#Also- if the friends see this: Hello :3

[megastrikeback]

based on the

[cryptiduck]

stuff from a view from the bridge by classifiedgenomes because it's been living in my head rent-free lately

[ghostiezone]

"....Ashe?"

"Who's that?"

short-ish fic under the cut because I had to be in the tranches about this :)

The Wards received the invitation only an hour before they arrived.

i know where to find your friend :)

The crumpled piece of paper looked like it had been drawn in crayon. It was stapled to the front door of their home. Their civilian home.

"Aux-" Failsafe started immediately, but Imprint's hand over his mouth cut off the name before he could finish. The boy wasn't in costume.

Imprint addressed him instead, cautious. "Ashe...?" He lowered his gloved hand from Failsafe's face and stepped forward between his two teammates, slowly, like he was approaching a cornered animal.

Wraith had been a stoic, silent presence since they entered the room, but Failsafe could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves.

The boy sitting on the edge of the desk looked.... young. Younger than he should. The shirt he had been put in was too big for him. Not in the same way his dad's jacket was too big for him- he used that like a turtle shell, something to retreat into, pull over himself like a shield. It was safe, warm, all-encompassing. Despite the issues they knew Ashe and his father had with each other, the love was still there. No, these clothes... they hung loose on his already skinny frame, making him look exposed. Vulnerable. They were monochrome, pale in a way that made him look washed-out, almost ghostly. He sat with his legs crossed, hands holding his ankles. He wasn't wearing shoes. One of the sleeves threatened to slip off his shoulder.

He tilted his head as they entered the room. The movement made Failsafe think of the stray puppies he used to feed in the alley behind their house.

His hair had been washed recently.

Something was very wrong here.

Ashe's face was devoid of all emotion. Though he was looking at the three of them, making eye contact, something seemed... distant. Failsafe reached out with his power and found... nothing.

He felt his heart seize in his chest. He frantically grabbed Imprint's hand before he could take another step forward, and tore his gaze away from Ashe to lock eyes with Wraith He hissed under his breath, he didn't trust his voice not to shake "guys, hes-"

"Breaker state, yeah. I know." Wraith finally broke his silence, voice stony and cold. "Don't get any closer to him."

At the sound of Wraith's voice, Ashe's eyes locked onto him. They were burning with an orange glow.

His head bent further to one side, and his face split into a wide grin that looked almost painful. Failsafe felt Imprint tense, fingers twitching like he was getting ready to reach for a weapon. He squeezed the wrist he was already holding. "Don't. We can't. That's still Ashe."

In that brief moment of distraction, the boy on the desk began to laugh. It was a broken sound, distorted, not like anything they had heard from him before. That deep orange glow in his eyes shone even through his closed eyelids. Wraith's cape billowed as he stepped in front of the other two, barking a clipped "Incoming!" as the space behind the desk began to distort.

Wraith's own warping powers sprang up in response, a translucent blue barrier forming in the air between the wards and their friend. As they watched, unsure of how to act, a rectangular shape began to appear in the air behind where Ashe was sitting, growing clearer and sharper as it eventually formed a sort of doorway. It was hard to look at directly, the light in the room seeming to bend toward the corners. The walls and floor buldged and sank in response to the tear in reality. The door itself was more like a window- a vague, distorted cityscape slowly coming into focus on the other side. The barrier began to ripple, as if it was made of water, as a figure stepped through it into the room.

Ashe's laughing was suddenly doubled as it became clear that whoever had just entered was cackling as well. It was an eerie echo- they were taking the same pauses for breath and short hiccups between giggles. Their shoulders bounced in matching tempo and their heads tilted back toward the ceiling at the exact same time.

The new figure was dressed in a long purple-grey patchwork coat, sleeves torn off and bottom hem ripped to shreds. He wore a darker purple scarf up to his chin, which flared out behind him into a tattered cape. The coat was sinched at the waist with a faded green belt, the end of which swung loose around his legs to give the appearance of a long tail. He wore some sort of blood-red bodysuit which concealed every bit of skin that would otherwise be showing. His darkened silver hair flared out around his head in wild spikes. Over his face, a circular mask concealed any distinguishing features. The mask may have been white once, but was now more of a tarnished brown. Two horns curled upward on either side of the face, which consisted of a cudely painted-on cartoonish black smile with squinted eyes.

"Why, if it isn't the Wards of New Haven!" The figure exclaimed, suddenly dropping into a deep bow. "You can call me the Trickster. Oh, I've been waiting so long to meet you!" There was a sort of childlike excitement in his voice, but there was a strain to it as well, as if holding back the laughter was causing him mental pain.

He turned his head toward Ashe, who was sitting motionless again on the desk. The figure cleared his throat, then in a harsh voice, snapped "You'd best show some respect in the face of such powerful heroes!"

As if dragged down by force, Ashe bent forward, nearly losing his balance and falling face first off of his perch. When he sat back again, his deadpan expression broke into a wide grin again. The smile didn't reach his eyes.

"What are you doing to him?!" Failsafe snapped, voice cracking with the panic of seeing his friend so vulnerable.

"Who, me?" The villain straightened back up, bouncing on his toes as he did. He flung a hand up to his chest in an overdramatic show of offense... and Ashe's hand made the same motion. In a cheap imitation of Ashe's voice, the Trickster echoed "I wouldn't hurt a fly!" As he did, Ashe muttered the same words.

"He's some sort of Master." Imprint's eyes were locked onto the figure, tracing his every move. The subtle shift in his posture put the image of a panther in Failsafe's mind. His next words were directed at the villain. "What do you want with Ashe?"

"Better yet, what do you want with us?" Wraith added. The strain of holding up a constant shield for this long was starting to take its toll on him, hands starting to shake. Even though the Trickster wasn't outright attacking them, knowing he was a Master with this kind of power was enough to keep them all on edge. They didnt know his limitations yet. "You were the one that sent us the note, right? Why bring us here just to stand there and laugh at us?"

The villain started cackling again, bending at the waist with the sheer force of his laughter. "Ashe?!" He straightened back up, mimed wiping a tear from the corner of the eye of the mask. "Who's that? Never heard of them!" As he stood up to his full height, he ran a hand gingerly through Ashe's hair. The boy didn't move, didn't react, despite Failsafe's immediate short burst of anger at the action. The Trickster clicked his tongue, continued to run his hands through Ashe's silvery-purple hair. As his hands moved, a glow began to spread from them. The same orange glow emanating from Ashe's eyes was surrounding the Trickster's fingertips. As he waggled the fingers on his free hand, little orange strings no thicker than spider silk extended upwards from them, seeming to disappear into thin air. The strings reappeared, wound around Ashe's arms. There was a loop around his neck as well, giving the sickening illusion of a collar.

"I just wanted to introduce the three of you to my Muse." He put an odd emphasis on that final word.

It was a name.

"And, to let you know he's mine now, and you can't have him back!" The static smile on the mask somehow looked devilish. It was such a childish statement, as if they were fighting over a toy on the playground, but it sent chills down all three of the heroes' spines. "Finders keepers, he came to me first! That means I get dibs." His voice dropped an octave on that last sentence, suddenly becoming threatening and deadpan. "Try to take him from me if you can. It'll be fun."

Suddenly, he spun on his heel, facing the doorway he came from. The rippling effect was starting to get more pronounced, more unpredictable. "Ah! But it seems like playtime's over for now. We'll see you soon, Wards."

Before he stepped back through the door, the strings around Ashe's limbs tightened, and he was dragged by some nearly-invisible force toward the doorway. He moved stiffly, as if the puppetmaster hadn't gotten used to moving him yet, but eventually he was pulled through the fading doorway.

The Trickster gave them one last mock solute before ducking through as well. The lingering echo of laughter hung in the room around them.

And Ashe- Muse- was gone with him.

[kaijugolisopod]

so insane to be making a tumblr post in the year 2025 but here we are <3

anyways hello i’m ray! i had a blog w the same name that i’ve essentially archived for now so that i can start fresh on this one :3

i’m excited to be back and hopefully more annoying than ever! 😛🫶🤠🤙

anyways here’s a pic of me packing a joint with a pikachu nintendo ds stylus so yall get an understanding of the vibe we are bringing to this blog

[lavenderorchard]

high maintenance 💕

trying my hand at suggestive stuff for a change... pose reference under the cut!

yeah it's from will stetson's rabbit hole cover. no i don't want to talk about it

[bleue-flora]

if a therapist came to the dsmp to treat the characthers they would need therapy after doing it probably

[context]

You and @piscespixiewastaken think alike it seems.

Indeed they would. In fact, this point actually pushed me to ask my sister-in-law, who is a therapist/counselor about it just out of curiosity. 

Here’s what I learned:

Despite what my counselor said, not all therapists were required in school to do counseling themselves to get certified. Some counselors have actually never even been to therapy themselves (not sure how I feel about that to be honest… not to deter people from going to therapy - please do if you are able) something my sister-in-law didn’t seem to be a big fan of.

When asked if she felt like she needed counseling after/because of a specific client she said that yes that can definitely be the case. She noted that empathy fatigue is often common after listening to people all day, which makes sense and that would be a common reason for some needed personal counseling. As expected, while she hasn’t had to deal with a lot of it, she did note that dealing with people with antisocial behavior disorders (ie narcissistic, histrionic… think sociopath disorders) can be especially taxing.

Given that the dsmp is a group of povs of the same story and events, I was curious on whether she often found herself taking sides when she does couples counseling. She said that there can be an initial bias at first when the base facts are presented to her, which is something she often has to check herself on, but that actually she finds that usually there is truth and wrongdoing on both sides and there is no true ‘bad guy.’ Though she did add that she has not dealt with any relationships involving more intense abuse especially relating to antisocial behavior disorders. In other words, the couples she sees likely came willingly and are sound enough in mind on both sides to want to fix the problems, if that makes sense.

So in other words, there are, much to my surprise, counselors who do not go (may not have gone) to therapy themselves, but that doesn’t make it healthy and considering the characters in the dsmp it would likely be recommended that this counselor also see someone. I will say though the implication that people in the dsmp are more problematic then real world people are is perhaps an underestimation of irl mental illness. Just because the dsmp members wear armor and carry around weapons doesn't make them more troublesome than people irl, though perhaps that is me viewing it from their world standards which I assume the therapist would be from. In either case, whether the therapist was from the realm of Minecraft world circumstances or more irl, I do imagine they being either inhumanly sane and not need a therapist of their own, or they get together with another therapist and perhaps drink over all the dsmp insanity. And whether they would be inclined to take sides I think is hard to say since there are definitely some characters who need a psych ward. Anyways… hope you enjoyed my info dump. :)

[madamescarlette]

Lads the self control I have to exert sometimes to NOT clown or go full delulu is so strong and real of me, that's all.

[technikki]

YOUR ART IS SOOO SWEET AND YUMMY ive been sucked in by your raydon propaganda i need to hear more

OOOOOHG THANK YOU HELL YEAH !!!! JUMPING AROUND SO MUCH

and i am soooooo normal about raydon you have no idea<3 i've been meaning to make a more in-depth analysis on their dynamic and why i like them as a ship for someone else who asked but i haven't had the chance to organize all my thoughts yet </3

tbh the biggest thing is i just really like their development through the series because like. don is shown to really admire ray and obviously pre-escape ray is experiencing the horrors and is actively pushing everyone besides emma and norman away and i really like seeing them grow closer after ray is finally allowed to begin healing it's very sweet to me <3

their dynamic is just really good in general and i think it is very underappreciated. and in the context of romance specifically i like the idea of them finally being allowed to get to know each other and seeing don's admiration turn into genuine love while ray tries to process his feelings (and probably has a few crises over it<3) and i think don being such an openly affectionate and caring person would definitely help ray as he learns to handle recieving affection and giving it as well. also it's really sweet seeing how emotional ray makes don at several points in canon and i like thinking about him just being so overjoyed whenever ray shows him any sort of affection (and ray noticing this and making a mental note to do it more often <3)

tldr theyre both very sensitive people in different ways and their development is very sweet and the would be so good to each other and they are cute. also they are funny as fuck

[agrebel18]

OK SO

good news: on sunday, i'm probably going to see a play my friend is in to support him!!

bad news: my mom is forcing me to bring her with me, and the play is about gay people (in my friend's words) and my mom's quite homophobic :(

[kimtaegis]

ahhh yes. I did not miss that damned programme

[rouge-fauna]

Just here to tell you how strong you are for dealing with these Drantis, they are the worst of all, and I don't understand why they keep bothering you in this aggressive way.

I blocked many people to avoid interacting with them in the future, and I can't understand why they keep going to fans and their spaces like this.

They are truly a bunch of bullies and you are so strong to keep being calm like this Bleue

Here, virtuals Hugs on your way

Aw thanks, most people haven’t been too bad, from what I’ve heard there are some really nasty people out there I have been lucky enough to dodge… perhaps I blocked them in September lol. I think the most recent ask might have been the most aggressive I’ve received or maybe I’m just tired of the same points being made, either way I kinda “crashed out” didn’t I lol. Oopsie. Anyways, thanks for your support, very much appreciate it. Nice to not be the only one frustrated with the drantis. :)

and yea… it is strange to see them invade spaces or go to fans where people clearly disagree, like they really are itching for a fight huh. Like as many posts as I’ve made it’s weird they’d come interact with me because I’m certainly avoiding all the innitors and drantis on my end. There’s no point to reason with people who have proven to be unreasonable.

[secondpersonpoetry]

hi! oh my goodness. i am SO sorry i didn’t say anything earlier. i did read everything a couple days ago, and i Have been chewing on it, rotating it in my mind, etc etc…..and the graphic has been my phone lockscreen since i first read it!!!!!

frankly i am obsessed and have also been a little frazzled this month lol. saw your post late because of the general whirlwind that is december and then couldn’t quite get my thoughts into sufficient words n got worried “oh no would it be weird to say something now…..” which is incredibly silly in retrospect, so sorry for that. 

i’m relatively new to hockey fandom and the Narratives don’t always quite click for me (yet, at least :)) because i don’t know all of the lore for a lot of the popular pairings haha, so it means a lot that you’ve taken time out of your day to break things down for me and share your own thoughts <3 tysm. again, super sorry for the delayed response. i’m very sorry if you felt as though you’d wasted your time or something along those lines :’) just wanted to let you know that i really appreciate you and the time it took you to get everything down and make the graphic!!!! and like i can’t overstate how much your tags both over here and on your other blog have helped me to Get It since the start of this season, so thank you.

but now the house is quiet, the in-laws are gone, and no new work stuff until january :) so i can finally get some stuff down. every point you brought up hits in it own way but gosh you are very incredibly right the mcstrome of it all…..that��s sort of the lens i’ve been listening to the song through since you mentioned it.

the golden boy and the “draft bust” and the ever present notion of “isn’t it all about old friends? like everything? all of it?”.  like idk looking back on a bestfriendship from when you were a teenager that was Super intense and the lines were blurred and maybe realizing (if you hadn’t had the words or the “guts” or awareness or wtv to put a name to it at that point in your life) that y’all were a smidge more than just friends. 

best friends forever until you just aren’t! growing up and growing apart. it’s just the way things go but it can and will ache for a damn long time! you think you’re over it until their birthday or the holidays roll around and you wonder in a distant sort of way who they’re spending it with. what you would’ve hypothetically gotten them as a present if you still spoke. what do they even like nowadays, anyway?

maybe having the friendship end subtly. going from playing and traveling together and living in one another’s pockets to 2,080 miles of distance? (i may have my timeline/details confused here so sorry in advance) texting as much as you can at first but he’s a phenom he’s mcjesus he’s the next in line he’s expected to win the cup with his new team and end the drought for Canada. and they have him now but he was yours first, wasn’t he? but it’s fine. because you’re busy too. you’re captaining the team now. you’re gonna get the memorial cup that he couldn’t. it’s fine. you’re fine. you don’t even have time to worry about it anyway. 

one conversation a week turns to one a month turns to once in a blue moon turns to stale words until it goes cold. these days you can’t quite seem to remember who ended things, but does it really matter all that much now?

or maybe it doesn’t end like that at all. maybe it ends in a flurry of angry words and digs in some or other of the endless hotel rooms you’ve shared together over the years. who knows!

and that’s not even getting into the rest of the 2015 draft class. or the ld19 of it all! ooh hoo hoo. you grew up with him but he’s not your waiting room. he grew up with you but he’ll grow “old” (end his career) with someone else. and isn’t that just something! 

i don’t think it’s totally them, but sort of the sentiment of “I hope you get everything you ever wanted and I hope I never hear a word about it.” I want one ticket off of your carousel!!!! merry christmas, please don’t call!!!!!!!

dylan being sent up and down and traded around until finally landing in washington, a place where he is clearly at home and LOVED for the guy and player he is!!!!!!!! watching a game and seeing all the strome jerseys in the crowd……..wagh.

all that said. some other songs that are mcstrome to me in various ways: hot & heavy by lucy dacus (lol kinda the whole song). before the world was big by girlpool (“i just miss how it felt standing next to you wearing matching [jerseys? sweaters?] before the world was big”). happiness by Taylor swift (“i guess it’s the price i pay for seven years in heaven”), cut your bangs by radiator hospital (maybe? possibly? unsure. i like the whole dog thing there). i’m so glad i feel this way about you by insignificant other (!!!!!). there are so many THEM lyrics in there……..waough.

anyway. other things off the top of my head: 2015 connor specifically saying something like “hey let’s wait a minute so we can see this” to stand by the stage when dylan was getting drafted after him. MAN. you reminded me of the fact that they couldn’t even make eye contact at the handshake line!!!!!!!!! they didn’t go to each other’s weddings!!!!!!!!!! (do you think once upon a time they ever thought they’d being each other’s best man?). just a couple months ago dylan liking the tweet of connor getting that goal during the playoffs!!!!!!!! makes you wonder if he texted him………..

lol this was all over the place and i was probably wrong on some things and there’s SO much more that someone else could say way more eloquently, but i digress. i dunno everything about them is so nuts to me!!!!! needless to say i will be incredibly sat for the game january 21 🙂‍↕️

thank you again for your time :) hope you have a good one and a happy rest of the holiday season! <3333333

what a lovely message to receive 🥰😭🥹 i had to break it up into chunks because i couldn't sit down to read all of it at once without just. bouncing right back up and shrieking. i am also at heart terribly shy so i understand the struggle but it is never too late to say something <3 you are always welcome here

first!!! i love sharing!! i think most of hockey tumblr loves to see people finding out the Lore for the first time and the wonderful thing about hockey is that. it keeps going on. so there's years and years and generations and generations and always something new to learn about. i've learned to just not be afraid to ask!!! between different teams and players i'm always discovering new narratives (learning about the sharks old man yaoi rn... cbj rarepairs...)

no... to my heart's despair... you have the timeline right. i think in the best most tragic sense there's a mcstrome narrative where it is truly that nothing went wrong. the love was there. we couldn't do enough to save it because we didn't see it slipping away. i didn't notice when you didn't call until you never did. i don't know you now but i still remember when i did, do you?

HE'S NOT YOUR WAITING ROOM?? passing out. i do see "i hope you get everything you ever wanted and i hope i never hear a word about it" as them because!! they didn't go to each other's weddings!!! i don't wish you harm but i'm not going to put myself through that!! i hope you're happy and i'm never going to look on purpose.

i love dylan strome so much and the best part is that they all love him so much too. he wore a cool vintage ovechkin jacket!! and got slapped in the face with a tortilla!! he loves to gently rag on the rookies!! it just takes some time, everything'll be just fine. you're only on the middle of the ride.

OKAY WHEN I READ THIS PART I SCREAMED BECAUSE I DO HAVE A MCSTROME PLAYLIST AND!!!! HOT & HEAVY BY LUCY DACUS IS IN FACT ON IT!!! SO IS CUT YOUR BANGS (BUT BY GIRLPOOL SO DOUBLE JINX)!!!! i have dorothea by taylor swift on there but i don't know happiness so i'll have to give all the other songs a listen. mostly i just shrieked because i was like NO YOU GOT THE VIBES EXACTLY

🧠〰️🧠 truly the mind meld happening here. the handshake line. the mutual wedding non-invitations. i won't block your number or your name on twitter i just hope i don't see it come up on screen!! i do think that we got confirmation the last time they played each other that dylan did text him to say congrats on a milestone but i would have to check the archives

p.s. i think you said it perfectly eloquently :) what matters is that you said it at all and i was delighted to read it 💕

[visionheld]

um

[hieravian]

HI SO I DISAPPEARED AGAIN!

Why? Mass Effect autism. 11 years too late. But anyway if anyone is still alive in this fanbase... here is Ronan Shepard!!

He's a paragon, colonist/sole survivor Shep who has Kaidan romanced, and honestly really needs a hug lol

Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 respectively;

I love him so. If you ask me about him I'll love you forever /p

(I also managed to get him to survive post-ME3!! That saved me crying again, which I have done a lot at this series)

[linawritesocs]

[ 🤍𝐭𝐰𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐜: 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐟 ❤️]

NEW OC!! WOOO!!

it probably doesn't make much sense for me to make new ocs anymore since.. uh. i don't really want to write anything for them rn and i just see this blog as a place to store my twst oc art in, but hey! here, have new sillies that will appear in my art from now on.

this little guy is based on.. well, the painted roses from alice in wonderland! yes, this is the third rose boy of mine. yes. what do you want from me, it's hard to come up with unique disney counterparts and i also thought that this concept is really cool.

anyway, you can read his profile under the cut!

name: darren redleaf (ダレン ・レッドリーフ)

age: 18 y/o

gender: male

species: human

birth date: september 29

zodiac sign: libra

height: 176 cm

hair color: white with light coral highlights

eye color: tea green

homeland: queendom of roses

family: father and mother

school: night raven college

dorm: heartslabyul

school year: third

occupation: student

club: science club

best subject: art

dominant hand: left

favorite food: strawberry tarts, because riddle likes them

least favorite food: candied violets, because trey likes them

hobbies: gardening, painting

talent: knowing all the latest trends

unique magic: "red rose or white rose?" darren's unique magic controls two more darrens: one of them has red hair and the other one has white hair and both of them are called "red rose" and "white rose" respectively. "red rose" is mean, loud, doesn't care about the feelings of others and is a huge troublemaker. "white rose" is a gentle, soft and caring person, who is very polite and puts others' feelings and needs before his own. he's very obedient and never questions other people's actions and orders. darren can turn into one of them, using his unique magic, and other people won't be able to recognize that it's actually darren and will believe that it's a completely different person. but if somebody knows about darren's unique magic, his magic won't work on them and they'll still be able to see his "real" self. darren's transformation depends on what he has learned about the "preferences" of a specific person and if he thinks they prefer someone more gentle, he'll turn into white rose and if he thinks they prefer someone more mean, he'll pick red rose. if darren keeps using his unique magic for too long, his memories will start to become blurry and he can start questioning his identity, not being sure if he's darren, red rose or white rose right now.

dislikes: people who are way too close with riddle, most heartslabyul students

personality: darren has a very good reputation among heartslabyul students. he's kind, he's polite, he makes sure everyone is doing okay and he also knows all 810 rules of this dorm, so he's able to stop someone from accidentally (or not really) breaking them. he's often teased for being a nerd though because of him being lowkey obsessed with those rules and a lot of students find it shocking that he actually does follow all of them. he has a soft, almost honey-like voice and his aura is able to calm almost anyone down. he also somehow knows everything about everyone's likes and dislikes, to the point that it's.. kinda concerning, since he can guess some people's type or crush and he won't need merrill's unique magic for that. but sometimes you can see darren just sitting and staring into nothingness and not making any sounds, some people are not even sure if he's breathing when that happens. if you try to make him pay attention to you when he's doing that, he will act a bit strange and will ask what's going on. sometimes he can literally just start listing some heartslabyul's rules before he's finally able to remember where he is right now and who he's talking to. but overall, he never causes any trouble. he always knows what everyone wants from him and he gives it to them. you don't have to worry about him. he won't break any rules. he is very, very obedient.

notable relationships:

so, why is darren so obsessed with heartslabyul's rules? well.. the reason is simple. he actually was friends with riddle, trey and chenya back when they were younger. he was the third friend that riddle made. he was the quiet friend. he was the friend that often couldn't be there to play with them simply because he had no energy for that, even though he really wanted to see them. and.. he eventually became the friend that nobody remembered. when he started attending nrc, trey needed some time before he remembered who darren was. but in the end, trey was able to remember who darren was. riddle wasn't. in fact, darren didn't even know most things that trey and chenya knew about riddle. for example, he didn't know anything about his relationship with his mother. so when riddle stopped hanging out with trey and chenya, darren finally was able to start spending more time with them, but he didn't know the reason why riddle was no longer there. and trey and chenya thought that he already knew. so naturally, darren started to think that it was his fault and that riddle is avoiding him. but it's okay! it's okay, they're together again now. it's okay, darren will memorize all the rules just to impress riddle. it's okay, darren will tell him which students broke the rules this time to make riddle praise him. it's okay, darren will figure out which rose riddle prefers and if it's truly the red one. it's okay. it's okay, darren won't mess up this time. he will fix their relationship. everything will be fine. they'll be friends again.

no, darren does not like trey, even though they really were friends and he did like him when they were kids. but now darren thinks that him and riddle are a little bit too close. can't trey just leave riddle alone at least for a second and let darren become closer with him? what, is he in love with him or something? oh, okay, sorry, sorry, he just got a little.. annoyed, haha. also, he feels like trey is hiding something from him. he knows so much about riddle and darren knows so little. but it's okay, darren knows that he's the best friend riddle could ever wish for. and he won't let trey steal that title from him.

hm? what does he think about chenya?.. he's fine. mostly. he goes to a different school anyway, so he doesn't appear that often and that means he's not as close with riddle as darren, so he doesn't have to think about him as a rival. honestly, if darren had to choose, he'd rather become closer with chenya rather than trey. he feels like he doesn't have to pretend like he's somebody else around him and he doesn't have to "change its color" for him.

yes, he doesn't like seth. just who does he think he is? riddle would never like a guy like him, right? seth is so arrogant, so annoying, so noisy, he breaks as many rules as he can, he can quit literally anything at any moment just because he finds it boring and his style is so.. again, riddle would never like someone like him, right? and if he does.. w-well, m-maybe darren will have to turn into a red rose for him.

fun facts:

he actually kinda admires hayden and he can see right through his lies, but they rarely interact exactly because hayden knows that darren understands him too well. and also because hayden knows that the best way to manipulate him would be just.. turning into an exact copy of riddle. and he doesn't want to do that.

it's hard to say if what he feels for riddle is romantic or platonic. darren thinks that his feelings are platonic, but some students feel like that's not the case and it's definitely something stronger. i see his feelings as just pure obsession and an extremely strong desire to serve him and be by his side. nothing more, nothing less. it doesn't mean that darren would be against going on a date with him or being kissed by him though.

darren gets a little too excited when he sees riddle punishing the rulebreakers, to the point that he can just start laughing and/or blushing. the thought of riddle punishing darren himself both terrifies him and excites him just as much and he even screamed like a fangirl when he imagined it once.

he wears a necklace that's supposed to resemble thorns and it really is very sharp and even when he's still wearing it, when you look closely, you can see the red marks that it leaves on his skin. he doesn't even notice them though and finds it comfortable.

him and allen are definitely very similar (their names even sound almost the same in japanese sjdksldl), but still, when it comes to love and other feelings, they're very different. again, what darren feels for riddle is mostly just obsession and not romantic love, meanwhile allen cares A LOT about romance and it's his life's main purpose. also, darren doesn't really have any close friends even though his reputation is so good, meanwhile allen is hated and/or feared by almost everyone, but he still does have some friends (like jay). and darren is okay with throwing his entire personality away (has he ever had "his own" personality?..) for someone he likes, meanwhile allen would rather force his crush to accept him no matter what kind of person he is.

darren joined the science club to keep an eye on trey.

his hobbies are a reference to the roses being painted: it makes sense for him to like things like gardening and painting, though i don't think he's that passionate about them. i think it's just something he does to appear "normal".

azul is trying to become closer with him because of how smart darren is and even kinda wants him to transfer to octavinelle, because someone like him could be very useful, but darren just ignores him every time.

the reason why his talent is "knowing all the latest trends" is simple: he has to know what kind of people and what kind of things other people like so that it's easier for him to use his unique magic on them.

[letterstomichelangelo]

in reference to the aimsey post i just rbed i had to sit in my english class for 50 minutes listening to someone call theo a "cringefail loser" and boris "baby girl" and in any other circumstance id be like "oh yeah well they obviously dont think boris is actually the best character in the book and theo the worst like obviously they can see the depth of each character" but ive heard other of their takes and just how they talk ab the characters and that is very clearly not the case