#also more sticky content? he's such an interesting character?

[kneeslapworthy]

just thinking about how sticky says that his biggest fear is ‘not being wanted at all’ and that’s why he ran away from his aunt. and the thing is, he was wanted by his aunt, except she didn’t want him she wanted his intellect. and i think that’s partly how sticky learns to stand up against curtain in the s1 finale, even when curtain tries to tell him that he’s needed. because sticky realizes once again that it’s not him that people want, but his memory and his intelligence. and then he has reynie who keeps reminding him that he’s thoughtful and caring and a person that is wanted and loved and just. ugh.

[kurooh]

MY KINDA LOVE ! — JUJUTSU KAISEN

⊹₊˚. what’re your favorite jjk characters’ kinks?

⟡ feat. gojo satoru, geto suguru, sukuna ryōmen, fushiguro toji, kamo choso.

⟡ warnings: 18+ content (mdni), f! reader, modern au, blindfolding, oral [f receiving], fingering, some pussy/clit slaps, degradation, edging, orgasm control, phone sex, masturbation, light choking, exhibitionism, squirting, size kink, rough sex, 69, cuddlefucking, not proofread. 3.5k words wtf

⟡ xoxo, juno: thank you for 2k i’m so grateful for all of you <3 send in some requests & as always rbs are loved !! maybe a pt 2 of this with other characters??

— GOJO SATORU.

★★ satoru loves blindfolding and tying you up, then he teases you until you’re begging him go let you cum. once he’s got you wet and needy, he edges you, then controls when and how you orgasm.

“desperation looks so good on you, baby,” satoru half laughs, half groans as he drinks in your tied up form. could this be any more perfect? god, you’re spread eagle for him, with his favorite black blindfold adorning your face, as well as soft black ropes binding your wrists and ankles to all sides of the bed.

“satoru,” you demand, twisting and bucking against your restraints in frustration. “fuck, you promised you wouldn’t tease me this much, i—ah!”

he lands a smarting slap against your pussy that has you squirming away from him, breaths coming out in puffs and aggravated huffs.

“no, i told you i’d play with you.”

satoru sits on the bed, adjusting so he’s laying on his stomach, then inches towards your twitching pussy.

“i want to cum!” you snap, tears of irritation building at the corners of your eyes beneath the blindfold. of course, he never takes well to you being a fucking brat; he leans close, hot breath fanning over your sticky slit.

“you wanna cum?” he asks darkly, hands coming to rest on your spread thighs.

you nod impatiently, and he hums, moving back slightly. “you know how to ask for it, baby.”

“yes, i want you to make me cum, toru.”

satoru dives into your pussy, obscenely slurping up your wetness and spreading it all over your clit and his own face in his eagerness. he’s tonguing at your slit, dipping inside with just the tip to tease before he’s pushing two thick fingers inside you.

“oh, that’s good,” you moan as he languidly drags his tongue against your clit, head dropping back and missing the way icy blue eyes stare up at you, insatiable.

satoru flicks your puffy clit with his tongue, thrusting his fingers extra hard when your entire body jolts in bliss. “toru, again— do that again, please.”

his hips rut against the bed, cock hard and throbbing for you. he decides he’ll make you cum a few times, and when you’re still reeling, he’ll fuck you so hard you both pass out.

“this?” satoru teases, flicking at your sensitive clit with his tongue a few times and watching you react. moments later, your back is bowing off the bed, tits bouncing nicely as you squeeze down on his fingers, cumming with a whiny keen of his name.

you expect him to kiss your thighs as you come down from your high, help you relax before he fucks you, but he instead wraps his lips around your clit and sucks forcefully. your bound legs kick into the air, straining against the ropes.

“toru, toru that’s too much!” you sob, pleasure mixing with a sting of pain as he ignores you. his fingers are still inside you, and start to thrust again, nearly slipping out with how wet you are.

“you-you’re so sexy like this, baby,” he mumbles against your wet skin, sucking and fingering you with little interest in stopping.

“toru!” you nearly scream, blindfold sliding down the bridge of your sweaty nose, “y-you’re gonna make me cum again, please i’m too sensitive—”

he doesn’t let up, sucking your clit into your second orgasm and right through it, pleased when he sees a tear roll off your jaw.

“oh, but you wanted to cum, didn’t you?”

— GETO SUGURU.

☆☆ much like his best friend, suguru also enjoys controlling your pleasure — but he prefers when it’s mutual, so he has you help him get off over the phone.

“what?” you mumble, staring at the incoming call on your phone after glancing at the time. 2:43 am.

all the sleepy fog in your brain whooshes away as you question why he would be calling you at this time. after all, he’s supposed to be asleep, on a brief vacation trip with satoru, many cities away.

after swiping the answer button, you put your phone against your ear, yawning and leaning back into the mass of pillows at the head of your shared bed. “sugu, is everyth—”

a soft moan has your back straightening, eyes opening fully. “mm, i need you so badly.”

on the other side of the phone—the other side of the country—suguru’s palming lightly at his cock through sweatpants and boxers, in the bathroom of his shared hotel room while satoru’s passed out a good distance from the bathroom.

his admission has heat shooting through your body, accumulating in your pelvis. “what’s going on, suguru?” you ask gently, thighs flexing in excitement.

“we’ve been apart for far too long,” he mumbles, despite knowing it’s been 3 days since he’s been gone and he has 2 more to go before he’s heading back home. “and i just..” his voice trails off as he chuckles lowly, shaking his head, bangs moving back and forth.

“just what, sugu?” you’re hanging on to his every word, eager to hear him moan again.

“oh, i can’t quite seem to stop getting hard ons to you all around the clock,” suguru huffs, slipping a hand beneath the elastic band of his sweatpants.

you giggle, kicking the blankets off your legs and spreading your thighs. “maybe i can help you get off, suguru.” the way you say his name through the phone has him shuddering in his place sitting on the edge of the tub.

he moans, exhaling sharply as he rubs his thumb over the head of his cock through his boxers. god, he needs you in every way right now. bent over, spread open, on your knees, beneath his body..

“panties to the side,” suguru reminds you, fingers brushing over the length of his hard cock as he awaits your instruction, just as you listen to his.

“you sound perfect,” you whine, thumb pressing into your clit as you slowly rub tight circles. “start stroking, baby.. a-and, fast or slow?”

“rub it slowly, no need to rush,” he murmurs firmly, inhaling deeply as he pulls his cock free from his boxers; he tosses his unbound hair over his shoulder, wishing you were pulling on it as hard as you always do.

“sugu, when you’re back, i want you to eat me out,” you whisper, spreading your own wetness over your clit like he would’ve done with his own fingers.

“oh, i will,” suguru tightens his grip as he slides his fist up his cock, then loosening as he comes back down, “you remember that time you used that stupid kit on me and we made a dildo?”

“oh yeah,” you laugh lowly, recalling the memory and breaking off into a moan as you rub your clit, “you couldn’t stay hard when i was trying to put the plaster on you.”

his face straightens out and he groans, rolling his eyes, cock in hand. “shut up and fuck yourself with the dildo we made.”

you lean over, opening the nightstand drawer and pulling the aforementioned dildo out, holding it firmly. it really does look like suguru’s cock. “i want the real thing,” you breathe, lubing it up with your own wetness before pushing it inside your squeezing pussy. “sugu, feels really good..”

he moans, speeding up his pace on his cock as you develop a tempo with the dildo, rubbing your clit at the same time and setting your phone on speaker. “i want to cum with you,” suguru groans, soft and oh so sexy, “now and when we see each other again.”

the dildo’s going deep, stretching you out and filling you up almost as good as his cock does. your mouth hangs open as you press into the pillows, legs open as you moan carelessly. sticky slick slides down your skin, pooling in the sheets beneath you, but you don’t even care, too focused on your impending orgasm and how creamy the dildo’s making your pussy.

“sugu, faster, please, need you to cum with me!”

“don’t worry, sweet thing,” suguru grunts, fisting his cock tighter as more precum runs down the sides of his tip.

soon, heat swirls inside your pussy, clit becoming too sensitive, and you whine loudly, his name falling from your lips like a prayer. similarly, he’s close to bursting with pressure. “cum with me, suguru!” you exclaim, breathless as each thrust from the dildo punches the air from your lungs.

he nods, then remembers you can’t see him. “cum with me, baby—ughhh.. shit, i’m gonna fucking cum, please cum with me!” suguru’s frenzied words have you cumming hard, body jackknifing as your pussy contracts, muscles in your thighs cramping from the force of the orgasm.

meanwhile, he’s got his fingers over his tip to prevent the cum from shooting up and turning into a mess; it pours down his cock in sticky white globs, and all he can think about is you cleaning it up with either your greedy pussy or your impatient tongue. he pants, still sensitive.

“are you alright? you came pretty hard, and god it was so fucking sexy.”

you can barely breathe, dildo in your sticky hand as you turn to move your mouth to the speaker. “i-i’m okay, sugu. and thanks, you sound pretty hot yourself.”

he laughs, grabbing some nearby tissues to clean himself up. “it’s goodnight, then?” a small smile plays on suguru’s lips when he hears you yawn, the bed creaking slightly as you stand up to turn on the lights.

“not yet, i’ve gotta change the sheets..” you turn on the light, squinting and then rolling your eyes at your now flashing phone. “suguru, why are you facetiming me?”

— SUKUNA RYŌMEN.

★★ sukuna always has you wet and needy for him, no matter if you’re in a public space or a private one. very occasionally, he lets you tease him until he’s tearing your clothes off somewhere where he definitely shouldn’t be.

“you’d better be quiet, brat, or everyone’s gonna hear how much of a fucking slut you are.” sukuna hisses, fingers pushing into you deeper while his free hand grasps at your throat.

“ah, kuna, ‘m trying— shit, your fingers feel so good!” you exclaim, whimpering as his grip tightens almost immediately.

“trying isn’t good enough. be fuckin’ quiet,” his lips brush over the shell of your ear before he bites down lightly, fingers curling inside you and pushing hard into your g-spot.

the air’s hot in the dressing room, heavy with the sounds of your panting and his hushed groans, muffled by your skin as he presses his face against your neck. sukuna’s sitting on the small stool provided in the dressing room to assist with changing, hard cock twitching against your bare ass as you twist in his lap, hole clenching around his fingers.

you’d been teasing him during your shopping trip, giggling as you’d brush against him with far too much pressure for it to be called an accident, sticking your tongue out when he’d lean in for a chaste kiss. all of that pissed him the fuck off, and the second you suggested heading into a store to try on a few sundresses, he’d practically dragged you into the dressing room, slipping past the attendant with ease.

now, your needy pussy’s stuffed with his fingers, sundresses untouched and hanging on the hook. footsteps sound past the door, and sukuna’s fingers go from curling deep to scissoring in and out of your dripping pussy.

“aw, look at you,” he sneers, heel of his hand bumping into your clit haphazardly as he fingers you roughly. “you were such a brat earlier, now you’re dripping all over me like a whore, all in public.”

“‘kuna, faster, please let me cum!” your face burns, head spinning when he actually obliges, fingertips pressing into your cervix with each of his thrusts.

“mmm, fine. i suppose you can, brat.”

“t-thank you, thank you so much.” you stutter, sloppy pussy squelching.

you turn your head, whining as your lips search for his; his hand slides up your throat before settling firmly beneath your chin. he tugs you into a hot kiss, nipping hard at your soft lips and making you squeal.

unhappy with your noise, sukuna brings the heel of his palm against your clit sharply, and you fall quiet, trembling violently. so much so that you can’t even kiss him, instead bringing your own hand up to your mouth and jamming your knuckles into your mouth.

“tsk, that good, huh?” sukuna sounds pleased, but what else would he be? he’s watching you melt into a mess in his lap, all from such simple stimulation.

“yes,” you mumble, leaning your head back against his chest as you feel your orgasm approaching. a large hand firmly wraps around your throat, and crimson eyes sparkle as you start to tense up.

“gonna cum for you, kuna,” is all you can rasp out when he’s squeezing so hard on your throat your eyes are rolling back, and you’re seeing stars.

the first quick contractions of your pussy only inspire him to move his fingers faster, until you’re arching against him and orgasming as silently as possible, a few tears rolling down your burning cheeks.

sukuna hums lowly as he releases your neck, smirking down at your sweaty, fucked out face. “tired yourself out yet, brat? you’re in for some more when we get back home.”

— FUSHIGURO TOJI.

☆☆ to toji, sex isn’t good sex if you’re not a dripping, fucked out mess collapsing on him by the end of it. his favorite part of sex is watching his cock stuff your little pussy, and he smirks when you cry about how big he is.

“t-toji, it won’t fucking fit!” you cry in aggravation, scrunching up your tears stained face. you’ve been straddling him, trying to ride his cock for far too long, all while toji sits back.

“if ya want it so bad, try ‘nd do it without my help, doll” was what he’d said when you told him you were finally ready to move beyond oral sex.

after letting him fuck your throat a few times, and messing around with some pussy jobs, you understood just how big his cock was. however, you didn’t expect to struggle this much to even get him inside your prepped pussy.

“no need to cry.. you want some help, babygirl?” an infuriating smirk plays on toji’s lips as he so obviously enjoys your pathetic struggle to get his dick inside you. honestly, he didn’t expect you to keep trying as much as you already have; clearly you’re determined to be fucked. you nod, wiping at your eyes hard.

“well then, get on your hands and knees.”

you do as he demands, body swaying with anticipation as you hear him grunt behind you. toji spreads your ass cheeks out forcefully, and you’re gasping as his sticky tip presses into your quivering pussy. “t-toji, you’re huge,” you heave, stating the obvious.

“i know, doll,” he replies, snickering quietly as he slowly pushes forward. “it’ll all disappear inside your greedy pussy pretty soon.”

“i-i doubt that, i couldn’t even get it in earlier—”

“oh yeah? you wanna doubt me, doll?” toji rasps, voice darkened with some sort of hunger.

he doesn’t even let you answer before rough palms are rubbing across your skin and fingers are digging into your hips; then he’s unceremoniously shoving his full length into your drooling, needy cunt.

a heated mix of pain and pleasure rips right through you as he stretches you out with a strained groan. “toji!” you practically scream, shaking hard as you spasm all over his length. “you’re so deep inside, i can’t—”

“you can’t?” toji parrots, hand coming down on your ass nice and hard. “don’t say that shit. you can, and you will.” leaving absolutely no room for discussion, his hips surge forward, driving his cock as far as it’ll go inside you. you can only gasp as toji’s thrusts shove the air right out of your lungs, and suddenly you think you can feel him in your stomach.

as his thick tip slams into an especially sensitive place inside your pussy, a new sensation sets your entire body alight with bliss. wet sounds rise above the sound of skin smacking against skin, and toji laughs behind you before his amusement is cut off with a lusty groan. “oh yeah, princess. that’s it, be a good girl ‘n cum all over me.”

so that’s what this is? you’ve never felt so sensitive, not when he was eating you out or when he was fingering you as hard as he does. no, this is different. before you can think any further about what may be happening, cum sprays out of you, all over his pelvis and abs.

you’re collapsing onto the bed, sobbing into the sheets while the pace of his hips only quickens. drool seeps from the corners of your lips, trailing down your skin and into the sheets.

“gonna cum inside you, babygirl,” toji moans, seconds before his cock is thickening and spilling inside your overstimulated pussy.

he sits back, chest heaving as he watches you keel over, shaking. drool’s covering your chin, and your squirt and his cum leaks from your puffy, quivering.

“anyone in there, doll?” toji lightly slaps your cheek, grinning as you roll over with a whine. he scoops you into his arms, carrying you bridal style out of the bedroom and into the connected bathroom.

“i’ll run a bath for you ‘n join you after changing the sheets, yeah?”

your tits bounce as you shake your head, legs wobbly when he places you down. “mm mm, i want you to be in the bath with me right now.”

“okay, the sheets—”

you level him with a pout, unintentionally trembling all over, and he caves far too easily.

“fine, but don’t complain later when we get out ‘nd you have to help me change the sheets, babygirl.”

— KAMO CHOSO.

★★ choso’s very particular about when and where he cums, going so far as to deny himself during a blowjob just so he’ll be able to fill you up. additionally, he’s often a little romantic, preferring closeness over all else when it comes to positions.

“oh, you taste good, choso.” your words, mumbled against the tip of his cock, cause his face to flush darkly. choso’s hands smooth over your hips before he tugs you backwards, trying to fuck his tongue deeper inside your creamy hole. your body spasms as you cum on his tongue, thighs tensing as you moan on his cock.

all he can do is gasp into you when you wrap your lips around his tip and slide down his length. his balls tense up as white hot pressure develops inside his cock, and he starts to whine, twisting away, but you’re holding his base firmly.

“let go,” choso gasps, staving off his orgasm as it bubbles up quickly. “don’t wanna cum like this.”

“cho, i want you to fill up my mouth.”

he shakes his head, tousled dark hair sticking to his sweaty forehead and sticky cheeks. “i wanna fill your pussy up, though,” he whines, finally pulling his cock free from your grip and flipping the two of you over so that you’re laying down instead of being in a 69.

“lift your leg up, sweetheart,” choso pushes you onto your side, grabbing his throbbing cock by the base and guiding his heavy tip between your folds. with his cheek pressed against yours, body curled around your own, he presses forward before fully shoving in. all you can do is struggle for breath as choso wraps a well-muscled arm around your waist and starts pounding away, groaning into your ear.

“slow down, please— ah!” sensitive all over and reeling from how roughly he’s moving, tears slip from your eyes as you let out little whines of his name.

“aww, don’t cry, baby,” choso murmurs, kissing your cheek and wiping the tears from your skin with gentle fingertips. “i’ll go slow, if that’s what you really want.” when you nod, he draws his hips back and begins to thrust with less speed and force. the change in momentum allows you to enjoy each drag of his cock back and forth inside you, his cockhead prodding into the deepest spots deliciously. meanwhile, choso’s got his face buried in your neck, inhaling your natural scent as he kisses and nips at the supple skin.

now that you’ve adjusted to his cock, you say breathlessly, tugging at his hand, “i-i want you to go faster, cho.”

“you can take it?” he questions, looking towards you with an arched brow as his hips pause momentarily.

“i promise,” you’re barely through the second word of your sentence before he’s already fucking into you mercilessly, now mumbling something unintelligible into your neck. his fingers rush from the softness of your abdomen to the wet skin of your folds, spreading them haphazardly as he searches for your clit, rubbing at it firmly.

choso’s chest heaves against your back as he clutches you tighter, struggling for breath. “oh, oh baby, ughhh— i’m gonna cum..” your hand slips beneath his chin easily as you pull him into a kiss, absorbing his gasps as they turn to whimpers against your plush lips.

hot cum pours deep inside you, and choso trembles as you squeeze down on him. he breaks away from the kiss, lifting your leg and pulling his cock from you, watching your fluttering pussy raptly.

white globs of cum leak out of your hole, dripping down your skin before you swipe most of it up with two fingers. choso thinks he’s burning, a blush rising high on his face as he watches you push your cum covered fingers into your mouth and suck. now he almost regrets not getting that blowjob earlier.

you let your fingers go with a pop, smacking your lips as you look at him innocently, giggling a little at the shock on his face.

“something wrong, choso? you’re flushed.”

“you know exactly what’s not wrong,” he huffs, leaning in for a kiss to taste himself on your tongue.

“cho, are you hard again?” a firmness presses against your backside, and he’s smirking now.

“i think you’ll have to suck me off until i can't get hard, baby.”

[flowerandblood]

A Wife's Only Duty

Halloween Request Oneshots Series

[ Aemond • Targaryen x wife • female ]

[ warnings: sex content, smut, angst, toxic relation, violence, marital rape, choking, character death ]

[ description: The war changes Aemond beyond recognition, and his wife becomes the target of his eternal abuse, also in bed. One day, however, he crosses the limits and has to face the consequences. Angst, violence, marital rape, very dark!Aemond. ]

This oneshot is an Anon Request and is created with Halloween in mind, so unlike what I usually write, these oneshots will be very dark and uncomfortable. Keep this in mind before you start reading.

*English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy!*

My others works: Masterlist

____

At the beginning of their marriage he was terrified – he had no idea how to handle this young, gentle girl who, by his parents' decision, became his wife. Her presence embarrassed him – he hid his feelings behind a mask of indifference and hostility, deliberately did not allow her to get close to him even when she tried.

He had had a few one-off adventures with servants before marrying her, but at the time he cared less for their fulfilment than for his own, treating them like vessels in which he drained his seed.

During their wedding night, he didn't know how to act – her face was pale and frightened – he guessed her mother had warned her that the act would only be pleasurable for him.

He ordered her to lie on her stomach and she did so without a word – he told her to lift her hips and spread her thighs, and she did.

He liked how meek and obedient she was, thinking he would try to be gentle, that he would reward her.

He heard her breathing hard and stifling sounds of discomfort as he forced his way inside her, as he began to move slowly back and forth, panting heavily, her hands clenched on the pillow. She was tighter than he had expected, her walls squeezing his erection from all sides, giving him pleasure he had never experienced before.

Unwittingly, he began to slam faster into her with sticky slaps of their naked hips, panting louder and louder, her sounds of discomfort becoming more pronounced, he heard her cry out softly.

"− quiet −" He exhaled coolly, for she tightened her lips and fell silent, taking what he was giving her, cuddling her face into the pillow, obediently waiting for the end, which came soon after.

He came inside her with a loud sound of relief and found to his surprise that he was satisfied.

"− you did well, wife −" He praised her with a low murmur, sliding out her slowly, and she breathed a sigh of relief, her whole body quivering.

He let her stay with him that night – she moved away from him to the other end of the bed and did not speak to him.

The next day during their morning meal, he saw that she sat up in pain, a look of discomfort painted on her face that she tried to hide by adopting at least a partially satisfied expression.

She tried to start a light discussion about nothing, but he was not interested in it and remained silent.

After several of their close-ups, something changed – since she directed his hand between her thighs as he slid into her with deep, sure pushes, since he discovered the little spots between her folds, her insides became exceptionally moist and sticky, no more gasps of exertion came from her lips, only moans, her insides clenched around his erection.

"− please, husband − touch me like this −" She mumbled, and he felt his manhood throbbing hard at her words, some kind of pride and satisfaction filled his chest, so he did as she asked.

That night was the first time he had seen female fulfilment.

Since then she had sought the closeness of his body herself, unable to bond with him outside of bed, approaching him in this way, and he had not spurned her. He could consider that at this point their marital life was quite successful, approaching what might be called a bond, even if only carnal, still close.

And then Luke died because of his stupidity.

He saw a change in her, her face, her eyes no longer lit up with desire at the sight of him – she blamed him for starting the war, for making them no longer safe.

"What is the meaning of that look, sweet wife?" He scoffed, staring at her watchfully, his fingers rubbing against each other in a gesture of frustration that she knew all too well.

She swallowed loudly, apparently wondering strenuously how to ease his anger.

"Forgive me. I'm terrified." She whispered, and he, without knowing why, burst into laughter. He approached her and she took a step back, her eyes wide.

He didn't like that.

"Come here. Come here, I say." He hissed, furious as she tried to pull away from him, his hand clamped tightly on her shoulder − he turned her around with her back to him and forced her to bend over, but she still tried to break free.

"− no − please − please, Aemond, I don't want to −" She mumbled out with difficulty, her voice and body trembling, her tiny fingers clenched helplessly on his skin.

He pressed his lips to her ear.

"− you don't want to? − are you disgusted with your kinslayer husband? hm? − you swore to me, you fucking whore −" He growled furiously, struggling against her, pulling up her skirt in a violent motion, grabbing her head by her hair and pressing her cheek against the table.

She cried out loudly as he opened her wide suddenly and violently, panting hard, slamming into her like a mad.

"− that's it − fucking take it −" He growled out, pumping his length into her so fast and aggressively that he felt like he was going to pierce through her stomach, her sobs mixed with her moans.

He slipped his hand between her thighs, teasing her little pearl in circular, slow motions, her lips parted, horror and indecision on her face, her walls throbbing around his cock.

He licked his lips feeling it.

"− just like that − that's my good wife − it's okay now, I forgive you −" He breathed out, fucking her with all his strength, the sticky, loud slapping of flesh against flesh echoing through his chamber. He chuckled under his breath as he felt her come suddenly, moaning and whimpering, her legs trembling all over as waves of pleasure ran through her body.

"− fucking knew it − greedy little whore −"

From then on, their rapprochements became more and more violent and aggressive because of him, because of what had happened to Aegon, because of what had happened to Helaena, because of Alys, whom he fucked every time he appeared in Harrenhal, because she was expecting his bastard child and his wife still hadn't given him an heir.

"− you drink Moon Tea, don't you? − say it, or I'll strangle you −" He growled, his cock pounding into again and again, pushing her walls to their limits, his two hands clenched on her neck.

She cried out, all pale, shaking her head.

"− no − no −" She mumbled wearily, and he pressed his lips together, looking at her with rage.

"− fucking whore − you think I'm a fool? − that I don't know? − that I don't know that you hate me, that you abhor the thought that you could bear my child? −" He wailed in despair, feeling like he was about to burst into sobs for some reason, her eyes rolled back, her breath caught in her throat.

If he had let her go then, she would have been able to tell him that she was expecting his offspring.

His hands held her neck in an iron grip until he finally reached his peak inside her with a growl of pain and relief − he looked at her face, panting heavily, her eyes empty, her body lying still.

She was not breathing.

He let go of her suddenly, looking at her with wide eyes, his hands trembling in the air. He touched her cheek and patted her lightly, as if he wanted to wake her from her slumber.

"− my love? − my love, wake up − I didn't really mean it, I would never hurt you −" He babbled out with difficulty, his throat tighten, his heart pounding like mad, his head was spinning.

She didn't react, her absent gaze fixed somewhere far away, into nothingness, her lips slightly parted, her body soft and relaxed.

He whined like an animal, pressing his face to her cheek, holding her still warm body close, the tears he hadn't let fall for years dripping down his face.

"− I'm sorry − I'm sorry − I'm so sorry − please, forgive me −" He cried out in despair, cradling her in his arms like a small child, stroking her hair. He lowered her onto his bed again, stroking her cheek, kissing her nose, her forehead, her lips as tenderly and gently as ever.

"− please, wake up − please, I promise I'll change −" He mumbled, but it was too late, all that remained was her empty body, her heart no longer beating, on her neck bruises from the grip of his hands.

She ran away from him where he could no longer hurt her.

_____

Aemond Taglist:

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[99redragons]

Wow, I agonized over this post way too long. Here it is, finally. I was gonna make this a reblog but i think since it's referencing multiple posts (and boy it got super long and added a related theory) this is better on its own. This is furthering @gin-juice-tonic's analysis of the tBoB journal pages. Heavy tBoB spoilers, and warning for the darker content it has. (some swearing too) I'm convinced now they're a warped version of events and downright fake for some, however, I believe many are real.

...But did Ford remember them? "I can delete memories randomly, just for fun. Maybe I already have." I do NOT think Bill could erase everything. He probably can only erase small/recent sections. But this is a big part of my theory.

But first, Gin's points. (using some of your pics for this Gin, hope you dont mind) I'm not going to post every journal page, but I'll give a ref for ones that seem important.

Okay, this is the post that actually convinced me (went through the links from tapas, the first is sure suspicious, but the second has pretty compelling evidence.) Ford referred to Fiddleford as F through the whole of journal 3 (aside from in code), and Bill as his Muse until the reveal, he wouldn't suddenly change the way he refers to people, even if he planned to rip out the pages, in which case, why would you write them in the first place?

On the first link (this one), this appears to be an embellished story. When you look at it from bill's perspective, he's reminiscing. He lies to himself. He's making it seem like Ford and Bill hit it off immediately, and while in a way, they did, it probably wasn't like this. I'll buy Ford used Cipher's line back at him, but the jovial way they banter is just so Bill. Ford would emphasize how he felt, the mysteries he was thinking about, his reverence for his Muse. He probably wouldn't recount it line for line when he was so secretive in journal 3. Bill makes it seem like they were more like equals, when in reality he likely relished the devotion and divine status Ford attributed to him. Also, "Cipher Speaks" is in Bill's handwriting from the sticky notes. could be coincidence? I think not. 'Ford' also describes it as the "GREATEST. DAY. OF MY LIFE." This mirrors bill's earlier statements about the reader's life being forever changed after meeting bill. According to Bill, meeting him is the highest moment of anyone's life, right?

In an additional post, Gin explains how Bill didn't tell Ford he was from another dimension. Ford had to find that out at the betrayal. So, all this taken, those two pages at least are fake.

For the third link, this one, while from Doylist perspective, Alex wanted the book to have fun little callbacks, from Watsonian, Bill simply can't help himself. Bill loves trying to be funny. He's trying to keep the reader hooked, and keeping the story interesting through callbacks is one way to do that. Some of these are Bill, some are self-referential because Bill's talking about real events from the past. (rats, cipherite suit, Small World cassette, we'll get to those later)

Bill has a habit of telling the truth through his lies. What I mean by that is, if he is repeating himself through actions or words, it's probably because there's some truth to it. If he's contradicting himself, there's something he's hiding. He'll claim he has no weaknesses, but later admit he does. He'll say he has no exes, only to reference exes later. So, we can glean truths from the lies he's telling in the pages.

I think Alex is a good enough writer to keep Ford and his writing (mostly) in character. He's made retcons/continuity errors before, but he knows the fandom will pick apart everything and find them, and will have a reason for it. There's definitely some fake pages, which begs the question, which are real?

One detail I want to point out is the vignette/burn marks on the edges of some of the pages. My secondary theory is about these. (And no, it doesn't indicate they were fake.) I'll explain later.

Assumptions/disclaimers: The pages we're shown are roughly chronological, though skip forward where surviving J3 pages would go. Pages aren't realistically double-sided like they would be in J3, these are inserted into tBoB magically. I don't have a blacklight version of J3, so I'm probably missing a little bit of context there. References J3 quite a few times, so this post works best if you are able to reference both books. I can go into detail and post more pictures for any sections that aren't clear.

First off, 'Lost in the woods'. This one I believe is real, because Ford's (author's cipher) codes are in it. This code is consistently used in the book whenever Ford inserts a page, even on the moth. For Bill to use this code would break the established pattern Alex has made. However, I agree with Gin that Bill intentionally placed this page to establish Ford as lonely, and thus make Bill look better for befriending him in contrast. I don't think it's that odd for Ford to talk about his social awkwardness, he talks about his childhood bullying pretty frankly, specifically on a page meant to be an author's About Me. However, he did rip this one out, so I think he was trying to ignore his feelings by hiding this page. No vignette.

'Cipher speaks', as we've discussed, is likely a fake/altered meeting. Vignettes on both pages. On the second page you can see where it looks burnt in one corner, and there's even tear marks like there's a page missing there, perhaps their real first meeting. It's also strange for Ford to draw himself like that.

'My Muse & Me'- Ford refers to Bill as his Muse again. Despite my doubts (I went back and forth on this one), I think this one has to be real. We find on the website computer (code: Fordtramarine) that Ford tried to submit a paper on fordtramarine. In that paper he refers to an 'extradimensional entity' and 'two-dimensional'. He shouldn't know that Bill is interdimensional at this point, so Ford must mean 'outside of physical reality', as in, the astral plane. Though, there's a painting of 'a muse' in the paper. Wasn't Bill supposed to be secret? Perhaps he thought he could get away with that small reference? Perhaps this paper was submitted more recently? I don't like the idea that things from the website are also fake, since it would be strange for Bill to have such narrative control there. The website seems to reveal things Bill can't control, even if Bill is talking. This page also establishes more timeline. This is saying that not only could Bill freely move in and out of Ford's mind within a year, he had full access to alter it as well, ahead of their deal before the test. This page is probably to make it seem appealing to let Bill into your mind. It also serves a purpose of showing us Ford had let Bill fully into his mind at this point in the story Bill's weaving. I am curious why would Ford hide this only to submit a paper on it, just to keep his Muse secret? And those damn red triangles, did Bill draw those, implying he could possess Ford before their deal? No burns/vignette. The neighboring pages both have it, why not this one?

June 15th- There is direct dialogue from Bill quoted, however, he refers to Bill as his Muse. Wouldn't Ford be creeped the hell out by the rat thing, and be alarmed that Bill possessed things just to kill them? I think this page was real, but was ripped out by Bill. Heavy vignette.

(Sorry for the poor quality, my phone camera is awful)

At this point I should explain: I think the burn/vignette represents Bill 'burning away' memories/altering them. Ford's memories, but possibly even the reader's. I want to be clear; I don't mean Bill erased the entire memory of the page, I mean Bill erased at least some part of those events. When it's heavy around the edges, heavier manipulation. It also could indicate which ones Bill burned/destroyed. More evidence for this later.

Karaoke page- How did Bill convince Ford to drink with him after the rat thing? Bill made him forget it was Bill. "The rats were his idea?" Yeah, he told you that right away, why did he need to tell you again? While probable this happened, the writing from Ford is sus. "This Bill guy, he's really got it all figured out"? Sounds a bit like Bill talking. The drawing is strangely detailed, too. 'Dancing queen' (disco girl's parody origin) was released in '76, so that lines up time wise, at least. Likely altered/created to make Bill seem friendlier. Either could have destroyed this one if there was a real version. Vignette.

A Voice from the Past spread- He says 'my Muse', but then mentions Bill by name, which indicates it's altered. Is the first bit real, then? Why would Ford rip out this important page revealing his muse's origin and past? His curiosity would overtake wanting to keep it secret, surely? And conversely, why would Bill fabricate it? To make himself seem more sympathetic? However, there is another explanation. There is the possibility Bill erased the memories of this conversation and it really happened in some form. Bill probably realized after revealing this information to Ford it could ruin his plans. Some vignette at the top, mostly on the right page. In that is a drawing of space and a code. The code says 'forget the past." Coincidence, or purposeful on a page for a conversation Bill made Ford forget? Bill could have ripped out the pages (if they existed) himself. It's also important to note Bill is trying to isolate Ford here, which is another reason he'd hide the pages/alter memories of talking about Stanley. Also, if Bill erased the phone number from Ford's mind later, it would make sense why Ford had to send a postcard.

A Winter Break/The Krampus adventure. Where would these pages have gone if they were real? It was January for the test, so it was before the deal, but after the bunker? Gin mentioned it feeling 'off' and strange because it's just Krampus, nothing weird or Gravity Falls-y about it, and I agree. And also, Fidds knocking it out feels... weird. I think that story is fabricated with some real details thrown in. Fidds is noticeably shaken up after, but otherwise the whole story seemed almost whimsical, and just...weird, and not in the GF way. It's fake. Ford goes back inside after looking outside in Time Traveler's Pig. He doesn't come outside onto the porch at all. You could say he comes back out after that, maybe. You could say it's a retcon. But we know the children's footprints were Dipper and Mabel, not random kidnapped kids. (Bill likely wouldn't expect the reader to know this.) My eyes are also drawn to the green and red rectangles. The festive theming bring to mind a Christmas special, and how often are those only partly canon? So, then what's real about it? I believe the gloves, and possibly the snow globe was real, since they come up again later. I believe if there was a monster, Ford (or bill possessing ford 'then-DARKNESS') fought it off, traumatizing Fidds even more. Something made Fidds shaken up. Fidds and Ford probably spent Christmas together. And Bill did warn Ford about Fidds' second thoughts (mentioned in J3). Did Fiddleford notice Ford forgetting things? Did he assume Ford was simply unshaken by what happened? For me what seals the deal is the heavy vignette around those pages. Bill altered his memories of what happened and is telling us this story instead, probably to make it seem not as bad, so Ford wouldn't be so angry that Bill wasn't there/realize that he possessed Ford. I'm also suspicious of the "Trust No One." at the end. Did this phrase really come from Bill? Wouldn't Bill be saying 'Trust me'? To be honest, it's possible the last page here was half a real conversation, but the way Ford suddenly changes his tune is strange AF and I suspect shenanigans for it. And the things Bill says are very different from 'F is not bold enough to follow through.' (J3 code, An Encounter) Also, most of these pages seem to have no reason to be ripped out, aside from mentioning Stan by name/drawing them, but he could have crossed that out, and the last page which Ford would have hidden from Fidds. If they were real in some form, Bill probably destroyed them to hide the truth.

Stanley memories pages- Real, not much to say about those. Goes after Bill's warning. Probably legitimately torn out by Ford since he'd want to keep these pictures before hiding J3. Though I do notice they are covering up a lot of red triangles, perhaps also drawn by Bill. No vignette.

Dream, or warning?- Before Jan. 17th. Real, since I can't see why Bill would make up a warning about himself. He wants the reader to trust him. The heavy vignette, again, indicates he made Ford forget about it and destroyed the pages before he could solve it, which would probably be easy since it was a dream. The laughter+fire at the end indicates Bill discovered them. Just a fun side note: the song referenced is 'Im your puppet'

"I was wrong about everything" spread- I think goes in the gap where the black scribbled out pages are in J3. Again, the Author's cipher is here, indicating these are real. Vignette again. Bill's possessing Ford a lot, trying to erase the idea of fighting back from his mind(unsuccessfully), likely also hiding these pages. More red triangles.

Bill-proof suit- Goes after The Blind Eye- references being banned from the library, Blind eye mentions still researching Bill. J3 said he discovered the chant to enter someone's mind by researching Bill, so he could also find the anti-cipher society and the cassette. Real. Bill likely destroyed these pages and the previous ones to try and slow down Ford and erase his plans to destroy Bill. Vignette.

Zom-bills to Looky Here: After 'Ways to hide', as Zom-bills is written in invisible ink, but before the truck stop. (This would require Ford to have written on the right page first, then Bill tore the rest of these out, but not a huge stretch) Bill is fucking with Ford hard. He's probably taking his anger out on Ford while simultaneously trying to bully and manipulate him like he would do to his henchmaniacs, as he says later. Vignette on most of these- he's constantly possessing Ford and making him black out, trying to manipulate his memory to make him compliant/torture him. Bill likely destroyed the cassette+the memory of it so it couldn't be used against him, as Ford presumably never gets the chance to. Why he's showing the reader this? He thinks it's funny. He could also be hoping to scare the reader, if the reader knows what he's capable of, they'll be more afraid, and fear and love are the same, right? Notably the sticky note page is only a little darkened, probably because Bill genuinely was trying to talk at first. I can't find any evidence that these are fake, but there's no codes indicating they're real either. I think they were real, but Bill destroyed at least some of them.

(Side note: Computer code: Oroborous. Curiously uses Bill's cipher, bill writes in J3 too. These pages are also vignetted. Bill wouldn't like Ford knowing he showed fear. He also purposefully didn't give the reader these 'missing pages', because he hates them and doesn't want to reveal his fear.)

Polaroids- Did Ford destroy this himself like the VHS? Trying to avoid being blamed for things Bill did? Just ashamed/horrified? Curiously, no vignette on the polaroids (this could be just to have the full page visible), or Bill wanted Ford to remember these to have the threat sink in fully. Probably actually happened, Bill doesn't really have a reason to fake these pages as they make him look worse/scarier.

Blackness/'No' pages: This is largely where my theory that vignette=memory manipulation makes the most sense, The darkness overtaking the page represents bill's influence and control, and stops resembling the journal pages much (though it could be invisible ink again). He can mess with Ford's mind as much as he likes. If these pages were ever real, Bill could have destroyed them himself too. Bill's pretty much telling the story here.

Fidds page, S page- Gin made another excellent post pointing out the problems with these. They're a bit redundant when compared to J3, aren't they? And in oddly specific ways. The use of the brother code indicates they're real, though. If Bill erased Ford's memories of these pages, him basically re-writing them makes sense, and also Ford going from 'the caves hold the answer' to 'the caves might hold the answers', the snow going from 'begun to fall' to 'has fallen', and going 'fidds wont speak to me'! instead of 'my assistant has clearly left me'. In some way Ford has probably retained a bit of his plans, but its not a stretch to say he'd loop his train of thought after losing memories. The "I grow maddened" at the edge is very shaky and blurry, which could reflect the shaky and blurry memory.

I also notice (this has probably been pointed out before) now in J3 that only once outside of Gravity Falls (route 14) can Ford plan clearly. Perhaps Cipher's influence is weaker outside the town? It makes sense. if Ford sent the postcard and made his plan while free(ish) of Bill's meddling, that's why Bill couldn't just erase his memory of his plan again.

So...yeah! Some are definitely fake. Some are placed or altered intentionally to serve a narrative. Bill could be manipulating the reader's and ford's memory to have never seen these pages. Some of these memories could have been simply warped, or erased later- not right away. I'll be honest I don't love the implication that Bill can just manipulate Ford's memories freely, so I'm sure there are significant limitations to it. Bill has to stall for the whole book and give away a lot of secrets in order to change the reader's brain enough for him to be satisfied, and even then it's not enough to make the reader give in. Bill's abilities are much less than he purports. He also says that the person can notice his 'tune-ups', so there is only so much he could alter someone's brain before they notice. However, if he's been messing with Ford's head this long, he'd have a big advantage. Is the explanation that Bill erased Ford's memory a little lazy? ...Yeah? But it also kind of heightens how badly Ford was being manipulated and why he got so paranoid and unhinged there. It lets a lot of these puzzle pieces fit together that wouldn't otherwise.

My vignette theory isn't super strong, I'll admit, but I think it definitely indicates something, given some pages don't have it when they could have. They could also simply indicate those pages were burned, though it being on the fake pages makes less sense then. Bill having destroyed the pages himself makes sense for a lot of the pages, but I cant rule out the possibility Ford did destroy some of them out of frustration/shame.

Something I also realized while going through J3 again is how many 'doodles' in J3 involve red triangles. (you can see an example on Frilliam's page) The triangles I assumed were Ford's obsession with Bill, but what if they were Bill's obsession? For another post perhaps.

So, what do y'all think? Ideas? Agree? Disagree? Things I missed? Questions? Something huge that shatters my whole theory? Let me know!

[whateveriwant]

Marvel Masterlist

* indicates smut/18+

! indicates dark!fic

Bucky Barnes

* On His Shoulder (Oneshot)

Summary: Five separate occasions in which Bucky tells you to put something on his shoulder.

Warnings: language, enemies-to-lovers, SMUT

* ! Happy to Help (Oneshot)

Summary: As the newest Avenger, you lead a stress-filled life. Not only are you juggling the pressures of a new career and new fame, but also new teammates. In particular, James Barnes is an... unsettling character. Are you misjudging James, or should you have reason to be wary of him?

Warnings: language, yandere, deceit, manipulation, POV shifts, SMUT, NON-CON

* Dreaming of Angels (Oneshot)

Summary: Bucky finds himself dreaming about his girl. His gift from heaven. His angel.

Warnings: violence, SMUT, ANGST

* ! Teacher’s Pet (Oneshot)

Summary: It’s the start of a new semester and a student has caught Bucky’s eye. He wants to maintain a professional boundary between them, but can he hold himself back? For how long? College AU

Warnings: language, manipulation/grooming, deceit, abuse of power, mentions of depression/suicide ideation, SMUT, NON-CON aspects

Watch My Six (Headcanon)

Summary: A headcanon for Bucky being protective.

Warnings: brief violence

* The Magic Word (Oneshot)

Summary: Bucky agrees to try something you've always wanted to do with him, but only under the condition that a certain word be employed if need be.

Warnings: SMUT

My Heart and Soul (Oneshot)

Summary: Bucky commits the ultimate act of betrayal. Can you find the strength to forgive him?

Warnings: language, ANGST

* A Long Night (Oneshot)

Summary: Date night with Bucky takes a sticky left turn.

Warnings: 18+ content

Steve Rogers

* Ruby Digits (Oneshot)

Summary: Your menstrual cramps are being particularly bothersome and Steve has an interesting proposition for helping relieve your pain.

Warnings: language, mentions of blood, SMUT

A First Goodbye (Oneshot)

Summary: Steve isn't one for saying goodbye, but one day he's forced to say it to you.

Warnings: mentions of sex, mentions of explosions, Endgame spoilers, ANGST

! The Tooth Fairy (Oneshot)

Summary: Steve books a wisdom teeth extraction with your practice. While he’s under, maybe you can do more than just pull teeth.

Warnings: medical procedures, angst, NON-CON

* Rug Burn (Oneshot)

Summary: You love giving Steve head, but sometimes it’s killer on your knees. Luckily, Steve comes up with a solution to help cushion the blow.

Warnings: language, SMUT

* Oopsy Daisy (Twoshot)

Summary: In order to keep the animal shelter from closing, your sorority holds a car wash as a fundraiser. Besides cleaning cars all day, you have another goal in mind involving a certain football-playing frat member. College AU

Warnings: language, slight angst, SMUT

* Easy Peasy (Twoshot)

Summary: Friday night at the frat house means it’s time for a party. Besides booze, beer pong, and bro-nanigans, the brothers have something else up their sleeves to help get the party going. College AU

Warnings: language, 18+ content

[takotakigum]

kiss it off me — gojo satoru

characters: gojo satoru x fem!reader

warnings: dubcon (probably noncon), food play, making out, gojo satoru is a pervert, this is messy: both literally in writing and content, breast fondling, and breast kissing

word count: 1.8k

synopsis: that one summer day you find out gojo satoru might have a liking to your breasts…covered in melted ice cream.

takotakigum’s kinktober 2023 | please read at your own risk!

“i bought ice cream! anyone wants to share?” you hear an excited voice echo through the outside hallways of the classroom, a chill creeps through your spine despite the humid atmosphere all around you. of course, before you could even answer—which you didn’t even think of—the shoji loudly slides open with much force coming from gojo’s foot. there he stands, a big grin stretched along his face holding two cones of ice cream; his eyes becoming crescent shapes as his glasses fall loosely to his nose. “oh? there’s one one else here again?” from your desk, you shake your head to a no. although gojo doesn’t falter with his smile, but instead, he seems to get brighter. “well, more for us!” there’s only two cones in his hand, so you want to ask: how? but you don’t even know if he’ll give you a useful answer.

with the sweet tooth gojo satoru has, you’re in no way surprised that he absolutely loves eating ice cream on a particular hot summer day in jujutsu high.

however, something you did not expect is him also being extremely clumsy with his precious dessert that his arms are flailing by the second, his own ice cream cone abruptly dropping and splattering on the confinements of your jujutsu high’s uniform.

“gojo,” you sigh, looking down at your table, hoping the ice cream cone landed there. unfortunately, the cold, seeping substance you feel directly on your breasts proposes otherwise. “oh no, i’m so sorry!” overly dramatic and overly sarcastic is what gojo sounds like. “gojo,” you say again, eyes fixated on your messed up uniform as you hold in a deep frown. “it’s the fourth time this week.” you manage to say, goosebumps sprouting all over your arms when gojo leans closer to use his bare hands to wipe away the ice cream off your chest.

his fingers are slow, feeling up the accentuated curves on the upper half of your breast that got contaminated with the dessert. your breath quickens, and you bite your inner lip as you feel the pads of his fingers give little controlled pinches on your uniform’s fabric—acting like he’s soaking out the absorbed melted dairy when really he isn’t.

“has it been? gosh, i’m so sorry, really!” by now, irritation eases back the goosebumps that went up. “i don’t have any other spare uniform now, gojo.” your voice becomes smaller, yet it weighs the same. gojo knows it, he isn’t stupid—clumsy but not dumb. at least, not dumb on purpose. “hmm, but you shouldn’t even be wearing the outer uniform when it’s summer. did ‘ya know that?” with your three years of studying in jujutsu high: no, you didn’t. but it doesn’t even seem real, you should know.

before you could say anything, gojo’s hand now rises higher to the dry part of your uniform—the buttons on near your collar. for a brief moment of shock, you stay still, and you gulp at the sensation of gojo’s knuckles teasingly flutter against your neck. within that still moment, gojo was able to snap off the buttons in charge of closing your uniform’s top together with ease. naturally, your vest loosens, and the white button up you’re wearing inside peaks through. once more, your breath gets heavy. and it piques the interest of gojo in front of you even more.

“what are you doing?” you ask so sweetly—so innocently in gojo’s end. your hands try to close the buttons back up, getting conscious. “helping you clean and letting you cool down, duh!” gojo’s hands regress, sticky hands grab onto your outer uniform tighter, pulling it down until it’s crumpled up on your elbows. “‘s killing two birds with one stone.” he says, face too close. you feel his hair tickle your forehead with the way he’s leaning towards you eyes fixated down rather than in front of you. with your jaw going slack and face going hot, you quickly rush your hand to hide under his glasses, palm pushing tighter onto gojo’s eyelids when his hand squeezes on your shoulder.

in that moment of purely fluster, you realize gojo hasn’t moved. at that moment of broken composure, you forgot to remember some things. “you know,” your hand can feel the way gojo’s cheekbones contract as he—you assumes—smiles. “i can still see. even if you’re covering my eyes.” almost, you almost slap him. your still clothed breasts, with a faint stain of melted ice cream that has seeped through the first layer of fabric and onto the second—has been stared at by gojo for the past five minutes. “d-did you have to keep staring, then?!” your face is hot, your legs stiffly closed together under your table. “maybe?” from between his teeth, gojo sticks out his tongue as he grins.

taken aback by everything, you fail to feel the waving presence of gojo in front of you, then, a glob of white ice cream replaces the dollop of white hair that was once in front of you. “sorry, sorry.” even so the apology, gojo’s voice is still laced with amusement; his hand holding the cone obnoxiously swaying the ice cream side to side without care. like he wants it to melt and holler down back to your chest. “what do you want me to do with that?” you ask, the sweet treat getting closer to your lips by each word you speak. gojo only shrugs, not stopping until your mouth has been smothered with the cold temperature of the dessert.

suddenly, the wave of coolness disappears within an instant. instead, it’s replaced with gojo’s own lips. you dare not admit how soft it feels, or how if he pushed his body a little bit more onto yours, your mouth would’ve been so weak that it would open up just enough for his tongue to slip in and taste the rest of you. but somehow, your senses get a hold of you. and this time, you really were about to slap him—that is until his hand wrap around yours and nonchalantly holds them with a level of strength you struggle to be released with.

your breath is heavy as gojo’s tongue prods into your mouth. disgustingly so, it’s sweet. all of his essence is so, so disgustingly fucking sweet. his tongue is deep in your mouth, saliva of which you don’t even know is from trickles along the side of your chin, mixing in with the remains of the melted ice cream down on your neck. with a loud, needy release from your mouth, gojo pants along with you. you’re unable to speak, though. with the way his tongue is undying as it laps on your lips hungrily for every bit of stray sweetness, you’re in no shape to move an inch.

however, when gojo’s mouth roughly kisses down from your lips and follows the trail of melted spit and dairy to your neck and collarbones, you make an attempt to push him off. somewhere along the desperation of touch by gojo, his glasses falls on the ground, although you nor him spared the time to glance at anything other than the moment. you feel as though each push you project onto him, he places more of his body weight to you. you whine in each attempt of defeat, and with each whine slips out an undistinguishable moan from the back of your throat. your body naturally lets it out, continuously, too as gojo begins sucking on your neck, leaving pink bruises.

“so sweet, aren’t you?” with a voice so hoarse like that, you can’t seem to deny the way your nipples harden under your clothing anymore. “gojo,” you whine, eyes shut close as blood continues to rush up to your cheeks and stain. “no,” you whine again, head turning left and right with all your strength when you feel his tongue play lower than your collarbone.

“be a good girl and hold onto my shoulders for a bit, ‘kay?” you shouldn’t. god fucking knows you shouldn’t when the opportunity to distance yourself is right there. but alas, you obey. your hands weakly clutch on the fabric of gojo’s uniform—exactly on his shoulders, as he asked you to. your body and mind do not intersect into any agreement. your mind is telling you to use your strength to pull gojo away, to use your arms to do something that would retain your self respect. but your body? it can’t hear it—can’t understand it.

just like how gojo’s ears sign deaf when you whisper and choke on your own words trying to tell him to stop—to not go anywhere lower than your neck. after successfully undoing the buttons of your last remaining top, gojo’s fingers scoop up the last bit of ice cream that’s almost liquid on the table. you yelp out at the cold substance being massaged onto your breast, especially the nipple. “tastes better like this, i have to say.” gojo speaks like he’s ever had a hold of your tits before. his tongue is back with more fervor than you’d imagine. it flicks over one of your nipples, sucking loudly and groaning when the soft skin easily gets squeezed by his other hand.

you, are a different story. as gojo seems to bask in your melodic, repetitive moans of his name, you feel tears prick at the corner of your eyes angrily as gojo’s pace is too far beyond enjoyable; layers of sweat accumulating on your skin, giving it an extra shine gojo is murmuring about. but even so, why did you not beg of him to stop? when did you forget to shake your head no after the first few times? even with gojo’s hands and mouth dissipating all the innocence on your body, even with his bite marks charring your skin with evidence of sin—why does your lower abdomen twist for more?

as your thighs subconsciously rub against one another along with your fingers gripping on gojo’s hair and shoulder so tightly—gojo’s phone rings—too loudly.

“fuck,” he clicks his tongue, licking one last stripe of whatever your breast has to offer and rises his head to give you one last deep kiss for you to feel the fleeting moments of his sore tongue. gojo takes the call right in front of your face, his lips swollen as his eyes are gazed in lust. “gotta take this mission, sweets.” gojo says, face morphing into a look of stoicism as he finds his disregarded glasses on the floor. gojo wipes some excess spit-mixed-with-dairy with his hand from your cheeks to suck in his mouth. you, being dumbfounded, is unable to say anything before gojo is near the open shoji already.

“gojo! are we not going to talk about this?? fuck that mission, please get back here and-” as if nothing ever happened, gojo beams a smile at you. red lips unwavering as he bids you farewell.

“i’ll buy ice cream again when i get back, then we can continue~ ah, but first, you should fix up. you might get cold next.” with a wink, he’s gone. leaving you in your heated, disheveled state: clothes crumpled all apart, hair disorganized, chest heaving with large breaths of hair—and all the possible things gojo has done to you.

© takotakigum | do not repost, translate, or plagiarize my works.

[michi-hawkeye]

*chin hands* Tell me about the stickynote

Ooh you’re gonna love this it’s a alternate first meeting and it takes place 2 years pre canon, where Tommy and Buck meet at a book signing of their favorite author. Also the sticky note mentioned in the title is plot relevant I just don’t wanna spoil why

Here’s a snippet (unfortunately I haven’t written Buck and Tommy actually talking to eachother yet 😂) (cause you know why I have too many plot bunnies)

Tommy had been reading Chasing Starlight by Savino C. Zambrano in the bunkroom for a good chunk of his shift after getting his usual tasks done, to make up for the fact he couldn’t go to the signing event for the latest installment that was being held today. Sure he could have asked for the day off weeks ago but he’s pretty sure Captain Gerrad would have laughed in his face and deny the time off if he had, he’s pretty sure the only books his captain had read were the textbooks at his time in academy if the old man’s ability to be obtuse and a asshole were anything to go by.

The novel was the first book in the series and if he had his way he would have had the 4th book today, but for now he’ll be content to reread the book that got him into Sci-Fi in the first place, with the cracked spine and age worn, tea and coffee stained pages that are threatening to fall out. He had finally gotten to his favorite scene where the sweet but jaded bounty hunter turned hermit finally admits to the optimistic hero of the series that he sees him as a friend, when the alarm bell started to blare throughout the firehouse. He tries not to groan but he can’t help it he hates getting interrupted even though its work. He goes to hide his copy underneath the mattress of the bottom bunk that he had unintentionally claimed as his during A shift, so long ago.

Its not like he’s ashamed of his favorite series or his love for reading but he would rather not have to deal with the less than kind ribbing the team tends to do being aimed at him if they find out that he likes reading what could be seen as softer but dramatic character driven books, but its also not like he’s any better than them if him not stepping in to help Hen or Chim when they had been the targets was a sign, he’s gotten used to laying low at best and humoring the team at worst. There’s a reason Eli would rather keep to himself or take Chim under his wing when he had worked at the firehouse.

——-

He tries not to look too interested when he hears Captain Gerrad rattle out the address for Lavender Sprig Bookstore where the signing event was taking place, he would think the universe was trying to mock him or something if it hadn’t been for the fact that Gerrad had stated that the emergency was that a bookshelf had collapsed on top of a group of civilians, hopefully it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

When they arrive they’re greeted by a bookseller who’s hiding her worry surprisingly well for someone’s shop dealing with a pretty sizable event telling by the line at the signing table they passed that he tried not to eye to long, regular flow of customers, on top of possible several medical emergencies. “A Good Samaritan seemed to have the bookshelf handled, he’s been holding it up and when others tired to move the injured from under the shelf he told them not to and to wait until the proper medical professionals have it handled” the bookseller, Mara said as they weaved through bookshelves and people which explained why she was more calm than frantic which isn’t a reaction that’s seen very often on the job.

“Sounds like a dumb kid trying to play firefighter who’s just going to be more of a hindrance” Captain Gerrad grumbled out as they finally got to the collapsed shelves.

“More like he’s just trying to help and he clearly has look around you” he hears hen snip back as she and Chim brush past the crew. Tommy does give a quick courtesy glance at that and notices that despite how close this area of the bookstore is to the signing, the front of the store and registers it’s clearly deserted instead of being filled with the typical nosy bystanders.

He hears captain Gerrad angrily retort “Kinard, De Luca secure the shelves and make sure that kid is out of the way” he gives Gerard a nod in response as he says to Sal “you take the left side I’ll take the right” Sal gives him a thumbs up as he hands Sal the other cord to secure the shelf. As they follow Hen and chim, Tommy taps on the stranger’s shoulder to get his attention since he was clearly crouched in a way that was easier to bare the weight of the bookcase as one person instead of what should be two at minimum which was made harder since the stranger was also being careful to not be in the way of the injured civilians

[callipraxia]

A Very Partial Annotation of The Book of Bill

The Axolotl, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains a mysterious figure even after his second-ever canonical appearance. Luckily (?) for us, though, nothing in Bill's ramblings directly contradicts the existence of Ax's metaphysically unstable and perpetually irritated brother the Olm, and he had a few things to say about Bill's latest escapades....

Disclaimer: This post should in no way be taken seriously. This is just me reacting to the book in only slightly delayed real-time, transcribing the sticky notes full of first impressions which cover my copy and elaborating them into dialogues both in and out of character because it amused me. This is about as serious as the Weirdmageddon: The Musical! incident. Also, Olly’s customary underlining has been replaced by a different font because tumblr doesn’t have an ‘underline text’ button for some reason.

Calli: Interesting cover...that's clearly meant to be an adaptation of an ankh in the corners of the book, and that's the same shape as the Emperor's scepter in the traditional tarot, and Ford takes the place of the Emperor in the Mystery Tarot....

Olm: Yes, because Stanford is so well-known for how well he embodies the concepts of authority and structure and the Idealized Father and Administrator. I somehow doubt young Bill made the association. It's more likely a reference to how the book allows him to behave as if he was still alive, to whatever extent.

Calli: I mean, you're probably right, but that's no reason to ruin my fun, is it?

Olm: ....

**************************************

Olm: You spent hours reading the alchemical symbols in different directions and making wild guesses about what they were supposed to be. Those sticky notes will make your family think you have either joined a cult or have become a serial killer if you ever lose track of two of them at once. These are the reasons why I ruin your fun.

**************************************

Calli: ...Yep, Ford definitely doesn't have any ongoing anger issues or PTSD-like psychological phenomena associated with Bill. Shooting the trashcan with a shotgun is totally normal, healthy behavior and definitely not something that would make it...concerning...if teenagers with no taste ever did pull such a prank....

Olm: I presume the loss of a perfectly serviceable trash can took place in the name of that piece of theater. Shooting the book would have sufficed. Or at least not failed any more miserably than the attempt where he did shoot the trash can failed anyway.

**************************************

Calli: ...Ford, you can't just tell me that books can be infected by the contents of other books and not explain what that means. What does that even mean?!

Olm: As usual, he never thinks of the consequences of his actions. Just dump dangerous artifacts in everyone else's realities, why don't you, wash your own hands of it, it's quite impossible that it will ever come back to haunt you after that…

**************************************

Calli: Luckily, this image doesn't pull off the jump scare nearly as well the second time around. Hopefully, this means I won't see this monstrosity in my dreams....

Olm: ...you've written things more disturbing than that, but a simple visual makes you uneasy? How quaint.

**************************************

Calli: Gotta love a children’s book that personifies rivers while offering step-by-step instructions for murder!

Olm: See those text boxes? Those text boxes are why you stay in school, children. One trillion years old and still can't spell...or, for that matter, apparently operate a decent word processor.

**********************************

Calli: ….puppets don’t have neurons. And that ‘chapter you won’t find’ business - what’s that about? Is it a reference to the Barnes and Noble version, or just an attempt to make us all waste a lot of time, or…?

Olm: Yes.

**************************************

Olm: As much as I hate to give him credit, that tangle of symbols probably is the closest thing to the correct answer that you all could process. Not the most poetic expression, but we’ve already discussed young Bill’s conflicted relationship with the written language…

**************************************

Calli: …isn’t that just a description of a normal potato?

**************************************

Olm: …somewhere, amidst all the glories of the multiverse, there is a human who will attempt to fit samples of every item on the Cheesecake Factory’s menu into a blender. It cannot be otherwise. There is at least one human who is doing that right now, in fact, and who will not believe me when I tell them that they will accomplish nothing more impressive than developing a severe case of indigestion at the end of that ill-advised quest. In light of that, I hardly see what the point is to informing you all that drinking fear will also probably give you indigestion, but take my word for it: there are much finer emotion-beverages out there. I’m rather partial to flow states, myself.

Calli: …welp, guess that explains why I’ve been struggling to write for the past two years. Also, Goliath is not gonna be happy about Bill’s picture there….

Olm: And I also look perfectly presentable in a bow tie, thank you very much. If I want to. It tells you a lot about an entity when he does something like claim allegiance to a style of formalwear so recently developed by one species that it might as well be a single particle in one atom in the shortest, thinnest thread of the Great Tapestry of reality…and do let me know if you ever make plans to tell Cthulhu that last bit to his face, Billy-boy. I’ll make popcorn.

Calli: …what use do you have for popcorn? Your most common form is a salamander, and I'm told the next most common one has four faces, two of which are always screaming.

Olm: That still leaves me two faces which can be put to better uses even on days when I can’t be bothered to take a stable form that has teeth. Next question.

**************************************

Olm: Finally! Some reading material that doesn’t aggravate my cosmic migrai -

[Eldritch profanity ensues]

**************************************

Calli: …ok, I can’t lie, that last line...that one kiiiiiinda hurt. Was that really necessary, Ford?

**************************************

Calli: I hate the source, as you all know too well…but man’s got a point about the relative importance of magic tricks and who’s crushing on you in the vast majority of cases.

Olm: Ultimately, they both sink into the nothingness from which they came, never having accomplished anything important enough to be remembered more than a few centuries at the most...but if I must pick one, magic has certainly proven more useful than any of my assorted ex-spouses.

**************************************

Olm: I’ll grant my lying, backstabbing excuse for a sister this much - she never made anyone pretend to be happy about being in any of the afterlives she's presided over. That’s more our brother’s style… Of course, my sister also used keratin deposits from the corpses of her subjects to construct vehicles for one of Father’s schemes, so I suppose allowing the wretched creatures to look miserable really was the least that she could do...but Bill really is too annoying for any self-respecting hell. Perhaps they could deserve each other, but even I don't hate her enough to subject her to that.

**************************************

Calli: …why was the second page so much harder to read than the first one was in my hand mirror?

Olm: The mirror also reflects what it reverses.

**************************************

Calli: ...Ok, I already said it, but this book *really* needs to stop hitting so close to home...

**************************************

Olm: Ah, yes. That incident. Someone remind me to thrash him again sometime for that one. Such a mess to clean up, and Huitzilopochtli is still screaming....

**************************************

Olm: Ah...self-sabotage! Let me sprinkle a bit of that onto my popcorn.

Calli: Am I the only one way too excited to see Powers' agency's card here? To find out they knew about Bill? To find out that the U.S. government once physically captured Bill and took a blood sample??

Pity about the "Bureau of..." bit, though. It took forever to think up the DFSI and now I'm going to have to adjust to it being the BFSI, I guess, and that doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as well.

**************************************

Olm: Oh, of course he'd be tasteless enough to include a photograph of his chess set, mortals aren't even supposed to know that those exist....

Calli: I've written about your brother's. You also used chess metaphors to drop hints in Part III.

Olm: Neither of us is semi-canonical!

**************************************

Olm: I would call that an unusually flattering sketch of my brother, if not for Stanford's unawareness his existence and for his proximity to what appears to be some sort of...aardvark?

**************************************

Calli: Interesting that everything after the first one is dangerously close to some aspect of the truth...I'm gonna take this as a point of support for my theory that Ford really contacted Fiddleford about the Portal less because he needed the technical expertise than because he knew on some level that he was in deep trouble and was practically screaming for help without even realizing it.

Also, I love the fact that Ford is trying to solve potentially prophetic dreams with fridge magnets.

**************************************

Calli: Fun fact! I spent so long looking at charts of alchemical symbols in an attempt to make sense of that row of them inside the front cover that I was actually able to recognize those two in the center of Nightmare Bill's pupil there. They mean..."Vinegar" and "Distilled Vinegar II." No idea why they're there, but that's what they mean.

**************************************

Calli: ...well, at least I've never been arrested for public intoxication and/or committing indecent exposure at a Mexican restaurant. Whenever I feel bad about myself, I guess that I'll always at least have that now.

Olm: He probably hasn't, either. You'd have to ask Zozo to be sure, as I was asleep at the time, but I very much suspect that he is lying. Do you really think something with a bounty like his on its head could just stroll into a multidimensional bar? Or, for that matter, that any even semi-mortal authority could hold him for six hours against his will?

Calli: ...Ok, fair. Especially since the blood in the milkshake machine makes it seem pretty unlikely that he somehow forgot his powers when the cops showed up.

**************************************

Olm: He'd be welcome to my uncle, but he's been dead long enough that I don't think he's coming back.

Calli: I thought you said that you didn't cross the line between hating your family and hating your family enough to subject them to Bill?

Olm: I said that I don't hate my sister enough to subject her to Bill. My uncle, on the other hand...he wasn't nearly as bright as his reputation might lead you to think, my uncle. If he had been, I imagine he would have been more familiar with the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy….

**************************************

Olm: ...He's perfectly capable of speaking normally, you know. The rhyming couplets are just to obfuscate and frustrate and confuse. Though I don't think I can blame all of these on him...'Upstairs' is not a concept that makes much sense in his domain, and the rhymes themselves acknowledge that he…no longer exists inside of space.

**************************************

Olm: And so a god is reduced to a mental patient. A sad old story, that one, but inevitable from time to time....

Calli: ...yeah, yeah, great, but what's this 'Puppet Hour' thing? Why is it in all-caps like that demented "show" Bill made for Ford? And why's the doctor apparently part of the Axolotl cult? This is all a bit unnerving and has a lot of story potential!

**************************************

[an-askblog-survival-guide]

A Survivor's journal | a simon and marcy ask blog pinned post !

Asks are currently: OPEN

incase it wasnt obvious, this is a roleplay account/ask blog!! my main account is @bebackthen ! unlike my ice king blog, this one will follow a more mature theme and be generally darker in overall tone, instead of the soft angst in the ice king blog. this blog, specifically, is from the point of view of simon and marceline during their time together after the events of the mushroom war.

this blog will contain imagery and details contained within the "marcy's super secret scrapbook" book (such as the inspiration for the cover!), but i will make it clear that the book is NOT fully canon. i just will be including some details from the book, such as simon being an artist, the homework marcy does, and story/character notes. but things will not allign fully with the book simply because it contradicts what is shown in the show and id prefer to stick with that lore.

instead of asks being sent to the characters via phone or in-universe characters, the asks within this blog will SOLELY be heard by simon and only simon, as hallucinations due to the crown. the hallucinations will start out small, and as the ask blog grows so will the intensity of his hallucinations! of which you all will have help affecting. aside from the asks being hallucinations, of which you must specify out of when sending in an ask. there will also be multiple different "types" of asks/ways to impact the story! hallucinations via ask box, miracles, and disasters.

______

hallucinations: when sending an ask you can choose between auditory, visual, sensational! auditory is stuff like voices, noises, and the like. visual would be visions (be it of the future, past, or nothing in particular), and sensational would be anything involving touch! such as feeling phantom hands on him or the ghost of breath on the back of his neck.

miracles: when sending an ask, or participating in a vote/event you can have the opportunity to send miracles! miracles are things like food/items that may help them along their journey, the luck to find a still standing shelter, the ability to get out of a sticky situation. of course, not everyone can just give out miracles, big miracles such as finding shelter/getting out of a situation will be voted on via community polls! but everyone can send miracles. of course, but just because it gets sent their way doesnt mean they will get it.

disasters: disasters, like miracles, are ways you can directly involve yourself in their journey! when sending an ask, or participating in a vote/event you can have the opportunity to cause disastrous situations. disasters are things like enemies/dangers that they may come across along their journey, the chance to avoid/encounter hoards of oozers or a freak storm, and the ability to get shoved into a sticky situation! of course, not everyone can just hand out disasters, big events such as hoards of oozers/a big storm will be voted on via community polls! but everyone can send disasters. of course, but just because it gets sent their way doesnt mean they will encounter it.

______

Timeline layout:

this is a general timeline that i will be following, with images to give more clarity to the scenes im referencing. i will be including key scenes within the ask blog, of course, but it might take time. after all! this is a prequel for my ice king blog! it ends the same as canon, with simon leaving marcy since he considers himself a danger. if you have any questions regarding the timeline, headcanons, or other, please ask under this post or @bebackthen ! i can go into more depth if people are interested.

______

the rules for the blog are simple

- you can be mean to to the characters, but ABSOLUTELY no NSFW asks.

- please be patient, I am slow to update due to the fact this blog will be completely colored and rendered! more-so than my ice-king blog.

- feel free to ask me to tag things! i plan on tagging triggering content as well as giving warnings when they crop up. aside from the general warning on this post.

- feel free to spam likes, and reblogs! I actually appreciate it! but dont spam asks, make sure they are thought out, please.

- make sure you specify what kind of ask you send ! if you do not i will take creative liberty.

______

and for our first event!! you will get the chance to vote on how the first time marcy sees the crown in action goes! this will likely only be a short scene, as we know he doesnt use the crown often around her until after the incident with the clambulance, but that also gives me full creative freedom for why and how marcy sees him use the crown for the first time!

place your ideas in the comments of this post and then i will make a post on @bebackthen to vote on the top comments!

[oddballwriter]

Ooh, ooh! A reader with moths wings and antennae? With any character of your choice, go wild! Be free!

HABIT with a MothHybrid!Reader

Warnings: HABIT is here, duh. Mentions of HABIT picking on the reader. 

Author’s Snip: Oh EveryManHYBRID, I've left you for the dust and moon for too long. I hope you guys who were here for this content are still lurking around because I finally have food for you. I know that I don't owe anyone anything, especially since writing for slenderverse was actually getting super dull because it was the only thing I wrote for at the time and just wanted to write for something else. Anyway, here's something.

Notes: To everyone else who is here for my other characters. Just look away, or do look I can't exactly stop you just know that this media is more intense.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

You were... something that existed in the weird and entity-filled woods. You weren't a monster or something that harmed or tormented people. Matter of fact you stayed away from people and just lived in the woods

HABIT finds you when he's messing with someone new, or getting rid of a body, or any of the other reasons his ass would be lurking around

He almost didn't believe what he was seeing like... a moth person. I mean he's for sure seen worse. Made worse even. But like he still thinks to himself "There's no fucking way"

I'm just going to cut straight to you two being a pair because I honestly have no idea how you two would become close

HABIT likes to touch your wings, a lot. He's as gentle as he can be with them. Usually just caressing them and gliding his hand over them

You do make him wash his hands first though because his hands have blood on them most of the time so they're sticky and you don't want that on your wings

He also tries to touch your antennae but when he's doing that he's usually "light heartedly" picking on you because he likes the way you react since they're really sensitive

He doesn't yank on them. It's like a poke

He actually thinks you're very pretty and interesting considering you are just m o t h

HABIT enjoys you being with him and prefers it. But he also knows that part of your nature is just being outside at night so he's not really going to force you to stay inside

But if he ever needs you he can just turn on a really big lamp

[absolutebl]

2022 BL Wrap Up - All The Shows I Watched... rated

I’m not going to talk about everything BL that I watched in 2022, that would be the longest post ever. But still, this is a really long post. Sorry, not sorry. Everything I watched got a pithy little review. 

2022 BL - Watched & Rated

This includes any show that ended in 2022, including those that started in 2021. Alphabetical-ish order.

21 Days Theory (Thailand YT ) 6/10 

Tropes: high school, cheating, secret crush, high angst

Initially I REALLY loved this little show. It reminded me of Blueming + Make it Right (never forget I’m the world’s foremost Make It Right apologist, and the lead even looks a little like Fuse). Why did I like it? 1. GAY UNCLE character giving GREAT advice!. 2. Boys in blue shorts are back! 3. Seme is already pining, uke is tsundere but with reason and conflict is set up and executed well as a result. 4. lots of linguistic discussion and flirting (they made the linguistically fascinating couples post). Everything about this show is in my wheelhouse and this would have jumped high in my rating (even at this length) if they had bothered to finish it like the YA romance it clearly was. But the ending was disappointing. I’m not mad about it, but I’m not happy either.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

The 8.2 Second Rule (Japan YouTube) 6/10

AKA 8.2 Byo no Hosoku

Tropes: secret admirer, food in love, soulmates

Very short BL about a schoolboy who makes magic candy for a series of handsome classmates, questing for a soulmate. Each ep is a new love interest and while the sweets help others, they keep failing to bring him love. Of course h's overlooking someone. The lead was very good and the theme, cooking, and eventually romance were charming, but it is a series of BL vignettes not really a cohesive story, no kisses or anything. Japan doesn’t give us sweet BL this short very often, so it was nice to see them try out the style.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED 

A Man Who Defies the World of BL 2 (Japan Viki) unrated

I consider this show a documockary, not really a BL. As with the first installment I loved it beyond reasons, I tagged the second season review onto the first. Review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

About Youth (Taiwan GaGa) 8/10

It’s truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with classic YA low drama but high angst, I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. It featured Taiwan's modern take on AePete: popular but painfully lonely rich kid, Guang (complete with evil pressure-cooker tiger parents) meets and is basically adopted by poor nerdy (secret rockstar) Qizhang. HE EVEN HAS AE’S TOTE!!! Side dishes are Guang’s adorable bestie, Ray, and even more adorable (also a rockstar) Jian. Lots of BL tropes but also this is quite queer and very Taiwan with an earnestness depth I haven’t seen since My Ride an almost real world authenticity. Not that I normally like that in my BL, but I’ll forgive Taiwan (and the Philippines) for their sticky almost dirty style if it is this endearing and engaging (see also Gameboys). I wish it had been given a bit more room to breathe, but all in all a great edition to the Taiwanese BL lexicon which was in dire need of just this kind of content. Full review. 

RECOMMENDED 

Ai Long Nhai (Thailand iQIYI) 6/10

Tropes: messy gay, trial relationship, friends to lovers

Look this show was just a typical Thai BL university pulp about a confident gay and a clueless manic pixie dream boy, that had potential, chemistry, and earnestness going for it, but no plot and not enough side dishes. In the end it was boring and you know I always rate boring lower than hot messes. Still it’s better than your average Thai BL, nothing happens but at least the nothing mostly shirtless, the gay dads are the BEST, and that’s about all I can say for it.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED 

Bad Buddy (Thailand YouTube) 9/10

Tropes: secret lovers, Romeo & Romeo, sunshine/tsundere, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, GL side plot

GMMTV’s flagship BL started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Juliet masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end. Great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes. GMMTV, we forgive you. More. Live blog of this one is here. Full review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Behind Cut (Korea, Jan Viki) 8/10

Tropes: grown up problems, finding your dreams, friends to lovers

Better than average chemistry (for KBL) and a unique setting almost pulled this show into the realm of something quite special but it never quite managed to get away from the pacing and story structure issues endemic to KBL’s limited time frame and scope. Still It gets the job done. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Big Dragon (Thailand Gaga) 7/10 

Tropes: player love-rivals/enemies to lovers, rich/poor

This is a decent execution of true enemies to lovers, these two spy on and bully each other, exploring darker themes. The way the leads transition between anger, resentment, titillation, and flirting (and the way, with kinksters, this can all be the same thing) is really well done. This BL pairing proved itself to be a lot more sophisticated than I expected with nods at kink in a more respectful way than Mame could ever dream, plus excellent chemistry, but something was askew around plot, directing, and ending. 

RECOMMENDED FOR THE LEAD PAIR, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE 

Blue of Winter AKA Judo Boys (Korea YouTube) 3/10

Tropes: Bad boy/good boy, mad crush, reunion romance

OMG, is that..? Did Korea give us… a pulp? I do believe they did! The sound quality was poor, lighting sub par, even the filming and staging wasn’t on point (for Korea). Sadly none of that was the problem, this could have actually been good, the cast was excellent, but instead it was just really... odd. Focused on the wrong couple in the triangle and spent too much time on some elements and not enough on... ya know PLOT. Not terrible but not good either. in the end I didn’t know what I watched and neither did it.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Bleuming (Korea iQIYI) 9/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers (sort of), coming of age, self worth and self acceptance, lonely prince, sunshine/tsundere

It’s a tiny bit dark and a tiny bit bittersweet, almost too honest to a university experience and first love for BL. I wasn’t into it at first, but both leads turn in solid performances and by ep 5 it got good, becoming a narrative about self discovery, as well as understanding and accepting others people’s flaws without hurting them. Ultimately, we witnessed two characters maturing because of each other and their mutual affection while that affection was never itself the conflict point. Instead, tension was built around other aspects of identity, popularity, and self-worth. While production values were a touch lower than usual, Blueming included decent kisses and other forms of intimacy and a satisfying ending (all rare for Korea) plus there’s judicious and very elegant use of tropes, (which is expected). Full review here.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED

Check Out (Thailand iQIYI) 4/10 

Tropes: office, second chance, high heat

Special episode 0 (prequel) filmed in 2021 was the only good thing about this show. Characters lacked motivation, there was no story, the leads were a fine pair but the sex scenes managed to be both good and boring. I nearly DNFed. Ugh. 

FATALLY FLAWED

Choco Milk Shake (Korea Strongberry YT) 8/10 

Tropes: reincarnation, fated mates, paranormal elements

Choco Milk Shake (Korea YouTube) Stongberry gave us a full length BL on YouTube! It’s a BL miracle and an endless delight. It was wonderfully cute, unexpectedly hilarious but expectedly silly, a little too poignant, occasionally gut wrenching and with a somewhat expected weird (but happy-ish) ending. The actors playing the two pets must have had the best time. As, indeed, did I watching it. Jealous Milk made me cackle so hard it scared the actual cat on my lap, Choco was perfectly cast, and the chemistry was ultimately decent. In Strongberry I still trust. Thank you thank you, may we have another, sirs?

RECOMMENDED 

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea Viki) 9/10

Tropes: High school to college, cohabitation, stepbrothers, popular boy/nerd (shy, loner, bullied), orphan protag

Korea took on early Japanese sweet yaoi but gave it their signature softness and precise production style with a STUNNING color palette (beautiful pastels, sun-saturated over-exposure), manga framing style, some traditional BL character archetypes, that tiny edge of bullying roughness and out-of-control seme, plus FINALLY a palatable take on the stepbrothers trope and it was, in a word, classic. Sophisticated and understated CBAW is not slow, it’s just subtle. It's dream-like and atmospheric, as if the whole thing took place under cold water on a warm spring day. Is there plot or peril? Not really. Do we care? Also, not really. Look, I can’t help it, I’m old school and so is this show. I grew up reading sweet yaoi, and this was THAT YAOI just on my screen. There’s no objectivity with me and CBAW. It’s a beautiful pastiche and I loved it for how it made me feel and what it reminded me of. It’s not flawless, but it is a wonderful experience. Full review here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Cherry Magic the movie (Japan grey) 8/10 

AKA Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!: The Movie AKA 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii 

Tropes: LTR, cohabitation, self acceptance, coming out

I liked it, not as much as the original, it lacked the humor. Again no kissing, these actors must be expensive, but some nice domesticity. Still with Thailand bringing the higher heat with such consummate casualness these days (licking ass and taking names) there really isn’t much of an excuse anymore for no kisses, it felt a little phoned in. Even Korea has buckled, come on Japan, grow up. 

RECOMMENDED 

Close Friend 2 (Thailand Viki) 6/10

Tropes: LTR, adult problems, the closet, coming out

It’s basically dealing with two kinds of closet: the one imposed on us, and the one we impose on ourselves. Honestly Pierce and Phoon are very mature characters for a BL couple - the kind of relationship that only OhmFluke could really portray, and they do it very well. That’s almost the problem - it is too well done and thus discomforting. if you don’t like realism in your BL avoid this show. I liked the celebrityhood vs fandom storyline, although I thought it was too generous to those fans. Both pairs did well but I wasn’t wowed by story or content, over all a bit dull.

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

Coffee Melody (Thailand Viki) 5/10 

Tropes: cafe setting, food is love, sing your feelings

Stars Pavel (my love) as a cafe owner (Forth in 2moons2) and Benz as a composer (Call it What You Want). This should have been my kind of BL - on the fluffy end of the spectrum plus honestly queer. Unfortunately, the slow pacing, manufactured angst, odd secondary story arcs, and a selfishly immature unlikeable wet dishcloth main character, Yi, meant its flaws outweighed its charm. Jean (flame on snark fairy) is MINE, I love him so much but in the end neither he nor Pavel in an apron could save it for me. It’s not bad. It’s not good either, tho. Ultimately so forgettable I’ve probably already forgotten it. 

JUST DULL

Color Rush 2 (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: crush, friends to (almost) lovers, paranormal, suspense, murder investigation

In this second installment the plot revolves around Yeon Woo searching for his mother (and, sort of, his probe) joined by Se Hyun, whose sister is involved. We’re right back in gay allegory territory only this time the question is: Can you miss something you never had? Especially when it has to do with your own identity? Also, has Sehyun switched his (supposedly) natural inclination towards obsession onto Yeonwoo? I liked it. I liked Hyuk a lot more than I was expecting too. Like the prior installment, Color Rush 2 was stylish and clever (although not quite as clever). Honestly, in the end, I don’t know what to say about Color Rush 2. Does it work as the second installment of a trilogy? Absolutely. Does it work as the final installment of a duology. Absolutely NOT. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Cupid’s Last Wish (Thailand YouTube) 6/10

Tropes: pining/tsundere, bodyswap, quest, road trip

Win is such an incredibly unlikeable character I really struggled with this show, no skin off Mix’s acting, but holy fucking irredeemable tsundere. Also I really do not like body-swap. The final ep tried (and for some it may have been successful) but combine this with bodyswap (my least favorite trope) and even EarthMix’s chemistry (which has improved since Thousand Stars) didn’t save it.

WORTH WATCHING FOR SOME, BUT FLAWED

Cutie Pie (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: arranged marriage, age gap, secret identity, cohabitation, rich kid problems, he’s in engineering

Very high production and a lot of visual references to live action yaoi gave this show a whiff of Japan but ultimately it stayed firmly in Thailand’s BL camp veering from absurd to appealing to annoying and then back to absurd again. If you can roll with the arranged marriage conceit and very lifestyle D/s relationships, the chemistry is spot on even if the plot is naff and sappy and driven by miscommunication. Watch this one for the pretty, give it a pass on depth. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Dear Doctor, I'm Coming For Soul (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: PNR, grim reaper, enemies to lovers

This is a romance between a doctor trying to save his patients and a reaper who is both his enemy and (eventually) lover. Basically it’s the genius premise of a gay Doom at Your Service. High concept looks good on you, Thailand. I enjoyed it more than it’s ending deserved, and the best I can say is that it’s not strictly HEA but if you’re okay with Life: Love on the Line, you’ll probubly be okay with this BL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

DNA Says Love You (Taiwan GaGa) 8/10

Tropes: secret identity, reunion romance, queer family, bisexual awakening, sunshine/broken, healing, quest

While this is one of those series (ostensibly) carried by the sunshine seme character (Taiwan is always weak in seme/uke) and he does a stand-up job, Erek Lin, who plays the love interest, Amber, is luminous. I found the twist entirely predictable, but knowing what would happen didn't spoil this show for me, in fact I think I sympathized more with Amber and understood his behavior better, because I knew. The exact way it’s handled (medically speaking) is a little disingenuous to a queer narrative (AKA they could have just GONE there) but I didn’t mind, because all the characters around Amber act with such integrity. Since this is a queer story arc that other shows have systemically mishandled and made depressing, DNA deserves extra marks for its uniquely upbeat approach. It’s full of queer found family representation and an unexpected amount of domesticity, plus it’s Taiwan, so the kisses are great. The last few eps really are special and life/love affirming - and the ending is big-grin charming. Full review here.

VERY MUCH RECOMMENDED

Gen Y 2 (Thailand grey) 5/10  

Tropes: this is an insane soap opera

Exactly as chaotically messy as expected, possibly worse, as the four main couples apparently each decided they were acting in a different kind of BL. While I do believe that the world demands the excess Star Hunter provides, it is utterly exhausting to watch. No full review because I live blogged this one here.

WATCH IT ONLY IF YOU NOTHING BETTER TO DO

Ghost Host, Ghost House (Thailand YouTube) 7/10 

Tropes: my ghost boyfriend, PNR, domesticity

This is a light horror plus family drama built around a well executed BL trough-line that felt honestly queer with fantastic chemistry from the lead pair. (I hope that we see more of them.) Pluem delivers the softest most seductive krap ever and watching them flirt over noodles is an unalloyed pleasure. Use of I/you pronouns is super interesting and cute. For me personally the surrounding cast, premise, and story didn’t resonate but if you like a touch of gothic in your BL this might appeal.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS 

The Eclipse (Thailand YouTube) 8/10 

Tropes: sinister boarding school, haze the one you love, suspense, high school setting, coming of age  

GMMTV does gay Blacklist with a good boy/bad boy pairing. Starred First & Khaotung plus the side dish pair from FUTS NeoLouis. This is a good show but the cast was excellent and the leads were absolutely flawless. They gave us a nuanced and multifaceted burgeoning relationship: philosophical (and socio-political) conflict contrasted to moments of empathy; flirtation contrasted to moments of genuine affection. This narrative is less about love than it is about courage and tenderness. However, near the end the pacing was off and the plot frustrating. Still, this is an enjoyable watch, with an ending that features verbal consent and a funny blooper reel. 

RECOMMENDED 

Enchanté (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: childhood sweethearts, sunshine/tsundere, secret admirer with a touch of Cyrano de Bergerac and dose of Boys Over Flowers.

Theo returns from France and starts a written flirtation inside a library book (!) at his new uni with the mysterious Enchante. When he and his best friend Akk hunt for Enchante’s real identity, 4 senior boys step forward - all intersted in dating Theo, all with ulterior motives. Can’t fault the chemistry or the classic old school Thai uni BL and Akk (Force) was particularly sympathetic. But the twist over Enchantie’s identity felt disingenuous, manipulative, and unnecessary and the whole narrative was flawed as a result, Theo became unlikeable and irredeemable. GMMTV seems to specialize in squandering great chemistry on shoddy scripts. Honestly it probubly should get an 8/10 by my rating system but I was so disappointed I’m giving it a 7/10 and not bothering to write a full review. Live blog ep-by-ep recap here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Eternal Yesterday AKA Eien no Kino (Japan Gaga) 2/10

Tropes: my ghost boyfriend, paranormal, kill the gay, dark 

Smart boy in love with zombie incubus, keeps him alive with sex. This prevailing wistfulness between our leads about the future that they know they will never get to have. The way Michan is constantly listening and feeling for his Koichi’s heartbeat for a reassurance that is never going to come.Japan, king of thirst, gives us both that and PAIN: these 2 are drowning in yearning and loss. Careful with this one - you break it, you bought it, and it'll break you... wide open just to see what color your guts are. After watching, you too might be walking around alone, forgotten, and wondering why no one understands your loss. Not only does it not end happily, it ends hopelessly. 

NOT RECOMMENDED (for newer BL fans) 

Even Sun (Thailand iQIYI) 5/10

Tropes: vacation romance, enemies to lovers, sunshine/tsundere

The language is fun in this one (they also use chan/nai so I’m guessing it’s and organized crime thing), the cast is excellent, the boxers mildly interesting and BounPrem’s chemistry is unmatched, but... I still disliked it. It was unequivocally boring.

WATCH ONLY IF YOU’VE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

First Love Again (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: fated mates, bodyswap

A popular novelist who remembers his past lives meets his soulmate who has been reincarnated in the body of a man. This one started out a touch mean spirited, but it pulled itself together and we even got a good kiss (for a KBL). Then they went from like to love to boyfriends in a red hot minute. The confession/rejection scene was justified and the reconciliation and ending was... fine. All in all the pacing felt rushed, and the romantic arc was underdeveloped, but that’s par for the course with Korea’s short form. If you don’t mind a heavy does of melodrama in your BL this one has a solid story with a strong concept that’s well acted and produced, making it a classic KBL with better than average chemistry but ultimately a touch forgettable. (Full review here.)

RECOMMENDED WITH A FEW RESERVATIONS

Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai! (Japan Viki & GaGa) 8/10

AKA Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss! AKA Mr Unlucky Can Only kiss

Tropes: opposites attract, accidental relationship, cohabitation  

Mr Chronically Unlucky (another adorable chaos muffin) and Mr Always Lucky end up dating after they meet at uni orientation. It’s JAPAN yet they kissed in the first episode. What freaky alt-reality did I enter into? That’s all they kiss tho, over which I was a touch disappointed (I know). Still I spent far too much of my time with this show biting my knuckles and squealing “THEY’RE SO CUTE!” Amusing story: I paused mid the most tooth-achingly adorable first date in the entire universe and Viki was like “something missing?” and I was like “MY HEART YOU BASTARDS” It is very slapstick Japanese style comedic (light) BL reminds me a bit of Kieta Hatsukoi or Cherry Magic. So if you like that style of BL you’ll adore this show.

RECOMMENDED

Happy Ending Romance (Korea Gaga) 8/10

Tropes: office romance, identity theft, cohabitation 

As a BL it kinda isn’t (sorry to say). There’s no tropes dropped and no real romance narrative beats. This is about dishonesty and pride and there is an elegance to the theme. Which is essentially the idea that possession is not love, and therefore, those who love the Writer have to prove their love by letting him go. Honestly, I’m not sure how to rate this show as a result. This is a blog about BL and this wasn’t that. Full review. 

RECOMMENDED (but not if romance is what you’re primarily after) 

Hard Love Mission (Thailand WeTV) 3/10

Tropes: office romance, spoiled celebrity, 

Phenomenally dull Thai pulp about a journalist sent to interview a celebrity who ends up his manager, only 4 episodes and it still could’ve been shorter. It’s a bummer, the concept wasn’t bad. ALSO Chinese censorship got its gross mitts all over it (thank you, Tencent). Do not waste your time.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I’M WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT 

In Your Heart (Mainland China GaGa) 2/10

Tropes: friends to lovers, codependency, amorphous ending

It’s very mainland China BL, which makes me feel a bit like we are back in 2016 being tormented by nostalgia. It hasn’t a single modern sensibility in it (to be fair neither does China’s het stuff). Which I don’t mind, but it felt off? Messy? Sideways? I was surprised that there was some high heat, but I wasn’t surprised that the couple ended up separated. And yet... If you expect to be disappointed, can you still be disappointed?

NOT RECOMMENDED

Kabe Koji (Japan Viki) 7/10 

Tropes: celebrity romance, sunshine/tsundere 

Basically this is A Man Who Defies the World of BL + Senpai This Can’t be Love (as @heretherebedork said) and equally painfully EXTRA. Nakao Masaki playing a sunshine bouncy himbo character is a fucking revelation, I didn’t think he had it in him. This should’ve been my favorite BL of all time (IT’S AN IDOL LOVE INTEREST!), but the tsundere is too tsundere for me, I really hate the stalker photograph thing it’s apparently a trigger I didn’t know I had until BL tried to romanticize it. I kept feeling like there were the bones of good story in this drama, and I got glimpses of it, but then it’s covered again - like tasty steak smothered in Kewpie mayo. 

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS 

Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai (Japan grey) 7/10 

AKA I Only Want to Keep Looking at You

Tropes: friends to lovers, coming of age, high school setting, introvert/extrovert

This is a beautiful piece of cinema well acted, about two boys who are opposite personalities and grew up together. Gifted and serious Sakura (Kura Yuki from His the series) and outgoing eccentric manic pixie dream boy, Yuma. It is very pretty and this is the kind of atmospheric elegantly performed BL that only really comes from Japan (complete with dead fish kisses - what you though Korea invented them? oh no). I felt like I was “supposed to like it” more than I did, ultimately I was left feeling like I had seen it all before. So for me it was lovely but slightly unmemorable.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kiss X Kiss X Kiss - Perfect Scandal (Japan Billibi) 7/10

SHORT 5-8 minutes sample pack micro-romances: 2 featured BL-ish setups. One with idols in a group together and a secret relationship (Idol Kiss) and another featuring a reluctant boss and flirty subordinate (A Sweet Kiss). Both were cute but mostly just, ya know, kissing. (Reminds me a bit of Korea’s early Triple Do You Want). The interesting thing about the idol one, is one of the leads is ALSO in a het installment. He gives great chemistry with both his partners. And I think he’s a good example of an actor being just, ya know, an actor about the physical part of a romance. Which I take about in terms of never assuming queerness based on performance, here.

RECOMMENDED (for what it is)

KinnPorsche (Thailand iQiYi) 7/10

Tropes: bodyguard, mafia, cohabitation, BDSM, he’s a monster but he’s my monster

VegasPete were in one drama; KimChay were in another; KinnPorsche were in each of those randomly but then sometimes in their own extremely slapstick cheese-fest alt-reality + Tankhun. There were clearly 2 directors with 2 distinct and conflicting points of view, who apparently never had a single conversation with each other. Was this show good? Nope. Was it absorbing as fuck? Sure. Was it well acted, absolutely. Were the sex scenes great? Yes. We the fight scenes awesome? Actually yeah (special props to Jeff for the hand-to-hand stuff). Did I enjoy the kinky bits? Certainly. But all that said: the VegasPete universe of KP was the only universe I really enjoyed and would like to revisit, and I only got that 1/5 of the time. Mathematics is working against this one, for me personally. So I guess I, at least, am still waiting for the perfect mafia BL. I think it might be up to Japan at this juncture. As a result of fan fervor meets my own hearty indifference, I don’t really know how to judge this show but I have to go with my heart, and KP didn’t win it. No full review here on tumbr but I did post on to MDL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kissable Lips (Korea Viki) 2/10

Tropes: fated mates, paranormal, vampire, codified chase/stalker/ seme

Vampire has to decide between killing the boy he loves or living longer himself. Perfectly cast with a sexy, deadly, tortured vampire and the sweet uke prey who managed to be soft and appealing without being weak or inactive (props to the actor). Better kisses than your average KBL did not mitigate the fact that they killed 1/2 of the couple. Ultimately, one of my most disappointing BLs of 2022. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

La Cuisine (Thailand GaGa) 7/10

Tropes: crush, campus star, bully trigger, best boys, soft & sweet,

A sweet and kind of pure show, and like Thai desserts perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on the bad girl character, I did dock it. But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Love Area 2 (Thailand GaGa) 3/10

Tropes: I don’t know and neither does it

Look, it wasn't as bas as Bite Me, but it wasn’t actually good, either. This started out as Thailand tackles love triangles pulp style, but by season two lockdown had changed everything. Valen & Kaitoon dropped some great kisses but traded off crazy hair and makeup in a scene-by-scene whiplash that was clearly pickups done months after initial filming, and the second lead just... vanished. It was surreal. Side dishes jumped up screen time but tackled mental health... badly. A fantastic new queer side character was randomly introduced, June, who was the best thing to happen to BL linguistics in 2022 but had nothing to do with the rest of the cast, show, or plot. What a mess. Yes tehre was some very good chemistry and June is a GREAT queer character... BUT...  In the end, I was just confused af. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Love Class (Korea GaGa) 8/10

Tropes: university BL, forced proximity, unrequited love, crush, slight love triangle, triggers (outing, bashing, stalking)

This was a fast-moving, bloated, complicated little show with stronger than usual story structure, well-acted if lacking in chemistry, that managed to be very appealing and engaging despite itself. What it lacked in content it more than made up for in pacing. Both bingable and rewatchable.

RECOMMENDED

Love in Spring (Korea grey) 3/10

AKA Spring of Crush

Tropes: historical, soap opera, fake identity, hidden secrets, cross dressing

This drama was all over the place with uneven acting, narrative, and focus (sometimes it wanted to be a slapstick comedy, sometimes a depressing drama) which meant no one, actors or viewers, took anyone or anything seriously.... AND it’s a bromance. I was left wondering is SalHyung is now code for “they were roommates” in Kdrama historicals but otherwise largely apathetic and unimpressed. Korea, we now know you can do better. Watch Tinted With You or Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding instead. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED, NOT BL

Love in the Air (Thai iQIYI) 7/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers, too stupid to live, stalker/obsession, university setting, grumpy/tsundere, sunshine/tsundere, abuse triggers

What’s it like? Two stories of aggressive player dudes pursuing innocent younger boys. Terrible. Also entertaining and engaging and kinda hot. Like all good dumpster fires. Recommended only if you know you like this kind of thing. Look, you remember in high school drama class where they make you “envision a basket, and put all of your worry, bad mood, and anxiety into that basket, and leave it outside the door”? Well, in order to enjoy this show, you have to do that, only with your morals. Some people have bigger baskets than others. Mame’s creature whipped me into a verbal frenzy, resulting in yet another trash watch. 

RECOMMENDED WITH A LARGE BASKET OF RESERVATIONS 

Love Mechanics (Thailand WeTV) 6/10 

Tropes: messy disaster bi, out gay boy, cheating, drama llamas

My favorite messy cheeky drama-llama boys were back in spades. And initially I enjoyed it more than I should and more than it deserved. This whole series is basically a diatribe against cheating, with the sweet out gay boy reaping all the punishment a disaster bi can enact. YinWar are geniuses at chemistry and good actors, and their new high heat stuff is excellent, but the story was not improved by being given more time to hang itself. Full review on MDL. 

WORTH WATCHING FOR THE ACTING BUT SERIOUSLY FLAWED

Love Stage (Thailand Feb-March YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: childhood crush, sunshine/tsundere, unrequited love, secret identity

This BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely: boy falls in love with girl as a child, grows up to discover girl is actually a very pretty boy. Although there are some quintessentially Thai changes that mellowed, softened, and extended the romance arc. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this story is that the climax is about coming out as a celebrity couple as well as gay. I like the examination of the nature of celebrity versus privacy, and the contrasting kinds of closets. And I love that they depicted two couples with two different versions of this choice. A solid and enjoyable show. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Meow Ears Up (Thailand GaGa) 4/10

Tropes: PNR, catboy, broken characters, hurt/comfort

Adapted from the Korean manhwa Hey, Your Ears Popped Out. This is interesting, Thailand doesn’t adapt from outside their own y-novel tradition very often. This is a pretty classic version of catboy trope: a lonely orphan comic artist adopts a stray cat who suddenly turns into a human teaches him about love, chaos, and family. SO CUTE it hurts and I got very “indulgent daddy” vibes from Mr. DD, which I’m not mad about it. There’s surprising depth to this very weird little show. It’s touching and relatable, but I guess it was trying to be too Japanese/Korean about it while the set up was all sweetness and Thai style, because they fudged the ending. For me, that’s a fatal flaw. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Minato’s Laundromat (Japan GaGa) 9/10

AKA Minato’s Coin Laundry AKA Minato Shoji Koinrandori AKA Minato Shoji Coin Laundry AKA Wash My Heart

Tropes: age gap, pining since childhood, 

A high school student pursues the man of his dreams who happens to run a laundromat in this classic age gap BL. Minato’s Laundromat is so steeped in yaoi tropes and archetypes, not to mention a typical romance arc, that it will be and overload for some fans, but those of who follow this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do, and there’s not much more I ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days. Squee watch along (in lieu of a full review).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: forced proximity, cohabitation, childhood sweethearts, opposites attract, good boy/bad boy, domesticity

Higher than normal production values plus experienced BL actors plus two charismatic smoldering leads with good kissing and comfortable body language make this Vietnam’s objectively best BL to date. Plus we got a fabulously (and quintessentially Vietnamese) domestic ending. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

My Only 12% (Thailand iQIYI) 8/10  

Tropes: friends to lovers, childhood crush, out gay character, jock/nerd, cancer mom, side noona romance 

Neighbors and codependent childhood friends, Cake & Seeiw, have opposite personalities but may be falling in love. Familiar faces include Prem (Between Us) and Peak (Make it Right). This is a complex, nuanced, and well done little BL romance (tailor made for SantaEarth) about holding onto first love and childhood, but it’s buried under waffling family drama and formless side characters so that it took a lot of digging to get at. 

RECOMMENDED 

My Ride (Thailand GaGa) 9/10

Tropes: sunshine/softie, friends-to-lovers, crush, bisexual identity, out gay, rich/poor

BL grew up with this pulp - a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine AKA the cinnamon roll couple. Mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly overworked doctor meets broken hearted dimpled motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. With great friendship groups and family dynamics the support cast is excellent. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede the story, good friendship groups and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

My Secret Love the series (Thailand YouTube) 6/10 

Tropes: jock/nerd, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, reunion romance, secret romance, LTR 

Lead couple had a tom/jerry vibe with the uke too stiff and serious and the seme a prankster immature arse - one of my least favorite dynamics (it always seems mean-spirited). They reminded me of My Boy (which I DNFd) X BonDuen from My Engineer (who I dislike). Other pairs include BearBomb, TimMai and ParkLee (LTR whom use ter with each other). The domesticity with the side couples was somewhat engaging, and the sex scenes were descent, but that’s it. The worst thing about this show (aside from leads chemistry) was that the chemistry of the friendship groups felt off too. Normally, Thailand can handle friendship groups fine. But these two different groups? I didn’t believe they were friends at all. Full review on MDL. 

NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED 

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Gaga & Viki) 8.5/10

Tropes: childhood trauma, phobias, doctor/patient, age gap

It’s not love in Taiwan if one of them doesn’t stumble into the other.

From the producers of We Best Love, earnest dentist hottie with sad eyes who worries too much is smitten with an adorable sunshine neurotic bar owner with serious anxiety issues, they fall in love while courting each other with food, plushies, and naps. Then, shocker, talk about their feelings and try to actually sort out their problems so they can have an adult relationship. Bonus 18 year old poor little rich kid in mad crush with a much older man. I really enjoyed this show, it had a fun premise, killer dialogue, there was a solis lead pair with charming chemistry, soft flirtation, and delightful smiling kisses and stinkingly cute domesticity. All that said, I wasn’t wild about some of the darker themes it explored (abuse, panic attacks, abandonment issues), even though it did a good job with them. And while the crumbs and sides were v adorable they were chronically underused. In the land of May/December, baby boy kabedon is my kryptonite! Why so little of them? Kabedon is My Krytonite = also the name of my indie band’s first single.) 

In other news: I identify WAY too much with the bartender daddy. He pretty much opens his mouth and says what I’m thinking 90% of the time. 

MUCH RECOMMENDED

Not Me (Thailand YouTube) 9/10  

Tropes: enemies to lovers, secret identity, identical twins, goodboy/bad boy

GMMTV gave us a dark disestablishment narrative (in a time of civil unrest) with established queer award-winning director Anucha and starring OffGun. THIS IS AN AMAZING THING to get to experience in the BL world - nerve racking but remarkable. But was it ACTUALLY BL? Not Me had a lot of BL elements, but in the end that’s not what the show was about, or even what it was genuinely trying to be. Still an amazing piece of Thai cinema certainly worth your time. Don’t worry, it all ends happily. Full review here. OffGun Eulogy here.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Ocean Likes Me (Korea Viki) 8/10  

Tropes: opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, impossible dreams

This is a solid little KBL, with a good premise and cast. Manic pixie dream boy can get old fast but when contrasted with awkward grumpy chef? Tasty combo that elevates both ingredients. Holland is a charming screen presence, baby boy is HYPNotiC. And while I wasn’t entirely sold on the chemistry with these two they gave us some very good kisses. I grinned through most episodes and I even didn’t mind the standard KBL 1 year separation at the end because it felt very true to the characters. Don’t worry they end up back together.

RECOMMENDED

Oh! Boarding House (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: forced proximity, cohabitation, crush, love triangle

Spoiled rich kid in financial straights has to manage a boarding house full of quirky characters including: bratty cousin, wacko writer, adorable bestie with a crush, and the new hot jock (love interest). All in all, this show ended up being A LOT better than I expected. It was uneven in its attempt to reconcile early sitcom (slightly Thai) style with a serious love triangle and genuine romance but the quality of the performances and the kind and honest treatment of the characters make it definitely worth watching. (Full review here.)  

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED, a lost gem esp for Kdrama fans 

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Viki) 7/1O

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, himbo chaos bi, out gay 

This is a very silly show that acts like it comes from a very silly yaoi. Reserved out gay younger assistant (we stan) pretending to be tsundere but is actually just v shy and smitten by his cheerful (seemingly straight) chaos bi himbo artist boss. I think the cross cutting in of old footage with the replacement actor after the re-cast did affect the chemistry with this pair. There was no way around it. Even KBL isn't usually this awkward and repressed. Although this show had the best bisexual awakening sequence ever put in a BL, and I really wanted to love it, I just didn't. 

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Oh My Sunshine Night (Thailand grey) 7/10

Tropes: university, sickness, fated mates, whipping boy, poor little rich boy, soap opera

Kim, a tsundere musician meets Sun, a transfer student with a weak heart. Also there’s his hot older brother + their household servant, and a couple of fencers for good measure. Initially this pretends to be a normal university, then it slips on wet tiles and falls right on trough multiple shower scenes into ludicrous soap opera territory leaving one with a sensation rather like trying to hold onto soap in a communal shower. Ultimately, everyone seems pretty happy they bent over, but no one actually got clean. 

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS 

Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan Viki) 9/10

Tropes: office romance, age gap, employee/boss, food is the love language, coming of age late in life

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said man with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. Full review here.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED

Once Again (Korea GaGa) 2/10

Tropes: age gap, childhood trauma, tragedy, time travel, inevitable fate 

JaeWoo lives with childhood trauma and gets a chance to travel to the past to fix it by saving JiHoon. But you can’t change fate. From Moving Picture (studio behind equally tragic Kissable Lips)) this one stars actors (not idols) including Moon Ji Young (also in The New Employee) and is very well performed with a great, but sad, actual PLOT. It was a little bit more creepy than romantic, kind of Gothic and tense, but also strangely amusing (this odd kid just keeps hugging JiHoon - that’s like 1000x weirder in Korea than most places) and more enjoyable than it had a right to be with a really interesting take on the childhood crush trope. Ultimately, however, it kills the gay and is very sad. 

NOT RECOMMENDED 

Our Days the series (Thailand GaGa) 4/10

Tropes: sports romance, messy gays be messy, cohabitation, crush, love triangle, tsundere

Enemies to lovers meets forced proximity (boarding house) in which I couldn’t decide if the unlikable main character was stupid or depressed (story of my life, see also Physical Therapy) but I can’t take yet another emo POV. There was no chemistry from the leads and great chemistry from the ex-friend/second lead. Saint’s dad punishing him, when he doesn’t realize it’s because Saint is gay and heartbroken, really had meat to it as part of a basketball story. But it was such a tiny part of the overall show it felt like eating a meal when all I liked was one ingredient. I’d like to see the actor who played Saint (Offroad) in other stuff but otherwise this one can fade and be forgotten. It was a mess, and not a hot one. Fatally flawed.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Paint with Love (Thailand Gaga) 6/10

Tropes: opposites attract, office romance, sunshine/tsundere, enemies to lovers, wierdo/rulebound

For me the mains were unlikeable and the actors had poor chemistry. So while this offered a lot of what I thought I wanted from a Thai BL - mature characters, office setting, adult themes - I’m wasn’t wild about the execution. I suspect Thai pulps are better when they stick to university/high school. This one felt like a better version of Loveless Society (but that’s not saying much). The side dishes (Yoon & Yacht) gave us more chemistry and a better kiss but had little screen time. It was interesting to see them portray BL actors being shipped and then confessing to actually dating each others I’m not sure how I feel about the handling of it but it was different from Lovely Writer. In the end, this show was nicely grown up but boring and became a matter of endurance for me. I can’t ever see myself rewatching it.

WORTH WATCHING FOR SOME BUT SERIOUSLY FLAWED

Papa & Daddy 2 (Taiwan GaGa) 6/10  

I don’t have a good history with 2nd seasons, and Taiwan really likes to make a soap opera out of their queers. Witness that this one starts with a secret baby trope. There’s a lot of lying to each other and evil parents and, of course, 2nd lead syndrome strikes again. The domesticity was, of course, excellent (I love the gay siblings sharing tips on how to parent) and it was actually kind of beautiful to watch them explore ideas around infidelity, affection, lost love, and rediscovery. However, it lost me at episode 3 and never quite got me back, not even with the delightfully cheesy wedding. All in all, this was a serviceable follow up to the first installment, if riddled by unbearable parents, lack of story, and sappiness.  

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

Plus & Minus (Taiwan Viki) 8/10

AKA Plus and Minus AKA PlusMinus

Tropes: friends to lovers, LTR, office romance, (himbo) sunshine/tsundere, found family, himbo

This is a solid safe little BL about codependent besties of 20 years finding their way into a romantic relationship. A bit cheesy, with lots of domesticity and occasional dumb drama. (But gay boys and chaos bis? What can ya do?) It’s not groundbreaking but it is a solid sweet unassuming little show of a style that is perhaps a bit more Thai than it is Taiwanese but I’m okay with that. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Rainbow Prince (The Philippines YouTube) 6/10

Tropes: disney princess, opposites attract, sunshine/tsundere

This long form MUSICAL BL is fucking LEGEND. Also it’s profoundly not good. The acting is absolutely terrible but that’s not the point, the point is that it’s a cheesy af fairy story. Possibly the gayest BL to ever BL and certainly the most camp and very Disney. Watch it of that’s your thing, otherwise hard pass. (Full review here.)

RECOMMENDED ONLY IF YOU ALSO LIKE DISNEY SHIT

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: rich/poor, boss/employee, enemies to lovers, office setting, cohabitation  

This is a solid little office set KBL about a rich kid who ends up both the boss and tenant of a total sweetheart cutie, and falls madly in love with him. Although the show suffered from KBL’s shorter length, I love the kissable lips pair - they deliver solid all round chemistry despite limited screen time, which is rare from Korea. So I hope they stay branded and we get even more from them in the future. Special extra extended kissing scene.

RECOMMENDED

Secret Crush on You (Thailand YouTube) 7/10

Tropes: stalking, obsession, hottest guy on campus, multiple couples, queer affirming

Previously known as Stalker the series, and you can TELL. Co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces it was pure pulp and... I hated the plot. In fact I was ALL OVER THE PLACE with this show. SCOY drove me nuts and made me bush but had flashes of unparalleled genius. It had a ton of things I really did not like (e.g. the humor was crass and awkward, and the whole stalker thing was extremely CRINGE). It also had things that really worked: (e.g. representation of multiple different kinds of queerness, about which it very Taiwanese - in that there was no doubt that the characters really did want to bone). It was the opposite of sanitized gay. Honestly, if you can make it through the first half, and survive the never ending cringe-factor that IS this show, the second half is entirely unique - content we’ve never seen before in BL.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS, but not the usual ones.

Semantic Error (Korea Viki) 10/10

Tropes: opposites attract, enemies to lovers, bully romance, sunshine/tsundere, teasing & pranks

This is my favorite BL of 2022 won a Blue Dragon award. Korea hits it entirely out of both Parks (pun on the actors’ last names intended) by doing a university set BL with everything we might expect done exactly right, their signature quality executed perfectly, and added bonus good story, great pacing, yaoi style filming, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. Full review here.

HIGHLY ETERNALLY OMG SO MUCH RECOMMENDED

Senpai, Danjite Koidewa! (Japan Viki) 6/10

AKA Senpai, This Can’t be Love!

Tropes: office romance, object of my affection, boss/employee

Adapted from a manga for the same name, it has a similar creepy worship stalking vibe Secret Crush On You. Look, I admit it, this dynamic (super awkward pining uke, rockstar seme) is one of my least favorites - high cringe factor meets navel gazing obsessive. Japan’s weird hang-up around physical expressions of affection in BL which I expect in their slapstick high school stuff, feels cowardly here. They don't leave out end kisses in their het office romances, time to stop desexualizing the gays, too. For a plot about courage, it’s a bummer that the narrative itself didn’t have any. I can’t imagine ever watching this show again or remembering its existence. When Japan drops the balls they drop all the way to the bottom of the well. 

NOT REALLY RECOMMENDED 

Something in My Room (Thailand YouTube) 2/10

Tropes: paranormal, cohabitation, my ghost boyfriend, sunshine/tsundere

Horror BL starring Nut (Oxygen) who was a revelation, still a little stiff but he handled a totally different character from Solo with aplomb. Essentially, this was a well done pulp lockdown project version of He’s Coming to Me (with hints of So Much in Love and Peach of Time) but it was its own creature at the last gasp. I enjoyed it when it got a bit creepy but it was so slow it never had a chance to maintain tension. The two leads were ultimately cute together, but, like Peach of Time, we all knew how this one was gonna end. The narrative never left us in any doubt and I don’t like unhappy endings in my BL. So even though the sad was predictable, I won’t give this drama anymore than 2/10. Don’t kill my gays, Thailand, even when they’re already dead.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Star & Sky: Star in My Mind (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: university set, high school crush, jock/nerd, long term pining, secret crush, reunion

This is (sort of) a lost love reunion arc + freshy hotness contest giving it 2 Moons vibes. Look, this is one of those shows that I shouldn’t really like after 400 BLs. It’s not at all unique, just some classic Thai uni folderol driven by miscommunication (or just non-communication) and yet... I COULD NOT STOP WATCHING. Sure it felt like everyone involved with this show was mostly phoning it in, but it was a REALLY nice phone call. It’s basic BL. But honestly, don’t we all need that plain white t-shirt to wear under our engineering smock... in the end? Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

Star & Sky: Sky in Your Heart (Thailand YouTube) 5/10

Tropes: rural setting, country mouse/city mouse, rich/pour, enemies to lovers

A cheap 1000 Stars knock off about a doctor who goes rural and falls in love with a volunteer teacher. This show managed to be boring, corny, AND cheesy? I don’t know exactly how to write a review of this, as “dull” isn’t in my rating system but, it is a BIG SIN for me. I guess this should be added to my short list of BL‘s that are told from the seme’s perspective? Linguistically: these two are formal with each other using pom/khun. Also If you want to hear frozen register spoken, that’s what Prince’s maa speaks to tease Fah. Full review here.

WATCH ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun (Japan GaGa & Viki) 9/10  

Tropes: high school crush, chaos baby, high angst, classic seme/uke, secret relationship 

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show. Reserved cool kid who must lean to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst. Did anything actually happen? No. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Was there plot? Not really. Did I enjoy the hell out of it, anyway? Oh yes. Full review. 

TOTALLY RECOMMENDED 

That’s My Candy (Korea Viki) 3/10

Tropes: magical realism, LTR, breakup, amnesia, reunion

KimCop vehicle from Star Hunter, about an LTR between a student Jing (Cop) + nurse Guy (Kim) who have been together for 3 years. Guy is busy all the time so Jing is starting to feel neglected and look elsewhere. KimCop are excellent (no surprise there) but I was not into the story, premise, or concept. Side couple Viking & TamTam stole this one for me but the final ep activates the amnesia trope so even they could save it. Honestly I was left, ultimately with a sensation of: What did I just watch? It was terrible. Full review here.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Tinted With You (Korea Viki) 8/10

Tropes: historical, portal fantasy, time travel

Fun stylish time travel portal fantasy with a likable cast, historical setting, and two actual kisses that mitigate a rough plot and issues around anachronisms. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED

To My Star 2: Our Untold Stories (Korea Viki) 7/10

Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, hurt/comfort, opposites attract, forced proximity, breakup/reunion

If you like angst, wallowing, and realistic relationship struggles in your BL, watch this. If you prefer fluffy comforting BL, avoid like the plague. For me the pay out was not sufficient to the pain. I enjoyed the performances, directing, and chemistry - the leads’ comfort with each other is unprecedented in Korean BL, but that’s not enough for me to rise above the pain of the narrative. This show is a home wrecking hussy, but like super classy about it. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH SERIOUS RESERVATIONS

Triage (Thailand grey) 7/10  

Tropes: time loop, age gap, medical drama, fated mates

I thought the plot was good if a little redundant and occasionally exhausting. The pairs were all well done, low heat but with decent chemistry and the support characters were likable (or unlikable as required). I feel much as a did with Manner of Death, which is to say: this feels less BL than it does gay time-slip suspense. If anything, the romance arc detracted and distracted from the main plot. But I’m in BL for the romance, and the rewatchability, and this had very little of either. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Tuxedo (Thailand GaGa) 3/10

Tropes: tsundere seme, enemies to lovers, rich/poor

GMMTV be like, “see us squander glorious chemistry on terrible scripts.” The Tuxedo be like, “oh yeah? Hold my beer.” Watching this was like eating a meal of just spices. the spice profile was great, but it wasn’t ON actual food. The show itself had no plot or story and MADE NO SENSE, but I really hope we see these boys again in something more worthy of them.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Unforgotten Night (Thailand GaGa) 5/10 

Tropes: mafia, BDSM, not much of either 

Adapted from the y-novel Mafia's Bad Love, (originally featured both a gay poly triad and a GL sub plot). Stared Yoon (YYY, Paint With Love, My Ride) as a mafia Dom and Ton (Y-Destiny) as the accountant sub. Kim has a one night stand with a random stranger who becomes obsessed with him. Pretty soon into this I began to think this show should be called Forgotten Kink rather than Unforgotten Night. There isn't any. Mostly there's faucets left on and shower heads used for tie points (don't DO that). But honestly this was just bad. There is a moral to this show but I’m not sure what it is. Don’t combine your BDSM-but-not-really BL pulp with plumbing? In the end, this dumpster fire was extinguished by a garden hose and all we were left with was leaky pipes and the smell of damp trash. The only kinks were in the hose. No full review but I did to a trash watch. 

WATCH IT IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO, BUT I WARNED YOU

Vice Versa (Thailand YouTube) 8/10 

Tropes: alt reality, bodyswap, soulmates AKA fated mates, portal fantasy

Jimmy (Puen the super flirt confident king) is insanely charismatic and takes up all the air in (the proverbial cinematic) room, but I warmed up to Sea (Talay the timid acerbic sweetheart) eventually. As a couple they read as more teasing and brotherly than sexy, but that’s GMMTV’s brand. I enjoyed the concept of this show (I’m big into magical realism and skewed reality - see my adoration for Color Rush) but JittiRain’s plot was contrived and weak (normal for them). I find the “writing on each other” habit quite cute. Look, here’s the thing, flaws and all I pretty much spent this entire show smiling. I didn’t even mind being so obviously manipulated. That said, this is never going to be one of my top rewatch rotations, so I’m calling it for an 8/10. 

RECOMMENDED

Want to See You (Vietnam YouTube) 5/10

AKA Muốn Nhìn Thấy Em

Tropes: whipping boy, disability, secret love

Everyone’s favorite Vietnamese hottie Ba Vinh (O2 Productions: Mr Cinderella etc...) played an arsehole blind man (Jane Eyre feels) who hires a live in nurse and both get taken advantage of by a series of psycho femme fatales characters. The chemistry was okay but not Vinh’s best. Did they serve up prime domesticity? Of course. This is Vietnam, you get what you pay for. But tonally, this show was all over the place, hugely inconsistent in characterization and motivation. No clean narrative through line. Nothing anyone did actually ever made sense, it was mostly just frustrating. 

WATCH ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO 

What If (Thailand WeTV) 4/10

Had promised but was ultimately a complete letdown, not really BL either. It was, in the end, primarily about singing, so you know I didn’t like anything about this. 

NOT RECOMMENDED 

What Zabb Man! (Thailand YouTube) 8/10

Tropes: enemies to lovers, tsundere seme, rich/poor

WZM was better than we have any right to expect with decent pacing and a foodie theme threaded through the narrative as both love language and plot driver. Basically CEO falls in love with a street vendor’s food, recruits him to work in his hotel, falls in love with him, and that’s the beginning. Class struggles! Kitchen drama! Papaya pounding (not a euphemism)! Chef poaching (not literally)! Spicy scenes (yes literally)! It’s all so delicious. Full review here.

RECOMMENDED, especially if you like Thai food

You’re My Sky (Thailand Viki) 6/10

Tropes: sports romance, friends to lovers, jock/nerd meets sunshine/tsundere, cheating

A serviceable college-set pulp that focused on 3 sports romances with high angst, but was ultimately too slow moving for me, and with only one couple I liked (SaenAei). Main couple, FahThorn = basketball jocks, boring. DomeVee = track & field with a disaster bi cheating with your sister’s boyfriend storyline (by FAR the best sexual chemistry). SaenAei = jock/nerd with a younger puppy sunshine seme, best boys. Saen was my favorite character; relentlessly flirty but always clear about with his interest and steady in his regard, but who wants this many eps for one side character?

WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED AND YOU NEED PATIENCE  

Work from Heart (Thailand YouTube) 4/10

Tropes: Romeo & Romeo, office romance

Pulp office drama featuring tons of couples starring Gameplay as rich kid terrible dresser Dee who forms an unfathomable and poorly depicted romance with his internship supervisor. Some nifty linguistic stuff and great lead pair chemistry, doesn’t compensate for one of the worst wardrobes and an ultimately unfathomable plot. 

FATALLY FLAWED

THE DNF/DNW LIST

Shows I dropped, lost track of, never got around to or otherwise failed to complete.

2 Moons: The Ambassador AKA 2 Moons 3 (Thailand grey) 

I hear that it’s pretty banal and I’m just waiting to collect them all and binge. I doubt it will get a high rating from me or monkey with the standings much so I’m not fussed. 

7 Days 7 Boys (Thailand grey) 

No subs and it is also profoundly not good. Do not bother.

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us (Thailand GaGa) 

8 eps - This is a queer drama not a BL. It’s fine, reminded me oddly of early Taiwanese stuff, a bit slow moving and oddly paced. But I intensely disliked the lead character. He's a brat in the wrong way. Especially as a 20 year old. 

Country Boy 2 (Thailand who cares?)

I barely managed the first installment. No thank you. 

Fahlanruk (Thailand GaGa) 

I found all the characters profoundly unlikeable. I don’t like any of the couples and the fujoshi framing is repulsive under the context of a narrative trying to be this authentically gay. I lost all patience and cut my losses at ep 5. @heretherebedork said it was BohnDuen 2.0 only worse and that’s my least favorite dynamic of all time, so yeah, not gonna bother. 

Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami (AKA Accomplishment of Fudanshi Bartender) (Japan Gaga) 

BL Express posted a review and it sounds A LOT like another kind of Absolute BL thing from Japan, but focused on the fudanshi side of the equation and I could not be less intersted so I did not watch. 

Gameboys 2

I have no idea what happened - to me or it. But I remember watching a bit, and then just got distracted or something. 

Getaway (Singapore YouTube)

Based on an original story from a gay creator featuring an openly gay cast this vacation romance from Singapore set in Bangkok did nto work for me. The lead was fine but the muscle boy love interest's acting was just bad. Look, I’m the first to admit that there’s a lot of bad and awkward acting in this genre, but for some reason… it feels a lot worse in English. I like how unabashedly gay the show is but (how do I put this nicely, I guess...) if I’m gonna watch English language gay vacay shit – I’d rather watch Fire Island. Still, as one might expect, the heat execution is good (Taiwan still holds the crown, tho). But I eventually just gave up.

In a Relationship (Thailand YouTube)

Thailand’s answer to Gameboys (a bit late, kids). I’m generally not a fan of lockdown romances and this didn’t grab me.

My Roommate (Thailand YouTube)

32 eps of 2 minutes each with such terrible production values I couldn’t be bothered. Def not my thing.

My Tempo (Thailand grey) 

A Thai BL movie about the Thai music industry. Yeah, no thank you.

On Cloud Nine (Thailand YouTube) 

A country-set atmospheric series from MindTrio about afterlife and awaiting loved ones. Def not my thing. 

Physical Therapy (Thailand GaGa)

Milk is basically a Mainland China-style super useless heroine type. He’s, ugh, so totally not cute. I just don’t think emo is sexy (sorry Japan). I don’t understand why anyone likes him: friends, crushes, lovers. And I couldn’t tell if the doctor was faking it or just a terrible actor.

Rak Dao (Thailand grey)

A real sit com that was just too much for me to take. I didn’t even survive the first 2 episodes. And I usually give a drama 3 eps.

Restart(ed) (Thailand grey)

Looked like Top Secret Together meets Y-Destiny but ended up being more like Club Friday. Glimmers of good chemistry and hella queer but even that did not save this from terrible sound and an incomprehensible plot full of completely random characters. An absolute mess.

Scent of Love (Thailand no idea)

Just couldn’t find it. Also it’s the lead pair from My Secret Love so could not be bothered to even try. 

SELF (Thailand YT) 

Is it sad? Worth watching? I don’t know, no one said a peep about this show but I got a bad feeling about the end so I never bothered. 

The Promise (Vietnam YouTube)

Stepbrothers trope, enemies to lovers, high school, reunion romance, grumpy/tsundere. Narrative has a “memoir” framework. Sort of Cherry Blossoms After Winter if they were enemies.

The Miracle of Teddy Bear (Thailand grey)

Surreal drama series with dark elements. Nat's giant teddy bear, Taohu, miraculously turns into a young man but can't remember anything about himself. I found out this has what I COUNT as a sad ending and with it being hard to find i didn’t bother.

The Next Door Crush (Vietnam YouTube) 

Reunion romance or something, I couldn’t be arsed. 

To Sir, With Love AKA Khun Chai (Thailand grey) 

I’m waiting on grey subs for this Thai historical gay soap opera that came outta nowhere. It’s more lakorn than it is BL (soapy) and word is it ends happily. It’s just taking me time to track down. 

War of Y (Thailand Gaga) 

Tropes: industry self criticism, messy gay, general chaos

COPY A BANGKOK brings us 20 episode of Cheewin’s nonsense starring the boys from Y-Destiny and SCOY. My initial thoughts? It was better than any of us have a right to expect but I hated it. I disliked it for the same reason I don’t like rockstar romances... celebrities (and their people) are assholes. This show features a bunch of actors behaving like actors, managers behaving like managers, all of them predators and victims and both. I’ve dropped before for less (Call It What You Want) and I’ll drop again. Then again I loved Lovely Writer - but I think that’s because Sib is meant to be a sinister dick who’s only an actor because it gets him closer to Gene, and i like that approach. War of Y is just a collection of fragile egos easily traumatized by their own desires (and the needs of others) - it’s brutal to watch. BillySeng are killing it, but.... it hurts, and not in a good way. I’m going to save it and binge all at once when I am feeling bored and resilient. Will I watch it eventually? Maybe? Probably not. I think we have an ITSAY situation going on here. Also BL Express was not best pleased, and I while we rarely share taste, in this instance I trust their reporting.

Ones I Could Not Track Down - Japan of course 

Both Me and Him are the Grooms AKA Boku mo Aitsu mo Shinrodesu - Aired March 2022 on KTV & Tver, some see it on Gaga, but not me. This is a coming out drama rama. Ryosuke and Mizuki are getting married but on the wedding day Mizuki finds out that his partner didn't tell his parents, relatives, or friends that he's gay. Catastrophe results: furious outbursts, fighting between the two families, and then Mizuki's ex boyfriend shows up. 

Grand Guignol - a horror, paranormal, high shcool movie that released in Japanese theaters middle of the year. Starred Rio Komiya (Eternal Yesterday) and Ryosuke Sota (Mr Unlucky) among others.

Kamisama no Ekohiiki - body swap, paranormal, country set. Amano Yashiro has a crush on his best friend, Nanahara Kenta. Yashiro died in a car accident after being rejected by Kenta. However, due to God's favoritism, Yashiro was reborn as a female student called Tendo Kagura, and lives a new life. Yashiro decides to make use of his girly look to have Kenta fall for him. While Yashiro and Kenta become closer, they were interrupted by Kenta's ex-girlfriend, Torii Rin, who told "Kagura" to stay away from Kenta. Furthermore, it was discovered that Yashiro's body is still alive. What is actually happening?

Melting Night: Secret Kiss - microfilm part of the Kiss X Kiss X Kiss series, featuring the stepbrothers trope that aired on Tiver. A and B are friends who are secretly in love with each other. They became stepbrothers after their parents' remarry. Even though they acted like family, their feelings overflow and when their parents were gone...

Yes I REALLY want to see this one. 

Sing In Love AKA Miso's Koi Kogare Utae - movie adaptation of a PNR manga released in theaters, but no word on international distribution. About a teacher who encounters a mysterious man from his past, who is strangely obsessed with him. 

2022 BL Announced but Never Aired or Otherwise Confusing 

Eye Contact AKA មើលបានហាមសម្លឹង - Cambodia

Tie The Not AKA Under the Same Sky - The Philippines 

Ghost and I Becoming Family - Taiwan 

God's Military Officer - Taiwan 

Melody In Me - Vietnam 

The Lost Ring AKA The Ring Goes Missing reboot - Vietnam

KOREAN BL ANNOUNCED FOR 2022 BUT NEVER AIRED 

Bon Appetit

Comfort the Boy AKA A Shoulder to Cry On - premiere postponed indefinitely due to actor contract conflict, rated R15+ due to topic & vulgarity

Eccentric Romance - was supposedly in production July 2022. Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab but not their last.

Eul's Love

Follow The Wind - supposed to have released in the first half of 2022

Happy Merry Ending

Heesu in Class 2

Individual Circumstances

Jun and Jun - filming Dec 2022

Love Class 2 AKA Love Class Season 2 - filming was to start Nov 2022

Love is like a Cat - supposedly completed filming aug 2022 so I guess stuck in post? stars Mew. 

Love Tractor

Secret Relationship -  was to be adapted by Cradle Studio (a subsidiary of Kakao).

Space Bakery

Two Game Over 

Why R U? Korean remake - supposedly filming Sept 2022 

I am assuming most of these can be transferred to 2023 expectations but am not sure. 

THAI BL ANNOUNCED FOR 2022 BUT NEVER AIRED 

Art Adore En

Bitter Sweet

Boxer In Heart

Buddy Line Y Animal AKA Buddy Line Y(aoi) Animal

Call My Name

Cinderella Boys

City of Stars AKA Fueangnakorn

Destiny Seeker

Future the series

Heart by Heart

Imado Jinja

Intern In My Heart

Love at First Sight

Make a Wish

Mr. Bad Guy

My Broccoli

My Engineer 2

My Last Love

My Lucky Cat

Nilundon

Past Love In The Future

Past-senger AKA Pastsenger

The Sweet Robot

The Theory series

Trouble Maker

Does not include those announced for 2022 but which have since been officially moved to 2023. Those will appear on the 2023 forthcoming lists. 

(source)

[ladyhoneydarlinglove]

hello ! i just read your fic “the bright green taste of soap” it was such a fun read and i really loved how much thought was put into the descriptions for food , do you have any ideas about the other strawhats’ favorite food or maybe the kind of food their home islands had :0?

oh man, i cannot thank you enough for sending this question in, because i have SO MANY IDEAS about the Straw Hats favorite foods.

I'm using what's been officially listed in the SBS content here as a starting point because I think it's more fun to play with than just choosing my own, but as you'll see there's a lot of variation and interpretation that goes on in my head. I'm also gonna have to split this ask into multiple parts because of the character limit, so bear with me!

LUFFY – all kinds of meat

‘Meat’ is such a broad term that it could apply to almost anything, so I’m taking further context from the fact that most often when we see Luffy eating meat, he’s chowing down on one of those comically large ‘meat on a bone’ dealies. To me this means Luffy loves the taste of meat in and of itself, so he’d be more partial to preparations that showcase that full meaty flavor: think things like standing rib roasts, butter basted steaks, whole legs of lamb, etc.

We also know he likes big pieces of meat, so in my opinion his favorite would be meat prepared in an earth oven, a common technique world over used for cooking whole animals. Large pits dug into the ground and filled with smoldering coals/wood that are then covered, allowing the meat to cook low and slow.

Notable examples include Hawaiian kalua, which often involves roasting a whole pig, and Mexican barbacoa, which can be used to roast whole sheep, goats, and even cows. I also think he’d really enjoy Central Texas style barbeque brisket, which is known for being minimally seasoned (salt and pepper only), instead getting its flavor from being slow smoked over post oak. I also think he’d be very into Filipino lechon.

ZORO – white rice, sea beast meat, food that complements sake

I’m gonna ignore the ‘food that complements sake’ and just focus on the other two because ngl chat, I don’t think Zoro really cares if what he’s eating pairs well with his sake.

Sea beast meat I find interesting because it’s more specific than Luffy’s just plain ol’ meat. With sea beasts being ocean dwelling creatures I imagine their meat is generally more reminiscent of fish, which leads me to think that if given the choice between animal meat and seafood, Zoro would choose seafood.

Specifically I think he’d be a fan of things with full flavor and a firmer texture; think swordfish, bluefin tuna, mahimahi, Pacific salmon, chilean sea bass (which is where the idea for the ceviche request in The Bright Green Taste of Soap came from!), etc. I also think he’d love raw oysters and would eat them in the dozens.

As for the rice: knowing that Zoro is originally from a village founded by immigrants from Wano, I think Zoro grew up eating a lot of the short grain rice known in the US as sushi rice. I think rice is a comfort food to him, and I also imagine he has that Asian thing where no matter what he’s eating, he has to have a little rice with it or his mind won’t comprehend it as a full meal.

It seems like most of the fandom has already pegged his favorite iteration of rice to be onigiri, which honestly? Hard to argue with, onigiri are delicious. His favorite fillings would be salmon and tarako (salted cod roe); he also enjoys yaki onigiri (grilled onigiri). I think he would hate tuna mayo flavor because he thinks mayonnaise is an affront to the gods he doesn’t believe in.

I think he’d enjoy other kinds of plain rice too, such as jasmine and basmati (both of which are long grain rices known for having more floral, aromatic notes), and Thai-style sticky rice, which holds together so well you can eat it with your hands.

And I think he’d like rice derived foods like rice noodles, rice paper wrappers, chueng fun (steamed rice noodle rolls), mochi, dango, etc. Probably the closest he’s ever come to liking a dessert is mochi filled with shiroan (white bean paste).

(Side note: I've always thought the fact that Zoro's least favorite food being chocolate because it's too sweet was weird because chocolate rather famously has a very wide sweetness spectrum, so I like to think Zoro doesn't know that dark chocolate is a thing until Sanji introduces it to him, at which point he becomes enamored of it. He's one of those freaks that likes the 85%+ dark varieties.)

And finally (Zoro has more headcanons because I’ve got fic in the works that deal with a lot of this lol), I think Zoro would absolutely hate arborio rice, i.e. the kind of rice used to make risotto. I think he would find the texture (which is famously creamy) completely incongruous with what he thinks of as rice in his head and he’d be like, physically unable to eat it. Like it would make him gag and very possibly throw up. So Sanji makes risotto whenever he’s mad at Zoro.

NAMI – mikans and other kinds of fruit

(First a quick note: the official English translations have mikans listed as tangerines, which is incorrect; they’re actually satsuma mandarins, which are even better than tangerines. I refuse to put up with this blatant citrus erasure!)

Honestly this one is deeply hilarious to me because can you imagine how crushed Sanji must have been when he realized his darling Nami-swan’s favorite food was one that required absolutely no preparation from him? 10/10 for comedy gold Oda, love it. 

That said, I think Nami would enjoy any food that could use fresh mikan segments or fresh mikan juice, like a mikan salad or a regular greens salad with a mikan vinaigrette, or for something sweet, mikan juice popsicles. 

I could also see Sanji getting really into juicing as he strives to create new refreshments for the crew and making a lot of mikan juice drinks or cocktails.

[liminal-storage]

0-The Fool

Prompt: Steer  Characters: Ophelia Shaw, Roland Shaw, Shayl Content Warnings: Mentions of taxidermy, insects, and odors related to decay.

Envy makes a foul and fickle monster, a creature hewn of lies with sickle-sharp teeth. And envy holds the door for its hungry cousin greed, whereby together they spin the world around them into a wasteland. Ophelia knows this better than most. For someone like her, life holds only one path. Hers is a modest existence, the life of a lady's maid neither shameful nor overly glamorous. Perhaps if she works hard enough she can rise somewhat within the household, but even so she shall never be anything more than a maid.

A maid who envies the very lady she serves, who pockets little trinkets and perfume bottles to sell off for a few extra coins. A betrayer and a thief. She tells herself it's out of necessity. Her brother Roland's gambling habits have their savings in shambles, and she's only doing what she has to in order to keep their larder from going empty. And should an extra bit of jewelry or a prettily embroidered handkerchief make its way into her pockets for her own personal use? Well, that's simply her due for being such a diligent worker. It isn't as though her Lady will miss such things. Ophelia doubts she even thinks about them once she puts them down.

Life is no fairy tale.

Of this, she's so, so keenly aware. Should her Lady or one of the other servants catch her in her sticky-fingered practice, no amount of excuses will suffice. There will be no divine intervention or a handsome stranger to save her. That ruin which she so fears will chase her, hungrier than any slavering hound, and tear her life into pieces.

She needs a way out, a different solution. Something substantial. Something big. Ophelia spends her days dreaming of a miracle she knows will never come.

She spends her nights listening to her brother and his companions kicking up an obnoxious raucous in the room next to hers, the shared wall being thin and offering little in the way of noise dampening.

Sheets twisted about her legs in her tiny, plain, room, she sips upon a bottle pilfered from Roland's space when he was away during the day. Liquor goes in, and hateful thoughts come out. Slurred curses and complaints slip free from her mouth, drowned out by the noise from next door. They'll never hear her over the sound of clinking bottles and raunchy jokes. Such is her one and only catharsis, she thinks, eyes shut tight against a blinding headache.

Further sipping does nothing to alleviate the pain, and when her ears catch something interesting she sputters, showering the bedding with cheap alcohol.

"If your sister's still giving you so much trouble, you could go see old Owlface. I'm sure he could help you out."

"Nah, no, don't be dealin' with that one. M'brother in law says his help's not worth the price. Said he smells like rotten meat, too."

"Aye? But he can help with anything. Helped me get rid of my own debts and now I'm living free as a bird."

"And yet you're still coming around to this rathole to be with us. I don't know about the rest of you, but that has me feeling all warm and tingly inside. I think this calls for another round!"

Ophelia does what she can to drown out the rest, her mind buzzing. 

She has not heard much about this…Owlface. Then again, she rarely hears much about anything at all. She knows the strange man came to town about a year ago, that he rarely leaves his place of business, and that no one has ever seen his face, hidden as it is behind a wooden mask carved into the heart-shaped face of an owl. Ophelia scoffs a little. Is it a name he gave himself, or something the uncreative masses came up with instead?

Regardless, she also knows that he has a certain reputation, and no specific occupation. A jack of all trades, they say, a helper and a fixer. Her brother’s friends might be loud and obnoxious, but unlike him (and unlike her), they are honest and hard workers. If they say this strange man with no name helped them clear their debts, she believes it. Through the haze of alcohol, Ophelia begins to plan.

She goes to him on her next day off. Hands shaking, and pockets free of stolen trinkets, she sets off across town to find the stranger who smells of rotting meat. The building he resides in looks oddly crooked from the street, but once she comes to a stop in front of it, everything seems perfectly straight and perfect. A swinging wooden sign board hangs above the door, faded lettering greeting her. A brown and white bird of prey startles her nearly out of her skin when it turns its head to regard her. A barn owl, and a large one at that, looms perched upon the sign. So still and ghostly silent, she mistook it for a part of the sign. It makes no sound as she places a hand upon the door. Ophelia already feels half the courage chased right out of her, but all she can do is carry forth. 

She’s not sure what to expect. A bar or an antique store or a taxidermist’s shop? A book store or a tailor’s workshop or a woodworker’s stall? 

The cluttered mess of furnishings and knick-knacks suggests none of those things, and yet somehow all of them at once. She supposes she’d call it a “collection,” because no other word will suffice. Expensive liquor bottles sit on worn, crooked shelves where their dusty bodies barely catch the few rays of light filtering in through the building’s frosted glass windows. They’re all fine vintages, the sort of bottle that would take years of saving to purchase, things meant to be savored over the course of a lifetime. Some seem to be missing corks. Others have the necks of their bottles shattered off completely, cracks splitting from top to bottom and held in place only by the other bottles around them. There’s no care here, no reverence, no proper storage. They’re merely taking up space, like so many of the other items around them. 

Items like books with torn pages and frayed binding, or wooden figurines with chips and warping which have been tossed haphazardly into boxes in the corner. Or things like a half-done bear taxidermy, the treated hide pulled taut in some spots while puckered and folded in others, blocking pins stuck into the mannequin beneath. Everything looks like it has been ruined by neglect, thrown into whatever space the floor has available to accommodate it. A storage room left forgotten and almost hated.

So engrossed is she in looking at each object with an odd, forlorn expression on her face, that Ophelia fails to notice the building’s unusual tenant at first. She is, once again, startled near to death by movement in the corner with the taxidermied bear and the voice which speaks from beneath a disc of burnished wood. 

“It’s not often that we get visitors this time of day.” 

Once her heart stops trying to escape from her ribcage and her breathing levels out, Ophelia realizes there’s been someone there the entire time, black-clad hands running over the broken taxidermy base. His entire body’s shrouded in black, actually, the only exception being that damned mask. Ophelia stutters something out, words completely lost in the attempt, and the figure rises, and oh, she realizes that Roland’s friend had not been lying. 

The smell hits her hard. It is a cloying odious cloud, like rotting fruit and meat left in the sun to the mercy of carrion insects. It is the stench of a raw, festering wound, of sour sweat and sour dairy. She isn’t sure that she’s ever experienced such a foul cocktail of decay. It’s overwhelming, sickening, and for a moment she wants nothing more than to run to the door and forget she ever considered meeting Owlface to begin with. She tries to run for the door. 

Her legs refuse to obey, and the figure slithers closer. 

“Ah.”

He makes a tutting noise, condescending little clucks of his tongue which might be meant as soothing. 

“None of that, now. You came all this way, after all. I would be an incredibly rude host if I let you leave so soon. There’s no need to fear. I know the smell is a bit…overwhelming, but I ask that you bear with me for a moment. It will become easier to endure as you get used to it. Something about going nose-blind once you’re exposed to certain smells and all. Ah, but I am rambling. Please, tell old Owlface what it is you need. Although, I think I can hazard a guess.” 

He reaches out to touch her face and Ophelia tries to scream. Her voice won’t work, either. 

“You desire freedom. Freedom from debt. Freedom from worry. Freedom from your wastrel of a brother. Am I correct? Nod, if you will.” 

Her head bobs once, and the rotting stranger seems pleased. 

“I thought so. Fear not, dear lady. I can grant you your freedom. If you agree, in three days hence you will find yourself with a twist of good fortune upon your doorstep. Ah, you must be wondering what the catch is. You need not worry. I assure you that I want nothing but your happiness. No harm will come to you, and you shall live out the rest of your days in peace and security. That is what you desire, is it not?”  

She’ll never be able to tell just what made her nod again, what force compelled her to agree with this horrifying stranger so intimately close. Nor will there ever be a soul who Ophelia trusts to speak of that day, but she knows that like before, her body refuses to obey. Her head nods, her heart sinks, and still her legs refuse to run. 

“Very good, then. You have nothing to fuss over. I will see to every arrangement, and in three days you will forget about ever having worried in the first place.” 

He lowers his hand, and Ophelia runs

Yet, true to his word, in three days, her fate does change when a man she’s never met comes to call. His name is Raphael Marlowe, the young owner of a textile business who recently came into a moderate fortune thanks to a few investments he’d made. She’s apprehensive at first. As any young woman might be. But she has no other prospects, and Roland’s gambling debt has grown worse. Besides, Raphael is a handsome young man with dark hair and strong hands and eyes as green as an emerald. This is the solution she's been dreaming of.

She thinks nothing of the strange, cloying odor she can smell in his hair at times. Nor does she think much of his family crest, which soon becomes her family crest to be displayed proudly in their new home. She never again thinks of the stranger or his cluttered shop of things long abandoned. 

She never asks about the burnished wooden mask that Raphael keeps in a trunk of old keepsakes, its smooth surface carved with the heart-shaped features of an owl.

[cuppa-ale]

I've had many ideas over time for fan comics and fanfics for different things. I don't think I will realistically do them all and some are more fleshed out than others. Nearly all of them would be a big undertaking that requires spending time with it, and I think I would rather focus on originals if I'm going to do that.

So I'm going to go ahead and dump some ideas I've had here for anyone who may be interested. Anyone is free to take inspo or put their own twist on it if you see something you'd like to take a crack at. There are only maybe a couple here I'd maybe save for myself but they are still on the backburner, and everything else I've pretty much given up thinking about doing. (Will update if I think of more… also it's pretty much all self indulgent lol)

Moshi Monsters: Untitled Dr. Strangeglove/Sweet Tooth fic

This one is supposed to be about Dr. Strangeglove and Sweet Tooth being "captured" and going into rehabilitation to atone for their crimes…. or so everyone thinks. They're only pretending to be rehabilitated in order to pull off their biggest scheme yet! Unfortunately, this also means that they have to put on a convincing act, and actually go through with some aspects of their rehabilitation.

I was thinking that Sweet Tooth would be put on a plan where they could only have 1 piece of candy a day in order to gain control of their sugar addiction, leading to things like them experiencing withdrawals and Dr. Strangeglove slipping them sweets in secret when he takes pity on them. Dr. Strangeglove would go through a sort of "exposure therapy" with Moshlings to prove he can be nice/tolerant of them. Both of them would have community service, and in between all that they would talk about their plans and eventually their dreams/motivatons.

Other details include Sweet Tooth being STINKING RICH thanks to their candy company, which they secretly still have control over. I also think Fishlips, who's still with Strangeglove, would get along great with Sweet Tooth and would wind up being like a "moderator" / voice of reason when Strangeglove and ST get at each other's throats, lol. One of my notes for this was literally just "Fishlips is their baby :)"

I also think it's really funny that Sweet Tooth has inexplicable beef with Zack Binspin while Strangeglove seems to enjoy his music, so I think that would wind up being a point of contention at some part lol. I imagined one part where they go to a karaoke bar playing Binspin's music and a drunk ST is like "fuck it" and belts out a song or two with an also-drunk Strangeglove.

And Sweet Tooth, who is still a member of C.L.O.N.C., puts in a good word for Strangeglove unbeknownst to him at first, since he was kicked out of C.L.O.N.C. but is still loyal to them. And for contrived story reasons and because this fic is about their relationship, they also are sharing an apartment during this "rehabilitation" and all I can imagine is everything ST touching being sticky in some way lol.

This whole fic is pretty much just about these two because I think they could have a fun dynamic which I think is under-explored, and I like the set-up for this. I just worry that I wouldn't be able to make their relationship as compelling/believable as I'd like it to be with my current skills. Also, I imagined one part where ST is talking about Strangeglove being a "dropout" and Strangeglove is like "THEY SHOULD'VE PAID ME TO SHOW UP!"

Cyberchase/Inscryption Crossover Comic/Fic(???)

This one is about P03's successful upload of "Inscryption" into Cyberspace- but it's not like how he imagined at all. Now the world and characters of Inscryption have been thrown into cyberspace, P03 is nowhere to be found, his bosses (including G0lly) are running amok, and The Hacker is up to no good as usual.

I just think the Scrybes would look really cool in the classic Cyberchase art style, and I imagine a lot of fun stuff with P03's bosses. I imagine that Leshy, Grimora, and Magnificus would seek help from the Cybersquad in order to find P03 and his bosses, and prevent the OLD_DATA from doing any more damage. This is another one where I fear I wouldn't do it justice, but it's fun to think about these characters meeting and interacting.

Also P03 and his bosses being a bit like "siblings" here, and The Hacker capturing G0lly, Goobert, The Dredger, The Angler and Kaycee (ghoul) while trying to figure out the secrets of the OLD_DATA and use it for himself.

Shopkins Shoppies fancomic: "Shelf Life"

Ohhhh boy… this one's a lot. This is actually supposed to be a crossover comic with another similarly-themed Moose Toys property, Grossery Gang. I wanted to learn more about GG in case there's any pertinent Lore that I should know, but most of this comic has to do with the GG equivalent of "Shoppies" I imagined for them, "Grossies". XP

The story starts out with Spilt Milk getting sick and disappearing. The Shoppies & Shopkins find out that they fell down a trash chute in the Supermarket, and wonder where it goes. Mia Milk is distraught and a group of Shoppies & Shopkins go on an expedition down there to find and rescue Spilt Milk, but wind up finding a whole other world full of "Grosseries" and "Grossies".

There, they learn the truth about Shopkins, Shoppies, and their "expiration dates". Because their rope got cut, they can't return to Shopville and their friends must now rescue them before they expire and turn into Grossies and Grosseries themselves. The new rescue group seeks the help of Gemma Stone, who cannot expire.

The comic is supposed to be like a sort of meta-analysis(???) of the series and how it fizzled out. There's this whole thing in the story about one's "shelf life", how some Shopkins have "extended" their shelf lives by becoming Shoppies, and how they will all one day eventually expire. (So yeah, there's supposed to be like this… evolution/lifespan of sorts?? where they go from Shopkins to Shoppies and eventually into Grossies or Grosseries, depending on whether they "evolved" into Shoppies or not.)

There's some bodily horror and gross-out stuff within the comic that I imagined, but is mostly silly and lighthearted. I imagined some OCs for the Grossies in particular which led to this idea, and some ships too. I imagined Bubbleisha for example getting together with the main Grossie named Trisha Trashbin, with Bubbleisha initially being grossed out by all of this.

I also imagined Jessicake and Apple Blossom being a pair, with Apple Blossom eventually "evolving" into a Shoppie herself while trying to save her friends. (The Shoppie "Blossom Apples" just straight up looks like a Shoppie-fied version of AB and they only switched around the words, like c'mon!!!)

This idea is one I feel most confident about if I were to do it, but it's also still a big undertaking and would take a lot of time. There's just a lot of scenes I imagine that I think would be fun.

Kappa Mikey fancomic

This one is supposed to be a two-parter which focuses on the father-son relationship of Ozu and Guano. It is also INCREDIBLY self indulgent but screw it, I'll talk about it anyway lol. I will give a small warning that this comic is meant to include Guano's in-canon use of diapers as a source of comfort, but also because I headcanon him being incontinent due to his trauma and needing to wear diapers sometimes as a result. Not graphic, but…. diaper haters beware I guess, lol.

The first part starts with Ozu catching Guano at the end of the work day. Guano has been holding it in while finishing up some editing, wearing a diaper just in case, but hoping that he won't have to use it. Unfortunately, Ozu holds him up with a list of demands and Guano eventually can't hold it any longer. The embarrassment of using his diaper in front of Ozu gets to him, along with the verbal assault, and he just breaks down crying.

Ozu chastises him for being a crybaby, but still picks him up and leads him to his locker with spares, already aware of Guano's little…. problem. Guano then changes himself in the bathroom while Ozu waits outside. Ozu continues berating Guano from outside, and Guano snaps at him when he's done before going home.

This part is mainly to establish how broken their relationship is right now. Even after finding his son after all these years, Ozu still struggles to accept that this little weirdo of a man, with all his eccentricities and fears and trauma and smelly fursuit, is his child…. and though he doesn't say it out loud, Guano is well aware of this.

The second part starts with Guano falling sick after working nonstop on the show, and he collapses in a delirious state of the end of a filming day. Everyone else is conveniently busy, and at Mitsuki's insistence, Ozu is forced to take Guano home with him. There, he takes off Guano's smelly fursuit and reflects on the fact that Guano is his son…

He feels remorseful for not being there for him all those years, wondering on some level if he turned out this way because of him- and then he realizes that Guano still stinks because he used his diaper. ~cue Ozu having a drawer of spare diapers for such an occasion and then cut to Guano waking up~

Later, Guano wakes up on Ozu's couch. He is first shocked that his fursuit has been removed- THEN he is shocked to find himself in Ozu's penthouse- and THEN he is shocked and mortified upon finding out that Ozu changed him. (RIP Guano, lol TwT )

Cue awkward father-son talks and eventually some hugs. I think their relationship is under-explored but has a lot of interesting implications, with Guano initially just being this weird lil guy who writes for Ozu's hit show and Ozu only knowing him like that, but then both of them learning they are long-lost father and son…. it's mentioned a couple times in the show after that reveal, like Ozu quickly saying "daddy loves you" after putting Guano and crew on lockdown, and then Guano thinking he'll choose him for a father-son day when he instead chooses Mikey…. which I think is interesting. Lot of angst there! Especially with Ozu's wrath being a huge source of Guano's trauma and anxiety, I think there's a lot to unpack.

This is another one I'd save for myself because of how personal it is, and how poignant it feels to me. I have some dialogue for this and pretty much know how I want the flow to be, short and sweet. It's just that at this point, idk when I'll actually be able to do it so I may as well talk about it. XP

Chowder/Flapjack Crossover comic/fic(???)

This one is a bit random and entirely based on a dream I had. Basically, Chowder and Flapjack find portals into each other's worlds and have fun at first showing each other around their respective worlds. But somehow, they wind up getting trapped in each other's worlds and the other characters must now figure out how to get their respective boys back.

I'm not sure if anyone else has done anything like this, I just think it would be fun to see these two interact and how different Marzipan City and Stormalong Harbor are. Like how Flapjack is always scrounging for a piece of candy while Chowder has food in abundance, and an appetite to outmatch both Flapjack and K'nuckles.

In the dream, there was also this realm-hopping witch who was responsible for the portals, but I'm not sure if she should be "evil" or not. I just know she had different forms depending on which world she inhabited. I'm not fixated enough on either of these properties to spend time with it, and feel like it could be done better in someone else's hands. It was just a cool dream I had that was presented in a weird storyboard-like fashion.

Ballmastrz 9009: "Golden Ray! The Masked Vigilante of Ulsa Guerin?!"

This is a fic idea I had back in 2019/2020..... I've scrapped it because it feels very OOC now and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'll go ahead and dump it here. XP

Takes place post-season 1 but before season 2, and based on a headcanon I had that Crayzar likes to dress up and take on different identities in public out of boredom. "Crayzar disguises himself as a hero dubbed "Golden Ray", and operates mainly in Ulsa Guerin. He's like a metazone celebrity there and helps innocent folks in need, like defending them from thugs.

Gaz and Ace are walking through the streets when a thief speeds by, only to be followed by none other than Golden Ray. Ace is a big fan and geeks out. Gaz of course isn't impressed. Golden Ray disappears before Ace can get an autograph.

Back at their living quarters, Ace excitedly tells the rest of the Leptons about his sighting. Gaz wants to know what's so great about this guy, and Ace doesn't hesitate to pull up some photos and news articles of this mysterious vigilante. Ace rambles excitedly about his exploits and how Ace was actually saved by him from thugs when he was younger and alone.

Ace decides to sneak out in the middle of the night in search of his hero, and somehow convinces Baby Ball to tag along with him. They eventually encounter Golden Ray after he deals with some delinquents, and Ace has SO many questions. Baby Ball proposes a few snarky ones of his own. The conversation eventually leads to Golden Ray asking if Ace would like to be his sidekick, which he HAPPILY accepts. Baby Ball says "What about the team?? and practice??" and Ace assures him that he can handle both. He really doesn't want to miss this opportunity. Ace hasn't had a lot of adults to look up to in his life, and getting to meet Gaz AND Golden Ray is like a blessing to him. Baby Ball caves to his sob story, but warns that he will NOT cover for him.

Ace is struck with the idea that he and Baby Ball can form Ballmaster to help out, but Golden Ray rejects this idea. He wants to keep things on the down-low, and since their Ballmaster form is famous, that wouldn't work out. He also mentions how it would be impractical for the low-level crimes that they handle. Ace worries that he won't be able to do much by himself, but Golden Ray assures him that he will do just fine with his own power.

Golden Ray meets with Ace the next night and gives him his own sidekick outfit, and dubs him "Amber Sun." Golden Ray likes to make references to pre-Rad Warz culture, which Ace doesn't understand.

So this goes on for a little while, with Ace moonlighting as Golden Ray's sidekick at night, and training with his team during the day. Gaz notices Ace acting off and being more tired than usual, and she worries that he's playing games all night or abusing B.E.H.O. again. The others are concerned as well, but still tease Gaz for "going soft", so to speak.

Gaz questions Ace, who tries to downplay it and makes up an excuse. That night, Ace tries to sneak out again when he's caught by his team. Gaz sees him in his sidekick uniform, and that's when Ace finally spills the beans. Baby Ball is also in the room, and Gaz points at him, "YOU knew this was going on, didn't you?!" Baby Ball defends, "Hey, it was none of my business! If the kid wants to get himself killed on the streets wearing cosplay, that's his own problem!"

Gaz wants to know WHY Ace runs off with this guy. Ace explains that Golden Ray makes him feel like he can do anything, and that training beside him has improved his confidence AND his physical prowess. It has, however, come at the price of a decent sleep cycle. Gaz explains that this guy could be USING Ace for nefarious purposes, but Ace stands his ground and says that he trusts Golden Ray and that this is important to him, and that she wouldn't understand, before running off.

Gaz makes to run after him, but is stopped by Flypp. "Ah, let him go," He says, "He'll come to his senses eventually. This is just his rebellious phase." Gaz begrudgingly agrees. The next morning, Gaz is caught by Bob in the kitchen, looking out the window expectantly. Bob only stares at her while she defends herself as if they're having a conversation. "I-I'm not jealous of that perv!" and so on."

Then someone is at the door, and they answer to find Golden Ray holding a conscious, but beaten up, Ace in his arms. Gaz sucker punches him in the face while Lulu catches Ace in her arms. GR's mask/helmet falls off from the punch and to everyone's surprise, it's Crayzar.

I had some more notes for alternate events, like: At the beginning, The Leptons are getting recognized and praised, but people only care about Ace as Ballmaster, which I think would drive him to want to be GR's sidekick and do stuff "on his own" somewhat. The crowd then flocks to GR after he takes down a thief.

There was also an alternate situation where GR reveals his true powers in order to protect Ace, and his mask/helmet gets destroyed as a result and that's when his identity is revealed. The Leptons, who had been following them to check on Ace, witness this. I think I like this scenario a lot better tbh. When he has to explain everything, Crayzar talks about how there used to be vigilantes in post-Rad Warz days that would protect survivors from opportunistic varmints, and Flypp and DeeDee are particularly captivated by this.

And then the ending would be Crayzar and The Leptons, all in their own Super Sentai-like outfits, going on patrol. Or something.

*places face in palms* This fic idea is unbearably silly and entirely fueled by Crayzar brainrot but I had fun coming up with ideas at the time. I also wrote the bones for a small epilogue with Crayzar & Ace that I may or may not post as its own one-shot one day.

Annnd that's pretty much it....

There's technically 1 more fan comic idea I had for something but this is already a lot so I may add it later lol. I wanted to share these since I don't think I'll be touching them for the foreseeable future, but had fun coming up with ideas while they were new in my mind. Sometimes I'll get hit with a ton of ideas while briefly fixated on something, but can't seem to stay fixated long enough to spend time with it in that way, and that's how most of these come about.

I have other ideas for fanfics that I would very much like to do though, you can dm me if you want to hear about those lol. Thank you for reading if you got this far... :0

[nethartic]

EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS

[ID: writing reading: Emergency commissions - $45USD. In the background there is an example chibi. To the right is an example icon. In the bottom left corner of the image is my dragon/dog hybrid fursona pointing toward the image and saying "I need to go in the MRI tube and it's expensive :(" /end ID]

Hello funny furries in my phone!!

I am in a bit of a sticky situation where I currently can't work because of acquired spinal injury and chronic illness - however need money for doctors appointments and imaging that I can't afford on government benefits. I am unable to take large amounts of work at the moment so will only be offering limited slots of the following, but may take more on if I am handling the workload okay.

The first 2 options are $45 as they take about the same amount of time to complete. I have just added 2 more options that are more expensive (as of 26/6).Can be either artistic freedom or give me some prompts. They won't come with a wip unless you explicitly request one as I aim to get these out as quick as I can. Please share - Info below the cut!

[ID: A fox/wolf hybrid showing a big toothy happy smile toward the viewer. He is coloured using shades of yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. /end ID]

GRADIENT MAP ICON

Will use more than 3 colours, but pick 3 you want to see in the icon

You can give me an expression, or I can choose one at random

See complex characters image below for complex character additional fees

Can also make pride colour ones :>

[ID: Heading title: Chibi style. Style examples from left to right: A red, grey and white Maine coon cat. A dark blue unicorn with black and purple hair, and a white and purple fox. /end ID]

CHIBI FULLBODIES

Sketchier lines and more minimal shading than the icon

Transparent png

Any body type

See complex characters image below for complex character additional fees

[ID: Digital painting of Neo (dog/dragon hybrid) with liquid leaking from their eyes and mouth. The painting uses saturated shades of pink, puple, blue and orange. /end ID]

EXPERIMENTAL PORTRAIT

I can also do a loose bust portrait like this for 68 of your United States Dollars. The style is quite experimental but you can give some prompts or just give me your character + their personality and I will do the art thing!

[ID: A digital painting of Neo flying through the air coloured with highly saturated colours /end ID]

FULL PAINTING

Putting this one out there just in case (if anyone buys this I will close for any more slots) but I can do a painting like this for $900USD (20hrs work) or a less refined painting for $450USD (10hrs work). This might take a while though with my pain/fatigue and will include wips.

Wondering if your character is too complex? Check out this little guide I made:

[ID: A chart with increasingly complex designs and their additional costs. Extra limbs/complex markings are + $10, and wings/very complex markings are + $20. /end ID]

Note: Charge will be more on a full painting, the above is based on icon/chibi/bust style. To be discussed before the payment invoice is sent.

WILL/WON'T Draw:

WILL:

furries, mlp, feral

queer characters (pls give)

Mobility aids (free)

Any body type

NSFW/fetish/gore/adult content*

mechs at $20 extra charge

*(if you are wanting more extreme/niche adult content please discuss first. Won't do any illegal content, if it's fully legal but a bit questionable please run it by me first). Probably won't be posted to tumblr but won't charge private fee.

WON'T:

NSFW feral

Police/military

Accept commissions from minors

TOS and Payment

Terms of service:

Payment through PayPal, but can do bank transfer if you live in Australia.

If you just want to throw me a couple of support dollars (I would love you forever), I have a Ko-Fi.

Please send me a DM if you are interested in a commission, I would love to work with you :D

Thank you so much for looking! Please share this around.

More about my situation

I have a family history of spinal issues (my dad had major spine surgery when I was 6, with his side of the family having consistent acquired spine injuries going back generations) and unfortunately my turn on the family spine came a good 10 years before 'normal'. I seem to have 2 separate issues co-occurring in the T and S sections of my spine which are causing gradual motor function loss and a LOT of pain. I have also had a mystery fatigue/pain condition which we are now about to confirm as fibromyalgia since about age 15.

After my legs nearly gave out at work last November during a particularly bad pain episode at work, I went and got an intial MRI that showed irregularities in my spine in the areas my pain comes from. I have gotten much worse since then so need new MRI's with added contrast dye which brings the price up quite a bit (it will be $4-500+). I quit my job in February under the impression that I just needed to rest for a bit and could go to a less intense job after 3 weeks. I honestly don't think I would have lasted much longer if I didn't quit anyway because I was taking close to or the 24 hr limit of panedeine forte at work just for the 8 hour shift (needed to drive so couldn't take stronger opioids + opioids make me feel HORRIBLE). I think my body was holding out until I had a period of rest because I began declining quite rapidly between February and now.

I have been using crutches to help walk/stand for about a month and a half now and I can't stand for more than an hour max (30+ mins is starting to push it tho), which is a HUGE contrast to 6 months ago where I was standing 32+ hours a week and moving around constantly. I've also gone from being able to comfortably lift 25-30kg to struggling with less than 10. These limitations knock out a LOT of jobs I'm qualified for (read: non-skilled, physical labour) - so trying to find answers for what's happening to me is very difficult and slow because I can't afford to just throw myself at specialists; and with the unofficial and slow death of bulk billing in Australia even my GP is getting too expensive. My partner is also disabled and receives DSP from the government so is not in a position to help finance my medical care because he is barely affording his own.

You're of course under absolutely no obligation to support me (and this isn't a sympathy post), but sharing this around would mean the world to me because I REALLY need to get some money together for medical care.

[landoftheway]

Thoughts on Lisa: The Definitive Edition

Finished all of the new content in both Painful and Joyful, and after giving it some time to sit I’ve got some thoughts about all of it. Below the cut for both length and spoilers:

The Painful

To start with, I love the new campfire scenes. They’re funny, heartwarming, and everything in between, and I actually like that they’re locked behind both the RNG of resting and specific requirements for certain scenes (having enough characters, progressing far enough, either taking or not taking Joy, etc.). It incentivizes people to actually use those rest opportunities instead of just farming mags and resting at an inn.

Brad’s Nightmare scenario is generally very good, but even I think it drags on a little longer than necessary. That said I really like both the fight itself and the lore both before and after it. It really gets across how deep the roots of Brad’s trauma go (a metaphor that I’ll come back to in the Joyful section below), and while ultimately it doesn’t change the outcome of his story it allows for both the audience to get a deeper insight into him and for him to have a moment of genuine reflection on his life, particularly allowing him to think about Lisa as the actual person she was and not the specter of grief and guilt he normally perceives her as. And while it IS possible to cheese the fight without losing anyone, I like the thematic resonance of Brad having to sacrifice the people around him and his connections to them in order to fight his inner-demons; it’s a cool way of tying that theme into a mechanical interaction the player can participate in.

The new sound and music changes are, unfortunately, weaker than the originals all around, but Jorgensen was very direct about the legal reasons they had to be made so there’s not much helping that. In the same way the changes made to the Playstation release are downright silly but also legally necessary for its release on that platform, so I get it.

The gameplay re-balancing seems fine all around. I should note that I did my playthrough on Pain Mode without using any Joy, so I stuck with the classic OP team of Terry, Birdie, and Nern, so for most of the game I had largely the same gameplay experience as my first time through. I do appreciate the inclusion of an EXP share for the party, since it made leveling everyone up at the EWC to get their level 25 abilities much easier and also helped get everyone prepped for the new superboss.

The Joyful

Much like the original release this new content is much more of a mixed bag compared to Painful, but overall I enjoyed it. To start with the least controversial aspect, I like the new Warlord abilities Buddy gets; they’re all both fun and interesting to use and definitely make playing as Buddy more engaging than how she used to be.

On a similar note, the new boss fight she has with apparitions of all the Warlords together is a fun bonus challenge. I particularly like that you can resolve it both by actually fighting them or just defending against them for several turns cause it ties into the ways Buddy is thematically different than Brad. Brad can only conceive of facing his guilt by fighting it due to both his past and having lived long enough for that mentality to become set in stone, but Buddy for all of her faults has at least the potential to see things outside of that dynamic (this being one of the crux’s of her final decision to take the vaccine or not).

The above aspect of Buddy is what ties into the more controversial part of the new content, which is the lead-up to the new ending and that ending itself. It’s worth stating at this point that a lot of this new content is very intentionally vague as to whether it’s literal or metaphorical. For example, the young Rick, Sticky, and Cheeks as well as the Dusty face all speak as ghosts of their adult selves, but in the same weird area we also see a young Bernard and Dusty that are definitely memories of the past. The setting of Olathe has always been one where the supernatural explicitly exists (fireballs, fingerbeams, etc.) and Lisa herself always kinda towed the line between shared hallucination and an actual ghost, so in that respect it’s nothing new for the game but it can definitely make what happens next difficult to parse.

The crux of the new ending is Buddy “planting” Lisa inside herself, which radically alters her dialogue with Buzzo after Yado’s death. Whether this is literal or metaphorical is, again, vague as all hell. On one hand Buddy speaks to Buzzo about things she should ostensibly know little to nothing about and Buzzo accuses her of stealing Lisa away from him, which lends to the idea that this was in some way literal. On the other hand pretty much everything Buddy says to Buzzo are either things she could have feasibly (if a bit improbably) put together or else just things she could have said just to hurt him as much as possible, and Buzzo himself is in the process of becoming a Joy mutant and completely losing his mind, so it’s also possible this is all purely metaphorical. My personal interpretation lies somewhere in the middle but leans more towards the latter; while I think there’s probably some truth to the idea of Lisa as an actual specter/tulpa/whatever, I see most of this new stuff as not things that literally occurred as depicted (i.e. Buddy did not literally collect the items that are part of the puzzle to unlock this ending).

What the metaphor of all this is is pretty plainly stated by Brad in the epilogue, and ties back into the “roots” theming of the new content in Painful. Namely, that a strong and healthy foundation is needed in order for a person to grow into their best self, and that foundation is rooted in love for others and one’s self. Brad compares this to gardening, specifically noting how it requires both healthy soil and constant maintenance, and how a failure to do so can cause weeds already pulled to come back worse than ever. In other words, you need to both connect with and love others as a foundation and find ways to address stuff like pain and guilt regularly, or else they’ll plant their roots in your head and never really go away.

Looking at the new ending through this lens, Buddy “planting” Lisa in herself pretty obviously represents making a connection to her not as a burden of guilt and pain but as a human being. This is reflected in the accusations Buddy throws at Buzzo that for all of his supposed devotion to Lisa he’s still blaming her for driving him to become the man he is now, and how that shows his failure to actually connect to Lisa as a person. Buzzo might claim that he loved her, but it’s abundantly clear he just sees her a justification to direct his pain outwards at the world around him. His accusations of Buddy “stealing” Lisa away from him can thus be viewed as her taking away his ability to think of her and “hear” her as he has up to this point. The final shot of the game is also connected to all of this: the figure holding Buddy could represent a number of specific individuals (the most notable candidates being either Lisa, Lisa and Brad’s mom, or Buddy’s mom), but more importantly it's a visual representation of Buddy having gained the ability to connect to, trust, and love others.

With all of that said, I do have a significant criticism of this new ending: Buddy’s dialogue with Buzzo is, in my opinion, kind of badly written. This was a problem in the original release of Joyful as well in my opinion, namely that the way Buddy talks is weirdly stilted at times compared to her more consistent flow of dialogue in the Painful. The things she’s saying are themselves perfectly fine (as someone who loves to hate Buzzo I particularly enjoyed someone calling him out on what a fucking manchild he is), but her phrasing comes across like it’s waffling between a bitter and blunt way of speech and a more formal and precise tone of voice. So the end result is a sequence with a great essence at its core but a weak execution, which like I said at the start is nothing if not consistent with Joyful’s original release.

TL;DR

Painful DE is great except for the music changes, Joyful DE is weaker but still pretty good which is nothing new, get the game on PC if you haven’t already.