#also credit to others who had more braincells than I did while reading

[lwt28brave]

LT2 masterpost

If it was up to me, we would get an autumn or winter EP. Since it’s not up to me at all, here, enjoy this post with everything we know so far of LT2, which is to say, not much at all. Everything here is hypothetical. I’ll be updating every time I see something relevant. A little disclaimer that while this is a masterpost (kinda), it could be read as discourse (duh, it’s also a theory), AND it’s also by me, and you shouldn’t expect me to be serious at this point.

Due to me restraining myself, there’s no reference to any of the times he’s mentioned his guitar skills and him improving but I hope you know I cried every single time.

I’m also linking my old pinned here. It was written before AFHF and around the free merch thing that didn’t lead to much, but I still think I made some good points.

Possible tracks:

Copy of a Copy of a Copy

Change

Faith in the future??

369??

Possible names:

369

Faith in the future

When is the album coming out?

Your guess is as good as mine

Friday 28th of January 2022. Almost two years after Walls. It’s a Friday. It’s a 28th. What else can I say?

Here you can find @want-to-be-loved timelines for every month.

Here you can find @berlinini’s timeline of what Louis has been up to this year (2021).

The rest is under the cut. And here you can find a PDF version where Tumblr can't tell me how many pictures I can add.

2020

He said back on May 2th 2020 he wasn’t writing anything new yet.

(x)(x)(x)

Interestingly enough, he’s said many times after that that the album’s not ready cause he has no new experiences to drawn from. I won’t call him out because he does it himself.

May 4th. He liked a tweet from DMA’s Johnny Took saying they had to go write together again. Louis has been credited as an influence for them and (kind of) participated in their previous record, so I’m assuming he meant for their music and not his, but you never know.

Nothing(literally nothing??? how did we survive) until 11th of July. We all know what happened that day. We all celebrated it. Nonetheless, that’s not what I’m talking about here.

(x) So, by the beginning of July 2020 he was working on concepts and ideas for the new album. That was fifteen months ago. I know perfection takes time but…

Brief summary of important things that happened from then until the next mention of new music:

Louis left Syco!!!! 10 days later he rescheduled the tour for the first time. He followed Matt Vines on Twitter, probably so we could publicly shame him into doing something. Also, the 10thanniversary. He followed more people I wish he hadn’t.

Then more nothing until September. Not even a single tweet. The first merch drop was on the 28th of August but he just RT’ed the tweet. He first mentioned Free my Meal on the 25th of September. Then on October 1st Walls hit #1 on a lot of countries and Louis was incredibly happy and excited about it ^^

And then, that same day, October 1st, 2020, he dropped this bomb:

(x)

He also said it was too soon to be sharing new lyrics with us (x)

And, obviously, this tweet which is actually what made me start this whole post. I would hope you know mate.

(x)

He also told us he was cooking "banger after banger" and that he was incorporating more social themes into his music (x)(x) (I believe any social issue is a political issue but that’s not the point rn).

COPY OF A COPY OF A COPY?!?!

These next paragraphs are brought to you by my mind not remembering things and me not having any links. I’m assuming COACOAC came from those writing sessions that supposedly happened in October. Or in LA but I have no idea if he actually was in LA at any point other than a Daily Mail article putting him there on December which would have been too late, but I do remember that someone said he was in the studio in LA last autumn???? A rumor. Maybe. IDK. Did I mention already all of this is very hypothetical?? Well, this is it. I can’t even remember if this was October or November or what. So, take this with a grain of salt.

I’m also… taking the liberty to assume, if you must, that Copy wasn’t meant to be a Walls reject because it sounds more mature and darker and it has a vastly different tone that Walls songs. I know he’s said that song probably isn’t getting into the album, but I want to have faith (in the future) that I’m getting a studio version. (But also, Louis, if you’re reading this, first of all GET OUT OF MY BLOG second of all, please don’t ever feel pressured again to add a song to the album because we have already heard it before. It’s your art and it should always be under your own terms).

So yeah, I believe that Copy is either one of those four songs (then imagine the other three??!!) or was written around the 1st of October date.

---End of the Intermission---

Then not much important (other than sharing more about Marcus Rashford fight against food poverty and the 2nd merch drop) until he announced the livestream on the 24th of November. (x)

It wasn’t until a few days before the livestream date we even thought again about new music (jk, I know we’re always thinking about new Louis’ music). So, December 9th/10th, 2020. Nine months ago. We got our first taste of new music!

He made sure we knew Copy of a Copy of a Copy isn't a cover! (x) (x)

(x)

Ok, so that’s it for 2020. (I feel like I’m missing something from September 17th because tweet was deleted but maybe he was still talking about cucumbers. We might never know. Unless I understand how Tumblr tags work). Expected, cause Walls was released in 2020. We needed to let it sit for a while.

2021

Another Summary: Louis third tweet of the year was telling the UK government off. So was the fifth. What a good beginning. On the 26th of January, he said he prefers pancakes over waffles. I hope he meant pancakes other than his own. More importantly, he tweeted the infamous “you lot read into things too much”. Don’t get me started, Tomlinson. Don’t. Then the 31st came around and Walls was one. He tweeted this. How wise. And Project Defenceless happened!!

15th of February!! Who cares about Valentine Day when the next day we got this? ♥

(x)

(x)

So…AN EP?? AN EP?? PLEASE RELEASE AN EP.

“I’m sure I will have something out this year but unlikely that will be the album”. Unlikely but not impossible. Also. A single would be good. This is the second time he mentions releasing something in 2021 and he sounds surer about it than the first time around.

He also said that he isn’t sure we will get a studio version of Copy. And that the best bridges from Walls to LT2 are Walls, OTB, KMM and Copy. Can’t wait!

Then we jump to March 6th when he announced he was going to create his own management company. “Sometimes action is needed first to encourage the motivation and belief”. As we can tell he was already manifesting some stuff which will lead us to the numerology stuff/Tesla… kidding. Or not. We might never know.

On the 22nd of March he answered some questions:

He told us music was still his main focus ♥ mwha. (x) I included this tweet to guilt-trip him into giving us music in case he’s reading this even after I told him to leave. ILY.

(x) I’d love to get a visual EP this autumn. Just saying. It sounds like a lovely concept.

(x)

…next (I will get into it, I promise. I’m just mad).

On the 25th he left for Mexico until April 10th. You could assume it was just for the documentary where we got ten seconds of footage or admit the obvious: LT2 its a Mexican baby!!

On the 26th (so, not so far apart from that first 369) we got the first Faith in the Future mention: (x)

Back then we were innocent people who had no idea what was coming upon us. We still have no idea because what the fuck does he mean with these. Please explain. I have one braincell and I don’t use it enough for this. I’m linking some theories.

On the 30th of March he confirmed he was already working on the documentary. So AFHF was already on the works. Will it take this long for us to get the Veeps numbers? We also got this tweet: "Got a decent chorus idea down" (x).

Same person that got the “something out this year” exclusive. If you know something share with the class. Also. Is this Change? I feel like this could be Change but I also assume he wrote Change after hanging out with his friends or being in Doncaster. But who knows.

(x) And the second mention to 369.

(x) 15th of April. The second "Faith in the future".

On the 19th of April he announced that he had something BIG for us later on the year which turned out to be the Away From Home Festival ♥♥ (x) I love him so much.

Then on the 28th he announced the 369 merch drop (which it’s probably the Walls drop? Except that the TOU and KMM ones were “drop 1 and drop 2” and this was drop 369 which, again, makes no sense) but we still don’t know what 369 means.

Into May’ 21 we go.

He rescheduled tour again. And dropped another bomb (x).

He announced he has signed with BMG as an independent artist by RTing this tweet on May 10th. The article also says that he’s already working on writing and recording LT2. The timing… we don’t know. What this deal involves… we don’t know either. Bear with me here because I have a lot to say about this.

I think the deal is only a distribution one, but that BMG are interested in Louis and what he (us) could bring to the table. They were either present at the festival or watching it, but officially they had no involvement at all with it (everything is credited either to Louis own company, 78 Productions, or Charlie Lightening’s company). That’s the case for both giveaways too; the vinyl one and the tickets for the festival.

I think it would be an unbelievably bad move not to test the waters with BMG now or soon-ish. At least a single, to see how it performs. Due to the circumstances, it’s obvious there’re certain limitations on place but I want to see how they push it, whether the radio play exist this time around and if the song is playlisted and promoted and all that… I would also love to know, since it says he signed with BMG UK, but it also states it’s a global deal, how things are going to go on the US and other countries.

Yes, yes. I know those are all questions and no answers. But I know the same as you, sadly. If any of you know more than you’re letting on… again, share with the class.

Where was I? Yes, on the 25th of May Louis had a great day writing (x). Since the first time he had mentioned he was officially writing to this date there’s almost eight months. And I believe he was writing before October’ 20.

He followed Robert Harvey that day and, on the 28th of May (why is it always the 28th???) he was spotted at the studio for the first time.

June was an interesting month for the fandom ♥. Lots of LHL content which I will love and cherish for the rest of times. On June 4th, June 9th, and June 10th he was spotted at the studio, but I believe he was there more days.

(x)

This was posted on June 6th and captioned Studio. Charlie also shared it with “Mega tunes being put down, can’t wait for this @louist91 #louistomlinson #LT2” as the caption. This gives me 2019 (Elton-Joint) vibes. I like it. Feels like we’re getting closer to something.

He added the Milano date on the 9th too which I’m mentioning because I’m going alone. Anyone wanna go with me please? I’m nice and I never eat anything before a concert so you can have my food. On other news. It didn’t come home.

During July he was at the studio at least three days too. Probably more. Feels like more with all the fan pictures we got. Or was that June? Anyway, July 1st and 9th we got some videos from Robert Harvey and wearesuperhi, which is who Louis has been working with the most, that we know of. I don’t know for sure they’re from that day. And on July 5th we got an article and lots of pictures of Louis looking really good outside the studio.

On the 12th of July the first fans started getting the free, 369 bucket hat and print. We still don’t know what the purpose was other than to thanks fans. Maybe that was it. I want answers and I still think it relates to a future project (see theories above), but it could also just be a bridge with the Walls breaking.

He didn’t tweet about anything interesting for a while, mostly because he lost his phone (he either throwed it in the air or smashed it who knows). Then on the 29th of July he announced the festival!

I’m glossing over it because there’s already been a lot of talk about it (rightfully) and while it was a wonderful thing, it doesn’t have much to do with LT2.

Let’s talk Change!

On August 3rd he tweeted this about the setlist.

(x)

And this (x) on the 28th! I can’t stand him.

We didn’t get it, obviously. Because who was going to get that. But we read too much into things. Alright.

On the 16thof August Dave Gibson shared this post tagged #LT2 with the eyes emojis 👀👀👀. I believe this has to do both with Change but also with whatever else came out of that Mexico trip.

(x) Last relevant tweet related to LT2 is this one.

So, on the 30th of August we got Change and we cried, and we know that Change is going in the new album. He said it. With those exact words. He also said he was “getting a feeling for it”. This has to meant he already has a general idea of the vibe of the new album and what’s going in it!!!!!! (Right? RIGHT?).

Anyway, let’s go back a few weeks because some other things happened on August. He was at the studio a few more times. Or it was suggested that he was there. On the 17th and the 18th. (Why was it so time-pressing to be at the studio instead of rehearsing for the festival? There was no studio at all on the documentary. Which makes sense, but again, then why?).

On the day of the festival we got another mention of Faith in The Future that made me feel part of a cult ngl. The words were flashing on the screen for less than a second. Okay.

And then he tweeted those words again after watching the livestream/documentary on the 4th of September (x). This is what makes me suspect it's either the name of the album or of the single.

On the same day, we got some interesting quotes about LT2 on the documentary.

“Soon I’ll have to think about me second album, which in my head I’ll get the tour out of the way and then I’ll address that. So, I hadn’t really given it much thought, to be honest”.

“When every day is the same is hard to feel creative and it’s hard to have any kind of proper inspiration”.

“As season started to come back, I started writing again and it was great and some of these songs turned out alright”.

And I think this is it. I might be overlooking some important details but that’s what we know and what we don’t know.

So. Conclusions. That’s what you missed on Glee. I do believe the album is, if not mostly done, partially there. And yes, this post is pointless and never-ending but it’s all in here if you need to tell Louis “Hey, you said this, mate”.

[natsukitakama]

Hey you <3 I just wanted to request a headcanon for the 104th cadets, please : how do they act while playing co-op games (you know, the kind you have to resolve some kind of enigmas, like pressing two buttons at the same time, etc) with their s/o ? Thanks a lot !

Author note : hi there ❤️ thank you for your request hope you’ll enjoy this ♡ Somehow I described them as a gamer ? Hope you’re fine with that, I actually really enjoy this 

i do not own those gifs credit to the owner(s)

Warning : rage quit / eren is litteraly me / Modern AU cause the canon-verse suck Lmao / I based this on my own experience 

Masterlist

Eren Jaeger - impulsive 

How did you not end up dumping him ? The man is DANGEROUS 

You think that he is all screaming and yelling like all the FUCKING time ? 

Play a game with him 

Spoiler : it’s worst 

I mean at first he saw this as a challenge and just getting the possibility to do play a game with you ? 

He couldn’t say no to that 

The thing he just took this way to personally, so he had to finish this with the best score getting the things you had to unlock during a game. 

He had to 

Doesn’t mean you want to.

The whole idea of co-op game is to play together in order to finish the game

But he didn’t hear that : he wants to do everything by himself 

And when he can’t do it he would ask some help.

Don’t expect him to be good with synchro-enigma he can’t he is either too quick or too late. 

I’m sorry to say that but he might complain about your game (while he was the one who is losing all the heart because he can’t read an enigma properly) 

And you see me coming but if can’t resolve an enigma and if you can’t help him he would just stop and won’t play at this game until he feels like he can do it 

Oh and he sucks at game like Overcooked you know those kind of things were you’re supposed to work at the same Time as his partners he is either too slow either too quick (but always pretend he isn’t his fault) 

Don’t think I mentioned that but he cursed a lot, he complained a lot (to my fellow frenchie he is like Sardoche in real life I don’t make the rule here) 

7/10 because it’s funny to see him being angry at a game 

Mikasa - skilful

i wanted to say that if you’re not eren she won’t play with you LMAO 

But if she is dating you, she would do it because she wants to please you and spend some good quality time with you (she is not a fan of video game but she can tolerate some RPG) 

She tends to be quiet while playing and only speaks when she got an idea about how to solve enigma or difficult game who implies being coordinate. 

You didn’t have to anything in such mission she will synchronise her game with you don’t question her. I don’t know how she is doing it but she can no matter if you tend to push way to quickly every button or if you’re a slow one. One look from her and she does it 

She is really god any games it piss me off

When you struggle at an enigma that you decided to resolve on your own she will either give you tiny tips or just ask you to just stop right now get some tea and try again later when you’ll be more relax 

The only problem with her is she wants to help so much that she might do everything on her own especially if one of your mission imply fighting (like kill a boss together to unlock another level) she would quickly get over it without questioning you and you end up getting so many xp and items while you didn’t ever touch anything 

She wants to help you so much poor thing ♡ 

Also if you’re hurt during a game or if you life are pretty low she would stop everything in order to heal you. Even if it’s very cute from her, it piss you off cause now you have to start again because both of you died together. 

9/10 she is the best she cooks cookie prepare some tea for you. 

Armin - strategic 

i love him I really do 

But you can’t play with him 

He needs to make a plan on every mission, Like sweetie just relax you need to chill a little bit. 

Although he tends to overthink everytime He is very good when your goal is to kill a boss, cause he will do two jobs : healing and helping you to kill him. Give him 5 min and he will give you a whole tactics so you can fight the boss easily and earn even more xp. He won’t be afraid to go and heal you too if you’re in need and would never judge you if you’re struggling (even if he guides you during the game) he understand that the game is pretty difficult. 

He is good to with enigma like it’s just sound quite easy for him. All he has to do is read the thing and BANG he got the solution how can you do that ?

He will even explain the whole thing so you could also resolve enigma with him 

The problem is he is way too slow, if your level implies being coordinate it would take you forever until being able to finish the game. Especially because he is not comfortable with a joystick like they got way too many button and he is not good with coordination so he ends up being confused with the button 

When it came to videotgameswhere all of you have to work in coordination, he is always slow. He really tries but he is always way too slow, but he counterbalances his lack of skills with his minds so after you’ll lose because he couldn’t manage to do something within 30s he’ll find a solution to win 

It’s really funny to play a cop-game with him on Fortnite cause he’s like « y/n why would you play at such a game ? What’s the point of killing people ? » and he is the one who is throwing a grenade and shoot at the same time so a lot of people can dies with one shot or planing a trap so a lot of people might die at the same time. He is very dangerous when he wants to just saying. 

8/10 because sometimes mind isn’t enough and you need skill to win 

Jean - Skill and minds 

Do not let him play with Eren 

I swear don’t do it otherwise they would spend the whole game yelling at each other « you should come quicker Horse face ! » « Oh yeah ? Who’s the one who though that would be wise to attack the boss without getting heal first uh ? Such an idiot bastard » 

It’s not comfortable if you’re playing while being on the phone but it’s so funny to see him getting angry because Eren (as usual) run without thinking about a plan

Like Armin he tends to be very good when it came to resolve enigma or find an enemy’s weakness : all he has to do is to let Eren, Connie and Sasha run at first so he could analyze the boss’ behavior (yeah he totally uses them as guinea pig and he doesn’t regret that especially when he hears Eren getting Angry or Connie complaining it’s so funny) 

Unlike Armin he is pretty food with a controller so he can actually being very efficient as long as Mikasa isn’t around 

He tends to be close to you EVERYTIME and he would even protect you, heal you everytime you got hurt because you protects Connie, Eren or Armin, it’s cute at first but very annoying then because he only focus on you and isn’t into the game anymore. When he turns like that, someone need to tease him about not being good like Eren and he will scream a little bit (how dare you as if he could even be worst than that suicidal bastard) but then he is on it. 

Watch him beating the shit out of the boss 

BUT when it came to games like overcooked when you have to share task he is bad. Not because he isn’t skillful but because he wants to be the chief so badly and of course Eren thought he could be the leader while everyone knows he isn’t coordinate enough to do that. So most of the time Armin is the leader in such a game 

Just give him a task where he has to be quick and he’ll be fine but don’t let him in the same group as Eren, they would argue about who should to this and you’ll end up losing because they argue. 

Also if you’re playing something like a RPG with him he gave you SO MANY things like everytime he drop something this is for you, at this point he doesn’t care about his character (he does but he can’t just not give you something) 

You didn’t ask it but I’m just say it, if you play animal crossing with him he would spoil the shit out of you, can’t blame him he just wants to help so badly. He’ll text you about his plan, the stuff he got he would even help you with flowers. 

8/10 because he tends to flirt with you or argue with Eren so you’ll lose precious time for the mission 

Connie & Sasha - Funny 

I put them together because 1) they tends to play everytime together 2) because they play the same way 3) they share one braincell (meaning either you’re dating connie or Sasha you’ll have to play together) 

One word : a mess 

Always questionnaire why we’re doing this or why we shouldn’t do this, this way 

BUT they’re like very synchronized, it’s like seeing someone and his reflection (sometimes you’re even jealous cause you can’t do that)

They tends to be very effective when you need to coordinate something 

They’re pretty skilled too 

But they can’t make a plan even to save their life 

The number of life you’ll lose because them and Eren decided to run into the boss’ lair without asking permission 

It should be illegal to run that easily anyway 

If Connie is really dumb when It came to enigma 

Sasha is very good to notice tiny elements that actually was the key to resolve the problem 

She tends to be super good to drop every tiny things that was hide behind a tree too a really hunt (but won’t share her things with you if you’re not giving her puppy eyes I’m sorry) 

But Connie is your best allies to fight couple of ennemie at the same time, like you were walking and boom you’re surrounded by NPC and he will come to save you. 

Connie is a protector 

I mean Sasha is too but she more into prevention, safety than protection but if during a game you might be in danger of course she’ll run after you (ask you extra cookies for that) 

Dont expect any of them to be good at enigma or games like overcooked, I mean Sasha might spend her whole call luring about foods while Connie might try to do everything on his own since he is incredible (he says it) 

If you’re calling one of them during a game, it’s actually more entertaining than the game, I can’t explain they’re just super funny

If you’re playing in a RPG that might have a huge map you’ll definitely lose them at some point during your game, they don’t have any sense of direction and since they can’t read a map (that’s me don’t bully me I’m trying) well they get lost and will send you a picture of their screen so you could help them  

6/10 because they’re trying to their best but since they share one brain cell well it’s always more complicated than it should be 

Bonus : Marco Bott - Motivating 

My cute sweetheart 

He is doing is best everytime you call him for a game 

He is so good at overcooked than I’m jealous of him 

Kinda good with Enigma but he is really good when game imply strategic (he also loves how focused you are and how he could motivate you with his plan) 

He doesn’t play at any games that involve war or anything so don’t ask him about a fortnite game he won’t do it 

He really love role-play (not put intended lmao), he is actually a good narrator and is so good at at owning xp : his character might not be the greatest when it came to strength but he is very balanced character 

Playing with him it’s actually relaxing, he never raise his voice and seemed to always find a way to relax anyone that might be too into it. 

Especially good when It came to help Eren and Jean to just shut up and play the game without yelling : don’t ask me how he does that the man is a genius 

If he teams up with Armin during game like Among us you loose any chance to win (I mean if you’re the traitor he would never say it but he noticed so does Armin but won’t say anything about it) the man knows everything, and is able to make you confess it’s really fun to watch but bother you when you’re loosing yourself in your explanation 

When it’s just you two playing a game together and somehow you struggle to resolve an enigma or a level, don’t worry your boyfriend Marco he is

The best cheerleader in the whole univers fight me on this 

+100 ego boost for Y/N 

In the end your resolve that damn enigma 

10/10 yeah I’m not impartial but I love him 

[asian-hero]

i was wondering if i could do a mina x fem!reader where the reader is pretty butch and is friends with mainly the guys; however all of them still think that she likes guys, so they are all trying to set up todoroki (who has no clue on what the guys are doing) with her, until one day they see them talking in a cafe and they think that they’re actually together, until one of them sees/hears her gushing over mina with big brother todoroki paying for her coffee because f endeavor’s credit card ❤️❤️

A/N: I’m glad that the entire fandom collectively agrees that Todoroki would absolutely steal his father’s credit card to buy the dumbest things

Maybe I’ll write a part two where the reader tells Mina how she feels

Summary: The guys of 1-A, while they absolutely owned your heart and you’d do anything for them, all collectively shared a total of three brain cells, and most of the time it was either Bakugou or Iida who held them. So, while you thought it was clear that there was a certain pink haired girl you were crushing on, it somehow got lost in translation, and instead you were set up with a red and white haired boy instead.

They were so close.

Words: 1,970

Ever since you were little, you always found yourself gravitating towards your male classmates versus your female ones. It wasn’t as if you had anything against the girls in your classes, no, it was quite the opposite, in fact. You were just so enamored by them that it often rendered you speechless, so instead of trying to overcome your slight fear of a woman’s rejection, you instead sought comfort with the male students, and then it just became natural for you to gravitate towards them instead. 

By the time you had enrolled in U.A. practically nothing had changed, you were the same girl-avoiding woman you had been growing up, but at least now you knew why you were so infatuated, yet so afraid. On your first day in class 1-A, you immediately found yourself drawn to a nerdy green-haired boy and the seemingly strict glasses wearing kid. It only took a few minutes for you to become fast friends with the two of them, as you and Midoriya found yourself geeking over pro heroes and reading his journal with all of their stats. Iida, while not quite sure how to react to having two extreme pro hero fans, merely watched as you and Midoriya talked a mile a minute about every hero on the scene currently, who your favorites were, and who’s quirk you’d like to switch with for a day. It also didn’t take long for you to be introduced to Uraraka Ochako, though it took much longer for the two of you to become friends. Not because she was hard to get along with, but because she was just so cute that you were having a hard time forming any coherent sentences. You did get past it, eventually, but the two of you knew that you weren’t as close as you and the other two boys.

As you had progressed in your class, gaining more control over your quirk, you also had progressed in terms of how many friends you had gained as well. Shortly after the first week of class, you had somehow managed to be caught in Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima’s little group, though you mostly acted as their mom and made sure that the three of them didn’t end up of the receiving end of a certain blonde-haired porcupine’s explosive quirk. 

Shouji, Ojiro, Tokoyami, and Sato were also quick friends of yours as well. Though you didn’t hang out with them much, you always knew that you were welcome to hang out with them and just have a relaxing time. Sato had even baked you a few things as the two of you got closer, and now you were currently his sole taste tester when it came to baked goods. 

You did try to befriend Mineta, but quite honestly, you’d rather take Bakugou’s anger issues and insults over the tiny boys perverted stares and attempts to touch you. Thankfully, Bakugou also recognized this as an issue for you, and even though he’d deny it to his dying day, he’d make sure that the perverted boy was never within six feet of you.

The most surprising friend you’d made, and the closest one you had, was the one and only Todoroki Shouto. How the two of you clicked was a mystery to the both of you. With his cold, aloof attitude at the beginning of the school year, and your rather boisterous personality, the two of you had formed some sort of mutual agreement to never speak to one another, both because Todoroki didn’t have the mindset of wanting to make friends, and you didn’t have the mental capacity and patience to deal with that boy without smacking him. However, shortly after the sports festival, he found himself sitting near Midoriya, formerly his only friend, which also meant that he was sitting close to you as well. After a few weeks of awkward silence between the two of you, you finally tried to start a conversation, hoping that your love for pro heroes and maternal personality would make him feel more at ease with you. While it worked to an extent, what really drove Todoroki to becoming your best friend was when you had accidentally let it slip that you didn’t really care for Endeavor, and before you could even attempt to take back what you said, Shouto told you he felt the same, and soon after the two of you became what seemed like the anti-Endeavor club. Instead of the two of you feeling awkward during lunch, you two had actually found yourself ignoring the rest of the group unintentionally, instead lost in your own conversation. 

It was also safe to say that you did have relationships with the girls of 1-A as well, though they were more superficial than the ones that you’d made with the boys. You always made sure to exchange pleasantries with them in the morning, and you made it clear that if any of them needed someone to talk to, they could always reach out to you. Other than that, though, your friendships with them weren’t quite as deep as they were with the boys.

This didn’t stop them from caring about you, though. Even though you never hung out with them, they always made sure to pay close attention to you and your needs, in case you ever needed them.

So, it truly couldn’t be helped that, upon further inspection, they had come to the conclusion that, because you spent so much time with him, you were absolutely, one hundred percent without a doubt, in love with Todoroki. 

It seemed obvious to them, as why would you spend so much time with the boy if you didn’t feel anything for him. You were always smiling around him, and you were one of the only people in the class who could get him to laugh and smile like a regular teenager. They didn’t even think that he could do that! So, in order to be the perfect wingwoman for you, Ashido, Uraraka, and Hagakure decided to plant the seed into some of the boys’ head, more specifically, Midoriya, Kaminari, and Kirishima’s heads. While the first had acted as he normally does, with a flustered look on his face, the other two had some of the most devious smiles you had ever seen. 

Not long after, all of the boys, minus Todoroki, had been let in on your little “crush,” and they decided to hatch a plan to get the two of you together. 

They weren’t subtle by any means, in fact, if you and Todoroki had more than one braincell shared by the two of you at any given point, you both probably would’ve recognized what your classmates were up to. Unfortunately for the both of you, while you were book smart, you were rather dense when it came to social cues, so every obvious attempt made by the other boys went over your head. You did start to pick up on certain things though, like how whenever there was a partner project, everyone would automatically push you towards Todoroki, saying that they already have a partner. Or when the two of you were sitting together at lunch, Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka “conveniently” forgot to tell you that they weren’t able to sit with you, leaving you and Todoroki to eat by yourselves, not that you minded. 

The most obvious way that the boys attempted to get you two together was whenever you all had hero training, whether it be in rescue or media, if there was a way that they could get you partnered together, then you better believe that was what they were planning. 

Around the tenth time the boys had tried to set you up once again, only to fail miserably, as the two of you genuinely enjoyed each other’s company, and were about as smart as a brick. They were all so close to pulling out their hair, and before they could just call it like it was, Kirishima was the “voice of reason:”

“Those two already hang out a lot as is, right? Maybe they’re dating but they’re hiding it from us, so we should see if we can tail them,”

While most of the boys were agreeing to tail the two of you, with Iida going purely to put an end to any chaos they could cause, they missed the way you were wistfully sighing, and the way that Todoroki was trying to hold back his laughter at your love sick attitude. They also missed the way his eyes lit up with mischief as a certain pink haired girl walked by, waving at the two of you while holding back her pleased grin. Or how you immediately punched his shoulder to get him to stop from doing anything that would embarrass you more.

So, once school had let out, Kaminari, Kirishima, Midoriya, Sero, and Iida had followed closely behind you and Todoroki, hoping that the two of you would do something more interesting than just walking back to the dorms.

Luckily for them, the two of you had planned to head to one of your favorite cafes, just a little ways away from the campus. Blissfully unaware of the eyes glaring holes into the backs of your heads, you carried a pleasant conversation, talking about the training from today, and how both of you thought the other could improve. As you headed into the cafe, the stalkers you had acquired waited a couple of seconds before going in after the two of you, hoping that you two would keep being ignorant of your surroundings, for at least a few more minutes. 

They couldn’t help but be amazed at the sight in front of them: with your arm wrapped securely around his, waiting in line as you pointed out all of the options you thought he’d like. Once the two of you were up to order, Todoroki had ordered for the both of you, and even paid with a shiny credit card that they were sure wasn’t his. Kirishima thought it was rather manly of him, whereas Kaminari was impressed that Todoroki could be “suave.” As the two of you sat down at one of the tables, they were starting to believe in Kirishima’s little theory before they heard you talking about someone else:

“Did you see how cool Mina looked during training today?” You sighed, resting your face against your palm as you stared off to the side.

“‘Mina?’” He teased, sipping on his drink and enjoying the way you seemed to grow embarrassed, “Since when were you two on a first name basis?”

You hid your face in between your hands, mumbling out a quiet “shut up.” He couldn’t help but laugh, leaning in to flick your head.

“You should just tell her you like her, I don’t see the harm from doing so,”

Your head shot straight up, sending a non-threatening glare towards the boy in front of you, “I can think of so many things that could go wrong. One: she could not like me, and then tell the rest of the girls in the class and get them all to hate me,” You took a minute to shove two fingers into his face, “Or two: she could just not like girls in general, and I could make her so uncomfortable that she’ll never want to see me again.”

“You are the most dramatic person I’ve ever met,”

“Well clearly you’ve never met yourself.”

As you both continued to bicker back and forth about your huge crush on the pink girl, the four boys, who were sitting right behind your table, found themselves dumbfounded. Kaminari turned towards the rest of the group, a puzzled look on his face.

“So, she doesn’t like Todoroki?”

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Til Death Do Us Part ch 1

This will end up on Ao3 eventually  Based on the @maulusque post (Which You Should Read Before Reading This) where Fox and Palpatine end up in a fake relationship and sham marriage because both thinks the other is sincere and that they are manipulating the other but Fox had one hell of a prenup and ends up cleaning house when he divorces Sheev and saves the galaxy 

This is not that story.  This is a failed version of that story I thought up because my two braincells were like Rey Palpatine? That makes Fox her step-grandpa??? and i wanted them to meet. It also is turning into a Sequels Fix It (disclaimer- I kind of take sequels canon about the sheev clones and mash it with my fist until juice comes out and make lemonade and do whatever i want bc they dont explain enough)

Summary:  Fox wakes up from cryo-stasis to a galaxy recovering from the fall of the Empire as the universe’s Bitterest Ex-Husband because he didn’t get to kill Palpatine himself. He’s not going to let some discount clone of sheev ruin things again either, and ends up with a surprise step-granddaughter along the way.  3k words chapter 1/?

Fox should have known better than to attempt out-manipulating the puppetmaster of a galactic war.  What really rankled was how close he had come, his fingers had metaphorically brushed the salvation of the Republic before it had been snatched away. 

The divorce had been more than halfway processed, and Palpatine had grown more and more panicked.  Under the scrutiny of every lawyer on Coruscant, the prenuptial agreement had been airtight, the political powers Fox tried to give himself in it were unlikely to be enforced, but the monetary and titular aspects were to the letter of the law.  

Of course the law only applied to citizens and sentients.  Palpatine cracked down hard against Clone Rights in those last months.  He himself did not publicly utter a biased word in either direction, only ever praising the effectiveness of the troops, but many of Palpatine’s close associates presented strong cases.  People that had been at their engagement party, people who had been roped by tradition into dancing with Fox’s brothers at the wedding, people who had looked him in the eye over an oiled banquet table and praised his wit, became the ones proclaiming that Fox and his brothers had no more inborn rights or legal merit than a droid or womprat. 

Palpatine drew the court case out in circular debates, and last minute rescheduling.  Fox was kept exhausted and worn to the bone between the ramped up tempo of the war, the grueling hours in court, and the new loathing facing him every second he spent at his job in the Coruscant Guard.  Palpatine had dropped any acts around Fox, no longer the doting grandfather of the republic, or enthusiastic geriatric spouse, but bitter and jilted and cruel-tongued.  Some days Fox feared for his life. 

It was that resignation that he would die that saved Fox’s life.  He updated his will -clones were at least allowed those for any non-GAR-issue items they had - and made sure copies were held by numerous offices, and even on other planets.  He appointed Cody and the Coruscant Guard as the main benefactors, Cody had the authority to divy resources up among the rest of the vode, and the Coruscant Guard were both his closest brothers and deserving of any boon he could grant them.  He left a hefty endowment for the cadets and tubies, to find either adoptive families or to raise them without the military training in the event of the War ending.  He left his half of the cultural artifacts that Palpatine had collected to the Jedi for them to distribute as they saw fit. 

Even if Palpatine managed to pierce holes through every line of the divorce documents, he could not deny Fox’s last will and testament.  Palpatine had to keep Fox alive, or else he would lose many of the assets he was trying to keep in his grasp. 

Fox had counted on more time to slip information to the GAR and the Jedi, he had counted on less supervision, and he had counted on Dooku and Grievous lasting for a few more months than they did.  

He failed to prevent Order 66, and as his brothers lost their free-will, he was abducted from 500 Republica.  A drugged dart jabbing through his blacks and unfamiliar hands hauling him onto a ship.  He was put into cryo-cycle stasis. That counted enough as keeping him alive that his will could not be enacted, but kept him and his insider knowledge from challenging Palpatine. 

Forty years later, a decade after the fledgling New Republic finally closed the buried account that dripped credits into the facility Fox’s stasis pod was in, the power couplings shorted out - whatever droid or employee was in charge of maintenance long departed for salaried work.  The pod had emergency protocols to thaw him out with the last of its energy reserves if the power was cut out. 

And so out he had staggered, head aching and bile rising.  His genetically wired resilience and discipline had carried him through the worst of the stasis sickness. 

The computer terminals were easy enough to slice.  Palpatine did not change his cybersecurity strategy over the decades, and Fox knew more than he wanted to of that man’s mind.  What he found was disturbing, but not surprising.  Weapons capable of destroying entire planets, the genocide of the Jedi, the suicidal brothers made into cyborg Dark Troopers, a Galactic Empire.  And cloning, an overwhelming amount of information on cloning. Not just familiar Kaminoan files, but resources from other cloning facilities, Strand-Casts, Splices, Stem-cells- every method explored and combined.  Palpatine had been seeking immortality.

Fox did not let himself think about what year it was, he did not think about the decades Palpatine had marred for the Galaxy, the vode all marching far away without him, the history ripped apart by waves of propaganda.  What he thought instead about was his own failure to sacrifice himself and put a blaster bolt through Palpatine’s wrinkled forehead so many years ago. It rankled quite a bit that Palpatine died while he was in stasis - the bitterness of unfulfilled hatred. But he could find new purpose. He would not let a false Palpatine return and inflict himself upon the healing Galaxy.  

After he left the lunar facility orbiting its dead planet in a nearly-corroded relic of an emergency escape ship, the first goal he achieved was programming a medical droid to excise the control chip from his brain.  Then he started slicing again.  There were still some accounts he had set up during his sham marriage with credits that had decades of interest.  His backup plan to that was selling the material assets he knew either he or Palpatine had stored away in scattered locations.  

Fox bought a ship, blasters, and assembled piecemeal a set of armor.  He bought bounty hunter credentials, keeping his helmet on always to hide any recognition his face might bring.  He stacked crates of rations in the empty bunks in his ship - a Skipray Blastboat - a vessel meant for four was a roomy choice to travel alone in, but still nearly invisible in its ubiquity.  And he went hunting. 

Palpatine’s clones were hard to find, a challenge Fox embraced for its distraction.  He found out some of the pseudonyms running the older facilities, the constructed identities for whatever apprentices, droids, or imperial loyalists were actually doing the work.  That was a mystery Fox was still investigating.  

Sometimes, to find a clone of Palpatine, Fox anonymously set the bounty himself, and then claimed it as well - getting the resources of the minor guild he worked with, as well as a tracking fob. 

Sometimes he killed them. Sometimes it was easy, the compulsions and the personality of Palpatine showing through, and that hated face looking back.  Sometimes they were worming their way into government positions to undermine the New Republic.  Sometimes it was harder, botched strand-casts that held only a passing resemblance to the man, and were without the force or any malignance.  Those, Fox judged on a case-by-case basis.  Were they in politics? How connected were they to any neo-imperialists? He judged each of them by their own actions, he knew the way a clone could be blamed for the actions of another.

He was not the only one after these clones, someone else was also hunting them - off of any official Bounty Hunting channels. And with the karked up Sith tradition of usurpers, Fox could not assume it was an ally. 

Fox’s unknown rival gradually became more than just a nuisance to compete against.  There had been a strand-cast clone of Palpatine’s that bore only a partial resemblance and had been actively undermining some of the networks Fox thought might be connected to the cloning facilities. Fox had been trying to track him down, to talk to someone who might be able to link him to the roots of this operation - he was even ready to offer personal protection - but his opponent had reached him first. 

The man was dead now. As was the woman he had been traveling with.  It was frustratingly suspicious, and Fox was out of other leads to investigate.  He spent a few months slicing and scouring for information about the strand-cast.  The man had boarded a ship from a large spaceport with a woman and a child, had transferred numerous times, and then, at the last port before his death, had only embarked with the woman.  The child had either died prior the the adults’ deaths, or was still alive.  And if the child was alive, they might know where their father had come from.

Shipyard security cameras and life/heat sensors could only tell him so much.  He looked into crew manifests, ration orders, and fuel receipts.  Between fuel logs and hyperspace maps, he created a list of planets between each refueling stop with more fuel purchased and time between than a direct route would necessitate and worked down that, checking for ships matching their vessel’s description docking with false credentials.  Planets with smaller populations were quicker to investigate so he looked there first.  It was a slow process over weeks. 

 Jakku had only a few scattered settlements, and while their ship monitoring was lacking, the local population was likely to have seen anyone who arrived or left. He landed outside of one of the larger trade centers. 

He disembarked his ship and walked towards the mass of tents and shabby buildings. He was wearing only a minimum of armor, and had left his helmet on the ship. His blaster was still displayed in its holster, a weight he felt pressed against his thigh with every step. He wasn’t here as a bounty hunter, but something closer to undercover instead, and if the kid was here he didn’t want to scare or threaten the child prematurely.  He would blend in more as just another spacer. 

He was met by a varied group of sun-beaten and skeptical beings. The welcoming committee seemed torn between distrust and hope for trade. 

“I’m here for information.” He began, showing a flash of credit chips when he pulled out his holoprojector. “About a year ago a ship of this type would have arrived and left a passenger behind.” 

“Lotta ships come in and out…” A thin Caskadag said unhelpfully.  But Fox could see poorly concealed recognition among some of the faces. He mentally debated who to bribe or how else to persuade the crowd. 

Out of sight, there was a shriek of conversation and then the frantic scuffle of running feet over sand.  A girl emerged from a clump of tents and stopped, almost breathless, staring at him. She was young, between six or eight, Fox struggled like most clones with approximating odd numbered years of natural borns, but she was small. 

“Did my parents send you!? Are they gonna come get me?” She asked with bright desperation. She was staring at the holoprojected ship in his hands.  Fox knew this was the strand-cast’s child. 

“I’m here because of your parents.” He said evenly.  He looked at the group of now unhappy onlookers, denied their chance to weasel credits out of him. “Is there somewhere less busy we can talk?” 

“Mmhmm.” She walked him between tents to a clearing edged with waste heaps. Fox opened his mouth and then stopped again, hesitant. 

“Why did my parents send you?” There was sensible caginess warring with hope in her voice.  She kept glancing back to the crowd they had just left. 

“I’m sorry, Rey,” He hoped that what the other workers had muttered at her had been her name, and dropped down to one knee to be on a level with her. “But your parents are dead.  I’m sorry, but they can’t come get you.” 

There was a watery vulnerability to her eyes.  Fox expected a denial, he hated being the one to deliver this news. It was partially his own failure.  

“So… So I’m just… I’m just going to stay here? And - and work for Mister Plutt forever?” She looked wetly at the pitiful tents around them, the sand, the beating sun, the scrap-sorting piles.  Fox looked at her, at the scabs and callouses on her tiny hands, at the stained clothing, at the bones of her arms, at the ring of faint green skin around her wrist.  Force, he had always been weak for the cadets. 

“No, if you want… If you want I can take you with me.”  It was an impulsive offer, but it felt right. 

“You’re not my dad.” She said sulkily. “I’m only supposed to leave if him or mum comes.” 

“No, I’m not.” Fox did some quick thinking about his relationship to Palpatine, his own apparent age, and the fact her father was a clone of Sheev. “But I am your father’s ex-husband.” 

He knew that she had no reason to trust him, and frankly if she had any sense to not get abducted, she wouldn’t.  Fox was ready to pull up a datapad with the copy of his marriage certificate, proof her father was a clone, and a discussion of family trees.  Instead of an argument, she looked intensely at him and he felt a warmth swell around him, like a summer breeze.  Of course the kriffing kid was force sensitive. 

It was pleasant, as far as being probed by the force ever was.  She was bright and gentle and washed over him, so unlike the cloying oil-slick that he had not realized choked his mind for years until he was finally free of Palpatine. He waited, keeping his thoughts on what he had just said, but not so intently as to raise her suspicion that he was hiding something. 

Eventually she nodded. “Okay.” 

“Okay?” 

“I know when people are lying.  And-” She hesitated, squirming a little. “And you feel nice.” 

Fox smiled. Nice was not the word that Fox would have picked to describe himself currently, considering he had spent a better part of the past year hunting down clones of his ex-husband and killing many of them with extreme prejudice. He wondered unhappily at what relative caliber for niceness she was comparing him to. He stood up and paused. 

“So you’ll come with me?” He asked again for clarity’s sake. 

“Mmhmm.” She confirmed, and stepped to his side, reaching up to worm her little hand into his. 

“Do you have stuff to get? People to say bye to?” He asked uncertainly.  He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to go, and right now it felt too easy.  She started tugging him towards the array of scrap-sorters.  

She went to a spot she had clearly hastily abandoned when he had arrived, and picked up a dingy canvas bag and slung it over her shoulder.  She walked back to him and put her hand back in his again.  

“Okay. Now we need to tell Mister Plutt.” She nodded towards a permanent structure at the edge of the scrapyard. 

“Rey, Rey, Who’s that man?” One of the women who had not been in the group that greeted him, skin toughened by sand and sun, rose up from the heaps of metal and brandished a staff at him.  Part of Fox was relieved that at least someone was stopping little girls from getting kidnapped.  The other part of him put on his most charming, non-threatening smile. 

“I’m her father’s ex-husband.  Her parents are dead and I only just found out…” 

The woman glared at him but shifted to look at Rey, softening her gaze. 

“He tellin’ the truth? Do you know this man?” 

“He’s not lying.” Rey said. “And Dad mentioned he had a complix-complexcated past.” 

“Her father and I may have split over our differences, but I’m not leaving his kid to grow up a scrapper beholden to quotas when I have the resources to raise her instead.”  Fox’s honest determination had the desired effect, the woman lowered her staff and nodded, still suspicious but relenting.  

“You’re going to have to pay Unkar for her.” 

Fox frowned and gestured towards his blaster on his hip. “Sure, I’ll pay.” 

“No. I mean it. You try any funny business and he’ll set the guild on you or worse.” The woman was very serious.  “You got enough to pay?” 

“If I have to, I will.” Fox said with finality.  He did not want to buy another being, but he also wanted Rey off of this planet as smoothly as possible. 

The questioning was repeated with Unkar Plutt, who glared with equal distrust to the people outside.  He took Rey aside into his office room, and Fox hoped it was to question her about his claims and if she actually wanted to leave with him.  Fox was concerned by how easy it was for someone to take a child off of Jakku like this, but also acknowledged that this was incredibly convenient for him. 

Plutt and Rey reemerged and Rey walked over and clung to his pant leg.  Fox brushed a hand over her hair. 

“I’m losing years of good labor.” Unkar said callously. “I expect to be compensated.” 

Fox told himself that the credits he handed over were a bribe. Fox swung Rey’s little bag over his shoulder and after a moment of consideration, hoisted Rey up to rest on his hip as well.  She was light and clung round his neck, giggling with surprise in his ear.  

Fox didn’t need to be force sensitive to know that this decision felt right. 

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 11

part 10 here

Hello and welcome back everyone to our Magia Record s1 watch-along! Last time, we had the aftermath of the Endless Solitude's incident, found out that Mami is now part of the Wings of the Magius and left off with the reveal that one of Ui's (Iroha's sister, for those who have forgotten) might be another one of the Magius. What is this all about? Let's watch and find out:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 11

For some reason, we are now watching Tsukuyo's club practice. Wait- Akatsuki? That's not the surname I remember. We also see a photo of Mifuyu on the club room, so they must've been club mates.

Good question, Tsukuyo. Maybe she's waiting for Sana? (lies)

awnt the whole family's on the op now. Yachiyo is even smiling!

NOW we're back to where the other episode left off. According to Sana, she sometimes heard the Feathers talking about Nemu when they came to Ai's barrier to retrieve a witch. The girls then wonder if Nemu's being forced to work with them and Iroha says that maybe Ui's being kept captive by them too, with everyone falling silent at this.

Felicia asks if they can't just catch a Feather and force them to speak, so Tsuruno says if they should keep going after the Rumors them. While the three are wondering that, Iroha remembers about Tsukuyo, who she had seen in her uniform, and we are now back to the present.

Yeah right, are you saying you were actually triplets?

So Iroha decided to catch Tsukuyo after school. If Tsukuyo had a braincell, she could've left by a backdoor or used her magical girl powers to jump over the wall, but it seems she borrowed hers to Tsukasa today.

Tsukuyo stops Iroha from outing her as a Feather, so Iroha invites her to go talk somewhere else. Tsukuyo asks if she plans to interrogate her or worse but Iroha really only wants to talk.

After changing locations, Iroha seems to have told Tsukuyo about her situation. Tsukuyo asks why Iroha would go so far as telling her that, and Iroha answers that she needs to see Nemu no matter what.

After asking who between Tsukuyo and Tsukasa is the younger sister, appealing to their point in common, Iroha threatens outing Tsukuyo to the others if she doesn't let her see Nemu. Tsukuyo is shocked, asking if she's threatening her and Iroha says she doesn't care if she sees it that way. Damn, Iroha really means business when it's about her sister.

As always when it comes to Ui, Iroha's unusually pushy, and Tsukuyo ends up giving in and promising to at least talk to Mifuyu about it.

Later that day, the Mikadzuki girls minus Yachiyo are having a meeting in Iroha's room, and decide to get Yachiyo coasters as a thank-you present for giving them the mugs. So cute.

...that's some interesting club this school has.

The next day, Iroha meets up after school with the other girls to go buy the coaster. Can we talk about the fact there's a group chat just for watching over Felicia? lol

The girls go buy the coaster, and get interrupted by a witch. Guess we can add that to the things magical girls can't do in peace. No probs Tsuruno, there's really no run-time for this.

Look how happy she is. Please don't ruin this in the next scene, show (flag).

Back at the house, Iroha's waiting for Yachiyo's return on Tsuruno's instructions. She hears the doorbell ring and answers it immediately, thinking it's Yachiyo (really, Iroha, why would Yachiyo ring the doorbell to her own house?) but, shockingly, it's Mifuyu.

This probably situation couldn't get more awkward for Iroha had they tried. Iroha tries to show some hospitality, but Mifuyu takes the lead and the opportunity to rub in that she knows the place (and its owner) way better. What's with the attitude, Mifuyu? It's not like Iroha threatened your friend or a- oh wait, nvm.

Iroha asks what business Mifuyu has with Yachiyo today, and Mifuyu asks in return if she has to have some business in order to visit a friend... no, not business Mifuyu but normally you'd warn someone before dropping by, where's your manners? Iroha points out that she hasn't visited for a long time and Mifuyu explains that she didn't come because she knew Yachiyo wouldn't agree with The Wings of the Magius. She then explains she's actually there to talk to Iroha today.

Oh, she did it, she flipped Iroha's switch.

Mifuyu asks if Iroha wouldn't join the cult if she wants to know about Nemu, but Iroha questions Mifuyu's motive for recruiting her, to which Mifuyu says it'd be good for them because she'd be able to investigate about her sister without clashing with them. Iroha presses her about Ui, which she says she doesn't know, and Nemu, but Mifuyu does not say anything else.

...aaand the other girls are standing there in the garden while all this is going on lol

*peek*

Mifuyu invites the girls of Mikadzuki Villa to attend a lecture about what exactly the cult is doing... this is definitely a trap ain't it. At that moment, Yachiyo arrives. Oooh man...

Mifuyu apologizes for the surprise and makes to leave, saying this one unpleasant remark to which Yachiyo angrily replies right away.

Mifuyu provokes Yachiyo, saying how she went back to being her old self, which Yachiyo denies, eventually losing her cool and ordering Mifuyu to leave.

Tsuruno tries to check on Yachiyo but Yachiyo also leaves. Felicia's confused and Tsuruno tries to keep a bright mood, but the atmosphere is definitely ruined.

Yachiyo has went back to her room and-

ohhwoah what is that that's creepy!

So, uhh, Yachiyo is not well at all, she's now hallucinating. Whatever Mifuyu was trying to get at earlier it definitely got to her.

Seems the other girls aren't having a much better night either... but at least they're not hallucinating.

The next day, Iroha relays Mifuyu's invitation to the others. Yachiyo, however, refuses to take part in the conversation and leaves. She's very clearly still bothered about what Mifuyu said, and now she's avoiding her team.

Iroha and the girls have each their reaction to Yachiyo's behavior for a moment, but then go back to the matter at hand. Sana asks if Iroha really plans on going to the lecture, and she says she decided it'd be best to go, after thinking it over. They don't want to fight the cult either, so it shouldn't hurt to at least try to hear them out. Felicia says it's definitely a trap but that they can just break out together then, with Tsuruno agreeing. The two laugh, but doesn't it feel kinda forced?

...and then they realize no one knows where Memory Museum is lol

Mitama! Long time no see.

Iroha drops by the Coordinator's to ask about Memory Museum, which Mitama reveals is a Rumor that's being spread around Sakae Ward.

We then get a scene about the contents of the Rumor. Apparently, the Memory Museum archives memories (who'd thought!) and you can do things with them by ringing a bell, or something. But if you see one you'll end up influenced by it. (I refuse to comment about the goat)

In any case, Momoko points on the map the probable location of Memory Museum, to which Iroha thanks the two and goes back. After Iroha leaving, Mitama advises Momoko to tell "something", at least to Rena, since Kaede is still down, and Momoko says she knows. Quite the dark clouds are on the horizon.

No, literally. It's raining.

Back at Mikadzuki Villa, all the girls except Yachiyo are leaving to go to Memory Museum. Iroha warns Yachiyo they're leaving, but she doesn't answer. Ohh Yachiyo, please, are you sure you won't regret this later?

Iroha and co. naruto run on the rain to Memory Museum, meeting Chibi Kyuubei on the entrance. Yep, definitely Rumor. I might be going crazy but I always think that Iroha looks more her age with the raincoat, despite Madoka's wei- I mean, unique art style. Gotta be something with the proportions.

Also like this detail with Tsuruno's coat folded weird and Felicia's not folded at all lol

We are platformer game now

While climbing up the drawers, the girls talk about chibi Kyuubei, eventually raising suggestions on how to name him... which is funny because that's for the player to decide in the game, so we don't have an official way to call him.

Meanwhile, Rena's meeting up with Momoko. She starts complaining like usual, but soon hesitates when she reads the mood. Momoko says she thought it was time to tell her what happened to Yachiyo one year ago. Wait, what? We never heard about anything either.

But, well... we can guess.

Back at the Memory Museum, Iroha might be the unluckiest mahou shoujo ever, because

One of the Magius is none other than one of her sister's friends.

- x -

Aaand that's it for episode 11. That last scene is a bomb drop, but it's not like you couldn't see it coming from the moment they said Nemu was part of the cult. I mean, if one of the hospital trio was erased from existence, and the other was part of the cult, what were the odds that the last one would be normal? lol

Talking about this scene, I feel compelled to post here the corresponding still from the game, because the world was robbed of Iroha's surprisingly gallant back:

Seriously, when was she ever this cool?

On the other hand, Touka looks like a cute normal kid here which is about as far of the truth as we can get, so I'll give the anime credit for that.

All that aside, we are now approaching the end! With the Magius giving a lecture about salvation and Momoko having a talk with Rena, it's quite clear that the truth about magical girls is about to be revealed to our cast next episode. The big question here is: how will they react? Felicia specially shouldn't be very happy to learn this, considering what her wish was. Exciting!

We also have left to wonder what's up with Yachiyo. Why did what Mifuyu say affect her so much? We have yet to see her backstory, so Momoko talking might just gives us the answer to that question.

With that said, I'll leave it here for today. I can't believe this ended up even later than yesterday considering I start writing even earlier. Dammit short attention span, stop getting sidetracked pls. Tomorrow we'll be watching episode 11 that's looking really promising, so I hope you'll be reading me again then. Have a good morning/afternoon/evening and bye-bye!

[sugarandspice-games]

I guess this is becoming a trend... I’m popping in before the actual intro to clarify-- if the text is in italic, it is me (Sugar) talking and regular is Spice. Alright? Cool. And so--

So, one night I’m going through youtube and I come upon this one shitposty video about some random anime that I’ve never even heard of. After doing some research, I discover that it’s actually based on a dating sim that I’ve also never heard of. As a joke I was like “Hey Sugar wanna watch this as a joke, it might be funny” and so we did. And uhm. Well.

Today we’re gonna be reviewing Brothers Conflict, aka Sweet Home Alabama 2: Electric Anime Boogaloo aka the anime that ruined our lives. [Again, disclaimer: neither Sugar nor I condone incest and/or pedophilia, two themes which are uh, very rampant in this anime which is why I cannot recommend it in good faith. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong. I can’t really say that I liked it even if watching it and ragging on it was kind of enjoyable, and I did get attached to some of the characters because that’s the kind of idiot I am. Also, we’re not shirking our duties to write I swear please don’t kill me--] Anyway, an obligatory SPOILER WARNING though this probably isn’t going in the main tag bc I do not want the fans to publicly stone me. Why are we reviewing this? Bc we need to talk about it somewhere. Though I say review lightly bc this... is really more of a critique.

ALSO we only watched the anime, idk if things are different in the game. There is no full english translation for the games and most of the LP channels have been copyright striked, so please don’t come at us for not knowing anything. I also know that otome games and dating sims don’t tend to translate well to anime, and I will be addressing this later.

So, dear god, where do I begin.

Where do we begin indeed? How about the fact that her name is Ema and I had to google to remember the heroine’s name? Also, she is seventeen.

Our plot, or well... what you COULD call a plot, I guess, if you REALLY wanted to give this anime that much credit, focuses on the aforementioned seventeen year old Hinata Ema, who has an absent father who apparently FOUND THE TIME TO FALL IN LOVE AND GET MARRIED BUT NEVER HAS A SECOND TO SPARE FOR HIS ONLY CHILD, RINTARO I SWEAR TO GOD I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILD. HAND HER OVER-- Anyway. He’s getting married to a woman who has 13 sons (jesus christ ma’am have you ever heard of a condom?) and he decides to move her in with them because... I guess he has less braincells than I have balls, which is to say, zero. Hi, I’m trans.

So, Ema moves in with them... along with her talking grey squirrel, Juli. Juli is... interesting and by interesting, I mean-- ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. He, apparently, has seen the majority of Ema’s life from babyhood to teenagerhood and can talk but is only understood by Ema (who he calls Chii) and Louis, the eighth son in the Asahina family. It is never explained why, or how Chii came across him or how in an episode, a single episode, he becomes human because why the hell not, I guess??? (Also, he is pretty. YES. I said it. Fight me.) [Quick Spice intervention, this squirrel can talk to people, transform into a human, enter dreams, and live way longer than a squirrel should since the average lifespan of a squirrel is like 6 years in the wild. Juli is apparently a god as none of this is EVER explained.]

And when she meets the Asahina family, it’s pretty much immediately chaos because these heterosexual (I guess? They look like a bunch of twinks to me but there goes anime trying to convince me that straight people are real and not a lie made up by Trump) men have NEVER and I mean NEVER known a woman in their entire lives, since they seem to want to bang their stepsister immediately. And most of them are GROWN ASS ADULTS. Only three of them are actually minors (though Iori is 18 and only one year older so I guess??? It’s okay??? But still weird) and one of them is a 13 year old who looks and acts like he’s 8.

Oh, and did I mention that out of these boys, only the adult triplets and the abusive asshole 16 year old get any kind of characterization AND character development? I mean, Subaru gets an “arc” if you can call it that, but really, they don’t give him much... personality. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout and it’d be the same. I feel bad for him (but not really because dude you are 20 and she is your sister, what the fuck--)

But if there’s anything good about this anime, it is the characters themselves. Several of the boys have redeeming qualities and interesting personalities and quirks, as well as interesting relationships and dynamics with each other. Yes, some of them are lacking in the plotline department while others may have decent plotlines and lack personality, and then some of them are just given absolutely nothing (COUGH Masaomi COUGH Ukyo COUGHCOUGHCOUGH Iori, and by the way, what the fuck is that game plotline bc I read the wiki since I wanted to know more about him. We don’t have time to unpack the mento illness luv. But you’re telling me they had all this meat to work with and they threw it in the trash and gave him nothing? What the hell?) And if anything, I feel as if the characters themselves are crippled by the plotline. If given a different story, perhaps, they may have room to shine, because a lot of them are compelling if not lovable (though some may not be... lovable. COUGHFuuto, at least not for me.) If you want to see our review on the characters, we’ll put out another post.

Iori... Iori has a hell of a plot in the game, according to the Wiki but I can’t blame the writers for not exploring all of it because whoa. It is dark and not in a good way. But back to the subject at hand... I agree with Spice. I do/did like quite a lot of the characters... provided the entire romantic plot is taken away but we will go into more of why the plot is problematic below. All I can really add is: There is a baby in this dumpster and canon has been taken out back to be shot like a lame horse.

This brings me to a point in which I would like to pause the character discussion and bring up a glaring flaw with this anime in general (aside from the... plot. Look, I’m not a huge fan of weird stepsibling stuff but I think that if you want to do something like that, there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. This was the way not to do it, which I’m getting to). The biggest thing that made this anime so uncomfortable was the imbalance of power dynamics. Why is the protagonist 17 when most of the love interests are 18 and older, and I mean much, much older? And she’s not any 17 year old... she’s a lonely, neglected girl who is starved for the love of a family. This makes her easily manipulated by the brothers, who clearly desire her for less than wholesome reasons, and that makes it skeevy. I’m not sure why there’s such a fetishization of nonconsent in media, as if it’s fine for as many men to lust after female protagonists as the writer desires BUT the woman can’t want a single one of them in return. It’s creepy, and quite frankly, I am very much over it. I also get that the age thing is probably a product of the protagonist of a teenager oriented dating sim not translating well to an anime (because really, all otome game MCs are meant to be a neat little pair of shoes for the player to imagine themselves in), but why are we fetishizing a teenager being groomed by adults anyway? Especially adults who have this much power over her to begin with? The power dynamics bring this plot from “Oh, this might be kinda trashy but it could be entertaining” to “This is extremely creepy and rapey and kind of a dumpster fire.”

This is also true. If we were to take age into consideration, Fuuto, Yusuke, and Iori would be the three candidates left for Chii. This is taking out the youngest as well, who is... thirteen, I think? But anyway, (I know I am probably going to get some hate for this but go for it), I am into stories that explore the stepsibling thing and it can make a good narrative-- but before everyone gets uppity: There is a line between FICTION and REALITY and I do not condone real life incest but a story is a story and there are ways to frame it that make it clear that it is not a romantic thing, or acceptable. This anime does not do that in it’s dynamics because some of the brothers do start off in that very firm caregiving, family role and it is a sharp turn into romance that makes you go, “?” or in Fuuto case, a blending that does lean into fetishization.

All in all I think the plot maybe could have been okay? I’m not saying it isn’t problematic, because we all know it is, who are we kidding? But I don’t think it’s wrong per se to explore family dynamics with romance and to understand where the line should be drawn, and maybe exploring the definition of family itself. I have seen fanfictions with similar tropes ask those questions and explore the concept beautifully without romanticizing or fetishizing incest and unhealthy power dynamics. It could have been good, and I get that perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree by expecting mature themes in an anime based on an otome game, but it also could have been a lot less... creepy (I have used that word so much that it looks wrong now) even if it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But again, what was I expecting? I watched this whole thing as a joke and ended up attached to the characters like a fool... That tends to be a trend here, and this is why we are so salty all the time. So anyway, stay tuned for our review of the characters! We may not cover all of them since some of them don’t really get anything, but we’ll cover what we found interesting.

[merinnan]

DMBJ Ep 6

I’ve been a bit behind putting these up on Tumblr, so I’m afraid you’re about to get a dump of the remainder of Season 1, plus the first two eps of Explore with the Note! (not all in one post, of course - 1 ep per post as usual)

So! Episode 6!

The Xiaoge Rescue Count at the start of ep 6 stands at 9 for Wu Xie, 12 for the protagonists, 13 for everyone.

- And we start back with Chengcheng and High Jr. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS SUBPLOT, MAKE IT GO AWAY AND BRING BACK XIAOGE AND WU XIE. 

- Why is Chengcheng calling her kidnapper dage? I don't like her or trust her. She is annoying and shady

- Oh, good, now we are back to Wu Xie being a good boy 

- That is a lot of guns and explosives Sanshu has recovered

- I am annoyed at how they all seem to think that A-Ning needs to be shielded from everything unpleasant because she's a girl. She's a goddamn mercenary leader. I think she can take knowing these things - and it's better to let her know as it's found out so that she can adjust to the news properly, instead of springing it on her when it can't be concealed anymore, like what happened when the blood zombie showed up.

- On a completely different tangent, Wu Xie's neck dressing has stayed astonishingly clear for running around in a tomb, crawling through tight tunnels, falling off of ledges and being dramatically rescued, fighting bugs, and fainting all over floors.

- Wu Xie is so sweetly optimistic 

 - LOL, sure Pangzi, you're here for archeological study 

- ....Wu Xie, you are disturbingly knowledgeable about guns for a college student

- Now that I've read the first novel between having watched ep 5 and now, my mind is slightly reeling from how innocent and babie drama Wu Xie is compared to novel Wu Xie 

- Awww. Doesn't matter which Wu Xie it is, babie with gun always looks kinda adorable.

- Also, I appreciate Wu Xie's trigger discipline. So often shows have such terrible trigger discipline. 

- Oooh, it's like a carved thing on the dais that got his attention. I thought it was like a computer drive or something at first, because it looked kinda like that.

- OH NO, THE LIVING VINES ARE HERE AND SNEAKING UP ON THEM 

- ...and pushing the button made them retreat 

- ...phew? 

- I am still concerned 

- The music signifies that something creepy is coming 

- lol, babie. Looking so innocent even though He Knows What He Did

- I don't know what that sound is, but that's not a good sound 

- ...earthquake? That's a bad thing to happen when you're in the middle of an evil cave. 

- WU FAMILY, WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONES TRYING TO STAY ON YOUR FEET WITHOUT HOLDING ONTO ANYTHING?! 

- So fucking stubborn

- This is where Wu Xie gets it from, if Erbai is wondering 

- A-Ning is the smartest one, staying sitting down 

- The tree opens up like a fucking security vault and ejects a coffin. Because of course if fucking does. 

- Oooh, yeah, that's that shot from the opening credits 

- "I can't read any of this, but it says this is the guy we're looking for" 

- "His story recorded here is the same as what we know" WU XIE YOU JUST SAID YOU CAN'T READ IT

- Come on. Earlier in the show you said "yes I can read this" and read it. And in the novel, you puzzle it out from being able to read bits. This part, you flat out said he couldn't read it, and now are telling everyone what it says 

 - I love continuity, but dramas really don't

- The music now is similar enough to the Harry Potter music that I almost expect an owl to go flying past 

- The owner of a coffin wanting the coffin to be opened hundreds or thousands of years later seems like it should be something more worrying than how everyone is reacting

- I wanna know how Sanshu knows the coffin has been there for 3000 years. Wu Xie can't read the dates on it, and the Warring States Period was 1500 years ago, not 3000 

- JESUS CHRIST, SANSHU, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE SENSIBLE ONE!

- Why are you suggesting you open the chained shut coffin in order to see if there's somehow something alive (or alive-ish) in there? 

- Awwww! Wu Xie going "no, don't do that, Pokerface told us not to touch anything"

- Like. Not, "no uncle, that seems like a bad idea" 

- But "Xiaoge told us not to, and we should do what he says" 

- I have the feeling that if this Pangzi is agreeing with something, then you all should not be doing that thing. Because this version of Pangzi is an idiot

- HOW THE FUCK IS THE MOVING COFFIN GOING TO SECRETLY HAVE THE EXIT INSIDE IT, PANGZI 

- THAT MAKES THE LEAST SENSE OUT OF EVERYTHING SO FAR 

- Pan Zi's "WTF do you think you're doing" look

- This Pangzi is so bad 

- I even like Chengcheng better than him. And I wish they had taken her into the tomb and used her as bait. 

- I'm glad he's better in other adaptations. Like, I love the Pangzi in Chongqi. I am so glad that he was my intro to Pangzi, not this one

- DON'T MAKE THE BABIE SAD BY BEING DUMB

- A-Ning really should not be just standing there with her leg injury. I've had a muscle biopsy before where they took it from the thigh, which is a similar 'injury' to what she's got, and you do not get on your feet unless you absolutely have to for days afterwards.

- At least they have her limp when she's walking, and it's kinda sad that I'm glad they do that! 

- And Pan Zi should not be doing hard physical labour with a fucking gut wound

- But I think I'm more annoyed by A-Ning, because I have personal experience with her kind of injury so know first-hand what kind of pain she's causing herself by standing and walking 

- HUMAN BRAIN LOGIC GO

- Pangzi you fucking dick, just standing there watching. You should be pushing instead of Pan Zi 

- Hahahah, after all his shittalk and boasting, and he can't do it 

- Oh, there, finally

- I know that inside lid is supposed to be jade, but it looks so terribly fake. Oh my god. It's awful 

- It looks like a bad Photoshop of one of those Windows 98 default backgrounds

- I love the looks everyone gives Pangzi every time he slips up and talks about getting money from the stuff in the tomb 

- LOL, that's not a carving, that's a couple of translucent green plastic discs stuck on top of Windows Background Photoshop cover

- ...I'm kinda waiting for someone to suddenly shout BOO! really loudly while they're all carefully trying to listen for any sounds in the coffin

- They're almost at the end of the first novel in terms of plot, and there's still 4 and a half eps to go

- Wow, I think that's the first time I've seen Sanshu actually worried 

- lol, and now Pangzi says he believes him, rather than get his ear that close to the coffin himself 

- PANGZI DON'T STARTLE SOMEONE WHO HAS THEIR FINGER ON THE TRIGGER OF A GUN & DEFINITELY DON'T SMACK THE GUN

- Wu Xie has a lot of control to have not accidentally shot right then

- LOL, after all their declarations how they're archaeologists, not tomb robbers, & how they're here to protect cultural artefacts from robbers, etc - they go make references to the northern and southern schools of tomb raiding

- Just without actually saying exactly what the 'Southern School' being referred to actually is. 

- ....and now Pangzi jumps in front of the pointed gun as he grabs it. Do you have a fucking death wish, dude? 

 - And now we see the infamous bronze armour! Jade armour. Whatever

- You'd think they'd have learned to fucking take all of A-Ning's guns away from her after last time she held one of them at gunpoint 

- OMG, the face on the helmet is so fucking ridiculous, I can't - It's not even properly positioned over his face

- Aaaaah, Sanshu called him tianzhen  I'm so happy at being able to identify that word now it's ridiclous 

- That...that is not what peeled skin looks like 

- Pangzi comes right out and admits he's a tomb robber 

- And for the first time, no-one calls him on it

- Or correct him for calling them tomb robbers 

- Ah, there you are, Xiaoge. I was wondering how long it would take for you to be back 

- I see looking for people in a tomb requires no shirt XD

- Better shots of shirtless Xiaoge

- Like, same, Wu Xie. Same.

- Look, I have two braincells, and one is for Xiaoge and one is for pingxie

- YOU ACTING LIKE THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS, PANGZI

 - Oooh, this is a goood shot of the tattoo. And of who the tattoo is on

- I don't have a Xiaoge problem. It's the opposite of a problem.

- Seriously, Pangzi is so fucking lucky that Xiaoge didn't kill him a dozen times over during their first meetings here

- Also, now that Xiaoge has explained why he threw a knife at Pangzi, I believe it's time to update the Xiaoge Rescue Count to 9 for Wu Xie, 13 for the protagonists, 14 for everyone.

- Although maybe I should have also been keeping a People Eyerolling At Pangzi Count given how often it's been happening

- More Xiaoge pics, feat. emotions that are not 'worrying about Wu Xie'

- Also, did he throw the corpse off the platform after he broke it's neck, or did it yeet itself off somehow? 

- I mean, I too wanna know how Xiaoge knows all this stuff if this was all put here 3000 years ago

- I do love that Wu Xie is already about the only person who Xiaoge will actually look at instead of staring down or straight ahead

- LOL, Wu Xie won't even let Pangzi so much as touch this. 

- I honestly appreciate that Xiaoge appears to travel lightly enough that he doesn't have a spare shirt

- EVERYTHING makes Wu Xie better than everyone else (except Xiaoge), Pangzi

- lol, Sanshu, yes. You tell him. 

- Hahahah, and Wu Xie playing along with Sanshu, the little adorable shit 

 - THE LOOK ON HIS FACE 

- KJFDHKJDAFHFKASDJHFKJASDLHGFSKLJ 

- AND DON'T THINK I DON'T SEE THAT SMIRK, WU XIE 

- There is absolutely not enough of little shit!Wu Xie in S1

- Loooool, his little nod at Sanshu now that they got their way and made Pangzi promise to stfu for the time being 

- And that is the first time I've seen that style of carriage roll like a car 

- Those skull ballistae were a cool aesthetic, though

- THAT CARRIAGE WAS ROLLING LIKE A FUCKING CAR, HOW IS IT BACK UPRIGHT AND ROLLING ALONG THE GROUND TO THE CLIFF 

- HOW TF IS IT ROLLING ANYWHERE WITH A SMASHED WHEEL 

- HOW TF IS HE ABLE TO HOLD IT FOR EVEN A SECOND, ESPECIALLY WITH ONE HAND

- A thin as fuck flagpole is going to give you jack shit in terms of something to brace with when it comes to that much weight 

- THE SCRIPTWRITER OF THIS SCENE IS BAD AND SHOULD FEEL BAD 

- *cries in physics minor*

- I can suspend disbelief for aliens, zombies, everything about Xiaoge, logic holes, and plot pits. Apparently my line is a non-cultivator breaking the laws of physics. 

- Aaaah, here come the zombies 

- So this dude is not the zombie dude 

- He is the emperor, I think?

- OH MY GOD THAT GREENSCREEN IS JUST THE WORST 

- I thought the one on the river was bad. The one of her falling as he dives off the cliff to save her is actively painful 

- Oh, now it looks like we're gonna have a dumb love triangle in the flashback. Yay. *waves tiny flag*

- Bitch, be a bit more grateful. Yes, your ex-lover caught you as you were falling & did so by basically flying, but that's just standard wuxia defiance of physics. Your husband held a FUCKING CARRIAGE with ONE HAND for AT LEAST TWO WHOLE MINUTES to keep you alive before your ex finally showed up

- "Were you really frightened?" Your majesty, what kind of a stupid question is that? 

- The emperor's armour is really pretty, I gotta say 

- Uuuugh, this stupid love story hurts in a bad way 

- I'm just gonna fast forward through it 

- ...and there's the end of the episode.

- That love triangle is going to make me scream, I know it 

- But that does explain how they're going to pad out the episodes a bit more with how far through the plot they are already 

- None of them are even really that pretty to make up for the boring, trite, love triangle plot

- How do they expect to keep my attention through it if I don't even have eye candy?!?! 

- I will be seriously headdesking if this flashback goes on for more than the next ep! 

- Oh well, there we are. The end of ep 6

The Xiaoge Rescue Count at the end of ep 6 stands at 9 for Wu Xie, 13 for the protagonists, 14 for everyone. 

[taeyohonic]

competition (m)

gif credit to the rightful owner @t-heia

Summary: When an unhealthy competition goes one step too far, you have to bear the consequences. Even if it means detention with your nemesis – Lee Taeyong. (requested)

Member: Lee Taeyong (NCT)

Warning: Light Swearing, Making Out

Additional Tags: Straight-A-Student!Taeyong, Enemies To Lovers, Quaterback!Taeyong, Multilingual!Reader, Female!Reader, High School AU

Words: 3400

“Who wants to start?” Your headmaster’s voice sounds stern, but you can see the exhaustion in is face as an agitated hand brushes through his grey hair.

“Maybe the one, who actually started it?”, your opponent replies, and you give him the evil eye.

“Maybe the one, provoking the other to start?”

Taeyong huffs and shakes his head, leaning back in his seat.

“Provocation only works when one is not focused enough.” You face your classmate with sheer disbelieve in your eyes.

“Not focused enough? I was killing it.” He leans further back in his chair, seemingly unfastened by your outburst.

“And then you tried killing me.” Taeyong’s answer is accompanied by him casually crossing his arms over his chest.

A quick laugh escapes you. “Oh, nobody has ever died from chalk in th-”

“ENOUGH” Now you just hear exhaustion in Mr. Kim’s voice as he stands up to walk around his oak desk and leans against it, eliminating the barrier between the three of you. He grabs the piece of paper, which your math teacher wrote, from his desk to read out loud:

“Y/N and Taeyong displayed poor social behaviour in class today. Y/N tried to finish a difficult equation on the board. As she faltered, Taeyong made a snarky comment. Y/N then threw the chalk stick directly at her classmate, hitting him just below the eye. Please, Mr. Kim, chose a punishment suited for both of them.”

Mr. Kim stops the report and looks at you two, letting an uncomfortable silence hang in the air.

“Anything to add, Ms. Y/L/N, Mr. Lee?”

You are not the biggest fan of Mrs. Oh, your math teacher, but her recount is actually spot on.

“No, Sir.”, Taeyong says, agreeing with you.

“Let’s be clear here”, your headmaster begins and breathes deeply to calm himself enough to lecture two sixteen-year olds, that clearly should know better. Especially because even if Taeyong and you both had to share your braincells, you’d still be thrice as smart as Mr. Kim.

“Your impressive accomplishments do not give you permission to act like… like…” The old man is awkwardly waving between you two. “…this.”

This is a steady competition and it makes you go slightly insane. You joined this school last October, only giving you a year to complete high school at the top of your class. Not only did you have to integrate into a whole new social peer group – it did not go well – no, you had to leave your old friends and your safe first place 234 miles away.

So not only were you extremely pissed at your parents for shifting branches in their firm, you were also extremely determined to make it to the top of this class, walking away from this hell with a fuck-you-all smile, the best internship and a guaranteed scholarship. The only problem with your master plan, there already was a person at first place.

Lee Taeyong. Class president. Leading Quarterback. Math genius. Hottest male in a 40-mile radius. Seriously, how god could be this generous, you’d never understand. When his personality clearly doesn’t deserve it. Taeyong is always helpful, never signalling the student body that their opinions weren’t relevant. He always has a smile on his face, always bending down to get on eye level with others. And you hate that. You hate that fake smile, the fake empathy and most of all you hate the fact that you would have done exactly the same thing, when you’d been there first.

But nobody wants an Angelina Jolie, when one can have a Jennifer Aniston. So, you tried to establish your own role in this school. You became the president of the debate team, excelled at every single language course – easy considering you are fluent in four languages – and took your running abilities to good use by leading and organizing a track club for visually impaired students.

After a few months you climbed up the ranking, landing at the top at the end of the second trimester. Only problem? Taeyong didn’t leave. So now, at the start of the final trimester the first spot is occupied by two persons, making it the first time in the history of this school that that happened. Leaving you both extremely agitated with a high tension hanging around you.

“It won’t happen again.”, you try to reassure the headmaster and hear a throaty chuckle from next to you.

“Why? Are you gonna try to actually comprehend math?”

“You.. You orgueilleux âne!”, you exclaim while switching to French, so neither Mr. Kim nor Taeyong can follow you.

“DETENTION! BOTH OF YOU!” Okay, Mr. Kim has lost his cool. His face is bright read as he looks between you two.

“You’ll clean the kitchen after school, until it is as clean as your records.”

There could have been worse punishments. Although spending extra time with Taeyong isn’t the best way to end a school day, nobody said anything about interacting with one another.

You both stand up and reluctantly, after bowing to your headmaster, leave the office together.

“I cannot believe you ruined my afternoon.”, Taeyong mutters next to you, loud enough for your ears to hear.

“Hey, dimwit, this isn’t exactly what I’d call an afternoon well spend as well.”, you answer while bumping your shoulder against his frame in defence.

“But it sure is better than tainting my record.”, you add.

His amused chuckle travels directly to your stomach – making you feel more excited than annoyed.

“You’re right.”

Wait, did Taeyong just agree with you? You stand still and look at the back of the handsome top student you want under you so bad, your mind is going mad.

“W-what th- the hell?”, you whisper in disbelieve. Never in the history of mankind has Taeyong ever agreed with anything you said. Not even when you were in the same debate team.

But Taeyong doesn’t look back, he just walks directly into your classroom without noticing your absence. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. As long as he and his ego are present, he’s okay with leaving others behind.

You decide that the last ten minutes of math class are not worth participating and you make your way to the kitchen. Do you like your punishment? No. But you sure as hell will bear it with dignity.

 ***

“So we’ll just have to wash the floor, polish the countertop, stock the vegetables arriving at 4 pm and clean the soda machine?”, you repeat while starring at the lunch lady with interest. She must have been briefed by Mr. Kim because she wasn’t surprised when you visited her and asked about the procedure.

“Yes, honey. That would be all. After that you just have to lock everything up and leave the key with Mr. Kim.”, she agrees, looking at you fondly.

You are always nice to the staff at this school, which can’t be said about all the students, making you one of the favourites of the janitor, lunch and cleaning personal.

You nod in understanding and hear the school bell ringing – signalling the five-minute break before your last class.

“I’ve got to leave, but thanks for the instructions!”, you say in a haste and are just in the motion of turning around, when she says: “I sure hope this helps the both of you.”

You freeze. “What?”

The old lady has a dreamy smile on her face.

“I can’t say I was surprised, after hearing that it was you and Mr. Lee who were causing trouble.”

You still don’t understand her, raising one eyebrow in confusion.

“All this longing isn’t healthy for teenagers.”, she explains and winks at you.

“Lon-long-ging?”, you stutter, earning a silent laugh form the lunch lady.

“You can’t fool me, honey. All the stolen glances in the lunch line? The constant nagging? Your flushed cheeks whenever this boy speaks?”

You cough on your own spit. You and Taeyong longing for each other? Was this woman for real? Your cheeks flush in anger every time this … this oaf voices his opinion.

And the few times your gazes meet during lunch? Keep an eye on your enemy, that’s all. Of course, Taeyong is attractive, but can this make you forget his ugly competitive persona? No way.

“Yo-ou are … mistaken.” The disagreement tints your voice making it unbelievably hard.

But before you can start defending yourself the second bell rings, making you officially late for the track session.

“Damn”, you mutter and bow deeply, before running towards the changing room and leaving all your unhealthy thoughts of Taeyong with the lunch lady.

***

“I cannot see you scrubbing the kitchen with Mr. Too-Perfect. I really can’t.”, Yukhei breaths heavy, while taking to you.

You both are running as a tandem around the football field – having a clear view on the football team practice.

“Yuk- you can’t see in general.”, you snort and up the tempo, animating your blind friend to keep up with you.

“Oh Y/N, with your thorough description”, he teases, “I have a clear visual of the school president.”

One time. It was one damn time, after a track race, that you lost disgracefully. You drank too many cheap beers and started describing Taeyong’s body to your new blind friend. One monologue Yukhei hasn’t let you forget.

“Just … because he’s handsome, does-n’t m…ean he can’t clean.”, you answer, but you are too strained to make your voice sound as snippy as you want to. If Yuk can still make fun of you, you are going too slow. So again, you make your feet move faster, earning a groan from your track partner and a dull pain from your muscles.

You sweat terribly but running makes you feel deliciously alive. And you crave that. So you don’t care.

And you sure as hell don’t care that a certain quarterback hasn’t let you out of his eyes.

***

Your hair is still wet from the shower you took as your tired legs drag you into the now empty kitchen. The key rests on the counter and you see that the lunch lady has already moved all the cleaning supplies into plain view for you to use.

You feel bone tired but that doesn’t matter to Mr. Kim. With a defeated sigh you move towards the mop, recognizing the bright yellow floor cleaner from home. Before you can start to mix the water with the chemical, you hear Taeyong enter the kitchen.

“Where do you want me?”, he greets and sounds as tired as you feel. You don’t know if he is trying to be indecent. But one glance at his tired features make you think he’s genuinely waiting for supervision. So you decide to play nice.

“You can start with the counters. There should be some rags at the sink.”, you explain and start cleaning the floor with tardy motions.

There is a comfortable silence for the next minutes, both of you exhausted from the physical activities of your last classes.

Taeyong breaks this silence first.

“You ready for your track meet this weekend?”

The question sounds so earnest, you nearly loose the grip on the mop.

“W-hat?”

His eyes rest on your face. Taeyong showered as well, leaving his hair wetly pinned on his forehead. His cloths cling to his damp body, the outline of his abs clearly visible. You swallow uncomfortably.

“The track meet? This weekend?”, he tries again, slowing his words down.

“Sure”, you answer with flushed cheeks.

“How about … your game?”, you reply with the semi-final this Sunday in mind.

His answering smirk is so gorgeous you have to focus your eyes back on the wet floor.

“When have we ever lost?”

His cockiness is so unattractive you snort loudly.

“27th of May this year.” Your mop moves lazily around the floor. “– devastatingly”

“I wasn’t even there for that game, Y/N.”, Taeyong defends himself and you can formally taste his hurt pride in the words. It makes you giddy.

“Doesn’t matter captain – your team”, you point at him with the mop in hand, “your loss.”

Taeyong throws the rag in the sink with an angry huff.

“What about the 14th of April? Hmm Y/N?”, he responds and moves closer to you, taking the mop out of your grip.

14th of April. Not a good day. A terrible loss against your rivals. Leading to the infamous beer-fuelled adoration of Taeyong in front of your teammates. Not a good day at all.

“I never claimed my team was perfect.”, you spit and take an uncharacteristic step towards Taeyong, invading his personal space.

He inspects you with a flaming gaze.

“Why can’t we have one normal conversation?”, he sighs.

“Without verbally degrading the other?”, you add and notice his smell. The scent of citrus overshadows his normal wood-ish smell. And you hate that you notice this just as much as you hate how fast your heart is racing.

“Yeah”

“Impossible”

“Why?”

Because you have something that I want. And hating you is the only option to overthrow you.

“Because”, you answer, swallowing your inner thoughts.

Taeyong laughs softly.

“That is a weak argument coming from the debate champion.

The tension is thick in the air as the two of you glare at each other. An uncomfortable vibration surrounds you, making it impossible to organize your thoughts. Then there is sudden movement – Taeyong throws the mop on the floor, takes the last step towards you before attacking your lips.

“Wha-…”, A surprised moan escapes your lips as your arms circle around his thick neck searching for support against his attack.

His lips move deliciously aggressive against your own, parting them impatiently so his tongue can dominate your mouth.

“Mhm” The groan that leaves his lungs vibrates through is body and travels across your bodies. There is no space left so tight you are pressing against him. Your fingers find their way into his still damp hair, clawing at his scalp in desperation, needing to be closer. Taeyong’s mouth is hot and wet and delicious and you involuntarily start to suck on his tongue which earns yourself a throaty growl from your partner.

His hands move agitated around your hips, gaining momentum to lift you up on the counter without breaking the kiss. You try to breathe through your nose as the steel surface surprises your overheated body.

Taeyong’s lips leave your mouth dragging a thread of spit with them. If one of your braincells would be working right now, you’re sure you’d be disgusted. But in this moment, all you can feel is deep want as you moan through your bruised lips. His mouth doesn’t leave your body for long, dragging wetness slowly down your neck.

“Oh- shit.”

He lightly bites the sensitive spot where your neck meets your shoulder and you whimper, earing yourself a throaty chuckle from your partner. In reflex, you buckle your heat against the hardness of his middle. The chuckle is silenced as you feel his restrained dick against your core.

“Damn, woman.”, Taeyong mutters and claims your mouth again with new found urgency. You feel like flames are licking at every covered skin of your body and you start to move against him to relieve some of the tension. Your hands leave his fisted hair to trail against his back, scratching against his t-shirt, wanting nothing more than to claw it into pieces.

His hands rest steely against your mid, aiding the movement of your hips. Your heart beats merciless, while your brain has officially resigned. Daring fingers slip under his shirt to feel Taeyong’s tensed abs.

“Uh-m”

It feels like ice cold water is injected into your veins as an unknown sound pierces through your tense moment. With inhumane speed the both of you still, before entangling your heated limps from the tight embrace.

Red is colouring your cheeks as your eyes move to the intruder.

The older man looks as if you were practicing dark magic in front of him, his incredulous eyes wider than you have ever seen them. Thousand thoughts rush around your brain which decided to start functioning again.

You kissed. You kissed him. And by the way of Mr. Kim’s heated face, you also kissed your credibility goodbye.

“The vegetable supplier is waiting for you.”, your headmaster says with bewilderment in his voice, not commenting on the scene he walked in on moments ago.

You didn’t know your blush could get any worse, but here you are, more the colour of the tomato that you were sent to stock than the taint of an actual human.

***

“You a-re as dump as yo-you are hot.”, you whimper as Taeyong’s tongue moves in wet circles around your shoulder blade. His hot breath fans around your exposed skin and you shiver, goosebumps cover your skin.

“Hear me out, Y/N.”, your nemesis begs.

“Eat me out, ass.”, you moan against the wall in front of you feeling Taeyong’s smile behind you. He has caged you against the wall of your chemistry lab. The class ended ten minutes ago, making you late again to your track session. A pattern your blind best friend is used to by now.

“I’m always so blown away by your debating skills.”, Taeyong scolds while cupping one of your breasts in a demeaning manner.

“Yo-…you’re blown away by my blowing skills a-ass-… well.”, you respond in a snippy tone, which dies in your throat due to your partner pressing you flushed against the cold wall. His hand on your breast soften the blow, but the cold of the stone is such a stark contrast to the hot breath on your neck that you shiver in content.

“Come on, why can’t we help each other out?”, he starts again. “We both want the scholarship, we both want the first place, we both want to fuck.”

His list is so true, you want to tattoo it on your skin. Hormones are the worst. And something you hadn’t prepared for. But could have anything prepared you for the force of Taeyong?

“How?”, you ask in defeat moving your head to the side to give him more access to your neck.

The victory is colouring Taeyong’s voice as he explains: “We’re both first place now.” A kiss is placed on your ear. “We’ll keep it that way.” Another one lands on your scalp. “They’ll have no choice but to gift us both with scholarships.”

Why does this plan sound so easy? A dark suspicion clouds your head and you turn around facing him for the first time during your conversation. Taeyong’s eyes betray his arousal; they are as black as your shirt.

Your gaze lingers on his flushed cheeks, moves to his prominent Adam’s apple, before resting on the faint hickey you left on his neck last weekend after his phenomenal semi-final. It was the first time since transferring to this school that you attended his game. And seeing him sweat, hustle and win made you regret every unattended game.

You try to focus again, abandoning all thoughts of heated making outs in the changing room, sloppy hand jobs in his car and the one eating out session after your aced oral presentation in French class.

Taeyong’s plan has to have a catch. Perfect things always have.

“Why should I trust you?”, you ask, already your mind is running a dozen of scenarios where this boy scores one single point more than you, making you the laughing stock of the whole student body.

“When have I ever lied to you?”

He has a point. Even though the school president sometimes placates others with half-truths, he has never been more than unflatteringly honest with you.

“I want a fucking contract.”, you say stubbornly, refusing to let his words get to you. Taeyong laughs loudly into your stony face.

“You really would be the kind of senior student to sue fucking classmate for deceiving you.”

“You bet your ass.”, you admit and cup his semi-hard cock over his jeans in a threatening grip. That shuts him up instantly.

“Girl, as long as you own my dick, I’ll sign your contract in blood.”, he moans, and you smile in victory.

***

A/N Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this OS! I had this request in my inbox for so long, I’m a bit ashamed that it took this much time  to finish this. I was debating the end of this fic for so long, it gave me a real headache. Thanks to the anon for requesting this! I hope you’re all doing well and are ready for the upcoming week! All the love, Dana

[smol-scully]

dark grace and frankie (aka dead to me) thoughts

which i will tuck behind a read more for anyone who is avoiding spoilers. this sucker’s gonna cover the whole season so settle in. 

SO SO MUCH can be said about this show on the macro and the micro levels.

we’re all head over heels for the “what” of the story-- realistic depictions of grief!!!! female friendships!!! murky morality!! -- and I’ve seen a lot of love in posts for it so i won’t go into that much. (even though, again, the pilot has such a strange and wonderful queer energy / intimacy, one that resurfaces later especially while Judy may be pregnant, and i am torn between loving this as a gorgeous depiction of female friendship and shipping the hell out of these two disasters. but i don’t have the braincells for that right now.) 

but as much as the “what” is so fucking compelling, I’m finding myself especially gobsmacked by the “how” of this story.

the methods of storytelling, the attention to detail has literally left me bowled over. and there are still details I haven’t been able to figure out; be it what they mean as a symbol, or where they land in the grand scheme of the story. but I see them and I know they were meaningful choices, and I can’t help but be in awe.

1- costuming thing: stripes. in every episode, judy wears stripes — horizontal stripes — at some point. more than most people tend to own in their wardrobe. does it mean anything? maybe not. it’s probably just a style move to have her style be distinct from jen’s, a little more vibrant, a little more carefree. but could it be a nod to the old school striped prison jumpsuits? maybe.

2. story telling thing: everyone’s a liar! we haven’t had a single reliable narrator. which is amazing and reflective of life, but so cool to see reflected to the degree of real life in a story. obviously lying is a huge part of the plot, but it feels like the characters lie outside of the major plot driven ones. 

a. Judy. such an obvious character to note as being unreliable but the most brilliant piece of show writing/story telling for me was Judy’s first scene. Jen warns her off of the coffee, and Judy looks at her with her big sad eyes and says “I made it,” and confesses to the joke after Jen squirms for a second. The first thing she ever says is 1- a lie 2- to break the ice with Jen / make her laugh (!!!!!!!!!). it’s the perfect foreshadowing. we’ve been warned!!!!!! 

b. Jen!!!! obvious example is a lie that we’re in on, or at least let in on pretty easily -- jen tells nick, “ted hates running shoes; he always ran in vans.” no way in hell was a guy who ran in 5ks and 10ks for charity running in skate shoes. (and then this lie is revealed quickly thereafter in that episode.) but the next one, really did throw me, because it felt like a lie we weren’t in on. a lie jen told to us, rather than to another character. it’s in the middle of a TON of shit hitting the fan, but the gun????? charlie wants it, but “oh it’s in your dad’s safe, but I don’t even know the combination.” and maybe it’s because the [chekov’s] revolver doesn’t come around until a couple episodes later, but Judy tells her the truth and she immediately goes for that safe, and starts keeping that gun on her. I knew the gun would come back up, but the knowledge that she was going to be choosing for it to reappear really threw me. Jen’s our main character, and the majority of the plot centers around her being lied to -- but here we get the knowledge that she’s keeping things from us as well. wow. just so impactful. we cannot trust a single bitch. (and i love it) 

c. oh holy shit back to judy -- the follow up that the flashback to her in the hospital was actually her in the hospital after the miscarriage was BRILLIANT on so many levels. especially as a way to make our relationship with her more complex. first of all i got so incredibly sympathetic. FIVE miscarriages? how utterly overwhelming. secondly, it develops judy’s character in two amazing ways. one that acts as foreshadowing, and one that’s just heartbreaking-- 1- she is so bad at being bad, and this sucker (that she killed ted) is gonna bust wide open. why? she sought jen out at this grief group, and faked that her fiance was dead, when she could have instead used the grief over her VERY REAL miscarriages. she added another layer of lying and deceit and jeopardized the whole ordeal early. but if I had to guess, and here comes the  heartbreaking part-- 2- she’s put herself down and been put down so much throughout her relationship with steve and probably because of the accident as well, that she literally just didn’t consider her miscarriages as a valid and real loss to grieve about. 

3. LOVE abe piecing together that Judy did it, AND that he forgave her for it. it was so fucking compelling to see that sweet, kind old man decide that he didn’t care that judy committed manslaughter. such a strange morally gray thing that i wasn’t expecting to see. 

4. the dialogue!!!!!!!!! i fucking LOVE the dialogue in this show. it does such a great job of bringing us above the tempestuous waves of the drama -- and trauma -- buoying us for some laughs amidst the chaos. I also specifically love how natural it feels -- every funny line isn’t necessarily a perfectly articulated joke (the way that many multicam sitcoms get) but rather something you’re laughing at because you could have said it. charlie: bet you didn’t know you let a stalker come and live with us. jen: well, actually i did, so ... (charlie leaves) fuck!!!!! // like what a funny moment that also feels like how i’d react to the fucking chaos. we’re literally just scrambling to fucking hold it together. also i love the amount of profanity, it feels true to the degree of absolute calamity. there’s more to be said about why the dialogue feels so real and good but i just can’t put my finger on it in this moment. 

5. the music!!!! i love the opening credits, there’s some beautiful symbolism behind the letters being the only ‘see through’ part, about how we’re only viewing part of the story / everything is obscured currently. but i also love the balance of music in the show. the [creepy music](?) i think as netflix close captioned it, which is usually behind the credits, contrasted with the peggy lee tunes of the 40′s and 50′s, and then some girl rock at various points too... it’s such a strong factor in how the ambience of the show pivots and changes so thoroughly. at some points we’re just straight up watching grace and frankie (just gals bein pals), sometimes we’re watching bad moms (we smash a cake! we smash a car!!!!!), and sometimes we’re watching big little lies or gone girl (flash backs! dramatic tension!) it’s actually kind of disorienting and surreal but i’ve absolutely loved every minute of it. it felt like three movies wrapped into one. I think i dissociated a little. I literally cannot wait for season 2. 

6. okay fine on the topic of jen/judy i literally cannot believe how softly and tenderly they looked at each other on the bed in the studio when they were waiting for the pregnancy test results, and the forehead touch, and the “we’ll be a three child mothering team” i am *clenches fist* so full of emotion 

[clexa--warrior]

Five years ago this week was the first time most people in America had ever heard of an incel. For me, it was the first time I spent a week of my life explaining to those people what an incel was.

As soon as the news of Elliot Rodger's killing spree in Isla Vista broke, as soon as they released his videos, I knew. At the time, I was working at Death & Taxes, and I announced in our work chatroom, "I know exactly what this is. He posts on PUAHate. I'd bet my life on it."

Back then, PUAHate was the primary forum for men who had spent a lot of time and money investing in the pick-up-artist craze of the late aughts, with not particularly great results. Furious that the technique of wearing giant velvet hats and walking up to random women in bars and insulting them had not worked out as well as they had hoped, these men commiserated online.

But that wasn't all. As the pick-up artist trend subsided, the forum evolved from complaining about pick-up gurus and became more about the horrible evil and shallowness of the women they had failed to woo with these techniques. They adopted the term incel—short for "involuntarily celibate"—from less overtly misogynistic parts of the internet and started referring to themselves as such. After George Sodini—a man who had also tried and failed to become a pick-up artist and was furious at women for his lack of romantic success—shot and killed 4 people at an L.A. Fitness in Collier Township, Pennsylvania, he became a PUAHate hero.

As it turns out, Rodger did post on PUAHate, and in his manifesto he even credited the forum with giving him a community of men who confirmed "many of the theories [he] had about how wicked and degenerate women really are."

It sounds naive to say now, but as terrifying as PUAHate was to read, as much as you'd look at it and go "Oh shit, one of these nuts is going to kill someone someday," it just didn't seem quite as serious of a possibility as it does now. It was more of an "Oh god, have you seen this weird shit on the internet?" thing.

There was a lot of that in those days, actually. Shock sites were a thing. There was Goat.se, "Two Girls One Cup" (still have not seen it, thank you very much), the kind of sites you'd send people to in order to freak them out and see their reaction. Then there were message boards in which participants were constantly upping the ante to see who could say the most offensive thing, post the most abhorrent image, shock people already inured to the shocking. This is how things operated in PUAHate, but also how people saw PUAHate. It was shocking, but it wasn't dangerous. Not yet.

A few months after the Isla Vista attacks, Gamergate happened. Women who wrote about video games had to go into hiding and feared for their lives because these asshats were scared they were going to steal "video games" from them. Soon, misogynistic 4Chan trolls gained support from more mainstream misogynistic sites like Breitbart, an alliance that would later help propel Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

I think it's clear that Trump would not have happened without Gamergate, but I've also wondered a lot over the years about whether or not Gamergate would have even happened to the degree that it did if it were not for Elliot Rodger, and I have been leaning for a while now into camp "I don't think it would have." I think that as repulsive as Rodger's actions and words were to normal people, a whole lot of men out there heard them and thought "that's fucked up ... but he's not wrong." I think that there are men who saw what he had to say and then went and joined those groups themselves. I think that while they may not have all gone on murder sprees, they did find other ways to lash out at women.

Not everything that happened since then is bad. When I look back at things I wrote back then in light of Isla Vista, I am genuinely impressed with the way the Left has aggressively fought against the misogyny and male entitlement that was coming from inside the house. We don't dole out passes or progressive street cred to "lefty" men who are shitty to women, we don't assume that men who are not the traditional, macho bro are not a threat. Good for us, damn the manarchists.

PUAHate disappeared after the murders, overwhelmed by bad publicity. Soon it became Sluthate. Now it's Redpilltalk, though it's much less popular these days than r/braincels, incels.co, 4chan's R9K board, and other sites where men rage against being denied by the women they believe they are entitled to. They make references to St. Elliot, talk about "going ER," gush over other men who have gone on murder sprees, and today they plan to go to Starbucks, order vanilla lattes -- the drink he threw at happy young people he saw out and about while working himself up to their murder -- and give their name as Elliot in his honor.

These days, rather than men who had been fed a diet of Girls Gone Wild, Tucker Max, Suicide Girls, professional pick-up artists and celebrity sex tapes, who had expected life to be a hedonistic sex buffet, many of the incels on these boards were raised in the heyday of sexual purity. They were raised to expect a virgin bride. They were raised to think of women who had sex before marriage as buckets of their classmate's spit.

Since that day five years ago, there have been at least six other "incel murders" in the United States and Canada. At least 47 people, including Rodger's victims, have lost their lives, more have been injured. Online radicalization is an increasingly serious problem and the way it happens is really not so different from the way it happened with PUAHate. People who feel they've been denied something they were supposed to be entitled to often want a target for the rage they feel, a group they can dehumanize.

The one thing I have learned in my years covering these groups is that they ultimately force themselves into a self-fulfilling prophecy. They create environments where they can be as repulsive as they like, where there are no consequences and only rewards for being horrible and offensive, and then they go and try to take that act on the road, only to find that other people do not feel this is an acceptable way of behaving. The things they felt entitled to become even further out of their reach, because they no longer know how to socialize normally. They get rejected even more, and they get angrier than before. They get more dangerous than before.

Five years ago I wrote:

Elliot Rodger was the product of a culture that teaches male entitlement. Men are entitled to women, to sex, to jobs, to money–and if they don't get them, then women are to blame. He felt entitled to all these things and was livid over not getting them. You don't see women committing crimes like this because we are not taught to feel entitled to these things. The only way to stop more people like Elliot Rodger–or George Sodini who murdered women in an L.A. Fitness center for the same reason–is to stop teaching men to feel entitled. Start with not telling them "boys will be boys." Start by telling them there's no such thing as "friendzoning" and that women are allowed to not be sexually attracted to them. Start by telling them to listen when we say that we don't want their "compliments" on the street, and that we don't have to be flattered by them. Start by telling them they have no right to demand that we "smile" at them. It'll work out better for all of us.

We still teach men that they are entitled to certain things. We still teach men that women are evil and will use their sexuality as a weapon. We are still making men dangerous. And we still don't really know what the hell to do about it.

[cristixntm]

𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭  𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧.

[ XAVIER SERRANO / POLYTROPOS / CAERUS / MUSE 36 ] / [ CRISTIANO MONTERO ] is a [ TWENTY-ONE ] year old [ BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ] major. [ HE ] is known for being [ CHARMING & CLEVER ] but [ INSOUCIANT & INSENSITIVE ].  when i think of them, i imagine [ A CHEEKY WINK FROM ACROSS THE BAR, LATE NIGHT ‘U UP?’ TEXTS, THE CLENCH OF A JAW BEHIND A COCKY SMIRK, RICH BOYS DON’T HAVE HEARTS ]. and even though they’re a proud HU student now, we all have our roots. theirs run back to them being a [ MHP ( AQUA ) ] graduate.  i asked around and it turns out they [ AREN’T ] an AOP student. in their interview, they managed to woo the admissions team by [ PRESENTING A FIVE-FIGURE INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO THAT WAS STARTED FROM $10 ]. i guess that’s all there is to know! unless…

howdy hey frands! i’m jocey ( 24, she/her, est ) & this is my trash son, cristian. not me reusing an old intro and still getting this up late……. mmYEP luv that for me! if you would like to plot, hit that like button & i’ll come your way or feel free to hmu on discord ( jocey#9154 ).

full name : cristiano javier montero de barra nickname : mostly goes by cristian age : twenty-one sexuality : heterosexual hometown : madrid, spain / los angeles, california high school : marble hill prep ( aqua house ) HU house : polytropos major : business administration extracurriculars : eleusinian circle ( legacy ), soccer ( centre forward )

cristian is the second and youngest born to javier montero and alisa de barra. his dad is the CEO of montero properties, the developer behind many big name casinos and resorts around the world, while his mom is an actress who starred in several spanish telenovelas and hollywood films.

originating from spain, the montero family had always been a familiar face in the media, with both cristian and his older sister having large followings on social media. the montero’s had a reputation for living extravagantly and lavishly, and often flaunted their 1% status.

out of the whole family, arguably the one with the most controversial reputation was cristian — one of the heirs to the montero fortune, fuckboy extraordinaire with an impressively long list of ex lovers, and all around entitled trust fund brat ( whEW hate that!! ). taking full advantage of his family name, he was always seen at the exclusive events and partying, even hooking up, with some well-known names.

but with the family name also came the expectation to be the picture perfect son and the responsibility to carry on the family legacy. unfortunately, parents never quite get exactly what they hoped for from their children, do they?

if there’s one thing you should know about cristian is that he will never do anything if he felt forced into it. his parents learned early on that hiring a good PR team and shipping their son off to a boarding school ( marble hill prep ) was easier than forcing him to behave. the fact that cristian’s dad was a MHP and HU alum and the montero’s family were big donors might have helped to keep him from getting expelled on one or two occasions.

still, to some extent, cristian did the bare minimum just to keep his parents off his back and his bank account essentially bottomless. he got good grades ( whether it was completely based on his own merits was a different story ), showed up to important events ( granted he was always drunk and late ), and charmed the pants off of interviewers and his admirers ( sometimes quite literally ).

attending hatchett unversity was just another thing that he did to keep his trust fund ( or so he says ). and who was he to turn down the good ol’ college experience? it was also the perfect way to keep his side business ( read: drug ring ) going.

running a boarding school turned college drug ring was never exactly something he’d planned on doing. like with most things in cristian’s life, the opportunity sort of just fell into his lap and he decided to run with it. call it a bored rich kid thing, but there was just something about earning his own cash in such a risky way that made it that much sweeter.

while those who know cristian may be aware of his connection to this drug ring, most assume that he’s just dealing and/or using his rich boi connections to bring in customers. only a select few know that he’s actually the brains behind the surprisingly well thought-out operation, and he prefers to keep it that way.

cavalier fuckboy with a heart of gold… ( underneath a shit ton of asshole layers, that is ) basically summed up cristian. he always puts out this very lazy, devil-may-care image of himself, and acts like someone who could not give two shits about anyone other than himself. call him a selfish asshole and he’d probably agree with you. but when it comes to his closest friends, the ones he considered to be his real family, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for them.

most write cristian off as this spoiled, reckless and directionless loose cannon, who maybe had one braincell on a good day. but underneath it all, he’s a lot smarter and more calculating than many people give him credit for and believe it or not, actually does think things through. but he believed that expectations just led to disappointment, so it was better to not have anyone expect anything of you. hence the perfected facade he’s kept up for as long as he could remember.

he is, however, not so smart when it comes to his love life and is notoriously bad at juggling his booty calls. as in, getting all their names mixed up, and running into a booty call number three, who he’d ghosted, when he was with booty call number five. but then again… could it all just be an act to get out of any and all potential relationships? who knows?

WANTED CONNECTIONS. most connections are open to multiple people filling it, unless it’s crossed out. and ofc i’m always open to any ideas not listed here!

RICH BOI SQUAD ━  they’re those guys. the popular, rowdy bros who are always seen together, they throw the best parties and cause a bunch of mayhem together. honestly just a bunch of obnoxious alpha dudes who think they’re hot shit.  taken by kennedy king

#1 SINCE DAY 1  ━  cristian’s best bro since the beginning of time ( or close enough ), who’s been there through all of his constant shenanigans and wild times.  taken by felix könig

BEST GAL PAL  ━  probably one of the few girls cristian’s managed to not try to hook-up with, or constantly flirt with. someone who helps him remember the names of all the girls he’s hooked up with plz lol. it’s rare that he’s protective over someone, but he’d absolutely throw hands for her if needed.  taken by caroline fitzgerald

CONFIDANT  ━  someone who actually knows cristian very well and sees through his lazy rich boy act. one of the very few people who he’s completely opened up to and genuinely cares about not fucking up their friendship.  taken by florence trask

MOM FRIEND  ━  basically a mama bear who looks out for cristian and may be one of the few people he actually listens to. doubles as his moral conscience/good influence when he wants to do dumb rich boy things.  taken by giada vitale

PSEUDO SIBLING  ━  they have a sibling-like relationship, where he’ll annoy them sometimes and they mom friend him. but they’re always looking out for each other.  taken by odette könig

CHILDHOOD FRIEND  ━  someone he grew up with. they could still be friends to this day, maybe they grew apart, or maybe they never really clicked.

UNLIKELY FRIEND  ━  the last person you’d expect to be friends with cristian. possibly met during a school project or something, and they realized that he’s… actually… not that bad?? despite what everyone says about him and his reputation, y/m sees that he’s not really as big of an asshole as he comes off and is actually kind of tolerable one on one. kind of.  taken by dorian garcia

FAVOURITE ANNOYANCE  ━  they got on cristian’s nerves at first, but eventually, they grew on them. whether he admits it or not, they do have some kind of friendship and deep down, he does enjoy their company.  taken by astrid mae

DEALERS  ━  basically dealers who work for cristian, who is the supplier. he may seem like a clueless hot mess, but rest assured, he takes care of his own. as long as that loyalty is returned.  taken by felix könig

ON & OFF  ━  cristian has had a lot of flings and hook-ups, but this person has been the one constant in his life. their “relationship” ( if you can call it that ) is kinda messy because he ( and maybe she as well? ) won’t commit, but is also surprisingly chill.

HOOK-UPS / FWBS  ━  whether you like cristian or not, people can’t really deny that he’s good-looking rip. he’s known to have a bit of a roster of girls that he hits with those late night booty-calls/texts.  taken by diana radcliffe

PAST HOOK-UPS / FWBS / ONE NIGHT STANDS  ━  homeboy has been around the block and back more times than he can count on two hands, so he’s definitely got a long list of ex-luvas. especially ones who hate him cuz he’s the worst™.  taken by isadora banks, daphne moon

ENEMIES  ━  cristian’s the kind of guy who easily has a lot of people who don’t like him. he practically has no filter, so his big mouth and careless words are bound to rub some people the wrong way. or maybe he screwed y/m over to save his own ass.  taken by belinda torres, camille jung