#In the past their relationship was a lot more rocky than it is now I'd say. The events of the show strengthened their relationship

[imminent-danger-came]

Freenoodles? (they are so important to me)

FREENOODLES IS ICONIC. Such an old married couple, who doesn't love them. "I've devoted my life to this man" you sure have dude

[whateverisbeautiful]

I was curious about how you think a reunion will go with the group if we ever get one. I don't think Rick and Daryl's reunion should go that smoothly. Especially given the state of their relationship when Rick disappeared. I also wonder about Maggie and Michonne. Some fans like to bring up Negan but I hope the Grimes family never sees him again.

Thanks for asking about this. This one is interesting because there are a lot of in-show and behind-the-scenes factors that could impact which route the reunions take. I wrote out a few of my opinions on it below and somehow I still surprise myself that my thoughts are never super brief lol. ⬇️💗

If the reunion is just a single scene then I think the writers will want it to be positive vibes only and won't allow for them to address a lot of the unresolved history between the characters. I think Rick and Daryl's reunion will likely be smooth both because tptb would want to reinforce the fans' love for the brotherhood but also because Rick will feel like Daryl did something invaluable by watching over his kids while he and Michonne were away.

Knowing that his kids were able to be taken care of by a family member they love would mean a lot to Rick and probably make him feel more forgiving for how things played out between him and Daryl before he left. Especially if he gets the sense from Michonne that Daryl was one of the few people there for her after he was gone, that also would make Rick feel like they can put opposition aside because Daryl was there for his family.

I'm not saying the past should all be swept to the side tho or that Rick isn't the type that would want to address some things because especially watching him in season 9 before he left, he wasn't against calling things out. But I could see the franchise choosing to have a more kumbaya feel for the reunion if all they have is minimal screen time with the characters.

However, if at all they get a bit more screen time to reconnect then it would be nice and realistic to see some honest conversations about how they left off. Especially with Maggie.

Now the Maggie reunion with Rick and Michonne is one I could see being a bit more rocky. Because with Daryl, he and Rick got to at least hash some things out in that pit before Rick's departure and Daryl and Michonne were close and on good terms before she went to bring Rick home. (Honestly, Daryl and Michonne felt like closer confidantes than Rick and Daryl imo, since Rick and Daryl always read more like brothers than best friends to me, but that's a whole other conversation lol. Like pretty much all of season 8 and early season 9 Rick and Daryl's relationship was not in a good state. That's also why I'd be interested in seeing Michonne reunite with Daryl just as much as Rick since they always had a really solid loving friendship). But Maggie seemed to end on not the best of terms with both Rick and Michonne.

Like I could picture that when Rick was taken and having all that time alone to reflect, he probably felt like Maggie must really have strong issues with him if she decided she had to orchestrate a whole plan behind his back.

And then Maggie and Michonne also didn't seem to reconcile after Rick's departure to the point that when Maggie left she didn't let Michonne know. I'd be so curious what Michonne knows about that bridge day. If no one ever told her exactly how those events and schemes played out that day, I could see that being hurtful to now find out that part of why she had to go without her husband for years was because their friends were crafting plans behind their backs, especially when Rick was headed home himself and then got derailed when Daryl offered to take him home instead.

But it's also been a lot of years, and I think Rick and Michonne understand that growth can occur and so they won't hate or chastise people for what happened. I think they'd both be more focused on starting fresh and building a life with their kids. But some apologies from Daryl and Maggie would still be nice. Especially considering Maggie realized Rick and Michonne had it right that Negan being locked up was actually a fitting punishment and was killing him worse than actually killing him would have. Accountability is rare among certain characters, especially when the ones they've hurt are Rick and Michonne, but it still would feel necessary to include it if the story is given more than one scene for a reunion.

And as for Negan, I very much agree with you, anon. I personally have no desire for any of the Grimes family to be seen with Negan again. I've seen that some feel Rick has to see that Negan got 'redeemed,' but that wasn't even what Rick was aiming for. He kept Negan alive to honor Carl's vision but Negan wasn't thrown in a cell to one day get out and become a valued member of society. Rick intended for him to rot in that cell as a consequence of his many deplorable actions. So I could almost see it stinging a bit for Rick to see that Negan got to build a life all while Rick was taken from his life because his friends wanted to kill Negan and then didn't even end up going through with it.

I think Rick would be perfectly happy with him and his family never crossing paths with Negan again because Negan is important to some viewers but he is not on Rick's radar like that. Everyone Rick most needed to reunite with he already reunited with in TOWL. So if they do reunions with the rest of the group it could be interesting but also, like many have voiced before, team family sorta stopped feeling like a tight-knit family after a certain point. Not even in a condemning way because it happens, but they all started to do their own thing and build their own lives. I can think of a few characters that even left or pulled away while Rick was still around and was already content with not seeing him much or ever again.

And so I'm just glad that we already got to see Rick and Michonne reunite with each other and their kids since that's they're heart and these four are the ones who will be most involved in each other's everyday life now.

[lightlycareless]

Wait I'm curious if naoya has a scar from y/n (yk from that night) cuz if he has one I'd would be really funny (and sad a little) after they make out to be asked how did he got that scar on his face 😭😭😭

Heya anon!

I almost forgot about that hahahahahah but anyways, I decided to write a little something of how I think it would go down because why the hell not.

Now, forgive me if this is not that proofread, it was just a quick something I wanted to share after all the angst :> specially after the last chapter I posted :))))))

I hope you enjoy this small thing I wrote 🥺 nnnnghhhhhhhhhhh I love me some fluff. (also, this is in reference to something that happened right over here. That is very, VERY nsfw so proceed with caution)

Naoya and you were cuddling together after a long, hard day of work. He’d just gotten back home from missions, tired of being away from home and overall dealing with people who he didn’t even like—while you from overseeing most, if not all, tasks around the estate—with him absent most of the time, you were also left to tend to his own duties, which were just overwhelming as yours.

So, it’s safe to say both were exhausted, missed one another very, very much, and wanted nothing more than to bask in each other’s warmth.

However, as much as both wished to relax, it would have to take setback when a peculiar sight catches your interest. It’s subtle, almost unnoticeable, the thin streak of discolored skin splayed across his cheek, but to your observants, worrisome eyes it’s all too obvious.

“Did you always have this scar?” you ask, raising your hand to his face and gently pressing your thumbs against it, admiring the contrast between surfaces. While his skin was naturally soft, his scar felt smoother, the aftermath of a rather deep injury…

“No” he responds, instinctively leaning into your touch. “But it’s been a while since I’ve had it.”

You frown, failing to remember when it happened, you think you would’ve noticed if Naoya ever came back home with a bandage or a nasty scar on his face, yet you can’t recall…

“A mission?” you ponder, and he shakes his head with a chuckle.

“No. Actually… I got it from you.” Naoya reveals, and then, your heart sinks, almost as if the thought of you hurting your husband was too big to comprehend.

Sure, you won’t deny that the beginning of this marriage was far from ideal, rocky beyond any questionable doubt… but even then, you never imagined yourself capable of hurting someone, or at least… doing so without eventually discussing it.

How it managed to slip your mind was surprising, or how he never brought it up to conversation…

“When?” you eventually ask, Naoya sighs.

“The day before my exam—the grade one, the first one, remember?”

You frown, looking back on your memories, and then… there it is. That one awful night where you didn’t want anything but stay as far away as possible from your husband.

This was just one of many examples of how much this relationship has changed, for when you once cowered in fear in his presence, retaliating whenever possible, however possible, now can’t imagine a day without him.

And certainly, wouldn’t dream of hurting him.

“Oh…” you murmur, guilt now weighing heavy in your mind. “I didn’t think it actually…”

“No, don’t think about it” he says upon noticing the turmoil in your eyes. “It was long ago and besides… I think I deserved it.”

You press your lips together.

“That doesn’t mean it was right.” you respond. “…even if we were different back then.”

He supposes that statement fits with a lot of things that happened in the early stages of this marriage—specifically the ones he did.

Even if they’ve moved past this difficult stage of their life, Naoya knows that he’ll never be able to make it up to you—no matter what he did, there’s always going to be something in the back of his mind telling him you’ll never truly forgive him.

That he’s not good enough, and that you’re better off with someone else.

But that wasn’t true. If you staying with him and showing concern for his injuries wasn’t proof enough that you’ve forgiven him… then perhaps you needed to remind him.

“Does it still hurt?” you ask.

“No, it never did, really— wasn’t that deep.” He adds with a chuckle. “Didn’t know you had it in you though.”

You pout and this just makes him laugh even more, fluster you even more… before going completely quiet.

No words, no gestures, just both gently looking at each other’s eyes and enjoying the presence of the other, as if nothing outside that room mattered.

After a few seconds, you decide to lean forward, pressing your lips against his cheek and kissing his scar.

Naoya’s heart warms at your gesture, and the consuming urge to embrace you tightly against him overcomes him.

“I’m sorry” you say, leaning deeper into his chest, you’re so close to him you could literally heart the alluring sound of his rapid heartbeat.

“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault” he whispers, pressing a kiss on the top of your head. Even when he was the one hurt, Naoya still finds it in himself to comfort you… The thought alone makes you hug him tighter, heart quickening as you bask in his care. “Besides, it’s a nice scar—I can proudly say my wife did it to me after one particularly rough night…”

“Ah! How—what a pervert!” you gasp, pulling your face away from his chest and looking up to him.

“Am I not telling the truth?” he chuckles.

“I guess that’s one way to put it…” you huff, sighing before leaning back into him.

…

…

“Does it bother you?” Naoya inquiries upon hearing the gears in your head, you sigh once more.

“I won’t be able to stop seeing it now” you confess. “It’s all I’m going to think about when I see your face.”

“Well, if you must… there is a way you can make it up to me” Naoya says, and you swear you could hear him smile.

“Be serious!” you gasp upon catching his intentions, looking up to him “Can’t think of anything else, can you?!”

“Who said anything about that?!” He laughs back “I was talking about—this”

Naoya leans forward, pressing a kick peck on your lips.

“And this”

Another kiss.

“And this too”

One more.

“And that as well”

And another, and another, and another—too many for you to keep count, far too embarrassed to even do so.

“Stop it!” you’d whine when Naoya pressed your cheeks together, forcing a pout out of you. 

“You’re adorable—did you know that?” He chuckles, kissing your pout. “The cutest, most adorable wife ever”

“Is this your idea of making it up to you?! By embarrassing me?” you manage to mutter, tightly closing your eyes as he continues to kiss you. “Stop it! You’re making me all red!!”

“You make it too easy” he jests “And that, amongst other things, is what makes me love you so, so much.”

It’s unfair how he always managed to experience a wide range of emotions in less than a second—from being flustered by his customary and excessive display of affection, to completely enthralled by it, relishing in his love and how lucky you were to have found your soulmate.

It was rough. Almost impossible to find this side of Naoya, help him put down his walls and become vulnerable.

But now that it’s here, you’ll do everything in your power to protect him, to take care of him, love him. You never want him to suffer ever again.

This time, you’re the one leaning forward, doing your best to kiss him through the silly position he had you—and Naoya simply finds your attempts even more adorable.

He gives you one last kiss before cupping your face and making you look at him.

“While I’ll always regret the way I treated you in the beginning of this marriage… I’ll never regret meeting you” he says “With you I’ve learned what it is to be happy, to be cherished just by who I am and not what I represent. With you, I can completely be myself without fear of being humiliated…

With you…. I’ve learned what it is to love and be loved.

And I find it unfair that someone as amazing as you has to suffer for things we did in the past, back when we didn’t know each other, when we had the whole world against us.

So, I don’t want you to dwell in my scar, Y/N. It’s… nothing from a past we’ve long moved on from, you know? If anything, I should be the one carrying that burden… and I probably will, for the rest of my life.” He pauses, you press your lips together, holding back tears. “I want you to focus on our future, what lies ahead for the two of us. Because I, for once, can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Your heart skips a beat at his words, finding them to be nothing but the perfect representation of your relationship with him.

Naoya has given you so many things you’ve only dreamed of, considered unobtainable—like one of those situations where everyone around you was bound to experience them, except you.

Until he came along, and then, that’s when you realized how lonely you were, to the point where the mere thought of being without Naoya hurt too much to even consider.

In more ways than one, he made you whole, he introduced you to a world of completely different experiences. With him you smiled, and you laughed, but you also cried, felt what it was to be in an ocean of loneliness—and yet, you don’t resent him, because you’ve learned the most important lesson of them all: to forgive, and be forgiven.

It takes lots of effort to overcome such difficulties, but with love and patience, everything is possible.

And just as Naoya said, these are things of the past. He had long paid for his actions and redeemed himself, and there was no use in pondering on them if they’re going to sway you away from the future.

From the adversities and blessings, the two are to face together.

“I love you” you say back “And I also can’t wait to live out the rest of my life with you.”

Eternity seems too short of a time to be with him, but you wouldn’t want it any other way.

[twilights-800-cats]

Thoughts on the new arc + blurb:

Leafstar - I like the idea of seeing through the eyes of a leader who is failing physically and possibly mentally. I want to see the first leader of modern SkyClan pass on and feel as if she's finally done her job in ensuring her Clan's place in the world. I don't want Hawkwing to lead after her, tbh, he's old by now and hasn't done much of anything - I'd like to see a slightly younger, more interesting cat take over after Leafstar

Tawnypelt - I REALLY like the idea of being in her shoes again. The Erins make no bones about their Arc 2 favoritism so it was inevitable that they'd revisit the two Arc 2 characters that haven't gotten much spotlight (and didn't get PoVs in Arc 2 at all). Tawnypelt and Crowfeather going on another journey together sounds like it'll be a good, nostalgic time, and I'm here for Tawnypelt taking matters into her own hands again when her Clan ignores her. Pretty sure she's not making it through this arc, either, tbh. Doubts on Crowfeather, too

Moonpaw - I don't know anything about this one! Guessing she's a Night/Sun kit, but I saw a theory floated that she might be a personification of the Moonpool, which is being threatened by Twolegs? That's an interesting theory, but I'm not holding out hope for it lol. Sounds like she's set up to be another medicine cat/StarClan connection, which is typical of the series. Other than that, there's not much to go off of!

Twoleg threat - While I'm kind of excited to see a less metaphysical threat to the Clans this time around, I'm not buying the idea that we're moving away from the lake in this series. There would be some precedent for it if the Moonpool IS destroyed and the Clans are forced to find StarClan again, but I don't know, the lake seems very much like a permanent fixture, but the Erins have developed the location so pitifully these past eight arcs that sending us off to a new poorly developed location would be disappointing. I'm always happy to be wrong, though - we've been here eight arcs, and that might've been about four arcs too long lol

StarClan - We've spent the past three arcs looking into the Clan's relationship with StarClan and how rocky it's becoming. The concept is wearing a little thin. Either we scrap StarClan entirely or we restore the connection this arc and move on, imo. Personally, I do like the idea of StarClan existing in the story, I just wish they weren't so contradictory about how it worked or how much of an influence it can have, which is where I think a lot of frustration with it comes from.

As always, I want the arc to work, to be good, to try new things, and to go to new places (figuratively and literally, sure). I also, as always, kind of want it to be the last one, lol - at least, the last one with this present cast of characters. If Warriors has to keep going, let it start fresh somewhere in the future! But that's just a dream at this point I think.

idk. I'm still here for whatever is in store.

[argentumcor]

Sandrock Thoughts, no particular order

-Ya'll, Logan's hair isn't super long, it's Aragorn's hair, just tied back. He's a Dunedain ranger, of course it's Aragorn's hair.

-He really is. I just actually me him on my replay and he's just such a decent heroic person oh my goodness. Dunedain ranger, I'm not kidding. I wish actually there had been a flirt option to essentially say 'well now I've heard you talk...' instead of all meta. Out here being the dangerous, rough man defending the decent folk of Sandrock from the definite dangers of the wilds, taking all of that on himself. He isn't exactly Aragorn, though I think there's parts of his design are meant to call back to movie Aragorn, who had a lot of elements to his costume design meant to call back to westerns- that sort of duster jacket thing he wore, for instance.

-The dynamic between Justice and Unsuur (and the cat Captain) is one of my favorites. Justice is a great character in his kind of tired lawman way, plus he does have some great lines- "tracking device? What kind of budget do you think we have?". Unsuur does, too. ("Is it so wrong for a mole to love a princ--" "Yes."). It's a really great dynamic and I actually wish we'd gotten more of the Civil Corps and Logan teamup.

-I know Unsuur is a potential love interest but he makes me all maternal. That boy is my son and I will have no word said bad about him. You just leave him and his rocks alone!

-Speaking of kids, I really like the kids in this game. Jasmine is pretty great as the town princess, essentially, and Andy is a delight in his chaos gremlin ways. Pebbles is cute as, well, essentially an extension of Rocky and Crystal and a representation of what they see in Sandrock. Child characters can be too precious or too annoying easily, but there's a sincerity to them and a genuine stumbling childishness.

-I haven't had the PC have a kid because those mechanics seem like more intensive farm animal ones. Thematically, it makes sense because it's a game about forging a future for a town, but. But I would like to enjoy playing the game.

-The horny French moleman just has to be a reference to the horny French moleman of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He's fun. That whole mission is fun even the platform part where if you screw up enough the game asks if you'd like to skip this part. Heh, and assault rifle for boss killing wins.

-Someone wrote Qi to be very Sheldon Cooper but it works because they hit it just the right amount and he is, in fact, as much an agent of chaos as Cooper or Andy or Elsie in his enthusiasm for giant robots. Being as the Vega 5 rep asks how you worked with him and didn't throw him out a window, his scientific peers are quite happy to have him tinkering away in the ass-end of nowhere and so is he.

-Elsie's story is a nice tale of maturity that the player plays a very small role in. You just give her some fish, really, and serve as a sounding board. Her story is hers, and I see her as just being a year or two into adulthood while most of the town's love interests are in their mid-20s (this is explicitly stated about Logan, who is a few years younger than Owen we know for sure and probably Justice).

-I kind of wish that, if you get both parties past a certain relationship level and you still haven't flirted with them, that some of them courted each other. I have found out that this can happen for Owen and Amirah under certain conditions- not a pair I'd have picked- but I haven't seen it. It would make sense for this to happen in such a small town and with the game's themes.

-Owen courting Amirah makes sense- she's an out-of-towner and is written and designed to be stunningly beautiful, but it's not a good long-term match IMO. Owen wants someone to run the Saloon with, and he really cares about the Saloon, as it is his family's legacy and he runs it really well. He has no angst about the Saloon, thank God. This really is what he wants. Amirah is very introverted and...well, women like that, their great beauty tends to make them mercenary or cynical about romance for good reason- look at how often people hardcore hit on her- and Owen is a romantic at heart. He's romantic about Sandrock and the Blue Moon and a thousand other things, but Amirah is a cynic in a lot of ways. Amirah likes being in Sandrock because she finds it inspiring in a challenging way and allows her to be an introverted beauty, but she doesn't and can't love it and its people like Owen does.

-I could see Owen with Jane or, as I've read in fic, Mi-an. Jane grew up in Sandrock but left and came back, so there's distance there from the town dynamic I think is crucial to the crew pairing off but a love for the place. She likes people. Mi-an as she develops gains more confidence, she loves to fix and grow stuff, and loves the town, too. Writers don't seem to embrace Owen/Amirah often at the moment, possibly because they're unaware of the quest and it's non-intuitive.

-Arvio gets a bad shake from fanfic, poor guy, but his is a tale of growing up in life and business. I really like his and Amirah's plotline. Musa basically tells him to actually think if he's going to chase big dreams and then he damn well does. He is another one, like Elsie, it's hard to see as a romantic interest for me but that doesn't mean I dislike him. What's interesting about his height- he is the shortest adult male townie, I think- is if he talks about his past you realize he might have been malnourished and a child laborer in a quarry.

-Heidi's a fun and a grounded career woman. I like her 'smart country girl who wasn't interested in city life' vibe. She mentions her dad pushing her to find someone, which all the older people would, but her focus makes sense. I think it would be really funny, and fun, if she sort of paired off with Qi of all people. They work together so much in the main plotline and she does rein him in. It's a fun dynamic even if platonic, at any rate. Them dating would mystify the townsfolk hilariously, you have to admit.

-Fang is interesting and I get why many ladies love him but...it seems an uneven relationship. There's something coercive about how one would get involved with him, some feeling that you're taking advantage of someone you're helping, at least to me, YMMV. It may be my age. He is a really interesting character with his personal tragedies and deep sense of medical ethics.

-Pablo is there. He may have more going on, I am happy with how my character looked so I didn't go into the salon much. If he had a store selling other stuff I'd probably swing by more...or had more commissions. If the fashion show story had more meat- I'm not there yet in my second playthrough- maybe I'd feel different. It's the talk of the town when it happens but there has to be a story with talking Logan and Fang into it and I'd like to see that. Maybe I missed it.

-I generally wish there were reactions to you getting involved with someone specifically more. Maybe there are and it wasn't something I was paying attention to because I am a Logan girl and that only happens later in game. Nasty thing to code for in a kind of complicated game, though, and even more writing in a writing-heavy game. It does make it seem like it's a secret relationship though. These people are realistically so gossipy that it would be a subject of conversation.

-I like the ranch family and Cooper's rambling and sort of earthy madness are endearing. He's written as much more...closed-minded in fanfic than the game if you actually listen/read his rambling. His issues with Elsie are issues of parenthood and being far too alike, not some sort of 'but the old ways!' thing. His rambling to Fang about vegetarianism isn't actually judgmental, more curious; I think he really appreciates what Fang does for his ranch and family. It's so cute how he adores his wife and she adores him, the latter of which is surely a mystery to the rest of the town.

-Hugo and Heidi are mutants themselves, as Vivi wandered through some kind of gas when she was pregnant, giving Hugo his superstrength (short skinny Cooper is a brave one for antagonizing him so often), which Heidi got as well. I've seen in fanfic Logan (and his unnamed mother) as mutants, which they are at least with hair color which is commented on so it isn't just stylized blond. It's kind of cool that there's some mutations that aren't harmful, though when Heidi explains her strength she hints that it is known to be debilitating.

-In fanfic, of course, the Church of Light gets run down, and the plot does make that easy, but in game it is a lot more nuanced than the hostile-to-religion culture of most fanfic writers, which is to be found in Burgess. Burgess is a doofus, no doubt, but he isn't only that. When he gets free of the people manipulating him, undermining his confidence, treating him like a weak-minded idiot, he starts to grow. He's still a doofus a lot but he is also capable of serious insight and leadership. The quest where you make him a confidence hat to preach really shows that. Also, Burgess is the one who made the really insightful point about equal application of the law at Logan's trial- that Logan agrees with- that made me drop my controller. He says a lot of great things about what forgiveness means, too, and he really is going to be a good and wise minister. It would have been complicated to code, but I kind of would like the character model to lose a little weight after the conspiracy transpires because I like to imagine his weight was a part of how he was being run down- and also eating meals with Pen, who eats like a high-intensity athlete.

-I'll have to pay attention to Rian to see if his habits change post-conspiracy. I'd have liked him to open a furniture store after that, actually, the way Mi-an opens a plant store after some quests. It almost feels like cut content, as there's a great big building next to the museum that seems set up to be a shop. This is what I'd call a AA game, so stuff had to get prioritized, I get it.

-Have a pregnant model for Dan-bi post conspiracy. They kept talking about their future child but I'm not clear if that's an upcoming or ongoing plan until, you know, they have one. It would have been nice to have more going on with that. Again, I get it.

-When you know the twist with Grace, it becomes more obvious what's going on early on. She needs the insulted lunchbox thing to get food to Logan, Haru, and Andy, for instance; not sure this tracks with the timeline stated in game, where she contacted them after he train hijacking, but it's so small it could have been missed if it's off.

-Nia is very dull in a game full of big personalities. I get why she exists and she's not a stupid person, but she feels like she's from another game. Maybe it's her too-cute body language and kind of generic character model. YMMV, though I do see fic writers feel the need to punch her up a lot.

-I like Grace and I think she's more someone who would be my friend as a peer than the others who get more of that. I wish she had an outfit during the invasion that showed what she really was, some kind of Black Widow suit instead of her waitressing outfit, but near as I know the only people with a plot-related costume change are Elsie and Logan.

-I kind of wish this game had quest-modding tools. Most of the quests are text only and I really do want more. The pet DLC came out in May and I feel like the storylines have a lot more to give- again, maybe I just haven't found everything- so who knows.

-The Free Cities' governmental structure is different and not stupid. It's pretty clear there's not a strong what we would call federal government- these are in effect city-states. Trudy has a lot of power as mayor over Sandrock and she doesn't really answer to anyone but the locals. The population of humans worldwide seems low, which makes sense given the Calamity and its dangerous aftereffects. There's a fear, I think, of the Peripheries spreading. It does create a political tension because there's land to the south but no one can live there. They can barely live in a good chunk of the Free Cities' territory. Sandrock only exists because of ancient water generating tech, Duvos can't produce enough food for itself (this may be self-inflicted, as they are extremely Soviet which you can see if you know Soviet jokes; whoever wrote this was smart).

-Someone in a fic had most of Sandrock's assorted prior-to-invasion misfortunes be sabotage and I wonder if that was the canon intent. Howlett's death is stated to end the truce with the Geeglers, but how did they know he was dead? The Bandirats were the ones breaking the Greeno pipes in an attempt to find the princess, but it's not clear how it would help, though the queen is crazy...maybe it was part of some deal, because that starting right after big investor Musa had been convinced to give Sandrock a chance and is himself in town is suspicious when the Valley of Whispers had been there being a no-go zone forever right next door. With the road being built, you have to think Tiger and crew were in a bit of a panic because things weren't supposed to start getting better for Sandrock.

-Musa's pretty cool. Gives good business advice. Acts like a real investor who is a decent human being, too, yes they are out there...not in Silicon Valley or DC maybe, the Orthanc and Barad-Dur of the United States.

-It is thematically relevant that the superfund site gets turned into the Happiest Place in the Free Cities. Catori seems like a satire of a conniving entrepreneur at first pass- she's another one I think doesn't get a fair shake in fanfic but has a good story in game, I think part of it is her accent which is a little grating- but no she actually wants to build something better. She has a dream and she's trying to make it work. She has to learn how to think and she casually builds all these castles in the sky in conversation but when it comes down to it she actually goes and figures it out in a way that actually works. It's not just belief and a dream, it's risk and thought and hard work and a dream; someone who wrote this actually knew a thing or two about Walt Disney and admires him. Not many cozy sort of games would have you get returns on your investment from a theme park entrepreneur but this one does! And explains what an angel investor is, too, like outright explains it.

-There's some broken English in a few places in the interface ('get a discount when consuming in the store' for relationship perks) and in a blurb asking for a Steam review in a billboard outside the game center, which is bizarre because the majority of the game is written by people who know English so well they can handle dialect well. Weirdly, it's sophisticated broken English- 'when consuming in the store' is a very archaic turn of phrase.

-The PC gets some real great dialogue despite being restricted to one or two lines. That takes talent. A few of my favorites:

Some absolute bullshit is going on...."how are you so strong!" PC, well aware of the BS: "I don't know, diet maybe!"

"What did they make in this place anyway?" PC: "Shampoo! Evil shampoo!"

-Speaking of...the ancient evil corporation is named frelling Geegle, and the post-apocalyptic lizardman cargo cult of the Geeglers uses sendups to Google logo art as their graffiti. It's great. It is also not nice at all to Google in a not generally anti-business way; this is anti-corporatism. It's specifically definitely anti-Google.

-The theme of environmental stewardship is really well done. It's not heavy handed or anti-civilization. I thought it'd have the boilerplate bad and sometimes hateful Lorax knock-off like everything else but it doesn't. There's a groundedness and humanity to it. It's outright Tolkienian.

-The imp and fiend designs are the most disturbing monster designs I've seen in a video game for a long time. They creep me out because they're so clearly things that used to be human in a game with people who are definitely human and you're talking to all the time and are being affected at that moment by the thing that made these monsters this way. They are, unlike all the mutant animals who are part of an ecosystem if often a dangerous and bizarre one, not right. If they were in a Banjo Kazooie game or something like that, they'd be just another enemy, but in this context they are downright disturbing and the game leans into it just the right amount. Style over graphical intensity as always.

-I know Portia is the game that started this but what I like about Sandrock is the people and I just don't get that from Portia. I guess it's because I'm a gun-toting western hick myself and the region reminds me so much of home. The Free Cities are an interesting setting and a lot could be done with them, but I'm not really interested in Portia and maybe not the other places. I like this place and these people, like I liked Kirkwall and those people in Dragon Age 2, but have no interest in anyone really or the places in the rest of the series afterward (you would have to pay me a lot to even read the follow-on comics; I do not even check the DA wiki for updates on the plot anymore). This could change depending on what Pathea does next, of course.

-I am floored and delighted by how smart this game is written, I cannot say it enough. Hope is hard to come by these days, I find, but this silly game gives me some.

[tianshiisdead]

How would you characterize modern day Japan’s relationship with China and Korea? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Ps. Love your art

hello anon i see you have it out for me <3

KFLDHGF JK JK... this is quite a question though 💦 Honestly fairly rocky I'd imagine, but they do hang out. I think there's a contrast between Korchu complaining about Japan and the three of them going to karaoke and drinking together. Inevitably they're going to have a decent level of closeness I feel given how intertwined East Asian modernity is, but that doesn't lessen the antagonism all that much. Korchu harass him on twitter*, and totally justifiably as well LOL Japan is NOT owning up to anything and this is all the reparations they're going to get in the foreseeable future...

On Japan's part, I don't think he's particularly apologetic so much as irritated by them bringing old scars up because 'it was in the past, why are you lingering on old history instead of looking into the future' with maybe an added 'this is why you haven't developed properly like I have' towards China - although he probably can't do that anymore I guess! Sad! I also do think he lowkey looks down on them, and that he has some weird complexes about them as well but that's another conversation. Japan has some sort of 'closer to the west' sense of pride that gets in the way of relations with his neighbors as well, he's really annoying about that, and he has (more than) a bit of nostalgia towards eras Korchu are Not Happy About. He also has a bad tendency of blaming them for his domestic problems which they also aren't very happy about.

This is where I'm going to reveal my bias: I'm definitely less knowledgeable and therefore less confident on Korea-Japan compared to China-Japan, but to focus on China-Japan for a second: I think Japan's actually fairly irritated at China. Like, in general Korchu anger towards Japan far outweigh Japan anger towards Korchu for obvious reasons, but in this case Japan has a thought process like 'I helped you so much in the 80s and now you're stabbing me in the back!!', which China thinks is bullshit of course 👍

Also, lest I make it seem too much like Korchu vs Japan, I'd imagine Korpan complain about China together quite often as well and Nichu commit racism towards Korea separately but they catch each other's gaze across the internet and have a moment of understanding. Japan and Korea play nice when America's looking but fight a lot when America's not looking. They're caught up on each other's latest media and resent that fact. Easia's such a funny region 😨

*China has a twitter through a vpn like all those Chinese gov officials/international correspondents who spend their time dropping twitter roasts all day

**korchupan are not related they're not even slightly related they're not brothers they aren't family no one 'raised' anyone and they view each other as Potential Sexual Partners ok thank u. i see most 'easia Blood Family' takes as being anywhere from a little ignorant to incredibly racist

Ah and thank you so much!! I am so glad u like my art means a lot <33

[ltleflrt]

oh lol, I finished watching HB like last week, but i haven't dipped into fandom yet so i didn't realize this comparison was something being done elsewhere as well! Mostly im rewatching the episodes. Honestly to me, the comparison is a bit superficial and has more in common with earlier/mid-season canon trope buckets and how the characters are written in AU fics, rather than how they are like in later seasons of SPN. (the DeanCas dynamic shifted a lot over 12 yrs imo!)

Most superficial thing - the Stolas-Cas owl /headtilt connection. 🦉😂 But Stolas is also a deeply lonely but repressed and dutiful member of a provileged higher class / 'better' group of beings, where he never quite fit in despite being well-placed. It was a meeting with Blitz that put his entire life into a different trajectory, where he finally started to feel things and question his previous life, and ended up forsaking that old perfect life for associating with a guy from a 'lower' class of beings, that he faces derision from his peers for. He is naive to the ways of the world, but willing to learn, even as he is often quite unintentionally derogatory about imps. (this often happened with early Cas) He also has a strong love for his child and a strong connection to the identity of being a father, even though that journey is rocky. He seems to have grown up alone and yet part of a innumerable nameless horde of siblings with a largely absent father, and it is later revealed that the fascination of Blitz and his doubts and unhappiness actually predates the supposedly "first" meeting when they started associating.

The relationship in the beginning is transactional (though in very different ways for both ships), but slowly and surely evolves beyond that. Stolas, despite being much for powerful in supernatural ways, Blitz's is often the one taking the lead and Stolas let's him. Even as Blitz secretely actually thinks Stolas is completely out-of-his-league and is just putting up with him, because he's the toxic guy who everyone leaves if they have a choice and only puts up with if they have to. Then there's the growing up in a nomadic lifestyle with a not-so-great dad, and dead mom in a fire! Right now you could consider the Barbie Wire and Blitz relationship in the Stanford-era!Sam and Dean zone, but clearly Blitz has very strong feelings about his sibling with whom he was close growing up.

lol I was in the tags 5 minutes after the last episode, looking for fanart to reblog. If you want to dip your toes in, I recommend blocking some tags, because the fandom and ship tags are full of antis who need to go watch a different show because they really hate this one and I don't understand why they're still here? Go touch grass, folks. But at least they're pretty good at tagging their hate. I've blocked "anti stolitz", "stolitz critical", "anti vivziepop", and "vivziepop critical" and that seems to have caught most of it.

Thanks for coming back with an explanation! That's way better than the posts I'd seen about it, and I think you're right about the parallels. I think my mental block on it comes from the fact that I ship them for different reasons.

Dean and Cas are reluctant allies at first who become close friends, and there are things keeping them from moving past that. They're always dealing with world ending events that take priority over their own personal drama, and they both fundamentally misunderstand each other's love languages and think things are one sided. I ship them in a star crossed lovers kinda way.

Blitz and Stolas are interesting to me specifically because it started out as a fucked up bargain where Stolas was using Blitz for kinky sex, and Blitz was Not Into It. The power imbalance and dubcon was HOT. And when I found out that Stolas was married too, I was like aw yeah, this guy's a bag of dicks, and he's shoving them into all of Blitz' holes.

Delicious toxicity mmmm.... And then...AND THEN...it's slowly revealed that they both want something more, and Stolas only made the deal because he thought that was the only way he could get Blitz to come back. And it didn't even occur to Blitz that Stolas could feel anything for him because of their class differences.

In the episode that ends with Blitz going "he can get hurt?" with shock and confusion, omg I about fell off the couch. Because on the surface he's talking about physical injuries, but in subtext he's talking about Stolas getting his feelings hurt too. *chef's kiss* ugh it's so fucking good.

Come to think of it, you could make that another Destiel parallel, since Dean doesn't think Cas is capable of feeling romantic love. Now that you've given me a few points of entry, I'm going to start connecting dots all over the place lol

[the-indie-owl]

I wanted to make a New Headcanon/Theory History involving around these Two Characters and their Parents together, after facing up my regards towards Mindy being part among the Pantheon.

So here we have is the Children of King Neptune (the 14th Member amongst the Roman Pantheon) and Queen Amphitrite (who is actually a Greek Goddess).

The Generous and Noble Princess Mindy.

And even lastly, the Rebellious Prince Triton.

If you'd like to read more of what I think that their own Family has, you may scroll down to keep reading because OH BOY did I really have a much thicker brain.

Now many people would say that the Two King Neptunes are Different Characters (that I used to believe) but looking back at each of those Characters, I'd like to think that they're the actual same God, just by different form (since most Deities tend to have the ability to shapeshift whatever appearance they can desire).

Neptune being the case here because he is their Father, he may have had a trouble relationship with either one of them only but still loves his children deeply, no matter if Amphitrite calms him down, I'd like to believe that King Neptune has his own Magical God Abilities and Skills to transform/shapeshift any form that he desires resulting his looks to change differently but is still the same God, no matter in what form he's in.

I'd like to believe that partially the reason as to why Neptune is sometimes always like this to his own Children, no matter on how hard he tries to be a much better Father than his own Father, is because that he wants to prove himself as a much better ruler just like his own Brothers than his own Father ever was as he constantly has much Father Issues deep down inside ever since the Titan War he and his Brothers were in.

Another Reason that part of Neptune's relationship with his Children is a bit Rocky, is because that Saturn (Neptune's Father and even the Grandfather of Triton and Mindy) is never brought up nor mention in the Entire Family.

Which I could believe that somewhere in the World of SpongeBob, Saturn was a tyrannical ruler during the Golden Age as he took things too seriously, resulting in eating gulping up his own Sons that he tried to eat just so that none of them wouldn't overthrow him and take his place.

But luckily, I headcanon that Ops (Neptune's Mother) and Jupiter (Neptune's Youngest Brother) saved Neptune and Pluto (Neptune's Oldest Brother) tricked Saturn as Ops had to rescue her own sons away from their Father as the Three Gods ended up in Crete where they had to be raised by the Nymphs (which I do believe that this Universe tends to alternate the Myths).

Now I know that a lot of folks would point Me out that there already was a Backstory of King Neptune in one of the shorts, but I tend to headcanon that the Backstory itself in that short could be a Lie as I do believe that there are more versions of Neptune's own backstory out there that Neptune tries to hide his Real Backstory, just so that his past wouldn't be brought up as much through other people, no matter on how hard he faced a traumatizing childhood with his own Father.

And judging on how that SpongeBob says "Sure" at the end, assuming that another one version of his backstories could be true, he is one of the people that doesn't know their God's actual history (nor his God Family) so it could be a possibility that anyone of the Bikini Bottom has not seen nor heard of a Non-Sea God or a Titan before in their life (which is a Good Thing for the Sea King).

Sidenote, in some versions, Neptune (or "Poseidon" as he was called, like his Greek Counterpart's Name in the Third Movie) and Jupiter (Zeus) were raised together without any of their Other Siblings when Ops (Rhea/Cybele) took two of her own Boys to be raised in a Flock of Sheeps, rather than having a She-Goat to nurse her Sons.

So assuming that based around the version that I just mentioned, I like to believe that maybe part of Neptune's origins is a mixture of both the First One (where he was swallowed alive at first) and the second one, being that he was taken care of other than his Youngest Brother.

My Theory is that Neptune and his Brothers were raised by their own Guardians (which were a Couple of Nymphs; Ida and Adrasteia) as they were nursed and taken care of through their own Days of the Island of Crete, as the Three Roman Brothers studied their own God skills and even reaching their own God complex through Growth, just so that they could save the entire World as they would grow up together to stop their own Father.

Presumably a Few Days after the Great Titan War (known as the "Titanomachy"), The Three Brothers decided to take their own Place as Rulers of Each of the Three Lands around the Earth (even after when Ops retired just so that her own Sons could takeover as New Rulers respectfully). Jupiter was taken as the Emperor of the Sky, Neptune was taken as the King of the Seven Seas, and even lastly, Pluto was taken as the Lord of the Underworld.

But the Brothers realized that they needed their own Queens, so they searched up any lady they could find for a perfect wife as they ended up having each of their own consorts (Jupiter had Juno and even Pluto had Proserpina).

And lastly, but not the least, Neptune had Amphitrite.

Considering that there is No Canonical Backstory for the Two of Them, it's possible on how it would explain on how they met, but it also possible on who Amphitrite's Parents could be in this Universe.

Hesiod believes that Amphitrite was a Nereid and was the Daughter of Nereus and Doris but Apollodorus believes that Amphitrite was an Oceanid rather than a Nereid, and that in a Second version of Amphitrite's Parents, suggesting that Oceanus and Tethys might be her Parents.

I have a Theory that somewhere Amphitrite could be Oceanus and Tethys' Daughter rather than Nereus and Doris (making her an Oceanid).

Although the Backstory for Neptune of how he met his Wife was that he saw Amphitrite dancing and was immediately in love with her but since Amphitrite was scared of him, she fled from Atlas where Neptune had to sent a Dolphin to find her. Amphitrite was found thanks to the Dolphin that she adored, in which she accepted him as Neptune made her his own wife.

Perhaps the Backstory for these Two Characters is different than the One on how they actually met.

I assume that somewhere Neptune was bored in his life doing his own duties of being Sea King, he decided to stop by through an Island where he passed by but was then caught the attention of a Young Sea Maiden (which was no doubt, his own future wife) as Amphitrite was startled when she was found by Neptune, so she swam away back to the Sea.

After that, he saw her again through a Dance performance upon the Oceanids (who were Amphitrite's Sisters as I recall from the Other version of her own Parents), Neptune presumably recognized Her as the Woman who he saw at the Beach, and much like in the Myths where he saw her dancing, he was probably over head heels in love with her (not just by her own Dance, but through her Beauty).

But given of what I truly believe is that Poseidon and Neptune do live within the same world, just by different timelines (as mentioned in "Spongehenge" where King Poseidon was first mentioned before his Actual Appearance), my Headcanon is that Poseidon and Neptune did knew each other but don't tend to talk about each other anymore, Poseidon was an Ex-Lover of Amphitrite as they fell in love once as Amphitrite was once Poseidon's Girl before Neptune even married Her.

(And Poseidon being Exes with Amphitrite makes sense in my Theory, judging by how they were one of the Most Overlooked Mythological Pairings throughout Centuries).

I mean, who else could blame Amphitrite for dating a narcissist like Poseidon? He probably wasn't even the perfect match for her (which could explain as to why Poseidon is seen as single, even without Salacia (Amphitrite's Roman Counterpart) (which I doubt that she still exists)).

So Neptune saw what was happening in the relationship between his Greek Equivalent and his Crush was that Poseidon wasn't really a Good Boyfriend to begin with and was focused too much on himself, rather than his own relationship with Amphitrite as Neptune felt bad for her trying to have a Romantic Relationship. He just wondered if maybe perhaps he would make a much better consort for her.

Sure, Neptune wasn't really that much of a Great Ruler (neither was Poseidon), but deep down, he still does his Duties as a King better, despite his own arrogance as he is now.

So with that in his own mind, Neptune decided to open up himself to Amphitrite as they got along quite nicely for a causal secret affair. Amphitrite grew found of Neptune as he was already fond in her (not just by the looks but with her as a Person). He was her Wrath as She was his Patience as Romance somehow blossomed into a Whirlwind one between them.

Although despite their own disagreements, they loved each other genuinely.

However, when Poseidon found out about their true affair, he felt cheated on by Amphitrite and wasn't too happy when their relationship felt betrayed (technically, Poseidon did had it coming for not paying any attention to her) as Poseidon and Neptune did had a big huge fight over Amphitrite's heart, in which Poseidon failed but Neptune won (ex; Bambi vs. Ronno over their Love for Faline in Disney's "Bambi").

In a few months later, eventually, Neptune was chosen to be the Rightful Ruler of the Seas (while Poseidon was chosen to be Second, due to his own Laziness which is why Neptune had to be the chosen one).

Neptune married Amphitrite as she became his Wife and Queen of the Seas, taking over Each of the Seven Seas as the Seas would always feel calm whenever Amphitrite was around with her Husband, which could explain as to why they had the most open-relationship ever (which was already a thing in their relationship the Mythos).

On the Topic about the Ages in the Royal Family, given that Neptune is around Five Thousand Years Old and that Poseidon is Three Thousand, I'd like to think that somewhere back in the Ancient Era of the Centuries, the Gods were around in their Adult Ages of 20s-50s but if they tend to stop aging (depending on what Age they hit at), they'd be stuck around in their Physical Adult Years in the Modern Centuries despite being very ancient, yet they're still physically in their Mid/Late 20s/50s such. Neptune could be around in his 50s and Amphitrite looks like she could be around in her 40s. So...I assume that Neptune was around 30 when he met Amphitrite (who was possibly around 28), but they stopped aging when Neptune was 50 and that Amphitrite was around 48. A Two-Year-Old Age Gap is what I assume that these two might have.

After passing through Decades of the BCE Era, when the World began to change throughout centuries of time, the Brothers received each of their own Children that their Wives gave birth. And Mindy was one of them through the Middlest Brother of the Big Three.

Now, for the record, Mindy's top looks like that she'd be a Princess from the Middle Ages. so this could lead to believe that Mindy was actually born around in the Medieval era at the time where Neptune and Amphitrite received their own first child after Neptune's Eldest Brother and Sister-In-Law (Pluto and Proserpina) received their own Heirs in Another Decade.

Now if you remember the Medieval Time Period Episode, "Dunces and Dragons" which in that Episode where SpongeBob and Patrick went all the way back in time after an accident through a Mounted Combat, they did met their own Friends' Medieval Ancestors.

Assuming that Mindy was born around in the Middle Ages where all of the Ancestors of the Bikini Bottomites were, this could lead into thinking that Mindy was probably either still a Baby in Months or a Child during that time period, even when when SpongeBob and Patrick went all the way back in a Different Century. So this probably leads into a Bigger Age Gap between Patrick and Mindy judging on how Pat had a Silly Crush on Her (because duh, his type is Mermaids, what do you expect?) and if Mindy was ever a Young Goddess from back then, she probably was a lot younger than 14 (either 8 years old or 12) as I HC that Gods receive their own Powers at the Age of 5-7 or 14 (depending on their deity puberty) but Mindy didn't had her own Powers when she hit 14, so she was probably a late bloomer (I mean, Neptune did felt disappointed in his first heir for not receiving any Godly Powers from both of her own Parents, yet he still chose her as Future Ruler because of how much the King and Queen adored their Princess).

Now as for Triton, judging on how Old he was when he first laid his eyes on Baseball, it's possibly assumed that he was actually born in the 21st Century around in the early 2000s when Mindy was around 17,985 years old when her Younger Brother was Born when Amphitrite received Another Heir (this time, being their own Son).

Unknown on how Old Triton was when Neptune had enough of his Son's rebellious behavior (even if Triton was only just trying to be himself in which Neptune didn't wanted to have a son like that), I assume around in his Teens, Triton was probably before 14 when he received massive Godly Powers as he's not a late bloomer like Mindy and was possibly a few years older after when he grew Magic Powers from his own puberty (which could mean that Mindy was still around in her Eldest 17,000 years).

I'd like to think that somewhere that the Brother and Sister have their similar contrasts of their own Father, being that Mindy has learn to become a Future Ruler but Triton wanted to be someone else, despite the fact that they had their own personalities similar to their Parents (Mindy being the Calm and Gentle one from her Mother and Triton being the Rebel against his Father's wishes). This could lead into a Deep Sibling bond that these two would have as the Two Siblings have deeply missed each other a lot. Neptune thinks he is trying to be a much better Father than his Actual One, not realizing the truth that he fails and is not at all a better father as he thinks he is, but deep down, still has strong Daddy Issues that would be passed on to either one of his children (most notably Triton).

Now on the topic of Mindy's Age when she first met SpongeBob and Patrick, given on how that her own Voice Actress was actually 18 years old when she voiced her Character in the First Movie, Mindy was probably around 18,000 years old when she met SpongeBob and Patrick (yet, Mindy is still physically either 17 or 18 deep down) (which makes Patrick a milf lover at this point for crushing a Thousand Year-Old Princess).

As for a personal reason as to why we didn't see Amphitrite nor Triton in the First Movie, I'd headcanon that somewhere before the events of the Film, Neptune and his Wife had an argument over some Family Drama and after a One Fight that they got, the Two Rulers decided to split apart and take their own children with them as Neptune had to take Mindy while Amphitrite had to take Triton and ruled their own separate kingdoms for themselves. So Neptune took a Different form of a King.

Taking his own new responsibilities as a Merman King rather than a God, he took his punishments very cruel but Mindy always had her Mother's Patience inside of her, so she never took any cruelty upon Mortals like her Father where's somewhere, Amphitrite did make her own Son Happy just to be free to do whatever Triton wanted, even when she would tell their Son of what NOT to do, this made the Parents' own decisions quite fairly hard (even when deep down, they loved each other passionately).

But given on how when Neptune changed at the end, I assumed that Mindy confronted her own Father that she wished to be a Happy Family again due to how that she really missed both her Mother and her Father.

So Neptune, being the Rightful God King, had to do the right choice for his Family in order to make his Children Happy (because he still loves them deeply) as I headcanon that Neptune and Amphitrite went back into ruling their own Kingdom together as Neptune explained to Amphitrite on how sorry the one argument was that they had and make up afterwards where Neptune went back to his true self and became a much more better responsible Father where he learned from his mistakes and learned on how to be a Real Better Actual Father than Saturn (his Father) as the Two Sea Rulers no longer split and things were just back to normal as the way they were.

And lastly, as for both Triton and Mindy themselves, where exactly was Mindy when she didn't appear at her Father's Party?

I'd like to think that maybe somewhere she was at a visit over her Relatives' places (presumably either any one of her Uncles or at least, her Grandmother, Ops) (since I headcanon that Mindy is the most Favorite Grandchild out of Ops' Sons' own Heirs).

But also of Note, since she did at least took a visit at SpongeBob's Party in a Cameo at the Birthday Blowout special, she probably is now still around in her Thousand Years of the Number of 18, but more than the Zeros as in 2019, she would probably be around 18,001 or something like that (which ever one it could be).

And lastly as for Triton himself, what happened at the end of his First Appearance after the Party he crashed?

Well, needless to say, in Mythology, Triton was actually his Father's Herald.

So I assume that when Triton didn't want to be the Next Sea King, Neptune thought that maybe a better job would suit for his Son in which he hired him to be his Herald (which Triton actually ended up liking his New Royal Job after he didn't agreed but felt like a New Title could suit for the better).

After all, he was much of a Messenger than a Prince, and Mindy always more of a Queen than just a Goddess. So the Two Siblings have their own Titles much to their own Parents' titles.

In Conclusion; Not exactly the Most Perfect Family under the Sea, but much more like a Regal Family with their own Complexity of Godhood. Not Good nor Evil, they're just Neutral.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

I have several questions about building a world on a massive planet, possibly even larger than Jupiter.

I want all parts of the planet to have life, yes, this definitely means various adaptions but I do want quite a few species to be varied enough they can spread across the planet.

I want there to be many species of humans. This is one reason why I wanted such a massive planet. So unlike the real world where so many human species intermingled and some dying out/even being killed due to lack of resources. I want these humans spread all over the world, slowly adapting to changes that suit where they are and there are so many resources all over the world and they become more isolated.

Now, I have a problem with that because I am not sure how far to take different adaptions. Can they even look like the same kinds of human or could they evolve to something very different that doesn't look like just microevolution. In the real world, we all basically have the same look even though some have adapted to different climates better. That is what I want as the norm. But let's say. Humans that grew a flipper instead of hands? Humans that kept their tail? I am not keen on that as a norm.

Though, maybe as a rare mutation, sure. There are real life humans with a tail, though more just vestigal rather than actually a limb. Maybe in my world, there are in fact some that actually can use their tail as a limb. Maybe there are forest tribes where this mutation is in fact more common, perhaps because these people were praised and they passed on their genes, and if they ever found a man and woman both with tails living at the same time, they had kids. Yes that very well could be forced conception in the past..but people absolutely speak out against it in modern times. That is of course if they are a more modern civilisation these days and not still deep in the forests with no contact or even known about. With such a massive planet, isolation could be practically anywhere in fact.

The biggest issue I'm having of course is designing actual climates or where the planet is in proximity to the sun. I don't need to be very scientific and I'm quite partial to making things up, but I'd certainly like to know exactly where I am making things up and where I am in fact doing things that stem from accurate science. And of course trying to keep things consistent with the rest of the world building.

Wootzel: Hello! I’m afraid we don’t have a lot of solid input to offer, but I can toss out a few suggestions. 

First of all, in reality it’s probably impossible to have a rocky planet (aka a planet with a surface you could stand on) of the size you’re describing. Check out this article from NASA about planet types, which explains a little bit about the relationship between planet mass and characteristics. You could simply choose to ignore the constraints of reality here, of course. You might still want to consider that your massive planet must have very high gravity, and Earth humans might not be able to survive it. 

That being said, there’s no rule that you have to obey the laws of physics when it comes to fiction. If you want a massive planet with Earthlike conditions, you can just say that’s what you have. Parts of your audience might know that’s impossible, but I doubt most readers would refuse to suspend disbelief over it. 

As far as how far to push human evolution, here are two prior answers that you might find useful to read through: One about human adaptations, and one about how evolutionary processes might react to a sudden, global change in conditions. The former might be especially useful to how you think about what changes you want to put into your different groups of humans. However, also keep in mind that evolutionary pressures no longer have as much impact on humans as they used to, and this phenomenon will probably apply to your planet as well--humans primarily adapt to their environments by using technology and innovation to close the gap with anything they struggle with physically. Why have your humans evolved anyway? Lack of access to technology? Millions of years of small changes? Genetic modification? You may wish to answer this in order to decide how to tackle the scenario. Ultimately, you’ll just have to draw the lines where you want to draw them. You can decide to omit the possibility of flippers or tails just because you don’t want to include them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

You’re welcome to come back and ask again as you narrow down what you want to do with your world, but I strongly suggest you narrow down your question(s) as well. Check out our Before You Ask masterpost for some helpful suggestions about what kinds of questions we can most easily work with, and feel free to ask again!

[adrianasunderworld]

Hello! About your TWST cast being romantic partners the Disney Princesses, I'm so in love with that idea and I'm already onboard with it! In fact, I already have ships of my own concerning their respective stories. This is kind of long, so I apologize.

So first off, I love the idea of Riddle x Alice. (I know Alice isn't exactly a Disney Princess, but still...) Sure, she may have some issues with the rules of the Queen of Hearts, thinking of them as plain pointless and whatnot like Ace does, and Riddle would argue with her a lot, but they say that opposites attract.

Alice would grow more curious about Riddle and the way he does things and try to get to know him better while Riddle, in turn, would be charmed by her cute looks, kindness and politeness. Plus, they're both too curious for their own good, so they would click after some time together.

Next, we have Leona x Belle. Belle, as you say, is super nice and sweet, but doesn't hesitate to call anyone out on their BS. There would be a lot of banter between them at first, but after some time getting to know one another, Leona would let the walls around his heart crumble every time he's near Belle and trust her with his secrets. I think that ship is sweet and lovely.

Now, about Azul x Ariel. I ship those two so hard. I think their relationship would be a "enemies to friends to lovers" trope. Azul, being the crafty businessman that he is, will try to sweet-talk Ariel into signing a contract with him as a lounge singer since she's got a beautiful voice and all, so their relationship would be quite rocky from the start.

But once Ariel learns of Azul's past, and how he works hard to better himself, she would be very empathetic towards him and convince him as a friend that some things in life don't require a price. The more they get to know each other and befriend each other, the more Azul would start to trust her more and fall in love with her. He'd even be comfortable enough to show her his octopus form and swim with her together in the Coral Sea. Again, like I said, opposites attract.

Now, with Jasmine, I'd ship her with Jamil. Jasmine may be pretty, sassy and energetic, but unlike Kalim, she's also down to earth and hardworking. If she was Jamil's girlfriend, she'd try to make things easier for him by helping him out with his duties and respecting his wishes of wanting to be free. Jamil would totally love her for that.

And Jasmine, in return, would love Jamil and his skills and talents, even his flaws. She would see him as more than just a servant to the Al-Asims, and a student. She would see him as himself: Jamil Viper. There's a saying I learned: "If you don't accept one of us, you accept none of us." Love every single bit of that person, even their flaws. (And whenever there's a bug nearby, she'd happily remove the bug for him, unless she herself is afraid of bugs, too.😛)

For Vil, I 100% ship him with Snow White. Vil, of course, would start off disliking Snow White for being prettier than him. And Snow White, being the sweet, kind little dove she is, would try to befriend him through patient understanding, words of encouragement and little gifts of friendship. Over time, Vil would fall for her charms and any feeling of resentment he had towards her would disappear and feelings of affection would take place.

I also ship Idia with Megara and Malleus with Aurora. Those are just my opinions. Your opinions are great too. I also have a story on Wattpad where these ships take place. It's called: "Twisted Wonderland: Crystal Hearts." I'm sure you'll love it! Enjoy!

These are all great tbh. Honestly there's just a lot of fun in shipping the princess with the variant of her villain counterpart, or the closest thing to her male counterpart. It's part of why I ship Leona and Belle lol. Partly because they're my personal favorites, so obviously they should kiss. But also putting Belle with the residents "beast" prince feels only natural. I refuse to believe she does not have a type. lol.

With Jasmine and Jamil, you can play around with Jamil maybe liking her but not acting on it. Or the fact that before the events of Aladdin, Jasmine had never left the palace walls, and now she's in this situation that is the exact opposite. And because the Scarabia duo feels so familiar to her, she relies on them to help learn about this world. Maybe Jamil respects her, because despite obviously being out of her element, Jasmine is willing to learn and picks things up very fast, so Jamil doesn't have to babysit her. And of course, it has to be said. The Overblot, we can have the Jasmine kisses Jafar scene to distract him, but this time with someone age appropriate that she actually likes.

But yeah, there's a lot of fun combinations to be had here. So much potential.

[worldismyne]

What is Romantic Attraction - from the POV of a pan/biromantic acesexual

((At the risk of embarrassing myself in front of my beautiful gf))

This is a question I asked myself a lot, especially when I tried to picture my future since having someone special was something I knew I wanted, something more than friendship, but not with the bells and whistles so to speak. I use 'you' a lot in this, but dear reader, you may not feel the same.

I believe it starts with infatuation. Where at some point, you find yourself asking is this someone I'd want to be with the rest of my life? Do we share the same values? Similar goals? Are our personalities compatible for the long term? Can I see myself sharing the same space with this person? Can they meet my needs? Can I meet their needs without burning myself out? Do I like looking at them? ((And for some people, all the physical/sexual attraction type questions)) etc. etc.

The more of those questions the answer is yes, the more romantically attracted you are to them. Some people see a person that answers one of those questions, and immediately assumes they'll be the right answer for all the others. Then the more they get to know the person, the more of those needs turn out not met, the more likely they are to fall 'out of love'.

I have friends that I enjoy hanging out with but could not live with. And to me the difference between a date and hanging out is, on a date, my goal is to make the person I'm with feel special (not just to have fun). 

To me the 'exclusivity' or rather, the vulnerability in dedicating a societally prized level of attention to someone is the best way to thank someone who's done that for me. It's something that you can be shamed for doing if it's with the 'wrong' person but take the leap anyway. To trust that the person you're enacting this social dance with will do the same for you with the same level of energy, commitment and passion. To repeatedly validate your choice and the person who chose you back through rituals, time spent, by demonstrating over and over they are the most important person to you by choice. A choice you made because, by some miracle, they meet several if not all of your companionship needs.

I would hesitate to say romantic attraction is a choice. I met my gf at a rocky time in my life, and she didn't have to do anything other than sit there talking about cartoons, and I felt that inner interview go off even though I told myself that was so not the time/moment. I'm not the only person that has happened to.

I agree Romance (tm) is a societal construct. One that has its roots in encouraging an increasing the population, capitalism, and escapism. I've met several coworkers from India who chose the arranged marriage route, and were very happy because they were matched up with someone, they were compatible with, grew more 'in love' every year. 

I think, in the process of validating personal romantic attraction, media and such has labeled other human relationships as lesser or unimportant. Just because the reward pathway in their brain is on fire, it's easy to point at that thing as 'the best' as opposed to a nice thing to have. (think how people get weirdly defensive about a favorite soda or coffee. same neuropathways shooting off, just throw in the whole gambit of endorphins on top of it instead of just one.)

That said, I'm deeply, romantically attracted to my gf. I had a lot of self-doubt about my capacity to prove that's what I feel in the past, I feel I'm in a relationship now where what I can give is what's desired from my partner. 

Sincerely, someone who writes way too much romantic fiction.

it really does bother me how no one can seem to answer the question “what even is romantic attraction, really.” like some people are like “it’s who you wanna kiss and cuddle <3” and I’m like ok well kisses and cuddles can be either sexual or platonic depending on context. “It’s who you feel passion/desire/arousal for” well that just sounds like sexual attraction which you can have without even knowing somebody so I fail to see how that’s romantic. “It’s who you want to go on dates with” I go on dates with friends all the time plus “date” is a social construct anyway there’s really no innate difference between a date and hanging out. “it’s who you have deep feelings for” great news for you that can be literally any type of relationship. my friend told me she defined it as “who you wanna give roses to” and I’m like do u hear urself??? like the more I talk to people the more I’m convinced romance and romantic attraction is an elaborate socially fabricated illusion that has no real defining characteristics. and like there’s nothing Wrong with it being a constuct but why people are so attached to defending the supremacy of it is something I cannot for the life of me figure out

[casspurrjoybell-19]

Does it Matter? - Chapter 55 - Part 3

*Warning: Adult Content*   

Brayan stayed with Bug until long after he was sure he was asleep and then headed out to find Maric.

He was with Dara, tending to the horses.

"Could I speak to you for a moment?" Brayan asked Maric.

"Privately."

Maric exchanged a look with Dara.

"Of course."

They walked along the rocky ground at the base of the cliff and around a corner until Brayan was sure they were far enough away that they wouldn't be overheard.

"I love him," Brayan said, pacing away from and then back towards Maric.

"I'm in love with him."

"Good. I'm happy for you."

Brayan shook his head.

"That's all well and good for you to say with your virtually unkillable lover. I might go back into that tent and find Bug dead from... who even knows what. I'm sure Mathers could give me a long list."

"Dara is an exception. Death is a part of life. It's a fear most people have to live with when it comes to the people they care for."

"Most people don't nearly die quite this often."

"True. I hope he'll get a chance to get stronger before anything else happens."

"He will. Maric, I'd give my life for you but..." he hesitated, shook his head.

"Not his. Is that okay?"

"Why would I ever ask you to?"

"I don't think you would but ensuring his safety may require compromise. I'm not willing to let him be in danger again and I can't always do my job when I'm taking care of him. I just need to warn you that if I ever need to make a choice... I don't know. I have my duty and I genuinely care for you but you can fight, Maric. You're strong. He's so fragile..."

"I have more than just you protecting me, Brayan. Don't worry. You don't have to feel guilty for wanting to protect him as well."

Brayan let out a deep sigh.

"Thank you. It's been... challenging. At first I hated feeling... just feeling. It felt like a force more powerful than me and I didn't like that."

"And now?"

"Now I spend a lot of time thinking about how much I want to hit my past self for being so careless with him and other people, of course. Everyone who's ever hurt him."

Maric offered him a sad smile.

"I understand. I've gone through similar things with Dara. I still am."

"It's... different," Brayan said.

"Dara knows his worth. He keeps you in line. Bug will act like I've never done a single wrong thing towards him and mean it."

"Dara has his own vulnerabilities, his own insecurities. A relationship with an ex-slave simply cannot be an easy one, Brayan. You can't make that trauma go away with a few words of reassurance."

"I don't expect to be able to but the problem is how I treated him early on. I demanded a certain amount of respect and subservience and that wasn't very long ago at all. How can I trust him to be truly honest with me when I started things off by enforcing those walls between us?"

"By being honest with him, Brayan. By being vulnerable and caring and genuine. I don't even know that I need to be saying this because I've seen you doing those things all on your own. If you love him, just... love him. The rest will follow."

Brayan nodded.

"Okay. Yes, I can do that."

"Good," Maric said.

"Now, as to our plans, I think we should start here for a few days. Perhaps Bug will get a vision to guide us further, perhaps not but he needs to get enough strength back to ride before we go anywhere either way. We don't have a wagon for him to ride in anymore. I intend to talk to the men one on one about my intentions in the meantime."

"That's a good idea. I've already brought the idea up to Hudson. He seemed to like the idea of travelling into Ticia."

"Unsurprising. I'm not sure the others will be so keen but I need to know how they feel. There's only so far you can get with duty and orders. Doing this... it has to be a choice, for everyone."

"Is there anything you would like me to do while you're busy with that?"

"Spend time with Bug. Take care of him, rebuild his strength, work out your feelings. If it helps, don't think of it as a break. Think of it as important work because it's that as well. This is your personal life, yes and you shouldn't treat it as otherwise but it's something that doesn't come easily to you and everything we're doing will go better if there's stability and trust within that relationship."

"Hmm."

Brayan dropped his head and nodded.

"Thank you. I'm going to be what he deserves."

********

By the time they returned to camp, Dara was done brushing Farah and was now rubbing her nose and talking to her in Eulan instead.

As Maric approached, Dara looked up and gave him a smile that filled his heart.

"Can we go for a walk along the river?"

"Hmm, I don't know," Maric said, turning to look at Brayan.

"Can I be alone for once in my life?"

Brayan's expression pinched, instinctively reluctant but after a moment of thought he tilted his head in resignation.

"We've scouted the valley. There's only one way down and we have eyes on it. Take that horse with you in case of dangerous wildlife and you'll hear no complaints from me."

"If you need us, we won't be far," Maric promised.

"I just need to not be a prince for a little while."

"A reasonable request," Brayan acknowledged.

"There's nothing urgent happening right now and Bug will be out for hours. You can relax and forget about duty for a little while."

"Thank you, Brayan. You take care of your own needs, too. I'm sure you have them, though you like to pretend otherwise."

"Hmm," Brayan said, shooting Maric the slightest hint of a smile before giving them a wave and walking away.

Dara smiled and shook his head as he threw a blanket over Farah's back.

"He's changed."

"He has," Maric agreed.

"I used to be scared of him."

Dara whistled, short and sharp and Farah followed obediently after them as they began walking out of camp.

"I mean... I used to be scared of a lot of people, including you but he seemed particularly cold."

"He was, in a way. Not cruel, mind you. Not unnecessarily but cold... yes."

"I hope he's happier now."

"I feel like happiness or lack of it didn't even used to factor into his life. He's an ambitious man, in his own way and sometimes I wonder if that didn't get the better of him. He wasn't born an important man. He earned his position and he's very aware that he's young for the role he serves. I hope he's beginning to realise that he's a person, not just a vessel for duty and his feelings both exist and matter."

"I think Bug is a good match for him."

Dara picked a flowering weed and offered it to Farah... she happily accepted.

"Even without everything Bug has been through, his poor health... I get the impression he's a gentle person. That he always has been. I'm sure he's more timid than he once was but he's not like me. I feel like Brayan needs someone who will look to him in that way. Not necessarily as an authority or even as a protector, just... a balance to his own nature."

"I agree," Maric said.

"I feel like we balance one another out in different ways. I wouldn't necessarily say that we're extremely similar people but we're certainly not opposites or counter weights."

"That's true. Attraction works in many ways."

[queerbluefae]

Ikeseries ships

Ikesen version

Mild nsfw //

Hideyoshi x Mitsuhide

Loyal inadvertant ladies man who is in unrequited love w his lord and wily fox who breathes secrets and lies, rivals to lovers/coworkers to lovers, 4k words-

Hide: *pushing Mitsu up against the wall, yelling at him to tell the truth for once*

Mitsu w a smirk: u want to kiss me so bad

Ofc its just a way for Mitsu to distract the man but maybe it leads to something more...?

Hideyoshi x Nobunaga

You cant tell me Nobunaga hasn't called Hide to his bed chambers at least once. Come on now. Hideyoshi is clearly in love w the man and Nobu uses that accordingly 😏

Nobu doesn't actually love his vassal the same way though so it only ends in heartbreak for poor Hide 😭

Nobunaga x Kicho

Friends to lovers to enemies to-

These 2 have sm potential but I need Kicho's route for more details.

Nobunaga x Kennyo

THE ANGST. THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS. THE HATE SEX. God they're so messy. But we love it 😏

Shingen x Kenshin

Enemies to friends to lovers

Flirt w a heart of gold x yandere. These two broken men find solace in each other but its a rocky road (lol) full of violence, sexual tension, respect and tragedy.

Shingen x Yukimura

Yuki has a huge crush on Shingen but Shingen only sees him as a son-oh the angst of an age gap romance!

Yukimura x Sasuke

Best buds who end up more than friends

Ieyasu x Mitsunari

Tsundere x angel who is immune to his tsun-ness (is that a word lol).

Honestly these two r great. They have a lot of canon interactions to go off of and the dynamic is just *chef's kiss*. Ieyasu is always irritated w Mitsunari but behind his brusque tongue & irritability he cares a lot for the man. Mitsunari sees past all the barbs and understands him more than anyone realises.

Shingen x Kennyo

They give divorced vibes. Shingen still flirts w the scarred man but Kennyo is intent on pushing his ex away while he's on this foolish revenge path, not wanting to hurt him anymore than he already had.

Kennyo x Ranmaru

Yes, age gap bad blah blah blah BUT omg devoted student who will do anything for his master, even go against his lord & beliefs? Perfect recipe for a good ship methinks.

Masamune x Yukimura

Blue and red. Need I say more?

No but seriously I wish they interacted more because they have great potential. I can imagine Masa doting on Yuki, keeping him well-fed, both foodwise and in bed haha. They've got good banter and a great mix of clashing personalities. I can see Masa having a lot of fun teasing the lad.

And ofc enemies to lovers for the win!

Masamune x Ieyasu

Similar to above Masa loves teasing the spikey-haired hedgehog and seeing his reactions. Its his favourite pastime. But is there something more going on between the two...? 👀

Motonari x Kicho

Working together for a common goal, Kicho would mellow out Motonari's fire and Motonari would bring out the passion in Kicho.

Kenshin x Sasuke

Ok but these two would be so funny in a relationship. Kenshin's all: "I will fuck you tonight" and Sasuke, deapan is like: "now that's not part of my job description". Also its Sasuke who ends up doing the fucking 😏

Shingen x Ranmaru

Ik they haven't interacted like at all but I love the potential of this ship. Shingen romancing pretty boy Ranmaru to get at Nobunaga, not knowing Ranmaru works for Kennyo!

Daddy Kennyo would be mighty upset w his old friend when he finds out XD.

Shingen: haha and so Ranmaru's my paramour now-

*Kennyo immediately drawing his hidden sword from his staff*

Shingen, dodging: whoa, take it easy there, old friend

Ranmaru, calling from the sidelines: i told u he wouldn't take it well

Nobunaga x Ieyasu

Ieyasu has a lot of respect for his lord but what happens when he's called to his bedchamber for a night of passion?!

Ieyasu: I respect him but not /that/ much

Me: u do what I say, puppet man

Ok but haughty lord who expects everyone to bend to his will meet prickly Ieyasu who doesn't give a fuck. I'd love to see it personally.

Kenshin x Yoshimoto

Calm, sorrowful Yoshimoto has the ability to ground the lethal Kenshin when his violent tendencies get too much. They also would look gorgeous together ngl.

Motonari x Yoshimoto

Again, I feel like Yoshimoto has the ability to calm people and I feel like the unpredictable Motonari needs that & would get hooked on the man. Plus, pirates r a very homoerotic group, what with them being alone at sea w just each other for company (look it up! History is great) and Yoshi would be considered a great beauty among them-Motonari would be beating the other men off with a stick!

Motonari x Ranmaru

Idk abt personality wise but I had an idea for an au where Ranmaru pretends to be a cabin boy on Motonari's ship in order to get info and all the pirates r won over by his charming, idol-like persona-except Motonari. Ranmaru is determined to crack the man's devil may care facade, at first because of his mission but quickly changes to his own interest. Idk i just think that'd be neat :)

Mitsuhide x Ranmaru

Mitsuhide suspects Ranmaru's up to something and in order to find out the truth he gets closer to the lad. When Ranmaru is found out to be a traitor Mitsuhide is the one who must torture him but he can't bear to do it and lets him go. For Ranmaru's part he has fallen for the man and torn between his loyalty to his master and love for Mitsuhide. The angst is piping hot.

Keiji x Kanetsugu

Something definitely happened between these two while they were spying together 😏 no doubt abt it. This ship got that good enemies to friends to lovers vibe going on and I for one think they'd be a power couple.

Shingen x Kanetsugu

But what abt Kenshin?! you ask. Kanetsugu is definitely in love with his lord. And Shingen knows it. But that man would flirt with a pole. He has absolutely no scruples when it comes to flirting and loves trying to get a reaction out of Kanetsugu. He knows just the spots to poke too.

Kenshin x Kanetsugu

Kanetsugu: My lord, I would do anything for you.

Kenshin: Kneel.

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Ok so maybe thats more something Nobu would say to Hideyoshi but fanon doesn't have to be canon compliant!!! Whereas Hideyoshi would choke and splutter being told that by his lord, Kanetsugu would remain stoic and silently do as he was ordered. Kenshin would probably get bored of this behaviour and idk if he'd ever feel romantic love for his vassal...ooh the angst!

Nobunaga x Keiji

I can imagine Nobunaga getting bored of Keiji's mask and figuring out ways to rip it open and mess it up.

Nobunaga x Yukimura

Nobunaga captures Yukimura, wanting to use him against his lord but Nobu would get more than he bargained for with this fiery man. Nobunaga would tell him to kneel and Yukimura would spit in his face.

Nobunaga: Come now, pup, there's no need for that. Just /give in/ and it'll all be over...

Yukimura: fuck. off.

The battle of wills would be delicious.

Shingen x Ieyasu

What if Ieyasu got sent to Kai as a hostage instead of Azuchi? Shingen's a softie so he'd look out for the lad and a feeling of protectiveness would start to bloom in him. Ieyasu respects the man but thinks of him as too much of a flirt to take his advances seriously until one day Shingen snaps and...let's just say things escalate 😏👀

Kennyo x Yoshimoto

Idk they just compliment each other aesthetically. Rugged Kennyo vs beautiful porcelain doll Yoshimoto. They're both so calm and carry a dark burden i think they'd bond over.

[Alright this post is big enough. I'm sure there r more potential ikesen ships and I'll edit this post if I think of any accordingly. Let me know what u think!]

[teasty]

hold on tight || b.c (m)

"hi! can you write something about streetracer!chan x f reader where things got heated up 🥺🥺 i really like your works by the way, kiss yourself really is one of my jisung’s fav fic !!" - anon

a/n: holyashjdljzhldsa just the thought of streetracer!chan makes me... omg i don’t even KNOW, i'd actually go crazy... and omg tysm! that means so much to me :,( and you're gonna have to excuse me since there's so many things heated could mean i'm just gonna make it angsty and smutty,, also kinda went off for a fluffy ending because it's bang chan, the christiano bangnaldo, how can i not???

● pairing: bang chan x (fem) reader

● genre: a lil bit of fluff at the beginning | angst | smut (mdi!)

● warnings: chan acts like a dick but he really isn't | illegal gambling/street racing | established relationship | angry sex | (of course) car sex | hair pulling | degradation + praise | dom!chan, sub!reader | fighting :( | semi - public sex | profanity | suggestive dialogue | reader slaps chan once :( | unprotected sex (please be safe!) | choking | kind of a quickie???? | super happy ending because i'm sappy like that

● requested? yes!

● words: 8.7k

→ summary:

You’ve never known about your boyfriend’s secret and very illegal job, if you could even call it that.

"Shut up, buckle up and hold on tight 'cause it's gonna be one hell of a night for us, darling."

It’s a cold, rainy night. You’re waiting comfortably on the couch, sitting there wrapped up in one of Chan’s blankets, waiting ever so patiently for his return. He’s not usually out this late, neither did his job usually end this late. Your mind was getting the worst kinds of ideas as you held your phone in your hand, more worry than anger coming over you. You couldn’t be mad at him, really, you were just worried something happened to him, since he wasn’t picking up your calls or even looking at your texts.

It’s around midnight, and you swore you wouldn’t sleep until you watched Chan, in all his glory, walk through the front door of your guys’s shared apartment. You’ve been dating Chan for years, ever since high school. And, now, even after graduating college and finding a stable job and apartment, Chan still tended to keep things from you. It was a bad habit of his, yes, but you couldn’t really be too mad at him for it. Besides, you’ll be able to help him out of that habit. Once he comes back, at least.

To wait, you decided to watch a bit of television to let your mind wander from the thought of something bad happening to Chan. Of course, the subtle thought of him cheating crossed your mind a few times, but Chan’s only ever been the most loyal and dedicated boyfriend, even past his pretty hard shell. He acts pretty tough sometimes, but you know that he’s just a little bit insecure about himself on the inside. Which, to you, is completely normal. Everyone’s at least a little bit insecure. You couldn’t blame him for that.

Getting with Chan was actually very difficult at first. You both had a rocky start before you started dating, since Chan was kind of like the cliche popular bad boy, and you were the snarky book nerd. You both started off arguing and bickering about everything. But, when you both got closer and closer, you began to see a softer, kinder side to him. And, like magic, you two started dating. You don’t really remember how it happened. It might’ve been just Chan saying, “Wanna date me?” or something like that just ‘cause it’s simple. However, getting it past your parents about your relationship with Chan was the most difficult in the world. They did not approve of him whatsoever. Even today, they’re still cautious of him even though Chan’s already proven his loyalty to you and swore to your parents that he’d never lay an aggressive finger on you.

You’re parents didn’t really like him because of his choice of outfits and friends, which was a stupid way to judge somebody in your opinion. So, no matter how many times they tried to break things off or distance you from Chan, you two always found your way back to each other. Though it was fun, all the sneaking out at three in the morning, saying you’re going over to a friends house when you’re really going to go see Chan and all the late night calls in a hushed tone, you’re glad you can finally relax about it and live peacefully with Chan without the need to sneak around.

But, your mind hasn’t been so peaceful these last few hours. There’s still no sign of Chan and no opened messages. You gave up on calling him after the fifth call had gone unanswered, and just decided to wait. Clutching your phone to your chest in case he were to call or text. Your eyes switch between the screen and the front door (which led into the living room).

You nearly jumped out of your blanket when your phone started ringing obnoxiously loud. Your heart beat loudly as you scrambled to look at the caller’s I.D. And, thankfully, it’s Chan. You’ve never answered so quickly.

“Chan?” Your excited voice squeaked out when you brought the phone close to your ear, a bright smile etching over your lips. Just happy that he’s in contact with you.

“Hey, darling,” Chan’s voice was husky and tired, and a little deeper than you remember. He must be exhausted, and you wondered if he had to stay late at work, “I’m so sorry for being out late. I’ll be home soon.”

“Alright… Is everything okay? What were you doing out so late?” You ask carefully, wrapping the blanket tightly around you.

“Work. My boss had me work over time. I would have texted you, but I was pretty busy,” in the distance, you can hear the sound of his car’s engine. He must be driving pretty fast. Chan also has a really nice car he saved up for and worked really hard for. It’s a smaller, good looking and really, really fast car. You could recognize that engine anywhere.

“Oh… I’m sorry about that,” You respond after a moment.

“It’s alright. Nothing to worry too much over,” you can hear Chan’s smile even through the phone, “And, by the way, could you do something for me before I get home?”

“Sure.”

“Could you make me something small to eat? I didn’t have the chance to eat dinner at work. If you could do that, that’d be so great, baby.” Chan says, and you get up off of the couch. Already heading for the kitchen.

“I could make you some jjajangmyeon? We have all the ingredients,” you say, surfing through your pantry.

“That’d be great, (Y/N). Thank you,” Chan sighs through the phone, and you pull out the ingredients.

“Of course. When will you be home?” You ask before he could hang up.

“I’ll be home in the next ten to fifteen minutes, at the least.” He says, and you can hear the engine get a little bit louder behind him, “I have to focus on the road. I’ll be home soon. I love you, baby.”

“Love you, too, Chan.” You respond, and hang up. Now with the satisfaction and the relief of knowing Chan’s coming home, you separate the ingredients out and start cooking (thank god you took that home economics class back in high school. You couldn’t cook for shit before that). Since Jjajangmyeon is a pretty slow cooked dish, you try your best with temperature control to fit it into the timeframe for when Chan gets home, wanting it to be ready for him.

You had your hair tied back as you cooked, occasionally looking up to watch the television, which was still on the random news channel from before. It talked about things you weren’t too interested in, so you only kept it on for background noise.

You were so immersed in cooking, you didn’t even notice the door slamming open and closed and a pair of heavy footsteps walking up to the kitchen. You jumped when Chan’s arms wrapped around your waist, his chin planting itself on your shoulder. He laughs tiredly at your reaction, and you turn to give him a subtle glare, but your smile deceived you.

“Hey, baby. I’m sorry for coming home so late. I promise it wasn’t my intention,” Chan grumbles out, his words low and slightly slurred, mostly because he’s tired.

“It’s alright, don’t apologize,” you chuckle softly as you arrange two portions of the jjajangmyeon into two different bowls. Chan watches silently over your shoulder, “I’m just glad you’re home. You worried me. Please text me next time, before you stay overtime and don’t bother texting me. I worry a lot, you know?”

“I know, (Y/N). I know you worry too much for your own good,” Chan smiles softly, chuckling tiredly, “It’s one of the reasons I love you so much.”

You smile, flustered, and raise a warm hand to press against Chan’s cheek, turning your head to press a loving kiss to his temple, which is cold, even in the warm kitchen. “Dinner’s ready. Do you want to eat in bed?”

“Not if you’ll make me do the dishes directly afterwards,” Chan lets go of you to take his dish, and you take yours.

You cock a brow at him, “I was going to make you do them anyways. You’re not getting out of it that easily.” You giggle and tap his nose with the tip of your finger. “Come on. Take mine, too. I’ll shut everything down.” You hand your bowl to Chan, who takes it quickly as you scurry around, turning off the television. Turning off lights and putting the dishes in the sink.

Once Chan’s changed into more comfortable wear and you’re both comfortable in bed, watching some show on the TV while eating. Time at home was usually like this; relaxing. You’re cuddled up to Chan while he ate slowly. Once you both finished, you placed them on the nightstands for the time being.

Chan was asleep instantly. You were up a bit longer, still a bit run on adrenaline from worrying so much earlier, despite knowing you have to be up early for work. Chan didn’t have to work till the afternoon, but you had to be up early since you’re a librarian at the local public high school. Chan’s an assistant producer and works under a decently big entertainment company. It’s quite the drastic difference, but you being a pretty big book worm yourself, you decided it would be fun to be a librarian (mostly using your literature degree), even if it’s stressful at times. Chan’s work, however, is much more tedious than your own. Where you can usually go at your own pace, he has more strict deadlines and sometimes more difficult work.

So, you let Chan sleep on your stomach. His arms wrapped around you securely as his face nuzzled into the soft fabric of the oversized shirt you were wearing. You were up a bit longer, watching the TV while running your hands through Chan’s soft hair. Enjoying the moment for the time being before you, yourself, drifted off into a deep sleep.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

You were the first one to wake up the next morning, per usual. You woke up to your alarm that Chan thankfully slept through. You got ready as quickly and quietly as you could. Since you work in a pretty professional environment, you wear something modest, but fits well with the fall weather and your fashion style. You wore a white long sleeved shirt and a pair of black slacks under a jacket with your university’s logo on it and a pair of sneakers. They weren’t too big on dress code for the teachers at the school, but the students still had to wear uniforms.

Before you left, you made Chan lunch for the day and yourself a lunch. You even bothered to wake him up briefly to give him a kiss goodbye and that you’ll be back early afternoon, although he’ll probably be at work, then. Chan, although three fourths asleep, gave you a tight hug and a kiss with a slurred ‘Love you’ before plopping back onto the bed and instantly falling back asleep.

Although Chan had quite the expensive car, he wasn’t quite fond of you driving it. You have your own car, and it’s fine. Mostly used to drive to and from work and nothing more, since most other things you were with Chan, so you both usually took his car. It’s not so much a matter of richer and poorer, his car just had more little trinkets and things that are just more convenient. You’re not completely sure what model his car is, all you know is that it’s expensive.

The school isn’t too far. It’s actually a ten minute drive from your apartment. You have to make it there pretty early, so the roads aren’t jam packed like they would be when Chan has to drive to work. So, you have a bit of an advantage there. When you get there, you’re met with the people in the front office, who bow respectfully to you, and you make your way to the library.

You set up at the large, round desk. You especially like being a librarian, because it’s quiet. You don’t think you’d do too well as a teacher, so you settled for a librarian since it was a good and easy way to use your literature degree and put it to good use, other than the fact you’re writing a novel, but that’s a whole other story (hehet).

It’s about half an hour before some students pile in, bidding you good morning and sitting down at the tables to study for whatever assignment or test they have, or to finish homework. Some of them go around to look at books, but most just sit by their lonesome and work on whatever while blasting profane music into their poor ears.

You were busying yourself going through overdue books, and emailing parents about student’s overdue books. You were immersed in your work, so you were somewhat shocked when someone tapped your shoulder. When you turned, you were met with the smiling face of your coworker. A middle aged, pretty woman named Jung Migyeong, who gave you the permission to call her ‘unnie’. She’s considerably your work - best friend. She’s the only person who really delved into conversation with you, unlike most of the other teachers who only talked to you about whatever book they’re class reading or for book suggestions (and you just choose the first book in the library that comes to mind).

“Oh, you scared me!” You giggle in a hushed tone, and Eunmi smiled brightly, her motherly aura giving you a sense of calmness.

“Sorry, sorry!” Eunmi sits on your desk, more leaning against it. Eunmi is really a pretty lady. Her hair is cut short to her shoulders, and she never wears makeup. Her natural tone is without blemishes or acne. She always wears pretty dresses to work, and she always carries around her purse for some odd reason. “I wanted to catch up with you. I didn’t realize you were so immersed in your work. I should’ve known, you’re more responsible than half the teachers here.”

“I try, I really do,” You respond, leaning back in the chair and smiling up at her, “Do you have a free period for the first hour?”

Eunmi nods, “Yes, I do. They switched it up just ‘cause of something wrong in the student's schedules. But, that’s past the point. How have things been going? In the home life?”

You shrug a shoulder, your smile dropping, “It’s… going. My boyfriend didn’t come home until, like, twelve - thirty last night. He said he had to stay late for work, but I don’t get it, Eunmi. He wouldn’t answer my calls or texts, and I don’t think his job prevents him from at least opening a text until he gets off, you know?”

“You said he’s a producer, right?” Eunmi asks, her head tilting down to look at you more clearly. You nod, “Well, he might’ve been busy with the idol. It’s pretty difficult work, I’m surprised he’s been able to keep up with it well.”

“Well, he came home hungry and tired,” you sigh again, “Which is weird because if he stays late he usually grabs something from the kitchen at the company building or fast food and eats it before he comes home. But, he was hungry… not super hungry, but I made him jjajangmyeon.”

"Jajangmyeon?" Eunmi’s head tilts, and one brow lifts and she scoffs, “That’s like a fifty minute dinner.”

“Not if you toy around with the temperatures, no,” you smile, and Eunmi shrugs a shoulder, “Eh, I was the one who suggested it to him. It’s one of his favorites, and he sounded exhausted and overworked so I though, you know, might as well. But, after eating, he was out like a light. You wouldn’t think that producing would make someone so tired.”

“You never know,” Eunmi reassures, “You seem to be really worried about this. You don’t think he’s cheating, do you?”

You quickly shake your head, “No, no! I know him, and I know that he would never do that to me. I think he’s just trying to hide something from me. I’m not mad at him, I just don’t want him to keep anything from me.”

“You’re not mad… yet!” Eunmi corrects, and your lips purse, “If he’s really hiding something from you, it must be pretty big. I would personally be surprised if you were able to keep your temper if you found out whatever it is he’s hiding. Cheating or not.”

You’ve never really been one to get extremely mad or even start arguments. As said before, you and Chan did have petty arguments back in high school, but since then, you’ve both matured. Chan always shut down a fight if you were getting too agitated, and you were usually never the first one to start up an argument, since your patience isn’t as thin as before. You will admit, though, you’d be decently upset if you found out Chan really was hiding something from you. You trust him so much, you thought there should’ve been nothing to hide.

“I suppose you’re right,” you lean your head against your hand, resting your elbow on the desk, “If there’s a good chance, I’ll talk to him about it tonight. If I want things to really work out with him, then there has to be complete trust and honesty with each other.”

“That’s the spirit,” Eunmi proudly says, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with him, unnie,” you admit shamelessly, and Eunmi smiles wistfully, “I want to grow old with him. But I don’t want to live waking up every day at four in the morning and coming home to no one for hours on end. And, sometimes he won't come till midnight or morning.”

“Well, my husband and I used to have a lot of secrets, too. That we kept from each other,” Eunmi admits, reassuring you that you’re not the only one going through something like this, “The only way we were able to sort things through was by sitting down and talking to each other. Just telling all of our secrets to each other, even if they’re embarrassing or stupid. Just knowing the fact that we can trust each other with everything gives us that reassurance that we’re meant to be. Honesty is everything.”

You look down, thinking about the advice Eunmi had just given you, and you swallow down the growing lump of frustration in your throat, “Thank you for the advice, unnie. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course. I’m always free to talk, and you have my number if anything happens,” Eunmi smiles fondly, “And my doors are always open to you. I’ve spoken to my husband about you and he said that he’s always willing to keep our doors open. Just in case anything happens. You can’t be too careful, right?”

“Right,” you smile, flustered by Eunmi’s kindness, “Thank you so much. I’m… you’re right. If the worst of the worst happens and I’m booted out of my own apartment, then I’m at least glad to know that there’s some place I can go to that’s not three cities over.”

Eunmi laughs softly, and you laugh along with her, “I’m glad. Anyways, it’s about that time. I’m going to start heading back to my classroom. Let Chan know that I said hello, and that I wish you both well. Good luck, (Y/N).”

“Thanks, unnie. I’ll call you later,” you wave briefly as Eunmi makes her way out of the library, students bowing briefly to her as she passes.

You’re glad to have a friend like Eunmi. You’re lucky to have someone open their doors to you. Sometimes, you wonder if Eunmi views you as a younger sister, since she constantly rambles on and on about how she loves being called unnie or noona by her younger coworkers, even if she’s among the younger teachers. She’s like the sister you’ve never had. Sure, things had to be professional, but you’d like to spend more time with her out of the workplace. That would be fun.

The rest of the day is pretty slow. You had a few classes come in to pick up literature books, math books and to check out some books, but that was really it. You didn’t see Eunmi again, and left a few hours after the school closed. There was a bit of traffic on the way home, but it was mostly cleared up.

When you got home, you weren’t surprised to be met with an empty house. No sign of Chan, except the lunch you made him was gone, meaning he took it with him, thankfully, and he left a cute little note on a sticky note saying his thanks to you for making it for him. Which he usually did for you (you never bothered to throw them away. You actually kept them all in a little cigar box for safekeeping. Why? You didn’t know. You just felt like it.)

Like every day when you come home, you change into a pair of more comfortable clothing, which was just one of Chan’s hoodies you took out of his side of the closet, and a pair of ripped jeans. Since Chan didn’t do the dishes before he left, like you thought he would, you decided to do them to pass the time. In doing so, you turned on the TV for some background noise as you rolled up your sleeves to start scrubbing the dishes.

However, your attention was soon caught by the TV when the regular news anchor started talking about crime. At first, it was just about a robbery that took place in uptown, and that didn’t really suit your interest. What did catch your attention, enough to turn off the faucet and ignore the dishes to watch the TV, was when an all - too familiar black car with tinted windows and no license plate appeared on the screen, and there was a red car, too, but you didn’t recognize that one.

You turned up the volume, “Today, police are trying to look for these cars with no license plates caught on camera last night. They were suspected to be illegally street racing and gambling last night at around eleven o’ clock at night before being caught on security footage of a hotel nearby. If you can identify these cars, please contact the police immediately. One has been identified as a black Ferrari SF90 Stradale. The other has yet to be identified. If you see anything suspicious on the streets, please contact authorities. Here’s a clearer picture of both cars.”

And, that’s when it sparked you. One of the pictures of the black Ferrari was of the front. Despite the tinted window, you could clearly see a black ice Little Tree air freshener hanging from the mirror and a familiar hand gripping the wheel tightly. How could you recognize it? Despite the low quality, you can see a familiar ring on the middle finger. A celtic design Chan loved so much.

“Oh… my fucking god,” your mouth drops open as realization hits, and you immediately dash to the bedroom to yank open Chan’s dresser drawer, one left vacant for paperwork to “keep things safe”, and you pull out his insurance for his car. And, there it is, in plain sight. Ferrari SF90 Stradale. Color; black. Windows; tinted. At first, shock pools through you. Doubt climbing up. There’s no way Chan’s a criminal. There’s no way that he’s the one in the Ferrari. It has to be someone else.

But, there was only one way to find out. You had to be sure it was him.

So, you grabbed your purse and your keys and threw on a pair of slip - on vans. The sun was already setting, and you nearly forgot to lock up before running to your car. Barely unlocking it before you throw yourself into it, not even bothering to buckle your seatbelt before driving off to god knows where. Your gut leading you, immediately driving towards the area shown on the news. You pull out your phone, trusting the wheel in one hand as you pull up Chan’s profile and call him, pressing the phone to your ear.

The ringing carries on and on until the familiar voice of Chan speaks up, telling you that he’s not available and to leave a message after the beep.

“Oh, fuck off!” You scream at your phone before trying to call him again. Again and again it led to voicemail. Voicemail after voicemail. You couldn’t text him, not with you driving.

After the tenth call, you let out a frustrated yell, hitting your wheel with your palm and trying your best not to cry. You might be overreacting, since there’s a large chance that it isn’t Chan. But, for some reason, you believed it. You believed, at least somewhat, that it was Chan’s car. That it was Chan in the car. You didn’t want to believe it, but you did.

And your questions coursing through your mind were soon answered when you pulled up to the spot from the news, it now twilight, the sun just being set over the city’s horizon. You pulled onto an empty freeway, and parked in an alley between two buildings. There’s a group of people and a ton of expensive cars around the freeway. There were people crowded around a table. Some girls sat on top of cars, talking and laughing to each other while wearing vulgar and revealing clothes. Your brows furrow, deciding to stay low for a while. You turn off the engine to your car and watch carefully, gripping your phone in your hand. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, popping beer bottles, laughing and talking amongst themselves.

But, it’s when the sound of a loud engine came into earshot, and everyone, including you, turned to see the source of the sound. The moment the crowd of people see who it is, they start to cheer loudly. Throwing up their hands. However, your mouth falls open once more as the black Ferrari SF90 Stradale with tinted windows and a black ice Little Tree air freshener hanging from the rear - view mirror. It pulls up to the crowd, and they all part to make way for it.

Instead of shock or sadness, anger and rage begins to boil inside of you, and you grip your steering wheel tightly as you watch Chan, Christopher Bang, step out of the car. People pat his shoulder, and he smiles widely at them. Giving a few people hugs and even smiling to some of the women, who tried to steal a hug from him, too. He’s wearing clothes you don’t ever remember seeing. He wears a black leather jacket over a white button up and black skinny jeans. You’d be impressed by how good he looks if you weren’t so upset.

You didn’t even have to look at your phone as you pulled up Chan’s profile and called him, pressing the phone roughly to your ear.

“Pick up… Pick the fuck up,” you grumble under your breath as you watch Chan. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, and looks at it briefly.

Not even hesitating to hang up.

As you heard the familiar sound of Chan’s sweet voice telling you he’s not available at the moment and to leave a message after the beep, you finally have enough courage to get out of your car. Slamming the door shut and making your way out of the alley. They’re not too far, but it's a long enough walk for you to catch the eye of some people. You don’t even pause to rethink your decisions when a girl taps the chest of one of the guys, who glares at you with a raised brow.

The man that glared at you stepped away from the crowd, and you could barely see Chan over the people. He walks over to you, and you stop when the man is right in front of you, peering down you. The smell of cheap beer oozing off of him.

“And who the fuck are you?”

“Chan’s girlfriend, now get the fuck out of my way,” you try to push past him, but he grabs you by the arm. Tightly, too. Probably tight enough to leave a bruise after a while. “Hey! Let go of me.”

“No can do, princess,” the man says, smirking mercilessly down at you, his grip not loosening one bit, “Whether or not you’re Chan’s bitch doesn’t matter to me. It’s either you leave or I take you home and we have a good time. Well, I will, at least.” So, you tried to yank your arm from his, trying your best not to use your free hand to punch him in the face.

“Where’s Chan? Bring him to me.” You demand, and the man scoffs, chuckling.

“Fine, have it your way,” the man turns his head towards the crowd, a few people watch, and he says, “Grab Chan. This chick says she’s his girlfriend.” A few of them laugh at him, thinking it’s a joke. But, you stand your ground, glaring through the crowd. One of the people that laughed pushed through a few people. It takes a minute, and there’s a tense silence between you and the man as you try to pry his hand off.

But, as you suspected, a smiling Chan pushes through, but his smile instantly drops when he sees you.

“Hey, Chan. This chick’s babbling on about being your girl. Should I kick-”

“Get your hands off her right now before I shoot you in the face.” Chan interrupts, anger lacing his dark, deep voice. The man holding your arm instantly lets go and steps away, his hands rising in defense. Mumbling something about just ‘trying to keep things safe’. Once the man is away, Chan walks up to you, now being the one tightly gripping your arms. Leaning down so his face is close to yours.

“Why are you here, (Y/N)? Why the hell are you here?” He asks harshly, his voice full of surprise and desperation. He even shakes you slightly.

“You seriously thought I wouldn’t find out?” You snap, ignoring his question all together, “You thought I was dumb enough to let this go under? Well, I’ve been dumb for too long, Christopher. I’m not going to be like that anymore.” You know he’s not too big a fan of being called by his real name, but you do it anyway.

“Go home (Y/N). I’ll explain everything to you afterwards.” Chan says, placing a hand on your shoulder, trying to turn you away.

“No!” You yell, pushing his arms off you, “I am not going home, Chan! I am staying with you. I need to know what the hell all of this is. Right. Now.” You demand, and Chan shakes his head.

“No. You’re going home, (Y/N),” Chan tries to push you away again, his hands gripping your shoulders tightly and trying to turn you from the curious crowd. However, you weren’t going to be let off so easily. You swiftly turned around, letting your flying hand come in contact with Chan’s cheek. Smacking him. You made sure not to backhand him, knowing how much that could hurt. Besides, you don’t want to hurt him too much, you just want to get your point across, and he wasn’t listening to your words. He lets go of you again, his head flinging to the side because of the impact.

“I said no. I’m staying here,” You repeat yourself, and Chan’s eyes no longer lace with aggression, but worry. He doesn’t seem upset that you hit him. In fact, he seems to gloss over it. “I need to know what’s going on-”

You weren’t able to finish your sentence until Chan grabs you by the wrist and pulls you into the crowd. They part to make way for him, and you aren’t able to muster out a sentence before Chan unlocked his car and shoves you forcefully into the passenger seat.

“Chan, what -”

“Shut up, buckle up and hold on tight ‘cause it’s gonna be one hell of a night for us, darling,” Chan snaps, and your lips clamp close at his harsh words. You didn’t expect that out of him. You could nearly cry right there. Chan backs away and slams the door shut, and you quickly scramble to put the seatbelt on as Chan yells something at the crowd, and they erupt in cheers. A few people scramble to get into different cars, and the rest stay back, keeping their distance. However, Chan didn’t seem too pleased as he walked around the car and into the passenger’s seat, locking the doors.

“Chan…”

“Quiet,” Chan snaps, revving the engine of the car. You can faintly hear the cheer of the onlookers behind as Chan pulls alongside the other three cars. A young woman wearing small shorts and an exposed shirt too small for fall walks ahead, and pulls a red cloth out of her back pocket. Her red lips smile bright as she lifts her red cloth. She holds up one finger, and Chan’s engine growls from behind, the car shaking along with it. Your hands go to grip the first thing, which is the cup holder in the center console and the door. Bracing yourself for what’s about to happen.

“Chan!”

“I said quiet!” Chan yells, sparing you a glance and your brows creased with worry as the woman holds up a second finger, and Chan’s hand grips the wheel as the other rests over the buttons.

She doesn’t hold up a third finger. Instead, she throws down the red cloth, and the moment she does so, Chan is off on the road. His foot slammed against the gas as he pushed his back against the seat and used one hand to effortlessly steer. You feel so impossibly scared in the car. A small part of you was debating whether or not you should have gone home, but you knew that it was the right decision to stay. To truly understand what’s been going on and what this is all about.

You try your best not to scream as the loud engine nearly bursts your eardrums.

“Chan… Chan, stop the car!” You scream, the need to vomit creeping up, even though you try to gulp it down.

“I can’t, (Y/N). I really can’t right now.” He says loudly over the engine.

“Please, Chan, just stop the car…!” You yell out again, and Chan finally glances at you, seeing your distressed look before his head snaps ahead again.

His hand swiftly reaches over to grip your thigh, as if trying to prove that you’re secure, “Calm down, (Y/N). You’ll be fine. We’re fine. I’m not stopping the car. Sorry, but I just can’t.”

“I should hate you for this, Chan!” You say, and you can see the way his knuckles turn white from gripping the wheel. “But I can’t… I just… Goddamn it, why!?”

“I can’t tell you that right now!” He yells back, looking over briefly before making a sharp turn, making you clutch onto the seat belt for protection, his hand now back over the buttons, “You just need to sit there until this is over, got it? I don’t care how scared you are, you’re gonna get through it like the strong woman you are, (Y/N), and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

You look over to Chan, and his lips are downturned, his brows furrowed and his eyes glossed over, as if he could cry right there.

“But why didn’t you just tell me?! We wouldn’t be like this right now if you just told me, Chan, and that’s the truth.” You yell over the engine, and Chan bitterly and breathily chuckles, shaking his head as an angry smile casts over his lips.

“You wouldn’t have stayed with me if I told you, (Y/N), you know that.” His voice is a little softer. If any softer, you wouldn’t have heard him. “You would’ve left me.”

Your mouth falls open, and you shake your head, “Never… Never! Never, ever, accuse me of that. I would never leave you even if you killed a man, Chan, and that’s the truth!” He doesn’t respond. He doesn’t even look at you as he turns another sharp corner, and you can see the other cars following behind, closing in. He sees it, too, and he presses some buttons you didn’t bother reading and slams his foot on the gas again. You let out a deep breath, still clutching the seat belt, “I just want to know why, Chan. Why are you resulting to this even though you have a stable job at the entertainment company, I-... I just want you to be honest with me.”

“I’ll tell you later, (Y/N). Just sit tight and keep your mouth shut. I need to focus or we’ll fucking crash, you got it!” He yells, and you flinch at his harsh tone. Finally keeping quiet.

The race seems like it lasts forever, when it was probably only five minutes. With sharp twists and turns and screeching of the engine in wheels, it feels like torture. You hate this, but there’s no backing out yet.

Chan doesn’t utter a word. Only cursing at the other cars when they do something that they weren’t supposed to do, or somehow start catching up to him. You let a few tears slip as you watch his hands and Chan as he focuses solely on the road. The lump in your throat is growing bigger and bigger, and swallowing it down seems to get more and more difficult.

But, it’s over at some point. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and Chan finally slowed down after reaching a pathetic excuse of a finish line. Your trembling hands grip the hem of the hoodie you were wearing as Chan comes to a steady stop. People come cheering as the other three cars pull up behind, being careful not to bump into anyone from the crowd. You breath heavily, and look over to Chan, who rolls down his window, plastering a triumphant smile on his lips.

“I don’t even get why I race against you, mate. You always win. Just take the money and get outta here,” says one of the racers playfully, tossing Chan a briefcase through the window.

“Thanks man. Good race,” Chan says, “Now, I have business to attend to. If you’ll excuse me.”

He rolls up the window, and the man who handed Chan the briefcase smacks the window playfully as Chan rushes off, his smile instantly vanishing as he goes through backgrounds to try and get to a main road without drawing too much attention. Chan’s smile drops, and he hands you the briefcase.

“You want to know so badly? Open it and be careful. It’ll be hell to clean up if you drop it,” Chan grumbles, looking over as you look to him for reassurance. He only gives you a cocked brow as you look back to the case in your lap before unlocking it and opening it. Your jaw falls as you look at the thousands of bills stacked on top of each other, rubber bands holding equal stacks together, and you gawk at just how much money Chan won from one race.

After a minute of you staring at the money, Chan slams the case closed in your lap, locking it with one hand and tossing it in the backseat making you jump at how hasty he is.

You both sit there, Chan driving to god knows where in tense silence. You're holding your head in your hands as Chan shifted his gaze between you and the road.

It’s about fifteen minutes until you look up, surprised that he’s still driving and nowhere near home. It’s an emptier city, but Chan seems to know the area well.

“Chan, where are we?” You ask, but Chan gives no answer. Only driving a bit further before pulling into an alley between two old buildings. “Chan, I said -”

You were quickly by Chan yanking off his seatbelt and leaning over the center console to firmly grab your face and pull you into a rough kiss. It isn’t too rushed, but it’s not at all gentle. You’re caught by surprise at first, but couldn’t help melting into it. It’s almost instinct at this point to kiss him back, but you push him away after a moment. “What… What the fuck are you doing?”

“Kissing you,” Chan answers briefly before grabbing locks of your hair at the back of your head and pulling you into another kiss, his other hand creeping down to unbuckle your seatbelt, and you let it slam against the car as it flies off you.

“No, Chan… We need to talk,” You grumble out as you try to pull away, and he presses wet, sloppy kisses to the side of your mouth. His eyes are fluttered shut, and your’s are half lidded. You will admit, you love this. The kisses and how unnaturally aggressive Chan is being. But, you knew that you have to talk things out, or you’d never get to figure out how the hell things turned out like this, “Chan, I’m serious right now.”

“Then relax, baby,” Chan breathily whispers out, and your thighs squeeze together, “Let me make things up to you, okay? I’ll fuck you so good, baby.” He pulls away for a moment, and he stares at you with a teasing smirk, “Think of it as my apology, alright?”

“Chan, I’m… I’m - ah! Chan!” You gasp when Chan’s lips come in contact with the side of your neck. Your neck is already tilting to give him more room, despite trying pathetically to push him away. There’s no getting through to him anymore. You’ve passed the point of no return, and there’s not much you could get past him without slapping him again. And that didn’t seem like a very good idea to you. Your hand flies up to grip the back of his neck, the other loosely clutching the hem of his button up.

“You know that… ah… that we are going to talk about this at some point…” you groan out, and Chan only groans against your neck, sucking on the sensitive skin. “You can’t get out of it like this…”

“Shut it, (Y/N),” Chan snaps, and your head falls back. Chan leans his seat back, aggressively grabbing you by the thighs to pull you over and sit on top of him. Straddling his waist despite it being such a tight environment. He pulls you down by the hoodie, into another kiss. You could feel how frustrated Chan is by the way he grips you tightly, as if you’re going to magically vanish, and by how he talks to you.

It’s rushed, too. Chan is impossibly quick to pull up your hoodie, his hot, sweaty hands creeping up your warm back, caressing it with a different, quick sense of gentleness. His lips connect with yours once again. His tongue already pressing against your lips. The quick, sloppy kiss all too lust filled. The erotic sounds coming from the both of you almost making you gloss over the fact that you should still be very mad at Chan. But, you just can’t find the need to pull away from him. You need to let off the steam, too.

You flush your body firm against him, one hand on his chest and the other by his head, holding onto the head of the seat for support. Breathing as slowly as you can through your nose to savor the air Chan so selfishly takes from you from the heated kiss. Your thoughts begin to vanish and your worry and concern for Chan’s life choices begin to falter for the time being. So immersed in the heated kiss to forget about it entirely. All your focus is now on Chan. You can tell how stressed he is, and the loving part of you wants to help him let off that steam. But, now, you’re in the same boat. So, he’s going to have to do so much for you as you’ve been doing for him.

Chan’s hands don’t bother to hesitate before they loop underneath your jeans, not caring to unbutton them as he tries his best to pull them off by himself. Because of how restricted you both are because of the size of the car, you had to do it yourself. You parted from the kiss and pressed your head against his shoulder to unbutton your jeans and pull them down as quickly as you could before throwing them in the back (along with your shoes and socks. You can already see how hard Chan’s gotten as his rough hands massage and knead your ass, only covered by the thin, black cloth keeping you at least somewhat covered. But, if this was like any other time, they’d be gone quicker than you’d imagine.

Your hands fly up again once your pants are thrown to the back, resting on either side of Chan’s head as he grips your hips, grinding your womanhood against his clothed hardon (you’re also clothed, but it’s so wet from your juices that it basically attaches itself to your skin). His head throws itself back, his eyes closing and a pleasure filled smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. You press yourself against him, now propped up to be looming over him, sitting on him.

When you do press against him, his head snaps forward again, and his dark eyes glare up at you, “Don’t start getting proud, (Y/N). I’m gonna fucking break you.” His hand crawls up to grip your face in his hand. One of your hands weakly comes up to grip his wrist. His hand moving down to grip your throat, and your lips part blissfully as his fingers press into the sides of your neck, still allowing airflow through you. “Oh, fuck. You like being choked, huh? You like being choked like a slut don’t you?” You don’t answer, too nervous to and too caught up in the pleasure to actually let something other than a moan escape your lips.

“Talk to me, (Y/N). Use your fucking words,” Chan growls, and you swallow. The lump in your throat pressing painfully, yet blissfully against Chan’s hand.

“Fuck me, Chris. Fuck me…” You utter out his name, and Chan’s brow raises. But, he smirks nonetheless and lets go of your neck, and you let out a breath as he undoes his jeans and pulls them down to his feet. His hand palming his clothed cock briefly before pulling it out. His hard dick already leaking with precum.

“Condom…” You mutter, and Chan shakes his head. You look up to him with worry.

“Trust me, baby,” he mutters, and you sigh, leaning against him, pressing your body against his as Chan moves your panties out of the way before he aligns your throbbing cunt with his dick, and slowly pushing himself into you, raw. As his raw cock slowly becomes engulfed by your heat, Chan lets out low groans. Your face nuzzles into the side of his neck as Chan slowly guides you down until you’re sitting on his cock.

At first, he stays there like that. Not moving. You suspect it’s because the sane part of him wants you to get used to the feeling of his cock so deep in you without a condom, but Chan seems to keep you there for a few moments just for the sake of how good it feels without a condom. The way his head is leaned back, his lips slightly ajar and his eyes fluttered shut.

But, it doesn’t last long before Chan’s strong arms wrap around your waist, holding you up and starts ramming into you. His hips move so quickly, yet so efficiently as he burns your wet walls. You erupt in a series of loud moans, mixtures of Chan’s name and curses spilling out, too. Chan groans sometimes, right next to your ear. The sound of skin slapping against the fabric of Chan’s boxers echoing through the air tight car.

Your pussy burns from how fast Chan thrusts into you, keeping you at a steady position so he could have an easier time ramming himself into you without the difficulty of it being such a confined and restrictive place in the car (especially in the driver’s seat). The burn is so good for you, though. It’s such a numbing, euphoric feeling that you’ll crave later. A type of burn you could never provide yourself, only Chan.

Chan’s hands go from gripping your body to sliding up your side to gripping your hair and yanking your head back so he could look at you. A judgemental, sexy smirk adorning his lips as he sees how fucked out you are. Your mouth open as you moan, and your half lidded eyes occasionally closing from the bliss.

“Fucking hell… you’re so good for me, (Y/N). You take my cock so fucking well, don’t you?” You let out a choked moan as Chan’s hand grips harder on your hair, craning your neck. “Mmm… Baby girl can’t even talk to me… I know I said to shut it…” he laughs darkly through his moans, and your moans get louder when Chan lets go of your hair, letting your face fall back onto his shoulder as his hands grip your ass. Kneading them as he fucks himself into you. You clench helplessly around his cock.

“Oh… fuck, you’re gonna cum, aren’t you? You wanna cum around my cock, baby girl?” You nod frantically, your climax climbing up as you push your body back to meet with Chan’s aggressive thrusts. Your overstimulated cunt only being destroyed by Chan’s cock as he thrusts harder into you, his hips staggering slightly as you clench around him. “Mmm! - Cum for me, baby. Cum for me.” Chan growls out as his hand grips your face again, forcing your head up as your eyes roll into the back of your head, a loud string of moans escaping your lips as you cum all over Chan’s cock, and he pulls out just quick enough to spurt out a string of cum along your ass.

He lets go of your face, and you breath heavily as you rest your head on Chan’s chest, closing your eyes to catch your breath. A burning sensation still resting in your core as you relax, your womanhood’s muscles contracting every now and then from the orgasm.

Chan cleans you both up with a napkin he had in the center console and helped you put your jeans back on (deciding to toss your soiled panties) and he slipped his jeans back on silently. It’s not until you’re sitting on his lap, resting your head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat when he speaks.

“You know I love you so much, right?” Chan mumbles out, and you look up to him. “I was so mean to you today… when you must’ve been so confused.” His head falls back, and he looks out the window with a longing look in his eyes, “I’m the worst boyfriend in the world, aren’t I?”

“No, you’re not. Don’t even think things like that. Yes, I am still a bit upset, but you know what? We’re going to get past this because I love you, too, Channie.” You stare at him with an adoring expression adorning your sparkling eyes (trying to ignore the burning in your core).

“You… You want to know the real reason I’m a street racer, (Y/N)? Why the fuck I'm doing this?” Chan asks softly, his hand stroking your hair.

“If you could… I’ve been asking all day,” you chuckle softly, and Chan smiles bitterly.

“Well… I… I’m doing this all for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“No job will pay for the things I want to give you, (Y/N).” He turns over, reaching into the center console to pull out a black box, and your eyes widen as he opens it. You can’t see it, but you can barely see the sparkle of a something reflective. “I… I couldn’t pay for this myself. I knew I couldn’t. I hate how this is how I’m asking you… but, (Y/N), will you-”

“Oh my god, yes!”

[thatblondeperson]

Oh hope I didn't mean to bother you with my TimSteph question on some problems in their relationship. I agree with you completely People blow their issues out of proportion. Like you said all comic couples have had their ups and down. I mean Dick Grayson once said he owned Starfire, cheated on her with Barbara before their wedding, said he didn't love her, she surprised kissed him, and acted manipulative and clingy to point where she blast him

Oh goodness no, anon! Not a bother at all!

It's an important discussion to have and I think most importantly is that people do need to stop looking at teenage relationship issues from the lens of adult relationship standards. Like 100% Tim and Steph are not normal teenagers, they have a lot of very adult responsibilities, but they are still teenagers.

Teenagers are stupid sometimes. Teenagers fuck up. Teenagers are messy and erratic and irresponsible.

Teenagers don't @ me, I'm speaking from experience here. You'll look back on yourself and cringe too, I promise.

The other thing that's important to look at when you see this very rage filled hot takes is, "how personally are these people affected by their favs"?

Like obviously I'm very tied to TimSteph and that makes me very personally affected by things that occur with them in canon, but at the end of the day, I would be fine if the ship was killed forever. It would suck, but life would go on. I'd find a new hobby to fall back on, it's be chill. I'm an adult, I can function as one occasionally.

If you're looking at a blog where you can tell the user would NOT be fine if something irreparable happened to their fav, like their life would shatter and they would completely isolate themselves? Their hot take is probably not the one you want to hinge your entire opinion on. There's a point where you do have to be able to separate yourself from a story/character. I think there are many people who just cannot do that and they see a ship or a character's existence as a personal attack that they have to vehemently defend themselves against. That's not healthy.

Like I hate JaySteph but I barely talk about that. I just have associated tags blocked and I go on with my life. I talk about it in private mostly.

But I did say this is a nuanced discussion, and even those over-excessive hot takes shouldn't be ignored because it is still a different perspective that has its own merits. It's just that everything, even my opinion here, should be taken with a grain of salt. I'm obviously pro TimSteph and I have my own feelings on their rocky past. An anti-TimSteph will have a completely different opinion. Both of these opinions can be examined alongside each other so that one can formulate their own opinion on TimSteph.

And you're absolutely right when it comes to noting other ships. How often do we hear about problematic instances in other ships? Comics have been messy for years and things have slowly changed with the times, language and actions from characters has changed, general beliefs have changed. TimSteph is healthier now because it's not the fucking 90s and early 2000s anymore. I'm not saying we do everything right these days, but we make better decisions with media more frequently than we did in the past.

There's just so so SO much more to the conversation than I can even properly dig into.

I'm so tied. So tired.

[anthonyreadsthecards]

Well lovely friend it is review time but before I go into it I want to say that should you ever want that reading, feel free to come my way and I'd be happy to do it for you. After all, you have helped me a LOT over this at least year since I got to be graced with your account. That may sound dramatic but it means a lot to get insight on a situation from someone just neutral and looking from the outside within.

Tw: mentions of abuse, family issues, gaslighting, manipulation, deadnaming, misgendering, there just is a lot tbh.

As for the review though: Once again you knocked it out of the park. It seems since he and I even first met (we had a VERY rocky start to our relationship as I only actually met him when I was about 6 1/2 years old), it feels like I was just fighting an uphill battle and losing immensely. To try and do this in a way that won't accidentally throw anyone in a loop via triggers, my dad definitely was a king at finding different ways to abuse me. Verbally, emotionally, mentally, you name it he did it. He was EXTREMELY neglectful to where I know if I was wise and called DCF, he would have definitely gotten in trouble, to the point where I most likely would not have been in his care. Why I never called or told anyone? I felt so afraid he would get mad because of his reputation being ruined.

Truth be told I was in denial for years I had any real "daddy issues" but it definitely is hitting me hard. As all my friends over the years would say, he was the "typical Asian dad (he is Korean; note: not all Asian parents are like this and I know that)" who literally would punish me in cruel and unusual ways or basically "discipline me" to leave it vaguely should I get anything lower than an A. He told me that if I was not trying to be a doctor, lawyer, or anything that made money, I'd forever be picking up garbage off the side of the road and I'd be in and out of jail like my mother, brother, and sister (my brother and sister are my half siblings, I was his only child). This has been about 20 years almost of him just using me, abusing my kindness and the issues between hin and I run deep and his side of the family essentially just blames his cerebral palsy for his lack of empathy and care while I grew up and literal neglect. Like, I'm sorry but who fights with a kid over lunch money or having more than Dustin's (a BBQ place) leftovers in the house to eat? Or to fight with them over things like school supplies and clothes because kids grow???

Ironic enough? I got SUPER lucky that I had some very kind friends who noticed I was in a VERY bad place mentally and I had actually done it to where I cut that side of the family off temporarily. My mom's side of the family despite not being that much better were kind enough to protect my location and would not let them near me, but they called my work constantly where one of the friends and I worked as my dad is one of the supervisors of the entire place and so kuch so that he almost got my friend fired and my boss even was about ready to call the cops.

So I caved. I felt guilty because at the time our relationship was decent enough and really it was my aunt I got very concerned over about other frightening stuff. So I finally talked to them all again and guess what? Nothing changed. I had a literal mental breakdown and they basically accepted the answer but still said it was not a good reason. To them? Literal depression that just keeps getting worse because of what my dad and his family does does not matterbeven if they say it does. Even when I have many times told them the things they say and do hurt me, they claim they are not at fault.

Now here we are again. This past year, nothing has changed and it is just slowly getting worse again. My dad scrutinizes every little thing I do. He deadnames me, misgenders me, and so much more despite him supposedly accepting that I am genderfluid and am not comfortable with my deadname and so forth. The only person who did actually care was my halmeoni (my grandmother aka his mom). I even expressed that I didn't get time with her like my cousins did and feel like the only way I can really keep myself connected with her was to learn Korean culture and the language because otherwise I did not feel Korean enough. He flat out told me if I wanted to be Korean so bad I could go to South Korea but she chose to come to America so I should be happy.

Especially as of late, my depression once again has gotten worse. It's so much so that I cannot recall a time I was actually free from it and of course, signs around me begin just popping up around me about how I just need to leave it all behind. Music for me is a big one, but I have seen it in films, media I consume and more. Literally just went to a concert for Aurelio Voltaire and I had been a fan of his for almost 15 years and he told us all his story about how heeft a toxic environment because he literally was going to if you will- commit unalive until he met some very helpful people and left. I NEVER heard that story of his but it hit me hard that night and now his song Raised by Bats is something I take solace in. I already wanted to move, but this gave me more reason at the time to do so. Shoot, I am even sure Odin whom I had not entirely had contact with lately due to me trying to get my medical issues sorted even slapped some hints right at my face too. This right here? This reading just is the final straw on the camel's back. For years I was the friend who would help others leave toxic families and relationships of any kind and give them a shoulder to cry on. Me? It is hard for me to do it myself. I always felt crazy whether I just was over exaggerating or not on his twists from what seems like a supportive father to a monster. Even friends who once respected him now tell me to leave. So thank you for this. This really helps put the nail in the coffin on what kind of game plan I need to make and I truly feel like me meeting Voltaire and seeing this after is definitely some divine knock on the door. I got to talk to Voltaire after the show too and he told me the story of a character in his book he was making, there was a character in his book with my name (just one letter differently but his name is Artorius not Artorias) who originally worked with the villains and he was the first to see that everything went too far. That enough was enough.

So to anyone else that is in my shoes and can try to leave such things? I'll give you the same words Voltaire gave me in hopes it helps:

"Enough it Enough. It's time to leave now."

Ok first things first you get a hug because...just damn my guy that breaks my heart that you had to go through that. Thank you for sharing your story with me and with whomever else reads this post. I understand wanting to hold out but you said it yourself a parent wouldn't act this way to their kid. I wish you all the best and I hope that you can find a place where you can be away from him and flourish with the people who truly do love you. Thank you, for all of this, and have a wonderful rest of your week.