#Did everyone get a bunch of cool presents??

[final-girlfriend]

thinking abt all of my missed connections and romantic relationships that never got off the ground.....

[n0tamused]

Jiyaaaan request coming your way~

While training his soldiers, one of them accidentally calls him 'Dad'. This leads to the reader teasing them but Jiyan teases back by calling them 'Mom' (or the gender neutral for it?)

(Was reading tv tropes and Jiyan had the 'A Father to his Men' tropes in his character tab lol)

A/n: Anon this request was so sweet, thank you sm for sending it in! Jiyan the father of an army fr.. I do hope I executed it well. Enjoy!

Content: Jiyan x F!Reader, fluff and playful stuff, nothing more

The morning sun had long since shifted its axis towards the center of the sky, blazing down through cotton clouds that sailed the azure skies. Below them, in the open fields, west of the main base cacophony sounded, consisting of commands, groans and other sounds of effort as the Midnight Ranger performed their training. And today Jiyan had come to overlook the session himself, although it wouldn’t be the first time. He was often so preoccupied with tasks at the front lines that he didn’t have the time to be leading drills too frequently, but when he did get the chance to do so he would take it. While it wasn’t a full reprieve from the battle, it was still a stark contrast to the grotesque and twisted fates he’d see daily on the battlefield.

Jiyan was noticeably more disheveled by the end, hair messy and hanging in strands and clinging to his sweaty forehead, hands on his hips as his voice rose to meet all ears present. You have just been passing by, helping carry supplies that just came in, and loading old and empty boxes back to be refilled in the city. For once there was no rush that would make your legs ache or your lungs hurt, allowing you all the precious time to bask in the views, the soft chatter and, of course, your dear lover.

The sun caught his figure and formed a golden aura around him, his skin glistening, and you couldn’t help but take a seat at one of many big boxes at the side of the training grounds after you had finished your task. In passing you caught a few looks, and a few smiles of the soldiers you knew from before. They looked much  more lively, despite the rigorous training they just went through. It made your heart warm seeing them in better spirits, wishing nothing more than to see them prevail and be happy. And just as you had recognized a bunch of familiar faces did Jiyan conclude his small speech, about to dismiss everyone with advice of rest hanging on every word. He had spotted you from the start, when you were going by with supplies in arms and soon he’d have a chance to speak to you too, he thought.

“General Jiyan! General Jiyan, a word or two- if I may?” 

It was a voice of one of the new recruits, Jiyan noted as he gazed at the face of the youth, a boy of twenty or so years by the looks of it, and eyes full of curiosity and admiration. He had come up to Jiyan just as he had turned towards you, prompting him to stay rooted in his spot a little longer. A few more young rangers came up behind the recruit, sharing the same curiosity but also being aware of whatever the recruit had on his mind.

“Yes? Is there something you need?” Jiyan questioned, looking at the young man. From his peripheral vision he spotted you moving down from the boxes and joining his side, staying quiet after a short word of greeting towards his Rangers, but your presence felt like a cool breeze under this sun, and he appreciated it all the more.

“I just wanted to say how great today’s training session was, we learned so much more than we did with our drill sergeant” he praised, smiling up at Jiyan all the while, “And I just wanted to ask whether or not you’ll be leading our training session tomorrow as well? Or any other day that is, we would really benefit from your teaching. I mean, you've seen it all for yourself at the front lines!"

The other few with him nodded along, prompting a small smile of pride to form on your face from seeing their fascination with Jiyan. To them he was everything they aspired to be - strong, enduring, tough but not lacking kindness or knowledge. There were times where they were scared to approach him, not knowing how he’d react to their questions, but from observing his interactions with others they warmed up to the idea and plucked all their courage. 

A polite smile curled up on Jiyan’s face as he regarded the youth with gentle golden eyes. His presence as the drill sergeant today wasn’t due to his availability, but a simple coincidence and necessity to fill the shoes of their drill sergeant that had been injured due to Tacet Discords, and Jiyan just happened to be able to be there. “Ah, you have my thanks, rangers. If a replacement for your drill sergeant does not arrive tomorrow and I am not required to be at the front lines, then I will be leading your training tomorrow as well” he told them, which pleased them greatly to hear.  “Although I’m sure Sargent Jin’xi has much more to teach you, something much more important for your sound development in this profession. You cannot take his method lightly. He has seen everything I have, as well. His knowledge is as valuable to your growth, and even more so than mine. You need the good foundation he can give you” He was aware of how confusing or hard it could be to listen to Jin’xi, as the sergeant had quite the eye for details and slow progress in lessons due to his meticulous nature - but that also made him all the better for his station. He was observant and could pluck out bad behavior and mistakes like weeds, and that is better to be done here, than in the middle of battle.

“We know, general, but sergeant Jin’xi is just so hard on us.. sometimes it really seems like he has no limit” one of the women standing behind voiced, earning a look from Jiyan that spoke of his understanding but also his disagreement with the subtle message they were trying to send - please, replace sergeant Jin’xi, or, save us.

“Yeah! One time I accidentally mixed up the weapons in the storage room and he had me do everything on my own again, saying how such mistakes can’t happen on the front lines, how it all means life or death” the first young man said, brushing his fingers through his hair and sighing. “I understand it, but we just got here..” he added and looked at his comrades. 

What was supposed to be a short chit-chat turned swiftly into a gossip galore about Jin’xi. Had Jiyan been any different from the man he was currently, he would’ve scolded them, taken offense at how they spoke about his colleague, but he was in their shoes once, always on edge around the higher ups, and he wished not to bring that same unease to them. He didn’t fail to remind them to not speak like this in front of everyone, and to respect sergeant Jin’xi when he does eventually return, and they gave him their word.

The first young man that approached looked at Jiyan after their discussion, both hands on his hips and looking more relaxed. “We won’t forget that, I promise on my last name! Still, we appreciate your kindness, and one more thing dad- I MEAN- GENERAL!” His entire face crumbled into a look of terror, and all eyes of the group shot to him, looks of surprise and amusement appearing before several of them erupted into laughter after taking a wary glance at Jiyan - who was not offended.

“General Jiyan! Oh god- I apologize, general, I don’t know where that came from-” he stammered, shaking his head and his hands, face flushed from sheer embarrassment. More choked words tumbled out of his mouth, desperate to excuse himself and forget about this. 

Jiyan can’t help but chuckle, the corners of his lips twitching in a failed attempt to hold back his smile. “At ease, recruit. You have not done any crime” he nods at the other, his eyes softening and not showing any sign that he’s about to dish out some punishment - that’d be ridiculous. 

You can’t help but crack a laugh too, covering your lips with your hand as to stifle the sound, but your mirth was evident in your eyes. “Have I missed a chapter? I didn’t know you had kids, general Jiyan” you teased, earning a few shocked but heavily amused looks from the group. Giggles erupted once more, all stifled as they waited for Jiyan to respond to the quip.

Jiyan turns his head to look at you, his eyes boring into yours and questioning your intentions - you can read the thoughts going through your head and your smile only widens in a silent call to a challenge of wits. He didn’t expect you to say something like that, but he could only huff, hiding his amusement under an abrupt guise of confusion.

“Kids?.. Why, I had hoped you’d recognize your own kids, Miss (L/N)” he shot back instantly, making your jaw drop at his rebuttal, a gasp flying past your mouth. “General” you said, accusations plenty heard in your tone as the atmosphere melted into one of jest and play.

Many eyes flickered between you and him, taking in the easy way you conversed with one another.

“Yes? What’s the surprise for? The recruits look up to you too, if you fail to notice. You can confirm with them right now” he is shifting the spotlight to you, and the recruits are quick to jump in too. “It is right, miss. Personally I haven’t been around you for long, no longer than I interacted with the General, but you two are alike, you treat us new ones with a firm but kind hand” a young woman said, smiling at you, and you feel your heart climb into your throat. 

“Can we really be surprised, they’re always together too-” "Aren't they married?" Whispering is heard amidst the group, and Jiyan looks amidst the faces to catch the one that said that but fails to do so, or refuses to weed out the individuals, and his eyes go back to you to catch your response. It’d be a lie to say your relationship with him was a secret, everyone knew there was something deeper between the two of you, something you didn’t show in public due to the war and status, but it was undeniably there. Still, hearing it loud and clear like this was like a splash of cold water. Despite their chatter, the group remained respectful, sweet in their musings.

“Ah, quiet, I do not want to hear it. This is about you, General”

“Ah, don’t run from it now. You’re the one that started this” he commented, rolling his eyes as he folded his arms over his chest. “Anyway, you’re all dismissed. I have a word with.. mother over here. Off you all go. I will see you all in the morning for another training drill. Get some rest” he speaks to the group, gazing upon their faces, only to see how they looked at him with some sort of childhood wonder, and that’s when he realized he must be flushed too. A sheepish smile bloomed on his face. 

“Alright! Awesome-” “Yes, sir!"

“Have a good day, General! And you too, Miss!” 

He watched them leave, bidding them all farewell, and when he turned to face you again he saw you pinching the bridge of your nose, hiding away the biggest smile of the day, the apples of your cheeks redder than before. The Midnight Rangers were undeniably close in connection, having spent so many nights and days huddled together for warmth or laughs or protection, and this small exchange only warmed Jiyan’s heart, to witness how positively they felt around him - and you. 

“Didn’t think we’d become parents so soon. Have we gotten that old already?” Jiyan commented, tone softer in a way he only addressed you when you were alone, and there was no one near the training grounds to hear you.

“Oh, shut up, Jiyan-” you playfully snapped, biting your lip as you looked up at him, stifling a giggle. “You are unbelievable!”

“Hm? Did you expect me to stay quiet today or ignore your quips?” he smiled bigger and you have to admire the little dimples in his cheeks as the smile reaches his eyes, making them squint at you softly.

“I don’t know what I expected, but your response was certainly the last thing I expected” you replied and shook your head, as if that would shake off the redness tinting your skin, imitating him now by crossing your arms. The two of you were looking at each other, wordlessly admiring your red faces while throwing these little quips at one another. 

“Ah.. you’ll get used to it, dearest wife”

Ⓒ n0tamused. Do not repost, translate, edit, and/or copy any of my works. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated.

[ghostfacesvalentine]

HALLOWEEN DAY 26: It’s a Halloween party right? - Multi!Muse x Fem!Reader

Pairing: Multimuse x Fem!Reader

Warning: Mentions of basically bullying, cursing, killing, a little graphic but nothing crazy.

Type: Blurb

Request: N/A

Word count: N/A

Prompt: Tiny blurbs of what I think the muses would act when you’re at a Halloween party with them and someone makes fun of your costume!

Notes: Why did anyone stop wearing costumes I hate this new era were in. Grow up. Wear a costume.

Jason Voorhees: Immediately killing. No doubts about that, I take Jason to be a somewhat naive character but he absolutely knows what it’s like to have someone laugh at you. Whether it’s a crude joke or a twisted sense of humor, he can put two and two together, so the party definitely goes from zero to a hundred. I don’t think he would give the other a second to correct themselves or analyze the situation, instead it’s immediate kill, ask questions later. If you ran away crying, it’s overkill and Jason would never give parties a second chance, sorry.

Michael Myers: I think if he understood it, it may take him a while, they have to be obnoxious about it. If they’re laughing and throwing stuff at you, immediately Michael springs into action. There’s so many people who dress like him anyway, there are doubts that he’s even the real thing but some the smarter of the bunch know better than to join in and make a run for it before they get caught in the crosshairs. When everyone is pinned to the walls with kitchen knives and whatever he can find, then the place gets set ablaze, it’s not like he wanted to be there in the first place.

Tiffany Valentine: Picks up on it before you do and when she does she’s coming up with the most embarrassing way to be found dead. She’s trying to be a better person, she really is but why are they laughing at you? Maybe she can give everyone else who gets their hands on the crime scene photos something to laugh about. I don’t think she would give them a second to apologize or make up for it, she’s already had their death made up in her mind. They really fucked with the wrong person.

Billy Loomis: Laughs louder but with empty eyes, these group of kids just signed their death sentence. If you’re sobbing, the more tears you shed, the more blood they will. If you’re only uncomfortable, they’re still dying, maybe not as gory but he’s still taking his time. He gets away with it too, with the help of Stu. “Come on, Stu’s parties are way better than this” he’d kiss your forehead, not caring if there’s glitter sprinkled all over him.

Stu Macher: Kind of grinning, looking at both you and whoever the hell is trying to insult your costume. “Well I think it’s really cool.” He’d say, acting nothing but stupid with a big grin. I think he would have less restraint than Billy though, he’d start getting the strays one by one, coming around acting completely clueless as to what was happening. He’s a little smug with how well he covers up what’s real blood and what’s part of the decorations. Be careful pissing off Stu, you would’ve thought people would know that by now.

Leatherface: Poor baby he would be so confused at first, the groups of people would have to literally be laughing and you’d have to have a visceral reaction to their mean words. As soon as he puts two and two together, its head empty only wants to see their guts across the room. He’s especially violent because he knows what it’s like to be made fun of by his family and by the victims. It’s not a good feeling and he would do anything to make it go away when it came to you.

Patrick Bateman: There would be light chuckles, all the way up until he notices that they’re talking about you. A pressed smile would make itself present across his face, sniffing his drink before setting it down. Swiping his tongue across his perfect front teeth, mouth closed and sticking a fist in his pocket. You insisted to dress up for the silly Halloween party, he was hesitant about allowing you, but you did look stunning in designer clothes as a tacky costume. Patrick would absolutely pull a Stu and lead the others away from the pack, one by one around the building before unleashing the most amount of rage. Spitting and yelling, blood of his victims splattered across his delightful face. “Not the fucking face you fucking fuck.” He’d groan out wiping as much as he could off with his sleeve and trying to slick back his hair as much as possible before moving to the next person.

Harley Quinn: “Whatddaya mean by that?” There would be no hesitation for Harley to have the group try to correct themselves, depending on their reactions would directly affect if and how’d they die. If they would show no remorse, Harleys face would turn into a wide smile, staring blankly at them before shrugging her shoulders then shooting them point blank in the face, one by one. If there was some kind of remorse, Harley would be judge, jury and executioner about it. “Sorry about the blood on yer costume cupcake, maybe Ivy has somethin’ for that! If not her, then maybe kitty Kat.” Nobody makes fun of her baby, if they did, then she’d make sure they wouldn’t laugh about anything ever again.

Poison Ivy: With a raised eyebrow, Pamela would know exactly whether or not how they meant it and if she didn’t, they’re wrong, it’s exactly how Pamela viewed it. You were so excited to wear a costume, Ivy even helped you get it together, you were absolutely over the moon and now, some people who thought they were too good to dress up for Halloween were laughing in front of you both. Similar to Harley, she is judge, jury and executioner. While her methods would be a little more sophisticated, they still inflict the most amount of pain. She always carried something for moments like this, where one’s blood would turn against them, making them feel like there’s venom slowly invading their veins. Maybe a prick, maybe some powder, maybe a kiss, who really would see it coming. Either way, nobody laughs at her baby.

Billy Hargrove: Would stop what he’s doing immediately to look at whoever or whatever group was laughing at you, there would be a moment of silence offered to them to get themselves together. Not many chose to laugh or keep up the act and those who did would get a real beating full of pent up rage. So what if you wanted to wear a costume, so what if you were the only one. That was the point of it no? A halloween party? These people were going to be damn near unconscious by the time he’s done with them.

Steve Harrington: All fun and games until you’re crying. “You guys take it too far!” If you ran out of the room, Steve is chasing after you immediately to console you. You’re drunk, he’s drunk, you’re both a mess but you’re crying and as a great boyfriend, he’s trying to console you. “This party’s lame anyway, let’s get out of here” he’d kiss your forehead, if you’re still pouting he’s more than happy to sit down with you. “I think you’re the prettiest fairy in the whole world. And other worlds too.” He’d wipe the tears off your face, getting a warm towel to help. “Come on. You’re so beautiful, you look amazing, everyone’s costume is a jackass I guess. But I thought we were supposed to be something different for Halloween” he’d roll his eyes, still drunkenly trying to clean you up. He’s such a catch.

Steve Rogers: Concerned eyebrows active. “Hey what did you just say” suddenly no one wants to repeat themselves and if you know anything about captain America is that he absolutely hates bullies. “It’s a Halloween party no?” Suddenly he’s heated, facing the group completely while you make yourself small behind him. Everyone’s on edge enough to try to break it up. He wasn’t surprised they’d be backtracking, but he still doesn’t accept that behavior. “Apologize” “Steve- no it’s okay.” “No. It’s not okay. Apologize” even if they did, god forbid he caught them alone while you weren’t there. “He must’ve felt left out and added some fake blood to his face to fit in.”

Bucky Barnes: Similar to Steve, he’s going to stand up for you, especially when he can tell if it really got to you. All he thinks about was about how excited you were pulling your costume together and now you were crying or about to start crying and hugging yourself wanting more than anything to go home. Bucky has a way shorter temper than Steve though and he doesn’t care if it’s in front of anyone, they’re going to apologize to you without him having to ask. After sorting that out, he’s babying you after all of this.

Loki Laufeyson: Immediately killing them, even if he’s trying to reform his ways, he still can’t stand the thought of someone else’s words humiliating you. If he doesn’t have the patience to outwit them, he’s absolutely going to kill them. You’re his baby and he will always stand up for you, he’s just a little rusty around his methods. “If you ask me, you’re the most beautiful most elegant vampiress in the universes and I’ve been to many” Loki has such a way to always make you feel like the most beautiful and important creature, if it wasn’t his words, you had a hard time believing anyone else. He worships you more than anyone on this list so it’s hard to let anyone make you feel inferior.

Cloud Strife: He doesn’t get it for a moment, not until you’re upset. When he realizes you’re upset, he follows you out. He’s not the best at comforting but when he sees you upset, he’s all over you. “You look beautiful.” He admires you, after all it’s only Clouds picky opinion that you care about. He rather spend the holiday with you instead, he’s not really much of a party guy. Cloud would absolutely wipe your tears, sit in the grass with you, walk around the town all while complimenting your costume every chance he got.

Sebastian Michaelis: Maybe not immediately killing them, but absolutely torturing them, all with a smile. If there are appearances to be made, he waits until he can find them alone. He understood every crude remark, every joke, even when they thought they could get away with it with sly comments. “You appear to be the most stunning character here Lady Y/N.” That’s enough to make you blush, after all he only has eyes for you. He encouraged you to dress up, he wasn’t lying when he said you looked gorgeous. For anyone to have the nerve to make fun of you, it would be a death wish.

Spencer Reid: He would absolutely outwit them, nobody can really keep up with his charm. He didn’t really acknowledge the joke at first, until it hit him. Both of you would be dressed up and he’s more than ready to stand up for you especially. Spencer vents to you all the time about people who think they’re too good to dress up in a costume for a Halloween party. He doesn’t need to get physical with them, but let’s say if they really crossed a line then he’ll pull some strings at the BAU.

Bruce Wayne: So what if you were the only one wearing a costume, similar to Spencer, he can absolutely outwit them. Everyone wants to please Bruce and it only takes him staring at the ones who are laughing with a straight face. The elites around him would want his validation so bad that they would also stop laughing immediately. “I don’t get it. Who are you again? New money?” Hit them where it hurts. “The dress is Hermes, fortunately they had it expedited last minute. We had a few options to sort through. Looks like a dream nevertheless.” But it was never the dress that made you look godly, it was Bruce’s love.

Jason Todd: Immediately getting violent “what the fuck did you just say” and you better hope he misheard them. It’s scary to see Jason get this worked up, but it was for you. Before you know it he’s got another guy hung up against the wall or dragged across the table by the collar of their shirt. He would comfort you afterwards, treating you to whatever you want. “You know you’re the prettiest baby at the party.” If anything they’re better off making fun of you instead of making crude comments about wanting to see what you look like under the costume, I think Jason would have to be locked up in Arkham after that if that were to happen. He’s still pulling strings with the batfam to teach them a lesson.

[a-substantial-trash-pile]

Studio TV Solutions presents Half Life VR but the AI are Self-Aware (2020) [not a real movie]. A movie with a totally improv’d script starring a moltey crew who are sure to give you a rip-roarin’ good time!

anyway hi new au just dropped. i’m calling it HLVRAIM. it’s HLVRAI but it’s a blockbuster movie and the science team are played by actors. i have many thought on backstories n stuff that i will stick under a “read more” here otherwise this post will be hella long on people’s dashes. 👇👍 pls care about this i thought so hard and much

Half Life VR but the AI are Self-Aware was put out by Studio TV Solutions in 2020 and destroyed the box office with how fun it was and how well the cast played off one another. The cast was given a general outline for the script with the goal for it to be mostly improv.

Gordon Freeman: Mannie Flores (Dominican American, age 28, he/him) - Popular Youtuber/Twitch streamer (“Radi0Mann”). Got offered the role in HLVRAI thanks to the creative things he’s done in his Youtube/Twitch career. This is his first “official” acting gig. He was pretty starstruck at first, but then as he got to know everyone, he realized they’re all a bunch of dorks (affectionate). - Started off as a gaming channel, but then started branching off into various creative endeavors as he got more popular. He still plays games too though. - One of the things Mannie did in his internet career that hit the mainstream was when he wrote, directed, starred in, and filmed his own movie in just 2 weeks because he failed a bet with his audience. Except the movie was actually really good and funny and heartfelt (i want to say it was about “a man who got left behind on earth after everyone else was raptured because god literally forgot about him”, but i think the concept might’ve been done already). - Met Benji through HLVRAI. They hit it off and now they’re dating. They tried to keep it secret for a while but Mannie had a slip-up during a stream that sort of blew it out of the water.

Benrey: Benji Song (Japanese/Chinese, age 30, he/they) - Started off as a film sound designer in the industry, then through a series of silly willy little events—possibly even shenanigans—got roped into a role in a passion indie film that became wildly acclaimed and flung him into the spotlight. Been an actor ever since, but isn’t the most proactive in taking jobs much to their agent’s annoyance. People never know where he’ll pop up next. Sometimes Benji will sneak in sound designer work behind their agent’s back. - Honestly likes background work more because everyone’s got these expectations of them as an actor that they feel pressured to meet. But he’s also afraid of disappointing people. He’s working on it. - Met their partner Mannie through HLVRAI. Totally was a fan of his streams/videos beforehand though. When they mention that, Mannie gets flustered. - Does music as a hobby. Electronic stuff mostly—enjoys mashing together all sorts of sounds and trying to make them work. After HLVRAI, Mannie’s streams gets cool new music that’s made by somebody going by “johnwicklover1994.” wink

Harold Coomer: Hau’oli “Hau” Kaleo-Kirchhoff (Hawaiian/Samoan, age 66, he/him) - Old musician who’s supposed to be retired but once in a while will release a song or even do a concert (but nothing crazy). - Hau’oli is pronounced [hh-ow-oh-lee], but he also goes by “Hau” for the haoles’ sake. :) Kaleo is [kah-leh-oh]. also Hau’oli sounds a little bit like the name Holly so that’s a fun coincidence i didn’t realize until later. - Most of his music is chill island tunes but he has been known to dabble in rock and jazz. - Married to Mose (been together for 30 years and counting).

Bubby: Mose Kaleo-Kirchhoff (German, age 69 [nice], xe/him) - Veteran actor—been in the acting industry for a long time. One of his more well-known roles was in a popular sci-fi series. - Married to Hau’oli (they got married the moment it was legal). - i went with a name that started with “M” cuz when Gordon first asks Bubby for his name, xe’s like, “mmm Bubby.” and i headcanon it’s because Mose was about to say xir own name and had to swerve last minute and the thing his brain resorted to was Bubby lol.

Tommy Coolatta: Luis Tanglao (Filipino, age 37, he/they) - Child star who dropped out of the industry when he hit his teens and then came back years later as a comedian. He has material about how fucked up being a child star was. Will only take acting roles if it interests them. - They don’t care about how the public/media sees him. He’ll speak his mind and call out BS when he sees it. Interviewing them can be a war zone. - Hosts a popular podcast with some buds they discuss things like video games, their lives, news, etc. Just shooting the shit. - Sunkist is their actual dog and she modeled for the png photo that was used. Her name is actually Biko. She is a very good girl. <3

Darnold Pepper: Sage Haven (African American, age 40, he/her/they) - Famous cooking show host who gets offered roles in movies. Got popular by how unconventional her meals and cooking methods are and how funny he is. - Has had multiple food/cooking/baking shows over the years. Every competition-based one they’ve had focused more on good vibes, fun, and encouraging one another rather than drama. One show involved people competing to see who could make the best full course meal with the catch being they could only cook everything in a microwave. Many microwaves perished. - Changed their name to Sage Haven during their transition. They chose it because it reflects his passion and also is a play on the phrase “safe haven”, which is what she wants to be to others. - He has an adoptive daughter named Kit. She helped them think up bits and jokes. She also had to help explain what Half-Life was.

haven’t gotten to gman and forzen’s actors yet unfortunately. thinking gman’s actor could be a talk show host? because that would be funny. anyway thanks for humoring me on my shenanigans. bye

[cheshireliam]

"Mystery Bag 2025" Story Sale

Fast and Agile! Team Stamina Monsters!

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting

Prologue (translated by @.judesmoonbeauty)

— Preliminary round. Group 1: Liam, Roger, Ellis, Ring.

…

Roger: This is just perfect. I’m teamed up with a bunch of real nasty fellas again.

Ellis: Nasty?

Roger: First of all, there’s you.

Roger: According to my investigations, your physical abilities are basically superhuman and easily one of the best in Crown. 

Ellis: Really? I don't work out, so I’ve always thought I’m pretty normal.

Roger: Normal people don’t go jumping around on rooftops. 

Ellis: Fufu, I got complimented.

Ellis: Speaking of which, Liam’s very agile too. He’s fast on his feet and has good stamina.

Liam: Unlike Ellis, I’m not naturally gifted with good athletic abilities. I worked out to perform better on stage, that’s all. 

Roger: And then we have you. I think you’re the black horse this time, Vogel’s little brother.

Ring: … Me?

Roger: Just look at those firm muscles. I never knew Vogel had someone like you. 

Roger: Mind if I perform a physical examination on you later? I haven't been able to collect much data on Vogel. 

Ring: … 

Ellis: Roger, you’re making Ring uncomfortable. 

Roger: Oh, my bad. I got excited seeing such a fresh potential research subject— 

Ring: T-that’s not it!

Roger • Ellis: ?

Ring: I’ve never been complimented like that before, so… 

Ring: It made me happy to be praised. I’d probably be prancing around if no one else was present. 

Roger: … You know…

Roger: Has anyone ever told you that you're kind of like a dog? 

Ring: A dog?

Roger: Ring, paw¹.

Ring: L-like this¹?

¹ Roger actually says “hand” here but I just thought this would be funnier because that’s exactly what he’s trying to do. 

Roger: See? Exactly the same. Who’s a good boy~~

Ring: D-damn it…! 

Liam: Ahaha, you’re now part of Roger’s favourites list. 

Ellis: We should let him play with Ale sometime. 

Townspeople: Ready, set, LIAAAAAMM! 

Ellis: Aren't those your fans?

Liam: You’re right! Thanks for supporting me! 

Townspeople: KYAAA~~! 

Roger: Hm? What’s the matter, dog— I mean, Ring? You’re spacing out.

Ring: Ah, um! Liam Evans! 

Liam: Whoa— y-yeah? Did I do something wrong?

Ring: … Umm.

Ring: … Uhhh 

Ring: I’ve always thought you’re really cool! 

Liam: Wha…

Ring: You’re very pink, sparkly, and captivating… 

Ring: I’m not good with my words, but you remind me of a peacock’s feathers… you’re just super impressive.

Ellis: Those are some very… unique compliments. 

Liam: Oh, um…

Liam: I’m really glad that you think of me that way. Thanks! 

Ring: …! 

Ring: … Ah, y-yeah. 

Liam: Hehe.

Roger: This is the first time you two formally meet, huh. 

Ellis: Ring, how happy are you right now?

Roger: Hey, Ellis. Don’t kill him before the competition even starts. 

Event Official: The members of Preliminary Group 1, please gather at the starting line. 

Ellis: Ah, looks like they’re calling for us.

Liam: Alright, from this point on, it’s all or nothing. No hard feelings regardless of who wins or loses.

Ring: Yeah, the competition will be fair and square. 

Roger: It’s great to see you guys all pumped up, but don’t get yourselves injured. I’ve got enough work to do already.

Liam • Ellis • Ring: Got it! 

Roger: I love that response.

Event Official: We will now commence with Group 1’s preliminary round! 

Event Official: Who will be the first to reach the finish line and be crowned the 2025 Happy Boy!? 

Event Official: Let's begin! On your marks… ready… GO!

*BANG!* 

…

Loud Male Townsperson: Wha—!? Those guys are crazy fast! 

Loud Female Townsperson: Everyone else apart from the four of them are falling further and further behind…

Roger: *pant*, *pant*... haha, I knew you guys were the real deal.

Liam: *pant*... It does look like it. Only one of us can make it past this preliminary round.

Liam: Ahaha, I can’t afford to lose. 

Ring: As a proud member of Vogel, I can’t afford to lose either. 

Ellis: Huh? Look, there's something over there.

Event Official: We’ve set up several obstacles ahead! 

Liam: Don’t tell me, we have to struggle and crawl through that net? 

Roger: Damn, Victor’s always leaving out the important stuff.

Ellis: Hmm. Roger, I’ll be going first.

Roger: H-hey! Damn it, that guy’s crawling through the net so easily! 

Roger: My bulkier body is a disadvantage but… argh! 

Liam: HE TORE THROUGH THE ROPES!? 

Roger: No one said we had to crawl through properly now, did they? See ya! 

Ring: I must catch up… whoa! 

Ring: Tch, my right foot got caught in the net. Damn it…

Liam: Ring, don’t move. I’ll help you get it off! 

Ring: Liam Evans.

Ring: I’m your opponent… so, why? 

Liam: Because this is a fair competition, remember?

Ring: S-so sparkly…! 

Liam: Alright, it’s off. Now hurry! 

Ring: I owe you one! 

Event Official: The fastest four contestants with extraordinary physical abilities have cleared the net obstacle…! 

Roger: *pant*, *pant*... looks like Ellis’ taking the lead after all. 

Roger: He’s going to win by a landslide at this rate. When it comes to times like this— 

Roger: Ellis! You’re going the wrong way! 

Ellis: Huh?

Roger: Not that way, it’s the other way! The other way! 

Ellis: Thanks, Roger— wait, what?

Roger: Pfft, haha! Just kidding. See ya at the finishing line! 

Roger: Playing nice isn’t our style, you know?

Ellis: If you’re going to play it that way— ha!

Roger: What the!? 

Ellis: Got your glasses.

Roger: I can’t see! Ellis! Give them back, you idiot! 

Liam: What are those two even doing— whoa!? 

Liam: Don’t pull my shirt, Roger!

Roger: Huh!? Are you Liam? I can’t tell who’s who…! 

Ring: A falling out!? 

Ring: ~~!

Ring: S-sorry, sparkly pink. I’ll be overtaking you…! 

…

Event Official: The leading contestant has reached the final obstacle!

Ring: What’s with this box? 

Event Official: You have to take a piece of paper from the box and retrieve the item written on it. 

Ring: So the final challenge is a scavenger hunt. I’ll take a piece of paper and—

Ring: This theme…! 

Ring: P-pe-person…

Ring: “Person you like”!? 

Ring: No, it doesn't say anywhere that it has to be romantic, so any kind of deep affection is acceptable, right? 

Ring: Where's Nica— 

Event Official: The person must be a romantic interest! 

Ring: WHAT!? 

Ring: I don't know anything about romance, I… 

Kate: Ring! 

Ring: This voice… robin?

Kate: You can do it, Ring!

Ring: !!

Ring: … Ggh, my heart… is racing…

Ring: Don’t tell me, the “person I like” is— 

Kate: Riiiingg! 

Ring: Ugh! 

Liam: Ring, why’d you stop all of a sudd— 

Liam: Whoa, nosebleed! Ring, your nose is bleeding! 

Ring: …

Liam: Roger! Casualty! Ring’s having a nosebleed! 

Roger: Huh? Nosebleed? Let me have a look.

Ellis: Roger, this is Ellis.

Roger: That’s why I’ve been telling you to give my glasses back to me already! 

Liam: Whoa, it’s coming out of the other nostril too!

Ring: I… the robin… 

Kate: Victor, umm this is—

Victor: All of them are disqualified :D

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Madam Lillith Shelterdog, may I make a request? You've been asking for transmasc theory, could I get your opinion on Trans Masc Misogyny and the Red Six of Spades by Jude Ellison S. Doyle? I've seen a post floating around with multiple people in the notes saying it debunks transandrophobia, but the writer notes that transmascs also face misogyny and abuse for their gender? I think they're just reading what they want to read into it

I've never read that article before, but I'll give it a read through and provide my thoughts on the article:

Alright, so he knew some trans guys that were assholes. We all know people like that, and it's common knowledge in group psychology that people will often dogpile in an attempt to "fit in" and gain the approval of the group. This can happen with any group, hell, I've seen it a lot with my fellow transfems. Trans guys are human, big deal.

Are their actions ok? I can't say for sure as I don't know the transgressions being cited. But are they normal? Sure.

Not sure why you're using the name "donglord" as an example, other than an attempt to mock the hypothetical trans guy for his masculinity.

Not gaslighting. That's not what that word means. You're not attempting to make the woman question her sanity, you're apologizing for members of your own group, something that everyone fucking does

Comparing the alt-right pipeline to a bunch of people being dicks online and dogpiling like any other Reddit, Tumblr, or Twitter user is quite the fucking take there bud. One group advocates for genocide, the other gets upset too easy. Not even close.

There's the TMRA name drop, something that I've debunked before on my blog. TLDR: talking about transandrophobia isn't the same as being an MRA. The author clearly hasn't hung out in actual MRA circles like I have.

Nobody's having the conversation because it's not an issue Cis people don't give a fuck "Twitter feed" right so your whole article is based off of Twitter, a known shithole for actual discussion, and known for being sexist as fuck. Cool. So, these aren't actually activists, these are just assholes on the asshole website.

???

Trans women aren't going to be experiencing misogyny before transitioning/telling people that they're women, because up to that point, you're going to be presenting male, and males typically don't experience that (save men being punished for being GNC and wearing nail polish or a dress, then sure, I could see that, but the author never elaborates on this point). Also, homophobia is different because that's more about how you act and not what you are or how you're perceived. The two are not comparable.

Is this article just the Bible for the people on here who deny transandrophobia? This point has been discussed at length by transmascs on this site, so I'm not gonna talk too much about this, other than say that - no, acknowledging TA isn't misgendering, nor is acknowledging your oppression the same as pulling a fucking "Birthday Boy"

That's not what's happening when transmascs talk about their oppression, nor does transmasc people talking about it drive transfems up the wall, I'd fucking know.

No transmascs, aside from some weirdos on Twitter are treating women like shit. There may be some outliers here and there, sure. But not enough to write an article attempting to kiss the feet of some transfems who hate you for being transmasc.

Nice fan fic, what's your AO3?

Not gonna bother indulging this point because it literally never happened.

Hi, yes, I'm some people.

You should cite your examples, if they really do exist. You did it for Jonah Hill, do it for the "t makes me want to rape people" example you so confidently cite as a specific example

Earlier you talk about how trans men are told that they shouldn't experience emotions, but here you shame them for displaying weakness and "sad boy sensitive soul bullshit", thus shaming them for experiencing emotions. Even going so far as to calling it a form of misogyny. Hypocrite much?

Trans men don't get access to privilege under patriarchy. Again, some weirdos on Twitter who try to cancel people for every single fucking thing isn't representative of trans men IRL

Hey so, Serano's theory of oppositional sexism doesn't hold weight, in actual academic circles. I'd know, as I literally took gender studies courses in University, and we had a lecture where we learned about why her theory doesn't hold weight.

Long story short, I'll provide the most relevant portion here - sexism against women is two pronged, it can be positive or negative (hostile sexism (i.e. women are whores who belong in the kitchen) and benevolent sexism (i.e. women are wonderful, but weak and need to be protected by a big strong man)), so her binary view of how genders are viewed is pretty shallow

Y-you can be masculine and a man without thinking you need to prove yourself by dominating feminine people... Has this author ever heard of positive masculinity, or the Men's Lib movement???

This author is a self described feminist as per Wikipedia, and doesn't even know about the Men's Lib movement?

Hi yeah, so even Butler has moved on past performativity theory as per her latest book which I happen to actually own, and have read. So, you're a bit behind on your theory there buddy.

This is just bullshit.

Wow, you just discovered intersectionality, congrats!

Trans men sharing traits with cis women, cis men, or trans women isn't a bad thing? It's also entirely possible to carve your own space, while acknowledging the shared issues between groups. Yes, trans men (typically) will have a vagina, and can get pregnant and therefore share the need for rights with cis women. But there's still unique issues around reproductive rights that aren't faced by cis women, that affect trans men/mascs, and thus are deserving of conversation in their own spaces.

Strong disagree. There are men that trans men can look up to, who have good values and treat women right. To say that there's no men that trans men can look up to and strive to be like is laughably stupid. I'm sorry that the author never met a strong male role model, but they do exist.

So, in conclusion, this essay reeks of "I went on Twitter, met some assholes, and all I got was this shitty Weltanschauung". His criticisms of transmasculinity, transmasculine spaces, and trans men who talk about rights is completely divorced from how most normal transmasc people talk and act.

There's some decent points in the essay, but nothing you don't hear from actual activists who actually talk about actual issues.

[kandelia-mangrove]

Wishlist/Predictions for season 3 of interview with the vampire (add your wishes in the tags!) 

Lestat's perspective on the trial 

So much is different in the show and the motives for everyone involved in the trial are still SO unclear, I need more!

Lestat's version of what went down in Paris with Nicky and the start of the Theatre de Vampire (like I do think he and Armand fucked, but also way more stuff also happened for sure)

It would be really funny to get some Armand interjections in this portion of the tale

Lestat being haunted by Claudia's ghost in the present!! Also the Past!! He can never know peace!

Daniel and Lestat beefing

Lestat getting canceled (or truly any other social media reference) 

Louis Cameo in the present day (curious to see how they are going to keep him involved since I doubt they will spend a ton of time rehashing their relationship in New Orleans) 

I really need them to have very intense getting back together but also still kinda divorced energy

I’ll also accept cutaways from Lestat doing insane shit to Louis just chilling in Dubai, like reading a book or smth

But also I feel like Louis definitely funded the tour like no way Lestat was up to date on his finances, so Louis popping in as a producer/manager could be fun and cool too

Everyones reactions to the reveal that Marius is alive 

Like I NEED to see Armand fucking finding out Marius is alive because he is crashing set that day and has a catastrophic meltdown about the whole situation

Because the show implied he doesn’t know about it, with the whole “I have the blood of Akasha in me, he doesn’t know who that is” line. 

Also Need Daniel reacting to this information 

Also really want Louis’ reaction, because I genuinely think even during his Hating Armand Hours TM he would still hate Marius for what he did to him

Also, very unlikely, but I think should be explored: the Marius golden child Lestat racism/imperialism dynamics of it all especially with the AMC cast. Like… We gotta talk about it. 

Explicitly GNC, Nonbinary, or otherwise Trans Gabrielle

On that note, very intrigued to see if they will leave in all the incesty bits or just lean into the abandonment vibes 

Daniel has to clown on Lestat for this if they leave it in

Confirmation or Denial of 70s/80s devil’s minion (I just need to know if it happened or not!!)

Also if it did happen: I want some flashes to that era - setting up the night island of it all (just since I think that could be relevant going forward)

I think it makes sense plot and show production wise to have a little reference confirming it did or didn’t happen, but I doubt we’d see any of it if it did happen tbh. 

Great Conversion stuff just happening in the background 

Daniel Vampire phones Louis, and Louis the least curious vampire to ever exist genuinely tells him to just ignore it. Like that bitch is NOT going to help solve any mystery

Lestat telling the story of him fighting and killing a bunch of wolves as a human and Daniel just not believing him (because its genuinely wild)

Loumand Divorce Era

Lestat actually exploring the trauma of his turning (sexual assault)

Vampire Daniel being a vampire and doing vampire things!! 

The in universe reception to the book Interview with the vampire by Daniel Molloy 

Like do people believe it’s real? How has the impacted the great conversion stuff? 

Do other vamps know he is a vampire?? 

Do people think the popstar thing is an elaborate RPF/industry plant thing related to the book? 

I Gotta see some fake tweets about this please

[navpike]

i think quite a few people saying that exu divergence is a bad look after c3 are missing the point a little bit.

first of all: if c3 just wasn’t the type of story you like, that is so fine! it was very high stakes for my tastes, even if i did enjoy it! you can not like something without it being bad! that is how media works. the rest of this goes under the cut for those avoiding discourse

second: yes, c3 was messy, but that was the point! there’s no good answer to “an evil wizard wants to unleash a godeater, and now that he’s opened that door there is no closing it, and if he dies, eventually, now or in a hundred years, someone will replace him, so how are you going to fix it?”

the gang found an answer to the problem that maybe wasn’t the best, definitely wasn’t “””right””” because this isn’t black and white, but that got rid of the predathos problem, took the evil wizard’s control of the situation away, and let the people of faith keep their gods instead of removing them from the world entirely, which is a very cool answer to the issue! maybe its not what everyone wanted to happen, but it is a very creative solution, which is fun and which dnd games lend themselves to.

the point of c3, as i see it, is examining the consequences of a world that the gods have left. it’s been a THOUSAND years since divergence at this point. the gods, while they do act through their people and talk to people, are largely inaccessible to the common folk. and that’s what c3 is all about. the consequences of the gods being gone, shown through a largely non-religious party.

divergence is all about the consequences of the gods being right there, too present and too big and causing trouble and enacting miracles.

of COURSE we see the moonweaver be soft and sisterly and loving in such an overt way in divergence. she’s spent the last couple decades being loved as a mortal sister, loved just for living and loving in return.

and of course in c3 we see them vaguely disconnected and unawares of some suffering on exandria and people committing horrors in their names, primes and betrayers alike. if you got ripped away from your children for a thousand years and could only watch through a looking glass and occasionally talk to a few of them in dreams and visions and cryptic messages? you’d have to stop caring a little too, just to keep going!

the gods were so withdrawn for so long, that has to have consequences. it did. that was all of c3.

bells hells DID speak for the people. people who hadn’t had gods around for a millennia, who get overlooked as collateral in a war about gods, again. they’re not heroes. they’re a bunch of idiots all desperate for a family, who mostly cared if they could save each other, in the end, but who wanted to save others on the way if they could. they’re the people that the divergence gang would grow to be, with power and a smidge of a voice, just minus the real attachment to any gods.

there are so many parallels i could draw between garen and chetney, between the roaches and ashton, nia and fcg. divergence isn’t highlighting a failure on c3’s part. it’s showing the opposite end of the spectrum. distant gods vs overly present gods.

[opinions-about-tiaras]

Thoughts on Dropouts two big game shows and their host:

I get that both Game Changer and Make Some Noise aren't anywhere near as free-form improvisational as they appear. Sam Reich is playing a character in almost the same way Stephen Colbert used to. They edit the episodes, they cut things and move things around, and so on. It isn't straight-up reality show fake, most of the materiel actually is improvised on the spot. The bits aren't rehearsed.

But like... I would bet a lot of money that Sam did not actually trap three people in an escape room; the cameras almost certainly stopped after the intro was shot and they were all asked to give consent to the scenario, for example. You know? For insurance reasons if nothing else.

Having said all that, I've been rolling something around in my head for a couple-three years now... either as part of his genuine managerial and aesthetic preferences, or as part of the bit they're doing, Sam Reich REALLY seems to absolutely hate it, like REALLY hate it, when people get creative with his tasks and prompts, when they deviate from what he is expecting of them.

Which is really weird for what's supposed to be balls-to-the-wall improv comedy.

If he gives people a deliberately free-form task or prompt, he's fine with weird, out-there responses to that. "Sam Says: Go!" and Ally Beardsley is "You tell me to go? Cool, I'm flying to New York City like right now, tonight." But if any of the contestants try and get creative outside the bounds he sets, he shuts that right down.

A number of Make Some Noise contestants have, for example, tried to get clever by violating the spirit of the prompts they're given in order to either adhere to the letter of the prompts in a clever way, or re-interpret them to flip the bit on its head.

Brennan Lee Mulligan is asked to re-create sound effects for a movie clip using old-fashioned foley gear, and instead improvises a disaster sequence that actually does match what's going on on the screen. Vic Michaelis is asked to re-create the sound a musical instrument makes as closely as possible, and instead of trying to do it with their voice, they badger the musician brought in to demonstrate to play it again. That sort of thing.

Those people never, ever win the point when doing this.

Same deal on Game Changer. "Bring me a duck!" Instead of building a pile of boxes to retrieve the pile of rubber ducks that are way up high, the contestants draw a bunch of ducks for Sam and present them to him. They've fulfilled the task as requested! ... and he rips up the ducks and goes "no points for anyone."

Ally Beardsley responds to the prompt "Who can make the loudest noise on a gong?" by answering the question correctly: Brennan Lee Mulligan can. Nope! Shut down hard.

It was the Season 7 premiere of Game Changer that really crystallized this for me, honestly. Vic Michaelis completes the task "Take this standee of Sam Reich to the most remote location you can" by assembling over four hundred TV remote controls and surrounding the standee with them. This is clever, funny, fulfilled the task as presented, and they put in genuine effort to do it, all things you want from a Game Changer task... and Vic loses a point for doing it.

They colored outside the lines and must be penalized for it.

In fact, Reich referred to Vic's responses in a Polygon interview as "irrelevant to what I asked for," which is absolutely not the case for many of them. Sure, burglarizing his home is absolutely not finding the coolest free item on Craigslist. Everything else, though? Nah. Maybe Vic doesn't win the point, but they shouldn't be losing them either.

It's not a big deal, but it's so weird. Like, is he doing this out of a sense of fairness, "I can't give you a point for going way off the reservation when everyone else obeyed not just the letter but the spirit of what was asked." Is it "if I let these guys go any more crazy than they already go this is gonna cross the line from 'hilarious farce' to 'just plain farcical.'"

Or maybe I'm overthinking it, seeing something that isn't there. That's a possibility to.

[tiredfox64]

I was thinking how would Bihan react if he was caught staring at the reader a little to long and gets teased by it from the other guys? Imagine how flustered he would be 😁

I Spy

Prior notes: I just thought about Bi-Han looking at me and idk it’s giving alternative looking at me in the corner of my room.

Pairing: Bi-Han x Gn reader

Warnings ‼️: There’s a spider in my bathroom pls kill it.

You certainly capture the eyes of men. Many different men actually. All kinds of men. The kind, the mean, the strong, the cocky, the calm, and many more. But one man out of the bunch was looking at you for a long time.

Bi-Han thought this visit to the Wu Shi academy would be quick. A quick conversation with Liu Kang that will allow him to be in and out. Of course Liu Kang was nowhere to be seen at first. The only notable person he could see was you. You were in the cooling shade as the wind blew the leaves of the trees which casted pretty shadows all over you.

In that instance he was enchanted by your presence. Your beauty captivated him. It was as if he was looking at a majestic deer calmly move through a mystical forest.

All you were doing was occasionally raking the sand in the zen garden. You were very focused on making the circles clean and precise so you never even knew Bi-Han was looking at you.

There was a perplexed look in his eyes. He was almost observing you. He can’t figure out why he is so drawn in by you. You are doing a menial task. Yet the nature around you was presenting your natural beauty to him with the way the shadows and sunlight danced on your body and the wind glided over your hair.

Bi-Han was so lost in this moment that he forgot that there were others around. He was stuck in a world where it was only you and him. That was until he heard someone speak near his ear.

“What are we looking at?” Asked Johnny

Bi-Han was caught off guard and threw a punch at Johnny’s direction while he luckily avoided this time. He’s not making that mistake twice.

Bi-Han saw that the whole group was near him. Kenshi, Johnny, Kung Lao, and Raiden were staring at him like he was crazy for throwing a punch.

“Nothing. What do you want? Where is Liu Kang?” Bi-Han tried to switch the top immediately but these boys won’t allow him that freedom.

“So you’re not going to acknowledge the fact that you were standing there for a good five minutes.” Kenshi spoke with his usual attitude.

Was Bi-Han really standing there and staring for that long? No, Kenshi has to be messing with him.

“We came over about three minutes in because you would not move. We were even whispering among ourselves yet you didn’t react.” Raiden added on.

Okay so he was just standing there like an idiot. He thought he was there for only a minute how did you manage to make him stay in once place and forget his purpose of being there.

“Well boys, I think I know what’s up with Mr. Grumpypants. He’s crushing hard on our special gardener over there.” Johnny wrapped his arm around Bi-Han which he promptly slapped away.

Like the immature men that Johnny and Kung Lao could be they started letting out a ‘ooo’ like middle school boys would do when they find out their friend has a crush. Bi-Han was shushing them with this somewhat panicky expression. Raiden was trying to hold himself back from chuckling at the fact that this cold-blooded warrior was getting flustered while Kenshi seemed confused by that fact. Kuai Liang and Tomas soon heard the commotion and came over.

“What is the matter, Bi-Han? Did you find Liu Kang yet?” Kuai Liang asked.

“He didn’t find Liu Kang but he found himself a new crush.” Kung Lao made a joke which threw Kuai Liang off. What did he mean by that?

“Are you okay? You seem flushed. Are you sick?” Tomas went to place his hand on Bi-Han’s forehead to check his temperature but he moved away.

Incredible! There is some color on his face. The color of embarrassment. Yes, Bi-Han was blushing at the fact that everyone was teasing him and exposing him. This has never happened before to him so he is unsure of how to solve this.

The only thing that came to mind was use his powers to make everyone back off. In an instance, jagged pieces of ice came out from the ground. They aimed at everyone which made them back up from Bi-Han. They were poking the bear they shouldn’t be shocked that he would pull something like this. Cold vapor was coming off his body due to using his powers and from his frustration.

“You incompetent fools have no respect. Keep your mouths shut!” He barked at them.

The group wasn’t looking at him anymore but past him. He was confused at first before he turned around and saw that you were staring at him with a concerned expression on your face. You were unsure what all the hullabaloo was about and you were now wondering if it was about you since they were all staring at you. You looked at Bi-Han and trying to keep the peace you gave him a wave with this somewhat awkward smile on your face.

Bi-Han had no idea what to do now. A low rumble came from his throat as he thought of what to do. He gave you a halfassed wave before quickly walking off. His head was lowered as he walked off. His brothers quickly left as well to catch up to him. You were left looking at who was still there before asking something.

“Do I need to clean up that ice?”

══💤══╡°˖✧🦊✧˖°╞══💤══

Liu Kang was looking at Bi-Han strangely. He was wearing his mask for no reason while his brothers didn’t.

He can tell by Bi-Han’s body language that he was upset by something. Not an angry upset but an embarrassed upset. His arms are folded and his head is lowered. Liu Kang looked to Kuai Liang and Tomas for an answer but they didn’t want to say. All they knew was that their eldest brother put his mask on to prevent anyone from seeing that he was blushing.

“I’m guessing something happened before you came to me. You do realize how red the tips of your ears are, right, Bi-Han?” Liu Kang pointed out.

Bi-Han let out a frustrated growl before covering his ears with his hands. The look of shame in his eyes was clear as day to Liu Kang. Still doesn’t answer what happened out there.

Kuai Liang tried his hardest not to laugh while Tomas was gesturing to Liu Kang is he could step out. Liu Kang nodded and Tomas booked it out the room so he could laugh.

“You must cool down, brother. Wouldn’t want your crush to walk in at any moment and see how red you are.” Kuai Liang teased.

“Silence, Kuai Liang!”

After notes: He don’t even have a resting bitch face he got a ‘I’m going to end your bloodline’ face. WHO ARE HIS OPPS BRUH! WHO’S MAKING BLUD THAT MAD! It’s me. I’m his opp. Imma flick his ear now. Adiós!

[merrybloomwrites]

Head First, Always

Summary: A night out with friends leads to a chance encounter.

Word Count: 1.4K

CW: alcohol, kissing

AN: Thank you to the anon who requested this one! I enjoyed writing a Smosh story that took place outside of Smosh haha

A fun change of pace to have the reader be a stranger instead of a coworker

Title is an Ian quote from some video where they're all in party hats except Damien who is in an anime costume? Idk, I found it in a compilation and liked the idea of "head first" as like, getting to know people

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After putting on your shoes you look in the mirror, checking your outfit one last time. It's Friday night, and after the long week you’ve had filled with annoying managers and endless meetings, you can’t wait to meet up with your friends. 

You’re headed to Barnaby’s, one of your favorite bars. It’s been weeks since you’ve been able to hang with the girls, and months since you’ve gone to Barnaby’s, so you are extra excited about tonight’s plan. 

Satisfied with your look for the evening, you grab your purse and order an Uber. Twenty minutes later, you’re entering the bar, a few minutes ahead of schedule making you the first of your group to arrive. You quickly grab a high top table and soon are joined by your three best friends. 

You order drinks and some appetizers to share, and start catching up, talking about jobs, movies, sourdough, and most importantly, relationships. 

Maddie is just filling you all in on her most recent tinder fail, when another group starts setting up at the tables next to yours. They’re an eclectic bunch, somewhat rowdy, but you can’t help but notice how attractive many of them are. 

You hadn’t had much to say to your friends during the relationship part of the conversation, not having been in a relationship for over a year now. The last date you’d gone on had been months ago. You were officially in a dry spell. 

Hence why you notice each of the cute boys in this group. You watch them from your periphery, trying to decipher which of them might be single. The blonde ones out, the ring on his finger and the arm around one of the girls are pretty obvious clues. 

The others, well, that’s less clear. There’s a fluffy haired brunette, and you think you hear him mention a girlfriend, so he’s out as well. 

But the brown haired boy with the glasses. By your eavesdropping, you’re fairly certain he is single. 

The goal of this night out isn’t to meet anyone or get a guys number or go home with someone. It’s not what you’re aiming for. But if the opportunity presents itself? Well, you’d be silly to turn it down. 

“That boy is looking at you,” Caroline says. 

You realize she’s talking to you and resist the urge to turn and look at who she means. 

“Which one?” You ask

“What, did you take inventory when they got here?” Maddie asks teasingly. 

“Absolutely,” you reply, feeling zero shame about that. “So, which guy looked?”

“Correction, which guy is still glancing over at you every 2 seconds,” Ellie says. 

You try to keep your cool as Caroline answers, “Shorter brown hair, glasses, brown jacket.”

She’s describing the boy who caught your attention the most. But you need to play it just right, not looking overeager, so you just shrug and say, “Well, I guess we’ll see what happens.”

A short while later, the lights dim and the volume of the music increases, indicating the switch from evening to night. Normally you don’t like when bars do this, but tonight you actually like the change in atmosphere this brings. 

You and Ellie get up to grab another round of drinks for your table. When you get back, you see that Caroline and Maddie have started talking to some of the people from the other group, essentially blending the two parties together. 

You’re introduced to everyone, trying to catch all their names but you admittedly can’t remember all of them. Not when it’s loud and you’re on your second mixed drink. You do remember one name for sure. 

Ian. 

The boy who caught your eye, who had been watching you earlier, is named Ian. Your brain has absolutely filed that away. 

A girl named Angela and a boy named Chance get you and your friends to dance with them, and for a while you get lost in the music, laughing and smiling with the rest of the group. 

You turn, and your eyes meet Ian’s. Feeling bold, you smile, and by the way he raises his eyebrows, you know he got the message. That smile was just for him. 

After another minute you decide to grab some water so you break away and head to the bar. As you wait, you sense another person slide up beside you. Wanting to play a little hard to get, you don’t look at him right away. You wait until the glass of water is placed in front of you. Only after taking a sip do you turn to the man beside you. 

“Can I buy you a drink?” He asks. 

“Sure, that’d be nice,” you reply. 

He orders you another of what you’d been drinking earlier, confirming that he was paying attention to you through the evening. 

The two of you clink your drinks in cheers and each take a sip. 

“This might be forward,” Ian says. “And cliche. But uhm, I couldn’t help but notice you.”

“That’s convenient, because I couldn’t help but notice you either.”

You banter back and forth, neither of you pros at flirting, but that doesn’t matter. Slowly, you get closer and closer, until his arm brushes up against yours. 

It sends a spark through you, and for the first time in a long time, you feel desired. Noticing your positive reaction to the touch, Ian purposefully reaches out again, his fingers gently grazing your forearm. 

His eyes dart to your lips, and as much as you want him to just lean in and kiss you, you’re aware that all of your friends are nearby and probably watching. 

“I could use some fresh air,” you say. 

“Mind if I join you?” He asks. 

“Oh, I guess you can come,” you answer with a cheeky smile. 

The two of you head outside, waking around the corner to stand by the side of the building. You exchange looks, rather than words, and finally, Ian leans in. His hand comes up to cup your cheek, and his lips press gently against yours. 

It’s soft, tentative and sweet. You gently slide your lips together for a while and then it gets heated. Ian places his hand on your hips and gently guides you against the wall. He steps forward, pressing against you, and the soft kisses turn into full blown making out. 

You get lost in it, lost in the feeling of Ian against you, surrounding you. It feels good, and you’re truthfully more than a little turned on. 

It isn’t until you hear the wolf whistles that the two of you are brought back to reality. The previously empty sidewalk now holds your friends, as well as some of Ian’s. You blush at the realization that you had an audience, especially when they all begin to tease the two of you. 

But while you're slightly embarrassed, everyone seems to be happy for you if their smiles are any hint. 

Ian clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the attention as well. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” Maddie says. “But we’re heading to the diner down the street. You guys in?”

After sharing a look with Ian, you both nod, and all of you make your way to the diner. Unsurprisingly, your friends orchestrate the seating arrangement, making sure you and Ian are squished together in a booth. 

But you don’t mind. It’s really not a hardship to have your leg against his, or have his arm occasionally brush against yours. 

By the end of the night you’ve exchanged numbers, Ian promising to call you to set up a real date soon. He waits until you’re safely in an uber before calling one for himself, and texts you later to make sure you made it home okay. He may be some guy you met at a bar, but you’re impressed by the number of green flags you’ve noticed just in that little bit of time you’ve spent together.

Your friends ask why you didn’t go home together, and you try to explain that a one night stand isn’t what you want with Ian. Because he seems like the real deal, and you want more than just one night. 

And when he calls the next day to officially ask you on a date, you know you made the right choice. You’re not sure what the future holds, but one thing is certain: a night at Barnaby’s has brought you exactly what you need.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Thank you for reading! LMK if you have any requests!

[wirewitchviolet]

That thing about 'the arc of history bending towards justice...'

I'm pretty sure I've gone on about this before, and I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir, but I just had a well-intentioned acquaintance try to give an inspirational speech about American trans people's fears right now, and his heart was in the right place, but all his facts were wrong, in some really important ways. I feel like the perspective he has is the same one as... basically every decent person who isn't like, intimately familiar with WPATH, so please spread this around, and please if you only read one rambling history lesson from a trans person about the current state of things, make it this one.

So here's the big problem. Trans people get brought up in the mainstream media a LOT these days, but the framing is totally wrong. The impression people get is that there is presently a big push for new trans rights, where we want proper government recognition, and trans women in particular want to be able to use public women's restrooms, and play on girls-only sports teams, and a dozen other things. That is a lie you are being fed. These are all rights we ALREADY HAD, for decades. Possibly centuries depending what we're talking about specifically and where we're talking, even. The big issue right now is that a bunch of bigots just woke up one day about 10 years ago and decided that nothing else they were angling for was getting them anywhere with the general public, so hey let's make a boogieman out of this minority of a minority nobody knows the first thing about and act like all the horrors they're inflicting are just them enforcing some totally fictional status quo.

Speaking personally, I can say that The Trans Agenda in like 2014 was something like: 1- I'm gonna make a nice big pot of chili. 2- I'm gonna maybe replay some old video games from the '90s I haven't taken down off the shelf in a while. And OK maybe 3- It'd be cool if it weren't just the medical professionals who specifically specialize in trans stuff had enough of an education to know that when there's a difference in how a drug is going to effect men vs. women, it's for reasons directly tied to the levels of various hormones, or would at least trust their trans patients to know what we're talking about and not give us the wrong doses of things and maybe kill us as a result. And also like, treat us for regular things like broken arms (real example) without weirdly panicking about some prescription we're on they don't recognize.

There was absolutely not a point where some trans woman started petitioning the government or whatever to let her pee in a toilet with a little placard of a stick figure in a dress in front. We've just been doing that the whole time. Nobody's ever had a problem with that. You didn't know we were in there? OK. If I'm like at a restaurant and have to use the bathroom, I don't know how many of the other women in there have like, type O blood. I also don't care, and I think everyone would agree it was weird if I suddenly did care, and demand they post a guard out front asking to see driver's licenses. Just completely out of the blue some nutcases from the UK started foaming at the mouth and writing weird tabloid articles about their completely unfounded fears that... I don't even know. Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs might put on a wig and follow them into the bathroom, dose them with chloroform, and drag them to some basement dungeon through some series of secret passages or something.

This was based on literally nothing at all, to be clear. Like, people pushing for this went and did serious research for anything even anecdotal to back them up on this, and didn't actually find anything. Then they started walking into public restrooms with cameras throwing doors open on people and going "see? See? Some creep could totally do this if we don't ban trans people from using bathrooms!" And... somehow this got traction? I figure it's because coincidentally there was this whole other thing going where people were looking at how every building had equal numbers of men's and women's rooms and saying "you know, like, 90% of people who come in here are the same gender and we end up with really long lines, what if we just took the signs down and told everyone to just use whichever?" which... when it's happening at the same time Chicken Little is ranting and raving about the boogieman wearing a cheap wig, wires got crossed? And suddenly we've got waves of legislation passing all over about who's allowed to use what bathrooms with weird standards that'd involve like DNA tests to actually enforce properly. Absurd stuff.

Meanwhile, your average trans activist at the time was just like... sitting there eating a sandwich and going "huh, they're making a TV series based on Fargo? That's an odd thing to happen out of the blue. And yeah we started going "hey, what the hell?" when this stuff started passing because like... yeah that's what you do when you see an article in the local newspaper that says you can't go to the bathroom at work or whatever without swabbing your cheek and waiting for lab results for 3 weeks first or whatever.

Same deal with sports. Major sports organizations like the Olympics have been weirdly paranoid about men pretending to be women since 1950. And there have been, to the best of my ability to research... zero men who have actually done this. And while the weird standards used for this have been used to kick a good number of women out over the years, none of those women have been trans, for what that's worth. Really, the whole gender testing thing has only ever been used for horrifying stuff like forcing women to strip in front of random creeps, or let them do "invasive internal exams" and of course so many incidents where some woman who isn't white wins at something and people move the goalposts to in some way to get her specifically banned. You may be thinking, "wait didn't I just see a whole bunch of news coverage about someone getting banned after some gender testing thing? She was trans right?" No. You're thinking of Caster Semenya. She's a woman. A cis woman. F on her birth certificate, born with standard issue female genitals, has periods, all that. People are just being weird racists there and crossing the streams with random transphobia. That and just... half-reading stories and making stuff up.

To the best of my knowledge, the total count of trans athletes who have competed in the Olympics would actually be... three nonbinary people, who so far as I can tell all competed against people with the same gender they had on their birth certificates, nothing done medically, so, nobody should have any problem there. Caitlyn Jenner, who didn't come out as a woman until like... 40 years after competing, on the men's team, and Laurel Hubbard, the first and only trans woman to compete at the Olympics as a woman, who placed... dead last, flubbing all three of her lifts.

If we just look at sports in general, OK, there WAS one big famous where a trans woman wanted to compete in a major sporting event, was banned from it, took the organizers to court over it, and the eventual ruling was there was no reason at all she shouldn't be allowed to play against other women. Renée Richards. And this was all the way back in 1976. Nearly 50 years ago now.

And of course in more recent years, again, after a bunch of random bigots just completely out of the blue started losing their minds about trans people with no prompting and started lobbying for new laws banning us from all kinds of things nobody had had a problem with us doing forever, there was Mack Beggs, a trans guy, who was forced, by one of those aforementioned baffling reactionary new laws, to compete on his high school's girl's wrestling team. He didn't want to be there, they didn't want him to be there, but the law said hey, F on your birth certificate, we're classifying you as a girl despite how clearly wrong that is. And then there's been a bunch of other weird cases like that like one state banning trans girls from playing any sports with other girls which only affected one single girl in the entire state, who was playing lacrosse on a team that wouldn't have even existed if she hadn't personally organized it.

But the point here is, trans people aren't asking for anything here. We're just standing here, and people are flipping out and banning us from doing all these things without any prompting. And hell, I THINK this one got shot down in higher courts, but when Florida got the brain worms on this and started passing all the anti-trans legislation they could think of, they actually included a ban on us just standing there! The wording was something like (and I apologize that I can't find it, search engines are useless now), "if a child can potentially see someone who was assigned male at birth who is wearing women's clothes, it's considered sexual assault."

It's important to understand what's actually going on here, both because what's going on here is just plain terrifying, but also because there is this huge segment of the population who has this weird idea that people's rights only ever get better, there's just some weird arbitrary ratcheting where you have to take a number and get in line. Like, "hey, used to be only white men could vote, then eventually the Progress bar filled enough that we let white women start voting too. Then we had to wait for it to fill up again, hey, we're ending this whole segregation of black people thing. Gotta give it another 30 years or so to fill up, now hey, gay people can get married! Don't be impatient trans folks, you just need to stay in line and wait for it to fill again for your turn!"

That's not how anything has ever actually worked. It would frankly be absolutely insane if it actually did, but like, this is an idea people get in their heads because history textbooks really like to gloss over all the stuff that makes the country look pretty bad and promote this whole "stuff is just always getting better!" vibe. But no, sometimes, things just straight up get worse for people. Ten years ago I could go to the damn bathroom, I could have social media accounts, I could access all the medications I need to live, I could safely set foot in any given state in the country... at least if I kept some witnesses around at all times to verify I was not in fact hitting on my would-be murderer in any of the black states on this map.

The problem is NOT that with Trump in power, the pause button is getting hit on trans people climbing towards some state of finally getting to be regular people. We were (largely) already there, and there's been a huge push over the past decade to strip that away from us. And Trump plus the rest of the Republican party in general have made very specific promises to make that way worse real real soon, including several things that will straight up kill a ton of us.

Like, when I'm talking about losing access to necessary medical treatments, I'm not talking about "THE SURGERY" and magic pills that give you boobs or beards. A lot of trans people are trans because there's weird medical stuff that in addition to messing with what does and doesn't grow mess with things like whether your blood flows properly and whether various organs do what they should. Just one of those many things the average person doesn't know, because everything written about us is from deranged bigots making crap up.

[utilitycaster]

Not the same anon, but I would be extremely interested in more book recs for fantasy/sci-fi that contain queer romance on the side. Cozy, romance-heavy novels aren't really my jam either, but I do enjoy a romantic subplot in an otherwise non-romantic, intriguing main story.

Sure! This is going to have a bunch of stuff I've almost certainly talked about before because I am on an ongoing quest to read more regularly and don't read as much as I'd like.

If you haven't heard about The Locked Tomb (Tamsyn Muir) somehow, I personally recommend it. It is queer, and there are necromancers and at least some of said necromancers are lesbian and sometimes in space but also it's about resentment, grief, failure, and impossible expectations. I also know the meme-y language in parts puts some people off but I don't mind it, and the later two books have far less of it. Anyway moving on the rest is literally just "stuff from my Goodreads (not sharing, it is under my real-ass name) with a brief note about it." Also I have read the first two books of Dungeon Meshi but getting them out one by one from the library as the series blew up proved tedious so I am stalled out at the moment, but I am aware it gets gay.

Also a couple not SF books that are queer and I still recommend: And Then the Gray Heaven by R. E. Katz is about the surviving half of a nb couple in Florida on a road trip to scatter the ashes of their deceased partner, who worked on museum dioramas. It's short and it's a great read for people like me, who love works about grief and the juxtaposition of humor and absurdity with it, everyone go read it. I also read Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg for the first time last year, somehow? Go read that too. I did not try the recipes for myself but I do recommend you obtain fried green tomatoes the food in some form although probably wait until May or June when they're in season. Finally, I've read the first two books of the Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly which are alternate universe vaguely Weimar inspired but not explicitly fantasy; major gay characters; I need to read the third and it is on a long list of "I've read the first X books of this series and need to finish it bc I liked it." Amberlough especially was incredible imo if uh, a little real at the Present Political Moment.

Queer speculative fiction books:

Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy. Edwardian England where there are magic users; cool leyline stuff; each book follows a different interconnected queer couple (first and last books are M/M, middle book is F/F). These are properly romantasy and the sex is explicit, which I am okay with but if you're not be aware, but also there's a lot of plot going on. I had a great time with these and read all three back to back pretty quickly.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner is book one of a series and I enjoyed it but haven't gotten to the next one (it is on my list); main character is a bisexual woman and hooks up with women, though the main romance is M/F, at least in this book. Also fun if you like books with interesting takes on divinity and killing god.

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandolo - Transmasc Appalachian gothic horror set in the 1920s.

The Daevabad Trilogy and The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty have incidental but thoughtfully portrayed queer romance among some secondary characters but more crucially the clerk of an indie bookstore I love dearly shouted across the store for 5 minutes about how good the latter was and she was right; also, again, not primarily queer but yes primarily mythology of the SWANA region if you would like to shake up the very European/American skew of much of the rest of this.

Starless by Jacqueline Carey. Jacqueline Carey is better known for the Kushiel books, in which she is horny and into Divinely Inspired BDSM on main, and you know what they are super Of Their Time (2001) but they fucking rule and you should read those too. Starless is standalone, in a different world, with a transmasc protagonist and a thoughtful take on disability in fantasy and one of my favorite books I've read in the past few years. The three first books about Phèdre nó Delaunay (starting with Kushiel's Dart) are about a bisexual courtesan in vaguely renaissance alternate universe Europe and I enjoyed them and while the main romance is M/F, the protagonist is, again, a courtesan with partners of various genders.

Lina Rather's Our Lady of Endless Worlds books are novellas and have F/F romance in them; they are about nuns in space and are generally very thoughtful and subtle sci fi.

I've recommended A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine multiple times and I'll do it again, the first book especially; incredibly well done political science fiction with a focus on cultural exchange and a side of F/F romance; beautifully written.

Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer, also incredibly done political science fiction (this set on Earth a few centuries from now), some queer romance but also this series does absolutely incredible stuff re: discussion of gender, also wonderfully written, has stuck in my mind since I read it and I want to purchase the books (I am a library-goer due to Have A Lot of Books In A 1 BR Condo situation but I want to have these on hand).

Winter Tide and Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys; Lovecraft-inspired but with fascinating commentary on the Japanese internment camps of WWII; set in the late 40s/early 50s in the US, some queer side romances (both gay and lesbian).

Machineries of Empire trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee. It's been a couple years and I recall loving these but also they are DENSE and at times, confusing (positive). Military SF, does not hold your hand (I legit would have to look up the plot but I DID enjoy myself, I do remember that), many queer characters, author is a trans man.

Cannot recall if the Southern Reach Trilogy is textually queer? you should still read it, queer people love this book about the fucked up nature place. I haven't read Absolution yet so do not @ me.

Finally, a couple books I didn't super care for but I know have some degree of following that maybe you will like, idk your life:

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Main character is a trans woman violin prodigy; there are aliens and a pact with the devil involved; the problem is the plot is kind of eh and a lot of characters are very one note Good or Evil in a way I found not very interesting.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. This book has an incredible premise, and the writing style is so goddamn dry and cold and fails to give any characters any interiority such that I felt like I was reading the phone book. I literally wish someone who was good at writing had come up with the same idea; I am mad at how poorly this awesome concept (girl ripped from her queer family by homophobic colonists, decides to rise to prominence politically particularly through economics in order to eventually overthrow the government) was executed. anyway Baru is a lesbian and again I want to be clear I have a HIGH tolerance for fantasy/sf with mid prose, but this is uniquely dead on arrival in terms of writing style.

[bonefall]

Is there any one particular bit in Ivypool's heart that really stands out concerning wanting to tackle it in BB (be it lovingly or with violence)?

I'll do you two; a loving tackle and a violent tackle!

VIOLENT TACKLE:

Dovewing and Ivypool do NOT have a good relationship in BB, and furthermore, I absolutely refuse to let Ivypool be a healthy and well adjusted individual at this point in her life. ABSOLUTELY not. The Erins have dropped a raw steak at my feet and given me an opportunity to display BB!Ivypool's Dovewing Derangement Syndrome on full blast and I am shaking it like Whistlepaw shakes a newborn baby.

I was really craving someone on this journey not being patient with Ivypool, and seeing her act unreasonably on her pain and loss.

I wanted to see her get nasty with someone, and have them fight back. I wanted to see someone get angry that she was insensitive towards them when they've ALL gone through similar things. It kinda felt like everyone on this journey was there to give Ivypool therapy, not work out their issues as a group.

For BB, I also want to give Dovewing and Ivypool some soft moments of mutual understanding, but... in the end, they do not reconcile because Dovewing does not want to.

And that's okay.

Ivypool will think she NEEDS her sister and her acknowledgement to move on, to have her accept an apology (which, truthfully, Ivypool doesn't entirely believe in) because it's SOME kind of closure when she won't get that with Bristlefrost... but she doesn't.

Moving on and healing is about the life you make in the wake of that loss. It's not Dovewing's responsibility to give her sister what she craves, it's up to Ivypool to make meaning in her own life. It's about the friends she will find, the wide world there is to discover, and the ways she can make things better for the Clans in Bristlefrost's name.

Even when the bridge is burned... the river still runs.

(As a side note, I've also TOTALLY gotta work in a moment where Ivy and Dove come across their mom, Cinderheart, while she's out traveling with their aunt/stepmom Fallenleaf. This is the perfect opportunity for Ivypool to let out a bunch of anger she has towards them, but also have them get a little involved in the new supernatural stuff!)

Special mention to the Sisters stuff; in BB they are not Evil Neglectful Bad Moms Who Hate Men. Beach and Slate will be tweaked. I am already imagining a scene where Rootspring gets to have a Cool Older Brother moment and show off some cool tricks he figured out with his talisman.

(in BB, the male sisters don't genetically inherit the ability to see ghosts, they have a special necklace crafted for them that lets them call spirits without the need of a large group.)

(Slate also will not be needing a rename, because Slate DOTC has a full name now-- Slate Keeper. I'm still working on her, but she's essentially The Wind Runner's secretary.)

POSITIVE TACKLE:

DEFINITELY the "River of Souls," along with StormClan and the Wildcats. I'm still wary of the Wildcats and the way the Erins could possibly dip into some weird "genetic superiority" stuff in the future, but they actually did a pretty good job introducing them!

I love the way that Wildcat religion is essentially that everything is connected by three elements, and that their unique belief system allows them to travel between afterlives. I adore this so much that I'm going to start thinking of the various "afterlives" in BB as having a primary element which influences how they behave.

Silverpelt and Skypelt are primarily Wind-Element systems. This makes them mobile and powerful, but highly subjected to the whims of the living.

The Tribe of Endless Hunting is primarily a Water-Element system. It's a very present element, flexible and easy for individuals to access while also allowing spirits to interact with the mortal plane.

The Guardian's Firmament is primarily an Earth-Element system. They require setup and investment on behalf of their followers, in return for giving worshippers a very powerful and intimate connection to the land.

All afterlives contain a mix of elements, but have "affinities." I also immediately saw a juicy opportunity to introduce the idea that Wildcats dance around addressing "fire" as an element, considering it forbidden, or at the very least, wild and unpredictable.

One Eye, who created the Dark Forest as a curse, is a God of Summer. So the Place of No Stars is absolutely a Fire-Element-- and I'm going to keep it loose until I understand what that looks like better. I want to save a little bit of wiggle room for future Wildcat appearances.

I'm also warming up to the idea that the Sisters have some Wildcat influence. I'm probably going to adjust their lore a bit to make them a mixture of Tribe culture and Wildcat culture. I've got a budding idea that, because Wildcats are rare and their population is scattered, they have a sort of concept of like... "Making A Home Where You Are," no matter where that is, or what culture they become part of.

So I like the idea a lot that this "river" is part of that. They maintain a connection to each other, across distances. The Guide of a Wildcat kitten is their mentor, both in terms of spiritual and physical training.

I'll also be needing a new name for this rework. Part of me really wants to call it "Ivypool's Loss," both for the angle of grief and also for the meme lmao. But, "Ivypool's Catharsis" also works very nicely... and if I go with "Ivypool's Awakening" the abbreviation is IPA and I can make beer jokes.

[justatypicalwizard]

Meta-isekai | K. Bakugo ✧ Act II Scene I

-`♡´- In which Bakugo gets isekaied into a shoyo romance. -`♡´-

Peak stupidity ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

Act II ༊*·˚

Scene I: Winning the martial arts competition (easy)

ʚɞ “Okay, so you said I’m a part of the martial arts club, yeah?” Bakugo whispered to The Cat sitting on his desk. He was currently getting ready for school and scheming the first move in their big plan.

“Yes, and there’s an upcoming event connected with it today.” The Cat answered, its tail drawing lazy circles in the air behind it.

“The school sports day, I’ve heard about it from others. I learned that the previous Katsuki signed up for tug of war.”

“Yes, but because you haven’t been to a training yet you don’t know that in the morning, during the sports day, you will be competing against other schools in the finale of the regional martial arts cup.”

This made Bakugo turn around and crook a brow. Getting to kick some asses early in the morning only to get to kick more asses in the afternoon? What a pleasure.

“Not a problem.” He shrugged.

“It will be extremely important. The school didn’t really gain any significant wins for a while now so everyone is rooting for your club to break the hoodoo. With my boost to luck Crush will also be watching.”

“Not a problem.” The blonde repeated turning back towards his wardrobe.

ʚɞ Certainly, winning the martial arts cup wasn’t a problem. Bakugo, although trained in many forms of contact force, refreshed his memory on the rules of the particular style that he was competing in. Finding the training clothes in a locker at school he went to extra-early training just before the cup. It was mostly good stretching, briefing about the strategy, pairing and rules, as well as some light combats to get the team into a fighting spirit.

ʚɞ Some of the faces of his teammates looked familiar, as if he saw them previously. They must have been people from his UA but from other classes, that he only passed on the corridors. Anyway, they all seemed to get along well while not being too intimate with each other.

ʚɞ Curious students quickly filled the gymnasium. Most were from UA, but there were also a bunch from other schools as guests cheering for their players. It was getting louder and louder up to the point when the overlooking coach began the competition.

ʚɞ No all of the present competitors were actually taking part. Some of them came as substitute players, others weaseled their way in to skip school. The chosen group was fairly slim, Bakugo being one of them.

ʚɞ All of his combats went quite quick, no one standing a change against him. It made the crowd cheer every time he stepped onto the mat. People pointed fingers at him, girls whispered and dudes clapped their hands loud every time he won.

ʚɞ When the cup was over, the medals were handed (gold for the blonde) and respects were paid, Bakugo got swarmed by his teammates and their friends.

“How did you do it? Did you get superpowers overnight?” One of his teammates laughed.

Some of them started to point out how shaken they were with his form. He was good, that’s why he played a part in the finale, but not that good! At one point the discussion got loud and out of Bakugo’s control. They started asking questions.

“I trained at home.” He gave them a white lie. He did train at home - back in his universe, with the thought of encountering actual villains, being in danger and relying his life solely on his skill and power. They didn’t need to know that part.

“Soo cool! Did the coach help you?”

“No, I’ve done it by myself. Just did some research.” He shrugged it off.

“But why didn’t you tell us?” Another one of his teammates, a rather thin guy who sat the whole tournament on the bench, asked.

This stirred some interest. You could have trained with us. We would all get better. You could have at least showed us where you learned all these things so we could try ourselves.

“Have you done it to be the best? Behind our backs?” The thin subsidiary crossed his arms on his chest.

All of them looked his way. Some had eyes wide, the thought never occurred to them but now, when it had been said aloud, it was the only scenario they could think about. Others glanced away and clammed up, they seemed to have expected it. Did the other Katsuki have had some quarrels with them before?

“Tell them you trained to impress someone.” Suddenly, Bakugo felt a weight on his shoulder. The Cat’s whiskers tickled his cheek. “She’s watching.”

From the corner of his eye he saw her, the Crush. Indeed she was standing with a group of friends, the same from the classroom Bakugo noted, and listening to the conversation. The quarrel must have created a small commotion. 

Bakugo shrugged to get The Cat off but it clawed his collarbone making the boy bite the inside of his cheek not to hiss in pain.

“Say it!”

“Is it true? Did you do it to outperform all of us?”

“Say it, she’s watching!”

“Don’t be silly, you’re accusing the person who gave our school a gold medal of training on his own, in his own free time? If anything, you should be ashamed you didn’t think about it yourself.” A guy too tall for his own good (and his back) smirked and pointed an accusatory finger towards the slim subsidiary.

At that time nobody, including Bakugo, knew that the tall guy, in a green shirt with the number 10 on the front and back, was a secret fan of the explosive blonde. The previous Katsuki might have recognised him. Number 10 tried to join the martial arts club but his physics were not the best for such a sport. The coach did try him out but soon they both realised he was not meant to be. At that time he shrugged it off as too-tall-for-this but in reality he was too-lazy-for-this.

Number 10 was not eager enough to overcome the weaknesses that made him a mediocre individual sports’ player. Instead he opted for disciplines where one competed with a team, a team that would make up for his imperfections. He was fine with it. He was tall and had long arms which gave him a headstart in basketball. Still, Number 10 admired people who could become stars on their own. It was a jealousy free type of admiration. Adding his natural nonchalance to the mixture, he had no problem standing up for Bakugo.

“I’m not even surprised he didn’t tell the team. Everybody knows that your manager has a boyfriend in a different school and she tells him all the juicy stuff. If I were Bakugo I wouldn’t want the enemy team to learn about my technique either.”

Another thing that nobody, including Bakugo, knew about Number 10, and what saved the day, was that he was a massive gossip.

“That’s true. Sorry.” Someone caught up with the basketball player and the air shifted from anger and disappointment to cheers and back slaps once again. 

“So, did you really train on your own to win for us?” His teammates pried.

“Hah, as if I ever told you nerds!” He clicked his tongue but smirked.

It was not meant to be mean but cocky, playful. The blonde had no clue what the other Bakugo was up to but now he was in town and he will simply be himself until he achieves his goal. Grabbing his water bottle he sprayed some of it on his hand and combed the wet fingers through his hair making it slick for a moment.

“I’m out.” Bakugo threw over the shoulder as he turned towards Crush as her group of friends only to walk through them with a short glance her way. It made everyone turn around a watch as he exited the gymnasium into the sunny day outside.

Katsuki didn’t know what happened behind his back, whether they were still looking the way he disappeared, if they were talking between each other about him, did the girl blush even? It didn’t matter though, he’s done his part and done it sharp, on point.

The Cat sat on a fence in the distance, its lazy swaying black tail caught Bakugo’s eyes. It gave him a thumbs up. 

Tag list: @ita606 @blueberrysoaps @bakunianadecorazon

[rc-catalog]

At long last, we finally commence the Creator of the Month event! Without further ado, we present to you a short interview with @webanglikethat, March COTM winner, from which you can get to know her better. Congratulations JB!

Enjoy!

INTRODUCE YOURSELF

hi everyone!! I’m really exicited to be the first creator to be represented 🥺 you may call me JB and I’m 19 years old! I go by she/him pronouns and I’m a desi italian 🫶🏽

WHEN DID YOU JOIN ROMANCE CLUB?

2022-11-04, which I could’ve never guessed! I thought I’d started playing mid 2023. according to my gallery, my first stories were chasing you and heaven’s secret! the fandom I joined way later, and that’s how I never understood why sometimes my choices were ‘free’ aka Diamond Rush – I thought I bypassed something 😭 seeing the reddit fandom explained a lot haha ! 

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN CREATING?

for the RC fandom specifically, I started creating in May 2024 when I made a Ram edit! before that, I was mostly posting about RC on my Instagram stories and editing them, sharing my thoughts, and occasionally ranting about the characters. I actually had another Tumblr account before this one, but it was focused on different fandoms. at some point, I stumbled across the RC Tumblr community, and at first, I just lurked, reading posts and getting a feel for the fandom. I loved seeing everyone’s discussions, edits, and writing, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump in just yet. eventually, though, I decided I wanted to be part of it, so I made this account for two reasons: first, to fully immerse myself back into Tumblr (aka I forgot the password to the OG account lmao / but I did remember it!), and second, to actually engage with the RC fandom rather than just observing from the sidelines.

in general, probably since I was 11-12 for the kpop fandom, which I’m still actively doing !! my passion for creating just keeps evolving and it’s crazy how the things I started with have led me to where I am now !! I’m always pushing myself to try new things and level up my skills and the way I express myself has definitely evolved over the years. I started off with small edits, and random posts, and over time, I got more confident in sharing my work. I’ve written a bunch of poems, edited a lot of stories/videos and I’ve picked up moodboards and graphic design again! the RC fandom has been such a fun and welcoming space, and I love being able to contribute to it (✿◠‿◠)

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST EVER CREATION?

for the rc fandom? it was a ram video edit (insert link) but if we are saying in general, it was probably one of those kpop profile pictures with heart crowns lmao! I was 11 or 12, experimenting with filters and thinking I was so cool — looking back at it now, it’s cringy, but it was the start of everything. and who says cringe can’t be good? normalize being cringe !! normalize growth !! those little edits sparked something that I’ve carried with me ever since! after that, I started making moodboard edits for kpop artists and umh, here I shall expose myself just for you guys lmaoo. these are the first few “'edits”’ I found from my archived posts (no, I never finished teen wolf …) (yes, I still make seunghyun content).

CHOOSE 3-5 OF YOUR FAVOURITE WORKS AND RAMBLE AWAY!

there’s a lot of creations that I’m thinking of! one of the hardest was probably the two part web weave I made of cainlane for a friend at the time, but it’s definitely not my fave

my jayniecarter web weave is a really important creation for me. I don’t remember exactly when I got the idea, but even within the first five episodes of 7B, Jaynie’s storyline hit me hard; her role as the oldest and only daughter that everyone relied on and how everyone just expected her to push away all of her plans to be there to fix the problems caused by everyone else. there was something so raw and so real about her struggles and the way she carried so much weight on her shoulders, often without acknowledgment that it made me really pause. it was supposed to be a funny little story but it turned into so much more. I found myself deeply relating to her — her imposter syndrome, her sense of responsibility, and that feeling of being stretched too thin while trying to be everything for everyone. some chapters were genuinely difficult to read because they felt so personal, almost like I was looking into a mirror. at first, I wasn’t sure how to process those feelings. it’s one thing to read something that resonates with you, but another to actually put those emotions into words. that’s when I started thinking about the best way to express it, and I landed on making a web weave. I’ve always loved the way web weaves allow for layered storytelling — how they can bring together different pieces of media, emotions, and themes into something cohesive. it felt like the perfect medium to explore Jaynie’s journey, not just as a character, but as an experience that so many people can relate to. I started by gathering all my screenshots — Carter scenes, moments where Jaynie’s imposter syndrome was on full display, her struggling with the expectations placed on her, and the way she felt like her first year of college wasn’t turning out the way it was “supposed” to and that the experience had been robbed from her. from there, I began thinking about songs and other pieces of media that resonated with those emotions. I wanted to find lyrics that captured that overwhelming pressure of being the person others depend on, that deep-rooted insecurity of feeling like you’re never quite doing enough, even when you are. the process was honestly a mix of research and instinct—some songs immediately came to mind because they just fit, while others took time to find. I also pulled quotes from books, movies, and shows that carried similar themes of responsibility, burnout, and the complicated emotions that come with being an eldest daughter. one of the best song to describe Jaynie and Carter imo is ESOEMOEHOED by Leanna Firestone, so that was the first thing I did, along with 'this is me trying’ by Taylor Swift. some of the photos included are actually taken by me! there is a quote by a book I really like, 'Final Offer’ that made it into the final draft “You always deserved better than me.” / “No. I deserved better from you.” aside from the angst, I also wanted to portray the amazing love a sister has for her brother, so I looked through my pinterest board and found comments people, mostly sisters, left on how they loved their siblings, how they felt like they didn’t exist until they arrived. while Jaynie and Carter’s journey is undoubtedly hard and complex, that doesn’t erase the love, and that was something I wanted to make sure wasn’t lost. one little detail I really liked was, when choosing Hansel and Gretel photos, they were always holding hands! and isn’t that siblinghood? holding hands through all of the shit the world puts you through? the certainty of that warm hold? honestly, putting the web weave together was both fun and unexpectedly emotional. it was therapeutic in a way I didn’t expect and I’m glad it also resonated with the ones who saw it!

My Nova and religious guilty web weave: this one was something I planned almost from the start! I started playing wt:c for my friend andy’s birthday so she could finally talk to me about it. the obvious religious guilt / religious trauma topic stood out to me and I began gathering screenshots as I played. as a girlie who can relate to those kinds of feeling, I was sooo excited to edit this !! from the start, I knew I wanted to turn this into a web weave. I started reading articles, researching people’s thoughts on reddit / quora / any website of that sort, trying to gather their feelings. one of the best sources was an article that began with

'Let me ask you this — have you ever felt like faith was supposed to be a comfort, but instead, it turned into a burden?’,

written by Gary L Ellis. I read that and thought, damn I struck the goldmine! I’m heading in the right direction! honestly, this one was easier to edit because I already had a lot of photos of this topic saved from my previous luke castellan web weaves and some genshin screenshots (the wanderer’s iconic line of 'the first to betray me was a god, my creator … my mother’). it was also easier because I had been gathering screenshots as I played instead of thinking about it later. that saved a lot of time. another line that really fit perfectly was

“I was raised Catholic,” he began. “But you’re not now?” the judge asked, frowning. “No,” he said. He had worked for years to keep the apology out of his voice when he said this.”

and that made me even more excited because everything was fitting together so well !! another obvious source was going to be, 'Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’ by Taylor Swift, a song about grooming and religious guilt which ugh, Nova would SOOO relate to. overall, I believe this took me less than a week to edit! maybe 3-4 days? I was so excited that I stayed up late editing, and I’m honestly really proud of it. I’d love to make a part two in the future!

my jaynie-ray web weave: it’s been a long time coming – is how I would describe this one. I made it for the catalog’s 14 days of love event and I knew I wanted to choose these two for the platonic prompt. their relationship is so important to me 🥺 their bond is not just a promise of 'I’ll be there’, it’s a certainty. it’s something so much deeper, that it’s impossible to unravel. my main source for this one was my favourite book, 'Happy Place’ by none other than my mother Emily Henry! if you like crying and found family, give it a read ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧ what really stuck with me, while reading about Ray, was the way Ray’s story doesn’t just expose the pain of being kicked out but also highlights the power of acceptance!! I can’t even begin to explain how much that meant to me. so many stories about queer trauma focus solely on the suffering, and while that’s important, 7B goes beyond that. it doesn’t just show the pain of rejection but it shows the love that comes after. the way Ray finds a new family, a new support system, people who actually love and accept them, is so important. because yes, being rejected by your family is devastating. but what makes it bearable is finding the people who choose you. I wanted to make their relationship justice and hopefully I did <3 I once again used photos I took myself (the quote from the seven husbands of evelyn hugo) and honestly, this one was so easy because I can relate to their friendship as I’ve found it in my best friend Kelly, and I already have like hundreds of photos/quotes/media pieces saved on friendship and found family! honestly teared up a few times making this.

my audrey-deviya web weave: I could not answer this interview without mentioning my wife deviya, could I? this one is recent, so you’d think I remember how or why I made this but honestly, my memory is really bad! I think I screenshotted a few things while playing the old abh update and I was like, wait, that’s sacrificial lamb coded! and who is THE original one? deviya. I knew in that moment I wanted to connect their journeys, to depict their roles as both a weapon and a shield, as a human but also a tool. there were many similarities. – one of the most painful ones was I noticed how both of them die/almost die feeling like they hadn’t lived enough. there’s this lingering sense of unfinishedness, this deep grief over the life they weren’t allowed to have. it’s heartbreaking. their stories reinforce the idea that their blood is almost worth more than their existence, that they need to bleed in order to be important. this was a little harder to edit because I had to go through abh walkthroughs on youtube because I had never screenshotted her dialogues from this point of view! my friend vee was kind enough to send me a few screenshots she had, which saved me so much time !! and they were SO helpful too, I could build a whole edit out of them alone. aside from gathering screenshots, I had no issues because sacrificial lamb is part of yet another pinterest board I have. I hope I did Audrey justice! I’m not an ABH girlie, my focus is on KFS, so hopefully I got her character well !!

now that I mentioned sacrifice and blood, I HAVE to talk about Amala. so I have two versions of my Amala web weave; purple and red. this one I made because I was joking in a discord server about how I was going to make a web weave if my friend Mira (@a-cloud-for-dreams) wasn’t gonna stop sending sad Amala screenshots. we were all joking around until I was like, well … eldest daughter angst? and every other desi girlie in the discord server was like WELL YES ! so I immediately started editing cause when you get a bunch of girls asking you to do something, you do it (follow for more life advices).

I felt a lot of pressure making this one because it had been a while since I played KCD and I had never closely looked at Amala’s character. Mira was able to give me 99% of the screenshots included in my post and, while I struggled with Amala’s character, I didn’t struggle with her characterization – does that make sense? she’s the eldest daughter who takes care of everyone, who puts her own needs aside and is struggling between her indian and english side (something that sooo many immigrant children, me included, can relate to). from there, it was easy to gather photos because again, I have a bunch of pinterest boards on topic of being the older sister, the third parent and the immigrant guilt! I had the most fun editing the last photo !!!

I’m very shy about my writing so I purposefully decided to highlight my webweaves 😭 but here are some of my fanfictions: -> if you wanted avery to be a love interest, I got a fic for you ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧ The taste of your lips is my idea of luxury is one of my proudest works. it was hard to get Avery’s voice right because he has very little screentime (I screenshotted every scene in which he spoke) and at some point I gave up, so if you find it OOC just close your eyes lmaoo. -> did you want Vyxaria to talk to Walter about Xantheia? do you cry to peace by taylor swift? don’t look further then! Lonely winter, cradle my heart explores angsty Vyxaria -> do you instead want to break your heart by having unrequited!Walter and brokenhearted!Vyxaria x Xantheia? Thalassophile, do you remember our crestfallen hearts? awaits you ! for more, look at my masterlist!