circles with his thumb as he leans down to kiss you. He does it slowly, the combination of his soft lips and the taste of wine that still lingers on them making your stomach flip. It doesn't take long for him to introduce his tongue, in the same manner he always does- rubbing over your lips before pushing past them.

You're always left panting, lips stained red by the time he pulls away, and tonight his kisses leave you especially dizzy with need. "Take care of those buttons," he instructs in a near plea as his fingers ghost over your neck in their downward descent, "or I might just pop them off when I pull this off you." Your breath hitches, though you're not sure if it's more from the words or the feeling of his fingers lingering on your neck.

Hyunjin seems to notice that you like his fingers there, the way he notices everything when it comes to you, and he has to stop himself from smirking as he asks you about it. "My love- do you like being choked?" You almost groan in embarrassment, not expecting him to have already noticed and asked about it. How are you so fucking transparent to him already?

"I-I mean.. I'm curious. I've never done it, because.." Well, probably best you don't get into an ex-boyfriend talk right when you finally have the possibility of Hyunjin fucking you into next week right in the palm of your hands. "Uhm- it just never happened. But it looks nice. Really nice. I, uh- I think I'd like it," you say; certainly true, but without going into detail about how you always struggled to seem to trust your boyfriends enough to release control and let them do it.

It's natural that giving control to someone else is hard for you; you've always been very independent, and your career puts you in a position where you are leading others, always in control of everything. But you like the idea of giving control to someone else in the bedroom, letting them take the lead and decide on how you'll receive the pleasure you crave- the real problem lied with finding someone you trust enough to truly let go with.

You think you can trust Hyunjin- he's been so, so perfect since the day you met him. You firmly believe he sees you for who you are beyond your physical attributes, that he values you beyond the superficial, and that he'd never hurt you (unless you asked him to, of course.) Hyunjin naturally feels all this, can read every emotion that pours off of you- and the fact that you have trust that he'll treat you right positively elates him, knowing he’s one step closer to the love he craves so badly.

"We can try, see if you like it," he says, soft and careful, "and it doesn't have to be now. We can always wait until later." His fingers now rub over your neck purposefully, never wrapping around but simply familiarizing your skin with the feeling of them there. "Either way, we won't start with that. We need to build up to it first, don't you agree?" he asks and you hum with a nod- building up to it certainly sounds better than jumping straight into unfamiliar territory.

Carefully, and slowly, he lowers himself to his knees, still between your legs, now making it so he's the one looking up at you. "Even if we try it and you decide you don't like it, I'm so happy you trust me," he says before he kisses you once more, all his passion and affection behind the soft touch of his lips. "Do you already know what to do if you don't like it?"

You nod again, having become well familiarized with different safe words and systems you can put in place in your research on the topic when you first found out you might be into the rougher side of intimacy. Hyunjin tuts his time, displeased by the fact that you nodded instead of verbally answering him. "I need you to tell me what you know."

Despite the tone he used, his eyes are still soft, and you can tell he genuinely cares about your safety and comfort, aiding more in the trust you feel. "Sorry, I- I know what to do. Uh, traffic lights..?" you suggest, preferring that over coming up with a random safeword that you may not even remember if the time comes to use it. Hyunjin smiles again, telling you that's good before he kisses you again, making sure all your nerves melt away now that the key elements are established. This is supposed to be fun and enjoyable above all else- nothing else matters but that.

"Now, be a good girl and take care of those buttons like I asked you to, lovely," Hyunjin instructs in a gentle tone after he pulls away from your lips. With another shiver, you quickly do as you're told, fumbling with the buttons just slightly in your rush to get them all undone. You probably should've been more graceful about it- purposeful, maybe even sexy, but honestly you were acting before even fully considering how you'd appear.

With the buttons undone, Hyunjin pulls the cardigan down your shoulders, and you pull your arms out of the sleeves. You pay no attention to where it gets discarded, Hyunjin's lips back on your much too distracting to care about something so trivial. "Gonna take care of you now," he whispers against your lips, his fingers coming to bottom of your nightgown, where the hem squeezes against your parted thighs, "use your words if I do something you don't like."

You tell him you will, and he smiles again, rewarding you with one last sweet kiss to your lips before his lips trail your neck instead, his hands pushing your nightgown up your thighs until your thighs and panties are completely exposed. One thing Hyunjin is confident of from his time looking over your porn history, it's that you love biting- and while he's unsure if it's just a fantasy you have that has remained unfilled in reality, similar to choking, he's decided it's the first step he's going to take in gently finding your limit and what boundaries you want to set between fantasy and reality.

Carefully, after his kisses to your skin have become familiar, he presses his teeth to the sensitive skin, and you gasp before he even has the chance to actually bite down. To Hyunjin's absolute delight, you tilt your head to the side to expose more of your neck to him, giving him all the permission he needs to sink his teeth into your soft, unmarred skin. You let out an involuntary squeak at first, the unfamiliar sensation sending a pool of heat to your gut- the act always seemed so hot, and now you knew for sure you loved it.

It wasn't just the physical feeling of it you loved though- you loved the idea of your lover's marks remaining on your skin for days, leaving behind evidence that someone touched your body and brought you bliss. And while you'd certainly cover the marks with makeup for work, the knowledge that you and Hyunjin would share, that they are there just below the surface your concealer has created, would be so fun and exciting.

His hands leave your thighs, finding the straps of your nightgown and pulling them down, until your breasts are exposed for him to see. Pulling away from your neck, he admires you- the way your skin blooms with fresh bruises and impressions of his teeth, your nipples hard and begging to be played with, and your pretty white panties stained with arousal. You can see the lust in his eyes as he looks you over, and it makes you bite your lip in anticipation for what he'll do next.

"I've told you so many times you're beautiful, haven't I?" he asks as he takes your heavy breasts into his hands, though you can tell it's rhetorical- he's not expecting a real response from you. Instead, he continues to speak as his hands squeeze and thumbs rub over your nipples. "But I haven't told you how fucking sexy you are yet, isn't that right? You're so alluring, it drives me crazy sometimes. Did you know that?"

You can't help but let out a soft whine as you shake your head, completely clueless to the fact that you ever made him as crazy with need as he made you. You hoped you did plenty of times, but you really didn't know until now just how much he was holding back from having his hands all over you. His hands move to your hips next, fingers slipping into the band of your panties.

You lift your hips from the bed, letting Hyunjin pull the soaked fabric down your thighs and then your legs, tossing them quickly aside. You hold the bed for additional support as he spreads your thighs further apart, sucking in a nervous breath when he looks directly at your dripping heat. The fact that he's on his knees for you is already enough to have your heart feeling like it's going to beat out of your chest, but when he starts planting sensual, open-mouthed kisses to your thighs, mixed with carefully placed bites, you're done for.

Your thighs twitch with each kiss, jolt with each bite, your nails digging into your bed sheets before he's even at where you want him most. And God, when he finally kisses your pussy, you feel so worked up that you could cum just from that simple stimulation alone. When his tongue meets you it feels like heaven, your head falling back and an almost embarrassingly loud moan tumbling from your lips.

Hyunjin starts licking you up slowly, almost teasingly, and you can't even complain; because even though you still want more, it's already so good. It's when he's done with his teasing and really gets going that you're left truly breathless- he pulls you closer to his face, to the point your ass is practically hanging off the bed, but he throws your legs over his shoulders, using his hands to hold you in place, right where he wants you against his mouth.

Your whole body is trembling from the pleasure, and this position makes it so that your hips can't move unless he lets them. Even as you unconsciously twist and jolt from the pleasure, you're always firmly in place, unable to escape his tongue even if you wanted to. You cum almost embarrassingly fast like this, barely able to warn Hyunjin you're close before you're crying out in absolute bliss, eyes rolling to the back of your head.

You expect Hyunjin to set you down as you catch your breath, but that's the exact opposite of what happens; against all your expectations, he keeps going, his tongue sliding over and around your sensitive clit, drawing out your orgasm until the pleasure mixes with tingles of painful overstimulation. You stutter out a curse, loud whines and begs leaving you in a nearly unintelligible jumble- though you're not entirely sure if you're begging for him to stop or keep going.

His hands carefully move from your hips to squeeze the meat of your ass as he continues holding you where he wants you, tears pricking the corners of your eyes from the unrelenting onslaught of pleasure. You're certain you're going to receive a noise complaint from your neighbors, unable to control your volume as another, more intense orgasm rocks your body. The tears lingering in the corners of your eyes fall as you cum once again, and you can hear and feel Hyunjin groaning against you, evidently taking just as much pleasure in this as you are.

He's careful as he moves your trembling legs off his shoulders, helping you to fully rest your weight back on the bed. When he stands, he helps you get your head to the pillows before he's laying next to you, your sensitive body jolting once again when this time his fingers rub between your slick folds. "How're you feeling, my love?" he asks, wanting to make sure he's not overwhelming you too much.

You're definitely overwhelmed, but in the best way possible, and you stutter out a shaky "green," to which Hyunjin smiles. "What a good, perfect girl you are," he praises you, pressing lingering kisses to tear-streaked cheeks, "My sweet thing, you're all for me, aren't you? A good girl just for me?" You nod quickly, brain fuzzy with the desire to be anything he wants you to be. "'m a good girl, all for you Hyun, only you."

You have no idea how much those words affect him- and you're sure if your brain wasn't so foggy from the pleasure, you'd have noticed how he had to clench his teeth and take a breath to stop himself from pulling his cock out and fucking you into the mattress right that moment. Patience, restraint, it's not the right time, he has to desperately remind himself.

Even as his fingers slide inside your heat and hug him tightly, he has to make a conscious effort not to lose himself in the thought of what you'd feel like hugging his cock instead. In all his years of lust, he's never been this close to losing control of himself; but fuck, he's never wanted someone as bad as he wants you, and you're so slick and warm and tight, it takes all he has to ignore the desperate throbbing of his cock.

Hyunjin finds your spot within seconds, and your eyes are rolling back, fists once again straining and tugging against the sheets. He adds a third finger when you seem ready for it, pumping at a steady pace before he's curling his fingers into your spot again. He's at your neck again now, his teeth making contact with your skin just as they had before while his fingers continue their motion between your legs.

When he bites this time, it feels different- rather than the dull pain and ache his teeth brought before, this feels more.. sharp? You let out a loud gasp as the sudden sharp feeling buries further into your neck, as if Hyunjin is a vampire digging his fangs into your skin. Did he actually have fangs this whole time and you didn't notice..?

No, that seems impossible- and honestly you feel too fucking good right now to even put much more thought into it. You're sure it just feels that way because now that he knows you're comfortable with the sting, he doesn't need to show anymore restraint when biting, and is now putting more force into his bite- that's all that makes sense. He speeds up his fingers as his teeth sink further into your skin, his thumb firm on your clit, and it's enough to send you over the edge for a third time, your back arching off the bed as you let out a string of expletives and moans.

Fuck. When Hyunjin pulls away, he knows he fucked up, quickly retracting his fangs before you can notice them. The two holes left behind in your skin from his fangs make it look like you were bit by a fucking vampire, or a huge ass spider. Unlike the hickies, that's not the kind of shit you can just hide with makeup, and when you look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow you'll definitely have questions about how the fuck he managed to do that with dull, human teeth.

But when you look at him, absolutely blissed out and eyes hazy with pleasure, he decides that it's a problem for future Hyunjin; you're both already in the moment, and why ruin it now? He's still not quite done with you, after all; he's supposed to be relieving your stress like a good boyfriend. And what better way to relieve all your stress and tension than to make you cum again and again, until your body is as weak as jelly?

"Can you handle one more, lovely?" he asks, rubbing your cheek with his unoccupied hand. You lean into his touch, a soft smile on your face as you eagerly nod, ready to take all he wants to give you. He returns the smile, planting a lingering kiss on your swollen, self-bitten lips, praising you once more. His hand trails down to your neck, fingers lingering on the surface while his other hand resumes its motion between your legs.

"Tell me how you feel, baby," Hyunjin instructs softly, and you look at him with glassy eyes, stuttering out your answer. "Y-Yellow. Feels g-good, but 'm nervous," you say honestly and he coos and comforts you, assuring you he won't squeeze unless you want him too; for now, he'll just hold his hand in place, let you familiarize yourself with the pressure before you decide if you want anymore than that.

Soon enough your eyes are rolling back once more, your pussy clenching around his fingers as he drives you close to orgasm just as expertly as he did each time before, letting yourself go completely as you become familiar and comfortable with his hand on your neck. You're babbling almost incoherently about how good it feels, but there's one thing in your string of words that he hears loud and clear, and that's "more."

"Want me to squeeze, lovely?" he asks, wanting to make 100% sure that he's not mistaken, and you nod quickly, repeating the word "squeeze" with a soft, pleading voice, followed by a string of "please, please, please." You don't have to beg for a single thing when it comes to Hyunjin, but fuck, does he love hearing it more than he's ever loved anything.

And so he does as you ask, gently of course, since it's your first time experiencing it. And your body immediately reacts, gushing and clenching hard around his fingers as your mouth hangs open in a silent wail of pleasure, your last orgasm of the night hitting you like a semi-truck. Hyunjin slides his fingers out of you, planting soft kisses to your heated, sweat laden skin as you come down from the high.

He steps away just for a moment to bring you some water, helping you sit up enough to drink it before you fall back against the bed, body limp, utterly spent and exhausted. "Hyun.. what about you..?" you ask in a sleepy voice, and Hyunjin chuckles softly, patting the top of your head after he wipes the sweat from your brows. "I'm good, baby, this was all for you. Feeling better now?"

You hum with a soft smile, curling into him and closing your heavy eyes. Hyunjin does his best to fix your nightgown and clean you up, once again chuckling when you start to softly snore after he manages to get you under the blankets. As a demon, he doesn't need to sleep, but he lies next to you anyways, wrapping his arms around you and smiling as you snore into his chest.

There's an anxiety that lingers in the back of his mind, the reality that come tomorrow you're going to see an abnormal mark on your neck and how he'll have to face what that means for your budding relationship. Does he tell the truth? Would you even accept him if you knew? As far as he knew, humans hated and feared demons, and demons in turn weren't supposed to be fond of humans.

Loving you was against everything he understood about himself, and loving him would be against what you understood about yourself. Hyunjin closes his eyes, and for the first time in centuries, he forces himself to take the sleep he doesn't need- because if this is where his relationship with you goes up in flames, then he wants the last good moment to be spent as human as he can possibly make it.

i hope you enjoyed thus far, there's just one more chapter after this! and as a preview this is what i will say: …. sex with hyunjin in his demon form. i hope this intrigues you :) <3

#skz x reader #hyunjin x reader #skz smut #hyunjin smut #skz scenarios #skz imagines #mdni + divider graphic credit: @cafekitsune #i literally stayed up all night to finish writing and editing this and now its past 6am #why do i keep doing this to myself... i'm going to bed.... GOOD NIGHT

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avelera · 1 year

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Andor brings the importance of money and economic systems back to mainstream sci-fi/fantasy

So fun fact, one reason I love "Andor" so much is that they have money in it.

Right off the bat, in episode 1, they start establishing that things cost money in this sci-fi industrial town where we find ourselves. People have jobs. There are things people can't do because they have money. There's things that even people with money, like Mon Mothma, can't afford because money isn't infinite and it requires logistics to move around. There are haves and have-nots in this society and the Rebellion will sink or swim based on if it can pay its people and purchase equipment. One of the first major arcs is a bank heist.

Ok, so why is this so huge? Shouldn't it be obvious that money makes the world go 'round, even in a sci-fi setting like Star Wars?

Well, here's the thing. Think about all the Disney-owned movies you've seen. How many of them talk about money in any kind of concrete terms? It does happen, but it's quite rare and it's almost never to the extent that money matters in "Andor". A character might have "rich" or "poor" as a character trait, but economic systems are rarely discussed, why certain people do or don't have money isn't discussed.

This is for a very good reason. Back in the mid 20th c., entertainment companies like Disney made a conscious choice not to talk about economic systems in their stories. Why? Because to do so forced the story to take a stance in the existential battle between Capitalism vs. Communism. Even seemingly innocuous story choices like the injustices a poor kid might face in a story could be seen as taking a stance, not something you wanted to invite with things like the Red Scare going on.

But it's really a shame that this choice, which was in response to the political conflicts of the time, has been so perpetuated and that companies like Disney still avoid the concretes of money in most of their works. And that warps the conversation within those works and within society at large as a result. More often in mainstream genre fiction stories as a result, stories must play to fantastical elements and undefined Good vs. Evil to explain why a conflict is taking place between two sides. Certain "So what?" factors and plot elements don't quite line up. Money and resources are at the heart of most real world major conflicts, but by focusing on "good" and "evil" instead you obfuscate the interests involved, the motivations involved, what everyone is getting out of a conflict when they choose to help or not to help. You can't feed yourself on idealism alone.

By leaning into the existence of money, resources, and the haves-and-have-nots of a society, Andor is able to couch its story of revolution in real world limitations for the characters and real world obstacles. It makes everything deeper, more satisfying, more understandable as to why anyone is doing anything. It's hard to talk about fighting a fascist state like the Empire if you don't talk about complicit corporations, or forced labor (because even the Empire can't afford to pay for the sheer amount of labor it needs otherwise) or how everyone on the Rebellion side can afford these fancy X-Wings.

I hope shows like Andor will be taken to heart, not just by more mainstream works of genre fiction using the inherent conflicts that arise from a defined economic system, but also by younger creators who may have grown up on a steady genre fiction diet of "money only sort of exists when it's needed for the plot, if at all". So much worldbuilding is impossible if you don't understand who has resources and what economic systems are being employed. So much character conflict is shallow if you can't define who has money, who has resources, and who has obstacles from not having a limitless supply of those things, and what are those obstacles?

It's super refreshing to see and I will reiterate, Andor is perhaps the best show out there right now from a writer perspective and everyone should watch it.

#andor #star wars #writing #worldbuilding

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utilitycaster · 6 months

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Were people mad about Marion x Sean not happening? I know it was popular during episode 1 but I feel like by episode 2 most everyone saw the writing in the walls with Marion and Jean obviously being into each other.

A refreshingly small number, honestly! It was one or two people in the main tags and maybe one or two more who said obnoxious things in the tags of my posts. I used that as an example because it was fresh in my mind and because that was genuinely such a great line in a fantastic arc in a fantastic series that closing yourself off to it is a miserable prospect.

Here is the thing about writing on the walls: there is a level of shipping where people will openly ignore it, eg: literally everyone who claims Beau and Yasha "came out of nowhere"; basically anyone who focuses extensively on microexpressions because that frequently goes hand-in-hand with ignoring Character A and Character B kissing each other in favor of how Character C blinked a millisecond too rapidly in A's direction; etc.

This also, honestly, isn't limited to shipping, though that's the most common case where I see it. I think part of why Campaign 2 hate is so bitter at times is because there are genuinely many, many people who watched all 141 episodes and who loved almost everything in 140 of them and then hated that the finale did not bring back Molly or did not have the ship they thought was "supposed" to happen appear - I was there, and people who claim Campaign 2 sucked were there too watching along throughout the whole thing; they just definitely thought the couples would all break up and rearrange in episode 141 for no apparent reason.

That's really my larger point: I think there is a certain kind of person who tells themself how a story "should" end, whether it's a particular ship or a particular story beat, and becomes furious when the story - which never made that promise - fails to deliver. Not only did Candela pretty clearly signal that Marion and Jean were into each other, it also told us inherently within the story and in literally every out of character interview that this was pretty much guaranteed to not end remotely close to any sort of happily ever after. It's funny - earlier in campaign 3 there was a lot of flack towards some fans' (of which I was one) frustration with the story on the basis of narrative/pacing, and I still see the inane "must stories have conflict" argument pop up. But those same people who get mad at those who talk about inconsistent themes or characterization or awkward pacing are, more often than not, people whose assessment of a story rests entirely on the incredibly narrow "did I get the exact ships and plot elements I wanted out of this and was my blorbo the coolest guy ever all the time," rather than the broad and inclusive "did this story capably deliver on an interesting premise."

#answered #Anonymous #anyway. media illiteracy and conspiratorial thinking are a hell of a drug.#i know this sounds wild but like. i can think of MANY cases where people whose fandom opinions I dislike also post political misinfo a lot #and it's not a case of if you ship this you're problematic; it's that they have no capacity to recognize their own confirmation bias #and thus fall for psyops that validate their pre-existing beliefs #this is one of my other wild amateur fandom anthropologist thoughts but like. i think plenty of people stop at shipping goggles #but some apply that same denial of the realities of a situation/breadcrumbs over schnitzel to the real world and. yikes.

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mongen · 3 months

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I’m 3 episodes into Hazbin Hotel

It’s a lot better than I was expecting, but I have some criticisms:

1. The cast needs to stop acting like Angel is disgusting for being into what he’s into. Literally everybody they come across seems to comment on how gross they think it is, and it kind of clashes with how popular he supposedly is.

2. The songs need more breathing room. There’s 0.2 second of lead-in to some of them. I get that the snappy, overly energetic animation and editing is a rollover from the pilot, but it’s strangling the songs and preventing them from having the gravity they should have.

3. The plot progression feels like a list of bullet points. I’m not going to spoil it, but there’s a major mystery brought up in episode 1 that is answered in episode 3 very unceremoniously and with very little time for the mystery to stew. There’s potentially a very interesting intrigue plot going on, but it’s impact is damped by the fact that it’s delivered very matter-of-fairly by a bunch of supposedly very powerful characters who we haven’t seen before.

4. The spider dude who speaks in pseudo-Shakespearian English is very difficult to understand, and I couldn’t catch his many any of the three or so times it was said because I was trying to process the last thing he’d said. A lot of characters’ voice lines are mixed strangely, but his prose makes it almost impossible.

5. The animation and character designs are much better than in the pilot, but some of the steps they took to simplify the visuals backfired a bit. They cut back on the excess detail and over-animating just enough to make the style still distinctive, but ended up with some 3/4 perspectives that look real wonky. There are also a few shots where characters are forced into a perspective view and it shows.

6. Adam shouldn’t be the leader of the angels. Based on my (limited) knowledge of the worldbuilding, it’s based on 14th century occult appropriation of Jewish spiritual myths like Goetia (as described in the Lesser Key of Solomon) and concepts like the seven deadly sins, so by that token, the leader of the army of angels should be the angels whose name literally means “The Sword of God”: Gabriel. They could also have used the angels of death, Justice, light, or any number of other aspects. I get that they’re not being super strictly literal to those old times (and that’s for the best, Crowley, Aleister, and co were foundational to many modern antisemitic conspiracy theories), but Adam is a weird choice a leader of armies.

All that to say, I’m really excited to watch the rest of the series, but I’m not going to keep my expectations somewhat low.

#hazbin hotel #media criticism #animation #musicals #just because this post has a lot of negative comments doesn’t mean my overal opinion is negative #I still think the worldbuilding and goal are good #I just think the execution could’ve used some polish

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centrally-unplanned · 1 year

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Watched the new Dungeons & Dragons movie and the original D&D film from the 2000's back to back yesterday, which was a very amusing comparison. The new movie was quite good! Its highly standard of course, but its not afraid to be that, who doesn't like a scampy rogue and a gruff barbarian and an ecoterrorist druid wild shaper and all that. Dead moms and daddy issues for an arc as required by law, which is fine as a structure. On that structure is a lot of very fun action scenes, creative directing, and a really good cast, Chris Pine & Justice Smith in particular know exactly how to play their roles, and when has Hugh Grant ever not knocked it out of the park.

It was very smart about limiting down and keeping small the crew, their goals, and what everyone can achieve. Chris Pine's Edgin is presumably a bard, but that just means he plays the lute; he has no spellcasting abilites, no Songs of Inspiration, he is the idea man and he uses his charisma to lead a team like any person would. As I joked, the druid is not a druid, she instead can only wild shape, since that is enough power for one film. Our guest paladin is the same, just a warrior with principles. The team has a sorceror and that is enough 'mechanics' for the squad. What this frees up is a lot of space for worldbuilding; you visit a ton of places in the Forgotten Realms very quickly, but since its just a team of dudes who you understand you spend that time getting to know the setting and the characters. The actual plot has a lot of moving parts, you can be legitimately surprised at times due to that, without giving you things you aren't gonna understand in that plot.

Even with the powerset they have some of the fight scenes need idiot balls to make sense; the Underdark sequence is the biggest culprit there, many many moments of "bro you can teleport, and you can turn into a bird, why are you running on your little human legs?". But its never for things that really matter, a little idiot ball here and then is fine.

Meanwhile *man* is the 2000 film a trainwreck - it has a very stacked deck going against it. It was a film trying to use 2000 CGI to the maximum extent, for which nothing has aged worse - every sequence with a dragon should honestly just be removed. It was shackled with of-the-time humor styles that age awfully, in particular Marlon Wayans porting in the wacky-black-sidekick character archetype that he (as 1/2 of the Wayans Brothers) popularized never works once, it was always cringe my guys and doubly cringe in a fantasy world. I didn't realize this, but its apparently trying to recreate the success of The Mummy (1999)? The male lead is 100% styled after Brendan Fraiser as a leather-clad explorer with the same exact hair, and the female lead is styled after buttoned-up librarian Rachel Weisz. Which, when you know, makes it really embarassing, its a failed attempt at recreation.

The issue is all of these 'ambitions' reduce its ability to be a fun fantasy b-movie. If the dragons were cool obvious puppets, no one would care, thats great! If you just had a fun likeable cast fighting bad guys, you would like them, you would accept it, but they try so hard to be zany and filled with conflict (there is a whole mage-commoner caste system plot line....ughhhhhhh) you don't like any of them. It even simultaneously has a badass action chick on the side while its main female lead is reduced to powerlessness due to plot demands and the romance arc, in the same film, which is *worse* than just having either one.

Also award for literally the worst case of boob armor I have ever seen in my life:

She better be storing some long-range MK-class explosives in there because otherwise those torpedo tubes are fucking empty.

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cts-games · 3 months

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Breakheart: Dev Diary 1

Game Structure Overview

To help keep me focused on working on the game and trying to meet my self imposed deadline of having some kind of PDF preview document by August, I'm going to try to maintain having a weekly devlog discussing the game and its various mechanics. Or bi-weekly, if one per week ends up being too much. I guess this is also the formal announcement of the name of this game, Breakheart.

This week, I'll be discussing the overall structure of a campaign.

A Cluster functions similarly to how a Team/Squad sheet functions in Forged in the Dark games. It has its own dedicated sheet, resource management, upgrades, etc. All players in that cluster gain the benefits of the various advancements they collect for their Cluster. Recommended clustersize is roughly 2-3 play groups. Since playgroups are recommended to be 3-5 players, the typical Cluster size will be about 10 players. Meanwhile if the campaign is made up of just a bunch of solo players, it might make sense to have smaller Clusters of 3-5 people. Just keep in mind that the more players in a Cluster, the more conflict there may be when selecting advancements and upgrades for the group.

Breakheart is designed to theoretically be able to function with any group size. From being able to run it as a solo game, all the way up to running it with several hundred players. I think actually expecting the second option is a bit of a lofty goal, and don't expect it to be a common way to run the game. Hell, just having a hundred people having ever played the game would be a delight and far greater than I dare to hope for a indie ttrpg release. But, I still want to structure it that way, just to have it as an option, as the game will be designed with Open Table Play in mind. This will be accomplished through what I am calling Clusters.

Clusters

Clusters are only meant to divide resources, NOT players. While players are bound to a specific Cluster, this does NOT limit who they can play with in a campaign, only where their upgrades go. It's just designed to make the logistics easier to manage and helps keep a hypothetical campaign of 100 players from just buying every single upgrade after a single mission, or one player spending 100 players worth of communal resources at once.

Open Table Play

The game itself follows a fairly standard West Marches / Open Table style format. Though uh... I certainly aim to be a little less colonial than West Marches was. Players work together to figure out when they have time to play a single session together, and then they do so, bringing back resources and reporting any important findings to the whole campaign in whichever predetermined way all the players of the campaign have decided, be it group text chat, discord, a dedicated tumblr sidelong they submit play reports to, actual play videos, whatever.

All sessions run concurrently, using an episodic format. Each session acts as a different plot line in the 'Episode', and each character can only take part in one adventure per Episode. Once the Episode has concluded, an Intermission starts. This is where downtime actions take place. Characters can recover between adventures and spend their loot on various advancements or upgrades for their Cluster.

It is fine for a player to have multiple characters, but they should probably keep them in separate clusters as much as possible. In this way, more active players can join more games, while less active players can pick up games here and there where they can. Alternatively, it could be fun to have an optional rule where each player has their own Cluster for all their characters, and players just make as many characters as they want to go on adventures with, but this will not be the default mode of play.

GM-Agnostic(ish)

The system itself will be GM-Agnostic, with sessions being playable solo or co-op, though the Solo/Co-op Rules can absolutely just be ignored and replaced with an actual GM. GMless should work fine for smaller campaigns, but ones made up of multiple Clusters may need a Organizor/Facilitator to help keep the persistent world between different play groups more organized.

At the end of the day, a group is always free to just run a Breakheart campaign using only a single Cluster, with a dedicated GM, and play the game as a more traditional TTRPG.

#Breakheart #Dev Diary #ttrpg #ttrpg dev

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snarky-art · 11 months

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Alrighty I’ve finally finished season 5

I hate how obvious it is they’re trying to tone the show down completely to even lower audience demographic. The first 3 seasons were for kids but there was actual peril and darker concepts and stuff that were much more interesting damn you Nickelodeon and your desperate attempt to keep the most squeaky clean image ever not only does it not work it’s costing stories and plot

I REFUSE to believe Stella would be a bad fashion designer with how much she loves fashion (I know it was a joke in s1 too but I still refuse). Plus, avant-garde is a thing and she would serve

That boat that was sent from Andros was def made exclusively for the winx there is NO WAY that style exists anywhere else on that planet for land related peoples with all of its hard lines and industrial style architecture with its limited color palettes

The nautical themed outfits are cute but Bloom’s looks SO overdone to me and Stella,, my sweet babygorl,, wtf did you do to your own fit?? Aisha’s poodle puff braid ftw also

Harmonix was totally useless BUT I still like the flower petal aesthetic vibe (even tho only Flora is a nature floral lady) and some of the color combos. Bloom in pink is still a no tho, which is something I mainly hate because of how obvious it is they started integrating it into her more to make her more marketable for toy lines and shit

Where did the gems that were already on the starfish thing for sirenix come from?

The amount of times the girls all gasp or ooo or ahh and go like “wow!” “so cool!” “amazing!”,, I will kill I feel like I’m watching a 1990s or early 2000s anime dub I hate it I hate it I hate it

Icy would NOT simp like this (shoutout to her leaving Valtor when he got ugly and telling him that’s why she’s leaving him)

The relationship drama was just as stupid and hamfisted as I thought it was from an outside skim of the season based off of secondhand knowledge ie posts and gifs. Also, Krystal did nothing wrong, she’s just autistic and Helia would NOT introduce Flora as anything other than the love of his life.

Timmy and Tecna also have one of the healthiest relationships why tf is everyone trying to give them advice like this they’ve all been dating for YEARS why are all of y’all so insecure like this? The writers really said fuck everyone’s character development even more than they already had

I continue to not give a shit about skoom also this was just exhausting I can’t do it

Also that is NOT Luna and Radius. That “he wouldn’t say that!” meme is ME SOOOO MUCH during this season at so many people but I actually started YELLING about Luna being some sort of soft gorl while Radius is this prideful ignoramus

Sirenix giving Aisha that blonde hair while knowing about the insane white washing to come in the future is something I Think About

The sirenix song does bop also, although I’m so sorry to say I don’t think I’m as big of a fan of it as a lot of people are but maybe that’ll change as I hear it more please forgive me

Also, Musa’s little coffee grinder move during her sirenix transformation? So cute, wish we actually got to see it more than like 2 times. Damn you shortened sirenix transformarion sequence

Im convinced Tecna doesn’t actually know karate, she just thinks it looks cool so she mimics it. Same with Flora and her ballet/lyrical looking poses she does during her sirenix transformation sequence. She doesn’t actually know those styles of dance, she just thinks they looks neat and tries to copy it.

Dark sirenix, you’re slaying thank you for your service

Bloom, you can’t insult Diaspro and remind her you’re a princess in that fucking dress while she’s serving cunt like that

The combat is soooo slow compared to previous seasons I hate it

The rigging throughout this season was a MESS

They should go after the handful of companies that are actually responsible for the majority of pollution and destroy them and their ceos a la Flora season 1 core

Where did they put all of that trash they got out of the ocean? They went to the pacific trash island and cleaned it up. Where did it go? I’m so curious

All of the kings are so STUPID too the whole meetup thing was so dumb like just fucking,, help each other you know it makes more sense

AND PUT SOME MF RESPECT ON THE WINX’S NAMES, ALL OF THEM. They are GUARDIAN FARIES who have saved the magical world HOW MANY TIMES NOW??? Bites the writers bites the writers bites the writers

Their little dance workout outfits? Hatred. I miss the old ones so much. All of these outfits from this season,, it’s so clear cishet people were the main ones designing the clothes I hate it so much it’s not the same kind of tacky and camp that the first 3 seasons had. The only good things I can say about the dance outfits is that Flora’s purple leg warmers were cute, Aisha’s color palette was nice, and Bloom’s was very Bloom core

Icy: you guys are helping me??

Darcy and Stormy: I mean, yeah, we aren’t talking to you rn, but you’re still out sister

Me: OUGH🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭

I forgot Roy existed🥲

Daphne being brought back like this still seems so bleh to me knowing how they don’t really do shit with it and about how it was done only because they retconned all the og stuff from canon and to continue to milk the franchise until it’s teats are dry and chapped BUT I’m glad she does a little spinny at the end of the season with Bloom so at least I got that

that’s all I got for now

Shout out to @charmixpower for suffering through this all with me.

We watched the first half of the series in like 2 or 3 sittings that took place months apart, and then did the last half in one 8 hour sitting

I couldn’t have gotten through it without yelling at each other and making shitty jokes.

The psychic damage you inflicted on me throughout this was awful but I would do it all again in a heartbeat (but not really because good lird this was EXCRUCIATING sorry bestie💕💕💕)

Anyway onto season 6 now I GUESS

#Winx club #winx #winx club rewatch #rewatch #winx rewatch #snarky ramblings #which is a new tag I’ll make I GUESS #Winx club season 5 #winx season 5 #Winx s5 #Winx club s5

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mikajihiko · 1 year

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PASH 2019 A Summary of Natsuki Kizu’s GIVEN Interview 1- How was Given born, what works made you want to draw? I wanted to draw a manga which had another key point other than love. I think the main purpose of BL is "romance" but I wanted something other than that. There are a lot of reasons why I chose music. I simply like music and a friend of mine used to be in a band- I wondered if using music to express emotions in BL had a good compatibility.

2- What are the origins, like the character settings of the 4 main characters. It was originally planned to be completed in one volume, similar to many BL works. Initially, the plan was to end with the first live performance. As for the other characters, I cant express well with their origins- only Mafuyu was a decisive decision.

3- Which character was the easiest and hardest to move In contrast, I have a hard time handling Mafuyu since he has a lot of elements that I don't have. Hiragi was the easiest to write as his elements are simple.

4- Tell us a behind-the-scene information that will only be revealed here Haruki has only one ex-boyfriend.

5- Who is going to be the uke and seme among Ritsuka & Mafuyu, or Haruki & Akihiko; and how is it going to pan out The theme for both is "emergence". I'm not picky when it comes to who's uke and seme as I prioritize the plot regardless of what I think.

6- What scene or line left the strongest impression on you "Just a little bit" on page 124 volume 2. This series started because I wanted to convey this, and so I was deeply moved when I was finally able to say it.

7- How familiar are you with music? Do you have any musical instruments youre familiar with, or experience in bands? I'm an amateur when it comes to music. I have no band experience, I just love music. I did a lot of lessons but I didn't keep up, I did like listening.

8- What genre of music did you have in mind for Given, and did you use any artists for reference I was asked this when making the anime and it really bothered me because I haven’t decided at all. This is because of "Imeson culture" or image song. It is where the subject is similar but the songs are different to each person. Musical preference also play a role so theres almost no right answer- I think its better to not limit the reader. Regarding "what kind of music is playing", it's left to the reader as much as possible. Ive been careful to leave a space in between as I draw.

9- How did you become a professional writer, and what or who are those that influenced your style? In university, I was in the video (movie) field. Even though I didn't end up in the video field, I think I was strongly influenced by the video-like expression method.

10- What BL works have greatly influenced you, or that you would recommend It's not BL, it's "Banana Fish". My father likes it, and it's almost the only manga I've had at home. It’s one of my original experiences with manga.

11- In production, what do you pay attention to the most I pay attention to the right amount of realism. Since BL stories itself are in insane fantasy, I thought that the foundation that supports it should be somewhat realistic. So, in order to keep the band setting, I studied music and conducted interviews. Also, Given has a mix of true stories from myself and friends, however, it would be a waste of fiction if it was true to reality.

I recommend buying the magazine, its really big! It features Akihiko and Ugetsu on the cover along with a large poster and ticket holder. Check it out here!

#Given #Given Anime #Given Manga #Natsuki Kizu #Pash 2019 interview #Pash 2019 Given #PASH Given #Merch_GU #GivenUpdates

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raayllum · 1 year

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Cube Hostage Exchange Theory :: End of Days

Because I like nothing more than to organize things accordingly and my brain needs something to focus on for the final few days before the season drops and we get answers to a lot of questions (or at least, a lot of the questions this theory has attempted to answer over the past two years) I thought, “Hey Dragons, why not do your best to compile and breakdown literally every single piece of evidence there is for Cube Hostage Exchange Theory, just in case you’re right and want something to fondly look back on?”

(And also because I know I won’t have the same motivation to make this post if I’m wrong, but making this post sounds like fun for one last hurrah for myself and the little CHET posse this theory has, somehow, fondly amassed).

So here it is.

My end of days, final presentation of Cube Hostage Exchange Theory (otherwise nicknamed as CHET), all that it encompasses, and all that it could inspire, what’s been added to it over time, and why I think it has a decent shot at being what happens in the S4 finale. As well as a little indulgent walk down history / memory lane for me because I started posting about it two years ago, and I do what I want.

What is CHET?

A theory that proposes the S4 finale / current climax with Claudia, Aaravos and co. will threaten Rayla’s life in order for Callum to hand over the Key of Aaravos, thus allowing him to fully break free of his prison and putting the world at risk as a result, specifically in holding her hostage.

I first posted about it on September 21st, 2020 (a couple weeks after Through The Moon graphic novel got released) as just an idea and then made a proper theory post about a month later on October 26th, 2020.

It is my little bonbon and I think it is very neat. As you can see, it was an exceeding simple plot structure modelled to be a finale or final 3 episode prediction (4x07-4x09) for the end of the season, with very little speculation of what would happen in the build up to it besides 1) Callum having to learn about Aaravos in order to know what he was risking and 2) Callum and Rayla getting a chance to hash out some of their emotional baggage even if they hadn’t wholly resolved it.

The original theory post itself touched on some concepts that will be repeated down below, such as the idea that the hostage exchange would ideally 1) not be Rayla and Callum’s first reunion, 2) the series’ intrinsic concept of Exchange, 3) why failure is necessary for Rayla but not a punishment, 4) how her lack of self worth manifests, and perhaps most importantly, 5) how Callum is always instrumental in breaking her cycles.

The theory has since grown to encompass many others as well as a plethora of evidence I stumbled upon, first accidentally and then with a more purposefully keen eye, in terms of foreshadowing, set up, and parallel / cyclical episode structures that TDP loves to utilize and has utilized before. Again, more on that at the bottom.

What made me first think of it?

Simply put, it just seemed the most straight forward route that would also yield the biggest dramatic consequences for character and for story. Post-TTM Rayla was racing right towards Aaravos without even knowing, Callum has something called a Key, Aaravos wants to escape his prison. Thus, it would give Callum a clear hand in how the plot would move forward and fit with some of the more dubious choices he’d made before. I also liked the way it could conceivably offer up a pathway for Rayla and Callum’s emotional arcs; for Rayla, it’d be an unexpected hammer to her own perception of her self and her self worth, for Callum to throw it all on the line even after she’d hurt him so terribly much; for Callum, it would give him space to be angry with Rayla but also room for a good old “Fuck everything else, I just want you to be okay” when it comes to like, offering us a strong reconciliation within the limited emotional time frame of a TV show.

Why Should Rayla Get Saved?

Rayla left in TTM because she thought Callum could handle losing her in ways she couldn’t handle losing him. This fundamentally comes down to Rayla’s self sacrificial tendencies veering into self-destructive behaviour (leaving at all) and her justifications for it being that she isn’t “good enough” to be worth fighting for / loving the way she loves others, as well as deeper issues of survivor’s guilt and possibly not feeling like she quite deserves to live and be loved.

Although I don’t subscribe to the “Rayla left out of pride” lens at all, even under it, Rayla needing to be saved seems like the most logical conclusion, otherwise how is she supposed to learn that she can’t do everything herself?

Rayla can’t succeed in her quest to stop Viren or to fully protect Callum, lest she think what she did in TTM is “ultimately fine” just because it worked in protecting him successfully. She also can’t single handedly stop the villains only halfway through the show. Therefore, Rayla has to fail, and likely has to fail at protecting Callum by the finale specifically, as that was her worst fear. Since she went to all this effort to protect him, the biggest form of failure would be if he ends up in danger at one point because of her. However, that’s precisely why it has to happen - and why it would also hammer that point in further if he’s also saving her while he does it.

Why Can’t Rayla Just Save Callum?

More recently there’s been an upswing in theories regarding Rayla being Callum’s guiding light out of his “path of darkness” (Callum’s promo quote) given the way the moon halos her head upon entry, her name meaning, her associations with Truth and the Moon arcanum over Aaravos’ starry deception. It is also more in line with what I thought S4 might be like pre-TTM’s release, with Callum getting in way over his head with something magical and Rayla having to help (alongside Ezran possibly) pull him back from the brink.

The light and dark motif now running more prominently throughout both their arcs is also, funnily enough, something I noticed and wrote a meta about close to five months ago back in June, which you can read the full thing here. It was something I had always appreciated about Callum and Rayla’s framing with one another throughout S1 and particularly S2 with Rayla representing the light. It was something I only started to think more on when I began to compile parallels between Aaravos and Rayla, including their names (“between light and dark” and “ray of light” respectively).

Thus, I do think Rayla will save Callum emotionally/mentally from Aaravos in some manner at some point in the season, as that’s in line with how she keeps Callum out of his head in S1-S3. However, the other half of that pattern is Callum saving her physically, and that’s why I think the light and darkness motif feeds nicely into what I’ve also penned as the Mutual Salvation Theory originally in August 7th, 2022, before we even knew Rayla would be returning at all.

The question then becomes: well, what is he going to save her from? To a certain degree it’s herself, as laid out in this interview with Devon Giehl (TDP’s head writer) and Michal Schick (a staff writer) regarding Rayla’s letter:

She wants to stay because she’s in love with Callum, she wants to leave because she’s in love with Callum. And I think that’s just kinda like - Rayla’s version of love is, at this point in her life, always gonna hurt someone, including herself. Badly.

The clearest way for this to manifest is for each of them to get a chance to reaffirm their love for one another and choose each other. Due to the symbolism baked into the trailer and the season promo, it seems pretty clear that at the very least, Rayla will be guiding Callum away from darkness at one point in the season. Thus, what’s left is for him to save her in an equally thematically and plot-driven way - thus proving her previous beliefs wrong, reaffirming his love for her, and pushing the plot along.

This dual “I save you, you save me” plot line is an add-on to broader CHET, as that would provide Callum’s turn of things. Additionally, I think Rayla saving Callum in “guiding light” way may happen before the finale, with the finale then focusing on him saving her, for one main reason:

The Moon Arcanum

Given that the season will inevitably talk about Callum reconnecting with Rayla and the foreshadowing in previous seasons that the Moon arcanum will be the next one he connects to, it seems like S4 is the most natural place for it. This is only reaffirmed by Callum likely being tempted by Aaravos, a great deceiver, as well as the way he’s obsessed with secrets and denying parts of himself / his feelings already in 4x01, and Rayla representing the Truth, the way she always has been.

If we go along that route, then there’s the question of what would compel Callum to connect to the Moon arcanum, especially if he’s off chasing dark magic somewhat this season. Again, given the thematic and symbolic set up already in store, it will likely be him admitting out loud to himself that he loves Rayla, and always will, thus allowing him to fully see past Aaravos’ deceptions (as far as temptation goes).

However, I do not think, though, that such a triumphant note can be where the season ends. After all, we know this era of the Dragon Prince’s world is known as the Return of Aaravos, and that the Startouch elf must be broken free of his prison by the end of the season. Thus, our heroes have to fail, and I think it needs to go one step further than just failing to stop Aaravos from getting out, but of actively helping him - even if it’s against their will.

So what would that look like, and why do I think it has to be the transfer of the Cube for Rayla?

The Cube

Paraphrasing posts I’ve made before but:

1) Without the cube being called the Key of Aaravos, it being the key to Aaravos’ prison would feel like it came out of nowhere. However, because of such a specific name, it is many people’s default assumptions and that feels purposeful. After all, if they wanted one or the other kind of associations, they could have said Hand or Eye of Aaravos, or Key of mystical sounding name here, but they specifically chose to put those associations together. The show loves to be cryptic and straightforward all at once, with warnings like “Draw your last breath” (3x07) being instructions to literally draw a breathing rune

2) One of the reasons I think the cube is related to Aaravos’ prison is precisely because it was entrusted to Callum by Harrow, the two characters most concerned thematically with the theme of Freedom through both their speeches, actions (Callum shattering the primal stone to free Zym, Callum ending Rayla’s cycles) and most notably his arcanum of the Sky. So you have Callum, who is tethered to the theme of Freedom, with a Key in his possession, Aaravos having some idea of how to get himself out of his prison if his machinations / guidance of Claudia and Viren are any clue, and Aaravos, who wants to be free of his mirror prison more than anything.

Larger meta post here as well as some very cool similarities the Key could have to the Egyptian myth of Thoth, god of knowledge, presenting a Key of Life to Osiris, god of the underworld.

3) The Key has been associated specifically with Rayla and her relationship to Callum above anyone else since the beginning of the series. Their first real bonding moment is her agreeing to go get it from the Banther Lodge, she risks her life to do so, and is routinely the other character (sometimes swapped in or sharing that role with Bait) that Callum discusses the cube with. Then there’s also the fact that ties into one of Callum’s consistent aspects of seeing worth in things Rayla doesn’t: appreciating Xadia’s magical nature with fresh eyes (1x05), seeing worth in the Cube (1x04, 1x05), and indeed, Rayla herself (1x05, 3x04). Rayla’s language surrounding the key is also very interesting, but we’ll talk about more of that in the next point, which is:

4) Back in early December 2021, I made a post documenting what I’d noticed of the consistent way the Cube was referred to as a game piece or Aaravos playing a game. (Just for frame of reference, this was almost precisely 6-7 months prior to Aaravos holding Viren like a game piece in the SDCC intro trailer).

Also keep in mind that Viren asks Aaravos once, and only once, if he’s playing a game. The rest of this coding is done through Rayla alone as a character: “It’s a toy. It’s piece from a children’s game,” “It’s a glow toy” and then “Are you practicing magic or are you losing a game?” which now seems like very overt S4 foreshadowing.

This also played into what I had noticed in terms of the likelihood of games and tests being intertwined, as they often are in mythic stories or folktales, and this statement from Aaravos felt like something that had to come back in some way (and already has for Claudia as a character, circa end of 3x09).

Playing a game (particularly chess) against Death or the devil for your soul is common and fit neatly together. The marketing for S4 has only reaffirmed this with lines like “They’re not games. They’re tests” from Soren’s short story.

Aaravos has offered a test of love to one pawn, in Claudia, first tasking her with reviving her father, and now stretching it further to see what she’s willing to do to keep Viren alive. Viren, who was already dead, just as Rayla comes from a culture in which she is already dead and seen as a Ghost. It doesn’t feel like a stretch to presume Aaravos will give Callum his own Test of Love to either pass or fail, and given that Claudia’s have all related to Aaravos’ main priority of getting out of his mirror, Callum’s likely will too. Especially since it seems like Claudia’s motivations for helping Aaravos may change drastically in S4... but more on that later.

What Does CHET Provide Narratively?

Arc 1 of TDP was largely concerned with “How can we fix our parents’ mistakes?” However, as the world grows more complicated and characters more complex as a result, it is likely Arc 2 will ask, “How can we fix our own mistakes?” This requires mistakes to be made, of course: for Rayla, the continual fallout of her leaving, and for Callum, inadvertently helping Aaravos successfully escape his mirror - and then more so by choice (or under coercion, depending on definition).

This ties into the way Callum often breaks Rayla’s cycles that she’s trapped in whether through her choices, circumstances, or both. By shattering the primal stone, he frees Rayla from her literal and metaphorical chain of her binding. He inspires Rayla to break the cycle in 2x07 and then does his one dark magic spell to break the chains that Rayla’s swords cannot. He breaks the literally circular pendant from Rayla (and Ethari), weighed now with grief and remembrance, in order to see her free to make her own choices.

Which is to say that Rayla is repeating all four of her parents’ most damaging behaviours and cycles, has likely come back with the intention of protecting Callum (with little to no regard to her own well being) and still believing in the idea that she has a price to pay in order to be happy, and all these damaging beliefs need to be broken. If Rayla is going to save Callum from making the full mistakes of his predecessor, in some ways, isn’t it only right that he saves her right back and does the same?

After all, let’s talk about

Paying the Price

This line from 4x01 immediately stood out to me in a major way for a few reasons: 1) this is the first time Callum has ever directly referenced paying the price in such a manner; Ezran (1 time), Rayla (multiple times), Viren (1 time), Harrow (multiple times), and Claudia (1 time) are previously the only characters to do so and Claudia’s is the one comedic exception to how the phrase is usually delivered. 2) It is also the phrase used in the season synopsis, directly asking the question of, “But where did this enigmatic Startouch elf come from? What does he want? And what price will our heroes have to pay to stop him?”

We know, of course, that they won’t stop him. We know then, that ultimately, there is a price they are not willing to pay to stop him. We know, thanks to the series extreme dedication to emphasizing agency, that they rarely let characters off the hook when it comes to making hard choices, for ex: it would’ve been so comparatively easy for Harrow to not know what Viren planned to do ahead of time to the egg and for him to find out after the fact, but instead we see that Harrow knew and approved of Viren ultimately murdering a child.

If Callum has the cube (or whatever Aaravos needs from him) just tricked/ conned out of him, it removes what would ultimately be the hardest choice he’d have to make. If it’s taken from him forcefully, he’s failed yes and made a bad choice, but again, removes the actual hand over from the equation. When has TDP ever not forced a character to make a hard decision, after all? To choose the harder path and be aware of it, or to pick a different path and convince themselves it’s the right one? Why would Callum and everyone else suddenly be let off the hook now?

And while it’s supplementary material, so we can take it with a grain of salt, but this also ties into how Callum’s Devotional and Liberty (highest) attributes are described in his Tales of Xadia bio:

“I value those close to me more than anyone or anything” and “I’m beholden to my inner circle, not some silly kingdom” respectively

This also ties back to the perpetual trolley problem, if you will, that TDP returns to time and time again, with situations only getting worse and escalating when the dignity of an innocent or one life is disrespected and tossed over for “the greater good,” particularly without their consent.

Even after her growing bonds with Ezran and 2.5 seasons of character development, we see Rayla consider her choice to spare Marcos to be a mistake (circa 3x03 with Ethari):

R: I failed them. It was my fault we were discovered.

This is particularly true given that Rayla’s original failure was when she was on a mission to a kill a prince and king of Katolis, and she takes on a similar literal and metaphorical mission in TTM as well: killing / leaving one prince of Katolis (symbolically) by taking a piece of his heart (“My heart for Xadia”) just like the Magma Titan while setting out to actually kill a king of Katolis (Viren) that we know she will ultimately fail in.

Which is to say that the “You saved her life and risked us all” is an interesting concept the series has returned to, most particularly in Callum’s foil relationship with Viren. Their primary difference is contrasted starkly back-to-back in 1x02, when Viren offers up guards’ lives in exchange for Harrow’s but hesitates to offer up his own, whereas Callum offers up his own for Ezran’s without hesitation. Ergo, Viren offering up other people’s lives is decidedly shadier because he takes time to come around to offering up his own. But we already know Callum would die and bend his morals for Rayla.

Could he really bring himself to go through with his plan? What if he didn’t succeed? What if he compromised his beliefs and it all ended up being for nothing? […] But her blade bounced off with a clang, sparks flying. She reeled back and tried again. Nothing happened. She was in trouble. He inched towards Claudia’s [spellbook]. (S2 novelization of 2x07)

So him exchanging the cube would not be risking anything of anyone he’s not prepared to risk of himself, creating a messy but understandable justification, and it’d validate the hell out of Rayla’s own ‘original sin’ in sparing Marcos. Life and living is about more than just numbers and survival - and saving her, weighing her life against the world’s and picking her anyway, is not only a classic hero dilemma, but something that would carry a particular amount of weight in the series as is.

This also ties back into the series’ intrinsic concept of exchange, including but not limited to:

Killing Harrow and wanting to kill Ezran in exchange for Avizandum and Zym’s believed murders

Viren’s plan to exchange one soul for another’s with Harrow in 1x02 that was originally Claudia’s idea

Callum trying to take Ezran’s place to save his little brother in 1x02

Dark magic as an entire principle, exchanging the life of magical creatures for power or agency

Soren killing one king to protect another (3x09)

The entire goal of taking Zym back to his mother in the first place, in hopes that they can deliver a baby dragon in exchange for peace

So why not have that thematically continue through Rayla’s life being exchanged for the cube and exchanged for war?

But this is all more abstract narrative and thematic stuff with some cyclical analysis and nods towards characterization and arcs. Now it’s time to get to the real meat of the theory, which is:

Parallel Episode Structures

So TDP likes to do this thing, with Callum and Rayla’s arcs in particular, but also with the show as a whole, where they will repeat episode / character conflicts while steadily changing the circumstances and raising the stakes in order to reveal character and spur character / plot development. And they do this especially with plot structure.

Examples of what I mean: In 1x03, Callum chooses staying with Ezran over saving his father, and Rayla chooses the egg and princes and fights Runaan as a result. Both of them, unknowingly at the time, lose their adoptive fathers that night. Then, 2x03 and 3x03 each deal with the fallout of those respective choices they made, processing grief and regret over their losses.

Or, to get even more specific, I’ll offer up what I call the “Rayla saves a dragon quartet” in which Rayla wants to do something brave but dangerous / self-sacrificing in order to protect a dragon, Callum has reservations, and their dynamic steadily evolves to the point that he goes from worrying but not being able to do anything to jumping right after her. AKA 1x03 on the rooftops, 2x07 in the rain, 3x08 with the Dragon Queen, and 3x09 with Zym.

Or to get even more specific, I’ll offer up the “Rayla is trying to hide her own pain, Callum tries to get her to open up three times with her nastily rebuffing him each time, then she has a breakdown in the face of his unconditional love, and something bad happens to Zym as a result of them being distracted.” Am I talking about 1x06, or 3x04?

Which is to say, if CHET goes along with the “Callum goes too far and does something reckless / dangerous in relation to Aaravos, Rayla pays the consequence and gets taken hostage, Callum / the boys come to save her, he gets her out in a way she has understandable issues with, and ends with a note of ‘I hope it was worth it to you, putting everyone’s lives in danger,’” it will be a perfect inverse of 1x04. And we know 1x04 was written with an endgame in mind, given the mention of the cube being in the game room, as well as Callum saying things like, “You wait here, one minute, two minutes - however long it takes, I’ll go find a key.”

After all, much like they could have had Callum resolve to do dark magic in 2x07 without harkening back to his crush on Claudia to foreshadow his growing feelings for Rayla, there were infinite ways to write 1x04 that did not have Rayla being the one to find and risk her life for the cube. They could have easily had Callum or even Ezran stumble upon it, grab it, and have Rayla get caught looking for it or just not moving stealthily enough around the room when Amaya catches her. They could’ve had the boys go into the Lodge together with Rayla hanging back (as they’re human and wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows), but she can’t exactly leave without them, but no. The show chose this very specific plot structure, and we’ve yet to see it entirely repeat in full. And with 4x01 paralleling 1x01 very closely (Soren letting slip the king is in trouble, Callum wanting to help, king and high mage discussing Moonshadow assassins on balconies), and with 4x02 possibly paralleling Rayla’s return with callbacks to 1x02, I think this future repetition of 1x04 is only getting more and more likely.

Then you also have the ways that, if Callum transfers the cube - something magical and powerful, something he’s fixated on - and ‘sacrifices’ it for Rayla, it’s another perfect inversion to how he shattered the primal stone to save Zym in 1x09, thus unleashing a storm onto the world but for good reasons, and for a peaceful purpose. Again, if we look at Zym as one piece of the exchange for peace, then unleashing Aaravos in another terrible sort of metaphorical ‘storm’ is the perfect inversion that an even greater era of war and conflict is on the way.

The show has had smaller 1x09 parallels - Callum trusting Ezran rather than doubting him (3x07); Rayla almost going off the cliff to save Zym before she actually does so in 3x09; and in terms of Callum sacrificing the primal stone is a good example of how he’s let go of some of his 1x04 fuelled fixation for the time being. But they’ve also shown Callum repeat his old mistakes when he goes out into the storm in 2x04, in which he says, “I put us both in danger. I could’ve gotten Zym killed” yet “Worst of all, when we were right there in the centre of the storm - I thought I wanted this badly enough but in the end, I didn’t have the guts.” He still considers the worst part of the experience to be his lack of a magical connection.

Then there’s the way that post-TTM has lined up well with 2x07, episode wise. Again from a structural standpoint: Rayla feels compelled to do something, Callum wants to help her, she goes off alone, he hangs back with Ezran feeling helpless and frustrated before he ultimately goes after her, bending/breaking his morals and engaging with Dark Magic to do so. The big differences is that Rayla has gone from saying it’s okay if he can’t come with her to telling him not to, and that rather than resolve to find her on his own, Rayla has returned to him first. But up until her return, the structure was intact, so I’ll be curious to see if the second part of the episode comes true too. Possibly - in an alternative way - with Callum doing dark magic in general, or with him specifically handing over the cube.

If you are interested more in how TTM parallels 2x07 itself specifically, setting up a reconciliation plot structure for Rayllum in S4 reminiscent of 2x08-2x09, check out this larger meta here.

Orpheus and Eurydice Motif

So we know that Rayla and Callum are going to get separated thanks to this screencap from the trailer with two main options:

1) it’s a fakeout and they’re reunited shortly afterwards, finally reconciling, or 2) it’s not a fakeout, and part of the finale, 4x09, “Escape from Umber Tor” following the fallout of 4x08 “Rex Igneous” is about getting her back. Given that Aaravos has been compared to Lucifer and that “Umber Tor” means Shadow Tower, if Rayla was taken to a shadowy place high on a mountain or deep below the ground... It’s a pretty good Underworld allegory, and the show has given this to Rayllum before in which Rayla travels to their version of the Underworld, her Orpheus - a magically inclined artist per the mythos - goes after her, and unlike in the myth, he manages to successfully save her. Sort of. Since, as we know, the end of TTM still results in a tragic separation for our two lovers.

This is also similar structure wise to Rayla facing certain death in 3x09 by tackling Viren off the Pinnacle, Callum jumping after her, and his love for her unlocking new magical power so he can save her. Again, this meta of Callum and Rayla as Orpheus and Eurydice goes into greater detail, but I think it’s interesting it’s a pretty specific pattern we’ve seen happen two times, and now the question is if we’ll see it happen as a third. Especially since as the musical Hadestown paints it so eloquently

TTM has just been the mythic structure fulfilled both happily and tragically, with Rayla choosing — in many ways — both metaphorically and literally, in risk taking to go back to the Underworld. Callum is then reaching a double crossroads. Does he follow her down into hell, again? And in other ways, this is arguably the first time he’s being tested. For so much of s1-s3, and even in TTM, saving Rayla was a no brainer. Whatever chance he had, Callum had zero hesitation, zero misgivings. In his heart and in his mind, he had no reason not to.

Now, thanks to TTM, there is a seed of doubt. And just like with Orpheus cutting a deal with Hades out of love to get his wife back, Aaravos may cut a similar deal with Callum as his own Test of Love.

[ORPHEUS, spoken] Mr. Hermes? [HERMES, spoken] Yes? [ORPHEUS] It's not a trick? [HERMES, spoken] No, it's a test

Speaking of which, let’s finally talk about Aaravos’ hand in all this - as well as foil relationships and contrasts with Viren and Claudia.

Pawns and Kings

Once S3 wrapped up, I figured that Rayla and Claudia’s foil relationship would be amped up further, now that they had nearly matching white hair, and I always thought that Rayla’s paranoid and restless behaviour would return in a significant way prior to TTM. Now they’ve both destroyed their lives for Viren - Claudia to save him, Rayla to kill him - in the two year timeskip and are dealing with the fallout of those decisions.

While the Viren-Callum parallels going into S4 are massive, and are undeniably the biggest foil relationship this season, I think ultimately the conclusions on their arcs will be regarding their differences, given lines that Viren has said of, “We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love,” while if Callum picks Rayla over the world, he will be steadfastly and repeatedly rejecting that in his arc, while Viren may catch up too late that he has unintentionally sacrificed Claudia for his goals.

I went into more detail on it here a few weeks ago, but now that we have confirmation from a few reviews of the first four episodes of season four, it seems I was right to think that Viren is getting an atonement arc, regretting what he’s done and specifically what Claudia has done for him as a result of it. This would perfectly parallel the sort of Rayla arc also needs to have, of realizing the full weight and why of her previous mistakes and realizing she was wrong. After all, she and Viren are both “already dead” - metaphorically and literally, respectively.

Meanwhile, Callum and Claudia have been set up to have mirrored arcs as well, as they get pulled deeper and deeper into Aaravos’ machinations as his two latest pawns. We will presumably see him manipulate both of them this season in order for them to help get the pieces in place to release him from his mirror. Claudia and Callum have, in their relationships with Viren and Rayla, already had parallel Tests of Love in 3x09 - saving their loved one from the brink of death in a powerful display of magic - and are set up to have parallel Tests of Love regarding lies and forgiveness in S4.

However, where I think this season will end up seeing Claudia and Viren split from one another - her angry that he “doesn’t understand or appreciate” all she’s done for him thanks to his re-evaluation that maybe he should stay dead, his life not worth the toll it’s taken on the world and her (and that he’s right this time) - that leads the way for the finale’s Test of Love to be Callum and Rayla in so many ways, as Callum saves Rayla from being “already dead” - and he’s right to do so, even if it’s still a hard choice.

This would allow Viren and Rayla to be strangely ideologically aligned, Viren in a positive way for his arc, Rayla in a negative way in her arc, in believing that when Callum shows up that

More meta on Rayla and Viren’s parallels here, as well as Rayla as Aaravos’ inverse to Callum’s Viren.

Furthermore, this scenario gives all the characters place to work from in future seasons: Claudia can fall deeper into villainy now truly unhinged thanks to being “abandoned” by her father and as Aaravos’ next future pawn to discard (almost a la Ozai and Azula in ATLA, as Claudia has been compared to Azula by co-creator Aaron Ehasz in the past), Viren must work with the heroes who have no reason to trust him but to who he can provide infinitely valuable information, Aaravos keeps him alive in a “reap what you sow” esque punishment, Rayla can possibly start looking for her parents properly and will have a new kind of self worth, and Callum has a goal to reclaim the cube, help Rayla, develop his Moon arcanum magic, and defeat Aaravos once and for all.

Since, after all, Callum is the King that Aaravos needs to get out; the final pawn in this stage of manipulations.

Checkmate

More than a game of strategy, Chess is a game of sacrifice. I’ve played for most of my life and typically, games come down to making sure you sacrifice the right pieces (pawns) in order to protect your more important pieces, particularly your Queen and of course, your King. Aaravos’ relations to chess have been repeated over and over again, as well as Checkmate referring to him winning the game and getting out of his mirror by the end of the season which again, we know is happening this season.

If you are interested in reading more about TDP’s chess symbolism, check out this meta in which I break it down for the main cast of characters. Terry is not included as we didn’t know he’d be in the season before I wrote it, and as we still know very little about him, I’m not sure where I’d place him (although maybe as a Rook or Bishop or something).

Moreover, one of the most important rules in a chess game is that if a pawn reaches the other end of the board, you can swap it in for one of your more important taken pieces (which will almost always be your Queen if you’ve lost her).

And again, the chess metaphor works particularly well because in a game of strategy and sacrifice, Aaravos has to find the thing the heroes aren’t willing to sacrifice; the price they’re not willing to pay. Per the chess metaphor and characteristics of the pieces, although I considered other options as I went along, Rayla fits the characteristics / placement of the Queen piece the best and Callum as the King piece.

It is for all these narrative reasons and more that I think it is very likely that, if not taken hostage directly, Rayla will at the very least be what’s used to coerce Callum into having an almost equal hand in freeing Aaravos as Claudia (also giving her some wiggle room to potentially come back from, if she does it out of spite or if she thinks if she ignores Viren’s wishes and ‘fixes’ the problem he’ll change his mind, like she thought she could with Soren in 2x08/9 in some ways).

After all, if the emotional payoff of TTM isn’t going to be Callum looking for her, there still has to be a counter-balance / reason behind her absence. What better reason could there be than “I lost her once. I’m not going to lose her again” with his grief in the two year absence providing his emotional, plot driven justification as Callum does everything he possibly can to get her back?

Now, onto my favourite part: the foreshadowing.

The section is what I call the “this feels like direct setup” with some repeats of what we’ve seen before as well. The next section will be about generational stuff including parents, character designs, cycles, etc. The third section is stuff I think is possibly less likely foreshadowing, but I like it, so I hope it is, called “Be foreshadowing, do it for me.” Hope you enjoy!

Misc. Foreshadowing #1: Heavily Likely

Who the hell is Aaravos saying his “My return to this world is inevitable” and why Rayla is a real candidate to be who it is being delivered to.

Callum rejecting the cube in 2x08 when Harrow reminds him that he’s free VS Callum handing over the cube in 4x09 because Rayla isn’t

They said that, sometimes, we make sacrifices so that the ones we love don’t have to. It’s part of protecting them—part of protecting you. Taking on hard choices and going to dark places is an act of love.

Generational Parallels

If Callum is rageful against Viren, that cements the other half of the Viren-Avizandum intro parallel, as that is a moment in which Avizandum is not only separated from his child, but hunted due to taking away the love of King Harrow’s life, Queen Sarai. Just as Rayla is repeating Runaan’s cycles (down to her one silver shoulder pad design that is a smaller version of his), it would not surprise me if Callum began to repeat Harrow’s. If you want the in depth version of this theory, check out this tag here, but I think the screencaps speak decently well enough for themselves, don’t you?

Rayla and Runaan’s parallels are also particularly important as due to his stubbornness and duty, Runaan was taken captive by Claudia to be used by Viren specifically in regards to the mirror, and Sarai ultimately died saving Viren’s life.

There are also Callum’s parallels to Runaan to consider (down to the hostage situation in Bloodmoon Huntress) as well as Rayla’s parallels to Harrow.

Misc. Foreshadowing #2: Please be foreshadowing, do it for me

Rebuttals

Don’t have a lot of interest in discussing negatives, however as the theory gained a lot of traction in the past 3 or so months, there were some issues people had with it, namely: doesn’t it reduce Rayla to a damsel in distress, isn’t it predictable, and why would Rayla forgive Callum for this in the end, all of which I’ve laid out ‘rebuttals’ to over time. If you have for some reason made it all the way down here in this post while still having reservations, one of these metas may remedy them for you - or maybe not! Either way, I think they’re an interesting read.

Rayla is not a damsel in distress

Predictable

Why would Rayla be okay with this in the end?

Other Misc Thoughts

Romeo and Juliet comparisons (thanks, Viren’s VA)

The Way Rayla Has Always Been Set Up as Both Callum’s Salvation and Destruction

Rayllum’s parallels to Aaravos’ “Patience” story (which relates to their overall dynamic I think)

Callum and Rayla always liking/loving each other “too much” than is good for them / Callum as an Icarus figure (boy with wings who flies too close to the literal or proverbial sun)

Why the cube can’t just be positive / Why Rayla’s absence can’t just be positive

TTM / S4′s ATLA Comparisons and Parallels

TDP and Tarot: Rayllum as the Lovers and Aaravos as the Devil

Adam and Eve Comparisons

Alternatives

So let’s just say I’m wrong and all of this foreshadowing, meta, etc. has been for nothing? Cool! I had a good time writing it, theorizing with other people, writing my own fics, and immensely enjoyed reading other people’s fics regarding the theory as well. I have donned my clown wig before with far less reason to and with far less fun as a result, so I’ll have no regrets if that ends up being the case here.

However, and this is what I’ve always come back to in terms of wracking my brain and narrative for this theory is that even with less than one day to release, I have never seen an alternative theory that actually answers all the questions this one has set out to, namely:

What is the Cube?

How do Callum and Rayla ultimately reconcile?

How does Aaravos get out of his mirror?

At least, not all at once, and not in a way that offers up tangible arcs for characters past-S4 either, or in arcs that feel feel a little bit less effective. Now, if Callum loses the Key just out of his own foolishness, that means the finale arc is just a mad dash to try to get it back, which the team will ultimately fail at, but that almost feels like too big of a punishment for something he was so heavily manipulated into (I think he’d have more guilt over that than if he’d made an actual Choice under coercion, y’know?). If the key isn’t crucial to getting out, then why highlight it so much this season? If Callum’s finale arc is just about resisting temptation, than how does that lead to Aaravos getting out — isn’t that too positive a note to end on, and a bit too repetitious of 2x08 if it’s that simple, arguably? And again, it feels like this season has to start addressing the dark side of Rayla’s self sacrificial tendencies and start edging towards fixing them (ergo her realizing she has worth) since it was all those issues compounded that made her leave in the first place?

So perhaps our closing note is to say that, although it’s not as though there are no real alternatives to CHET, there are none out there that currently find answers for what to do with all the pieces on the board and how to achieve the outcome we know S4 is spiralling out to, and that is why for all these reasons, I am very hopeful and excited that I may be right going into S4, for each and every reason provided above.

Happy last day of hiatus, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

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doodlegirl1998 · 1 year

Note

I'm thinking about the powers of MHA and how trying to explain it with science is not as cool as people initially thought. Why? "Well for a eye to shot laser on command it would require to do X and Y which could result in the person being blind before before reaching 20"

Scott Summer from the Xmen deals with a similar dilemma and in some alt universes he does lose his sight in some capacity, but in the main line...aside from some bizarre retcons as his eyes being portals, it is a power it doesnt need much explanation.

He can shoot things with his eye laser, pretty simple.

In mha? Not so much. Bc aside Dabi, Aoyama and Izu...no one has issues with their quirks hurting them. No one is curious about it and....the powers presented on the characters are there just for a gag.

In the provencial license second chance, Shoto and Camie sees lil kids, my dude, there a kid who has a canon in his mouth. How science can explain that?

Izu can analyse the quirks but he does in a way that is still linked to fantasy. No one in the real world will ever have a cannon mouth(forever bitter Hori made Izu analysing quirks as a "har har isnt that guy spooky?! Hoe funny")

I think it boils down to two things.

1) NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN THEIR OWN QUIRK "OH I CAN FLY? MEH WHATEVER "

2)Hori has no thought behind any of the powers and it is only there for a cool shot and never again.

That's my take.

Hi @mikeellee 👋,

Here's the thing. I love the idea of these powers being grounded in realism to a degree - I feel like there's a lot of good plot points and realism to be explored in a universe like MHA.

Izuku having to use his smarts to figure out how to not break his bones with OFA as well as OFA being his only power? - An interesting plot point! And a good way to show off Izuku's smarts too when he works out what to do with OFA.

The consequences of quirk marriages - having a power very ill suited to their body through Dabi? - An interesting plot point! Because if superpowers came into our universe you bet narcissistic, Power hungry assholes like Endeavor would have marriages like this.

A power ill-suited for their body like Aoyama? Could tie into the quirk singularity theory that Hori brought up now and again if he didnt make Aoyama a previously quirkless person who got his quirk from AFO!

The problem is, as you said, these issues coincide with people seemingly having a lack of interest about their power. Which doesn't make sense actually. Because I can imagine there should be tonnes of people, like Izuku, gagging to study quirks!

Think of how many Scientists, Doctors and Authors we have in our universe - the concept of quirks is essentially science fiction and magic made life. I know I, if I were in MHA, would be just like Izuku thinking about how cool this all is and wanting to help people with their quirk powers. Especially if there were people like Izuku, Dabi and Aoyama out there needing help with their quirks.

To answer your two concluding points -

1) the attitude of "MEH whatever" that people in MHA have to their quirks. Doesn't make sense to me on a fundamental level because, sure while some would take that attitude, there should be more like Izu (and AFO) interested in quirks out there.

2) Hori doesn't seem to think through the quirks he gives his characters anymore, let alone explore them or give them any limitations which is also why Izuku isn't allowed to care for it anymore either. It can make MHA feel infuriating at times.

#mha critical #bnha critical

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onyourhyuck · 2 years

Text

𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐊ᵃ𝐫𝐦𝐚. | Season 2

synopsis; park areum is a journalist who happens to get her life involved with the mafia leader war and havoc, lee jeno. areum’s brother was kidnapped by the japanese mafia na yuta and areum was able to successfully get jisung back— however with a price that she betrays lee jeno by selling out important information of his base whereabouts. it’s been a year ever since that day and areum happens to get involved in the mafia world again.

warning: mafia au/theme, thriller, action, romance, smut!!, lots of fighting here and mentions of blood, park areum is a bad bitch ykyk, dreamies are here for plot, love triangle!!!!, angst.. massive angst, death mentions of characters, alcohol mention, guns mention, switch!areum, switch Jeno!, rough kissing, gripping, degrading, praising, love scenes, unprotected seggs [wrap your willys sons pls, use it 😃], slowburn romance, prepare for a long ass ride.JEALOUSY, Exhibitionist scenes (almost caught etc) semi public scenes with sexual tension. PLOT TWISTS AND CLIFFHANGERS <3 THIS IS SEASON 2, CHECK SEASON 1 OUT BEFORE READING THIS SEASON PLSSSS.

PART 15 / 25. PART 16 LINK.

╭──────────────────────╮

Bang. Bang. Bang.

jisung sighs out with rough pants thrown in the air as the safe provocation glasses slid off the eyes and now rest on top of his brunette locks. the boy puts the gun down, eyeing the dummy in the distance from afar.

he shot none! at this point he thinks it’s his bad eyesight that’s causing a strain on aiming correctly a bullet in the dummy.

haechan wobbles from behind with eyebrow raise, he’s been watching and training jisung for a few weeks now; and somehow the younger boy managed to persuade him by using the japanese gangsters to his advantage.

“look let me help you.” haechan told rutting behind jisung with enough minor space between them as his hands were dominating jisung’s, fixing the entire posture to be stern and still like a statue.

jisung nervously allows haechan take over, as the point tip gun aimed, one eye closes aiming finally. haechan was confident, he is one of the best snipers in his team— you think he would lose a shot?

the tan boy whispers. “now jisung, shoot.”

loud bang heard as jisung was pushed slightly back towards haechan’s body by the impactful gun, this time a sight of the dummy headshot by a bullet was in view of the boy. his mouth shaped open widely, eyes widen as he turns to the cocky smug expression on the tan boy’s face.

Haechan whistles nudging jisung. “and that’s how you shoot your shot.” he told, wiggling eyebrows forward. the boy scrunches the nose up at the lame motto slogan he just heard.

“seriously, is that your slogan? ‘And that’s how you shoot your shot?’, come on hyung you could do so much better.” jisung lightly laughs and haechan turns away clicking his tongue at the boy. “jisung-ah that line got me so many girls, I think you’re wrong.”

jisung gapes back putting the gun and glasses away into the equipment holders. the base ground was quiet, a while ago renjun and Yangyang were around training their hand to hand combat but then they were called to patrol Seoul city streets. jaemin’s not around the base as much as he is always outside fighting and leading his people like a mother hen protecting them from any danger. he was doing his best to limit casualties as they had major obstacles in the past. they’re really lacking in everything.

the younger boy scoffs. “yet, who’s the one in a long term relationship and who isn’t? me. so i think you should Y’know…think of something less nojam.” haechan looks up at jisung. “what’s nojam?” he replies confused, maybe he is slightly old now.

jisung hums. “it means slang for no fun. you’re a no fun person.”

Haechan gasps dramatically widening those brown drama queen eyes. “no! take that back, park Jisung.”

“oh gosh haechan, we must really be getting older because i didn’t know what nojam is either.” kun’s voice suddenly joins the conversation as he shifts into the view as the two boys turn to look at him.

the doctor in white coat revealing a basket with a few multiple items. Haechan sighs out loud, he’s only twenty five, come on- old? jisung waves at kun with a smile. “hi kun hyung, what’s the basket for?”

Haechan hums. “yeah what’s it for?” the doctor points it towards haechan who took it without a word, his curiosity got the better of him as he looks through the basket when he opens it. kun continues speaking, “haechan you’re going to take this to the cabin for areum, i’m worried she’s ran out of supplies such as food and medicine or something.”

the younger boy would ‘ooooo’ but haechan was rather the opposite. he slightly boo’s past his lips. “why does it have to be me? i don’t want to drive that far.” haechan complaints weren’t noticed by kun who shrugged casually. “sounds like a you problem.”

with those words shared the doctor left haechan stranded, jisung grinning ear to ear at the misfortune for haechan. the tan boy glared at jisung’s extremely happy face, growling. “what are you smiling at huh?” haechan shot.

jisung laughs. “oh nothing, have fun driving this early.” he points out, clearly rubbing it in haechan’s face. the soldier glared at jisung again before standing up grabbing the heavy basket, walking to the entrance exit of the base training underground that will allow him to leave this place. “yeah yeah, whatever asshole. wait till I’m back!” haechan shot back at jisung.

areum wasn’t sure what was wrong with her today but at the same time she knew what was wrong with her.

the sexual urge to do something with jeno really had her in a twisted mood. areum sighs into her palms when the sight of jeno’s shirtless wet beautiful body came out of the bathroom, not only that, the man had the audacity to come out with a white towel wrapped around his slim waist.

collarbones out, v shape back in view— Areum was really trying not to pay attention but it was hard. Her unholy thoughts and body that was sexually frustrated left her fighting for her life.

jeno, really had her fighting for her life.

the man turns around to areum who was looking away awkwardly trying to make herself seem ‘busy’ , staring at the open space that isn’t jeno himself. he smirks away as he shifts into grey sweatpants, leaving the shirt out.

“what are you looking at that’s so interesting?” jeno entices forward a conversation as the silence was very interesting. areum’s lips part slowly, “I was zoning out sorry.” she told as she sees jeno crawl on his side of the bed, wrapping an arm around areum.

his face goes to pay attention to the large bump. Areum has entered her 20 weeks in the pregnancy, five months ahead in. The two had to admit that pregnancy goes by quick when you’re enjoying it with your loved one— although it’s crazy to think that four more months to go. jeno whispers to the belly as if he were talking to the baby. “hey peanut, how are you doing hmm?”

areum smiles when jeno lightly and gently kisses the bump where the harden surface the body is, those loving excited eyes that just tell the story that he is patiently waiting to meet the bundle of joy. areum grins, “peanut here is giving me a hard time with the kicks.”

jeno pouts whispering to the bump again, “maybe lessen the kicks peanut okay? your mommy is having a hard time.” areum let’s out a soft laugh. “yahhhh, you’re so endearing do you know that?” she pulls jeno upwards with her palms, seeing his face squish in her hands.

the miniature eye contact the two held slowly led their eyes to fall on each other’s lips. the comforting silence of the cabin, nothing disturbing them, it’s just them in their own world. areum was the first to pull in, kissing jeno’s lips as if she’s never kissed them before.

the kiss became heated fast and it was all due to areum’s reactions, jeno simply follows and kissing back with all he could, hands slowly wrap themselves around the pregnant woman’s waist, keeping the bump safe.

areum’s hands became busy with jeno’s neck where they wrap themselves like a lock chain. the young woman had the dominant role this time, upper leading advantage to bite the bottom lip, jeno’s soft moans coming out as he was taken all by surprise.

his eyes softly open when areum’s hands travel down to the sweatpants about to pull them down. jeno pulling away softly as his hips shift away, the man lightly breathing out. “areum— you’re pregnant. let’s not do anything.”

it came out as a half worry half demand. jeno truly didn’t want to do anything necessarily related to sex, mainly because he was scared of doing anything like that to areum when she is pregnant. It would certainly be his first that’s for sure.

areum sighs out loud. “But- why not. do you not find me attractive anymore?”

alright maybe she shouldn’t of said that, areum wasn’t feeling the greatest in her skin though. the bloating and large heavy weight was taking a toll on aruem’s self esteem. jeno’s eyes shift slightly wide off guard by her words, an incoming silence between the two.

“take that back areum, of course I find you attractive still.” Jeno said sternly. He sees his lover slowly stand up with a huff, “then why won’t we do anything?”

jeno sitting on the bed edge, shifting on the kitty house slippers as areum was grabbing the dog slippers and putting it on her feet. areum holding the cardigan wrapping it around her belly. jeno sighs out, “just because areum, let’s not do anything-”

areum would have to say it’s more of her sexually frustrated side speaking, though she wouldn’t usually act this way. but seriously, her body has needs!

“just admit that you don’t find me attractive god.” areum replies bummed out by this whole situation. The words coming out of his loved that stood in middle of their shared bedroom looking down, disappointed and all, something in jeno changed heavily.

Eyes darken and go smaller as they watch areum, his voice came out slightly more offended now. “areum, you have no idea how much I’m holding back all these months..” jeno said, trailing.

areum’s ears perk up at the demure change from jeno who sat on the bed. what does he mean he’s holding back all this time?

he knows that areum is probably sexually frustrated but so is he. he’s been holding back himself from doing anything sex related all because he’s scared of hurting areum in the process— it’s not like he’s got Kun to tell him that it’s perfectly safe to have sex or it’s not. jeno really doesn’t know what’s right or wrong.

but yes, he’s avoided asking areum for anything and he’s avoiding areum’s request now. the woman sighs frustrated now, jeno standing up with his hands in natural habit he gained: to hold areum’s waist, pulling her closer. “areum, You have no idea how hard it is for me to control myself around you, so please don’t make this harder for me.”

the urge to continually push jeno’s buttons was there and areum wasn’t sure what to do but to whine and complain.

“please jeno, I’m so sexually frustrated.” areum’s head fall on his shoulder, resting there as she spoke. jeno gently rubs the back of areum’s head, feeling the silky smooth black hair. those whines coming out of areum’s lips were so rare and tempting, she never really asks or whines for anything.

Usually, Areum beats around the bush if she wanted to fuck. jeno was the first one to initiate it always. But now it’s areum. it was a refreshing sight, but at the wrong time where jeno is battling himself to not do anything to areum.

“areum…” Jeno murmurs, he was about to speak again but then the two were interrupted by large knocks and a voice echoing from downstairs through the door entrance.

areum shifts in panic pushing jeno away. “yah hide!” jeno turns around back and forth as well, panicking like hell. “where? where do I go!” jeno whisper shouts.

“fuck Uhm-” Areum paused before eyeing the large wardrobe, pointing to the black wooden wardrobe full of his clothes next to the other wardrobe full of other clothes. “there! hide there.”

jeno turns around without a complaint, he goes inside the wardrobe. areum closes it tightly shut as she rushes down the stairs very gently however.

the continue door knocks we’re getting more annoying and louder by the time areum was downstairs.

“yeah yeah I’m coming stop knocking already!” areum scolds as the door swings open wide, haechan immediately coming inside the cabin as if he was living here.

he’s never been to the cabin before, at least not inside. areum eyes haechan in surprise. “hyuck!” she leans in hugging her best friend before closing the door. the basket coming into view, the tan boy sighing. “I only came to give this to you because your annoying ass doctor worries about you.”

“wowwww, so you didn’t come and visit me out of your own will?” areum pouts now sulking as she takes the basket, putting it in the kitchen, haechan following the slightly shorter figure from behind. “come on don’t be like that, of course i came out of my own will too!” hyuck drags himself as he looks around in awe.

everything seemed really cozy and expensive at the same time. jeno really had a particular taste for cabins. areum hums not believing haechan although it was all jokes.

she was running on eggshells and anxiety however as she was hiding a man who everyone thinks is dead in her damn wardrobe.

“so, how you holding up…?” haechan awkwardly asked, he wasn’t sure if he could ask that considering jeno’s death is really sensitive to everyone these days. jaemin never mentions it or wants to hear it when he’s around people, jisung cries so much whenever jeno’s name is mentioned or heard— and areum, she had to move to a cabin where jeno lived on his free time.

areum sighs. “I’m okay haechan, how about you? how’s everyone else?”

hyuck sighs in relief to see areum and hear that she’s doing alright; other than that he could see her looking hella pregnant- last time he saw her she was barely fifteen weeks. it’s been months now. “well— everyone’s trying to move on, you know how that works. jaemin is hardly around, he’s trying his best to find yuta and kill him. jisung, he’s safe and he misses you so come back soon!”

areum hums happy to hear that everyone seems to be doing okay or well they’re trying their best to be okay. “and how about you? you didn’t answer that.”

Haechan knew he couldn’t dodge the spotlight on himself, he bites the bottom lip lightly before jokingly throwing in comedy to move past the tense conversation because honestly; he doesn’t know how to deal with jeno’s death!

“haha you know me, making everyone’s lives brighter i suppose?” hyuck replies and areum cringed slightly with a laugh. “Ahuh? well then good for you.”

he hums as his eyes linger around the cabin, turns to areum before he wonders if he should ask. “So— question, is it possibly for me to look around and explore becauseeeee— jeno has never shown me around inside the cabin.”

areum lightly grins. “yeah look around just don’t you know, break anything and stuff.” haechan hums nodding.

the tan boy exploring the bottom floor with areum before they go upstairs, where the anxiety only rose and rose more and more; haechan looking at the shared bedroom with a slight gasp. “whoa you have a huge ass bedroom, areum.”

the woman rolls her eyes at haechan’s expressions as the boy looks in the bathroom, then the walk in shoe closet.

he can’t believe jeno never invited him in this damn cabin! they would’ve had lit parties if he was still alive. Haechan hums before sneakily going to the first wooden wardrobe opening it, checking the clothes and all.

areum swore she would’ve let out a gasp but thankfully she stopped herself. haechan would ‘wow’ at the shirts and jeans he sees that belong to jeno, pouting. “tch and he said he doesn’t have any clothes to share.” haechan murmurs.

she slightly smiles. “you must really miss jeno huh?” haechan paused as he unconsciously seemingly get attached to those clothes that belongs to jeno without realising it. He closes the door shaking his head. “ehhh, sooo- change of subjec-”

a large sneeze came out of haechan, areum raising eyebrows at the incoming sneezing fits from the tan boy. what could be making him have this amount of sneezing?

the small meows and purrs came into the room as haechan’s eyes water and widen at the sight. cats. he’s allergic to cat!

“I- Jeno has cats?” haechan rubs the reddish nose, areum nodding as she lifts one of them up. “yeah he has three, actually but you get to see two of them. this is seol and bongshik.”

haechan makes eye contact with the cats nodding slowly before slowly sneezing again. “fuck, I’m allergic to them. i think I’m going to leave now.” areum puts down the cats gently as they walk away out of the room, the boy going down the stairs with the pregnant woman.

“sorry areum I would stay longer but—” haechan sniffs with slight blow to his lips. “gosh I’m itchy now.” he complained. “anyways, just call me when you’re ready to come back to the base!” areum nods to his words as they said goodbye.

she had to admit, thank god for the cats.

closing the door, areum walks upstairs to see jeno out of the wardrobe as he sighs in relief watching from the windows very carefully.

areum at the doorway standing with arms crossed. “thank god for the cats, he wouldn’t leave sooner without them.” she told, jeno shifts to glance at areum with a soft nod.

“very close one.” Jeno lightly laughs and areum approaches him forward wrapping arms around the man she deeply loves. The two would be caught in a kiss again, this time jeno took charge as he lifts areum slowly to go on the bed in a comfortable position. he hovers over as areum whines out, frustrated completely.

the kiss broke apart as jeno lightly kissed on the jawline and then the neck, leaving areum to melt underneath him due to all those actions she hasn’t received in such a long time. she bucks her hips forward lightly on the side where she laid on the hips, jeno murmuring. “areum. i’ll do anything but fuck you.”

he was stubborn but he was worried mainly. areum took it however, she knows how hard it is to persuade jeno, she might as well offer something else that will relief her from the built of sexual frustration.

“I want you to eat me out please, jeno.” areum softly let’s out as her eyes shut close. jeno was more than happy to oblige with that demand, he felt comfortable enough to perform that. areum sighs once jeno strips the lower clothing she wore, teasingly replying. “how can i say no when you asked so nicely baby, Hm?” jeno would tell meeting eyes with the throbbing clit, it was clear she was already as aroused much.

wasting no time the tongue began to lapping the clit like no tomorrow, the sensation hit areum as if it was her first time; it’s truly been so long that she forgot the longing sensation. he would feel the way it throbs against the tongue and on the lips where he sometimes smooches to tease areum whenever he stops intentionally to edge her, and since she was on such a comfortable position between the pillows on her back underneath keeping the bump safe and levitating, jeno could go down on areum in places he’s never hit before with his tongue.

areum let’s out soft moans. “fuck, please make me come.” areum told with hands lightly tugging onto the man’s hair, jeno groans gripping the thighs that were spread, lighting digging his fingers in the more he goes in.

epiphany was a word to describe what areum was feeling. a new world, as if she was releasing bad energies out of her body. she wasn’t sure if it was because she was pregnant, but it was much more enjoyable now that she’s pregnant than it was before where she wasn’t.

jeno couldn’t lie the sight of areum moaning as he could see the bump was a beautiful sight. even when pregnant he found her unbelievably charming and insufferably hot. the tongue flicks back and forth causing areum to rut slightly, jeno murmuring against the entrance with his hot breathe casting down.

“fuck I’m coming..” areum announces deeply lost in the overwhelming pleasure that was threatening to snap. “let it go baby, let me taste you.” jeno encourages awaiting for the moment. areum exclaiming high pitch whines when chasing her climax.

jeno closing eyes as he savours the taste before lifting the head up to look at areum who was heavy panting and warm looking, colour gazing on the pale-ish face. jeno licking the bottom lips with a half smirk, “you taste even better now.”

she rolls her eyes slightly as her leg would shove jeno because of the embarrassing comment he just said. jeno smiles holding the leg she tried to kick him with putting it down gently.

areum sighs. “thank you for helping me out.” she murmurs shyly, jeno moving to rest next to areum where they glance at each other. “anything to help out, baby.” jeno tells, stroking back hair strands away from her face. she smiles, “I love you.”

jeno felt a small blush appear on his cheeks, wasn’t expecting a beautiful smile to cast onto him with a love confession; no matter how many times areum tells him she loves him, he will forever blush as if he were a teenage boy.

“I love you too.” jeno said back as he kisses areum’s lips softly, areum returning it without hesitation.

────────────────────────

MASTERLINK FOR HIS KARMA CHAPTERS.

MASTERLINK FOR SECOND MAFIA FIC SERIES: LEE HAECHAN.

@onyourhyuck please refer from copyrighting and translating my work!

Sorry it took a while 😭😭😭 lowwww motivation is different BUT!! I MANAGED TO PUBLISH THISSSS.

Anyways we have a smut after a long long time LMAO, horny areum incoming.

#nct fanfiction #nct smut #nct x reader #his karma #jeno smut #nct series #nct u scenarios #nct masterlist #jeno hard hours #nct hard hours

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gascon-en-exil · 10 months

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What do you consider the best FE games in terms of gameplay?

Bearing in mind that my parameters for what constitutes good FE gameplay are very different from those of pretty much anyone else who talks about this online:

Replayability and completionist goals like support logs are very much a part of gameplay even if most people disregard them.

Fun unintentional metas

Notably, these are the only games that I can fully enjoy even without cheating (not that they wouldn't be even more fun with cheating).

FE16: 100% completion, I have a playlist all about it, and alongside my favorite ships it's the best thing to have come out of this game in my opinion.

FE10: The game forcing stat points on level ups (at least +1 in combat, +3 with BEXP) as well as the battle save feature makes it feasible for units to cap all stats without grinding or using a bunch of stats boosters...which is good since they're finite here. It's also a lot of fun for draft runs with all the army switching.

Better with cheating, good replay value

FE4 rises above the other Kaga games by virtue of its eugenics babies, which really add to the replay value as you try out different combinations. There's also, unexpectedly, a charming smallness to its overall limited inventory and fewer chapters.

Not a ton of replay, but more interesting gameplay than below (esp. with cheating)

Basically what it says. None of them have universal support logs so that concern isn't there, but they can be fun to replay with different characters. FE5 especially though needs cheating, because I'm not a masochist.

Whoever designed the GBA support system should be ashamed

...Yeah. Good games, but the grind is miserable especially in FE7. Also, FE7's ranking system is awful and annoying although I can't fault it for that as it originated back in the Jugdral games.

Postgame is just a grindfest, but at least it's fun getting there

To this day I still haven't finished all the supports and bond conversations, mostly because I lost interest. There's just too much to collect or achieve postgame and almost no incentive to do so. As many have said though, the gameplay is fun and dynamic - yes, even on Normal.

Play it once (or play the remake) and that'll do it

FE6 would be up with the other GBA games if it had a support log, but since it doesn't there's no reason to get supports aside from the stat boosts. The Archanea games and Gaiden all feel small and outdated now, and there's not much point to going back to them. I ranked the DS remakes below the originals because while they're more up to date they also have more annoying features, like unlocking paralogues in FE11 or Kris in FE12.

Oh my God how did the support log get *worse*!? (Apotheosis meta is alright at least)

Grinding out every variable parent-child support line is a nightmare, and there's no sense of accomplishment because they're so repetitive. The gameplay is dull as anything, and while this is a game for min-maxing that will require lots of grinding. At least Apotheosis exists as a goal for that.

See Awakening, but somehow even worse except for the maps

(Note that this is FE14 in its entirety, not just Revelation - no idea why so many of these tier list makers break up the routes of Fates as if they were separate games)

Much less completionist-friendly than FE13; the support log is even bigger with even more variable parent-child lines, growths are lower and it's harder to level infinitely, and there's no serious postgame content to work toward. The maps are fun and I appreciate what they were going for with Phoenix mode even if no one else does, but there's a reason I haven't come back to this game in years and it has nothing whatsoever to do with moral outrage or nitpicking over plot holes.

#Fire Emblem

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nandawrites · 4 months

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Going Back to Those Times

Fandom: Pandora Hearts

Characters: Oz Vessalius, Gilbert Nightray

Summary: Many have said that the child we once were is never lost, it’s only waiting inside us for a chance to go out and play again. Gil and Oz have just proven that theory true.

A/N: Like I've said, one of my goals for 2024 is to finally finish all the wips that have been collecting dust on my folder for ages. This fic is a part of this project and a specially difficult one at that, because:

1) Believe it or not, this fic was supposed to be a fill for a prompt on the kink meme in LiveJournal (computer says I started it in 2011, which makes sense, but somehow feels wrong, where did time go?); and

2) Do you think past!me wrote down what the prompt was or saved a link to it anywhere? She did not! :D So I had to put together a plot and ending for this fic from the thousand or so words I had already written for it and my very vague memories of where I was intending to go with this.

Bright side is: I did it! Not exactly sure how close it is to the prompt it was supposed to fill anymore, so uh, if you had a prompt on the kink meme that involved Gil and Oz playing as kids again in some way and you happen to see this, I hope you like it! And I hope everyone else likes it, too!

If you prefer, also read it on AO3!

~~**~~

When Gilbert Nightray got out of his bed that day, he expected and resigned himself, as always, to face all kinds of strange, scary, dangerous, and very likely to cause serious body damage situations. And all that setting aside the part where he would eventually have to actually go out of the Rainsworth mansion to hunt the human-eating monsters that were known as “chains”.

He did not expect, however, that an apparently harmless excursion to the market would lead to him finding himself thrown to the ground and then smashed by five of what should be the most annoying, tireless, relentless and devious kids he had ever seen.

Aside from his master Oz, that is.

Gilbert felt all the air being forcefully pushed out of his body and struggled to get it back, but, with the combined weight of the children pressing directly onto his ribs and lungs, this task seemed almost impossible. He gasped, desperate for air, and tried to scream and make the kids get off of him, but only managed to get out a strangled whisper.

One of the kids – he couldn’t possibly tell which one – started to scream and roar in victory, giving the cue for the others to follow him and start a deafening noise.

An alert started to sound off in his head (“You need air NOW!”) so he did the next thing that had come to his mind and used his arms to lift himself from the ground a little. The kids didn’t even notice, but it was enough to stop his chest from being crushed and to get the air back into his body. His breath was, of course, a bit erratic, but, as he was not facing imminent death anymore, he could focus on other important things such as: how he would get out from under those children?

He tried to search for Oz and ask for help, but his view was currently limited and the blond wasn’t anywhere in his line of sight. Feeling completely hopeless, he dropped his head to the ground, groaning and trying to ignore the kids’ cheering, and went back to the events that had brought him to this ridiculous situation.

~~**~~

Gilbert had woken that morning to a mansion immerged in complete silence, what was, considering the people that lived there, rather odd and suspicious. Plus, having lived most part of his childhood with Oz Vessalius, he knew that silence was never a good thing.

While he washed himself and changed, his mind rushed through the possibilities of evil plots that could be being put into action at that exact moment. Horrible images started rushing through his mind: Of the mansion being blown up or he being thrown in a room full of cats or… Who even knew!? (And no, he wasn’t paranoid, thank you very much. Some of those things had actually happened before, especially the ones that involved cats).

Afraid of what he would face once he started wandering the corridors, the raven considered, for a moment, staying in his room and pretending it had nothing to do with him, but the fear of what could actually happen if he didn’t keep an eye on Oz and Break was enough to make him storm out the door, looking for them.

The obvious place to look at that time would be the dining room, as it was breakfast time, and, surely, as soon as he approached the door he heard Oz’s voice coming from behind it, but the one answering the blond was not who Gilbert had expected.

He opened the door to find Oz chatting animatedly with Reim (Well, the younger boy was chatting animatedly, the other was just listening, but seemed to be having a good time nonetheless). There was no one else there, which was odd. Where were Sharon, Break and that stupid rabbit? His master looked up at him when he entered the room and gave him a smile:

“Hey there sleepy-head. It was about time you woke up, Gil!”

“Good morning, Mr. Nightray.” Came Reim’s greeting soon after.

Deciding to ignore Oz’s comment, he took his place at the table, sitting right in front of them.

“Morning…” He looked over at Reim, trying not to look too curious, but he must have failed it, because the other soon added:

“I came to deliver some documents that master Barma wanted Lady Cheryl to analyse, and then I ran into Oz, who was kind enough to invite me for breakfast.”

One mystery solved. There was still the other one.

“I see… And where are the others? I mean, that stupid rabbit is probably still asleep, but where are Break and Sharon?”

It was Oz’s turn to ignore part of Gilbert’s comment. He had known since long that all the animosity between Gil and Alice was just for show, so he didn’t even pay any mind to it anymore.

“Sharon wanted to give Alice another one of those ‘lady lessons’ and took her to the city. Break went with them, of course, and he also said we could have the day off.”

At this, the raven-haired man sighed visibly in relief. So there wasn’t any evil plan being plotted, after all, thankfully (Okay, so he was just a little paranoid. No one could blame him for it after all he had been put through). More relaxed, he filled himself a cup of coffee. The rest of the morning went down smoothly.

Things continued calm until the middle of the afternoon. The others still hadn’t come back, so Gil and Oz were killing time at the library. The blond was sitting on the floor, back against one of the shelves while reading one of his adored Holy Knight books, and Gilbert was on the nearest table, filling up some paperwork, when the boy lifted his head and said the phrase that was bound to be the source of all of Gilbert’s nightmares:

“You know, Gil… I could really use some cookies right now…”

Gilbert didn’t even look up. The other wasn’t seriously asking him to drop everything to go bake cookies, was he? Didn’t he remember what had happened the last time he tried?

“So go ask one of the maids to bring you some.”

“But I want the ones that you make!” Oz almost but whined. “You were never able to finish them last time and I have been craving your cookies since then!” (Damn, so he did remember).

Receiving no answer, Oz huffed, immediately changing his tone of voice.

“Come on now, Gil; don’t make me turn this into an order, because you know I will.”

Yes, Gilbert didn’t have a doubt he would…

He really didn’t feel like making cookies at the time, but if that was going to make Oz happy, then he didn’t really mind.

The raven sighed, although it was only for show, and pushed his chair away from the table.

“Fine, I will make your cookies. I’ll be back in an hour or so, ok?”

“Oh, really?! Thank you, Gil!”

Gilbert rolled his eyes as he left the room. Oz had the sweetest of smiles on his face, as if he hadn’t just blackmailed him into doing just so, the manipulative brat…

Oz chuckled as he heard the library door closing. They were nice, these times when they played their little games, Gil pretending he didn’t like to obey Oz’s orders and the boy pretending that he didn’t give a damn. It was something they had been doing since they were kids, the only difference being that there used to be a lot more whining and crying from the (now) older’s part. But it was ok, most of the times. If the game was always the same, it would eventually become boring, but not with Gil. With Gil it just felt nostalgic, safe, welcomed... Just like home. Even if that “home” was always surrounded by deep darkness.

Caught in his own thoughts for a while, the book was lowered to his lap, almost forgotten. The sound of the opening door pulled him back to Earth with a startle, but he quickly composed himself and was back to his book-focused appearance by the time Gilbert appeared on the door frame.

“Wow, back already? You must be the quickest cookie-baker in the whole world!”

Gilbert huffed, not finding the slightest fun on the lame joke and thereby deciding to ignore it.

“The cooker said they have run out of vanilla extract because of the amount of deserts prepared for last night’s dinner and today’s lunch so I offered to go to town and buy some, since we are on a day off anyway. Just thought I should let you know.”

“Whaaat? You are not going to invite me to go with you? Are you abandoning me, Gil?”

Gilbert had only been teasing, and the comment was said on a tone not meant to be taken seriously, but shocked that his master would have that impression about him, Gilbert quickly sputtered a desperate excuse.

“What?! No! A-As if you needed any kind of invitation, idiot. And weren’t you the one that said that was going to stay glued to that book the whole day, anyway? I thought you would prefer staying here.”

“Huh? All alone? No way! I prefer going to town with Gil, it’ll be way more fun!”

Oz rushed to the exit, grabbing his sleeve, and started to pull him through the corridor, but that excited façade didn’t fool Gilbert. He had learned how to see through these expansive actions; that forced joy. He could count on his fingers the times Oz had really had fun after returning from the Abyss, and having to watch his desperate attempts of bringing back his old self, on continuing to seem untouched by the events surrounding them, clutched at his heart with an iron claw and ripped it to pieces.

No, even this was a false nostalgia, somewhat. There had been a lot of darkness surrounding Oz, even back then, that was why Gilbert was always doing – had always done – everything his master wanted, everything he thought might make him happy. But before his father’s ritual, there had at least been real innocence, real happiness in Oz and in plenty of his moments, specially when he was with his uncle Oscar and Ada. Now even those moments seemed tinged with a hidden angst.

If he didn’t know Oz as well as he did, though, it would be impossible to see. As he walked to and around town towards the market, the other boy chatted and ran everywhere, pointing at birds and interesting objects on the shop windows, and even making Gilbert chase him once or twice. Gilbert couldn’t help but wonder about the picture they painted, him all black and moody and Oz all golden and smiles, everyone that saw them would think they didn’t have a care in the world, though deep down he thought Oz was always ever so energetic because, if he stopped, then his thoughts would catch up to him.

“Hey, Gil, let’s take a shortcut through here!”

The call cut him from his thoughts, and he looked around to find Oz waving at him and pointing at the entrance to the park.

“That is not a shortcut. It will take us at least twice as long to get to the market through there.”

“No, no, it’s a shortcut. Trust me, Gil.”

Well, what was he supposed to do? Say he didn’t trust Oz? He begrudgingly followed the other into the park and off the path through the trees until they came to a clearing in the middle of the woods. Well at least it seemed like they were walking in the general direction of the market and should-

Something hit him on the back of the head, and he acted in a fraction of second, grabbing Oz by the arm and pulling him behind him as he turned around and pointed his gun in the direction of the enemy.

Unfazed, an angry looking young boy threw his ball in the direction of Gilbert’s face now, making him duck fast not to get hit.

“Hey, old man! Get out of the field, you are interrupting our game!” The boy yelled at him, and Gilbert quickly hid his gun away before yelling back.

“Don’t shoot balls at people, you know how dangerous that is?!”

“I wouldn’t have to shoot my ball at you if you didn’t walk in the middle of our game in the first place!”

Some other voices yelled in agreement behind him, and Gilbert looked around to see there were three or four more kids around, and no indication this was a playing field of any kind.

“Well, you shouldn’t be playing in the middle of nowhere like this. Where are your parents?!”

“None of your business!” The boy had the audacity to blow a raspberry at him, but before Gilbert could argue further, Oz got free from his hold and walked around him.

“A game? What game are you playing?”

“It’s a game I invented.” The boy said, sounding all cocky. “It’s called ‘monster’. The monster needs to try to shoot the ball at the others and if he hits someone, that person will be the new monster.”

“Woow, sounds super fun, can I play?”

“Sure!”

“Oz, we don’t have time to play, we need to go to the market and back to the mansion.”

“Aww, but Gil!”

The boy grabbed Oz’s hand and started pulling him away. “Don’t listen to that ugly nanny of yours, come play with us!”

The other kids cheered as Gilbert simmered in rage at being called an ugly nanny. He grabbed Oz by the back of his shirt. “No, we don’t have time to spend with these brats. Let’s go, Oz, or don't you want your cookies?”

Oz whined a little more, but soon his pout turned into the devious smirk Gilbert knew so well. He had a feeling he would not like whatever came next.

“Hey, I just thought of a new cool game we can play!” Oz said, and the other kids looked at him with confused faces. He pointed straight at Gilbert, and Gilbert immediately knew he absolutely would not like whatever came next.

“That guy is a super ugly, super mean monster, and we are the knights that are going to bring him down! Whomever can hit him with the ball, wins!”

“Oz, wait a-“ Gilbert started protesting, but had to jump to the side to avoid a ball one of the other kids had already thrown at him.

“Let’s get the monster!” She yelled and all the other kids, including Oz, cheered.

Oh, fuck.

Gilbert spent the next minutes running, dodging and jumping as the kids ran around him shooting and kicking the ball in his direction, trying to “kill the monster” or whatever it was. Oz gleefully joined in the torture and his attacks were the hardest to dodge since he knew Gilbert’s movements so well. It wasn’t particularly tiring or difficult after being trained most of his life by Break to fight Chains, but it was getting pretty annoying.

An idea suddenly stroke Gilbert and he wondered how he hadn't thought of it before. The next time one of the kids threw the ball at him, he grabbed it and held it high above his head.

“Game over, I win.”

“Aw man, that’s not fair!” One of the kids complained.

“That wasn’t part of the game!” Another joined.

The kid that had had an issue with him from the start looked angry for a moment and then gave a devious smirk that rivalled Oz’s and yelled:

“The monster is cheating! Let’s get him, guys!”

There was another round of yelling and before Gilbert could understand what he meant by that or react, one of the kids jumped at him from behind. He wasn’t expecting it so he lost his balance and stumbled, but he would have been able to recover, if the other kids didn’t follow soon after.

He fell to the floor with a scream, a couple of kids landing on his back and the others jumping after them in a pile over his body that left him unable to breathe. One of the kids – he couldn’t possibly tell which one – started to scream and roar, giving the cue for the others to follow him and start a deafening noise.

He tried to search for Oz and ask for help, but his view was currently limited, and the blond wasn’t anywhere in his line of sight. Feeling completely hopeless, he dropped his head to the ground, groaning and trying to ignore the kids’ cheering as he tried to think, and that’s when he heard it.

Laughter. Pure and joyous laughter that he hadn’t heard in a long time.

His head jerked in the direction of the sound, and he could slightly make out Oz sitting on the floor and laughing like this was the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life.

He had missed that sound so much. Oz’s real laughter, without any sign of being forced or hollow, like the one he had had when they were both kids. Before Abyss, before his father, before chains or Baskervilles; it elated him, it was his most favourite and the best sound in the world. It made Gilbert so happy himself, he almost started crying from the relief of it.

He would do anything to keep that sound alive.

With renewed strength, he pushed himself up, making the kids fall on their own pile behind him, then he turned around, glaring down at them, and said:

“Now you have made the monster angry. I am going to eat all of you!”

He fake-growled and the kids screamed and scattered as he chased them randomly around without any intention of getting any of them. After a few seconds of this, he turned and looked at Oz. The other boy was looking at him with a surprised look on his face, half thinking it fun and half disbelieving, so Gilbert turned to him with hands half raised in claws, and fake-growled again.

“And you! You turned against me! I’m going to eat you first!”

He ran towards Oz and was pleased to see him reacting just like the other kids: with a fake scream and starting to dash around. He ran after him for a while, and almost exploded from happiness when he heard Oz laughing again, before he took a sharp turn towards one of the other kids that were nearby and continued chasing them randomly around the clearing among the trees.

Every once in a while, the game changed: soon the kids organised themselves into a monster hunting squad, and started chasing him again, then the ball was rediscovered near a tree and they went back to something more similar to what the boy had explained at first, with the “monster” trying to catch the others by hitting them with the ball, which somehow turned into a soccer match, and a game of hide and seek, and another round of tag.

Every time Oz laughed or smiled or cheered together with the other kids, it made Gilbert laugh, too, and soon he had forgotten that his own laughter had also died over ten years ago or that he was a hunter and a killer, the Raven from the Nightrays, and not simply a boy playing together in the park with his best friend.

This is what they were supposed to be, they were supposed to have had more of this, still years of this to come. They had been robbed from themselves and each other, their lives turned upside down, but this was their defiance: they could still laugh, and smile and play, and every time they did, they were taking back a little piece of what had been stolen from them, they were back to being just boys and best friends playing in the park, with freedom and their whole lives ahead of them.

They would never be able to go back to those times, but they could pretend and heal for a while, at least.

~~**~~

The sun was already setting when Gilbert and Oz finally sat down on the grass propped against each other, exhausted and trying to catch their breaths. The other kids said goodbye and waved as each disappeared back to their own homes, inviting them to come back and play again tomorrow. Even the boy that had initially disliked him said they could come back anytime; it made Gilbert smile.

“I’m completely beat, I hadn’t run so much in ages.” Oz remarked, and Gilbert had to agree.

“How was this somehow more exhausting than taking down a Chain? What do kids nowadays eat?”

His dramatic statement made Oz laugh again, and Gilbert beamed. He would never get enough of that sound.

“What made you change your mind, Gil?” The other suddenly asked. “I never thought you’d start a game yourself, but you were almost having more fun than me.”

The raven didn’t know what to say for a moment. He didn’t want to bring attention to Oz’s present happiness – and general unhappiness, by consequence -, in fear it would make it disappear, so he just shrugged. “I just wanted to teach those kids a lesson for piling on top of me, and I guess I got carried away.”

“I see… You were really cool when you called yourself the monster like that, I couldn’t believe it!”

The comment made Gilbert blush a bit. “Don’t make fun of me, I was just going along with what you said.”

“I’m not! You were really cool, I mean it.”

They stayed silent for a little while longer, until Oz said, almost inaudible:

“Thank you, Gil.”

It took Gilbert by surprise, but then he smiled, and put his hat on Oz’s head in place of an answer.

“Come on. Let’s go find a cab and go back to the mansion, I can’t walk the whole way back again.”

They found their way back to the main entrance of the park and Gilbert hailed a carriage for them to climb into. Oz fell asleep almost instantly, and Gilbert contented himself with watching over him on their way back.

It wasn’t until they were back at the mansion that he realised they had forgotten all about the vanilla extract and the cookies, but it was okay. They had gotten something way more precious instead.

#pandora hearts #oz vessalius #oz bezarius #gilbert nightray #fanfic #fanfiction #mine #writings #nandawrites #AO3 #gen fic #childhood friends

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