#I see people talking about it being a possibility and it makes me want to rip my hair out

[mandalhoerian]

Repost because tumblr's tags were broken yesterday and it ate my post up 😞 Spoilers and translation notes for Rafayel's intertidal zone & analysis because it kinda floored me, I was just as a blank page as he was throughout this. I had to watch it like 5 times to understand what the story was saying and dig into chinese and japanese versions of this to piece together what was really happening. It may be my idiot brain not getting it and maybe it was like the easiest thing to understand for you but. Yeah. I may be just dumb LMFAO AND!!!! There's also a theory of mine into how Rafayel is actually able to read mc's mind/wishes through their lemurian bond, so stay tuned for that I guess

EDIT: correcting some transcriptions of chinese characters and the translations. sorry about that! google couldn't transcribe it correctly. for clarity's sake i will also include original screenshots. please tell me if anything is wrong!

EDIT 2: Check out part 2 to this as well for stuff I missed!

EDIT 3: An Abysswalker connection I found

So Rafayel’s whole deal in this memory, I believe, is dependency. Like, too much intensity, too much need, too much fear -- about scaring her off, about what he sees himself possibly becoming in the future, overall just being too reliant on mc and getting scared by it.

Let's begin with this massive fear of being a taker, not just in the “I’m stealing someone’s fries” way, but in this existential, soul-deep kind of way where he’s terrified of turning everything he loves into something he exploits out of demand for his art. And yeah, it’s sad when you first hear him say it, but it’s also really interesting when you look at how this all ties into his relationship with MC and his inspiration source drying up because of her.

Before Rafayel became an artist, he looked at the world in this super pure, wholesome way. Sceneries and nature were just there, things to admire and feel awe over without needing to do anything about it. Like, imagine standing at the edge of a desert, looking at a sea that’s drying up. Sure, it’s tragic, but it’s also kind of beautiful in a raw, heartbreaking way. That’s how Rafayel saw things, he could appreciate them without feeling like he had to do anything.

But then Rafayel started creating, and suddenly, sceneries weren’t just sceneries anymore. They became inspiration. He wasn’t just admiring beauty, he was extracting something from it, its meaning, its pain, its soul, to turn into art for other people. And that made him feel all kinds of icky, because now he wasn’t just looking at the drying sea. He was taking from it. Just as he's using his people's pain in his art as well, that's also a thing.

Now let’s talk about MC. Rafayel loves her like he used to love those sceneries,,, in this pure, untainted way. There's a parallel here. But here’s the kicker, he’s not the same guy who can just admire something and leave it untouched anymore.

And suddenly, this is no longer only about losing inspiration for him.

This happens after he and MC get together, and it’s like all the pain and anguish that used to fuel his creativity just.. ... dries up. He can’t find that spark anymore because now his life is surrounded by love instead of suffering. In fact, his inspiration starts coming from her and it's starting to clash with how he makes art. In the phone call, he seeks her out and says he needs her so bad and she only needs to talk to help him out. This is the first wink wink nod nod of the story.

So what does Rafayel do? He goes on this big, dramatic trip to "find inspiration" (or at least his muse), but it’s not just about his art. He’s not just looking for inspiration, he’s trying to figure out how to be less dependent on her and becoming increasingly more restless over this. The temparature and physical discomfort is making things worse, he's anxiously overthinking, and imagine trying to fight this and the longest art block as of late off when all you want to do is indulge in this special person and be comforted like a lap cat all day every day.

He understands that if he lets himself indulge without restraint, one day his love for mc will turn into pure need. He’ll become more and more greedy, and he doesn’t want that and is afraid of being abandoned because of that growing neediness and dependency.

This is in relation to his art, because as @/dat-silvers-girl put in the comments, he's struggling with "the genuine fear of not being able to enjoy anything in life because all you're thinking about how to use it (as an artist)" . what if he starts doing this to her? to their love and relationship? take from her, and become someone who only takes in every area of life -- like someone who only exploits things by extracting what he feels about them to use it for his art. he's afraid of that, he doesn't like that and possibly doesn't like himself who does it. so why should she? she would leave him for sure, in his head, that's a solid reason to.

The first time around he brings up his anxiety about MC leaving him out of the inner realization of his dependency, the possibility of just what he can become, and fear of abandonment. she effortlessly soothes his worries. It's heavily implied they did it afterwards and after hearing "her life has already been consumed by him" he tweaked out a little bit and his "obsession" seeped through.

After it fades to black, he says ほら……僕もとっくに……君に侵食されてしまっているんだ…… which means "See... I've already been completely consumed by you too" in Japanese instead of the life being made a chaotic mess localization. While I think MC's line was jokey and lighthearted, I don't think this man is joking at all. Rafayel didn't say his life was consumed by her as well, he said HE was consumed. Ouh.

This took the edge off from him for a while but they hadn't gotten to the root of the problem yet, so he was back to square one after the memorial hall, because remember, he's trying to find inspiration as an act of making this dependency of his better. Pain and suffering are all around him here, which his inspiration feeds off of. The dried up ocean he could hear weakening, the skeleton of the whale, the burden of his people and homeland more prominent than before. And what does MC do? Tear through the perspective of pain and introduce a hopeful alternative, "Isn't it a surprise to see an ocean in the middle of the desert?"

This is a place that gave Rafayel the height of helplessness and suffering when he visited by himself before despite momentarily being hopeful after the locals told him such a place existed. But now, she was there to comfort him through his loneliness and pain, hug him, and give him hope yet again. He brings up how he wanted to come here with the most important person to him when he was still hopeful about it before consumed by the pain of it all, and that wish has been granted. That moment has to be so powerful for Rafayel. Literally light at the end of the tunnel.

It had me reeling that he just sat in the car after all that, staring at her for god knows how long until she woke up. He was probably overthinking again, but my interpretation that it was heavily emotional for him (it could have meant so little for MC but the world for him, she doesn't even know) and he wanted to be in that moment with her, just feel and look without restraint. Indulge a little. (I can just imagine him going just a little bit more, I'll go after she wakes up.) And like. His eyes are shining in the darkness is the description here. Perhaps he was feeling so much here. So much love. So much happiness. And he's about to go in for a kiss (heavy breathing and everything) after that, but holds himself back and actively has to pry himself away. He's feeling the neediness again.

That’s why he makes an effort to actively wean himself off and says he'll be okay on his own. What he says to her after MC is like "spoiling him" being all "hey you're sick maybe don't go? or let's go together?" (which is NOT helping Rafayel at all) is even more meaningful in Japanese and I didn't know why they left out this context, but the rearranged line would be "Do you want me to become a sea creature beached on the sand after the sea recedes, unable to breathe on my own ever again?"

Yeah. YEAH. This is about dependency. (He's saying don't coddle me I'll literally become that wolf tearing his shirt meme 😭)

So of course his stubbornness and anxiety force him to do things without MC and distance himself, he can do it. He’s determined to prove to himself that he can endure it on his own.

I also feel like part of the reason he insisted on going to the salon alone is that he’s still worried mc might come to dislike the version of him who's someone he's so sure she will leave, who isn't perfect and he hides behind the persona he's put up just for her. If he truly becomes addicted to her and shows her everything/his true self, and she ends up leaving him, it would completely break him. He's trying to be like "im so normal about her haha" but he's so not normal about her at all. He's literally obsessed I feel like, and perhaps this is him fighting it knowing it's not healthy.

and OOOH about why he ends up coming back from the salon all hot and bothered.

I have strong context that she flicked the bean in there after he left her high and dry in the car ("hot water washes away the stickiness from my body and his stifled breaths still echo in my ears, enveloping me along with the steam in the bathroom. The warmth from his fingertips lingers in the places where he touched me..." is the english. however, in chinese, it goes "熱水洗去身上的黏膩，壓抑的喘息迴盪在我耳畔，和浴室裡氤氳的水氣一起包裹著我." stating "the suppressed breathing" -- which doesn't have any possessive adjectives when I translated it on google and later explicitly asked chatgpt if it had any his/my adjectives involved, just to be sure. it said no but i'd like it if a real chinese speaking person could give their input on this !!! PLEASE DONT LEAVE ME WITH CHATGPT

so um. if the context is in fact the case that he heard her masturbating to him, the intensity with which he attacked her would be normal, I think 😭

I have belief that MC unconsciously shatters his "training himself to be without her" determination through their bond. She just keeps thinking about him the entire time. about him reading her thoughts, though. we still don't know all about the lemurian bond they share. I’d say it grants him some sort of mind/heart reading ability or connects their minds together (when she was thinking about whether she should hug him, he answered “yes”).

At the salon, I imagine Rafayel was already thinking about her like crazy. Then he realized, or perhaps, "heard" she was still worrying about him and thinking of him (as much he thought about her) and decided to go back. Rafayel probably felt that suppressing himself was only making her more anxious and unsettled. She's thinking all about him, unconsciously calling to him to come to her, she didn't want to let him go at all, wanted to go with him, etc...

but even if it was his own decision and no mind reading was involved... uh. If you ask me. He did quite literally hear her after coming back. That's also something that might make him think she wants him as much as he wants her, which made his self-restraint utterly meaningless from the start.

Disregarding this theory of mine proven wrong until a Chinese speaker helps me out here, MC returned to Rafayel's room. A translation omission happened here from what I saw. There are no possessive adjectives in the Chinese text about the room she returns to, and the Japanese one states she returned to the guest room (doesn't specify which one. She was also able to enter Rafayel's room without needing to knock before.)

so uh. she went into rafayel's room y'all. the line "this is my room, you're the one who walked in here" MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE. (SO LIKE. NOT ONLY DID SHE GO INTO HIS ROOM, SHE FLICKED THE BEAN THERE AND HE POSSIBLY HEARD IT. SHE'S MORE OF A FREAK THAN HE IS, I UNDERSTAND WHY HE LET GO AFTER THAT LMFAO)

I don't put it past him to get worked up after he finds her in his room post-bath even without my theory lmfao (idk why they put her in a dress when she should be in a bathrobe or something 😭)

His conclusion at the end of this memory that "he finds inspiration in pain and the art of creation is a part of his life. mc made him realize love and art are so alike. even if they don't complete him but burn him instead he wants them (love and art) with every fiber of his being" and MC says she doesn't like that, rightfully so.

So like. There's SO MUCH to unpack in here.

When Rafayel says he finds inspiration in pain and that creation is a part of his life, he’s admitting something raw and essential about himself: pain isn’t just a byproduct of his art, it’s intrinsic to it. For Rafayel, pain and art are intertwined in a way that’s almost inseparable. It’s like his muse isn’t just beauty, but beauty that hurts.

But then he takes this further by connecting art to love. He’s realized that both art and love demand the same from him: vulnerability, passion, and sometimes suffering. They don’t necessarily complete him (he’s not romanticizing them as salvation), but they burn him, wear him down, consume him (coincidentally, this is something he said to MC in the JP dub of this memory, that she consumes him), but also give him life. And for Rafayel, that’s the crux, even if they burn him, he wants them with every fiber of his being.

This is such a Rafayel thing to say. It’s dramatic, it’s tortured, but it’s also deeply SUBTLE. He doesn't spell all of these out, mind you, I got a headache trying to understand him. Or I'm just slow, I don't know. It shows how much he values creation and connection, even if they come at a cost.

MC, on the other hand, challenges this perspective. When she says she doesn’t like that he views love and art as things that burn him, she’s pushing back against the idea that suffering is a necessary part of creation, or love. MC doesn’t want Rafayel to see their relationship as something that requires him to hurt. She’s telling him, “You don’t have to destroy yourself to love me.”

When MC says, “You’ll never have to burn for me,” she’s giving Rafayel an alternative to his destructive mindset. She’s saying that love doesn’t have to hurt, that their relationship can exist without him sacrificing himself on the altar of passion. It’s a refusal to let Rafayel romanticize pain as the price of love.

And I love that Rafayel goes, "Will you help me look for other parts in life outside of pain?" in response. This is NOT about art or inspiration anymore, and the way the dialogue is written is just AUGH. Again I had to rewatch this over and over again for the nuances and subtext.

I love MC's response, she knew exactly what to say. “I’ll always be the one who walks along the shore with you. Of course, diving into the sea bed is fine too. If it can snow in the desert, there will be a day when the ocean returns.”

MC’s response is layered with metaphors, but at its core, it’s about unwavering support and hope::

Walking along the shore: This represents safety and companionship. MC is saying she’ll be with Rafayel in the calm, in the moments where they’re just observing life without diving into its depths. She’ll be his steady presence, his grounding force.

Diving into the sea bed: This is an acknowledgment that life and love sometimes require going deeper and they may go through hardships, into the unknown, the murky, the challenging. MC isn’t afraid of this, she’s willing to go there with him too.

Snow in the desert and the ocean’s return: This is a symbol of hope and transformation beyond being a nod to The Sea of Golden Sand. Snow in the desert seems impossible, just like the idea of Rafayel finding inspiration outside of pain might feel impossible to him. But MC believes in the extraordinary, in change, and in the possibility that beauty and creation can exist outside of suffering.

Her words are a promise: she’s willing to stand by him, to face the unknown together, and to hold onto the belief that a new way of seeing the world is possible.

And Rafayel LOWKEY PROPOSES IN RETURN.

By saying “let’s watch the sea together,” he’s accepting MC’s offer of companionship and hope in the long run. He’s recognizing that life doesn’t have to be about diving into the depths alone, it can be about sharing the experience with someone else, even if it’s just standing on the shore and watching.

“Every sea”: This phrase is key. Rafayel isn’t just committing to one kind of life or one kind of inspiration, he’s opening himself up to all possibilities. Watching every sea means embracing all facets of life, whether they’re calm or turbulent, painful or beautiful. It’s a marriage proposal declaration that he’s ready to explore the world beyond pain, with MC by his side.

So. I love that his inspiration returns after his freak is accepted by MC because he literally feels the acceptance through the bond.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. This memory DRAINED me. They were just supposed to bang what the fuck happened. Why did I have to go treasure hunting to find what was going on in this card. anyway...

[uncle-fruity]

Decided to read the article. I absolutely believe that what the author calls "male flight" has some validity to it, but it doesn't seem to be a reason men have given themselves, and it seems reductive to put the decline of men pursuing education solely on misogyny. Not to say that misogyny isn't a factor, because I agree that the article's thesis lines up with historical trends of devaluing anything seen as "feminine" work, and I know enough sexist men to know that many do have an aversion to being in anything they consider women's spaces. I'm not sure that I fully agree that the main reason men aren't pursuing education is the kind of direct misogyny described in the article, but I also don't have any evidence to the contrary lined up, and it's certainly within the realm of possibility.

Early in the article, the author lists out other reasons that have been cited to partially explain the decline in men's enrollment:

[Image Transcript: Other reasons I came across while researching for this article include:

-- Men can make more money without a college degree than women can, so women need college more.

-- Higher rates of alcohol, drug use, gangs and prison for boys negate college as a viable option.

-- Colleges are usually left-leaning, so right-leaning students increasingly don't feel comfortable there. And more men than women lean right.

-- Men join the military more than women.

-- A man will sometimes have to provide for wife/kids before he can finish college. /End transcript.]

Unfortunately, the author did not give citations for any of those claims, nor did she spend much time explaining why she thought these reasons weren't major factors -- or not as notable as the reason she gives: the rise of women in higher education. It would have been nice to see where that information was coming from. Particularly the point about higher drug and prison rates would be nice to have some context for. To be fair, there is a section just before the part that I cited that does give some sources for some of the other reasons people have attributed to the decline of male enrollment.

And, actually, to be extra fair, I'm gonna post that part as well, because it might be helpful. So this is the part directly before the passage I just cited:

[Image transcript: The Pew Research Center has found that boys are more likely to think they don’t need a degree for the jobs they want, and when they do enroll in college, work opportunities lure them away.

Ruth Simmons, president of A&M University thinks “the problem is the way we treat our boys in k-12. They turn away from school because of the negative messages they get at school… Behavior that is rewarded for boys doesn’t fit well with good student behavior.”

Another college president, Donald Ruff believes it boils down to money. “Honestly I think it’s the sticker shock. To see $100,000 that’s daunting.” /End transcript.]

I have little to add about this passage, I just thought it would be helpful to include.

The author also does not seem to consider race in her argument beyond drawing parallels between white flight and male flight. As far as I could tell, this article gives few statistics about the races involved. Is the influx of women predominantly white or predominantly non-white? When we talk about men not enrolling, is there any racial element being considered -- are non-white men enrolling at higher or lower rates than they used to? Are we talking primarily white men not enrolling, or is this male flight evenly distributed across racial demographics? How do these demographics play out? Because, to me, it seems like misogyny and racism could both be at play here. If more black women than ever are going to college, it is likely that male flight is in tandem with white flight, but to actually make that claim with any amount of credibility, we would need more information, which the article does not provide/is not focused on.

To be clear, I do not have the answers to those questions. I am merely speculating. This is one of those cases where I'd need to spend more time looking at other sources to get a broader view of the issue, including the sources the author included, the ones she used to support her claims, and the Freakonomics episode she mentions.

On that note, there's this interesting passage, which comes off as sorta... idk... I don't have the exact words for it. Undermining her own point a little? I'll analyze this feeling I have more after the image transcript. (Also, the "they" that is mentioned at the beginning of this passage is referring to the Freakonomics podcast.)

[Image transcript: They mentioned that there is one subset of men who out-enroll women. Which subset might that be?

Gay men.

While only 36 percent of US adults have bachelor’s degrees, 52% of gay men do.

"If America's gay men formed their own country, it would be the world's most highly educated by far.” - Joel Mittleman

At the Joel Mittleman quote in the podcast, I leaned forward…yes… surely now we will wonder why only straight men aren’t attending college… yes? /End transcript]

I feel like this passage gives a passing glance at intersectionality and then just hand waves it away to prove something about straight men. It just strikes me as something that should be explored more if the argument you're making is that men are leaving for misogynistic reasons. Because we should all know by now that gay men are perfectly capable of being misogynistic and that there are definitely gay men who don't want to share spaces with women. Is it that gay men overall tend to be more in touch with or comfortable with femininity, and are therefore less deterred by the presence of women in the classroom? I guess I'm honestly just confused as to how gay men factor into this conversation and why this deviance from the overall trend is not explored. It seems extremely relevant to the conversation?

Also, the article up to this point has been saying that men -- as a general category -- are choosing not to go to college. Is it true that the article is talking about straight men only, as this portion seems to imply? Are we considering gay men as somehow not men or unaffiliated with the rates that men are choosing college? Does the presence of more gay men in academia also mean that this "male flight" is also in part due to homophobia, or is homophobia not being considered as a factor the same way race doesn't seem to have been factored in?

Finally, how do trans men factor into this conversation? Were they counted as women or men? Were they considered at all? If they were, that certainly is not represented here.

So, I guess my overall impression is that this is an interesting and compelling thesis, but the specifics are missing in a way that makes the author's argument fall flat. I think this article would really benefit from a more intersectional approach. I also believe, as with all social issues like this, that the problem is never just one thing, but a combination of things, all of which need to be considered to address the underlying systemic issues that get us to this point. I absolutely believe the author is on to a big part of the problem, but I think her scope is limited and she needs a more solid foundation of information to build her argument on.

Idk. Read the article for yourself and see how it hits.

Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping? (Celeste Davis, Oct 6 2024)

"White flight is a term that describes how white people move out of neighborhoods when more people of color move in.

White flight is especially common when minority populations become the majority. That neighborhood then declines in value.

Male flight describes a similar phenomenon when large numbers of females enter a profession, group, hobby or industry—the men leave. That industry is then devalued.

Take veterinary school for example:

In 1969 almost all veterinary students were male at 89%.

By 1987, male enrollment was equal to female at 50%.

By 2009, male enrollment in veterinary schools had plummeted to 22.4%

A sociologist studying gender in veterinary schools, Dr. Anne Lincoln says that in an attempt to describe this drastic drop in male enrollment, many keep pointing to financial reasons like the debt-to-income ratio or the high cost of schooling.

But Lincoln’s research found that “men and women are equally affected by tuition and salaries.”

Her research shows that the reason fewer men are enrolling in veterinary school boils down to one factor: the number of women in the classroom.

For every 1% increase in the proportion of women in the student body, 1.7 fewer men applied.

One more woman applying was a greater deterrent than $1000 in extra tuition! (…)

Since males had dominated these professions for centuries, you would think they would leave slowly, hesitantly or maybe linger at 40%, 35%, 30%, but that’s not what happens.

Once the tipping point reaches majority female- the men flee. And boy do they flee!

It’s a slippery slope. When the number of women hits 60% the men who are there make a swift exit and other men stop joining.

Morty Schapiro, economist and former president of Northwestern University has noticed this trend when studying college enrollment numbers across universities:

“There’s a cliff you fall off once you become 60/40 female/male. It then becomes exponentially more difficult to recruit men.”

Now we’ve reached that 60% point of no return for colleges.

As we’ve seen with teachers, nurses and interior design, once an institution is majority female, the public perception of its value plummets.

Scanning through Reddit and Quora threads, many men seem to be in agreement - college is stupid and unnecessary.

A waste of time and money. You’re much better off going into the trades, a tech boot camp or becoming an entrepreneur. No need for college. (…)

When mostly men went to college? Prestigious. Aspirational. Important.

Now that mostly women go to college? Unnecessary. De-valued. A bad choice. (…)

School is now feminine. College is feminine. And rule #1 if you want to safely navigate this world as a man? Avoid the feminine.

But we don’t seem to want to talk about that."

[proxycrit]

I love your au!!! I love how the hylian duo look like gremlins, I LOVE the expressions and sass constantly and the changes to the lore, the worldbuilding and also the emotions (OUCH). I love their relationship with purah and each other and the new champions. I love the depth you gave Yona and her relationship with Sidon and Mipha. I love how link feels comfortable talking to sidon in addition to sign, I don't know if he does that with anyone else but Zelda unless its absolutely necessary (eg: just launched out a cannon and is paragliding down, so hands are busy) (side note: i love how much of an adrenalin junky/gremlin he is!!)

I do got a few questions! Will the pair get the sheikah slate again (so say link has the slate and zelda the pad), and can both slates do the warping and item storage (food, ingredients, armor, weapons, etc) (if so: no WONDER link was so upset! His collection!)

Does link have access to the ultrahand abilities (ik you said not The ultrahand, but what about fuse or ascend or rewind etc?) Where is the mastersword??

Does Link still have the champions' abilities, or did he lose those when their spirits moved on at the end of botw?

I know these are a lot of questions but I can't stop thinking about it!! The last few updates sent me back rereading the whole au and now its just vibrating in my head and giving me no piece

This is long and rambly, just know I am very much enjoying this au! Its silly and fun and touching and cute. Thank you for working on it!!

Oo some notes (also ty for circling my au haha im glad other people fixate like i do)

(Prewarning— i did not finish totk despite putting triple hours in it, so a lot of this story is being written while playing, though i know the big broad strokes thanks to cultural osmosis and video essays. A lot of Familiar Familiar builds from my playthrough with BOTW over TOTK, so the sheikah influence is significantly stronger and I will always choose botw characterization over totk characterization as a result.)

That aside

1. Sheikah slate’s dead. Rest in pieces, link’s rare collectable korok poop. Purah’s extracting as much data as she can to put on the purah pad but you can see the dread in her eyes whenever she has to tell link resurrection is not possible.

2. No idea about the zonai arm powers yet— im thinking about ascend, but the longer i go through this story the less likely ill hand it to him just due to immersion breakage. He and zelda will be getting sheikah gadgets from purah though! Maybe ill have a scene of him wandering through the sky island shrines, but without zelda warning rauru he and sonia wouldnt have prepared anything for the hero of the future. (But i DO love ascension and fuse. Lowkey dislike the building mechanics from a concept art pov because the green glue makes me want to cry, but it’s FINE i GUESS)

2b. Master sword’s chilling in korok forest. Link put it back in this au because of Reasons (part of his and zelda’s characterization in this au is to discard their past roles and embrace the present, not as knight and princess but as hero and researcher. They both have to face the reality those roles aren’t dead, but it’s a work in progress. I may also never address it. This “one off hehe lemme draw some guys” idea quickly spiraled into a web comic series so apologies for the vagueness, because i too am watching them adventure with dread and awe and i don’t know where they’ll go with it. They literally write themselves.

3. Rip champions, their ghosts are Gone (but their influence remains. You go mipha, keep haunting the narrative girl, i love you)

I know that some of these story notes don’t quite match up to what totk states is stone cold canon, but that’s the joy of fan work! Anyways sorry for folks who i have NOT answered asks of— i have a lot of them and I’m much better at the drawing and writing part then the socialization aspect (please feel free to peak in to my zoo enclosure ever so often though. I need the enrichment)

[hyunsuloves]

omg girl I'd just seen your "squid game women with a timid s/o" , could you do the same but for men? thanksss 💖

super shy.

synopsis … squid game men with a timid s/o ꨄ︎. (or a part two to this.)

pairings … myung-gi, dae-ho, jun-ho, thanos, nam-gyu, min-su x fem!reader (separately)

warnings … fem reader, non game au, some may be ooc but what else is new, i apologize for any typos !!

lovely notes … the post i did with the female characters did surprisingly well omg..

꩜ [ 857 words ]

myung-gi / player 333 is so similar yet so different from you. he’s not a candid person, but he doesn’t always keep to himself.

he tends to keep under wraps but isn’t opposed to speaking out around others.

he encourages you to speak up for yourself, though he’s joking the majority of the time. he likes to tease you way too often for comfort.

“you know you can speak up for yourself, right?” “myung-gi, leave me the hell alone.” “this is what happens when i try to help you. so ungrateful.”

he orders for the both of you, so even if you weren’t so shy, he’d take upon the task himself either way.

he makes fun of people in awkward social settings to ease your worries. he’ll whisper the dumbest jokes ever to make you feel less awkward around the large crowd of bodies.

the both of you just stay near one another while in public. there’s nothing better than the proximity of a loved one when in the worst possible social setting.

dae-ho / player 388 is your polar opposite. he’s very social, energetic, and forthright.

he’s a social butterfly wherever he goes, and you have the misfortune of constantly being dragged along.

he’s always ready to go when you are. even if he isn’t finished socializing, he’s saying his farewells as soon as you tell him that you’re ready to leave.

“hey, you ready to go?” “we’ve only been here a few hours. go have fun, baby.” “no, let’s go. i wanna go home with you.”

despite dragging you to every social event ever, he’ll speak for you without even thinking about it. even if you can speak for yourself, he talks for you. he always feels slightly guilty for dragging you out of your humble abode to accompany him to his affairs.

he speaks up for you every time, without fail. he defends you, orders your food for you, the whole deal.

jun-ho is your contrast, as he’s far from shy. he isn’t always outspoken.

while he has a more free-spoken personality than yours, he has moments when he’s just as reserved as you are.

he’s the first to your defense when he sees someone troubling you. even if you weren’t his partner, he’d rush to your defense nonetheless.

“hey, tell me if they say anything else to you.” “of course. thank you, jun-ho.”

the way this man is so protective over you is so nonsensical. he’d be defensive nonetheless, but especially with your timid nature.

thanos / player 230 couldn’t be more different from you. he’s the most eccentric and outgoing person you have ever met.

from social gatherings to parties, to any get-together he can find, you’ll find him there. of course, he drags you along to wherever he’s going.

he urges you to speak for yourself more often than not. although he doesn’t mind speaking for you, a lot of the time he’ll put you in situations in which you have no choice but to verbalize.

“señorita, learn how to speak for yourself.” “stop talking to me, su-bong.”

to no one’s surprise, he’d fight over you if needed. if you’re being targeted, he’d attack the individual without a second thought.

his favorite thing to do is fluster you. compliments upon compliments is all you hear from this man, and it’s all to see you act all diffident.

nam-gyu / player 124 is, like thanos, your polar. he’s a very extroverted person, opposite your timid demeanor.

he’s a very lax, social type of person. he likes to relax when he’s at get-togethers, similar to you.

he loves to flatter you. it’s not even to fluster you, he just wants you to be so conscious of how much he loves you all the time.

“you look so pretty, baby.” “leave me alone, nam-gyu.” “what? i mean it.”

he’s the first person to come to your defense, as expected. even though he’s the type to let himself be belittled, he’d never let it happen to you.

he’s the kind of person you can sit in silence with and not have it be awkward. silence with him is quite comforting.

min-su / player 126 is literally your twin. the both of you are the most reserved people known to man.

the amount of times you’ve just sat in silence, enjoying the other's presences is too much to count. the two of you simply sit in quietness.

if it comes to something like ordering food, you often take the initiative because min-su is way too shy for his own good.

“can you order for me?” “of course, love. i got it.” “thank you so much. where would i be without you?”

the only person either of you is comfortable around is the other. you’re a wreck around others, but it’s absolute tranquility when you’re with one another.

if it came to defending one another, you’d come to his defense without hesitance. he’s more tentative to defend either one of you, so it usually comes down to you doing it.

the both of you are a shy pairing and a very likely couple that surprised no one.

[altschmerzes]

in general if you want to enjoy your ships and romantic interpretations of character dynamics without running into the territory of amatonormativity and casual fandom arophobia i think a good standard approach is if you’re going to refer to the dynamic you see as romantic, there’s just no need to bring the idea of friendship or platonic relationships into it at all! i talk a lot about how people get very habitually and jokingly mean about nonromantic relationships in a way that’s really hurtful and upsetting to me as an aromantic person, and people often get very defensive in response, how it was just a joke, it’s not that deep, it’s just shipping, etc. so my best advice if you want to continue enjoying your ships and jokes and lighthearted fun in fandom without hurting aros and others who value nonromantic relationships, just stick to uplifting what you like, and not bringing up alternatives at all!

comments like “they were so in love here” or “they’re soooo gay for each other” or “this was so romantic” might be annoying to me on the basis of standard affection or care or whatever else, but that’s a me problem and there’s nothing harmful or wrong about it. just don’t bring platonic relationships or friendships into it, because at that point that’s where the shitty behaviour arises, because that’s where the purpose is almost always to put them down in comparison. i.e. “there’s no platonic explanation for this” or “who looks at a friend like that” or “sure they’re juuuust friends [based on some degree of intimacy or care or concern etc]”

you can have fun and enjoy your ships and make lighthearted jokes and posts without being amatonormative and casually arophobic!! it’s perfectly possible and easy. when in doubt you just don’t need to reference nonromantic relationships in your ship posts at all. celebrate what you enjoy! don’t put down what you don’t.

[mattsobvimyfav]

neighbors (Matthew Sturniolo)

pt. 1

I slammed the door so hard I was sure the whole house shook. My heart was racing, and I could barely hear anything over the blood pounding in my ears. I turned to Charlie, who looked just as panicked as I felt.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” she muttered, pacing back and forth, her hands gripping her hair. “What the fuck just happened? Why are they here?”

“I don’t know!” I snapped, my voice shaky as I grabbed her arm. “I feel like I just saw a fucking ghost!”

Without waiting for her to respond, I bolted up the stairs, dragging Charlie with me. We didn’t stop until we were in my bedroom, and I slammed that door shut too, locking it like I was trying to keep monsters out.

“Are we hallucinating?” Charlie asked, flopping onto my bed and staring at the ceiling. “Like, maybe we’re overtired or jet-lagged or something?”

“Nope,” I said, sinking to the floor with my back pressed against the door. “That was real. Way too real.”

She sat up suddenly, her eyes wide. “This has to be a fucking joke right.”

“Yes!,” I interrupted quickly, shaking my head. “I don't know how, but i'm picking delusions over everything”

“What are the fucking odds?” Charlie asked, throwing her hands in the air.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand, making us both jump.

“Don’t answer it,” Charlie said immediately.

“I wasn’t going to!” I snapped, crawling across the floor to grab it. I sighed as I saw my dads name on the screen.

“What do we do?” Charlie whispered.

“I don’t know!” I groaned, tossing the phone onto the bed. “I thought we left this behind us. Four years, Charlie. Four fucking years of silence, and now they're just at our door?”

Charlie flopped back onto the bed and covered her face with a pillow. “We came here to start over, I mean I knew there was a chance but come on we haven't even been here 24 hours. and LA is huge.”

She wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t supposed to include the ghosts of our past but we knew it was a possibility.

Another knock echoed through the house.

Charlie sat up, her eyes wide with panic. 

“It’s Matt.” Don't ask me how four years later I could still tell it was him just by the aggressive knocking.

We made our way down the stairs. I could feel the lump in my throat growing as I stared at the spot where I knew Matt was standing on the other side.

“I need to say something,” I said finally,

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Charlie warned, her voice muffled by the pillow she was clutching.

I grabbed the doorknob, my grip tightening as I took a deep breath. “No promises.”

I wasn’t ready for this—seeing them, hearing them, being around them again. But it didn’t look like the universe was giving me much of a choice.

I unlocked the door and swung it open, my heart pounding in my chest. All three of them were standing there—Matt, Nick, and Chris—and the sight of them hit me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to immediately throw up. They looked older, but the memories they brought back made me feel like I was eighteen all over again.

“I’m going to be straight up with you,” I said, crossing my arms and staring them down. My voice was steady, but it took every ounce of strength I had to keep it that way. “I want nothing to do with you guys still. Sure, we can do the friendly neighbor wave if we see each other outside, but please leave us alone. It took a long time to move on from you people, but we did it. So can you agree to that?”

For a moment, they all just stared at me, and the silence was suffocating.

Matt’s jaw tightened, and his expression darkened. He looked like he was about to explode. “That’s it?” he snapped. “You’re not even going to try to have a conversation? After everything—”

I cut him off before he could finish. “After everything is exactly why I don’t want to talk. I’m not doing this, Matt.”

Nick stepped forward, his hands raised like he was trying to keep the peace. “I get it,” he said quietly. His voice was soft, almost apologetic. “You don’t owe us anything. We won’t bother you.”

I nodded once, appreciating that he at least understood, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything back.

Chris, though, was another story. He looked like he wanted to crumble right there on my porch. His eyes were glossy, and he was barely holding it together.

“Chris,” I said gently, but firmly. “Don’t.”

He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but no words came out. Instead, he just nodded, his head hanging low like he couldn’t even look at me anymore.

“Goodbye,” I said, stepping back and gripping the edge of the door.

Matt glared at me, his fists clenched at his sides, but he didn’t say another word. Nick gave me a small, sad smile, and Chris… Chris just looked broken.

I closed the door before I could second-guess myself, locking it again for good measure. When I turned around, Charlie was standing at the top of the stairs, her arms wrapped around herself like she was bracing for impact.

“Well?” she asked hesitantly.

“They agreed,” I said, leaning back against the door. “At least, I think they did.”

“Do you think they’ll actually leave us alone?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “But I hope so.”

I trudged upstairs, my legs feeling heavier with every step.

“Well, that was a disaster,” she muttered, throwing herself onto my bed.

I sighed and leaned against the door. “I don’t even want to think about it anymore. Let’s just call it a night.”

She nodded, sitting up to grab her phone. “Yeah, good call. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow anyway.”

I managed a small smile and headed to the bathroom to wash up. By the time I came back, Charlie had already changed into her pajamas and was scrolling mindlessly on her phone. I did the same, slipping into a T-shirt and underwear, and climbing into bed.

We didn’t talk much after that. The weight of the evening hung heavy between us, but eventually, we both drifted off, the stress of the day finally catching up to us.

The next morning, I woke to the sound of my alarm blaring from under my pillow. Groaning, I smacked the snooze button and sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Time to adult,” Charlie mumbled groggily from her makeshift bed on the floor.

“Yup,” I replied, stretching before sliding out of bed.

We both moved like zombies as we rummaged through our suitcases, pulling out shorts, tank tops, and sneakers. It felt surreal, living out of luggage in our new house, but today was the first step toward making it feel like home.

Once we were dressed, I threw my hair into a messy bun, and Charlie braided hers. After a quick debate over whether we needed coffee or breakfast first, we grabbed our bags and headed downstairs.

“Ready to spend way too much money on fucking furniture?” I joked, slinging my tote over my shoulder.

Charlie laughed. “Oh, absolutely. Let’s make bad financial decisions.”

With that, we headed out the door, determined to turn our empty house into a home.

Charlie and I spent the entire morning driving from one furniture store to another, armed with a notebook, our phones, and an ambitious list of everything we needed for the house. It was overwhelming, but in the best way.

First stop: beds. We wandered through aisles of mattresses, testing them out by flopping onto each one like children.

“This one’s too soft,” Charlie said, sinking into a plush mattress like quicksand.

I laughed, bouncing on the edge of a firmer one. “This one feels like sleeping on a rock.”

Eventually, we both settled on medium-firm queen mattresses, each picking out sleek platform bed frames to go with them. Delivery was arranged for later in the day, and we left the store feeling accomplished.

Next, we tackled the living room. Finding a couch was no easy task; we debated over colors, fabrics, and styles for nearly an hour.

“Gray is practical, but boring,” Charlie argued, running her hand over a plush sectional.

“Yeah, but white will be a nightmare to clean,” I countered, pointing at a gorgeous cream-colored sofa.

After much deliberation, we compromised on a deep navy-blue sectional with matching throw pillows. It was stylish but durable, and more importantly, it was in stock for delivery.

For the dining room, we agreed on a rustic wood table that could seat six, just in case we had company. We added sleek black chairs to modernize the look and splurged on a statement light fixture shaped like intertwined gold rings.

Decor shopping was the most fun. We wandered through aisles of wall art, throw blankets, lamps, and knick-knacks, tossing anything we loved into the cart. Charlie insisted on a funky cactus-shaped lamp for her room, while I fell in love with a vintage-style gold mirror for the entryway.

By the end of the day, we had a truckload of smaller items packed into the U-Haul we’d rented for the week. The larger pieces beds, couches, and the dining set were delivered earlier in the day. 

As I pulled into the driveway, Charlie let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t want to step foot in another furniture store for at least a month.”

“Same,” I agreed, climbing out of the truck. “But hey, at least we’re one step closer to having a real home.”

Unloading the truck was a workout, but by the time we were done, the house was starting to feel less like a shell and more like ours.

After hours of unpacking boxes and assembling furniture, the house was starting to come together. Charlie was in the living room, arranging throw pillows on the new navy-blue sectional, while I wrestled with the gold mirror I’d bought for the entryway.

As I stepped back to admire my handiwork, a thought struck me. “Wait,” I said, turning to Charlie. “We forgot TVs.”

Charlie froze, a pillow still in her hands. “Oh my god, you’re right. How did we miss that?”

I groaned, rubbing my temples. “We can’t live without TVs. What are we supposed to do, stare at the wall all night?”

Charlie laughed, tossing the pillow onto the couch. “Okay, let’s take a break. I’m starving anyway. Dinner first, then Best Buy?”

“Deal,” I said, already grabbing my purse.

We decided on a small Mexican place nearby, where we devoured tacos and chips with queso, brainstorming where to put the TVs in the house.

“We’ll need one in the living room, obviously,” Charlie said, wiping her hands on a napkin.

“And one for my room,” I added.

“Same,” Charlie agreed.

After dinner, we headed to Best Buy. The bright lights and endless rows of electronics made my tired brain feel even more overwhelmed, but we quickly found the TV section.

“This one’s huge,” Charlie said, pointing at an 85-inch screen.

“Absolutely not,” I laughed. “We’re not turning the living room into a movie theater.”

After some back and forth, we settled on a 75-inch TV for the living room and two 50-inch TVs for our bedrooms. As we were checking out, something else caught my eye—a sleek silver macbook pro that seemed perfect for editing videos.

“I’ve been needing a new laptop anyway, I've had the same one since senior year… of highschool” I said, holding it up for Charlie to see.

“Do it,” she encouraged.

With our cart loaded, we left Best Buy and made our way back to the house.

“This is starting to feel like a full-time job,” I joked as we unloaded the car.

Charlie laughed. “But it’ll be worth it when we’re sitting in our perfectly decorated house, watching our perfectly mounted TVs.”

“True,” I said, smiling. “Now let’s get to work.”

Charlie and I stood in the driveway, glaring at the enormous box containing the 75-inch TV. It was heavier than it looked, and we had already tried—and failed—to maneuver it into the house twice.

“This thing is impossible,” Charlie groaned, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

“I didn’t think we’d need a forklift just to get a TV inside,” I muttered, trying to catch my breath.

As we were about to attempt another lift, I heard a car door close. Looking up, I saw Nick stepping out of an Uber in front of the house next door. His gaze landed on us immediately, and I saw his eyebrows rise in amusement.

“Need some help?” he called, walking toward us with his hands shoved in his hoodie pockets.

Charlie and I froze.

“Pros and cons?” I whispered to her.

Charlie nodded, leaning closer. “Pro: We get the TV inside without breaking it or ourselves. Con: We owe him for helping, and this might be the start of the interactions we’re trying to avoid.”

“Another pro,” I added quietly, “it’s Nick. Not Matt or Chris.”

“True,” Charlie muttered, weighing it over in her head.

“Okay,” I said through clenched teeth, turning to Nick. “If you’re offering…”

Nick smirked, walking up to us. “I am. Don’t worry, I won’t charge you.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Just get it over with.”

Nick crouched, lifting one end of the box with ease. “Wow, you two really thought you could handle this on your own?”

“Just shut up and lift,” I snapped, grabbing the other end.

With his help, we managed to get the TV inside in record time, placing it carefully in the living room. Nick dusted his hands off, grinning. “Anything else you need help with, or can I call this my good deed for the day?”

“Nope, we’re good,” Charlie said quickly, practically shoving him toward the door.

“Thanks,” I muttered reluctantly.

Nick smirked again but didn’t push it. “Anytime, neighbors.” With that, he walked out, shutting the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, Charlie and I exchanged a look.

“Never again,” she said firmly.

“Agreed,” I replied. “But…at least the TV’s inside.”

I stood on my bed, carefully pinning string lights along the edges of the ceiling. The soft glow they cast was already making the room feel more like mine, even though there were still half-unpacked boxes scattered around. I stepped back, admiring my handiwork, when Charlie barged in without knocking, holding a bottle of water and looking exhausted.

“Okay, interior designer, I think it’s time to call it a night,” she said, plopping down onto my half-made bed.

I glanced at my phone. It was nearly midnight. “I just need to finish this corner,” I replied, pointing at the last stretch of wall.

“Y/N,” Charlie said with a laugh, “you’ve been at this all day. And we still need to go car shopping tomorrow.”

I sighed, sitting down on the bed next to her. “You’re right. But I want it to be perfect.”

“It will be. And besides,” she added with a smirk, “we’re vlogging the car shopping tomorrow. Can’t look sleep-deprived for our subscribers.”

I groaned, lying back on the bed. “Fine, fine. I’ll stop for tonight.”

Charlie stood up, stretching her arms. “Good. Now, let’s get some sleep before we embarrass ourselves trying to pick out cars on four hours of rest.”

I laughed, following her to the door. “That’s probably smart. Night, Charlie.”

“Night, Y/N,�� she said, heading to her room.

I turned back, taking one last look at the lights. They weren’t perfect yet, but they’d do for tonight.

Charlie and I stood outside a sleek, glassy dealership with the LA sun shining behind us. I held the camera, while Charlie grinned and waved dramatically.

“Good morning, everyone!” Charlie cheered. “Welcome back to our channel! Today’s a huge day because—drumroll, please—we’re car shopping!”

I spun the camera to face me. “We’ve been dreaming about this for so long, and honestly, we couldn’t do any of this without you guys. So seriously, thank you for supporting us and making this possible. We love you!”

Charlie leaned in, nodding with a big smile. “Now let’s go spend our life savings!”

The camera cut to us inside a brightly lit Jeep dealership. Charlie was practically bouncing on her feet as a salesman led us to a lineup of Jeeps.

“This is it,” Charlie said, her eyes locked on a bright yellow Jeep Wrangler. “This is the one. I can feel it in my soul.”

I laughed, “You’re not even going to look at the others?”

She shot me a look. “What others? Nothing can top this beauty.” She turned to the camera. “Everyone say hello to my future car!”

“This is amazing,” she said, giggling. We were flying down the Los Angeles highway test driving her jeep.

Back at the dealership, I filmed her signing the paperwork, flashing the camera a thumbs-up.

“This is insane,” Charlie said, “Thank you guys so much for making this possible. You’ve literally changed our lives!”

The next scene showed us at a luxury dealership, me sitting in a sleek SUV. “Okay, this one’s nice,” I said, panning the camera to show the interior. “But it just doesn’t feel… right.”

Charlie filmed me this time, catching my indecision as I walked between several cars. “Y/N’s being picky,” she whispered into the camera, smirking.

“I’m not being picky!” I protested, pointing at her. “I’m being thorough!”

Finally, we arrived at the Ford dealership. The camera panned to a line of Broncos, and my eyes immediately lit up.

“This one,” I said, walking toward a forest green Ford Bronco. “This is the one.”

Charlie zoomed in on me running my hands over the hood. “You’re in love.”

“Absolutely,” I said, laughing. “Do you see this color? It’s perfect.”

“This feels so good to drive,” I said, grinning at the camera. 

The camera showed me holding the keys, looking slightly overwhelmed but excited. “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” I said, looking into the lens. “Seriously, thank you all so much. None of this would be possible without you.”

Charlie popped into frame, throwing an arm around me. “Big day for the besties!”

We stood in the dealership parking lot.

“This has been such a crazy day,” I said. “But we are officially car owners!”

Charlie bounced around me. “We’re going to have so many adventures in these things, and we can’t wait to bring you all along with us.”

“Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe,” I added. “And tell us—what’s your dream car? Maybe we’ll manifest it for you.”

“Thanks for watching!” Charlie said, blowing a kiss to the camera.

Charlie and I were both drained from everything, but it felt so good to see the progress. For now, we were done moving furniture, and it felt like we were finally allowed to just relax for a bit.

We ended up in the living room, sitting on the couch in front of the TV. I had my laptop on my lap, working through some edits for the next vlog. Charlie was just chilling next to me, scrolling through her phone and half-watching a Brittany Broski podcast. We both needed a break.

“Hey, you think we should just call it a night after this?” Charlie asked, her voice a little quieter now that we were finally winding down. “We can actually sleep in tomorrow”

“Yeah, I agree,” I said, clicking through some of the footage I’d been editing. “We still have to go pick up the cars on Friday, too, so I guess we can finish everything tomorrow and take it easy tonight.”

Charlie nodded, letting out a tired sigh. “It feels so good to have everything coming together, though.”

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, the podcast playing in the background, and I kept editing. My mind was already thinking about what the next few days would bring. We’d pick up our new cars, drop off the last of the U-Haul stuff, and then we could officially call this place home.

After what felt like hours of scrolling and editing, I finally closed my laptop and leaned back into the couch, my body feeling heavy from exhaustion. “Okay, that’s enough work for today. Let’s enjoy the rest of the night.”

Charlie smiled and stretched, kicking her legs up on the coffee table. “Agreed. Let’s just enjoy some time to relax.”

We turned the volume up a bit, laughing at something Brittany said on the podcast.

As Charlie and I relaxed on the couch, the podcast still playing in the background, my mind couldn’t help but wander. Thoughts of Matt flooded my head. I hadn’t really let myself think about him much since seeing him a couple days ago, but now that we were finally settling into the house and things were calming down, he was creeping back into my mind.

I tried to focus on the podcast in front of me, but I couldn’t shake it. The memories of the way we used to be, how everything went down, the way things ended—it all kept replaying in my head.

Without thinking, I grabbed my phone and unlocked it, the screen lighting up in front of me. My thumb hovered over the TikTok app for a moment before I tapped it open. I knew I shouldn’t, but I found myself unblocking Matt’s profile.

I scrolled through his posts, my heart hammering in my chest with each video I saw. Then, I froze. There, on his arm, was a tattoo of a key—engraved with our old dorm number. The same one we had shared in those months of college. The same number that held so many memories, the room he left me in. My stomach turned. Seeing it now felt like a knife twisting in my gut.

I kept scrolling, trying to ignore the feeling creeping up my throat, but then something else caught my eye. His most recent TikTok. Posted one day ago, The sound playing  “I haven’t seen you in a while, you know I miss you, babe. When you hear this song, feel flattered it’s about your face and how I miss it.” The words hit me like a ton of bricks, and for a second, my heart dropped into my stomach. It was like he was singing directly to me. The weight of it was too much.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when my phone buzzed in my hand. I looked, and it was my boyfriend Leonard.

“Want to FaceTime?”

I stared at the message for a moment, trying to calm my racing thoughts. I couldn’t stay stuck on Matt. Not now, not when I had someone like Leo. I quickly typed back, a bit more quickly than I meant to.

“Yeah, sure. One sec.”

I took a deep breath and silenced my phone before looking over at Charlie. She was busy scrolling through her own feed, completely oblivious to the mess going on in my head.

I felt a twinge of guilt for letting Matt back in, even in my thoughts, but I couldn’t stop myself.

But for now, I pushed it aside, grabbed my phone, and clicked the FaceTime button for Leo.

tag-

@tbfaptbfae @ch0llies @2muchofaslvt @rockstarchr1s @simply-a-simper @mattscore @watercolorskyy @urfungi @sturnsvelocity @mattsturnii @christmastreecake @izzylovesmatt @larnieboox88

[persicipen]

𑑛 “KEEP AN EYE ON ME” ﾉ WRIOTHESLEY. GENSHIN IMPACT

performer gn reader ﾉ words 1.0k ᯽ bodyguard wriothesley. reader goes on stage — no specifics, so technically it’s still canon au and could be a singer, a dancer, an idol. very suggestive with explicit language but it’s only teased once ﾉ rewritten (old request) because i saw mooties talking about this :3 ᯽ SUGGESTIVE CONTENT ﾉ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT ᯽

Wriothesley shifts nervously from one leg to another, trying to shake off the itch of an unspecified feeling. Hand brushing through the hair, hoping to gather back his thoughts just like the matted greying strands, but to no avail. You’re not leaving his head, your mirrored silhouette sparkling in his silver eyes.

The way you move, hips swinging to the side and down just as the music gets low, makes him gulp down and blink. He has to make sure he’s not imagining it, for it feels too good to be true.

Then, with a pop, you break out of your routine, the special dance you had trained repeatedly in secret exclusively to surprise the crowd tonight, all while never going against the melody nor losing the perfect rhythm. He’s amazed by your ability to become one with the sound, something he could only dream about.

He’s just here to observe you, but other than that — any possible interruptions or unpleasant events, such as nagging fans or worse. Standing still, silent, and leaning on the wall behind the scene where he can get just a glimpse of the grand performance; he’s cautious. Only pretending to be relaxed, a small part of him is enchanted and enjoying your view while the rest is ready to act. Just in case. He never wishes for anything to happen. The less work there is for him to do, the better for everyone around him.

Yet he lets his mind wander to what-ifs. His fingers tap lightly against the metal buckle of his pants, playing with the leather strap on the side of his thigh. How would you move to a slower song? Does your body still find harmony with this kind of cadence too?

Of course, it does. It has to.

You’re so hardworking, there’s probably nothing you wouldn’t be able to do. But currently in promotion are more dynamic performances, and you have to bounce across the stage, elegant and beautiful like the sight of a deer in the forest — almost magical if not for the heavy instruments buzzing through all the surfaces.

Despite everything, the shine in your eyes and the curve of your smile remain unmoving as ever. You’re captivating, stealing hearts and bringing people to tears of joy. You’re a star that gives them all the happiness they need.

And he’s no different. He sees you as the perfect being. It doesn’t matter if it’s the persona you use on the stage or the one that becomes you when you slump against him after every exhausting performance, mumbling how proud you feel and ranting about the soreness of your body, and other stuff like that. Truly, just incoherent babbling — but he loves to hear everything, making sure at the same time that you two won’t get caught by any pair of prying eyes.

(He always thinks about that, so you don’t have to.)

As the mood slightly changes, the tunes mellow down. Not as much as Wriothesley would love to hear, that would be too good — and you bend down on your knees as you prepare for the next piece. It’s the one he called the sexy one when you were sharing the plan with him a few weeks ago, something you giggled away and shushed him immediately, not wanting to agree out loud.

But it was true. And the live dance was no better.

So now he has to endure watching you twirl on your toes, arching your back, sliding your hands along the curves of your body, all that sensual shit that drives him crazy and yet— and yet he cannot do anything about it, just taking the spectacle as it is, so thrilled to be able to see it from a different perspective.

It’s almost burning, this feeling inside, as his thoughts involuntarily drift off towards lustful imagination. Could it be possible to ask you to do the same move that you just did, but right in front of him? Or maybe even on his lap, the one where you crouch down innocently just to act provocatively once again?

Damn, that would be so hot. He has to clench his fist to calm down and return to the present moment.

When you at last walk offstage after another successful performance, your footsteps sound strangely satisfying as they click-clack down the corridor. There is no doubt about the fatigue and thirst in your expression, yet he has a feeling that you wouldn’t ask for a break aside from a quick few minutes to cool down and change your outfit.

Sweat glistens on your skin, sticking to your hair, making you sparkle in the harsh lights of the changing room. You’re beautiful like that; it’s the sweat of success and because you’re doing something you love. It’s not the same sweat when you stress over something or get sick and have to stay wrapped in hot blankets to fight off the illness.

Nonetheless, it feels nasty, so you quickly grab a towel and hug it closely, tapping gently on your face so as not to ruin your makeup. The cool and soft fabric works wonders on your excited body.

You tell the others it’s just a quick trip to the bathroom, while in reality, you glance towards your bodyguard, and that’s all he needs to know. He thinks that if you could only give him even a light kiss on the cheek, that would be enough, that would make him happy and fill him with a new surge of motivation. Oh, that would be so great.

But everything is different…

As soon as there are just the two of you, he pulls you close, failing to control his rapturing emotions. No, of course, he will not do anything stupid now — you only have a minute or so for him, but he wished for it to be untrue. His lips barely graze against your temple, leaving a tender peck there; you hear his low and velvety voice whisper right into your ear some words.

“I’m gonna fuck you so hard later tonight…”

And that’s the only praise that makes you genuinely know that you did exceptionally well on the stage.

[weirdocat83]

Idea for timebomb that would def be hard to pull off but incredibly funny, jinx becomes a firelight instead of ending up with silco, but Ekko has no fucking clue.

Instead of staying in one place and getting adopted by silco, powder runs off and hides. She forages on the streets for a while. Maybe even a few years. Then she hears of the firelights or maybe one of them picks her up off the streets. The thing is, she knows it’s run by Ekko. So she hides her identity. She already saw how Vi reacted to everyone dying and it was her fault so she doesn’t even want to know how Ekko would react. So she hides her identity. Maybe she dyes her hair or maybe she just covers up a LOT but either way, some people think it’s strange but it’s not like they have any room to question it. I’d imagine her voice is quite identifiable so she just elects Not To Talk until she gets her hands on a voice changer. After getting a masked outfit like we see most of the firelights in, she just starts wearing it everywhere.

She ends up really blending in and making friends despite her issues and in some cases, because of them. She’s definitely not the same as AU powder from S2E7 but similar. Definitely more chaotic and driven. She even talks to Ekko and re-befriends him. Powder would be seen as a more secretive person that doesn’t speak much, if at all. That being said, she definitely communicates her intentions and what she is going to do. A lot. She’s a very energetic person so I can’t imagine her staying silent about whatever she’s excited about, whether it be her latest invention or a successful mission.

And while she initially hid her identity out of fear of rejection (and even later still does to an extent) as they become closer it just becomes increasingly harder to bring up the fact that she is powder… especially when her and Ekko become closer and he starts confiding in her…

For a nice twist, you could have either Scar or Silco knowing. Silco could hold her identity over her head and have her make some tough decisions. What would she do to keep her identity hidden?

Scar on the other hand, is very close to Ekko, and knowing would create friction between not only Powder and Scar but also Scar and Ekko. Scar advising powder to tell Ekko and possibly helping her plan how exactly to go about that. Meanwhile Ekko would be wondering what they’re sneaking off to do and maybe he’d overhear and find out that they know where powder is but not who powder is.

The main thing that got me thinking about this idea is just the compilation of moments where powder ALMOST got caught and just BARELY was able to keep the secret. Also potentially dropping hints around the undercity that Powder is alive but never enough to really tell where she is (right next to him). Also Ekko being all like “Powder was my best friend and the only person who really Understood. I had a crush on her. She meant so much to me, I wish I had the opportunity to tell her how I felt and still feel.” Meanwhile powder, right next to him, is blushing under her mask and short circuiting because WHAT. And trying to act like she is still functioning as Ekko is continuing because if she showed a reaction it might give her away.

[arvlelt]

sevika having a dog w/wife!reader - hc's

requested from anonymous - Heyyy not nsfw but I feel like Sevika would be a dog mom, so I'd like some headcannons of Sevika and wife reader that treat their dog like a child

cw - modern!au, sevika being a good ass caretaker of her dog, sevika being a big ol softie, “IM MARRIED” energy tbh, fluffy fluff fluff, lmk if i missed anything

a/n - definitely had fun w this, she def as a big dog canonically pls someone hear me out. not proofread

considering you two are married and women, sevika was thinking of the possibilities of starting a family with you.

adoption? that was a whole process, and a whole bunch of paper work.

and you honestly never took sevika as the type to want a family so it never really crossed your mind

until you saw sevika scrolling through fb

yes this woman def uses fb market argue w the wall LMAOO

a particular baby golden retriever had caught her eye as you watched her stop scrolling to look at the pictures

safe to say you got that puppy the next day

it was supposed to be a surprise, but you weren’t ready for how loud and affectionate the little guy was

“c’mon, man! you’re gonna ruin it!”

you were desperately trying to get the puppy to wear the bow on his head so he could look like a present, you know fit the part.

boy was he giving you a hard time, he had the zoomies — since he was in a new place with new people in a new environment.

sevika had gone to the gym and you took the opportunity to get everything set up for her.

what you weren’t planning for though, was sevika getting home early because the gym closed earlier that day.

sevika could hear you whisper yelling at something as she walked into your guys’ apartment, setting her gym bag down by the door.

she could make out little pitter patters on the floor.

with furrowed eyebrows she made her way to your guys’ room before making any assumptions.

was very pleased to see you trying to calm down a puppy

sevika def is the type of dog mom that makes them their own fancy ass meals

at first she wasn’t gonna do all of that until she read something about how kibble isn’t the greatest for them on a day to day basis

def had a childhood pet that died and that’s why she didn’t rlly want a pet again

in a scenario that she had a dog when meeting you, that dog is definitely walked the aisle as the flower girl idc idc

you def get more fur babies even tho sevika insisted only one

until she saw something on instagram about how a woman liked having a bunch of big dogs for protection

safe to say you had multiple big fur babies to look after you when sevika would be gone for work or the gym

besides, she loves coming home to them and you

especially when they hoard at the door at the sound of her car

she’s a lil softie for her dogs

if you’re ever punishing them and not giving the treats she’ll sneak them some

she literally adores every single one of her dogs

will try to talk you out of their punishment when they pee on your favorite carpet

“listen, they probably didn’t mean to. i’ll make them something so they have somewhere to pee when we can’t take them out—“

yeah she will build and do anything to please you and her fur babies

really caring

[tastefuleternallove]

hey! i hope you’re having a good new year! i didn’t have the best holiday season, so i was just wondering if you could do joe quinn x reader on christmas or new years? or if possible reader with seasonal depression?

Loved

Joe Quinn x Reader

Summary: your boyfriend has immense amount of love for you

Warnings: fluff / angst, mentions of depression, does not say what holiday is being celebrated or the gender of reader.

Note: i’m so sorry to you and to anyone who had a rough holiday season, i did aswell and i would’ve killed for someone to say these things to me over the past few weeks. Hope the rest of everyone’s year is filled with love ❤️

NONE OF THIS IS PROOF READ IM LAZY

The holiday season was always hard for you, every year you find yourself sitting in your bed scrolling on your phone looking at everyone’s holiday pictures. Reminding you that your behind everyone in life, but also too ahead in the same way. However this year was different, you had joe. He’s the light of your life and the best thing that’s ever happend to you.

But over the holiday season you couldn’t scratch the feeling that you’ve been ruining it for him. The holidays were his favourite time of year and you haven’t exactly had time to share with him how you feel about this time of year. It wasn’t his fault, you just care for him so much. Going to every event, every dinner, every party with a smile plastered on your face hoping to not ruin this moment for your boyfirend

You felt like you were hiding it nicely, never stopping a smile, starting conversations with people, and playing the perfect part. But your boyfriend could see straight through your facade, every time you would slowly dissociate yourself when people would start talking about certain things. his heart ached at the sight of this but he wasint exactly sure how to have this conversation, he didint want you to fully shut him out but he also wanted you to know he cared for you and wanted to help you.

it was new year’s eve and you were getting ready to go to one of joe’s friends party. ask you looked at yourself in the mirror you feslt the exhaustion that crept up onto you from the season, feeling drained and in need of laying down. But on queue Joseph walked into the room, you straightened your posture out and went back to clasping your necklace. Joe knew right when he walked in you weren’t okay, and today was the day he would say something.

“Sweetheart, can you come sit on the bed with me” he said softly, you took note of how he hadn’t started getting ready. “i need you to know that i care about you and that you are in such a safe space when your with me right?” he said with almost a worried look. “yeah of course babe”. you said with a smile, but he couldint shake the feeling thag more was going on. “How about me and you just spend new years together, we can relax, do anything you want and just spend time with eachother, no one else no distractions”. “what! no” you said with almost a fear in your eyes. joseph gave a confused look trying to see i side your mind.

this is something your boyfriend wanted something important to him, but now that you aren’t going to his friends party their all gonna think that it’s your fault because if it wasint for you joseph wouldint come. Your chin quivered quick as you shit your head down releasing everything in a huge eruption. tears streaming down your face as you let every emotion from the past couple of weeks consume you. Your boyfriends heart shattered at the sight of this, because he didint know what was happening or how to get you to tell him. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into his chest, trying to make you feel grounded so you knew he wasint going anywhere

He rubbed your back in small patterns and tried to steady your breathing. “look at me” you glanced up at his freshly shaven smooth face. “It’s not your fault, you can’t control how you feel during this time of year and it’s selfish of me that i didn’t say anything sooner about how you’ve been feeling. That’s why i suggested about tonight, spending the new year with my amazing partner, i couldn’t ask for a more amazing person that i get to share my life with, your always there every step of the way and you must know that you are what leads me to every step of my life. Everything is for you and i love you with everything in me”.

You looked at him in awe, he cared, he listened , your worries of showing your true emotions melted away as you truly realized how important and loved this man made you feel. He placed his tender hands on your cheek and gave you a soft kiss on your forehead and continued to keep rocking you back and forth, easing you out from your stress.

[protect-namine]

this post is about qiao ling. but first, I want to talk about the power rangers of this show.

so. I'm really glad YE2 is putting the triple star warrior mirroring in a more interesting context

because that's clearly the intent and it's not like it doesn't make sense back in S1, but the actual execution of that mirroring seemed shallow at best with just S1 knowledge

(look! qiao ling even bought cake of them in the S2 finale)

I think it's because I couldn't quite place qiao ling's role in this until now. she's the star of wisdom, but she's the one who is the most out of the loop and lacking in knowledge... or so we thought. but with the S2 ending giving her tianxi's ability, and YE2 showing that it's a pattern for her to keep relevant information, then yeah, it's starting to make sense. the triple star warriors really are their character arcs.

star of justice, bringing hope (cheng xiaoshi's kindness being both a strength and a weakness that can either uplift or endanger other people; "even if you don't see hope, it doesn't mean it's not there")

star of courage, conquering fear (lu guang timelooping himself is the most extreme response to fear he has over cheng xiaoshi's death)

star of wisdom, serving knowledge (qiao ling and the burden of knowledge that she keeps from people out of guilt or protection)

and they really do need to overcome all of that to get the good ending.

anyway, I just think it's neat. I thought the triple star warriors mirroring was cute back in S1, but now I love it even more knowing qiao ling's place in all of this. I actually love this trait about her. she is always taking care of other people and has "big sister" vibes. she's the one who actually goes out of her way to find clients for shiguang to help and hearing their clients' troubles, even when she had no idea how their abilities worked. she's the one who truly connected with tianxi and knew how to communicate with her — even better than cheng xiaoshi could, and cheng xiaoshi was the one who actually got to live as tianxi.

it's in her nature to care for others, but it's also her biggest flaw. much like lu guang, in her desire to keep cheng xiaoshi safe in her own way, she hides relevant information from him. and the act of secret keeping causes her to keep doing it out of guilt too — as we've seen in the doudou case. it's a very human trait to have.

it puts the earthquake arc in a new context. a young cheng xiaoshi went to qiao ling, distraught over the possibility that maybe his parents died in the earthquake. young qiao ling, wanting to comfort cheng xiaoshi but also knowing that her parents were advised that it's safer for cheng xiaoshi to not go to bridon, tells him that his parents are probably somewhere "far away" and wasn't caught in the earthquake. this isn't just words for the sake of comfort. she has reason to believe this is actually true.

she's in a tough spot when S3 rolls around, because she should, by then, know about cheng xiaoshi's death, if not possibly everything that happened in bridon (through tianxi's power/memory transfer). unlike lu guang, who is dead set on timelooping himself as a way to fix things, qiao ling is in a precarious spot.

should she honor aunt shao's wish and keep cheng xiaoshi safe, which she also wants? or should she tell cheng xiaoshi information he rightfully should know, thereby allowing him to exercise full agency over his own future, even if that future has the risk of death? and whatever she chooses will affect lu guang too. what is the wise thing to do here?

on that note, others have pointed out how this recontextualizes S1E1 cheng xiaoshi talking about his parents. looking back, it's insane to me that S1E1's opening scene (not the dive rules, the one after the op plays) has cheng xiaoshi saying, "I won't go anywhere until my parents come back. if you drive me away, I'll hang myself here! then your father will never get a new tenant."

(it's looking like whatever he learns in bridon won't carry over to the cheng xiaoshi of S1, but I digress)

he says this, and both lu guang and qiao ling are sitting there calling him a childish idiot, all the while harboring knowledge about his parents that cheng xiaoshi doesn't have. (lu guang also has the extra knowledge of cheng xiaoshi's death and what happened in bridon at this point probably, but this post is not about lu guang)

like... in S1 this could just be seen as a little "haha okay so this is exposition and this is their dynamic" scene but now... man. qiao ling knew all this time, in this scene, where his parents might be. she knew during the earthquake. she knew while they were renovating the shop.

I understand the reasons behind it, and in her eyes it probably was the wise thing to do. but when S3 comes around, should she still keep hiding it, like she did with the doudou case? when she confronts lu guang about his memories, what will she do?

I have hope that she'll bridge the two boys together. we saw how her strength has always been communication and delivering words. she is the person the clients look to. she is the person that gained tianxi's trust and knew how to meet her where she's at. she is the person who knows cheng xiaoshi and lu guang best.

here's hoping that she can overcome her guilt and desire to protect cheng xiaoshi from himself, and become the star of wisdom the show wants her to be

[icarusredwings]

Carly Crocker

(Not to be confused with Carly Boothe, That's Al's girlfriend, This is Beast's wife, Story of Wade meeting her at the end)

The beauty and the beast episode pissed me off, so let's go, In finding home AU Carly Anne Crocker (aka the ex blind girl) shows up later to the mansconfesses her feelings to Hank. This time, Jeans words ring in his head about letting a girl decide how much she wants to risk and can't turn her away. If anything, he is overwhelmed with joy. I mean, come on, it doesn't take a genius to know he struggles with romance so the fact that he loved her so much and let her go, and she still came back to him? It's enough to make his entire face purple and spin her around. And if you're wondering, 'Do they replace Scott and Jean as the mansion 'lovebirds' ?'

YES. Yes, they do. Because there is not a word that describes how utterly whipped he is for her, and she sees no one else the way him, even before the operation. She can still recognize him by scent and foot steps alone.

Now that I fixed that, here's some head canons.

Carly, now that she stays at the mansion, can quickly be unnoticeable, especially if you don't go in the basement or the lab. Most people only first meet/ notice her when he comes upstairs with her on his arm.

She is mainly seen talking with Jean, but she has no distaste for any of the others. Anyone can come talk to her, and she would be more than happy to talk. She does occasionally ask questions that might seem personal, letting her curiosities of her new friends get to her.

Asking Kurt why his tail wraps around peoples legs when he hugs them, asking Kitty what would happen if she accidently got stuck in a wall, asking Ororo why she was claustrophobic, asking Logan what it was like in the 1800s. Asking Remy what it was like growing up on the streets with his type of powers. She once even asked Charles if he had regrets about opening a school.

Some things she just stook to asking Hank about. Like why Rouge didn't have a very strong trust in other women other than the ones on the team. Or How Scott delt with all the preasure of somehow representing the X men when the entire world seemed to dislike them until a time of crisis when heros are needed.

For the most part, he'd quote something at her or give her a simple awnser. "My dear, Rouge has had a hard life, and not a great time with her mother. I would steer clear of asking her this directly seeing as you dont wish to upset her, do you?" Its asked in a genuine stand point. Never trying to shame her into not being curious.

Of course, she doesn't wish to upset her friends. But there is so many lies on the media and they hold struggles she couldn't possibly understand without asking.

Hank is very chivalrous, between opening doors, taking her hand when they go up the steps, writing her notes, looks away when he feels shes indecent (dispite them having gotten married almost asap) Brings her small gifts of flowers and cakes, anything really he finds she might enjoy.

Being practically attached to the hip, she learns a lot of things and becomes somewhat of an assistant type, bringing him things, scolding him for staying up too late, forcing him to take breaks in order to eat, teasing him as a last resort. It's very Pepper Potts of her really.

Except Hank isn't like Stark. He listens (most days 🙄) seeing as he finds Carly can be very.. distracting.. when she wants too.

Mainly, She dosn't call him beasts unless she is saying "My Beast" or "Youre the only beast in my heart." Sappy stuff like that drives Hank insane. What also makes him a bit looney is when she refers to herself as "Mrs. McCoy." Or calls for him with a sweet low "Oh, Henry~"

Other than that, it's either Hank, Dr. McCoy or just Sweetie.

Carly also doesn't mind him hanging from things. She finds it cute and often teases him about Spiderman kissing her. She also simply adores when the bed dips down low and she can cuddle him like a huge teddy. Who needs a blanket when your husband was covered in the softest fur you've ever felt?

Sometimes Carly brushes him out, to save the drain later you know? But also it felt nice to get him to finally relax and lean into her. She would kiss his face and tell him how handsome he is, dragging the brush across his arms and chest, giggling at how love drunk he looks.

Other times, when Carly got cold she'd just come to him and he'll hold her while working, walking around with her in his arm, her snuggled up on his shoulder. Something Carly has learned is that Hank is very touchy. Almost starved for it so she dosn't mind being carried or held.

He rubs her back, pecking kisses onto her head while he types up something or reads. Sometimes the children make fun of him, comparing carly and him to when king kong grabs that girl and climbs the empire state building. It makes Hank a bit upset but Carly giggles because they have no clue just how safe she feels in his arms.

I wanna assume that during her periods he carries her extra and wraps one of those travel heating pads around her, gives her pain meds and makes her food. Domestic stuff that really just makes you wanna AUUUGGHH when you think about it cause god damn hes a romantic.

At first, Hank, being so gentle with her was sweet. How gently he'd hold her in bed, how softly he'd be sure to grip her when carrying her. But Carly gets a bit frustrated when Hank acts like she's made from glass.

I can see him humming Mozart to her, calling her Dear 24/7, quoting poetry to her, being sure to kiss her before he leaves on missions, etc.

He is OBSESSED when she wears his white coat because its so big on her. He thinks its adorable and cant help but stare when ever he sees her walking around in it. (Even though she lowkey looks like the pope) Carly likes wearing it when its cold in the lab or when shes taking a nap in his library chair because it smells like him. Hank has many pictures of her but one of his favorites is when you fell asleep in his chair while wearing his coat and you can clearly see in the picture that you dozed off while reading. He thinks its absolutely the best thing in that stupid cellular device.

I can definitely see their first night together- TOGETHER being something difficult. Hes too gentle with her and it takes her riling him up to get him to fuck her properly. She fully understands what shes getting into and they have plenty of time and lube, so why not?

"Henry my darling, I love you very much, and I know you are scared but I am not damaged, I'm not going to shatter if you touch me. I'm not an old vase, I am your wife. One who is capable of deciding when it's enough. So please.. stop treating me like im a pricless artifact."

"B-but you are priceless-"

"Henry-" she gives him this look of 'quit the bs'

"O-okay... I suppose I can try.."

Once she breaks his whole "I can't be too rough or ill hurt her cause shes human" bullshit mindset, It's insane.

No, they aren't rabbits but it is quite frequent and its a shock how they haven't gotten pregnant yet.

If anything its like they both cant get enough of each other, between the whispers she does in his ear to his hands around her waist all the time.

Sweet jesus. Poor Logan. He has to hear all this. He (both old logan and worst logan) is very happy for his friend but GOD he didnt ever think he'd hear someone moan 'Oh fuck- Henry!' before as loudly as Carly does. Jesus sometimes he wishes he didnt have super hearing.

It's not until Storm mentions that Hank has a wife during orientation, in which Wade finds out, and clearly, he has to go tease her about it.

Sliding onto the stainless steel work place he smirks. He's in his regular clothes today so he fully expects her to scream. She dosn't.

"Oh.. Hello. Dr. McCoy is out at the moment." She says, like an assistant does.

He smiles all big and leans forward. "So you're married to big blue huh?"

Quite proudly she smiles. "Yes. I am."

"Wwooww good for him. Actually, it's no good for you." The first part seems normal, but it's never normal with Wade. "Does he bend you over that table over there?" He blurts out. Well shit- that was suppose to stay inside.

But Carly already is smirking. "Yes, he does. It's deeply sanitized."

Wades eyes widden as if he had hit jackpot. Everyone in this stuffy place was all stuck up and prim and proper. So to hear Carly straight up admit this felt like immediate friendship.

"Wooo look at you girl. Get it. But I gotta ask. Why?"

"Why the table or why did I marry him?"

"Oooh... Both!"

"Well, A. It's fun. B. He's a good man. He's very sweet to me, even when I was blind I knew there was something about him. He cares for me so much more then anyone else has."

Wade feels like he can relate. He wants to say something honest like 'Yeah, He is a pretty good guy isnt he?' But instead his brain had other ideas.

"What? You into weird lookin mutants or something?" He makes a face that would have been wiggling his brows, if he had any.

It makes Carly shake her head, giggling.

"Well, not particualry but... You know what they say about guys with big feet.."

This made sense about wolvie actually..

He gasps loudly, hand coming to his mouth. "You naughty gal!! So it is true. You know, I've always wondered myself."

"Mmh. Now that I awnsered your questions, you have to awnser mine about the Wolverine."

"Ooh smart. Did your research I see. Who warned you I was coming?"

She gigles again. "My husband."

"Ahh that snitch. So. What do you wanna know? Im an open book but I do have a lying disorder. Full warning."

"Is it true what they say? That canadians make good lovers?" She asks, leaning on the table that Wade was now kicking his feet on.

"Unless...y'know... if you're into that sort of thing." This last bit is a whisper as Wade daintily flashes the tags around his neck while trying to give her a flirty face. "I'm owned, baby! You can't have me. Im too expensive."

He gasps again, putting a hand to his chest. "Woah woah woah! Ladies! Calm down. Im a married man!!"

COUGH engaged. Actually COUGH

Again, Carly shakes her head, giggling. Goodness. What a character this one was. "No, unfortunately, I am not. And im sure you are."

"Well, good! Cause if you break my friends heart ill rip yours out." He says, smiling, but you could tell behind those moonstone eyes that there was no joke about it.

"If I ever break his heart, I'll rip it out myself." Carly says, staring him dead center. She wasn't afraid. Should she be? Yes. But she wasn't. Because she knows the only way Hank was getting rid of her was if he cheated or hit her.

Just as he was about to say something else, he turns, hearing a "Wade?" In which suddenly he gasps again, drimatically. "Woah!! Stay off me lady! You're married!! What would ol hanky panky think about this!?" It's loud, over the top, and he even holds himself like carly was just trying to strip him all while she stood there, crossed arms, hip out and only a slightly entertained smirk.

"Really?"

"Wade what do you need?" Said blue guy asks, coming around to set down two lunch trays.

"Your wifes tryna get dirty with the poole Hank!" He says and now theres two people giving him a stupid look.

"Yeah.. riiigghhhtt.... anyway. I believe Logan is looking for you. Shall I tell him you're busy?"

Wade grins widely as he jumps off the table. "Nope. Have a wonderful day. Great meeting you. You're nothing like my roommate's girlfriend Carly, though. She's polish. You dont look polish-"

"Wade.."

"Bye! My HUSBAND is callin me!" He says, practically skipping away, out of their hair and into someone elses.

".. What a weird man." She says, watching him go. "Indeed..."

[gallusgalluss]

please unleash your inspekta thoughts

your art is amazing i cant stop looking at it

i hope you have a happy new year!!

happy new year anon n thank you :]!!!!

also ur so evil ur letting me unleash my Inspekta thoughts,,,,how cruel how cruel

im going full yapper mode + there's spoilers so Watch Out

I like Inspekta, he's a little freak and a really interesting character to think about. While, for me, the twist with him wasn't totally a surprise (I did Not trust his cuteness the second i saw him lmao), I REALLY liked the way his character progressed throughout the game. He's your buddy! He's your pal! Don't worry about all these posters and weird plushies and standees and propaganda of him everywhere and how he keeps being called “the one and only god”, it's Fine it's Fine! He's sillay :D!!!

I'm generally just obsessed with characters who are put into leadership positions who absolutely Should Not have that amount of power over people, and I think Inspekta's a perfect example of that type of thing for me.

He had his own fears, loneliness, and jealousy cloud his judgment and that resulted in some Really Fucked Up Stuff. As a mortal he wanted to be special in the eyes of the public, so he gained enough popularity to get elected to be a god! Yay! But now he's scared of being forgotten and there's a new possible god being elected, wuh oh! Time to ruin Literally Everything because what's the easiest way to be remembered, worshiped, and loved by all if there's no more competition for your rule? Empty heavens, baby!!! Let's bring in an apocalypse!!! Yay!!!!!

Bro's fucked up and I like that.

I love how despite it all he still tries this whole Cute Buddy Friend act, even at the end with this Worm Form. Cause he KNOWS the other gods would trust and believe him and the lies he's spread about King's shocking letters, cause why wouldn't they? He's just a silly lil cutie pie! They all trust him! He's the God of Leadership! How could a Leader lead others astray? And he knows the Bizzyboys will follow him as well since he's been leading them pre-godhood for several years. He's a role model to them all, starting from nothing and now he's a god! He's just so trustworthy and sweet and will totally save the day!

Also I just wanted to include this somewhere. I really like this section (after Chapter 3, I think???)

He has this brief moment of vulnerability/sincerity/something that made him drop his “Cutesy Voice”. Like aside from this scene, near the end of chapter 5, and i Think a few parts i'm 100% forgetting, I don't think we actually see this more contemplative n genuine side of Inspekta.

He does instantly goes into gloating about himself and how he's Clearly the MOST IMPORTANT GOD OF ALL (before correcting himself to include the other gods, of course, of course).

Like if he didn't have that Ego-the-size-of-the-galaxy + Saddest Scaredest Loneliest Most Jealous Withdrawn Loser combo, all he had to do was to just Talk To People. He could've Talked to people about his Fears and Insecurities. Even the other gods; after all he's done, were still there for him! Like “Hey dude this is fucked up, we all already love you dummy, you can talk to us ya know you're allowed to feel scared!”

He's just the cutest most moe creature with soooo many issues and problems he needed to figure out.

NOW WITH HECTOR

Most of my Inspekta Thoughts can just be applied to him but slightly modified. I think it's interesting how he chose to go back to being a regular person, it makes sense cause he's like Aware of the amount of damage he's done/could've done. While he certainly won't be forgotten after Everything he's done, he isn't going to be as Grand and Powerful as he wished to be.

He's just a guy in his 50s who's trying to get over his God Complex of 33 years and also attempt to gain back the trust and respect of the Grove’s people. He's definitely going to be bearing the weight of what he's done for the rest of his life probably, but it IS interesting thinking about what he'd do to actually improve himself now, learn how to be a person again n such.

He’s also a sad miserable booboo beast of a man and i think him suffering in anguish is awesome!!!!!!! yay!!!!

This turned into more a character analysis of some sorts instead of solely my own personal thoughts, whoops. Anyways i think his designs, all 3 of em are really fun to draw. He's cute n stretchy and marketable, as all gods should be.

so ya basically inspekta/hector sucks, i hate him, and we should kill him with hammers. now. thank you 💖💖💖

[touchstarvedbbg]

hi, may I request about (gender neutral) mc who always avoids eye contact when talking to anyone and LI's reaction about that (for more specifics: mc have scopophobia)

Oooh, yes! Can do!

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Touchstarved LIs x Reader who avoids eye contact headcanons

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Pairing: Vere, Leander, Ais, Main, and Kuras x reader

Triggers: Nope!

Other notes: this work is completely SFW!

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Vere

|🩰| He’d be teasing about it, sarcastically asking if you’re “too afraid to look at somebody as good looking as him”

|🩰| Once he realizes it’s not an awkward first-meeting type of deal, and is instead something you actually avoid like the plague (which happens somewhat quickly, he is perceptive despite his.. less than intelligent choices) he’d be slightly less teasing about it.

|🩰| That’s not to say he wouldn’t still do it, because Vere totally would tease you from time to time.

|🩰| Tries to get you to look at him quite often, maybe it’s him genuinely trying to help, or maybe he thinks it’s cute or entertaining that you can’t hold eye contact with him.

|🩰| “Look at me, (Name). Let me see those pretty eyes of yours.”

|🩰| Vere knows better than to force you to look at him for long though, he doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable around him because of it.

|🩰| He really does like seeing your eyes though, so he’d try to find ways to help (In his own way, at least.)

|🩰| Usually it irks him when people stare at his ears for too long, but if that’s how he’s able to get you to look up at him when you’re talking, so be it.

|🩰| would purposely move his ears around more (like how a dog does when it’s listening!) in order to get your attention on him and off of the floor or the world around you.

Leander

|🩰| It takes him a while to pick up on it, especially if you meet over drinks. The slightly dim surroundings of the room around you making it harder to notice you avoiding eye contact.

|🩰| Once he sees you out of that setting, Leander would eventually come to the realization that you genuinely cannot make eye contact with him to save your life.

|🩰| Doesn’t bring it up directly in order to avoid making it awkward.

|🩰| Tries to see if having a few drinks would loosen you up, if that doesn’t work, he’d try to find other ways to coax you out of your shell. Maybe you’re just shy?

|🩰| When you do look up at him, he always compliments the way your eyes look. The way that your expression changes at the compliment is adorable.

|🩰| Tries to make you as comfortable as possible, finding things you like doing, the more you come out of your shell, the more likely you are to actually look up, right?

|🩰| Leander would go as far as to act a fool in front of you, trying to make you laugh at some of his antics.

|🩰| Sure, he loves the way that your eyes look, the way that they compliment every part of your being, but what he genuinely loves more than anything is the fact that you’re comfortable enough with him to look into his eyes is enough.

Ais

|🩰| Sort of a mixture between Leander and Vere, if that makes sense. Sure he’d be teasing about it, but he’d also try to loosen you up a bit. Whether it be through drinks, things you like doing, anything.

|🩰| Would probably ask Kuras if he’d have any clue while he’s helping out at the clinic. He’d never mention your name directly to avoid any awkward interactions.

|🩰| Totally would lift your chin with his hand, smirking at the way you immediately try to look away. Ais would keep it there for a while before eventually letting go and offering you a drink to ease the mood.

|🩰| While Ais does want to see your eyes more often, he also does enjoy the way that you’re almost too intimidated to look at him directly. Sure, he doesn’t want to actually scare you, but subconscious acts of submission do fuel his ego, even if only a little bit.

|🩰| Ais definitely finds your timid nature cute, finding ways to get you to look up at him before turning away all flustered. He loves being able to get a rise out of you like that, along with being able to see the way you look up at him in shock whenever he tries a risky move or two.

|🩰| Along with Vere, Ais is rather bold- this would definitely be more obvious with him though (as mentioned above).

|🩰| Alongside Mhin, Ais would be one of the most likely to simply leave you be once he realizes how much he truly enjoys being able to fluster you. Unlike Mhin, however, Ais does it because he genuinely finds the fact that you are unable to look up at him endearing in a way.

Mhin

|🩰| Mhin seems like the type to dislike holding eye contact with other people themselves, so it wouldn’t be until after the two of you got to know each other quite well that they would take notice to your inability to look straight at them.

|🩰| Mhin, though very perceptive, doesn’t pick up on your lack of eye contact because of theirs a majority of the time. Unlike you, however, they variate between that and holding eye contact a little too well.

|🩰| They do ask about it occasionally, trying to figure out exactly why you basically refuse to look directly at anyone.

|🩰| They certainly wouldn’t push you to change it, though, allowing you to come out of your shell (or don’t, they genuinely enjoy your company without serious eye contact).

|🩰| On occasions when you’re comfortable enough to hold eye contact with them, Mhin never mentions it (god forbid they embarrass you and make you look away, you do have pretty eyes.)

|🩰| They do enjoy the rare moments you look at them though, a small smile cracking through their usually rather cold and rough exterior.

|🩰| Mhin would never try anything too brash, both out of fear or embarrassing you, but also because they recognize that sometimes it takes a long time to trust a person. You can take all the time you need, and they would gladly wait for you.

Kuras

|🩰| Kuras is used to people staring at his eyes for a long time (likely due to their piercing golden color that is almost nonexistent amongst humans.) That is why, when you wont even hold eye contact with him for more than a moment, he picks up incredibly quickly.

|🩰| Whether or not he means to be like this (one can only guess, he does lack emotional tact.), Kuras is not at all subtle in his attempts to get you to look at him directly.

|🩰| “Why do you avoid eye contact, (name)? Certainly it would be more professional to look other people in the eyes.”

|🩰| Kuras doesn’t mean to be rude with his bluntness, though he quickly realizes what he said could be taken as him criticizing you. After he catches himself once or twice, he does genuinely try to be more empathetic (albeit struggles)

|🩰| Works with you to find ways to make it seem like you’re making eye contact for when you would need it, things like looking at the bridge of somebodies nose, their eyebrows, whatever makes it easier for you.

|🩰| When you do occasionally look up at him directly, he finds himself staring silently for a while into your eyes. It’s very rare that he shows a genuine, non-teasing grin, but in those moments he is genuinely smiling because of you.

|🩰| Kuras is usually such a confident person, but seems like the type to struggle giving genuine sounding compliments. As such, he very rarely does mention how beautiful he finds your eyes. Instead, you find him subconsciously staring just a little longer than he normally does at your eyes, cheeks slightly reddened. He’s not very vocal about it, but Kuras does make it obvious that he finds you lovely in his own way.

[panlight]

I remember seeing a post once about how Bella's only really ~selfless~ when it comes to the Edward/the Cullens and i honestly agree.

even if midnight sun supposedly gave more moments of bella's told ~kindness and selflessness~ in the main books where they're actually from HER pov there are still plenty moments where it comes off otherwise.

She only really gets close to jacob just to have him tell her about the legends, so she can figure out more about edward/his family, to which in MS Edward gets this ✨brilliant✨ idea to use that as a "justification" to slaughter a tribe that already is willing to allow his family in their area despite having EVERY right to not welcome them due to what their kind can do to their people. so that's..fun :) (actually speaking of MS, I can't get over how edward is bitching about billy being rightfully leery of them and hates how he sees them as monsters despite saying the same things to Bella whenever he wants to convince her of how dangerous their relationship/her choice to be a vampire is. lol)

In new moon, she only decides to reconnect with Jessica mainly to "get Charlie off her back" and when Jessica gets rightfully upset that she nearly got into trouble approaching some shady guys in a bar, Bella sees Jessica as "having gone to the dark side". Like?? Bella, your lucky she even still bothered to hang out with you after giving her the cold shoulder for months. And the first time you two hang out, you nearly endangered yourself AND her all because you wanted to see a figment of Edward in your head.

In fact! While I like Jacob's friendship with Bella in new moon (idc if people said it was boring because "no vampires"; the platonic chemistry bella and jacob had was 👌👌) the fact was Bella's original plan to see Jacob was to get him to fix the bikes so she can keep seeing "Edward" in her head.

I remember being irritated at Bella mostly at the end of New Moon, tbh. A moment that stood out was when Charlie was mad at Edward for leaving her behind and what he did to her (as a good father SHOULD) yet Bella threatens him to leave home if he won't ease up on edward as if he's the one who doesn't get it?? Bella sucks in that scene because earlier she LEARNS how hard it was for Charlie, seeing her like that and trying every possible way to help her (only for Bella to reject it each time) and yet he's expected to deal with the same guy who, from his perspective, broke his daughter's heart like nothing happened??

In Eclipse, while Bella's moment with Angela helping her with the letters was nice (wish we got more of these small moments, especially if Angela was supposedly such a good friend to her), it's tainted with how it was mainly so she wouldn't have to confront Edward's anger (yikes) for her seeing Jacob.

Actually, most of Eclipse i really disliked how Bella kinda see's anyone that doesn't kiss ass to the Cullens or are completely okay with her despite how she treated them during her depression period as the "bad guys" (Bella's words on her classmates: "us vs them").

Honestly, Breaking Dawn was such a hot mess (though our little friend group may be revisiting the entire saga (which will unfortunately include BD) next year for it's 20th anniversary, so...godspeed lol) but the main thing that stood out was how she and the Cullens were just...willing to host all the visiting vampires over at Forks, these vampires who DO feed on human blood, and risk all the children of the tribe phasing into wolves. And ALL she has to say about either are "well, them feeding on humans makes me uncomfortable but oh well :( " and "with all these vampires, the explosion of werewolf population was inevitable :0" Tbh it's not just Bella in this situation, the Cullens in here really suck. There was NO reason they couldn't just meet somewhere else. I do partially blame Jacob for it too, because I *think* there was this line where he talks (to Edward iirc?) about how hard it is to be away from Ricochet, but dude! Just go with them! You don't need to endanger the younger people in your tribe! You of ALL people should know what that's like!!

So far that's all i have to say becus that's all I can remember (though that might change once our friend book club get together next year for the saga's 20th, where our memories will be much more fresh XD). it's just,,,UGH, I can't wrap my head with how Edward and Jacob go on about Bella being so ~selfless~ with Jacob even going on about how she's a ~martyr when really, her selflessness is either selective, or mostly just self-serving.

I really enjoy the Jacob and Bella friendship, too, but when you stop and think about it . . . it all started with her using him. The first time she awkwardly attempted to flirt with him to get him to tell her the 'scary stories' on the beach, and then in New Moon she shows up out of nowhere because she wants him to fix the bikes. Bella eventually realizes like "oh hey I genuinely like spending time with Jake," but it started with "what can I get out of him?"

And like, fine! Humans do that kind of stuff! We're flawed! It's just weird the narrative is demonizing Jessica for like, mostly hanging out with Bella to try and get some of Bella's instant popularity to rub off on her, but Bella gets a pass for her treatment of Jacob because Protagonist. Bella's allowed to be flawed, that's great, makes her more interesting, but the overall narrative is still like "omg so SELFLESS" and it's like, um sometimes?

And yeah I will always hate the Breaking Dawn feeding situation. There are so many better ways to resolve it. But I think SM ultimately wasn't really interested in the vegetarian vampire stuff beyond just needing a reason Edward and Bella could be together. There are fun things she could have done here if she like, cared. She's already established that Carlisle is buying blood. Maybe their guests would have found it delightfully amusing to be served blood in wine glasses or Esme could make like 1950s housewife blood Jello molds or something. OR there could have been arguments about it! Carlisle trying to persuade them, Emmett challenging them "bet you can't go a week on our diet plan!" Rosalie sneering in disgust. Siobhan testing her maybe-power by trying to see if she can will everyone to abstain. OR they were literally only there for like two weeks. That's the average length of time between hunting. The book kind of makes it feel like they were there for a long time, but the earliest showed up middle of December and the confrontation is on New Year's Eve. Also I can't get over the idea that all these people KNOW Carlisle. Some have known him longer than the other Cullens have! You don't go visit your devout vegan friend and expect to be served bacon cheeseburgers. You try the tofu stir-fry.

But SM didn't really want to get into it, so Bella doesn't super care. I personally think "it makes me a little uncomfortable" was just the laziest, least satisfying way to handle it. And the shifters just having to stand there and watch because oh well we need them to witness for Nessie and she's Jacob's imprint so she matters more than anyone else is, uh, not good. Especially when earlier in the SAME BOOK Sem straight-up says: "When blood drinkers cross our land, we destroy them, no matter where they plan to hunt. We protect everyone we can." Again, there could be interesting conflict here, but it would shift the focus from the Bella and Nessie stuff, so Bella just feels a little bad and we move on.

But anyway yeah I think Bella's the most selfless when it comes to grand gestures. She'll exile herself to Forks so Renee will be free to travel, she'll sacrifice herself to James to save her mom, she'll consider stabbing herself with a rock to distract Victoria and Riley to save Edward and Seth, she'll risk her life and dreamed-of eternity with Edward to bring Renesmee into the world. But in the day-to-day stuff, she can be just as selfish and manipulative and judgmental as anyone else. She's 'human,' even when she's not human anymore.

[sakuraswifee]

Mike contradicts himself during the entire "confession" and it honestly makes me laugh.

Okay so, I know there's probably a lot of posts that talk about this already, but I reallyyyy needed to yap.

(Couldn't find another image)

Once I came across a Mileven stan claiming that saying that Mike was lying during the confession scene is, apparently, an insult to Finn's acting (doesn't even make sense cause you can tell Mike isn't being honest BECAUSE of what he SAYS, not because Finn is "acting like he's lying").

So, if you ever see this (since you turned off the comments on that post), here is why Mike lied or contradicted himself or however you please to call it:

Monologue: "I feel like my life started that day we found you in the woods"

The same day, he thought of a plan to send her back from where she came from.

Monologue: "And I knew somehow then, in that moment, that I loved you"

The first thing that comes out of his mouth the moment he sees her is "That's not Will". After that he tries to send her back from where she came from, then takes interest in her after finding out she has powers and knows something about where Will is.

Monologue: "I love you on your good days and your bad days"

On her bad day, when she got bullied and hit Angela, Mike gets paralleled to Dr. Brenner ("El what did you!?") Her ABUSER. Then, he makes snarky comments during dinner. I see Micheal, I see.

Monologue: "I love you with your powers and without, bla bla some shit about moving mountains"

It's genuinely hilarious how this season not only has she shown discomfort about being seen as a superhero, only being defined by her powers, BUT SHE TOLD HIM. (The short letter that is given to Mike after they take her, where she says she's back to being a superhero..). So, who in the right mind thinks she was happy to hear him talk about her powers ONLY, but not even about her qualities?? Her kindness, her courage...for God's sake!

What's also hilarious to me is how people say that HIS WORDS are what gave her the strength to fight, "Love saved Hawkins!!" Yeah right😭

El sure looks happy in those scenes, not to mention how the vines tighten around her neck while he speaks!!

Then, won't you know it, flashbacks of El and MAX's friendship show on screen, only after El is able to free herself.

To finish off, El is clearly not happy with him after the monologue, which is strange, since he finally said what she wanted to hear "I love you!".

However, El is not stupid, she can tell when he's lying and it's not like she couldn't hear Will telling Mike "he's the heart", my girl can tell that is weird for her bf to need the support of his completely platonic buddy to say how he's feeling.

Hope I kept you entertained and excuse possible mistakes, english is not my first language💪 can't wait for Mileven's break up and the rise of platonic Elmike.