#I haven't understood if I liked it or not but... am I supposed go on now

[kuromi-hoemie]

feel like I've genuinely spent at least a quarter of my day too horny to think. i was going to do some kind of art today but I've been thinking about the boy...

[larmegliamori]

Forward the Foundation? More like Brokoro my Kokoro

[batsplat]

can we have a conversation about how much ktm is in shambles? cause i’m hearing they’re having so many problems financially and apparently even technically. it seems like they got stuck from the start of the season and they are just not progressing. i get that the last few circuits weren’t stop and go circuits that ktm prefers but the performances were really worrying. now, no offense to binder but he clearly has no backbone, but pedro already scolded them this weekend because they are not working the way they should, is there a chance they finally decide to take a risk and develop a project around him? because i feel like that’s what they need to do, a bit like yamaha or honda did for vale and marc. also i’ve thought about the fact that a lot of ktm engineers are leaving ktm for honda, if honda is actually working on a good project for 2027, is there a chance that perhaps a rider like pedro could get them out of the hole they got stuck into? cause i think that would be very interesting to see. of course only if he decides to leave ktm which i hope he doesn’t cause i’d like to see him become the first motogp wdc winner with a ktm. also i can’t really see where else he could go if one day he decides he’s unsatisfied with ktm

love asks that clearly come from the heart. I've been holding off on being too mean about ktm because in a way I do want to save it for after the NEXT race. we're in austria now!! ktm's home race! which they've actually been remarkably successful at, given they're the only non-ducati manufacturer to ever win in the modern iteration of this race in the premier class - first in that quirky last corner shoot-out courtesy of oliveira in 2020 and then in that bizarre slicks in the wet performance by binder in 2021. which, okay, unusual races and all that, but it's a track they should be doing well at!! binder got two second places here last year. if they flop here, then the alarm bells will really be ringing

I guess we can get into an argument about what 'flopping' would even look like. it's entirely plausible that, hm, the first 4-5 slots at minimum are locked out by ducati again - honestly, at the minute another ducati podium lock out feels like the expected scenario. I have heard there's a decent possibility of rain on sunday, but by this point of the year I've been promised rain quite a few times so I'll believe it when I see it. if it rains, sure, anything's possible. a positive result for ktm right now would probably be... a podium, right, which in itself is pretty damning - how are ktm still this bad at actually winning races? last year, binder got a podium at silverstone, which isn't a massively ktm-friendly track. this year, they didn't get even remotely close to that. the ktm defence argument goes 'well, look at what everyone else is doing'. silverstone is a very aprilia-friendly track and they had a pretty disastrous weekend themselves this year. the less said about the japanese manufacturers, the better. but... well, ktm was kinda supposed to take it to ducati this year. they finished last year on a very promising note, with what really should have been a 1-2 at valencia. (the fact that they didn't convert on that maybe should've gotten some alarm bells ringing about the ultimate potential of that rider line-up, but let's not get into that.) after binder's performance at qatar, ktm surely should have been determined to be in the title hunt. they are extremely not in the title hunt

the thing is, anon, ktm does know that pedro is their title winner. the idea of 'developing a project' around him is tricky - because to the extent that ktm is capable of that, they will do it!! they're not going to develop the bike in a direction that suits binder over him, for instance, or completely disregard his feedback or any of that. manufacturers can struggle with being reactive enough to rider concerns... my sense is that ktm likes to throw a lot of stuff at problems, it likes to flex its muscles and use a lot of data and come up with big update packages and all of that - and for all the progress they've made in their bike development, clearly all is not yet well on the in-season development front. (cf the whole chattering thing that ducati has gotten a handle on and ktm hasn't.) manufacturers do sometimes have a tendency to believe they know best and not listen enough to their riders, especially when there's a disconnect between the riders and 'the factory' that's actually designing the bikes. yamaha is an interesting example of that at the minute, where a lot of their current problems are so long-running that you can find their roots in stuff jorge and valentino were complaining about YEARS and years back. they've become a lot more reactive in recent years and did do a lot to tackle fabio's complaints about the bike's top speed... but by that point, they were in such a hole that just 'fixing the top speed' really wasn't enough to actually make a competitive bike. still, part of the reason why fabio's decided to stick with that project is he feels like yamaha is finally listening to him - and if they'd lost him, they'd really be fucked, so that has to count as at least a little bit of a W

in terms of the valentino and marc comparisons, they are just about different enough that it'll only take you so far. with valentino, the simple truth is that nobody today could do what he did for the yamaha project in 2004. he couldn't do that nowadays; it just isn't possible for a rider and his team to make that sort of instant impact anymore. motogp is so different now, with all the aero and devices and all the other stuff casey hates. the balance of power, if you will, has shifted pretty decisively from riders to engineers. also, valentino by that point was a fair bit more experienced and a lot of the credit has to go to his even more experienced team for what they were able to do with yamaha's carte blanche. a rookie, however gifted, just won't be able to provide quite the same level of direction. with marc... well, the honda was fantastic when he showed up! best bike on the grid! it's not exactly an analogous situation to pedro in that what honda needed to do was 'keep being good'. they did listen to marc's feedback and it did bag them enough titles to make it worth their while, but it also did not send their bike down a particularly happy development route for anyone else riding that thing - which ultimately as a manufacturer is not a situation you should want. honda was already losing the development arms race to ducati in the late 2010s, but giving marc a fast if capricious bike and relying on his natural talent to ride around the issues managed to disguise the problems for a while... or at least make them hurt less. all in all, I'm not really convinced 2010s honda is a model anyone should be particularly interested in copying

what ktm should do is listen to pedro, obviously. I assume they're already treating him as their championship contender elect, but if they're not then, yes, they'd be idiots. and given how long it took for them to actually confirm his place in motogp last year, I am open to the possibility that ktm are being idiots here. whether there's a workable system in place to actually make use of that feedback and continue to progress is more open for debate, and that's kinda what pedro went to the factory to check in on. pedro today was talking up a "big, big step" in the coming few races, in part due to the impact of their two test riders and the more ktm-friendly circuits to come, so it'll be interesting to see if it lives up to that. beyond that, who knows? ktm does have money and resources and a track record of success outside of motogp to give it faith, but of course this year has been a disappointment. (quick note: I have seen the stuff about ktm being in trouble financially and obviously that would massively change all of this, but at this stage it's quite hard to judge how seriously to take that - so the rest of this ask will assume that ktm will continue having a lot of money at its disposal. if they don't, my analysis is that they're probably fucked.) the first bit of the season made everyone doubt whether the bike was actually better than thought and the riders were simply not taking advantage of it - which a few signs last year like 'surely dani shouldn't be this competitive' and the whole valencia thing already pointed to. now, it's definitely less competitive than last year and even their superstar rookie can't do all that much with it, so that's not great. they do have a little time to play with here, but not that much. pedro's signed for 2025-26, but if ktm doesn't start next season more competitive, it won't take long for him to start looking around. and even though you can't do valentino 2004 things in quite the same way anymore, this is clearly going to be a project that needs an alien-level talent to actually get it over the line. they've kinda managed to fail upwards into a very strong set of riders next year and they should be able to extract a lot of them for bike development purposes, but also their rider management has traditionally been godawful so it remains to be seen how that'll work out

that being said, pedro will be fine! I mean, idk if he'll be ktm's first premier class world champion. if I had to put money on it, I'd say it's pretty likely, yeah? but the 'where would he go' thing isn't really a big concern. all the big names have kinda hunkered down (as have the teams who signed them) with two year contracts that take us very neatly to the next rule cycle kicking in, which everyone expects will majorly shake things up. while this whole japanese manufacturer situation is massively annoying, I would be shocked if at least one of them aren't regular race winners again in 2027, and hopefully will already be so before that. most manufacturers except maybe honda have at least one star rider they're intending to be a title contender in 2027, and ducati has two. they probably won't all stay in the same place (even if they all remain reasonably healthy in that time) and there's bound to be at least one manufacturer hunting for a big name. pecco will be in his late prime and possibly grey-haired, god knows what state marc will be in *taps wood*, we have no idea how the whole jorge aprilia situation will work out. maybe yamaha will be so competitive again that they actually decide they want TWO riders fighting it out for a championship and we get a proper throwback in blue to the good old garage cold war days - which is where my imagination sadly fails me because I can't picture fabio putting up a wall or yamaha not sucking. maybe, like you say, pedro is just what honda needs to... well, honestly I don't think he could get them out of this hole - but perhaps in a couple years time when honda is looking healthier again, he's the kind of rider that could make it a title winner again. it'll be a new world! if pedro is as good as we all think he is, then obviously any manufacturer would be thrilled to get their hands on him, not least to deprive the competition of having him. how old will he be in 2026? about nine years old, I think? if I had to guess, I do kinda see him being a title contender around 2026-ish, because I just can't quite picture ktm making the necessary leap by next year so 2026 feels like a good way of hedging my bets and trusting his sickening levels of natural talent to make up the bike difference. one of my big remaining doubts is... well, it's actually been quite a while since a new manufacturer has won a rider's title. the last time was ducati way back in 2007 when they nailed the new regulations cycle and also kinda lucked into signing the casey stoner, but ducati had already been regular race winners for quite a few years before that. capirossi was third in the championship in 2006. I suppose aprilia got vaguely close in 2022, but that was a chaos season we don't have much reason to expect to see a repeat of any time soon, and in the end they also didn't get that close. ktm really needs to be getting into race winning form soon if they want to be thinking about titles. it's ridiculous that it's been over three years since their last win in the dry, and nearly two since their last win full stop. if I were them, I would maybe consider winning some races, instead of continuing to lose them idk. let's see how they do on sunday, eh

[berryz-writes]

Forgive me?

Theodore Nott x reader

Summary: You and Theo are in an argument and he tries multiple times to apologise (it works eventually)

I looked at Theo from the corner of my eye, hoping he didn't notice that every time he looked away I'd look at him, making sure his injuries weren't too serious. Just because I was angry at him and just because the reason he was injured was his own fault didn't mean I had stopped caring. Matheo who was explaining the next game's quidditch tactics to Theo punched him on the arm, grinning at something he said.

"Don't punch him so hardly! He's just had his arm fixed" As soon as the words were out of my mouth I couldn't help but regret them. I was supposed to be ignoring Theo not fucking defending him for no reason.

His eyes flicked from Matheo to me in an instant. His blue eyes glinting with amusement. "Stopped ignoring me, sweetheart?"

I clenched my jaw annoyed at myself for my stupidity and idiotic way of ruining things.

"I was talking to Matheo, not you" I tried to save myself. Well it was true. I may be talking about him but it wasn't to him.

His smirk dropped, sadness overtaking his expression "I've apologised. So many times y/n. What else do you want?" I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted everything to finally be ok but it wasn't. Not until I thought through everything.

I shook my head "It's been one day. When we decided on a break it was indefinitely" I was going to add a sorry at the end but I didn't. Because he didn't deserve a sorry right now.

I stood up leaving him to eat his breakfast in peace, finding comfort in the library with Pansy cheering me up.

*The next day*

"And will he make it?! YES! OF COURSE HE DOES! THEODORE NOTT OF SLYTHERIN FINISHING THE GAME WITH AN ASTONISHING GOAL. There you have it! Slytherin has won by one hundred and fifty points! Of course Hufflepuff stood no chance of winning when we look at the logistics-" Laughter rung out across the stadium at Lee Jordan's commentary but before he could carry on Professor McGonagall took the microphone away.

I watched as Theo flew around the pitch congratulating his team and doing a few loops in the air. He liked to show off and I didn't blame him. It was mostly due to him that we had won so greatly and of course this would mean another party in which I would wake up the next morning regretting my actions. Oh well. Who didn't love a party? Both teams were slowly descending down to where Madam Hooch stood with her arms crossed ready to shout at Malfoy who seemed to have not understood what it meant by "playing fairly". He had hit and injured a good few players in the process, even Matheo who he currently was annoyed at. Great person to have on a team.

I shifted my gaze back to where Theo was before but he was no longer there. I looked around and saw him talking to Professor McGonagall still on his broom. What was he doing? He took the microphone from her hand and turned to face me, the love with which he looked at me obvious however far he was.

He brushed a piece of hair away and spoke into the microphone, his deep voice amplified "Congratulations to Slytherin. I just wanted to make a quick announcement that I wanted you all to know. I am currently dating y/n who as you all know is the prettiest girl I've ever laid eyes on. I haven't spoken to her in two fucking days and it's killing me so please, forgive me sweetheart." He gave the microphone back to McGonagall as she berated him for swearing. He shrugged innocently and flew toward me. My heartbeat increasing as the distance between us decreased. Half the crowd had already left, either to mope over their loss or to prepare for the party while the other half was whistling and cheering. Their voices were all a blur as I focused on one person only.

He finally reached me, hopping off his broom he stood in front of me, his eyes piercing me. "Forgive me?"

I smiled up at him. He was too perfect to deny. I nodded my head, he took this as a sign to lean down and place his perfect lips on mine, his hands coming to rest on my waist.

Stepping back, the crowds noise suddenly sounded ten times louder, everyone was cheering while Pansy and Astoria were grinning like crazy next to me.

"You better treat her right from now on" Pansy said, her smile dropping and her eyes suddenly turning icy.

"I will. I promise"

[reareaotaku]

Sick, Sick, Sick

Summary: You and Mike have become really close and Eleven is seething with jealousy Pairings: Yandere! Mike Wheeler x Reader TW: Cheating?, Slight Angst

It kind of just happened; You and Mike getting close. You weren't trying to 'steal' him from Eleven, but that's how she was seeing it. When you thought about it, you guessed you could understand why she thought that.

You and Mike rarely had any conversation. Maybe the occasional 'Hello' or 'What's up?' but that was very rare. You were both paired for a project in your science class. It was a big project that was worth 65% of your overall grade. So, you two had begun to spend a lot of time together.

But nothing was going on. You were just hanging outside of school on the weekdays. It's not like you took up his time during school or weekends. Until, he did start hanging out with you on the weekend. 'I just want to get this project done quicker, so we have more free time.' You understood and part of you thought it was smart. But then things took a turn.

----

Mike saw this as the best thing that's ever happened to him. He has had a crush on you for years, since he was a kid. Sure, maybe he had a girlfriend, but she could never replace you in his heart. He knew it was wrong and shitty, but he couldn't help the way he felt whenever you were near.

He couldn't stop that light feeling in his stomach when he saw you. He couldn't help the way his cheeks would brighten when hearing you talk. He couldn't help the knots in his abdomen when thinking about you. The feelings were overwhelming and they were starting to get out of control. He knew that Eleven could see it, but for some reason it didn't bother him like he knew it was supposed to. There was actually a part of him that was hoping she'd break up with him.

Thankfully, that moment came sooner than later. He and Eleven were sitting in his room and he was putting some notebooks and such in a bag. She looked at him, confused, before questioning his eagerness to get away from her.

"What are you doing?"

He looks up at her, surprised. He had momentarily forgot she was in his room. He looks away for a brief moment, before looking back at her. "Uh, I'm going to Y/n's tonight for our project. Got to finish all the notes."

"You've been spending a lot of time with her, Y/n."

He looks up, pretending to think, "Huh... Yeah I guess I have. Haven't really thought about it."

She frowns, glaring at him as he continued to get his stuff together.

"You barely hang out with me anymore."

He finally looks at her, really looks at her, "It's a big project. It's worth over 60% of my grade-"

"You've never cared about your grades before."

He rolls his eyes, pushing a hand through his hair, "You're just jealous."

She scoffs, taken aback, "Excuse me?"

"You're jealous that I'm hanging out with a girl that's not you-"

"So what if I am? I'm your girlfriend."

"Yeah, well maybe if you're so jealous another girl hanging out with your boyfriend, maybe you should find a guy who doesn't hang out with girls."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

He frowns, pausing his movements, "No.... But- Maybe we should take a break."

Eleven frowns, rubbing her eyes to try and stop her from crying. "If that's what you want." She quickly stands up, before leaving his room and slamming his door.

----

"You and Eleven broke up?" You looked over the male, surprised. You had never thought they'd break up, because they were so close. They seemed like a perfect couple. Guess everything wasn't as it seemed.

"Yeah. Well, a break, but we all know that's just a nice way for breaking up."

"God, I can't believe it. You both were attached at the hip, especially a few years ago."

"Yeah...." He looks away, trying not to think about it. He didn't want to think about his crush on you. He had liked you when he first met you when he was 10. He remembered it so well; You were a new girl and he noticed you immediately, I mean how could he not? You were absolutely stunning and realizing this he knew you would never talk to him. He was a loser and you quickly fit in with the cooler kids.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He looks back at you, shaking his head, "Sorry did you say something?"

"The billboard, we need to put all the information on it and we should be done with this project."

Mike frowned when realizing your time together was about to come to an end. He liked being around you and without this project you would never even breath the same air as him, much less look at him.

"You know, when I first met you I thought you were mean."

"What?" He looked at you confused, as you put the billboard down and some markers. The bed dips under your weight and Mike can feel his stomach drop. "Mean? Me?"

You look over at him, blushing, before pushing some hair behind your ear, "Yeah. I thought you and your friends were so cool-"

"You thought WE were cool?" He scoots closer to you on the bed, his eyes widened as he points to himself, "Me?"

Your blush darkens, "Yeah. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn't think you'd want to talk to someone like me. I kinda thought you would think I'm... well... a dork."

"Someone like you? What?" He rubs his face and you can feel your ears darken in embarrassment, "We all thought you were so cool. We were-ARE losers."

"I don't think you're a loser."

He stops for a second, smiling at you, "Well- I don't think you're a dork."

You let out a chuckle, looking away from him, "Trust me, everyone thinks I'm a dork."

"Why would someone think you, the coolest person ever, are a dork?"

You blush, before getting off the bed and going under your bed, before pulling out a big box. "I hide this every time you come over."

He looks over at you confused, before you pull off the top. Inside are dozens of comic books that were in sealed bags. He goes to the floor, pulling out some of the comics, realizing some of them were collectibles.

"Oh my god? Is this the first issue if Batman?"

"It's signed by Bob Kane."

His eyes nearly bulge when seeing that it was indeed signed by the co-creator of Batman. "Oh, my god. This has to be the coolest thing in the world."

You blush, twirling a piece of your hair. "There's some other comics, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Daredevil, Some Marvel Comics and Teen Titans."

"Those aren't very girly comic books." He says it offhandly, not meaning anything by it, but when you don't respond he looks up at you, to see that you weren't looking at him and your face was downward.

"Yeah... That's kind of why I don't have them on display."

Mike is quick to backpaddle, "Oh, no! I didn't mean it like that. These are really cool. I've never met a girl that like comics."

"Well, it's not like girls can just walk in there." A shiver runs down your spine, "Those guys have never seen a girl." You shake your head, "We should probably get back to the project."

---

His eyes follow your every movement. You had been quiet since showing him your 'secret'. Though, Mike didn't think it was an embarrassing thing. In fact, he thought it made you cooler in his mind.

"So... Comics huh?"

You don't look at him, just continue to write on the billboard, as he finishes the notes, "Yeah..."

He hummed in thought and decided to ask, "Do you know about D&D?"

He saw you freeze out of the corner of his eyes, before you slowly turn to him.

"D&D? Dungeons and Dragons the RP game where you create characters and play in a fantasy world?"

"Yeah!" He lightens up, forgetting about his project and getting closer to you.

"Nope. Never heard of it...."

"Really? Hmm.... That's to bad."

"Why?"

"Well, it'd be nice to get a new face in our D&D Games-"

"You play D&D?"

"Of course-"

"God, you are such a nerd," You chuckle, covering your mouth.

"Well, you're a nerd, too."

"I've never played D&D before, though-"

"But, I bet you just haven't found anyone to play with."

"Well, I'm looking at an anyone now, aren't I?"

He smiles, practically nose to nose with you, "Yeah... Yeah, you are."

----

"And then she threw it on the floor and it blew out the floor," You laugh, shaking your head, as Mike listens intently.

The past two hours you both kept getting closer and closer, when you start whispering. It was as if you were both sharing secrets that only the two of you knew. It was like you were the only people in the world and Mike loved it.

"Oh? I bet your mother wasn't happy."

Your shoulders tighten, as you look away from him, your head leaning forward and you lean on Mike's shoulder. "She was livid. God, you should have seen it." You take your head off Mike's shoulder and you make eye contact with him.

You both stare at each other, before you both slowly lean in. You close your eyes as you feel his breath on your lips, nearly touching. It felt like a million years before he was finally on you, lightly kissing you. It felt like the graze of a feather, soft and silky. He pulls back, but only by a few inches, before kissing you again.

He couldn't believe that he was kissing you. He had liked you for so long and here he was, on your bed making out with you. If he told his younger self, he wouldn't believe it.

There's a loud smushing sound as your lips collide and mesh together. You feel his slender fingers grip your face as he continued to suck your face. As much as you were enjoying his lips on yours, your mind went towards El and you quickly pushed him off.

He looked at you confused, but before he could ask you what's wrong you ask him to leave.

"What?"

"Can you please leave?"

He's confused and he wants to ask you about it, but you aren't listening. You just keep telling him to leave. He's disappointed, but he listens and grabs his stuff. He wants to bash his head with a brick for his stupidity. He knows he fucked up, but he doesn't know exactly what it was.

You frown, still sitting on your bed, rubbing your face. You had no idea what you were supposed to do. Eleven already didn't like you and thought you were trying to steal her boyfriend and she wouldn't be happy if you had kissed Mike. Granted they were on break, as far as you knew, but you know you'd be mad. God, what were you going to do.

[atlasscrumpit]

Yandere Hannibal - Part 2

(I had multiple requests for a second part, so I didn't directly answer just one ask)

You laid next to Hannibal, your head on his chest.

You had no idea if this was enough to stop him killing your friend.

"We can figure it out." You whispered as he ran his hand through your hair.

"I suppose we can..." He replied as you sighed in relief.

"You mean it?" You said, not looking up at him.

"Yes, my dear. She won't be harmed."

--

Hannibal hated lying to you, but he knew there wasn't any other way.

You wouldn't ever understand why he had to kill your friend, or even the lengths he had to go to stop everyone from finding out about you.

Hannibal read a book while your head was on his lap, he gently ran his fingers through your hair.

You caught a glimpse of an article in the newspaper that sat on the coffee table.

You slowly sat up and looked at it.

"Chesapeake ripper..." You whispered as Hannibal looked at you before gently taking the newspaper.

"That was foolish of me to leave that out." He said as you looked at him in shock.

"I thought...you weren't killing people anymore." You whispered, Hannibal looked into your eyes, his emotions impossible to read like always.

He reached forward and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear.

"I always enjoyed your innocence and loyalty, my darling." He said as you stated at him in betrayal.

"You...it was her wasn't it?" You whispered, tears forming in your eyes.

His hand moved to the back of your skull, gripping your hair.

"I don't expect you to understand."

You stared at him with wide unblinking eyes.

"You promised... You promised." You whispered as he smiled..

"I never made a promise, my dear. There's some things I need to do in order to protect you. I can see the defiance building in your eyes, the same as when you first came here, the same defiance that I had to...go to extreme measures to get rid of. Do you want to go back to that, Y/N?" He warned, his eyes and voice cold.

You stared at him, remembering the endless manipulation and abuse you had endured.

"I may treat you well now, but that can all go away depending on how you act right now. I care about you, darling. But, I can easily break you down into nothing again. I can remind you that I am not a loving partner but a killer who has conditioned you into the perfect companion. So, I suggest you choose how you react to this very carefully."

You were frozen in fear, staring into Hannibal's eyes, remembering the pain and fear you had been subjected to.

"I'm sorry." You whispered, looking into his eyes with desperation.

"I'm...upset that you lied to me and that you didn't care about what I wanted." You continued as he smiled and released his grip on your hair.

He held your cheek in his hand and leant forward.

"It doesn't matter what you want, Y/N. You are here to be mine and that is it, or have you forgotten?" He said.

You felt tears in your eyes as you looked at him.

"N-No... No I haven't." You whispered as he rubbed his thumb against your cheek.

"Good... Now, lay back down and forget about this conversation." He demanded as you nodded and slowly rested your head on his lap again, staring at the wall in thought.

"If I hear about this one more time I won't hesitate to leave you out in the cold, chained up like a mutt. Understood?" He asked, gently playing with your hair.

"Yes, I understand."

[cloudsmateria]

college roommate - leon kennedy x reader

nerdy!reader x leon kennedy

synopsis: you and leon have just started university, finding yourself in the same university visit, he comes and visits your dorm as he's been struggling in his classes. you kick it off, and you invite each other into your different, interesting lives.

words: like 4500

disclaimer: this isn't proof-read and i actually do need to proofread it and i will when i finish it, this also isn't finished. so if u don't wanna read it now and wanna come back to it when it's pristine and complete be my guest, the edit of this will be very edited like literally whole chunks of texts will be different, i just wanted to post something

content warning: kissing, bit of angst, slight smut/almost smut, sexual themes

A loud knock rings through your door, if it had come even a second later you wouldn’t have heard it at all as you were on a one-way path to passing out on top of your notes. 

“Come in.” You mumble, picking your head up off of the desk and watching as a dirt-blonde hunk of a boy you don’t recognise comes through. Maybe it’s one of the frat boys trying to get to know all the girls in his dorm house. 

“Hey. Can I ask a favour?”

“Who are you?”

"I'm Leon, I saw you in my engineering lecture the other day and you looked like you understood what was going on. Then I found out you were in my university building. So here, I am. Help. Please. I’m going to fail and we’re only 3 weeks in." His desperation makes you laugh, something you were shocked you could do in this dazed state after a mind-boggling 8 hours of completing work.

"Oh Leon, I'd love to but I think if I even think about that engineering class for another second right now I might actually drop down and die."

"It can wait, you busy right now? Other than you know, spilling drool all over your papers?”

“Yeah, I was just about to go spill some on my pillow too, I'm exhausted." You say, not entirely joking, and begin to gather your things.

“I get it.”

“We have another engineering lecture tomorrow anyway so you can just catch me then."

"You sure, though? I mean I'm already here." He shrugs and picks up a book from her bookshelf. "How do you read any of these? There are no pictures." You laugh again. 

"You're asking me how I read physics books when you take engineering… Are you sure you picked the right course? You know, you can read it if you want, and would probably benefit from it. If you can even read."

"No thanks, I'll just get you to teach it to me tomrrow. I’ll see you in a bit, Einstein.” 

"You should watch what you call me if you want me to tutor you, that’s usually not free."

"Oh, but the thing is I don't think you're actually going to make me pay for anything. You're too nice for that."

"That's a very bold statement to make to a stranger."

"You'll come round eventually."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Can I just ask you another question? I'm not going to stop annoying you until you answer it the way I want you to."

"Go on." You sigh.

"Have you eaten today? Cause I haven't and I'm hungry."

"Leon-"

"Please."

"Okay, okay, God, you're persistent. Gonna give me a headache." You groan and sit up.

"It’s worth it, you'll need me to keep you sane later in the year."

"Oh really? You think we’re gonna stay friends that long?"

"I know you've got your nerdy brain, but I've been told I have a great personality." You can't tell if he's implying something with that disgustingly stupid joke or if he really is just an idiot. To be fair, he's funny and managed to pull you out your the room you had been hibernating in for the past few days to get ahead of work. You suppose there are worse people you could be forced to talk to.

"Whatever. Just get out of here." You push him towards the door.

"You're not going to eat with me?" You roll your eyes and lock the door, getting dressed into something that wasn't your pyjamas.

…

Now here you were, eating outside with this boy from your lectures when you had just wanted to be at home sleeping. Although it was nicer than you thought it would be, he had insisted on buying you an energy drink to keep your eyes open as you were eating in some random burger shop.

"How come you're struggling?" 

"Been going to too many parties, I've got different priorities."

"..."

"What?" He says defensively.

"Don't make me slap you. You can't be stupid because you got into this university, you're wasting your potential."

"I am not!"

"You're struggling! We're only 3 weeks in! I mean, come on, Leon."

"I don't understand what your problem is, maybe you need to live a little."

"That is rich coming from you. You're going to peak in college and fuck up the rest of your life if you ruin your chance now. And I live fine right now, I go out often enough and put the rest of my time toward my course, like a responsible human being."

"So you're boring?"

"So you're an idiot and can't plan for the future?"

"No, I'm not." He smirks. "And also, I never said I couldn't plan for the future, just that it isn't the only thing I want to focus on."

"Okay, fine, that's it. This is your problem, I'm not tutoring you."

"Got under your skin?" He smiles.

"I'm serious. You're smart if you got into this school, but you're wasting your talent partying and sleeping around."

“You’ve only known me for 20 minutes and you’ve managed to start an argument.”

“I just don’t want to waste my time. If you want me to help with assignments you need to make an effort, and if you want to be my friend, you’re also going to need to make an effort because I’m not going to care about someone who can’t even care about themselves.”

"I care about myself. Why else would I come to you for help on this?"

"Because you can't do it yourself and your friends are too stupid to ask them for help."

"No... Well... Okay fine, yeah that sounds pretty accurate. But in all honesty, I do care about my grade, that's why I'm coming to you. Now you know my intentions, I beg talk about something else, this entire conversation is reminding me of my mom."

"Like what?"

"Like, there's a party next Saturday, and I think you should come with me. You’re pretty entertaining."

"Oh, Leon. You're so clueless, it's pitiful."

"You have to go to the party, it will be fun."

"I have been to parties, I've gone to 2 since the start of the semester. But we have assignments to work on this week."

"One more little party isn't going to kill you. It'll be good, and then we can do the work."

"That's a very backward mindset." 

"You'll thank me, trust me."

"You say the reason you’re struggling is because you’re going to many parties, and immediately proceed to invite me to a party." You shake your head and laugh. “You are something else.”

“So are you coming?”

“I’ll think about it.”

… 

You and Leon had been going to the lectures together ever since, having lunch at points when he wasn’t hoarded by his friends and even managing a few study sessions into his schedule. You came 5 minutes early for the engineering lecture the next day. Flipping through the textbook notes to top up on your pre-reading beforehand, you had right at the back as Leon begged you to over text the previous night to sit there rather than the front so he’d feel comfortable sitting next to you. It doesn't take long for people to start filtering in, and eventually, that blonde-headed boy pops up next to you, leaning his head on your shoulder immediately. 

"Didn't get enough sleep last night." He mutters.

"Up studying?"

"You know me so well." 

“I'm not even going to ask what you were doing." You sigh, fully believing he had either gone clubbing or to another party last night.

"I promise you, I was studying. And you can ask me all the questions you want, I'll try my best to answer. I did go a little off track and I'm not doing well at it but your inspirational speech convinced me to try a bit."

"Really?" You ask excitedly, looking down at him. "Leon, that's great!" You feel his cheeks crease into a smile against your shoulder at your enthusiasm.

"You're more excited about it than I am, that's cute." He chuckles. "Keep talking, my head hurts, your voice helps."

"The lecture starts soon."

"Don't care." 

"I’m not going to talk over the lecturer." You say, flicking his forehead.

"It's just a lot, okay? I'm trying my best, but I might have reached my full capacity last night." He sits up and sighs, rubbing his temples.

“Welcome to university."

"Yeah, whatever. Can we go back to your room after?"

"Sure."

"Thank you."

"Of course." 

The professor finally steps into the lecture hall, and everyone quiets down, preparing for the lesson.

Halfway through, Leon couldn't help but pass out on you again. Your body went rigid, trying to make sure his head wouldn't fall off your shoulder. You pick the paper off of his desk, dragging it toward you as you start to write notes on your own and his paper so he won't miss out on anything.

He's surprisingly cute when he's not cracking annoying jokes and snapping back with snarky remarks. He was even making you lose track of the lecture a bit.

After class, you wake him up and walk him back to your dorm with him, chatting and catching him up on what he missed briefly. When you think about it, you're surprised you only met him yesterday. He feels like someone you've known since secondary school, or maybe he just treats everyone this way. Either way, you wouldn't complain about spending time with him.

"So, we're alone. What do we do?"

"Study?" You say, throwing him a pencil and paper. "Don't ask me stupid questions like that again."

"Come on, we just got out of an hour lecture, we basically already studied."

"A lecture that you slept for half of-"

"And that you caught me up on after."

"We need to make up the time. Now come on, let's work."

"But-"

"Now, Leon."

"Ugh."

…

The next hour wasn't as bad as you had expected it to be, you could still get your work done while simultaneously teaching Leon that content he missed out on. His demeanour quickly became enthusiastic when he saw how proud you were when you understood a concept, and you were genuinely impressed, he caught onto things quickly. After an hour, you both took a break sitting on your bed, him replying to some messages on his phone.

"Hey." You say, poking his arm to draw his attention.

"What?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Making the effort to try, even if it is just a little bit."

"You're definitely making more effort than me." He smiles, leaning his head on your shoulder again.

"If you want to sleep you should just go home, you must be exhausted."

"I'm not leaving you in this depressing room, I'm keeping you company."

"I’m not keeping you from anything? Your phone was blowing up a second ago I assume you have somewhere to be."

"They can wait, I want to stay around for a bit longer. I like the change for once."

"Change?"

"It's quiet, I can think for once. You’re different from the people I’m around smart and stubborn,”

“So you’re aware of the poor choice of people you hang around, you had me fooled for a while.”

“Wait I’m not done, and even after all of that, I can tell that you're a little shy which is adorable. Oh, and my favourite part is how easy you are to annoy."

"I am not."

"You're blushing right now, I can feel your cheek getting hot. Adorable."

"Don’t you even close your mouth?"

"You know I can't, come on, it's not like you mind."

"Oh my god."

"Admit it, I'm fun to be around."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Tell me what you think of me."

"What?"

"Tell me, come on. Please, I'm dying for validation."

"Well. You're nice, and I've never seen you without a smile on your face, it's refreshing.”

“A little more… I know you got it in you.”

“You're not as stupid as you make yourself out to be,. And I honestly can't tell if I'm special or if you treat everyone else this way because you make me feel way more important than I really would be for someone like you."

"You're special, trust me. And that's a stupid question to ask. Do you want a list of the people I've met? The people I’ve made friends with?"

"What?"

"I can count on one hand the real people I've managed to keep around and one of those is my dog. Don't worry about that, because I know you’re gonna be on that list too. I know you think that I have so many friends and I'm surrounded by people all the time, but they're all fake. They're just fun for parties and clubbing when you have nothing else to do."

"But-"

"It's true." He looks at you, his expression becoming serious for the first time since you've met him. "And I've got to tell you, you're different."

"Different?"

"Yeah, you're interesting. You're not fake, and you're actually doing something with your life."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, I think you’ve just surrounded yourself with one particular type of person, and now you’re shocked when you meet someone who’s not an idiot."

"Come on, I've seen the work you've done in these past 24 hours. You were working for at least 25 of them.” 

"You know how to flatter me."

"That's another reason why you should hang out with me more."

"Oh, and why's that?"

"I'm not afraid to admit how much I like you, Einstein. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it?"

"I can't even think about what I should say to that." You say, laughing and burying your head in your hands. "God, you're a mess."

“I suppose, yeah. You’re changing that though.” He lifts your chin up to face him, smiling at your red cheeks. “See? So cute.”

"Why do you have to keep saying things like that?"

"Because you react this way." He grins.

"I hate you."

"Let me ask you something again. Are you going to go to the party on Saturday?"

"I don’t think so."

“Since I’ve got the chance, I think I can change your mind.” He smiles and pulls your face a little closer, close enough for him to feel your shallow breaths against his lips.

"I-" You can't find any words, you're stunned. He's gorgeous, and you can't deny that, but the idea of kissing him feels wrong, you can't do it. Not right now. The thought of getting with someone you're starting to have feelings for is setting off alarm bells, the alarm bells imprinted by your bad experiences from secondary school of guys playing with your emotions. No matter how much your heart is screaming you want to, your mind is screaming no. 

"You're gonna go with me right?" He whispers.

"Okay." You say hoarsely, your legs desperately pressed together.

"Good girl." He smiles, getting up and putting his shoes on. "I'll see you on Saturday." He says, before leaving.

"I'm screwed." You mutter.

… 

Saturday finally rolled around. You weren't even sure how much time you spent with Leon the day before, but you knew you wanted more.  This was starting to become a concern for you. You remember last year, when you were hurt so bad you pledged to never fall for someone again. You can't do this, not with him. You know Leon is exactly that kind of guy, he’s charming, an athlete, with too many friends for his own good, someone who has no reason to be associated with you unless he wanted something, and was patient when it came to getting it. 

And yet, here you were, wearing a simple little black dress and the heels Leon said would match. You pray that the feelings are cut off here, hopefully he sees you as just a friend and just likes to tease. But a little part of you has a sliver of hope that maybe this is real.

Leon came to pick you up from your room, as he was only a floor away. When you opened the door you were met with Leon dressed in a black bottom down with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up which definitely made you feel some kind of way.

"Leon, hi." You say, overly aware of the fabric hugging your skin, you rarely wore tight clothes. 

"Wow." His eyes were stuck to everything that wasn't your face.

"Hey! My eyes are on my face, not my chest."

"I know."

"Leon!"

"Just admiring the view." You ended up crossing your arms to try and hide a bit of your figure.

"Can you stop looking?"

"You look great, don't worry." He says.

"Whatever."

"No, I'm serious. I mean it, you look amazing. Just relax and have fun, okay?"  He puts his arm around your waist, pulling you close. "You look hot. And it's only going to get better. Just try to have a good time, I'll be by your side the whole time.”

"I've been to a party before, you don't need to baby me."

"I know it’s just this one is a big one. They always end in a mess. I've had a couple of close calls with the police."

"That's not what I'm worried about." I'm worried about what I might end up doing with you, she thinks.

"Just tell me if anything makes you uncomfortable and we can go." He smiles and leads you out of the dorm building and into the street.

"How far is it?"

"Only a few minutes away." He says, leading you along the sidewalk.

The walk wasn't too far, it was about 20 minutes of you both drinking from a wine bottle for some pre-game. Time seemed to fly by as you came to the house. Whoever was hosting this party, probably one of Leon's friends no doubt, was rich. The house was huge and the whole thing was vibrating with the music that blasted through it.

"We're here."

"I think it’s going to collapse.."

"Wait until you see inside." He grabs your hand and drags you in, the house packed. You didn't recognise anyone and felt a little intimidated as Leon led you through the crowd of people, pushing them aside. You couldn't believe there were this many students in the town.

He stops at the kitchen, handing you a drink. You hadn't gone to a party this big before, and that was voluntary, this was just too much. You drink it in one to hopefully get you drunk enough to gain a bit of confidence and hand it back to Leon for it to get refilled.

"I didn't know there were this many people here."

"There's usually a lot." He smiles, handing her another drink. "Don't worry, I'll be with you the whole night. You take a shot before starting to sip on the more tame drink Leon had gotten. 

"What do you want to do first?"

"Let’s go find some of my friends.He says, taking your hand and dragging you through the sea of people, most likely dancing, grinding, or drinking.

He pulls you into the living room, finding his friends from one of the lectures and joining in on their conversation. You're introduced and you talk with them, they're all quite funny and sweet. You were happy to have found a fun little group.

The rest of the night is spent with them, the five of you getting progressively drunker and drunker and talking about more and more stupid shit before someone suggests the group should go and dance, you immediately go and hide behind Leon. 

"Dancing is definitely not my thing." You whisper.

"You have to come."

"No way."

"Please." He says, looking into your eyes.

"Why?"

"I want you to."

"Leon."

"If you hate it, I'll make it up to you. Please." He whispers, and you sigh, giving in. "I know you'll enjoy it." He smiles and leads her by the hand into the living room where everyone is.

"Everyone's too drunk to be paying any attention anyway." He says, and the group joins in on the dance. 

After a few more drinks the alcohol started to hit.

"Isn't so bad, is it?" He says after the first few minutes, watching you find your rhythm.

"No, it's fun."

"See, told you."

"Don't let it go to your head, I'm just drunk."

He smiles, spinning you so your back is pressed against his, the two of you continue to dance. He leans down and kisses your shoulder, wrapping his arms around your waist and grinding into you.

"Leon-"

"It's hard to control myself with you, almost kissed you that time I convinced you to come to this party, could tell you weren’t sure though."

"Because I thought we were just friends."

"That never lasts long, does it? Did you really think it was going to stay that way forever?" He says, running his hand down your thigh.

"We're drunk." You mumble, leaning your head back onto his shoulder. God, you wanted it. You were trying with everything you had to rationalise with yourself. He knew what he was doing.

"That doesn't change the fact that you're irresistible. And that's not the alcohol talking. I've been wanting to do this for a while."

 He smirks, spinning her back around to face him and lifting you up, your legs wrapping around his waist.

"Let's go upstairs,"

"Leon-"

"Shh." He puts a finger over her lips and leads her away, finding the stairs and walking up. “Stop doubting yourself. One thing about you is that you always say no, or doubt yourself, let’s change that for once.”

He takes you to the first room he finds, happening to be a bathroom, opening the door and stepping in, kicking it closed and locking it. He sets you down and starts to kiss you, the alcohol making it a lot more forceful than usual. You kiss back, letting him guide you and set the pace, his hands sliding over her body. 

"You're so fucking beautiful." He mutters, his lips trailing down to your neck. You feel the pressure of his hands pushing you backwards. Your back hits the counter, he lifts you up and settles himself between your thighs.

"Leon-"

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure? About me?"

"Yes." He smiles, lifting his head. "Now stop doubting yourself, will you? You're too perfect for that." If you were sober, your mind would've had red lights blaring, trying to protect you, but the alcohol flattened out all thoughts. A hint of doubt crossed your mind instinctually. But his touch is so good, and he's making you feel things that you haven't in a long time.

"I-"

"Come on, tell me how much you want me."

"I really like you, Leon. It's just...I have this feeling that I'll get hurt."

"What are you so afraid of? What can I do to change your mind?" He whispers. "I'll do anything for you." He says, pulling your head down to kiss him. The sweet nothings bring back some bad memories, it's starting to feel a bit like deja vu.

"I've been hurt before, Leon."

"What's his name? I'll kick his ass."

"It was in high school, but it happened too many times."

"You have to stop thinking, just focus on me, okay?"

"Leon."

"Come on." He sighs, pressing a finger to your lips. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. I don't want to lose something because someone in your past ruined everything for you, okay?"

"I don't know."

He sighs. "Do you wanna head home ?"

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not upset. Come on, I'll take you back."

"I didn't mean to ruin the night."

"No, I'm not letting you leave thinking you ruined it. I'm sure a million more parties are happening this week if you feel so bad."

"I'm a mess, Leon. Why do you even like me? I'm not worth it."

"Of course you are." He says, cupping your cheek."You're the only person I can stand to be around for hours while sober. And you can't argue with that."

"Okay."

"I'll get us out of here and you can crash in my room."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now come on, we're leaving." 

...

The taxi ride home was short and sweet,  but still awkward. You were scared he'd be mad at you for ending the night so abruptly, but when you got into the room he made sure to put his arm around you, whispering reassurement into your ear, stroking your hair.

"You don't have to worry. I'm not angry."

"Really?"

"I don't blame you for wanting to wait."

"It's just, the last time-"

"I'm not him, you can trust me. I've been trying to prove that to you."

"I think... Maybe I can learn to trust you."

"You will, eventually." He says, holding his arms open, gesturing for her to cuddle with him.

"Thank you."

"Anytime."

You cuddle him for a bit, the silence being cut by the sound of the two of you breathing. Leon leans down to kiss capture your lips softly, it feels a lot easier to kiss him back, pressing your body against him.

"I don't know why anyone would ever hurt you." He whispers between kisses. "You're perfect." He runs his fingers through your hair.

"I don't know about that."

"I don't know why you doubt yourself either. Go to sleep, you'll feel better in the morning."

[antianakin]

I found this on Tumblr and wanted to get your thoughts on it. So, that quote was from The Acolyte that the head witch lady says to Sol, and I knew that some would reference Anakin and Order 66 because of that line. But, I wasn't expecting them to mention that scene with Qui-Gonn.

Also, I don't know why some would compare Qui-Gonn to Sol cause Sol was overly emotional. He was impulsive, insistant on Osha to be his padawan, and wasn't composed. Qui-Gonn was more put together, and he spoke with reason even when he was denied by the council. I just can't wrap my head around this. The jedi aren't supposed to be emotionless. They just can't let their emotions mess with their judgment, right? So, why make Sol like this?

I have no idea what the "choice" thing is about lol, I'm not sure I want to know given everything I already know about this show.

I feel like I've made my thoughts about Acolyte fairly clear at this point. It's not shocking that there's a direct reference to Order 66 that condemns the Jedi and blames them for their own genocide. Headland has made herself EXTREMELY clear in basically every interview I've seen of hers where she discusses the Jedi and her ultimate thesis about them in this story. This is why I boycotted it and will never try to watch it even after it ends. Nothing in this show is meant for fans like me because I am not going to find it compelling or interesting or enjoyable to watch. I'm willing to bet every single person who loves Acolyte and thinks it's incredible probably hated the Obi-Wan Kenobi show (a show that was intentionally trying to feel like the Prequels and refuses to place the blame on the Jedi instead of Anakin himself), so whatever. I got mine.

As for Sol and Qui-Gon, they're not basing him on CANON Qui-Gon, they're basing him on FANON Qui-Gon. They obviously think that it's canon Qui-Gon, but it's not. Sol is based on Filoni's Qui-Gon, the Enlightened One, the man who was the embodiment of What a Jedi Should Be specifically because he "defied the Council" and was labeled a "maverick" as a result. People have taken the fact that Qui-Gon questions the Council somewhat regularly and decided this means that Qui-Gon like... understood what being a Jedi meant BETTER than the rest of the Council and that the Council's version of being a Jedi involves suppressing/repressing your emotions, so therefore Qui-Gon doesn't do that.

Some of this is also based on the fact that Qui-Gon believes Anakin was the Chosen One and the Council seems a little skeptical about that, but Qui-Gon is obviously right about this and so the assumption is that Qui-Gon is more connected to the Force or more clued in to its will than the rest of the Council.

This takes the whole "the point of the Prequels is that the Jedi were corrupt" interpretation and the conflict seen between Qui-Gon and the Council and makes some assumptions about Qui-Gon's character as a result. If the Jedi Council represents everything WRONG with the Jedi in this era, and the Council is in opposition to Qui-Gon, then naturally Qui-Gon must be everything RIGHT with the Jedi.

So when you take all of this together, despite the fact that Qui-Gon in TPM is actually pretty reserved himself, it leads to this interpretation of Qui-Gon as someone who just trusts his emotions above everything else and feels them more than any other Jedi does, which leads us to Sol, who is more visibly emotional. Since I haven't watched the show, I can't speak very well to how he's intended to come across, whether those emotions are meant to make us believe he's more enlightened than anybody else or not. I do know that the actor himself has said he explicitly based his character on Qui-Gon, so take from that what you will I guess.

Headland's views on the Jedi would impact her views on the Council as well, and a LOT of Jedi critical fans tend to laud Qui-Gon as some kind of enlightened messiah, so it doesn't shock me that she views Qui-Gon this way herself and made a character in her show that sort-of emulates her interpretation of Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon is VERY important for fans who interpret the Prequels as being about the Jedi's failure, so since Headland is writing a story about the beginning of the Jedi's downfall, it makes sense that she'd include a character based on someone she interprets as the last remnant of "what the Jedi should've been."

[oldmisfortune]

I'm going to throw my hat in the ring in the MC is being mean/not to Sylus and why I think this is even a debate to begin. This is my opinion btw and everyone is entitled to their own and there isn't one that's superior to the others. Also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about certain things, I'm still pretty new to the game.

I think the reason people find MC mean is because we are lacking a clear narrative. I feel like to some extent we are seeing things almost out of order or without being sure of their progression off screen. There's a lot of things that can happen between the memories, while they are also just memories and it's not clear (at least to me) how or even if they fit in the canon and where they fit into the timeline. Because of that, we're not getting a proper narrative that shows MC's progress with Sylus, we can't even be sure they sat down and had a talk about what happened or not. Moreover, we aren't in MC's head enough to know because she's supposed to be a self-insert. enemies to lovers works so well because you can visibly see the moments they start changing and seeing the other as a potential love interest. The progression is there, we are shown proof of it. In this game, the moment Sylus kidnapped her could have been yesterday or years ago, it's not clear, so it's very hard to see how the MC could go from mean, defensive, and wanting to hurt him back to actually liking him and wanting to try something with him. If we know that Sylus hasn't absolved himself yet,MC being mean is normal. If he did indeed and she acknowledged it and remains mean, then it makes less sense.

((Not to mention that I do feel like MC is inconsistent between the boys, she is someone different depending on the boy she's talking to imo, but i haven't analysed the game too hard either so i can very wrong on that))

My final point is that, well, you can be mean to people you love and they can be into it. That's how being a brat works. If you explain and show in other ways you do care about the person, and they in turn are into it, you can be far meaner than MC. The problem is, they don't talk about it, or at least we don't see it. And i don't think they have, at least not prior to the cat cards where Sylus is legit like: "will you sell me off for 2 dry cheetos 🥺???? Breathe if yes." (This is exaggerated for comedic purposes) i would personally tease him that i will sell him for less than that (bc i am a lil bit of an asshole at time hehe) but I would notice he seems pretty serious fast enough to know he needs confirmation and validation in that moment. And MC doesn't do it overtly, and that means that either a) girlie is blind or thought he was playing, which he was before but seemingly not anymore; b) girlie was legit about to sell him; or c) they never had a proper talk before they started this (which i am inclined to believe). A lack of proper conversation between the two is why we're so confused by MC's behaviour, if we have ONE (1) scene where Sylus agrees he likes degradation or the teasing or he's a brat tamer or whatever and MC agrees she is also into that, we wouldn't be here.

Feel free to correct me if I'm off or if i understood the game poorly!

[crownmemes]

Supernatural & Paranormal Sentences, Vol. 10

(Sentences from various sources for muses exploring the unexplained. Adjust phrasing where needed)

"For a moment there, I thought you were an angel."

"Why would somebody steal the dead guy's blood?"

"The mind sees what it wants to see."

"There are simply some things that science is just too young to understand."

"There really isn't a point where things just can't get weirder, is there?"

"We have telepathic dampeners, mesmeric shielding, and necklaces of silver and salt in case of witchcraft."

"As far as I'm concerned, we've all got a sixth sense. It's called our conscience."

"The thing about the dead is that some come and visit because they miss you, some come because they tell you something that you need to hear, and some of them just want to take you with them."

"You see what this place does to people?"

"In the end, it all comes down to one simple question - which is more important: having proof, or being alive?"

"Sometimes, what we wake up can't be put back to sleep."

"Conspiracies are how bored people pass the time."

"Maybe she's a robot. Have you seen her blink? Robots don't blink."

"There's no such thing as monsters - there's just creatures you haven't met yet."

"Must you always be so small-minded?"

"Yeah, whatever. I have enough belief for both of us, okay?"

"There's nothing I'm aware of that could do that to a human being in such a short period of time - at least, nothing anyone's supposed to know about."

"There are people in the woods. People who are watching me."

"Whatever these things are, it looks like they've managed to hide themselves for a while. From the looks of things, they'll do just about anything to keep it that way."

"Did you know that the government uses psychics?"

"He looked human, but there was just something wrong about him..."

"I don't think this is going to do much for your career as a psychic."

"This reminds me of a horror movie I saw..."

"I used to believe, just a few months ago, that I understood the world we lived in. There were basic truths that I thought were true. I used to sleep like a baby, in blissful ignorance."

"Not everything is as it seems."

"There's no such thing as a demon that snatches people's souls!"

"Everything you know is a lie."

"These records go back thousands of years. They date back to death of Christ."

"It's good to see you again, despite the strange circumstances."

"Hey, what's going to happen to me? Am I going to turn into a vampire?"

"People die. It happens. Sometimes they even die twice."

"A word of advice: don't pry into things you couldn't possibly understand."

"You see, but you don't understand."

[drdemonprince]

hey! i have a question abt your cruising guide if you don't mind, regarding something that (unless i totally missed sth, in which case i'm very sorry for wasting your time) i felt was completely absent but happens to be my main concern. (i'm already a huge slut, so anonymous/short term sexual encounters in themselves aren't the issue for me.) i'll put it bluntly: how am i supposed to pick anyone up in a gay male cruising space (irl/not on an app) when i look like a woman? i'm not a total stranger to gay bars, which is why i'm very sure that people in a cruising space are far, far more likely to take me as an intruder looking to be pleasantly scandalized than someone like them who they might want to have sex with, not to mention have sex with as a man(-adjacent). i also know it's likely that i'm projecting at least some of my dysphoria onto these hypothetical encounters, but it doesn't seem like an unjustified fear, either. i (fwiw: perisex, afab, some type of agender-nonbinary) have been on t for abt 9 months now, but i haven't had top or bottom surgery (i want both but so far it's unclear when that is going to happen) and my breasts are too large to be really concealed by a binder (not to mention that i can't fuck in a binder bc they give me awful headaches), i'm very short and ~curvy~, i have very little body/no facial hair, and people in casual daily interactions certainly don't hesitate to address me as a woman. it just seems preposterous to assume that there's anything abt me a man looking for another man could be attracted to. i guess it's possible someone could be a chaser after my specific type, but that's not an encounter i want to have right now. as far as my question to you is concerned, i want to have sex with a man who is into men, and at the very least won't see me as a girl wanting to be fucked like a man. i know that there is no way to objectively predict these things, experiences and tastes vary and so on, but i would be extremely grateful if you could share some of your experiences or give me some other pointers for how to approach this/what to expect. as it is, if i were to enter a darkroom, i assume i would be asked to leave, but preemptively telling myself that it's hopeless and to forget abt it for at least the next several years seems unnecessarily cruel, too. if there's any advice or experience you can share, thank you so so so much, and if not, thank you anyway for taking the time to read this letter of woe and for putting your perspective out there, it's been a balm to be understood. wishing you all the best x

Buddy -- it is (largely!) your dysphoria talking! Lots of queer men will wanna fuck you and they will wanna do it in a queer way. I walked around Steamworks fully tiddy out regularly and I had a great time.

It's true that in more general gay bars people will sometimes misread you, and that it will hurt, but trust me that lots of queer men are already attracted to you. If anything, I've noticed that in general queer spaces cis gay men sometimes default to assuming that you won't be interested in them and give a polite distance that they will happily do away with if they know you're looking and welcome their attention. A lot of guys don't want to accidentally be predatory to someone who they think might be a lesbian or not interested in men. (Again, being mistaken for something you are not really fucking sucks and can drive your dysphoria crazy, I get it, but do keep in mind that sometimes people do this out of a desire to be respectful, not because they're turned off that you're such a Womanly Woman or whatever.)

My first recommendation for you would be to GET ON GRINDR. Post some pics that make it clear what you're working with, physically, and list your identity clearly on your profile. When I first got a grindr I had a really slutty abs-and-underboob pic that got me a TON of attention from queer men, who treated me like a man, and it immediately assuaged all my concerns that I wasn't welcome on there. I think it will do a lot for your self-confidence and sense of belonging to try the same too.

Now, I don't want to be pollyannaish about any of this -- yes there are transphobes. In my experience they're mostly pretty quiet to trans men, they'll just pass you by for the most part. Yes there are people who will say awkward things. Block liberally and often and don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. But honestly, these are the kinds of issues you will run into within any dating platform, and the gay world is pretty damn blase and chill about the inclusion of trans men for the most part. You can absolutely put yourself out there -- and the sooner you do, the sooner you'll realize that your insecurities are not rooted in the reality of how other queer men mostly feel.

I wish I had put myself out there YEARS earlier! A lot would have changed for me if I had.

[velvet-vox]

Why King Candy has been so underrated and misunderstood for a long time (Still is, but to a lesser extent)

(All the images in this post come from the video linked below)

Hi everyone; so, usually, I'm not a trend chaser, in fact, I completely missed out on the hype of the Murder Drones finale by not releasing something for the occasion, as I have been very busy this past couple of months, and still am, but I've decided to make a special, out of program post just for my new current hyper fixation, that being King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph, who, for the past couple of weeks, has slowly risen up to become my third favourite Disney movie villain of all time.

And all of that, as some of you might have guessed, happened because I watched @king-crawler 's two hour long video essay on the character and the movie that he comes from.

Needless to say, just like many others before, it inspired me to add my own two cents to the conversation, and talk about some points that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else.

This is probably the only Wreck-It Ralph related analysis that I'm ever going to make.

I even thought about scrapping this whole analysis, because midway through development I thought that I was just spewing out nonsense, but I kept going because some of my points may give food for thought to someone who understood this character way better than me.

I may reblog some analysis/art posts of this character, but I'm not going to turn WIR into a staple of my blog; however, if I see a lot of people in the comments or the reblogs adding stuff or points to my arguments, I could always make a sequel post to this one.

But first, I need to get something out of the way immediately.

Spoilers below the cut if you never saw this movie, kind of important, as it is the movie's major plot twist:

King Candy is Turbo.

Who's Turbo? Watch the movie.

With all that said, enjoy the read, I'll now elaborate on the meaning of my title, also, here's the video in question; I highly encourage everyone to check it out, as it is a way better sequel to Wreck-It Ralph than the one who was lost in the depths of Lake Laogai:

Clarifications:

Wreck-It Ralph is an amazing movie, but one for which I've never had much to think about.

Don't get me wrong, I always considered it to be the smartest Disney movie ever made since my first watch, but I saw it for the first time relatively late, after I had consumed other Disney movies as childhood classics and other crossover movies featuring video game characters, so it never had neither a nostalgia nor hyper fixation factor as reasons as to why I should have put the story under a microscope after that.

Also, as Rando says at the beginning of their video, it is not a movie that blew me away after my first watch. Or the second. Or the third.

Why is this section important? It is important because these are my subjective opinions of the movie, which are unfortunately going to subtly influence what I'm about to say in one way or another, regardless of me trying to speak from a place of supposed "objectivity".

I'm really passionate about this world now thanks to Randomalistic, but you won't get the same vibe from this post as you would get from one made by long time fans of this movie.

Ok?

Good.

Next:

King Candy/Turbo has always been... in a weird spot for me.

Just like the movie where he comes from, I never really cared about Turbo until a month ago, despite always feeling like I should have loved him a lot more, especially since Deltarune chapter 2 released a while ago, and the character of Spamton G Spamton is someone for whom I have very strong feelings about; and Turbo, in a technical sense, is literally the spiritual predecessor of that guy (actually, Turbo is the spiritual predecessor of a lot of similar characters, he kinda was ahead of his time).

If I had made a Disney tier list for their movie villains, a completely subjective one for that matter, I would have put him in A tier, but thinking that he should have gone in B tier... while also feeling like neither were appropriate placements for him.

Randomalistic's video finally helped me fall in love with the character; so much in fact, that it got me thinking:

"Damn, if Turbo is actually this amazing of a villain, why was(is) he so underrated and overlooked by general audiences, when he admittedly is, in my opinion, one of the best Disney villains of all time? Frollo is by and large considered the best villain out of any Disney movie, and the HOND was nowhere near as successful as Wreck-It Ralph when it first released, so it can't just be a matter of first impressions (?). Maybe there are other factors, that stop audiences from recognizing Turbo as the Magnum Opus of villainy that he truly is..."

... And that's exactly what I'm going to discuss!

Let's get right into it.

The minor stuff.

First things first:

He's ugly. I'm sorry to all of the people who ironically and unironically simp for him, but that's a design only a mother could love.

On a serious note, KC and Turbo's designs always felt... not very eye-catching to me? (The bug form is excluded from this conversation)

I'm not saying these are bad designs, far from it; but each form has on them a certain amount of design decisions that, by the authors own decisions, make them unappealing to a viewer like me (I'm using myself as reference point because the topic that I'm talking about is inherently subjective).

Starting off with King Candy, is design has to balance a lot of different aspects simultaneously: it has to be eyecatching, so that the viewer can pay attention to him as an antagonist, and believable enough so that the watchers buy the fact that he is the King of Sugar Rush and not someone else, but it also has to be generic and fake enough so that it can later on add up to the fact this is just a performance, a facade, a ruse, a costume, and not the real character, it also needs to be friendly enough so that the audience can be manipulated together with Ralph into believing that he actually is a good guy;

I could go on and on listing off all the amazing things, that the King Candy facade pulls off simultaneously, but exactly because the design has to feel real and fake at the same time, it also, by proxy, ends up feeling weird, and that inexplicable sentiment can end up alienating the viewers who are watching the movie and the ones who have finished consuming it without thinking too deeply about what the meaning of the KC's facade actually was.

In the case of Turbo's design, all the people working behind the movie did such an amazing job making him look as scary, ugly, alien, and deranged as possible, all the while keeping him relatively PG friendly; the result clearly paid off, but Turbo's ugliness is not as slick as the likes of Ratigan's, nor is it as nightmarishly horrifying as the Other Mother's.

The most nightmare fuel qualities of Turbo's design are hidden out of plain sight, which is basically a recurring theme with his character.

To put it in a funny way, his looks neither end up in the conventionally attractive territory that most other Disney villains fall into, nor do they grab the attention of the Monster Fu###rs crowd.

I have zero things to say about the Cy-bug form, but I do have a section later on where I talk about that entire scene in and of itself.

All in all, it might just be me, but the first impressions of this character's design don't really do him any favours when it comes to his popularity.

I now love both designs, but before, they just didn't click with me, and I think some other people might understand what I'm talking about.

Admittedly, I could have explained this section better, but these were mostly my personal opinions and they are not really important in the grand scheme of things, unless somebody else agrees with me, in that case I'd have to take a closer look at the situation.

Second of all:

The marketing.

To be honest, I feel like what really elevated all of the most iconic Disney villains into pop culture status was a joint push from the company and the artists to include these characters into more stories and products.

Like, sorry to all of the Oogie Boogie fans, but that character is barely in his movie and doesn't do a lot, and he wouldn't be nearly as iconic as he is if Disney didn't use him again multiple times after his first debut.

And the same can honestly be said for all of Disney's most popular villains; they got used multiple times in multiple different projects, that either kept them mostly the same, changed them with some unique twists (that change in quality, but that's up to you), expanded on their preestablished characters, or put them into unique situations that showcased just how versatile they are.

Kingdom Hearts, The House Of Mouse and Descendants are very obvious examples of what I'm talking about, but even appearances in lesser known stories like Lady Tremaine in Cinderella 3, Captain Hook in Jake and the Neverland pirates, or the entirety of Disney Twisted Wonderland help solidify these characters as pop culture icons;

All except Frollo.

Frollo is the only one whose hype and cultural recognizability wasn't built up by the company or the media in which he was featured, but by the fans of the original movie.

And despite Disney almost never used that character ever again after his debut, he, his movie, and Hellfire still get a lot of prise and are talked about classics to this very day.

Because Frollo is just that freaking awesome.

Turbo, on the other hand... is barely in anything.

Let's get the most obvious stuff out of the way first: King Candy is a relatively new character, released in an era where Disney was slowly starting to integrate the new, corporate ideals that we see today.

All of the villains that I've mentioned previously already became tried and true successes by that point, so even if the company doesn't care about having good villains anymore they still use their likeability because it has already shown in the past to bring in audiences.

It's also the main reason as to why Mother Gothel is used so rarely: King Candy, as the last truly great Disney movie villain (excluding Tamatoa, who's barely used anyway, and movies not produced by their main animation studio), arrived at a point in time when the company wasn't pushing for their villains anymore, and instead actively sanitized some of them in their new stories (you know what I'm talking about); therefore, Turbo, being actually incredibly dark on second look, and with no actual intention of tuning him down like Jafar because he hadn't already reached the iconic status by that point, had no reason to make any big appearance ever again or be paraded around as much.

There are some more reasons as to why Turbo likely doesn't have more stuff dedicated to him, like the fact that he is technically 3 characters at the same time, but I don't want to prolong this section too much.

So instead, how about we take a look at some of his other appearances outside of Wreck-It Ralph?

Let's see...

He has various cards in Lorcana, which is his most recent appearance, mind you;

He became a playable character in the 7th season of Disney Speedstorm, a game where I was hoping he would be the main villain, due to a variety of reasons, but hey, that's perfectly fine;

And he was mentioned multiple times in Disney Heroes Battle Mode, a game where he hopefully is the secret main villain, as it would pay off a large amount of story and design decisions chosen for that game, but it's probably just wishful thinking and unless the game's plug is pulled, I doubt we'll see him anytime soon.

Ok, it's more than nothing, but it's also not that special if you ask me.

But hey! At least he got a boss fight in a Kingdom Hearts game! That's more than Randall can say! He was a major boss in Union Cross... the mobile game... that you can't play anymore... and since KH adheres strictly to its own canon most of the time, it also probably means that we'll never get to play through the storyline of the first WIR in any future mainline game, and we're more likely to see a world based around the second movie instead.......

Yeah.

That seems to be it, unless I'm missing something huge (feel free to let me know).

This section is important because Cruella De Vil became one of my favourite Disney villains of all time not after seeing her in the original movie, but after I saw her in 101 Dalmatian Street, a niche show that almost nobody knows; so other medium appearances are important to these characters popularity, especially when not all of these villains are Frollo.

ALSO, PLUS 1+, I was originally going to cut this point, but I decided to add it anyway: the Italian voice actor.

After recently rewatching this movie in English, (I'm Italian, we in Italy translate the movies to our language because it's easier than learning an entirely different language for them), I have to really admit that Alan Tudik's voice performance really does a lot of heavy lifting for the character's memorability.

This is not to say that the Italian voice dub sucks or that King Candy's Italian voice actor does a bad job, in fact, the voices are actually quite similar to each other, it's just that Alan's performance has that small edge of hidden bitterness that really brings the character together; though I do prefer Turbo's Italian voice for its twist reveal: the more raspy, heavy tone of the actor really highlights the vicious, alien nature of his character, as well as the sense of dread that Vanellope is feeling in this moment; I encourage you to give it a watch.

Again, this is extremely minor, and it really only affects me specifically, but don't worry, it's not going to have influence over the rest of this post.

These were just additional points and not the actual meat of my argument, so now I'll start discussing what I actually wanted to talk about from the very beginning:

Who is he?

I think that one of the main reasons as to why Turbo is so underrated is because we spend way less time than with most other Disney villains (before him) to know him as a person.

Think about it:

Most other Disney villains, or at least the most popular ones, all have moments where they are doing nothing to progress the plot, that are dedicated solely to get us to know them better.

Hades has several moments with his minions to show off his personality and anger, Jafar has silly little moments with Iago that show off his depravity, Maleficent has talks with her crow that make her more dynamic, Ursula has her introduction scene where she spies on Ariel and does nothing but talking, and Captain Hook... has 30% of his screen time dedicated to just that.

Heck, Hellfire, one of the most iconic sequences in all of Disney, is just a character set piece for Frollo, and it's arguably completely disposable, as it doesn't really do anything to progress the story, it just explores Frollo's character in deeper depth and that happens to make the big difference when it comes to him.

King Candy doesn't really have an obvious character centric moment, something easy for the audience to quickly latch onto: every time we see him, he is always doing something to push the plot forward.

Yeah, there's that small character interaction with the Donut cops when he gets glasses, and other small moments here and there, like the would you hit a guy with glasses joke, but nothing truly character-defying.

I also don't count King Candy's first scene as a character centric moment, as that's more of an introduction rather than an elaboration, but it is technically valid, even if it ultimately is just a facade that he puts up to serve his needs.

Speaking of which: the fact that most of what we see of Turbo throughout the story could be entirely fake is definitely something that I could use to make the argument in this section stronger, but I'd rather save it up for later.

Also, side note:

I think that the moment most dedicated to him only, to show off a different, "true" aspect of his personality, is when he is walking back and forth in the castle waiting for his cops to show up again.

This moment is so interesting on rewatch, as it is one of the few moments in the entire movie where I can safely say that Turbo is being 100% genuine and isn't putting up any facade whatsoever, as there really is no benefit to him appearing distressed in this situation.

In general, it's funny to think that Turbo's most genuine reactions are of fear.

Back to point one, do you wanna know why Maleficent was given a crow in Sleeping Beauty? The reason as to why was for her to have someone to bounce off, a way for the writers to showcase more facets of her character, and while Candy has Sour Bill, the movie never uses the relationship between the two to show off a different aspect of his character.

To be clear, I'm not saying that Turbo is a worse character than these other Disney villains, or that without these moments of calmness he doesn't work, one great example

Do you know that Calhoun in early development had a camouflage ability, meant to highlight how she hides her feelings but was scrapped because it made her harder to relate to? Well, let's just say that Turbo's entire character is a What If scenario where that idea actually went through.

It's a double edged sword: King Candy is so interesting because he is so mysterious and surprising all throughout the movie, but exactly because he has to be so mysterious, he is not a character as easy to understand as some of the other villains from the company; it's incredibly easy to miss out on just how cruel he is and the full scale of all the damage that he has done.

I, AM, .......the twist villain.

There's also something to be said about how popular to the conversation the twist that King Candy is Turbo became.

Everyone loves this reveal, am I right?

It may not be the best moment in the movie, but my god if it isn't hype, all thanks to the music, the lighting, the setup, yada yada yada....

But the identity reveal scene is to Candy what the Genocide Boss Fight is to Sans: it's the most impactful moment about his character, to the point where it becomes the entire baseline where most discussions are built around, which, more often than not, lead a lot of people to overlook other things about Turbo.

Let me explain: how many analysis videos have you seen where the person making it talks more about the setup and subtle hints present in King Candy's earlier scenes that slowly build up to the twist and less about the events happening in it?

The reveal is amazing, don't get me wrong, but if Rando's video didn't come along to dive deep into King Candy's earlier scenes with the twist already in mind, the true impact of what Candy had been doing throughout the entire movie up to this point would have been lost on me, and I can imagine someone else feeling the same, as me, casual enjoyer of WIR, have been conditioned to think of Candy more for his well planned out surprise, rather than for how that surprise makes the character more engaging (I hope this makes sense).

I also want to mention this video ranking all the different twist villains from Disney and Pixar where CellSpex says that the Turbo twist is useless, since the movie doesn't do much with it afterwards.

Now, aside from the fact that CellSpex is clearly in the wrong and she's missing the point, I think this lack of reconsideration highlights that casual viewers care more about the Turbo plot twist than they care about Turbo himself.

But honestly, I don't believe people focusing too much on the twist is that big of a problem, more so, the problem stems when you want to use the twist... to discuss something else.

Now, I think it's perfectly fine if you want to use Turbo to explain why other Disney twist villains don't work, but when the villains that King Candy is compared to the most are Hans, Yokai, and Bellwether, you kind of start to think that he is only the best of the worst, and not an actual amazing antagonist in his own right.

It may not be a message that was intended to be sent, but it is something that may subconsciously cling to someone's brain, especially when you consider that there might be a huge audience of people who watch these videos because they saw Hans in the title (wishing for the video to bash him), and have seen Frozen, Zootopia and Big Hero 6, but have never seen Wreck-It Ralph in their lives, and they get all their knowledge of Turbo from them.

It's exasperating, especially when King Candy has way more in common with renaissance Disney villains than contemporary ones.

Yes, through technicality, he is a twist villain, but he's more so a hybrid antagonist to be honest.

And even worse than people just grouping up Candy with a bunch of morons, as I've just discovered by reading a comment from this Turbo Tribute, is that some people apparently despise him for starting the Disney Twist villain trend: even if he's leagues better than his competition, the simple fact that you can attribute some of the blame for the fall of villainy onto him, is enough for someone to despise him.

King of the Cy-bugs (feat Rockotar):

Very recently, I've rewatched Rockotar's video analysis of the first Wreck-It Ralph, and when he arrived at the "Welcome, to the Boss Level!" scene, I decided to analyse all the possible reasons as to why he (and possibly many others, such as, admittedly, myself) wasn't as entranced by it as basically any other scene from the movie, who he had been praising non-stop up until this point.

And I think I understood why: aside from the fact that this scene is only a setup for Ralph's sacrifice (and I wished the actual boss fight to be longer and more creative), the Boss Fight is less of a climax for Ralph's journey and more so a character study for who Turbo/King Candy is.

In my opinion, this is the closest we ever get to a "villain at rest" moment with Turbo because in every other scene of the movie, King Candy is always doing something, he's always active and we never see him doing anything that doesn't coincide with his role.

And, paradoxically to what I've just said about this being a "villain at rest" moment, in this scene, he is still doing something and being active in the plot, only that this time, instead of advancing the story, he's holding it back from its conclusion.

This scene simplifies Turbo's character to his most bare bone essentials: he's a short-tempered jerk, a power hungry murderer, a virus; it's all pretty interesting stuff once you take a sweet moment to break it down.

However, there's a point that I briefly mentioned before that I want to bring up; this creature that we are laying your eyes upon, is now three different people all at once, King Candy (anxious, quiet and manipulative), Turbo (short-tempered, competitive and spiteful), and now this Cy-bug hybrid.

To reiterate what I've said before, if you don't think about it for long enough, you aren't going to understand who either character is exactly.

Because that's the big thing: all of his facades, implied development off screen and reactions are so well constructed that at certain points, it feels like we're following two different characters simultaneously, which fits perfectly with the narrative that so called "real" Turbo died and now he's no longer himself, but...

I'm scratching the bottom of the barrel to bring up other possible points as to why this character is so underrated, and the lack of a clear identity seems like a pretty obvious thing to me.

But that's only two out of the three characters I mentioned; we need to take a second look at the Cy-bug form, who, in many ways, is simultaneously the thesis and antithesis of his character.

In particular, there's one thing I want to consider:

There's this theory made by somebody else that says Turbo, upon getting eaten by the Cy-bug, didn't take over the animal's conscience and control his body, instead, upon eating King Candy, the Cy-bug took upon himself his mannerisms, meaning that, according to this theory, neither King Candy nor Turbo technically survived the encounter.

If we accept this theory as true, then that means that even during what is supposed to be a character study, the character that the movie is highlighting may also be just as fake as the act that was put up until this point, meaning that, in a sense, we never saw the real Turbo in the movie.

He was three people at once.

(Yes, I've been spamming this image everywhere, and I'll keep doing so because I can)

In Conclusion:

Turbo is, ironically and unironically, an incredibly subtle character, and that makes it extremely easy for a lot of people to overlook and miss out on the most subtle details and characteristics that make him truly exceptional;

Him being so deceptive and mysterious helps and hinders his popularity, as some either love the mystery surrounding him, others fail to get a good grasp on who he truly is and become disinterested.

He is, by design, a building block, a puzzle to be solved, a character to piece together, that makes him so much fun!

But also, if you aren't interested in putting the pieces together, then he may not be up everyone's alley.

I definitely feel like the best thing that @randomalistic did in her/their video on Wreck-It Ralph was create an easy jumping point for new fans/casual watchers of the movie to get insanely invested over the story and characters;

I'm sure it was incredibly easy for many other people like me to focus only on the most talked about aspect of Turbo, aka the plot twist, and overlook all the other things that were not as much in your face as that; I was blinded by the spotlight, and it made it hard to see the genius that was put everything else;

Now, thanks to Random highlighting King Candy's cruelty and repulsive behaviour, my favourite thing about Turbo is how he weaponized the "disability" of a child to marginalise and persecute her, discriminating her for it all of her life WHEN HE'S THE ONE WHO MADE HER "DISABLED" IN THE FIRST PLACE.

This man, is so HORRIBLE, and he deserves to be publicly exposed for all the heinous s##t that he did, not just for being the best of a bunch of villains who frankly he shouldn't even be attempted to be compared to.

Anyway, I hope someone had fun reading this. I definitely felt like I started to write this with some really good ideas that I wanted to share, but in the end, I feel like they weren't all that interesting to begin with.

Feel free to share your own opinions, and have a great day!

[ilovetheriddler]

The Enigma of Love.

(Gotham) Edward Nygma x F!Reader.

Chapter One.

Word Count: 1,737.

Contents: A bit of backstory, you and Edward meet for the first time.

You're in a dark room, the only source of light being the walls illuminated by green tinted question marks. There's a faint Cedar wood smell lingering in the air. Pieces of paper lay at your feet, riddles scrawled all over them. You reach down to pick one up and read it.

"I hurt the most when lost, yet also when not had at all. I'm sometimes the hardest to express, but the easiest to ignore. I can be given to many, or just one. What am i?"

You jolted awake with the sudden sound of your alarm. It was just another weird dream... You had been having that specific one though for a while now, and you often wondered what was causing it. Was it a result of stress? Perhaps because of your worries about your mother recently? She was sick after all. And what was with that bizarre riddle? Every time you had the dream, it was exactly the same. You ultimately decided that you couldn't waste any time today dwelling on it. Not right now, at least.

You rubbed the remnants of sleep from your eyes before you glanced over at your alarm clock. 8:00 am.... wait, 8:00 am?! You were supposed to be at work at 7:00, oh God, you could only hope that maybe your boss wouldn't be too harsh with you over this, after all you've never been late before now.

You quickly scrambled out of bed and made your way to the bathroom, turning on the sink and splashing some water on your face. You hopped in the shower and washed up as fast as you possibly could before getting dressed. You made sure you had everything and also grabbed something to eat quickly before you left to head to your place of employment. The Gotham City public library.

Not too many people frequented the library, which you didn't exactly mind. It made it a fairly quiet and peaceful place to work, which was rare in a place like Gotham. You first got this job a few months ago, mainly to help pay for your mother's hospital bills, which just seemed to increase every time you closed your eyes.

You felt like it was your responsibility to help her out in any way that you feasibly could. After all, it wasn't like your father would help. In fact, you weren't even sure if he was still living in Gotham. You haven't seen him since he walked out on you and your mother when you were six. You were twenty-three now, so it was close to almost two decades ago. You tried not to waste energy thinking of him over the years. You had your mother who was always there for you, and that was all the family you needed.

You always knew and understood how difficult it was for her to raise you as a single mother, but she truly always put every ounce of energy and time she had into making sure that you were happy, safe, and felt loved. Even if she wasn't always around since she worked two jobs just to support the two of you. Maybe that was why it weighed on you so heavily that she was now in the hospital. It wasn't fair. She spent all those years running herself into the ground for you. She deserved to be able to spend her time now relaxing, perhaps traveling even. But it seemed the universe and its cruel sense of humor had other plans, and that tore you apart every night.

You snapped out of your intense train of thought as you finally arrived at the library. You mentally prepared yourself to be chewed out by your boss but were surprised when you walked in only to realize that she wasn't there. You walked over to your coworker, who was organizing some of the books back onto the shelves.

"Morning Ashley, have you seen Mrs Jones around today?"

Ashley, who was only a few years older than you were, sighed, pushing some of her longer black hair out of her face. She turned to look at you before answering.

"No, she had to call in today. Apparently, she caught that flu that's been going around lately.... you're late though, let me guess, you overslept?"

"... Yeah... I um... apologize for being so late..."

"It's alright, I genuinely don't care that you're late. You still showed up, and this place is always practically a ghost town anyway, so don't worry about it."

Your nerves calmed down at this. You didn't really know Ashley too well since you hadn't worked here long, and you two didn't really speak much, but she genuinely always seemed like a pretty cool person. She was actually Mrs Jones's granddaughter, which you thought was kind of interesting. You breathed out a relieved sigh.

"..Thanks... i was honestly worrying myself half to death over it on the way here."

She chuckled to herself slightly at your relieved state. Before offering you a bit more of reassure.

"You honestly shouldn't worry about it. You've been working here for like... what? Six months now? And you've only ever been late once? That's not too bad! My grandma is a pretty laid-back woman. She's not going to hold it against you."

"...I know she is.... I guess I just got a bit worked up for some reason..."

With that, you made your way over to the front desk and began updating the system with what needed to be changed and added. It was actually a bit more than you usually had to input as a result of the library getting an entire new shipment of books in today, which wasn't exactly a pleasant day for anyone. Ashley would be stuck reorganizing and adding new books to the shelves all day. You'd be stuck inputing all the new information into the database for hours on end, and your other coworker, Kevin, wouldn't actually do anything. Because he didn't show up again! You honestly sometimes wondered how he hadn't been fired yet. You're so deeply focused on your current task that you're startled by a sudden voice speaking to you.

"I'm made from trees and can bring people either incredible joy or intense sorrow. I can be short or long, big or small. It can take people a long time to create me or very little, depending on the person. What am i?"

You glanced up to see a fairly tall man. He had neatly kept short brown hair and rich brown eyes, which were framed by his black glasses that he adjusted slightly as he stood there. He had a somewhat goofy grin on his face, and you couldn't deny that he was definitely kind of attractive. His words finally fully dawned on you, and you were confused... was... he asking you a riddle of all things?

"I... I don't know, what is it?"

He set down a stack of books that he had in his arms on the counter in front of you. Before giving you the answer.

"A book! I um... I'd actually like to check these out... You know if um... it's not too much trouble, that is...?"

"Not at all! That's why I'm here, I just need to see your library card, and if you don't have one, then I'll have to sign you up for one."

He handed you his library card. After fumbling around his pocket for it. You take a quick look at it and can't help the smile that crosses your face. Edward Nygma... His name was similar to the word Enigma, and you found that kind of amusing. You pulled him up in the system and started looking through the books he's picked up. 1000 Riddles to stump your friends and colleagues! The history of puzzles. And the entire Sherlock Holmes collection.

"Quite the um... selection you have here... I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you like riddles and puzzles?"

"O-oh! Yes, I do enjoy them quite a lot...."

You finished up getting everything sorted out for him and handing him back the books. You give him a soft and kind smile.

"Well, I hope that you have an enjoyable day, Mr Nygma. And that you also find those books to be to your liking."

He seemed to get slightly flustered as he attempted to quickly stammer out a response.

"O-oh.. um.. i..I will! T-thank you miss!"

He left with his books, and you resumed the process of adding to the database. Thankfully, it ended up not taking as long as you thought it would. You noticed the time and realized that it was almost your lunch break, so you make your way to a place to sit down for a bit and eat the sandwich that you brought with you, because the only place really close to your place of employment was a fancy Cafe that sold their sandwiches for like 32.99 a sandwich, and that was highway robbery as far as you were concerned! You weren't paying that much for a damn sandwich when you could just make one at home and bring it with you, which is what you always did. You sometimes wondered how a place like that could even stay open in Gotham. Who the hell was paying for those sandwiches!?

You ultimately decided not to think about it, instead just focusing on your lunch. However, something caught your eye. It was a wallet setting on the counter. You put your sandwich down and walked over to look at it. It was a fairly nice material and had a green question mark on the front. You looked inside to try and find any id and immediately found it.

Edward Nygma. It was Edward Nygma's wallet. You sighed, you knew that he definitely needed this and thought for a moment whether he'd realize that he lost it and come back, or it you should pull up his profile in the database and call him to inform him. You ultimately decided that you should absolutely do the latter, only to realize that he didn't have a number listed. Damn it, that made this more difficult. You checked his wallet again and noticed something mentioning his place of employment.

You asked Ashley to cover for you while you were gone and started to make your way down to the GCPD.

[ch0wen]

Cover - Part III | Tangerine x Fem!Reader | 18+

warnings: smut mentioned, (minors dni), cursing, & violence

to catch up - Cover - parts one & two

———-

Tangerine's large hands wrapped around the diner's ceramic mug full of his muddled-grey tea. Warming himself while also trying to still his shakiness. He was having a tough time attempting to conceal his nerves. He avoided eye contact to retroactively stall the dreaded discussion.

“So,” you started, “Tangerine and Lemon. Fruits. Why choose from that category?”

Across from you, the man looked physically and mentally relieved that you hadn't leaped right into the hard questions. A smile wriggled under his mustache,

"When we were younger, Lem and I loved to watch American cinema. We would get inspired by a lot of ‘em. We played the games they did, tried out the sports, and picked up similar traditions.

One day, during a rare, hot English summer, I suggested starting a lemonade stand. My brother reacted with, ‘lemons are too tart! No one even likes sour drinks. I don't want to sell rotten lemons,' and I would remind him that you can turn a sour lemon into a sweet delight with a little bit of sugar. Shit, you should've seen his face when I ended up persuading him and he tried our first attempt at a batch. We got the measurements so wrong!”

His eyes shone as he spoke. He seemed to have been slowly opening up. Laughing into his hand and playing it off as a scratch to his face before dropping it to the table's surface. He was earnest as he told of his boyhood. Intriguing you with his storytelling, and leaning toward him as he continued on.

"Anyway. He would tell me that I'm like the sugar. That I make things better. But frankly, I can be a rotten arsehole to him. And by now, maybe he has forgotten about those silly childhood praises, but I never did. Those were the times, especially at the beginning of our career, when he made me feel wanted. He's good at that. He doesn't even require me to be the sugar in our brotherhood. He's naturally a genuinely good man.

I do need to tell myself I am useful, and deep down, I may not believe that to be all true. But he reminds me. He’s good at making people feel understood and cared for. He is true to his codename. He's a lemon, and everybody loves ‘em.”

Absentmindedly, you played with his finger twitching on the sticky table. He curled his hand properly around yours to hold.

———-

The hours passed and the diner went through waves of people. Coming and going, in and out, like clouds in unsettled coffee. Breakfast rush, stillness, then lunch chaos. To the both of you, the other was the focal point. Everything else just felt like a static buzz.

“I can't help but notice that you haven't asked the question. Basically the entire point of this morning."

"I didn't want to force it out," you finger at the sugar packets, like skimming a mini record collection. Attempting to downplay your interest. “I wanted us to get there without having to press it.”

A grateful hum of, “You are a peach," transitioned into a sigh, "but I suppose you deserve to know that I am a contracted assassin."

———-

It was only half past two in the afternoon when you both emerged from the diner. You made sure to avoid the eyes in the queue of the waiting patrons. The large tip, Tangerine thought he dropped into the checkbook unseen, should at least ease the hostess's agitation about your prolonged stay. You stand facing each other on the bustling city sidewalk.

The silence felt heavy after hours-long conversations. You studied each other. Your chance to fully take him in, in a different perspective, a new light. You were wary of how to leave this after the time you just spent together. The things he depicted. The part of himself that he had fanned out. He seemed to have bore it all. How do you grapple with that while having to part ways?

Tangerine didn’t keep you speculating. His handsome face sported a pleasant smile as he stepped forward to hug you. The embrace lasted only a moment, but it felt that he didn’t want to let go -

Like he was trying to hold you still. Keeping all those secrets that he poured out over the cooling cups of coffee between the two of you. Pressing them in close and sealing them behind tight lips. To him, when you walk out of his sight, you’ll take his story with you. The moment that he lets you go, the truth gets out. Exposed are all the mysteries on the inside and his safety. The scary reality is that he potentially jeopardized his and his brother’s lives to answer your curiosity.

Except, that was just your mind racing again. Tangerine's hug lasted for a minute and in a beat, he was pulling his shoulders back to look down at your face. And then he pulled you in for a kiss, the breath-stealing and tangling your hand in his hair, kind.

———-

The date with Tangerine was like an omen that you wouldn't be able to get the pair of assassins out of your life. Every day, something happened that would remind you of them. One of your little students would ask for a bandaid. You'd hear a song that played in the diner or a familiar theme song that Lemon definitely was humming. You’d find yourself grinning.

Little reminders would pop up here and there. Until one-half of the duo started turning up here and there when you’d least expect or anticipate it. It was a gradually natural formation of a budding friendship with Lemon and an eventual relationship between you and Tangerine.

Your romance with the latter was like any 2000s Rom. Com. daydream, except for the consistent reminders that you were dating a killer ——

Your boyfriend would show up unannounced with fresh flowers and a splat of blood on his neck peeking out from under his collar.

Written-out jokes from Lemon were handed over with a roll of his eyes but the ghost of a smile on his lips. Signaling that he has already heard the ridiculous gag that his brother came up with.

He’d be up early and missing in action during the day, but made up for it by staying late on date nights.

He always found time to call you between the sporadic periods of action while on the job. Just hoping to chat about your day so far or what he wanted to do to you later. Your mind runs with what exact situations he was calling in the middle of, whenever he was out of breath or your conversations were cut short with crashes and shouts.

You could sense when he exerted too much energy after those particularly long workdays. He tended to be quieter, or his body weight pressed impossibly closer on top of yours as his cock pushed in deep, or when Lemon would physically need to drag him into your apartment and throw him onto the couch.

Regardless of his fatigue, once you got each other going - either by massaging his sore neck, his rough thumbs grazing over your exposed thighs, or knee rubbing against his bulge as you bandage up a cut - He basically reverted back into stealth mode. Targeting his focus on only you. It felt like he existed to get you off. Wanting you to come on either his mouth, fingers, or pounding dick. He may have been exhausted but he wouldn't lose stamina until you were finished.

Nine times out of ten, whether after a hotel rendezvous or candle-lit dinner over a pack of instant potatoes and Kraft Mac and cheese, you’d find yourselves snuggled up in bed. You were always left stated after a good fuck from Tangerine. Hands, tongues, and whispers danced in the shared tranquility of your space. You were making special memories with the limited time you found with him.

———-

It went on like this for years. Each day felt like you peeled away another layer of a fruit's skin. Discovering a new trait or trick of your boyfriend's. You anticipated something exciting when he flung open the apartment door or your bedroom window. He never ceased to thrill and fulfill your every need.

And that one Tuesday in Spring was no different. He strode up to your car after class let out, seizing your waist from behind. A spin to your hips in his grasp had him close enough to breathe into your ear,

"Fly out to France with me, yeah?"

———-

[tyuninthemirror]

— beside you: c.bg

— pairing: idol bf!beomgyu x fem!reader — genre: slight angst, fluff — word count: 2160 — disclaimers: none — synopsis: being on tour, all beomgyu wanted was to be beside you. he did all he could to make time pass, but did he ever consider how you felt? — series masterlist

— author's note: honestly, this wasn't my best work but i felt like i needed to get this out to get the series going. :( hope you still enjoy it though! ♥ (edited 6/30/23), (re-edited 7/22/2024)

You checked your phone yet again that evening, a sigh escaping your lips – one of many that night. Your message had been sent at noon, delivered by 2 pm, but it remained unread.

The official TXT Twitter had confirmed they'd wrapped up their show in Houston, and as midnight ticked closer, you couldn't help but wonder why Beomgyu hadn't replied yet. You let out a self-deprecating chuckle, the sting of unshed tears blurring your vision as you stared at your phone screen.

You and Beomgyu hadn't been going out for long. You two met months ago since you worked at the game store he often frequented, but you only officially got together right before he went on tour. You knew dating an idol would be hard, but you couldn't ignore your feelings for him.

You supported everything he did and were ecstatic to hear he was going on tour. Everything went well in the beginning, Beomgyu messaged you when he woke up and sent photos of everything he ate, but stopped a few days ago when they arrived in New York. Sure, you understood the time difference and their busy schedules, but it suddenly took him over a day to reply, even if he was actively responding on Weverse.

"'Message me whenever,' my ass," you snickered, repeating the words he told you as they were leaving Seoul to start their world tour. You wiped your tears away, switched your phone off, and headed to bed, a thousand scenarios rushing through your head.

"Are we leaving yet?" Beomgyu groaned in the van, checking the time for what felt like the hundredth time. "C'mon, let's get going, people!"

"Jesus Christ, what's the rush?" Yeonjun snapped, glaring at the younger boy from the front.

"He's just anxious to finish everything and return home," Soobin interjected with a chuckle from his seat next to Beomgyu. "Y/N is waiting for him and all."

Kai snickered, joining in on the teasing. "I'll bet he's been bombarding her with those cheesy kissy emojis."

"Of course he has!" Yeonjun chimed in with a mischievous smirk, turning to face Beomgyu. "Have you seen all the stuff he bought her? I bet he's sent a billion photos to show off."

But instead of responding with his usual snarky comeback, Beomgyu fell into an uncharacteristic silence as he stared at his phone in his hand.

"Uhh, are you ok, Beomgyu?" Soobin asked after a brief pause.

"Am I supposed to be doing that?" Beomgyu asked, looking up at the boys who stared right back at him.

"You mean the texts?" Taehyun asked in return, confused at why the atmosphere had gotten serious. Instead of a goofy 'gotcha!' or joke, the older boy just nodded.

"Well, don't you want to show her everything you're experiencing abroad?" Yeonjun questioned. He always sees Beomgyu on his phone and assumes he is texting you. "Don't tell me you haven't been texting her?"

Before Beomgyu could respond, their manager gets into the front seat announcing their schedule for the day. Soobin and Yeonjun looked at each other, a bit worried at how Beomgyu had reacted earlier.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Soobin asked as they returned to their shared hotel room, Yeonjun following behind them. Though Beomgyu seemed normal throughout their schedule, something felt off. The older boys noticed how Beomgyu stared at his phone throughout the day.

"Yeah," Beomgyu answered, smiling a little bit. "I couldn't understand some of the questions during the interview earlier, but I think my English is improving!"

Yeonjun wasn't convinced. "We're not talking about the interview. You've seemed… off."

"What do you mean?"

"The conversation this morning seems to have bothered you," Soobin explained. "So we just wanted to make sure you're ok."

"Yeah, I'm ok, but I do miss Y/N a lot," Beomgyu chuckled, his voice cracking a little as he finished his sentence. Yeonjun was about to tease him about it, but he held it back when he saw Beomgyu's eyes glaze over.

"It can't be that bad," Yeonjun comforted. "Don't you guys call each other at night? It's not like you can't see each other."

"I haven't called Y/N in a while," Beomgyu admitted. That's when it clicked in Soobin's mind. He had been sharing the room with Beomgyu through their tour, but he had yet to see him on the phone with you since the New York stop.

"Did you guys break up?" Soobin cautiously asked. But it didn't make sense to him because he had just seen Beomgyu buy you a new pair of earrings when they were out yesterday.

"No! Of course not!" Beomgyu exclaimed, jumping up from where he was sitting on the bed, panic evident in his voice. "What made you say that?"

"Listen," Yeonjun sighed, pushing Beomgyu to sit back down on the bed. "If you don't tell us what's going on, we can't help you."

Beomgyu stared at the two boys standing in front of him, contemplating whether or not he should tell them. After a minute or two, he sighs in defeat and opens his messages with you.

y/n ♥ - 7/17/2022 - 22:00 i just had lunch~ did anything interesting happen in houston? miss you lots, hope today's show went great! x

"Choi Beomgyu, these are from last night," Yeonjun's rebuke was stern as he held the phone. Soobin's brows furrowed as he read more of your one-sided conversation.

y/n ♥ - 7/14/2022 - 10:00 it's midnight here now, i hope i'm not texting at a bad time. :)

y/n ♥ - 7/15/2022 - 13:00 it's 1pm there, you must be busy preparing for tonight's show. break a leg! i'm heading to bed since i have an exam in the morning. i miss you. xx

y/n ♥ - 7/15/2022 - 17:00 good morning from my side of the world! don't forget to take the probiotics i packed for you!

me - 7/15/2022 - 22:00 hey, y/n! hope your exam went well! the last few shows went great. we'll be heading to houston soon.

y/n ♥ - 7/15/2022 - 22:10 it did! the professor was nice enough to give us extra point but i think i barely passed. :))

y/n ♥ - 7/15/2022 - 23:30 you must be asleep, sleep well! xx

y/n ♥ - 7/16/2022 - 07:00 sorry for texting this early in the morning, but i just wanted to say good night. i miss you. x

"Did you really only reply once out of all these messages?" Yeonjun's disbelief was evident. "Honestly, I'm surprised she's still waiting around."

"So much for missing Y/N," Soobin commented, handing the phone back with disappointment. "How could you leave her hanging like this?"

"I do miss her," Beomgyu's words were muffled by the mattress. "But every time we talked, I just… missed her more. I thought if I messaged her less, time would fly by, and the tour would end sooner."

Yeonjun shook his head, sitting beside Beomgyu. "That's selfish, man. You're not the only one in this relationship. Y/N understood what dating an idol entails, and she signed up for it."

Soobin chimed in, "She knew about the distance, the crazy schedules, the secrecy. She was prepared to deal with all that."

"Maintaining a relationship takes effort, especially in our line of work," Yeonjun added. "You need to balance your career and your personal life. And you can't just wish the tour away."

Silence hung heavy as Beomgyu processed their words. Eventually, he nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry for worrying you guys."

"We're not the ones you should be apologizing to," Yeonjun pointed at the phone.

As if on cue, your message popped up, and Beomgyu's face lit up, only for his expression to fall as he read it.

y/n ♥ - 7/18/2022 - 19:00 beomgyu, i think we need to talk.

"You dumbass," Yeonjun facepalmed.

"Talk to her. Just be honest," Soobin advised, allowing Yeonjun to cool down for a second. "I'm sure you can fix this."

"You better! How many times we've stuck our asses out to cover for you when you snuck out to meet Y/N! Don't let it go in vain!" Yeonjun scolded, raising his voice.

After asking Soobin and Yeonjun for some privacy and replying to your message with a 'call you in 5 minutes', Beomgyu spent the next few minutes scattering his brain, thinking of an excuse for his stupid behavior.

"Hey," Beomgyu's voice was soft as he greeted you, a tentative smile on his face.

"Hey," you returned the greeting, managing a smile despite the whirlwind of nerves inside you. You had braced yourself for a conversation that might end everything, especially after the silence on his end.

"Gyu, I just—" you started.

"I'm sorry—" he blurted out at the same time, and you both paused, a brief moment of laughter breaking the tension.

"Sorry, go ahead," you urged, your heart pounding against your ribs.

Beomgyu took a moment, his eyes cast downward. "I owe you an apology for the way I've been lately," he confessed, visibly uneasy. "I’ve been delaying my replies to your messages on purpose… I thought if I didn’t read them right away, time would pass faster and I'd be back with you sooner."

A sudden wave of confusion washed over you, rendering your mind blank and your thoughts scattered. His words seemed to hover in the air, not quite reaching your understanding.

"Y/N?" His voice cut through the fog and brought you back to reality.

"Sorry, can you repeat that?" You blinked away your confusion, struggling to grasp the meaning behind his words.

Beomgyu repeated his apology, his half-smile now tinged with regret. The sincerity in his voice was palpable as he spoke. "I've been missing you so much, I thought I could make the tour go by faster. I never meant to ignore you or make you feel unimportant."

Tears welled up in your eyes as he expressed his true feelings. The anxiousness and fear that had consumed you for the past few days melted away in an instant.

"No, Y/N," Beomgyu denied in a panic. "I handled it all wrong, I thought you would be lonely there while I was out here."

"Dummy, I'm so happy you're out there seeing the world. You've wanted this for so long," you tell him. "I'm sorry if I'm coming off as clingy. I just wanted to make sure you're taking care of yourself. You should enjoy being on the road as much as you can."

"Baby, sorry should be the last thing you say," Beomgyu sadly shakes his head. "I promise I'll communicate better from now on."

"Thank you, Beomgyu," you said, feeling a wave of warmth at his words.

"So, to more important things," Beomgyu exclaims, setting his phone down on the table and standing up from where he sat to riffle through his luggage. "Look what I got us! Matching beanies!!!"

You two talk for the next few hours until Yeonjun begs him to go to sleep.

"Good night, Y/N," Beomgyu smiled, looking at your face through the screen as you lay in bed. "I'll let you know when I finish my schedule tomorrow. I love you."

Your heart skipped a beat. You hadn't exchanged those words before the tour, and hearing them now felt monumental.

"I love you too, Gyu," you responded, your voice a whisper.

From off-screen, Yeonjun's voice chimed in, half teasing, half pleading, "Great, lovebirds. Now can we please sleep?"

With a shared chuckle, you both said your goodbyes, closing the call with reluctant smiles.

The screen went dark, and the quiet of your room enveloped you. Beomgyu's words echoed in your heart, a soothing balm to the ache of the past few days. Despite the distance, you felt closer to him than ever, knowing that love could bridge the gap between continents.

Meanwhile, Beomgyu lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a contented sigh. The weight of his worry had lifted, replaced by a promise to do better, to be the partner you deserved, even from halfway across the world.

There was a soft knock at his door, and Soobin peeked in, a knowing smile on his face. "All good?" he whispered.

Beomgyu nodded, his smile a mirror of Soobin's. "Yeah, all good. Thanks, hyung."

Yeonjun's voice floated in from the hallway, teasing but warm, "Now get some sleep, Romeo. We've got another big day tomorrow."

The room settled into silence as Beomgyu drifted off to sleep, a single thought comforting him into dreams: 'I love you too, Y/N.' It was a simple phrase, yet it held the power of his entire world.

And so, the night passed, with both you and Beomgyu holding onto the love that had been reaffirmed, a love that would continue to grow with each passing day, no matter the distance, even if you weren't beside each other.

[adventuresasmrsfindley]

TGIF! What a week it's been. This may be a TMI post but we're all friends here right? 😅

I went in for the colposcopy (reminder, this is for the cervix, not a colonoscopy) on Wednesday. My PCP said this was precautionary but I was still pretty nervous for the procedure. Imagine my shock when the OBGYN was talking to me before and said the cells they found were more on the side of concerning and this was an "absolutely need to do further testing" scenario. Not just "let's be extra cautious". I completely broke down in that poor woman's exam room. After coming off the breast scare, her throwing around the word cancer again was too much for me. I cried for a good 10 mins while she talked me through everything. I explained what had been going on recently and apologized for being such a mess. She totally understood and was great considering this was the first time we met lol. Anyways, she said that she definitely wanted to do biopsies which I was hoping wouldn't be needed but I trusted her judgement and let her proceed with the procedure. She took 3 total, and it was definitely not a pleasant experience. The last one sucked the worst. I took ibuprofen before the appointment just in case and I'm glad I did. Luckily it was over pretty quick but I had quite a bit of bleeding (duh - she basically hole punched my cervix 3 times) so she had to use extra of the solution that is supposed to stop the bleeding and lemme tell you. It's gross. It looks like coffee grounds coming out and I'm still dealing with it 2 days later. I was pretty sore the night of but haven't had much pain after that. It's more just annoying. It's also annoying because she said the results take about a week. If they come back a level 1 or lower we will just continue to monitor with yearly paps, but if they are higher than that she is going to recommend a LEEP. You can Google that if you want to know what I'm in for 🙃 all the research I did before said most places do it in the office but she said they are not equipped for that and it would be done in an outpatient surgery room and I would be put under general anesthesia. I am hoping soooo hard that my results come back good but a week is a long time to wait!!! I am so over this year.

On top of that, I found out I'm going to be traveling to CA multiple times this summer for work. I knew one trip was very likely but was not prepared for probably having to go once a month. It's going to be a great career opportunity so I'm not going to pass it up but I am not stoked about being away from my guys so much. I'm not in a great place with my MIL either right now and she's the best equipped to help us out while I'm gone because she's retired. So we will see how that plays out...

It's a lot going on right now. I just really need some good news back from the doctor and then I feel like I can fully focus on getting our summer planned and setting us up for success since things are going to get pretty crazy I'm sure.