#I can guess at reasons why that might have been the case but none of it is in the text

[jq37]

I've been thinking about Descendants 4 again today and, having had more time to think about it, it's even more disappointing than I initially felt it was. Because it actually has all the ingredients to be my favorite of the four.

-Brandy coming back as Cinderella (along with her prince) is an inspired move (as a Black girl and theater kid in spirit, I obviously loved her as a kid). -I also love a Cinderella focus in general because she's one of my favorite princesses--in Disney and in general. My MFA thesis project is literally a Cinderella retelling. -I love a focus on platonic relationships and an interesting mother-daughter dynamic is one of my faves. -Likewise, as cliche is it is, I love two characters with almost violently opposite vibes being forced to work together and getting close along the way.

This movie has all these things that I love which makes it extra disappointing that the movie seems uninterested in basic tenets of storytelling.

The two main relationship rifts in this movie are between Cinderella and the Queen and Red and her Queen and neither of those relationships grow or develop in a way we can get invested in. They're just fixed by stealing a book. The Red Queen doesn't learn to be a better person. They just erase one bad thing that happened to her and it's all fine now I guess? Ella doesn't reconcile with her friend. Whatever caused their rift (which we never see or even are told about in any detail) is just poofed from the timeline. There's no emotional climax. There's no real action climax. Every time it seemed like something interesting was going to happen or be revealed, they hard pivoted to something else. The connective tissue in the movie is super weak and the foreshadowing leads to very little if anything.

I've really never seen a movie so bizarrely unfocused and disjointed. It has real first draft vibes.

[prokopetz]

I'm asking you because I've seen people ask you similar questions before. Why are kobolds, as a fantasy creature, so nebulous?

Generally when people say orc, goblin, elf, dwarf, werewolf, vampire etc. a person can have a pretty solid idea of what traits that animal will have. I guess because they're usually copying that species from the same similar source works?

What happened to kobolds? I used to know them as a kind of german folklore creature, but then also as a short lizard person, and most recently there's been Dungeon Meshi, which gives the name kobold to anthropomorphic dogs.

Well, the trick is that none of these terms have a standard definition. In folklore, the words "elf", "dwarf", "gnome", "troll", "goblin", "pixie", etc. are used more or less interchangeably – all of these words might refer to the exact same folkloric critter, and conversely, the same word might be used to refer to several completely different folkloric critters, even within the same body of regional folklore, to say nothing of how their usage varies across different regions and over time.

Literally the only reason any of these terms have "standard" definitions in modern popular culture is because one specific piece of media got mega-popular and everybody copied it. For example, Tolkien is responsible not only for the popular media stereotypes of elves and dwarves: he's responsible for popularising the idea that "elf" and "dwarf" are separate kinds of creatures to begin with. Similarly, while Bram Stoker's Dracula isn't solely responsible for cementing the idea of what a vampire is in popular culture, it did standardise what vampire magic can do, and it helped cement the idea that a "vampire" and a "werewolf" are different beasties, which hasn't always been the case.

So the short answer is that there's just never been a mega-popular work about "kobolds" to provide a standard template for the type. Most modern depictions in Anglophone popular culture ultimately point back to the interpretation set forth by Dungeons & Dragons, but D&D itself has gone back and forth on the whether they're tiny dog-people or tiny lizard-people, with the tiny dog-person version being the earlier of the two, so even folks who are directly cribbing from D&D will vary on this point depending on which particular edition they're name-checking.

[alexanderwales]

Hey, do *you* have any idea why "superpowers are secretly distributed by a monster from space" seems to have been reinvented at least four times from 2007 to 2014? I've heard some hints that it might be rooted in Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Trigger, or even JJBA: Battle Tendency, but it's such an oddly specific thing.

I don't actually think it's oddly specific, I think it's a local minima for writers, which comes from a kind of can-kicking.

The problem with "random superpowers" is that it doesn't really make that much sense when you think about it at all, especially when those powers have a lot of very human-centric elements to them and aren't really grounded in any kind of understanding of the world.

So you're a writer, and you're thinking to yourself "well shit, none of this makes sense, it's all a little wonky from a setting perspective, why would powers work like this". And you can just bite the bullet and say "I don't know man, they just do", or you can think of some kind of handwave.

And I would submit that "aliens did it" has a lot of things going for it: these are inscrutable aliens with unknown motives and no morality, so we don't need to (and usually cannot) probe any further, they have the veneer of science and credibility that e.g. "a wizard did it" does not, and so these aliens can work however the settings needs them to work. They're an outcome pump, basically, and they're the closest convenient one. They're an excuse for weird, outside-context things to happen, and for readers to not probe any deeper. They seem legit enough, if you don't look too close. They can stand in for something pretty easily: pretty common for the aliens to be doing this for vague entertainment reasons, or colonialism, or this is some kind of pollutant effect or whatever, or superweapon testing. And again, specifically in the case of superpowers, there's a veneer of science on the whole thing, since aliens might exist, maybe. There's a lot of superhero stuff that has the same scientific veneer to it, so they match well together.

I guess I am, at heart, a believer in paths-of-least-resistance when it comes to writing, reinvention and convergence on solutions, and "aliens grant superpowers" seems to me like a solution to a problem that people would keep reinventing even if there were no prior works, and since there are prior works, you're also getting a lot of influence bleeding in, making the choice for "aliens grant superpowers" a lot easier. Audiences are familiar, they won't balk.

[brookediamonds]

If youre still taking requests, maybe smth ab axel being the golden retriever boyfriend to the reader. Most people think she doesnt like him and is pitying him but axel makes her smile and laugh and he wants her to smile and laugh as much as possible because its his favorite thinf about her

the reason why i smile | Axel Kovačević x Fem! Reader

Summary: You have a classic case of RBF and there's only person on this plant that can bring the biggest smile to your face. And his name was Axel Kovačević.

side note: Axel is apart of Miyagi-Do in this world!

Word Count: 2.1k Warnings: none! fluff

prequel

not my gif

"She always looks mad."

"That's just her face."

"She looks so mean."

People couldn't be far from it. You were anything but mean. Sure your eyebrows were always closed in together, and smile lines were nonexistent on your face, but you were surely a smiling on the inside kind of person.

The only people who really knew that were you, your parents, and Axel Kovačević. It's nothing personal to the rest of the world, but what did everyone else have to offer?

You and your teammates have just finished another lesson with Sensei LaRusso and Sensei Lawerence, your body was still running off adrenaline from the sparring you just finished, earning a kudos from your Sensei's.

"That was an awesome match," Axel said as the two of you tied your shoes.

"It was whatever," you respond humbly, with a shrug. Axel snorted making you bump hips wit him.

"Hey, guys!" Sam chippers, walking up to you and Axel along with Miguel.

"Hey," Axel greets them as you continued tying your laces.

"We're gonna head to Golf N'Stuff right now, do you all want to join us?" The curly haired girl asks with a bright smile.

"Yeah, sounds like fun!" your boyfriend responds happily. "Right, (Y/n)?"

You glanced up at the blue eyed boy next to you with an amused expression.

"I guess," you sighed dramatically adjusting your tank top. "But I'm not going like this."

"Of course, we're gonna get changed and meet over there at six," Sam assures you.

You nod and stand up, grabbing your gym bag. Axel followed suit, trailing behind you as the two of you left the Miyagi-Do dojo.

"Good news!" Sam skips over to Tory and Robby who stood over by the exit talking amongst themselves. "I got (Y/n) and Axel to join us later tonight!"

"You actually got her to go?" Tory raises her eyebrows surprised by Sam's news. "Did you have to bribe her or something?"

"Look, I know she's been hard to get to know, but maybe she'll open up a little more after tonight," Sam encourages the group.

"Especially with Axel around," Miguel adds in. "She seems to talk a little more with him."

"Huh," Robby realizes. "You're right, she does talk to us more when he's there."

"I bet they're dating," Tory chimes as the four of the friends began walking to Sam's car.

"I doubt it," Miguel scoffs. "Girl never smiles, much less shows she likes anyone."

"But she does smile when Axel is around," Sam points out to her boyfriend. "Tory might be on to something."

"Okay, let's not speculate," Robby says holds his hands up in defense. "I'm sure they're just friends because they joined us at the same time."

"I'm with Robby on this one," Miguel agreed with his step-brother.

The girls rolled their eyes, sharing a secretive look between them as the four gathered in the Mercedes.

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

Soon enough six pm rolled around, everyone meeting at the entrance of the arcade building. As you and Axel exited the car, your new friends waited patiently for you both.

"Alright, do you guys wanna start with mini golf or the arcade?" Miguel inquires as the six of you stood together.

"Mini golf!" Sam and Tory shout out making the boys laugh.

"Sound cool with you guys?" Robby asks turning to you and Axel.

"As long as (Y/n)'s on my team, we're good to go," Axel rubs his hands together, making your snort.

Sam’s eyes sparkled mischievously as she took notice to your lingering eyes on the boy next to you. "Actually, I’ve got a better idea. How about… girls versus boys?"

"I like that idea," you spoke walking over to the brunette. Axel's face drops seeing your betrayal.

"And loser buys snacks," Tory adds in with a devious smirk.

"Deal," Miguel agrees. "Hope you ladies brought your wallets."

"We won't need them," you taunt back. "Let's go get our clubs."

Tory and Sam fist bump behind your back, happy they were able to get you on their team. The music played loudly around the venue, neon lights lighting up the outside as everyone grabbed their gear.

As the six of you lined up at the first obstacle, you placed the ball down steadily lining up your shot. As you were about to hit the ball, you feel a presence lean down close to you, his voice low and warm, "good luck."

"Go away," you swat Axel away from you as if he were a gnat in your ear. He laughs watching as you carefully hit the target, the ball smoothly going down the drain.

"Nice one!" Sam cheers you on. You glare over at Axel who stood happily behind you, as if he hadn't tried to sabotage you.

As Sam went up next, you walked over to the tall boy, using your golf club to lean on.

"Don't think that flirty tone is gonna work on me," you say lowly so no one else would hear you.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Axel responds, playing dumb.

Without your knowledge, Tory catches Axel squeezing your left hip, before moving to go next at the ball. She knew it.

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

After winning by one shot, the six of you decide to head inside and continue your fun with other games. As all of you split amongst yourselves, you went along with Sam and Robby to grab some game cards for the rest of your group.

"So, how'd you do it?" Tory asks moving to stand beside Axel.

"Do what?" He asks out of confusion.

"How did you manage to get with (Y/n)?" She smirks. Miguel looks over at the blonde wide eyed at her question.

"Tory!" Miguel mutters.

Axel barks out a laugh, a tint of a blush creeping up his neck.

"Holy shit," Miguel whispers seeing Axel's sheepish look. "You are dating (Y/n)!"

"What can I say?" Axel smiles softly, looking over at you as you stood in line grabbing a card. "I like a challenge."

"No but seriously, she's hard to read, how'd you get her to open up?" Miguel questions the tall boy next to him.

"She's actually one of the easiest people to talk to," he says. "Once you get past her 'don't talk to me' vibe, she's a great listener."

Tory looks over at Axel impressed with his description of her, now seeing how intently she always paid attention to those around her.

"Okay, we have enough for pretty much every game here," Sam, Robby, and (Y/n) come back to the group.

Miguel and Tory watched as you immediately went to Axel's side, your arm barely grazing his.

"I think we should start at basketball," Axel says turning to you.

"Fine, but don't cry when I beat you," you respond sassily making Robby and Tory laugh.

"She's so mean," Axel exhales watching you saunter towards the basketball machine. "I love it."

He walks off after you, placing a hand on your back making you turn back to him with a slight smile.

"Did we miss something?" Robby asks Tory seeing you bump your hips with Axel's to scoot him over to his side.

"Tory and Sam were right," Miguel admits with a playful eye roll. "They're dating."

"You see!" Sam cheers raising a hand to high five Tory.

"Makes sense," Robby nods looking over at you both as you let Axel stand behind you to guide your hands shoot the basketball.

And completely miss, making you laugh and gently punch him in the shoulder.

"They're cute," Sam pouts seeking her own affection from her own boyfriend.

As the other four watched you, you turned your back to them, facing the boy who just beat you in the game.

"Why are they looking at us like that?" You crossed your arms, your mouth falling into a straight line.

"I might've told them I'm hopelessly in love with you," Axel says grabbing the tickets that printed out of the machine. He stands up straight, taking a step towards you as you narrowed your eyes up at him.

"You what?" You laughed softly.

"They figured it out," Axel explains with a slight grin. "Someone can't keep their hands off me."

You rolled your eyes playfully, shoving him away from you softly, unable to hide your shy smirk.

"Whatever, you're the one that's always hanging off me," you flip your hair over your shoulder.

"I can't help it, you're irresistible," he says nonchalantly making you blush. "Now, let's win some more tickets because I see a stuffed dragon begging me to win it for you."

"You're ridiculous," you scoffed glancing over at the pink dragon sitting on one of the shelves behind the counter.

"You love it," Axel teases you, quickly pecking your forehead.

"Fine, but only because you made me lose," you say grabbing ahold of his hand, leading him to another game.

Axel can't help but smile at his girl, enjoying every minute she dragged him around.

"So cute," Sam cooes as she inserted her game card into a game of ski ball, seeing Axel and (Y/n) walk hand in hand toward the air hockey table.

"Adorable," Robby nods his head in agreement.

"Wait!" Axel stops you two in your place, making you come to a halt. "'Let's do this real quick."

"Axel," you groaned as he pushed you into a photo booth. You sighed as he shut the curtain closed from prying eyes, and slid a five dollar bill into the machine.

"You will love it, come here," he places an arm over your shoulder making you scoot back into his hold, wanting to be annoyed.

"I hate pictures," you grumble as you waited for the countdown.

"Not with me you don't," he says teasingly leaning in close to you to press a sloppy kiss against your cheek making you push him away as you laughed.

"That was perfect," he grinned seeing it pop on the screen, perfectly capturing your relationship. "Let's do something silly."

You decide to go along with the boy you adored, and stick your tongue out holding up a peace sign as he copied your same pose.

"Okay, now sweet," he suggests, his expression softening. He leaned his forehead against yours, his bright blue eyes catching your breath, like they always do.

"Axel," you murmered, feeling a flutter of warmth spread through you.

He grinned before molding your lips with his own, the final flash capturing the sweet moment. When he pulls back, you're flustered but peck his lips one last time.

The screen displayed the photo strip preview, and Axel reached out to grab the print as it slid out of the machine. He held it up with a triumphant smile.

"Look at that beautiful smile," he says pointing at the first picture where you're fighting to hold back a smile as you push him away in the photo.

"Gross," you fake gag.

"Hey, it's my favorite thing about you, you know?" Axel defends your feature. You look up at him with curious eyes.

"Really?" Your tone is genuine, a certain look of innocence Axel hardly ever saw.

"I thought it was obvious," he remarks pulling his phone out, and opening his gallery. He wiped through rows of phots of you smiling, some of them you weren't even looking at the camera.

"I love to see you smile," he exclaims, still scrolling through more photos. You can't help but smile, actually smile, with the way your heart melts as he looks at your pictures fondly.

Axel's eyes wonder over to you as you admire the photographs.

"That's my girl," he says proudly making you shake your head.

"Yeah, you still owe your girl some nachos and a slushy," you remind him playfully as you both moved to leave the booth.

"Yes dear," he replies with a mock-serious tone, staring down at you lovingly.

Your group of friends walk up to you, peering over your shoulder to see the photos.

"What were you two doing in there?" Miguel teases you as he bumped his shoulder against yours making you roll your eyes.

"Getting proof," Axel said confidently, pulling out the photo strip and holding it up for everyone to see. "She loves me!"

"Axel!" you whined as everyone closed in on him, taking in the pictures.

"Freaking adorable," Tory states giving you a sideways smile.

"Who knew (Y/n) smiled," Robby eggs you on making you frown.

"See what you did," you said snatching the photo out of Axel's grip. "You're messing with my street cred!"

"Worth it," he shrugged, completely unbothered. "I will buy you Reese's to make up for it."

You perked up at the idea of the peanut butter dessert. "Fine."

As you walked along with Sam and Tory, Miguel and Robby fell back behind with Axel.

"They have us wrapped around their fingers, don't they?" Robby sighed out referring to their girlfriends whom walked ahead of them, sharing laughter.

"Oh for sure," Miguel agrees.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Axel grinned, already thinking of ways on how to win you that pink dragon that called your name.

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

(a/n: OMGGG I loved writing this!!! It was so cute and fun, I might write more on this trope. Thank you for this request!!)

[cheriden]

˙ . ˚ ₊ 「 liar, liar 」 ꜝꜝ

“ "Thought people wanted college to be over. Looks like they never want to let go.” Soobin jokes. You look down, swaying your feet out of shame for being one of those people.”

── synopsis 。yeonjun drags you to a party and you get caught up in the middle of truth-or-dare.

pairing 。best friend!yeonjun x reader x friend!soobin

.ᐟ genre 。angst (yeonjun) and sort-of fluff (soobin) (and eventual smut)

.ᐟ tags 。yeonjun is an asshole, making out, college au, miscommunication/arguing because none of them want to compromise, i love soobin, drinking and party games

.ᐟ status & word count 。two-parts | 1.73k | masterlist

part 1 | yeonjun's ending | soobin's ending

.ᐟ warnings/notes 。 i did not proofread what's new! reader is gender neutral BUT will be afab once the smut comes along. poll at the end<3

“And if I don’t enjoy it?” You argue, to which the other whines and pulls you next to him. “You will, trust me on this.”

You would, except he promised you the same thing the past three parties ago. 

Yeonjun has been your best friend since diapers— a result of your parents being friends, and though you’d usually say he has your best interests at heart, sometimes his own precedes yours. He tries to get you into new things—clubbing, raving, organizations that require you to be social; you could really see how hard he tries to gain shared hobbies with you. 

Admittedly, it’s a bit unfair for him. He participates in all your activities, no matter how boring they get; and he enjoys them, so much so that he’d come to introduce you to his friends with similar pastimes. Which is why you’re here, but you can’t deny how tired you get of his social scene. It’s a bit too fast and loud for your liking, a point made as the both of you make your way through the sweaty crowd, Yeonjun greeting (screaming) at every familiar person he comes across. He guides you by the hand into the kitchen area, scoping the rest of the scene out. He says he’ll be right back, though it usually takes him 30 minutes to do so. He also says you can come with him. You shake your head and hoist yourself up the counter, palming the pockets of your clothing. You realize Yeonjun kept your phone in his bag. You grumble, mentally preparing to search for him, but the ocean of bodies is getting more violent as the night goes on. With a sigh, you pace around the empty area. You rummage through the cupboards and the fridge, only they’re all completely empty. You’d assume the drink table was somewhere off the side of the living room, and all you do is walk through the barren space. A knock is heard on the doorframe, and you look up to see one of Yeonjun’s friends. 

Soobin is one of the people in his close circle who keeps to himself, and he’s the one you share most in common with. “I’m guessing he hauled you to one of these again.” He comments, sitting on the counter next to you. “I didn’t know there were so many graduation parties to attend in a row.” You mumble. The other laughs, playing with the solo cup in his grasp. “Me neither. Thought people wanted college to be over. Looks like they never want to let go.” You look down, swaying your feet out of shame for being one of those people. You know the reason is childish and troublesome, embarrassingly cliche—but you’ll miss the proximity you share with your friends, namely Yeonjun. Skipped classes and free periods will no longer have you meet each other, to be replaced with a nine-to-five and what’s most probably a dead-end career in different areas of the city as the best case scenario. “Might as well enjoy it before the graduation ceremony, right?” You peruse, nudging his side. Soobin furls his eyebrows “You enjoy sitting here, bored out of your mind?” Rolling your eyes, you get on your feet and extend your hands to the blond. He raises an eyebrow, but can’t contain the smile on his face when he takes your hand in his. 

“I think we’ve made a big mistake.” Soobin whispers, watching the host explain the game. The two of you were stumbling around the house before you were pulled in by a group of strangers, forced to sit down. “We know how to play truth or dare, idiot.” Yeonjun groans across you, uninterested. “Can’t we just play regular spin the bottle or something?” One of his friends chuckle beside him, “So we can all get an STD from you? Yeah, no thanks.” The two argue even more, before the host shakes his head and tells them to shut up. “Let’s just start, okay?” The circle nods, and the bottle twirls around the carpeted floor. 

It lands on Yeonjun—and you have to physically restrain yourself from looking annoyed at the amount of fake ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ that come next. “Yeonjun,” The boy sings, "I dare you to kiss who you think is the hottest person in the room.” The brunette raises his hand, but is shut down. “No, you can not kiss yourself.” With a pout, Yeonjun stalks forward, earning a flinch from you. His gaze flickers to yours for a moment, but your incessant heartbeat suddenly drops when he swivels his head to kiss the person beside you. 

You gulp, and take in one long breath. It seems like forever, you watching him kiss someone else right in front of you. Your eyes are wide, gripping the hem of your bottoms as he pulls away slowly, smirk etched onto his lips as he wipes the string of saliva off it. You’re stuck staring at nothing for minutes, occasionally taking sips of your beer and glancing at Yeonjun to see him unbothered and carefree. His expression makes your stomach ill (though half of it is due to your drinking),  and you’re about to excuse yourself when the snout of the bottle lands on your feet. All of them are watching you, including the brunette’s curious ones. You take a deep breath, and plop down onto the cushion. The girl who’s up to dare you smiles, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I dare you to kiss the person that means the most to you.” But everyone here knows who means the most to you. “Why are we playing truth or dare if everyone’s just gonna be kissing each other anyway.” You deflect with a false laugh, but all the girl does is shrug. “Dunno—still a dare though, isn't it?” You weigh your options. If you did decide to kiss Yeonjun, you’re pretty sure your friendship would be over. If you flee, you’ll not only become virgin-coward-of-the-year, but it’d still be pretty obvious why you ran away. 

But you, in your semi-intoxicated and pressured mind, decide on the third option: Kiss Soobin. He stutters when he feels your lips on his, his hands shooting up in response. You contemplate ending your life there and then, but are surprised when he reciprocates by grabbing your waist and deepening the kiss. Soobin threads his tongue through your mouth and moves his fingers up to your face, cupping the cheeks. He’s warm and sweet and sends tingles all over your body—it’s only when you need to breathe that you separate from him, panting. Though your eyes are still locked into his, you can gauge the reaction of those around you through your peripheral vision: utter shock. It’s this realization that makes you whip your head to none other than Yeonjun, who gets up to tug you with him. “Okay, that’s enough. You’ve hit your limit and we need to get you home.” The group’s protests and boos go in one ear and out the other, as you’re dragged by the arm out onto the porch. Agitated, you shove him away. “What’s your problem? You’re the one who made me go to this stupid party.”

“You’re kissing strangers, get yourself together.” You look at him incredulously. “Soobin is not a stranger, he’s your best friend.”

“He’s a stranger to you. How could you even say he means the most to you when it's so obviously me?” Turning away from him, you hand your head up into the sky. “How full of yourself—and where was this concern during the parties where you left me alone? You didn’t even bring me home half of the time, Soobin did.” “Is that what this is about? You’re getting back at me for that?” You groan, rubbing your hands across your face. “It’s not that–” “Is it payback because I didn’t kiss you?” Laughing in astonishment, you point an accusatory finger at him. “You narcissistic asshole! Not everything's about you! Why would I be jealous of that?” The smug look on his face is nearly enough to send you over the edge, but his next words solidify it. “Because you’re in love with me.” You hide your guilt with a look of repulsion, expressions eerily similar to one another. “Now why would I fall in love with an egocentric, reckless, douchebag?” You spoke, tone dim and low. “Why are we even friends when all you’ve done  is disregard my feelings to fit in with your standards?” Yeonjun buries his face in his hands, muttering. “It's because our parents forced us to. I try so hard to make you feel included, to invite you to everything;” He pauses, narrowing his eyes at you, “But you always wallow in your own sadness and loneliness that you don’t even fucking try.” You scoff, “Try? I’ve done nothing but try ever since you decided you were too cool to hang out with me in highschool.” Crossing your arms, you keep your gaze pinned to the ground and sway back and forth. “I’m fine the way I am. The truth is, you don’t accept me for me. Why would I make the effort?” Now he scoffs, forcing you to face him. “That’s how the world works, you can’t sit in solitude for the rest of your life. I’m helping you when the time comes that you’ll need to make that effort and I won’t be around to do it for you.” His words linger in the air for a few seconds. Deep down, you knew that neither of you would keep in touch if it weren't for academics and proximity. You’d become jaded by reaching out, and Yeonjun would get tired of responding. Solemnly, you turn your head up with your eyes closed. “I don’t need you to babysit me. Just fuck off and leave already.” His lips part in hurt and shock, unsure of what to say. “I don’t need your bullshit either.” He spits. “How could someone like me? How could anyone fall in love with someone as close-minded and pessimistic as you?”

He stomps off into his car, leaving you alone with your thoughts as the trees sway and the wind howls. There’s not a single star in the sky, and all you can do is sit on the stairs of the porch as crickets chirp and the house muffles the boom of the soundsystem.

[sorrelchestnut]

I've seen a fair number of posts both here and on reddit that question why Tav (or the Dark Urge) would end up as a group leader for any other reason that "game mechanics say so." There's the requisite "okay, well if you play a high charisma character I guess it makes sense," or on the other end of the spectrum, "if you're playing Durge and murder someone right off the bat everyone would be too scared to tell you no." And I get where people are going with this! I really do. But it also fundamentally misunderstands a facet of human nature, which is that the vast majority of people do not actually want to be in charge, because that means being held responsible for the outcome. Accordingly, most people will dither when a group consensus is needed: have none of you ever tried to get a group of friends to agree where to go for dinner? Yeah, it's like that, but waaaay worse.

A lot of times "leadership" is just the willingness to say, "fuck it, y'all do what you want, but I'm doing this." I see it all the time in a corporate environment, where people will go back and forth on group meetings without anyone making a decision until finally one brave soul goes "in my opinion the clear answer is x" and then everyone gratefully goes along with it. Because now it's not their responsibility when something goes wrong! They're just following along with someone else's suggestion, and maybe it works or maybe it doesn't, but at the end of the day they don't have to worry about the consequences unless they're personally affected. In which case they might step up and argue back, and then they're stuck being a leader, too. Welcome to adulthood!

Lae'zel is the only one who ever even tries to exert some kind of control, when she tells you to follow her lead on the ship, or calls you her subordinate in the Grove. But, crucially, she doesn't ever make any serious attempt to take control: you can just tell her, "lol, no," and she sort of confusedly gives way, because she doesn't know how to handle this scenario. In her world there are commanders and subordinates, and everyone knows where they stand and falls in line. She's never actually had to take control of a situation and so at the first sign of resistance she falls back on the dynamic that's familiar to her, which is executing the commands of someone older and more experienced. She goes through a lot of growth over the game, to the point that she can take over as a resistance leader in her own right by the end, but at the beginning she's a wet-behind-her-ears private with some decent combat chops and it shows.

Otherwise, your party consists of:

Shadowheart, who's trained in infiltration and assassination and does NOT want a lot of attention brought to her or her mission for a variety of reasons;

Astarion, who has literally been a slave for two centuries and canonically takes a while to realize that he can exert an opinion beyond complaining about it;

Gale, whose only friend is his cat and couldn't project-manage his way out of a wet paper bag;

Wyll, who was probably trained for command at one point but has been doing the lone-hero thing for a decade and has a very large secret that he's trying to conceal; and,

Karlach, who's only ever been a bodyguard and a soldier and is genuinely just happy to be here.

Honestly, it would be more a surprise if Tav/Durge didn't end up as their unofficial leader, given the general power dynamics at play. The first time Tav/Durge says something like, "fuck it, we need to do something instead of stand around arguing about it, let's go check out those ruins over there," it's a done deal. They're The Captain Now! As long as they don't make decisions that fundamentally oppose something dear and important to the other group members, they're not even going to get any argument. Because at the end of the day, not one of these walking disasters has enough trust in themselves and their decision-making skills to feel any kind of certainty that they can choose the right path forward. If someone else is going to take that decision out of their hands? They're going to follow, no questions asked, right up until the moment they can't.

[mewtwoandme]

For 0 reason at all, absolutely none, whose Jay’s pokemon partner ;>

So uh...*cough* I um...got a little distracted over the weekend. Rather than working on things I was supposed to, I got fixated on something that was first inspired by Loupy and then further instigated by Phlurrii, so they are to blame for this XD

For a bit of context, I have never ever gotten an ask regarding if Jay even has a pokemon partner (until now that is, thank you Phlurrii X3) I guess people just assumed he didn't have one when in all actuality...he does :3

There's a reason she isn't part of the cast or hasn't been mentioned at all, which I'll explain in a bit. But first, this is Dragonfly

Dragonfly is a sassy girl packed with a LOT of attitude. She is very protective of Jay, so protective that she won't let anyone, not even his own girlfriend around him. Jay is HER human. You're not allowed to touch him. You even look at Jay funny, and you might get bit. And a bite from a Flygon is not pleasant.

I compare Argon's behavior to a dog a lot, and with Dragonfly, it's no different. In her case, she's a big girl with the personality of a small dog. Very much like a chihuahua, her bond with Jay is strong, and she can be hostile towards others, both human and pokemon.

This is the reason why Jay doesn't bring her around when visiting Lakota and the twos. She can be aggressive and does not get along well with others, but adores and is completely devoted to her partner.

[rin-hanarin]

I realized that I've never addressed the elephant in Lucanis's room, also known as his romance plot, as a "Had been delusional about him for months before release" individual, so here's a surprisingly long rant/summary of how I felt about it in the process of playing the game.

As a Rook de Riva player, I obviously loved "Coffee with the Crows": we met Illario, joked about haha three Crows talking about nothing, talked business, Rook and Lucanis had a nice moment getting to know each other better outside of being teammates, Rook de Riva's background was acknowledged again, it really felt like a nice bonding moment, right?

Thennn a whole lot of nothing happens during any of the conversations between them, huh. Lucanis doesn't acknowledge flirting, which is fine, take your time bud, you'll get there; you keep pushing being supportive, he ignores you, you deal with his personal stuff for him one (1) time, and in my case he then proceeds to ignore Rook for 10+ hours of pure game time while busy talking to Neve at every opportunity until I finally get one (1) dialogue option to "express romantic interest in Lucanis".

And let me express my honest innermost feelings on the matter:

Not only did it feel like Lucanis genuinely couldn't care less about Rook even as a friend, it also felt like Rook was forcing Lucanis into something he simply wasn't interested in and that we were just getting in the way of his relationship with Neve. It was genuinely unpleasant to experience in a videogame that is supposed to be wish fulfillment and whatnot, and let me tell you, it was especially jarring because Dragon Age games also have a tendency of occasionally making you feel like the most special little protagonist known to Thedas, at the very least to your companions who you're supposedly building bonds with.

I loved hangout events in this game, too, I was so happy to just have these conversations about whatever with companions, have these little one-on-one moments with them that genuinely felt like walks with friends (especially with my bro my bestie my homie Davrin), and with Lucanis it started and ended with the coffee date. His fears and doubts about Rook later are never addressed, and lol lmao even, yeah, why would they be, when it feels like he barely acknowledges Rook exists outside of accompanying him to deal with his problems, none of which need Rook there? There's no reason outside of gameplay for him to ask Rook and not, say, his favorite Neve he talks about everything to? Somehow a lot of times when I hoped for any sort of dialogue with him, I was met with him talking about something very personal like his current feelings about Illario to Neve, like, isn't Rook supposed to know anything about anything, or are we just his convenient weird coworker he sometimes asks favours from?

We persevere though and keep supporting Lucanis, and can you take a wild guess what was waiting for me after like 40 hours of the game and after the infamous "kabedon assassin style" scene? Yeah bro, Lucanis just happened to talk to Neve. I wish I was making this shit up. My coping strategy was to come up with an entire jealousy subplot for my Rook because if I have to feel like I'm in the shittiest unrequited situationship of a triangular shape, I might as well do it on my own terms, right? It feels petty and stupid because as a player I like Neve, too, she's one of the coolest (no pun intended) characters, but as Rook, and Rook de Riva making an obvious choice especially? Yeah, let's just say this relationship fucking sucked for a while.

So after many trials and tribulations we're finally back with Inner Demons, and yeah, Neve is there again, I couldn't even give a shit at that point, and I'll be real here, the locking in didn't feel like we went through angsty slowburn or that we earned Lucanis' trust. Remember DA2's Fenris situation? Because I suddenly did, and surely one of many, many Neve banters I had to eavesdrop on could be sacrificed to have one or two banters that acknowledged Lucanis's anything towards Rook at all?

Also, Spite? Spite seemingly likes Rook more than Lucanis does. In between "It's so over" and "We're so back" in the Fade Ossuary it feels like somehow Rook gets more bonding time with Spite, which is kinda crazy to me.

We are so back though! As I mentioned, I was a "delusional before release" individual, I am perfectly capable of filling the gaps and extrapolating meaning from implications, and here's where one of the most infuriating things is: the rest of the romance is good, too! I can write whatever the hell I want between the beginning and the end of it, but like, why should I? How should I go about it, when in my game I was under the impression that Lucanis would rather just spend time with anyone other than Rook for seemingly no reason in particular, because there's simply nothing there? The fact that none of my pre-release ideas or comics even necessarily contradict anything about Lucanis or his romance as it is now is more telling than impressive honestly.

So where do I land with this exactly? Well, mostly in the glorious Fanon Land where I've been making my silly comics the whole time anyway. The highs are high, I love what they did at the end and how stable, protective and devoted Lucanis is, but the lows made me salty as shit and I wish I didn't have to feel that way to begin with. I wish I didn't have to connect the dots and joke about how badly Lucanis sucks at this and "Let's go girl give us nothing." And yes, I know about writer lay-offs, rewrites, restarts, etc etc, and it's a miracle that this game came out at all, but it hardly matters when you're just trying to do the good old datesim part of a Dragon Age game and end up feeling like a third wheel while trying very hard to get anything out of the character you're interested in.

[akutasoda]

Hii! How are you? I hope you're well!

I have a request,,, Roommate with Aventurine collage au if possible? Reader recently just bought a house but can't really support themselves so they ask one of their friends if they want to move in with them with a few agreements, none of them want to since they already have a place to stay not until Aventurine comes by.. Reader close friends? Are they even friends? Wait of course they are. Aventurine tell reader he wants to move in with them. What? Well I guess there's no other opinion since reader money is tight.

Atlas Aventurine finally moved in with them, it's a bit surprising considering that he's rich.. why would he want to move in with reader anyway? Ahem thing has been great.. a little to great reader was wondering why they never received any electricity bill that they need to pay along said with water bill.. it turns out Aventurine already paid both of it without reader knowledge since he will definitely get scolded... But what is this? Aventurine? Holding them close.. huh? Confusion came to reader. Aventurine never been this so love affection, unless.. no way right?.. they never thought they might end up falling in love with Aventurine. They're just friends.. now way this can happen. Oh well.. maybe begin in relationship with Aventurine isn't bad after all.. right?

This ended up longer than I expected HELP 😭 I'm craving for angst.. but probably need to stop before I start digging my own grave 🚶 I am not ok 😇 it can be fluff, angst comfort.. or just some wholesome love story.. reader is gender natural 🫂

history hates roomates

synopsis - you decide to room with someone you barely knew but you become very well acquainted, almost too well

includes - aventurine ft topaz + ratio

warnings - gn!reader, college/modern au, maybe ooc, fluff, slight crack, slight angst towards the end, wc - 2.7k

a/n: im doing well! hope you are aswell!

college seemed great. you had been accepted into your ideal collage and had made some great, hopefully lifelong, friends. however, the only issue was that you needed to look for a place to stay for the rest of your course. getting to and from college was becoming more hassle than what it was worth as you didn't take up the initial offer of dorms, but now you were deeply regretting that decision. you had spent hours scrolling on the college's website looking at the dorms in hopes of someone putting out a request for a roomate but nothing ever seemed to come about.

in honesty, you were getting tired of constantly looking for places to stay that reduced the amount you needed to travel - you cursed yourself for not taking up the dorm offer when you first got accepted. a sigh escaped you as you were getting bored of searching and decided that it might be better to turn in for the the night but one listing caught you're eye. it was a decently sized house, designed for student stay as the college would sponsor some similar places, that was within a walkable range of your college, it seemed almost perfect if the pricing wasn't so steep but you were desperate at this point so you contacted the lister and showed your interest just in case someone decided to take it before you could - maybe tomorrow you could ask a friend to go halves?

---✩

even as you walked toward your first class of the day, all you could think about was who might be willing to go halves with you on the place. hopes weren't exactly high as it was quite pricey on it's own but in contrast to some of the dormitories it wasn't that bad! your brain was practically on autopilot as you walked into your class and sat down at your designated seat.

maybe if one person wouldn't be willing to go halves, you could ask two friends? however, the more reasonable part of yourself knew that most people either had dorms or were fine with how they got to college daily. you were so engrossed with thinking of a solution that it barely registered that topaz, and numby, had sat beside you.

numby caught your attention first as topaz used that opportunity to pose the question 'everything alright over there? you seemed pretty lost in thought'

to be honest, nobody knew how topaz managed to have numby by her side at all times on campus, some rumours were that she simply paid the headmaster. it was to be expected that not many people wanted to be sat next to the whitette in class with numby always being there, fortunately you weren't all that fussed with the critter - it became rather adorable after a while. so sitting next to topaz had let you become extremely close with her and eventually friends.

'well it could be better' you eventually responded 'i finally found a place near enough to the college but it's rather expensive, kind of need someone to room with'

numby perked it's head and topaz hummed in acknowledgement before adding 'i'm sure you can find someone, ask around a bit and see'

'i only found it last night so i haven't had the chance to ask yet, but i will' you paused before realising 'would you room with me?'

'as much as i would love to, i've got my own dorm here but you shouldn't have a problem finding someone else' she plastered an almost guilty smile on her face 'sorry though'

a small sigh escaped you 'no it's fine, im more at fault for not taking up a dorm originally'

the door to the class opened and you both watched as the professor walked in, topaz leaned over and whispered 'i'll come find you at lunch and we can talk about this later', you nodded and she nodded back.

---✩

your class finished slightly earlier than normal and so you decided to wait outside of topaz's class for the last couple of minutes. while you waited you decided that it might be a good idea to have another look to see what else might've been listed and double check that the lister was still holding the accomodation for you - they had been very generous so far and you didn't want to test their patience and make them wait too long for a final answer, mainly because they're probably was a handful of students also eyeing up the place.

luckily topaz hadn't made you wait too long and you three walked to the normal spot that you'd hang out at. topaz sat opposite you and immediately she demanded to see the place you were looking at.

'defiantly worth finding a roomate for this place, it looks pretty decent for it's price, as steep as it may be' she scrolled through the details to confirm and take a final look at the images, even numby was looking over her shoulder doing small jumps in agreement.

you huffed slightly 'but who would be a decent roommate? it's not like im asking for a lot but im going have to see them everyday and every night until i graduate' you wish that your situation was a bit more fortunate, that way you wouldn't have to find a roommate and just rent the property for yourself.

topaz smiled 'yeah some roommates aren't the best but again, im sure you could ask another friend who doesn't have anywhere?' she watched as your expression made you seem extremely fed up and she only laughed 'i know i know, it's not that simple'

she handed your phone back and paused before adding 'i could always put some words out in your favour, some people i know haven't got anywhere'

'like me?' both you and topaz turned your heads to the approaching blondette.

'i wouldn't wish that fate on anyone' topaz sneered at him

he feined a small laugh 'you're words hurt me but surely im not that bad?' he turned to you and smiled 'so what about it?'

you were shocked at his straight forwardness, he hadn't even seen the property yet, and how did he even know you were looking for a roommate specifically? you weren't exactly jumping at the idea to room with someone who was practically a stranger to you either.

'not to be rude, but rooming with someone i barely know is quite bold, surely you must understand that' you glanced quickly over to topaz who was practically glaring daggers at him.

'i do understand that but any friend of topaz is a friend of mine, if she can get one thing right it's a decent taste in friends' he smiled at topaz and she looked ready to punch him.

you did know that aventurine was an accomplice of topaz, you weren't to sure if they were friends or not though. in honesty, he was a safe bet for a roommate. like topaz, you knew he was quite wealthy and so he could always pay his half of the rent and on time which would be ideal but again, you barely knew him and surely he could afford his own accomodation by himself?

'look, i can see your hesitation but i promise that i'd be an ideal roomate and i could even pay more than my intended dues if you wish?' aventurine looked all too happy for you're liking but really what other choice would you have, you doubted that you could find another roomate anytime soon, it was a gamble but maybe it'd pay off?

'alright fine but surely you'd like to see the property first?' you posed and he shook his head

'im sure that you chose a great place, just send me the details later and when you plan on moving in, tomorrow's more ideal yes?' he paused and then added 'topaz can give you my number' then he simply walked away with a wave goodbye.

---✩

true to his word, you sent him the details later that night and before you knew it, you were stood outside your new accommodation the very next morning. it felt a bit like a fever dream honestly, the accommodation that seemed idyllic was now where you'd stay until graduation but at the cost of rooming with someone who you barely knew - topaz didn't exactly help with her telling you that she wouldn't room with him for all the money in the world.

aventurine arrived shortly after you did, in a car that clearly had a personal driver, he greeted you with a smile and when ypu asked him where his stuff was he assured you it was arriving later and he wanted you to have first pick on your room. it still felt rather surreal to you but you tried pushing those thoughts behind and tried to be more grateful about finally having accommodation more convenient to the college.

and even a week later he was true to his word, aventurine was an ideal roomate. almost too ideal. you were yet again hanging with topaz and numby at lunch and she was very curious as to how much longer you could fair with him as a roomate but to her surprise you could only give positives.

he was always very considerate of your space and anything you owned, he would make for surprisingly good company and was just overall, extremely easy to live beside. the only downside you could think of was that it could still be a bit awkward between you two when talking but considering that you two were practically living together, it was expected to become easier as even after a week it felt much better than before.

although, recently a concern has a risen that you may be behind on your rent and bills. nothing had arrived in the mail and it was worrying because you didn't want to be kicked out, so you reached out and asked just to be told that they'd all been paid. a split second of confusion overcame you but it quickly dissolved when you realised exactly who was paying your side of the rent and bill. it may not seem that bad but in the agreement it was made extremely clear that both parties would pay half of the overall total, no debate. you needed to talk to him about this.

'has something happened?' aventurine asked looking extremely confused, he'd barely stepped foot in the accommodation before he noticed you waiting for him with your arms crossed.

'yes, without me knowing, you answered before continuing 'i realised that i haven't received the rent and bills in a while, so i asked'-

'i know, i should've told you but surely it's not that big of a deal?' he cut you off, 'i already told you before that i wouldn't mind paying more than i needed to'

'yes but that's beside the point, i just wish that you would've asked me or told me even' it was true that it wasn't a big deal but you felt bad that he was paying more than agreed

'that's understandable, but i take it that you won't make me stop paying for them?' a smirk crawled it's way onto his face and he watched you mutter out a 'whatever' before walking toward you.

'will this suffice for an apology' he said before giving you a hug. he pulled away fairly quickly to see your shocked face and proceeded to walk past you and ruffle your hair, to which you quickly snapped around and yelled at him and he only laughed.

---✩

it had now been quite the while since you started rooming with aventurine. naturally, you two had become much more well acquainted to the point that you call him a friend. even after all this time, he still held up being an ideal roommate and this convinced you even more that this was a fever dream. it baffled you that you now sometimes hung out with him at college aswell.

he had informed you earlier today that he would be back a bit later than usual as he was joining a couple of people to an event, formal or not you didn't quite know. aventurine promised that he would try and not be a disturbance on returning but at this point you wouldn't mind if he was. but you settled to just tell him to have fun and that you don't mind when he comes back, he didn't really have to tell you either but the thought was sweet.

however you didn't expect to be woken up by the doorbell at who knows what time in the morning. you sleepily managed to get to the door and unlock it only to be greeted with two figures - one a very clearly tipsy aventurine and the other being the top student at the college, veritas ratio.

'apologies for the inconvenience but i tried warning the gambler to watch his intake, however he clearly didn't listen to me' ratio started 'again apologies but you're going have to take him now, you are his roommate afterall'

'it's fine really, i don't mind that much' you answered, brain still half clouded with a sleepy fog. ratio nodded and helped you steady aventurine against you with his arm around your shoulder before wishing you luck and leaving. you quickly tried to lock the door again so you could escort aventurine into his room.

with some difficulty, you finally managed to get him into his room. admittedly you'd never been in it before and you felt a little bad about entering but you couldn't just lay him down on the ground outside his door, well you could but that would be unfair. he'd have to deal with the fact that he was going to sleep in his current attire but you doubted that be the top of his concerns in the morning.

however you didn't anticipate aventurine to grab onto you as you tried your best to leave quietly. as you were attempting to pry yourself away you heard him mumble a simple request 'just stay a little while'

you sighed and for some reason you decided to comply, you told yourself that you would stay until he fell asleep then you'd leave and go back to your room. or atleast that was the plan before aventurine took your compliance and wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into a hug - that's fine, it just made it harder to leave but you could manage, is what you told yourself.

unfortunately, you never managed to pry yourself from aventurine and you're sleepy state made it easier to fall asleep then and there. however, you woke up before aventurine and managed to scramble before he woke up, although he woke up not too long after and met you, rather guilty, in the kitchen.

he seemed to remember last night as he started with 'i apologise for my behaviour last night, i wasn't quite in control of myself' he barely could meet your eyes shich was very uncharacteristic for the outgoing blonde and you knew that he probably never wanted to bring this up again.

'it's fine, you were slightly tipsy and it's understandable, barely anything happened either so it's completely fine' you noticed that he still looked rather sad

'thank you' he replied for going back upstairs.

it couldn't be ignored, the somber tone that filled the house felt almost suffocating. in honesty, you found it sweet that he trusted you enough to ask you to stay with him but he was drunk, you knew aventurine wasn't that affectionate but he still seemed to hold a sense of consciousness... no, you were overthinking. you two were friends, that's it. so maybe it was bad you both wished for something more than friends...

taglist - @little-miss-chaoss, @frankiesteinn

[msbunnat]

(Before I say anything this isn’t meant to be hate this is just my thoughts)

I think the reasoning on why people are thinking you are romanticizing Ganymede and Zeus’s story is because you’re making it look like instead of making Ganymede scared of Zeus, it looks like Ganymede is proud to have been kidnapped by Zeus and that he wears a badge of being SA by Zeus. For example, in one of your drawings you said how Ganymede would react to one of Zeus's kids wanting to fight him to where Ganymede said that he had sex with their father, Zeus, making it sound like he was proud and not that affected by Zeus’s actions.

(Again, this is not hate; I'm just explaining what might have caused people to think you're romanticizing Zeus's and Ganymede's relationship.)

No worries, I actually sometimes dont understand when someone is being hateful, so I would read it as just normal.

SO! Again, dosent matter how Ganymede is portrayed, people will think it shouldnt even exist any discussion of him (like, there was an artist that literaly make Zeus as a vile abuser of Ganymede and Hebe was consoling him - EVEN THIS SITUATION THAT SHOW EXPLICIT HOW BROKEN GANYMEDE WAS, PEOPLE HAVE COMPLAINED AS ROMANTIZATION ;w;). So just dont try to look for a reason, there are a lot and none depending sole on who is interpreting my drawings.

This specifc drawing you mentioned, I did way after this recent wave of hate and was just a joke. This case dosent have so much meaning behind the joke, but like, you can have your interpretation as him coping, or he feel for Zeus, or he just want to mess with other gods as he is the only 'mortal' and use Zeus as a shield so he can just be lying... LET YOUR IMAGINATION FLY.

Look... my very firsts drawings and tiktok of Ganimedes was him mad... He literaly mad cry... Even before any nsfw I have done or more nuansed art... and yet people also thougth as romantization... So really, dosent matter what I do, to some people just because of my style or because Zeus is hot its equal to be ok with anything he does (as if abusers cant be attractive... its good those people never meet someone like this, but still makes me worry about them). Ah! There re two expections: some eagle interactions re sweet because its before any harm; and Ganimedes smiling one time on a tiktok video (I though people would be intriged and make questions, but nope, they stick to Ganimedes liking being abused I guess - welp the fetish exists, but I know they mean as me saying 'abuse is ok because he liked it').

I dont know where people think that just because Ganimedes its not suffering in every single second means he is ok to all harm and struggle he will pass... I want to make him suffer as an OC, but like, let him have happy moments... and this also means happy moments with Zeus... and all of this dont erase any bad things... this binary way to see stories its just so not my thing -w-

Oh! and its not because you have intimacy with someone you also love them (like, rage f*cking is a thing and I want to explore it, maybe outside the comic, idk yet u.u). I also have some cannibalism drawings Gani x Zeus, cause imagine eating a god!! So exciting!

OK now for real, I will not answer anymore romantization discustion for some time. I'm tired of this, I will do my things and hope people have patience before stating something that its still in progress. Aske me about it in two months maybe...

[lire-casander]

if no one else will ask for it, i will

kinky

i'm sorry if this is bad. i am not known for writing anything over teen, and i always think my mature and explicit writing is bad. the general idea of the fic comes from the dbda haunted server.

kinky

Charles doesn’t know how they’ve ended in this predicament—his hands rubbing circles on Edwin’s back—but here they are, half-way through a massage class for couples.

Objectively, Charles knows the reasons why they’ve infiltrated in this class. The clues to the new case they’re working on have led them to this building in Waterloo, and they couldn’t really investigate while incorporeal, so Charles has had to work on some of his disguise magic. Right now, they’re impersonating a couple in their late twenties—Charles as the boyfriend, Edwin as the girlfriend, as always.

The shiver creeping up his spine as he presses into Edwin’s back is not objective.

The silence of the class is only broken by the soft voice of the instructor, giving some directions as to where to put hands and how much pressure to apply. Charles is trying hard to focus, but he’s encountering a bit of a problem here.

Edwin is very still and quiet beneath Charles. It irks him somehow; he knows Edwin doesn’t like to be touched, so Charles has the feeling that Edwin is deeply uncomfortable underneath Charles’s fingers.

And here comes the truth between the lies Charles has been telling himself lately.

He’s enjoying having Edwin underneath him. He feels it in a way he didn’t when he’d been with Crystal. And yet, he thinks he’d be enjoying this situation a whole lot more if he was massaging Edwin’s back instead of this human disguise.

Charles has always thought he was straight. He’s only ever been with women, even in his afterlife—not that he’s been a player, but he’s had some flings in the past three decades. None of them had felt as fulfilling as massaging Edwin’s back is.

He finds himself daydreaming about the noises he could elicit from Edwin if they were in a different situation—if they were alone in their office, if Edwin was in his ghostly form, if Charles could touch Edwin in the way he’s been longing to.

If he’s being honest with himself, Edwin confessing to his feelings on that staircase in Hell had stirred some dormant emotions Charles hadn’t been ready to face back then. Not that he’s ready now, but he’s beginning to think that his body—corporeal or not—will take the lead in figuring out what his unbeating heart wants. Charles takes a subtle step back for fear the situation below his waist might be noticeable.

He hadn’t expected to figure out his true feelings for Edwin while giving him a backrub, but Charles guesses it’s just his luck—and it fits their dynamics. He’s always been the last one to ever notice important things, be it a problem with a client or his own feelings. Edwin has always known first.

Charles knows what he must do—he needs to talk to Edwin, come clear about his feelings—but for now he does the only thing he can think of, being a teenage dead boy.

He enjoys the ride.

send me a one-prompt from this list by @dbda25!

[prismatoxic]

okay, shipping brainrot from my last post aside, i'm still thinking about the shapeshifter arc. the other sites i use don't have inline posting or do but it's clunky, so i guess i'm theorizing here. some of this may seem obvious; bear with me, i'm not trying to be patronizing, just working through things. this will probably be long.

(edit: i've since learned there's canon explanations for all of this. regrettably i don't like them. enjoy my ideas of what would be better maybe? but keep in mind i wrote this before i knew it had been explained anywhere else.)

(edit again: i've done a 180 and come fully around on the canon explanations! i have a lot of thoughts about them but this isn't the post for that. anyway i'm disabling reblogs, sorry. you can still look at this if you want)

laios reveals what he knows of shapeshifters, and that they function on memory:

no one ever really suggests in chapters 39 or 40 who thought of which fake except in the case of which ones laios must have thought of, but i want to posit who i think each one came from, and what it means narratively if i'm right. so, mostly a thought experiment/character study that i could be wrong about or that was never meant to be clearly defined in the first place. but maybe fun to think about? (i'm sure other people have done this before too, but i think it'll be fun to write up.)

from the outset, i think it's worth mentioning that chilchuck knows all three laios fakes are, in fact, fakes. two chilchucks say this, but the one on the right is the real one. senshi and marcille immediately corroborate this, though we can't tell which of them it is except that it's not any of the really obvious fakes.

what i think this suggests is that, brought to the surface, the warped perceptions of the rest of the party that chilchuck, senshi, and marcille have can be easily discerned when compared with the real thing. each of these laioses is from one of them, but they immediately figure out none of them are right with the real laios right there in the room. this is important.

as for who's who...

i think it's fair to assume that giant laios is from chilchuck. laios is the tallest member of their party, at six feet; while chilchuck sees marcille and senshi as their correct heights, laios is a giant to him, and his bulky armor doesn't help. that's why, even if this is his perception, it's glaringly obvious that it's wrong as soon as it's made physical. it's the only big one, and easily falls into the camp of "doesn't seem to know much about monsters" that the others also do.

stupid laios is, i think, from marcille. because the giant one is so likely chilchuck's and i don't think senshi sees laios as someone who stupidly wants to eat everything (even if senshi's opinion of him isn't stellar right now, "i have to eat it" wouldn't be paired with being an idiot to senshi), it tracks that marcille would be the one to remember him this way. to someone who doesn't appreciate their monster eating and otherwise thinks he's an idiot just as much as the others do, dumbly muttering about eating things seems like a reasonable portrayal of laios.

feminine laios, then, is from senshi. i think his physical perception of the other party members is the most off-base; this is likely because he's known them for the least amount of time, and his idea of what they look like is based more on their races than anything else. i think the resemblance to falin might not be intentional--someone suggested to me the other day that the dwarf perception of tall-men is probably more feminine in contrast to how Macho dwarfs are. i think that makes sense (if it ever comes up canonically, i haven't seen it yet). laios and falin do just... look like gender-swapped versions of each other, also. so if senshi sees laios as a feminine person, well... that just winds up looking like falin.

so this leaves us with only the real laios. confronted with their perceptions of him, his friends can immediately tell all three are incorrect.

moving on, we eliminate the three most obvious fakes from the rest of the party, starting with marcille:

if we take into account what i just said about senshi, i think this is his. racial stereotypes about elves being what they are, him not knowing the party as well as the other members do... she stands out, and that's why.

now this is where things start to get interesting.

the next two fakes to be eliminated aren't so blatantly incorrect that they can be struck right out at a glance, but it's not hard to notice the flaws when you look closer, and chilchucks A and B are the ones to point it out. chilchuck is naturally observant; most of his fakes seem to emulate this. (the one who addresses the fakes is A, the real one, but B is proving himself able to pick up on the things A notices. this is important.)

notably, chilchuck and senshi assume these must be laios's versions of them.

we can assume this is correct, if we want to. we can take the framing of this as being an intentional reflection of the truth.

or... or... we can look a little deeper. we can wonder if, perhaps, this isn't a reflection of laios, but a reflection of his friends and what they think of him. laios may not immediately notice the problems, but i don't think it's because he doesn't remember these details. i don't think laios sees much of anything in vague terms; he's observant in his own right, but in ways he doesn't really recognize, nor does anyone else. i think he was so focused on their faces and mannerisms that he didn't notice the bigger picture, glossing over something because so many other factors are at play.

senshi and chilchuck think laios doesn't take notice of things, but the vast majority of the shapeshifter arc is about them and marcille not trusting laios's judgement as it is, given how things went recently. is it possible there's more to their assumptions here than what the text explicitly says? i think so!

so then who do these two belong to? marcille, i think.

if we assume dumb laios is hers, then we can also assume her perceptions of the others are kind of broad and vague. she doesn't think poorly of them, necessarily (at least not in as obvious a way as she does with laios, who, i'll remind you, she's currently upset with), but she doesn't commit unimportant details to memory, like chilchuck's neck band or the damage to senshi's helmet.

we've got three more "obvious" fakes to get through, and laios offers another lore tidbit on how the shapeshifters work:

anyway, the first of the next round is marcille again, setting the stage for how these three next fakes are eliminated.

marcille changes her hairstyle all the time, so this isn't a surprise. the last one pictured here winds up being our next fake, as indicated by her grimoire:

so the fake marcille in this section is the one with the most visibly different hair texture (who even draws attention to this), and the spellbook that's woefully incompetent. i think she's from chilchuck.

he's observant, as i said before; even if he didn't commit her hair to memory, he did remember the stuff she's said about how important hair is to magic. maybe that's why the texture is so striking. more importantly, chilchuck isn't wary of magic quite the way senshi is, but he also doesn't understand it. the general tone of the low-quality grimoire also just... sounds like the way he'd frame something like that. (plus, the "how to turn back time" bit is a thing he specifically called her on when she suggested it a few chapters ago.)

so the next fake chilchuck and senshi are revealed via their tools:

i think the chubby-cheeked chilchuck with the simple lockpicks is from senshi, and i think the ordinary-looking senshi with the simple cookware is from chilchuck. the former speaks for itself--senshi sees chilchuck as a child, and knows absolutely nothing about picking locks. as for the fake senshi, chilchuck has a decent mental image of him but knows nothing about cookware.

so now we're down to the final three fakes, and there's only one person left who they could be from: laios. nobody thinks this, not even laios himself, but i want to explore the concept because i think it has extreme merit. the three remaining fakes have some key similarities between them, namely in that they're all close enough interpretations that making a distinction is difficult. they look a tiny bit different, but both the real people and their fakes make plausible cases for why they're the actual person. i want to talk about why i think laios is the one who made that so, and what that means about him.

chapter 39 ends with all his companions--real and fake--doubting his skills. seeing a pattern?

chapter 40 opens with laios determined to regain his friends' trust in him...

...while his friends (and their fakes) talk about how he's liable to like the fakes more, because they're monsters.

this is a needlessly cruel interpretation of laios, but after how things went post-falin-rescue, it's not a surprise. they see him as reckless and single-minded, more interested in the things he's weird about than in the people around him.

laios is really bad at talking about what he's thinking--not because he's hiding it, but because it doesn't occur to him that it's important. meeting the lunatic magician in the paintings is a prime example of this, but he does it a lot. they likely have no idea why he told toshiro about falin and the black magic; to them, laios was being flippant with sensitive information, not worrying about their safety. to laios? he was trying to get help. he trusted toshiro, and his perception of their friendship made him think the information would help them gain an ally who cared about falin as much as they do. he wasn't trying to put falin or marcille in danger--far from it, in fact. but he didn't tell his friends about his thought process. he didn't think it was important to share.

(he's autistic but we all know this. moving on)

so, we have laios's plan: the pairs cook together, while he watches for behavioral differences to discern who's who. it doesn't occur to him, or anyone else, that the people he's watching for mistakes are his own perceptions of his friends. and now we get into the meat of why i wanted to write this post.

assuming i'm correct... let's talk about laios's view of his friends, and how he challenges those perceptions.

starting with my favorite, chilchuck:

chilchuck A, of course, is in fact the real one. this is a pretty significant character moment for him too, in my opinion; we know he has difficulty expressing his emotions, and that a lot of his conflicts so far have stemmed from that. the fact that "chilchuck B asked for help with a menial task" is a gotcha moment to him is... telling. not only because it's so obvious to him, but because it's not obvious to any of his companions. he thinks they know this about him, but he's never openly expressed anything to make them think this is an issue he'd have, in addition to having sought help in the past.

his "convictions and pride and all that" seems to them like someone trying to convince them of something, not someone reminding them of facts he assumes they know.

anyway, back to laios. if we accept that chilchuck B is made from his memories, this suggests several things. first of all, chilchuck B is, despite his softer eyes and willingness to ask for help, still a fairly accurate portrayal of chilchuck. he's easily annoyed and he's observant, two traits chilchuck is known for. i think the reason chilchuck B has the kinder eyes and the more gentle disposition is because to laios, those things are indicative of someone being a good person, and he very much thinks chilchuck is a good person.

we know laios isn't especially good at reading people in general. thus, his idea of who his friends are is skewed in broad strokes, but not in the ways they think. he knows who chilchuck is, but he also associates chilchuck with his own ideas of what makes someone "good", which results in a chilchuck who's less rough around the edges. confronted with this--the real chilchuck asking him if he can tell--laios compares the two and thinks, reasonably speaking, the nicer one who trusts him has to be the friend he respects so much.

senshi and marcille also want to accept this chilchuck, likely for similar reasons. they also respect and care for him; they've seen him go through a lot. laios's ideal of him is just that, ideal. in a roundabout way, it's only their deep fondness for who chilchuck really is that makes them want to see him this way.

next up, we have marcille.

the fake, marcille A, is a radical departure from what makes chilchuck B a fake. laios notes that the real marcille is exactly the same as she always is. the reason, then, that marcille A confuses him--and the others--is that after everything they've been through, their perception of her has changed radically.

if we look back to senshi and chilchuck's marcilles, it's readily apparent when they're eliminated that both interpretations hinge on the knowledge that she performs black magic. senshi's tries to use it to prove herself; chilchuck's has a grimoire loudly proclaiming it's what she does. contrast this to marcille A: she doesn't mention black magic at all, and her grimoire looks strikingly similar to the real one.

that's because laios doesn't think her performing black magic changes anything about who she is. her doing so proved her to be just as dedicated to falin as he himself is, and the knowledge that her goals involve it doesn't faze him. (additionally, marcille has been teaching him magic, and falin had tried in the past. though his image of a grimoire is flawed to someone experienced, to anyone else it looks fine.) thus, marcille A isn't a flagrant black magic wielder; she's someone who's been fundamentally changed by what they--and falin--went through.

let's go back to chapter 27:

chilchuck and senshi are appalled, and will continue to be. while they ultimately don't prevent marcille from doing this, and care enough about both her and laios (and in chilchuck's case, falin as well) to be in tentative support, this changes their view of her in a negative way. she's dangerous now, in a way she wasn't before, but she's still marcille--goofy and a little reckless. thus, their views of her, and the illusions that result.

laios's opinion of her changes for the better.

she is, all at once, both competent and loyally dedicated. she will stop at nothing to help falin. whatever goofiness she exhibited before now is gone, replaced by the cold demeanor of someone who is doing something extremely dangerous for reasons that are inherently selfish, but ultimately too important to reject.

thus, we return to marcille A: cold, sharp, dedicated. not reckless or goofy, but methodical and haunted. she may have returned to "normal" since they left the castle town, but laios's opinion of her, and understanding of her love for falin, has been forever changed.

so faced with the real marcille--still silly, still whining, still frequently annoyed with him--he's confused, because that's deeply familiar, but it doesn't line up with what he knows about her now.

the truth, of course, is nuanced--these things are true about marcille, but only under duress; it's similar to how laios becomes a competent leader when the going gets tough. she has this within her, but it's not her default state of being. still, the shapeshifter picks up on the strongest memories laios has of her, this new interpretation of someone he thought he knew.

now then--onto senshi, the punchline of this particular joke about the differences between the copies. i still think it says a lot.

i think this one speaks for itself, though i find chilchuck's agreement interesting. senshi is the newest member of the team; little is known about him. laios happily notes that senshi "always looks cool" while chilchuck says he looks normal (and chilchuck B insults the real one). laios sees senshi this way because he thinks senshi is cool as hell, and this manifests in an idealized version of a face he's not as familiar with as he is with chilchuck and marcille.

this is clearly comedy, but it also speaks to the same desire to see the best in the rest of the party. marcille is the only one who notices likely because her opinion of senshi isn't so romanticized. chilchuck's senshi, of note, wasn't a perfect replica: we don't see much of him after the obvious fakes are hauled off, but he's a little squashed (he's the top one):

which indicates that chilchuck's visual memory of senshi is already flawed. if we compare this to giant laios and the marcille with the unique hair texture, it tells us chilchuck's attention to detail is more specific than the others'; he can remember the hole in the helmet, the importance of hair, but he doesn't quite see the bigger picture. giant laios is also surprisingly... rugged? which i imagine has to do with chilchuck's perception of him as a tall-man. (or maybe how he clearly has trouble seeing laios's face half the time, lmao...)

anyway. laios thinks senshi is super cool and chilchuck has an imperfect idea of what senshi look like as it is. (i wonder if chilchuck is some degree of faceblind? not enough to not recognize someone at all, but can't pinpoint specifics.)

and so, we arrive at the moment of truth.

so let's go over what i'm theorizing here... all the remaining fakes are illusions based on how laios sees his friends. the illusions manage to make mistakes that reveal the truth to him, but i think the reason for that harkens back to what laios said earlier... the illusions are being updated over time.

laios isn't considering any of the things that give the fakes away until this moment. if it had taken a little longer to resolve things, maybe they'd have started course-correcting, but they aren't given the chance. laios makes sure they aren't--he acts very quickly. even as he presents the three pairs with his findings, he's aware that everything will fall apart as soon as he does... and he's banking on that. while the shapeshifter illusions defend themselves from being killed, he gets right to the heart of the matter in the only way he knows how: confronting the actual monster involved.

when all's said and done, laios reveals how he figured it out:

potentially of note, all of these details happened before the red dragon fight. chilchuck fighting a mimic and revealing his history with them, senshi gushing about the dungeon's ecosystem, and marcille being attacked by the undine weren't super recent memories. when laios brought them forth in his mind, he had a delay before the shapeshifter updated its illusions.

well... except with marcille. marcille A actually didn't show her hand so easily; it was the real marcille's carelessness that proved her identity.

but what this suggests is that, when confronted with the realities of marcille versus his idealized version of her, laios had to make a choice: did it make more sense for her to have been radically changed by the revival and subsequent loss of falin, or was the presence of a marcille he knew so well proof of an illusion? she was the one who was the most different, and as such, the contrast was the same one that eliminated all three laioses at the start: with the real thing in the room, the fake became apparent.

so, to reach a conclusion: one again, laios has proven he's not as scatterbrained as his companions think, but this time he did so on a more personal level than usual. to them, he reveals that he knows their quirks enough to define them by such when they're otherwise faced with convincing copies. to us, the readers, if we accept what i've suggested here... he's revealed a lot more. he respects, admires, and idolizes his friends, all out of fondness: he wants to see them in an ideal way, whatever that means for each of them as individuals.

anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk

[we-are-richard-lotf]

this shit terrifying whoever the mod is you’re doing an awesome job

I know this ask has been here since the beginning of the blog, but I think it is a nice time to finally answer this one.

Alright, so I decided to make this entire long post dedicated to explaining in full detail on what I did during the entire time the Richard blog was running. I just felt like you guys deserve to know what exactly comes to my mind during the process, and I just really wanted to talk and reflect about it, since it did took a bit of dedication and planning to pull it off. So, as a thank you for all the support (and for the hilarious reactions on the reveal), here is a fully detailed explanation on how, where, and why I made Richard.

Where did the inspiration come from?

Now, I do know that we already talked about this in one of the Mod QnA questions, however I do like to get more indepth with what exactly happened now that I can be more honest with y'all.

Yes, all of this IS still inspired because of Leonard [see this post]. It was a genuinely nice concept, since I have NEVER heard of non-human LOTF OCs, and it was GENUINELY creative and inspiring. In my infinite (autistic) creativity, I just decided to make a hivemind, and in just an hour, I made Richard.

Now, his exact character was kind of like a half-canon, half-OC since he IS based off of the ACTUAL beast in the book (aka the pig's head). It seemed really cool and interesting, so I played along. However, instead of claiming ownership publicly like the rest, I decided to be a little secretive over it, which brings us to another question:

What was Richard's lore exactly?

Richard's lore was mostly improvised on the spot, really. I just kind of set up a general guideline (for this case, I just basically flesh out what Richard's core identity is and what motives he has), and that is what pretty much helped me go through the entire creative process without running into problems. I recognized that most of the LOTF OC lore is kind of made up at the spot based on what the other might react unless they planned it, however I DID have interesting facts and things that I WISHED was utilized more during the whole runtime.

Richard isn't just a bunch of flies! In fact, he can actually attach himself into anything that the boys (or anyone on the island) think he is. His hivemind form IS the one he commonly uses (and his favorite one), but if we are realistically looking at the book, he was technically the dead pilot AND the pig's head. He is also the symbolic representation of decay and rot, and it doesn't even have to be anything ACTUALLY rotting either. He can also be the boulder, the fire, the wooden spears, the rosary, the skull— literally ANYTHING.

He is also essentially a nature documentor to the boys, as it has been such a long time that he has ever seen a human being —much less approximately thirty boys on the island — in years. He would have been very excited to observe them, as he has been dormant. Richard is basically like a nature documentor to these kids to observe their every move, every intention, every interaction, and perspective. Sometimes that documentor would throw a chunk of meat to the lions for kicks. In my opinion and interpretation, the beast is unfeeling, a third person, a narrator, a director. If you notice in the earlier days, however, he seems to be more of an active mocker, and it's because I was planning on making him more of a character that points out people's flaws in the most humiliating way possible, however I was planning on changing that and toning him down because it seemed too predictable.

I wished Richard was used more often, but I guess the reason why none of these were utilized more was because of the lack of opportunities presented. It felt really empty sometimes but hey, it was a good run.

Now for the part that I might have to yap a whole lot on:

The Creative Process

Now, this is where I talk about the process and operation I had to do— how I kept my identity hidden for so long, how I managed to fool a couple of people, my thought process on every single action I made, and why I did all of this.

It really all started when I got bored.

So I did made Richard, and I was like "man I would REALLY love to make this into my OC", and then the mischievous idea of making an OC blog with an anonymous mod came to my mind. You see, I kind of have done this kind of bit before back then, so I have slight experiences with this kind of thing (it WAS complicated tho since this was during a time of trauma and stress and it gave me an identity crisis so whaddya know). I decided to use that experience to make Richard, just messing around seeing if people could catch me.

Slowly, but surely, I did make Richard have some impact in the community. It's not that much, but it was worth the entertainment.

I pretended to just be a REALLY big fan to attract some attention from other people. I recommended him to people, reacted to his crazy responses and all that jazz, all the while being the mod. I got bored once again and decided to terrorize everyone by inserting Richard into their ask boxes instead of waiting for people to go to his ask box. It did get some nice buzz around, and just casually seeing the panic as everyone talks about how Richard got to them. Sure, there was multiple other blogs, but I got to most people atleast.

Now, I was part of this small investigation team dedicated to Richard, as I decided to join them because I was curious what they would uncover. Granted, I did help (and sometimes misdirected them) in the investigation, but it was so amusing and actually exciting to see how dedicated they are while having fun in the investigation, which is why I decided to start adding more ciphers in the mix. Of course, most of it will come to an end since the trend died down, and it was the most fun I had yet.

Most of it was just a mix of being a menace and improv, really. Sure, I acted performative and formal with my Mod persona, but it was all in good fun. If anyone was actually emotionally hurt or felt like I genuinely deceptively used this project as a way to manipulate anyone, I never mean it in a malicious way nor do I ever even intent to do so. I was actually pretty worried about this aspect, so I was making sure that no one was hurt during this, but seeing the initial reactions, no one seemed to be offended. Again, if anyone has any problems with me they can always slide up to my DMs and talk it there. I am not scary to talk to, dw.

My General Opinions

Honestly? I wished we could have done this a bit differently, even though Richard is decent as it is. My execution is okay-ish in my opinion.

I wished I could have leaned into the mystery and the menace and really push the boundaries, to make him a bit more well known. It's not that Richard is a bad character per say, I just don't think he is well known enough. I am satisfied with what happened, but I wished I could have collaborated with other creators on what Richard's lore is, but that might leak my identity.

Speaking of me, I feel CRINGED at my Mod posts. I think I tried way too hard with what I was doing just to get people keep looking, and I think that instant gratification is NOT great in hindsight. Sure, I was bored to death and I wanted to shake things up, but man.. I sometimes don't really like how I did it.

Overall? He's alright.

Would I do this again?

Maybe. It really depends what you think I will be doing in the future. Yes, I do have other accounts, but they are mostly multi-admins and I barely talk there, however I MIGHT plan on something interesting or two. It really depends what you are guessing.

This project kind of rekindled the creativity I have in my head, since it forces me to quickly think a lot. I find myself wanting to be in a different person's shoes, or even multiple at the same time. It just feels right for me. Whether or not it's morally correct is something I am still questioning myself.

Now, if someone tries to (theoretically) do this kind of thing, I don't really recommend it unless you REALLY know what you are doing. I don't want to dwell on this topic since this feels WAY too dramatic but srsly I don't recommend it unless you also want to have an identity crisis or smth. Your choice.

This project really gave me some awesome ideas and a LOT of fun, seeing people and knowing how they work, what makes them human, and what makes them tick. I am still everywhere, folks. Still do.

[wubudubu123]

"Plan B" Rafe Cameron x JohnB's!sister!reader FLUFF&ANGST

summary: Maya Routledge decided to go to Rafe's party which leads to trouble | part one

a/n: hey guys part two is here lmk how you like it. this part has more fluff and angst. :** (kisses on y'all's foreheads)

When Rafe dropped me off a week after the events in Barbados, I still hadn’t heard from my brother. While this wasn’t uncommon, it felt like something was wrong. His entire gang had also been reported missing. So you can imagine my relief when they finally returned with news of supposedly discovering El Dorado. What shocked everyone in Kildare even more was the revelation that Ward hadn’t been dead all along. Unfortunately, he was now.

I hadn’t had a chance to offer my condolences to Rafe again since I hadn't seen him. I knew he was involved in some deal regarding the cross, but that was all I knew. My reunion with John B. was brief; he came home just to tell me he was alive before heading over to JJ’s place. Despite the rumors, none of them shared any information with me about the gold or anything else. I guess being stranded with them on an island for who knows how long wasn’t enough of a reason for them to share their secrets with me.

Out of the blue, I heard about a big party that Rafe was throwing at Tannyhill. I didn't expect that from him, especially since he was grieving. At first, I wasn't planning to go, mainly because I was a Pogue and also because I felt strange after our drunken sex. I wasn't sure how I would act around him, so I thought to myself, "Better to be safe than sorry." The day before the party, I received an unexpected DM during my shift.

From therafecam 7 minutes ago

Party @ mine tmrw 9pm. C u there?

The restaurant was packed, so I didn't have a chance to respond right away. This gave me some time to think. Did he really want to see me? He must have been thinking about me, but maybe I was reading too much into it; perhaps he had passed that message to everyone. That seems likely. Since I was younger, he might not have taken me seriously. Did he see me more as a sister, except for that one night? But maybe that was just the influence of alcohol. He was a friend—perhaps more of an acquaintance.

"What's the worst that can happen?" I thought to myself as I mustered up the courage to go ahead with my plans, determined to act casual.

.·:*¨¨* ≈☆≈ *¨¨*:·.

The following evening, however, I found myself putting a little more thought into my appearance. I carefully selected a basic top and a short skirt, ensuring I had a jeans jacket on hand in case the weather turned chilly. Just as I was about to step out, John B. unexpectedly appeared, blocking my path.

"Where are you going?" he inquired, his eyes scanning me from head to toe, a mix of curiosity and annoyance evident on his face.

"To my friend's," I replied, deliberately avoiding his prying question.

"Which friend?" he persisted, his tone growing increasingly irritating.

"Why do you care?" I retorted, growing frustrated with his intrusion.

"Because I care. I asked you something," he snapped back, his voice now raised slightly.

"Jeez, get off my back," I snapped back, my patience wearing thin as I attempted to make my way towards the door.

"You're not going anywhere dressed like a hooker. Get changed," he declared, his words dripping with judgment and control.

"The fuck do you mean? I don't look like that. Get outta my way and fuck off," I pushed him aside, my determination to proceed with my plans fueling my defiance.

"Maya, I promise you, if you go out right now, you'll be in deep shit," he warned, his finger pointing directly at me, his voice filled with a mix of concern and frustration.

I shut the door and headed to the bus stop. Fifteen minutes later, I was at Tannyhill a little after 9:30.

When I went inside the smell of marihuana immediately hit my nostrils. Future was blasting on speakers and the crowd was either talking, drinking, or dancing. I recognized a few people from school, who graduated last year. I said hi to some of them and went into the living room.

I saw Rafe talking to a group of people but he instantly raised his gaze to my eyes. "Heyy May" He got up from the couch and hugged me. When he pulled away I saw him looking up and down my body. "Nice skirt. Good to see you."

"Thanks and good to see you too. My condolences. It's terrible what happened to your dad. I'm really sorry." I said more seriously.

"Thanks and you're right. Them fucking Pogues saw everything and didn't do anything." I saw something change in his eyes. A hint of rage. "But let's not talk about that. Come on I'll get you something to drink."

"Sure, thanks." We went to the kitchen and he poured me a cup of I don't know what. I took a sip. Not that bad.

"Sooo does your brother know you're here?" he asked and I couldn't exactly read his face.

"No way, he would freak out. He's really bossing himself around and it's fucking annoying." I took another sip.

"Yea yea I know whatcha mean. Rose was also overprotective when I was in high school. Always bothering me and checking what I'm doing. Thankfully she can't do shit now." he laughed, looking at me intensely. He wasn't sober for sure. I could see that he was already tipsy.

"Yea you know, it's not even that he's overprotective. He just wants to show everyone that he has control over me." I stared into the floor a bit irritated by the thought of my brother's behavior.

Rafe leaned onto the counter crossing his elbows and looking up at me. "And does he, May?" his tone was flirtatious and daring.

"Well if he did I wouldn't be here tonight. Would I?" I met his eyes and Jesus Christ it was hard to maintain eye contact. A big grin spread across his face as if to say 'that's what I wanted to hear'.

.·:*¨¨* ≈☆≈ *¨¨*:·.

The whole evening flew by very fast and after long conversations, we were sitting on balcony chairs, sharing a joint and looking at the stars. I felt good with the fact that Rafe spent time mainly with me. It quickly got people's attention but no one said anything. The silence was comfortable only disturbed with the sound of breathing.

His hand was resting on my thigh and gently massaging little circles. "I wanna kiss you, May." his voice sounded very sleepy and tired.

He studied my face waiting for a reaction. He then leaned in and took my chin, pulling me in. I felt butterflies in my stomach when he lightly kissed my lips. Not invasive but very intimate. Like a kiss between old lovers. I couldn't help but smile. He also smiled, chuckling at my excitement. I continued to gaze at the stars, feeling his warm hands.

I pulled out my phone to take a picture when I saw a bunch of messages and four missed calls from John B.

Message from: J-bird

where r u??? 10:43

pick up 11:02

maya I'm serious 11:03

r u okay?? 11:27

be back by midnight or else 11:35

"Fuck" I whispered under my nose, scrolling through notifications. I looked at the time. 28 minutes past midnight.

"What?" Rafe asked confused and stoned. He peeked at my phone and saw everything I was worried about. "Oh, shit. You're in trouble, May"

"You don't say?" I said sarcastically. I rubbed my forehead trying to think of what to do.

"Hey, it's gon be alright. Don't worry 'bout it. I can give you a lift if you want." he stroked my back slowly in a comforting manner.

"Aren't you too high to drive?" I raised an eyebrow, questioning.

"Nahh, I'm a great driver even after a joint. Besides we only had one for two. It's okay. Come on let's go." He got up and led the way. Most of the guests had already gone home so there were 10 people tops.

We got into his white Jeep Cherokee and started driving. "I had a really nice time. Thanks for the invite." I said a bit shy.

"Me too, May" I caught him staring at me.

"Look at the road, Rafe or you'll kill us and this beautiful car." I laughed and fixed my eyes outside my window. He just smiled and didn't say anything else.

When he parked on the side of the road, John B. must have heard it, because he was in the front of our house. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" he yelled at Rafe, ready to fight him.

"Whoa chill, dude." he raised his arms in defense. "I'm just dropping May off. It's a favor so say 'thank you.'" I rolled my eyes. I knew he wanted to piss him off just a little.

"Don't you fucking dare." he run up to us and I stood between them just in time.

"Okay, easy." I turned to Rafe and gave him a quick goodbye hug. "Thanks for everything." I said to Rafe.

My brother must have smelled something because he said "Are you seriously getting high with my sister?! And you're driving in this state?! You get close to her again and we'll fucking come for you!" He didn't stop yelling and I was sure the whole Cut had heard us.

"Stop, John B. Let's go." I said and saw Rafe getting in the car.

We went inside and I saw Sarah sitting in the living room. My brother of course had to tell her everything that happened. Not that she didn't hear that.

"Your brother is getting her fucking stoned. You understand it?! She's seventeen!" he continued.

"I'm eighteen in two weeks!" I said, trying to go to my room. He grabbed me by the sleeve of my jacket.

"I don't give a fuck. You and I are not done yet." By this time I've had enough of this shit. Thankfully Sarah jumped in.

"Let her go, Hun. It's late. We'll talk in the morning." he let go instantly.

I went to my room. Washed my makeup off and got in the shower. The entire time I was thinking about Rafe.

[xoladybella]

Read your post so here’s my ask again

Hi!

I’ve been checking out your vlog for a while now. I really like it. I’ve been a Polin stan since season 3 dropped, so I missed the entire wt and I stayed away from the lukola side of the fandom, because I never felt comfortable shipping real people. But I guess as long as people remain respectful and fun, everything should be fine. What made me get on the ship was definitely the SAG awards. Like, we were seeing the chemistry, how much they liked being with each other, the way they would be reaching for each other, that HUG!!!, the energy was just off the charts. I was like, is this what the Lukolas have been seeing this whole time??! Truly mesmerized!! So although, I see the chemistry between them. A chemistry, I honestly don’t see between friends or sometimes even between lovers. I still believe that they are not secretly dating. Like, I do wish for them to get to be an item, but I don’t think that’s the case.

The reason I believe that, is because, I prefer to take things as face value. I tell myself that I don’t wanna talk for celebrities. It’s not the 2000s anymore in which, if you wanna know about celebrities’ personal lives, you had to turn to tabloids and gossip magazines. Now we have social media and social media gives these celebrities the floor to share about their lives and control the narrative around them. I believe that Nicola is pretty transparent about her endeavours as an actress. She talks about it in interviews and does share about stuff outside of her acting life. We know who a couple of her friends are, we see her activism, etc. So I believe that when she says that Luke and her are just friends, real good friends, but just friends. I believe her. I wish they were more, but I will not speak for other people. I believe that the feelings are there, because the line between friends and lovers can be very blurred, but ultimately, a romantic relationship is a choice that has to be made. Pure attraction is not enough. I could even say that the choice is more important than the attraction or connection. This is why people who have no connection with one another still get together.

So now what are my theories on why they’re not getting together. I’ll start with Nicola.

To put it quite frankly, I think she just wants to focus on her career and doesn’t want the attention to go into her relationships, but to stay on her talent. She’s been pretty adamant about it. I remember watching an interview where she talked about how she was so happy that Derry Girls got nominated for a BAFTA, but was pretty disappointed after reading an article talking about how her dress looked bad and nothing else. She expressed disappointment, because it was a huge achievement in her career, but all people cared for were things that didn’t matter, like her garment. She does the same with talks about her weight. She shuts them down, because she wants people to focus on her career/talent. She seems to have made huge strides since then, especially with the popularity of Bridgerton. She’s in new tv shows, movies, audiobooks. She’s truly grinding. I’m not saying that she can’t get into a relationship, but clearly this is not the focus. Like, I don’t see why people can’t accept that she might just be single. She never stated being in a relationship. Some people like to think that she’s dating J, but again I would like to take things as they are and there is no concrete evidence for it. Like I said earlier, this is not the 2000s anymore, celebrities have power over their narrative, not paparazzis. If I look at consensually taken photos of Nicola and J, posted by her or her friends, none of them show them together. Like not a single one of them show him and her alone in a pic. It’s ALWAYS in a group photo. Could there be a private photo of the two alone together? Of course. But clearly this is not the narrative she wants to show. Maybe because it is nonexistent. Kinda reminds of that picture you shared of Rege with a woman. He never specified that he was dating her, but the posing, the hand placement, the literal kiss on the head by Rege, all suggest that they are a couple. We don’t get that with Nicola and J. The closest thing we got to that are pap pics, but then again. These are pics taken with an intention, to get clicks, to get your attention, to get your money. Taken out of context and with context added by the media. Plus, everything she does with J in those pap pics is nothing I haven’t seen her do with Luke or with her other friends. J had a joint birthday party with a girl named Becky. Nicola took pics with said girl and a bunch of their friends. She even shared a pic of her and the birthday girl on her story. This would have been a great occasion to share a pic of him with her, but no. Again, could there be a pic of him with her on said party? Of course. But, she is the master of her own narrative and decided to not show that, because it is perhaps nonexistent. She does not claim him as a boyfriend. Nicola shares a lot about her friends and through her consensually posted pics of him, it seems like he is simply that, her friend. Before I grew an affinity for the lukola ship, I had the misfortune of hearing about the Nic and J shippers. My first question was why this was even a ship? Typically in fandoms, people shipping actors together is a tale as old as time, but usually it stems from people seeing two actors they love, witnessing their chemistry and imagining how cute they would look together. The jakola ship is problematic on a fundamental level. Simply because, it does not respect what I believe to be Nicola’s wishes. Again, Nicola seems to really value people seeing her for her talent, not her weight, not her garments (even do, she does rock the red carpet) and definitely not her perceived relationship. Meanwhile the jakolas make everything about that man. She wears a nice outfit, they make it about him. She makes a post, they make it about him. She goes somewhere. They somehow make it about him. Like her going to Nottingham has to be for him and not because as an actress, going to one of the most popular filming locations in England, would make sense. I don’t know why she went there, but why is everything about him?

So all that to say. I believe what could be stopping Nicola from getting with Luke is just that her focus is elsewhere. Her career. I also think she would like for us to focus on her career as well. Looking forward to her future projects.

Now for Luke.

I think it’s the same reason. Luke also showed a great care for his career. In the SAG awards, he did share about how much this is what he wanted to do since being a child. I think Nicola and Luke are at pretty similar stages of their careers and life. They both got a tons of great opportunities. On Luke’s side, he got movies coming up, brand deals and etc. He’s also going through a rebrand. I’ve made a small deep dive into his career and appearance since season 1 of Bridgerton. The vibe I got from him was a sweet guy who’s nice. Who is attractive, but in a boy next door way. Now with season 3, he got beefier, he got that jawline going on. He doesn’t give boy next door anymore. He gives hot James Bond guy and with this new look, he needs someone to complete it. Here’s where Antonia comes into place. People always get mad when you mention pr relationships, but that’s just because people imagine some evil Illuminati stuff, a crime against love or something, when it’s not that. Luke is a public figure. Although, talent is really important in life and he definitely has tons of it, he still needs to market himself. You know. Give Art directors an interest in you, a visualization, an idea of what role/character, you could play. He’s about to appear in a movie called White Mars and we don’t know what kinda character he is gonna play, but it’s going to be a thriller, horror, sci-fi, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the hot chiseled James Bond Luke makes his appearance. Antonia is a beautiful girl who fits the beauty standards perfectly and he does as well. Not to say Nicola isn’t beautiful , if anything I find her far more pretty, but you know, Antonia fits the insta model look. Them being seen together makes perfect sense marketing wise. I do believe it’s telling that he never post explicitly about her or mentions her, ever. Be it on social media or interviews, while he did with his ex girlfriend, Jade.

So all that to say, I think the reason why Nic and Luke are not making the choice to be together is simply because their minds are elsewhere. They have promising careers to develop. Real and true relationships take time and energy and I can understand wanting to be fulling in that headspace before exploring anything serious with each other. Unlike all the rumours around their alleged partners, we have concrete proof of their love with each other, of their bond. Plus imagine if they combined their joint their slay. They’ll be the ultimate it couple!!!!! They’ll be lifting each other up and stuff. It’ll be beautiful!!!

[cute-little-fly]

What do you think imps think when they see Blitzø helping Stolas from Mastermind to Sinsmas. Here is the imp who was supposedly used and abused by this royal and almost killed. Then after that royal loses everything he tells everyone to not abuse him. Then over the next month not only is he trying to get that royal back on his feet the best he can but any fellow imperial who takes their chance to abuse him gets violently attacked.

This is something I have been thinking a lot after Sinsmas!

I think that some imps are very taken aback by this, some other may understand and think that maybe the situation has more that it lets on and others might be either disappointed or just wonder why he protects this much someone that damaged him in the past. The thing is, none of them know the actual situation; and all what was said in the trial was very vague.

My headcanon is that some imps secretly theorize that there is more that the situation lets on. I think some of them might suspect that Stolas did it to defend him, the delusional ones might think it was something romantic. Like when people make theories or guesses about people and famous cases. Like that. Others might say, nah it’s just that now he wants to have Stolas to work for himself etc…

I don’t think he will get to the extent of being hated, because after all now Blitzø is his boss. He just employed him. So they might think that now the roles reversed and Blitzø is using his abilities for himself and this is why he protects him.

But probably a lot of people dislike that, and think he should be against Stolas too. However, some of those that dislike it might respect his desicion. The ones we see attacking them are the ones that don’t and might be confused about why he does that.

The thing is, I don’t feel this changes Blitzø’s position as a potential figure of rebellion. Because power structures are not people or individuals. You can destroy millionaires, but if you don’t change the power structures that allow people to have this much money and power over others what will happen is just that they will be replaced with others. So, at the end of the day, what happens to an already defeated individual won’t change the scheme of things.

Blitzø talked about the scheme of things in the trial and not individuals.

Stolas got his status completely ripped off from him. Now he doesn’t hold any power. The abuse he gets on the street is just people using him as an outlet of discharge, because is the only one that is weaker than them, that they can turn their frustrations against. So, I don’t think that this attackers ate thinking too deep in how Blitzø defends him, because for them is like kicking a soldier that is already down and maybe Blitzø just is too good and too heroic to agree with that.

Also, I don’t think that imps see that bad how Blitzø attacks them back. Because remember that imp culture is very fight and violence based because of the sin of wrath. They will fight each other even for friendly reasons. In the harvest moon festival people die accidentally and that is normal.

So, for a normal earth person this is the same level when you scream because they are attacking someone you care about. Also, Blitzø is not targeting to kill. Yes, he gives them good punches but he is not trying to kill and I don’t think that the people he attacked will be as bad after the fight.

So, in synthesis: they don’t understand why he does it, they are highly confused about that. Some will start to dislike him for this (or be like: girl wake up!) but not at the extent of hating Blitzø because he is just protecting Stolas and not other powerful royals that can actually do harm. Stolas now is disarmed. They might think he just pities him, or alternatively, that there is something going on they don’t know of.