#this got much longer than I expected

[akkrosu]

@ellaspore, I blame you entirely for this. How dare you give me the courage to express my thoughts openly. Consider this me shouting from the rooftops.

So, my music-obsessed brain has been sitting on a particular KinnPorsche moment for over a year now. So let me get crazy and belatedly add my own two cents to all the meta we already have for this show.

In episode 5, we had Kinn and Porsche trying to cope with their confusion over their first time in The Bathroom™ and their feelings for each other by making out with other people, Porsche at Yok’s bar and Kinn in his room. And the music (Volunteer by David Celeste, a composer I like about as much as the staff of many Thai BLs seem to) does something so wonderful in that moment to illustrate their feelings—especially Porsche’s—that I’m still gushing about it a year later.

The first interesting thing is that we start the scene in complete darkness, musically speaking. All we have is this simple and super vague piano melody. The first time I watched this scene I remember how unsettled the music made me feel because of how vague it is; I didn’t know how to understand or interpret it and the mood of the scene around it. And this is because there is something fundamental missing.

All the piano plays is fifths—first g and d in the first two measures, then d and a in the following. (I am aware that the last three bars of the transcription below make it a little more complicated because of that f# in the left hand, which means it’s not just fifths, but since this particular harmonic holds no value for what I’m about to write, I’ll just ignore it.) And it is important that they are fifths, because fifths are pretty much the backbone of any harmonic. They tell us some basics about the key we’re in and about the chords we’re using, which is important because these two things are what creates the mood of the entire piece.

The first five measures of the piece, which correspond to roughly 0:00 to 0:13 of the video linked above and about 21:11 to 21:23 of episode 5.

But we’re missing one fundamental factor to get clarification about the exact key and chords here: the third. In case you don’t know, every basic chord is made up of three notes: the base note, the third and the fifth. And the third is arguably the most important note of the chord—at least in our case—because it differentiates between a major and a minor chord.

Basically (and this is simplified quite a bit), every chord exists in two modes—major and minor. The only difference between them, musically speaking, is the third: in a major chord, the third is a major third, meaning it is four semitones up from the base note, whereas the minor chord has a minor third, which is three semitones up from the base note.

A little illustration of the construction of a basic chord (here C major) and the intervals between its notes.

What that means in practice is that the chords sound radically different. In general, major chords sound more upbeat, happy and positive, while minor chords have more of a somber, sad vibe to them. Feel free to listen to the demonstration below.

So, now that we have the basics of harmony out of the way—how in the world does this relate to the scene and KinnPorsche? Well, now that you understand why thirds are so important, you’ll also understand why the lack of a third is equally important. As I mentioned before, we start the scene and the piece with only fifths. Because we’re missing the third especially in the first chord (spanning the first two bars), we can’t determine the mode of the chord or the key of the entire piece, and so we’re ripped of any sort of understanding about the mood of the music and the scene. This creates a really unsettled and tense feeling and makes you think that’s what the characters are feeling. As we watch Porsche make out with that girl, the music tells us how uncertain he himself is of what he’s doing. He doesn’t know if he’s making the right choices. He’s walking a fine line of mental instability, yay.

As powerful as this lack of the third is, what’s even more powerful is when and how it finally does appear. Because it shows up in the exact instant that Porsche suddenly pauses and his mind flashes back to Kinn (~21:27 of the episode). And we get it in a very subtle, but elegant way: the strings, which were quietly reinforcing the fifths in the piano before, now add that third note to complete the first chord of the theme, the only chord we really need because it is the tonic (which makes it the most important one in determining the key).

Based on only the fifths—g and d—the chord (and the key, which is identical to the tonic) could have been a G major or g minor chord. In the case of the first one, the third would have been a b, and in the second one a b flat (see the above video demonstration of a G major and minor chord for reference). And what note do the strings add? A b flat, which puts both the chord and the key into g minor, the sadder, quieter mode of the two. It finally gives us the clarification we needed: what Porsche is doing isn’t working, he is sad about how things are with Kinn, he misses Kinn and his touch. Before, he wasn’t sure about what he was doing, now he knows it’s not what he wants or needs. His attempt at forgetting him through this woman has failed.

Measures 9-15, which correspond to roughly 0:15 to 0:26 of the video and 21:25 to 21:37 of the episode.

I also really appreciate how the strings were the ones to bring this resolution, not only because they have a very soft tone and are therefore already typically connected to sad music, but also because they make it possible to introduce the new note very carefully and quietly. For at least the first half of the first measure in the above picture, the note can’t even be heard, and then it is introduced through a crescendo, slowly appearing like it is dawning on Porsche that he can’t forget Kinn.

From this point on—as Porsche tries to distract himself from this realization by kissing the woman and we get to see Kinn do the same—, more strings come in and the piano develops the theme we have heard twice now. The piece also gets a bit more complex harmonically, but all of these changes just serve to highlight the minor key we are in and the depressed, lonely, even desperate mood of both Kinn and Porsche. It mixes well with the almost feverish, desperate way especially Kinn behaves in that moment.

So, I want to thank whoever was in charge of the music in this show because they made some excellent choices (and some interesting ones—looking at you, weird MIDI-sounding version of Vivaldi’s Summer that for some reason comes up again and again), but this piece in particular stood out to me because of how perfectly it was edited into the scene. This doesn’t happen very often in (Thai) BLs since very few of them have scores specifically written for them, so most have to make do with pre-existing pieces that can often not be incorporated as elegantly and interestingly as an original soundtrack.

#this got much longer than I expected #sorry for all the music theory #I just really get excited about this stuff #kinnporsche #music theory #harmonics #kinnporsche meta #also sorry if there were any language mistakes #English is my second language #and even though I feel very comfortable speaking it #I don’t spend a lot of time talking about music theory in English

[ravarui]

Personalized Shanty for Makino featuring Shanks himself @0dd1t1es In response to this post

The Pirate Captain's Serenade to His Barmaid's Heart

(Verse 1) In a coastal bar, where the waves gently sigh, Stood a barmaid with raven hair, beneath the moon's soft sky, She poured love into each glass, with a heart so pure, Caught the eye of a red-haired captain, and love would soon endure.

(Verse 2) He swaggered into the tavern, with a devilish grin, And that's when their love story, it did begin. With locks like fire and eyes ablaze with desire, He sailed into her world, setting her heart on fire,

(Verse 3) He ordered a pint of ale, with a charm that none could match, She served it up with grace, but her heart began to catch, In his fiery locks of red, and his eyes so full of glee, She saw a world of adventure, where love was meant to be.

(Verse 4) He regaled her with his stories, of the seas so wild and free, And in those tales of daring, her heart found its decree, For the pirate captain's spirit, like the ocean's endless flow, Was a match for her own heart, as it began to glow.

(Verse 5) As she served up the drinks, their spirits entwined, In a dance of destiny, two souls combined, Her laughter like music, her smile like the dawn, In the warmth of her presence, all his doubts were gone.

(Verse 6) Through starlit nights, and sunsets so divine, They danced on the deck, their hearts intertwined, The raven-haired barmaid and her pirate so true, In the sea of their love, they found skies of blue.

(Verse 7) So raise your glasses high, to love's sweet embrace, To the raven-haired barmaid and her captain's grace, In the heart of their romance, where stars softly swirl, A love so enchanting, in the arms of the world.

#0dd1t1es #shanty call #this got much longer than I expected #whoops #I hope you like it c: #I imagined it as a personal shanty #that Shanks just wrote for her #hence the title

[lastofthe20thcenturygirls]

maomao is so perfect like she respects the man who raised her will always listen to what he says. doesn't feel emotions strongly. hates her biological father just because. is forever loyal to the consort she served. loves money. bought a gift for that one girl who always shared gossips with her as she couldn't afford it herself liked seeing the girl happy and adored her as a lil sister even shed a tear when read her letter. is extremely good at connecting the dots. is always worried about that child consort and her heart was warmed to see the child found someone who cares for her. would harshly judge you if you didn't think the celestial nymph eunuch wasn't the most beautiful creature in the whole of creation. would run to save someone's life even getting punched wouldn't stop her. doesn't get affected by all the hanky-pankys that goes around her. might even give you her important hair stick if you are important to her. cares about her three sisters so much she'll make sure they end up with the kind of men they prefer. would hold a grudge against you if you chose her birth mother instead of her sister. very chill. can just casually wonder about the size of boobs of women the same way she always wonders about the missing equipment of the eunuchs. always thinking about abortion medicines is always making abortion medicines. loves experimenting with herbs and poisons. loves eating snakes would be extra happy if you locked her in a room with snakes as a punishment. wants to give birth once because she wants to eat her own placenta. very open-minded. always gives it her all

#this got longer than i expected but i love her so very much 🤷🏾‍♀️ #(forgive me about no paragraph breaks) #i am always thinking about her too jinshi isn't special #maomao #kusuriya no hitorigoto #the apothecary diaries #nobody saw my affected typo okay? #light novel #knh text

[hwangyeddeongie]

I’m in my horny bubble rn so I’m just gonna drop a request, can you write about reader (and maybe ryujin if you do 3somes) spoiling yeji on her day off? I’m talking about praise, eating her out/using toys on her until she’s hoarse and squirting all over the bed from the overstimulation bc I feel like she’d be into getting pushed past her limits and bc she deserves it for being so hardworking all the time:(

holy shit anon you really got me thinking 😮‍💨 I included ryujin in this because I’m as much a ryejist as I am a yeji simp

Yeji x fem!reader x Ryujin

Cw: smut. Men and minors DNI!

Because of course yeji has been overworking herself to the point she barely gets any sleep. She stays in the practice room until dawn, perfecting and obsessing over any and every move. She keeps the girls in line too, and her patience wanes with every passing day.

Eventually, you start to notice. You notice that she’s almost never home anymore, and you’re constantly going to bed alone and waking up without her next to you. It feels like your relationship has been reduced to good morning and good night texts.

Ryujin notices too. She sees her leader’s rapidly deteriorating state, the circles under her eyes that get darker and darker. She’s tried talking some sense into Yeji, but to no avail.

Ultimately, she comes to you. She shares her concerns with you, and you both agree that Yeji needs (desperately) to blow off some steam and relax.

And so, your plan hatches. One day after practice, Ryujin grabs Yeji and all but drags her out of the practice room, paying no attention to the older girl’s complaints about ‘working on the choreography’.

When they get home, you’re there waiting for them. You and Ryujin had had the foresight to ask (bribe) the other members to stay out of the apartment for the night.

When Yeji sees you, she’s taken aback. She realises that she hasn’t seen you, not really, in weeks.

“Hi, baby,” you say, striding over to her and cupping her face with your hands.

“Hi,” she breathes back. “What are you doing here?”

You share a look with Ryujin before answering.

“We were worried about you.”

Yeji cocks her head in confusion, and her eyes widen when you take a step closer to her.

Ryujin comes up from behind, wrapping her arms around the leader’s waist.

“You’ve been working so hard, unnie.”

She places a kiss on the junction between Yeji’s shoulder and neck, making her shiver.

“What are you-”

You tuck a strand of Yeji’s hair behind her ear and smile softly.

“We just want to return the favour.”

You close the distance between you two and kiss her deeply. Your hands make their way down her body, slowly unbuttoning her shirt. Then you’re kissing across her perfect jawline and leaning down to murmur against her ear,

“Let us take care of you, baby.”

Yeji lets you lead her to the bedroom with Ryujin in tow. You shut the door behind you.

Ryujin has pulled Yeji’s shirt off as well as her own, and she’s kissing down the eldest girl’s neck as her hands reach behind to unclasp her bra. You walk over and claim her lips again, this time pushing her down onto the bed.

Yeji’s bra is long discarded somewhere on the floor, and you’re distracted by her perfect body, staring at her curves and her bare torso.

It seems Ryujin had the same idea, because you both hover over her, just admiring.

Yeji becomes shy, turning red and hiding her face behind her hands.

Ryujin chuckles as you coo.

“No need to hide from us, Yeji-ah,” you say, grabbing her wrists to pull them away.

“You’re so beautiful, unnie,” Ryujin says at the same time, which makes Yeji whine and turn even redder.

“Please,” she says hoarsely, her voice dripping with want. “Please touch me, I need-”

You hush her with a kiss and lean down to draw a nipple into your mouth.

Yeji moans, arching up into you and throwing her head back. Ryujin starts marking her up, leaving hickeys as she makes her way down, down, down…

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Ryujin leaving wet kisses all over Yeji’s thighs, and then sight turns you on more than you thought it would. The wetness between your legs is becoming uncomfortable at this point, but tonight isn’t about you.

Ryujin hooks her thumbs under Yeji’s waistband, pulling off her shorts and underwear in one go.

You reluctantly pull away from her chest to get a better look at her, and you feel a thrill run through you when you see she’s absolutely dripping.

Ryujin smirks against the skin of her thigh, looking up at you to exchange a gleeful look.

“You’re so wet, baby,” she purrs, and Yeji buries her face into the crook of your neck to hide her embarrassment.

“You really want us that bad?” You ask, grabbing her chin to make her look at you. She whimpers, canting her hips up towards Ryujin’s face and nodding.

“Use your words, my love.”

“Yes, please, I want it so bad, I can’t-I can’t-please, please touch me-”

Ryujin grants her wish, licking a stripe up her entrance and sucking on her clit.

Yeji’s reaction is immediate: she throws her head back, a broken cry leaving her lips as she grips onto your shoulder.

“Ah, Ryujin—oh my god-”

Ryujin slings her legs over her shoulders for better access as you continue your attack on her breasts, and it’s clear it won’t take much to make Yeji come.

She’s all but screaming now, alternating between moaning your name and Ryujin’s, and a myriad of please’s, curses, and whines.

Your hand reaches up to cup the breast your mouth isn’t on, which makes Yeji moan louder and tangle one hand in your hair and the other in Ryujin’s.

With a final cry, she’s coming undone, pushing her hips up. Ryujin licks her clean before pulling away to let her breathe.

But you’re not done with her yet.

You move to tangle your legs with Yeji’s, pushing your cores together.

Yeji whimpers, bracing herself on your shoulders, but she humps against you, which draws a low hiss from you.

Ryujin makes her way back up, kissing you so you can taste Yeji’s sweetness. You groan into her mouth and deepen it, determined to get every last drop from her lips.

Ryujin pulls away and turns to kiss Yeji as you speed up the movement of your hips. Yeji’s panting, her hands desperately searching for purchase on your arms, your waist, your back…

Ryujin places one last kiss on the corner of Yeji’s mouth before she slides off the bed with an “I’ll be right back,”.

You watch her exit the room and turn your attention onto your girlfriend.

She’s flushed from her chest to her cheeks, her hair is spread around her head like a halo, and there’s a sheen of sweat covering her entire body. In your opinion, she looks absolutely divine.

You bite back your own moans, but you can’t help it when Yeji is moving against you with so much enthusiasm. You can tell what she’s trying to do, and you reach out to stop her.

“Baby, no,” you pant, “tonight is about you.”

But Yeji shakes her head stubbornly.

“Wanna make you feel good too,” she cuts herself off with a whimper. “Wanna make you come.”

And who were you to refuse her? You rutted against her harder, faster, and were rewarded with a loud “oh, baby, so good-”.

You noticed Ryujin return with something in her hand, but you were too distracted with making Yeji come.

And you do, and she’s arching up so high, and digging her nails into your back, and it makes you hiss in pain, but the pain feels weirdly delicious paired with the hot pleasure of your own orgasm that washes over you.

You both ride out your high, slowing down before coming to a halt. You’re both breathless, and through the haze you get a good look at Ryujin.

She has a strap attached to her front, and she’s looking at the both of you with her eyes darker than you’d ever seen before.

So that’s what she went to get, you think to yourself with a smirk.

Yeji’s eyes are wide as she stares at Ryujin, and you can tell she’s already aroused again by the blush on her cheeks and the way she bites her lip.

Ryujin stalks over slowly, and you move over to give her space.

“Think you can take one more, Yeddeong?” She murmurs, already adjusting herself between Yeji’s legs.

Yeji nods emphatically, and it’s almost comical how quickly she does the action.

Yeji ends up taking the strap on all fours, Ryujin pounding into her from behind. You can tell by the way her arms and legs shake that she’s about to collapse, and you mention this to Ryujin, who switches their position to have Yeji bent over the bed instead.

You know Yeji likes to be pushed over the edge more than she can take, so after Ryujin is done, you take the strap and carry Yeji over to and against the wall, where you wring out another orgasm from her.

She’s crying at this point, but even through the tears she begs for more.

So Ryujin takes back the strap and spoons her from behind on the bed, using her hand to hold up Yeji’s leg. You use your fingers to circle Yeji’s clit, and she sobs against your mouth. She grabs at you to pull you closer, and she screams when she comes for the fifth and final time. A thick streak of liquid comes out from her, and you decide that it’s time to stop.

Yeji’s legs are trembling, as is the rest of her body, and you place tender kisses on her forehead to ground her as Ryujin discards the strap and curls up behind Yeji.

The younger dancer litters kisses over Yeji’s shoulders and reaches over to pull your waist closer.

When you’re all under the covers, you and Ryujin mumble praises against Yeji’s skin.

“You did so good, baby,” “you were so good for us,”

Yeji’s eyelids droop, and she falls asleep between you and Ryujin, her favourite girls.

#well #this was much longer than expected #I got *ahem* a little carried away #I hope you enjoy this one 😭 #ryeji #itzy #yeji #ryujin #itzy imagines #itzy x reader #yeji x reader #yeji imagines #ryujin x reader #ryujin imagines #ryeji imagines #ryeji x reader #itzy smut

[arcanacenturia]

GOOD OMENS 2 SPOILERS

Something's so not right in S2 though.

The only time we "see" God is whenever she talks to Job and just blabbers stuff at him because she's bored af and doesn't have anybody to speak with except maybe the Metatron.

When Aziraphale tries to talk directly to God in S1, the Metatron tells him "Speaking to me is speaking to God" and categorically refuses to listen to Aziraphale's request.

That's weird. That's so weird.

We have no proof that he's actually relaying all this information to God. She hasn't appeared to anyone in centuries. He's also aware of Aziraphale's will to stop the arma-fucking-geddon.

He's aware of Azi's relation to Crowley.

As I've seen stated somewhere on Tumblr earlier, he's aware that just by trying to perform a teeny tiny miracle together they performed a huge ass one that triggered alarms in Heaven and succeeded in separating the two, because he's aware, and could be scared, of their combined powers.

Okay but why would he need to separate them?

A second too late, he told Aziraphale about The Second Coming, which is most likely linked to a new Armageddon again.

Related to that, we never heard God herself about the destruction of earth. Anything said about it is told by other characters. Note to myself: list up who talked about it.

The Metatron seems to be hiding something. Unlike the other (arch-)angels he's not naïve, he wears a black coat, he doesn't sugarcoat his speech to humans (and my synesthesia says he speaks Spiky, and not a good spiky).

I think it's also noteworthy that Crowley & Aziraphale don't communicate, not with words, Crowley never told Aziraphale about what Gabriel told him but he also never told Aziraphale what he found out about Gabriel in S2. He never told Aziraphale that his bosses were planning to restart Armageddon until Gabriel went Nah, that it's the reason the Metatron demoted him. He demoted the current Prince of Heaven for stopping it, then promoted Aziraphale, who is a lot more tame and also has been a cause of Armagenope to fail, to lead it.

I don't think Crowley fell because he asked questions to God. I think he sauntered vaguely downwards because he asked too many questions to the Metatron, that would put his plan in danger.

This bitch is SHADY AS FUCK and I'm honestly so eager, so curious to see what he (and season 3) is going to bring us. I wonder if he's lived among the humans, too. Besides, I feel like he's going to try (and maybe manage) and use Azi as his marionnette for whatever stuff he's preparing.

And I feel whatever he's preparing is really against God.

Thank you Neil Gaiman for this ending because even if it HURTS it's so interesting. There are so many things that could be going on behind the heartbreak. I could be going on about how Crowley probably even found out part of what happened. I've seen people speculate with good arguments that Crowley lost part of his memory after falling, and if it is the case that could be another thing done to prevent Crowley from stopping the Metatron.

There is SO MUCH that could be, so much that WILL be, and so little that we can know.

No matter in what form, I'm so excited to see how this will develop in the future.

#long post #Maybe I read too much into this but also that's how my brain works #I think we've been focusing a lot on the last apparition of the Metatron in the series and not enough in older ones #Especially the apparition in S1 #This got way longer than I expected #I'm so scared to post this tbh I don't know how it will be received #I could be wrong!!!!!!!!!! #I'm just excited #Also I got the greenlight to post it #Good Omens #Good Omens 2 #Good Omens 3 #Good Omens season 2 #GOS2 #GO2 #go2 spoilers #good omens s2 spoilers #aziraphale #go 2 speculation #good omens 2 spoilers #gos2 spoilers #good omens spoilers #gomens #gomens 2 #Metatron #God #Heaven #Speculations #go3 #go3 speculation

[juminies]

leave the light on

a not-quite-impromptu reunion of old friends

♡ — post-jumin good end, mostly just jumin and jihyun being jumin and jihyun—some tension and some love.

read on AO3

☀︎

“Did you forget something, dear?” Jumin calls just out of eye shot of the door.

The man currently in the doorway clears his throat. The situation doesn’t quite call for a joke about being mistakenly called dear. “It’s me.”

Jumin walks into the room and his eyes grow noticeably wider as he registers who the ‘me’ standing in front of him is. He scans them cautiously from head to toe, as though he expects to find something catastrophic awaiting him there. “Jihyun?”

“Hello. Security recognised me and let me in. Sorry it’s been a while.”

“V.” A correction, maybe. Jumin pushes at the rolled up sleeve of his shirt. “It’s good to see you. What happens to be the occasion? We’ve barely heard from you since the wedding.”

“Ah. Yes. Sorry about that,” V says. He nervously taps against the neck of the bottle in his left hand, a red wine the pair used to indulge in often before inside-outside forces dragged them apart.

“I thought you were away,” Jumin tells him.

“I was. I had some free time though, so I thought it would be nice to come back and visit.”

Jumin raises an eyebrow. “Did you see my wife on your way in?” he asks.

“I can’t say I did.”

“I see. She just left for a few hours, coincidentally.”

There is already tension lingering, far too much of it, easily strung up by the silence in the penthouse. The last time they had stood together in this room was the day before the last party, on less than ideal terms. The last time they drank together alone was close to two years ago, as what could prove to be entirely different people. Neither man steps closer, as if some ragged fusion of time and carefully omitted truth and lacking urgency holds the other out of arm’s reach.

“I brought wine,” V says, holding up the bottle. His hand appears to shake ever so subtly as he does; it would have gone unnoticed by anyone less detail-oriented than Jumin. “I assume you still enjoy this one?”

“Of course,” Jumin tells him. “It reminds me of you, after all. Let me fetch some glasses.”

The space remains between them as Jumin heads to the kitchen and decreases only physically as V sits down in the armchair and Jumin takes his usual place on the sofa.

Conversation does not open as naturally as V had hoped. He has a tendency to forget Jumin’s gravitation to small talk when it comes to people he hasn’t seen for some time—a taught behaviour that has only grown to fall naturally upon him when thrust into what, admittedly, is a somewhat uncomfortable situation. V also has a tendency to avoid sharing details of the goings on in his life as a measure to prevent anyone other than himself coming into harm’s way, and these things in tandem do not piece together too well. As a consequence he mostly lets Jumin answer his own questions, listening keenly to him talk about the latest developments at C&R, about his honeymoon, about his wife.

Then comes a topic that cannot be deflected: “How are your eyes?”

V digs a fingernail into the arm of the plush chair he’s sat in, leaving a small mark in the cushion. He leans to pick up his glass from the coffee table to stall as he turns over the question in his mind; performs a swift but careful examination of it as though it's the brush strokes of an oil painting. “The circumstances aren’t ideal, but they haven’t deteriorated any more since we last spoke.”

Jumin hums noncommittally as if he expects more, and if he sees through the lie his expression does not give him away.

“I have very little sight at all in my right eye and no peripheral vision in my left. I’m just grateful I can still take pictures for now,” V adds. He punctuates his admission with a solemn half-laugh as he gently smooths a finger over the mark in the chair he made with his nail.

“I would still think it best that you make a legitimate inquiry about having surgery to heal them,” Jumin says. “It would be a shame were you to lose your vision entirely. Our wedding photographs were beautiful thanks to you. Retrospectively I find it difficult to believe that I could have so much as considered trusting someone else with the duty.”

V smiles softly and crosses his arms over his chest sheepishly. “If nothing else I’m glad I could be of service in that regard. You both deserved beautiful photographs.”

“You are doing me a service merely by being a friend. I can only hope that you consider it—the surgery, that is.” A bulb in the lamp across the room flickers and Jumin glances over to it. His face remains wholly unreadable. “For a friend, if not for yourself.”

V nods, tight lipped, and raises his glass to his chin. “I will consider it.”

He is rewarded with a sincere (and relieved) thank you.

The conversation gets easier after that, as though it had served as a reminder of the profound trust the pair have for one another. A bottle of wine is drained quickly and the gap between them closes in tandem; any bitterness brewing subsides. Though there had often been one thing or another to mull over—it’s in their nature to undershare—no feelings between Jumin and Jihyun had ever so much as begun to bleed through into resentment, and now is no different. Instead apprehension turns to laughter and agitation to playfulness. Between the two of them they hold enough admiration for the other to fill oceans.

“You know, V,” Jumin starts after some time, gently swirling his wine—the first glass from a second bottle that he claimed he had been saving for a special occasion. “I thought it very odd that my wife should opt to go out alone on the evening of my day off.”

V’s vision renders him oblivious to the mischievous glint in Jumin’s eyes. “Yes. Strange, I suppose.”

“And you brought wine to a supposed impromptu visit?”

“I bought it nearby,” V says. Then, with a touch of sarcasm, adds, “Would you prefer that I show up empty handed next time?”

“Not that I doubt your credibility, but…” Jumin leans forward and turns the now empty bottle that V had brought along so that he can see the label, then presses his finger against the name of a French town printed in grey cursive. “No local stores sell this variety,” he finishes, amused. “She put you up to this, did she not?”

The shift of V’s expression is enough of a confirmation in the eyes of a man who’s known him for twenty years, but Jumin doesn’t say as much. He leans back again, crossing one leg over the other, and Jihyun can’t help but break into a grin. “Put me up to this?” he echoes.

“Yes. Visiting me today,” Jumin says.

The mint-haired man takes a longer than necessary sip of wine.

“She did,” Jumin says, volunteering an answer to his own question.

V sighs and shakes his head, his smile unfading. “She did.”

“I knew it.”

“You knew the whole time?”

“The timing was too convenient.” Jumin chuckles. “And I assume she figured that my lack of opportunity to prepare would render me somewhat less formal about the whole thing.”

“She called me as soon as she found out I was back in the city and insisted I visit. She didn’t give me much choice, actually. She’s a very persuasive woman.”

“She is indeed.” Jumin smiles warmly. “Then it seems I will have to thank her later.”

“Me too,” V hums. The quiet unnaturally lingers for a beat too long before he adds, “Know that I did– I do miss you often, and I’m sorry for not getting in touch more. It can be quite difficult to approach when… Ah.” His free hand nervously opens and closes tight again in his lap—a visual to accompany the way he fiddles with the idea of honesty then pushes it far enough from the realm of possibility that he can plausibly deny it was ever there. “Things get in the way.”

“Call,” Jumin says, and does not press the vagueness of things or how they get in the way. His unbreakable loyalty sits unbelonging but welcomed with the utmost gratitude behind Jihyun’s rib cage. “Whenever you are available to do so. That’s all I ask.”

“The service really is bad out there most of the time.”

“A broken phone call is better than no phone call.”

“Noted.”

They fall into a real, comfortable silence, then. Through it something feels like they’re back, though they never really left. Like children who look to each other for love they lack elsewhere. Like teenagers willingly dependent on one another for companionship and a semblance of normality. Like fresh adults learning to navigate the world with one’s arm tenderly thrown over the other’s shoulder.

“Do you remember,” Jumin starts, “Between our sixteenth birthdays, when you stole a bottle of wine from your father for us to share?”

“Actually, I do. I think that was the first time,” V muses, “That I’d done anything I considered genuinely rebellious.”

Jumin laughs loudly in surprise and leans in closer, elbows resting on his knees as if he’s about to share a lifelong secret. “Are we not counting the time you snuck out of your house in the middle of the night to tell me about the dream you had where we ran away together and lived in a tent on Jeju island?”

“Oh, God. I had forgotten about that.”

“You got grounded for a week. I recall your father rather distastefully using my almost being kidnapped as an excuse to keep you indoors,” Jumin says.

V smiles, light and sweet, then leans back in his chair. He actually hadn’t told Jumin the extent of the way his father would compare them, he doesn’t think. Maybe for the best. “I think you’re drunk,” he says.

“Untrue.” A smile tugs at the corners of Jumin’s lips again in return. He reaches to lightly nudge Jihyun's knee. “You shouldn’t lie, nor so wildly doubt my alcohol tolerance.”

“You’re getting nostalgic. That’s the first sign.”

“Hmph.” An indistinct, quiet chatter drifts from outside of the penthouse and Jumin leans back in turn, stretching as he does so. “My dearest must be back,” he comments.

And time is a funny thing—passing always, steadily, yet hours can feel so short in the right company. Just as years can feel so long in the absence of it.

“Your hearing is exceptional even in your old age,” V quips.

“I’m just twenty-eight. And you are practically a month older than I am.”

The door opens through another bout of Jihyun’s laughter.

“Oh, V! I didn’t expect to see you here,” the woman says as she takes off her jacket in the doorway.

“Unexpected indeed,” Jumin replies. She looks at him and he hides his smile with the final swig of his wine.

“He figured it out relatively fast,” V says with a chuckle. “And then had me admit it.”

“My beloved wife and closest friend, scheming behind my back. Who would have thought?” Jumin teases, faux-offended.

“He can be very convincing,” V says.

“Tell me about it.” She laughs, exasperated. “Let me grab a glass and join you. I assume you’ll be staying longer, V?”

Jihyun nods and looks back to Jumin with a soft fondness in his expression; the kind reserved only for old friends. The kind that holds a deep-seated thankfulness—I am so glad you’re in my life. I can only hope that we’ll find each other in the next one.

#mystic messenger #jumin han #jihyun kim #this got much longer than I expected after I found it as a little forgotten draft :'') #also my first time writing jihyun 🥹 eek

[dangerpronebuddie]

Such a true words. People are so crazy that Buck kissed a boy who is not Eddie

Literally! Is his own personal growth useless if it's not tied to Eddie?

Don't get me wrong. I love Eddie with my whole entire heart (and I'm still pissed about the basketball scene but that's another matter). The point of Buck's bisexuality is not just about buddie.

It's about Buck finally loving himself. All of himself. This is the man who's been passively suicidal since day one, and self destructive, and tying all his worth to the job or what he can do for other people.

Now we get to see him love himself and be himself. And I don't really care who that happens with.

Buddie is a slow burn. People have no patience. They want buddie NOW. And I get it, I want buddie just as much as anybody, but I want even more for the individual characters to grow and heal and be happy in their own skin.

And anyway, logically speaking, it wouldn't have made sense for it to be Eddie. He's in a relationship already (hopefully not for much longer, but ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯), and he and Buck weren't speaking at the end of the episode anyway. And Eddie still has to have his own awakening/ realization.

Tommy is a good option for Buck. Someone who knows him, and isn't asking for anything from him. Tommy is his chance to test the waters with someone he trusts.

The ship is not dead in the water. This isn't even a drastic detour. This is just the next step towards getting us there.

#dang this got a lot longer than I expected 😅 #oops #i just have so much to say about it #diana 💜 #911 spoilers #911 abc #evan buckley #bi buck #bucktommy #buddie

[ewingstan]

We sort of touched on it in a prior post, but you’ve gotten a fair few details on how Mark and Carol raised Victoria by this point.

From what details you recall, how does her handling/raising of Kenzie fall into compare and contrast with those details?

Wooh. Hm. Well, I think she has Kenzie's ultimate wellbeing in mind more than Carol probably did while raising her and Amy. At the same time, when Victoria's first reaction to Kenzie getting publicly pilloried was "lets get you in front of cameras to argue your case, and also while we're at it lets keep our cape-network plan from falling through by jumping on the public-Scion-reveal grenade" I thought well. Yeah that's something Carol's daughter would think to do huh.

Its a dangerous relationship they're in. Victoria legitimately wants to keep Kenzie safe and stop her from overworking herself. She also really wants this cape group thing to work. She'd probably not consciously let the latter get in the way of the former, but she will let Kenzie fight as a hero if it seems like that's what Kenzie wants. The problem, of course, is that Kenzie wants what Victoria wants. Kenzie will act in whatever way will make the people around her happy, and so if she thinks Victoria wants her to be a hero (which you don't exactly need to be an observation tinker to notice), she's gonna make being a hero her whole thing. Not to mention that Kenzie also knows Ashley wants her to be an active cape, Sveta enjoys being on a hero team, etc....

I'll also say that the way Victoria's treating Chris.... kind of reminds me of how Carol treated Amy growing up? Victoria sees him as her responsibility: he's a member of the group Dr. Yamada asked her to shepherd, and he's a kid, and now that Dr. Yamada's gone that responsibility is even greater. Victoria is burdened with Chris in the same way Marquis burdens Carol with Amy; sure, Victoria does it a lot more voluntarily.... but she's also doing it more because she agreed to care for "the group," not for Chris. Chris is a responsibility that came packaged with what she wanted to do. And while the care she has for Kenzie seems to come from a place of genuine concern and affection, her keeping tabs on Chris feels strictly procedural. She's responsible for him, she'll keep tabs on him, nothing more to it. There's a lot of resentment and some frustration that boils into how Victoria treats Chris as a result. Insert your arrested development "I don't care for Chris" image here.

Hell, despite otherwise having pretty wildly different viewpoints when interacting with people, Victoria ends up resembling Taylor a lot in how she thinks about Chris, because it matches up so well with how Taylor thought about Regent. Its another case of "That guy I'm not as close to as the others, the dangerous one, the one whose probably a sociopath waiting to be let loose." I remember thinking that Chris seemed like "the Regent of the group" in my early reading, but they're really not so alike personality-wise, or even in terms of their place in the team dynamic; they're just positioned the same way in the mind of each text's narrator.

I read Taylor's reaction to Alec as one part fear-response to people who seem to delight in other's pain for no obvious reason, and one part a reaction to all the stuff she doesn't like about herself projected onto some twink in leggings. Her fixation on the idea that Regent must just like hurting people, that its just the kind of person he is, comes from the same scared confusion about why her best friend and the whole of the school started torturing her for no apparent reason. Its a reaction from a person who still categorizes everyone as bullies or victims, and is distressed about whether there's more to that and where she is on the spectrum. In her mind, he's a kinda evil dude that likes to hurt people because hes a bully and that's what bullies are, but actually maybe he's fine to hang around with? Which is getting churned in her head alongside her pledging to protect people by becoming a horrifying warlord and making long arguments to Pariah and Flechette about how villains can be helpful and heroes can be bullies. Taylor's relationship to Alec and her distance from him is symptomatic of her evolving views about who people can be, what power can be used for, and why people act the way they do.

Of course, Taylor conversely forms one of her strongest emotional bonds with someone who reminds her of her bullies even more than Alec does. But I think this makes sense for the same reason Chris and Kenzie could both remind Victoria of Amy but inspire such differing treatment. Bitch's first encounter with Taylor was a seemingly random attack that Taylor directly compares to the trio's assaults: she instinctively looks for a reason to hold back like she did for them, and then finds freedom in not having one. But while Rachel at first seems to directly fit the "bullies because she's a bully" model, Taylor learns pretty early on that Rachel has perfectly understandable reasons for her behavior, and that she can be predicted and made into a close ally if she just pays attention and puts in the work. Taylor's relationship with Alec is her sticking to the idea that the world is bullies and victims, and you have to find your place in it without understanding it because there's nothing more to understand. Taylor's relationship with Rachel, meanwhile, is her finding out the world isn't just bullies doing bad things because they're bad people. Rachel is the possibility of understanding the world, bringing it to heel, learning to love it and make it love you.

Similarly, Victoria's relationship with Chris is a reflection of everything she internalized from the Wretchening, while her relationship with Kenzie is her reacting against those internalized lessons towards something more hopeful. Chris is a medical freak who becomes a horrible misshapen monster on a regular basis and who suffers horribly for it, yet keeps choosing to do so. He's wretchening himself at the slightest provocation—he's impatient to wretchen himself! Add to that how his emotions rule him to the degree that they physically transform him, and that he shows absolutely no desire to reign them in, and its pretty clear why Victoria is often so negative to him. He's a powderkeg waiting to go off in a horrible way like his sister was, filled with strange and offputting desires turned into strange and offputting flesh, and unlike Amy he doesn't even have the decency to shamefully repress it. Chris is Amy as the deviant who qua deviancy will inevitably be a danger to everyone around him. Kenzie, meanwhile, is Amy as the sister who gave too much of herself. Victoria's shown at times that she hasn't forgotten how she loved Amy as a sister, how she wasn't inherently evil. She spoke with regret about not listening to Amy when she begged Victoria not to hug her. And she's pretty much said in-text "I don't want Kenzie, who I love as I once loved my sister, to exhaust herself to the point that she becomes lost in the way my sister did." Victoria looks at Chris and is reminded of all her fears of what strange and dangerous people will do, of her belief that bad people do bad things because their bad people. Victoria looks at Kenzie and remembers that's not true, and that she can do something about it.

#parahumans #chris elman #alec vasil #kenzie martin #rachel lindt #taylor hebert #victoria dallon #wildbow #leo reads ward #leo says #victoriadallonfan #man this got way longer than I expected and I didn't even really talk about the carol relationship that much #it just became yet another leo-goes-on-about-chris #plus another 'this too is wolfspider'

[85-rend]

hi it’s me, the person who thinks completely normal thoughts about lethal company. Anyway if you have employee oc’s, what is there role in actual moon looting, and how do they treat eachother in the ship. Also do they have a fave piece of loot and least fave monster?

I have 4 employees, a whole crew, so this might get a bit long :)

Fifty-Six :

"Human" (absolutely not)

Ship captain! has the most experience of the whole crew (they've been here way longer than anyone else. longer than anyone could survive this job)

Maybe a little too happy about the job. takes it very seriously

Prefers to go alone hates taking equipment bc it takes up space they could use for something else

prides itself on efficiency . has everything down to a system

looks scary but they're actually pretty nice and soft (both figuratively and literally)

pretty secretive, mostly lying through omission . doesn't like to talk about themself

doesnt like to be seen without the suit and helmet on. it has to happen eventually but it hates it, raises too many questions. it can try to look more human but its not perfect.

has a tier list in its head of every single piece of scrap for deciding priority of what to take back to the ship. it has a second tier list for if it gets hungry

huge soft spot for cute things. likes rubber ducks and plushies and things like that . will make exceptions in it's efficiency and priorities to take them even if they're low worth

Feels like they need to be doing something with their hands constantly

really likes Zachary, they're very close. doesn't want anything to happen to it... will agree to go together with Zachary despite usually preferring to go alone

likes Elliot, she's alright, she works hard. thinks she's a bit too reckless and hard on herself

alright with Morgan. they don't entirely get along but it's not too bad so it's alright . he notices the weird looks Morgan gives him, no clue what that's about.

Zachary :

Masked picked up from Rend after it tried to hide in a ship and the autopilot left

got "hired" by The Company. it doesn't like this. but it doesn't have a choice

it promises promises PROMISES it won't infect its coworkers. but it wants to so bad. it wants to help them. but it won't.

TERRIFIED of The Company building. absolutely refuses to leave the ship there. Fifty let's this slide, it doesn't mind having to carry some extra scrap to the desk

absolutely refuses to wear the helmets, its uncomfortable and its worried it'll get scratched or something . its fine without it,if that was going to hurt them it would've a long time ago

needs to go with someone in the facilities, becomes very distressed if alone for too long

it'll take equipment if asked, but it often forgets to use things like walkie talkies. it also struggles using it (it has a hard time with the buttons and small things like keys are really hard for it to hold)

hates this job and wants to leave but its scared of what would happen

very touch starved and having no other maskeds around has been effecting it.. (if it does see other maskeds on the moons it'll follow them around instead of its crew)

it wants to be closer with the others, at least El and Morgan are cautious around it. they dont really trust it much

El trusts it more at least, if 56 cant go with it it'll usually goes with her instead (also because Morgan usually stays in the ship but if they do go in still Zachary will more likely go with Elliot)

Morgan doesn't trust it much, they've dealt with maskeds before

Fifty-Six on the other hand, Zachary REALLY likes him. he doesn't mind it being around and hes nice to it

Zachary is like the first of the crew to have seen 56 without his helmet after it found him with it like completely torn apart. it was really worried about him, scared it got hurt. 56 was alright though dont worry

Elliot :

ACTUALLY a human

mostly goes by El instead of Elliot

youngest of the crew, not much experience but good with a shovel

pretty confident going in the facility, will often lead or even go alone. but absolutely CANNOT deal with coil-heads or nutcrackers. all that confidence goes away when they have to

he has automatonophobia and scopophobia. terrible combination to have here if im being honest

helmet is slightly dented after she tried running from a thumper and slammed into a metal pipe (did get away from it, shes still alive obviously . but that did hurt)

his nose was like broken before, never healed the same so its kinda crooked (this was before being at The Company, probably from getting in a fight as a teenager)

he tends to be kind of hard on himself, very apologetic when he makes any sort of mistakes.

his hair feels like shit. its been like bleached to hell so its all brittle and shit

none of the crew have anything against El but they did agree that if anything happens shes dies first (they have not agreed on what "anything happens" or "dies" entails though)

respects 56 a lot, almost exclusively refers to it as 'captain' . nobody else really cares about that, its just El who does that

trusts Zachary more than Morgan does, still cautious because she knows what it can do but believes it that its not going to do that

El and Morgan are rlly cool with each other. she likes to listen to them talk about whatever, they know a lot about stuff and El thinks thats cool

Morgan :

also actually human

mostly does ship duty but does also go in the facility sometimes, pretty good at it.

also takes the job seriously, not as much as 56 though. just wants to be safe, make sure nobody gets killed

they were on a different crew before this one. it didn't end well..

very dry and kind of snippy, they do care though just arent good at showing it

they kinda rlly seem like an asshole but will open up to people sometimes it just takes a while

very interested in xenobiology, got the job to get to observe the moons wildlife more directly. theyre fine with doing the rest of it though

really good at dealing with the creatures because of that

despite not being the fighter of the group they have taken down nutcrackers before, El will not so they deal with that instead.

only one on the ship who actually has first aid training. usually is the one to have to deal with that. only ever seen Elliot and Zachary get hurt though, Fifty-Six is somehow always fine

very suspicious of Fifty-Six, knows something's up with him but doesn't say anything because they don't wanna start shit with whatever kind of alien beast it is

cautious as hell around Zachary, doesn't like to be alone with it. they've seen what maskeds do to people and they don't like it.

but they've never actually interacted with a masked for so long so it's.. an interesting experience at least. there's not much documented about them so this is the most they've gotten to know about maskeds

Elliot and Morgan are chill, Morgan will often talk to her about different things. she's a good listener.

#oc: fifty-six #oc: zachary #oc: elliot #oc: morgan #i haven't shown Elliot much yet and Morgan doesnt have a design finished yet #so that's why y'all havent rlly seen either of them yet but they are there #(Morgan was the guy i did not have a name for. they finally do now) #oc ask box #also this got way longer than i expected it too . oops lol #lc oc rambles

[kingofthering]

Fabio Quartararo + hair evolution since he joined MotoGP (2019-2023)

#motogp #fabio quartararo #not sure if this took longer or less time than I expected but here we are #not perfect but will have to do #polls will be coming very soon #* #fabio hair evolution #you can truly see how he got much more confortable in front of a camera with the years

[chasing-the-persea]

Imagine Percy having a really rough day. His power, what he’s done, who he’s had to be to do those things, are weighing on him. Frankly, he scares himself. He doesn’t know how any sane person would want him around, much less around kids, especially as a counselor.

He puts on a brave face. Maybe if he looks happy no one will remember there’s a person behind that face who can’t look at himself in the mirror.

He doesn’t know how it happened; maybe he agreed to it when he was lost in his mind, putting on the “chill older counselor” face everyone expects, but he finds himself in the sand volleyball pit on the team of campers from the less populated cabins. The Demeter and Hermes cabin teamed up on the other side.

The game itself is a fog to Percy. The only breaks in his gloom come in the form of reminders: that’s only a volleyball (images of a giant hurling rocks at him flash in front of his eyes). they’re calling the ball (the sound of campers crying out for help in countless battles echo in his head). that’s just sand (the phantom touch of Gaia’s earth brush his legs)

Before he knows it his team is cheering: they won. He doesn’t know how–or if–he contributed any. He chastises himself. A good leader wouldn’t let themselves be distracted. Wouldn’t…his shoes are gone.

He could’ve swore they were right there? If he wasn’t so caught up with himself he would know where he put his shoes, that’s so stupid what would have happened if he was in battle and he got distracted, then it’d be on his head if another camper got killed again because of him, he shouldn’t have even played what was he thinking—

A Hermes kid was holding them up, taunting him, retaliating for their loss. He took one step towards them and they took two steps away. Their face was…playful? This was a prank. They’re pranking him. Don’t they know what he’s done, why their cabin is so empty now?

He took another step. This time the kid let out a excited laugh and ran a few feet away. This was a game. For fun. The kid knows but doesn’t care. They just want to have fun with an older counselor. camper. cousin. whatever the relation, they genuinely just want to mess with him.

But why would they—unless. Unless they aren’t afraid of him.

They see him as a leader, and like any other rotten kid, they want to tease whoever’s in charge. The kid is just being a kid, doing kid things. Like stealing someone's shoes and knowing they won't be hurt because of it. Because they believe Percy is good.

He tries to ignore the similarities on the kids face to one he knew so well, one he thought was good when he was the kids age.

I'm not Luke, he reminded himself. A tiny whisper in a corner of his mind hissed how are you any different?

He looked at the kid again, who was still holding out the shoes, attempting to lure him into a chase. The kid took a couple more steps away, grinning wildly as Percy’s face set in determination.

I’m going to be the person Luke needed, and the one he never was for me. We deserve better.

He sprinted after the Hermes kid, laughing lighter than he had in months.

#hoooooh boy this is so much longer than i expected #it was supposed to be three paragraphs about a light hearted prank but obviously something got lost somewhere #the original idea actually happened last summer at camp but i never wrote it out and forgot about it until yesterday #(technically 3am this morning) because ive been training my work replacement and ooft has it been filling me with counselor!percy thoughts #(also ignore how the ending goes ✨positivity✨ out of nowhere it was late and i was tired of typing through my eyelids #im just happy it’s escaping the drafts lol) #percy jackson #pjo #luke castellan #camp half-blood #percy jackson headcanons #percy jackson and the olympians #persea posts

[12pt-times-new-roman]

lore! lore! lore!

This thing bears way too many resemblances to both Obann, the Punished and Cognouza for it to be a coincidence. The mini even looks the same. And both of those are directly related to Tharizdun.

For anyone wondering, because I had to look this up -- Imogen has resistance to psychic damage from a 6th level aberrant mind sorcerer ability. It also gives her advantage on saving throws against charm and fear effects.

"I'm gonna cast....... blight." the entire top table immediately looked up at that. they know.

"It's trying to find a form, but can't." Semblances of the party's faces can be seen beneath the skin, like a head under fabric.

ARBY'S: WE READ THE MEATS

A close second to "Arby's: What's in the meats?"

Them not putting out this fire when Matt has given so many hints that they should is legit hurting my rogue-playing soul a little bit

The illusory wall follows the same rules as the doors in Aeor: it requires a certain level (and possibly school) of magic to open. A 3rd level enchantment opened it. Behind it is a little cubby with a leather satchel, and it isn't trapped.

Deanna has a staff of healing!

Holy shit, that wolf king mini is fucking amazing and terrifying and I love him

As Ludinus' tower burns, the Bells Hells flee into the city, then into the forest. They find a large abandoned nest, where they build a fire to camp for the night.

They open the satchel. Inside, it's "empty" -- but it's a bag of holding. Upon asking for "Ludinus' notes," FCG brings out a cluster of vellum and parchment, some sections of half-bound journals.

"Toy transfers out of Rexxentrum"?? Chetney??? Got a bag of holding from a "credible source" within the city?

And he turns the bag inside out. There are coins, gems, a staff, more papers, and half a piece of armor.

All the papers are blank. Using the same technique as before, plus an Investigation check of 22, Chetney can see that these papers have something written on them, but can't make anything out, let alone discern what language it is.

It seems like this satchel was either a rainy-day fund, or "something left behind when the owner left in a rush." The coins and gems together amount to a little less than 3000gp.

There's also a tiny piece of dark burgundy wood. "It's a dildo!" "NO!"

The armor looks like a harness of some kind, like a torso harness. (Matt walked right into that one.) It's mostly dark-stained leather, and it's almost a vest, but it has a brass-gold inlay on it and it looks like where some of that metal is, it continues into an "emerging, arisen portion, almost like a... it rises like a metallic volcano, like an open funnel, but there's an empty space there." They're not sure if it's the front or the back, but it seems like there's space for something to fit in -- a gem (though none of the gems in the bag fit it), a vial, a beacon.

With detect magic, the armor is faint, the burgundy wood is faint, the staff is very strong. The staff is a "staff of dark oddessey," which has 8 charges that can be used to cast a whole bunch of spells. It requires attunement by a spellcaster. It has teleport, which can be cast using 6 charges. It regains 1d4 charges each day at dawn, and when it's used, it deals 1d4 to the user for each charge expended.

All the papers have a script that Deanna can see and read. LORE TIME! LET'S GO!

"The first bath of notes seem to be revolving around experiments on divine magic. Attempts to distill the base nature of divinity as an energy that can be replicated or destroyed... you also see notes that have designs, sketches, almost engineered blueprints for that strange harness that you saw. This is not in elven -- the text here is specifically arcane glyphs, like it's instructions for an enchantment. There are some notes in elven that follow those initial blueprints that speak of a physical regiment of magical infusion. As you continue on, they note on a synthetic recreation of the powerful natural magics that sustain the venerable wardens of the wilds. Beyond that, there are addition notes on dryads and fey, different fey entities that have locations throughout Wildemount, with eight crossed off... notes about 'feeding the root.'"

A nat20 investigation check to follow Ludinus' shorthand logic. "These notes are definitely batched with this harness. They are the next stage past its design. These are the resources needed for it to function. The dryad and fey entities, the locations that have been crossed out, are probably powerful dryad or fey entities that have, in the past, been discovered and utilized to power whatever this harness was supposed to be... the way it's designed, everything seems to funnel inward, so you imagine whatever resources presented into that portion of the device is funneled into that portion of the device. The last bit of notes speak of expanding his 'restoration sources' into the fey realm." So Ludinus was feeding this harness with fey and dryad magic. Travis clarifies that the elven word for "root" here refers specifically to the root of a plant, not the root of a phenomenon. Keep in mind that this was all written over 300 years ago.

"Oh my god, this Gildamesh motherfucker is grabbin' Smurfs!"

One of the marks delineating a fey-ish fane is "deep in the northeastern part of the Flotket Alps, one is in the lake deep in the Rimeplains, three are in the Savalirwood (though it's referred to here as the Veluthil), one within the Ashkeeper Peaks, and one that exists on an island to the northwest, past the waters." oh I will be COMING BACK TO THIS, JUST YOU WAIT

Best that they can tell, the portion of this chestplate that extends outward has an almost diamond-shaped gap. This probably rules out a Luxon beacon, because each of its sides is a pentagram.

The next cluster of notes is "about Ruidus, the red moon. Studying its curious superstition and religious scripture imploring its curse over Exandrian fanes and magical currents... he makes a lot of assumptions that the great temples fear this moon, and he wishes to know why. He theorizes that the gods continue to push to not even question or look in its direction, and you can see where this study is an obsession... for all the great shadows and villains that have been written about through the scriptures of history, there have been deep understandings to inform the populace of faith that what exists in evil should be understood so it can be avoided. But this is the one thing that exists int he skies of Exandira that the gods just say, 'look away.' That has been something on his mind since Moalesmyr. He notes the odd flares, odd notes mentioning the historical Ruidisborn. He quietly curses that he was not born under, wishing for the gods' fate. He hopes to employ a communion ritual timed under a flare to understand and decipher it. He talks about forgotten gods, about divine unravelling, of an ancient primordial that wasn't sundered after the Founding, all these theories of the red moon trying to ascertain its nature. Another entry complains of the Emerald Cross priests undermining his research, but he still managed to contact something, like reaching into an alien dream. He can't quite reach it yet -- it exists on the peripheries, and needs something stronger to break through."

The third and final batch of notes is "on the slowly expanding chaotic nature of the arcane crystals that form the power well beneath Molaesmyr. It notes of Aramond, who theorized that the well was a gift from the Archeart that was lost in the Calamity and rediscovered in the founding of Molaesmyr. Others believed it to be of Arcanum descent, fallen from one of the floating cities... harnessing this long-buried power source interests Ludinus' endeavor. In his final notes, he theorizes that if this crystal well is focused through his design without them knowing, while Ruidus is above during the solstice, he hopes a channel of consciousness could be opened, and that which is calling his attention to the red moon could be contacted."

Laura connected the dots! Maybe this "well" was a collection of Luxon beacons, or a singular one that was somehow elevated -- whether by unleashing or by malfunction -- beyond the power we've seen so far, or one that was infused with the divine magic of the Archeart, or any number of other things.

End of lore dump

Chetney on Rexxentrum: "there's a king, but we know who's really in charge."

The party contemplates who they should take this information to. The king and queen of Uthodurn, the king of the Dwendalian Empire, the Vellum Steeple, Vasselheim, Ivodel...

And Imogen suggests the Cobalt Soul. (please. i am begging. also, Fearne and Imogen being absolutely enamored and turned on by Beau's abs and ass is absolutely peak)

Goddamn, I thought I would never see the day-- SAM being the voice of reason, and TRAVIS being the lying voice of chaos?? I mean, at least Fjord had some kind of logic to his voice of "fuck it we ball," but Chetney's straight-up lying!

Hey, there we go! Religion check on "emerald cross priests." FCG recognizes that some of the symbology of the Archeart leans on cross designs and verdant colors, so the "Emerald Cross Priests" may have been a faction of their worship. This tracks, since Molaesmyr itself was built on the belief that its location was protected and preserved from the 100-year fire by Corellon themself.

They decide to sleep in the abandon nest instead of teleporting, and Imogen and FCG are set to dive into Frida's mind using a dual detect thoughts.

oh my god Christian had matching sweaters made. he gets one in FCG's colors and gives Sam one in Frida's colors. my heart can't take this. gift giving as a love language is so special to me.

Into Frida's thoughts! (Deanna cries in Chetney's arms.)

First, it's a familiar space for FCG, but for Imogen, it feels like a waiting room. It's different, organized, segmented, separate -- unlike organic minds. Even FCG's mind leans more into the chaotic space of organic brains, while Frida's has a clarity.

The three of them come to rest in a room, and FCG and Imogen see Frida as a mist, standing before a doorway waiting to be opened. Through it, it's like being pulled down a lazy river. It's dreamscape, comfortable -- "a trek through a consciousness where you pick up memories. A waking moment, a hooded figure with a metallic mask rousing them from a dark, closed space. (Imogen recognizes them as D.) Struggle, survival in a harsh wilderness, wandering through unfamiliar streets and fear in the eyes of people as the consciousness of Frida steps, seeking connection but being fled from. You see children, playing, and that protective energy swelling, and that fear fades. You see the laughter and smile on Deanna's face over a cooking fire, the polishing of armor. A smattering of memories, but much like FCG's -- a fresh existence. It's like peering into the memory of a child, though there is a more extended, sourceless confidence and maturity."

Frida focuses on the names that he heard in the tower -- Laerryn, Vatora, Vishtaron, the child that FCG saw -- and (with a straight d20 roll of 5) Frida gets lost in the current. Memories begin to bleed into images of the child from before. "You have images that completely envelop the horizon for just a moment, of warfare. Of weapons, of people being cut down, then back to the river. [Frida] has had these dreams, rarely -- but it couldn't have been you, right?"

When Frida looks down, they see the river of energy that pulls them through the memories, and it obscures the lower part of their body. But they see their spiritual self, a bipedal entity of energy.

FCG and Imogen try to push deeper into Frida's memories.

NAT 20 FROM LAURA, and Matt makes a roll with a glance at Frida. They feel a pain in their mind, like a headache even though they've never had one -- the pain builds, and the others see the image of Frida fold and emit white light.

"That flash of warfare seems to emerge once again. It's less a battlefield -- stone hallways, bodies on the ground. Somebody rushes out of a room, and you watch as they fall to the ground. Standing before them is the spiritual form of Frida. A warrior, cutting through enemies in some sort of a structure. A very beautiful, unrecognizable structure... [Frida pushes forward, not knowing who's a friend, who's an enemy.] Some have brown and gold robes with gentle leather chestplates or armor. Some are preparing to cast spells before a blade catches their throat. A soldier runs up with a spear and shield toward Frida, who takes a hit before grabbing the spear and breaking the soldier's neck before pushing forward... [for Frida], it's an odd experience, like you're riding another person's experience. [Frida feels this is right. They know an objective when they see one. They keep going. They roll a d20, for a 10.] The details are fuzzy, but the people around you -- you begin to realize, it's not you pushing into a stronghold, you're defending. But the people you're fighting at the sides of and the people you're fighting against aren't dressed all that differently, and you feel a sadness at what must be done. You are not fighting an enemy from outside -- you are fighting an enemy from within."

Behind Frida, they see what they're defending: a beautiful structure, long halls, tall arched sealings with pipes or metallic tubes. The floors and walls are metallic, polished. Very much like the description of the A2 crash site, with the metal walls and "plastic" tubes. Frida is defending whatever's behind them, and they turn back toward it. Others go past them -- "what are you doing? Where are you going?" The hallway goes on, and on, and on as individuals walk past. The hall widens, and they see a central, massive chamber where "there is a contraption of such immensity, you've never considered or seen something on this scale. All manner of glowing crystalline devices and whirring mechanical devices, funnels and tubes and glass domes, sparks and dozens upon dozens of architects and engineers and magical practitioners all focused in this space. A voice shouts in Aeorian, 'protect the factorum!'"

The room carries a buzz, a hum that grows to a growl. "An engine of such immensity within this space that the chamber itself, the ground beneath you, vibrates and shakes. Stones and fallen instruments just move and cascade across the ground by the immensity of what is growing. The crystals are alighting. The space itself is preparing for something incredible. Then, it's just white." Everyone takes 8 points of psychic damage (no save, no roll to hit, no nothing) as they are shunted out of the vision.

Chetney puts the dots together, between the malleus factorum and the malleus keys. In Aeor, Frida was defending it from assault. Frida remembers one thing: "when you were discovered by D, you were ruined... he didn't just resuscitate you, he repaired you, brought you back from the brink of annihilation and set you free."

Frida was drawn to Aeor, and Deanna implies that that's why they went to Eiselcross.

Imogen recognizes some similarities between the energy signature, the structure, the vibrations between the malleus factorum and the malleus key -- but the key in Marquet was far smaller, far less powerful, far less immense.

Chetney recognizes that the crystals in the malleus factorum are distinctly different than the arcane batteries on the malleus key.

Facets of the clothing was semi-recognizable to FCG, but nothing about the location or the project rings a bell. Travis and Aabria suggest that FCG was in Avalir, not Aeor, hence why they recognize the clothing but not the location.

"Xhorhassian"? Deanna, where the fuck did that come from??

Deanna and Frida were in Eiselcross because Frida felt drawn to Aeor's central ruins, like Imogen felt drawn to Ruidus.

Frida feels a twinge of memory at the back of their head at the names Laerryn, Vishtaron, and Vatora, but they don't know why. But they know they were protecting the creator hammer -- whether it was because they believed in the anti-god sentiment, believed wholeheartedly in Aeor itself, or were going along with their orders.

(Meta note: Aabria says she "saw a room full of people doing what one person did" in relation to Laerryn.)

Chetney gives Frida a little wooden robot! It moves and everything. "A pillar of protection and I feel a connection to you, because you protect children and I bring joy to children with these [toys]." Fearne tries to comfort them too -- "you were being commanded then, but now, you're free to do what you want." The cast makes the connection between "Frida" and "free to."

I'm honestly loving the suggestion that Morri and Ludinus are exes, and that's part of why the Nightmare King hates him so much.

"But wherever we go... what about you two?" FCG.... honey.......

Deanna feels like Frida is moving on, and she's afraid of being left behind again. They have FCG now, and all of them have a mission, and maybe she should go back to Uthodurn -- no. Chetney's with her. They would've been swiss cheese, would've been ground meat without her. "I just don't want anything to happen to you." "I... made something for you, too." It's a little cup, like the ones they used to drink out of on the Menagerie Coast.

"Just-- a real quick question-- is the werewolf thing only for fighting?" "Y'know... there's... only one way to find out." "(full of sarcasm and irony) Help. Chetney has gone feral. Oh no. Anyone. Preferably Fearne, if you're into that. Help. The safe word is parmesan." And Chetney, Deanna, and Fearne run off into the woods.

Oh, how far Travis has come. This is character development. and it's canon now, fuckers!!

Now, they need to find out where to teleport. Uthodurn, Rexxentrum, Jrusar, Whitestone, Bassuras, Zephrah -- they could go anywhere. But they need to find out where the other group would think of to meet up.

FCG casts commune. And Matt does make an interesting point -- "should we go here" is different than "should we go here to accomplish this task."

As they cast the spell, they feel their consciousness rise "to a space within all horizons, at a crossroads, paths spreading out from you in all directions that converge here. There's a sign post, and it's blank. On the sides your vision, you see strands of hair, and you turn, and you see once more a feminine form upon the same horizon. She looks two inches tall, two miles tall, you can't tell -- it's strange. But she's present. [Hi. First of all, thank you, for all your guidance and for sending me Frida. We're trying to find our other friends, and we're wondering if we go to Jrusar, if we would have a chance to find them there at some point.] While previously, there was an inference of an answer, this time you hear a voice on the wind. 'Yes.' [Are they alive, Changebringer? Are they okay?] 'Yes.' [Even if I never know about my past, even if I never find out who made me or why I'm here, will I know Frida for a long time?] The wind picks up, and blows past.. the answer challenging to write, when the future has not been... In an immediate rush, this towering woman appears before you, her dark skin, her light brown hair that entangles around you. Her presence is bold, terirfying in proximity, her eyes these golden, open spaces, an intensity about her presentation as she looks upon you. 'A terrible fate looms for all of Exandria. An alien malice menaces the skies of the Marquesian sands. If you indeed wish to show your faith, to walk my endless paths beyond, then rise to our call. The winds of change blow cold against us all, yet hope remains unmoving in you. Our grace guides those who carry our banner. Hold it high, and traverse the path that I alight with purpose and fated destination. Do not turn from this road, for only shadow and solitude awaits beyond.' The light on the horizon grows cold, she grows more immense, you feel even more insignificant. 'The red end stirs in its slumber. Do not let it wake.' And she looks over her shoulder, and you see the distant gleam of the red moon, before--"

At the same time, the rest of the party watches as a sudden, almost sleepiness comes over Deanna. "Deanna, you sit for a second, before suddenly, this bright light fills your consciousness, the immensity of a star burning before you, something you've not experience at this proximity in some time, and comes with it a strength and a frustration long-felt. You try your best to avert your gaze, but the source of this light burns your retinas, and there you see before you the Dawnfather, encompassing the sky, nothing but his light. 'Mortal arrogance makes union with a forbidden scourge. The ruddy moon beckons over the skies of Marquet. Child, reborn of my grace and my will, I command you: strike out against those who would snuff our light. The gifts I grant you are the sword and shield against the darkness. Forsake these gifts, ignore our charge, and be abandoned... faith needs not logic, nor truth, but unerring conviction... the red end stirs in its slumber. Do not let it wake.'"

There is a warmth to the coin in FCG's hand, and it looks shinier. They identify it as a "coin of the Changebringer," and it... does a lot of things, according to Sam. (I bet it's an improved amulet of the devout +1, which by default gives them an extra use of channel divinity per day.)

Deanna gives Chetney her ring of temporal salvation. This is a ring that, when the wearer would die, instead they're healed for 3d6 hit points.

She also identifies the little piece of wood as a tuning fork for the planeshift spell, which is tuned to the fey realm.

Chetney took orders directly from the Cerberus Assembly. He made enchanted furniture. Allegedly. (This is a reference to C2E48/49, if anyone doesn't know.) Also, "RTA" may or may not stand for "Rexxentrum Toy Authority." Most of them were fine -- Ludinus was an ass, and Traversky was his best customer. This means that Chetney likely knows Delilah Briarwood by name, and knows her...... toy preferences.

Using the rod, they all teleport to Xhadana's house.

#critical role #note watches c3 #critical role spoilers #critical role campaign 3 #critical role c3 #critical role liveblog #holy shit this is so much longer than I expected it to be #I swear I tried to just summarize the lore but I got carried away!! #long post

[lloydfrontera]

What is your opinion on og!Lloyd? i don't know if you ever did a character analysis of him and i vaguely know the novel talks about him in some moment. I'm just curious of what you think of him

*sigh* i,,, don't,, love him,,, to be honest 😅

just... a warning. do skip this one if you like og!lloyd. cause i'm not gonna be very nice to him akjshdka

i have very little patience for characters who are mean for no reason and have no other qualities to redeem them. which is what og!lloyd is.

Lloyd Frontera, the hooligan, was a mess. His personality. Behavior. Attitude. Not a single attribute of his was worthy of praise. He destroyed himself and those around him, slacking off and behaving recklessly at any given chance. He was always preoccupied with his thoughts about the Frontera fiefdom, a boring and hideous province. He pitied his fate of being born and rotting away in such a place. And so, he was always angry. He was enraged by the lack of his family's status and his unfulfilled greed. The anger, disappointment and frustration inside the young master were taken out on everyone around him. He hurled insults at maids and physically assaulted servants. He mistreated his parents and the rest of the family. -Chapter 236

like. man a piece of shit lmao. he was born in such a favorable position considering the setting he lived in, he was a noble, he had parents that loved and supported him, he was healthy and able bodied, he had so many opportunities of making something for himself. and he didn't.

"[...] You said I will really pull myself together and study hard this time. So please believe me and make an investment. I was happy. That was why I readily gave you the money that came from selling the villa for the academy tuition. But you completely wasted every single cent with the scoundrels you used to get along with. All the while, you shamelessly played around with women and threw grimy parties in drunken stupor" -Chapter 7

it clearly wasn't that he didn't have chances to be better. he had plenty of them. imagine having a dad that loves you so much that even after years of being an arrogant, rude, violent piece of crap still has the hope that you'll get better and gives you the resources that you need to achieve that. and then you waste them in drinking and messing around. like. god.

now let's talk about julian. his younger brother.

my god.

if anyone had any right to never ever forgive or trust lloyd again in his entire life it was julian.

"[...] Each day, he threw his drunken tantrum at all people. Breaking stuff in the house was commonplace. Sometimes, he hit people and Julian wasn't an exception. Arguably, Lloyd whacked Julian the most. When Julian was young, Lloyd beat him for not doing his errands. When Julian grew older, Lloyd beat him for hovering around when he was drinking. His violence grew worse to the point that Lloyd whacked, punched, and kicked Julian for always living an upright life." -Chapter 85

Three years ago, Julian prepared to leave the Frontera fiefdom to enroll in the academy and wanted to greet his brother before leaving. After all, he was still his brother despite how much Julian hated him. But the moment he opened the door, the pungent and acrid smell of alcohol assaulted hi nose, and then came a shout, yelling at him to get out since he's sleeping. Then, a bottle of alcohol was tossed in the air and hit the wall right beside Julian's face. The smell of liquor, the rough yelling and the shattered bottle. That marked his last interaction with Lloyd three years ago before Julian left for school. Julian stroked the corner of his left eyes by habit with his hand. There was a small scar on his skin, a burrow that looked like a mole. He had gotten it that very day three years ago from the shards of the glass bottle Lloyd threw. -Chapter 89

like. let's be clear here. lloyd isn't a child. he's not even an adolescent or a teenager. he's a grown ass man. he was 25 at the start of the novel. he's 5 years older than julian. the narration tells us that lloyd physically abused julian when he was young and then as he grew older. but julian left his home when he was 18. there was no point in their relationship where julian wasn't a minor being physically and verbally harassed by his five years older brother.

the text tells us lloyd physically assaulted the servents and it also tells us that arguably the person he hit the most was julian so. we can draw conclusions on how bad the abuse got.

so... all of that it's kind of what makes me feel so uncharitable towards og!lloyd.

he was such a,,, a shitty person. he had everything going for him and instead of making the most of it he decided it wasn't enough and grew bitter and angry that he didn't have more and decided to take it out on everyone around him. people who loved him, who worked for him, who would one day depend on him, people who simply didn't deserve the way he treated them.

and for what? because he thought his family wasn't prominent enough? cause he lived in a quiet and boring place? cause he didn't have more status? he was a noble for god sake, he was born in an aristocratic family, he wouldn't have to work a single day of his life if he so wanted! he could've gone to the capital city and studied hard like his brother and made something of himself if he wanted more prominence! he could've traveled and seen other places if he didn't want to be stuck in a small barony!

but he didn't want to work hard. he wanted everything to be handed to him from birth and not move a single finger to get what he wished for.

and y'know me, i love shitty characters, i love pathetic men, i love absolute bastards who want and take and hoard but the one thing i can't stand is spoiled, lazy and entitled brats who not only refuse to work for what they want but also dare to blame and hurt others for what they lack.

add to it that he was abusive ass to his little brother and employees and you have the perfect mix for a character that i would fight in a dennys parking lot at 3 am lmao

he eventually does come to regret the way he acted, but to me it's too little too late y'know? the damage was done and he had no way to fix it. and the thing is if he hadn't been forced out of his body and made to watch as someone else took over his life he never would've changed. he would've go on to die as the same rude, violent and incompetent person he lived as.

but, for the sake of being fair, i will acknowledge that he did come to genuinely regret his actions. to realize that he had no excuse. and it is genuinely sad to see him come to terms with the fact that the person who replaced him was a better son, a better brother, a better heir and better person than he ever was. that there was a reason his parents worried and cared for the person walking around in his body now. that the person who took over his body changed completely the reputation he'd made for himself by being a hooligan.

and he did ask after his parents before going into the reincarnation gate so i guess he did care for them even if he didn't show it when he was alive. also him not asking after julian because he knows his brother is smart and he's sure he's fine on his own is kinda sweet (even if i don't think it's nearly enough to make up for all the years of abuse lol)

speaking of the reincarnation gate! at first i thought og!lloyd being reborn as suho would make me like him more but?? actually it did the contrary??? it was so weird!! i thought my feelings of "💜💖💕💞<333💗💖<<3💞💜💕💜<33" for lloyd would bleed through and soften me up to og!lloyd but nope! kinda made me even more mad at him asjkhdka because like,,, it just kinda showed that he never had any reason to act like that?? and i already knew that but making a direct comparison to lloyd in canon just made it all the more clear.

suho had so many reasons to become a terrible person. he had so many reasons to stop caring for other people and become a total asshole. to stop trying so hard and give up and just take up the vice of his choice to drown out his bitterness. and he never did. he never stopped trying, he never stopped caring, he never could bring himself to not love the people around him.

and you could argue that this is because of og!lloyds resolution to be a better person in his next life but i think that ascribing everything that suho did to that would be a disservice to suho's character. he has none of og!lloyd's memories, he has no idea that was his past life, he's his own person, formed by his own experiences and feelings and environment and to act like all he is and does is because of the regrets of his previous life is taking away the strength it took for him to take all of his pain and hurt and tragedy and decide that he wanted something better, both for himself and for his new family.

so does og!lloyd's resolution for his next play a part on suho's character? yeah, almost definitely. but i don't think it's all there is to it and it certainly does not make up for all the hurt he caused in his own life.

i'm a nurture over nature kind of person, so i tend to think of suho and og!lloyd as different characters despite the whole reincarnation thing. i fully believe it is our experiences and decisions who make us, well, us, who we are as persons, so suho having his own memories and not remembering life as og!lloyd is enough to make him his own person, shared soul or not. but ymmv and all that

so... yeah aksdjka

#hey i got an ask #Anonymous #tged #the greatest estate developer #og lloyd frontera #kim suho #julian frontera #ch 236 #ch 7 #ch 85 #ch 89 #this. is longer than i expected. #turns out i have lots of opinions on og lloyd lol #i have been just swallowing most of them #the thing is if i don't like something i will simply not talk about it #i complain about the webcomic cause i like it! i enjoy it for the most part! so i talk about it #both the things i really like and the things i wish were done differently #but if i truly don't like something i will simply not care very much or i will not talk about it #i barely have energy to talk about what i like imagine what i would be left with if i did talk about what i don't #so. that's the reason i don't talk often about og lloyd ajshdka #again this is just my opinion ymmv i am just pointing out the canon facts and how i feel about them. #if you like og lloyd that's totally your right! i don't see anything wrong with it! #but do know that if someone tries to tell me in my own blog that it's another character's fault that he acted like this i will Bite :)/j #i am very defensive of my favorite blorbos and this is my house! i will permit no slander! i have the receipts!!

[kanene-yaaay]

Welcome to the White... Space?

Kanene’s notes: OKay, okay, since the first time I saw Omori interacting with the floating hands the FIRST thing that appeared in my mind was “t,,,,tickles,,,” and thank you so much for @soft--valentine and their awesome fanart that gave me inspiration to write this quick scenario. Also, please don’t forget to check that fic from @t0mm33th3m0nst3r that is also inspired by the fanart!

Warnings: Nothing much, just a small warning for floating magic hands and not being able to move your arms. Lee!Omori. Around 1000 words.

[~*~]

The thing is, when Omori opened his eyes, he didn’t notice anything different.

Of course, there was a something (because for him, there is always a something), a piece of a feeling, a sentiment nibbling at the corner of his mind, faint, but still wary enough to make he wonder curiously about the way the red hands that floated freely around the white space approached his room, stopping and trembling mindless in the air when he turned around to stare directly at them.

He blinked, looked at it in this way or that but nothing happened so he began searching for his knife on his inventory. There was just one way to get out of here, afterall.

In the corner of his eyes, something moved.

With a quick, swift move Omori was turning back, staring at the hands that were behind him  frozen once again in the air, trembling without a care in the world.

They seemed to be closer.

But... that didn't make sense. They don't move, not unless he is close enough to trigger their run-catch-take drill.

He turned back at the inventory, fingers closing around the handle just before a bright red exclamation strayed his attention again. This time, when he looked up, it was to see the shadow of an exclamation disappearing (was that a heart in the place of the dot?) and two hands bolting in his direction.

A quiet gasp and Omori was also running, his legs carrying him to far and away, knife securely held in his hands and thoughts trying to understand how did the hands get into his room and why the hands that he passed by also showed that weird heart-exclamation before following him as well. Two quickly became five and for some reason thinking about that line of floating red hands trying to catch him made a bubbly something want to squirm in his tummy.

They were getting close. They were getting dangerously close and Omori had no idea of what would happen when they researched their target. Everything only growing more confusing when he turned around and half one of them waving and the other half wiggling their fingers.

Omori realized too late that not looking for where he was heading while running away wasn't his best idea. When he turned back, there was another red hand in front of him and both wordless surprised sound that came out of his lips and the sharp turn he got to not stumble on the hand were clumsy enough to throw his balance off, tangling his legs and making his face go too fast to meet the floor.

He closed his eyes, arms in front of him.

But he never fell.

There was warm hands on his wrists, stopping his fall and for some pieces of second Omori's voice almost said a name that used to be there to save him. But that didn't make any sense. This was the White Space. His White Space. No one was there besides him. No one should b-

The hands holding him kept pushing him upwards until he was floating a few inches from the ground. Omori kicked his legs and tested pulling his hands from hold. He kept floating on the same place. Weird.

Two other red hands appeared right in front of him, quickly patting his face, shoulders and torso with care.

Were...

Were they looking for injuries?

Omori wiggled on the same place again when a hand got too close to his side, a faint warmth running on his face. He wasn’t a child. He was not going to cry and get hurt for tripping while running.

The hand on his side froze and he felt himself froze too in answer, feeling a buzzing of adrenaline spark in his veins again. Before he could concentrate on it, however another red hands (how much there was? Six?) waved in front of his face, pinching his nose when he ignored it in favor to look at the hand that was still dangerously close to his side.

Omori scrunched his nose and made a face at the second hand when it let go, wondering, once again, what was happening as it pirouetted in front of him, poking his cheek for some reason.

Was it trying to communicate?

Before any other question could be imagined, his side was squeezed and Omori couldn't help the surprise yelp and giggle that fell from his lips.

The hands froze.

Ops.

All the other free three red hands turned their attention to the fourth on on his right side, who slowly began poking and prodding the tickle spot curiously. Each touch making a tickly shock run across his systems, inviting his mouth to turn into a smile and giggles to bubble on his throat.

Oh no.

Omori bit back his reactions, small ruffs and puffs escaping from him as the careful, delibered pokes simply did not stop and actually evolved to an awfully effective squeezing that made his legs kick and trash with all the giddy energy stuck in his system.

An involuntary squeak escaped from him when two more attacks made themselves known, one hand lightly - so light and so gentle that its only the tip of its fingers touched the ticklish skin - skittering and dancing freely across his armpit, drawing senseless lines and chasing the titters that couldn’t be helped when they scribbled from all the way from the top of his armpit until the spot where the highest rib was before going right back up and starting the entire cycle again and again and again.

The other hand, very differently, decided to take a much more rough approach, resting on the tickle spot and then digging as if there was no tomorrow. The thumb staying right in the center of the pit and the rest of the fingers energetically scratching the rest of the skin and refusing to move no matter how much Omori squirmed.

And squirm the boy did, while his arms trembled with the fact that he could not pull them down, the rest of his limbs had no such problem, legs caught in the middle of kicking non stop at every new squeeze tasing his side or just laying there and laugh his heart's content as more and more warmth filled his chest and traveled across his face, pooling on his cheeks and the tip of his ears.

And then a finger. A single only finger poked his bellybutton, the other four fingers fluttering in happiness at the crackle that was fished from this. So the index finger rested inside his bellybutton and began to scratch non stop.

All Omori's barriers were broken this moment, his eyes were closed, wrinkling at the corners, shining with unshed tears as crackles, chuckles, giggles, titters, snorts and squeals fell freely, in a lovely melodious laughter from his mouth, all the scribbles, digging, prodding, poking and scratching making his nerves buzz and dance with the fact that it tickled, it really tickled so, so much and for a moment nothing more in the world could matter beyond the tickling and the laughter and the fact that he couldn’t escape, that he was so helpless but still, it was fun, it was silly, it was unexpected, it tickled and he was not even a little afraid...

Sunny opened his eyes in the real world, a grin on his mouth, a warmth running on his face.

What was that?

[~*~]

Omori: Girl help I can’t escape

Us: U literally control the mindspace u can do anything you want, you can make them stop

Omori: I Do Not See It

#Me to myself: stop putting hints of angst in the fic this is supposed to be just TICKLES and FLUFF #My monkey brain: give 'em the old razzle dazzle #Ticklish!Omori #Lee!Omori #Omori tickles #Omori tickling #This was supposed to go on the rb of the fanart but it got way longer than I expected so DSFGHGFDFG #Anyway the fanart and the fanfic are very good pls check them out #I always saw omori more of a tickler but *eyes emoji* can't deny that the idea of him smiling and giggling is very *eyes emoji* #Kanene's fic #Kanene's fanfic #Today will going to be a very difficult and anxious day for me so being able to have fun writing and thinking about this scenario #was everythingt o me ty so much <3 #anyway RIP Sunny good luck facing Kel with such a red face <3

[obstinatecondolement]

Not to be all "this is an Only Murders in the Building blog now" but apparently since yesterday I have reached a point of no longer being satisfied with being part of a two-person fandom irl with my sister and I need to Discuss things with you all.

Anyway. Currently thinking about how Theo Dimas is a) Greek and b) Deaf—both cultures that are very physically demonstrative—and that he is. Like that.

#I love Theo Dimas so fucking much #the poorest and littlest of meow meows #haven't we all committed accidental manslaughter and allowed someone else to go to prison for it? #have we not all in our time robbed valuables from dead people's bodies? #and consider this: he was very sad about it #and he is so sweet and has such a delightfully quiet and affectionate friendship with mabel #who he kidnapped that one time and who wrongly accused him of murder on a podcast that lead to his arrest #neither of which they hold against each other because they are fellow traumatised disaster millennials who haven't got their shit together #also I think maybe they should kiss about it??? #because he has stuck around a lot longer than any of her canon love interests #and! she is learning asl so clearly values the relationship and wants to make it easier to communicate on his terms #and mabel is famously guarded and slow to trust #(but also a real 'once my walls are down I will love you forever' type) #so her being like 'I want to talk to you and I want that enough and to do it often enough that I want to meet you half way #and not just expect you to always lip-read and write things down for me #because I don't want understanding me and being understood by me to be as much work as it would be if I didn't make any effort to sign' #is like... a very significant indication of how she feels about having theo in her life imo #also they are both very cute and ping bi4bi to me and honestly that would have been more than enough for me #only murders in the building #omitb #omitb spoilers #only murders in the building spoilers

[fideidefenswhore]

Who is your most hated Seymour? For me, it's John, Thomas, Edward and Jane.

roflmao, tbf, i know intellectually that there's not enough there there to justify hating john seymour, but he does give me bad vibes...whatever happened with catherine fillol was weird and i do get the sense he was involved even if not in the rumored way. and also, when siblings hate each other to such an extent, it's often bcus they were pit against each other by their parents, so i get the sense he was not a good father (there's some debate on whether he died late 1536 or 1535, tbf, but if it was the former it's strange that none of children seemed to mourn his death, that he wasn't mourned at court as the queen's father, etc) . margery doesn't have enough about her known for me to judge; it's sort of weird to me that this stereotype has fallen she and jane had a bad relationship and her favorite child/daughter was elizabeth (this occurs in like...several...novels). we don't have an equivalent positive remark to 'next to mine own mother, no woman alive i know better' (AB, about her own, and to bridget wingfield), nor any records of them often being in each other's company during significant events or eras, but we don't have anything negative either. i get you have to make choices in fiction and 'neutral' is not an interesting one but like...damn.

what's interesting about edward and thomas is that, even before their sister becomes queen, edward is not spoken of well by his contemporaries. very early (iirc, 1535) on, his 'small conscience' is decried, and he becomes such an avaricious figure that cromwell and the king have to interfere in his attempts to manipulate and loophole property laws to his own advantage and the impoverishment of others (and, not usually in his favor, despite him being a royal in-law). thomas, however, seems like he's better liked in the 1530s, although this can maybe be attributed to him being more of a nonentity (a comparative example is some tudor authors insisting GB was 'better liked' than his sister anne-- not true, it seems-- or more often, that their sister mary was...which is probably true, but also probably more indicative of relative lack of power and positions and leverage than 'kinder' personality)...it's not until the 1540s that we get comments of the same genre ("somewhat empty of manner"). thomas thus seems more like a figure of gradual corruption, his arrogance was increased was by his nephew becoming king, it seems, and resentment brought out an ugly side of his character (arguably, the same with edward, just earlier on).

it's extremely unpopular to say this on here, but yeah, jane is definitely not a favourite of mine, either. but i don't think my reasons for this are really common...i don't care if she slept with henry before marriage, i don't care if she didn't, i just find her biographers weirdly contradictory in their judgements of her character, the nature of her rise, and her own beliefs. there's also like, this sense of historic illiteracy from some of her defenders...joining a royal household (as far as the most prestigious positions, that is) was not the equivalent of serfdom (as in, they could leave at any time). jane's supporters were courtiers who hated anne, so it's reasonable to assume she did, as well. so, there's this sort of moral hypocrisy about jane as a figure and her advancement and how she came to her position that has always prevented me from warming to her as a figure. 'she hated anne and all she stood for' explains her involvement in her downfall, but not her securing the position in her household in the first place. and by virtue of her close proximity to anne as queen, she also knew that it was nigh impossible that she was actually guilty of the accusations of adultery.

what else...her defenders insist that the oaths of supremacy and succession were anathema to her moral compass, yet she likely did have to have had taken them herself, just as a subject, and if not that then definitely as a member of anne's household. this wouldn't have martyred/imperiled her life, althought it probably would have her career (elizabeth darrell never took these, so i wonder if the penalty for women was different...? barton is often cited as an example but this was not in her indictment. princess mary seems to almost have been a victim of this, but it might've been more that her signing was more important since she was a rallying point for dissenters).

and even if jane never took these, the presence of noblewomen serving anne as queen lent to her greater image of royal legitimacy. she had to have known that, and if she didn't believe her position was legitimate...then why be part of that tapestry? there's not an equivalent to her predecessor to be made here, not when anne left her own predecessor's household and began her own as soon as she came to believe catherine was not legitimately queen or henry's wife. any credulousness towards contemporary report of this time would suggest anne was extremely hostile towards her rival, but there is a difference between declaring that you'd sooner watch your rival hanged before revering them and, well...actually doing that (...essentially, if not literally).

actually, i don't think there's actually much to suggest jane was set against the religious supremacy unless you make some suppositional leaps (the dissolution wasn't so explicitly connected here, her support of mary as princess, even if rather cosmetic, could be seen as support for her decision not to take those oaths herself for nigh on two years...). nor against succession acts as brought by parliament, since the same illegitimized any potential rivals to her future children, and she seemed to make a point in one of her only pieces of writing we have in emphasizing edward's legitimacy (implicitly, at the expense of her stepdaughters).

the narrative fiction i probably dislike about jane the most is this idea that she was so reverent of catherine's memory, it's really fucking weird, honestly... it bothers me because i know it's embellished to increase reader/viewer (the tudors comes to mind) sympathy and somehow for me it does the opposite, lol. there's something about the concept of her trading on the memory of this beloved woman (who, herself, probably didn't even remember jane, there's nothing to suggest any kind of friendship between them) who was exiled, this woman whom jane did not a single thing for (not even abstaining from joining the household of her rival), that just really grosses me out. henry was the one who was her husband, and obviously he was a fucking asshole to and about her, but there's at least something more...direct, in his attempted erasure of her memory. it's always bothered me that it's never acknowledged that the antecedent (which was carried on throughout) to jane's queenship was the erasure of both her predecessors, the illegitimization of both their daughters, both of them being subordinated, and, more or less (mary present for christmas, elizabeth not, but both there during the rebellions) equally expelled from court.

#purplefictionlover #tl; dr that got way longer than i expected . lol #but yeah honestly jane would be a more appealing figure to me were this not the case #if she were sort of neutral about coa. idt i have hated a fictional character as much as i hated weir's iteration of her lmao #sobbing in her bed for 24 hours straight the day of anne's coronation... #sobbing in her bed for 24 hours straight the day of coa's death.... #i felt oh so kh in the tudors #'it's not aBOUT YOUUUUUU ' #bcus the thing is that if she was... how did she justify. any of that? #did she just hate herself? the answer alison weir gives us is yes and that was exhausting to read #she is very very self-loathing in not having been able to do anything for catherine and she hates her family for 'making' her join anne's #household and i fell asleep and snored so deeply it registered on the richter scale #the belief from this genre of tudor authors seems to be women are just disgusting if they had any sort of agency #(weir really reduces anne's agency as well...at least early on #and they're both very very dull as a result)