#actually despise this type of shit the most out of everything

[niconiconwo]

Ngl I hate that I'm expected to give people vet discounts or discounts for being a cop. EMTs and fire response I'm slightly less against but fuck me man I hate the special snowflake syndrome most of these asshats have.

I had a cop flash me his badge to get a discount and god if I wouldn't get fired for it I'd have told him to get out of my store. I did dig in and ask him if his badge was real and for his badge number. Not getting a discount for nothing loser.

[beffrmin]

SKZ OT8 Smut Headcannons.

Hey, so I am a new writer.. let's not hate too much? Everything I write is just what I imagine from their personalities.. and how I will get used to writing them, for right now.. so yeah.

For my beginning, first post, or whatever you want to call this.. I want to establish that this is just for fun.. I do not mean harm to any of the idols I write about. This is just from a curious and open mind.

This is set up kind of like one of those "pick your poison," kind of posts, so just go down the list and find your bias if that is all your here for.. if not, then with your interest here as someone looking for stories, this is going to be how their sexual preferences are for these fictions. Before I make a full story, I will upload bits and pieces of small stories to adjust with writing their personalities.

So, without a further a due :

‼️WARNIGS:‼️ This is sexual content and only 18+ should interact with this.‼️MDNI‼️If you are easily disturbed by BDSM and/or anything besides vanilla sex, this content is not for you.‼️

Thank you...

Christopher Chan Bahng. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "Nah, let's just wrap 'em up." Listen, he has seven grown ass children.. take the damn condom or get no dick.

ᝰ.ᐟ Daddy Dom. It's undeniable at this point. Chan likes being called daddy, he likes taking care of you, after he has wrecked you. He likes being able to discipline you, when you act out.

ᝰ.ᐟ Face-off. This is his favorite position. He likes you in his lap, facing him, while he sat straight up, fucking into you. Yes, usually it would be riding.. but Chan isn't really into you having all the control, he wants to determine your orgasms and make you cry.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Ass.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Angry Sex. Let's just say, he enjoys this so much, he'll sometimes picks fights with his members, just to come home and fuck all of that anger into the mattress with you.

ᝰ.ᐟ Light Bondage. Bondage gets very iffy with Chan. He doesn't want to hurt you, so his quick fix to it is truly a way you can enjoy it and he doesn't have to worry too much.. he will only tie the wrist and the ankles.

ᝰ.ᐟ Pet names and Praises. Not many things turn Chan on, that are non-sexual.. but when he does something for you and you use just the right pet-name, praising him for it.. he feels the heat picks up and he just wants to fuck you right there..

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Humiliation. He hates this, not only for you, but for him too. He hates having to humiliate you or your sex life, just to get off. It makes him feel icky and he goes soft. It's intimate and he wants to make you feel that way.

ᝰ.ᐟ Impact Play. If he needs to discipline you, he will in other ways. He doesn't feel right laying a hand on you, even if you consent to it. It's just the type of man he is.

Lee Minho. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "Fuck the condom, I don't care.." No, because he actually despises condoms.

ᝰ.ᐟ Bratty and, slightly, Sadistic Dom. Minho is a Brat tramer who responds to a Brat, by being bratty. He also can be extremely sadistic. You're bratting him in public? "Don't make me fuck your slutty cunt, right here in front of everybody, baby.."

ᝰ.ᐟ Missionary. This is his favorite position, mostly, because he does have a lot of control in this position. Plus, when he cums inside of you, it feels almost primal to him in that position. The most intimate.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Boobs.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Control. Minho loves watching you crawl and beg for him. He loves to play the games. Anyway he can control you, he will try. Mind games, humiliation, or even dirty talk. He just likes watching you get flushed.

ᝰ.ᐟ Thigh Riding. He will sit there for hours, watching you use his thigh to rut against. He will sit there and rock you back and forth, while he palms at himself and whispers dirty approvals to you.

ᝰ.ᐟ Dumbification. Minho will give the most shit eating grin during sex if he realizes he made you go dumb, which, at that point, leads to his agenda being: make her into a zombie.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Blood Play. He is a freak, but Minho draws a solid line at the sight of blood. That is just not his cup of tea and he panics the moment he sees it. He wants to be rough with you, not hurt you.

ᝰ.ᐟ Knife Play. Knife Play equals drawing blood, which equals a solid, hard no from Minho.

Seo Changbin. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "I'll just pull out." There is really no telling with Bin, he might wear one or he might not.

ᝰ.ᐟ Brat Tamer. Changbin loves a challenge. His challenge is often you. Which means, for him to be able to break you into a bed, he has to get you to behave right.. which is mostly physical restraint.

ᝰ.ᐟ Up Against the Wall. Legs wrapped around him, while he thrusts into you, while you against the wall. It's his favorite position, mostly, because it shows you how strong he is.. being able to pick you up and fuck you like that.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Both.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Filming. He loves to film you and the intimate time that goes in between the two of you. He doesn't post it. No, he just saves it for his own later uses, but he loves the films a little more, knowing he had your trust while filming it.

ᝰ.ᐟ Marking. Bin isn't really a jealous person. He knows all to well that you would never cheat on him.. but other men have wandering eyes and he doesn't like that too much. So, hickeys and bite marks. Everywhere. His pants get tighter every time he sees one.

ᝰ.ᐟ Power Play. As much as Bin hates to admit it, he really does have a thing for out-powering you. He likes knowing he could bend you over at any minute to fuck you senseless.. so sometimes you please him with a little free-use here and there.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Sharing. This is a big no from Changbin. To be honest with you, if you even bring the idea up to him, he might low-key crash the fuck out on you. He isn't too fond of having to share what is his, especially with his dumbass members.

ᝰ.ᐟ Impact Play. Listen.. Bin is strong, he doesn’t want to accidentally hurt you in some shape or form. He would rather just avoid it at all costs. He will physically restrain you all day, but hitting is something he won’t do.

Hwang Hyunjin. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "If you don't care, I won't use it.." Yeah, Hyunjin is a firm believer that it feels so much better without a condom.

ᝰ.ᐟ Voyeurism Dom. He is the kind of man who wants to watch you touch yourself for hours, torturing you with the fact that he could make you feel so much better than toys and fingers.

ᝰ.ᐟ Cowgirl. This is his favorite position, mostly for the reason he can see all of you. He loves watching you fuck yourself on his cock.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Threesomes. This is something he suggests.. not to get another girl in for, but to get Felix in for. This man actually loves watching another man take you. It makes him feel even better when he's watching you take him and his best friend at the same time.

ᝰ.ᐟ Oral Fixation. He gives amazing head.. like ungodly, unreal, great head. But he has a fixation with watching you suck him off.. it's like he's more into watching you do it, rather than the actual pleasure that comes from it.

ᝰ.ᐟ Cum Play. He will cum inside you.. fuck it in some.. play it while it is sobbing out of your pussy.. keep fucking it in.. then out of nowhere, rub it onto your tits and lips.. then continue to fuck his cum into you.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Bondage. Yeah, uhm, he is terrified of hurting you in any way, at all, whatsoever. He said, "I love you, but no. It can cut your circulation and I don't feel comfortable doing that to you." He was at least respectful.

ᝰ.ᐟ Impact Play. Also for the same reasons as bondage. He just doesn't feel comfortable laying a hand on you in a way that could hurt you. It would honestly make him feel like shit.

Han Jisung. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "Shit.. I forgot the condom again.." He tries to use one, but Jisung gets so pussy-drunk, he just totally blanks putting one on.

ᝰ.ᐟ Pleasure Dom. He wants you shaking. His main focus is you and your pleasure. This can often get mistaken as a service dom, but the difference is a pleasure dom is more pussy-drunk and much more gentle.

ᝰ.ᐟ Face-sitting. He doesn't exactly have a favorite position.. he just wants you to sit on his face. That is the only way he wants you and prefers to have you: humping your clit into his nose, while he tongue devours your core.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Pussy.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Face-fucking. Listen, Jisung isn't rough.. but when you brought up the idea, he was iffy on it. Well, turns out he fucking loves it. He feels bad making you cry and hurting you, but he can't get over how pretty you sound gagging and choking on his cock. He always apologizes right after.

ᝰ.ᐟ Moaning. He goes feral the moment he hears you moan. It like flicks this switch in his head and he starts going deeper.. then deeper.. then next thing you know he is starting to speed up.

ᝰ.ᐟ Marking. His is a bit different from the usual marking kink. Jisung really loves finding scratch marks on him after sex, he later brags about them to Minho.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Roleplay. Jisung is not the biggest fan of it. Not for the reason he hates it, but he really can't take it seriously enough to stay hard. He would start laughing and try to understand how this was how you wanted to enjoy your night, instead of him giving you a toe curling orgasm.

ᝰ.ᐟ Impact Play. Also, just not the biggest fan of it. He doesn't really like the idea of raising his hands at a woman. The most physical he will get is light tugs to your hair, but hitting is stepping a line for him.

Lee Felix. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "Com'on, darlin'.. we need to be careful.." The thought of becoming a father scares Felix..

ᝰ.ᐟ Service Dom. His pleasure is completely your pleasure. That is how he gets off to you. He has little things he asks for, but most of the time his focus, is your pleasure.

ᝰ.ᐟ Missionary. This is what feels most natural to him. It's his way of showing you all of his love, plus he loves eye contact.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Both.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Anal. This was a shock to you. When he asked you to roll over, you thought this man was going to be hitting it from the back and all you got was a pop and a cock into the ass. He just has a thing for ruining every hole.

ᝰ.ᐟ Cock-warming. This was something that you two found out accidentally. More like, you found out accidentally, he was just trying to game. Now, every time he games, you have to be there sitting pretty and still for him.

ᝰ.ᐟ Breath Play. He surprised this one on you, but you didn't debunk. It was extremely iffy to be honest. You two looked into it a little better and next thing you know, Felix loved it. He loved the feeling of you panting and trying to catch your breath underneath him.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Blood Play. Felix just doesn't want to hurt you. This also disqualifies knife play. He does not like the thought of hurting you or making you bleed.

ᝰ.ᐟ Impact Play. Same thing as the blood play. It doesn't sit right with him, raising a hand at a woman for no reason, not even for his own pleasure.

Kim Seungmin. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "I am not trying to be like Chan." Yeah, don't try to convince him otherwise.

ᝰ.ᐟ Rigger Dom. What can he say? He has a thing for ropes. Most of all, he loves seeing you in ropes. He has every ounce of control when he is on top of you and you're restrained down. That's a type of trust that lights a fire in him.

ᝰ.ᐟ Arched Doggy. Face down, ass up, hands tied behind your back, that's the way he loves to fuck.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Boobs.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Mirror Sex. He made you get a mirror in your bedroom, that way he could watch himself fuck you. Both of you have mirrors in your rooms, facing the bed for this purpose. Seungmin will even go as far as to grab your hair and force your head up to watch.

ᝰ.ᐟ Cum Denial. This is the real Seungmin now.. ties you up, teases you for hours on end, just for his pleasure. He likes seeing you writhe away into the bed, making you cry, as he pulls the vibrator back to deny you again.

ᝰ.ᐟ Dacryphilia. His dick twitches the moment he sees tears during sex. He will do everything to make more of them slip. Seungmin has the firm belief that you look beautiful when you cry.. plus, he has to be doing a good job, if you're crying about it.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Bodily Fluids or Vile. This means no blood, no piss, no shit. He doesn't do that nasty shit. He would rather have sex with Changbin, before you try to arouse him with your bodily fluids.

ᝰ.ᐟ Feet. This man will not kiss you head to toe. This man will kiss you head to shin, before he starts gagging, because, he is way too close to a foot. He loves you, there is nothing wrong with your feet, he just hates feet.

Yang Jeongin. ؛ ଓ

˙ᵕ˙ Basics..

ᝰ.ᐟ "Okay, baby.. if you insist." Jeongin wanted the condom at first, but it was so easy to talk him out of it.

ᝰ.ᐟ Gentle Dom. He's sweet. Like everything he does is in your mind. Everything he does is out of love for you. That's what makes him so special. Every touch, he appreciates you like some masterpiece.

ᝰ.ᐟ Cunnilingus. Jeongin doesn't have a favorite position. He likes to eat you out. Right between your legs, while you lay back doing whatever you want. Your thighs squish his head, just a bit, every time something feels just a little too good. That is what he wants.

ᝰ.ᐟ Boobs or Ass? Thighs.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-ons..

ᝰ.ᐟ Public Sex. This is the freakiest he has gotten. Every time you guys are out, he wants inside your pants. For some reason, he has the biggest fixation with quickies when the Kids are nearby. He'll hear one of them coming and, "Baby, come sit on my lap.."

ᝰ.ᐟ Praising. He loves praising you. He found out if he praises you at just the right time and with the right words, your walls hug him in ways that make him nearly bust.

ᝰ.ᐟ Breeding. After suggesting no condoms to this boy, he was a bit nervous about it.. then you realized it awoken something in him. That being, he really likes the idea and the risk of filling you, stuffing you, and possibly.. getting you pregnant. It's just a fantasy of his.

˙ᵕ˙ Turn-offs..

ᝰ.ᐟ Pet Play. He isn't kink shaming, he just doesn't get the point in it. He thinks it's something a little strange and it isn't something he really wants to test the waters with.

ᝰ.ᐟ Sharing. Jeongin does not show it, but he is a jealous person. He doesn't like other men looking at you, why would he be okay with them sleeping with you? You are his and his alone. And he's pussy-whipped.

[chrystabelleblaumferge]

Imma say it

I hate Booktok and everything it represents (glorification of anti-intellectualism and overconsumption) so by extension I despise ACOTAR but the anti-SJM fandom, particularly the anti-Rhysand, anti-Feyre and anti-Feysand peeps are some of the most intelligent people who have come out of the fandom from a book series I genuinely loathe.

I find it ironic yet charming that the anti side of this fandom is actually filled with brilliant and bright minds as opposed to the "pro" side of that fandom who speak and act like they've been programmed by a cult to repeat the same type of opinions like a broken record. The people accused of being "vile and hateful" happened to be some of the best human beings I've ever interacted with and are willing to listen to dissenting opinions and debate in a civil manner.

In contrast, the "pro" side of the fandom who love everything these books represent are generally some of the most unpleasant and vile people I've had the displeasure of encountering. I was already uninterested in the series but was peer pressured by an insane fangirl of this series to read it expecting me to love "the twist" and the same characters she does (*cough* Feysand *coughs*). I cut her off for being a generally horrid person over a damn book all because I dared to speak my mind (she threatened physical violence over my honest critique).

I'm a general fantasy reader (think JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin, Brandon Sanderson et al.) and do not like romance books therefore dislike romantasy in general since I am not the target audience for these books. I only "read", by that I meant pirating these books to form my opinion on them, will never buy them since they're rubbish and not worth my money (plus I hate the author for being a shit human being and would never give her my money). It was bleh and I found it painful to read since I've read fanfiction that was written more eloquently than this SJM-produced slop. I always hated bad boys even as a teenage girl and that sentiment still remains as an adult. So imagine how I physically cringed when the love interests were switched.

Getting back on topic to the "pro-side", they were genuinely hateful despite their incessant preaching about "love conquers all" and on multiple occasions loved telling me I should die (classy...) for voicing my honest critique that I didn't like it. What's more, is that the common sentiment of the "pro-side" was to coerce and brainwash me into liking 'le main characters' and how I had 'internalised misogyny' for not liking something I only consider as fairy porn with no substance to keep me engaged lmao

The best part is that I'm not even a shipper of their rival ship Feylin, Tamlin, or Nesta. I am ambivalent towards them at best but I started sympathising with them given that the story made me hate the main characters and their 'Inner Circlejerk of Bougie Faerie Arseholes' that love wanking their 'Dear Dictator Leader: Ricespam' (I'll never spell his name correctly since I hate rapists like him). It also helps that the fans of these 'antagonist characters' are genuinely nice and pleasant people. I'm almost tempted to so say I love Tamlin/Nesta just to rustle the Feysand cultists' jimmies lol

It seems like they only use "feminism" when it's on their side. Not bothering to accept contrasting viewpoints from women such as myself who do not like a book and are within our rights to do so. What's even surprising is that the pro-fandom is overwhelmingly like this. They'd bully you into submission if you don't kowtow to their demands. Having been bullied in my childhood, I can absolutely recognise the same pattern of abuse that I've been inflicted on in the past. Therefore, this produced the inverse effect than the one they had anticipated. I started hating their self-insert Feyre and Ricespam even more. If they weren't so toxic, I would have just remained a general hater but them acting like Jehovah's Witnesses over a shitty book definitely made me spiteful.

All I can say is: I'll never be a fan of these books nor part of the fandom because I consider it mid. But I do enjoy the thoughtful criticism the antis of said fandom provide and will likely continue hating the pro-side of the fandom for being hateful bigots (especially the Feysand shippers, never met a nice one. Not even once).

[shadesoflsk]

LOVE, OR THE LACK THEREOF

pairing: vendetta!leon x fem!reader.

summary: Leon and you have been divorced for a year now. It’s been one hell of a year between his missions and his new lover: alcohol. He thinks he’s doing just fine, after all you’re the one who’s missing out — or so he thinks. It’s until he has fallen ill that he realizes how lonely he is.

warnings: Kinda angsty, arguments, hurt/comfort, Leon is a bit mean but he gets better, mentions of being sick, vomiting wounds, scars, implied happy ending.

word count: 4k (dear god)

Ragged breaths filled Leon’s dark room as he gasped for air. It all started with a simple headache which he ignored since it was just that, a headache. It wasn’t supposed to develop into something more because he is Leon S. Kennedy he just can’t fall ill. However, the way he stumbled into a wall was a sign of how sick he actually was. 

He cursed the wall, as if it was the one who got into Leon’s way. He felt weak, physically and emotionally. Physically because the pain he was feeling was almost unbearable. Besides the scars that adorned his back and abdomen he felt as if his insides were being split open — he blamed himself — not his missions, not the alcohol. He’s being weak, he’s being a crying baby, he’s being everything he despises in someone. 

And emotionally because he feels like shit. The alcohol has taken a toll on him. Before the divorce he used to drink now and then. Just on special occasions when his darling and him would go on dates. He loved wine — it made him feel so fancy and classy. He used to be like that. Now he’s just the shell of a man. But he doesn’t blame himself for that, he blames you. 

He knew he was being irrational, you did nothing but support him on every step he made. After both of you said “I do” you promised you would go through hell just to make him happy, you promised you would stick with him in good and bad, in sickness and in health. But no one prepared you for the time where he would push you away. You cried, begged and pleaded. You knew Leon had an habit of pushing away people he loved — but you were his wife, the woman he promised to love until the day where his blonde hair turned into a white color, where his stride would be replaced by a limping and unsteady walk proof of the years he has on his back. Yet, after 3 years he decided he had enough. 

“Enough of what?” You bawled with tears filling your eyes as Leon decided to turn on his back and avoid eye contact with you. You clenched your fists — you were never the violent type yet you wanted to hit a wall by the way Leon was throwing away 3 years of marriage. But no matter how much you tried, your question was responded with a dead silence. 

Why was Leon remembering all of this? Simple: because he realized how fucking lonely he was. Back when the two of you were married he used to pretend he was fine. “Baby, you have been coughing since morning.” you often said as you noticed how red Leon was from holding another cough. With a giggle, you would press your hand against his forehead. “A fever,” you added with a worried tone in your voice. Leon only scoffed, waving his hand in a dismissively way as if you were being dramatic. Yet, he never refused your treatments. For a few days you pampered your husband in a way only he knew. You dragged him to bed, made him swallow the pills he hated because they tasted funny. But you also were a nurturing lover — laying on bed next to him even when he protested that you were going to get sick too. “That just means you will have to take care of me,” you retorted with a warm laugh spooning him the way he loves it. Yes, the big and scary man loved being the smaller spoon.

With shaky hands he reached his cellphone. He knew it was a mistake on his part. He was breaking the promise he made to himself. He felt stupid, no, he was stupid. Pushing away the person he loved the most just for the “sake” of protecting you? Yeah, he was. But he wasn’t perfect, God how he wanted to feel like that yet he was flawed, weak and helpless without his rock, without his sunshine. But moreover, he felt selfish. After a year of being away and not even contacting you and suddenly wishing to hear your voice but to specially, see you. But if he was going to be selfish, he was going to be the most selfish person you’ve ever known.

Nonetheless, when he squinted his eyes in order to see the screen of his cellphone, he hesitated for a moment. As the light illuminated his features, bloodshot eyes, dark eyebags and dried tears around his cheeks he wondered what the hell he was going to say to you. “Hey this is your husb- no sorry your ex husband,” he couldn't say that for the love of God! 

By the time he gathered the courage to type your phone number, his head was almost exploding with pain. He pressed the call button as his forehead met with the cold countertop. Seeking something cold enough to cool down his increasing fever. 

The first few seconds were the most anxious moments he has experienced. He was being dramatic, of course. But the thought of hearing your voice, of hearing that sweet and tender melody of yours which made him melt almost instantly. He blamed the fever, of course. He's just calling because he needs help, nothing more.

“Hello?” You said through the other line, voice full of drowsiness and sleepiness since Leon didn't even notice what time it was when he called. He almost drops his phone when he hears your response — what is he supposed to say? As he's deep in thought, unaware of the fact that he has left you without a reply you spoke again “Hey listen. If you're drunk don't call me I don't want t–” 

“I'm not drunk…” Leon responded with a groan as another throbbing pain stabbed his head. He sounded similar as to when he's drunk, that he won't deny. 

“I don't believe that for a second.” Your voice was laced with exhaustion but now it wasn't due to the lack of sleep, it was because of him. No matter how much you try to forget him it seems that he comes back when you're getting better, when you think you're already getting over him.

It was pathetic, really. You didn't believe in soulmates yet you found yourself thinking if both of you were some kind of star crossed lovers. Right person wrong time type of relationship. But you reminded yourself that real life doesn't work like that. Some people just aren't lucky.

“I'm telling you the damn truth!” Leon's voice echoed through his empty living room leaving him speechless by the sudden outburst. He dug his fingernails into his palm as if distracting himself from the pain in his body and the fact that he just fucking screamed at his ex wife. He was met with dead silence and for a moment he thought he blew up the only opportunity he had to talk to you, but he could hear you, the faintest sound of your breathing made him aware that you haven't hung up. At least not yet.

“Look… I'm sorry.” His voice switched up from his sharp tone to a gentler and softer one. He was ashamed of himself but right now he wasn't in the right state of mind. His speech was slurred, proof of how bad the fever was affecting his body. “I–I'm not feeling well… physically well.” Leon's words stumbled into one another as he was explaining his situation. 

And that simple sentence was everything you needed to hear. Leon wouldn't just call you to tell you he's sick. You know him more than everyone else, you know him more than he knows himself. If only your inner voice could stop ringing alarms in your head; the rational part of yourself told you that you shouldn't go. He was your ex husband for a reason. He has all the money in the world to hire a highly-qualified nurse. But no nurse knows him like you do, at least that's what the emotional part of yourself keeps telling you.

Besides the droplets falling against the windows, the ride to Leon's apartment was silent. The guilty feeling overwhelmed you as you made sure not to break any traffic law in your little trip. It took you barely a second to get your car keys as soon as you heard Leon throwing up in the middle of the phone call. A slurred waterfall of sorry sorry sorry were the last things you heard as you hopped on your car.

The ride was easy, knocking on his door was the real war here. It took you fifteen minutes to drive there and now you're having second thoughts. “Fucking hell…” you mutter under your breath as your fist knocks against the wooden door. You knock twice, as you usually did when you came back from work. When someone welcomed you with a big smile on his face. A minute passed and you got no response. You almost turned on your heel when the door suddenly opened. The scene developing in front of you made your heart ache. 

There he was – the man who once was the most important person in your life. Your missing piece, your other half. But now he was merely a percentage of what he used to be. His once smooth face was replaced by rough features that seemed only to show more as a growing stubble adorned his face. His once blond hair was now a dark shade of brown – you knew he hasn't had the best year of his life but Jesus he looks awful. Yet you can't help but feel how you still feel so much love for this same man.

For Leon, this is another story. His dizziness only seems to get worse by the second as he tries his best to keep balance. His eyes traveled from your eyes to your legs – not in a sexual way but as if trying to see if you had changed. But you haven't. And how dare you? Why haven't you changed? Leon's world has turned upside down since the divorce and you're here, looking like your old self. Again, he was being irrational and stupid. 

“Hey…” you gathered to say with an unsure voice. No one prepares you to face your ex husband. Especially when the simple sight of him makes you feel both like shit and in love. Loving him was like that. 

“You…” his raspy voice came out as a groan as his eyes remained locked on yours. You remember his baby blue eyes – full of love when he kept praising you. for the tiniest things. Now they're slightly hollow and with lack of life. “Please, come in.” Leon widens the door, gesturing for you to enter. It all felt so foreign, the last time you were alone with him was so different from this.

“Now do me a favor and shut up please! Your damn voice irritates me.” you remember how his voice had no traces of love and tenderness. He spat venom right in front of you, no matter how much your face contorted into a crying expression. You always took pride in standing up for yourself and being a fairly independent woman who takes no shit from anyone. However, your values seemed to crash as soon as the fights started. It all began with Leon drinking more and more. And as his addictions started, so did his insults.

You tried fixing him, really. A savior complex you may say. Nonetheless, loving him was never enough. And eventually, Leon made you a bitter person too. That was expected, really. You can't bend a branch without snapping it in half. 

Now, your plans for the night didn't include taking care of a sick Leon. As soon as you entered his apartment, he basically stumbled on his feet. You were quick to catch him – almost falling to the floor because no matter how rough he looked he was still 80% muscles. 

“Sorry…” he whispers as he tries to lean on your shoulder for support. As soon as his forehead touches your skin, you wince in discomfort.

“Leon, you're burning.” you state the obvious as you manage to make him sit on the couch. Your first thought was bringing him to bed but it would be difficult since your ex husband can't even stand up correctly. “How long have you felt like this?”

Leon groans in pain as he tries to remember. Everything is foggy but in his slurred speech, he answers you. “This morning… just a headache and then…this.” 

You sighed, not sure about what to do. You glanced at Leon who sprawled on the couch. Sweat beads fell from his forehead until they stopped on the junction of his neck and shoulder. You see something metallic shimmering in the dim light – you pay no mind for now.

“I'm going to damp a towel… you stay here,” you explained before excusing yourself and walked to the bathroom. There, the emotions came like a waterfall. Gripping the sink with your hands, tears fall from your face as soon as you are alone. You weren't strong enough for this, you weren't built for this. He used to call you sunshine because you were like the warmest sunlights bathing him. But he broke you until you were merely a cloudy and moody day. 

You remember every little thing, every memory and every wish that you shared with Leon. Your mind was playing dirty tricks on you – your worst enemy being yourself. You often wondered what life had in storage for you, as simple as it sounded you longed for simplicity, Leon did too. Wedding rings echoed through your foggy mind as it drifted back to the moment you first saw him standing at the altar. 

Neither of you were religious people, yet you decided to do a more symbolic type of wedding. You remember saying your vows and him saying his – he didn't keep his promises, though. As soon as his oh so called sins started to weigh heavily on his mind, he decided to take it all on you. 

“I don't know why I married you.” “You're so naive, you don't even know what the hell is happening outside of these four walls. Don't you?” Those phrases kept repeating in your consciousness as you damp the towel, quiet sobs escaping your lips as you tried your best to be silent. 

Eventually, you stepped out of the bathroom. Holding a damp towel with a bowl of water. Eyes locked on the floor to see anything but the sight of your ex husband quietly snoring and mumbling nonsenses. The fever was so high his body ultimately collapsed. 

You sat down next to him, brushing away some of his hair that was covering his sticky forehead. He looked peaceful, safely passed out in his dreams. You knew he was safe even though he was burning to the touch. Because as long as you're here, you will look after him. No matter how much he broke you.

You place the damp fabric over his forehead – a sigh of relief left his lips even when he was unconscious or so you thought. The dark filled room brought some sense of comfort to the both of you. Your hand on the fabric attempted to leave its place as Leon remained still yet as soon as you pulled your hand away, a weak but decisive grip caught your wrist.

Your eyes widen when you notice Leon grabbing your wrist oh so delicately. His breath was still ragged, proof of how much his weakened state has affected him. You wanted to break away from his grip, to pull away from him and tell him not to touch. You really wanted to. But did you do it? No. Instead, you decided to let him be. He’s had his fair share of battles throughout his life. His to carry and his to blame and to be blamed. You weren’t going to take away a simple touch. 

“Sorry…” He mumbles, his eyes trying his hardest to open yet he was still met with darkness surrounding him. The effect of medicine and booze was a cocktail and perfect recipe for almost killing him. But as he seeks forgiveness, you can’t help but wonder if there’s something else behind that word.

Was he saying sorry for suddenly grabbing your wrist as a puppy who doesn’t want his owner to leave him? Or was it for everything they had to go through? You don’t know and you don’t even want to know. Because if it’s the latter, you can’t know for certain if you’ll be strong enough to not crumble.

“It’s okay.” you responded back, an empty attempt at reassuring him. He was no fool, he was stupid for many things he has done. But he wasn’t so self absorbed as to not notice how nothing was okay. 

“No, It’s not okay…” Leon grumbled. “Look I’m really sorry for–” 

“For what, Leon?” You finally snapped, voice nearly breaking at the sight of Leon apologizing. “For leaving me alone without answers and wondering what the hell I did wrong?” Previous emotions dawned upon you as your lips trembled. At least the darkness will hide your tears. 

“For making me feel as if I was a failure in the relationship? For making me feel dumb since I couldn’t understand what you were going through? Guess what, Leon. You were right, I didn’t since you never told me shit!” He remained silent through your outburst which wasn’t really one. In his eyes, you were right – as much as he tried to keep blaming you, he couldn’t. As much as he tried thinking that he was the one who was better without you, reality came back and hit him like a truck. He wasn’t. He was miserable without his sunshine, without the person he trusted the most, without the wife he chose to spend the rest of his life with and promised to give her the life both of them wanted.

“Yes.” Leon stated, it seems that his previous weakened state faded away as your rambling continued. “Yes, for all the shit and fucked up things I made you go through. You never deserved it. You never deserved the way I treated you…” Leon’s eyes, as much to his own dismay, start to water. “You didn’t deserve throwing away 3 years of your life marrying a failure of a man such as myself –.” 

You didn't add anything else for the time being. Ironically enough, your hand stayed glued to the damp towel the whole time they argued. 

“Why…?” you asked the million dollar question. Why did Leon leave you? Why did you have to divorce? You could have faced everything, you had all the love in the world, as pathetic as it sounds. 

“Because I was fucking scared.” Leon exhales, his lips trembling a bit from his own fever. He closes his eyes trying to drown in the cool and refreshing sensation the wet fabric provided. “I–I lost so many people throughout my life… And I know that isn't an excuse but it can help you to – to understand my shitty behavior.”

Leon's necklace once again shimmered with the weak source of light that his living room had. He had his head thrown back, relying on your treatments to feel better. To feel something.

“I knew… that I could live without you knowing that you were alive. But I couldn't even fathom the idea of living without you because you died.” Leon finally let go of his own inhibitions and ego. And he sobbed like a baby. His whole body hurt like hell but his mind was aching even more with past memories of him pushing you away. 

Leon's face reflected everything he had to go through. Since that gruesome night of September until his whole unit dying in front of him. The internal battles he had to face all by himself because he indeed pushed away the only person who would sit down and comfort him after a difficult mission.

“There isn't a day that goes by where I don't miss you. I miss your morning face. I miss the way you would always ask me if I wanted dinner. I miss the way you looked at me as if I was the only man you could ever love.”

Leon was going to continue talking, but a coughing fit came into him as he tried his best to hold it back – he turned red, as he used to do back then when they were married. It brought you a soft smile seeing him trying not to interrupt his speech.

As Leon kept on denying himself to take a breath since it would lead to more cough coming out. Unconsciously you brought your free hand to his cheek. Your thumb grazing over one specific scar that he got ages ago. 

“Let's go to sleep, Leon.” you whisper as Leon finally exhaled. His own fatigue betrays his own desires to continue talking. He had so many things to say, so many sorrys to ask. So many kisses to give. Nonetheless, he silently curses his eyes as they close on their own.

Forgiveness doesn't come easily, especially after a year of grief and pain. You can't expect a kiss to make it all better but you can try. Both of you could see the light in this dark situation and let it shine upon you. 

Morning comes and neither of you know how you ended up cuddling one another. That's a lie, though. You know that as soon as Leon's words came out of lips, his drowsiness did too. Heavy eyelids followed by yawns were proof of how much comfort he was feeling at the moment and he found a perfect excuse to be clingy. He was sick, after all. He could blame it on that.

You were the first one to wake up. Back's aching as hell while you groan in slight discomfort. But as soon as you try moving, a heavy weight on you stops you from doing anything else. Leon's whole body was on top of you. Sucking the air out of your lungs as his strong arms keep you trapped in his warm embrace.

You ponder between the options, dying between his arms while he keeps hugging you like his life depends on it or wake him up and tell him to move. The first one doesn't sound so bad.

However, life has other plans for you as Leon starts waking up. Groggy and disoriented, his eyes flutter open taking in his surroundings. That's when he sees you, practically under his weight as he uses you like a teddy bear. 

Leon's head slightly rose from the comfort he had found against your neck. His bloodshot eyes have turned back into his usual baby blue ones. 

“Morning…” you greeted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. As if neither of you have slept together like a married couple. There are many things unsaid and they definitely needed to talk. But it can wait. For now, they just want to be in their little makeshift nest.

“Feeling better?” you asked with the softest of the smiles. Your hand pressed against his growing stubble. It traveled down to his neck as something metallic brushes your finger. With a soft tug, you discovered his own wedding band dangling from a silver chain. 

And you knew from that moment that your heart would always long for him.

“Never been better.” There he goes again, a glimpse of the Leon you've always known. A smug and flirty smile yet full of undivided love. You knew it wouldn't be easy. It won't be easy. 

But the way Leon smiles at you and by the way his lips seem to move on their own accord, make you want to try. It pushes you to help him again. Not changing him because as much as it hurts you – his pain is something he can't just let go. It's part of his identity. But he's the most stubborn man you've ever known. From his ashes, he would grow to be the best agent, the partner and the best husband the world has known. A second chance in life.

[meraki-yao]

The Winter Soldier and What If

God I keep thinking about how "What-if" treated my guy Bucky and I get so mad

It's not just the using stucky plotlines for steggy shit, it's not just keeping Steve's importance for Bucky while erasing Bucky's importance to Steve because God forbid Captain America has a homoerotic Patrochilles type relationship, it's not just the captain carter mess, all of which I can and will probably scream about some day

The one episode where everyone comes together in the 80s to deal with Peter Quill, God, I love me some winter soldier, like full on asset mode (as an audience not as a person God let this poor man be free), but everything with how they treated them drove me insane

Firstly, Carter and Stark immediately recognised the Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes, despite him having his mask and eye shadow on, which is bullshit. In CATWS, Steve, of all people, only recognised him once his mask and goggles came down and his full face was exposed. Not to mention, neither Carter nor Howard were on the field with the Howlies during WWII, they spend very limited time around Bucky. If Steve didn't recognise him immediately, there's no way those two would have.

Secondly, and this is a mild issue I have, but they call him "Bucky": only Steve ever did, and later with consent, Shuri and Sam (haven't found the time to watch Thunderbolts yet so this might be outdated). This is a childhood nickname; in any other capacity, people called him Barnes, or at most, James. What the hell lady, you have not earned the proximity to call him Bucky.

Thirdly, after Carter says the Winter Soldier looks like Bucky, Stark immediately states that "Even if they're true, the man we knew is long gone". The shock is minimal, there's no confusion, just utilisation. There's no guilt or regret for not looking for him, for failing him. They're using the Winter Soldier to achieve their target, no different from hydra.

And this actually would have been understandable if it weren't for the next point: during the climax of the episode, Winter gets a clear shot of Quill, but his comm is intercepted by Stark, who proceeds to talk him out of it BY TALKING ABOUT STEVE. AND THAT BREAK HIM OUT OF THE COMMAND. This is 1, hypocritical, you say this man is gone but then you use this man's relationship to stop him from your target 2, this doesn't make sense, again as seen in CATWS, it takes a lot to break the winter soldier program: Steve repeatedly called his name, was literally face to face with him, and only after all that, and saving him, and "I'm with you till the end of the line", that led to the tiniest bit of clarity, enough for him to save Steve. You're telling me that the Winter Soldier broke programming just by Stark saying a name he at that point, did not recognise?

And lastly, NONE OF THEM WENT AFTER HIM. They have confirmation that he still has some degree of the consciousness of Bucky Barnes, and his actions during the mission indicates a lack of previous memories, and he still is the world's deadliest assassin, so on multiple levels, both professional and personal, they should have looked for him, but NO ONE WENT AFTER HIM. They're just content with "the winter soldier is out there". WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Seriously, I just... hate what if so much. There are MCU projects that I don't like but this one, I just... despise. They missed the mark so badly. And the biggest blunders happen to be my guys.

[siriusblackdevotee]

why do you hate regulus

I'm sorryyy, regulus didn't actually do anything, I lovee canon him and a few fanon versions of him but...it's more how the fandom talks of him that makes me despise him. So I just hate, most fanon versions.

It's the versions that make him out to be this badass, smart, over powered, traumatized, hot character that makes me go...yikes. because I do not like that. (Same goes for Gryffindor casanova, academic weapon, tall and muscular Remus, just yikes) Everything we know of canon Regulus is that he's kinda stupid, not at all powerful, well he is a bit badass actually, I'll give him that, but he's not traumatized, definitely not that hot. I wished people kept some of his lesser characteristics but most of the fandom prefers describing as this misunderstood untouchable divine being 😔

But also I get where it comes from. All fans of pretty evil characters do this, where they invent stuff to make them a misunderstood evil character, or when the character is their favorite, make them out to be really badass. This is average fandom behavior I guess but that doesn't mean I like it 💔💔

I... honestly this is just a preference but he's also depicted with a twink model and I ddonnttt like thattt. He played for the Slytherin Quidditch team!! Yeah he's described as uh, smaller than Sirius? But Sirius is constantly described as this macho guy (despite being malnourished) so I don't think you need to pay attention to that all that much. (Same goes for... actually twink Sirius is okay)

Especially on the misunderstood part. I hear people saying that Regulus became more nuanced or multi dimensional (??) when they started giving him other motivations for becoming a death eater (ex: took Sirius's place) but honestly imo, he just became less interesting because he "was a good guy the whole time". Canon him is more interesting, he was fully on board with Voldemort's ideals and this was during a time where Voldemort was gradually gaining power so they were probably terrorizing, killing the muggles. He agreed with all that but he draws the line in uhh extremely dark, taboo magic? Or protecting Kreacher? That's interesting!! I don't get this guy's morals!!

He was much cooler when he was apathetic to muggles getting killed, probably supportive of it, but then hates when death/magic is cheated or if a belonging of his comes to harm. I love that guy.

....well he's not that cool either. Having your kpop Voldemort shrine discovered by a bunch of teenagers is just....ha

especially in defense of Regulus, a lot of his fans get... irrational. I hear "everything we know of him came from biased sources (Sirius&Kreacher) so we actually know nothing!!" which like...jkr wouldn't be depicting him in such a horrible light if she wasn't trying to tell you that he is a horrible person. It's just like...why do they have this need to turn him into this misunderstood, innocent angel...I really hate that. (James fans do this too, a lot of marauders fans actually, with SWM, again JKR wouldn't just show James & co being little shits if she wasn't trying to say they are little shits!!)

So in general,...fanon Regulus is just, sigh. I think canon would hate him. But I don't completely hate him. Zars's Regulus is literally my 💞💞💞. I really want. Flawed Regulus. SO MUCH.

WAIT. And I'm talking about canon universe? Canon divergent? Canon compliant? Those types of regulus..es. I don't care about Regulus in another au, like a coffee shop. He's just a guy there so. We're chilling.

[snowball-doie]

✮⋆˙ 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑 ˙⋆✮

| pairing: johnny x manager!oc

| warnings: 18+ MDNI. COVID-19 lockdown stuff. Alcohol consumption.

| aurora's note: finally getting to the chapters i enjoy cuz johnny and aurora actually get together instead of everything just being world building lol~~ my bestie says she loves these early chapters the most tho so idk ...?

| aurora's note 2: don't forget this is kinda(???) an au, so some things are SLIGHTLY different from irl.

A year and a half after Aurora was hired at SM, things were still going smoothly. Her job was secured after the executives decided to extend her contract due to how happy the boys were when working with her and there were only good things to say about her work ethic. It was a miracle, to be honest. There were a dozen times that Aurora thought that she would get kicked to the curb, but she was still holding strong, and she was happy there with Yuta and Taeyong at her side to help her navigate it all.

But of course, nothing good ever lasts forever… One day everyone was at work, practicing, messing around, Yuta and Taeyong hanging on Aurora while Ten waited impatiently to make another TikTok with her. The next day, they all got emails from the executives telling them that the company would be taking an in-person hiatus following South Korea’s COVID-19 epidemic preventative measures being implemented overnight. Everyone thought that it would last about a week. The government would find a way to contain the illness, a cure would be found, or everyone would simply forget about it and move on… But none of that happened. One week turned into two, then into an entire month, and then it went on far longer than anyone could have possibly imagined, putting everything on pause. No world tour for 127. No practices. No working at the office. No more music. It was like life came to a halt right when things were getting good, and Aurora had zero clue of what to do with herself.

In a random turn of events, Johnny and Aurora began getting buddy-buddy. They had always been friends at work, but because of the COVID lockdowns, he had a lot of free time on his hands to finally get to know her better, she supposed. It was weird to think of Johnny Suh as a friend. Ever since they met, he treated her with plenty of respect because that was the type of guy he was, but he also liked to give her a hard time every now and then which had a tendency to piss her off in a mild way, prompting her to give him a hard time back. He must’ve thought they were just having fun. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, granted, since Aurora understood he meant well… But when they became actual friends who were constantly talking and hanging out in Discord calls together, the teasing seemed different.

When they would play multiplayer games together, Johnny would always roast the shit out of her— One of his favorite things was to play Among Us with the rest of 127, and every single fucking time, Johnny found a rhyme or a reason to throw Aurora under the bus, even when he knew that neither of them were the imposters! Oh, she despised that. Whenever Johnny would play story mode games, like Until Dawn which he had an obsession with in the early months of lockdown, he would stream his screen for her and let her rant about her day. Aurora had it a lot harder than he did. While the idols got to relax at home and simply wait for the restrictions to be lifted, Aurora and the other managers were still having to put in endless work to keep the company afloat, because if they stopped their efforts of promoting the boys, then everyone would be out of a job and on the streets in no time. That put a lot of pressure on Aurora. Not only was the work difficult given the circumstances, but the threat of being alone in a foreign country made her stomach twist. Aurora was a social creature. She needed to be in the office, meeting with execs face to face, yelling at the boys when they got too rowdy, cuddling Yuta whenever she was tired or overwhelmed. But all of that had been ripped from her in the lockdowns.

“I tested positive,” Yuta texted one day. Prior to that, Aurora considered sneaking him into her building so that they could spend a weekend together for the first time in months, but the idiot had to go and get COVID while attending an underground party in Hongdae. She decided she was going to smack him upside the head next time she’d see him.

So Johnny was one of Aurora’s only sources of comfort while Taeyong struggled to keep up with his own work for the company, Yuta slept away his COVID symptoms for two weeks or so, and Ten was busy hanging out with his other friends. Johnny was a good listener, surprisingly. He was one of the only extroverts in NCT, yet Aurora was amazed by his ability to zip his mouth shut and listen to her go on and on and on for hours like the extrovert she was too. It was easy to get over his humor— The moments where he could be so cringe Aurora would fall out of her chair were at least still funny, so she dealt with him. Barely.

“Noona, I have something important to ask you,” Ten said urgently over the phone one day. Aurora hummed a tone that said she was listening as she cooked her dinner. “Are you and Johnny… A thing?”

Aurora accidentally dropped the knife on the cutting board with a heavy thud. “Excuse you?”

“He’s acting weird, okay! I figured you would’ve told me if you guys were dating, but I don’t know!”

“Why on Earth— How’s he acting weird?”

“He’s just been talking about you a lot. Like, an unreasonable amount. And he keeps asking me questions about you to get to know you better, and I keep telling him to leave me alone, but he finds every excuse to talk about you.”

Aurora rolled her eyes then casually went back to cooking. Men. “We’re just friends. We spend every day together playing video games, he probably has nothing better to do than talk about me.”

“Noona, I—”

“He’d probably have more of a life if you talked to us more instead of playing games with the WayV boys,” she teased, licking homemade spaghetti sauce off her index finger after dumping the sausage into the pot.

Ten dropped the topic after that. Aurora didn’t hear another peep from him about Johnny or the laughable thought of Aurora dating him. Was it actually impossible for people to believe that a guy and a girl could be friends, and just that? She was already just friends with Yuta, Taeyong, and Ten, so where was Ten getting the idea of Johnny and Aurora dating planted in his mind? He never fessed up, and Aurora didn’t ask.

Come the end of April, going into May, restrictions around the pandemic lockdown were slowly lifting, especially for companies who had a heavy impact on the country’s economy, like entertainment companies. Aurora was given the greenlight to host meetings in the office, so long as all social distancing laws were obeyed. Easy enough. She started pulling the boys of NCT into a meeting room on a schedule that allowed them to see each other for the first time in months while also getting a bunch of work done for the upcoming Resonance album that the company was desperately hoping would help bounce them back financially after a rough first quarter.

Each of the members got a chance to review the songs in the album and vote on which project or two they wanted to be involved in— Although neither Aurora nor any of the other managers could promise anything, they wanted to try their best to make everything fair, not only for the boys’ sakes but for the fans too who all had different biases. If the company wanted to make money, they needed to utilize the boys properly, and that was what Aurora was there for. She knew their international fanbase best. She knew who needed to stand out the most and who didn't, beyond putting Mark in every single song because he was the company’s golden goose.

Honestly, almost everyone was quick and easy to meet with. The only outliers were the expected suspects, like Taeyong, Yuta, and Ten who all wanted to talk story with Aurora first before actually getting to work, and they kept getting distracted throughout the entire conversation. Taeyong wanted to keep talking, but it wasn’t about random stuff, it was specifically about work, as if Aurora didn’t have a million other things to do after her meeting with him, and he was just delaying the process by prying unnecessarily. The person Aurora didn’t technically expect to also be chatty with her was Johnny. In the past, whenever they had work meetings, he was quite good at listening to her while he reclined back in his roller chair that he swayed side to side while nodding along to everything she had to say in a mixture of Korean, English, and Japanese like her mind was all over the place— Which it usually was. However, during this meeting specifically, perhaps because they had become friends more recently, Johnny was more on the talkative side. He had far more input than usual. He had his sights set on certain projects, and Aurora was more than willing to write her notes down in the hopes of helping him out.

The productive part of their meeting passed pretty quickly since Johnny was an easy client to negotiate with, so the conversation drifted to something more casual. He asked her about how her videogames were going and if she was doing okay balancing everything with work. After replying, she asked him about his games and if had the chance to see any of the other boys. His games were fine though he needed some of her help carrying him in CoD— She of course laughed uncontrollably at that because she was worse than him at the game and they both knew it. He didn’t get a chance to see any of the boys, unfortunately. He was looking forward to prepping for the album, though, so that he would be able to spend more time with them like before COVID struck.

And then, out of nowhere, a change in topic smacked her across the face as he asked, “What type of guys are you into?”

It was an invasive question for sure, but it wasn’t like Aurora kept it a secret from anyone else in NCT when they asked. Still, she shocked herself by answering honestly: Mostly twink guys with long blonde hair. She wasn’t sure why, but she really loved dyed blonde hair on guys with dark hair, especially when the roots started to grow out… That was the best part. Beyond that, though, she liked guys who were actually just real softies in private. Big cuddlers. Guys who didn’t mind her special interests. It was important to her that she had someone who would listen to her rant for hours on end about the things she enjoyed and even get involved themselves.

“So does that mean you like Yuta?”

Aurora laughed loudly, throwing her head back, hitting the table with a loud smack. There was no fucking way he had just said that. Yuta? Yuta Nakamoto? Pft! Sure, she knew that they were close— Closer than she was to anyone else at SM— but never in a million years did she think people saw them as having any kind of relationship beyond being friends. That was like saying she was in love with Ten or Taeyong! It simply didn’t make sense.

“What!” he defended quickly. “He’s got dyed hair, and you two are always all over each other, and he listens to you go on and on and on in Japanese when no one else knows what you’re saying.”

She couldn’t breathe, she was laughing so damn hard.

“Bruh, you’re impossible.”

She tried to catch her breath between words so that she didn’t leave Johnny hanging, “That’s… That’s like saying… my brother and I are in love…” She exhaled deeply to try to stop laughing. “No, I don’t like Yuta-kun.”

Johnny tsked while squinting to see if she was really telling the truth, but when she didn’t budge, he nodded and moved on to a different topic. To Aurora, it was a relief that he didn’t pry more because if he kept asking who she could possibly like, she feared that it would create some kind of drama at work, which was a big no-no for her. She wanted to keep things professional to the best of her ability. So Johnny showing her some mercy came with a breath of relief; However, throughout the entire conversation, the vibes were noticeably off slightly, but Aurora tried to trick herself into thinking that it was all in her head after Ten's comment about thinking that they were together… Johnny didn’t seem to think differently of their conversation, though. He kept talking and talking like they had been friends their entire lives.

When her eyes flicked to the time, Aurora realized that they had been wasting their afternoon talking story and now he was required to go to his schedules for the day, which included stamina training that all the boys had to attend together.

“Everyone is probably waiting for you downstairs.”

She checked her calendar to see what the practice was for exactly… It seemed that the boys were practicing their new dance for music shows now that their comeback was just around the corner. Shit. How could she forget that, and could she not keep Johnny on time?

Just as quickly as she realized her mistakes, Aurora jumped to her feet, collecting her belongings, eyeing Johnny to see if he was following her lead— Which he was— and they hurried out of the meeting room together.

“If you fall behind today ‘cause you’re late, I’ll still yell at you in front of the others.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Johnny replied teasingly.

A couple of days later, the dreaded topic of Aurora and Johnny came up again when Ten showed up at her office unexpectedly, wearing a medical mask, keeping his distance from her as he closed the door and sat across from her. He had more to report about Johnny. Apparently he was still talking about her, but ever since their meeting in person the other day, he was doing the most to the point it was pissing Ten off. Johnny was asking about each of Aurora’s special interests in order to try to get into them. Literally everything. He was already into anime and video games, that was the easy part for him, but he wanted to know more than that, and it seemed he thought he could trust Ten to keep it between the two of them rather than if he went to Yuta who he knew would’ve snitched to Aurora immediately. Unfortunately for Johnny, Ten was just as loyal to Aurora.

But she was genuinely confused. Why did Johnny care so much? Like, they had never been that close before, and suddenly he was trying to be her bestie? Where did it all start? What spawned those behaviors?

Ten giggled. “He must like you.”

She rolled her eyes. Johnny was the type of guy to be into models and fuck around with really pretty women, because as a celebrity that was the kind of person he had easy access to. She didn’t get the vibe that he would ever be into someone like her. There was no chance he would even take a moment to give her a second glance.

“No,” Ten shook his head, “Johnny stopped fucking around a couple of years ago— Actually…” He raised his brow at her. “It was around the time you joined SM. He’s been so consumed by work that he hasn’t had the time for girls, so the fact that he’s trying really, really hard to get your attention is saying something.”

Aurora scoffed because she thought that it was complete bullshit since no one had ever been into her, and Johnny of all people couldn’t possibly be. Ten couldn’t fathom that she felt that way about herself. He genuinely fell silent for minutes on end while trying to think of something to say except for, “Shut the fuck up,” which was ultimately what he decided on regardless. But to Aurora, statistically, it was true, and of course she knew it best because she was the one living her lonely, sad life.

However, as time went on, Aurora couldn’t completely disregard Ten's claims. Especially whenever Johnny kept appearing in Aurora’s life— Or rather, popping up, like a whack-a-mole or something. He would ask to play video games with her, which mostly consisted of Call of Duty that he played on his PS5 at his place and she played on her Xbox at hers. Sometimes they would dabble in other things for fun like Fortnite, Among Us, etc. When they weren’t gaming, he would watch Criminal Minds and various anime shows with her. He got into all of it. Fast. He spiraled into reading manga that she would recommend, he would do online figurine and manga shopping with her, and he’d help her look into different conventions she could potentially attend in the future.

Every time she talked to Johnny, the conversation she had with Ten always played in the back of her mind. Surely it wasn’t true. She just wanted to appreciate the new friend she was making. But Aurora couldn’t deny that he was being extremely suspicious… and she was trying so, so hard not to get her hopes up… Yes, her hopes. Even though she thought the whole thing was silly, part of her wondered if there was some merit to it and if she should’ve chased him, but what did Ten say all those years ago about needing to be more careful than everyone else because she was a foreigner, but Johnny was too, so maybe it wasn’t insane to think— No. No. She had to keep things on a friendship level and she couldn’t allow her imagination to run wild.

By July, Aurora took notice over how Johnny had been growing his hair out without any requests from the execs on the matter, and the most shocking part was that he was going for a length that was longer than he ever had before. Eventually, when it finally got down to his shoulders, he suddenly dyed it without any warning. One day he just FaceTimed her out of the blue, showing off the blonde, bragging that he thought it looked good but that he also wanted her opinion since she was the “expert” on blonde men. Though she rolled her eyes, she played along. It was hard to deny that it did in fact look good… And that it really was working for her… Though she would never tell him that.

Aurora immediately texted Ten after she got off the phone with Johnny because it was no longer all just a coincidence— Johnny was being incredibly suspicious. The fact that he dyed his hair, complimented her, and practically begged for her opinion convinced her of everything that Ten was teasing her about for months.

"I told you so," he bragged when he FaceTimed her. "I knew he was obvious, but I didn’t think he’d actually go as far as to become the exact type of guy you’re into.” He face palmed.

“Can you ask him?”

He looked up at her.

“Can you get a serious answer out of him, see if he actually likes me or not? But be smooth about it, obviously….”

“I can try, no promises.”

Come October, there was still no news from Ten on the Johnny situation. Aurora had limited time to bother him about it, honestly, and he was just as busy that she figured there was no time to prod about office romance gossip, so Aurora easily let the thought drift to the back of her mind. In the meantime, she worked hard on the upcoming album that she’d been planning with the boys. The songs were recorded, the dances were rehearsed, now it was down to the last few weeks where they would be filming all of the music videos back to back, hardly giving some of the boys like Mark and Taeyong a chance to rest. She felt bad… It was technically her fault because she was in charge of scheduling them, but she tried to pass the blame off to the execs who forced her to use their best idols as much as possible, and unfortunately for them, that meant Mark and Taeyong were in practically every song on the album.

During the filming of the song Work It, Aurora was on set both days to make sure everything ran smoothly since the majority of the group assigned to the project were from 127— AKA, her responsibility. Since they filmed so early in the morning until late at night at various locations around Seoul on the first day, the boys were incredibly tired, which meant that they were docile, so they did whatever Aurora wanted, and they worked well with the crew who was even more tired than they were.

It was a major relief to Aurora that the project turned out as well as it did because she had her hopes set high ever since assigning Johnny to it because he didn’t get many other NCT U opportunities. She hoped that it would finally be his breakthrough— His turn to stand out. And stand out he did. The execs asked him to cut his long blonde hair for the videos, but he refused very adamantly. Aurora couldn’t wrap her brain around why on Earth Johnny would put himself on the execs’ bad side after she went to all that trouble shoving him into as many projects as she could… Johnny wouldn’t explain it to her. She asked plenty of times when trying to convince him to listen to them, but he refused and walked away with a laugh and a shrug that brushed her off. Asshole. It was just hair. It would grow back if he really liked it that much. Regardless, he still adamantly thanked her for fighting for him because he was usually overlooked; He kept promising that he wouldn’t let her down.

On the second day, that was when the boys somehow got an extra boost of energy, which made Aurora’s life hell because not only was Work It filming, but so were some other subunits who needed to do B-Roll for the NCT U song, Resonance. Aurora was so busy running between sets that she really didn’t have time to fuck around, but the boys couldn’t care less. Whenever she was on the Work It set, Yuta and Ten were all over her, teasing her, successfully distracting her from her actual work between their takes. And then there was Johnny. He was always lingering behind Ten, laughing along with their jokes, making comments to try to fit in, and so on until he got more comfortable to step closer and closer… until he was in every conversation and was able to pry Aurora’s attention away from her friends. Yuta was honestly ready to fight them both so that they could just focus on filming and not Aurora. “Says you,” Ten teased with his tongue out. That only ticked off Yuta more, however, earning Ten the wonderful experience of being dragged back onto set via his ear by Yuta, meanwhile Johnny pointed and laughed the entire time until Aurora kicked him in the shins and told him, “Get moving.”

When the dreaded day to film the large group shots for Resonance finally dawned, Aurora knew what was going to happen, and she wished that she was a time traveler in order to just skip right past the entire thing; but, alas, she had to be there from early in the morning until late at night to wrangle all twenty boys… Laying in bed the morning of, Aurora asked herself if it was worth it. Sure, she loved them. Her job was fun. But she was tired and there were only so many times she could complain to Taeyong and Yuta about her stress and workload. Maybe she just needed a personal life. “Maybe a dog would be nice,” she said before forcing herself to roll out of bed.

“Good morning, everyone,” Aurora greeted confidently upon walking onto set.

Because there were so many members they needed to film in a single shot, the creative team came up with the idea of filming them in a stadium where there would be plenty of space, and it would also make up for the lack of concerts due to the pandemic, so fans would be happy to see their favorite members on some kind of stage. Most of the crew was already there since their call time was earlier in order to set up. Most of them stopped to bow in her direction once they realized who she was, but all of the new crew whom she’d never worked with previously didn’t know who she was or the power she held, they just saw a foreigner and decided to keep going on with their day. Aurora truthfully didn’t mind. The only person who did seem to care was Johnny who stepped onto set behind Aurora, still dressed in his street clothes, to loudly announce that they needed to show their manager some respect.

Aurora rolled her eyes. “Morning to you too.”

“Late night?” he asked her with a grin.

“Yeah.”

“CoD still kicking your ass?”

“Every day.”

Hayoon approached silently to give Aurora a cup of iced Americano provided by the catering company on set for the day. Aurora thanked her quickly. Johnny still stood there, waiting for Aurora’s attention, but she didn’t have much to give him when the rest of the boys were arriving in droves in all their loud glory, needing assistance finding their changing rooms where they would also get their hair and make up done. There was never a moment to rest, not even for Johnny and those sad puppy-dog eyes of his that he gave her as she walked away to pull Haechan off of Renjun.

During the long day of filming, Dream was the least well behaved group because Aurora had no leash on them. Chenle, Haechan, and Jaemin were the worst because they fucking fed off of each other’s constant energy! Not even Taeyong could get Chenle and Haechan to listen at that point. WayV was fine because Ten was like a stern dad that sent silent glares to each of the other members to make sure they listened to Aurora… and it worked! 127 were literally there like, “Mommmmm…” so they did whatever she said, and they were constantly on their best behavior for her and Taeyong. Yuta looked like he was on the verge of killing whoever wasn’t paying attention— Mark and Haechan specifically. Because the majority of them were able to behave themselves at least to some mild degree, they were able to get through shooting on time, so Yuta, Shotaro, Ten, and Taeyong immediately asked Aurora out to dinner. As she gathered her things to follow them out to a taxi Taeyong called, she noticed Johnny still waiting to talk to her. Hours had gone by and he was still waiting for her? Maybe she just needed to play more games with him later on that night. But he seemed to back down once he saw her leaving with her friends.

In a surprising turn of events, Johnny decided to keep his unique hair for the entirety of the promotional season for Resonance. It became such a joke as his hair continued to get longer that the boys started calling him “Aphrodite” or “Aphrodite’s son” regularly instead of his actual name— Ten was specifically notorious for doing so, and Aurora found it to be hilarious. Johnny didn’t seem to mind— In fact, he was kind of leaning into it in order to entertain her and Ten. One time when Aurora showed Johnny a clip of Glinda on Broadway flipping her hair everywhere and said that it reminded her of him, Johnny made it his thing. He strutted everywhere, flipped his hair dramatically, winked at everyone. He was really going for the Aphrodite thing.

Aurora assumed that he would stop once promotions were done, so she just enjoyed it while she could because it wasn’t the worst look on him, admittedly. However, the hair didn’t disappear. The last of their schedules for the album finished, all of the music videos were nearly done and ready to be posted in December, yet Aurora never saw the words “Haircut Appointment” appear on Johnny's personal schedule, and he never appeared suddenly with short hair. Despite her want to inquire about it, there just wasn’t any time. She’d concerned herself enough about Johnny as it was, she needed to focus on getting the album out and what the boys would do after that in preparation for the next album. Tour was a possibility if COVID ended soon. Fan meets were a must the second restrictions would be lifted. Honestly, the boys were about to be a fuck-ton busier than Aurora ever was during lockdown when they all pitied her for the amount of work she had to do while they sat around on their asses everyday.

“You want to play some games tonight” Johnny pestered one day in their Discord DMs. Usually Aurora would’ve said yes, but it was already going on five o’clock and there was no end to her daily efforts in sight, so she had to turn him down. He followed up by asking if she wanted some background noise while working. She chuckled at that text. If she were working at home, then perhaps, but since she was stuck at the office and likely had to meet with the American office within the next few hours, she had to turn him down once more. “So you hate me” Aurora rolled her eyes and replied, “Not all the time.” “Wooowwwww” “Have a good night, Johnny.” “So official. Period.” Aurora rolled her eyes again then left him on read so that he wouldn’t continue to distract her.

“Noona, can we have a watch party for the new album?” Taeyong texted during her meeting with the Americans.

She responded while still looking up at the Zoom meeting on the TV screen, “What?”

“The boys are begging to watch the MVs together.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Meeting rn.”

Taeyong, unlike Johnny, understood that meant Aurora didn’t want to be bothered, so he left her alone immediately. 

It wasn’t unlike the company or the group for that matter to break a few rules here and there so long as no one else found out about it. With the new album coming out, Aurora tried to convince the company to let the boys watch the new music videos together to celebrate, but they declined, citing that it was too many people to have in such a small, confined space, they didn’t want to get in legal trouble. But, honestly, that didn’t stop anyone. Once the boys heard they couldn’t meet on official terms, they started sorting out whose house they could go to instead, who would bring what snacks, what alcohol everyone wanted, and so on. Aurora pretended to not know a thing. She just coincidentally happened upon Chenle's house one afternoon and was completely surprised when all the other boys were there, waiting for her flash drive that held the music videos! How did that happen?

Most of the boys were already there when Aurora arrived. They had rearranged Chenle's living room to make a giant couch where the majority of them could sit while the rest of them lounged on blankets and pillows spread out on the floor in front of the TV. Everyone was spread out around the house, however, until one person took notice that Aurora was setting up the TV to show the music videos, at which point they all began cheering her in both a teasing but also grateful manner. The boys ran to claim space on the couch. Literally, sprinted, like their lives depended on it. Hendery and Xiaojun pushed each other out of the way, Haechan tackled Jungwoo who was taller and stronger than him so he ended up getting pinned down for a moment before Jungwoo made a run for it. Aurora rolled her eyes at them as she finished connecting the flash drive to the TV.

Aurora’s spot was decided for her as Yuta, Ten, Taeyong, Shotaro, and Johnny all made room for her to be squished in the middle of their group on the couch. She happily took the space. Laying down with her head on Yuta's chest so he could wrap his arms around her while Taeyong hugged her left side and Shotaro inched closer to her right side, she started the videos.

Ever since they worked on music videos for the album together and Shotaro actually had a chance to talk to Aurora in depth and in Japanese, they had become pretty inseparable. Aurora knew that it was possible. Back when she got hired at SM, she imagined that she would be friends with Shotaro because they both spoke Japanese, but she also guessed back then that there wouldn’t be many opportunities for them to interact because of their conflicting schedules… and she was right. Now that they finally talked, of course they were friends. He would text her to ask if they could go to a cafe almost every day, and if she didn’t have time, she would ask him to go to dinner with her and Yuta so that they could relax and just talk in Japanese for the evening. Ever since their friendship bloomed, Shotaro seemed to come out of his shell a little bit. He talked to the rest of the boys more often, he joked around loudly, he wrestled Chenle on occasion… Aurora was always filled with joy when she saw that after knowing him to somewhat of an introvert for so long.

Ten and Johnny were a bit further from her on the couch, but honestly it didn’t matter too much once the videos started playing and everyone was more focused on teasing each other than figuring out their seating arrangements. Work It was by far Aurora’s favorite. She just loved to give Ten and Yuta a hard time about it because they had given her a difficult time working on the set that second day, but they took her teasing with laughter and returned it with pokes in her side that made her laugh so hard she couldn’t breathe.

But then there was Johnny.

The lingerer.

The guy that was always around her, begging for her attention.

There were certain parts of the video where he looked incredibly good, and every time the thought struck her, Aurora panicked slightly. She just couldn’t help herself! Her kryptonite was men with long, dyed blonde hair! But the scenes which caught her off guard were the ones where he wore a skater boy aesthetic outfit with the black t-shirt and a white long sleeve shirt underneath, paired with black skinny jeans which were decorated with chains and tons of jewelry. The hair was an added plus— The length was down to his shoulders, and it was tied into a messy half ponytail to show off his roots that were slowly growing out… Ah, fuck… She was trying her absolute best to remain professional and just cheer on her friends, but it was damn near impossible to look anywhere but at Johnny.

“You could pick up your jaw, you know?” Yuta whispered to her.

Aurora snapped out of her trance, her mouth closing, her gaze turning to meet Yuta's while he was laughing at her.

However, her torment didn’t end there because the next video to play was Resonance. It was fine to whistle and cheer for all of her friends, bragging about how sexy they were, laughing at how silly some of the memories from set had been, and all that; but what carried over from Work It into Resonance was Johnny. Just Johnny. His hair… A black outfit that hugged his fit body and the shirt was even hemmed short so every time he raised his arms over his head while dancing, his stomach was shown off as he winked at the camera. What was Aurora supposed to do with that? For months all she could do was think about why Johnny was acting the way he was, and what she was supposed to do about it… Then all of a sudden he looked like that, and he seemed proud of himself from his spot on the couch as the boys continued to rightfully tease him for looking so “pretty.”

“I need a drink,” she quickly whispered to Yuta.

He nodded, his gaze still glued to the TV, so she felt like she couldn’t move quite yet or else it would be a total distraction to all the boys sitting in the living room as they had casual fun with each other for the first time in a long time.

“Get me one,” Yuta said, still staring at the TV.

“Hai.”

The second the music video was over, Aurora stood to get some alcohol. She shook out Shotaro's hair until it was all messy and he was giggling while trying to get away from her. She kissed the top of his head and finally complimented him for doing so well. He blushed a deep shade of red. A quiet, “Arigato,” left him, but then they were both quickly distracted by the others pulling out champagne that wasn’t even being given a chance to properly make it into glasses before the likes of Jungwoo and Haechan decided to just start chugging out of the bottles. Aurora pulled an Asahi out of the fridge for Yuta, then she poured herself a glass of wine— Perhaps a little more than she should’ve, but she felt like it was needed after the long year they had with the pandemic and all, and she was desperate to do anything but look at Johnny, so the alcohol would have to be her distraction. However, when Aurora returned to the living room, she discovered that she’d been betrayed. Everyone had moved around. Yuta was no longer available since he’d moved to talk to other people, Shotaro was being smothered by Renjun, Ten and Taeyong were pouring drinks for each other. The only empty space she could find for herself was beside Johnny who seemed to have nothing to do as he drank a beer of his own.

“Traitor,” she whispered to Yuta as she handed his beer to him before going to sit beside Johnny.

Johnny was focused on the TV where Mark had put on a soccer match to keep them occupied as they all talked, drank, and hung out like old times before it wasn’t allowed. For a moment, however, as Aurora settled beside him, his gaze flicked to her out of the corner of his eye until he realized that she caught him so he went back to watching the TV.

“Hendery looks good, doesn’t he?” Johnny asked expectedly, like he was egging her on to say something incriminating, yet there wasn’t a single thought that crossed her mind other than confusion as to what he was getting at. He shrugged nonchalantly, “I just mean that the pink hair suits him. You like that kind of thing, you should know, right?”

Aurora snickered. “Sure.”

“So you don’t like him?”

“Who says I like anyone here?”

Johnny sipped his beer and finally looked directly at her. “I can see it on your face most days… There’s someone you like, I just haven’t figured out who yet. If it’s not Hendery's pink hair, and Yuta and Ten are like your brothers, then the options are narrowed down a bit— You’re not into younger guys, are you? I think Jisung's a little too young for you—”

Aurora hit his buff bicep roughly. “Fucking weirdo. Stop trying to assume things about me. You hardly know me.”

“After two years, I hardly know you?”

“Yes.”

Johnny snickered. “Guess I’ll have to pry harder in the future, then.”

While he went back to watching the TV, Aurora continued to stare at him, inspecting his features while simultaneously asking herself if he knew the truth for real or if he was just messing with her. The skin tag he had around his septum was cute. He had a deeper, more pronounced philtrum than most people. His chin was sharp, his cheekbones were always highlighted naturally wherever he went, and he had long eyelashes that men usually didn’t have. She tried to hide behind her drink by taking a lot of big sips. Surely he couldn’t know about all the conversations she and Ten had about him— Unless Ten snitched. No, he wouldn’t! Right?

“What?” Johnny asked self-consciously after he caught her staring while thinking.

“I’m honestly a bit surprised that the long blonde hair suits you so well, and that you fought the execs on it.”

“How come?”

“It’s just hair… You usually keep it short, anyhow.”

He lifted a brow. “Is it a good or a bad thing that I kept it?”

“Good.”

“So, then, you like it, huh?”

“I do…”

Maybe it was the alcohol, but she could have sworn she heard him wrong when he asked, “Will you go to dinner with me some time?”

And it was most definitely the alcohol when she had the audacity to say yes to him.

Johnny grinned with pride and excitement before attempting to hide it behind his beer in the hopes that no one would tease him for being such a sucker for her. However, Aurora noticed, and she couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face too.

A few minutes later, Aurora got up to get another drink, and in the process of doing so, Doyoung took her spot next to Johnny, so she instead went to sit with Yuta and Ten again. They were in the middle of talking to each other about something nonchalant that they didn’t stop to acknowledge her for a few minutes. Aurora was fine with that. She continued to drink in peace while listening to them and glancing over at Johnny who was twirling his long blonde hair around his finger. Doyoung was chatting his ear off and he seemed distracted. Aurora quickly realized that she was the reason because Johnny made eye contact with her randomly and suddenly he was fixing himself up to look pretty for her while blushing like an idiot.

“Why are you eye fucking him?” Ten asked all of a sudden.

Aurora broke eye contact with Johnny to slap the grin off her face before looking at her friends. “I, uh… Well, I actually came over here to tell you that he asked me out.”

Yuta choked on his beer.

“And I said yes.”

He swallowed hard before smacking his lips and exclaiming, “Finally!”

Before the conversation could continue on, Yuta got up to talk to the other boys. Apparently everyone was putting bets on if and when Johnny would finally grow the balls to ask her out, so the second the rest of the room found out the truth, half of the boys groaned and started coughing up their money. It seemed that Ten, Jaehyun, Hendery, and Jeno were the only ones who ever had any faith in him, the others all lost their bets.

Aurora hit Yuta's arm. “You bet against us?!”

“He’s so whipped for you, I thought he was going to chicken out of it because he thought you were too good for him!” he defended himself in Japanese.

Her? She was too good for him? Yuta must’ve been insane. There was no one in the world too good for Johnny Suh, especially not frumpy ol’ Aurora who didn’t believe a guy like him would even look her way once. She figured that she would just play it by ear and hope for the best… And not let Yuta give her too much shit about it in the meantime.

taglist: @ohmysion , @userntfnd , @phototypee

[gojos-thot-patrol]

i DEFINITELY want more Frat Boy Sukuna!!! 😍😍😍😍

Oh man, you're twisting my arm so hard here nonnie, what ever will I do?

I guess I'm just going to have to post some headcanons and frame work I have for the up coming part 2 (Of which you can get on the tag list for it: here!) Oh! And if you want a refresher, you can find Seven Minuets in Heaven Here!

Now Presenting...

Some supplemental reading if you will ;)

Ok, lets start with just some basic information on our boy

Hes in the Alpha Beta Omega frat, or the ABO frat. The entire Frat is very quick to point out they’ve been around longer than ABO when you bring it up, minus Ryomen. 

He just tells you he’s an Alpha and asks if you’re trying to be his Omega. It normally gets whatever reaction he wants

He’s majoring in business against his will (Remember this: It will come up) with a minor in he’s really about: History

If taking over his fathers very lucrative business (Again: This will come back up later) fails, he wants to be a history teacher.

He often bonds with Nanami over hating their shared major and being annoyed with Gojo and Geto making out in the most inconvenient places.

He sells drugs on the side to supplement his income, but nothing harder than weed because “Weeds not even a drug when you think about it.”

Is known for being the biggest manslut in the manslut frat. But hey, at least he gets tested regularly. 

Ok, so now I want to start with a little bit of his background because it informs a lot about how I characterize him.

He’s Yuji’s older brother by about 4 years. Both of them look almost exactly like their father. The man really said Ctrl C, Ctrl V, Ctrl V. 

Their father left when they were 7 and 3 respectively. Yuji doesn’t remember, but Ryomen very clearly remembers how horrible their father was to their mother. To him, it was a relief when that asshole finally abandoned the family for good.

The family moved in with their Grandpa, who was one of the very old school “I will only tell my kids I love them on my death bed” types. He also died when the boys were only 13 and 9.

Meaning our boy never really had a good role model for how to perform masculinity, and now that he’s an adult he finds himself pretending to be the type of man media told him he was supposed to be. Somewhere between Tyler Durden and Joey Tribbiani. He doesn’t think he’s very good at this performance. 

The moment he turned 16, he started getting piercings to try and look less like his dad. The moment he turned 18 he got his tattoos to really separate himself from his father. Yuji thinks it’s insane, but Ryomen thinks it’s worth it to be able to look in the mirror without wanting to punch it.

His father reached out to him his senior year of high school. He offered to pay for 100% of Sukuna’s college tuition, as long as he majored in business and took over the “family” company once he graduated.

Yea, turns out dear old dads new wife couldn’t conceive, and his smoking had finally caught up with him in the form of lung cancer. Faced with an inevitable death, he was desperate for an heir. 

Ryomen may have despised his father with everything in his being, but he realized how stupid it would be to throw away not only a free education, but also a guaranteed career. So he agreed.

OKAY now that that’s outta the way, let’s get into how he is in a relationship 😈

You are his first real relationship. He’s had “relationships” that lasted officially about 2 weeks at the longest. He’s had a plethora of situationships where he’d make promises he had no intention to keep. But as far as actually, serious, relationships you’re number one. 

And genuinely this new emotion kinda scares the shit out of him. The first time he got love pangs he thought he was having a panic attack, the first time you brushed him off he felt like he shattered. this shit sucks yo, no wonder the Greeks thought it was a mental illness.

He has no idea how to properly love someone, he’s winging this shit: Doing everything entirely based on vibes

In his past “relationships” the moment conflict arose, he would leave. He doesn’t want to do that to you though, so head it is.

I’m not joking, the moment you have an issue he’s taking you to bed to try and distract you. And he’s always shocked when you still want to, ya know, communicate about issues you’re having after the fact. And he’s always even more shocked when you don’t just leave the moment conflict arises. 

Did I mention he has no real concept of how healthy relationships work?

He’s trying though. He’s trying harder to make this work than he’s trying to keep his grades up. 

Often catches himself flirting with other girls without even realizing it, it’s just second nature to him. He’ll always disengage the moment he realizes

Oh he’s jealous. Oh he’s so jealous. He sees you just talking to another guy and he’s spiraling in his head. He’s immediately getting involved and planting hickies on your neck right in front of whoever you’re talking to, because you’re his god damn it.

As such he loves to buy you jewelry. His dad’s got fuck you money, and he plans to spend it all on you. His current favorite thing to see you wear it a dainty, golden chain, with a ruby encrustedfrat b R hanging from it. It looked gorgeous on you, and marked you as undeniably his. 

Suguru has 1000% had to talk him out of getting a tattoo of your name, this man is down so unbelievably bad. He’s never really been in love before, and now that he’s feeling it he’s overwhelmed by it.

This man really thought he was above getting pussy drunk until he hooked up with you. Now he realizes he’s is Not. At. All immune to it, and is actually quite prone to it!

Ultimately, his goal is to marry you after graduation, even though his fraternity brothers are highly against it. Not because they don’t like you, quite the contrary, they love you! But they all know that marrying your first love probably isn’t the move, and that the two of you have a lot of problems to work through. They want him to at least wait a few years before popping the question.

Still, every once in awhile he catches himself looking at rings and day dreaming about the future.

[sadie-bug345]

greasers when they’re sick

i myself have been deathly ill for the past week so whilst i am bedridden i’m writing this🤡🙆‍♀️🤩 ANYWAYS LETS GO

ponyboy:

hates missing school solely cause my guy despises talking to teachers abt what he missed

also cause he thinks he gets super behind when guy just skipped one day of school😭

probably holes himself up in his and sodas room and when soda comes in to check on him after work it’s like PITCH black and pony is just sitting in a pile of tissues

”what do YOU want?” says pony with a voice similar to kermit the frog cause bros nose is SO stuffed up

and soda just assumes pony is in one of his moody, poetry reciting moods again and slowly exits the room, leaving only a baloney sandwich in his wake💀🤡😭

johnny:

def the type to not accept help

like he would go to school sick and the second someone brings up how his voice is screwed up he’s like 😐”what’re you sayin bout me?”

if the gang does quarantine him to a room he’d def just be able to entertain himself and prob come up with his own secret language and fictional multiverse or smth

idk he just gives the type to be fully okay with being alone for a bit but the meds he’s on make him all wacky too so it’s an interesting mix for sure

sodapop:

i’m sorry this guy has the most nastiest cough 😭

idc if he doesn’t smoke a lot he just got those mucusy coughs

other than that everyone’s having a good time, making jokes and feeling good and then soda pauses his laughter and unleashes the most rattley cough and then everyone just goes quiet and he just looks like 😃

definitely unfazed by sickness in general

until one day my guy just has the worst time and breaks downnnn🥰

we’ve all been there too esp when you’re sick and shit just goes downhill and everything sucks and you hate everything and everyone

darry:

now johnny doesn’t accept help but that’s NOTHING compared to darry

he has peak older-sibling syndrome and is just used to only helping other people

so when those people that he takes care of flip the script, my guy is just weirded outtt

like he def appreciates two trying to make him soup but he just doesn’t know how to react

goes lowk crazy with not being able to work or straighten up the house just cause he always feels like he’s gotta do SOMETHING productive with his time

dally:

i’m sorry but guy is def the type to go to school FULLY sick and either not say a word about it or complain like a lil bitch the whole time

also he totally smokes while he has a cough like soda which is so unhealthy i can’t even😭

just overall his habits and life doesn’t get upended by “some fuckass cold” (his words, not mine)

like bro please you just gotta rest sometimes😭

the gang is able to get him to stay at the curtis’ couch one day and bro just WIPES OUT

istg he’s out for like 15 hours straight in the full daytime and everyone is scared to walk past in case they wake him up

but dally is a crazy heavy sleeper so he actually gets a lot better after calming down for once🥰

two-bit:

honestly stays home from school like a normal person

except bro gets one cold and then just doesn’t show up to school for like two weeks😭

and it’s not cause he’s a wimp it’s just cause guy finds an excuse to skip out for a so called “vacation” and he rolls with it

and then he’ll just spawn back in on campus like a month later like nothing happened and everyone just expected two to take a dare too far and end up in the hospital🤡

steve:

CANT STOP WONT STOP

bro just pushes thru the pain😭

he probably takes way too much of the recommended dose of general meds (don’t do this please🧍‍♀️)

and then goes all loopy for hours straight

and people are kinda sus about it but honestly it’s steve so who is really all that surprised

LMAO THAT SOUNDS MEAN SORRY STEVE

ANYWAYSSSS i think imma post a romantic kinda sick reader x greaser thing so that’ll hopefully come out soon while im still coughing my lungs out🫶

[sheirukitriesfandom]

Belated Sujamma Sundas

Today, Sujamma wants to know about your OC's moral compass. What God do they worship and why? Do they engage in any illicit activities (drugs, etc?) Any holy activities, like healing in the name of a certain divine? Have they committed any crimes, or are there any crimes they actively despise? Feel free to talk about anything and everything along these lines.  

Tagged by: @theoneandonlysemla and @friend-of-giants Thank you! These things are a nice distraction from the current irl stress.

Tagging: @elavoria @thequeenofthewinter @rakaiawriter and @nostalgic-breton-girl Rashkan

Rashkan’s morality is flexible. As a vampire, his very existence is often criminalized and, although he's not out for violence, if attacked (or provoked in some cases), he will retaliate beyond what's necessary. In general, he’s not good at estimating how much mortals can take and he's killed both intentionally and accidentally, the latter still wearing on his conscience. The former, he justifies a la “The ends justify the means”. He also doesn’t mind other types of crime as long as they don’t affect him or his loved ones negatively. Helpful, considering how often Rethul’s crookeries earn them a place to sleep during their journey to defeat Alduin.

Rashkan isn’t religious. The Raven Rock temple seems to have some influence, but overall it seems the citizens are more concerned with their day-to-day lives, and Rashkan’s family was no different. That, and he got scared the first time they visited their ancestral tomb… he ran away screaming. 

Rethul

Rethul was raised with the teachings of the reclamations and, though not religiously, schooled in the ways of the divines--useful if you’re located in the Imperial City and the majority of your business contacts are Imperials. 

Rethul hated it.

He’s not religious in a traditional sense but will playfully toast to Sanguine or ask for his favour while playing dice. He’s not serious about it though and would be shit-his-pants scared if Sanguine ever offered him a deal. Daedra, undead, soultrapping--all those things scare him deeply since he greatly values his freedom (and that of his soul). Even when he joins the Dark Brotherhood, he rejects the cultish part of it and actually prefers Astrid’s methods.

Rethul cares about himself first and foremost. He doesn’t mind causing harm for personal gain. His only moral concern are children. Having grown up with three siblings and wanting to have some himself one day, he would never voluntarily hurt a child. He’ll hurt anyone harming children, though... ;-D

Valcarion

Valcarion is a devout worshipper of Dibella. Due to her not being part of the Altmeri pantheon, he’s developed his own way of worship: He’s a patron of the arts, takes great care to maintain a beautiful home (including a blooming garden with a shrine) and gives much of his wealth to charity. He’s also the most skilled lover from among my OCs…

As a Chief Justiciar of the Divine Prosecution, Valcarion doesn’t tolerate crime. However, he’ll turn a blind eye to certain behaviours that aren’t forbidden but considered immoral by altmeri society, even if he doesn’t approve. He’s a “hate the sin, not the sinner” kind of guy, except he’s not an asshole about it. He also doesn’t shy away from methods falling into that grey area if they help with his investigations. 

[gloriousburden]

Dw about the long response!! I'm happy to read everything :) And goodness I agree on so many levels! I ended up criticizing so much I had to cut this a little short, since I often start rambling in between, but … What got to me the most were these aspects that were either treated poorly or weren’t thought of at all (You might’ve seen these already so … U don’t have to answer, again, hh ((though I am happy to hear your thoughts if you have anything to say or just thought of stuff!))):

Loki’s heritage - I … I don’t know man. I guess we don’t care he’s a frost giant. That definitely didn’t mess him up. No. Not a mention of what happened while he was exiled or when he was with Thanos. These are such big events in his life. Like, enormously big. (Also him trying to end it at the end of Thor 1... man...) It’s trauma after trauma, and in the Avengers and TDW it’s quite easy to see how they affected him too, since he is so different compared to Thor 1. And no, I don’t mean to say he was an innocent baby before ofc - you already tackled that argument on another post quite well, and I’d like to add that it’s literally how he AND Thor grew up. It’s not just Loki. Sure after the trip to Midgard Thor comes back different since he learned shit but before that?? We saw how Thor acted. They took from Odin, afterall, who participated in numerous wars - it’s obvious. They’re morally gray characters - both Loki and Thor. And what made it worse is that Thor and Odin’s wrongdoings were “justified” while the moment Loki did anything he got all types of repercussions - which all of them should’ve had really. You're putting three people together, all of them made similar mistakes but only one of them is getting yelled at. Everytime. And the other two are praised for it. Why can Thor and Odin do it and he can't? If the heroes do it it's for the greater good ... but Loki's a monster, right?

TVA and just … Sylvie and Mobius. A mess. I actually didn’t like the concept of the TVA a lot, and the whole storyline in general but I won’t get into that or else it turns too long - so I’ll just focus on these two and some of Loki’s aspects. He just … “opens up” to these guys. When he … just came from an awful background. Family trauma, him being a Jotunn (another thing they fucked up, no magic? why isn’t he blue then) and all the shit he went through with Thanos. He’s captive yet again. Like everything is just repeating - I think that’d be quite traumatic and he surely wouldn’t talk about anything with them. Also whenever he spoke about his “troubles” it just felt like it was more to explain it to the viewers rather than the characters? Like it wasn’t subtle and sometimes it just felt out of place for me. Could be that I don’t remember well, but still. What was allat. Idk how to explain, I hope you get it lol

While I won’t deny some moments with Mobius did make me grin because Owen Wilson just brings a smile to my face, it’s… Yeah, no. How is Loki already “opening up” to this guy. Why is he letting him do all of that. What’s going on. He’s one of your captors. CAPTORS. Wtf. I think you also covered this in another ask. Sorry if I'm repeating things hh

Sylvie I don’t even know how to go in that argument. I was devastated. I don’t think I have the words. Not only was everything so fast and I despised this weird toxic self-cest ship because … Wtf. Not to mention how quick it all was, they jumped to a "romantic" route after what, 1 or 2 conversations and Loki suddenly "catches feelings" for someone who's an alternate version of himself (which let's be honest it's only because they decided Sylvie was going to be a woman, but they had to mess that up too - another concept they handled HORRIBLY since Loki's gender is fluid and it shouldn't be so shocking for her to be female?? Especially to him and all Loki's variants?? Why is it even an argument!! I know I shouldn’t be surprised because it’s Disney and Marvel but fuck!! [[not even sure anymore since I read that Sylvie cannot shapeshift… Idk if it’s true, again doesn’t make any sense]]) which by itself is so illogical and makes no damn sense. Most shows just handle romance and relationships like ass and I can’t believe people actually like it. Especially since this is all … Toxic?? Not even romance. Gosh I have no words because of how messy it all was.

Also little observation, I’m a little slow and I don’t know if someone mentioned this already but right at the beginning of the series the introduction is almost symbolic in a sense, lol. He’s shown with shorter and different hair compared to the Avengers, which might seem little, don't get me wrong, but … still. Maybe I’m picky with details, however it is already a change. Then, some moments later, he’s shed of his Asgardian fit too and placed in a variant uniform. Again, obvious things. But really, they decided to just. Pick his character and make … a complete new one. It’s like making an OC after putting so many headcanons on a character that it’s not even THAT character anymore, it’s just… An OC. Definitely not voluntary, it just something I noticed lol

And clearly they show it later in the episode that it’s exactly what happens. He’s just mocked continuously, which is one thing that irked me a lot like you, because it kept going and going, it wasn’t just a moment, no, they kept going with that. What's the point of the series?? Where's the development?? None of these characters grew. None.

There’s probably more but … I don’t wanna write no more lol. I’m probably gonna start reading the comics too. They seem far more promising.

Thanks for listening again!! :D Hope you're doing well btw!!

No exactly. Loki’s heritage, a FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF HIS CHARACTER, has not ever been spoken about again unless it was to mock him. I wasn’t expecting them to full on show his Jotun form or anything of that sort, but you know what, maybe I expected them to talk about it in a non humorous manner for a second or two. Considering the fact it plays a HUGE part in who Loki is. Him only being a political pawn to Odin, instead of being a son to him as he thought, is why he is the way he is. You cannot excuse or undermine that. It is just as (if not more) important as “Ohhhh Loki’s jealous of Thor..” because it is literally the source. It’s the explanation.

There is a reason he was raised with inadequate care, and it wasn’t just because Thor was stronger physically or because he fit the image of the Asgardian ideal more than Loki did.

Loki was never meant to be loved, period. It wasn’t because of his mischievous nature. It wasn’t because of him gravitating towards magic and sharp weapons rather than brute strength. It was because when he was a baby on Jotunheim, he was taken in as a future pawn, instead of as a son to be loved despite any differences or despite how he grows up.

Getting to what you said about Thor and Odin being able to be heroes, while Loki is a villain no matter what he does… it is because Loki is only there to move the plot forward. Even if he does something reasonable, or something that could even be seen as heroic, it does not matter because he is not worthy of being seen as a hero. He’s only there to be a rival to Thor. In Odin’s eyes, he cannot be loved or praised, because the image of worthiness was always far from Loki’s own image.

The series was never meant to be about Loki. It was meant to pave the way for the Multiverse saga(?) and to introduce the next big enemy (Kang the Conqueror) but we all know how that went. You can drive yourself crazy with MANY questions like… oh, how did they forget this? How did they disregard that? Because Marvel just needed a pre-existing character to fuck up, get captured by the TVA, and everything else that happens. It’s not Loki specific, because why would Marvel ever do anything good for not only Loki but Tom Hiddleston who’s put so much care and love into playing Loki?

Why would they talk about Loki’s encounter with Thanos, the events of Avengers, the events of Thor? This is supposed to be Loki STRAIGHT OUT OF THE AVENGERS, and they didn’t talk about it besides insulting him. We didn’t get any POV from Loki. Nothing. If we didn’t get a Loki’s POV on the events he’s just gone through, why would it do him any kind of justice? WHY WOULD THEY TALK ABOUT HIS HERITAGE?

The only way the series could work, is for Loki to be dumbed the fuck down and at a disadvantage. Even if he is without his abilities/weapons, Loki is VERY intelligent. If this was ACTUALLY Loki, his ass would’ve manipulated his way out of there with EASE. Marvel has always downplayed how intelligent Loki is, of course they’d do it in a series that is supposed to uplift him. It’s only Loki that gets dumbed down in his own series.

The no magic at the TVA thing… I don’t even know man. I’m going to assume the contradiction is due to the writers forgetting/disregarding anything that’s relevant to Loki’s character once again as well as them not being able to CGI Tom Hiddleston blue for however many hours the series runs for. They could’ve at least gave some kind of bullshit excuse for it. I’ve seen some theorize that Odin’s spell was just that powerful, or that it changed Loki biologically permanently or something. I don’t really remember please forgive me lol there’s posts made by others on here with more information if you are interested. I just think of it as them not caring about Loki once again.

Please do not apologize! The reason I make posts is so I can further discuss my points with others. I love hearing from everyone, and I really appreciate this ask! Forgive me for not getting to it sooner. I’ve been busy, and also wanted to make sure all of this made sense before posting. If you want to discuss anything that I’ve previously spoken of, I genuinely would love to and would appreciate it. I’m glad that people actually listen to what I have to say lol

They had to speed run the development of every relationship in order for the plot to work out, so that’s why Loki, known for not trusting others as well as being known as someone who shouldn’t be trusted, was opening up to a complete stranger (WHO WORKS FOR AN AUTHORITY) who was holding him captive, and insulting him every chance he got.

Also the “I’ve studied every aspect of your life” thing about Mobius is so weird to me??? You did that, but do not understand Loki at all and insult him??? Asshole. I hate that guy.

The concept of the series is SO fucking stupid in the first place. Not sure if you know this, but a good chunk of the plot is a screenplay/scrapped project Michael Waldron wrote a while back. Once again, Loki was never the focus of any of this. It was not written with him in mind. He needed a strong female lead, and a “male” lead to project his own plot onto basically. They just recycled it.

“The worst guy of all time and the girl who came to kill him” [Link]

It is so fucking bad, and it makes so much sense.

Sylvie… she’s definitely a character! Like she’s played by an actress, has lines, and stuff…

There is so much to be said about her. Waldron is HORRIBLE at writing women (as you can tell by the horrendous screenplay I’ve linked) and the entire concept of her character is dumb as fuck. I believe I’ve said this before, but she’s like three pre-existing characters mashed into one to keep her unique/distinctive from Loki, YET SHE BRINGS NOTHING INTERESTING TO THE SERIES AT ALL!!! HOW ARE YOU THREE CHARACTERS, BUT SO BORING??? Can Sylvie really not shapeshift? I didn’t know that. She’s literally… a Loki. That makes no fucking sense not only because of Loki in the MCU/comics, but also because of Norse Mythology Loki. The literal origins.

About Loki’s gender/sex being fluid… they never cared about that which is why Loki (and the other variants) were so fucking baffled that Sylvie was female. Not going to lie, It kind of felt misogynistic to me. A variant of Loki being in a female form could’ve been really cool, but the MCU has to fuck up anything related to female characters.

The romance… 😃

Man, the motive behind it is so fucking stupid too. Self love, because Loki has always loved himself guys. He’s so narcissistic!!! Of course he would fall in love with a female variant of himself. Because he’s so self obsessed.

Loki, ONCE AGAIN, a character known for not trusting others, would SOOOOO fall in love with someone he just met. He’s been lied to numerous times in his life by people he loved and trusted, but it’s very logical for him to fall in love with someone who’s done nothing but belittle him for a few interactions.

He had more chemistry with that book he was reading in his cell in TDW then he did with Sylvie. (or Mobius for that matter.)

Omg yessss I ship them so hard!! That’s what they sound like. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think that “toxic” relationships can SOMETIMES be written decently in fiction, but this… 😁

Sylvie just constantly belittles Loki, and he doesn’t even belittle or mock her back! It could’ve been playful and not one sided, but if Loki dared to belittle Sylvie the way she did to him, her entire character would make no sense and every flaw would have to be given a second thought. Something the writers would never do.

They didn’t point out each other’s flaws, it was only Sylvie pointing out Loki’s. Same thing with every other character interaction Loki had in the series. It was all about “humbling” him, and no one else. AND THE SERIES IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HIM!

I personally do not like romance in fiction in general, but GOODNESS is the MCU exceptionally horrible at handling it.

(Changed color of the ss because it was blending in with my own text lol)

No, this… this is spot on.

I’ve always thought of this as well. It put such a bad taste in my mouth. But, at least they were honest about how the series was going to go from the beginning. The first thing they do is strip him (literally) of who he is in every way possible. His personality, his armor, and his hair isn’t even the same. No because Loki really is just a base character for their shitty story. How anyone who claims to like Loki cannot see the symbolism you mentioned, as well as him NOT BEING LIKE HIMSELF WHATSOEVER, I don’t know… it was the first thing I noticed, and when I watched the series, I had probably only watched the movies featuring him a few times. That’s how stark the difference was to me.

ALSO THIS?????

EXACTLY! IT FELT LIKE IT WAS MORE TO EXPLAIN IT TO THE VIEWERS RATHER THAN THE CHARACTERS!!!!!! That is an amazing point, and I’ve been trying to put that into words. Everything is just so fucking disconnected and unnatural feeling. The interactions are so fake. HORRENDOUS WRITING. I didn’t know it could get this bad.

Once again, so sorry for not getting to this sooner. Thank you so much for the ask, and I appreciate your thoughts! You made a lot of good points, and you don’t need to apologize for anything. Feel more than welcome to send asks any time you’d like! ❤️

[strxwberrybtch]

A Hellish Love Story // Pt. 2

Pairing: Vox x F!Reader

Warnings: Cursing, Suggestive Content, Mentions of Alcohol Consumption

A/N: I seriously couldn't wait to write this part. The creative juices are flowingggg. Enjoy :)

---

Vox was not a party person to say the least. He despised them actually.

Don't get him wrong, he didn't mind having a good time within the tower alongside the other Vees.

But the general public of sinners and demons alike tended to annoy and constantly pester him. Being one of the most successful overlords in the Pride Ring, it was apart of the job description.

However, that doesn't mean he liked the constant attention from reporters and fans. Sure he'd get a cute one here and there but that's about it. Everything else was an absolute headache. He usually only went out if he thought it would be good publicity for the company.

Vox didn't even want to be at the club tonight, or any night for that matter. He simply wanted to stay in and relax after a long day of working with absolute morons.

That being said, Valentino had other plans for the night, much to Vox's dismay. It took a lot of "convincing" on Val's part but, Vox ultimately agreed to go.

Not even an hour after arriving at 666, Vox was left by himself at the bar. He knew this bullshit was going to happen, it happened every. single. time.

He muttered profanities under his breath as he watched Val flirt with fellow sinners, obviously trying to get them into his field of work. He glanced down at his drink and decided to just go home and relax- like he had originally planned for the night.

Right as Vox was about to take his leave, something caught his eye.

No, not something. Someone.

You.

He noticed you from the opposite end of the bar. Vox trailed his virtual eyes along your form and immediately took a mental note of how attractive you looked in the club's lighting. Something about you seemed so familiar to him yet, he couldn't place where he had seen you before.

Who the hell were you?

He examined the two sinners that were chatting alongside you. Vox instantly recognized Val's favorite play-thing, Angel Dust. He also recognized the one-eyed bomb girl. He was almost positive her name was Cherri.

He rolled his eyes in annoyance as he watched the spider demon crack a joke making you laugh. At first he didn't recognize you. That is, until you looked up at Angel.

Vox knew those fiery eyes and stunning smile.

The same eyes and smile that made his heart flutter back at the comfort of his tower. His initial thought was that he had to of been seeing things. After all, it wasn't the first time you had crossed his mind. He looked down and eyed the drink he had been nurturing before. Once he confirmed that it indeed wasn't spiked, he looked back up at you. Vox watched as you downed another shot with your friends. He examined your features over and over before coming to the conclusion that it really was you.

Holy shit.

He knew you were attractive but this- this was some next level shit.

Sure he was used to Val's actors and actresses but, this was you.

When he saw you in person for the first time in one of the long hallways of the tower- he acknowledged you with a charming smile, which was rare for Vox. But that day specifically had been really good for him. He wasn't prepared for the warm smile you flashed back at him as you passed by. His stride paused for a moment as he turned to watch you walk away- his interest peaked.

From that moment forward, it became a habit of his to smile at you whenever you happened to cross paths. Vox almost looked forward to it some days, but it was honestly rare for him to see you. You both were at work after all and he was a very busy man.

In his free time, he found himself using his multitude of cameras to keep an eye on you- just to check in of course. He watched as you typed away on your computer. Vox noted the way you would bite your lip in concentration and drink at least two cups of coffee a day- with two creams and two sugars specifically... but that didn't matter. It just so happened to be one of the many little things he noticed about you.

It also came to his attention that unlike your fellow peers, you never appeared to be miserable while working. He could tell you actually wanted to be there.

Never in a million years did he imagine to find you at a club, let alone see you dressed in the way that you were.

Maybe he could stay just a little bit longer.

---

The entire night he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of you. Vox watched as you slowly came out of your shell with the more drinks you downed.

He had found a somewhat quiet area in the club where no one would bother him as he watched you. The grip on his drink tightened whenever people would get a little too close for his liking. But at the same time, he truly couldn't blame them.

You looked absolutely ethereal the way you danced without a true care in the world. Vox began to feel his member harden in his pants as he watched you trail your hands over your body, swaying to the beat of the music.

He was broken out of his intense gaze as he watched Cherri say something to you. The next thing he knew, you were left alone. You didn't seem to care too much seeing as you resumed your sultry movements. However, that moment of being alone was short lived.

Vox's eye twitched anxiously as a random loan shark came up from behind you and placed his hands on your hips. Right as Vox was about to stand up and come to your rescue- you did something he truly wasn't prepared for.

Even from where he was sitting, Vox could see the iris's of your eyes turn into red and golden flames. The palms of your hands lit up with fire as you grabbed hold of the shark's hands- effectively burning them.

Vox would be lying if he said he wasn't turned on.

Well, more turned on than he already was.

He watched as the shark quickly pulled his hands off and began yelling profanities at you. To which, you flicked him off with an award winning smile as he stormed away.

Vox never could of imagined that the sweet little writer with the gorgeous smile had such a personality. However, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he really didn't know you at all.

He thought to himself for a moment longer before coming up with a plan of action. He did own your soul... but for once, he didn't want to use that as an advantage over you. Why?

Vox couldn't seem to come up with a valid answer.

Seeing as though you could handle yourself perfectly fine, Vox gazed at you one more time before standing up and exiting the club.

---

You forgot how much hangovers absolutely fucking sucked.

Your trio didn't end up leaving the club until around 4am. At first it didn't seem like a problem... until you remembered that you had to be at work a mere 4 hours later.

Angel ended up staying the night at your place, which he frequently did anyway.

Your head throbbed to the beat of your blaring alarm, awakening not only you but as well as an equally, if not more, hungover spider.

"Can you shut that shit up?? I'm trying to sleep here" Angel groaned from beside you, holding a pillow over his head. You quickly shut it off and decided to "rest" your eyes for a few more minutes.

However- it wasn't a few more minutes.

When you opened your eyes again, nothing seemed out of sort. Angel still slept soundly next to you with the pillow over his head. You yawned and stretched quietly as you glanced over at your alarm clock. However when you did, you felt your heart fall into the pit of your stomach.

Oh no. This can't be happening.

"Shit shit shit!" You almost fell off the bed from how fast you moved.

Angel took the pillow off of his face with a groan. He lifted his head up curiously and watched as you scrambled to get dressed. "You alright over there toots?"

"I'm 2 hours late! I've never been late before. I'm so dead!" You exclaimed as you struggled to pull up your pants, catching yourself from toppling over in the process.

You ripped open the closet doors and grabbed the first professional looking shirt you could get your hands on. You quickly pulled the material over your head and slipped on your black work heels.

You watched as Angel slowly began to process your words while throwing your hair into a quick messy bun.

"You can stay for as long as you want. Just make sure to lock the door when you leave," You said briefly and threw your laptop and glasses into your bag.

Before Angel could respond, you were already out the door and halfway down the street.

---

You felt sick running into the large front doors of the VVV tower. The hangover not helping the pit of anxiety running through the course of your entire being.

You made it to your desk seemingly unnoticed. All of the other VoxTek writers had their eyes glued to the screens in front of them. Your eyes scanned the room quickly before deeming yourself as safe.

With a sigh you sank into your office chair and propped your elbows onto the desk. You then buried your head into your hands.

After taking a few moments to regain your sanity, you rubbed your tired eyes before finally putting on your glasses. You pulled out your laptop and began to get to work. All seemed well. You were in the clear!

However that moment of relief was short lived.

"Excuse me Ms. Y/N?" A voice broke you out of your current thought. You looked up from your laptop and instantly felt the urge to vomit. You recognized the sinner as... Vox's assistant.

You hesitated a moment before responding, "Y-Yes?"

"Mr. Vox would like to have a word with you in his office right away," As soon as the words left his mouth, you felt your face pale.

You slowly rose from your seat and wiped your now sweaty palms on your pant legs, "Lead the way," you said quietly motioning for him to walk.

You were ready to be put out of your misery at this point.

You nervously glanced here and there at the cameras that littered every crevice of the tower. You felt your heart thud at an unhealthy pace. The pain in your head never subsided either.

You began trying to think of what you were going to say to him. Your boss, the very man you signed your soul over to.

He could end you in a second.

You couldn't form a single coherent thought, and before you knew it- you were standing in front of his office doors.

Vox's assistant attempted to give you a reassuring smile, but if anything it made you feel ten times worse. You took a shaky breath as he held one of the doors open for you to walk in.

You took unsteady steps into the large room and jumped slightly as you heard the door slam shut behind you.

Right after it closed, a familiar voice rang through your ears.

"Y/N! Just the person I wanted to see..."

///

A/N: hehe not me giggling and kicking my feet at this. i hope you guys have enjoyed the first two parts so far <3

[selfawarecobalt]

bro that fight was absolutely ridiculous! I love Gray but that was clearly main character syndrome. when Freed said that the rune won't cancel every magic to give Gray a chance I knew this was the first excuse to have the Raijinshuu lose. if serious, Freed could've just cancelled everything and the fight would've been over before it even began. then the Gray doesn't feel the torture rune excuse out of nowhere and the fact that Gray won against Evergreen Bickslow AND Freed with all ridiculous reasons and then struggled against an injured and exhausted Mirajane afterwards while Freed was holding up great against an emotional-overdrive, rage power Mira in the fight with her, it's all just so badly written. I would've given Gray the advantage of using devil slayer magic against people like Mira and Freed but at least make it a damn good and difficult fight because not only Mira is a power to be reckoned with, Freed has been set up to be too. then there are Ever and Bickslow qith their eye magics as well, and how they were knocked out was a joke too. I dont want this animated.

EXACTLY. I’ll be the first to admit gray would be powerful enough to defeat individual members of the thunder legion (that main character power boost) but that was an utter piss take. gray still struggled against just bixlow during their first fight, even if he couldve beaten him. that “um actually gray cant feel pain in this form” was completely stupid. ive seen a lot of awful things from modern fairy tail but that was undoubtedly the worst. also that “omg of course i feel pain i was hitting my comewades :((((“ INFURIATED me. didnt have that energy during what i assume was meant to be a “comedic” scene of him just beating the shit out of freed when he was already down. also the whole “lets rip the clothes off the only girl!” thing made me want to barf. i genuinely believe it would’ve been better for their characters if the thunder legion had been killed in the tartaros arc.

also YEAH THE WHOLE “struggled against an exhausted and injured mira” genuinely gave me vertigo after i finally escaped from having it shoved down my eyeholes. like yeah mira was rusty during her fight with freed but she was absolutely rage filled, and it was really emphasised just how powerful she was, and it was STILL a tough fight. against just freed. the whole thunder legion vs gray shouldve been a sweep in the other direction. weve seen they can all work together, using their unique magics to complicate things for enemies.

cant think where else to put this so im slapping this in here. EVEN THOUGH GRAY HAS DEMON SLAYER MAGIC NOW FREED HAS A FUCKING SWORD. also that stupid “gray teleports behind evergreen and bixlow” thing? WHAT KIND OF DEMON SLAYER MAGIC IS THAT. all fairy tail main characters are the worst type of mary sue. and i LIKE mary sues.

evergreen can turn people to stone and fire hundreds of BULLETS and explosions. bixlow can use his babies to beat the shit out of long distance targets and take control of their bodies (NOT TURN THEM CHIBI. HIRO.). FREED CAN FUCKING TURN INTO A DEMON AND ALMOST INSTANTLY TRAP PEOPLE AND DEPRIVE THEM OF OXYGEN, AND CUT A GODDAMN TORNADO IN HALF. THESE ARE VETERAN FIGHTERS WHO WERE ONCE ABLE TO DAMN NEAR TAKE DOWN THE ENTIRE GUILD. now theyre just a joke. their personalities have been completely erased and replaced with “omg laxus!!”. im going to hurl

if you HAD to make up an excuse to weaken them, sure you could make up some shit about “oh the barrier particles damaged their magic containers” BUT EVEN THEN THEYRE STILL SMART ENOUGH TO WORK TOGETHER.

seriously. this was the most blatant case of main character nepotism ive literally ever seen. i genuinely despise 100yq, it always felt so lazy and uncreative. uhh yeah actually surprise theres four more acnologias but more powerful. yeah theyre were never mentioned before so what. every character looks the same now. the lucyification of the fairy tail girls needs to be studied. this infection is taking away every single character and the only reactions im seeing to it are “omg glow up!!”

(also i HATE seeing people talk about the spinoff characters like “omg so cute its like an alternate universe” NO ITS JUST LAZY. HE ONLY KNOWS LIKE 4 CHARACTER TYPES AS MAIN CHARACTERS AND IM SICK OF NOONE ACKNOWLEDGING IT)

[localtboy-ivan]

Quick character interaction brainworm ideas b4 I sleep (so I apologise 4 any mistakes ❤️‍🩹)

Che’nya meeting Allistair; catboy would never leave him alone

Bonus on that, madi, che’nya and allistair; Allistair doesn’t give a single shit about any of them and lowkey wants to be left alone but the other two refuse to leave their favourite add1ct alone.

Kalim x August; totally canon, trust. Considering one of August’s inspos is pavlova cookie and therefore Eros by extension and everything, I like to think that makes Kalim his version of psyche; so rather than finally manifesting his adult form, because he’s not an adult, he’d instead discover his UM when he’s finally fully accepted his love for Kalim and that it’s reciprocated

Calcifer and Vil; most ppl think Calcifer is the lapdog type, but really he’s not; he just internalises all his feelings and never talks back, and just does as he’s told. It will backfire one of these days. Vil, let that boy talk to Malleus, please - they both want to.

Cater x Pein; my sillies, my beloveds. Genuinely might be the ONLY healthy couple because despite Pein’s constant denial, and his overall tsundere personality when it comes to Cater, they do genuinely work bc Cater doesn’t let Pein shut himself out; Cater won’t let Pein push him away because he knows he needs him even if he says he doesn’t - it’s why until Cater, most relationships, even if not romantic ones, Pein has had have never worked out and have ended up really unhealthy because Pein has an innate fear of abandonment, so he chooses to jump ship before anyone else can.

Panos and Jamil; Jamil at first couldn’t possibly understand why Panos genuinely enjoys taking care of Pein and doing so much for him because of how he feels when it comes to Kalim and everything, so they ended up regularly just talking. That lead to Jamil realising that despite them both taking care of people, it’s just not the same. Jamil is obligated to for incredibly different reasons to Panos. Pan & Pein’s parents made it clear that if Panos didn’t really want to, they wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to be some overprotective big bro type, but Panos wanted that. He loves his baby brother with all his heart, but at the same time completely understands why Jamil just can’t feel the same when it comes to tending to Kalim. While they bond over that, they know for a fact there are ZERO romantic feelings there, they enjoy each others company and are more than happy to be a rock for the other if they need it; even if it’s more so Panos being Jamil’s rock than anything else.

Alcott and Jade; unlikely pairing, not in any romantic sense, it’s just that Jade feels incredibly irritated whenever he sees Alcott with Caine because he can easily see past the facade and he hates the truth. He actively tries to get Alcott into Octavinelle, and “protests” be a better butler for Alcott by immediately rushing in and doing stuff before Caine can - reasonably desperate to get that boy away from Caine.

Prys and Azul; Azul doesn’t have nearly the same level of hatred for Prys that Prys does for him, honestly he doesn’t care all that much, and would enjoy talking with him, because they had actually talked civilly briefly before Azul challenged Prys for his spot as Housewarden and won, though a part of him definitely feels guilty for letting people pressure him into it. Prys despises him. Hates him for so easily beating him when Prys was a 3rd year and Azul had only started 1st Year not long ago at the time. He’s been close to overblotting ever since, and it’s a wonder he hadn’t for so long. Prys wanted to like Azul. Wanted to get over it and he physically couldn’t. He got genuinely irritated at the mere thought of Azul. Floyd adding to the fire with teasing didn’t help either. It made him constantly irritated and angry, ready to snap at people the longer he got held back because he began to focus more on taking care of Orion than working on his grades. Only reason he’s not been expelled is because one of his older brothers - Zephyr - is a staff member and “convinces” Crowley to let him stay. Azul, even with how he is, has never once even thought about going low enough to bring Orion into all of it to get anything out of Prys, no matter how strong his UM is - he’s not that bad, besides; Orion is 4… Post Prys!Overblot specifically, (because post-Azul!overblot, Prys would gloat about), while it was Zephyr who originally got him to calm down (along with all the usual stuff), while recovering, it was mainly Azul that visited him. Of course, Finn and Elijah visited a LOT and were very happy to see their waka safe, but Prys and Azul slowly started repairing their relationship from there and learning to get over their many MANY issues (together (˶•̀᎑-˶) )

That’s all I’ve got, ask me if I need to tag you bc it’s super late for me, so apologies, but thanks for listening to me yap bc art block hit me too hard to draw 🥲

[aichi-division]

𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐚'𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐢𝐫𝐬

Narrated by Shouta Takeda

Part 1: The beginning

Talking about my past is something I'm not used to. I don't think it's really an interesting topic, I mean, I don't think talking about a guy who was always abused by his family and never had a shred of luck in years is something entertaining for the public... shit, I'm sounding like a victim again.

Anyway, maybe this is an opportunity to express what I always tend to hide. I think my colleagues and friends deserve some kind of explanation as to why I am the way I am.

I lived most of my childhood in the downtown area of Tokyo. My family owns a major home appliance company, so you understand, they shit money. Having a lot of money necessarily implies complying with certain guidelines and standards. A bad management of the family economy implies a bad image to the public and my parents were very aware of this issue.

Yes, now you may wonder how someone like me could live such a luxurious life and end up a bum. The answer is quite simple, I broke the rules. Breaking things is something I've always been good at, honestly. My sin was to choose a path that my family despises. My mother, especially, could never look me in the eye after I confessed to her my interest in the arts.

"We raised you to be a Takeda, to be a future leader of our companies. You're so fucking ungrateful."

My parents and siblings have a very simple way to solve this type of problem. It's like when they serve you a menu you don't like at the restaurant. You just throw it away, stand up and walk away. Clearly I was able to pursue a career in the arts, but the cost was losing my entire family.

I was discarded as a piece of trash with no future and with the money I was entitled to by inheritance, I paid for my studies, lodging and any other stupid expenses that came my way. What I didn't see coming was my own inability to excel at the one thing I loved in this life.

Competing against a host of artists who clearly had greater talent and capabilities was something I had never considered. It was like a direct punch in the face. Honestly, it didn't hurt to lose my family, but it did hurt to give them the reason and satisfaction of my failure.

It is an indescribable rage, as if there were fire in my veins and I could not breathe without feeling like breaking everything. From there, everything began to fall into a hole, infinite, dark, impossible to get out of.

In all that chaos, I made several friends with the same bad luck as me, although they were burdened with something I didn't have at the time: addictions. I started with soft drugs, weed, nicotine…. But within a few months I was relying on methamphetamines, cocaine and starting on a path to heroin.

It's not something I'm proud to talk about. It was a hard time, where many times I behaved like a maniac. I convinced myself that the only way to be happy was through those syringes. It took me a long time to realize that reality was far from the mental construction I had of myself.

There was a time when things, our society, the norm had changed quite a bit. Women in power, competition, a new order of which I could understand little, as I was too stoned to realize it. I was living in a haze, in slow motion, living one second at a time, while everything was going to shit.

And it was there that I met the people to whom I owe my life: Issey and Eiji.

They found me in the Aichi district, who knows how, sitting on the sidewalk, humming some song while going through the worst hangover of my life. When they approached me, I really thought they would be one of those punk kids with their urge to beat up bums, pure Clockwork Orange style. What a surprise I got when I realized that they actually wanted to talk to me and recruit me in some so-called rap battles and I don't know what the fuck.

"I like your voice, do you know how to rap? It's not very difficult, you just have to have a good use of words and use a mic to…" Issey kept talking, so energetic and genuine that he sounded like a walking sunshine that would burn any bitter person like me.

“I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, kid.” I said, trying to decipher something that made sense out of all that monologue.

I think in the meantime, Eiji whispered something about me being a drug addict and that they shouldn't come near me, but Issey was very persistent. I actually smile every time I remember that moment. Things have changed a lot since that day.

Issey and Eiji became what I could really call a family. Being older, I had to take responsibility for their well-being and that forced me to change many aspects of myself, starting with rehabilitation.

The light of those two children made me realize a completely different path from what I had proposed and, above all, an opportunity to be a better version of me. I really hope that if Issey and Eiji read this, they know that I love them dearly and that I am very grateful and proud to be able to be their leader.

...ugh, I got sentimental again.

Anyway, I started living life again, starting all over again. I met a lot of people, started and ended relationships, fought a guy for a condom…. I think I'm at my peak.

I know this is the first part of a series of memoirs I should write later, but I think this pretty much sums up the road I've traveled to be who I am now. I'm not a cool guy, far from it.

But I am grateful for what I have.

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

HI HELLO here's so many OC questions!! I would love answers for Alex and/or Ronald and/or whoever else you're feeling in the moment. Maybe also Leo. Mix and match or everyone for everything. ANyway.

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

24. What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress?

44. What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most?

46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves?

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

50. If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials?

HI THANK YOU there's so many questions I love questions. the plane was very long so you get everyone for everything!!

15: Ronald's cooking is solidly mediocre. Makes abysmal coffee though. His coffee is bad enough that it's a (minor) plot point. When he's living with Donovan & Mary, they (lovingly) banned him from making coffee. His tea is also bad. Really, any beverage other than water made by him is horrible. He just. Doesn't know how to use a coffee maker. He either puts too much water in, pours the grounds in WITH the water, or doesn't put enough water in and it's super bitter.

Leo's cooking is alright! Better than Ronald or Alex's. He makes the best coffee out of the main cast, which is also a minor plot point. His tea is decent too, but James makes better tea than him. He can bake, though. On occasion.

Alex can cook for herself, but not really other people. She knows how to cook basic stuff, and she can follow recipes, but she's not really a cooking for others kind of person if that makes sense. Her coffee is alright, not super good but it's not super bad either.

24: Ronald doesn't sleep nearly enough, and he has nightmares a lot. He probably snores. Sometimes he'll go on walks around the city instead of sleeping, or sit up and read. ~4 hqours of a sleep on a really good day. Much like with therapy, a lot of his life would be improved if he slept better. Unfortunately, his trauma.

Leo has a really regular sleep schedule, which is impressive considering his job and that he lives with James, who has a fucking horrible sleep schedule and wakes up at random hours to wander around their apartment before going back to bed.

Alex does sleep! But she wakes up at 5 in the goddamn morning, because she's absolutely batshit. Occasionally, she goes to bed at 2 in the morning. If she gets seven hours of sleep it's a goddamn miracle and her average is probably about 5 or 6.

44: Ronald's favorite season is the spring. He likes all the flowers, but he doesn't like hot weather that much. Hates cold more, though.

Leo's favorite season is summer, and he loves hot weather. Absolutely despises cold weather.

Alex's favorite season is fall, I think. She likes that it's colder, but not too cold, and she doesn't have to deal with snow & ice, but it also isn't horrifically sunny out.

46: Ronald's first impression generally consists of ''oh he's a grumpy old man''. Which is. Not inaccurate! But it's also so wildly inaccurate. Because his actual personality, which is buried under approximately 17000 layers of regret and bitterness and unprocessed trauma, is really fucking different. It was more obvious when Donovan was alive, and it gets more obvious after Leo almost dies and Ronald gives James that lecture in the supply closet about not being an idiot.

Leo tends to make a really good first impression, especially on strangers. He's good at socializing and being charasmatic & shit. That first impression isn't nessecarily accurate, he's a lot more of a sarcastic little shit (affectionate) than first impressions of him might lead you to believe, but in terms of the face he puts on when he's doing newspaper stuff it's accurate. In private he's quieter.

Alex's first impression depends on the context, but generally it's of being 1) absolutely batshit about her job 2) fairly intense and highly dedicated to whatever she's doing and 3) absolutely batshit in general (affectionate). Second impressions of her normally amount to "why is she breaking into a government office". All of those are extremely accurate. She introduces herself as Alexandrina McLelland, journalist for The Clockwork Herald, unless she's doing something with her family. Then and only then is she Alexandrina Gates. Otherwise, she's too scared of backlash from the amount of people she's pissed off hitting Amelia or her mom to use her actual name.

49: Ronald's most valued object is easy, it's the photographs he keeps in his desk. If I had to pick one, probably the photo of him and Donovan together, rather than the photo of Mary, but both of them honestly. He's sentimental as all hell.

Leo's also sentimental, but not as sentimental as Ronald. It took me a while to think of what would be his most valued object but I think it would be a copy of N or M? by Agatha Christie, because of course the guy who almost gets murdered likes spy murder mysteries. James gave it to him for Christmas in 1942.

Alex, too, is fairly sentimental. Not as much, though, as the other two. Well. She's not as obviously sentimental as the other two, but she still definitely is. The cast of herald is sentiments georg. She has a fountain pen that she really likes. It was a present from her mom when she was in her late teens/early 20s.

50 (for this one I'm skipping essential things like clothes, etc, and just doing the other stuff): Ronald would bring the photographs of Donovan and Mary that he has in his desk, and a cut out of Donovan's obituary. Which he hasn't looked at in 20 years, but he still has a copy of it. He'd also take-- so Ronald kept a copy of Alex's first article, which was also, technically, Donovan's last article. He kept it because, you know, he's her godfather! he's proud of her!! and then he saw the 'and Donovan McLelland' in the byline and almost started crying in the middle of the office.

Leo would bring his cane, the book James gave him, and the photo he has of him and James in 1942-ish. Also, he has a photo of his family (his parents + his sisters & him) and he'd take that, also.

Alex would take the pen from her mom, a cut-out photo she has of her dad (it's the one from donovan's obituary), and her notebook. she refuses to go anywhere without her notebook.