#But!! Been having a lot of fun finally solidifying The Them. Helping me get back into the comic making drivers seat

[miisfits-toys]

Ironing out some world-building things...

Spring's Herald being the oldest and longest established of that divinity has a vicious claim on how fae appear to the common man, (pretty, harmless, fanciful,) and it's something she'd like to keep!

Her primary aides in this are: Her enforcer, keeping people in check and the tune to be pure; Her representative, secondhand, and automatic authority wherever she may stick her nose; Her groundskeeper, keeping her domain tidy, by any means; and Her propagandist, an attentive, dutiful host who welcomes all to the mirth.

Do not mind the veneer of glitter and pomp, do not mind the untamed chaos behind the mask, ok?

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol3E1 "Round One"

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new collection of RWBY Recaps!!

This is a unique project in that instead of writing purely for my own entertainment, these recaps are part of the Fandom Trumps Hate auction (you can check them out here if you're interested in learning more). Specifically, these recaps are a gift for the lovely Kae who requested some meta on the earlier Volumes, or work that focused on Ozpin and/or Ironwood. I figured that Volume Three would touch on all those requests and, frankly, it's an era of RWBY that I was already interested in covering. Volume 3 was a turning point for RWBY's tone and overall mythology and I'm eager to see what I think of it in 2024, after six additional seasons and a rather chaotic overhaul.

(If anyone is reading this from the future, one of the reasons why it took me so damn long to get the first recap out is because finding official streams of RWBY has become a fool's errand as it changes ownership. Fun!)

Anyway, the game plan is simple: cover all of Volume Three at an undetermined, though hopefully steady-ish pace from here on out. Technically, the deadline for our FTH fandowrks is at the end of 2024, however, I absolutely plan to continue this series past my 5k promise. As always, this will be a RWDE-focused meta (though I'm eager to see how much nostalgia carries me through the season), so if you Don't Like; Don't Read.

Everyone got that? Great!

Now, indulge me for a moment and cast your mind back. It's October of 2015. Pizza Rat is a tumblr icon, Left Shark still reigns, and everyone is arguing over whether a dress is gold and white, or blue and black (it's the former FYI ;). Amidst such quality memes RWBY begins airing again on the 24th, presumably bringing with it another season of stellar choreography and simple, if entertaining conflict. Team RWBY has just helped contain a massive breach courtesy of Cinder's machinations, Torchewick is in Ironwood's custody, the White Fang is falling under Salem's puppeteering, Penny has revealed her android identity as well as her supposed fate to save the world, the girls are beginning to acknowledge the responsibility of their chosen career path, and the mysterious Raven has been identified as Yang's birth mother. All in all, RWBY has a lot to play with going into its third season.

It's notable then that we open peacefully. The viewer is treated to a number of environmental shots to set the scene, including one of the forest with its iconic falling Fall leaves. Ruby is positioned at the edge of a cliff with her signature rose petals drifting behind her. Stylistically it fits the scene, though from a literal standpoint it also implies that she used her semblance speed to get here. Given the momentary reveal that she's speaking to her mom, that's a rather heartwarming detail.

Sidenote: has anyone given any thought to cliffs in this series? It only occurred to me recently how often they show up, often during character milestones. Here we have Ruby talking to Summer for the first time, her (bodiless) grave situated at the end of a cliff. The Beacon initiation involves chucking the kids off a cliff and seeing how they fare, an action that is the catalyst for the group's introductions/growing dynamics. Shooting Oscar off the edge of Atlas solidifies Ironwood's turn from anti-hero to outright villain. Though I'm far from a fan of this scene, Ruby's (ridiculous) near-fall off the cliff during the fight with Cordovin preludes her (supposed) growth in leadership as she stands up to Qrow. Penny lets herself fall from Amity after sacrificing herself to get it up into the air. Then, of course, we've got the girls falling off of Ambrosius' bridge, taking them to a world where - execution aside - the intention was for them all to go through major developments: Ruby is literally reborn, Jaune experiences a lifetime of struggle, Yang and Blake finally admit their feelings, and Weiss... gets over her whole country being destroyed?

Idk, we'll have to come back to that one.

I clearly don't have a big takeaway here, just the acknowledgement that this is a visual RWBY gravitates towards. Might do a whole side meta on it some day...

Anyway, as said we realize quickly this is Summer's grave with her name carved into the headstone along with "Thus kindly I scatter." Notably, she also has her rose motif there and it's likewise prominent on Ruby's belt in this scene. Looking back, we can see how RWBY did a better job at the start of sprinkling in these significant character details before, you know, dropping them completely and then attempting a rapid-fire resurrection. Meaning, I would have bought into the emotion of Ruby giving her pendant up in Volume 9 if we'd gotten these moments consistently throughout the story's run. It wouldn't take much, just a reminder every couple of episodes to maintain the momentum. Give Ruby a scene where she explains that this rose was left by Summer before she disappeared and she's treasured it ever since. Show a flashback where we learn that it was really left behind for both girls and Yang handed it down to Ruby when she was old enough to keep track of it. Give us a minor conflict where it's lost during battle and Ruby unnecessarily endangers herself in an attempt to retrieve it (perhaps in Volume 8, setting up that the object itself is not as important as the intangible love it represents). Hell, keep it lighthearted where Yang gets Ruby something rose related at the gift shop, Nora tucks a Rose into her hair while wandering the wilderness, Qrow gives the pendant a cheeky flick while talking about how Ruby's as stubborn as her mom. My point is there are a million ways the show could have built towards that scene in Volume 9 - ways like showing us that rose on Summer's gravestone - but the show dropped the ball halfway through.

Here and now though, Ruby begins catching Summer up on everything that's happened to her since she started Beacon, which serves as a useful way to catch the viewer up too - both those who, for whatever reason, may have started RWBY with Volume 3, and those who just need a hiatus refresher.

Ruby is delightfully awkward here, a personality trait that I think becomes more forced as the series goes on. She jokes that she hasn't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet - while doing that cute little rock on her heels thing - and says that she's able to "keep [Yang] in line" by being on the same team. She follows that up with, "...that was a joke" which is just quintessential Ruby to me. Love it.

She recaps that Yang has grown a lot as a fighter since Summer left, the rest of their team is made up of Blake and Weiss, together they form Team RWBY and yes, that's as confusing as it sounds. She's stopped bad guys and met some "odd" teachers, including Ozpin.

(THAT'S MY BOY!!!)

Looking back, this is actually a fascinating couple of lines. At least, I think they have the potential to be fascinating if RT had followed a clear writing path. Ruby wonders again why Ozpin let her into Beacon early, but shrugs it off under the assumption that he'll tell her one day. "You know how he is."

Yeah, I do, Ruby. Do you?

We already knew from their initial interaction that Ruby knew who Ozpin was - she recognizes him on sight - though him posing the question implies that he never visited Patch post-her birth. At least, not recently enough for Ruby to have formed a memory of them meeting. I can only assume then that she's heard enough about him from Tai and Qrow to a) be sure of his identity (any promotional material/news about Beacon would have helped with that too) and b) believes strongly that her impression of him formed since entering Beacon aligns with what her parents presumably said about him: "You know how he is." The fact that this is in reference to Ozpin's secret keeping makes me wonder how often that came up around the dinner table. Did Tai ever express frustration, a la Ironwood, that they're clearly being kept in the dark about things? Did Qrow ever dodge the girls' questions about where he's been because he can't be honest about his spy activities, aligning Ozpin's reputation with secrecy by virtue of working for him? The casualness with which Ruby shrugs off Ozpin's secrets to Summer heavily implies that Ozpin's cagey history is both well known to the family and accepted.

Honestly, I would have loved to see this woven into Ruby's core characterization, perhaps even an extension of her "simple soul." Give me a girl who is intrinsically accepting of people, including their need to keep certain things close to the chest. Teammate deliberately kept her faunus identity under wraps? Friend hides the fact that she's an android from the whole world? Ruby accepts them. Ruby gets it. The fact that Ruby does, canonically, accept their duplicity without so much as a blink is, I think, one of the reasons why I expected her of all people to be more sympathetic towards Ozpin's hidden identity. We can argue about the girls' right to the truth via participating in this war till the cows come home, but at the end of the day Ozpin's secrets are intrinsically tied up in his family, his history, and the trauma surrounding both. Let the others get mad, prioritizing information over personal motivations (that does fit their characterizations well, with Blake perhaps being an exception), but Ruby? The show has never been willing to commit to the kind of dark story that would result in a 180 character growth - endlessly forgiving protagonist becomes jaded and cynical as she experiences The Horrors - and little moments like this one further emphasize to me that Ruby, specifically Ruby, is uniquely suited to helping Ozpin not just fight, but finally finish this war. It should never have been (just) about her talent with a scythe, or even the rarity of Silver Eyes. The Gods wanted Ozpin to unite humanity and here's a young woman who unabashedly loves everyone that the world tends to despise: secret keepers and drunk uncles and faunus and Schnees and scary androids. Ruby should have been the emotional bridge!!

Okay, I swear I'm not going to make this series a rehash of my issues with the later Volumes lol. Inevitably some things are going to crop up though.

Moving on, Ruby mentions that Tai is here too and the viewer gets to see his avatar for the first time, albeit from a distance. In keeping Summer updated on her... husband? Wait, were they married? Well, in keeping her updated on her partner, Ruby says that, "He's, you know... Dad," which, unlike the Ozpin line, is just plain funny. Sure, most of her talk is very exposition-y and absolutely functions as a soft lead-in to new content, but that's not to say a story should ever put absurd dialogue in a character's mouth simply for the sake of the viewer. That is, Ruby should never say, 'Oh, Tai is here! You know, my Dad?' because the person she's talking to, Summer, knows damn well who Tai is. Television has actually gotten better about this as a whole. Once upon a time a medical drama would have the doctor yelling, 'Her skin is turning yellow - she's jaundiced! Her liver is failing!' to ensure that the viewer understood precisely what 'jaundiced' meant, never mind how absurd it was for a professional to be shouting that among their peers. (Granted, medical dramas as a whole are absurd. I say that with love.) Despite RT's general inexperience, RWBY belongs to an era of televised storytelling where leaving certain things unsaid is par for the course.

Here, the unspoken information is what it means for Tai to be, you know, Tai. We don't really know who Tai is yet- personality-wise, I mean - so Ruby's comment functions more as a way to set up our expectations rather than to connect with us in agreement. We now expect Tai to be the kind of guy who does things to make his teenage daughter sigh and go, 'That's Dad...' and we, presumably, look forward to seeing that.

Granted, the three things we do know about Tai at this point in the story consist of:

He's a fellow Huntsmen (which is an insane job)

He let his daughter join Beacon two years early to also become a Huntress (also kinda insane but I support him)

He maintains a relationship with said daughter and daughter Sr by sending them their dog in the mail (do I really need to say it?)

Based on that I suppose we can guess as to what Tai is like lol.

He calls Ruby away so they're not late for the match and she sends a last message to Summer over her shoulder: "It was good to talk." As we transition, a murder of crows flies across the sky. Or is it an unkindness of ravens? I can barely tell in real life, let alone when they're animated blobs, but either option works well enough given the upcoming revelation about the Branwen twins.

Cutting to the arena a little time in the future, the viewer is treated to some establishing shots that, while simple, are honestly pretty cool. I believe this is our first introduction to Atlas' floating environments and showing a bit of Beacon Academy in the background helps give us a sense of scale.

This event is clearly popular, with the stadium absolutely packed with people (even more are trickling in from ferrying ships) and, to RT's credit, they did a bit of work to convey diversity in this world. We see a decent variety of skin tones as well as faunus characteristics, to say nothing of the cool designs many of the competitors will get. Beyond the main cast still being overwhelmingly white, I'd say the biggest issue here is the lack of body diversity, what with everyone having the same, stick-thin figure. Yeah, RT is clearly using the same base model copied a hundred times and I'm very aware of their previous status as a small, independent company, but such visuals nevertheless stand out in a series that's been pushing a minority plotline for three seasons.

The camera swoops down to follow Team RWBY in the midst of a battle which, again, is staged in a way that's clearly meant to catch up/invite in new viewers. It's very trailer-esque as each shot lingers on Weiss, Blake, and Yang for a moment before finishing with Ruby, complete with a twirl of Crescent Rose. This is the show visually reminding you of what it's really about. Sure, we might have started with Ruby speaking peacefully by a grave, but at the end of the day RWBY is the story of a team engaging in combat situations.

Oobleck and Port are announcing the event and Oobleck throws out his standard "Doctor" when his title goes unacknowledged.

You know, I started RWBY nearly a decade ago. Four years ago I secured a PhD, so I feel that now.

Port provides another handy info dump for those "just now joining us." AKA the viewer who has no idea what a Vytal Festival is, but this is as good an excuse as any given that people are still entering the stadium. Simply put, all the Kingdoms' huntsmen schools are competing as teams first, then as duos, then as individuals to determine the final winner who will have achieved "victory for their kingdom!" Age and year are irrelevant, which makes perfect sense given the nature of RWBY's combat. You've got young prodigies like Ruby and people who sneak into Beacon like Jaune, and though the other schools/years probably don't have as much drama going on, the variety of semblances, weapons, dust use, and personal experience really makes this anyone's game. A first year might easily beat a fourth year if they won the genetic lottery with their semblance, or a student from School A might trounce someone their age from School B, depending on how much their school has sent them into real combat situations.

Given all that, I kinda wish the Festival had developed the other Kingdoms more, given that it's the perfect opportunity for the cultures to learn from one another and/or butt heads. In a perfect world, one where RT had some sense of where their story was going, I would have loved to see:

Strong development of Vacuo's citizens, especially given that it will be the focal point of Volume 10 and possibly the end of the series (if we ever get that...).

Though the gag that Weiss excepts strict, militaristic fighters from Atlas only to get Neon is funny, that 'Don't judge a book by its cover' lesson really doesn't align well with what Volume 7 and 8 try to push. Better, perhaps, to set up Atlas' dictatorship tendencies before swinging hard in that direction (and I'll get into how what we do see doesn't make the cut).

How Remnant's racism gets displayed in a highly public competition. Do Blake and the other faunus face more discrimination now that they're in the public eye? Do asshole citizens challenge wins because no way did a faunus beat that human?

How different schools approach training their huntsmen. Specifically, everyone seems to abide by the four-person team structure, so why would this competition eventually highlight duos and individuals? It seems counter to what Beacon, and by extension all the other schools, are trying to promote. This setup would make more sense if we were shown that different schools have radically different curriculum. Maybe it's eventually 1v1 because Vacuo's individualist, survival-based culture teaches huntsmen to fend for themselves; teammates are just another liability. Maybe Atlas, being militaristic, prizes safety in numbers and has students train in groups of six rather than four. Maybe Mistral is incredibly semblance-focused (a way to develop Neptune's phobia rather than just making it a gag; a fighter who can't or won't use their semblance is considered effectively useless) and if you can negate that aspect of their style somehow, you find they're lacking severely in weapon-based combat.

Again, I know that RWBY, particularly early RWBY, only had so much time per episode, but looking back it feels like there are a lot of missed opportunities in this world-watched event. None of this is even taking into account Cinder sneaking into the school, or Penny being outed as an android. If any RWBY rewriters are reading this, the Festival is a potential goldmine of characterization and cultural development. If you're going to write random RWBY books, write some about that!

One moment of cultural significance that is shown though is the Atlas security hovering around the arena. They mostly keep to the background, without any single appearance being obtrusive (yet). This is one of those moments where (some) fans look back and say, "See? Ironwood was always a controlling, military-obsessed bastard," but the reality is that this is incredibly tame by real world standards, to say nothing of the realities of RWBY's fantasy world. Regardless of how you feel about the, uh... motivations behind the security in your country (because that's a whole other conversation), you expect there to be some level of professional oversight when that many people are meeting in one place. That's a reality we have to work with, which includes all the potential pitfalls, biases, manipulations, and accidents that come with any large-scale endeavor. Toss in the fact that RWBY's security is designed to defend against man-eating monsters and I'm honestly surprised it isn't presented as dystopian here. Meaning, we easily could have been given a story where people are comparatively safe from grimm in modern day Remnant and the security functions primarily as outside control and/or a fear-mongering tactic. It's not that security is inherently unnecessary, but those walls have done a damn good job for the last generation or so, so why is James so insistent on populating this festival with his probably not-needed robots? Seems sus 🤔.

As it stands, grimm DO attack people on the regular (that was kind of a big part of last Volume's finale), security IS necessary (according to many other council professionals once James raises the issue), and it's arguably MORE necessary now - during the festival - because there are so many potentially negative emotions just waiting to crop up. Instead of "Seems sus," the reaction to having defensive robots around is more, "No duh." At the very least RWBY might have had the characters react to the security with suspicion/fear, even if that doesn't totally track with the rest of the worldbuilding, or better yet, demonstrate that there are major issues with AI leading the charge (robot mistakes kid in grimm mask for real grimm and fires a shot!). Granted, we get that through the hacking at the very end of the Volume, but here and now the Atlas ships seem to be used primarily for transporting viewers, the crowd is fully at ease with these guys, and — as we'll see later — the prospect of additional security in the form of AI is greeted with enthusiasm, not wariness, simply because it will keep real, breathing people off the front lines. Those are all important things to keep in mind when you consider whether a) The show took a very sharp turn in Volumes 7-8 or b) The show capitalized on a long established, slow burn plotline.

(Psst the answer is 'B')

ANYWAY, Oobleck is yelling about the "Spectacular spectacles on which to speculate on!" and I love him all the more. While he and Port narrate we get some non-animated shots of people viewing the Festival from around the world, though frankly it doesn't do much to help RWBY's worldbuilding. Some people watch the fights from a camper outside, others are in a minimalist apartment, still others are in what's basically a bar... if you're looking for intriguing backgrounds to drum up interest in the world outside of Beacon, you're not going to find it here. The presence of various faunus individuals is really the only thing that distinguishes these settings from a show based in the real world.

Onto the fighting! (It's about time :p) The girls are facing off against Team ABRN (pronounced "Auburn") from Haven and they're decent for a couple of one-off characters. I like the design of the girl with the skateboard - Reese - and how her weapon, the board itself, gives her a lot of flexibility in battle. Since it functions as a hoverboard she has a lot of maneuverability, she can use the board as a shield, a projectile, adapt its abilities via Dust, and - of course - she can pull both sides apart to duel wield the guns. Looking at all that flexibility, it is a little lame that she 'loses' that particular encounter with Blake by slipping on the ice, but then we're not really supposed to care about these characters. They exist solely to get us hyped for the battles to come and give a quick primer on how those battles will work. AKA, now we've learned that the battlefield itself has hazards the girls must circumvent.

Blake is cute here though. She's so concerned and I'm like yeah, girl, that looked like it hurt 😬

This whole exchange has that same vibe: one of casual playfulness, which makes perfect sense given that this is supposed to be a fun competition. They're exhibition matches, not real attempts to take the other team out (which is why Yang's supposed act later in the tournament will be seen as so heinous). The guy with the pink hair (Nadir) full on pouts when Ruby successfully traps him in a block of ice and, of course, we have the classic "Got your back!"/"My BFF!" lines in response. The girls are enjoying themselves and that's so damn wholesome to see after all the tragedies - plot and writing-wise - of the later Volumes.

Team ABRN are able to make a bit of a comeback and - *gasp* - the girls have to actually think creatively/combine techniques in order to get the upper-hand. Blake successfully tricks Reese with a clone and catches her in the midriff with a quickly timed ribbon, cleanly knocking her out of the ring. It's here that we learn a team member can be eliminated via leaving the bounds, or having their aura dip too low (remember when that was a thing?) I know I just said there's teamwork, and there absolutely is here, but it did stand out to me how Blake just like... disappears after this moment? I mean she comes back, but it's clear RT wanted each girl to have her moment in this battle, despite the fact that any member who successfully defeated their opponent would be rushing off to help the others. That should be a near defining win condition - defeat one opponent and suddenly it's a 2 vs 1 situation for someone else - but that expectation falls by the wayside until the fight's final moments.

It's a good fight though. Not the greatest by RWBY standards, but it was no hardship to rewatch for this recap either. Weiss pulls out an epic ice hand that ensnares two of the members, now rolling chaotically across the arena, and clearly she thinks this is the end of the fight. However, Arslan — the monk-type who favors hand-to-hand combat (or the one with the "Eastern martial arts influence" according to the RWBY wiki...)— simply rolls her eyes, plants her feet, and shatters the ball with a single hit. Gotta admit, it's pretty cool.

Of course, Team RWBY still comes out victorious in the end. With all of Team ABRN now in one place, the girls have one of those lovely mind-reading moments and pull off a coordinated attack, allowing Yang to sucker-punch them all out of the ring. Again, it's nice to see that kind of teamwork, as well as the adorable way they all stand there, mildly shocked that they won.

I'll take that over the brazen, cocky confidence they've gained any day.

The only thing I'm kinda iffy about regarding this fight is how Team ABRN feels a little less like a full-fledged team to me, and more like a faint Team RWBY echo. It's most noticeable in the Yang vs. Arslan sections where you've got two yellow-coded, hand-to-hand snarkers facing off. Blake and Reese both feel like the cool, alternative style members of their teams, and then you've got the Weiss-Ruby duo trying to overtake the Bolin-Nadir duo. It's admittedly a subtle familiarity that lessens with each example, but it stood out to me in the re-watch; like Team ABRN only exists to give Team RWBY someone vaguely similar to overcome. Which, granted, they do. These are not characters we're going to follow as the series progresses, so in most respects they've done precisely what they needed to do and in a way that looks cool and feels entertaining. So this isn't a criticism, really. More an acknowledgment that RWBY is a series with limits and if we want to know more about these characters/flesh them out beyond their paralleling characteristics, we'll have to do that ourselves in the fanfic.

As Ruby jumps into the air in a victory celebration, we PowerPoint slide cut to the festival later that day where she nearly collapses, asking if anyone else is starving.

Yeah, child. You just made it through a physically intensive battle in front of an audience while existing as a teenager. Of course you're hungry. Blake's stomach gives a giant, embarrassing growl in response and Weiss sarcastically bemoans the fact that there's nowhere to eat at the food-focused festival. Good times, good times.

Ruby: "It's okay, Weiss. I forget about the fair grounds too."

Before they can grab lunch though Weiss declines a call from her father and an old 'acquaintance' suddenly shows up.

Emerald.

You know, kudos to Katie here because Emerald's laugh and, "Good to see you, Ruby" sounds so fake to me now. It just oozes, 'I secretly hate you but am pulling out all my acting skills to convince you otherwise' energy. Obviously RWBY has a host of villains/antagonists that have done a plethora of heinous things, but there's something particularly skin-crawling to me about seeing Emerald in retrospect. Part of it is the deception. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally would prefer a villain who's upfront about their nature from the get-go, rather than one who pretends to be my friend before stabbing me in the back. The first scenario just lacks the same emotional punch, you know? Though the other part of it is, of course, knowing where everyone ends up. Beacon will fall. Ozpin will "die." Pyrrha will actually die, and our heroes will be sent out into a war they're in no way ready for. Yes, Salem is our ultimate Big Bad, yes Emerald has her sympathetic moments and does a heel-turn into "good guy" territory four Volumes from now... but I think the fandom often forgets that she willingly and actively participated in this horror show. This isn't someone just along for the ride because their crush manipulated them, this is someone with a working brain between their ears who has PLENTY of time to consider the ramifications of this and still went, "Yeah, I'll lie my way into orchestrating a massacre."

All this hindsight angst is interrupted by the joke (and I use that term with great reservation) that Ruby must have dropped her wallet because "Girl pockets are the worst!" Sorry, but that has such cis-guy-trying-to-relate-to-women-and-failing-miserably energy to me. Like yeah, I also hate the super small/outright fake pockets that they often sew into women's clothing and I too have smiled at women promoting pockets as part of their independent brands... but somehow hearing the RWBY writers reference it just doesn't land. It's not #problematic, just cringy.

Emerald butters them up a bit by complimenting their fighting and Weiss notes that they haven't seen Emerald's teammates in action yet. We cut to their battle where they dominate the other team, complete with a disguised Neo showing her real eye color before she knocks the competitor out. "[They did] really well," says Emerald in the fakest humble tone ever heard.

Ruby invites them all to lunch and Emerald - clearly horrified by the prospect - dodges by claiming that her teammates are too socially awkward for a meetup. In her defense, Mercury is in the process of randomly sniffing a boot, so although this is absolutely just an excuse, she's also not wrong. Like, at all lol.

Fishing for more info, Emerald asks who's moving onto the doubles round and it turns out that Team RWBY voted for Weiss and Yang. There are three things that I love about this moment:

They voted. Yes, Ruby cheekily tries to make it sound like this is all coming from her genius as team leader, but at the end of the day they decided as a team who would represent them. It's a small detail, but those stand out so much more now that we have Ruby vocally and angrily calling the shots.

(This is a ridiculous side-note I'm 99.9% sure I've mentioned before, but every time I talk about Ruby's intense form of "leadership" in the latter Volumes, I'm reminded of Rick's, "This is not a democracy!" in The Walking Dead. If you know, you know.)

They chose Weiss and Yang. From both an in-world and meta perspective, it's actually a little surprising that Ruby isn't representing them. As established, she's team leader. The team is named after her. She's the protagonist of the show. She's also, canonically, a prodigy wielding an insanely deadly weapon. Yet it's refreshing as a viewer to have a new duo taking the spotlight and within the story-world this choice reinforces Point #1: They're a team and no matter how individually talented any one member may be - or even what titles they hold - they are, at the end of the day, all on equal footing. Why shouldn't Yang and Weiss represent?

The way they both respond to this reveal is dang cute. Weiss' "I will happily represent Team RWBY" while curtseying to Emerald vs. Yang's "Yeah! We're gonna kick some butt!" while slamming her fists together. It's a great contrast and shows why these two might have been chosen. Though powerful on their own, their styles and personality are different enough to compensate for any flaws.

With all that out of the way Emerald rejoins Mercury and her smile immediately drops. She's disgusted at having to get all buddy-buddy with them, but "Orders are orders." She has this classic villain moment where she expresses shock over how they're just so happy all the time and I'm like oh, honey. Darling. Morally misaligned baby girl. Just give it a few Volumes.

We cut to Team RWBY at lunch and aRE THE BOWLS SUPPOSED TO BE THAT BIG?

I recalled that they were big as a visual gag, but not half the girls' size. Honestly? Great choice. I too want to live in a world where you can get insanely giant noodles a millisecond after you order them.

Deviating from the others, Blake nods at the seller dude and receives an equally giant bowl filled with fish. You know, I really wish RWBY had done something with the faunus' animal traits rather than turning them into an endless joke. The concept of a god merging humans with literal animals and then, generations down the line, cat-people being influenced by cat instincts as well as human instincts (because remember, we're animals too) is actually really interesting to me... but navigating the racial implications of that takes a level of nuance that RWBY was never interested in exploring. So we're just left with a Blake who is fish obsessed and chases laser pointers and hates dogs and we're supposed to laugh at all that, rather than buying into her teachings that many people use these traits to dehumanize the faunus.

Anyway, Weiss shows off a bit and pays for all their food. At least, she tries to. Turns out her card has been declined, which is more than a little confusing to her given that she was "barely into [her] monthly allowance." Hmm, could that possibly have anything to do with her ignoring her father's phone calls? Surely no one knows.

Luckily, Pyrrha shows up and offers to pay instead (it's nice having a famous BFF, huh?), but like... what were the girls' initial plans? None of them were expecting Weiss to pay, yet they act like Pyrrha is saving the day by showing up, implying that they don't have the money to cover their meal. The shop guy even takes Blake's fish away, leaving her despondent. So what? Were they planning to eat and just worry about the bill later? Actually, that sounds exactly like something these chaotic preteens would do lol. Yang especially. She was introduced while "buying" a drink before destroying the whole dang bar.

Speaking of teenagers, they all finish their bowls with the kind of appetite only seen in 14-71yos. Although, it was a near thing for Jaune. He's very close to barfing (callback!) and Nora encourages him to "aim it at the enemy!"

She continues ragging on him for a bit, failing to come up with any compliments while hyping up her team. Pyrrha is a world-renowned fighter, Ren is basically a ninja, she can bench five of herself, and Jaune is... Jaune. Nora also doesn't include him in her secondary list which implies that Jaune a) hasn't trained as much (or, more realistically, hasn't gotten as much out of it) as the others, b) doesn't possess an "awesome" weapon, and c) is still frequently yelled at by Glynda.

Poor Jaune. I don't say that very often anymore, but he's going through it here lol.

All of this leads to Nora spiraling at the possibility of them losing. This includes the oh-so-causal drop that she and Ren "have no parents and no home left to go to" which is a HELL of a thing to throw out in a comedically framed breakdown. I mean, being orphans is sad enough, but "no home left to go to" won't be explained until we learn that their town was basically wiped off the map, so damn.

Team RWBY reassures them that a fight with actual rules is nothing compared to what they've already been through. You know, the murderers, extremists, and sociopaths. "Oh," gushes Ruby, "imagine what it'll be like when we graduate!"

As Port and Oobleck call Team JNPR to the arena for their match we cut to Emerald and Mercury settling in to enjoy the festivities. In retrospect, this right here is a really nicely composed shot:

It tells us that Emerald is serious about going through with this destruction (again, she's no manipulated damsel), but she's not getting the same personal enjoyment out of it like Mercury is, as showcased by the smirk. The focus remains on them with Team RWBY framed in between. This is the villains' Volume. They're going to win. Our eyes follow the soon-to-be champions not of the festival, but the battle, while our heroes are literally and metaphorically trapped between them. Finally, Yang is the only one who looks back. We won't know this for several episodes, but she's at the heart of their plan and has every reason to cast the almost-but-not-quite-worried glance over her shoulder. Subtle foreshadowing, how I love thee.

It's shit like this that makes my brain go, "It used to be good! RWBY used to be fun AND occasionally insightful! Those overworked animators were uplifting a mediocre story and the result was good!!!"

As they take their seats who should show up but Cinder, casually using her semblance to pop a kernel of popcorn (power move). "Even if you know how a story ends," she says, "that doesn't make it any less fun to watch." True that! I mean, she's talking about knowing that Team JNPR will be moving on because they need Pyrrha to murder Penny, but I agree with the sentiment outside of that context.

Actually, do they ever explain how they manipulated the fights? I mean, they obviously entered and are winning their own battles and we know that Mercury will be staging his injury with Yang... but here Cinder makes it sound like she's pulling strings in every match. Toss that onto the list of development I would have liked for this Volume: what precisely are they doing behind the scenes? I'll have to pay careful attention going forward to make sure I don't miss anything because right now all I can recall is them looking at Penny's blueprints (presumably obtained via Watts).

Team JNPR's area is randomized into a forest and mountainous land before the battle commences. We end on that cliffhanger, complete with the superhero-esque freeze shot.

And that concludes the first episode of Volume 3! As well as my first recap in a long while. If you've followed me at all you'll know that work has been my personal Big Bad the last two-ish years. Given the scope of my responsibilities and the energy they extract, I simply don't have the time or means to write the way I used to. However, I feel like if I can muster up the willpower to finish this on tonight of all nights (people reading from the future: check the posting date and you'll understand), then I must be getting a little better at carving out writing time in my hectic schedule. All hail self-improvement!

On that positive note, everyone have a wonderful night. Or at least try to. Seriously. Text a loved one, treat yourself to a favored snack, do something that feels fulfilling. Take some deep breaths and I'll see you for the next one.

~Clyde❤️

[greenesmyfavcolor]

a couple of little shop questions for ya

1. favourite song from the soundtrack? you don’t have to pick just one.

2. director’s cut (everyone dies) or theatrical cut (audrey ii is defeated)? why?

3. which actor do you think portrays seymour the best? i’d ask about audrey as well but your username kinda clues me in there.

1. Yeah I can’t pick one 😂 It’s such an impossible question to answer cause you honestly could say any one of them and it would be more than valid.

I have solidified my top three though. In no particular order, Suddenly Seymour for its sincerity, Somewhere That’s Green for how beautifully tragic, as well as how almost comical it can be at times, and Mean Green Mother From Outer Space for just how dang catchy, fun, and climatic it is.

2. Same with this, I like both lol. I’ve always said that my head prefers the director’s cut while my heart prefers the theatrical cut.

I’d say the directors cut is technically better (or at the very least the stage ending since there are some slight differences) due to tying all its themes about greed and capitalism together. I know it’s got some pacing issues but I chalk it up to it basically being a glorified workprint that was definitely intended to be shorten and condensed eventually before being cut entirely. What I don’t like in this ending is how helpless Seymour is during the fight against Audrey II and how he just lets himself get eaten. I love the stage’s ending and how Seymour sacrifices himself, essentially making up for his actions and taking responsibility, even it was all for naught. I can excuse it in the theatrical cut since Audrey’s still alive so there would be no reason to sacrifice himself if he’s trying to live for her. But it takes away from completing Seymour’s arc, leaving you to be like “that’s it?” when he gets eaten. And then there’s the whole thing if movie Seymour even deserved his ending since his actions come across as less intentional compare to the stage version but that’s a topic for another day. Other than that tho, I really do love the director’s cut for giving us the cool rampage scene and of course keeping Somewhere That’s Green Reprise and Don’t Feed The Plants.

At the same time, I can’t help but love the theatrical cut for giving Seymour and especially Audrey the ending they deserve. Yeah, it’s cheesy and kinda throws away all the themes the movie had been building up to that point but I can’t help but get choked up every time I see Seymour and Audrey finally reunite and run off together into their new home. It also gives us unlimited potential for fanfiction so that’s a plus lol.

3. Really basic answer but Rick Moranis. When you think about it, he kinda set the stage for how most future Seymours would play him. Compared to the prior Seymours, he’s a lot more wimpy and puppy dog like. A lot of it does have to do with the changes to the movie script such as Seymour not deciding to purposefully do nothing when Orin’s dying or tricking Mushnik to get inside the plant. But no matter what his actions are (even if he’s chopping up a body) he always comes across as really likable and earnest which is important since it’s crucial to see how someone like Audrey, who values those traits in a relationship, could fall in love with him.

He’s also just really funny. His facial expressions whenever he’s nervous or just overall being a complete goof crack me up every time.

These are some of my favorites 😂

And he of course has incredible chemistry with Ellen Greene. Honestly if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t buy into Audrey and Seymour’s relationship as much as I do now. It’s easy to overstep a line into where their relationship could come across as insincere or even creepy if Seymour is not done right (like a typical trademark “nice guy”) but he absolutely sells me on that he truly loves Audrey for who she is and that she loves him back because of it.

And yeah, Ellen Greene’s Audrey is my favorite. No one else even comes close in my eyes ❤️

Thanks so much for the ask!

[thecryptidzenith]

I was thinking today about a timeline where Midnight Oil Riz gets back to his mom and somehow ends up in a party with the rest of The Bad Kids in Junior year (ignore the logistics). Thinking about him having to interact with the Rat Grinders is so funny; I feel like he'd see Kipperlilly being mean to Kristen, immediately try to find something to blackmail Kipperlilly with to force her to drop the election, and accidentally uncover Porter's whole plot in approximately four days.

First of all, I'm delighted that my silly little fic lives in your brain enough that you're thinking of alternate timelines, that's incredible. And thanks for sending this to me! I love excuses to procrastinate and excuses to yell about my guy.

So obviously, I'm God, and there's a lot of stuff prior to where this would be on the timeline that would have an impact, but I'm going to keep my cards as close to the chest as possible, however I think the thing that would impact this the most has already happened: which is that Poxson Tiktaalik is a student at Aguefort. On that, Kalina says "I have contacts at Aguefort." and "There’s more than one conspiracy going on at Aguefort," (to which Riz's internal response is 'what a fucked up school,' a sentiment made extremely funny both because he's an Aguefort student in canon and because he'd be an Aguefort student here.) This will be said directly soon, but Riz has met Eugenia, he's passing rogue class. Logistics aren't a problem at all.

But here's the fun part: the second conspiracy Kalina's referring to is Porter's plan to take Ankarna's place in the pantheon. Him and Jace are her contacts who take care of the administrative aspects of Poxson Tiktaalik being a student there. And Riz has already passed freshman and sophomore year with flying colors, and Eugenia knows who he is. The only thing that would need to happen would be changing his name in the system, and that's not technically necessary. Porter knows Kalina, and he knows Kalina wanted Riz in Aguefort's system for some reason. Throw in anything he may have heard about Poxson from Eugenia or any other networks he may be a part of, and suddenly, he looks like an incredibly useful ally with a high likelihood of helping them. If Kalina did, surely her protege would too, right?

Plus, this is a super tumultuous time for Riz. His living situation has changed drastically, his mom is alive, and he only recently found out that his godmother--his closest confidant--kidnapped him as a child and groomed him to be her actor in the physical world. Kid's not doing great as a baseline, and this makes everything so much worse.

How much does he really know or care about the Bad Kids? He's not exactly a team player here, and these kids are directly responsible for his ability or lack thereof to go to college. In canon, Riz doesn't have any resentment for them, but here? That's likely to be a different story. The two people he actually cares about are his mom and Aelwyn, the later of whom is working for Kipperlily Copperkettle.

Would it be so wrong of him to be a little angry? After everything he's been through, would it be unreasonable for him to get a little mad?

This isn't to say he'd join--there's no way he wouldn't despise the Rat Grinders, especially Kipperlily. He'd find them incredibly entitled, petty, and incompetent. Porter and Jace would probably annoy him too, their final goal is just to make Porter a god, and that's not something Riz would find worth it. Maybe his complicated feelings about Cassandra/the Nightmare King have solidified into hatred and he just wants her to hurt when her wife's domain is given to a new god, but that's the strongest motivation I can devise. Compare this to Kalina, who gave him a personal reason to help her in bringing his parents back and a societal reason in using the Nightmare King's power to fix the ugly parts of the world Riz got to know all too well in Gravalvia. Porter and Jace just aren't that good. Sorry to say, but nobody's doing it like Kalina.

And then there's the Kalina of it all. Does he want to help them because it seems like the thing she would have wanted him to do? Or is he spiteful and works tirelessly to destroy them instead? There's no way he isn't curious about what in the hells she was up to with them, but what does he do with that curiosity? Maybe he plays both sides until he knows exactly where he stands. He could pretend to infiltrate the Rat Grinders for the Bad Kids and the Bad Kids for the Rat Grinders. It'd be hard to pull off, but he's Riz 'Poxson' Gukgak. He excels at hard things.

[inact-ice]

Final thoughts on 911 season 1 now that I’ve actually watched it all:

- Abby was my favourite character of this season! Which really surprised me because Buck is like the exact type of character who’s usually my favourite (goofy with a lot of dark trauma and insecurities that they hide with jokes, himbo, bisexual coded), but the episode where Abby’s talking to her brother and she said that being a daughter and being a saint were the same thing really endeared me to her (eldest immigrant daughter core). I liked her relationship with her mom a lot too, I love how much they loved each other but how the show wasn’t afraid to show how putting all the care of someone struggling with an illness like that onto one person, can be so difficult and isolating for both people in that kind of relationship. I also really loved how dedicated she was to saving people, like I kept calling her Batman even though calling her the Oracle would have made more sense lol. Again, need the spinoff show where Abby’s just travelling the world and solving crimes!

- I cried when she left because I know from the fandom that she’s gone forever (for the most part) and that she ghosts Buck so we never even hear her voice again ugh

- I think Bobby’s arc was my favourite, it was very nice to see him heal, then backslide a bit, then get back up and keep trying. Bathena was also my favourite relationship even though it only really showed up at the end, but they’re just so cute together

- Favourite episode was episode 7 because of the way they tied together the emergencies, it was so well done and showcase of writing talent that I’m excited to see more of! Also this is when Abby solidified herself as Batman to me, she yearns for justice and the streets of Gotham I fear.

- episode 7 is also the episode with my favourite emergency of the season, the one with the gay couple where one of them had a tapeworm! They were so funny, and honestly so was everyone involved in the scene. Buck sharing his gym bro dieting tips made me laugh so hard, and Bobby just being over it was hilarious! Despite being surrounded by other pretty dark emergencies, it didn’t feel jarring!

- my least favourite arc was the hen cheating arc, I already knew they were gonna get back together and it would never be mentioned again, and it was just not fun to watch at all. Plus Hen took over w/ the intro monologues for Abby during this arc, which cut into our already limited Abby screen time, to make metaphors about cheating on her wife. UGH!

- my least favourite character was probably actually buck (gasp!). I liked him, don’t get me wrong! But a combination of the intense second hand embarrassment he gave me at the beginning of the season and my intense overwhelming love for Abigail Clark, just made me enjoy other characters more. Sometimes I felt that he was a little too immature for her, or he’d say things that would make me cringe

- my favourite scene overall was the scene where bobby was helping buck tie his tie, and he told him he looked handsome, and they were just joking around with each other! It was so cute, such an adorable father-son moment that showed some of the growth they’ve both gone through to be able to be in this situation and interact with each other like that. Ugh just so cute, will be reading more buck and bobby father-son fics THANK YEW

- my least favourite scene was of course the scene where buck is assaulted by his therapist because what the fuck was that.

- I also really hated when everyone not only thought that Buck would cheat on my beautiful wife Abby Clark, but they were also just kinda chill with it??? It felt so weird and callous?? And kinda ooc bc they yelled at him when he was single and just slanging it, but now that he’s in a relationship they think it’s none of their business?? It was so weird, and it would have been my least favourite episode if we didn’t get that awesome closing monologue to Florence and the machine from Abby at the end, which made me cry btw

- and also if the first couple of episodes weren’t kinda rough, the season got better the later we got into it, then peaked at episode 7!

All in all, I really enjoyed this season and I’m glad I decided to stop being a fandom lurker and finally watch it! Very excited to start watching season 2 whenever I get to it, because this is the season where Maddie and Eddie enter right? And Christopher!! I predict that Maddie will probably be my favourite character of the season, bc of eldest daughter solidarity and bc from what the fandom has told me she’s literally the coolest ever

- wait i lied, Athena’s mean gay husband is my least favourite character! He just lacks so much tact and has said some things to Athena that were so damn mean! I don’t think either Athena or her husband handled that whole arc well, but sometimes her husband said stuff that was like especially cruel and unwarranted. But Bucks’ still my least favourite main character sorry!

[ineffabledragonfly]

Ranking all of Ariana grande albums. For context im a huge fan, im 20 so was in that age range that essentially grew up seeing her career flourish and I’ve relistened to all of em. Theres a lot of music (particularly pop music because ive been through many phases of hating pop) that’s from my youth that i would never go back to, but never Ariana Grande she’s the artist of our generation.

Also none of them are bad

1- eternal sunshine- feels like a culmination of all of the different styles she’s done into one album, beautifully personal while also being optimistic and positive, even when the topic is sad. This one definitely grew on me when it first came out i liked it but it didn’t rlly have super strong feelings over it,but she recently dropped some live sessions of some of the songs and it RLLY blew me away, which caused me to revisit the album and appreciate it for what it is. It’s an album about genuine healing, whereas ‘thank u, next’ was projecting healing. The album art is simple and gorgeous. In terms of the concept, around the movie ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’: this is my favourite movie OAT, always in my letterboxd top four. Its been a favourite since i was 16 and my initial reaction that she was naming the album after it was ‘eeee🙄’ just bc i cant help but be a gatekeeper and didn’t want all her fans making it their entire personality and acting like it’s their fav movie too😭. And tbf I didn’t see much of that so im cool w it now. I totally see how Ariana saw the connections between these songs and the movie and she’s also said so many times she’s a huge Jim carrey fan so i think it was a beautiful choice. Some have said the ‘concept album’ idea, creating a character ‘peaches’ (ref to clementine) is way to get around her divorce NDA, i dont rlly care either way. I’m a HUGEEE fan of the Jon Brion’s score/soundtrack for the movie listened to it so many times so i was hoping to get some of that soft, minimalistic, dreamy Elliot smith style. But the closest thing to that was probably the title track (where she sampled Imogen heaps ‘just for now’), and it’s so beautiful.

2-positions- its an underrated brilliant album which should’ve got way more hype that it did. It feels like an elevated, mature version of ‘Dangerous Woman’ and had some great features, her and the weeknd are always incredible and the ballad is beautiful. It’s a shock to me that people were underwhelmed by her and doja on motive bc it was so fun and always gets me movin. She also worked w Leon Thomas on ‘safety net’ which is one of her most magical, beautiful songs she’s ever done. Also she looked so good during this era no offense to her eternal sunshine style it’s so pretty and much more my style, but brown hair high ponytail 60s makeup suits her so well😭. I definitely think its a different experience listening to it post divorce, seeing a lot of the song are v sexy and giving honeymoon phase, but then ull hear lyrics like ‘acts so possessive and crazy, but ik its jus cuz u love me’ and songs like off the table and pov which show her vulnerability and insecurity. Idk if this is true but apparently someone commented on an eternal sunshine post saying positions is better and she responded ‘glad u finally like it! :)<3’ which i feel so bad for bc GIRL I WAS THERE. I LIKED IT.

3- dangerous woman- i was obsessed w her before this album but this got me OBSESSED. It’s a complete classic where she rlly showed her RnB skills with her pop skills and solidified her presence in the music industry. The songs are classics and for the most part aged pretty well. They bring you back to that era of music yet still work in this era and people love that. Like she performed into you at the met gala this year and its had a whole resurgence and reminded people of the pop star she truly is, like that fixed her image more than ‘yes, and?’ did. I will say there may be too many songs on it bc some of the pop songs are pretty forgettable. But when i say that know I NEVER MEAN JASONS SONG. That was a hidden gem of a diss track fr.

4- sweetener- sweetener and thank u next had always flip flopped for me in rankings but this recent relisten has made me realise yeah this has totally aged super well. Pharrells producing is super cool and unique and she’s definately implemented that style going forward, even though fans weren’t super receptive of it it doesn’t feel dated at all. If anything she was ahead of the curve. Girl literally started everyone typing in just lowercase and the upside down thing, all style and fashion choices she made during this time ud catch girls in school doing it too including me she was unstoppable. REM is iconic, and theres underrated gems like her cover of goodnight n go, and borderline. Also i wanna say people joke abt the song pete davidson abt how she shouldn’t have called it that, but like hearing the vibes of the song and the fact that theres so many jokes abt Pete Davidson being a women magnet it’s genius. Like imagine a small indie artist singing that cute dreamy love song and calling it pete davidson it would be fucking hilarious.

5- thank u, next- ik this is her pièce de résistance and i think it’s a great album, you rlly do get the sense that its all her emotions that were overwhelming her that she needed to get out as soon as possible. The trap style is great, with ‘in my head’ being a standout, it’s evident comparing to the rest of her stuff it’s her equivalent to a rebellious phase. It’s superrrr personal, almost too personal, not for the listeners but for her considering she said she didn’t wanna put ‘ghostin’ on the album but scooter kept pushing it. Beautiful song, but so sad. I just dont find myself revisiting a lot of them apart from in my head bc they just feel so of that time and no longer my thing.

6- yours truly- rlly cute album especially for a debut beginning of her black and white yet feline and feminine aesthetic. Luvvvedd the tenth anniversary lives she did, The Way will forever be a classic. The right there mv was everything to me as a kid. Her n big Sean were so good together their songs always hit. Putting this low bc why was there random EDM breaks at the end of some song nOt necessary gurl. And also she’s improved SO MUCH since this and it was such a strong debut its crazy

7- my everything- dont get me wrong this is great album started showing us her rnb n hip hop side, love her songs w big Sean, best mistake is one of her best songs, also be my baby (she always killed it w cashmere cat). Just the songs aren’t anything super crazy or unique theyre just 2014 hit singles if she kept up w this style instead of maturing w dangerous woman she would not be where she is now. But remember when she started a whole challenge of trying to sit on a stool bc of this album cover? Shes always got people talking even when she’s not trying.

[dallonwrites]

[image description: a photograph of a wave crashing against the ocean. to the right, in a bold serif font, reads “2023 writing update” /end id]

dallon’s 2022 year in review + 2023 plans 🧍

Hehe so. I went back and forth on whether or not I’d make a “year in review” writing update because whilst I’m proud of what I achieved, this year SUCKED for my personal life and I had to sacrifice a lot of writing goals because of that (which also like, doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. But it still bummed me out lol). Writing did help me cope though. It’s funny because on paper this would be one of my more “successful” writing years, but really all my writing had to do this year was help keep me going lol, the rest feels like a bonus. I did want to honour what I did achieve though, because writing is one of the few positives of this year and I’m trying to be positive!

Learnt to prioritise my personal projects. Finding joy in WIPs that I write  that nobody will see, or WIPs that I’ll never publish but find joy in sharing my journey with it, has really been the most valuable part of this year. Made dealing with submissions and rejections and self doubt much easier and reminded me why I write in the first place

Got my first publication! I had two short stories and one flash piece published. Getting to walk into a store and pick up a magazine that had my work in was so surreal and cool. I also got my first writing grant (love The White Pube x) and my first award nomination (the Pushcart??), two things I did not expect to happen in my first year of submitting lol! And, more importantly, I put myself out there in the first place, and let myself be rejected 

I won NaNoWriMo, something I thought was totally inaccessible to me before. I’ll probably never write 50k in a month again, but it was a super fun experience and I learnt a lot from it! 

I think 2020-21 was my “growing pains era” with writing and in 2022 I finally solidified what I want to write, figured out how to fix WIPs I was struggling with. 

If you’re curious about the projects I’m working on in 2023, there’s a very long ramble about all of them under the cut!

[image description: a shot of two hands against a dull purple background, reaching for one another from either ends of the image. their index fingers are almost touching. in the top left corner, in a bold serif font, reads “revelations, revelations” /end id]

SHE’S BACKKKKKKK

Love of my life, bane of my existence for so long, I spent basically all of 2021 fighting with this project. In 2022 all I did was brainstorm and oh, oh I brainstormed. 

The most important parts of saving this project was realising that 1) I will never publish any RR novel (That being said I did publish two short stories inspired by the RR verse LOL. But that’s all the world is getting unless I write a secret Beaulix or Dorothy/Jolie short story) and 2) This is not one novel, this is just a whole universe that lives in my head rent free and sometimes I feel less like the author and more like I am merely observing it like a medieval scribe. I call it the RR Verse because RR is still what started it all, but I’ve had so much fun writing stories beyond this novel. I have like, five novel ideas within this universe LOL! Help! This is intentional because, for now, I can’t imagine ever being done with this world 

I really do think that RR and the RR verse is like My Special Project. It’s my baby even though it caused me so, so much trouble for so long lol. I just can’t let go of it and whilst I love all my projects, I have a special love for this one. Like it just enamours me in a certain way and the characters and world feel so real to me. Love having your own work be part of your special interest! I can hyperfixate on all my projects and feel that deep, probably-autism-fuelled loved for them, but I need have projects that purely exist to indulge in that, which for me is the RR Verse and Winter’s Slaughter. This is not a project I’m trying to finish any time quickly or get “perfect”. In fact, I’d happily start the novel over and over again, I love Felix and Dorothy LOL 

I also think writing The Rabbit Knows How To Bury Itself, a short story about Felix and Dorothy, helped with RR because that short story is very much the darker pushed-to-their-limits imagining of both of them. Felix at his lowest, doing drugs in the bathtub, and Dorothy wanting to be the only one capable of hurting him but only hurting herself when she realises she can’t not love him. I almost feel like that short story is like, Dorothy’s worst nightmare scenario of what would happen to her brother so writing it was like a psychoanalysis project which I seriously recommend! I don’t think you have to push a character to their deepest, darkest limits for their arc to be compelling, but knowing how far you could push a character, how dark their story could get and what it could look like, imo informs how you write them in their actual story. 

2023 plan for RR the novel is to just. Write it! See what I get out of it! I’m in my RR hyperfixation era so this is what I’ll start the year with, especially since my priority right now is writing short fiction to submit, so it’d be nice to have a fun little hyperfixation moment on the side. And I’ll definitely share a lot about it! It’s so fun now! Dorothy and Felix are more weird and off-putting than ever!  Dorothy likes to break into rich people’s houses just to look around! Felix ruins her vibe by actually stealing shit! Normal sibling behaviour. NGL I still don’t know how to explain what this story is “about” plot wise, but this is part of a basic summary I wrote:

About trying to process and heal from trauma but being terrified of it because you don’t know who you are without your trauma and coping mechanisms. About realising that you can’t truly detach yourself from those things. About being terrified of the theoretical violence you perceive yourself to be capable of. About re-understanding what love can look like. Also about the moon, space travel, cold coffee, parties, blue hour, piano music, blurry film photos and birthday cake.

I love these two. Their love for each other endures everything, even the times they want to kill one another. Nobody is doing it like them. Also their birthday is on Jan 11th so happy early birthday <3

[image description: a cropped image of two arcade machines. in the top right corner, in a bold serif font, reads “lover boy” /end id]

AND WE ARE NOT DONE TALKING ABOUT THE RR VERSE! Lover Boy is technically Book #2 if you consider Revelations, Revelations Book #1. It’s set just under a year later and is technically the Beaulix Novel (who break up at the end of RR, surprise! But it’s because they both are like “I’ve realised I love you and that is terrifying me because I don’t think I’m in a place where I can love like this”), but sometimes it just feels like the Beau Novel! Beau is like a best friend to me and I love him so much, I had so much fun writing in his POV in Winter’s Slaughter that it just solidified my need to let him have His Moment. He’s sweet, funny, stubborn, emotional, confused, anxious, sleepy, he’s everything to me. I’m so obsessed with his narrative that I have barely figured out how he and Felix actually get back together LOL. We do get Felix’s POV too, but I won’t know exactly how that’ll look like until I’ve written more of RR. All I can say is he’s a bit more Normal in this one lol! He’s experienced growth <3 He finds himself <3

A big part of Beau’s narrative is reconciling with his need and yearning for romantic love. That yes, he doesn’t need romance, he can find love and fulfilment in other parts of his life, and he does! But that doesn’t take away from his yearning for this specific type of love. And it’s important to remember that Beau is a character who grew up gay in the 60s-80s. For him to yearn for, to reach out for romantic love in spite of everything is super important! He’s the type of person whose biggest dream as a kid was being prom king and his first heartbreak was realising that he couldn’t be prom king in the way he truly wants to be. Personally I think he deserves the world and more. He also has a little brother with a 15 year age gap, and their relationship warms my heart and tears it in two at the same time. 

Revelations, Revelations feels like a night time novel and Lover Boy feels like a daytime novel. This novel feels like a hug, but like a hug after crying. Part of the summary:

1987-1988. Follows Beau and Felix when they decide to rekindle their friendship after time away, and the ways they’re too scared to rekindle the relationship part. Also follows Beau as he tries to navigate moving away from home, tries understand why sometimes colours are too loud and sounds are too bright, tries to get some sleep and get better at breathing techniques, tries to spend as much time with his little brother, and tries to maintain his Donkey Kong high score. Also Felix has a “mild” gender crisis. About healing but we jump right into the middle of it. About how it feels to reach out for romantic love when it’s almost always felt unreachable. Also about karaoke, arcade games, bowling alleys, home videos, golden hour, glitter, the ocean and blue raspberry slushies.

My 2023 plan for this one is that I am not waiting to finish Revelations, Revelations to start Lover Boy. I wanna work both on them at the same time depending on which one compels me the most in that moment. Will I finish either of them? No! Am I gonna have fun? Hell yeah 

[image description: shot of a clear, starry night sky, with silhouettes of trees on either side. on the left hand side, in a bold serif font, reads “winter’s slaughter” /end id]

AND WE ARE NOT DONE TALKING ABOUT THE RR CHARACTERS, JUST IN A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE THIS TIME! 

Not gonna lie I still haven’t read most of the 50k I wrote in November and I’m undecided on if I want to return to it via editing first or just pushing through with the draft. I’m conflicted! But I have lots of fun plot ideas and oh, this book is gonna be a giant and there’ll probably be a book #2 oops! The 2023 plan for this one is just “whenever the apocalypse hyperfixation hits”. Which I don’t know when that’ll happen, but it more than likely will! Once I actually look at the manuscript again I’ll do a proper update because oh there is plot to update on! Mainly using this section to highlight what is one of my favourite passages I wrote not just in Nano, but the whole year? 

When Valentine found the collection of half-empty perfume bottles he had to take them. He likes to look at the empty space in the glass and wonder what stories could fill it up, maybe dinner dates or graduations or weddings or funerals or high-effort grocery store trips. What drew him to the train station were the ticket stubs scattered under the benches, on the ground of the decayed platform. He tried to explain this to Klaus, once, who looked at him, that glint of childhood wonder in his eye. Well, he’d said, nobody got rid of dinosaur bones just because there were no dinosaurs left to grieve them. And for Valentine, exploring the skeleton buildings that dot the world, specifically for what was left behind, is an act of deviance against the Devouring. This is how he remembers people, even if he never knew them. He once found the rib cage of a girl in the violet roller skates she left under her bed. Found the lungs of her mother in the attic, the box of forgotten goggles and swim meet trophies from 1986. So many people want to forget what the Devouring left behind; too many people want to forget the parts of themselves they let be devoured.

Also going to take the chance to soft launch one of my favourite characters I created this year: Cal, my emotionally volatile, traumatised, slutty transmasc king. He is everything to me to the point where I had planned for him to die and now I don’t know if I can bring myself to do it. He also has a ~messy emotionally intimate friends with benefits thing~ with Felix (this does not conflict Beaulix at all. We are not about that over here!), which is unsurprising considering their first meeting is literally them fighting in a Church but then it gets kinda homoerotic? And then kinda tender? Like look at this shit

“Felix.”

“Sorry about the cheek, Felix.” It doesn’t sound genuine. Cal says sorry like it’s a stalemate. But they also reach out, wipe the blood off with their thumb. And the scariest part is how gentle it feels, against all his sharpness.

[image description: a photo of ocean waves against a cliffside. in the bottom left corner, in a bold serif font, reads “ammonites for eyes” /end id]

OKAY WE ARE DONE TALKING ABOUT RR! 

Ammonites For Eyes is a novel I introduced on here earlier in the year under the title I Am Made Of Indigo, about a trans man who moves back to his coastal hometown and has to reckon with his closeted identity when he becomes a new maternal figure for his younger sister. I actually started it in the summer and was super excited by it! But you see, this is where all we can do is laugh, because this novel is about the protagonists grief after the death of his mother, and guess what happened to me three months after starting this book! I had planned my whole second half of the year around writing this and had to immediately stop because, oh my god is this novel Apollo’s curse of prophecy?? I considered shelving it for a while which was a massive bummer because I am enamoured with the story, the world, the characters, and want this to be my debut. But I’ve gotten to a point where writing this feels like a necessity and I can’t see anything else being my debut. This is absolutely going to be the one project where I let myself claw out the deepest parts of grief and yeah, absolutely wish I wasn’t able to do that but I know that the final project that comes from it is gonna be something special. This will probably be my main project for most of the year, but also the one I talk least about because 1) planning to publish it and 2) those writing updates would not be fun to read lmaooooo. But super excited to write this! Definitely won’t be able to write it for long periods of time, but I hope to get a good chunk of it drafted, and if I end up doing my MA this year I’d like to work on this for it. 

I don’t have a lot to say about the story itself, but my favourite little detail is that the protagonist works at a fossil shop that has a T-Rex skull displayed in the window who ends up becoming? A whole character? The protagonist talks to the skull and low key treats it like his therapist. So maybe this book IS about the horrors, but it’s also about the T-Rex skull. There’s a balance here 

[image description: a close up image of the top of a persons back, with their hand holding their left shoulder. the image is tinted blue and green. in the left corner, in a bold serif font, reads “eulogy for the burnings” /end id]

What’s this!! I’ve only talked about this novel once, on my old blog, at the end of a writing update, but this is an idea that’s been slowly marinating in my brain for a while and in 2023 I’d like for it to marinate more, maybe even write some of it. This follows a man who tracks down his distant half-brother and becomes obsessed with him, whilst said brother is a pyromaniac who “hires” him to photograph the buildings and things he burns. Messy! Definitely one of my darker projects. It’s compelling me.

Other projects that I have less to say about but hope to work on in some way: 

I have a novel reimagining of my short story How Does An Orca Pray, which I’m obsessed with conceptually but have no idea what to actually do with it as a narrative. I call it a reimagining because it’s conceptually the same but the details are different, like the characters are much older in the novel than they are in the short story. But fun fact! The novel is in the RR Verse! The religious commune in HDAOP is the same on in RR and in the RR Verse, the narrator and Josiah running away is a massive #scandal in Felix and Dorothy’s childhood. So I think it’d be fun to write that scandal from their POV and have it be like a little prequel. It’s fun! It has summer road trip vibes with dark undertones and the playlist is full of 70s bangers 

I really would like my novel Life Cycle of Massive Stars to have a similar reboot to RR. I love that novel and it’s like a love letter to transness, autism, and my University city. Also a contender for what I write during my MA, so I’d like to start both this and Ammonites For Eyes and if I do my MA, I can present both of them and be like “help” 

Also continuously going to be working on short stories. I’d like to grow my collection since I have a title that I love now, Swimming Pool Prayers, but also I don’t want to force myself to only write stories I think could fit into the collection. I struggle with collections because the minute I write a story I don’t think fits the collection or develops the collection, I’m like oh well that was a waste! So trying to unlearn that. Also want to write more flash fiction and more poetry. I don’t consider myself a great poet, but I’m attracted to the abstractness I find in it atm. Also I keep impulse submitting messy first drafts of poems to litmags OOPS! 

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Wait…hydreigon kinda goes hard (im biased because i like dragon types) but also if it can’t learn pursuit that’s a good amount of uprooting esp with the whole mega thing but it does give more avenues for the dragon on dragon hate crimes final battle stuff….this has me scratching my head LMAO hm

Wait that’s actually really don’t now that you mention it because I actually forgot Rin existed like we’ve even mentioned CHARLES in the pokemon au but not once have we felt the need to bring up Rin LMAOOOO

With those big ass chompers there’s no way raticate can’t…right…but LMAO karasus ptsd has him auto sending out garchomp like against readers joktik (imagine he LOSES LMFAOOOOO)

ANOTHER DIAGRAM YIPPEE wait on that note how do you imagine her hair color being like? Do you think she has that same fade Karasu (or ig Tabito LMAO) has? But your comments LMAOOOOO they always crack me up

AHAHAH hiori and Karasu pokemon swapping is so funny nidoqueen would fr be so good at helping Karasu with the daycare (also when I thought about teams myself way back when I lowk saw Karasu with a nidoqueen LOL) also wtf it can’t have eggs?? Ig that’s pokemon logic for you smh AIKU WINGMAN LMAOOO oaeu aiku pulling up the pokemon au is just an interconnected web of all the other miraverses

I love how the ridiculous scenarios can double as both really deep and serious but also crack like we talked about regarding wb it’s so tear jerking when you read but when you think simply you’re like wait he built a whole ass house instead of just trying to get her number???

Nagi making you a cup of instant coffee is his form of “marry me and stay with me for the rest of your life” LMAO I need some yuki fan who actively thinks of yuki tropes to come through and drop a req LMAOO but I was actually thinking that too like there’s quite a few types I wonder what Mira’s gonna choose

Pause imagine ponysonas for them LMFAO not to plunge myself back into mlp but I definitely occasionally see ocs floating around (probably because of the whole viral infection trend going around?) and some designs kinda slap

TABIEITA TRIANGLE wait that’d be so interesting but also means we’d have to split the duo up SHSHSHS ok but BAROU REPRESENTATION LETS GOOOOO your blog is fr a safe haven for Karasu fans we come here to escape the dudebros dragging him SJDHSJ imagine people think it’s supposed to be threesome they’d be in for a surprise but I think generally people know triangle means there’s competition for being the male lead and esp since you asked for second lead specifications that probably solidifies that…THE “haha…nice” HAS ME CRYING actually now that I look there’s a lot of pretty recent gen pokemon lowk more than I expected? Like fire dragon my first guess would’ve been reshiram or charizard x maybe im just too out of touch with the latest games

SHSHSH FR I looked it up like “WHAT IS THAT??” (Yk that one tiktok audio…oh my god… what IS that??? Yeah that one) ok im ngl wtf is scovillain I do NOT fw the design im sorry SHSSJJSHSHS “sae it is…” PLEASE real though omg have fun with that one LMAOO OOOH wait ykw is funny j actually thought “lmao what’ll happen if Mira gets a ness request” LMFAOOO Karasu ftw I saw those tropes too and agree that fic is gonna eat!! Very curious to see what those last three slots will be! I’m also kinda surprised Rin hasn’t found a home there yet

I SAW THAT POST AND THAT WAS MY FIRST THOUGHT I was looking at it and saw seabird and fr was like WAIT surely there’s not many fics names seabird (I also looked to see if any of your other fics were there too I was kinda expecting cherry tree but maybe they just read the sae fic on Ao3 and didn’t scour your masterlist) that seabird anon fr having a snowball effect LMFAO NOOOO STAY STRONG (I will hold you to that and laugh if you swerve but feel free to do the same LMAO)

- Karasu anon

HYDREIGON IS INSANE LIKE I LOWKEY LOVE IT i just think it’s so cool plus like the vibes of reader being this sweet looking girl and then she tosses out this villainous looking dragon vs nagi being all cold and intimidating but then his main pokémon is just a cuddly squishy pink blob of a dragon LMAOAO it’s so cuteeee plus lowkey since hydreigon are supposed to be super territorial and hate each other maybe aiku’s studying how much trainers’ feelings impact their pokémon?? and that’s why the two hydreigons are hesitant to fight even though it’s characteristic of the species (because reader and barou love each other #siblinggoals) also i think hydreigon would cook in the sense that there are some RANDOM characters that have pseudo legendaries when reader herself does not…like okay i can excuse nagi “main rival” and noel noa “the real number one” but KARASU??? CHIGIRI??? HIORI??? none of them have any business with pokémon like that /hj

okay wait i did a lot of reworking to make things work with hydreigon as a starter (it was not fun because pursuit is built on the barou cousins + houndooms bonds) but i just deleted it all because i realized that i didn’t need to…LMAO okay hear me out we keep houndoom as the starter and have the houndoom v houndoom family plot as well as the houndoom/arcanine parallels because i’m attached to that and houndoom is just iconic to reader at this point!! instead we change the two most irrelevant (sorry) members of her team: dragalge and donphan 😰 so the entire reason reader seeks out dragalge (as a skrelp) is because she needs a poison type to defeat pablo c because none of her pokémon are strong against fairies right…so replace dragalge with a nidoran that eventually evolves into nidoking (replace luna’s nidoking with muk or smth idk) and then you have a ground type on the team, making donphan (who’s only a ground type) irrelevant!! so then donphan can be replaced with hydreigon and that way the type composition of the team is still the same just spread out differently (instead of ground and dragon+poison it’s poison+ground and dragon+dark but the dark type is irrelevant because houndoom) but we get to keep houndoom and arcanine as the starters hehe…lowkey this makes reader’s and nagi’s teams correlate super well too like houndoom/arcanine, goodra/hydreigon, clefable/nidoking, snorlax/galvantula (they’re literal opposites in terms of size), reuniclus/gyarados, and whimsicott/aegislash SLDKJFN reader’s team is giving nagi’s team if it was evil (number one gender stereotype defying couple for LMAOOO yes nag does have all squishy cuddly pokémon and yes reader does have a team of monsters + one insect what about it)

HELP to be fair charles doesn’t show up until pursuit boruto but agreed we’ve fr discussed everyone BUT the itoshis lmaooo this is so on brand of us i’m proud…itoshis can have many things but they can NOT have pursuit ‼️

hm i think in bfb i described both karasu siblings as having hair like crow feathers?? where it’s still black but almost iridescent in a purplish greenish way i think i’ll stick with that in pursuit because purple hair is so not karasu LMAOO but that’s an explanation for why it’s drawn purple?? like it just looks purpley when the light hits it but it’s not actually purple…i think bfb also has yayoi with very very blue eyes whereas tabito’s are more of an indigo bordering on violet so i’ll probably stick with those descriptions!!

pokémon logic is so interesting sometimes LMAOO but agreed i feel like nidoqueen + garchomp are giving that one audio that’s like mama y papa HAHA like they’re def the ones running the place lowkey (imagine an ova that’s just nidoqueen and garchomp dealing with the baby pokémon) actually lowkey nidoqueen’s just glad to be away from swanna for a bit HAHAHA omg aiku channeling his oaeu self just to help karasu out LMAOO pursuit is actually just every other fic i’ve ever written but with pokémon and barou angst

NO YOU’RE SO RIGHT like when you actually think about it it’s truly the most ridiculous thing he could’ve done but when you’re reading it’s just angsty and hopeful and SLDKFJN all in one

nah because honestly just being in a relationship with nagi is basically him confessing his love because he’d never get with someone unless he was down BAD (@ peregrine reader)…too real though we need a true yuki stan to show us the light the way we show everyone the karasu vision

BRO I WAS LIKE DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE TABIEITA BEEF???? HELLO??? jkjk i love some good old angst (karasu in love with otoya’s gf and he knows he can treat her better but he’s just mediocre so she never looks his way af) but BAROU REP so real so important so necessary (and speaking of which…hehe smth’s abt to drop hopefully by the time you’ve read this you’ll know what i mean)…my blog is home for all karasu lovers and honestly real LMAO i’m happy to do it anything for my man 🤩 THE “haha…nice” IS SO ISAGI SOMEHOW I’M CRYING i think the vibe i’ll go for is reader doing increasingly insane things to attempt to confess meanwhile isagi is just determined to view things platonically and that way it’s still “unrequited” without being angsty yk?? more humorous than anything

the scovillain design is so ugly i was reminded of why i don’t get the new games DSLKFJSH anyways…yeah haha i technically did get a ness req but karasu for LIFE LMAOAO my fyp has been trying its best to convert me to itoshism i keep getting sae tik toes on my FYP and i’m like NOOO GET BACK I DON’T WANT HIM!!! agreed i’m interested to see what the last three slots are as well…i was lowkey hoping they’d fill up before i started writing so i can make sure not to repeat ideas but tbh i think the rest of the spots will only be filled once i’ve posted the first request or two for the event 🙂‍↕️ or maybe not we’ll see!!

HHAHAAH I WAS TAKEN ABACK LIKE SEABIRD??? MYYYYY SEABIRD?? i think all of their reqs are from ao3 and cherry tree isn’t on ao3 HAHA of my 500 event only seabird, the instrument, and the first part of fwtkac are also on ao3 (and then all of my long fics plus karasu’s bfb [not otoya’s] and freaky friday) so it makes sense that only seabird was included!! fr flattering either way but like…come on now y’all why does NOBODY know me for liking nagi 😭 sae fans and karasu fans after finding my blog not even realizing i’m a nagi fan first and foremost: 😛

[voyeuristicvixen]

Capt’s Log No. 41_ FrEeEeEEe

Meroe’s Juneteenth Jam was a great success! Lots of people came out and enjoyed the festivities and all the performances were so inspiring! One day we had 100+ people touching down on the sim and at the end of the event, Strawberry Linden herself came through, it was a highlight of my whole SL experience not gunna lie. Strawberry is a humble and gracious person and Secondlife featured our event on their socials the next day. It was all just really fun and it also happened to be my first time helping to plan and execute an event for the museum in my pops Ras’s absence. It felt really good to know I made him proud. .

H.E.R performed! I absolutely love the messaging in her songs, it was the perfect way to open up the festival and to solidify the vibes of Meroe moving forward. Juneteenth is not a holiday that my pops, or I, celebrate like that... for us, the movement is a constant endeavor. We dont stop with juneteenth in the unifying of our people and diaspora, or in the upliftment and teachings. Its something that has to continue until we are truly free in mind and spirit. We are almost there! But there is still a ways to go.

Father’s day was a difficult day for Yemi and I, her dad has not been able to get online and I honestly didn’t feel or think he would care anymore about us or her. We talked today though and are friends so when he gets back on the grid, he will spend time with her. He said she will always be his daughter. That made me feel good, I told him that now Yemi feels more like mine than before because we get to spend more one on one time together. Lol But shes still a daddy’s girl at heart.

We still in our pink lady era though, I feel like since I lost my old IG page and went through the break up with Wav, people who were following our work and union have since been on different vibes with me. LMAO. I resonate with the pink ladies because they have rumors spread about them and reputations that are controversial or tarnished in some way by the general public and yet they give no fucks and they continue to do what they do regardless. Thats how I feel. People will talk and say whatever they want, FUCKEM.

We got a new dog, Orion! It took me forever to settle on a pupper that fit me and finally found this guy. My first choice was so opposite him, was a doberman! But I love Orion’s personality! It shines through more than any of the other pets I saw in the RezzRoom!

I usually write my little caption paragraphs under the photos and I realize these have all been above. I wonder which flows better. So I got accepted as a Secondlife Mentor! \o/ I literally signed up as soon as I saw the flyer I wasted NO TIME. Its something I was already doing on my free time anyway, so to be official with the tag and training it means so much to me, manifested that shit!

Last week I also got to witness my first probate, I have never been to one before and I know so little about SL greek life. It is a whole other world to me. I like how they raise money for RL causes. I think that is really dope and powerful thing that a virtual roleplay organization can still create real life change through their endeavors. It was such a honor to be asked by Gigi to witness that momentus occasion in her SL journey.

I legitly cried IRL. Anything that has to do with sisterhood, it hits home for me and triggers me deeply. I wish that someday I can be apart of that but I wont hold my breath! lol

I think its really cool that I am suddenly apart of a SL family, we’re so chill laid back and unofficial with how we do things. We dont all have to share the same last name we just uplift and support one another. I got my pops and my brother and my mama bear, DONT MESS WITH US!

The closing ceremony of juneteenth featured this great “Enter the diaspora” exhibit which is still up and you should go see it this week! This was curated by Valentine and she did an amazing job on it! I ended up DJing the party, and it gave me a chance to get in some much needed practice. I look forward to collabing with Jamrock and building up the mystory connections to its best!

The theme was comics, black and queer. I dressed as Nubia! Did you know that Nubia is a lesbian? I did not know that till I came to this exhibit. Theres so many hidden gems here!

Storm block the wind so I can light my joint! XD

[rommahh]

Love On Tour…Actually

{Im sorry for how late this was. I went to the show Friday and honestly, it was the best day of my life. I had a little PCD which made me super unmotivated but I’m back. I love you all, R}

You woke up a little grumpy, you won’t lie. You didn’t like waking up alone especially on a show day. It made you uncomfortable to be left to your own devices without any structure or schedule. You understood that Harry was a busy man but it would’ve been nice to receive some text so you could plan your day accordingly.

Sitting on the couch in the lounge of your hotel room, you chowed down on leftover pasta while watching Netflix on your iPad. You had yet to receive a text from Harry even though you had texted him hours ago when you woke up. It was hard to tell if he was ignoring you out of anger or if he was simply just lost in track. Either way you felt dejected.

On the other hand, Harry hadn’t even noticed that he iced you. He was busy running around Nashville trying to get things ready for tonight’s show. He bought you a new dress and shoes, and got the ring fitted. It was hard to figure out your ring size but he end up measuring your finger when you were passed out asleep in bed last night. When you slept, you slept and he knew that would be the perfect time to measure your finger.

Harry was so busy that morning, that by the end of his errands he realized he didn’t even have time to go back to the hotel before rehearsals. He was sporting a small cough and his vocal chords felt overworked but that’s all apart of tour.

Pulling his phone out of his back pocket as he walked into the arena, he dialed your number quickly. He had people trying to talk to him but he paid them no mind.

“Oh? Would you look who’s here?” Harry’s head shot up to the sound of your voice. There you sat on his dressing room couch, arms crossed over one another as you glared at him. Your gaze burned through him and he could just tell he was in trouble.

“Hello lovie.” Harry rasped.

“Harry you sound like shit but here you are up and about running around. You should’ve slept in this morning.” Scolding as you stand up to walk in front of him. Harry could feel the anger radiate off of you but you hid it well. He melted into your hands that cupped his warm cheeks.

“I had a lot of errands to run and I didn’t want to wake you. Also it’s just a sore throat from singing and traveling- comes with being on tour.” He mumbles dropping his head into your neck. You caress the hairs on the back on his neck and massage the tense muscles.

“You’ve got to think about yourself more, Harry. You have a show to put on but you can’t put on your best show if you’re not at your best. I am not happy with you at all.” Even though your words were scolding him, you held him your arms in the most soothing way. That’s what Harry loved about you, you cared for him like no one else could (aside from his mom). You could tell him off with your harshest words but he’d always feel your love from miles away.

“You’re right love, sorry for not keeping in touch today.” You hum in acknowledgement. You both pulled away from each other when his driver walked in with Harry’s abundance of bags. “Thank you, sir.”

“What all did you buy?” You ask walking towards the bags. Harry’s arm shot out in front of you making you stop. You looked up at him in shock. “Fine be secretive.”

You huffed before making your way back to the couch. Harry rolled his eyes at you, making way to his shopping bags. Plucking the bag from Nordstrom he plopped it down on the table in front of you.

“I just didn’t want you snooping at some other stuff. I bought you this, for tonight.” He sat down beside you, thighs touching leaving no room between you two.

“Im not trying to be mean. Just a little peeved that you left this morning without telling me. You also have a cold and I wanna take care of you since you won’t do it.” A hand rubs his forehead luring his eyes shut.

“Sorry baby, I thank you for caring so much.” He whispers sleepily.

“Im always gonna care for my bubs.” Kissing him on the lips, your turn your attention to the bag. The small grey bag had light tissue paper covering the product within the bag. The tissue falls to the floor as you dig into the bag. A silky champagne dress, folded neatly to decrease wrinkles, sits in the bag. The dress was soft and you knew it was loose enough to give you the room to dance. Soft snores escaped the boy beside you- the exhaustion evident on his face.

You pull the dress out of the bag and walk over to where his outfit of the night hung. The dress was hung beside his to be steamed for later. Turning around, you smile at the sight of your curled up boyfriend. Your heart hurt knowing that in a few minutes he would have to go rehearse.

Harry sleepily went through rehearsals sitting in a chair the whole time. He knew his stage cues and performance, he only had one more thing to rehearse but it required for you to not be in the room. He gave one look to Jeff to signal him to get you out. Jeff made up some excuse saying that he needed help with some social media post for the show.

Before the show, there was a catered dinner from some local restaurant. Harry ate a light meal of fresh vegetables and a sweet iced tea which has grown on him having lived in the states for some years. You ate grilled chicken and fries enjoying the free food. The two of you ate alone in his dressing room- wanting a moment of piece before the crazy.

“How are you feeling?” You ask Harry. He shrugs, he was more nervous than anything but you wouldn’t understand why if he had told that to you. He felt floaty. Tonight would be a game changer, a step in a whole new direction. This is something he’s wanted to do for years now but it’s finally happening, and he’s scared.

"Im ok, a little tired but what else is new. I can't wait to sleep all night and cuddle with you." He grabs your hand from across the table. you squeeze it, frowning at his revelation.

"I don't like that you're so tired." You worry, his hand squeezes yours in reassurance.

“Im ok, it’s all apart if the job.” He looks down to your bare ring finger, thumb brushing over the empty spot. Your nails were done in your favorite way, some funky pattern you found from Pinterest all painted on short coffin nails.

“I love you Harry and I’m so proud of you. I know that these years put us both in a bad place mentally but I’m happy of where we are now.” Harry could almost tear up to your words. They settled into his mind, resonating. He was making the perfect decision and you solidified that ideal.

2014

Harry didn’t know how they did it. A show every night, a new state everyday, a new country every few months- he was burnt out. He was tired of shared tour buses and the lack of autonomy. Last nights LA show was amazing, the crowd was amazing, the energy was amazing- so why did he feel so horrid?

He walked around in The Grove, security guards walking in front and behind him. He wanted a peaceful day alone but here they were. Fans watched suspiciously trying to decipher if it was Harry or not. His hat and sunglasses were obviously not the disguise he thought they would be.

As the whispers got louder, his heart started to flurry more. Panic seeped into his veins as he looked for an escape. Bolting in the Barnes and Nobles- security guards close behind- Harry asked for the employees to close shop just for a moment. Harry only needed a moment to get a car near by to escape to. Feeling overwhelmed, Harry hid.

In between the historical fiction and romance aisle is where he sat. Head between his knees, trying to catch his breathe.

“Are you ok?” A voice asked from above him. His head whipped up in shock. Standing there was you, three books clutched between your arms. Adjusting your dress you dropped down to the floor in front of him.

“I-im fine, tired but fine.” He replied. He looked different than he did the night before, you thought. Last night, he was energetic and full of life and now, now you saw a boy whose exhaustion overpowered him.

“You here for any books?” You were just trying to change the subject, something you did with yourself when you had panic attacks.

“Oh no, I don’t-“ he stuttered shaking his head. You smiled at him before pulling a book from your stack. The fault In Our Stars, your new favorite.

“I love this book, one of my favorites. Heard a movie is coming out too so that’s fun.” You joke. Harry’s relaxed slightly, you nestled closer to him. Opening the book, you began reading, your gentle voice calming Harry.

At the start of chapter four, an interruption pulled you both away. Harry’s security guard told Harry that a car was waiting and the perimeter of the store was clear. Harry nodded telling the guard to give him five more minutes.

“I guess this is it.” You mumble closing your book. Harry nods but makes no move to leave. Something clicks in him as he looks at your face again.

“You were at the concert last night, meet and greet?” He muses.

“Yeah, One Direction is my favorite band. My friend bought our vip tickets for my birthday. Best night ever.” You say quietly, scared that he might think that you’re some obsessed fan.

“Oh, well I’m glad you enjoyed the show….so why didn’t you freak out today or- or expose where I was?”

“You’re a human being, just like me. You get nervous, frustrated, and sad just like me. You get panic attacks just like. Who am I to treat you differently?” Your words did so much for Harry. “Now don’t get me wrong, you’re my favorite in the band, but I don’t idolize you nor do I wish to be in your position cause I know it must be hard.”

“It is. Hard, I mean, really really hard. I love my job but I’m tired.” The silence you two shared burned a connection between you two. “This may be weird but could I have your number? I like talking to you and I wanna hear more of this book.”

Placing your hand made bookmark in the book, you closed in and gently placed it on Harry’s lap. “Have it. I have one at home and if you still want to talk about it- I’ll give you my number.”

Harry stills as the book sits in his lap. “I want to talk to you about the book.”

After exchanging numbers, Harry was urged by you to go. Walking side by side to the door, you were separated by his security.

“Harry, don’t let this keep hurting you. Find the joy and grasp on to it.”

You turned out to be his joy. Calls every night after shows and different books being read together, you both gravitated towards each other. Everyday was a new day to grow closer together. He invited you to more concerts, paying for every ticket because he just needed to be with you.

The show was going beautifully. Harry looked amazing in stage in all white and most fans were captivated by your outfit too. It worried you to see Harry so exhausted on stage but you knew he would stick it through like he always does. Proud was an understatement in your eyes. Harry made you more than proud.

You stood in the back of the watermelon pit at the end of the aisle where his stage stopped a few feet away. Jeff stood beside you like he normally did but he was acting suspicious. You two never stood on the side of Harry’s exit but this is where Jeff said you’d get the best view tonight.

Harry sang his final ‘we’ll be alright’ before doing his stage stroll and bows, but instead of finishing in the middle of the stage- he went down stage to the place he normally exits to at the end of the night. You watched in confusion, along with the crowd, as he walked down the steps to you. The crowd erupted in screams as the lights focused on where you were standing.

“What are you doing?” You asked with large eyes of shock. You felt your heart stop in your chest. The crowd getting louder by the moment. Harry walked closer to you, one hand digging into his pocket while his eyes focused on your face. You couldn’t place what was happening but you’re eyes welled with even more tears nonetheless. Jeff was to the side with a huge smile and his phone out to capture the moment.

“Y/N, my love, my light, the best thing that has happened to me,” he didn’t have his mic on so the crowd couldn’t hear him but you could hear him perfectly. As if you two were the only ones in the large arena, you could only see Harry. “From the moment I met you in the bookstore, I knew you were meant to be in my life. Somehow you took me from my darkest place and guided me to my lightest.

I know our lives have been hard but we’ve always found a way to be alright. I want that for the rest of my life. I want you to be by my side for the rest of my life, so will you please, my love, marry me?”

You gave him no time to answer as you yanked him up by his arm. You wept as you exclaimed loud yeses, yeses that could be heard by a few fans who screamed in excitement igniting the rest of the crowd to scream. Harry picked you up in his arms, throwing one arm out to wave at the crowd before bounding backstage.

“Oh my god Harry!” You exclaimed as he set you down. He only had a few minutes to talk so you kept it quick. You pulled his face down to your kissing his lips. This kiss pulled you both deeper into each other.

He pulled away making you whine. “I gotta go back but I promise you’ll get it all tonight. I can’t believe you said yes. I love you so much.”

Harry’s energy multiplied by 100 going back on stage. He even went as far as to explain what watermelon sugar was about. Remembering when the song was made, it made your legs clench together- a pulse overwhelming your lower regions.

Looking down at your hand, you could feel yourself tear up again at the ring he bought you. It fit perfectly in your hand, you remember him measuring your hand that night even though he thought you were asleep. The thought of your future made your heart swell. A future with new music, a wedding, a nice house, and babies made your heart swell. This was something you couldn’t wait for.

Harry found his joy in you but he never knew about the joy he was to your dark life.

[seviinoxiel]

Pokémon Violet Complete Thoughts

I just finished the main story of Pokémon Violet and it is honestly the best experience I've ever had with Pokémon, at the very least storywise. This game probably is one of my favorite Pokémon stories, maybe even topping my love for DPPt and BW. Like it actually got me sheeding genuine tears to a fucking Ed Sheeran song.

Among the three stories presented to us at the start, I loved Starfall Street the most because it presented a more character-centric narrative, its main focus is on the tight relationships between Team Star and also Director Clavell's interpersonal struggle to find the best course of action for his students. However, the other two questlines were amazing still and offered nice setups and payoffs.

The Path of Legends had its own strong emotional core with Arven and his motivations to help out his beloved Pokémon while also giving glimpses on the narrative at large. Victory Road may be the typical progression of Pokémon games but it showcased to us the endearing designs and personalities of the gym leaders and the Pokémon League itself while also solidifying Nemona as one of my favorite rivals.

Heavy spoiler territory incoming!

All that is to say that all three of those paths were perfect setup for the final part of the main campaign. Hard spoilers from here on out so do turn back if you haven't finished the game yet.

Directly following from Path of Legends, the final story the game presents is the one surrounding the huge crater in the middle of the region and our good boy Miraidon. It also delves deeper into Arven's character and had us group up with all three main characters from the paths we did earlier. It was fun seeing Arven, Nemona, and Penny interacting with one another and it felt really rewarding getting to know them separately beforehand.

The core of this final story lies within Professor Turo, the absentee father of Arven who we first assumed to be simply too busy with his work. We find out that he has been dead for a long time and that the appearance of certain futuristic Pokémon and the Terastallization phenomena can be attributed to his work in Area Zero, the area within the crater. As it also turns out, the Turo that had been interacting with us the whole game was simply an AI. Arven confronting all of this knowledge about his dad and AI!Turo confronting his humanity made me so emotional it's unreal. Not to mention that the music during the final couple of battles was just amazing. Side note: AI!Turo also got really sexy when the original Turo's command override him.

Anyway, there was a lot of important lore tidbits dropped throughout our expedition in Area Zero, but the most important of them all are the subtle hints of Turo having a more insidious plan regarding the Time Machine and that the Terastallization phenomena was simply adapted from a mysterious creature they found at the very bottom of the crater. I'm sure this will be explored later in a DLC and I cannot wait for when that arrives because I am hooked.

You are now out of heavy spoiler territory!

In conclusion, I love this game. It may be one of the most technically horrible and unpolished games ever but it was nice that it still managed to carry itself through its story, at least for me. I hope more future Pokémon stories can be handled like this and also that future Pokémon games can be made with more time and care for its performance. The glitches can be funny sometimes but come on we got to fix this shit.

[catinfroghat]

Decided to finally write some tomgreg S4 thoughts/predictions 😌 Like my tomshiv thoughts it's quite long so most of it is under a readmore.

As romantically framed as their "wedding" scene was in the finale, I think the choice of words Tom used to describe what Greg could expect if he came with him (Sporus and attack dog specifically) were very enlightening. Tom doesn't want them to be equal partners going forward, he doesn't want their dynamic to change. He's terrified of abandonment and he has seen firsthand how disloyal Greg can be (To him, Kendall, his grandfather, his political beliefs, even his girlfriend). He has no reason to believe that Greg would stay with him once he is no longer obligated to.

In season 3, Greg is moving up and moving on from Tom. His Nero and Sporus breakdown was as much about Greg considering a management position of his own without needing Tom's help as it was about his prison fears. So Tom is trying to take their relationship back to safety, back to tried and tested employee and employer, slave wife and emperor, dog and master territory.

But Greg is ambitious. He's been trying to get out from under Tom's control since season 1 now and he was so close to achieving that. When he reminds Tom that he is soon going to have a theme park of his own, Tom belittles him and tries to convince him that he would be nothing without him. It worked temporarily, but his attempts at manipulation were transparent and desperate and won't keep Greg subservient for long before he starts looking for better opportunities elsewhere.

And there is the conflict: Tom unable to let Greg grow and be his own person because he is afraid of being left alone vs Greg desperately wanting to break free from this unequal dynamic. Greg's dissatisfaction with being under Tom's thumb will make him disloyal, which in turn will solidify Tom's fears of abandonment. And on and on the cycle will go until Tom either learns to let Greg go or Greg finds a way out himself (Guess which one is more likely in a show like Succession where no one ever changes for the better lmao).

The idea of Tom sabotaging any potential for a reciprocal and equal relationship between the two of them due to his lack of trust in Greg is very compelling to me. The tragedy is that a lot of his insecurities are founded, from both Greg's past betrayals and from Shiv's. Not to mention, Greg is his only real ally, especially with the expected fallout with Shiv still to come, so keeping Greg close will be of vital importance more than ever. He really can't afford to lose his only support.

I've been toying with the idea of Greg giving Tom an ultimatum at some point in the next season. I think at this point Greg does know that Tom has feelings for him and I don't think he would be above using them to his advantage, even if he does reciprocate them. If Greg were to float the idea that he will only allow anything romantic to happen between them once Tom is no longer his boss, citing the terrible optics of a boss employee relationship in the midst of a sex scandal, I think Tom would have a very difficult decision on his hands. He has no guarantee that Greg will follow up in his promise once he does get a promotion away from him or whether he will lose him for good. There's also no guarantee that Tom will still have the same interest in Greg once their dynamic becomes more equal since, despite Tom having a lot of genuine affection for Greg, a lot of that is undeniably based on the feeling of control he gets from their relationship.

With this ultimatum in mind, if Greg were to become more openly affectionate with Tom, neither the audience or Tom would ever be able to be 100% certain whether Greg does truly reciprocate Tom's feelings or whether his actions are solely driven by a desire for a promotion.

It would be a very fun way to build on their already very complicated dynamic to have Greg become increasingly aware of the emotional power he has over Tom and knowingly using that against him. Or alternatively the audience becoming increasingly aware of Greg reciprocating Tom's feelings, only for Tom's insecurities to win out and prevent any romance from occurring between the two before Greg inevitably gets sick of being Tom's lackey and ends up betraying him and leaving him behind for real, a self-fulfilling prophecy of abandonment.

[lonely-lost-soul]

Of Immortality and Nymphs

(Philza Minecraft x Reader)

Request 2: Just c!philza simping over reader!!

Requested by: Anonymous 

(Okay maybe I got a little carried away with this one...) 

~~~

     He met her for the first time when he was a young man, who barely understood the world around him. Messing with things he shouldn’t was his specialty so when he heard there used to be Nymphs in the nearby forests, he just had to find out if they were extinct or not. Phil flipped through his worn journal and tapped his quill on the paper, he wanted to document his journey to finding the supposedly mythical creature. After all, this was one of his first real adventures all by himself he wouldn’t accept any form of defeat. He popped the cork off the invisibility potion he had and downed it with one swig. Phil, now hidden, wandered into the forest of the last known location, of the last recorded Nymph. Not being visible to the creatures in the forest allowed Phil to take in the beauty of nature around him, he could get close to the animals and see them in their natural habitat. The forest was beautiful, sunlight peeking in through the leaves of the trees, it was magical. He placed his hand on the trees running his hand over the bark with a smile, Phil heard a soft twinkling in his ear, and his head shot up. Always trigger happy he put his hand on his sword, in the middle of a nearby clearing stood a beautiful woman with gorgeous (h/c) hair. Flowers and leaves seemed to be interwoven within the strands, her ears were elf-like in appearance adorned with gold piercings. Her dress flowed in the wind, it was a soft almost translucent green decorated with leaves, in her hand was a baby chick. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, it was clear she was the Nymph that the old stories were talking about, thank god for the invisibility potion. 

Pulling out his journal once more he began to sketch a picture of the elegant woman, he didn’t want to forget her face. The man looked up once more to finish up the sketch and the Nymph was gone, he frowned sadly, he did hope he could get to talk to her. 

     “What’re you drawing?” Phil snapped his notebook shut letting out a startled yelp, he turned to look at the figure beside him. The potion must’ve worn off when he wasn’t looking, however beside him was said Nymph. His jaw almost dropped open, did she have no self-preservation? “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” She stepped a few steps back and he held out his arm to stop her. 

     “No! No, you’re alright!” He put his hand to his heart, “I’m Phil. and you are?” 

     “(Y/n). Are you human?” 

     “Tragically,” Phil gave her a little smile as she tilted her head curiously. “Are you a Nymph?” You looked a little hesitant, he watched as your ears twitched in an undeniably cute way. He felt himself melt a little as you gave a nod, 

     “A Meliae if you want to get specific,” you smiled fondly giving him a teasing wink. Opening his notebook again he scribbled that down next to the figure drawing of you, you sat down in front of him watching in awe, “Is that your language’s written system?” Looking back up at her curious expression Phil once again felt his heartbeat speed up in his chest. 

     “It is. You’re very clever,” He hummed and was delighted in the way you flushed up to the tips of your ears. You waved him off, 

     “I’m not that clever. When you’ve been around as long as I have you pick up on certain things,” He watched you carefully as you sat down beside him resting on your knees. Curiously Phil tilted his head,

     “How long have you been around?”

     “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman her age?” She shot back a grin on her features, oh Phil was in love. Nymphs did tend to have that effect on people, people fall hard and fast for them, but Phil didn’t care. 

     “My apologies, that was rude of me huh?”

     “Very.” She teased with a snicker, “I’ve honestly lost count at this point.” 

     “You’ve lost track? So you’re immortal then?” Phil’s entire face lit up the excitement prevalent on his features, “Tell me everything.” He pleaded, with a soft laugh you began to share your tale with the man in front of you. Phil was enamored she had lived more lifetimes than he could begin to comprehend, what he wouldn’t do to have that gift. The duo talked long into the evening and well into the next morning, Phil knew he had to head home soon. Not that he had anyone waiting for him back home, but he couldn’t stay with her forever as much as he wanted to. “When can I see you again?” He whispered taking your hands within his own, he couldn’t help but notice how soft they were for someone living in a forest. You hesitantly pressed your finger to his earring, 

     “They’ll start to glow whenever I’m near. So you can always find me,” You whispered cupping his cheek in your hand, he felt himself lean into it. “I’ll see you soon Phil,” You leaned forward pressing a tender kiss to his lips before disappearing in a flurry of flowers and leaves. Phil let out a shaky breath bringing his fingers to his lips a wild smile appearing across them. He opened his journal one last time adding ‘great kissers’ to his list of things about the Nymph of the forest. 

They met many more times after that, and with each meeting, Phil only fell more and more in love with her. He wanted to protect you and keep you safe especially after telling him that Nymphs were hunted for their tears that give immortality but now without the expense of the Nymph. Yet even with his pleading, you wouldn’t leave the forest you called home. You told him maybe one day you could, but you were the only Nymph protecting the forest and you had to stay to protect your home. Ever the gentleman Phil would drop the conversation and steer it into another direction said direction ended with a lot of kissing. 

As the years flew by Phil found himself growing older and you remaining the same and as beautiful as ever, he wanted to be immortal with you. He never wanted to lose you, so he made a deal with the God of undying, sacrificing his three lives for one immortal life so he could remain by your side forever. He’d also have to give up part of his humanity, he was bestowed giant black crow-like wings. But he’d do anything so long as he got to be by your side for the rest of eternity. Phil didn’t want to tell you at first, afraid you’d be mad but it was hard to hide giant black wings and the man could never stay far away from you. When he finally saw you again you knew what went down practically immediately. Surprisingly you took it much better than he originally thought, you seemed to flattered beyond belief but also pissed as hell. Desperately you tried to explain to him that immortality wasn’t a gift but a curse, seeing the world change around you while you stay young forever wasn’t as fun as it sounded. The man scoffed, shooting back a comment of his own about how he didn’t want to imagine a world without you by his side. You didn’t deserve to lose someone you loved just because they were mortal and he stood by that.

He watched your face scrunch up, cheeks turning pink at his sentiment. Mostly because you were melting around his words and he knew it too by the smirk evident on his features. Phil locked eyes with you and smiled endearingly, 

     “I love you.” 

     “I’m pregnant.” 

     “Fucking what-” He choked on his spit any argument that started before fizzled out the minute you had told you said those two words to him. He felt his features morphed in surprise before wrapping you in a tight suffocating hug. That only solidified his choices, he made the right decision, he needed to stay by you and your child’s side so long as the universe allowed him to. 

However, things weren’t all peaches and rainbows as the world changed to a dark and dismal place once more. Forests were being burned and destroyed and humans once again discovered the existence of Nymphs and wanted to hunt them down for sport. Things were dangerous, way too dangerous for you and the newborn son you shared with Phil. Reluctantly you and Phil came to a decision, to protect your baby you needed to leave, it was the only way to keep them safe. You held the baby close to your chest, tears swelling in your eyes as Phil kissed your cheeks trying to shush you softly. “It’s alright…” His voice was gentle, his big hand caressing the boy’s chocolate brown curls. 

     “It’s not alright. Phil...I don’t wanna leave you or Wilbur.” Your voice quivered and Phil’s heart shattered in pieces, “But his safety comes first.” You brought the baby up to your lips and kissed his forehead, he giggled sweetly trying to squish his mother’s cheeks. You laughed as he did so, “My sweet, lovely boy. I’ll have to leave you for a while, I don’t want to but you need to be kept safe. I…” Phil frowned watching as you choked up once more, “I’m not safe.” Even through your tears, Phil thought you were beautiful, “You can’t tell him about me…” 

     “(Y/n) I can’t- That’s just not fair-” You shushed him with a kiss to his lips, passing Wilbur off to him. 

     “If he’s anything like his father he’ll lose his mind searching for his mother. He needs to live his life.” You reached up holding Phil’s chin on your pointer finger, “He has to live life to its fullest, Nothing can hold him back. It has to stay this way until I can come back. Which I will...hopefully it won’t be too long.” You smiled up at him and Phil took in a shaky breath, 

     “What if I ruin him.” His voice was painfully tight holding his grip on Wilbur tightening as well, it made the baby squirm. You shushed him softly, pressing a kiss to his lips, his scruff tickling your chin. To him the kisses always felt electric, never devoid of passion and adoration, he leaned forward to chase those addicting lips as you pulled away. 

     “You won’t ruin him, you’re the most gentle and kind man I’ve ever met. You took care of me all these years, you’ll be amazing for Wilby.” Phil watched as you kissed Wilbur one last time before stepping away with a shaky breath. “Just be as good to him as you are to me,” You both heard the crunch of leaves, it caused you to jump a little looking around the forest frantically. 

     “Go. We’ll be fine. Just stay safe and come back to us okay?” You could only nod at him before disappearing in a gust of leaves and flowers. Phil felt his heartache and he jolted as Wilbur began to cry seemingly already missing the presence of his mother. “Oh Wilbur hush, hush for me please,” His father pleaded as he began to rock him gently this was going to be a lot harder than he would ever anticipate, but to keep you safe he’d give up the entire world. 

~~~

Decades went by, Phil had not only Wilbur to watch over but three more idiotic kids, others adopted of course. Wilbur had grown up into a strapping young man, got married, and had a son, you would be so proud of him. You’d spoil Fundy rotten, he just knew you would, he was sure you’d also spoil Tommy and Tubbo. Not to mention you’d force your motherly affection all over Technoblade and he wouldn’t have a choice but to open up to you. 

However, none of them even knew you existed, lies were told about who Wilbur’s mother was when any of them asked and it killed him on the inside to lie about you. Eventually, Wilbur just stopped asking, most likely assuming something bad happened that Phil never wanted to discuss with him. Something far too painful to even tell his son about,

 Which was half right he supposed. 

It started like any other day, Tommy and Wilbur were messing around with Dream, something about discs and war that Phil didn’t particularly care about. Wilbur had come over once again to plead with Phil for aid in the war, but once again he refused him. This time he even brought Fundy along thinking that seeing his grandson might change the older man’s mind. However, he still refused knowing it wasn’t going to end well in the long run even if Wilbur did win. Sometimes kids had to make their own mistakes to learn about the future. It’s not like he hadn’t told Wil it wouldn’t end well, he did multiple times, but the kid was just as stubborn as he was and wasn’t going to back down. 

“Dad, please. If you’d just join in we’d slay Dream and his team, all the fighting will come to an end. The nation I’m trying to create would finally be free and safe. Just help me.” Wilbur pleaded, a small whine slipping into his voice as he followed Phil and his son into the forest, “We can establish our new nation and be free from tyranny. No more war, isn’t that what you keep advocating for?” Wilbur continued to rant, not helping at all with his chores, his voice grew soft suddenly, and Fundy grabbed onto the sleeve of his jacket. 

     “What is it, kid?”

     “Your earring’s glowing pops.” Fundy pointed to his ear and Phil froze in place the wood that he collected falling out of his hands, scattering all over the forest floor.

     “Dad?” Wilbur repeated his voice growing louder in concern, Phil looked around the clearing frantically before bolting in a random direction. 

     “Grandpa!?” Fundy yelled chasing off after him, his tail puffing up anxiously, 

     “Fundy don’t just run off!” 

Phil didn’t stick around to hear them, you were around here somewhere the question was where. His heart was beating erratically in his chest, please, please god let him find you. He didn’t have to wait long, he’d recognize you anywhere you still looked the same. Standing in the middle of a flower field you looked over your shoulder, “(Y/n)! Darling!” He called out choking a little on his words, your (e/c) eyes blew wide and he heard you laugh. You ran up to him flowers growing in your wake, you launched himself at the man and he lifted you in his arms. He spun you around laughing in disbelief, using his wings you both floated in the air, he cradled the back of your head with his hand, “I can’t believe you’re here.” Phil whispered, pulling away to cup your cheeks with your hands, “you’re real.”

     “Of course I’m here silly goose. I told you I’d come back didn’t I?” You laughed fondly as he began to pepper your face in kisses, “Even if it is way later than I intended…” You trailed off with a small wince, 

     “Who cares. You’re here now and you’re safe.” He landed a kiss on your lips as you kissed him back. You tasted just as he remembered like fresh air and oranges, he wanted to swallow you whole. He never wanted to let you go again, and he never would if he had a say in the matter. 

      “Dad? What the fuck?” Wilbur blurted as Fundy and he came upon the clearing, you pulled away from Phil. Tears filling your eyes, your hands coming up to cover your mouth, Phil rested a hand on the small of your back. 

     “Wilby…” She whispered, stumbling towards the man reaching out towards him, he raised an eyebrow and flinched away from your touch. You pulled your hand back taking a little breath,

     “I’m sorry. How do you know my name?” From behind you, Phil flinched; he knew that’s what you wanted, for him not to remember you. But, fuck he felt guilty about it, he was about to feel even more guilty in a minute. 

     “She’s your mom Wilbur.” 

     “Fucking WHAT.” Wilbur sputtered taking a few steps back from the woman, “You told me my mom was a fridge!”

     “You told him what.” You turned towards Phil, eyes blazing with annoyance, he held his hands up in surrender. “Why would you tell him his mother was a fridge! I know I told you to lie but a fridge! Phil that’s not even physically possible!” You scolded the man crossing your arms over your chest, his face flushed a bright red. He even missed you yelling and scolding him, he was down bad. 

     “(Y/n) I panicked-” Phil started to explain and you cut him off with an eye roll. “I’m sorry okay, I love you.” 

Meanwhile, Wilbur and Fundy looked in between the two adults rapidly as they talked. Both equally shocked and at a loss for words, Wilbur took a step forward and grabbed your wrist. 

     “Please continue your explanation,” He commanded softly, “If you are my mom why did you leave? Why haven’t you been here?” Wilbur frowned as he watched you look away from him, 

     “How much do you know about Nymphs Wilbur?” Wilbur turned bright red and the color reached up onto the tips of his ears, “What?”

“My mom’s a Nymph.” Fundy spoke up in place of Wilbur, “her name’s Sally. I...I’m Wilbur’s son.” He watched your face melt and mouth a broken ‘son?’, Phil noticed and walked up to squeeze your hand. You had missed so much, you hoped you didn’t blame yourself, you and Phil lived too long to live with that many regrets. 

     “What happened to her?” You asked tenderly, 

     “Killed.” Wilbur said bluntly, “by hunters. Don’t worry, I made sure to dispose of them.” 

     “I-I’m so sorry.” You spoke and Wilbur couldn’t help but feel compelled into your arms. Something about you just made him want to melt into your body, he knew Phil was right in the end. You were his mother through and through, I mean the shared pointed ears said enough. 

     “Is that why you left?” Fundy asked walking over to stand beside Wilbur, Fundy’s ears pressing against his head. They both watched you nod and Phil tightened his grip on your arm, you took in another deep breath. His hand moved to wrap securely around your waist, he was here for you. He’d always be here for you.

     “When you were born, the hunters were far worse, there were much more of them. Greater numbers and they sniffed out Nymphs like hunting dogs to a rabbit. I couldn’t keep a newborn baby safe, especially one that was half Nymph...Which probably explains why Fundy’s part fox, he has more Nymph in him.” The fox hybrid seemed to light up at even the inclination that he was special in any way, shape, or form. “It was safer for me to be as far away from the both of you as possible, and I was right considering you grew up into a handsome young man with a family of his own.” You chuckled fondly leaning into Phil’s touch. “But I can understand if you don’t trust me or want to get to know me,” You smiled sadly at the man Fundy spoke up before Wilbur could. 

     “No! We want to get to know you grandma!” He blurted taking your hands in his own, you melted at the adorable way his eyes lit up. You glanced up at Wilbur who Phil totally wasn’t threatening with his eyes, 

     “I…” The man looked hesitant, but as he stared into your warm eyes once more he felt encapsulated within them. His longing for a motherly figure in his lips came back at full force and washed over him like a tidal wave. He had a mother and she was safe and here and willing to come back into his life if he was ready. 

Was he ready? Why did he feel ready?

     “Fuck that hesitance she’s grandma,” You let out a delighted laugh ruffling up Fundy’s hair, his tail wagging elatedly behind him. 

     “Don’t spoil him, love.”

     “Fuck you, I’m spoiling the hell out of my grandson. Gotta make it up to him somehow.” Fundy’s tail only wagged harder as he wrapped you in a tight hug, you hugged him back just as tightly. 

     “Hey, Hey move over champion. I get to hug my mom now.” Wilbur snapped defensively, as Fundy snickered only looking up at him mischievously hugging you tighter. You laughed in delight seeing Wilbur huff, Phil melted against you in relief. Wilbur’s face was scrunching up the exact way you do when you’re pissed, he smiled against the side of your head. Wilbur pushed his son to the side gently and wrapped his arms around you in a hug, he towered over you but couldn’t help but bury his face in your neck. You cooed softly and ran your fingers through his hair, he was gone the moment you did so, melting in your arms completely. 

Without you noticing Phil took a step away from the group just to admire the moment from an outsider’s perspective. For what felt like the hundredth time that hour Phil felt light, he felt like the weight of the world was off his shoulders. Everything was right in the universe again, you were finally holding your not-so-little boy in your arms again after all these years. Even if you did have a fox hanging off you as well, Phil let out a soft chuckle looking at the three with adoration. A long time ago he gave up his mortality and humanity for you, after you left he had pleaded to the gods once more, he swore he would give up anything for just one more day with you by his side. They had ignored his wishes, they knew without a doubt you’d be back in his arms again, and this time he wouldn’t have to give up a single thing. 

~~~

Okay but actually I had so much fun writing this??? Maybe even a Pt. II?

[pies-writes-and-more]

a knight in shining armour

word count: 2,676

pairing: iwaizumi hajime x fem!reader

warnings: reader gets stood up by an asshole, some swear words im sure 

a/n: faohdsiofhsdf yall cant believe how long this idea has been sitting in my drafts. iwaizumi gives me such protector,hero vibes, i coudln’t not write this lol. i hope you guys like it :) it was a lot of fun to write and i reallllyyyy enjoyed writing it. love you all! (ps thank you all for the request! i’m working on them promise!)

haikyuu masterlist

You couldn’t help but kick yourself a little. You had known that this whole idea was too good to be true. The funny quips he sent over text, his too-suave-to-be-real demeanor, the way things just seemed to be going too smoothly. You should’ve known, you kept telling yourself you should’ve seen it coming.

This whole online dating scene was really not for you. You hated the idea of meeting up with a total stranger, but your friends had downloaded the apps for you quicker than you could’ve argued all of your points. He had been cute - brown hair, soft brown eyes that made you feel like he had to be a catfish. You teased him endlessly about it, asking him what KPop idol he had stolen pictures of off the internet to create his profile and he had insisted you trade numbers so he could prove he was real.

You had hesitated. Maybe that had been your chance to back out. He really was way too charming and way too good-looking - there was no way a guy like that was even remotely interested in you right? You must’ve just been a way to pass through boredom. A way to get through boring lectures or just give his mind something to do. Right?

Right. You knew that now. You knew that because here you were, dressed up in an outfit you felt far too cute in, in a café halfway across your campus, twiddling your thumbs and playing with the glass your hot chocolate had come in... and this boy was no where to be found.

You checked your previous messages with him again, for the third time, solidifying what you had already checked and double checked earlier. This was the right place, the right time, the right date... so why wasn’t he here?

You shifted awkwardly in your seat, wondering just how long was too long to be waiting for a boy. It had already been half an hour, you had sent him 2 texts, and even tried to call him. You wondered if this made you look desperate - had this all been a ploy? A prank to make some idiot feel better about himself? Was he laughing somewhere knowing that here you were, thinking you were about to get swept off your feet, only to realize that no one was coming?

“Excuse me,” a tall dark-haired boy stood in front of you, shifting awkwardly in his heels. “Is this seat taken?” He gestured to the seat in front of you and you shook your head slowly.

“N-No, it’s free,” you admitted quietly, feeling a little bit of defeat. Why did he have to ask you about this chair? There were plenty of other chairs, why didn’t he just go get another one?

But rather than drag this chair over to the group of boys you had previously seen him sitting with, you watched as this stranger sat down in front of you, pulling his bag off of his shoulder and placing it around his seat. He gave you an awkward sort of smile, as if waiting for you to say something first.

“Um... do I know you?” You asked finally, unsure of what was happening. You could’ve sworn that the guy in the pictures looked much different than this guy here... was this actually a catfish situation? After you had demanded so many photos, playfully teasing him for being a fraud, did he actually get you to put your guard down? Had he actually lied about what he looked like?

“Oh no, sorry. I just...” the boy cleared his throat a little and you watched as a dark red colour climbed up his neck and flushed against his ears. “I noticed you were sitting by yourself and I thought maybe you’d like some company.”

You couldn’t help but feel more embarrassed than you had 5 minutes ago. At least sitting by yourself, you could’ve gotten up and pretended like you had actually wanted to come to this cute café on your own. But now with him sitting here, you had to awkwardly excuse yourself to both him and anyone else listening in.

“I’m sorry, this probably seems really rude of me,” the boy groaned, shaking his head. He held out his hand abruptly, a determined sort of look in his eyes, “My name is Iwaizumi Hajime. I think... I think your date is just outside... with his friends... being an ass.”

Your jaw dropped just slightly, your breath hitching in your throat and making you almost choke, “S-Sorry?”

Iwaizumi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, taking away the hand that you ignored, “I’m assuming you were here to meet some guy for a date... I think I know him. He’s in a few of my classes - real jackass. A couple of days ago, I heard him joking about with his friends in our class about how... he was going to go on this date with a girl. He actually seemed kinda excited about it too, but his friends said something about staying single or... I dunno ‘playing the field’ and basically convinced him to just stand you up. They joked about just coming by to see how long you’d wait around for him. Something about... about how the longer a girl waits, the more she wants it,” Iwaizumi’s whole face was red now, his eyes awkwardly staring at the table in front of you two as he tried to explain. “I... I didn’t say anything cause I didn’t know what to say. But I figured I could come down and maybe save you the embarrassment or something I dunno.” 

You just stared at him, unsure if you wanted to thank him or cry, or both. It really had been just a massive joke to some idiotic boys. You should’ve seen this coming - what kind of guy like that would be interested in you?

“I’m sorry I didn’t come explain earlier,” Iwaizumi continued, shifting in his seat. “I didn’t want to just randomly approach you and make you feel awkward, or approach some random girl and have her actual boyfriend show up, ya know?” He gave an uncomfortable sort of chuckle, though his expression told you he didn’t find this situation funny at all. “Anyways, he’s a major ass and I think you should just get up and leave. Block his number, make him regret it.”

You nodded slowly, your chest still feeling a little too tight for you to think of anything proper to say. What was the proper thing to say in these situations? Thank you? For not letting me embarrass myself an hour later? Thank you for taking time out of your day to come help me? You couldn’t help but feel your whole world start to spiral, the heat of embarrassment flicking at your neck and cheeks, making you feel like you were sweating buckets.

“Oi, don’t cry,” Iwaizumi suddenly said, his hand shooting out and reaching up to cup your cheek. You jumped a little, feeling his thumb flick away a tear that you hadn’t even realized had been falling down your face. “Assholes like that don’t deserve your tears, okay?” He told you, squeezing your hand with his other. 

You nodded again, firmer this time because there was something just so convincing about his tone. Iwaizumi gave you a little smile before sitting back for a moment, unsure of what to do next. He started to stand up, grabbing his bag when you finally spoke up, “Y/L/N Y/N. Just call me Y/N though...”

His eyes met yours, a smile slowly growing on his lips as he looked at you, “It’s nice to meet you, Y/N.”

You looked over at the front door of the café, nervously biting on your lip as you realized if that boy and his friends really were out there, waiting to see how long you’d wait here... that means you’d probably have to pass them, “How am I supposed to walk out of here like there’s nothing wrong?” You sighed, shaking your head as you pushed your hot chocolate away from you. “I feel like such an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot, he is. It’s his fault for letting his friends talk him into something as stupid as this. And he’s stupid for having friends like that anyways,” Iwaizumi huffed, shaking his head in disappointment of the male world. His eyes suddenly shot over to you, a smirk on his lips, “Do you wanna make him regret everything?”

You probably should’ve asked Iwaizumi, this stranger you had literally just met, what he meant before agreeing. But as soon as you nodded, Iwaizumi helped you up and took you by the hand with a smile, “Fucking idiot,” he laughed to himself a little as you gathered your things. “He has no idea how pretty you look too.”

A few sounds left your lips in surprise as you shot over to look at him, a huge grin on his face as he let his eyes glaze over you. “Come on!” He grinned, tugging you towards the door.

You watched as his friends tried to ask him what was going on, all of them sharing the same confused look that you had on your face, “I-Iwaizumi, where are we going?” You asked with laugh as he just pulled you out of the store. He smiled to himself, stopping in his tracks right outside of the door, letting his fingers intertwine with yours as he pulled you closer. “W-What’re you doing?” You hissed, your heart jumping into your throat in surprise.

“Just trust me okay?” Iwaizumi chuckled, reaching up to pat your head gently. “There’s no way he’s not watching. I know if I had any chance with a girl like you, I’d be going mad knowing some guy is making her smile the way you are now.”

You couldn’t deny that your cheeks were starting to hurt, the smile on your lips tugged and tugging on your face but you just couldn’t stop. Who was this mystery boy? The hero of your café story?

Iwaizumi gave you a cheeky sort of wink before twirling you around with a grin, “I’m sorry you had such a shitty date,” he stated before pulling your hands to his lips and pressing them against your knuckles. “You deserve better than that.”

You tried to remind yourself that this was clearly all fake for Iwaizumi - that this knight in shining armour (who was insanely handsome now that you were staring at him so closely) was just trying to be nice and make some asshole feel like shit. This wasn’t anything special to him. Because this kind of stuff just didn’t happen in real life - this was something that happened in animes, drama shows, exaggerated reality tv, but real life? No way. You tried to repeat that yourself over and over again, your whole face feeling warm against the cool air around you, “I-It’s fine. Thank you for helping me,” you gave a little awkward laugh, because man were you already falling hard. The natural light out here really helped accentuate his eyes and sharp features, not to mention the muscles that were doing a terrible job of hiding under his clothes. 

Iwaizumi just smiled down at you again, fumbling in his pockets and fishing out his phone, “Do you think... Maybe I could take you somewhere sometime? We could... I dunno just do something?” He asked you hopefully, his tongue stumbling over the words a bit but his eyes and smile looked sincere.

You blinked for a moment because again, this shit doesn’t happen in real life. Not to people like you. “Iwaizumi, I don’t think he’s listening in that closely,” you whispered harshly. “You don’t have to do this.”

Iwaizumi’s cheeks burned as he realized you thought he was doing all this just as a prank, clearing his throat awkwardly as he continued to hold his phone out to you, “It’s for not him... it’s for me.” He nodded slightly towards the window of the café where his friends were practically pressed up against the glass to watch, eager eyes bobbing between the two of you. “They’re always telling me I need to be as determined in my love life as I am on the court... if you’re not interested that’s totally okay, or if you just want to stay in contact as friends, that’s cool too but-”

“N-No no,  I just thought that you... I didn’t think that I was your type or anything,” you explained nervously, all thoughts of that other boy cleared from your mind.

Iwaizumi let out a laugh, shaking his head, “When I came here, I was really just hoping to save some poor girl some embarrassment... I was so nervous, I was going to send one of my friends who’s a lot better at talking to girls than I am but... when I saw you...” he swallowed hard, his anxiety making his whole body feel like he had just played a full match with no rest. “I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to get to know you better.”

You bit down on your lip, mostly out of nerves but also to try and shock yourself awake in case this was a dream. It had to be a dream right? You glanced around quickly, making sure no cameras were watching so ensure you weren’t on some sort of awful prank show... but you weren’t waking up and there were no cameras so... could this actually be real?

Iwaizumi noted your pause, his hand that was still holding his phone out slightly pulling back slowly, “Again, I don’t mean to capitalize on a really awkward and embarrassing situation for you, I just thought-”

“Yes,” you exclaimed quickly, looking up at him eagerly. “I’d love to go out with you sometime.” You grabbed his phone before he could pull it away, typing out your number and name into his contacts before handing it back.

Iwaizumi held the phone in front of him, staring at the number like it was a cheque for a million dollars, a grin growing on his face, “Oh! Here, I’ll text you so you have my number,” he mumbled, waiting for you to receive his little hello it’s Iwaizumi :) text message.

“Thanks,” you smiled, looking down at your own phone for a moment. Your fingers were tingling in some odd sort of sensation - you still couldn’t get over this feeling like this couldn’t be real. But it wasn’t like talking to the other boy - that was more paranoia and anxiety that ended up being a good intuition anyways. This was like... like all those songs and all those movies were all real. Like they all got it right.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Iwaizumi excused himself to head back into the café before his friends broke the glass that they were all shoving each other over to try and get a good look at this pretty girl that Iwaizumi had fallen so quickly for. You nodded, a warmth still on your cheeks as you said goodbye, walking briskly to the bus stop. It didn’t matter if that asshole was watching you leave, or if he had left moments before. You were still annoyed that this whole situation had to happen... but maybe the god of love had a funny way of placing people exactly where they needed to be.

You knew falling in love with someone you had just met didn’t really make any sense... but this time, you had a gut feeling that you and Iwaizumi’s story together wasn’t over just yet.

And after months of him getting to know you, taking you out on little dates and making your heart swoon, asking you to come watch his games and offering his jacket for you to wear on the stands, you realized there might be more to the story of you and your knight in shining armour than you had ever thought was possible. 

haikyuu taglist (let me know if you’d like to be added/removed!)

@sgue0s @aurumk @neko-chii1 @thisnoodlewritesao3 @satan-ruler-of-hells @trashy-simp @jeppiet @tobi-momo @darkvadeeer @haikyuutothetop @livy384 @babyshoyo @jesssobs @b-bakana @tsukkimoonbyeol @moonlightaangel @crystal-lilac @random-734 @sophiemess @bbyhaji @pansexualproblemchild @mystic-poteto @kaleidoscopekai @cuddlysoftbear @cheeseriz @ur-local-reality-shifter @kawaii-angelanne @ushijimacentral @elkawholeek @ur-local-anti-hero @tirzamisu​

[kiridarling]

[a/n: is this a week late? yes. happy belated-valentine's day angels <3]

—ᴛʜɪs ɪs ᴀɴ 𝟷𝟾+ ʙʟᴏɢ. ᴍɪɴᴏʀs ᴅɴɪ

𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐤𝐢 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐠𝐨𝐮; 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐥

→ Definitely went to work that day

→ Not a huge romantic but wake up to find a hot breakfast with a note left on the counter.

Happy Valentines Day, dumbass. Love you.

— k.b

→ When he returns from work, Katsuki buys you roses and shoves them into your chest with an eye roll. You thank him and he responds with a grunt before insisting you put on something nice because he’s taking you out on a dinner date whether you like it or not.

→ Katsuki takes you to the fanciest restaurant—so fancy you feel a little bad that he has to pay, even despite his Pro Hero status. But you’re his, and spoiling you might as well be his love language.

→ Halfway through dinner, Katsuki starts getting a little frisky. Sliding the rough leather of his oxfords up the inside of your thigh, winking and biting his lip. You tell him to stop but you only half-mean it, and the knowing grin on his face lets you know he knows.

"Careful, baby. You don't want the waitress to know how much of a dirty slut you are, do you?”

→ He’s condescending as fuck but you’re totally here for it, and the second he pays for the meal you two are speeding down the highway to a love hotel (per Katsuki’s plan, apparently). You barely make it to the bedroom before you’re all over each other, and if it weren’t for that family of four in the elevator, you definitely wouldn’t have.

→ He tells you to get on the bed and strip, and who are you to deny him of such a luxury? He pulls a plastic black bag out of a different bag—it’s clearly full. With what, you may ask?

→ Sex toys!

→ Katsuki’s endgame is simple—make you cum until you can’t anymore. Not that he’s told you explicitly, but he’s got a Hitachi pressed to your sex and two fingers slamming into you just the way you like it. With your wrists comfortably tied above your head, it doesn’t take him long to bring you to your climax, cheeks burning and thighs shaking.

→ Peering at you under the sweaty mess of ash-blond hair, the fire in Katsuki's eyes only adds fuel to the burning of your gut as the vibrator continues whirr. The realization settles in with a shiver. Oh. Oh fuck, he's not stopping.

“Again.”

→ So, you cum again. And again, and again, and by the time you’re on the fifth it gets a bit hard to feel your toes and you’re so sensitive your thighs burn. All you want is his cock, but for some reason, it’s fucking impossible for him to give it to you.

→ Upon voicing your concerns, Katsuki’s devilish smile only grows wider.

“You want this cock that bad, slut? Yeah? Fine then, fuckin’ choke on it.”

→ It’s basically cannon that one of Katsuki’s favorite things to do is watch you struggle to take all of him, but in this position, all you can do is lay back with bound hands as he fucks your face. It’s sloppy and your eyes and throat burn, but it's totally worth it to hear Katsuki fall apart in your mouth.

“S-So good—fuck—such a good whore, taking all of me, aren’t you?”

→ Katsuki pulls out before he cums in your throat in favor of flipping your limp body into downward dog and stuffing you full of cock in one swift move, the bastard.

→ Katsuki’s never been one to take things slow in bed—to him, it’s all hard and fast and now. You’re scrambling for purchase in the sheets as he pounds into that sweet spot he knows you love, and you feel your fully spent sex twitching back to life anyway. Fuck, fuck. Are you going to cum again?

→ Katsuki seems to catch onto this as well, sweaty chest dropping against your back and the cool of his dog tag tickling your neck as his hand rubs between your legs, muttering dirty nothings in your ear.

“You gonna cum for me, baby? Yeah? Gonna make a fuckin’ mess all over yourself like the slut you are? Fuckin’ do it. Fuckin—fuck—”

→ You two cum at the same time, toes curling and ribcage shuddering, and then—

→ Darkness.

→ You wake up in a few hours, properly clean in fresh sheets. Turns out baby boy fucked you so hard you passed out, but it's okay because he’s found reruns of your favorite show on and is fully prepared with water and snacks.

→ (And he’ll never tell you, but he fully panicked and called Eijirou. Obviously, he knew you were alive, but…what if you passed out because of a problem? A concussion? Internal bleeding, maybe?)

→ (Eijirou ensures him that though this should NOT happen every time, it can happen from exhaustion. To say Katsuki relaxes after that is an understatement.)

(Stay safe angels <3)

And speaking of Eijirou...

𝐄𝐢𝐣𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐮 𝐊𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚; 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞

→ Definitely did not go to work that day.

→ Today, Eijirou plans to treat you like the princess you are. Cooks you breakfast in bed (after almost burning down the kitchen trying to make bacon but shhh we don’t talk about that) books you a full day spa and has Mina take you shopping for a new outfit for your "fancy date" that night.

→ The location? A surprise.

→ It’s dark by the time you and Mina pull up, but the moment you hop out the car she speeds away. Um. She could’ve at least said bye.

"[Y/N?]"

→ Looks like Eijirou brought you to a lake. You wonder who helped him bundle the fairy lights in the trees and set up the picnic because knowing your man and his coordination, it would’ve taken a forever for him to set this up.

→ But all those thoughts shatter the second you see that he’s on his knees, clutching a velvet box with a gorgeous diamond ring sat in the center. Not too flashy, but not too dull.

“U-Uh.”

→ Eijirou swallows then blinks, the only sign that he’s the least bit nervous for this.

“See…I swear I had planned something to say, but you look…holy shit, um—stunning, you look stunning.”

→ His compliment goes over your head though. Of course it does, he’s holding an engagement ring. He chuckles, averting his eyes to the ground.

“Listen, um, you can say no...B-But uh, I love you a lot—obviously—and I’ve been thinking about this a lot, kind of, because you’re like…the love of my life, ya know? I mean, I know everyone says that and everything but like, I really mean it? But if I’m going too fast o-or you just don’t wanna get married or something, I totally get it because obviously this is outta the blue and everything b-but um…yeah.”

→ You let him stutter through the whole thing because, well. It’s cute.

→ ...And then you tackle Eijirou to the ground with renewed passion and slam your lips onto his. His “babe! The ring!” is muffled but you snort anyway, blindly groping for it through the grass. The moment you find it, you shove it into his palm and stick your hand in his face, and with a (very sexy) chuckle, the redhead slides it onto your ring finger.

“I’ll take that as a yes then?”

→ No shit, Sherlock.

→ Either way, the picnic in the dark is abandoned in favor of yanking Eijirou's pants off and giving him the best head of his life. Because goddammit, you love this man so much and he needs to feel it.

→ Afterward, he insists on returning the favor. A wild Gentle Dom Kiri appears and as he eats you out, he mutters a deadly combination of the sweetest and dirtiest things you’ve ever heard.

“Fuck, you feel so good. So tight and wet. And it’s all for me, isn’t it, baby?"

“You’re gonna cum, angel? Do it. Cum all over Daddy’s face.”

→ Once you semi-recover from your orgasm, he flips you on your hands and knees and slowly pushes inside of you (though not without putting on a condom because safety first, angels). You tell him to speed up, but he denies your request. This time around, Eijirou's going to take the time to love you.

→ As he slowly fucks you under the stars, he dips his chin into your neck as his bigger hands encompass your own. As he starts to play with the ring on your finger, you watch something wet hit the picnic blanket, followed by a sniffle.

“Gosh, fuck—I love you so much. A-And I’m really happy you said yes. I…”

→ You cum first and Eijirou isn’t far behind, shuddering against your spine. Your fiancé unceremoniously rolls onto the picnic blanket next to you, his temple kissing the crest of your skull as the two of you use the comfortable silence to cool down, half-naked under the milky way.

→ In your comfortable silence, you lift your left hand to the stars, fingers splayed to reveal the twinkling diamond solidifying the bond between the two of you. Eijirou hums, hooking his chin on your shoulder.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐤𝐢 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢; 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲

→ Both of you are painfully single and most importantly, strangers. Strangers who think alike and had the glorious forethought to drown your sorrows at a nightclub with a lot of alcohol.

→ Denki, as he does, accidentally knocks over his liquor-filled cup, completely drenching your bottoms. He apologizes and insists on helping you clean up though getting awfully close to your crotch, but both of you are too tipsy to notice.

→ After the liquor spill, you swap embarrassing love stories and lament over the “hardships of being single.” (Denki’s words.)

→ A few hours pass. You’re tired and ready to go home and Denki requests to walk you home to make sure you get back safely. Not that you live far, maybe ten minutes, but by the time you reach your door, you feel like you've known the electric blond your whole life. After saying goodbye and almost closing the door, Denki blurts out a half-drunken confession...or something like that:

“I—uh, y-you are—uhm, no…this is—“

→ You give him a look, a half-smile at best, and it seems to churn the gears in his brain again.

“This was uhm, really fun and uh, I think you’re really cool.”

→ So naturally, when you invite him inside, he squeals.

→ After a few more drinks and a few more spillages (Denki’s never been a deft drunk), you two finally get over your inner thoughts and start kissing on the couch. It’s hot and messy, and the alcohol in your veins makes it oh, so hot.

→ Denki doesn’t expect you to offer head but when you do he nearly cries, scrambling to pull his pants off while you make space for yourself between his thighs.  Due to the fact that there’s alcohol pumping in Denki’s veins and he hasn't been touched by someone else in at least a year, he’s extra-sensitive. And vocal. 

"F-Fuck gorgeous, you're so good at this...o-oh shit, do that again—yeah, yeah just like that."

→ His hips quiver, and he bucks into your mouth on accident. It earns him a glare and a light slap on the thigh, and you make a mental note to unpack the broken moan that interrupts his apology later. 

→ It doesn't take Denki a long time to cum—five minutes max. He plans to give you a warning but his orgasm runs up on the electric blond so quickly he doesn't even get a warning. When Denki orgasms in your mouth with a choked moan, it's only natural that you pull away in alarm, ribbons of semi-translucent cum flying just about everywhere.

→ To say you're pissed is an understatement (because your poor, poor carpet), but Denki feels terrible and is already reaching for the roll of paper towels you left on the coffee table from your cleaning spree this morning, apologies flying out of his mouth like an auctioneer.

→ Obviously, he's going to make it up to you. Not only for making an absolute mess in your living room (seriously, Denki doesn't know if he's ever come that much in his life) but for the bomb head, and he wants to make you feel just as good as you made him feel.

→ Both of you stumble to your room, the mood miraculously rekindled, and you're not sure what to make of Denki's desperation as he claws at your bottoms, pupils blown to the size of dinner plates. And though it's cheesy, you can't help but shiver when he finally gets eyes on your sex, wetting his bottom lip and the grip around your thigh tightening as he catcalls the apex between your thighs before diving in.

"Hello pretty~"

→ Like any pervert with a vivid imagination, Denki's got a mental warehouse of sex tips and tricks and burns to watch you squirm from his touch. He wants you red-faced and breathless and isn’t shy about it, actively paying attention to your reactions when he curls his fingers or uses his tongue just right.

"Oh, you taste so good sweet thing. So pretty and wet...did I do all this, gorgeous?”

→ Also, electro-stimulation? Yes please.

→ Denki's tentative about it at first because he’s not sure how you’ll react, but once you give him that pretty little moan you've been holding back all evening, you two are going nowhere but hell.

→ His dick hurts from being hard for so long and the second you cum, he’s practically begging to fuck you.

“Please? Please gorgeous? Shit, you felt so good in my mouth I just wanna—I need to—please?”

→ Like you needed any convincing in the first place.

→ You ride him per his request—and will definitely make you repeat things back to him, just because he likes how embarrassed and blushy you get. If you refuse? He’ll be an absolute tease about it. (But only for a bit, because we all know his patience isn’t that great.)

"Yeah? You like this cock? Tell me. Tell me how good my cock makes you feel, gorgeous."

→ There's no way Denki lasts very long (again)—definitely with you in his lap. When he cums, it’s cute and breathless, and his nose scrunches into his eyes. But if he came twice, you should too right?

→ The next morning, Denki's gone. But in his place, there’s a note with his number and an explanation:

had to go to work! lol i have the fattest hangover kill me now ty. either way, you should text me. i wasn't kidding when i said i thought you were cool lol.

(xxx)-xxx-xxxx

— kaminari

[a/n: gah XD my brain melted from writing that um-

also don’t worry about the family of four at the love hotel...they were...um...forced to stay there due to an emergency...lol :) see you soon, angels <3]

[jiminrings]

bestie what if jungkook finally finds out that jin’s friends with y/n 😭😭😭 he’d live in embarrassment for like eight business days

cold senior!y/n x stem major!koo masterlist :D

jungkook wants to crawl in a ditch for bADLY misjudging a situation he should’ve foreseen in the first place

yoongi has never been this dedicated to curing his hangover

well actually, nO ONE was really forcing him to pick you and taehyung up anyway

you didn't even ask!!! you could 10/10 just call for an uber to bring back taehyung to his place

maybe, just maybe, it's your fault that when yoongi asked you where you were when he's just woken up from a long night of partying, you mentioned "i'm with taehyung" and hospital and go home in the same sentence so that's why he went to overdrive

did he process what you said correctly?? probably not <3

that's the whole reason why yoongi had wasted sIX eggs this morning!!

he read somewhere in passing and watched song-hwa from hospital playlist enough to know that drinking eggs apparently helps you with your hangover and some other things

first, he wasted tHREE eggs because apparently, you're not supposed to drink the eggs !!! whisked !!! because it "defeats" the whole purpose

but it's still an egg whether you whisk it and no one's sane enough to drink raw eggs unprovoked

yoongi nailed it on the second try and he might have gagged a few times but the important thing is, his hangover is all-cured from the stress of digesting raw eggs :D so now he can safely drive at a borderline dangerous speed to pick you and tae up

"hey kiddo."

you peer your head up to see yoongi looking down at you, ruffling your hair in greeting

you've been held up here for less than five hours anyway, and it's not that yOU look tired,,, it's just that maybe you could use a little more sleep

lol you got yoongi thinking for a second that you're the injured on

"hey champ," yoongi acknowledges taehyung who's smiling from his bed, getting a forehead flick from his senior to which he rolls his eyes to

taehyung's... dressed up already in his normal clothes?

he already has his shoe on too so yoongi doesn't quite get why the two of you still aren't standing up

"you're lucky you just got a flick," you add helpfully, yawning in remembrance, "he punched my arm when i fell down the stairs at the dorm."

and wHY is this conversation all pointing to him now??

"because the both of you did stupid things that landed you in the ER!"

"i was just trying to see if i can go down the stairs three steps at a time!!"

"i just wanted to embrace y/n!!!"

very stoopid decisions if you ask him

yoongi shifts his weight from one foot to another, still a little lost because he's already here, and the two of you are all-ready to go, and he's not really a fan of the smell of the hospital —

oh wait

"has the bill already been settled?" he asks in curiosity, fishing out his wallet from his pocket

"mhmm. already did," tae answers instantly, nudging yoongi to put his wallet back where it came from

uhm wait maybe it's the eggs that are talking but uh

..... if the bill's already paid-

"then why are we all just sitting here?"

taehyung opens his mouth but he cLOSES it shut the moment it all clicks in his head, belatedly looking at you whose face screams conflict

yoongi's eyes turn to you on instinct, narrowing his eyes because you're choosing not to meet his eyes

"we're uh, we're waiting for jungkook to come back from the restroom."

...

.....

.......

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

yoongi's quiet, almost like he's calculating the variables in his mind

his mind's working harder rn that it did on his finals last week

"so jungkook is here?"

he gets war flashbacks every time he hears his name

he just shudders at the thought of him and he doesn't mean it positively lmao

"y-yeah! did i not tell you that at the call? he helped me get taehyung here," you scratch your nape in explanation, not accounting for the fact that yoongi still vERY much loathes jungkook when you called him

tae's not actually sure if he's helping you when he opens his mouth but he's trying his best <3

"yup! his shoulders were my crutch for like, three blocks. he also bought us food from the cafeteria while we were waiting to have my leg cast!!"

he glances at the fancy paper bags from the cafeteria downstairs, even some take-outs in there that makes it look all-stuffed

how in the living hELL is yoongi suppposed to feel about all of this :|

"i'm back! should i call an uber now? sorry, i bought these tiny hand sanitizers because they were having a sale at the pharmacy. y/n what scent do you-..."

jungkook happily chirps as he rummages through the bag he was given, preparing to scoop all the different scents to present them to you when he jUST had to look down at a familiar pair of shoes

as in the same black converse that he had the relief of looking at when someone was particularly asking him if he ever had a knuckle sandwich

"h-hi yoongi."

yoongi narrows his eyes at the kid who just squeaked, mouth puffed-up in disbelief that he looks like he's hiding a hamster in there

"bye jungkook."

yoongi uses tae as an excuse to shoo jungkook off as fast as possible but that kinda bites him in the ass

taehyung's going through a learning curve with his crutches and yoongi's making him wALK faster!!!! he still needs a little-

oh wait a minute :-)

"jungkook! help me walk to yoongi's car."

no

there is nO way that even taehyung's conspiring against him now

first jin and now taehyung????

tae solidifies his point by winking at yoongi, leaving you alone with him as you carry the paper bags of cafeteria take-outs

he's not exactly sure if he's helping you out at this situation, but once again, he's just trying his best and having fun alright!!! he likes to be included in these types of things hee-hee

yoongi has no choice now but to aLSO drive jungkook home, and the thought just makes him grumble from thinking about it

he'll have to disinfect his seats ://

"i haven't fully forgiven him if that's what you're thinking about," you chime in with his thoughts, looping your arm around his to help quell the visible stress in his mind

"it's your life," he puffs out because he doesn't want to meddle with you, consciously trying not to be overbearing when it comes to your choices

"i know. i just want you to know that your closest friend has the pride and the brains to not forgive an asshole, a goddamn junior, who said really mean things to her," you add thoughtfully and transparently, making yoongi break into a smile

ok that's got the heaviness in his chest a little lighter

"we should probably talk to each other one of these days."

you haven't had a heart-to-heart talk with yoongi for quite some time now because there weren't really any pressing issues of the sort to make the two of you talk face-to-face, but now it's probably needed

"we should."

:D

jungkook has never feared for his life in a car ride tHIS much before

and he's even wearing his seatbelt!!!!

you're sitting at the front seat and he's with taehyung at the back, the latter dozing off because yoongi indulged his request for sleep music with soft rain on the background (it doesn't make yoongi sleepy) in an attempt to make him feel better about his leg

the one-hour loop's working wonders because you're passed out on the front seat too

normally, this would also make jungkook sleepy

but how the fuck can he sLEEP when yoongi looks at him through the rear-view mirror like an apex predator??????

kook could take the easier route of pretending to sleep so he could get to avoid yoongi's gaze

but then if he pretends to sleep, yoongi would clearly see how his eyeballs are still very much trembling even when his eyes are shut and he's the furthest thing from being relaxed

don't get him started on stoplights too!!! that was just pure torture because jungkook was conflicted to whether or not he should look at him rIGHT back

taehyung and jungkook live in the same building anyway so that's more convenient because he actually wouldn't know how to act if he had to drop j-name (he honestly can't digest saying his name) separately

now that that's all over, jungkook feels oddly fulfilled in a way...?

fulfilled in a sense that even if partially, he managed to earn your forgiveness

he feels like he could sleep a little more peacefully knowing that he atleast did something right this time!!!

which is for the exact reason, he's gonna gUSH about this to mr. kim from student affairs!!!

it's uh the weekend and he walked to campus because he thinks that admin works even on weekends (mad respect)

it's noticeably a lot more empty compared to weekdays and it's just filled with freshmen with their hectic class schedules and some students who are just fulfilling units to graduate early

jungkook walks straight to student affairs and it instantly looks empty, the only familiar face in there being namjoon

as in mr. kim namjoon who's wearing a windbreaker rn and whose hair is dEFINITELY blonde than the last time (two days ago) that jungkook saw him

he's not here to work isn't he

wait is he here to rob the place ???!?#?!?

"and what are you doing here?"

namjoon is as confused as jungkook, his mouth opening and closing in dumbfoundedness

"o-oh! is mr. kim here? w-wait, you are here. i mean mr. kim seokjin, sorry. did he-"

"nope," namjoon shakes his head, putting his bucket hat back on to leave jungkook all by himself

namjoon from work and namjoon every other time besides work are TWO different entities

"we just came here to collect our paychecks. you missed jin by ten minutes."

oh well

his momentum's not entirely ruined!! jungkook just has to cram thinking of a recipe to put in your lunchbox by tomorrow and jin is his tried and tested saving grace

technically, jungkook already saw you this morning because of the whole taehyung in a cast thing, but he feels as if that the take-outs from the cafeteria aren't gonna cut it

he still needs to step up his game of course :D

so that's why jungkook forcibly enlisted jimin's help to make fish and chips for dinner and put them in two lunchboxes

one for you and one for yoongi!! he didn't skimp on the fish nor the chips and made sure they're still toasty and in peak-flavor when he delivers it to your dorm

is he intruding? is this a bad time? he didn't exactly know how to process when yoongi told him that he wouldn't stop him from making it up to you

he just iSN'T sure if delivering homemade lunchboxes at 7 in the evening to your dorm is optimal

oh good!! the door's opening :D

"good evening!! i uhm-"

... what

.......... WHAT

what the fuck is going on

seokjin is suprised to see that the guy at the door isn't from the delivery place he ordered from two minutes ago

... he may be disappointed

but what he is amused about is the way jungkook looks beyond confused and intimidated

jin's in a sleep shirt and some boxers and jungkook doesn't kNOW what to feel about all the variables present that he's trying to connect

"you look like you're hiding a goldfish in your mouth."

seokjin remarks and yawns when a fraction of a minute passes and jungkook's still frozen in his spot, his eyes darting to what the kid's holding

"oh c'mon! one for y/n and one for yoongi? you trying to make it up to him too? and none for me?" jin jives him further, leaning against the doorframe with a sleepy smirk on his lips, "i practically live here, and i gave you the tonkatsu recipe, and i'm the one who doesn't get a lunchbox?"

he eventually saw this coming lmao

jin knew that someway somehow, jungkook would come to know that hE's your close friend throughout the whole time

that he's been the sort of middleman all this time but nah he's on your team of course <3

that all this whining he's done to him has all been in the name of you and seokjin had to sit through ALLLL of that with his fists clenched underneath the table to calm himself down

"oh my god," jungkook's literally WEAK in the knees as it all connects in his mind, the gravity of this scenario kicking down on him

he really iS such a fucking asshole

how did he not hypothesize this????? how wasn't he able to connect you and yoongi and jin as each other's closest friends???

his legs are literally about to give out so that's why seokjin snatches the lunchboxes from his hands

"i am so, so, so sorry mr. kim. i-i really didn't-..."

jin pays him no mind, opening the lunchboxes slightly as he whistles at the sight of fish and chips

meanwhile jungkook is so sO close to crying both in realization and very very slight relief because he knows atleast one of your friends doesn't hate him that much

the door opens wider, the creaking getting both of his and jin's attention

"what's taking you so long? is the-..."

yoongi switches his gaze between the two lunchboxes on jin's hand and jungkook sitting on the floor looking like he's had the shock of his lifetime

wow this is really amusing

this is in fact so amusing that yoongi can't help but to snap a picture for him and jin to laugh at later

"bye, jeon."

yoongi grabs one of the lunchboxes from jin's hand and goes back into the dorm, leaving jungkook alone with mr. student affairs

seokjin chuckles as he outstretches his hand to make jungkook stand up and shoo him off sooner than later so he wouldn't look like a pebble in front of your dorm

he pats him on the back, only having to pull him slightly to get him closer to his ear

"we're still mad at you kid, don't get it twisted. you're lucky i didn't expel you."

jungkook pales at the realization overall, only weakly nodding his head as he attempts to take in everything while trying to look at the bright side

seokjin cheerily closes the door, waving at him who looks so close to passing out from hock

"bye jungkook!!!"